Exploring access to and satisfaction with health services

To describe the quality of health services for persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), we studied satisfaction and access among a sample of National Spinal Cord Injury Database participants surveyed between 2000 and 2005. Respondents generally reported positive experiences, although exploratory analyses revealed less education and lack of private health insurance as significant risk factors for difficulty with obtaining medications, and whites were significantly more likely to report difficulties with obtaining medical equipment. Interpretation of these results is complicated and warrants further detailed studies of these issues to help improve the quality of health care provided to individuals living with SCI

Surplus chemical exchange at Chulalongkorn University

This project created a chemical exchange program at Chulalongkorn University. Research was conducted on exchange programs in the United States, and on the feasibility and success of an exchange in Thailand. The resulting program uses an electronic format to exchange surplus chemicals on the CU campus and can be easily expanded in the future. This program will help reduce the amount of chemical waste that is disposed of at CU

Frequent downregulation of the transcription factor Foxa2 in lung cancer through epigenetic silencing

Purpose: We sought to determine the mechanisms of downregulation of the airway transcription factor Foxa2 in lung cancer and the expression status of Foxa2 in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A series of 25 lung cancer cell lines were evaluated for Foxa2 protein expression, FOXA2 mRNA levels, FOXA2 mutations, FOXA2 copy number changes and for evidence of FOXA2 promoter hypermethylation. In addition, 32 NSCLCs were sequenced for FOXA2 mutations and 173 primary NSCLC tumors evaluated for Foxa2 expression using an immunohistochemical assay. Results: Out of the 25 cell lines, 13 (52%) had undetectable FOXA2 mRNA. The expression of FOXA2 mRNA and Foxa2 protein were congruent in 19/22 cells (p = 0.001). FOXA2 mutations were not identified in primary NSCLCs and were infrequent in cell lines. Focal or broad chromosomal deletions involving FOXA2 were not present. The promoter region of FOXA2 had evidence of hypermethylation, with an inverse correlation between FOXA2 mRNA expression and presence of CpG dinucleotide methylation (p < 0.0001). In primary NSCLC tumor specimens, there was a high frequency of either absence (42/173, 24.2%) or no/low expression (96/173,55.4%) of Foxa2. In 130 patients with stage I NSCLC there was a trend towards decreased survival in tumors with no/low expression of Foxa2 (HR of 1.6, 95%CI 0.9-3.1; p = 0.122). Conclusions: Loss of expression of Foxa2 is frequent in lung cancer cell lines and NSCLCs. The main mechanism of downregulation of Foxa2 is epigenetic silencing through promoter hypermethylation. Further elucidation of the involvement of Foxa2 and other airway transcription factors in the pathogenesis of lung cancer may identify novel therapeutic targets. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.PfizerPfizerRocheRocheAstraZenecaAstraZenecaAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology Conquer Cancer FoundationAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology Conquer Cancer FoundationAmerican Association for Cancer ResearchAmerican Association for Cancer ResearchClinical Investigator Training Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CenterClinical Investigator Training Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CenterAmerican Cancer Society [RSG 11-186]American Cancer SocietyFAMRI Young Clinical Scientist awardFAMRI Young Clinical Scientist awardNational Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of Health [CA090578

Adversity, emotion recognition, and empathic concern in high-risk youth

Little is known about how emotion recognition and empathy jointly operate in youth growing up in contexts defined by persistent adversity. We investigated whether adversity exposure in two groups of youth was associated with reduced empathy and whether deficits in emotion recognition mediated this association. Foster, rural poor, and comparison youth from Swaziland, Africa identified emotional expressions and rated their empathic concern for characters depicted in images showing positive, ambiguous, and negative scenes. Rural and foster youth perceived greater anger and happiness in the main characters in ambiguous and negative images than did comparison youth. Rural children also perceived less sadness. Youth's perceptions of sadness in the negative and ambiguous expressions mediated the relation between adversity and empathic concern, but only for the rural youth, who perceived less sadness, which then predicted less empathy. Findings provide new insight into processes that underlie empathic tendencies in adversity-exposed youth and highlight potential directions for interventions to increase empathy