RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INTERNALIZED STEREOTYPES, BLACK IDENTITY, RACE SALIENCE, AND SELF-ESTEEM AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to examine within group thoughts and feelings among African American college students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and historically White colleges and universities (HWCUs). Hypotheses were tested, 1) internalized stereotypes will be endorsed by more students at HWCUs than at HBCUs, 2) degree of Black Identity would be related to endorsement of internalized stereotypes, 3) students at HBCUs would endorse a higher perception of racial discrimination than those who attend HWCUs, and 4) an exploratory hypothesis examined if students who attend HBCUs have higher self-esteem than those who attend HWCUs. Online questionnaires containing demographic questions, the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (Sellers et al., 1998), the Nadanalization Scale (Taylor & Grundy, 1996), Vignettes of Race Perceptions (Outten et al., 2010), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1979) were given to 114 college students who self-identified as African American. Univariate analysis of variance, linear regressions, and an independent t-test were use to calculate the associations. Results were discussed in relation to theory and research that purports differences between African American students on school type. Findings indicated that counter to the first research hypothesis, stereotypes of genetic inheritance (SGI) were endorsed by more students at HBCUs than at HWCUs. As hypothesized, degree of Black Identity as defined by private regard was negatively related to stereotypes of mental ability (SMA). Supplemental findings were also discussed regarding relationships between demographic predictor and outcome variables. This study demonstrates that empirically validated individualized theories concerning the indices of Black Identity and internalized stereotypes may provide a better understanding of their formation among African American college students

Loss of Environmental Enrichment Elicits Behavioral and Physiological Dysregulation in Female Rats

Chronic stress drives behavioral and physiological changes associated with numerous psychiatric disease states. In rodents, the vast majority of chronic stress models involve imposition of external stressors, whereas in humans stress is often driven by internal cues, commonly associated with a sense of loss. We previously exposed groups of rats to environmental enrichment (EE) for a protracted period (1 month), followed by removal of enrichment (ER), to induce an experience of loss in male rats. ER enhanced immobility in the forced swim test (FST), led to hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis hypoactivity, and caused hyperphagia relative to continuously enriched (EE), single-housed (Scon) and pair-housed (Pcon) groups, most of which were reversible by antidepressant treatment (Smith et al., 2017). Here, we have applied the same approach to study enrichment loss in female rats. Similar to the males, enrichment removal in females led to an increase in the time spent immobile in the FST and increased daytime food intake compared to the single and pair-housed controls. Unlike males, ER females showed decreased sucrose preference, and showed estrus cycle-dependent HPA axis hyperactivity to an acute restraint stress. The increase in passive coping (immobility), anhedonia-like behavior in the sucrose preference test and HPA axis dysregulation suggest that enrichment removal produces a loss phenotype in females that differs from that seen in males, which may be more pronounced in nature

Biomechanical assessment predicts aneurysm-related events in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm

Objective To test whether aneurysm biomechanical ratio (ABR; a dimensionless ratio of wall stress and wall strength) can predict aneurysm related events. Methods In a prospective multicentre clinical study of 295 patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA; diameter ≥ 40 mm), three dimensional reconstruction and computational biomechanical analyses were used to compute ABR at baseline. Participants were followed for at least two years and the primary end point was the composite of aneurysm rupture or repair. Results The majority were male (87%), current or former smokers (86%), most (72%) had hypertension (mean ± standard deviation [SD] systolic blood pressure 140 ± 22 mmHg), and mean ± SD baseline diameter was 49.0 ± 6.9 mm. Mean ± SD ABR was 0.49 ± 0.27. Participants were followed up for a mean ± SD of 848 ± 379 days and rupture (n = 13) or repair (n = 102) occurred in 115 (39%) cases. The number of repairs increased across tertiles of ABR: low (n = 24), medium (n = 34), and high ABR (n = 44) (p = .010). Rupture or repair occurred more frequently in those with higher ABR (log rank p = .009) and ABR was independently predictive of this outcome after adjusting for diameter and other clinical risk factors, including sex and smoking (hazard ratio 1.41; 95% confidence interval 1.09–1.83 [p = .010]). Conclusion It has been shown that biomechanical ABR is a strong independent predictor of AAA rupture or repair in a model incorporating known risk factors, including diameter. Determining ABR at baseline could help guide the management of patients with AAA