Digital Commons Network^™

Development And Validation Of A Diagnostic Aid For Convulsive Epilepsy In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Retrospective Case-Control Study, Gabriel Davis Jones, Symon M. Kariuki, Anthony Ngugi, Angelina Kakooza Mwesige, Honorati Masanja, Seth Owusu-Agyei, Ryan Wagner, J Helen Cross, Charles R. Newton, Arjune Sen

Pathology, East Africa

Background Identification of convulsive epilepsy in sub-Saharan Africa relies on access to resources that are often unavailable. Infrastructure and resource requirements can further complicate case verification. Using machine- learning techniques, we have developed and tested a region-specific questionnaire panel and predictive model to identify people who have had a convulsive seizure. These findings have been implemented into a free app for health- care workers in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Methods In this retrospective case-control study, we used data from the Studies of the Epidemiology of Epilepsy in Demographic Sites in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa. …

Assessment Of Predictors Of Early Postoperative Complications After Primary Robotically Assisted Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass: A Multicenter, Retrospective Cohort Study, Pouya Iranmanesh, Shinil K Shah, Mickael Chevallay, Christian Toso, Stefan P Mönig, Monika E Hagen, Erik B Wilson, Minoa K Jung

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Robotic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RRYGB) is performed in an increasing number of bariatric centers worldwide. Previous studies have identified a number of demographic and clinical variables as predictors of postoperative complications after laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB). Some authors have suggested better early postoperative outcomes after RRYGB compared to LRYGB. The objective of the present study was to assess potential predictors of early postoperative complications after RRYGB.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis of two prospective databases containing patients who underwent RRYGB between 2006 and 2019 at two high volumes, accredited bariatric centers was performed. Primary outcome was rate of 30 …

Renal-Hepatic-Pancreatic Dysplasia Type 2: Perinatal Lethal Condition Or A Multisystemic Disorder With Variable Expressivity, Kathryn Gunther, Essam M Imseis, Joyce P Samuel, Elizabeth A Hillman, Tiina H Ojala, Timo Jahnukainen, Paul R Hillman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Renal-hepatic-pancreatic dysplasia type 2 (RHPD2) is a rare condition that has been described in the literature disproportionately in perinatal losses. The main features of liver and kidney involvement are well described, with cardiac malformations and cardiomyopathy adding additional variation to the phenotype. Many patients reported are within larger cohorts of congenital anomalies of kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) or liver failure, and with minimal phenotypic and clinical course data.

METHODS: An independent series of phenotypes and prognosis was aggregated from the literature. In this literature review, we describe an additional patient with RHPD2, provide a clinical update on the …

Sars-Cov-2 Restructures Host Chromatin Architecture, Ruoyu Wang, Joo-Hyung Lee, Jieun Kim, Feng Xiong, Lana Al Hasani, Yuqiang Shi, Erin N Simpson, Xiaoyu Zhu, Yi-Ting Chen, Pooja Shivshankar, Joanna Krakowiak, Yanyu Wang, David M Gilbert, Xiaoyi Yuan, Holger K Eltzschig, Wenbo Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Some viruses restructure host chromatin, influencing gene expression, with implications for disease outcome. Whether this occurs for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is largely unknown. Here we characterized the 3D genome and epigenome of human cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection, finding widespread host chromatin restructuring that features widespread compartment A weakening, A-B mixing, reduced intra-TAD contacts and decreased H3K27ac euchromatin modification levels. Such changes were not found following common-cold-virus HCoV-OC43 infection. Intriguingly, the cohesin complex was notably depleted from intra-TAD regions, indicating that SARS-CoV-2 disrupts cohesin loop extrusion. These altered 3D genome/epigenome structures correlated with transcriptional suppression of interferon response genes …

Quality Assurance Assessment Of Intra-Acquisition Diffusion-Weighted And T2-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Registration And Contour Propagation For Head And Neck Cancer Radiotherapy, Mohamed A Naser, Kareem A Wahid, Sara Ahmed, Vivian Salama, Cem Dede, Benjamin W Edwards, Ruitao Lin, Brigid Mcdonald, Travis C Salzillo, Renjie He, Yao Ding, Moamen Abobakr Abdelaal, Daniel Thill, Nicolette O'Connell, Virgil Willcut, John P Christodouleas, Stephen Y Lai, Clifton D Fuller, Abdallah S R Mohamed

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Adequate image registration of anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans is necessary for MR-guided head and neck cancer (HNC) adaptive radiotherapy planning. Despite the quantitative capabilities of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) MRI for treatment plan adaptation, geometric distortion remains a considerable limitation. Therefore, we systematically investigated various deformable image registration (DIR) methods to co-register DWI and T2-weighted (T2W) images.

MATERIALS/METHODS: We compared three commercial (ADMIRE, Velocity, Raystation) and three open-source (Elastix with default settings [Elastix Default], Elastix with parameter set 23 [Elastix 23], Demons) post-acquisition DIR methods applied to T2W and DWI MRI images acquired during the same …

Debunking Medical Myths: Essential Oils And Covid-19: What's The Deal?, Ranganath Kathawate, Hussein Bazzi, Noor Sulaiman, Emma Breukink, Vikram Rajan, Ron Lukose

Patient Education Projects

No abstract provided.

Debunking Medical Myths: Lavender Oil: Flower Power, Laila Al-Jerdi, Elizabeth Helfrich, Noah Robertson, Sean Williams, Tobin Smith, Nicole Lafrance

Patient Education Projects

No abstract provided.

Food Insecurity In Youth And Young Adults With Diabetes: Prevalence And Association With Health Behaviors, Lauren Helene Martini

Theses and Dissertations

Given the life-long impact of diabetes(1-5), it is important to engage in behaviors that promote health and wellness to delay or prevent negative health outcomes(3, 6-10). Despite this, youth and young adults with diabetes generally do not adhere to nutritional(11-17) or physical activity(18, 19) recommendations. In households experiencing financial difficulties, especially those who are having difficulty providing sufficient food to all of its members, adhering to recommendations may be even more difficult.

The purpose of this dissertation is to better understand and contextualize food insecurity among youth and young adults (YYA) with youth-onset T1DM and T2DM. The first aim addresses …

Aberrant Activation Of Tcl1a Promotes Stem Cell Expansion In Clonal Haematopoiesis, Joshua S Weinstock, Jayakrishnan Gopakumar, Bala Bharathi Burugula, Md Mesbah Uddin, Nikolaus Jahn, Julia A Belk, Hind Bouzid, Bence Daniel, Zhuang Miao, Nghi Ly, Taralynn M Mack, Sofia E Luna, Katherine P Prothro, Shaneice R Mitchell, Cecelia A Laurie, Jai G Broome, Kent D Taylor, Xiuqing Guo, Moritz F Sinner, Aenne S Von Falkenhausen, Stefan Kääb, Alan R Shuldiner, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Joshua P Lewis, Eric Boerwinkle, Kathleen C Barnes, Nathalie Chami, Eimear E Kenny, Ruth J F Loos, Myriam Fornage, Lifang Hou, Donald M Lloyd-Jones, Susan Redline, Brian E Cade, Bruce M Psaty, Joshua C Bis, Jennifer A Brody, Edwin K Silverman, Jeong H Yun, Dandi Qiao, Nicholette D Palmer, Barry I Freedman, Donald W Bowden, Michael H Cho, Dawn L Demeo, Ramachandran S Vasan, Lisa R Yanek, Lewis C Becker, Sharon L R Kardia, Patricia A Peyser, Jiang He, Michiel Rienstra, Pim Van Der Harst, Robert Kaplan, Susan R Heckbert, Nicholas L Smith, Kerri L Wiggins, Donna K Arnett, Marguerite R Irvin, Hemant Tiwari, Michael J Cutler, Stacey Knight, J Brent Muhlestein, Adolfo Correa, Laura M Raffield, Yan Gao, Mariza De Andrade, Jerome I Rotter, Stephen S Rich, Russell P Tracy, Barbara A Konkle, Jill M Johnsen, Marsha M Wheeler, J Gustav Smith, Olle Melander, Peter M Nilsson, Brian S Custer, Ravindranath Duggirala, Joanne E Curran, John Blangero, Stephen Mcgarvey, L Keoki Williams, Shujie Xiao, Mao Yang, C Charles Gu, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Wen-Jane Lee, Gregory M Marcus, John P Kane, Clive R Pullinger, M Benjamin Shoemaker, Dawood Darbar, Dan M Roden, Christine Albert, Charles Kooperberg, Ying Zhou, Joann E Manson, Pinkal Desai, Andrew D Johnson, Rasika A Mathias, Thomas W Blackwell, Goncalo R Abecasis, Albert V Smith, Hyun M Kang, Ansuman T Satpathy, Pradeep Natarajan, Jacob O Kitzman, Eric A Whitsel, Alexander P Reiner, Alexander G Bick, Siddhartha Jaiswal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mutations in a diverse set of driver genes increase the fitness of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), leading to clonal haematopoiesis1. These lesions are precursors for blood cancers2-6, but the basis of their fitness advantage remains largely unknown, partly owing to a paucity of large cohorts in which the clonal expansion rate has been assessed by longitudinal sampling. Here, to circumvent this limitation, we developed a method to infer the expansion rate from data from a single time point. We applied this method to 5,071 people with clonal haematopoiesis. A genome-wide association study revealed that a common inherited polymorphism in the …

International Society For Prenatal Diagnosis 2022 Debate 3-Fetal Genome Sequencing Should Be Offered To All Pregnant Patients, Ignatia B Van Den Veyver, Yuval Yaron, Zandra C Deans

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Prenatal trio exome sequencing (ES) has become integrated into the care for pregnant women when the fetus has structural anomalies. Details regarding optimizing indications for prenatal exome sequencing, its detection rates with different categories of fetal anomalies, and principles of interpretation of pathogenicity of sequence variants are still under investigation. However, there is now growing consensus about its benefits for finding the cause of fetal structural anomalies. What is not established, is whether exome or genome sequencing (GS) has a place in the care of all pregnant women. This report is a summary of the debate on this topic at …

Paving The Road For Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells: American Society For Transplantation And Cellular Therapy 80/20 Task Force Consensus On Challenges And Solutions To Improving Efficiency Of Clinical Center Certification And Maintenance Of Operations For Commercially Approved Immune Effector Cell Therapies, Sarah Nikiforow, Matthew J Frigault, Noelle V Frey, Rebecca A Gardner, Krishna V Komanduri, Miguel-Angel Perales, Partow Kebriaei, Phyllis Irene Warkentin, Marcelo Pasquini, Joy Lynn Aho, Bruce L Levine, Helen E Heslop, Tracey L Hlucky, Karen Habucky, Mecide Gharibo, Madan Jagasia, Frederick L Locke

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

As the number and type of regulatory authority-approved cellular therapies grow, clinical treatment centers face a heavy burden of duplicative documentation around initial qualification, ongoing auditing, and reporting, with overlapping requirements from each manufacturer to ensure safe use of their specific product, which in the United States are stipulated under individual Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Biologic License Applications. The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) convened the 80/20 Task Force to consider challenges and potential solutions to these issues. The Task Force proposed that 80% of manufacturers' requirements for onboarding and ongoing operations of commercially available products …

Fit24, A Digital Health Intervention To Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk Among Hispanic Youth: Protocol For A Feasibility Pilot Study, Erica G Soltero, Callie Lopez, Salma M Musaad, Teresia M O'Connor, Debbe Thompson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Poor physical activity (PA) and sleep behaviors in Hispanic adolescents contributes to increased risk for type 2 diabetes. Commonly owned digital devices and services like smartphones and text-messaging are highly used among adolescents and are promising intervention tools for reaching this age group. Personal activity trackers assess activity and sleep, making them ideal tools for addressing these behaviors. We propose to examine the feasibility of a 12-week intervention that uses theoretically grounded text messages and a Fitbit device to improve PA and sleep among Hispanic adolescents with obesity, as compared to a wait-list control group with a Fitbit device …

Prevalence Of Metabolic Syndrome And It’S Associated Factors In Emirati Adults: The Uae Healthy Future Cohort Study, Shamma Jauaan Almuhairi

Dissertations

In the last few years United Arab Emirates showed a rapid growth in economic field which was associated with growth of other types of related diseases, specially in non-communicable disease; mainly type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) & cardiovascular related diseases (CVDs). The presence of multiple risk factors simultaneously in Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) has been shown to increase the risk for atherosclerosis development in young and middle-aged adults. Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is clustering of cardiometabolic risk factors and has many different definitions according to different international organizations. Aims and objectives:This study has three main objectives; it aimed to estimate the prevalence …

Exploring Communication In Healthcare Through Decision-Making Interventions And A Novel Measure Of Clinician Spoken Plain Language, Renata W. Yen

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Statement of the Problem

Good communication in clinical encounters is a key component of quality healthcare. Improving clinician communication would benefit all populations, however patients with lower health literacy or who are socially disadvantaged stand to benefit the most due to the complex content in clinical encounters. Shared decision-making can improve outcomes, but shared decision-making cannot occur without good clinician communication. In this dissertation, I reviewed interventions for facilitating shared decision-making for socially disadvantaged patients. Then, I examined the use of spoken plain language, or clinician use of familiar, clear verbal language when communicating with patients, and developed a prototype …

Intimate Conversations: A Mixed-Methods Study Of African American Father-Adolescent Sexual Risk Communication, Shanda A. Vereen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Approximately 50% of African American (AA) high school students are sexually active and a large proportion of sexually active AA students report engaging in sexual risk behaviors such as not using condoms at last intercourse. Consequently, AA adolescents in the United States experience outcomes of risky sexual behaviors at high rates. Evidence shows parents have an effect on shaping adolescent attitudes, values, and beliefs regarding sex through sexual risk communication (SRC). Although parent-adolescent SRC is associated with reductions in sexual risk behaviors among AA adolescents, research has primarily focused on mothers. While parents acknowledge that SRC is traditionally viewed …

Prevalence Of Endoparasites And Haematology In Redbelly Tilapia From A Shallow Tropical Reservoir In Ghana, Elliot H. Alhassan, Samuel A. Osei, Akwasi Ampofo-Yeboah, Samuel O. Dandi

Tanzania Journal of Science

The goal of this study was to assess common endoparasites on Tilapia zillii in the Tono Reservoir, as well as to investigate the mean intensity and prevalence of these parasites. A total of 175 fish specimens were examined during the study. Endoparasites of three metazoans and one protozoan were observed from the Tilapia zillii gills, intestines, and stomach. The findings showed that the most common endoparasites affecting Tilapia zillii are Ichthyopthirius multifiliis, Bothriocephalus sp., Contracaecum sp., and Dactylogyrus sp. Also, Contracaecum sp had the highest prevalence of 29.71, followed by Bothriocephalus sp (18.86), Ichthyopthirius multifiliis (12), and Dactylogyrus sp (6.86). …

Occupational Safety And Health Practices Among Physical Therapists In Metro Manila During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study Protocol, Zyra Mae V. Sicat, Paulin Grace M. Espino, Kristina B. Devora, Richard Lemuel Q. Budomo, Jewel Jace M. Abella, Barbara Nicole Y. Angeles, Giancarlo Philip H. Benzonan, Coby Jaleeyah Y. Chan, Erika L. Ignacio, Peter Oliver G. Palacio Jr., Julia Erin G. Tan

Philippine Journal of Physical Therapy

Introduction: The purpose of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is to protect and prevent workers from being exposed to risks and hazards that are detrimental to their health and safety. For the past two years, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is one of the most significant occupational health outcomes to physical therapists (PTs) due to the nature of their work. However, minimal studies have been conducted about the experiences and OSH practices of PTs during the pandemic. This study aims to understand the experiences of clinical PTs in Metro Manila, Philippines during the pandemic. The study also seeks to explore …

Household And Community Factors Affecting Nutritional Status Of Under-Five Children (6-59 Months) In Gairo District Using Composite Index Of Anthropometric Failure, Tausi M. Mohamed, Cornelio N. Nyaruhucha

Tanzania Journal of Science

In Tanzania, where the majority of under-five children are affected, undernutrition is still a significant public health concern. The study aimed at assessing the prevalence of undernutrition and its determinants among under-five children in Gairo District using a Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF). A household-based cross-sectional study was employed involving 300 under-five children with their mothers/caregivers in three wards in the Gairo District. Data collection on socio-demographics, dietary diversity, and healthcare factors were collected by interviewer-based semi-structured questionnaires. Anthropometric measurements using standard procedures were performed to collect anthropometric data. Odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval and p-value ≤ …

Environmental Enrichment Devices Are Safe And Effective At Reducing Undesirable Behaviors In California Sea Lions And Northern Elephant Seals During Rehabilitation, Kirsten Donald, Amanda Benedetti, Vinícius Donisete Lima Rodrigues Goulart, Alissa Deming, Hendrik Nollens, Grey Stafford, Sabrina Brando

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Environmental enrichment devices (EEDs) have been proven to promote positive wellbeing in zoos and aquariums, and support animals' reintroduction success; however, their use in rehabilitation centers is still limited. This pilot study investigated the safety and efficacy of three EEDs, Artificial Kelp, Horse KONG™ and Wubba Kong™, and their ability to decrease and/or eliminate undesired stereotypic behaviors or looking at staff/staff areas in seven wild California sea lions (CSLs) and eight northern elephant seals (NESs) undergoing rehabilitation in Southern California. Observers conducted instantaneous sampling once a minute during a 30-min baseline, followed by a 30-min EED implementation on one focal …

Functional Effects Of Disease-Associated Variants Reveal That The S1-M1 Linker Of The Nmda Receptor Critically Controls Channel Opening, Lingling Xie, Miranda J Mcdaniel, Riley E Perszyk, Sukhan Kim, Gerarda Cappuccio, Kevin A Shapiro, Beatriz Muñoz-Cabello, Pedro A Sanchez-Lara, Katheryn Grand, Jing Zhang, Kelsey A Nocilla, Rehan Sheikh, Lluis Armengol, Roberta Romano, Tyler Mark Pierson, Hongjie Yuan, Scott J Myers, Stephen F Traynelis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The short pre-M1 helix within the S1-M1 linker (also referred to as the pre-M1 linker) between the agonist-binding domain (ABD, S1) and the M1 transmembrane helix of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) is devoid of missense variants within the healthy population but is a locus for de novo pathogenic variants associated with neurological disorders. Several de novo variants within this helix have been identified in patients presenting early in life with intellectual disability, developmental delay, and/or epilepsy. In this study, we evaluated functional properties for twenty variants within the pre-M1 linker in GRIN1, GRIN2A, and GRIN2B genes, including six novel missense …

Relationship Between Chinese Herbal Medicine Use And Risk Of Sjögren’S Syndrome In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Retrospective, Population-Based, Nested Case-Control Study, Hou-Hsun Liao, Hanoch Livneh, Miao-Chiu Lin, Ming-Chi Lu, Ning-Sheng Lai, Hung-Rong Yen, Tzung-Yi Tsai

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background and Objectives: Sjögren’s Syndrome (SS) is a common extra-articular feature among subjects with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). While Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been used to treat symptoms of RA for many years, few studies have examined its efficacy in guarding against the SS onset. This study aimed to compare risk of SS for RA patients with and without use of CHM. Materials and Methods: Data obtained for this nested case-control study were retrieved from Taiwanese nationwide insurance database from 2000–2013. Cases with SS claims were defined and matched to two randomly selected controls without SS from the recruited RA …

Air Pollution In South Texas: A Short Communication Of Health Risks And Implications, Sai Deepak Pinakana, Esmeralda Mendez, Ismaila Ibrahim, Md. Salahuddin Majumder, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Air pollution is a major public health concern. The region of South Texas in the United States has experienced high levels of air pollution in recent years due to an increase in population, cross-border trade between the U.S.A. and Mexico, and high vehicular activity. This review assesses the relationships between human health and air pollution in South Texas. A thorough scientific search was performed using PubMed, Science Direct, and ProQuest, with most of the literature focusing on the source apportionment of particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less in width (PM2.5), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), Black Carbon …

Virtual And In Vitro Screening Of Natural Products Identifies Indole And Benzene Derivatives As Inhibitors Of Sars-Cov-2 Main Protease (MPro), Dony Ang, Riley Kendall, Hagop S. Atamian

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in serious health, social, and economic consequences. While the development of effective vaccines substantially reduced the severity of symptoms and the associated deaths, we still urgently need effective drugs to further reduce the number of casualties associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections. Machine learning methods both improved and sped up all the different stages of the drug discovery processes by performing complex analyses with enormous datasets. Natural products (NPs) have been used for treating diseases and infections for thousands of years and represent a valuable resource for drug discovery when combined with …

The Emergence Of A Virus Variant: Dynamics Of A Competition Model With Cross-Immunity Time-Delay Validated By Wastewater Surveillance Data For Covid-19, Bruce Pell, Samantha Brozak, Tin Phan, Fuqing Wu, Yang Kuang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We consider the dynamics of a virus spreading through a population that produces a mutant strain with the ability to infect individuals that were infected with the established strain. Temporary cross-immunity is included using a time delay, but is found to be a harmless delay. We provide some sufficient conditions that guarantee local and global asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium and the two boundary equilibria when the two strains outcompete one another. It is shown that, due to the immune evasion of the emerging strain, the reproduction number of the emerging strain must be significantly lower than that of …

Diet And Salivary Microbiome On Cardiovascular Risk And Glycemic Control In Participants With And Without Type 1 Diabetes: The Cacti Study, Tiantian Pang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: The prevalence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been increasing drastically in the United States. People with T1DM are at a higher risk of developing diabetes-related complications, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). Diet is one of the most modifiable factors and healthy eating could reduce CVD risk among individuals with T1DM. The current 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans focus on overall healthy eating patterns rather than individual foods and nutrients. A healthy dietary pattern or high-quality diet can be measured by diet quality indexes, and generally contains minimal ultra-processed foods (UPF). Although substantial evidence has linked poor diet quality …

Sexual Behaviors, Contraception Use And Barriers Among Adolescents And Young Adults In Rural Haiti., Abbey R. Masonbrink, Emily A. Hurley, Nikolaus Schuetz, Jonathan Rodean, Emily Rupe, Kemi Lewis, Marie Daphnée Boncoeur, Melissa K. Miller

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) in Haiti experience a high unintended pregnancy rate, in part due to unmet contraception needs. Little is known about AYA opinions of and experiences with contraception that may explain remaining gaps in coverage. We aimed to describe barriers and facilitators to contraception use among AYAs in Haiti.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey and semi-structured qualitative interviews with a convenience sample of AYA females aged 14-24 in two rural communities in Haiti. The survey and semi-structured interviews assessed demographics, sexual health and pregnancy prevention behaviors and explored contraception opinions and experiences according to Theory …

Soybean Gmsaul1, A Bona Fide U-Box E3 Ligase, Negatively Regulates Immunity Likely Through Repressing The Activation Of Gmmpk3, Jun-Mei Li, Mei-Yan Ye, Chaofeng Wang, Xiao-Han Ma, Ni-Ni Wu, Chen-Li Zhong, Yanjun Zhang, Ninghui Cheng, Paul A Nakata, Lirong Zeng, Jian-Zhong Liu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

E3 ubiquitin ligases play important roles in plant immunity, but their role in soybean has not been investigated previously. Here, we used Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV)-mediated virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to investigate the function of GmSAUL1 (Senescence-Associated E3 Ubiquitin Ligase 1) homologs in soybean. When two closely related SAUL1 homologs were silenced simultaneously, the soybean plants displayed autoimmune phenotypes, which were significantly alleviated by high temperature, suggesting that GmSAUL1a/1b might be guarded by an R protein. Interestingly, silencing GmSAUL1a/1b resulted in the decreased activation of GmMPK6, but increased activation of GmMPK3 in response to flg22, …

Disease Risk Of Reintroducing Primates Confiscated From The Illegal Wildlife Trade, Ana Patricia Mendoza Becerra

Dissertations

Zoonotic infections are easily shared between human and other primates, and thus primate trafficking poses a high risk of introducing zoonotic pathogens into urban environments as well as spreading human-associated diseases into natural environments when infected primates are released. The magnitude of these risks has not been thoroughly studied in the context of primate trafficking and rehabilitation of Neotropical primates. In this dissertation, I address some knowledge gaps in disease risk analysis of reintroducing trafficked primates. In chapter 1, I describe the dynamics, diversity, and composition of live wildlife trafficking in urban markets in Peru. I found these markets are …

Harm Reduction In West Virginia: Do Needle Exchange Programs Reduce Disease And Decrease Costs?, Katie Duty, Amber Graves, Anthony Uriate, Stacie Deslich, Alberto Coustasse, Thomas Norton

Management Faculty Research

Needle Exchange Programs (NEP)s were created to help users exchange used needles for new sterile ones and become aware of treatment and rehabilitation options. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of NEPs and their impact on reducing HIV and Hepatitis C infections in West Virginia and decreasing health care costs for the community. Based on studies conducted on the past implementation of needle exchange programs, it is suggested that there has been evidence that closing these programs can have a broad societal impact on the spread of HIV and hepatitis C and the associated costs. In addition, the community …

Identifying Occupational Health And Safety Risks Among Environmental Health Officers In Australia And New Zealand Through An Online Survey, Garry Dine, Sue Reed, Jacques Oosthuizen, Edmore Masaka

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

To identify the occupational health and safety (OHS) risks among environmental health officers (EHOs) in Australia and New Zealand. The objectives were to profile and compare OHS experiences from different countries and regions to gain a regional perspective on OHS hazards that impact EHOs. An online hazard exposure survey was conducted among 339 EHOs (Australia: n = 301, 88.8%; New Zealand: n = 38, 11.2%). The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare 2 ordinal data groups, the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for more than 2 ordinal groups, and the independent samples t test was used to compare the …