WITH US OR AGAINST US: USING RELIGIOSITY AND SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES TO PREDICT HOMOPHOBIC BELIEFS

Affiliation with religious organizations is prevalent in the United States and within some of these organizations negative messages about lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals are regularly espoused. Exposure to such homophobic sentiment has been found to have a detrimental impact on the mental health of sexual minorities and thereby, makes the exploration of religiosity and homophobia an imperative. This study examined differences in homophobia among the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, education level, religious affiliation, frequency of attendance at religious services, and amount of contact with lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Additionally, a stepwise multiple regression was conducted to determine which religiosity variables were the best predictors of homophobia. The religiosity variables used in the study were Religious Fundamentalism, Quest, Immanence, as well as Intrinsic and Extrinsic religious orientations. Significant differences in homophobia were found for gender, age, religious affiliation, frequency of attendance at religious services, and number of known lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. Religious Fundamentalism and Intrinsic religious orientation were found to be the best predictors of homophobia.Erin Coale SchwartzBoyer, Michele C.Christy ColemanJulie LashDoctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Communication Disorders, Counseling, School, and Educational PsychologyCunningham Memorial library, Terre Haute, Indiana State University20110720-009DoctoralTitle from document title page. Document formatted into pages: contains 92p.: ill. Includes abstract and appendix

Substrate Stiffness Controls Osteoblastic and Chondrocytic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells without Exogenous Stimuli

Stem cell fate has been linked to the mechanical properties of their underlying substrate, affecting mechanoreceptors and ultimately leading to downstream biological response. Studies have used polymers to mimic the stiffness of extracellular matrix as well as of individual tissues and shown mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) could be directed along specific lineages. In this study, we examined the role of stiffness in MSC differentiation to two closely related cell phenotypes: osteoblast and chondrocyte. We prepared four methyl acrylate/methyl methacrylate (MA/MMA) polymer surfaces with elastic moduli ranging from 0.1 MPa to 310 MPa by altering monomer concentration. MSCs were cultured in media without exogenous growth factors and their biological responses were compared to committed chondrocytes and osteoblasts. Both chondrogenic and osteogenic markers were elevated when MSCs were grown on substrates with stiffnesschondrocytes, MSCs on lower stiffness substrates showed elevated expression of ACAN, SOX9, and COL2 and proteoglycan content; COMP was elevated in MSCs but reduced in chondrocytes. Substrate stiffness altered levels of RUNX2 mRNA, alkaline phosphatase specific activity, osteocalcin, and osteoprotegerin in osteoblasts, decreasing levels on the least stiff substrate. Expression of integrin subunits α1, α2, α5, αv, β1, and β3 changed in a stiffness- and cell type-dependent manner. Silencing of integrin subunit beta 1 (ITGB1) in MSCs abolished both osteoblastic and chondrogenic differentiation in response to substrate stiffness. Our results suggest that substrate stiffness is an important mediator of osteoblastic and chondrogenic differentiation, and integrin β1 plays a pivotal role in this process

Empowering Support Staff: Enhancing HCPS Through Performance Evaluation and Strategic Feedback

Hanover County Public Schools (HCPS) submitted a Request for Assistance (RFA) to doctoral students at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to improve their support staff evaluation system. The doctoral team focused on developing an updated evaluation tool that effectively measures support staff job performance. To do so, the team conducted a descriptive study and developed a framework, Core Evaluation Components (CEC), to support the use of research-informed components in a quality K12 staff evaluation. The methods used in this study were a survey and a qualitative document analysis. The survey was used to understand the opinions, perspectives, and input from both HCPS support staff employees and evaluators. The qualitative document analysis was utilized to compare the current HCPS evaluation tool to those of neighboring school districts to identify the needs of the new tool. Findings revealed the importance of prioritizing the needs of the organization’s evaluators and employees, the CEC elements of accuracy, transparency, equity, and feedback, and performance management concepts in the development of the new evaluation tool. The team created targeted recommendations for HCPS to implement the new evaluation tool effectively and developed job-specific evaluation forms, an executive summary, and strategic feedback forms for HCPS to implement

Drug Court Versus Incarceration: Which Is More Effective?

Aim: This study explores the affect drug court treatment programs have on the sobriety and employment status of the participants. Background: Drug addiction has been an ongoing issue nationwide, and with addiction comes drug related crimes. Currently the preferred solution to this epidemic is to impose longer and longer lengths of incarceration for every incurred infraction. Methods: A descriptive correlational design will be used for this research study to evaluate the effectiveness of drug court compared to incarceration. The participants will be chosen by a random sampling of 100 residents of the Hampton Roads area of Virginia--50 who have graduated drug court and 50 who were incarcerated for drug-related offenses. Each participant must be a legal resident of Virginia for at least 3 years. The participants will be given a close-ended, 18-question questionnaire, titled “One Year Evaluation Post Drug Court.” The questionnaire will be designed to determine the participants’ life one year after graduating from a drug court program or one year after incarceration for a drug-related offense, possible drug and alcohol relapse, and questions on their demographics. Analysis: An analysis will be conducted using descriptive and inferential statistics. A demographic profile will be constructed of the population’s gender, age, ethnicity, level of education, and marital status. The data will be organized using frequency distribution to compare employment status and sobriety of each group. It will be a ratio measurement, and a dependent t-test will be used to verify the means of each group are statistically different. Expected Findings: It is expected that findings will show participation in drug court reduces the rate of recidivism and increases the rate of sobriety maintenance more than incarceration in drug-addicted individuals. Limitations: This study is limited due to the self-reporting nature of questionnaires and small sample size

Write-Avoiding Algorithms

Short version of the technical report available at http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2015/EECS-2015-163.pdf as Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2015-163International audienc

Applying the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model of HIV- Risk to Youth in Psychiatric Care

This study examined the utility of cognitive and behavioral constructs (AIDS in-formation, motivation, and behavioral skills) in explaining sexual risk taking among 172 12–20–year-old ethnically diverse urban youths in outpatient psy-chiatric care. Structural equation modeling revealed only moderate support for the model, explaining low to moderate levels of variance in global sexual risk taking. The amount of explained variance improved when age was included as a predictor in the model. Findings shed light on the contribution of AIDS informa-tion, motivation, and behavioral skills to risky sexual behavior among teens re-ceiving outpatient psychiatric care. Results suggest that cognitive and behavioral factors alone may not explain sexual risk taking among teens whose cognitive and emotional deficits (e.g., impaired judgment, poor reality testing, affect dysregulation) interfere with HIV preventive behavior. The most powerful ex-planatory model will likely include a combination of cognitive, behavioral, developmental, social (e.g., family), and personal (e.g., psychopathology) risk mechanisms

Depression Among Type 2 Diabetes Rural Appalachian Clinic Attendees

The prevalence and impact of type 2 diabetes in Appalachia is understudied despite the presence of high-risk socioeconomic conditions (e.g., low levels of education and income). Appalachian counties experience greater burdens of poverty, income inequality, unemployment (1), and diabetes compared with non-Appalachian counties (2–5). Rates of comorbid depression have not been documented in this region. Patients with type 2 diabetes are two times more likely to experience depressive symptoms than their peers without diabetes (6). Depression prevalence in studies using self-report depression inventories was found to be 32.9%, with lower rates (28.5%) observed in studies using diagnostic interview schedules (6,7). Depressive symptoms are associated with worsened blood glucose levels (8), diabetes complications (9), increased functional disability (10), worsened adherence to diabetes regimen (11), higher ambulatory care costs (12), and increased mortality (13). The current study was conducted to identify rates of self-reported depression and to identify the socioeconomic and medical correlates of depression among type 2 diabetic patients attending family medicine and endocrinology appointments from rural Appalachian counties of southeastern Ohio and West Virginia. It was hypothesized that poverty would increase the risk of comorbid depression in this region

Sex-Biased Gene Flow Among Elk in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

We quantified patterns of population genetic structure to help understand gene flow among elk populations across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We sequenced 596 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region of 380 elk from eight populations. Analysis revealed high mitochondrial DNA variation within populations, averaging 13.0 haplotypes with high mean gene diversity (0.85). The genetic differentiation among populations for mitochondrial DNA was relatively high (FST = 0.161; P = 0.001) compared to genetic differentiation for nuclear microsatellite data (FST = 0.002; P = 0.332), which suggested relatively low female gene flow among populations. The estimated ratio of male to female gene flow (mm/mf = 46) was among the highest we have seen reported for large mammals. Genetic distance (for mitochondrial DNA pairwise FST) was not significantly correlated with geographic (Euclidean) distance between populations (Mantel’s r = 0.274, P = 0.168). Large mitochondrial DNA genetic distances (e.g., FST . 0.2) between some of the geographically closest populations (,65 km) suggested behavioral factors and/or landscape features might shape female gene flow patterns. Given the strong sex-biased gene flow, future research and conservation efforts should consider the sexes separately when modeling corridors of gene flow or predicting spread of maternally transmitted diseases. The growing availability of genetic data to compare male vs. female gene flow provides many exciting opportunities to explore the magnitude, causes, and implications of sex-biased gene flow likely to occur in many species

Altered Lysosomal Proteins in Neural-Derived Plasma Exosomes in Preclinical Alzheimer Disease

OBJECTIVE: Diverse autolysosomal proteins were quantified in neurally derived blood exosomes from patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and controls to investigate disordered neuronal autophagy. METHODS: Blood exosomes obtained once from patients with AD (n = 26) or frontotemporal dementia (n = 16), other patients with AD (n = 20) both when cognitively normal and 1 to 10 years later when diagnosed, and case controls were enriched for neural sources by anti-human L1CAM antibody immunoabsorption. Extracted exosomal proteins were quantified by ELISAs and normalized with the CD81 exosomal marker. RESULTS: Mean exosomal levels of cathepsin D, lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP-1), and ubiquitinylated proteins were significantly higher and of heat-shock protein 70 significantly lower for AD than controls in cross-sectional studies (p ≤ 0.0005). Levels of cathepsin D, LAMP-1, and ubiquitinylated protein also were significantly higher for patients with AD than for patients with frontotemporal dementia (p ≤ 0.006). Step-wise discriminant modeling of the protein levels correctly classified 100% of patients with AD. Exosomal levels of all proteins were similarly significantly different from those of matched controls in 20 patients 1 to 10 years before and at diagnosis of AD (p ≤ 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: Levels of autolysosomal proteins in neurally derived blood exosomes distinguish patients with AD from case controls and appear to reflect the pathology of AD up to 10 years before clinical onset. These preliminary results confirm in living patients with AD the early appearance of neuronal lysosomal dysfunction and suggest that these proteins may be useful biomarkers in large prospective studies