State of the World's Volunteerism Report: Universal Values for Global Well-being

The focus of this report is on the universal values that motivate people the world over to volunteer for the common good and on the impact of volunteer action on societies and individuals. The authors advocate the power of volunteering to promote cooperation, encourage participation and contribute to the well-being of individuals and of society as a whole

The Third-party Model: Enhancing Volunteering through Governments, Corporations and Educational Institutes

Volunteering is perceived as important for creating social capital and civil society, and therefore has become a fundamental part of social policies across most Western countries. In this article, we examine the involvement of governments, corporations and educational institutes in encouraging volunteering, and pinpoint their role in developing volunteering circles. Based on essential concepts presented here (volunteerability and recruitability), we develop the third-party model, and show how third parties get involved. We identify new ways in which these parties can enhance volunteering, and discuss their impact on volunteerability and recruitability. The potential negative impacts of volunteerism and ways in which these can be ameliorated are also acknowledged. Finally, issues that arise due to such involvement are also discussed, thereby offering an important contribution to social policy research in the area of volunteerism

The Influence of Social-Cognitive Factors on Personal Hygiene Practices to Protect Against Influenzas: Using Modelling to Compare Avian A/H5N1 and 2009 Pandemic A/H1N1 Influenzas in Hong Kong

# The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Understanding population responses to influenza helps optimize public health interventions. Relevant theoretical frameworks remain nascent. Purpose To model associations between trust in information, perceived hygiene effectiveness, knowledge about the causes of influenza, perceived susceptibility and worry, and personal hygiene practices (PHPs) associated with influenza. Methods Cross-sectional household telephone surveys on avian influenza A/H5N1 (2006) and pandemic influenza A/ H1N1 (2009) gathered comparable data on trust in formal and informal sources of influenza information, influenzarelated knowledge, perceived hygiene effectiveness, worry, perceived susceptibility, and PHPs. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed domain content while confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the extracted factors. The hypothesized model, compiled from different theoretical frameworks, was optimized with structural equation modelling using the A/H5N1 data. The optimized model was then tested against the A/H1N1 dataset. Results The model was robust across datasets though corresponding path weights differed. Trust in formal information was positively associated with perceived hygien

Hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis and treatment is ineffective in macaque and hamster SARS-CoV-2 disease models

open access articleWe remain largely without effective prophylactic/therapeutic interventions for COVID-19. Although many human COVID-19 clinical trials are ongoing, there remains a deficiency of supportive preclinical drug efficacy studies to help guide decisions. Here we assessed the prophylactic/ therapeutic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), a drug of interest for COVID-19 management, in 2 animal disease models. The standard human malaria HCQ prophylaxis (6.5 mg/kg given weekly) and treatment (6.5 mg/kg given daily) did not significantly benefit clinical outcome, nor did it reduce SARS-CoV-2 replication/shedding in the upper and lower respiratory tract in the rhesus macaque disease model. Similarly, when used for prophylaxis or treatment, neither the standard human malaria dose (6.5 mg/kg) nor a high dose (50 mg/kg) of HCQ had any beneficial effect on clinical disease or SARS-CoV-2 kinetics (replication/shedding) in the Syrian hamster disease model. Results from these 2 preclinical animal models may prove helpful in guiding clinical use of HCQ for prophylaxis/treatment of COVID-19

Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Reduces Psychophysically Measured Surround Suppression in the Human Visual Cortex

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, non-invasive technique for transiently modulating the balance of excitation and inhibition within the human brain. It has been reported that anodal tDCS can reduce both GABA mediated inhibition and GABA concentration within the human motor cortex. As GABA mediated inhibition is thought to be a key modulator of plasticity within the adult brain, these findings have broad implications for the future use of tDCS. It is important, therefore, to establish whether tDCS can exert similar effects within non-motor brain areas. The aim of this study was to assess whether anodal tDCS could reduce inhibitory interactions within the human visual cortex. Psychophysical measures of surround suppression were used as an index of inhibition within V1. Overlay suppression, which is thought to originate within the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), was also measured as a control. Anodal stimulation of the occipital poles significantly reduced psychophysical surround suppression, but had no effect on overlay suppression. This effect was specific to anodal stimulation as cathodal stimulation had no effect on either measure. These psychophysical results provide the first evidence for tDCS-induced reductions of intracortical inhibition within the human visual cortex

Advancing Research on Racial–Ethnic Health Disparities: Improving Measurement Equivalence in Studies with Diverse Samples

To conduct meaningful, epidemiologic research on racial–ethnic health disparities, racial–ethnic samples must be rendered equivalent on other social status and contextual variables via statistical controls of those extraneous factors. The racial–ethnic groups must also be equally familiar with and have similar responses to the methods and measures used to collect health data, must have equal opportunity to participate in the research, and must be equally representative of their respective populations. In the absence of such measurement equivalence, studies of racial–ethnic health disparities are confounded by a plethora of unmeasured, uncontrolled correlates of race–ethnicity. Those correlates render the samples, methods, and measures incomparable across racial–ethnic groups, and diminish the ability to attribute health differences discovered to race–ethnicity vs. to its correlates. This paper reviews the non-equivalent yet normative samples, methodologies and measures used in epidemiologic studies of racial–ethnic health disparities, and provides concrete suggestions for improving sample, method, and scalar measurement equivalence

Synaptic processes and immune-related pathways implicated in Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder of complex genetic architecture involving multiple interacting genes. Here, we sought to elucidate the pathways that underlie the neurobiology of the disorder through genome-wide analysis. We analyzed genome-wide genotypic data of 3581 individuals with TS and 7682 ancestry-matched controls and investigated associations of TS with sets of genes that are expressed in particular cell types and operate in specific neuronal and glial functions. We employed a self-contained, set-based association method (SBA) as well as a competitive gene set method (MAGMA) using individual-level genotype data to perform a comprehensive investigation of the biological background of TS. Our SBA analysis identified three significant gene sets after Bonferroni correction, implicating ligand-gated ion channel signaling, lymphocytic, and cell adhesion and transsynaptic signaling processes. MAGMA analysis further supported the involvement of the cell adhesion and trans-synaptic signaling gene set. The lymphocytic gene set was driven by variants in FLT3, raising an intriguing hypothesis for the involvement of a neuroinflammatory element in TS pathogenesis. The indications of involvement of ligand-gated ion channel signaling reinforce the role of GABA in TS, while the association of cell adhesion and trans-synaptic signaling gene set provides additional support for the role of adhesion molecules in neuropsychiatric disorders. This study reinforces previous findings but also provides new insights into the neurobiology of TS

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals