Apps4Counseling: What’s in your Digital Toolbox?

From the article: “The goal of our current multiyear mobile device and app curation project is to explore ways in which iOS and Android mobile devices and related apps can be used to enhance counseling and therapy, counselor education, training and wellness promotion. Initial emphasis was on the iPad. The hope is that the results of the project will significantly streamline the app search process for counselors, human service and other allied health providers, counselor educators, trainers and counselor education students, and increase the ways and frequency in which mobile devices are purposively integrated into our work. We also hope project results might be useful to and accessed by laypeople to increase their overall well-being.

Age, but Not Experience, Affects Courtship Gene Expression in Male Drosophila melanogaster

Mutation screens in model organisms have helped identify the foundation of many fundamental organismal phenotypes. An emerging question in evolutionary and behavioral biology is the extent to which these “developmental” genes contribute to the subtle individual variation that characterizes natural populations. A related question is whether individual differences arise from static differences in gene expression that arose during previous life stages, or whether they are due to dynamic regulation of expression during the life stage under investigation. Here, we address these questions using genes that have been discovered to control the development of normal courtship behavior in male Drosophila melanogaster. We examined whether these genes have static or dynamic expression in the heads of adult male flies of different ages and with different levels of social experience. We found that 16 genes of the 25 genes examined were statically expressed, and 9 genes were dynamically expressed with changes related to adult age. No genes exhibited rapid dynamic expression changes due to social experience or age*experience interaction. We therefore conclude that a majority of fly “courtship” genes are statically expressed, while a minority are regulated in adults with respect to age, but not with respect to relevant social experience. These results are consistent with those from a recent microarray analysis that found none of the canonical courtship genes changed expression in male flies after brief exposure to females

It Takes a Library to Support Distance Learners

Wallace Library\u27s philosophy is to create and provide resources and services that will support all users. Consequently, distance learners and distance faculty have a plethora of online resources available to them, some of which is pushed out, saving time and effort for the library user. The evolvement of Wallace\u27s online resources is continuous, focused on the student or professor\u27s research need from a geographic distance

Efficacy and Safety of Atorvastatin in South Asian Patients with Dyslipidemia: An Open Label Noncomparative Pilot Study

Jeetesh V Patel1, Sandeep Gupta2, Frank Lie3, Elizabeth A Hughes11Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, West Bromwich, UK; 2Whipps Cross and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals; and 3Whipps Cross University Hospital, London, UKBackground: Rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality are 40% higher amongst South Asian men and women living in the UK compared with the general UK population. Despite an established excess CHD risk, little is known of the efficacy and safety of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) amongst South Asian migrants.Methods and results: Hyperlipidemic South Asian patients (raised or uncontrolled lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C]) were recruited from two UK centers (n = 33). After a five-week period, which included dietary advice, patients received atorvastatin 10 mg/d for five weeks to achieve a target LDL-C goal of < 3.0 mmol/L, titrated to 20 mg, 40 mg, or 80 mg for a further 12 weeks as required. Significant reductions in LDL-C levels from baseline were observed after 4 weeks’ and 17 weeks’ treatment with atorvastatin (≥ 33.6%; 26.0, 41.2). Overall, 81% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 62.5, 92.6%) achieved the target LDL-C after 4 weeks’ treatment with 10 mg atorvastatin. Titration to a dose of more than 20 mg was required in only one patient (40 mg) at any point during the study. Nineteen patients reported at least one adverse event during the study; the majority were mild in severity and considered unrelated to atorvastatin.Conclusions: Atorvastatin was effective in achieving target lipid levels and was well tolerated. Statin therapy for high-risk South Asian individuals is likely to benefit CHD outcomes, although further and larger prospective trials are required.Keywords: hyperlipidemia, lipids, cholesterol, dyslipidemia, statins, coronary heart disease, South Asian

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids: a necessity for a comprehensive secondary prevention strategy

Long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation has been used for the secondary prevention of fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI). However, the benefit of this therapy is frequently confused with other established treatments in the therapeutic strategy among such patients. We review the data on omega-3 PUFA use in secondary care and consider indications for its use which include post-MI and raised triglycerides. We suggest that the available evidence supports the use of omega-3 supplementation as part of the comprehensive secondary care package for post-MI patients

“Do you have a brother? I have two!”: The Nature of Questions Asked and Answered in Text-Focused Pen Pal Exchanges

Authentic learning experiences are those in which students engage with texts as well as the behaviors of reading and writing within contexts of real-world use beyond traditional academic use. This study provides quantitative analysis of how students (n=200) engaged with an adult pen pal in a shared literacy experience. Findings indicate that students actively participated with their adult pen pals asking and answering more personal questions than literature-based questions. Data were disaggregated for reading ability and gender. Students who were considered above-grade level readers asked and answered significantly more questions than students considered below grade level in reading. Girls asked significantly more questions, both personal and literature-based, than boys, however there were no significant differences in the number of questions answered. Implications and need for future research are discussed

Age-Associated Disruption of Molecular Clock Expression in Skeletal Muscle of the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat

It is well known that spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) develop muscle pathologies with hypertension and heart failure, though the mechanism remains poorly understood. Woon et al. (2007) linked the circadian clock gene Bmal1 to hypertension and metabolic dysfunction in the SHR. Building on these findings, we compared the expression pattern of several core-clock genes in the gastrocnemius muscle of aged SHR (80 weeks; overt heart failure) compared to aged-matched control WKY strain. Heart failure was associated with marked effects on the expression of Bmal1, Clock and Rora in addition to several non-circadian genes important in regulating skeletal muscle phenotype including Mck, Ttn and Mef2c. We next performed circadian time-course collections at a young age (8 weeks; pre-hypertensive) and adult age (22 weeks; hypertensive) to determine if clock gene expression was disrupted in gastrocnemius, heart and liver tissues prior to or after the rats became hypertensive. We found that hypertensive/hypertrophic SHR showed a dampening of peak Bmal1 and Rev-erb expression in the liver, and the clock-controlled gene Pgc1α in the gastrocnemius. In addition, the core-clock gene Clock and the muscle-specific, clock-controlled gene Myod1, no longer maintained a circadian pattern of expression in gastrocnemius from the hypertensive SHR. These findings provide a framework to suggest a mechanism whereby chronic heart failure leads to skeletal muscle pathologies; prolonged dysregulation of the molecular clock in skeletal muscle results in altered Clock, Pgc1α and Myod1 expression which in turn leads to the mis-regulation of target genes important for mechanical and metabolic function of skeletal muscle

High frequency detection of Toxoplasma gondii DNA in human neonatal tissue from Libya

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that causes significant disease in humans. Toxoplasmosis is normally asymptomatic, unless associated with congenital transmission, or in immunocompromised people. Congenital transmission generally occurs at low frequencies. In this study, we use PCR to investigate possible congenital transmission of T. gondii during pregnancy in a cohort of mothers from Libya. Methods: Two hundred and seventy two pregnant women (producing 276 neonates) were recruited to obtain umbilical cord tissue from their neonates at birth. DNA was extracted from umbilical cord tissue and tested for T. gondii DNA using two specific PCR protocols based on the sag 1 and sag 3 genes. Results: Toxoplasma gondii DNA was detected in the umbilical cord DNA from 27 of the 276 neonates giving a prevalence of 9.9% (95% CI: 6.8-13.9%). Compared with more commonly reported rates of congenital transmission of 0.1% of live births, this is high. There was no association of infection with unsuccessful pregnancy. Conclusions: This study shows a high frequency presence of T. gondii DNA associated with neonatal tissue at birth in this cohort of 276 neonates from Libya. Although PCR cannot detect living parasites, there is the possibility that this indicates a higher than usual frequency of congenital transmission

Experimental triplet and quadruplet fluctuation densities and spatial distribution function integrals for pure liquids

Citation: Ploetz, E. A., Karunaweera, S., & Smith, P. E. (2015). Experimental triplet and quadruplet fluctuation densities and spatial distribution function integrals for pure liquids. Journal of Chemical Physics, 142(4), 14. doi:10.1063/1.4905562Fluctuation solution theory has provided an alternative view of many liquid mixture properties in terms of particle number fluctuations. The particle number fluctuations can also be related to integrals of the corresponding two body distribution functions between molecular pairs in order to provide a more physical picture of solution behavior and molecule affinities. Here, we extend this type of approach to provide expressions for higher order triplet and quadruplet fluctuations, and thereby integrals over the corresponding distribution functions, all of which can be obtained from available experimental thermodynamic data. The fluctuations and integrals are then determined using the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam Formulation 1995 (IAPWS-95) equation of state for the liquid phase of pure water. The results indicate small, but significant, deviations from a Gaussian distribution for the molecules in this system. The pressure and temperature dependence of the fluctuations and integrals, as well as the limiting behavior as one approaches both the triple point and the critical point, are also examined. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC