Digital Commons Network^™

Generation And Characterization Of Twist1 Acetyl-Mimic And Acetyl-Deficient Mouse Models, Mary Elmeniawi, Xiaobin Yu, Samuel Wen, Gunjan A Bhatia, Lan Liao, Jianming Xu, Walid D Fakhouri

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

TWIST1 encodes a highly conserved basic helix–loop–helix transcription factor essential for embryonic development from Drosophila to humans. TWIST1 activity is regulated by post‐translational modifications, including phosphorylation during development and cancer metastasis. Recent cancer studies identified acetylation of lysines K73 and K76 as a novel regulatory modification that shifts TWIST1 from a repressive to an activating state during epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, the developmental and in vivo functions of TWIST1 acetylation remain unknown. To investigate the physiological role, we generated the first acetyl‐deficient Twist1 K73,76R K73,76R and acetyl‐mimic Twist1 K73,76Q K73,76Q mouse models using CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated genome editing. Targeted sequencing confirmed substitutions, …

Investigating The Correlation Between Scleral Spur Angle And Intraocular Lens Tilt, Dylan Mcbee, Karim Kozhaya, Li Wang, Douglas D Koch, Allison J Chen, Mitchell P Weikert

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Purpose: To evaluate the correlation between the preoperative vertex-scleral spur angle (Vtx-SSA) and postoperative horizontal intraocular lens (IOL) tilt after routine cataract surgery.

Setting: Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Design: Prospective case series.

Methods: This study enrolled patients who underwent uneventful phacoemulsification cataract extraction with IOL implantation. The Anterion and Eyestar 900 swept-source optical coherence tomographers (SS-OCTs) were used to determine Vtx-SSA and lens tilt (crystalline and IOL) measurements, respectively. Tilt vectors were decomposed into orthogonal, vertical, and horizontal components to explore preoperative correlations independently. The Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression analysis were used to …

Deficient Executive Control In Transformer Attention, Suketu Chandrakant Patel, Hongbin Wang, Jin Fan

Publications and Research

Although transformers in large language models (LLMs) effectively implement a self-attention mechanism that has revolutionized natural language processing, they lack an explicit architecture for the executive control of attention found in humans, which is essential for resolving conflicts and selecting relevant information in the presence of competing computations and is critical for adaptive behavior. To investigate the impact of this limitation in LLMs, we employed the classic color Stroop task, widely regarded as the gold standard, to test the executive control of attention in these models. Our results revealed a typical conflict effect of underperformance in terms of accuracy in …

Implementation Of Comprehensive Checklist For Opioid Use Disorder Treatment In Primary Care, Sophia R. Madden

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Manuscripts

Background: The escalating opioid crisis demands a comprehensive approach to Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) management. Patients often face comorbid mental illnesses, infectious diseases, concurrent substance use, and social determinants of health (SDOH)—all of which increase the risk of treatment attrition. Standardizing care through evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and tools is essential for improving treatment quality and consistency.

Purpose: This project aimed to increase comorbidity screenings and improve resource access for OUD patients at a San Diego Internal Medicine primary care office by implementing a comprehensive care checklist based on the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) guideline.

Methods: The ASAM …

Vergence Task-Based Neural Pathways With Binocularly Normal Vision And Comorbid Persistent Post-Concussive Symptoms -Convergence Insufficiency, Ayushi Sangoi

Dissertations

Binocular dysfunctions are more prevalent in the persistent post-concussive symptoms (PPCS) population than in the general population. The most prevalent binocular disorder is convergence insufficiency (CI), affecting 3-17% of the general population and up to 10 times as many people with PPCS. CI makes it difficult to fuse or maintain fusion on targets at near, and its symptoms include double or blurry vision and headaches when performing close-range tasks such as reading, which can exacerbate PPCS symptoms. Given controversy over the subjectivity and effectiveness of diagnostic tools and symptom surveys for both PPCS and CI, understanding why CI has high …

Transcranial Ac Modulation Of Cerebellar Nuclear Activity In Awake Animals, Nuran Kavakli

Dissertations

Entrainment of cerebellar nuclear (CN) cells via cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (ctACS) has been reported in animals under ketamine/xylazine anesthesia. Our main objective was to demonstrate modulation of CN activity in unanesthetized, freely moving animals using ctACS. Multi-channel carbon-fiber electrodes were implanted into the interpositus nucleus for recording multi-unit (MU) activity, and thin-film electrodes were implanted subcutaneously over the posterior cerebellum for stimulation. A frequency-domain-based metric was developed to quantify modulation from MU signals. The results demonstrated modulation in a wide range of frequencies (4 Hz-300 Hz) as in anesthetized animals. In contrast, the amplitude of the peak in …

The Effects Of Osha State Plans And State Gdp On Occupational Injuries And Illnesses In The United States, Ahmad Abdel Rahman Mohammad Amoorah

Theses

Workplace safety in the United States is governed by a system in which some states operate under federal OSHA oversight, while others administer their own OSHA-approved safety and health plans. This duality raises questions about whether state-level control leads to variation in safety and health outcomes. Economic conditions have also been shown to influence workplace injury rates, yet the interaction between safety and health regulations and local economies remains underexplored. Understanding these relationships is critical to protecting workers in occupational settings. The effects of OSHA state-plan status and state-level economic activity on occupational injury and illness rates across the United …

Enhancing Physiological Complexity Through Mindfulness: A Wearable-Based Intervention For First Responders And Their Partners, Thurmon Lockhart, Rahul Soangra, Christopher W. Frames, Sun-Kyung Lee, Amberlee Martin, Susanne Lee, Abigail H. Gewirtz

Physical Therapy Faculty Articles and Research

Background/Objectives: First responders frequently encounter high-stress environments that challenge physiological resilience and autonomic regulation. Heart rate variability (HRV) complexity is a critical marker of adaptive capacity and stress regulation. This study assessed the impact of a wearable-based mindfulness intervention on HRV complexity among first responders using a smartwatch. Methods: A total of 87 first responders participated in a one-month wearable-based intervention. Participants wore Garmin Vivosmart 5 devices to continuously collect PPG data (photoplethysmogram), focusing on beat-to-beat intervals (BBIs). The intervention involved daily Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) and individual randomization to either a mindfulness message, a prompt to access an audio …

When The Therapist Is An Algorithm: Understanding Autism Spectrum Students’ Acceptance Of Generative Ai As A Mental Well-Being Tool Through The Technological Acceptance Model, Jossy P. George, Peter Muttungal, Benny Jeyekumar Davidson, Nishi Priya

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

This study examines the psychological and technological factors of the acceptance and emotional well-being of 349 college students with autism who use generative artificial intelligence tools as sources of psychological and emotional support. Grounded on the model of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the research studies relationships among perceived empathy, perceived usefulness, ease of use, emotional trust, continuance intention, and overall well-being. Structural equation modelling found that the perceived empathy was a significant predictor of ease of use and usefulness, while emotional trust and continuance intention proved to be significant predictors of emotional well-being. To reinforce these results, predictive modelling performed …

Structures And Processes Of Critical Care Nursing Practice: Insights From Four Ugandan Intensive Care Units, Dominic Ogwal Savio, Edrisa Ssemwanga, Winter Patrick, Lameck Ssemogerere, Cliff Aliga

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

No abstract provided.

Toxitarget: A Multi-Omics Database For Toxicant-Responsive Molecular Targets, Ravindra Kumar, Tianyi Fu, Prashant Kumar Kuntala, Benpeng Miao, Shuhua Fu, Daofeng Li, Frederick L Tyson, Marisa S Bartolomei, Cheryl L Walker, Ting Wang, Bo A Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Environmental toxicant exposures can induce widespread alterations in both the transcriptome and epigenome of mammals, and directly contribute to the increased risk of various diseases, including cardiovascular disorders, cancer, and neurological disorders. To evaluate how early-life toxicants produce long-term impacts on the transcriptome and epigenome in mice, the Toxicant Exposures and Responses by Genomic and Epigenomic Regulators of Transcription II (TaRGET II) Consortium generated a landmark resource comprising 3607 multi-omics datasets from longitudinal studies in mice. The molecular changes in responding to distinct environmental toxicants, including arsenic (As), lead (Pb), bisphenol A (BPA), tributyltin (TBT), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), dioxin (TCDD), …

Unbiased Niche Labeling Maps Immune-Excluded Niche In Bone Metastasis, Zhan Xu, Fengshuo Liu, Yunfeng Ding, Tianhong Pan, Yi-Hsuan Wu, Yujiao Han, Jun Liu, Igor L Bado, Weijie Zhang, Ling Wu, Yang Gao, Xiaoxin Hao, Liqun Yu, Xuan Li, David G Edwards, Hilda L Chan, Sergio Aguirre, Michael Warren Dieffenbach, Elina Chen, Siyue Wang, Yichao Shen, Dane Hoffman, Luis Becerra Dominguez, Charlotte Helena Rivas, Xiang Chen, Hai Wang, Yibin Kang, Zbigniew Gugala, Robert L Satcher, Xiang H-F Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Metastatic cancer cell fate is shaped by the local microenvironment niches. To unbiasedly define the cellular and molecular features of metastatic niches, we developed sortase A-based microenvironment niche tagging (SAMENT), which selectively labels cells encountered by cancer cells during metastasis. Applying SAMENT across multiple cancer models and target organs revealed shared niche features, including macrophage enrichment and T cell depletion, alongside marked organ-specific phenotype heterogeneity in niche macrophages. In bone, metastatic niches are enriched for macrophages expressing estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) with active ERα signaling. Conditional deletion of Esr1 in macrophages significantly impaired bone colonization by enabling T cell infiltration. …

Projected U.S. Cardiovascular Disease Burden From Heat Exposure For Future Greenhouse Gas Scenarios, Gokul Parmeswaran, Sai Rahul Ponnana, Santosh Kumar Sirasapalli, Niketh Surya, Tong Zhang, Zhuo Chen, Jean-Eudes Dazard, Salil V. Deo, Sanjay Rajagopalan

Faculty Scholarship

Importance: Climate change may reverse decades of improvements in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in the US; however, comprehensive regional projections of heat-related CVD burden in the US are unavailable. Objective: To use the county-level observed (2010-2016) heat-related CVD burden in the US to obtain the projected rates through 2050 according to the mean (shared socioeconomic pathway [SSP] 2-4.5) and high (SSP5-8.5) greenhouse gas (GHG) emission pathways. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional ecological analysis used county-level summary data including all counties in the contiguous US from 2010 through 2016 as baseline data with projections to 2030 and 2050 under SSP …

Pixel-Level Fiber Stratification: Quantitative Imaging Analysis Of Pigmented Lesion Morphology, Alexia R. Gerogiannis, Caroline R. Saint James

Wetterhahn Science Symposium Posters

Using a combined two-photon excitation fluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) approach, our research seeks to further the quantification of skin components in a quest toward diagnostic tools with higher accuracy and reduced invasiveness for patients. Images are taken both ex vivo and in vivo, of healthy and malignant tissues, with a 600 × 600 micron field of view. We demonstrate how computational analysis can effectively exploit signals emitted by skin to provide diagnostic insight.

Environmental And Pharmacological Modulation Of Opioid-Mediated Behavioral Effects In Rats, Corinne Ann Gallagher

Theses and Dissertations

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and opioid-associated overdoses continue to pose significant burden to US healthcare systems—both financially and in lives lost. It is imperative to identify risk factors which may predispose vulnerability to OUD development, which could aid in discovery of new therapeutic strategies for susceptible populations. This dissertation investigated the impacts of two such risk factors which modulate opioid-induced reward and behavioral effects: adolescent stress and the adulteration of illicit opioids by xylazine. In Chapter 2, we examined the effects of acute adolescent stress on oxycodone self-administration in rats, and the potential involvement of the locus coeruleus in these …

Mitochondria-Er Contact Sites (Mercs) In The Cell Cycle: Molecular Architecture And Functional Remodeling Across Cellular States, Eduardo Silva-Pavez, Bruno Torres-Gonzalez, Michelle Sotomayor, Benjamín Cartes-Saavedra, Dorian V. Ziegler, Yessia Hidalgo-Fadic, Ulises Ahumada-Castro

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Mitochondria–endoplasmic reticulum (ER) contact sites (MERCS) are nanoscopic, dynamic platforms integrating metabolism, signaling, and stress responses to regulate cell fate. These nanoscopic interfaces remodel continuously to meet the demands of proliferating, quiescent, and senescent cells. We synthesize evidence that MERCS actively coordinate local Ca2+ signaling, non-vesicular lipid transfer, and proteostasis to shape mitochondrial function and cellular homeostasis. We discuss how MERCS architecture changes across the cell cycle and during arrest, distinguishing adaptive from maladaptive remodeling, and consider therapeutic potential in aging and age-related disease.

A Multi-Agent Large Language Model Framework To Automatically Assess Performance Of A Clinical Ai Triage Tool, Adam Flanders, Yifan Peng, Luciano Prevedello, Robyn Ball, Errol Colak, Prahlad Menon, George Shih, Hui-Ming Lin, Paras Lakhani

Department of Radiology Faculty Papers

Radiology reports can be used as a surrogate for performance of clinical AI tools. Radiology reports were analyzed by an ensemble of eight open-source LLM models and a internal version of GPT-4o using a single multi-shot prompt that assessed for presence of ICH. Performance of the open-source models, consensus of models and GPT-4o were compared to human report review. Three ideal consensus LLM ensembles were tested for rating the performance of the triage tool. The capability of each LLM varied. The highest AUC performance was achieved with llama3.3:70b and GPT-4o. Using MCC the ideal combination of LLMs were: Full-9 Ensemble, …

Epileptic Seizure Prediction From Eeg Using Continual Learning With Cnns, Adnan Amin, Ammar Bathich, Feras Al-Obeidat, Safa Naes, Maria Jose Sousa

All Works

Epilepsy is a persistent neurological disorder that affects over 50 million people worldwide, with nearly one-third of patients remaining unresponsive to conventional therapeutic treatments. This study introduces a progressively adaptive seizure prediction framework designed to enhance early detection and clinical decision-making. The proposed model employs a deep learning strategy grounded in continual learning (CL) principles, using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in combination with knowledge distillation techniques. This enables the model to assimilate new data while retaining previously learned information. The approach was evaluated on the publicly available Bonn University EEG dataset, following a sequential learning process in which each successive …

Bridging Images And Language In Radiology: A Comprehensive Prisma Systematic Review Of Transformer Vision-Language Models And Clinical Readiness, Mohammad T. Khasawneh Dr., Sadaf Tabatabaee

Systems Science and Industrial Engineering Student Scholarship

Transformer vision-language models (VLMs) promise end-to-end automation of radiology reporting and related multimodal tasks. However, evidence remains fragmented across datasets, architectures, evaluation practices, and levels of clinical validation, limiting fair comparison and safe translation into practice. Following PRISMA 2020/PRISMA-S, search engines including PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were systematically searched for peer-reviewed, English-language studies published between 2019 and 2025 that used paired radiology images and free-text reports. Dual reviewers screened records and extracted data using a locked schema covering datasets, modalities, architectures, training objectives, evaluation metrics, and indicators of clinical readiness. Free-text model descriptions were normalized …

Influence Of Polyvinyl Alcohol Content On Starch-Based Bioplastic Reinforced With Chitosan And Microcrystalline Cellulose, Bagus Kharisma Putra, Andoko Andoko, Mochamad Viky Afandy, Muhammad Faizullah Pasha, Riduwan Prasetya

Chimica et Natura Acta

Starch-based bioplastics are promising sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics; however, their limited mechanical strength and stability restrict broader packaging applications. This study investigates the influence of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) content on the structural and functional properties of starch-based bioplastic films reinforced with chitosan and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). Films prepared by solution casting with varying PVA compositions were characterized in terms of density, mechanical properties, thermal stability, biodegradation behavior, antibacterial activity, and structural features. Increasing PVA content produced denser film structures with improved tensile strength and thermal stability, while elongation at break reached its maximum at the intermediate formulation, indicating a …

Brain Age Prediction In Generalized Anxiety Disorder Using A Convolutional Neural Network, Corey Richier, André Zugman, Anita Harrewijn, Elise M Cardinale, Parmis Khosravi, Moji Aghajani, Willem B Bruin, Kevin Hilbert, Narcis Cardoner, Daniel Porta-Casteràs, Marta Cano, Savannah Gosnell, Ramiro Salas, Andrea P Jackowski, Pedro M Pan, Giovanni A Salum, Karina S Blair, James R Blair, Mohammed R Milad, Katie L Burkhouse, K Luan Phan, Heidi K Schroeder, Jeffrey R Strawn, Katja Beesdo-Baum, Neda Jahanshad, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Jared A Nielsen, Jordan W Smoller, Jair C Soares, Benson Mwangi, Mon-Ju Wu, Giovana B Zunta-Soares, Michal Assaf, Gretchen J Diefenbach, Paolo Brambilla, Eleonora Maggioni, David Hofmann, Thomas Straube, Carmen Andreescu, Rebecca B Price, Gisele G Manfro, Federica Agosta, Elisa Canu, Camilla Cividini, Massimo Filippi, Milutin Kostić, Ana Munjiza Jovanovic, Brenda Benson, Gabrielle F Freitag, Ellen Leibenluft, Grace V Ringlein, Kathryn Werwath, Hannah Zwiebel, Hans J Grabe, Sandra Van Der Auwera, Katharina Wittfeld, Henry Völzke, Robin Bülow, Nicholas L Balderston, Monique Ernst, Lilianne R Mujica-Parodi, Helena Van Nieuwenhuizen, Hugo D Critchley, Elena Makovac, Matteo Mancini, Frances Meeten, Cristina Ottaviani, Gregory A Fonzo, Martin P Paulus, Murray B Stein, Raquel E Gur, Ruben C Gur, Antonia N Kaczkurkin, Bart Larsen, Theodore D Satterthwaite, Jennifer Harper, Michael T Perino, Chad M Sylvester, Qiongru Yu, Patrick Mcclure, Francisco Pereira, Ulrike Lueken, Dick J Veltman, Paul M Thompson, Nynke A Groenewold, Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Dan J Stein, Nic J A Van Der Wee, Anderson M Winkler, Daniel S Pine, Chelsea K Sawyers

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Higher predicted brain age difference has been associated with several psychiatric disorders. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is associated with markers of accelerated aging. In this study, we determined brain predicted age difference (PAD) in individuals with GAD and healthy controls (HC) as well as group differences in PAD variability using voxel-wise structural MRI. The training dataset included 3511 controls, and the testing dataset included 1595 individuals with GAD and 4552 HC from the ENIGMA-Anxiety GAD Working Group. A convolutional neural network model using four input modalities per subject and a model ensemble approach was used to predict brain age. The …

Surgical Site Infection Prevention And Education With Breast Reconstruction Patients - An Evidence-Based Practice Project, Monica Gaspard

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Introduction and Background

Breast cancer is a disease characterized by abnormal cell growth that develops from interactions including genetics, environment, and cellular functions (Taurin & Alkhalifa, 2020). Breast cancer is common in women, and breast reconstruction is a main course of treatment (Taha et al, 2023). One in eight women may have breast cancer in their lifetime (Tedesco & Loerzel, 2020). In the United States, 151,641 breast reconstruction surgeries were reported in 2022 by the American Society of Plastic Surgery (Perez et al., 2024). The infection rate after breast reconstructive surgery can be as high as 25% and occurs within …

Examining The Ligands, Location, And Function Of Toll-Like Receptor 10, Kiefer Keanu Tam

Master's Theses

Toll-like receptors are a class of innate immune pattern recognition receptors that detect pathogen-associated molecular patterns and regulate downstream inflammatory responses. Toll-like receptor 10 remains the only human TLR whose ligand specificity, cellular localization, and immunological function are not fully defined. Emerging evidence suggests that TLR10 may play an anti-inflammatory role and can heterodimerize with TLR2 to modulate immune signaling. Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that stimulation with heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis promotes TLR2-TLR10 heterodimerization and trafficking to the cell surface. In this study, we expanded our ligand panel to include additional gram-positive bacteria, particularly anti-inflammatory probiotic species, to further …

Exploring Clinical Ladder Program Participation Among Operating Room Nurses, Camille Sistoso-Lorenzana

Doctoral Projects

Continuous professional development among nurses is vital, yet not all nurses embark on this career journey. The Clinical Ladder Program (CLP) is a retention strategy among various health institutions to retain talent and improve nurses' satisfaction, but this plan is unappealing or indifferent to some nurses. While the CLP is a motivation tool for nurses to focus on clinical expertise in bedside care (Riley et al., 2009), and resources are available to increase a nurse's chances of successfully advancing the ladder, participation in and perspectives on the CLP remain unknown, especially among operating room nurses. This project is guided by …

Generalizability Of An Ai-Based Mammogram Risk Score (Mrs) For Breast Cancer Among Diverse Populations Of Women, Shu Jiang, Debbie L Bennett, Peter Kraft, Graham A Colditz

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Conventional prediction models incorporating genetic and clinical factors including breast density underperform in non-European populations. We investigated an artificial intelligence-derived mammogram risk score (MRS), a summary of texture features that captures intrinsic breast-tissue characteristics-the substrate for cancer development. This study leveraged data from two North American screening cohorts totaling >226,000 women, including non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic Black, East Asian, South Asian, and Indigenous women. MRS distributions showed nonsignificant shifts (and similar SDs) between cohorts and across race and ethnic subgroups. MRS increased with age and was significantly associated with breast cancer risk, with hazard ratios per SD ranging from 2.24 [95% …

Accelerating Wound Healing Rates With Cucurbita Pepo Leaf Extract Loaded Electrospun Poly(Methyl Methacrylate)/Halloysite/Chitosan/ Caco₃ Composite Nanofibers Through In Vitro And In Vivo Assessments, Samar A. Salim

Nanotechnology Research Centre

Cucurbita pepo leaf extract (CPE) was incorporated into electrospun poly(methyl methacrylate)/ halloysite/chitosan/ CaCO₃ (PMMA/Hal/CS/CaCO₃) composite nanofibers to develop a novel biomaterial for accelerating wound healing rates. The different nanofibrous scaffolds were successfully fabricated and characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). SEM analysis revealed uniform, smooth nanofibers, while FTIR and XRD confirmed the integration of CPE into nanofiber matrix, indicating an amorphous structure and effective dispersion of the extract. In vitro agar well-diffusion and antibiofilm assays revealed that the optimized formulation exhibited potent antimicrobial activity against wound-associated pathogens. The nanofibers composite based on …

Somatic Prosthetics For Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how industrial design can transcend extractive technological paradigms in favor of relational interfaces that foster planetary attunement. Framing the climate crisis as a 'crisis of imagination', the research challenges the Western bifurcation of nature and culture by drawing on Indic cosmologies- which recognize stones, plants, and ecosystems as conscious at different levels and participants in a shared cosmic field. By synthesizing research in Biosemiotics, Quantum Information Pansycishm, and Neuroscience, the project redefines intelligence as a distributed, more-than-human phenomenon.

The research materializes as a speculative design artifact: a device that functions as a somatic prosthetic for planetary resonance. …

International Multi-Center Study To Quantify The Effect Of Deep Venous Drainage After Surgical Resection Of Spetzler-Martin Grade Ii-Iii Brain Arteriovenous Malformations, Avi A. Gajjar, Rashad Jabarkheel, Mohamed M. Salem, Basel Musmar, Sandeep Kandregula, Hammam Abdalrazeq, Nimer Adeeb, Assala Aslan, Nathan Ramachandran, Stavropoula Tjoumakaris, Hamza Adel Salim, Adam A. Dmytriw, Christopher S. Ogilvy, Mustafa K. Baskaya, Douglas Kondziolka, Jason Sheehan, Howard Riina, Abdallah Abushehab, Kareem El Naamani, Najib Muhammad, Ahmed Abdelsalam, Natasha Ironside, Deepak Kumbhare, Sanjeev Gummadi, Cagdas Ataoglu, Muhammed Amir Essibayi, Abdullah Keles, Sandeep Muram, Daniel Sconzo, Arwin Rezai, Omar Alwakaa, Pierce Davis, Salem M. Tos, Ufuk Erginoglu, Johannes Pöppe, Rajeev D. Sen, Alan S. Boulos, John C. Dalfino, Christoph J. Griessenauer, Robert M. Starke, Laligam N. Sekhar, Michael R. Levitt, David J. Altschul, Neil Haranhalli, Malia Mcavoy, Hussein A. Zeineddine, Adib A. Abla, Saman Sizdahkhani, Sravanthi Koduri, Michael R. Gooch, Robert H. Rosenwasswer Md, Christopher Stapleton, Matthew Koch, Peng R. Chen, Spiros Blackburn, Ketan Bulsara, Louis J. Kim, Omar Choudhri, Bryan Pukenas, Joshua S. Catapano, Darren Orbach, Edward Smith, Pascal J. Mosimann, Alexandra R. Paul, Pascal Jabbour, Ali Alaraj, Mohammad A. Aziz-Sultan, Aman B. Patel, Amey Savardekar, Christina Notarianni, Hugo H. Cuellar, Bharat Guthikonda, Jacques Morcos, Michael Lawton, Jan-Karl Burkhardt, Visish M. Srinivasan

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

Deep venous drainage (DVD) is considered a negative prognostic factor in AVM surgery, yet its effect on postoperative functional decline remains incompletely defined. This study evaluates whether DVD predicts worsened functional status after surgical resection of Spetzler-Martin Grade II-III AVMs. This retrospective multicenter study analyzed 129 patients with Spetzler-Martin Grade II-III AVMs across nine centers in North America and Europe who underwent primary surgical resection. We excluded cases with prior endovascular or stereotactic interventions. The primary outcome measured was poor functional status, defined as modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score 3-6 at last follow up. Among 129 patients with Spetzler-Martin Grade …

O-Glcnacylation As A Metabolic Integrator In Cardiovascular Physiology And Disease, Saima Shakil Malik, Xinchun Pi, Liang Xie

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Characterizing Stiffness Dynamics Of Normal And Malignant Breast Spheroids Using Brillouin Microscopy, Razanne Rafat Zaghloul, Karlin Hilai, Chenjun Shi, Jitao Zhang

Medical Student Research Symposium

Background: Breast cancer progression and metastasis are closely linked to alterations in the mechanical properties of tumor cells and their microenvironment. Softer, more deformable cells are often associated with higher metastatic potential. While atomic force microscopy (AFM) is the current gold standard for mechanical characterization, it is limited to surface measurements and can damage 3D cultures. It remains unclear how the mechanical properties evolve over time in normal versus malignant spheroids. This study utilizes Brillouin light-scattering microscopy, a non-contact and label-free optical technique, to assess stiffness changes in normal and malignant breast epithelial spheroids over time. Understanding these mechanical signatures …