Chapter 12- Weaving Purposeful Worlds of Discovery: Merging CliftonStrengths® With Habits of Mind for Low-Income, First-Generation Students

Utah State University (USU) Blanding is a non-tribal institution with close to 70% of its student population originating from the Navajo Nation, Dinétah. Located 388 miles southeast of the main campus in Logan, Utah, USU Blanding serves a population of students living in geographically remote areas, including the largest Native American–populated region in the United States. This vast territory—encompassing some 13,300 square miles, which exceeds the combined area of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island—is classified as “frontier.” With a population density of 2.0 persons per square mile and a poverty rate of 33% (as compared to the Utah average of 8.9%; Utah Department of Workforce Services, 2022), students at the elementary and secondary levels across this region face chronic food insecurity, limited access to transportation, early responsibility for sibling childcare, and limited (or no) access to Internet and running water. When basic needs cannot be met, the difficult yet rewarding work of deep learning is often put on the back burner (McGuire, 2018, p. 6). Add to this a higher-than-average teacher turnover rate, combined with regional school districts’ inclination to advance high school seniors who have for various reasons been underserved since elementary school, and you have future college students unprepared for the academic rigor of a university experience

Habits of Mind: Designing Courses for Student Success

Although content knowledge remains at the heart of college teaching and learning, forward-thinking instructors recognize that we must also provide 21st-century college students with transferable skills (sometimes called portable intellectual abilities) to prepare them for their futures (Vazquez, 2020; Ritchhart, 2015; Venezia & Jaeger, 2013; Hazard, 2012). To “grow their capacity as efficacious thinkers to navigate and thrive in the face of unprecedented change” (Costa et al., 2023), students must learn and improve important study skills and academic dispositions throughout their educational careers. If we do not focus on skills-building in college courses, students will not be prepared for the challenges that await them after they leave institutions of higher education. If students are not prepared for these postsecondary education challenges, then it is fair to say that college faculty have failed them

The Pathways to Prevention program: nutrition as prevention for improved cancer outcomes.

Adequate nutrition is central to well-being and health and can enhance recovery during illness. Although it is well known that malnutrition, both undernutrition and overnutrition, poses an added challenge for patients with cancer diagnoses, it remains unclear when and how to intervene and if such nutritional interventions improve clinical outcomes. In July 2022, the National Institutes of Health convened a workshop to examine key questions, identify related knowledge gaps, and provide recommendations to advance understanding about the effects of nutritional interventions. Evidence presented at the workshop found substantial heterogeneity among published randomized clinical trials, with a majority rated as low quality and yielding mostly inconsistent results. Other research cited trials in limited populations that showed potential for nutritional interventions to reduce the adverse effects associated with malnutrition in people with cancer. After review of the relevant literature and expert presentations, an independent expert panel recommends baseline screening for malnutrition risk using a validated instrument following cancer diagnosis and repeated screening during and after treatment to monitor nutritional well-being. Those at risk of malnutrition should be referred to registered dietitians for more in-depth nutritional assessment and intervention. The panel emphasizes the need for further rigorous, well-defined nutritional intervention studies to evaluate the effects on symptoms and cancer-specific outcomes as well as effects of intentional weight loss before or during treatment in people with overweight or obesity. Finally, although data on intervention effectiveness are needed first, robust data collection during trials is recommended to assess cost-effectiveness and inform coverage and implementation decisions

Evidence Suggesting a Role of Iron in a Mouse Model of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis is associated with gadolinium contrast exposure in patients with reduced kidney function and carries high morbidity and mortality. We have previously demonstrated that gadolinium contrast agents induce in vivo systemic iron mobilization and in vitro differentiation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells into ferroportin (iron exporter)-expressing fibrocytic cells. In the present study we examined the role of iron in a mouse model of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. Chronic kidney disease was induced in 8-week-old male Balb/C mice with a two-step 5/6 nephrectomy surgery. Five groups of mice were studied: control (n = 5), sham surgery control (n = 5), chronic kidney disease control (n = 4), chronic kidney disease injected with 0.5 mmol/kg body weight of Omniscan 3 days per week, for a total of 10 injections (n = 8), and chronic kidney disease with Omniscan plus deferiprone, 125 mg/kg, in drinking water (n = 9). Deferiprone was continued for 16 weeks until the end of the experiment. Mice with chronic kidney disease injected with Omniscan developed skin changes characteristic of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis including hair loss, reddening, ulceration, and skin tightening by 10 to 16 weeks. Histopathological sections demonstrated dermal fibrosis with increased skin thickness (0.25±0.06 mm, sham; 0.34±+0.3 mm, Omniscan-injected). Additionally, we observed an increase in tissue infiltration of ferroportin-expressing, fibrocyte-like cells accompanied by tissue iron accumulation in the skin of the Omniscan-treated mice. The deferiprone-treated group had significantly decreased skin thickness (p<0.05) and significantly decreased dermal fibrosis compared to the Omniscan-only group. In addition, iron chelation prevented tissue infiltration of ferroportin-expressing, fibrocyte-like cells. Our in vitro experiments demonstrated that exposure to Omniscan resulted in the release of catalytic iron and this was prevented by the iron chelator deferiprone. Deferiprone inhibited the differentiation of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells into ferroportin-expressing cells by immunohistochemical staining and western blot analysis. Our studies support an important role of iron in the pathophysiology of gadolinium chelate toxicity and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis

Study design and treatment schedule for Omniscan injections and deferiprone treatment.

<p>As mentioned in Materials and Methods, after one week of establishment of CKD, one group of mice was administered deferiprone in drinking water (125mg/kg) two days before starting Omniscan injections. Three injections of Omniscan (0.5 mmol/kg, tail IV, 100 μl volume) per week on alternate days were given to two groups of mice (one received deferiprone and the other received Omniscan only) excluding weekends. A total of 10 injections were given. Control mice (one group of CKD and other was sham) animals received 10 injections of an equivalent volume (100 μl) of saline. After 16 weeks at the endpoint, animals were sacrificed and blood and tissues were collected.</p

Primary antibodies used in this study.

<p>IHC—immunohistochemistry, WB—western blot.</p

Iron deposition in kidneys.

<p>Omniscan-injected mice have more iron staining in the interstitial cells of kidneys, followed by the CKD-only group. Deferiprone treatment reduced the iron staining markedly in the kidneys of Omniscan-induced CKD mice.</p

Omniscan-induced NSF in a Balb/C mouse model.

<p><b>(A)</b> Histopathological findings in the skin of mice with CKD treated with either Omniscan only or Omniscan with deferiprone. Representative images are of dorsal skin biopsies of each group at lower (100X) and higher (440X) magnification H&E stained sections show Omniscan induces dermal thickness, lipoatrophy, inflammatory cells, dermal fibrosis, and a marked increase in cell number and density of collagen bundles (signs of NSF), and deferiprone visibly prevents NSF in mice skin. For fibrocyte-like cells, an arrow represents dendritic cells and an asterisk shows inflammatory cells. (<b>B)</b> A box-whisker chart shows data of the dermal thickness for the sham, CKD, CKD with Omniscan, and CKD with Omniscan and deferiprone (n = 4 for each group). *<i>p</i><0.05, **<i>p</i><0.01, ***<i>p</i><0.001, as compared to indicated group. Box: 2–75 percentile; whiskers: 5–95 percentile; horizontal line: median, square: mean. The significance of differences among groups was evaluated using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a posthoc Tukey-Kramer test.</p

Expression of hepcidin in Omniscan-injected CKD mice.

<p>Hepcidin was slightly down-regulated after Omniscan treatment. Pretreatment with deferiprone partially increased hepcidin expression.</p

Iron deposition in liver.

<p>As shown, Omniscan-injected mice have more iron staining in liver sinusoidal Kupffer cells. Deferiprone treatment reduced the iron-positive cells markedly.</p