From Housing to Health: Imagining Antidiscrimination Provisions for Menthol Cigarette Marketing

Smoking has been decreasing steadily over the past several decades, but advertisers still target some populations for cigarette consumption. Currently, almost nine out of ten African American smokers smoke mentholated cigarettes compared to only one in four White Americans. This disparity in use came about through decades of targeted marketing efforts on the part of tobacco companies. Mentholated cigarettes are more addictive than unflavored cigarettes and lead to more lifelong smoking. Because menthol smokers have a harder time quitting, civil rights and public health advocates have long viewed the marketing practices of menthol cigarette makers as a racial injustice. This Note substantiates this notion by comparing racially targeted marketing of menthol to the racial targeting practices in the subprime mortgage market. In housing crisis-era cases centered on Fair Housing Act claims, courts found that targeting minorities to purchase predatory home loans was a civil rights violation. Drawing on reverse redlining jurisprudence under the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, this Note proposes a statutory provision that would prohibit racially targeted marketing of mentholated cigarettes

Visco-Node-Pore Sensing: A Microfluidic Rheology Platform to Characterize Viscoelastic Properties of Epithelial Cells.

Viscoelastic properties of cells provide valuable information regarding biological or clinically relevant cellular characteristics. Here, we introduce a new, electronic-based, microfluidic platform-visco-node-pore sensing (visco-NPS)-which quantifies cellular viscoelastic properties under periodic deformation. We measure the storage (G) and loss (G″) moduli (i.e., elasticity and viscosity, respectively) of cells. By applying a wide range of deformation frequencies, our platform quantifies the frequency dependence of viscoelastic properties. G and G″ measurements show that the viscoelastic properties of malignant breast epithelial cells (MCF-7) are distinctly different from those of non-malignant breast epithelial cells (MCF-10A). With its sensitivity, visco-NPS can dissect the individual contributions of different cytoskeletal components to whole-cell mechanical properties. Moreover, visco-NPS can quantify the mechanical transitions of cells as they traverse the cell cycle or are initiated into an epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Visco-NPS identifies viscoelastic characteristics of cell populations, providing a biophysical understanding of cellular behavior and a potential for clinical applications

What can be Achieved with an Interprofessional Class?

Introduction Recently, educators advocated for interprofessional education to better prepare entry-level healthcare workers for efficient, effective, and respectful teamwork to lower the cost of healthcare and improve the delivery of collaborative quality patient care. This article describes the results of an educational program evaluation of an interprofessional class (IPC) taught over a five-year period between nursing and occupational therapy (OT) departments at a small private university. Methods During the IPC sessions, a small group of nursing and OT students observed a simulated patient care scenario in which a nursing and an OT student provided care related to their respective discipline. Faculty-guided group discussions and post-debriefing deepened students’ learning. Results Data collected from the IPC post-session evaluation forms revealed immediate improvement in knowledge of overlapping and distinct roles of the two disciplines, and a deeper appreciation of ways to respectfully communicate with patients and healthcare workers to reduce duplication of efforts and facilitate continuity in patient care

Endocide-Induced Abnormal Growth Forms of Invasive Giant Salvinia (Salvinia molesta)

Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta) is one of the most noxious invasive species in the world. The fern is known to have primary, secondary, and tertiary growth forms, which are also commonly hypothesized as growth stages. The identification of these forms is primarily based on the size and folding status of the floating leaves. However, we identified 12 forms in the greenhouse and the field. Our experiments showed that the folding of floating leaves is a reversible trait dependent on water access. The floating leaves quickly fold in response to water shortage, reducing water loss and needs, decreasing growth, and avoiding trichome damage. The leaves re-open to allow trichomes repel water and enhance growth when having adequate water supply. Larger secondary or tertiary forms do not produce small-leaf primary forms without high intensity stress. These results do not support the hypothesis that three growth forms represent sequential growth stages. The abnormal small-leaf forms are the result of endocide-induced autotoxicity and some of them never grow into other forms. The development of abnormal forms and reversible leaf folding strategy in response to high stress along with rapid asexual reproduction are major adaptive traits contributing to the invasiveness of S. molesta

Household Investment in 529 College Savings Plans and Information Processing Frictions

We investigate how information processing frictions contribute to household suboptimal saving and investment behavior. We find that 60% of open accounts in college 529 savings plans are invested suboptimally due to high expenses and tax inefficiency. Such investments yield an expected loss of 9% over the accounts’ projected lifetimes. Consistent with information processing frictions contributing to inefficient investment, the extent of investment in suboptimal home-state accounts decreases with household financial literacy and increases with plan document disclosure complexity. Overall, our results suggest that information processing frictions shape households’ suboptimal investment in college savings plans and reduce their financial well-being

Systematic Review Brief: Virtual Interventions that Address Motor and Balance Impairments and Skills for Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) (12-21)

Systematic Review Briefs provide a summary of the findings from systematic reviews developed in conjunction with the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA’s) Evidence-Based Practice Program. Each Systematic Review Brief summarizes the evidence on a theme related to a systematic review topic. This Systematic Review Brief presents findings from the theme of virtual interventions that address motor and balance impairments and skills for adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI)