Promoting Child Rearing for Teen Mothers within the Foster Care System

Teenage pregnancy in foster care is twice the national average, with one-third becoming pregnant by 17. There are limited programs available to assist teen mothers in foster care in developing healthy parent-child relationships and parenting skills despite their desire to break the cycle of trauma and improve their relationships with their children. The objective of the capstone program is to establish and operate a residential maternity home-based trauma-informed parenting program that assists teenage mothers in foster care in developing parenting skills and a healthy parent-child relationship by providing them with the necessary resources and support.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonesspring2024/1000/thumbnail.jp

Creating Inclusive Syllabi: Recommendations From the Field

Attrition is a persistent concern across online campuses. Because online programs often attract greater numbers of nontraditional, diverse students, attrition issues can especially impact learners from underrepresented groups. Modifications in language and communication, starting with the course syllabus, can create a foundation for an inclusive and supportive learning community. We describe our own process of revising the syllabus template within a counselor education program at a large, online university, via the Student Experience Project (SEP). We offer recommendations for current and future practice and concrete suggestions for higher education faculty members across disciplines

Oklahoma Bioretention Technology Demonstration and the Effects Filter Media Heterogeneity on Performance

Ten bioretention cells were constructed in Oklahoma as part of a full-scale technology project to demonstrate phosphorus reduction efficiency. The design used a sand/fly ash blend as the filter media, for enhanced phosphorus attenuation, and incorporated surface sand plugs for improved infiltration in poor draining soils. Engineering considerations, general design procedures, site parameters, construction and planting details and costs are documented. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed to simulate flow through a bioretention cell and address some of the questions that arose during design and construction regarding the effects of soil amendment implementation, and sand plug size and placement on cell performance. Three general configurations were modeled for three different scenarios. A filter-only configuration was evaluated to assess the effect of filter media hydraulic conductivity heterogeneity on flow and transport. The second configuration added a top soil and sand plug layer with 6 sand plugs measuring 1.5 m by 1.5 m, which was similar to the constructed cells. The final configuration evaluated a top soil and sand plug layer with 14 smaller sand plugs measuring 1 m by 1 m. Three different scenarios were evaluated for each configuration that varied by size and distribution of the filter media heterogeneity. The first scenario used the measured scale and range variability, the second used the same scale with double the variation, and the third used the same variability, but increased the scale volume by a factor of 27. Model results indicated that variability in fly ash content created complex flow through the filter medium, but did not result in significant preferential flow. Sand plugs created flow concentration but did not dominate flow within the cell, and the number of sand plugs was not significant provided that their total area was sufficient to maintain the desired drainage rate. Mean effluent concentration did not exceed the Oklahoma criterion for scenic rivers until after 22 years and 33 years for the filter only and sand plug configurations, respectively. Modeling predicted more than 144 years of P removal. All distributions show similar removal efficiencies indicating that reasonable mixing effort will enable proper cell performance.Biosystems & Agricultural Engineerin

School Leadership Interventions Under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Evidence Review - Updated and Expanded

This RAND analysis offers guidance to states and districts on how they can choose to use the Every Student Succeeds Act to help achieve their school improvement goals by supporting principals and other school leaders

Resolution by Unassisted Top3 Points to Template Switch Recombination Intermediates during DNA Replication

The evolutionarily conserved Sgs1/Top3/Rmi1 (STR) complex plays vital roles in DNA replication and repair. One crucial activity of the complex is dissolution of toxic X-shaped recombination intermediates that accumulate during replication of damaged DNA. However, despite several years of study the nature of these X-shaped molecules remains debated. Here we use genetic approaches and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA to show that Top3, unassisted by Sgs1 and Rmi1, has modest capacities to provide resistance to MMS and to resolve recombination-dependent X-shaped molecules. The X-shaped molecules have structural properties consistent with hemicatenane-related template switch recombination intermediates (Rec-Xs) but not Holliday junction (HJ) intermediates. Consistent with these findings, we demonstrate that purified Top3 can resolve a synthetic Rec-X but not a synthetic double HJ in vitro. We also find that unassisted Top3 does not affect crossing over during double strand break repair, which is known to involve double HJ intermediates, confirming that unassisted Top3 activities are restricted to substrates that are distinct from HJs. These data help illuminate the nature of the X-shaped molecules that accumulate during replication of damaged DNA templates, and also clarify the roles played by Top3 and the STR complex as a whole during the resolution of replication-associated recombination intermediates

Baboon model for West Nile Virus infection and vaccine evaluation

Animal models that closely mimic the human condition are of paramount significance to study pathogenic mechanisms, vaccine and therapy scenarios. This is particularly true for investigations that involve emerging infectious diseases. Nonhuman primate species represent an alternative to the more intensively investigated rodent animal models and in a number of instances have been shown to represent a more reliable predictor of the human response to infection. West Nile virus (WNV) has emerged as a new pathogen in the Americas. It has a 5% fatality rate, predominantly in the elderly and immune compromised. Typically, infections are cleared by neutralizing antibodies, which suggests that a vaccine would be efficacious. Previously, only macaques had been evaluated as a primate model for WNV vaccine design. The macaques did not develop WNV disease nor express the full complement of IgG subclasses that is found in humans. We therefore explored baboons, which exhibit the similar four IgG subclasses observed in humans as a new model for WNV infection and vaccine evaluation. In this present report, we describe the experimental infection of baboons with WNV and test the efficacy of an inactivated WNV vaccination strategy. All experimentally infected animals developed transient viremia and subsequent neutralizing antibodies. Anti-WNV IgM antibodies peaked at 20 days post-infection. Anti-WNV IgG antibodies appeared later and persisted past 60 days. Prior vaccination with chemically inactivated virus induced neutralizing titers and a fast, high titer IgG recall response, which resulted in lower viremia upon challenge. This report is the first to describe the development of the baboon model for WNV experimental infection and the utility of this model to characterize the immunologic response against WNV and a candidate WNV vaccine

Baboon model for West Nile Virus infection and vaccine evaluation

Animal models that closely mimic the human condition are of paramount significance to study pathogenic mechanisms, vaccine and therapy scenarios. This is particularly true for investigations that involve emerging infectious diseases. Nonhuman primate species represent an alternative to the more intensively investigated rodent animal models and in a number of instances have been shown to represent a more reliable predictor of the human response to infection. West Nile virus (WNV) has emerged as a new pathogen in the Americas. It has a 5% fatality rate, predominantly in the elderly and immune compromised. Typically, infections are cleared by neutralizing antibodies, which suggests that a vaccine would be efficacious. Previously, only macaques had been evaluated as a primate model for WNV vaccine design. The macaques did not develop WNV disease nor express the full complement of IgG subclasses that is found in humans. We therefore explored baboons, which exhibit the similar four IgG subclasses observed in humans as a new model for WNV infection and vaccine evaluation. In this present report, we describe the experimental infection of baboons with WNV and test the efficacy of an inactivated WNV vaccination strategy. All experimentally infected animals developed transient viremia and subsequent neutralizing antibodies. Anti-WNV IgM antibodies peaked at 20 days post-infection. Anti-WNV IgG antibodies appeared later and persisted past 60 days. Prior vaccination with chemically inactivated virus induced neutralizing titers and a fast, high titer IgG recall response, which resulted in lower viremia upon challenge. This report is the first to describe the development of the baboon model for WNV experimental infection and the utility of this model to characterize the immunologic response against WNV and a candidate WNV vaccine

Human Galectin-9 Is a Potent Mediator of HIV Transcription and Reactivation.

Identifying host immune determinants governing HIV transcription, latency and infectivity in vivo is critical to developing an HIV cure. Based on our recent finding that the host factor p21 regulates HIV transcription during antiretroviral therapy (ART), and published data demonstrating that the human carbohydrate-binding immunomodulatory protein galectin-9 regulates p21, we hypothesized that galectin-9 modulates HIV transcription. We report that the administration of a recombinant, stable form of galectin-9 (rGal-9) potently reverses HIV latency in vitro in the J-Lat HIV latency model. Furthermore, rGal-9 reverses HIV latency ex vivo in primary CD4+ T cells from HIV-infected, ART-suppressed individuals (p = 0.002), more potently than vorinostat (p = 0.02). rGal-9 co-administration with the latency reversal agent "JQ1", a bromodomain inhibitor, exhibits synergistic activity (p<0.05). rGal-9 signals through N-linked oligosaccharides and O-linked hexasaccharides on the T cell surface, modulating the gene expression levels of key transcription initiation, promoter proximal-pausing, and chromatin remodeling factors that regulate HIV latency. Beyond latent viral reactivation, rGal-9 induces robust expression of the host antiviral deaminase APOBEC3G in vitro and ex vivo (FDR<0.006) and significantly reduces infectivity of progeny virus, decreasing the probability that the HIV reservoir will be replenished when latency is reversed therapeutically. Lastly, endogenous levels of soluble galectin-9 in the plasma of 72 HIV-infected ART-suppressed individuals were associated with levels of HIV RNA in CD4+ T cells (p<0.02) and with the quantity and binding avidity of circulating anti-HIV antibodies (p<0.009), suggesting a role of galectin-9 in regulating HIV transcription and viral production in vivo during therapy. Our data suggest that galectin-9 and the host glycosylation machinery should be explored as foundations for novel HIV cure strategies