Lives in Defense Counsel\u27s Hands: The Problems and Responsibilities of Defense Counsel Representing Mentally Ill or Mentally Retarded Capital Defendants.

Abstract Forthcoming

Shallow Inclusion: How Latinx Students Experience A Predominantly White Institution “Doing Diversity Work”

A university’s culture cycle includes institutional ideas around racial/ethnic diversity that inform institutional practices and norms, which shape daily interactions and individual experiences of students. Using qualitative methods, we explore how Latinx students experience these elements of campus culture at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) publicly committing to engaging in diversity work. We examine the university’s ideas and institutional practices and compare them with the interactions and individual experiences of students. We discuss what Latinx students’ experiences reveal about how the university’s culture cycle considers and promotes the inclusion of Latinx perspectives, experiences, cultural traditions, histories, and challenges. We supplement our understanding of the culture cycle model with elements of Latinx Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) to account for the pervasive influence of race and racism. We conclude that a race-informed Latinx cultural consciousness is only present in shallow ways within the culture cycle of the university studied. To facilitate an understanding of Latinx student perspectives, meaningfully serve Latinx students, and extend the benefits of diversity to all students, a Latinx cultural consciousness must be infused in all phases of the culture cycle

Lessons On Servingness From Mentoring Program Leaders At A Hispanic Serving Institution

Servingness is a multidimensional framework detailing how Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) – which enroll at least 25% Latinx students – can shift from merely enrolling to meaningfully serving students holistically. Critically examining how institutional structures facilitate or inhibit servingness is essential for improving institutional efforts focused on student success. Adding to a dearth of literature linking servingness and mentoring, we investigated mentoring program leaders’ visions for servingness, along with the strengths and challenges they experience towards serving and mentoring minoritized students. Secondary analysis of interviews with 11 leaders demonstrated that visions of servingness were rooted in promoting student-centered and equity-forward policies. Strengths included building belonging for minoritized students and implementing high-impact mentoring practices. Importantly, six structural challenges to servingness were identified, such as precarious or limited funding. These often unexplored viewpoints – from leaders on-the-ground – provide vital perspectives and actionable lessons to shift institutional structures in ways that better fulfill a public mission of servingness

Navigating Competitive Transfer Pathways: Transfer Student Experiences in Health and IT Majors

The health care and information technology (IT) fields demand a more diverse set of qualified graduates who can appropriately fulfill the needs of the varied communities they serve. Currently, community colleges serve as stepping stones for diverse student populations and groups. When it comes to pursuing Health- or IT-related fields, community college students are often drawn to those majors with positive career placements and outcomes. Such majors include nursing, business, engineering, and education. However, at many colleges and universities, these majors are considered limited access, meaning that they have strict academic admissions criteria and accept only a limited number of students each year. This study seeks to understand community college student experiences and perceptions related to health or IT transfer pathway careers and success. We specifically examine Health and IT transfer pathways for students studying at a public community college in the Midwest (MidCC) to a large public research institution in the Midwest (MidU) and the faculty and staff working with these populations of students

Documenting Nursing and Medical Students’ Stereotypes about Hispanic and American Indian Patients

Objective: Hispanic Americans and American Indians face significant health disparities compared with White Americans. Research suggests that stereotyping of minority patients by members of the medical community is an important antecedent of race and ethnicity-based health disparities. This work has primarily focused on physicians’ perceptions, however, and little research has examined the stereotypes healthcare personnel associate with Hispanic and American Indian patients. The present study assesses: 1) the health-related stereotypes both nursing and medical students hold about Hispanic and American Indian patients, and 2) nursing and medical students’ motivation to treat Hispanic and American Indian patients in an unbiased manner. Design: Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their awareness of stereotypes that healthcare professionals associate with Hispanic and American Indian patients then completed measures of their motivation to treat Hispanics and American Indians in an unbiased manner. Results: Despite being highly motivated to treat Hispanic and American Indian individuals fairly, the majority of participants reported awareness of stereotypes associating these patient groups with noncompliance, risky health behavior, and difficulty understanding and/or communicating health-related information. Conclusion: This research provides direct evidence for negative health-related stereotypes associated with two understudied minority patient groups—Hispanics and American Indians—among both nursing and medical personnel

Age-associated B cells predict impaired humoral immunity after COVID-19 vaccination in patients receiving immune checkpoint blockade

Age-associated B cells (ABC) accumulate with age and in individuals with different immunological disorders, including cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint blockade and those with inborn errors of immunity. Here, we investigate whether ABCs from different conditions are similar and how they impact the longitudinal level of the COVID-19 vaccine response. Single-cell RNA sequencing indicates that ABCs with distinct aetiologies have common transcriptional profiles and can be categorised according to their expression of immune genes, such as the autoimmune regulator (AIRE). Furthermore, higher baseline ABC frequency correlates with decreased levels of antigen-specific memory B cells and reduced neutralising capacity against SARS-CoV-2. ABCs express high levels of the inhibitory FcγRIIB receptor and are distinctive in their ability to bind immune complexes, which could contribute to diminish vaccine responses either directly, or indirectly via enhanced clearance of immune complexed-antigen. Expansion of ABCs may, therefore, serve as a biomarker identifying individuals at risk of suboptimal responses to vaccination

Identification of a 4-microRNA Signature for Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Metastasis and Prognosis

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) metastasis portends a poor prognosis and cannot be reliably predicted. Early determination of the metastatic potential of RCC may help guide proper treatment. We analyzed microRNA (miRNA) expression in clear cell RCC (ccRCC) for the purpose of developing a miRNA expression signature to determine the risk of metastasis and prognosis. We used the microarray technology to profile miRNA expression of 78 benign kidney and ccRCC samples. Using 28 localized and metastatic ccRCC specimens as the training cohort and the univariate logistic regression and risk score methods, we developed a miRNA signature model in which the expression levels of miR-10b, miR-139-5p, miR-130b and miR-199b-5p were used to determine the status of ccRCC metastasis. We validated the signature in an independent 40-sample testing cohort of different stages of primary ccRCCs using the microarray data. Within the testing cohort patients who had at least 5 years follow-up if no metastasis developed, the signature showed a high sensitivity and specificity. The risk status was proven to be associated with the cancer-specific survival. Using the most stably expressed miRNA among benign and tumorous kidney tissue as the internal reference for normalization, we successfully converted his signature to be a quantitative PCR (qPCR)-based assay, which showed the same high sensitivity and specificity. The 4-miRNA is associated with ccRCC metastasis and prognosis. The signature is ready for and will benefit from further large clinical cohort validation and has the potential for clinical application

"Too Cool for School": The Impact of School Resistance and Self-Monitoring Strategies on Latino Male Student Achievement

Latino male students lag far behind their Latina and European American counterparts in academic achievement (Yosso & Solorzano, 2006; Moll & Ruiz, 2002). One potential explanation for this discrepancy is the pressure to resist school behaviors (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986) that Latino male students may encounter from their same-sex and same-ethnic peer group members. The current dissertation research explores how messages of school resistance from peers impact Latino student achievement and how self-monitoring strategies (i.e., regulating one's behaviors; Snyder, 1974) may provide a coping strategy for this school resistance. In Study 1, Latino and European American male and female undergraduate students (N=95) completed peer school resistance items and reported GPAs. Analyses revealed that while male students reported higher perceptions of peer school resistance than female students, peer school resistance was only negatively correlated with achievement for Latino male students, and was unrelated to achievement for European American male students. In Study 2, Latino and European American male and female undergraduate students (N=413) completed self-monitoring items and reported SAT math scores. Analyses revealed that self-monitoring strategies were positively correlated with achievement for Latino male students, but were unrelated to achievement for Latina and European American male and female students. While Studies 1 and 2 used correlational methods, in Study 3, Latino high school students (N=174) who were randomly assigned to read messages of high or low peer school resistance completed self-monitoring items, thoughts about achievement items, and an achievement task (i.e., AIMS math items). Analyses revealed that high peer school resistance encouraged Latino male students to present more negative thoughts about achievement compared to low peer school resistance. Additionally, self-monitoring was positively related to achievement for Latino male students. Peer school resistance and self-monitoring had no effects on Latina students' thoughts or achievement. These findings demonstrate the negative impact of peer school resistance on Latino male student achievement, and the positive effects of self-monitoring on achievement for this cultural group. This research aims to offer new perspectives on the Latino male student achievement gap. Implications for future research are discussed

What does it mean to belong? An interdisciplinary integration of theory and research on belonging

Feelings and questions of belonging are central to daily life. Highlighting this centrality, research and theory in higher education have offered robust definitions and frameworks for understanding what it means to belong, how it shapes meaningful life outcomes, and how to foster it. This chapter offers an interdisciplinary structure for putting these perspectives in conversation. To do this, I first briefly review and weave discussion about some common definitions and frameworks on belonging. Then, drawing from a place-belongingness and a politics of belonging framework—which describes how belonging is both an intimate feeling and bounded by intersecting social forces that serve to include and exclude various social realities—I highlight key factors (autobiographical, relational, cultural, economic, legal, elective) that constitute belonging. I offer concrete examples for attending to each factor as a pathway for building relational spaces that critically foster belonging for college students

Lives in Defense Counsel's Hands: The Problems and Responsibilities of Defense Counsel Representing Mentally Ill or Mentally Retarded Capital Defendants (Comment)

This Comment will examine the difficulties that counsel and courts have in identifying a defendant's mental illness or mental retardation. The first part of this Comment will review the differences and similarities between mental illness and retardation; address the relevant case law regarding the exemption of the mentally ill and mentally retarded from the death penalty; and then identify the opinions of states, the international community, and organizations regarding the death penalty. The second section of this Comment will examine how counsel ineffectively assist their capital defendants by failing to notice that their client is mentally ill or mentally retarded; failing to raise the issue of the client's mental retardation or mental illness; and failing to present expert testimony regarding their defendant's mental retardation or illness. Finally, the third part of this Comment will provide recommendations to defense counsel and courts to avoid allowing mentally ill and mentally retarded defendants to be sentenced to execution