University of Hawaii at Manoa

About: University of Hawaii at Manoa is a education organization based out in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Sea surface temperature. The organization has 13693 authors who have published 25161 publications receiving 1023924 citations.

Research Methods in Interlanguage Pragmatics

Abstract: The article reviews the methods of data collection employed in 39 studies of interlanguage pragmatics, defined narrowly as the investigation of nonnative speakers' comprehension and production of speech acts, and the acquisition of L2-related speech act knowledge. Data collection instruments are distinguished according to the degree to which they constrain informants' responses, and whether they tap speech act perception/comprehension or production. A main focus of discussion is the validity of different types of data, in particular, their adequacy to approximate authentic performance of linguistic action.

The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study: rationale, findings, and future directions.

Abstract: The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth (SEARCH) study was initiated in 2000, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and support from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, to address major knowledge gaps in the understanding of childhood diabetes. SEARCH is being conducted at five sites across the U.S. and represents the largest, most diverse study of diabetes among U.S. youth. An active registry of youth diagnosed with diabetes at age <20 years allows the assessment of prevalence (in 2001 and 2009), annual incidence (since 2002), and trends by age, race/ethnicity, sex, and diabetes type. Prevalence increased significantly from 2001 to 2009 for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in most age, sex, and race/ethnic groups. SEARCH has also established a longitudinal cohort to assess the natural history and risk factors for acute and chronic diabetes-related complications as well as the quality of care and quality of life of persons with diabetes from diagnosis into young adulthood. Many youth with diabetes, particularly those from low-resourced racial/ethnic minority populations, are not meeting recommended guidelines for diabetes care. Markers of micro- and macrovascular complications are evident in youth with either diabetes type, highlighting the seriousness of diabetes in this contemporary cohort. This review summarizes the study methods, describes key registry and cohort findings and their clinical and public health implications, and discusses future directions.

Genetic Structure, Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity, and Confounding in Case-Control Association Studies

Abstract: We have analyzed genetic data for 326 microsatellite markers that were typed uniformly in a large multiethnic population-based sample of individuals as part of a study of the genetics of hypertension (Family Blood Pressure Program). Subjects identified themselves as belonging to one of four major racial/ethnic groups (white, African American, East Asian, and Hispanic) and were recruited from 15 different geographic locales within the United States and Taiwan. Genetic cluster analysis of the microsatellite markers produced four major clusters, which showed near-perfect correspondence with the four self-reported race/ethnicity categories. Of 3,636 subjects of varying race/ethnicity, only 5 (0.14%) showed genetic cluster membership different from their self-identified race/ethnicity. On the other hand, we detected only modest genetic differentiation between different current geographic locales within each race/ethnicity group. Thus, ancient geographic ancestry, which is highly correlated with self-identified race/ethnicity—as opposed to current residence—is the major determinant of genetic structure in the U.S. population. Implications of this genetic structure for case-control association studies are discussed.

A Three-dimensional Map of Milky Way Dust

Abstract: We present a three-dimensional map of interstellar dust reddening, covering three-quarters of the sky out to a distance of several kiloparsecs, based on Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) and 2MASS photometry. The map reveals a wealth of detailed structure, from filaments to large cloud complexes. The map has a hybrid angular resolution, with most of the map at an angular resolution of 3.4¢ –13.7¢ , and a maximum distance resolution of ~25%. The three-dimensional distribution of dust is determined in a fully probabilistic framework, yielding the uncertainty in the reddening distribution along each line of sight, as well as stellar distances, reddenings, and classifications for 800 million stars detected by PS1. We demonstrate the consistency of our reddening estimates with those of two-dimensional emission-based maps of dust reddening. In particular, we find agreement with the Planck t353GHz -based reddening map to within 0.05 mag in E ( ) B V - to a depth of 0.5 mag, and explore systematics at reddenings less than E ( ) B V - » 0.08 mag. We validate our per-star reddening estimates by comparison with reddening estimates for stars with both Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry and Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration spectral classifications, finding per-star agreement to within 0.1 mag out to a stellar E ( ) B V - of 1 mag. We compare our map to two existing three-dimensional dust maps, by Marshall et al. and Lallement et al., demonstrating our finer angular resolution, and better distance resolution compared to the former within ~3 kpc. The map can be queried or downloaded at http://argonaut.skymaps.info. We expect the three-dimensional reddening map presented here to find a wide range of uses, among them correcting for reddening and extinction for objects embedded in the plane of the Galaxy, studies of Galactic structure, calibration of future emission-based dust maps, and determining distances to objects of known reddening.