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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (30 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
Dermatology Online Journal, Volume 30, Issue 3 (2024)
Medical communication skills are widely recognized as important, especially for situations in which providers must present complex and detailed information. Although much research focuses on how providers can improve their delivery of medical information, an equally important part of communication is supporting patient retention of the information. We present several methods to improve patient retention of medical information that we have found successful in an allergic contact dermatitis clinic. Some recommendations address information transfer (follow effective structure, teach to different learning styles, provide written instructions, employ the teach-back method). Other methods are effective, focusing on the patient's emotional, social, and relational needs (include storytelling, metaphor, and analogy, allay negative emotions, listen deeply/know your patient). This list is not exhaustive, but we have found these methods effective when counseling patients with allergic contact dermatitis. Patient retention of medical information is an important part of effective health care, benefits both the provider and the patient, and is applicable to every medical practice.
    Cover page: Improving patient retention of medical information: lessons from the contact dermatitis clinicCreative Commons 'BY-NC-ND' version 4.0 license
    • Article
    Community Service Projects/Papers (2003)

    To meet the demands of the changing labor market it is important for human resources management to improve and enhance their knowledge of the workforce. This report profiles the labor force in Southern California for Human Resources Round Table (HARRT) and presents key findings regarding diversity and aging. This report will provide employers with basic trends and implications and will help promote potential strategies to improve practice in shaping the quality of the workforce. This report is structured around five research objectives: • Analyze labor force trends in Southern California from 1980 to 2010. • Compare Southern California to the state and nation. • Profile labor force by gender, ethnicity, education, etc. • Examine the size of the older labor force. • Identify implications for employers.

      Cover page: Southern California's Labor Force: Diversity and Aging
      • Article
      Community Service Projects/Papers (2003)

      To meet the demands of the changing labor market it is important for human resources management to improve and enhance their knowledge of the workforce. This report profiles the labor force in Southern California for Human Resources Round Table (HARRT) and presents key findings regarding diversity and aging. This report will provide employers with basic trends and implications and will help promote potential strategies to improve practice in shaping the quality of the workforce. This report is structured around five research objectives:

      -Analyze labor force trends in Southern California from 1980 to 2010, -Compare Southern California to the state and nation. -Profile labor force by gender, ethnicity, education, etc. -Examine the size of the older labor force. -Identify implications for employers.

      We conduct a historical and projected analysis of the labor force utilizing demographic and socioeconomic characteristics from 1980 to 2010. The presentation of results is divided into five sections:

      -Overall Population Trends -Labor Force Trends -Labor Force Composition -Size of Older Work Force -Implications

        Cover page: Southern California's Labor Force: Diversity and Aging
        • Article
        Community Service Projects/Papers (2002)

        Los Angles County is home to the largest urbanized American Indian population in the country. This culturally diverse population has survived and maintained its identity despite centuries of oppression and a legacy of marginalization. Today, the American Indian population in the Los Angeles region is an economically disadvantaged group that is difficult to serve because of its geographic dispersion. Knowledge of the socioeconomic characteristics and spatial patterns of American Indians is critical to identifying the needs of this community and to improving programs tailored to it. This report contributes to our understanding of the needs of American Indians by examining census and enrollment data on the socioeconomic status and distribution of American Indians in Los Angles County. (Released in Conjunction with the United American Indian Involvement, Inc. of Los Angeles)

          Cover page: Socioeconomic Characteristics of American Indians in Los Angeles County
          • Thesis
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2014)

          The perception of engineering as intimidating contributes to a lack of diversity among aspiring engineers. My research develops a deeper understanding of tinkering spaces at public science centers as an accessible pathway towards engineering. I engage in cross-community collaborations with college engineering students, industry engineers, and informal science educators to design tinkering spaces, and I analyze the effect of these spaces on the learner experience. This dissertation explores these collaborators' processes of developing engineering design challenges as well as how these processes affect the students' and engineers' understanding of learning and engineering. A variety of observations, including ethnographic case studies of the cross-community design and a comparison of the visitor experience in the space with and without the cross-community design, are synthesized into practical guidelines for creating engineering tinkering spaces.

          Focusing on visitors' design processes and perceptions, I find that (1) visitors are not just playing randomly, rather many are engineering deliberately; (2) visitors initially do not necessarily identify as engineers or understand engineering, and mostly associate engineering with building; and (3) constructing designs in these activities leads to the construction of identity and agency as engineers. In particular, the physical materials and the presence of other designs in the space play a key role in visitors' problem scoping, information gathering, and concept generation. Thus, the structure of these tinkering environments empowers visitors to engineer and to continue these experiences. The cross-community collaborators contribute uniquely to the design of the challenges: the educators contribute methods for accessible learning, while the industry engineers and engineering students contribute technical authenticity. Using a human-centered design process with science center visitors, the collaborators grow to view learning as a mutual experience involving contributions from the learners. Visitors at the collaborations' challenges engage in and identify broader engineering behaviors and are better able to connect the challenges to the real world when compared to visitors at challenges without cross-community design. These results provide the basis for guidelines to improve the perception of engineering through tinkering. My dissertation contributes to knowledge on the design of and learning in these tinkering spaces, particularly how learners' engineering design processes serve as a pathway towards becoming future engineers.

            Cover page: Engineering Learning: Cross-Community Design, Development, and Implementation of Engineering Design Challenges at a Science Center
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            UCLA Previously Published Works (2021)
              Cover page: Suppressed Paraoxonase-1 Activity and Elevated Oxylipins Associate with the Presence of Small Airways Disease in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2011)
              Salinixanthin, a C40-carotenoid acyl glycoside, serves as a light-harvesting antenna in the retinal-based proton pump xanthorhodopsin of Salinibacter ruber. In the crystallographic structure of this protein, the conjugated chain of salinixanthin is located at the protein–lipid boundary and interacts with residues of helices E and F. Its ring, with a 4-keto group, is rotated relative to the plane of the π-system of the carotenoid polyene chain and immobilized in a binding site near the β-ionone retinal ring. We show here that the carotenoid can be removed by oxidation with ammonium persulfate, with little effect on the other chromophore, retinal. The characteristic CD bands attributed to bound salinixanthin are now absent. The kinetics of the photocycle is only slightly perturbed, showing a 1.5-fold decrease in the overall turnover rate. The carotenoid-free protein can be reconstituted with salinixanthin extracted from the cell membrane of S. ruber. Reconstitution is accompanied by restoration of the characteristic vibronic structure of the absorption spectrum of the antenna carotenoid, its chirality, and the excited-state energy transfer to the retinal. Minor modification of salinixanthin, by reducing the carbonyl C=O double bond in the ring to a C-OH, suppresses its binding to the protein and eliminates the antenna function. This indicates that the presence of the 4-keto group is critical for carotenoid binding and efficient energy transfer.
                Cover page: Removal and Reconstitution of the Carotenoid Antenna of Xanthorhodopsin
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                UC Davis Previously Published Works (2022)

                Background

                Total annual cancer rates have decreased due to improved treatment and prevention. However, the incidence of melanoma is rising, and not all patients respond to immune and targeted approaches. Therefore, we sought to determine the efficacy of red light (RL) phototherapy in preclinical models of melanoma.

                Methods

                Melanoma cells (A375, B16F10, MNT-1) were irradiated with RL. Melanoma proliferation, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and p53 phosphorylation were measured in vitro. In C57BL/6 mice, phototherapy safety, B16F10 tumor growth, and immunocyte infiltration were assessed following RL.

                Results

                In vitro, 640 J/cm2 RL decreased cellular proliferation without increasing apoptosis, while 1280 J/cm2 increased apoptosis. RL increased intracellular reactive oxygen species generation and p53 phosphorylation. In animal models, 2560 J/cm2 RL significantly prevented melanoma growth and increased the expression of CD103+ dendritic cells. 1280 and 1920 J/cm2 RL decreased tumor volume, but not significantly. RL did not cause skin inflammation or erythema in normal skin.

                Conclusion

                RL represents a potentially safe and effective melanoma therapeutic. RL prevented tumor growth and increased the expression of immune markers, such as CD103, that are associated with favorable melanoma outcomes. Further research is needed to determine the optimal clinical treatment regimen for melanoma using RL.
                  Cover page: Red Light Phototherapy Using Light-Emitting Diodes Inhibits Melanoma Proliferation and Alters Tumor Microenvironments
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2023)

                  Background

                  Duloxetine is a Food and Drug Administration-approved selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor for treating depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia, and neuropathic and chronic musculoskeletal pain. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the efficacy of duloxetine in reducing pain and postoperative opioid use following lower extremity total joint arthroplasty.

                  Methods

                  A literature search was performed, identifying randomized controlled trials investigating duloxetine for pain management after total hip and total knee arthroplasty. Data from the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain during movement and at rest were extracted for postoperative days (PODs) 1, 3, 7, and 14, as well as postoperative week 6 and postoperative month 3. Opioid use data were obtained at 24, 48 and 72 hours. All data were analyzed using inverse variance with random effects and presented as weighted mean difference.

                  Results

                  Eight unique studies were identified and included, 7 of which were analyzed quantitatively. Duloxetine decreased postoperative opioid consumption at 48 and 72 hours. For VAS for pain at rest, significantly reduced pain was reported by duloxetine-treated patients at POD 3, POD 7, and postoperative week 6. For VAS for pain at movement, significantly reduced pain was reported by duloxetine-treated patients at POD1, POD 3, POD 7, POD 14, postoperative week 6, and postoperative month 3.

                  Conclusions

                  Duloxetine appears to decrease postoperative pain and opioid consumption following total joint arthroplasty. However, definitive conclusions are limited by small sample size and study heterogeneity. While there is a need for follow-up studies to determine the optimal dose, duration, and patient population, strong preliminary data provide robust support for future large-scale efficacy studies.
                    Cover page: Duloxetine for Postoperative Pain Control Following Knee or Hip Replacement: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
                    • Article
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    UC Irvine Previously Published Works (2014)
                    A group of microbial retinal proteins most closely related to the proton pump xanthorhodopsin has a novel sequence motif and a novel function. Instead of, or in addition to, proton transport, they perform light-driven sodium ion transport, as reported for one representative of this group (KR2) from Krokinobacter. In this paper, we examine a similar protein, GLR from Gillisia limnaea, expressed in Escherichia coli, which shares some properties with KR2 but transports only Na(+). The absorption spectrum of GLR is insensitive to Na(+) at concentrations of ≤3 M. However, very low concentrations of Na(+) cause profound differences in the decay and rise time of photocycle intermediates, consistent with a switch from a "Na(+)-independent" to a "Na(+)-dependent" photocycle (or photocycle branch) at ∼60 μM Na(+). The rates of photocycle steps in the latter, but not the former, are linearly dependent on Na(+) concentration. This suggests that a high-affinity Na(+) binding site is created transiently after photoexcitation, and entry of Na(+) from the bulk to this site redirects the course of events in the remainder of the cycle. A greater concentration of Na(+) is needed for switching the reaction path at lower pH. The data suggest therefore competition between H(+) and Na(+) to determine the two alternative pathways. The idea that a Na(+) binding site can be created at the Schiff base counterion is supported by the finding that upon perturbation of this region in the D251E mutant, Na(+) binds without photoexcitation. Binding of Na(+) to the mutant shifts the chromophore maximum to the red like that of H(+), which occurs in the photocycle of the wild type.
                      Cover page: Light-Driven Na+ Pump from Gillisia limnaea: A High-Affinity Na+ Binding Site Is Formed Transiently in the Photocycle
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