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New Research Directions (new + research_direction)
Selected AbstractsEmotions and the Development of Childhood Depression: Bridging the GapCHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES, Issue 3 2008Pamela M. Cole ABSTRACT,There is a gap between scientific knowledge about typical and atypical emotional development and efforts to identify and serve children's mental health needs. The gap can be bridged with research that integrates clinical perspectives into the study of emotional development. This is illustrated in the current study by discussing typical emotional development in early childhood and how it differs from the atypical features of emotion seen among preschool-aged children with depression. New research directions are suggested that integrate the study of typical emotional development with clinical evidence of risk for and presence of affective disorders in young children. [source] Role of hypoxia and cAMP in the transdifferentiation of human fetal cardiac fibroblasts: Implications for progression to scarring in autoimmune-associated congenital heart blockARTHRITIS & RHEUMATISM, Issue 12 2007Robert M. Clancy Objective Identification of isolated congenital heart block (CHB) predicts, with near certainty, the presence of maternal anti-SSA/Ro antibodies; however, the 2% incidence of CHB in first offspring of anti-SSA/Ro+ mothers, 20% recurrence in subsequent pregnancies, and discordance in identical twins suggest that an environmental factor amplifies the effect of the antibody. Accordingly, this study was carried out to explore the hypothesis that hypoxia potentiates a profibrosing phenotype of the fetal cardiac fibroblast. Methods Evidence of an effect of hypoxia was sought by immunohistologic evaluation of CHB-affected fetal heart tissue and by determination of erythropoietin levels in cord blood. The in vitro effect of hypoxia on gene expression and phenotype in fibroblasts derived from fetal hearts and lungs was investigated by Affymetrix arrays, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), immunofluorescence, and immunoblotting. Results In vivo hypoxic exposure was supported by the prominent intracellular fibroblast expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1, in conduction tissue from 2 fetuses in whom CHB led to death. The possibility that hypoxia was sustained was suggested by significantly elevated erythropoietin levels in cord blood from CHB-affected, as compared with unaffected, anti-SSA/Ro,exposed neonates. In vitro exposure of cardiac fibroblasts to hypoxia resulted in transdifferentiation to myofibroblasts (a scarring phenotype), as demonstrated on immunoblots and immunofluorescence by increased expression of smooth muscle actin (SMA), an effect not seen in lung fibroblasts. Hypoxia-exposed cardiac fibroblasts expressed adrenomedullin at 4-fold increased levels, as determined by Affymetrix array, quantitative PCR, and immunofluorescence, thus focusing attention on cAMP as a modulator of fibrosis. MDL12,330A, an adenylate cyclase inhibitor that lowers the levels of cAMP, increased expression of fibrosis-related proteins (mammalian target of rapamycin, SMA, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1, and type I collagen), while the cAMP activator forskolin attenuated transforming growth factor ,,elicited fibrosing end points in the cardiac fibroblasts. Conclusion These findings provide evidence that hypoxia may amplify the injurious effects of anti-SSA/Ro antibodies. Modulation of cAMP may be a key component in the scarring phenotype. Further assessment of the susceptibility of cardiac fibroblasts to cAMP modulation offers a new research direction in CHB. [source] Scale-dependence in species-area relationshipsECOGRAPHY, Issue 6 2005Will R. Turner Species-area relationships (SARs) are among the most studied phenomena in ecology, and are important both to our basic understanding of biodiversity and to improving our ability to conserve it. But despite many advances to date, our knowledge of how various factors contribute to SARs is limited, searches for single causal factors are often inconclusive, and true predictive power remains elusive. We believe that progress in these areas has been impeded by 1) an emphasis on single-factor approaches and thinking of factors underlying SARs as mutually exclusive hypotheses rather than potentially interacting processes, and 2) failure to place SAR-generating factors in a scale-dependent framework. We here review mathematical, ecological, and evolutionary factors contributing to species-area relationships, synthesizing major hypotheses from the literature in a scale-dependent context. We then highlight new research directions and unanswered questions raised by this scale-dependent synthesis. [source] Why Research on Women Entrepreneurs Needs New DirectionsENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 5 2006Helene Ahl Research articles on women's entrepreneurship reveal, in spite of intentions to the contrary and in spite of inconclusive research results, a tendency to recreate the idea of women as being secondary to men and of women's businesses being of less significance or, at best, as being a complement. Based on a discourse analysis, this article discusses what research practices cause these results. It suggests new research directions that do not reproduce women's subordination but capture more and richer aspects of women's entrepreneurship. [source] Vasculopathy in sickle cell disease: Biology, pathophysiology, genetics, translational medicine, and new research directions,,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEMATOLOGY, Issue 9 2009Gregory J. Kato First page of article [source] Lessons on orographic precipitation from the Mesoscale Alpine ProgrammeTHE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 625 2007Richard Rotunno Abstract Although moisture-laden airflow towards a mountain is a necessary ingredient, the results from the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP) demonstrate that detailed knowledge of the orographically modified flow is crucial for predicting the intensity, location and duration of orographic precipitation. Understanding the orographically modified flow as it occurs in the Alps is difficult since it depends on the static stability of the flow at low levels, which is heavily influenced by synoptic conditions, the complex effects of latent heating, and the mountain shape, which has important and complicated variations on scales ranging from a few to hundreds of kilometres. Central themes in all of the precipitation-related MAP studies are the ways in which the complex Alpine orography influences the moist, stratified airflow to produce the observed precipitation patterns, by determining the location and rate of upward air motion and triggering fine-scale motions and microphysical processes that locally enhance the growth and fallout of precipitation. In this paper we review the major findings from the MAP observations and describe some new research directions that have been stimulated by MAP results. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society [source] | ||||||||||