Neuropsychological test performance of Spanish speakers : is performance similar across different Spanish speaking subgroups?

The present study compared different subgroups of Spanish speakers in their performance on neuropsychological tasks. In order to address the issue of potential cultural differences, different Spanish speaking subgroups from three different countries were compared on five neuropsychological tests. The sample was composed of 120 young adults with a mean of 23.4 years of age from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Chile. Participants were administered the following instruments: Verbal Serial Learning Curve, Verbal Fluency Test- Semantic and Phonetic, Stroop- Color and Word Test, and Trail Making Test (TMT)- Parts A and B. The results revealed group differences in two of the five neuropsychological tests. Group differences were found in the number of words recalled in the first trial and the number of trials required to recall the ten words of the Serial Learning Curve and in the number of words produced in the semantic and the phonetic category of the Verbal Fluency Test. The findings are discussed in terms of within ethnic group differences and the potential impact on developing a neuropsychology that is sensitive to cultural influences

Clinical intestinal transplantation: New perspectives and immunologic considerations

Background: Although tacrolimus-based immunosuppression has made intestinal transplantation feasible, the risk of the requisite chronic high- dose treatment has inhibited the widespread use of these procedures. We have examined our 1990-1997 experience to determine whether immunomodulatory strategies to improve outlook could be added to drug treatment. Study Design: Ninety-eight consecutive patients (59 children, 39 adults) with a panoply of indications received 104 allografts under tacrolimus-based immunosuppression: intestine only (n = 37); liver and intestine (n = 50); or multivisceral (n = 17). Of the last 42 patients, 20 received unmodified adjunct donor bone marrow cells; the other 22 were contemporaneous control patients. Results: With a mean followup of 32 ± 26 months (range, 1-86 months), 12 recipients (3 intestine only, 9 composite grafts) are alive with good nutrition beyond the 5-year milestone. Forty-seven (48%) of the total group survive bearing grafts that provide full (91%) or partial (9%) nutrition. Actuarial patient survival at 1 and 5 years (72% and 48%, respectively) was similar with isolated intestinal and composite graft recipients, but the loss rate of grafts from rejection was highest with intestine alone. The best results were in patients between 2 and 18 years of age (68% at 5 years). Adjunct bone marrow did not significantly affect the incidence of graft rejection, B-cell lymphoma, or the rate or severity of graft-versus-host disease. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that longterm rehabilitation similar to that with the other kinds of organ allografts is achievable with all three kinds of intestinal transplant procedures, that the morbidity and mortality is still too high for their widespread application, and that the liver is significantly but marginally protective of concomitantly engrafted intestine. Although none of the endpoints were markedly altered by donor leukocyte augmentation (and chimerism) with bone marrow, establishment of the safety of this adjunct procedure opens the way to further immune modulation strategies that can be added to the augmentation protocol

Off-shore and underwater sampling of aquatic environments with the aerial-aquatic drone MEDUSA

Monitoring of aquatic habitats for water quality and biodiversity requires regular sampling, often in off-shore locations and underwater. Such sampling is commonly performed manually from research vessels, or if autonomous, is constrained to permanent installations. Consequentially, high frequency ecological monitoring, such as for harmful algal blooms, are limited to few sites and/or temporally infrequent. Here, we demonstrate the use of MEDUSA, an Unmanned Aerial-Aquatic Vehicle which is capable of performing underwater sampling and inspection at up to 10 m depth, and is composed of a multirotor platform, a tether management unit and a tethered micro Underwater Vehicle. The system is validated in the task of vertical profiling of Chlorophyll-a levels in freshwater systems by means of a custom solid sample filtering mechanism. This mechanism can collect up to two independent samples per mission by pumping water through a pair of glass-fibre GF/F filters. Chlorophyll levels measured from the solid deposits on the filters are consistent and on par with traditional sampling methods, highlighting the potential of using UAAVs to sample aquatic locations at high frequency and high spatial resolution

An updated overview of the Texas border

This report, An Overview of the Texas Border, should be considered part of a longitudinal study. The initial baseline report, The Border: Texas’ Roadway to the 21st Century, was written by J. Michael Patrick and Baldomero Garcia for the Texas Infrastructure Coalition [TBIC] in June 2000. The report was a commissioned study of the Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. The current research effort is also a commissioned study of CBIRD: The Cross Border Institute for Regional Development at The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Texas. TBIC, the sponsor of this study, was organized in 1998 with the expressed mission of addressing the infrastructure needs of the communities along the Texas-Mexico Border. Of primary interest to TBIC is the continued viability and sustainability of the target region to participate fully in the implementation and expansion of NAFTA. This report provides a context to guide the policy, advocacy agenda and strategic plans of TBIC. The Patrick/Garcia report ends with data that covers most of the 1990’s. The purpose of this report is to assess data that covers the fiscal years 2000, 2001 and parts of 2002. CBIRD provides a broader overview of the border than Patrick/Garcia and this was done so that a context of the region could provide guidance to TBIC as it considers its policy agendas. Another key consideration by CBIRD was to provide references from the Internet that could be accessed in a timely manner by TBIC to review the data that guide this study. The research provides an overview of transportation issues, legislation, governance and fiscal issues that originate with the Texas Department of Transportation which is the state agency that is the focus of TBIC’s policy initiatives at this time. Another point to consider here was the orientation of CBIRD to provide a non-biased framework and policy perspectives to guide rather than lead TBIC in its deliberations of the Texas Border infrastructure. It is the expressed hope of CBIRD that TBIC continue to fund research to extend and continually update the data that both Texas A&M International University and the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College have initiated. The need to access and assess timely research, to guide data based policy planning and strategic planning, will bode well for TBIC as it takes the advocacy role on behalf of its growing constituent base along the 1,254 miles that make up the Texas-Mexico Border region.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/digitalbooks/1009/thumbnail.jp

The Buena Vida Barrio: A Brownsville transitional neighborhood

This barrio is a micro representation of the overall low quality of life that has been identified for both Cameron County and the City of Brownsville by the U.S. Census Bureau. There were several mitigating variables that emerged from the data that will have some impact on this barrio’s ability to become part of the region’s economic and social mainstream. Of these the most challenging were the high percentages of undocumented residents, the inordinate numbers of renters, the low economic capacity of employed residents and the high crime rates that exceed those of the region in general. The most notable of these assets are the two elementary schools that are performing at any outstanding level by all standard measures.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/digitalbooks/1011/thumbnail.jp

An Overview of the Economy of Port Isabel, Texas

The assessment of a small geographic area, such as the city of Port Isabel, is rather difficult to conduct on a micro scale since most data is generated for the macro area that may include several census tracts and zip codes. This assessment, by the Cross Border Institute for Regional Development [CBIRD] at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College is part of a component of a broader scope of work that is being conducted for the City of Port Isabel by Gomez and Associates. CBIRD will address those items, for which data was available, and will present some insights and observations on the data based on data that it acquired or generated by its field research in the community which included surveys, on-site interviews and interactions with community leaders and members of advisory boards that serve the city. The CBIRD research team will present observations, insights and recommendations that are apolitical and which reflect its assessment of conditions that it observed during the course of its data gathering and analysis.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/digitalbooks/1010/thumbnail.jp

A study of affordable housing in Brownsville, Texas: Challenges and opportunities

This report on affordable housing in Brownsville is one of the first that has been done on a local level that makes use of primary data that was generated through the use of extensive field based interviews by the research team. This primary data provided the researchers with a reference base to guide its use and analysis based on national findings from major housing research institutes. From such a point the team began to generate an accurate overview of housing in Brownsville. The key findings from this study may also be considered a baseline since no such data was found to exist at the local level as the research design unfolded.https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/digitalbooks/1012/thumbnail.jp

The Effects of Ash and Black Carbon (Biochar) on Germination of Different Tree Species

Forest fires generate large amounts of ash and biochar, or black carbon (BC), that cover the soil surface, interacting with the soil’s constituents and its seedbank. This study concerns reproductive ecology assessments supported by molecular characterisation to improve our understanding of the effects of fire and fire residues on the germination behaviour of 12 arboreal species with a wide geographic distribution. For this purpose, we analysed the effects of three ash and one BC concentration on the germination of Acacia dealbata Link, A. longifolia (Andrews) Willd., A. mearnsii De Wild., A. melanoxylon R. Br., Pinus nigra Arnold, P. pinaster Aiton, P. radiata D. Don, P. sylvestris L., Quercus ilex L., Q. pyrenaica Willd., Q. robur L., and Q. rubra L. Each tree species was exposed to ash and BC created from its foliage or twigs (except for Q. rubra, which was exposed to ash and BC of Ulex europaeus L.). We monitored germination percentage, the T50 parameter, and tracked the development of germination over time (up to 1 yr). The BC of A. dealbata, P. pinaster, and Q. robur was analysed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PY-GC-MS) to assess the molecular composition. In six species, ash inhibited the germination, while in another five species, germination was not affected by ash or by BC. In Q. rubra, ash and BC stimulated its germination. This stimulating effect of the BC on Q. rubra is likely to be related to the chemical composition of the ash and BC obtained from Ulex feedstock. The BC of U. europaeus has a very different molecular composition than the other BC samples analysed, which, together with other factors, probably allowed for its germination stimulating effects.This study was carried out within the Project 10MDS200007PR, financed by the Xunta de Galicia; the Project AGL2013-48189-C2-2-R, financed by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain; and FEDERS

Targeted overexpression of a golli–myelin basic protein isoform to oligodendrocytes results in aberrant oligodendrocyte maturation and myelination

Recently, several in vitro studies have shown that the golli–myelin basic proteins regulate Ca2+ homoeostasis in OPCs (oligodendrocyte precursor cells) and immature OLs (oligodendrocytes), and that a number of the functions of these cells are affected by cellular levels of the golli proteins. To determine the influence of golli in vivo on OL development and myelination, a transgenic mouse was generated in which the golli isoform J37 was overexpressed specifically within OLs and OPCs. The mouse, called JOE (J37-overexpressing), is severely hypomyelinated between birth and postnatal day 50. During this time, it exhibits severe intention tremors that gradually abate at later ages. After postnatal day 50, ultrastructural studies and Northern and Western blot analyses indicate that myelin accumulates in the brain, but never reaches normal levels. Several factors appear to underlie the extensive hypomyelination. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicate that golli overexpression causes a significant delay in OL maturation, with accumulation of significantly greater numbers of pre-myelinating OLs that fail to myelinate axons during the normal myelinating period. Immunohistochemical studies with cell death and myelin markers indicate that JOE OLs undergo a heightened and extended period of cell death and are unable to effectively myelinate until 2 months after birth. The results indicate that increased levels of golli in OPC/OLs delays myelination, causing significant cell death of OLs particularly in white matter tracts. The results provide in vivo evidence for a significant role of the golli proteins in the regulation of maturation of OLs and normal myelination

Severe stress switches CRF action in the nucleus accumbens from appetitive to aversive.

Stressors motivate an array of adaptive responses ranging from \u27fight or flight\u27 to an internal urgency signal facilitating long-term goals. However, traumatic or chronic uncontrollable stress promotes the onset of major depressive disorder, in which acute stressors lose their motivational properties and are perceived as insurmountable impediments. Consequently, stress-induced depression is a debilitating human condition characterized by an affective shift from engagement of the environment to withdrawal. An emerging neurobiological substrate of depression and associated pathology is the nucleus accumbens, a region with the capacity to mediate a diverse range of stress responses by interfacing limbic, cognitive and motor circuitry. Here we report that corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a neuropeptide released in response to acute stressors and other arousing environmental stimuli, acts in the nucleus accumbens of naive mice to increase dopamine release through coactivation of the receptors CRFR1 and CRFR2. Remarkably, severe-stress exposure completely abolished this effect without recovery for at least 90 days. This loss of CRF\u27s capacity to regulate dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens is accompanied by a switch in the reaction to CRF from appetitive to aversive, indicating a diametric change in the emotional response to acute stressors. Thus, the current findings offer a biological substrate for the switch in affect which is central to stress-induced depressive disorders