Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Toddler Sleep Disparities Using Spatial Analytic Methods, Jessica He

Public Health Theses

Introduction: Sleep health is a vital component of childhood health. However, sleep health disparities exist among toddlers from racially/ethnically diverse families living with socioeconomic adversity as early as 12 months of age. There is a gap in the current literature that includes environmental factors that may explain the factors contributing to these differences.Objective: To explore associations between toddler sleep health and environmental and societal factors at the neighborhood level using spatial analysis that may help elucidate factors which contribute to the race/ethnicity differences in toddlers unexplained by socioeconomic variables. Methods: A secondary analysis was performed on data collected from a …

Developing A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Plan For A Virtual Diabetes Prevention Program, Roujia Jin

Public Health Theses

Background: Diabetes is one of the major health concerns in the US. According to the National Diabetes Statistics Report, about 13% adults in the U.S. had diabetes, and 34.5% of the U.S. adults were categorized as prediabetic. An estimated cost of $327 billion were reported as relevant to diagnosed diabetes in 2017 in the United States by the American Diabetes Association. The virtual Diabetes Prevention Program (vDPP) was designed to address barriers that low social-economic status participants faced when they were enrolled in a diabetes prevention program. It used a digital platform to deliver courses, organize meetings and monitor health …

Factors Associated With Early Childhood Development Outcomes For Children Of Adolescent And Young Adult Mothers In Brazil, Lily Benson Kofke

Public Health Theses

Objectives: A descriptive analysis to explore the risks for early childhood development (ECD) delays among children of adolescent and young adult mothers in Brazil. Methods: A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data of a representative sample of children under age 2 and their mothers from community health centers in Brasília, Brazil. The Denver Developmental Screening Test II was used to assess overall and domain-specific ECD (personal-social, fine motor, gross motor, and language). Mothers were subset into two groups based on age. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between maternal age and risk of ECD delay, …

Gene-Gene Interactions Contributing To Asthma Susceptibility, An Exploration Using Uk Biobank Dataset, Yuyuan Lin

Public Health Theses

Background: Previous studies have attempted to identify gene-gene interactions for asthma. However, most of these studies suffered from lack of replication or insufficient statistical power. In this study, we aimed to explore the gene-gene interactions affecting asthma susceptibility and tried to replicate the results. Both the discovery and replication datasets were nested in UK Biobank data.

Methods: Nested case-control design was used. In the discovery analysis (N= 306,859, cases = 35,483, controls = 271,376), Univariate genome-wide association analysis was performed to prioritize loci for the interaction analysis. Pairwise search for epistasis was conducted among 5,389 SNPs. Replication of the top …

The Impact Of Ww’S Multi-City Fvrx Program On Children, Damaris Lopez Mercado

Public Health Theses

Introduction and background: Higher F&V intake are associated with healthier BMI in children, but cost of F&V has been found to be a barrier to access for some families. To mitigate this barrier, Wholesome Wave (WW) implemented a six-month F&V incentive program that included a $25 weekly financial incentive for families to spend on F&V in three U.S. cities. The primary objectives of this paper are to assess whether this program significantly impacted child F&V consumption and child anthropometry from baseline to end-of-program and to assess whether F&V intake and food insecurity and end-of-program are significant predictors of healthy child …

Economic Evaluation Of The Preventing Childhood Obesity Through Mindfulness-Based Parent Stress Intervention, Jingyi Meng

Public Health Theses

This study analyzed the intervention cost of a novel early childhood obesity prevention program -- Preventing Childhood Obesity Through a Mindfulness-Based Parent Stress Intervention (PMH+N) conducted by Yale Stress Center. The randomized clinical trial started from 11/01/2018 and will enroll 240 participants in total. Parents were included in the trial if they had: a child in the 2- to 5-year age group, a body mass index (BMI) over 28 kg/m2, high levels of perceived stress as assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (score >25) and were able to read and write in English. For 12 weeks, about 13 parents …

Impact Of Covid-19 On Participants Of A Fruit And Vegetable Program, Christabelle Ong

Public Health Theses

Objective: To investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the participants of a multi-city fruit and vegetable incentive program.Design: A six-month cohort study was conducted. Pre-program and post-program data were collected using an online survey platform. Setting: Eight cities across the United States. Participants: A total of 822 individuals were recruited through local site partners to participate in a fruit and vegetable incentive program (n=822; 79.4% women, 20.6% men; median age: 57 years old). Intervention: Participants received $50 monthly fruit and vegetable vouchers, a sneaker gift card or gift basket, and access to a weight loss app. Main Outcome Measures: The …

Implementation, Prevalence, And Referral Rates Of Patient-Reported Outcomes Of Distress And Depression Screening In Oncology Care, Emily Erin Saadi

Public Health Theses

Clinical depression and distress are prevalent in cancer patients and are often unrecognized by clinicians. However, patient-reported outcomes, or PROs, can facilitate provider assessment of oncology treatment plans by detecting depressive and distress symptoms early in a patient’s cancer trajectory. Since PROs capture patients’ subjective experience, they provide invaluable insight into patient satisfaction, quality of life, and mental health. In April 2019, leadership at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven Health implemented a new, electronic workflow that widely disseminated PHQ-9 and NCCN Distress questionnaires to patients seen in three Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Centers. The objective of this pilot …

“We Are Left Alone”: A Qualitative Study Of Life Satisfaction Of Older Adults In Rural Nepal, Anna Elisabeth Schwartz

Public Health Theses

Considering that the aging population in the Southeast Asian region is rapidly growing, there is an increasing need to promote the subjective well-being of older adults. However, few studies have investigated mechanisms of life satisfaction in developing countries in the Southeast Asian region. This research gap needs to be addressed, since aging and life satisfaction are complex processes that are experienced differently in various sociocultural contexts. The purpose of this study is to understand meanings of life satisfaction and experiences of aging through the perspectives of older adults who live in Jumla, Nepal. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty …

Wholesome Wave: Impact Evaluation Report For The Depth2020 Fruit And Vegetable Incentive Program, Abigail Waugh

Public Health Theses

The purpose of the current evaluation is to assess the role of the Wholesome Wave Depth2020 Fruit and Vegetable Incentive program and its components on participants’ outcomes related to health, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. It was found that after the 6-month fruit and vegetable incentive program, participants’ general health significantly increased, and participants’ number of chronic diseases being managed significantly decreased. Consumption of both fruits and vegetables increased during the program; there was not a significant change in participants’ knowledge about the benefits of fruits and vegetables or in participants’ children’s attitudes about fruit or vegetables. Participants’ pre- and post-program …

Female Pacific Walruses (Odobenus Rosmarus Divergens) Show Greater Partitioning Of Sea Ice Organic Carbon Than Males: Evidence From Ice Algae Trophic Markers, Chelsea W. Koch, Lee W. Cooper, Ryan J. Woodland, Jacqueline M. Grebmeier, Karen E. Frey, Raphaela Stimmelmayr, Cédric Magen, Thomas A. Brown

Geography

The expected reduction of ice algae with declining sea ice may prove to be detrimental to the Pacific Arctic ecosystem. Benthic organisms that rely on sea ice organic carbon (iPOC) sustain benthic predators such as the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). The ability to track the trophic transfer of iPOC is critical to understanding its value in the food web, but prior methods have lacked the required source specificity. We analyzed the H-Print index, based on biomarkers of ice algae versus phytoplankton contributions to organic carbon in marine predators, in Pacific walrus livers collected in 2012, 2014 and 2016 from …

There’S More Than One Way To Beat The Heat: What Anal Probes Reveal About Thermal Responses In Neotropical Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)., Emilie I. Dion

Dissertations and Theses

Increasing global temperatures have been linked to shifts in the distributions and preferred microhabitats of terrestrial species. This trend is predicted to impact tropical forest insects, which may already be exposed to conditions that bring them close to their thermal maxima. Tropical microhabitats are linked to vertical stratification, because the canopy is hotter, winder, and less humid than the ground. In ectothermic organisms, such as beetles, thermoregulation is dependent on morphological and behavioral traits. This study investigates woodboring cerambycid beetles, to determine how behavioral thermoregulation through microhabitat selection (vertical stratification) is correlated to morphological attributes (color lightness, size, and pubescence) …

Osteocyte Activity And Skeletal Muscle Relative Gene Expression Profiling After Short-Term Muscle Paralysis, Michelle Gelbs

Dissertations and Theses

Mechanical loading is essential for maintaining bone tissue. Reduced mechanical loading has been shown to have a negative effect on bone, and can result in the development of disuse osteoporosis. Disuse models of muscle inactivity and immobilization, like the Botox model used in this study, result in changes in the bone microarchitecture, the mechanisms behind which are not fully understood. In a previous four-week Botox disuse study, skeletally mature 20- week-old rats experienced degradation of intracortical bone, increased vascular porosity, and decreased osteocyte lacunar density in the tibiae. The focus of this study was to explicate a potential source of …

Development Of An Injectable Methylcellulose Hydrogel System For Nucleus Pulposus Repair And Regeneration, Nada A. Haq-Siddiqi

Dissertations and Theses

Low back pain is the most common cause of disability in the world and is often caused by degeneration or injury of the intervertebral disc (IVD). The IVD is a complex, fibrocartilaginous tissue that allows for the wide range of spinal mobility. Disc degeneration is a progressive condition believed to begin in the central, gelatinous nucleus pulposus (NP) region of the tissue, for which there are few preventative therapies. Current therapeutic strategies include pain management and exercise, or surgical intervention such as spinal fusion, none of which address the underlying cause of degeneration. With an increasingly aging population, the socioeconomic …

A Snowball Effect: A Pandemic’S Impacts On Household Food Insecurity In The United States, Sidie Sahid Sisay

Dissertations and Theses

Economic insecurity exists whenever income sources are uncertain, and this is a failure of a fundamental human right. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented disruptions to the US economy and has created unparalleled food insufficiency and economic hardships. Before the pandemic, household food insufficiency existed but downplayed in the political arena. In 2019, 10.5 percent of households in the US lived in extreme poverty and were food insecure, the lowest since 1959, but the pandemic has had devastating effects on household food insufficiency. This paper uses nationally representative data from the Census Bureau’s weekly household pulse survey, coupled with standard …

Striving For Equity In Pandemic Times: The Administrator's Role In The Shift To Online Education In K-12 And Higher Education Spaces, Linsay Demartino, S. Gavin Weiser

Faculty Publications - College of Education

This chapter considers the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the reality of educational administrators in U.S.-based institutions of education. Looking closely at 17 educational administrators from both K-12 systems and institutions of higher education, the authors come to a more comprehensive understanding of crisis leadership and its impact on equitable educational practices – both for students as well as for the administrators themselves. This chapter is based on a larger project the authors undertook to explore through narratives and photography the experiences of administrators during the global COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020. This chapter illustrates the …

'Awakening The Sleeping Giant': Re-Indigenization Principles For Transforming Biodiversity Conservation In Canada And Beyond, M’S-It No’Kmaq, Albert Marshall, Karen F. Beazley, Jessica Hum, Shalan Joudry, Anastasia Papadopoulos, Sherry Pictou, Janet Rabesca, Lisa Young, Melanie Zurba

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Precipitous declines in biodiversity threaten planetary boundaries, requiring transformative changes to conservation. Colonial systems have decimated species and ecosystems and dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of their rights, territories, and livelihoods. Despite these challenges, Indigenous governed lands retain a large proportion of biodiversity-rich landscapes. Indigenous Peoples have stewarded the land in ways that support people and nature in respectful relationship. Biodiversity conservation and resurgence of Indigenous autonomies are mutually compatible aims. To work towards these aims requires significant transformation in conservation and re-Indigenization. Key to both are systems that value people and nature in all their diversity and relationships. This paper introduces …

Probiotic Vsl#3 Treatment Reduces Colonic Permeability And Abdominal Pain Symptoms In Patients With Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Prapaporn Boonma, Jordan M Shapiro, Emily B Hollister, Shyam Badu, Qinglong Wu, Erica M Weidler, Bincy P Abraham, Sridevi Devaraj, Ruth Ann Luna, James Versalovic, Margaret M Heitkemper, Tor C Savidge, Robert J Shulman

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Little is known regarding the clinical impact of treatment and treatment duration of probiotic VSL#3 on gut and microbiome function in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). As part of a safety trial, we assessed the effect of VSL#3 treatment duration on abdominal pain, stooling, gut permeability, microbiome composition and function.

Methods: Adults with IBS were randomized into an open label trial to receive the probiotic VSL#3 for 4 or 8 weeks. Adverse events, abdominal pain, and stooling patterns were recorded daily. Gut permeability, fecal bile acid levels, and microbiome composition were profiled at baseline and after treatment.

Results: Fifteen subjects …

On The Joint Role Of Non-Hispanic Black Race/Ethnicity And Weight Status In Predicting Postmenopausal Weight Gain, Christopher N Ford, Shine Chang, Alexis C Wood, Joann E Manson, David O Garcia, Helena Laroche, Chloe E Bird, Mara Z Vitolins

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Objectives: To determine how baseline weight status contributes to differences in postmenopausal weight gain among non-Hispanic Blacks (NHBs) and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs).

Methods: Data were included from 70,750 NHW and NHB postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI OS). Body Mass Index (BMI) at baseline was used to classify women as having normal weight, overweight, obese class I, obese class II or obese class III. Cox proportional hazards was used to estimate the hazard of a 10% or more increase in weight from baseline.

Results: In both crude and adjusted models, NHBs were more likely to experience …

Resource Curse In Kenya’S Coastal Region: A Symptom Of Institutional Failure, George Atisa

Public Affairs and Security Studies Faculty Publications

Regions endowed with abundant natural resources are expected to thrive economically, but this is not the case for Kenya’s coastal region. Communities in this region believe they are working hard enough but are still held in abject poverty by circumstances not of their own making. This state of development raises one pertinent question – who is responsible for this poor state of development and rampant poverty? When it is about an individual, it is easy to attach success to talent and hard work, and sometimes sheer luck, but it is difficult to generalize the “hard-working” argument to an entire community …

Science Dialogue Mapping Of Knowledge And Knowledge Gaps Related To The Effects Of Dairy Intake On Human Cardiovascular Health And Disease, Andrew W Brown, Kathryn A Kaiser, Andrew Keitt, Kevin Fontaine, Madeline Gibson, Barbara A Gower, James M Shikany, Colby J Vorland, Donald C Beitz, Dennis M Bier, J Thomas Brenna, David R Jacobs, Penny Kris-Etherton, Kevin Maki, Michael Miller, Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Margarita Teran-Garcia, David B Allison

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Dairy has been described as everything from a superfood to a poison; yet, arguments, assumptions, and data justifying these labels are not always clear. We used an issue-based information system, “dialogue mapping™,” to summarize scientific points of a live panel discussion on the putative effects of dairy on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) from a day-long session among experts in nutrition and CVD. Dialogue mapping captures relations among ideas to explicitly, logically, and visually connect issues/questions, ideas, pro/con arguments, and agreements, even if discussed at different times. Experts discussed two propositions: for CVD risk, consumption of full-fat dairy products, 1) should be …

Assessment Of The Gut Bacterial Microbiome And Metabolome Of Girls And Women With Rett Syndrome, Santosh Thapa, Alamelu Venkatachalam, Nabeel Khan, Mohammed Naqvi, Miriam Balderas, Jessica K Runge, Anthony Haag, Kathleen M Hoch, Daniel G Glaze, Ruth Ann Luna, Kathleen J Motil

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Gastrointestinal problems affect the health and quality of life of individuals with Rett syndrome (RTT) and pose a medical hardship for their caregivers. We hypothesized that the variability in the RTT phenotype contributes to the dysbiosis of the gut microbiome and metabolome in RTT, predisposing these individuals to gastrointestinal dysfunction.

Objectives: We characterized the gut bacterial microbiome and metabolome in girls and young women with RTT (n = 44) and unaffected controls (n = 21), and examined the relation between the composition of the microbiome and variations in the RTT phenotype.

Methods: Demographics and clinical information, including growth and …

Gut Microbiota Profiles Of Young South Indian Children: Child Sex-Specific Relations With Growth, Nirupama Shivakumar, Ambily Sivadas, Sarita Devi, Farook Jahoor, John Mclaughlin, Craig P Smith, Anura V Kurpad, Arpita Mukhopadhyay

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Gut microbiota has been implicated as a modifier of childhood growth. Here, 16S rRNA sequencing-based fecal microbiota profiles of 18-24 month old Indian children were evaluated (n = 41), in relation to their anthropometric parameters, intestinal permeability, body composition and total energy expenditure. Pathway analyses were conducted to assess microbial functions related to stunting, underweight and wasting. The fecal microbiota was enriched in Prevotella 9, Bifidobacterium and Escherichia-Shigella. Weight, weight-for-age Z-scores (WAZ) and weight-for-length Z-scores (WLZ), along with age, acted as covariates of microbiota variation specifically in boys (n = 23). Bifidobacterium longum subsp longum abundance was positively associated with …

Associations Between Independent Assessments Of Child Appetite Self-Regulation: A Narrative Review, Maria A Papaioannou, Nilda Micheli, Thomas G Power, Jennifer O Fisher, Sheryl O Hughes

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

A variety of eating behaviors among children have been associated with obesity risk and are thought to broadly reflect child appetite self-regulation (ASR). While ASR is thought to occur on cognitive, emotional, motivational, biological, and behavioral levels, the inter-relatedness of ASR constructs as assessed by different methods/measures is not well-characterized. This narrative review describes the correspondence between different methods/measures of child ASR constructs as assessed by self-report questionnaires and/or observational tasks and their relationship to child standardized body mass index (BMIz). Research involving at least two different methods/measures is presented including observational tasks such as the Eating in the Absence …

Crucial Role Of Mammalian Glutaredoxin 3 In Cardiac Energy Metabolism In Diet-Induced Obese Mice Revealed By Transcriptome Analysis, Ninghui Cheng, Qianxing Mo, Jimmonique Donelson, Lingfei Wang, Ghislain Breton, George G Rodney, Jin Wang, Kendal D Hirschi, Xander H T Wehrens, Paul A Nakata

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Obesity is often associated with metabolic dysregulation and oxidative stress with the latter serving as a possible unifying link between obesity and cardiovascular complications. Glutaredoxins (Grxs) comprise one of the major antioxidant systems in the heart. Although Grx3 has been shown to act as an endogenous negative regulator of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, its metabolic impact on cardiac function in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice remains largely unknown. In the present study, analysis of Grx3 expression indicated that Grx3 protein levels, but not mRNA levels, were significantly increased in the hearts of DIO mice. Cardiac-specific Grx3 deletion (Grx3 CKO) mice …

Hypothalamic Perineuronal Nets Are Regulated By Sex And Dietary Interventions, Nan Zhang, Zili Yan, Hailan Liu, Meng Yu, Yang He, Hesong Liu, Chen Liang, Longlong Tu, Lina Wang, Na Yin, Junying Han, Nikolas Scarcelli, Yongjie Yang, Chunmei Wang, Tianshu Zeng, Lu-Lu Chen, Yong Xu

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are widely present in the hypothalamus, and are thought to provide physical protection and ion buffering for neurons and regulate their synaptic plasticity and intracellular signaling. Recent evidence indicates that PNNs in the mediobasal hypothalamus play an important role in the regulation of glucose homeostasis. However, whether and how hypothalamic PNNs are regulated are not fully understood. In the present study, we examined whether PNNs in various hypothalamic regions in mice can be regulated by sex, gonadal hormones, dietary interventions, or their interactions. We demonstrated that gonadal hormones are required to maintain normal PNNs in the arcuate …

Wearable Activity Tracking Device Use In An Adolescent Weight Management Clinic: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial, Kanika Bowen-Jallow, Omar Nunez-Lopez, Alex Wright, Erika Fuchs, Mollie Ahn, Elizabeth Lyons, Daniel Jupiter, Lindsey Berry, Oscar Suman, Ravi S Radhakrishnan, Andrea M Glaser, Deborah I Thompson

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: The use of physical activity tracker devices has increased within the general population. However, there is limited medical literature studying the efficacy of such devices in adolescents with obesity. In this study, we explored the feasibility of using wearable activity tracking devices as an adjunct intervention on adolescents with obesity.

Methods: Randomized controlled pilot trial evaluated the feasibility (attrition ≤50%) of an activity tracking intervention (ATI) and its effects on weight loss in adolescents with obesity enrolled in an adolescent weight management clinic (AWMC). Outcomes included feasibility (attrition rate) and absolute change in BMI. Differences between groups at 6, …

Food/Non-Food Classification Of Real-Life Egocentric Images In Low- And Middle-Income Countries Based On Image Tagging Features, Guangzong Chen, Wenyan Jia, Yifan Zhao, Zhi-Hong Mao, Benny Lo, Alex K Anderson, Gary Frost, Modou L Jobarteh, Megan A Mccrory, Edward Sazonov, Matilda Steiner-Asiedu, Richard S Ansong, Thomas Baranowski, Lora Burke, Mingui Sun

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Malnutrition, including both undernutrition and obesity, is a significant problem in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In order to study malnutrition and develop effective intervention strategies, it is crucial to evaluate nutritional status in LMICs at the individual, household, and community levels. In a multinational research project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we have been using a wearable technology to conduct objective dietary assessment in sub-Saharan Africa. Our assessment includes multiple diet-related activities in urban and rural families, including food sources (e.g., shopping, harvesting, and gathering), preservation/storage, preparation, cooking, and consumption (e.g., portion size and nutrition analysis). …

Associations Between Lipoprotein Subfractions And Area And Density Of Abdominal Muscle And Intermuscular Adipose Tissue: The Multi-Ethnic Study Of Atherosclerosis, Megan M Marron, Matthew Allison, Alka M Kanaya, Britta Larsen, Alexis C Wood, David Herrington, Philip Greenland, Iva Miljkovic

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Skeletal muscle quantity and quality decrease with older age, which is partly attributed to ectopic fat infiltration and has negative metabolic consequences. To inform efforts to preserve skeletal muscle with aging, a better understanding of biologic correlates of quantity and quality of muscle and intermuscular adipose tissue (IMAT) is needed. We used targeted lipidomics of lipoprotein subfractions among 947 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants to provide a detailed metabolic characterization of area and density of abdominal muscle and IMAT. Serum lipoprotein subfractions were measured at the first visit using 1H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. Muscle and IMAT area (cm

A Computational Pipeline To Infer Alternative Poly-Adenylation From 3′ Sequencing Data, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Nathan D Elrod, Madeline K Jensen, Ping Ji, Ai Lin, Eric J Wagner, Zhandong Liu

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

An increasing number of investigations have established alternative polyadenylation (APA) as a key mechanism of gene regulation through altering the length of 3' untranslated region (UTR) and generating distinct mRNA termini. Further, appreciation for the significance of APA in disease contexts propelled the development of several 3' sequencing techniques. While these RNA sequencing technologies have advanced APA analysis, the intrinsic limitation of 3' read coverage and lack of appropriate computational tools constrain precise mapping and quantification of polyadenylation sites. Notably, Poly(A)-ClickSeq (PAC-seq) overcomes limiting factors such as poly(A) enrichment and 3' linker ligation steps using click-chemistry. Here we provide an …