Texas Christian University

About: Texas Christian University is a education organization based out in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 3245 authors who have published 8258 publications receiving 282216 citations. The organization is also known as: TCU & Texas Christian University, TCU.

Evaluating Animal-Assisted Therapy in Group Treatment for Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract: This study evaluates and compares the effectiveness of three group interventions on trauma symptoms for children who have been sexually abused. All of the groups followed the same treatment protocol, with two of them incorporating variations of animal-assisted therapy. A total of 153 children ages 7 to 17 who were in group therapy at a Child Advocacy Center participated in the study. Results indicate that children in the groups that included therapy dogs showed significant decreases in trauma symptoms including anxiety, depression, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociation, and sexual concerns. In addition, results show that children who participated in the group with therapeutic stories showed significantly more change than the other groups. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Concentrated control, institutions, and banking sector: An international study

Abstract: Using a broad sample of listed commercial banks in East Asia and Western Europe, this paper investigates the relations among concentrated control, a set of bank operating characteristics, and legal and regulatory regimes We find that banks with concentrated control exhibit poorer performance, lower cost efficiency, greater return volatility, and higher insolvency risk, relative to widely held ones We also document that legal institutions and private monitoring effectively reduce the detrimental effects of concentrated control and that official disciplinary power plays a weak governance role, whereas government intervention exacerbates the adverse effects Further evidence shows that the relations between control concentration and bank operating characteristics are curvilinear and vary according to the types of controlling owners Overall, our findings support the contention that country-level institutions play important roles in constraining insider expropriation, and that private monitoring mechanisms are more effective than are public rules and supervision in governing banks

Porous silicon-based scaffolds for tissue engineering and other biomedical applications

Abstract: This work describes the formation of porous composite materials based on a combination of bioactive mesoporous silicon and bioerodible polymers such as poly-caprolactone (PCL). The fabrication of a range of composites prepared by both salt leaching and microemulsion techniques are discussed. Particular attention to the influence of Si content in the composite on in vitro calcification assays are assessed. For each system, cytotoxicity and cellular proliferation are explicitly evaluated through fibroblast cell culture assays.

Hybridization studies on the host races of eurosta solidaginis: implications for sympatric speciation.

Abstract: We studied the inheritance of survival ability in host-associated populations of the tephritid fly, Eurosta solidaginis, to test predictions of sympatric speciation models. Eurosta solidaginis induces galls on two species of goldenrod, Solidago altissima and S. gigantea. The host-associated populations have been hypothesized to be host races that originated in sympatry (Craig et al. 1993). We found evidence for disruptive selection for host use, which is a critical assumption of sympatric speciation models. Each host race had higher survival rates on their host plant than on the alternative host. F1 and backcross hybrids also had lower survival rates than the pure host-race flies on their host plant. Since assortative mating occurs due to host-plant preference (Craig et al. 1993) this would select for divergence in host preference. Low hybrid survival could have been due to strong genetic incompatibilities of the populations or due to host adaptation by each population. Strong genetic incompatibilities would result in poor survival on all host plants, while host adaptation could result in low overall survival with high hybrid survival on some host plants with particularly "benign" environments. High survival of F1 , F2 , and backcross hybrids on some plant genotypes in some years supported the host adaptation hypothesis. F1 flies mated and oviposited normally and produced viable F2 and backcross hybrids indicating gene flow is possible between the host races. A few flies developed and emerged on the alternative host plant. This demonstrates that genes necessary to utilize the alternative host exist in both host races. This could have facilitated the origin of one of the populations via a host shift from the ancestral host. The inheritance of survival ability appears to be an autosomal trait. We did not find evidence that survival ability was maternally influenced or sex linked.