New Orleans schools experienced drastic reforms after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To examine teachers' perspectives on these reforms, we surveyed 323 teachers who taught in New Orleans public schools ...before 2005 and in 2013-2014. Teachers directly compared the learning and work environments and student and teacher outcomes of their current schools to those of their pre-Katrina schools. Returning teachers perceived significant and generally positive changes in learning environments and student outcomes but mixed positive and negative changes in work environments. Despite improvements in school environments, the net result is that teachers became less satisfied with their jobs. These results show that intensive, sustained school reform can lead to significant changes, but these changes can have negative impacts on teachers.
To describe the HIV case finding strategies used by the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS), Adolescent HIV Outreach and Treatment programs, the populations of youth they were able to ...reach, and the populations of HIV-positive youth they were able to identify.
Program specifications from five programs located in four major metropolitan centers were contrasted. Four of the programs also provided outcome data for HIV counseling and testing outcome numbers, demographic and risk profile data for youth who underwent HIV testing, and mode of infection of HIV-positive youth.
The program outcomes were discussed in terms of similarities and differences in outreach methods (e.g., peer workers, time of outreach, etc.), geographic settings (i.e., mobile van, institutional settings, community locations), individual characteristics (e.g., pregnant women) and youth subcultures (i.e., gay/transgendered, incarcerated juveniles, homeless).
Because HIV-positive adolescents will constitutionally remain a “hidden population,” a great deal of time and effort will continue to need to go into the front end of outreach, counseling and testing. Specific guidance and recommendations for locating HIV-positive youth were provided to program designers for each type of outreach strategy.
Background
Methods for the detection of the temporal and spatial generation of painful symptoms are needed to improve the diagnosis and treatment of painful neuropathies and to aid preclinical ...screening of molecular therapeutics.
Methods
In this study, we utilized in vivo luminescent imaging of NF‐κB activity and serum cytokine measures to investigate relationships between the NF‐κB regulatory network and the presentation of painful symptoms in a model of neuropathy.
Results
The chronic constriction injury model led to temporal increases in NF‐κB activity that were strongly and non‐linearly correlated with the presentation of pain sensitivities (i.e. mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia). The delivery of NEMO‐binding domain peptide reduced pain sensitivities through the inhibition of NF‐κB activity in a manner consistent with the demonstrated non‐linear relationship. Importantly, the combination of non‐invasive measures of NF‐κB activity and NF‐κB‐regulated serum cytokines produced a highly predictive model of both mechanical (R2 = 0.86) and thermal (R2 = 0.76) pain centred on the NF‐κB regulatory network (NF‐κB, IL‐6, CXCL1).
Conclusions
Using in vivo luminescent imaging of NF‐κB activity and serum cytokine measures, this work establishes NF‐κB and NF‐κB‐regulated cytokines as novel multivariate biomarkers of pain‐related sensitivity in this model of neuropathy that may be useful for the rapid screening of novel molecular therapeutics.
To describe the contexts within which the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Adolescent HIV Outreach and Treatment programs were evaluated, the effects their evaluations had on their ...respective programs and, in turn, the effects the program delivery had on the evaluations.
The full range of process evaluation heuristics were used to analyze the bi-directional effects of conducting field-based, service delivery data collection.
Although data collection efforts sometimes interfered with service delivery, and vice versa, several notable positive effects were disclosed.
Specific guidance and recommendations were provided to program designers, behavioral researchers and institutional funding decision makers. Primary amongst them was a call for research evaluation designs that allow for maximum flexibility.
A comment on the metaanalytic review of primary prevention mental health programs for adolescents & children by Joseph A. Durlak & Anne M. Wells (1997 see abstract 9802938) focuses on how they ...evaluated the quality of conceptualization, design, & implementation of the programs. Only 36% of the studies reviewed had specific intervention goals. Participant race & ethnicity were not reported in about 50% of the studies, replication manuals were only included in 19.3%, & only a few samples described implementation. These deficiencies raise questions about Durlak & Wells's inclusion criteria since the programs used significantly affect outcome findings. Their review might have at least separated those programs that upheld rigorous standards from the others to see if the former produced better outcomes. Detailed description-analytic reviews are discussed as an alternative approach for evaluating prevention research. The metaanalysis is also faulted for using a small number of environment-centered programs & failing to include health promotion & drug prevention studies. Although their research provides empirical support for the efficacy of prevention research & practice, there is danger in forming overgeneralizations based on these preliminary findings. 19 References. J. Lindroth
Sera from all 41 adult patients with idiopathic facil paralysis (Bell palsy) and 35 (85%) of 41 matched controls who had never had Bell palsy contained antibodies to herpes simplex virus (P smaller ...than.05). The frequency of antibodies to herpes zoster virus did not differ in patients and controls. A rise in antibody titer, indicating primary herpes simplex virus infection, was not found in these patients. That Bell palsy may be caused by reactivation of herpes simplex virus is suggested by (1) clinical, neurologic, laboratory, and immunologic similarities between idiopathic facial paralysis and known manifestations of reactivated herpes simplex virus infection, and (2) the known neurotropism of herpes simplex virus, including its presence in latent form in the trigeminal ganglia, and parallels with known facial paralysis due to varicella zoster virus, a closely related agent. The presence of antibodies to herpes simplex virus is the only common factor among the patients tested in this study.
Tobacco smoke exposure dramatically alters DNA methylation in blood cells and may mediate smoking-associated complex diseases through effects on immune cell function. However, knowledge of smoking ...effects in specific leukocyte subtypes is limited. To better characterize smoking-associated methylation changes in whole blood and leukocyte subtypes, we used Illumina 450K arrays and Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (RRBS) to assess genome-wide DNA methylation. Differential methylation analysis in whole blood DNA from 172 smokers and 81 nonsmokers revealed 738 CpGs, including 616 previously unreported CpGs, genome-wide significantly associated with current smoking (p <1.2x10-7, Bonferroni correction). Several CpGs (MTSS1, NKX6-2, BTG2) were associated with smoking duration among heavy smokers (>22 cigarettes/day, n = 86) which might relate to long-term heavy-smoking pathology. In purified leukocyte subtypes from an independent group of 20 smokers and 14 nonsmokers we further examined methylation and gene expression for selected genes among CD14+ monocytes, CD15+ granulocytes, CD19+ B cells, and CD2+ T cells. In 10 smokers and 10 nonsmokers we used RRBS to fine map differential methylation in CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, CD14+, CD15+, CD19+, and CD56+ natural killer cells. Distinct cell-type differences in smoking-associated methylation and gene expression were identified. AHRR (cg05575921), ALPPL2 (cg21566642), GFI1 (cg09935388), IER3 (cg06126421) and F2RL3 (cg03636183) showed a distinct pattern of significant smoking-associated methylation differences across cell types: granulocytes> monocytes>> B cells. In contrast GPR15 (cg19859270) was highly significant in T and B cells and ITGAL (cg09099830) significant only in T cells. Numerous other CpGs displayed distinctive cell-type responses to tobacco smoke exposure that were not apparent in whole blood DNA. Assessing the overlap between these CpG sites and differential methylated regions (DMRs) with RRBS in 6 cell types, we confirmed cell-type specificity in the context of DMRs. We identified new CpGs associated with current smoking, pack-years, duration, and revealed unique profiles of smoking-associated DNA methylation and gene expression among immune cell types, providing potential clues to hematopoietic lineage-specific effects in disease etiology.
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