Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Hiv Vaccine-Mediated Protection Level To Identify Immune Correlates Using Positive Unlabeled Learning, Shiwei Xu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

The development of a vaccine for Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a crucial step in preventing the global spread of AIDS. To ensure the progress and effectiveness of this vaccine, it is essential to establish efficient biotechnology platforms and data mining methods. These methods would help identify immune characteristics that distinguish individuals with varying levels of vaccine-induced protection and determine the underlying factors that contribute to protection against HIV acquisition. While previous studies have focused on identifying immune markers associated with infection outcomes among vaccinated patients, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of traditional case-control analytical protocols …

Beyond Covid-19: Designing Inclusive Public Health Surveillance By Including Wastewater Monitoring., Rochelle H. Holm, Na'taki Osborne Jelks, Rebecca Schneider, Ted Smith

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wastewater-based epidemiology is a promising and expanding public health surveillance method. The current wastewater testing trajectory to monitor primarily at community wastewater treatment plants was necessitated by immediate needs of the pandemic. Going forward, specific consideration should be given to monitoring vulnerable and underserved communities to ensure inclusion and rapid response to public health threats. This is particularly important when clinical testing data are insufficient to characterize community virus levels and spread in specific locations. Now is a timely call to action for equitably protecting health in the United States, which can be guided with intentional and inclusive wastewater monitoring.

Automated Approaches To Enable Innovative Civic Applications From Citizen Generated Imagery, Hye Seon Yi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Smart governance is an area, that is increasingly becoming important, not only in advanced countries, but all across the globe. Thanks to global scale network connectivity, permeance of smart-devices of various form-factors, and overall improvement in digital literary, we are now seeing "smartness" everywhere, or if not, the general public is expecting the same. Ultimately, the goal of smart governance is to facilitate state-of-the-art technologies to improve citizens’ lives. With the ubiquity of smart phone technologies today, citizens more readily participate in collaboration with public officials for improved quality of life and their communities. By utilizing optimal tools, public officials …

Dimensions Of Vaccination Attitudes In Nigeria: A Study Of The Impacts Of Covid-19 Vaccine Risk Perception And Acceptance, Abiodun Musbau Lawal, Babatola Dominic Olawa, Ikenna Maximillian Odoh, Ayodeji Olorunfemi Olawole, Olubukola Ajayi, Judith Chineye Azikiwe, Israel Oluwatosin Ayodele, Emmanuel Kolawole Odusina, Thomas Attah, Ezekiel Adeyemi Odedokun, Stephen Ishola Babatunde, Teslim Alabi Oladejo, Confidence Chioma Otoghile, Saheed Abiola Saka

Kesmas

Nigeria has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccination is a key strategy. However, the country faces vaccination hesitancy, poor risk perception, and low acceptance. This study aimed to assess the direct and interactive impacts of COVID-19 vaccine risk perception and acceptability on COVID-19 vaccination attitudes in the general Nigerian population. In a cross-sectional approach, participants completed a structured questionnaire including demographics, COVID-19 vaccine risk perception, acceptance, and vaccination attitude from April 2-30, 2021. The sample included 1,026 participants from different ethnicities across four regions (Southwest, South, Southeast, and North Central) in Nigeria, which were selected using the convenience …

Patterns Of Hiv Disclosure And Its Impact On The Hiv Care Continuum Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men In South Carolina, Xueying Yang Ph.D., Titilayo A. James, Monique J. Brown Ph.D., Mph, Tony Brown, Sydney Zarsadias, Ran Zhang, Fanghui Shi, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Addressing the psychosocial concerns of Black men who have sex with men (MSM), such as HIV disclosure, is critical for effective HIV treatment efforts. Black MSM living with HIV experience multiple psychosocial challenges, such as “triple stigma” due to their sexual orientation, racial minority status, and HIV status, which hinder their HIV disclosure and subsequent HIV care-seeking behavior. Our study sought to examine the HIV disclosure patterns and their impact on the HIV care continuum among Black MSM using a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out among 28 Black MSM aged ≥18 years old living in South Carolina. A …

Feral Swine As Indirect Indicators Of Environmental Anthrax Contamination And Potential Mechanical Vectors Of Infectious Spores, Rachel M. Maison, Maggie R. Priore, Vienna R. Brown, Michael Bodenchuk, Bradley R. Borlee, Richard Bowen, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

U.S. government work

Appearance Of Multistability And Hydra Effect In A Discrete-Time Epidemic Model With Ricker Growth, Laura F. Strube, Shoshana Elgart, Lauren Childs

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Modeling The Immune Response To Immunotherapy And Triple Negative Breast Cancer In Mice, Dayton J. Syme, Angelica Davenport, Yun Lu, Anna G. Sorace, Nicholas G. Cogan

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Parameter Estimation For Covid-19 Svird Model Using Predictor-Corrector Algorithm, Alejandra D. Herrera Reyes, Susan Rogowski, Diana White, Alexandra B. Smirnova, Ruiyan Luo, Yena Kim

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Modeling Hiv With Partnership Models, Kathleen Hoffman

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Predicting Dengue Incidence In Central Argentina Using Google Trends Data, Sahil Chindal, Elizabet Estallo, Yanjun Qian, Michael Robert

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Imperfect Immunity And The Stability Of A Modified Kermack-Mckendrick Model, Kaylee Sims

Honors Theses

The classic Kermack-McKendrick model of mathematical epidemiology suggests that a population is only in equilibrium when there is no disease present. In the modern era, we have several cyclic infectious diseases that show no signs of eradication, despite global health measures. In this thesis, we introduce a coefficient of waning immunity in order to produce a modified Kermack-McKendrick model and analyze whether the model yields system stability with a certain amount of infection present. Ultimately, the model is incongruent with real-world case data, with its most glaring failure being exponential dampening of the height of each disease case peak due …

Developing Genotypic And Phenotypic Systems For Early Analysis Of Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Yesman Akuoko

Theses and Dissertations

Antimicrobial resistance in bacteria is a global health challenge with a projected fallout of 10 million deaths annually and cumulative costs of over 1 trillion dollars by 2050. The currently available tools exploited in the detection of bacteria or their DNA can be expensive, time inefficient, or lack multiplex capabilities among others. The research work highlighted in this dissertation advances techniques employed in the phenotypic or genotypic detection of bacteria and their DNA. In this dissertation, I present polymethyl methacrylate-pressure sensitive adhesive microfluidic platforms developed using a time-efficient, inexpensive fabrication technique. Microfluidic devices were then equipped with functionalized monoliths and …

Du Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Caitlyn Aldersea, Justin Bravo, Sam Allen, Anna Block, Connor Block, Emma Buechler, Maria De Los Angeles Bustillos, Arianna Carlson, William Christensen, Olivia Kachulis, Noah Craver, Kate Dillon, Muskan Fatima, Angel Fernandes, Emma Finch, Colleen Cassidy, Amy Fishman, Andrea Francis, Stacia Fritz, Simran Gill, Emma Gries, Rylie Hansen, Shannon Powers, Jacqueline Martinez, Zachary Harker, Ashley Hasty, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Kathleen Hopps, Adelaide Kerenick, Colin Kleckner, Ci Koehring, Elijah Kruger, Braden Krumholz, Maddie Leake, Lyneé Alves, Seraphina Loukas, Yatzari Lozano Vazquez, Haley Maki, Emily Martinez, Sierra Mckinney, Audrey Mitchell, Kipling Newman, Audrey Ng, Megan Lucyshyn, Andrew Nguyen, Stevie Ostman, Casandra Pearson, Alexandra Penney, Julia Gielczynski, Tyler Ball, Anna Rini, Christina Rorres, Simon Ruland, Helayna Schafer, Emma Sellers, Sarah Schuller, Claire Shaver, Kevin Summers, Isabella Shaw, Madison Sinar, Claudia Pena, Apshara Siwakoti, Carter Sorensen, Madi Sousa, Anna Sparling, Alexandra Revier, Brandon Thierry, Dylan Tyree, Maggie Williams, Lauren Wols

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

DU Undergraduate Showcase: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Works

The Dynamics Of Sedimentary Chlorophyll Α At A High-Energy Beach, Sarah (Gray) Abel

Honors Theses

Productive sandy beaches are one of the most crucial areas serving our ecosystem today. While often overlooked in scientific research, productive beaches have many essential functions that lead to the preservation and protection of many different species as well as ecological wellness and stability. A key factor that is linked to this productivity is the presence of chlorophyll in the sediments. Piston cores of the sediments at the low-tide mark at Waties Island, South Carolina, were collected across multiple years and subsequently analyzed for chlorophyll concentrations through fluorometry after acetone extraction and acidification. Each core profile was processed to calculate …

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering-Based Multiplexing Detection Of Proteins In Solutions, Hallie Feldman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Influenza virus infected over 36 million people in 2019, whereas the COVID-19
virus caused a deadly pandemic that has infected over 700 million people to date. Both viruses share a magnitude of similar symptoms, which presents a key challenge for the need of a highly sensitive and selective biosensors that can simultaneously detect the specific biomarkers for each of these viruses. This work focuses on developing a Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based biosensor for detecting protein biomarkers related to the two viruses such as H1N1 and S- protein. Gold nanoparticles are used for SERS signal amplification. The objective of …

Functionalized Nanoprobes For Multiplexed Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Detection Of Cancer Biomarkers, Sydney D. Hakimi

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cancer has a huge impact on people across the world. In 2020, there were about 19.3 million cancer cases and approximately 10 million deaths globally. Early detection and diagnosis of cancer results in a higher rate of survival of the disease. A key challenge is the need for a highly sensitive technique for early cancer detection. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and scattering (SERS) is a technique that can address the challenge by detecting biomarkers such as Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Neuron-specific enolase (NSE), which provide diagnostic information for assessing cancer detection. This work focuses on the use of gold nanoprobes conjugated …

An Integer Garch Model For A Poisson Process With Time-Varying Zero-Inflation, Isuru Panduka Ratnayake, V. A. Samaranayake

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

A serially dependent Poisson process with time-varying zero-inflation is proposed. Such formulations have the potential to model count data time series arising from phenomena such as infectious diseases that ebb and flow over time. The model assumes that the intensity of the Poisson process evolves according to a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (GARCH) formulation and allows the zero-inflation parameter to vary over time and be governed by a deterministic function or by an exogenous variable. Both the expectation maximization (EM) and the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) approaches are presented as possible estimation methods. A simulation study shows that both parameter …

Enhancing Health Tweet Classification: An Evaluation Of Transformer-Based Models For Comprehensive Analysis, Foram Pankajbhai Patel

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

The task of health tweet classification entails identifying whether a given tweet is health-related or not. While existing research in this area has made significant progress in classifying tweets into specific sub-domains of health, such as mental health, COVID-19, or specific diseases, there is a need for a more comprehensive approach that considers a broader range of health-related topics. This thesis addresses this need by proposing a diverse and comprehensive dataset that includes various existing health-related datasets, data collected through a keyword-based approach, and manually annotated data. However, the use of health-related keywords in a figurative or non-health context poses …

Effects Of Land Use On Soil Microbial Communities In Tropical Montane Forests Of Malaysian Borneo, Yang Kai Tang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land use, such as logging and forest conversion to agriculture, can modify soil physicochemical and biological properties, and affect soil health. To understand how land use change can impact soil properties and canopy structure, we used a land use gradient in Malaysian Borneo consisting of six sites, including old growth forests, mixed forests, and agriculture fields. Specifically, we aimed to answer the following questions: (1) How do soil physicochemical properties vary across land use types? (2) Does bacterial diversity and composition vary across different land use types? (3) Does fungal diversity and composition vary across different land use types? We …

The Interconnected Roles Of Residues N189, E168, And S220 In M. Tuberculosis Indole-3-Glycerol Phosphate Synthase Catalysis, Erik Domlija

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis that primarily attacks the lungs. Drug resistance for M. tuberculosis is emerging and therefore new drug targets need to be identified. One way to target TB is through the inhibition of the tryptophan biosynthetic pathway of M. tuberculosis since production of tryptophan is essential for the replication of M. tuberculosis. The enzyme Indole-3-glycerol phosphate synthase (MtIGPS) was chosen as a potential drug target due to its role in tryptophan biosynthesis. Residue N189 interacts with active site residues E168 and S220. It is inferred from previous studies done with …

An Investigative Study Of Potential Factors That Contribute To High Under-Five Mortality Rate In Africa, David Banahene

Theses and Dissertations

Under-Five Mortality remains a significant challenge in developing countries, especially in Africa. The United Nations has implemented various measures, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to combat this issue. However, the success of these initiatives is uncertain. Our study investigates the social, economic, and environmental factors contributing to high Under-Five Mortality rates in African countries, using data from 1985 to 2020.We analyzed 53 African countries, partitioning them into training (45 countries) and testing data (8 countries). We conducted Multiple Linear Regression analysis and assessed the model performance using R-squared values and Root-Mean-Squared-Error (RMSE) values. …

Optimal R&D Investment In The Management Of Invasive Species, William Haden Chomphosy, Dale T. Manning, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Stephan Weiler

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive alien species (IAS) threaten world biodiversity, ecosystem services, and economic welfare. While existing literature has characterized the optimal control of an established IAS, it has not considered how research and development (R&D) into new removal methods or technologies can affect management decisions and costs over time. R&D can lower the costs of control in a management plan and creates an intertemporal trade-off between quick but costly control and gradual but cheaper removal over time. In this paper, we develop and solve a continuous time dynamic optimization model to study how investment in R&D influences the optimal control of an …

Differences In Intracellular Protein Levels In Monocytes And Cd4+ Lymphocytes Between Bipolar Depressed Patients And Healthy Controls: A Pilot Study With Tyramine-Based Signal-Amplified Flow Cytometry, Keming Gao, Marzieh Ayati, Nicholas M. Kaye, Mehmet Koyutürk, Joseph R. Calabrese, Stephen J. Ganocy, Hillard M. Lazarus, Eric Christian, David Kaplan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Highlights

• To measure 18 intracellular proteins in blood cells of bipolar depressed patients and healthy controls;

• TFour proteins in monocytes and 2 proteins in CD4+ T Cells were significantly lower in patients than in healthy controls;

• The studied proteins are involved in prolactin, leptin, BDNF, and interleukin-3 signal pathways;

• Studying intracellular proteins with enhanced flow cytometry may find biomarkers differentiating bipolar disorder from healthy controls.

Abstract

Background

Molecular biomarkers for bipolar disorder (BD) that distinguish it from other manifestations of depressive symptoms remain unknown. The aim of this study was to determine if a very sensitive tyramine-based signal-amplification technology for …

A Study Of Gold Nanoparticles Of Different Sizes With Raman Labels For Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Detection, Melissa M. Hader

Undergraduate Honors Theses

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the second leading cause of death in the United States is cancer, with 602,350 cancer deaths in 2020. With the current cancer detection techniques, the detection of cancer is often at a stage when the cancer has progressed to dangerous levels. Therefore, being able to detect cancer at its early stages is pivotal and can be life altering for millions. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been widely explored in developing surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) techniques for early detection of cancer biomarkers. Using gold nanoparticles conjugated with Raman reporter molecules, SERS is a …

Modeling And Predicting Emerging Threats Using Disparate Data, Ismael Villanueva Miranda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Early detection is crucial to mitigate the impact of emerging threats. This work proposes four innovative frameworks that build machine learning and deterministic epidemiological models using multiple domain-specific datasets to detect the onset of emerging threats in two domains: infectious diseases and cybersecurity. Our models are designed to detect infectious disease outbreaks, model their spread, detect malware activity, and analyze the relationship between software/hardware weaknesses and attack techniques.

First, we present a novel framework to detect multiple infectious disease outbreaks by integrating standardized disease-specific domain knowledge and public search trend data. Our framework showed high performance in identifying infectious disease …

Synthesis, Radiolabeling And Evaluation Of A Suite Of Tracers With 44Sc For Detecting Extracellular Dna, Zhiyao Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Neutrophil extracellular traps involve the rapid translocation of DNA to the outside of the cell under certain stimuli. This structure forms a fibrous network that is able to limit the spread of pathogens and to kill microorganisms. It has also been shown to be present in various pathological processes such as inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and cancer metastasis. Currently, the formation process of NETs in vivo is being extensively studied. However noninvasive detection and quantitation has yet to be achieved. A class of PET tracers are described here that consists of a DNA dye as the backbone that is labeled with …

Opportunities And Challenges From Major Disasters Lessons Learned Of Long-Term Recovery Group Members, Eduardo E. Landaeta

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Natural hazards caused by the alteration of weather patterns expose populations at risk, with an outcome of economic loss, property damage, personal injury, and loss of life. The unpredictability of disasters is a topic of concern to most governments. Disaster policies need more attention in aligning mitigation opportunities with disaster housing recovery (DHR). The effect of flooding, which primarily impacts housing in coastal areas, is one of the most serious issues associated with natural hazard. Flooding has a variety of causes and implications, especially for vulnerable populations who are exposed to it. DHR is complex, involving the need for effective …

Hipaa Vs. Medical Research: Improving Patient Care Through Integration Of Data Privacy And Data Access, Katherine D'Ordine

Honors Projects in Data Science

The purpose of this research is to understand the current relationship between data access and data privacy in the health care industry and attempt to find a way that important health care research can still be conducted amidst HIPAA regulations. There is a lack of extensive research on the impacts of data privacy on health care research due to access regulations, so a survey was created regarding current data processes and recommendations for creating a healthier relationship between privacy and access for research. It was distributed to anyone in health care, analytics, or research to get a variety of perspectives. …

From Big Farm To Big Pharma: A Differential Equations Model Of Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella In Industrial Poultry Populations, Rilyn Mckallip

Honors Theses

Antibiotics are used in poultry production as prophylaxis, curative treatment, and growth promotion. The first use is as prophylaxis, or prevention of common bacterial diseases. The crowded conditions in concentrated animal feeding operations necessitate management of infectious disease to ensure overall animal health and the profitability of such operations. In these farms, between 20,000 and 125,000 birds are raised in shed-like enclosures [3], with an average of less than one square foot of space per chicken [34]. Antibiotics are currently used in chicken farms to manage and prevent common bacterial diseases such as respiratory and digestive tract infections, as well …