Prescriptive Faith: Carceral Health Beyond The Prison Walls

Individuals who are exposed to the carceral system—specifically, solitary confinement are uniquely vulnerable to psychological and physical health conditions. However, the relationship between solitary confinement and physical health conditions are relatively underexamined, compared to mental health disorders. This analysis examines the potential for a risks’ association between solitary confinement and cardiovascular disease risk factors. Additionally, this study examines the relationship between spirituality as a self-efficacious coping measure for health-related outcomes. A cross-sectional analysis of 302 survey participants with a prior history of incarceration in a housing study (New Haven, CT) with a prior history of incarceration from Fall 2017 – March 2018 was used to explore the relationship between solitary confinement and several health outcomes (cardiovascular disease risk factors, anxiety disorders symptoms, and impaired daily activity) to decipher the association between solitary confinement and self-reported health outcomes. 175 participants in total reported solitary confinement history; further, 60% of participants who reported a cardiovascular disease risk factor reported a history of solitary confinement—but, the association was statistically insignificant. However, among individuals with a history of general incarceration: the risks for self-reported ‘impaired daily activity’ increased with older age. Additionally, self-reported physical chronic conditions increased the relative risk of self-reported ‘impaired daily activity’. Also, self-reported anxiety disorder symptoms increased the risks of self-reported impaired daily activity. Participants of a younger age; as well as, individuals who reported physical chronic conditions maintained increased risks of self-reported anxiety disorder symptoms. Notably, Black participants demonstrated a decreased risk of anxiety disorder symptoms within the sample population. Additionally, higher spirituality scores increased the risk of self-reported anxiety disorder symptoms. Moreover, higher spirituality scores were systematically located in the ‘impaired daily activity’ group, compared to participants who reported no such limitations. This analysis provides further evidence that carceral system exposure (particularly among low-income individuals) is associated with a notable prevalence of mental and physical chronic conditions—while exploring the potential for self-efficacious coping mechanisms (such as faith-based systems) to be further evaluated in research studies

Results of a SELA Planning Survey

This study arose from the need for member input into the development of the Southeastern Library Association’s (SELA) Strategic Plan. Additionally, the Planning and Development Committee felt it was important to obtain a better understanding of what services and activities the librarians in the southeast would like to see provided by the regional association. The Committee also recognized that it was important not only to ask for possible areas of improvement, but to also ask for ideas on how to achieve those improvements

Family Philanthropy Beyond Borders: Best Practices for Family Foundations with Geographically Dispersed Board Members 2011

This study investigated how family foundations manage governance, decision making, and, especially, daily work activities when the number of local board members diminishes. In most foundations interviewed, either all or a high proportion of board members do not live in the region where the foundation is headquartered. In many of the foundations, the majority of grant funds are directed to organizations located in regions other than where board members live.The case studies show that in most foundations, board members remain engaged in governance, strategic decision making, and grantmaking activities even when the board is geographically dispersed. However, a few board members participate in staff-oriented roles when the foundation office and grantmaking remain tied to one region and the board members live elsewhere. In two of the ten cases, family board members do remain engaged in staff-oriented roles. These board members are paid by the foundation to undertake staff-like responsibilities. In one of those, the family member is the only person paid to manage the foundation

Trematode Infections inLittorina littoreaon the New Hampshire Coast

The prevalence of parasite infections in Littorina littorea (Common Periwinkle) was examined at 16 rocky intertidal sites along the New Hampshire coastline over three summers (2006 to 2008). We sampled over a relatively small spatial scale (21 km) and expected that the prevalence of infections in L. littorea would be similar between sites over this sampling area. In total, 1983 snails were collected from areas at mean low water during spring tides. Snail size (mm), gender, and type of parasitic infection were noted for all snails. Eleven percent of snails collected were infected with rediae and cercariae of the trematodes Cryptocotyle lingua or Cercaria parvicaudata; one snail had a double infection of both trematodes. The prevalence of infection at sites ranged from 1.9% to 30.1%. At all sites, female snails outnumbered male snails, and a greater proportion of females were infected than males. Large snails were more likely to be infected with trematodes at 3 sites, while a higher level of infection was found in small snails at 1 site. Snails at wave-protected sites were more likely to be infected than snails at wave-exposed sites. No relationship was found between the number of gulls at a site and the prevalence of infection. Although temporal variation in levels of prevalence in parasitic infections may explain some of our site-to-site differences, our data show large spatial variation of parasite prevalence in L. littorea over a minimum distance of 0.5 km and provide a foundation to test hypotheses concerning the susceptibility of female and immature (small) snails to infection

Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor Romidepsin Induces HIV Expression in CD4 T Cells from Patients on Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy at Concentrations Achieved by Clinical Dosing

Persistent latent reservoir of replication-competent proviruses in memory CD4 T cells is a major obstacle to curing HIV infection. Pharmacological activation of HIV expression in latently infected cells is being explored as one of the strategies to deplete the latent HIV reservoir. In this study, we characterized the ability of romidepsin (RMD), a histone deacetylase inhibitor approved for the treatment of T-cell lymphomas, to activate the expression of latent HIV. In an in vitro T-cell model of HIV latency, RMD was the most potent inducer of HIV (EC50 = 4.5 nM) compared with vorinostat (VOR; EC50 = 3,950 nM) and other histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors in clinical development including panobinostat (PNB; EC50 = 10 nM). The HIV induction potencies of RMD, VOR, and PNB paralleled their inhibitory activities against multiple human HDAC isoenzymes. In both resting and memory CD4 T cells isolated from HIV-infected patients on suppressive combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), a 4-hour exposure to 40 nM RMD induced a mean 6-fold increase in intracellular HIV RNA levels, whereas a 24-hour treatment with 1 μM VOR resulted in 2- to 3-fold increases. RMD-induced intracellular HIV RNA expression persisted for 48 hours and correlated with sustained inhibition of cell-associated HDAC activity. By comparison, the induction of HIV RNA by VOR and PNB was transient and diminished after 24 hours. RMD also increased levels of extracellular HIV RNA and virions from both memory and resting CD4 T-cell cultures. The activation of HIV expression was observed at RMD concentrations below the drug plasma levels achieved by doses used in patients treated for T-cell lymphomas. In conclusion, RMD induces HIV expression ex vivo at concentrations that can be achieved clinically, indicating that the drug may reactivate latent HIV in patients on suppressive cART

Expression profile of human Fc receptors in mucosal tissue: implications for antibody-dependent cellular effector functions targeting HIV-1 transmission

The majority of new Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-1 infections are acquired via sexual transmission at mucosal surfaces. Partial efficacy (31.2%) of the Thai RV144 HIV-1 vaccine trial has been correlated with Antibody-dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity (ADCC) mediated by non-neutralizing antibodies targeting the V1V2 region of the HIV-1 envelope. This has led to speculation that ADCC and other antibody-dependent cellular effector functions might provide an important defense against mucosal acquisition of HIV-1 infection. However, the ability of antibody-dependent cellular effector mechanisms to impact on early mucosal transmission events will depend on a variety of parameters including effector cell type, frequency, the class of Fc-Receptor (FcR) expressed, the number of FcR per cell and the glycoslyation pattern of the induced antibodies. In this study, we characterize and compare the frequency and phenotype of IgG (CD16 [FcγRIII], CD32 [FcγRII] and CD64 [FcγRI]) and IgA (CD89 [FcαR]) receptor expression on effector cells within male and female genital mucosal tissue, colorectal tissue and red blood cell-lysed whole blood. The frequency of FcR expression on CD14+ monocytic cells, myeloid dendritic cells and natural killer cells were similar across the three mucosal tissue compartments, but significantly lower when compared to the FcR expression profile of effector cells isolated from whole blood, with many cells negative for all FcRs. Of the three tissues tested, penile tissue had the highest percentage of FcR positive effector cells. Immunofluorescent staining was used to determine the location of CD14+, CD11c+ and CD56+ cells within the three mucosal tissues. We show that the majority of effector cells across the different mucosal locations reside within the subepithelial lamina propria. The potential implication of the observed FcR expression patterns on the effectiveness of FcR-dependent cellular effector functions to impact on the initial events in mucosal transmission and dissemination warrants further mechanistic studies

Verification and Implementation of Operations Safety Controls for Flight Missions

There are several engineering disciplines, such as reliability, supportability, quality assurance, human factors, risk management, safety, etc. Safety is an extremely important engineering specialty within NASA, and the consequence involving a loss of crew is considered a catastrophic event. Safety is not difficult to achieve when properly integrated at the beginning of each space systems project/start of mission planning. The key is to ensure proper handling of safety verification throughout each flight/mission phase. Today, Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) operations engineers continue to conduct these flight product reviews across all open flight products. As such, these reviews help ensure that each mission is accomplished with safety requirements along with controls heavily embedded in applicable flight products. Most importantly, the S&MA operations engineers are required to look for important design and operations controls so that safety is strictly adhered to as well as reflected in the final flight product