Objective:This study estimated the prevalence of self-reported symptoms of mental health problems and treatment utilization in a U.S. national sample of community college students and made ...comparisons with data from a sample of students at 4-year educational institutions.Methods:The study used data for 2016–2019 from the Healthy Minds Study, an annual cross-sectional survey. The sample included 10,089 students from 23 community colleges and 95,711 students from 133 4-year institutions. Outcomes were mental health symptom prevalence based on validated screening tools and rates of service utilization, such as use of therapy and psychotropic medication. Analyses were weighted by using survey nonresponse weights.Results:Prevalence rates were comparably high in the sample of community college and 4-year students, with just more than 50% of each group meeting criteria for one or more mental health problems. Analyses by age group revealed significantly higher prevalence for community college students ages 18–22 years, relative to their same-age peers at 4-year institutions. Community college students, particularly those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds, were significantly less likely to have used services, compared with students on 4-year campuses. Financial stress was a strong predictor of mental health outcomes, and cost was the most salient treatment barrier in the community college sample.Conclusions:This is the largest known study to report on the mental health needs of community college students in the United States. Findings have important implications for campus policies and programs and for future research to advance equity in mental health and other key outcomes, such as college persistence and retention.
Sorbent booms are considered a ‘first line of defence’ technology used for containing and minimizing the impacts of crude oil spills. Booms containing human hair waste as sorbent were compared to ...other natural sorbents, including cotton by-product, recycled cellulose, as well as booms containing synthetic polypropylene, in order to evaluate their effectiveness in adsorbing petroleum crude oil pollution, remaining buoyant, and adsorbing seawater. A series of oceanic mesocosm experiments were used to simulate oil spill pollution events and to test sorbent effectiveness. Hair by-product was found to be significantly better at adsorbing crude oil on average (i.e. 0.84 g of crude oil per 1 g of sorbent) than all other materials, although it had wider variation in adsorbency likely associated with the non-homogeneous nature of mixed human hair. Hair sorbent was also observed to be less naturally buoyant than other materials, potentially due to low surface tension or increased porosity.
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•Hair adsorbs more crude oil (per g of sorbent) compared to other tested materials.•Polypropylene booms had the highest oil adsorbency ratio, followed by hair.•Hair is less buoyant and should be paired with floatation devices or socking.
The flammability of plant leaves influences the spread of fire through vegetation. Exotic plants invading native vegetation may increase the spread of bushfires if their leaves are more flammable ...than native leaves. We compared fresh-leaf and dry-leaf flammability (time to ignition) between 52 native and 27 exotic plant species inhabiting dry sclerophyll forest. We found that mean time to ignition was significantly faster in dry exotic leaves than in dry native leaves. There was no significant native-exotic difference in mean time to ignition for fresh leaves. The significantly higher fresh-leaf water content that was found in exotics, lost in the conversion from a fresh to dry state, suggests that leaf water provides an important buffering effect that leads to equivalent mean time to ignition in fresh exotic and native leaves. Exotic leaves were also significantly wider, longer and broader in area with significantly higher specific leaf area-but not thicker-than native leaves. We examined scaling relationships between leaf flammability and leaf size (leaf width, length, area, specific leaf area and thickness). While exotics occupied the comparatively larger and more flammable end of the leaf size-flammability spectrum in general, leaf flammability was significantly correlated with all measures of leaf size except leaf thickness in both native and exotic species such that larger leaves were faster to ignite. Our findings for increased flammability linked with larger leaf size in exotics demonstrate that exotic plant species have the potential to increase the spread of bushfires in dry sclerophyll forest.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Newborn screening (NBS) is a successful public health initiative that effectively identifies pre‐symptomatic neonates so that treatment can be initiated before the onset of irreversible morbidity and ...mortality. Legislation passed in 2008 has supported a system of state screening programs, educational resources, and an evidence‐based review process to add conditions to a recommended universal newborn screening panel (RUSP). The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), NIH, has promoted NBS research to advance legislative goals by supporting research that will uncover fundamental mechanisms of disease, develop treatments for NBS disorders, and promote pilot studies to test implementation of new conditions. NICHD's partnerships with other federal agencies have contributed to activities that support nominations of new conditions to the RUSP. The NIH's Newborn Sequencing In Genomic Medicine and Public Health (NSIGHT) initiative funded research projects that considered how genomic sequencing could be integrated into NBS and its ethical ramifications. Recently, the workshop, “Gene Targeted Therapies: Early Diagnosis and Equitable Delivery,” has explored the possibility of expanding NBS to include genetic diagnosis and precision, gene‐based therapies. Although hurdles remain to realize such a vision, broad engagement of multiple stakeholders is essential to advance genomic medicine within NBS.
•Viral-mediated inhibition of nucleus accumbens core (NAc core) NF-κB signaling suppresses cue-motivated cocaine seeking in male, but not female, rats.•Inhibition of NAc core NF-κB signaling does not ...significantly alter cue-motivated sucrose seeking.•Suppression of NAc core NF-κB signaling decreases NAc core, but not NAcSh, MMP-9 expression in males but not females.•Male rats exhibit greater NAc core and NAcSh MMP-9 expression compared to females.
Chronic drug self-administration and withdrawal are associated with distinct neuroimmune adaptations that may increase drug craving and relapse vulnerability in humans. The nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) pathway is a critical regulator of many immune- and addiction-related genes such as the extracellular matrix enzyme matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), which is a known modulator of learning, memory, and synaptic plasticity. While some studies suggest striatal NF-κB signaling may regulate drug-conditioned behavior, no studies to date have examined whether NF-κB signaling within the nucleus accumbens core (NAc core) alters downstream neuroimmune function and cue-motivated cocaine seeking following a period of forced abstinence, whether any effects are specific to cocaine over other reinforcers, or whether sex differences exist. Here, we examined whether viral-mediated knockdown of the p65 subunit of NF-κB within the NAc core would alter MMP-9 expression and cue-induced cocaine- and sucrose-seeking behavior following a period of forced abstinence in male and female rats. We demonstrate that NAc core p65 knockdown results in a significant decrease in cue-induced cocaine seeking in males but not females. This effect was specific to cocaine, as p65 knockdown did not significantly affect cue-induced sucrose seeking in either males or females. Moreover, we demonstrate that males express higher levels of MMP-9 within the NAc core and nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) compared to females, and that p65 knockdown significantly decreases MMP-9 in the NAc core of males but not females among cocaine cue-exposed animals. Altogether, these results suggest that NAc core NF-κB signaling exerts modulatory control over cue-motivated drug-seeking behavior and downstream neuroimmune function in a sex-specific manner. These findings highlight the need to consider sex as an important biological variable when examining immunomodulatory mechanisms of cocaine seeking.
Abstract
The DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway corrects mismatched bases produced during DNA replication and is highly conserved across the tree of life, reflecting its fundamental importance for ...genome integrity. Loss of function in one or a few MMR genes can lead to increased mutation rates and microsatellite instability, as seen in some human cancers. Although loss of MMR genes has been documented in the context of human disease and in hypermutant strains of pathogens, examples of entire species and species lineages that have experienced substantial MMR gene loss are lacking. We examined the genomes of 1,107 species in the fungal phylum Ascomycota for the presence of 52 genes known to be involved in the MMR pathway of fungi. We found that the median ascomycete genome contained 49/52 MMR genes. In contrast, four closely related species of obligate plant parasites from the powdery mildew genera Erysiphe and Blumeria, have lost between five and 21 MMR genes, including MLH3, EXO1, and DPB11. The lost genes span MMR functions, include genes that are conserved in all other ascomycetes, and loss of function of any of these genes alone has been previously linked to increased mutation rate. Consistent with the hypothesis that loss of these genes impairs MMR pathway function, we found that powdery mildew genomes with higher levels of MMR gene loss exhibit increased numbers of mononucleotide runs, longer microsatellites, accelerated sequence evolution, elevated mutational bias in the A|T direction, and decreased GC content. These results identify a striking example of macroevolutionary loss of multiple MMR pathway genes in a eukaryotic lineage, even though the mutational outcomes of these losses appear to resemble those associated with detrimental MMR dysfunction in other organisms.
Objectives. To examine spending and resource allocation decision-making to address health and social service integration challenges within and between governments.
Methods. We performed a mixed ...methods case study to examine the integration of health and social services in a large US metropolitan area, including a city and a county government. Analyses incorporated annual budget data from the city and the county from 2009 to 2018 and semistructured interviews with 41 key leaders, including directors, deputies, or finance officers from all health care–, health-, or social service–oriented city and county agencies; lead budget and finance managers; and city and county executive offices.
Results. Participants viewed public health and social services as qualitatively important, although together these constituted only $157 or $1250 total per capita spending in 2018, and per capita public health spending has declined since 2009. Funding streams can be siloed and budget approaches can facilitate or impede service integration.
Conclusions. Health and social services should be integrated through greater attention to the budgetary, jurisdictional, and programmatic realities of health and social service agencies and to the budget models used for driving the systems-level pursuit of population health.
While several studies have explored manhood acts and compensatory manhood acts in cisgender men, few have examined them in the trans community. This research fills gaps in the literature by examining ...an understudied population in the Southeastern United States, an area of the country where queer lives are often ignored. Additionally, it allows for the continued separation of masculinities from only those bodies assigned male at birth. Using 51 interviews with trans men, we examine the experiences of trans men in the South and the manhood acts they employ to enhance their claims to masculinities and to compensate for their presumed lack of biological maleness. By becoming a member of a brotherhood and participating in sexism, some of the participants in this study are able to bolster their claims to manhood.
Within an increasingly polarized political society, the American university system is a space that is no exception. The authors approach the complex and dynamic issue of community engagement within a ...polarized space using their unique standpoint of attending and teaching at predominantly white institutions in the American rural Deep South. This piece takes into consideration the perceptions of the student and the instructor that contribute to a continuation of polarized space that inhibits not only our ability to build community but also our ability to "do sociology" in the classroom, promote critical thinking, and use our sociological imaginations to truly explore nuances. Given the two-fold issue of instructors and students often perceiving each other to be at odds within an increasingly politicized society, this commentary offers three pieces of advice on (1) transforming critical thinking for both the instructor and the classroom, (2) avoiding potential pitfalls within polarized spaces, and (3) offering hope for the future through suggestions on applying community-engagement in the classroom. This advice will transform the classroom to fit the ideals of community-engaged sociology and remind us that sociology should not simply be taught from a top-down approach, but rather utilized as a tool for social change.
Nutrition screening is a process used to quickly identify those who may be at risk of malnutrition so that a full nutrition assessment and appropriate nutrition intervention can be provided. While ...many nutrition screening tools have been developed, few have been evaluated for use in older adults in the community setting. The aim of this paper is to determine the most appropriate nutrition screening tool/s, in terms of validity and reliability, for identifying malnutrition risk in older adults living in the community. Electronic databases MEDLINE, PUBMED, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library were searched for nutrition screening tools to identify malnutrition or under-nutrition for adults greater than 65 years living in the community. Ten screening tools were found for use in community-dwelling older adults and subjected to validity and/or reliability testing: Mini Nutritional Assessment- Short Form (MNA-SF), Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST), Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI), which includes the DETERMINE Checklist and Level I and II Screen, Australian Nutritional Screening Initiative (ANSI), Seniors in the Community: Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition (SCREEN I and SCREEN II), Short Nutritional Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ ), Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ), and two unnamed tools. MNA-SF appears to be the most appropriate nutrition screening tool for use in community-dwelling older adults although MUST and SCREEN II also have evidence to support their use. Further research into the acceptability of screening tools focusing on the outcomes of nutrition screening and appropriate nutrition intervention are required.
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