The Human Microbiome and Recurrent Abdominal Pain in Children

This project explores the nature of the human intestinal microbiome in healthy children and children with recurrent abdominal pain. The overall goal is to obtain a robust knowledge base of the intestinal microbiome in children without evidence of pain or gastrointestinal disease and in those with recurrent abdominal pain (functional abdominal pain (FAP) and FAP associated with changes in bowel habits, i.e., irritable bowel syndrome or IBS). Specific aims include: 1. Characterize the composition of the gut microbiome in healthy children by DNA sequencing. 2. Determine the presence of disease-specific organism signatures of variable gut microbiomes in children with recurrent abdominal pain. 3. Perform functional gut metagenomics by evaluation of whole community gene expression profiles and discovery of disease-specific pathway signatures. Multiple strategies have been deployed to navigate and understand the nature of the intestinal microbiome in childhood. These strategies included 454 pyrosequencing-based strategies to sequence 16S rRNA genes and understand the detailed composition of microbes in healthy and disease groups. Microarray-based hybridization with the PhyloChip and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) probes were applied as complementary strategies to gain an understanding of the intestinal microbiome from various perspectives. Data collected and analyzed during the HMP UH2 Demo project, from a set of healthy and IBS children (7-12 yo) may enable the identification of core microbiomes in children, in addition to variable components that may distinguish healthy from diseased pediatric states. Twenty-two children with IBS and twenty-two healthy children were enrolled and analyzed in the UH2 phase of this study. The planned enrollment targets for the UH2/3 phases include 50 healthy children, 50 children with FAP and 50 children with IBS (minimum of 3 time points per child). We are currently analyzing the dataset for the presence of disease-specific signatures in the human microbiome, and correlating these microbial signatures with pediatric health or IBS disease status in addition to IBS subtype (e.g., diarrhea-vs constipation-predominant). In the next phase, whole genome shotgun sequencing and metatranscriptomics will be performed with a subset of children in each group. This study explores the nature of core and variable human microbiome in pre-adolescent healthy children and children with IBS. 
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An Empirical Assessment of Corporate Environmental Crime-Control Strategies

Corporate illegality is often attributed to greed by corporate managers and insufficient legal safeguards. Underlying this argument is an explicit critique of corporate crime regulatory systems. Yet there is little systematic investigation of the relative merits of different types or components of crime-control strategies; research comparing more punitive command-and-control strategies with self-regulatory approaches is particularly lacking. In this Article, we assess these crime prevention-and-control mechanisms in the context of individual and situational risk factors that may increase the likelihood of illegal behavior in the environmental arena. We use data drawn from two groups of business managers who participated in a factorial survey (using vignettes) measuring their intentions to participate in two types of environmental offenses. Generally, results show that the most effective regulatory levers are (1) credible legal sanctions and (2) the certainty and severity of informal discovery by significant others in the firm. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for regulatory policy and strategy, and for efforts to account for the role of social norms in corporate environmental compliance

Does Practice Make Perfect? A Randomized Control Trial of Behavioral Rehearsal on Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Skills

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10-24-year-olds and the target of school-based prevention efforts. Gatekeeper training, a broadly disseminated prevention strategy, has been found to enhance participant knowledge and attitudes about intervening with distressed youth. Although the goal of training is the development of gatekeeper skills to intervene with at-risk youth, the impact on skills and use of training is less known. Brief gatekeeper training programs are largely educational and do not employ active learning strategies such as behavioral rehearsal through role play practice to assist skill development. In this study, we compare gatekeeper training as usual with training plus brief behavioral rehearsal (i.e., role play practice) on a variety of learning outcomes after training and at follow-up for 91 school staff and 56 parents in a school community. We found few differences between school staff and parent participants. Both training conditions resulted in enhanced knowledge and attitudes, and almost all participants spread gatekeeper training information to others in their network. Rigorous standardized patient and observational methods showed behavioral rehearsal with role play practice resulted in higher total gatekeeper skill scores immediately after training and at follow-up. Both conditions, however, showed decrements at follow-up. Strategies to strengthen and maintain gatekeeper skills over time are discussed

HCI and Health: Learning from Interdisciplinary Interactions

HCI has multidisciplinary roots and has drawn from and contributed to different disciplines, including computer science, psychology, sociology, and medicine. There is a natural overlap between health and HCI researchers, given their joint focus on utilising technologies to better support people’s health and wellbeing. However, the best digital health interventions are not simply the result of the ‘application’ of HCI to the domain of healthcare, but emerge when researchers from both camps seek to overcome differences in disciplinary practices, traditions, and values in order to collaborate more effectively and productively. We propose a special interest group (SIG) to include interdisciplinary researchers (i.e., participants active in both communities) as well as researchers from either discipline, but with interests in the other field

The changing face of the Metis nation

vi, 103 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.This paper purposes to answer some questions pertaining to perceptions of Metis identity (individual and collective, subjective and objective) as the Canadian public's conceptualizations of the Metis have been changed during the 80s and 90s by the works of Canadians historians and by popular media. These changes have been stimulated by the politics of Metis participation in: The Constitution Act, 1982; The First Ministers' Conferences [FM'Cs], 1983-1987; The Charlottetown Accord, 1992 Questions asked are (1) who are the modern-day Metis; (2) how do the Metis define themselves, conceptually and legally; (3) how does the Canadian public, in general, define the Metis? The results of the Lethbridge Area Metis Survey (Chapter Three) are valid for the local area but it is possible that they may be generalized

Dynamics of Arctic Permafrost Coasts in the 21st Century

Climate warming is particularly pronounced in the Arctic with temperatures rising twice as much as in the rest of the world. It seems natural that this warming has profound effects on the speed of erosion of Arctic coasts, since the majority consists of permafrost, composed of unlithified material and hold together by ice. Permafrost stores approximately 1307 Gt of carbon, which is almost 60 % more than currently being contained in the atmosphere. Understanding the main drivers and dynamics of permafrost coastal erosion is of global relevance, especially since floods and erosion are both projected to intensify. However, the assessment of the impacts of climate warming on Arctic coasts is impaired by little data availability. We reviewed relevant scientific literature on changing dynamics of Arctic coast, potential drivers of these changes and the impacts on the human and natural environment. We provide a comprehensive overview over the state of the art and share our thoughts on how we envision potential pathways of future Arctic coastal research. We found that the overwhelming majority of all studied Arctic coasts is erosive and that in most cases erosion rates per year are increasing, threatening coastal settlements, infrastructure, cultural sites and archaeological remains. The impacts on the natural environment are also manifold and reach from changing sediment fluxes which limit light availability in the water column to a higher input of carbon and nutrients into the nearshore zone with the potential to influence food chains

What triggers students’ interest during higher education lectures? Personal and situational variables associated with situational interest

Lecturing is often touted as a means to inspire students’ interest, despite evidence that most lectures fail to do so. This study examines triggers of students’ situational interest during lectures. Students (N=706) in 12 different individual one hour first year lectures in a UK university were surveyed at the end of the lecture. They described the moment they were most interested; rated a series of 5 point Likert scale items on their situational and individual interest, and features of the content, presentation and teacher’s behaviour during that moment; and provided demographic characteristics. Simultaneous regression analyses showed that novelty, cognitive activation, cognitive incongruity, and utility value all positively predicted situational interest. Students’ level of individual interest and perceptions of their teacher’s enthusiasm, approachability and knowledge were the strongest predictor of situational interest. Overchallenge was negatively associated with situational interest