Life is Calling...How Far Will You Go...Back in the Closet? Identity Negotiation and Management Among Queer, Peace Corps Volunteers

There is little to no research surrounding the experiences of queer, foreign-aid workers. To address this gap, a study was conducted to explore how compulsory heterosexuality affects the social construction of sexuality in societies where queer, foreign-aid workers serve and how this influences their identity negotiation and management processes. Participants consisted of ten self-identified queer, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), as well as, the researcher herself who also identifies as queer. Data was gathered through both semi-structured interviews and autoethnographic research. Meaning structuring through narratives was used to analyze the data. Analysis revealed that strategies of silencing, counterfeiting, and lying by omission were popular identity negotiation practices among participants, as well as relying on the heteronormative assumption. Additionally, data showed that compulsory heterosexuality played a major role in the social construction of sexuality where these queer volunteers served, as heteronormativity continues to be perpetuated and reinforced by various institutions, including the government, religion, education, social norms, and the media. Finally, it was found that the foreign-aid organization examined in the study The Peace Corps played a passive role in the negotiation and management strategies of its queer volunteers. Therefore, this study recommends that three practical steps be taken to better train and support future, queer Peace Corps Volunteers: (1) Sensitivity training for Peace Corps staff, (2) infusion of LGBT issues into volunteers\u27 training sessions, (3) and creation and distribution of resources for queer volunteers

Reducing Our Waste in Bloomington-Normal, IL

The purpose of this report is to inform public officials, the Ecology Action Center, and Bloomington/Normal residents of current habits, unmet needs and areas for improvement concerning community recycling programs. The findings are based on a survey of 290 Bloomington/Normal households, as well as interviews conducted with key stakeholders in the community. One of the more significant findings was the almost universal support for the expansion of the curbside recycling program in the area. Respondents also reported a general dissatisfaction with the current state of apartment recycling efforts, and support of the implementation of mandatory recycling in school districts. To conclude, we make recommendations for improvement of the Bloomington/Normal recycling programs

IAP inhibitors enhance co-stimulation to promote tumor immunity

The inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) have recently been shown to modulate nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling downstream of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family receptors, positioning them as essential survival factors in several cancer cell lines, as indicated by the cytotoxic activity of several novel small molecule IAP antagonists. In addition to roles in cancer, increasing evidence suggests that IAPs have an important function in immunity; however, the impact of IAP antagonists on antitumor immune responses is unknown. In this study, we examine the consequences of IAP antagonism on T cell function in vitro and in the context of a tumor vaccine in vivo. We find that IAP antagonists can augment human and mouse T cell responses to physiologically relevant stimuli. The activity of IAP antagonists depends on the activation of NF-κB2 signaling, a mechanism paralleling that responsible for the cytotoxic activity in cancer cells. We further show that IAP antagonists can augment both prophylactic and therapeutic antitumor vaccines in vivo. These findings indicate an important role for the IAPs in regulating T cell–dependent responses and suggest that targeting IAPs using small molecule antagonists may be a strategy for developing novel immunomodulating therapies against cancer

Metabolic phenotyping of diet and dietary Intake

Nutrition provides the building blocks for growth, repair, and maintenance of the body and is key to maintaining health. Exposure to fast foods, mass production of dietary components, and wider importation of goods have challenged the balance between diet and health in recent decades, and both scientists and clinicians struggle to characterize the relationship between this changing dietary landscape and human metabolism with its consequent impact on health. Metabolic phenotyping of foods, using high-density data-generating technologies to profile the biochemical composition of foods, meals, and human samples (pre- and postfood intake), can be used to map the complex interaction between the diet and human metabolism and also to assess food quality and safety. Here, we outline some of the techniques currently used for metabolic phenotyping and describe key applications in the food sciences, ending with a broad outlook at some of the newer technologies in the field with a view to exploring their potential to address some of the critical challenges in nutritional science

Digitizing Legacy Documents: A Knowledge-Base Preservation Project

This paper addresses the issue of making legacy information (that material held in paper format only) electronically searchable and retrievable. We used proprietary software and commercial hardware to create a process for scanning, cataloging, archiving and electronically disseminating full-text documents. This process is relatively easy to implement and reasonably affordable.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure