Student Scholar Showcase 2009

Persistent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11299/54848

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Browsing Student Scholar Showcase 2009 by Subject "College of Biological Sciences"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Homelessness and End of Life Care: A Qualitative Analysis of the Living Wills of Underprivileged Individuals
    (2009-10-07) Grengs, Leah
    The major objective of this study is to test an advance directive (AD) intervention in the homeless population of Minneapolis and St. Paul. This project will address the end of life (EOL) concerns of homeless people and provide the basis to test the needs of others who are separated from their loved ones and/or experience episodic healthcare.   Estimates of the number of homeless people in the United States range up to several million. In the Twin Cities metro area over 4,000 youth and adults are in temporary housing programs and over 600 are unsheltered.   “Homeless” is defined as having no regular place to live (i.e. having to stay in a shelter, a hotel paid for with a voucher, a friend’s house, an abandoned building or outdoors).   Among disadvantaged populations, homeless individuals experience the greatest risk of death, barriers to healthcare and lack of resources and close relationships deemed necessary for proper EOL care.   Homeless individuals are admitted to the emergency room and hospitalized at almost four times the rate of the general population of the United States.   Although homeless individuals experience such high rates of mortality and hospitalization, their attitudes, values and desires regarding EOL care had yet to be studied. Their concerns have generally been ignored, since most EOL care has focused on the concerns of the white middle class. In general, homeless people have been found to be very willing to describe their preferences and concerns and eager to have a voice in what the future may bring in the event of serious illness or death. Homeless people have been found to have very unique concerns regarding healthcare and EOL care, since they frequently witness sudden and violent death on the streets.
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    The Perception of Vietnamese-American Women Towards Cervical Cancer and Prevention Methods
    (2009-10-07) Nguyen-Tran, Thuy Duong
    The purpose of this project was to learn about the perceptions Vietnamese-American women have towards cervical cancer and prevention methods. In addition, this project sought to better understand barriers Vietnamese-American women may have in receiving preventative care, such as Pap tests, and ways to increase awareness and usage of preventative medicine.
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    The PKC Inhibitor Gö 6976 Blocks C-Type Natriuretic Peptide Activation of Guanylyl Cyclase B
    (2009-10-07) Lou, Xiaoying
    This study characterizes the effects of the widely used protein kinase C inhibitor, Gö 6976, on NPR-B guanylyl cyclase activity as a means to identify its inhibitory mechanisms.
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    Regulation of Human HRAS1 Minisatellite Stability During Stationary Phase
    (2009-10-07) Brosnan, Laura
    Minisatellites are repetitive tracts of DNA with repeat units ranging from 16-100 base pairs in length. They are stable during mitosis but display changes in repeat number and order after meiosis. Rare alleles of minisatellite tracts thought to arise from repeat instability are associated with human diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and epilepsy. The stability of minisatellites in non-proliferating stationary phase cells is not well understood. Previous work has shown that the zinc transporter ZRT1, the checkpoint gene RAD53, the DNA repair gene RAD27, the endocytosis gene END3, and the protein kinase PKC1 regulate the stability of minisatellites in S. cerevisiae during stationary phase. We inserted the human minisatellite associated with HRAS1 into the ADE2 gene to determine how its stability is regulated during stationary phase. Loss of ZRT1, RAD27, or RAD53 destabilized the minisatellite; loss of PKC1 or END3 had no effect. This work contributes significantly to our understanding of repeat stability and genome stability during stationary phase; this has important implications for human genome stability, since most human somatic cells are non-proliferating.