The Role of Functional, Social, and Mobility Dynamics in Facilitating Older African Americans Participation in Clinical Research

Purpose: Older African Americans experience disproportionately higher incidence of morbidity and mortality related to chronic and infectious diseases, yet are significantly underrepresented in clinical research compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This study aimed to understand the extent to which social support, transportation access, and physical impediments function as barriers or facilitators to clinical trial recruitment of older African Americans. Methods: Participants (N=221) were recruited from six African American churches in Atlanta and surveyed on various influences on clinical trial participation

Enrollment in YFV Vaccine Trial: An Evaluation of Recruitment Outcomes Associated with a Randomized Controlled Double-Blind Trial of a Live Attenuated Yellow Fever Vaccine

This investigation evaluated several factors associated with diverse participant enrollment of a clinical trial assessing safety, immunogenicity, and comparative viremia associated with administration of 17-D live, attenuated yellow fever vaccine given alone or in combination with human immune globulin. We obtained baseline participant information (e.g., sociodemographic, medical) and followed recruitment outcomes from 2005 to 2007. Of 355 potential Yellow Fever vaccine study participants, 231 cases were analyzed. Strong interest in study participation was observed among racial and ethnically diverse persons with 36.34% eligible following initial study screening, resulting in 18.75% enrollment. The percentage of white participants increased from 63.66% (prescreened sample) to 81.25% (enrollment group). The regression model was significant with white race as a predictor of enrollment (OR=2.744, 95% CI=1.415-5.320, p=0.003).In addition, persons were more likely to enroll via direct outreach and referral mechanisms compared to mass advertising (OR=2.433, 95% CI=1.102-5.369). The findings indicate that racially diverse populations can be recruited to vaccine clinical trials, yet actual enrollment may not reflect that diversit

Delivering a “Dose of Hope”: A Faith-Based Program to Increase Older African Americans’ Participation in Clinical Trials

Background: Underrepresentation of older-age racial and ethnic minorities in clinical research is a significant barrier to health in the United States, as it impedes medical research advancement of effective preventive and therapeutic strategies. Objective: The objective of the study was to develop and test the feasibility of a community-developed faith-based intervention and evaluate its potential to increase the number of older African Americans in clinical research. Methods: Using a cluster-randomized design, we worked with six matched churches to enroll at least 210 persons. We provided those in the intervention group churches with three educational sessions on the role of clinical trials in addressing health disparity topics, and those in the comparison group completed surveys at the same timepoints. All persons enrolled in the study received ongoing information via newsletters and direct outreach on an array of clinical studies seeking participants. We evaluated the short-, mid-, and longer-term effects of the interventional program on clinical trial-related outcomes (ie, screening and enrollment)

Strange Attractors

Catalog for the exhibition Strange Attractors held at the Seton Hall University Walsh Gallery, January 16 - March 8, 2019. Curated by Taney Roniger and Jeanne Brasile

The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: All collapsed and paired-end sequence data for samples sequenced in this study are available in compressed fastq format through the European Nucleotide Archive under accession number PRJEB44430, together with rescaled and trimmed bam sequence alignments against both the nuclear and mitochondrial horse reference genomes. Previously published ancient data used in this study are available under accession numbers PRJEB7537, PRJEB10098, PRJEB10854, PRJEB22390 and PRJEB31613, and detailed in Supplementary Table 1. The genomes of ten modern horses, publicly available, were also accessed as indicated in their corresponding original publications57,61,85-87.NOTE: see the published version available via the DOI in this record for the full list of authorsDomestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 BC, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture