Can Multilingualism and Positive Visualizations Influence Resilience?

The ability to overcome life\u27s challenges and to thrive as a result is humanity\u27s number one desired outcome. Resilience leads to happiness, prosperity, peace and inner equilibrium. Studies about individuals demonstrating resilience are therefore of great utility. An experiment was undertaken to find out whether multilingualism and positive visualizations of having overcome stressful events could positively influence resilience, as measured by the dependent variable of heart rate increases in beats per minute. This experiment involved 120 female 18- and 19-year old undergraduate volunteers recruited from a prestigious American undergraduate university. Items from the Holmes and Rahe Stress Inventory (Christie-Seeley, 1983) were read to participants, and their heart rates were recorded prior to testing and immediately after. Results showed that the quasi-independent variable (number of languages spoken fluently) did have a relation to heart rate changes. The second independent variable (how the inventory items were read to the participants) demonstrated a causational effect. The experiment presented numerous limitations, including the inability to ascertain whether or not the sample group varied too much from the general population. Future experiments could investigate whether certain inventory items demonstrated greater disparities in heart rate increases between groups. Fluency in languages further removed from English, i.e. non-Germanic and non-Romance languages might point to increased resilience, and therefore could be an interesting and useful possible correlation to study in the future

Latinx Immigrant Families With Youth With Disabilities Participating in Civic Engagement to Promote Social Justice

Vulnerable populations are exposed to several disparities and inequalities representing an infringement of social justice and limiting their opportunities to live healthy and fulfilling lives. Latinx immigrant families with youth and young adults with disabilities represent one such vulnerable population. The purpose of this article is to describe and discuss the participation of Latinx immigrant families of youth and young adults with disabilities in two interrelated civic engagement projects aimed at promoting social justice and community participation. First, we will discuss the conceptual framework of social justice that grounded these cases of civic engagement, and then we will describe two case studies. Both cases of civic engagement emerged from Latinx immigrant families as part of meaningful conversations they had with the research team related to healthy lifestyles and community participation. The first case of civic engagement addresses walkability safety, and the second describes a community-engaged asset-mapping process. These two cases of civic engagement provided participants an opportunity to advocate for justice. Finally, we discuss the implications and challenges that vulnerable populations experience in making their voices heard by those in positions of power

Polygenic Parkinson's Disease Genetic Risk Score as Risk Modifier of Parkinsonism in Gaucher Disease

Background: Biallelic pathogenic variants in GBA1 are the cause of Gaucher disease (GD) type 1 (GD1), a lysosomal storage disorder resulting from deficient glucocerebrosidase. Heterozygous GBA1 variants are also a common genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD). GD manifests with considerable clinical heterogeneity and is also associated with an increased risk for PD. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of PD risk variants to risk for PD in patients with GD1. Methods: We studied 225 patients with GD1, including 199 without PD and 26 with PD. All cases were genotyped, and the genetic data were imputed using common pipelines. Results: On average, patients with GD1 with PD have a significantly higher PD genetic risk score than those without PD (P = 0.021). Conclusions: Our results indicate that variants included in the PD genetic risk score were more frequent in patients with GD1 who developed PD, suggesting that common risk variants may affect underlying biological pathways. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA

Speciation-controlled incipient wetness impregnation: A rational synthetic approach to prepare sub-nanosized and highly active ceria–zirconia supported gold catalysts

On the basis of calculated thermodynamic species distribution diagrams and by appropriately controlling the pH of aqueous HAuCl4 solutions, it has been possible to prepare, using a Speciation-controlled Incipient Wetness Impregnation (ScIWI) approach, Au catalysts supported on ceria–zirconia mixed oxides featuring both high gold loadings and excellent metal dispersions. This rational synthesis method is carried out at room temperature. It is both much simpler, in equipment terms, and less expensive than widely used Deposition–Precipitation (DP). Moreover, the use of ScIWI allows overcoming the severe limitations of previously assayed impregnation methods. With this procedure it is possible to prepare active catalysts in CO oxidation with high efficiency in terms of gold precursor usage, i.e. minimizing Au losses during synthesis. Therefore this, quite amenable, novel strategy for the facile preparation of highly dispersed supported gold catalysts gathers the necessary requirements for both its use at lab scale and an easy scaling-up to industrial levels

Genome sequencing analysis identifies new loci associated with Lewy body dementia and provides insights into its genetic architecture

The genetic basis of Lewy body dementia (LBD) is not well understood. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing in large cohorts of LBD cases and neurologically healthy controls to study the genetic architecture of this understudied form of dementia and to generate a resource for the scientific community. Genome-wide association analysis identified five independent risk loci, whereas genome-wide gene-aggregation tests implicated mutations in the gene GBA. Genetic risk scores demonstrate that LBD shares risk profiles and pathways with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, providing a deeper molecular understanding of the complex genetic architecture of this age-related neurodegenerative condition

Genome sequencing analysis identifies new loci associated with Lewy body dementia and provides insights into its genetic architecture

The genetic basis of Lewy body dementia (LBD) is not well understood. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing in large cohorts of LBD cases and neurologically healthy controls to study the genetic architecture of this understudied form of dementia, and to generate a resource for the scientific community. Genome-wide association analysis identified five independent risk loci, whereas genome-wide gene-aggregation tests implicated mutations in the gene GBA. Genetic risk scores demonstrate that LBD shares risk profiles and pathways with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, providing a deeper molecular understanding of the complex genetic architecture of this age-related neurodegenerative condition

Genome-wide structural variant analysis identifies risk loci for non-Alzheimer’s dementias

We characterized the role of structural variants, a largely unexplored type of genetic variation, in two non-Alzheimer’s dementias, namely Lewy body dementia (LBD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To do this, we applied an advanced structural variant calling pipeline (GATK-SV) to short-read whole-genome sequence data from 5,213 European-ancestry cases and 4,132 controls. We discovered, replicated, and validated a deletion in TPCN1 as a novel risk locus for LBD and detected the known structural variants at the C9orf72 and MAPT loci as associated with FTD/ALS. We also identified rare pathogenic structural variants in both LBD and FTD/ALS. Finally, we assembled a catalog of structural variants that can be mined for new insights into the pathogenesis of these understudied forms of dementia