Why Are Community Stakeholders Pressing for a Call to Action to Curtail the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the South?

As the South is disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS compared to other U.S. regions, Southerners are more likely to contract HIV and, given barriers to care, are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. As part of a multistate interdisciplinary university-community HIV/AIDS partnership, community stakeholders described historical perspectives and traditions of the South contributing to disproportionate HIV/AIDS disease burden and unique regional challenges to HIV testing, linkage, and retention in HIV care. This article addressed the question, "Why are community stakeholder pressing for a call to action to curtail the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South?" to highlight social, cultural, and faith traditions of the South that may pose barriers to HIV testing and promote HIV-related stigma. A call to action is presented to the social work profession to implement a strengths-based, socioecological approach to HIV/AIDS service provision that integrates prevention, intervention, community engagement, social action, and policy advocacy to assist in alleviating the disproportionate disease burden among Southerners. Next steps for the authors' interdisciplinary university-community HIV/AIDS partnership to increase social awareness and health literacy in the South are also discussed.

A Systematic Review on Interventions Supporting Preceptor Development.

Increases in newly licensed nurses and experienced nurses changing specialties create a challenge for nursing professional development specialists (NPDS). The NPDS must use the best available evidence in designing programs. A systematic review of interventions for developing preceptors is needed to inform the NPDS in best practice. A search was conducted for full-text, quantitative, and mixed-methods articles published after the year 2000. Over 4000 titles were initially identified, which yielded 12 research studies for evaluation and syntheses. Results identified a limited body of evidence reflecting a need for NPDS to increase efforts in measuring the effectiveness of preceptor development initiatives.(See CE Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JNPD/A9).

Circulating dendritic cell number and intracellular TNF-α production in women with type 2 diabetes.

Human dendritic cell (DC) subsets perform specialized functions for surveillance against bacterial and viral infections essential for the management of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) by DCs acts in autocrine fashion to regulate DC maturation and promotes the inflammatory response. This study was designed to compare circulating DC number and intracellular TNF-α production between post-menopausal women with T2D and healthy women. Blood samples were obtained (n = 21/group) and examined for plasma glucose and TNF-α concentrations, and dendritic cell subset immunophenotype (plasmacytoid, pDC, CD85k(ILT-3)(+)CD123(+)CD16(-)CD14(-) and myeloid, mDC, CD85k(ILT-3)(+)CD33(+)CD123(dim to neg)CD16(-)CD14(dim to neg)). Intracellular production of TNF-α was determined in unstimulated and stimulated DCs. Women with T2D had significantly (P < 0.05) greater plasma glucose and TNF-α concentrations when compared to healthy women. Women with T2D having poor glycemic control (T2D Poor Control, HbA1c ≥ 7%) had fewer circulating pDCs than women with T2D having good glycemic control (T2D Good Control, HbA1c < 7%) and healthy women. A significant interaction (P = 0.011) was observed between the effects of plasma glucose and group for intracellular expression of TNF-α in stimulated pDCs. Intracellular production of TNF-α in pDCs was significantly greater in healthy vs. T2D Poor Control (P < 0.0001) and T2D Good Control (P < 0.0001) but did not differ between T2D subgroups. The mDC number and intracellular production of TNF-α did not differ between groups. These findings indicate that TNF-α production by pDCs was reduced in women with T2D and circulating number of pDCs was associated with glycemic control.