Sesquicentennial Reflections on Civil War Women

The nation looked back on its Civil War, in the midst of a whirlwind of domestic debates, while impending foreign crises loomed—but with a new young President in the White House, with his charismatic wife and children, the country seemed on the brink of momentous change. On the cusp of a new era, it seemed an appropriate time, if not overdue, to reflect on the legacy of an epic historical era that tore the nation in two. Whether referring to the centenary in 1961 with John F. Kennedy in office, or the sesquicentennial in 2011 with Barack Obama, backward glances at the legacy of the American Civil War offered challenges as well as possibilities

Crossing the race divide : interracial sex in antebellum Savannah

This article explores the social significance of inter-racial sexual contact in an antebellum Southern city. How did inter-racial sex challenge the established social hierarchy in Savannah? Was it a controversial issue, viewed as a threat to the social order, or was it accepted as an inevitable evil resulting from a mixed population residing in close proximity

Development of a Scalable Pharmacogenomic Clinical Decision Support Service

Advances in sequencing technology are making genomic data more accessible within the healthcare environment. Published pharmacogenetic guidelines attempt to provide a clinical context for specific genomic variants; however, the actual implementation to convert genomic data into a clinical report integrated within an electronic medical record system is a major challenge for any hospital. We created a two-part solution that integrates with the medical record system and converts genetic variant results into an interpreted clinical report based on published guidelines. We successfully developed a scalable infrastructure to support TPMT genetic testing and are currently testing approximately two individuals per week in our production version. We plan to release an online variant to clinical interpretation reporting system in order to facilitate translation of pharmacogenetic information into clinical practice

Preliminary development and psychometric evaluation of an unmet needs measure for adolescents and young adults with cancer: the Cancer Needs Questionnaire - Young People (CNQ-YP)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adolescents and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors may have unique physical, psychological and social needs due to their cancer occurring at a critical phase of development. The aim of this study was to develop a psychometrically rigorous measure of unmet need to capture the specific needs of this group.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Items were developed following a comprehensive literature review, focus groups with AYAs, and feedback from health care providers, researchers and other professionals. The measure was pilot tested with 32 AYA cancer survivors recruited through a state-based cancer registry to establish face and content validity. A main sample of 139 AYA cancer patients and survivors were recruited through seven treatment centres and invited to complete the questionnaire. To establish test-retest reliability, a sub-sample of 34 participants completed the measure a second time. Exploratory factor analysis was performed and the measure was assessed for internal consistency, discriminative validity, potential responsiveness and acceptability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Cancer Needs Questionnaire - Young People (CNQ-YP) has established face and content validity, and acceptability. The final measure has 70 items and six factors: Treatment Environment and Care (33 items); Feelings and Relationships (14 items); Daily Life (12 items); Information and Activities (5 items); Education (3 items); and Work (3 items). All domains achieved Cronbach's alpha values greater than 0.80. Item-to-item test-retest reliability was also high, with all but four items reaching weighted kappa values above 0.60.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The CNQ-YP is the first multi-dimensional measure of unmet need which has been developed specifically for AYA cancer patients and survivors. The measure displays a strong factor structure, and excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability. However, the small sample size has implications for the reliability of the statistical analyses undertaken, particularly the exploratory factor analysis. Future studies with a larger sample are recommended to confirm the factor structure of the measure. Longitudinal studies to establish responsiveness and predictive validity should also be undertaken.</p

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Frequency for University of Kansas Medical Center Pediatric Patients

Background. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is recommendedfor all adolescents aged 11 to 12 years, but coveragein Kansas is exceptionally poor. To understand local coverage, receiptof the 3-dose HPV vaccine series among pediatric patients atthe University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) was evaluated. Methods. All patients aged 11 to 12 years who were seen by aKUMC primary care provider (family medicine and pediatrics)in 2013 were included in the retrospective chart review. Recordswere reviewed through December 31, 2014 to capture the numberof HPV doses received, and receipt of other recommendedvaccines (tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis and meningococcal conjugate).Pearson’s chi-squared tests were used to evaluate relationshipsbetween HPV vaccination and patient characteristics. Results. Of the 261 eligible females and 243 eligible males, 71.2%received ≥ 1 HPV vaccine dose, 55.2% received ≥ 2 doses, and39.3% completed the HPV vaccine series (3 doses). Although vaccineinitiation was slightly lower in males compared to females(67.1% vs. 75.1%, p = 0.047), no difference in vaccine completionwas seen between males and females (37.0% vs. 41.7%, p = 0.319).Over 80% of patients received other concurrently recommendedvaccines (Tdap: 81.7%, meningococcal: 81.3%). HPV series completionoccurred more often among Spanish-speaking femalescompared to English-speaking females (59.5% vs 37.7%; p &lt; 0.01).Conclusions. The proportion of adolescents who received theHPV vaccination at KUMC is substantially higher than nationaland state estimates, but there is room for improvement forboth initiation and series completion. KS J Med 2016;9(1):1-5

The European-Mediterranean Distributed Accelerometric Data-Base

International audienceWe created an archive for European acceleration data, based on distributed database of accelerogram waveforms, accessed through the new European Earthquake Data Portal (http://www.seismicportal.eu). Data are open to the scientific and engineering community. Currently the 6 core partners contribute data from 1,379 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from M1.0 to M7.4. Strong Motion Data are available with epicentral distances up to 1,000 km. Additionally, agencies are encouraged to contribute data. Waveforms included in the database are uniformly processed to create a set of engineering parameters that are used to search the database. In addition to the database, we compiled a survey of the existing accelerometric stations in the Euro-Mediterranean region. We expect this platform to be the basis for growing sharing of European Strong Motion Data in an open environment, in as near to real-time as is possible from network operators

The master sex-determination locus in threespine sticklebacks is on a nascent Y chromosome.

BACKGROUND: Many different environmental and genetic sex-determination mechanisms are found in nature. Closely related species can use different master sex-determination switches, suggesting that these developmental pathways can evolve very rapidly. Previous cytological studies suggest that recently diverged species of stickleback fish have different sex chromosome complements. Here, we investigate the genetic and chromosomal mechanisms that underlie sex determination in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). RESULTS: Genome-wide linkage mapping identifies a single chromosome region at the distal end of linkage group (LG) 19, which controls male or female sexual development in threespine sticklebacks. Although sex chromosomes are not cytogenetically visible in this species, several lines of evidence suggest that LG 19 is an evolving sex chromosome system, similar to the XX female/XY male system in many other species: (1) males are consistently heterozygous for unique alleles in this region; (2) recombination between loci linked to the sex-determination region is reduced in male meiosis relative to female meiosis; (3) sequence analysis of X- and Y-specific bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones from the sex-determination region reveals many sequence differences between the X- and Y-specific clones; and (4) the Y chromosome has accumulated transposable elements and local duplications. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our data suggest that threespine sticklebacks have a simple chromosomal mechanism for sex determination based on a nascent Y chromosome that is less than 10 million years old. Further analysis of the stickleback system will provide an exciting window into the evolution of sex-determination pathways and sex chromosomes in vertebrates