Marginalized Youth, Mental Health, and Connection with Others: A Review of the Literature

For marginalized youth, the transition to adulthood is a stage of life in which inequalities can be either magnified or reduced. While most descriptions of these young people highlight their difficulties achieving self-sufficiency, the ability to form connections with others is an equally significant marker of adult maturity. Given that social isolation poses serious risks to health and well-being, the relational experiences of marginalized youth are a critical component of the transition to adulthood. Experiences of trauma, marginalization, and involvement in public systems of care can place these youth at heightened risk for mental health difficulties, all of which can pose particular challenges for interpersonal relationships. This critical review of the literature explores the research on the relational experiences of marginalized young people living with emotional and behavioral challenges. It discusses the unique developmental context of marginalized youth, including experiences with trauma, mental illness, marginalization, and involvement in public systems of care. It then reviews the benefits young people derive from mutually empathic connections with others. The review explores facilitators of connection for marginalized youth, as well as barriers to connection for these young people. Following this review, the article identifies several gaps in the literature, and ends with a call for both practitioners and researcher

Birds as Evidence for Climate Change

Global climate change is the phenomenon of fluctuating weather patterns over time caused by various factors, including plate tectonics, solar radiation, and human influence. Current climate change is thought to result primarily from global warming, the increase in temperature near the Earth’s surface. Although there is substantial evidence that climate change is occurring and that it is primarily caused by humans – a view highly supported by the scientific community – there are deniers who refuse to believe our planet is warming significantly and that this trend is due to anthropogenic factors. In an effort to convey the reality of climate change to nonscientists, we will use data on birds to illustrate some of the effects of climate change. Since birds are so commonplace, using them as vehicles for explaining climate change gives people the ability to see changes occurring in their own backyard. For example, bird phenology, the timing of life cycle events, is closely tied with temperature and constitutes the most well studied ornithological evidence for climate change. There are substantial amounts of data documenting shifts in the timing of critical bird life events, such as earlier spring migration arrivals and earlier reproduction. A recent report by the Audubon society projects that over one half of North American bird species will lose significant portions of their range by 2050 as a result of climate change. We plan to use examples from these studies to develop a presentation for college students of all majors highlighting the effects of global warming

Contact after adoption::a follow-up in late adolescence

We would like to acknowledge the help of the many people who made this study possible, some of whom cannot be named individually for reasons of confidentiality. The research was funded by The Nuffield Foundation and was carried out in 2012 and 2013. Firstly we would like to thank all the adopted young people, adoptive parents and birth relatives who took part in the study. Their willingness to share their personal experiences and to take time to fill in questionnaires was vital to the success of the project. We would also like to thank the social workers and administrative staff from the participating adoption agencies who assisted us in tracing participants whose contact details were out of date. We are grateful to the help of After Adoption who assisted us in recruiting a group of adopted young people to advise us on the early stages of the study, and of course to the young people themselves who made many valuable suggestions which informed our data collection strategy

Randomized controlled trial of SPIRIT: An effective approach to preparing African-American dialysis patients and families for end of life

This randomized controlled trial tested an intervention, Sharing Patients’ Illness Representations to Increase Trust (SPIRIT), designed to enhance communication regarding end-of-life care between African Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and their chosen surrogate decision makers (N = 58 dyads). We used surveys and semi-structured interviews to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of SPIRIT on patient and surrogate outcomes at 1 week and 3 months post-intervention. We also evaluated patients’ deaths and surrogates’ end-of-life decision making to assess surrogates’ perceptions of benefits and limitations of the SPIRIT while facing end-of-life decisions. We found that SPIRIT promoted communication between patients and their surrogates and was effective and well received by the participants

The GTP binding proteins Gem and Rad are negative regulators of the Rho–Rho kinase pathway

The cytoskeletal changes that alter cellular morphogenesis and motility depend upon a complex interplay among molecules that regulate actin, myosin, and other cytoskeletal components. The Rho family of GTP binding proteins are important upstream mediators of cytoskeletal organization. Gem and Rad are members of another family of small GTP binding proteins (the Rad, Gem, and Kir family) for which biochemical functions have been mostly unknown. Here we show that Gem and Rad interface with the Rho pathway through association with the Rho effectors, Rho kinase (ROK) α and β. Gem binds ROKβ independently of RhoA in the ROKβ coiled-coil region adjacent to the Rho binding domain. Expression of Gem inhibited ROKβ-mediated phosphorylation of myosin light chain and myosin phosphatase, but not LIM kinase, suggesting that Gem acts by modifying the substrate specificity of ROKβ. Gem or Rad expression led to cell flattening and neurite extension in N1E-115 neuroblastoma cells. In interference assays, Gem opposed ROKβ- and Rad opposed ROKα-mediated cell rounding and neurite retraction. Gem did not oppose cell rounding initiated by ROKβ containing a deletion of the Gem binding region, demonstrating that Gem binding to ROKβ is required for the effects observed. In epithelial or fibroblastic cells, Gem or Rad expression resulted in stress fiber and focal adhesion disassembly. In addition, Gem reverted the anchorage-independent growth and invasiveness of Dbl-transformed fibroblasts. These results identify physiological roles for Gem and Rad in cytoskeletal regulation mediated by ROK

Engaging the postgraduate student voice for enhancement of learning and teaching

Postgraduate (PG) courses are undertaken for a variety of reasons and in many different formats across the three faculties (Faculty of Health Education and Society, Faculty of Business and Law and the Faculty of Art, Science and Technology) within the University of Northampton, (UON). PG students’ engagement, especially minority groups and part time students, are historically underrepresented with teaching and learning often devolved from undergraduate courses or professional doctorate courses. This underrepresented student body require a stronger network to engage, discuss and target their specific requirements within the university. Dissertation students’ satisfaction at UON in the latest PTES, (2022) survey is below the sector average.Postgraduate studies frequently occur when students are raising families, working full time and busy meeting personal objectives. During this life-phase, engagement with the university community is difficult. However, this student group have skills and knowledge to enhance their own learning and teaching requirements which may strengthen the student experience and promote engagement. Enhancing the student voice within the PG community and across faculties will aid communication and the objectives identified within the Access and Participation Plan (APP) relating to attainment, retention and progression by ethnicity and IMD/POLAR characteristics.This project concept was developed from the recommendations of a previously successful innovation bid, “Converting Willingness to Engagement” which targeted PG health professionals within FHES. It identified under representation within the professional postgraduate community. The Postgraduate student voice, particularly at Master's level (L7), has been nationally identified as under-represented (PTES, 2022). This project explored how these students, deemed at risk of unconscious bias, intersectional students, the ethnical diverse and part time students can create a student voice and provide practical outcomes in terms of recommendations for all faculties

Engaging the postgraduate student voice for enhancement of learning and teaching

Postgraduate (PG) courses are undertaken for a variety of reasons and in many different formats across the three faculties (Faculty of Health Education and Society, Faculty of Business and Law and the Faculty of Art, Science and Technology) within the University of Northampton, (UON). PG students’ engagement, especially minority groups and part time students, are historically underrepresented with teaching and learning often devolved from undergraduate courses or professional doctorate courses. This underrepresented student body require a stronger network to engage, discuss and target their specific requirements within the university. Dissertation students’ satisfaction at UON in the latest PTES, (2022) survey is below the sector average.Postgraduate studies frequently occur when students are raising families, working full time and busy meeting personal objectives. During this life-phase, engagement with the university community is difficult. However, this student group have skills and knowledge to enhance their own learning and teaching requirements which may strengthen the student experience and promote engagement. Enhancing the student voice within the PG community and across faculties will aid communication and the objectives identified within the Access and Participation Plan (APP) relating to attainment, retention and progression by ethnicity and IMD/POLAR characteristics.This project concept was developed from the recommendations of a previously successful innovation bid, “Converting Willingness to Engagement” which targeted PG health professionals within FHES. It identified under representation within the professional postgraduate community. The Postgraduate student voice, particularly at Master's level (L7), has been nationally identified as under-represented (PTES, 2022). This project explored how these students, deemed at risk of unconscious bias, intersectional students, the ethnical diverse and part time students can create a student voice and provide practical outcomes in terms of recommendations for all faculties

Alzheimer\u27s Disease Microbiome Is Associated with Dysregulation of the Anti-Inflammatory P-Glycoprotein Pathway

The microbiota-gut-brain axis is a bidirectional communication system that is poorly understood. Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia, has long been associated with bacterial infections and inflammation-causing immunosenescence. Recent studies examining the intestinal microbiota of AD patients revealed that their microbiome differs from that of subjects without dementia. In this work, we prospectively enrolled 108 nursing home elders and followed each for up to 5 months, collecting longitudinal stool samples from which we performed metagenomic sequencing and in vitro T84 intestinal epithelial cell functional assays for P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression, a critical mediator of intestinal homeostasis. Our analysis identified clinical parameters as well as numerous microbial taxa and functional genes that act as predictors of AD dementia in comparison to elders without dementia or with other dementia types. We further demonstrate that stool samples from elders with AD can induce lower P-gp expression levels in vitro those samples from elders without dementia or with other dementia types. We also paired functional studies with machine learning approaches to identify bacterial species differentiating the microbiome of AD elders from that of elders without dementia, which in turn are accurate predictors of the loss of dysregulation of the P-gp pathway. We observed that the microbiome of AD elders shows a lower proportion and prevalence of bacteria with the potential to synthesize butyrate, as well as higher abundances of taxa that are known to cause proinflammatory states. Therefore, a potential nexus between the intestinal microbiome and AD is the modulation of intestinal homeostasis by increases in inflammatory, and decreases in anti-inflammatory, microbial metabolism.IMPORTANCE Studies of the intestinal microbiome and AD have demonstrated associations with microbiome composition at the genus level among matched cohorts. We move this body of literature forward by more deeply investigating microbiome composition via metagenomics and by comparing AD patients against those without dementia and with other dementia types. We also exploit machine learning approaches that combine both metagenomic and clinical data. Finally, our functional studies using stool samples from elders demonstrate how the c microbiome of AD elders can affect intestinal health via dysregulation of the P-glycoprotein pathway. P-glycoprotein dysregulation contributes directly to inflammatory disorders of the intestine. Since AD has been long thought to be linked to chronic bacterial infections as a possible etiology, our findings therefore fill a gap in knowledge in the field of AD research by identifying a nexus between the microbiome, loss of intestinal homeostasis, and inflammation that may underlie this neurodegenerative disorder