Changes to Rural Migration in the COVID-19 Pandemic☆

Media stories highlighted accounts of migration away from city centers towards more rural destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic, but systematic research about how the pandemic changed migration in more rural destinations is only starting to emerge. This paper relies on U.S. Postal Service change-of-address data to describe whether and how established domestic migration systems changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on differences across the rural–urban gradient and by outdoor recreation resources. We find little evidence of massive urban exodus. We do find that out-migration from rural counties declined post-pandemic onset and has stayed low in the 3 years since, stemming the tide of net population loss in many rural places. Most rural counties that experienced net population loss prior to the pandemic saw either less net loss or net gains during the pandemic. Rural recreation counties experienced greater gains through both decreased out-migration and increased in-migration in the first year of the pandemic; but by year three, differences between rural recreation and non-recreation counties had balanced. Overall, counties across Rural America saw notable change to pre-pandemic migration patterns. This shift may benefit rural areas through long-term population stability and/or growth but might also exacerbate housing and childcare shortages

Intimate partner violence among African American and African Caribbean women: prevalence, risk factors, and the influence of cultural attitudes.

BackgroundWomen of African descent are disproportionately affected by intimate partner abuse; yet, limited data exist on whether the prevalence varies for women of African descent in the United States and those in the US territories.ObjectiveIn this multisite study, we estimated lifetime and 2-year prevalence of physical, sexual, and psychological intimate partner abuse (IPA) among 1,545 women of African descent in the United States and US Virgin Islands (USVI). We also examined how cultural tolerance of physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) influences abuse.DesignBetween 2009 and 2011, we recruited African American and African Caribbean women aged 18-55 from health clinics in Baltimore, MD, and St. Thomas and St. Croix, USVI, into a comparative case-control study. Screened and enrolled women completed an audio computer-assisted self-interview. Screening-based prevalence of IPA and IPV were stratified by study site and associations between tolerance of IPV and abuse experiences were examined by multivariate logistic regression analysis.ResultsMost of the 1,545 screened women were young, of low-income, and in a current intimate relationship. Lifetime prevalence of IPA was 45% in St. Thomas, 38% in St. Croix, and 37% in Baltimore. Lifetime prevalence of IPV was 38% in St. Thomas, 28% in St. Croix, and 30% in Baltimore. Past 2-year prevalence of IPV was 32% in St. Thomas, 22% in St. Croix, and 26% in Baltimore. Risk and protective factors for IPV varied by site. Community and personal acceptance of IPV were independently associated with lifetime IPA in Baltimore and St. Thomas.ConclusionsVariance across sites for risk and protective factors emphasizes cultural considerations in sub-populations of women of African descent when addressing IPA and IPV in given settings. Individual-based interventions should be coupled with community/societal interventions to shape attitudes about use of violence in relationships and to promote healthy relationships

Conference Scheduling Undermines Diversity Efforts

We assessed diversity-focused programming at 29 major biology conferences from 2010 to 2019, noting events tailored to three underrepresented and marginalized groups in biology: women, ethnic and racial minority groups, and the LGBTQ+ community (see Supplementary Information for further methods). Since 2010, diversity-focused events have become more common but frequently address only a subset of URG communities. In general, the percentage of conferences with diversity-focused events increased from 75% in 2019. On average, women were the most frequent focus of these events and the LGBTQ+ community was the least frequent focus (Fig. 1a)

Who are We? Highlighting Nuances in Asian American Experiences in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

As ecologists and evolutionary biologists, it is important to recognize that issues surrounding AAPI do not exist in a vacuum and that these issues affect some of our students and colleagues in and outside of the classroom and lab. Recently, anti-Asian racism has been brought to the forefront of US society. Though media attention has primarily focused on how COVID-19 fears motivated both violent and nonviolent racist incidents against East Asians in 2020 (e.g., Chinese and Taiwanese Americans) (Tessler et al. 2020), attacks on other AAPI groups, such as South and Southeast Asians (e.g., Filipino, Pakistani, and Vietnamese Americans) (Truong 2020, Kuo and Bui 2021), have continued to occur. Thus, there is a need to both discuss and address how issues of racism toward the AAPI community manifest in our own academic communities

The Alpha Linolenic Acid Content of Flaxseed is Associated with an Induction of Adipose Leptin Expression

Dietary flaxseed has cardioprotective effects that may be achieved through its rich content of the omega-3 fatty acid, alpha linolenic acid (ALA). Because ALA can be stored in adipose tissue, it is possible that some of its beneficial actions may be due to effects it has on the adipose tissue. We investigated the effects of dietary flaxseed both with and without an atherogenic cholesterol-enriched diet to determine the effects of dietary flaxseed on the expression of the adipose cytokines leptin and adiponectin. Rabbits were fed one of four diets: a regular (RG) diet, or a regular diet with added 0.5% cholesterol (CH), or 10% ground flaxseed (FX), or both (CF) for 8 weeks. Levels of leptin and adiponectin expression were assessed by RT-PCR in visceral adipose tissue. Consumption of flaxseed significantly increased plasma and adipose levels of ALA. Leptin protein and mRNA expression were lower in CH animals and were elevated in CF animals. Changes in leptin expression were strongly and positively correlated with adipose ALA levels and inversely correlated with levels of en face atherosclerosis. Adiponectin expression was not significantly affected by any of the dietary interventions. Our data demonstrate that the type of fat in the diet as well as its caloric content can specifically influence leptin expression. The findings support the hypothesis that the beneficial cardiovascular effects associated with flaxseed consumption may be related to a change in leptin expression

Pre-existing Toxoplasma gondii infection increases susceptibility to pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures independent of traumatic brain injury in mice

IntroductionPost-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a debilitating chronic outcome of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and neuroinflammation is implicated in increased seizure susceptibility and epileptogenesis. However, how common clinical factors, such as infection, may modify neuroinflammation and PTE development has been understudied. The neurotropic parasite, Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) incurably infects one-third of the world’s population. Thus, many TBI patients have a pre-existing T. gondii infection at the time of injury. T. gondii infection results in chronic low-grade inflammation and altered signaling pathways within the brain, and preliminary clinical evidence suggest that it may be a risk factor for epilepsy. Despite this, no studies have considered how a pre-existing T. gondii infection may alter the development of PTE.MethodsThis study aimed to provide insight into this knowledge gap by assessing how a pre-existing T. gondii infection alters susceptibility to, and severity of, pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizures (i.e., a surrogate marker of epileptogenesis/PTE) at a chronic stage of TBI recovery. We hypothesized that T. gondii will increase the likelihood and severity of seizures following PTZ administration, and that this would occur in the presence of intensified neuroinflammation. To test this, 6-week old male and female C57BL/6 Jax mice were intraperitoneally injected with 50,000 T. gondii tachyzoites or with the PBS vehicle only. At 12-weeks old, mice either received a severe TBI via controlled cortical impact or sham injury. At 18-weeks post-injury, mice were administered 40 mg/kg PTZ and video-recorded for evaluation of seizure susceptibility. Fresh cortical tissue was then collected for gene expression analyses.ResultsAlthough no synergistic effects were evident between infection and TBI, chronic T. gondii infection alone had robust effects on the PTZ-seizure response and gene expression of markers related to inflammatory, oxidative stress, and glutamatergic pathways. In addition to this, females were more susceptible to PTZ-induced seizures than males. While TBI did not impact PTZ responses, injury effects were evident at the molecular level.DiscussionOur data suggests that a pre-existing T. gondii infection is an important modifier of seizure susceptibility independent of brain injury, and considerable attention should be directed toward delineating the mechanisms underlying this pro-epileptogenic factor