Your search

While extensive research has focused on how social interactions evolve, the fitness consequences of the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying these interactions have rarely been documented, especially in the wild. Here, we measure how the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying male behaviour affect mating success and sperm competition in the ocellated wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus). In this species, males exhibit three alternative reproductive types. “Nesting males” provide parental care, defend territories and form cooperative associations with unrelated “satellites,” who cheat by sneaking fertilizations but help by reducing sperm competition from “sneakers” who do not cooperate or provide care. To measure the fitness consequences of the mechanisms underlying these social interactions, we used “phenotypic engineering” that involved administering an androgen receptor antagonist (flutamide) to wild, free-living fish. Nesting males treated with flutamide shifted their aggression from sneakers to satellite males and experienced decreased submissiveness by sneaker males (which correlated with decreased nesting male mating success). The preoptic area (POA), a region controlling male reproductive behaviours, exhibited dramatic down-regulation of androgen receptor (AR) and vasotocin 1a receptor (V1aR) mRNA following experimental manipulation of androgen signalling. We did not find a direct effect of the manipulation on male mating success, paternity or larval production. However, variation in neuroendocrine mechanisms generated by the experimental manipulation was significantly correlated with changes in behaviour and mating success: V1aR expression was negatively correlated with satellite-directed aggression, and expression of its ligand arginine vasotocin (AVT) was positively correlated with courtship and mating success, thus revealing the potential for sexual selection on these mechanisms. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Instances of employees being `dooced' because of a social media post are becoming commonplace. Three research questions are presented to better understand workplace firings due to social media posts using justice theory and social convergence to fit within the nomological net. The first question examines employees' awareness of their employer's social media policy. The second question examines the role of offensiveness in the perceived fairness of the termination. The third question asks whether work-related posts (social convergence) and the presence of a social media policy (social media governance) influence the perception of termination fairness. Two data collection efforts are presented to test the research questions. The research findings extend the social media marketing governance literature by incorporating role theory and script theory. Managerial implications include the importance of developing and communicating to employees the organization's social media policies.

The role of the social worker in the achievement of human rights is to assist individuals in their struggle for dignity and their attainment of their full potential. Ethical social work ensures just laws and practices that allow all persons to live without discrimination. The purpose of this paper is to present the practice and policy implications of the last five years of court cases regarding transgender and gender expansive (TGE) children and school systems in the USA. This paper outlines the legal justifications for revisions to the current procedures and policies of interacting with TGE children, including use of restrooms consistent with gender identity (RCGI). These recommended guidelines are designed to prevent ongoing human rights violations and create pathways for TGE children to live their lives congruently with their gender identity. Basic human rights for the TGE individual include policy improvements involving restrooms, locker rooms, showers, overnight accommodation, affirmed name, and identification for the child welfare, mental health, educational, medical, juvenile justice, and law enforcement systems. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Opioid abuse in the United States has been declared a national crisis and is exacerbated by an inexpensive, readily available, and illicit supply of synthetic opioids. Specifically, fentanyl and related analogues such as carfentanil pose a significant danger to opioid users due to their high potency and rapid acting depression of respiration. In recent years these synthetic opioids have become the number one cause of drug-related deaths. In our research efforts to combat the public health threat posed by synthetic opioids, we have developed monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against the fentanyl class of drugs. The mAbs were generated in hybridomas derived from mice vaccinated with a fentanyl conjugate vaccine. Guided by a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) binding assay, we selected six hybridomas that produced mAbs with 10-11 M binding affinity for fentanyl, yet broad cross-reactivity with related fentanyl analogues. In mouse antinociception models, our lead mAb (6A4) could blunt the effects of both fentanyl and carfentanil in a dose-responsive manner. Additionally, mice pretreated with 6A4 displayed enhanced survival when subjected to fentanyl above LD50 doses. Pharmacokinetic analysis revealed that the antibody sequesters large amounts of these drugs in the blood, thus reducing drug biodistribution to the brain and other tissue. Lastly, the 6A4 mAb could effectively reverse fentanyl/carfentanil-induced antinociception comparable to the opioid antagonist naloxone, the standard of care drug for treating opioid overdose. While naloxone is known for its short half-life, we found the half-life of 6A4 to be approximately 6 days in mice, thus monoclonal antibodies could theoretically be useful in preventing renarcotization events in which opioid intoxication recurs following quick metabolism of naloxone. Our results as a whole demonstrate that monoclonal antibodies could be a desirable treatment modality for synthetic opioid overdose and possibly opioid use disorder.

Due to the difficulty of simultaneously assessing variation in individual physiology, behaviour and fitness, we often know little about the mechanistic basis of life-history trade-offs and fitness variation. It is similarly challenging to examine how physiological variation in one individual has cascading fitness consequences for others in the social environment. Using a wild-living fish (ocellated wrasse, Symphodus ocellatus), we manipulated a neuropeptide pathway associated with courtship, aggression and parental care in vertebrates (arginine vasotocin, AVT) and directly examined the behavioural and fitness consequences. Nesting males injected with the AVT antagonist increased their paternal care, resulting in increased hatching of offspring and increased reproductive success of all individuals that mated at his nest. By directly examining physiology, behaviour and reproductive success, we revealed how a small change in individual physiology has clear and direct fitness consequences for multiple individuals. © 2019 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

One proposed factor contributing to the increased frequency of opioid overdose deaths is the emergence of novel synthetic opioids, including illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. A treatment strategy currently under development to address the ongoing opioid crisis is immunopharmacotherapies or opioid-targeted vaccines. The present study determined the effectiveness and selectivity of a fentanyl-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine to alter the behavioral effects of fentanyl and a structurally dissimilar mu-opioid agonist oxycodone in male rhesus monkeys (n = 3-4). Fentanyl and oxycodone produced dose-dependent suppression of behavior in an assay of schedule-controlled responding and antinociception in an assay of thermal nociception (50 degrees C). Acute naltrexone (0.032 mg/kg) produced an approximate 10-fold potency shift for fentanyl to decrease operant responding. The fentanyl vaccine was administered at weeks 0, 2, 4, 9, 19, and 44 and fentanyl or oxycodone potencies in both behavioral assays were redetermined over the course of 49 weeks. The vaccine significantly and selectively shifted fentanyl potency at least 10-fold in both assays at several time points over the entire experimental period. Mid-point titer levels correlated with fentanyl antinociceptive potency shifts. Antibody affinity for fentanyl as measured by a competitive binding assay improved over time to approximately 3-4 nM. The fentanyl vaccine also increased fentanyl plasma levels approximately 6-fold consistent with the hypothesis that the vaccine sequesters fentanyl in the blood. Overall, these results support the continued development and evaluation of this fentanyl vaccine in humans to address the ongoing opioid crisis.

The current opioid crisis remains a significant public health issue and there is a critical need for biomedical research to develop effective and easily deployable candidate treatments. One emerging treatment strategy for opioid use disorder includes immunopharmacotherapies or opioid-targeted vaccines. The present study determined the effectiveness of a fentanyl-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine to alter fentanyl self-administration using a fentanyl-vs.-food choice procedure in male and female rats under three experimental conditions. For comparison, continuous 7-day naltrexone (0.01-0.1 mg/kg/h) and 7-day clonidine (3.2-10 mug/kg/h) treatment effects were also determined on fentanyl-vs.-food choice. Male and female rats responded for concurrently available 18% diluted Ensure R (liquid food) and fentanyl (0-10 mug/kg/infusion) infusions during daily sessions. Under baseline and saline treatment conditions, fentanyl maintained a dose-dependent increase in fentanyl-vs.-food choice. First, fentanyl vaccine administration significantly blunted fentanyl reinforcement and increased food reinforcement for 15 weeks in non-opioid dependent rats. Second, surmountability experiments by increasing the unit fentanyl dose available during the self-administration session 10-fold empirically determined that the fentanyl vaccine produced an approximate 22-fold potency shift in fentanyl-vs.-food choice that was as effective as the clinically approved treatment naltrexone. Clonidine treatment significantly increased fentanyl-vs.-food choice. Lastly, fentanyl vaccine administration prevented the expression of withdrawal-associated increases in fentanyl-vs.-food choice following introduction of extended 12 h fentanyl access sessions. Overall, these results support the potential and further consideration of immunopharmacotherapies as candidate treatments to address the current opioid crisis.

Glioma is one of the most refractory types of brain tumor. Accurate tumor boundary identification and complete resection of the tumor are essential for glioma removal during brain surgery. We present a method based on visible resonance Raman (VRR) spectroscopy to identify glioma margins and grades. A set of diagnostic spectral biomarkers features are presented based on tissue composition changes revealed by VRR. The Raman spectra include molecular vibrational fingerprints of carotenoids, tryptophan, amide I/II/III, proteins, and lipids. These basic in situ spectral biomarkers are used to identify the tissue from the interface between brain cancer and normal tissue and to evaluate glioma grades. The VRR spectra are also analyzed using principal component analysis for dimension reduction and feature detection and support vector machine for classification. The cross-validated sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy are found to be 100%, 96.3%, and 99.6% to distinguish glioma tissues from normal brain tissues, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the classification is about 1.0. The accuracies to distinguish normal, low grade (grades I and II), and high grade (grades III and IV) gliomas are found to be 96.3%, 53.7%, and 84.1% for the three groups, respectively, along with a total accuracy of 75.1%. A set of criteria for differentiating normal human brain tissues from normal control tissues is proposed and used to identify brain cancer margins, yielding a diagnostic sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 71%. Our study demonstrates the potential of VRR as a label-free optical molecular histopathology method used for in situ boundary line judgment for brain surgery in the margins.

General education teachers are challenged with meeting the unique instructional needs of every learner in their classrooms, which increasingly include English learners (ELs) and students with learning disabilities (LD). This article uses vignettes to demonstrate how a middle school content teacher uses five strategies: building prior knowledge, building vocabulary, explicit instruction, visual representation, and opportunities to respond to support his students. Each strategy is evidence based for ELs and for students who have an identified LD. Research supports that ELs and students with LD benefit from specific instructional strategies that enhance the accessibility of course content and potentially improve learning outcomes. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Purpose:As implementation and evaluation of research supported treatment (RST) expands across diverse mental health settings, it is essential to understand the facilitators and inhibitors of uptake. The current study examined the relationships between organizational readiness for change, attitudes toward RST, and use of RST among a sample primarily of social workers.Methods:Participants included 158 providers from public child mental health outpatient clinics in the New York metropolitan area. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.Results:Use of RST was greater among providers who were younger and had fewer years of professional experience. Both organizational need for change and climate directly and indirectly related to use of RST through attitudes toward RST (partial mediator).Discussion:The organizational context is an important factor that relates to attitudes toward and use of RST in practice. Future research is needed to continue examining factors of RST uptake and sustainability.

Produced in cooperation with the National Association of School Nurses, this text includes comprehensive coverage of the multiple facets of school nursing—from the foundations of practice and the roles and functions of a school nurse through episodic and chronic illness and behavioral issues, to legal issues and leading and managing within school settings. Written and edited by school nurses and pediatric experts, it features real-world-tested, best practices based on evidence and experience. There’s content here that you won’t find in other books, such as health assessments, individualized health plan development, mental health conditions including adolescent depression, contemporary legal issues, and current policy statements essential to school nursing.

The definitive educational guide on the diagnosis and management of dysphagia across the full age continuumDysphagia presentation and treatment differs at various stages of life. Assessing and Treating Dysphagia: A Lifespan Perspective reflects significant knowledge and pearls from esteemed adult and pediatric swallowing disorders experts. Debra Suiter and Memorie Gosa have compiled a book of unique depth and breadth with contributions from communication science experts including speech-language pathologists and physicians. The textbook provides comprehensive coverage of swallowing disorders from birth to old age, including clinical, professional, and cultural ethical considerations.Key HighlightsAnatomy and physiology of swallowing, and compensatory, postural, and rehabilitation strategiesAdult and pediatric specific chapters on swallow screenings, clinical evaluations, and technologies such as videofluroscopic, fiberoptic endoscopic, and high-resolution manometryPediatric-specific dysphagia related to premature birth, craniofacial syndromes, congenital heart disease, and cerebral palsyAdult-specific dysphagia related to neurodegenerative disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, head and neck cancer, esophageal disease, pulmonary disease, and end of lifeThis is the only textbook on the market featuring complete coverage of the diagnosis and management of dysphasia across the lifespan. With content following Master's-level course curriculum, this is essential reading for graduate students as well as practicing clinicians in the fields of otolaryngology and speech language pathology.This book includes complimentary access to a digital copy on https://medone.thieme.com.

The current study evaluated the benefits of free-recall, cognitive load, and closed-ended questions on children's (ages 6 to 11; N = 147) true and false eyewitness disclosures. Children witnessed an experimenter find a stranger's wallet and were then asked to make a false denial, false accusation, true denial, or true accusation regarding an alleged theft. Overall, the free-recall question resulted in longer, more forthcoming and more detailed disclosures from older children and those who made a truthful accusation; however, children under the age of 9 and lie-tellers mostly relied on the closed-ended questions to discuss the theft. Although the cognitive load questions resulted in newly recalled information, there were no significant narrative differences between true and false statements on these questions. These findings suggest that forensic professionals should consider a child's developmental level, statement veracity, and disclosure-type (denial vs. accusation) when examining the efficacy of these commonly used questioning strategies.

The Oxford Handbook of Charles Brockden Brown provides an up-to-date survey of the life of and full range of writings by Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810), a key writer of the Atlantic revolutionary age and U.S. Early Republic. Through the late twentieth century, Brockden Brown was best known as an important author of political romances in the gothic mode that were widely influential in romantic era, and has generated large amounts of scholarship as a crucial figure in the history of the American novel. More recent work recognizes him likewise an influential editor, historian, and writer in other genres such as poetry, short fiction, and essays, and as a figure whose work resonated throughout the Atlantic world of the revolutionary age. The Oxford Handbook’s thirty-five chapters build on the research of the most recently scholarly generation to introduce readers to and explore Brown’s wide-ranging work. Its chapters focus on the author’s biography, romances, writings in a range of genres, his key concept of the romance as a form of engaged conjectural history, his engagements in the cultural-ideological struggles of the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, as well as the aesthetic, political, scientific, and other key dimensions of his corpus. The volume concludes with a survey of Brown’s complex reception history and the state of Brown studies at present.

We report the energy dependence of mid-rapidity (anti-)deuteron production in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV, measured by the STAR experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The yield of deuterons is found to be well described by the thermal model. The collision energy, centrality, and transverse momentum dependence of the coalescence parameter B2 are discussed. We find that the values of B2 for antideuterons are systematically lower than those for deuterons, indicating that the correlation volume of antibaryons is larger than that of baryons at √sNN from 19.6 to 39 GeV. In addition, values of B2 are found to vary with collision energy and show a broad minimum around √sNN=20–40 GeV, which might imply a change of the equation of state of the medium in these collisions.

Background: Reading difficulties often present as a consequence of aphasia. The specific nature of reading deficits varies widely in manifestation, and the cause of these deficits may be the result of a phonological, lexical semantic, or cognitive impairment. Several treatments have been developed to address a range of impairments underlying reading difficulty.Aims: The purpose of this review is to describe the current research on reading comprehension treatments for persons with aphasia, assess the quality of the research, and summarize treatment outcomes.Methods & Procedures: A systematic review of the literature was conducted based on a set of a priori questions, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and pre-determined search parameters. Results were summarized according to treatment type, methodologic rigor, and outcomes.Outcomes & Results: Fifteen studies meeting criteria were identified. A variety of reading comprehension treatments was implemented including: oral reading, strategy-based, cognitive treatment, and hierarchical reading treatments. Quality ratings were highly variable, ranging from 3 to 9 (on a 12-point scale). Overall, 14 of the 18 individuals for whom individual data were provided demonstrated some degree of improvement (oral reading 4/5 participants, strategy based 4/6, and cognitive treatment 6/7). Gains were also evident for hierarchical reading treatment administered to participant groups via computer; however, the degree to which improvement reached statistical significance varied among studies.Conclusions: Reading comprehension treatments have the potential to improve reading comprehension ability in persons with aphasia; however, outcomes were variable within and among treatment methods. We suggest focusing future research on factors such as participant candidacy and treatment intensity using increased methodological rigor.