Putting Health Equity Front and Center in Community Health Improvement by Empowering, Listening to, and Respecting Community Voices

In 2016, the Worcester Division of Public Health, Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester (CHGW), UMass Memorial and Fallon Health, released the 2016 Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). The CHIP spans nine priority areas, with 31 objectives and 100 strategies with measurable outcomes. The focus is on social determinants of health, with health equity as the overarching goal. This goal will only be achieved if we empower, listen to, and respect community voices throughout the CHIP implementation process. CHGW presents a mechanism for community participation. A community-based structure which is open, transparent, and provides support in all areas of implementation, is being developed. A Steering Committee of residents and representatives from different sectors provides overall direction. Subcommittees provide support in each of four areas - community engagement, resource and development, research and evaluation, and policy and advocacy. Quarterly meetings in each priority area provide structure for reporting progress being made and requesting support. The Community Engagement subcommittee will work to build and maintain participation for each group which is universally inclusive and representative of the diverse organizations and residents of the region. The group will create a plan for ongoing community engagement at each stage of the process and in each focus area. The Research and Evaluation subcommittee, in addition to measuring progress for each strategy, will develop benchmarks for evaluating community engagement. We anticipate improved progress toward CHIP outcomes as the community becomes more involved and is more representative of the population, driving momentum toward health equity

'CULTURAL EVOLUTION' . . .

From the Rice Thresher Archive, a collection of newspaper articles published in the student newspaper for Rice University. Genre: New

Rice Girls Attack Metcalfe's Poems

From the Rice Thresher Archive, a collection of newspaper articles published in the student newspaper for Rice University. Genre: New

ANCIENT BAZAARS, NEW SKYSCRAPERS . . .

From the Rice Thresher Archive, a collection of newspaper articles published in the student newspaper for Rice University. Genre: New

Rorschach Discusses Physics' Relation To Human Experience

From the Rice Thresher Archive, a collection of newspaper articles published in the student newspaper for Rice University. Genre: New

NOBLESSE OBLIGE?

From the Rice Thresher Archive, a collection of newspaper articles published in the student newspaper for Rice University. Genre: New

Williams Sketches Students Since 20'S

From the Rice Thresher Archive, a collection of newspaper articles published in the student newspaper for Rice University. Genre: New

The behavioral effects of chronic sugar and/or caffeine consumption in adult and adolescent rats

Caffeine is a psychostimulant frequently consumed by adults and children, often in combination with high levels of sugar. Chronic pretreatment with either substance can amplify both amphetamine and cocaine-induced hyperactivity in rodents. The present study sought to elucidate whether age at the time of exposure to sugar and/or caffeine alters sensitivity to an acute illicit psychostimulant (methamphetamine, [METH]) challenge in adulthood. Adult and adolescent (Postnatal Day 35 on first day of treatment) male Sprague–Dawley rats were treated for 26 days with water, caffeine (0.6 g/L), 10% sucrose or their combination. Locomotor behavior was measured on the first and last day of treatment. Following 9-days treatment free, animals were challenged with saline (1 ml/kg, i.p.) or METH (1 mg/kg, i.p.) and locomotor activity was measured. During the treatment period, adolescent rats maintained a higher caffeine (mg/kg) dose than their adult counterparts. Adding sugar to caffeine increased adolescent consumption and the highest caffeine dose consumed was measured in these animals. Drinking sugarsweetened caffeinated water or combination did not produce cross-sensitization to METH administration in either age group. Nevertheless, the finding that regular exposure through adolescence to caffeinated sugar-sweetened beverages could increase consumption of caffeine and sugar later in life is important, as there is a large body of evidence that has linked excess consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to a broad range of other negative physical and mental health outcomes

Critical Energy Justice in US Natural Gas Infrastructuring

We employ infrastructuring as a verb to highlight contested processes of infrastructure expansion to extract, store, transport, and transform natural gas (into liquefied natural gas, LNG). As faculty members and students embedded in mid-Atlantic universities in the United States (US), we conducted participatory action research to record nearby infrastructuring for Dominion Energy\u27s Cove Point LNG Export Terminal and Atlantic Coast Pipeline. We documented how frontline and impacted populations seized opportunities when infrastructuring was visible to challenge and erode the excessive economic and political power of Dominion, one of the US\u27s largest energy providers, who sought to maintain regulatory privilege through lobbying, campaign contributions, and delegitimization of public health and environmental risks. Extending Tsing\u27s concept of frictions (i.e., engagement in difference-based encounters), we highlight (1) coalition-building among unlikely allies (collective encounters), and (2) conflictive interactions between pro and anti-gas stakeholders (oppositional encounters). Impacted populations collaborated with proximate and distant allies to publicize and legally challenge distributional, regulatory, racial and other forms of injustice from gas infrastructuring. Our critical energy justice (CEJ) framework helps to identify and defend interconnected components of justice under threat due to profit-oriented global gas infrastructuring based upon reckless disregard for climate science and public health

Quantitative proteomic analysis of the orbital frontal cortex in rats following extended exposure to caffeine reveals extensive changes to protein expression : implications for neurological disease

Caffeine is a plant-derived psychostimulant and a common additive found in a wide range of foods and pharmaceuticals. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is rapidly activated by flavours, integrates gustatory and olfactory information, and plays a critical role in decision-making, with dysfunction contributing to psychopathologies and neurodegenerative conditions. This study investigated whether long-term consumption of caffeine causes changes to behavior and protein expression in the OFC. Male adult Sprague−Dawley rats (n=8 per group) were treated for 26 days with either water or a 0.6 g/L caffeine solution. Locomotor behavior was measured on the first and last day of treatment, then again after 9 days treatment free following exposure to a mild stressor. When tested drug free, caffeine-treated animals were hyperactive compared to controls. Two hours following final behavioral testing, brains were rapidly removed and prepared for proteomic analysis of the OFC. Label free shotgun proteomics found 157 proteins differentially expressed in the caffeine-drinking rats compared to control. Major proteomic effects were seen for cell-to-cell communication, cytoskeletal regulation, and mitochondrial function. Similar changes have been observed in neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia