Explore the vast range of titles available.

Purpose This study applies stress process theory to study and explain the negative association between socioeconomic status (SES) and alcohol misuse. SES is theorized to reduce alcohol misuse by reducing exposure to stressors and increasing access to resources. Methods The National Co-Morbidity panel sample ( N  = 4,979) interviewed in 1990–1992 and 2000–2002 are analyzed to estimate direct and indirect pathways between SES and alcohol misuse over time via stressors and resources. Results Higher education and income predict decreased alcohol misuse via internal and external locus of control. External locus of control is associated with increased alcohol intake over time, whereas internal locus of control is associated with a lower likelihood of developing future alcohol-related disorders. Income is also associated with increased alcohol misuse via religiosity, which is more common among people of low income, and protects against alcohol misuse. Conclusions SES is negatively associated with alcohol misuse because low SES increases people’s perceptions that their lives are determined by luck, and reduces their sense of personal control. However, low income has a countervailing negative influence on alcohol misuse via its association with religiosity.

Using the Educational Longitudinal Survey of 2002, we investigate variation in factors that contribute to Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White students’ educational expectations. Separate multilevel models demonstrate group variation in student and school-level influences. Academic and school factors explained the most variation in White students’ expectations. School characteristics were least predictive of Black student expectations. For Hispanic students, the overall influence of family socioeconomic status (SES) was explained by school level SES. These results support research on student-level predictors of expectations and present new evidence of school-level predictors. The impact of academic track perceptions on expectations is established, as are the effects of certain experiences and school contexts, especially sports participation and Catholic/private school attendance. A model comparing all four groups supported the separate group models and also revealed that student-level factors have a weaker influence on Asians and high crime neighborhoods inflate the expectations of Hispanics but not similarly situated Black students.

Group-mean centering of independent variables in multi-level models is widely practiced and widely recommended. For example, in cross-national studies of educational performance, family background is scored as a deviation from the country mean for student’s family background. We argue that this is usually a serious mis-specification, introducing bias and random measurement error with all their attendant vices. We examine five diverse examples of “real world” analyses using large, high quality datasets on topics of broad interest in the social sciences. In all of them, consistent with much (but not all) of the technical literature, group-mean centering substantially distorts results. Moreover the distortions are large, substantively important differences pointing towards seriously incorrect interpretations of important social processes. We therefore recommend that group-mean centering be abandoned.

Perceptions of opportunity and the costs and benefits associated with pursuing higher education have been investigated by social scientists though not tied to an understanding of how students and their families navigate the educational system. Research has focused on the point of transition and neglected the process of arriving there. In particular the roles of certain preparatory activities in which students engage and for which schools provide services and resources remain terra incognita. To address this gap in research, this study investigated the availability and identification of useful knowledge held in both family and school relationships that supports procedural preparation for college and explains the persistence of unequal circumstances on educational pathways. Using the Educational Longitudinal Survey (2002-2006, students = 16k; schools = 750) and by means of multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM), discussions with parents about preparing for college had a consistent, positive influence on procedural preparation independent of social background or achievement. Discussions with parents had a positive influence on the timing of academic procedures, such as taking entrance exams, as well as application behaviors, such as applying for financial aid. Friends behaviors and student beliefs about college cost also had an influence on procedural preparation. That said, academic achievement was the most important predictor of procedural preparation and enrollment in college. The intervening role of achievement revealed how disadvantages that were evident at the beginning of high school became expressed in behaviors that facilitate educational attainment. Historically under-represented students were the least likely to engage in early preparation due to poor math achievement. School norms and services did explain a small proportion of procedural preparation and enrollment; but, school effects were very small. There are important implications of this research for developing college knowledge, especially for school counselors and auxiliary college preparation services (e.g. Upward Bound, GEAR UP). Students need to have strong academic achievement coming out of middle school and into high school to effectively prepare for college. Students need the support of families and friends to develop college awareness and engage in college preparation. Theoretically, there are implications for social capital theory and the theory of maximally maintained equality.

School principals are held accountable for the proficiency and participation of identifiable subgroups under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The purpose of this survey was to determine if principals' 2003-2004 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) pass or fail classifications provide pertinent information on their views of NCLB, the achievement gap, and the subgroups for which they are held accountable. The data suggests that principals' at schools that did not make AYP view Latino students' economic resources, community and parental support, and ability to relate to the curriculum, as conditions that influence the achievement gap. In addition, principals' views pooled across AYP classifications reveal that principals tend to view student groups differently at the .05 significance level.

BackgroundA first-in-human, randomized pilot phase II clinical trial combining vaccines targeting overexpressed, non-mutated tumor blood vessel antigens (TBVA) and tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib was conducted in human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A2+ patients with advanced melanoma.MethodsPatient monocyte-derived type-1-polarized dendritic cells were loaded with HLA-A2-presented peptides derived from TBVA (DLK1, EphA2, HBB, NRP1, RGS5, TEM1) and injected intradermally as a vaccine into the upper extremities every other week. Patients were randomized into one of two treatment arms receiving oral dasatinib (70 mg two times per day) beginning in week 5 (Arm A) or in week 1 (Arm B). Trial endpoints included T cell response to vaccine peptides (interferon-γ enzyme-linked immunosorbent spot), objective clinical response (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors V.1.1) and exploratory tumor, blood and serum profiling of immune-associated genes/proteins.ResultsSixteen patients with advanced-stage cutaneous (n=10), mucosal (n=1) or uveal (n=5) melanoma were accrued, 15 of whom had previously progressed on programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade. Of 13 evaluable patients, 6 patients developed specific peripheral blood T cell responses against ≥3 vaccine-associated peptides, with further evidence of epitope spreading. All six patients with specific CD8+ T cell response to vaccine-targeted antigens exhibited evidence of T cell receptor (TCR) convergence in association with preferred clinical outcomes (four partial response and two stabilization of disease (SD)). Seven patients failed to respond to vaccination (one SD and six progressive disease). Patients in Arm B (immediate dasatinib) outperformed those in Arm A (delayed dasatinib) for immune response rate (IRR; 66.7% vs 28.6%), objective response rate (ORR) (66.7% vs 0%), overall survival (median 15.45 vs 3.47 months; p=0.0086) and progression-free survival (median 7.87 vs 1.97 months; p=0.063). IRR (80% vs 25%) and ORR (60% vs 12.5%) was greater for females versus male patients. Tumors in patients exhibiting response to treatment displayed (1) evidence of innate and adaptive immune-mediated inflammation and TCR convergence at baseline, (2) on-treatment transcriptional changes associated with reduced hypoxia/acidosis/glycolysis, and (3) increased inflammatory immune cell infiltration and tertiary lymphoid structure neogenesis.ConclusionsCombined vaccination against TBVA plus dasatinib was safe and resulted in coordinating immunologic and/or objective clinical responses in 6/13 (46%) evaluable patients with melanoma, particularly those initiating treatment with both agents.Trial registration numberNCT01876212.

Background Autopsy-based radio-pathomic maps of glioma pathology have shown substantial promise inidentifying areas of non-enhancing tumor presence, which may be able to differentiate subsets of patients that respond favorably to treatments such as bevacizumab that have shown mixed efficacy evidence. We tested the hypthesis that phenotypes of non-enhancing tumor fronts can distinguish between glioblastoma patients that will respond favorably to bevacizumab and will visually capture treatment response. Methods T1, T1C, FLAIR, and ADC images were used to generate radio-pathomic maps of tumor characteristics for 79 pre-treatment patients with a primary GBM or high-grade IDH1-mutant astrocytoma for this study. Novel phenotyping (hypercellular, hypocellular, hybrid, or well-circumscribed front) of the non-enhancing tumor front was performed on each case. Kaplan Meier analyses were then used to assess differences in survival and bevacizumab efficacy between phenotypes. Phenotype compartment segmentations generated longitudinally for a subset of 26 patients over the course of bevacizumab treatment, where a mixed effect model was used to detect longitudinal changes. Results Well-Circumscribed patients showed significant/trending increases in survival compared to Hypercellular Front (HR = 2.0, p  = 0.05), Hypocellular Front (HR = 2.02, p  = 0.03), and Hybrid Front tumors (HR = 1.75, p  = 0.09). Only patients with hypocellular or hybrid fronts showed significant survival benefits from bevacizumab treatment (HR = 2.35, p  = 0.02; and HR = 2.45, p  = 0.03, respectively). Hypocellular volumes decreased by an average 50.52 mm 3 per day of bevacizumab treatment ( p  = 0.002). Conclusion Patients with a hypocellular tumor front identified by radio-pathomic maps showed improved treatment efficacy when treated with bevacizumab, and reducing hypocellular volumes over the course of treatment may indicate treatment response.

The evolutionary processes that drive universal therapeutic resistance in adult patients with diffuse glioma remain unclear 1 , 2 . Here we analysed temporally separated DNA-sequencing data and matched clinical annotation from 222 adult patients with glioma. By analysing mutations and copy numbers across the three major subtypes of diffuse glioma, we found that driver genes detected at the initial stage of disease were retained at recurrence, whereas there was little evidence of recurrence-specific gene alterations. Treatment with alkylating agents resulted in a hypermutator phenotype at different rates across the glioma subtypes, and hypermutation was not associated with differences in overall survival. Acquired aneuploidy was frequently detected in recurrent gliomas and was characterized by IDH mutation but without co-deletion of chromosome arms 1p/19q, and further converged with acquired alterations in the cell cycle and poor outcomes. The clonal architecture of each tumour remained similar over time, but the presence of subclonal selection was associated with decreased survival. Finally, there were no differences in the levels of immunoediting between initial and recurrent gliomas. Collectively, our results suggest that the strongest selective pressures occur during early glioma development and that current therapies shape this evolution in a largely stochastic manner. The GLASS Consortium studies the evolutionary trajectories of 222 patients with a diffuse glioma to aid in our understanding of tumour progression and treatment failure