An Evaluation of Parent Preference for Prompting Procedures

Parent participation in intervention can enhance intervention efficacy and promote generalization of skills across settings. Thus, parents should be trained to implement behavioral interventions. The purpose of the current investigation was to evaluate parent preference for and acceptability of 3 commonly used prompting procedures. We trained parents of children with disabilities to use 3 empirically validated prompting strategies (i.e., least‐to‐most, most‐to‐least, and a progressive‐prompt delay). Once the parent reached the mastery criteria with each prompting procedure, we evaluated his/her preference for each of the procedures using a concurrent‐chains arrangement. We also measured treatment acceptability of all procedures throughout the study. All participants met the mastery criteria for each of the prompting procedures and showed a preference for least‐to‐most prompting. Results suggest parents\u27 acceptability of procedures prior to training were different than posttraining/post‐child practice. In addition, acceptability rating scores obtained at the end of the investigation corresponded to preference of intervention during the concurrent‐chains arrangement. The results demonstrate the benefits of objective measures for studying preference for behavioral, skill‐acquisition procedures

In Vivo Expression of MHC Class I Genes Depends on the Presence of a Downstream Barrier Element

Regulation of MHC class I gene expression is critical to achieve proper immune surveillance. In this work, we identify elements downstream of the MHC class I promoter that are necessary for appropriate in vivo regulation: a novel barrier element that protects the MHC class I gene from silencing and elements within the first two introns that contribute to tissue specific transcription. The barrier element is located in intergenic sequences 3′ to the polyA addition site. It is necessary for stable expression in vivo, but has no effect in transient transfection assays. Accordingly, in both transgenic mice and stably transfected cell lines, truncation of the barrier resulted in transcriptional gene silencing, increased nucleosomal density and decreased histone H3K9/K14 acetylation and H3K4 di-methylation across the gene. Significantly, distinct sequences within the barrier element govern anti-silencing and chromatin modifications. Thus, this novel barrier element functions to maintain transcriptionally permissive chromatin organization and prevent transcriptional silencing of the MHC class I gene, ensuring it is poised to respond to immune signaling

Rapid niche expansion by selection on functional genomic variation after ecosystem recovery

It is well recognized that environmental degradation caused by human activities can result in dramatic losses of species and diversity. However, comparatively little is known about the ability of biodiversity to re-emerge following ecosystem recovery. Here, we show that a European whitefish subspecies, the gangfisch Coregonus lavaretus macrophthalmus, rapidly increased its ecologically functional diversity following the restoration of Lake Constance after anthropogenic eutrophication. In fewer than ten generations, gangfisch evolved a greater range of gill raker numbers (GRNs) to utilize a broader ecological niche. A sparse genetic architecture underlies this variation in GRN. Several co-expressed gene modules and genes showing signals of positive selection were associated with GRN and body shape. These were enriched for biological pathways related to trophic niche expansion in fishes. Our findings demonstrate the potential of functional diversity to expand following habitat restoration, given a fortuitous combination of genetic architecture, genetic diversity and selection

Beziehung zwischen Achtsamkeit, Stress und Leistung von Studierenden der Medizin bei pädiatrischen Notfallsimulationen

Objectives: Pediatric teams of emergency departments work under extreme stress, which affects high-level cognitive functions, specifically attention and memory. Therefore, the methods of stress management are being sought. Mindfulness as a process of intentionally paying attention to each moment with acceptance of each experience without judgment can potentially contribute to improving the performance of medical teams. Medical simulation is a technique that creates a situation to allow persons to experience a representation of a real event for the purpose of education. It has been shown that emergency medicine simulation may create a high physiological fidelity environment similarly to what is observed in a real emergency room. The aim of our study was to determine whether the technical and non-technical skills of medical students in the course of pediatric high fidelity simulations are related to their mindfulness and stress. Participants and methods: A total of 166 standardized simulations were conducted among students of medicine in three simulation centers of medical universities, assessing: stress sensation (subjectively and heart rate/blood pressure), technical (checklists) and non-technical skills (Ottawa scale) and mindfulness (five facet mindfulness questionnaire): ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03761355. Results: The perception of stress among students was lower and more motivating if they were more mindful. Mindfulness of students correlated positively with avoiding fixation error. In the consecutive simulations the leaders' non-technical skills improved, although no change was noted in their technical skills. Conclusion: The results of our research indicate that mindfulness influence the non-technical skills and the perception of stress of medical students during pediatric emergency simulations. Further research is needed to show whether mindfulness training leads to improvement in this field.Ziele: Pädiatrische Teams arbeiten in Notfallabteilungen unter extremem Stress, der hochkognitive Funktionen, insbesondere Aufmerksamkeit und Gedächtnis, beeinflusst. Daher wird nach Methoden des Stressmanagements gesucht. Achtsamkeit ist ein Prozess, bei dem jedem Moment bewusst Beachtung geschenkt wird, jede Erfahrung ohne Beurteilung angenommen wird, was potenziell zu einer Verbesserung der Leistung ärztlicher Teams beitragen kann. Medizinische Simulation ist eine Technik, in der eine Situation geschaffen wird, in der Personen die Möglichkeit gegeben wird, zu Ausbildungszwecken Erfahrungen in Form der Darstellung eines echten Ereignisses zu machen. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass in Notfallmedizinsimulationen eine sehr genaue physiologische Umgebung geschaffen werden kann, die ähnlich dem Geschehen ist, was in einer echten Notfallabteilung beobachtet wird. Das Ziel unserer Studie war es, festzustellen, ob die fachlichen bzw. nichtfachlichen Fähigkeiten von Studierenden der Medizin im Verlauf der pädiatrischen hochgenauen Simulationen eine Beziehung zu ihrer Achtsamkeit und ihrem Stress aufweisen. Teilnehmer und Methoden: Es wurden insgesamt 166 standardisierte Simulationen mit Medizinstudenten in drei Simulationszentren an medizinischen Hochschulen durchgeführt, bei denen Stressempfinden (subjektiv und Herzfrequenz/Blutdruck),fachliche (Checklisten) und nichtfachliche Fähigkeiten (Ottawa-Skala) sowie Achtsamkeit (Fünf-Facetten-Achtsamkeitsfragebogen), Clinical Trials.gov ID: NCT03761355, untersucht wurden. Ergebnisse: Die Wahrnehmung von Stress seitens der Medizinstudenten war geringer und motivierender, wenn sie achtsamer waren. Die Achtsamkeit der Studierenden korrelierte positiv mit der Vermeidung von Fixation Errors. In den fortlaufenden Simulationen verbesserten sich die nichtfachlichen Fähigkeiten der Teilnehmer, jedoch wurde keine Veränderung der fachlichen Fähigkeiten festgestellt. Schlussfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse unserer Forschung deuten darauf hin, dass Achtsamkeit nichtfachliche Fähigkeiten und die Wahrnehmung von Stress bei Medizinstudenten in pädiatrischen Notfallsimulationen beeinflusst. Weitere Forschungen sind nötig, um zu zeigen, ob Achtsamkeitstraining zu Verbesserungen in diesem Bereich führt

A new Nanoindentation Protocol for identifying the elasticity of undamaged extracellular bone tissue

\u3cp\u3eWhile the quest for understanding and even mimicking biological tissue has propelled, over the last decades, more and more experimental activities at the micro and nanoscales, the appropriate evaluation and interpretation of respective test results has remained a formidable challenge. As a contribution to tackling this challenge, we here describe a new method for identifying, from nanoindentation, the elasticity of the undamaged extracellular bone matrix. The underlying premise is that the tested bovine bone sample is either initially damaged (i.e. exhibits micro-cracks a priori) or that such micro-cracks are actually induced by the nanoindentation process itself, or both. Then, (very many) indentations may relate to either an intact material phase (which is located sufficiently far away from micro-cracks), or to differently strongly damaged material phases. Corresponding elastic phase properties are identified from the statistical evaluation of the measured indentation moduli, through representation of their histogram as a weighted sum of Gaussian distribution functions. The resulting undamaged elastic modulus of bovine femoral extracellular bone matrix amounts to 31 GPa, a value agreeing strikingly well both with direct quasi-static modulus tests performed on SEM-FIB-produced micro-pillars (Luczynski et al., 2015), and with the predictions of a widely validated micromechanics model (Morin and Hellmich, 2014). Further confidence is gained through observing typical indentation imprints under Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), which actually confirms the existence of the two types of micro-cracks as described above.\u3c/p\u3