Modeling the Relations Among Morphological Awareness Dimensions, Vocabulary Knowledge, and Reading Comprehension in Adult Basic Education Students

This study extended the findings of Tighe and Schatschneider (2015) by investigating the predictive utility of separate dimensions of morphological awareness as well as vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension in Adult Basic Education (ABE) students. We competed 2- and 3-factor structural equation models of reading comprehension. A 3-factor model of real word morphological awareness, pseudoword morphological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge emerged as the best fit and accounted for 79% of the reading comprehension variance. The results indicated that the constructs contributed jointly to reading comprehension; however, vocabulary knowledge was the only potentially unique predictor (p = .052), accounting for an additional 5.6% of the variance. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying a latent variable modeling approach to examine individual differences in the reading comprehension skills of ABE students. Further, this study replicates the findings of Tighe and Schatschneider (2015) of the importance of differentiating among dimensions of morphological awareness in this population

Who is a Nuisance? Criminal Activity Nuisance Ordinances in Ohio

Criminal Activity Nuisance Ordinances (CANOs) are local laws found in thousands of cities throughout the country which penalize property owners if repeated incidents of criminal activity related to their property occur over a set period of time (typically, 12 months). Nearly 50 cities in Ohio have CANOs, including more than 20 in Northeast Ohio.Drawing on extensive public records from a sample of Northeast Ohio cities, this report offers a snapshot of CANOs and how they are being used. • CANOs disproportionately impact renters, people using housing vouchers, and people of color. • Race and class stereotypes surface in public discussions of CANOs, and are sometimes invoked to justify the establishment or enhancement of CANOs • CANOs are frequently applied beyond their scope to target minor, non-criminal behavior • Many cities across Ohio put survivors of domestic violence at heightened risk of eviction by defining domestic violence as a “nuisance activity”; in some cities, more than half of CANO letters are sent in response to domestic violence incidents• If emergency services are sent to a home in response to a call made to a suicide hotline, that property can be deemed a nuisance • Seeking medical assistance for someone experiencing a drug overdose crisis is a common reason that properties are placed on a nuisance list • It is often difficult or even impossible for a property owner or tenant to challenge a mistaken nuisance designationWhile the findings presented in this report center on Northeast Ohio, residents in the thousands of other cities with CANOs across the country may be experiencing similar impact. We encourage policymakers, researchers, and community stakeholders to use this report to inform deeper conversations on the implications of CANOs, and to expand research on the use and consequences of these laws

Patients with TNF Receptor Associated Periodic Syndrome (TRAPS) are hypersensitive to Toll‐like receptor 9 stimulation

Tumour necrosis factor receptor‐associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) is an hereditary autoinflammatory disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of fever and inflammation. It is associated with autosomal dominant mutations in TNFRSF1A, which encodes tumour necrosis factor receptor‐1 (TNFR1). Our aim was to understand the influence of TRAPS mutations on the response to stimulation of the pattern recognition receptor TLR9. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and serum were isolated from TRAPS patients and healthy controls: Serum levels of fifteen pro‐inflammatory cytokines were measured to assess the initial inflammatory status. IL‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐8, IL17, IL22, TNF‐α, VEGF, IFN‐γ, MCP‐1 and TGF‐β were significantly elevated in TRAPS patients sera, consistent with constitutive inflammation. Stimulation of PBMCs with TLR9 ligand (ODN2006) triggered significantly greater upregulation of pro‐inflammatory signalling intermediates (TRAF3, IRAK2, TOLLIP, TRAF6, pTAK, TAB2, pTAB2, IRF7, RIP, NF‐kB p65, pNF‐κB p65, and MEK1/2) in TRAPS patients’ PBMCs. This upregulation of proinflammatory signalling intermediates and raised serum cytokines occurred despite concurrent anakinra treatment and no overt clinical symptoms at time of sampling. These novel findings further demonstrate the wide‐ranging nature of the dysregulation of innate immune responses underlying the pathology of TRAPS and highlights the need for novel pathway‐specific therapeutic treatments for this disease

Internal standard-based analysis of microarray data2—Analysis of functional associations between HVE-genes

In this work we apply the Internal Standard-based analytical approach that we described in an earlier communication and here we demonstrate experimental results on functional associations among the hypervariably-expressed genes (HVE-genes). Our working assumption was that those genetic components, which initiate the disease, involve HVE-genes for which the level of expression is undistinguishable among healthy individuals and individuals with pathology. We show that analysis of the functional associations of the HVE-genes is indeed suitable to revealing disease-specific differences. We show also that another possible exploit of HVE-genes for characterization of pathological alterations is by using multivariate classification methods. This in turn offers important clues on naturally occurring dynamic processes in the organism and is further used for dynamic discrimination of groups of compared samples. We conclude that our approach can uncover principally new collective differences that cannot be discerned by individual gene analysi

Profiling humoral immune responses to Clostridium difficile-specific antigens by protein microarray analysis

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic, Gram-positive, and spore-forming bacterium that is the leading worldwide infective cause of hospital-acquired and antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Several studies have reported associations between humoral immunity and the clinical course of C. difficile infection (CDI). Host humoral immune responses are determined using conventional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques. Herein, we report the first use of a novel protein microarray assay to determine systemic IgG antibody responses against a panel of highly purified C. difficile-specific antigens, including native toxins A and B (TcdA and TcdB, respectively), recombinant fragments of toxins A and B (TxA4 and TxB4, respectively), ribotypespecific surface layer proteins (SLPs; 001, 002, 027), and control proteins (tetanus toxoid and Candida albicans). Microarrays were probed with sera from a total of 327 individuals with CDI, cystic fibrosis without diarrhea, and healthy controls. For all antigens, precision profiles demonstrated<10% coefficient of variation (CV). Significant correlation was observed between microarray and ELISA in the quantification of antitoxin A and antitoxin B IgG. These results indicate that microarray is a suitable assay for defining humoral immune responses to C. difficile protein antigens and may have potential advantages in throughput, convenience, and cost

Geospatial Resolution of Human and Bacterial Diversity with City-Scale Metagenomics

The panoply of microorganisms and other species present in our environment influence human health and disease, especially in cities, but have not been profiled with metagenomics at a city-wide scale. We sequenced DNA from surfaces across the entire New York City (NYC) subway system, the Gowanus Canal, and public parks. Nearly half of the DNA (48%) does not match any known organism; identified organisms spanned 1,688 bacterial, viral, archaeal, and eukaryotic taxa, which were enriched for harmless genera associated with skin (e.g., Acinetobacter). Predicted ancestry of human DNA left on subway surfaces can recapitulate U.S. Census demographic data, and bacterial signatures can reveal a station’s history, such as marine-associated bacteria in a hurricane-flooded station. Some evidence of pathogens was found (Bacillus anthracis), but a lack of reported cases in NYC suggests that the pathogens represent a normal, urban microbiome. This baseline metagenomic map of NYC could help long-term disease surveillance, bioterrorism threat mitigation, and health management in the built environment of citie