Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcus Interpretation: Leveraging Data Visualization To Improve Diagnostic Accuracy And Patient Outcomes, Miriam Booker Barrett

Translational Projects (Open Access)

When implemented effectively, data displays can enhance interpretive decisions by helping physicians recognize patterns and relationships within various datasets. Data visualization has been widely studied for its role in converting raw data into actionable insights and supporting data-driven decision-making. However, few studies have been published that specifically explored using data displays to aid in interpreting coagulasenegative Staphylococcus (CoNS) in blood cultures.

One of the primary challenges infectious disease physicians face when interpreting CoNS in blood cultures is the disorganized nature of clinical data within electronic health records. The information necessary for accurate interpretation is often scattered across various sections of …

Teaching Pathographies Of Mental Illness, Nathan Carlin, Angela Gomez, Margarita Ortiz

Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper describes the content and evolution of a fourth-year course for medical students on teaching pathographies of mental illness. (It is a follow-up to Nathan Carlin's Pathographies of Mental Illness that appeared as an Element in the Bioethics and Neuroethics series published by Cambridge University Press.) The course originally centered on classic (and some contemporary) memoirs; however, responding to student evaluations, newer material now ensures more diversity, with material written by women and people of color, and describes the difference that can make.

Effect Of The Cervical Lesion Severity On Procedural And Clinical Outcomes After Endovascular Treatment Of Acute Tandem Lesions: A Multicenter Study, Milagros Galecio-Castillo, Mudassir Farooqui, Ameer E Hassan, Mouhammad A Jumaa, Afshin A Divani, Marc Ribo, Michael Abraham, Nils H Petersen, Johanna T Fifi, Waldo R Guerrero, Amer M Malik, Thanh N Nguyen, Sunil A Sheth, Albert J Yoo, Guillermo Linares, Nazli Janjua, Michael Dubinsky, Darko Quispe-Orozco, Wondwossen Tekle, Syed F Zaidi, Sara Y Sabbagh, Marta Olive-Gadea, Tiffany Barkley, Reade A De Leacy, Mohamad Abdalkader, Sergio Salazar-Marioni, Jazba Soomro, Weston Gordon, Charoskhon Turabova, Leonardo Cruz-Criollo, Piyush Kalakoti, Maxim Mokin, Dileep R Yavagal, Tudor G Jovin, Santiago Ortega-Gutierrez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Tandem lesions pose unique challenges in the endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke. We aimed to compare the clinical and procedural outcomes of patients with tandem lesions and extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) complete occlusion versus those with moderate to severe stenosis.

Methods: This is a subanalysis of a multicenter cohort of patients with acute anterior circulation tandem lesions treated with intracranial mechanical thrombectomy and carotid artery stenting, between January 2015 and December 2020. The patients were categorized into 2 groups: extracranial ICA stenosis >70% to 99% and complete occlusion. Outcomes included successful and excellent recanalization, functional independence, symptomatic …

Roper Center For Public Opinion Research: Over 25,000 Datasets!, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

Roper iPoll provides access to nearly one million public opinion survey questions and responses, including valuable health-related data. You can find it listed in our A to Z Databases or access directly here. Need help getting started? Check out the Roper iPoll tutorial available on their homepage!

The Climate Is Changing Should Clinical Ethics Change, Too?, Joelle Robertson Preidler, Keisha Ray

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Large Language Model Performance To Support The Diagnosis And Management Of Patients With Primary Immune Disorders, Nicholas L Rider, Yingya Li, Aaron T Chin, Daniel V Digiacomo, Cullen Dutmer, Jocelyn R Farmer, Kirk Roberts, Guergana Savova, Mei-Sing Ong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is transforming health care in a variety of ways; however, the present utility of GAI for supporting clinicians who treat rare disease such as primary immune disorders (PIs) is not well studied. We evaluated the ability of 6 state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) for providing clinical guidance about PIs.

Objective: To quantitatively and qualitatively measure the utility of current, open-source LLMs for diagnosing and providing helpful clinical decision support about PIs.

Methods: Five expert clinical immunologists each provided 5 real-world, anonymized PI case vignettes via multi-turn prompting to 6 LLMs (OpenAI GPT-4o, Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct, Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.3, …

Translating The Hba1c Lab Test Name And Results From English To Arabic For Enhanced Patient Access And Workflow Efficiency, Aiman M. Alrawabdeh

Translational Projects (Open Access)

In Jordan, where the healthcare system primarily operates in English, Arabic-speaking patients encounter significant challenges in understanding laboratory test names and results, including Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), an essential diagnostic indicator for diabetes management. The lack of multilingual access to medical information limits health literacy and patient autonomy, increasing dependence on healthcare staff for translation assistance. This translational informatics project addressed these challenges by developing and implementing an Arabic translation process for the HbA1c lab test name and results. HbA1c was selected as it is a standard lab test among patients with diabetes in Jordan; nearly 30% of Jordanians had type …

Implementation Of A Zen Room And Mindfulness Techniques To Decrease Perceived Burnout, Danika Scott

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to implement a Zen room and mindfulness techniques, aiming to improve job satisfaction by 65% and reduce perceived burnout by 10% among behavioral health staff. The project was conducted at a substance abuse center in Deer Park, TX.

Background: Behavioral health staff face high levels of emotional exhaustion and job-related stress, leading to increased burnout.

Methodology: The Plan-Do-Study-Act model guided the QI methodology using a sample of 23 behavioral health staff. Interventions included an equipped Zen space and wellness resources. Data collection utilized the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a …

Reporting And Tracking Of Occupational Bloodborne Pathogen Exposures, Olivia Smith

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose/Background: Underreporting of occupational bloodborne pathogen (BBP) exposures remains a significant patient and employee safety issue. At UT Health, outdated paper-based systems hindered accurate tracking, timely follow-up, and reporting compliance. The aim of this quality improvement (QI) project was to achieve a 30% increase in quarterly BBP exposure reports, from 30 to 39, by implementing an electronic reporting system between January 1 and March 31, 2025.

Methodology: Guided by the Health Belief Model and using the Implementation and Improvement Science (IIS) Framework, the project replaced the existing paper form with an external, user-friendly digital system. Staff received structured training, and …

Two Spectroscopy Devices Can Approximate Fruit And Vegetable Intake In A Racially And Ethnically Diverse Sample, Stephanie B Jilcott Pitts, Qiang Wu, Melissa N Laska, Nancy E Moran

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Assessing fruit and vegetable intake is important to determine the effectiveness of nutrition intervention studies. Few objective measures of fruit and vegetable intake have been directly compared within the same study participants.

Objectives: This study aims to compare the relative validity of 2 different skin spectrophotometry devices to serve as biomarkers of plasma carotenoid concentrations, self-reported fruit and vegetable intake (FVI), and carotenoid intake, to examine if both devices can be used to approximate FVI.

Methods: Human skin carotenoid scores (SCS, Veggie Meter-assessed) and color space measurement data from 2 prior studies were used. Participants' skin color space parameters …

A Brief Guide To Statistical Analysis Of Grouped Data In Preclinical Research, Colby J Vorland, Lilian Golzarri-Arroyo, David B Allison

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Clustering and nesting (C&N) arise in many preclinical studies such as when animals are group-housed, share litters, or in cell culture. Ignoring C&N undermines the validity of analyses. We explain how C&N arise and valid designs and analyses.

The Diabetes Prevention Program And Its Outcomes Study: Niddk's Journey Into The Prevention Of Type 2 Diabetes And Its Public Health Impact, Jill P Crandall, Dana Dabelea, William C Knowler, David M Nathan, Marinella Temprosa, Dpp Research Group

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

The current-day epidemic of type 2 diabetes, largely driven by increased adiposity and reduced physical activity in the setting of genetic susceptibility, is a major public health challenge. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) presciently proposed the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a multicenter randomized clinical trial, designed by investigators in conjunction with NIDDK staff and initiated in 1996. The primary goal of DPP was to determine whether an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILS) or metformin in comparison with placebo would reduce the development of diabetes in a high-risk population with prediabetes. After mean 2.8 years, ILS …

To Pause With A Cliffhanger Or A Temporary Closure? The Differential Impact Of Serial Versus Episodic Narratives On Children's Physical Activity Behaviors, Amy Shirong Lu, Melanie C Green, Caio Victor Sousa, Jungyun Hwang, I-Min Lee, Debbe Thompson, Tom Baranowski

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Research has supported the effectiveness of narratives for promoting health behavior, but different narrative presentation formats (serial vs. episodic) have seldom been compared. Suspense theories suggest that serial narratives, which do not provide a full resolution at the end of an episode, may create higher motivation for continued engagement with a story. Forty-four 8 to 12-year-old children were randomly assigned to watch an animation series designed for an existing active video game in which the plot was delivered either continuously across multiple episodes (serial) or in multiple yet relatively independent self-contained episodes (episodic). Controlling for social desirability, children who watched …

Genome-Wide Association Meta-Analysis Of Human Olfactory Identification Discovers Sex-Specific And Sex-Differential Genetic Variants, Franz Förster, David Emmert, Katrin Horn, Janne Pott, Johannes Frasnelli, Mohammed Aslam Imtiaz, Konstantinos Melas, Valentina Talevi, Honglei Chen, Christoph Engel, Michele Filosi, Myriam Fornage, Martin Gögele, Markus Löffler, Thomas H Mosley, Cristian Pattaro, Peter Pramstaller, Srishti Shrestha, N Ahmad Aziz, Monique M B Breteler, Kerstin Wirkner, Markus Scholz, Christian Fuchsberger

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Smelling is a human sense, expressing strong sexual dimorphisms. We aim to improve the knowledge of the genetics of human olfactory perception by performing an exploratory genome-wide association meta-analysis of up to 21,495 individuals of European ancestry. By sex-stratified and overall analysis of the identification of twelve odours and an identification score, we discovered ten independent loci, seven of them novel, with trait-wise genome-wide significance (p <  5 × 10−8) involving five odours. Seven of these loci, including four novel ones, are also significant using a stricter study-wide significance threshold (p <  3.85 × 10−9). Loci were predominantly located within clusters of olfactory receptors. Two loci were female-specific while one was sex-differential with respective candidate genes containing androgen response elements. Two-sample Mendelian randomization was applied to search for causal relationships between sex hormones, odour identification and neurodegenerative diseases. A causal negative effect was detected for Alzheimer’s disease on the identification score. These findings deepen our understanding of the genetic basis of olfactory perception and its interaction with sex, prioritizing mechanisms for further molecular research.

Dietary Patterns, Serum Metabolites, And Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease In United States Hispanic/Latino Adults: A Prospective Analysis Of The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study Of Latinos (Hchs/Sol), Hongbo Yang, Yi Wang, Kai Luo, Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Christina Cordero, Robert J Ostfeld, Claudia Martinez, Luis Maldonado, Amber Pirzada, Martha Daviglus, Bing Yu, Frank B Hu, Robert C Kaplan, Qibin Qi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Healthy dietary patterns are recommended to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet the relationships among healthy dietary patterns, blood metabolite profile, and incident CVD are not well understood.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the associations of healthy dietary patterns and related serum metabolite profiles with incident CVD in United States Hispanic/Latino adults.

Methods: The study included 13,922 participants aged 18-74 y from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Dietary pattern scores, including Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2020, healthful Plant-based Diet Index (hPDI), and alternate Mediterranean diet score (aMED), were constructed at baseline (2008-2011) based on 2 24-h dietary recalls. …

Pulmonary Complications Associated With Sugammadex Or Neostigmine In Patients Recovering From Advanced Diagnostic Or Interventional Bronchoscopy: A Retrospective Two-Centre Analysis, Ehab Farag, Karan Shah, Maged Argalious, Basem Abdelmalak, Thomas Gildea, John Seif, Shuyi Li, Edward J Mascha, Daniel I Sessler

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Many diagnostic and interventional procedures are performed in bronchoscopy suites in high-risk patients. Minor impairment in respiratory muscle function caused by incomplete reversal of neuromuscular block can contribute to postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs). We assessed whether there are fewer serious PPCs after diagnostic or therapeutic bronchoscopy when neuromuscular block is reversed with sugammadex rather than neostigmine.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study for bronchoscopy under general anaesthesia with the use of neuromuscular blockers between July 2016 and June 2022. The primary outcome was a composite of PPCs. The secondary outcome was hypoxaemia. We used inverse probability of treatment …

Hybrid Deep Learning Approaches For Accurate Electricity Price Forecasting: A Day-Ahead Us Energy Market Analysis With Renewable Energy, Rahman Md. Saifur, Hassan Reza

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Forecasting day-ahead electricity prices is a crucial research area. Both wholesale and retail sectors highly value improved forecast accuracy. Renewable energy sources have grown more influential and effective in the US power market. However, current forecasting models have shortcomings, including inadequate consideration of renewable energy impacts and insufficient feature selection. Many studies lack reproducibility, clear presentation of input features, and proper integration of renewable resources. This study addresses these gaps by incorporating a comprehensive set of input features, while these features are engineered to capture complex market dynamics. The model’s unique aspect is its inclusion of renewable-related inputs, such as …

Investigation Of A Pathogenic Inversion In Unc13d And Comprehensive Analysis Of Chromosomal Inversions Across Diverse Datasets, Tugce Bozkurt-Yozgatli, Ming Yin Lun, Jesse D Bengtsson, Ugur Sezerman, Ivan K Chinn, Zeynep Coban-Akdemir, Claudia M B Carvalho

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Inversions are known contributors to the pathogenesis of genetic diseases. Identifying inversions poses significant challenges, making it one of the most demanding structural variants (SVs) to detect and interpret. Recent advancements in sequencing technologies and the development of publicly available SV datasets have substantially enhanced our capability to explore inversions. However, a cross-comparison in those datasets remains unexplored. In this study, we reported a proband with familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis type-3 carrying a splicing variant (c.1389+1G>A) in trans with an inversion present in 0.006345% of individuals in gnomAD (v4.0) that disrupts UNC13D. Based on this result, we investigate the features …

The Impact Of Household Dysfunction On Dating Violence Perpetration Among Adolescents In The United States: A Scoping Review, Sumaita Choudhury, Melissa F Peskin, Timothy J Walker, Emily T Hébert, Nivedhitha Parthasarathy, Kaitlyn L Zajack-Garcia, Lea Sacca, Christine M Markham

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Adverse childhood experiences, such as household dysfunction (HD), play a central role in how adolescents establish, experience, and navigate the challenges of relationship formation, maintenance, and dissolution. HD exposures have been independently associated with dating violence (DV) perpetration in both adolescents and adults. However, research examining the association between the concurrent effect of HD on DV perpetration, especially among adolescents remains scarce. Thus, we conducted a scoping review to accumulate and summarize existing research regarding the impact of HD on DV perpetration among adolescents aged 10 to 17 years in the United States. We used three electronic databases, Medline (Ovid), …

New Resource! Access Anesthesiology, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

No abstract provided.

New Resource! Mcgraw Hill Access Dermatology Dxrx, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

No abstract provided.

Cinahl Has A New Look, Joanne Romano

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

The new CINAHL Platform is now available!

The CINAHL database is now on a new platform! The next time you log in, you’ll see a redesigned interface that improves navigation and search features.

Need help searching? Reach out to a librarian at askus.library.tmc.edu, we're happy to assist!

Restoring Calibration For Aligned Large Language Models: A Calibration-Aware Fine-Tuning Approach, Jiancong Xiao, Bojian Hou, Zhanliang Wang, Ruochen Jin, Qi Long, Weijie J Su, Li Shen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

One of the key technologies for the success of Large Language Models (LLMs) is preference alignment. However, a notable side effect of preference alignment is poor calibration: while the pre-trained models are typically well-calibrated, LLMs tend to become poorly calibrated after alignment with human preferences. In this paper, we investigate why preference alignment affects calibration and how to address this issue. For the first question, we observe that the preference collapse issue in alignment undesirably generalizes to the calibration scenario, causing LLMs to exhibit overconfidence and poor calibration. To address this, we demonstrate the importance of fine-tuning with domain-specific knowledge …

High-Impact Chronic Pain And Cognitive Decline Among Mexicans Aged 60 And Older From 2012 To 2018, Sadaf Arefi Milani, Sirena Gutierrez, Brandon O'Grady, Rebeca Wong, Rafael Samper-Ternent, Brian Downer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pain is associated with cognitive decline, but prior research has not considered differences between high- and low-impact chronic pain or low-and middle-income countries, such as Mexico. Our objective was to evaluate the association between high-impact chronic pain and cognitive decline among older adults in Mexico. We used data from the 2012-2018 Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS), a nationally representative study of older Mexican adults (60+). Pain, measured at each wave, was categorized as high-impact chronic pain (pain that limits daily activities), low-impact chronic pain (pain that did not limit daily activities), and no chronic pain. Cognition was measured at …

Diet, Gut Microbiota, And Histidine Metabolism Toward Imidazole Propionate Production In Relation To Type 2 Diabetes, Hongbo Yang, Kai Luo, Brandilyn A Peters, Yi Wang, Yanbo Zhang, Martha Daviglus, Amber Pirzada, Christina Cordero, Bing Yu, Robert D Burk, Robert Kaplan, Qibin Qi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To examine associations of serum imidazole propionate (ImP), histidine, and their ratio with incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related dietary and gut microbial factors in U.S. Hispanic/Latino people.

Research design and methods: In the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, we evaluated serum ImP, histidine, and ImP-to-histidine ratio at baseline (2008-2011) and their cross-sectional associations with dietary intake and prospective associations with incident T2D over ∼12 years (n = 4,632). In a subsample with gut microbiota data during a follow-up visit (2016-2018), we examined gut microbial species associated with serum ImP and their potential interactions with dietary intake. …

Celebrating Disability Pride Month Showcasing Publications By Faculty, Staff, And Students In The Texas Medical Center Community, Alice Sherwood

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

At the TMC Library’s online repository, you'll find a wide range of scholarly works on disability-related topics authored by faculty, staff, and students from across the Texas Medical Center. With over 37,000 items, 2.7 million downloads, and users from 160+ countries, this platform is a growing hub for global health knowledge.

Explore Recent Publications on Disability from the past three years.

Mtap Immunohistochemistry As A Surrogate Marker Of Cdkn2a Loss In Brain Tumors: A Meta-Analysis And Literature Review, Antonio Dono, Diego Pichardo-Rojas, Leonardo Mendoza Mora, Pavel S Pichardo-Rojas, Luis A Marin-Castañeda, Abril Carrillo, Adrian Coria Medrano, Yoshua Esquenazi, Leomar Y Ballester

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Given the known relationship between CDKN2A homozygous deletion (HD) and worsened outcomes in both meningiomas and IDH-mutant astrocytomas, it is paramount to identify CDKN2A HD for accurate risk stratification of patients. Multiple array platforms can detect CDKN2A HD. However, these methods are expensive and are not readily available at every institution. To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis and literature review to evaluate 5'-methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) expression determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) as a surrogate of CDKN2A HD. Our study analyzed 7 cohort studies, 3 of which focused on meningiomas encompassing a total of 87 patients; and 4 studies were conducted …

I2moe: Interpretable Multimodal Interaction-Aware Mixture-Of-Experts, Jiayi Xin, Sukwon Yun, Jie Peng, Inyoung Choi, Jenna L Ballard, Tianlong Chen, Qi Long

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Modality fusion is a cornerstone of multimodal learning, enabling information integration from diverse data sources. However, vanilla fusion methods are limited by

It Is Time We Include Leadership Education And Experiences In Mfm Training And Lifelong Learning, Cheryl A Moyer, Timothy R B Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Federated Target Trial Emulation Using Distributed Observational Data For Treatment Effect Estimation, Haoyang Li, Chengxi Zang, Zhenxing Xu, Weishen Pan, Suraj Rajendran, Yong Chen, Fei Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Target trial emulation (TTE) aims to estimate treatment effects by simulating randomized controlled trials using real-world observational data. Applying TTE across distributed datasets shows great promise in improving generalizability and power but is always infeasible due to privacy and data-sharing constraints. Here we propose a Federated Learning-based TTE framework, FL-TTE, that enables TTE across multiple sites without sharing patient-level data. FL-TTE incorporates federated protocol design, federated inverse probability of treatment weighting, and a federated Cox proportional hazards model to estimate time-to-event outcomes across heterogeneous data. We validated FL-TTE by emulating Sepsis trials using eICU and MIMIC-IV data from 192 hospitals, …