Digital Commons Network^™

The Early Prediction Of Fatality In Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Patients., Murat Yesilyurt, Serdar Gul, Baris Ozturk, Bekir C. Kayhan, Mesure Celik, Cemile Uyar, Fikret Erdogan

Saudi Medical Journal

No abstract provided.

Polyanhydride Microparticles Enhance Dendritic Cell Antigen Presentation And Activation, Maria P. Torres, Jennifer H. Wilson-Welder, Senja K. Lopac, Yashdeep Phanse, Brenda Carillo-Conde, Amanda E. Ramer-Tait, Bryan H. Bellaire, Michael J. Wannemeuhler, Balaji Narasimhan

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

The present studies were designed to evaluate the adjuvant activity of polyanhydride microparticles prepared in the absence of additional stabilizers, excipients, or immune modulators. Microparticles composed of varying ratios of either 1,6-bis(p-carboxyphenoxy)hexane (CPH) and sebacic acid (SA) or 1,8-bis(p-carboxyphenoxy)-3,6-dioxaoctane (CPTEG) and CPH were added to in vitro cultures of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (DCs). Microparticles were efficiently and rapidly phagocytosed by DCs in the absence of opsonization and without centrifugation or agitation. Within 2 h, internalized particles were rapidly localized to an acidic, phagolysosomal compartment. By 48 h, only a minor reduction in microparticle size was …

Generation Of A Kupffer Cell-Evading Adenovirus For Systemic And Liver-Directed Gene Transfer, Reeti Khare, Shannon M. May, Francesco Vetrini, Eric A. Weaver, Donna Palmer, Amanda Rosewell, Nathan Grove, Philip Ng, Michael A. Barry

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

As much as 90% of an intravenously (i.v.) injected dose of adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) is absorbed and destroyed by liver Kupffer cells. Viruses that escape these cells can then transduce hepatocytes after binding factor X (FX). Given that interactions with FX and Kupffer cells are thought to occur on the Ad5 hexon protein, we replaced its exposed hypervariable regions (HVR) with those from Ad6. When tested in vivo in BALB/c mice and in hamsters, the Ad5/6 chimera mediated >10 times higher transduction in the liver. This effect was not due to changes in FX binding. Rather, Ad5/6 appeared to …

Gender-Responsive Budgeting And Its Impact On The Status Of Women And Men In Pasay City, Divina M. Edralin

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This study on Gender-Responsive Budgeting is based primarily on the Community-Based Monitoring System (CMBS) individual-level (more than 263,000 individuals) and household-level (more than 65,000 households) data of Pasay City for 2005. Other supplemental information from the documents of the different offices of the City Government was used to answer the objectives of the study. However, the lack of disaggregated data based on gender and age from the CBMS database and the Pasay City Government reports made it difficult to substantially determine whether the City’s programs and budgets have been responsive to gender differentials in the different aspects of quality of …

Roles Of Autophagy In Hiv-1 Infection, Christina Archer Dinkins

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) chronically infects approximately 30 million people worldwide. HIV-1 has become one of the most difficult viral infections to treat due to its high mutability and emerging drug resistance. Critical to our development of more effective therapeutic treatments, we must better understand the HIV life cycle in order to reveal better targets for drug development. Thus, the purpose of this work was to investigate the role of autophagy, a cellular homeostatic mechanism capable of eliminating intracellular pathogens, in HIV-1 infection of two relevant hosts, the human and the Old World non-permissive primate, the rhesus macaque. …

Cerebral Nocardiosis, Rohana Naqi, Humera Ahsan, Muhammad Azeemuddin

Department of Radiology

Localized and multisystem nocardiosis is an opportunistic disease that occurs commonly in immunocompromised patients. Rarely, it is also seen in immunocompetent individuals. The most common disease sites include lung, skin and central nervous system. We report a case of 73 years old man who is a known case of rheumatoid arthritis for more than 15 years and was on Methotrexate and Prednisolone. Now presented with generalized tonic clonic seizures. His Magnetic Resonace Imaging (MRI) scan showed a ring enhancing lesion with mild surrounding oedema in right posterior parietal cortex. Based on the finding, the most probable diagnosis of cerebral abscess …

Heuristics For Scaling Up Distributed Protein Docking, Prachi Pradeep

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Docking is a computational technique which predicts the interaction between a protein and a potential drug compound. Virtual screening is a tool, which employs docking, to investigate huge libraries of compounds and predicts potential drug molecules that bind favorably to the protein of interest. The size of one such commercially available library is about 13 million compounds. It would take approximately 400 years of CPU time to examine this library! As an alternative a high performance computing application with a distributed docking strategy is needed, which can efficiently predict the favorable compounds and can eventually be scaled for huge libraries. …

Rats As Forest Pests In Southeastern Virginia: Girdling By The Hispid Cotton Rat Sigmodon Hispidus As A Significant Source Of Mortality Of Loblolly Pines (Pinus Taeda) In A Successional Pine Forest, Robyn M. Nadolny

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

The hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is a common field rodent throughout the southeastern US, where volunteer loblolly pine trees (Pinus taeda) invade open space and begin the process of ecological succession from field to pine forest. Recent analysis of the diet of S. hispidus indicates that loblolly pine bark is stripped and eaten during the winter months. In this study, we explored the extent of rodent girdling on a 1.23 ha grid in a successional pine forest in southeastern Virginia. During the winter of 2005 we observed damage to 65% of trees in our study area, with 98% …

Using Modeling And Simulation To Improve Oral Health Services Delivery In Hampton Roads, Virginia, Mohammad J. Alzahrani

Health Services Research Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the system performance in delivering oral health services in a public health district based on the Conceptual Framework to Measure Performance of the Public Health System (PHS). Using modeling and simulation, a predictive model based on the conceptual framework dimensions: mission, structural capacity, processes, and outcomes was developed to predict the performance of public health district in delivering oral health services.

This is a retrospective longitudinal study. The main objective of this study is to use a modeling and simulation approach to predict the performance of public health district dental clinic in …

A System Dynamics Model Of Pharmaceutical Opioids: Medical Use, Diversion, And Nonmedical Use, Teresa Schmidt, Wayne Wakeland, J. David Haddox

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

A dramatic rise in the nonmedical of pharmaceutical opioids has presented the United States with a substantial public health problem. Nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers has become increasingly prevalent in the US over the last two decades, and diversion of medicines obtained by prescription is assumed to be a major source of supply for nonmedical opioid use. Policymakers striving to protect population health by ameliorating the adverse outcomes of nonmedical use of opioid analgesics could benefit from a systems-level model which reflects the complexity of the system and incorporates the full range of available data. To address this need, …

Words From The Author, Kauline Davis, Sandy Amass

First Opinions, Second Reactions

No abstract provided.

Faculty Publications & Presentations, 2010-2011, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Malignant Lymphoma Subtypes In A Private Hospital In Nairobi: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study, Omar A. Sherman

Master of Medicine in Anatomic Pathology

Introduction: Lymphoma diagnosis integrates clinical, morphological, immunophenotypical and molecular genetic features as evident from the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of lymphoid malignancies.(1, 2) Although it is standard practice for histopathology laboratories in developed countries to confirm and further sub classify lymphomas using immunohistochemistry and other molecular techniques, the same is not true for developing countries like Kenya. The reasons that prevent the performance of these tests are the prohibitive costs and inadequate trained personnel. Objectives: The aims of this study were to retrospectively classify lymphomas diagnosed at The Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUHN) Laboratory based on the WHO classification …

Hepatitis B Vaccination Rate And Determining Factors Amongst Health Care Workers At Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Herman Ekea

Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine

Aim: To determine Hepatitis B vaccination rate and determining factors for health care workers (HCWs) at AKUHN. Design: Cross sectional analytical study Study subjects and setting: Aga Khan University Hospital-Nairobi, is a 254 bed tertiary hospital, with 815 HCWs with occupational risk of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV). The hospital has a HCW vaccination policy and vaccine available to HCWs as part of medical scheme Methodology: Two hundred and sixty six (266) eligible HCWs of all cadres were stratified then randomly recruited after giving informed consent. A questionnaire was then administered to assess knowledge, attitude and practice towards HBV …

The Influence Of Depression On Adherence To Antiretroviral Therapy Among Hiv Infected Patients At Aga Khan University Hospital (Nairobi), Evelyn W. Karanja-Mbugua

Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine

Aim: To determine the influence of depression on adherence to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy among HIV-infected patients. Design: Cross-sectional survey Patients: One hundred and forty HIV-positive patients on treatment with Combination Antiretroviral Therapy selected from the out-patient department of Aga Khan University Hospital took part in the survey. Methodology: Every third patient who was eligible was assessed for adherence to antiretroviral therapy using The Adult AIDS Clinical Trial Group follow up adherence questionnaire followed by screening for depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire 9. Pharmacy data was then retrieved for the same patients and used to assess adherence by the medication …

Decide Vaccine Prices And Subsidies For Developing Countries, Wenbo Zhang

Theses

Vaccination has been deemed the most cost-effective way to fight against preventable diseases and improve global health. In recent years, expensive combination vaccines which provide multiple antigens in a single shot have been developed to replace traditional monovalent vaccines and have become the preferred choice of healthcare systems in industrialized countries. High prices have not only barricaded low-income countries from accessing combination vaccines but also lure vaccine manufacturers to shift their production capacity from making traditional vaccines to combination vaccines. Such a shift could eventually lead to shortages on the vaccine supply for low-income countries. This work extends the ABP …

Download Entire Pdf: The Medicine Forum, Vol 7, 2005

The Medicine Forum

Download the entire PDF of The Medicine Forum, Volume 7, 2005.

41 Year Old Women With Fevers And Shortness Of Breath, Jonathan Jun, Md

The Medicine Forum

A 41 year-old African American female with a history of asthma, hypertension, and schizophrenia presented to the ER in February 2005 with shortness of breath, wheezing, and a “wet-sounding” but nonproductive cough. She reported chills, subjective fever, rhinorrhea, and malaise for five days prior. Her only medication was albuterol, which she normally used twice weekly as needed. She was never intubated for asthma. On review of systems, she had progressive dyspnea on exertion of less than two blocks for the last year. She denied night sweats, weight loss, or sick contacts, HIV exposure, alcohol or drug abuse. She admitted to …

An 18-Year Old Man With Fever And Headache, Amy Baranoski, Md

The Medicine Forum

An 18-year-old man was transferred from an outside hospital for evaluation of recent headache, fevers, and laboratory abnormalities.

The patient had a past medical history significant for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and had presented to an outside hospital with complaints of fatigue, fever, and headache. He described the headache as frontal, severe, and stabbing in nature without associated neck stiffness, photophobia, or phonophobia. He also reported fevers to 105ºF. He was evaluated one day after the onset of symptoms at a local emergency room where a lumbar puncture was performed. By report of the patient and his mother, the …

Wmu School Of Medicine: Prescription For The Future, Kiwanis Club Of Kalamazoo, John M. Dunn

WMU President John Dunn

No abstract provided.

Real-World Comparison Of Two Molecular Methods For Detection Of Respiratory Viruses, Syed Asad Ali, James E. Gern, Tina V. Hartert, Kathryn M. Edwards, Marie R. Griffin, E Kathryn Mille, Tebeb Gebretsadik, Tressa Pappas, Wai Ming Lee, John V. Williams

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Molecular polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based assays are increasingly used to diagnose viral respiratory infections and conduct epidemiology studies. Molecular assays have generally been evaluated by comparing them to conventional direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) or viral culture techniques, with few published direct comparisons between molecular methods or between institutions. We sought to perform a real-world comparison of two molecular respiratory viral diagnostic methods between two experienced respiratory virus research laboratories.
Methods: We tested nasal and throat swab specimens obtained from 225 infants with respiratory illness for 11 common respiratory viruses using both a multiplex assay (Respiratory MultiCode-PLx Assay [RMA]) …

Impact Of The Three Gorges Dam, Ian Reynolds

JCCC Honors Journal

The Three Gorges Dam was built to provide hydroelectric power, flood control, and greater navigation access to the Yangtze River in central China. It is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world and as such is responsible for bringing both unprecedented benefits and risks to the people of the Yangtze River Valley and all of China. In some cases the dam has been the cause of great devastation including the destruction of both the environment and rich cultural heritage of the Yangtze River valley, but it has also spurred a greater concern for the protection and conservation of both the …

Serum Concentration Of Vitamin D In Preeclampsia, Faisal Gh. Al-Rubaye

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia, the de novo occurrence of hypertension and proteinuria after the 20th week of gestation, continues to exert an inordinate toll on mothers and children alike. Vitamin D, on the other hand, has direct influence on molecular pathways proposed to be important in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, yet the vitamin D-preeclampsia relation has not been studied. OBJECTIVE: To assess the vitamin D status of preeclamptic women in different gestational period with respect to normal pregnancy. PATIENT AND METHODS: the present study is a cross-sectional case-control study (2008-2009) At Al-Kadhimiya Teaching Hospital. Includes measurement of serum vitamin D3 in …

Download Entire Issue-The Jefferson Medicine Forum, Volume 6, Winter 2004

The Medicine Forum

Download entire issue-The Jefferson Medicine Forum, Volume 6, Winter 2004.

Images In Medicine-Clostridial Myonecrosis, Jaime Chin Md, Pgy-3

The Medicine Forum

A 48 year-old male with a past medical history of gout,

degenerative disc disease, and T cell lymphoma treated

with chemotherapy and autologous peripheral blood

stem cell transplant, currently in remission, presented

seven days status-post a non-myeloablative allogeneic

transplant with an acute onset of excruciating left hip

and groin pain and a low-grade fever. The physical exam

did not reveal any obvious cause of his extreme pain.

What's Your Diagnosis? Lung Cavitary Lesion, Bassem Elgohary Md, Pgy-3, Betty Lim Md, Pgy-2

The Medicine Forum

A 35 year-old Caucasian woman with history of Systemic
Lupus Erythematous (SLE) complicated by Lupus
glomerulonephritis presented to the Emergency
Department complaining of worsening bilateral lower
extremity rash and leg pain. The rash had been present
for over a month and a recent biopsy of the lesion
revealed leukocytoclastic vasculitis. Her usual dose of
prednisone 120mg every other day had been increased
to 60mg daily over the past few weeks with the worsening
rash. In addition to the rash and leg pain, she also
reported some right-sided pleuritic chest pain.
Otherwise, the patient noted no shortness of breath,
cough, fevers, …

Caspase-1 Dependent Il-1Β Secretion Is Critical For Host Defense In A Mouse Model Of Chlamydia Pneumoniae Lung Infection, Kenichi Shimada, Timothy R. Crother, Justin Karlin, Shuang Chen, Norika Chiba, V. Krishnan Ramanujan, Laurent Vergnes, David M. Ojcius, Moshe Arditi

All Dugoni School of Dentistry Faculty Articles

Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) is an important human pathogen that causes atypical pneumonia and is associated with various chronic inflammatory disorders. Caspase-1 is a key component of the ‘inflammasome’, and is required to cleave pro-IL-1β to bioactive IL-1β. Here we demonstrate for the first time a critical requirement for IL-1β in response to CP infection. Caspase-1^−/− mice exhibit delayed cytokine production, defective clearance of pulmonary bacteria and higher mortality in response to CP infection. Alveolar macrophages harbored increased bacterial numbers due to reduced iNOS levels in Caspase-1^−/− mice. Pharmacological blockade of the IL-1 receptor in CP infected wild-type mice …

Multilaboratory Evaluation Of Real-Time Pcr Tests For Hepatitis B Virus Dna Quantification, Angela M. Caliendo, Alexander Valsamakis, James W. Bremer, Andrea Ferreira-Gonzalez, Suzanne Granger, Linda Sabatini, Gregory J. Tsongalis

Dartmouth Scholarship

The performance characteristics of four different assays for hepatitis B virus (HBV) quantification were assessed: the Abbott RealTime HBV IUO, the Roche Cobas AmpliPrep/Cobas TaqMan HBV test, the Roche Cobas TaqMan HBV test with HighPure system, and the Qiagen artus HBV TM ASR. Limit of detection (LOD), linear range, reproducibility, and agreement were determined using a serially diluted plasma sample from a single chronically infected subject. Each assay was tested by at least three laboratories. The LOD of the RealTime and two TaqMan assays was approximately 1.0 log₁₀ IU/ml; for artus HBV (which used the lowest volume of extracted …

Failures In The Veterans Administration And New Strategies For Leadership, Jarrett Nathaniel Brunny

Florida Public Health Review

World news organizations have criticized the United States Department of Veterans Affairs for endangering patient safety through negligence. Several VA medical centers - including prominent centers operating in Florida - failed to sterilize endoscopy and colonoscopy equipment. Through improper sterilization, a pathway for infection is created resulting in potential disease exposures to patients. In response, the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General investigated the reports and found that facilities did not adhere to protocol concerning reusable medical equipment (RME) problems during the practice ofperforming endoscopies and colonoscopies. The Office ofInspector General noted that the incidents reflected flaws in …

Developing A Conceptual (Mosaic) Transcultural Model Of Nursing Care For Use At A Pediatric Inner-City Hospital, Lani Hollenbeck

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a transcultural model of nursing care for use at a pediatric inner-city hospital located in the Midwestern United States. The experience and outcome for pediatric patients and their families may be negatively impacted when language and culture are different from those of the nurse. Nurses working at the hospital have expressed discomfort when providing care for patients from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They feel challenged to provide supportive nursing care without imposing their own ethnocentric viewpoints or nursing practices that may be inconsistent with desires of those from another culture. The …