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Revised Definition (revised + definition)
Selected AbstractsMetabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Disease in Older People: The Cardiovascular Health StudyJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 9 2006Ann Marie McNeill PhD OBJECTIVES: To assess the prospective association between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in older people and to evaluate the effect of lowering the threshold for impaired fasting glucose (IFG) on the prevalence of IFG and MetS and the risk of CVD. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Four field centers in U.S. communities. PARTICIPANTS: Three thousand five hundred eighty-five subjects in the Cardiovascular Health Study free of diabetes mellitus and CVD at baseline (mean age 72, 62% female, 14% black). MEASUREMENTS: Baseline measures of MetS components and adjudicated incident CVD events. MetS (2001) was defined first using the original criteria from the Third Adult Treatment Panel Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program (,3 of the following: large waist circumference (women >88 cm, men >102 cm), elevated triglycerides (,1.70 mmol/L), low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (men <1.04 mmol/L, women <1.30 mmol/L), elevated fasting glucose (6.1,6.9 mmol/L), and high blood pressure (,130/85 mmHg or self-reported use of medications for hypertension). Subjects were also classified according to the revised definition of the MetS (2005) that applies the lower threshold for fasting glucose (5.6,6.9 mmol/L). RESULTS: During follow-up (median 11 years), 818 coronary heart disease (CHD), 401 stroke, and 554 congestive heart failure (CHF) events occurred. Age- and race-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for CHD, stroke, and CHF were 1.30 (95% confidence interval (CI)=1.07,1.57), 0.94 (95% CI=0.73,1.21), and 1.40 (95% CI=1.12,1.76) for women and 1.35 (95% CI=1.10,1.66), 1.51 (95% CI=1.08,2.12), and 1.47 (95% CI=1.14,1.90) for men, respectively. Overall, women and men with MetS (2005) were 20% to 30% more likely to experience any CVD event than subjects without MetS (2005). Using the lower cut-point for IFG resulted in a near tripling in IFG prevalence (16% to 46%) and an additional 9% classified with MetS (2005) but HRs similar to those estimated from the original MetS (2001) criteria. High blood pressure was the component most strongly associated with incident CHD. CONCLUSION: Results from this study of an elderly, population-based cohort provide support for earlier investigations in primarily middle-aged populations that link the presence of MetS with the development of CVD and further underscore the importance of recognizing and treating its individual components, particularly high blood pressure. [source] How and when does complex reasoning occur?JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 6 2009Empirically driven development of a learning progression focused on complex reasoning about biodiversity Abstract In order to compete in a global economy, students are going to need resources and curricula focusing on critical thinking and reasoning in science. Despite awareness for the need for complex reasoning, American students perform poorly relative to peers on international standardized tests measuring complex thinking in science. Research focusing on learning progressions is one effort to provide more coherent science curricular sequences and assessments that can be focused on complex thinking about focal science topics. This article describes an empirically driven, five-step process to develop a 3-year learning progression focusing on complex thinking about biodiversity. Our efforts resulted in empirical results and work products including: (1) a revised definition of learning progressions, (2) empirically driven, 3-year progressions for complex thinking about biodiversity, (3) an application of statistical approaches for the analysis of learning progression products, (4) Hierarchical Linear Modeling results demonstrating significant student achievement on complex thinking about biodiversity, and (5) Growth Model results demonstrating strengths and weaknesses of the first version of our curricular units. The empirical studies present information to inform both curriculum and assessment development. For curriculum development, the role of learning progressions as templates for the development of organized sequences of curricular units focused on complex science is discussed. For assessment development, learning progression-guided assessments provide a greater range and amount of information that can more reliably discriminate between students of differing abilities than a contrasting standardized assessment measure that was also focused on biodiversity content. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 610,631, 2009 [source] Is Semantic Information Meaningful Data?PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2005LUCIANO FLORIDI There is no consensus yet on the definition of semantic information. This paper contributes to the current debate by criticising and revising the Standard Definition of semantic Information (SDI) as meaningful data, in favour of the Dretske-Grice approach: meaningful and well-formed data constitute semantic information only if they also qualify as contingently truthful. After a brief introduction, SDI is criticised for providing necessary but insufficient conditions for the definition of semantic information. SDI is incorrect because truth-values do not supervene on semantic information, and misinformation (that is, false semantic information) is not a type of semantic information, but pseudo-information, that is not semantic information at all. This is shown by arguing that none of the reasons for interpreting misinformation as a type of semantic information is convincing, whilst there are compelling reasons to treat it as pseudo-information. As a consequence, SDI is revised to include a necessary truth-condition. The last section summarises the main results of the paper and indicates some interesting areas of application of the revised definition. [source] Beyond Capital High: On Dual Citizenship and the Strange Career of "Acting White"ANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2008Signithia Fordham In this article, I reflect on the strange career of the "burden of ,acting White' " since it attracted widespread popular and academic attention over 20 years ago. I begin by noting that my original definition of "the burden of ,acting White' " should not be confused with a prominent misconception of the problem as the "fear" of "acting White." I then offer a revised definition that has emerged in the wake of the collision of meanings attributed to the Capital High study. At the core of the twists and turns this concept has taken is attempted identity theft: In exchange for what is conventionally identified as success, racially defined Black bodies are compelled to perform a White identity by mimicking the cultural, linguistic, and economic practices historically affiliated with the hegemonic rule of Euro-Americans. Third, drawing on recent work on the impact of gender-specific racial performances on Black males' and Black females' academic success, I analyze quantitative data from Capital High to explain the gender-specific response patterns of male and female students to the dilemmas implicit in academic success. Finally, I suggest possible implications of the centrality of the burden of "acting White" for the academic performance of Black students and the identity of African Americans more generally.[burden of "acting White," identity theft, racial insufficiency, gender insufficiency, Capital High, academic achievement] [source] Identifying patterns of diversity of the actinopterygian fulcraACTA ZOOLOGICA, Issue 2009Gloria Arratia Abstract Fin rays, scutes or ridge scales, and fulcra have been traditionally interpreted as modified scales, but their diversity has been almost ignored. Based on results presented here, revised definitions of these elements are provided. At least two patterns of basal fulcra are found in actinopterygians: in Pattern I all or most basal fulcra are paired elements, whereas in Pattern II, a series of unpaired basal fulcra that are bifurcated proximally, and whose forking gradually becomes larger caudad, are followed by a series of paired elements. Basal fulcra are commonly present on unpaired fins of lower actinopterygians, including basal neopterygians. Among living fish they are absent in polypteriforms, Amia and teleosts. Fringing fulcra are always paired. Three patterns of fringing fulcra series are described: the series of fringing fulcra in basal actinopterygians is formed by expanded terminal segments of marginal lepidotrichia (Pattern A). Another series is formed by a combination of slightly expanded or modified terminal segments of rays and independent spiny, small elements (Pattern B). The third series is formed of small, spiny ossified elements positioned along the leading marginal fin ray(s) (Pattern C). Other patterns of basal and fringing fulcra remain to be investigated, along with their phylogenetic implications. [source] | ||||||||||