The potential connection between exposure to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) and breast cancer risk is a topic of research that is rapidly gaining the publics attention due to the conflicting reports surrounding glyphosates potential carcinogenicity. In this review, we synthesize the current published biomedical literature works that have explored associations of glyphosate, its metabolite, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), and GBHs with breast cancer risk in humans and human cell-based models. Using PubMed as our search engine, we identified a total of 14 articles that were included in this review. In the four human studies, urinary glyphosate and/or AMPA were associated with breast cancer risk, endocrine disruption, oxidative stress biomarkers, and changes in DNA methylation patterns. Among most of the 10 human cell-based studies, glyphosate exhibited endocrine disruption, induced altered gene expression, increased DNA damage, and altered cell viability, while GBHs were more cytotoxic than glyphosate alone. In summary, numerous studies have shown glyphosate, AMPA, and GBHs to have potential carcinogenic, cytotoxic, or endocrine-disruptive properties. However, more human studies need to be conducted in order for more definitive and supported conclusions to be made on their potential effects on breast cancer risk.

Honduras has endured a long history of environmental problems that are fueled by pressure from international bodies to increase economically-fueled activities that result in extreme land degradation. Logging, dam building, mining, and deforestation operations have all been met with extensive protests by indigenous groups, coalitions and movements. In response, interests supporting the continued exploitation of resources have subjected these groups to extreme and systematic violence in the hopes of silencing them. How successful is this use of terror to coerce violence? This paper reviews two case studies of violence in Honduras: the murder of internationally-recognized activist Berta Cáceres, and the violence perpetrated against the Tolupan people.

This music score was submitted for the Kaleidoscope 2020 Call for Scores, an open access collaboration with the UCLA Music Library.

Group A Streptococcus is a human pathogen responsible for causing a variety of diseases that range in severity, from common infections such as strep throat and impetigo, to the more severe necrotizing fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Streptococcal M protein is a virulence factor which the pathogen presents on its surface to aid in both evasion of host engulfment and disease progression. M proteins are able to interact with human plasma proteins, such as fibrinogen, to accomplish disease progression and thus, further study of the M protein is necessary for understanding virulence mechanisms employed by Streptococcus and for development of preventive medicine. This study surveys fibrinogen- binding as mediated by M proteins of disease implicated Streptococcus pyogenes. Through the use of cloning and protein purification methods, various serotypes of the antigenically variable M protein were prepared for a binding assay with fibrinogen. Whereas several M proteins, such as M1 and M5, are known to bind fibrinogen, it is unknown whether the M3, M6, M22, and M28 serotypes are able to do so. My results show that while M1, M3, M5, M6, and M28 were able to bind, M22 was not. The information indicates not all M proteins possess ability to aid in disease progression by binding fibrinogen. It was also revealed that M proteins bind different regions of the fibrinogen molecule

Dreams are the subjective experiences that occur during sleep, and their subject matter differs as a function of sleep stage or time of night. Dream content is reflective of the activity of brain structures concerned with information processing and memory consolidation [1]. Sigmund Freud, the founder of the psychoanalytic approach and author of The Interpretation of Dreams, described dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious.” He believed that the dreaming and the waking mind were continuous and that dreams were reflections of conflicts between unconscious desires and the conscious mind [2]. Freud proposed that the symbolic language of reported, or manifest dreams could be decoded to reveal the hidden latent dream—the result of a forbidden wish. His work inspired further research on the meaning and imagery contained within dreams that corroborated some of his views but not others, so that we now believe that dreams are the product of more than just unconscious desires [3]. This project seeks to comprehend the local understandings of dreams and their meanings— implicit and explicit— among young people in the United States today.