Does nativity matter?

The Russian Federation has experienced simultaneous declines in health and rises in international migration. Guided by the “healthy migrant effect†found elsewhere, we examine two questions. First, do the foreign-born in the Russian Federation exhibit better overall health than the native-born? Second, to the extent positive health selectivity exists, is it transferred to the second generation? Using the first wave of the Russian Generations and Gender Survey, our findings support the idea of positive health selection among international migrants from non-Slavic regions. The effect of migrant status, regardless of origin, diminishes when age, sex, and native language are taken into account.education, health, language, migration, Russian Federation, second generation, sex

The impact of increasing education levels on rising life expectancy: a decomposition analysis for Italy, Denmark, and the USA

Abstract Significant reductions in mortality are reflected in strong increases in life expectancy particularly in industrialized countries. Previous analyses relate these improvements primarily to medical innovations and advances in health-related behaviors. Mostly ignored, however, is the question to what extent the gains in life expectancy are related to structural changes in the populations due to increasing education levels. We decompose changes of the total populations' life expectancy at age 30 in Italy, Denmark, and the USA, over the 20-year period between 1990 and 2010 into the effects of education-specific mortality changes ("M effect") and changes in the populations' educational structure ("P effect"). We use the "replacement decomposition technique" to further subdivide the M effect into the contributions by the individual education groups. While most of the increases in life expectancy are due to the effect of changing mortality, a large proportion of improvements in longevity can indeed be attributed to the changing structure of the population by level of education in all three countries. The estimated contribution of the P effect ranges from around 15% for men in the USA to approximately 40% for women in Denmark. This study demonstrates strong associations between education and overall population health, suggesting that education policies can also be seen as indirect health policies

Subset- and tissue-defined STAT5 thresholds control homeostasis and function of innate lymphoid cells

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) patrol environmental interfaces to defend against infection and protect barrier integrity. Using a genetic tuning model, we demonstrate that the signal-dependent transcription factor (TF) STAT5 is critical for accumulation of all known ILC subsets in mice and reveal a hierarchy of STAT5 dependency for populating lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues. We apply transcriptome and genomic distribution analyses to define a STAT5 gene signature in natural killer (NK) cells, the prototypical ILC subset, and provide a systems-based molecular rationale for its key functions downstream of IL-15. We also uncover surprising features of STAT5 behavior, most notably the wholesale redistribution that occurs when NK cells shift from tonic signaling to acute cytokine-driven signaling, and genome-wide coordination with T-bet, another key TF in ILC biology. Collectively, our data position STAT5 as a central node in the TF network that instructs ILC development, homeostasis, and function and provide mechanistic insights on how it works at cellular and molecular levels

The social consequences of the fall of Communism : a sociological analysis of the health crisis in Eastern Europe

textSociological interest in the relationship between the social structure and health began with the classic work of Durkheim, who first identified socially constructed patterns of suicide rates in Western European countries. Drawing on this structural tradition, a large literature has investigated how health is influenced and shaped by societal factors. Despite a great deal of research on the social causation of health, however, the potentially adverse effects of social structures have been rarely studied. If people's health is linked to broader social conditions, then it follows that health is also subject to societal disruption, especially in the wake of the breakdown or failure of the existing social structure. This dissertation advances our understanding of the relationship between the social structure and health at the population level, focusing on post-communist Eastern Europe as a case study. There are three interrelated goals in this dissertation: first, to elucidate differences in health and mortality outcomes between East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union; second, to numerically substantiate the association between drastic social change and the risk of death due to suicide; and third, to reveal the structural factors related to overall population health status in Eastern Europe. Using aggregate-level data for Eastern European countries for the post-communist period, I find that (1) there are growing inequalities in life expectancy and infant mortality between East Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, and mechanisms associated with disparities vary by gender and age; (2) consistent with Durkheim's theory of suicide, drastic structural change is related to increased suicide death rates for the period immediately after the collapse of communism; and (3) the malfunctioning of the social structure is inversely associated with the health status of populations. Taken together, fully understanding the health consequences of communism's fall in Eastern Europe requires research that looks beyond individual-level risk factors to incorporate the broader characteristics of the social structure in which populations are embedded.Sociolog

Modified DNA Aptamers for C-Reactive Protein and Lactate Dehydrogenase-5 with Sub-Nanomolar Affinities

Human C-reactive protein (CRP) and lactate dehydrogenase are important markers in clinical laboratory testing—the former is used to detect in vivo inflammation, and the latter is used to detect cell necrosis and tissue destruction. We developed aptamers that bind to human CRP and human lactate dehydrogenase-5 (LDH-5) with high affinities (dissociation constants of 6.2 pM and 235 pM, respectively), applying the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) method, and by using a modified DNA library containing the following base-appended base modifications: analog adenine derivative at the fifth position of uracil (Uad), analog guanine derivative at the fifth position of uracil (Ugu), and analog adenine derivative at the seventh position of adenine (Aad). A potential application of these aptamers as sensor elements includes high-sensitivity target detection in point-of-care testing

Does Nativity Matter? Correlates of Immigrant Health by Generation in the Russian Federation

The Russian Federation has experienced simultaneous declines in health and rises in international migration. Guided by the “healthy migrant effect” found elsewhere, we examine two questions. First, do the foreign-born in the Russian Federation exhibit better overall health than the native-born? Second, to the extent positive health selectivity exists, is it transferred to the second generation? Using the first wave of the Russian Generations and Gender Survey, our findings support the idea of positive health selection among international migrants from non-Slavic regions. The effect of migrant status, regardless of origin, diminishes when age, sex, and native language are taken into account.Sociolog