Comics as a Medium for Parent Health Education: Improving Understanding of Normal 9-Month-Old Developmental Milestones.

Multimodal literacy, a product of modern technology, can aid in the recall of simple-to-complex information for both children and adults. Health education information presented using educational comics takes advantage of multimodal formats and designs based on theoretical models of learning. In this study, we utilized a quasi-experimental design with both pre- and post-intervention testing. The parents of every other patient that attended the well-child appointments of their child aged <9 months were invited to participate in this study. Participants were drawn from three pediatric clinics, with a total of 280 parents included in the study. Each parent completed a pre-intervention test consisting of an eight-item questionnaire regarding the developmental milestones of a 9-month-old child. After responding to the questionnaire, the parents received a comic about a 9-month-old child reaching age-appropriate developmental milestones. Four to six weeks after the comics were provided to the parents, they responded to the same questionnaire by phone, which consisted of the same eight questions plus an additional question regarding possible additional uses of the comic. Parents significantly increased their recall of information of developmental milestones when the pre- and post-intervention test results were compared, with a significance of p < 0.001 at a 95% confidence level. Additional uses of the comic reported by parents included calling their pediatrician with doubts about their own child's appropriate achievement of milestones, and lending the comics to relatives or friends. The educational comic appeared to assist parents in making meaningful connections between the simplified pictures and the developmental milestones of their child. Comics may provide an alternative for parental education using this multimodal format to explain simple-to-complex issues.

Programmed cell death-1, PD-1, is dysregulated in T cells from children with new onset type 1 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Programmed death cell 1 (PD-1) is an inhibitor of T cell activation and is also functionally linked to glycolysis. We hypothesized that PD-1 expression is defective in activated T cells from children with type 1 diabetes (T1D), resulting in abnormal T cell glucose metabolism. METHODS: In this pilot study, we enrolled children with new onset T1D within 2 weeks of diagnosis (T1D), unaffected siblings of T1D (SIBS), unaffected, unrelated children (CTRL), children with new onset, and untreated Crohn disease (CD). We repeated the assays 4-6 months post-diagnosis in T1D (T1D follow up). We analyzed anti-CD3/-CD28-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) subsets for PD-1 expression by flow cytometry at baseline and after 24 h in culture. We measured cytokines in the culture medium by multiplex ELISA and glycolytic capacity with a flux analyzer. RESULTS: We enrolled 37 children. T cells derived from subjects with T1D had decreased PD-1 expression compared to the other study groups. However, in T1D follow-up T cells expressed PD-1 similarly to controls, but had no differences in PBMC cytokine production. Nonetheless, T1D follow up PBMCs had enhanced glycolytic capacity compared to T1D. CONCLUSIONS: Activated T cells from T1D fail to upregulate PD-1 upon T-cell receptor stimulation, which may contribute to the pathogenesis of T1D. T1D follow up PBMC expression of PD-1 normalizes, together with a significant increase in glycolysis compared to T1D. Thus, insulin therapy in T1D children is associated with normal PD1 expression and heightened glycolytic capacity in PBMC.

Direct Coexistence Methods to Determine the Solubility of Salts in Water from Numerical Simulations. Test Case NaCl.

The solubility of NaCl, an equilibrium between a saturated solution of ions and a solid with a crystalline structure, was obtained from molecular dynamics simulations using the SPC/E and TIP4P-Ew water models. Four initial setups on supersaturated systems were tested on sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions to determine the equilibrium conditions and computational performance: (1) an ionic solution confined between two crystal plates of periodic NaCl, (2) a solution with all the ions initially distributed randomly, (3) a nanocrystal immersed in pure water, and (4) a nanocrystal immersed in an ionic solution. In some cases, the equilibration of the system can take several microseconds. The results from this work showed that the solubility of NaCl was the same, within simulation error, for the four setups, and in agreement with previously reported values from simulations with the setup (1). The system of a nanocrystal immersed in supersaturated solution was found to equilibrate faster than others. In agreement with laser-Doppler droplet measurements, at equilibrium with the solution the crystals in all the setups had a slight positive charge.

Modified colloidal primitive model as a homogeneous surface charge distribution: ζ-potential.

An integral equations theory is derived and applied to a modified colloidal primitive model (MCPM), for finite concentration colloidal dispersions. In MCPM, the charge on the colloidal particle is assumed to be smeared on its surface. We find important quantitative and qualitative differences of the ζ-potential, induced charge, and the colloid-colloid electric effective force, calculated in the MCPM, with those obtained from the colloidal primitive model (CPM), where the colloidal charge is assumed to be in the center of the particle, in spite of the fact that, due to Gauss's law, both models have the same particle distribution function. In particular, for the same parameters, while the ζ-potential is positive in MCPM, is negative in the CPM, implying opposite electrophoretic mobilities, µ. An inverse µ has been theoretically predicted in the past, for infinite dilution colloidal dispersions. The MCPM could be a better model for some colloidal particles. In both models, the CPM and the MCPM, it is found a very long-range colloid-colloid correlation, in accordance with previous Monte Carlo simulations. The electrostatic, as well as entropic, like-charged colloid-colloid forces are oscillatory, implying a long-range attraction.

Polarity inversion of ζ-potential in concentrated colloidal dispersions.

A concentrated colloidal dispersion is studied by applying an integral equations theory to the colloidal primitive model fluid. Important effects, attributed to large size and charge and to the finite concentration of colloidal particles, are found. We observe a polarity inversion of ζ-potential for concentrated colloidal dispersions, while it is not present for a single colloidal particle at infinite dilution. An excellent qualitative agreement between our theoretical predictions and our computer simulations is observed.