Enhancing the Well-Being of Incarcerated Females: A Pilot Study

Piloting the Group Positive Psychotherapy program (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006) with dually diagnosed mothers, age 13 to 22, who are under penal supervision; this project will attempt to counter traditional interventions by increasing positive emotion, meaning and engagement. Phase 1: The program will be administered over 7 a week period to 20 professional staff members. Measures on approaches to happiness and quality of life will be taken pre and post intervention. Phase 2: The program will be administered over a 6 week period to a group of 24 residential clients. Measures on depression and quality of life will be taken pre and post intervention. Once data is analyzed, this pilot will be taken to the female prison population at large

Marie Epstein

Born to a French Jewish father and a Polish Catholic mother in present-day Poland, Marie Epstein moved to Switzerland with her mother Hélène and her brother Jean after the death of her father Jules in January 1907. The Epsteins later established themselves in Lyon, France, where Jean was completing his studies, and then in Paris around 1922, just a few months before Jean directed his first two feature films, L’Auberge Rouge (1923) and Coeur fidèle (1923). It was also in the early 1920s that Marie became involved in the world of cinema. She started as an actress—in L’Auberge rouge, where she appeared as an extra in just a few early shots (Flitterman-Lewis 143), and in Coeur fidèle, two films that she co-wrote with Jean—but found it difficult to secure more roles. She then turned fully to screenwriting, which led her to work as an assistant director and editor (EPSTEIN184-B40). Through the intervention of French director and producer Jean Benoit-Lévy, Marie also became a director at a time when there were few women filmmakers in France. After she had been Benoit-Lévy’s assistant on several silent film documentaries in the 1920s, she then co-directed, wrote, and edited eight sound fiction films with him in the late 1920s and 1930s. During that period, she also directed at least one short film on her own (EPSTEIN113-B26 3/3), possibly more. After World War II, and the death of her brother Jean in 1953, Marie was hired by Henri Langlois as a film preservationist at the Cinémathèque française, a job she held until her retirement in 1977

Maternal Cigarette Smoking and Cleft Lip and Palate:A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVES: A systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between active maternal smoking and cleft lip and palate etiology. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library from inception to November, 2020. STUDY SELECTION: Observational studies of cigarette smoking habits in pregnant women. Outcomes included cleft lip and/or palate, cleft lip  ±  palate and cleft palate only. DATA ANALYSIS: Publication bias analyses were performed and the Newcastle Ottawa scales were used to assess study quality. Fixed or random effect models were used in the meta-analysis, dependent on risk of statistical heterogeneity. RESULTS: Forty-five studies were eligible for inclusion of which 11 were cohort and 34 were case–control studies. Sixteen studies were of sufficient standard for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The summary odds ratio for the association between smoking and cleft lip and/or palate was 1.42 (95%CI 1.27-1.59) with a population attributable fraction of 4% (95%CI 3%-5%). There was limited evidence to show a dose–response effect of smoking. CONCLUSIONS: This review reports a moderate association between maternal smoking and orofacial cleft but the overall quality of the conventional observational studies included was poor. There is a need for high quality and novel research strategies to further define the role of smoking in the etiology of cleft lip and palate

Essential Role of Lyn in Fibrosis.

Fibrotic disorders involve replacement of normal parenchyma with myofibroblasts, which deposit connective tissue, leading to obliteration of the function of the underlying organ. The treatment options are inadequate and reflect the fact that signaling targets in myofibroblasts are unknown. Here we identify the hyperactive Lyn signaling in myofibroblasts of patients with chronic pancreatitis-induced fibrosis. Lyn activation coexpress with markers of activated myofibroblasts, and is increased ~11-fold in chronic pancreatitis compared to normal tissue. Inhibition of Lyn with siRNA or INNO-406 leads to the substantial decrease of migration and proliferation of human chronic pancreatitis myofibroblasts in vitro, while leaving migration and proliferation of normal myofibroblasts only slightly affected. Furthermore, inhibition of Lyn prevents synthesis of procollagen and collagen in myofibroblasts in a mouse model of chronic pancreatitis-induced fibrosis. We conclude that Lyn, as a positive regulator of myofibroblast migration, proliferation, and collagen production, is a key target for preventing fibrosis

Sexual Assault on College Campuses: Substance Use, Victim Status Awareness, and Barriers to Reporting

Background: Despite the high incidence of estimated sexual assault on college campuses, underreporting is substantial and perpetuated by a culture of rape myths that are pervasive across society in general and college campuses.Aim: The aim of this study was to: examine college student awareness of their own sexual assault victimization status, barriers to reporting, and the prevalence of substance use in sexual assault.Method: This was a cross-sectional mixed-method survey sent to a universal sample of college students from two neighboring institutions of higher education (N=2,724).Results: Results from this survey demonstrated a lack of understanding of what constitutes sexual assault, primarily attributed to the normalization of assault and rape myths. Regardless of victim status awareness, those who were victimized were significantly more likely to use higher levels of alcohol than non-victims, and were less likely to identify their victimization as sexual assault, highlighting the need for college students to understand that alcohol-involved sexual assault is still sexual assault.Conclusions: Overwhelmingly, participants cited the potential consequences as far greater than any potential benefits to reporting sexual assault. Confusion about what constitutes sexual assault and uncertainty of available resources were also recognized as contributing factors in underreporting

Chromosomal instability in untreated primary prostate cancer as an indicator of metastatic potential.

BackgroundMetastatic prostate cancer (PC) is highly lethal. The ability to identify primary tumors capable of dissemination is an unmet need in the quest to understand lethal biology and improve patient outcomes. Previous studies have linked chromosomal instability (CIN), which generates aneuploidy following chromosomal missegregation during mitosis, to PC progression. Evidence of CIN includes broad copy number alterations (CNAs) spanning > 300 base pairs of DNA, which may also be measured via RNA expression signatures associated with CNA frequency. Signatures of CIN in metastatic PC, however, have not been interrogated or well defined. We examined a published 70-gene CIN signature (CIN70) in untreated and castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) cohorts from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and previously published reports. We also performed transcriptome and CNA analysis in a unique cohort of untreated primary tumors collected from diagnostic prostate needle biopsies (PNBX) of localized (M0) and metastatic (M1) cases to determine if CIN was linked to clinical stage and outcome.MethodsPNBX were collected from 99 patients treated in the VA Greater Los Angeles (GLA-VA) Healthcare System between 2000 and 2016. Total RNA was extracted from high-grade cancer areas in PNBX cores, followed by RNA sequencing and/or copy number analysis using OncoScan. Multivariate logistic regression analyses permitted calculation of odds ratios for CIN status (high versus low) in an expanded GLA-VA PNBX cohort (n = 121).ResultsThe CIN70 signature was significantly enriched in primary tumors and CRPC metastases from M1 PC cases. An intersection of gene signatures comprised of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) generated through comparison of M1 versus M0 PNBX and primary CRPC tumors versus metastases revealed a 157-gene "metastasis" signature that was further distilled to 7-genes (PC-CIN) regulating centrosomes, chromosomal segregation, and mitotic spindle assembly. High PC-CIN scores correlated with CRPC, PC-death and all-cause mortality in the expanded GLA-VA PNBX cohort. Interestingly, approximately 1/3 of M1 PNBX cases exhibited low CIN, illuminating differential pathways of lethal PC progression.ConclusionsMeasuring CIN in PNBX by transcriptome profiling is feasible, and the PC-CIN signature may identify patients with a high risk of lethal progression at the time of diagnosis

The Ursinus Weekly, January 21, 1970

USGA plans to improve communications at Ursinus • Modified curriculum announced • Dr. Sachar discusses dissenters • Board of Directors increases tuition • Premed meeting • Free learning • Editorial: Tuition increase • Focus: Kim Brown • Faculty portrait: Dr. Conrad Kruse • Tiny time pills • Letters to the editor: Moratorium; Football congrats; Red neck • Administration answers • Sexton\u27s kind • Perspectives: On priorities • Ursinus pulverizes Diplomats by 76-56 for fifth triumph • Videon\u27s matmen fall to Albright • Final examination schedulehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1154/thumbnail.jp

Distinct DNA methylation profiles in subtypes of orofacial cleft

Abstract Background Epigenetic data could help identify risk factors for orofacial clefts, either by revealing a causal role for epigenetic mechanisms in causing clefts or by capturing information about causal genetic or environmental factors. Given the evidence that different subtypes of orofacial cleft have distinct aetiologies, we explored whether children with different cleft subtypes showed distinct epigenetic profiles. Methods In whole-blood samples from 150 children from the Cleft Collective cohort study, we measured DNA methylation at over 450,000 sites on the genome. We then carried out epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS) to test the association between methylation at each site and cleft subtype (cleft lip only (CLO) n = 50; cleft palate only (CPO) n = 50; cleft lip and palate (CLP) n = 50). We also compared methylation in the blood to methylation in the lip or palate tissue using genome-wide data from the same 150 children and conducted an EWAS of CLO compared to CLP in lip tissue. Results We found four genomic regions in blood differentially methylated in CLO compared to CLP, 17 in CPO compared to CLP and 294 in CPO compared to CLO. Several regions mapped to genes that have previously been implicated in the development of orofacial clefts (for example, TBX1, COL11A2, HOXA2, PDGFRA), and over 250 associations were novel. Methylation in blood correlated with that in lip/palate at some regions. There were 14 regions differentially methylated in the lip tissue from children with CLO and CLP, with one region (near KIAA0415) showing up in both the blood and lip EWAS. Conclusions Our finding of distinct methylation profiles in different orofacial cleft (OFC) subtypes represents a promising first step in exploring the potential role of epigenetic modifications in the aetiology of OFCs and/or as clinically useful biomarkers of OFC subtypes

The impact of changing cigarette smoking habits and smoke-free legislation on orofacial cleft incidence in the United Kingdom: Evidence from two time-series studies

BACKGROUND: Both active and passive cigarette smoking have previously been associated with orofacial cleft aetiology. We aimed to analyse the impact of declining active smoking prevalence and the implementation of smoke-free legislation on the incidence of children born with a cleft lip and/or palate within the United Kingdom. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted regression analysis using national administrative data in the United Kingdom between 2000–2018. The main outcome measure was orofacial cleft incidence, reported annually for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and separately for Scotland. First, we conducted an ecological study with longitudinal time-series analysis using smoking prevalence data for females over 16 years of age. Second, we used a natural experiment design with interrupted time-series analysis to assess the impact of smoke-free legislation. Over the study period, the annual incidence of orofacial cleft per 10,000 live births ranged from 14.2–16.2 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 13.4–18.8 in Scotland. The proportion of active smokers amongst females in the United Kingdom declined by 37% during the study period. Adjusted regression analysis did not show a correlation between the proportion of active smokers and orofacial cleft incidence in either dataset, although we were unable to exclude a modest effect of the magnitude seen in individual-level observational studies. The data in England, Wales and Northern Ireland suggested an 8% reduction in orofacial cleft incidence (RR 0.92, 95%CI 0.85 to 0.99; P = 0.024) following the implementation of smoke-free legislation. In Scotland, there was weak evidence for an increase in orofacial cleft incidence following smoke-free legislation (RR 1.16, 95%CI 0.94 to 1.44; P = 0.173). CONCLUSIONS: These two ecological studies offer a novel insight into the influence of smoking in orofacial cleft aetiology, adding to the evidence base from individual-level studies. Our results suggest that smoke-free legislation may have reduced orofacial cleft incidence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland