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Right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction (EF) by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) correlates to outcome in precapillary pulmonary hypertension (pPH) patients, but is insensitive to early changes. Strain might provide incremental information. In this study, we compare right atrial (RA) and RV strain in pPH patients to healthy controls, and evaluate the prognostic value of strain in pPH. In this cross-sectional study, 45 pPH patients and 20 healthy controls underwent CMR, and feature-tracking derived RA and RV strain were evaluated. pPH patients had impaired RA reservoir and conduit strain, and RV longitudinal strain (LS), compared to healthy controls. In pPH patients with preserved RVEF (≥ 50%, n = 18), RA reservoir (35% ± 9 vs. 41% ± 6, p = 0.02) and conduit strain (16% ± 8 vs. 23% ± 5, p = 0.004), and RV–LS (−25% ± 4 vs. −31% ± 4, p < 0.001) remained impaired, compared to healthy controls. The association of strain with the primary endpoint (combination of all-cause death, lung transplantation, and heart failure hospitalization) was evaluated using a multivariable Cox regression model. RV–LS (HR 1.18, 95%–CI 1.04–1.34, p = 0.01) and RA strain (reservoir: HR 0.87, 95%–CI 0.80–0.94, p = 0.001; conduit: HR 0.85, 95%–CI 0.75–0.97, p = 0.02, booster: HR 0.81, 95%-CI 0.71–0.92, p = 0.001) were independent predictors of outcome, beyond clinical and imaging features. In conclusion, pPH patients have impaired RA strain and RV–LS, even when RVEF is preserved. In addition, RA strain and RV–LS were independent predictors of adverse prognosis. These results emphasize the incremental value of RA and RV strain analyses, to detect alterations in RV function, even before RVEF declines.

To date, there is no clear conceptual model or framework in the literature of factors that affect parents’ decisions in socializing their transracially adopted children. Such a model is needed to assist social workers and other professionals working with international transracial adoptive families by providing information about factors that can improve parents’ cultural and racial socialization practices. Based on an extensive review of the literature, this article proposes a conceptual model of factors that influence transracial adoptive parents’ cultural and racial socialization practices. A review and definition of these factors are included. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

This article reviews how eight white international transracially adoptive mothers described their actions in racially and culturally socializing their children. Using in-depth interviews, the perspectives of the mothers were captured, which strengthens the field of social work's understanding of the complex dynamics in transracial adoptive families. The mothers' actions varied in the degree that a culturally diverse family life was created. Four categories of racial socialization practices were discussed and implications for social work were reviewed.

This article examines two cases of social work practice in higher education within the context of identifying a model of social practice for use in postsecondary educational settings. The case studies provide insight into a model of social work practice that reflects both the traditional clinical model, which focuses on individual change, and the school-community-pupil relations model, which focuses on system change. The author also discusses implications for social work educators who see college/university counseling centers as an arena for social work practice.

In this article, transracial adoption of children from the People's Republic of China (PRC), primarily by European American parents, will be explored using information from professional literature, international adoption agency publications, and papers published by professional organizations with an interest in international adoption. Three areas are addressed: (1) the sociopolitical conditions both in the People's Republic of China and the United States that result in international adoption; (2) the personal process of international adoption both in the United States and in the People's Republic of China; and (3) the possible positive and negative effects of intercountry adoption from the People's Republic of China. Finally, based on an integration of sociopolitical and personal aspects of intercountry adoption, the implications for social work practice are discussed.

In this paper, the use of influence is examined as it applies to social work practice with survivors of sexual assault in a college community. A case example is used to illustrate the dilemma of conflicting client and community needs, and the ethic of care is proposed as a guideline for ethical decision-making.

Methods are described for the determination of protease, amylase, and cellulase activity of unknown solutions permitting accurate measurements over a wide range of enzyme concentration in a single determination. Regression equations were obtained relating: (a) protease concentrations to the optical densities of casein hydrolyzates precipitated with an acetic acid solution (correlation coefficient, r = −0.9806; D.F. 70), (b) optical densities of starch–iodine complexes formed in starch hydrolyzates to amylase concentrations (multiple correlation coefficient, R = 0.9918; D.F. 62), and (c) cellulase concentrations to relative viscosities of carboxymethyl cellulose hydrolyzates (correlation coefficient, r = −0.9554; D.F. 34). The influence of chlortetracycline on the activity of these hydrolases in vitrowas investigated and no effect was detected at a level of 5 p.p.m.

Results of experiments to investigate the effect of dietary chlortetracycline on pancreas dry weight and on the crude fat content and hydrolase activity of the gland are presented. Chlortetracycline fed at a level of 20 g. per ton of feed caused an increase in rate of gain and efficiency of feed utilization by pigs between the ages of 9 and 17 weeks. An effect on the pancreas was indicated by significant increases in: (a) dry weight, (b) total protease and amylase activity, and (c) amylase activity per gram dry matter of the glands from animals receiving the supplemented ration. The difference remained significant after adjustment for body weight by covariance in the case of amylase activity but not for dry weight or protease activity, indicating that the effect of chlortetracycline on amylase activity was more pronounced than that on rate of gain of pigs, pancreas dry weight, or pancreatic protease activity. No significant difference in the crude fat content of the pancreas attributable to the inclusion of chlortetracycline in the ration was observed.

Four treatments, involving differences in method of feeding and interval between last feed and slaughter, were employed in a study of the effect of dietary chlortetracycline on protease, amylase, and cellulase activity in the intestinal and cecal contents of 16 pairs of weanling pigs. Most consistent results were obtained with six pairs which were limited pair-fed except for the final feeding during which feed was available ad libitum for a 4-hour period ending 18 hours before slaughter. The mean total activities of all three hydrolases in the contents of the small intestines and of the ceca of the antibiotic-fed animals of these six pairs were significantly greater than in those of the control animals. Expressed as activity per gram dry matter of intestinal contents, significantly higher values for protease and amylase, but not for cellulase, were observed in the pigs that had received chlortetracycline. When the combined results obtained from all 16 pairs of the experimental animals were analyzed, the results showed that on a basis of activity per gram dry matter of intestinal contents, ingested chlortetracycline was associated with significant increases in amylase and cellulase but not in protease activity. Protease, amylase, and cellulase activities per gram dry matter of cecal contents were higher for pigs fed the antibiotic than for their controls. The mean wet weight of the empty small intestine and the mean dry weight of the mucosa scraped from the anterior 3-meter section of the small intestine were lower for the chlortetracycline-fed animals, but the differences were not statistically significant.

Introduction: The pathophysiology of systemic sclerosis (SSc) is closely linked to overactive TGFβ signaling. TGFβ is produced and circulates in latent form, making its activation crucial for signaling. This activation can be mediated via integrins. We investigated the balance between active and latent TGFβ in serum of SSc patients and investigated if this correlates with integrin expression on monocytes. Methods: A TGFβ/SMAD3- or BMP/SMAD1/5-luciferase reporter construct was expressed in primary human skin fibroblasts. Both acidified and non-acidified sera of ten SSc patients and ten healthy controls were tested on these cells to determine total and active TGFβ and BMP levels respectively. A pan-specific TGFβ1/2/3 neutralizing antibody was used to confirm TGFβ signaling. Monocytes of 20 SSc patients were isolated using CD14+ positive selection, and integrin gene expression was measured using qPCR. Integrin expression was modulated using rhTGFβ1 or a small molecule inhibitor of TGFBR1: SB-505124. Results: SSc sera induced 50% less SMAD3-reporter activity than control sera. Serum acidification increased reporter activity, but a difference between healthy control and SSc serum was no longer observed, indicating that total TGFβ levels were not different. Addition of a pan-specific TGFβ1/2/3 neutralizing antibody fully inhibited SMAD3-reporter activity of both acidified and not-acidified control and SSc sera. Both HC and SSc sera induced similar SMAD1/5-reporter activity, and acidification increased this, but not differently between groups. Interestingly, expression of two integrin alpha subunits ITGA5and ITGAVwas significantly reduced in monocytes obtained from SSc patients. Furthermore, ITGB3, ITGB5, and ITGB8expression was also reduced in SSc monocytes. Stimulation of monocytes with TGFβ1 induced ITGA5and ITGAVbut lowered ITGB8expression, whereas the use of the TGFβ receptor inhibitor SB-505124 had the opposite effect. Conclusion: Total TGFβ serum levels are not different between SSc patients and controls, but TGFβ activity is. This coincides with a reduced expression of TGFβ-activating integrins in monocytes of SSc patients. Because TGFβ regulates expression of these integrins in monocytes, a negative feedback mechanism possibly underlies these observations.