Parental Influence: Potential long-term effects of strict parenting

Although parental involvement in childhood can increase a child's academic success (Landers, Friedrick, Jawad & Miller, 2016), an authoritarian parenting style — characterized by strict enforcement of rules, a high degree of control, and an emphasis on obedience — can reduce a child's motivation and cause poor acceptance of responsibilities. The question remains, however, as to whether these effects persist into adulthood. A correlational design was used to determine whether the self-perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of adults who report being raised by strict parents are different from those of adults who say they were raised by permissive parents. Results showed that participants with strict parents were less likely than participants with permissive parents to describe themselves as "street-smart," but described themselves as being more responsible. They also were more likely to feel ready to move out and to say they would not be strict as parents. However, they also were more likely to say they would use a strict punishment if their child smoked marijuana, drank underage, or did not pursue an advanced degree. Although this is a correlational study and therefore does not permit cause-and-effect conclusions, these findings suggest that parents should be educated about the potential long-term effects of the parenting style they adopt on the well-being of their children in adulthood.Neuwirth, Loren

CD1-restricted adaptive immune responses to Mycobacteria in human group 1 CD1 transgenic mice

Group 1 CD1 (CD1a, CD1b, and CD1c)–restricted T cells recognize mycobacterial lipid antigens and are found at higher frequencies in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)–infected individuals. However, their role and dynamics during infection remain unknown because of the lack of a suitable small animal model. We have generated human group 1 CD1 transgenic (hCD1Tg) mice that express all three human group 1 CD1 isoforms and support the development of group 1 CD1–restricted T cells with diverse T cell receptor usage. Both mycobacterial infection and immunization with Mtb lipids elicit group 1 CD1–restricted Mtb lipid–specific T cell responses in hCD1Tg mice. In contrast to CD1d-restricted NKT cells, which rapidly respond to initial stimulation but exhibit anergy upon reexposure, group 1 CD1–restricted T cells exhibit delayed primary responses and more rapid secondary responses, similar to conventional T cells. Collectively, our data demonstrate that group 1 CD1–restricted T cells participate in adaptive immune responses upon mycobacterial infection and could serve as targets for the development of novel Mtb vaccines

Direct In Vivo Evidence for Tumor Propagation by Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells

High-grade gliomas (World Health Organization grade III anaplastic astrocytoma and grade IV glioblastoma multiforme), the most prevalent primary malignant brain tumors, display a cellular hierarchy with self-renewing, tumorigenic cancer stem cells (CSCs) at the apex. While the CSC hypothesis has been an attractive model to describe many aspects of tumor behavior, it remains controversial due to unresolved issues including the use of ex vivo analyses with differential growth conditions. A CSC population has been confirmed in malignant gliomas by preferential tumor formation from cells directly isolated from patient biopsy specimens. However, direct comparison of multiple tumor cell populations with analysis of the resulting phenotypes of each population within a representative tumor environment has not been clearly described. To directly test the relative tumorigenic potential of CSCs and non-stem tumor cells in the same microenvironment, we interrogated matched tumor populations purified from a primary human tumor transplanted into a xenograft mouse model and monitored competitive in vivo tumor growth studies using serial in vivo intravital microscopy. While CSCs were a small minority of the initial transplanted cancer cell population, the CSCs, not the non-stem tumor cells, drove tumor formation and yielded tumors displaying a cellular hierarchy. In the resulting tumors, a fraction of the initial transplanted CSCs maintained expression of stem cell and proliferation markers, which were significantly higher compared to the non-stem tumor cell population and demonstrated that CSCs generated cellular heterogeneity within the tumor. These head-to-head comparisons between matched CSCs and non-stem tumor cells provide the first functional evidence using live imaging that in the same microenvironment, CSCs more than non-stem tumor cells are responsible for tumor propagation, confirming the functional definition of a CSC

High-throughput analysis and functional interpretation of extracellular vesicle content in hematological malignancies

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-coated particles secreted by virtually all cell types in response to different stimuli, both in physiological and pathological conditions. Their content generally reflects their biological functions and includes a variety of molecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins and cellular components. The role of EVs as signaling vehicles has been widely demonstrated. In particular, they are actively involved in the pathogenesis of several hematological malignancies (HM), mainly interacting with a number of target cells and inducing functional and epigenetic changes. In this regard, by releasing their cargo, EVs play a pivotal role in the bilateral cross-talk between tumor microenvironment and cancer cells, thus facilitating mechanisms of immune escape and supporting tumor growth and progression. Recent advances in high-throughput technologies have allowed the deep characterization and functional interpretation of EV content. In this review, the current knowledge on the high-throughput technology-based characterization of EV cargo in HM is summarized

Contribution of an Aged Microenvironment to Aging-Associated Myeloproliferative Disease

The molecular and cellular mechanisms of the age-associated increase in the incidence of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain poorly understood. Multiple studies support that the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment has an important influence on leukemia progression. Given that the BM niche itself undergoes extensive functional changes during lifetime, we hypothesized that one mechanism for the age-associated increase in leukemia incidence might be that an aged niche promotes leukemia progression. The most frequent genetic alteration in AML is the t(8;21) translocation, resulting in the expression of the AML1-ETO fusion protein. Expression of the fusion protein in hematopoietic cells results in mice in a myeloproliferative disorder. Testing the role of the age of the niche on leukemia progression, we performed both transplantation and in vitro co-culture experiments. Aged animals transplanted with AML1-ETO positive HSCs presented with a significant increase in the frequency of AML-ETO positive early progenitor cells in BM as well as an increased immature myeloid cell load in blood compared to young recipients. These findings suggest that an aged BM microenvironment allows a relative better expansion of pre-leukemic stem and immature myeloid cells and thus imply that the aged microenvironment plays a role in the elevated incidence of age-associated leukemia

Visual attentional differences in psychology students with and without disabilities: a pilot study assessing the flanker task for prescriptive visual accommodative technologies

IntroductionThe percentage of college students with disabilities has been growing and has doubled in the last two decades; thus, students with disabilities are pursuing college degrees in increasing numbers. Unfortunately, this population growth has not been matched with growth in available accommodative technologies in institutions of higher learning. Colleges and universities often do not have resources to fund and provide specific accommodative technology and support for this steadily increasing population. What is worse is that there is also a lag in emergent assessment and screening tools which are required to match student disabilities with appropriate accommodative technologies, resulting in a mismatch between student needs with appropriate accommodative technologies. The present pilot study was conducted with students with a range of disabilities, such as learning disabilities, emotional or psychiatric conditions, orthopedic or mobility impairments, attention-deficit disorder/attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, health impairments (HI), and multiple disabilities, which were assessed using a Flanker Task, specifically to determine how sensitive it was in detecting differences in their visual attention performance. This information could be used to predict whether the student would benefit from specific accommodative technologies.Materials and methodsUndergraduate psychology students with and without disabilities volunteered to participate in a triple-blind study that sought to investigate whether their visual attention performance on a 10-min Flanker Task could be used to predict which students might benefit from visual accommodative technologies. The first experiment was used as a negative control to assess whether environmental distractions could interfere with participant visual attention. The second experiment compared the Flanker Task performance of students with and without disabilities in a controlled Neuropsychology Laboratory sound-attenuated environment. The third experiment evaluated the cumulative records for percent (%) accuracy and reaction times (RTs) for students with and without disabilities to examine patterns in visual attentional performance. The fourth experiment disaggregated the students with disabilities and examined their patterns in visual attentional performance.ResultsThe results showed the Flanker Task was sensitive in detecting differences in students’ visual attention performance between noisy and controlled environments differentiated students with and without disabilities. Furthermore, when students with disabilities were aggregated, their Flanker Task cumulative records were sensitive in detecting shifts in their visual attention behavior patterns. Lastly, the Flanker Task cumulative records were also sensitive in detecting disaggregated students with disability differences in their visual attention performance.ConclusionThe pilot study proved promising that a 10-min Flanker Task can be used as an effective screening tool to match students with disabilities with appropriate accommodative technologies based on their visual attentional abilities. This type of screening tool is easy to create, has minimal cost, and can be implemented quickly. This provides colleges and universities with an easy approach to assessing the needs of students with disabilities and tailoring appropriate assistive technologies

Immunotherapy: Reduce, reuse, recycle

IL-2Rα sustains IL-2 immunotherapy response after cytokine withdrawal by recycling and cell surface reservoirs.</jats:p