Over the past fifty years or so, scientists have successfully isolated microorganisms, known as endophytes, from inside nearly every region of the plant, including the roots, stems, and leaves. Some of these microorganisms have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and have even been shown to confer an array of additional benefits to their plant hosts, ranging from fungal pathogen resistance to increased stress tolerance, and more. Recently, many scientists conducting endophyte research have observed their endophytes losing their plant-enhancing activity after extended periods of isolation from their original plant hosts. This makes the plant-enhancing effects of the isolated endophytes impossible to study, and more importantly points to a crucial need for a better understanding of plant-endophyte communication mechanisms. Because reactivation of several endophytes was observed after introducing native plant extract back into the isolated endophytes’ medium, we have embarked on a journey to determine what in the plant medium causes these inactive endophytes to regain their plant-enhancing abilities. To do this, we have first determined the level (transcriptional, translational, or post-translational) at which nitrogen-fixation, a crucial symbiotic activity, is regulated by the presence of plant extract in one of our endophytes. We then designed and built a reporter plasmid to track the expression of key nitrogen-fixing genes, and will next fractionate the native plant extract and use this reporter plasmid to monitor the effects of different plant fractions. This will hopefully lead to key insights into the potential plant signal that initiates many symbiotic endophyte activities. The exploration of the plant-endophyte symbiotic signaling system has the potential to impact the fields of agriculture, forestry, and environmental sciences worldwide.

Social determinates of health are such factors as lack of education, low income and low social support that can lead to health disparities. Presence of health disparities can lead to poor communication between patients and providers and consequent poor health decisions among patients. Marginalized populations such as racial/cultural minorities, elderly and the mentally ill are shown to face many of these unique challenges when accessing care. This study aims to determine the ways in which the healthcare system can better support the needs of these safety-net patients. In Washington state, electronic surveys were administered to patients accessing services at a community health center that offers healthcare to disadvantaged and low-resourced communities. The questionnaire was a 47-item instrument that evaluated patients' perception of health services recieved. We were tasked with conducting a qualitative evaluation of a single item on the questionnaire that asked about patients' perceptions of how the healthcare system can best meet their healthcare needs. Using a thematic analyses approach, we evaluated survey responses from 61 patients by reviewing responses for codewords, codeword clusters, and finally, themes that accurately captured perceptions. Two themes were derived in response to the query of how the healthcare system can best support healthcare needs. (1) Accessibilty of affordable resources. (2) Availability of healhcare resources that can support decision making. These finding show that even with access to health resources, low-recourced populations still face barriers to fully gaining access to affordable care to meet healthcare needs.

Safety-net systems in the United States are crucial in ensuring that low-income and low-resourced, marginalized communities have access to healthcare. Many of the individuals accessing safety-net clinics within their communities are transgender, people of color, and/or Spanish speakers who often-times have unique healthcare needs compared to the general population. The aim of this study is to understand which needs of safety-net patients are not currently being supported by community health clinics, so that they can be considered and implemented in future healthcare frameworks. Our study team reviewed data from a sample of 61 patients from community and human services centers in Washington, DC. The patients who agreed to participate and met the eligibility criteria were taken to a private room where they completed a 47-item self-administered questionnaire. Using thematic qualitative analyses, we evaluated the responses to a single item addressing patients’ perceptions of how the healthcare system can address their healthcare needs. Themes that emerged from our analyses of the single item include the following: (1) safety-net patients seek more resources to support decision-making, (2) patients require accessible and affordable healthcare services, (3) transgender patients require improved gender-related healthcare, and (4) Spanish-speaking patients require more attention and compassion from clinical staff. These findings imply that even with access to healthcare, certain populations continue to face significant barriers to achieving good health outcomes within the safety-net system.

Recent studies reveal differences in the number of calories consumed by women residing in rural communities compared to individuals living in urban areas. Research suggests that there are many physical activity (PA) barriers for these women. Certain environmental and social factors hinder PA engagement, including environmental safety concerns as well as lack of PA facilities. For the current study, survey administration commenced on September 2018 and concluded October 2018. Researchers partnered with Grays Harbor Community Hospital to administer a 32-item electronic survey to N= 237 female employees. Inclusionary criteria included, English-speaking and self-identify as overweight/obese. My research team conducted a thematic analysis of a single open-ended question, “Are there any barriers to you engaging in any type of physical activity?” and the respondent was asked to explain the barriers as a follow-up. In total, 60 women completed the health surveys, (25% response rate). The mean age of respondents was 53.2 years of age, with a mean BMI of 32.2 (obese status), and majority were healthcare professionals in the hospital. We analyzed the data by conducting iterated evaluations of responses to the question and then deriving themes to characterize respondents’ perspectives. In response to the question of barriers to PA engagement two emergent themes were evident (1) daily life obligations (family and career hinderances) and (2) acute/chronic health concerns that limited physical activity engagement (arthritis, fibromyalgia and back pain concerns). In view of our findings, rural women appear to experience barriers to physical activity engagement. These barriers can help us to identify strategies that specifically target the health needs of residents in rural communities.

In the United States, women in rural communities face a lot of barriers to healthy eating due to their food environments. Many barriers are associated with busy lifestyles, cost of purchasing healthy foods, lack of healthy food options, and lack of will-power which can lead women to eat less fruits and vegetables and consume more unhealthy foods. The purpose of my project is to evaluate the barriers to unhealthy eating among a sample of rural middle-aged women. Partnering with Grays Harbor Community Hospital, a 32-item electronic questionnaire was administered to N = 237 female employees and 60 surveys were received back (25% response rate). Inclusionary criteria included, English-speaking and self-identifying as overweight/obese. My research team did a thematic analysis of a single open-ended question from the questionnaire, “Are there any barriers to you eating healthy (at least 2 servings of fruits and 3 servings of vegetables each day)?” The respondent was also asked to explain what the barriers were. The mean age of respondents was 53.2 years, they reported a mean BMI of 32.2 (obese status), and majority were healthcare professionals in the hospital. We recorded the responses to the question of barriers to healthy eating and conducted a thematic analysis by deriving codes, codeword clusters and themes. Emergent themes indicated that the barriers to healthy eating among rural obese women were time constraints, affordability, dietary restrictions and nutritional preferences. These findings suggest that perceived barriers are strongly related to their dietary behaviors and this information can offer important insight about helping women to manage their health behaviors.