Intersectional effects of racial and gender discrimination on cardiovascular health vary among black and white women and men in the CARDIA study

Testing hypotheses from the emerging Identity Pathology (IP) framework, we assessed race-gender differences in the effects of reporting experiences of racial and gender discrimination simultaneously compared with racial or gender discrimination alone, or no discrimination, on future cardiovascular health (CVH). Data were from a sample of 3758 black or white adults in CARDIA, a community-based cohort recruited in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN, and Oakland, CA in 1985-6 (year 0). Racial and gender discrimination were assessed using the Experiences of Discrimination scale. CVH was evaluated using a 12-point composite outcome modified from the Life\u27s Simple 7, with higher scores indicating better health. Multivariable linear regressions were used to evaluate the associations between different perceptions of discrimination and CVH scores two decades later by race and gender simultaneously. Reporting racial and gender discrimination in \u3e /=2 settings were 48% of black women, 42% of black men, 10% of white women, and 5% of white men. Year 30 CVH scores (mean, SD) were 7.9(1.4), 8.1(1.6), 8.8(1.6), and 8.7(1.3), respectively. Compared with those of their race-gender groups reporting no discrimination, white women reporting only gender-based discrimination saw an adjusted score difference of +0.3 (95% CI: 0.0,0.6), whereas white men reporting only racial discrimination had on average a 0.4 (95% CI: 0.1,0.8) higher score, and scores among white men reporting both racial and gender discrimination were on average 0.6 (95% CI: 1.1,-0.1) lower than those of their group reporting no discrimination. Consistent with predictions of the IP model, the associations of reported racial and gender discrimination with future CVH were different for different racially-defined gender groups. More research is needed to understand why reported racial and gender discrimination might better predict deterioration in CVH for whites than blacks, and what additional factors associated with gender and race contribute variability to CVH among these groups

First observation of 54Zn and its decay by two-proton emission

The nucleus 54Zn has been observed for the first time in an experiment at the SISSI/LISE3 facility of GANIL in the quasi-fragmentation of a 58Ni beam at 74.5 MeV/nucleon in a natNi target. The fragments were analysed by means of the ALPHA-LISE3 separator and implanted in a silicon-strip detector where correlations in space and time between implantation and subsequent decay events allowed us to generate almost background free decay spectra for about 25 different nuclei at the same time. Eight 54Zn implantation events were observed. From the correlated decay events, the half-life of 54Zn is determined to be 3.2 +1.8/-0.8 ms. Seven of the eight implantations are followed by two-proton emission with a decay energy of 1.48(2) MeV. The decay energy and the partial half-life are compared to model predictions and allow for a test of these two-proton decay models.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PR

Chemical nonlinearities in relating intercontinental ozone pollution to anthropogenic emissions

Model studies typically estimate intercontinental influence on surface ozone by perturbing emissions from a source continent and diagnosing the ozone response in the receptor continent. Since the response to perturbations is non-linear due to chemistry, conclusions drawn from different studies may depend on the magnitude of the applied perturbation. We investigate this issue for intercontinental transport between North America, Europe, and Asia with sensitivity simulations in three global chemical transport models. In each region, we decrease anthropogenic emissions of NOx and nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) by 20% and 100%. We find strong nonlinearity in the response to NOx perturbations outside summer, reflecting transitions in the chemical regime for ozone production. In contrast, we find no significant nonlinearity to NOx perturbations in summer or to NMVOC perturbations year-round. The relative benefit of decreasing NOx vs. NMVOC from current levels to abate intercontinental pollution increases with the magnitude of emission reductions

Reactions of a Be-10 beam on proton and deuteron targets

The extraction of detailed nuclear structure information from transfer reactions requires reliable, well-normalized data as well as optical potentials and a theoretical framework demonstrated to work well in the relevant mass and beam energy ranges. It is rare that the theoretical ingredients can be tested well for exotic nuclei owing to the paucity of data. The halo nucleus Be-11 has been examined through the 10Be(d,p) reaction in inverse kinematics at equivalent deuteron energies of 12,15,18, and 21.4 MeV. Elastic scattering of Be-10 on protons was used to select optical potentials for the analysis of the transfer data. Additionally, data from the elastic and inelastic scattering of Be-10 on deuterons was used to fit optical potentials at the four measured energies. Transfers to the two bound states and the first resonance in Be-11 were analyzed using the Finite Range ADiabatic Wave Approximation (FR-ADWA). Consistent values of the spectroscopic factor of both the ground and first excited states were extracted from the four measurements, with average values of 0.71(5) and 0.62(4) respectively. The calculations for transfer to the first resonance were found to be sensitive to the size of the energy bin used and therefore could not be used to extract a spectroscopic factor.Comment: 16 Pages, 10 figure

A tropospheric ozone maximum over the Middle East

The GEOS-CHEM global 3-D model of tropospheric chemistry predicts a summertime O3 maximum over the Middle East, with mean mixing ratios in the middle and upper troposphere in excess of 80 ppbv. This model feature is consistent with the few observations from commercial aircraft in the region. Its origin in the model reflects a complex interplay of dynamical and chemical factors, and of anthropogenic and natural influences. The anticyclonic circulation in the middle and upper troposphere over the Middle East funnels northern midlatitude pollution transported in the westerly subtropical jet as well as lightning outflow from the Indian monsoon and pollution from eastern Asia transported in an easterly tropical jet. Large-scale subsidence over the region takes place with continued net production of O3 and little mid-level outflow. Transport from the stratosphere does not contribute significantly to the O3 maximum. Sensitivity simulations with anthropogenic or lightning emissions shut off indicate decreases of 20–30% and 10–15% respectively in the tropospheric O3 column over the Middle East. More observations in this region are needed to confirm the presence of the O3 maximum

Interpretation of TOMS observations of tropical tropospheric ozone with a global model and in-situ observations

We interpret the distribution of tropical tropospheric ozone columns (TTOCs) from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) by using a global three-dimensional model of tropospheric chemistry (GEOS-CHEM) and additional information from in situ observations. The GEOS-CHEM TTOCs capture 44% of the variance of monthly mean TOMS TTOCs from the convective cloud differential method (CCD) with no global bias. Major discrepancies are found over northern Africa and south Asia where the TOMS TTOCs do not capture the seasonal enhancements from biomass burning found in the model and in aircraft observations. A characteristic feature of these northern tropical enhancements, in contrast to southern tropical enhancements, is that they are driven by the lower troposphere where the sensitivity of TOMS is poor due to Rayleigh scattering. We develop an efficiency correction to the TOMS retrieval algorithm that accounts for the variability of ozone in the lower troposphere. This efficiency correction increases TTOCs over biomass burning regions by 3–5 Dobson units (DU) and decreases them by 2–5 DU over oceanic regions, improving the agreement between CCD TTOCs and in situ observations. Applying the correction to CCD TTOCs reduces by ∼5 DU the magnitude of the “tropical Atlantic paradox” [Thompson et al., 2000], i.e. the presence of a TTOC enhancement over the southern tropical Atlantic during the northern African biomass burning season in December–February. We reproduce the remainder of the paradox in the model and explain it by the combination of upper tropospheric ozone production from lightning NOx, persistent subsidence over the southern tropical Atlantic as part of the Walker circulation, and cross-equatorial transport of upper tropospheric ozone from northern midlatitudes in the African “westerly duct.” These processes in the model can also account for the observed 13–17 DU persistent wave-1 pattern in TTOCs with a maximum over the tropical Atlantic and a minimum over the tropical Pacific during all seasons. The photochemical effects of mineral dust have only a minor role on the modeled distribution of TTOCs, including over northern Africa, due to multiple competing effects. The photochemical effects of mineral dust globally decrease annual mean OH concentrations by 9%. A global lightning NOx source of 6 Tg N yr−1 in the model produces a simulation that is most consistent with TOMS and in situ observations

Retroviral DNA Integration: Viral and Cellular Determinants of Target-Site Selection

Retroviruses differ in their preferences for sites for viral DNA integration in the chromosomes of infected cells. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) integrates preferentially within active transcription units, whereas murine leukemia virus (MLV) integrates preferentially near transcription start sites and CpG islands. We investigated the viral determinants of integration-site selection using HIV chimeras with MLV genes substituted for their HIV counterparts. We found that transferring the MLV integrase (IN) coding region into HIV (to make HIVmIN) caused the hybrid to integrate with a specificity close to that of MLV. Addition of MLV gag (to make HIVmGagmIN) further increased the similarity of target-site selection to that of MLV. A chimeric virus with MLV Gag only (HIVmGag) displayed targeting preferences different from that of both HIV and MLV, further implicating Gag proteins in targeting as well as IN. We also report a genome-wide analysis indicating that MLV, but not HIV, favors integration near DNase I–hypersensitive sites (i.e., +/− 1 kb), and that HIVmIN and HIVmGagmIN also favored integration near these features. These findings reveal that IN is the principal viral determinant of integration specificity; they also reveal a new role for Gag-derived proteins, and strengthen models for integration targeting based on tethering of viral IN proteins to host proteins