Realmente Tenemos la Capacidad: Engaging Youth to Explore Health in the Dominican Republic Through Photovoice

Youth are often at risk for physical and psychosocial illnesses, and yet their input is rarely included in health assessments and interventions. Two U.S.-based universities partnered with community stakeholders and youth in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic to explore factors that promote and/or hinder the health of youth in Las Malvinas II. Youth (n=8) conducted a photovoice, and identified six key health priorities: (1) good nutrition, (2) depression and poverty, (3) violence, (4) sports and neighborhood association, (5) education, and (6) sanitation and community infrastructure. Findings revealed youth’s exploration of complex multi-level determinants of health. This study suggests youth have nuanced understanding in regards to health. This paper presents the findings of the photovoice led by the youth as an illustrative case study of using CBPR-based methodologies to engage youth in local community health improvement efforts in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic

Blacks in Massachusetts: Comparative Demographic, Social and Economic Experiences with Whites, Latinos, and Asians

This report describes the social and economic, and education status of Blacks in Massachusetts, within a comparative framework with Whites, Asians, and Latino/as. A range of population, household, and economic variables are highlighted under the following categories: Population Characteristics; Families and Households; Education and Schooling; Housing; Health Characteristics; Labor Force, Occupations and Employment; and Income and Poverty. The information presented in this report is based on data from the 2010 Decennial Census; the American Community Survey 2009 – 2013 5 Year Estimates; the American Community Survey 2009-2013 5-Year Estimates Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) as well as PUMS for the single year 2013; and the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement (2015), and other CPS reports

\u3ci\u3eRealmente Tenemos la Capacidad\u3c/i\u3e: Engaging Youth to Explore Health in the Dominican Republic Through Photovoice

Youth are often at risk for physical and psychosocial illnesses, and yet their input is rarely included in health assessments and interventions. Two U.S.-based universities partnered with community stakeholders and youth in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic to explore factors that promote and/or hinder the health of youth in Las Malvinas II. Youth (n=8) conducted a photovoice, and identified six key health priorities: (1) good nutrition, (2) depression and poverty, (3) violence, (4) sports and neighborhood association, (5) education, and (6) sanitation and community infrastructure. Findings revealed youth’s exploration of complex multi-level determinants of health. This study suggests youth have nuanced understanding in regards to health. This paper presents the findings of the photovoice led by the youth as an illustrative case study of using CBPR-based methodologies to engage youth in local community health improvement efforts in Las Malvinas II, Dominican Republic

A youth empowerment intervention to prevent childhood obesity: design and methods for a cluster randomized trial of the H2GO! program

BACKGROUND: Reducing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is a promising dietary target for childhood obesity prevention. This paper describes the design and methods of a cluster randomized trial of H2GO!, a youth empowerment intervention to prevent childhood obesity through reducing SSB consumption among a low-income, ethnically diverse sample of youth. METHODS: This cluster randomized controlled trial is an academic-community partnership with the Massachusetts Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs (BGC). Ten BGC sites will be randomly assigned to the H2GO! intervention or a wait-list, usual care control. Eligible study participants will be N = 450 parent-child pairs (youth ages 9-12 years and their parents/caregivers) recruited from participating BGCs. The 6-week in-person H2GO! intervention consists of 12 group-based sessions delivered by BGC staff and youth-led activities. An innovative feature of the intervention is the development of youth-produced narratives as a strategy to facilitate youth empowerment and parental engagement. Child outcomes include measured body mass index z scores (zBMI), beverage intake, and youth empowerment. Parent outcomes include beverage intake and availability of SSBs at home. Outcomes will be measured at baseline and at 2, 6, and 12 months. With a 75% retention rate, the study is powered to detect a minimum group difference of 0.1 zBMI units over 12 months. DISCUSSION: Empowering youth may be a promising intervention approach to prevent childhood obesity through reducing SSB consumption. This intervention was designed to be delivered through BGCs and is hypothesized to be efficacious, relevant, and acceptable for the target population of low-income and ethnically diverse youth. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04265794 . Registered 11 February 2020

Understanding vaccine hesitancy through communities of place

This UK-US collaborative study examining vaccine engagement highlights the importance of tapping into local knowledge and leadership in efforts to improve Covid-19 vaccine take-up. It explores levels of vaccine engagement in four locations: Oldham and Tower Hamlets in the UK, and the cities of Boston and Hartford in the US

Revisiting the Hetero-Fertilization Phenomenon in Maize

Development of a seed DNA-based genotyping system for marker-assisted selection (MAS) has provided a novel opportunity for understanding aberrant reproductive phenomena such as hetero-fertilization (HF) by observing the mismatch of endosperm and leaf genotypes in monocot species. In contrast to conventional approaches using specific morphological markers, this approach can be used for any population derived from diverse parental genotypes. A large-scale experiment was implemented using seven F2 populations and four three-way cross populations, each with 534 to 1024 individuals. The frequency of HF within these populations ranged from 0.14% to 3.12%, with an average of 1.46%. The highest frequency of HF in both types of population was contributed by the pollen gametes. Using three-way crosses allowed, for the first time, detection of the HF contributed by maternal gametes, albeit at very low frequency (0.14%–0.65%). Four HF events identified from each of two F2 populations were tested and confirmed using 1032 single nucleotide polymorphic markers. This analysis indicated that only 50% of polymorphic markers can detect a known HF event, and thus the real HF frequency can be inferred by doubling the estimate obtained from using only one polymorphic marker. As expected, 99% of the HF events can be detected by using seven independent markers in combination. Although seed DNA-based analysis may wrongly predict plant genotypes due to the mismatch of endosperm and leaf DNA caused by HF, the relatively low HF frequencies revealed with diverse germplasm in this study indicates that the effect on the accuracy of MAS is limited. In addition, comparative endosperm and leaf DNA analysis of specific genetic stocks could be useful for revealing the relationships among various aberrant fertilization phenomena including haploidy and apomixis

Switchgrass

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a perennialwarm-season grass native to the grasslands of North America, is a model perennial grass for bioenergy, and is the most advanced herbaceous perennial bioenergy feedstock. Best management practices have been developed for switchgrass bioenergy production for the agroecoregions to which it is adapted. Field production of switchgrass likely will occur on cropland that is marginally productive for row crops, similar to land that was enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Long-term, field-scale research demonstrates that switchgrass for bioenergy is productive, profitable for the farmer, and protective of the environment. Switchgrass was selected by the Bioenergy Feedstock Development Program (BFDP) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) as a model herbaceous species because of its potential to simultaneously meet energy demands and address global climate change [1]. It is a perennial, warm-season (C4) grass native to North America that is broadly adapted throughout the United States and is found in every state east of the Rocky Mountains [2]. Like many perennial C4 grasses, switchgrass is highly tolerant to abiotic stresses such as drought, temperature extremes, and salinity. For that reason, it is being recommended for biomass production on marginally productive cropland where it would have minimal land use competition with commercial food crops

Analysis of opo cis-regulatory landscape uncovers Vsx2 requirement in early eye morphogenesis

The self-organized morphogenesis of the vertebrate optic cup entails coupling the activation of the retinal gene regulatory network to the constriction-driven infolding of the retinal epithelium. Yet the genetic mechanisms underlying this coordination remain largely unexplored. Through phylogenetic footprinting and transgenesis in zebrafish, here we examine the cis-regulatory landscape of opo, an endocytosis regulator essential for eye morphogenesis. Among the different conserved enhancers identified, we isolate a single retina-specific element (H6_10137) and show that its activity depends on binding sites for the retinal determinant Vsx2. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments and ChIP analyses reveal that Vsx2 regulates opo expression through direct binding to this retinal enhancer. Furthermore, we show that vsx2 knockdown impairs the primary optic cup folding. These data support a model by which vsx2, operating through the effector gene opo, acts as a central transcriptional node that coordinates neural retina patterning and optic cup invagination in zebrafish.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Forty years literature review of primary lung lymphoma

There are several unresolved issues through out the literature regarding the entity of primary lung lymphoma. Extensive literature review of this uncommon pathology is carried out