Zero to Six: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers

Presents the findings of a national study of more than 1,000 parents of children ages six months through six years, conducted from April 11 to June 9, 2003. Includes the impact of TV on reading, and parent's views on the educational value of media

The Arthur Interactive Media Study: Initial Findings From a Cross-Age Peer Mentoring and Digital Media-Based Character Development Program

In the midst of increasing emphasis on the inclusion of character education in both school and out-of-school time programs, digital technologies have become ubiquitous in these settings. Based on the potential of these technologies to enhance children’s character development, the Arthur Interactive Media (AIM) study investigated if one specific unit or set of digital media-based activities engaged youth in discussions about character. First and second grade students were paired with 4th and 5th grade students, respectively, while engaging with an online interactive graphic novel (IGN) about a character-relevant story based on the Arthur cartoon series. Teachers (n = 8) completed surveys about the AIM Unit, and conversations between cross-age peer dyads (n = 27 dyads) during their engagement with the IGN were analyzed. Results indicated that teachers were very satisfied with the materials and reported that children were very engaged throughout. Analyses of children’s conversations indicated that children participated in character-relevant conversations involving humility, forgiveness, and future-mindedness while engaging with the IGN

The Arthur Interactive Media Study: Initial Findings From a Cross-Age Peer Mentoring and Digital Media-Based Character Development Program

In the midst of increasing emphasis on the inclusion of character education in both school and out-of-school time programs, digital technologies have become ubiquitous in these settings. Based on the potential of these technologies to enhance children’s character development, the Arthur Interactive Media (AIM) study investigated if one specific unit or set of digital media-based activities engaged youth in discussions about character. First and second grade students were paired with 4th and 5th grade students, respectively, while engaging with an online interactive graphic novel (IGN) about a character-relevant story based on the Arthur cartoon series. Teachers (n = 8) completed surveys about the AIM Unit, and conversations between cross-age peer dyads (n = 27 dyads) during their engagement with the IGN were analyzed. Results indicated that teachers were very satisfied with the materials and reported that children were very engaged throughout. Analyses of children’s conversations indicated that children participated in character-relevant conversations involving humility, forgiveness, and future-mindedness while engaging with the IGN

The Influence of Reproductive Experience on Milk Energy Output and Lactation Performance in the Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus)

Although evidence from domestic and laboratory species suggests that reproductive experience plays a critical role in the development of aspects of lactation performance, whether reproductive experience may have a significant influence on milk energy transfer to neonates in wild populations has not been directly investigated. We compared maternal energy expenditures and pup growth and energy deposition over the course of lactation between primiparous and fully-grown, multiparous grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) females to test whether reproductive experience has a significant influence on lactation performance. Although there was no difference between primiparous females in milk composition and, thus, milk energy content at either early or peak lactation primiparous females had a significantly lower daily milk energy output than multiparous females indicating a reduced physiological capacity for milk secretion

A View from the Past Into our Collective Future: The Oncofertility Consortium Vision Statement

Today, male and female adult and pediatric cancer patients, individuals transitioning between gender identities, and other individuals facing health extending but fertility limiting treatments can look forward to a fertile future. This is, in part, due to the work of members associated with the Oncofertility Consortium. The Oncofertility Consortium is an international, interdisciplinary initiative originally designed to explore the urgent unmet need associated with the reproductive future of cancer survivors. As the strategies for fertility management were invented, developed or applied, the individuals for who the program offered hope, similarly expanded. As a community of practice, Consortium participants share information in an open and rapid manner to addresses the complex health care and quality-of-life issues of cancer, transgender and other patients. To ensure that the organization remains contemporary to the needs of the community, the field designed a fully inclusive mechanism for strategic planning and here present the findings of this process. This interprofessional network of medical specialists, scientists, and scholars in the law, medical ethics, religious studies and other disciplines associated with human interventions, explore the relationships between health, disease, survivorship, treatment, gender and reproductive longevity. The goals are to continually integrate the best science in the service of the needs of patients and build a community of care that is ready for the challenges of the field in the future

GABAergic inhibition is weakened or converted into excitation in the oxytocin and vasopressin neurons of the lactating rat

BACKGROUND: Increased secretion of oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) from hypothalamic magnocellular neurosecretory cells (MNCs) is a key physiological response to lactation. In the current study, we sought to test the hypothesis that the GABA(A) receptor-mediated inhibition of MNCs is altered in lactating rats. RESULTS: Gramicidin-perforated recordings in the rat supraoptic nucleus (SON) slices revealed that the reversal potential of GABA(A) receptor-mediated response (E(GABA)) of MNCs was significantly depolarized in the lactating rats as compared to virgin animals. The depolarizing E(GABA) shift was much larger in rats in third, than first, lactation such that GABA exerted an excitatory, instead of inhibitory, effect in most of the MNCs of these multiparous rats. Immunohistochemical analyses confirmed that GABAergic excitation was found in both AVP and oxytocin neurons within the MNC population. Pharmacological experiments indicated that the up-regulation of the Cl(−) importer Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(−) cotransporter isotype 1 and the down-regulation of the Cl(−) extruder K(+)-Cl(−) cotransporter isotype 2 were responsible for the depolarizing shift of E(GABA) and the resultant emergence of GABAergic excitation in the MNCs of the multiparous rats. CONCLUSION: We conclude that, in primiparous rats, the GABAergic inhibition of MNCs is weakened during the period of lactation while, in multiparous females, GABA becomes excitatory in a majority of the cells. This reproductive experience-dependent alteration of GABAergic transmission may help to increase the secretion of oxytocin and AVP during the period of lactation