Conditions leading to unresolved attachment status for loss and the role of complicated grief

textA central goal of this study is to better understand why some mothers become unresolved with respect to experiences of loss whereas others do not. Adults are considered to be unresolved with respect to loss if they display signs of mental disorganization while discussing an attachment-related loss due to death – for example, talking in the present tense about a deceased person as if the person is still alive (Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2002). Studies have accumulated documenting the negative consequences of being unresolved. Researchers have linked unresolved attachment to frightened/frightening maternal behavior (Jacobvitz, Leon, & Hazen, 2006), drug/alcohol abuse (Riggs & Jacobvitz, 2002), and other Axis I and II disorders (Ward, Lee, & Polan, 2006; Fonagy et al., 1996); as well as anxiety, anger, (Busch, Cowan, & Cowan, 2008) and controlling behavior (Creasey, 2002) in romantic relationships. Less is known about the conditions under which a person becomes unresolved. This study will be one of the first to examine the comprehensive effects of several risk factors known to influence a person’s ability to resolve a loss including kinship, cause of death, and suddenness as well as primary attachment pattern. Other factors included in this study are social support and lifestyle changes. Although attachment theory provides a thorough explanation for an individual’s inability to resolve a loss, it is only one of many theoretical explanations of this phenomenon (Rando, 1993). One theory that is conceptually similar to unresolved loss is the theory of complicated grief, the process of painful searching and yearning for a deceased person (Prigerson et al., 1995b). Like those who study unresolved loss, complicated grief researchers are still seeking to understand what factors can predict whether an individual will experience prolonged symptoms of grief (van der Houwen et al., 2010). Also similar to unresolved loss, complicated grief involves irregular patterns of mental processes following a loss; however, complicated grief seems to be a conscious process, whereas unresolved loss has non-conscious components. Hence, this dissertation also examined whether complicated grief was related to unresolved loss and, if so, whether the origins for complicated grief were similar to unresolved loss.Human Development and Family Science

Investigation of Endothelial Mechanics on Primary Cell Functions: Endothelium Permeability and Wound Healing

The endothelium composes the inner lining of blood vessels, the heart, and lymphatic vessels. Within the cardiovascular system, it is an extremely important structure, aiding in the regulation of blood pressure with the vascular tone, recruiting immune response, regulating the transfer of material in and out of the bloodstream, and the creation of new blood vessels through angiogenesis. The endothelium is composed entirely of endothelial cells. These cells lay in a flat squamous formation and are in direct contact with blood and aid in the regulation and transfer of material in and out of the bloodstream via active and passive transport. Passive transport is regulated with cell-cell junctions between the endothelial cells, otherwise known as intercellular junctions, is the topic of interest in our first study. One cell-cell junction, adherens junctions are connected to the cytoskeleton of actin filaments. These actin filaments play an important role in the cell\u27s ability to generate force through the contraction of the actin-myosin complex creating tension in the filaments. Because of the direct link between these two structures, there is a belief that there is a connection between the permeability of the endothelium and the cellular forces produced by the actin cytoskeleton. Also, other cell-cell junctions, gap junctions, and tight junctions have shown that when disrupted endothelial permeability increases. These junctions\u27 relation between function and cell mechanics is not as well-known. Our goal is to determine if disruption of these junctions causes a similar stress environment as disruption of adherens junctions with the use of traction force microscopy and monolayer stress microscopy. The endothelium also plays an important role in the process of wound-healing. We look the endothelial cells role in wound-healing process as part of our second study. When an injury occurs and there is damaged tissue with inadequate oxygenation endothelial cells migrate into the wound space and begin the process of angiogenesis forming new blood vessels to support other cells in the process of wound-healing and providing oxygen to repair tissue. This process is so important that diseases that impede it can cause chronic wounds. To improve wound-healing rates, magnetic therapies have been looked at to stimulate the wound area and promote wound-healing. It is believed that cells are receptive to electrical and magnetic stimulation due to their ion-based communication methods. Magnetic field studies have shown promise in animal models. But contradictory results between different wound types and animal models leads us to look into an in-vitro human model to test the therapies potential effectiveness. To get a better idea of how magnetic therapy may affect human patients, we use human endothelial cells in an in-vitro scratch test study under several strength magnetic fields to determine if the therapies show any promise. Another therapy that shows promise is electrical stimulation. Studies show that the migration of single endothelial cells can be controlled using a voltage potential in-vitro. And in-vivo studies show promise in improving wound-healing times with diabetic ulcerations. To see if this improvement is potentially due to a collective migration response from the endothelial cells a similar set of scratch test in-vitro studies were conducted to see if endothelial wound-healing times improved under electrical stimulation. To determine the effectiveness of magnetic and electrical stimulations effect on wound-healing we look at the wound closure rate and average cell velocity of wounds created in these in-vitro models. Electrical stimulation has also shown promise as a wound-healing therapy with improvements in wound-healing for diabetic ulcers. Because of this improved wound-healing response from this therapy, we wish to look to see if endothelial cells are responsible for the improved wound-healing response. For electrical stimulation, a similar set of scratch tests were performed under a low voltage gradient to determine if collective cell migration and endothelial wound-healing were affected by electrical stimulation

Extended surfaces modulate and can catalyze hydrophobic effects

Interfaces are a most common motif in complex systems. To understand how the presence of interfaces affect hydrophobic phenomena, we use molecular simulations and theory to study hydration of solutes at interfaces. The solutes range in size from sub-nanometer to a few nanometers. The interfaces are self-assembled monolayers with a range of chemistries, from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. We show that the driving force for assembly in the vicinity of a hydrophobic surface is weaker than that in bulk water, and decreases with increasing temperature, in contrast to that in the bulk. We explain these distinct features in terms of an interplay between interfacial fluctuations and excluded volume effects---the physics encoded in Lum-Chandler-Weeks theory [J. Phys. Chem. B 103, 4570--4577 (1999)]. Our results suggest a catalytic role for hydrophobic interfaces in the unfolding of proteins, for example, in the interior of chaperonins and in amyloid formation.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

Microfluidics with fluid walls

Microfluidics has great potential, but the complexity of fabricating and operating devices has limited its use. Here we describe a method - Freestyle Fluidics - that overcomes many key limitations. In this method, liquids are confined by fluid (not solid) walls. Aqueous circuits with any 2D shape are printed in seconds on plastic or glass Petri dishes; then, interfacial forces pin liquids to substrates, and overlaying an immiscible liquid prevents evaporation. Confining fluid walls are pliant and resilient; they self-heal when liquids are pipetted through them. We drive flow through a wide range of circuits passively by manipulating surface tension and hydrostatic pressure, and actively using external pumps. Finally, we validate the technology with two challenging applications - triggering an inflammatory response in human cells and chemotaxis in bacterial biofilms. This approach provides a powerful and versatile alternative to traditional microfluidics.The complexity of fabricating and operating microfluidic devices limits their use. Walsh et al. describe a method in which circuits are printed as quickly and simply as writing with a pen, and liquids in them are confined by fluid instead of solid walls

The Conformation of Interfacially Adsorbed Ranaspumin-2 Is an Arrested State on the Unfolding Pathway

Ranaspumin-2 (Rsn-2) is a surfactant protein found in the foam nests of the t\'{u}ngara frog. Previous experimental work has led to a proposed model of adsorption which involves an unusual clam shell-like `unhinging' of the protein at an interface. Interestingly, there is no concomitant denaturation of the secondary structural elements of Rsn-2 with the large scale transformation of its tertiary structure. In this work we use both experiment and simulation to better understand the driving forces underpinning this unusual process. We develop a modified G\={o}-model approach where we have included explicit representation of the side-chains in order to realistically model the interaction between the secondary structure elements of the protein and the interface. Doing so allows for the study of the underlying energy landscape which governs the mechanism of Rsn-2 interfacial adsorption. Experimentally, we study targeted mutants of Rsn-2, using the Langmuir trough, pendant drop tensiometry and circular dichroism, to demonstrate that the clam-shell model is correct. We find that Rsn-2 adsorption is in fact a two-step process: the hydrophobic N-terminal tail recruits the protein to the interface after which Rsn-2 undergoes an unfolding transition which maintains its secondary structure. Intriguingly, our simulations show that the conformation Rsn-2 adopts at an interface is an arrested state along the denaturation pathway. More generally, our computational model should prove a useful, and computationally efficient, tool in studying the dynamics and energetics of protein-interface interactions.Comment: 8 figure

Evaluation of gender representation of museum collection positions in the United States.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-62).Gender representation in the workplace is affected by different factors, such as the roles and responsibilities, qualifications, and salary of the profession. The museum community has experienced many changes over the years regarding these factors. To determine the effect of these changes on the museum field, data pertaining to museum collection positions were obtained by examining 9,475 museum listings from the 2006 edition of the American Association of Museums directory. Collection positions were divided into leadership (curator) and support (collections manager, registrar, archivist, and conservator) positions, and analyzed in terms of museum size, type, and region. From this research of gender representation, it is determined that females significantly outnumber males in most collection positions, thus providing quantitative evidence of a “feminization” of the profession. Recommendations are given to aid the future of the museum community regarding this trend.by Meghan E. Beverung.M.A