Healthcare Reform in Latino Rhode Island: Perspectives of Spanish speakers and Insurance Navigators

Latinos have the highest uninsurance rates of any ethnic or racial group in the US despite recent health insurance expansion reform. In addition to immigration and language barriers, health literacy and attitudes may impact coverage disparities. Focus groups with Spanish-speaking community members and semi-structured interviews with health insurance navigators were conducted to explore knowledge, awareness, and attitudes towards healthcare reform among Latinos in Rhode Island. Sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed employing standard qualitative methods. Thirty-two focus group participants and six navigators were enrolled in the study. Spanish-speaking participants demonstrated limited knowledge of the cost implications of the Medicaid Expansion and of the role of health insurance exchanges. Common misconceptions included that insurance costs would increase regardless of income, that enrollment would compromise green card and citizenship applications, that documented non-permanent residents would be ineligible for subsidies, and that reform benefits would apply to undocumented workers. Our findings suggest that local initiatives and providers should target Latinos in a culturally sensitive manner to increase literacy regarding insurance eligibility, affordability, points of access as well as to address misconceptions related to insurance eligibility for documented immigrants

Noether's theorem and gauge transformations. Application to the bosonic string and CP(2,n-1) model

New results on the theory of constrained systems are applied to characterize the generators of Noethers symmetry transformations. As a byproduct, an algorithm to construct gauge transformations in Hamiltonian formalism is derived. This is illustrated with two relevant examples

Control of cell adhesion and compartmentalization in the intestinal epithelium

Continuous cell renewal in the intestinal mucosa occurs without disrupting the integrity of the epithelial layer. Despite the restrictions imposed by strong cell-to-cell adhesions, epithelial intestinal cells migrate constantly between tissue compartments. Alterations in cell adhesion and compartmentalization play key roles in diseases of the intestine. In particular, decreased E-cadherin-mediated adhesion during inflammatory bowel disease and loss of EphB/ephrin-B-mediated compartmentalization in colorectal cancer have recently emerged as key players of these prevalent pathologies. Here we will review our current knowledge on how cell-to-cell adhesion, migration and cell positioning are coordinated in the intestinal epithelium. We will highlight what the in vivo genetic analysis of intestinal epithelium has taught us about the complex regulation of cell adhesion and migration in homeostasis and disease. © 2011 Elsevier Inc

Cancer stem cells revisited

© 2017 Nature America, Inc., part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. The cancer stem cell (CSC) concept was proposed four decades ago, and states that tumor growth, analogous to the renewal of healthy tissues, is fueled by small numbers of dedicated stem cells. It has gradually become clear that many tumors harbor CSCs in dedicated niches, and yet their identification and eradication has not been as obvious as was initially hoped. Recently developed lineage-tracing and cell-ablation strategies have provided insights into CSC plasticity, quiescence, renewal, and therapeutic response. Here we discuss new developments in the CSC field in relationship to changing insights into how normal stem cells maintain healthy tissues. Expectations in the field have become more realistic, and now, the first successes of therapies based on the CSC concept are emerging

Temperature dependence of the magnetization processes in Co/Al oxide/Permalloy trilayers

The magnetization process of Co/Al oxide/Py trilayers and its evolution with the temperature have been analyzed. The particular behavior of the Co layers, including the shift of the hysteresis loops and a coercivity increase with the decrease of temperature, is related with the apparition of a CoO layer at the Co/Al-oxide interface

Evaluation of susceptibility of pear and plum varieties and rootstocks to Ca. P. pyri and Ca. P. prunorum using Real-Time PCR

Real-time PCR was used to quantify phytoplasma concentration in fifty inoculated trees from five Prunus rootstocks and in forty-eight symptomatic pear and Japanese plum trees from orchards. Seasonal fluctuation of Ca. P. prunorum in different Prunus rootstocks, over three years, showed that the highest percentage detected by nested-PCR was in the ‘Garnem’ rootstock on nearly all sampling dates. Intra-varietal differences were also observed. Phytoplasma titer could be estimated by real time PCR in some trees of the rootstocks ‘Garnem’, ‘Barrier’, ‘GF-677’ and ‘Marianna’, and ranged from 4.7x105 to 3.18x109 phytoplasmas per gram of tissue. Quantification by real-time PCR was not possible in the ‘Cadaman’ trees analyzed, probably due to a lower phytoplasma titer in this variety. Samples from infected trees from commercial plots had different phytoplasma concentration and detection percentage depending on the variety, both being lower in ‘Fortune’ and ‘606’ Japanese plum and in ‘Blanquilla’ pear trees.Keywords: Candidatus Phytoplasma pyri, Candidatus Phytoplasma prunorum, real time PCR, detectio

Detection of flavescence dorée phytoplasma in grapevine in northern Spain

Research NoteGrapevine yellows diseased stocks were observed in vineyards of the Alt Emporda area, northern Spain. Phytoplasma was detected and characterized by PCR-RFLP in the region of the 16S rDNA of phytoplasmas or by ELISA. For the first time a FD phytoplasma was detected in Spain

Divergence of the dielectric constant in ultrathin granular metal films near the percolation threshold

We report on the electronic and optical properties of ultrathin granular films. We demonstrate that the static dielectric constant increases with thickness in the dielectric regime and diverges at the critical thickness, as predicted by classical percolation theory. However, for thicker samples, the dc conductivity does not obey scaling laws due to the presence of tunneling conduction. In this region the dielectric constant is positive, and the electronic transport is not metallic but can be described by Jonscher's universal power law, even though there is a Drude-like response indicating the presence of free charge carriers. Only for thicker films when the dielectric constant becomes negative is there metallic conduction