Recent Migration Patterns in Rural and Small Town Canada

Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Perspectives and Expectations of Native Spanish-Speaking Parents about Their Children\u27s Education in An American Elementary School

This qualitative study inquired about the perceptions of Spanish-speaking immigrant parents about their children\u27s experiences in a Massachusetts elementary school, the expectations they have for their children\u27s education, and their understanding of their role with regards to their children\u27s education. The phenomenological design and analysis concentrated on parents\u27 lived experience as they and their families interacted with the school. Thirty-eight parents of English learners participated in answering a questionnaire and ten were later interviewed. Findings reveal that parents of English learners face obstacles in understanding American schooling and often rely on information from others and comparisons with their own previous school experiences. Parents understood the importance of their children acquiring English as a factor in acculturation to the United States and desired that their children be bilingual. Parents wished to acculturate into United States schools and they sought different ways to connect with the school and school personnel. Connectedness was influenced by how well they felt they and their children were treated and understood. Finally, they possessed an understanding that their status in the school community as immigrants, language learners, and newcomers signaled to others that they are different. Implications of this study include the need for educational leaders and policy makers to recognize that traditional methods of registering families, communicating with parents, and involving parents are insufficient for this population. Instead, new methods need to be considered, created, and implemented to engage with parents of English learners. Moreover, educators need to understand that it is the responsibility of the schools to encourage agency and advocacy for all parents to have a voice and to be partners if social justice is to be attained

Dual functionality of interleukin-1 family cytokines: implications for anti-interleukin-1 therapy

Dysregulated inflammation contributes to disease pathogenesis in both the periphery and the brain. Cytokines are coordinators of inflammation and were originally defined as secreted mediators, released from expressing cells to activate plasma membrane receptors on responsive cells. However, a group of cytokines is now recognized as having dual functionality. In addition to their extracellular effects, these cytokines act inside the nuclei of cytokine-expressing or cytokine-responsive cells. Interleukin-1 (IL-1) family cytokines are key pro-inflammatory mediators, and blockade of the IL-1 system in inflammatory diseases is an attractive therapeutic goal. All current therapies target IL-1 extracellular actions. Here we review evidence that suggests IL-1 family members have dual functionality. Several IL-1 family members have been detected inside the nuclei of IL-1-expressing or IL-1-responsive cells, and intranuclear IL-1 is reported to regulate gene transcription and mRNA splicing. However, further work is required to determine the impact of IL-1 intranuclear actions on disease pathogenesis. The intranuclear actions of IL-1 family members represent a new and potentially important area of IL-1 biology and may have implications for the future development of anti-IL-1 therapies

GALA: an international multicentre randomised trial comparing general anaesthesia versus local anaesthesia for carotid surgery

Background: Patients who have severe narrowing at or near the origin of the internal carotid artery as a result of atherosclerosis have a high risk of ischaemic stroke ipsilateral to the arterial lesion. Previous trials have shown that carotid endarterectomy improves long-term outcomes, particularly when performed soon after a prior transient ischaemic attack or mild ischaemic stroke. However, complications may occur during or soon after surgery, the most serious of which is stroke, which can be fatal. It has been suggested that performing the operation under local anaesthesia, rather than general anaesthesia, may be safer. Therefore, a prospective, randomised trial of local versus general anaesthesia for carotid endarterectomy was proposed to determine whether type of anaesthesia influences peri-operative morbidity and mortality, quality of life and longer term outcome in terms of stroke-free survival. Methods/design: A two-arm, parallel group, multicentre randomised controlled trial with a recruitment target of 5000 patients. For entry into the study, in the opinion of the responsible clinician, the patient requiring an endarterectomy must be suitable for either local or general anaesthesia, and have no clear indication for either type. All patients with symptomatic or asymptomatic internal carotid stenosis for whom open surgery is advised are eligible. There is no upper age limit. Exclusion criteria are: no informed consent; definite preference for local or general anaesthetic by the clinician or patient; patient unlikely to be able to co-operate with awake testing during local anaesthesia; patient requiring simultaneous bilateral carotid endarterectomy; carotid endarterectomy combined with another operation such as coronary bypass surgery; and, the patient has been randomised into the trial previously. Patients are randomised to local or general anaesthesia by the central trial office. The primary outcome is the proportion of patients alive, stroke free ( including retinal infarction) and without myocardial infarction 30 days post-surgery. Secondary outcomes include the proportion of patients alive and stroke free at one year; health related quality of life at 30 days; surgical adverse events, re-operation and re-admission rates; the relative cost of the two methods of anaesthesia; length of stay and intensive and high dependency bed occupancy

Frequency-dependent modulation of cerebellar excitability during the application of non-invasive alternating current stimulation

Background: it is well-known that the cerebellum is critical for the integrity of motor and cognitive actions. Applying non-invasive brain stimulation techniques over this region results in neurophysiological and behavioural changes, which have been associated with the modulation of cerebellar-cerebral cortex connectivity. Here, we investigated whether online application of cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) results in changes to this pathway. Methods: thirteen healthy individuals participated in two sessions of cerebellar tACS delivered at different frequencies (5Hz and 50Hz). We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to measure cerebellar-motor cortex (M1) inhibition (CBI), short-intracortical inhibition (SICI) and short-afferent inhibition (SAI) before, during and after the application of tACS. Results: we found that CBI was specifically strengthened during the application of 5Hz cerebellar tACS. No changes were detected immediately following the application of 5Hz stimulation, nor at any time point with 50Hz stimulation. We also found no changes to M1 intracortical circuits (i.e. SICI) or sensorimotor interaction (i.e. SAI), indicating that the effects of 5Hz tACS over the cerebellum are site-specific. Conclusions: cerebellar tACS can modulate cerebellar excitability in a time- and frequency-dependent manner. Additionally, cerebellar tACS does not appear to induce any long-lasting effects (i.e. plasticity), suggesting that stimulation enhances oscillations within the cerebellum only throughout the stimulation period. As such, cerebellar tACS may have significant implications for diseases manifesting with abnormal cerebellar oscillatory activity and also for future behavioural studies

Combining reward and M1 transcranial direct current stimulation enhances the retention of newly learnt sensorimotor mappings

Background: Reward-based feedback given during motor learning has been shown to improve the retention of the behaviour being acquired. Interestingly, applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during learning over the primary motor cortex (M1), an area associated with motor retention, also results in enhanced retention of the newly formed motor memories. However, it remains unknown whether combining these distinct interventions result in an additive benefit of motor retention. Methods: We investigated whether combining both interventions while participants learned to account for a visuomotor transformation results in enhanced motor retention (total n = 56; each group n = 14). To determine whether these interventions share common physiological mechanisms underpinning learning, we assessed motor cortical excitability and inhibition (i.e. SICI) on a hand muscle before and after all participants learned the visuomotor rotation using their entire arm and hand. Results: We found that both the Reward-Stim (i.e. reward + tDCS) and Reward-Sham (i.e. reward-only) groups had increased retention at the beginning of the retention phase, indicating an immediate effect of reward on behaviour. However, each intervention on their own did not enhance retention when compared to sham, but rather, only the combination of both reward and tDCS demonstrated prolonged retention. We also found that only the Reward-Stim group had a significant reduction in SICI after exposure to the perturbation. Conclusions: We show that combining both interventions are additive in providing stronger retention of motor adaptation. These results indicate that the reliability and validity of using tDCS within a clinical context may depend on the type of feedback individuals receive when learning a new motor pattern

Searching for "monogenic diabetes" in dogs using a candidate gene approach

BACKGROUND: Canine diabetes is a common endocrine disorder with an estimated breed-related prevalence ranging from 0.005% to 1.5% in pet dogs. Increased prevalence in some breeds suggests that diabetes in dogs is influenced by genetic factors and similarities between canine and human diabetes phenotypes suggest that the same genes might be associated with disease susceptibility in both species. Between 1-5% of human diabetes cases result from mutations in a single gene, including maturity onset diabetes of the adult (MODY) and neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM). It is not clear whether monogenic forms of diabetes exist within some dog breeds. Identification of forms of canine monogenic diabetes could help to resolve the heterogeneity of the condition and lead to development of breed-specific genetic tests for diabetes susceptibility. RESULTS: Seventeen dog breeds were screened for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in eighteen genes that have been associated with human MODY/NDM. Six SNP associations were found from five genes, with one gene (ZFP57) being associated in two different breeds. CONCLUSIONS: Some of the genes that have been associated with susceptibility to MODY and NDM in humans appear to also be associated with canine diabetes, although the limited number of associations identified in this study indicates canine diabetes is a heterogeneous condition and is most likely to be a polygenic trait in most dog breeds. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2052-6687-1-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Peer-review in a world with rational scientists: Toward selection of the average

One of the virtues of peer review is that it provides a self-regulating selection mechanism for scientific work, papers and projects. Peer review as a selection mechanism is hard to evaluate in terms of its efficiency. Serious efforts to understand its strengths and weaknesses have not yet lead to clear answers. In theory peer review works if the involved parties (editors and referees) conform to a set of requirements, such as love for high quality science, objectiveness, and absence of biases, nepotism, friend and clique networks, selfishness, etc. If these requirements are violated, what is the effect on the selection of high quality work? We study this question with a simple agent based model. In particular we are interested in the effects of rational referees, who might not have any incentive to see high quality work other than their own published or promoted. We find that a small fraction of incorrect (selfish or rational) referees can drastically reduce the quality of the published (accepted) scientific standard. We quantify the fraction for which peer review will no longer select better than pure chance. Decline of quality of accepted scientific work is shown as a function of the fraction of rational and unqualified referees. We show how a simple quality-increasing policy of e.g. a journal can lead to a loss in overall scientific quality, and how mutual support-networks of authors and referees deteriorate the system.Comment: 5 pages 4 figure

Enzyme Immobilization Strategies and Electropolymerization Conditions to Control Sensitivity and Selectivity Parameters of a Polymer-Enzyme Composite Glucose Biosensor

In an ongoing programme to develop characterization strategies relevant to biosensors for in-vivo monitoring, glucose biosensors were fabricated by immobilizing the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) on 125 μm diameter Pt cylinder wire electrodes (PtC), using three different methods: before, after or during the amperometric electrosynthesis of poly(ortho-phenylenediamine), PoPD, which also served as a permselective membrane. These electrodes were calibrated with H2O2 (the biosensor enzyme signal molecule), glucose, and the archetypal interference compound ascorbic acid (AA) to determine the relevant polymer permeabilities and the apparent Michaelis-Menten parameters for glucose. A number of selectivity parameters were used to identify the most successful design in terms of the balance between substrate sensitivity and interference blocking. For biosensors electrosynthesized in neutral buffer under the present conditions, entrapment of the GOx within the PoPD layer produced the design (PtC/PoPD-GOx) with the highest linear sensitivity to glucose (5.0 ± 0.4 μA cm−2 mM−1), good linear range (KM = 16 ± 2 mM) and response time (< 2 s), and the greatest AA blocking (99.8% for 1 mM AA). Further optimization showed that fabrication of PtC/PoPD-GOx in the absence of added background electrolyte (i.e., electropolymerization in unbuffered enzyme-monomer solution) enhanced glucose selectivity 3-fold for this one-pot fabrication protocol which provided AA-rejection levels at least equal to recent multi-step polymer bilayer biosensor designs. Interestingly, the presence of enzyme protein in the polymer layer had opposite effects on permselectivity for low and high concentrations of AA, emphasizing the value of studying the concentration dependence of interference effects which is rarely reported in the literature