Associations Between Sexual Trauma and Sexual Relationship Power Among Latina Immigrant Farmworkers: The Moderating Role of Gender Norms

Sexual trauma is a national public health concern due to the alarming rates at which it occurs and decades of research supporting its long-term deleterious effects on health outcomes. We assessed the impact of gender norms and sexual trauma on power within sexual relationships among Latina immigrant farmworkers. At baseline, participants (N  = 175) completed a survey examining demographic information, sexual trauma history, and gender norms; a follow-up was administered 6 months later. Past sexual trauma was associated with less power in sexual relationships, r  = −.25, p < .001, as was endorsement of traditional Latina gender norms (i.e., marianismo): sexual relationship control, r  = −.38, p < .001; sexual decision-making dominance, r  = −.21, p  = .005. In contrast, egalitarian gender norm endorsement was associated with higher levels of sexual relationship control, r  = .37, p < .001, and sexual decision-making dominance, r  = .17, p  = .023. Gender norms moderated the association between sexual trauma and sexual relationship power. Specifically, women who subscribed more to marianismo and reported sexual trauma had less decision-making dominance in sexual relationships, whereas those with lower ratings of marianismo reported higher levels of decision-making dominance despite sexual trauma, R²  = .03, p  = .022. Sexual trauma history coupled with higher ratings of egalitarian gender norms was associated with higher levels of sexual relationship control, DR²  = .02, p  = .023. These results highlight the importance of culturally informed research to increase the sexual and overall health of vulnerable populations (e.g., Latina immigrant farmworkers).     

Intermittent hypoxia-induced increases in reactive oxygen species activate NFATc3 increasing endothelin-1 vasoconstrictor reactivity

Sleep apnea (SA), defined as intermittent respiratory arrest during sleep, is associated with increased incidence of hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, and sudden cardiac death. We have shown that intermittent hypoxia with CO2 supplementation (IH), a model for SA, increases blood pressure and circulating ET-1 levels, upregulates lung pre-pro ET-1 mRNA, increases vasoconstrictor reactivity to ET-1 in rat small mesenteric arteries (MA) and increases vascular reactive oxygen species (ROS). NFAT activity is increased in the aorta (AO) and MA of mice exposed to IH in an ET-1-dependent manner, and the genetic ablation of the isoform NFATc3 prevents IH-induced hypertension. We hypothesized that IH causes an increase in arterial ROS generation, which activates NFATc3 to increase vasoconstrictor reactivity to ET-1. In support of our hypothesis, we found that IH increases ROS in AO and MA. In vivo administration of the SOD mimetic tempol during IH exposure prevents IH-induced increases in NFAT activity in mouse MA and AO. We found that IH causes an NFATc3-dependent increase in vasoconstrictor reactivity to ET-1, accompanied by an increase in vessel wall [Ca²⁺]. Our results indicate that IH exposure causes an increase in arterial ROS to activate NFATc3, which then increases vasoconstrictor reactivity and Ca²⁺ response to ET-1. These studies highlight a novel regulatory pathway, and demonstrate the potential clinical relevance of NFAT inhibition to prevent hypertension in SA patients.     

Do laparoscopic skills transfer to robotic surgery?

Background

Identifying the set of skills that can transfer from laparoscopic to robotic surgery is an important consideration in designing optimal training curricula. We tested the degree to which laparoscopic skills transfer to a robotic platform.

Methods

Fourteen medical students and 14 surgery residents with no previous robotic but varying degrees of laparoscopic experience were studied. Three fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery tasks were used on the laparoscopic box trainer and then the da Vinci robot: peg transfer (PT), circle cutting (CC), and intracorporeal suturing (IS). A questionnaire was administered for assessing subjects' comfort level with each task.

Results

Standard fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery scoring metric were used and higher scores indicate a superior performance. For the group, PT and CC scores were similar between robotic and laparoscopic modalities (90 versus 90 and 52 versus 47; P > 0.05). However, for the advanced IS task, robotic-IS scores were significantly higher than laparoscopic-IS (80 versus 53; P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis of senior residents revealed a lower robotic-PT score when compared with laparoscopic-PT (92 versus 105; P < 0.05). Scores for CC and IS were similar in this subgroup (64 ± 9 versus 69 ± 15 and 95 ± 3 versus 92 ± 10; P > 0.05). The robot was favored over laparoscopy for all drills (PT, 66.7%; CC, 88.9%; IS, 94.4%).

Conclusions

For simple tasks, participants with preexisting skills perform worse with the robot. However, with increasing task difficulty, robotic performance is equal or better than laparoscopy. Laparoscopic skills appear to readily transfer to a robotic platform, and difficult tasks such as IS are actually enhanced, even in subjects naive to the technology.     

Gene expression and regulatory factors of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1 predict mammalian longevity

GeroScience - Species longevity varies significantly across animal species, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Recent studies and omics approaches suggest that...