pH dependent antibiotic resistance of an alkaliphilic, halotolerant bacterium isolated from Soap Lake, Washington

Soap Lake, located in Washington State, is a meromictic, soda lake. Many bacterial isolates retrieved from Soap Lake have been noted to possess resistance to multiple antibiotics. A likely explanation for the wide range of antibacterial resistance exhibited by these strains is due to the impact of high alkalinity on the antibiotics themselves and not due to the presence of antibiotic resistance genes. The aim of our study was to determine if select antibiotics are effective against Halomonas eurialkalitoleranis, a bacterium capable of growth over a wide range of neutral to alkaline pH values, to investigate the influence of alkalinity on antibiotic activity. Five strains of Halomonas eurialkalitoleranis were isolated from Soap Lake sediment. Halomonas eurialkalitoleranis Isolate 9 was inoculated into media buffered over a range of pH values, 7-11. Select antibiotics; tetracycline, ampicillin, vancomycin, neomycin trisulfate salt, demeclocycline, sulfamethizole, kanamycin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, roxithromycin, erythromycin, and sulfamethaxole, were suspended in inoculated media, to determine their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) over the range of pH values tested. Tetracycline, ampicillin, kanamycin, neomycin, roxithromycin, and streptomycin, were found to become ineffective against Isolate 9 at pH values above 8. Vancomycin did not produce statistical differences in MIC values at any pH tested. Erythromycin and sulfamethizole were found to be more effective against Isolate 9 at pH 11 than in neutral media. In addition, polymerase chain reactions were performed to determine if Isolate 9 possessed known genes for antibiotic resistance against the twelve antibiotics tested. Isolate 9 was found to possess resistance genes for all antibiotics tested, except kanamycin and streptomycin. --Abstract, page iv

Effects of Childhood Trauma on the Psychological Distress of Black Homeless Youth: The Moderating Role of Social Support

Youth homelessness is a growing issue in the United States. Black homeless youth are a unique subgroup to be studied because these youth must simultaneously manage stressors that accompany racial minority and homeless statuses during critical stages of development. Using data from the Atlanta Youth Count Needs Assessment, this thesis explores the impact of childhood trauma on psychological distress of Black homeless youth (N=556). In addition, this thesis examines whether the relationship between childhood trauma and psychological distress is conditioned by the level of social support reported by Black homeless youth. Results show that childhood trauma experienced by Black homeless youth is associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Although greater social support is linked to lower levels of psychological distress, social support does not moderate the link between childhood trauma and psychological distress. These findings are intended to inform health policy and resource options for Black homeless youth

Relationship Between Self-Determination and Employee Retention

Retention of registered nurses (RNs) is essential to the sustainability of quality health care services. More than 55% of hospitals in the United States have not translated retention initiatives into a formal retention strategy. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between training programs, new hire onboarding processes, frozen positions, and nurse retention. The self-determination theory was the theoretical framework for this study. Secondary data were collected from the 2016 Texas Hospital Nurse Staffing Survey. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results of the multiple linear regression were statistically significant, with F(3, 251) = .602, p \u3e .001, R2 = .007. Although the model is significant, length of residency/internship/fellowship, length of new employee training, and total number of direct resident care RN positions frozen does not add significant predictive value to turnover. The results of the multiple linear regression produced correlation of the independent variables with the dependent variable of nurse turnover. Length of residency/internship/fellowship was positively correlated with RN turnover rate at .025, length of new employee training was negatively correlated at .072, and total number of direct resident care RN positions frozen was negatively correlated at .012. The findings of this study might influence positive social change by providing insights into length and content of programs and the effect of understaffing on retention of RNs. An increase in retention of RNs might contribute to improved hospital reputation, financial capability, and organizational balance leading to a positive effect on the economy, sustainability, and quality of life of the surrounding community

Addressing Student Engagement During COVID-19: Secondary STEM Teachers Attend to the Affective Dimension of Learner Needs

This case study examines how a cohort of eleven induction secondary STEM teachers engaged learners during the onset of COVID-19 and their designs for student engagement given an online or blended teaching context in fall 2020. Participants attended a summer professional development workshop guided by trauma-informed teaching practices and learner engagement conceptual frameworks. Through the analysis of teacher artifacts and interviews, we identified dimensions of student engagement that teachers prioritized. Results indicate a marked increase in teachers’ attention to affective and social dimensions of learner engagement. We argue that teacher awareness and action in the affective domain of student engagement is critical during times of trauma

Systemic Racial Bias in Health Care Delivery to Women

Introduction: The main hypothesis is that racial bias towards minority women perpetuates systemic racism in the U.S., health care system resulting in negative health outcomes and detrimental incidences. Methods: In this semi-systematic and literature review, an informational web-based search was used from the U.S. National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, Elsevier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and ResearchGate. Inclusion criteria were adult women over the age of eighteen, women of color restricted to the United States only, and different areas of health care delivery. Results: This review found that women of color, especially black women, faced substantially more systemic racial bias in the United States health care delivery system and felt more excluded from adequate health care from clinicians due to racial discrimination. Discussion: There is very little literature on how to combat racial bias in health care delivery in the U.S. The mainframe of this stereotypical behavior from health care workers is conventional conscious and subconscious biases. Change needed for this type of behavior needs to start at the cognitive level

Local adaptation constrains drought tolerance in a tropical foundation tree

Plant species with broad climatic ranges might be more vulnerable to climate change than previously appreciated due to intraspecific variation in climatic stress tolerance. In tropical forests, drought is increasingly frequent and severe, causing widespread declines and altering community dynamics. Yet, little is known about whether foundation tropical trees vary in drought tolerance throughout their distributions, and how intraspecific variation in drought tolerance might contribute to their vulnerability to climate changE. We tested for local adaptation in seedling emergence and establishment with a full-factorial reciprocal transplant experiment including 27 populations and 109,350 seeds along a 3,500 mm precipitation gradient for a widespread tropical foundation tree, Metrosideros polymorpha, in Hawaii. To more precisely relate seedling performance to soil moisture, we conducted a complementary greenhouse experiment to test responses of the same focal populations to simulated drought. In the reciprocal transplant experiment, we observed significant variation among populations and sites in germination and seedling establishment rates. Overall, there was a significant link between historical rainfall of populations and their performance under current rainfall at the study sites consistent with local adaptation. In particular, populations from historically wet sites demonstrated lower germination rates in currently dry sites compared to wet field sites, while populations from historically dry sites germinated well across all sites, with particularly high germination in dry sites. In the greenhouse, seedlings from wet populations survived fewer days without water, and succumbed at wetter soil conditions than populations from historically dry sites, corroborating results from the field experiment. Synthesis. While climate change models project the greatest drying trends for historically dry areas in Hawaii, even moderate drying of wet sites could significantly reduce Metrosideros polymorpha recruitment given the sensitivity of seedlings to very slight changes in water regimes. Thus, although M. polymorpha demonstrates high seedling drought tolerance in some populations, providing evidence of resilience at the species-scale, there are nonetheless vulnerable populations that will likely decline under climate change. Our approach demonstrates that even trees with high dispersal abilities can show significant clines in drought tolerance, and suggests that similar intraspecific variation might be an important consideration for other tropical foundational tree species

A Novel Copper (II) Complex Identified as a Potent Drug Against Colorectal and Breast Cancer Cells and as a Poison Inhibitor for Human Topoisomerase IIᶐ

A novel complex, [Cu(acetylethTSC)Cl]Cl · 0.25C2H5OH 1 (where acetylethTSC = (E)-N-ethyl-2-[1-(thiazol-2-yl)ethylidene]hydrazinecarbothioamide), was shown to have anti-proliferative activity against various colon and aggressive breast cancer cell lines. In vitro studies showed that complex 1 acted as a poison inhibitor of human topoisomerase IIᶐ which may account for the observed anti-cancer effects

Questioning Identity: How a Diverse Set of Respondents Answer Standard Questions About Ethnicity and Race

Ethnoracial identity refers to the racial and ethnic categories that people use to classify themselves and others. How it is measured in surveys has implications for understanding inequalities. Yet how people self-identify may not conform to the categories standardized survey questions use to measure ethnicity and race, leading to potential measurement error. In interviewer-administered surveys, answers to survey questions are achieved through interviewer–respondent interaction. An analysis of interviewer–respondent interaction can illuminate whether, when, how, and why respondents experience problems with questions. In this study, we examine how indicators of interviewer–respondent interactional problems vary across ethnoracial groups when respondents answer questions about ethnicity and race. Further, we explore how interviewers respond in the presence of these interactional problems. Data are provided by the 2013–2014 Voices Heard Survey, a computer-assisted telephone survey designed to measure perceptions of participating in medical research among an ethnoracially diverse sample of respondents

Neuroprotection by minocycline in murine traumatic spinal cord injury: analyses of matrix metalloproteinases

Aim: Minocycline has neuroprotective activities in several models of neurological disorders including spinal cord injury (SCI) where it prevents axonal loss and improves functional recovery. There are still gaps of knowledge on minocycline in SCI including whether it ameliorates neuronal loss at the focal site of trauma, and whether minocycline reduces the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a family of enzymes implicated in the pathophysiology of SCI. This study addressed these gaps. Methods: Mice were treated with either minocycline or vehicle control after a spinal cord contusion. MMPs were compared between the two groups using real time polymerase chain reaction and zymography. Immunohistochemistry was used to examine microglial activation and neuronal cell death. Results: While several MMP members were elevated in the spinal cord following injury, treatment with minocycline did not affect their expression. Importantly, minocycline reduced the loss of neurons in the epicenter of damage to the spinal cord and in segments caudal and rostral to the injury. Conclusion: Despite the inability of minocycline to alter MMPs, the results of neuroprotection at the lesion site support the continued testing of minocycline as a neuroprotective medication in experimental and clinical SCI

Researcher readiness for participating in community-engaged dissemination and implementation research: a conceptual framework of core competencies

Participating in community-engaged dissemination and implementation (CEDI) research is challenging for a variety of reasons. Currently, there is not specific guidance or a tool available for researchers to assess their readiness to conduct CEDI research. We propose a conceptual framework that identifies detailed competencies for researchers participating in CEDI and maps these competencies to domains. The framework is a necessary step toward developing a CEDI research readiness survey that measures a researcher's attitudes, willingness, and self-reported ability for acquiring the knowledge and performing the behaviors necessary for effective community engagement. The conceptual framework for CEDI competencies was developed by a team of eight faculty and staff affiliated with a university's Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). The authors developed CEDI competencies by identifying the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors necessary for carrying out commonly accepted CE principles. After collectively developing an initial list of competencies, team members individually mapped each competency to a single domain that provided the best fit. Following the individual mapping, the group held two sessions in which the sorting preferences were shared and discrepancies were discussed until consensus was reached. During this discussion, modifications to wording of competencies and domains were made as needed. The team then engaged five community stakeholders to review and modify the competencies and domains. The CEDI framework consists of 40 competencies organized into nine domains: perceived value of CE in D&I research, introspection and openness, knowledge of community characteristics, appreciation for stakeholder's experience with and attitudes toward research, preparing the partnership for collaborative decision-making, collaborative planning for the research design and goals, communication effectiveness, equitable distribution of resources and credit, and sustaining the partnership. Delineation of CEDI competencies advances the broader CE principles and D&I research goals found in the literature and facilitates development of readiness assessments tied to specific training resources for researchers interested in conducting CEDI research