Digital Commons Network^™

Durable Responses At 24 Months With High-Frequency Spinal Cord Stimulation For Nonsurgical Refractory Back Pain, Naresh P. Patel, Jessica Jameson, Curtis Johnson, Daniel Kloster, Aaron Calodney, Peter Kosek, Julie Pilitsis, Markus Bendel, Erika Petersen, Chengyuan Wu, Taissa Cherry, Shivanand Lad, Cong Yu, Dawood Sayed, Johnathan Goree, Mark K. Lyons, Andrew Sack, Diana Bruce, Manish Bharara, Rose Province-Azalde, David Caraway, Leonardo Kapural

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the 24-month durability of pain relief, function, quality of life, and safety outcomes for patients with nonsurgical refractory back pain (NSRBP) treated with high-frequency spinal cord stimulation (SCS) within a large, national, multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT).

METHODS: Following the completion of an RCT comparing high-frequency SCS plus CMM with CMM alone for the treatment of NSRBP, patients gave additional consent for a follow-up extension to 24 months. Presented is the cohort analysis of all patients treated with high-frequency SCS following the optional crossover at 6 months. The outcomes assessed to …

Grace-Based Faith Discipleship Approach Of Adults In South Rock Christian Church: Addressing The Contemporary Legalistic Lifestyle Of Disciples, Nicholas John Pannone

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Discipleship often evokes different responses. However, contemporary Christians have a faithfulness dilemma driven by the constant messages they hear. This DMIN project seeks to develop and promote a ministry structure that educates, equips, and enriches the Christian life based on God’s grace. The project seeks to provide a framework for participants to be transformed holistically by God’s grace. Often, the members of South Rock Christian Church understand grace as the entry point into salvation, but not the identifying trait of their faithful life in Christ. This action project consists of qualitative research that demonstrates a gap between belief and action …

The Transformative Preaching And Teaching Of The Old Testament Through Its Expositional Approach, Sony Olivier

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The aura of the Old Testament preaching and teaching today has been absorbed by the enthusiasm of its fulfillment in the New. Thus, the interest in exploiting the Old Testament principles as fulfilled in Christ through its expositional preaching and teaching needs to be revised. As revealed in the book of Acts, the commitment to preach the complete Word of God, the Old Testament, is vividly clear as Christ being the center of their preaching and teaching. Therefore, in today’s context, proclaiming the whole counsel of God’s Word calls for every preacher to consider Scripture in its entirety duly, from …

The Lived Experiences Of Elementary School Teachers Who Embedded Behavioral Support In Academic Instruction: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Christina Marie Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of educators who embed behavioral learning support into their academic curriculum and describe the meaning of the perceived influence on academic achievement and social development for elementary students in two elementary schools. What are the lived experiences of educators who embed behavioral support as a form of social-emotional learning (SEL) into their academic curriculum? Social constructivism was the interpretive framework used to guide this study, supported by Gagne’s and Vygotsky’s learning theories. Ten elementary school teacher participants in a metropolitan Atlanta area school district were selected using …

African American Males, Who Attended Urban High Schools, Concerning Their Academic Achievement In North Carolina: A Phenomenological Study, Jermaine Lee Porter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the proposed hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of African American males, who formerly attended urban high schools, concerning their academic achievement in North Carolina. The theory guiding this study is the social equity theory (SET) as it describes the lens to view the racial-ethnic academic achievement gaps and explains what occurs when multiple factors create group differences in school readiness and achievement. The research methodology used in this study was the qualitative phenomenological method. A questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group were used to gather data on the participants' perspectives …

The Lived Experiences Of Army Senior Enlisted Leaders 90 Days After Retirement: A Phenomenological Study, Stephanie Francois

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The transition from army to civilian life is complicated for many veterans. Veterans must excel in multiple categories, including work, education, finances, health, and social relationships, for their transitions to be successful. Although many programs and services are designed to assist army veterans in transitioning to civilian life, many still experience transition challenges. This phenomenological study aimed to understand the lived experiences of army senior enlisted leaders through retirement from active-duty service to reintegration into civilian life. The guiding theory of this study was Nancy Schlossberg’s transition theory. Transition theory is a theory of adult development established primarily with counseling …

Implicit Trait Policies And Situational Judgment Tests: How Personality Shapes Judgments Of Effective Behavior, Alexander Edward Johnson

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

The Situational Judgment Test (SJT) is a popular selection tool used by employers to

make hiring decisions due to their strong predictive validity. SJTs present job candidates with

hypothetical scenarios, asking them to choose the responses that best fit those situations. SJTs

have been used to measure a range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, but what they measure and

why they predict performance remains unclear. Lievens and Motowidlo (2016) called for a

reframing of the SJT as a measure of general domain knowledge. According to their theory, SJTs

measure procedural knowledge, which is composed of general domain knowledge—

operationalized as …

Calling In Antiracist Accomplices Beyond The Writing Center, Hillary Coenen

The Writing Center Journal

A reflective, ethnographic study of a grassroots, antiracist educational workshop (The Conversation Workshops, TCW) reveals that writing center (WC) pedagogy and feminist invitational rhetoric’s (FIR) influence on TCW enables participants to recognize their own and their partners’ expertise, meaningful experiences, valuable perspectives, and their need to be listened to, accounted for, and understood. In an invitational model, particularly one based on a one-with- one, interpersonal dynamic, participants are more like collaborators than audiences, an approach that can be applied in diverse educational settings, and which reflects the WC’s model of one-with- one pedagogy. This dynamic also reveals one of TCW’s …

Surveillance Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Can Risk-Stratify Childhood Cancer Survivors: Underlying Pathophysiology Of Poor Exercise Performance And Possible Room For Improvement, Takeshi Tsuda, Kimberly Davidow, Gina D'Aloisio, Joanne Quillen

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic childhood cancer survivors (CCS) frequently show decreased exercise performance. Poor exercise performance may indicate impaired future cardiovascular health.

METHODS: Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) was performed in asymptomatic off-treatment CCS (age ≥ 10 years). Patients were divided into Normal and Poor performance groups by %predicted maximum VO2 at 80%. Both peak and submaximal CPET values were analyzed.

RESULTS: Thirty-eight males (19 Normal, 19 Poor) and 40 females (18 Normal, 22 Poor) were studied. Total anthracycline dosage was comparable among 4 groups. The body mass index (BMI), although normal, and weight were significantly higher in Poor groups. Peak heart rate …

Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Exploring School Principals’ Stress And Workplace Well-Being, Dl Alex Alexander

Education Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to highlight the importance of studying and promoting well-being to help manage stress and prevent burnout among school principals, examine potential gender disparities, and to consider implications for future practice. Grounded in a positive psychology framework, this study examined the correlations among school principals’ workplace well-being, perceived stress, self-compassion, and intent to remain in their roles using a non-experimental, descriptive survey method. In Washington State, 124 school principals responded to an online survey over a span of 11 weeks. Descriptive, correlation, moderation, independent t-test analyses were performed on quantitative data, and qualitative data was …

Decreasing The Risk For Type Ii Diabetes After Gestational Diabetes: An Integrative Review, Tara Call, Melissa Field

Master of Science in Nursing Final Projects

Abstract

Aim: This integrative review aimed to review studies on the risk of developing type II diabetes (T2DM) after a diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and available programs to mitigate this risk. The research question that guided this review was: For women diagnosed with gestational diabetes, what programs are available to decrease risk factors for developing T2DM later in life?

Background: Women who experience GDM have an increased risk of developing T2DM at a rate of eight times higher than those with no history of GDM (Song et al., 2017). The risk for T2DM after a diagnosis of GDM …

Lvad Therapy Versus Medical Management In Heart Failure: An Integrative Review, Megan Cherry, Sandi Coker

Master of Science in Nursing Final Projects

Background: Advancements in technology have increased management options for heart failure (HF) patients. Options include guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT), left ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy, and/or heart transplant. Due to resource allocations, the most accessible options for many HF patients include GDMT and LVAD therapy. Authors of this integrative review (IR) sought to examine quality of life (QOL) and hospitalization rate outcomes among patients receiving GDMT versus LVAD therapy.

Methods: 417 articles were screened across multiple databases (CINAHL, Medline, ProQuest, Ovid, PubMed) for inclusion into the integrative review based on inclusion criteria: published within five years, peer-reviewed, written in English, …

Barriers To Early Detection In Women Experiencing A Postpartum Hemorrhage: An Integrative Review, Katie Ragsdale

Master of Science in Nursing Final Projects

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this integrative review is to explore barriers to early detection in women experiencing postpartum hemorrhage.

Background: Women in the United States are more likely to die from childbirth complications than any other women living in other developed countries. Despite advances in maternity care, postpartum hemorrhage is the cause of nearly 70,000 maternal deaths every year, comparable to one woman dying of postpartum hemorrhage blood loss every eight minutes. Most maternal deaths are avoidable, as the solutions to prevent and manage these deadly complications are well known. Risk factors, assessment tools, causes, interventions, and outcomes are …

Perceptions Of Nigerian Medical Students Regarding Their Preparedness For Precision Medicine: A Cross-Sectional Survey In Lagos, Nigeria, Chibuzor Ogamba, Alero Roberts, Sharon Ajudua, Mosopefoluwa Akinwale, Fuhad Jeje, Festus Ibe, Moses Afolayan, Yetunde Kuyinu

Einstein Health Papers

BACKGROUND: Advances in precision medicine in Nigeria suggest improving genomics education and competency among healthcare practitioners to facilitate clinical translation. Due to the scarcity of research in this area, this study aimed to assess Nigerian medical students' perceptions about their preparedness to integrate precision medicine into their future clinical practice.

METHODS: This was an institution-based cross-sectional study of medicine and surgery students in their clinical years attending the two fully accredited colleges of medicine in Lagos, Nigeria, between April and October 2022 using an adapted tool administered via Google Forms. The survey assessed their awareness, perceptions about knowledge, ability, and …

Blood-Based Proteomic Signatures Associated With Men1-Related Duodenopancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor Progression, Johannes F Fahrmann, Amanda R Wasylishen, Carolina R C Pieterman, Ehsan Irajizad, Jody Vykoukal, Ranran Wu, Jennifer B Dennison, Christine B Peterson, Hua Zhao, Kim-Anh Do, Daniel M Halperin, Sunita K Agarwal, Jenny E Blau, Smita Jha, Jaydira Del Rivero, Naris Nilubol, Mary F Walter, James M Welch, Lee S Weinstein, Menno R Vriens, Rachel S Van Leeuwaarde, Mark J C Van Treijen, Gerlof D Valk, Nancy D Perrier, Samir M Hanash, Hiroyuki Katayama

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) are predisposed to develop duodenopancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (dpNETs), and metastatic dpNET is the primary cause of disease-related mortality. Presently, there is a paucity of prognostic factors that can reliably identify patients with MEN1-related dpNETS who are at high risk of distant metastasis. In the current study, we aimed to establish novel circulating molecular protein signatures associated with disease progression.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Mass spectrometry-based proteomic profiling was conducted on plasmas procured through an international collaboration between MD Anderson Cancer Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the University Medical Center Utrecht from …

Embryological Basis Of Polydactyly In 56 Years Old Male Patient, Sarayu M

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Polydactyly is a common congenital hand deformity. The limb buds are the precursor structures of the limbs. Their formation begins in the 4th week, with the activation of mesenchymal cells in the somatic layer of lateral plate mesoderm. As mesenchyme cells enter the limb region, they secrete factors that induce the overlying ectoderm to form a structure called the apical ectodermal ridge (AER). Polydactyly is the congenital deformities which is seen in 1000 births. To observe and study the various type of polydactyly in relation to the preaxial polydactyly and postaxial polydactyly with other classification. So, thumb polydactyly is a …

National Legal Models To Regulate Scrubbers Washwater, Shams Al Din Al Hajjaji

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

According to the findings of this study, nations should adopt uniform regulations regarding the discharge of washwater from exhaust gas cleaning systems into their ports, territories, and Exclusive Economic Zones. Scrubbers are used by ships to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases so they can adhere to the International Maritime Organization’s limit on the sulfur content of ship fuel. The global upper limit was 0.5% in January 2020. Scrubber washwater is discharged into the ocean by ships. Toxic substances are present in the washwater for the scrubbers. The level of washwater for the scrubbers is governed by the 2008 and …

Draft Final 2023 Residential Metals Abatement Program (Rmap) Whitehall Borrow Submittal, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Dynamics Of Cwd Prion Detection In Feces And Blood From Naturally Infected White-Tailed Deer, Francisca Bravo-Risi, Paulina Soto, Rebeca Benavente, Tracy A Nichols, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting cervids. Confirmatory testing of CWD is currently performed postmortem in obex and lymphoid tissues. Extensive evidence demonstrates the presence of infectious prions in feces of CWD-infected deer using in vitro prion-amplification techniques and bioassays. In experimental conditions, this has been achieved as soon as 6-month post-inoculation, suggesting this sample type is a candidate for antemortem diagnosis. In the present study, we optimized the detection of CWD-prions in fecal samples from naturally infected, pre-clinical white-tailed deer by comparing protocols aiming to concentrate CWD-prions with direct spiking of the sample into the PMCA …

Pmca Screening Of Retropharyngeal Lymph Nodes In White-Tailed Deer And Comparisons With Elisa And Ihc, Rebeca Benavente, J Hunter Reed, Mitch Lockwood, Rodrigo Morales

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting cervids. CWD diagnosis is conducted through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in retropharyngeal lymph nodes. Unfortunately, these techniques have limited sensitivity against the biomarker (CWD-prions). Two in vitro prion amplification techniques, real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) and protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA), have shown promise in detecting CWD-prions in tissues and bodily fluids. Recent studies have demonstrated that RT-QuIC yields similar results compared to ELISA and IHC. Here, we analyzed 1003 retropharyngeal lymph nodes (RPLNs) from Texas white-tailed deer. PMCA detected CWD at a higher rate compared to ELISA/IHC, identified …

Revisiting The Use Of Normal Saline For Peritoneal Washing In Ovarian Cancer, Hironari Akasaka, Honami Naora

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The omentum is the predominant site of ovarian cancer metastasis, but it is difficult to remove the omentum in its entirety. There is a critical need for effective approaches that minimize the risk of colonization of preserved omental tissues by occult cancer cells. Normal saline (0.9% sodium chloride) is commonly used to wash the peritoneal cavity during ovarian cancer surgery. The omentum has a prodigious ability to absorb fluid in the peritoneal cavity, but the impact of normal saline on the omentum is poorly understood. In this review article, we discuss why normal saline is not a biocompatible solution, drawing …

Reduced Grey Matter Volume In Adolescents With Conduct Disorder: A Region-Of-Interest Analysis Using Multivariate Generalized Linear Modeling, Ru Zhang, R James R Blair, Karina S Blair, Matthew Dobbertin, Jaimie Elowsky, Johannah Bashford-Largo, Ahria J Dominguez, Melissa Hatch, Sahil Bajaj

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Conduct disorder (CD) involves a group of behavioral and emotional problems that usually begins during childhood or adolescence. Structural brain alterations have been observed in CD, including the amygdala, insula, ventrolateral and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and fusiform gyrus. The current study developed a multivariate generalized linear model (GLM) to differentiate adolescents with CD from typically developing (TD) adolescents in terms of grey matter volume (GMV).

Methods: The whole-brain structural MRI data were collected from 96 adolescents with CD (mean age = [Formula: see text] years; mean IQ = [Formula: see text]; 63 males) and 90 TD …

The Aftermath Of The First Children Of Brown: Stories Of Housing And Education Racial Disparities In St. Louis, Missouri 1950-1970, Benard Diggs

Dissertations

This study explores residential segregation in two prominently African-American neighborhoods in St. Louis. It is based on past and current scholarship and examines the impact of historical and current housing and educational policies, consequently creating persistent racial disparities. According to Rothstein (2017), past governmental influence played a significant role in creating what he calls government-sponsored urban ghettos in cities across the United States today. St. Louis has been a residentially segregated city for many years. This study looks at St. Louis-specific research about housing, patterns, educational outcomes, and neighborhood experiences of the interview participants. The responses given by the participants …

Dlx2 Promotes Osteosarcoma Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition And Doxorubicin Resistance By Enhancing Hoxc8-Cdh2 Axis, Boya Zhang, Xinhui Du, Yichao Fan, Guoxin Qu, Lon Kai Pang, Ruiying Zhao, Weitao Yao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Metastasis and doxorubicin resistance are challenges in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of osteosarcoma, the mechanisms underlying these phenomena remain unclear. In this study, we found that DLX2 is highly expressed in metastatic osteosarcoma and is closely related to clinical prognosis. Knockdown of DLX2 inhibited tumor proliferation and migration in vitro and inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we found that DLX2 enhanced the repression of CDH2 transcription by binding to HOXC8, thereby promoting the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in osteosarcoma cells. Through subsequent exploration, we found that targeting DLX2/HOXC8 signaling significantly restores the sensitivity of osteosarcoma cells to doxorubicin. In …

Initial Development Of Tools To Identify Child Abuse And Neglect In Pediatric Primary Care, Rochelle F Hanson, Vivienne Zhu, Funlola Are, Hannah Espeleta, Elizabeth Wallis, Paul Heider, Marin Kautz, Leslie Lenert

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is prevalent, associated with long-term adversities, and often undetected. Primary care settings offer a unique opportunity to identify CAN and facilitate referrals, when warranted. Electronic health records (EHR) contain extensive information to support healthcare decisions, yet time constraints preclude most providers from thorough EHR reviews that could indicate CAN. Strategies that summarize EHR data to identify CAN and convey this to providers has potential to mitigate CAN-related sequelae. This study used expert review/consensus and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to develop and test a lexicon to characterize children who have experienced or are at risk …

Gonadotropin-Secreting And Thyrotropin-Secreting Pituitary Adenomas: A Single-Center Experience, Manjiri Karlekar, Chakra Diwaker, Vijaya Sarathi, Anurag Lila, Anima Sharma, Saba Samad Memon, Virendra Patil, Tushar Bandgar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Data regarding rare FPAs from India, a resource limited setting, are limited. We describe a case series of rare FPAs from a single center in western India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective case record review of patients diagnosed between January 2010 and July 2022. The diagnosis was based on biochemical(inappropriately elevated serum FSH/LH) and pathologic (positive immunostaining for FSH/LH) features in patients with FGA, and elevated serum thyroid hormones and normal/elevated TSH in patients with TSHomas.

RESULTS: We identified 11 patients with a total of six FGAs (median age 43.5 years, five men, one FGA cosecreting TSH, …

A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study To Characterize Patients Hospitalized With Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Adults And Coronavirus Disease 2019 In The United States, 2020-2021, Michael Melgar, Joseph Y Abrams, Shana Godfred-Cato, Ami B Shah, Amit Garg, Andrew Strunk, Mangala Narasimhan, Jonathan Koptyev, Alexandra Norden, David Musheyev, Fahmida Rashid, Rachel Tannenbaum, Rosa M Estrada-Y-Martin, Bela Patel, Siddharth Karanth, Chad J Achenbach, Gavin T Hall, Sara M Hockney, Matthew Caputo, Lilian M Abbo, Laura Beauchamps, Stephen Morris, Renzo O Cifuentes, Annabelle De St Maurice, Douglas S Bell, Kavitha K Prabaker, Fernando J Sanz Vidorreta, Evan Bryant, David K Cohen, Rohith Mohan, Christopher P Libby, Spencer Soohoo, Tristel J Domingo, Angela P Campbell, Ermias D Belay

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) requires distinguishing it from acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and may affect clinical management.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we applied the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case definition to identify adults hospitalized with MIS-A at 6 academic medical centers from 1 March 2020 to 31 December 2021. Patients MIS-A were matched by age group, sex, site, and admission date at a 1:2 ratio to patients hospitalized with acute symptomatic COVID-19. Conditional logistic regression was used to compare demographic characteristics, …

Global Trade, Wto, Labor Arbitrage, American Workers And National Security—The Need For A U.S. Industrial Policy, Charles W. Murdock

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some of the problems in the current pattern of global trade, particularly with respect to supply chain disruptions. To understand the current status of global trade, it is helpful to understand the confluence of four seemingly disparate developments: (1) Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage in the early 1800s; (2) the rebuilding in the late 40s and 50s of our former adversaries—Japan and Germany—into export based economies; (3) the modification of capitalism in the 1980s to focus upon maximizing shareholder value; and (4) the rise of China as an economic and military powerhouse, facilitated initially by …

Family Caregivers: From Invisible To Visible Within The Healthcare Continuum, Tara Anglim

Theses & Dissertations

As the United States' aging population rapidly grows, the prevalence of adults with chronic illness or disabilities who require intermittent or long-term caregiving from family members also increases. Despite the prevalence of caregiving, the role of the family caregiver is a label that lacks a clear description, definition, or societal understanding. The inability to identify family caregivers creates negative ramifications, including diminished recognition and support throughout the healthcare continuum. Drawing from caregiver identity theory, this qualitative phenomenological study aimed to describe the experiences of family caregivers to promote a deeper understanding of how they became aware of their caregiver identity …

Measuring The Contributions Of Perceptual And Attentional Processes In The Complete Composite Face Paradigm, William B. Erickson, Dawn R. Weatherford

Psychology Faculty Publications (Archived)

Theories of holistic face processing vary widely with respect to conceptualizations, paradigms, and stimuli. These divergences have left several theoretical questions unresolved. Namely, the role of attention in face perception is understudied. To rectify this gap in the literature, we combined the complete composite face task (allowing for predictions of multiple theoretical conceptualizations and connecting with a large body of research) with a secondary auditory discrimination task at encoding (to avoid a visual perceptual bottleneck). Participants studied upright, intact faces within a continuous recognition paradigm, which intermixes study and test trials at multiple retention intervals. Within subjects, participants studied faces …