Assessing young people's political engagement: a critical and systematic literature review of the instruments used to measure political engagement

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing interest in understanding youth political engagement. However, it has been argued that the instruments used to assess the concept often lack adequate validation, and this is important as this practice may result in biased statistical conclusions. Consequently, the main aim of the present study was to systematically review, summarize, and critique the extant research evidence on the development of psychometric instruments that assess young people’s political engagement. Following a systematic review of the literature, seven instruments were identified that were both valid and reliable, but none explicitly assessed young people’s political engagement. Instead, they considered broad concepts and/or dimensions related to political engagement. Emphasising the lack of statistically robust standardised measurement tools that empirically assess young people’s political engagement, the available evidence confirms the pressing need to adopt a robust psychometric approach to assess political engagement in youth

Neural adaptations to electrical stimulation strength training

This review provides evidence for the hypothesis that electrostimulation strength training (EST) increases the force of a maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) through neural adaptations in healthy skeletal muscle. Although electrical stimulation and voluntary effort activate muscle differently, there is substantial evidence to suggest that EST modifies the excitability of specific neural paths and such adaptations contribute to the increases in MVC force. Similar to strength training with voluntary contractions, EST increases MVC force after only a few sessions with some changes in muscle biochemistry but without overt muscle hypertrophy. There is some mixed evidence for spinal neural adaptations in the form of an increase in the amplitude of the interpolated twitch and in the amplitude of the volitional wave, with less evidence for changes in spinal excitability. Cross-sectional and exercise studies also suggest that the barrage of sensory and nociceptive inputs acts at the cortical level and can modify the motor cortical output and interhemispheric paths. The data suggest that neural adaptations mediate initial increases in MVC force after short-term EST

Effects of Blood Flow Restricted Low-Intensity Concentric or Eccentric Training on Muscle Size and Strength

The authors thank the students who participated in this study. We also thank Toshiaki Nakajima, MD, PhD, Ken Masamune, PhD, Hiroki Kamiuchi, The University of Tokyo, for helpful discussion and technical support.Conceived and designed the experiments: TY TA. Performed the experiments: TY. Analyzed the data: TY JPL TA. Wrote the paper: TY JPL RST TA.We investigated the acute and chronic effects of low-intensity concentric or eccentric resistance training with blood flow restriction (BFR) on muscle size and strength. Ten young men performed 30% of concentric one repetition maximal dumbbell curl exercise (four sets, total 75 reps) 3 days/week for 6 weeks. One arm was randomly chosen for concentric BFR (CON-BFR) exercise only and the other arm performed eccentric BFR (ECC-BFR) exercise only at the same exercise load. During the exercise session, iEMG for biceps brachii muscles increased progressively during CON-BFR, which was greater (p<0.05) than that of the ECC-BFR. Immediately after the exercise, muscle thickness (MTH) of the elbow flexors acutely increased (p<0.01) with both CON-BFR and ECC-BFR, but was greater with CON-BFR (11.7%) (p<0.01) than ECC-BFR (3.9%) at 10-cm above the elbow joint. Following 6-weeks of training, MRI-measured muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) at 10-cm position and mid-upper arm (12.0% and 10.6%, respectively) as well as muscle volume (12.5%) of the elbow flexors were increased (p<0.01) with CON-BFR. Increases in muscle CSA and volume were lower in ECC-BFR (5.1%, 0.8% and 2.9%, respectively) than in the CON-BFR and only muscle CSA at 10-cm position increased significantly (p<0.05) after the training. Maximal voluntary isometric strength of elbow flexors was increased (p<0.05) in CON-BFR (8.6%), but not in ECC (3.8%). These results suggest that CON-BFR training leads to pronounced acute changes in muscle size, an index of muscle cell swelling, the response to which may be an important factor for promoting muscle hypertrophy with BFR resistance training.Yeshttp://www.plosone.org/static/editorial#pee

Polycomb Binding Precedes Early-Life Stress Responsive DNA Methylation at the Avp Enhancer

Early-life stress (ELS) in mice causes sustained hypomethylation at the downstream Avp enhancer, subsequent overexpression of hypothalamic Avp and increased stress responsivity. The sequence of events leading to Avp enhancer methylation is presently unknown. Here, we used an embryonic stem cell-derived model of hypothalamic-like differentiation together with in vivo experiments to show that binding of polycomb complexes (PcG) preceded the emergence of ELS-responsive DNA methylation and correlated with gene silencing. At the same time, PcG occupancy associated with the presence of Tet proteins preventing DNA methylation. Early hypothalamic-like differentiation triggered PcG eviction, DNA-methyltransferase recruitment and enhancer methylation. Concurrently, binding of the Methyl-CpG-binding and repressor protein MeCP2 increased at the enhancer although Avp expression during later stages of differentiation and the perinatal period continued to increase. Overall, we provide evidence of a new role of PcG proteins in priming ELS-responsive DNA methylation at the Avp enhancer prior to epigenetic programming consistent with the idea that PcG proteins are part of a flexible silencing system during neuronal development

Cyanobacterial lipopolysaccharides and human health – a review

Cyanobacterial lipopolysaccharide/s (LPS) are frequently cited in the cyanobacteria literature as toxins responsible for a variety of heath effects in humans, from skin rashes to gastrointestinal, respiratory and allergic reactions. The attribution of toxic properties to cyanobacterial LPS dates from the 1970s, when it was thought that lipid A, the toxic moiety of LPS, was structurally and functionally conserved across all Gram-negative bacteria. However, more recent research has shown that this is not the case, and lipid A structures are now known to be very different, expressing properties ranging from LPS agonists, through weak endotoxicity to LPS antagonists. Although cyanobacterial LPS is widely cited as a putative toxin, most of the small number of formal research reports describe cyanobacterial LPS as weakly toxic compared to LPS from the Enterobacteriaceae. We systematically reviewed the literature on cyanobacterial LPS, and also examined the much lager body of literature relating to heterotrophic bacterial LPS and the atypical lipid A structures of some photosynthetic bacteria. While the literature on the biological activity of heterotrophic bacterial LPS is overwhelmingly large and therefore difficult to review for the purposes of exclusion, we were unable to find a convincing body of evidence to suggest that heterotrophic bacterial LPS, in the absence of other virulence factors, is responsible for acute gastrointestinal, dermatological or allergic reactions via natural exposure routes in humans. There is a danger that initial speculation about cyanobacterial LPS may evolve into orthodoxy without basis in research findings. No cyanobacterial lipid A structures have been described and published to date, so a recommendation is made that cyanobacteriologists should not continue to attribute such a diverse range of clinical symptoms to cyanobacterial LPS without research confirmation