Targeting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9): from bench to bedside.

Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) has evolved as a pivotal enzyme in lipid metabolism and a revolutionary therapeutic target for hypercholesterolemia and its related cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This comprehensive review delineates the intricate roles and wide-ranging implications of PCSK9, extending beyond CVD to emphasize its significance in diverse physiological and pathological states, including liver diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and notably, cancer. Our exploration offers insights into the interaction between PCSK9 and low-density lipoprotein receptors (LDLRs), elucidating its substantial impact on cholesterol homeostasis and cardiovascular health.

Classroom compositional effects on low-ability students' achievement in China.

Peer effects are at the center of educational policy debates regarding school choice, ability grouping, and instructional design. Though emerging empirical evidence suggests that positive peer effects exist, less is known about how it affects students with varying cognitive abilities. Using a nationally representative sample from China, we generated a student-level measure of classroom composition of peers based on cognitive ability to understand the benefits or pitfalls of placing low-ability students with heterogeneous or homogenous classmates.

The muon Smasher's guide.

We lay out a comprehensive physics case for a future high-energy muon collider, exploring a range of collision energies (from 1 to 100 TeV) and luminosities. We highlight the advantages of such a collider over proposed alternatives. We show how one can leverage both the point-like nature of the muons themselves as well as the cloud of electroweak radiation that surrounds the beam to blur the dichotomy between energy and precision in the search for new physics.

Cooperative guardian offenders and sentencing outcomes: Evidence from criminal sentencing documents of child trafficking crime in China.

Background: Studies have revealed that guardians who sold their children for profit comprise the majority of child traffickers in China. Although sentencing disparity has been a focal topic in judicial studies, few scholars have investigated the influence of the guardian relationship on criminal sentencing for child trafficking.

Objective: The current study sought a better understanding of sentencing practices on child traffickers in China, focusing on the effects of the victim-offender relationship (VOR) and post-crime attitudes (PCAs) on sentencing outcomes.

Achieved educational attainment, inherited genetic endowment for education, and obesity.

This study investigates two sources of education effects on obesity - achieved educational attainment and inherited genetic endowment for education. In doing so, we accomplish two goals. First, we assess the role of genetic confounding in the association between education and health.

Trajectories of COVID-19 vaccine intentions among U.S. adults: The role of race and ethnicity.

Research examining whether intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine change over time is scarce. Moreover, the deep and pervasive history of medical racism in the U.S.

Smuggling of drugs by body packing: Evidence from Chinese sentencing documents.

Background: In China, body packing as a means of transporting drugs was firstly found in Yunnan province in an area that shares a border with the Golden Triangle in late 1970s. Since then, drug trafficking cases that utilize body packing as the primary mode of transportation have increased substantially. Due to a scarcity of data, however, the scope and nature of such criminal activity is not thoroughly understood.

Smuggling of drugs by body packing: Evidence from Chinese sentencing documents.

Background: In China, body packing as a means of transporting drugs was firstly found in Yunnan province in an area that shares a border with the Golden Triangle in late 1970s. Since then, drug trafficking cases that utilize body packing as the primary mode of transportation have increased substantially. Due to a scarcity of data, however, the scope and nature of such criminal activity is not thoroughly understood.

Timing of parental incarceration and allostatic load: a developmental life course approach.

Purpose: We examined whether the timing of when a person experienced the loss of a parent to incarceration was significantly associated with allostatic load, a multisystem index of biological dysregulation.

Methods: Data were drawn from waves I and IV of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative sample of adolescents in 1994. The final analytic sample was restricted to responses with valid responses and valid sampling weights (n = 13,365).

Elevated Risk of Radiation Therapy-Associated Second Malignant Neoplasms in Young African-American Women Survivors of Stage I-IIIA Breast Cancer.

Purpose: To estimate the effect of radiation therapy (RT) on nonbreast second malignant neoplasms (SMNs) in young women survivors of stage I-IIIA breast cancer.

Methods And Materials: Women aged 20 to 44 years who received a diagnosis of stage I-IIIA breast cancer (1988-2008) were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 9 registries. Bootstrapping approach and competing-risk proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the effect of RT on nonbreast SMN risk.

The School Contextual Effect of Sexual Debut on Sexual Risk-Taking: A Joint Parameter Approach.

Background: Previous research has identified individual and school-level characteristics that are associated with sexual risk-taking, but the impact of school-level mechanisms on sexual risk-taking is not well understood. We examine the aggregated effects that early sex at the school level have on risky sexual behaviors.

Methods: We use 3 waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Gender differences in trajectories of alcohol use from ages 13 to 33 across Latina/o ethnic groups.

Background: Research examining alcohol use trajectories among Latina/os is scarce. Further, prior findings on alcohol use by ethnic group and gender is mixed. The purpose of this study was twofold: (a.

Peer Influence, Genetic Propensity, and Binge Drinking: A Natural Experiment and a Replication.

The authors draw data from the College Roommate Study (ROOM) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to investigate gene-environment interaction effects on youth binge drinking. In ROOM, the environmental influence was measured by the precollege drinking behavior of randomly assigned roommates. Random assignment safeguards against friend selection and removes the threat of gene-environment correlation that makes gene-environment interaction effects difficult to interpret.

Social isolation, drunkenness, and cigarette use among adolescents.

Introduction: This study compares isolated to sociable youth to investigate the relations between different network types of social isolation and alcohol and cigarette use.

Methods: Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health we developed a network measure that includes various types of social isolation. Types of social isolation were operationalized as socially avoidant, actively isolated, and socially disinterested, with sociable youth as the reference category.

Parental involvement, adolescents' self-determined learning and academic achievement in Urban China.

Self-determined learning is essential to academic success. The motivational resources development model argues that parents promote academic success in their children indirectly by nurturing self-determined learner. In this study, applying a structural equation modelling and using data collected from 8th graders in Zhuhai, China (n = 1009) in 2012, we aim to answer 2 research questions: (a) What forms of parental involvement are highly correlated with self-determined learning and (b) Can self-determined learning fully mediate the relationship between parental involvement and students' academic performance? We find that parental leisure involvement is positively and significantly associated with the development of self-determined learning, which in turn is significantly and positively correlated with academic achievement.

Social capital and self-rated health among middle-aged and older adults in China: a multilevel analysis.

This study examined the association between social capital, at both the individual and the community level, and self-rated health among older adults in China. Using data from the 2008 Pilot Survey of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, a series of multilevel logistic models were estimated in SAS 9.2.

Genetic bio-ancestry and social construction of racial classification in social surveys in the contemporary United States.

Self-reported race is generally considered the basis for racial classification in social surveys, including the U.S. census.

The dopamine transporter gene, a spectrum of most common risky behaviors, and the legal status of the behaviors.

This study tests the specific hypothesis that the 9R/9R genotype in the VNTR of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) exerts a general protective effect against a spectrum of risky behaviors in comparison to the 10R/9R and 10R/10R genotypes, drawing on three-time repeated measures of risky behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood on about 822 non-Hispanic white males from the Add Health study. Our data have established two empirical findings. The first is a protective main effect in the DAT1 gene against risky behaviors.

Gene-Environment Interactions: Peers' Alcohol Use Moderates Genetic Contribution to Adolescent Drinking Behavior.

Social context is increasingly recognized as essential for understanding complex human outcomes even among geneticists who focus on genetic influences. These outcomes typically involve multiple genes, multiple environmental factors, and the interactions between the two. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for gene-environment interaction and show how the interaction can be tested empirically using a sample of MZ twin, DZ twins, and full siblings.

Gene by social context interactions for number of sexual partners among white male youths: genetics-informed sociology.

This study sets out to investigate whether introducing molecular genetic measures into an analysis of sexual partner variety will yield novel sociological insights. The data source is the white male DNA sample in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The authors' empirical gene-environment interaction analysis produces a robust protective effect of the 9R/9R genotype relative to the Any10R genotype in the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1).