Inclusive Education is Power: Revising Sexual Health Education for People with Disabilities

For people with disabilities in the United States, comprehensive sexual health education is not always available. There are a number of reasons for the lack of comprehensive sexual health education, including excessive censorship and curriculum that is not representative of people with disabilities. Sexual health education and disability are both topics that have several preconceived notions attached to them, yet there is a dearth in resources that could provide accurate information to those both with and without disabilities. These preconceived notions that have been associated with these identity labels lead to negative health outcomes for people with disabilities such as increased reports of abuse and higher rates of female sterilization. Without a revision of the way the U.S. currently addressed sexual health education, people with disabilities will continue to suffer these consequences at higher rates than their non-disabled counterparts. This paper will discuss how comprehensive sexual health education for people with disabilities is lacking and provide recommendations as to how this gap in education can be remedied. Teaching people through comprehensive sexual health education allows people to advocate for their personal health with an informed mindset, regardless of ability status

Sensory Response System of Social Behavior Tied to Female Reproductive Traits

Honey bees display a complex set of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits that correlate with the colony storage of surplus pollen (pollen hoarding). We hypothesize that the association of these traits is a result of pleiotropy in a gene signaling network that was co-opted by natural selection to function in worker division of labor and foraging specialization. By acting on the gene network, selection can change a suite of traits, including stimulus/response relationships that affect individual foraging behavior and alter the colony level trait of pollen hoarding. The 'pollen-hoarding syndrome' of honey bees is the best documented syndrome of insect social organization. It can be exemplified as a link between reproductive anatomy (ovary size), physiology (yolk protein level), and foraging behavior in honey bee strains selected for pollen hoarding, a colony level trait. The syndrome gave rise to the forager-Reproductive Ground Plan Hypothesis (RGPH), which proposes that the regulatory control of foraging onset and foraging preference toward nectar or pollen was derived from a reproductive signaling network. This view was recently challenged. To resolve the controversy, we tested the associations between reproductive anatomy, physiology, and stimulus/response relationships of behavior in wild-type honey bees.Central to the stimulus/response relationships of honey bee foraging behavior and pollen hoarding is the behavioral trait of sensory sensitivity to sucrose (an important sugar in nectar). To test the linkage of reproductive traits and sensory response systems of social behavior, we measured sucrose responsiveness with the proboscis extension response (PER) assay and quantified ovary size and vitellogenin (yolk precursor) gene expression in 6-7-day-old bees by counting ovarioles (ovary filaments) and by using semiquantitative real time RT-PCR. We show that bees with larger ovaries (more ovarioles) are characterized by higher levels of vitellogenin mRNA expression and are more responsive to sucrose solutions, a trait that is central to division of labor and foraging specialization.Our results establish that in wild-type honey bees, ovary size and vitellogenin mRNA level covary with the sucrose sensory response system, an important component of foraging behavior. This finding validates links between reproductive physiology and behavioral-trait associations of the pollen-hoarding syndrome of honey bees, and supports the forager-RGPH. Our data address a current evolutionary debate, and represent the first direct demonstration of the links between reproductive anatomy, physiology, and behavioral response systems that are central to the control of complex social behavior in insects

Authoritative school climate and peer victimization among Brazilian students

According to the Authoritative School Climate theory, a school environment perceived with high levels of support and disciplinary structure can be a protective factor against violence. Therefore, the current study aimed to understand how support and disciplinary structure affected peer victimization among Brazilian students. Participants were 420 students from Brazil, between 7 and 14 years old (mean=10.02; S.D. = .91); 51.5% of the participants were boys. Measures were obtained from a self-report questionnaire with measures of victimization, authoritative school climate and sociodemographic data. Using multilevel modeling between individual and same-sex peer group analyses, 89.86% of the victimization variability was at the individual level. Results indicated a negative association between the student’s perception of support and reports of victimization, but no gender differences as predictors of victimization. Younger students who reported lowers perceptions of support also could be more victimized

School climate and peer victimization: perceptions of students with intellectual disability

Considering the experiences of students with intellectual disabilities (ID) in educational environments, peer victimization stands out for potential losses to development. This is a relationship problem, which requires an understanding of contextual factors. In the approach of the authoritative school climate, the perception of support and disciplinary structure act as possible attenuators of peer victimization. However, the association between school climate and victimization is rarely examined in samples with people with ID. Thus, the study aimed to examine the associations between authoritative school climate and peer victimization through a procedure accessibleto the self-report of people with ID. It was hypothesized that the disciplinary structure and support would be negatively associated with victimization. The study included 117 students with ID, aged between 12 and 63 years (mean=25.31; sd =12.25); 62.4% of male participants; 56.9% white and 54.1% diagnosed with moderate DI. The measures and procedures went through a cognitive accessibility process to enable the participation of students with ID through self-report, the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The adaptation was partially successful. In the final model, the disciplinarystructure was positively correlated to support, which was a negative predictor for victimization. The results highlight how school environments with a supportive school climate can be a protective factor in relation to the victimization of people with ID,and that more inclusive practices in scientific research are possible. Considerando as experiências de estudantes com deficiência intelectual (DI) em ambientes educacionais, a vitimização entre pares se destaca por potenciais prejuízos para o desenvolvimento. Este é um problema de relacionamento, que demanda a compreensão de fatores do contexto. Na abordagem do clima escolar autoritativo, a percepção desuporte e estrutura disciplinar atuam como possíveis atenuadores da vitimização entre pares. Entretanto, a associação entre o clima escolar e a vitimização raramente é examinada em amostras com pessoas com DI. Assim, o estudo teve por objetivo examinar asassociações entre o clima escolar autoritativo e a vitimização entre pares por meio de procedimento acessível para o autorrelato de pessoas com DI. Hipotetizou-se que a estrutura disciplinar e o suporte estariam associados negativamente à vitimização. O estudo incluiu 117 estudantes com DI, com idade entre 12 e 63 anos (média= 25,31; d.p.= 12,25); 62,4% dos participantes do sexo masculino; 56,9% brancos e 54,1% com diagnóstico de DI moderada. As medidas e procedimentos passaram por processo de acessibilidade cognitiva para possibilitar a participação dos estudantes com DI por meio do autorrelato, os dados foram analisados usando a modelagem de equações estruturais. O processo foi parcialmente bem-sucedido. No modelo final, a estrutura disciplinar foi positivamente correlacionada ao suporte, que foi um preditor negativo para a vitimização. Os resultados destacam como os ambientes escolares com um clima escolar de suporte podem ser um fator protetor em relação à vitimização de pessoas com DI, e que práticas mais inclusivas na pesquisa científica são possíveis

Fine-Scale Linkage Mapping Reveals a Small Set of Candidate Genes Influencing Honey Bee Grooming Behavior in Response to Varroa Mites

Abstract Populations of honey bees in North America have been experiencing high annual colony mortality for 15-20 years. Many apicultural researchers believe that introduced parasites called Varroa mites (V. destructor) are the most important factor in colony deaths. One important resistance mechanism that limits mite population growth in colonies is the ability of some lines of honey bees to groom mites from their bodies. To search for genes influencing this trait, we used an Illumina Bead Station genotyping array to determine the genotypes of several hundred worker bees at over a thousand single-nucleotide polymorphisms in a family that was apparently segregating for alleles influencing this behavior. Linkage analyses provided a genetic map with 1,313 markers anchored to genome sequence. Genotypes were analyzed for association with grooming behavior, measured as the time that individual bees took to initiate grooming after mites were placed on their thoraces. Quantitative-trait-locus interval mapping identified a single chromosomal region that was significant at the chromosomewide level (p,0.05) on chromosome 5 with a LOD score of 2.72. The 95% confidence interval for quantitative trait locus location contained only 27 genes (honey bee official gene annotation set 2) including Atlastin, Ataxin and Neurexin-1 (AmNrx1), which have potential neurodevelopmental and behavioral effects. Atlastin and Ataxin homologs are associated with neurological diseases in humans. AmNrx1 codes for a presynaptic protein with many alternatively spliced isoforms. Neurexin-1 influences the growth, maintenance and maturation of synapses in the brain, as well as the type of receptors most prominent within synapses. Neurexin-1 has also been associated with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia in humans, and self-grooming behavior in mice

A Search for Parent-of-Origin Effects on Honey Bee Gene Expression

Parent-specific gene expression (PSGE) is little known outside of mammals and plants. PSGE occurs when the expression level of a gene depends on whether an allele was inherited from the mother or the father. Kin selection theory predicts that there should be extensive PSGE in social insects because social insect parents can gain inclusive fitness benefits by silencing parental alleles in female offspring. We searched for evidence of PSGE in honey bees using transcriptomes from reciprocal crosses between European and Africanized strains. We found 46 transcripts with significant parent-of-origin effects on gene expression, many of which overexpressed the maternal allele. Interestingly, we also found a large proportion of genes showing a bias toward maternal alleles in only one of the reciprocal crosses. These results indicate that PSGE may occur in social insects. The nonreciprocal effects could be largely driven by hybrid incompatibility between these strains. Future work will help to determine if these are indeed parent-of-origin effects that can modulate inclusive fitness benefits