Religiosity and Sexual Risk Behaviors Among African American Cocaine Users in the Rural South: Religion and Sex Risk

Racial and geographic disparities in human immunodeficency virus (HIV) are dramatic and drug use is a significant contributor to HIV risk. Within the rural South, African Americans who use drugs are at extremely high risk. Due to the importance of religion within African American and rural Southern communities, it can be a key element of culturally-targeted health promotion with these populations. Studies have examined religion’s relationship with sexual risk in adolescent populations, but few have examined specific religious behaviors and sexual risk behaviors among drug-using African American adults. This study examined the relationship between well-defined dimensions of religion and specific sexual behaviors among African Americans who use cocaine living in the rural southern United States

A palaeoenvironmental study of particle size-specific connectivity- new insights and implications from the West Sussex Rother Catchment, United Kingdom

Connectivity has become an important conceptual and practical framework for understanding and managing sediment transfers across hillslopes, between hillslopes and rivers and between rivers and other compartments along the river corridor (e.g. reservoirs, channel substrate, floodplain). Conventionally, connectivity focuses on the quantity of sediment transferred but here we also consider the size of the finer sediment (typically particles < 500 µm diameter). We examine the role of small rapidly silting reservoirs in the River Rother on storing sediment and disrupting downstream sediment transfers. Spatial and temporal changes in the particle size characteristics of sediment deposited in one of the ponds is explored in detail. Downstream of this pond we collected sediment from the river on nine occasions over 17 months using two sampling methods at two locations; one immediately downstream of the pond and a second ~700 m further downstream but upstream of the confluence with the Rother. Results showed a significant depletion in sand sized particles immediately downstream of the pond but the sand had been recovered from an in-channel source before the river reached the downstream sampling point

SMI of Bcl-2 TW-37 is active across a spectrum of B-cell tumors irrespective of their proliferative and differentiation status

The Bcl-2 family of proteins is critical to the life and death of malignant B-lymphocytes. Interfering with their activity using small-molecule inhibitors (SMI) is being explored as a new therapeutic strategy for treating B-cell tumors. We evaluated the efficacy of TW-37, a non-peptidic SMI of Bcl-2 against a range spectrum of human B-cell lines, fresh patient samples and animal xenograft models. Multiple cytochemical and molecular approaches such as acridine orange/ethidium bromide assay for apoptosis, co-immunoprecipitation of complexes and western blot analysis, caspase luminescent activity assay and apoptotic DNA fragmentation assay were used to demonstrate the effect of TW-37 on different B-cell lines, patient derived samples, as well as in animal xenograft models. Nanomolar concentrations of TW-37 were able to induce apoptosis in both fresh samples and established cell lines with IC50 in most cases of 165–320 nM. Apoptosis was independent of proliferative status or pathological classification of B-cell tumor. TW-37 was able to block Bim-Bcl-XL and Bim-Mcl-1 heterodimerization and induced apoptosis via activation of caspases -9, -3, PARP and DNA fragmentation. TW-37 administered to tumor-bearing SCID mice led to significant tumor growth inhibition (T/C), tumor growth delay (T-C) and Log10kill, when used at its maximum tolerated dose (40 mg/kg × 3 days) via tail vein. TW-37 failed to induce changes in the Bcl-2 proteins levels suggesting that assessment of baseline Bcl-2 family proteins can be used to predict response to the drug. These findings indicate activity of TW-37 across the spectrum of human B-cell tumors and support the concept of targeting the Bcl-2 system as a therapeutic strategy regardless of the stage of B-cell differentiation

Sediment source fingerprinting: benchmarking recent outputs, remaining challenges and emerging themes

Abstract: Purpose: This review of sediment source fingerprinting assesses the current state-of-the-art, remaining challenges and emerging themes. It combines inputs from international scientists either with track records in the approach or with expertise relevant to progressing the science. Methods: Web of Science and Google Scholar were used to review published papers spanning the period 2013–2019, inclusive, to confirm publication trends in quantities of papers by study area country and the types of tracers used. The most recent (2018–2019, inclusive) papers were also benchmarked using a methodological decision-tree published in 2017. Scope: Areas requiring further research and international consensus on methodological detail are reviewed, and these comprise spatial variability in tracers and corresponding sampling implications for end-members, temporal variability in tracers and sampling implications for end-members and target sediment, tracer conservation and knowledge-based pre-selection, the physico-chemical basis for source discrimination and dissemination of fingerprinting results to stakeholders. Emerging themes are also discussed: novel tracers, concentration-dependence for biomarkers, combining sediment fingerprinting and age-dating, applications to sediment-bound pollutants, incorporation of supportive spatial information to augment discrimination and modelling, aeolian sediment source fingerprinting, integration with process-based models and development of open-access software tools for data processing. Conclusions: The popularity of sediment source fingerprinting continues on an upward trend globally, but with this growth comes issues surrounding lack of standardisation and procedural diversity. Nonetheless, the last 2 years have also evidenced growing uptake of critical requirements for robust applications and this review is intended to signpost investigators, both old and new, towards these benchmarks and remaining research challenges for, and emerging options for different applications of, the fingerprinting approach

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate