Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Matter Of Trust: The Impact Of Transcultural Communication Between Culturally Diverse Nursing Staff, Patricia Reed

Theses and Graduate Projects

The diversity in the U.S. population is increasing. Nurse Managers today are challenged by not only a changing health care system but also one that is more culturally diverse than ever. It is also important to recognize the influence culture has on personal relationships, productivity and performance. Expectations about work styles, communication patterns, role relationships, taking initiative and concepts of time are all examples of factors that are influenced by culture. The purpose of this project is to help nursing staff (registered nurses and patient care assistants) come to understand their cultural differences and how these differences impact their ...

Conceptual Problems In Research Ethics, Charles Weijer

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

This poster addresses these issues:
• What good is medical research?
• What is owed to the study subject?
• When is research risk acceptable?
• How should we conduct research in developing countries?
• How should we conduct research involving communities?

Never The Twain Shall Meet? Interspecialty Bioethics Education And Practice In Relation To Informed Consent For Surgery-Related Anesthesia, Kyoko Wada, Abraham Rudnick

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

The objectives of this research project are:

• Identify and analyze ethical problems concerning known practices regarding informed consent for surgery-related anesthesia
• Propose solutions to these problems, with a focus on interspecialty bioethics education

Researchers’ Views On Ethical Challenges In Healthcare Cluster-Randomized Trials, Andrew Mcrae

Research Day (Arts & Humanities, FIMS, and Education)

• Cluster-randomized trials (CRTs) commonly used in education, public health, healthcare and social sciences
• Groups of individuals randomly assigned to receive one of 2 (or more) comparator interventions
• Effect of interventions evaluated after collecting data from individual group members
• Ethics guidelines developed for oversight of research enrolling individual subjects
• Little specific guidance for ethical conduct of CRTs
• Lack of guidance may lead to variability in ethics reviews between jurisdictions and over time

Electronic Medical Records: Is It Working In Long Term Health Care?, Krista Phillips, Chris Wheeler, Josh Campbell, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Long-term care (LTC) facilities possess unique characteristics in terms of implementation and utilization of electronic medical records (EMRs). The focus of LTC is on a population requiring care encompassing all aspects associated with quality of life rather than simply acute treatment. Because this focus is of a larger scale than traditional medical facilities, the priorities in the implementation and utilization of EMRs are higher in accessing patient history information. The purpose of this study was to determine the EMR utilization in the chronic care settings. In conclusion, the literature review performed does not support the fact that EMRs are currently ...

Management Of Kawasaki Disease In Texas: Policy Implications, Alberto Coustasse, Doohee Lee, Cody Arvidson, Julius J. Larry Iii, Witold Migala

Management Faculty Research

Kawasaki Disease (KD) is the leading cause of acquired cardiovascular disease among children, but KD has received little attention on its management from a policy perspective. The core objective of this paper is to review the literature, identify problems related to KD, and evaluate and offer some policy alternatives to effectively prevent and treat KD epidemiologically in Texas. Policy options suggested in this paper include, among others, (1) establishing a mandatory national KD registry system (along with active surveillance), (2) introducing sentinel providers, (3) requiring mandatory reporting of KD by hospitals, and (4) sponsoring policy KD research and practice.

Conceptual Problems In Research Ethics, Charles Weijer

Charles Weijer

This poster addresses these issues:
• What good is medical research?
• What is owed to the study subject?
• When is research risk acceptable?
• How should we conduct research in developing countries?
• How should we conduct research involving communities?

Consumer Consent Options For Electronic Health Information Exchange: Policy Considerations And Analysis, Melissa M. Goldstein, Alison L. Rein

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

The issue of whether, to what extent, and how individuals should have the ability to exercise control over their health information represents one of the foremost policy challenges related to the electronic exchange of health information. The current landscape of possible consent models is varied, and the factors involved in choosing among them are complex. States and other entities engaged in facilitating the exchange of electronic health information are struggling with a host of challenges, chief among them the establishment of policies and procedures for patient participation in their exchange efforts. While some have adopted policies enabling patients to exercise ...

Water, Sanitation And Hygiene For The Prevention Of Diarrhoea, Sandy Cairncross, Caroline Hunt, Sophie Boisson, Kristof Bostoen, Val Curtis, Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, Wolf-Peter Schmidt

Isaac Chun-Hai Fung

Background: Ever since John Snow's intervention on the Broad St pump, the effect of water quality, hygiene and sanitation in preventing diarrhoea deaths has always been debated. The evidence identified in previous reviews is of variable quality, and mostly relates to morbidity rather than mortality.
Methods: We drew on three systematic reviews, two of them for the Cochrane Collaboration, focussed on the effect of handwashing with soap on diarrhoea, of water quality improvement and of excreta disposal, respectively. The estimated effect on diarrhoea mortality was determined by applying the rules adopted for this supplement, where appropriate.
Results: The striking ...

Transcriptional Regulation Of Vegfa By Unfolded Protein Response Signaling Pathway, Rajarshi Ghosh

GSBS Dissertations and Theses

The endoplasmic reticulum is the primary organelle in the cell which has the responsibility of properly folding proteins belonging to the secretory pathway. Secretory proteins are essential for a variety of functions within the body like metabolism, growth and survival. Hence, proper folding of the proteins in the ER is absolutely essential to maintain cellular and body function. The environment of the ER is substantially different from that of the cytoplasm and is primed essentially to provide the optimum conditions to fold newly synthesized polypeptides following translation by the ribosomes in the cytoplasm and on the surface of the ER ...

Diagnosis Of Enteric Fever In The Emergency Department: A Retrospective Study From Pakistan., Uzma R. Khan, J. Razzak, Ali Faisal Saleem Dr, Adnan Ahmed, Sabeena Jalal

Department of Emergency Medicine

Background:Enteric fever is one of the top differential diagnoses of fever in many parts of the world. Generally, the diagnosis is suspected and treatment is initiated based on clinical and basic laboratory parameters.
Aims: The present study identifies the clinical and laboratory parameters predicting enteric fever in Patients visiting the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan.
Methods:This is a retrospective chart review of all adult Patients with clinically suspected enteric fever admitted to the hospital through the emergency department during a 5-year period (2000-2005).
Results:A total of 421 emergency department Patients were admitted to ...

Bone Marrow Stromal Cells Use Tgf-Β To Suppress Allergic Responses In A Mouse Model Of Ragweed-Induced Asthma, K. Nemeth, A. Keane-Myers, J. M. Brown, D. D. Metcalfe, J. D. Gorham

Open Dartmouth: Published works by Dartmouth faculty

Bone marrow stromal cells [BMSCs; also known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)] effectively suppress inflammatory responses in acute graft-versus-host disease in humans and in a number of disease models in mice. Many of the studies concluded that BMSC- driven immunomodulation is mediated by the suppression of pro- inflammatory Th1 responses while rebalancing the Th1/Th2 ratio toward Th2. In this study, using a ragweed induced mouse asthma model, we studied if BMSCs could be beneficial in an allergic, Th2- dominant environment. When BMSCs were injected i.v. at the time of the antigen challenge, they protected the animals from the ...

Rbc And Wbc Fatty Acid Composition Following Consumption Of An Omega 3 Supplement: Lessons For Future Clinical Trials, Theodore R. Witte, Alexander J. Salazar, Oscar F. Ballester, W. Elaine Hardman

Biochemistry and Microbiology

Background: Results from increasing numbers of in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated that omega 3 fatty acids incorporated in cell culture media or in the diet of the animals can suppress the growth of cancers. When human clinical trials are initiated to determine the ability of omega 3 fatty acids to alter growth or response to chemotherapeutic interventions of cancers, it will be essential to determine the omega 3 intake of individuals in the trial to determine compliance with consumption of the supplement and to correlate with endpoints of efficacy. We wondered if the fatty acid composition of ...

Reasons To Pass Health Reform, Robert B. Leflar, Hershey Garner Md

Robert B Leflar

Column 5 (of 5) on the health reform debate

Alcoholic Liver Disease And The Gut-Liver Axis, Gyongyi Szabo, Shashi Bala

Gastroenterology Publications

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is one of the leading causes of liver diseases and liver-related death worldwide. Of the many factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of ALD, gut-derived lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plays a central role in induction of steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis in the liver. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms by which alcohol contributes to increased gut permeability, the activation of Kupffer cells, and the inflammatory cascade by LPS. The role of the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) complex in LPS recognition and the importance of the TLR4-induced signaling pathways are evaluated in ALD.

Trpm7-Mediated Ca2+ Signals Confer Fibrogenesis In Human Atrial Fibrillation, Jianyang Du, Jia Xie, Zheng Zhang, Hiroto Tsujikawa, Daniel Fusco, David Silverman, Bruce Liang, Lixia Yue

UCHC Articles - Research

Rationale—Cardiac fibrosis contributes to pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF), which is the most sustained arrhythmia and a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Although it has been suggested that Ca2+ signals are involved in fibrosis promotion, the molecular basis of Ca2+ signaling mechanisms and how Ca2+ signals contribute to fibrogenesis remain unknown.
Objective—To determine the molecular mechanisms of Ca2+-permeable channel(s) in human atrial fibroblasts, and to investigate how Ca2+ signals contribute to fibrogenesis in human AF.
Methods and Results—We demonstrate that the transient receptor potential melastatin related 7 (TRPM7) is the molecular basis of the ...

Association Of Depression With Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Among Adults Aged Between 25 To 60 Years In Karachi, Pakistan., Shazia Perveen, Muhammad S Otho, Muhammad N Siddiqi, Juanita Hatcher, Ghazala Rafique

Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Background:The combination of depression with type 2 diabetes is a public health problem. If diabetes is managed in its initial phase, the morbidity and mortality due to this combination may be prevented at an early stage. Therefore, we aimed to determine the association of depression with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes among adults aged between 25 to 60 years in Karachi, Pakistan.

Methods:

From July 2006 to September 2007, a matched case control study (n = 592) was conducted in Civil Hospital, Karachi. Incident cases of type 2 diabetes (n = 296) diagnosed within one month were recruited from diabetic Out ...

Metagenomes From High-Temperature Chemotrophic Systems Reveal Geochemical Controls On Microbial Community Structure And Function, William P. Inskeep, Douglas B. Rusch, Zackary J. Jay, Markus J. Herrgard, Mark A. Kozubal, Toby H. Richardson, Richard E. Macur, Natsuko Hamamura, Ryan Dem. Jennings, Bruce W. Fouke, Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Frank Roberto, Mark Young, Ariel Schwartz, Eric S. Boyd, Jonathan H. Badger, Eric J. Mathur, Alice C. Ortmann, Mary Bateson, Gill Geesey

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Yellowstone caldera contains the most numerous and diverse geothermal systems on Earth, yielding an extensive array of unique high-temperature environments that host a variety of deeply-rooted and understudied Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya. The combination of extreme temperature and chemical conditions encountered in geothermal environments often results in considerably less microbial diversity than other terrestrial habitats and offers a tremendous opportunity for studying the structure and function of indigenous microbial communities and for establishing linkages between putative metabolisms and element cycling. Metagenome sequence (14-15,000 Sanger reads per site) was obtained for five hightemperature (>65°C) chemotrophic microbial communities sampled ...

Efficient Activation Of Reconstructed Rat Embryos By Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors, Robin L. Webb, Kirk A. Findlay, Michael A. Green, Tina L. Beckett, M. Paul Murphy

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Background

Over the last decade a number of species, from farm animals to rodents, have been cloned using somatic cell nuclear transfer technology (SCNT). This technique has the potential to revolutionize the way that genetically modified animals are made. In its current state, the process of SCNT is very inefficient (<5% success rate), with several technical and biological hurdles hindering development. Yet, SCNT provides investigators with powerful advantages over other approaches, such as allowing for prescreening for the desired level of transgene expression and eliminating the excess production of undesirable wild-type animals. The rat plays a significant role in biomedical research, but SCNT has been problematic for this species. In this study, we address one aspect of the problem by evaluating methods of activation in artificially constructed rat embryos.

Principal Findings

We demonstrate that treatment with a calcium ionophore (ionomycin) combined with a variety of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors is an effective way to activate rat embryos. This is in contrast to methods developed for the mouse embryo, which tolerates much less specific chemical treatments. Methods developed to activate mouse ...

A Simple And Extractionless High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem-Mass Spectrometry (Hplc-Ms/Ms) Method For The Detection And Quantitation Of Rosiglitazone In Canine Plasma, Sara Frazier

Sara Allstadt, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM (Oncology)

15 minutes.