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The balance between astrocyte and microglia neuroprotection and neurotoxicity defines the tempo of neuronal dysfunction during HIV-1-associated dementia (HAD). Astrocytes maintain brain homeostasis and respond actively to brain damage by providing functional and nutritive neuronal support. In HAD, low-level, continuous infection of astrocytes occurs, but the functional consequences of this infection are poorly understood. To this end, human fetal astrocytes (HFA) and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) were infected with HIV-1DJV and HIV-1NL4-3 (neurotropic and lymphotropic strains respectively) and a pseudotyped Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV/HIV-1NL4-3) prior to intracranial injection into the basal ganglia of severe combined immunodeficient mice. Neuropathological and immunohistochemical comparisons for inflammatory and neurotoxic activities were performed amongst the infected cell types at 7 or 14 days. HIV-1-infected MDM induced significant increases in Mac-1, glial fibrillary acidic protein, ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1, and proinflammatory cytokine RNA and/or protein expression when compared with HSV/HIV-1- and HIV-1-infected HFA and sham-operated mice. Levels of neuron-specific nuclear protein, microtubule-associated protein 2, and neurofilament antigens were reduced significantly in the brain regions injected with human MDM infected with HIV-1DJV or VSV/HIV-1. We conclude that HIV-1 infection of astrocytes leads to limited neurodegeneration, underscoring the early and active role of macrophage-driven neurotoxicity in disease.

As the academic year of 2014–2015 began, the killing of Mike Brown, the failure to indict Darren Wilson, and the protests and contentious dialogue surrounding these events again exposed fissures that exist in society as a result of (but not limited to) the dynamics of race, class, and gender. In response to these events, and in an effort to engage in dialogue with the educators, students, protestors, and academics who were participating in these movements, the Berkeley Review of Education issued its first “Call for Conversations” (CFC). This is an edited selection of the short works first published on our website in January and March of 2014.

Patients on haemodialysis (HD) have greater iron needs than the normal population. In 2004, the Caring for Australasians with Renal Impairment (CARI) group audited six Australian renal centres and found considerable variability in achievement of iron and haemoglobin targets.The aim of this study was to determine whether intravenous iron guidelines and evidence translate into good clinical outcomes for patients on HD.Data were extracted from the Renal Anaemia Management database for the period of 2007-2009. These data were compared with the target levels described in the CARI guidelines.Most patients were not achieving recommended haemoglobin, ferritin or transferrin saturation levels. Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were less likely to achieve targets.Iron guidelines are not translating into good clinical practice for patients on HD. This situation may be improved by updating the CARI guidelines (as has recently been carried out for haemoglobin targets), introduction of more consistent dosing protocols across hospitals and greater assessment of safe levels of cumulative iron and ferritin.

The CHOIR and CREATE studies led to changes in hemoglobin targets around the world for patients with chronic kidney disease. The aim of this study was to determine what effect these pivotal studies had on hemoglobin levels and survival Data were extracted from Australia's Renal Anaemia Database for patients with chronic kidney disease between October 2000 and December 2009. Survival was significantly longer in patients with chronic kidney disease who died between 2007 and 2009 compared to those who died between 2000 and 2006.

β2-glycoprotein I (β2GPI)-dependent anticardiolipin autoantibodies (aCl) are associated with thrombosis and fetal loss. Some microbial pathogens can induce pathogenic antibodies cross-reactive with β2GPI. Sera from a significant percentage of periodontitis patients contain aCl, and some periodontal pathogens contain antigens with peptide sequences having homology to β2GPI. We hypothesized that antibodies raised against P. gingivalis (aPg) contain pathogenic aCl that induce fetal resorption. We immunized mice with β2GPI, P. gingivalis W83, or an arg-gingipain-defective mutant of P. gingivalis (HF18). IgG fractions of aPg were immunoabsorbed to remove aCl-like antibodies (abs-aPg). IgG fractions were administered intravenously into tail veins of mated BALB/c females at day 0 of pregnancy. At day 15, the proportions of fetal resorptions were evaluated. The prevalence of fetal loss was significantly greater in the aPg group than in the control IgG group (21.2% vs. 5.3%, p = .001), and greater in the aPg group than in the abs-aPg group (21.2% vs. 12%, p < .05). There were no fetal resorptions observed in the aPgHF18 group ( p = .0005 compared with aPg, p = .17 compared with control). aPg antibody contains activity consistent with pathogenic aCl, and the antigen inducing the antibodies that cause increased fetal loss may be on the arg-gingipain protease of P. gingivalis.

Anaemia often goes unrecognised in people with early chronic kidney disease (CKD) resulting in under treatment until reaching the need for dialysis.This study aimed to determine if anaemia is adequately treated in Australians with CKD, who do not require dialysis.Haemoglobin, ferritin and transferrin saturation (TSAT) data for patients with Stage 2-4 CKD were extracted from the Renal Anaemia Management database for the period 1999-2010. The data were compared with the target levels specified in the Caring for Australasians with Renal Impairment guidelines.Less than 50% of the patients achieved the recommended haemoglobin levels, and even fewer patients achieved the levels recommended for ferritin and TSAT.More emphasis should be placed on detection and treatment of anaemia in earlier stages of kidney disease. Poor response to erythropoiesis stimulating agent therapy should be investigated in this group and any identified causes of poor response treated.

This study examined whether a change infrequency of administration of erythropoietin-stimulating agent affected hemoglobin levels in patients on peritoneal dialysis. Data were extracted from the Australian Renal Anaemia Management database for the years 2002 and 2008. Less frequent dosing and increasing age were associated with higher hemoglobin levels, while increasing ferritin levels and later years were associated with lower hemoglobin levels.

Indigenous Australians have significantly higher rates of end-stage renal disease and worse health outcomes than non-indigenous Australians.We investigated whether the effect of inflammation on C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin levels is being overlooked in indigenous patients with chronic kidney disease.Data for 23,000 patients were extracted from the Renal Anaemia Management database for the period November 1999 to October 2010.Haemoglobin, ferritin, transferrin saturation and CRP levels for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians were compared with target levels given in the Caring for Australians with Renal Impairment (CARI) guidelines.Compared with non-indigenous patients, indigenous Australians had higher median CRP and mean ferritin levels, lower mean haemoglobin level and were less likely to meet CARI targets.The effect of inflammation on laboratory parameters should be considered particularly when treating indigenous Australians.

Summary This article gives an overview of the role and organisation of support for staff who provide therapeutic care, with specific reference to social services departments. Reasons for providing staff care in any organisation are discussed in general before consideration is given to the particular case of employment in agencies which provide therapeutic services. The paper relates staff care to three aspects of countertransference (drawing on work by Winnicott, Heimann and Woodmansey) and emphasises the significance of the underlying emotional dynamics in this type of organisation. After an illustrative case study, the final section considers organisational arrangements for staff care. This includes reference to Employee Assistance Programmes, ethical issues in staff counselling funded by employers and the responsibilities of managers.

Occupational stress in a U.K. higher education institution was investigated during a period of considerable organizational change. All employees, including academic, support and manual staff, were invited to participate anonymously in the survey. The results, based on the Occupational Stress Indicator, showed that employees reported significantly poorer mental and physical well-being, and greater job dissatisfaction, than a normative group. The findings suggested that female employees were at greater risk from adverse effects of occupational stress. Predictors of distress and job dissatisfaction were identified. The study concluded that occupational stress is a significant problem, and that further investigation is required in other similar institutions.

BACKGROUND: While the efficacy and effectiveness of brief interventions for alcohol (ABI) have been demonstrated in primary care, there is weaker evidence in other settings and reviews do not consider differences in content. We conducted a systematic review to measure the effect of ABIs on alcohol consumption and how it differs by the setting, practitioner group and content of intervention. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO; CINAHL, Social Science Citation Index, Cochrane Library and Global Health up to January 2015 for randomised controlled trials that measured effectiveness of ABIs on alcohol consumption. We grouped outcomes into measures of quantity and frequency indices. We used multilevel meta-analysis to estimate pooled effect sizes and tested for the effect of moderators through a multiparameter Wald test. Stratified analysis of a subset of quantity and frequency outcomes was conducted as a sensitivity check. RESULTS: 52 trials were included contributing data on 29 891 individuals. ABIs reduced the quantity of alcohol consumed by 0.15 SDs. While neither the setting nor content appeared to significantly moderate intervention effectiveness, the provider did in some analyses. Interventions delivered by nurses had the most effect in reducing quantity (d=-0.23, 95% CI (-0.33 to -0.13)) but not frequency of alcohol consumption. All content groups had statistically significant mean effects, brief advice was the most effective in reducing quantity consumed (d=-0.20, 95% CI (-0.30 to -0.09)). Effects were maintained in the stratified sensitivity analysis at the first and last assessment time. CONCLUSIONS: ABIs play a small but significant role in reducing alcohol consumption. Findings show the positive role of nurses in delivering interventions. The lack of evidence on the impact of content of intervention reinforces advice that services should select the ABI tool that best suits their needs.

Quantitative studies of neural graft development require: (1) a cell label which is both preferential for neurons and can be measured in terms of specific labeling; (2) a serial reconstruction method for identifying labeled cells in a three-dimensional pattern in the host; and (3) measurements of cell dispersion which indicate the specificity of cell movement in the host. We have used 5' bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) as a nuclear marker of transplanted fetal hippocampal cells, performing daily injections into the donor to label the majority of cells in the hippocampus between Gestation Days 15 and 19. After harvesting, the BrdU-labeled hippocampal cell suspensions were either cultured or grafted into normal adult hippocampus. The labeling index of these fetal hippocampal cells was calculated to be 90% in both smears of cell suspensions and 48-h cultures and these were predominantly (77%) neurons by immunostains. Quantitative studies of potential toxicity of the BrdU in culture also revealed no differences in neurite development or survival, compared to unlabeled cells. The survival and migration of grafted cells were quantitatively evaluated by three-dimensional serial reconstruction of host brain sections. Absolute graft cell survival (cells recovered/cells injected) varied according to location: grafts in close proximity to the ventricle and white matter tracts (corpus callosum or fimbria) showed improved survival (20 and 25%, respectively) compared to grafts localized entirely within the (normal) hippocampus (only 9% survival). Although the grafts expanded considerably from the initial injection site, the graft cell dispersion appeared nonspecific. Thus, this format of quantitative graft assessment indicates that under normal (nonlesioned) host conditions the location of the grafts critically influenced graft development and there was minimal specific migration of grafted cells into cell body regions.

Effects of fetal hippocampal transplants were evaluated following a prolonged intraventricular excitotoxic lesion (1.0 mg of N-methyl-D-aspartate over two weeks infusion) in F344 rats. The septum and ipsilateral hippocampus (CA1 and dentate regions) showed extensive cell loss, decreased acquisition of spatial memory was observed and a decrease in AChE positive fiber innervation to the hippocampus was noted following the lesion. Fetal hippocampal transplants into the posterior lateral ventricle resulted in moderate graft survival and physiological analysis of graft-host interconnection in vitro demonstrated evoked field potentials. However, the transplants did not lead to significant improvement in behavior, possibly due to poor synaptic integration of the intraventricular transplants into the host hippocampus. The prolonged intraventricular NMDA lesion may be helpful to understand a mixed lesion model of both septal areas and hippocampus and also as a background lesion in which to assess the connectivity and development of various types of neural grafts.

Lithium (Li) has garnered considerable interest as a neuroprotective drug for a broad range of nervous system disorders. Its neuroprotective activities occur as a consequence of glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) inhibition leading to downstream blockade of β-catenin and Tau phosphorylation. In the present study, we investigated Li-mediated neuroprotective mechanisms in laboratory and murine human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) encephalitis (HIVE) models. In laboratory tests, Li protected neurons from neurotoxic secretions of HIV-1-infected monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs). This neuroprotection was mediated, in part, through the phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase/Akt and GSK-3β pathways. To examine the effects of Li treatmentin vivo, MDMs were injected into the basal ganglia of severe combined immunodeficient mice and then Li was administered (60 mg/kg/d). Seven days after MDM injection, mice were killed and CNS tissue was collected and subjected to immunocytochemical and Western blot assays for leukocyte and neural antigens, GSK-3β, and key kinase substrates such asβ-catenin and Tau. Numbers of HIV-1 p24 antigen-positive MDMs were unaltered by Li treatment of HIVE mice. Similarly, the greatly increased extent of astrocyte and microglia activation in HIVE mice (10-fold and 16-fold, respectively, compared with unmanipulated controls) was also unaltered by Li. In contrast, Li restored HIVE-associated loss of microtubule-associated protein-2-positive neurites and synaptic density while reducing levels or activity of phospho-Tau Ser202, phospho-β-catenin, and GSK-3β. Electrophysiological recordings showed diminished long-term potentiation in hippocampal slices of HIVE mice that were restored by Li. Based on these data, the use of Li as an adjuvant for HIV-1-associated dementia is now being pursued.

The purpose of this study was to measure dexterity in children aged 4-19 years using the Nine-hole Peg Test. Four hundred and six children were tested with their dominant hand and then their nondominant hand. A commercial version of the Nine-hole Peg Test was used. An analysis of variance showed a main effect for age, gender, and hand dominance. Speed of dexterity improved with age. In all age groups, females performed faster than males. Participants performed faster with the dominant hand than the nondominant hand. The normative data collected provide information for comparing scores to children with different diagnostic categories to screen for fine motor difficulties.

As part of a study of Smart Icing Systems (SIS) by the Aircraft Icing Research Center at the University of Illinois, a systems strudy has been performed to evaluate the effects of SIS on the safety of the U.S. regional air transportation system. U.S. commercial aircraft icing accident data, for the period from 1983 through 1996, were collected and studied in terms of fatalities per year and accident frequency by engine type, flight phase, and principal cause. These data show that over this 14-year period, fatalities in icing accidents have occurred at an average rate of about 12 per year. They also show that reciprocating engine powered aircraft account for about 60% of the accidents, 60% occur in either the cruise or approach flight phases, and 85% can be attributed to either the flight crew or the weather. In a second phase of the study, a proposed SIS configuration was applied to the detailed time history of the 1994 American Eagle ATR-72 accident to evaluate the potential of SIS in preventing icing accidents. This showed that an autonomous SIS could have sensed the developing icing problem and intervened to assist the flight crew in avoiding this accident.

Nestin is a neurofilament protein expressed by the immediate precursors to neurons and glia in rats and humans. Nestin immunoreactivity in the rat CNS was studied following kainic acid (KA) hippocampal lesions. Numerous nestin positive cells within the KA lesion were confirmed to be reactive astrocytes by their immunoreactivity for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). The number of these cells decreased with time after the KA lesion and no astrocyte immunostaining for nestin was observed in control animals. A subset of nestin-positive cells in the ventricular subependymal region appeared to be radial glial cells, extending to cell body layers. Nestin is one of several embryonic markers expressed by reactive astrocytes, suggesting an embryonic reversion induced by the KA lesion, possibly to enhance functional recovery.

F344 rats of various ages (2-3 months, 15-16 months, and 24-25 months) were tested on a spatial memory task. The 15- and 24-month-old rat groups showed impaired acquisition and retention of the memory task, compared to the young animals. Extracellular field potential recordings in the CA1 region were subsequently performed in vitro, using hippocampal slices from both these tested rats and similar but untested F344 young and aged rats. Findings included: a) a positive correlation between baseline dendritic EPSP slope values and retention scores across age groups; b) a more rapid decay of both somatic and dendritic short-term potentiation in aged slices; c) decreased somatic but not dendritic long-term potentiation overall in aged slices, regardless of bath Mg2+ level; and d) decreased paired-pulse facilitation in slices from aged rats bathed in 4.0 mM Mg2+ media compared to young controls. These findings suggest an age-related alteration in both presynaptic and postsynaptic potentiation mechanisms, which may relate to the poor spatial memory acquisition and retention in the aged rats. These age-related differences point to substantial changes in neuronal signal processing capabilities and local circuit function in the hippocampus as a function of aging.

A compilation of essays focusing on the significance of material culture to Cather s work and Cather scholarship."Willa Cather and Material Culture" is a collection of 11 new essays that tap into a recent and resurgent interest among Cather scholars in addressing her work and her career through the lens of cultural studies. One of the volume's primary purposes is to demonstrate the extent to which Cather did participate in her culture and to correct the commonplace view of her as a literary connoisseur set apart from her times.The contributors explore both the objects among which Cather lived and the objects that appear in her writings, as well as the commercial constraints of the publishing industry in which her art was made and marketed. Essays address her relationship to quilts both personally and as symbols in her work; her contributions to domestic magazines such as "Home Monthly" and "Woman's Home Companion"; the problematic nature of Hollywood productions of her work; and her efforts and successes as a businesswoman. By establishing the centrality of material matters to her writing, these essays contribute to the reclaiming of Cather as a modernist and highlight the significance of material culture, in general, to the study of American literature."

A new luminescence erosion meter has huge potential for inferring erosion rates on sub-millennial scales for both steady and transient states of erosion, which is not currently possible with any existing techniques capable of measuring erosion. This study applies new rock luminescence techniques to a well-constrained scenario provided by the Beinn Alligin rock avalanche, NW Scotland. Boulders in this deposit are lithologically consistent and have known cosmogenic nuclide ages and independently derived Holocene erosion rates. We find that luminescence-derived exposure ages for the Beinn Alligin rock avalanche were an order of magnitude younger than existing cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages, suggestive of high erosion rates (as supported by field evidence of quartz grain protrusions on the rock surfaces). Erosion rates determined by luminescence were consistent with independently derived rates measured from boulder edge roundness. Inversion modelling indicates a transient state of erosion reflecting the stochastic nature of erosional processes over the last ∼4.5 kyr in the wet, temperate climate of NW Scotland. Erosion was likely modulated by known fluctuations in moisture availability and to a lesser extent temperature, which controlled the extent of chemical weathering of these highly lithified rocks prior to erosion. The use of a multi-elevated temperature, post-infra-red, infra-red stimulated luminescence (MET-pIRIR) protocol (50, 150 and 225 ∘C) was advantageous as it identified samples with complexities that would not have been observed using only the standard infra-red stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signal measured at 50 ∘C, such as that introduced by within-sample variability (e.g. surficial coatings). This study demonstrates that the luminescence erosion meter can infer accurate erosion rates on sub-millennial scales and identify transient states of erosion (i.e. stochastic processes) in agreement with independently derived erosion rates for the same deposit.