Racialized bodies, disabling worlds "they [service providers] always saw me as a client, not as a worker"

This paper makes a case for a contextualized reading of intersecting constructs of disability, gender and race as they unfold in the everyday lives of immigrant women with disabilities. Taking the vantage point of Mehrun, a Canadian Muslim woman with polio, we show that the disability, gender and race constructs converge in some contexts and remain separate in others. This is an important consideration as it forestalls a situation where immigrant women's activist work is seen to be confined to the discrete sphere of their own communities. Mehrun's story of migration and settlement as well as her "work" on community integration of persons with disabilities (regardless of race or gender) is a plea for the civil rights of disabled people. At the same time, Mehrun's embodied reality as a racialized woman with disabilities suggests the possibility of making her marginality the epicenter of change.     

Developing a bidirectional academic-community partnership with an Appalachian-American community for environmental health research and risk communication

Background: Marietta, Ohio, is an Appalachian-American community whose residents have long struggled with understanding their exposure to airborne manganese (Mn). Although community engagement in research is strongly endorsed by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in particular, little has been documented demonstrating how an academic–community partnership that implements the community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles can be created and mobilized for research.Objectives: We created a bidirectional, academic–community partnership with an Appalachian-American community to a) identify the community’s thoughts and perceptions about local air quality, its effect on health, and the perception of risk communication sources and b) jointly develop and conduct environmental health research.Methods: We formed a community advisory board (CAB), jointly conducted pilot research studies, and used the results to develop a community-driven research agenda.Results: Persons in the community were “very concerned” to “concerned” about local air quality (91%) and perceived the air quality to have a direct impact on their health and on their children’s health (93% and 94%, respectively). The CAB identified the primary research question: “Does Mn affect the cognition and behavior of children?” Although the community members perceived research scientists as the most trusted and knowledgeable regarding risks from industrial emissions, they received very little risk information from research scientists.Conclusions: Engaging a community in environmental health research from its onset enhanced the quality and relevance of the research investigation. The CBPR principles were a useful framework in building a strong academic–community partnership. Because of the current disconnect between communities and research scientists, academic researchers should consider working collaboratively with community-based risk communication sources.     

Collagen-immobilized patch for repairing small tympanic membrane perforations: in vitro and in vivo assays

Tympanic membrane (TM) perforation is still one of the most common otology complications. New designs of biomaterials, and lately tissue-engineered composites and grafts, have thoroughly revolutionized the management of TM perforation. In this study, we examined a biologically modified collagen-immobilized polydimethyl siloxane patch to repair TM perforation. In vitro potential of the aforementioned patch as a scaffold to support fibroblast cell growth and adhesion was assessed. An in vivo assay of the patch for initiating repair of TM perforations also was investigated. In vitro assay showed that the patch has significantly increased cell adhesion and growth in comparison with unmodified ones (p < 0.05). In vivo study also showed an overall closure rate of TM perforation of 70% and an average gain of 15.75 ± 4.29 dB in air-bone gap. This study shows that the preliminary in vivo evaluation of a modified siloxane patch in humans had promising results and is comparable to existing biomaterial patches.     

An enumerative stepwise ansatz enables atomic-accuracy RNA loop modeling

Atomic-accuracy structure prediction of macromolecules should be achievable by optimizing a physically realistic energy function but is presently precluded by incomplete sampling of a biopolymer's many degrees of freedom. We present herein a working hypothesis, called the "stepwise ansatz," for recursively constructing well-packed atomic-detail models in small steps, enumerating several million conformations for each monomer, and covering all build-up paths. By making use of high-performance computing and the Rosetta framework, we provide first tests of this hypothesis on a benchmark of 15 RNA loop-modeling problems drawn from riboswitches, ribozymes, and the ribosome, including 10 cases that are not solvable by current knowledge-based modeling approaches. For each loop problem, this deterministic stepwise assembly method either reaches atomic accuracy or exposes flaws in Rosetta's all-atom energy function, indicating the resolution of the conformational sampling bottleneck. As a further rigorous test, we have carried out a blind all-atom prediction for a noncanonical RNA motif, the C7.2 tetraloop/receptor, and validated this model through nucleotide-resolution chemical mapping experiments. Stepwise assembly is an enumerative, ab initio build-up method that systematically outperforms existing Monte Carlo and knowledge-based methods for 3D structure prediction.     

Simple immunoblot and immunohistochemical detection of Penaeus stylirostris densovirus using monoclonal antibodies to viral capsid protein expressed heterologously

Penaeus stylirostris densovirus (PstDNV), called formerly infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV), is an important shrimp pathogen which can cause mortality in the blue shrimp Penaeus (Litopenaeus) stylirostris and stunting in the whiteleg shrimp Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei. Five monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were produced against the 37 kDa capsid protein 3 (CP3) of PstDNV expressed heterologously in the form of a fusion protein with glutathione-S-transferase called GST-CP3. All MAbs belonged to the IgG2b subclass and could bind to GST-CP3 at 300 pg/spot in immunodot-blot tests. They could detect CP3 in naturally infected shrimp extracts by Western blotting and dot blotting and in shrimp tissues by immunohistochemistry without cross-reactivity to extracts from uninfected shrimps or shrimps infected with several other viruses. Although dot blot assay sensitivity was approximately 1000 times lower than that of one step PCR for PstDNV, it easily detected PstDNV infections in field samples of Penaeus monodon and Penaeus vannamei.     

Unilocular thymic cyst with ciliated respiratory epithelium as an unusual histological feature of thymic development abnormality

The result of the developmental abnormality of the third pharyngeal pouch, thymic cysts are very rare and classified as unilocular and multilocular. Unilocular thymic cysts are congenital and without inflammation and have small, thin walls filled with a brown fluid. The epithelial wall lining of unilocular cysts are commonly squamous, transitional, and either cuboidal or columnar. We herein present a rare case of a mediastinal unilocular thymic cyst coexisting with respiratory epithelium.     

Laparoscopic drainage of retroperitoneal abscess secondary to pyogenic sacroiliitis

Retroperitoneal abscesses are rare complications of pyogenic sacroiliitis. Diagnosis is often delayed due to the initial non-specific symptoms and signs and also a low awareness of the clinical presentation and diagnostic procedures among clinicians. We describe a case of an 18-year-old man who was diagnosed with septic arthritis of his left sacro-iliac joint which was complicated by a retroperitoneal abscess. After discussion with the radiologist and orthopaedic surgeons, the abscess was successfully drained via minimally invasive surgery transperitoneally.