Understanding Black Students' Social Agency at Historically Black Colleges: Data From a National Survey

This manuscript considers the political attitudes of Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities using a 2015 sample of first-year respondents. In response to this special issue's call to consider issues of student protest at Minority Serving Institutions, our manuscript offers empirical evidence on students' political dispositions at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Indeed, understanding the civic dispositions and political ideologies of Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities is not only a timely topic, but also a necessary one if we are to understand the future political engagement of an increasingly diverse nation (Lefever, 2005; Williamson, 2008)

Remote Laboratory for E-Learning of Systems on Chip and Their Applications to Nuclear and Scientific Instrumentation

Configuring and setting up a remote access laboratory for an advanced online school on fully programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) proved to be an outstanding challenge. The school, jointly organized by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), focused on SoC and its applications to nuclear and scientific instrumentation and was mainly addressed to physicists, computer scientists and engineers from developing countries. The use of e-learning tools, which some of them adopted and others developed, allowed the school participants to directly access both integrated development environment software and programmable SoC platforms. This facilitated the follow-up of all proposed exercises and the final project. During the four weeks of the training activity, we faced and overcame different technology and communication challenges, whose solutions we describe in detail together with dedicated tools and design methodology. We finally present a summary of the gained experience and an assessment of the results we achieved, addressed to those who foresee to organize similar initiatives using e-learning for advanced training with remote access to SoC platforms

Factors associated with viremia in people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy in Guatemala

INTRODUCTION: Viral suppression prevents HIV transmission and disease progression, but socio-economic and clinical factors can hinder the goal of suppression. We evaluated factors associated with viral non suppression (VNS) and persistent viremia (PV) in people living with HIV (PLHIV) receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Guatemala. METHODS: We conducted a cross sectional analysis using data from an ongoing cohort of PLHIV attending the largest HIV clinic in Guatemala. Univariable and multivariable analyses were conducted between PLHIV with viral suppression and detectable viremia. VNS was defined as most recent HIV RNA ≥ 200 copies/ml and PV as two consecutive HIV RNA ≥ 200 copies/ml. RESULTS: Of 664 participants, 13.3% had VNS and 7.1% had PV. In univariable analysis disaggregated by gender, low income, poor education, perceived difficulty attending healthcare, and alcohol use were associated with VNS in men while low CD4 at diagnosis, multiple prior ART regimens and treatment interruptions were significant in both genders. Multiple prior ART regimens (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) 2.82, [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.59, 4.99], p \u3c 0.01), treatment interruptions (aOR 4.51, [95% CI 2.13, 9.58], p \u3c 0.01), excessive alcohol consumption (aOR 2.56, [95% CI 1.18, 5.54], p \u3c 0.05) perceived difficulty attending healthcare (aOR 2.07, [ 95% CI 1.25, 3.42], p \u3c 0.01) and low CD4 at diagnosis (aOR 2.34, 95% [CI 1.30, 4.20], p \u3c 0.01) were independently associated with VNS on multivariable regression. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that socio-economic and clinical factors influence viral suppression in our cohort and vary between men and women. Gender specific approaches are necessary to achieve the 90% suppression goal

The Diagnostic Laboratory Hub: A New Health Care System Reveals the Incidence and Mortality of Tuberculosis, Histoplasmosis, and Cryptococcosis of PWH in Guatemala.

A Diagnostic Laboratory Hub (DLH) was set up in Guatemala to provide opportunistic infection (OI) diagnosis for people with HIV (PWH). Patients newly presenting for HIV, PWH not receiving antiretrovirals (ARVs) for >90 days but returned to care (Return/Restart), and PWH on ARVs with symptoms of OIs (ARV treatment) were prospectively included. Screening for tuberculosis, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), histoplasmosis, and cryptococcosis was done. Samples were couriered to the DLH, and results were transmitted electronically. Demographic, diagnostic results, disease burden, treatment, and follow-up to 180 days were analyzed. In 2017, 1953 patients were included, 923 new HIV infections (an estimated 44% of all new HIV infections in Guatemala), 701 on ARV treatment, and 315 Return/Restart. Three hundred seventeen (16.2%) had an OI: 35.9% tuberculosis, 31.2% histoplasmosis, 18.6% cryptococcosis, 4.4% NTM, and 9.8% coinfections. Histoplasmosis was the most frequent AIDS-defining illness; 51.2% of new patients had <200 CD4 cells/mm3 with a 29.4% OI incidence; 14.3% of OIs in new HIV infections occurred with CD4 counts of 200-350 cells/mm3. OIs were the main risk factor for premature death for new HIV infections. At 180 days, patients with OIs and advanced HIV had 73-fold greater risk of death than those without advanced disease who were OI-free. The DLH OI screening approach provides adequate diagnostic services and obtains relevant data. We propose a CD4 screening threshold of <350 cells/mm3. Mortality remains high, and improved interventions are required, including expansion of the DLH and access to antifungal drugs, especially liposomal amphotericin B and flucytosine.Financial support. This work was supported by Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections and JYLAG, a charity Foundation based in Switzerland (E.A. received this funding under the proposal: “Minimising HIV deaths through rapid fungal diagnosis and better care in Guatemala”). Other contributions came from AIDS Health Foundation (AHF) Guatemala, Intrahealth International and Ministry of health in Guatemala (MSPAS).S

Domestication reshaped the genetic basis of inbreeding depression in a maize landrace compared to its wild relative, teosinte

Inbreeding depression is the reduction in fitness and vigor resulting from mating of close relatives observed in many plant and animal species. The extent to which the genetic load of mutations contributing to inbreeding depression is due to large-effect mutations versus variants with very small individual effects is unknown and may be affected by population history. We compared the effects of outcrossing and self-fertilization on 18 traits in a landrace population of maize, which underwent a population bottleneck during domestication, and a neighboring population of its wild relative teosinte. Inbreeding depression was greater in maize than teosinte for 15 of 18 traits, congruent with the greater segregating genetic load in the maize population that we predicted from sequence data. Parental breeding values were highly consistent between outcross and selfed offspring, indicating that additive effects determine most of the genetic value even in the presence of strong inbreeding depression. We developed a novel linkage scan to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) representing large-effect rare variants carried by only a single parent, which were more important in teosinte than maize. Teosinte also carried more putative juvenile-acting lethal variants identified by segregation distortion. These results suggest a mixture of mostly polygenic, smalleffect partially recessive effects in linkage disequilibrium underlying inbreeding depression, with an additional contribution from rare larger-effect variants that was more important in teosinte but depleted in maize following the domestication bottleneck. Purging associated with the maize domestication bottleneck may have selected against some large effect variants, but polygenic load is harder to purge and overall segregating mutational burden increased in maize compared to teosinte

Sustentabilidad y territorio. Herramientas para la gestión sustentable del hábitat

Con más de 7,500 millones de habitantes en el mundo, construir hábitats sustentables es un reto complejo. La proliferación de grandes y desordenadas concentraciones urbanas genera un deterioro en la calidad de vida, desigualdad y pobreza, así como la transformación y pérdida irreparable de ecosistemas, por lo que se vuelve urgente el actuar para paliar y revertir este fenómeno. Este libro recoge una selección de trabajos de investigación que se presentaron en el Congreso Internacional sobre Sustentabilidad en los Hábitats, realizado en 2016. Son seis propuestas elaboradas por alumnos de posgrado, profesores y académicos de diversos países, en las que se abordan desde una perspectiva internacional y local, los retos a enfrentar en el camino hacia la sustentabilidad, en aspectos como el deterioro físico y social de los espacios de vida en la ciudad, la atracción y retención de capital humano, movilidad y reorganización urbana, contaminación, defensa del territorio, del patrimonio cultural y natural e inseguridad por eventos contingentes, entre otros. Ante un mundo (in)sustentable, los autores presentan alternativas para desarrollar lugares sustentables para la vida. Un libro que convoca a estudiantes, profesores e investigadores a una búsqueda colectiva para la construcción de un mundo mejor

Toward a comprehensive view of cancer immune responsiveness: A synopsis from the SITC workshop

Tumor immunology has changed the landscape of cancer treatment. Yet, not all patients benefit as cancer immune responsiveness (CIR) remains a limitation in a considerable proportion of cases. The multifactorial determinants of CIR include the genetic makeup of the patient, the genomic instability central to cancer development, the evolutionary emergence of cancer phenotypes under the influence of immune editing, and external modifiers such as demographics, environment, treatment potency, co-morbidities and cancer-independent alterations including immune homeostasis and polymorphisms in the major and minor histocompatibility molecules, cytokines, and chemokines. Based on the premise that cancer is fundamentally a disorder of the genes arising within a cell biologic process, whose deviations from normality determine the rules of engagement with the host's response, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a task force of experts from various disciplines including, immunology, oncology, biophysics, structural biology, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and bioinformatics to address the complexity of CIR from a holistic view. The task force was launched by a workshop held in San Francisco on May 14-15, 2018 aimed at two preeminent goals: 1) to identify the fundamental questions related to CIR and 2) to create an interactive community of experts that could guide scientific and research priorities by forming a logical progression supported by multiple perspectives to uncover mechanisms of CIR. This workshop was a first step toward a second meeting where the focus would be to address the actionability of some of the questions identified by working groups. In this event, five working groups aimed at defining a path to test hypotheses according to their relevance to human cancer and identifying experimental models closest to human biology, which include: 1) Germline-Genetic, 2) Somatic-Genetic and 3) Genomic-Transcriptional contributions to CIR, 4) Determinant(s) of Immunogenic Cell Death that modulate CIR, and 5) Experimental Models that best represent CIR and its conversion to an immune responsive state. This manuscript summarizes the contributions from each group and should be considered as a first milestone in the path toward a more contemporary understanding of CIR. We appreciate that this effort is far from comprehensive and that other relevant aspects related to CIR such as the microbiome, the individual's recombined T cell and B cell receptors, and the metabolic status of cancer and immune cells were not fully included. These and other important factors will be included in future activities of the taskforce. The taskforce will focus on prioritization and specific actionable approach to answer the identified questions and implementing the collaborations in the follow-up workshop, which will be held in Houston on September 4-5, 2019

Toward a comprehensive view of cancer immune responsiveness: a synopsis from the SITC workshop.

Tumor immunology has changed the landscape of cancer treatment. Yet, not all patients benefit as cancer immune responsiveness (CIR) remains a limitation in a considerable proportion of cases. The multifactorial determinants of CIR include the genetic makeup of the patient, the genomic instability central to cancer development, the evolutionary emergence of cancer phenotypes under the influence of immune editing, and external modifiers such as demographics, environment, treatment potency, co-morbidities and cancer-independent alterations including immune homeostasis and polymorphisms in the major and minor histocompatibility molecules, cytokines, and chemokines. Based on the premise that cancer is fundamentally a disorder of the genes arising within a cell biologic process, whose deviations from normality determine the rules of engagement with the host\u27s response, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a task force of experts from various disciplines including, immunology, oncology, biophysics, structural biology, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, and bioinformatics to address the complexity of CIR from a holistic view. The task force was launched by a workshop held in San Francisco on May 14-15, 2018 aimed at two preeminent goals: 1) to identify the fundamental questions related to CIR and 2) to create an interactive community of experts that could guide scientific and research priorities by forming a logical progression supported by multiple perspectives to uncover mechanisms of CIR. This workshop was a first step toward a second meeting where the focus would be to address the actionability of some of the questions identified by working groups. In this event, five working groups aimed at defining a path to test hypotheses according to their relevance to human cancer and identifying experimental models closest to human biology, which include: 1) Germline-Genetic, 2) Somatic-Genetic and 3) Genomic-Transcriptional contributions to CIR, 4) Determinant(s) of Immunogenic Cell Death that modulate CIR, and 5) Experimental Models that best represent CIR and its conversion to an immune responsive state. This manuscript summarizes the contributions from each group and should be considered as a first milestone in the path toward a more contemporary understanding of CIR. We appreciate that this effort is far from comprehensive and that other relevant aspects related to CIR such as the microbiome, the individual\u27s recombined T cell and B cell receptors, and the metabolic status of cancer and immune cells were not fully included. These and other important factors will be included in future activities of the taskforce. The taskforce will focus on prioritization and specific actionable approach to answer the identified questions and implementing the collaborations in the follow-up workshop, which will be held in Houston on September 4-5, 2019