As adolescent girls mature into young adults, they experience puberty, menstruation and sexual activity in an environment saturated with information. They learn about social and cultural norms through their social environment, as well as female reproductive health, biological development and sexual health through sexual education. While it is known that many biological and social factors influence women’s health during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period, less is known about the impact of social and cultural factors on reproductive development and health. Moreover, the link between adolescent development and adulthood in this aspect of health is largely unexplored. Adrienne Bonfonti is studying whether girls’ experiences during this early stage of womanhood have lasting implications for their reproductive health. Adrienne is interviewing first-time mothers to learn how their earlier experiences with education, menstruation, physical development and sexual activity affect their experiences and health during pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. Adrienne’s research should identify which factors have a positive or negative effect on reproductive health outcomes, and what women may be at risk for a turbulent transition into motherhood. This information can be used to improve sexual education or intervention programs for maturing youth in order to further promote healthy development during adolescence and into adulthood.
Program: Trainee
The effects of proportional assist ventilation on ventricular interaction in patients with heart failure, endurance athletes, and healthy individuals during exercise
About 350,000 Canadians suffer from chronic heart failure (CHF), which can cause premature death. The condition usually progresses slowly as the heart gradually weakens and loses its ability to efficiently pump blood through the body. Patients with CHF develop an enlarged heart and experience “pericardial constraint”: inadequate performance in the ventricles, the heart’s two pumping chambers. The pericardium is a tough, fibrous sac surrounding the heart. Endurance athletes may have an enlarged, more compliant pericardium that allows them to achieve superior levels of cardiac performance during exercise. But with chronic heart failure, the pericardium becomes taut and restricts the heart from fully filling with blood and delivering oxygen to the body. Ben Esch is investigating whether providing oxygen through a mechanical respirator to increase pressure in the chest will decrease pericardial constraint and improve cardiac function in people with CHF. The results could lead to new rehabilitation techniques for patients with chronic heart failure.
Facial processing within the temporal lobes following cerebrovascular infarct: a neuropsychological, anatomical, and functional study
Vision encompasses a very complex sensory system which requires the involvement of multiple brain areas to function properly. Damage to any one of these areas can affect vision in very specific ways. For example damage to a very small and precise region in the brain, found within the posterior temporal lobe, results in a specific perceptual deficit, manifest by an inability to recognize faces. It is common for patients who have suffered from a stroke to experience this or other visuo-perceptual impairments. Based at UBC’s Eye Care Centre, Christopher Fox is examining stroke patients who have temporal lobe damage. Using a variety of tests he is determining visual processing deficits in these patients, then using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to examine their brains to see which regions are responsible for these deficits. Christopher’s research will contribute to a greater understanding of the role of the temporal lobes in vision, and of the complex process of visual perception.
Falls risk assessment in elderly, community-dwelling women with age-related macular degeneration
About 30 percent of elderly people fall once or more a year, resulting in injury, disability, loss of independence and enormous cost to the health care system. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a degenerative disease of the retina, is the leading cause of legal blindness in Canada and the developed world. The most severe form of AMD affects one in 20 elderly people and is associated with a complete loss of central vision. However, data on fall risk among elderly people with AMD is extremely limited. Shelagh Szabo is conducting the first study to assess whether people with AMD are at higher risk of falling than other elderly individuals because of visual impairment. As people with AMD score poorly on visual measures that predict falls in other individuals, it seems likely that those with AMD may have a higher incidence of falls than those with normal vision. Conversely, as most AMD patients have reduced levels of physical activity due to their poor vision, they may actually fall less than healthy people. If the research confirms that people with AMD are frequent fallers, prevention programs could be targeted for the visually impaired to reduce falls and injury, as well as fall-related costs to the health system.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine – patient placement criteria, second edition revised (PPC- 2R) validity study in Canadian women
Mental health and addiction services have experienced frequent budget cuts in recent years, as governments try to contain health care spending. Yet, as Dr. Shimi Kang discovered during her earlier research at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, substance use and mental illness are major global public health issues. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) has developed a software program for making treatment decisions that consider resource issues. The program prompts interviewers to ask a series of questions, and produces recommendations for matching patients to the most appropriate treatment setting, based on standardized criteria. The software is now widely used in the United States, and studied in several other countries. However, the effectiveness of this assessment tool has never been studied within the Canadian health care system or with women, who experience different rates of addictive disorders and mental illness than men. Shimi is conducting the first Canadian study to evaluate whether the program can be applied to assess the complex biological, psychological and social needs of women with mental health and addiction problems. The results may lead to better techniques for treating drug and alcohol addiction and preventing relapse in women.
Role of the tumor suppressive E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase, Hace 1, in the development of childhood neoplasm
The onset and growth of a tumour may be due to the destruction of the balance that is normally achieved between tumour promoting and tumour suppressing factors. Recently, Dr. Poul Sorenson’s research team discovered a new gene, Hace1, from a case of Wilms’ tumour (the most common kidney tumour of childhood). They also found that Hace1 protein levels were reduced in 75% of the Wilms’ tumours analyzed, and that the restoration of Hace1 levels in tumour cells was capable of inhibiting tumour growth. These findings suggest that Hace1 is a tumour suppressive factor and that loss of Hace1 may contribute to the development of childhood tumours. However, the mechanisms by which Hace1 inhibits tumour formation are not yet understood. Current research suggests that Hace1 is an enzyme that specifically labels target proteins with small protein tag(s) called ubiquitin. It is thought that alterations of this process, as in the reduction of Hace1 levels observed in Wilms’ tumour, may lead to malfunctions of the target proteins and facilitate tumour development. Dr. Fan Zhang is testing this hypothesis through the identification of Hace1 target proteins and analysis of the Hace1 function in both normal and tumour cells. The knowledge derived from this study will help researchers understand how loss of Hace1 leads to the formation of childhood tumours which, in turn, may lead to new preventive treatment based on correcting the imbalance between tumour promoting and tumour suppressive factors.
Characterizing the antiviral immune response in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti
Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) are viruses transmitted to plants and animals by insect vectors, such as mosquitoes and ticks. In human and animal populations around the world arboviruses such as West Nile virus continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality. To date, research efforts around these viral diseases have focused almost entirely on humans. There is however another important aspect to the disease dynamics, which has not been addressed, and that is the effect of these viruses on the insects that transmit them. The insect immune system shares many features with the human immune system yet very little is known about how insects regulate viral infections. Research has shown that arboviruses somehow evade the insect’s immune system yet are capable of transmitting the viruses to other hosts. Dawn Cooper is examining what factors viruses use to develop in insect vectors and the factors that insects use to kill viruses. Her research focuses on characterizing the immune responses expressed in response to the virus infection of Aedes aegypti, a major vector of arboviruses. Ultimately information gained through this study will identify the novel fighting components of the insect immune response which may be exploited to reduce transmission or develop drugs to treat human infections.
New routes to sialidase inhibitors: Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of novel sialic acid derivatives
For many people, infection with the influenza virus results in several days of illness. Yet, each year, the virus is responsible for approximately one million deaths worldwide. Vaccines are the most common preventive treatment, but they only protect vaccinated individuals against those strains identified by the World Health Organization as being the most virulent in any given season. When a new strain of influenza appears against which humans have no immunity – as occurred with the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 (which killed 20 million people worldwide), the Asian flu pandemic of 1957, and the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968 – the result is a pandemic that could infect and kill hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Better treatments and preventative measures to fight influenza infection are needed to counter this threat. There are currently two major anti-influenza drugs on the market that selectively inhibit a viral enzyme that is critical to spreading infection. While these drugs are effective, the influenza virus is resilient and by mutating can develop drug-resistant strains. Ivan Hemeon is researching the development of new anti-influenza compounds that have a much lower risk of generating resistant strains. Hopefully, people treated with these compounds would experience less severe symptoms and recover faster without the risk of harbouring resistant strains that could be passed on to others, particularly those made more vulnerable due to compromised immune systems.
The construct, structural and predictive validity of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, Youth Version in adolescent females: Informing the assessment of risk for violence in girls
Aggressive and violent behaviour among female youth has emerged as a pressing social issue. Girls are entering the juvenile justice system for violent offenses at substantially higher rates than five or ten years ago. Unfortunately, our ability to gauge risk for violence among female youth is less than optimal, mainly because research has focused on identifying risk factors that predict violence and aggression in boys. Consequently, unique risk factors in girls may go undetected. Psychopathy is a powerful predictor of future violence in adult male prisoners, and is characterized by a callous disregard for others, a lack of empathy, and a propensity to highly impulsive and irresponsible behaviour. Despite the important role of psychopathy in violence risk prediction, little research has examined whether the construct of psychopathy applies to females, and virtually no studies have focused on female adolescents. Stephanie Penney is investigating how well psychopathy predicts future violence in girls compared to boys. Stephanie is examining how development, early socialization and environmental influences converge to create risk for females. This research will identify unique risk factors that predispose girls to aggressive and violent behaviour, and can be used to develop early intervention programs to reduce violence among high-risk girls.
Bringing risk prevention models into the bedroom: Sex appraisals, coping and their roles in condom use consistency
HIV transmission remains a threat in Canada and around the world. Men who have sex with men account for 41 percent of all new cases of HIV in Canada, and continue to be the largest proportion of new cases. However, recent trends suggest nearly 30 percent of new HIV cases occur among heterosexuals following sexual contact. Although new HIV drugs have brought hope to patients, they have also lessened the perception of HIV risk. In fact, new cases of HIV infection increased 17 percent in 2002, compared to 2000. Eli Puterman is developing a new model to predict and understand safe sex practices in two at-risk groups: heterosexuals with multiple partners, and men who have sex with men. While present HIV prevention models can predict the intention to use condoms, they are less successful at predicting whether condom use will actually occur, because they do not consider the uniqueness of each sexual encounter. Instead, Eli is investigating how individuals appraise and respond to HIV risk in different sexual situations over time. This research could provide a new model for HIV prevention strategies both within Canada and other developed countries.