Racial Discrimination in Life Insurance

We examine the historical and statistical relationship between race and life insurance. Life insurance can play a central role in households’ financial security. Race has played an important and changing role in the provision of life insurance in the U.S. from slave insurance before the Civil War, to “Scientific Racism” continuing into the 20th century, to policies that do not explicitly mention race in recent decades. In empirical work using new data, we confirm earlier work showing that Black individuals have higher life insurance coverage rates than white individuals, controlling for observable characteristics. We find no difference in the likelihood of purchasing coverage—for Black individuals versus white individuals—in states with strong versus weak anti-discrimination laws. We also find that the presence of strong anti-discrimination laws tends to reduce overall life insurance coverage – by about 3 percentage points. We present some evidence that this finding is due to a generally stronger regulatory stance in the state rather than the specific impact of the anti-discrimination life insurance law. This analysis bears on the presence of discrimination in the current life insurance industry as well as related issues like the financial status of minority households

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Elective cancer surgery in COVID-19-free surgical pathways during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: An international, multicenter, comparative cohort study

PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19–free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19–free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19–free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score–matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19–free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale

Progress, Modernity, and Cather\u27s Discontents: Queer Futurity, Hope, and Imagining Beyond Hegemony in Willa Cather\u27s Narratives of the American West

This thesis interrogates the theme of progress in Willa Cather’s novels of the American West. Using queer theory as a critical framework, I argue that Cather’s novels queer the literary elements of setting–both time and place–in order to understand the discontents which arise in a constantly modernizing and progressing American culture. I recognize a connection between these discontents and the modern American culture which separates humans from nonhuman nature. Cather’s novels also recognize this separation. Through her narratives, Cather proposes a return to pastoral ideals of settler colonialism in order to reestablish this relationship between human and non-human nature. However, I identify the settler colonial land ethic of anthropocentrism as a root cause of the separation between humans and their environment. I argue it is impossible to find solutions to this discontent of anthropocentric modernity. Here, I use the queer analytical framework of destabilization to imagine beyond the system of settler colonialism to a future that might reestablish this connection between humans and their environment

'A tale of two lost lunulae – one with its ogham story to tell'

Two unlocalised Early Bronze Age gold lunulae originally in the collection of the earls of Dunraven are each notable for distinctive modern features, including a stitched repair and an ogham inscription. This paper considers some aspects of the history of the Dunraven collection, in particular the prehistoric and more recent biographies of the lunulae. Dedicated to the memory of Valerie Dowling, the National Museum of Ireland’s Senior Photographer, whose work illustrates this paper. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam

'A tale of two lost lunulae – one with its ogham story to tell'

Two unlocalised Early Bronze Age gold lunulae originally in the collection of the earls of Dunraven are each notable for distinctive modern features, including a stitched repair and an ogham inscription. This paper considers some aspects of the history of the Dunraven collection, in particular the prehistoric and more recent biographies of the lunulae. Dedicated to the memory of Valerie Dowling, the National Museum of Ireland’s Senior Photographer, whose work illustrates this paper. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam

'A tale of two lost lunulae – one with its ogham story to tell'

Two unlocalised Early Bronze Age gold lunulae originally in the collection of the earls of Dunraven are each notable for distinctive modern features, including a stitched repair and an ogham inscription. This paper considers some aspects of the history of the Dunraven collection, in particular the prehistoric and more recent biographies of the lunulae. Dedicated to the memory of Valerie Dowling, the National Museum of Ireland’s Senior Photographer, whose work illustrates this paper. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam