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Detection of Rectal Chlamydia trachomatis in Heterosexual Men Who Report Cunnilingus
No full textBackground. Rectal infection with Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is frequent in women who deny receptive anal sex and is thought to arise from autoinoculation of the rectum from vaginal secretions. An alternate hypothesis is that oral sex inoculates and establishes gastrointestinal tract infection. Distinguishing these hypotheses is difficult in women. In men, autoinoculation is unlikely and heterosexual men frequently perform oral sex, but rarely participate in receptive anal exposure behaviors. Methods. We enrolled high-risk men with and without nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) who presented to a sexually transmitted infection clinic in Indianapolis, Indiana. Urine and rectal swabs were collected and tested for urogenital and rectal CT, Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and Mycoplasma genitalium (MG). Men completed surveys concerning symptoms, sexual orientation, and detailed recent and lifetime oral and anal sexual behaviors. Results. Rectal CT was detected in 2/84 (2.4%) heterosexual men who reported cunnilingus, but no lifetime receptive anal behaviors. All of the men who denied receptive anal behaviors were negative for rectal NG and MG. In homosexual and bisexual men, rectal CT prevalence was high (9.7%) and rectal NG (4.8%) and MG (4.8%) were also detected. Conclusions. We detected rectal CT infections in heterosexual men who reported cunnilingus but denied receptive anal behaviors. Oral sex may be a risk factor for rectal CT infection via oral inoculation of the gastrointestinal tract. Summary. We observed a low incidence of rectal C. trachomatis infection in heterosexual men
Meta-Perceptions of Others' Attitudes Toward Bisexual Men and Women Among a Nationally Representative Probability Sample
No full textResearchers posit that negative attitudes, prejudice, and discrimination (i.e., binegativity) from heterosexual and gay/lesbian individuals may contribute to health disparities among bisexual individuals relative to heterosexual and gay/lesbian individuals. Recent studies have focused on gay, lesbian, and heterosexual people’s (e.g., “others”) attitudes toward bisexual people. No studies have investigated how bisexual individuals perceive others’ attitudes toward bisexual people, which are generally known as “meta-perceptions.” As part of the 2015 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, we collected data from a nationally representative probability sample of 2999 adults, including from a subsample of 33 men and 61 women self-identified as bisexual. The Bisexualities: Indiana Attitudes Scale–bisexual (BIAS-b), a modified 5-item scale assessing bisexual people’s perceptions of others’ attitudes toward bisexual individuals, was included and was followed by an open-ended text box question. Quantitative scale data were analyzed using descriptive and gamma regression methods. Two coders thematically analyzed the open-ended text box data. The internal consistency of the BIAS-b was high (Cronbach’s α = 0.85). An exploratory factor analysis supported a one-factor solution. Participants responded to statements regarding others’ attitudes toward them as bisexual people, including the domains of confusion, HIV/STD risk, incapability of monogamy, promiscuity, and instability (“just a phase”). Participants’ text box descriptions largely aligned with these five domains, with the exception of HIV/STD risk. Additionally, some participants reported others’ positive perceptions of them as bisexual individuals. In sum, we observed a range of meta-perceptions, primarily neutral to negative, but also including some relatively positive. These results show the need for interventions to promote acceptance of bisexual individuals among heterosexual and gay/lesbian individuals
Technologically Distorted Conceptions of Punishment
No full textMuch recent work in academic literature and policy discussions suggests that the proliferation of actuarial — meaning statistical — assessments of a defendant’s recidivism risk in state sentencing structures is problematic. Yet scholars and policymakers focus on changes in technology over time while ignoring the effects of these tools on society. This Article shifts the focus away from technology to society in order to reframe debates. It asserts that sentencing technologies subtly change key social concepts that shape punishment and society. These same conceptual transformations preserve problematic features of the sociohistorical phenomenon of mass incarceration. By connecting technological interventions and conceptual transformations, this Article exposes an obscured threat posed by the proliferation of risk tools as sentencing reform. As sentencing technologies transform sentencing outcomes, the tools also alter society’s language and concerns about punishment. Thus, actuarial risk tools as technological sentencing reform not only excise society’s deeper issues of race, class, and power from debates. The tools also strip society of a language to resist the status quo by changing notions of justice along the way
Connecting Fluvial Levee Deposition to Flood-Basin Hydrology
No full textLevees are commonly found along every kind of river system, yet there are no widely accepted models for where along the channel they form and what controls their shape. In this study, we investigated whether levee growth is driven by sediment transfer from the channel adjacent to the levee or by inundation dynamics in the flood basin. To test these ideas, we conducted empirical analyses and numerical modeling of levees on the fine‐grained, meandering Muscatatuck River, IN. Using LiDAR data, we found no statistical relationship between the levee and the adjacent channel planform, which suggests levees are not genetically related to their adjacent channel. On the contrary, modeling experiments of a simplified Muscatatuck River show that levee initiation can be genetically related to the adjacent channel because bed shear stress on the floodplain is low where channel curvature is high. But after levees initiate, the genetic connection to the adjacent channel is obscured because levee shape is modified by inundation dynamics. For instance, tall mature levees are not inundated regularly and instead obstruct floodplain flow, creating flow shadows on the downstream side. Sediment is preferentially deposited in the flow shadow, which moves the location of maximum deposition from the levee crest to the toe. This causes levees to prograde down‐valley, which reshapes the levee and genetically disconnects it from the channel. We propose that this morphodynamic mechanism of levee growth is characteristic of fine‐grained rivers in narrow floodplains where flood basins can act as conveyance channels that transport sediment down‐valley before deposition
Vaccine protection against rectal acquisition of SIVmac239 in rhesus macaques
No full textA prophylactic vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a top priority in biomedical research. Given the failure of conventional immunization protocols to confer robust protection against HIV, new and unconventional approaches may be needed to generate protective anti-HIV immunity. Here we vaccinated rhesus macaques (RMs) with a recombinant (r)DNA prime (without any exogenous adjuvant), followed by a booster with rhesus monkey rhadinovirus (RRV)−a herpesvirus that establishes persistent infection in RMs (Group 1). Both the rDNA and rRRV vectors encoded a near-full-length simian immunodeficiency virus (SIVnfl) genome that assembles noninfectious SIV particles and expresses all nine SIV gene products. This rDNA/rRRV-SIVnfl vaccine regimen induced persistent anti-Env antibodies and CD8+ T-cell responses against the entire SIV proteome. Vaccine efficacy was assessed by repeated, marginal-dose, intrarectal challenges with SIVmac239. Encouragingly, vaccinees in Group 1 acquired SIVmac239 infection at a significantly delayed rate compared to unvaccinated controls (Group 3). In an attempt to improve upon this outcome, a separate group of rDNA/rRRV-SIVnfl-vaccinated RMs (Group 2) was treated with a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4)-blocking monoclonal antibody during the vaccine phase and then challenged in parallel with Groups 1 and 3. Surprisingly, Group 2 was not significantly protected against SIVmac239 infection. In sum, SIVnfl vaccination can protect RMs against rigorous mucosal challenges with SIVmac239, a feat that until now had only been accomplished by live-attenuated strains of SIV. Further work is needed to identify the minimal requirements for this protection and whether SIVnfl vaccine efficacy can be improved by means other than anti-CTLA-4 adjuvant therapy
Sex differences in trait anxiety's association with alcohol problems in emerging adults: The influence of symptoms of depression and borderline personality
No full textObjective: The co-occurrence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and internalizing psychopathology, such as anxiety and depression, has been well documented. However, most studies of the association between alcohol problems and anxiety, and do not simultaneously consider depression or borderline personality, which covary strongly with both anxiety symptoms and AUDs. The current study examined sex differences in the association between alcohol problems and anxiety, while accounting for depressive and borderline personality (BPD) symptoms. Method: A sample 810 (364 females) young adults aged 18-30 recruited from the community, who varied widely in lifetime alcohol problems, were administered diagnostic interviews and measures of a trait anxiety, depression, and BPD symptoms. Results: Analyses revealed that trait anxiety, depression, and borderline symptoms were all significantly associated with higher lifetime alcohol problems in both males and females. However, the association between trait anxiety and alcohol problems was significantly stronger for males compared with females, even when controlling for depression and BPD symptoms. There were no significant sex differences in the association between alcohol problems and symptoms of either depression or BPD symptoms. Conclusion: This suggests specific sex differences in the mechanisms by which trait anxiety is associated with alcohol problems
Foreign Corruption as Market Manipulation
No full textOn March 6, 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it would be taking an active role in prosecuting violations of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) that involve foreign corruption.[11 On the same date, the CFTC published an enforcement advisory further signaling its intention to investigate and prosecute violations of the laws and regulations of the CEA linked to foreign corrupt practices, such as violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA prohibits US-based businesses from engaging in corrupt practices, such as bribery, in foreign countries in which they do business. Currently, both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) vigorously and vigilantly enforce the FCPA. How and to what extent, therefore, would the involvement of the CFTC impact the prosecution of FCPA violations? This Essay explores this question by focusing on two specific inquiries. First, this Essay examines what kinds of foreign corrupt practices could overlap with the CFTC's jurisdiction. The CFTC is the exclusive regulator of the derivatives and commodities market, and one of its primary concerns is to deter and detect market manipulation. In turning its focus to foreign corrupt practices that violate the CEA, one implication is that there is a connection between foreign corruption and manipulation of the US derivatives and commodities markets. Exploring how foreign corruption can manifest into market manipulation, therefore, is important to understanding the potential types of conduct that may warrant CFTC attention. Second, this Essay assesses the implications of the CFTC's foray into the prosecution of foreign corruption. For example, with the addition of another regulator to the FCPA's enforcement roster, derivatives and commodities market participants likely face FCPA-related compliance requirements that they did not previously have. Part I of this Essay begins with an overview of the FCPA. It describes the purpose of the FCPA and the enforcement approach of the DOJ and SEC in relation to the Act. Part I also summarizes the CFTC's role in the financial markets and its traditional jurisdictional scope. Part II examines three potential scenarios in which foreign corruption could result in manipulation of the US derivatives and commodities markets. Part III considers the implications of the CFTC's involvement in the enforcement of the FCPA and, lastly, raises additional questions that may prove fruitful for future research
Binding and Phasehood in South Slavic Revisited
No full textIn a series of works and using a variety of diagnostics, Bošković argues that languages can be divided into those in which nominals project to DP and those in which they do not. Since Bulgarian (and Macedonian) express definiteness morphologically, they would appear to differ from Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian (and Slovenian) in countenancing DP, but recent work argues that evidence for Bg as a DP-language is not so clear cut. In an attempt to set the record straight about the South Slavic data she describes, this paper addresses the criticisms specifically raised by LaTerza (2016), who explores Despić’s (2009, 2011, 2013) observations about binding and phasehood in BCMS. In revisiting her claims it will be shown that the relevant differences between the South Slavic languages do in fact lend support to the “parameterized DP” account of the different binding possibilities
Why States Should Tax the GILTI
No full textA centerpiece of the 2017 federal tax legislation’s reforms to international corporate income tax rules is the new global intangible low-taxed income regime (or GILTI). In a prior essay, we argued that U.S. state governments should conform to GILTI. But might there be constitutional restrictions preventing state governments from doing so? This essay argues that state governments can constitutionally conform to the federal GILTI rules and thereby tax GILTI income as part of the states’ corporate income tax bases. However, in doing so, we explain that state governments will need to be attentive to background constitutional principles
Mechanistic Insights into the Metal-Dependent Activation of Zn-Dependent Metallochaperones
No full textMembers of the COG0523 subfamily of candidate GTPase metallochaperones function in bacterial transition-metal homeostasis, but the nature of the cognate metal, mechanism of metal transfer, and identification of target protein(s) for metal delivery remain open questions. Here, we explore the multifunctionality of members of the subfamily linked to delivering Zn to apoprotein targets under conditions of host-imposed transition-metal depletion. We examine two zinc-uptake repressor (Zur)-regulated COG0523 family members, each from a major human pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii (AbZigA) and Staphylococcus aureus (SaZigA), in an effort to develop a model for Zn metallochaperone activity. Zn chelator competition experiments reveal one high-affinity (K ≈ 10–10 M) metal-binding site in each GTPase, while AbZigA and SaZigA are characterized by an additional one and two (lower-affinity) metal-binding sites, respectively. CoII titrations reveal that both metallochaperones have similar electronic absorption characteristics that indicate the presence of two tetrahedral metal coordination sites. High-affinity metal binding at the CXCC motif activates the GTPase activity of both enzymes, with Zn more effective than Co. Both GTPases bind the product, GDP, more tightly in the apoprotein than the Zn-bound state and exhibit what is best described as a “locked” conformation around the GTP substrate. Negative thermodynamic linkage is observed between nucleotide binding and metal binding, leading to a new mechanistic model for COG0523-catalyzed metal delivery