Public Health Commons^™

Winding Path, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Winding Path (dêtetsi vo’i oninjakan) (2023), directed by Alexandra Lazarowich and Ross Kauffman.

Social And Psychosocial Determinants Of Racial And Ethnic Differences In Cardiovascular Health: The Masala And Mesa Studies, Nilay S. Shah, Xiaoning Huang, Lucia C. Petito, Michael P. Bancks, Alka M. Kanaya, Sameera Talegawkar, Saaniya Farhan, Mercedes R. Carnethon, Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, Norrina B. Allen, Namratha R. Kandula, Sadiya S. Khan

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

BACKGROUND: Social and psychosocial determinants are associated with cardiovascular health (CVH).

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the contributions of social and psychosocial factors to racial/ethnic differences in CVH.

METHODS: In the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America cohorts, Kitagawa-Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition quantified the contributions of social and psychosocial factors to differences in mean CVH score (range 0-14) in Black, Chinese, Hispanic, or South Asian compared with White participants.

RESULTS: Among 7,978 adults (mean age 61 [SD 10] years, 52 % female), there were 1,892 Black (mean CVH score for decomposition analysis 7.96 [SD 2.1]), 804 …

A Case Study To Investigate Factors Influencing The Santa Clara County Getting To Zero Initiative’S Collective Impact Model, Harit Agroia, Rebecca Reno, Jenette Spezeski, Leyla Mousli, Richard Sarabia, Erin Starzyk

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Our objective was to explore how factors, such as backbone organization changes and COVID-19, affected a collective impact (CI) initiative’s progression through the five CI phases and its components of success. We conducted a case study using semistructured interviews with 17 representatives from the action committee, community-based organization, and health department between January and February 2023 in Santa Clara County, California. Participants were asked how internal and external factors affected their engagement and experiences with the CI initiative. We analyzed the data using structural and holistic coding. Results showed that the initiative’s progression was impacted by intersecting factors; overall findings …

Tetravalent Sars-Cov-2 S1 Subunit Protein Vaccination Elicits Robust Humoral And Cellular Immune Responses In Siv-Infected Rhesus Macaque Controllers, Rachel C Vanderkruik, Craig Ferguson, Lauren A Kobylski, Joseph J Locascio, Gabriella E Hamlett, Parker C Killenberg, Robert Lewis, Noah Jones, Ella T Rossa, Hannah Dineen, Rosalind Picard, Lee S Cohen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Depression during pregnancy is increasingly recognized as a worldwide public health problem. If untreated, there can be detrimental outcomes for the mother and child. Anxiety is also often comorbid with depression. Although effective treatments exist, most women do not receive treatment. Technology is a mechanism to increase access to and engagement in mental health services.

OBJECTIVE: The Guardians is a mobile app, grounded in behavioral activation principles, which seeks to leverage mobile game mechanics and in-game rewards to encourage user engagement. This study seeks to assess app satisfaction and engagement and to explore changes in clinical symptoms of depression …

Ubr5 Promotes Antiviral Immunity By Disengaging The Transcriptional Brake On Rig-I Like Receptors, Duomeng Yang, Tingting Geng, Andrew G Harrison, Jason G Cahoon, Jian Xing, Baihai Jiao, Mark Wang, Chao Cheng, Robert E Hill, Huadong Wang, Anthony T Vella, Gong Cheng, Yanlin Wang, Penghua Wang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The Retinoic acid-Inducible Gene I (RIG-I) like receptors (RLRs) are the major viral RNA sensors essential for the initiation of antiviral immune responses. RLRs are subjected to stringent transcriptional and posttranslational regulations, of which ubiquitination is one of the most important. However, the role of ubiquitination in RLR transcription is unknown. Here, we screen 375 definite ubiquitin ligase knockout cell lines and identify Ubiquitin Protein Ligase E3 Component N-Recognin 5 (UBR5) as a positive regulator of RLR transcription. UBR5 deficiency reduces antiviral immune responses to RNA viruses, while increases viral replication in primary cells and mice. Ubr5 knockout mice are …

Prevention And Potential Treatment Strategies For Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Bo-Wen Sun, Peng-Peng Zhang, Zong-Hao Wang, Xia Yao, Meng-Lan He, Rui-Ting Bai, Hao Che, Jing Lin, Tian Xie, Zi Hui, Xiang-Yang Ye, Li-Wei Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a significant viral pathogen that causes respiratory infections in infants, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. RSV-related illnesses impose a substantial economic burden worldwide annually. The molecular structure, function, and in vivo interaction mechanisms of RSV have received more comprehensive attention in recent times, and significant progress has been made in developing inhibitors targeting various stages of the RSV replication cycle. These include fusion inhibitors, RSV polymerase inhibitors, and nucleoprotein inhibitors, as well as FDA-approved RSV prophylactic drugs palivizumab and nirsevimab. The research community is hopeful that these developments might provide easier access to knowledge and …

Effect Of Russian Current Expert Modes On Quadriceps Muscle Torque In Healthy Adults: A Single-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial, Ansam Hasan, Ibrahim Moustafa, Tamer Shousha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Russian current (RC), a well-known neuromuscular electrical stimulation operating at 2500 Hz, has demonstrated significant strength improvement over traditional exercises due to its high tolerance and low pain provocation. Despite extensive NMES parameter research, the specific effects of expert modes, particularly ON2 and Rest, remain unexplored. This study investigates the direct effect of these expert modes on quadriceps muscle strength in healthy adults.

METHODS: This is a single-blind, randomization-controlled trial. Forty-eight healthy university students (31 females, 17 males) were assigned in two randomized experimental groups either the ON2 or Rest mode for a 15-minute electrical stimulation session. Quadriceps maximum …

Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Of Hospitalized Patients Diagnosed With Covid-19, Tracy Nicole Grady

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Association Between Marital Status, Family Size, And Diabetes Among Asian-American Women, Rhea Ann Reyes Mcbride

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Geographic Modifiable Risk Factors For Alzheimer’S Disease And Related Dementias Amid Chronic Disease In The United States, Rafael Gonzales-Lagos

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Correlates For Nonmedical Prescription Opioid Use Among Young Adults, Uchenna Sam Chinweuba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Racial/Ethnic Differences In The Association Between Health Literacy And Quality Of Life Among Breast Cancer Survivors, Tenesia D. Carey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Early Immersion In Team-Based Event Review: Experiential Patient Safety Education For Pgy 1 Internal Medicine Residents, Michelle Perkons, Alexis Wickersham, Sonia Bharel, Timothy Kuchera, Rebecca Jaffe

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, there has been a national push to incorporate high-fidelity quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) education into physician training programs. In fact, integration of robust patient safety education became an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirement for residency programs in 2017. We developed a curriculum to not only fulfill the ACGME's requirement but also provide PGY 1 internal medicine residents with the skills needed to become active participants in ongoing patient safety work throughout their training and careers.

METHODS: Our patient safety curriculum was woven into residents' existing protected educational time and …

Relationship Between Religiosity And Hpv Vaccine Initiation And Intention In Urban Black And Hispanic Parents, Deidra Carroll Coleman, Christine Markham, Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, Diane Santa Maria

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Religion is believed to be an important sociocultural influence in the U.S., but little is known about how religiosity shapes the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine decision in racial/ethnic minorities. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between religiosity and HPV vaccine initiation and intention among urban, racial/ethnic minority parents of adolescents 11-14 years old.

DESIGN: This study employed a descriptive, cross-sectional design using baseline data from Black and Hispanic parents (N = 175 and 285, respectively) recruited from medically underserved communities. Chi-square tests for independence and independent-samples t-tests were run to assess sociodemographic differences in vaccine …

Human Whole-Exome Genotype Data For Alzheimer's Disease, Yuk Yee Leung, Adam C Naj, Yi-Fan Chou, Otto Valladares, Michael Schmidt, Kara Hamilton-Nelson, Nicholas Wheeler, Honghuang Lin, Prabhakaran Gangadharan, Liming Qu, Kaylyn Clark, Amanda B Kuzma, Wan-Ping Lee, Laura Cantwell, Heather Nicaretta, Jonathan Haines, Lindsay Farrer, Sudha Seshadri, Zoran Brkanac, Carlos Cruchaga, Margaret Pericak-Vance, Richard P Mayeux, William S Bush, Anita Destefano, Eden Martin, Gerard D Schellenberg, Li-San Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The heterogeneity of the whole-exome sequencing (WES) data generation methods present a challenge to a joint analysis. Here we present a bioinformatics strategy for joint-calling 20,504 WES samples collected across nine studies and sequenced using ten capture kits in fourteen sequencing centers in the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project. The joint-genotype called variant-called format (VCF) file contains only positions within the union of capture kits. The VCF was then processed specifically to account for the batch effects arising from the use of different capture kits from different studies. We identified 8.2 million autosomal variants. 96.82% of the variants are high-quality, and …

Prenatal Cocaine Exposure And Its Influence On Pediatric Epigenetic Clocks And Epigenetic Scores In Humans, Thiago Wendt Viola, Christina Danzer, Victor Mardini, Claudia Szobot, João Henrique Chrusciel, Laura Stertz, Joy M Schmitz, Consuelo Walss-Bass, Gabriel R Fries, Rodrigo Grassi-Oliveira

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The investigation of the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) on offspring has been inconsistent, with few studies investigating biological outcomes in humans. We profiled genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) of umbilical cord blood (UCB) from newborns with (n = 35) and without (n = 47) PCE. We used DNAm data to (1) assess pediatric epigenetic clocks at birth and (2) to estimate epigenetic scores (ES) for lifetime disorders. We generated gestational epigenetic age estimates (DNAmGA) based on Knight and Bohlin epigenetic clocks. We also investigated the association between DNAmGA and UCB serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels. Considering the large-scale …

Role Of Polyunsaturated Fat In Modifying Cardiovascular Risk Associated With Family History Of Cardiovascular Disease: Pooled De Novo Results From 15 Observational Studies, Federica Laguzzi, Agneta Åkesson, Matti Marklund, Frank Qian, Bruna Gigante, Traci M Bartz, Julie K Bassett, Anna Birukov, Hannia Campos, Yoichiro Hirakawa, Fumiaki Imamura, Susanne Jäger, Maria Lankinen, Rachel A Murphy, Mackenzie Senn, Toshiko Tanaka, Nathan Tintle, Jyrki K Virtanen, Kazumasa Yamagishi, Matthew Allison, Ingeborg A Brouwer, Ulf De Faire, Gudny Eiriksdottir, Luigi Ferrucci, Nita G Forouhi, Johanna M Geleijnse, Allison M Hodge, Hitomi Kimura, Markku Laakso, Ulf Risérus, Anniek C Van Westing, Stefania Bandinelli, Ana Baylin, Graham G Giles, Vilmundur Gudnason, Hiroyasu Iso, Rozenn N Lemaitre, Toshiharu Ninomiya, Wendy S Post, Bruce M Psaty, Jukka T Salonen, Matthias B Schulze, Michael Y Tsai, Matti Uusitupa, Nicholas J Wareham, Seung-Won Oh, Alexis C Wood, William S Harris, David Siscovick, Dariush Mozaffarian, Karin Leander, Fatty Acids And Outcomes Research Consortium (Force)

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether dietary intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) modifies the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with a family history of CVD. We assessed interactions between biomarkers of low PUFA intake and a family history in relation to long-term CVD risk in a large consortium.

METHODS: Blood and tissue PUFA data from 40 885 CVD-free adults were assessed. PUFA levels ≤25th percentile were considered to reflect low intake of linoleic, alpha-linolenic, and eicosapentaenoic/docosahexaenoic acids (EPA/DHA). Family history was defined as having ≥1 first-degree relative who experienced a CVD event. Relative risks with 95% CI of CVD were …

Virology-The Path Forward, Angela L Rasmussen, Gigi K Gronvall, Anice C Lowen, Felicia Goodrum, James Alwine, Kristian G Andersen, Simon J Anthony, Joel Baines, Arinjay Banerjee, Andrew J Broadbent, Christopher B Brooke, Samuel K Campos, Patrizia Caposio, Arturo Casadevall, Gary C Chan, Anna R Cliffe, Donna Collins-Mcmillen, Nancy Connell, Blossom Damania, Matthew D Daugherty, Kari Debbink, Terence S Dermody, Daniel Dimaio, W Paul Duprex, Michael Emerman, Denise A Galloway, Robert F Garry, Stephen A Goldstein, Alexander L Greninger, Amy L Hartman, Brenda G Hogue, Stacy M Horner, Peter J Hotez, Jae U Jung, Jeremy P Kamil, Stephanie M Karst, Lou Laimins, Seema S Lakdawala, Igor Landais, Michael Letko, Brett Lindenbach, Shan-Lu Liu, Micah Luftig, Grant Mcfadden, Andrew Mehle, Juliet Morrison, Anne Moscona, Elke Mühlberger, Joshua Munger, Karl Münger, Eain Murphy, Christopher J Neufeldt, Janko Z Nikolich, Christine M O'Connor, Andrew Pekosz, Sallie R Permar, Julie K Pfeiffer, Saskia V Popescu, John G Purdy, Vincent R Racaniello, Charles M Rice, Jonathan A Runstadler, Martin J Sapp, Rona S Scott, Gregory A Smith, Erin M Sorrell, Emily Speranza, Daniel Streblow, Scott A Tibbetts, Zsolt Toth, Koenraad Van Doorslaer, Susan R Weiss, Elizabeth A White, Timothy M White, Christiane E Wobus, Michael Worobey, Satoko Yamaoka, Andrew Yurochko

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

In the United States (US), biosafety and biosecurity oversight of research on viruses is being reappraised. Safety in virology research is paramount and oversight frameworks should be reviewed periodically. Changes should be made with care, however, to avoid impeding science that is essential for rapidly reducing and responding to pandemic threats as well as addressing more common challenges caused by infectious diseases. Decades of research uniquely positioned the US to be able to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with astounding speed, delivering life-saving vaccines within a year of identifying the virus. We should embolden and empower this strength, which is …

Extreme Drought Impacts Have Been Underestimated In Grasslands And Shrublands Globally, Melinda D Smith, Kate D Wilkins, Martin C Holdrege, Peter Wilfahrt, Scott L Collins, Alan K Knapp, Osvaldo E Sala, Jeffrey S Dukes, Richard P Phillips, Laura Yahdjian, Laureano A Gherardi, Timothy Ohlert, Claus Beier, Lauchlan H Fraser, Anke Jentsch, Michael E Loik, Fernando T Maestre, Sally A Power, Qiang Yu, Andrew J Felton, Seth M Munson, Yiqi Luo, Hamed Abdoli, Mehdi Abedi, Concepción L Alados, Juan Alberti, Moshe Alon, Hui An, Brian Anacker, Maggie Anderson, Harald Auge, Seton Bachle, Khadijeh Bahalkeh, Michael Bahn, Amgaa Batbaatar, Taryn Bauerle, Karen H Beard, Kai Behn, Ilka Beil, Lucio Biancari, Irmgard Blindow, Viviana Florencia Bondaruk, Elizabeth T Borer, Edward W Bork, Carlos Martin Bruschetti, Kerry M Byrne, James F Cahill, Dianela A Calvo, Michele Carbognani, Augusto Cardoni, Cameron N Carlyle, Miguel Castillo-Garcia, Scott X Chang, Jeff Chieppa, Marcus V Cianciaruso, Ofer Cohen, Amanda L Cordeiro, Daniela F Cusack, Sven Dahlke, Pedro Daleo, Carla M D'Antonio, Lee H Dietterich, Tim S Doherty, Maren Dubbert, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Felícia M Fischer, T'Ai G W Forte, Tobias Gebauer, Beatriz Gozalo, Aaron C Greenville, Karlo G Guidoni-Martins, Heather J Hannusch, Siri Vatsø Haugum, Yann Hautier, Mariet Hefting, Hugh A L Henry, Daniela Hoss, Johannes Ingrisch, Oscar Iribarne, Forest Isbell, Yari Johnson, Samuel Jordan, Eugene F Kelly, Kaitlin Kimmel, Juergen Kreyling, György Kröel-Dulay, Alicia Kröpfl, Angelika Kübert, Andrew Kulmatiski, Eric G Lamb, Klaus Steenberg Larsen, Julie Larson, Jason Lawson, Cintia V Leder, Anja Linstädter, Jielin Liu, Shirong Liu, Alexandra G Lodge, Grisel Longo, Alejandro Loydi, Junwei Luan, Frederick Curtis Lubbe, Craig Macfarlane, Kathleen Mackie-Haas, Andrey V Malyshev, Adrián Maturano-Ruiz, Thomas Merchant, Daniel B Metcalfe, Akira S Mori, Edwin Mudongo, Gregory S Newman, Uffe N Nielsen, Dale Nimmo, Yujie Niu, Paola Nobre, Rory C O'Connor, Romà Ogaya, Gastón R Oñatibia, Ildikó Orbán, Brooke Osborne, Rafael Otfinowski, Meelis Pärtel, Josep Penuelas, Pablo L Peri, Guadalupe Peter, Alessandro Petraglia, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Valério D Pillar, Juan Manuel Piñeiro-Guerra, Laura W Ploughe, Robert M Plowes, Cristy Portales-Reyes, Suzanne M Prober, Yolanda Pueyo, Sasha C Reed, Euan G Ritchie, Dana Aylén Rodríguez, William E Rogers, Christiane Roscher, Ana M Sánchez, Bráulio A Santos, María Cecilia Scarfó, Eric W Seabloom, Baoku Shi, Lara Souza, Andreas Stampfli, Rachel J Standish, Marcelo Sternberg, Wei Sun, Marie Sünnemann, Michelle Tedder, Pål Thorvaldsen, Dashuan Tian, Katja Tielbörger, Alejandro Valdecantos, Liesbeth Van Den Brink, Vigdis Vandvik, Mathew R Vankoughnett, Liv Guri Velle, Changhui Wang, Yi Wang, Glenda M Wardle, Christiane Werner, Cunzheng Wei, Georg Wiehl, Jennifer L Williams, Amelia A Wolf, Michaela Zeiter, Fawei Zhang, Juntao Zhu, Ning Zong, Xiaoan Zuo

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of short-term (~1 y) drought events-the most common duration of drought-globally. Yet the impact of this intensification of drought on ecosystem functioning remains poorly resolved. This is due in part to the widely disparate approaches ecologists have employed to study drought, variation in the severity and duration of drought studied, and differences among ecosystems in vegetation, edaphic and climatic attributes that can mediate drought impacts. To overcome these problems and better identify the factors that modulate drought responses, we used a coordinated distributed experiment to quantify the impact of short-term drought on …

Demon Mineral, Brady Desanti

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Demon Mineral (2024), directed by Hadley Austin.

Performance Of Color Plates For M. Tuberculosis Detection And Drug Resistance Screening In Mexican Tb Clinics Across The Texas Border, Sean Monday, Doris Ayala, Genesis P. Aguillón-Durán, America Cruz-Garcia, Alyssa Schami, Amberlee Hicks, Juan Ignacio Garcia, Jordi B. Torrelles, Blanca I. Restrepo

Research Symposium

Purpose: Populations along the U.S.-Mexico border have a high prevalence of risk factors for TB such as low socioeconomic status, overcrowding and migration, and consequently, higher TB incidence (up to 12 and 44/100,000) when compared to their corresponding national averages in each country. TB control in border regions is further challenged by limited access to cost-effective tests to diagnose TB and assess drug resistance (DR). We evaluated the performance of a novel, simple and low-cost culture plate technology for isolation and DR testing of Mtb in TB clinics on the Mexican border with Texas.

Methods: We conducted an observational study …

Prevalence Of Anxiety And Depression In Young People From Northern Tamaulipas, In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Teresa Velázquez-Loredo

Research Symposium

Background: From the beginning of the confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the prevalence of depression was >22%, while ENSANUT 2018 survey reported a prevalence of 13.6%. The pandemic had an adverse impact on young people, affecting employment, their professional future, education, training and, therefore, their mental well-being. Early studies show that young people have higher levels of anxiety and depression than adults and older adults.

Methods: We evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of students from the upper secondary and higher education levels of northern Tamaulipas, Mexico, measuring the prevalence of anxiety and depression …

Pulmonary Tuberculosis In Older Adults, Texas, 2008 - 2020: Trends And Adverse Outcomes, Belinda Medrano, Gretchen L. Gemeinhardt, Miryoung Lee, Sandra Morris, Lana Yamba, Blanca I. Restrepo

Research Symposium

Background: After two decades of 2% annual declines in the global incidence of TB, there was a 3.6% increase between 2020 and 2021. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘End TB Strategy’ is aimed at reducing TB incidence by 80% and TB deaths by 90% by 2030, compared with 2015, but its goals will not be reached at the current pace. Reacceleration of TB elimination efforts must take into consideration the changing epidemiology of TB, including an aging global population. The older adult population, aged 65 and older, is growing faster than all other age groups, and in the United States, …

Collection And Analysis Of Architectural Features In Streetscapes In South Texas, Cristian Maestre, Maria E. M. Carlier, Gladys E. Maestre

Research Symposium

Background: The built environment of neighborhoods influences the health and well-being of residents. One approach to studying the impact of such a built environment on people's health is through the study of the memorability of the architectural features (AFs) in streetscapes. In this direction, we raise the question: what AFs are more memorable? Understanding how AFs impact cognition will allow us to propose neighborhood designs that consider this finding to foster people's health and well-being. However, AFs in streetscapes are not universal they need to be studied in specific historical, cultural, and geographical contexts. In order to analyze the memorability …

Clinical Analysis From Critically Ill Patients During The Early Spread Of Covid-19, Guohui Yang, Zewen Liu, Qing Zhang, Tabitha Abraham, Alex Zuo

Research Symposium

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. This study is performed in Ezhou, a city located near Wuhan and one of the first to undergo lockdown during the outbreak, thus focusing on clinical outcomes and imaging variables.

Methods: The retrospective study collected clinical data from confirmed severe COVID-19 patients who were treated at Ezhou Central Hospital during the early phase of the pandemic. Laboratory results, imaging features, and treatments were compared between patients who survived and died.

Results: The coexisting conditions were chronic respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases in most patients. Symptoms occurring among critically ill …

Extracellular Carriers Control Lipid-Dependent Secretion, Delivery, And Activity Of Wnt Morphogens, Taciani De Almeida Magalhaes, Jingjing Liu, Charlene Chan, Kleiton Silva Borges, Jiuchun Zhang, Andrew J Kane, Bradley M Wierbowski, Yunhui Ge, Zhiwen Liu, Prabhath Mannam, Daniel Zeve, Ron Weiss, David T Breault, Pengxiang Huang, Adrian Salic

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

WNT morphogens trigger signaling pathways fundamental for embryogenesis, regeneration, and cancer. WNTs are modified with palmitoleate, which is critical for binding Frizzled (FZD) receptors and activating signaling. However, it is unknown how WNTs are released and spread from cells, given their strong lipid-dependent membrane attachment. We demonstrate that secreted FZD-related proteins and WNT inhibitory factor 1 are WNT carriers, potently releasing lipidated WNTs and forming active soluble complexes. WNT release occurs by direct handoff from the membrane protein WNTLESS to the carriers. In turn, carriers donate WNTs to glypicans and FZDs involved in WNT reception and to the NOTUM hydrolase, …

Identifying Barriers To Mental Health Services Utilization For Black Youth In The United States: A Qualitative Study, Emily Stein, Matthew Hutnyan, Neely Myers

SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research

Mental health in Black communities and racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service utilization remain growing concerns. Evidence suggests that psychotic disorders may be more prevalent among Black individuals than white individuals and the Black community faces barriers to care that can negatively influence outcomes. To better understand these barriers, we interviewed mental healthcare providers (n = 11) and Black young adults with first-person experience of psychosis (n = 13) about the experiences of minority young adults with mental health treatment. We analyzed interview transcripts and, consistent with constructivist grounded theory methods, identified iterative patterns across individuals about barriers to care. …

Integrating Health Equity Into Implementation Science To Advance Chronic Disease Prevention And Control, Callie Walsh-Bailey

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Marginalized populations are inequitably burdened by chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. The goal of health equity work is to ensure all people have a fair and just opportunity to achieve optimal health. Implementation science has made health equity a greater focus and priority in recent years. There has been a proliferation of guidance on what implementation science needs to do to advance equity. However, the field currently lacks specific, actionable guidance on how to integrate equity. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to synthesize conceptual and theoretical underpinnings regarding health equity and bring them …

Major Stressful Life Events And The Risk Of Pancreatic, Head And Neck Cancers: A Case-Control Study, Arthi Sridhar, Vishaldeep Kaur Sekhon, Chandler Nguyen, Kamelah Abushalha, Amirali Tahanan, Mohammad Hossein Rahbar, Syed Hasan Jafri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Major stressful life events have been shown to be associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, breast cancer and the development of various chronic illnesses. The stress response generated by our body results in a variety of physiological and metabolic changes which can affect the immune system and have been shown to be associated with tumor progression. In this study, we aim to determine if major stressful life events are associated with the incidence of head and neck or pancreatic cancer (HNPC).

METHODS: This is a matched case-control study. Cases (CAs) were HNPC patients diagnosed within the previous …

Reducing Risk For Chronic Disease: Evaluation Of A Collective Community Approach To Sustainable Evidence-Based Health Programming, Katherine Oestman, Ruth Rechis, Pamela A Williams, Jill A Brown, Katherine Treiman, Brittany Zulkiewicz, Michael T Walsh, Karen Basen-Engquist, Trina Rodriguez, Catherine Chennisi, Amber Macneish, Alise Neff, Mike Pomeroy, Faiyaz A Bhojani, Ernest Hawk

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Community initiatives can shape health behaviors, such as physical activity and dietary habits, across a population and help reduce the risk of developing chronic disease. to achieve this goal and impact health outcomes, Pasadena Vibrant Community aimed to engage communities in an ongoing dialogue about the importance of healthy behaviors, implement and advance community-based strategies to promote health, and improve diet and physical activity behaviors. The initiative was centered around a collaboration between a backbone organization, steering committee, and 7 collaborating organizations funded to implement multicomponent, evidence-based programs.. The common agenda was detailed in a community action plan, which …