Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Vaccination On The Case Fatality Rate For Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Injections, Glen H. Murata, Allison E. Murata, Douglas J. Perkins, Heather M. Campbell, Jenny T. Mao, Brent Wagner, Benjamin H. Mcmahon, Curt H. Hagedorn

The Kidney Institute of New Mexico

Objectives:

To evaluate the benefits of vaccination on the case fatality rate (CFR) for COVID-19 infections.

Design, setting, and participants:

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has one hundred and thirty medical centers. We created multivariate models from these data -339,772 patients with coronaviral disease (COVID-19)-as of September 30, 2021.

Outcome measures:

The primary outcome for all models was death within 60 days of the diagnosis. Logistic regression derived adjusted odds ratios (OR) for vaccination and infection with delta versus earlier variants. Models were adjusted for demographic traits, standard comorbidity indices, and three novel parameters representing all prior diagnoses, …

Quillen Magazine - Summer 2022, Quillen College Of Medicine, East Tennessee State University

Quillen Magazine

No abstract provided.

Fair Allocation Of Scarce Therapies For Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19), Govind C. Persad, Monica E. Peek, Seema K. Shah

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for nonhospitalized patients with mild or moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease and for individuals exposed to COVID-19 as postexposure prophylaxis. EUAs for oral antiviral drugs have also been issued. Due to increased demand because of the Delta variant, the federal government resumed control over the supply and asked states to ration doses. As future variants (e.g., the Omicron variant) emerge, further rationing may be required. We identify relevant ethical principles (i.e., benefiting people and preventing harm, equal concern, and mitigating health inequities) …

News From Hope College, Volume 54.1: Summer, 2022, Hope College

News from Hope College

No abstract provided.

Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (Sofa) Score And Mortality Prediction In Patients With Severe Respiratory Distress Secondary To Covid-19, Mohamed Fayed, Nimesh Patel, Santhalakshmi Angappan, Katherine A. Nowak, Felipe Vasconcelos Torres, Donald H. Penning, Anoop K. Chhina

Anesthesiology Articles

Background: This study looks at the validity of the sequential organ failure assessment score (SOFA) in detecting mortality in patients with Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Also, it is looking to determine the optimal SOFA score that will discriminate between mortality and survival.

Methods: It is a retrospective chart review of the patients admitted to Henry Ford Hospital from March 2020 to December 2020 with COVID-19 pneumonia who developed severe respiratory distress. We collected the following information; patient demographics (age, sex, body mass index), co-morbidities (history of diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary artery disease, …

Eradicating Malaria: Innovation Diffusion In The Face Of Grand Challenges, Han Jiang, Hao Liang, Dongning Yang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

What is the role of organizational innovation—beyond technological innovation—in an era of grand challenges concerning health, poverty, and economic development around the world? How is organizational innovation developed and diffused to influence resource allocation in the field? We conduct a qualitative case study by analyzing a Chinese pharmaceutical firm’s efforts to combat malaria in Africa over 10 years. Through documentation and extensive interviews, we study the role of innovation diffusion and resource allocation to address grand challenges in emerging markets with significant institutional voids. Our conceptual model delineates the different stages of innovation diffusion to show how organizations can draw …

Using Insurance To Regulate Food Safety: Field Notes From The Food Produce Sector, Timothy D. Lytton

New Mexico Law Review

Foodborne illness is a public health problem of pandemic proportions. In the United States alone, contaminated food sickens an estimated 48 million consumers annually, causing 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Nowhere is this crisis more acute than in the fresh produce sector, where microbial contamination in growing fields and packing houses has been responsible for many of the nation’s largest and deadliest outbreaks.

This Article examines emerging efforts by private insurance companies to regulate food safety on farms that grow fresh produce.

Previous studies of using insurance to regulate food safety rely on economic theories that yield competing conclusions. Optimists …

Assessment Of The Cleaning And Disinfection Practices Among Healthcare Workers In Intensive Care Units (Icus) Post-Patient Discharge, Tincy Varghese Ms, Radhika R. R Pai, Roseminu Varghese Mrs

Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences

Introduction: Patients being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) pose a risk of developing common healthcare acquired infections. Healthcare workers (HCWs) must be well-equipped and knowledgeable to deliver effective cleaning and disinfection protocols to reduce the chances of hospital-acquired infections. Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of cleaning and disinfection after the discharge/death of patients among the HCWs in selected ICUs. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted in selected ICUs of a tertiary care hospital. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants which included 106 staff nurses and 47 housekeeping staff …

Effects Of Surface Topography On Macrophages And Bacterial Cells, Joseph Carnicelli

Theses - ALL

An association has been found between the texture of breast implants and anaplastic large cell lymphoma, which led to some textured implants to be withdrawn from the market in 2019. There is evidence that these cancers are associated with the harboring of bacteria on the surfaces of the textured implants. It is possible that specific topographic features hinder the removal of attached bacteria by inhibiting macrophage phagocytosis or promoting biofilm formation. Here we examine how bacteria and macrophages interact with recessive surface topographies as analogs to the surfaces seen on textured breast implants. Changes in bacteria morphology were observed among …

Origins Of High Latitude Introductions Of Aedes Aegypti To Nebraska And Utah During 2019, Andrea Gloria-Soria, Ary Faraji, Jeff Hamik, Gregory White, Shanon Amsberry, Matthew Donahue, Bryan Buss, Evlyn Pless, Luciano Veiga Cosme, Jeffrey R. Powell

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Aedes aegypti (L.), the yellow fever mosquito, is also an important vector of dengue and Zika viruses, and an invasive species in North America. Aedes aegypti inhabits tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world and in North America is primarily distributed throughout the southern United States states and Mexico. The northern range of Ae. aegypti is limited by cold winter months and establishment in these areas has been mostly unsuccessful. However, frequent introductions of Ae. aegypti to temperate, non-endemic areas during the warmer months can lead to seasonal activity and disease outbreaks. Two Ae. aegypti incursions were …

And Then There Were Two: Splitting South Carolina's Department Of Health And Environmental Control, Arslan S. Valimohamed

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Retrospective Cross Sectional Study Assessing Factors Associated With Retention And Non-Viral Suppression Among Hiv Positive Fsws Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy From Primary Health Care Facilities In Kampala, Uganda, Lydia Atuhaire, Constance Shumba, Lovemore Mapahla, Peter S. Nyasulu

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Background: Patient retention in care and sustained viral load suppression are a cornerstone to improved health and quality of life, among people living with HIV. However, challenges of retention on ART remain among female sex workers (FSWs). We report lost to follow up (LTFU), viral load suppression, and the associated factors among FSWs that access HIV treatment at primary health care facilities in Kampala.

Methods: We retrospectively abstracted and analysed patient management data of HIV positive FSWs who enrolled in care between January 2018 to December 2020. LTFU was defined as failure of a FSW to return for …

The New Normal In The "Worship" Industry: Living The Life Of Victory In The Post-Pandemic World, King Harold A. Recto

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Event Based Approach For Modeling Indoor Airflow Patterns, Ehsan Mousavi, Arup Bhattacharya

Faculty Publications

People spend a significant proportion of their time indoors, where the quality of indoor air affects the productivity, efficiency, and well-being of occupants. One of the oldest challenges in building construction is designing a ventilation system that ensures optimum indoor air quality. Acceptable indoor air should provide thermal comfort and minimize human exposure to contamination. Characterizing these two elements requires information on both heat/mass transfer in the microenvironment and the time-specific activity of individuals who move among these microenvironments. While researchers have utilized simulation tools to investigate this complex human-environment interaction, current numerical techniques severely limit the simulations to overly …

Special Issue: Emerging Paradigms In Insulin Resistance, J. Jason Collier, Susan J. Burke

Division of Basic Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

School Teachers And Principals’ Experiences During Covid-19 In Pakistan, Azra Naseem, Mirat Al Fatima Ahsan, Sohail Ahmad, Tasneem Anwar, Razia Fakir Mohammad

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational activities were disrupted globally. In Pakistan, schools were also closed, and though some schools had started teaching online, the staff (including principals and teachers) and students' readiness for education during the pandemic remained unexplored. An internet-based survey was conducted to explore the experiences of the teachers and principals during the lockdown. The survey included both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Responses were collected from respondents in different parts of Pakistan, with the majority coming from Sindh and coming from both the private and public sector. While the respondents from private schools reported that …

Prophetic Eu: Prospective Identification Of Pneumonia In Hospitalized Patients In The Intensive Care Unit In European And United States Cohorts, Stephen P. Bergin, Sara B. Calvert, John Farley, Jie-Lena Sun, Karen Chiswell, Willem Dieperink, Jan Kluytmans, Juan Carlos Lopez-Delgado, Rafael Leon-Lopez, Marcus J. Zervos, Marin H. Kollef, Matthew Sims, Badih A. Kabchi, Daniel Rubin, Jonas Santiago, Mukil Natarajan, Pamela Tenaerts, Vance G. Fowler, Thomas L. Holland, Marc J. Bonten, Sebastiaan J. Hullegie

Infectious Diseases Articles

Background: The prospective identification of patients at high risk for hospital-acquired/ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia may improve clinical trial feasibility and foster antibacterial development. In a prior study conducted in the United States, clinical criteria were used to prospectively identify these patients; however, these criteria have not been applied in a European population.

Methods: Adults considered high risk for pneumonia (treatment with ventilation or high levels of supplemental oxygen) in the intensive care units of 7 European hospitals were prospectively enrolled from June 12 to December 27, 2017. We estimated the proportion of high-risk patients developing pneumonia according to US Food and …

Progression To Critical Illness And Death In Patients With Breakthrough Hospitalizations, Geehan Suleyman, Raef Fadel, Ayman Alsaadi, Luis Ng Sueng, Ali H. Ghandour, Ahmad Alkhatib, Tarandeep Singh, Austin Parsons, Joseph B. Miller, Mayur Ramesh, Indira Brar, George Alangaden

Infectious Diseases Articles

Background: Characterization of disease progression and outcomes after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related hospitalization in vaccinated compared with unvaccinated individuals is limited.

Methods: This was a retrospective case-control study of symptomatic vaccinated (cases) and unvaccinated (controls) participants hospitalized for COVID-19 between December 30, 2020, and September 30, 2021, in Southeast Michigan. Hospitalized adult patients with lab-confirmed COVID-19 were identified through daily census report. Breakthrough infection was defined as detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ≥14 days after completion of the primary vaccination series. The association between prior vaccination and critical COVID-19 illness (composite of intensive care unit [ICU] admission, …

Real-World Experience Of Sotrovimab In High-Risk, Immunocompromised Covid-19 Patients, Navina K. Birk, Saniya Jain, Louis Massoud, Diya Ramesh, Lea Monday, Bruce K. Muma, Jonathan Williams, George Alangaden, Mayur Ramesh

Infectious Diseases Articles

We completed a real-world analysis of 498 consecutive high-risk nonimmunocompromised and immunocompromised patients who received sotrovimab during the B.1.1.529 surge. Emergency department visits/hospitalizations and 30-day all-cause mortality between the 2 groups were similar. When administered early, sotrovimab is effective at preventing coronavirus disease 2019 progression in immunocompromised and nonimmunocompromised patients.

How Climate Change May Threaten Progress In Neonatal Health In The African Region, Britt Nakstad, Veronique Filippi, Adelaide Lusambili, Nathalie Roos, Fiona Scorgie, Matthew F. Chersich, Stanley Luchters, Sari Kovats

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Climate change is likely to have wide-ranging impacts on maternal and neonatal health in Africa. Populations in low-resource settings already experience adverse impacts from weather extremes, a high burden of disease from environmental exposures, and limited access to high-quality clinical care. Climate change is already increasing local temperatures. Neonates are at high risk of heat stress and dehydration due to their unique metabolism, physiology, growth, and developmental characteristics. Infants in low-income settings may have little protection against extreme heat due to housing design and limited access to affordable space cooling. Climate change may increase risks to neonatal health from weather …

Protecting Free Speech And Due Process Values On Dominant Social Media Platforms, Dawn Carla Nunziato

UC Law Journal

Dominant social media platforms have been increasingly perceived as engaging in discrimination against conservative and right-wing viewpoints. Trump’s deplatforming, coupled with the platforms’ recent removal of Covid- and election-related misinformation, led to cries of censorship by conservatives and increased calls for regulation of the platforms. Supreme Court Justice Thomas took up this charge, suggesting a regulatory path forward for lawmakers seeking to hold the platforms liable for alleged viewpoint discrimination and censorship.

This Article examines the desirability and constitutionality of recent legislative initiatives that seek to provide remedies for these alleged ills and to rein in the dominant platforms’ discretion …

Analysis Of Outcomes Associated With Outpatient Management Of Nonoperatively Treated Patients With Appendicitis, David A. Talan, Gregory J. Moran, Anusha Krishnadasan, Sarah E. Monsell, Brett A. Faine, Lisandra Uribe, Amy H. Kaji, Daniel A. Deugarte, Wesley H. Self, Nathan I. Shapiro, Joseph Cuschieri, Jacob Glaser, Pauline K. Park, Thea P. Price, Nicole Siparsky, Sabrina E. Sanchez, David A. Machado-Aranda, Jesse Victory, Patricia Ayoung-Chee, William Chiang, Joshua Corsa, Heather L. Evans, Lisa Ferrigno, Luis Garcia, Quinton Hatch, Marc D. Horton, Jeffrey Johnson, Alan Jones, Lillian S. Kao, Anton Kelly, Daniel Kim, Matthew E. Kutcher, Mike K. Liang, Nima Maghami, Karen Mcgrane, Elizaveta Minko, Cassandra Mohr, Miriam Neufeld, Joe H. Patton, Colin Rog, Amy Rushing, Amber K. Sabbatini, Matthew Salzberg, Callie M. Thompson, Aleksandr Tichter, Jon Wisler, Bonnie Bizzell, Erin Fannon, Sarah O. Lawrence, Emily C. Voldal, Danielle C. Lavallee, Bryan A. Comstock, Patrick J. Heagerty, Giana H. Davidson, David R. Flum, Larry G. Kessler

Surgery Articles

Importance: In the Comparison of Outcomes of Antibiotic Drugs and Appendectomy (CODA) trial, which found antibiotics to be noninferior, approximately half of participants randomized to receive antibiotics had outpatient management with hospital discharge within 24 hours. If outpatient management is safe, it could increase convenience and decrease health care use and costs.

Objective: To assess the use and safety of outpatient management of acute appendicitis.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study, which is a secondary analysis of the CODA trial, included 776 adults with imaging-confirmed appendicitis who received antibiotics at 25 US hospitals from May 1, 2016, to February …

Arterial Occlusion And Acute Deep Vein Thrombosis-Induced Acute Limb Ischemia In A Covid-19 Patient, Alexander Nguyen, Abe Al Hage, Han Yu, Satheesh Gunaga

Emergency Medicine Articles

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral illness known to elicit a hypercoagulable state leading to a myriad of vascular pathologies. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread insults to the venous system have been well documented, with an increasing number of arterial events being reported. Despite the rising incidence of both pathological manifestations, these events are rare, but when present, serve as significant life threats to the patient in question. We report and discuss a case of a 69-year-old female with no thromboembolic risk factors or systemic signs of illness who presented with signs and symptoms consistent with …

Opaganib In Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia: Results Of A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Phase 2a Trial, Kevin L. Winthrop, Alan W. Skolnick, Adnan M. Rafiq, Scott H. Beegle, Julian Suszanski, Guenther Koehne, Ofra Barnett-Griness, Aida Bibliowicz, Reza Fathi, Patricia Anderson, Gilead Raday, Gina Eagle, Vered Katz Ben-Yair, Harold S. Minkowitz, Mark L. Levitt, Michael S. Gordon

Emergency Medicine Articles

Background: Opaganib, an oral sphingosine kinase-2 inhibitor with antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, was shown to inhibit severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 replication in vitro. We thus considered that opaganib could be beneficial for moderate to severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. The objective of the study was to evaluate the safety of opaganib and its effect on supplemental oxygen requirements and time to hospital discharge in COVID-19 pneumonia hospitalized patients requiring supplemental oxygen.

Methods: This Phase 2a, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted between July and December 2020 in 8 sites in the United States. Forty-two enrolled patients received …

Vaccines And The Social Amplification Of Risk, Heidi Larson, Leesa Lin, Rob Goble

Sustainability and Social Justice

In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named “Vaccine Hesitancy” one of the top 10 threats to global health. Shortly afterward, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the world's predominant health concern. COVID-19 vaccines of several types have been developed, tested, and partially deployed with remarkable speed; vaccines are now the primary control measure and hope for a return to normalcy. However, hesitancy concerning these vaccines, along with resistance to masking and other control measures, remains a substantial obstacle. The previous waves of vaccine hesitancy that led to the WHO threat designation, together with recent COVID-19 experience, provide a window for …

Demographic Expansions And The Emergence Of Host Specialization In Genetically Distinct Ecotypes Of The Tick-Transmitted Bacterium Anaplasma Phagocytophilum, Matthew L. Aardema, Nina V. Bates, Qiana E. Archer, Friederike D.Von Loewenich

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In Europe, genetically distinct ecotypes of the tick-vectored bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum circulate among mammals in three discrete enzootic cycles. To date, potential ecological factors that contributed to the emergence of these divergent ecotypes have been poorly studied. Here, we show that the ecotype that predominantly infects roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) is evolutionarily derived. Its divergence from a host generalist ancestor occurred after the last glacial maximum as mammal populations, including roe deer, recolonized the European mainland from southern refugia. We also provide evidence that this host specialist ecotype's effective population size (Ne) has tracked changes in the population of its …

2022-2023 Pediatric Subspecialty Trainees, Children's Mercy Kansas City

Residents and Fellows Portraits

Photo composites of the graduate pediatric trainees in adolescent medicine, allergy/immunology, child abuse pediatrics, child neurology, clinical neuro-psychology, coagulation, congenital cardiac surgery, clinical child psychology, developmental-behavioral pediatrics, epilepsy, hospice & palliative care, laboratory genetics & genomics, pediatric anesthesiology, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric adolescent gynecology, pediatric bioethics, pediatric cardiology, pediatric EM/child abuse, pediatric critical care medicine, pediatric dentistry, pediatric emergency medicine, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric hematology/oncology, pediatric hospital medicine, pediatric infectious diseases, pediatric nephrology, pediatric ophthalmology; pediatric optometry, pediatric orthopedic surgery, pediatric otolaryngology, pediatric pathology; pediatric pulmonology, pediatric radiology, pediatric rehabilitation, pediatric sports medicine, pediatric surgery, sleep medicine, pharmacy, pediatric residency …

Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Mucosal Attachment And Colonization By Clostridioides Difficile, Ben Sidner

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Clostridioides difficile is a Gram-positive, spore-forming, anaerobic bacterium which causes gastrointestinal disease and is a leading cause of nosocomial infections. Although infection typically occurs following antibiotic therapy, in recent years there has been an increase in infections which are not preceded by antibiotic use. Additionally, community-associated infections and rates of disease recurrence have increased. While it is understood that a healthy gastrointestinal microbiota provides protection against infection, the molecular mechanisms which underly C. difficile's ability to colonize and persist in the gut are mostly unknown. Building on work from others that suggests C. difficile associates with the outer mucus …

Choline Supplementation Modifies The Effects Of Developmental Alcohol Exposure On Immune Responses In Adult Rats, Jessica A. Baker, Kristen R. Breit, Tamara S. Bodnar, Joanne Weinberg, Jennifer D. Thomas

Psychology Faculty Publications

Prenatal alcohol exposure can disrupt the development of numerous systems, including the immune system. Indeed, alterations in cytokine levels may contribute to the neuropathological, behavioral, and cognitive problems, and other adverse outcomes observed in individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Importantly, supplementation with the essential nutrient choline can improve performance in hippocampal-dependent behaviors; thus, the present study examined the effects of choline on plasma and hippocampal cytokines in adult rats exposed to ethanol in early development. From postnatal day (PD) 4-9 (third trimester equivalent), pups received ethanol (5.25 g/kg/day) or Sham intubations. Subjects were treated with choline chloride (100 mg/kg/day) …

The Curious Case Of An Isolated Right Coronary Artery Aneurysm Complicated By Thrombosis And Distal Embolization, Hussam Al Hennawi, Mohammad F. Mathbout, Katrina Bidwell, Christopher D. Nielsen

Abington Jefferson Health Papers

No abstract provided.