Leptin Gene and Leptin Receptor Gene Polymorphisms in Alcohol Use Disorder: Findings Related to Psychopathology

Comorbidity between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other addictive and psychiatric disorders is highly prevalent and disabling; however, the underlying biological correlates are not fully understood. Leptin is a peptide hormone known for its role in energy homeostasis and food intake. Furthermore, leptin plays a key role in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and of several neurotransmitter systems that regulate emotionality and behavior. However, human studies that have investigated circulating leptin levels in relation to AUD and affective disorders, such as anxiety and depression, are conflicting. Genetic-based analyses of the leptin gene (LEP) and leptin receptor gene (LEPR) have the potential of providing more insight into the potential role of the leptin system in AUD and comorbid psychopathology. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether genotypic variations at LEP and LEPR are associated with measures of alcohol use, nicotine use, anxiety, and depression, all of which represent common comorbidities with AUD. Haplotype association analyses were performed, using data from participants enrolled in screening and natural history protocols at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Analyses were performed separately in European Americans and African Americans due to the variation in haplotype diversity for most genes between these groups. In the European American group, one LEP haplotype (EB2H4) was associated with lower odds of having a current AUD diagnosis, two LEPR haplotypes (EB7H3, EB8H3) were associated with lower cigarette pack years and two LEPR haplotypes (EB7H2, EB8H2) were associated with higher State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) scores. In the African American group, one LEP haplotype (AB2H8) was associated with higher cigarette pack years and one LEP haplotype (AB3H2) was associated with lower Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) scores. Overall, this study found that variations in the leptin and leptin receptor genes are associated with measures of alcohol use, nicotine use, and anxiety. While this preliminary study adds support for a role of the leptin system in AUD and psychopathologies, additional studies are required to fully understand the underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic implications of these findings.

“They Made us into a Race. We Made Ourselves into a People”: A Corpus Study of Contemporary Black American Group Identity in the Non-Fictional Writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates

This article examines representations of contemporary Black American identity in the non-fictional writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates. The dataset is a self-compiled specialized corpus of Coates’s non-fictional writings from 1996 until 2018 (350 texts; 468,899 words). The study utilizes an interdisciplinary approach combining corpus linguistics and corpus pragmatics. Frequencies of five identity-related terms in the corpus (African(–)Americans, blacks, black people, black America/Americans and black community/communities) are compared diachronically; then the pragmatic prosody of the terms is analyzed via the notion of control. The findings suggest that Coates’s representation of Black American group identity has shifted over time. Specifically, the terms African Americans and black America are replaced by the terms blacks and black people. The study’s empirical findings, considered through the theoretical framework on Black solidarity, suggest a shift in representation of group identity in Coates’s writings from an identity based on cultural and ethnic commonalities to an identity based on the shared experiences of anti-Black racism.

Solving Problems by Protecting an Identity

This chapter follows the action in scenes from the earlier phase of the Tenants of South Los Angeles's antidisplacement campaign. When advocates style themselves as a community of identity, they give themselves a distinctive dilemma. Their style of action, with its emphasis on a distinct, subordinated community, entangles them with different social realities from the ones immediately salient to a community of interest. The central dilemma for a community of identity is to balance strategies that are from the people most central to “the community” and those crafted by advocates for the community. The community of identity is a cultural reality of its own, with its own influence on how activists make claims and build relationships around claims. It generates distinct ways of talking and feeling. The chapter ends with scenes from Los Angeles People's Organization, a predominantly African American group that pursued housing and civil rights issues in the same style of interaction.

Palabra e imagen en La Isla de Bali de Miguel Covarrubias

The Island of Bali, by Miguel Covarrubias, has remained one of the definitive treatments of the subject since its original publication in 1937. The book’s facility with words is matched by elegance of drawing. The book was also composed in a colonial context, written by a Mexican who was part of a Euro-American group of cosmopolitan intellectuals and artists. Miguel Covarrubias has been attacked as an orientalist, and praised as a trans-Pacific visionary. His encounter with Bali was especially an encounter with Balinese art, especially the new form of modernism emerging in the 1930s. Covarrubias’s interests in magic coincided with Balinese preoccupations with spiritual forces, something he pursued with his study of Balinese texts. For Covarrubias, art was a vehicle for achieving liberation. Despite heavy outside editorial intervention, Island of Bali advances a global view of connec-tions between societies through art.

The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem and Ben Ammi’s Theology of Marginalisation and Reorientation

This paper will look at the way the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have utilised the theological narrative of marginalisation in their quest for identity and self-determination. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are an expatriate black American group who have lived in Israel since 1969, when their spiritual leader, Detroit-born Ben Ammi, received a vision commanding him to take his people back to the Promised Land. Drawing on a long tradition in the African American community that self-identified as the biblical Israelites, the African Hebrew Israelites are marginalised in their status as Americans, as Jews, and as Israelis. We will examine the writings of Ben Ammi in order to demonstrate that this biblically based motif of marginalisation was a key part of his theology, and one which enabled his movement to grow and sustain itself; yet, in comparison with other contemporaneous theological movements, Ben Ammi utilised a specific variant of this motif. Rejecting the more common emphasis on liberation, Ammi argued for an eschatological reorientation around the marginalised. This article will conclude that Ben Ammi’s theology is key to understanding how the community has oriented itself and how it has proved successful in lasting 50 years against both internal disputes and external attacks.

Humeral Retroversion and Participation Age in Professional Baseball Pitchers by Geographic Region

Context Baseball is played around the world, including in North America and Latin America. The repetitive and stressful act of throwing can lead to adaptations such as increased humeral retroversion (HR) in the throwing arm. This adaptation is often considered beneficial as it allows more glenohumeral external rotation during the cocking phase of pitching without soft tissue stretching. Therefore, it is speculated that throwing should be started at a young age to capitalize on this adaptation. Interestingly, athletes in different geographic regions of the world often begin organized baseball at different ages. However, range of motion (ROM), HR, and the starting age of baseball have never been examined based on geographic region. Objective To determine if ROM, HR, and the starting age of baseball players differed between professional baseball pitchers from North America and Latin America. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Clinical setting. Patients or Other Participants Thirty professional pitchers (North American = 19, Latin American = 11) with no current injury or surgery in the previous 6 months. Main Outcome Measure(s) Both ROM and HR were measured in the dominant and nondominant shoulder of each participant. The starting age for baseball was self-reported. Results The Latin American group had more dominant-arm HR (8.7°; P = .034), more nondominant-arm external rotation (5.3°; P = .049), and a trend toward more nondominant-arm HR (6.5°; P = .058), yet they started playing baseball at a later age (by 3.7 years; P = .021) compared with the North American group. Conclusions Latin American players had greater HR but started playing baseball at an older age. These findings contradict current thinking that HR would be more pronounced if baseball was started at a younger age. Additional research is required to better understand HR and the genetic, environmental, and nutritional factors that contribute to its development.

Using theories from group psychotherapy to understand group process in multicultural focus groups: A pilot study

This study explores the applicability of the American Group Psychotherapy Association’s (AGPA) Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy to analyse the construction of group processes in three focus groups with patients, clinicians, and administrators on cultural competence. Each focus group was recorded, transcribed, and analysed through codes developed from the AGPA’s Guidelines. Findings were compared and contrasted to discover thematic convergences and divergences. Our results show that certain processes such as catharsis, imparting information, and universality emerged commonly across all three focus groups, but with different frequencies. Group processes influenced how participants interacted and influenced each other in their responses, suggesting the value of analysing group processes in multicultural focus groups.