Amerindian Research Articles

Mangas Coloradas and the Challenge of Semantic Repatriation in the Poetry of Paul Muldoon

In this article, I examine Paul Muldoon’s interest in the nineteenth-century Apache leader Mangas Coloradas. The recurrence of this figure in Muldoon’s poetry reflects his well-known fascination with indigenous American history and culture but, I argue, must also be understood in relation to recent debates about cultural appropriation, derogatory place names, and the repatriation of indigenous artifacts and remains. While recognising the sensitive issues at play when Muldoon writes about – and even in the voices of – indigenous American figures, I show how his poems about Mangas Coloradas reveal a complex awareness of the processes by which indigenous names are appropriated by non-indigenous actors, emptied of their content, and turned into commodities of different kinds. These poems also exemplify the poet’s technique of combining the cinematic with what he calls the ‘imharragistic’, or the bleeding of one image into another. Through the dynamic play of images flowing together and cinematic shifts from scene to scene, Muldoon’s Mangas poems ultimately perform a crucial act of self-awareness that invites us to imagine the political and poetic possibilities of ‘semantic repatriation’.

One hundred years of piñon nuts, a largely forgotten wild food crop from the American Southwest (1850–1950)

This is the first paper to intensively examine the history of piñon nuts, the seeds of the piñon pine (Pinus edulis), which Indigenous Americans have harvested in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest for millennia. The history of the piñon nut industry is reconstructed from its inception in the mid-19th century in the New Mexico Territory to its heyday in the early 20th century until consumption began to decline in the mid-20th century. Additionally, this paper provides some suggestions for reviving this iconic Southwestern American food. The commercial harvest of piñon nuts primarily involved Native and Mexican Americans. While the economic benefits of piñon nut harvesting were significant, the work was often dangerous, with reports of deaths due to exposure, accidents, and violence. Piñon nut production varied yearly due to the trees’ masting behavior, where trees produce large seed crops intermittently. Although there was considerable interest in cultivation during the early 20th century, slow growth and delayed nut-bearing limited cultivation efforts. Piñon nuts were popular throughout the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gaining popularity, especially among immigrant communities in New York. In 1918, Fannie Spitz patented a piñon nut-shelling machine, significantly improving processing efficiency and impacting the industry by enabling quicker and more effective removal of kernels. Shelled piñon nuts were now sold for consumption out of hand and also for use in candy production. Farmers experimented with feeding hogs and chickens piñon nuts. However, this practice did not become widespread due to the availability of cheaper corn. Piñon wood was also valued for its use as firewood and in mining as props, though it had limited application as lumber for railroad ties. At the same time, smaller piñon trees gained popularity as Christmas trees. Piñon resin was chewed and also used medicinally in salves. By the mid-20th century, piñon nuts lost popularity to peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), which were marketed more aggressively and produced in higher quantities at lower prices. The piñon industry has struggled with crop variability, low supply, and high prices. Still, it might be revived with improved marketing, working cooperatively and through the construction of a strategic reserve to ensure a steady supply of piñon nuts every year, through both good and bad harvests.

Creating meaning: Developing students’ understanding of Indigenous community issues in prose class

This study investigated the significance of discussing a literary work written by an Indigenous American author to students’ general understanding of the socio-cultural, economic, and political issues of the Indigenous communities (ICs) in Indonesia. A total of 153 students who enrolled in the Prose Class at the English Literature Study Program at Universitas Negeri Semarang participated in the study. This study adopted a pedagogical application model consisting of pre-reading activities, general comprehension, and connecting literary text with social context. The treatment was part of an attempt to incorporate local ICs content in the learning process and make it mainstream. This research employed a mixed method, and the participants completed the pre and post-tests as the quantitative data. In addition, an open-ended questionnaire and observation were used to collect the qualitative data. We employed Freire’s critical pedagogy to descriptively analyze the treatment process and results. The findings revealed that the treatment improved the student’s understanding of the issues faced by the ICs in Indonesia. They could comment critically on the issues during the discussion activity and fill in the knowledge gaps in the pre-test result. This study also suggested the integration and discussion of the ICs’ local values and issues into the education materials and texts to develop students’ critical thinking skills.

Abstract A079: The impact of Indigenous American ancestry on the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the implications for future study designs

Abstract Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer, with Hispanic/Latino (H/L) children having up to 1.4 times the rate of ALL compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts. This disparity has not been fully explained by environmental factors, suggesting the role of understudied genetic variants, particularly ones found in Indigenous American (IA) ancestry inherited by Latinos. In this study, we characterized the impact of IA ancestry on the frequency and effect size of known ALL risk alleles. We found that elevated risk of ALL in Latinos may be conferred by increased frequency of risk alleles due to IA ancestry. For instance, in an analysis of Latinos from the California Cancer Linkage Project (CCRLP; 1,930 cases, 2,103 controls) and the California Childhood Leukemia Study (CCLS; N = 605 cases, 515 controls), we found that, across independent known ALL loci (N=21), more loci than expected by chance showed a significant association between IA ancestry and increasing risk (p = 0.015). Compared to randomly-sampled, frequency-matched alleles from the genome, the risk alleles at all known ALL loci also showed a significant association with IA ancestry (46.9 % for known risk alleles vs. 43.5 % for matched alleles; ). The IA haplotype had 1.39 times the odds (95% CI: 1.35 – 1.43; ) of harboring the risk allele compared to the non-IA haplotype. Conversely, in a combined Latino sample of 2,535 cases and 9,035 controls, we found no evidence of GxAncestry interaction on ALL risk across all known loci (min P = 0.0026, prior to adjusting for multiple testing), suggesting that ALL risk alleles do not have increased effects on the IA ancestry background. This lack of synergism between local ancestry and genotype in ALL has methodological implications for gene discovery in admixed populations. To explore this, we implemented Tractor, a method that models genotype effects by ancestry, and thus is best powered in the presence of effect size heterogeneity by ancestry. Across known loci, we found that Tractor had 36.1% decreased power compared to standard GWAS. Taken together, our results suggest that the disproportionate burden of ALL in Latino populations may arise from the enrichment of risk alleles within the IA ancestry component, possibly driven by immunity- related selective pressures. Finally, future genetic studies of ALL in Latino patients may benefit from methods that incorporate contributions from ancestry to increase the statistical power in identifying associations, rather than leverage effect size heterogeneity across ancestries. Citation Format: Jalen Langie, Libby Morimoto, Xiaomei Ma, Catherine Metayer, Joseph L. Wiemels, Adam J. de Smith, Charleston W.K. Chiang. The impact of Indigenous American ancestry on the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the implications for future study designs [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr A079.

Abstract C106: Enhanced characterization of molecular attributes through multi-omics analysis and comprehensive evaluation of global and local genomic ancestry in colorectal cancer among Hispanic-Latinos

Abstract Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a significant public health challenge, representing the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Although mortality rates have generally decreased, the Hispanic/Latino (H/L) population in the Los Angeles area still experiences mortality rates up to 20% higher than those of their Caucasian American counterparts. Additionally, they are often diagnosed at a younger age and with more advanced disease stages, highlighting significant disparities in CRC outcomes. Currently, there are limited studies integrating clinical and multi-omics data from H/L populations, which are crucial for understanding the implications of colorectal tumorigenesis and addressing these disparities effectively. Methods: Clinical and genomic sequencing data were obtained from 60 primary CRC Tumor/Normal (T/N) samples within the Hispanic/Latino (H/L) population in the Los Angeles area through the PE-CGS network. For comparison, we analyzed 3,578 samples from non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) obtained from public databases. Additionally, we retrieved three CRC samples with spatial transcriptomic (ST) data from the 10xGenomics database. Using Whole Exome and RNA sequencing data, we performed somatic mutations, somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs), differential gene expression, cellular pathways, gene fusions, and global & local genomic ancestry analyses. The ST data underwent analysis utilizing newly released bioinformatics tools. Clinical and genomic data were integrated. Results: In these studies, distinct Amerindian (AMR) genomic ancestry proportion, age at diagnosis, and tumor localization patterns were observed, alongside significant mutations in key genes such as APC, TP53, and KRAS. The studies revealed evident cancer heterogeneity, influenced by factors such as mutation type, microsatellite instability, tumor subsite, and ethnicity. Additionally, several previously well-defined SCNAs were detected in the majority of tumors. Comparative analysis of gene expression and cellular pathways between H/L and NHW samples revealed distinct patterns. Furthermore, we identified gene fusions that potentially contribute to oncogenic activity in CRC. Ancestry analysis pointed to a predominant AMR ancestry. Notably, distinct associations of genetic ancestry with CRC tumor clinicopathological characteristics were identified. ST analysis delineated separate cancer, immune, and stroma components within the tumors. Conclusion: Our research has explored the molecular profiling of CRC tumors in H/L patients, providing crucial insights into the characterization of CRC tumors at the DNA and RNA levels, as well as the complex clinical and genomic diversity within our target population. Additionally, it offers valuable insights into the heterogeneity of CRC tumors and the tumor microenvironment. These findings establish the groundwork for subsequent projects, potentially leading to precision medicine approaches. Citation Format: Enrique I. Velazquez-Villarreal, Brigette Waldrup, Yonatan Amzaleg, Yuxin Jin, Mackenzie Postel, Donna Loza, Serina Ovalle, Elizabeth Quino, Carmen Chavez, Julie Culver, Mariana C. Stern, Heinz-Josef Lenz, David W. Craig, John D. Carpten. Enhanced characterization of molecular attributes through multi-omics analysis and comprehensive evaluation of global and local genomic ancestry in colorectal cancer among Hispanic-Latinos [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr C106.

Genetic ancestry in Puerto Rican afro-descendants illustrates diverse histories of African diasporic populations.

Genetic studies of contemporary Puerto Ricans reflect a demographic history characterized by admixture between Indigenous American, African, and European peoples. While previous studies provide genetic perspectives on the general Puerto Rican population, less is known about the island's sub-populations, specifically Afro-Puerto Ricans. In this study, the genetic ancestry of Afro-Puerto Ricans is characterized and compared to other Caribbean populations. Thirty DNA samples collected among self-identified Puerto Ricans of African descent in Loíza (n = 2), Piñones (n = 13), San Juan (n = 2), Mayagüez (n = 9), and Ponce (n = 4), were genotyped at 750,000 loci on the National Geographic Genochip. We then applied unsupervised clustering and dimensionality-reduction methods to detect continental and subcontinental African and European genetic ancestry patterns. Admixture analyses reveal that on average, the largest genetic ancestry component for Afro-Puerto Ricans is African in origin, followed by European and Indigenous American genetic ancestry components. African biogeographic origins of Afro-Puerto Ricans align most closely with contemporary peoples of Lower Guinea and the Bight of Biafra, while the European genetic ancestry component is most similar to contemporary Iberian, Italian, and Basque populations. These findings contrast with the biogeographic origins of comparative Barbadian and Puerto Rican populations. Our results suggest that while there are similarities with regard to general patterns of genetic ancestry among African descendants in the Caribbean, there is previously unrecognized regional heterogeneity, including among Puerto Rican sub-populations. These results are also consistent with available historical sources, while providing depth absent from the documentary record, particularly with regard to African ancestry.

De Novo Genome Assemblies From Two Indigenous Americans from Arizona Identify New Polymorphisms in Non-Reference Sequences.

There is a collective push to diversify human genetic studies by including underrepresented populations. However, analyzing DNA sequence reads involves the initial step of aligning the reads to the GRCh38/hg38 reference genome which is inadequate for non-European ancestries. In this study, using long-read sequencing technology, we constructed de novo genome assemblies from two indigenous Americans from Arizona (IAZ). Each assembly included ∼17 Mb of DNA sequence not present [nonreference sequence (NRS)] in hg38, which consists mostly of repeat elements. Forty NRSs totaling 240 kb were uniquely anchored to the hg38 primary assembly generating a modified hg38-NRS reference genome. DNA sequence alignment and variant calling were then conducted with whole-genome sequencing (WGS) sequencing data from 387 IAZ using both the hg38 and modified hg38-NRS reference maps. Variant calling with the hg38-NRS map identified ∼50,000 single-nucleotide variants present in at least 5% of the WGS samples which were not detected with the hg38 reference map. We also directly assessed the NRSs positioned within genes. Seventeen NRSs anchored to regions including an identical 187 bp NRS found in both de novo assemblies. The NRS is located in HCN2 79 bp downstream of Exon 3 and contains several putative transcriptional regulatory elements. Genotyping of the HCN2-NRS revealed that the insertion is enriched in IAZ (minor allele frequency = 0.45) compared to other reference populations tested. This study shows that inclusion of population-specific NRSs can dramatically change the variant profile in an underrepresented ethnic groups and thereby lead to the discovery of previously missed common variations.

Hepatic Insulin Resistance Increases Risk of Gallstone Disease in Indigenous Americans in the Southwestern United States.

Animal models indicate that hepatic insulin resistance (IR) promotes cholesterol gallstone disease (GSD). We sought to determine whether hepatic and whole-body IR is associated with incident GSD. At baseline, 450 Southwestern Indigenous American adults without GSD were included. Participants had a 2-step hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp with glucose tracer at submaximal and maximal insulin stimulation (240 and 2,400 pmol/m 2 /min) for whole-body IR (M-low and M-high) and hepatic glucose production (HGP) before and during submaximal insulin infusion (HGP-basal and HGP-insulin). Incident GSD was identified during follow-up visits conducted at ∼2-year intervals. The associations of HGP (basal, insulin, and % suppression), M-low, and M-high with risk of GSD were assessed by Cox regression models adjusted for age, sex, body fat (%), glucose, and insulin. Sixty participants (13%) developed GSD (median follow-up: 11.6 years). Participants who developed GSD were of similar age and whole-body IR as those who did not ( P 's > 0.07) but were more likely to be female; have higher body fat, higher HGP-basal, and HGP-insulin; and lower % suppression of HGP ( P 's < 0.02). In separate adjusted models, higher HGP-insulin and lower % suppression of HGP were associated with increased risk for GSD (hazard ratio [HR] per SD: HR 1.38, 95% CI 1.12-1.69, P = 0.002; HR 1.41, 95% CI 1.16-1.72, P = 0.0007). HGP-basal, M-low, and M-high were not associated with GSD in adjusted models ( P 's > 0.22). Resistance to insulin suppression of HGP increases risk for GSD. Hepatic IR is a link between GSD and other conditions of the metabolic syndrome.

Local Ancestry Inference Based on Population-Specific Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms-A Study of Admixed Populations in the 1000 Genomes Project.

Human populations have interacted throughout history, and a considerable portion of modern human populations show evidence of admixture. Local ancestry inference (LAI) is focused on detecting the genetic ancestry of chromosomal segments in admixed individuals and has wide applications. In this work, we proposed a new LAI method based on population-specific single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and applied it in the analysis of admixed populations in the 1000 Genomes Project (1KGP). Based on population-specific SNPs in a sliding window, we computed local ancestry information vectors, which are moment estimators of local ancestral proportions, for two haplotypes of an admixed individual and inferred the local ancestral origins. Then we used African (AFR), East Asian (EAS), European (EUR) and South Asian (SAS) populations from the 1KGP and indigenous American (AMR) populations from the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) as reference populations and conducted the proposed LAI analysis on African American populations and American populations in the 1KGP. The results were compared with those obtained by RFMix, G-Nomix and FLARE. We demonstrated that the existence of alleles in a chromosomal region that are specific to a particular reference population and the absence of alleles specific to the other reference populations provide reasonable evidence for determining the ancestral origin of the region. Contemporary AFR, AMR and EUR populations approximate ancestral populations of the admixed populations well, and the results from RFMix, G-Nomix and FLARE largely agree with those from the Ancestral Spectrum Analyzer (ASA), in which the proposed method was implemented. When admixtures are ancient and contemporary reference populations do not satisfactorily approximate ancestral populations, the performances of RFMix, G-Nomix and FLARE deteriorate with increased error rates and fragmented chromosomal segments. In contrast, our method provides fair results.

Resisting Post-Truth Politics as Epistemicide: Learning from Trans*, Indigenous American and Palestinian Lived Experiences

Resisting Post-Truth Politics as Epistemicide: Learning from Trans*, Indigenous American and Palestinian Lived Experiences

Predictors of Supportive Care Needs During Serious Illness: Cross-sectional Analysis of Reservation-Based Informal Caregivers.

Native Americans (Indigenous Americans) have high rates of serious illness in the United States. Informal caregivers are heavily relied on in caring for patients in low-resource settings. The needs of caregivers residing on reservations are sorely underreported. Therefore, our objective was to examine relationships between facilitators (communal mastery, cultural identity, and spirituality) and barriers (depression, anxiety, stress, and burden) with supportive care needs among adult informal caregivers in 1 reservation-based community. A cross-sectional survey was distributed in July and August 2022 as part of a larger multimethod, community-based participatory research study. We used descriptive statistics and linear regression models to examine relationships against the primary outcome, the Supportive Care Needs Assessment Tool for Indigenous People. Overall, 127 participants were included; most were female (n = 92, 72.4%), were between 30 and 49 years (n = 57, 44.9%), and had 6 months or less of caregiving experience (n = 41, 32.5%). Higher depression, anxiety, stress, and burden were significantly associated with higher Supportive Care Needs Assessment Tool for Indigenous People scores. Overall, mental health is a significant barrier that may indicate greater supportive care needs among informal caregivers, although further work is needed to differentiate symptoms and their impact on caregiving from a cultural perspective.

Adaptation as cultural and medial transfer: George Tabori’s short story and radio play Weissmann und Rotgesicht

George Tabori (1914–2007), a Hungarian-born British playwright of Jewish decent, is closely associated with German Holocaust theatre. Less well-known is his prolific career in German radio drama. This contribution traces the trajectory of Tabori’s short story ‘Weissmann und Rotgesicht’ and its adaptation for German radio in 1978. The overall theme of its narrative can be identified as the issue of competing minoritized groups (Jews and Indigenous Americans), their respective identity politics and mechanisms of ‘othering’. My analysis first asks how the short story presents these questions, as it was written in a North American context primarily shaped by the popular cultural format of the western movie. Secondly, I ask how the topic is culturally and medially transferred to the radio play form, considering the production’s West German context of the late 1970s. My interest is guided by the question whether and how we can read this 1978 radio play as an intervention in the debate on the representation of the ‘Indian’ in popular German culture and its simultaneous erasure, several decades after the Holocaust, of the Jew.

A mixed meal tolerance test predicts onset of type 2 diabetes in Southwestern Indigenous adults

Background/ObjectiveTo identify predictors of incident type 2 diabetes using a mixed meal tolerance test (MMTT).MethodsAdult Indigenous Americans without diabetes (n = 501) from a longitudinal cohort underwent at baseline a 4-h MMTT, measures of body composition, an oral glucose tolerance test, an intravenous glucose tolerance test for acute insulin response (AIR), and a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp for insulin action (M). Plasma glucose responses from the MMTT were quantified by the total and incremental area under the curve (AUC/iAUC).ResultsAt follow-up (median time 9.6 [inter-quartile range: 5.6–13.5] years), 169 participants were diagnosed with diabetes. Unadjusted Cox proportional hazards models, glucose AUC180-min (HR: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.67, 2.34, p < 0.0001), AUC240-min (HR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.62, 2.31, p < 0.0001), and iAUC180-min (HR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.20, 1.71, p < 0.0001) were associated with an increased risk of diabetes. After adjustment for covariates (age, sex, body fat percentage, M, AIR, Indigenous American heritage) in three subsequent models, AUC180-min (HR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.88, p = 0.007) and AUC240-min (HR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.84, p < 0.01) remained associated with increased risk of diabetes.ConclusionsGlucose responses to a mixed meal predicted the development of type 2 diabetes. This indicates that a mixed nutritional challenge provides important information on disease risk.Clinical Trial RegistryClinicalTrials.gov identifier : NCT00340132, NCT00339482

Prevalence and 20-year trends in meditation, yoga, guided imagery and progressive relaxation use among US adults from 2002 to 2022

Meditation, yoga, guided imagery, and progressive relaxation are promoted as complementary approaches for health and wellbeing in the United States, but their uptake by different sociodemographic groups is unclear. This study assessed the prevalence and 20 year trends in the use of these practices in US adults between 2002–2022. We examined practice use and associations with sociodemographic and health factors in a population-weighted analysis of n = 134,959 participants across 5 cycles of the National Health Interview Survey. The overall use of meditation (18.3%, 60.53 million), yoga (16.8%, 55.78 million) and guided imagery/progressive relaxation (6.7%, 22.22 million) increased significantly from 2002 to 2022. Growth was consistent across most sociodemographic and health strata, however users of ‘Other’ race (comprising 54% Indigenous Americans, Odds Ratios; ORs = 1.28–1.70) and users with moderate (ORs = 1.19–1.29) psychological distress were overrepresented across all practices, and those with severe psychological distress were overrepresented in meditation (OR = 1.33) and guided imagery/progressive relaxation (OR = 1.42). Meditation use has accelerated over time for 65 + year olds (OR = 4.22), people not accessing mental health care (OR = 1.39), and less educated (OR = 4.02) groups, potentially reflecting unmet health needs. Health professionals should consider the extensive use of complementary practices in service and treatment planning and consider their risks and benefits.

On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dodds Pennock (review)

On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe by Caroline Dodds Pennock (review)

Evaluating disparities in receptor status, overall survival, and time to hormone therapy among women with breast cancer.

11096 Background: Breast cancer receptor status (ER/PR/HER2) is essential to guide treatment decisions. However, national race/ethnicity subtype studies rarely include Indigenous American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHPI) women. This study aims to compare across race/ethnicity: 1) hormone receptor (HR)/HER2 status, 2) Overall Survival (OS) for Triple Positive breast cancer, and 3) Time to Hormone Therapy (THT). Methods: A cohort study of women with breast cancer (Stage 1-4), age ≥18 years, diagnosed 2004-2017 was conducted with the National Cancer Database. Race was used as federally defined (White, Black, Asian, AI/AN, and NHPI) with Hispanic ethnicity. Primary endpoints were receptor status, OS, and THT (days from diagnosis to hormone therapy). Kaplan-Meier estimates and log-rank tests assessed OS. Multivariable logistic, Cox Proportional Hazard, and linear regression evaluated the likelihood of HR+/HER2+ (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR]), death (adjusted Hazard Ratio [aHR]), and THT in days (adjusted β [aβ]), respectively, with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). The majority non-Hispanic White population served as reference. All regressions were adjusted for sociodemographic and cancer characteristics. All HER2 analyses used a subset of women diagnosed post-2010, given inconsistent testing pre-2010. Results: 1,812,911 women were included who mostly had Stage 1 cancer (53%), from metropolitan areas (84%), with private insurance (51%), and a median age of 61 (IQR 51-71) years. Women were 81% White, 11% Black, 5% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 0.3% AI/AN, and 0.2% NHPI. NHPI women had the highest ER+ (84%) and PR+ (75%) cancers, while Asian women had the highest HER2+ (18%). Adjusted for covariates, only NHPI women were significantly more likely to have HR+ cancer (aOR=1.3, 95%CI=1.2-1.5) while Black women were less likely (aOR=0.6, 95%CI=0.6-0.6), compared to White women. Hispanic women were significantly more likely to have Triple Positive cancer (aOR=1.1, 95%CI=1.1-1.2) while Black women were less likely (aOR=0.9, 95%CI=0.9-0.9). Median follow-up was 63 (IQR 36-101) months. Among women with Triple Positive breast cancer, there were significant differences in OS (p&lt; .0001) with 7-year survival ranging from 77% for NHPI women to 89% for Asian women. NHPI women had the highest risk of death (aHR=1.5, 95%CI=1.0-2.1), followed by AI/AN (aHR=1.5, 1.05-2.0), and Black (aHR=1.2, 95%CI=1.1-1.2). Adjusted for covariates, among women with HR+ breast cancer, longer THT occurred among Black (aβ=18 days, 95%CI=17-18), Hispanic (aβ=16 days, 95%CI=15-17), and NHPI women (aβ=14 days, 95%CI=9-18). Conclusions: NHPI women have higher HR+ rates while Black, Hispanic, and NHPI women with HR+ cancer experience longer times to hormone therapy. This is likely the first US analysis of breast cancer subtypes using federal race/ethnicity standards.

A deep catalogue of protein-coding variation in 983,578 individuals

Rare coding variants that substantially affect function provide insights into the biology of a gene1–3. However, ascertaining the frequency of such variants requires large sample sizes4–8. Here we present a catalogue of human protein-coding variation, derived from exome sequencing of 983,578 individuals across diverse populations. In total, 23% of the Regeneron Genetics Center Million Exome (RGC-ME) data come from individuals of African, East Asian, Indigenous American, Middle Eastern and South Asian ancestry. The catalogue includes more than 10.4 million missense and 1.1 million predicted loss-of-function (pLOF) variants. We identify individuals with rare biallelic pLOF variants in 4,848 genes, 1,751 of which have not been previously reported. From precise quantitative estimates of selection against heterozygous loss of function (LOF), we identify 3,988 LOF-intolerant genes, including 86 that were previously assessed as tolerant and 1,153 that lack established disease annotation. We also define regions of missense depletion at high resolution. Notably, 1,482 genes have regions that are depleted of missense variants despite being tolerant of pLOF variants. Finally, we estimate that 3% of individuals have a clinically actionable genetic variant, and that 11,773 variants reported in ClinVar with unknown significance are likely to be deleterious cryptic splice sites. To facilitate variant interpretation and genetics-informed precision medicine, we make this resource of coding variation from the RGC-ME dataset publicly accessible through a variant allele frequency browser.

Another Look: American Catholics and the Quest for Equality in the Civil War Era

Robert Emmett Curran’s masterful treatment of American Catholicism in the Civil War era is the first comprehensive history of Roman Catholics in the North and South before, during, and after the war. Curran provides an in-depth look at how the momentous developments of these decades affected the entire Catholic community, including Black and indigenous Americans. He also explores the ways that Catholics contributed to the reshaping of a nation that was testing the fundamental proposition of equality set down by its founders. Ultimately, Curran concludes, the revolution that the war touched off remained unfinished, indeed was turned backward, in no small part by Catholics who marred their pursuit of equality with a truncated vision of who deserved to share in its realization.

Ancient and historical cooking pots and food: an eternal communion. A topical review

AbstractThis contribution provides a topical view at and review of traditional clay‐based utilitarian cooking pots that were used for millennia to prepare, serve, display, and distribute foodstuff. Key mechanical and thermal properties of ceramic cooking vessels will be discussed and strategies of property optimization outlined. In addition, some important chemical changes food constituents undergo during cooking will be explained. Mass‐produced ancient ceramic cooking pots from Neolithic Mesopotamia have revolutionized the art of cooking by allowing foodstuff to be processed in water. As an example of successfully optimizing the properties of cooking vessels, emphasis is being given to Indigenous prehistoric North American ware of the Mississippian culture (c. 800 to 1600 CE) that show impressively how ancient potters overcame the technological challenges posed by essentially unsuitable smectite‐rich clays with extreme plasticity and high swell–shrink ratio by adding copious amounts of burnt mussel shells as temper material.

Messy queer rhetorics: homonationalism and gay Asian American triad in Fire Island

ABSTRACT Fire Island (2022) represents how three gay Asian American men (Noah, Howie, and Will) navigate tensions of whiteness, homonationalism, classism, and gay sexual desirability while on vacation with their friends. What begins as a narrative of gay Asian American men’s queer friendships becomes an intraracial romance of sticky rice – an Asian man dating another Asian man. Through use of a queer, Asian American rhetorical methodology informed by a queer of color critique, which challenges reliance upon citizenship, we analyze the messiness inherent in Fire Island. Our queer rhetorical analysis locates two themes present in Fire Island. First, Fire Island portrays an Asian American triad (or a narrative centering on three Asian American men) which ultimately succumbs to whiteness. Not without its shortcomings, homonationalism impacts both Fire Island and the film’s namesake. Second, the representation of three gay Asian American leading men comes with a cost, as an invisibility of romantic relations between Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian American men, that reify the white-Asian binary. Simultaneously influenced by and disrupting homonationalism, Fire Island demonstrates the queer (im)possibilities of optimism, pessimism, and failure.