Sexual expression among Black women in relationships with men from different minority racial groups

This research was a qualitative study designed to investigate the expression of Black woman in relationships with males from different racial minority groups. The primary objective was to learn more about how Black women express their sexuality in interracial relationships with their partners. This study interviewed a group of Black women (n=10) within interracial relationships and explored their experiences of expressing their sexuality within these relationships both psychologically and physically (Bean, 2002). Through their narratives, participants were able to convey the impact of their partner\u27s racial and/or cultural background on their sexual expression. The majority of these participants (n=7) would continue to date interracially, but they did bring up a number of issues that were challenging. One issue was the importance of communication within these relationships, where participants discussed the importance of having an open dialogue with their partner about their sexual, occupational, familial, and racial experiences. Looking specifically at sexuality in the context of race, the majority (n=8) of the participants had a positive view of sexual expression among Black women in relationships. Participants reported that generally Black sexual expression was characterized by strength , direction , and the pride of dressing their bodies. These findings are useful to clinical social workers who have clients in interracial relationships and may be struggling with issues of race and sexuality

Differential utilization of ketone bodies by neurons and glioma cell lines: a rationale for ketogenic diet as experimental glioma therapy

Background: Even in the presence of oxygen, malignant cells often highly depend on glycolysis for energy generation, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. One strategy targeting this metabolic phenotype is glucose restriction by administration of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diet. Under these conditions, ketone bodies are generated serving as an important energy source at least for non-transformed cells. Methods: To investigate whether a ketogenic diet might selectively impair energy metabolism in tumor cells, we characterized in vitro effects of the principle ketone body 3-hydroxybutyrate in rat hippocampal neurons and five glioma cell lines. In vivo, a non-calorie-restricted ketogenic diet was examined in an orthotopic xenograft glioma mouse model. Results: The ketone body metabolizing enzymes 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (BDH1 and 2), 3-oxoacid-CoA transferase 1 (OXCT1) and acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase 1 (ACAT1) were expressed at the mRNA and protein level in all glioma cell lines. However, no activation of the hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) pathway was observed in glioma cells, consistent with the absence of substantial 3-hydroxybutyrate metabolism and subsequent accumulation of succinate. Further, 3-hydroxybutyrate rescued hippocampal neurons from glucose withdrawal-induced cell death but did not protect glioma cell lines. In hypoxia, mRNA expression of OXCT1, ACAT1, BDH1 and 2 was downregulated. In vivo, the ketogenic diet led to a robust increase of blood 3-hydroxybutyrate, but did not alter blood glucose levels or improve survival. Conclusion: In summary, glioma cells are incapable of compensating for glucose restriction by metabolizing ketone bodies in vitro, suggesting a potential disadvantage of tumor cells compared to normal cells under a carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic diet. Further investigations are necessary to identify co-treatment modalities, e.g. glycolysis inhibitors or antiangiogenic agents that efficiently target non-oxidative pathways

The search for a CP-odd light Higgs boson in upsilon 1s data at belle

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2013.Includes bibliographical references.We conduct a search for a CP-odd light Higgs, A0, in a sample of (102 2) 106 (1S) by looking for (1S) → A0 radiative decays with A0 → + ⁻. No significant evidence of such decays is found. We set an 90% confidence level upper limit on BR( (1S) → A0) BR(A0 → + ⁻) between 4:0 10⁻6 to 4:5 10⁻5 for A0 masses ranging from 3.6 GeV to 9.3 GeV. This represents a twofold improvement on current world limits for using (1S) from e+e⁻ → (1S) production and is in agreement with recent limits using (1S) from (3S) → (1S) decays