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Health Status And Resources Of Rural Homeless Women And Children, Martha Craft-Rosenberg, S. Powell, Kennith Culp

Martha J. Craft-Rosenberg

The purpose of this research is to describe the health status and health resources for homeless women and children in a Midwestern rural community. A group of 31 rural homeless women in a shelter participated in the study by answering questions on the Rural Homeless Interview developed by the investigators. The findings revealed higher than expected rates of illness, accidents, and adverse life events, with the incidence ofsubstance abuse and mental illness being comparable to data from other homeless populations. The data on children were limited by lack of knowledge on the part of their mothers. Some mothers reported that …

Prevalence Of Streptococci And Increased Polymicrobial Diversity Associated With Cystic Fibrosis Patient Stability, L. M. Filkins, T. H. Hampton, A. H. Gifford, M. J. Gross, D. A. Hogan, M. L. Sogin, H. G. Morrison, B. J. Paster, G. A. O'Toole

Dartmouth Scholarship

Diverse microbial communities chronically colonize the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. Pyrosequencing of amplicons for hypervariable regions in the 16S rRNA gene generated taxonomic profiles of bacterial communities for sputum genomic DNA samples from 22 patients during a state of clinical stability (outpatients) and 13 patients during acute exacerbation (inpatients). We employed quantitative PCR (qPCR) to confirm the detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus by the pyrosequencing data and human oral microbe identification microarray (HOMIM) analysis to determine the species of the streptococci identified by pyrosequencing. We show that outpatient sputum samples have significantly higher bacterial diversity than inpatients, but …

Evidence On The Human Health Effects Of Low-Level Methylmercury Exposure, Margaret R. Karagas, Anna L. Choi, Emily Oken, Milena Horvat, Rita Schoeny, Elizabeth Kamai, Whitney Cowell, Philippe Grandjean, Susan Korrick

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Methylmercury (MeHg) is a known neuro-toxicant. Emerging evidence indicates it may have adverse effects on the neuro-logic and other body systems at common low levels of exposure. Impacts of MeHg exposure could vary by individual susceptibility or be confounded by bene-ficial nutrients in fish containing MeHg. Despite its global relevance, synthesis of the available literature on low-level MeHg exposure has been limited.

Objectives: We undertook a synthesis of the current knowledge on the human health effects of low-level MeHg exposure to provide a basis for future research efforts, risk assessment, and exposure remediation policies worldwide.

Data sources and extraction: …

Periprosthetic Joint Infection: Are Patients With Multiple Prosthetic Joints At Risk?, S Mehdi Jafari, David S Casper, Camilo Restrepo, Benjamin Zmistowski, Javad Parvizi, Peter F Sharkey

Rothman Institute Faculty Papers

Patients who present with a periprosthetic joint infection in a single joint may have multiple prosthetic joints. The risk of these patients developing a subsequent infection in another prosthetic joint is unknown. Our purposes were (1) to identify the risk of developing a subsequent infection in another prosthetic joint and (2) to describe the time span and organism profile to the second prosthetic infection. We retrospectively identified 55 patients with periprosthetic joint infection who had another prosthetic joint in place at the time of presentation. Of the 55 patients, 11 (20%) developed a periprosthetic joint infection in a second joint. …

Remarkable Resilience Of Teeth (How Are Teeth So Brittle Yet So Resilient), Paul J. Constantino

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Tooth enamel is inherently weak, with fracture toughness comparable with glass, yet it is remarkably resilient, surviving millions of functional contacts over a lifetime. We propose a microstructural mechanism of damage resistance, based on observations from ex situ loading of human and sea otter molars (teeth with strikingly similar structural features). Section views of the enamel implicate tufts, hypomineralized crack-like defects at the enamel–dentin junction, as primary fracture sources. We report a stabilization in the evolution of these defects, by ‘‘stress shielding’’ from neighbors, by inhibition of ensuing crack extension from prism interweaving (decussation), and by self-healing. These factors, coupled …

Genome Scan, Fine-Mapping, And Candidate Gene Analysis Of Non-Syndromic Cleft Lip With Or Without Cleft Palate Reveals Phenotype-Specific Differences In Linkage And Association Results, M. L. Marazita, A. C. Lidral, J. C. Murray, L. L. Field, B. S. Maher, T. Goldstein Mchenry, M. E. Cooper, M. Govil, Sandra Daack-Hirsch, B. Riley, A. Jugessur, T. Felix, L. Morene, M. A. Mansilla, A. R. Vieira, K. Doheny, E. Pugh, C. Valencia-Ramirez, M. Arcos-Burgos

Sandra Daack-Hirsch

OBJECTIVES: Non-syndromic orofacial clefts, i.e. cleft lip (CL) and cleft palate (CP), are among the most common birth defects. The goal of this study was to identify genomic regions and genes for CL with or without CP (CL/P). METHODS: We performed linkage analyses of a 10 cM genome scan in 820 multiplex CL/P families (6,565 individuals). Significant linkage results were followed by association analyses of 1,476 SNPs in candidate genes and regions, utilizing a weighted false discovery rate (wFDR) approach to control for multiple testing and incorporate the genome scan results. RESULTS: Significant (multipoint HLOD >or=3.2) or genome-wide-significant (HLOD >or=4.02) …

Modulatory Effects Of North American Ginseng Extracts On Human Innate And Adaptive Immune Responses, Holly Rebecca Lemmon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ginseng has played a vital role in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. There are 22 variants of ginseng including North American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) and Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng). The use of North American ginseng has increased dramatically and there is a strong need to understand its immunomodulatory effects. This is because the majority of current research focusing on the Asian ginseng variant. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were used to test the immunomodulatory properties of 3 North American ginseng extracts, COLD-FX^® and deglycosylated individual ginsenosides. Microarray analysis of PBMC exposed to …