Potential Therapeutic Targets for PPARγ after Spinal Cord Injury

Traumatic injury to the spinal cord results in multiple anatomical, physiological, and functional deficits as a result of local neuronal and glial cell death as well as loss of descending and ascending axons traversing the injury site. The many different mechanisms thought to contribute to protracted secondary cell death and dysfunction after spinal cord injury (SCI) are potential therapeutic targets. Agents that bind and activate the transcription factor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) show great promise for minimizing or preventing these deleterious cascades in other models of CNS disorders. This review will summarize the major secondary injury cascades occurring after SCI and discuss data from experimental CNS injury and disease models showing the exciting potential for PPARγ therapies after SCI

The fate of proliferating cells in the injured adult spinal cord

Endogenous cell proliferation and gliogenesis have been extensively documented in spinal cord injury, particularly in terms of proliferating oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Despite the characterization of different proliferating cell types in the intact and injured spinal cord, the exact sources of new glial cells have remained elusive. Most studies on cell fate within the spinal cord have focused on following the progeny of one specific population of dividing cells, thus making it difficult to understand the relative contributions of each mitotic cell population to the formation of new glia after spinal cord injury. A recent study from the Frisen laboratory is the first to quantitatively and qualitatively characterize the response of ependymal cells, oligodendrocyte progenitors, and astrocytes in parallel by using transgenic reporter mice corresponding to each cell type. The investigators characterize the distribution and phenotype of progeny, along with the quantitative contributions of each progenitor type to newly formed cells. Their findings provide valuable insight into the endogenous cell replacement response to spinal cord injury, thus paving the way for advances in modulating specific populations of progenitor cells with the goal of promoting structural and functional recovery after spinal cord injury

Science-based restoration monitoring of coastal habitats, Volume Two: Tools for monitoring coastal habitats

Healthy coastal habitats are not only important ecologically; they also support healthy coastal communities and improve the quality of people’s lives. Despite their many benefits and values, coastal habitats have been systematically modified, degraded, and destroyed throughout the United States and its protectorates beginning with European colonization in the 1600’s (Dahl 1990). As a result, many coastal habitats around the United States are in desperate need of restoration. The monitoring of restoration projects, the focus of this document, is necessary to ensure that restoration efforts are successful, to further the science, and to increase the efficiency of future restoration efforts

A Content Analysis of Visuals in Elementary School Textbooks

Although visual complexity is increasing and graphics are essential to support readers’ comprehension of disciplinary texts, visual literacy receives scant attention. Research suggests that effectively instructing students to interpret discipline-specific graphics would yield better comprehension. However, before this line of inquiry can be enacted, we must determine the characteristics of graphics in contemporary content textbooks. Therefore, this content analysis evaluated graphics within third- and fifth-grade science and social studies textbooks. We coded 3,844 graphics by type and function and compared findings between disciplines using chi-square and post hoc comparison tests. Overall, graphics were coded into 9 major types (photographs being most frequent) and 54 subtypes, indicating a diversity of graphics. When comparing disciplines, science textbooks contained more diagrams and photographs, and graphics more often functioned representationally. Social studies presented both a wider variety of graphics and more interpretationally challenging graphics. Implications for disciplinary literacy and instruction are discussed

The Preservice Teacher Self-Efficacy for Writing Inventory (PTSWI): A Tool for Measuring Beliefs About Writing

Teachers are often underprepared to teach writing, which can negatively impact the performance and attitudes of their students. In teacher preparation programs, one goal should be to specifically develop future teachers of writing. Focusing on self-efficacy beliefs, increasing preservice teachers’ confidence and preparedness for teaching writing could yield positive impacts on classroom writing instructional practices. Currently, tools to quantitatively measure self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction in preservice teachers are sparse, thus limiting teacher educators’ ability to understand the efficacy of writing instruction. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to gather evidence of score validity and reliability of a newly developed, theoretically-grounded survey for measuring preservice teacher self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction. The Preservice Teacher Self-Efficacy for Writing Inventory (PTSWI) provides a pragmatic tool designed for use by teacher educators. Results indicate that the PTSWI produces valid and reliable scores that are aligned with current theories from writing research and psychology

Using a deliberative forum for engaging health system and health plan leaders to prioritize research topics.

Background: Including stakeholders in the process and outcomes of comparative effectiveness research (CER) can help ensure that research questions are relevant and findings are communicated to individuals who need them for decision-making. Yet limited strategies are available to assist researchers with stakeholder engagement. While health system leaders’ perspectives are increasingly recognized as valuable for CER planning, their inclusion in the stakeholder pool raises challenges due to differences in culture, training, incentives, priorities, and language norms. Objective: To convene and evaluate a deliberative forum for engaging health system leaders and other stakeholders in order to shape health system research priorities for the PaTH Clinical Data Research Network. Design: Break-out sessions and large-group deliberation solicited diverse perspectives and explored benefits and challenges of different research questions. Topic reframing, narrative integration and dynamic updating techniques facilitated communication across diverse backgrounds. Participants: 29 health system and health plan leaders, clinicians, clinical researchers and patients from the network’s six participating health systems. Main Measures: Audience response system (ARS) polling on general topic preferences; survey data on measures of engagement and deliberation success. Key Results: A slate of ten specific research topics was vetted; after deliberation, the group converged to favor the characterization of high-utilizers of health care. Audience response polling revealed opinion shifts. Participants reported high levels of satisfaction with the experience and rated it highly for markers of deliberative quality (e.g., opportunity for active participation and adequate discussion, respect for others’ opinions and awareness of different perspectives). Fifty four percent noted their views on the issues changed. Most participants learned from the experience (93%) and agreed that the process helped them to empathize with the challenges of others (85%). Conclusions: A deliberation forum can incorporate diverse stakeholders into CER, enabling participants to inform and learn from each other’s perspectives while shaping the research trajectory

The Development of a Patient and Caregiver Narrative Archive to Support Patient-centered Research

Background: Engaging patients and other stakeholders is a key tenet of patient-centered research, but can be challenging to implement. Objectives: To determine the feasibility of using patient narratives for informing comparative effectiveness research and engaging patients in the research process. Research Design: Cross-sectional study. Participants: The first 153 participants to share a story using the MyPaTH Story Booth protocol were, on average, aged 51 (18.8). Most were white (79%) or African American (13%) and well-educated. Measures: Participants self-categorized their narratives according to the sort of health experience(s) described (e.g., diagnosis, doctor/patient communication), the anatomic locations of health problems discussed and the type of disorder or condition addressed. They also reported on whether they were interested in engaging in clinical research as a participant or stakeholder and their satisfaction with the study processes. Results: The archived narratives addressed a wide range of health experiences of relevance to clinical researchers, most often medical treatment (82%), communication with healthcare team members (81%), diagnosis (64%), symptoms (61%), healthcare access (60%) and health decision-making (60%). Health problems related to diverse anatomic locations were addressed. Health conditions such as mental health concerns (35%), infections (23%) and cancers (20%) were often discussed. Among participants, 63% expressed interest in learning of opportunities for stakeholder engagement in research related to their stories. Ninety seven percent were very satisfied or satisfied with the MyPaTH Story Booth process. Conclusions: The narrative archive represents a unique resource for researchers interested in developing and carrying out patient-centered research projects to improve health or healthcare

Do You Get the Picture?: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Graphics on Reading Comprehension

Although convergent research demonstrates that well-designed graphics can facilitate readers’ understanding of text, there are select situations where graphics have been shown to have no effect on learners’ overall text comprehension. Therefore, the current meta-analytic study examined 39 experimental studies published between 1985 and 2018 measuring graphics’ effects on readers’ comprehension. We first quantified the overall effect on reading comprehension. Then, we considered interactions with learners’ characteristics, graphic types, and assessment formats. Our analysis revealed that the inclusion of graphics had a moderate overall positive effect (Hedges’s g = 0.39) on students’ reading comprehension, regardless of grade level. Regarding graphic type, we did not find a significant difference among pictures, pictorial diagrams, and flow diagrams. Only when compared to mixed graphics, pictures had a greater effect on comprehension. Additionally, compared with true and false assessments, graphics differentially benefited students’ comprehension on open-ended comprehension assessments and mixed format assessments. Implications for future research are presented