Linking Community Resilience to Health and Wellness

Community Resilience (CR) is a topic on many people’s minds these days, and represents a community’s and an individual’s ability to weather adversity, as well as to adapt and recover. It also represents a community’s strength and readiness to respond to changes and capitalize on opportunities. Adaptation and recovery are intrinsically linked to the health and wellness of a community or individual, and measuring the link between CR and a community’s health is a point of key importance. Community resilience is complex, so scholars and stakeholders have developed a variety of models and metrics to measure and identify it. Many of these are linked to health and wellness outcomes within the community, providing a foundation for the link between the resilience of a community and the health of the people. Further research is required as the nature of CR is better defined, but current results provide support for using the measurement of CR to identify key points of intervention to improve the health and wellbeing of communities

Using Social Network Analysis to Link Community Health and Network Strength

Social network analysis (SNA) is a technique used to analyze social networks, whether it be composed of people, organizations, physical locations, or objects. It is being increasingly applied across a variety of sectors to gain insight into patterns of behavior and connectivity, the flow of information and behaviors, and to track and predict the effectiveness of interventions or programs. A key area associated with network strength using SNA is the health and wellness of individuals and communities. Both network strength and health and wellness are measured in many ways, which can obfuscate the association, so more consistency and further research is required. Despite this, the existing research using SNA to link characteristics of social networks to health and wellness find that stronger, more connected networks tend to be associated with better health outcomes. These results also present opportunities and insights for effective program implementation in response to disasters, to increase resilience, and to improve outcomes for individuals and communities

Missed opportunities to improve food security for pregnant people: a qualitative study of prenatal care settings in Northern New England during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Food insecurity during pregnancy has important implications for maternal and newborn health. There is increasing commitment to screening for social needs within health care settings. However, little is known about current screening processes or the capacity for prenatal care clinics to address food insecurity among their patients. We aimed to assess barriers and facilitators prenatal care clinics face in addressing food insecurity among pregnant people and to identify opportunities to improve food security among this population. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study among prenatal care clinics in New Hampshire and Vermont. Staff and clinicians engaged in food security screening and intervention processes at clinics affiliated with the Northern New England Perinatal Quality Improvement Network (NNEPQIN) were recruited to participate in key informant interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify prominent themes in the interview data. Results: Nine staff members or clinicians were enrolled and participated in key informant interviews. Key barriers to food security screening and interventions included lack of protocols and dedicated staff at the clinic as well as community factors such as availability of food distribution services and transportation. Facilitators of screening and intervention included a supportive culture at the clinic, trusting relationships between patients and clinicians, and availability of clinic-based and community resources. Conclusion: Prenatal care settings present an important opportunity to identify and address food insecurity among pregnant people, yet most practices lack specific protocols for screening. Our findings indicate that more systematic processes for screening and referrals, dedicated staff, and onsite food programs that address transportation and other access barriers could improve the capacity of prenatal care clinics to improve food security during pregnancy

BET Protein Inhibition Regulates Macrophage Chromatin Accessibility and Microbiota-Dependent Colitis

Introduction In colitis, macrophage functionality is altered compared to normal homeostatic conditions. Loss of IL-10 signaling results in an inappropriate chronic inflammatory response to bacterial stimulation. It remains unknown if inhibition of bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET) proteins alters usage of DNA regulatory elements responsible for driving inflammatory gene expression. We determined if the BET inhibitor, (+)-JQ1, could suppress inflammatory activation of macrophages in Il10-/- mice. Methods We performed ATAC-seq and RNA-seq on Il10-/- bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) cultured in the presence and absence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with and without treatment with (+)-JQ1 and evaluated changes in chromatin accessibility and gene expression. Germ-free Il10-/- mice were treated with (+)-JQ1, colonized with fecal slurries and underwent histological and molecular evaluation 14-days post colonization. Results Treatment with (+)-JQ1 suppressed LPS-induced changes in chromatin at distal regulatory elements associated with inflammatory genes, particularly in regions that contain motifs for AP-1 and IRF transcription factors. This resulted in attenuation of inflammatory gene expression. Treatment with (+)-JQ1 in vivo resulted in a mild reduction in colitis severity as compared with vehicle-treated mice. Conclusion We identified the mechanism of action associated with a new class of compounds that may mitigate aberrant macrophage responses to bacteria in colitis

Increased colonic expression of ACE2 associates with poor prognosis in Crohn’s disease

The host receptor for SARS-CoV-2, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), is highly expressed in small intestine. Our aim was to study colonic ACE2 expression in Crohn's disease (CD) and non-inflammatory bowel disease (non-IBD) controls. We hypothesized that the colonic expression levels of ACE2 impacts CD course. We examined the expression of colonic ACE2 in 67 adult CD and 14 NIBD control patients using RNA-seq and quantitative (q) RT-PCR. We validated ACE2 protein expression and localization in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded matched colon and ileal tissues using immunohistochemistry. The impact of increased ACE2 expression in CD for the risk of surgery was evaluated by a multivariate regression analysis and a Kaplan–Meier estimator. To provide critical support for the generality of our findings, we analyzed previously published RNA-seq data from two large independent cohorts of CD patients. Colonic ACE2 expression was significantly higher in a subset of adult CD patients which was defined as the ACE2-high CD subset. IHC in a sampling of ACE2-high CD patients confirmed high ACE2 protein expression in the colon and ileum compared to ACE2-low CD and NIBD patients. Notably, we found that ACE2-high CD patients are significantly more likely to undergo surgery within 5 years of CD diagnosis, and a Cox regression analysis found that high ACE2 levels is an independent risk factor for surgery (OR 2.17; 95% CI, 1.10–4.26; p = 0.025). Increased intestinal expression of ACE2 is associated with deteriorated clinical outcomes in CD patients. These data point to the need for molecular stratification that can impact CD disease-related outcomes

Foundations of Community Engagement at UD

This session will connect the Fitz Center\u27s Practiced Principles for Community Engagement to our Marianist Charism. Participants in this session will get a better understanding of what Community Engagement and Community Engaged Learning is here at the University of Dayton, as well as a better understanding of best practices as it relates to partnership with the community. This session will also highlight resources available to faculty and staff around community engagement

Adaptation and Change: Answering the Challenge Brought by COVID-19 with New and Adapted Student Programs in Social Justice

This session will look at some creative ways the panelists worked together to continue to provide reflective, educational, and prayerful social justice-based programming for students while adapting to COVID-19 restrictions. Answering the need for anti-racist education, the Awaken Retreat was created, allowing students an opportunity to explore how their faith calls them to be anti-racist. The Center for Social Concern’s long-standing REAL Dayton experience was still able to connect students to the cty of Dayton while keeping everyone safe. Finally, 2020 also called for education on the elections; the Vox Retreat, available to students through downloadable modules, allowed participants to learn how to use their voice this election year, guided by their faith or personal values. The presenters will share the joys and challenges of creating and adapting these programs during this very different year

Bisexuality and HIV Risk: Experiences in Canada and the United States

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in the Annual Review of Sex Research, available online: http://tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10532528.1997.10559920The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic has presented unparalleled challenges to sex researchers. Investigators have sought to understand a range of sexual behaviors and have scrutinized their roles in disease transmission. Opportunities have also emerged for developing and evaluating large-scale behavioral interventions to facilitate sexual risk reduction. In this article, we examine a topic of interest to sex researchers and HIV prevention programs, namely the relationship between bisexual behavior and HIV risk. We have gathered the theoretical and empirical literatures from two countries, Canada and the United States, permitting us to describe diverse experiences in countries in which variations in demographics and social norms as well as prevention programs may have consequences for the prevalence and contexts of bisexual behavior and for HIV risk. We begin our article with a review of the theories of bisexual behavior and a critique of methods used to study these populations. These sections provide a foundation for interpreting the empirical literature and for understanding the limitations of research related to HIV risk. We then provide for each country and for each gender a brief overview of data on the prevalence of bisexual behavior, HIV prevalence and AIDS cases, and the prevalence and determinants of HIV risk behaviors. We also review the emerging findings on prevention approaches for each population. Our review ends with a synthesis of the data across countries and genders and a proposed research agenda to increase our understanding of bisexual behavior and HIV risk among men and women who engage in sexual behavior with both genders

Ultrasonic Generation of Pulsatile and Sequential Therapeutic Delivery Profiles from Calcium-Crosslinked Alginate Hydrogels

Control over of biological processes can potentially be therapeutically regulated through localized biomolecular deliveries. While implantable hydrogels can provide localized therapeutic deliveries, they do not traditionally provide the temporally complex therapeutic delivery profiles required to regulate complex biological processes. Ionically crosslinked alginate hydrogels have been shown to release encapsulated payloads in response to a remotely applied ultrasonic stimulus, thus potentially enabling more temporally complex therapeutic delivery profiles. However, thorough characterizations of how different types of therapeutic payloads are retained and ultrasonically released need to be performed. Additionally, the impact of potentially disruptive ultrasonic stimulations on hydrogel structure and temperature need to be characterized to better understand what range of ultrasonic signals can be used to trigger release. To perform these characterizations, calcium-crosslinked alginate hydrogels were loaded with various model macromolecules (dextrans), chemotherapeutics, and protein signaling factors and exposed to a variety of single-pulse and multi-pulse ultrasonic signals at various amplitudes and durations. In response to single-pulsed ultrasonic exposures, quantifications of molecular release, degree of gel erosion, and increase in hydrogel temperature revealed that the ultrasonic stimulations required for statistically significant therapeutic deliveries often eroded and heated the gels to unacceptable levels. However, multi-pulse ultrasonic exposures were shown to achieve significant amounts of therapeutic release while keeping gel erosion and temperature increase at modest levels. Finally, experiments were performed demonstrating that ultrasonic stimulation could be used to generate drug release profiles shown to have potential therapeutic benefits (e.g., pulsatile and sequential anticancer delivery profiles). This work underscores the potential of using ultrasonically responsive polymeric hydrogels for providing on-demand control over more complex therapeutic deliver profiles and enhancing drug delivery strategies in cancer therapies and beyond