Corporate Social Responsibility: Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Costa Rican Hotel Tourist Industry

According to the 2016 International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 168 million children are forced to labor worldwide, and more than half of these children work in some of the worst forms. Sexual exploitation and human trafficking are classified by the ILO as being some of the worst forms of child labor existing in the twenty-first century. Child labor in the worst forms are more prevalent in developing countries due to poverty and lack of education. The United States Department of State monitors human trafficking and child sexual exploitation through an annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). The 2015 TIP report verified that Costa Rica has been downgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List. If by 2016 the TIP report recommendations are not implemented for the prevention of human trafficking and child labor, the country will fall to a Tier 3 List and face possible sanctions from the US and the World Bank. Since the government has failed to implement necessary reforms, Costa Rica is in a dilemma. The tourist industry is a prime source of income for the country while at the same time the hotel industry is a prime source of where child sexual exploitation occurs (Hetter, 2012). Thus, there was a need for research to discover what is the hotel industry’s corporate social responsibility towards the children who are sexually exploited in the Costa Rican hotels

Enhancer control of MicroRNA miR-155 expression in EpsteinBarr virus-infected B cells

The oncogenic microRNA miR-155 is the most frequently upregulated miRNA in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive B cell malignancies and is upregulated in other non-viral lymphomas. Both the EBV nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2), and B cell transcription factor, interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) are known to activate transcription of the host cell gene from which miR-155 is processed (miR-155HG, BIC). EBNA2 also activates IRF4 transcription indicating that EBV may upregulate miR-155 through direct and indirect mechanisms. The mechanism of transcriptional regulation of IRF4 and miR-155HG by EBNA2 however has not been defined. We demonstrate that EBNA2 can activate IRF4 and miR-155HG expression through specific upstream enhancers that are dependent on the Notch signaling transcription factor RBPJ, a known binding partner of EBNA2. We demonstrate that in addition to activation of the miR-155HG promoter, IRF4 can also activate miR-155HG via the upstream enhancer also targeted by EBNA2. Gene editing to remove the EBNA2- and IRF4-responsive miR-155HG enhancer located 60 kb upstream of miR-155HG led to reduced miR155HG expression in EBV-infected cells. Our data therefore demonstrate that specific RBPJ-dependent enhancers regulate the IRF4-miR-155 expression network and play a key role in the maintenance of miR-155 expression in EBV-infected B cells. These findings provide important insights that will improve our understanding of miR-155 control in B cell malignancies

The cost of reducing starting RNA quantity for Illumina BeadArrays: a bead-level dilution experiment.

BACKGROUND: The demands of microarray expression technologies for quantities of RNA place a limit on the questions they can address. As a consequence, the RNA requirements have reduced over time as technologies have improved. In this paper we investigate the costs of reducing the starting quantity of RNA for the Illumina BeadArray platform. This we do via a dilution data set generated from two reference RNA sources that have become the standard for investigations into microarray and sequencing technologies. RESULTS: We find that the starting quantity of RNA has an effect on observed intensities despite the fact that the quantity of cRNA being hybridized remains constant. We see a loss of sensitivity when using lower quantities of RNA, but no great rise in the false positive rate. Even with 10 ng of starting RNA, the positive results are reliable although many differentially expressed genes are missed. We see that there is some scope for combining data from samples that have contributed differing quantities of RNA, but note also that sample sizes should increase to compensate for the loss of signal-to-noise when using low quantities of starting RNA. CONCLUSIONS: The BeadArray platform maintains a low false discovery rate even when small amounts of starting RNA are used. In contrast, the sensitivity of the platform drops off noticeably over the same range. Thus, those conducting experiments should not opt for low quantities of starting RNA without consideration of the costs of doing so. The implications for experimental design, and the integration of data from different starting quantities, are complex.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

A Resident Retreat with Emergency Medicine Specific Mindfulness Training Significantly Reduces Burnout and Perceived Stress

Introduction: We hypothesize that a resident retreat with mindfulness training tailored for Emergency Medicine (EM) physicians can significantly reduce levels of burnout and perceived stress in EM residents. Methods: We conducted an intervention study of 60 EM residents undergoing an annual resident retreat with a 2.5-hour mindfulness training. The retreat was a department-funded 2-day off-site experience with a wellness theme. The training was developed and delivered by an EM physician (JO\u27S) who is a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher trainee, and a certified MBSR teacher (MD). The training focused on techniques that can be used on shift, such as mindful breathing, handwashing, eating/drinking, walking, and anchoring before resuscitations. The cohort contained an equal distribution of 1st, 2nd and 3rd year residents who received a financial incentive. The subjects completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Perceived Stress Scale and Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale at three time points: Time 1 - one month prior, Time 2 – one week post, Time 3 – one month post. Results: The subjects were 60 EM residents (54% Male, 46% Female) with an average age of 29. Completion rates at the three time points were 70% (n = 42), 60% (n = 36) and 50% (n = 30) respectively. We found that Perceived Stress (ω2 = 0.15, p \u3c 0.01) and Emotional Exhaustion (ω2 = 0.21, p \u3c 0.01) decreased significantly over time in a linear progression across the three sampling periods. Though mindfulness as a trait did not change significantly during the study period, in the month after the retreat, 64% of resident respondents at Time 3 (n = 32) reported using the mindfulness techniques learned from the training at least 2 or 3 times a week on shift and 52% (n = 31) reported using them at least 2 or 3 times a week at home. Conclusions: An EM resident retreat that included an EM specific mindfulness training significantly reduced perceived stress and emotional exhaustion. The learned mindfulness skills were readily adopted for use on shift. Further studies should investigate effectiveness of mindfulness training outside of the retreat format. Other wellness / academic activities that occur within the socially supportive milieu of a retreat could lead to the same significant reduction in burnout and perceived stress seen in the current study

Oligomerization of EDEN-BP is required for specific mRNA deadenylation and binding.

International audienceBACKGROUND INFORMATION: mRNA deadenylation [shortening of the poly(A) tail] is often triggered by specific sequence elements present within mRNA 3' untranslated regions and generally causes rapid degradation of the mRNA. In vertebrates, many of these deadenylation elements are called AREs (AU-rich elements). The EDEN (embryo deadenylation element) sequence is a Xenopus class III ARE. EDEN acts by binding a specific factor, EDEN-BP (EDEN-binding protein), which in turn stimulates deadenylation. RESULTS: We show here that EDEN-BP is able to oligomerize. A 27-amino-acid region of EDEN-BP was identified as a key domain for oligomerization. A mutant of EDEN-BP lacking this region was unable to oligomerize, and a peptide corresponding to this region competitively inhibited the oligomerization of full-length EDEN-BP. Impairing oligomerization by either of these two methods specifically abolished EDEN-dependent deadenylation. Furthermore, impairing oligomerization inhibited the binding of EDEN-BP to its target RNA, demonstrating a strong coupling between EDEN-BP oligomerization and RNA binding. CONCLUSIONS: These data, showing that the oligomerization of EDEN-BP is required for binding of the protein on its target RNA and for EDEN-dependent deadenylation in Xenopus embryos, will be important for the identification of cofactors required for the deadenylation process

BACK TO THE FUTURE: FACILITATING ASSESSMENT DESIGN, COLLABORATION, AND OUTCOMES ALIGNMENT WITH AN ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK

Aligning assessment questions to content and process variables is a collaborative activity. Robust practice requires participants to first make an individual judgement about the alignment, and then share their judgements and adjust them to work towards building consensus. In this workshop, attendees will participate in an interactive activity using the Australian Council for Educational Research's Swift platform to judge exam questions against the content and process variables of an assessment framework and then build consensus as a group. This will inform academics how they can use the framework in their own practice and within their own institution. People from any disciplinary background are welcome to join us. We will be using life science example questions, but it will only be necessary to understand the intent of the question, not be able to answer it

Social Effectiveness of Tertiary Education for Adults in Mid-life

No abstract available

Exploring HIV concern in a population of Dominican American women midlife and older

Background The feminization and ethnic diversification of HIV infection, has resulted in a call for gender- and culture-specific prevention strategies for at-risk groups including Latinos in the United States. The steadily changing demographic profile of the AIDS epidemic challenges prevention strategies to remain relevant and up-to-date, particularly in populations of women midlife and older where an understanding of risk remains under explored. As the CDC requests country-specific HIV risk profiles for Latino communities in the US, understanding the socio-economic, behavioral and personal risk reasons of HIV risk for older Dominican women is critical for prevention. Methods We conducted focus group discussions informed by the Theory of Gender and Power (TGP). The three constructs of the TGP: 1) Affective influences/social norms; 2) Gender-specific norms and. 3) Power and Authority guided the thematic analysis and identified themes that described the socio-cultural and contextual reasons that that contribute to perceptions of HIV risk. Results Sixty Dominican American women ages 57–73 participated in our focus group discussions. Sexual Division of Labour: 1) Economic Dependence; 2) Financial Need and 3) Education and Empowerment. Sexual Division of Power: 4) HIV Risk and 5) Relationship Dynamics. Cathexis: Affective Influences/Social Norms: 6) HIV/AIDS Knowledge and 7) Prevention and Testing. Importantly, participants were concerned about partner fidelity when visiting the Dominican Republic, as the country accounts for the second highest HIV rates in the Caribbean. Conclusions Our results confirm previous findings about perceptions of HIV risk and provide additional insight into aging-related aspects of HIV risk for Latino women midlife and older

Annotating the human genome with Disease Ontology

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The human genome has been extensively annotated with Gene Ontology for biological functions, but minimally computationally annotated for diseases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) MetaMap Transfer tool (MMTx) to discover gene-disease relationships from the GeneRIF database. We utilized a comprehensive subset of UMLS, which is disease-focused and structured as a directed acyclic graph (the Disease Ontology), to filter and interpret results from MMTx. The results were validated against the Homayouni gene collection using recall and precision measurements. We compared our results with the widely used Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) annotations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The validation data set suggests a 91% recall rate and 97% precision rate of disease annotation using GeneRIF, in contrast with a 22% recall and 98% precision using OMIM. Our thesaurus-based approach allows for comparisons to be made between disease containing databases and allows for increased accuracy in disease identification through synonym matching. The much higher recall rate of our approach demonstrates that annotating human genome with Disease Ontology and GeneRIF for diseases dramatically increases the coverage of the disease annotation of human genome.</p