Digital Commons Network^™

Bupropion And Nicotine Patch As Smoking Cessation Aids In Alcoholics, Kathleen M. Grant, Stephanie Sinclair Kelley, Lynette M. Smith, Sangeeta Agrawal, James R. Meyer, Debra J. Romberger

Public Health Resources

This is a double blind placebo controlled study of sustained release bupropion as a smoking cessation aid in alcoholics undergoing treatment for their alcoholism. Participants (N=58) were enrolled within one week of entry into alcohol treatment from community and Veterans Affairs Substance Use Disorder programs. All participants received nicotine patch and were invited to attend a smoking cessation lecture and group. Cigarette smoking and alcohol outcomes were measured at six months. Bupropion when added to nicotine patch did not improve smoking outcomes. One-third of participants on bupropion reported discontinuing the drug during weeks 1-4. Participants reported cigarette outcomes with nicotine …

Repeat Organic Dust Exposure–Induced Monocyte Inflammation Is Associated With Protein Kinase C Activity, Jill A. Poole, Todd A. Wyatt, Susanna G. Von Essen, John Hervert, Conrad Parks, Tracy Mathisen, Debra J. Romberger

Public Health Resources

Background: Organic dust exposure results in an inflammatory response that attenuates over time, but repetitive exposures can result in chronic respiratory diseases. Mechanisms underlying this modulated response are not clear.
Objective: This study investigated the effects of repeat versus single organic dust exposure–induced inflammatory mediators and protein kinase C (PKC) activity in monocytes.
Methods: Settled organic dust was obtained from swine confinement facilities. Promonocytic THP-1 cells and human peripheral blood monocytes were pretreated with or without dust extract and then restimulated. Culture supernatants were evaluated for TNF-α, IL-6, CXCL8, and IL-10. Responses were compared with endotoxin-depleted dust, LPS, and peptidoglycan. …

Western Nebraska Health Information Exchange: Public Health Reporting – Where Does All The Data Go?, Keerun Kamble, Nancy C. Shank, Kim Woods, Mark Dekraai, Elizabeth T. Willborn

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The Public Health Reporting - Schematics and Matrix outlines the current requirements of public health surveillance and reporting from rural healthcare providers to local, state, and national entities. The report was created to enhance the understanding of public health reporting for members of the Western Nebraska Health Information Exchange Network.

The Public Health Reporting- Schematics and Matrix:

- Highlights the complex processes, duplicate steps, and challenges with public health reporting and information sharing in Western Nebraska.

- Enables public health administrators, educators, and policy makers to make reporting systems more efficient.

- Illustrates an effective way to document a public …

Are Smokers Only Using Cigarettes? Exploring Current Polytobacco Use Among An Adult Population, Jennifer M. Bombard, Linda L. Pederson, David E. Nelson, Ann M. Malarcher

Public Health Resources

Background: The primary focus of tobacco prevention and cessation interventions has been on cigarette smoking. Polytobacco use (the concurrent use of cigarettes and one or more other tobacco product[s]), may present additional health risks and make cessation more difficult.
Methods: We determined population estimates of tobacco product use and of polytobacco use for more than 50000 adults from 10 states. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine factors independently associated with polytobacco use among men only (due to low use among women).
Results: The overall adult prevalence was 22.4% for cigarettes and 3.4% for polytobacco use. Polytobacco use was more …

A Scale-Free Systems Theory Of Motivation And Addiction, R. Andrew Chambers, Warren K. Bickel, Marc N. Potenza

Public Health Resources

Scale-free organizations, characterized by uneven distributions of linkages between nodal elements, describe the structure and function of many life-based complex systems developing under evolutionary pressures. We explore motivated behavior as a scale-free map toward a comprehensive translational theory of addiction. Motivational and behavioral repertoires are reframed as link and nodal element sets, respectively, comprising a scale-free structure. These sets are generated by semi-independent information-processing streams within cortical–striatal circuits that cooperatively provide decision-making and sequential processing functions necessary for traversing maps of motivational links connecting behavioral nodes. Dopamine modulation of cortical–striatal plasticity serves a central-hierarchical mechanism for survival-adaptive sculpting and development …

Relaxin Receptors In Hepatic Stellate Cells And Cirrhotic Liver, Robert G. Bennett, Shana R. Dalton, Katrina J. Mahan, Martha J. Gentry-Nielsen, Frederick G. Hamel, Dean J. Tuma

Public Health Resources

The polypeptide hormone relaxin has antifibrotic effects on a number of tissues, including the liver. Central to the progression of hepatic fibrosis is the transdifferentiation of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) from a quiescent state to an activated, myofibroblastic phenotype that secretes fibrillar collagen. Relaxin inhibits markers of HSC activation, but relaxin receptor expression in the liver is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine the expression of the relaxin receptors LGR7 and LGR8 in activated HSC. Production of cAMP was induced by treatment of HSC with relaxin, or the relaxin-related peptides InsL3 or relaxin-3, selective activators of LGR8 …

Comparative Genetic Analysis Of Genomic Dna Sequences Of Two Human Isolates Of Tanapox Virus, Steven H. Nazarian, John W. Barrett, A. Michael Frace, Melissa Olsen-Rasmussen, Marina Khristova, Mae Shaban, Sarah Neering, Yu Li, Inger K. Damon, Joseph J. Esposito, Karim Essani, Grant Mcfadden

Public Health Resources

Members of the genus Yatapoxvirus, which include Tanapox virus (TPV) and Yaba monkey tumor virus, infect primates including humans. Two strains of TPV isolated 50 years apart from patients infected from the equatorial region of Africa have been sequenced. The original isolate from a human case in the Tana River Valley, Kenya, in 1957 (TPV-Kenya) and an isolate from an infected traveler in the Republic of Congo in 2004 (TPV-RoC). Although isolated 50 years apart the genomes were highly conserved. The genomes differed at only 35 of 144,565 nucleotide positions (99.98% identical). We predict that TPV-RoC encodes 155 …

Global Scale Climate–Crop Yield Relationships And The Impacts Of Recent Warming, David Lobell, Christopher Field

Public Health Resources

Changes in the global production of major crops are important drivers of food prices, food security and land use decisions. Average global yields for these commodities are determined by the performance of crops in millions of fields distributed across a range of management, soil and climate regimes. Despite the complexity of global food supply, here we show that simple measures of growing season temperatures and precipitation—spatial averages based on the locations of each crop—explain ∼30% or more of year-to-year variations in global average yields for the world’s six most widely grown crops. For wheat, maize and barley, there is a …

Demographic Factors Associated With Prevalence Of Antibody To Sin Nombre Virus In Deer Mice In The Western United States, Charles Calisher, Kent Wagoner, Brian Amman, J. Jeffrey Root, Richard J. Douglass, Amy Kuenzi, Ken Abbott, Cheryl Parmenter, Terry Yates, Thomas Ksiazek, Barry J. Beaty, James N. Mills

Public Health Resources

We used long-term data collected for up to 10 yr (1994–2004) at 23 trapping arrays (i.e., webs and grids) in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, and New Mexico to examine demographic factors known or suspected to be associated with risk of infection with Sin Nombre virus (SNV) in its natural host, the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus). Gender, age (mass), wounds or scars, season, and local relative population densities were statistically associated with the period prevalence of antibody (used as a marker of infection) to SNV in host populations. Nevertheless, antibody prevalence and some of the risk factors associated with antibody …

Identification Of Vibrio Isolates By A Multiplex Pcr Assay And Rpob Sequence Determination, Cheryl L. Tarr, Jayna S. Patel, Nancy Puhr, Evangeline Sowers, Cheryl A. Bopp, Nancy A. Strockbine

Public Health Resources

Vibrio, a diverse genus of aquatic bacteria, currently includes 72 species, 12 of which occur in human clinical samples. Of these 12, three species—Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio vulnificus—account for the majority of Vibrio infections in humans. Rapid and accurate identification of Vibrio species has been problematic because phenotypic characteristics are variable within species and biochemical identification requires 2 or more days to complete. To facilitate the identification of human-pathogenic species, we developed a multiplex PCR that uses species-specific primers to amplify gene regions in four species (V. cholerae, V. parahaemolyticus, V. …

One-Year Changes In Glucose And Heart Disease Risk Factors Among Participants In The Wisewoman Programme, Jc Will, O Khavjou, Ea Finkelstein, Rk Loo, Ky Gregory-Mercado

Public Health Resources

Background: WISEWOMAN provides chronic disease risk factor screening, referrals and lifestyle interventions to low-income, uninsured women, to reduce their heart disease and stroke risk. Participants learn behaviour-changing skills tailored to low-income populations, such as collaborative goal setting, the need to take small steps and other empowerment techniques.

Aim: To quantify the baseline prevalence of pre-diabetes (fasting blood glucose 5.5–6.9 mmol/l) and diabetes among WISEWOMAN participants and assess one year changes in glucose levels and other diabetes risk factors.

Methods: We used 1998–2005 baseline and one-year follow-up data from WISEWOMAN participants. Using a multilevel regression model, we assessed …

Annual Report To The Nation On The Status Of Cancer, 1975–2004, Featuring Cancer In American Indians And Alaska Natives, David K. Espey, Xiao-Cheng Wu, Judith Swan, Charles Wiggins, Melissa A. Jim, Elizabeth Ward, Phyllis A. Wingo, Holly L. Howe, Lynn A. G. Ries, Barry A. Miller, Ahmedin Jemal, Faruque Ahmed, Nathaniel Cobb, Judith S. Kaur, Brenda K. Edwards

Public Health Resources

BACKGROUND. The American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries collaborate annually to provide updated information on cancer occurrence and trends in the U.S. The 2007 report features a comprehensive compilation of cancer information for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN).

METHODS. Cancer incidence data were available for up to 82% of the U.S. population. Cancer deaths were available for the entire U.S. population. Long-term (1975 through 2004) and fixed-interval (1995 through 2004) incidence and mortality trends were evaluated by annual percent change …

Performance Of A Commercial Immunoglobulin M Antibody Capture Assay Using Analyte-Specific Reagents To Screen For Interfering Factors During A West Nile Virus Epidemic Season In Nebraska, Anthony R. Sambol, Steven H. Hinrichs, Wayne R. Hogrefe, Beth K. Schweitzer

Public Health Resources

In 2003, the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory tested more than 10,371 serum and 516 cerebral spinal fluid specimens. Results showed that without performing the interfering factors screen for specimens in the low positive index value range of >1.1 to ≤3.5, a false positivity rate of 6.5% would have been realized.

Social Capital And Rates Of Gonorrhea And Syphilis In The United States: Spatial Regression Analyses Of State-Level Associations, Salaam Semaan, Maya Sternberg, Akbar Zaidi, Sevgi O. Aral

Public Health Resources

We conducted spatial regression analysis to account for spatial clustering of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and to examine the state-level association between social capital (using Putnam’s public use data set) and rates of gonorrhea and syphilis. We conducted the analysis for the 48 contiguous states of the United States for 1990, 1995, and 2000 and controlled for the effects of regional variation in STD rates, and for state variation in poverty, income inequality, racial composition, and percentage aged 15–34 years. We compared the results of the spatial regression analysis with those of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Controlling for all …

The Class Ii Major Histocompatibility Complex Molecule Bola-Dr Is Expressed By Endothelial Cells Of The Bovine Corpus Luteum, Matthew J. Cannon, John S. Davis, Joy L. Pate

Public Health Resources

Cells expressing class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules are found within the corpus luteum (CL) of several species. Expression and localization of class II MHC molecules in the bovine CL were examined in the present study. Immunohistochemical evaluation revealed class II MHC molecules on single cells in early CL (days 4 and 5 post-estrus). Two class II MHC-expressing cell types were observed in midcycle CL (days 10–12 post-estrus), single cells similar to those observed in the early CL, and endothelial cells. Not all endothelial cells expressed class II MHC, and further investigation revealed expression of only one type of …

Grânulos De Amido E Fitólitos Em Cálculos Dentários Humanos: Contribuição Ao Estudo Do Modo De Vida E Subsistência De Grupos Sambaquianos Do Litoral Sul Do Brasil, Verônica Wesolowski, Sheila Maria Ferraz Mendonça De Souza, Karl Reinhard, Gregório Ceccantini

Karl Reinhard Publications

Este artigo tem por objetivo apresentar os resultados da recuperação e análise de micro-vestígios vegetais retidos em cálculos dentários de grupos de pescadores-coletores do litoral sul do Brasil. Apresenta também os resultados das relações mantidas entre grânulos de amido e cárie, e entre fitólitos e desgaste dentário.

Através da dissolução química de cálculos dentários foram recuperados microvestígios vegetais em todos os indivíduos estudados. Foi evidenciado o consumo de alimentos amiláceos em todas as séries esqueléticas estudadas, demonstrando independência entre dieta com aporte de produtos vegetais e utilização de cerâmica. Foram encontrados resultados sugestivos de padrões de escolha de alimentos diferenciados …