Publications by authors named "Molly Kennedy"

Article Synopsis
  • - Lipids, particularly cholesterol, play key roles in biological functions like cell structure, metabolism, and signaling, influencing processes such as melanocyte growth and melanosome maturation.
  • - Deficiencies in melanogenesis and melanosome maturation, linked to cholesterol metabolism, contribute to conditions like ocular albinism and pigment dispersion syndrome, which affect the body systematically.
  • - The research focuses on analyzing cholesterol levels and signaling via LDL in melanocytes using advanced methods like liquid and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, providing insights into melanin production and maturation.
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Sphingolipids, including sphingosine and sphinganine, are one of the major classes of lipids. They serve as constituents of cell membranes and lipid rafts and aid in the performance of cell-cell communication and adhesion. Abnormal levels of sphingolipids in the aqueous humor can indicate impaired sphingolipid metabolism and associated ocular pathologies.

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While it has been well documented that racial and ethnic disparities exist for children of color in child welfare, the accuracy of the race and ethnicity information collected by agencies has not been examined, nor has the concordance of this information with youth self-report. This article addresses a major gap in the literature by examining: 1) the racial and ethnic self-identification of youth in foster care, and the rate of agreement with child welfare and school categorizations; 2) the level of concordance between different agencies (school and child welfare); and 3) the stability of racial and ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care over time. Results reveal that almost 1 in 5 youth change their racial identification over a one-year period, high rates of discordance exist between the youth self-report of Native American, Hispanic and multiracial youth and how agencies categorize them, and a greater tendency for the child welfare system to classify a youth as White, as compared to school and youth themselves.

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