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Initiated in 2016, End Hep C SF is a comprehensive initiative to eliminate hepatitis C (HCV) infection in San Francisco. The introduction of direct-acting antivirals to treat and cure HCV provides an opportunity for elimination. To properly measure progress, an estimate of baseline HCV prevalence, and of the number of people in various subpopulations with active HCV infection, is required to target and measure the impact of interventions. Our analysis was designed to incorporate multiple relevant data sources and estimate HCV burden for the San Francisco population as a whole, including specific key populations at higher risk of infection. Our estimates are based on triangulation of data found in case registries, medical records, observational studies, and published literature from 2010 through 2017. We examined subpopulations based on sex, age and/or HCV risk group. When multiple sources of data were available for subpopulation estimates, we calculated a weighted average using inverse variance weighting. Credible ranges (CRs) were derived from 95% confidence intervals of population size and prevalence estimates. We estimate that 21,758 residents of San Francisco are HCV seropositive (CR: 10,274-42,067), representing an overall seroprevalence of 2.5% (CR: 1.2%- 4.9%). Of these, 16,408 are estimated to be viremic (CR: 6,505-37,407), though this estimate includes treated cases; up to 12,257 of these (CR: 2,354-33,256) are people who are untreated and infectious. People who injected drugs in the last year represent 67.9% of viremic HCV infections. We estimated approximately 7,400 (51%) more HCV seropositive cases than are included in San Francisco's HCV surveillance case registry. Our estimate provides a useful baseline against which the impact of End Hep C SF can be measured.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195575.].

Asian/Pacific Islanders (A/PIs) in the United States are disproportionately affected by the hepatitis B virus (HBV), which can cause a lifelong liver infection that may result in cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer, or death. Although previous studies have measured knowledge of hepatitis B transmission and prevention practices in A/PI communities, we present results from the first population-based study of this type, which specifically focuses on A/PIs who are chronically infected with HBV. Through telephone interviews, we assessed the HBV risk factor knowledge and prevention practices of a population-based, random sample of persons with chronic HBV who were reported to the San Francisco Department of Public Health between October 2007 and July 2009. Among 829 respondents, 67% were foreign born A/PIs of Chinese ethnicity who did not speak English as their primary language. Among all respondents, 75% were unable to identify how they acquired HBV, and 41% said that they do nothing to prevent transmission of HBV to their close contacts. Knowledge of HBV risk factors and recommended prevention practices was poor among A/PIs who are chronically infected with HBV and who may transmit the infection to others.

This volume presents global perspectives on Asian American literature by accomplished scholars from Germany, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and the US. It covers a diverse range of interdisciplinary topics in contemporary Asian American Studies across a wide spectrum of ethnic groups.

My dissertation, Talking in Pidgin and Silence: Local Writers of Hawai'i, reflects various ways in which writers dispel notions that speaking/writing in forms other than Standard English is “fractured,” “broken,” or “incoherent.” Narratives and poetry by authors Lee Tonouchi, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Juliana Spahr, Gary Pak, Zamora Linmark, Nora Okja Keller, and Lisa Linn Kanae demonstrate how Pidgin, otherwise known as Hawaiian Creole English, has a diverse, working-class heritage. During the first half of the 1900s, people of Korean, Portugese, Puerto-Rican, Japanese, Filipino and Chinese descent worked under oppressive conditions but rallied against the exploitative practices of plantation owners. In order to communicate with one another, they created a communal language. The language is representative of a polyvocal society, a society that continues to negotiate what it means to be a “Local” person who lives in Hawai'i. The organic inception of Pidgin has become a marker of Local identity, yet despite its working-class and cultural heritage, stigmas against Pidgin remain. My scholarship discusses consequences of prejudicial labels and examines narratives that focus on themes of self-hatred and isolation. Imposed standards made people feel inadequate and incompetent about their scholastic potential; however, current work of Local authors undoes some of the misguided notions about Pidgin. Furthermore, this dissertation is controversial and necessary because it adds to the ongoing discussion in which scholars are attempting to distinguish Native Hawaiian literature from settler, not, immigrant literature. Local writers of Hawai'i portray life in plantation camps, laborers desire to go “home,” the displacement and isolation that workers felt, assimilation in a new society, and exploitation of plantation owners in their narratives.

During this past legislative session, James Nishimoto, chief negotiator of the Governor’s Office of Collective Bargaining, stirred the pot by stating management would lose control of its employees. All we ask for is mutual respect, good-faith bargaining, and employers to demonstrate integrity by honoring terms and conditions they have promised. UH administrators backed this decision, claiming the letter of hire the professor received was not covered by the collective bargaining process, so the promise made...

In a historical context, Hawaiian Creole English (HCE) is a language constructed out of business and empire – people of various ethnicities developed the language in order to communicate with one another on the plantations.¹ In many ways, the language is a tool that Local people utilize to claim their subjectivity.² Alternatively, those who use the language have been stigmatized by the dominant class – those who speak “Standard” or hegemonic English.³ Because HCE is often stereotyped as “fractured,” or “broken,” speakers are often left questioning a crucial part of their self-identity: how their speech is perceived by others. Their

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) reductions in Alzheimer’s disease patients and related mouse models have been recognized for decades, but the underlying mechanisms and resulting consequences for Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis remain poorly understood. In APP/PS1 and 5xFAD mice we found that an increased number of cortical capillaries had stalled blood flow as compared to in wild-type animals, largely due to neutrophils that had adhered in capillary segments and blocked blood flow. Administration of antibodies against the neutrophil marker Ly6G reduced the number of stalled capillaries, leading to both an immediate increase in CBF and rapidly improved performance in spatial and working memory tasks. This study identified a previously uncharacterized cellular mechanism that explains the majority of the CBF reduction seen in two mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and demonstrated that improving CBF rapidly enhanced short-term memory function. Restoring cerebral perfusion by preventing neutrophil adhesion may provide a strategy for improving cognition in Alzheimer’s disease patients.The authors found that white blood cells plug about 2% of capillaries in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease mouse models. When the adhesion of these cells was blocked, cerebral blood flow immediately increased and cognitive performance rapidly improved.

CRISPR–Cas9 paired with adeno-associated virus serotype 6 (AAV6) is among the most efficient tools for producing targeted gene knockins. Here, we report that this system can lead to frequent concatemeric insertions of the viral vector genome at the target site that are difficult to detect. Such errors can cause adverse and unreliable phenotypes that are antithetical to the goal of precision genome engineering. The concatemeric knockins occurred regardless of locus, vector concentration, cell line or cell type, including human pluripotent and hematopoietic stem cells. Although these highly abundant errors were found in more than half of the edited cells, they could not be readily detected by common analytical methods. We describe strategies to detect and thoroughly characterize the concatemeric viral vector insertions, and we highlight analytical pitfalls that mask their prevalence. We then describe strategies to prevent the concatemeric inserts by cutting the vector genome after transduction. This approach is compatible with established gene editing pipelines, enabling robust genetic knockins that are safer, more reliable and more reproducible. AAV vectors form difficult-to-detect concatemers at Cas9 target sites.