Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Impacts Of Active School Design On Schooltime Sedentary Behavior And Physical Activity: A Pilot Natural Experiment, Jeri Brittin, Leah Frerichs, John R. Sirard, Nancy M. Wells, Beth M. Myers, Jeanette Garcia, Dina Sorensen, Matthew J. Trowbridge, Terry Huang

Interior Design Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Background Children spend a significant portion of their days in sedentary behavior (SB) and on average fail to engage in adequate physical activity (PA). The school built environment may influence SB and PA, but research is limited. This natural experiment evaluated whether an elementary school designed to promote movement impacted students' school-time SB and PA.

Methods Accelerometers measured SB and PA at pre and post time-points in an intervention group who moved to the new school (n = 21) and in a comparison group experiencing no school environmental change (n = 20). Difference-in-difference (DD) analysis examined SB and PA outcomes …

Current Prospects Of Type Ii Interferon Γ Signaling & Autoimmunity, Daniel S. Green, Howard A. Young, Julio C. Valencia

Public Health Resources

Interferon γ (IFNγ) is a pleiotropic protein secreted by immune cells. IFNγ signals through the IFNγ receptor, a protein complex that mediates downstream signaling events. Studies into IFNγ signaling have provided insight into the general concepts of receptor signaling, receptor internalization, regulation of distinct signaling pathways, and transcriptional regulation. Although IFNγ is the central mediator of the adaptive immune response to pathogens, it has been shown to be involved in several non-infectious physiological processes. This review will provide an introduction into IFNγ signaling biology and the functional roles of IFNγ in the autoimmune response.

Assessment Of The Campus Food Environment Using Components Of The Healthy Campus Environmental Audit, Candace Sorden

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The objective was to assess whether the food environment at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campuses supports healthy eating behaviors using components of the Healthy Campus Environmental Audit (vending, dining, and convenience store audits). Secondary aims were to compare the UNL food environment to other college campuses and explore whether there are existing health promotion and obesity prevention initiatives, programs, pledges and/or policies at UNL.

Research team members accessed a secure online website to review training materials prepared by Syracuse University. Evaluators did audit practice trials to meet inter-rater reliability score standards (>80%). audits were conducted at designated sites …

Providers Perspectives On Self-Regulation Impact Their Use Of Responsive Feeding Practices In Child Care, Dipti A. Dev, Katherine E. Speirs, Natalie A. Williams, Samantha Ramsay, Brent A. Mcbride, Holly Hatton-Bowers

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Supporting children's self-regulation in eating through caregivers' practice of responsive feeding is paramount to obesity prevention, and while much attention has been given to supporting children's selfregulation in eating through parents' responsive feeding practices in the home setting, little attention has been given to this issue in childcare settings. This qualitative study examines childcare providers' perspectives on using responsive feeding practices with young children (2–5 years). Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with providers until saturation was reached. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The final sample included 18 providers who were employed full-time in Head Start or state-licensed center-based childcare …

Cyclosporine Exacerbates Ketamine Toxicity In Zebrafish: Mechanistic Studies On Drug–Drug Interaction, Bonnie L. Robinson, Melanie Dumas, Syed F. Ali, Merle G. Paule, Qiang Gu, Jyotshna Kanungo

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an immunosuppressive drug commonly used in organ transplant patients to prevent allograft rejections. Ketamine is a pediatric anesthetic that noncompetitively inhibits the calcium-permeable N-methyl-^_D-aspartic acid receptors. Adverse drug–drug interaction effects between ketamine and CsA have been reported in mammals and humans. However, the mechanism of such drug–drug interaction is unclear. We have previously reported adverse effects of combination drugs, such as verapamil/ketamine and shown the mechanism through intervention by other drugs in zebrafish embryos. Here, we show that ketamine and CsA in combination produce developmental toxicity even leading to lethality in zebrafish larvae …

Rapid And Rigorous Il-17a Production By A Distinct Subpopulation Of Effector Memory T Lymphocytes Constitutes A Novel Mechanism Of Toxic Shock Syndrome Immunopathology, Peter A. Szabo, Ankur Goswami, Delfina M. Mazzuca, Kyoungok Kim, David B. O'Gorman, David A. Hess, Ian D. Welch, Howard A. Young, Bhagirath Singh, John K. Mccormick, S. M.Mansour Haeryfar

Public Health Resources

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is caused by staphylococcal and streptococcal superantigens (SAgs) that provoke a swift hyperinflammatory response typified by a cytokine storm. The precipitous decline in the host's clinical status and the lack of targeted therapies for TSS emphasize the need to identify key players of the storm's initial wave. Using a humanized mouse model of TSS and human cells, we herein demonstrate that SAgs elicit in vitro and in vivo IL-17A responses within hours. SAg-triggered human IL-17A production was characterized by remarkably high mRNA stability for this cytokine. A distinct subpopulation of CD4+ effector memory T (TEM) cells …

Th1 Differentiation Drives The Accumulation Of Intravascular, Non-Protective Cd4 T Cells During Tuberculosis, Michelle A. Sallin, Shunsuke Sakai, Keith D. Kauffman, Howard A. Young, Jinfang Zhu, Daniel L. Barber

Public Health Resources

Recent data indicate that the differentiation state of Th1 cells determines their protective capacity against tuberculosis. Therefore, we examined the role of Th1-polarizing factors in the generation of protective and non-protective subsets of Mtb-specific Th1 cells. We find that IL-12/23p40 promotes Th1 cell expansion and maturation beyond the CD73+CXCR3+T-betdim stage, and T-bet prevents deviation of Th1 cells into Th17 cells. Nevertheless, IL- 12/23p40 and T-bet are also essential for the production of a prominent subset of intravascular CX3CR1+KLRG1+ Th1 cells that persists poorly and can neither migrate into the lung parenchyma nor control Mtb growth. Furthermore, T-bet suppresses development of …

Lactose Intolerance: An Overview Of The Facts And Their Implications, Noelle M. Yeo

Honors Theses

Lactose intolerance is often blamed for the symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, gas, abdominal pain, and nausea, that ail many people. Patients often do not seek proper diagnosis from a physician and create their own treatment plans, severely restricting lactose intake, without professional guidance. Even those who do seek the care of a physician find that diagnosis is complicated by less-than ideal testing and confusion due to the symptoms common to many other conditions. The misconceptions and inability to confirm a diagnosis of lactose intolerance can cause nutrient deficiencies in these patients, as well as begin a pattern of unnecessary …

Stress: Effects And Management, Breanna Buscher

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Stress is how the body reacts to any change in a person's life, as well as how it reacts in life or death situations. It is important everyone knows how to manage stress and what will happen if they do not. While there are an abundance of terrifying things that can happen when stress goes unmanaged, there are also plenty of easy ways everyone can keep their stress in check.

Stress can feel overwhelming and often cause health problems if gone unmanaged but luckily there are a plethora of ways to manage it.

Future Research: I would like to research …

Toward Solving The Etiological Mystery Of Primary Biliary Cholangitis, Atsushi Tanaka, Patrick S.C. Leung, Howard A. Young, M. Eric Gershwin

Public Health Resources

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is considered a model autoimmune disease due to its signature anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA) autoantibody, female predominance, and relatively specific portal infiltration and cholestasis. The identification and cloning of the major mitochondrial autoantigens recognized by AMA have served as an immunologic platform to identify the earliest events involved in loss of tolerance. Despite the relatively high concordance rate in identical twins, genome-wide association studies have not proven clinically useful and have led to suggestions of epigenetic events. To understand the natural history and etiology of PBC, several murine models have been developed, including spontaneous models, models induced …

Assisted Suicide, Valerie Ontiveros

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

Assisted suicide is when a physician helps a terminally ill patient die without pain. As of right now, it is illegal in most states. Organizations about this issue were organized in the late 1930's (Humphry). According to Pro-Con. Org, 79% of patients requested assisted suicide even before they came terminally ill –if it got to that point.

Many states have different laws on assisted suicide. In no doubt, these patients go through a tremendous amount of pain and no one but themselves should decide when enough is enough. Technological advances have allowed this generation to help aid a person when …

Variation In Organ-Specific Pik3ca And Kras Mutant Levels In Normal Human Tissues Correlates With Mutation Prevalence In Corresponding Carcinomas, Barbara L. Parsons, Karen L. Mckim, Meagan B. Myers

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Large-scale sequencing efforts have described the mutational complexity of individual cancers and identified mutations prevalent in different cancers. As a complementary approach, allele specific competitive blocker PCR (ACB-PCR) is being used to quantify levels of hotspot cancer driver mutations (CDMs) with high sensitivity, to elucidate the tissue-specific properties of CDMs, their occurrence as tumor cell subpopulations, and their occurrence in normal tissues. Here we report measurements of PIK3CA H1047R mutant fraction (MF) in normal colonic mucosa, normal lung, colonic adenomas, colonic adenocarcinomas, and lung adenocarcinomas. We report PIK3CA E545K MF measurements in those tissues, as well as in normal breast, …

Cyclosporine Exacerbates Ketamine Toxicity In Zebrafish: Mechanistic Studies On Drug–Drug Interaction, Bonnie L. Robinson, Melanie Dumas, Syed F. Ali, Merle G. Paule, Qiang Gu, Jyotshna Kanungo

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Cyclosporine A (CsA) is an immunosuppressive drug commonly used in organ transplant patients to prevent allograft rejections. Ketamine is a pediatric anesthetic that noncompetitively inhibits the calcium-permeable N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors. Adverse drug–drug interaction effects between ketamine and CsA have been reported in mammals and humans. However, the mechanism of such drug–drug interaction is unclear. We have previously reported adverse effects of combination drugs, such as verapamil/ketamine and shown the mechanism through intervention by other drugs in zebrafish embryos. Here, we show that ketamine and CsA in combination produce developmental toxicity even leading to lethality in zebrafish larvae when exposure began …

Recent Analytical Methods For The Analysis Of Sweeteners In Food: A Regulatory Perspective, Romina Shah, Lowri S. De Jager

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Non-nutritive or low calorie sweeteners are commonly used worldwide in the food industry, often in combination in order to limit undesirable tastes. The list of allowable sweeteners varies among countries and it is important for regulatory agencies and food safety laboratories to monitor these highly consumed products to ensure compliance with worldwide regulations. Current analytical methods for confirmation and quantification of sweeteners must allow for confirmation of analyte identity in order to be compatible with today’s standards. Various methods for the determination of non-nutritive sweeteners have been reported in the literature. Th e most common multi-sweetener methods involve high performance …

Detection Of Allergen Markers In Food: Analytical Methods, Girdhari M. Sharma, Sefat E. Khuda, Christine H. Parker, Anne C. Eischeid, Marion Pereira

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Food allergens are proteins that are well tolerated by most, but can cause severe reactions in sensitive individuals. Since there is no cure for food allergy, strict adherence to an allergen-free diet is the only safe choice currently available for allergic consumers. Accurate food labeling can help consumers avoid foods containing an allergenic ingredient. Regulatory agencies have mandated the labeling of major food allergens on packaged foods to help with safe food choices. However, the inadvertent presence of an allergen in food due to cross-contact and labeling error can jeopardize consumer health. Analytical methods are developed for allergen detection and …

Current Analytical Techniques For Food Lipids, Cynthia T. Srigley, Magdi M. Mossoba

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Thee analysis of food lipids presents significant challenges due to the wide variety of sample matrices, large range of total fat contents, and complex compositions of fatty acids. This is chapter reviews conventional analytical techniques for the quantification of total fat and fatty acids in foods and food ingredients, including the gravimetric determination of total fat, the calculation of fat and fatty acids using gas chromatography (GC), and the analysis of proximates content (i.e., fat, protein, carbohydrate, moisture, and ash) by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Current official methods of analysis are evaluated and the use of certified reference materials …

Multiple Imputation To Evaluate The Impact Of An Assay Change In National Surveys, Maya Sternberg

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

National health surveys, such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, are used to monitor trends of nutritional biomarkers. These surveys try to maintain the same biomarker assay over time, but there are a variety of reasons why the assay may change. In these cases, it is important to evaluate the potential impact of a change so that any observed fluctuations in concentrations over time are not confounded by changes in the assay. To this end, a subset of stored specimens previously analyzed with the old assay is retested using the new assay. These paired data are used to …

Cannabinoid Disposition In Oral Fluid After Controlled Smoked, Vaporized, And Oral Cannabis Administration, Madeleine J. Swortwood, Matthew N. Newmeyer, Maria Andersson, Osama A. Abulseoud, Karl B. Scheidweiler, Marilyn A. Huestis

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Oral fluid (OF) is an important matrix for monitoring drugs. Smoking cannabis is common, but vaporization and edible consumption also are popular. OF pharmacokinetics are available for controlled smoked cannabis, but few data exist for vaporized and oral routes. Frequent and occasional cannabis smokers were recruited as participants for four dosing sessions including one active (6.9% Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC) or placebo cannabis-containing brownie, followed by one active or placebo cigarette, or one active or placebo vaporized cannabis dose. Only one active dose was administered per session. OF was collected before and up to 54 (occasional) or 72 (frequent) h …

Rapid Testing Of Food Matrices For Bacillus Cereus Enterotoxins, Sandra M. Tallent, Jennifer M. Hait, Ann M. Knolhoff, Reginald W. Bennett, Thomas S. Hammack, Timothy R. Croley

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Nine different food products frequently associated with Bacillus cereus outbreaks were chosen as representative matrices to be evaluated with end-point polymerase chain reaction (PCR), enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, lateral flow device and mass spectrometry for detection of enterotoxins associated with human illness. Testing was performed on food portions inoculated with a bacterial strain and incubated at 30C for either 5 h or 24 h. A screening end-point multiplex PCR targeting enterotoxin genes including the emetic toxin and three diarrheal toxins, hemolytic hemolysin BL (Hbl), nonhemoltyic enterotoxin (Nhe), and cytolysin K. Commercially available kits were used to determine the presence/absence of …

Antiemetic Use Among Pregnant Women In The United States: The Escalating Use Of Ondansetron, Lockwood G. Taylor, Steven T. Bird, Leyla Sahin, Melissa S. Tassinari, Patty Greene, Marsha E. Reichman, Susan E. Andrade, Katherine Haffenreffer, Sengwee Toh

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Purpose To examine ondansetron use in pregnancy in the context of other antiemetic use among a large insured United States population of women delivering live births.

Methods We assessed ondansetron and other antiemetic use among pregnant women delivering live births between 2001 and 2015 in 15 data partners contributing data to the Mini-Sentinel Distributed Database. We identified live birth pregnancies using a validated algorithm, and all forms of ondansetron and other available antiemetics were identified using National Drug Codes or procedure codes. We assessed the prevalence of antiemetic use by trimester, calendar year, and formulation.

Results In over 2.3 million …

Certain Dyes As Pharmacologically Active Substances In Fish Farming And Other Aquaculture Products, Eric Verdon, Wendy C. Andersen

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

The last 40 years have brought enormous changes to the aquaculture industry. The farming of fish and of seafood products has been continuously increasing from 3.9% by weight in 1970 to 36% in 2006 according to theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.¹ The global trend of aquaculture development gaining importance in total fish supply has remained uninterrupted. Farmed food fish contributed a record 42.2% of the total 158 million tonnes of fish produced by capture fisheries and aquaculture in 2012 (Figure 9.1). This compares with just 13.4% in 1990 and 25.7% …

Food Safety Traceability, Yimin Wei, Boli Guo, Hongyan Liu, Shuai Wei, Jianrong Zhang

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

With globalized economics, it is becoming more frequent to trade food across country and regional borders, which leads to expanding and spreading of all kinds of food safety incidents and hazards. Mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease, avian flu and other zoonotic diseases pose a grave threat to food safety and human health, causing serious economic losses for food industries and causing social panic at the same time. In order to reduce the losses caused by such serious zoonotic diseases, as well as to ensure food safety, many countries have started to implement food safety traceability systems. The European …

Quality By Design: Process Trajectory Development For A Dynamic Pharmaceutical Coprecipitation Process Based On An Integrated Real‐Time Process Monitoring Strategy, Huiquan Wu, Mansoor A. Khan

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Increasing prevalence of poorly water‐soluble drugs in pharmaceutical development provides notable risks of new products demonstrating low and erratic bioavailability. This dissolution‐limited bioavailability may have consequences for safety and efficacy, particularly for drugs delivered by the oral route of administration. Several novel drug delivery technologies have been developed to improve drug solubility, dissolution rates, and bioavailability. Among those are solid dispersion, nanotechnology, supercritical fluid technology, lipid‐based technology, and crystal engineering. Although these strategies are available for enhancing the bioavailability of drugs with low aqueous solubility, the success of these approaches is not yet guaranteed and is greatly dependent on the …

Microbial Ecology Of Fresh Vegetables, J. Zheng, A. De Jesus, S. Sahu, A. E. Hayford, Y. Luo, A. R. Datta, E. W. Brown, R. Bell

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

The total consumption of fresh and processed vegetables has exceeded 123 kg per capita in the United States and 118 kg per capita in the European Union (http://www.helgilibrary.com/ indicators/index/vegetable‐consumption‐percapita) in 2009. Changes in lifestyles and consumption trends have prompted the sustained growth of fresh‐cut or minimally processed vegetables that are fresh and ready‐to‐eat (RTE). In 2011, for example, total US fresh‐cut produce sales through both food service and retail channels were estimated to surpass $27 billion (Cook et al., 2012).

Salmonella Inactivation During Extrusion Of An Oat Flour Model Food, Nathan M. Anderson, Susanne E. Keller, Niharika Mishra, Shannon Pickens, Dana Gradl, Tim Hartter, Galen Rokey, Christopher Dohl, Brian Plattner, Stuart Chirtel, Elizabeth M. Grasso-Kelley

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Little research exists on Salmonella inactivation during extrusion processing, yet many outbreaks associated with low water activity foods since 2006 were linked to extruded foods. The aim of this research was to study Salmonella inactivation during extrusion of a model cereal product. Oat flour was inoculated with Salmonella enterica serovar Agona, an outbreak strain isolated from puffed cereals, and processed using a single-screw extruder at a feed rate of 75 kg/h and a screw speed of 500 rpm. Extrudate samples were collected from the barrel outlet in sterile bags and immediately cooled in an ice–water bath. Populations were determined using …

Color And Power Doppler Combined With Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (Fine) To Evaluate The Fetal Heart, L. Yeo, R. Romero

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Objective To evaluate the performance of color and bidirectional power Doppler ultrasound combined with Fetal Intelligent Navigation Echocardiography (FINE) in examining the fetal heart.

Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted of fetuses in the second and third trimesters with a normal heart or with congenital heart disease (CHD). One or more spatiotemporal image correlation (STIC) volume datasets, combined with color or bidirectional power Doppler (S-flow) imaging, were acquired in the apical four-chamber view. Each successfully obtained STIC volume was evaluated by STICLoop™ to determine its appropriateness before applying the FINE method. Visualization rates for standard fetal echocardiography views using …

An Overview Of The Role Of Mathematical Models In Implementation Of Quality By Design Paradigm For Drug Development And Manufacture, Sharmista Chatterjee, Christine M.V. Moore, Moheb M. Nasr

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

A model is a representation of an underlying physical–chemical phenomenon. In the pharmaceutical industry, mathematical‐based models can be applied at all stages of development, starting with formulation design, continuing through process development and scale‐up, and extending into process monitoring and control of the commercial process. Implementation of models offers many benefits. These include, but are not limited to, (i) enhanced process understanding, (ii) reduction of experimentation cost, and (iii) improvement of productivity and product quality.

Models can be broadly categorized as either qualitative or quantitative. The focus of this chapter is quantitative models. These can be classified into three broad …

The Impact Of The Boxed Warning On The Duration Of Use For Depot Medroxprogesterone Acetate, Efe Eworuke, Joo-Yeon Lee, Lisa Soule, Vaishali Popat, David G. Moeny

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Objective The objective of this study was to examine the impact of the Food and Drug Administration’s boxed warning on the utilization of depot medroxyprogesterone (DMPA).

Methods From the IMS Lifelink data (2001–2009), we identified DMPA and oral combined hormonal contraceptive (CHC) users without a prescription claim 6 months before and after the first and last claim. Episodes were defined as all contiguous claims with no more than 90- day DMPA or 30-day CHC between claims. Days’ supply (CHC) and 90-day duration (DMPA) was used to determine episodes. We used interrupted time series to evaluate changes in the mean episode …

Modeling And Statistical Issues Related To Salmonella In Low Water Activity Foods, Sofia M. Santillana Farakos, Michelle Danyluk, Donald Schaffner, Régis Pouillot, Linda J. Harris, Bradley P. Marks

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

The presence and survival of Salmonella in low water activity (a_w) foods continues to pose a challenge for the food industry. Peer‐reviewed literature data on prevalence and levels of contamination of Salmonella in low water activity foods in the United States are limited. Available published data include those on: Salmonella contamination on nuts and peanuts (Calhoun et al., 2013), almonds (Danyluk et al., 2007; Bansal et al., 2010), pecans (Brar, Strawn, and Danyluk, 2016), and walnuts (Davidson et al., 2015); prevalence and levels of Salmonella on spices (Van Doren et al., 2013); as …

Disparities In Hypertension And Cardiovascular Disease In Blacks: The Critical Role Of Medication Adherence, Keith C. Ferdinand, Kapil Yadav, Samar A. Nasser, Helene D. Clayton-Jeter, John Lewin, Dennis R. Cryer, Fortunato Fred Senatore

United States Food and Drug Administration: Publications

Blacks are two to three times as likely as whites to die of preventable heart disease and stroke. Declines in mortality from heart disease have not eliminated racial disparities. Control and effective treatment of hypertension, a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, among blacks is less than in whites and remains a challenge. One of the driving forces behind this racial/ethnic disparity is medication nonadherence whose cause is embedded in social determinants. Eight practical approaches to addressing medication adherence with the potential to attenuate disparities were identified and include: (1) patient engagement strategies, (2) consumer-directed health care, (3) patient portals, (4) …