Digital Commons Network^™

Human M1 Macrophages Express Unique Innate Immune Response Genes After Mycobacterial Infection To Defend Against Tuberculosis, Arshad Khan, Kangling Zhang, Vipul K. Singh, Abhishek Mishra, Priyanka Kachroo, Tian Bing, Jong Hak Won, Eder Ledezma-Campos, Genesis P. Aguillón-Durán, Blanca I. Restrepo

School of Medicine Publications

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is responsible for approximately 1.5 million deaths each year. Though 10% of patients develop tuberculosis (TB) after infection, 90% of these infections are latent. Further, mice are nearly uniformly susceptible to Mtb but their M1-polarized macrophages (M1-MΦs) can inhibit Mtb in vitro, suggesting that M1-MΦs may be able to regulate anti-TB immunity. We sought to determine whether human MΦ heterogeneity contributes to TB immunity. Here we show that IFN-γ-programmed M1-MΦs degrade Mtb through increased expression of innate immunity regulatory genes (Inregs). In contrast, IL-4-programmed M2-polarized MΦs (M2-MΦs) are permissive for Mtb proliferation and exhibit reduced …

Comparative Laws In Public Health Unmasked, Christine Chasse

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic lay bare the vulnerabilities of some countries’ public health responses and praise for others. Comparative law review in public health responses may glean lessons for the United States. For example, the United States had not had a pandemic of this magnitude in over a century and was reluctant to institute early masking policies. Meanwhile, the world raced for a COVID-19 vaccine. This begs the question of who will take the vaccine. Will—or can—governments force their citizens to be inoculated? Global comparisons in personal liberty, freedom, bodily autonomy, and how to parent intersect at the right to (or …

International Law & Covid-19 Symposium, Joseph Candelaria, Gita Howard, Tamar Ezer

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shock waves through the international community, exposing systemic failures and highlighting injustices. At the same time, it has provided an opening to consider new approaches, including lessons for international law.
On April 12 and 16, 2021, the University of Miami School of Law International and Graduate Law Programs and Human Rights Clinic, in collaboration with the Human Rights Society, Health Law Association, Environmental Law Program, and University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review hosted a symposium on the impact of COVID-19 on international law. The International Law and COVID-19 Symposium specifically focused on the …

My Generation Will Never Forget: Oral Histories Of Chinese American Students In “Separate But Equal” Oriental Schools, Kelsey Owyang

Master's Theses

Asian Americans occupy a contradictory position in the American educational landscape, at once glorified for their academic success and vilified for their “invasion” of White academic spaces. This narrative first took root in the 19^th century, when the California Supreme Court ruled in the 1885 case Tape v. Hurley that Chinese American youth had a right to public education. Simultaneously, the state legislature declared that Chinese Americans must be educated in separate facilities from Whites. The first segregated “Oriental school” opened in San Francisco Chinatown that year. This study explores the oft-erased history of Asian American school segregation in …

Editorial: The Dual-Use Dilemma For Biomimicry, Samar Damiati, Rami Mhanna, Shakil A. Awan, Rimantas Kodzius, Bernhard Schuster

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

The biomimetic fabrication of 3D biology models confers design freedom across various applications. Taking inspiration from nature and using nature as a toolbox have helped in the production of effective and versatile tools that are integrated with modern technology principles and, importantly, perform quite similarly to natural living systems. Exploiting nature’s design principles can contribute to the improvement of the understanding and development of creative products in both fundamental research and industrial applications (Dicks, 2016; Orapiriyakul et al., 2018; Damiati, 2020). To address the significant heterogeneity among bio-inspired designs, this research topic collected articles that reflect the progress in the …

Mathematical Model Of Immune-Inflammatory Response In Covid-19 Patients, Quiyana M. Murphy

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Practical Identifiability Of A Malaria Model To Assess Conversion To Transmissible Stages, Anthony Raymond Krueger, Damie Pak, Megan Greischar, Lauren Childs

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Cathelicidin Anti-Microbial Peptide (Camp) Is Toxic During Neonatal Influenza Virus Infection, Nneka Ugwu

St. Chris Research Day

No abstract provided.

On The Trajectory Of Gonorrhea In The Us: An Application Of Generalized Compartmental Models, Scott Greenhalgh, Anna Dumas

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Waterhouse-Friederichsen Syndrome As A Complication Of Pediatric Covid-19 Infection: A Case Report, Erin Cohen, Jordy Salcedo-Giraldo, Elizabeth Grund, Swetha Madhavarapu

St. Chris Research Day

No abstract provided.

A Call To Action: A Need For Initiatives That Increase Equitable Access To Covid-19 Therapeutics, Jacinda C. Abdul-Mutakabbir, Elizabeth B. Hirsch, Caroline L. Ko, Britny R. Brown, Aiman Bandali, Jason Mordino, Leah H. Yoke, Taison Bell, Talia H. Swartz, Uzma Syed, Matifadza Hlatshwayo, Ila M. Saunders

School of Pharmacy Faculty Articles

Structural racism is endemic in the United States and causes inequitable health outcomes that have been amplified throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American individuals have been disproportionately affected, and are twice as likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 or related morbidities when compared to White Americans. Social determinants of health inequities contribute to these disparate outcomes, given that minoritized individuals are more likely to occupy essential worker roles and to live in high-density settings. Despite their higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness, racially and ethnically minoritized individuals are less likely to receive potentially lifesaving …

Differentially Methylated Cpgs In Response To Growth Hormone Administration In Children With Idiopathic Short Stature., Xiaojian Shao, Catherine Le Stunff, Warren A. Cheung, Tony Kwan, Mark Lathrop, Tomi Pastinen, Pierre Bougnères

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) has shown a great growth-promoting potential in children with idiopathic short stature (ISS). However, the response to rhGH differs across individuals, largely due to genetic and epigenetic heterogeneity. Since epigenetic marks on the methylome can be dynamically influenced by GH, we performed a comprehensive pharmacoepigenomics analysis of DNA methylation changes associated with long-term rhGH administration in children with ISS.

RESULTS: We measured DNA methylation profiles before and after GH treatment (with a duration of ~ 18 months in average) on 47 healthy children using customized methylC-seq capture sequencing. Their changes were compared and associated …

The Relationship Between Perceived Stress And Disordered Eating In Undergraduate Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Caroline G. Martin

Gettysburg College Headquarters

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and imposed challenges on nearly everyone, including college students. Despite their already stressful situations, previous research has demonstrated increased stress levels among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, research has also shown an increase in disordered eating for college students during the pandemic. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between both perceived stress and disordered eating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study used a correlational design to investigate a potential association between perceived stress and disordered eating among undergraduate college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. By administering the EAT-26, the CSSEC, …

Post-Implementation Review Of The Himalaya Home Care Project For Home Isolated Covid-19 Patients In Nepal, Rakchya Amatya, Kritika Mishra, Kshitij Karki, Isha Puri, Archita Gautam, Sweta Thapa, Urmila Katwal, Siddhesh Veer, John Zervos, Linda M. Kaljee, Tyler Prentiss, Kate Zenlea, Gina Maki, Pawan Jung Rayamajhi, Narendra K. Khanal, Pomawati Thapa, Madan Kumar Upadhyaya, Deepak Bajracharya

Global Health Initiative Articles

Background: The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in a pandemic that has significantly impacted healthcare systems at a global level. Health care facilities in Nepal, as in other low- and middle-income countries, have limited resources for the treatment and management of COVID-19 patients. Only critical cases are admitted to the hospital resulting in most patients in home isolation.

Methods: Himalaya Home Care (HHC) was initiated to monitor and provide counseling to home isolated COVID-19 patients for disease prevention, control, and treatment. Counselors included one physician and four nurses. Lists of patients were obtained from district and municipal …

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 119), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Early Short Course Of Neuromuscular Blocking Agents In Patients With Covid-19 Ards: A Propensity Score Analysis., Gianluigi Li Bassi, Kristen Gibbons, Jacky Y Suen, Heidi J Dalton, Nicole White, Amanda Corley, Sally Shrapnel, Samuel Hinton, Simon Forsyth, John G Laffey, Eddy Fan, Jonathon P Fanning, Mauro Panigada, Robert Bartlett, Daniel Brodie, Aidan Burrell, Davide Chiumello, Alyaa Elhazmi, Mariano Esperatti, Giacomo Grasselli, Carol Hodgson, Shingo Ichiba, Carlos Luna, Eva Marwali, Laura Merson, Srinivas Murthy, Alistair Nichol, Mark Ogino, Paolo Pelosi, Antoni Torres, Pauline Yeung Ng, John F Fraser

Department of Anesthesiology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The role of neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is not fully elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to investigate in COVID-19 patients with moderate-to-severe ARDS the impact of early use of NMBAs on 90-day mortality, through propensity score (PS) matching analysis.

METHODS: We analyzed a convenience sample of patients with COVID-19 and moderate-to-severe ARDS, admitted to 244 intensive care units within the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium, from February 1, 2020, through October 31, 2021. Patients undergoing at least 2 days and up to 3 consecutive days of NMBAs (NMBA treatment), within 48 …

Increase In Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (Pots) After Covid-19 Infection, Nana Dufie Akowuah

Student Theses

A new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), popularly known as COVID-19 has been associated with new-onsets of neurological and cardiovascular symptoms after infecting people. Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a form of dysautonomia, can occur after a viral or bacterial infection. Some symptoms of POTS include dizziness, postural tachycardia, presyncope and orthostatic intolerance. There has been some evidence that has identified POT following COVID-19 in some patients. Commonly affected are female long haulers of child-bearing age sharing a strikingly similar demographic to most autoimmune disorders. The most dominant symptom of long haul POTS at this point may be palpitations/ …

“A Fog That Impacts Everything”: A Qualitative Study Of Health-Related Quality Of Life In People Living With Hiv Who Have Cognitive Impairment, K Alford, S Daley, S Banerjee, Et Al

Peninsula Medical School

Background Cognitive impairment (CI) in people living with HIV (PLWH) is an important health concern in the context of an ageing HIV population. Impacting 14–28% of PLWH, CI is associated with lower health-related quality of life (HRQoL), however, evaluation of the illness-specific factors comprising HRQoL in PLWH with CI have not been assessed. Objective We sought to contribute evidence toward an understanding of HRQoL and identify domains of HRQoL in PLWH with CI. Methods Qualitative interviews with 25 PLWH with objective CI related to HIV disease were conducted with participants attending HIV clinics in the UK. Clinically significant CI was …

Understanding Families'/Surrogate Decision Makers' Experience Of Decision Making For Critically Ill Patients In Saudi Arabia, Omaimah A. Qadhi

Dissertations

Critical illness not only affects patients, but also may negatively impact the families and people who are responsible to make decisions for those patients. Making decision can be challenging for people when it is for someone else who is critically ill. This study explores the decision-making experience for family or a surrogate decision maker for critically ill patients in Saudi Arabia. This project also tested the presence or absence of regret after making serious decisions about a medical treatment for another individual. Goal Attainment Theory was used to guide this study. The concepts of the Interpersonal Interacting Systems were used …

Microbial Experience Increases Cytotoxicity Of Tumor-Infiltrating Cd8+ T Cells And Controls Tumor Growth, Nicholas Aaron Bunda

Masters Theses

Cancer immunotherapy research is traditionally conducted with specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice, which most accurately mimic the immune system of a human newborn. This makes translational research challenging, as this mouse model is not an accurate reflection of the adult patients who ultimately receive newly developed treatments. It is necessary to further develop a mouse model that bridges this gap and increases translatability of current cancer immunotherapy research.

By cohousing specific pathogen-free mice with regular pet store (PS) mice, we have generated a cohoused (CoH) mouse that reflects the microbial experience of an adult human immune system. We investigated antigen experience, …

Updates In The Pharmacologic Prophylaxis And Treatment Of Invasive Candidiasis In The Pediatric And Neonatal Intensive Care Units, James Hunter Fly, Seerat Kapoor, Kelly Bobo, Jeremy S. Stultz

Faculty Publications

Purpose of review The goal of this review was to provide an update on the prevention and treatment options for invasive candidiasis (IC) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Recent findings Studies have further validated the use of fluconazole for IC prophylaxis among high-risk patients in the NICU. It remains unclear if prophylaxis leads to resistance development and the ideal dosage regimen is still not clear. Recent studies have been published comparing caspofungin and micafungin to amphotericin B and illustrated similar efficacy outcomes in the NICU. Micafungin now has approval from the United …

Neuroimaging Spectrum Of Non-Compressive Non-Neoplastic Myelopathy, J Ghannam, A Dearden, R Joshi, A Wang, K Barry

Conference Presentation Abstracts

Purpose Non-compressive, non-neoplastic spinal cord lesions represent a broad range of disease processes and entities. Most commonly, spinal cord lesions demonstrate T2 signal abnormality on magnetic resonance imaging, a relatively nonspecific finding requiring a variety of differentiating factors to build an accurate differential diagnosis (1). Additionally, many disease entities have significant overlapping features on MRI, rendering it difficult to separate diagnoses and guide management (2). The combination of signal characteristics on MRI, timing of clinical presentation, degree of cord expansion, and contrast enhancement patterns can provide improved differentiation between disease entities. The purpose of this exhibit is to educate the …

Contributions Of Vibrational Spectroscopy To Virology: A Review, Iqra Chaudhary, Naomi Jackson, Denise Denning, Luke O'Neill, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Vibrational spectroscopic techniques, both infrared absorption and Raman scattering, are high precision, label free analytical techniques which have found applications in fields as diverse as analytical chemistry, pharmacology, forensics and archeometrics and, in recent times, have attracted increasing attention for biomedical applications. As analytical techniques, they have been applied to the characterisation of viruses as early as the 1970s, and, in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, have been explored in response to the World Health Organisation as novel methodologies to aid in the global efforts to implement and improve rapid screening of viral infection. This review …

College Of Public Heath News, Georgia Southern University

College of Public Health: News & Publications

• ‘Rising star’ graduate: Sylvia Ofori’s Journey from Ghana to Georgia Southern to Harvard

Effectiveness Of Mrna Vaccines Against Covid-19 Hospitalization By Age And Chronic Medical Conditions Burden Among Immunocompetent Us Adults, March-August 2021, Nathaniel M Lewis, Hilary M Babcock, Jennie H Kwon, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19 hospitalization was evaluated among immunocompetent adults (≥18 years) during March-August 2021 using a case-control design. Among 1669 hospitalized COVID-19 cases (11% fully vaccinated) and 1950 RT-PCR-negative controls (54% fully vaccinated), VE was 96% (95% confidence interval [CI], 93%-98%) among patients with no chronic medical conditions and 83% (95% CI, 76%-88%) among patients with ≥ 3 categories of conditions. VE was similar between those aged 18-64 years versus ≥65 years (P > .05). VE against severe COVID-19 was very high among adults without chronic conditions and lessened with increasing comorbidity burden.

Murphy Scale: A Locational Equivalent Intensity Scale For Hazard Events, Yi Victor Wang, Antonia Sebastian

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Empirical cross-hazard analysis and prediction of disaster vulnerability, resilience, and risk requires a common metric of hazard strengths across hazard types. In this paper, the authors propose an equivalent intensity scale for cross-hazard evaluation of hazard strengths of events for entire durations at locations. The proposed scale is called the Murphy Scale, after Professor Colleen Murphy. A systematic review and typology of hazard strength metrics is presented to facilitate the delineation of the defining dimensions of the proposed scale. An empirical methodology is introduced to derive equivalent intensities of hazard events on a Murphy Scale. Using historical data on …

Editorial Board

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

No abstract provided.

Engineering Of A Multi-Epitope Subunit Vaccine Against Sasrs-Cov-2 Through The Viroinformatic Approach, Aamir Shehzada, Christijogo Sumartono, Jusak Nugraha, Helen Susilowatid, Andi Yasmin Wijayab, Hafiz Ishfaq Ahmad, Wiwiek Tyasningsih, Fedik Abdul Rantam

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

The COVID-19 outbreak has infected millions of people worldwide, but no vaccine has been discovered to combat it efficiently. This research aims to design a multi-epitope vaccine using highly efficient B- and T-cell epitopes from the SARS-CoV-2 Surabaya isolate through a viroinformatic approach. First, the putative epitopes were linked together to develop tertiary structures and then docked with toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4) that demonstrated a robust interaction with a low eigenvalue of 4.816138 e-06. Furthermore, the structure's high immunogenic response was observed and successfully cloned into the expression vector pET28a (+). This implies that the designed vaccine can prove effective …

2022-05-15_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, …

Cellular Automata: The Mathematical Theory Behind The Spread Of Covid-19 And Prediction Of Future Spread, Alison Drumheller

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This thesis seeks to analyze the spread of the original COVID-19 strain and develop a mathematical model to predict the chances of being infected by this disease using a number of variables. This model is based on the mathematical theory of cellular automata, otherwise known as the theory of spread. The research uses real world data of COVID-19 which includes infection rate, death rate, vaccination rate, use of masks, and transmission rates. By using cellular automata, we predict that the more preventative measures an individual puts in place for themselves, the less likely they are to be infected by the …