The Debate Over Water Fluoridation

UMKC Honors Colleg

Purposeful Art Between Television Preachers and the State

For two of the most popular Egyptian television preachers, Amr Khaled and Moez Masoud, art is central to the project of Islamic Revival. For them, art is a special means of bringing people closer to God, making them more cultured, and building the ummah. The author argues that, intriguingly, their focus on art overlaps with that of the Egyptian state’s nation-building and civilizing art projects

Mirage of Understanding: Challenging the Dominant Perspective in Food Desert Discourse

In recent years there has been increasing concern over the lack of fresh, affordable, healthy food in certain neighborhoods, especially poor ones. The worry is that the residents of these “food deserts,” as they are often called, have little choice but to eat whatever fast food and junk food happens to be nearby, which could potentially lead to chronic health problems such as obesity and diabetes. An entire discourse has emerged around this issue as journalists, academics, government officials, and activists write articles, compile reports, make maps, produce videos, pass laws, and launch initiatives. In this dissertation I argue that the discourse surrounding food deserts contains a dominant perspective, and that this perspective is promoting a view of food deserts that is simplistic and misleading. To facilitate my argument, I present a rubric of three “foundational ideas” that underlie the perspective. The first idea concerns the nature of food deserts; the second, the knowability of food deserts; and the third, the nature of a healthy diet. After closely examining each idea, I conclude that all three are flawed, and that this should call the viability of the dominant perspective into question

Association between essential tremor and blood lead concentration

Lead is a ubiquitous toxicant that causes tremor and cerebellar damage. Essential tremor (ET) is a highly prevalent neurologic disease associated with cerebellar involvement. Although environmental toxicants may play a role in ET etiology and their identification is a critical step in disease prevention, these toxicants have received little attention. Our objective was to test the hypothesis that ET is associated with lead exposure. Therefore, blood lead (BPb) concentrations were measured and a lifetime occupational history was assessed in ET patients and in controls. We frequency matched 100 ET patients and 143 controls on age, sex, and ethnicity. BPb concentrations were analyzed using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. A lifetime occupational history was reviewed by an industrial hygienist. BPb concentrations were higher in ET patients than in controls (mean ± SD, 3.3 ± 2.4 and 2.6 ± 1.6 µg/dL, respectively; median, 2.7 and 2.3 µg/dL; p = 0.038). In a logistic regression model, BPb concentration was associated with diagnosis [control vs. ET patient, odds ratio (OR) per unit increase = 1.21; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05-1.39; p = 0.007]. BPb concentration was associated with diagnosis (OR per unit increase = 1.19; 95% CI, 1.03-1.37; p = 0.02) after adjusting for potential confounders. Prevalence of lifetime occupational lead exposure was similar in ET patients and controls. We report an association between BPb concentration and ET. Determining whether this association is due to increased exposure to lead or a difference in lead kinetics in ET patients requires further investigation

Msh2 Blocks an Alternative Mechanism for Non-Homologous Tail Removal during Single-Strand Annealing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Chromosomal translocations are frequently observed in cells exposed to agents that cause DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), such as ionizing radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs, and are often associated with tumors in mammals. Recently, translocation formation in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been found to occur at high frequencies following the creation of multiple DSBs adjacent to repetitive sequences on non-homologous chromosomes. The genetic control of translocation formation and the chromosome complements of the clones that contain translocations suggest that translocation formation occurs by single-strand annealing (SSA). Among the factors important for translocation formation by SSA is the central mismatch repair (MMR) and homologous recombination (HR) factor, Msh2. Here we describe the effects of several msh2 missense mutations on translocation formation that suggest that Msh2 has separable functions in stabilizing annealed single strands, and removing non-homologous sequences from their ends. Additionally, interactions between the msh2 alleles and a null allele of RAD1, which encodes a subunit of a nuclease critical for the removal of non-homologous tails suggest that Msh2 blocks an alternative mechanism for removing these sequences. These results suggest that Msh2 plays multiple roles in the formation of chromosomal translocations following acute levels of DNA damage