Urban Health: A Practical Application for Clinical Based Learning

Urban Health: A Practical Application for Clinical Based Learning is an openly licensed, peer-reviewed textbook for clinical-based nursing educators covering barriers in urban health and their impact on patient health outcomes. The authors explore perspectives of urban communities, urban patients, and urban healthcare providers to offer insight into how healthcare providers can address disparities in urban healthcare, provide meaningful care with the lived experiences of urban patients in mind, and improve patient-provider communication by moving towards a more solution-driven, team-based care approach. Features include learning activities, exemplars, and case studies.https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_textbooks/1001/thumbnail.jp

An analysis of small business owners\u27 participation in online learning

Small business owner-managers are a difficult group to engage in training and learning activities and the delivery medium has often been cited as a reason. This paper reports the preliminary findings of a qualitative research project regarding small business owner-manager participation in an online collaborative learning forum. The findings suggest that three principle themes emerged to explain why some small business owner-managers participated in the forum. These include; access to a networked computer; the personal characteristics of the small business owner-manager, and the design of the online learning forum. The findings also suggest that learning styles need to be specifically tailored to suit the learner and that conventional learning delivery and styles may not be particularly appropriate to this cohort

Neural circuitry governing anxious individuals’ mis-allocation of working memory to threat

Dispositional anxiety is a trait-like phenotype that confers increased risk for a range of debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders. Like many patients with anxiety disorders, individuals with elevated levels of dispositional anxiety are prone to intrusive and distressing thoughts in the absence of immediate threat. Recent electrophysiological research suggests that these symptoms are rooted in the misallocation of working memory (WM) resources to threat-related information. Here, functional MRI was used to identify the network of brain regions that support WM for faces and to quantify the allocation of neural resources to threat-related distracters in 81 young adults. Results revealed widespread evidence of mis-allocation. This was evident in both face-selective regions of the fusiform cortex and domain-general regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortices. This bias was exaggerated among individuals with a more anxious disposition. Mediation analyses provided compelling evidence that anxious individuals’ tendency to mis-allocate WM resources to threat-related distracters is statistically explained by heightened amygdala reactivity. Collectively, these results provide a neurocognitive framework for understanding the pathways linking anxious phenotypes to the development of internalizing psychopathology and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies

Moderating Effects of Harm Avoidance on Resting State Functional Connectivity of the Anterior Insula

As an index of behavioral inhibition and an individual’s propensity to avoid, rather than seek, potentially dangerous situations, harm avoidance has been linked to internalizing psychopathology. Altered connectivity within intrinsic functional neural networks (i.e., default mode [DMN], central executive [CEN] and salience networks [SN]) has been related to internalizing psychopathology; however, less is known about the effects of harm avoidance on functional connectivity within and between these networks. Importantly, harm avoidance may be distinguishable from trait anxiety and have clinical relevance as a risk factor for internalizing psychopathology. A sample of young adults (n = 99) completed a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan and self-report measures of harm avoidance and trait anxiety. Whole brain seed-to-voxel and seed-to-network connectivity analyses were conducted using anterior insula seeds to examine associations between harm avoidance/trait anxiety and connectivity. After adjusting for sex and age, there was a significant negative effect of harm avoidance on connectivity between the anterior insula and clusters in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) left superior/middle frontal gyrus, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL)/angular gyrus. Seed-to-network analyses indicated a negative effect of harm avoidance on connectivity between the right anterior insula and anterior and posterior DMN. There were no effects of trait anxiety on functional connectivity of the anterior insula. Overall, the results indicate that individual differences in harm avoidance relate to disruptions in internetwork connectivity that may contribute to deficits in appropriately modulating attentional focus

Latent stem and progenitor cells in the hippocampus are activated by neural excitation

The regulated production of neurons in the hippocampus throughout life underpins important brain functions such as learning and memory. Surprisingly, however, studies have so far failed to identify a resident hippocampal stem cell capable of providing the renewable source of these neurons. Here, we report that depolarizing levels of KCl produce a threefold increase in the number of neurospheres generated from the adult mouse hippocampus. Most interestingly, however, depolarizing levels of KCl led to the emergence of a small subpopulation of precursors (approximately eight per hippocampus) with the capacity to generate very large neurospheres (>250 µm in diameter). Many of these contained cells that displayed the cardinal properties of stem cells: multipotentiality and self-renewal. In contrast, the same conditions led to the opposite effect in the other main neurogenic region of the brain, the subventricular zone, in which neurosphere numbers decreased by ~40% in response to depolarizing levels of KCl. Most importantly, we also show that the latent hippocampal progenitor population can be activated in vivo in response to prolonged neural activity found in status epilepticus. This work provides the first direct evidence of a latent precursor and stem cell population in the adult hippocampus, which is able to be activated by neural activity. Because the latent population is also demonstrated to reside in the aged animal, defining the precise mechanisms that underlie its activation may provide a means to combat the cognitive deficits associated with a decline in neurogenesis

An Interprofessional Clinical Placement in a Primary Healthcare Setting: A Pilot Study

Purpose: Internationally, and in Australia, interprofessional education (IPE) is becoming typical in primary healthcare delivery and is core to delivering patient-centred care. It is essential that primary healthcare education develop interprofessional capacity in order to produce a skilled workforce. An IPE clinical placement for undergraduate health students was developed and piloted in primary healthcare settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the IPE clinical placement in a primary healthcare setting on students’ perceptions of interprofessional education. Method: A pre-post placement validated questionnaire (n=19) indicated overall perceptions of IPE significantly increased over the course of the IPE clinical placement. Results: There was a significant increase in competency and autonomy and understanding of roles over time. There was no significant increase in the reported perception of need for interprofessional cooperation, however there was a significant increase in actual interprofessional cooperation. Conclusion: This was a successful pilot program that warrants further development and research to include longer-term follow up of students’ perceptions towards IPE and analyze whether collaboration and teamwork skills obtained during the IPE primary healthcare experience are transferrable to future professional practice

Silk from Crickets: A New Twist on Spinning

Raspy crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllacrididae) are unique among the orthopterans in producing silk, which is used to build shelters. This work studied the material composition and the fabrication of cricket silk for the first time. We examined silk-webs produced in captivity, which comprised cylindrical fibers and flat films. Spectra obtained from micro-Raman experiments indicated that the silk is composed of protein, primarily in a beta-sheet conformation, and that fibers and films are almost identical in terms of amino acid composition and secondary structure. The primary sequences of four silk proteins were identified through a mass spectrometry/cDNA library approach. The most abundant silk protein was large in size (300 and 220 kDa variants), rich in alanine, glycine and serine, and contained repetitive sequence motifs; these are features which are shared with several known beta-sheet forming silk proteins. Convergent evolution at the molecular level contrasts with development by crickets of a novel mechanism for silk fabrication. After secretion of cricket silk proteins by the labial glands they are fabricated into mature silk by the labium-hypopharynx, which is modified to allow the controlled formation of either fibers or films. Protein folding into beta-sheet structure during silk fabrication is not driven by shear forces, as is reported for other silks

Interprofessional Team Collaboration for Routine and Emergent Mental Health Concerns Among Collegiate Student-Athletes: A Case Series from the Association for Athletic Training Education Research Network

Collegiate student-athletes experience an increasing number of mental health concerns. To help address these concerns and provide high-quality health care for student-athletes, institutions of higher education are being encouraged to create interprofessional health care teams that are specifically dedicated to managing mental health. We interviewed 3 interprofessional health care teams who collaborate to manage routine and emergency mental health conditions in collegiate student-athletes. Teams represented all 3 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) divisions and included athletic trainers, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, dietitians and nutritionists, social workers, nurses, and physician assistants (associates). The interprofessional teams indicated that the existing NCAA recommendations helped to solidify members and roles of the mental health care team; however, they all believed their teams would benefit from more counselors and psychiatrists. Teams had different mechanisms for referral and accessing mental health resources on their campuses, which may make on-the-job training for new members of the team an organizational necessity

The properties of extragalactic radio sources selected at 20 GHz

We present some first results on the variability, polarization and general properties of radio sources selected in a blind survey at 20 GHz, the highest frequency at which a sensitive radio survey has been carried out over a large area of sky. Sources with flux densities above 100 mJy in the AT20G Pilot Survey at declination -60 to -70 were observed at up to three epochs during 2002-4, including near-simultaneous measurements at 5, 8 and 18 GHz in 2003. Of the 173 sources detected, 65% are candidate QSOs, BL Lac objects or blazars, 20% galaxies and 15% faint (b > 22 mag) optical objects or blank fields. On a 1-2 year timescale, the general level of variability at 20 GHz appears to be low. For the 108 sources with good-quality measurements in both 2003 and 2004, the median variability index at 20 GHz was 6.9% and only five sources varied by more than 30% in flux density. Most sources in our sample show low levels of linear polarization (typically 1-5%), with a median fractional polarization of 2.3% at 20 GHz. There is a trend for fainter sources to show higher fractional polarization. At least 40% of sources selected at 20GHz have strong spectral curvature over the frequency range 1-20 GHz. We use a radio `two-colour diagram' to characterize the radio spectra of our sample, and confirm that the radio-source population at 20 GHz (which is also the foreground point-source population for CMB anisotropy experiments like WMAP and Planck) cannot be reliably predicted by extrapolating the results of surveys at lower frequencies. As a result, direct selection at 20 GHz appears to be a more efficient way of identifying 90 GHz phase calibrators for ALMA than the currently-proposed technique of extrapolation from all-sky surveys at 1-5 GHz.Comment: 14-page paper plus 5-page data table. Replaced with published versio

T Lymphocytes Contribute to the Control of Baseline Neural Precursor Cell Proliferation but Not the Exercise-Induced Up-Regulation of Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis

Cross-talk between the peripheral immune system and the central nervous system is important for physiological brain health. T cells are required to maintain normal baseline levels of neural precursor proliferation in the hippocampus of adult mice. We show here that neither T cells, B cells, natural killer cells nor natural killer T cells are required for the increase in hippocampal precursor proliferation that occurs in response to physical exercise. In addition, we demonstrate that a subpopulation of T cells, regulatory T cells, is not involved in maintaining baseline levels of neural precursor proliferation. Even when applied at supraphysiological numbers, populations of both naive and stimulated lymphocytes had no effect on hippocampal precursor proliferation in vitro. In addition, physical activity had no effect on peripheral immune cells in terms of distribution in the bone marrow, lymph nodes or spleen, activation state or chemokine receptor (CXCR4 and CCR9) expression. Together these results suggest that lymphocytes are not involved in translating the peripheral effects of exercise to the neurogenic niche in the hippocampus and further support the idea that the exercise-induced regulation of adult neurogenesis is mechanistically distinct from its baseline control