Development of an Instrument Measuring the Perceived Attributes of Using a Healthy Diet Innovation

The Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) is a rural region that is rich in agricultural resources but is one of the most impoverished areas in the US. Prior research has indicated LMD adults as having higher rates of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases as compared to US adults. While the need for dietary intervention in the LMD is evident, the first step in designing effective interventions is the assessment of one’s perceptions of dietary behaviors. The purpose of this research was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess individuals’ perceived attributes of using a healthy diet. Using the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory as a conceptual framework, this descriptive study employed qualitative and quantitative research methods and consisted of three phases. Phase 1 and 2 included qualitative research methods consisting of group panel discussions and card sorts to assist in the initial development of the instrument. Phase 2 included pilot and field testing of the instrument followed by quantitative analyses of the data. Data analyses techniques included content analysis and identification of common themes of group discussions; analysis of face and content validity of the items; and descriptive statistics, item and factor analyses, and reliability estimates of pilot and field test survey data. The DOI attributes relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability of a healthy diet were explored in phase 1. As a result, portability, protective, and generational attributes of a healthy diet were identified. All attribute definitions were established and verified. Sixty nine items were created for the card sorts, which resulted in 37 remaining items. Item evaluation and pilot testing of the instrument resulted in the 39-item field test instrument. Thirty five of the 39 items were subjected to factor analysis, resulting in a four-factor solution with 21 items that accounted for 45% of the shared variance. This instrument can be used to assess individuals’ perceptions of a healthy diet. Furthermore, knowing which attributes of a healthy diet that have the greatest influence on adoption and implementation can be valuable when planning nutrition interventions and key educational messages

On the Burness-Giudici Conjecture

Let $G$ be a permutation group on a set $\Omega$. A subset of $\Omega$ is a base for $G$ if its pointwise stabilizer in $G$ is trivial. By $b(G)$ we denote the size of the smallest base of $G$. Every permutation group with $b(G)=2$ contains some regular suborbits. It is conjectured by Burness-Giudici in [4] that every primitive permutation group $G$ with $b(G)=2$ has the property that if $\alpha^g\not\in \Gamma$ then $\Gamma \cap \Gamma^g\neq \emptyset$, where $\Gamma$ is the union of all regular suborbits of $G$ relative to $\alpha$. An affirmative answer of the conjecture has been shown for many sporadic simple groups and some alternative groups in [4], but it is still open for simple groups of Lie-type. The first candidate of infinite family of simple groups of Lie-type we should work on might be $PSL(2,q)$, where $q\geq 5$. In this manuscript, we show the correctness of the conjecture for all the primitive groups with socle $PSL(2,q)$, see Theorem $1.3$

Impact of a Preschool Obesity Program (I-POP) Program On Nutrition Knowledge Scores of Head Start Parents and Teachers

Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of an evidence-based preschool obesity prevention intervention on rural, low-income parents’ and Head Start teachers’ nutrition knowledge relative to advice from experts, nutrient content of foods, and health benefits of foods. Methods: Parent-child dyads were recruited from 9 randomized Head Start centers with 5 centers in the experimental group and 4 centers in the control. The intervention consisted of 8 weekly evidence-based nutrition education sessions for children delivered by the Head Start teachers; a teacher workshop on the use of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in the classroom; and 8 parent workshops using an evidence-based behavioral intervention, Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). The PBIS and PCIT reinforced nutrition education sessions by including instruction for positive meal-time behaviors. A repeated measures design consisted of data collected at pre- (T1), post-intervention (T2), and a 6-month follow-up (T3). T1 and T2 results of a validated and reliable nutrition knowledge survey to address the sub-objective of the main study are reported here. Results: 175 parents and 75 teachers participated in T1 data collection, of which 95 parents and 64 teachers completed T2. There were no significant differences in total scores within or between parent or teacher groups, scoring an average of 34% and 38% out of 100% for parents and teachers, respectively. However, there was a significant change in the knowledge of health benefits of foods survey section (31.6% to 39.5% correct) for parents in the experimental group from T1 to T2 (P \u3c .05). Conclusions: Overall, parents and teachers had poor knowledge of advice from experts, nutrient content of foods, and health benefits of foods at T1. Parents and teachers did have minimal, indirect nutrition education during PCIT and PBIS, which may have contributed to parents’ increase in awareness of health benefits of food at T2. However, there may be a lack of knowledge of how to apply nutrition principles. Nutrition education and intervention should target parents and teachers of children with a specific aim in application of nutrition principals

Cancer battlefield: Six characters in search of an author

The great promise of adoptive T-cell therapy for cancer is that of a highly specific and less toxic strategy for killing tumor cells while offering continual and long-term protection against resurgence of tumors. Although theoretically possible, this promise has yet to be achieved in practice. Encouraging results initially came from studies in which tumor-infiltrating T cells were isolated and then expanded and reinvigorated in vitro before being infused back into patients. While promising, this approach, however, requires both access to tumor biopsies, which are not always available, and the ability to expand T cells from the tumor to sufficient numbers for infusion, which is not always possible. Thus, to extend T-cell therapies to more patients, much effort has been put into developing methods for the ex vivo expansion of tumor-specific T cells from peripheral blood, and while successful for virus-associated tumors, the extension to other human malignancies expressing nonviral tumor associated antigens remains challenging due to the low frequency and avidity of tumor-specific T cell receptors (TCRs) on patient-derived T cells. To overcome the inefficient generation of tumor-associated antigen-specific T cells, genetic engineering of lymphocytes with ab‑T‑cell receptor chains, obtained from T cells with high avidity/affinity TCRs, or chimeric antigen receptors, directed against antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells, have been developed and are now in clinical trials. These efforts have been efficient at providing relatively easy means to broaden the antigen recognition repertoire and to generate large numbers of tumor-specific T cells ex vivo that can then be infused into patients to re-establish the balance between T cells and tumors. However, even the ability to infuse large numbers of tumor-specific T cells has provided limited advancement in the overall fight against tumors

Management of patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma: Focus on adoptive T-cell therapy

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) represents a heterogeneous group of malignancies with high diversity in terms of biology, clinical responses, and prognosis. Standard therapy regimens produce a 5-year relative survival rate of only 69%, with the critical need to increase the treatment-success rate of this patient population presenting at diagnosis with a median age of 66 years and many comorbidities. The evidence that an impaired immune system favors the development of NHL has opened the stage for new therapeutics, and specifically for the adoptive transfer of ex vivo-expanded antigen-specific T-cells. In this review, we discuss how T-cells specific for viral-associated antigens, nonviral-associated antigens expressed by the tumor, T-cells redirected through the expression of chimeric antigen receptors, and transgenic T-cell receptors against tumor cells have been developed and used in clinical trials for the treatment of patients with NHLs

Regulation of the Transcriptional Activity of the IRF7 Promoter by a Pathway Independent of Interferon Signaling

Genes containing an interferon (IFN)-stimulated response element (ISRE) can be divided into two groups according to their inducibility by IFN and virus infection: one induced only by IFN and the other induced by both IFN and virus infection. Although it is now clear that IFN regulatory factor 7 (IRF7) is a multifunctional gene essential for induction of type I IFNs, regulation of the IRF7 promoter (IRF7p) is poorly understood. The IRF7 gene includes two IFN responsive elements, an IRF-binding element (IRFE) in the promoter region and an ISRE in the first intron, and is induced by the IFN-triggered Jak-STAT pathway by binding of the IFN-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3) complex to the ISRE. In this study, we demonstrate that IRF3 and IRF7, which with the coactivators CREB-binding protein and P300 form the virus-activated factor (VAF) complex upon Sendai virus infection, bind to the IRF7 ISRE and IRFE and can directly activate IRF7 transcription. Promoter reporter assays show that both the ISRE and IRFE are responsive to activation by IRF7 and IRF3. In cells transiently expressing IRF7 or/and IRF3, the VAF level and binding of VAF are clearly increased after Sendai virus infection. Studies with Jak1 kinase inactive 293 cells that were stably transfected with a Jak1 kinase dead dominant negative construct, and the mutant cell lines SAN (IFNalpha-/beta-), U2A (IRF9-), U4A (Jak1-), and DKO (IRF1-/IRF2-) show that the IRF7 transcription activated directly by VAF is distinct from and independent of the IFN signaling pathway. Thus, IRF7 transcription is autoregulated by binding of the IRF7-containing VAF to its own ISRE and IRFE. The results show two distinct mechanisms for the activation of the IRF7 promoter, by IFN and by virus infection. A regulatory network between type I IFNs and IRF7 is proposed. The distinct pathways may reflect special roles for an efficient antiviral response at different stages of virus infection

Development of a Nutrition Education Program for the Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living Nutrition Intervention Using the Diffusion of Innovations Theory

This research identified themes when exploring the Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ (DGA) attributes of relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability to provide information for the design and structure of a nutrition education program for the Mississippi Communities of Healthy Living Nutrition Intervention. Diffusion of Innovations theory was used to develop education sessions to promote the adoption and consumption of a DGAbased healthy diet innovation in the Lower Mississippi Delta. Two focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of 13 women in the community as well as one expert panel of six registered dietitians. Major themes identified for the DGA were Balanced Nutrition, All-inclusive, and Protective as the relative advantage; Adaptability when exploring compatibility; low complexity as Simple to Follow and Convenient and Portable; Gradual Change and Taste Tests when discussing trialability; and Modeling for observability. A Generational theme reflected participants’ desire to impart healthy behaviors to future generations. Results were used to operationalize attributes and develop 12 lesson plans

Full-length RAG1 promotes contact with coding and intersignal sequences in RAG protein complexes bound to recombination signals paired in cis

The RAG proteins initiate V(D)J recombination by mediating synapsis and cleavage of two different antigen receptor gene segments through interactions with their flanking recombination signal sequences (RSS). The protein–DNA complexes that support this process have mainly been studied using RAG–RSS complexes assembled using oligonucleotide substrates containing a single RSS that are paired in trans to promote synapsis. How closely these complexes model those formed on longer, more physiologically relevant substrates containing RSSs on the same DNA molecule (in cis) remains unclear. To address this issue, we characterized discrete core and full-length RAG protein complexes bound to RSSs paired in cis. We find these complexes support cleavage activity regulated by V(D)J recombination's ‘12/23 rule’ and exhibit plasticity in RSS usage dependent on partner RSS composition. DNA footprinting studies suggest that the RAG proteins in these complexes mediate more extensive contact with sequences flanking the RSS than previously observed, some of which are enhanced by full-length RAG1, and associated with synapsis and efficient RSS cleavage. Finally, we demonstrate that the RAG1 C-terminus facilitates hairpin formation on long DNA substrates, and full-length RAG1 promotes hairpin retention in the postcleavage RAG complex. These results provide new insights into the mechanism of physiological V(D)J recombination

Generation Of Virus-Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTLS) Resistant to the Immunosuppressive Drug Tacrolimus (FK506)

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Understanding how the V(D)J recombinase catalyzes transesterification: distinctions between DNA cleavage and transposition

The Rag1 and Rag2 proteins initiate V(D)J recombination by introducing site-specific DNA double-strand breaks. Cleavage occurs by nicking one DNA strand, followed by a one-step transesterification reaction that forms a DNA hairpin structure. A similar reaction allows Rag transposition, in which the 3′-OH groups produced by Rag cleavage are joined to target DNA. The Rag1 active site DDE triad clearly plays a catalytic role in both cleavage and transposition, but no other residues in Rag1 responsible for transesterification have been identified. Furthermore, although Rag2 is essential for both cleavage and transposition, the nature of its involvement is unknown. Here, we identify basic amino acids in the catalytic core of Rag1 specifically important for transesterification. We also show that some Rag1 mutants with severe defects in hairpin formation nonetheless catalyze substantial levels of transposition. Lastly, we show that a catalytically defective Rag2 mutant is impaired in target capture and displays a novel form of coding flank sensitivity. These findings provide the first identification of components of Rag1 that are specifically required for transesterification and suggest an unexpected role for Rag2 in DNA cleavage and transposition