SPACES AND PLACES OF LOWCOUNTRY GEORGIA PLANTATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF WATTLE AND TABBY DAUB SLAVE CABINS ON SAPELO ISLAND, GEORGIA

Plantation landscapes on the Georgia coast were created and maintained by plantation owners and enslaved peoples with influences from the broader Atlantic World. Slave housing and settlements on Sea Island cotton and rice plantations on Sapelo and St. Simon’s Islands are an especially useful way to examine the combination of African, Caribbean, European, and later American influences and material results of tensions between these influences. However, many previous interpretations of enslaved life on the Georgia coast have been based on standing domestic architecture and enslaved people listed in later census records, creating a bias towards a small subset of the enslaved populations. Here I take a contextual approach to explore the lowcountry in the context of the broader Atlantic World; examine the spatial connection between plantation management styles and plantation settlement landscapes; and critically examine slave housing on the coast; and investigate if there is a connection between type of slave housing and settlement landscape organization. I use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to quantify plantation spaces with Thiessen tessellations at five plantations to conclude that the settlement space of the Sapelo Plantation is significantly different than at nearby plantation settlements. Archaeological and geophysical investigations at Bush Camp Field and Behavior settlements within the Sapelo Plantation show a connection between the geometry of settlement space and evidence of place-making with wattle and tabby daub slave cabins that are similar to those identified in Caribbean plantation contexts. Though plantation owners defined the structure and boundaries of certain plantation spaces, enslaved people could manipulate, maintain, and control certain parts of those landscapes. The degree to which enslaved people could engage in reconfigurations of private places and spatial control of settlement spaces is reflected in the rigidity of the plantation landscape

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for serum total IgE in diverse study populations

BACKGROUND: Immunoglobulin E (IgE) is both a marker and mediator of allergic inflammation. Despite reported differences in serum total IgE levels by race-ethnicity, African American and Latino individuals have not been well represented in genetic studies of total IgE. OBJECTIVE: To identify the genetic predictors of serum total IgE levels. METHODS: We used genome wide association (GWA) data from 4,292 individuals (2,469 African Americans, 1,564 European Americans, and 259 Latinos) in the EVE Asthma Genetics Consortium. Tests for association were performed within each cohort by race-ethnic group (i.e., African American, Latino, and European American) and asthma status. The resulting p-values were meta-analyzed accounting for sample size and direction of effect. Top single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations from the meta-analysis were reassessed in six additional cohorts comprising 5,767 individuals. RESULTS: We identified 10 unique regions where the combined association statistic was associated with total serum IgE levels (P-value <5.0×10(−6)) and the minor allele frequency was ≥5% in two or more population groups. Variant rs9469220, corresponding to HLA-DQB1, was the most significantly associated SNP with serum total IgE levels when assessed in both the replication cohorts and the discovery and replication sets combined (P-value = 0.007 and 2.45×10(−7), respectively). In addition, findings from earlier GWA studies were also validated in the current meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis independently identified a variant near HLA-DQB1 as a predictor of total serum IgE in multiple race-ethnic groups. This study also extends and confirms the findings of earlier GWA analyses in African American and Latino individuals

Commercially sexually exploited youths’ health care experiences, barriers, and recommendations: A qualitative analysis

The current study sought to understand commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youths' health care experiences, barriers to care, and recommendations for improving health care services. We conducted focus groups (N=5) with 18 CSE youth from February 2015 through May 2016 at two group homes serving CSE youth in Southern California. We performed thematic content analysis to identify emergent themes about CSE youths' perspectives on health care. Youth described facilitators to care, including availability of services such as screening for sexually transmitted infections, knowledge about sexual health, and a strong motivation to stay healthy. Barriers included feeling judged, concerns about confidentiality, fear, perceived low quality of services, and self-reliance. Overall, youth emphasized self-reliance and "street smarts" for survival and de-emphasized "victimhood," which shaped their interactions with health care, and recommended that health providers develop increased understanding of CSE youth. Our findings suggest that providers and community agencies can play an essential role in raising awareness of the needs of CSE youth and meet their health needs through creating a non-judgmental environment in health care settings that validates the experiences of these youth