Food For a Long Life: A Local Case Study of Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR)

The Food For a Long Life (FFLL) project is a five-year, USDA-CYFAR (Children, Youth and Families At-Risk) Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) project that aims to reduce food insecurity among young children and their families living in one Columbus, Ohio neighborhood and one Virginia community. Specifically, the FFLL project seeks to use intergenerational strategies to improve access to, consumption of and knowledge of healthful food in the target communities. The FFLL project team just completed its planning year, year one of the five-year project, during which stakeholders were identified and engaged in the CBPAR process. The following principles of CBPAR (Israel et al., 2000) were applied to guide the project planning efforts: Acknowledge the community as a unit of identity. Build on strengths and resources within the community. Facilitate a collaborative, equitable partnership in all phases of research. Involve an empowering and power sharing process that attends to social inequalities. Foster co-learning and capacity building among partners. Integrate a balance between knowledge generation and intervention for the mutual benefit of all partners. Focus on the local relevance of public health problems and ecological perspectives that attend to the multiple determinants of health. Involve systems development using a cyclical and iterative process. Disseminate results to all partners and involve them in the wider dissemination of results. Use a long-term process and commit to sustainability. The Ohio FFLL project team began the planning year by hosting a project kick-off meeting for research team members and pre-identified stakeholders. During the first quarter of the year, existing community data was gathered and listening sessions were held with stakeholders. In the second quarter, the research team analyzed and themed the data. Themes were then communicated to interested stakeholders via a community conversation (i.e. search conference meeting) and three monthly Discover Council meetings. Currently, the Discovery Council is meeting quarterly to inform the project's intervention strategies. The Discovery Council research team members include a dietitian, a gerontologist, experts in intergenerational programming, a food security expert, a technology expert and evaluation specialists. These team members come as students, staff and faculty working for OSU Extension and the Ohio State College of Social Work. Also represented on the Discovery Council are community members, caregivers and parents; early childcare education providers, adult care providers, employees from the public health department, employees from the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, and representatives from various other nonprofit organizations. The make-up of the Discovery Council allows for planning that draws on both subject-area expertise and community knowledge, resulting in plans that are feasible, sustainable, desired and relevant.AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Jenny Lobb, Educator, The Ohio State University Extension, [email protected] (Corresponding Author); Shannon Jarrott, Professor, Ohio State College of Social Work; Holly Dabelko-Schoeny, Associate Professor, Ohio State College of Social Work; Elizabeth Speidel, Intergenerational Program Manager, Champion Intergenerational Center.The Food For a Long Life (FFLL) project is a five-year, USDA-CYFAR (Children, Youth and Families At-Risk) project that aims to reduce food insecurity among young children and their families living in one Columbus, Ohio neighborhood and one Virginia community. Specifically, the FFLL project seeks to use intergenerational strategies to improve access to, consumption of and knowledge of healthful food in the target communities. The project uses the Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) process to engage various stakeholders in the target communities to plan for and achieve feasible, sustainable and desired outcomes. The Ohio research team will share how CBPAR principles were applied in the planning year of the research project to inform intervention strategies for the current project year

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race\u3c/i\u3e

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race is a 2017 revised and updated edition to Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s original book written in 1997. The book explores decades of research on the psychology of racism, with an emphasis on the psychology of racial identity in Black, White, and other ethnic and cultural identities. The author helps readers gain a better understanding of historic and modern racism and the implications it has on individuals today. The book also contains important messages for people who work with diverse groups of adults and particularly of youth

Molecular basis of synaptic specificity by immunoglobulin superfamily receptors in drosophila

In stereotyped neuronal networks, synaptic connectivity is dictated by cell surface proteins, which assign unique identities to neurons, and physically mediate axon guidance and synapse targeting. We recently identified two groups of immunoglobulin superfamily proteins in Drosophila, Dprs and DIPs, as strong candidates for synapse targeting functions. Here, we uncover the molecular basis of specificity in Dpr–DIP mediated cellular adhesions and neuronal connectivity. First, we present five crystal structures of Dpr–DIP and DIP–DIP complexes, highlighting the evolutionary and structural origins of diversification in Dpr and DIP proteins and their interactions. We further show that structures can be used to rationally engineer receptors with novel specificities or modified affinities, which can be used to study specific circuits that require Dpr–DIP interactions to help establish connectivity. We investigate one pair, engineered Dpr10 and DIP-α, for function in the neuromuscular circuit in flies, and reveal roles for homophilic and heterophilic binding in wiring

Extension's Dining with Diabetes: Helping People Prevent and Manage Diabetes in Ohio and throughout the Nation

Diabetes is a common, serious and expensive disease in Ohio, the United States and around the world. The complications of untreated or undertreated diabetes are devastating and include heart, kidney, eye and nerve diseases. Studies have shown that when blood glucose is controlled, complications of diabetes are delayed or possibly prevented. Extension's Dining with Diabetes (DWD) program is designed for people with diabetes, their family members and those at risk; and it consists of education, cooking demonstrations, and taste testing. Participants are engaged on the topics of healthy cooking strategies, meal planning, portion control, label reading, physical activity, and goal setting. The program is delivered as a series of four face-to-face sessions with a three-month reunion led by Extension educators partnering with registered nurses, certified diabetes educators or registered dietatians. In addition to Extension offices, local community centers, faith-based organizations, libraries and hospitals are often used as locations in which to offer the program. State and local health departments, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and community health coalitions are active in marketing the program. DWD has been implemented in Ohio for more than a decade, and is now a national program with more than 38 states participating. Dining with Diabetes has a successful history of being implemented in Ohio and adapted by other states. The national program and evaluation provides the opportunity to demonstrate national impact and how Ohio's efforts compare with other states in terms of improving diabetes outcomes. The national program evaluation includes assessment of knowledge, attitudes and skill gains related to diabetes management. Medium-term outcomes include reported behavior change in the areas of food selection, food preparation, label reading, and physical activity. Participants who reported at three months follow-up demonstrated the ability to maintain or improve dietary change after completing the program.AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Dan Remley, Field Specialist, Food, Nutrition and Wellness, The Ohio State University Extension, [email protected] (Corresponding Author); Shari Gallup, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Margaret Jenkins, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Tammy Jones, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Jenny Lobb, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Susan Zies, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Marie Economos, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Chris Kendle, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Chelsea Peckny, Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy; Joyce Riley, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Amy Meehan, Healthy People Program Specialist; Brian Butler, Evaluation Specialist, The Ohio State University Extension; Ingrid Adams, Associate Professor; Lisa Barlage, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension; Candace Heer, Associate Professor; Amanda Bohlen, Educator, Family and Consumer Sciences, The Ohio State University Extension.Diabetes is a common, serious and expensive disease in Ohio, the United States and around the world. The complications of untreated or undertreated diabetes are devastating and include heart, kidney, eye and nerve diseases. Extension's Dining with Diabetes (DWD) program engages participants on the topics of healthy cooking strategies, meal planning, portion control, label reading, physical activity, and goal setting. The program is delivered as a series of four face-to-face sessions with a three-month reunion led by Extension educators partnering with registered nurses, certified diabetes educators or registered dietitians. DWD has a national curricula and evaluation, providing the opportunity to demonstrate national and state-level impact on knowledge, attitudes and skills related to diabetes management

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM−/− patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

CYP3A7*1C allele: linking premenopausal oestrone and progesterone levels with risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancers

Funder: Breast Cancer Now (BCN); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100009794Funder: Cancer Research UK (CRUK); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000289Funder: RCUK | Medical Research Council (MRC); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000265Funder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH)Funder: Wellcome Trust (Wellcome); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100004440Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013)); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100011199; Grant(s): HEALTH-F2-2009-223175, HEALTH-F2-2009-223175Funder: Genome Canada (Génome Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100008762Funder: Gouvernement du Canada | Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Instituts de Recherche en Santé du Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000024Funder: Quebec Breast cancer Foundation Genome QuebecFunder: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100000092Funder: EC | EC Seventh Framework Programm | FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific Programme: "Ideas" Implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2007 to 2013))Funder: European Union’s Horizon 2020Funder: Deutsche Krebshilfe (German Cancer Aid); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100005972Funder: BCAST - European Union’s Horizon 2020Funder: Breast Cancer Now; doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007913Abstract: Background: Epidemiological studies provide strong evidence for a role of endogenous sex hormones in the aetiology of breast cancer. The aim of this analysis was to identify genetic variants that are associated with urinary sex-hormone levels and breast cancer risk. Methods: We carried out a genome-wide association study of urinary oestrone-3-glucuronide and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide levels in 560 premenopausal women, with additional analysis of progesterone levels in 298 premenopausal women. To test for the association with breast cancer risk, we carried out follow-up genotyping in 90,916 cases and 89,893 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. All women were of European ancestry. Results: For pregnanediol-3-glucuronide, there were no genome-wide significant associations; for oestrone-3-glucuronide, we identified a single peak mapping to the CYP3A locus, annotated by rs45446698. The minor rs45446698-C allele was associated with lower oestrone-3-glucuronide (−49.2%, 95% CI −56.1% to −41.1%, P = 3.1 × 10–18); in follow-up analyses, rs45446698-C was also associated with lower progesterone (−26.7%, 95% CI −39.4% to −11.6%, P = 0.001) and reduced risk of oestrogen and progesterone receptor-positive breast cancer (OR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.82–0.91, P = 6.9 × 10–8). Conclusions: The CYP3A7*1C allele is associated with reduced risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer possibly mediated via an effect on the metabolism of endogenous sex hormones in premenopausal women

Scholarship as student engagement in college HE

This chapter looks at how a national three-year project in England has been exploring the issue of student engagement from the perspective of enhancing student scholarship skills. The Scholarship Project was a Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded catalyst project, administered by the Association of Colleges ( 2018 ), aimed at raising the profile of college higher education in England by exploring the ways that forms of scholarship might be able to enhance student learning. The chapter begins by briefly looking at the UK college higher education context – its history, role and some of its particular challenges. It proceeds to outline the scope of the national project and then, specifically, the role of scholarship in enhancing student engagement. The chapter finishes by looking at some specific examples of how student scholarship has been advanced in some of the colleges involved in the project. Namely: engaging students in research from induction; engaging students through peer-assisted study; and engaging students through a scholarship intern programme