Alzheimer’s Disease among American Minority Populations: An Eco­logical Exploratory Study

A significant public health concern with regards to increasing rates of Alzheimer’s is that it disproportionately affects minority groups in the United States.The present ecological exploratory study uses secondary aggregate data from the fifty United States in the year of 2019.The pur­pose of this study was to address the disparities in Alzheimer’s in minori­ty populations in the US and explore associated factors.The“minority”populations considered were African American and Hispanic populations,and the“majority”population was referred to as“white”.The data were extracted from the United States Census Bureau,the CDC National Cen­ter for Health Statistics,and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Sys­tem(BRFSS)Dataset.The prevalence rates of Alzheimer’s disease are greatest in both older Hispanic(12.2%)and African Americans(13.8%),compared to older whites(10.3%)in the investigated time period.Our results showed that being over 65 years old(p=.009),with a below-av­erage($62,843)median household income(p=.024),history of stroke(p=.029),and being a part of the Hispanic population(p=.036),were significantly associated with Alzheimer’s mortality rates in the United States.By identifying disparities in access to Alzheimer’s healthcare and at-risk communities,more comprehensive intervention strategies can be developed to promote change and advocate for more Alzheimer’s educa­tion and resource allocation for minority populations.

Minority population and sustainable development in mountain regions a case study of the Tibetan inhabited region in Sichuan, China

China boasts 56 nationalities who are mostly inhabited in the sparsely populated mountain regions in West China. Like many other places in the Han nationality distributed regions, minority nationality inhabited regions are also facing the challenge of sustainable development in terms of both natural and human factors. Taking the Tibetan inhabited regions (TIR) in Sichuan Province as a case, this paper points out some major problems in the process of economic development in perspective of sustainability and leaves some hints for development strategies. While natural conditions such as geological instability are playing a major role to the environmental degradation, human activities and improper use of resources might constitute an important agent in the environmental deterioration. In order to promote local economic development and improve people’s living standard, sustainable planning is expected to be made and people’s awareness of sustainability should be strengthened.

Reducing psychiatric illness in the perinatal period:A review and commentary

This brief overview highlights the global crisis of perinatal psychiatric illness(PPI).PPI is a major contributor to many adverse pregnancy,childbirth,and childhood development outcomes.It contributes to billions of dollars in spending worldwide each year and has a significant impact on the individual,their family,and their community.It is also highly preventable.Current recommendations for intervention and management of PPI are limited and vary considerably from country to country.Furthermore,there are several significant challenges associated with implementation of these recommendations.These challenges are magnified in number and consequence among women of color and/or minority populations,who experience persistent and negative health disparities during pregnancy and the postpartum period.This paper aims to provide a broad overview of the current state of recommendations and implementation challenges for PPI and layout a framework for overcoming these challenges.An equityinformed model of care that provides universal intervention for pregnant women may be one solution to address the preventable consequences of PPI on child and maternal health.Uniquely,this model emphasizes the importance of managing and eliminating known barriers to traditional health care models.Culturally and contextually specific challenges must be overcome to fully realize the impact of improved management of PPI.

Allele-specific real-time PCR testing for minor HIV-1 drug resistance mutations： assay preparation and application to reveal dynamic of mutations in vivo

Background It is very important for the clinical management to test for minor HIV-1 resistance mutations accurately and sensitively. The conventional genotypic assays of HIV drug resistance detection based on sequencing can only discriminate the mutations which present in more than 20%-30%. The aim of this study was to evaluate allele-specific real-time PCR （ASPCR） to detect the resistance-related mutations located at positions 103, 184 and 215.Methods We developed the allele-specific PCR assay, using the most common drug resistance mutations in Chinese AIDS patients, K103N, M184V/I, T215F/Y as a model system. The standards were constructed by cloning the wild-type and mutant DNA fragments into the T-vector. We designed specific primers to discriminate mutant templates in the real-time PCR using SYBR green as a fluorescence reporter. And then we evaluated the ASPCR assay and tested 140clinical samples using this method.Results The sensitivities of ASPCR assay were 0.04% for K103N, 0.30% for M1841, 0.40% for M184V, 0.03% for T215F and 0.02% for T215Y. The intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation were less than 0.42. One hundred and forty plasma samples were tested by ASPCR and dynamic resistance curves of ten patients were obtained.Conclusions Drug resistance emerged half a year after the start of antiretroviral therapy. The mutation of T215Yemerged 1 to 1.5 years after starting treatment and then increased rapidly. The ASPCR assay we developed was a sensitive, accurate and rapid method to detect the minor HIV-1 variants and it can provide earlier and more drug-resistance information for HIV research and AIDS antiretroviral therapy.