"Mere guesswork": Clarifying the role of intelligence, mentality, and psychometric testing in the diagnosis of "mental defectives" for sterilization in Alberta from 1929 to 1972.

From 1929 until 1972, the Alberta Eugenics Board (the Board) recommended that 4,739 individuals be sterilized. The original 1928 act that legalized eugenic sterilization stipulated that the surgery itself required the consent of the individual or their caregiver; however, in 1937, the Alberta government removed the consent requirement for such cases where the Board determined individual patients to be "mental defectives." By analyzing published reports, case histories, medical journals, and primary sources from the Board, we situate the concept of "mental defective" in a historical context to clarify the Board's diagnostic process. By analyzing how the Board found individuals to be "mental defectives," we challenge a previous historiographic assumption that intelligence tests played a critical or defining role in this diagnostic process. We argue that the notion of the "mental defective" used by the Board had a long history before the advent of intelligence testing and eugenic thought. This history helps to explain how and why the Board relied extensively on the broader examination of behavior, social status, and physical appearance as core evidence in the diagnosis of "mental defect." Intelligence tests were certainly important as they shed light on an individual's academic ability. However, this alone was only one part of "mentality." Defects of mentality were understood to be broad and multifactorial, and included difficult, if not impossible, to measure attributes such as personality, emotionality, and morality. Further research should incorporate the concept of mentality in the history of psychology, testing, and eugenics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Glioma-derived IL-33 orchestrates an inflammatory brain tumor microenvironment that accelerates glioma progression.

Despite a deeper molecular understanding, human glioblastoma remains one of the most treatment refractory and fatal cancers. It is known that the presence of macrophages and microglia impact glioblastoma tumorigenesis and prevent durable response. Herein we identify the dual function cytokine IL-33 as an orchestrator of the glioblastoma microenvironment that contributes to tumorigenesis. We find that IL-33 expression in a large subset of human glioma specimens and murine models correlates with increased tumor-associated macrophages/monocytes/microglia. In addition, nuclear and secreted functions of IL-33 regulate chemokines that collectively recruit and activate circulating and resident innate immune cells creating a pro-tumorigenic environment. Conversely, loss of nuclear IL-33 cripples recruitment, dramatically suppresses glioma growth, and increases survival. Our data supports the paradigm that recruitment and activation of immune cells, when instructed appropriately, offer a therapeutic strategy that switches the focus from the cancer cell alone to one that includes the normal host environment.

'To Awaken the Medical and Hygienic Conscience of the People': Cultivating Enlightened Citizenship through Free Public Healthcare in Haiti from 1915-34.

This paper addresses the relative scholarly oversight of the history of public health in Haiti through a close examination of the colonial public health system constructed and operated by the United States (US) during its occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934. More than simply documenting a neglected aspect of Caribbean history, the paper offers the US occupation of Haiti as a remarkably clear example of a failed attempt to use a free public health service to cultivate a health conscientiousness among the Haitian citizenry through the aggressive treatment of highly visible ailments such as cataracts and yaws. I argue that the US occupation viewed the success of the Haitian Public Health Service as critical to the generation of a taxable, compliant and trusting citizenry that the colonial state could enter into a contract with. This idealistic programme envisioned by the US occupation was marred by financial mismanagement, racism, delusions of grandeur and contempt for Haitian physicians that resulted in the production of a far more precarious public health service and administrative state than the US occupation had hoped. By the time the Great Depression arrived in 1930 the Haitian Public Health Service was gutted and privatised, having successfully provided the majority of Haitians with free healthcare, yet failed to have persuaded them of the value of being governed by a centralised administrative state.