The personal and contextual contributors to school belongingness among primary school students

School belongingness has gained currency among educators and school health professionals as an important determinant of adolescent health. The current cross-sectional study presents the 15 most significant personal and contextual factors that collectively explain 66.4% (two-thirds) of the variability in 12-year old students' perceptions of belongingness in primary school. The study is part of a larger longitudinal study investigating the factors associated with student adjustment in the transition from primary to secondary school. The study found that girls and students with disabilities had higher school belongingness scores than boys, and their typically developing counterparts respectively; and explained 2.5% of the variability in school belongingness. The majority (47.1% out of 66.4%) of the variability in school belongingness was explained by student personal factors, such as social acceptance, physical appearance competence, coping skills, and social affiliation motivation; followed by parental expectations (3% out of 66.4%), and school-based factors (13.9% out of 66.4%) such as, classroom involvement, task-goal structure, autonomy provision, cultural pluralism, and absence of bullying. Each of the identified contributors of primary school belongingness can be shaped through interventions, system changes, or policy reforms

FTY720 (fingolimod) modulates the severity of viral-induced encephalomyelitis and demyelination

BACKGROUND: FTY720 (fingolimod) is the first oral drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of patients with the relapsing-remitting form of the human demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis. Evidence suggests that the therapeutic benefit of FTY720 occurs by preventing the egress of lymphocytes from lymph nodes thereby inhibiting the infiltration of disease-causing lymphocytes into the central nervous system (CNS). We hypothesized that FTY720 treatment would affect lymphocyte migration to the CNS and influence disease severity in a mouse model of viral-induced neurologic disease. METHODS: Mice were infected intracranially with the neurotropic JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus. Infected animals were treated with increasing doses (1, 3 and 10 mg/kg) of FTY720 and morbidity and mortality recorded. Infiltration of inflammatory virus-specific T cells (tetramer staining) into the CNS of FTY720-treated mice was determined using flow cytometry. The effects of FTY720 treatment on virus-specific T cell proliferation, cytokine production and cytolytic activity were also determined. The severity of neuroinflammation and demyelination in FTY720-treated mice was examined by flow cytometry and histopathologically, respectively, in the spinal cords of the mice. RESULTS: Administration of FTY720 to JHMV-infected mice resulted in increased clinical disease severity and mortality. These results correlated with impaired ability to control viral replication (P < 0.05) within the CNS at days 7 and 14 post-infection, which was associated with diminished accumulation of virus-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (P < 0.05) into the CNS. Reduced neuroinflammation in FTY720-treated mice correlated with increased retention of T lymphocytes within draining cervical lymph nodes (P < 0.05). Treatment with FTY720 did not affect virus-specific T cell proliferation, expression of IFN-γ, TNF-α or cytolytic activity. FTY720-treated mice exhibited a reduction in the severity of demyelination associated with dampened neuroinflammation. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that FTY720 mutes effective anti-viral immune responses through impacting migration and accumulation of virus-specific T cells within the CNS during acute viral-induced encephalomyelitis. FTY720 treatment reduces the severity of neuroinflammatory-mediated demyelination by restricting the access of disease-causing lymphocytes into the CNS but is not associated with viral recrudescence in this model

Engagement Across Developmental Periods

The goal of this chapter is to provide a cohesive developmental framework and foundation for which to understand student engagement across early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Guided by the bioecological theory of human development and the person-environment fit perspective, this chapter extends Finn\u27s participation-identification model of engagement by mapping student engagement within a larger developmental sequence. This chapter discusses student engagement within specific developmental periods that are tied to the developmental tasks, opportunities, and challenges unique to early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Student engagement is found to be a nuanced developmental outcome, and the differences may be a result of the maturation of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional developmental tasks and the changing contextual landscape for the children and adolescents. Recommendations for future research as well as policy implications are also discussed

Population dynamics of the tropical bivalve Cardita affinis from Málaga Bay, Colombian Pacific related to La Niña 1999–2000

The population dynamics of the “cholga” Cardita affinis (Sowerby 1833) from Málaga Bay, Colombia, was studied from December 1999 to February 2002, which included the 1999–2000 La Niña event (LN) and the post-LN period 2001–2002. This climatic deviation caused precipitation anomalies in Málaga Bay. Salinity, precipitation, and sea surface temperature anomalies were highly correlated with the bivalve’s body mass cycle. Irregular spawning events were observed during LN by comparison with the regular period. Individual growth and mortality were found significantly higher during LN than during the post-LN period while longevity was almost twofold lower during LN. Increased mortality was probably related to environmental stress. Individual production and productivity were higher during LN, although the annual biomass was lower than during the post-LN period. These results may be related to higher food availability during LN, which agrees well with the results on growth performance. The observed changes provide a base line for future studies regarding effects of El Niño/LN events on population dynamics of tropical bivalves