Environmental Public Health Commons^™

Environmental Exposures And Aging., Daniel Chris Gomes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, research into air pollution has shown that exposure to certain components in air pollution, primarily PM2.5 can accelerate biological aging and thereby lead to increased susceptibility to multiple diseases. We hypothesize that prolonged exposure to air pollutants can result in premature aging leading to extensive tissue dysfunction and susceptibility to diseases. To examine this, we exposed mice to PM2.5 for 9, 15, and 21 days, then measured the telomere lengths, cellular senescence, and histone methylation patterns of multiple cell types. We found consistently increased telomere attrition, cellular senescence and advanced age-consistent histone methylation patterns in groups exposed …

Assessing The Impact Of Ebola Virus Inoculum Size On Likelihood Of Infection, Joseph Lukowski

Capstone Experience

Background: Indirect transmission of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is not uncommon but is poorly understood. Improving the understanding of the potential risk of EVD transmission from fomites should result in new or updated prevention or control measures for suspected or confirmed EVD cases or outbreaks.

Objective: This study aims to compile and understand pertinent data from peer-reviewed literature, establish the dose-response relationship between inoculum doses introduced to mucous membranes, and finally estimate the risk of EVD transmission from fomites.

Methods: A literature search was conducted through PubMed to obtain relevant data. This study employed this data to perform Poisson regression …