Sustaining Rural Communities in the Northwest

Since 2009, Oregon Food Bank, in partnership with the Rural Grocery Initiative, has surveyed over 80 owners of independently owned grocery stores throughout rural Oregon. Their ideas, struggles, successes and stories are shared in the report Sustaining Rural Communities. These surveys are part of Oregon Food Bank’s broader effort to build and strengthen community food systems through community organizing (utilizing OFB’s FEAST model) and coordination of grassroots-based community food assessments. Our presentation focuses on the findings of this report along with highlighting profiles of several “model stores”. We also introduce OFB’s community food organizing model FEAST and share examples of organizing efforts that have supported rural grocery store owners in Oregon. One store that we discuss is the M. Crow & Co. Store in Lostine (population 213, northeast OR), which was recently featured in a cover article of Edible Portland. OFB community organizing efforts helped educate the Lostine community about the challenges facing the M. & Crow store and helped rally support to keep the store open. We also highlight the success of stores in Maupin (population 418, central OR) and Langlois (unincorporated, southern OR Coast)

Connecting Community to Research: A Training Program to Increase Community Partnerships in Research

Background: Community Engaged Research (CEnR) as a means to address health disparities has emphasized the necessity for community members to partner with researchers. The Boston University CTSI identified the local need to increase the number and diversity of community members ready and willing to engage in the research process. Methods: Connecting Community to Research (CCR) was designed to train community groups interested in improving the health of their community. Trainings were adapted from existing curricula with input from a 12 member advisory panel. The goal was to help trainees understand the various roles they can play along the research process. In a 1-2 hour training, participants were guided through an introduction to CEnR and learned how sharing their stories could inform research. The training concluded with an evaluation survey and opportunities to get connected to loco-regional projects. Results: From December 2015 to November 2016, 100 participants of diverse backgrounds were trained at 7 sessions: 56% identified as White, 35% African American, and 6% other races. Evaluation data indicated: 94% of trainees understood how research could address a community concern, 82% understood how to use their stories to inform research, and 53% intended to participate as an advocate in research. Conclusion: These data suggest trainings like CCR can increase the number and diversity of community members willing to engage in research. While this introductory training generated positive results, additional trainings with varying levels of skill development may be needed to further empower community members to engage as partners in research

Induction of Paralysis and Visual System Injury in Mice by T Cells Specific for Neuromyelitis Optica Autoantigen Aquaporin-4.

While it is recognized that aquaporin-4 (AQP4)-specific T cells and antibodies participate in the pathogenesis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a human central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune demyelinating disease, creation of an AQP4-targeted model with both clinical and histologic manifestations of CNS autoimmunity has proven challenging. Immunization of wild-type (WT) mice with AQP4 peptides elicited T cell proliferation, although those T cells could not transfer disease to naïve recipient mice. Recently, two novel AQP4 T cell epitopes, peptide (p) 135-153 and p201-220, were identified when studying immune responses to AQP4 in AQP4-deficient (AQP4-/-) mice, suggesting T cell reactivity to these epitopes is normally controlled by thymic negative selection. AQP4-/- Th17 polarized T cells primed to either p135-153 or p201-220 induced paralysis in recipient WT mice, that was associated with predominantly leptomeningeal inflammation of the spinal cord and optic nerves. Inflammation surrounding optic nerves and involvement of the inner retinal layers (IRL) were manifested by changes in serial optical coherence tomography (OCT). Here, we illustrate the approaches used to create this new in vivo model of AQP4-targeted CNS autoimmunity (ATCA), which can now be employed to study mechanisms that permit development of pathogenic AQP4-specific T cells and how they may cooperate with B cells in NMO pathogenesis

Mechanisms of Comorbidities Associated With the Metabolic Syndrome: Insights from the JCR:LA-cp Corpulent Rat Strain

Obesity and its metabolic complications have emerged as the epidemic of the new millennia. The use of obese rodent models continues to be a productive component of efforts to understand the concomitant metabolic complications of this disease. In 1978, the JCR:LA-cp rat model was developed with an autosomal recessive corpulent (cp) trait resulting from a premature stop codon in the extracellular domain of the leptin receptor. Rats that are heterozygous for the cp trait are lean-prone, while those that are homozygous (cp/cp) spontaneously display the pathophysiology of obesity as well as a metabolic syndrome (MetS)-like phenotype. Over the years, there have been formidable scientific contributions that have originated from this rat model, much of which has been reviewed extensively up to 2008. The premise of these earlier studies focused on characterizing the pathophysiology of MetS-like phenotype that was spontaneously apparent in this model. The purpose of this review is to highlight areas of recent advancement made possible by this model including; emerging appreciation of the thrifty gene hypothesis in the context of obesity, the concept of how chronic inflammation may drive obesogenesis, the impact of acute forms of inflammation to the brain and periphery during chronic obesity, the role of dysfunctional insulin metabolism on lipid metabolism and vascular damage, and the mechanistic basis for altered vascular function as well as novel parallels between the human condition and the female JCR:LA-cp rat as a model for polycystic ovary disease (PCOS)

The Ursinus Weekly, October 14, 1963

Schwalm and Ball elected to UC Board of Directors • College Bowl qualification test to be given Tuesday in Pfahler • Sunday vespers programs begun • Race to be subject of Groth\u27s talk • Branden to lecture on philosophy of Ayn Rand • Curtain Club plans theatre in round production • Armstrong\u27s class to tour museum • Women seek votes for constitutional revision • 3rd annual Parents Day planned for October 19 • Activities planned by Outing Club • Banquet launches student teachers • Frosh, sophs moan: Et tu, John Adams • Winterthur visit set for Oct. 16-17 • Editorial: Campus renovations • Goldwater: I\u27d be damn mad • Greek gleanings • College, cars and confusion • Mushrooms to Shakespeare; Iceland to England • About the tax cut • Harpsichordist declared outstanding in Forum • Wall added to Spanish dept. • Weekly reporter interviews Eugene Carson Blake • Fall Y-retreat held a success • Johns Hopkins\u27 comeback deadlocks Ursinus, 15-15 • Player of the week: Tony Sermarini • Turnout brightens picture • Interview with Walt Kinderman • UC blanks hockey opponents • Hockey teams win two from Templehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1253/thumbnail.jp

Increased Cross-Gender Identification Independent of Gender Role Behavior in Girls with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: Results from a Standardized Assessment of 4- to 11-Year-Old Children.

While reports showing a link between prenatal androgen exposure and human gender role behavior are consistent and the effects are robust, associations to gender identity or cross-gender identification are less clear. The aim of the current study was to investigate potential cross-gender identification in girls exposed prenatally to high concentrations of androgens due to classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Assessment included two standardized measures and a short parent interview assessing frequency of behavioral features of cross-gender identification as conceptualized in Part A of the diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorder (GID) in the DSM-IV-TR. Next, because existing measures may have conflated gender role behavior with gender identity and because the distinction is potentially informative, we factor analyzed items from the measures which included both gender identity and gender role items to establish the independence of the two constructs. Participants were 43 girls and 38 boys with CAH and 41 unaffected female and 31 unaffected male relatives, aged 4- to 11-years. Girls with CAH had more cross-gender responses than female controls on all three measures of cross-gender identification as well as on a composite measure of gender identity independent of gender role behavior. Furthermore, parent report indicated that 5/39 (12.8 %) of the girls with CAH exhibited cross-gender behavior in all five behavioral domains which comprise the cross-gender identification component of GID compared to 0/105 (0.0 %) of the children in the other three groups combined. These data suggest that girls exposed to high concentrations of androgens prenatally are more likely to show cross-gender identification than girls without CAH or boys with and without CAH. Our findings suggest that prenatal androgen exposure could play a role in gender identity development in healthy children, and may be relevant to gender assignment in cases of prenatal hormone disruption, including, in particular, cases of severely virilized 46, XX CAH.The study was supported by USPHS grant HD24542 to Melissa Hines and by funds from Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.This is the accepted manuscript version. The final version is available from Springer at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-014-0385-0

Prenatal androgen exposure alters girls' responses to information indicating gender-appropriate behaviour.

Individual variability in human gender-related behaviour is influenced by many factors, including androgen exposure prenatally, as well as self-socialization and socialization by others postnatally. Many studies have looked at these types of influences in isolation, but little is known about how they work together. Here, we report that girls exposed to high concentrations of androgens prenatally, because they have the genetic condition congenital adrenal hyperplasia, show changes in processes related to self-socialization of gender-related behaviour. Specifically, they are less responsive than other girls to information that particular objects are for girls and they show reduced imitation of female models choosing particular objects. These findings suggest that prenatal androgen exposure may influence subsequent gender-related behaviours, including object (toy) choices, in part by changing processes involved in the self-socialization of gendered behaviour, rather than only by inducing permanent changes in the brain during early development. In addition, the findings suggest that some of the behavioural effects of prenatal androgen exposure might be subject to alteration by postnatal socialization processes. The findings also suggest a previously unknown influence of early androgen exposure on later processes involved in self-socialization of gender-related behaviour, and thus expand understanding of the developmental systems regulating human gender development.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Royal Society Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.012

Experimental transmission of atypical scrapie to sheep

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Active surveillance for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in small ruminants has been an EU regulatory requirement since 2002. A number of European countries have subsequently reported cases of atypical scrapie, similar to previously published cases from Norway, which have pathological and molecular features distinct from classical scrapie. Most cases have occurred singly in flocks, associated with genotypes considered to be more resistant to classical disease. Experimental transmissibility of such isolates has been reported in certain ovinised transgenic mice, but has not previously been reported in the natural host. Information on the transmissibility of this agent is vital to ensuring that disease control measures are effective and proportionate.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This report presents the successful experimental transmission, in 378 days, of atypical scrapie to a recipient sheep of homologous genotype with preservation of the pathological and molecular characteristics of the donor. This isolate also transmitted to ovinised transgenic mice (Tg338) with a murine phenotype indistinguishable from that of Nor 98.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This result strengthens the opinion that these cases result from a distinct strain of scrapie agent, which is potentially transmissible in the natural host under field conditions.</p