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Elevated Levels Of Type 2 Respiratory Innate Lymphoid Cells In Human Infants With Severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus Bronchiolitis, Luan D. Vu, David Siefker, Tamekia L. Jones, Dahui You, Ryleigh Taylor, John Devincenzo, Stephania A. Cormier

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the American Thoracic Society. Rationale: Studies of the immune responses at the site of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection are sparse despite nearly five decades of research into understanding RSV disease. Objectives: To investigate the role of mucosal innate immune responses to RSV and respiratory viral load in infants hospitalized with the natural disease. Methods: Cytokines, viral load, and type 2 innate lymphoid cell (ILC2) levels in nasal aspirates, collected within 24 hours of enrollment, from infants hospitalized with RSV infection were quantified. Measurements and Main Results: RSV severity in infants was categorized based on admission to …

Hb 217 - Needle Exchange Program, Alexandra L. Armbruster, J. Bryan Watford

Georgia State University Law Review

The Act authorizes certain nonprofit organizations and hospitals to operate clean needle exchange programs. These programs allow individuals who inject drugs to exchange their needles for clean, unused needles. The purpose of these programs is to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C, and other infectious diseases associated with the repeated use and sharing of needles. The Act further authorizes the Department of Public Health to regulate the registration of organizations that will participate in these programs and protects employees of those organizations from being charged with crimes or offenses associated with selling, lending, giving, or exchanging needles.

Lassa Virus Circulating In Liberia: A Retrospective Genomic Characterisation, Michael R. Wiley, Lawrence S. Fakoli, Andrew G. Letizia, Stephen R. Welch, Jason T. Ladner, Karla Prieto, Daniel Reyes, Nicole Espy, Joseph A. Chitty, Catherine B. Pratt, Nicholas Di Paola, Fahn Taweh, Desmond Williams, Jon Saindon, William G. Davis, Ketan Patel, Mitchell Holland, Daniel Negrón, Ute Ströher, Stuart T. Nichol, Shanmuga Sozhamannan, Pierre E. Rollin, John Dogba, Tolbert Nyenswah, Fatorma Bolay, César G. Albariño, Mosoka Fallah, Gustavo Palacios

University of Nebraska's National Strategic Research Institute: Publications

Background An alarming rise in reported Lassa fever cases continues in west Africa. Liberia has the largest reported per capita incidence of Lassa fever cases in the region, but genomic information on the circulating strains is scarce. The aim of this study was to substantially increase the available pool of data to help foster the generation of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics.

Methods Clinical serum samples collected from 17 positive Lassa fever cases originating from Liberia (16 cases) and Guinea (one case) within the past decade were processed at the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research using a targeted-enrichment sequencing approach, producing …

Phenotypic And Genotypic Characterization Of Linezolid-Resistant Enterococcus Faecium From The Usa And Pakistan, Kate E Wardenburg, Robert F Potter, Alaric W D'Souza, Tahir Hussain, Meghan A Wallace, Saadia Andleeb, Carey-Ann D Burnham, Gautam Dantas

2010-2019 OA Pubs

OBJECTIVES: Linezolid is an important therapeutic option for the treatment of infections caused by VRE. Linezolid is a synthetic antimicrobial and resistance to this antimicrobial agent remains relatively rare. As a result, data on the comparative genomics of linezolid resistance determinants in Enterococcus faecium are relatively sparse.

METHODS: To address this knowledge gap in E. faecium, we deployed phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility testing and Illumina WGS on hospital surface (environmental) and clinical isolates from the USA and Pakistan.

RESULTS: We found complete concordance between isolate source country and mechanism of linezolid resistance, with all the US isolates possessing a 23S rRNA …

Survival And Inactivation Of Salmonella Enterica Serovar Typhimurium On Food Contact Surfaces During Log, Stationary And Long-Term Stationary Phases, Dorra Djebbi-Simmons, Wenqing Xu, Marlene Janes, Joan King

Faculty Publications

One of the most important transmission routes of foodborne pathogens is through contaminated food contact surfaces. In this study, we investigated the survival and inactivation of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium on frequently used food contact surfaces in household settings, including plastic cutting board (CB), formica laminate (LA), and stainless steel (SS) surfaces. S. Typhimurium at log (6 h), stationary (24 h), or long-term stationary (LTS) (14 days) phases were evaluated. Results showed that, at medium and high microbial loads, LTS phase cells had significantly higher survivor population compared to log and stationary phase cells at 24 h after inoculation (p < 0.05). Disinfection study showed that LTS phase cells were very resilient to sodium hypochlorite when the initial microbial load was high with disinfection efficacy ranging from 26 to 35%. Scanning electron microscopy of these surfaces at 24 h after inoculation with a high microbial load revealed an early biofilm structure.

Increasing Asymptomatic Chlamydia Screening In The Ed, Mikyung Kim

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends chlamydia screening in young women and others who are at risk based on scientific evidence related to the effectiveness of screening to prevent chlamydial infection. Female patients may visit the emergency department (ED) with symptoms such as urethritis, abdominal pain, or vaginal spotting. For men, most complaints are urinary problems, discharge from the penis, and testicular pain. However, most infected patients are never symptomatic and have no abnormal physical findings. Therefore, the question that spurred this project was, “Why aren’t asymptomatic patients screened more often?” Furthermore, “Why are the CDC screening …

Flying Under The Radar: Two Decades Of Dna Testing At Ircc, Ida Ngueng Feze, Gabriel Marrocco, Miriam Pinkesz, Jacqueline Lacey, Yann Joly

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Since the early 1990s, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (formerly Citizenship and Immigration Canada) began using DNA testing technology in the processing of family reunification applications. Over the years, Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and family members living abroad have been increasingly suggested, or required to undergo DNA testing to either facilitate or enable them to reunite in Canada, under the family reunification procedure. This practice, although said to be rare, has since grown in popularity, and is used more extensively for applications coming from certain regions, including Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Through analysis of recent case law, this paper …

Hand In Hand, Winter 2019 And Spring 2020

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An Evaluation Of Hybrid Traits, Yield, And Major Qtl Effect On Heterosis In Hybrid Soft Red Winter Wheat, Zachary James Winn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a self-pollinating species that is most often bred as a recombinant inbred line. When two inbred individuals are crossed, they produce progeny which experience heterosis; heterosis is the increased robustness experienced due to the reintroduction of heterozygosity. Hybrid wheat may be produced through the use of chemical hybridization agents, yet the structure of wheat flowers decreases the efficiency of outcrossing. The objectives of this study were to: assess the amount of heterosis experienced by a population of hybrid wheat and observe the effect of major gene loci on yield and yield components, phenotype anthers extruded …

Quantitative Study Of The Antimicrobial Effects Of Silver On The Motility Of Escherichia Coli, Benjamin Russell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, the number of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections has grown to become a serious global threat. This rise can be attributed to the widespread misuse of antibiotics and the lack of newly developed drugs to fight resistant organisms. Novel bactericidal substances have, therefore, garnered significant research interest. Silver, due to its powerful antimicrobial effects, is one such substance. Silver is typically most effective in cationic form; however, advancements in nanotechnology have paved the way for the controlled fabrication of nano-silver. Silver nanoparticles have been shown to have increased antibacterial potency for a variety of reasons, including the release of …

A Multi-Year Survey Of Helminths From Wild Saddleback (Leontocebus Weddelli) And Emperor (Saguinus Imperator) Tamarins, Gideon A. Erkenswick, Mrinalini Watsaa, Alfonso S. Gozalo, Shay Dudaie, Lindsey Bailey, Kudakwashe S. Muranda, Alaa Kuziez, Patricia G. Parker

Biology Department Faculty Works

The establishment of baseline data on parasites from wild primates is essential to understand how changes in habitat or climatic disturbances will impact parasite-host relationships. In nature, multiparasitic infections of primates usually fluctuate temporally and seasonally, implying that the acquisition of reliable data must occur over time. Individual parasite infection data from two wild populations of New World primates, the saddleback (Leontocebusweddelli) and emperor (Saguinusimperator) tamarin, were collected over three years to establish baseline levels of helminth prevalence and parasite species richness (PSR). Secondarily, we explore variation in parasite prevalence across age and sex classes, test non-random associations of parasite …

Addressing The Problem Of Sterile Drug Injecting Supply Acquisition For People Who Inject Drugs., Barbra Ann Cave

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contains five chapters, including three manuscripts, covering harm reduction and some of the challenges people who inject drugs (PWID) face in their effort to reduce the risk of injection drug-related harms through sterile injecting supply acquisition and use. Chapter One discusses some background related to PWID and provides an overview of the issues addressed in this dissertation. Chapter Two includes a literature review covering the harm reduction concept, important aspects of syringe exchange programs as a harm reduction tool, and the social determinants of health model as a potential tool for future research. Chapter Three is a two-phase …

Vasopressor Titration In Medical Intensive Care Patients With Septic Shock: A Descriptive Study, Daniel Arellano

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: Vasopressor therapy in patients with septic shock can lead to harmful effects.

Objective: To describe vasopressor titration in patients with septic shock.

Methods: Single-center descriptive study of 60 intensive care unit (ICU) patients to calculate rates for events of failure to titrate, incorrect titration, and correct titration in 15- minute intervals for the duration of vasopressor therapy. Total hospital and ICU days, mortality rate, vasopressor dose and time, and the impact of hydrocortisone on vasopressor use were examined.

Results: During the total vasopressor infusion time of 2598 hours, 5395 failure-to-titrate events were noted. There were 316 incorrect titrations and …

Mhealth Acceptance And Usage Among South Asian Adults In The U.S., Padmavathy Ramaswamy

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: Modifiable lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity and unhealthy diet contribute to the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes (DM) in South Asians (SAs) (Volgman et al., 2018). Interventions using mobile health (mHealth) have demonstrated feasibility and potential efficacy for ethnic minorities (Bender et al., 2018), and have the potential to be of preventive and therapeutic value in reducing the burden of CVD and DM in SAs living in the US. However, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the usage and acceptance of mHealth among SAs.

Purpose: The objectives were to examine the overall …

Factors Affecting Antiretroviral Treatment Entrance, Adherence And Retention Among Hiv Patients In Nigeria And Uganda, Nnenna Ananaba

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Introduction: The maximum benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART) are achieved when HIV patients follow through the HIV Care Continuum. Understanding the factors that impact the Care Continuum are key in minimizing late ART uptake while increasing treatment retention and adherence in sub-Saharan Africa. Objectives: To explore factors that impact the various phases of the HIV Care Continuum, we review trends in median CD4 cells count and presentation with HIV advanced disease stage between 2013 and 2017. We also examined treatment retention rates and the impact of food security on ART adherence. Methods: Two datasets were reviewed. One dataset consists of …

Epidemiological Evaluation Of The National Sickle Cell Screening Program In The Republic Of Uganda, Arielle G. Hernandez

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Sickle cell anemia contributes substantially to childhood morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are scarce health resources and inadequate awareness among healthcare providers and the community. Without early diagnosis and initiation of preventive treatments, most infants will die of acute complications before their fifth birthday. Information on the mortality associated with sickle cell anemia is excluded from global statistical summaries due to the lack of accurate data, making sickle cell anemia an invisible killer of children on the African continent. Information from long-term large-scale sickle cell screening efforts is not yet available in Africa; therefore, a mixed-methods study …

Access To Antibiotics Without Prescription For Travelers And Colombian Citizens At Community Pharmacies In Bogota, Colombia, Marie Kasbaum

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The misuse of antibiotics has been shown to exacerbate the global antibiotic resistance crisis, which could have major consequences on public health worldwide (Auta et al., 2018). In Bogotá, Colombia, the non-prescription sale of antibiotics still occurs in pharmacies despite national regulations requiring a prescription from a physician or health agency before dispensing antibiotics to a patient (Vacca et al., 2011). The purpose of this study was to investigate the non-prescription sale of antibiotics in community pharmacies to foreign travelers and Colombian citizens in Bogotá, Colombia. Trained Simulated Clients (SCs) gathered experimental data in pharmacies distributed throughout 20 geographic districts …

Expert Search For "Antibiotics For The Urgent Management Of Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis, Symptomatic Apical Periodontitis, And Localized Acute Apical Abscess", Kelly K. O'Brien

Expert Search Strategies

This search strategy was constructed to support the research for the peer reviewed article listed above. Full article abstract:

Background

Patients with pulpal and periapical conditions often seek treatment for pain, intraoral swelling, or both. Even when definitive, conservative dental treatment (DCDT) is an option, antibiotics are often prescribed. The purpose of this review was to summarize available evidence regarding the effect of antibiotics, either alone or as adjuncts to DCDT, to treat immunocompetent adults with pulpal and periapical conditions, as well as additional population-level harms associated with antibiotic use.

Type of Studies Reviewed

The authors updated 2 preexisting systematic …

The Relationship Between Biofilm Production And Human Respiratory Cell Attachment And Invasion By Acinetobacter Baumannii, Rachel A. Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic gram-negative bacterial pathogen that causes many nosocomial infections in immunocompromised individuals. Common infections include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections, and bloodstream infections that often lead to septicemia. Increasing multidrug resistance (MDR) in A. baumannii warrants new approaches to understanding its virulence mechanisms and pathogenicity. As a first step in infection, A. baumannii can attach to host cells, providing a surface for the bacteria to grow and perhaps facilitating biofilm formation and subsequent tissue invasion. In this study, we evaluated antibiotic resistance and characterized biofilm formation, attachment, invasion, and surface …

A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Factors Associated With Detection Of Oncogenic Human Papillomavirus In Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected And Uninfected Kenyan Women, Aaron Ermel, P. Tonui, M. Titus, Y. Tong, N. Wong, J. Ong’Echa, Kapten Muthoka, Stephen Kiptoo, A. Moormann, Elkanah Omenge

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Background: Cervical cancer is caused by oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPV) and is one of the most common malignancies in women living in sub-Saharan Africa. Women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a higher incidence of cervical cancer, but the full impact on HPV detection is not well understood, and associations of biological and behavioral factors with oncogenic HPV detection have not been fully examined. Therefore, a study was initiated to investigate factors that are associated with oncogenic HPV detection in Kenyan women.

Methods: Women without cervical dysplasia were enrolled in a longitudinal study. Data from enrollment are presented …

Fuel Shortages During Hurricanes: Epidemiological Modeling And Optimal Control, Sabique Ul Islam

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Hurricanes are powerful agents of destruction with significant socioeconomic impacts. A persistent problem due to the large-scale evacuations during hurricanes in the southeastern United States is the fuel shortages during the evacuation. Fuel shortages often lead to stranded vehicles and exacerbate the evacuation efforts. Computational models can aid in emergency preparedness and help mitigate the impacts of hurricanes. In this thesis, the hurricane fuel shortages are modeled using the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemic model. Crowd-sourced data corresponding to Hurricane Irma and Florence are utilized to parametrize the model. An estimation technique based on Unscented Kalman filter (UKF) is employed to evaluate …

Computational Model For Pedestrian Movement And Infectious Diseases Spread During Air Travel: A Molecular Dynamics-Like Numerical Approach, Pierrot Derjany

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

There is direct evidence of the transmission of fatal infectious pathogens in large human gatherings. Air transportation is no exception. The mixing of susceptible and infectious individuals in this high-density man-made environment involves pedestrian movement which is generally not taken into account in modeling studies of disease dynamics. This thesis addresses this problem through a multiscale model that combines pedestrian dynamics with stochastic infection spread models. This generic model is applicable to several directly transmitted diseases. Through this multiscale framework, the effectiveness of certain layout and strategies in suppressing the disease spread in highly crowded locations such as airplanes, airports …

Addressing Housing Deficit In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects, Aliyu Rafindadi Sanusi

Economic and Financial Review

The article first, provides a detailed overview of the housing deficit problems in Nigeria and the Government’s efforts at resolving them. The next section briefly conceptualises and reviews the various issues and challenges faced in addressing the housing deficit in Nigeria. The article then discusses the prospects for resolving the housing crisis in Nigeria.

Agricultural Exceptionalism And Industrial Animal Food Production: Exploring The Human Rights Nexus, Charlotte E. Blattner, Odile Ammann

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The host of negative effects of animal agriculture on the immediate environment, workers, and local communities are well-documented, yet little is known about the global repercussions of animal agriculture, especially on human rights guarantees. This contribution attempts to begin filling this soaring gap. It examines the nexus between industrial animal agriculture (with a focus on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)) on the one hand, and specific international human rights violations on the other hand. Our emphasis is on the role of government in producing these violations, rather than on the agribusiness itself. Laws originally designed to govern small family farms—so-called …

Staphylococcus Aureus Resistance Patterns In Wisconsin: 2018 Surveillance Of Wisconsin Organisms For Trends In Antimicrobial Resistance And Epidemiology (Swotare) Program Report, Rebecca H. Schulte, Erik Munson

Clinical Lab Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance patterns on a local level can reveal paradigms not obvious on a regional or national scale. Data collection from this perspective may potentially impact local prescribing patterns and empiric treatment guidelines. The objective of this study was to establish a baseline Staphylococcus aureus antibiogram for the state of Wisconsin and to elucidate potential geographic and demographic factors associated with antimicrobial resistance.

Design: Multi-center laboratory surveillance, with testing at a single site utilizing standardized media and susceptibility testing protocols.

Methods: 309 isolates of clinically-significant S. aureus were collected from hospital microbiology laboratories across Wisconsin in 2018, …

Patient Knowledge About Disease Self-Management Of Cirrhosis, Thuy Xuan Trinh

Master's Theses

This study aimed to define the level of understanding of self-management for patients with liver cirrhosis. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Thirty cirrhotic patients (14 females and 16 males) in the Gastroenterology Department of University Medical Center, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam participated in answering the questionnaire to evaluate their knowledge about liver disease self-management. The majority of cirrhotic patients had an unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding self management of their disease, particularly in terms of recognizing and preventing complications from hepatic encephalopathy, monitoring for liver cancer, and awareness of medications they should not use. Implications of the …

Effectiveness Of Teaching About Preventing And Detecting Complications Of Hand, Foot, And Mouth Disease At My Phuoc Hospital, Ha Thi Kim Phung

Master's Theses

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is an infectious illness that affects millions of people, especially children under five years of age. The social impact of severe HFMD to the health community, family members, and children is also of big concern. In the south of Vietnam, Binh Duong province is located in the area affected by HFMD. Unfortunately, caregivers have little knowledge to prevent and detect HFMD severity in children. The research question asked how effective teaching about HFMD was to improve knowledge of caregivers for detecting HFMD severity in children under five years of age at My Phuoc Hospital …

Characterizing The Susceptibility And Type I Interferon Response Of Primary Mammalian Cells During Zika Virus Infection, Douglas Petty

Master's Theses

Zika virus (ZIKV), a member of the genus Flavivirus, has become a major public health concern since 2007. During the most recent 2015 outbreak, ZIKV rapidly spread from South America to over 84 countries and territories across the world in two years. ZIKV has also been associated with previously uncharacterized neurological manifestations during the 2013 and 2015 outbreaks. The novel manifestations include Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in adults and Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) in newborns. GBS is a progressive paralysis caused by damage to the peripheral nervous system; while CZS is an all-encompassing term for the severe neurological and developmental complications …

Chasing The Genetics Of Ascites In Broilers Using Whole Genome Resequencing, Alia Parveen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We are using whole genome resequencing to identify chromosomal regions associated with resistance or susceptibility to ascites, a form of pulmonary hypertension syndrome, meat-type chickens. Previous Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) based on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have identified regions on chromosomes 2, 9 and Z. Despite several GWAS and further genotyping, there are no reliable or potential markers for ascites phenotype. We have completed screening of Copy Number Variations (CNVs) and Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in ascites resistant and susceptible birds from the relaxed, REL, line derived from a commercial elite broiler line. DNA samples from resistant and susceptible birds …

The Genesis And Development Of Deathscapes In America -- A Story Of How Chicago And Louisville Cemeteries Demonstrate The Shifting Rationale Of Cemetery Placement During The 19th And 20th Centuries., Thomas D. Cleven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today, most construction projects require a systematic site qualification based on a suitability analysis utilizing parameters such as slope, soil type, elevation, distance to open water, and distance to transportation. The proper siting determines the success of a project in terms of project stability and longevity. However, has this suitability analysis exist for one of the most significant phases of humanity – death. Historically dead bodies seem to have been placed without suitable qualification being many cemeteries have created environmental problems for the living. Hence, with which placement rationale has been used comes to mind. With a varied array of …