Transgender Population Size in the United States: a Meta-Regression of Population-Based Probability Samples.

BackgroundTransgender individuals have a gender identity that differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The population size of transgender individuals in the United States is not well-known, in part because official records, including the US Census, do not include data on gender identity. Population surveys today more often collect transgender-inclusive gender-identity data, and secular trends in culture and the media have created a somewhat more favorable environment for transgender people.ObjectivesTo estimate the current population size of transgender individuals in the United States and evaluate any trend over time.Search methodsIn June and July 2016, we searched PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Web of Science for national surveys, as well as "gray" literature, through an Internet search. We limited the search to 2006 through 2016.Selection criteriaWe selected population-based surveys that used probability sampling and included self-reported transgender-identity data.Data collection and analysisWe used random-effects meta-analysis to pool eligible surveys and used meta-regression to address our hypothesis that the transgender population size estimate would increase over time. We used subsample and leave-one-out analysis to assess for bias.Main resultsOur meta-regression model, based on 12 surveys covering 2007 to 2015, explained 62.5% of model heterogeneity, with a significant effect for each unit increase in survey year (F = 17.122; df = 1,10; b = 0.026%; P = .002). Extrapolating these results to 2016 suggested a current US population size of 390 adults per 100 000, or almost 1 million adults nationally. This estimate may be more indicative for younger adults, who represented more than 50% of the respondents in our analysis.Authors' conclusionsFuture national surveys are likely to observe higher numbers of transgender people. The large variety in questions used to ask about transgender identity may account for residual heterogeneity in our models. Public health implications. Under- or nonrepresentation of transgender individuals in population surveys is a barrier to understanding social determinants and health disparities faced by this population. We recommend using standardized questions to identify respondents with transgender and nonbinary gender identities, which will allow a more accurate population size estimate

Hematopoietic Chimerism and Transplantation Tolerance: A Role for Regulatory T Cells

The immunosuppressive regimens currently used in transplantation to prevent allograft destruction by the host’s immune system have deleterious side effects and fail to control chronic rejection processes. Induction of donor-specific non-responsiveness (i.e., immunological tolerance) to transplants would solve these problems and would substantially ameliorate patients’ quality of life. It has been proposed that bone marrow or hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, and resulting (mixed) hematopoietic chimerism, lead to immunological tolerance to organs of the same donor. However, a careful analysis of the literature, performed here, clearly establishes that whereas hematopoietic chimerism substantially prolongs allograft survival, it does not systematically prevent chronic rejection. Moreover, the cytotoxic conditioning regimens used to achieve long-term persistence of chimerism are associated with severe side effects that appear incompatible with a routine use in the clinic. Several laboratories recently embarked on different studies to develop alternative strategies to overcome these issues. We discuss here recent advances obtained by combining regulatory T cell infusion with bone-marrow transplantation. In experimental settings, this attractive approach allows development of genuine immunological tolerance to donor tissues using clinically relevant conditioning regimens

Goniotomy for Non-Infectious Uveitic Glaucoma in Children

Secondary glaucoma is still a blinding complication in childhood uveitis, for which most commonly used surgical interventions (trabeculectomy or glaucoma drainage implant) involve multiple re-interventions and/or complications postoperatively. The goniotomy procedure has never been investigated in the current era, in which patients with pediatric uveitis receive biologics as immunosuppressive therapy for a prolonged period, with potential implications for the outcome. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a goniotomy procedure in pediatric non-infectious uveitis in a retrospective, multicenter case series. The primary outcomes were the postoperative intraocular pressure (IOP), number of IOP-lowering medications, and success rate. Postoperative success was defined as 6 ≤ IOP ≤ 21 mmHg, without major complications or re-interventions. Fifteen eyes of ten children were included. Median age of the included patients at goniotomy was 7 years; median follow-up was 59 months. Median (interquartile range) IOP before surgery was 30 (26–34) mmHg with 4 (3–4) IOP-lowering medications. At 1, 2, and 5 years after goniotomy, median IOP was 15, 14, and 15 mmHg with 2 (0–2), 1 (0–2), and 0 (0–2) medications, respectively (p &lt; 0.001 postoperatively versus preoperatively for all timepoints). Success rate was 100%, 93%, and 80% after 1, 2, and 5 years, respectively. There were no significant changes in visual acuity and uveitis activity or its treatment, and there were no major complications. Our results show that the goniotomy is an effective and safe surgery for children with uveitic glaucoma.</p

Hysteresis and bi-stability by an interplay of calcium oscillations and action potential firing

Many cell types exhibit oscillatory activity, such as repetitive action potential firing due to the Hodgkin-Huxley dynamics of ion channels in the cell membrane or reveal intracellular inositol triphosphate (IP$_3$) mediated calcium oscillations (CaOs) by calcium-induced calcium release channels (IP$_3$-receptor) in the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The dynamics of the excitable membrane and that of the IP$_3$-mediated CaOs have been the subject of many studies. However, the interaction between the excitable cell membrane and IP$_3$-mediated CaOs, which are coupled by cytosolic calcium which affects the dynamics of both, has not been studied. This study for the first time applied stability analysis to investigate the dynamic behavior of a model, which includes both an excitable membrane and an intracellular IP$_3$-mediated calcium oscillator. Taking the IP$_3$ concentration as a control parameter, the model exhibits a novel rich spectrum of stable and unstable states with hysteresis. The four stable states of the model correspond in detail to previously reported growth-state dependent states of the membrane potential of normal rat kidney fibroblasts in cell culture. The hysteresis is most pronounced for experimentally observed parameter values of the model, suggesting a functional importance of hysteresis. This study shows that the four growth-dependent cell states may not reflect the behavior of cells that have differentiated into different cell types with different properties, but simply reflect four different states of a single cell type, that is characterized by a single model.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure

Factors Associated With Glaucoma Surgery in Pediatric Non-Infectious Uveitis

Purpose: To identify factors associated with glaucoma surgery in pediatric uveitis. Methods: Patients diagnosed with uveitis before their 18th birthday and with an observation period of at least one year were included in a retrospective case-control study. Results: A total of 185 patients were included, 84 of whom had undergone glaucoma surgery. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)-related uveitis was associated with undergoing glaucoma surgery (p = .002). In the JIA-subgroup, the presence of anterior segment complications (OR 3.1 (95% CI 1.0 to 9.6); P = .045) and an IOP &gt; 21 mmHg during the first uveitis remission (OR 4.5 (95% CI 1.3 to 15.2); P = .015) were associated with an increased risk of glaucoma surgery. Sixty-eight percent of the cases needed glaucoma surgery within one year after they started IOP-lowering triple therapy. Conclusion: The risk profile for undergoing glaucoma surgery as outlined in this study is a valuable help to recognize and treat secondary glaucoma in a timely manner.</p

Extreme ultraviolet-excited time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy using an ultrafast table-top high-harmonic generation source

We present a table-top extreme ultraviolet (XUV) beamline for measuring time- and frequency-resolved XUV excited optical luminescence (XEOL) with additional femtosecond-resolution XUV transient absorption spectroscopy functionality. XUV pulses are generated via high-harmonic generation using a near-infrared pulse in a noble gas medium, and focused to excite luminescence from a solid sample. The luminescence is collimated and guided into a streak camera, where its spectral components are temporally resolved with picosecond temporal resolution. We time-resolve XUV excited luminescence and compare the results to luminescence decays excited at longer wavelengths for three different materials : (i) sodium salicylate, an often used XUV scintillator, (ii) fluorescent labeling molecule 4-carbazole benzoic acid (CB), and (iii) a zirconium metal oxo-cluster labeled with CB, which is a photoresist candidate for extreme-ultraviolet lithography. Our results establish time-resolved XEOL as a new technique to measure transient XUV-driven phenomena in solid-state samples, and identify decay mechanisms of molecules following XUV and soft-X-ray excitation

Use of polyethylene naphthalate as a self-vetoing structural material

The discovery of scintillation in the blue regime from polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), a commonly used high-performance industrial polyester plastic, has sparked considerable interest from the physics community as a new type of plastic scintillator material. This observation in addition to its good mechanical and radiopurity properties makes PEN an attractive candidate as an active structure scintillator for low-background physics experiments. This paper reports on investigations of its potential in terms of production tests of custom made tiles and various scintillation light output measurements. These investigations substantiate the high potential of usage of PEN in low-background experiments

Low serum transferrin levels in HFE C282Y homozygous subjects are associated with low CD8(+) T lymphocyte numbers.

Blood Cells Mol Dis. 2005 Nov-Dec;35(3):319-25. Epub 2005 Sep 1. Low serum transferrin levels in HFE C282Y homozygous subjects are associated with low CD8(+) T lymphocyte numbers. Macedo MF, Cruz E, Lacerda R, Porto G, de Sousa M. SourceDivision of Human Genetics and Genetic Disorders, Iron Genes and the Immune System Laboratory, Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology (IBMC), Oporto, Portugal. Abstract Hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) is a genetic iron overload disease, in the majority of cases associated with homozygosity for the C282Y mutation of the HFE gene. In spite of this genetic homogeneity, there is a great clinical heterogeneity among HH patients. Low CD8(+) lymphocyte numbers have been associated with a more severe expression of iron overload in HH patients, and in experimental models of iron overload. HH patients present low serum transferrin levels. Transferrin is an indispensable resource for lymphopoiesis. Lymphocyte homeostasis follows general ecology rules of population dynamics that involve competition for limiting resources. In the present study, we questioned whether transferrin levels could be associated with the anomalies seen previously in lymphocyte subset numbers in HH patients. Transferrin levels, total and subset T lymphocyte counts were done in 426 apparently healthy subjects genotyped for HFE. All HFE C282Y carriers presented significantly lower serum transferrin levels than the wild type group, a difference that could not be explained solely by the degree of iron overload. Significant differences were also seen in transferrin levels between males and females, with females presenting higher average serum Transferrin levels. In the population of subjects with Transferrin levels lower than 248 mg/dl, a positive correlation was seen between the peripheral CD8(+) lymphocyte numbers and serum transferrin levels (R(2) = 2.41; r = 0.16; P = 0.018). To test the possible limiting resource effect of transferrin, the correlation between transferrin levels and CD8(+) lymphocyte numbers was scrutinized in 34 HH patients, homozygous for the C282Y mutation. In the homozygous males, where the lowest average transferrin levels were seen, another highly significant correlation was observed between Transferrin levels and CD8(+) numbers. This correlation points to a possible role of transferrin as a limiting resource for MHC class I dependent lymphocyte proliferation, an effect that was not observed in C282Y homozygous female patients. PMID: 16140024 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE