Measurement matters: An individual differences examination of family socioeconomic factors, latent dimensions of children\u27s experiences, and resting state functional brain connectivity in the ABCD sample

The variation in experiences between high and low-socioeconomic status contexts are posited to play a crucial role in shaping the developing brain and may explain differences in child outcomes. Yet, examinations of SES and brain development have largely been limited to distal proxies of these experiences (e.g., income comparisons). The current study sought to disentangle the effects of multiple socioeconomic indices and dimensions of more proximal experiences on resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in a sample of 7834 youth (aged 9-10 years) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. We applied moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA) to establish measurement invariance among three latent environmental dimensions of experience (material/economic deprivation, caregiver social support, and psychosocial threat). Results revealed measurement biases as a function of child age, sex, racial group, family income, and parental education, which were statistically adjusted in the final MNLFA scores. Mixed-effects models demonstrated that socioeconomic indices and psychosocial threat differentially predicted variation in frontolimbic networks, and threat statistically moderated the association between income and connectivity between the dorsal and ventral attention networks. Findings illuminate the importance of reducing measurement biases to gain a more socioculturally-valid understanding of the complex and nuanced links between socioeconomic context, children\u27s experiences, and neurodevelopment

Alterations of Blood Brain Barrier Function in Hyperammonemia: An Overview

Ammonia is a neurotoxin involved in the pathogenesis of neurological conditions associated with hyperammonemia, including hepatic encephalopathy, a condition associated with acute—(ALF) or chronic liver failure. This article reviews evidence that apart from directly affecting the metabolism and function of the central nervous system cells, ammonia influences the passage of different molecules across the blood brain barrier (BBB). A brief description is provided of the tight junctions, which couple adjacent cerebral capillary endothelial cells to each other to form the barrier. Ammonia modulates the transcellular passage of low-to medium-size molecules, by affecting their carriers located at the BBB. Ammonia induces interrelated aberrations of the transport of the large neutral amino acids and aromatic amino acids (AAA), whose influx is augmented by exchange with glutamine produced in the course of ammonia detoxification, and maybe also modulated by the extracellularly acting gamma-glutamyl moiety transferring enzyme, gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase. Impaired AAA transport affects neurotransmission by altering intracerebral synthesis of catecholamines (serotonin and dopamine), and producing “false neurotransmitters” (octopamine and phenylethylamine). Ammonia also modulates BBB transport of the cationic amino acids: the nitric oxide precursor, arginine, and ornithine, which is an ammonia trap, and affects the transport of energy metabolites glucose and creatine. Moreover, ammonia acting either directly or in synergy with liver injury-derived inflammatory cytokines also evokes subtle increases of the transcellular passage of molecules of different size (BBB “leakage”), which appears to be responsible for the vasogenic component of cerebral edema associated with ALF

Understanding Information Needs for Adapting Reef Ecosystem Management to a Changing Climate

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015-12A Reef Manager’s Guide to Coral Bleaching was created as a collaborative effort of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, the Australian Government’s, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the World Conservation Union in order to, “…assist managers in responding effectively to mass coral bleaching events… [It] is designed to provide pragmatic, science-based suggestions for adaptive management in this time of change” (Marshall and Schuttenberg 2006). This study was designed to evaluate the information needs of reef managers in addressing climate change and specifically A Reef Manager’s Guide to Coral Bleaching by examining three research questions: 1) what are the current information use practices of the reef management community, 2) what are the strengths and weaknesses of the current Guide, A Reef Manager’s Guide to Coral Bleaching, from the user’s perspective, and 3) what are the major advances in science (since the 2004 completion date of the Guide) to support management and the successor resource to the Guide. These questions were addressed through a flexible design using a triangulated approach including the collection of background information from “key players”, elite interviews with experts as defined by this study, tailored design online survey, and review of archival data