Search

The question of who is Black in Brazil has sparked controversial debate over the past three decades. Less frequently discussed, however, is 'who is white?.' Recently, new meanings behind racial categories in census data, affirmative action laws, and the fields of Black Feminism and Critical Whiteness Studies have unsettled white Brazilians' understanding of their own racial identity, up until now hidden by the national discourse of mestiçagem. I investigate this unsettling by analyzing the narratives of five white female Brazilian researchers who critically recognize their racial identity and privilege. Highlighting how the spaces they occupy are racialized differently, I argue that the process of 'becoming white' among Brazilians in all-white social circles differs from those brought up in mixed-raced (Black-white) families. I suggest that whites raised in predominately white families understand themselves as a racial norm from a young age and that their white identity strengthens their ties to family. Conversely, whites raised in predominately mixed families show more confusion as to their racial identity and muddle through mestiçagem discourse to reach 'white,' which can, in turn, threaten a sense of belonging to their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Unparalleled Catastrophe: Life and Death in the Third Nuclear Age" by Rhys Crilley is a book that argues for a reevaluation of our approach to security. The book explores the concept of the Third Nuclear Age, which is characterized by overlapping crises such as the democratic deficit and systemic injustices rooted in racial and colonial logics. Crilley uses affective response and everyday experiences to make the topic accessible and highlights the dangers of normalizing nuclear weapons. The book also examines the COVID-19 pandemic, populist leaders, and racial injustices to illustrate the limitations of current approaches to global crises. Overall, the book calls for a shift in thinking about security and offers recommendations for addressing these challenges together. [Extracted from the article]

The past decade has seen a push for 'gender sensitive' approaches within nuclear policy-making. Yet the significance of this approach, and how it understands 'gender sensitivity' are unclear and have not been studied. This article asks the question: how does work done on 'gendering' nuclear policy to date understand what a gender sensitive approach to nuclear weapons means and requires? The article provides an overview of the movement to include gender in nuclear policymaking before conducting an analysis of the discourse on gender in a core institution of nuclear politics, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Through qualitative analysis of five years of NPT texts, we find that dominant understandings of a 'gender sensitive approach' centre on the inclusion of women. We further find that there is almost no mention of men and masculinity in the NPT discourse; women are constructed as a homogenous category of outsiders; and women's inclusion is understood mainly as a means of increasing institutional efficiency. We suggest that the next steps in 'gendering' nuclear policy engage more with feminist policy analysis and the experiences of those already working within the policy space, and consider further how and if one can meaningfully link gender sensitive approaches to the practice of nuclear deterrence. The findings of this study also have significance beyond nuclear weapons, illuminating the broader dynamics and challenges of 'gendering' international security spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acheson takes readers on a journey to expose the pillars of violence that uphold the world. I Abolishing state violence i follows Ray Acheson's recently published I Banning the bomb, smashing the patriarchy i (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021; reviewed in I International Affairs i 98: 6, November 2022) as a convincing and optimistic account of the potential for change inherent in community organization and social action. [Extracted from the article]

Acheson describes how non-nuclear weapon states shifted from being "outsiders" to "insiders" in nuclear weapons debates, while seeking to ban the bomb and legally prohibit nuclear weapons. For example, Acheson documents the continued oppression of women under patriarchy, as well as the ongoing hierarchical approach to nuclear weapons governance that has been enshrined in various institutional architectures, such as the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Ray Acheson's I Banning the bomb, smashing the patriarchy i is a striking contribution to the literature on nuclear politics. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the violation of international human rights by the police officers in the U.S. Topics discussed include International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) for protection of individuals fundamental freedoms and human dignity; enactment of human rights treaties for addressing police misconducts; and establishment of International Criminal Court (ICC) for the same.

The article reflects on the slavery and sexual abuse cases in Australia and also discusses the latest amendments in the legislation regarding human trafficking as proposed by the Australian Government. It states about several court cases of slavery and sexual abuse which include R v. Tang and cases against Trevor McIvor and Kanakporn Tanuchit for human trafficking. According to the recent law reform, slavery is the most severe offence as defined in the Criminal Code in Australia.

Complex enzymes with multiple catalytic activities are hypothesized to have evolved from more primitive precursors. Global analysis of the Phytophthora sojae genome using conservative criteria for evaluation of complex proteins identified 273 novel multifunctional proteins that were also conserved in P. ramorum. Each of these proteins contains combinations of protein motifs that are not present in bacterial, plant, animal, or fungal genomes. A subset of these proteins were also identified in the two diatom genomes, but the majority of these proteins have formed after the split between diatoms and oomycetes. Documentation of multiple cases of domain fusions that are common to both oomycetes and diatom genomes lends additional support for the hypothesis that oomycetes and diatoms are monophyletic. Bifunctional proteins that catalyze two steps in a metabolic pathway can be used to infer the interaction of orthologous proteins that exist as separate entities in other genomes. We postulated that the novel multifunctional proteins of oomycetes could function as potential Rosetta Stones to identify interacting proteins of conserved metabolic and regulatory networks in other eukaryotic genomes. However ortholog analysis of each domain within our set of 273 multifunctional proteins against 39 sequenced bacterial and eukaryotic genomes, identified only 18 candidate Rosetta Stone proteins. Thus the majority of multifunctional proteins are not Rosetta Stones, but they may nonetheless be useful in identifying novel metabolic and regulatory networks in oomycetes. Phylogenetic analysis of all the enzymes in three pathways with one or more novel multifunctional proteins was conducted to determine the probable origins of individual enzymes. These analyses revealed multiple examples of horizontal transfer from both bacterial genomes and the photosynthetic endosymbiont in the ancestral genome of Stramenopiles. The complexity of the phylogenetic origins of these metabolic pathways and the paucity of Rosetta Stones relative to the total number of multifunctional proteins suggests that the proteome of oomycetes has few features in common with other Kingdoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Innovations in adolescent prevention and early intervention strategies are needed to curb early substance use and bring public health models to scale, such as Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT). Young adults in recovery may have an important role to play in delivering these innovations. However, clinics, schools, and community programs may face barriers when implementing new prevention and early intervention approaches in their settings. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility, barriers, and facilitators of Project Amp, an innovative, four-session prevention and early intervention model to enhance SBIRT for adolescents.Methods: Three school-based programs and three health clinics were selected to implement SBIRT for adolescents and refer eligible adolescents (13-17 years old, moderate risk for substance use disorder) to the study intervention. Between three and six mentors (young adults, 18-28 years old, with lived experience of substance use recovery, also known as peers), were recruited at each site and trained in core skills to deliver the intervention. Study staff communicated with each setting throughout implementation and collected quantitative and qualitative data regarding facilitators and barriers to success. The qualitative data were analyzed to identify key strategies for success when implementing Project Amp.Results: Across the six sites, 71 practitioners including physicians, nurses, social workers, and counselors, completed training in SBIRT and 30 mentors were hired and trained for the study. Twenty completed sessions with adolescent participants. A total of 1192 adolescents were screened using the CRAFFT. Of those screened, 139 (12%) were eligible, 51 eligible youth (37%) enrolled in the study, and 28 enrolled youth (55%) completed the intervention. Five of the six sites were successfully able to integrate the SBIRT-based Project Amp model into their workflow. Facilitators and barriers for implementation were identified related to three critical factors: recruitment, readiness, and sustainability.Conclusions: The Project Amp intervention can be conducted successfully in school and healthcare settings in conjunction with SBIRT, adding capacity to expand access to screening and early intervention in a developmentally appropriate way. However, the study yielded insights into adaptations for future implementation, such as a more streamlined model and centralized staff roles such as integrated roles for young peer mentors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LINE-1 (L1) is a non-long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon inserted throughout the human genome. APOBEC3 (A3) proteins are part of a network of host intrinsic defenses capable of restricting retroviruses and the replication of L1 retroelements. These enzymes inactivate retroviruses primarily through deamination of single-stranded viral DNA. In contrast, only A3A deaminates L1 DNA, while the other six A3 proteins restrict L1 to varying degrees through yet poorly defined mechanisms. Here we provide further insight into the molecular attributes of L1 restriction by A3 proteins. We specifically investigated the roles of A3 protein oligomerization, interactions with RNA and their binding to the various L1 proteins. Our results show that compromising the ability of A3 proteins to oligomerize or interact with a nucleic acid substrate diminished L1 restriction to varying degrees. However the efficiency of their binding to L1 proteins did not predict restriction or the potency of the restriction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Globally, the rising cost of anticancer therapy has motivated efforts to quantify the overall value of new cancer treatments. Multicriteria decision analysis offers a novel approach to incorporate multiple criteria and perspectives into value assessment.Methods: The authors recruited a diverse, multistakeholder group who identified and weighted key criteria to establish the drug assessment framework (DAF). Construct validity assessed the degree to which DAF scores were associated with past pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) funding recommendations and European Society for Medical Oncology Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS; version 1.1) scores.Results: The final DAF included 10 criteria: overall survival, progression-free survival, response rate, quality of life, toxicity, unmet need, equity, feasibility, disease severity, and caregiver well-being. The first 5 clinical benefit criteria represent approximately 64% of the total weight. DAF scores ranged from 0 to 300, reflecting both the expected impact of the drug and the quality of supporting evidence. When the DAF was applied to the last 60 drugs (with reviewers blinded) reviewed by pCODR (2015-2018), those drugs with positive pCODR funding recommendations were found to have higher DAF scores compared with drugs not recommended (103 vs 63; Student t test P = .0007). DAF clinical benefit criteria mildly correlated with ESMO-MCBS scores (correlation coefficient, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.009-0.59). Sensitivity analyses that varied the criteria scores did not change the results.Conclusions: Using a structured and explicit approach, a criterion-based valuation framework was designed to provide a transparent and consistent method with which to value and prioritize cancer drugs to facilitate the delivery of affordable cancer care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pittsburgh compound B ([11C]PiB) was the first broadly applied radiotracer with specificity for amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide aggregates in the brain and has since been established as the gold standard for positron emission tomography (PET) employed for clinical in vivo imaging of Aβ plaques, used for imaging applications of Alzheimer's disease (AD), related dementia, and other tauopathies. The use of [11C]PiB for routine PET studies is dependent on the production capabilities of each radiochemistry laboratory, subsequently a continuous effort is made to develop suitable and sustainable methods on a variety of auto synthesis platforms. Here we report a fully automated, multi-step radio synthesis, purification, and reformulation of [11C]PiB for PET imaging using the Trasis AllinOne synthesis unit, a commonly used commercial radiochemistry module. We performed three validation runs to evaluate the reproducibility and to verify that the acceptable criteria were met for the release of clinical-grade [11C]PiB using a Trasis AllinOne auto radiosynthesis unit. Solid phase supported radiolabeling was performed through the capture of precursor (6-OH-BTA-0) on a C18 solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and subsequent flushing of gaseous [11C]Methyl triflate(MeOTf) through the Sep-Pak for carbon-11 (11C) N-methylation. Starting with 92.5 GBq [11C]CO 2 , [11C]PiB synthesis was completed in approximately 25 min after cyclotron end of bombardment with an injectable dose >7.0 GBq at end of the synthesis. The radiopharmaceutical product met all quality control criteria and specifications for use in human studies. • Automated radiosynthesis of [11C]PiB on the Trasis AllinOne synthesis unit. • Synthesis of the N-methylating synthon, [11C]MeOTf on the same cassette. • [11C]PiB was obtained with high molar activity and radiochemical purity. • Procedure is potentially transferable to the production of [11C]PiB in commercial kit modules. • [11C]PiB produced meets all quality control specifications for human use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although hydropower is a source of low-carbon energy, without careful consideration and management, dams have the potential to degrade river ecosystems and the goods and services they provide to society. Today, a broad range of hydropower interests and stakeholders are seeking approaches to hydropower development and operation that are more environmentally and socially sustainable. The Penobscot River Restoration Project ('the Project') illustrates that basin-scale approaches can provide a broader set of solutions for balancing energy and riverine environmental resources than can be achieved at the scale of individual projects. The Penobscot basin is the largest in Maine and historically supported culturally and economically significant populations of migratory fish. These migratory fish populations declined dramatically following the construction of a series of hydropower dams on the main stem river and major tributaries in the early 20th century. The Project, negotiated between a power company (PPL Corporation) and a coalition including the Penobscot Indian Nation, resource agencies, and nongovernmental conservation organizations, features the removal of two main stem dams on the lower Penobscot and improved fish passage at the dams that remain. Because of various capacity and/or operational changes, power production will be increased at the remaining dams and total hydropower energy production from the basin will be maintained or increase slightly. The Project is expected to expand considerably the proportion of the basin accessible to migratory fish and contribute to significant increases in fish populations. The Project illustrates that a basin-scale approach can potentially yield more comprehensive solutions for sustainable hydropower than can be achieved at the project scale, and we recommend that such large-scale planning processes can improve the sustainability of both regulatory licensing of existing dams as well as the planning of future dams in regions undergoing the expansion of water-management infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substance use among adolescents is associated with a range of negative outcomes and risk-taking behaviors. Identifying and intervening early is essential to reducing associated risks in adolescence and adulthood. New approaches are needed to equip youth-serving systems with tools to identify and respond to substance use. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) has emerged as a promising public health framework and there is a growing research interest in effective adaptations for its use with adolescents. However, healthcare settings, schools, and other community-based settings are slow to adapt SBIRT, citing gaps in knowledge and capacity to deliver evidence-based substance use prevention and early intervention. Further, these settings and the surrounding communities often lack the treatment and other prevention and recovery support resources needed for youth who screen as high-risk. Integrating young adult peers with personal lived experience of substance use recovery may meet this practical need. By drawing upon their shared experiences and skills developed in recovery, young adult peers can provide developmentally appropriate screening and intervention support to youth - while also providing urgently needed skills and time to under resourced settings. This article describes the value of young adult peer roles in expanding youth substance use prevention and early intervention, and features Project Amp as an example. Project Amp was designed as an extended, four-session brief intervention for low to moderate risk adolescents, delivered by trained young adult peers. Project Amp draws on best practices from peer recovery support and prevention and early intervention approaches such as SBIRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]