The Suffolk County Sheriff\u27s Department: Correctional Education Program

This article describes the Sheriff\u27s Department correctional education programs at the Suffolk County House of Correction and Jail. It points out the tremendous need for educational services given that more than 60 percent of those incarcerated in these institutions are high school drop-outs, and a much higher percentage are functionally illiterate. Because 95 percent of those incarcerated at this facility will return to their communities within three years, educating prisoners serves as a constructive and cost-effective means of preventing recidivism and an effective investment in public safety. The authors also discusses the new Mandatory Literacy Law, which essentially links literacy with parole and other institutional privileges. Finally, the article suggests that the success of these tightly controlled and highly structured programs may provide important lessons for those charged with repairing the broken down Boston public school system

Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about HIV infection and AIDS among healthy factory workers and their wives, Kinshasa, Zaire

As a first step in designing an AIDS prevention program at a large factory in Kinshasa, Zaire, we collected information on attitudes towards human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) from factory foremen and their wives. Trained moderators conducted twelve focus group discussions (from November through December 1987) that addressed knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about HIV infection and AIDS. In general, participants were familiar with HIV infection and AIDS and considered these conditions leading health problems in Kinshasa. Although participants had a fairly accurate understanding of the causes of HIV infection, modes of transmission and preventive measures, many myths and misconceptions existed. Many participants did not believe that condom use would consistently prevent infection through sexual intercourse. Participants strongly favored the counseling of seropositive persons but showed less consensus about whether the spouse of a seropositive person should be notified of the partner's test result. Participants predicted that couples in which one member is seropositive and the other is not would experience marital discord and friction with family, neighbors and co-workers. These findings were applied to the development of a counseling and educational program for seropositive factory employees and their spouses.AIDS health education counseling focus group research

Serologic Reactivity Reflects Clinical Expression of Ulcerative Colitis in Children.

Background:In contrast to pediatric Crohn's disease (CD), little is known in pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) about the relationship between disease phenotype and serologic reactivity to microbial and other antigens. Aim:The aim of this study was to examine disease phenotype and serology in a well-characterized inception cohort of children newly diagnosed with UC during the PROTECT Study (Predicting Response to Standardized Pediatric Colitis Therapy). Methods:Patients were recruited from 29 participating centers. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and serologic (pANCA, ASCA IgA/IgG, Anti-CBir1, and Anti-OmpC) data were obtained from children 4-17 years old with UC. Results:Sixty-five percent of the patients had positive serology for pANCA, with 62% less than 12 years old and 66% 12 years old or older. Perinuclear anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies did not correspond to a specific phenotype though pANCA ≥100, found in 19%, was strongly associated with pancolitis (P = 0.003). Anti-CBir1 was positive in 19% and more common in younger children with 32% less than 12 years old as compared with 14% 12 years old or older (P < 0.001). No association was found in any age group between pANCA and Anti-CBir1. Relative rectal sparing was more common in +CBir1, 16% versus 7% (P = 0.02). Calprotectin was lower in Anti-CBir1+ (Median [IQR] 1495 mcg/g [973-3333] vs 2648 mcg/g [1343-4038]; P = 0.04). Vitamin D 25-OH sufficiency was associated with Anti-CBir1+ (P = 0.0009). Conclusions:The frequency of pANCA in children was consistent with adult observations. High titer pANCA was associated with more extensive disease, supporting the idea that the magnitude of immune reactivity may reflect disease severity. Anti-CBir1+ was more common in younger ages, suggesting host-microbial interactions may differ by patient age

Phosphoprotein patterns predict trametinib responsiveness and optimal trametinib sensitisation strategies in melanoma.

Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive form of skin cancer responsible for the majority of skin cancer-related deaths. Recent insight into the heterogeneous nature of melanoma suggests more personalised treatments may be necessary to overcome drug resistance and improve patient care. To this end, reliable molecular signatures that can accurately predict treatment responsiveness need to be identified. In this study, we applied multiplex phosphoproteomic profiling across a panel of 24 melanoma cell lines with different disease-relevant mutations, to predict responsiveness to MEK inhibitor trametinib. Supported by multivariate statistical analysis and multidimensional pattern recognition algorithms, the responsiveness of individual cell lines to trametinib could be predicted with high accuracy (83% correct predictions), independent of mutation status. We also successfully employed this approach to case specifically predict whether individual melanoma cell lines could be sensitised to trametinib. Our predictions identified that combining MEK inhibition with selective targeting of c-JUN and/or FAK, using siRNA-based depletion or pharmacological inhibitors, sensitised resistant cell lines and significantly enhanced treatment efficacy. Our study indicates that multiplex proteomic analyses coupled with pattern recognition approaches could assist in personalising trametinib-based treatment decisions in the future

Bayesian estimation of marker dosage in sugarcane and other autopolyploids

In sugarcane or other autopolyploids, after generating the data, the first step in constructing molecular marker maps is to determine marker dosage. Improved methods for correctly allocating marker dosage will result in more accurate maps and increased efficiency of QTL linkage detection. When employing dominant markers like AFLPs, single-dose markers represent alleles present as one copy in one parent and null in the other parent, double-dose markers are those present as two copies in one parent and null in the other parent and so on. Observed segregation ratios in the offspring are employed to infer marker dosage in the parent from which the marker was inherited. Commonly, for each marker, a chi (2) test is used to assign dosage. Such an approach does not address important practical considerations such as multiple testing and departures from theoretical assumptions. In particular, extra-binomial variation or overdispersion has been observed in sugarcane studies and standard methods may result in fewer correct dosage allocations than the data warrant. To address these shortcomings, a Bayesian mixture model is proposed where all markers are considered simultaneously. Since analytic solutions are not available, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are employed. Marker dosage allocation for each individual marker employs the estimated posterior probability of each dosage. For a sugarcane study these methods resulted in more markers being allocated a dosage than by standard approaches. Simulation studies demonstrated that, in general, not only are more markers classified but that more markers are also correctly classified, particularly if overdispersion is present