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Gastrointestinal Parasites In Captive And Free-Ranging Cebus Albifrons In The Western Amazon, Ecuador, Sarah Martin-Solano, Gabriel A. Carrillo-Bilbao, William Ramirez, Maritza Celi-Erazo, Marie-Claude Huynen, Bruno Levecke, Washington Benitez-Ortiz, Bertrand Losson

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Currently, there is a lack of surveys that report the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites in the whiteheaded capuchin monkey (Cebus albifrons). We therefore assessed the presence and richness (= number of different parasite genera) of parasites in C. albifrons in wildlife refuges (n = 11) and in a free-ranging group near a human village (n = 15) in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In the 78 samples collected (median of 3 samples per animal), we identified a total of 6 genera of gastrointestinal parasites, representing protozoa, nematodes, acanthocephalans and cestodes. We observed a high prevalence (84%) across the 26 individuals, with the …

Field Discrimination Of Prairie Deer Mice And White-Footed Mice Using Morphological Characteristics, Jacob L. Berl, Kelton M. Verble, Elizabeth A. Flaherty, Robert K.S. Swihart

The Prairie Naturalist

Field discrimination of prairie deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii) and white-footed mice (P. leucopus noveboracensis) can be difficult throughout much of the central United States where they co-occur. We live-trapped prairie deer mice and white-footed mice within forested and row-crop habitats in central Indiana and used multiplex PCR with species-specific primers to positively determine species identification. We collected a suite of commonly measured external morphological traits (body weight and lengths of ear, hindfoot, tail, and body) from each captured animal. Individuals were assigned to species based on analysis of DNA; discriminant function analysis was used to …

Possible Effects Of Long-Term Weather Changes And Extreme Weather Events On Mice Population Abundances In Monteverde, Costa Rica, December 2017, Emily S. Parker

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Mice and rat abundance is determined by a multitude of factors, including, but not limited to: climate change, predation, and food availability. In this study, I analyzed the effects of daily and long-term weather on rodent populations to understand a possible decrease in abundance from 2016 to 2017 in Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. I took observations of individuals from four different sites: Santa Elena, Bajo del Tigre, Dwight and Rachel Crandell Memorial Reserve, and the Estación Biológica Monteverde. While a considerable number of specimens were captured in Bajo del Tigre, I observed the total abundance of rodents to be significantly …

Identifying Constraints For Hospital Infection Control Management Via Mckinsey 7s Framework In Pakistan, Shagufta Perveen, Shifa Salman Habib

Community Health Sciences

Background: In Pakistan, structured guidelines for hospital infection control and prevention are deficient in most public sector facilities. There is dearth of literature available on management of hospital-care acquired infections and related issues. This study aims to understand infection control management as a proxy measure for quality of health care provided at a public sector tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. In this study, we identify barriers to implementation of infection control measures and highlight key areas for quality improvement.
Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in 2008 using qualitative research methods. In-depth interviews were conducted with hospital …

Species Are Not Most Abundant In The Centre Of Their Geographic Range Or Climatic Niche, Tad Dallas, Robin R. Decker, Alan Hastings

Faculty Publications

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS The pervasive idea that species should be most abundant in the centre of their geographic range or centre of their climatic niche is a key assumption in many existing ecological hypotheses and has been declared a general macroecological rule. However, empirical support for decreasing population abundance with increasing distance from geographic range or climatic niche centre (distance–abundance relationships) remains fairly weak. We examine over 1400 bird, mammal, fish and tree species to provide a thorough test of distance–abundance relationships, and their associations with species traits and phylogenetic relationships. We failed to detect consistent …

Vibrio Vulnificus Monitoring Along The Coastal Bend And The Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Louay Bachnak

Honors Theses

Vibrio vulnificus is a common opportunistic pathogen found in marine, coastal, and estuarine waters. This one micrometer microorganism is the leading cause of deaths in the United States due to food poisoning after consumption of raw or undercooked seafood. The optimal temperature for survival is between 15.6°C and 35.0°C with moderate salinities – conditions frequently found in the Gulf of Mexico (Lin, Payne, & Schwarz, 2003).

In the United States, V. vulnificus infections are more common in states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, including Texas. However, infections can still occur in individuals consuming infected food more inland or sustain wounds …

Impact : Issue 13, Patients Behbud

IMPACT – The Aga Khan University Hospital Archives

Content:

- I am a hero!

- The hero

- Enjoy the colors of life: a party for children with cancer

- Events

- Our Members

Labrad : Vol 43, Issue 3 - December 2017, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi

LABRAD - Departments of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Radiology Archives

• Levey Jennings Chart and Guide to use Westgard Rules
• Quality Assurance in Frozen Section Studies
• Performance Improvement Monitors in Histology
• Quality Assurance in Immunohistochemistry: The Way We Do It
• Quality Assurance in Laboratory Biosafety
• Quality Control of Culture Media Used in Clinical Microbiology
• Quality Assurance (QA) in Qualitative Tests in the Clinical Laboratory
• Radiology Pathology Correlation
• Quality Requirements for Reporting Sickle Haemoglobin
• Meeting Report of International Federation of Clinical Chemistry (IFCC) Conferences- 2017

Pharmacy Newsletter : December 2017, Pharmacy Department

Department of Pharmacy Archives

Content:

• Twice Daily Dose of Levetiracetam and Clinical Pharmacokinetics
• Management of Acute Hyperkalemia in Neonates
• Drug Induced Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome (NMS)
• Influenza and Influenza Vaccine Myths and Reality.

Hypermucoviscous Klebsiella Syndrome It's In The Community!, Muneeba Ahsan Sayeed, Nida Latif, Syed Faisal Mahmood

Section of Internal Medicine

Hypermucoviscous Klebsiella syndrome is a unique syndrome caused by a new variant of Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP), characterized by abscess formation at distant body sites. This emerging KP strain is different from the usual classic strains in having the rmp gene which increases capsule formation making this strain resistant to phagocytosis and helping in its dissemination to distant organs. A 50 years old diabetic man presented with facial swelling after dental procedure which progressively increased despite being on antibiotics. On examination he was febrile, had neck swelling with signs of inflammation and tender hepatomegaly. Ultrasonography showed submental and liver abscesses which …

Cerebrospinal Fluid Kynurenine And Kynurenic Acid Concentrations Are Associated With Coma Duration And Long-Term Neurocognitive Impairment In Ugandan Children With Cerebral Malaria, Dag Holmberg, Elisabeth Franzén-Röhl, Richard Idro, Robert Opoka, Paul Bangirana, Carl Sellgren, Anna Färnert, Lilly Schwieler, Göran Engberg, Chandy John

Paediatrics and Child Health, East Africa

Background: One-fourth of children with cerebral malaria (CM) retain cognitive sequelae up to 2 years after acute disease. The kynurenine pathway of the brain, forming neuroactive metabolites, e.g. the NMDA-receptor antagonist kynurenic acid (KYNA), has been implicated in long-term cognitive dysfunction in other CNS infections. In the present study, the association between the kynurenine pathway and neurologic/cognitive complications in children with CM was investigated.

Methods: Cerebrospinal fuid (CSF) concentrations of KYNA and its precursor kynurenine in 69 Ugandan children admitted for CM to Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, between 2008 and 2013 were assessed. CSF kynurenine and KYNA were compared to …

Examining The Individual- And Community-Level Effects Of Natural And Anthropogenic Stressors On Larval Amphibians, Samantha J. Gallagher

Open Access Theses

Both natural and anthropogenic stressors are encountered regularly in nature. Predators and pathogens are fundamental components of ecological communities, while chemical contamination commonly enters aquatic environments via drift or runoff. The presence of each of these stressors may have individual-or community-level impacts. Individuals may be forced to make physiological tradeoffs upon exposure to stress that can be addressed through metabolic rate. Examining metabolic rate provides insight into energy allocation, a process that may be altered by the addition of a stressor. I examined how two stressors, the pathogen ranavirus and the pesticide carbaryl, affected the metabolic rates of larval amphibians. …

Influence Maximization Using Observational Data, Mohith Murlidhar

Open Access Theses

Influence maximization is the problem of finding a subset of nodes (seed nodes) in a network, such that by incentivizing these set of nodes, one maximizes the expected spread of influence in the network. This is an NP hard problem for which in the past, greedy algorithms and heuristics have been proposed for solving the problem. Most of these algorithms on this topic have focused on using information about the underlying graph and the edge probabilities, while running expensive controlled experiment simulations to find a solution to the influence maximization problem. These algorithms also accounted only for direct (or indirect) …

Text-Based Spatial And Temporal Visualizations And Their Applications In Visual Analytics, Shehzad Afzal

Open Access Dissertations

Textual labels are an essential part of most visualizations used in practice. However, these textual labels are mainly used to annotate other visualizations rather than being a central part of the visualization. Visualization researchers in areas like cartography and geovisualization have studied the combination of graphical features and textual labels to generate map based visualizations, but textual labels alone are not the primary focus in these representations. The idea of using symbols in visual representations and their interpretation as a quantity is gaining more traction. These types of representations are not only aesthetically appealing but also present new possibilities of …

Global Optimization Of Large-Scale Complex Nonlinear Systems: Algorithms And Applications, Jianfeng Liu

Open Access Dissertations

Many practical applications involving large complex systems are naturally formulated as mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems. These optimization problems are inherently large-scale and non-convex, and can be extremely difficult to solve. Efficient algorithms, especially global solution strategies, for MINLP problems play important roles in many real-world applications. Although a number of optimization tools have been developed for general MINLP problems, their performance may vary significantly on different problem instances. Moreover, computational experience has suggested that for MINLP problems with certain particular properties, customized algorithms can significantly outperform general MINLP solvers. In this thesis, we focus on developing and applying problem-specific …

Laser-Assisted Processing Of Multilayer Films For Inexpensive And Flexible Biomedical Microsystems, Rahim Rahimi

Open Access Dissertations

Flexible/stretchable electronics offer ideal properties for emerging health monitoring devices that can seamlessly integrate with the soft, curvilinear, and dynamic surfaces of the human body. The resulting capabilities have allowed novel devices for monitoring physiological parameters, improving surgical procedures, and human-machine interfaces. While the attractiveness of these devices are indubitable, their fabrication by conventional cleanroom techniques makes them expensive and incompatible with rapid large-scale (e.g., roll-to-roll) production. The purpose of this research is to develop inexpensive fabrication technologies using low-cost commercial films such as polyimide, paper, and metalized paper that can be utilized for developing various flexible/stretchable physical and chemical …

Modifiable Factors Impeding Nurses’ Willingness To Report In A Disaster, Kate Hutchison

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research project investigates what modifiable factors impede nurses’ willingness to report to work during a disaster. The survey sample were nurses in the United States. Survey methodology was a snowball sampling initiated among nurses attending a PhD Program at the University of Texas at Tyler as well as the utilization of Facebook to recruit participants. The survey instrument determined likelihood of nurses reporting to work in various types of disasters and factors that may impede them from responding to such disasters. The online survey asked thirty-five “select all that apply” type questions and the results will be used to …

Atherosclerosis In Hiv Positive Patients: A Clinical Practice Guideline For Cardiovascular Risk Assessment And Treatment, Margaret Heath

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

As modern medicine allows for an increase in lifespan, patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) face the same chronic health issues as other aging adults. Among the top killers of older adult HIV patients is atherosclerosis. The following review of literature will support the belief that HIV patients are at a higher risk for atherosclerosis due to their chronic inflammatory state. This state in which the immune response is elevated for a prolonged period of time provides an optimal environment for the development of atherosclerotic plaques, as the research evidence will demonstrate. The following guideline has been designed to assist …

Zika Virus Encoding Nonglycosylated Envelope Protein Is Attenuated And Defective In Neuroinvasion, Arun S. Annamalai, Aryamav Pattnaik, Bikash R. Sahoo, Ezhumalai Muthukrishnan, Sathish Kumar Natarajan, David Steffen, Hiep Vu, Gustavo Delho, Fernando Osorio, Thomas M. Petro, Shi-Hua Xiang, Asit K. Pattnaik

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus responsible for sporadic outbreaks of mild and febrile illness in Africa and Asia, reemerged in the last decade causing serious human diseases, including microcephaly, congenital malformations, and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Although genomic and phylogenetic analyses suggest that genetic evolution may have led to the enhanced virulence of ZIKV, experimental evidence supporting the role of specific genetic changes in virulence is currently lacking. One sequence motif, VNDT, containing an N-linked glycosylation site in the envelope (E) protein, is polymorphic; it is absent in many of the African isolates but present in all isolates from the recent …

An Analysis Of Prevalence Of Chytrid Fungus In An Amphibian Assemblage In Middle Tennessee, Cameron Brocco

Honors Theses

Chytridiomycosis is an infectious, fungal disease largely seen in amphibians, which is caused by the highly virulent, zoosporic, pathogenic, single-celled fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). It is known to cause epidermal hyperplasia, hyperkeratosis, skin ulcerations, and fatalities by asystolic cardiac arrest either from shifts in electrolytes or increased acidity in the blood plasma. Previous research has demonstrated that urban water bodies have a higher prevalence of chytrid fungus than rural water bodies. Researchers have also found that chytrid is more prevalent in open canopy habitats than closed canopy habitats. Furthermore, it is implicated in global population declines and local extinctions in …

Climate Change Impact On Urban Stormwater System And Use Of Green Infrastructure For Adaptation: An Investigation On Technology, Policy, And Governance, Krishna Prasad Dhakal

Dissertations

The world is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate, and cities are dominantly and increasingly becoming hubs for agglomerations of human population and economic activities, as well as major sources of environmental problems. Accordingly, humanity′s pursuit of global sustainability is becoming increasingly reliant on urban sustainability. Unfortunately, the traditional approaches of urbanization and urban stormwater management are inappropriate from the sustainability standpoint. By removing vegetation and topsoil and creating impervious structures, urbanization destroys natural biodiversity and hydrological processes. As a result, urban societies are disconnected from nature and deprived of ecosystem services including flood control, fresh air, clean water, and natural …

Horticulture For Pollinator Conservation, Carter M. Westerhold

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pollinators worldwide are declining. Consequently, the agricultural and ecological services these insects provide are in danger of being lost. Land use intensification, via urbanization, has greatly influenced this decline in pollinators. Luckily, through targeted horticultural practices, stable populations of pollinators can be sustained within urban areas. The horticultural practices of planting diverse floral resources and managing pollinator habitat in urban areas can sustain these populations. Two studies were conducted with the intent to identify horticultural knowledge gaps that could be reduced to aid in pollinator conservation efforts. First, a study to compare Nebraska native and non-native ornamental plants was conducted. …

A Molecular Diagnostic Survey Of Pathogens And Parasites Of Honey Bees, Apis Mellifera L., From Arkansas And Oklahoma, Dylan Cleary

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The health and viability of colonies of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, in the United States have fluctuated dramatically over the past decade. This poses a substantial threat to agricultural production in this country. Currently, no single factor has been identified for this decline. Rather, it has been suggested that the interaction between multiple biotic and abiotic stressors may be responsible. Among these factors are pesticides, habitat loss, climate and weather, parasites and pathogens, and colony management techniques. For this reason, it is important to examine the prevalence of honey bee parasite and pathogen infection at the state level in …

Green Chemistry Oxidative Modification Of Peptoids Utilizing Bleach And Tempo, Jesse Leland Roberts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biotherapeutic drugs, derived from biological molecules such as proteins and DNA, are becoming an integral and exceptionally critical aspect of modern medicine. Compared to common pharmaceutical drugs, biotherapeutics are much larger in size and have greater target specificity, allowing them to treat many chronic diseases ranging from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis. The major issue with protein based therapeutics is that they readily undergo proteolysis, or enzymatic degradation, when administered through subcutaneous injections. Traditionally, biotherapeutic modification procedures have centered on the use of PEG derivatives. This process, called PEGylation, is unfavorable due to the increases in molecular weights of the proteins …

Surveying The Circular Rep Encoding Single Stranded (Cress) Dna Viral Consortium Found In Invasive Quagga Mussels (Dreissena Rostriformis Bugensis) And Sediments Of The Central Lake Michigan Benthos, Nicholas Gezon

Masters Theses

Globalization and resulting increases in international trade has allowed for the movement of species between almost all ecosystems on Earth. The Great Lakes in particular has seen a number of high impact invasive species that have moved in following the opening of the lakes to intercontinental shipping trade. This research specifically focuses on the benthic community of Lake Michigan which has seen significant community shifts including declines of the amphipods Diporeia spp. and the expansion of invasive quagga mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis). Little is known about the viral community in the benthos of Lake Michigan and how …

Effect Of Total Body Iron On Metabolic Dysfunction Among U.S. Females In The Nhanes 2003-2010, Aged 12-49., Joseph Michael Carhart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Experimental and epidemiological studies have reported positive associations between iron parameters and metabolic dysfunction including: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (1-6), metabolic syndrome (7-15), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (16-22) and insulin resistance (23,24) with a number of studies showing that reductions in total body iron via dietary modification (e.g., reducing red meat intake) or phlebotomy lead to increases in insulin sensitivity (25), decreases in insulin resistance (26), and reductions in the prevalence of complications associated with T2DM (5, 27), metabolic syndrome (28) and NAFLD (22, 29). Moreover, the risk associated with these outcomes and total body iron differ between …

The Role Of Kinases And Phosphatases In The Pathobiology Of Porphyromonas Gingivalis., Sarah Whitmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Periodontal diseases result from the interplay between the dysregulation of the host inflammatory response and the actions of a dysbiotic bacterial community. These chronic inflammatory conditions affect persons on a worldwide scale. P. gingivalis is strongly implicated as a key periodontal pathogen in the more severe manifestations of periodontal diseases such as periodontitis. A core element of P. gingivalis pathogenicity is its dysregulation of innate immunity, including suppression of IL-8 production by gingival epithelial cells. The NF-κB family of related transcription factors plays a central role in regulating many important aspects of innate immune responses. NF-κB RelA/p65 homodimers regulate transcription …

Deficiency Of Rdh10 Causes Cleft Secondary Palate In Mouse., Swetha Raja

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this project is to understand the role of Retinoic Acid (RA) produced by RDH10-mediated metabolism of Vitamin A in palate development. For 80 years now, we have known that dietary restriction of RA/Vitamin A can cause cleft palate but we have failed to understand how RA deficiency causes cleft palate. Our gap in knowledge about how RA deficiency causes cleft palate is mainly owing to the fact that we lack a model system to study such defects. The aim of this thesis research project was to determine if conditional inactivation of the Vitamin A metabolic gene Rdh10 …

Type Ix Secretion System: Characterization Of An Effector Protein And An Insight Into The Role Of C-Terminal Domain Dimeration In Outer Membrane Translocation., Lahari Koneru

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Porphyromonas gingivalis and Tannerella forsythia are two of the primary pathogens that are associated in the etiology and progression of chronic periodontitis. In T. forsythia, KLIKK proteases are the recently identified group of proteolytic enzymes that are secreted through Type IX secretion system (T9SS). Among, these KLIKK proteases a synergistic relationship was observed between karilysin and mirolysin in invading the host complement system for the survival of the bacteria. Since, karilysin has been already characterized, in this study we propose to study about mirolysin through structural, biochemical and biological characterization. The obtained results from the experiments has shown the …

How Discordant Hsv Status Impacts Dyadic Relationships: A Grounded Theory Study, Haley Ann Hermes

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in 2008 that there were an estimated 110 million sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among men and women with an estimated 19.7 million new cases every year in the United States (CDC, 2015). Having an STD is associated with negative individual and relational consequences (Beckerman, 2002; Brentjens, Yeung-Yue, Lee, & Tyring, 2003; Drob, Loemer & Lifshultz, 1986; Mark, Gilbert & Nanda, 2009). The combination of the high prevalence of STDs and the associated relational distress makes it likely that working with couples affected by STDs is a common experience for individual and …