Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of The Justice & Treatment Industry Upon My Father—A Researched Auto-Ethnography, Megan Bruce

Whittier Scholars Program

In this researched memoir, I will be writing about my childhood growing up with my father being incarcerated and a drug addict. I’m writing about my story to let everyone know it isn’t easy but you can get through it and there are a lot more children and families that go through this too. I’m also going to bring in my dad’s perspective a little bit while throwing in research on the recovery process and the stages, the brain, and the justice system. I chose to write about my experience and emotional struggles to show readers that addiction and the …

Implementation Of A Standardized Universal Protocol Process At A Large Academic Medical Center, Lisa Ann Heard

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Background: Decreasing the risk of wrong site, wrong procedure and wrong patient surgery is an essential healthcare safety initiative. The Joint Commission’s Universal Protocol along with the World Health Organization (WHO) Safe Surgery Checklist were designed to aid in this patient safety effort and have been implemented in hospitals worldwide.

Local Problem: Perioperative and procedural areas at the project hospital areas have adopted the Universal Protocol and Safe Surgery Checklist. Despite agreement in their importance, there is a lack of uniform application of all components. This leads to variation in practice which may impact team compliance with the protocol and …

Flood Fatalities In Eastern Kentucky And The Public Health Legacy Of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, W. Jay Christian, Beverly May, Jeffery E. Levy

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Heavy rains at night caused severe flooding in eastern Kentucky on 28 July 2022, resulting in 39 deaths. Using publicly available information, we assembled a database of these fatalities, including demographic characteristics and location of death. We perturbed fatality locations and plotted them on a topographical map highlighting mountaintop removal mining with valley fill sites, where mountaintops were excavated to mine thin seams of coal. This map reveals many flood fatalities occurred along rivers or streams near such sites. Previous research suggests that surface mining has contributed to the majority of land cover change in this region, and this has …

Call For Eggs: An Exploratory Study On Cross-Border Egg Donation From Taiwan To The Us, Karen Chang

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies M.A. Final Projects

This paper sheds light on how Taiwanese egg donors and recruitment agencies engage with the transnational fertility industry. Taiwan, as a popular sending country of Asian ethnic egg donors to the US, has fostered a vibrant digital community consisting of egg donation agencies, agents, and previous and intended donors. Recruitment agencies employ social media to recruit donors by constructing carefree, easy, and highly rewarded narratives of cross-border donation trips. Donors utilize anonymous group chats and public forums to exchange information and manage the physical and mental risks within the donation process. Through a narrative analysis, I identified common patterns of …

Networks In Motion: The Alliances Of Information Communication Technologies And Mobility Technologies During The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, Miles C. Coleman, Will Mari

Faculty Publications

In this article, we turn back to the 1918 influenza pandemic to throw light on the alliances of information communication technologies and technologies of mobility (such as the car) during the pandemic. We examine newspaper articles, technical publications, and other historical texts to demonstrate that, despite the fact that mobile technologies—such as cellular phones—did not exist during the 1918 pandemic, the telephone and mobility technology nonetheless formed alliances as networks in motion, or social moments in which risk and reward are calculated not simply by the ability to move, but rather the ability to move, while remaining connected, revealing insight …

The Emerging Oral Pathogen, Filifactor Alocis, Modulates Antimicrobial Responses In Primed Human Neutrophils., Ian J. Snider

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Periodontitis is an irreversible, chronic inflammatory, infectious disease of the oral cavity that affects approximately half of all adults 30 years or older in the USA. The oral cavity is under high immune surveillance because of its constant exposure to microbes in the environment. The primary immune cell responsible for this surveillance is the neutrophil. Pathogens associated with periodontitis possess virulence factors and have evolved strategies to evade neutrophil antimicrobial responses to survive. One such pathogen is Filifactor alocis, whose presence is associated with the progression of periodontitis. F. alocis manipulates several neutrophil antimicrobial functional responses to avoid killing, an …

A Systematic Review Of Research On Treatment & Prevention Of The Neglected Tropical Disease Leishmaniasis, Aryn Akerberg

All Theses

Leishmaniasis is a life-threatening neglected tropical disease that is caused by the protozoa parasite, Leishmania. Over one million new human leishmaniasis cases occur each all over the world, affecting most the deeply impoverished regions of the world. The disease presents in three different forms: cutaneous leishmaniasis, mucocutaneous (mucosal) leishmaniasis, and visceral leishmaniasis. Symptoms can range from self-limiting lesion to more life-threatening conditions such as fever, kidney disease, and anemia. The Leishmania parasite is transmitted via the bite of the female phlebotomine sandfly and can infect many other mammals such as canines, rodents, bats, etc. The canine leishmaniasis epidemic is also …

Disinfectant Efficacy Against Sars-Cov-2 Surrogates, Bovine Coronavirus And Human Coronavirus Oc43, On Hard And Soft Non-Porous Surfaces, Breanna Kimbrell

All Theses

The novel human coronavirus (HCoV), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged from Wuhan, China in the latter part of 2019. The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 amid the most recent COVID-19 pandemic forced countless foodservice establishments (FSEs) across the United States to close, taking a tremendous toll on the foodservice industry. Although primarily transmitted person-to-person, previous studies indicate that the duration of SARS-CoV-2 survival on different environmental surfaces provides adequate time for secondary transmission to occur. To prevent the further spread of SARS-CoV-2, effective disinfection of surfaces in FSEs is necessary. While disinfectants approved for use against SARS-CoV-2 are …

Developing A Continuous Cell Line Derived From The Gulf-Coast Tick (Amblyomma Maculatum) Embryos, Sabrina Walia

Honors Theses

Tick cell lines provide an affordable, reproducible, and efficient in vitro experimental system to study tick-pathogen interactions at the cellular level. Before the first tick cell lines were developed, there was no established method to perform in vitro studies with ticks. Tick research at the organismal level is full of difficulties and challenges. An increase in tick-borne infections and the availability of cutting-edge molecular tools have stimulated the research community's interest in using tick cell lines to answer important biological questions related to new and emerging tick-borne diseases. Unfortunately, not all medically relevant tick species have a cell line available. …

Effects Of Cyclic Heat Stress On The Acute Inflammatory Response In Broilers, Alessandro J. Rocchi

Poultry Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Heat stress (HS) is a growing concern in broiler production due to increasing environmental temperatures. Little is known of the overall effect of HS on innate immunity. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), an outer membrane component of Gram-negative bacteria, is commonly used to study the inflammatory response. In avian species, the local tissue and systemic inflammatory activities in response to LPS may be determined concurrently, over time, in an individual, using the growing feather (GF) pulp dermal test along with blood measurements (dual-window approach). To examine the effect of cyclic HS on the local and systemic acute inflammatory responses, Cobb 500 male broiler …

Healthcare Experiences By Race, Sex, And Weight Status In A Sample Of Low Wage Workers Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Michael Ampofo

Honors Scholar Theses

There is longstanding evidence of racial, sex-based, weight-based, and socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in the quality of healthcare. These disparities can result from provider bias and discrimination in the healthcare system and can contribute to disparities in health outcomes. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated differential treatment in healthcare due to the strain it placed on the healthcare system. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. healthcare experiences among low SES non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White patients. This secondary analysis utilized survey measures from 225 low-wage workers, ages …

Vol 3 May '23 Full Issue, Donna L. Williams

Journal of the Louisiana Public Health Association

No abstract provided.

A Randomized, Open-Label Study Of The Tolerability And Efficacy Of One Or Three Daily Doses Of Ivermectin Plus Diethylcarbamazine And Albendazole (Ida) Versus One Dose Of Ivermectin Plus Albendazole (Ia) For Treatment Of Onchocerciasis, Nicholas O. Opoku, Nicole Fetcho, Kerstin Fischer, Peter U. Fischer, Charles W. Goss, Augustine R. Hong, Daphne Lew, Gary J. Weil, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Onchocerciasis ("river blindness") has been targeted for elimination. New treatments that kill or permanently sterilize female worms could accelerate this process. Prior studies have shown that triple drug treatment with ivermectin plus diethylcarbamazine and albendazole (IDA) leads to prolonged clearance of microfilaremia in persons with lymphatic filariasis. We now report results from a randomized clinical trial that compared the tolerability and efficacy of IDA vs. a comparator treatment (ivermectin plus albendazole, IA) in persons with onchocerciasis.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: The study was performed in the Volta region of Ghana. Persons with microfiladermia and palpable subcutaneous nodules were pre-treated with …

Effect Of P2y12 Inhibitors On Organ Support-Free Survival In Critically Ill Patients Hospitalized For Covid-19: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Jeffrey S Berger, Grant V Bochicchio, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Platelet activation is a potential therapeutic target in patients with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of P2Y12 inhibition among critically ill patients hospitalized for COVID-19.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This international, open-label, adaptive platform, 1:1 randomized clinical trial included critically ill (requiring intensive care-level support) patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Patients were enrolled between February 26, 2021, through June 22, 2022. Enrollment was discontinued on June 22, 2022, by the trial leadership in coordination with the study sponsor given a marked slowing of the enrollment rate of critically ill patients.

INTERVENTION: Participants were randomly assigned to receive a P2Y12 …

Capsular Polysaccharide Inhibits Vaccine-Induced O-Antigen Antibody Binding And Function Across Both Classical And Hypervirulent K2:O1 Strains Of Klebsiella Pneumoniae, Paeton L. Wantuch, Cory J. Knoot, Lloyd S. Robinson, Evgeny Vinogradov, Nichollas E. Scott, Christian M. Harding, David A. Rosen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Klebsiella pneumoniae presents as two circulating pathotypes: classical K. pneumoniae (cKp) and hypervirulent K. pneumoniae (hvKp). Classical isolates are considered urgent threats due to their antibiotic resistance profiles, while hvKp isolates have historically been antibiotic susceptible. Recently, however, increased rates of antibiotic resistance have been observed in both hvKp and cKp, further underscoring the need for preventive and effective immunotherapies. Two distinct surface polysaccharides have gained traction as vaccine candidates against K. pneumoniae: capsular polysaccharide and the O-antigen of lipopolysaccharide. While both targets have practical advantages and disadvantages, it remains unclear which of these antigens included in a vaccine would …

Klebsiella Aerogenes Adhesion Behaviour During Biofilm Formation On Monazite, Arya Van Alin, Melissa K. Corbett, Homayoun Fathollahzadeh, M. Christian Tjiam, Andrew Putnis, Jacques Eksteen, Anna H. Kaksonen, Elizabeth Watkin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The adsorption behaviour of micro-organisms during the initial attachment stage of biofilm formation affects subsequent stages. The available area for attachment and the chemophysical properties of a surface affect microbial attachment performance. This study focused on the initial attachment behaviour of Klebsiella aerogenes on monazite by measuring the ratio of planktonic against sessile subpopulations (P:S ratio), and the potential role of extracellular DNA (eDNA). eDNA production, effects of physicochemical properties of the surface, particle size, total available area for attachment, and the initial inoculation size on the attachment behaviour were tested. K. aerogenes attached to monazite immediately after exposure to …

Harnessing Crispr-Cas12a And Nanotechnology For The Rapid And Accurate Detection Of Dna Viruses, Mengdi Bao

Theses

In recent years, the world has faced numerous pandemics caused by viral diseases, leading to considerable morbidity, mortality, and economic disruptions. Developing vaccines for pandemics can be a challenging task due to the rapid mutation of viruses and the significant investment of time required for their development. While real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunoassay techniques are frequently utilized for viral diagnostics, they possess inherent limitations. Therefore, there is a pressing need to rapidly and accurately identify viral infections to manage diseases effectively. This work explores the use of nanotechnology and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated (Cas) proteins to …

Housing Conditions And Needs In Urban District 5, Delan Almazrooei

Theses

Dubai remains one of the key tourist attraction areas in the world. However, the city has witnessed significant population growth over the past decade, which has resulted in problems associated with urbanization, such as pollution. The formulation of the DUBAI 2020 Urban Master Plan was meant to create a supple yet workable and viable formula to balance urban development and sustainability of the environment. The plan was based on population growth, utilization of infrastructure facilities, and advancement of effectual and environmentally sustainable energy sources. The master plan will affect critical areas, including Dubai Silicon Oasis Centre (DSO). With the key …

The Inherent Monetary Incentive Of Intellectual Property Rights And The Failure Of Intellectual Property Waivers To Recognize This Motive, Ellaheh D. Sims

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Building Resilience: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Head Start Teachers Coping During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Ehichoya Edokhamhen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the resiliency of Head Start teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study explored the role social support (as an external factor of resilience) and self-efficacy (as an internal factor of resilience) played in the resilience of Head Start teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design involving two phases: a quantitative and a qualitative phase. Participants in this study were 99 teachers in rural eastern Tennessee and some rural parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and New Mexico, who were Head Start teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. …

Johnson & Johnson Strategic Audit, Hannah Headley, Lucy Peterkin, Ryan Nyffeler, Joshua Wiemers, Bailey Birkholtz

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is a healthcare company that generates economic value from its three core business segments: Consumer Health, Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Devices. Recent innovations include new pharmaceutical products, remote clinical trials, automated patient recruitment, improved scientific and digital literacy amongst employees, and innovative digitized models for supply chain planning. J&J has a competitive edge in R&D efficiency, with a 4.35 return on research capital ratio. Sociocultural, technological, and economic factors will play a large role in changing the pharmaceutical industry environment, and J&J is well positioned to benefit from sources of growth such as the increase in aging …

Evaluation Of Anaplasma Marginale Elisa Positive Cattle For Co-Infection With Ehrlichia Spp., Grayson Robbins

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bovine Anaplasmosis is an infectious, hemolytic disease transmitted by the rickettsia parasite Anaplasma marginale in cattle. A. marginale parasitizes the red blood cells of an animal throughout their lifetime. The beef cattle industry is the fifth largest agricultural commodity in Arkansas, so potential economic losses due to bovine anaplasmosis is a critical issue. Previously tested beef cattle herds at the University of Arkansas’ Savoy and Batesville units have tested seropositive for A. marginale with low percent inhibitions; however, all seropositive animals tested negative for infection on DNA analysis. The objective of this study was to determine the current infection status …

Cyclodextrin Impedimetric Biosensors For The Detection Of Hydrophobic Metabolites, Zahra Panahi

Doctoral Dissertations

Sepsis is a complicated medical emergency and critically ill patients suffering from infectious diseases are at a high risk for developing and dying from sepsis. According to a recent (2019) cohort study from six United States hospitals, suboptimal care (e.g., delay in antibiotics, inappropriate antibiotic therapy) is responsible for 22.7 % of in-hospital sepsis-associated deaths. In September 2020, the World Health Organization called on the scientific community to develop rapid, effective, and affordable tools to improve diagnosis, surveillance, and treatment of sepsis. Our long-term goal throughout this project is to develop a cyclodextrin (CD) impedimetric tongue that can provide early …

The Environmental Implications Of War: Analysis Of The Spectacular And Slow Environmental Violence Inflicted Through Russia’S Deliberate Targeting And Weaponization Of Ukrainian Environments, Alexander Campanile Sheikh

Standard Theses

The presence of war and armed conflict can cause extreme effects in the long and short term, but war as a concept holds an inherently anthropocentric bias. Among human activities causing severe changes to the environment, war’s consequences are both intensive and far reaching, and while war is incited, perpetrated, and fought specifically by humans, these conflicts come at the expense of all, including a silent victim: the greater environment in which wars take place. Today, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is the most significant confrontation in Europe in decades. Public attention and outrage, however, tends to focus on …

A Rare Presentation Of Concomitant Lung Disease And Hepatitis After Rituximab Treatment: A Case Report, Linda Albusoul, Hussna Abunafessa, Vrushali Dabak

Hematology/Oncology Articles

Rituximab (RTX) is a chimeric monoclonal antibody that is a standard component of treatment for all B-cell malignancies. The most common adverse events related to RTX are infusion-related reactions, such as fever, chills, urticaria, flushing, and headaches. However, RTX-induced lung disease (RTX-ILD) is a rare but potentially fatal adverse reaction, and diagnosing RTX-ILD is challenging, especially when accompanied by other rare adverse reactions, such as hepatitis. Here, we report a case of RTX-ILD with concomitant RTX-induced hepatitis in a 55-year-old man with follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma who was on maintenance RTX therapy. The patient presented with a subacute, persistent dry …

Osteoimmunology And The Reconstruction Of Host Immunological Status In Treponemal Infection: Effect Of Activated Immune Cells By Oral Pathogens And Treponema Pallidum On Osteoclastogenesis., Michayla Gatsos

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Syphilitic infection caused by bacterium Treponema pallidum pallidum (Tp) offers an excellent model to study the long-lasting interplay between the immune and skeletal systems and could be used to reconstruct host immunological status. We propose that a hyper-inflammatory phenotype developed during acquired syphilis will have a systemic impact on most bone microenvironments involving inflammatory processes, such as the one developed in periodontal disease (PD). Using osteoimmunological in vitro protocols, we explore whether immune activation by Tp antigens and PD pathogens can impact osteoclastogenesis (OCG), ultimately helping to understand the bone alterations caused by systemic inflammatory processes in skeletal material. We …

Viral Particle Detection In Wastewater, Katelyn Clark

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Wastewater is an underutilized resource for recognizing the epidemiology of pathogen transmission and infections within a community that has the potential to mitigate disease outbreaks. Pathogens of public health concern, such as adenovirus, norovirus, and SARS-CoV-2, occur in wastewater from excretion of infected individuals. Despite the potential for wastewater pathogen data to predict future outbreaks, the relationship between viral shedding patterns in wastewater and case counts of infectious disease remains unclear. An evaluation of the peer-reviewed literature was conducted to compile characteristics of adenovirus, norovirus, and SARS-CoV-2 in the wastewater environment. These characteristics were considered in prioritizing the key pathogens …

Covid-19 & Mathematics Achievement: A Casual-Comparative Study, Jay M. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Learning loss due to COVID-19 and the digital divide will have dire consequences for low-income students. This study used the Faucet Theory (Alexander et al., 2001) as a theoretical framework to determine the extent that the COVID-19 learning environment impacted the Southern Public Schools District’s African American, low-income, and high-income high school students’ proficiency level based on the Algebra I section of the 2020-2021 Louisiana Education Assessment Program (LEAP) assessment. The researcher used archival data from the LEAP, a causal-comparative research design, and a one-way ANOVA to test the hypotheses and answer the research question. The results of the one-way …

Investigation The Plugging Behavior Of Virus Filters, Iman Abdulqader Saab

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A virus filtration step is integral to the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals to ensure viral safety. A virus filter is a single-use device that uses a size-based separation process and has a unique structure with minimal defects, so that contaminating virus particles cannot pass through the membrane pores, while therapeutic molecules can. The development of novel antibodies (Abs), including significant increases in product titers, is frequently challenged by virus filter fouling, making a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms essential. This thesis focused investigating of the effect of prefilter types, buffer type and salt content on virus filtration performance. The impact …

Combining Drip Score And Rapid Diagnostics For Improved Antibiotic Stewardship, Richard Ramirez, Matthew Sims

Posters

Treatment analysis patterns for broad-spectrum antibiotic use in pneumonia revealed that 60% of patients were overtreated, highlighting the need for effective antibiotic stewardship practices. Systems such as the Drug Resistance in Pneumonia (DRIP) score select patients more likely to require broad spectrum antibiotics but still leads to overtreatment as it does not target specific pathogens. Rapid diagnostics such as the Unyvero Lower Respiratory Tract Panel (LRTP) combined with the DRIP score can identify specific pathogens to further narrow antibiotic use.