ADOLESCENT RELATIONSHIP ABUSE; SCHOOL NURSE-LED INTERVENTION AND PREVENTION

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Adolescent Relationship Abuse (ARA) is a serious public health issue. Hundreds of thousands of school aged teens are affected by this type of abuse, which leads to several detrimental health problems later in life. Education, resources, and interventions are needed for those who come into contact with adolescents each day to prevent ARA. The analysis below highlights a school nurse-led intervention in five Pennsylvania schools to combat ARA among middle and high school aged teens. BACKGROUND: Project Connect is a national program to build partnerships among public health agencies and domestic violence services to improve the health care sector response to partner and sexual violence. Pennsylvania piloted the first school-nurse delivered adolescent relationship abuse intervention in the certified school nurses’ office setting. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing this prevention intervention. METHODS: In five schools in Pennsylvania, school nurses completed a survey before and one year after receiving training on implementing the intervention as well as a phone interview. Students seeking care at the nurses’ offices completed a brief anonymous feedback survey after their nurse visit. RESULTS: The school nurses adopted the intervention readily, finding ways to incorporate healthy relationship discussions into interactions with students. School nurses and students found the intervention to be acceptable. Students were positive in their feedback. Barriers included difficulty with school buy-in and finding time and private spaces to deliver the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: A school nurse healthy relationships intervention was feasible to implement and acceptable to the students as well as the implementing nurses. While challenges arose with the initial uptake of the program, school nurses identified strategies to achieve school and student support for this intervention

Features of the ancestral bilaterian inferred from Platynereis dumerilii ParaHox genes

Background The ParaHox gene cluster is the evolutionary sister to the Hox cluster. Whilst the role of the Hox cluster in patterning the anterior-posterior axis of bilaterian animals is well established, and the organisation of vertebrate Hox clusters is intimately linked to gene regulation, much less is known about the more recently discovered ParaHox cluster. ParaHox gene clustering, and its relationship to expression, has only been described in deuterostomes. Conventional protostome models (Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans) are secondarily derived with respect to ParaHox genes, suffering gene loss and cluster break-up. Results We provide the first evidence for ParaHox gene clustering from a less-derived protostome animal, the annelid Platynereis dumerilii. Clustering of these genes is thus not a sole preserve of the deuterostome lineage within Bilateria. This protostome ParaHox cluster is not entirely intact however, with Pdu-Cdx being on the opposite end of the same chromosome arm from Pdu-Gsx and Pdu-Xlox. From the genomic sequence around the P. dumerilii ParaHox genes the neighbouring genes are identified, compared with other taxa, and the ancestral arrangement deduced. Conclusion We relate the organisation of the ParaHox genes to their expression, and from comparisons with other taxa hypothesise that a relatively complex pattern of ParaHox gene expression existed in the protostome-deuterostome ancestor, which was secondarily simplified along several invertebrate lineages. Detailed comparisons of the gene content around the ParaHox genes enables the reconstruction of the genome surrounding the ParaHox cluster of the protostome-deuterostome ancestor, which existed over 550 million years ago.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Cluster randomized controlled trial protocol: addressing reproductive coercion in health settings (ARCHES)

Background\ud Women ages 16–29 utilizing family planning clinics for medical services experience higher rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) and reproductive coercion (RC) than their same-age peers, increasing risk for unintended pregnancy and related poor reproductive health outcomes. Brief interventions integrated into routine family planning care have shown promise in reducing risk for RC, but longer-term intervention effects on partner violence victimization, RC, and unintended pregnancy have not been examined.\ud \ud Methods/Design\ud The ‘Addressing Reproductive Coercion in Health Settings (ARCHES)’ Intervention Study is a cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of a brief, clinician-delivered universal education and counseling intervention to reduce IPV, RC and unintended pregnancy compared to standard-of-care in family planning clinic settings. The ARCHES intervention was refined based on formative research. Twenty five family planning clinics were randomized (in 17 clusters) to either a three hour training for all family planning clinic staff on how to deliver the ARCHES intervention or to a standard-of-care control condition. All women ages 16–29 seeking care in these family planning clinics were eligible to participate. Consenting clients use laptop computers to answer survey questions immediately prior to their clinic visit, a brief exit survey immediately after the clinic visit, a first follow up survey 12–20 weeks after the baseline visit (T2), and a final survey 12 months after the baseline (T3). Medical record chart review provides additional data about IPV and RC assessment and disclosure, sexual and reproductive health diagnoses, and health care utilization. Of 4009 women approached and determined to be eligible based on age (16–29 years old), 3687 (92 % participation) completed the baseline survey and were included in the sample.\ud \ud Discussion\ud The ARCHES Intervention Study is a community-partnered study designed to provide arigorous assessment of the short (3-4 months) and long-term (12 months) effects of a brief, clinician-delivered universal education and counseling intervention to reduce IPC, RC and unintended pregnancy in family planning clinic settings. The trial features a cluster randomized controlled trial design, a comprehensive data collection schedule and a large sample size with excellent retention.\ud \ud Trial Registration\ud ClinicialTrials.gov NCT01459458. Registered 10 October 2011

Selective Gene Expression by Postnatal Electroporation during Olfactory Interneuron Neurogenesis

Neurogenesis persists in the olfactory system throughout life. The mechanisms of how new neurons are generated, how they integrate into circuits, and their role in coding remain mysteries. Here we report a technique that will greatly facilitate research into these questions. We found that electroporation can be used to robustly and selectively label progenitors in the Subventicular Zone. The approach was performed postnatally, without surgery, and with near 100% success rates. Labeling was found in all classes of interneurons in the olfactory bulb, persisted to adulthood and had no adverse effects. The broad utility of electroporation was demonstrated by encoding a calcium sensor and markers of intracellular organelles. The approach was found to be effective in wildtype and transgenic mice as well as rats. Given its versatility, robustness, and both time and cost effectiveness, this method offers a powerful new way to use genetic manipulation to understand adult neurogenesis

Neural crest diversification

This chapter discusses some of the basic principles that have emerged from the study of neural crest biology. It discusses the origin of the neural crest in the embryo and considers some of the general principles underlying neural crest diversification. Finally, the chapter discusses what is known about how specific derivatives of the neural crest are generated. The neural crest has captured the imagination of developmental biologists for over a century. There are two principal reasons for this. First, it is a highly migratory cell population and very little is known about the mechanisms that precisely guide neural crest cells to specific sites in the embryo. Second, the neural crest gives rise to an enormous diversity of cell types, including the entire peripheral nervous system, melanocytes, endocrine cells, and much of the connective tissue, bone, and cartilage of the face and skull. Neural crest cells arise at the junction between the prospective epidermis and the prospective neural plate in all vertebrates, regardless of whether the neural crest ultimately migrates from the open neural folds, the closed neural tube, or an ectodermal thickening at the neural plate-epidermis boundary. Although a number of models have been proposed for how neural crest cells are generated, the weight of evidence at present suggests that neural crest arises from local cell-cell interactions between the epidermis and the neural plate