How Employment Constraints Affect Low-Income Working Parents' Child Care Decisions

Based on interviews, examines how low earnings, job instability, workplace inflexibility with irregular schedules and little paid time off, and limited childcare options in poor communities shape childcare decisions. Outlines policy implications

Promoting Healthy Families and Communities for Boys and Young Men of Color

This report talks about boys and young men of color who are at risk for poor health and developmental outcomes beginning at birth and persisting through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. As a result of household poverty and residence in segregated neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage, they are disproportionately bombarded by environmental threats -- often without the benefits of supportive systems of prevention, protection, and care. This exposure to chronic stress undermines cognitive, social-emotional, and regulatory human development as well as the immune system. The parents of boys and young men of color are similarly affected, which affects boys directly in utero and interferes with their parents' abilities to promote their health and development and to protect them from harm as they mature

Home Visiting Services for Refugee, Immigrant, Migrant, and Dual Language Learner Families

Thousands of refugees and asylum seekers come to the United States each year to escape humanitarian crises in their home countries. Some face hurdles to accessing services, including language barriers, incomplete documentation, and ineligibility for public programs. Immigrant families often face similar barriers while also fearing deportation or other unintended consequences if they seek help. Home visiting services can support refugee and immigrant families in engaging with others, coping with trauma, and accessing community resources and services. Access to services, in turn, may help offset concerns such as food and housing insecurity and negative health and educational outcomes.This brief produced spotlights five home visiting programs using innovative, strengths-based practices to reach and serve refugee, immigrant, migrant, and dual language learner families

The Forum: Spring 2004

Spring 2004 journal of the Honors Program at the University of North Dakota. The issue includes stories, poems, essays and art by undergraduate students.https://commons.und.edu/und-books/1054/thumbnail.jp

Toward Pay Equity: A Case Study of Washington DCs Wage Boost for Early Childhood Educators

This short report presents findings from interviews—with key informants, including DC early childhood education leaders, advocates, and implementation partners; parents and legal guardians of young children enrolled in licensed DC child care facilities; and child care center directors and home and expanded home providers—on the nation's first early childhood educator wage supplement with dedicated public funding

The Forum: Winter 2004

Winter 2004 journal of the Honors Program at the University of North Dakota. The issue includes stories, poems, essays and art by undergraduate students.https://commons.und.edu/und-books/1055/thumbnail.jp

Medial temporal lobe function during emotional memory in early Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and healthy ageing:an fMRI study

Background Relative to intentional memory encoding, which quickly declines in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), incidental memory for emotional stimuli appears to deteriorate more slowly. We hypothesised that tests of incidental emotional memory may inform on different aspects of cognitive decline in MCI and AD. Methods Patients with MCI, AD and Healthy Controls (HC) were asked to attend to emotional pictures (i.e., positive and neutral) sequentially presented during an fMRI session. Attention was monitored behaviourally. A surprise post-scan recognition test was then administered. Results The groups remained attentive within the scanner. The post-scan recognition pattern was in the form of (HC = MCI) > AD, with only the former group showing a clear benefit from emotional pictures. fMRI analysis of incidental encoding demonstrated clusters of activation in para-hippocampal regions and in the hippocampus in HC and MCI patients but not in AD patients. The pattern of activation observed in MCI patients tended to be greater than that found in HC. Conclusions The results suggest that incidental emotional memory might offer a suitable platform to investigate, using behavioural and fMRI measures, subtle changes in the process of developing AD. These changes seem to differ from those found using standard episodic memory tests. The underpinnings of such differences and the potential clinical use of this methodology are discussed in depth

Genetic effects on gene expression across human tissues

Characterization of the molecular function of the human genome and its variation across individuals is essential for identifying the cellular mechanisms that underlie human genetic traits and diseases. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to characterize variation in gene expression levels across individuals and diverse tissues of the human body, many of which are not easily accessible. Here we describe genetic effects on gene expression levels across 44 human tissues. We find that local genetic variation affects gene expression levels for the majority of genes, and we further identify inter-chromosomal genetic effects for 93 genes and 112 loci. On the basis of the identified genetic effects, we characterize patterns of tissue specificity, compare local and distal effects, and evaluate the functional properties of the genetic effects. We also demonstrate that multi-tissue, multi-individual data can be used to identify genes and pathways affected by human disease-associated variation, enabling a mechanistic interpretation of gene regulation and the genetic basis of diseas

Genetic effects on gene expression across human tissues

Characterization of the molecular function of the human genome and its variation across individuals is essential for identifying the cellular mechanisms that underlie human genetic traits and diseases. The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to characterize variation in gene expression levels across individuals and diverse tissues of the human body, many of which are not easily accessible. Here we describe genetic effects on gene expression levels across 44 human tissues. We find that local genetic variation affects gene expression levels for the majority of genes, and we further identify inter-chromosomal genetic effects for 93 genes and 112 loci. On the basis of the identified genetic effects, we characterize patterns of tissue specificity, compare local and distal effects, and evaluate the functional properties of the genetic effects. We also demonstrate that multi-tissue, multi-individual data can be used to identify genes and pathways affected by human disease-associated variation, enabling a mechanistic interpretation of gene regulation and the genetic basis of disease