Examining the Risks of Multiple Types of Interpersonal Victimization for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming College Students.

Recent research has shown that transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals are at risk of experiencing interpersonal violence, yet there may be differences within this group and across victimization types. The current study examined rates of seven types of interpersonal victimization based on six gender identities (cisgender women, cisgender men, trans women, trans men, nonbinary, and another identity) among a national study of college students. Data from the Spring 2021 American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment III (ACHA-NCHA III), a national-level study of U.S. college students, were used. We examined the association between gender identity and seven types of interpersonal violence victimization (violent victimization, sexual victimization, intimate partner violence victimization, stalking, bullying, microaggression, and discrimination) that occurred within the past 12 months. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine if, when controlling for competing factors, gender identity was associated with an increase in the expected odds of victimization for each victimization type. Analyses revealed that TGNC college students reported experiencing a greater amount of all seven types of victimization compared to cisgender college students. These findings corroborate previous research indicating that rates of interpersonal violence are higher among TGNC college students compared to those who identify as cisgender, even after controlling for sexual orientation, related demographic factors, and substance use. Findings from the current study suggest that there are differences within individuals who identify as TGNC in terms of their risk for interpersonal victimization and that rates differ across victimization types. More work is needed to provide tailored prevention programming for TGNC college students.

Victimization, Disability Status, and Fear Among U.S. College Students.

Levels of fear of crime are high in the United States, though they differ across groups. Researchers have identified characteristics associated with high levels of fear of crime, often noting that those most fearful also have vulnerabilities that increase their risk of experiencing victimization. Thus, having a vulnerability and experiencing victimization may exacerbate fear of crime. One such characteristic that may impact fear of crime is having a disability. The current study uses data from the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment Spring 2021 survey to investigate how disability interacts with victimization to impact fear of crime among college students. To do so, assessments of personal safety in multiple contexts are used: at night, during the day, on campus, and in the community. Results show that disability increases the odds of feeling unsafe across contexts, as does having a history of victimization. Nonetheless, disability does not significantly interact with victimization. It may be that having a disability is such a strong risk factor for feeling unsafe that being a victim does not significantly further increase this assessment. Institutions of higher learning should use their offices of accommodation as well as victim services to assist students in reducing their feelings of being unsafe.

Message in a bubble: the translational potential of extracellular vesicles.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small, membrane-enclosed vesicles released by cells into the extracellular milieu. They are found in all body fluids and contain a variety of functional cargo including DNA, RNA, proteins, glycoproteins and lipids, able to provoke phenotypic responses in cells, both locally and at distant sites. They are implicated in a wide array of physiological and pathological processes and hence have attracted considerable attention in recent years as potential therapeutic targets, drug delivery vehicles and biomarkers of disease. In this review we summarise the major functions of EVs in health and disease and discuss their translational potential, highlighting opportunities of - and challenges to - capitalising on our rapidly increasing understanding of EV biology for patient benefit.

Early but reversible haemostatic changes in a-symptomatic females expressing COVID-19 antibodies.

The coronavirus, COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe in 2020, with an initial high case mortality in those requiring intensive care treatment due to serious complication. A vaccine programme was quickly developed and currently the UK is one of highest double vaccinated and boosted countries in the world. Despite tremendous efforts by the UK, new cases of COVID-19 are still occurring, due to viral mutation. A major problem associated with COVID-19 is the large a-symptomatic spread within the population. Little investigation into the a-symptomatic population has been carried out and therefore we pose that the residual effects of a-symptomatic infection is still largely unknown. Prior to mass vaccination, a multi-phased single cohort study of IgM and IgG COVID-19 antibody prevalence and the associated haemostatic changes were assessed in a Welsh cohort of 739 participants, at three time points. Positive antibody participants with age and gender matched negative antibody controls were assessed at 0, 3 and 6 months. Antibody positive females appeared to have lower antibody responses in comparison to their a-symptomatic male counterparts. Despite this initial testing showed a unique significant increase in TRAP-6-induced platelet aggregation, prothrombin time (PT) and clot initiation time. Despite coagulation parameters beginning to return to normal at 3 months, significant decreases are observed in both haemoglobin and haematocrit levels. The production of extracellular vesicles (EV) was also determined in this study. Although the overall number of EV does not change throughout the study, at the initial 0 months' time point a significant increase in the percentage of circulating pro-coagulant platelet derived EV is seen, which does not appear to be related to the extent of platelet activation in the subject. We conclude that early, but reversible changes in haemostatic pathways within the a-symptomatic, female, antibody positive COVID-19 individuals are present. These changes may be key in identifying a period of pro-coagulative risk for a-symptomatic female patients.

Cost-effectiveness of targeted screening for hepatitis C in The Netherlands.

On account of the serious complications of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and the improved treatment possibilities, the need to improve HCV awareness and case-finding is increasingly recognized. To optimize a future national campaign with this objective, three pilot campaigns were executed in three regions in The Netherlands. One campaign was aimed at the general population, a second (similar) campaign was extended with a support programme for primary care and a third campaign was specifically aimed at hard-drug users. Data from the pilot campaigns were used to build a mathematical model to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of the different campaigns. The campaign aimed at the general public without support for primary care did not improve case-finding and was therefore not cost-effective. The similar campaign accompanied by additional support for primary care and the campaign aimed at hard-drug users emerged as cost-effective interventions for identification of HCV carriers.

Survival after transfusion in the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: Cost-effectiveness analyses of blood safety interventions require estimates of the life expectancy after blood product transfusion. These are best derived from survival after blood transfusion, per age group and blood component type. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: In the PROTON (PROfiles of TransfusiON recipients) study transfusion recipient data was collected from a hospital sample covering 28% of the total blood use between 1996 and 2006 in the Netherlands. The dataset includes date of transfusion, blood component type transfused and recipient identification details. PROTON data were individually matched to mortality data of the Netherlands. Survival after first transfusion and after any transfusion was calculated, per blood component type and age group. PROTON mortality rates were compared to mortality rates in the general population. The results were used to estimate survival beyond the study period and to estimate life expectancy after transfusion. RESULTS: Of all 2,405,012 blood product transfusions in the PROTON dataset, 92% was matched to the national Dutch Municipal Population Register, which registers all deaths. After 1 year, survival after any transfusion was 65·4%, 70·4% and 53·9% for RBC, FFP and PLT respectively. After 5 years, this was 46·6%, 58·8% and 39·3% for RBC, FFP and PLT, respectively. Ten years after transfusion, mortality rates of recipients are still elevated in comparison with the general population. CONCLUSION: Mortality rates of transfusion recipients are higher than those of the general population, but the increase diminishes over time. The mortality rates found for the Netherlands are lower than those found in comparable studies for other countries.

The PROTON study: profiles of blood product transfusion recipients in the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: Transfusion recipient data are needed for correct estimation of cost-effectiveness in terms of recipient outcomes after transfusion. Also, such data are essential for monitoring blood use, estimation of future blood use and benchmarking. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A sample of 20 of 93 Dutch hospitals was selected. Datasets containing all blood product transfusions between 1996 and 2006 were extracted from hospital blood bank computer systems, containing transfusion date, blood product type and recipient characteristics such as gender, address, date of birth. The datasets were appended and matched to national hospitalization datasets including primary discharge diagnoses (ICD-9). Using these data, we estimated distributions of blood recipient characteristics in the Netherlands. RESULTS: The dataset contains information on 290,043 patients who received 2,405,012 blood products (1,720,075 RBC, 443,697 FFP, 241,240 PLT) from 1996 to 2006. This is 28% of total blood use in the Netherlands during this period. Comparable diagnosis and age distributions of all hospitalizations indicate included hospitals to be representative, per hospital category, for the Netherlands. Of all red blood cells (RBC), fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) and platelets (PLT), respectively 1.7%, 2.5% and 4.5% were transfused to neonates. Recipients of 65 years or older received 57.6% of RBC, 41.4% of FFP and 29.0% of PLT. Most of the blood products were transfused to patients with diseases of the circulary system (25.1%) or neoplasms (22.0%). CONCLUSION: Transfusion data from a limited sample of hospitals can be used to estimate national distributions of blood recipient characteristics.

Cost-effectiveness of additional hepatitis B virus nucleic acid testing of individual donations or minipools of six donations in the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: To further reduce the risk of hepatitis B virus (HBV) transmission by blood transfusion, nucleic acid testing (NAT) can be employed. The aim of this study is to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) in the Netherlands of employing a triplex NAT assay aimed at HBV nucleic acid detection in individual donations (ID-NAT) or in minipools of 6 donations (MP-6-NAT), compared to a triplex NAT assay in minipools of 24 donations (MP-24-NAT). STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A mathematical model was made of the whole transfusion chain from donors to recipients of blood in the Netherlands. The annual number of avoided HBV transmissions was estimated with the window-period incidence model. The natural history of a HBV infection in recipients is described by a Markov model. RESULTS: The ICER of adding HBV MP-6-NAT or HBV ID-NAT in the Netherlands is Euro303,218 (95% confidence interval [CI], Euro233,001-Euro408,388) and Euro518,995 (95% CI, Euro399,359-Euro699,120) per quality-adjusted life-year, respectively. The ICER strongly correlates with the age of transfusion recipients. CONCLUSION: The cost-effectiveness of additional HBV NAT is limited by the limited loss of life caused by HBV transmission. Despite a higher effectiveness, HBV ID-NAT is less cost-effective than MP-6-NAT due to higher costs. A future equivalent participation of immigrants from HBV-endemic countries in the donor base renders HBV NAT only slightly more cost-effective.

Comparison of surveillance and control activities of infection control nurses and infection control laboratorians in United States hospitals, 1976-1977.

To study the impact of the professional background of infection control personnel, we compared the characteristics and activities of 107 infection control nurses (ICNs) with those of 13 infection control laboratorians (ICLs), all in hospitals with 300 beds or more. Although the two groups performed similarly in many respects. ICNs spent more time teaching, whereas ICLs spent more time and appeared more proficient in investigating outbreaks. Staff nurses at hospitals with ICNs found the infection control person more visible on the wards and more available for discussing infection control matters. ICNs appeared less hesitant to speak up to personnel not following correct handwashing techniques. ICNs and ICLs appear to offer different skills that should be considered when filling different infection control positions.

Integrating the Jewish Dietary Laws into a dietetics program. Kashruth in a dietetics curriculum.

A clinical and community dietetics program integrates Kashruth, the Jewish Dietary Laws, into its curriculum. Simply defined, kosher means fit for consumption. Emblems used throughout the United States and Canada to indicate a program of rabbinic endoresment and supervision of canned, boxed, and bottled products are included. An existing kosher unit is described, and guidelines for establishing a kosher food science laboratory unit are offered. Suggestions for instituting kosher foodservice in health care facilities are given. Therapeutic applications of Kashruth are suggested, and approved therapeutic food products are listed.