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INTO LIGHT: Using Original Art and Stories to Change the Conversation About Addiction
No full textThis immersive and interactive experience will draw from the INTO LIGHT “Drug Addiction: Real People, Real Stories” exhibit that is currently on display in the Student Center at the University of South Alabama. Participants will engage with powerful narratives and artistic expressions that bring the complex realities of drug addiction to life. Through a facilitated guide of the exhibit, which is made up of original graphite portraits and narratives of people from Alabama who have died from drug addiction, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the human experiences behind addiction, fostering empathy and awareness.
By participating, attendees will walk away with: Enhanced perspectives on the multifaceted impacts of addiction Tools to engage in meaningful conversations about addiction and recovery Inspiration for incorporating storytelling and creativity into advocacy work
Join us in breaking down barriers and sparking important dialogues through the transformative power of art and storytelling
Lunch
No full textLunchtime musical entertainment was performed by Caleb Phillips, a medical student at Whiddon College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, Class of 2026
Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Winter 2024
Get PDFPublic newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the ongoing Down The Bay Project
Evaluating the Integration of Traditional and Western Medicine in Rural Ghana: The Role of Healers and the Government
Get PDFA question of pressing importance for the healthcare system in Ghana is the integration between biomedical physicians, who are unreachable for many rural citizens, and traditional healers, who fill in the gaps in access for rural and non-rural citizens seeking care, and are oftentimes the preferred choice. The care offered by each system is derived from differing paradigms, with the biomedical related to Westernized practices and the healing related to holistic, traditional approaches. Integration of these systems would allow for more acknowledgment and communication between these two different kinds of providers, which in turn would improve the quality of care provided to all patients.
The Ghanaian government did create policies to aid in integration, but the integration attempts were unsuccessful. The private practice attempts began in the 1940s while public service attempts began in the 1980s. The most notable integration efforts began in 2011 with the creation of traditional medicine herbal units within hospitals. This, along with other factors, has led some scholars to consider the government’s efforts as “tokenistic.” The issue, however, is that the authors do not fully explain why this is the case. Through an investigation that relied on scholarly literature, Ghanaian government policy documents, World Health Organization (WHO) strategies, and news articles, I found the following: (1) the Ghanaian government likely did use the WHO strategies when developing their policies; (2) most healers are in favor of an integrated healthcare system; (3) the government did not appear to fully consider the needs of healers and their viewpoints when creating their policies. This lack of consideration relates to why the efforts of the government appear only tokenistic and do not address the needs of all demographics. Auyero’s “patient model” and Menjívar and Abrego’s “legal violence” frameworks can be used to hypothesize why the government may have allowed these barriers to remain during implementation
Development of Bioengineering Solutions for Two Problems in Kneecap Dislocation
No full textMost tissues in our body are subjected to mechanical stretching, and these stimuli trigger biochemical and biophysical processes in the tissues. Such processes are responsible for tissue growth, repair, injury, and disease. This research focuses on the tissues holding the kneecap in the trochlear groove. Stretch injuries to these tissues or anatomical abnormalities in the joint cause the kneecap to dislocate from the trochlear groove. Numerous surgical treatments have been developed, each targeting a different source of kneecap dislocation. However, there is no established framework to either examine the best treatment strategy when the dislocation arises from various sources or assess the efficacy of the least invasive surgical treatment for a given patient. In collaboration with the orthopedic surgeons from USA Hospital, we have developed a mathematical model that can provide a Dislocation Tendency Index of the Kneecap (DTIK). This index focuses on kneecap dislocation in the lateral direction. DTIK can guide orthopedic surgeons in providing personalized treatment recommendations. While DTIK can address the bedside components of the problem, this information has limited benefits for the benchside components involving understanding the issues with ligaments, tendons, and muscles. The key reason for the technological gap is the lack of a versatile mechanical actuation system. Using a voice coil actuator, we have developed a Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer for Tissues (DMAT). We tested it on dental rubber bands subjected to cyclic and ramp loading. DMAT can be easily adapted to examine the mechanical behavior of various tissues, vessel rings, and cannulated vessel segments. Overall, DTIK and DMAT present examples of solutions that emerge when interdisciplinary collaboration brings problems to meet possibilities. The work presented here lays the foundation for these novel tools. Further testing and optimization will pave the way for these tools to be implemented to meet their respective bedside and benchside needs
Thamnophis and Their Toxic Relationship: Testing for Intraspecific Venom Variation in Common Garter Snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis
No full textVenomous species, particularly snakes, have captured human interest for decades. Over the last few decades, scientists have studied front-fanged venomous snakes to develop drugs, treat human disease, better manage snakebites, and answer ecological and evolutionary questions. However, these studies have largely ignored rear-fanged snakes which account for two-thirds of total snake species, despite only accounting for 23 % of published venom gland transcriptomes. To address the lack of knowledge about rear-fanged snake (RFS) venom, we sequenced the messenger RNA from the Duvernoy’s gland in 9 male and 10 female Common Garter Snakes, Thamnophis sirtalis. I produced the first Duvernoy’s venom gland transcriptome for Thamnophis sirtalis and found four toxin families that dominate the Thamnophis sirtalis transcriptome: Snake Venom Metalloproteinases (SVMPs), Three-finger toxins (3FTxs), Cysteine-Rich Secretory Proteins (CRISPs), and C-type lectins (CTLs). Thamnophis sirtalis displayed an even percent expression (i.e., aproxamilty 30 % each) of neurotoxic (3FTx-dominated) and enzymatic (SVMP-dominated) components which is unique among RFS. Additionally, we found that both sex and size influenced intraspecific venom expression variation. Specifically, males and females di↵ered in how toxin gene expression changed as they grow. We identified 8 genes that were di↵erentially expressed between males and females, half of which belong to the CTL toxin family. This research highlights just how little we know about RFS venom, and the continuation of RFS studies is crucial to understanding venom evolution fully
Survey of the Bolctes from Fish River Nature Preserve
Get PDFBoletes are a special kind of mushroom inside of the Kingdom Fungi that are distinguished from other mushrooms by their uniquely pored hymenium, as opposed to gills. Many boletes are ectomycorrhizal, meaning they are mutualists with vascular plants, and thus beneficial to the overall health of the terrestrial ecosystem. Some are well-known for their edibility and are of economic importance. In the United States 59 genus-level clades comprising 290 operational taxonomic units have been reported. The southeastern US and Gulf Coast regions however are less researched and recorded for their mushroom ecology. In Alabama, only 56 bolete species have been reported so far. Specimens in this project were collected from Baldwin and Mobile Counties, AL, with the majority of specimens collected at The Fish River Nature Preserve. The Fish River Nature Preserve (FRNP) is located south of Fairhope in Baldwin County, and was recently purchased by the South Alabama Land Trust Conservation group. This property includes an upper-level section with a tract dominated by oaks and another by pines, which is fire-controlled, and one near the river dominated by palmetto palms.
Upon collection, all collected specimens were brought from the field to the South Alabama campus lab for technical descriptions, imaging, freezing of a small tissue sample, dehydration preservation of the fruiting body, and storage of the specimen. Microscopic work followed that and included the measurement of basidiospores. A primary list of the suspected species of each specimen was created based on morphological descriptions and spore measurements. The frozen tissue sample then underwent DNA extraction via Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification. Specimens that yielded DNA products were then uploaded into GenBan via Blasting to find matches of named sequences that are already in the GenBank database. A total of 26 specimens were collected at the FRNP and Mobile County. 19 of the 26 specimens\u27 identities were confirmed via DNA blasting from which 2 were confirmed to the genus level and the other 17 the the species level. Those remaining 7 that did not yield a DNA confirmed identity were identified morphologically. Together with morphological descriptions and DNA confirmation, a total of 17 species were identified, and they include: A. russellii (NTN-16); B. alutaceus (NTN-09); B. vermiculosoides (NTN-21); E. floridanus (NTN-14); G. castaneus (NTN-01; NTN-03, NTN-06, NTN-12, NTN-17, NTN-22); H. rubellus (NTN-10, NTN-13); L. albellum (NTN-04, NTN-18); P. bellus (NTN-02); P. rhodoxanthus (NTN-15); S. floccopus (NTN-05); S. decipiens (NTN-23); T. balloui (NTN-11); T. rhoadsiae (NTN-08); T. rubrobrunneus (NTN-20, NTN-26); X.affine (NTN-24, NTN-25); X. intermedius (NTN-07); X. subtomentosus (NTN-19). One species, B. alutaceus (NTN-09) commonly known as the “Leather Colored Bolete” is a species native to New England that was identified on the FRNP with no previously reported collections in Southern Alabama
The Role of Inflammatory Cells in the Sex Dimorphism of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
Get PDFPulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a disease associated with high blood pressure specifically in the lung circulation. Symptoms include dyspnea and cyanosis, and the mean survival post-diagnosis is 2.8 years without treatment. PAH can be characterized by accumulating vascular damage which results in lesion formation causing a decrease in the diameter of vessels, obstruction of flow, and ultimately increased pressure on the right heart leading to failure. These lesions define an arteriopathy that is a hallmark of PAH which is, in part, dependent on infiltration of inflammatory cells into the vascular wall. PAH presents uniquely in males and females with females being diagnosed more often than males, but with males having a much worse prognosis than females. We recently reported that in the SUGEN/Hypoxia model of PAH there is increased circulating MCP-1 and GM-CSF, indicative of macrophage-driven infiltration. Further we found that CXCL-10 was increased in females, indicative of T-cell infiltration. We hypothesized that males would exhibit macrophage expression in the vascular wall, whereas females would have T-cell infiltration. Following histological staining of both male and female samples our preliminary data suggests females exhibit more T cells and male exhibit more macrophages. This data suggests unique inflammatory cell phenotypes that correlate with sex in PH