“Enjoy Your Sexuality, but Do it in Secret”: Exploring Undergraduate Women’s Reports of Friends’ Sexual Communications

In the current study I used mixed methods to explore the messages that undergraduate women (n = 415) reported receiving from their male and female friends regarding sex and romantic relationships. Reports of friends’ messages varied widely and entailed both support for and criticism of sexual gatekeeping and sex positivity (e.g., sexual agency) and advice regarding sex and romantic relationships. Four individuals, including the author, developed codes to examine this wide range of responses to sexual expectations and prohibitions and independently and reliably coded the data. Response patterns illustrate that reports of female friends’ messages were typically longer and more nuanced than reports of male friends’ messages. Sex-positive messages and sexual gatekeeping messages were frequently reported simultaneously, and this pattern of co-occurrence illustrates the tensions between diverse discourses regarding women’s sexuality. The diversity in reports of friends’ messages challenges popular notions that friends’ influences are wholly problematic and highlights a need for more gender-focused sex education curricula

The Nature and Impact of Gendered Patterns of Peer Sexual Communications Among Heterosexual Emerging Adults

Although previous research demonstrates that peers serve as top sexual informants and advisers, little is known about how peer sexual communications may be a gendered phenomenon. Do communications about sex and romantic relationships vary according to who is speaking to whom? The current study examined 517 college students' reports of male and female peers' communications of four sexual scripts and the associations between reports of such communications and participants' sexual attitudes and levels of sexual and dating experience. Results suggest that peer messages about sex and relationships vary by the gender of the recipient and the gender of the communicator. Women reported more frequent communications of all sexual scripts from female peers than did men. In terms of male peers' sexual communications, only one gender difference emerged: men reported receiving significantly fewer messages about the relational script than women. Compared to same-sex peer communications, there were more associations between other-sex peer communications and undergraduates' sexual attitudes and levels of sexual and dating experience. Implications for the role of same- and other-sex peers in sexual socialization are discussed

Our Buddies, Ourselves: The Role of Sexual Homophily in Adolescent Friendship Networks

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147776/1/cdev13052_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147776/2/cdev13052.pd

Evaluation of the INCREMENT-CPE, Pitt Bacteremia and qPitt Scores in Patients with Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Infections Treated with Ceftazidime–Avibactam

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive performance of the INCREMENT-CPE (ICS), Pitt bacteremia score (PBS) and qPitt for mortality among patients treated with ceftazidime–avibactam for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections. Methods Retrospective, multicenter, cohort study of patients with CRE infections treated with ceftazidime–avibactam between 2015 and 2019. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality. Predictive performance was determined by assessing discrimination, calibration and precision. Results In total, 109 patients were included. Thirty-day mortality occurred in 18 (16.5%) patients. There were no significant differences in discrimination of the three scores [area under the curve (AUC) ICS 0.7039, 95% CI 0.5848–0.8230, PBS 0.6893, 95% CI 0.5709–0.8076, and qPitt 0.6847, 95% CI 0.5671–0.8023; P > 0.05 all pairwise comparisons]. All scores showed adequate calibration and precision. When dichotomized at the optimal cut-points of 11, 3, and 2 for the ICS, PBS, and qPitt, respectively, all scores had NPV > 90% at the expense of low PPV. Patients in the high-risk groups had a relative risk for mortality of 3.184 (95% CI 1.35–8.930), 3.068 (95% CI 1.094–8.606), and 2.850 (95% CI 1.016–7.994) for the dichotomized ICS, PBS, and qPitt, scores respectively. Treatment-related variables (early active antibiotic therapy, combination antibiotics and renal ceftazidime–avibactam dose adjustment) were not associated with mortality after controlling for the risk scores. Conclusions In patients treated with ceftazidime–avibactam for CRE infections, mortality risk scores demonstrated variable performance. Modifications to scoring systems to more accurately predict outcomes in the era of novel antibiotics are warranted

Binding loci of RelA-containing nuclear factor-kappaB dimers in promoter regions of PHM1-31 myometrial smooth muscle cells.

Human parturition is associated with many pro-inflammatory mediators which are regulated by the nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) family of transcription factors. In the present study, we employed a ChIP-on-chip approach to define genomic loci within chromatin of PHM1-31 myometrial cells that were occupied by RelA-containing NF-κB dimers in response to a TNF stimulation of 1 h. In TNF-stimulated PHM1-31 cells, anti-RelA serum enriched 13 300 chromatin regions; importantly, 11 110 regions were also enriched by anti-RelA antibodies in the absence of TNF. DNA sequences in these regions, from both unstimulated or TNF-stimulated PHM1-31 cultures, were associated with genic regions including IκBα, COX-2, IL6RN, Jun and KCNMB3. TNF-induced binding events at a consensus κB site numbered 1667; these were represented by 112 different instances of the consensus κB motif. Of the 1667 consensus κB motif occurrences, 770 (46.2%) were identified within intronic regions. In unstimulated PHM1-31 cells, anti-RelA-serum-enriched regions were associated with sequences corresponding to open reading frames of ion channel subunit genes including CACNB3 and KCNB1. Moreover, in unstimulated cells, the consensus κB site was identified 2116 times, being defined by 103 different sequence instances of this motif. Of these 2116 consensus κB motifs, 1089 (51.5%) were identified within intronic regions. Parallel expression array analyses in PHM1-31 cultures demonstrated that TNF stimulated a >2-fold induction in 51 genes and a fold repression of >1.5 in 18 others. We identified 14 anti-RelA-serum-enriched genomic regions that correlated with 17 TNF-inducible genes, such as COX2, Egr-1, Jun, IκBα and IL6, as well as five regions associated with TNF-mediated gene repression, including Col1A2

Using lake sediments to assess the long-term impacts of anthropogenic activity in tropical river deltas

Tropical river deltas, and the social-ecological systems they sustain, are changing rapidly due to anthropogenic activity and climatic change. Baseline data to inform sustainable management options for resilient deltas is urgently needed and palaeolimnology (reconstructing past conditions from lake or wetland deposits) can provide crucial long-term perspectives needed to identify drivers and rates of change. We review how palaeolimnology can be a valuable tool for resource managers using three current issues facing tropical delta regions: hydrology and sediment supply, salinisation and nutrient pollution. The unique ability of palaeolimnological methods to untangle multiple stressors is also discussed. We demonstrate how palaeolimnology has been used to understand each of these issues, in other aquatic environments, to be incorporated into policy. Palaeolimnology is a key tool to understanding how anthropogenic influences interact with other environmental stressors, providing policymakers and resource managers with a ‘big picture’ view and possible holistic solutions that can be implemented

Fate of Hematopoiesis During Aging. What Do We Really Know, and What are its Implications?

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or be any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.There is an ongoing shift in demographics such that older persons will outnumber young persons in the coming years, and with it age-associated tissue attrition and increased diseases and disorders. There has been increased information on the association of the aging process with dysregulation of hematopoietic stem (HSC) and progenitor (HPC) cells, and hematopoiesis. This review provides an extensive up-to date summary on the literature of aged hematopoiesis and HSCs placed in context of potential artifacts of the collection and processing procedure, that may not be totally representative of the status of HSCs in their in vivo bone marrow microenvironment, and what the implications of this are for understanding aged hematopoiesis. This review covers a number of interactive areas, many of which have not been adequately explored. There are still many unknowns and mechanistic insights to be elucidated to better understand effects of aging on the hematopoietic system, efforts that will take multidisciplinary approaches, and that could lead to means to ameliorate at least some of the dysregulation of HSCs and HPCs associated with the aging process.Some of the studies reported in this review, and the writing of this review were supported by the following U.S. Public Health Grants from the National Institutes of Health to H.E.B.: R35 HL139599 (Outstanding Investigator Award), R01 DK109188, U54 DK106846; A.A., J.P.R., and T.T. were supported by T32 DK007519 to H.E.B. R01 HL150624, R56 DK119524, R56 AG052501, DoD W81XWH-13-1-0187, DoD W81XWH-18-1-0265 and DoD W81XWH-19-1-0575, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Translational Research Program award 6581-20 and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation Scholar Award to Y.L. MLC was supported by R01 DK109188. CO was supported by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) contracts HHSN266200500043C and HHSN272201000046C and grants 1U01AI107340-01 and 2R44 AI088288-03A1, National Institute on Aging (NIA) grant R01AG046246-01, and Department of Defense grants PR140896, PR141527, and PR140433P1

Macrophages directly contribute collagen to scar formation during zebrafish heart regeneration and mouse heart repair

Canonical roles for macrophages in mediating the fibrotic response after a heart attack include extracellular matrix turnover and activation of cardiac fibroblasts to initiate collagen deposition. Here we reveal that macrophages directly contribute collagen to the forming post-injury scar. Unbiased transcriptomics shows an upregulation of collagens in both zebrafish and mouse macrophages following heart injury. Adoptive transfer of macrophages, from either collagen-tagged zebrafish or adult mouse GFPtpz-collagen donors, enhances scar formation via cell autonomous production of collagen. In zebrafish, the majority of tagged collagen localises proximal to the injury, within the overlying epicardial region, suggesting a possible distinction between macrophage-deposited collagen and that predominantly laid-down by myofibroblasts. Macrophage-specific targeting of col4a3bpa and cognate col4a1 in zebrafish significantly reduces scarring in cryoinjured hosts. Our findings contrast with the current model of scarring, whereby collagen deposition is exclusively attributed to myofibroblasts, and implicate macrophages as direct contributors to fibrosis during heart repair

Introduction: Toward an Engaged Feminist Heritage Praxis

We advocate a feminist approach to archaeological heritage work in order to transform heritage practice and the production of archaeological knowledge. We use an engaged feminist standpoint and situate intersubjectivity and intersectionality as critical components of this practice. An engaged feminist approach to heritage work allows the discipline to consider women’s, men’s, and gender non-conforming persons’ positions in the field, to reveal their contributions, to develop critical pedagogical approaches, and to rethink forms of representation. Throughout, we emphasize the intellectual labor of women of color, queer and gender non-conforming persons, and early white feminists in archaeology