The relationship between use of school-based health centers and student-reported school assets.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between student-reported, school-based health center utilization and two outcomes: (1) caring relationships with program staff; and (2) school assets (presence of caring adults, high behavioral expectations, and opportunities for meaningful participation) using a school district-wide student survey. These relationships were also explored across schools.

Methods: Using student-reported data from a customized version of the California Healthy Kids Survey from the San Francisco Unified School District (n = 7,314 students in 15 schools), propensity scoring methods were used to adjust for potential bias in the observed relationship between student utilization of services and outcomes of interest.

Help-seeking in the school context: understanding Chinese American adolescents' underutilization of school health services.

Background: This article examines whether school contextual factors, such as referral practices and peer dynamics, contribute to Chinese American students' underrepresentation in school health programs.

Methods: Data from the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (N = 1,744) as well as interviews and focus groups (N = 51) with Chinese American users and nonusers of high school health programs were analyzed to identify aspects of the help-seeking process unique to Chinese American students.

Results: Chinese American students primarily defined the need for school health services as having personal problems, engaging in early sexual activity, or using drugs.

Thermodesulfobacterium geofontis sp. nov., a hyperthermophilic, sulfate-reducing bacterium isolated from Obsidian Pool, Yellowstone National Park.

A novel sulfate-reducing bacterium designated OPF15(T) was isolated from Obsidian Pool, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The phylogeny of 16S rRNA and functional genes (dsrAB) placed the organism within the family Thermodesulfobacteriaceae. The organism displayed hyperthermophilic temperature requirements for growth with a range of 70-90 °C and an optimum of 83 °C.

Neural differentiation of human embryonic stem cells at the ultrastructural level.

Neurodegerative disorders affect millions of people worldwide. Neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) have the potential for cell therapies and/or compound screening for treating affected individuals. While both protein and gene expression indicative of a neural phenotype has been exhibited in these differentiated cells, ultrastuctural studies thus far have been lacking.