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How Complicated Can It Be? The Link Between Apol1 Risk Variants And Lipoprotein Heterogeneity In Kidney And Cardiovascular Diseases., Chien-An A Hu, Patricio E Ray

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

The beginning of human apolipoprotein L1 study (gene: APOL1; protein: ApoL1) originated from the identification of circulating ApoL1 as an interacting protein of ApoA1 and a minor component of high-density lipoprotein subfraction 3 (HDL3) in 1997 [1]. In the past 18 years, ApoL1 has been investigated in the context of complex human diseases such as African sleeping sickness, schizophrenia, host innate immunity, cancer, hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, stroke and type 2 diabetes [2–10]. A major breakthrough, however, was the documentation of two haplotypes of APOL1, harboring three coding-sequence mutations as risk variants associated with non-diabetic …

A Comparative Study Of Women’S Health Care: Non-Syrian Refugee Women Living In Amman And Syrian Refugee Women Living In Refugee Camps, Megan Kerstein

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this study is to compare access and quality of women’s health care in Amman for non-Syrian refugee women and women’s health care in Syrian refugee camps. I also sought to understand how women’s health care could be improved in both Amman and in Syrian refugee camps. I hypothesized that Syrian refugee women in camps will have less access and lower quality women’s health care since refugee camps’ funding is limited, making medical equipment and women’s health care providers short. Since women in Amman often have more stable family situations and jobs, I thought they would have more …

Comparison Of Two Commercial Dna Extraction Kits For The Analysis Of Nasopharyngeal Bacterial Communities, Marcos Pérez-Losada, Keith Crandall, Robert J. Freishtat

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Characterization of microbial communities via next-generation sequencing (NGS) requires an extraction ofmicrobial DNA. Methodological differences in DNA extraction protocols may bias results and complicate inter-study comparisons. Here we compare the effect of two commonly used commercial kits (Norgen and Qiagen)for the extraction of total DNA on estimatingnasopharyngeal microbiome diversity. The nasopharynxis a reservoir for pathogens associated with respiratory illnesses and a key player in understandingairway microbial dynamics.
Total DNA from nasal washes corresponding to 30 asthmatic children was extracted using theQiagenQIAamp DNA and NorgenRNA/DNA Purification kits and analyzed via IlluminaMiSeq16S rRNA V4 ampliconsequencing. The Norgen samples included more sequence reads …

Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy In Rural Maharashtra: A Preventative Approach To Risk Factor Reduction Through Lifestyle Interventions, Jess Wiken

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The primary purpose of this study is to assess the contribution and correlation between lifestyle behaviors and modifiable risk factors (MRF) established in adolescence and during pregnancy with development of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) exclusive to preeclampsia (PE), eclampsia, and pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH). MRF include but are not exclusive to diet and nutrition, physical activity, and Mishri use. Associations of HDP with increased premature cardiovascular risk in the affected woman and child indicate the importance of healthy lifestyle modifications that promote cardiovascular health and longevity and reduction of risk factors through prevention. While cardiac conditions are primarily associated …

Investigating The Role Of The Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factor Mist1 In Pancreatic Diseases, Anju Karki

Open Access Dissertations

Acinar cells of the exocrine pancreas are dedicated to synthesize, package and secrete immense quantities of pro-digestive enzymes to maintain proper metabolic homeostasis for the organism. Dysregulation of enzyme secretion in acinar cells can give rise to exocrine diseases including acute pancreatitis (AP), a disease that targets acinar cells, leading to acinar-ductal metaplasia (ADM), inflammation and fibrosis—events that can transition into the earliest stages of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The focus of this thesis is to interrogate transcriptional regulatory networks that are susceptible to AP and the role that these networks play in acinar cell and exocrine pancreas responses. The …

Influence Of The 3d Microenvironment On Glioblastoma Migration And Drug Response, Ruth Marisol Herrera Perez

Open Access Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly invasive brain cancer characterized by poor prognosis. Despite significant efforts by the basic and clinical research community our understanding of GBM progression and recurrence has been incremental. Improvements in therapeutic response have been dismal, and GBM continues to be the deadliest tumor of the central nervous system, with patient average survival rate of 12 months. Synergistic relationships that the tumor cells establish with the brain microenvironment have been proven fundamental for successful tumor progression and maintenance. Yet, many in vitro GBM studies are performed in formats that fail to recapitulate the most essential component of …

Oncolog, Volume 61, Number 04, April 2016, Joe Munch, Bryan Tutt, K Werner

OncoLog MD Anderson's Report to Physicians (All issues) Archives

• Aggressive Multimodality Salvage Therapy for Locally Recurrent Rectal Cancer Offers Hope to Patients: For patients with locally recurrent rectal cancer, multimodality salvage therapy presents the only chance for a cure. Such therapy is offered at just a handful of specialized referral institutions, including The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
• Rapid Assessment, Clinical Trials Could Improve Outcomes for Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Patients: Anaplastic thyroid cancer is extremely aggressive-only 20% of patients survive 1 year after their diagnosis-so patients require immediate assessment and treatment. A program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center expedites the care of patients …

Evaluation Of Polymorphic Locus Sequence Typing For Candida Glabrata Epidemiology., Santosh Katiyar, Eric Shiffrin, Md, Celeste Shelton, Kelley Healey, John-Paul Vermitsky, Tom Edlind

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

The opportunistic yeastCandida glabratais increasingly refractory to antifungal treatment or prophylaxis and relatedly is increasingly implicated in health care-associated infections. To elucidate the epidemiology of these infections, strain typing is required. Sequence-based typing provides multiple advantages over length-based methods, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE); however, conventional multilocus sequence typing (targeting 6 conserved loci) and whole-genome sequencing are impractical for routine use. A commercial sequence-based typing service forC. glabratathat targets polymorphic tandem repeat-containing loci has recently been developed. These CgMT-J and CgMT-M services were evaluated with 56 epidemiologically unrelated isolates, 4 to 7 fluconazole-susceptible or fluconazole-resistant isolates from each of …

The Write Stuff - Spring 2016 (Vol. 13, No. 2), Research Medical Library

Write Stuff 2016

• Grant-writing workshop and mock study section now available to help grant applicants
• Must authors highlight minor text changes in revised manuscripts?
• Using ORCID’s unique identifier to link your name with your publications
• Finding the information you need to navigate the recent NIH grant-application changes
• ICMJE updates its influential Recommendations for scientific publishing
• Summer schedule for the Research Medical Library webinar program
• Unusual terms used in scientific writing and publishing: IMRAD

Exploring Oculomotor Trends In Collegiate Athletes, Brett Whorley, Julie A. Honaker

UCARE: Research Products

Collaborative efforts to improve athlete safety without significantly hindering the rules of the games aim to develop a novel system to better measure and diagnose concussions. Provided that common signs of concussions include blurred vision, distant gaze, and dizziness, the Dizziness and Balance Disorders Lab at UNL believes that the simple oculomotor exam studied in this project may be applied to this procedure. Within the broader goal to better understand the causes, signs, symptoms, and prognosis of concussions, researchers desired to further investigate the results of this oculomotor test. The aim was to identify and interpret correlations between collegiate athlete …

Reliability And Validity Of An Observational Measure Of Client Decision-Making: The Client Language Assessment - Proximal/Distal (Cla-Pd)., Molly Magill, Timothy R. Apodaca, Mitchell Karno, Jacques Gaume, Ayla Durst, Justin Walthers, Robert L. Stout, Carlo Diclemente

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OVERVIEW: The Client Language Assessment - Proximal/Distal (CLA-PD) is a language rating system for measuring client decision-making in interventions that target a specified behavior change (e.g., alcohol or other drug use). In the CLA-PD, there are five dimensions of change language (Reason, Ability, Commitment, Taking Steps, Other) adapted from the client portion of the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code (MISC). For the CLA-PD, language codes are sub-divided to discriminate statements regarding the primary, or target behavior change (distal change) from the intermediate coping activities (proximal change) that are prescribed to facilitate that target behavior change. The goal of the CLA-PD is …

Chondroinduction From Naturally Derived Cartilage Matrix: A Comparison Between Devitalized And Decellularized Cartilage Encapsulated In Hydrogel Pastes., Emily C. Beck, Marilyn Barragan, Tony B. Libeer, Sarah L. Kieweg, Gabriel L. Converse, Richard A. Hopkins, Cory J. Berkland, Michael S. Detamore

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Hydrogel precursors are liquid solutions that are prone to leaking after surgical placement. This problem was overcome by incorporating either decellularized cartilage (DCC) or devitalized cartilage (DVC) microparticles into traditional photocrosslinkable hydrogel precursors in an effort to achieve a paste-like hydrogel precursor. DCC and DVC were selected specifically for their potential to induce chondrogenesis of stem cells, given that materials that are chondroinductive on their own without growth factors are a revolutionary goal in orthopedic medicine. We hypothesized that DVC, lacking the additional chemical processing steps in DCC to remove cell content, would lead to a more chondroinductive hydrogel with …

Intimin Likely Used To Cause Disease During Competition With Commensal Escherichia Coli, Dominique J. Richburg

Senior Honors Theses

The intimin gene in the Locus of Enterocyte Effacement (LEE) island of pathogenicity is the primary attachment mechanism in Citrobacter rodentium. Intimin is a bacterial adhesin (protein) that attaches to obtain a niche/nutrient and thrive within the intestine. Intimin was deleted within C. rodentium to study colonization and pathogenesis in the murine intestine. Additionally, C. rodentium is an attaching/effacing pathogen, and a useful murine model in understanding Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) infection in humans. E. coli and C. rodentium cause gastroenteritis in humans and mice, respectively. C. rodentium is a murine pathogen commonly used to model gastrointestinal disease because …

Reinforcement Learning, Error-Related Negativity, And Genetic Risk For Alzheimer's Disease, Christina Marie Figueroa

Dissertations (1934 -)

Reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely used as a model of animal and human learning and decision-making. The neural networks underlying RL involve many of the same structures primarily affected by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) such as the hippocampus. Yet, RL and non-invasive evaluation of its neural underpinnings have been underutilized as a framework for understanding disease pathology and its pre-clinical states. This study aimed to provide a novel approach for assessing subtle changes in asymptomatic apolipoprotein-E (APOE) carriers and non-carriers. Electroencephalography was collected from forty APOE genotyped older adults (Male n = 11; Mage = 79.30; Meducation = 14.88 years) …

Targeting Interventions To Reduce Chlamydia-Related Disparities In Kalamazoo County Using Gis And Statistical Analysis, Claudio Owusu

Masters Theses

The annual incident rates of chlamydia continue to rise within Kalamazoo County despite an increase in public health campaign, particularly for persons between the ages of 15-24. This trend in incidence rates of chlamydia by age also shows strong disparities in race/ethnicity and gender at state and county levels. With the increasing burden on the cost of treatment of chlamydia, which is one of the many sexually transmitted infections, targeting high risk populations offers a means of reducing the cost and the spread of the infection. This has shaped attention of researchers and policy makers to the complexity of the …

Treatment And Prevention Of Human Rotavirus (Hrv) In Developing Countries: The Potential Of Avian Immunoglobulin Y, Christa Brown

Senior Honors Theses

Rotavirus gastroenteritis is a leading cause of childhood mortality, killing ~1400 children younger than five daily, primarily through severe diarrheal dehydration. Eighty-five percent of this mortality occurs in developing countries where rotavirus vaccines are not widely implemented and are only partially effective. In those countries, it has proven difficult to implement the recommended supportive therapies like oral rehydration therapy (ORT) on a wide scale due to lack of both medical infrastructure and private economic investment combined with cultural bias against ORT. IgY targeting human rotavirus (anti-HRV IgY) shows potential as a passive immunotherapy that reduces rotavirus-associated morbidity and mortality, augments …

Perceptions Of Medical Students Regarding Dimensions Of Environmental Wellness, Shahjahan Katpar, Rakhshaan Khan, Rabia Siddiqu, Mehwish Hussain, Rehana Rehman

Department of Surgery Docs

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

To explore the status of awareness on environmental wellness in medical students of Karachi.

METHODS:

The cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was carried out at Bahria University Medical & Dental College, Karachi, from January 2009 to July 2013, and comprised randomly selected medical students. The response options were; never, sometimes, mostly and always (numbered 0-4) and these were analyzed in terms of frequency, proportion and percentages by Predictive analysis software version18.

RESULTS:

Out of 800 questionnaires distributed, 736(92%) were received fully completed. There were 210(28.5%) male and 526(71.5%) female respondents, with a male-to-female ratio of 1:2.5. Female medical students were …

Labrad : Vol 42, Issue 1 - April 2016, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi

LABRAD - Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Radiology Archives

• Biochemical Bone Profiles Available at Clinical Laboratoryof Aga Khan University Hospital
• Ionized Calcium Determination in Clinical Labortory
• Parathyroid Hormone Disorders and Issues of Testing
• Tubular Maximum Reabsorption Rate of Phosphate to Glomerular Filtration Rate (TmP/GFR)
• Renal Osteodystrophy: A Disturbed Metabolic Aspect of Renal Failure
• Update on Microbiological Diagnosis of Bone and Joint Disorders
• Classification of Tumours of Bone : An Update Based on the 2013 World Health Organization Classification of Tumours of Soft Tissue and Bone
• Recent Developments in Benign Bone Tumours
• Role of Clinical and Radiological Correlation in Orthopaedic Pathology
• CME Seminar on ‘World Osteoporosis Day’

Targeting Histone Deacetylases In Melanoma And T-Cells To Improve Cancer Immunotherapy, Andressa Sodre De Castro Laino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are key mediators of gene expression and, thus, major regulators of cell function. As such, HDACs play a role in orchestrating tumor biology, and the use of small inhibitors targeting theses proteins is attractive for the field of cancer therapy. Indeed, several HDAC inhibitors have received FDA-approval for the treatment of malignancies, while a myriad of these compounds continue to be evaluated in clinical trials. Besides their direct impact on tumor growth, HDAC inhibitors have been shown to increase immunogenicity of cancer cells, facilitating generation of a productive immune response against tumors. Immunotherapeutic approaches take advantage of …

Presenting Features, Treatment Patterns And Outcomes Of Patients With Breast Cancer In Pakistan: Experience At A University Hospital, Kumar S, Shaikh A. J, Rashid Ya, Masood N, Mohammed Atv, Malik Uz, Ghulam H

Department of Medicine

BACKGROUND:

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Pakistani women. We report the presenting features, treatment patterns and survival of breast cancer from a University Hospital in Southern Pakistan and compare the data with international population based studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Medical records of patients diagnosed to have breast cancer between January 1999 and November 2008 were reviewed retrospectively.

RESULTS:

A total of 845 patients were identified. Median age of diagnosis was 48 years (range 18-92). Clinical stage was as follows: Stage I 9.9%; Stage II 48.5%; Stage III 26.2%; Stage IV 13.8%; data not available 1.5%. Approximately, half …

Endothelial To Mesenchymal Transition (Endomt) In The Pathogenesis Of Systemic Sclerosis-Associated Pulmonary Fibrosis And Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Myth Or Reality?, Sergio A. Jimenez, Sonsoles Piera-Velazquez

Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Faculty Papers

Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of skin and multiple internal organs and severe functional and structural microvascular alterations. SSc is considered to be the prototypic systemic fibrotic disorder. Despite currently available therapeutic approaches SSc has a high mortality rate owing to the development of SSc-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), complications that have emerged as the most frequent causes of disability and mortality in SSc. The pathogenesis of the fibrotic process in SSc is complex and despite extensive investigation the exact mechanisms have remained elusive. Myofibroblasts are the cells …

The Liberty Study: Design Of A Prospective, Observational, Multicenter Trial To Evaluate The Acute And Long-Term Clinical And Economic Outcomes Of Real-World Endovascular Device Interventions In Treating Peripheral Artery Disease., George L Adams, Jihad Mustapha, William Gray, Nick J Hargus, Brad J Martinsen, Gary Ansel, Michael R Jaff

Heart and Vascular Articles

Background: Most peripheral artery disease (PAD) clinical device trials are supported by commercial manufacturers and designed for regulatory device approval, with extensive inclusion/exclusion criteria to support homogeneous patient populations. High-risk patients with advanced disease, including critical limb ischemia (CLI), are often excluded leading to difficulty in translating trial results into real-world clinical practice. As a result, physicians have no direct guidance regarding the use of endovascular devices. There is a need for objectively assessed studies to evaluate clinical, functional, and economic outcomes in PAD patient populations.

Study design: LIBERTY is a prospective, observational, multicenter study sponsored by Cardiovascular Systems Inc …

Correlation Between Spiritual Aspect And Serum Interleukin-6level In Chronic Hemodialysis Patients, Wika Hanida, E Mudjaddid, Habibah Hanum Nasution, Hamzah Shatri

Jurnal Penyakit Dalam Indonesia

Introduction. Holistic approach in psychosomatic focus on spirituality factor and spiritual support is expected to improve services and psychological condition of the patients. Inflammatory response during hemodialisis procedure hence increased with the evidence of increasing level of serum interleukin-6 (IL-6). Further research is still needed to see the spiritual factors that can decrease the inflammatory factors. Methods. Cross sectional study on 51 chronic hemodialisis patients at RSUP. H. Adam Malik and RSU dr. Pirngadi Medan between July-August 2014. Serum IL-6 was measured using quantitative enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Blood samples and spiritual aspect assessment by handing out FACIT …

The Difference In Prevalence Of Helicobacter Pylori Infectionbetween Chinese And Dayak Ethnics With Dyspepsia Syndrome, Willy Brodus Uwan, Ari Fahrial Syam, C. Rinaldi A. Lesmana, C Martin Rumende

Jurnal Penyakit Dalam Indonesia

Introduction. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection risk is associated with many factors related to host-agent-environment. Ethnicity is one of the host factors which was the most studied factor overseas. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was found higher in certain ethnic such among Chinese. Based on migration and transmission theory, it was suspected that H. pylori infection was transmitted by people migrating from areas with a high prevalence of infection to the destination area. Chinese in West Borneo are originated from South China region where the prevalence of H. pylori infection is high. It is estimated that there are differences …

The Role Of Lactate Clearance In Severe Septic Patients Survival, Wirawan Hambali, Lie Khie Chen, Djoko Widodo, Esthika Dewiasty, Herdiman T. Pohan, Suhendro Suhendro

Jurnal Penyakit Dalam Indonesia

Introduction. Severe Sepsis is a major health problem that known to results high mortality rate, and still its incidents continue to rise. Lactate clearance represents kinetics alteration of anaerobic metabolism in severe septic patients that makes it to become a potential parameter to evaluate severity of one’s illness and intervention adequacy that received by the patient. However, the relationship between lactate clearance and occurrence of death in severe septic patients is still unknown. Methods. This is a prospective cohort study that conducted in Ciptomangunkusumo Hospital, from March to May 2011. Patients were categorized into high lactate clearance group if there …

A Model Of Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, And Vaso-Vagal Responses Produced By Vestibulo-Sympathetic Activation, Theodore Raphan, Bernard Cohen, Yongqing Xiang, Sergei B. Yakushin

Publications and Research

Blood Pressure (BP), comprised of recurrent systoles and diastoles, is controlled by central mechanisms to maintain blood flow. Periodic behavior of BP was modeled to study how peak amplitudes and frequencies of the systoles are modulated by vestibular activation. The model was implemented as a relaxation oscillator, driven by a central signal related to Desired BP. Relaxation oscillations were maintained by a second order system comprising two integrators and a threshold element in the feedback loop. The output signal related to BP was generated as a nonlinear function of the derivative of the first state variable, which is a summation …

Cutis Verticis Gyrata In A Patient With Multiple Basal Cell Carcinomas; Case Presentation And Review Of The Literature, Simona Roxana Georgescu, Maria Isabela Sârbu, Cristina Iulia Mitran, Mădălina Irina Mitran, Alice Rusu, Vasile Benea, Mircea Tampa

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Cutis verticis gyrata is a rare disease characterized by convoluted folds and deep furrows of the scalp, resembling the gyri and sulci of the cerebral cortex. Basal cell carcinoma is the most frequent cancer in Caucasians, patients frequently presenting multiple tumors. We report the case of a 62 year old male, Caucasian patient, from the urban area, who addressed the dermatology department of our hospital for multiple tumors located on the face and upper trunk. A careful examination revealed cerebriform folding of the skin of the scalp. Neurological, psychological, ophthalmological and endocrine disorders were disproven. The patient was diagnosed with …

Psychological Profile Of Laryngectomized Patients, Bogdan Popescu, Oana A. Paun, Razvan V. Scaunasu, Cristian Balalau, Serban V. Bertesteanu

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Larynx cancer is one of the most susceptible form of cancer susceptible to induce alteration of the patient’s psychological profile due to the social role that the larynx has in communication. Oral communication is severely impaired even after voice rehabilitation of the laryngectomized patients, so that the social rehabilitation is somewhat not only a medical but also a social problem. The psychological profile of these patients is altered in a way that dealing with the disease is sometimes neglected and the interaction with the outside world in terms of oral communication is totally abandoned. The starting point for depression in …

Conservative Surgery Of Breast Cancer In Women; Psychological Benefits, Razvan V. Scaunasu Md, Traean Burcoș, Ștefan Voiculescu, Bogdan A. Popescu, Șerban V. Bertesteanu, Oana-Denisa Bălălău, Nicolae Bacalbasa, Cristian Bălălău

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Breast surgery was one of the most dynamic fields of medicine which benefited from significant progress during the last decades. The transition from aggressive and mutilating amputations to conservative, oncoplastic and reconstructive techniques has been constant, offering improved and rewarding results, viewed from both, oncological and aesthetical perspectives.

Conservative techniques, especially those which preserve the nipple areola complex, are followed by improved patient’s perception of their body image, confidence and sexuality, with the only drawback of increased anxiety linked to recurrence risk.

The Mind Body Problem, Part Three: Ascension Of Sexual Function To Cerebral Level, Ion G. Motofei, David L. Rowland

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Physiologically, the somatic nervous system intervenes in external interaction between the body and environment, while autonomic nervous system ensures the functioning of internal organs. We present in this paper a psycho-physiological perspective suggesting that mental function (somatic in nature, because coordinates environmental interaction) is closer to and more aligned with the physiologic functioning of autonomic nervous system (due to autonomy, duality, etc.). At opposite end, sexual function (autonomic in nature, erection for example being a parasympathetic vasodilatory reflex) seems to be compatible and even dependent by a somatic participation (erectile response is rather induced by environmental stimuli than internal visceral …