Digital Commons Network^™

Correlational Networking Guides The Discovery Of Unclustered Lanthipeptide Protease-Encoding Genes, Dan Xue, Ethan Older, Zheng Zhong, Zhou Shang, Nanzhu Chen, Nolan Dittenhauser, Lukuan Hou, Peiyan Cai, Michael D. Walla, Shi-Hui Dong, Xiaoyu Tang, Hexin Chen, Prakash Nagarkatti, Mitzi Nagarkatti, Yong-Xin Li, Jie Li

Faculty Publications

Bacterial natural product biosynthetic genes, canonically clustered, have been increasingly found to rely on hidden enzymes encoded elsewhere in the genome for completion of biosynthesis. The study and application of lanthipeptides are frequently hindered by unclustered protease genes required for final maturation. Here, we establish a global correlation network bridging the gap between lanthipeptide precursors and hidden proteases. Applying our analysis to 161,954 bacterial genomes, we establish 5209 correlations between precursors and hidden proteases, with 91 prioritized. We use network predictions and co-expression analysis to reveal a previously missing protease for the maturation of class I lanthipeptide paenilan. We further …

Hiv-Related Stigma, Sexual Identity, And Depressive Symptoms Among Msm Living With Hiv: A Moderated Mediation Modeling Analysis, Tianyue Mi, Guanghua Lan, Xueying Yang Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Shan Qiao Ph.D., Zhiyong Shen, Yuejiao Zhou

Faculty Publications

Depression is one of the biggest health issues among men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV, where sexual identity might play an intricate role. Yet, findings of the relationship between sexual identity and depression were mixed and few studies explored its underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to examine the association between sexual identity and depression, and the potential mediating role of HIV-related stigma and moderating role of age. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 203 MSM living with HIV in Guangxi, China. Participants provided information on sexual identity, depression, HIV-related stigma, and background information. Descriptive statistics, bivariate …

Mental And Physical Health Profile Of Syrian Resettled Refugees, Rahel S. Bosson, Monnica T. Williams, Victoria A. Powers, Ruth M. Carrico, Virginia Frazier, Julio A. Ramirez, Wei Shuang Schneider, Lisa M. Hooper

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Newly arriving Syrian refugees can present with specific health characteristics and medical conditions when entering the United States. Given the lack of epidemiological data available for the refugee populations, our study examined the demographic features of Syrian refugees resettled in the state of Kentucky. Specifically, we examined mental and physical health clinical data in both pre-departure health screenings and domestic Refugee Health Assessments (RHA; Kentucky Office for Refugees, n.d.) performed after resettlement. METHOD: The current study adopted a cross-sectional research design. We analyzed outcome data collected from participants from 2013 and 2015. Specifically, a comparative cross-sectional analysis was performed …

For Every Rat Killed, Etienne C. Toussaint

Faculty Publications

If my grandmother had survived the sickness of old age and were alive to witness the economic injustices wrought by capitalist culture, what would she think? If my grandmother were alive to observe familiar technologies for exterminating household pests—surveil-lance, capture, imprisonment, disposal—being increasingly aimed toward low-income Black communities, what would she believe? If my grandmother were alive to discover, in the palm of her hands, a digital platform for spreading information (and misinformation) to the masses and painting new futures into the minds of lawmakers and politicians, what would she say?

Studies have shown that low-income individuals are more likely …

Editorial: Mechanisms And Strategies Of Arthropod Adaptation To The Chemical Environment, Chaoyang Zhao, Fang Zhu, Qian Sun, Xuguo Zhou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Maintenance Cost Minimization Models For Offshore Wind Farms: A Systematic And Critical Review, Md Imran Hasan Tusar, Bhaba R. Sarker

Faculty Publications

Feasible and sustainable source of power is a burning question nowadays. The offshore wind farms can be a solution to power generation problem, but it is relatively more expensive. Its installation cost is more than twice of its similar size onshore counterpart. The cost that matters most is the operations and maintenance (O&M) cost. Expensive and sophisticated transfer vehicles as well as highly skilled technicians are needed to conduct O&M activities, which results in a remarkably higher O&M cost for an offshore wind farm project. Few researchers proposed some strategies that could resolve the problem nicely, although there is no …

Translation Of Policy For Reducing Undernutrition From National To Sub-National Levels In Rwanda, Elyse Iruhiriye, Deanna K. Olney, Edward A. Frongillo, Emmanuel Niyongira, Simeon Nanama, Eugene Rwibasira, Paul Mbonyi, Christine E. Blake

Faculty Publications

Understanding how countries improve children’s nutrition can inform policies and contribute to further improvements. We examined the relationship between improvements in nutrition in Rwanda (1992–2017) and political commitment to- and policy coherence in- nutrition. We reviewed nutrition-relevant Rwandan policies and programs (2000–2018) and conducted 90 semi-structured interviews with national (n = 32), mid-level (n = 38), and community (n = 20) nutrition stakeholders and 40 community-level focus group discussions (FGDs). FGDs and sub-national interviews were conducted in ten purposefully selected districts, five each in which stunting decreased (reduced) and increased or stagnated (non-reduced) between the 2010 and 2014/15 Rwanda Demographic …

Increasing Patron’S Outreach And Engagement Through Relationship Marketing: A Case Study, Margaret Adeogun

Faculty Publications

Increased diversity, demographics, and population shifts in higher education have led many academic libraries to reexamine their marketing efforts and adopt strategies that promote relationships and inclusivity. This requirement has become more prominent among libraries serving a highly diverse user community, particularly in a more racially and ethnically diverse campus. Adopting a marketing model that cultivates more meaningful long-term relationships with customers ensures long-term satisfaction and loyalty to the library brand. Using marketing and promotional examples from the James White Library, this article addresses the academic library’s relationship marketing strategy in an increasingly multicultural higher education environment.

Accountability As A Key Virtue In Mental Health And Human Flourishing, John R. Peteet, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, C. Stephen Evans

Faculty Publications

We propose that accountability plays an implicit, important, and relatively unexamined role in psychiatry. People generally think of accountability as a relation in which one party is held accountable by another. In this paper, we examine accountability as a virtue, drawing on philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology to examine what it means to welcome being accountable in an excellent way that promotes flourishing. When people manifest accountability as a virtue, they are both responsive to others they owe a response, and they are responsible for their attitudes and actions in light of these relationships. Psychiatric treatment often aims to correct disordered …

Accountability And Autonomy, Motivation, And Psychiatric Treatment, John R. Peteet, Charlotte Vanoyen-Witvliet, C. Stephen Evans

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Editorial: Research Efforts, Challenges, And Opportunities In Mitigating Aflatoxins In Food And Agricultural Crops And Its Global Health Impacts, Mehdi Razzaghi-Abyaneh, Zhi Yuan Chen, Masoomeh Shams-Ghahfarokhi, Mahendra Rai

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Identifying Chemical Aerosol Signatures Using Optical Suborbital Observations: How Much Can Optical Properties Tell Us About Aerosol Composition, Meloe S. F. Kacenelenbogen, Qian Tan, Sharon P. Burton, Otto P. Hasekamp, Karl D. Froyd, Yohei Shinozuka, Andreas J. Beyersdorf, Luke Ziemba, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Jack E. Dibb, Taylor Shingler, Armin Sorooshian, Reed W. Espinosa, Vanderlei Martins, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Joshua P. Schwarz, Matthew S. Johnson, Jens Redemann, Gregory L. Schuster

Faculty Publications

Improvements in air quality and Earth's climate predictions require improvements of the aerosol speciation in chemical transport models, using observational constraints. Aerosol speciation (e.g., organic aerosols, black carbon, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, dust or sea salt) is typically determined using in situ instrumentation. Continuous, routine aerosol composition measurements from ground-based networks are not uniformly widespread over the globe. Satellites, on the other hand, can provide a maximum coverage of the horizontal and vertical atmosphere but observe aerosol optical properties (and not aerosol speciation) based on remote sensing instrumentation. Combinations of satellite-derived aerosol optical properties can inform on air mass aerosol types …

The Relationship Of Hair Glucocorticoid Levels To Immunological And Virological Outcomes In A Large Cohort Of Combination Antiretroviral Therapy Treated People Living With Hiv, Quan Zhang, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Shan Qiao Ph.D., Shuaifeng Liu, Yuejiao Zhou, Zhiyong Shen

Faculty Publications

Background

Existing literature mostly investigated the relationship of acute or short-term glucocorticoid exposure to HIV disease progression using cortisol levels in serum, saliva, or urine. Data are limited on the relationship of long-term glucocorticoid exposure to HIV disease progression. This study examined whether hair glucocorticoid levels, novel retrospective indicators of long-term glucocorticoid exposure, are associated with two common indicators of HIV disease progression (CD4 count and HIV viral load) among a large cohort of combination antiretroviral therapy treated Chinese people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Methods

A total of 1198 treated PLHIV provided hair samples for glucocorticoid (cortisol and cortisone) assay …

Editorial: Pathways And Processes Underpinning Axonal Biology And Pathobiology, Pabitra K. Sahoo, Dianna E. Willis, James N. Sleigh

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Increased Risk Of Major Depressive Disorder Following Tinnitus: A Population-Based Study, Herng-Ching Lin, Sudha Xirasagar Mbbs, Ph.D., Chia-Hui Wang, Yen-Fu Cheng, Tzong-Hann Yang

Faculty Publications

Background and Purpose: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between tinnitus and a subsequent diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) by studying the incidence of both entities.

Design: A retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Data for this observational follow-up study were retrieved from the Taiwan's National Health Insurance Dataset. A total of 375,272 patients with newly diagnosed tinnitus (study group) were retrieved. The date of first diagnosis of tinnitus was assigned as their index date. Comparison patients were selected by propensity score matching (one per case, n = 375,272 controls) from the same dataset, with their index date …

What Will And Won’T Happen When Abortion Is Banned, Michelle Oberman

Faculty Publications

For the past fifty years, abortion opponents have fought for the power to ban abortion without little attention to how things might change when they won. The battle to make abortion illegal has been predicated on three nebulous assumptions about how abortion bans work. First, supporters believe banning abortion will deter it. Second, they hope bans will send a message about abortion—specifically, that abortion is immoral. And third, they expect bans to be competently implemented and enforced.

Drawing on empirical work from within and outside of the U.S., this Article offers an evidence-based assessment of each of these assumptions. Part …

Television Viewing Time And All-Cause Mortality: Interactions With Bmi, Physical Activity, Smoking, And Dietary Factors, Christopher T. Swain, Julie K. Bassett, Allison M. Hodge, David W. Dunstan, Neville Owen, Yi Yang, Harindra Jayasekara, James R. Hébert Scd, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Robert J. Macinnis, Roger L. Milne, Dallas R. English, Brigid M. Lynch

Faculty Publications

Background Higher levels of time spent sitting (sedentary behavior) contribute to adverse health outcomes, including earlier death. This effect may be modified by other lifestyle factors. We examined the association of television viewing (TV), a common leisure-time sedentary behavior, with all-cause mortality, and whether this is modified by body mass index (BMI), physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, soft drink consumption, or diet-associated inflammation. Methods Using data from participants in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, flexible parametric survival models assessed the time-dependent association of self-reported TV time (three categories: < 2 h/day, 2-3 h/day, > 3 h/day) with all-cause mortality. Interaction terms were fitted to test whether …

Acute Aerobic Exercise-Induced Motor Priming Improves Piano Performance And Alters Motor Cortex Activation, Terence Moriarty, Andrea Johnson, Molly Thomas, Colin Evers, Abi Auten, Kristina Cavey, Katie Dorman, Kelsey Bourbeau

Faculty Publications

Acute aerobic exercise has been shown to improve fine motor skills and alter activation of the motor cortex (M1). The intensity of exercise may influence M1 activation, and further impact whole-body motor skill performance. The aims of the current study were to compare a whole-body motor skill via a piano task following moderate-intensity training (MIT) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and to determine if M1 activation is linked to any such changes in performance. Nine subjects (seven females and two males), aged 18 ± 1 years completed a control, MIT, and HIIT trial followed by administration of a piano performance …

A Qualitative Report Of The Perceptions Of The Covid-19 Pandemic From Collegiate Student-Athletes, Dylan C. Rowe, Zachary K. Winkelmann Phd, Lat, Atc, Shawn M. Arent Ph.D., Cscs*D, Fissn, Facsm, Fnak, Michelle Angelique Arent Rd, Mph, Cscs, Cissn, Alexa Jenny Chandler, Nancy A. Uriegas, Toni Torres-Mcgehee Phd, Lat, Atc

Faculty Publications

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an abrupt disruption in access to services and personnel for collegiate student-athletes in the spring and summer of 2020. We sought to identify the effects of this unprecedented change by examining the psychological well-being, changes to normal routines, and return-to-play considerations of current student-athletes in order to guide support for both current and future student-athletes who may face similar situations. Methods

We utilized a phenomenological approach to interview a purposeful sample of eighteen collegiate student-athletes (7 males, 11 females; mean age = 20 years) from across the United States. The participants were interviewed using …

Constraints On Dark Photon Dark Matter Using Data From Ligo’S And Virgo’S Third Observing Run, Ligo Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration, Kagra Collaboration, Tiffany Z. Summerscales

Faculty Publications

We present a search for dark photon dark matter that could couple to gravitational-wave interferometers using data from Advanced LIGO and Virgo’s third observing run. To perform this analysis, we use two methods, one based on cross-correlation of the strain channels in the two nearly aligned LIGO detectors, and one that looks for excess power in the strain channels of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. The excess power method optimizes the Fourier transform coherence time as a function of frequency, to account for the expected signal width due to Doppler modulations. We do not find any evidence of dark photon …

Pocket2drug: An Encoder-Decoder Deep Neural Network For The Target-Based Drug Design, W T. Shi, M Singha, G Srivastava, L M. Pu, W T. Shi, M Brylinski

Faculty Publications

Computational modeling is an essential component of modern drug discovery. One of its most important applications is to select promising drug candidates for pharmacologically relevant target proteins. Because of continuing advances in structural biology, putative binding sites for small organic molecules are being discovered in numerous proteins linked to various diseases. These valuable data offer new opportunities to build efficient computational models predicting binding molecules for target sites through the application of data mining and machine learning. In particular, deep neural networks are powerful techniques capable of learning from complex data in order to make informed drug binding predictions. In …

Evaluation Of A Community-Based Performance Arts Programme For People Who Have Experienced Stroke In The Uk: Protocol For The Shaper-Stroke Odysseys Study, Carolina Estevao, Maria Baldellou Lopez, Rachel E. Davis, Lucinda Jarret, Tayana Soukup, Ioannis Bakolis, Andy Healey, Jean Harrington, Anthony Woods, Nikki Crane, Fiona Jones, Carmine Pariante, Daisy Fancourt, Nick Sevdalis

Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Stroke survivors, once in the community, face challenges with their long-term rehabilitation care and present higher levels of loneliness, depression and anxiety than the rest of the population. A community-based performance arts programme, Stroke Odysseys (SO), has been devised to tackle the challenges of living with stroke in the UK. In this study, we aim to evaluate the implementation, impact and experiences of SO for stroke survivors. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Scaling-up Health Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research (SHAPER)-SO aims to scale-up SO to 75 participants and 47 stakeholders, while simultaneously evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of the programme. …

A Statistical Principal Component Regression-Based Approach To Modeling The Degradative Effects Of Local Climate And Traffic On Airfield Pavement Performance, Evan M. Fortney, Steven J. Schuldt, Sarah L. Brown, James P. Allen, Justin D. Delorit

Faculty Publications

Airfield pavement systems support the global economy, passenger travel, and national defense. Accurate pavement degradation predictions are critical inputs for maintenance and repair decisions, and when skillful, they may reduce the need for time-intensive, costly physical inspections that disrupt airfield operations. Existing airport pavement management systems (APMS) compute expected degradation as a function of pavement type and age, but they do not account for local climate and traffic conditions and they are not built to adapt to future changes in either mode of variability. This paper implements a bias-reduced statistical model that reveals the effects of local conditions using observed …

Mechanisms Of Organisational Learning In Hospitals: An Instrument Development Study, Bret Lyman, Emily L. Smith, Kaitlyn C. George

Faculty Publications

Aim: To develop a valid, reliable research instrument to measure mechanisms associated with organisational learning in hospitals.

Background: A valid, reliable instrument for measuring mechanisms of organisational learning would enable nurse leaders and researchers to improve health care through facilitation and study of organisational learning.

Methods: The Organizational Learning in Hospitals model was used as a framework to develop the Organizational Learning Instrument-Mechanisms. Cognitive interviews and expert reviews were used to refine and evaluate item-level and scale-level content validity. The instrument was distributed by email to a random sample of nurses working in inpatient hospitals in Utah (n = 1253). …

Adapted Physical Educators’ Social Media Usage For Professional Learning, Scott Mcnamara, Kwok Ng, Sean Healy

Faculty Publications

Physical educators report a multitude of benefits from accessing informal learning opportunities via social media. However, a lack of research has been conducted on adapted physical education (APE) teachers’ usage of social media for professional learning (PL) purposes. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore how APE teachers use social media to learn about APE content. A survey was used to identify APE teachers’ (n = 73) social media usage patterns. Descriptive statistics were reported, and multiple t-tests were used to compare how participants perceived the usefulness of social media vs. conferences for PL purposes. Multiple linear regression …

Determinants Of Covid-19 Vaccinations Among A State-Wide Year-Long Surveillance Initiative In A Conservative Southern State, Lídia Gual-Gonzalez, Maggie S.J. Mccarter, Kyndall Dye-Braumuller, Stella Self, Connor H. Ross, Chloe Rodriguez-Ramos, Virginie G. Daguise, Melissa Nolan Ph.D., Mph

Faculty Publications

By the end of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in over 54 million cases and more than 800,000 deaths in the United States, and over 350 million cases and more than 5 million deaths worldwide. The uniqueness and gravity of this pandemic have been reflected in the public health guidelines poorly received by a growing subset of the United States population. These poorly received guidelines, including vaccine receipt, are a highly complex psychosocial issue, and have impacted the successful prevention of disease spread. Given the intricate nature of this important barrier, any single statistical analysis methodologically fails to address all …

One Planet: One Health. A Call To Support The Initiative On A Global Science-Policy Body On Chemicals And Waste, Werner Brack, Damia Barcelo Culleres, Alistair B.A. Boxall, Helene Budzinski, Sara Castiglioni, Adrian Covaci, Valeria Dulio, Beate I. Escher, Peter Fantke, Faith Kandie, Despo Fatta-Kassinos, Felix J. Hernandez, Klara Hilscherova, Juliane Hollender, Henner Hollert, Annika Jahnke, Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, Stuart J. Khan, Andreas Kortenkamp, Klaus Kuemmerer, Brice Lalonde, Marja H. Lamoree, Yves Levi, Pablo Antonio Lara Martin, Cassiana C. Montagner, Christian Mougin, Titus Msagati, Joerg Oehlmann, Leo Posthuma, Malcolm Reid, Martin Reinhard, Susan D. Richardson, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

The chemical pollution crisis severely threatens human and environmental health globally. To tackle this challenge the establishment of an overarching international science–policy body has recently been suggested. We strongly support this initiative based on the awareness that humanity has already likely left the safe operating space within planetary boundaries for novel entities including chemical pollution. Immediate action is essential and needs to be informed by sound scientific knowledge and data compiled and critically evaluated by an overarching science–policy interface body. Major challenges for such a body are (i) to foster global knowledge production on exposure, impacts and governance going beyond …

Cluttering In The Speech Of Young Men With Fragile X Syndrome, Katherine Bangert, Kathleen Scaler Scott, Charley Adams, Jessica S. Kisenwether, Lisa Giuffre, Jenna Reed, Angela John Thurman, Leonard Abbeduto, Jessica Klusek

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Cluttering is a fluency disorder that has been noted clinically in individuals with fragile X syndrome (FXS). Yet, cluttering has not been systematically characterized in this population, hindering identification and intervention efforts. This study examined the rates of cluttering in male young adults with FXS using expert clinical opinion, the alignment between expert clinical opinion and objectively quantified features of cluttering from language transcripts, and the association between cluttering and aspects of the FXS phenotype.

Method: Thirty-six men with FXS (aged 18-26 years; M = 22, SD = 2.35) contributed language samples and completed measures of nonverbal cognition, autism …

Estimating The Earnings Loss Associated With A Criminal Record And Suspended Driver’S License, Colleen Chien, Alexandra George, Srihari Shekhar, Robert Apel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Development And Validation Of Self-Efficacy And Intention Measures For Spending Time In Nature, Jay E. Maddock, Courtney Suess, Gregory N. Bratman, Carissa Smock, Debra Kellstedt, Jeanette Gustat, Cynthia K. Perry, Andrew T. Kaczynski Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the reliability and validity of self-efficacy and intentions measures for time spent in nature (TSN). TSN is related to improvement in psychological well-being and health, yet most American adults spend very little time in such settings. Theory-based interventions have been effective in increasing physical activity, a related behavior, and may be one mechanism to increase TSN. Self-efficacy and intentions have been shown to be strong predictors of health behaviors and are used across several theories. However, scales to measure these factors have not yet been developed and are needed to …