Adriana D. Cimetta

Diabetes enhances leukocyte accumulation in the coronary microcirculation early in reperfusion following ischemia

BACKGROUND Diabetic hearts are particularly vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion injury. For leukocytes to participate in ischemia-reperfusion injury, they must first sequester in the microcirculation. The aim of this study was to determine, by direct observation, if early leukocyte deposition was increased in the diabetic coronary microcirculation early in reperfusion following myocardial ischemia. METHODS Non-diabetic and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat hearts, subjected to 30 min of 37 degrees C, no-flow ischemia, were initially reperfused with blood containing labeled leukocytes. The deposition of fluorescent leukocytes in coronary capillaries and venules was directly visualized and recorded using intravital fluorescence microscopy. In addition, flow cytometry was used to measure CD11b adhesion molecule expression on polymorphonuclear (PMN) leukocytes from non-diabetic and STZ-diabetic rats. RESULTS In the non-diabetic, control hearts, early in reperfusion, leukocytes trapped in coronary capillaries and adhered to the walls of post-capillary venules. In the diabetic hearts, leukocyte trapping in capillaries and adhesion to venules were both significantly increased (P<0.05). PMN CD11b expression was also significantly increased in the diabetic blood compared to the non-diabetic blood (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Early in reperfusion following myocardial ischemia, leukocytes rapidly accumulate in greater numbers in the coronary microcirculation of the diabetic heart by both trapping in coronary capillaries and by adhering to venules. The enhanced retention of leukocytes in the diabetic coronary microcirculation increases the likelihood of inflammation-mediated reperfusion injury and may explain, in part, the poor recovery of diabetic hearts from an ischemic event.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as an Evaluation Tool

Evaluators must seek methods that convey the results of an evaluation so that those who intend on using the information easily understand them. The purpose of this article is to describe how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used to assist evaluators to convey complex information simply, via a spatial representation. Although the utility of GIS in such disciplines as geography, planning, epidemiology and public health is well documented, a review of the literature suggests that its usefulness as a tool for evaluators has gone relatively unnoticed. The paper posits that evaluators may have not recognized the potential of GIS, because of two beliefs that GIS can only provide cross-sectional, snapshots of data, and hence cannot depict change and that many of the available databases that underlie GIS do not contain data relevant to the evaluation at hand. This article demonstrates how GIS can be used to plot change over time, including impact and outcome data gathered by primary data collection.

Using a Partitioned Treatment Design to Examine the Effect of Project WET

Although young people in 50 U.S. states and 21 countries learn about water resources through Project WET (Water Education for Teachers), few researchers have conducted summative evaluations of the program. The authors employed a partitioned, or differential, treatments design in which two groups of 6th-grade students received overlapping but unique lesson components. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the authors found that classrooms from both groups had similar pre- to posttest gains on a test of the common material, but each group outperformed the other group on tests of the unique material a group experienced.

Protective Factors for School Readiness Among Children in Poverty

The economic status of families and their childrens learning outcomes are closely related. For example, children living in poverty tend to score worse on measures of reading and math performance than their more affluent peers, and this achievement gap is present by kindergarten. In this study, we identified protective factors associated with school readiness among an Arizona sample of children living at or below the federal poverty line (N = 230). Using multiple linear regression, we examined the association between assessments of school readiness, health status, childcare hours, home language, parent engagement, and parent education. We found that increased weekly childcare hours and better health were associated with higher proficiency in math, literacy, and approaches to learning, and may serve as resilience factors for children in poverty that may contribute to closing the achievement gap.

Emergency preparedness training of tribal Community Health Representatives

This study describes the development and evaluation of online Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) training adapted to the learning styles and needs of tribal Community Health Representatives (CHRs). Working through a university-tribal community college partnership, the Arizona Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University of Arizona and Diné College of the Navajo Nation delivered a blended online and face-to-face public health preparedness certificate program based on core public health emergency preparedness competencies. This program was carefully adapted to meet the environmental and learning needs of the tribal CHRs. The certificate program was subsequently evaluated via a scenario-based decision-making methodology. Significant improvements in five of six competency areas were documented by comparison of pre- and post-certificate training testing. Based on statistical support for this pedagogical approach the cultural adaptations utilized in delivery of the certificate program appear to be effective for PHEP American Indian education.

Evaluating Housing Revitalization Projects: Critical Lessons for all Evaluators

The article describes the challenges faced by the authors in evaluating a neighborhood revitalization project. The challenges are placed in the context of three of the Program Evaluation Standards published by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation: Values Identification, Fiscal Responsibility, and Analysis of Quantitative Information. For each problem presented, the authors provide solutions that should assist all evaluators working on other similar types of broad-based community initiatives to conduct their evaluations in a more efficient and timely manner.

Assessing Early Literacy With Hispanic Preschoolers: The Factor Structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening—Español

For two decades, it has been recommended that assessment of literacy for preschool children be conducted in a child’s primary language. However, only a few literacy assessments have been validated with a preschool, Spanish-speaking population. The purpose of the present study was to test the latent structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK) Español with a sample of Spanish-speaking children in the southwestern United States. Children who could recognize at least 16 uppercase and nine lowercase letters were included in the analyses. Subscales of the PreK Español included Name Writing, Letter/Sound Association, Print Concepts, and Rhyme Awareness. Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor model of alphabet knowledge (upper and lowercase letter recognition, letter sounds) and print and phonological awareness (name writing, print and rhyme awareness, letter sounds) with letter sounds loading on both factors. We found that the structure of PALS-PreK Español is similar to the English version and discussed implications.

Latent variable structure and measurement invariance of a modified early literacy assessment

ABSTRACT This study reports the dimensionality and measurement invariance of a modified version of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschoolers (PALS PreK). Practical constraints of conducting child assessments created an opportunity to develop a modified PALS PreK. The sample consisted of 1,168 children tested in a Southwestern state in the United States. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the modified PALS PreK supported the two-factor structure of the full PALS PreK. Multigroup CFA revealed measurement invariance for the modified PALS PreK for gender and ethnicity. The implications of a similar two-factor structure in the modified PALS PreK are discussed.

Cold cardioplegic preservation aggravates alloantibody mediated cardiac dysfunction due to an increase in vascular resistance

IN HEART TRANSPLANTATION, hyperacute rejection due to preformed antibodies is characterized by a rapid, irreversible, and complete graft dysfunction. However, when antibodies appear later in the posttransplantation course, the dysfunction they mediate can be reversible (acute humoral rejection). Hori et al recently reported that ischemia-reperfusion injury played a major role in the etiology of hyperacute rejection of cardiac xenografts. However, whether ischemia-reperfusion injury enhances the severity of hyperacute allograft rejection has not yet been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of cold ischemiareperfusion injury in alloantibody-mediated cardiac dysfunction in an isolated heart model.