Defining CCL20’s Role in Carcinogenesis

It has become widely accepted that chronic inflammation is correlated with cancer. An important aspect in this relationship is the microenvironment established by inflammation and characterized by the production of small molecules known as cytokines and chemokines. One such chemokine, CCLZO, is a Th17 specific chemokine essential for Th17 activation. Although the contribution of Th1 and Th2 in carcinogenesis have been well established, Th17\u27s role in cancer development has yet to be identified. In this study, we provide first experimental evidence regarding the functional role of CCL20 in turmorigenesis that can shed light onto Th17\u27s function in cancer. We generated a tumor cell line with an inducible expression of CCLZO. An in vivo tumorigenesis study was carried out with the CCLZO inducible cell line and we found that when CCLZO was over expressed, it lead to a general trend of increased tumor size. It was also discovered that CCL20 expression is present throughout cancer development, but is most consistently expressed at the beginning stages of progression. CCL20 expression could produce a microenvironment that is favorable for tumor growth and Th17\u27s may function to support cancer progression

Soft-gluon Resummation for High-pT Inclusive-Hadron Production at COMPASS

We study the cross section for the photoproduction reaction gamma N -> h X in fixed-target scattering at COMPASS, where the hadron h is produced at large transverse momentum. We investigate the role played by higher-order QCD corrections to the cross section. In particular we address large logarithmic "threshold" corrections to the rapidity dependent partonic cross sections, which we resum to all orders at next-to-leading accuracy. In our comparison to the experimental data we find that the threshold contributions are large and improve the agreement between data and theoretical predictions significantly.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, journal versio

COVID-19 Impact on Nebraska Businesses: Nebraska Business Response Survey Report Round 2

The State of Nebraska, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, the University of Nebraska and several local project partners came together to develop and share the Nebraska Business Response Survey, Rounds one and two, to understand the impact coronavirus (COVID-19) is having on the revenue and workforce of organizations across the state and find the best ways to support our business and nonprofit community during this crisis. The first round of the survey launched Wednesday, April 15, 2020, at 2 P.M. and closed Friday, April 24, 2020, at 5 P.M. At the end of the first survey, we asked respondents if they would be willing to participate in future studies on this topic. On June 16 an email invited 2,251 business and nonprofit operators to complete the round two survey. After three reminder emails, the survey closed on June 28, 2020. We received 905 responses to the second round of the survey. When reviewing the results of the survey be aware of the caveats. First, the survey results can only represent the views of those that responded during the time the survey was open. We recognize that the current global pandemic is rapidly evolving and thus viewpoints may evolve as well. Second, not all respondents answered all questions. Thus, the percentages and the number of respondents are given for most data points in the report and do vary across questions. Finally, in some places results may not add up to 100% due to rounding

RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM IN NEBRASKA

What are racial and ethnic disparities (RED)? RED refers to racial and ethnic differences in contacts and experiences with the criminal and juvenile justice systems.1,2 Measuring the extent to which RED exist in the justice system is a first step toward identifying the ways to improve upon how well the system upholds the principle of equal treatment under the law.3 Prior research shows that RED are prevalent across multiple points of contact with the juvenile justice system in Nebraska.1,3 There is also a large body of evidence demonstrating RED in the adult criminal justice system nationwide.4 The purpose of this brief is to describe what the data show regarding racial disparities in the state of Nebraska and what is yet to be understood. Are there racial disparities in arrests in Nebraska? Relative to the racial makeup of the state population, there is significant disparity in the racial composition of the arrests in each year from 2014 to 2019.5,6 Inequity for African Americans is the largest contributor to the overall disparity. As shown in Figure 1, from 2014 to 2019, African Americans made up approximately 5% of the state population but accounted for 17.45–20.82% of arrests. American Indians/Alaskan Natives were also overrepresented in arrests (3.23–3.59%) relative to their portion the population (approximately 1%). Whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders are underrepresented in all six years

COVID-19 Impact on Nebraska Businesses: Nebraska Business Response Survey Report Round 1

The State of Nebraska, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, the University of Nebraska and several local project partners came together to develop and share the Nebraska Business Response Survey to understand the impact coronavirus (COVID-19) is having on the revenue and workforce of organizations across the state and find the best ways to support our business and nonprofit community during this crisis. The survey launched Wednesday, April 15, 2020, at 2 P.M. and closed Friday, April 24, 2020, at 5 P.M. The survey was only made available online and in English and Spanish. The survey was translated into Spanish by Lissette Aliaga-Linares, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The survey was distributed by email invitation from survey partners to their organization’s associates and publicly announced at a press conference by Pete Ricketts, Governor of the State of Nebraska. After the first 100 responses were received, a real-time, publicly available summary of each question response was made available at cpar.unomaha.edu\nebusinessresults. The summary report can still be accessed at that website. A series of reports using the survey data will be made available throughout May of 2020. This report provides an executive summary for the survey and analysis of quantitative survey questions by industry and by regions in Nebraska. The regions are based on zip codes in community college districts. An additional region was created in the area of the City of Lincoln due to the high number of responses. First, the survey results can only represent the views of those that responded during the 10 days that the survey was open. We recognize that the current global pandemic is rapidly evolving and thus viewpoints may evolve as well. Second, not all respondents answered all questions. Thus, the percentages and the number of respondents are given for most data points in the report and do vary across questions. Finally, in some places results may not add up to 100% due to rounding

Apremilast, a novel PDE4 inhibitor, inhibits spontaneous production of tumour necrosis factor-alpha from human rheumatoid synovial cells and ameliorates experimental arthritis

Introduction: Type 4 phosphodiesterases (PDE4) play an important role in immune cells through the hydrolysis of the second messenger, cAMP. Inhibition of PDE4 has previously been shown to suppress immune and inflammatory responses, demonstrating PDE4 to be a valid therapeutic target for immune-mediated pathologies. We assessed the anti-inflammatory effects of a novel PDE4 inhibitor, apremilast, in human synovial cells from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, as well as two murine models of arthritis

Interleukin-23 receptor expressing γδ T cells locally promote early atherosclerotic lesion formation and plaque necrosis in mice

Aims Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the vessel wall controlled by local and systemic immune responses. The role of interleukin-23 receptor (IL-23R), expressed in adaptive immune cells (mainly T-helper 17 cells) and gamma delta T cells, in atherosclerosis is only incompletely understood. Here, we investigated the vascular cell types expressing IL-23R and addressed the function of IL-23R and gamma delta T cells in atherosclerosis. Methods and results IL-23R(+) cells were frequently found in the aortic root in contrast to the aorta in low-density lipoprotein receptor deficient IL-23R reporter mice (Ldlr(-/-)Il23r(gfp/+)), and mostly identified as gamma delta T cells that express IL-17 and GM-CSF. scRNA-seq confirmed gamma delta T cells as the main cell type expressing Il23r and Il17a in the aorta. Ldlr(-)(/)(-)Il23r(gfp/gfp) mice deficient in IL-23R showed a loss of IL-23R(+) cells in the vasculature, and had reduced atherosclerotic lesion formation in the aortic root compared to Ldlr(-/-) controls after 6 weeks of high-fat diet feeding. In contrast, Ldlr(-/-)Tcr delta(-/-) mice lacking all gamma delta T cells displayed unaltered early atherosclerotic lesion formation compared to Ldlr(-)(/-) mice. In both HFD-fed Ldlr(-/-)Il23r(gfp/gfp) and Ldlr(-/-)Tcr delta(-/-) mice a reduction in the plaque necrotic core area was noted as well as an expansion of splenic regulatory T cells. In vitro, exposure of bone marrow-derived macrophages to both IL-17A and GM-CSF induced cell necrosis, and necroptotic RIP3K and MLKL expression, as well as inflammatory mediators. Conclusions IL-23R(+) gamma delta T cells are predominantly found in the aortic root rather than the aorta and promote early atherosclerotic lesion formation, plaque necrosis, and inflammation at this site. Targeting IL-23R may thus be explored as a therapeutic approach to mitigate atherosclerotic lesion development

The Worksite Health Promotion Capacity Instrument (WHPCI): development, validation and approaches for determining companies' levels of health promotion capacity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Worksite Health Promotion Capacity Instrument (WHPCI) was developed to assess two key factors for effective worksite health promotion: collective willingness and the systematic implementation of health promotion activities in companies. This study evaluates the diagnostic qualities of the WHPCI based on its subscales Health Promotion Willingness and Health Promotion Management, which can be used to place companies into four different categories based on their level of health promotion capacity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Psychometric evaluation was conducted using exploratory factor and reliability analyses with data taken from a random sample of managers from n = 522 German information and communication technology (ICT) companies. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted to determine further diagnostic qualities of the instrument and to establish the cut-off scores used to determine each company's level of health promotion capacity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The instrument's subscales, Health Promotion Willingness and Health Promotion Management, are based on one-dimensional constructs, each with very good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.83/0.91). ROC analyses demonstrated satisfactory diagnostic accuracy with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.76 (SE = 0.021; 95% CI 0.72-0.80) for the Health Promotion Willingness scale and 0.81 (SE = 0.021; 95% CI 0.77-0.86) for the Health Promotion Management scale. A cut-off score with good sensitivity (71%/76%) and specificity (69%/75%) was determined for each scale. Both scales were found to have good predictive power and exhibited good efficiency.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings indicate preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of both subscales of the WHPCI. The goodness of each cut-off score suggests that the scales are appropriate for determining companies' levels of health promotion capacity. Support in implementing (systematic) worksite health promotion can then be tailored to each company's needs based on their current capacity level.</p