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Sociodemographic Determinants Of Mental Health Outcomes Among Unhealthy Weight Youth In The United States, Chenchita Malolan

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background

The prevalence of unhealthy weight (defined as a body mass index ≥ 85th %ile for age and sex) among children and adolescents in the United States remains unacceptably high. In parallel, the prevalence of mental health issues in youth is rising as well. Current research shows a strong association between overweight/obesity and poor mental health outcomes. Specifically, youth of unhealthy weight have higher rates of anxiety and depression. The objective of this study is to evaluate the specific the current (2016-17) population-level prevalence of unhealthy weight, mental health issues and the sociodemographic (e.g. sex, age, race, ethnicity, household income) …

A Secondary Data Analysis For The Refinement Of Empirical Modelling For The Estimation Of Environmental Health & Safety Program Resourcing For Colleges And Universities, Seth Michael Parker

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The use of potentially hazardous physical, chemical, biological, and radiological agents is inherent to the teaching, research, and services missions of any university. To manage the risks associated with these agents, it is common for universities to host environmental health & safety (EH&S) programs to protect the safety of the institution’s students, faculty, staff, and visitors. However, since EH&S programs in universities are primarily focused on prevention, it is difficult to estimate the appropriate “industry average” in terms of budget and staffing resources a particular university needs for such programs. Historically, the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association (CSHEMA) …

Bayesian Integrative Analysis Of Omics Data, Youyi Zhang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Technological innovations have produced large multi-modal datasets that range in multiplatform genomic data, pathway data, proteomic data, imaging data and clinical data. Integrative analysis of such data sets have potentiality in revealing important biological and clinical insights into complex diseases like cancer. This dissertation focuses on Bayesian methodology establishment in integrative analysis of radiogenomics and pathway driver detection applied in cancer applications. We initially present Radio-iBAG that utilizes Bayesian approaches in analyzing radiological imaging and multi-platform genomic data, which we establish a multi-scale Bayesian hierarchical model that simultaneously identifies genomic and radiomic, i.e., radiology-based imaging markers, along with the latent …

Genetic Evolution And Prognostic Determinants Of Pancreatic Cancer On Longitudinal Liquid Biopsies, Vincent Bernard

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has one of the lowest 5-year survival rates amongst solid tumors. As early detection of PDAC is unusual and typically incidental, most patients present with locally advanced and metastatic disease where effective therapeutic strategies remain a significant unmet need. Specifically, surrogate biomarkers for tumor monitoring of PDAC may lead to improved elucidation of clinical actionability and prognostic potential. On the other hand, tumor tissue is rarely sampled in patients presenting with de novo or recurrent metastatic PDAC, apart from a fine needle aspiration or a core needle biopsy performed for diagnosis. This precludes the opportunity for …

Assembly And Display Of Surface Proteins In Actinomyces Oris, Sara Siegel

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Bacteria are an integral part of human health and disease. In the human host, dental plaques form as a result of up to 700 individual bacterial species colonizing oral surfaces and forming a multispecies biofilm. These biofilms are the cause of prevalent human diseases such as dental caries, gingivitis, and periodontitis. The microbes present in the oral biofilm are highly spatially and temporally structured and require a primary colonizing species to adhere to host tissue. As an important primary colonizer of the oral biofilm, the actinobacterium Actinomyces oris utilizes cell wall anchored proteins and glycoconjugates to initiate adherence to host …

The Role Of Tumor Suppressor Dear1 In The Acquisition Of Mammary Stem/Progenitor Cell Properties, Uyen Le

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in America. Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), one of the earliest pre-invasive forms of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), has a 30-50% risk of progressing to IDC. Understanding the mechanisms regulating progression from DCIS to IDC would help identify biomarkers to stratify patients at higher risk of progression or metastasis. Cumulative literature suggests the earliest phase of dissemination from the primary tumor is driven by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program. DEAR1 is a tumor suppressor gene which is mutated, undergoes loss of heterozygosity in breast cancer, and is downregulated in DCIS …

Behavioral Insights Into Nociceptor Function: A Systematic Approach To Understanding Postsurgical And Neuropathic Pain Mechanisms In Rats, Max Odem

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Postsurgical and neuropathic pain are each clinically common, and often associated with ongoing pain. Ongoing pain has been linked to ongoing activity (OA) in human C-fiber nociceptors. Preclinical studies using rodent neuropathic models have concentrated on allodynia driven by OA generated in non-nociceptive Aβ fibers, but little attention has been paid to postsurgical pain in sham controls or to C-fiber nociceptor OA promoting ongoing pain.

Operant assays that reveal negative motivational and cognitive aspects of voluntary pain-related behavior may be particularly sensitive to pain-related alterations. In the mechanical conflict (MC) test, rodents can freely choose to escape from a brightly …

Targeting Ph Domain Proteins For Cancer Therapy, Zhi Tan

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Targeted therapy has been one of the most promising treatment options for cancer during the past decade. Discoveries of potent and selective small molecule inhibitors are critical to new and promising targeted therapy. Pleckstrin Homology (PH) domain proteins are one of the biggest protein families in the human proteome. However, no drugs have been achieved to the late development stages, let alone getting to the market. Thus, a deeper understanding of this protein family is required and there is an urgent need to develop novel small molecule compounds targeting these proteins.

Studies of PH domains began around two decades ago …

Adenylyl Cyclase Type 9: Regulation And Cardiac Function, Tanya A. Baldwin, Tanya A. Baldwin

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Abnormalities in cardiac stress signaling underlie a number of cardiovascular diseases (e.g. arrhythmias and heart failure). Cardiac stress signaling pathways normally integrate signals from the sympathetic nervous system to promote efficient contraction and relaxation under stress. Sympathetic control through β-adrenergic stimulation is propagated by adenylyl cyclase (AC). AC synthesizes cyclic AMP (cAMP), an important second messenger that initiates signaling pathways to modulate physiological and pathophysiological functions of the heart, including the activation of PKA and subsequent phosphorylation of ion channels, contractile machinery, and stress response proteins that enhance cardiac function. Alterations of cAMP signaling occur in the failing heart and …

Integrative Bioinformatics Approaches To Elucidating Prostate Cancer Cell Heterogeneity, Plasticity, And Treatment Response, Hsueh-Ping Chao

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common non-cutaneous tumor in American men, and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. PCa-related deaths can be attributed to heterogeneous tumors containing metastatic and therapy-resistant cancer cells. Cancer stem cells (CSC) are an important contributor to this tumor heterogeneity, which are present in primary tumors and become enriched in castration resistant PCa (CRPC). Our lab has demonstrated that the prostate cancer stem cells (PCSCs) are enriched in the phenotypically undifferentiated PCa cell population that lacks the expression of differentiation marker prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Our work has also demonstrated that PCa cells manifest significant …

Il-1Α Blockade Reduces Immune Suppression In The Early Tumor Micro-Environment, Brenda Melendez

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

IL-1α Blockade Reduces Immune Suppression in the Early Tumor Micro-Environment

Brenda Melendez, B.S.

Advisory Professor: Gregory Lizee, PhD.

Immunotherapy against melanoma has shown great promise in the clinic for treating advanced-stage patients. However, a major barrier against effective T cell mediated cytotoxicity is immunosuppression in the tumor micro-environment. It has been described that tumors secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines capable of modulating immune responses that favors the growth of tumor cells. Specifically, IL-1 plays a critical role in myeloid cell recruitment and activation, which can in turn inhibit T cell activity in vivo. Moreover, IL-1 is also known to up-regulate immune inhibitory …

Heme Peroxidase Hpx-2 Protects Caenorhabditis Elegans From Pathogens, Yi Liu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Heme-containing peroxidases are important components of innate immunity. Many of them functionally associate with NADPH oxidase (NOX)/dual oxidase (DUOX) enzymes by using the hydrogen peroxide they generate in downstream reactions. In Caenorhabditis elegans, a ShkT-containing peroxidase, SKPO-1, and the dual oxidase, BLI-3, contribute to resistance against the human pathogen Enterococcus faecalis, likely functioning in conjunction with each other. However, the exact mechanism(s) by which peroxidases and NOX/DUOXs contribute to pathogen resistance remain unclear. Here, we demonstrated that another peroxidase, HPX-2 (Heme-PeroXidase 2), is required for resistance against some, but not all pathogens. Tissue specific …

Effects Of A Community Population Health Initiative On Blood Pressure Control In Latinos, James R Langabeer, Timothy D Henry, Carlos Perez Aldana, Larissa Deluna, Nora Silva, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background Hypertension remains one of the most important, modifiable cardiovascular risk factors. Yet, the largest minority ethnic group (Hispanics/Latinos) often have different health outcomes and behavior, making hypertension management more difficult. We explored the effects of an American Heart Association-sponsored population health intervention aimed at modifying behavior of Latinos living in Texas. Methods and Results We enrolled 8071 patients, and 5714 (65.7%) completed the 90-day program (58.5 years ±11.7; 59% female) from July 2016 to June 2018. Navigators identified patients with risk factors; initial and final blood pressure ( BP ) readings were performed in the physician's office; and interim …

Evidence-Based Skin Champion Program Reduces Pressure Injuries In A Pediatric Hospital, Alexandra Luton Mn, Rn, Ncns-Bc, Mary D. Gordon Phd, Rn, Cns-Bc, Megnon Stewart Msn, Rn, Ellena Steward-Scott Msn, Rn, Joellan Mullen Msn, Rn, Ccrn-K, Angela Jones Mn, Rn, Ne-Bc, Joseph Hagan Scd

Journal of Nursing & Interprofessional Leadership in Quality & Safety

Prevention of pressure injuries (PIs) in pediatric patients is an important nurse-sensitive quality goal. The PI rate at a large urban pediatric hospital triggered a call to action by the Chief Nursing Officer to establish a Hospital Acquired PI (HAPI) Task Force which identified the Skin Champion program as a key improvement strategy. The goals of the Skin Champion program are to lower the rate of HAPIs, empower front line care providers to implement evidence-based care bundles, achieve consistency of practice, and provide resource availability at the point of care. The implementation of the Skin Champion quality improvement program achieved …

Vaccine Myths: Setting The Record Straight, Julie A. Boom, Rachel M. Cunningham, Lindy U. Mcgee

Journal of Family Strengths

Despite their standing as one of the most remarkable public health achievements, vaccines have been surrounded by dangerous myths since the development of the smallpox vaccine in the 18th century. In recent decades, with the publication of a fraudulent article linking vaccines to autism, the involvement of celebrities in the debate, and the rise of the internet and social media as sources for information for patients, these myths have become more widespread. This paper reviews four common vaccine myths: vaccines cause autism, vaccines are not safe, too many vaccines are given too soon, and the influenza vaccine is not necessary. …

Human Trafficking: It’S Not Just A Crime, Frances H. Recknor, Makini Chisolm-Straker

Journal of Family Strengths

Human trafficking, although commonly conceived of as a crime, is also a matter for the fields of health and public health. Trafficked individuals suffering physical, sexual, and/or psychological abuse can experience acute and chronic health sequelae, bringing them to the attention of health and/or mental health professionals. Communicable infections affect many trafficked individuals and can be transmitted to those not trafficked. The factors that contribute to people being trafficked, like poverty, educational disparities, and systematic oppression based upon identities, are multifaceted and interlinked with other trauma experiences. Incorporation of public health principles into anti-trafficking efforts facilitates a comprehensive and holistic …

Mythbusting: Facing The Facts In Public Policy, Robert D. Sanborn, Angelo P. Giardino

Journal of Family Strengths

Angelo P. Giardino and Robert Sanborn discuss the importance of the latest issue of the Journal of Family Strengths.

Stranger Danger!, Aimee Wodda

Journal of Family Strengths

This article discusses the historical origins of the “stranger danger” myth, including the conditions that fueled the spread of panic. It explains how the myth was bolstered by increased media coverage, emotional appeals by parents, and public awareness campaigns. A number of important terms are defined and statistical information about child abductions in the United States is provided. Constructionist critiques of the “missing children” problem are explored as well as work that looks at the phenomenon through the lens of moral panic. A variety of social, legal, and ethical implications are discussed. The final sections assert the dangers of the …

Reframing Human Trafficking: From A Criminal Justice Problem To A Social Justice Issue, Rebecca Pfeffer

Journal of Family Strengths

Laws addressing human trafficking have been passed in all 50 U.S. states as well as at the federal level. Although laws serve an important function in establishing social norms against a behavior, they can also create a belief that it is the responsibility of law enforcement to curb that behavior. Law enforcement and other actors in the criminal justice system have a critical role to play in addressing the problem of human trafficking, but this is not a problem that they can solve alone. A multipronged strategy engaging the fields of public health, medicine, social work, and criminal justice as …

Book Review – From Human Trafficking To Human Rights: Reframing Contemporary Slavery ​, Neyerlin Valerio

Journal of Family Strengths

This review identify the strong points Alison Brysk and Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick make about Human Trafficking. Their book "From Human Trafficking to Human Rights: Re-framing Contemporary Slavery" aims at correcting the current view the world has on the subject. They claim that this is the first step to end human trafficking because it correctly identifies the issues and causes. This review will reveal weather the Authors have significant evidence to support their claims.

Examining The Myth Of Accountability, High-Stakes Testing, And The Achievement Gap, Julian Vasquez Heilig, T. Jameson Brewer, Jimmy Ojeda Pedraza

Journal of Family Strengths

In this article we outline how notions of accountability and the achievement gap have relied upon the massive expansion of high-stakes exams in our nation’s schools. Texas-style test and punish accountability manifested in various ways within schools and school culture across the nation via NCLB, which undermined notions of trust within education. More than decade of national education policy focused on high-stakes testing and accountability—despite that the fact that the rise of high-stakes testing also involved considerable legal, ethical, and social considerations. We argue the practice of spending large amounts of time on test preparation and test taking must be …

The Myth Of The Well-Known ‘Solution’ Of Push-Down Academics, Burhanettin Keskin

Journal of Family Strengths

This article is an attempt to examine the myth of push-down academics and to refute it in light of the research. The historical background information on how this myth was born was provided. The questions of what is wrong with this myth, what are its social, legal, and ethical implications were discussed and how could we address the push-down academics myth were addressed.

Exome Sequencing Identifies Gene Variants And Networks Associated With Extreme Respiratory Outcomes Following Preterm Birth, Aaron Hamvas, Rui Feng, Yingtao Bi, Fan Wang, Soumyaroop Bhattacharya, Jared Mereness, Madhurima Kaushal, C Michael Cotten, Philip L Ballard, Thomas J Mariani

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have identified genetic variants associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in extremely preterm infants. However, findings with genome-wide significance have been rare, and not replicated. We hypothesized that whole exome sequencing (WES) of premature subjects with extremely divergent phenotypic outcomes could facilitate the identification of genetic variants or gene networks contributing disease risk.

RESULTS: The Prematurity and Respiratory Outcomes Program (PROP) recruited a cohort of > 765 extremely preterm infants for the identification of markers of respiratory morbidity. We completed WES on 146 PROP subjects (85 affected, 61 unaffected) representing extreme phenotypes of early respiratory morbidity. We tested for …

Effect Of Aspirin On Cardiovascular Events And Bleeding In The Healthy Elderly, John J Mcneil, Rory Wolfe, Robyn L Woods, Andrew M Tonkin, Geoffrey A Donnan, Mark R Nelson, Christopher M Reid, Jessica E Lockery, Brenda Kirpach, Elsdon Storey, Raj C Shah, Jeff D Williamson, Karen L Margolis, Michael E Ernst, Walter P Abhayaratna, Nigel Stocks, Sharyn M Fitzgerald, Suzanne G Orchard, Ruth E Trevaks, Lawrence J Beilin, Colin I Johnston, Joanne Ryan, Barbara Radziszewska, Michael Jelinek, Mobin Malik, Charles B Eaton, Donna Brauer, Geoff Cloud, Erica M Wood, Suzanne E Mahady, Suzanne Satterfield, Richard Grimm, Anne M Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Aspirin is a well-established therapy for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. However, its role in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease is unclear, especially in older persons, who have an increased risk.

METHODS: From 2010 through 2014, we enrolled community-dwelling men and women in Australia and the United States who were 70 years of age or older (or ≥65 years of age among blacks and Hispanics in the United States) and did not have cardiovascular disease, dementia, or disability. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 100 mg of enteric-coated aspirin or placebo. The primary end point was a …

Effect Of Aspirin On All-Cause Mortality In The Healthy Elderly, John J Mcneil, Mark R Nelson, Robyn L Woods, Jessica E Lockery, Rory Wolfe, Christopher M Reid, Brenda Kirpach, Raj C Shah, Diane G Ives, Elsdon Storey, Joanne Ryan, Andrew M Tonkin, Anne B Newman, Jeff D Williamson, Karen L Margolis, Michael E Ernst, Walter P Abhayaratna, Nigel Stocks, Sharyn M Fitzgerald, Suzanne G Orchard, Ruth E Trevaks, Lawrence J Beilin, Geoffrey A Donnan, Peter Gibbs, Colin I Johnston, Barbara Radziszewska, Richard Grimm, Anne M Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: In the primary analysis of the Aspirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) trial, now published in the Journal, we report that the daily use of aspirin did not provide a benefit with regard to the primary end point of disability-free survival among older adults. A numerically higher rate of the secondary end point of death from any cause was observed with aspirin than with placebo.

METHODS: From 2010 through 2014, we enrolled community-dwelling persons in Australia and the United States who were 70 years of age or older (or ≥65 years of age among blacks and Hispanics …

Effect Of Aspirin On Disability-Free Survival In The Healthy Elderly, John J Mcneil, Robyn L Woods, Mark R Nelson, Christopher M Reid, Brenda Kirpach, Rory Wolfe, Elsdon Storey, Raj C Shah, Jessica E Lockery, Andrew M Tonkin, Anne B Newman, Jeff D Williamson, Karen L Margolis, Michael E Ernst, Walter P Abhayaratna, Nigel Stocks, Sharyn M Fitzgerald, Suzanne G Orchard, Ruth E Trevaks, Lawrence J Beilin, Geoffrey A Donnan, Peter Gibbs, Colin I Johnston, Joanne Ryan, Barbara Radziszewska, Richard Grimm, Anne M Murray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Information on the use of aspirin to increase healthy independent life span in older persons is limited. Whether 5 years of daily low-dose aspirin therapy would extend disability-free life in healthy seniors is unclear.

METHODS: From 2010 through 2014, we enrolled community-dwelling persons in Australia and the United States who were 70 years of age or older (or ≥65 years of age among blacks and Hispanics in the United States) and did not have cardiovascular disease, dementia, or physical disability. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 100 mg per day of enteric-coated aspirin or placebo orally. The primary end …

8th Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium, University Of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center Postdoctoral Association

Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium Abstracts

The mission of the Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium (APSS) is to provide a platform for talented postdoctoral fellows throughout the Texas Medical Center to present their work to a wider audience. The MD Anderson Postdoctoral Association convened its inaugural Annual Postdoctoral Science Symposium (APSS) on August 4, 2011.

The APSS provides a professional venue for postdoctoral scientists to develop, clarify, and refine their research as a result of formal reviews and critiques of faculty and other postdoctoral scientists. Additionally, attendees discuss current research on a broad range of subjects while promoting academic interactions and enrichment and developing new collaborations.

Addressing Youth Perceptions Of Harm In Marijuana Prevention Programming, Kristen J. Quinlan, Maria Valenti, Gisela Rots, Joshua Esrick, Kimberly Dash

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk

The inverse relationship between perception of harm and substance use is clearly supported by decades of research – youth are less likely to engage in substance use when it is seen as harmful. However, despite strong theoretical and practical reasons to focus on perception of harm as a change-producer in prevention programming, little is known about what is effective in impacting perception of harm for youth marijuana use.

To investigate the impact of existing prevention efforts designed to influence youth perception of harm and, consequently, youth marijuana use, we reviewed seven privately- or federally-funded online registries (e.g., Blueprints for Healthy …

Comparing Attributional And Relational Similarity As A Means To Identify Clinically Relevant Drug-Gene Relationships, Safa Fathiamini

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

In emerging domains, such as precision oncology, knowledge extracted from explicit assertions may be insufficient to identify relationships of interest. One solution to this problem involves drawing inference on the basis of similarity. Computational methods have been developed to estimate the semantic similarity and relatedness between terms and relationships that are distributed across corpora of literature such as Medline abstracts and other forms of human readable text. Most research on distributional similarity has focused on the notion of attributional similarity, which estimates the similarity between entities based on the contexts in which they occur across a large corpus. A relatively …

Physician Burnout: Causes, Consequences, And (?) Cures, Herbert L Fred, Mark S Scheid

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

No abstract provided.