Cultural Engagement in California's Inland Regions

Cultural Engagement in California's Inland Regions explores patterns of cultural engagement in the San Joaquin Valley and the Inland Empire. Two major data collection efforts were undertaken. The first was a door-to-door intercept survey of more than 1,000 randomly selected households in six distinctly different neighborhoods, three in the Fresno area and three in Riverside and San Bernardino. The second was a self-administered survey of more than 5,000 residents of the two regions, promoted as the "California Cultural Census" and conducted online and through intercept work at various locations and events. It is important to note that this second data set aggregates multiple samples, including respondents who were selected at the convenience of outreach organizations. Although weighted to reduce potential biases, these data are not representative of all adults in the two regions. Results paint a detailed picture of the breadth and depth of cultural engagement in the two regions and reveal a range of activity in music, theater and drama, reading and writing, dance, and visual arts and crafts -- much of which occurs off the radar" of the traditional infrastructure of nonprofit arts organizations and facilities. The study identifies specific types of activities which, if supported at higher levels, might equitably raise participation levels and achieve higher levels of cultural vitality in millions of homes and hundreds of communities. It concludes that cultural providers and funders should look deeper into the fabric of their communities for new partners, new settings and innovative approaches to drawing residents into cultural experiences. This briefing provides a high level summary of the study's key findings, as well as discussion questions for cultural providers and funders. Comprehensive results are available at www.irvine.org, including an executive summary and detailed results by artistic discipline

Diverse provision in higher education: options and challenges

"This report was originally produced as advice to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in July 2010. It was therefore written in a different context, before the Browne Review and changes to higher education policy announced in late 2010... This report was produced in response to a request in our grant letter for 2010-11, issued by the previous Government. In that grant letter, the then Secretary of State indicated that he wished to see a shift away from full-time three-year degrees and towards a wider variety of provision. He asked us to assess current trends in demand, and to provide initial advice as to how ‘diverse provision’ can be encouraged." - Page 2

APOL1 CKD Risk Alleles in New Mexico African American and American Indian Populations: Racial Disparity

Purpose/Background: Two haplotypes of human apolipoprotein L1 gene (gene: APOL1; protein: ApoL1) harboring three coding sequence mutations have been demonstrated as risk variants associated with non-diabetic chronic kidney diseases (CKD) in African Americans. The first one, termed G1, is a two non-synonymous SNP haplotype (rs73885319 (A\u3eG; p.S342G) and rs60910145 (G\u3eT; p.I384M). The second one, termed G2, is a two codon deletion haplotype rs71785313 (6-bp in frame deletion) These two coding-sequence variants have been discovered in CKD patients of African ancestry and linked to the pathogenesis of primary focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), hypertension-attributed kidney disease, and HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN), under a recessive inheritance pattern. Marked disparities exist in races, rates, and etiological classifications of CDK between African Americans (AAs) and European Americans. Sequencing and genotyping analysis of known APOL1 SNPs showed that only APOL1 G1 and G2 confer kidney risk, and other common and rare APOL1 missense variants, including the G3 haplotype, do not contribute to FSGS and HIVAN in the US population. According to the report of US census bureau, African American and American Indian (AI) citizens in New Mexico make up nearly 2.5% and 10.9% of the state\u27s entire population in 2018 (2). However, whether APOL1 G1 and G2 kidney-risk alleles are linked with hypertension-attributed CKD in AAs and AIs in New Mexico has not been investigated. Materials & Methods: We analyzed the published results of a retrospective analysis of inpatient and discharge data from hospitals across the state of New Mexico, known as Hospital Inpatient and Discharge Dataset (HIDD; 3). Results: A pattern persisted for all three years (2012-2014) that AAs had the highest rate of CKD followed by AIs per 10,000 population in New Mexico. AAs had the highest age adjusted rate of CKD with hypertension at 102.6 per 10,000 population (29.7% (102.6/345.7) of all CKD with hypertension patients) followed by American Indians at 91.9 (26.6% (91.9/345.7) of all CKD with hypertension patients). Interestingly, in terms of CKD with diabetes, AIs had the highest age adjusted rate at 79.9 per 10,000 followed by AAs at 66.5. Discussion/Conclusion: The prevalence of CKD with hypertension in AA and AI populations is significantly high in New Mexico, To understand the etiology of CKD in AAs and AIs in New Mexico, genotyping the APOL1 G1 and G2 risk alleles in these two populations is warranted. Detection of APOL1 associations with CKD and delineation of injury pathways (autophagy, necroptosis and ferroptosis) would bring hope for effective treatment for these kidney diseases. In addition, modifier loci can influence APOL1 risk for the development of CKD. ‘Second hits’, for example viral and environmental, may alter the outcome of APOL1 risk variants

The Distribution of Passenger Pigeon on Caddo Sites in the Trans-Mississippi South

Following up on the discovery of 10 passenger pigeon elements from one bird in a Caddo burial feature (Burial 52) at the Mitchell site (41BW4) on the Red River in Bowie County, we have documented the distribution of passenger pigeon on Caddo sites in the Trans-Mississippi South. To date, we have identified 10 Caddo sites dating between ca. A.D. 1160-1710 with passenger pigeon bones, along with two Woodland period sites (generally predating ca. A.D. 800-900) in the region. These sites range as far east as the Saline River basin in Southwest Arkansas, as far west as the George C. Davis (41CE19) and Spike (41DT16) sites in East Texas, as far north as the Spiro site (34Lf40) in eastern Oklahoma, and as far south as the McLelland site (16BO236) in Northwest Louisiana, primarily situated in the Pineywoods. As Jackson and Jackson have noted, the passenger pigeons found on Caddo sites appear to reflect a “southward and westward extension of their range during the Late Woodland period (ca. A.D. 700-1000) that continues into the Caddo era (ca. A.D. 1000-1500), likely reaching East Texas sometime shortly after A.D. 1000.

Iowa Health Focus, November 2004

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Healt