Sexual Wellness and Rare Disease Considerations: A Behavioral Case Conceptualization and Approach to Counseling Treatment

Sexual wellness is infrequently addressed with individuals with a rare disease. Counselors must be competent in working with sexual wellness issues, especially those related to medical conditions, since clients may not share those concerns with healthcare providers. This article presents a case scenario involving a client living with a rare disease called Hereditary Angioedema, the symptoms of which present challenges to her intimate and sexual relationship with her partner due to unpredictable and painful swelling. A behavioral theoretical lens is used to conceptualize the case scenario and inform treatment. Implications for counselor competency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and client empowerment toward advocacy are discussed

Activation of D1 Dopamine Receptors Induces Emergence from Isoflurane General Anesthesia

Background: A recent study showed that methylphenidate induces emergence from isoflurane anesthesia. Methylphenidate inhibits dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake transporters. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that selective dopamine receptor activation induces emergence from isoflurane anesthesia. Methods: In adult rats, we tested the effects of chloro-APB (D1 agonist) and quinpirole (D2 agonist) on time to emergence from isoflurane general anesthesia. We then performed a dose–response study to test for chloro-APB–induced restoration of righting during continuous isoflurane anesthesia. SCH-23390 (D1 antagonist) was used to confirm that the effects induced by chloro-APB are specifically mediated by D1 receptors. In a separate group of animals, spectral analysis was performed on surface electroencephalogram recordings to assess neurophysiologic changes induced by chloro-APB and quinpirole during isoflurane general anesthesia. Results: Chloro-APB decreased median time to emergence from 330 to 50 s. The median difference in time to emergence between the saline control group (n = 6) and the chloro-APB group (n = 6) was 222 s (95% CI: 77–534 s, Mann–Whitney test). This difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0082). During continuous isoflurane anesthesia, chloro-APB dose-dependently restored righting (n = 6) and decreased electroencephalogram δ power (n = 4). These effects were inhibited by pretreatment with SCH-23390. Quinpirole did not restore righting (n = 6) and had no significant effect on the electroencephalogram (n = 4) during continuous isoflurane anesthesia. Conclusions: Activation of D1 receptors by chloro-APB decreases time to emergence from isoflurane anesthesia and produces behavioral and neurophysiologic evidence of arousal during continuous isoflurane anesthesia. These findings suggest that selective activation of a D1 receptor–mediated arousal mechanism is sufficient to induce emergence from isoflurane general anesthesia.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant DP1-OD003646)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant K08-GM094394)Massachusetts General Hospital. Dept. of Anesthesia and Critical Car

NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

NASA\u27s Human Exploration Rover Challenge, held annually in at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is an engineering design challenge that asks teams of student engineers to design a human-powered vehicle capable of traversing a simulated lunar surface. The rover must be able to be transported in a 5x5x5 foot cube, echoing the design constraint faced by the engineers who built the Lunar Roving Vehicles used by the astronauts of the later Apollo missions

Influence of Sediment Characteristics on the Composition of Soft-Sediment Intertidal Communities in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Benthic infaunal communities are important components of coastal ecosystems. Understanding the relationships between the structure of these communities and characteristics of the habitat in which they live is becoming progressively more important as coastal systems face increasing stress from anthropogenic impacts and changes in climate. To examine how sediment characteristics and infaunal community composition were related along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, we sampled intertidal infaunal communities at seven sites covering common habitat types at a regional scale. Across 69 samples, the communities clustered into four distinct groups on the basis of faunal composition. Nearly 70% of the variation in the composition of the communities was explained by salinity, median grain size, and total organic content. Our results suggest that at a regional level coarse habitat characteristics are able to explain a large amount of the variation among sites in infaunal community structure. By examining the relationships between infaunal communities and their sedimentary habitats, we take a necessary first step that will allow the exploration of how changes in habitat and community composition influence higher trophic levels and ecosystem scale processes

Influence of Sediment Characteristics on the Composition of Soft-Sediment Intertidal Communities in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Benthic infaunal communities are important components of coastal ecosystems. Understanding the relationships between the structure of these communities and characteristics of the habitat in which they live is becoming progressively more important as coastal systems face increasing stress from anthropogenic impacts and changes in climate. To examine how sediment characteristics and infaunal community composition were related along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, we sampled intertidal infaunal communities at seven sites covering common habitat types at a regional scale. Across 69 samples, the communities clustered into four distinct groups on the basis of faunal composition. Nearly 70% of the variation in the composition of the communities was explained by salinity, median grain size, and total organic content. Our results suggest that at a regional level coarse habitat characteristics are able to explain a large amount of the variation among sites in infaunal community structure. By examining the relationships between infaunal communities and their sedimentary habitats, we take a necessary first step that will allow the exploration of how changes in habitat and community composition influence higher trophic levels and ecosystem scale processes

The Correlation between Confidence and Knowledge of Evidence-Based Practice among Occupational Therapy Students

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is used throughout multiple health-care professions and includes the use of best research available, client preferences, and the practitioner’s experience. Occupational therapy educational programs are required to incorporate EBP into their curriculum. A convenience sample of occupational therapy students from a private university completed a survey designed to measure students’ knowledge and confidence in EBP. The survey consisted of the Knowledge of Research Evidence Competencies (K-REC) and the Evidence-Based Practice Confidence (EPIC) scale, as well as demographic questions. Of the respondents (n = 47), third-year students indicated higher confidence in the ability to utilize EBP and higher levels of knowledge related to EBP than second- or first-year students. The more didactic and clinical experience that the students had, the more knowledge related to EBP they had, which increased their confidence in the implementation of EBP. The knowledge and confidence that students gain of EBP within their educational training and clinical experiences can influence their future use and implementation of EBP as clinicians. Without this information, therapists will lack the confidence and ability to apply EBP principles in a changing and demanding health-care environment

Influence of Sediment Characteristics on the Composition of Soft-Sediment Intertidal Communities in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Benthic infaunal communities are important components of coastal ecosystems. Understanding the relationships between the structure of these communities and characteristics of the habitat in which they live is becoming progressively more important as coastal systems face increasing stress from anthropogenic impacts and changes in climate. To examine how sediment characteristics and infaunal community composition were related along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast, we sampled intertidal infaunal communities at seven sites covering common habitat types at a regional scale. Across 69 samples, the communities clustered into four distinct groups on the basis of faunal composition. Nearly 70% of the variation in the composition of the communities was explained by salinity, median grain size, and total organic content. Our results suggest that at a regional level coarse habitat characteristics are able to explain a large amount of the variation among sites in infaunal community structure. By examining the relationships between infaunal communities and their sedimentary habitats, we take a necessary first step that will allow the exploration of how changes in habitat and community composition influence higher trophic levels and ecosystem scale processes

An Evolutionarily Threat-Relevant Odor Strengthens Human Fear Memory.

Olfaction is an evolutionary ancient sense, but it remains unclear to what extent it can influence routine human behavior. We examined whether a threat-relevant predator odor (2-methyl-2-thiazoline) would contextually enhance the formation of human fear memory associations. Participants who learned to associate visual stimuli with electric shock in this predator odor context later showed stronger fear responses to the visual stimuli than participants who learned in an aversiveness-matched control odor context. This effect generalized to testing in another odor context, even after extinction training. Results of a separate experiment indicate that a possible biological mechanism for this effect may be increased cortisol levels in a predator odor context. These results suggest that innate olfactory processes can play an important role in human fear learning. Modulatory influences of odor contexts may partly explain the sometimes maladaptive persistence of human fear memory, e.g., in post-traumatic stress disorders

Pre- and Perinatal Ischemia-Hypoxia, the Ischemia-Hypoxia Response Pathway, and ADHD Risk

This review focuses on how measured pre- and perinatal environmental and (epi)genetic risk factors are interrelated and potentially influence one, of many, common developmental pathway towards ADHD. Consistent with the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis, lower birth weight is associated with increased ADHD risk. Prenatal ischemia-hypoxia (insufficient blood and oxygen supply in utero) is a primary pathway to lower birth weight and produces neurodevelopmental risk for ADHD. To promote tissue survival in the context of ischemia-hypoxia, ischemia-hypoxia response (IHR) pathway gene expression is altered in the developing brain and peripheral tissues. Although altered IHR gene expression is adaptive in the context of ischemia-hypoxia, lasting IHR epigenetic modifications may lead to increased ADHD risk. Taken together, IHR genetic vulnerability to ischemia-hypoxia and IHR epigenetic alterations following prenatal ischemia-hypoxia may result in neurodevelopmental vulnerability for ADHD. Limitations of the extant literature and future directions for genetically-informed research are discussed