Activity and Culture: The Contribution to Health and Well-being in Later Life

A nurse-led multi-agency team worked with older people to develop a model of activity and culture, and evaluate its impact to health and well-being. Underpinned by a needs analysis, the project sought to identify the range of activities that older people used to engage in, currently undertake and what they aspire to engage with both inside their home and in the community. Initial findings revealed that lack of confidence, restricted opportunities and physical barriers such as transport, limited tenants' involvement with physical, social and cultural activities that could improve their health and wellbeing. The project has therefore aimed to develop a more diverse and accessible programme of activities that better reflects individual and collective needs. Following early positive evaluations, the project team are now considering how the centre could be accessed by, and benefit, a wider group of community dwelling older people and would hope to collaborate with other groups to explore how this model can be developed for use with a wider range of older people

Putting Proverbs to the Test:An Engaging Approach for Developing Students' Hypothesis Testing Skills

Integral to most undergraduate psychology degree programs are research methods courses. Students learn about theory, study design and hypothesis testing, and gain knowledge that is assessed by laboratory reports. We describe a problem-based learning approach with an emphasis on acquisition of study design skills. Working in small groups, students took well-known falsifiable proverbs, developed hypotheses to test them, recruited and assessed participants, analyzed the data, and presented their findings in a poster format. This approach allowed students to develop key skills to systematically experiment with an idea using proverbs as a proxy for theory. We suggest proverb testing as a useful technique to engage student-centered active learning in psychology and in the behavioral sciences more broadly

Through the eyes of a young carer: A photo elicitation study of protective resilience.

Caregiving is recognised as a source of stress with potential for negative health impacts as well as positive outcomes and development of resilience. For young carers, children, and adolescents providing care for close family members, adaptation through resilience is crucial, yet work using a resilience approach is limited. This study explored protective factors and pathways to resilience in a sample of young carers, through application of the socioecological model in caring relationships. An in-depth qualitative approach was used, with in-person interviews facilitated by auto-driven photo elicitation. Deductive thematic analysis was applied, framed by three levels (individual, community, and society) of the socioecological model of resilience. Twelve participants (nine girls and three boys) aged 5–18 years, each providing care to a family member, were recruited using opportunity and volunteer sampling via carers’ centres in the southwest of England. Ten key themes were identified, four at the individual level: pre-empting challenges and planning, cognitive strategies, emotional strategies, and seeking solitude; three at the community level: family support, friendships, and pets and inanimate objects; and three at the society level: professional support, access to caregiver activities and community, and being outdoors. The location of themes at each level indicated relevance of the socioecological model to identification of protective factors in a young carer population. These findings have important applications for guidance to charities and organisations supporting young carers. Identification of factors that promote resilience offers support for the development of well-informed interventions, which harness these protective factors to develop resilience and improve health for young carers

Using 4-D imaging of the zebrafish model to observe pharmacodynamics of a therapeutic drug on glioblastoma

Glioblastoma Multiform • Type of aggressive brain cancer • Five year survival rate of 4.70% • Not often detected until it’s in the later stages when the symptoms appear • Surgery is not an effective option due to invasion and proliferation of glioblastoma cells outside of the tumor mass before and after surgery Why the Zebrafish Model? • Transparent body • Organism size • Short assay period • Little media required • No adaptive immune system for 28 dpf • Vertebrate anatomy and brain microenvironmen

Breaking the VE-cadherin bonds

Exchanges between the blood compartment and the surrounding tissues require a tight regulation by the endothelial barrier. Recent reports inferred that VE-cadherin, an endothelial specific cell-cell adhesion molecule, plays a pivotal role in the formation, maturation and remodeling of the vascular wall. Indeed, a growing number of permeability inducing factors (PIFs) was shown to elicit signaling mechanisms culminating in VE-cadherin destabilization and global alteration of the junctional architecture. Conversely, anti-PIFs protect from VE-cadherin disruption and enhance cell cohesion. These findings provide evidence on how endothelial cell-cell junctions impact the vascular network, and change our perception about normal and aberrant angiogenesis

Advancements in cortisol detection: from conventional methods to next-generation technologies for enhanced hormone monitoring.

The hormone cortisol, released as the end-product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, has a wellcharacterized circadian rhythm that enables an allostatic response to external stressors. When the pattern of secretion is disrupted, cortisol levels are chronically elevated, contributing to diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, mental health disorders, and diabetes. The diagnosis of chronic stress and stress related disorders depends upon accurate measurement of cortisol levels; currently, it is quantified using mass spectroscopy or immunoassay, in specialized laboratories with trained personnel. However, these methods are time-consuming, expensive and are unable to capture the dynamic biorhythm of the hormone. This critical review traces the path of cortisol detection from traditional laboratory-based methods to decentralised cortisol monitoring biosensors. A complete picture of cortisol biology and pathophysiology is provided, and the importance of precision medicine style monitoring of cortisol is highlighted. Antibody-based immunoassays still dominate the pipeline of development of point-of-care biosensors; new capture molecules such as aptamers and molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) combined with technologies such as microfluidics, wearable electronics, and quantum dots offer improvements to limit of detection (LoD), specificity, and a shift toward rapid or continuous measurements. While a variety of different sensors and devices have been proposed, there still exists a need to produce quantitative tests for cortisol - using either rapid or continuous monitoring devices that can enable a personalized medicine approach to stress management. This can be addressed by synergistic combinations of technologies that can leverage low sample volumes, relevant limit of detection and rapid testing time, to better account for cortisol’s shifting biorhythm. Trends in cortisol diagnostics toward rapid and continuous monitoring of hormones are highlighted, along with insights into choice of sample matrix

"A perfect storm”: Autistic experiences of menopause and midlife.

Previous research indicates that menopause can be an extremely difficult transition for some autistic people. This study asks how autistic people experience menopause and how they can better access services, support and information; autistic Community Research Associates played an important role in each stage of the research. Online focus groups and interviews were conducted with 24 autistic participants who lived in Canada (n = 13) or the United Kingdom (n = 11) and had experience with the menopausal transition. Transcripts were coded and analysed by four team members using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes and eight subthemes were identified: (1) Complexity, multiplicity and intensity of symptoms (0 subthemes); (2) Life experience and adversity converging at midlife (three subthemes); (3) The importance of knowledge and connection (two subthemes); and (4) Barriers to support and care (three subthemes). Limitations include a potential sample bias towards difficult experiences of menopause. The majority of our sample had a late diagnosis or discovery of autism, and their experiences might not generalize to wider autistic populations. This research may help autistic people prepare for menopause and recognize symptoms earlier. Hearing about the experiences of others may let autistic people who struggle with menopause know they are not alone

Every Dog Has Its Data:Evaluation of a Technology-Aided Canine Rabies Vaccination Campaign to Implement a Microplanning Approach

Background: Robust dog vaccination coverage is the primary way to eliminate canine rabies. Haiti conducts annual canine mass vaccination campaigns, but still has the most human deaths in the Latin American and Caribbean region. We conducted an evaluation of dog vaccination methods in Haiti to determine if more intensive, data-driven vaccination methods, using smartphones for data reporting and geo-communication, could increase vaccination coverage to a level capable of disrupting rabies virus transmission.Methods: Two cities were designated into “Traditional” and “Technology-aided” vaccination areas. Traditional areas utilized historical methods of vaccination staff management, whereas Technology-aided areas used smartphone-supported spatial coordination and management of vaccination teams. Smartphones enabled real time two-way geo-communication between campaign managers and vaccinators. Campaign managers provided geographic instruction to vaccinators by assigning mapped daily vaccination boundaries displayed on phone handsets, whilst vaccinators uploaded spatial data of dogs vaccinated for review by the campaign manager to inform assignment of subsequent vaccination zones. The methods were evaluated for vaccination effort, coverage, and cost.Results: A total of 11,420 dogs were vaccinated during the 14-day campaign. The technology-aided approach achieved 80% estimated vaccination coverage as compared to 44% in traditional areas. Daily vaccination rate was higher in Traditional areas (41.7 vaccinations per team-day) compared to in technology-aided areas (26.8) but resulted in significantly lower vaccination coverages. The cost per dog vaccinated increased exponentially with the associated vaccination coverage, with a cost of $1.86 to achieve 25$2.51 for 50% coverage, and $3.19 for 70% coverage.Conclusions: Traditional vaccination methods failed to achieve sufficiently high vaccination coverages needed to interrupt sustained rabies virus transmission, whilst the technology-aided approach increased coverage above this critical threshold. Over successive campaigns, this difference is likely to represent the success or failure of the intervention in eliminating the rabies virus. Technology-aided vaccination should be considered in resource limited settings where rabies has not been controlled by Traditional vaccination methods. The use of technology to direct health care workers based on near-real-time spatial data from the field has myriad potential applications in other vaccination and public health initiatives

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy