Pilot Evaluation of an Internet-based Natural Family Planning Education and Service Program

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy, knowledge of fertility, and acceptability of a web-based natural family planning (NFP) education and service program. Design: A 6-month repeated measure longitudinal evaluation pilot study. Setting: A university based online website. Participants: The website was piloted with 468 volunteer women seeking NFP services. Of these participants, 222 used the automatic online fertility charting system to avoid pregnancy. The 222 charting participants had a mean age of 29.9 years (SD=5.6), 2.2 children (SD=1.9), 37% were postpartum, and 47% had regular menstrual cycle lengths. Intervention: Nurse-managed web-based NFP education and service program. Outcomes: Pregnancies were confirmed by an online self-assessed pregnancy evaluation form. A 10-item fertility quiz and 10-item acceptability survey was administered online. Results: Among the 222 users avoiding pregnancy, at 6 months of use, there were two correct-use unintended pregnancies that provided a pregnancy rate of 2% and seven total unintended pregnancies providing a typical use pregnancy rate of 7%. Mean knowledge of fertility increased significantly from time of registration (8.96, SD=1.10) to 1 month of use (9.46, SD=.10), t=4.60, pSD=8.98) to 6 months of use (48.4; SD=8.77). Conclusion: The nurse-managed online NFP system seems to provide adequate knowledge of fertility and help participants meet pregnancy intentions. Acceptability of such a system of NFP is still in question

Teaching Racial Reckoning: The CRT Panic as a Challenge and an Answer

Regular media coverage and social media discussion about Black Lives Matter, prison abolition, racialized police violence, and voter disenfranchisement mean that students arrive to our classes already primed to discuss and reckon with questions of racial justice and racial oppression and privilege. At the same time, we have also observed a groundswell of white Americans mobilizing in defense of white supremacy. Although this reckoning has been long in the making, recent successes of a violent and increasingly mainstream political movement have created new challenges for instructors teaching about racism. In this teaching note, I reflect on an experience with students who completed a “knowledge assessment survey” and how this was leveraged into a productive conversation about Critical Race Theory (CRT). More broadly, I suggest that discussion of politicized topics poses some challenges, but also presents opportunities for demonstrating the importance of critical race perspectives and prompts students to reflect on how their understandings of race are derived from their social worlds

Touring homelessness? The reproduction of race, class, and urban space through grassroots homeless services in St. Louis, Missouri

This dissertation interrogates practices of grassroots homeless service organizations in St. Louis, MO. Like many other contemporary U.S. cities, St. Louis has struggled to cope with a large homeless population. According to the annual point-in-time count, 1,798 people were counted as experiencing homelessness in St. Louis City and St. Louis County on a single night in January 2017. Of those counted, 77% identified as black (HUD 2017a, 2017b). With city and county governments failing to provide adequate human services and shelter in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, a number of grassroots homeless service groups have taken to “the streets” in an effort to combat the problem.   Based on participant observation of these efforts, this dissertation makes three interlocking arguments. First, much is known about the antecedents and benefits of volunteering, but little has been written about the actual practice of volunteering. I argue that volunteering should be seen as a practice of meaning making. Homeless service provision provided volunteers with an opportunity to interact with a poor and predominantly black population. Then, based on their service experiences and conversations with other volunteers, their ideas about race, poverty, and place could be reinforced and modified. Second, the project draws attention to the limits of white ally discourse. I argue that even volunteers who saw their work as a form of anti-racist activism struggled to see how their race was important in daily life. When asked how their race might inform interactions with people of color experiencing homelessness, white, “color conscious” volunteers were usually quick to admit that it must. However, they were also unable to say exactly how or provide examples. This inability to speak about interracial interactions, despite many experiences to reflect upon, highlights the pervasive power and privilege embedded in the taken-for-granted nature of whiteness. Although this group displayed strong knowledge of systemic racism and/or antiracism literature, their own whiteness remained “invisible” to them. Third, I argue that perception of, access to, and interaction in nonwhite, urban space was shaped by the privileges and power embedded in volunteers’ social statuses (e.g. white, middle-class). While the slum/poverty tourism literature more frequently explores international tourism and volunteering (e.g., Frenzel 2015; Steinbrink 2012), I repeatedly observed volunteers profess interest in “urban decay” and take photos with such frequency that one volunteer jokingly asked another if she “ever feel[s] like a Japanese tourist.” In these moments, volunteers sought to explore the poverty of their home city in a way few others of their class status would. Through this process, which was observed to be racialized, volunteers emphasized the difference between themselves and those “on the street.

Observations on questing activity of adult Gulf Coast ticks, Amblyomma maculatum

Abstract During August of 2008 and 2009, observations were made on the questing heights, behaviors, and spatial distribution of adult Gulf Coast ticks, Amblyomma maculatum, in a plot near Gautier, Jackson County, Mississippi, U.S.A. Ticks were not evenly distributed in the plot, being found mostly on torpedograss and/or wiregrass along and in a small dirt field road. Adult ticks were visually observed questing on three different plants: torpedograss, Panicum repens, wiregrass, Aristida stricta, and Johnsongrass, Sorghum halepense, all but the last of which have small-diameter stems and thin, pointed leaves. Ticks were located at or near the tips of the plants (2-tail binomial probability, p = 0.0074). Observed questing heights ranged from 20-75 cm, with an average of 36 cm. Nine of 15 ticks (60%) seen questing were oriented head upward, while 6 (40%) were headdown. Limited mark-release-recapture observations were made in the study site, using ticks collected from the field road. Of 27 ticks marked and released, 15 were recaptured in three samples spanning a 24-d period. Of these, 5 had moved closer to the dirt road where they were originally captured and 2 farther away

The host galaxies of three radio-loud quasars: 3C 48, 3C 345, and B2 1425+267

Observations with the Wide-Field/Planetary Camera-2 of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) are presented for three radio-loud quasars: 3C 48 (z=0.367), B2 1425+267 (z=0.366), and 3C 345 (z=0.594). All three quasars have luminous (~4 L^*) galaxies as hosts, which are either elliptical (B2 1425+267 and 3C 345) or interacting (3C 48), and all hosts are 0.5 - 1.0 mag bluer in (V-I) than other galaxies with the same overall morphology at similar redshifts to the quasars. The host of 3C 48 has many H II regions and a very extended tidal tail. All nine of the radio-loud quasars studied here and in Bahcall et al. (1997) either have bright elliptical hosts or occur in interacting systems. There is a robust correlation between the radio emission of the quasar and the luminosity of host galaxy; the radio-loud quasars reside in galaxies that are on average about 1 mag brighter than hosts of the radio-quiet quasars.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 3 postscript and 3 jpeg figures. Original figures may be found in ftp://eku.sns.ias.edu/pub/sofia/RadioLoud

Towards a “One Health” strategy against leptospirosis

Leptospirosis is an emerging disease; affecting animals, humans and the natural environment, it is a “one health threat”. In spite of its global distribution, its epidemic potential due to climate/ environment changes, its high human mortality rate and socio economic burden, this zoonosis is neglected. For mobilizing more investments in its prevention and control, a global multi- disciplinary and multi-sector network called ”Global Leptospirosis Environmental Action Network,”(GLEAN) has been established. This article reports recent expert’s discussions on prevention and control strategies, based on a One Health concept. It provides an innovative agenda for operational research and for veterinary and public health cooperation

Glucose-based microbial production of the hormone melatonin in yeast <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>

Melatonin is a natural mammalian hormone that plays an important role in regulating the circadian cycle in humans. It is a clinically effective drug exhibiting positive effects as a sleep aid and a powerful antioxidant used as a dietary supplement. Commercial melatonin production is predominantly performed by complex chemical synthesis. In this study, we demonstrate microbial production of melatonin and related compounds, such as serotonin and N‐acetylserotonin. We generated Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that comprise heterologous genes encoding one or more variants of an L‐tryptophan hydroxylase, a 5‐hydroxy‐L‐tryptophan decarboxylase, a serotonin acetyltransferase, an acetylserotonin O‐methyltransferase, and means for providing the cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin via heterologous biosynthesis and recycling pathways. We thereby achieved de novo melatonin biosynthesis from glucose. We furthermore accomplished increased product titers by altering expression levels of selected pathway enzymes and boosting co‐factor supply. The final yeast strain produced melatonin at a titer of 14.50 ± 0.57 mg L(−1) in a 76h fermentation using simulated fed‐batch medium with glucose as sole carbon source. Our study lays the basis for further developing a yeast cell factory for biological production of melatonin

Nuclear rupture at sites of high curvature compromises retention of DNA repair factors.

The nucleus is physically linked to the cytoskeleton, adhesions, and extracellular matrix-all of which sustain forces, but their relationships to DNA damage are obscure. We show that nuclear rupture with cytoplasmic mislocalization of multiple DNA repair factors correlates with high nuclear curvature imposed by an external probe or by cell attachment to either aligned collagen fibers or stiff matrix. Mislocalization is greatly enhanced by lamin A depletion, requires hours for nuclear reentry, and correlates with an increase in pan-nucleoplasmic foci of the DNA damage marker γH2AX. Excess DNA damage is rescued in ruptured nuclei by cooverexpression of multiple DNA repair factors as well as by soft matrix or inhibition of actomyosin tension. Increased contractility has the opposite effect, and stiff tumors with low lamin A indeed exhibit increased nuclear curvature, more frequent nuclear rupture, and excess DNA damage. Additional stresses likely play a role, but the data suggest high curvature promotes nuclear rupture, which compromises retention of DNA repair factors and favors sustained damage