Tobacco use in prison settings: A need for policy implementation

• Tobacco use is the most widely used psycho-active substances by prisoners, with prevalence rates ranging from 64 to over 90 percent, depending on the country and the setting. • Tobacco use is completely entangled in prison life where it occupies various functions, for instance as ways of coping with boredom, deprivation, stress, as self-help for relieving anxiety and tension; as a source of pleasure or monetary value in an environment without currency. • Few measures other than the implementation of bans have been taken so far to reduce exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) - pointing to the low priority attached to this factor in health promotion within prisons. • Prisons have implemented either partial or total bans, but those regulations cannot be considered as proper tobacco control policies. They are only part of a more comprehensive approach that should include tobacco cessation support, training health staff, and alternative ways to reduce inactivity and/or cope with stress, and education. • There is lack of evidence for best practice regarding smoking cessation within the prison population. More cessation programs need to be implemented to gain abetter understanding of what is comparable to the general population in the wider community community and to equilibrate health services in prisons according to the epidemiology of substance use and the offer addressing other substances’ use. • Interventions targeting tobacco issues need to take into account the complexity of interrelated dynamics influencing its use among incarcerated people, in order to avoid perpetuation and aggravation of these specific health inequality factors. • Staff’s smoking should systematically be addressed in tobacco control policies in prisons. This concern is part of a wider health promoting workplace approach. • Based on the fact that broader public health should systematically include incarcerated people, national and state tobacco strategies/plans should include prisons

Advances in Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapies for Solid Tumors.

In 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first two novel cellular immunotherapies using synthetic, engineered receptors known as chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), expressed by patient-derived T cells for the treatment of hematological malignancies expressing the B-cell surface antigen CD19 in both pediatric and adult patients. This approval marked a major milestone in the use of antigen-directed living drugs for the treatment of relapsed or refractory blood cancers, and with these two approvals, there is increased impetus to expand not only the target antigens but also the tumor types that can be targeted. This state-of-the-art review will focus on the challenges, advances, and novel approaches being used to implement CAR T-cell immunotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors

Multivariate Analysis of the Lake Michigan Phytoplankton Community at Chicago

Ordination techniques were used to analyze phytoplankton and water chemistry data collected between 1927 and 1978 from Lake Michigan at Chicago. Ordination analysis summarized the phytoplankton data and illustrated the progression from oligotrophy to eutrophy and the subsequent reversal of cultural eutrophication after 1970 in the nearshore waters of Lake Michigan at Chicago. The analysis highlighted a significant correlation between blue-green algal biomass and Na+ concentration. The increase in mean annual Na+ concentration in Lake Michigan at Chicago and the experimental evidence implying a Na+ requirement for blue-green algae suggested that the increase in blue-greens, although influenced by P enrichment and by other factors, such as CO2 availability, allelopathic effects and N: P ratios, may also be linked with increases in Na+ concentration

Long-Term (1927-1978) Changes in the Phytoplankton Community of Lake Michigan at Chicago

Fifty-one years of phytoplankton data from the South District Water Intake of the Chicago Water Filtration Plant were analyzed to determine changes in the phytoplankton community related to the eutrophication of Lake Michigan. From 1930 to 1940, a net biomass (~100 mg C/m3) indicative of oligotrophic-mesotrophic conditions were implied by the net algal biomass. By 1961 net algal biomass was ~600 mg C/m3-a biomass indicative of a eutrophic lake. Much of the biomass increase is due to Tabellaria, Stephanodiscus tenuis and S. binderanus. Since the early 1970\u27s, there has been a consistent general decrease in algal biomass to levels associated with oligotrophic-mesotrophic conditions. The decrease in net algal biomass, the decrease in abundance of eutrophic species, the small but general increase in genera that were decreasing in relative abundance until ~ 1972, and the increase in dissolved reactive silica concentrations in Lake Michigan suggest a reversal of cultural eutrophication of Lake Michigan near Chicago. Only the increase in the relative abundance (22% of the total community biomass in 1978) of blue-green algae, mostly Oscillatoria and Gomphosphaeria, argues for accelerated eutrophication

Growing Health in UK Prison Settings

Globally, prisoners tend to come from marginalised and socially disadvantaged sections of society and exhibit a high incidence of ill-health, linked to social exclusion and multiple complex needs. Prisons therefore offer an important opportunity to tackle inequality and injustice, through promoting health, reducing re-offending and facilitating community reintegration. This paper reports on and critically discusses findings from an evaluative research study, which aimed to identify and explore impacts of prisoners’ participation in an innovative social and therapeutic horticultural programme, ‘Greener on the Outside for Prisons’ (GOOP), delivered in prisons in North West England. Focus groups with 16 prisoners and semistructured interviews with six prison staff were conducted at five sites. Presented under three overarching themes (health and wellbeing; skills development, employability and work-preparedness; relationships), findings suggest that engagement with and participation in GOOP were important in: improving positive mental wellbeing, increasing physical activity and increasing knowledge about healthier eating; developing skills and work-readiness; and building relationships and catalysing and strengthening pro-social behaviours, important for good citizenship and effective resettlement. The paper concludes that – in the context of the current UK prison reform agenda and concern about the high incidence of violence, substance misuse, self-harm and suicide – prison-based horticulture can offer multiple benefits and make a significant contribution to the creation of safe, secure, supportive and health-enhancing environments. Furthermore, it contends that by joining up health and justice agendas, programmes such as GOOP have the potential to serve as powerful catalysts for wider systemic change, thereby helping tackle inequalities and social exclusion within societies across the globe

Vitamin A depletion induced by cigarette smoke is associated with an increase in lung cancer-related markers in rats

Citation: Xue, Y., Harris, E., Wang, W. Q., & Baybutt, R. C. (2015). Vitamin A depletion induced by cigarette smoke is associated with an increase in lung cancer-related markers in rats. Journal of Biomedical Science, 22, 9. doi:10.1186/s12929-015-0189-0Background: We have previously demonstrated that cigarette smoke is associated with a significant reduction of retinoic acid in rat lungs and the formation of tracheal precancerous lesions. However, the underlying mechanism of cancer risk induced by vitamin A deficiency is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the cigarette smoke-induced depletion of vitamin A is related to changes in lung cancer risk-related molecular markers. Results: We investigated the roles of the retinoic acid receptors (RARs) as well as other biomarkers for potential cancer risk in the lungs of rats exposed to cigarette smoke. Twenty-four male weanling rats were fed a purified diet and divided equally into four groups. Three experimental groups were exposed to increasing doses of cigarette smoke from 20, 40 or 60 commercial cigarettes/day for 5 days/week. After 6 weeks, the retinoic acid concentrations in the lung tissue as measured via high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) significantly decreased (P < 0.01) in cigarette smoke exposed groups. Western Blot analysis revealed that cigarette smoke exposure increased lung protein expression of RAR alpha in a threshold manner and decreased RAR beta and RAR gamma expression in a dose-dependent fashion. Protein expressions of cyclin E and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were increased significantly in a dose-dependent manner in cigarette smoke exposed-groups. Additionally, there was a significant increase in protein expression of cJun and cyclin D1 demonstrating a threshold effect similar to that exhibited by RAR alpha, suggesting a potential independent signaling pathway for RAR alpha in lung carcinogenesis. Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that cigarette smoke-induced lung retinoic acid depletion may involve two independent pathways, RAR alpha- and RAR beta-mediated, responsible for the increased cancer risk associated with cigarette smoke-induced vitamin A deficiency