Good places for ageing in place : development of objective built environment measures for investigating links with older people's wellbeing

Background: There is renewed interest in the role of the built environment in public health. Relatively little research to date investigates its impact on healthy ageing. Ageing in place has been adopted as a key strategy for coping with the challenges of longevity. What is needed is a better understanding of how individual characteristics of older people’s residential environments (from front door to wider neighbourhood) contribute to their wellbeing, in order to provide the basis for evidence-based housing/urban design and development of interventions. This research aimed to develop a tool to objectively measure a large range of built environment characteristics, as the basis for a preliminary study of potential relationships with a number of ‘place-related’ functional, emotional and social wellbeing constructs. Methods: Through a review of urban design literature, design documents, and existing measures, a new tool, the NeDeCC (Neighbourhood Design Characteristics Checklist) was developed. It was piloted, refined, and its reliability validated through inter-rater tests. A range of place-related wellbeing constructs were identified and measured through interviews with 200 older people living in a wide variety of rural-urban environments and different types of housing in England. The NeDeCC was used to measure the residential environment of each participant, and significant bivariate relationships with wellbeing variables were identified. Results: The NeDeCC was found to have convincing face and construct validity and good inter-rater and test/ retest reliability, though it would benefit from use of digital data sources such as Google Earth to eliminate the need for on-site survey. The significant relationships found in the study suggest that there may be characteristics of residential environments of potential relevance for older people’s lives that have been overlooked in research to date, and that it may be worthwhile to question some of the assumptions about where and how older people want to live (e.g. villages seem to be positive). They also point to the importance of considering non-linear relationships. Conclusions: The NeDeCC provides the basis for generation of evidence-based design guidance if it is used in prospective controlled studies or ‘natural experiments’ in the future. Ultimately, this will facilitate the creation of better places for ageing in place

Assessing Intercultural Competence in Experiential Learning Abroad: Lessons for Educators

The old adage that travel broadens the mind may not hold true for every student studying abroad. While pre-departure and in-country support for intercultural learning can help, some students still fail to develop their intercultural competence and some even go backwards. Using a combination of quantitative (Intercultural Development Inventory) and qualitative measures, this study examines what happens in intercultural learning when students participated in a four-week experiential field school in India, preceded by a twelve-week preparation course on the ethics of international voluntourism. Results found that, while students’ pre- and post-trip Intercultural Development Inventory results varied, qualitative data gave insights into student learning and revealed important lessons for educators

From blues to rainbows: the mental health and well-being of gender diverse and transgender young people in Australia

This study of gender diverse and transgender young people reveals high rates of depression, suicidal thoughts and anxiety. Introduction This report is the culmination of many months of engagement across Australia with young people aged between 14 and 25 who have shared their thoughts, understandings, experiences, hopes and dreams with us through an online survey and online interviews. Their narratives are insightful, touching, and hopeful. Young voices have told us how they care for themselves as well as shining a light on how health services, schools, government and policy makers can better serve their needs. This research was designed to expand on findings from previous Australian research with young people that found that gender-questioning and transgender young people not only experienced higher rates of self-harm and suicidal thoughts, but were also more likely to be involved in activism than their cisgender and same-sex attracted peers. This later finding is a potentially positive one and points to the need for research to not only explore the mental health needs of these young people but also the ways in which they advocate and care for themselves in the face of discrimination and abuse

Writing themselves in 3: the third national study on the sexual health and wellbeing of same sex attracted and gender questioning young people

Executive Summary Introduction This is the third of the Writing Themselves In national reports which have been conducted six years apart since 1998. In 2010, a total of 3134 same sex attracted and gender questioning (SSAGQ) young people participated in Writing Themselves In 3 (WTi3), almost double the number in 2004 and more than four times that of 1998. The participants, who were aged between 14 and 21 years, came from all states and territories of Australia, from remote (2%), rural (18%) and urban (67%) areas and from a range of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. There were more young women (57%) than young men (41%) and a smaller group (3%) who were gender questioning (GQ). Sexual feelings In 2010, the complex interaction of sexual attraction, identity and behaviour was even more evident than in previous studies. Most young men were exclusively same sex attracted but half of the young women were attracted to both sexes and less than one third exclusively to the same sex. More than a third of young people realized their sexual difference before puberty and there were few gender differences in age of first realization. More young people felt positive about their same sex attraction than in 2004. As in 2004, young people who felt bad about their sexuality used homophobic beliefs to describe their reasons whereas those who felt good used resistant, affirming explanations. Sexual identity Most young men identified as gay/homosexual. Young women were more likely to identify as bisexual. Young women chose a greater range of identity terms to describe their sexuality

Stressors, social support and psychological responses to sport injury in high and low-performance standard participants

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleCopyright © 2010 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise , 2010, Vol. 11, Issue 6, pp. 505 – 51 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2010.07.002Objective The purpose of the present study was to examine the main and buffering effect relationships between social support and psychological responses to sport injury with samples of high- and low-performance standard injured participants. Method High- (N = 147) and low-performance (N = 114) standard injured participants completed measures of perceived social support, injury-related stressors and psychological responses during physiotherapy clinic visits. Results Moderated hierarchical regression analyses revealed the following key findings: a) in the high-performance sample, there were significant (p < 0.05) main effects for social support in relation to psychological responses; b) in the low-performance sample, there were significant buffering effects for social support in relation to psychological responses. That is, in the low-performance sample, the detrimental relationships between stressors and psychological responses were reduced for those with high social support compared to those with low social support, but level of social support was relatively unimportant at low levels of stressors. Conclusion These results highlight that the relationships between social support, stressors, and psychological responses to sport injury may differ, depending upon the performance standard of the athlete. The impact of social support in the injury process may therefore be more complicated than first thought, and this has implications for interventions aimed at increasing social support for injured athletes

Improved mutation detection for haemophilia A in South Africa

M.Sc. (Med.), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009.Haemophilia A is a common X-linked recessive bleeding disorder, affecting about 1 in 5000 males worldwide. It is caused by a deficiency of functional coagulation Factor VIII (FVIII), resulting in prolonged or abnormal bleeding episodes. The severity of the disease is related to the level of functional FVIII in the plasma. The FVIII gene is a large gene, located at Xq28 with a complex genomic organisation. It contains 26 exons spanning 186kb of genomic DNA, and produces a 9kb transcript, resulting in a functional protein of 2332 amino acids. Over 900 mutations, which span a wide variety of categories, including rearrangements; complete or partial gene deletions; large insertions; duplications; frameshift mutations; splicing defects; nonsense and missense mutations, have been identified in the FVIII gene. Most mutations are rare or family specific, except for the intron 22 inversion mutation, which is reported to account for 45-50% of mutations in severe haemophilia A patients in most populations. A second inversion mutation, in intron 1, accounts for approximately 3.8% of haemophilia A patients in the UK. In South Africa, diagnostic mutation testing is currently only available for the intron 22 inversion mutation. Linked marker analysis is used to track high risk alleles in families where the disease-causing mutation is unknown. This study aims to evaluate an mRNA-based method to identify disease-causing mutations in South African haemophilia A patients and improve the diagnostic service. Blood samples from 120 patients were tested first for the intron 22 and then for intron 1 inversion mutations. Inversion negative patients were analysed further using mRNA. A mutation has been identified in 73.3% (88/120) of all patients. 30% (36/120) of patients had the intron 22 inversion, 2.5% (3/120) an intron 1 inversion and 40.8% (49/120) of patients had a mutation identified by mRNA analysis. A mutation was not identified in the remaining 26.7% (32/120) due to sample and technical difficulties. Of the 49 mutations identified through mRNA analysis, 28 patients (57.1%) have a point mutation (17 missense (34.7%), 9 nonsense (18.4%) and 2 splice-site mutations (4.1%)), 9 patients (18.4%) have a deletion and 7 patients (14.3%) have an insertion. Another 5 patients (10.2%) have a complex mutation (including patients where an exon deletion was detected on mRNA analysis, but no mutation was identified on DNA analysis). One mutation, c.3637insA, was found recurrently in 14% (6/43) of patients from the white population. This single base insertion results in a frameshift mutation with a premature stop codon at amino acid 1221 (only translating about half the normal FVIII protein). This common mutation, together with haplotype analysis, suggests a founder effect for this mutation. mRNA analysis of the FVIII gene is a novel technique in mutation detection for haemophilia A. It decreases the costs involved in sequencing the coding region and it offers improved mutation detection compared to DNA analysis. Diagnostic testing in South Africa should be extended from the current intron 22 inversion mutation to include DNA analysis for the intron 1 inversion and the founder mutation (c.3637insA) in white patients, followed by mRNA testing, starting with the analysis of the fragments spanning exon 14. mRNA analysis identifies an additional 55.7% of mutations compared to conventional diagnostic testing for the intron 22 inversion alone

Physical Drivers of Phytoplankton Bloom Initiation in the Southern Ocean's Scotia Sea

Abstract: The Scotia Sea is the site of one of the largest spring phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean. Past studies suggest that shelf‐iron inputs are responsible for the high productivity in this region, but the physical mechanisms that initiate and sustain the bloom are not well understood. Analysis of profiling float data from 2002 to 2017 shows that the Scotia Sea has an unusually shallow mixed‐layer depth during the transition from winter to spring, allowing the region to support a bloom earlier in the season than elsewhere in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. We compare these results to the mixed‐layer depth in the 1/6° data‐assimilating Southern Ocean State Estimate and then use the model output to assess the physical balances governing mixed‐layer variability in the region. Results indicate the importance of lateral advection of Weddell Sea surface waters in setting the stratification. A Lagrangian particle release experiment run backward in time suggests that Weddell outflow constitutes 10% of the waters in the upper 200 m of the water column in the bloom region. This dense Weddell water subducts below the surface waters in the Scotia Sea, establishing a sharp subsurface density contrast that cannot be overcome by wintertime convection. Profiling float trajectories are consistent with the formation of Taylor columns over the region's complex bathymetry, which may also contribute to the unique stratification. Furthermore, biogeochemical measurements from 2016 and 2017 bloom events suggest that vertical exchange associated with this Taylor column enhances productivity by delivering nutrients to the euphotic zone

Multi-Parameter Flow Cytometric Analysis of Ikaros Family Expression in Human T Cell Development and T-ALL

The Ikaros family transcription factors are critical regulators of T cell development and leukemogenesis. Loss of function of all five family members leads to an early block in murine lymphocyte development, whereas reduced function results in the development of T cell leukemias. Loss of a single family member has only minimal affects on T cell development, suggesting compensating functions of the family members, and emphasizing a need to study expression and function of the whole Ikaros family. We analyzed the expression of all five family members in human and murine thymocytes as they progressed from the CD4–CD8– double negative (DN) to the CD4+CD8+ double positive (DP) developmental stages, and found differences in the expression of Helios and Eos mRNA between the two species. Further, whereas Ikaros and Aiolos mRNA levels increased in both species, protein levels only increased in murine thymocytes. These data suggest that regulation of Ikaros family expression during T cell development differed between the two species. To further examine expression of Ikaros family members during human T cell development, we used multi-parameter flow cytometry to identify subpopulations of human thymocytes. We defined seven populations of CD3– CD4+CD8– immature single positive (ISP) and CD3– DP cells to identify when TCRβ is expressed. We were able to delineate the pre-β-selection ISP1 and DP1 populations and the TCRβ expressing ISP2 and DP2 populations using expression of CD1a, CD28, and CD44. The ISP2 and DP2 populations had a higher percentage of proliferating cells, consistent with these being post-β-selection stages. Protein levels of Ikaros, Helios, and Aiolos all increased with β-selection, however this increase was transient for Ikaros and Helios levels. We further identified 22 populations of thymocytes that express CD3 and showed that CD4 expression is down-regulated after positive selection to create a CD8+CD4–/lo transitional single positive (TSP) developmental stage. Commitment to the CD8 T cell lineage occurs in TSP thymocytes and is marked by expression of CD27. Among CD4+ cells, expression of CD27 can first be seen in MSP2 CD4+ thymocytes, suggesting that commitment to the CD4 lineage occurs at this stage. Ikaros levels increased during the DP9 stage, and Helios and Aiolos expression increased in TSP thymocytes. The increase in Helios was transient, and Helios levels decreased as cells developed through the MSP CD4+ and MSP CD8+ stages. Aiolos levels increased in cells proceeding from the TSP to the MSP CD8+ stage. Within MSP CD4+ thymocytes, Aiolos levels increased transiently beginning in the MSP2 CD4+ thymocytes suggesting that increases in Aiolos protein are associated with CD4/CD8 lineage commitment. Pediatric T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a heterogeneous disease that develops as a result of clonal expansion of thymocyte populations that bypass regulatory selection steps. We analyzed expression of the Ikaros family members in the leukemic cells from pediatric T-ALL patients and compared them to normal thymic populations, finding that mRNA levels of at least one Ikaros family member were elevated in the cells from every T-ALL patient analyzed. By comparing the ratio of the Ikaros family mRNA levels, we were able to classify the T-ALL patients into groups that showed diverse expression of surface markers. The lack of correlation between Ikaros and Aiolos mRNA and protein levels within the T-ALL suggest that further studies are needed to determine the significance of both mRNA ratios and protein levels in T-ALL patients. Further, studies are required to identify the roles of the Ikaros family members during the key selection steps of normal thymic development in order to understand how altered expression may contribute to leukemogenesis

Salt marsh reestablishment following dike breaching in the Salmon River estuary, Oregon

A 22 ha, 1S yeas old, diked permanent pasture in the Salmon River estuary in Lincoln County, Oregon, was chosen for a study to determine the potential for natural salt marsh restoration with dike breaching. Two undiked fragments of relatively undisturbed salt marsh, one at each end of the study site, were used as "control" marshes. A permanent plot-permanent transect system was set up for vegetation and soils sampling before and after dike breaching. Three pasture communities, the Potentilla pacifica community, the Agrostis aiba-Holcus lanatus community, and the Holcus lanatus community, were described before dike breaching. Elevational means for each community were not significantly different, and spatial distribution appeared to be most influenced by cultural practices. Vegetative cover in 49-1.0 m2 permanent plots was also reccrded for comparison with post-dike breaching data. Half the dike was leveled in September 1978 and tidal creeks reopened. Vegetation resampling in 1979 and 1980 has shown that upland pasture-type species suffered close to 100% mortality by 1979. Somewhat salt-tolerant residual species, mainly Agrostis albs and Potentilla pacifica, either expanded into areas previously occupied by upland species or died back depending on degree of flooding and/or drainage within a local area. Permanent plots were grouped into four persistence classes (P.C.) based on cover of residual species. They ranged from P.C. I with 100% cover in 1979 and 1980 to P.C. IV with 30% mean cover of residual species by 1979. P.C. I permanent plots average 10-15 cm higher than P.C. IV plots, and are furthest from tidal creeks and/or locally better drained. Intensive sampling of colonizing species was done in 1979 and 1980 on over 3000 m2 using the permanent plot system. By 1980, in areas of high residual species cover (P.C. I and II), the most successful colonizers were Atriplex patula (up to 18% cover locally), Hordeum brachyantherum (to 11%), and Carex lyngbyei (to 6%). In P.C. III and IV areas, where there was mostly bare mud, Spergularia marina (to 11%) and Salicornia virginica (to 12%) have colonized most rapidly. Because of 0.30-0.40 m subsidence of the diked site below the elevation of the "control" marshes, intertidal to low-transitional salt marsh is expected to develop. Future net primary productivity is projected to be in the 1200-1800 g/m2/yr range, compared to 800-1200 g/m2 /yr for the higher transitional marshes on undisturbed Salmon River sites. Soils changes on the study site include increase in interstitial soil water salinity from zero on the diked site to 18 to 30 ppt summer salinity (5-10 ppt higher than "control" marshes). Soil pH which was lower (4.7) on the diked site than the "control" marshes (5.5) has returned to the level of the "control" marshes. Higher concentrations of NH4 on the breached site indicate more anaerobic conditions with increased flooding and poorer drainage