The Age-Friendly Cities Project in Bowling Green: A Narrative History

An age-friendly city is one that “encourages active ageing by optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age. In practical terms, an age-friendly city adapts its structures and services to be accessible to and inclusive of older people with varying needs and capacities.” Bowling Green was the seventh city in the US to join the World Health Organization’s Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and is currently in year three of a five-year project. The developments over the past two years have been guided by the principle that senior residents of Bowling Green are the experts and that changes made should target their key concerns. The changes that have been made or recommended to date are low or no cost and are implemented by diverse groups of community stakeholders with support from WKU Aging. This project aimed to summarize the efforts that have been made thus far in the Bowling Green Age-Friendly Cities Project. A narrative research method was used to identify, characterize, and document four key outcomes: The Gathering, the Over 50 Citizen’s Academy, the Society for Lifelong Learning, and the Senior Calendar Committee

The Challenge of Effective Family/School Partnerships: The Middle School Parent Teacher Leadership Academy Pilot Program

Research supports the idea that positive family/school community partnerships during middle school can enhance student success. Thus schools are partnering with local universities to increase school and student outcomes. In order to support local middle schools, The University of Alabama created the Middle School Parent Teacher Leadership Academy, a training program that prepares middle school parent and teacher leaders with the skills to strengthen school and student outcomes. Using a mixed methods design, we analyzed pilot data from the first year of the Academy on parents’ and teachers’ leadership behaviors and self-efficacy. Pretest and posttest results showed that parent and teacher participants significantly increased their leadership behaviors. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed answers to the question: “What has the Academy meant to you?” as follows: 1) Facilitates parent-teacher collaboration, 2) Increases parent and teacher school leadership behaviors, 3) Enhances parent and teacher school leadership self-efficacy, 4) Increases opportunities for school change, and 5) Increases parental-school involvement. Implications and future directions are discussed

Anti-cancer characteristics and ototoxicity of platinum(II) amine complexes with only one leaving ligand.

Unlike cisplatin, which forms bifunctional DNA adducts, monofunctional platinum(II) complexes bind only one strand of DNA and might target cancer without causing auditory side-effects associated with cisplatin treatment. We synthesized the monofunctional triamine-ligated platinum(II) complexes, Pt(diethylenetriamine)Cl, [Pt(dien)Cl]+, and Pt(N,N-diethyldiethylenetriamine)Cl, [Pt(Et2dien)Cl]+, and the monofunctional heterocyclic-ligated platinum(II) complexes, pyriplatin and phenanthriplatin, and compared their 5'-GMP binding rates, cellular compartmental distribution and cellular viability effects. A zebrafish inner ear model was used to determine if the monofunctional complexes and cisplatin caused hearing threshold shifts and reduced auditory hair cell density. The four monofunctional complexes had varied relative GMP binding rates, but similar cytosolic and nuclear compartmental uptake in three cancer cell lines (A549, Caco2, HTB16) and a control cell line (IMR90). Phenanthriplatin had the strongest effect against cellular viability, comparable to cisplatin, followed by [Pt(Et2dien)Cl]+, pyriplatin and [Pt(dien)Cl]+. Phenanthriplatin also produced the highest hearing threshold shifts followed by [Pt(dien)Cl]+, [Pt(Et2dien)Cl]+, cisplatin and pyriplatin. Hair cell counts taken from four regions of the zebrafish saccule showed that cisplatin significantly reduced hair cell density in three regions and phenanthriplatin in only one region, with the other complexes having no significant effect. Utricular hair cell density was not reduced by any of the compounds. Our results suggest that placing greater steric hindrance cis to one side of the platinum coordinating center in monofunctional complexes promotes efficient targeting of the nuclear compartment and guanosine residues, and may be responsible for reducing cancer cell viability. Also, the monofunctional compounds caused hearing threshold shifts with minimal effect on hair cell density, which suggests that they may affect different pathways than cisplatin

Mean (±SE) hair cell densities in four regions of the saccule treated with either a monofunctional platinum(II) complex, cisplatin or vehicle after 48 hours.

<p>A.-D. “5”, “25”, “50”, “75” designate length along the rostral-caudal axis. Cisplatin (red) treatment caused hair cell density reduction in the 5, 25 and 50% regions compared to vehicle (white) treatment. A. Pyriplatin (green) treatment caused no hair cell reduction. B. Phenanthriplatin (blue) treatment caused reduction only at 50%. C. [Pt(dien)Cl]⁺ (grey) and (D) [Pt(Et₂dien)Cl]⁺ (purple) treatment caused no significant reduction in hair cell bundles. N = 8–15.</p

IC₅₀ values for cisplatin, phenanthriplatin, pyriplatin, [Pt(dien)Cl]⁺ and [Pt(Et₂dien)Cl]⁺ in cell cultures.

<p>Standard deviation values are provided after the ± symbol for each inhibitory concentration value. “NC” indicates non-cancer cell line.</p

Mean (±SE) nuclear uptake of platinum(II) complexes as a percent of total platinum uptake.

<p>Cancer cell and control cultures were treated as described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0192505#pone.0192505.g003" target="_blank">Fig 3</a>. The nuclear fraction percentage was determined by dividing the nuclear amount of platinum (pmol per 10⁶ cells) by the total amount of platinum (nuclear + cytosolic pmol per 10⁶ cells). N = 3.</p

Mean (± SE) AEP hearing thresholds of zebrafish 48 h following injection with either a monofunctional platinum(II) complex, cisplatin, or a vehicle.

<p>A.-D. Cisplatin (red) treatment produces threshold shifts between 400 and 1500 Hz; vehicle (black) treatment. A. Pyriplatin (green) treatment only produces a significant threshold shift at 100 Hz. B. Phenanthriplatin (blue), (C) [Pt(dien)Cl]⁺ (grey), and (D) [Pt(Et₂dien)Cl]⁺ (purple) treatment produces threshold shifts at all but two frequencies (250 and 1500 Hz). N = 8–15; * p ≤ 0.05.</p

Monofunctinal platinum(II) complexes investigated in this project.

<p>[Pt(dien)Cl]⁺ and [Pt(Et₂dien)Cl]⁺ are triamine ligated compounds with similar steric properties to pyriplatin and phenanthriplatin. Pyriplatin and phenanthriplatin are heterocyclic compounds that reduce cancer cell viability. Abbreviations: dien = diethylenetriamine, Et₂dien = N,N diethyldiethylene-triamine.</p