The PI3K/Akt Pathway in Meta-Inflammation.

Obesity is a global epidemic representing a serious public health burden as it is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, stroke and all-cause mortality. Chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, also known as meta-inflammation, is thought to underly obesity's negative health consequences, which include insulin resistance and the development of type 2 diabetes. Meta-inflammation is characterized by the accumulation of immune cells in adipose tissue, a deregulation in the synthesis and release of adipokines and a pronounced increase in the production of proinflammatory factors.

Hazards of Anti-Blackness in the United States.

On February 26, 2012, a Black child, Trayvon Martin, was executed in Sanford, Florida. Seventeen months later his killer was found not guilty. This is but one example of the state's brazen disregard for Black life, rooted in the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans more than 400 years ago, and the ways in which they and their descendants were systematically tortured.

The scarlet V: how women with dyspareunia negotiate postfeminist discourses of sexual agency.

Young women must often contend with cultural scripts dictating neoliberal/postfeminist ideals of female sexual agency, including the ability to act in accord with one's personal sexual self-interest. The aim of this study was to explore how young women ( = 26) living with dyspareunia (pain experienced during penetrative sexual activity) negotiate these ideals. We found that in addition to discussing traditional discourses that assign value to women in accordance with their perceived sexual virtue, women judged themselves according to the degree to which their behaviour reflected sexual agency.

"It's a place to feel like part of the community": Counterspace, inclusion, and empowerment in a drop-in center for homeless and marginalized women.

In the context of rising inequality and eroding safety nets for marginalized communities, research is needed to demonstrate the ways in which settings can facilitate community, agency, and capabilities for low-income women. The purpose of this study is to examine if and how an organizational setting designed to support homeless, low-income, and other marginalized women can facilitate empowering changes and increased wellbeing among the women who participate. A thematic analysis of interviews conducted with 22 participants who attend a women's day center identified three ways in which the organizational setting impacted women's lived experiences: (a) increasing a sense of agency through acceptance, active and participatory roles, and ownership over the physical environment, (b) promoting a sense of community through rituals of care and attentiveness, alleviated social isolation, and mutual relationships, and (c) improving life circumstances by offering a safe environment, access to basic resources such as housing, and support for health and wellbeing.

: Exploring Condomless Sex among Formerly Incarcerated Black Men in New York City, USA.

More than 600,000 incarcerated individuals are released annually in the United States; a large proportion are Black men incarcerated for drug-related offenses, including drug use and possession. Formerly incarcerated Black men report elevated rates of condomless sex and sexually transmitted infections, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The purpose of this study was to explore condom usage among Black men who were formerly incarcerated for drug-related offenses and living in New York City (NYC).

Handgrip as a measure of muscle strength and its physiological dependence on therapeutic variables: A randomized case.

Clinical and medical data findings have traditionally been more representative of male than female subjects, and when combined, have not clearly differentiated between the groups. In this study there were no research questions initially contemplated, as the data were obtained from an educational setting, where participants completed tasks as part of a pedagogical program of preparation. The nature of the post-hoc analysis renders the study as a hypothesis-generating type rather than a hypothesis-testing one.

Birthing #blackboyjoy: Black Midwives Caring for Black Mothers of Black Boys During Pregnancy and Childbirth.

Background: Structural racism mediates all aspects of Black life. The medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth, and its detrimental impacts on Black birth, is well documented. The Black Lives Matter movement has elevated the national consciousness on all aspects of Black life, but significant attention has been directed toward the murder and dehumanization of Black men and boys.

Eusociality in snapping shrimps is associated with larger genomes and an accumulation of transposable elements.

Despite progress uncovering the genomic underpinnings of sociality, much less is known about how social living affects the genome. In different insect lineages, for example, eusocial species show both positive and negative associations between genome size and structure, highlighting the dynamic nature of the genome. Here, we explore the relationship between sociality and genome architecture in snapping shrimps that exhibit multiple origins of eusociality and extreme interspecific variation in genome size.

Replicative Aging in Pathogenic Fungi.

, , , and are pathogenic yeasts which can cause systemic infections in immune-compromised as well as immune-competent individuals. These yeasts undergo replicative aging analogous to a process first described in the nonpathogenic yeast . The hallmark of replicative aging is the asymmetric cell division of mother yeast cells that leads to the production of a phenotypically distinct daughter cell.

Comparison of different BMI cut-offs to screen for child and adolescent obesity in urban China.

Objectives: To determine which set of BMI cut-offs is the most appropriate to define child and adolescent obesity in urban China.

Design: A cross-sectional study was carried out between 1 November and 31 December in 2017.

Setting: Community Healthcare Center in Minhang District, Shanghai, China.

Nanocomposite liposomes for pH-controlled porphyrin release into human prostate cancer cells.

It is both challenging and desirable to have drug sensitizers released at acidic tumor pH for photodynamic therapy in cancer treatment. A pH-responsive carrier was prepared, in which fumed silica-attached 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-trimethylammoniophenyl)porphyrin (TTMAPP) was encapsulated into 1,2-dioleoyl--3-phosphocholine (DOPC) nanocomposite liposomes. The sizes of agglomerates were determined by dynamic light scattering to be 115 nm for silica and 295 nm for silica-TTMAPP-DOPC liposomes.

"It's like I was out there by myself": The receipt of reentry support among HIV-infected formerly incarcerated individuals in New York City.

Background: In the U.S., approximately one in seven HIV-infected individuals experience incarceration at least once in their lifetime.

Embracing the Obstetric Imaginary: Chuukese Women, Migration, and Stratified Reproduction.

When a new biomedical hospital was built in Chuuk, women were encouraged to forgo home births and seek obstetric care. Chuuk's infrastructure deteriorated over time, however, and the hospital became known as the place of death. Women maintained faith in obstetric technology despite these conditions; they simply sought better technology in Guam or a US state.

Typologies of Altruistic and Financial Motivations for Research Participation.

Questions arise concerning participants' motives in risky studies, such as HIV vaccine trials (HVTs). We interviewed in-depth 20 gay/bisexual men. Participants described both altruistic and nonaltruistic motives.

Vascular dysfunction associated with type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease: a potential etiological linkage.

The endothelium performs a crucial role in maintaining vascular integrity leading to whole organ metabolic homeostasis. Endothelial dysfunction represents a key etiological factor leading to moderate to severe vasculopathies observed in both Type 2 diabetic and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients. Accordingly, evidence-based epidemiological factors support a compelling hypothesis stating that metabolic rundown encountered in Type 2 diabetes engenders severe cerebral vascular insufficiencies that are causally linked to long term neural degenerative processes in AD.

A novel pathway by which the environmental toxin 4-Nonylphenol may promote an inflammatory response in inflammatory bowel disease.

Background 4-Nonylphenol is a ubiquitous environmental toxin that is formed as a byproduct in the manufacturing and/or sewage treatment of regular household items. Previous work in our lab has implicated 4-NP in the progression of autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease in which macrophages mistakenly attack the intestinal linings, causing chronic inflammation. Several key pro-and anti-inflammatory molecules have been shown to be involved in the manifestation of this disease, including IL-23A, COX-2, IL-8, TLR-4, and IL-10.

Parkinson's disease, L-DOPA, and endogenous morphine: a revisit.

Clinical observations stemming from widespread employment of restorative L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) therapy for management of dyskinesia in Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients implicate a regulatory role for endogenous morphine in central nervous system dopamine neurotransmission. Reciprocally, it appears that restorative L-DOPA administration has provided us with a compelling in vivo pharmacological model for targeting peripheral sites involved in endogenous morphine expression in human subjects. The biological activities underlying endogenous morphine expression and its interaction with its major precursor dopamine strongly suggest that endogenous morphine systems are reciprocally dysregulated in PD.

Low dose morphine adjuvant therapy for enhanced efficacy of antipsychotic drug action: potential involvement of endogenous morphine in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Major thematic threads linking extensive preclinical and clinical efforts have established a working mechanistic scheme whereby atypical antipsychotic drugs ameliorate negative DSM IV diagnostic criteria by effecting relatively potent blockade of serotonin (5-HT)(2A) receptors coupled with weaker antagonism of dopamine D(2) receptors in frontal cortical areas. These contentions are more or less supported by in vitro binding experiments employing cloned receptors on cultured cells, although significant functional involvement of 5-HT(2C) receptors has also been proposed. It is interesting that a key statistical analysis indicates a major shift in usage back to typical antipsychotic agents for management of schizophrenia from 1995-2008, whereas off-label usage of atypical antipsychotic agents was markedly increased or expanded for bipolar affective disorder.

Endogenous morphine: up-to-date review 2011.

Positive evolutionary pressure has apparently preserved the ability to synthesize chemically authentic morphine, albeit in homeopathic concentrations, throughout animal phyla. Despite the establishment of a progressively rigorous and mechanistically focused historical literature extending from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s that supported the expression of chemically authentic morphine by animal cellular and organ systems, prejudicial scepticism and early dismissal by scientists and clinicians most often obscured widespread acceptance of the biological importance and medical implications of endogenous morphine. The current critical paper presents and evaluates key recent coordinated studies in endogenous morphine research, highlighting those that have advanced our understanding of the functional roles of cognate alkaloid-selective μ(3) and μ(4) opiate receptors.

Reciprocal regulation of cellular nitric oxide formation by nitric oxide synthase and nitrite reductases.

Our mini-review focuses on dual regulation of cellular nitric oxide (NO) signaling pathways by traditionally characterized enzymatic formation from L-arginine via the actions of NO synthases (NOS) and by enzymatic reduction of available cellular nitrite pools by a diverse class of cytosolic and mitochondrial nitrite reductases. Nitrite is a major metabolic product of NO and is found in all cell and tissue types that utilize NO signaling processes. Xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) has been previously characterized as a housekeeping enzyme responsible for cellular uric acid formation via enzymatic conversion of hypoxanthine and xanthine.

21st century community learning centers--improving the academic performance of at-risk students: a Bronx tale.

The authors of this article report on an intervention designed to improve the academic component of an extended after-school program. The agency involved in this intervention was a non-profit community action group (CAG) agency whose mission is to improve the socio-economic well-being of the residents of Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and New York City. The agency has a staff of 200 that serve high school students.

Interactive effects of endogenous morphine, nitric oxide, and ethanol on mitochondrial processes.

Positive evolutionary pressure has preserved the ability to synthesize chemically authentic morphine, albeit in homeopathic concentrations, throughout animal phyla. The prototype catecholamine dopamine (DA) serves as an essential chemical intermediate in morphine biosynthesis both in plants and animals, thereby providing considerable insight into the roles reciprocal "morphinergic" and catecholamine regulation of diverse physiological processes. Primordial, multi-potential cell types, before the emergence of specialized plant and animal cells/organ systems, required selective mechanisms to limit their responsiveness to environmental noise.

Biological indications of a novel "short" µ opiate receptor in domestic chicken.

Previous work from our laboratory has established that cellular signaling processes of endogenous morphine are mediated by cognate G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) proteins, designated µ(3) and µ(4) opiate receptors. µ(3) and µ(4) opiate receptors are structurally unique "short" 6 transmembrane helical (TMH) domain GPCRs that are selectively responsive to endogenous morphine, not to families of endogenous opioid peptides, and are uniquely coupled to activation of constitutive nitric oxide synthase (cNOS). Based on high resolution predictive measures, it appears likely that domestic poultry express a µ opiate receptor mRNA encoding potentially two novel GPCRs with similar biochemical characteristics as described for µ(3) and µ(4) opiate receptors as well as traditional µ(1) opioid receptors.

Chronic alcohol exposure increases ganglia endogenous morphine levels.

Introduction: We have previously demonstrated that alcohol has the ability to release low levels of endogenously expressed, chemically authentic, morphine from neural tissues.

Material And Methods: Presently, we demonstrate that chronic exposure of Mytilus edulis pedal ganglia tissues maintained in organotypic culture to very concentrations of 1 mM and 10 mM ethanol induces a time dependent increase in both endogenous morphine and dopamine (DA) levels.

Results: Chronic incubation of M.