Are Cultural Adaptations of ESTs an Appropriate Response to Unfavorable Treatment Outcomes of Ethnic/Cultural minorities? An Appraisal of the Response

The highest standards of care for mental healthcare and psychotherapeutic services in the United States is of seminal focus by the national government, insurance agencies, educational institutions, healthcare systems, and greater communities. Included with the emphasis of the highest standards of care; the incorporation of the best practices labeled is the gold standard. However, in the context of the United States, best practices and their required research, are often exclusive diverse populations. This review of the literature and subsequent discussion delve into specific interventions implemented by the counseling field to address best practice inclusion with ethnic and cultural minorities guided by the question: What measures have been taken to promote inclusion of best practices for an increasingly diverse population

Writing for Comprehension: How does Writing Influence Informational Reading Comprehension in the Elementary Classroom?

This quantitative study was conducted through a school and university partnership. Data from benchmark reading assessments and writing rubrics were gathered over five weeks in a third-grade classroom in the rural mountains of the southeastern United States. Results indicate student growth in reading comprehension and writing. Findings confirm the positive correlation between reading and writing, which suggests integrating explicit reading and writing instruction supports students’ reading comprehension. Based on these findings, we suggest ways teachers can improve reading comprehension skills, blend reading and writing instruction, and pique student interest through an informational writing unit

Quantifying the effect of media limitations on outbreak data in a global online web-crawling epidemic intelligence system, 2008–2011

Background: This is the first study quantitatively evaluating the effect that media-related limitations have on data from an automated epidemic intelligence system. Methods: We modeled time series of HealthMap's two main data feeds, Google News and Moreover, to test for evidence of two potential limitations: first, human resources constraints, and second, high-profile outbreaks “crowding out” coverage of other infectious diseases. Results: Google News events declined by 58.3%, 65.9%, and 14.7% on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, respectively, relative to other weekdays. Events were reduced by 27.4% during Christmas/New Years weeks and 33.6% lower during American Thanksgiving week than during an average week for Google News. Moreover data yielded similar results with the addition of Memorial Day (US) being associated with a 36.2% reduction in events. Other holiday effects were not statistically significant. We found evidence for a crowd out phenomenon for influenza/H1N1, where a 50% increase in influenza events corresponded with a 4% decline in other disease events for Google News only. Other prominent diseases in this database – avian influenza (H5N1), cholera, or foodborne illness – were not associated with a crowd out phenomenon. Conclusions: These results provide quantitative evidence for the limited impact of editorial biases on HealthMap's web-crawling epidemic intelligence

Gateway Literacy Retention Policies: Perspectives and Implications from the Field

South Carolina’s Read to Succeed Law (RTS) is different than the other 15 states’ literacy-based third grade retention laws. It mandates literacy intervention training for in-service and pre-service teachers. Research indicates academic gains from retention are short-lived, diminishing over time and increasing drop-out rates. Through a statewide survey, this study identifies educators’ perceptions and knowledge of retention and the RTS policy, and examines the relationship between knowledge and perceptions. Educators were not familiar with retention research or RTS specifics, but favored retention. Implications include the need for more teacher training regarding new state policies and the efficacy of their foundations. This study provides evidence that policymakers should consider the means of implementation and shoulder accountability for a structured and equitable support system

Syrian refugees, between rocky crisis in Syria and hard inaccessibility to healthcare services in Lebanon and Jordan

Around 3% of the world’s population (n = 214 million people) has crossed international borders for various reasons. Since March 2011, Syria has been going through state of political crisis and instability resulting in an exodus of Syrians to neighbouring countries. More than 1 million Syrian refugees are residents of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and North Africa. The international community must step up efforts to support Syrian refugees and their host governments

A structural study of the cerebral ganglionic complex and retrocerebral system in the adult of Chironomus riparius

Descriptions are given of the cerebral ganglionic complex and retro cerebral system of neoimaginal Chironomus riparius reared at 20&deg;C. Changes resulting from differences in age, rearing temperature and reproductive state are also presented. The anatomy of the cerebral ganglia, including the organisation of neuropile masses, of male neoimagines, and the fine structure of the neural sheath, cortical layer and neuropile is described for the first time in an adult chironomid. Two types of perineurial cells and three types of glial cells are distinguished on ultra structural criteria. A classification of five non-neurosecretory neuron types, based upon size, nuclear to cytoplasmic proportions and appearance, is given. Four paired groups of neurosecretory neurons were found in the brain and two paired groups in the suboesophageal ganglion. Five neurosecretory cell types are classified on the basis of their ultrastructural characteristics. The axon pathways of the cerebral neurosecretory cells and the elements of the retrocerebral system, including the paired corpora cardiaca, corpora allata, peritracheal tissues and "glandes post-cerebrales ant erieures", are described. The nervous and endocrine structures of the neoi maginal male are compared to those of the female. Age related changes occurring within the brain and endocrine system are described in relation to fat body depletion, behavioural activity and appearance of the dorsal longitudinal flight muscles. The effect that differences in rearing temperature have upon the longevity, size and weight of the adult is presented. The influence of rearing temperature upon the ultrastructure of the brain is described for the first time in an insect. Evidence suggesting an association between the activity of the cerebral neurosecretory cells and female reproduction is given. In the light of the results functional roles for several elements within the endocrine system are postulated. The possible significance that the observed structural changes in the nervous system have upon its functioning is discussed.<p

Closing the access gap for health innovations: an open licensing proposal for universities

BACKGROUND: This article centers around a proposal outlining how research universities could leverage their intellectual property to help close the access gap for health innovations in poor countries. A recent deal between Emory University, Gilead Sciences, and Royalty Pharma is used as an example to illustrate how 'equitable access licensing' could be put into practice. DISCUSSION: While the crisis of access to medicines in poor countries has multiple determinants, intellectual property protection leading to high prices is well-established as one critical element of the access gap. Given the current international political climate, systemic, government-driven reform of intellectual property protection seems unlikely in the near term. Therefore, we propose that public sector institutions, universities chief among them, adopt a modest intervention – an Equitable Access License (EAL) – that works within existing trade-law and drug-development paradigms in order to proactively circumvent both national and international obstacles to generic medicine production. Our proposal has three key features: (1) it is prospective in scope, (2) it facilitates unfettered generic competition in poor countries, and (3) it centers around universities and their role in the biomedical research enterprise. Two characteristics make universities ideal agents of the type of open licensing proposal described. First, universities, because they are upstream in the development pipeline, are likely to hold rights to the key components of a wide variety of end products. Second, universities acting collectively have a strong negotiating position with respect to other players in the biomedical research arena. Finally, counterarguments are anticipated and addressed and conclusions are drawn based on how application of the Equitable Access License would have changed the effects of the licensing deal between Emory and Gilead

Segregation of COPI-rich and anterograde-cargo-rich domains in endoplasmic-reticulum-to-Golgi transport complexes

AbstractMembrane traffic between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi complex is regulated by two vesicular coat complexes, COPII and COPI. COPII has been implicated in the selective packaging of anterograde cargo into coated transport vesicles budding from the ER [1]. In mammalian cells, these vesicles coalesce to form tubulo-vesicular transport complexes (TCs), which shuttle anterograde cargo from the ER to the Golgi complex [2–4]. In contrast, COPI-coated vesicles are proposed to mediate recycling of proteins from the Golgi complex to the ER [1,5–7]. The binding of COPI to COPII-coated TCs [3,8,9], however, has led to the proposal that COPI binds to TCs and specifically packages recycling proteins into retrograde vesicles for return to the ER [3,9]. To test this hypothesis, we tracked fluorescently tagged COPI and anterograde-transport markers simultaneously in living cells. COPI predominated on TCs shuttling anterograde cargo to the Golgi complex and was rarely observed on structures moving in directions consistent with retrograde transport. Furthermore, a progressive segregation of COPI-rich domains and anterograde-cargo-rich domains was observed in the TCs. This segregation and the directed motility of COPI-containing TCs were inhibited by antibodies that blocked COPI function. These observations, which are consistent with previous biochemical data [2,9], suggest a role for COPI within TCs en route to the Golgi complex. By sequestering retrograde cargo in the anterograde-directed TCs, COPI couples the sorting of ER recycling proteins [10] to the transport of anterograde cargo