A Narrative Exploration of Racially Minoritized Mid-Level Student Affairs Administrators

Despite the increasing racial diversity among college students, student affairs administrators overwhelmingly remain white. The scarcity of student affairs professionals of color poses a serious challenge to diversity and social justice efforts in college and universities who desire to build more supportive environments for students. Moreover, experiences of a critical group, the mid-level administrator, continues to be largely absent from the published organizational and higher education literature. Mid-level administrators are tasked with navigating hierarchical power differences among relationships with their supervisors, supervisees, and peers which leads to a challenging task often complicating workplace experience. Yet, research on leadership and organizational power often center white experiences and view leadership or followership in isolation. It also neglects the nuance of experiences of power from those having to do navigate organizations from the middle. As such, this study sought gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of racially/ethnically minoritized mid-level student affairs administrators. Through the lens of critical race theory and approach/inhibition/avoidance theory of power the narratives of seven administrators across the United States were explored. Participant narratives illustrated how individuals interact across the institution with supervisors, supervisees, students, and colleagues. Participants discussed the role of the local community and perceptions of racism from the surrounding area in which they live and further illuminated the impact of racism on their work and how they managed to cope. Finally, participants highlighted the ways racism and whiteness in the field of student affairs is reinforced through professional socialization and practice. This research highlights racism does not simply occur in student affairs administrative work but is baked into the process of student affairs. The findings from this study contribute to a limited body of knowledge that explicitly focuses on a crucial yet overlooked group of student affairs professionals. This study opens new lines of inquiry and how race and racism must be integrated into broader organizational analyses. Findings further illustrate the importance of recognizing implicit behaviors that serve to reinforce dominant white organizational norms

A monoclonal antibody against lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 decreases HIV-1 replication by inducing the secretion of an antiviral soluble factor

Background: Lymphocyte Function-Associated Antigen-1 (LFA-1) likely plays a role in the pathogenesis of against HIV-1 and is known to facilitate cell-to-cell transmission of the virus. A monoclonal antibody specific for LFA-1 (Cytolin®) was evaluated as a potential therapeutic in pilot studies performed in the mid-1990s. These uncontrolled human studies suggested that administration of this anti-LFA-1 antibody to HIV-1 infected individuals could provide a modest benefit by decreasing circulating HIV-1 RNA and increasing CD4+ T cell counts. At the time, it was proposed that when bound to cytolytic T cells, the antibody inhibited lysis of activated CD4+ T cells. Given the renewed interest in monoclonal antibody therapy for HIV-1 infected individuals, we investigated possible mechanisms of action of this antibody in vitro. Methods: To assess whether this anti-LFA-1 antibody binds to HIV-1, a virus capture assay was performed. Binding of the antibody to cells was assessed using flow cytometry. Inhibition of HIV-1 replication was determined in culture by measuring the amount of p24 produced by ELISA. After co-culture of the antibody with peripheral blood mononuclear cells, supernatants were assayed for cytokines and chemokines using various immunoassays. Results: Our experiments demonstrate that anti-LFA-1 antibody binds to CCR5 and CXCR4 utilizing strains of HIV-1. It also binds to CD8+ T cells and dendritic cells. When bound to virus prior to infection, there is no decrease in HIV-1 replication, suggesting it does not directly inhibit viral replication via virus binding. When bound to cells, it does not inhibit lysis of CD4+ T cells, as was originally hypothesized. Binding to cells does appear to induce the production of a soluble factor that inhibits HIV-1 replication. We determined that this soluble factor was not any of the cytokines or chemokines with known anti-HIV-1 activity. Further, the antibody does not appear to induce any common immune modulating cytokines or chemokines. Conclusions: These results suggest that one possible mechanism of action of this anti-LFA-1 antibody is to inhibit HIV-1 replication via the production of a soluble antiviral factor that is induced upon binding to cells

Adapting to College Life After Military Service

This study explores how student veterans draw on principles of self-determination theory, focusing on the learning processes shaping their abilities to adapt to new environments, namely college. By developing intrinsic motivation, student veterans successfully embrace their college student identities. Using a case study method along with self-determination theory, this study demonstrates how characteristics of intrinsic motivation assisted student veterans to shape their development as college students. As such, student veterans were enabled to become self-determined, which fostered their transition to the college environment. Implications for higher education practitioners and counselors are discussed

Immune-driven recombination and loss of control after HIV superinfection

After acute HIV infection, CD8+ T cells are able to control viral replication to a set point. This control is often lost after superinfection, although the mechanism behind this remains unclear. In this study, we illustrate in an HLA-B27+ subject that loss of viral control after HIV superinfection coincides with rapid recombination events within two narrow regions of Gag and Env. Screening for CD8+ T cell responses revealed that each of these recombination sites (∼50 aa) encompassed distinct regions containing two immunodominant CD8 epitopes (B27-KK10 in Gag and Cw1-CL9 in Env). Viral escape and the subsequent development of variant-specific de novo CD8+ T cell responses against both epitopes were illustrative of the significant immune selection pressures exerted by both responses. Comprehensive analysis of the kinetics of CD8 responses and viral evolution indicated that the recombination events quickly facilitated viral escape from both dominant WT- and variant-specific responses. These data suggest that the ability of a superinfecting strain of HIV to overcome preexisting immune control may be related to its ability to rapidly recombine in critical regions under immune selection pressure. These data also support a role for cellular immune pressures in driving the selection of new recombinant forms of HIV

Kinematics of the reach-to-grasp movement in vascular parkinsonism: A comparison with idiopathic Parkinson\u2019s disease patients

The performance of patients with vascular parkinsonism (VPD) on a reach-to-grasp task was compared with that of patients affected by idiopathic Parkinson\u2019s disease (IPD) and age-matched control subjects. The aim of the study was to determine how patients with VPD and IPD compare at the level of the kinematic organization of prehensile actions. We examined how subjects concurrently executed the transport and grasp components of reach-to-grasp movements when grasping differently sized objects. When comparing both VPD and IPD groups to control subjects, all patients showed longer movement duration and smaller hand opening, reflecting bradykinesia and hypometria, respectively. Furthermore, for all patients, the onset of the manipulation component was delayed with respect to the onset of the transport component. However, for patients with VPD this delay was significantly smaller than that found for the IPD group. It is proposed that this reflects a deficit \u2013 which is moderate for VPD as compared to IPD patients \u2013 in the simultaneous (or sequential) implementation of different segments of a complex movement. Altogether these findings suggest that kinematic analysis of reach-to-grasp movement has the ability to provide potential instruments to characterize different forms of parkinsonism

Whole Genome Deep Sequencing of HIV-1 Reveals the Impact of Early Minor Variants Upon Immune Recognition During Acute Infection

Deep sequencing technologies have the potential to transform the study of highly variable viral pathogens by providing a rapid and cost-effective approach to sensitively characterize rapidly evolving viral quasispecies. Here, we report on a high-throughput whole HIV-1 genome deep sequencing platform that combines 454 pyrosequencing with novel assembly and variant detection algorithms. In one subject we combined these genetic data with detailed immunological analyses to comprehensively evaluate viral evolution and immune escape during the acute phase of HIV-1 infection. The majority of early, low frequency mutations represented viral adaptation to host CD8+ T cell responses, evidence of strong immune selection pressure occurring during the early decline from peak viremia. CD8+ T cell responses capable of recognizing these low frequency escape variants coincided with the selection and evolution of more effective secondary HLA-anchor escape mutations. Frequent, and in some cases rapid, reversion of transmitted mutations was also observed across the viral genome. When located within restricted CD8 epitopes these low frequency reverting mutations were sufficient to prime de novo responses to these epitopes, again illustrating the capacity of the immune response to recognize and respond to low frequency variants. More importantly, rapid viral escape from the most immunodominant CD8+ T cell responses coincided with plateauing of the initial viral load decline in this subject, suggestive of a potential link between maintenance of effective, dominant CD8 responses and the degree of early viremia reduction. We conclude that the early control of HIV-1 replication by immunodominant CD8+ T cell responses may be substantially influenced by rapid, low frequency viral adaptations not detected by conventional sequencing approaches, which warrants further investigation. These data support the critical need for vaccine-induced CD8+ T cell responses to target more highly constrained regions of the virus in order to ensure the maintenance of immunodominant CD8 responses and the sustained decline of early viremia

Attitudes About Cosmetic Surgery: Gender and Body Experience

This study investigates relationships between acceptance of cosmetic surgery and several variables related to the body. A sample of 359 college students completed the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale, as well as measures of state self-esteem, body shame, body surveillance, appearance control beliefs, and public selfconsciousness. It was predicted that acceptance of cosmetic surgery would be positively related to public selfconsciousness, body shame, and body surveillance. It was also predicted that acceptance of cosmetic surgery would be negatively related to appearance self-esteem and appearance control beliefs. For the most part, findings were consistent with the hypotheses; however, patterns of relationships among the variables were not identical for women and men. Results are discussed in terms of differences in the way women and men experience their bodies

Investigation of Amnestic Effects of Microinjections of NMDA Receptor Antagonist AP5 Directly to the Goldfish Telencephalon

N-Methyl-D-asparate (NMDA) receptor antagonists have been shown to block long-term potentiation (LTP), an increased effectiveness in communication among neurons and a physiological correlate of learning and memory, and also impair certain learning in mammals. Previous studies in our lab have shown that NMDA receptor antagonists injected into the cranial space in goldfish impair active avoidance conditioning. In mammals, NMDA receptor antagonists block LTP in the hippocampus, which may result in learning impairment in mammals. Although neuroanatomists are not yet in agreement with which part of the goldfish telecephalon s homologous to the hippocampus in mammals, studies have shown that telecephalon ablation in goldfish impairs active avoidance conditioning. A binding study has also detected NMDA sensitive components most densely in the goldfish telencephalon, compared to other areas of teh goldfish brain. Therefore, the amnestic effects of the microinjections of NMDA receptor antagonists AP5 directly the goldfish telecephalon was investigated in active avoidance conditioning. Results so far showed that the microinjection of AP5 to goldfish telecephalon impaired learning of active avoidance conditioning