MySpace or YourSpace? Using MySpace.com and other web pages in forensic evaluations of adolescents and children

Within the last two years, I have discovered that the MySpace/Facebook/Twitter phenomenon is an effective way to connect with children, particularly hard-to-reach adolescents. I have also found the information on these web pages to be invaluable to forensic work with this age group

Evaluation and Impact of Trauma Informed Training on Child Professionals: UMMS Child Trauma Training Center (CTTC)

Childhood trauma is well established as a major public health issue: statistics show that each year in the United States, upwards of one million youth experience violence, trauma and maltreatment and that by age 16 more than 67.8% of children witness or are victims of some type of violence. Almost half of children with a history of trauma do not receive any services because of the wait time and lack of properly trained providers. In this brief researchers from the Child Trauma Training Center (CTTC) show how the training of professionals is a swift and efficient way to impact large numbers of children with trauma histories and ultimately to improve their lives, health, and well-being

Implementing the Massachusetts Child Trauma Project (MCTP) to Improve Services for Children with Complex Trauma in Child Welfare: Phase I Needs and Readiness Assessment

MCTP seeks to improve placement stability and outcomes for children with complex trauma in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) by creating a sustainable capacity for providing evidence-based trauma interventions within provider agencies, and trauma-informed practices within DCF

Youth Outcomes of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in the Child Trauma Training Center (CTTC)

Objectives: Exposure to trauma among youth is common and can cause behavioral, social and functioning problems. Use of evidence-based trauma treatment can reduce post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms and behavioral problems. This poster highlights the outcomes of youth who participated in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) provided by clinicians who were trained through the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) Child Trauma Training Center (CTTC). Methods: 308 youth ages 6-18 were enrolled into the CTTC evaluation with a mean age of 11.31 years (SD = 3.5); over half were female (58.1%), the majority were white (62.3%) and 37% were Hispanic. Data was collected by clinicians at three different time points: baseline, six-months and discharge through REDCap using the following measures: Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), UCLA PTSD Index and the Social Connectedness survey. Results: The results of the UCLA PTSD Index indicated that youth experienced significantly fewer Re-experiencing (baseline [M = 9.67]; discharge [M = 6.36]), Avoidance/Numbing (baseline [M = 10.55]; discharge [M = 8.63], and Arousal symptoms (baseline [M = 11.46]; discharge [M = 9.02]), as well as less severe symptoms (baseline [M = 33.43]; discharge [M = 24.71]) overall. The CBCL revealed youth experienced fewer Internalizing (baseline [M = 64.51]; discharge [M = 62.18]), Externalizing (baseline [M = 64.51]; discharge [M = 62.18]) and total problem behaviors (baseline [M = 65.48]; discharge [M = 61.82]) overall compared to baseline. Additionally, youth reported significantly better change in Social Connectedness (M = 4.32) compared to baseline (M = 4.06). Conclusion and Discussion: Results of the youth and parent/caregiver reports of PTSD symptoms, behavioral problems and social connectedness indicates that youth and parent/caregivers noticed significantly fewer and less severe PTSD symptoms, fewer behavioral problems and improvement in social connectedness compared to baseline. These results adequately show positive child outcomes as a result of TF-CBT treatment in the context of CTTC’s framework

The University of Massachusetts Medical School Child Trauma Training Center (UMMS-CTTC) [English and Spanish versions]

A Spanish translation of this publication is available to download under Additional Files below. The UMMS Child Trauma Training Center mission is to improve the identification of trauma and increase trauma-sensitive care and access to evidence-based trauma-focused treatment for at-risk and underserved populations in Central and Western Massachusetts, including court-involved youth and military families, ages 6 to 18 years

Promoting the Health of Parents & Children: Addressing Perinatal Mental Health by Building Medical Provider Capacity Through Perinatal Psychiatry Access Programs

Mental health conditions are the most common obstetric complications of the perinatal period, impacting 1 in 5 individuals during pregnancy and the year following pregnancy. Perinatal mental health (PMH) conditions have deleterious effects on the health of perinatal individuals and their children, and are a leading and preventable cause of maternal mortality. Nevertheless, PMH conditions are underrecognized, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. To address these gaps, Massachusetts created the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP) for Moms to build the capacity of frontline medical providers to address PMH conditions by providing education, consultation, and resources and referrals. MCPAP for Moms has emerged as a successful and scalable model with at least 25 states or organizations implementing or developing similar Perinatal Psychiatry Access Programs. This report summarizes the Perinatal Psychiatry Access Program model and its individual and national impact

Multivalent interactions drive nucleosome binding and efficient chromatin deacetylation by SIRT6

The protein deacetylase SIRT6 maintains cellular homeostasis through multiple pathways that include the deacetylation of histone H3 and repression of transcription. Prior work suggests that SIRT6 is associated with chromatin and can substantially reduce global levels of H3 acetylation, but how SIRT6 is able to accomplish this feat is unknown. Here, we describe an exquisitely tight interaction between SIRT6 and nucleosome core particles, in which a 2:1 enzyme:nucleosome complex assembles via asymmetric binding with distinct affinities. While both SIRT6 molecules associate with the acidic patch on the nucleosome, we find that the intrinsically disordered SIRT6 C-terminus promotes binding at the higher affinity site through recognition of nucleosomal DNA. Together, multivalent interactions couple productive binding to efficient deacetylation of histones on endogenous chromatin. Unique among histone deacetylases, SIRT6 possesses the intrinsic capacity to tightly interact with nucleosomes for efficient activity

Sociodemographic characteristics and longitudinal progression of multimorbidity:A multistate modelling analysis of a large primary care records dataset in England

BackgroundMultimorbidity, characterised by the coexistence of multiple chronic conditions in an individual, is a rising public health concern. While much of the existing research has focused on cross-sectional patterns of multimorbidity, there remains a need to better understand the longitudinal accumulation of diseases. This includes examining the associations between important sociodemographic characteristics and the rate of progression of chronic conditions.Methods and findingsWe utilised electronic primary care records from 13.48 million participants in England, drawn from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD Aurum), spanning from 2005 to 2020 with a median follow-up of 4.71 years (IQR: 1.78, 11.28). The study focused on 5 important chronic conditions: cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes (T2D), chronic kidney disease (CKD), heart failure (HF), and mental health (MH) conditions. Key sociodemographic characteristics considered include ethnicity, social and material deprivation, gender, and age. We employed a flexible spline-based parametric multistate model to investigate the associations between these sociodemographic characteristics and the rate of different disease transitions throughout multimorbidity development. Our findings reveal distinct association patterns across different disease transition types. Deprivation, gender, and age generally demonstrated stronger associations with disease diagnosis compared to ethnic group differences. Notably, the impact of these factors tended to attenuate with an increase in the number of preexisting conditions, especially for deprivation, gender, and age. For example, the hazard ratio (HR) (95% CI; p-value) for the association of deprivation with T2D diagnosis (comparing the most deprived quintile to the least deprived) is 1.76 ([1.74, 1.78]; p ConclusionsOur results indicate that early phases of multimorbidity development could warrant increased attention. The potential importance of earlier detection and intervention of chronic conditions is underscored, particularly for MH conditions and higher-risk populations. These insights may have important implications for the management of multimorbidity

Ephrin–Eph signaling as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of myocardial infarction

Although numerous strategies have been developed to reduce the initial ischemic insult and cellular injury that occurs during myocardial infarction (MI), few have progressed into the clinical arena. The epidemiologic and economic impact of MI necessitates the development of innovative therapies to rapidly and effectively reduce the initial injury and subsequent cardiac dysfunction. The Eph receptors and their cognate ligands, the ephrins, are the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases, and their signaling has been shown to play a diverse role in various cellular processes. The recent advances in the study of ephrin– Eph signaling have shown promising progress in many fields of medicine. They have been implicated in the pathophysiology of various cancers and in the regulation of inflammation and apoptosis. Recent studies have shown that manipulation of ephrin–Eph cell signaling can favorably influence cardiomyocyte viability and ultimately preserve cardiac function post-MI. In this article, we explore the hypothesis that manipulation of ephrin–Eph signaling may potentially be a novel therapeutic target in the treatment of MI through alteration of the cellular processes that govern injury and wound healing

Therapeutically expanded human regulatory T-cells are super-suppressive due to HIF1A induced expression of CD73.

The adoptive transfer of regulatory T-cells (Tregs) is a promising therapeutic approach in transplantation and autoimmunity. However, because large cell numbers are needed to achieve a therapeutic effect, in vitro expansion is required. By comparing their function, phenotype and transcriptomic profile against ex vivo Tregs, we demonstrate that expanded human Tregs switch their metabolism to aerobic glycolysis and show enhanced suppressive function through hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1A) driven acquisition of CD73 expression. In conjunction with CD39, CD73 expression enables expanded Tregs to convert ATP to immunosuppressive adenosine. We conclude that for maximum therapeutic benefit, Treg expansion protocols should be optimised for CD39/CD73 co-expression