Cora McMains, Senior Art Exhibition Portfolio

This document represents the Senior Show Exhibition portfolio of Cora McMains, which was exhibited in the Bush Art Center Galleries in Spring 2022.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/artportfolios/1068/thumbnail.jp

A Multi-Year Mixed Methods Public Health Needs Assessment in Rural Honduras

Introduction: In Honduras, 58% of rural citizens are classified as living in extreme poverty, and a multitude of health problems accompany this extreme poverty. Taulabé is a municipality in rural Honduras where aid organizations are currently working. Before interventions can be planned to improve population health, there must be a deeper understanding of the public health problems in Taulabé, Honduras. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gain an increased understanding of the public health needs in rural Honduras from the perspectives of patients and providers at a rural health clinic over three years. The goal of the study was to inform future efforts of various non-profit organizations who serve in the area. Methods and Materials: The study was set in rural Honduras, in Taulabé. Three years of clinic data regarding nutrition, fitness, communicable diseases, and education were collected and analyzed. Clinical data on height, weight and blood pressure were also collected. In 2018 clinic patients were also interviewed in order to give them an opportunity to voice their opinions about their own community’s health. Additionally, in 2019, one of the physicians who staffed the clinic was interviewed about their perspective of the health needs in rural Honduras. Results: Over the three years, 373 participants completed the surveys. Seventy nine surveys were completed in 2016, 194 in 2016, and 100 in 2018. The most common chief complaints were “cold and flu� (35.8%, 117/327), followed by stomach complaints including pain, diarrhea, and parasites (19.9%, 65/327), followed by head pain (19.9%, 65/327). The average body mass index (BMI) of patients was 30.9 kg/m2 and 38.0% were classified as obese (95/250). Fifty four percent (170/253) were classified as having stage one or two hypertension. Forty-two percent (112/264) reported eating processed foods (fries, fried street foods) weekly and over half do not eat recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables daily (50.2%, 132/263 and 68.8%, 181/264). Conclusions and Future Implications: Rural Hondurans could benefit from increased health education in the areas of cardiovascular health, communicable diseases, maternal and perinatal health, as well as nutritional education. Interventions such as, community health workers, nutrition education, and updated government policies are needed to assist Hondurans in improving personal and community health status

A novel modulatory role for nitric oxide in retinal amacrine cells

Nitric oxide is a gaseous signaling molecule that is produced by subsets of each cell type in the vertebrate retina. Though there is evidence that nitric oxide (NO) can affect multiple cellular processes in the retina, much remains unknown, especially with respect to its function in the inner retina. We have used a simplified system of cultured amacrine cells (interneurons that signal in the inner retina) to explore the role of nitric oxide in amacrine cell signaling. We find that physiological concentrations (100’s of nM – low μM) of nitric oxide (NO) transiently invert the sign of voltage responses mediated by GABA or glycine receptors by shifting the equilibrium potential for chloride (ECl-) to more positive values. The direction of the shift in ECl- is consistent with a transient elevation of intracellular chloride. The physiological consequence of this shift is that NO can switch inhibitory synapses into excitatory synapses. Manipulations of extracellular chloride demonstrate that the shift in ECl- is not caused by the transport of chloride across the plasma membrane into the cytosol. Instead, NO mediates a release of chloride from an internal compartment. Analysis of cellular pH using the pH indicator dye, SNARF-1AM, reveals that NO also induces a transient acidification of the cytosol that displays a similar time course to the cytosolic chloride elevation. Using measurements of chloride reversal potential (ECl-) to monitor changes in intracellular chloride levels, we found that alkalinization of the cytosol with NH4Cl resulted in a negative shift in ECl-, consistent with a decrease in internal chloride. Acidification of the cytosol with amiloride induced a positive shift in ECl-, consistent with a low cytosolic pH-driven increase in internal chloride. Furthermore, NO-induced positive shifts in the ECl- were reduced in a basic cellular environment. Finally, when we strongly buffered cytosolic pH with 125 mM HEPES in the recording pipet, we found that the ability of NO to alter cytosolic chloride levels was reduced. These results indicate that NO-induced changes in cellular pH are both sufficient and necessary to alter chloride distribution across internal membranes in neurons. The discovery that this redistribution can change the sign of central synapses has potentially broad implications for our understanding of the role of this signaling molecule in the CNS

The Raton Comet, 12-03-1886

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/raton_comet_news/1005/thumbnail.jp

The Raton Comet, 07-23-1886

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/raton_comet_news/1000/thumbnail.jp

Role of pH in a nitric oxide-dependent increase in cytosolic Cl \u3csup\u3e-\u3c/sup\u3e in retinal amacrine cells

Nitric oxide (NO) synthase-expressing neurons are found throughout the vertebrate retina. Previous work by our laboratory has shown that NO can transiently convert inhibitory GABAergic synapses onto cultured retinal amacrine cells into excitatory synapses by releasing Cl - from an internal store in the postsynaptic cell. The mechanism underlying this Cl -release is currently unknown. Because transport of Cl - across internal membranes can be coupled to proton flux, we asked whether protons could be involved in the NO-dependent release of internal Cl -. Using pH imaging and whole cell voltage-clamp recording, we addressed the relationship between cytosolic pH and cytosolic Cl - in cultured retinal amacrine cells. We found that NO reliably produces a transient decrease in cytosolic pH. A physiological link between cytosolic pH and cytosolic Cl - was established by demonstrating that shifting cytosolic pH in the absence of NO altered cytosolic Cl - concentrations. Strong buffering of cytosolic pH limited the ability of NO to increase cytosolic Cl -, suggesting that cytosolic acidification is involved in generating the NO-dependent elevation in cytosolic Cl -. Furthermore, disruption of internal proton gradients also reduced the effects of NO on cytosolic Cl -. Taken together, these results suggest a cytosolic environment where proton and Cl - fluxes are coupled in a dynamic and physiologically meaningful way. © 2011 the American Physiological Society

The Raton Comet, 11-12-1886

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/raton_comet_news/1004/thumbnail.jp

The Raton Comet, 08-27-1886

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/raton_comet_news/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Raton Comet, 08-13-1886

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/raton_comet_news/1001/thumbnail.jp