Retaining U.S. International Student Graduates Could Help the U.S. Win the Global Talent Race

The United States could increase its competitiveness in the global race for talent with a straightforward process for the 100,000 international students projected to graduate from U.S. colleges and universities each year who want to stay and work permanently in the country. According to FWD.us estimates, allowing such graduates to secure a green card upon graduation could add up to $233 billion in wages to the U.S. economy this decade, including$65 billion in combined federal, state, and local taxes. Such a policy could also reduce our STEM-related talent shortages by a quarter this decade

Transfers and the Private Lives of Public Servants in Japan: Teachers in Nagasaki's Outer Islands

Women's workforce participation has been rising in advanced capitalist countries over the past decades, leading to a question about whether concepts of gender and work are changing. Answering the question is important, because that rise has been associated with a drop in marriage and birth rates, worrying governments concerned about who will pay into social security, replace retirees, do military service, etc. The theory linking these trends is that "traditional" gender concepts (e.g., women as the primary homemakers) hamper women's ability to succeed at work. To address this question I researched public school teachers in Nagasaki, Japan. Men and women teachers work under equal conditions, including the obligation to accept relocations several times during their careers. Relocations challenge teachers' work and family arrangements. Studying how teachers have dealt with them should reveal changes in concepts of work and gender. Through ethnographic fieldwork (2003-2006) in Nagasaki's outer islands and archival research, I find that even though men and women teachers have long been asked to perform the same duties in terms of teaching courses, leading homerooms, serving on committees, interacting with parents, and accepting transfers and relocations, they respond to this "on-paper" gender-blind work environment in a way which reflects "traditional" gender concepts. Although both choose to relocate alone rather than disrupt a child's education or a parent's elder care, women feel their absence from the home is a burden on others, so tend to race home often, whereas men feel their presence in the home is disruptive to others, so tend to "tough it out" without returning much. And if the family is threatened by the parents' absence from home due to work, the woman is the one expected to quit. "Gender-blind" policies permit men and women to combine work and family, but men's and women's gender concepts continue to shape how they balance these sometimes competing commitments and goals. These findings show that equalizing workforce participation does not lead to changes in concepts of work and gender, nor to a diminishment of gender's significance, even when work policies are "gender-blind." Culture can persist despite social and legal changes

The Experiences of Rural School Attorneys: Implications for School Leaders

Rural school leaders encounter an array of complex issues that require legal counsel. Student discipline, contract disputes, employee conduct, special education, and a host of other topics require school boards and superintendents to utilize school attorneys. This descriptive phenomenological study explored the daily experiences of ten school attorneys representing multiple school districts in rural areas. Three salient themes emerged (a) the work of a school attorney, (b) relationships and interactions with school personnel, and (c) insights for others. Themes provide a comprehensive picture regarding school attorneys’ roles, responsibilities, and engagements with school personnel within rural schools. Implications, including the importance of building relationships between school attorneys and school leaders and of gaining experience in schools are offered. Finally, future research with more school attorneys specializing in special education and disability law, who represent diverse and rich backgrounds in rural settings would augment the findings from this study

FIGHT-PD: A feasibility study of periodized boxing training for Parkinson disease

Background: Boxing training has become a popular form of exercise for people with Parkinson disease (PD). There is a dearth of high-quality feasibility, safety, and efficacy data on boxing training for PD. Feasibility of Instituting Graduated High-intensity Training (FIGHT-PD) aimed to examine these features in a periodized boxing training program featuring high-intensity physical and cognitive demands. Objective: To conduct a feasibility study, aiming to address deficiencies in the current knowledge base and to provide data for future studies. Design: Single-arm, open-label feasibility. Setting: University department and medical research institute. Participants: Ten people with early stage PD without contraindications to intense exercise, identified from a database of participants interested in boxing training. Interventions: A 15-week exercise program with three 1-hour sessions per week, with each session including warmup and then rounds of noncontact boxing using a training device. Three distinct blocks of 5 weeks including active rest. Boxers Development: focus on training technique Boxers Cardio: increasing intensity, including high-intensity interval training Boxers Brain: focus on cognitively challenging dual task training. Main Outcome Measures: Process, resource, and management measures including recruitment and retention rates, timelines and costs, and compliance with prescribed exercise targets. Clinical outcomes were safety (adverse events), training intensity (using heart rate and perceived exertion monitoring), tolerability (pain, fatigue, and sleep scores), and pre- and postprogram Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS-III). Results: Among 10 participants from a pool of 82 (recruitment rate = 12%), there were no withdrawals; 348/360 workouts were completed (adherence = 97.7%); 4/348 (1.1%) workouts were missed due to minor injury. Nine of 10 participants showed improvement in UPDRS motor score. Conclusions: FIGHT-PD provides a depth of feasibility and safety data, methodological detail, and preliminary results that is not described elsewhere and could provide a useful basis for future studies of boxing training for PD

La inserción en el mercado laboral de los inmigrantes latinos en España y en los Estados Unidos. Diferencias por país de origen y estatus legal

This paper compares economic outcomes among Latin American migrants to Spain and the United States. We detect a selection effect whereby the majority of Latin American migrants to Spain originate in South America from middle-class backgrounds, whereas most migrants to the United States are Central Americans of lower class origins. This selection effect accounts for cross-national differences in the probability of employment, occupational attainment, and wages earned. Despite differences in the origins and characteristics of Latino immigrants to the each country, demographic and human and social capital factors appear to operate similarly in both places; and when models are estimated separately by legal status, we find that effects are more accentuated for undocumented compared with documented migrants, especially in the United States.Este artículo compara los resultados económicos entre los inmigrantes latinoamericanos en España y Estados Unidos. Detectamos un efecto de selección por el que la mayoría de los inmigrantes latinoamericanos en España proceden de Sudamérica de un entorno de clases medias, mientras la mayoría de los inmigrantes que van a los Estados Unidos son centroamericanos de clase baja. Este efecto de selección explica las diferencias transnacionales en la probabilidad de empleo, logro ocupacional y salarios obtenidos. A pesar de las diferencias en los orígenes y las características de los latinoamericanos en ambos países, los factores demográficos, humanos y de capital social parecen operar de forma similar en ambos países; y cuando los modelos se estiman separadamente por estatus legal, descubrimos que los efectos se acentúan más entre los inmigrantes irregulares cuando se los compara con los regulares, especialmente en Estados Unidos

Reduction of \u3ci\u3eStabilin-2\u3c/i\u3e Contributes to a Protection Against Atherosclerosis

We have previously identified a novel atherosclerosis quantitative trait locus (QTL), Arch atherosclerosis 5 (Aath5), on mouse chromosome 10 by three-way QTL analyses between Apoe−/− mice on a DBA/2J, 129S6 and C57BL/6J background. The DBA/2J haplotype at the Aath5 locus was associated with smaller plaque size. One of the candidate genes underlying Aath5 was Stabilin-2 (Stab2), which encodes a clearance receptor for hyaluronan (HA) predominantly expressed in liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs). However, the role of Stab2 in atherosclerosis is unknown. A congenic line of Apoe−/− mice carrying Aath5 covering the Stab2DBA allele on a background of 129S6 confirmed the small reductions of atherosclerotic plaque development. To further determine whether Stab2 is an underlying gene for Aath5, we generated Stab2−/−Apoe−/− mice on a C57BL/6J background. When fed with a Western diet for 8 weeks, Stab2−/−Apoe−/− males developed approximately 30% smaller plaques than Stab2+/+Apoe−/− mice. HA was accumulated in circulation but not in major organs in the Stab2 deficient mice. STAB2-binding molecules that are involved in atherosclerosis, including acLDL, apoptotic cells, heparin and vWF were not likely the direct cause of the protection in the Stab2−/−Apoe−/− males. These data indicate that reduction of Stab2 is protective against atherosclerotic plaque development, and that Stab2 is a contributing gene underlying Aath5, although its effect is small. To test whether non-synonymous amino acid changes unique to DBA/2J affect the function of STAB2 protein, we made HEK293 cell lines expressing STAB2129 or STAB2DBA proteins, as well as STAB2129 proteins carrying each of five DBA-unique replacements that have been predicted to be deleterious. These mutant cells were capable of internalizing 125I -HA and DiI-acLDL similarly to the control cells. These results indicate that the amino acid changes unique to DBA/2J are not affecting the function of STAB2 protein, and support our previous observation that the reduced transcription of Stab2 in the liver sinusoid as a consequence of the insertion of a viral-derived sequence, intracisternal A particle, is the primary contributor to the athero-protection conferred by the DBA/2J allele

Psilocybin prevents symptoms of hyperarousal and enhances novel object recognition in rats exposed to the single prolonged stress paradigm

Pharmacotherapy for stress-related psychological disorders remains inadequate. Patients who are treated with conventional pharmacological agents frequently report negligeable symptom reduction, and, in most cases, less than 50% experience full remission. Clearly, there is a need for additional pharmaceutical research into both established and novel approaches to alleviate these conditions. Over the past several years, there has been a renewed interest in the use of psychedelics to aid in the treatment of psychological disorders. Several studies have reported promising results in patients with major depression, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following treatment with psychedelic agents such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), ayahuasca, ketamine, and psilocybin. However, the precise behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms for these effects remain unclear. Thus, we aimed to develop an animal model of PTSD that involved prophylactic treatment with psilocybin, a 5-HT2A agonist, that could be used to further understand the mechanisms underlying the benefit of psychedelic substances in treating these disorders. Adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to the single prolonged stress (SPS) paradigm, including 2 hours of physical restraint, 15 minutes of forced swim, and ether vapor exposure until loss of consciousness. Five minutes following ether-induced loss of consciousness, the rats were intraperitoneally injected with vehicle (0.9% saline) or psilocybin (1 mg/kg). One week later, the rats underwent a battery of behavioral tests, including the elevated plus maze (EPM), startle response assessment, open field testing, and novel object recognition (NOR) testing. No effects of SPS or psilocybin were observed for EPM behavior. SPS led to enhanced startle responses in males, but not females, which was prevented by psilocybin. SPS also increased locomotor activity in the open field in males, but not females, and this effect was not prevented by psilocybin. SPS had no impact on NOR memory in males, but enhanced memory in females. Interestingly, psilocybin administration, alone or in combination with SPS, enhanced NOR memory in males only. These findings support a complex interaction between the administration of psilocybin and the prevention of stress-induced behavioral sequelae that depends on both sex and the type of behavioral task

Low-dose psilocybin enhances novel object recognition but not inhibitory avoidance in adult rats

Given the recently renewed interest in using psychedelics to aid in the treatment of psychological disorders, we aimed to examine the impact of psilocybin, a 5-HT2A agonist, on learning and memory in rodents. Previous work has demonstrated that psilocybin and other 5-HT2A agonists can enhance fear conditioning, fear extinction, and novel object recognition (NOR). Thus, we predicted that low doses of psilocybin would enhance inhibitory avoidance (IA) and NOR memory. In the first experiment, adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats underwent step-through IA training (involving 0.45, 0.65, or 1 mA scrambled footshock) and were injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with vehicle (0.9% saline) or psilocybin (1 mg/kg) immediately afterward. Rats were tested for their IA memory two days later. In the second experiment, adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were acclimated to an open field apparatus for 5 minutes on Day 1. The next day, the rats were given i.p. injections of vehicle or psilocybin (0.1 mg/kg) 10 minutes before undergoing NOR training, during which they were exposed to two replicas of an identical object for 3 minutes. On Day 3, one of the objects from NOR training was exchanged for a novel object; rats were exposed to this novel object and a new replica of the object from Day 2 (i.e., familiar object) for 5 minutes. The results showed that psilocybin had no significant impact on IA memory but enhanced novel object recognition memory in both males and females. The differential impact of psilocybin on IA memory and novel object recognition could be explained by the different doses of psilocybin or the different times of drug administration used for each task. Alternatively, they may suggest that psilocybin exerts distinct effects on different types of learning