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The continuing expansion of digital service-learning is bringing emergent dynamics to the field of community engagement, including the challenge of fostering asset-based views of community partners in online spaces. "Online disinhibition" ("Suler," 2004) can prompt harsh critique or insensitive language that would not have occurred during face-to-face relationships. Traditionally, the field of community engagement has drawn on asset-based community development ("Kretzmann & McKnight," 1993), which calls for relationship-driven, asset-based, and internally focused partnerships, to encourage ethical and positive interactions with community members. However, this theory was not originally intended for digital, text-based interactions. This article explores how aspects of asset-based community development might be enacted in online partnerships, in electronic asset-based community development (eABCD). A case study of a digital writing partnership between college students and rural youth is used to illustrate how students can be supported in asset-based, relationship-driven, and internally focused interactions in online service-learning collaborations.

Many important high-stakes decisions--college admission, academic performance evaluation, and even job promotion--depend on accurate and reliable scores from valid large-scale assessments. However, examinees sometimes cheat by copying answers from other test-takers or practicing with test items ahead of time, which can undermine the effectiveness of such assessments in yielding accurate, precise information of examinees' performances. This study focuses on the utility of a new nonparametric person-fit index using examinees' response times to detect two types of cheating behaviors. The feasibility of this method was investigated vis-à-vis a Monte Carlo simulation as well as through analyzing data from a large-scale assessment. Findings indicate that the proposed index was quite successful in detecting pre-knowledge cheating and extreme one-item cheating.

Maternal influenza vaccination is increasingly recognized to protect infants from influenza infection in their first 6 months. We used the screening method to estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE) against laboratory-confirmed influenza in infants in England, using newly available uptake data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink pregnancy register, matched on week of birth and region and adjusted for ethnicity. We found VE of 66% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18%-84%) in the 2013-2014 season and 50% (95% CI, 11%-72%) in 2014-2015, with similar VE against influenza-related hospitalization. VE against the dominant circulating influenza strain was higher, at 78% (95% CI, 16%-94%) against H1N1 in 2013-2014, and 60% (95% CI, 16%-81%) against H3N2 in 2014-2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case of acute occlusion of the right common iliac artery immediately following left common iliac vein stent placement is presented. Graph: Figure 3 Digital subtraction venography fluoroscopic image of the left common iliac vein after stent placement with small amount of residual thrombus (arrow). [Extracted from the article]

The authors investigated the effect of missing completely at random (MCAR) item responses on partial credit model (PCM) parameter estimates in a longitudinal study of Positive Affect. Participants were 307 adults from the older cohort of the Notre Dame Study of Health and Well-Being (Bergeman and Deboeck, 2014) who completed questionnaires including Positive Affect items for 56 days. Additional missing responses were introduced to the data, randomly replacing 20%, 50%, and 70% of the responses on each item and each day with missing values, in addition to the existing missing data. Results' indicated that item locations and person trait level measures diverged from the original estimates as the level of degradation from induced missing data increased. In addition, standard errors of these estimates increased with the level of degradation. Thus, MCAR data does damage the quality and precision of PCM estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: Purpose: Anecdotal evidence suggests that the colon plays an important role after small bowel resection (SBR). However, colonic changes have not previously been studied. The aim of this study was to characterize morphological and functional changes within the colon after SBR and elucidate the influence of diet complexity on adaptation. Method: In study 1, 4-week-old piglets underwent a 75% SBR or sham operation and were studied at 2, 4, and 6 weeks postoperation to allow analysis of early and late adaptation responses. Piglets received a polymeric infant formula (PIF). In study 2, SBR piglets received an elemental diet and were studied at 6 weeks postoperation and compared with SBR + PIF piglets from study 1. For both studies, immunohistochemistry was used to quantitate intestinal cell types. Changes in functional proteins were measured by Western blot, enteroendocrine/peptide YY (PYY), enterocyte/liver fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP), and goblet cells/trefoil factor 3 (TFF3). Results: In study 1, early and late adaptation-related changes were observed after SBR. Early adaptation included increased numbers of enterocytes (P = .0001), whereas late adaptation included increased proliferative cell numbers (P = .02). Enteroendocrine, goblet, and apoptotic cells numbers were significantly elevated in the resected group at all time-points studied (P < .05). Functional changes included increased levels of L-FABP (P = .04) and PYY (P = .03). There was no change in TFF3 expression. In study 2, feeding with an elemental diet resulted in suboptimal adaptation as evidenced by reduced rate of weight gain and significant reductions in total cell numbers (P = .0001), proliferative (P = .0001) and apoptotic cells (P = .04), enteroendocrine cells (P = .001), and PYY expression (P .004). Conclusion: These findings indicate that significant morphological and functional changes occur in the colon after massive SBR and that these occur as early and late adaptation responses. Elemental diet was associated with suboptimal adaptation suggesting an effect of diet complexity on colonic adaptation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background & Aims Despite the mortality associated with liver disease observed in patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS), mechanisms underlying the development of SBS-associated liver disease (SBS-ALD) are poorly understood. This study examines the impact of bacterially-mediated bile acid (BA) dysmetabolism on farnesoid X receptor (FXR) signalling pathways and clinical outcome in a piglet model of SBS-ALD. Methods 4-week old piglets underwent 75% small bowel resection (SBR) or sham operation. Liver histology and hepatic inflammatory gene expression were examined. Abundance of BA biotransforming bacteria was determined and metabolomic studies detailed the alterations in BA composition of stool, portal serum and bile samples. Gene expression of intestinal and hepatic FXR target genes and small heterodimer partner (SHP) transrepression targets were assessed. Results Histological evidence of SBS-ALD included liver bile duct proliferation, hepatocyte ballooning and fibrosis. Inflammatory gene expression was increased. Microbiota changes included a 10-fold decrease in Clostridium and a two-fold decrease in Bacteroides in SBS-ALD piglets. BA composition was altered and reflected a primary BA dominant composition. Intestinal and hepatic regulation of BA synthesis was characterised by a blunted intestinal FXR activation response and a failure of SHP to repress key hepatic targets. Conclusions We propose a pathological scenario in which microbial dysbiosis following SBR results in significant BA dysmetabolism and consequent outcomes including steatorrhoea, persistent diarrhoea and liver damage. Furthermore alterations in BA composition may have contributed to the observed disturbance in FXR-mediated signalling pathways. These findings provide an insight into the complex mechanisms mediating the development of liver disease in patients with SBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]