Recently there has been an increase in the numbered of unsheltered homeless people in the United States. As a result, more homeless people are on the streets and thus are more visible to the domiciled population. The current project examines whether homeless men in Sanford, Florida experience stigma as a result of their homeless status. It explores the techniques, if any, these men use to downplay their homelessness in order to be viewed as "normal" by domiciled individuals and to blend in with the larger community. In all, thirty men participated in semi-structured, qualitative interviews. The findings indicate that homeless individuals, specifically in the context of an urban area in the midst of gentrification, are aware of the stigma attached to their status and that they are not welcome in their community. It is also shown that many of the men actively try to conceal their homeless status. The results further reveal that homeless individuals have the desire to be clean and presentable as much as the domiciled individual, however they do not have access to many of the resources that will enable them to maintain a presentable appearance. Moreover, the men use several of the resources the city offers in order to upkeep their appearance as much as possible. We tie our findings to Erving Goffman's theories on stigma and impression management in order to support how homeless individuals are affected by traits stemming from each of the three areas that can result in stigma and how they attempt to conceal their status in society.

Background The revised 8th Edition American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Head and Neck Staging Manual distinguishes HPV-mediated from non-HPV-mediated oropharyngeal cancer (OpSCC). The objective was to analyze OpSCC treatment modalities and outcomes. Methods A retrospective study of OpSCC patients treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy between January 1st, 2000, and December 31st, 2008, as identified from the BC Cancer Registry. All patients received treatment at cancer clinics and had at least 5 years follow-up post-treatment. A total of 1259 OpSCC patients were identified. After initial chart reviews, 288 patients were excluded from further analysis and the majority (n = 198) was due to not receiving curative treatment. Based on the availability of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue, patients were divided into two cohorts: Study Cohort (FFPE available, n = 244) and General Cohort (FFPE unavailable, n = 727). The Study Cohort was restaged according to AJCC 8th Edition based on p16 immunohistochemistry status. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate the 5-year overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and locoregional recurrence-free survival (LFS). Results Among 971 patients, OpSCC age-adjusted incidence rate was observed to have increased from 2.1 to 3.5 per 100,000 between 2000 and 2008. The General Cohort was relatively older than the Study Cohort (60.1 ± 10.5 vs. 57.3 ± 9.4), but both cohorts were predominantly males (78.3% vs. 76.2%). Amongst the Study Cohort, 77.5% were p16-positive, of whom 98.4% were down staged in the 8th Edition. These early-stage patients showed OS improvement for those treated with chemoradiation, compared to radiation alone (85.8% vs. 73.1%, p = 0.05). Conclusions OpSCC incidence is increasing in BC. The addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy may portend a benefit in OS even for early-stage p16-positive OpSCC. Additional research is necessary to assess the safety of treatment de-escalation even among early-stage disease.

The research here investigates race-ethnicity and self-esteem in the misuse of prescription drugs. While there has been much research into the demographic factors that predict prescription drug misuse (PDM), we lack a full accounting of psychosocial factors of possible importance in influencing patterns of race-ethnicity and PDM. One possible influence is self-esteem. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey on Adolescent Health to investigate race-ethnicity, PDM and self-esteem. Findings indicate first that race-ethnicity is significant is PDM. Secondly, results indicate that self-esteem is important in understanding patterns of prescription drug misuse among young adults, but only among whites.

Objective Decision-making requires weighing potential gains and losses. Adolescents who have experienced maltreatment may be more sensitive to potential gains or losses than other adolescents. The aim of these analyses was to examine trajectories of decision-making over time in adolescents based on maltreatment history and severity. Method The study included 69 adolescents 13 to 17 years old (M = 14.9). Maltreatment history and severity were assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Adolescents also completed a modified Iowa Gambling Task (mIGT). Outcomes of interest were the percentage of advantageous responses and net score (measure of overall performance integrating advantageous and disadvantageous plays) for each of three blocks. Results The trajectory of performance across blocks was defined using a conditional linear growth curve model with factor loadings fixed at block 1, block 2, and block 3. Greater maltreatment severity was associated with less increase in net score over time (M = -4.453, p < .001). In contrast, abuse severity (M = 6.675, p = .002) and the presence of neglect (M = 13.058, p = .002) were associated with sharper increases in net score. A regression revealed maltreatment severity, presence of abuse, presence of neglect, and abuse severity significantly predicted the percentage of advantageous plays only during the second block of the mIGT (R2 = .180, p = .030). Conclusions This study provides evidence that maltreatment history and severity are associated with the trajectory of decision-making over time. It also provides support for the importance of examining performance trajectory and heterogeneity in maltreatment regarding cognitive processing.