87 research outputs found
Reading and Metaphonological Outcomes in Late Talkers
Children with a history of slow expressive language development (SELD) were followed to second grade, at which point outcomes in terms of speech, language, cognitive skills, reading achievement, and metaphonological performance were evaluated. Although there were some statistically significant differences between groups, children with a history of SELD generally performed within the normal range on the measures collected. Relations among speech, reading, and metaphonology in the SELD cohort appeared to operate in a manner similar to that seen in groups with typical language development. The implications of these findings for understanding the nature of specific language impairments and for treating early circumscribed language delays are discussed
Chemical Biology of Protein Arginine Modifications in Epigenetic Regulation
Review article on histone citrullination (arginine deimination), histone arginine methylation, and noncanonical histone arginine modifications
Application of Dual Task Performance in Pediatrics and Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review
Purpose:
The aim of this systematic review of the literature is to investigate the application of cognitive and motor dual task paradigms in the physical therapy management of moderate to severe TBI population across the lifespan in physical therapy practice.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/dptcapstones/1001/thumbnail.jp
Smart & Savvy Students: Year 2
Smart & Savvy Students\u27 (SSS) main goal is to convert scientific psychological articles to understandable pieces of information for general audiences. We have a Twitter feed, Facebook page, and Instagram to spread the information to Clemson\u27s student body and other audiences that we post to 3 to 5 times a week. Each tweet contains a 140-character tip written in a dialogue format. The tweets include links to the Facebook page, which has more information. The Facebook page provides links to scientific sources that support our claims. These links provide students with the opportunity to learn more about the topics. In addition, we post to an Instagram account that links back to Facebook and Twitter, which allows us to spread our information to the largest audience possible. Using popular social media, SSS targets students by including information on topics such as study skills, exercise and diet, and healthy habits, which can be applied in day-to-day life for more positive lifestyles
Cortical GABAergic Neurons: Stretching it Remarks, Main Conclusions and Discussion
18 p., 1 figure and references.The articles in this Special Topic cover a range of issues concerning long-distance projecting cortical GABAergic neurons, in the context of interneuron diversity. As several authors report, these neurons are attracting renewed attention spurred by new techniques and markers which show great potential for deciphering their role in cortical organization and microcircuitry. Other authors have emphasized developmental origins of particular subpopulations and their roles in early cortical circuitry. Notable recurring themes are species-specifi c features and probable implications for normal and pathological cortical functioning. A corollary theme, evident
in many of these articles, concerns nomenclature. Several terms are almost interchangeably used, but nevertheless distinct; that is: subplate, layer 7, layer VIB, pioneer and interstitial neuron (see
comments to follow Clancy et al., below, among others). In this article the main conclusions, and some of what the host editors (Kathleen Rockland and Javier DeFelipe) consider the most interesting
remarks, have been extracted from each of the individual articles. These commentaries are not necessarily directly derived from the original work of the authors, and may be the result of the collective work of several different laboratories. This is followed by
a section dedicated to more general comments and a discussion of the issues raised. The authors who have participated in this article
are listed in alphabetical order.Peer reviewe
Living with a long-term condition: understanding well-being for individuals with thrombophilia or asthma
range of literature has explored the experience of living with a long-term condition (LTC), and frequently treats such
experiences and conditions as problematic. In contrast, other research has demonstrated that it may be possible to adapt and
achieve well-being, even when living with such a condition. This tends to focus on meaning and the qualitative experience of
living with an LTC, and offers alternative perspectives, often of the same or similar conditions. As a result of these conflicting
views, this study chose to consider two conditions which, though they may lead to life-threatening illness on occasion, do not
appear to impact significantly the lives of all those affected on a daily basis. The aim of this research was to explore and
explain how people make sense of two long-term, potentially life-threatening health conditions, namely, thrombophilia and
asthma. In doing so, it specifically considered the contribution made by information about the condition. A constructivist
grounded theory approach was adopted; this enabled the generation of a theory regarding how people make sense of their
LTC, whilst acknowledging the social circumstances in which this was situated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted
with 16 participants who had given consent to take part in the research. The findings demonstrate that participants undergo a
two-stage process
*
gaining knowledge
and
living with a long-term condition
. The theory based on these findings indicates that
those who are knowledgeable about their condition, making informed decisions in relation to it, and accept their condition
are able to live with it, whilst those who do not accept their condition do not fully adapt to it or integrate it into their live
People who use drugs show no increase in pre-existing T-cell cross-reactivity toward SARS-CoV-2 but develop a normal polyfunctional T-cell response after standard mRNA vaccination
People who use drugs (PWUD) are at a high risk of contracting and developing severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other infectious diseases due to their lifestyle, comorbidities, and the detrimental effects of opioids on cellular immunity. However, there is limited research on vaccine responses in PWUD, particularly regarding the role that T cells play in the immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, we show that before vaccination, PWUD did not exhibit an increased frequency of preexisting cross-reactive T cells to SARS-CoV-2 and that, despite the inhibitory effects that opioids have on T-cell immunity, standard vaccination can elicit robust polyfunctional CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses that were similar to those found in controls. Our findings indicate that vaccination stimulates an effective immune response in PWUD and highlight targeted vaccination as an essential public health instrument for the control of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in this group of high-risk patients
Second Grade Academic Performance in Normal Children, Children with a History of, and Children with Expressive Language Delay
Interest in children who are diagnosed with expressive language delay has increased over the years. This has resulted in follow-up studies which have suggested that these children would have difficulties in academics during their elementary school years (Hall & Tomblin, 1978; Weiner, 1974) The current study sought to determine if children with a history of and children with continued expressive language delay would have problems with academics once they reached the second grade. The Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) was used to measure academic performance. It was chosen for it\u27s reliable standardization and use of five different subtest areas to determine overall academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are significant differences in academic performance on PIAT between three groups of second grade children with different language histories. The three groups are: 1) children with normal language history 2) children with a history of expressive language delay (HELD) who were identified as late to talk between 20 and 34 months of age, but who received a score at or above the tenth percentile in the second grade on the DSS (Developmental Sentence Scoring, Lee 1974), and 3) children with chronic expressive language delay (ELD) who were identified as late to talkers between 20 and 34 months of age, and received a score below the tenth percentile in the second grade on the DSS. Significant differences were found between the ELD group and the Normal group in the areas of Math and General Information as well as the Total Test Score. The ELD group also performed significantly lower than the HELD group in the areas of Math and the Total Test Score. There were no significant differences found between the HELD group and the Normals or between the ELD and HELD groups on the General Information subtest. These results were consistent with the most recent research article by Whitehurst and Fischel (1994) which looked at three longitudinal studies and found that by five years of age most children diagnosed with specific expressive language delay were performing within the normal range in ·various areas of language development
Determination of the Kinetic and Chemical Mechanism of a Unique Peptidoglycan Recycling Enzyme with Dual Hydrolase and Kinase Functionality: Anhydromuramic Acid Kinase, AnmK
<p>Antibiotic resistance is a crisis in modern society causing increasing rates of bacterial infections impervious to current therapies. To this end, new targets for antimicrobial treatment must be pursued. Peptidoglycan recycling is an understudied key life process in the bacterial cell where over 60% of cell wall materials are reused during each turnover. Anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid kinase, AnmK is a novel enzyme in this pathway catalyzing the conversion of anhydro-N-acetylmuramic acid to N-acetylacetylmuramic acid-6-phosphate in the presence of magnesium and ATP. Previously, several crystal structures of AnmK have been solved providing insights into the catalytic mechanism, but until this point, no extensive work has been done. The goal of this work is to determine the chemical and kinetic mechanisms of AnmK. This will be completed using a continuous assay for dual hydrolysis and phosphorylation activity as well as a novel assay for carbohydrate hydrolysis. Substrate interactions will be probed using previous crystal structures as a guide. Finally, pre-steady-state studies will conclude the mechanistic studies giving a full depiction of AnmK catalysis. </p><p>The kinetic and chemical mechanisms of AnmK are studied in the steady-state using a continuous assay format where bisubstrate kinetics as well as inhibitor studies were performed as well as substrate specificity studies. pH rate profiles and solvent isotope exchange were used to determine the residues involved in catalysis. </p><p>The concerted or stepwise nature of hydrolysis and phosphorylation is a main question of this work. A novel assay using glucose oxidase was executed to trap any chemical intermediates formed in a potential stepwise reaction. This assay was used on wild-type AnmK as well as a variety of mutants. Through these experiments, two key residues in phosphoryl transfer are identified and used to partially decouple hydrolysis and phosphorylation. </p><p>Mechanistic studies were continued by investigating the pre-steady-state kinetics of AnmK using a quench flow apparatus. Wild-type AnmK showed no appearance of a chemical intermediate during timepoints as short as 10 ms and also showed a linear formation of product with a catalytic rate analogous to the steady-state rate. These results indicate that AnmK undergoes a concerted, one-step catalytic mechanism with no chemical intermediate. AnmK E330A formed both hydrolysis product, as well as hydrolysis and phosphorylation product in the pre-steady-state agreeing with the previous results that hydrolysis and phosphorylation had been partially decoupled. </p><p>These results show the chemical and kinetic mechanism of a novel enzyme with previously undocumented concomitant hydrolysis and phosphorylation. This work provides further understanding of carbohydrate-modifying enzymes as well as the peptidoglycan recycling pathway. A better understanding of peptidoglycan biosynthesis and recycling could lead to novel antimicrobial therapies in the future.</p>Dissertatio
Impacts of Source of Health Funding on Child, Infant, Neonatal and Maternal Mortality in sub-Saharan African Countries
This work analyzed the impact of sources of health and child health expenditure on health outcomes by analyzing existing data in sub-Saharan African countries between 2000 and 2014. Development assistance for health (DAH) as a percentage of total health expenditure was associated with greater improvements in child health outcomes than government expenditure on health (GEH) but neither DAH or GEH improved maternal health outcomes
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