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Assessing the Racial Equity Impact of Legislation to Establish a Virginia Grocery Investment Program and Fund
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In 2018 the Commonwealth of Virginia’s General Assembly considered, but did not pass, legislation to combat food deserts via the creation of the Virginia Grocery Investment Program and Fund. The Fund introduced a $3.75 million per year appropriation intended to leverage public-private partnerships to support construction, rehabilitation, upgrading or expansion of grocery stores or other food retailers in underserved communities.
African Americans disproportionately face low access to healthy food. This research utilizes data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Access Research Atlas and demographic data on race/ethnicity from the U.S. Census Bureau to examine the racial/ethnic make-up of low healthy food access populations in Virginia and the potential racial equity impact of the Fund.
The findings show that using a low access/low income definition of underserved, compared to the proposed low access-only definition in the legislation, would target the Fund’s impact more in urban areas that are more diverse in general and more heavily African American
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Fostering Engagement and Learning in Students through Assignment Modifications During COVID-19
Get PDFCritical thinking and innovative problem solving are two crucial skills for management students to develop in this fast-changing business world. These skills are even more relevant in today’s turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Case analysis and simulation games are popular pedagogical tools to develop these skills in a classroom setting. Remote learning due to COVID-19 has made it challenging for instructors to use these tools effectively. While working within the same course timeframe and budgets, an instructor in a national southern university, opportunistically used the current context of COVID-19 to modify a written assignment for an introductory HR course and encouraged students to think critically beyond HR functions and its direct applications. Instead of a class discussion on HR functions being translated to an online discussion, the instructor created a pseudo-simulation of HR functions. Students were asked to select one out of four business sectors - higher education, big chain of restaurants, commercial transportation or grocery stores, and explain changes in the operations of any three HR functions due to the pandemic. The assignment required not only a deeper understanding of HR functions but their connections with other business operations and overall market – arguably a stretch task that forced the students to think beyond their textbook information and use the context to critically think and arrive at innovative answers. Findings suggest that the simple design change in the assignment enhanced overall quality and presentation of student assignments compared to assignments without these specific contextual requirements. Implications of this change on student learning and engagement is discussed
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Community engagement practices at research centers in u.S. minority institutions: Priority populations and innovative approaches to advancing health disparities research
Get PDFThis paper details U.S. Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Community Engagement Cores (CECs): (1) unique and cross-cutting components, focus areas, specific aims, and target populations; and (2) approaches utilized to build or sustain trust towards community participation in research. A mixed-method data collection approach was employed for this cross-sectional study of current or previously funded RCMIs. A total of 18 of the 25 institutions spanning 13 U.S. states and territories participated. CEC specific aims were to support community engaged research (94%); to translate and disseminate research findings (88%); to develop partnerships (82%); and to build capacity around community research (71%). Four open-ended questions, qualitative analysis, and comparison of the categories led to the emergence of two supporting themes: (1) establishing trust between the community-academic collaborators and within the community and (2) building collaborative relationships. An overarching theme, building community together through trust and meaningful collaborations, emerged from the supporting themes and subthemes. The RCMI institutions and their CECs serve as models to circumvent the historical and current challenges to research in communities disproportionately affected by health disparities. Lessons learned from these cores may help other institutions who want to build community trust in and capacities for research that addresses community-related health concerns
Oxidative stress indices in ASD children in Sub-Sahara Africa
Get PDFBackground: The pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains a medical challenge even in the developed world. Although genetics and epigenetic factors have been variously indicted as major causes of the disorder, development of oxidative stress especially in the formative years of children has equally gained prominence as an etiological basis of the disorder. Oxidative stress is characterized by the production of excessive amounts of free radicals, decreased levels of antioxidants with the attendant imbalance in oxidant/antioxidant ratio. This study was designed to determine the levels of essential metals [magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu)] and toxic metal, lead (Pb), and generation of oxidative stress by their abnormal interaction. Method: Twenty-five children clinically diagnosed for ASD according to DSM-IV-TR and 25 neuro-typical (NT) children (controls), (aged 5.96 ± 1.40 years and 6.18 ± 2.59 years respectively) were recruited for this study. Essential and toxic metals were analyzed using induction-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS); oxidative stress markers [malondialdehyde (MDA), total plasma peroxidase (TPP), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC)] were determined using appropriate biochemical methods. Oxidative stress index (OSI) was calculated. Results: The levels of TPP and TAC were significantly reduced while MDA was higher in ASD compared to NT. Although OSI was higher in ASD, the difference was not significant. Pb (lead) concentration was significantly increased while Mg, Zn, and Cu levels were reduced significantly in ASD compared to NT. A significant negative correlation between Mg and OSI (r = − 0.438; p = 0.029) was observed in NT. Conclusion: Reduction in Zn and Mg levels with a concurrent increase in Pb in children with ASD in this study may be the basis of inadequate TAC manifesting as increased MDA and reduced TPP levels. The attendant imbalance in oxidant/antioxidant ratio may result in abnormality in neuronal transduction leading to the abnormal cognitive and speech functions characteristic of ASD
Pitting Strength Estimate for Cast Iron and Copper Alloy Materials
Get PDFAn attempt is made to predict the pitting strength of cast iron and copper alloy materials from their compressive yield or compressive proof strength for a reliability of 99% at 107load cycles. The compressive yield or compressive proof strength is related to the tensile strength of ductile cast iron and copper alloy materials by a proportionality factor. Two proportionality factors are used for brittle cast iron materials. The pitting strength formulation incorporates a nominal design factor at 99% reliability which is estimated from a probabilistic model based on the lognormal probability density function. Pitting strength estimates from the predictions are compared with those of American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) estimates and data from other sources. The predicted values for gray cast irons had variances in the range of -11.28% to 25%. Ductile cast iron pitting strength estimates deviated from those of AGMA by -30.28% to 1.73% and 16.76% to 36.34% for Austempered ductile irons. The variances obtained for cast bronze were from 11.17% and 14.73%, but the sample size was small. These variances appear to be reasonable due to the many factors that can influence pitting resistance. Since pitting strength data for many grades of cast iron and copper alloys are not available (especially in the public domain), they may be estimated by the expressions developed in this study for initial design sizing. Also, the pitting strength of new cast iron and copper alloy materials could likewise be estimated for initial design sizing. This will eliminate long and costly contact fatigue testing at the initial design phases, which of course is necessary for design validation
Immune checkpoint-related serum proteins and genetic variants predict outcomes of localized prostate cancer, a cohort study
Get PDFBackground: The clinical predictors and biological mechanisms for localized prostate cancer (PCa) outcomes remain mostly unknown. We aim to evaluate the role of serum immune-checkpoint-related (ICK) proteins and genetic variations in predicting outcomes of localized PCa. Methods: We profiled the serum levels of 14 ICK-related proteins (BTLA, GITR, HVEM, IDO, LAG-3, PD-1, PD-L1, PD-L2, Tim-3, CD28, CD80, 4-1BB, CD27, and CTLA-4) in 190 patients with localized PCa. The genotypes of 97 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 19 ICK-related genes were analyzed in an extended population (N = 1762). Meta-data from ArrayExpress and TCGA was employed to validate and to probe functional data. Patients were enrolled and tumor aggressiveness, biochemical recurrence (BCR), and progression information were obtained. Statistical analyses were performed analyzing associations between serum biomarkers, genotypes, mRNA and outcomes. Results: We showed that serum (s)BTLA and sTIM3 levels were associated with PCa aggressiveness (P \u3c 0.05). sCD28, sCD80, sCTLA4, sGITR, sHVEM and sIDO correlated with both BCR and progression risks (all P \u3c 0.05). We further identified ICK variants were significantly associated with aggressiveness, BCR and progression. Among them, 4 SNPs located in CD80 (rs7628626, rs12695388, rs491407, rs6804441) were not only associated with BCR and progression risk, but also correlated with sCD80 level (P \u3c 0.01). rs491407 was further validated in an independent cohort. The CD80 mRNA expression was associated with BCR (HR, 1.85, 95% CI 1.06–3.22, P = 0.03) in meta-analysis of validation cohorts. Conclusion: We highlight the prognostic value of serum ICK-related proteins for predicting aggressiveness, BCR and progression of PCa. The genetic variations and mRNA expression in CD80 could be predictors and potential targets of localized PCa