Using Digital Commons Structures Creatively

Lightning round talk and Q&A session

Using Digital Commons Structures Creatively

Lightning round talk and Q&A session

Chronic Illness in Children and Adolescents: Research on the Impact on Their Siblings

poster abstractChronic illness affects over 7 million children and adolescents (i.e., children) in the United States with significant stress to their family members. Although a great deal of research has described the impact of chronic illness on family members, these studies focused on mothers. Siblings of children with chronic illness have received less attention. Before interventions can be developed to address the stress on siblings, we must first understand their experiences and needs related to living with children with chronic illness. The purpose of this project is to evaluate current research on the impact of children’s chronic illness on their siblings. We conducted a search of the literature using: Key words, siblings and children combined with chronic illness, physical illness, developmental disorder, or mental disorder to search articles in PsychINFO, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases. We did not limit searches by date but excluded dissertations and non-English language publications. We analyzed the total number of articles, purpose, and findings regarding impact of chronic illness on siblings. Results of the search yielded 431 on chronic illness. Of these 152, 119, and 44 articles were on physical illness, developmental disorder, and mental disorder respectively. Analyses led to inclusion of 97 articles on chronic illness, 53 articles on physical illness, 15 articles on developmental disorders, and four articles on mental disorder. Impact on siblings is mostly negative and includes emotional problems such as envy, fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, loneliness, and sadness; behaviors problems such as physical aggression, poor school performance and peer relationships. These factors as well as poor communication and knowledge deficits about the illness impact the siblings’ adjustment to chronic illness in children. Further, mental disorders are underrepresented in the literature on chronic illness and the impact on siblings. Research is needed to understand how children’s mental disorders impact their siblings

A review of the roles of community members and patients beyond advising in the research process

poster abstractCommunity members (i.e., community advisory boards or CABs) give researchers priceless insight about community needs, cultural norms, and health practices. Typically, CABs inform the early stages of a research project including the explication of needs and design of the intervention. However, the role of community members and patients beyond that of advising and as full members of the research team, is still unclear. This gap needs to be addressed because funding agencies are demanding that community members and patients be involved in all aspects of the research process. Hence, before we began our community intervention we reviewed the literature to explore what has been written about CAB’s role in research. We examined the: 1) researcher’s primary purpose in collaborating with a CAB, 2) tasks completed by the CAB, 3) frequency of CAB meetings, and 4) reimbursement to CABs. We searched the PsycINFO, PUBMED, and CINAHL databases using the search terms community advisory boards, intervention development, patient advisory board, and health advisory board-including and analyzing 25 articles. Content analyses revealed the following: 1 and 2) The researcher’s primary purpose and the tasks designated to CAB members were similar. Common tasks include providing education, building relationships and trust between researchers and participants, and evaluating intervention outcomes. 3) Frequency of the CAB meetings ranged from at least monthly to yearly; most common was monthly. 4) Reimbursement varied from a stipend to training/education to hourly pay. Based on our review, there appears to very limited information or clarity on the role of community members on research teams beyond simply advising. Future research needs to clearly document roles, duration of roles, and compensation for community members as co-investigators or members of research teams. We need this information to meet the national calls for research that fully involves the community members and patients that we serve

Impact of Disruptive Behavior Disorder on Siblings Living with Affected Adolescents

poster abstractDisruptive behavior disorder (DBD) is a mental disorder that includes Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder. DBD affects 10% of adolescents in the United States with significant stress on the entire family. Research has described the impact of chronic illness on family members but have focused mostly on primary caregivers or mothers. Even fewer studies considered DBD and how it impacts siblings. Before interventions can be developed to address the impact on siblings, we must first understand the experiences they have as a result of living with an adolescent with DBD. The aim of this report was to describe the impact on siblings who live with adolescents with DBD. The report is part of a larger qualitative descriptive study about experiences and needs of family member of adolescents with DBD. The samples for this report were 16 siblings who were 9 to 23 years, 75% male, and 75% Black. We interview siblings in their homes; audio recorded and transcribed all data. Three researchers conducted content analysis of their narratives. We grouped the data into four topics: positive impact, negative impact, interventions and/or coping mechanisms used to address impact, and what the siblings need for support. Siblings said (1) stress, blanket punishment, planned or desired activity disruption, and physical attack as negative impact; avoidance, utilization of anger management techniques, and reacting with violence as coping mechanisms; (3) the adolescents need more treatment, the family members need better communication, financial assistance, and more time together. Siblings did not describe any positive impact of DBD. Our findings reinforce the negative impact on siblings of adolescents with DBD; adds to the literature by its inclusion of a large African American sample; and supports nurses’ role in assessing the impact of DBD on siblings of the affected adolescents

Top-down and bottom-up controls on sediment organic matter composition in an experimental seagrass ecosystem

We tested the singular and interactive effects of resource availability (light) and community composition (food chain length and herbivore species richness) on eelgrass (Zostera marina) ecosystem properties and functioning with an experimental mesocosm system. Food chain length was manipulated through the presence or absence of blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) predators, whereas grazer species richness varied across three levels (zero, two, or four crustacean species). We found important and interacting effects of bottom-up and top-down forcings on sediment organic matter (SOM) composition. Light increased eelgrass and algal biomass and sediment organic carbon and nitrogen content. Increasing grazer diversity generally decreased algal biomass and ecosystem production but interacted with food chain length (i.e., presence of predatory crabs) and light. Predators generally increased algal biomass and ecosystem production through a trophic cascade, which was stronger at high grazer diversity and under ambient light. SOM composition, determined with fatty acid (FA) biomarkers, was sensitive to all manipulated variables. Increasing grazer species richness often decreased the contributions of FAs derived from plant and algal sources, whereas increasing light had the opposite effect. Food chain length was generally a less important determinant of SOM composition than light, although predators did increase FAs representative of heterotrophic bacteria. Overall, resource availability and epibenthic community composition strongly influenced organic matter cycling, SOM composition, and the bacterial community in seagrass-bed sediments

Allogromiid test construction

Abstrac

How long can fisheries management delay action in response to ecosystem and climate change?

Sustainable management of fisheries is often compromised by management delaying implementation of regulations that reduce harvest, in order to maintain higher catches in the short term. Decreases or increases in fish population growth rate driven by environmental change, including ecosystem and climate change, affect the harvest that can be taken sustainably. If not acted on rapidly, environmental change could result in unsustainable fishing or missed opportunity for higher catches. Using simulation models of harvested fish populations influenced by environmental change, we explore how long fisheries managers can afford to wait before changing harvest regulations in response to changes in population growth. If environmental change causes population declines, delays greater than five years increase the probability of population collapse. Species with fast and highly variable population growth rates are more susceptible to collapse under delays and should be a priority for revised management where delays occur. Generally, the long-term cost of delay, in terms of lost fishing opportunity, exceeds the short-term benefits of overfishing. Lowering harvest limits and monitoring for environmental change can alleviate the impact of delays; however, these measures may be more costly than reducing delays. We recommend that management systems that allow rapid responses to population growth changes be enacted for fisheries management to adapt to ecosystem and climate change

Nutrient Enrichment and Food Web Composition Affect Ecosystem Metabolism in an Experimental Seagrass Habitat

Food web composition and resource levels can influence ecosystem properties such as productivity and elemental cycles. In particular, herbivores occupy a central place in food webs as the species richness and composition of this trophic level may simultaneously influence the transmission of resource and predator effects to higher and lower trophic levels, respectively. Yet, these interactions are poorly understood

Decapentaplegic is required for arrest in G1 phase during Drosophila eye development

During eye development in Drosophila, cell cycle progression is coordinated with differentiation. Prior to differentiation, cells arrest in G1 phase anterior to and within the morphogenetic furrow. We show that Decapentaplegic (Dpp), a TGF-&bgr; family member, is required to establish this G1 arrest, since Dpp-unresponsive cells located in the anterior half of the morphogenetic furrow show ectopic S phases and ectopic expression of the cell cycle regulators Cyclins A, E and B. Conversely, ubiquitous over-expression of Dpp in the eye imaginal disc transiently inhibits S phase without affecting Cyclin E or Cyclin A abundance. This Dpp-mediated inhibition of S phase occurs independently of the Cyclin A inhibitor Roughex and of the expression of Dacapo, a Cyclin E-Cdk2 inhibitor. Furthermore, Dpp-signaling genes interact genetically with a hypomorphic cyclin E allele. Taken together our results suggest that Dpp acts to induce G1 arrest in the anterior part of the morphogenetic furrow by a novel inhibitory mechanism. In addition, our results provide evidence for a Dpp-independent mechanism that acts in the posterior part of the morphogenetic furrow to maintain G1 arrest