Midfacial hypoplasia (MFH) is a disorder of severe underdevelopment of the upper face. This problem is significant because MFH can lead to a deformity that impedes chewing, feeding, and breathing. Although it is known that MFH can occur due to gene mutations, teratogens, and trauma, it is unknown how these insults affect anterior growth of the face. Using a novel pig model, this project aims to isolate the location of structural changes to the skull caused by MFH. We first determined if MFH in pigs is isolated to the face, and then identified the specific bones of the face that are altered by MFH. To determine if MFH is isolated to the face, we measured and compared the length of the braincase, mandible, and upper face in pigs with MFH to that of normal pigs. We then measured and compared the dimensions of individual facial bones, including the maxilla, premaxilla, nasal bone, lacrimal bone, and zygoma. All measurements were done on dry skulls with calipers and compared using t-tests. Our initial qualitative comparison of 6 normal and 6 affected pigs has found that MFH is isolated to the face, with the premaxilla, maxilla, nasal bone, and lacrimal bone shortened. The zygoma and palatine bones were normal. We hypothesize that our qualitative comparison of approximately 35 MFH pigs and 115 normal pigs will show similar results. Identifying the bones affected by MFH will help us to hone in on the specific tissue changes and mechanisms that cause MFH, and to discover better treatments for this condition.

Midfacial Hypoplasia (MFH) is an underdevelopment of the upper jaw, cheekbones and eye sockets. MFH sometimes results in difficulty in breathing in children. Severe cases are treated with serious surgeries that often have unsuccessful outcomes. Understanding the consequences of MFH is a critical step in treating this disorder. The goal of my project is to use Yucatan pigs as a model for MFH. MFH is common in Yucatan pigs and resembles MFH in humans which makes it useful for a model. In addition, pigs resemble humans in physiology, anatomy and growth. Humans with MFH have reduced nasal airway capacity, and this is likely true for Yucatan pigs as well. The nature of airway deficiency is not fully understood, but it may be due to reduction of the nasal airway surface area. Reduction in the surface area would hamper the ability of the nasal passage to regulate air temperature and humidity. I hypothesize shortening of the nasal cavity in MFH reduces the surface area inside the cavity. Using CT scans from pigs, I measured the dimensions of the nasal passages via Metamorph and Photoshop software. Based on my hypothesis, I expect to observe lower surface area in pigs with MFH. If a correlation between MFH and surface area is found, this research will provide new insights about the consequences of MFH that will be relevant for better treatment of this disorder.

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated the implementation of various infectious disease control measures, including the closure of non-essential businesses, social distancing, and the virtualization of schools and universities. As final year nursing students at the University of Washington (UW) adjust to virtual learning and social distancing, certain students working in healthcare may also face the threat of contracting the virus. Little is known about the psychological implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on this population, and there is a need to fill this knowledge gap. This study first aims to capture the perceived stress levels of final year nursing students at the UW amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It secondly aims to explore associations between perceived stress and factors such as COVID-19 testing history, living situation, and healthcare work history. We administered an online survey to final year UW nursing students that inquires about their COVID-19 testing history, living situation, and healthcare work history since March 1, 2020. The survey also includes the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, which questions students’ feelings and thoughts over the past month. We will analyze the data for associations between scores on the Perceived Stress Scale and students’ testing history, living situation, and work history. Overall, we expect to find moderate to high perceived stress levels among nursing students. We also anticipate that several factors may be associated with higher stress levels among nursing students, including having a history of COVID-19 testing, living with more individuals, and working more hours in healthcare positions. The results of this study may indicate a need for increased psychosocial support in final year nursing students at the UW, as they complete the nursing program and join the nursing workforce to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children have more exposure to screen media today than any other generation. In the U.S., rates of obesity in children have also tripled in 4 decades. A disruption in the brain called gliosis has been described to participate in obesity pathophysiology if it occurs in a brain region important for energy balance, called the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH). The objective of this study is to explore possible relationships between MBH gliosis and parents’ reports on screen time their child engages in. This study will also look into variables that may mediate these relationships, such as body adiposity and impulsivity. I hypothesize that there will be a positive correlation between screen media use and MBH gliosis with obesity and the level of impulsivity being positively correlated to both gliosis and screen time. The methodology consists of data from participants (N = 192) in the NIH Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The NIH Toolbox Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Test was used to measure child’s impulsivity, and the parents were given the Screen time report to measure the average daily screen media time of each child. Along with these measures, participant’s age, sex, race, BMI z-score, waist/height ratio, and T2-weighted MRI will be included. MBH gliosis will be measured by T2 MRI signal intensity (brightness) of the mean bilateral MBH/Amygdala signal ratio; Putamen/Amygdala will be used as control ratio. Participants were 51% female with an average age of 9.9±0.63 years. Within our sample, 57.3%, 19.3%, and 23.4% of subjects were considered healthy weight, overweight, and with obesity, respectively. Anthropometric and behavioral data recorded on average 11.2 months after the initial tests will be included to calculate changes over time. This research will help to further illuminate the relationships between screen time and obesity, and will potentially be helpful in proposing new treatments for children with obesity.

In the US, the number of children with obesity has reached a staggering 13.7 million. Though there are diets to assist weight loss, recent research suggests a neurobiological basis of obesity specifically related to the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH), a critical brain structure involved in energy homeostasis, metabolism, and appetite. However, proliferation of hypothalamic gliosis, a cellular inflammatory response, disrupts the function and is shown, in rodents, as a key component in diet-induced obesity. Further conclusions reveal that highly caloric and high-fat diets, in rodents, can cause MBH gliosis. This project seeks to investigate the relationship between diet and hypothalamic gliosis in children, the latter assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We expect children with an unhealthy diet to have an increased BMI z-score and greater evidence of MBH gliosis. Participants (N=192) were recruited as part of the longitudinal NIH Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. Anthropometric and demographic data were collected along with brain MRI T2-weighted images at the baseline visit. MBH gliosis was measured by using the signal ratio for T2 intensity of the mean bilateral MBH/Amygdala signal ratio; Putamen/Amygdala was used as control ratio. At the one year follow-up, the child’s habitual diet in the past year was assessed using a parent-report food frequency questionnaire. Higher total points represented a healthier overall diet. Additionally, follow-up anthropometric data was obtained to determine the child’s adiposity change over time. At baseline, mean age was 9.9±0.6 and 49% were males. Mean BMI z-score was 0.76±1.05, 19% were overweight and 23% with obesity. Preliminary results in a subset of participants (N=60) revealed a trend for an association between an unhealthy diet and evidence of MBH gliosis (t=1.59, P=0.117). By emphasizing the neurobiological basis of obesity, potential insights can inform targeted diet-related treatments of childhood obesity; thus, furthering the understanding of child obesity pathogenesis.

The network model of memory proposes that concepts are linked together in the mind. When a concept is activated in the mind (e.g., “ocean”), this activation spreads to semantically, or meaning, related concepts (e.g., “boat”), making them easier to recognize. Expanding on this model, the present study investigated whether concepts presented without conscious awareness could still facilitate faster recognition of semantically related stimuli. Participants first completed a rating task, where they rated how much they liked a word, and then completed a lexical decision task, where they decided if a string of letters was a real word or not. In both tasks, some words were related to the concept “school”. Thus, the goal of the rating task was to implicitly prime, or unconsciously activate, the concept and make recognition of “school”-related words in the lexical decision task easier. Participants were not informed of the relationship between the tasks. We found that implicitly primed words (words related to the concept “school”) had faster reaction times and higher accuracy in the lexical decision task than words that were not primed (not related to the concept “school”). Our results expand on the network model, providing evidence that priming can elicit easier word recognition even when a participant lacks conscious awareness of the priming and when there is a time delay between the prime and target. This provides a potential mechanism for how our behavior is affected by the stimuli we encounter in everyday life, without us knowing it.

For many years, the primary mode of treatment for people experiencing alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been abstinence-based treatment. Research has indicated, however, that abstinence-based treatment does not optimally engage or treat more severely affected populations, such as people experiencing AUD and homelessness. Instead, harm-reduction treatment approaches are more desirable for this population and can serve as an effective treatment alternative for people experiencing AUD and homelessness. Harm-reduction treatment entails a set of compassionate and pragmatic strategies to emphasize client autonomy, mitigate substance-related harm, and promote quality of life (QoL) without the need for abstinence or use-reduction. Specific components include assessment and tracking of harm-reduction metrics, harm-reduction goal-setting, and implementation of safer-use strategies. This secondary study (N = 213) served to qualitatively and quantitatively explore harm-reduction goals generated by participants in a larger, 4-arm randomized control trial of harm-reduction treatment for people experiencing homelessness and AUD. The three treatment groups included in this secondary study received: a) harm-reduction counseling only, b) harm-reduction counseling + medication assisted treatment (i.e., extended-release naltrexone), and c) harm-reduction counseling + placebo. Participant goals were recorded using the Safer Drinking and Harm Reduction Efforts (SHaRE) scale at baseline assessments and weeks 4, 8, and 12. Qualitative analyses will be conducted to determine the kinds of goals participants generated throughout the 12-week treatment period. Additional descriptive, quantitative analyses will establish quantity of participant goals set at each time point. Finally, inferential statistics will be used to test harm-reduction goals as correlates of alcohol outcomes across the 12-week treatment period. It is expected that a) the combined pharmacotherapy group will generate, progress toward, and achieve more goals than other study conditions; and b) quality-of-life goals will be more strongly associated with reduced alcohol-related harm than drinking-related goals.