Publications by authors named "J B Irving"

Community-based participatory research provides communities with an avenue to actively collaborate with environmental researchers. The research aims to gain insight into critical problems of concern to community members while maintaining community autonomy over the research and its outcomes. This article describes the development and implementation of an environmental health communication tool designed to meet the needs of residents of Colfax, Louisiana, a rural community with limited technological access, which is engaging in advocacy with federal and state regulatory agencies to prohibit open burning and open detonation of military and Superfund wastes at a nearby thermal treatment site.

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Health sovereignty - the assertion of rights to culturally and ecologically appropriate medicines and the ability of communities to structure their own healthcare - is a biopolitical goal of the Rastafari movement. We examine how health sovereignty is enacted by Rastafari herbalists in south London and the contributions these healers make to health in the UK, particularly for migrants disenfranchised by "hostile environment" immigration policies. Using ethnographic data on "bitters" and "roots tonics" we show how herbal medicines are used by healers and their clientele to achieve key political and spiritual aims of the movement, as well as personal healing.

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This study investigates environmental justice (EJ) themes related to siting a hazardous waste thermal treatment facility near a low-income community of color. We investigated effects of living near a hazardous waste thermal treatment facility through three EJ aspects: recognitional, procedural, and distributive justice. The study involved the collection of oral history interviews from residents of Colfax, a town in Grant Parish, Louisiana, that hosts an open burn/open detonation hazardous waste thermal treatment facility.

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Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) treatment has transitioned from traditional chemotherapy to more targeted therapies, but challenges such as resistance and suboptimal responses persist. This study aimed to evaluate HDM201, a second-generation MDM2-p53 binding antagonist, as a novel therapeutic strategy for CLL, with a focus on its effectiveness across different genetic contexts. We utilized a panel of B cell leukemia-derived cell lines with varying statuses, including -knockout (KO) derivatives of the human B cell line Nalm-6, and assessed the impact of HDM201 on primary CLL samples with both wild-type and mutant backgrounds.

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Gastrointestinal infections present major challenges to ruminant livestock systems, and gut health is a key constraint on fitness, welfare, and productivity. Fecal biomarkers present opportunities to monitor animal health without using invasive methods, and with greater resolution compared to observational metrics. Here we developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for three potential fecal biomarkers of gut health in domestic ruminants: two immunological (total immunoglobulin [Ig]A and total IgG) and one inflammatory (lactoferrin).

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