Health implications of an immigration raid: findings from a Latino community in the midwestern United States.

Immigration raids exemplify the reach of immigration law enforcement into the lives of Latino community members, yet little research characterizes the health effects of these raids. We examined the health implications of an immigration raid that resulted in multiple arrests and deportations and occurred midway through a community survey of a Latino population. We used linear regression following principal axis factoring to examine the influence of raid timing on immigration enforcement stress and self-rated health. We controlled for age, sex, relationship status, years in the county in which the raid occurred, children in the home, and nativity. 325 participants completed the survey before the raid and 151 after. Completing the survey after the raid was associated with higher levels of immigration enforcement stress and lower self-rated health scores. Findings indicate the negative impact of immigration raids on Latino communities. Immigration discussions should include holistic assessments of health.UL1 TR000433 - NCATS NIH HH

Constructing ordinary places: Place-making in urban informal settlements in Mexico

Observers from a variety of disciplines agree that informal settlements account for the majority of housing in many cities of the global South. Urban informal settlements, usually defined by certain criteria such as self-build housing, sub-standard services, and residents’ low incomes, are often seen as problematic, due to associations with poverty, irregularity and marginalisation. In particular, despite years of research and policy, gaps in urban theory and limited understandings of urban informal settlements mean that they are often treated as outside ‘normal’ urban considerations, with material effects for residents including discrimination, eviction and displacement. In response to these considerations, this article uses a place-making approach to explore the spatial, social and cultural construction of place in this context, in order to unsettle some of the assumptions underlying discursive constructions of informal settlements, and how these relate to spatial and social marginalisation. Research was carried out using a qualitative, ethnographic methodology in two case study neighbourhoods in Xalapa, Mexico. Mexico offers fertile ground to explore these issues. Despite an extensive land tenure regularisation programme, at least 60 per cent of urban dwellers live in colonias populares, neighbourhoods with informal characteristics. The research found that local discourses reveal complex and ambivalent views of colonias populares, which both reproduce and undermine marginalising tendencies relating to ‘informality’. A focus on residents’ own place-making activities hints at prospects for rethinking urban informal settlements. By capturing the messy, dynamic and contextualised processes that construct urban informal settlements as places, the analytical lens of place-making offers a view of the multiple influences which frame them. Informed by perspectives from critical social geography which seek to capture the ‘ordinary’ nature of cities, this article suggests imagining urban informal settlements differently, in order to re-evaluate their potential contribution to the city as a whole

The discovery of I-BRD9, a selective cell active chemical probe for bromodomain containing protein 9 inhibition

Acetylation of histone lysine residues is one of the most well-studied post-translational modifications of chromatin, selectively recognized by bromodomain “reader” modules. Inhibitors of the bromodomain and extra terminal domain (BET) family of bromodomains have shown profound anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties, generating much interest in targeting other bromodomain-containing proteins for disease treatment. Herein, we report the discovery of I-BRD9, the first selective cellular chemical probe for bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9). I-BRD9 was identified through structure-based design, leading to greater than 700-fold selectivity over the BET family and 200-fold over the highly homologous bromodomain-containing protein 7 (BRD7). I-BRD9 was used to identify genes regulated by BRD9 in Kasumi-1 cells involved in oncology and immune response pathways and to the best of our knowledge, represents the first selective tool compound available to elucidate the cellular phenotype of BRD9 bromodomain inhibition

Environmental Performance of Local Versus Conventional Food Systems with a Focus on Fresh Vegetables Sold in the City of Lincoln

This study examines the early stages to collect data on energy expenditure of fresh vegetables sold at Lincoln farmer’s markets in comparison to those sold at conventional grocery stores via lifecycle analysis. Results from the life cycle analysis would determine what the energy costs are for both local food markets and grocery retailers and how these energy costs may differ. This research is important as previous work has shown that the US food system is a significant contributor to fossil fuel combustion, accounting for about 15% of total energy use in the country. The ability to determine which market is more environmentally sustainable will ultimately allow consumers to make educated purchasing decisions and influence producers to use energy more efficiently and, according to USDA, local foods can play a major part. The life cycle analysis is examining the variables that require energy for five vegetables from the farmer to the home. These variables include the inputs, production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of the vegetables. Our current focus is primarily on the distribution and consumption of these five vegetables. The process of collecting quantitative data for these variables is being done through two surveys: 1) conduct a census of producers at farmer’s markets to collect data about vegetable costs and transportation methods, and 2) conduct an exit poll of consumers at the farmer’s market to collect data about energy expenditure from transportation to market and home. From our data we are analyzing the total energy expenditure from each of the separate markets to relate the environmental impacts each of the food systems has on fossil fuel emissions

'I'm going to look for you and take your kids': Reproductive justice in the context of immigration enforcement.

Prior research has shown that immigration law enforcement contributes to poor health outcomes-including reproductive health outcomes-among Latinos. Yet no prior research has examined how immigration enforcement might inhibit reproductive justice and limit individual's reproductive autonomy. We utilized data from an existing study that consisted of a partnership with a Latino community in Michigan in which an immigration raid resulted in multiple arrests and deportations midway through data collection. Using cross-sectional survey data (n = 192) where no one was re-interviewed, we used ordinal logistic regression to compare desired pregnancy timing of individuals surveyed prior to and after the raid to determine the impact of an immigration raid on desired timing of next pregnancy. We then used qualitative data-including 21 in-depth interviews and participant observation-collected in the community after the raid to contextualize our findings. Controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, we found that Latinos surveyed in the aftermath of the raid were more likely to report a greater desire to delay childbearing than Latinos surveyed before the raid occurred. Our qualitative data showed that an immigration raid has financial and psychological effects on immigrant families and that a raid may impact reproductive autonomy because people are fearful of these impacts. These finding suggest that current immigration enforcement efforts may influence reproductive decision-making, impede Latinos reproductive autonomy, and that family-friendly immigration policy reform is needed