Then You Fall Off : Youth Experiences and Responses to Transitioning to Homelessness

Introduction: This study aims to broaden our understanding of the experience of homelessness and unstable housing in youth. While quantitative research highlights risk factors associated with experiencing homelessness as a youth, little qualitative research has been conducted to explore the lived experience of this transition to homelessness or unstable housing and how youth respond to becoming homeless. This study utilizes data from youth descriptions of their experiences to understand the context of the transition to homelessness and how youth manage this transition. Methods: A qualitative study with a quantitative component was conducted with a nonprobability sample of homeless youth aged 14-24 recruited from shelters, drop-in centers, and magnet events in a large urban area in the Southwest. Four qualitative researchers used content analysis to assess themes that emerged related to transitions to homelessness. Results: A predominately minority (88%) sample of sheltered (67%) and unsheltered (33%) youth (n=64) described their experience of and responses to transitioning to homelessness. Three main themes emerged relating to transitioning to homelessness; family homelessness, histories of foster care, and non-supportive family processes. Youth described how these experiences manifested and influenced their transition into homelessness. In response to homelessness three dominant themes emerged; self-reliance, hope, and resilience. Discussion: The data highlight the unique issues of homeless youth and how they respond to circumstantial challenges. While homeless youth experience lifetime adversities that lead to homelessness, they respond to these circumstantial challenges with self-reliance, hope, and maintaining resilience. Interventions aiming to facilitate health behaviors and improve self-sufficiency in homeless youth should tap into these positive responses to improve self-care strategies, service utilization, and help homeless youth reduce risk behaviors

Activation of Dendritic Cells by Soypeptide Lunasin: Implication in Vaccine Adjuvant

poster abstractAdjuvants enhance the immunogenicity of vaccines and improve the immune responses. Although many adjuvants are currently used in research, FDA approved aluminum salt (Alum) remains the most often used in human vaccines. Alum is known to promote the Th2 immune response and enhance antibody production, but is less efficient on eliciting Th1 and CTL cellular responses. Thus, it is prudent to improve the effectiveness of current adjuvants or to develop a novel alternative adjuvant. We have recently identified lunasin, a seed peptide from soybeans, as a novel immune modulator. The objective is to define the effectiveness of lunasin peptide as an adjuvant that can enhance the protective immunity of vaccines. Our studies have revealed stimulatory effects of lunasin on dendritic cells (DCs) by regulating expression of a number of genes that are important for immune responses. Lunasin-treated human conventional DCs (cDCs) not only expressed elevated levels of co-stimulatory molecules (CD86) but also exhibited up-regulation of chemokines (CCL2, CCL3, CCL4) and cytokine (IL-1β). To determine the function of lunasin-treated cDCs, these cells were co-cultured with allogeneic human peripheral blood CD4+ T cells for 7 days in the mixed lymphocyte reaction. Lunasin-treated cDCs induced almost 2-fold higher proliferation of allogeneic CD4+ T cells when comparing with a sham treatment. To verify the in vivo effects, lunasin was administered into mice. Increased CD86 expression was found in cDCs from spleens of mice treated with lunasin. Furthermore, mice vaccinated with lunasin-adjuvanted ovalbumin (OVA) had reduced tumor growth following challenging with OVA-expressing A20 B-lymphoma cells. Taken together, our data suggest that lunasin may act as a vaccine adjuvant by targeting DCs to enhance and modulate the immune responses to antigens

Practical Problems and Decision Making: The Effect of Strategy and Experience

What is the most effective way to make a decision? To examine the impact of strategy at varying levels of experience, 270 undergraduates solved problems in college life. Participants at three Levels of Experience (First Years, Sophomores, and Residential Life Staff) were assigned to one of four Strategy Conditions (Analysis, Holistic Intuition, Time Limit and Control). Results showed a marginal main effect of Level of Experience, a main effect of Strategy Condition, and an interaction of the two. Time Limit was detrimental for all conditions, except for Staff. First Years performed better with Intuition than Analysis, and Staff scored nonsignificantly better with Analysis than Intuition. The time limit was most detrimental to Sophomores. Staff performed equally well across Strategy Conditions

Electrochemical Study of Under-Potential Deposition Processes on Transition Metal Surfaces

Copper under-potential deposition (UPD) on iridium was studied due to important implications it presents to the semiconductor industry. Copper UPD allows controlled superfilling on sub-micrometer trenches; iridium has characteristics to prevent copper interconnect penetration into the surrounding dielectric. Copper UPD is not favored on iridium oxides but data shows copper over-potential deposition when lower oxidation state Ir oxide is formed. Effect of anions in solution on silver UPD at platinum (Pt) electrodes was studied with the electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance. Silver UPD forms about one monolayer in the three different electrolytes employed. When phosphoric acid is used, silver oxide growth is identified due to presence of low coverage hydrous oxide species at potentials prior to the monolayer oxide region oxide region

The Cognitive Costs of Regulating Implicit Impulses

Individuals who are members of stigmatized groups, such as lesbians, gays, and bisexuals, have cognitive deficits in situations that are threatening or hostile to the group in question. Stereotype threat and stigma threat research suggests these cognitive deficits occur in people who identify with stigmatized groups as a result of anxiety. Yet regulating impulses may also create cognitive deficits because it is effortful and diminishes the ability to perform cognitive tasks. This study investigates whether the regulation of undesired sexual impulses causes cognitive deficits in threatening situations even in people who do not identify with a stigmatized group. An implicit measure of sexual attraction to the same gender was administered to participants who self-identified as heterosexual (n = 317). Sexual impulses were primed by asking participants to write about an attractive person of the same or opposite sex or a neutral object. An interaction was found between implicit same sex attraction and the salience of same sex attraction in predicting self-control performance. Participants with a higher level of implicit same sex attraction performed worse on a self-control task after writing about the attractiveness of a same sex person. People with implicit same sex attraction who identify as heterosexual may have more difficulty with tasks requiring self-control or regulatory abilities as well as worse performance outcomes in work and school settings

Specific Ion Effects on Interfacial Phenomena

A new interdisciplinary facet of chemistry has developed, as we attempt to comprehend complex interfacial phenomena in which ions play crucial roles. Understanding the mechanisms by which ions affect water at surfaces and interact with the molecules dissolved in it, pose a ubiquitous challenge with enormous implications for biological and physical sciences. These represent steps towards unraveling mechanisms in protein folding and crystallization, protein-protein interactions, enzymatic activity, implant biocompatibility, atmospheric chemistry phenomena, and even in more inorganic processes like metal oxide dissolution and corrosion; all of them fundamental technological challenges. In this thesis, the specific ion effects on interfacial water structure adjacent to air/water and solid/water interfaces were explored using vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy. At the air/water interface, monolayers of bovine serum albumin, elastin-like peptides, and surfactants, were analyzed in presence of subphases that consisted of different sodium salts and varying pH value. The results suggested that anions interact directly with the protein?s surface, and their effects on water structure are dominated by the charge state of the interfacial layer, rather than the detailed chemical structure of the macromolecules. At the solid/liquid interface, water structure at surfaces like quartz, octadecyltrichlorosilane-covered quartz, and titanium oxide, confirmed that the propensities of anions to adsorb at an interface are favored for more polarizable anions, following the Hofmeister order, and disproving the notion that the order of the interaction can be inverted with changes in charge sign or degree of hydrophobicity of the surface. Similarly, by analyzing interfacial water structure we performed one of the very first systematic studies on the interactions of cations with metal oxide surfaces. The results showed that specific cation effects were quite prominent at low concentration and high pH value, following a direct Hofmeister series, which can be explained in terms of charge density, polarizability, and basicity of the oxide surfaces. Our findings are of interest, since they provide with essential information not only to understand protein phenomena associated with neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer, but also by proving the generality of ion interactions beyond biological, we can even influence the development of the next generations of microprocessors and beyond

Faculty String Trio

Kemp Recital Hall Wednesday Evening March 29, 2006 8:00p.m

Long Term Outcomes of Surgical and Clinical Symptoms Following Minimally Invasive Heller Myotomy: A Retrospective Clinical Database Review

I Introduction Minimally invasive Heller myotomy rates have increased, but little evidence is available regarding long term clinical and surgical outcomes. Our aim was to evaluate long term symptom improvement and medication resolution for patients undergoing minimally invasive Heller myotomy. Methods A single-institution database was retrospectively reviewed for patients undergoing laparoscopic Heller myotomy (LHM) or robotic Heller myotomy (RHM) during 2007-2018. Patients with primary HM followed by a Dor fundoplication were included. Demographics and surgical data were analyzed. Esophageal symptoms, testing, and medication use were collected preoperatively (pre-op), at 6-month (6-mo), 12-month (12-mo), and long-term (LT; 12-mo+) follow-up. Analysis was performed using SPSS v.23.0, α=0.05. Results Eighty eight patients (RHM:N=66; LHM:N=22) were included. The majority were male (62.5%) and Caucasian (89.8%), with a mean BMI of 27.3. Two patients had an intraoperative esophageal perforation, each repaired with a non-eventful postoperative course. Mean follow-up time was 71 months overall, 75 months [11-171 months] and 40 months [6-158 months] for LHM and RHM, respectively. All patients showed significant LT improvement of regurgitation, solid or liquid dysphagia, and Eckardt Score. Postoperative proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use was significantly lower at LT (LHM:31.3%, RHM:19.4%) compared to pre-op. Conclusion In this study, minimally invasive HM was a safe and effective treatment for achalasia symptom resolution in the long term. Therefore, in our experience, minimally invasive HM is a safe therapy that helps maintain symptom resolution

The Histone Demethylase KDM4C is a Putative Oncogene in Pancreatic Cancer

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp22/1132/thumbnail.jp