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In many gram-positive Actinobacteria, including Actinomyces oris and Corynebacterium matruchotii, the conserved thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase MdbA that catalyzes oxidative folding of exported proteins is essential for bacterial viability by an unidentified mechanism. Intriguingly, in Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the deletion of mdbA blocks cell growth only at 37 °C but not at 30 °C, suggesting the presence of alternative oxidoreductase enzyme(s). By isolating spontaneous thermotolerant revertants of the mdbA mutant at 37 °C, we obtained genetic suppressors, all mapped to a single T-to-G mutation within the promoter region of tsdA, causing its elevated expression. Strikingly, increased expression of tsdA-via suppressor mutations or a constitutive promoter-rescues the pilus assembly and toxin production defects of this mutant, hence compensating for the loss of mdbA. Structural, genetic, and biochemical analyses demonstrated TsdA is a membrane-tethered thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase with a conserved CxxC motif that can substitute for MdbA in mediating oxidative folding of pilin and toxin substrates. Together with our observation that tsdA expression is upregulated at nonpermissive temperature (40 °C) in wild-type cells, we posit that TsdA has evolved as a compensatory thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase that safeguards oxidative protein folding in C. diphtheriae against thermal stress.

The current study aimed to examine racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in the receipt of special education services for students with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from a healthcare provider utilizing parent-report data from a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. youth. Binary logistic regression results indicated that females with ASD were significantly less likely to receive special education than their male peers; however, race and ethnicity were not significant predictors of school-based autism services. These results suggest that racial/ethnic disparities in educational support for ASD students may be improving, yet misunderstandings of the impact of gender on autism symptom presentation and school functioning persist.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among phonological skills, reading fluency, and reading comprehension across reading modality (oral and silent) for a sample of students (N = 121) in grades 2-5 who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. Participants were administered text-level oral and silent reading fluency and comprehension assessments and selected phonological processing measures at the beginning and end of the school year. Cross-lagged path analyses were used to examine the relations among the phonological processing and reading skills across two theoretical models, one depicting reading fluency as a single construct and another representing rate and accuracy separately. Across models, results indicated that oral reading contributed to silent reading development but that this relation was not reciprocal. RAN emerged as a robust contributor to all aspects of oral and silent reading examined in this study, whereas phonological awareness contributed to fluency across modalities but did not impact end-of-year comprehension. Results generally followed a pattern of progression from lower to higher reading skills and from oral to silent reading. Further, important trends with regard to the contribution of phonological awareness to fluency subskills (rate and accuracy) were obscured when fluency was considered as a single construct, suggesting that it may be important for researchers to consider these subskills separately.

Research indicates that youth with autism spectrum disorder often experience unmet health care needs and receive poorer quality of care. Intellectual disability commonly co-occurs with autism spectrum disorder; however, the nature of unmet health care needs and health care quality in youth with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability have not been investigated. As such, this study sought to examine associations among co-occurring intellectual disability, unmet physical and mental health care needs, and health care quality in youth with autism spectrum disorder. Data from this study were acquired from the 2016-2018 National Survey of Children's Health, a nationally distributed caregiver-report questionnaire. Results found that the frequency of unmet mental health care need was significantly higher among children with autism spectrum disorder with co-occurring intellectual disability than those without intellectual disability. Using a structural equation modeling approach, it was found that the total effect of co-occurring intellectual disability on composite health care quality was significant. Investigation of indirect effects indicated that unmet mental health care need mediated the relationship between co-occurring intellectual disability and health care quality. These findings suggest that youth with autism spectrum disorder and co-occurring intellectual disability may be more likely to experience unmet mental health care needs, and that their unmet mental health care needs may negatively impact their health care quality.

This review focuses on the Feifer Assessment of Reading (FAR) produced by S. G. Feifer and R. G. Nader in 2015. The FAR is a comprehensive reading test that is individually administered to children and adults aged 4 to 21 years. The structure of the FAR is based on a gradient model of brain functioning (Goldberg, 1990; Luria, 1980) and reflects a neuropsychological approach to reading. This instrument is designed to detect the presence of a reading disorder by examining the cognitive and linguistic processes that support proficient reading. According to Feifer and Nader, the FAR is unique because it allows for the identification of four specific reading disorder subtypes including surface dyslexia, dysphonetic dyslexia, mixed dyslexia, and a reading comprehension deficit. The FAR is comprised of 15 subtests that yield a Total Index (TI) and four indexes: the Phonological Index (PI), the Fluency Index (FI), the Mixed Index (MI), and the Comprehension Index (CI). A Screening Form consisting of the one subtest from the PI, FI, and CI is also available. This review begins by describing the administration, scoring, and interpretation of the FAR. It then reviews the FAR's technical adequacy (test development, standardization and norming, scale/item characteristics, reliability, and validity).

This study examined the effects of reading modality (oral vs. silent) on comprehension in elementary school students with a specific learning disability in reading (N = 77). A 2 (development-level) × 2 (reading modality) × 2 (time) mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine the influence of these variables on comprehension. Significant main effects were found for reading modality and time on comprehension, but the main effect for developmental level was not significant. Students understood more of what was read orally than silently and showed improved comprehension across the year. The development-level by modality interaction was significant. Early elementary students benefited from oral reading in terms of comprehension, whereas equivalent comprehension was observed for late elementary students across modalities. No other two- or three-way interactions were significant. Results from this study suggest that reading modality is an important variable to consider for researchers and educators who are interested in the construct of reading comprehension.

INTRODUCTION: Recruitment of sufficient and diverse participants into clinical research for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias remains a formidable challenge. The primary goal of this manuscript is to provide an overview of an approach to diversifying research recruitment and to provide case examples of several methods for achieving greater diversity in clinical research enrollment. METHODS: The University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (KU ADRC) developed MyAlliance for Brain Health (MyAlliance), a service‐oriented recruitment model. MyAlliance comprises a Primary Care Provider Network, a Patient and Family Network, and a Community Organization Network, each delivering tailored value to relevant parties while facilitating research referrals. RESULTS: We review three methods for encouraging increased diversity in clinical research participation. Initial outcomes reveal an increase in underrepresented participants from 17% to 27% in a research registry. Enrollments into studies supported by the research registry experienced a 51% increase in proportion of participants from underrepresented communities. DISCUSSION: MyAlliance shifts power, resources, and knowledge to community advocates, promoting brain health awareness and research participation, and demands substantial financial investment and administrative commitment. MyAlliance offers valuable lessons for building sustainable, community‐centered research recruitment infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of localized engagement and cultural understanding. Highlights: MyAlliance led to a significant increase in the representation of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups and individuals from rural areas.The service‐oriented approach facilitated long‐term community engagement and trust‐building, extending partnerships between an academic medical center and community organizations.While effective, MyAlliance required substantial financial investment, with costs including infrastructure development, staff support, partner organization compensation, and promotional activities, underscoring the resource‐intensive nature of inclusive research recruitment efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of gain and loss frames have been examined extensively, but there can be more nuance in health narratives. Experimental research with narratives has not yet thoroughly investigated all combinations of protagonists' health recommendation compliance and story outcomes. People engaging in healthy behaviors may experience negative outcomes. The current study utilized social cognitive theory to investigate protagonist self-efficacy (low vs. high) and social comparison self-evaluation as moderators of story outcome (positive vs. negative) with sleep and alcohol topics. A three-way interaction indicated that, for the alcohol narratives, the more participants compared themselves to low self-efficacy, negative ending protagonists (vs. low self-efficacy, positive ending protagonists), the greater their positive change in alcohol self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ninety-six first grade students in an urban school system were tested in October and May on reading, mathematics, and their understanding of sequences of letters and numbers. A time lag analysis was subsequently conducted. In such analyses, cross-correlations between the first measurement of one variable and the second measurement of another are compared. The larger of the correlations indicates the direction of the relationship; i.e., which variable is most likely to be causal. Correlations of the fall scores on the number sequences with spring scores on the mathematics concepts scale were significant, while correlations of the fall mathematics concepts scores with spring number sequence scores were negligible. This indicates that understanding such complex sequences has a directional effect on understanding mathematics concepts. Fall-spring cross-correlations for the letter sequences and reading test, although significant, did not differ, and hence provided no indication of the direction of the relationship. Potential explanations were discussed.