University of Missouri Extension Metropolitan Foods System Team

University of Missouri Extension established a Metropolitan Food Systems Team in September 2011 with the goal of creating a framework for the identification, development and implementation of Extension food system programming in and near Missouri’s urban areas. The membership and activities of the team have shifted over the years with various personnel changes and different topics of interest in the state, but overall, the goal of the team has remained the same. The work of this team can provide ideas for other states of the role that Extension can play in helping to strengthen urban and peri-urban food systems. We outline specific elements that have contributed to our team’s successes and recommendations to other University Extension systems who may be interested in developing a similar initiative. Since its formation, the team has developed several Extension curricula, including Stock Healthy, Shop Healthy (which has been implemented nationally) and Selling Local Foods; and had the opportunity to visit two other state Extension programs to learn about their urban food systems work. The team held a conference for producers, buyers and food system stakeholders in all of Missouri’s metropolitan areas. The team has also established a food systems website (https://extension2.missouri.edu/programs/food-systems) which serves as valuable clearinghouse of information of the various resources that MU Extension has available in each of the different sectors of the food system. Rather than categorizing information by only the academic discipline that developed those resources, the website groups the information by sectors including 1) grow/produce/harvest, 2) deliver/process, 3) market/distribute, 4) display/purchase, 5) prepare/consume, 6) surplus/waste. This is a useful resource for internal Extension personnel, but also for external groups looking for resources. In 2019, the team engaged in a strategic planning process to determine our best approach for future work in light of new Extension and state initiatives around regional food systems. One of the main benefits of this team is that it brings together Extension personnel working in various disciplines from different parts of the state, which has enabled the team members to learn about ongoing and future initiatives occurring in other disciplines and areas of the state that are of interest to others. This multi-disciplinary approach has fostered extensive collaboration between different disciplines in projects that team members may have otherwise worked on independently or only within a single discipline. This presentation will help provide recommendations on implementing similar teams, based on our experiences

Raltegravir Pharmacokinetics in Treatment-Naive Patients Is Not Influenced by Race: Results from the Raltegravir Early Therapy in African-Americans Living with HIV (REAL) Study

Racial differences in antiretroviral treatment responses remain incompletely explained and may be a consequence of differential pharmacokinetics (PK) associated with race. Raltegravir, an inhibitor of HIV-1 integrase, is commonly used in the treatment of HIV-infected patients, many of whom are African-American. However, there are few data regarding the PK of raltegravir in African-Americans. HIV-infected men and women, self-described as African-American and naive to antiretroviral therapy were treated with raltegravir (RAL) at 400 mg twice a day, plus a fixed dose of tenofovir-emtricitabine (TDF/FTC) at 300 mg/200 mg once daily. Intensive PK sampling was conducted over 24 h at week 4. Drug concentrations at two trough values of 12 and 24 h after dosing (C12 and C24), area under the concentration-curve values (AUC), maximum drug concentration (Cmax), and the time at which this concentration occurred (Tmax) in plasma were estimated with noncompartmental pharmacokinetic methods and compared to data from a subset of white subjects randomized to the RAL twice a day (plus TDF/FTC) arm of the QDMRK study, a phase III study of the safety and efficacy of once daily versus twice daily RAL in treatment naive patients. A total of 38 African-American participants were enrolled (90% male) into the REAL cohort with the following median baseline characteristics: age of 36 years, body mass index (BMI) of 23 kg/m2, and a CD4 cell count of 339/ml. Plasma HIV RNA levels were below 200 copies/ml in 95% of participants at week 4. The characteristics of the 16 white QDMRK study participants were similar, although fewer (69%) were male, the median age was higher (45 years), and BMI was lower (19 kg/m2). There was considerable interindividual variability in RAL concentrations in both cohorts. Median C12 in REAL was 91 ng/ml (range, 10 to 1,386) and in QDMRK participants was 128 ng/ml (range, 15 to 1,074). The Cmax median concentration was 1,042 ng/ml (range, 196 to 10,092) for REAL and 1,360 ng/ml (range, 218 to 9,701) for QDMRK. There were no significant differences in any RAL PK parameter between these cohorts of African-American and white individuals. Based on plasma PK, and with similar adherence rates, the performance of RAL among HIV-infected African-Americans should be no different than that of infected patients who are white

Comparison of cardiovascular disease risk markers in HIV-infected patients receiving abacavir and tenofovir: the nucleoside inflammation, coagulation and endothelial function (NICE) study

The association between abacavir (ABC) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in HIV-infected individuals is unclear. Putative mechanisms for an effect of ABC on CVD risk including endothelial dysfunction have been proposed; however, a biological mechanism has not been established

Macrophages in Alzheimer’s disease: the blood-borne identity

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and incurable neurodegenerative disorder clinically characterized by cognitive decline involving loss of memory, reasoning and linguistic ability. The amyloid cascade hypothesis holds that mismetabolism and aggregation of neurotoxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides, which are deposited as amyloid plaques, are the central etiological events in AD. Recent evidence from AD mouse models suggests that blood-borne mononuclear phagocytes are capable of infiltrating the brain and restricting β-amyloid plaques, thereby limiting disease progression. These observations raise at least three key questions: (1) what is the cell of origin for macrophages in the AD brain, (2) do blood-borne macrophages impact the pathophysiology of AD and (3) could these enigmatic cells be therapeutically targeted to curb cerebral amyloidosis and thereby slow disease progression? This review begins with a historical perspective of peripheral mononuclear phagocytes in AD, and moves on to critically consider the controversy surrounding their identity as distinct from brain-resident microglia and their potential impact on AD pathology

Experimental concepts for toxicity prevention and tissue restoration after central nervous system irradiation

Several experimental strategies of radiation-induced central nervous system toxicity prevention have recently resulted in encouraging data. The present review summarizes the background for this research and the treatment results. It extends to the perspectives of tissue regeneration strategies, based for example on stem and progenitor cells. Preliminary data suggest a scenario with individually tailored strategies where patients with certain types of comorbidity, resulting in impaired regeneration reserve capacity, might be considered for toxicity prevention, while others might be "salvaged" by delayed interventions that circumvent the problem of normal tissue specificity. Given the complexity of radiation-induced changes, single target interventions might not suffice. Future interventions might vary with patient age, elapsed time from radiotherapy and toxicity type. Potential components include several drugs that interact with neurodegeneration, cell transplantation (into the CNS itself, the blood stream, or both) and creation of reparative signals and a permissive microenvironment, e.g., for cell homing. Without manipulation of the stem cell niche either by cell transfection or addition of appropriate chemokines and growth factors and by providing normal perfusion of the affected region, durable success of such cell-based approaches is hard to imagine

Self (reliance) and feminine desire: Strategies for engagement in literature(s) written by women

Fictional and nonfictional texts by Elizabeth Stoddard, Edith Wharton, Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Ellen Glasgow, and Zora Neale Hurston are read against the background of Emersonian ideals of self reliance and friendship. The close readings have discovered a number of strategies for creating an individual feminine consciousness and for creating space for both the play of self-reliance issues and feminine desire. By thinking in terms of strategies, readers more fully engage with these elements and open the readings of each of the texts. No "ideal" reading may be determined; rather there are many and complex moments in which self reliance and desire get to be played out to different levels of success. Stoddard employs complex mother-daughter relationships, witch markers, the theology of the Puritan past, and first-person narration as strategies to represent two strong female characters (two sisters) as they move into the realm of independence and face their own desires (The Morgesons ). Wharton finds that letter writing and self-created definitions of friendship allow both herself and her character, Charity Royall in the novel Summer, to act upon desires not morally sanctioned by their societies. The use of typology and direct address to multiply the possibilities of feminine selves and feminine desires, both profound and profane, is Sedgwick's technique in Hope Leslie. The reversals of masculine and feminine qualifies as well as reversals of behavior in Glasgow's novel Barren Ground, make the best readers uncomfortable enough to look at their own narrow definitions of what it means to be self reliant and female and which desires are worth pursuing. Finally, Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God moves like waves, contracting and expanding, as she explores the power of the storyteller and the incredibly important role of the listener (reader). She, more than most, will not allow solid ground under our reading feet, but shifts the Florida mud so that every reading is aware of its immediacy and its contingency. The examination of how different female authors engage issues of desire and the development of a creative, independent self greatly opens our understandings and readings of these texts