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Fat, fibre and cancer risk in African Americans and rural Africans by Stephen J. D. O’Keefe,Jia V. Li,Leo Lahti,Junhai Ou,Franck Carbonero,Khaled Mohammed,Joram M. Posma,James Kinross,Elaine Wahl,Elizabeth Ruder,Kishore Vipperla,Vasudevan Naidoo,Lungile Mtshali,Sebastian Tims,Philippe G. B. Puylaert, James DeLany,Alyssa Krasinskas,Ann C. Benefiel,Hatem O. Kaseb,Keith Newtonet al. doi:10.1038/ncomms7342 http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150428/ncomms7342/full/ncomms7342.html   Distributed under a Creative Commons License Music CC by Yatch via the Freemusicarchive.org   ABOUT: At Socialgradient.org, we believe in the transformative power of science, information, and knowledge. In our weekly podcast, we discuss news and events that shed light on the disparities - in health, science, and education - that fuel and perpetuate a gradient in health and knowledge that runs along the socioeconomic spectrum. Our goal is to create science and health media accessible to everyone. We invite you to: Get news. Share information. And inspire change.   Visit our website http://www.socialgradient.org Twitter https://www.twitter.com/gradient_news Facebook https://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorg GPlus https://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg/ Instagram https://instagram.com/socialgradientorg/   Luis Quevedo is our host, he tweets @Luis_Quevedo   Our content and the music in this episode are distributed under a Creative Commons license.   Music by Yatch from the freemusicarchive.org

In this week's episode Dr. Monica Escaleras shares insights about the attitudes of Latinos towards the Affordable Care Act, we talk about the lack of African American doctors in the US' health system and more news with Farooq.   Monica Escaleras, Ph.D. Visiting Faculty, Florida Atlantic University Hispanics nationally have a 60 percent favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act and are finding it increasingly easier to afford healthcare, according to the latest survey conducted by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative (FAU BEPI) in the College of Business.  The March poll was conducted six months after a similar survey of Hispanics on Obamacare and offers a snapshot of their evolving opinions. Overall, Hispanics find it easier to afford healthcare (23.1 percent to 15 percent) than they did in September 2014. Only 7.8 percent of those polled said they had no health insurance, compared to 15.7 percent six months earlier.  The numbers were especially pronounced for Hispanic women, as the percentage of females that are uninsured dropped from 20.8 percent to 8.4 percent, and the number of Hispanic females on government insurance jumped 16.1 points (26.2 percent to 42.2 percent). “This is excellent news, given that before the Affordable Care Act expansion of health insurance coverage Hispanics were far more likely than whites to be uninsured,” said Monica Escaleras, Ph.D., director of BEPI. “With the decline in uninsured rates among Hispanics, the Affordable Care Act is reducing the ethnic disparities in access to healthcare.”   Hispanics men are more likely to favor the Affordable Care Act than women (66.4 percent to 52.4 percent). The favorable numbers were highest in the southeast at 72 percent, and lowest in the northeast at 40.3 percent. Asked how the healthcare law will affect their vote in the 2016 presidential election, 45.2 percent of Hispanics said they will vote for a candidate that supports the Affordable Care Act, while 31.8 percent stated they would support a candidate that opposes it. Hispanics 35-54 years of age were most likely to vote for candidates that support Obamacare (50.9 percent vs. 32.1 that oppose candidates that support Obamacare).  

In this week's episode we talk about and with women in STEM, and also about some of the stories that will appear in SocialGradient.org in the coming days.   Noelle R. Leonard, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist, New York University College of Nursing Nationally up to 60 % of persons living with HIV are neither taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) nor well engaged in HIV care, mainly racial/ethnic minorities. This study examined a new culturally targeted multi-component intervention to address emotional, attitudinal, and social/structural barriers to ART initiation and HIV care. Participants (N = 95) were African American/Black and Latino adults with CD4\500 cells/mm3 not taking ART, randomized 1:1 to intervention or control arms, the latter receiving treatment as usual. Primary endpoints were adherence, evaluated via ART concentrations in hair samples, and HIV viral load suppression. The intervention was feasible and acceptable. Eight months post-baseline, intervention participants tended to be more likely to evidence ‘‘good’’ (that is, 7 days/week) adherence (60 vs. 26.7 %; p = 0.087; OR = 3.95), and had lower viral load levels than controls (t(22) = 2.29, p = 0.032; OR = 5.20), both large effect sizes. This highly promising intervention merits further study.   Behavioral Intervention Improves Treatment Outcomes Among HIV-Infected Individuals Who Have Delayed, Declined, or Discontinued Antiretroviral Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Novel Intervention Marya Gwadz1 • Charles M. Cleland1 • Elizabeth Applegate1 • Mindy Belkin1 • Monica Gandhi2 • Nadim Salomon3 • Angela Banfield1 • Noelle Leonard1 • Marion Riedel4 • Hannah Wolfe5 • Isaiah Pickens1 • Kelly Bolger1 • DeShannon Bowens1 • David Perlman6 • Donna Mildvan6 • The Heart to Heart Collaborative Research Team   ABOUT: At Socialgradient.org, we believe in the transformative power of science, information, and knowledge. In our weekly podcast, we discuss news and events that shed light on the disparities - in health, science, and education - that fuel and perpetuate a gradient in health and knowledge that runs along the socioeconomic spectrum. Our goal is to create science a

In this week's episode we talk about and with women in STEM, and also about some of the stories that will appear in SocialGradient.org in the coming days.   Nilanjana Dasgupta Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Department of Psychology Advances in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are critical to the American economy and require a robust workforce. The scarcity of women in this workforce is a well-recognized problem, but data-driven solutions to this problem are less common. We provide experimental evidence showing that gender composition of small groups in engineering has a substantial impact on undergraduate women’s persistence. Women participate more actively in engineering groups when members are mostly female vs. mostly male or in equal gender proportions. Women feel less anxious in female-majority groups vs. minority groups, especially as first-year students. Gender-parity groups are less effective than female-majority groups in promoting verbal participation. Female peers protect women’s confidence and engineering career aspirations despite masculine stereotypes about engineering. Female peers in small work groups enhance women's motivation, verbal participation, and career aspirations in engineering Nilanjana Dasguptaa,1, Melissa McManus Scircleb, and Matthew Hunsingerc   News Roundup with Farooq: Double Jeopardy: Gender Bias Against Women of Color in Science Guatemalans deliberately infected with STDs sue Johns Hopkins University for $1bn With federal grant, UA out to get more Native Americans into medicine Cleaner environment does not increase economic hardship

Genetic Origins of the Americans, Diabetes and News Roundup A Weekly Conversation About Science, Health And The Power Of Knowledge To Transform Our Lives. - The Obesity Weight Loss Study: Reversal of obesity-associated inflammation and crown-like structures with acute weight loss Dr. Jose Aleman has a long standing interest in technology development to study common metabolic diseases as Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Aleman migrated to the US mainland to complete a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 2001. Following a Fulbright Grant to Spain, Dr Aleman completed his MD-PhD studies at Harvard Medical School and MIT in 2009. For his PhD in Medical Engineering, Dr. Aleman developed flux analysis techniques for the study of transgenic mouse models of Type 2 Diabetes in collaboration with the Joslin Diabetes Center. He is pursuing a Medical Research Residency and Endocrinology Fellowship at Cornell Medical Center, while joining the Breslow lab as part of the Clinical Scholars Program. http://lab.rockefeller.edu/breslow/clinicalresearch/metabolic     - Unravelling the hidden ancestry of American admixed populations Francesco Montinaro,George B.J. Busby,Vincenzo L. Pascali,Simon Myers,Garrett Hellenthal & Cristian Capelli The movement of people into the Americas has brought different populations into contact, and contemporary American genomes are the product of a range of complex admixture events. Here we apply a haplotype-based ancestry identification approach to a large set of genome-wide SNP data from a variety of American, European and African populations to determine the contributions of different ancestral populations to the Americas. Our results provide a fine-scale characterization of the source populations, identify a series of novel, previously unreported contributions from Africa and Europe and highlight geohistorical structure in the ancestry of American admixed populations. http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150324/ncomms7596/full/ncomms7596.html   ABOUT: At Socialgradient.org, we believe in the transformative power of science, information, and knowledge. I

JAMA SPECIAL: HEALTH IN THE US, RACE, ETHNICITY AND INCOME.   The Health of Young African American Men Stephen A. Martin, MD, EdM; Kenn Harris; Brian W. Jack, MD JAMA. Published online March 09, 2015. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.2258 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2195959   Achieving Health Equity by Design Winston F. Wong, MD, MS; Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD; Joshua M. Sharfstein, MD JAMA. Published online March 09, 2015. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.2434 http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2195960   ABOUT: At Socialgradient.org, we believe in the transformative power of science, information, and knowledge. In our weekly podcast, we discuss news and events that shed light on the disparities - in health, science, and education - that fuel and perpetuate a gradient in health and knowledge that runs along the socioeconomic spectrum. Our goal is to create science and health media accessible to everyone. We invite you to: Get news. Share information. And inspire change.   Visit our website http://www.socialgradient.org Twitter https://www.twitter.com/gradient_news Facebook https://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorg GPlus https://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg/   Luis Quevedo is our host, he tweets @Luis_Quevedo   Our content and the music in this episode are distributed under a Creative Commons license. Music by Yatch from the freemusicarchive.org  

A news roundup with Farooq Ahmed, SG's News editor before two main courses: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE Dr. Natasha Gutierrez, postdoctoral scholar from the Colón-Ramos laboratory at Yale University http://www.cienciapr.org/en/blogs/borinquena/celebration-women-science-part-one https://twitter.com/DrNattyG   Iran: Proposed laws reduce women to ‘baby making machines’ in misguided attempts to boost population Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International's Researcher on Iran, Human Rights Lawyer https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/03/iran-proposed-laws-reduce-women-to-baby-making-machines/ https://twitter.com/amnestyonline https://twitter.com/rahabahreini   Find more www.socialgradient.org   https://www.twitter.com/gradient_news http://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorg https://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg     MUSIC by Yatch under CC license via the Freemusicarchive.org

Luis and Farooq discuss recent news and developments in science and health that most impact our lives. Find more www.socialgradient.org https://www.twitter.com/gradient_newshttp://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorghttps://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg MUSIC by Yatch under CC license via the Freemusicarchive.org

In this weeks episode we talk about colorectal cancer and curcumin and fearful memories. Although colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer for both men and women in the United States, it is also one of the most preventable and treatable if found early through screening. To mark Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Social Gradient talks to Dr Gina Sam, MD, MPH, Director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Center in the Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology in the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine at The Mount Sinai Hospital Curcumin, a compound found in turmeric that may have protective effects against neurodegenerative diseases, might one day help those with PTSD let go of bad memories, suggests a new rat study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. We talked to Dr. Glenn Schafe, PhD, study coauthor and professor in the department of psychology at Hunter College. Find more www.socialgradient.org https://www.twitter.com/gradient_newshttp://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorghttps://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg MUSIC by Yatch under CC license via the Freemusicarchive.org

This week in the Social Gradient Podcast: Featured article: Jessica Scully on Racism in medicine: A Challenge to the Medical and Public Health Communities Podcast only content: Michael Dorsch, fellow at the Futures Initiative & doctoral student of CUNY’s earth and environmental sciences program will talk about his recent map, a map of the CUNY system that measures its impact on diversity. Dr. Mónica Feliu-Mojer, will talk about why science communication -or scicomm- skills are a must for any thinking scientist and specially for underrepresented minorities. In the wake of last week'd op-ed in the NYTimes where Dr. Oliver Sacks told about his terminal cancer, Dr. Mark Mehler, head of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and somebody who spent close to 35 years around Dr. oliver Sacks, agreed to talk to us about him. Find more www.socialgradient.org https://www.twitter.com/gradient_newshttp://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorghttps://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg MUSIC by Yatch under CC license via the Freemusicarchive.org

This week in the Social Gradient Podcast: Latinos Want Action on Global Warminghttp://www.socialgradient.org/?p=2699 Ciencia Puerto Rico and Yale University reach out to underserved communititeshttp://www.cienciapr.com Marion Nestle on Food Politics and Calorie Counthttp://www.foodpolitics.com/http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty/Marion_Nestle Find more www.socialgradient.orghttps://www.twitter.com/gradient_newshttp://www.facebook.com/socialgradientorghttps://plus.google.com/+SocialgradientOrg MUSIC under CC license via the Freemusicarchive.org

FEATURE Health Insurance Companies Employ Discriminatory Drug Pricing http://www.socialgradient.org/health-insurance-companies-employ-discriminatory-drug-pricing     How big food brands are boosting profits by targeting the poor The Politics of Fraudulent Dietary Supplements Is the Professor Bossy or Brilliant? Much Depends on Gender

In today's show Luis & Farooq talk about: Black History Month Asthma Risk Not Just an ‘Inner City’ Problem Closing the Math Gap for Boys UK moves toward making babies from DNA of 3 people  Federal health officials face tough questions on flu vaccine  World Cancer Day Diversity Data M.I.A. from Six Tech Leaders   Find more www.socialgradient.org   MUSIC under CC license by Josh Woodward 'Breadcrumbs' YACHT 'Shangri-La'   via the Freemusicarchive.org

This Is The Social Gradient Podcast   A Weekly Conversation About Science, Health And The Power Of Knowledge To Transform Our Lives.   Find more at www.socialgradient.org   Newsbrief: Obama’s Plan: Allow Drilling in Atlantic, but Limit It in Arctic Mexico: Monarch Levels Rebound Myriad Genetics Ending Patent Dispute on Breast Cancer Risk Testing Treatment of Overdose Will Cost Cities Less Sugar, Salt & Cholesterol Health Care Enrollment Appears to Be Near Goal A Data-Science Lender Takes on Student Debt   Social Gradient feature: Lack of diversity in Silicon Valley   Our music and our content is distributed under a Creative Commons license   Music by Yatch, Freemusicarchive.org

Science and news for everybody a podcast wherein we discuss the most recent State of the Union address by Pres. Barack Obama and we also have a very special guest that will talk about her research on diet, cancer and obesity, NYU's Nour Makarem. More at www.socialgradient.org     CC Music by Yatch & Freemusicarchive.org

Science and health news for everybodyIn this week's podcast we discuss how the government has penalized hundred of hospitals for avoidable injuries & how wealth is no match for racism when it comes to mental health with Elizabeth Goodman from Mass General Hospital for Children and Harvard UniversityFollow us on Twitter Facebook and Google+ you can visit us at www.socialgradient.orgCC music by Free Music Archive .org