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This article contributes to the existing literature on the securitisation and militarisation of national borders through an examination of the humanitarianisation of contemporary border enforcement efforts. Drawing on discourse and policy analysis and ethnographic fieldwork at the southern border of the United States, I argue that humanitarian discourse and rationality have been integrated into the way in which border enforcement efforts are both framed and justified. I term the resulting discursive configuration the safety/security nexus to draw attention to the way in which migrant safety and border security are seemingly reconciled in official state discourse and policy. I then employ a feminist geopolitical framework to unpack the political and ideological significance of this process. In doing so, I argue that the humanitarianisation of border enforcement has three primary effects: it works to counter the challenges of transnational human rights organisations and constituencies that argue that border enforcement policies violate transnational human rights; it justifies the continued militarisation and securitisation of national borders; and it upholds the territorialised logic of sovereignty and rights upon which state efforts to secure, fortify, and regulate transnational mobility are founded. In turn, this article illustrates that understanding contemporary regimes of border governance necessitates attending to the entangled relationship between militarisation, securitisation, and humanitarianism.

INTRODUCTIONPeople with mental health problems have high rates of smoking, and represent a large proportion of adult smokers in the United States. However, few public health programs in tobacco control address mental health. This study sought to determine if smoking is declining at comparable rates in people with different levels of psychological distress.METHODSTime series analysis of smoking prevalence between 1997 and 2014 was undertaken, by level of psychological distress, age group, and sex using data from the US National Health Interview Survey, a series of cross-sectional surveys. Exponential smoothing and auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modeling were used to estimate trends over time.RESULTSSmoking prevalence has declined steadily in adults with no psychological distress. In males the smoking rate has dropped from 24.4% in 1997 to 16.6% in 2014 in the underlying trend series, a decline of 0.46 percentage points per year (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.43-0.48), and in females from 18.4% to 11.3%, a decline of 0.42 percentage points per year (95% CI: 0.39-0.45). In males with high psychological distress there was a much smaller and statistically nonsignificant reduction of 0.08 percentage points per year (95% CI: -0.26-0.42) from 45.6% in 1997 to 44.9% in 2014, while in females the annual rate of decline was 0.29 percentage points (95% CI: -0.11-0.47) representing a smaller decline from 42.0% in 1997 to 37.7% in 2014.CONCLUSIONSPeople with high levels of psychological distress continue to smoke at particularly high rates, and may benefit less from existing tobacco control measures.IMPLICATIONSRates of smoking have declined substantially over time in people with no or low levels of psychological distress and much smaller reductions have occurred in people with high levels of psychological distress. If this trend continues the disparity in smoking rates by levels of psychological distress will continue to rise. These results suggest people with high levels of psychological distress do not benefit to the same extent as others from existing tobacco control measures. Psychological distress and mental illness may be important considerations for future tobacco control efforts.

Treatment with triglyceride emulsions of docosahexaenoic acid (tri-DHA) protected neonatal mice against hypoxia-ischemia (HI) brain injury. The mechanism of this neuroprotection remains unclear. We hypothesized that administration of tri-DHA enriches HI-brains with DHA/DHA metabolites. This reduces Ca2+-induced mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and attenuates brain injury. 10-day-old C57BL/6J mice following HI-brain injury received tri-DHA, tri-EPA or vehicle. At 4-5 hours of reperfusion, mitochondrial fatty acid composition and Ca2+ buffering capacity were analyzed. At 24 hours and at 8-9 weeks of recovery, oxidative injury, neurofunctional and neuropathological outcomes were evaluated. In vitro, hyperoxia-induced mitochondrial generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Ca2+ buffering capacity were measured in the presence or absence of DHA or EPA. Only post-treatment with tri-DHA reduced oxidative damage and improved short- and long-term neurological outcomes. This was associated with increased content of DHA in brain mitochondria and DHA-derived bioactive metabolites in cerebral tissue. After tri-DHA administration HI mitochondria were resistant to Ca2+-induced membrane permeabilization. In vitro, hyperoxia increased mitochondrial ROS production and reduced Ca2+ buffering capacity; DHA, but not EPA, significantly attenuated these effects of hyperoxia. Post-treatment with tri-DHA resulted in significant accumulation of DHA and DHA derived bioactive metabolites in the HI-brain. This was associated with improved mitochondrial tolerance to Ca2+-induced permeabilization, reduced oxidative brain injury and permanent neuroprotection. Interaction of DHA with mitochondria alters ROS release and improves Ca2+ buffering capacity. This may account for neuroprotective action of post-HI administration of tri-DHA.

Smokers with co-occurring mental illness or substance use disorders are not designated a disparity group or priority population by most national public health and tobacco control groups. These smokers fulfill the criteria commonly used to identify groups that merit special attention: targeted marketing by the tobacco industry, high smoking prevalence rates, heavy economic and health burdens from tobacco, limited access to treatment, and longer durations of smoking with less cessation. A national effort to increase surveillance, research, and treatment is needed. Designating smokers with behavioral health comorbidity a priority group will bring much-needed attention and resources. The disparity in smoking rates among persons with behavioral health issues relative to the general population will worsen over time if their needs remain unaddressed.

Executive Summary This study presents the first effort to assess unaccompanied migrant children’s access to free and low-cost attorneys in the United States at the national, state, and county levels. Since 2021, over 544,000 unaccompanied children have entered the United States and been apprehended along the southwest border. The vast majority of these children are transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and released to sponsors across the country while their immigration cases are processed. While unaccompanied children are not guaranteed the right to government appointed counsel, a broad body of research indicates that having legal representation greatly increases the likelihood that a child will identify a form of legal relief and will have a legal outcome that allows them to remain in the country. Access to legal representation additionally connects children with trusted adults and increases opportunities to identify and address instances where children are being abused or exploited. However, a large percentage of unaccompanied children still lack legal representation. To date, little research has explored the factors that support or inhibit unaccompanied children’s access to representation. This study draws on research that shows that geographic proximity to attorneys is one key factor affecting the likelihood that immigrants will obtain counsel and research that demonstrates dramatic unevenness in legal counsel nationally to assess the prevalence of free and low-cost immigration attorneys in relation to where unaccompanied children are released to sponsors. Our findings demonstrate an overall lack of free and low-cost immigration attorneys in relation to the number of unaccompanied children in need of legal representation, with only one attorney for every 137 children nationally. Moreover, in assessing attorney to child ratios at the state-scale, we demonstrate that in 43 states (86 percent of the states in the country) the number of children to attorneys exceeds reasonable caseloads. Importantly, these estimates do not account for the fact that not all free and low-cost immigration attorneys take on children’s cases nor for the overall demand for immigration legal services among the more than three million individuals facing deportation in the United States. In turn, while sobering, our estimates likely significantly over-estimate children’s actual access to representation across the United States. Based on these findings, we offer the following policy recommendations: Federal, state, local, and philanthropic organizations should strategically invest in workforce development to grow the number of free and low-cost immigration attorneys in general and specifically in areas where the lack is particularly high. Workforce development programs should both engage new law school graduates and individuals working in private practice who may be looking to enter the public interest sector. Policy makers, funders, and organizational leaders should invest in and support holistic representation models in order to reduce the burdens experienced by attorneys and foster retention in the field. Governmental and philanthropic organizations should invest in additional research and program evaluation in order to more fully understand the need for representation among unaccompanied children and barriers to and facilitators of accessing representation. These efforts should go hand-in-hand with improvements in data quality and sharing among governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. The federal government should immediately reinstate all contracts and programs related to providing legal orientation and representation to unaccompanied migrant children in line with Congressionally appropriated funds allocated for these purposes to both ensure children’s rights under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) are realized and that the existing (already insufficient) workforce of trained and experienced attorneys equipped to represent unaccompanied children is not eroded.

Invasion and subsequent metastasis is the major cause of death from most cancers including prostate cancer. Herein we report on the potential tumor suppressive properties of Rab7, a GTPase that regulates trafficking of lysosomes. The movement of lysosomes to the cell surface in response to environmental cues increases the secretion of proteinases and cell invasion. We determined that Troglitazone and other members of the Thiazolidinedione family inhibit cell-surface directed lysosome trafficking and cathepsin B secretion through a Rab7-dependent mechanism. Moreover, Rab7 shRNA expressing cells were found to be more invasive in vitro and in vivo. Increased invasiveness was accompanied by elevated expression of the c-Met receptor and prolonged downstream signaling, thereby supporting a role for Rab7 as a mediator of signaling down-regulation. Taken together, these results suggested that Rab7 acts as a negative regulator of prostate tumor growth and invasion, providing further evidence for its potential as a tumor suppressor.

We questioned if acute administration of n-3 fatty acids (FA) carried in n-3 rich triglyceride (TG) emulsions provides neuroprotection in neonatal mice subjected to hypoxic-ischemic (H/I) brain injury. We examined specificity of FA, optimal doses, and therapeutic windows for neuroprotection after H/I. H/I insult was induced in C57BL/6J 10-day-old mice by right carotid artery ligation followed by exposure to 8% O(2) for 15 minutes at 37°C. Intraperitoneal injection with n-3-rich TG emulsions, n-6 rich TG emulsions or saline for control was administered at different time points before and/or after H/I. In separate experiments, dose responses were determined with TG containing only docosahexaenoic acid (Tri-DHA) or eicosapentaenoic acid (Tri-EPA) with a range of 0.1-0.375 g n-3 TG/kg, administered immediately after H/I insult. Infarct volume and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were measured. Treatment with n-3 TG emulsions both before- and after- H/I significantly reduced total infarct volume by a mean of 43% when administered 90 min prior to H/I and by 47% when administered immediately after H/I. In post-H/I experiments Tri-DHA, but not Tri-EPA exhibited neuroprotective effects with both low and high doses (p<0.05). Moreover, delayed post-H/I treatment with Tri-DHA significantly decreased total infarct volume by a mean of 51% when administered at 0 hr, by 46% at 1 hr, and by 51% at 2 hr after H/I insult. No protective effect occurred with Tri-DHA injection at 4 hr after H/I. There were no n-3 TG related differences in CBF. A significant reduction in brain tissue death was maintained after Tri-DHA injection at 8 wk after the initial brain injury. Thus, n-3 TG, specifically containing DHA, is protective against H/I induced brain infarction when administered up to 2 hr after H/I injury. Acute administration of TG-rich DHA may prove effective for treatment of stroke in humans.

Purpose This study aimed to compare diagnosis and treatment delays in elderly breast cancer patients with and without pre-existing mental illness. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results—Medicare data including 16,636 women 68+ years, who were diagnosed with stage I–IIIa breast cancer in the United States from 2005 to 2007. Mental illness was identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes recorded on inpatient and outpatient claims during the 3 years prior to breast cancer diagnosis. Patients were classified as having no mental illness, anxiety, depression, anxiety and depression, or severe mental illness (bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other psychotic disorder). Multivariable binomial regression was used to assess the association between mental illness and delays of ≥60 and ≥90 days after adjustment for confounders. Results Patients with comorbid anxiety and depression had an increased risk for diagnosis delay of ≥90 days from symptom recognition (RR 1.11; 95% CI 1.00, 1.23), and those with severe mental illness had an increased risk for initial treatment delay of ≥60 days from diagnosis (RR 1.36; 95% CI 1.06, 1.74). Patients with any mental illness experienced an increased risk for adjuvant chemotherapy delay of ≥90 days from last operation (RR 1.13; 95% CI 1.01, 1.26) and each category of mental illness, except depression, showed a non-significant trend for this association. Conclusion Breast cancer patients with mental illness should be closely managed by a cross-functional care team, including a psychiatrist, a primary care physician, and an oncologist, to ensure adequate care is received within an appropriate timeframe.

The capability of electronic cigarette devices (e-cigs) to deliver nicotine is key to their potential to replace combustible cigarettes. We compared nicotine delivery and subjective effects associated with the use of two classes of e-cigarettes and cigarettes. 14 e-cigarette users were instructed to vape their own e-cigarette device every 20 seconds for 10 minutes while blood was drawn at 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10,12, and 15 minutes after initiating vaping. Users rated withdrawal symptoms and side effects before and after vaping. E-cigarette devices were classified as first-generation (same size as cigarette, no activation button) or advanced (larger than cigarette with an activation button). Separately, 10 cigarette smokers completed a similar protocol. Fisher's Exact Test and two-sided t-tests were used as appropriate to determine differences in outcomes between first-generation e-cigarette users, advanced e-cigarette users, and smokers. Compared to first-generation devices, advanced devices were associated with greater serum nicotine Cmax (ng/ml) (11.5 v. 2.8, p = 0.0231) and greater nicotine boost (ng/ml) (10.8 v. 1.8, p = 0.0177). Overall, e-cigarettes users experienced a significant reduction in withdrawal and craving, although there were no significant differences between users of first-generation and advanced devices. Comparing e-cigarettes overall to cigarettes, cigarettes were associated with greater Cmax (25.9 v. 9.0, p = 0.0043) and greater nicotine boost (21.0 v. 8.2, p = 0.0128). Advanced e-cigarettes delivered significantly more nicotine than first-generation devices but less than combustible cigarettes. Overall, e-cigarette use was associated with a reduction in withdrawal and craving with no reported side effects. The wide variation in nicotine absorption from different e-cigarette devices should be considered in studies of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation.