Developing and evaluating a lay health worker delivered implementation intervention to decrease engagement disparities in behavioural parent training: a mixed methods study protocol.

IntroductionBehavioural parent training (BPT) programmes are effective in preventing and treating early-onset conduct problems and child maltreatment. Unfortunately, pervasive mental health service disparities continue to limit access to and engagement in these interventions. Furthermore, challenges with parental engagement can impede the successful implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in community settings that serve low-income, ethnic minority families. Lay health workers (LHWs)-individuals without formal mental health training-represent an important workforce to increase engagement, as they are members of the communities they serve. However, the mobilisation of LHWs has not been well studied as an implementation strategy to extend the reach or effectiveness of EBPs in the USA. LHW-delivered implementation interventions that specifically support the engagement of Latinx parents in evidence-based BPT programmes have the potential to improve clinical and implementation outcomes.Methods and analysisA community-partnered approach will use the Quality Implementation Framework (QIF) to tailor and implement an LHW-delivered implementation intervention that aims to promote Latinx parent engagement in BPT programmes. Steps from the QIF will guide study activities to (1) conduct a mixed methods needs assessment to fit the implementation intervention to the local context, (2) adapt LHW-delivered implementation strategies to promote parent access to and engagement in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy and (3) conduct a hybrid effectiveness-implementation pilot trial to examine the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of the LHW implementation intervention at increasing engagement.Ethics and disseminationStudy procedures have been approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Results will be shared with the community-advisory group, at community-based meetings for other stakeholders involved in the pilot project, and submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals

Role of the imprinted allele of the Cdkn1c gene in mouse neocortical development

Imprinted genes are expressed from only one allele in a parent of origin–specific manner. The cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p57^{kip2} is encoded by an imprinted gene Cdkn1c, with the paternal allele being silenced. The possible expression and function of the paternal allele of Cdkn1c have remained little studied, however. We now show that the paternal allele of the Cdkn1c gene is expressed at a low level in the developing mouse neocortex. Surprisingly, the central nervous system-specific conditional deletion of the paternal allele (pat cKO) at the Cdkn1c locus resulted in a marked reduction in brain size. Furthermore, pat cKO gradually reduced the number of neural stem-progenitor cells (NPCs) during neocortical development, and thus reduced the number of upper-layer neurons, which were derived from late-stage NPCs. Our results thus show that the paternal allele of the Cdkn1c locus plays a key role in maintenance of NPCs during neocortical development

Pregnancy Care In Ayurveda

Pregnency is a happy and joyous time of life for many women. It can also be challenging time of life as the mothers body goes through numerous changes in order to create and support the development of new life. Ayurveda is an excellent addition to the care provided by medical doctors and midwives. Ayurveda creates support for the physical, mental/emotional and spiritual bodies of the mother and her baby. Promoting the health of mother and baby during pregnancy using Ayurveda begins with a month by month description of developments during pregnancy. It then covers the topics of apanavata, nutrion, the daily routine, yogaasana, meditation, happiness, challenges, herbs as well as herb examples and herb research, classical month by month regimens, preparing for the baby. Pregnancy and child birth are matters of great importance in a woman’s life. A woman needs to be taken care of and made the centre of attention during this phase. The set of rules that are prescribed in Ayurveda are very important for pregnant women. They give you detailed information about the Vichara (thought process), Vihara (lifestyle) and Ahara (Diet) which are recommended to be followed at various stages during the Pregnancy period

A facile synthesis of 2-(2'-vinylthiophene)chromones by the modified Baker-Venkataraman tansformation

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Titania-based Photocatalytic Coatings on Stainless Steel Hospital Fixtures

A scaled-up pulsed-pressure MOCVD system was used to deposit TiO2 coatings from tetra-isopropoxide precursor solution on stainless steel substrates and on 3- D objects. The objective of the work is the production of antimicrobial coatings for handles in health care facilities. Antimicrobial coatings are sought to manage the transmission of hospital acquired infections (HAI’s), which are reported to cost around one million pounds per annum in the UK alone. Titania is a promising material for this application due to the photocatalytic production of reactive oxygen species that are crucial for the destruction of organic pathogens. TiO2 coatings of 0.2 to 13 μm thickness were deposited at temperatures between 375 oC and 475 oC. The crystallite size and photocatalytic activity are influenced by deposition temperature. No dependence of stoichiometry on the deposition temperature has been observed. The films on stainless steel exhibit reasonably good photocatalytic performance. The photocatalytic performance and the stoichiometry improve with the film thickness. A three dimensional object (door handle) was coated with good conformity. The reactor scale-up for coating production on door handles is proposed for future wear and hygiene performance testing

Intron-loss evolution of hatching enzyme genes in Teleostei

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hatching enzyme, belonging to the astacin metallo-protease family, digests egg envelope at embryo hatching. Orthologous genes of the enzyme are found in all vertebrate genomes. Recently, we found that exon-intron structures of the genes were conserved among tetrapods, while the genes of teleosts frequently lost their introns. Occurrence of such intron losses in teleostean hatching enzyme genes is an uncommon evolutionary event, as most eukaryotic genes are generally known to be interrupted by introns and the intron insertion sites are conserved from species to species. Here, we report on extensive studies of the exon-intron structures of teleostean hatching enzyme genes for insight into how and why introns were lost during evolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We investigated the evolutionary pathway of intron-losses in hatching enzyme genes of 27 species of Teleostei. Hatching enzyme genes of basal teleosts are of only one type, which conserves the 9-exon-8-intron structure of an assumed ancestor. On the other hand, otocephalans and euteleosts possess two types of hatching enzyme genes, suggesting a gene duplication event in the common ancestor of otocephalans and euteleosts. The duplicated genes were classified into two clades, clades I and II, based on phylogenetic analysis. In otocephalans and euteleosts, clade I genes developed a phylogeny-specific structure, such as an 8-exon-7-intron, 5-exon-4-intron, 4-exon-3-intron or intron-less structure. In contrast to the clade I genes, the structures of clade II genes were relatively stable in their configuration, and were similar to that of the ancestral genes. Expression analyses revealed that hatching enzyme genes were high-expression genes, when compared to that of housekeeping genes. When expression levels were compared between clade I and II genes, clade I genes tends to be expressed more highly than clade II genes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Hatching enzyme genes evolved to lose their introns, and the intron-loss events occurred at the specific points of teleostean phylogeny. We propose that the high-expression hatching enzyme genes frequently lost their introns during the evolution of teleosts, while the low-expression genes maintained the exon-intron structure of the ancestral gene.</p