Advocacy coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate: Exploring coalition structure, policy beliefs, resources, and strategies.

Advocacy coalitions often play an important role in the state health policymaking process, yet little is known about their structure, composition, and behavior. In 2008, California became the first state to enact a menu labeling law. Using the advocacy coalition framework, we examine different facets of the coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate. We use a qualitative research approach to identify coalition members and explore their expressed beliefs and policy arguments, resources, and strategies by analyzing legislative documents (n = 87) and newspaper articles (n = 78) produced between 1999 and 2009. Between 2003 and 2008, six menu labeling bills were introduced in the state's legislature. We found the issue received increasing media attention during this period. We identified two advocacy coalitions involved in the debate-a public health (PH) coalition and an industry coalition. State organizations acted as coalition leaders and participated for a longer duration than elected officials. The structure and composition of each coalition varied. PH coalition leadership and membership notably increased compared to the industry coalition. The PH coalition, led by nonprofit PH and health organizations, promoted a clear and consistent message around informed decision making. The industry coalition, led by a state restaurant association, responded with cost and implementation arguments. Each coalition used various resources and strategies to advance desired outcomes. PH coalition leaders were particularly effective at using resources and employing advocacy strategies, which included engaging state legislators as coalition members, using public opinion polls and information, and leveraging media resources to garner support. Policy precedence and a local policy push emerged as important policymaking strategies. Areas for future research on the state health policymaking process are discussed

Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by Thomas B. McNeill, Patrick F. McCartan, R. L. Cousineau, William J. Harte, William D. Bailey, Jr., John E. Kennedy, and Daniel W. Hammer

Trans-splicing of the Ll.LtrB group II intron in Lactococcus lactis

The Ll.LtrB intron from the Gram-positive bacterium Lactococcus lactis is one of the most studied bacterial group II introns. Ll.LtrB interrupts the relaxase gene of three L. lactis conjugative elements. The relaxase enzyme recognizes the origin of transfer (oriT ) and initiates the intercellular transfer of its conjugative element. The splicing efficiency of Ll.LtrB from the relaxase transcript thus controls the conjugation level of its host element. Here, we used the level of sex factor conjugation as a read-out for Ll.LtrB splicing efficiency. Using this highly sensitive splicing/conjugation assay (107-fold detection range), we demonstrate that Ll.LtrB can trans-splice in L. lactis when fragmented at various positions such as: three different locations within domain IV, within domain I and within domain III. We also demonstrate that the intron-encoded protein, LtrA, is absolutely required for Ll.LtrB trans-splicing. Characteristic Y-branched trans-spliced introns and ligated exons are detected by RT-PCR from total RNA extracts of cells harbouring fragmented Ll.LtrB. The splicing/conjugation assay we developed constitutes the first model system to study group II intron trans-splicing in vivo. Although only previously observed in bacterial-derived organelles, we demonstrate that assembly and trans-splicing of a fragmented group II intron can take place efficiently in bacterial cells

Temporal perception deficits in schizophrenia: integration is the problem, not deployment of attentions

Patients with schizophrenia are known to have impairments in sensory processing. In order to understand the specific temporal perception deficits of schizophrenia, we investigated and determined to what extent impairments in temporal integration can be dissociated from attention deployment using Attentional Blink (AB). Our findings showed that there was no evident deficit in the deployment of attention in patients with schizophrenia. However, patients showed an increased temporal integration deficit within a hundred-millisecond timescale. The degree of such integration dysfunction was correlated with the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia. There was no difference between individuals with/without schizotypal personality disorder in temporal integration. Differently from previous studies using the AB, we did not find a significant impairment in deployment of attention in schizophrenia. Instead, we used both theoretical and empirical approaches to show that previous findings (using the suppression ratio to correct for the baseline difference) produced a systematic exaggeration of the attention deficits. Instead, we modulated the perceptual difficulty of the task to bring the baseline levels of target detection between the groups into closer alignment. We found that the integration dysfunction rather than deployment of attention is clinically relevant, and thus should be an additional focus of research in schizophrenia

Compilation of extended recursion in call-by-value functional languages

This paper formalizes and proves correct a compilation scheme for mutually-recursive definitions in call-by-value functional languages. This scheme supports a wider range of recursive definitions than previous methods. We formalize our technique as a translation scheme to a lambda-calculus featuring in-place update of memory blocks, and prove the translation to be correct.Comment: 62 pages, uses pi

Physician and patient use of and attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of infertility

ObjectiveTo determine use of and attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among infertility patients and subspecialty physicians.MethodsInfertility patients were asked to complete anonymous written surveys at an academic infertility practice; members of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility were electronically surveyed. Both groups were assessed regarding their use of and attitudes toward CAM.ResultsThe response rate was 32.1% (115/358) among patients and 22.6% (225/995) among physicians (P < 0.05). In total, 105 (91.3%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 85.8–96.2) patients used CAM, and 84 (73.0%; 95% CI, 64.9–81.1) regarded it as beneficial to their fertility treatment. However, only 30 (26.1%; 95% CI, 18.0–34.0) patients reported CAM use to physicians, with the most common reason being that they were “never asked.” Overall, 202 (89.8%; 95% CI, 85.9–93.8) physicians reported inquiring about CAM.ConclusionSignificant discrepancies exist between subfertile patients and physicians in attitudes toward the use of CAM. The current prevalence of CAM use among infertility patients requires greater physician attention and justifies further study on the risks and benefits of integrating CAM into the biomedical treatment of infertility.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135333/1/ijgo253.pd

Investigating Reproductive Coercion and Violence Towards Women with Disabilities

4 Executive summary Background: the issue For centuries, women with disabilities (WWD) have been subject to multiple and intersecting forms of violence (Abbas, 2022). Much of the literature has focused on intimate partner violence towards WWD (i.e. Campbell et al., 2022; Meyer et al., 2022). Reproductive violence towards WWD has received less attention, despite the long history of reproductive injustice within Canadian and international contexts. This particular form of violence towards WWD is a violation of human rights and has multiple and pervasive impacts on social, emotional, and physical health (Björnsdóttir et al., 2017; Grace & Anderson, 2018; McConnell & Phelan, 2022; Powell, 2021). The Senate of Canada Committee on Human Rights (2022), recently published a report indicating the prevalence of reproductive coercion on intersecting and marginalized communities, calling to action the government and health and social service sectors. Despite the recognition of the issues and rights of WWD within their reproductive journey, there is scant literature in the field. Objectives The objective of this project was to conduct a scoping review investigating and synthesizing the research literature related to reproductive violence against WWD within Canadian and international contexts. Results Following a rigorous research strategy, 48 publications were included in this scoping review. Although heterogeneous, this review provides an overview of the meaning and types of reproductive violence towards WWD. The results of this scoping review are centered on legal analysis and most of the publications are related to women with intellectual disabilities. Within the legal disciplines, questions related to the ‘best interests’ of WWD and informed consent were widely examined in the selected international publications. Key messages • Stereotypes within society, such as WWD being identified as asexual, dependent, and unfit for motherhood prevail. Within the legal studies, it was evidenced that these ideologies underpinned many decisions that were taken in court applications for sterilization. • WWD lack access to information and services related to sexual and reproductive health and rights. 5 • WWD are often coerced into long-term and/or irreversible contraception methods. • Managing menstrual issues is one of the main arguments in the application of sterilization towards WWD. The other important issues are related to protecting against sexual abuse and preventing unexpected pregnancies. • There is a gap in research-knowledge related to sterilization that occurs outside institutions. • There is a need for more empirical studies related to reproductive violence including the exploration of the experiences of WWD. Methods (search methods, selection criteria, data collection and analysis) In this project, we conducted a scoping review, following the six steps recommended by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) in their framework for conducting scoping reviews (updated by Levac et al., 2010). The inclusion and exclusion criteria were related to gender (had to be oriented towards women), disabilities (had to be disability focused) and reproductive violence (had to refer specifically to reproductive violence). We excluded all publications related to HIV/AIDS and mental health issues. Another important exclusion criterion was related to the accessibility of the publication

Prenatal THC Exposure Induces Sex-Dependent Neuropsychiatric Endophenotypes in Offspring and Long-Term Disruptions in Fatty-Acid Signaling Pathways Directly in the Mesolimbic Circuitry

Despite increased prevalence of maternal cannabis use, little is understood regarding potential long-term effects of prenatal cannabis exposure (PCE) on neurodevelopmental outcomes. While neurodevelopmental cannabis exposure increases the risk of developing affective/mood disorders in adulthood, the precise neuro-pathophysiological mechanisms in male and female offspring are largely unknown. Given the interconnectivity of the endocannabinoid (ECb) system and the brain’s fatty acid pathways, we hypothesized that prenatal exposure to ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) may dysregulate fetal neurodevelopment through alterations of fatty-acid dependent synaptic and neuronal function in the mesolimbic system. To investigate this, pregnant Wistar rats were exposed to vehicle or THC (3 mg/kg) from gestational day (GD)7 until GD22. Anxiety-like, depres-sive-like, and reward-seeking behavior, electrophysiology, and molecular assays were performed on adult male/female offspring. Imaging of fatty acids using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI IMS) was performed at prepubescence and adulthood. We report that PCE induces be-havioral, neuronal, and molecular alterations in the mesolimbic system in male and female offspring, resem-bling neuropsychiatric endophenotypes. Additionally, PCE resulted in profound dysregulation of critical fatty acid pathways in the developing brain lipidome. Female progeny exhibited significant alterations to fatty acid levels at prepubescence but recovered from these deficits by early adulthood. In contrast, males exhibited persistent fatty acid deficits into adulthood. Moreover, both sexes maintained enduring abnormalities in gluta-matergic/GABAergic function in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). These findings identify several novel long-term risks of maternal cannabis use and demonstrate for the first time, sex-related effects of maternal cannabinoid exposure directly in the developing neural lipidome

Increased chromosomal radiosensitivity in asymptomatic carriers of a heterozygous BRCA1 mutation

Background: Breast cancer risk increases drastically in individuals carrying a germline BRCA1 mutation. The exposure to ionizing radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes of BRCA1 mutation carriers is counterintuitive, since BRCA1 is active in the DNA damage response pathway. The aim of this study was to investigate whether healthy BRCA1 mutations carriers demonstrate an increased radiosensitivity compared with healthy individuals. Methods: We defined a novel radiosensitivity indicator (RIND) based on two endpoints measured by the G2 micronucleus assay, reflecting defects in DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to doses of 2 or 4 Gy. We investigated if a correlation between the RIND score and nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) could be established. Results: We found significantly increased radiosensitivity in the cohort of healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with healthy controls. In addition, our analysis showed a significantly different distribution over the RIND scores (p = 0.034, Fisher’s exact test) for healthy BRCA1 mutation carriers compared with non-carriers: 72 % of mutation carriers showed a radiosensitive phenotype (RIND score 1–4), whereas 72 % of the healthy volunteers showed no radiosensitivity (RIND score 0). Furthermore, 28 % of BRCA1 mutation carriers had a RIND score of 3 or 4 (not observed in control subjects). The radiosensitive phenotype was similar for relatives within several families, but not for unrelated individuals carrying the same mutation. The median RIND score was higher in patients with a mutation leading to a premature termination codon (PTC) located in the central part of the gene than in patients with a germline mutation in the 5′ end of the gene. Conclusions: We show that BRCA1 mutations are associated with a radiosensitive phenotype related to a compromised DNA repair and G2 arrest capacity after exposure to either 2 or 4 Gy. Our study confirms that haploinsufficiency is the mechanism involved in radiosensitivity in patients with a PTC allele, but it suggests that further research is needed to evaluate alternative mechanisms for mutations not subjected to NMD

EMSY overexpression disrupts the BRCA2/RAD51 pathway in the DNA-damage response: implications for chromosomal instability/recombination syndromes as checkpoint diseases

EMSY links the BRCA2 pathway to sporadic breast/ovarian cancer. It encodes a nuclear protein that binds to the BRCA2 N-terminal domain implicated in chromatin/transcription regulation, but when sporadically amplified/overexpressed, increased EMSY level represses BRCA2 transactivation potential and induces chromosomal instability, mimicking the activity of BRCA2 mutations in the development of hereditary breast/ovarian cancer. In addition to chromatin/transcription regulation, EMSY may also play a role in the DNA-damage response, suggested by its ability to localize at chromatin sites of DNA damage/repair. This implies that EMSY overexpression may also repress BRCA2 in DNA-damage replication/checkpoint and recombination/repair, coordinated processes that also require its interacting proteins: PALB2, the partner and localizer of BRCA2; RPA, replication/checkpoint protein A; and RAD51, the inseparable recombination/repair enzyme. Here, using a well-characterized recombination/repair assay system, we demonstrate that a slight increase in EMSY level can indeed repress these two processes independently of transcriptional interference/repression. Since EMSY, RPA and PALB2 all bind to the same BRCA2 region, these findings further support a scenario wherein: (a) EMSY amplification may mimic BRCA2 deficiency, at least by overriding RPA and PALB2, crippling the BRCA2/RAD51 complex at DNA-damage and replication/transcription sites; and (b) BRCA2/RAD51 may coordinate these processes by employing at least EMSY, PALB2 and RPA. We extensively discuss the molecular details of how this can happen to ascertain its implications for a novel recombination mechanism apparently conceived as checkpoint rather than a DNA repair system for cell division, survival, death, and human diseases, including the tissue specificity of cancer predisposition, which may renew our thinking about targeted therapy and prevention