Therapy Through Writing: Herstory Writers Workshop

This semester we have had the privilege of getting involved in the Herstory Writers Workshop, which is a civic engagement internship prevalent across many colleges and Universities on Long Island. Herstory’s mission statement advertises that we “bring unheard voices into the public arena, transforming lived experiences into written memoirs powerful enough to change hearts, minds and policy.” Our program here at LIU Post partners Pioneer students with high school students from Westbury High School, who come together right here at LIU every Thursday to share and listen to each other’s stories. Through writing our own personal narratives we highlight social justice issues, stories of personal growth, and provide feedback in order to improve our writing skills. Herstory has allowed us to share our stories as written work, and hear the stories of our friends and classmates opening our minds and broadening our view of the world around us. The program coincides with English 184, a writing and healing elective which demonstrates the benefits of therapeutic writing

Propuesta de diseño para la nueva sede del Instituto Tecnológico Publico Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre en el distrito de Moche – La Libertad

En la provincia de Trujillo existen 6 institutos públicos de los cuales, 4 se encuentran situados dentro de la conurbación de varios distritos de Trujillo, pero 2 de ellos se encuentran apartados de esta morfología y abastecen a la población de su distrito, de los cuales uno de ellos es el Instituto Tecnológico Publico Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre. La cual tiene como misión preparar profesionales técnicos en la rama de enfermería y/o automotriz, con influencia hacia a los habitantes de los distritos de Moche y Salaverry, su importancia en el sector es debido a que es una institución educativa sin fines de lucro y que brinda una aceptable calidad de enseñanza. Se identificó que su capacidad de aforo ya fue cubierta en más del 100%. Además, cabe resaltar que la ubicación actual presenta sus limitantes, las cuales ya han sido alcanzadas sin llegar a ser optimas, ya que carece de materialidad adecuada o renovada, la distribución actual contiene múltiples actividades que se sobreponen y que son incompatibles entre ellas, generando incomodidad, peligro y teniendo como resultado la insatisfacción entre los usuarios ya que se les dificulta cumplir con sus objetivos. Estos factores conllevaron a que se plantee una propuesta para la realización de una renovación del instituto con el fin de mejorar las instalaciones, tal idea se vio transformada, con el descubrimiento de que la institución tenía planes de mudarse en un futuro cercano a una nueva ubicación de su propiedad, en el sector Miramar distrito de Moche, tiene una adecuada ubicación, cuenta con mayores dimensiones que el actual, cuenta con las condiciones óptimas para una futura construcción, así como habilitaciones de red eléctrica y sanitaria. Siendo así se planteó el desarrollo de la propuesta de diseño para la nueva sede del Instituto Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, acorde a las necesidades de los estudiantes y el nivel de enseñanza, que cuente con un desarrollo funcional que cumpla con los parámetros normativos de diseño, que albergue los ambientes necesarios para el desarrollo de actividades; dando como resultado una infraestructura académica que brinde un excelente servicio, y a su vez satisfaga a los alumnos debido a que influye en el desarrollo académico y personal.In the province of Trujillo there are 6 public institutes of which 4 are located within the conurbation of several districts of Trujillo, but 2 of them are separated from this morphology and supply the population of their district, of which one is the Public Technological Institute Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre. Whose mission is to prepare technical professionals in the field of nursing and/or automotive, with influence towards the inhabitants of the districts of Moche and Salaverry, its importance in the sector is due to the fact that it is a non-profit educational institution and that it provides an acceptable quality of education. It was identified that its capacity was already covered by more than 100%. In addition, it should be noted that the current location has its limitations, which have already been achieved without becoming optimal, as it lacks adequate or renewed materiality, The current distribution contains multiple overlapping activities that are incompatible with each other, creating discomfort, danger and resulting in dissatisfaction among users as they find it difficult to meet their objectives. These factors led to a proposal for a renovation of the institute to improve the facilities, this idea was transformed, with the discovery that the institution had plans to move in the near future to a new location of its property, in the Miramar district of Moche, has a suitable location, has larger dimensions than the current one, has the optimum conditions for future construction, as well as electrical and sanitary network fittings. Thus, the development of the design proposal for the new headquarters of the Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre Institute was proposed, according to the needs of the students and the level of teaching, that has a functional development that meets the normative design parameters, which houses the environments necessary for the development of activities; resulting in an academic infrastructure that provides excellent service, and in turn satisfies students because it influences academic and personal development.Tesi

Bienestar psicológico y sexting en estudiantes de secundaria de dos instituciones educativas de Santa Eulalia y Ate, 2022

El objetivo general de la presente investigación se centró en determinar si existe relación entre bienestar psicológico y sexting en estudiantes de secundaria de dos instituciones educativas de Santa Eulalia y Ate, 2022. Tuvo un estudio básico de diseño no experimental y de nivel correlacional. Se contó con una población de 510 estudiantes de ambos sexos, a quienes se les realizó la aplicación de las escalas de Bienestar Psicológico de Ryff y la escala de Conductas de Sexting de Chacón et al. Por consiguiente, se encontró que las variables estudiadas tienen una correlación negativa y débil (rho=-,274). Por lo tanto, la investigación realizada concluye en que cuanto menor bienestar psicológico exista,mayor será la aplicación de las conductas de sexting, así como el incremento en el intercambio de mensajes con insinuaciones sexuales, intercambio de imágenes sexuales mediante textos o video llamadas, compartimiento de las imágenes sin conocimiento o consentimiento del remitente, etc

Neuroactivational and Behavioral Correlates of Psychosocial Stress-Induced Cocaine Seeking in Rats

A prominent feature of cocaine abuse is a high risk of relapse even despite prolonged periods of abstinence. Psychosocial stress is thought to be a major contributor to the onset of cocaine craving and relapse in human substance abusers, yet most preclinical models of stress-induced relapse employ physical stressors (e.g., unpredictable footshock) or pharmacological stressors (e.g., yohimbine to elicit a drug seeking response) and do not rely upon psychosocial stress per se. Importantly, social stressors are well known to activate distinct neural circuits within the brain as compared to other stressors. It is therefore possible that currently available animal models of stress-induced drug relapse do not fully engage the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and/or molecular substrates that are recruited specifically by psychosocial stressors to produce drug-seeking behavior. Social defeat stress has been proposed as an ethologically valid psychosocial stressor in rodents that more closely models the forms of psychosocial stress that precede relapse episodes in drug abusers. We previously developed a model of psychosocial stress-induced reinstatement in rats in which cocaine seeking is elicited via exposure to a cue signaling impending social defeat stress. Using this model, we discovered that predilection towards displaying active coping behaviors during prior social defeat stress exposures was positively correlated with levels of psychosocial stress-induced cocaine seeking. The present study aimed to expand upon these initial findings by assessing and comparing patterns of neural activation in key brain areas during stress induced cocaine seeking that is triggered by psychosocial or footshock stress predictive cues

Is Residual Memory Variance a Valid Method for Quantifying Cognitive Reserve? A Longitudinal Application

Cognitive reserve describes the mismatch between brain integrity and cognitive performance. Older adults with high cognitive reserve are more resilient to age-related brain pathology. Traditionally, cognitive reserve is indexed indirectly via static proxy variables (e.g., years of education). More recently, cross-sectional studies have suggested that reserve can be expressed as residual variance in episodic memory performance that remains after accounting for demographic factors and brain pathology (whole brain, hippocampal, and white matter hyperintensity volumes). The present study extends these methods to a longitudinal framework in a community-based cohort of 244 older adults who underwent two comprehensive neuropsychological and structural magnetic resonance imaging sessions over 4.6 years. On average, residual memory variance decreased over time, consistent with the idea that cognitive reserve is depleted over time. Individual differences in change in residual memory variance predicted incident dementia, independent of baseline residual memory variance. Multiple-group latent difference score models revealed tighter coupling between brain and language changes among individuals with decreasing residual memory variance. These results suggest that changes in residual memory variance may capture a dynamic aspect of cognitive reserve and could be a useful way to summarize individual cognitive responses to brain changes. Change in residual memory variance among initially non-demented older adults was a better predictor of incident dementia than residual memory variance measured at one time-point

Decorin-mediated inhibition of colorectal cancer growth and migration is associated with E-cadherin in vitro and in mice.

Previous studies have shown that decorin expression is significantly reduced in colorectal cancer tissues and cancer cells, and genetic deletion of the decorin gene is sufficient to cause intestinal tumor formation in mice, resulting from a downregulation of p21, p27(kip1) and E-cadherin and an upregulation of β-catenin signaling [Bi,X. et al. (2008) Genetic deficiency of decorin causes intestinal tumor formation through disruption of intestinal cell maturation. Carcinogenesis, 29, 1435-1440]. However, the regulation of E-cadherin by decorin and its implication in cancer formation and metastasis is largely unknown. Using a decorin knockout mouse model (Dcn(-/-) mice) and manipulated expression of decorin in human colorectal cancer cells, we found that E-cadherin, a protein that regulates cell-cell adhesion, epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis, was almost completely lost in Dcn(-/-) mouse intestine, and loss of decorin and E-cadherin accelerated colon cancer cell growth and invasion in Dcn(-/-) mice. However, increasing decorin expression in colorectal cancer cells attenuated cancer cell malignancy, including inhibition of cancer cell proliferation, promotion of apoptosis and importantly, attenuation of cancer cell migration. All these changes were linked to the regulation of E-cadherin by decorin. Moreover, overexpression of decorin upregulated E-cadherin through increasing of E-cadherin protein stability as E-cadherin messenger RNA and promoter activity were not affected. Co-immunoprecipitation assay showed a physical binding between decorin and E-cadherin proteins. Taken together, our results provide direct evidence that decorin-mediated inhibition of colorectal cancer growth and migration are through the interaction with and stabilization of E-cadherin

Convergent Validity of a Single Question with Multiple Classification Options for Depression Screening in Medical Settings

The purpose of this study was to assess the convergent validity of a single depression question with multiple classification options for depression screening. Participants were 40 medical inpatients. The age range of our sample was 18 to 85 years (M = 56.15, SD = 17.66). A clinical interview and the BDI-II were administered. The correlation between patients’ self-rating classification of depression and their BDI-II classification was significant, rs(38) = .90, p < .01. Follow-up repeated-measures chi-square revealed a statistically significant association between BDI-II classification and patients’ self-rating classification, χ2(9, N = 40) = 47.79, p < .005. Significant positive standardized residuals revealed a clear linear relationship between BDI-II and patient self-rating classifications. Our data support the use of a single depression question with multiple classification options as a useful and valid means of quickly screening for the presence of depression by frontline health care professionals

Keck Spectroscopy of Redshift z~3 Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field

We have obtained spectra with the 10-m Keck telescope of a sample of 24 galaxies having colors consistent with star-forming galaxies at redshifts 2<z<4.5 in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). Eleven of these galaxies are confirmed to be at high redshift (median z=3.0), one is at z=0.5, and the other 12 have uncertain redshifts but have spectra consistent with their being at z>2. Combined with 5 previously confirmed high-redshift galaxies in the HDF, the 16 confirmed sources yield a comoving volume density of n>2.5^-4 h50^3 Mpc^-3 for q0=0.05, or n>1.2^-3 h50^3 Mpc^-3 for q0=0.5. These densities are comparable to estimates of the local volume density of galaxies brighter than L*, and could be almost three times higher still if all 29 of the unconfirmed candidates in our original sample are indeed also at high redshift. The galaxies are small but luminous, with half-light radii 1.8 < r(1/2) < 6.5 h50^-1 kpc and absolute magnitudes -21.5 > M_B > -23. The HST images show a wide range of morphologies, including several with very close, small knots of emission embedded in wispy extended structures. Using rest-frame UV continuum fluxes with no dust correction, we calculate star formation rates in the range 7 - 24 or 3 - 9 h50^-2 Msun/yr for q0=0.05 and q0=0.5, respectively. The variety of morphologies and the high number density of z=3 galaxies in the HDF suggest that they represent a range of physical processes and stages of galaxy formation and evolution, rather than any one class of object, such as massive ellipticals. A key issue remains the measurement of masses. These high-redshift objects are likely to be the low-mass, starbursting building blocks of more massive galaxies seen today.Comment: 45 pages, AASLaTeX, 3 postscript tables, 2 JPG + 3 GIF + 5 encapsulated postscript figures. To appear in The Astrophysical Journal. Also available at http://www.ucolick.org/~deep/papers/papers.html and http://www.ucolick.org/~james/papers/hdf/hdf.htm

Chemistry Across Multiple Phases (CAMP) version 1.0: an integrated multiphase chemistry model

A flexible treatment for gas- and aerosol-phase chemical processes has been developed for models of diverse scale, from box models up to global models. At the core of this novel framework is an “abstracted aerosol representation” that allows a given chemical mechanism to be solved in atmospheric models with different aerosol representations (e.g., sectional, modal, or particle-resolved). This is accomplished by treating aerosols as a collection of condensed phases that are implemented according to the aerosol representation of the host model. The framework also allows multiple chemical processes (e.g., gas- and aerosol-phase chemical reactions, emissions, deposition, photolysis, and mass transfer) to be solved simultaneously as a single system. The flexibility of the model is achieved by (1) using an object-oriented design that facilitates extensibility to new types of chemical processes and to new ways of representing aerosol systems, (2) runtime model configuration using JSON input files that permits making changes to any part of the chemical mechanism without recompiling the model (this widely used, human-readable format allows entire gas- and aerosol-phase chemical mechanisms to be described with as much complexity as necessary), and (3) automated comprehensive testing that ensures stability of the code as new functionality is introduced. Together, these design choices enable users to build a customized multiphase mechanism without having to handle preprocessors, solvers, or compilers. Removing these hurdles makes this type of modeling accessible to a much wider community, including modelers, experimentalists, and educators. This new treatment compiles as a stand-alone library and has been deployed in the particle-resolved PartMC model and in the Multiscale Online AtmospheRe CHemistry (MONARCH) chemical weather prediction system for use at regional and global scales. Results from the initial deployment to box models of different complexity and MONARCH will be discussed, along with future extension to more complex gas–aerosol systems and the integration of GPU-based solvers.Matthew L. Dawson has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 747048. Matthew L. Dawson, Oriol Jorba, and Christian Guzman have been supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (grant no. RTI2018-099894-BI00). Christian Guzman acknowledges funding from the AXA Research Fund. Nicole Riemer, Matthew West, and Jeffrey H. Curtis acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation (grant no. AGS 19-41110). This material is based upon work supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is a major facility sponsored by the National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement no. 1852977.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version