This article offers an analysis of a period of autoethnographic fieldwork conducted at Venture Arts, an art studio in Manchester (UK) that provides infrastructure to support people with intellectual ...disabilities to participate in the visual arts. The analysis is concerned with two ‘discomfort zones’ that have become apparent in the research period. The first is my positionality as a researcher in the studio space. In this section I draw on new materialism and critical disability studies to propose my methodology, mode of analysis and strategies of writing. In writing towards an understanding of my positionality and associated affective flows, the second discomfort zone provides an exposition of my emerging methodology. In this section I analyse my fieldnotes to explore the tensions and alliances between different zones of practice in the Venture Arts studio, and their relationship with existing conceptions of contemporary art and relational art. While each of these lenses offers tools through which to understand the artistic practice that arises out of the studio, none of them does completely. Instead, I propose an alternative account that recognises the overlapping, converging and co‐constituted zones of practice in the Venture Arts studio.
This article compares child welfare outcomes and cost savings when 30 Days to Family® is implemented in contrasting policy and practice contexts and at early and mature stages of implementation. ...Across all contexts and stages, children served, when compared with those eligible but not served, were more likely to be placed with kin, to spend fewer days in foster care, and to experience better permanency outcomes. Those placed with kin, when compared with those not with kin, experienced greater placement stability and fewer placements in treatment settings. Substantial cost savings were demonstrated in both favorable and less-favorable implementation conditions.
30 Days to Family Atkinson, Anne J.
Child welfare,
07/2019, Letnik:
97, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This study compares outcomes for 310 children served by a front-end intensive family-finding and support intervention with outcomes for a matched sample of 230 children not served. Children served ...were more likely to be placed with kin and spent fewer days in foster care, while those with kin experienced significantly greater placement stability and were less likely to be placed in inpatient treatment settings. Substantial cost savings were derived from better outcomes.
Training for Adoption Competency (TAC), an advanced, adoption-competency, clinical training program for licensed mental health professionals, was developed in response to the largely unmet needs of ...adoptive families for high-quality adoption-competent, mental health services. A rigorous ongoing evaluation assessing training delivery, effectiveness, and outcomes has produced strong evidence that TAC is a sound and effective training model that produces changes in clinical assessment and intervention practices that enable clinicians to apply trauma-informed, attachment-based skills to address core adoption issues such as loss, grief, control, and identity. Implications for clinical practice with families touched by adoption and other forms of permanency, research, and training to create an adoption-competent clinical professional community are presented.
We previously reported an association between relative L-ficolin deficiency and recurrent respiratory infections co-existing with allergic disorders in children. To confirm and extend this ...preliminary finding, we performed a prospective study on children of a similar age (mean 8.9 years) designed to establish whether the principal relationship was with infection or allergy. Serum L-ficolin values in healthy children were normally distributed with a mean value of 3838ng/ml. L-ficolin concentrations were generally lower in patients with asthma and/or allergic rhinitis with (mean 3413ng/ml; p=0.02) or without (3512ng/ml; p<0.07) respiratory infections, but not in patients with respiratory infections without allergic disease (3623ng/ml; p=0.2). The lower average values in the group comprised of children with respiratory allergy and infections were largely due to a high proportion of very low values: 18.3% had values below 2150ng/ml compared to only 5.5% of healthy controls (OR=3.9; p=0.01). This relationship was not apparent in the groups characterized by allergy without infection or infections without allergy. An association between mannan-binding lectin (MBL) insufficiency and recurrent respiratory infections was also confirmed. One of the patients was MASP-2 deficient, evidenced both by MASP2 genotyping and by lectin pathway activity measurement. In conclusion, L-ficolin may confer some protection from microorganisms that exacerbate allergic inflammation in the lung and its relative deficiency may contribute to enhanced susceptibility to respiratory infections. MBL insufficiency and MASP-2 deficiency are risk factors for recurrence of infections independently of allergic disease.
Abstract Mannan (or mannose)–binding lectin (MBL) can bind to monocytes and dendritic cells, but the significance of such interactions is unknown. We hypothesized that the presence of MBL might ...prevent the differentiation of monocytes into monocyte-derived dendritic cells or interfere with the development of dendritic cells in some way. We therefore investigated the influence of recombinant human MBL on surface antigen expression and on secretion of selected cytokines. By these means, no direct influence of rhMBL on dendritic cell differentiation or maturation was detected. However, mature dendritic cells prepared in the presence of rhMBL and subsequently co-cultured with allogeneic mononuclear cells, markedly promoted production of interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor–α in vitro . In most dendritic cell–mononuclear cell combinations, IFN-γ production was also enhanced. This influence required the presence of rhMBL during dendritic cell maturation and was critically dependent on the presence of monocytes. This observation provides evidence that MBL can influence cellular immunity in addition to its established role as an opsonin.
Ficolins and one collectin, mannan-binding lectin (MBL), are the only factors known to activate the lectin pathway (LP) of complement. There is considerable circumstantial evidence that MBL ...insufficiency can increase susceptibility to various infections and influence the course of several non-infectious diseases complicated by infections. Much less information is available concerning l-ficolin. We report the results of a prospective study to investigate any association between either MBL deficiency or l-ficolin deficiency with prematurity, low birthweight or perinatal infections in a large cohort of Polish neonates, representing an ethnically homogenous population (n=1832). Cord blood samples were analysed to determine mbl-2 gene variants, MBL concentrations and MBL-MASP-2 complex activities (MBL-dependent lectin pathway activity) as well as l-ficolin levels. Median concentrations of l-ficolin and MBL were 2500 and 1124ng/ml, respectively, while median LP activity was 272mU/ml. After genotyping, 60.6% of babies were mbl-2 A/A, 35.4% were A/O and 4% were O/O genotypes. We found relative l-ficolin deficiency to be associated with prematurity, low birthweight and infections. l-Ficolin concentration correlated with gestational age and with birthweight, independently of gestational age. Preterm deliveries (<38 weeks) occurred more frequently among neonates with low LP activity but not with those having low serum MBL levels. Similarly, no association of serum MBL deficiency with low birthweight was found, but there was a correlation between LP activity and birthweight. Genotypes conferring very low serum MBL concentrations were associated with perinatal infections, and high-MBL-conferring genotypes were associated with prematurity. Our findings suggest that l-ficolin participates in host defence during the perinatal period and constitute the first evidence that relative l-ficolin deficiency may contribute to the adverse consequences of prematurity. Some similar trends were found with facets of MBL deficiency, but the observed relationships were weaker and less consistent.
The need for adoption competent mental health services has been well documented. However, the term "adoption-competent" has lacked a standardized, broadly accepted definition. This article reports ...findings from two related studies. The first examines how adoption competencies are demonstrated in practice by clinicians participating in an evidence-informed adoption competency training program. The second is an online survey designed to determine whether members of adoption kinship networks agree with a definition of an adoption competent mental health professional developed by experts. Both studies contribute to our understanding of what constitutes "adoption competent" clinical practice.
Limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) is a disease resulting from the loss or dysfunction of epithelial stem cells, which seriously impairs sight. Autologous limbal stem cell transplantation is ...effective in unilateral or partial bilateral disease but not applicable in total bilateral disease. An allogeneic source of transplantable cells for use in total bilateral disease can be obtained from culture of donated cadaveric corneal tissue. We performed a controlled multicenter study to examine the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of allogeneic corneal epithelial stem cells in the treatment of bilateral LSCD. Patients were randomized to receive corneal epithelial stem cells cultured on amniotic membrane (AM): investigational medicinal product (IMP) or control AM only. Patients received systemic immunosuppression. Primary endpoints were safety and visual acuity, secondary endpoint was change in composite ocular surface score (OSS). Sixteen patients were treated and 13 patients completed all assessments. Safety was demonstrated and 9/13 patients had improved visual acuity scores at the end of the trial, with no significant differences between IMP and control groups. Patients in the IMP arm demonstrated significant, sustained improvement in OSS, whereas those in the control arm did not. Serum cytokine levels were measured during and after the period of immune suppression and we identified strongly elevated levels of CXCL8 in the serum of patients with aniridia, which persisted throughout the trial. This first randomized control trial of allogeneic corneal epithelial stem cells in severe bilateral LSCD demonstrates the feasibility and safety of this approach. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2019;8:323–331
Patients with severe ocular surface disorder received transplants of amniotic membrane with (black bars) or without (gray bars) cadaveric‐donor‐derived cultured limbal stem cells. All patients received immune suppression. Only patients who received transplants containing limbal stem cells showed sustained significant improvements (reductions) in combined ocular surface scores (5 factors scored 0–3 where 0 is a normal eye score).
Abstract Circulating mannan (or mannose)-binding lectin (MBL) is genetically determined. Low MBL concentrations are associated with certain point mutations in the human MBL2 gene. Here we report the ...full MBL2 genotypes of 1800 Polish neonates and relate individual genotypes to serum MBL and MBL-dependent activity of the lectin pathway of complement activation. The seven acknowledged common haplotypes were found, plus the uncommon LYPD haplotype, combining to form 33 genotypes in this population. As expected, a strong correlation existed between genotypes and serum MBL or lectin pathway activity, and the latter two entities correlated strongly with each other. However, serum MBL values varied up to greater than 90-fold within genotypes. Unexpectedly, higher lectin pathway activity was found in association with the P allele relative to the Q allele. These data from a large cohort of neonates, representing an ethnically homogenous population, suggest that the current knowledge of the genetics of MBL2 is inadequate to predict serum MBL concentration and MBL-dependent lectin pathway activity in individual subjects.
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