Babies whose mothers are happy in their spousal relationship and have good social support are less likely to get colic.
MEDICAID HELPS PARENTS OF KIDS WITH AUTISM KEEP WORKING
- CHANDRAN ALEXANDER Pediatrics
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edicaid waivers that improve access to home- and community-based services for children with autism also help their parents keep their jobs, according to research from Penn State College of Medicine and collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania and the RAND Corporation.
& - KRISTEN KJERULFF Public Health Sciences
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Previous research found that Medicaid waivers for children with autism spectrum disorder help their families obtain services they may not otherwise be able to afford. The new study shows another way that waivers benefit the parents of children with autism.
Myocardium Human Stem Cells
Heart Progenitor Cells
Heart Cells
Scientists can now produce two of the three main kinds of heart cells in the lab.
“When you’re spending all that time just trying to help your child, there’s less time for work,” says Douglas L. Leslie, professor of public health sciences and psychiatry, Penn State College of Medicine.
A Little Piece of My Heart Scientists at Penn State have devised a process to prompt human stem cells to develop into epicardial cells, which form the external layer of the heart. This work extends the research team’s 2012 finding that treating stem cells with chemicals that activate and then inhibit a specific signaling pathway causes them to become myocardial cells. Myocardium, the middle of the heart’s three layers, is the thick, muscular part that contracts to drive blood through the body. “We needed to provide the cardiac progenitor cells with additional information in order for them to generate into epicardium cells, but prior to this study, we didn’t know what that information was,” says biomedical engineer Xiaojun Lance Lian, who led the research team. The scientists found that activating the same pathway again stimulates the progenitor cells to become epicardium rather than myocardium.
Leslie’s team used information from a national survey and Medicaid waiver data to determine how waivers affected parental employment from 2005-2006 and 2009-2010. They found that waivers allowed parents to remain in the work force and helped families at all economic levels. Keeping these parents in the workforce goes beyond monetary considerations, says Leslie. “Caring for a child with autism is difficult. Having an outlet through a job can be very beneficial to the parents’ mental well-being. It gets them out into the community.” —ABBY SAJID
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Kevin Carlini
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One parent often significantly reduces his or her work hours or stops working altogether, increasing financial stress on the family.
“Heart attacks occur due to blockage of blood vessels,” he says. “This blockage stops nutrients and oxygen from reaching the heart muscle, and muscle cells die. These muscle cells cannot regenerate themselves, so there is permanent damage, which can cause additional problems. These epicardium cells could be transplanted to the patient and potentially repair the damaged region.” The group’s results bring them one step closer to regenerating an entire heart wall. The last piece will be turning cardiac progenitor cells into endocardium cells, which form the heart’s inner layer.
www.rps.psu.edu
Lian says the new method could benefit patients who suffer a heart attack.
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Broader updrafts in severe storms increase the chance of large, damaging hail. - MARK KUMJIAN Meteorology and Atmospheric Science
—STEPHANIE TOMLINSON 7