THE EFFECTS OF CLASSROOM SIMULATION USING STATIC PICTURE PROMPTS TO TEACH STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES TO MAKE PURCHASES WITH A DEBIT CARD AND TRACK THEIR EXPENSES

This study used a multiple probe design across participants to examine the effects of classroom simulation using static picture prompts to teach students to make a purchase using a debit card and track expenses by subtracting purchase amounts and adding deposits into a check register. Results demonstrated a functional relation between simulated instruction and students’ ability to complete a 20-step task analysis of debit card use and expense and deposit tracking in a check register. Students were also able to generalize the skills of purchasing with a debit card and tracking expenses and deposits in community settings up to five weeks post-intervention. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are described

Stigma Of Mental Illness And Substance Use Disorders: Does Religious Fundamentalism Play A Role?

Stigmatization of severe mental illness and substance use disorders is widespread and associated with poorer health outcomes. At the same time, religious fundamentalism - defined as strict adherence to religious dogma - is an increasingly relevant ideology in the United States. This ideology is associated with a tendency to stigmatize individuals who do not adhere to established values and may therefore have negative implications for perceptions of mental illness. For the present study, participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 380) identified as evangelical or not and were randomly assigned to view one of three illness vignettes: schizophrenia, alcohol use disorder, and asthma (control). Then, each participant responded to the Stigmatizing Attitudes Toward Mental Illness scale for the character presented in the vignette. Evangelical participants reported significantly higher stigmatization of schizophrenia compared to non-evangelicals, but did not differ on stigma in relation to alcohol use disorder. These findings might be explained by religious factors in the presentation and treatment of the disorders, base rates, and general population stigmatization trends. Although limited by the use of vignettes and a self-report measure of stigma, these findings underscore the need to address religious belief adherence in stigma research and psychological treatment

“no key to the tangle”: History And Poetic Consciousness In Louis Zukofsky’s “A”

This thesis explores the question of poetry’s relationship with history. My inquiry is centered on the epic poem “A” (1974) by American author Louis Zukofsky, considering the ways in which Zukofsky reconceptualizes the role that the past plays in the construction of a modern poetic consciousness. The project is divided into two sequences: historical representation of movements “A”-22 and “A”-23 and historical engagement in movements “A”-21 and “A”-24. The first sequence is a survey of the ways in which Zukofsky recreates the last 6,000 years of history in a manner that resists linearity and narrative. I read his poetry alongside Walter Benjamin’s “On the Concept of History” (1940) and Gilles Deleuze’s Essays Clinical and Critical (1997) in order to consider the extent to which Zukofsky problematizes historical and literary language in the poetic-now. The second sequence focuses on the historical materials with which Zukofsky engages, primarily the Roman playwright Plautus, as well as Zukofsky’s own previous writing. I contend that Zukofsky method of participating with history in his work is a kind of creative engagement with the past, one that acknowledges history as a living thing and seeks to absorb it into the formation of a new poetics

Persona 5 Royal: Topics in a Post Great Recession World

Video games are forms of narrative media that can discuss present day issues. After the great recession of 2008, the world shifted and different issues came to surface. The video game Persona 5 Royal is one of many games that address serious social issues that are frequently stigmatized such as exploitation and mental health. This research is an analysis of some of the issues addressed in Persona 5 Royal and how they connected to issues brought after the great recession. By using narrative rhetorical analysis, this research will also conclude with how videogames can serve as both a cultural timestamp and a way to acknowledge and start conversations

Blocking M1 Repolarization Of M2 THP-1 Macrophages Through Inhibition Of The Type I Interferon Response By Vesicular Stomatitis Virus

Matrix protein mutant strains of VSV, such as rM51R-M virus, are currently being investigated as oncolytic agents due to their ability to target and kill cancer cells while also stimulating innate immunity. We seek to examine the ability of rM51R-M virus to modulate tumor promoting M2 macrophages as a means to inhibit the progression of cancer. In the tumor microenvironment, M2 macrophage activity has a suppressive effect on the immune system, which can lead to tolerance of tumor cells. M1 macrophages, in contrast, stimulate an immune response and reduce tumor cell viability. Our lab has previously shown that rM51R-M virus re-educates M2 macrophages to an M1-like phenotype, but the mechanism by which it does so remains unknown. In THP-1 polarized M2 macrophages, we have observed increased levels of IFNa, total STAT1, and p-STAT1 upon infection with rM5IR-M virus. We hypothesize that the ability of rM51R-M virus to stimulate the type I IFN antiviral pathway in M2 macrophages may coerce them to an M1-like phenotype. To test this hypothesis, we seek to examine the effects of the p-STAT1 inhibitor fludarabine on macrophage polarization by rM51R-M virus. M2 macrophages were pretreated with different concentrations of fludarabine (50, 100, or 150 µM), infected with rM51R-M virus (MOI 1 or 10 pfu/cell) for 24 hours, and subjected to immunoblot analysis for total and phosphorylated STAT1. Results indicated that when cells were infected with rM51R-M virus at an MOI of 1, STAT1 phosphorylation was reduced to between 23% (50 µM fludarabine) and 16 % (100 and 150 µM fludarabine) of control levels. Similar results were obtained when cells were infected at an MOI of 10. These results confirm that fludarabine is capable of inhibiting the accumulation of p-STAT1. Therefore, this reagent can be used to reduce type I IFN signaling in order to determine the extent to which this pathway modulates macrophage identity during rM51R-M infection. Such mechanistic insights will be important in understanding the multipotent effects of VSV as an oncolytic agent

Determinations And Comparisons Of The Water Quality Above And Below The Watauga County Sanitary Landfill

The effects of the Watauga County Sanitary Landfill leachate on surface water quality at the lower end of the landfill were studied over a 10-month period. Results of the study indicate that the landfill is contributing excessively to the ammonia nitrogen and iron concentrations of the surface water below the landfill. The grand mean for ammonia nitrogen was 82 times greater below the landfill than the grand mean above the landfill. The grand mean for iron below the landfill was 126 times greater than the grand mean above the landfill

Opening Doorways: Connecting Petersburg Students to the World of Health Science Professions

This project creates a strategy to build a pipeline that begins in elementary school and is reinforced through middle and high school. This early exposure and understanding of health career opportunities is needed. Too many communities in Virginia experience critical health care inequities in services and information. To address those inequities, we need to open doorways to investigate health careers. By inspiring students from these communities to enter medical and health sciences professions, there is better representation and services to these underrepresented communities. VCU not only can provide exposure to various health careers, experiential learning and mentoring on how to navigate through academia into a chosen field but also strength community engaged

The five-item Brief-Symptom Rating Scale as a suicide ideation screening instrument for psychiatric inpatients and community residents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>An efficient screening instrument which can be used in diverse settings to predict suicide in different populations is vital. The aim of this study was to use the five-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5) as a screening instrument for the prediction of suicide ideation in psychiatric, community and general medical settings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Five hundred and one psychiatric, 1,040 community and 969 general medical participants were recruited. The community participants completed a structured telephone interview, and the other two groups completed the self-report BSRS-5 questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The logistic regression analysis showed that the predictors of suicide ideation for the psychiatric group were depression, hostility and inferiority (<it>p </it>< 0.001, <it>p </it>= 0.016, <it>p </it>= 0.011), for the community group, inferiority, hostility and insomnia (<it>p </it>< 0.001, <it>p </it>< 0.001, <it>p </it>= 0.003), and for the general medical group, inferiority, hostility, depression and insomnia (<it>p </it>< 0.001, <it>p </it>= 0.001, <it>p </it>= 0.020, <it>p </it>= 0.008). The structural equation model showed the same symptom domains that predicted suicide ideation for all three groups. The receiver operating characteristic curve using the significant symptom domains from logistic regression showed that for the psychiatric group, the optimal cut-off point was 4/5 for the total of the significant dimensions (positive predictive value [PPV] = 78.01%, negative predictive value [NPV] = 79.05%), for the community group, 7/8 (PPV = 68.75%, NPV = 96.09%), and for the general medical group, 12/13 (PPV = 92.86%, NPV = 88.48%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The BSRS-5 is an efficient tool for the screening of suicide ideation-prone psychiatric inpatients, general medical patients, and community residents. Understanding the discriminative symptom domains for different groups and the relationship between them can help health care professionals in their preventative programs and clinical treatment.</p

A quantitative polymerase chain reaction-enzyme immunoassay for accurate measurements of human papillomavirus type 16 DNA levels in cervical scrapings

A quantitative polymerase chain reaction-enzyme immunoassay (Q-PCR-EIA) was developed to measure the amount of human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 DNA per genome equivalent in cervical scrapings. The quantitative approach was based on a combined competitive PCR for both HPV 16, using the general primer GP5+/6+ PCR, and β-globin DNA. The two competitive PCRs involve co-amplification of target sequences and exogenously added DNA constructs carrying a rearranged 30 bp sequence in the probe-binding region. The accuracy of quantification by combining the two competitive PCR assays was validated on mixtures of HPV 16 containing cervical cancer cells of CaSki and SiHa cell lines. Comparison of this fully quantitative PCR assay with two semi-quantitative HPV PCR assays on a series of crude cell suspensions from HPV 16 containing cervical scrapings revealed remarkable differences in the calculated relative HPV load between samples. We found evidence that correction for both intertube variations in PCR efficiency and number of input cells/integrity of DNA significantly influence the outcome of studies on viral DNA load in crude cell suspensions of cervical scrapings. Therefore, accurate measurements on viral DNA load in cervical scrapings require corrections for these phenomena, which can be achieved by application of this fully quantitative approach. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig