Echinacea and Preterm Labor: A Natural Remedy

Causally, premature births largely result from inflammation and current treatments are either unsafe or ineffective. Here, our goal was to test whether the use of natural products [Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench, root extract] with anti-bacterial and -inflammatory activities and a long history of safe use could attenuate induction of inflammation in the cervix (birth canal). Studies using three different complementary models, specifically non-pregnant in vivo, non-pregnant ex vivo and preterm labor models, were conducted. We also sought to decipher mechanisms likely to mediate Echinacea’s anti-inflammatory activities by blocking the activity of heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Tissues were harvested and evaluated using real time-PCR, Western blot and/or histology. Here, we compare the suitability of the three models and show that Echinacea attenuates levels of the activated (phosphorylated) master inflammation transcription factor, nuclear factor kappa B (NF?B), and expression of select pro-inflammatory cytokines associated with inflammation-induced preterm labor. We also show that HO-1 may mediate Echinacea’s anti-inflammatory activities in the cervix. These findings are significant as they provide important data that could potentially lead to the development of natural strategies for modulating infection-induced preterm labor

African American End Stage Renal Disease & Medication Adherence: What Are the Effects of Everyday Racism?

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) is the ninth leading cause of death in the US. African Americans are nearly four times more likely to develop ESRD compared to Whites. ESRD requires a complex medication regimen, and poor medication adherence leads to increased hospitalizations, morbidity, and mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Studies demonstrate that African American ESRD patients have poorer rates of medication adherence when compared to Whites. However, the reasons for this racial inequity are not understood. This is the first study to explore how everyday racism within the healthcare system, contributes to this disparity. A mixed methods study was conducted to investigate the relationship between everyday racism and medication adherence within the African American ESRD community using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the theoretical foundation. Data were collected from 46 African American ESRD patients in the South. All participants completed a cross-sectional survey comprised of a medication adherence survey and an everyday racism in the healthcare setting survey. Additionally, 27 of the total sample (N=46) participated in in-depth interviews. A statistically significant negative relationship was found between medication adherence and everyday racism in the healthcare setting (r = -.477, p < .01). Interviews revealed that everyday racism perpetuated within the healthcare setting negatively affected participants’ medication adherence. Three themes were identified: 1) Concern that medical providers did not explain or properly manage medication regimen they prescribed 2) Concern that the medications are not safe 3) Information about medication and labs were withheld or not fully explained

Drift pretty

"This thesis comprises the initial chapters of a novel in progress, entitled Drift Pretty. Framed as a young-adult novel told from the point of view of Barbie, a teenager who has been uprooted from her home to live for the summer in a new city, the narrative explores the themes of alienation and aimlessness (drifting) in the lives of teenagers at the turn of the new century. Technology, suburbia, and mass culture form the environment in which these teenagers, and Barbie in particular, explore young adulthood. Drifting, a form of street racing that involves forcing cars into controlled skidding, forms the core metaphor of the novel, creating an intersection of various teenage rebellions, including sex, drugs, and the general rejection of adult authority."--Abstract from author supplied metadata

The complexity of late medication errors

The medication administration process is complex and frequently leads to errors. Medication errors have a global impact of over $42 billion annually, and in the US an impact of over$21 billion annually. Medication errors have been researched for over 20 years following the Institute of Medicine’s landmark study, To Err is Human, but they continue to increase. The purpose of this study was to evaluate contributing factors to late medication administrations (LMAs). Complexity theory guided the study design and data analysis, supporting the wide array of factors that have been shown, individually, to contribute to medication errors and the inter-reliant system structure of the medication administration process. A six-hospital system was the setting for the study. Descriptive statistics and multilevel Negative Binomial regression modeling was performed to model relationships among variables. Three levels of nested predictor variables were tested in the modeling: shift characteristics were nested within nurse characteristics, which were nested within unit characteristics. Shift characteristics were time of shift (day or night) and presence of a permanent charge nurse. Nurse characteristics were years of experience, highest degree obtained, full-time equivalent status, and specialty certification. Unit characteristics were patient population, unit size, nurse manager years of experience, and nurse manager specialty certification. Results showed that registered nurses working on units with intensive care unit (ICU) patient populations had higher average count of LMAs when compared to nurses working with patient populations on medical-surgical, stepdown or mixed units, after controlling for all other predictors in the model and nurse and unit clustering. Nurses who had earned an associate’s degree were found to have higher average count of LMAs when compared to bachelor’s prepared nurses, controlling for all other predictors in the model and nurse and unit clustering. Shifts that had a permanent charge nurse had a higher average count of LMAs when compared to shifts that were staffed with a relief charge nurse and controlling for all other predictors in the model and nurse and unit clustering. Both individual nurse and unit characteristics appear to influence the occurrence of LMAs on nursing units and the use of multilevel regression modeling mirrors the inter-reliant concept supported through complexity theory and nested structure frequently found in healthcare

Addressing School Safety through a Student Support Lens

This presentation is designed to provide an overview of the The UNCP School Safety Training Program. The UNCP School Safety Training Program, developed by UNCP Social Work and Counseling faculty and funded through the NC DPI School Safety Grant, provides a variety of trainings related to addressing school safety from a student support standpoint. Data from training participants' workshop evaluations will also be highlighted

Energy cost and return for hunting in African wild dogs and Cheetahs

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are reported to hunt with energetically costly long chase distances. We used high-resolution GPS and inertial technology to record 1,119 high-speed chases of all members of a pack of six adult African wild dogs in northern Botswana. Dogs performed multiple short, high-speed, mostly unsuccessful chases to capture prey, while cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) undertook even shorter, higher-speed hunts. We used an energy balance model to show that the energy return from group hunting and feeding substantially outweighs the cost of multiple short chases, which indicates that African wild dogs are more energetically robust than previously believed. Comparison with cheetah illustrates the trade-off between sheer athleticism and high individual kill rate characteristic of cheetahs, and the energetic robustness of frequent opportunistic group hunting and feeding by African wild dogs

Long-Term Climate Forcing in Loggerhead Sea Turtle Nesting

The long-term variability of marine turtle populations remains poorly understood, limiting science and management. Here we use basin-scale climate indices and regional surface temperatures to estimate loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Borrowing from fisheries research, our models investigate how oceanographic processes influence juvenile recruitment and regulate population dynamics. This novel approach finds local populations in the North Pacific and Northwest Atlantic are regionally synchronized and strongly correlated to ocean conditions—such that climate models alone explain up to 88% of the observed changes over the past several decades. In addition to its performance, climate-based modeling also provides mechanistic forecasts of historical and future population changes. Hindcasts in both regions indicate climatic conditions may have been a factor in recent declines, but future forecasts are mixed. Available climatic data suggests the Pacific population will be significantly reduced by 2040, but indicates the Atlantic population may increase substantially. These results do not exonerate anthropogenic impacts, but highlight the significance of bottom-up oceanographic processes to marine organisms. Future studies should consider environmental baselines in assessments of marine turtle population variability and persistence

Grounding Word Learning in Space

Humans and objects, and thus social interactions about objects, exist within space. Words direct listeners' attention to specific regions of space. Thus, a strong correspondence exists between where one looks, one's bodily orientation, and what one sees. This leads to further correspondence with what one remembers. Here, we present data suggesting that children use associations between space and objects and space and words to link words and objects—space binds labels to their referents. We tested this claim in four experiments, showing that the spatial consistency of where objects are presented affects children's word learning. Next, we demonstrate that a process model that grounds word learning in the known neural dynamics of spatial attention, spatial memory, and associative learning can capture the suite of results reported here. This model also predicts that space is special, a prediction supported in a fifth experiment that shows children do not use color as a cue to bind words and objects. In a final experiment, we ask whether spatial consistency affects word learning in naturalistic word learning contexts. Children of parents who spontaneously keep objects in a consistent spatial location during naming interactions learn words more effectively. Together, the model and data show that space is a powerful tool that can effectively ground word learning in social contexts

Cooperative and Antagonistic Contributions of Two Heterochromatin Proteins to Transcriptional Regulation of the Drosophila Sex Determination Decision

Eukaryotic nuclei contain regions of differentially staining chromatin (heterochromatin), which remain condensed throughout the cell cycle and are largely transcriptionally silent. RNAi knockdown of the highly conserved heterochromatin protein HP1 in Drosophila was previously shown to preferentially reduce male viability. Here we report a similar phenotype for the telomeric partner of HP1, HOAP, and roles for both proteins in regulating the Drosophila sex determination pathway. Specifically, these proteins regulate the critical decision in this pathway, firing of the establishment promoter of the masterswitch gene, Sex-lethal (Sxl). Female-specific activation of this promoter, SxlPe, is essential to females, as it provides SXL protein to initiate the productive female-specific splicing of later Sxl transcripts, which are transcribed from the maintenance promoter (SxlPm) in both sexes. HOAP mutants show inappropriate SxlPe firing in males and the concomitant inappropriate splicing of SxlPm-derived transcripts, while females show premature firing of SxlPe. HP1 mutants, by contrast, display SxlPm splicing defects in both sexes. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays show both proteins are associated with SxlPe sequences. In embryos from HP1 mutant mothers and Sxl mutant fathers, female viability and RNA polymerase II recruitment to SxlPe are severely compromised. Our genetic and biochemical assays indicate a repressing activity for HOAP and both activating and repressing roles for HP1 at SxlPe

Bonsai Trees in Your Head: How the Pavlovian System Sculpts Goal-Directed Choices by Pruning Decision Trees

When planning a series of actions, it is usually infeasible to consider all potential future sequences; instead, one must prune the decision tree. Provably optimal pruning is, however, still computationally ruinous and the specific approximations humans employ remain unknown. We designed a new sequential reinforcement-based task and showed that human subjects adopted a simple pruning strategy: during mental evaluation of a sequence of choices, they curtailed any further evaluation of a sequence as soon as they encountered a large loss. This pruning strategy was Pavlovian: it was reflexively evoked by large losses and persisted even when overwhelmingly counterproductive. It was also evident above and beyond loss aversion. We found that the tendency towards Pavlovian pruning was selectively predicted by the degree to which subjects exhibited sub-clinical mood disturbance, in accordance with theories that ascribe Pavlovian behavioural inhibition, via serotonin, a role in mood disorders. We conclude that Pavlovian behavioural inhibition shapes highly flexible, goal-directed choices in a manner that may be important for theories of decision-making in mood disorders