Sex Work and Drug Use in a Subculture of Violence

This article examines the subculture of violence thesis as it relates to female street sex workers in Miami. Interview and focus group methods were used to study the intersections of childhood trauma, drug use, and violent victimization among 325 women. Using targeted sampling, crack- and heroin-using sex workers were recruited through street outreach into an HIV-prevention research program. Interviews used standard instrumentation and focused on drug-related and sexual risk for HIV, sex work, violence, childhood trauma, and health status. Nearly half of the respondents reported physical (44.9%) and/ or sexual (50.5%) abuse as children, and over 40% experienced violence from clients in the prior year: 24.9% were beaten, 12.9% were raped, and 13.8% were threatened with weapons. Consistent relationships between historical and current victimization suggest that female sex workers experience a continuing cycle of violence throughout their lives. The policy and research implications of these findings are discussed

Production of CXC and CC chemokines by human antigen-presenting cells in response to Lassa virus or closely related immunogenic viruses, and in cynomolgus monkeys with lassa fever.

International audienceThe pathogenesis of Lassa fever (LF), a hemorrhagic fever endemic to West Africa, remains unclear. We previously compared Lassa virus (LASV) with its genetically close, but nonpathogenic homolog Mopeia virus (MOPV) and demonstrated that the strong activation of antigen-presenting cells (APC), including type I IFN production, observed in response to MOPV probably plays a crucial role in controlling infection. We show here that human macrophages (MP) produce large amounts of CC and CXC chemokines in response to MOPV infection, whereas dendritic cells (DC) release only moderate amounts of CXC chemokines. However, in the presence of autologous T cells, DCs produced CC and CXC chemokines. Chemokines were produced in response to type I IFN synthesis, as the levels of both mediators were strongly correlated and the neutralization of type I IFN resulted in an inhibition of chemokine production. By contrast, LASV induced only low levels of CXCL-10 and CXCL-11 production. These differences in chemokine production may profoundly affect the generation of virus-specific T-cell responses and may therefore contribute to the difference of pathogenicity between these two viruses. In addition, a recombinant LASV (rLASV) harboring the NP-D389A/G392A mutations, which abolish the inhibition of type I IFN response by nucleoprotein (NP), induced the massive synthesis of CC and CXC chemokines in both DC and MP, confirming the crucial role of arenavirus NP in immunosuppression and pathogenicity. Finally, we confirmed, using PBMC samples and lymph nodes obtained from LASV-infected cynomolgus monkeys, that LF was associated with high levels of CXC chemokine mRNA synthesis, suggesting that the very early synthesis of these mediators may be correlated with a favourable outcome

Violent Victimization of Street Sex Workers

In Her Own Words: Women Offenders\u27 Views on Crime and Victimization offers first-hand accounts of women\u27s experience with crime and victimization and provides a rare opportunity for students to view the world from the perspective of the female offender. The text is designed to offer a surrogate experience--an inside view on how female law-breaking behavior overlaps with victimization in some cases, and how law breaking is a rational choice in others.The authors of each article befriend, observe, and interview women who are involved in lawbreaking behaviors and may also themselves be victimized. Topics include sex work, drugs, violent crime, property crime, desistance from crime, and women as victims of crime. Students will encounter women who have engaged in prostitution, murder, robbery, drug dealing and gang activities--all of whom discuss their motives, perceptions, decision-making strategies, and rationalizations for crime.The data from these ethnographic studies provide abundant description and detail about the personal experiences and perspectives of offenders so that readers understand the commonalities shared by both criminalized and victimized women. In every case, however, the story is told from the perspective, and in the words of, the offender.In Her Own Words takes a pathways to crime approach and assumes that present cultural values define what is considered illegal, immoral, or in need of government intervention. The book places the interviews in a theoretical and social scientific context so that the reader can better understand how much of female offending behavior is linked to prior victimization and how much is rational choice.The law tends to criminalize individuals who face victimization from domestic abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, or are marginalized in some way through poverty or discrimination. As such, a criminalized woman may share many commonalities of women who are victimized, such as a feeling of powerlessness or learned helplessness, and involvement in oppressive relationships.https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_facbooks/1074/thumbnail.jp

Sex Work and Date Violence

This study employed survey and focus group methods to examine the characteristics and sex work-related behaviors of 294 female street-based sex workers in Miami that make them more likely to be victimized by their clients or “dates.” More than half the respondents had experienced date violence in the prior year. Economic desperation, using crack or heroin while working, not controlling the date location, and having sex in the car were strong predictors of victimization. The article concludes with recommendations for a harm-reduction approach to outreach and education, and it calls for increased legal protections for victimized sex workers

Improving the generalizability of infant psychological research: The ManyBabies model

Yarkoni's analysis clearly articulates a number of concerns limiting the generalizability and explanatory power of psychological findings, many of which are compounded in infancy research. ManyBabies addresses these concerns via a radically collaborative, large-scale and open approach to research that is grounded in theory-building, committed to diversification, and focused on understanding sources of variation

Renal cell apoptosis induced by nephrotoxic drugs: cellular and molecular mechanisms and potential approaches to modulation

Apoptosis plays a central role not only in the physiological processes of kidney growth and remodeling, but also in various human renal diseases and drug-induced nephrotoxicity. We present in a synthetic fashion the main molecular and cellular pathways leading to drug-induced apoptosis in kidney and the mechanisms regulating it. We illustrate them using three main nephrotoxic drugs (cisplatin, gentamicin, and cyclosporine A). We discuss the main regulators and effectors that have emerged as key targets for the design of therapeutic strategies. Novel approaches using gene therapy, antisense strategies, recombinant proteins, or compounds obtained from both classical organic and combinatorial chemistry are examined. Finally, key issues that need to be addressed for the success of apoptosis-based therapies are underlined

De novo missense variants in phosphatidylinositol kinase PIP5KIγ underlie a neurodevelopmental syndrome associated with altered phosphoinositide signaling

Phosphoinositides (PIs) are membrane phospholipids produced through the local activity of PI kinases and phosphatases that selectively add or remove phosphate groups from the inositol head group. PIs control membrane composition and play key roles in many cellular processes including actin dynamics, endosomal trafficking, autophagy, and nuclear functions. Mutations in phosphatidylinositol 4,5 bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P2] phosphatases cause a broad spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders such as Lowe and Joubert syndromes and congenital muscular dystrophy with cataracts and intellectual disability, which are thus associated with increased levels of PI(4,5)P2. Here, we describe a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with an increase in the production of PI(4,5)P2 and with PI-signaling dysfunction. We identified three de novo heterozygous missense variants in PIP5K1C, which encodes an isoform of the phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate 5-kinase (PIP5KIγ), in nine unrelated children exhibiting intellectual disability, developmental delay, acquired microcephaly, seizures, visual abnormalities, and dysmorphic features. We provide evidence that the PIP5K1C variants result in an increase of the endosomal PI(4,5)P2 pool, giving rise to ectopic recruitment of filamentous actin at early endosomes (EEs) that in turn causes dysfunction in EE trafficking. In addition, we generated an in vivo zebrafish model that recapitulates the disorder we describe with developmental defects affecting the forebrain, including the eyes, as well as craniofacial abnormalities, further demonstrating the pathogenic effect of the PIP5K1C variants. We describe a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with de novo gain-of-function variants in PIP5KIγ kinase. The variants cause perturbed endosomal function resulting from increased production of phosphatidylinositol 4,5 bisphosphate and enhanced association of F-actin at endosomes. Moreover, mutant zebrafish larvae recapitulate the phenotypes observed in affected individuals from our cohort