Filling the Gap Between Morality and Jurisprudence: The Use of Binding Arbitration to Resolve Claims of Restitution Regarding Nazi-Stolen Art

Recognizing the gaps in existing legislation, this article will argue that disputes arising between claimants and museums regarding the repatriation of Nazi-looted artwork should be decided by binding arbitration rather than litigation. To facilitate such arbitration, international law should support the creation of an arbitration commission, which would provide the most efficient and consistent way to resolve claims. Moreover, a neutral forum with clear rules of law and procedure capable of resolving claims would not only be more fair to claimants, but also to museums and personal collectors. This article will first discuss the severity and magnitude of Nazi looting during the Holocaust. Next, the article will examine post-war efforts to retrieve stolen artwork, focusing upon international laws regarding the disposition of looted assets. Further, this article will analyze particular lawsuits that illustrate the ineffective nature of litigation as a means to facilitate the resolution of these disputes. Finally, this article will argue for the creation of international law or a treaty designating arbitration as the forum to resolve claims of stolen art resulting from the Holocaust, presenting the arguments for and against the use of arbitration to resolve looted artwork claims

Treatment-Induced Breast Cancer Dormancy and Relapse

When breast tumor cells encounter stress due to cancer therapies, they may enter a dormant state, escaping from treatment-induced apoptosis. Dormant cells may eventually regain proliferative capabilities and cause recurrent metastatic disease, which is the leading cause of mortality in breast cancer patients. We sought to determine if a high dose of radiation therapy (RT) or combined chemo-immunotherapy, with and without the blockade of autophagy by chloroquine (CQ), could overcome treatment-induced tumor dormancy or relapse. We found that autophagy contributes in part to treatment-induced tumor dormancy. We also found that three therapeutic strategies were successful in inhibiting or preventing tumor relapse. These include: 18Gy/day RT, chemotherapy combined with the blockade of autophagy, and combined chemo-immunotherapy. Follow-up studies are needed to determine the feasibility of preventing tumor relapse by prolonging tumor dormancy versus eliminating dormant tumor cells

Online Health Information Seeking Behaviors and Infant Feeding Practices: A Social Cognitive Theory Perspective

Breastfeeding benefits infants, but support is often needed to meet breastfeeding goals. Social media may help disseminate infant feeding information to caregivers. The relationship between parents’ health information-seeking behaviors (HISB) on social media and infant feeding practices remains understudied. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT), parents’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations are two potential factors for improving online HISB. We aimed to use SCT to describe associations between outcome expectations, self-efficacy (eHealth literacy), and online HISB across infant feeding groups among a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents. Eligible participants (N = 580) completed a cross-sectional online survey assessing infant feeding practices (never breastfed, only pumped, only fed-at-the-breast, and both pumped and fed-at-the-breast), self-efficacy (using eHealth literacy as a proxy), outcome expectations in online HISB, parents’ online HISB on social media, and demographic information. Survey weighted linear and logistic regression models were constructed. No online activities differed by infant feeding practices. Parents who pumped only had significantly lower eHealth literacy than parents who never breastfed (adjusted β = -2.63, 95% CI: -4.73, -0.53). Parents who used both methods had 1.78 times greater odds of considering online tools useful for making health-related decisions (95% CI: 0.96, 3.28) and 1.49 times greater odds of considering online tools important for accessing health information (95% Cl: 0.70, 3.15) than parents who never breastfed, though neither association was statistically significant. Understanding these associations between infant feeding practices and online HISB, as well as the two potential factors of parents’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations, may offer implications for tailoring online social media resources to promote breastfeeding outcomes

Tumor-reactive immune cells protect against metastatic tumor and induce immunoediting of indolent but not quiescent tumor cells

Two major barriers to cancer immunotherapy include tumor-induced immune suppression mediated by myeloid-derived suppressor cells and poor immunogenicity of the tumor-expressing self-antigens. To overcome these barriers, we reprogrammed tumor-immune cell cross-talk by combined use of decitabine and adoptive immunotherapy, containing tumor-sensitized T cells and CD25+ NKT cells. Decitabine functioned to induce the expression of highly immunogenic cancer testis antigens in the tumor, while also reducing the frequency of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and the presence of CD25+ NKT cells rendered T cells, resistant to remaining myeloid-derived suppressor cells. This combinatorial therapy significantly prolonged survival of animals bearing metastatic tumor cells. Adoptive immunotherapy also induced tumor immunoediting, resulting in tumor escape and associated disease-related mortality. To identify a tumor target that is incapable of escape from the immune response, we used dormant tumor cells. We used Adriamycin chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which simultaneously induce tumor cell death and tumor dormancy. Resultant dormant cells became refractory to additional doses of Adriamycin or radiation therapy, but they remained sensitive to tumor-reactive immune cells. Importantly, we discovered that dormant tumor cells contained indolent cells that expressed low levels of Ki67 and quiescent cells that were Ki67 negative. Whereas the former were prone to tumor immunoediting and escape, the latter did not demonstrate immunoediting. Our results suggest that immunotherapy could be highly effective against quiescent dormant tumor cells. The challenge is to develop combinatorial therapies that could establish a quiescent type of tumor dormancy, which would be the best target for immunotherapy

Molecular typing of mycobacterium tuberculosis by using nine novel variable-number tandem repeats across the Beijing family and low-copy-number IS6110 isolates

Molecular epidemiological tools for genotyping clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis have been developed and used to help track and contain transmission of tuberculosis. We identified 87 short sequence repeat loci within the genome of the M. tuberculosis H37Rv strain. Nine tandem repeats were found to be variable (variable-number tandem repeats (VNTRs)) in a set of 91 isolates. Fifty-seven of the isolates had only four IS6110 bands. The other 34 isolates were members of the Beijing strain family. The number of alleles of each these nine VNTRs was determined by examining each isolate. Six of the loci (Mtb-v1, -v4, -v10, -v15, -v18, and -v20) were able to differentiate the Beijing spoligotype identical isolates into seven distinct genotypes. Five of the loci (Mtb-v3, -v5, -v6, -v10, and -v15) were informative in discriminating the four-band IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism isolates from each other. The Nei's diversity values of each marker ranged from 0.02 to 0.59, with the number of alleles ranging from two to eight across the entire strain set. These nine loci provide a useful, discriminatory extension of VNTR typing methods for application to molecular epidemiologic studies of M. tuberculosis

Structural equation modeling of food craving across the menstrual cycle T using behavioral, neuroendocrine, and metabolic factors

Objective: To identify associations between circulating endocannabinoids and craving during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. This report is a secondary analysis of a trial registered in clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01407692. Methods: Seventeen premenopausal women were studied during the follicular and luteal phases of their menstrual cycle. Previously we had reported fasting plasma estradiol, progesterone, leptin associations with luteal phase cravings for carbohydrate, fat, sweet-rich foods, and eating behavior. Here, we measured fasting plasma endocannabinoids (ECs) endocannabinoid-like substances (ECLs), and postprandial metabolic responses to a mixed meal challenge. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate relationships between measured variables and cravings. Results: Oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and postprandial lipids were inversely associated with craving sweet-rich foods, while progesterone was positively associated (RMSEA = 0.041, χ2 p: 0.416 i.e. hypothetical and physiological models not different). OEA, progesterone and disinhibition were positively associated with craving carbohydrates (RMSEA: \u3c 0.001, χ2 p: 0.919). ECs and ECLs combined were stronger predictors of craving than clinical metabolic parameters, ECs only, satiety hormones or gonadocorticoids. Conclusions: Our theoretical model suggests that ECs and ECLs influence craving. Since these metabolites can be modulated via dietary fat intake, they could be potential targets to alter menstrual cycle cravings

Self-Compassion and Depressive Symptoms as Determinants of Sensitive Parenting: Associations with Sociodemographic Characteristics in a Sample of Mothers and Toddlers

Parenting that is sensitive and responsive to children’s needs has been shown to support children’s optimal growth and development in many cultural contexts. Numerous studies suggest that self-compassion is positively related to sensitive parenting. Despite growing research interest linking self-compassion to responsive parenting, there are considerable gaps in the literature. The current study examined the associations between self-compassion, depressive symptoms, socioeconomic status, and sensitive parenting. Data was obtained from a cohort study of 300 families in central Ohio enrolled when children were a mean (SD) calendar age of 18.2 (0.7) months. Children of all gestational ages at birth are included, and 37% were born preterm (<37 weeks’ gestation). Observational protocols were used to determine maternal sensitivity in a semi-structured play setting. Self-compassion was assessed with the Self-Compassion Scale when children were 24 months old. Self-compassion was not associated with sociodemographic characteristics including maternal education, household income, child sex and gestational age. In unadjusted regression models, depressive symptoms were related to sensitive parenting (B = −0.036, SE = 0.016, p = 0.03), but self-compassion was not a statistically significant predictor (p = 0.35) of sensitivity, and neither self-compassion nor depressive symptoms were statistically significant predictors of sensitive parenting after adjustment for covariates. Considerations for future studies are discussed

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells of breast cancer patients can be reprogrammed to enhance anti-HER-2/neu reactivity and overcome myeloid-derived suppressor cells [poster abstract]

Barriers limiting the efficacy of adoptive cellular therapy (ACT) for breast cancer patients include immune suppression mediated by myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and a low frequency of tumor-reactive memory T cells (Tm). Recently, we developed an ex vivo protocol to reprogram tumor-reactive murine splenocytes; these cells were found to be resistant to MDSC suppression and protected FVBN202 mice from tumor challenge. Here, we evaluated the clinical applicability of reprogramming tumor-sensitized PBMCs isolated from patients with early stage breast cancer by treatment with bryostatin 1 and ionomycin (B/I) combined with IL-2, IL-7 and IL-15. Our data demonstrate that reprogrammed cells are enriched with Tm cells (n=5; p=0.006), as well as activated CD56+(n=6; p=0.003) and CD161+ (n=4; p=0.02) NKT cells, and demonstrate expansion in total cell numbers (n=16; p=0.003) compared to baseline cells. Reprogrammed PBMCs displayed enhanced HER-2/neu-specific IFN-γ producing immune responses (n=6; p=0.04); non-reprogrammed control PBMC IFN-γ production was not significant (n=6; p=0.4). Furthermore, high-throughput sequencing analysis of the T cell receptor (TcR) Vβ in one patient demonstrated clonal expansion of specific TcR VJ recombination events resulting from cellular reprogramming, suggestive of an enriched frequency of specific tumor antigen-primed T cell clones. Interestingly, reprogrammed T cells were resistant to autologous CD33+ CD11b+ HLA-DRlo/- MDSCs, as determined by further enhanced HER-2/neu-specific IFN-γ secretion in the presence of MDSCs (n=6; p=0.03). Activated CD161+ NKT cells comprising 3% or greater of total reprogrammed cells rendered T cells resistant to MDSCs (n=3; p=0.02). Upregulation of NKG2D expression on CD161+(n=5; p=0.0006) and CD56+ (n=5; p=0.04) NKT cells resulted from cellular reprogramming. Therefore, NKG2D signaling was blocked using anti-NKG2D blocking antibody in our co-culture system, resulting in the abrogation of resistance to MDSCs as determined by blunted IFN-γ secretion (n=3; p=0.04). Finally, the phenotype of MDSCs after co-culture with reprogrammed PBMC was examined; we observed downregulation of CD11b expression (n=3; p=0.02) concomitant with HLA-DR upregulation on MDSCs (n=3; p=0.001); suggestive of induced maturation of MDSCs into Dendritic Cells (DC). The results of our study offer the following strategies to improve ACT of breast cancer: i) inclusion of activated NKT cells in ACT to overcome MDSC suppression by inducing MDSC maturation into DCs, and ii) PBMC reprogramming to enrich the frequency of tumor-reactive Tm cells

Low cost, low tech SNP genotyping tools for resource-limited areas: Plague in Madagascar as a model

Genetic analysis of pathogenic organisms is a useful tool for linking human cases together and/or to potential environmental sources. The resulting data can also provide information on evolutionary patterns within a targeted species and phenotypic traits. However, the instruments often used to generate genotyping data, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), can be expensive and sometimes require advanced technologies to implement. This places many genotyping tools out of reach for laboratories that do not specialize in genetic studies and/or lack the requisite financial and technological resources. To address this issue, we developed a low cost and low tech genotyping system, termed agarose-MAMA, which combines traditional PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis to target phylogenetically informative SNPs