Poverty, Educational Attainment and Health Among America’s Children: Current and Future Effects of Population Diversification and Associated Socioeconomic Change

A complex of interrelated factors including minority status, poverty, education, health status, and other factors determine the general welfare of children in America, particularly in heavily diverse states such as Texas. Although racial/ethnic status is clearly only a concomitant factor in that determination it is a factor for which future projections are available and for which the relationships with the other factors in the complex can be assessed. After examining the nature of the interrelationships between these factors we utilize direct standardization techniques to examine how the future diversification of the United States and Texas will affect the number of children in poverty, the educational status of the householders in households in which children in poverty live and the health status of children in 2040 assuming that the current relationships between minority status and these socioeconomic factors continue into the future. In the results of the analyses, data are compared with the total population of the United States and Texas in 2040 assumed in the first simulation scenario, to have the race/ethnicity characteristics of 2008 and in the second those projected for 2040 by the U.S. Census Bureau for the nation and by the Texas State Data Center for Texas in 2040. The results show that the diversification of the population could increase the number of children in poverty in the United States by nearly 1.8 million more than would occur with the lower levels of diversification evident in 2008. In addition, poverty would become increasingly concentrated among minority children with minority children accounting for 76.2 percent of all children in poverty by 2040 and with Hispanic children accounting for nearly half of the children in poverty by 2040. Results for educational attainment show an increasing concentration of minority children in households with householders with very low levels of education such that by 2040, 85.2 percent of the increase in the number of children in poverty would be in households with a householder with less than a high school level of education. Finally, the results related to several health status factors show that children in poverty will have a higher prevalence of nearly all health conditions. For example, the number of children with untreated dental conditions could increase to more than 4 million in the United States and to nearly 500,000 in Texas. The results clearly show that improving the welfare of children in America will require concerted efforts to change the poverty, educational, and health status characteristics associated with minority status and particularly Hispanic status. Failing to do so will lead to a future in which America’s children are increasingly impoverished, more poorly educated, and less healthy and which, as a result, is an America with a more tentative future.

Long-lasting synaptic potentiation induced by depolarization under conditions that eliminate detectable Ca2+ signals.

Activity-dependent alterations of synaptic transmission important for learning and memory are often induced by Ca(2+) signals generated by depolarization. While it is widely assumed that Ca(2+) is the essential transducer of depolarization into cellular plasticity, little effort has been made to test whether Ca(2+)-independent responses to depolarization might also induce memory-like alterations. It was recently discovered that peripheral axons of nociceptive sensory neurons in Aplysia display long-lasting hyperexcitability triggered by conditioning depolarization in the absence of Ca(2+) entry (using nominally Ca(2+)-free solutions containing EGTA, "0Ca/EGTA") or the absence of detectable Ca(2+) transients (adding BAPTA-AM, "0Ca/EGTA/BAPTA-AM"). The current study reports that depolarization of central ganglia to approximately 0 mV for 2 min in these same solutions induced hyperexcitability lasting >1 h in sensory neuron processes near their synapses onto motor neurons. Furthermore, conditioning depolarization in these solutions produced a 2.5-fold increase in excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) amplitude 1-3 h afterward despite a drop in motor neuron input resistance. Depolarization in 0 Ca/EGTA produced long-term potentiation (LTP) of the EPSP lasting > or = 1 days without changing postsynaptic input resistance. When re-exposed to extracellular Ca(2+) during synaptic tests, prior exposure to 0Ca/EGTA or to 0Ca/EGTA/BAPTA-AM decreased sensory neuron survival. However, differential effects on neuronal health are unlikely to explain the observed potentiation because conditioning depolarization in these solutions did not alter survival rates. These findings suggest that unrecognized Ca(2+)-independent signals can transduce depolarization into long-lasting synaptic potentiation, perhaps contributing to persistent synaptic alterations following large, sustained depolarizations that occur during learning, neural injury, or seizures.

Current United States stem cell policy considerations and a recommendation for an alternative policy based on guidelines from existing international policies

Embryonic stem cell research is a widely debated topic in modern politics and religion. Differing views on the fetal rights conflict with the rights of an embryo. Those who believe an embryo has the same human qualities as a fetus accordingly believe embryonic stem cell research is unethical because it destroys a potential human life. However, scientists advocate the embryo does not have human qualities and should be used for valuable research in the stem cell field. Stem cell research may lead to vast developments in medical treatments, including cancer and brain conditions and injuries that are currently incurable. ^ The current stem cell policy introduced by President Bush in 2001 in an attempt to balance the moral issues with the need for scientific research has broad negative implications on the furthering of stem cell research. There is a limited diversity of available stem cell lines, there may be constitutional issues, there is an increasing disparity between the public and private research spheres, and the U.S. is struggling to maintain its scientific community. The U.S. must develop a new stem cell research policy that will balance the interest of science and public health with the moral issues that concern the public. ^ The United Kingdom allows researchers great liberty in conducting research, permitting the creation of embryos for the sole purpose of research, while Germany is equally conservative in their laws, as their policies support the philosophy that all embryos deserve the protection of full life. The United States should adopt a policy that takes the "middle ground" approach and permit research on excess embryos created for IVF purposes, rather than simply discarding those potentially valuable research tools. ^