Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation among Transgender Individuals with Gender Receiving Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy

Purpose: Gender may align with one’s sex but doesn’t always and sometimes leads to Gender Dysphoria (GD). Gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) is often one of the first medical treatments used for GD yet few studies have examined the effects of GAHT on mental health (depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation).Methods: Participants were 18 years or older and self-reported as being diagnosed with GD and recruited across the United States using snowball and convenience sampling. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to measure depression scores, General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) was used to measure anxiety scores, and Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R) was used to measure suicidal ideation scores. Results: Two MANOVAs were measured whether the length of time since using GAHT is associated with depression scores, anxiety scores, or suicidal ideation among transgender adults and if having at least one gender-affirming surgery is associated with one’s depression score, one’s anxiety score, or one’s suicidal ideation score. The results found no significant findings. Conclusions: While we didn’t find significant results, further research is needed to better understand the relationship between GAHT and mental health co-occurring conditions. Findings concluded that there were no significant differences between means when examining the length of time on GAHT and each of the dependent variables (one’s depression scores, anxiety, or suicidal ideation scores). Also, no significant difference between means was found between having at least one gender-affirming surgery and any of the dependent variables (one’s depression, anxiety, and one’s suicidal ideation scores). One reason for the findings may have been that those that elected to participate in the study may be more stable emotionally and psychologically than those who decided not to participate in the study

A Two State-Wide Population Based Analysis of Hepatosplenic T-Cell Lymphoma in Hispanic Vs Non-Hispanic Patients in Texas and Florida

Introduction: Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) are a diverse, aggressive form of neoplasms that are rare and constitute % of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases (Am J Pathol, PMID:1698028). A sub-set of PTCLs is hepatosplenic T-cell Lymphoma (HSTCL) which is described as an extra-nodal T-cell lymphoma of mature gamma or delta T-cells (Am J Pathol, PMID:1698028). HSTCL is extremely rare accounting for less than 1% of all cases of NHL and because of this, epidemiological research is lacking (Blood PMID: 21300984). Hispanics (H) are one of the fastest growing races in the US but tend to have poorer cancer related health outcomes in comparison to non-Hispanic (NH) (J Lat Psychol. PMID: 27429867). Despite the rapid growth of H, research remains lacking in this population. The goal of this study is to compare demographic, treatment patterns, and survival outcomes in H v Non-Hispanic (NH) of Texas (TX) and Florida (FL). Methods: This is a retrospective study of a cohort of patients diagnosed with HSTCL from the Texas and Florida Cancer Registry databases. The population included in this study were adults of 18 years (y) of age and older during 2006-2017, patients were identified by the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology Third Edition (ICD-O-3) code list, and data was provided to us completely de-identified. Patients were divided into H and NH for comparison. Standard demographic, socioeconomic, clinical, and survival variables were reviewed. All statistical testing was determined using Fisher’s Exact test, Pearson’s Chi-square test, T-test or Wilcoxon test, as appropriate. Survival time was measured using the day of diagnosis to last date of follow-up or death. Survival distributions were calculated based on Kaplan-Meier curves. All statistical testing was two-sided with a significance level of 5%. Results: A total of 27 patients in TX and 29 patients in FL met the inclusion criteria for the analysis. From those, 2 in TX and 4 in FL were H, and 25 in each state were NH. The median age at diagnosis in y was 46 y for H and 50 y for NH in TX [p-value 0.69] versus 53 y for H and 49 y for NH in FL [p-value 0.67]. In TX, 32% of NH patients fell within the poverty indicator of 5-9.9% while 50% of H patients were between 10-19.9%% and 50% between 20-100%. In FL 36% NH fell within 10-19.9% versus 50% H fell within poverty index of 5-9.9%. However, there was no statistical significance between poverty index or race in either state. Although no statistical difference was noted, in TX 39.1% of NH had private insurance versus 100% of H (n=2) whereas in FL 64% of NH and 50% of H had private insurance. In TX, both NH and H were more likely to receive chemotherapy with multiple agents, 48% and 100%, respectively. In FL 56% of NH and 50% H received chemotherapy with multiple agents. The median survival time for H in TX was 0.5 y vs 0.6 y of the NH in contrast to the H in FL with 5.1 y vs 1.0 y of NH. In TX, the survival probability at 2 and 5 y for the H was 0.5 (CI 0.125-1) and 0.5 (CI 0.125-1) vs 0.254 (CI 0.122-0.529) and 0.191 (CI 0.076-0.481) for the NH. In FL, the H survival probability at 2 and 5 y was 0.5 (CI 0.188-1) and 0.5 (CI 0.188-1); for the NH, the survival probability at 2 y was 0.29 (CI 0.148-0.558), at 5 y 0.19 (CI 0.08-0.459) and 10 y 0.19 (CI 0.08-0.459). Conclusion: There were no statistical differences when comparing survival time, demographics, treatment, or insurance status between NH and H in either TX or FL. Of note, the median survival time was greater for H in FL when compared to H in TX while most H patients in FL fell within a lower poverty index compared to H patients in TX. It is possible to deduce that socioeconomic status plays a role in healthcare outcomes in the H regardless of insurance status. This is imperative because healthcare literacy can be correlated to socioeconomic status which can potentially affect adherence to medications, follow-up appointments, and understanding of the disease process and its impact on quality of life. Although this data does not show any statistical differences between patient populations, it highlights the importance of the progress that needs to be made to determine how ethnicity and socioeconomic status impact disease burden in H

The Nuclear and Circum-nuclear Stellar Population in Seyfert 2 Galaxies: Implications for the Starburst-AGN Connection

We report the results of a spectroscopic investigation of a sample of 20 of the brightest type 2 Seyfert nuclei. Our goal is to search for the direct spectroscopic signature of massive stars, and thereby probe the role of circumnuclear starbursts in the Seyfert phenomenon. The method used is based on the detection of the higher order Balmer lines and HeI lines in absorption and the Wolf-Rayet feature at $\sim$4680 \AA in emission. These lines are strong indicators of the presence of young (a few Myrs) and intermediate-age (a few 100 Myrs) stellar populations. In over half the sample, we have detected HeI and/or strong stellar absorption features in the high-order (near-UV) Balmer series together with relatively weak lines from an old stellar population. In three others we detect a broad emission feature near 4680 \AA that is most plausibly ascribed to a population of Wolf-Rayet stars (the evolved descendants of the most massive stars). We therefore conclude that the blue and near-UV light of over half of the sample is dominated by young and/or intermediate age stars. The ``young'' Seyfert 2's have have larger far-IR luminosities, cooler mid/far-IR colors, and smaller [OIII]/H$\beta$ flux ratios than the ``old'' ones. These differences are consistent with a starburst playing a significant energetic role in the former class. We consider the possibility that there may be two distinct sub-classes of Seyfert 2 nuclei (``starbursts'' and ``hidden BLR''). However, the fact that hidden BLRs have been found in three of the ``young'' nuclei argues against this, and suggests that nuclear starbursts may be a more general part of the Seyfert phenomenon.Comment: To be published in ApJ, 546, Jan 10, 200

The Structure and Star-Formation History of NGC 5461

We compute photoionization models for the giant extragalactic H II region NGC 5461, and compare their predictions to several observational constraints. Since we aim at reproducing not only the global properties of the region, but its local structure also, the models are constrained to reproduce the observed density profile, and our analysis takes into consideration the bias introduced by the shapes and sizes of the slits used by different observers. We find that an asymmetric nebula with a gaussian density distribution, powered by a young burst of 3.1 Myr, satisfactorily reproduces most of the constraints, and that the star-formation efficiency inferred from the model agrees with current estimates. Our results strongly depend on the assumed density law, since constant density models overestimate the hardness of the ionizing field, affecting the deduced properties of the central stellar cluster. We illustrate the features of our best model, and discuss the possible sources of errors and uncertainties affecting the outcome of this type of studies.Comment: 33 pages (LaTeX), 3 .eps figures. to be published in ApJ, May 200

Synthetic spectra of H Balmer and HeI absorption lines. II: Evolutionary synthesis models for starburst and post-starburst galaxies

We present evolutionary stellar population synthesis models to predict the spectrum of a single-metallicity stellar population, with a spectral sampling of 0.3 A in five spectral regions between 3700 and 5000 A. The models, which are optimized for galaxies with active star formation, synthesize the profiles of the hydrogen Balmer series (Hb, Hg, Hd, H8, H9, H10, H11, H12 and H13) and the neutral helium absorption lines (HeI 4922, HeI 4471, HeI 4388, HeI 4144, HeI 4121, HeI 4026, HeI 4009 and HeI 3819) for a burst with an age ranging from 1 to 1000 Myr, and different assumptions about the stellar initial mass function. Continuous star formation models lasting for 1 Gyr are also presented. The input stellar library includes NLTE absorption profiles for stars hotter than 25000 K and LTE profiles for lower temperatures. The temperature and gravity coverage is 4000 K <Teff< 50000 K and 0.0< log g$< 5.0, respectively. The models can be used to date starburst and post-starburst galaxies until 1 Gyr. They have been tested on data for clusters in the LMC, the super-star cluster B in the starburst galaxy NGC 1569, the nucleus of the dwarf elliptical NGC 205 and a luminous "E+A" galaxy. The full data set is available for retrieval at http://www.iaa.es/ae/e2.html and at http://www.stsci.edu/science/starburst/, or on request from the authors at [email protected]: To be published in ApJS. 48 pages and 20 figure

Carbon in Spiral Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy

We present measurements of the gas-phase C/O abundance ratio in six H II regions in the spiral galaxies M101 and NGC 2403, based on ultraviolet spectroscopy using the Faint Object Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. The C/O ratios increase systematically with O/H in both galaxies, from log C/O approximately -0.8 at log O/H = -4.0 to log C/O approx. -0.1 at log O/H = -3.4. C/N shows no correlation with O/H. The rate of increase of C/O is somewhat uncertain because of uncertainty as to the appropriate UV reddening law, and uncertainty in the metallicity dependence on grain depletions. However, the trend of increasing C/O with O/H is clear, confirming and extending the trend in C/O indicated previously from observations of irregular galaxies. Our data indicate that the radial gradients in C/H across spiral galaxies are steeper than the gradients in O/H. Comparing the data to chemical evolution models for spiral galaxies shows that models in which the massive star yields do not vary with metallicity predict radial C/O gradients that are much flatter than the observed gradients. The most likely hypothesis at present is that stellar winds in massive stars have an important effect on the yields and thus on the evolution of carbon and oxygen abundances. C/O and N/O abundance ratios in the outer disks of spirals determined to date are very similar to those in dwarf irregular galaxies. This implies that the outer disks of spirals have average stellar population ages much younger than the inner disks.Comment: 38 pages, 9 postscript figures, uses aaspp4.sty. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Alzheimer’s Disease Studies in the Tex-Mex Border: Dissecting a Complex Multifactorial Problem

Purpose: Alzheimer’s Disease (ALZ) is the leading cause of dementia in the aging population, and Latinos have \u3e3 times higher risk to develop dementia than the overall US population. Although several studies have examined for possible causes of this increased risk, lack of comprehensive information plus a reduced number of Latino samples available in each study have hindered the answers. Description: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has joined two large studies looking for multiple biomarkers associated with ALZ: The South Texas Alzheimer’s Center Clinical Data Repository and Biobank (STAC) and the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC). We are now collecting clinical data along with neuroimaging and lab biomarkers from each individual enrolled in these studies, with the aim to enroll a large majority of Latinos in our site sample, which will help to elucidate the differences and risk factors inherent to our population in the border. We are also analyzing data from different Latin-American studies to study specific genetic risks, environmental factors, and their interactions. Partners: UTRGV has partnered with UTHSCSA for the STAC study and with many other academic research institutions at TARCC. We aim to provide experiences of clinical training to our psychology students and residents of medical specialties, as well as analysis opportunities and opening postdoctoral positions related to the development of this field at UTRGV. Looking Ahead: We expect to generate substantial contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in underserved populations, which can lead to improved treatments and better clinical care. Postdoctoral positions will be opening soon at the Institute of Neuroscience

Architectural Features of Streetscapes and Aging in Cameron County, Texas: Preliminary Results

The impact of architectural features in urban settings reveals priorities for its residents and the integration of social and natural environments. It has been estimated that 23% of global deaths to the environments in which people live. We aim to characterize the most prevalent architectural features of Cameron County, Texas streetscapes and analyze their role in health promotion and healthy aging