A Dichotomy of Conflicting Duties

This paper explores the dichotomy of a soldier’s conflicting duties found in contemporary conflicts such as Iraq or Afghanistan. These two conflicting duties, the traditional duty of kill-destroy and the mutually exhaustive duty of help-build, often collide at the tactical level in the complex environment of modern conflicts. When these two duties collide, it holds potential for tragic consequences that go beyond the tactical level where they occur and can have strategic impact

What’s in Wildfire Smoke?: A Toxicologist Explains the Health Risks and Which Masks Can Help

Smoke is turning the sky hazy across a large swath of the country as dozens of large fires burn, and a lot of people are wondering what’s in the air they’re breathing. As an environmental toxicologist, I study the effects of wildfire smoke and how they differ from other sources of air pollution. We know that breathing wildfire smoke can be harmful. Less clear is what the worsening wildfire landscape will mean for public health in the future, but research is raising red flags

What’s in Wildfire Smoke, and Why is It So Bad for Your Lungs?

If I dare to give the coronavirus credit for anything, I would say it has made people more conscious of the air they breathe. A friend texted me recently after going for a jog in the foothills near Boise, Idaho, writing: “My lungs are burning … explain what’s happening!!!” A wildfire was burning to the east of town – one of hundreds of fires that were sending smoke and ash through communities in hot, dry western states. As an environmental toxicologist, I research how air pollution, particularly wood smoke, impacts human health and disease

Wildfire Smoke Worsens Coronavirus Risk, Putting Firefighters in Extra Danger

As summer approaches, two forces of nature are on a collision course, and wildland firefighters will be caught in the middle. New research suggests that the smoke firefighters breathe on the front lines of wildfires is putting them at greater risk from the new coronavirus, with potentially lethal effects. At the same time, firefighting conditions make precautions such as social distancing and hand-washing difficult, increasing the chance that, once the virus enters a fire camp, it could quickly spread. As an environmental toxicologist, I have spent the last decade expanding our understanding of how wood smoke exposure impacts human health. Much of my current research is focused on protecting the long-term health of wildland firefighters and the communities they serve

Neonatal Lead (Pb) Exposure and DNA Methylation Profiles in Dried Bloodspots

Lead (Pb) exposure remains a major concern in the United States (US) and around the world, even following the removal of Pb from gasoline and other products. Environmental Pb exposures from aging infrastructure and housing stock are of particular concern to pregnant women, children, and other vulnerable populations. Exposures during sensitive periods of development are known to influence epigenetic modifications which are thought to be one mechanism of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) paradigm. To gain insights into early life Pb exposure-induced health risks, we leveraged neonatal dried bloodspots in a cohort of children from Michigan, US to examine associations between blood Pb levels and concomitant DNA methylation profiles (n = 96). DNA methylation analysis was conducted via the Infinium MethylationEPIC array and Pb levels were assessed via high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). While at-birth Pb exposure levels were relatively low (average 0.78 µg/dL, maximum of 5.27 ug/dL), we identified associations between DNA methylation and Pb at 33 CpG sites, with the majority (82%) exhibiting reduced methylation with increasing Pb exposure (q \u3c 0.2). Biological pathways related to development and neurological function were enriched amongst top differentially methylated genes by p-value. In addition to increases/decreases in methylation, we also demonstrate that Pb exposure is related to increased variability in DNA methylation at 16 CpG sites. More work is needed to assess the accuracy and precision of metals assessment using bloodspots, but this study highlights the utility of this unique resource to enhance environmental epigenetics research around the world

Resilience Planning Highlights

Gray Montrose with the Virginia Coastal Policy Center at the College of William & Mary presents on \u27Resilience Planning Highlights.\u27 This presentation was part of a RAFT (Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool) community workshop on Building Resiliency into Comprehensive Planning hosted on April 23, 2021

Is Adiposity Related to Repeat Measures of Blood Leukocyte DNA Methylation Across Childhood and Adolescence?

Epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation may influence gene expression and phenotypes, including obesity in childhood. The directionality of this relationship is nevertheless unclear, and some evidence suggests that adiposity modifies the epigenome, rather than the other way around. In this pilot study, we utilize data from the Early Life Exposures in Mexico to Environmental Toxicants (ELEMENT) study to examine whether measures of adiposity in childhood and early adolescence are associated with repeated measures of blood leukocyte DNA methylation at LINE-1 repetitive elements and two genes implicated in growth and adiposity: H19 and HSD11B2. Longitudinal epigenetic data were generated from cord blood and blood from follow-up visits in early and late adolescence. We assessed interactions between age and measures of body mass index (BMI) at 5 years of age and weight, BMI and waist circumference in early adolescence to infer whether adiposity deflects age-related DNA methylation changes throughout childhood. Applying linear mixed-effects models, we found an inverse association between measures of childhood BMI (kg/m2) and early-teen weight (kg) with repeat measures of H19 DNA methylation. We did not observe any statistically significant associations (p-value \u3c .05) between any anthropometric measures and DNA methylation at LINE-1 or HSD11B2. We did not demonstrate statistically significant evidence in support of deflection of age-related DNA methylation trajectories by adiposity-related measures (age by adiposity interaction term). Given the pilot nature of this study, the relationships between repeat measures of DNA methylation and adiposity-measures across childhood merit further exploration in larger study populations

Christian Missions and Islam: The Reformed Church in America and the Origins of the Moslem World

This thesis examines the historical background of missionary attitudes toward Islam within the framework of the mission emphasis of the Reformed Church in America between the 1880s and 1911. It argues that the historical experience of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands produced a sense of pride and destiny that was transplanted by Dutch emigration to North America and maintained in the relationships of the Reformed Church in America with other nationalities and missions. That sense of pride ad destiny prepared the church to stand on its convictions in the face of opposition, which it drew upon itself when it began mission work among Muslims previously neglected by the modern missionary movement. Finally, this thesis shows that Dutch American missionaries sought to change western perceptions of Islam by creating an awareness of the advance of Islam that may pose a threat to Christianity