Sharing knowledge: a new frontier for public-private partnerships in medicine

To help overcome the bottlenecks that limit the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products, academic and industrial researchers, patient organizations and charities, and regulatory and funding institutions should redefine the basis for sharing the knowledge collected in large-scale clinical and experimental studies

Students' Perspective on the Impact of English Teacher Development Programs on Teaching Quality in Indonesia

Finding effective methods for improving teaching quality is crucial because it has been found to be the most important factor in education. This paper compares two approaches of improving teaching quality through a one-year experimental study involving two experimental groups and one control group. The first is the use of education standards and the second is the use of education standards combined with a teacher development program. Teaching quality was measured in four variables: Building classroom as a learning environment (CLE), instruction, questioning, and orientation. In this study, 1255 students and 45 teachers from 43 junior secondary schools in two provinces of Indonesia voluntarily participated. Multilevel modelling was employed and the results indicate that both interventions have significant effects on the outcomes. However, as expected, the second intervention is significant in all variables and has larger effects, whereas the first intervention is significant only in two variables: CLE and questioning. The findings of this research imply the need to have clear and concrete education standards and to enhance these education standards with training sessions to facilitate better teaching quality.</p

The Effectiveness of School-Based Skills-Training Programs Reducing Performance or Social Anxiety: Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Background: Given that high levels of stress during adolescence are associated with negative consequences, it is important that adolescents with psychological needs are supported at an early stage, for instance with interventions at school. However, knowledge about the potential of school-based programs targeting adolescents with psychological needs, aimed at reducing school or social stress, is lacking. Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of two targeted school-based skills-training programs, addressing either skills to deal with performance anxiety or social skills. Methods: Two randomized controlled trials were performed with participants who self-selected to one of the programs. The sample comprised of N = 361 adolescents (Mage = 13.99 years, SD = 0.83) from various educational levels and ethnic identity backgrounds. The performance anxiety program included N = 196 participants (N = 95 in the experimental group), while the social skills program included N = 165 participants (N = 86 in the experimental group). MANCOVA’s were performed. Results: The performance anxiety program had a small effect on reducing adolescents’ test anxiety. Furthermore, for adolescents who attended more than half of the sessions, the program had small effects on reducing test anxiety and fear of failure. The program did not improve adolescents’ coping skills or mental health. The social skills program was not effective in improving social skills, social anxiety, and mental health. Conclusions: A relatively short, targeted program addressing skills to deal with performance anxiety can have the potential to reduce adolescents’ performance anxiety. Trial registration: International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (Netherlands Trial Register, number NTR7680). Registered 12 December 2018. Study protocol van Loon et al., (2019)

Alcohol use of immigrant youths in The Netherlands: The roles of parents and peers across different ethnic backgrounds

Contains fulltext : 179083.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Introduction and Aims. The aims of this study were to examine the roles of parental permissiveness toward alcohol use and affiliation with alcohol-using peers in alcohol use in youths from various ethnic backgrounds, and whether the role of peers was moderated by parental permissiveness. In addition, differences in these associations between native Dutch and non-Western immigrant youths were examined. Design and Methods. Cross-sectional data of 578 youths with Surinamese, Moroccan, Turkish, Antillean and Asian backgrounds and 81 native Dutch were used, all aged 15-24. Alcohol use, affiliation with alcohol-using peers and parental permissiveness were measured using self-report questionnaires. Regression models controlled for age, religiousness, education level and parental alcohol use. Because of very low levels of alcohol use, data from Turkish and Moroccan immigrants were aggregated, and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results. Parental permissiveness and affiliation with alcohol-using peers were positively related to level of alcohol use in youths with Surinamese, Antillean and Asian backgrounds and played an equally strong role in native Dutch youths with one exception. In Surinamese youths, parental permissiveness was more strongly related to alcohol use than in native Dutch youths. In youths with a Turkish/Moroccan background, parental permissiveness and affiliation with alcohol-using peers were strongly associated with any (versus no) alcohol use. Only parental permissiveness was, equally strong, associated with any alcohol use in native Dutch youths. Discussion and Conclusions. Irrespective of ethnic background and differences in level of alcohol use, parental permissiveness and affiliation with alcohol-using peers are related to youth alcohol use.8 p

Cross-lagged associations between depressive symptoms and response style in adolescents

Depressive disorders are highly prevalent during adolescence and they are a major concern for individuals and society. The Response Style Theory and the Scar Theory both suggest a relationship between response styles and depressive symptoms, but the theories differ in the order of the development of depressive symptoms. Longitudinal reciprocal prospective relationships between depressive symptoms and response styles were examined in a community sample of 1343 adolescents. Additionally, response style was constructed with the traditional approach, which involves examining three response styles separately without considering the possible relations between them, and with the ratio approach, which accounts for all three response styles simultaneously. No reciprocal relationships between depressive symptoms and response style were found over time. Only longitudinal relationships between response style and depressive symptoms were significant. This study found that only depressive symptoms predicted response style, whereas the response style did not emerge as an important underlying mechanism responsible for developing and maintaining depressive symptoms in adolescents. These findings imply that prevention and intervention programs for adolescents with low depressive symptoms should not focus on adaptive and maladaptive response style strategies to decrease depressive symptoms, but should focus more on behavioral interventions

Prion protein interacts with bace1 and differentially regulates its activity towards wild type and swedish mutant amyloid precursor protein

In Alzheimer disease amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) accumulate in the brain. Cleavage of APP by the β-secretase BACE1 is the rate-limiting step in the production of Aβ. We have reported previously that the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) inhibited the action of BACE1 toward human wild type APP (APP(WT)) in cellular models and that the levels of endogenous murine Aβ were significantly increased in PrP(C)-null mouse brain. Here we investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this observation. PrP(C) interacted directly with the prodomain of the immature Golgi-localized form of BACE1. This interaction decreased BACE1 at the cell surface and in endosomes where it preferentially cleaves APP(WT) but increased it in the Golgi where it preferentially cleaves APP with the Swedish mutation (APP(Swe)). In transgenic mice expressing human APP with the Swedish and Indiana familial mutations (APP(Swe,Ind)), PrP(C) deletion had no influence on APP proteolytic processing, Aβ plaque deposition, or levels of soluble Aβ or Aβ oligomers. In cells, although PrP(C) inhibited the action of BACE1 on APP(WT), it did not inhibit BACE1 activity toward APP(Swe). The differential subcellular location of the BACE1 cleavage of APP(Swe) relative to APP(WT) provides an explanation for the failure of PrP(C) deletion to affect Aβ accumulation in APP(Swe,Ind) mice. Thus, although PrP(C) exerts no control on cleavage of APP(Swe) by BACE1, it has a profound influence on the cleavage of APP(WT), suggesting that PrP(C) may be a key protective player against sporadic Alzheimer disease