J. EDGAR HOOVER AND THE RHETORICAL RISE OF THE FBI: THE PUBLIC CAMPAIGNS AGAINST VERMIN, THE FIFTH COLUMN, AND RED FASCISM.

This project examines J. Edgar Hoover's rhetorical leadership of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman administrations (1933-1953). Hoover launched and sustained a concerted domestic propaganda program that helped enhance his own political power and invented the FBI as a central force in domestic and international matters. In the process, he re-envisioned conceptions of U.S. citizenship by promoting notions of idealized citizenship. Hoover entered law enforcement and U.S. politics during the early decades of the twentieth century--a time of increased use of public campaigns sponsored by the U.S. government and presidential administrations to alter public opinion on important policy matters. This period witnessed, for example, the country's experimentation with domestic propaganda during World War I. While the Soviet Union and Germany used disease, vermin, parasite, and body metaphors to organize their own domestic propaganda campaigns in the following decades, Hoover used these same metaphors to advance the need to purify America and exterminate its social pariah. Through his public campaigns against vermin (1933-1939), the Fifth Column (1939-1945), and Red Fascism (1945-1953), Hoover constructed a reality in which corruption and subversion were immutable elements of democratic life. Increasingly, Hoover's tactics of threat and intimidation began to mimic the tactics of threat practiced by America's enemies, moving the country closer to what many at the time called a police state. Hoover's coupling of propaganda and coercive tactics ultimately helped him to rapidly expand the FBI and undermine his superiors and counterparts in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Whereas Roosevelt benefited politically from building up a secret police force, Truman inherited a cunning FBI director eager to use his power to expand and exploit the rhetorical presidency during the Red Scare

Pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent the acquisition of HIV-1 infection (PROUD) : effectiveness results from the pilot phase of a pragmatic open-label randomised trial

Background Randomised placebo-controlled trials have shown that daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir-emtricitabine reduces the risk of HIV infection. However, this benefit could be counteracted by risk compensation in users of PrEP. We did the PROUD study to assess this effect. Methods PROUD is an open-label randomised trial done at 13 sexual health clinics in England. We enrolled HIV-negative gay and other men who have sex with men who had had anal intercourse without a condom in the previous 90 days. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive daily combined tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (245 mg) and emtricitabine (200 mg) either immediately or after a deferral period of 1 year. Randomisation was done via web-based access to a central computer-generated list with variable block sizes (stratified by clinical site). Follow-up was quarterly. The primary outcomes for the pilot phase were time to accrue 500 participants and retention; secondary outcomes included incident HIV infection during the deferral period, safety, adherence, and risk compensation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN (number ISRCTN94465371) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02065986). Findings We enrolled 544 participants (275 in the immediate group, 269 in the deferred group) between Nov 29, 2012, and April 30, 2014. Based on early evidence of effectiveness, the trial steering committee recommended on Oct 13, 2014, that all deferred participants be offered PrEP. Follow-up for HIV incidence was complete for 243 (94%) of 259 patient-years in the immediate group versus 222 (90%) of 245 patient-years in the deferred group. Three HIV infections occurred in the immediate group (1·2/100 person-years) versus 20 in the deferred group (9·0/100 person-years) despite 174 prescriptions of post-exposure prophylaxis in the deferred group (relative reduction 86%, 90% CI 64-96, p=0·0001; absolute difference 7·8/100 person-years, 90% CI 4·3-11·3). 13 men (90% CI 9-23) in a similar population would need access to 1 year of PrEP to avert one HIV infection. We recorded no serious adverse drug reactions; 28 adverse events, most commonly nausea, headache, and arthralgia, resulted in interruption of PrEp. We detected no difference in the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections, including rectal gonorrhoea and chlamydia, between groups, despite a suggestion of risk compensation among some PrEP recipients. Interpretation In this high incidence population, daily tenofovir-emtricitabine conferred even higher protection against HIV than in placebo-controlled trials, refuting concerns that effectiveness would be less in a real-world setting. There was no evidence of an increase in other sexually transmitted infections. Our findings strongly support the addition of PrEP to the standard of prevention for men who have sex with men at risk of HIV infection. Funding MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, Public Health England, and Gilead Sciences

New binary polymorphisms reshape and increase resolution of the human Y chromosomal haplogroup tree

Markers on the non-recombining portion of the human Y chromosome continue to have applications in many fields including evolutionary biology, forensics, medical genetics, and genealogical reconstruction. In 2002, the Y Chromosome Consortium published a single parsimony tree showing the relationships among 153 haplogroups based on 243 binary markers and devised a standardized nomenclature system to name lineages nested within this tree. Here we present an extensively revised Y chromosome tree containing 311 distinct haplogroups, including two new major haplogroups (S and T), and incorporating approximately 600 binary markers. We describe major changes in the topology of the parsimony tree and provide names for new and rearranged lineages within the tree following the rules presented by the Y Chromosome Consortium in 2002. Several changes in the tree topology have important implications for studies of human ancestry. We also present demography-independent age estimates for 11 of the major clades in the new Y chromosome tree

A phase 1/11 study of pemetrexed and vinorelbine in patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Purpose: Pemetrexed and vinorelbine are active antineoplastic agents in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Phase I objectives include maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and recommended phase II dose determination, and pharmacokinetics of the pemetrexed-vinorelbine doublet in locally advanced or metastatic solid tumor patients (pts). Phase II objectives include tumor response evaluation, efficacy, and toxicity for first-line treatment of advanced NSCLC. Experimental design: Phase I pts received pemetrexed (day 1, 300-700 mg/m2) and vinorelbine (days 1 and 8, 15-30 mg/m2) every 21 days. Pharmacokinetics determined at cycle 1. Beginning with dose-level 3, folic acid and Vitamin B12 supplementation were given. Results: Thirty-one phase I pts were enrolled. MTD was pemetrexed 700 mg/m2 and vinorelbine 30 mg/m2; and recommended phase II dose was pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 and vinorelbine 30 mg/m2. When administered in combination, pemetrexed and vinorelbine pharmacokinetics were consistent with single-agent administration. Thirty-seven (36 chemonaive) phase II NSCLC pts received pemetrexed-vinorelbine. Evaluable tumor response was 40%, with intent-to-treat 38%. One drug-related death occurred from febrile neutropenia with Staphylococcal infection. Grade 3/4 hematologic toxicities were neutropenia (65%) and febrile neutropenia (11%), while prevalent grade 3/4 non-hematologic toxicity was fatigue (27%). Conclusion: The pemetrexed-vinorelbine combination is well tolerated and shows activity as first-line treatment in advanced NSCLC patients

A Predominantly Indigenous Paternal Heritage for the Austronesian-Speaking Peoples of Insular Southeast Asia and Oceania

Modern humans reached Southeast Asia and Oceania in one of the first dispersals out of Africa. The resulting temporal overlap of modern and archaic humans—and the apparent morphological continuity between them—has led to claims of gene flow between Homo sapiens and H. erectus. Much more recently, an agricultural technology from mainland Asia spread into the region, possibly in association with Austronesian languages. Using detailed genealogical study of Y chromosome variation, we show that the majority of current Austronesian speakers trace their paternal heritage to Pleistocene settlers in the region, as opposed to more-recent agricultural immigrants. A fraction of the paternal heritage, however, appears to be associated with more-recent immigrants from northern populations. We also show that the northern Neolithic component is very unevenly dispersed through the region, with a higher contribution in Southeast Asia and a nearly complete absence in Melanesia. Contrary to claims of gene flow (under regional continuity) between H. erectus and H. sapiens, we found no ancestral Y chromosome lineages in a set of 1,209 samples. The finding excludes the possibility that early hominids contributed significantly to the paternal heritage of the region

Associations between Smoking and Alcohol and Follicular Lymphoma Incidence and Survival: A Family-Based Case-Control Study in Australia

The association between smoking and alcohol consumption and follicular lymphoma (FL) incidence and clinical outcome is uncertain. We conducted a population-based family case-control study (709 cases: 490 controls) in Australia. We assessed lifetime history of smoking and recent alcohol consumption and followed-up cases (median = 83 months). We examined associations with FL risk using unconditional logistic regression and with all-cause and FL-specific mortality of cases using Cox regression. FL risk was associated with ever smoking (OR = 1.38, 95%CI = 1.08–1.74), former smoking (OR = 1.36, 95%CI = 1.05–1.77), smoking initiation before age 17 (OR = 1.47, 95%CI = 1.06–2.05), the highest categories of cigarettes smoked per day (OR = 1.44, 95%CI = 1.04–2.01), smoking duration (OR = 1.53, 95%CI = 1.07–2.18) and pack-years (OR = 1.56, 95%CI = 1.10–2.22). For never smokers, FL risk increased for those exposed indoors to >2 smokers during childhood (OR = 1.84, 95%CI = 1.11–3.04). For cases, current smoking and the highest categories of smoking duration and lifetime cigarette exposure were associated with elevated all-cause mortality. The hazard ratio for current smoking and FL-specific mortality was 2.97 (95%CI = 0.91–9.72). We found no association between recent alcohol consumption and FL risk, all-cause or FL-specific mortality. Our study showed consistent evidence of an association between smoking and increased FL risk and possibly also FL-specific mortality. Strengthening anti-smoking policies and interventions may reduce the population burden of FL

The optical design and performance of TolTEC: a millimeter-wave imaging polarimeter

TolTEC is an imaging polarimeter that will be mounted on the 50m diameter Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) in Mexico. This camera simultaneously images the focal plane at three wavebands centered at 1.1, 1.4, and 2.0mm. TolTEC combines polarization-sensitive Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) with the LMT to produce 5-10 arcmin resolution maps of the sky in both total intensity and polarization. The light from the telescope is coupled to the TolTEC instrument using three room temperature mirrors. Before entering the cryostat, the light passes through a rapid-spinning achromatic half-wave plate, and once inside it passes through a 1 K Lyot stop that controls the telescope illumination. Inside the cryostat, a series of aluminum mirrors, silicon lenses, and dichroic filters split the light into three wavelength bands and direct each band to a different detector array. We will describe the design, and performance of the optics before installation at the telescope