Predictors of Food Insecurity and Childhood Hunger in the Bronx During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Using a community-based participatory research approach, we conducted a survey of 218 food pantry recipients in the south Bronx to determine predictors of food insecurity and childhood hunger. In adjusted multiple regression models, statistically significant risk factors for food insecurity included: having one or more children and not having health insurance. Statistically significant protectors against childhood hunger were: having a graduate degree, having health insurance and Spanish being spoken at home.

Intraurban socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy: a population-based cross-sectional analysis in the city of Córdoba, Argentina (2015-2018).

Objectives: To evaluate variability in life expectancy at birth in small areas, describe the spatial pattern of life expectancy, and examine associations between small-area socioeconomic characteristics and life expectancy in a mid-sized city of a middle-income country.

Design: Cross-sectional, using data from death registries (2015-2018) and socioeconomic characteristics data from the 2010 national population census.

Participants/setting: 40 898 death records in 99 small areas of the city of Córdoba, Argentina.

Expression of Inhibitory Receptors TIGIT, TIM-3, and LAG-3 on CD4+ T Cells from Patients with Different Clinical Forms of Chronic Chagas Disease.

T cells are central to the adaptive immune response against Trypanosoma cruzi infection. In chronic Chagas disease (CCD), circulating parasite-specific memory T cells show reduced functionality and increased expression of inhibitory receptors as a result of persistent antigenic stimulation. This phenotype has been linked to progression of cardiac pathology, whereas the presence of polyfunctional T cells shows association with therapeutic success.

Is it the Sermon or the Choir? Pastoral Support, Congregant Support, and Worshiper Mental Health.

Background: Although religious involvement tends to be associated with improved mental health, additional work is needed to identify the specific aspects of religious practice that are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Our study advances the literature by investigating how two unique forms of religious social support are associated with mental health.

Purpose: We explore whether support received in religious settings from fellow congregants or religious leaders is associated with participants' mental health.

Coping with an Evil World: Contextualizing the Stress-Buffering Role of Scripture Reading.

This research note advances the religious coping literature by testing whether belief in an evil world conditions the stress-moderating role of scripture reading. Hypotheses are tested with original data from a survey of Black, Hispanic, and White American churchgoers from South Texas (2017-2018; n = 1,115). Our findings show that reading scripture for insights into the future attenuates the positive association between major life events and psychological distress, but only for congregants who do not believe the world is fundamentally evil and sinful.

Genetic polymorphism of Trypanosoma cruzi bloodstream populations in adult chronic indeterminate Chagas disease patients from the E1224 clinical trial.

Background: The role that the genetic diversity of natural Trypanosoma cruzi populations plays in response to trypanocidal treatment of chronic Chagas disease (CD) patients remains to be understood. We analysed the genetic polymorphisms of parasite bloodstream populations infecting chronic CD patients enrolled in the E1224 clinical trial.

Methods: A total of 506 baseline and post-treatment follow-up samples from 188 patients were analysed.

T Cell Specificity: A Great Challenge in Chagas Disease.

The CD4 and CD8 T cell immune response against , the parasite causing Chagas disease, are relevant for both parasite control and disease pathogenesis. Several studies have been focused on their phenotype and functionally, but only a few have drilled down to identify the parasite proteins that are processed and presented to these cells, especially to CD4 T lymphocytes. Although approximately 10,000 proteins are encoded per haploid genome, fewer than 200 T cell epitopes from 49 proteins have been identified so far.

Passive and active immunity in infants born to mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy: prospective cohort study.

Objective: To investigate maternal immunoglobulins' (IgM, IgG) response to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and IgG transplacental transfer, to characterise neonatal antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to longitudinally follow actively and passively acquired antibodies in infants.

Design: A prospective observational study.

Setting: Public healthcare system in Santa Clara County (California, USA).

Passive and active immunity in infants born to mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy: Prospective cohort study.

Objective: To investigate maternal immunoglobulins' (IgM, IgG) response to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy and IgG transplacental transfer, to characterize neonatal antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and to longitudinally follow actively- and passively-acquired SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in infants.

Design: A prospective observational study.

Setting: A public healthcare system in Santa Clara County (CA, USA).

Ex vivo characterization of Breg cells in patients with chronic Chagas disease.

Despite the growing importance of the regulatory function of B cells in many infectious diseases, their immunosuppressive role remains elusive in chronic Chagas disease (CCD). Here, we studied the proportion of different B cell subsets and their capacity to secrete IL-10 ex vivo in peripheral blood from patients with or without CCD cardiomyopathy. First, we immunophenotyped peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients according to the expression of markers CD19, CD24, CD38 and CD27 and we showed an expansion of total B cell and transitional CD24CD38 B cell subsets in CCD patients with cardiac involvement compared to non-infected donors.

In Silico Guided Discovery of Novel Class I and II Epitopes Recognized by T Cells from Chagas' Disease Patients.

T cell-mediated immune response plays a crucial role in controlling infection and parasite burden, but it is also involved in the clinical onset and progression of chronic Chagas' disease. Therefore, the study of T cells is central to the understanding of the immune response against the parasite and its implications for the infected organism. The complexity of the parasite-host interactions hampers the identification and characterization of T cell-activating epitopes.

Sleep quality among college students: exploring the role of a divine locus of sleep control.

Objectives: To explore (a) how perceptions of personal and divine control over one's sleep schedule combine in distinct ways to predict sleep quality among college students and (b) whether health behaviors and psychological distress mediate the associations between perceptions of sleep control and sleep quality.

Methods: We surveyed 1251 students attending a public university in South Texas. All measures were derived from self-reports.

Generation of T. cruzi-Specific Primary CD4 T Cell Lines from Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Isolated from Chagas Disease Patients.

Human CD8 and CD4 T cell lines and clones are valuable tools to explore the role of these cells in the context of diseases, especially in cases in which the main underlying actor is the immune response, like Chagas disease. These cell lines and clones provide a good experimental system to address the phenotypic and functional features of specific T cell subpopulations and furthermore settle the framework necessary for analyzing their antigen/peptide specificity.This chapter details a culture method for the establishment of T.

The Unsolved Jigsaw Puzzle of the Immune Response in Chagas Disease.

interacts with the different arms of the innate and adaptive host's immune response in a very complex and flowery manner. The history of host-parasite co-evolution has provided this protozoan with means of resisting, escaping or subverting the mechanisms of immunity and establishing a chronic infection. Despite many decades of research on the subject, the infection remains incurable, and the factors that steer chronic Chagas disease from an asymptomatic state to clinical onset are still unclear.

Evaluation of the immune response against Trypanosoma cruzi cytosolic tryparedoxin peroxidase in human natural infection.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the aetiological agent of Chagas disease, has a highly efficient detoxification system to deal with the oxidative burst imposed by its host. One of the antioxidant enzymes involved is the cytosolic tryparedoxin peroxidase (c-TXNPx), which catalyses the reduction to hydrogen peroxide, small-chain organic hydroperoxides and peroxynitrite. This enzyme is present in all parasite stages, and its overexpression renders parasites more resistant to the oxidative defences of macrophages, favouring parasite survival.

Clinical Neurophysiology Training in a Developing Country: Institutional Resources and Profiles.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics and preferences of clinical neurophysiology (CN) fellows, as well as the resources available for their training, in a developing country such as Mexico.

Methods: An online survey (25 questions) was given to Mexican CN fellows from May to June 2017, covering their reasons for choosing the CN subspecialty, their activities, future plans, institutional resources, and administrative staff. Descriptive statistics were used.

Preparing for a trial to test a postpartum weight retention intervention among low income women: feasibility of a protocol in a community-based organization.

Background: Postpartum weight retention (PPWR) causes intergenerational harm, negatively affecting a mother's cardiovascular health and ability to have future healthy pregnancies. Low-income minority women are at highest risk for PPWR with little guidance concerning timeline or strategy to lose weight after delivery. An academic-community partnership conducted observational and focus group work to develop an intervention for PPWR among low-income mothers.

The small-molecule MERTK inhibitor UNC2025 decreases platelet activation and prevents thrombosis.

Unlabelled: Essentials Signaling by Gas6 through Tyro3/Axl/Mer receptors is essential for stable platelet aggregation. UNC2025 is a small molecule inhibitor of the Mer tyrosine kinase. UNC2025 decreases platelet activation in vitro and thrombus formation in vivo.

Correction: Methodological approach to the ex vivo expansion and detection of T. cruzi-specific T cells from chronic Chagas disease patients.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Methodological approach to the ex vivo expansion and detection of T. cruzi-specific T cells from chronic Chagas disease patients.

The discovery of T cell epitopes is essential not only for gaining knowledge about host response to infectious disease but also for the development of immune-intervention strategies. In Chagas disease, given the size and complexity of the Trypanosoma cruzi proteome and its interaction with the host's immune system, the fine specificity of T cells has not been extensively studied yet, and this is particularly true for the CD4+ T cell compartment. The aim of the present work was to optimize a protocol for the generation of parasite-specific memory T cell lines, representative of their in vivo precursor populations and capable of responding to parasite antigens after long-term culture.

Different genotypes of Trypanosoma cruzi produce distinctive placental environment genetic response in chronic experimental infection.

Congenital infection of Trypanosoma cruzi allows transmission of this parasite through generations. Despite the problematic that this entails, little is known about the placenta environment genetic response produced against infection. We performed functional genomics by microarray analysis in C57Bl/6J mice comparing placentas from uninfected animals and from animals infected with two different T.

Association of vaccination coverage with sociodemographic factors in workers of primary health care centers of Cordoba, Argentina.

Introduction: The activities performed by the health personnel have specific occupational risks making it more susceptible to get infectious diseases. Therefore, all healthcare workers must be properly immunized against vaccinepreventable diseases.

Aims: Assessing the proportion of healthcare workers from the public subsector who are vaccinated and relating the sociodemographic factors with the proportion of the Meningitis vaccination condition of the workers from the primary care level of the city of Córdoba Methods: An observational analytical cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of 157 workers of the municipal district of Cordoba.

Production of the Main Celiac Disease Autoantigen by Transient Expression in Nicotiana benthamiana.

Celiac Disease (CD) is a gluten sensitive enteropathy that remains widely undiagnosed and implementation of massive screening tests is needed to reduce the long term complications associated to untreated CD. The main CD autoantigen, human tissue transglutaminase (TG2), is a challenge for the different expression systems available since its cross-linking activity affects cellular processes. Plant-based transient expression systems can be an alternative for the production of this protein.