Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (39 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2015)
Nuclear factor kappa B (NFkappaB) transcription factors are responsible for the regulation of hundreds of target genes, their expression is induced by many classes of stimuli, and NFkappaBs play essential roles in the healthy regulation of cellular development and proliferation in inflammatory and immune responses. Diseases such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, and AIDS can be attributed to the aberrant regulation of NFkappaB. The transcriptional activity of NFkappaB is controlled by its inhibitors, the IkappaB, and IkappaBalpha in particular dynamically responds to extracellular stimuli releasing a burst of NFkappaB that enters the nucleus and activates target genes. The transcriptional activation is short- lived, and our lab is investigating the mechanism of post- induction repression. After a brief introduction (Chapter 1), I elucidate the role of the IkappaBalpha C-terminal PEST sequence in NFkappaB regulation and biophysically characterize the stabilized NFkappaB-DNA-IkappaBalpha ternary complex (Chapter 2), investigate the importance of IkappaBalpha-mediated regulation of NFkappaB in mouse embryonic fibroblast cells (Chapter 3), probe the coupled folding-upon-binding of IkappaBalpha in NFkappaB regulation (Chapter 4), and explore effect of DNA binding on NFkappaB stability and dynamics (Chapter 5). These studies suggest that the binding of IkappaBalpha and DNA to NFkappaB have widespread and powerful consequences on NFkappaB dynamics, function, and regulation
    Cover page: The Role of IkappaBalpha and DNA binding in NFkappaB Regulation, Dynamics, and Function
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2009)

    Objective

    We examined the associations between sweets, sweetened and unsweetened beverages, and sugars and pancreatic cancer risk.

    Methods

    We conducted a population-based case-control study (532 cases, 1,701 controls) and used multivariate logistic regression models to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Because associations were often different by sex, we present results for men and women combined and separately.

    Results

    Among men, greater intakes of total and specific sweets were associated with pancreatic cancer risk (total sweets: OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.6; sweet condiments: OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.1; chocolate candy: OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.1, 5.0; other mixed candy bars: OR = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.5, 7.3 for 1 + servings/day versus none/rarely). Sweets were not consistently associated with risk among women. Sweetened beverages were not associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk. In contrast, low-calorie soft drinks were associated with increased risk among men only; while other low-/non-caloric beverages (e.g., coffee, tea, and water) were unassociated with risk. Of the three sugars assessed (lactose, fructose, and sucrose), only the milk sugar lactose was associated with pancreatic cancer risk (OR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.5, 2.7 comparing extreme quartiles).

    Conclusion

    These results provide limited support for the hypothesis that sweets or sugars increase pancreatic cancer risk.
      Cover page: Sweets, sweetened beverages, and risk of pancreatic cancer in a large population-based case–control study
      • Thesis
      • Peer Reviewed
      UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2018)

      Despite decades of faculty diversification efforts among institutions of higher education, many colleges and universities still struggle to achieve and maintain adequate representation of faculty of color. The years from 2000 to 2018 have brought forward many higher education diversification initiatives focused specifically on improving job satisfaction and lowering stress levels among the under-represented minority (URM) faculty population as a means to increase their retention. Although research on URM faculty retention has repeatedly revealed disproportionate service work between URM and non-URM faculty, I aimed to examine the extent to which service work varies according to faculty race, as well as the connection between this service work and retention-related outcomes.

      Utilizing data from the Faculty Survey of the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), I first sought to reveal racial disparities in faculty service work through descriptive analysis specifically related to mentoring, advising, committee work, and community service. After operationalizing faculty service work through factor analysis, I performed a series of regression analyses to determine any possible connection between service and career outcomes, including job satisfaction, career-related stress, and career intentions, controlling for demographics, institutional factors, and other experiences related to teaching and research.

      Several important findings were revealed through this study. First, URM faculty did report spending more time than non-URM faculty on service-related work such as advising, committee representation, and community service. Further, within the sample of full-time faculty used for this study, an increase in service work was shown to relate to increased career-related stress, lower job satisfaction, and higher intention to leave an academic position and/or institution. Both mentoring and salary showed to be significant covariates, mitigating impacts on career-related stress and job satisfaction. Further analysis should be conducted to determine whether the relationship between service and retention-related outcomes can be extended to the URM faculty population at large.

      Ultimately, these findings demonstrate a need for institutions to better monitor and assess the service workload being performed by faculty, particularly by faculty of color. Findings further serve as an impetus for leaders in higher education to consider service work as a possible hindrance to the wellbeing of URM faculty.

        Cover page: Service Work of Underrepresented Faculty
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        We examined the associations between sweets, sweetened and unsweetened beverages, and sugars and pancreatic cancer risk. We conducted a population-based case–control study (532 cases, 1,701 controls) and used multivariate logistic regression models to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Because associations were often different by sex, we present results for men and women combined and separately. Among men, greater intakes of total and specific sweets were associated with pancreatic cancer risk (total sweets: OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.0, 3.6; sweet condiments: OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.1; chocolate candy: OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.1, 5.0; other mixed candy bars: OR = 3.3, 95% CI: 1.5, 7.3 for 1 + servings/day versus none/rarely). Sweets were not consistently associated with risk among women. Sweetened beverages were not associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk. In contrast, low-calorie soft drinks were associated with increased risk among men only; while other low-/non-caloric beverages (e.g., coffee, tea, and water) were unassociated with risk. Of the three sugars assessed (lactose, fructose, and sucrose), only the milk sugar lactose was associated with pancreatic cancer risk (OR = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.5, 2.7 comparing extreme quartiles). These results provide limited support for the hypothesis that sweets or sugars increase pancreatic cancer risk.
          Cover page: Sweets, sweetened beverages, and risk of pancreatic cancer in a large population-based case–control study
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2011)
          Abstract Background To examine the influence of cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking, cessation of cigarette smoking and passive smoke exposure on the risk of pancreatic cancer. Methods Exposure data were collected during in-person interviews in a population-based case-control study of pancreatic cancer (N = 532 cases, N = 1701 controls) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Odds ratios (ORs) were adjusted for potential confounders. Results The adjusted odds ratio (OR) of pancreatic cancer among current smokers was 1.9 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.4-2.7). A significant, positive trend in risk with increasing pack-years of smoking was observed (P-trend <0.0001). Compared with participants who continued to smoke, former smokers had no statistically significant elevation in risk of pancreatic cancer 10 years after smoking cessation, with risk reduced to that of never smokers regardless of prior smoking intensity. Both men and women experienced similar increased risk of pancreatic cancer with increasing smoking duration. Cigar and pipe smoking and exposure to passive smoke were not associated with pancreatic cancer. Conclusions Cigarette smoking is associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. Smokers who had quit for ≥10 years no longer experienced an increased risk. Future work will help to determine the effect of declining smoking rates on pancreatic cancer incidence.
            Cover page: Cigarette, cigar and pipe smoking, passive smoke exposure, and risk of pancreatic cancer: a population-based study in the San Francisco Bay Area
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            Alcohol consumption is postulated to be a risk factor for pancreatic cancer (PCA), but clarification of degree of risk related to consumption characteristics is lacking. We examined the association between alcohol consumption and PCA in a population-based case–control study (532 cases, 1,701 controls) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Population-based controls were frequency-matched by sex, age within 5-year categories and county of residence to cases identified by the cancer registry’s rapid case ascertainment. Detailed alcohol consumption data, including binge drinking (≥5 drinks/day), were collected during in-person interviews. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed using adjusted unconditional logistic regression. Depending on dose, duration, and pattern of drinking, ORs were increased 1.5- to 6-fold among men but not women. In men, ORs increased with increasing overall alcohol consumption (22–35 drinks/week OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.1–4.0; ≥35 drinks/week OR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.3–5.1, p-trend = 0.04). Most notable were effects with a history of binge drinking (OR = 3.5, 95% CI = 1.6–7.5) including increased number of drinks per day (p-trend = 0.002), and increased years of binge drinking (p-trend = 0.0006). In fully adjusted models that included smoking and other confounders, ORs for binge drinking in men were somewhat higher than in age-adjusted models. Results from our detailed analyses provide support for heavy alcohol consumption (including binge drinking) as a risk factor for PCA in men.
              Cover page: Risk of pancreatic cancer by alcohol dose, duration, and pattern of consumption, including binge drinking: a population-based study
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2013)
              Pancreatic cancer is highly lethal, and identifying modifiable risk factors could have substantial public health impact. In this population-based case-control study (532 cases, 1701 controls), we used principal component analysis and multivariable unconditional logistic regression models to examine whether a particular dietary pattern was associated with risk of pancreatic cancer, adjusting for other known risk factors. A prudent dietary pattern, characterized by greater intake of vegetables, fruit, fish, poultry, whole grains, and low-fat dairy, was associated with an approximate 50% reduction in pancreatic cancer risk among men [odds ratio (OR) = 0.51, 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 0.31-0.84, P trend = 0.001] and women (OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.29-0.90, P trend = 0.04). A Western dietary pattern, characterized by higher intake of red and processed meats, potato chips, sugary beverages, sweets, high fat dairy, eggs, and refined grains, was associated with a 2.4-fold increased risk of pancreatic cancer among men (95% CI = 1.3-4.2, P trend = 0.008) but was not associated with risk among women. Among men, those in the upper quintiles of the Western diet and lower quintiles of the prudent diet had a threefold increased risk. Consistent with what has been recommended for several other chronic diseases, consuming a diet rich in plant-based foods, whole grains, and white meat, might reduce risk of pancreatic cancer.
                Cover page: Dietary Patterns and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in a Large Population-Based Case-Control Study in the San Francisco Bay Area
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 46 (2024)
                Because information theory equates information with event occurrence probabilities, when applying its methods, language researchers typically take the information provided by words to be their relative frequencies in a corpus. This implicitly assumes words occur uniformly across contexts, however empirically, word distributions are bursty: the likelihood of most words appearing in most contexts is small, whereas the likelihood of a word recurring in context is much higher. In an elicitation study we examined whether speakers are sensitive to the dynamic word occurrence probabilities this implies. Consistent with proposals that prenominal adjectives increase noun predictability, participants produced numerous seemingly redundant adjectives prior to unambiguous nouns at first mention. However, despite receiving no feedback, they produced significantly fewer adjectives before subsequent mentions of the same nouns, indicating they had re-evaluated their probabilities. These results support the idea that prenominal adjectives facilitate efficient communication, and that speakers' representations of lexical probabilities are dynamic.
                  Cover page: Rethinking Probabilities: Why Corpus Frequencies Cannot Capture Speakers' Dynamic Linguistic Behavior
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  UC San Francisco Previously Published Works (2015)
                  BACKGROUND: Anal squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) and cancers are increased in immunocompromised populations. Based upon anatomic and histologic similarities, the cervix is used as the model for anal screening. During cervical colposcopy, acetic acid (AA) and Lugol׳s staining (LS) result in characteristic changes that help distinguish low-grade (L)SIL from high-grade (H)SIL. Lesion characteristics were evaluated for their ability to distinguish anal (a)LSIL from anal (a)HSIL during high-resolution anoscopy after application of AA and LS. METHODS: AA-stained lesions were described using standard cervical colposcopic criteria. LS was then applied and lesions were characterized as Lugol׳s-negative (L−), Lugol׳s-partial (L+/−), or Lugol׳s positive (L+) and then biopsied. Biopsies were characterized as benign, squamous atypia, LSIL or HSIL. RESULTS: 835 anal lesions were analyzed. Sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) for aHSIL were highest for characteristics associated with cervical (c)HSIL. L− was independently associated with aHSIL (OR=4.7, 95% CI=3.4–6.7). In multiple logistic regression analysis, significant predictors of aHSIL were flat contour (OR=2.24, 95% CI=1.3–3.8), mosaic pattern (OR=2.0, 95% CI=1.4–2.9), vascular punctation (OR=1.5, 95% CI=1.1–2.1) and L− (OR=2.3, 95% CI=1.5–3.4). L− staining improved the PPV of aHSIL almost twofold in lesions that otherwise had a colposcopic impression of LSIL. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluating acetowhite lesions for contour, surface, vascularity, and LS may maximize the likelihood of identifying aHSIL.
                    Cover page: Colposcopic Characteristics and Lugols Staining Differentiate Anal High-Grade and Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesions During High Resolution Anoscopy.
                    • Article
                    • Peer Reviewed
                    The association between duration of pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer has not been well characterized in large population-based studies. We conducted detailed analyses to determine the association between pancreatitis onset and pancreatic cancer risk. Data from two case–control studies of pancreatic cancer (n = 4515) in the San Francisco Bay Area and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center were pooled for analysis (1,663 cases, 2,852 frequency-matched controls). Adjusted odds ratios (OR) were estimated using a random-effects model. In the pooled multivariable model, history of pancreatitis was associated with a 7.2-fold increased risk estimate for pancreatic cancer [95% confidence interval (CI): 4.0, 13]. The risk estimate was nearly 10-fold in participants aged <55 years (OR = 9.9, 95% CI: 3.5, 28). A shorter temporal history of pancreatitis was more closely associated with pancreatic cancer than was a longer temporal history: <3 years (OR = 29, 95% CI: 12, 71), 3–10 years (OR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.5, 5.6), and >10 years (OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 0.7, 4.5, p trend < 0.001). A short temporal history of pancreatitis was highly associated with pancreatic cancer, suggesting that pancreatitis may be an early manifestation of pancreatic cancer in some individuals. Pancreatic cancer should be considered in the differential diagnosis of individuals with an episode of pancreatitis.
                      Cover page: Pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer in two large pooled case–control studies
                      Top