Digital Commons Network^™

Essential Protections For Essential Workers: Ethical Considerations For Infection Prevention And Control, Abigail E. Lowe

Theses & Dissertations

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, ethical guidance for workers during epidemics and pandemics centered on healthcare workers, which meant there was not guidance to address critical contextual issues for many on the frontlines of the pandemic. Meat processing workers are a key example of workers deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic and facing conditions of elevated risk without adequate public health guidance or resources to control disease spread. Meat processing workers are an underserved, resource-limited, and vulnerable workforce that face occupational health and safety risks. Meat processing and other essential workers have heightened health disparities due to the social determinants …

Nanofabrication For Precision Vaccinology, Karen Zagorski

Theses & Dissertations

Vaccines are among the most effective and safe therapeutics known to mankind. Historically the approach to the creation of new vaccines has been dominated by empirical research, trial, and error. This thesis focuses on the more modern, rational approaches to vaccinology based on the current understanding of the inner workings of the immune system. We used nanotechnology for the generation of novel immunogens, addressed several challenges, and characterized the immune responses.

The preparation, characterization, and troubleshooting of several vaccines against dimeric amyloid beta are covered in chapters 4-6. Despite being ultimately unsuccessful, this part provided a deeper understanding of the …

Reducing Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia By Educating Patient Care Technicians On Route Bundle Care Measures, Munroop K. Thiara

Master's Projects and Capstones

Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) is an infection of the lungs that can lead to severe and sometimes fatal outcomes. HAP can be prevented by oral care interventions, but without proper patient care, treatment can be very expensive. Evidence-proven HAP preventative measures such as the ROUTE bundle and increased patient mobility can significantly lower the risk of pneumonia as well as prevent additional hospital costs. Hospital X is a private nonprofit health care organization in the urban suburbs of a large Northern California city with a current HAP rate of 2.3 and with targeted goals of 2.0. By creating a project that …

Reducing The Risk Of Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection With Chlorhexidine Gluconate Education, Scarlett Ocon

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: A nosocomial central line-associated bloodstream infection is a preventable infection that is costly and potentially fatal. In order to combat bloodstream infections chlorhexidine gluconate wipes have been used as antiseptic. Medical surgical units do not have accessible CHG for bathing purposes. In addition, the staff lacks knowledge of how to use CHG wipes. The current standard bathing practice on this unit consists of using soap and water or disposable washcloths spontaneously without a predetermined time. The aim of this quality improvement project is to educate the registered nurses (RNs) and certified nurse assistants (CNAs) on the benefits of daily …

Differential Role Of Type 2 Diabetes As A Risk Factor For Tuberculosis In The Elderly Versus Younger Adults, Blanca I. Restrepo, Julia M. Scordo, Genesis P. Aguillón-Durán, Doris Ayala, Ana P. Quirino-Cerrillo, Raúl Loera-Salazar, America Cruz-González, Jose A. Caso, Mateo Joya-Ayala, Esperanza M. García-Oropesa, Alejandra B. Salinas

School of Medicine Publications

The elderly are understudied despite their high risk of tuberculosis (TB). We sought to identify factors underlying the lack of an association between TB and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the elderly, but not adults. We conducted a case–control study in elderly (≥65 years old; ELD) vs. younger adults (young/middle-aged adults (18–44/45–64 years old; YA|MAA) stratified by TB and T2D, using a research study population (n = 1160) and TB surveillance data (n = 8783). In the research study population the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of TB in T2D was highest in young adults (AOR 6.48) but waned with age …

Landscape Of Tb Infection And Prevention Among People Living With Hiv, Anca Vasiliu, Rebecca Abelman, Yousra Kherabi, Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati, Alexander Kay

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality in people living with HIV (PLHIV) and contributes to up to a third of deaths in this population. The World Health Organization guidelines aim to target early detection and treatment of TB among PLHIV, particularly in high-prevalence and low-resource settings. Prevention plays a key role in the fight against TB among PLHIV. This review explores TB screening tools available for PLHIV, including symptom-based screening, chest radiography, tuberculin skin tests, interferon gamma release assays, and serum biomarkers. We then review TB Preventive Treatment (TPT), shown to reduce the progression to active …

Detection Of Biomarkers For Filoviral Infection With A Silicon Photonic Resonator Platform, Krista Meserve, Abraham J Qavi, M Javad Aman, Hong Vu, Larry Zeitlin, John M Dye, Jeffrey W Froude, Daisy W Leung, Lan Yang, Frederick W Holtsberg, Gaya K Amarasinghe, Ryan C Bailey

2020-Current year OA Pubs

This protocol describes the use of silicon photonic microring resonator sensors for detection of Ebola virus (EBOV) and Sudan virus (SUDV) soluble glycoprotein (sGP). This protocol encompasses biosensor functionalization of silicon microring resonator chips, detection of protein biomarkers in sera, preparing calibration standards for analytical validation, and quantification of the results from these experiments. This protocol is readily adaptable toward other analytes, including cytokines, chemokines, nucleic acids, and viruses. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Qavi et al. (2022).

Monkeypox: Facts For Faith Community Nurses, Melissa K. Travelsted

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

Faith community nurses provide services to diverse populations and should be aware of the recent monkeypox outbreak. The 2022 outbreak is dissimilar from previous as cases are occurring in non-endemic countries with no travel connections to endemic countries. Cases in the United States are mostly identified in the gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. Symptoms of monkeypox begin with flu-like symptoms progressing to a sequential rash (macule, papule, vesicles, pustules, scabs). The distinguishing characteristic of monkeypox from other Orthopoxviruses is lymphadenopathy. There is no FDA approved treatment for monkeypox as most cases are mild and self-limiting, …

Sacred Sex Or Purely Prostitution? Women’S Health During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Roro Kembang Sore Tomb, Tulungagung, East Java, Indonesia, Diah Ariani Arimbi, Gesang Manggala Nugraha Putra, Nurul Fitri Hapsari

Journal of International Women's Studies

The practice of seeking pesugihan (a Javanese term for fortune or wealth, usually achieved by visiting a sacred burial ground of a historic prominent figure or mythical beings) through free-sex rituals is one of the factors that has increased the prevalence of HIV and AIDS, especially in the Tulungagung region of East Java, Indonesia. Often under the guise of tradition, this practice is maintained without proper supervision from governing agencies. To assess this problem, this study focuses on mapping the origin and distribution of free-sex myths in the pesugihan ritual, especially at the burial site of Nyi Roro Kembang Sore, …

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - December 15, 2022, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the December 15, 2022 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents include:

• Sickle Cell Center leadership changes announced
• Center for Healthy Communities hosts first professional development forum
• Create a page in our 50th anniversary book
• Meet a Med Student: Yulong Huang
• USA grieves loss of Professor Emeritus Frank S.Pettyjohn, M.D.
• USA scientists win NIH grant to study ticks, leprosy

Vol.50 N.21 December 15th 2022, Voice Media Ventures

Black Voice News

No abstract provided.

The Evolutionary Dynamics Of Infectious Diseases On An Unstable Planet: Insights From Modeling The Stockholm Paradigm, Angie T. C. Souza, Sabrina B. L. Araujo, Walter A. Boeger

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are, besides a question of food safety and public health, an ecological and evolutionary issue. The recognition of this condition combined with the accumulation of evidence that pathogens are not specialists in their original hosts evidences the need for understanding how the dynamics of interaction between pathogens and hosts occurs. The Stockholm Paradigm (SP) provides the theoretical fundaments to understand the dynamics of diseases and design proactive measures to avoid the emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases. In this review, we revisit the models that evaluate several aspects of the proposed dynamics of the SP, including …

System Shock: Using -Omics Data To Characterize Biological Remodeling In The Microbiome, Resistome, And Transcriptome Of Bacteria, Winston Eugene Anthony

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The human experience is indelibly linked to microbial life. So much so, that the holobiont theory has been coined to define the assemblage of host and microbe as a discrete ecological unit. Perturbation of the commensal microbiome can create niche space for pathogens, which through the concomitant rise of antimicrobial resistance represent an ever-evolving danger. In Chapter 2 of this dissertation, I describe the results of an interventional study designed to directly perturb the healthy gut microbiome and observe the dynamics of taxonomic composition and functional recovery. I observe significant decreases after 5 days of antibiotic treatment in the gold …

Inferring Adaptation In Social Microbes From Experimental Evolution Under Relaxed Selection, Tyler John Larsen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Microbes exist against a backdrop of other organisms, and the interactions between microbes have major consequences on their traits, their evolution, and their impact on the world. Microbial interactions and the adaptations that enable them are extremely diverse – they can unlock abilities beyond the reach of individual cells or lead to a population’s destruction, they can be temporary or permanent, they can be between genetically identical cells or different species entirely. The first chapter of this dissertation reviews microbial interactions and the related concept of the evolution of conflict and cooperation.To be certain a trait is an adaptation at …

The Enemy Within: An Investigation Of The Intracellular Bacteria In Urinary Tract Infections, Jennie Elizabeth Hazen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common diseases that are associated with significant morbidities. Multiple studies have indicated that multiple species of uropathogenesis bacteria invade and persist within bladder epithelial cells as a necessary step of uropathogenesis. Interestingly, many of these species are not canonically associated with intracellular infections. Although the first study describing bacteria within the urothelium was published two decades ago, this critical step of uropathogenesis remains relatively understudied.I established a murine model of community-acquired A. baumannii UTI, a previously unstudied manifestation of the disease. While immunocompetent mice resolved their infections quickly, immunocompromised mice displayed high bacterial burdens throughout …

A Bayesian Susceptible-Infectious-Hospitalized-Ventilated-Recovered Model To Predict Demand For Covid-19 Inpatient Care In A Large Healthcare System, Stella Coker Watson Self Ph.D., Ms, Rongjie Huang, Shrujan Amin, Joseph Ewing, Carolina Rudisill, Alexander C. Mclain Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained healthcare systems in many parts of the United States. During the early months of the pandemic, there was substantial uncertainty about whether the large number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization would exceed healthcare system capacity. This uncertainty created an urgent need to accurately predict the number of COVID-19 patients that would require inpatient and ventilator care at the local level. As the pandemic progressed, many healthcare systems relied on such predictions to prepare for COVID-19 surges and to make decisions regarding staffing, the discontinuation of elective procedures, and the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) …

A Deep Learning-Based Model For Plant Lesion Segmentation, Subtype Identification, And Survival Probability Estimation, Muhammad Shoaib, Babar Shah, Tariq Hussain, Akhtar Ali, Asad Ullah, Fayadh Alenezi, Tsanko Gechev, Farman Ali, Ikram Syed

All Works

Plants are the primary source of food for world’s population. Diseases in plants can cause yield loss, which can be mitigated by continual monitoring. Monitoring plant diseases manually is difficult and prone to errors. Using computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) for the early identification of plant illnesses can prevent the negative consequences of diseases at the very beginning and overcome the limitations of continuous manual monitoring. The research focuses on the development of an automatic system capable of performing the segmentation of leaf lesions and the detection of disease without requiring human intervention. To get lesion region segmentation, we …

A Bayesian Susceptible-Infectious-Hospitalized-Ventilated-Recovered Model To Predict Demand For Covid-19 Inpatient Care In A Large Healthcare System, Stella Coker Watson Self Ph.D., Ms, Rongjie Huang, Shrujan Amin, Joseph Ewing, Caroline Rudisill, Alexander C. Mclain

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained healthcare systems in many parts of the United States. During the early months of the pandemic, there was substantial uncertainty about whether the large number of COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization would exceed healthcare system capacity. This uncertainty created an urgent need to accurately predict the number of COVID-19 patients that would require inpatient and ventilator care at the local level. As the pandemic progressed, many healthcare systems relied on such predictions to prepare for COVID-19 surges and to make decisions regarding staffing, the discontinuation of elective procedures, and the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) …

Daily Rounding To Reduce Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections In A Rehabilitation Facility, Folashade Oluwafunmi

Dissertations

Despite national efforts to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), healthcare facilities continue to report CAUTI events. The project site reported CAUTI rates above local and national benchmarks even though a CAUTI bundle was in use. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental quality improvement project was to determine if the implementation of daily rounding by organizational CAUTI champions, using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Comprehensive Unitbased Safety Program (CUSP), would impact CAUTI rates among adult residents in a rehabilitation facility in Northern California for four weeks. Lewin's change theory and the IOWA evidence-based practice model were the …

Health Status And Preventive Health Services Among Reproductive-Aged Women In Treatment For Opioid Use Disorder, Vanessa Short, Dennis J. Hand, Lauren Pyfer, Hanna Steiger, Meghan Gannon, Gregory A. Jaffe, Diane J. Abatemarco

College of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations

OBJECTIVE: To assess the utilization of preventive health services and the prevalence of chronic health conditions among a cohort of women in treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD).

METHODS: Ninety-seven women who were receiving treatment for OUD from a single urban treatment program completed a self-administered anonymous online questionnaire that asked about demographics, health, receipt of preventive health services, and utilization of health care. Descriptive statistics were used to describe data.

RESULTS: More than one-third of respondents reported that their health was fair or poor, whereas one-quarter were very concerned with their health. Most participants (59%) reported at least one …

The Challenges And Opportunities Of Scrna-Seq In Covid-19 Research And Clinical Translation, Wendao Liu, Xiaohua Ye, Zhiqiang An, Zhongming Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The application of single-cell RNA sequencing in COVID-19 research has greatly improved our understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis and immunological characteristics. In this commentary, we discuss the current challenges, limitations, and perspectives in harnessing the power of single-cell RNA sequencing to accelerate both basic research and therapeutic development for COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases.

Systems Level Analysis Of Organelle Biogenesis In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Kiandokht Panjtan Amiri

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Eukaryotic cells contain hundreds of subcellular structures that serve different functions to maintain cellular homeostasis. A hallmark of Eukaryotic cells is its compartmentalization into membrane-bound organelles. One of the grand challenges in quantitative cell biology is understanding the precision with which cells assemble and maintain subcellular organelles. Despite identification of numerous molecular factors that regulate organelle sizes we lack insight into the quantitative principles underlying organelle size control. We examine organelle sizes from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and human iPS cells with mathematical theory to show that cells can robustly control average fluctuations in organelle size. By demonstrating that organelle sizes obey …

Invasive Species Handbook: A Resource For Educators - Grades 3-8, Natalie D'Souza, Marion Murray, Lori R. Spears

All Current Publications

This handbook includes six chapters that discuss invasive species and their environmental, economic, and health impacts. It also reviews pathways of invasive species spread and prevention, monitoring, and control. The handbook is a resource for educators teaching children in grades 3 through 8. Learning objectives, activities, and vocabulary are also included.

Human Nk Cells Confer Protection Against Hiv-1 Infection In Humanized Mice, Can M. Sungur, Qiankun Wang, Ayşe N. Ozantürk, Hongbo Gao, Aaron J. Schmitz, Marina Cella, Wayne M. Yokoyama, Liang Shan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The role of NK cells against HIV-1 infections remains to be elucidated in vivo. While humanized mouse models potentially could be used to directly evaluate human NK cell responses during HIV-1 infection, improved functional development of human NK cells in these hosts is needed. Here, we report the humanized MISTRG-6-15 mouse model, in which NK cells were quick to expand and exhibit degranulation, cytotoxicity, and proinflammatory cytokine production in nonlymphoid organs upon HIV-1 infection but had reduced functionality in lymphoid organs. Although HIV-1 infection induced functional impairment of NK cells, antiretroviral therapy reinvigorated NK cells in response to HIV-1 rebound …

Surviving The Influenza; The Use Of Traditional Medicines To Combat The Spanish Flu In Colonial Indonesia, 1918-1919, Ravando Ravando

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was widely regarded as the deadliest in modern history, claiming more lives than World War I. Colonial Indonesia was not spared. Several scholars have estimated that around 1.5 to 4.37 million people in the colony perished, making the death rate one of the highest in Asia. In the midst of the chaos and confusion caused by the pandemic, many people in colonial Indonesia turned to traditional medicines, particularly the poorer members of society who were inexperienced in Western medicine. Herbal treatment was considered a viable option for those who frequently faced discrimination when visiting …

Treatment Of The Mentally Ill In The U.S. Gilded Age, Madeline Whelan

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The maltreatment of the working class and immigrants was quite prominent throughout the Gilded Age of the United States. The endless capitalist desires of a growing industrial nation often left American laborers at the mercy of corporations and businessmen. Workers endured strenuous labor, hazardous work environments, and unjust management; yet, earned barely enough money to pay for their rent, let alone food and other necessities. Immigrants flooded the country with hopes of securing profit for their relatives back home, only to encounter inhumane working conditions and prejudice from nativists. As the distribution of wealth between laborers and the middle and …

Growth Productivity As A Determinant Of The Inoculum Effect For Bactericidal Antibiotics, Gabriela Diaz-Tang, Estefania Marin Meneses, Kavish Patel, Sophia Mirkin, Laura Garcia-Dieguez, Camryn Pajon, Ivana Barraza, Vijay Patel, Helana Ghali, Angelica P. Tracey, Christopher Blanar, Allison J. Lopatkin, Robert P. Smith

Biology Faculty Articles

Understanding the mechanisms by which populations of bacteria resist antibiotics has implications in evolution, microbial ecology, and public health. The inoculum effect (IE), where antibiotic efficacy declines as the density of a bacterial population increases, has been observed for multiple bacterial species and antibiotics. Several mechanisms to account for IE have been proposed, but most lack experimental evidence or cannot explain IE for multiple antibiotics. We show that growth productivity, the combined effect of growth and metabolism, can account for IE for multiple bactericidal antibiotics and bacterial species. Guided by flux balance analysis and whole-genome modeling, we show that the …

Investigating The Relationships Between Concentrated Disadvantage, Place Connectivity, And Covid-19 Fatality In The United States Over Time, Fengrui Jing, Zhenlong Liu, Shan Qiao, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background Concentrated disadvantaged areas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 outbreak in the United States (US). Meanwhile, highly connected areas may contribute to higher human movement, leading to higher COVID-19 cases and deaths. This study examined the associations between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality in the US over time. Methods Concentrated disadvantage was assessed based on the spatial concentration of residents with low socioeconomic status. Place connectivity was defined as the normalized number of shared Twitter users between the county and all other counties in the contiguous US in a year (Y = 2019). COVID-19 fatality was measured …

Single Cell Rna Sequencing Of The Adult Drosophila Eye Reveals Distinct Clusters And Novel Marker Genes For All Major Cell Types, Kelvin Yeung, Komal Kumar Bollepogu Raja, Yoon-Kyung Shim, Yumei Li, Rui Chen, Graeme Mardon

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The adult Drosophila eye is a powerful model system for phototransduction and neurodegeneration research. However, single cell resolution transcriptomic data are lacking for this tissue. We present single cell RNA-seq data on 1-day male and female, 3-day and 7-day old male adult eyes, covering early to mature adult eyes. All major cell types, including photoreceptors, cone and pigment cells in the adult eye were captured and identified. Our data sets identified novel cell type specific marker genes, some of which were validated in vivo. R7 and R8 photoreceptors form clusters that reflect their specific Rhodopsin expression and the specific Rhodopsin …

2022-12-13_Michiganoverview_Covidsymptoms, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Michigan COVID-19 Syndromic Surveillance System Data

The Syndromic Surveillance System Data report was obtained from Michigan's COVID-19 dashboard, from under the link "​Coronavirus Symptoms": https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/stats/coronavirus-symptoms. Data was compiled by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The information was updated twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.

Syndromic Surveillance System data is obtained from approximately 216 facilities participating in syndromic surveillance (139 Emergency Departments (ED), 77 Urgent Cares) across the State of Michigan. The reporting is based on individuals who present at EDs and may not be representative of the overall population. The coronavirus-like symptoms query searches visit free-text (chief complaint, triage notes, …