Digital Commons Network^™

Assessment Of Targeting Accuracy Of A Low-Energy Stereotactic Radiosurgery Treatment For Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Phillip J. Taddei, Erik Chell, Steven Hansen, Michael Gertner, Wayne D. Newhauser

Faculty Publications

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the United States, is a neovascular disease that may be controlled with radiation therapy. Early patient outcomes of external beam radiotherapy, however, have been mixed. Recently, a novel multimodality treatment was developed, comprising external beam radiotherapy and concomitant treatment with a vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor. The radiotherapy arm is performed by stereotactic radiosurgery, delivering a 16 Gy dose in the macula (clinical target volume, CTV) using three external low-energy x-ray fields while adequately sparing normal tissues. The purpose of our study was to test the sensitivity of the delivery …

Adjustment Of The Lateral And Longitudinal Size Of Scanned Proton Beam Spots Using A Pre-Absorber To Optimize Penumbrae And Delivery Efficiency, Uwe Titt, Dragan Mirkovic, Gabriel O. Sawakuchi, Luis A. Perles, Wayne D. Newhauser, Phillip J. Taddei, Radhe Mohan

Faculty Publications

In scanned-beam proton therapy, the beam spot properties, such as the lateral and longitudinal size and the minimum achievable range, are influenced by beam optics, scattering media and drift spaces in the treatment unit. Currently available spot scanning systems offer fewoptions for adjusting these properties. We investigated a method for adjusting the lateral and longitudinal spot size that utilizes downstream plastic pre-absorbers located near a water phantom. The spot size adjustment was characterized usingMonte Carlo simulations of a modified commercial scanned-beam treatment head. Our results revealed that the pre-absorbers can be used to reduce the lateral full width at half …

Methodology For Determining Doses To In-Field, Out-Of-Field And Partially In-Field Organs For Late Effects Studies In Photon Radiotherapy, Rebecca M. Howell, Sarah B. Scarboro, Phillip J. Taddei, Sunil Krishnan, Stephen F. Kry, Wayne D. Newhauser

Faculty Publications

An important but little examined aspect of radiation dosimetry studies involving organs outside the treatment field is how to assess dose to organs that are partially within a treatment field; this question is particularly important for studies intended to measure total absorbed dose in order to predict the risk of radiogenic late effects, such as second cancers. The purpose of this investigation was therefore to establish a method to categorize organs as in-field, out-of-field or partially in-field that would be applicable to both conventional and modern radiotherapy techniques. In this study, we defined guidelines to categorize the organs based on …

Risk Of Second Malignant Neoplasm Following Proton Versus Intensity-Modulated Photon Radiotherapies For Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Phillip J. Taddei, Rebecca M. Howell, Sunil Krishnan, Sarah B. Scarboro, Dragan Mirkovic, Wayne D. Newhauser

Faculty Publications

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the sixthmost common cancer in theworld, is a global health concern. Radiotherapy for HCC is uncommon, largely because of the likelihood of radiation-induced liver disease, an acute side effect that is often fatal. Proton beam therapy (PBT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)may offer HCC patients a better option for treating the diseased liver tissue while largely sparing the surrounding tissues, especially the nontumor liver. However, even advanced radiotherapies carry a risk of late effects, including second malignant neoplasms (SMNs). It is unclear whether PBT or IMRT confers less risk of an SMN than the other. The purpose …

Predicted Risks Of Second Malignant Neoplasm Incidence And Mortality Due To Secondary Neutrons In A Girl And Boy Receiving Proton Craniospinal Irradiation, Phillip J. Taddei, Anita Mahajan, Dragan Mirkovic, Rui Zhang, Annelise Giebeler, David Kornguth, Mark Harvey, Shiao Woo, Wayne D. Newhauser

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to compare the predicted risks of second malignant neoplasm (SMN) incidence and mortality from secondary neutrons for a 9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy who received proton craniospinal irradiation (CSI). SMN incidence and mortality from neutrons were predicted from equivalent doses to radiosensitive organs for cranial, spinal and intracranial boost fields. Therapeutic proton absorbed dose and equivalent dose from neutrons were calculated using Monte Carlo simulations. Risks of SMN incidence and mortality in most organs and tissues were predicted by applying risks models from the National Research Council of the National Academies to the …

Cross-Reactivity Virtual Profiling Of The Human Kinome By X-React Kin: A Chemical Systems Biology Approach, Michal Brylinski, Jeffrey Skolnick

Faculty Publications

Many drug candidates fail in clinical development due to their insufficient selectivity that may cause undesired side effects. Therefore, modern drug discovery is routinely supported by computational techniques, which can identify alternate molecular targets with a significant potential for cross-reactivity. In particular, the development of highly selective kinase inhibitors is complicated by the strong conservation of the ATP-binding site across the kinase family. In this paper, we describe X-ReactKIN, a new machine learning approach that extends the modeling and virtual screening of individual protein kinases to a system level in order to construct a cross-reactivity virtual profile for the human …

Mechanism Of Fiber Assembly: Treatment Of Aβ Peptide Aggregation With A Coarse-Grained United-Residue Force Field, Ana Rojas, Adam Liwo, Dana Browne, Harold A. Scheraga

Faculty Publications

The growth mechanism of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide fibrils was studied by a physics-based coarse-grained united-residue model and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. To identify the mechanism of monomer addition to an Aβ1-40 fibril, we placed an unstructured monomer at a distance of 20 Å from a fibril template and allowed it to interact freely with the latter. The monomer was not biased towards fibril conformation by either the force field or the MD algorithm. With the use of a coarse-grained model with replica-exchange molecular dynamics, a longer timescale was accessible, making it possible to observe how the monomers probe different binding …

A Contractual Approach To Shareholder Oppression Law, Benjamin Means

Faculty Publications

According to standard law and economics, minority shareholders in closely held corporations must bargain against opportunism by controlling shareholders before investing. Put simply, you made your bed, now you must lie in it. Yet most courts offer a remedy for shareholder oppression, often premised on the notion that controlling shareholders owe fiduciary duties to the minority or must honor the minority's reasonable expectations. Thus, law and economics, the dominant mode of corporate law scholarship, appears irreconcilably opposed to minority shareholder protection, a defining feature of the existing law of close corporations.

This Article contends that a more nuanced theory of …

Prolegomenon On The Status Of The Hopey, Changey Thing In American Criminal Justice, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This is an introductory essay to Volume 23, Number 2, of the FEDERAL SENTENCING REPORTER, which considers the state of American criminal justice policy in 2010, two years after the "Change" election of 2008. Part I of the essay paints a statistical picture of trends in federal criminal practice and sentencing over the last half-decade or so, with particular emphasis on sentence severity and the degree of regional and inter-judge sentencing disparity. The statistics suggest that the expectation that the 2005 Booker decision would produce a substantial increase in the exercise of judicial sentencing discretion and a progressive abandonment of …

The Use Of A Neonatal Mouse Model To Study Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infections, Stephania A. Cormier, Dahui You, Srinivasa Honnegowda

Faculty Publications

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the most significant cause of viral death in infants worldwide. The significant morbidity and mortality associated with this disease underscores the urgent need for the development of an RSV vaccine. The development of an RSV vaccine has been hampered by our limited understanding of the human host immune system, which plays a significant role in RSV pathogenesis, susceptibility and vaccine efficacy. As a result, animal models have been developed to better understand the mechanisms by which RSV causes disease. Within the past few years, a revolutionary variation on these animal models has emerged - …

Reproductive Status Regulates Expression Of Sex Steroid And Gnrh Receptors In The Olfactory Bulb, Karen P. Maruska, Russell D. Fernald

Faculty Publications

Neuromodulators including gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and sex steroids help integrate an animal's internal physiological state with incoming external cues, and can have profound effects on the processing of behaviorally relevant information, particularly from the olfactory system. While GnRH and steroid receptors are present in olfactory processing regions across vertebrates, little is known about whether their expression levels change with internal physiological state or external social cues. We used qRT-PCR to measure mRNA levels of two GnRH receptors (GnRH-R1, GnRH-R2), five sex steroid receptors (estrogen receptors: ERα, ERβa, ERβb; androgen receptors: ARα, ARβ), and aromatase in the olfactory bulb of the …

The Contribution Of Wildlife To Sustainable Natural Resource Utilization In Namibia: A Review, Diana L.Schalkwyk Van Schalkwyk, Kenneth W. Mcmillin, R. Corli Witthuhn, Louw C. Hoffman

Faculty Publications

Namibia is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa, but well known for its richness in species and sustainable natural resource utilization. The Namibian farming sector consists mainly of extensive farming systems. Cattle production contributes 54% of the livestock sector's production output, followed by sheep and goats (25%), hides and skins (9%), and other forms of agricultural production (12%). Namibia's freehold farmers have obtained ownership rights over land and livestock since the early 1900s; commercial rights over wildlife and plants were given to freehold farmers in 1967 and to communal farmers in 1996. Natural resource-based production systems then overtook agricultural production …

Bb0250 Of Borrelia Burgdorferi Is A Conserved And Essential Inner Membrane Protein Required For Cell Division, Fang Ting Liang, Qilong Xu, Rakesh Sikdar, Ying Xiao, James S. Cox, William T. Doerrler

Faculty Publications

The gene bb0250 of Borrelia burgdorferi is a homolog of the dedA family, encoding integral inner membrane proteins that are present in nearly all species of bacteria. To date, no precise function has been attributed to any dedA gene. Unlike many bacterial species, such as Escherichia coli, which has eight dedA genes, B. burgdorferi possesses only one, annotated bb0250, providing a unique opportunity to investigate the functions of the dedA family. Here, we show that bb0250 is able to restore normal growth and cell division to a temperature-sensitive E. coli mutant with simultaneous deletions of two dedA genes, yqjA and …

Variation In The Checkpoint Kinase 2 Gene Is Associated With Type 2 Diabetes In Multiple Populations, Kari E. North, Nora Franceschini, Christy L. Avery, Lisa Baird, Mariaelisa Graff, Mark Leppert, Jay H. Chung, Jinghui Zhang, Craig Hanis, Eric Boerwinkle, Kelly A. Volcik, Megan L. Grove, Thomas H. Mosley, Charles Gu, Gerardo Heiss, James S. Pankow, David J. Couper, Christie M. Ballantyne, W. H. Linda Kao, Alan B. Weder, Richard S. Cooper, Georg B. Ehret, Ashley A. O'Connor, Aravinda Chakravarti, Steven C. Hunt

Faculty Publications

Identification and characterization of the genetic variants underlying type 2 diabetes susceptibility can provide important understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. We previously identified strong evidence of linkage for type 2 diabetes on chromosome 22 among 3,383 Hypertension Genetic Epidemiology Network (HyperGEN) participants from 1,124 families. The checkpoint 2 (CHEK2) gene, an important mediator of cellular responses to DNA damage, is located 0.22 Mb from this linkage peak. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the CHEK2 gene contains one or more polymorphic variants that are associated with type 2 diabetes in HyperGEN individuals. In …

Interrogating Local Population Structure For Fine Mapping In Genome-Wide Association Studies, Huaizhen Qin, Nathan Morris, Sun J. Kang, Mingyao Li, Bamidele Tayo, Helen Lyon, Joel Hirschhorn, Richard S. Cooper, Xiaofeng Zhu

Faculty Publications

Motivation: Adjustment for population structure is necessary to avoid bias in genetic association studies of susceptibility variants for complex diseases. Population structure may differ from one genomic region to another due to the variability of individual ancestry associated with migration, random genetic drift or natural selection. Current association methods for correcting population stratification usually involve adjustment of global ancestry between study subjects.Results: We suggest interrogating local population structure for fine mapping to more accurately locate true casual genes by better adjusting the confounding effect due to local ancestry. By extensive simulations on genome-wide datasets, we show that adjusting global ancestry …

Population Forecasting Model Of Nilaparvata Lugens And Sogatella Furcifera (Homoptera: Delphacidae) Based On Markov Chain Theory, Xiang Hui Yan, Huai Liu, Jin Jun Wang, Zhi Mo Zhao, Fangneng Huang, Deng Fa Cheng

Faculty Publications

Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) are the two most important long-distance migratory insect pests that cause great yield losses to rice in China. Accurate long-term population forecast is needed to implement effective management strategies for these two rice pests. In this paper, a transition probability matrix of 5-yr steps of Markov chain theory was constructed based on 31-yr light-trapping data of the two pests from 1977 to 2007 in Jiangkou County, Guizhou, China. The weight of each step for the transition probability matrix was calculated according to its prediction accuracy. Insect occurrence levels in the sixth year were …

Anxiety Sensitivity, Distress Tolerance, And Discomfort Intolerance In Relation To Coping And Conformity Motives For Alcohol Use And Alcohol Use Problems Among Young Adult Drinkers, Ashley N. Howell, Teresa M. Leyro, Julianna Hogan, Julia D. Buckner, Michael J. Zvolensky

Faculty Publications

Anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and discomfort intolerance have been identified as important factors related to alcohol use motives and alcohol-related problems. Yet, these variables are highly correlated and little work has delineated whether these psychological vulnerability factors are differentially related to alcohol use motives and problems. To fill this gap in the existing literature, the present study evaluated whether anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and discomfort intolerance were differentially related to high-risk alcohol use motives (i.e., coping and conformity motives) and alcohol use problems among 224 young adult, current drinkers (52.3% women; Mage=21.18, SD=7.08). Results indicated that distress tolerance, but not …

Newbery Award Winning Books 1975–2009: How Do They Portray Disabilities?, Melissa Leininger, Tina Taylor, Mary Anne Prater, Melissa Allen Heath

Faculty Publications

Newbery books represent quality literature that has a profound social-emotional impact on its readers, yet these books have not been systematically evaluated for their portrayal of characters with disabilities. Thirty-one Newbery Award and Honor books from 1975–2009 were identified and portrayed 41 main or supporting characters with disabilities. These books were evaluated using the Rating Scale for Quality Characterizations of Individuals with Disabilities in Children’s Literature. Results indicate the representation of Newbery characters with disabilities is not proportionate to the current U.S. population of students with disabilities. Further, racial representation portrayed in these books is not representative of the diverse …

The Early American Table: Food And Society In The New World, Andrew P. Haley

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A New Approach To Construct Pathway Connected Networks And Its Application In Dose Responsive Gene Expression Profiles Of Rat Liver Regulated By 2,4dnt, Sudhir Chowbina, Youping Deng, Junmei Ai, Xiaogang Wu, Xin Guan, Mitchell S. Wilbanks, Barbara Lynn Escalon, Edward J. Perkins, Jake Y. Chen

Faculty Publications

Background: Military and industrial activities have lead to reported release of 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4DNT) into soil, groundwater or surface water. It has been reported that 2,4DNT can induce toxic effects on humans and other organisms. However the mechanism of 2,4DNT induced toxicity is still unclear. Although a series of methods for gene network construction have been developed, few instances of applying such technology to generate pathway connected networks have been reported.

Results: Microarray analyses were conducted using liver tissue of rats collected 24h after exposure to a single oral gavage with one of five concentrations of 2,4DNT. We observed …

Physical Activity: The Future Of Learning?, Michael W. Beets, Amanda E. Paluch, Edward C. Archer, Steven N. Blair

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Who's To Blame? Elaborating The Role Of Attributions In General Strain Theory, John P. Hoffmann, Karen R. Spence

Faculty Publications

Agnew’s general strain theory (GST) has motivated dozens of criminological studies over the past two decades. Borrowing in part from Cloward and Ohlin’s model of delinquency, Agnew claimed that anger, a key component of GST, occurs when adolescents externalize blame for their adversity. This implies that adolescents who blame strain on an external causal agent (e.g., a parent, a teacher, economic disadvantages) are more likely to get angry and thus lash out through delinquent acts. However, this essential characteristic has been largely neglected in studies of GST. The purpose of this article is to show that external attributions of blame …

Measured And Estimated Ground Reaction Forces For Multi-Segment Foot Models, Dustin A. Bruening, Kevin M. Cooney, Frank L. Buczek

Faculty Publications

Accurate measurement of ground reaction forces under discrete areas of the foot is important in the development of more advanced foot models, which can improve our understanding of foot and ankle function. To overcome current equipment limitations, a few investigators have proposed combining a pressure mat with a single force platform and using a proportionality assumption to estimate subarea shear forces and free moments. In this study, two adjacent force platforms were used to evaluate the accuracy of the proportionality assumption on a three segment foot model during normal gait. Seventeen right feet were tested using a targeted walking approach, …

A New Life For The Care Plan?, Laura K. Heermann Langford, Ann Tinker, Marc-Aurel Martial

Faculty Publications

The current hot topic within clinical informatics is meaningful use and incentive payments defined under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act's electronic health record (EHR) incentive program. This recent legislation calls for healthcare providers to meet a set of minimum requirements using a certified EHR. The point of this government program is to support the widespread adoption of the EHR. The program lays out an overall plan that incentivizes hospitals and providers to implement, adopt, and "meaningfully" use an EHR. The incentive program starts with basic data entry and exchange in a standardized manner, with …

Quantitative Template For Subtyping Primary Progressive Aphasia, Marsel Mesulam, Christina Wieneke, Emily Rogalski, Derin J. Cobia, Cynthia Thompson, Sandra Weintraub

Faculty Publications

Objective—To provide a quantitative algorithm for classifying primary progressive aphasia (PPA) into agrammatic (PPA-G), semantic (PPA-S) and logopenic (PPA-L) variants, each of which is known to have a different probability of association with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).

Design—Prospectively and consecutively enrolled 16 PPA patients tested with neuropsychological instruments and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Setting—University medical center. Participants—PPA patients recruited nationally in the USA as part of a longitudinal study.

Results—A two-dimensional template, reflecting performance on tests of syntax (Northwestern Anagram Test) and lexical semantics (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test), classified all 16 patients in concordance with a …

Toxic Diatoms And Domoic Acid In Natural And Iron Enriched Waters Of The Oceanic Pacific, Mary W. Silver, Sibel Bargu, Susan L. Coale, Claudia R. Benitez-Nelson, Ana C. Garcia, Kathryn J. Roberts, Emily Sekula-Wood, Kenneth W. Bruland, Kenneth H. Coale

Faculty Publications

Near-surface waters ranging from the Pacific subarctic (58°N) to the Southern Ocean (66°S) contain the neurotoxin domoic acid (DA), associated with the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia. Of the 35 stations sampled, including ones from historic iron fertilization experiments (SOFeX, IronEx II), we found Pseudo-nitzschia at 34 stations and DA measurable at 14 of the 26 stations analyzed for DA. Toxin ranged from 0.3 fg·cell^-1 to 2 pg·cell^-1, comparable with levels found in similar-sized cells from coastal waters. In the western subarctic, descent of intact Pseudo-nitzschia likely delivered significant amounts of toxin (up to 4 μg of DA·m^-2·d …

Fresh Raspberry Phytochemical Extract Inhibits Hepatic Lesion In A Wistar Rat Model, Yan Liu, Ming Liu, Bin Li, Jin Lu Zhao, Chun Peng Zhang, Luo Qiang Lin, Hong Sheng Chen, Shu Jun Zhang, Jun Chao Jin, Lei Wang, Le Jing Li, Jia Ren Liu

Faculty Publications

Background. Red raspberry possesses potent antioxidant capacity and antiproliferative activity against cancer in vitro. Methods. The objective of this study was to determine the protective effects of raspberry 80% acetone extract in a rat hepatic lesions model induced by diethylnitrosamine (DEN). Rats were treated with the red raspberry extract (0.75, 1.5 or 3.0 g/kg of body weight) by gavage starting 2 h after DEN administration and continuing for 20 weeks. Results. A dose-dependent inhibition by red raspberry extract of DEN-induced hepatic nodule formation which stands for hepatic lesions was observed. Corresponding hepatic nodule incidence rates were 45.0, 40.0, 25.0 and …

2k09 And Thereafter: The Coming Era Of Integrative Bioinformatics, Systems Biology And Intelligent Computing For Functional Genomics And Personalized Medicine Research, Jack Y. Yang, Andrzej Niemierko, Ruzena Bajcsy, Dong Xu, Brian D. Athey, Aidong Zhang, Okan K. Ersoy, Guo-Zheng Li, Mark Borodovsky, Joe C. Zhang, Hamid R. Arabnia, Youping Deng, A. Keith Dunker, Yunlong Liu, Arif Ghafoor

Faculty Publications

Significant interest exists in establishing synergistic research in bioinformatics, systems biology and intelligent computing. Supported by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), International Society of Intelligent Biological Medicine (http://www.ISIBM.org), International Journal of Computational Biology and Drug Design (IJCBDD) and International Journal of Functional Informatics and Personalized Medicine, the ISIBM International Joint Conferences on Bioinformatics, Systems Biology and Intelligent Computing (ISIBM IJCBS 2009) attracted more than 300 papers and 400 researchers and medical doctors world-wide. It was the only inter/multidisciplinary conference aimed to promote synergistic research and education in bioinformatics, systems biology and intelligent computing. The conference committee …

Size-Selective Synthesis Of Immobilized Copper Oxide Nanoclusters On Silica, Slawo M. Lomnicki, Hongyi Wu, Scott N. Osborne, Jeff M. Pruett, Robin L. Mccarley, Erwin Poliakoff, Barry Dellinger

Faculty Publications

We report a straightforward route for preparing bulk quantities of size-controlled and low size dispersity copper oxide nanoclusters on amorphous silica. Adsorption of the copper-dendrimer complex on the silica surface minimizes aggregation, which results in previously unachieved low size dispersity of the nanoclusters. Copper oxide nanoclusters with mean diameters of 1-5 nm with size dispersities of only 8-15% were prepared by calcination of silica impregnated with Cu(II)-poly(propylene imine) dendrimer complexes of varying stoichiometry. The size and size distribution of the copper oxide nanoparticles are tunably controlled by the ratio of the Cu(II) to the terminal primary amines in the copper-dendrimer …

Hospitality And Destination Marketing's Role In Medical Tourism: A Call For Research, Dan Cormany

Faculty Publications

Like business travel, where the primary focus is on business and travel is the simply the conduit by which it is performed, medical tourism is a growing trend in which individuals journey to foreign countries primarily to secure specific medical procedures or health benefits. The medical tourist is a newly defined segment of the travel industry, and while still small in numbers, is growing rapidly. This paper seeks to identify research questions related to the hospitality elements that contribute to the medical tourism experience. The answers to these may aid hoteliers, tourism operations, and visitor bureaus better understand, service and …