Open Access Journals at IU Indianapolis
Not a member yet
23580 research outputs found
Sort by
Probing Brain Magnetic Susceptibility Alterations in a Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis
Get PDFMultiple sclerosis (MS) is an increasing cause of disability in the United States, characterized by autoimmune demyelinating events in the central nervous system. MS patients can present with a varying range of symptoms and disability due to the chronic inflammatory and relapsing events associated with the disease, such as impaired mobility, slowed cognitive processing, and high probability of disease progression.
MS can be morphologically characterized by the damage to the myelin sheath that surrounds axons, oligodendrocytes that produce myelin, and axons that transmit information to different neurons. Due to the complicated mechanism of MS, the advanced MRI methods which can provide both sensitive and specific assessment of MS tissue injury hold the promise to provide critical mechanistic guidance of MS and serve as robust imaging biomarkers for MS. Several animal models have been established to understand the distinct aspects of the disease. Cuprizone, a copper chelator, creates demyelination events comparable to MS, allowing the mouse model to be a representation QSM’s ability to accurately distinguish between and predict acute and chronic demyelination events. Recently, we have demonstrated that the novel quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) can identify between the demyelination andremyelination process in the corpus callosum of mice treated with cuprizone. However, how early QSM can detect brain alterations has not been investigated.
We acquired high-resolution in vivo whole-brain QSM, T-2 weighted, and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) images at 0, 2, and 4 weeks after cuprizone administration. The corpus callosum exhibited significant changes in T2-weighted and MTR images at 4 weeks after cuprizone administration. In contrast, QSM decreased significantly in QSM at 2 weeks after cuprizone administration. Since dramatic demyelination only starts after oligodendrocytes depletion (3 weeks after cuprizone treatment), QSM may be able to detect the alteration of oligodendrocytes and serve as a sensitive biomarker even before demyelination occurs
Modeling Breast Cancer in Men
Get PDFBackground: In 2023, 2,800 men are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States, and while it affects a smaller patient population, breast cancer in men has a 19% higher mortality rate. Even though 87% of male breast cancers are estrogen receptor positive (ER+), breast cancer in men is resistant to anti-estrogen therapies. In this study we set out to characterize the difference between male and female breast epithelial cells to elucidate potential treatment pathways.
Project Methods: We compared male and female epithelial cell lines from ultrasound guided breast biopsies of healthy men and women from the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank that were processed using a culturing method developed in the lab. RNA-Seq of breast epithelial cells was done to identify unique signaling networks and genes in men, and RT-qPCR was used to determine the expression of ER signaling associated genes including ESR1, TBX3, FOXA1, GATA3 and APOBEC3B. Immunofluorescence for ERα was done to characterize differential expression and localization between men and women.
Result: RNA-Seq identified an upregulation of ESR1 which correlates with increased ER+ male breast cancer, along with upregulation of non-genomic ER signaling pathway, including SRC activation, which may affect treatment response. Male cells also showed high levels KDM5D which is implicated in immune system evasion in esophageal cancer and colon adenocarcinoma. RT-qPCR displayed a two-fold increase in ESR1 and increases in TBX3 and APOBEC3B. Immunofluorescence identified ERα and localization to the cell membrane in men.
Conclusion: This first characterization and modeling of men’s breast epithelial cells provides the basis for determining the mechanism behind the lack of efficacy of anti-estrogen therapeutics. With further investigation of the increased non-genomic ER signaling in men, specifically the SRC pathway, we hope this will provide a pathway to treat male breast cancer through potential combination therapies
Identifying Indicators of High-Conflict Divorce Among Parents: A Systematic Review
Get PDFThe burgeoning field of forensic social work supports clients engaged in the legal system. Forensic social work professionals working in family court will often be called upon to assess family dynamics, provide treatment to reduce maladaptation post-divorce, and advise divorcing parents as they navigate the complexities of court. Of particular interest to the forensic social work field are the various risks and protective factors that escalate or mitigate interparental conflict throughout the divorce process. Interparental conflict is a primary moderator accounting for psychological and physiological differences between children of divorced parents and children with intact parents. This systematic review examined the factors that contribute to conflict in divorcing parents and ways to identify high-conflict cases,. Peer-reviewed articles (n=11) were systematically selected using rigorous methods, including PRISMA-P protocols for systematic reviews and database searches using the search string “conflict AND divorce*.” Articles were extracted to identify themes of varying levels of conflict. There is no consistent definition of high conflict in pre-divorce parents, and recent articles offer new conceptualizations of this construct. All studies that met inclusion criteria for the review identified at least one of five themes of pre-divorce conflict: conflict resolution/communication, social network, parent characteristics, satisfaction with agreements, and pervasive mistrust
Beyond Limits: Exploring the Possibilities for Using the Metaverse to Teach Social Work Practice Skills
Get PDFAs social work is one of the fastest growing professions, it is crucial to provide future practitioners with the skills and tools needed to address global challenges. As a part of this initiative, social workers must be given the opportunity to take a leading role in the decision-making regarding the use of technologies such as the metaverse in the education of the next generation of social workers. To aid in this process, this article provides an overview of the metaverse and highlights its educational potential. A social work implication for the development of the metaverse can expose students of social work to opportunities to practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities without being limited by time and location
The Relationship Between Violent Political Rhetoric, Murder Rate, Gun Ownership, and Police Deadly Encounters With Civilians
Get PDFPolice kill around 1,000 persons annually in the United States. This is a significant issue for social work because of the effects these killings have on individuals and communities. Recent research has shown a positive relationship between violent political rhetoric (VPR) and mass shootings. This study aimed to investigate if a relationship exists between VPR and police violence that results in the death of civilians. This was a secondary analysis of publicly available data on police killings of civilians. The dependent variable was a measure of the number of police violence killings of civilians. Three control variables were included in analyses: monthly gun ownership, monthly average temperature in the U.S., and the annual murder rate in the U.S. An auto-regressive distributed lag error correction time series analysis was used in data analyses, and as a sensitivity check a Poisson time series regression with robust standard errors was also employed. The results showed a positive relationship between VPR and police violence killings of civilians. The principal implication of these findings for social work is that social workers collaborate with professionals in other disciplines to find ways to reduce the use of VPR by politicians and others in the media
Awareness, Attitudes, and Actions About Environmental Southern Appalachia
Get PDFThe Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) requires social work programs to integrate environmental justice into their programming. The purpose of this study is to determine if undergraduate and graduate social work students at a southern Appalachia university had an increase in awareness, a shift in attitudes, and a rise in action related to environmental justice since starting their program. This study also sought to identify where students felt environmental justice content would best fit in the social work curriculum. Participants completed a semi-structured focus group or an open-ended survey answering identical questions. Findings indicate the need for social work educators to provide students with clarification of environmental conservation and environmental justice; an understanding of the breadth of environmental justice across the micro, mezzo, and macro-levels; and the opportunity to have direct practice experiences and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed by the enormity of environmental justice. Participants endorsed the importance of environmental justice content in the curriculum
Deaths of Despair in Black and White: Gun Violence, Political Economy, and the Case for Macro Intervention
Get PDFThis article argues that elevated levels of gun homicide and gun suicide among younger black men and middle-aged white men, respectively, are the consequences of a political economy that produces widespread despair among the most vulnerable segments of the laboring classes. Understood in this way, these phenomena share a common etiology whose roots can be traced to two major, temporally distinct developments: (1) postwar shifts in the political economy that redefined central cities as sites of black dislocation, and (2) the more recent intensification of globalization and investor class power that has redefined smaller cities, towns, and rural communities as sites of white dislocation. These transformations have rendered working-class blacks and whites (and others) vulnerable to a wide range of maladies and adverse social outcomes, including involvement in gun violence. In addition to examining these political-economic transformations and their effects on black and white working-class communities, this article also explores the divergent racialized manifestations of gun violence within these demographic groups. While micro and mezzo interventions are typically stressed to respond to these issues, their ultimate resolution requires recognition of their common roots in conditions of structurally imposed despair and the concomitant remedy of those conditions at the macro leve
The Online Bilingual MSW Program: Innovation in Social Work Education
Get PDFThe process of design and implementation of the Online Bilingual (Spanish and English) Master of Social Work (OBMSW) at Loyola University Chicago is presented. This innovative program enhances the clinical training of social work students serving Latinx, immigrant, and refugee communities. The OBMSW utilizes an online platform, offers learning in a bilingual environment, is taught by a completely Latinx faculty body, and is guided by a curriculum that is responsive to current challenges experienced by Latinx and immigrant populations in the U.S. Preliminary, mixed-methods data of this promising approach to social work education is included. Additionally, a description of the adjustments and changes made during the implementation stage resulting from student advocacy and the self-evaluation exercises conducted is offered. Limitations and potential future opportunities are discussed. The innovative OBMSW program can serve as a model for social work programs across the U.S. interested in preparing social workers to meet the unmet, growing mental health service needs of the bilingual Latinx populations. Additionally, the OBMSW program\u27s online format can increase student access on a national level
Social Work Education Leadership: Insights From Faculty and Staff
Get PDFSocial work education-specific leadership models are necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the profession’s role in addressing societal issues that impact individuals, families, and communities and promote feminist leadership within the profession and academy. A cross-sectional electronic survey design gathered information from faculty and staff members at accredited social work programs within the United States. Study participants included 88 full- and part-time faculty and staff. 50 of the 88 participants (57%) answered the open-ended question from which data for this study were analyzed and triangulated with responses to other questions. The data analysis process resulted in identification of three main themes: conceptualization of leadership, support for leadership, and barriers to leadership. Participants expressed the need for more thoughtful succession planning, leadership specific training, and support in removing barriers to leadership. Many of the problems raised could be addressed through systemic change in higher education, including the proposed model of social work education leadership praxis
Cultivating Critical Consciousness: Ways to Support and/or Constrict the Magic of Critical Dialogue
Get PDFAnti-Black racism, rooted in white supremacy, is a public health crisis in the US that infects and affects every aspect of life. Critical consciousness (CC) and its derivatives, such as Transformative Potential, have been elucidated as the antidote to the disease of white supremacy. Further, with the current focus on anti-racism and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives, strategies aimed at raising CC are becoming the norm. One strategy to develop critical consciousness is engaging in critical dialogue, difficult conversations that connect macro and micro contexts by exploring issues of power, privilege, and oppression. This paper considers a case study of participant data obtained from the critical dialogue component of Community Wise, an innovative, multilevel, behavioral health, group intervention grounded in critical consciousness theory. The purpose of the paper is to identify and discuss the best practices for critical dialogue facilitation that emerged via a qualitative analysis of the selected Community Wise sessions