Ambient Air Toxic Releases and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Previous studies have shown that women exposed to certain air pollutants are at an increased risk for preterm delivery and/or delivering a low birth weight newborn. Preterm delivery and low birth weight are associated with an increased risk for morbidity and mortality. In an effort to better understand the impact of local environmental factors on pregnancy health, duration and outcomes, this study investigated the relationship of hazardous air pollutant chemicals released by local industries and the adverse pregnancy outcomes of preterm delivery and term low birth weight in Allegheny County, PA.This study included 2,798 singleton birth records for deliveries that occurred in Allegheny County in January through March of 2004. The Toxic Release Inventory provided data for 2003 fugitive and stack air releases of all facilities in Allegheny County reporting air releases of lead and toluene. This data was used for determining proxy maternal exposure measurements. ArcGIS software was used to calculate the distance from each maternal residence to each TRI facility. The distances and reported total pounds of release from each facility were then used to calculate a total lead and toluene exposure value for every birth record. Binary logistic regression was used to assess maternal characteristics' effects on birth outcomes. Chi square tests were used to assess maternal characteristics and levels of exposure to lead and toluene. Chi square tests and binary logistic regression were then used to assess pregnancy outcomes in relation to quartiles of exposure.This study found that mothers with certain age, race, education, and marital characteristics were significantly associated with lower exposure levels of lead and toluene. However, exposure to higher levels of lead or toluene, as measured in this study, was not significantly associated with an increased risk for preterm delivery or term low birth weight.Adverse pregnancy outcomes negatively impact an individual's immediate and lifelong health. Decreasing the incidence of preterm delivery and low birth weight are of great importance to public health. Research that helps to identify environmental determinants of adverse pregnancy outcomes is of vital public health significance

Training the Fetal Immune System Through Maternal Inflammation-A Layered Hygiene Hypothesis.

Over the last century, the alarming surge in allergy and autoimmune disease has led to the hypothesis that decreasing exposure to microbes, which has accompanied industrialization and modern life in the Western world, has fundamentally altered the immune response. In its current iteration, the "hygiene hypothesis" suggests that reduced microbial exposures during early life restricts the production and differentiation of immune cells suited for immune regulation. Although it is now well-appreciated that the increase in hypersensitivity disorders represents a "perfect storm" of many contributing factors, we argue here that two important considerations have rarely been explored. First, the window of microbial exposure that impacts immune development is not limited to early childhood, but likely extends into the womb. Second, restricted microbial interactions by an expectant mother will bias the fetal immune system toward hypersensitivity. Here, we extend this discussion to hypothesize that the cell types sensing microbial exposures include fetal hematopoietic stem cells, which drive long-lasting changes to immunity

Defining T Cell Tissue Residency in Humans: Implications for HIV Pathogenesis and Vaccine Design.

Purpose of review:This review summarizes recent literature defining tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) and discusses implications for HIV pathogenesis, vaccines, and eradication efforts.Recent findings:Investigations using animal models and human tissues have identified a TRM transcriptional profile and elucidated signals within the tissue microenvironment leading to TRM development and maintenance. TRM are major contributors to host response in infectious diseases and cancer; in addition, TRM contribute to pathogenic inflammation in a variety of settings. Although TRM are daunting to study in HIV infection, recent work has helped define their molecular signatures and effector functions and tested strategies for their mobilization. Exclusive reliance on blood sampling to gain an understanding of host immunity overlooks the contribution of TRM, which differ in significant ways from their counterparts in circulation. It is hoped that greater understanding of these cells will lead to novel approaches to prevent and/or eradicate HIV infection

To Serve and Deplete: Exploring Outcomes of Emotional Exhaustion in Servant Leadership and the Moderating Role of Self-Leadership

This study explores the outcomes of emotional exhaustion in servant leadership, a leadership style through which leaders enact influence by serving, empowering, and developing others—that is, \u27leading from behind.\u27 Drawing on conservation of resources theory, I explored how servant leadership behaviors may adversely affect the practicing leader through emotional exhaustion and laterally influence the subsequent outcomes of work disengagement and work–family conflict. Additionally, I investigated the moderating influence of self-leadership on the relationship between servant leadership and emotional exhaustion. I tested a moderated mediation model with regression analysis using two independent samples of organizational leaders surveyed at two different time points (Sample 1: N = 79; Sample 2: N = 379). The findings did not support a positive relationship between servant leadership and emotional exhaustion but did support positive relationships between emotional exhaustion and work disengagement, and emotional exhaustion and work–family conflict. Several limitations of the study are discussed, along with implications and future research directions

Motion events in Seri: Applying Talmy\u27s typologies

Leonard Talmy\u27s typologies of motion hypothesize that in a language\u27s depiction of Motion events, the semantic components of the event will find characteristic expression in consistent morphosyntactic structures. In the motion-actuating typology, the main verb in an event of Motion will characteristically conflate Motion with either the Path, Figure, or Manner of Motion. In the motion-framing typology, the Path component will characteristically appear in either the verb or the satellite to the verb. These typologies, proposed in their most cited forms in Talmy (1985) and Talmy (1991), have been applied over the years to dozens of languages, with varying degrees of success. Various researchers, notably Jon Aske and Dan Slobin, have proposed solutions to problems they perceived in the typologies. In this thesis, an analysis of the Motion events of Seri (a language of the Mexican state of Sonora) was conducted based on publicly available texts. Seri has a split system of conflation in the motion-actuating typology, with Path, Figure, and Manner verbs used in different types of Motion events; the use of Path verbs seems to be the most characteristic. Under Talmy\u27s criteria, the motion-framing type remains undetermined, but investigation using further guidelines reveals that Seri appears to be verb-framed. During the course of this analysis, however, a number of difficulties were encountered in the application of the typologies. First, the definition and diagnosis of a Motion event (and therefore of Motion verbs) was unclear. Second, the identification of satellites was complicated by the imprecise nature of that category. Third, the semantic components of a given morpheme were often impossible to identify outside of a construction. Therefore, and because of the inherent limitations of the typologies, a certain amount of caution is advised in their application, and several more interesting questions are proposed for the further exploration of the treatment of Motion in language