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The Pathways for Students into Health Professions program is one of four nationally funded programs by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services to support the training of undergraduate students, particularly from under-represented minority groups to pursue maternal and child health professions. To assess the program's impact on student ratings, knowledge, and interest in maternal and child health professions. A baseline survey on student ratings and knowledge in maternal and child health topics and careers, public health topics, and career development topics was provided to 32 students at the beginning of their first year in the program and approximately 1 year after participation. Half of the students (16 students) in the program from 2009-2011 were from traditionally underrepresented minority groups. After participation, students reported significantly higher ratings of interest in maternal and child health topics and careers and in receiving adequate academic and career guidance. Students also reported significantly higher knowledge of public health, childhood and maternal morbidity and mortality, health care disparities, and life course health development. The program's didactic, experiential, and mentorship activities are changing student ratings and knowledge in a favorable direction toward maternal and child health careers and topics. Undergraduate training programs may be an important mechanism to strengthen the pipeline of a diverse healthcare workforce.

BackgroundWe compared access to health care, use of services, and health care experiences for Mexicans and other Latinos by citizenship and immigrant authorization status.MethodsWe acquired data from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey, with 42,044 participants representative of noninstitutionalized households. Participants were differentiated by ethnicity/race, national origin, and citizenship/immigration authorization status. Outcome measures included having a usual source of care, problems in obtaining necessary care, use of physician and emergency department care, and 3 experiences with health care. Multivariate analyses measured the associations of citizenship/immigration authorization status with the outcome measures among foreign-born Mexicans and other Latinos vs their US-born counterparts.ResultsIn multivariate analyses, undocumented Mexicans had 1.6 fewer physician visits (P < .01); compared with US-born Mexicans; other undocumented Latinos had 2.1 fewer visits (P < .01) compared with their US-born counterparts. Both undocumented groups were less likely to report difficulty obtaining necessary health care than US-born Mexicans (odds ratio, 0.68; P < .01) and other US-born Latinos (odds ratio, 0.40; P < .01), respectively. Undocumented Mexicans were less likely to have a usual source of care (odds ratio, 0.70; P < .01) and were more likely to report negative experiences than US-born Mexicans (odds ratio, 1.93; P < .01). Findings were similar for other undocumented Latinos, with the exception of having a usual source of care. Patterns of access to and use of health care services tended to improve with changing legal status.ConclusionIn this large sample, undocumented Mexicans and other undocumented Latinos reported less use of health care services and poorer experiences with care compared with their US-born counterparts, after adjustment for confounders in multivariate analyses.

Although higher education in the United States spans nearly four centuries, minority students continue to struggle to gain access to institutions of higher education, particularly at the graduate and professional levels. Based on survey data we collected in 2002 and 2003, we examined the financial considerations that Summer Research Opportunities Program participants took into account when deciding whether or not to pursue graduate degrees. We found that the participants from higher income brackets were more likely to tolerate a less favorable graduate school financial aid package than students from low- to middle-income brackets, which suggests that lower-income students are less likely to pursue graduate study if they are not offered competitive financial aid packages.

Purpose To address minority health disparities in maternal and child health (MCH), increasing the diversity of the MCH workforce is an important strategy. Description Guided by the MCH Leadership Competencies, we developed an undergraduate pipeline program for disadvantaged students. Our target population is minority undergraduates who are interested in entering health professions but have academic challenges. We identify these students early in their undergraduate careers and expose them to the field of MCH through a 4-unit course, summer field practicum at an MCH community-based organization or agency, and volunteer experience in a student-run organization focused on helping children and families. We also provide academic advising and personal counseling by a faculty mentor and leadership training opportunities. Assessment Since 2006, 75 students have participated in our program, of which 36 are still enrolled and 39 have graduated. Among the graduates, three (8 %) have completed graduate school and are working in a health field; 11 (28 %) are enrolled in graduate school; and 13 (33 %) are currently applying to graduate school. Of the remaining graduates, seven (18 %) are employed in a health field, and five (13 %) are working in an unrelated field. Conclusion Pipeline programs should attempt to reach students as early as possible in their undergraduate careers to more effectively influence their academic trajectories. Many minority students face academic and personal challenges; therefore, intensive academic advising and one-on-one faculty mentoring are important components of pipeline programs., Author(s): Alice A. Kuo[sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.5] [sup.6] , Bobby Verdugo[sup.1] , Faye J. Holmes[sup.1] , Katherine A. Henry[sup.2] , Julie H. Vo[sup.3] , Victor H. Perez[sup.4] , Moira Inkelas[sup.5] [sup.6] [...]

What have colleges and universities done to increase student of color enrollment since the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decisions in "Grutter v. Bollinger" and "Gratz v. Bollinger?" This article provides a critical race theory (CRT) snapshot of selective data and institutions since these landmark decisions. We find that even though "Grutter" gives the go-ahead to use affirmative action, higher education has failed politically to take on this challenge. When taken together, the "Gratz" and "Grutter" decisions allow higher education institutions to engage in symbolic affirmative action measures that appear as diversity measures but are operationalized as race neutral when one examines the data of continuing overall declines of students of color at many institutions. The authors conclude with a CRT call for a more expansive affirmative action with higher education administrators doing more to justify affirmative action through "Grutter." (Contains 6 notes and 3 figures.)

The aim of this paper was to estimate fermentation kinetic parameters to develop a mathematical model of the bioethanol production under magnetic field effect. Thus, a non-structured mathematical model was developed considering three non-lineal kinetic models typically known as Levenspiel, Aiba, Jerusalimsky, which take into account inhibitory effects of the high product concentration on yeasts. The non-lineal differential equations system solution was carried out by MatLab software using the Runge-Kutta fourth-order multivariable method. This method was improved through a replication scheme coupled with Newton-Raphson method modified with a damping Broyden parameter. Experimental data on substrate consumption, biomass formation and ethanol production were collected at magnetic field intensities (H) of 414, 796 and 1216 A/cm during 16 h of fermentation. Consequently, the adjusted model for biomass, consumed substrate and bioethanol produced allowed us to correlate fermentation kinetic parameters with the magnetic field. The best result was observed when Jerusalimsky model modified with a magnetic field parameter was considered, because the RMSD order and R-square correlation coefficient were around 10−3 and higher than 0.95, respectively. These results are important to understand the phenomenological behavior of this unconventional bioprocess and be helpful to further sensibility analysis and scale up of the bioethanol production assisted by electromagnetic field. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The review analyses studies on magnetically assisted proliferations and batch fermentations with Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts. The results available in the literature are contradictory and show two tendencies: magnetic field suppression of the cell growth and positive effects in batch fermentation with increasing both biomass and metabolite production. The amount of data analyzed allows several concepts existing in the literature to be outlined and critically commented. Further, a new concept of magnetically induced micro-dynamos, recently conceived, is developed towards a unified explanation of the results provided by proliferation and batch fermentation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) immobilized on a hybrid matrix (polysiloxane polyvinyl alcohol, POS-PVA) was used to catalyze the transesterification of the palm oil with different short chain alcohols (ethanol, propanol and butanol) in solvent free system. The commercial biocatalyst, Lipozyme IM20, was used for comparison. The reaction system oil/ butanol showed to be the most suitable substrate to perform the reaction with both enzymatic preparations, attaining similar yields higher than 75%. Lower yields (< 55%) were achieved for the other reaction systems, and the immobilized pancreatic lipase showed better performance than Lipozyme IM20 in all cases. Based on the potential application of PPL immobilized on POS-PVA, further experiments were performed to determine the oil/butanol molar ratio under which the formation of butyl esters and productivity are maximized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zika virus infection affects the development of the nervous system. This study describes the cognitive, adaptative, communicative, social and motor neurodevelopment of children exposed to Zika virus in utero. We used the Batelle scale to assess neurodevelopment three years after birth. Thirty children were included, who had a mean age at evaluation of 37.5 (IQR: 35.7-39.2) months. We found the following equivalent ages in months for each area: motor 25.8 (SD: 7.8), adaptive 26.7 (SD: 5.8), communicative 30.2 (SD: 6.9), social personal 33.5 (SD: 8.3) and cognitive 35.6 (SD: 5.9). Children showed development delay for their chronological age, 25 children were delayed in one of the five areas assessed. A high rate of children exposed to Zika virus during gestation presented delayed developmental age, mainly regarding the adaptive and motor areas.