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