High fat diet causes depletion of intestinal eosinophils associated with intestinal permeability.

The development of intestinal permeability and the penetration of microbial products are key factors associated with the onset of metabolic disease. However, the mechanisms underlying this remain unclear. Here we show that, unlike liver or adipose tissue, high fat diet (HFD)/obesity in mice does not cause monocyte/macrophage infiltration into the intestine or pro-inflammatory changes in gene expression. Rather HFD causes depletion of intestinal eosinophils associated with the onset of intestinal permeability. Intestinal eosinophil numbers were restored by returning HFD fed mice to normal chow and were unchanged in leptin-deficient (Ob/Ob) mice, indicating that eosinophil depletion is caused specifically by a high fat diet and not obesity per se. Analysis of different aspects of intestinal permeability in HFD fed and Ob/Ob mice shows an association between eosinophil depletion and ileal paracelullar permeability, as well as leakage of albumin into the feces, but not overall permeability to FITC dextran. These findings provide the first evidence that a high fat diet causes intestinal eosinophil depletion, rather than inflammation, which may contribute to defective barrier integrity and the onset of metabolic disease

Cancer patients’ experiences of living with venous thromboembolism: A systematic review and qualitative thematic synthesis

Background: Cancer-Associated thrombosis is common. Recommended treatment is daily injected low-molecular-weight heparin for 6months. Most studies focus on prophylaxis and treatment; few have explored patients’ experience. Aims To identify and synthesise the available literature concerning patients’ experience of cancer associated thrombosis. Design Systematic literature review and qualitative thematic synthesis. MethodsMEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsychINFO (until 10/2016; limited to English) were searched. Eligible papers were qualitative studies of adult patients’ experience of cancer-associated thrombosis. Two researchers screened titles/abstracts/papers against inclusion criteria with recourse to a third for disagreements. Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist tool was used for quality appraisal. Results1397 articles were identified. Five qualitative studies (total n=92; age range 32 to 84 years) met the inclusion criteria. Participants had various cancer types. Most had advanced disease and were receiving palliative care. Four major themes emerged from the data: knowledge deficit (patients and clinicians); effects of cancer associated thrombosis (physical and psychological); effects of anticoagulation; coping strategies. ConclusionThe cancer journey is difficult in itself, but thrombosis was an additional, frightening and unexpected burden. Although the association between cancer and thromboembolism is well known, cancer patients are not educated routinely about the risk or warning symptoms/signs of thromboembolism which may otherwise be misattributed to the cancer by patient and clinician alike. This systematic review highlights the impact of cancer-associated thrombosis on the lives of cancer patients, and calls for education for patients and clinicians to be part of routine care, and further work to address this patient priority

The common greenway and the establishment of park character

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1988.Includes bibliographical references.by Julie M. Johnson.M.C.P

University Students’ Coping Behaviours and Perceived Parental Depression: The Role of Hope and Implications for Counsellors

Research has shown links between perceived parental depressive symptomology and young adults’ depressive symptoms (Rounding & Jacobson, 2013). Hope has been linked to fewer depressive symptoms and to greater adaptive coping behaviours (Chang & DeSimone, 2001). The relation between perceived parental depression, hope, and undergraduate university students’ coping behaviours was examined. Participants were 223 undergraduates (51 males, 172 females) aged 17 to 24. Beyond perceived parental depression, hope predicted higher levels of religion/spirituality, active coping, and planning, and predicted lower levels of humour and behavioural disengagement. Implications for counselling clients at risk for intergenerational depression are discussed. La recherche a démontré qu’il existe des liens entre la symptomatologie de la dépression parentale perçue et les symptômes dépressifs chez les jeunes adultes (Rounding & Jacobson, 2013). On a établi un lien entre l’espoir et une diminution des symptômes de dépression et une amélioration des comportements adaptatifs (Chang & DeSimone, 2001). On a examiné la relation entre la dépression parentale perçue, l’espoir, et les comportements d’adaptation chez les étudiants universitaires de premier cycle. Les participants comptent 223 universitaires de premier cycle (51 hommes, 172 femmes) de 17 à 24 ans. Au-delà de la dépression parentale perçue, le facteur espoir a permis de prédire des niveaux plus élevés de religion/spiritualité, d’adaptation active, et de planification, tout en permettant de prédire des niveaux plus faibles sur le plan de l’humeur et du désengagement comportemental. On y discute des implications pour les clients en counseling à risque de la dépression intergénérationnelle

Global shifts in mammalian population trends reveal key predictors of virus spillover risk.

Emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health. To investigate drivers of virus spillover, we evaluated the number of viruses mammalian species have shared with humans. We discovered that the number of zoonotic viruses detected in mammalian species scales positively with global species abundance, suggesting that virus transmission risk has been highest from animal species that have increased in abundance and even expanded their range by adapting to human-dominated landscapes. Domesticated species, primates and bats were identified as having more zoonotic viruses than other species. Among threatened wildlife species, those with population reductions owing to exploitation and loss of habitat shared more viruses with humans. Exploitation of wildlife through hunting and trade facilitates close contact between wildlife and humans, and our findings provide further evidence that exploitation, as well as anthropogenic activities that have caused losses in wildlife habitat quality, have increased opportunities for animal-human interactions and facilitated zoonotic disease transmission. Our study provides new evidence for assessing spillover risk from mammalian species and highlights convergent processes whereby the causes of wildlife population declines have facilitated the transmission of animal viruses to humans

A Vision Among Challenges: Lessons About Online Teaching From The First Online Master’s Degree in Digital Sociology

According to data from an American Sociological Association survey, just half of all degree-granting sociology departments in the academic year 2012-2013 offered at least one “distance learning course in sociology” (Spalter-Roth, Van Vooren & Kisielewski, 2013). Two years after this report was released, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Sociology (VCU SOCY) launched the first online master’s of science degree in digital sociology in a climate where distance learning could not yet be considered hegemonic in U.S. sociology programs. In launching the program, VCU SOCY attended to several documented trends in online learning at sociology departments. First, the degree program exists in the same “market model” (Brint, Proctor, Murphy, Hanneman, 2012) mentioned in the ASA report. This a macro context that is shaping all manner of educational expansion and stratification. This market model attaches various forms of status (Tuchman, 2009) and economic resources to creating revenue-generating degree programs. Second, the degree program is part of a trend in model diversification that aims to serve the new “traditional” college student, i.e. not a straight-from-high-school undergraduate student. By 2014, the majority of all college students were what we would have once called “non-traditional”, making schedule flexibility the new norm for colleges that want to grow enrollment, prestige or market share. Third, this new master’s of science program was responding to growing disciplinary interest in digitally-mediated societies and social processes. In this paper we explore how these three trends impacted the design and implementation of online teaching in an online graduate sociology program. We find that market models incentivize departments and faculty to develop online courses but resource uptake is uneven. We also find uneven success with online educational materials and tools when the focus is on graduate students as opposed to undergraduate students. And, we find that new online teaching models might be best suited for bleeding edge disciplinary innovations because the union of new models of teaching and new models of thinking have natural synergies

Matriptase regulates c-Met mediated proliferation and invasion in inflammatory breast cancer.

The poor prognosis for patients with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) compared to patients with other types of breast cancers emphasizes the need to better understand the molecular underpinnings of this disease with the goal of developing effective targeted therapeutics. Dysregulation of matriptase expression, an epithelial-specific member of the type II transmembrane serine protease family, has been demonstrated in many different cancer types. To date, no studies have assessed the expression and potential pro-oncogenic role of matriptase in IBC. We examined the functional relationship between matriptase and the HGF/c-MET signaling pathway in the IBC cell lines SUM149 and SUM190, and in IBC patient samples. Matriptase and c-Met proteins are localized on the surface membrane of IBC cells and their expression is strongly correlated in infiltrating cancer cells and in the cancer cells of lymphatic emboli in patient samples. Abrogation of matriptase expression by silencing with RNAi or inhibition of matriptase proteolytic activity with a synthetic inhibitor impairs the conversion of inactive pro-HGF to active HGF and subsequent c-Met-mediated signaling, leading to efficient impairment of proliferation and invasion of IBC cells. These data show the potential of matriptase inhibitors as a novel targeted therapy for IBC, and lay the groundwork for the development and testing of such drugs

Palliative care and Parkinson's disease : meeting summary and recommendations for clinical research

Introduction: Palliative care is an approach to caring for patients and families affected by serious illnesses that focuses on the relief of suffering through the management of medical symptoms, psychosocial issues, advance care planning and spiritual wellbeing. Over the past decade there has been an emerging clinical and research interest in the application of palliative care approaches to Parkinson’s disease (PD) and outpatient palliative care services are now offered by several movement disorders centers. Methods: An International Working Group Meeting on PD and Palliative Care supported by the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation was held in October 2015 to review the current state of the evidence and to make recommendations for clinical research and practice. Results: Topics included: 1) Defining palliative care for PD; 2) Lessons from palliative care for heart failure and other chronic illnesses; 3) Patient and caregiver Needs; 4) Needs assessment tools; 5) Intervention strategies; 6) Predicting prognosis and hospice referrals; 7) Choice of appropriate outcome measures; 8) Implementation, dissemination and education research; and 9) Need for research collaborations. We provide an overview of these discussions, summarize current evidence and practices, highlight gaps in our knowledge and make recommendations for future research. Conclusions: Palliative Care for PD is a rapidly growing area which holds great promise for improving outcomes for PD patients and their caregivers. While clinical research in this area can build from lessons learned in other diseases, there is a need for observational, methodological and interventional research to address the unique needs of PD patients and caregivers

Help Seeking Behaviours and Depressive Symptoms in Arab Canadian and European Canadian Adolescents

Objectives. The aim of the present study was to examine the relations between help-seeking behaviours and mood problems among Arab Canadian and European Canadian adolescents. Method. Participants were 12 Arab Canadian adolescents (six males and six females; M = 15.75, SD = 1.42) and 12 European Canadian adolescents, matched for age and gender (six males and six females; M = 15.75, SD = 1.42) from three demographically diverse high schools in a midsized city in Ontario, Canada. Participants completed questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, stressful life problems, sources of help, and barriers to seeking help for a stressful problem. Results. Youth reported a number of family (8% European Canadian; 25% Arab Canadian), school (42% European Canadian; 17% Arab Canadian), romantic relationships (17% European Canadian; 0% Arab Canadian), and other problems (25% European Canadian; 33% Arab Canadian), such as work and social issues, as their most stressful problem in the past six months. There were no significant differences in perceived severity or stressfulness of problems between the two ethnic groups. Of those adolescents who reported having a stressful problem, 64% of European Canadian and 44% of Arab Canadian youth sought help for their problem. In seeking help for their problem, Arab Canadian youth sought help from significantly fewer people than did European Canadian youth (t (8) = 2.802, p = .023). Arab Canadian youth reported seeking help from only family members, whereas European Canadian youth reported seeking help from family, friends, and other sources (e.g., teachers). There were no significant differences between the two ethnic groups on the types of barriers to seeking help for their problem. Results revealed that Arab Canadian youth (M = 16.18, SD = 12.87) endorsed more depressive symptoms compared to European Canadian youth (M = 7.58, SD = 5.47; t(21) = -2.119, p = .046). In Arab Canadian youth, depression was significantly positively correlated with the following barriers to help seeking: The problem being too personal, perception of family being sufficient for help, having an external locus of control, concerns of confidentiality, and affordability of professional services. Discussion. Findings have implications for understanding how Arab Canadian youth perceive the process of help-seeking and how mental health services can be better targeted to this population