Black Young Adult Superwomen in the Face of Gendered Racial Microaggressions: Contextualizing Challenges With Acceptance and Avoidance and Emotional Eating.

Background: Black young adult women (ages 18-35) are at disproportionate risk for obesity and emotional eating. Emotional eating interventions target psychological flexibility, such as reducing experiential avoidance and increasing acceptance of food-related thoughts. Yet Black women face gendered racism, and some endorse roles that reduce psychological flexibility, such as the superwoman schema role.

Necessary, burdensome, or threatening? Awareness of Black-White disparities in health care access and self-rated health for Black and White Americans.

Awareness of racial health care inequities is one prerequisite to eliminating them. Although extant research has described awareness of racial health care inequities in the United States, the health impacts of such awareness on communities that are most impacted by these inequities remains unknown. Therefore, we examined associations between awareness of Black-White racial health care inequities and self-rated health for Black and White adults in the United States.

Intersections of Racial/Ethnic and Religious Identities on Bodily Well-Being for Black College-Attending Emerging Adults.

Black undergraduates face threats to healthy weight and body image (i.e., bodily well-being).

Blood Serum Affects Polysaccharide Production and Surface Protein Expression in .

Background: biofilm serves a major role in pathogenesis. Two of the major components of bacterial biofilm are Polysaccharides intercellular adhesions (PIA) and surface proteins. It is not known how PIA and surface proteins expressions are affected in presence of blood serum.

Proteome Analyses of Biofilm at Elevated Levels of NaCl.

Our studies demonstrate that sodium chloride (NaCl) induces changes in biofilm, mediated by increased production of polysaccharides intercellular adhesion (PIA). We identified 12 proteins that showed higher abundance in increased level of NaCl. This includes one important protein (IsaA) known to be associated with biofilm stability.

Proteomic analysis of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm cells grown under physiologically relevant fluid shear stress conditions.

Background: The biofilm forming bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for maladies ranging from severe skin infection to major diseases such as bacteremia, endocarditis and osteomyelitis. A flow displacement system was used to grow S. aureus biofilms in four physiologically relevant fluid shear rates (50, 100, 500 and 1000 s(-1)) to identify proteins that are associated with biofilm.

White Matter Tracts Connected to the Medial Temporal Lobe Support the Development of Mnemonic Control.

One of the most important factors driving the development of memory during childhood is mnemonic control, or the capacity to initiate and maintain the processes that guide encoding and retrieval operations. The ability to selectively attend to and encode relevant stimuli is a particularly useful form of mnemonic control, and is one that undergoes marked improvement over childhood. We hypothesized that structural integrity of white matter tracts, in particular those connecting medial temporal lobe memory regions to other cortical areas, and/or those connecting frontal and parietal control regions, should contribute to successful mnemonic control.

Fluorescent silica particles for monitoring oxygen levels in three-dimensional heterogeneous cellular structures.

Bacterial biofilms are a major obstacle challenging the development of more effective therapies to treat implant infections. Oxygen availability to bacterial cells has been implicated in biofilm formation and planktonic cell detachment; however, there are insufficient tools available to measure oxygen concentrations within complex three-dimensional structures with ∼ 1 µm resolution. Such measurements may complement measures of biofilm structure and cell activity to provide a more comprehensive understanding of biofilm biology.

Differential binding of biofilm-derived and suspension-grown Staphylococcus aureus to immobilized platelets in shear flow.

Background: The adhesion of Staphylococcus aureus to platelets is a critical first step in endovascular infection. S. aureus is known to form biofilms and detached cells are likely responsible for initiating bloodborne secondary infections.

Staphylococcal presence alters thrombus formation under physiological shear conditions in whole blood studies.

The ability of platelets to aggregate at a site of injury and form a thrombus is central to normal hemostasis and host survival. Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogenic organism that has been described as interacting with platelets and promoting platelet aggregation. However, the fundamental effects of bacterial presence on thrombus formation are poorly understood.

Differential kinetics and molecular recognition mechanisms involved in early versus late growth phase Staphylococcus aureus cell binding to platelet layers under physiological shear conditions.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus adhesion to platelets via microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules (MSCRAMMs) is a critical first step in vascular infection. The molecular mechanisms governing adhesion are influenced by the repertoire of MSCRAMMs expressed on the bacterial surface and the fluid mechanical shear rates present in the vasculature. We compared the predominant adhesion mechanisms between early and late growth phase S.

Erosion from Staphylococcus aureus biofilms grown under physiologically relevant fluid shear forces yields bacterial cells with reduced avidity to collagen.

An estimated 65% of infective diseases are associated with the presence of bacterial biofilms. Biofilm-issued planktonic cells promote blood-borne, secondary sites of infection by the inoculation of the infected sites with bacteria from the intravascular space. To investigate the potential role of early detachment events in initiating secondary infections, we studied the phenotypic attributes of Staphylococcus aureus planktonic cells eroding from biofilms with respect to expression of the collagen adhesin, CNA.

Staphylococcus aureus adhesion via Spa, ClfA, and SdrCDE to immobilized platelets demonstrates shear-dependent behavior.

Objective: The objective of this study is to delineate the molecular mechanisms responsible for Staphylococcus aureus-platelet adhesion as a function of physiologically relevant wall shear stresses.

Methods And Results: A parallel plate flow chamber was used to quantify adhesion of wild-type, Spa-, ClfA- and SdrCDE- strains to immobilized platelet layers. In the absence of plasma, adhesion increases with increasing wall shear rate from 100 to 5000 seconds(-1).

Characteristics of new Staphylococcus aureus-RBC adhesion mechanism independent of fibrinogen and IgG under hydrodynamic shear conditions.

Staphylococcus aureus infection begins when bacterial cells circulating in blood adhere to components of the extracellular matrix or endothelial cells of the host and initiate colonization. S. aureus is known to exhibit extensive interactions with platelets.

Proteome analysis of membrane and cell wall associated proteins from Staphylococcus aureus.

Pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus, an opportunistic human pathogen, is complex and involves many virulence factors including an array of surface proteins (adhesins) that promote bacterial interactions with extracellular matrix components. A better understanding of these interactions can be achieved by studying the expression of membrane and cell wall associated proteins using a proteome analysis approach. To accomplish this, our goal here was to construct a reference map of membrane and cell wall associated proteins for S.

Fluid shear regulates the kinetics and receptor specificity of Staphylococcus aureus binding to activated platelets.

The interaction between surface components on the invading pathogen and host cells such as platelets plays a key role in the regulation of endovascular infections. However, the mechanisms mediating Staphylococcus aureus binding to platelets under shear remain largely unknown. This study was designed to investigate the kinetics and molecular requirements of platelet-S.

Characterization of a protective monoclonal antibody recognizing Staphylococcus aureus MSCRAMM protein clumping factor A.

The Staphylococcus aureus MSCRAMM (microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules) protein clumping factor A (ClfA) has been shown to be a critical virulence factor in several experimental models of infection. This report describes the generation, characterization, and in vivo evaluation of a murine monoclonal antibody (MAb) against ClfA. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that MAb 12-9 recognized ClfA protein expressed by all of the clinical S.

Quantification of staphylococcal-collagen binding interactions in whole blood by use of a confocal microscopy shear-adhesion assay.

In bloodborne staphylococcal infections, bacteria and platelets often combine, forming thrombi on the subendothelium, where collagen is exposed. In this process, the collagen serves as a potential binding surface for Staphylococcus aureus. However, the extent and importance of S.

Fluid shear contributions to bacteria cell detachment initiated by a monoclonal antibody.

Receptor-mediated adhesion of bacteria to biological surfaces is a significant step leading to infection. Due to an increase in bacterial antibiotic resistance, novel methods to block and disrupt these specific interactions have gained considerable interest as possible therapeutic strategies. Recently, several monoclonal antibodies specific for the Staphylococcus aureus collagen receptor demonstrated specialized ability to displace attached cells from collagen in static assays.

Quantifying the temporal expression of the Staphylococcus aureus collagen adhesin.

The initial event in the pathogeneis of most Staphylococcus aureus infections is attachment to biological substrates in vivo using specific protein-protein interactions. We previously quantified the temporal expression of the collagen adhesin (CNA) on S. aureus Phillips and demonstrated that dynamic adhesin capacity to collagen is strongly influenced by the adhesin density.