Valuing Governance

Book Summary: As has been abundantly documented in the popular and academic press, the humanities are facing challenging times marked by national debate regarding the importance of the humanities in higher education, program and budget cuts, and an ever-decreasing number of tenure-track jobs. In addition, the humanities face quite literally a quantification of their value as the Academy adopts a more corporate mindset. This volume provides advice to professionals in the humanities on how to forge a useful, compelling, and productive career. The book’s 13 chapters address professional approaches to developing and maintaining an active research agenda, fomenting the ideals of the teacher-scholar model, managing the service demands within and outside the college or university, and navigating institutional politics. The collection offers practical and theoretical approaches to higher education, personal anecdotes, intelligent advice, and interviews with colleagues in the humanities. Specific themes addressed include the transition from graduate student to humanities professional, diverging from prescribed paths, the humanities professor as creative writer, moving from secondary to post-secondary education, humanities in an international, market-based context, and participation in governance structures. [From the publisher] Chapter Summary: This essay focuses on providing insight and practical advice on how committed participation in the governance process offers many positives at any stage of the academic ladder. Drawing upon a practical, theoretical, and anecdotal approach, this article reflects on four areas that are enhanced by participation in governance: 1) visibility; 2) knowledge of the institution and its culture; 3) establishing meaningful friendships campus-wide; and 4) governance as a resource of invaluable advice

Effects of a simulation-based workshop on nursing students' competence in arterial puncture

Objective: To evaluate whether a short simulation-based workshop in radial artery puncture would improve nursing students’ competence to a level in which they could practise the procedure on a live patient without compromising his safety. Methods: Quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest study with 111 third-year nursing students. A 1.5-hour simulation-based workshop was implemented. This included a video-lecture, live demonstrations, selfdirected simulated practice in dyads and individual intermittent feedback. Participants’ skills, knowledge and self-efficacy in arterial puncture were measured before and after attending the workshop. Results: After the intervention, a total of 61.1% of the participants showed the level of competence required to safely practice radial artery puncture on a live patient under supervision. Conclusion: Effective simulation-based training in arterial puncture for nursing students does not necessarily need to be resource-intensive. Well-planned, evidence-based training sessions using low-tech simulators could help educators to achieve good educational outcomes and promote patient safety

Psychosocial Factors Associated with Patterns of Smoking Surrounding Pregnancy in Fragile Families

Although research has documented factors associated with maternal smoking, we need a more in-depth understanding of the risk factors associated with changes in smoking behaviors during the postpartum period. We investigate smoking patterns during pregnancy and 1 year postpartum as a function of relevant psychosocial factors. We use data on 3,522 postpartum mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to analyze the predictors of smoking among mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy but smoked at 1 year postpartum, mothers who smoked both during pregnancy and postpartum, and mothers who did not smoke during either period. Our covariates are grouped into four categories of risk factors for smoking: socioeconomic status, health care, life course and health, and partner and social support. Postpartum mothers in our sample were more likely to smoke throughout or after their pregnancies if they had only a high school education or less, had a household income three or more times below the poverty line, had public or no health insurance, breastfed for less than 5 months, were not married to the infant’s father, if the infant’s father currently smoked, and if they attended religious services less than once a week. Mental health problems were consistently associated with an increased risk of constant and postpartum smoking relative to non-smoking. Psychosocial factors play a role in postpartum smoking, but they have a stronger effect in predicting smoking that persists throughout pregnancy and the first year postpartum

Biologic predictors of clinical improvement in rituximab-treated refractory myositis Clinical rheumatology and osteoporosis

Background: To examine the longitudinal utility of a biomarker signature in conjunction with myositis autoantibodies (autoAbs) as predictors of disease improvement in refractory myositis patients treated with rituximab. Methods: In the RIM Trial, all subjects received rituximab on 2 consecutive weeks. Using start of treatment as baseline, serum samples (n∈=∈177) were analyzed at baseline and after rituximab with multiplexed sandwich immunoassays to quantify type-1 IFN-regulated and other pro-inflammatory chemokines and cytokines. Biomarker scores were generated for the following pathways: type-1 IFN-inducible (IFNCK), innate, Th1, Th2, Th17 and regulatory cytokines. Myositis autoAbs (anti-synthetase n∈=∈28, TIF-γ n∈=∈19, Mi-2 n∈=∈25, SRP n∈=∈21, MJ n∈=∈18, non-MAA n∈=∈24, unidentified autoantibody n∈=∈9, and no autoantibodies n∈=∈33) determined by immunoprecipitation at baseline, were correlated with outcome measures. Kruskal-Wallis rank sum tests were used for comparisons. Results: The mean (SD) values for muscle disease and physician global disease activity VAS scores (0-100 mm) were 46 (22) and 49 (19). IFNCK scores (median values) were higher at baseline in subjects with anti-synthetase (43), TIF1-γ (31) and Mi-2 (30) compared with other autoAb groups (p∈30) and autoAb group (Mi-2, non-MAA, and undefined autoantibody) demonstrated the greatest clinical improvement based on muscle VAS (muscle-interaction p∈=∈0.075). Conclusion: Biomarker signatures in conjunction with autoAbs help predict response to rituximab in refractory myositis. Biomarker and clinical responses are greatest at 16 weeks after rituximab

Prevalence of smoking and incidence of initiation in the Latin American adult population: the PLATINO study

Background: the PLATINO project was launched in 2002 in order to study the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Latin America. Because smoking is the main risk factor for COPD, detailed data on it were obtained. the aim of this paper was to evaluate the prevalence of smoking and incidence of initiation among middle-aged and older adults (40 years or older). Special emphasis was given to the association between smoking and schooling.Methods: PLATINO is a multicenter study comprising five cross-sectional population-based surveys of approximately 1,000 individuals per site in São Paulo (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), Mexico City (Mexico), Montevideo (Uruguay) and Caracas (Venezuela). the outcome variable was smoking status (never, former or current). Current smokers were those who reported to smoke within the previous 30 days. Former smokers were those who reported to quit smoking more than 30 days before the survey. Using information on year of birth and age of smoking onset and quitting, a retrospective cohort analysis was carried out. Smoking prevalence at each period was defined as the number of subjects who started to smoke during the period plus those who were already smokers at the beginning of the period, divided by the total number of subjects. Incidence of smoking initiation was calculated as the number of subjects who started to smoke during the period divided by the number of non-smokers at its beginning. the independent variables included were sex, age and schooling.Results: Non-response rates ranged from 11.1% to 26.8%. the prevalence of smoking ranged from 23.9% (95% CI 21.3; 26.6) in São Paulo to 38.5% (95% CI 35.7; 41.2) in Santiago. Males and middle-aged adults were more likely to smoke in all sites. After adjustment for age, schooling was not associated with smoking. Using retrospective cohort analysis, it was possible to detect that the highest prevalence of smoking is found between 20-29 years, while the highest incidence is found between 10-19 years. Age of smoking onset tended to decline over time among females.Conclusion: the prevalence of smoking varied considerably across sites, but was lower among countries with national anti-smoking campaigns.Univ Fed Pelotas, Pelotas, BrazilUniv Republica, Montevideo, UruguayInst Nacl Enfermedades Resp, Mexico City, DF, MexicoUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilPontificia Univ Catolica Chile, Santiago, ChileCent Univ Venezuela, Caracas, VenezuelaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Live Imaging at the Onset of Cortical Neurogenesis Reveals Differential Appearance of the Neuronal Phenotype in Apical versus Basal Progenitor Progeny

The neurons of the mammalian brain are generated by progenitors dividing either at the apical surface of the ventricular zone (neuroepithelial and radial glial cells, collectively referred to as apical progenitors) or at its basal side (basal progenitors, also called intermediate progenitors). For apical progenitors, the orientation of the cleavage plane relative to their apical-basal axis is thought to be of critical importance for the fate of the daughter cells. For basal progenitors, the relationship between cell polarity, cleavage plane orientation and the fate of daughter cells is unknown. Here, we have investigated these issues at the very onset of cortical neurogenesis. To directly observe the generation of neurons from apical and basal progenitors, we established a novel transgenic mouse line in which membrane GFP is expressed from the beta-III-tubulin promoter, an early pan-neuronal marker, and crossed this line with a previously described knock-in line in which nuclear GFP is expressed from the Tis21 promoter, a pan-neurogenic progenitor marker. Mitotic Tis21-positive basal progenitors nearly always divided symmetrically, generating two neurons, but, in contrast to symmetrically dividing apical progenitors, lacked apical-basal polarity and showed a nearly randomized cleavage plane orientation. Moreover, the appearance of beta-III-tubulin–driven GFP fluorescence in basal progenitor-derived neurons, in contrast to that in apical progenitor-derived neurons, was so rapid that it suggested the initiation of the neuronal phenotype already in the progenitor. Our observations imply that (i) the loss of apical-basal polarity restricts neuronal progenitors to the symmetric mode of cell division, and that (ii) basal progenitors initiate the expression of neuronal phenotype already before mitosis, in contrast to apical progenitors

Mental health care for irregular migrants in Europe: Barriers and how they are overcome

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Early changes in inflammatory and pro-thrombotic biomarkers in patients initiating antiretroviral therapy with abacavir or tenofovir

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Abacavir has been associated with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction, but the pathogenic mechanisms remain unknown. We evaluated longitudinal changes in pro-atherosclerotic biomarkers in patients initiating abacavir or tenofovir.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Consecutive patients initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) with abacavir/lamivudine or tenofovir/emtricitabine were included. Plasma levels of high sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), intercellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) were measured at baseline and at different time points throughout 48 weeks. Comparisons were adjusted for age, sex, ART status at inclusion, viral load, lipodystrophy, Framingham score and hepatitis C virus co-infection status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>50 patients were analyzed, 28 initiating abacavir and 22 tenofovir. The endothelial biomarker sVCAM-1 declined significantly in both treatment groups. hsCRP tended to increase soon after starting therapy with abacavir, a trend that was not seen in those initiating tenofovir. IL-6 significantly increased only at week 24 from baseline in patients on abacavir (+225%, p < 0.01) although the differences were not significant between groups. The procoagulant biomarker PAI-1 plasma levels increased from baseline at week 12 (+57%; p = 0.017), week 24 (+72%; p = 0.008), and week 48 (+149%; p < 0.001) in patients on tenofovir, but differences between groups were not statistically significant.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Changes in biomarkers of inflammation, coagulation, and endothelial function are not different in viremic patients starting ART with abacavir/lamivudine or tenofovir/emtricitabine. These changes occur in the early phases of treatment and include anti- and pro-atherosclerotic effects with both drugs.</p

The ALMA Frontier Fields Survey

CONTEXT: Dusty star-forming galaxies are among the most prodigious systems at high redshift (z > 1), characterized by high star-formation rates and huge dust reservoirs. The bright end of this population has been well characterized in recent years, but considerable uncertainties remain for fainter dusty star-forming galaxies, which are responsible for the bulk of star formation at high redshift and thus play a key role in galaxy growth and evolution. AIMS: In this first paper of our series, we describe our methods for finding high redshift faint dusty galaxies using millimeter observations with ALMA. METHODS: We obtained ALMA 1.1 mm mosaic images for three strong-lensing galaxy clusters from the Frontier Fields Survey, which constitute some of the best studied gravitational lenses to date. The ≈2′ × 2′ mosaics overlap with the deep HST WFC3/IR footprints and encompass the high magnification regions of each cluster for maximum intrinsic source sensitivity. The combination of extremely high ALMA sensitivity and the magnification power of these clusters allows us to systematically probe the sub-mJy population of dusty star-forming galaxies over a large surveyed area. RESULTS: We present a description of the reduction and analysis of the ALMA continuum observations for the galaxy clusters Abell 2744 (z = 0.308), MACS J0416.1-2403 (z = 0.396) and MACS J1149.5+2223 (z = 0.543), for which we reach observed rms sensitivities of 55, 59 and 71 μJy beam-1 respectively. We detect 12 dusty star-forming galaxies at S/N ≥ 5.0 across the three clusters, all of them presenting coincidence with near-infrared detected counterparts in the HST images. None of the sources fall close to the lensing caustics, thus they are not strongly lensed. The observed 1.1 mm flux densities for the total sample of galaxies range from 0.41 to 2.82 mJy, with observed effective radii spanning ≲0.̋05 to 0.̋37 ± 0.̋21 . The lensing-corrected sizes of the detected sources appear to be in the same range as those measured in brighter samples, albeit with possibly larger dispersion