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Nurturing A Culture Of Total Quality Management (Tqm): Continuous Improvement And Innovation In Heis: A Systematic Review Of Theories, Frameworks/Models, Policies And Strategies, Insights From The Globe, Seid Yimam Mohammed, Nilam C Panchal

Management Dynamics

In an era marked by rapid technological advancements and shifting workforce dynamics, and industry needs, the need for quality improvement is growing rapidly. This has made a culture of continuous improvement and innovation central to transforming higher education. A systematic review, guided by the PRISMA guidelines, was conducted to explore relevant theoretical concepts, frameworks/models, policies, strategies, and future research directions in nurturing culture in this context. Articles collected from Scopus, G/scholar, Dimensions, and POP bibliometric were used to extract as well as filter eligible articles. Of the 29 articles finally considered, most focus on innovation culture rather than CI culture. …

Recombination Suppression Drives Expansion Of The Drosophila Dot Chromosome, Timothy J Stanek, Wilson Leung, Christopher D Shaffer, Ishtar Olaveja, Annabelle Laughlin, Jaquelyn Hester, Darwin Garrido, Emily K Oh, Maria Volski, Nistha Panda, Mia Mo, Ethan Cordes, Martin Dalling, Kacie Kershaw, Malcolm Arnott, Stephen Daly, Silvia Garcia Valenzuela, Paige Thompson, Kayla L Hastert, Destiny Sabb, Kathryn Karpinski, Meher Naaz Arora, Nicholas Rius, Larissa Lobello, Sebastian Jaramillo, Omkar Sonavane, Alice Herrmann, Laura K Reed, Sarah C R Elgin, Cindy Arrigo, Christopher E Ellison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Genome size varies widely, even among closely related species, yet much less is known about chromosome size variation. Here we use the fourth chromosome of Drosophila, also known as the "Muller F element" or "dot chromosome", as a model to investigate chromosome-specific size expansion. The F element of most Drosophila species is small (∼1.3 Mb) and almost entirely heterochromatic, yet harbors approximately 80 protein-coding genes. Here, we study D. kikkawai, D. takahashii, D. ananassae, and D. bipectinata, whose F elements are 2- to 15-fold larger in size compared to D. melanogaster. Through manual gene curation and comparative genomic analysis, we …

Protrack3d: A Comprehensive Tool For Segmentation And Tracking Of Proteins With Split And Fusion, Ramu Gautam, Yang Jiao, Yasong Pang, Mo Weng, Mei Yang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

Background: Quantitatively tracking subcellular protein puncta over time is critical for understanding protein functions and related cellular processes, as many proteins assemble into discrete protein puncta when performing functions. Monitoring these protein puncta over an extended period enables the quantitation of their dynamic behaviors, such as repositioning, remodeling, and inter-object interactions such as fusion and split. These characteristics are essential for deciphering the underlying regulatory mechanisms of protein function. However, tracking protein puncta is challenging due to these clusters undergoing rapid and complex temporal changes.

Results: To address these challenges, a comprehensive tool ‘ProTrack3D’ is developed. It implements a multi-stage …

Impact Of Common Variants On Brain Gene Expression From Rna To Protein To Schizophrenia Risk, Qiuman Liang, Yi Jiang, Annie W Shieh, Dan Zhou, Rui Chen, Feiran Wang, Meng Xu, Mingming Niu, Xusheng Wang, Dalila Pinto, Yue Wang, Lijun Cheng, Ramu Vadukapuram, Chunling Zhang, Kay Grennan, Gina Giase, Kevin P White, Junmin Peng, Bingshan Li, Chunyu Liu, Chao Chen, Sidney H Wang

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Genetic variants influencing gene expression have been extensively studied at the transcriptional level. How these variants affect downstream processes remains unclear. We quantitated ribosome occupancy in prefrontal cortex samples from the BrainGVEX cohort and integrated these data with transcriptomic and proteomic profiles from the same individuals. Through cis-QTL mapping, we identified genetic variants associated with transcript level (eQTLs), ribosome occupancy (rQTLs), and protein level (pQTLs). Notably, only 34% of eQTLs have their effects propagated to the protein levels, suggesting widespread post-transcriptional attenuation. Using both a gene-based approach and a variant-based approach we identified omics-specific QTLs that associated with brain disorder …

Quality Improvement Project: The Impact Of Staff Education On Utilization Of The Phq-9 Tool And Follow-Up Management Protocol, Shuntak Jerideau

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Depression is a prevalent mental health disorder that affects daily functioning. Timely screening enables the identification of symptoms, monitoring treatment efficacy, and informs additional treatment such as referrals. The practice site reported low screening rates of patient’s post-psychiatric hospitalization, which was attributed to inadequate knowledge of the PHQ-9 tool. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the impact of staff education on the utilization of the PHQ-9 tool and follow-up management protocol in a mental health clinic. A quasi-experimental design method was used in an outpatient mental health clinic. Pretest knowledge of the PHQ-9 was obtained from …

Assessing The Impact Of Cultural Competence Training For Providers Serving Native Americans, Chinazo Obi

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The United States is a culturally diverse nation, yet many healthcare providers report challenges in delivering care that respects cultural values and traditions. Within mental health settings, this gap is especially concerning for Native American populations, who experience disproportionately high rates of mental health conditions and face barriers to culturally responsive care. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to assess the impact of a cultural competence education and training intervention on mental health providers’ knowledge and self-efficacy in delivering culturally competent care to Native American patients. Guided by Leininger’s Culture Care Theory of Diversity and Universality and the …

Retrieval Augmented Framework For Deepfake Audio Detection, Avinash Saxena

Master's Theses

The widespread use of AI-based audio deepfakes threatens severely to undermine media integrity and public trust. Speech synthesis techniques have improved dramatically in voice conversion (VC) and text-to-speech (TTS) in recent years, making forgeries sound highly realistic, and concerns are raised about possible malevolent uses. Existing state-of-the-art techniques for identifying fake speech have proven to be effective in some cases but are still limited in application and robustness when faced with novel attacking strategies, different acoustic conditions, or alternative linguistic domains. To address some of these limitations, the current research presents a novel deepfake audio detection system based on personalized …

The Intersection Of Near-Death Experiences (Ndes) And Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi): Neurobiological, Phenomenological, And Creative Implications, Diego Iacono, Gloria C Feltis

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and near-death experiences (NDEs) represent profound disruptions in brain function, often associated with dramatic changes in consciousness, self-perception, and behavior. While these events are typically studied for their pathological consequences, a growing body of evidence suggests they may also trigger unexpected cognitive and creative enhancements in a subset of individuals. We explore the intersection between TBI, NDEs, and the emergence of heightened artistic expression, integrating findings from neuroanatomy, neuropathology, genetics, and phenomenology. We examine how alterations in key brain networks - such as the default mode network, frontoparietal circuits, and limbic regions - may underpin shifts …

Low Magnetic Fields Stimulate Cardiac Mitochondrial Bioenergetics With A Bell-Shaped Response: Possibly Via A Radical Pair Mechanism, Gisela Beutner, Huoy-Jen Yuh, Ilan Goldenberg, Douglas C. Wallace, George A. Porter, Arthur J. Moss, Shey-Shing Sheu

Center for Translational Medicine Faculty Papers

Low magnetic fields (LMFs) of less than 1 × 10 3 Tesla (T) affect numerous biological processes, including plant growth and bird migration. At a cellular level, LMFs influence intracellular Ca2+ concentrations and generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS). However, the mechanisms that account for these effects are controversial. Here, by applying a static LMF, ranging from ~2.7 × 10 4 to ~1.9 × 10 3 T, to mitochondria isolated from adult rat hearts, a bell-shaped increase in State 3 respiration (S3R) was observed, up to 40 %. A similar LMF-induced increase in S3R was also observed in mitochondria …

Benchmarking Dna Foundation Models For Genomic And Genetic Tasks, Haonan Feng, Lang Wu, Bingxin Zhao, Chad Huff, Jianjun Zhang, Jia Wu, Lifeng Lin, Peng Wei, Chong Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The rapid evolution of DNA foundation models promises to revolutionize genomics, yet comprehensive evaluations are lacking. Here, we present a comprehensive, unbiased benchmark of five models (DNABERT-2, Nucleotide Transformer V2, HyenaDNA, Caduceus-Ph, and GROVER) across diverse genomic and genetic tasks including sequence classification, gene expression prediction, variant effect quantification, and topologically associating domain (TAD) region recognition, using zero-shot embeddings. Our analysis reveals that mean token embedding consistently and significantly improves sequence classification performance, outperforming other pooling strategies. Model performance varies among tasks and datasets; while general purpose DNA foundation models showed competitive performance in pathogenic variant identification, they were less …

Radiologist-Validated Automatic Lumbar T1-Weighted Spinal Mri Segmentation Tool Via An Attention U-Net Algorithm, Aryan Kalluvila, Ethan Wang, Michael C Hurley, Colbey Freeman, Jason M Johnson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background/Objectives: Spinal MRI segmentation has become increasingly important with the prevalence of disc herniation and vertebral injuries. Artificial intelligence can help orthopedic surgeons and radiologists automate the process of segmentation. Currently, there are few tools for T1-weighted spinal MRI segmentation, with most focusing on T2-weighted imaging. This paper focuses on creating an automatic lumbar spinal MRI segmentation tool for T1-weighted images using deep learning.

Methods: An Attention U-Net was employed as the main algorithm because the architecture has shown success in other segmentation applications. Segmentation loss functions were compared, focusing on the difference between BCE and MSE loss. Two board-certified …

Outcomes After Flow Diversion For Ruptured Blood Blister-Like And Dissecting Aneurysms: A Single-Center Series, William W Wroe, Hussein A Zeineddine, Si Y Yu, Bridger H Freeman, Richard S Cook, Charles M Christensen, Peng Roc Chen, Sunil A Sheth, Spiros L Blackburn

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background

Flow diverter (FD) use has become a popular method for treating intracranial aneurysms, but evidence in acutely ruptured blood blister-like and dissecting morphologies is limited. Furthermore, there is little evidence regarding the role of short-term follow-up imaging to assess aneurysm stability. This study is a single-center retrospective review of dissecting aneurysms treated by FD, with an analysis of short-term follow-up angiograms to guide post-treatment management.

Methods

Our single-center retrospective review included all patients from 2016 to 2024 with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage from blood blister-like and dissecting aneurysms who underwent treatment with an FD. Outcomes included re-rupture, treatment failure, re-treatment, …

Developmental Stage-Dependent Transcriptomic Responses To Neonatal Intraventricular Hemorrhage, Elizabeth Wallace-Anthony, Miriam Zamorano, Hemendra J Vekaria, Braden B Oldham, Kiara P Umpornpun, Scott D Olson, Stefano Berto, Brandon A Miller

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a major complication of preterm birth, yet how developmental stage influences the brain's response to injury remains unclear. We performed single-nucleus RNA sequencing on rat brains 24 h after IVH at postnatal day 2 (PND2) or day 5 (PND5) to define transcriptional responses across cell types. We identified 42 distinct cell populations and found that PND5 brains exhibited a markedly stronger immune and inflammatory response to IVH, with a threefold increase in differentially expressed genes compared to PND2. Microglia were the most perturbed cell type at both stages, showing increased oxidative stress and polarization toward …

The Impact Of Extramedullary And Paraskeletal Plasmacytomas On Treatment Outcomes In Multiple Myeloma Treated With Teclistamab: U.S. Myeloma Immunotherapy Consortium Real-World Experience, Aimaz Afrough, Danai Dima, Beatrice Razzo, Utkarsh Goel, Aishwarya Sannareddy, Oren Pasvolsky, Mariola Vazquez-Martinez, Christopher Ferreri, Rahul Banerjee, Jack Khouri, James Davis, Mahmoud Gaballa, Alex Lieberman-Cribbin, Masooma Rana, Kelley Julian, Faiz Anwer, Leyla Shune, Shaun Dejarnette, Ariel Grajales-Cruz, Evguenia Ouchveridze, Gabriel De Avila, Sandra Susanibar-Adaniya, Andrew Portuguese, Daniel Schrum, Erin Eberwein, Hitomi Hosoya, Lekha Mikkilineni, Gurbakhash Kaur, Joseph Mcguirk, Adriana Rossi, Megan Herr, Omar Castaneda, Frederick Locke, Shahzad Raza, Yi Lin, Shebli Atrash, Douglas Sborov, Peter Voorhees, Shambavi Richard, Alfred Garfall, Surbhi Sidana, Krina Patel, Doris Hansen, Andrew Cowan, Larry Anderson, Hans Lee

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

Teclistamab, a bispecific antibody targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), is effective in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM), but its impact on patients with soft tissue plasmacytomas is unclear. We studied 385 RRMM patients treated with teclistamab at 13 U.S. centers through September 2023, with follow-up to April 2024. Soft tissue plasmacytomas were classified as true extramedullary disease (EMD; not contiguous with bone) or paraskeletal plasmacytomas (PSK; contiguous with bone). Patients with the simultaneous presence of both were classified as true-EMD, reflecting its adverse prognosis. Of those, 109 (28%) had true EMD, 33 (9%) had PSK, and 243 (63%) had …

Fluorosilane-Induced Softening And Collapse Of Micropillar Arrays, Gabriela Moreira Lana, Maja Fehlberg, Petra Herbeck-Engel, Gisela Heppe, Raimund Schlüßler, Torsten Jähnke, Eduard Arzt, Roland Bennewitz

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Replica molding is a widely used technique for the fabrication of polymer microstructures. As structural dimensions decrease, anti-stick surface treatment of the mold becomes increasingly critical to ensure clean demolding and preserve structural integrity. We fabricated arrays of micropillars with 20 µm diameter and 60 µm height using medical-grade polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), MDX4-4210, and observed a high fraction of collapsed pillars for the first molding after fluorosilanization of the mold to reduce sticking. To address this issue, we systematically investigated the surface treatment protocol for the molds, made from the PDMS Sylgard 184. We provide results from complementary measurement methods, to …

Challenges And Policies For Female Sex Workers’ Readiness To Participate In Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Program: An Explorative Qualitative Study, Rico Januar Sitorus, Anita Rahmiwati, Diana Dewi Sartika, Elvi Sunarsih, Asri Maharani

Kesmas

The prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus is high among female sex workers (FSWs) in Indonesia, underscoring the need for integrated prevention strategies supported by strong government policies. This study aimed to investigate FSWs' willingness to participate in a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) program. This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with 20 participants residing in Pangkal Pinang City, Indonesia (4 stakeholders and 16 FSWs), recruited through purposive sampling. Data were collected from July to September 2024. This non-probability sampling method was adopted due to the focus on specific study objectives and a targeted population. The analysis of the interviews revealed three theme …

Burnout Assessment Tool Development And Validation For Healthcare Workers: A Psychometric Approach Using Rasch Modelling And Exploratory Factor Analysis, Rosnah Ismail, Suriya Kumareswaran Vallasamy

Kesmas

Burnout remains a significant occupational threat to healthcare workers (HCWs). Existing instruments, e.g., the Maslach Burnout Inventory, have limited applicability in healthcare-specific contexts. This study aimed to develop and validate the Burnout Scale for Assessing Stress in Healthcare Workers (BSAS-HCW), designed to measure cognitive and emotional exhaustion. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 245 Malaysian HCWs representing diverse roles, including staff nurses (57.7%), house officers (14.3%), medical officers (13.5%), specialists (5.7%), pharmacists (4.5%), and other HCWs. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure with strong internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: cognitive = 0.95; emotional = 0.97), and all items loaded above …

Post-Release Health Insurance Utilization Among Ex-Prisoners: A Scoping Review, Icha Khaerunnisa, Megah Andriany, Luky Dwiantoro

Kesmas

The lack of health insurance coverage after prison release significantly reduces access to essential healthcare services, hindering the continuity of care during community reintegration. The evidence on studies of health insurance use following prison release is limited. This scoping review aimed to summarize research on health insurance utilization after release from prison. Literature searches were conducted across databases including ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Scopus. Relevant articles were selected through a two-stage screening process. Data were extracted from the included studies and presented in tabular and descriptive formats. The keywords used were "health insurance AND post-release" and "inmates OR prisoners." This scoping …

Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis Of The Urban-Rural Gap In Child Nutrition In Bangladesh, Mahbub Hossain, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Ismat Ara Begum, Huichin Sun, Andrew M. Mckenzie

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Child undernutrition is a leading cause of death among young children worldwide. In Bangladesh, severe undernutrition is prevalent among nearly 25% of the under five children. Additionally, the prevalence of child undernutrition varies significantly between urban and rural areas in the country. This widespread prevalence of undernutrition and regional disparity raises concerns among Bangladeshi policymakers because childhood undernutrition can lead to irreversible consequences. Using the latest data from Bangladesh's Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), this study examines factors contributing to the urban-rural gap in child nutrition. The Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition results suggest that nearly 78% of the observed difference in weight-for-age …

The Tamads2-Tatbl21 Module Enhances Wheat Resistance To Stripe Rust By Activating Tagkl-Mediated Immunity, Shijia Zhao, Hao Chu, Yanan Lu, Jiaqi Chen, Xu Wang, Guangxiang Tian, Mingjing Zhang, Pengyu Song, Yanhui Zhang, Guihua Bai, Gangming Zhan, Zhensheng Kang, Wenming Zheng, Zhengqing Fu, Na Liu

Faculty Publications

Wheat stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, Pst) poses a catastrophic threat to global food security. While MADS-box transcription factors regulate development and abiotic stress, their roles in plant-pathogen immunity remain enigmatic. In this study, we identified TaMADS2, a Pst-induced MADS-box gene, as a positive regulator of wheat resistance. Functional analyses demonstrated that TaMADS2 overexpression significantly enhanced Pst resistance, whereas its knockdown rendered wheat more susceptible. Further investigation revealed that TaMADS2 interacts with trichome birefringence-like protein 21 (TaTBL21) to activate glycerol kinase-like (TaGKL) expression. Silencing TaGKL in wild-type or TaMADS2-overexpressing lines …

Correction: Perioperative Quality Initiative (Poqi) Consensus Statement On Perioperative Assessment Of Right Ventricular Function, Stephanie O Ibekwe, Jean Deschamps, Michael P W Grocott, Yafen Liang, Andrew Shaw, Tjorvi E Perry

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Microbial Associations And Viruses On The Risk Of Celiac Disease (Mavric): A Longitudinal Post-Hoc Case-Cohort Study, Kristian F Lynch, Eric W Triplett, Heikki Hyöty, Angelica P Ahrens, Jutta E Laiho, Joseph F Petrosino, Richard E Lloyd, Daniel Agardh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Celiac disease etiopathogenesis requires genetic predisposition and exposure to gluten, yet these factors alone are not sufficient. Larger longitudinal studies are needed to determine the role of time-varying infections and gut microorganisms. The aim was to design a celiac disease case-cohort longitudinal study using The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study. By age 3-years, persistent tissue transglutaminase autoantibodies (tTGA), i.e., celiac disease autoimmunity (CDA), was confirmed in 704 of the 6132 genetically at-risk TEDDY children. Celiac disease onset (CD-onset) was defined as the age CDA developed when followed by a biopsy-proven diagnosis. A competing risk analysis on …

The Place Of Imagination In Being Placed, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"If we don’t want to be flyover country, if we want to put some here here, the place to start is with prairie."

Posting about restoration and relationship in the places we live from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

The Place of Imagination in Being Placed

Mecp2 Interacts With The Super Elongation Complex To Regulate Transcription, Jun Young Sonn, Wonho Kim, Marta Iwanaszko, Yuki Aoi, Yan Li, Guantong Qi, Luke Parkitny, Janice L Brissette, Lorin Weiner, Juan Botas, Ismael Al-Ramahi, Ali Shilatifard, Huda Y Zoghbi

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Loss-of-function mutations in methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) cause Rett syndrome. While we know that MeCP2 binds to methylated cytosines on DNA, the full breadth of the molecular mechanisms by which MeCP2 regulates gene expression remains incompletely understood. Here, using a genetic modifier screen, we identify the super elongation complex, a P-TEFb–containing elongation factor that releases promoter-proximally paused RNA polymerase II, as a genetic interactor of MECP2. MeCP2 physically interacts with SEC subunits and directly binds AFF4, the scaffold of the SEC, via the transcriptional repression domain. Furthermore, MeCP2 facilitates the binding of AFF4 on a subset …

Met Overexpression Is Associated With Superior Immunotherapy Benefit In Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Hui Li, Lingzhi Hong, Pedro Rocha, Rafael Bach, Luisa M Solis Soto, Waree Rinsurongkawong, Bingnan Zhang, Haniel A Araujo, Yasir Y Elamin, Mehmet Altan, Claudio A Arrechedera, Jianling Zhou, Khaja B Khan, Wei Lu, Elliana Young, Carl M Gay, Tina Cascone, Lauren A Byers, Ferdinandos Skoulidis, George Blumenschein, Frank V Fossella, Anne Tsao, Marcelo V Negrao, Natalie Vokes, Jia Wu, Hai T Tran, Ignacio I Wistuba, J Jack Lee, Don L Gibbons, Ara A Vaporciyan, John V Heymach, Xiuning Le, Jianjun Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background/objectives: MET overexpression is common in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The correlation between MET overexpression and immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) efficacy in NSCLC is underexplored.

Methods: In this retrospective observational cohort study, we curated a dataset of 279 stage IV NSCLC patients who received ICI treatment and had MET expression assessed by CLIA-certified immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay. MET expression was graded on a scale from 0 to 3+, with overexpression defined as 2+ or 3+. Clinicopathological features associated with MET expression were assessed using logistic regression. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated via Kaplan-Meier analysis and the …

The Gastrointestinal Endothelin System: Receptors, Cellular Actions, And Involvement In Gastrointestinal Disorders, Arjun Singh, Rajvir Singh

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

The gastrointestinal endothelin system regulates vital processes including motility, secretion, sensation, and inflammation. Endothelin-1 acts via endothelin A and B receptors expressed on diverse intestinal cells. Dysregulation of endothelin signaling underlies common gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Aberrant endothelin-1 production and endothelin A receptor activation contribute to the inflammation, pain hypersensitivity, impaired epithelial function, and smooth muscle hypercontractility characteristic of these diseases. Endothelin receptor antagonists may provide therapies for managing related symptoms. However, knowledge gaps exist regarding cell-specific signaling pathways, regulatory factors, and precise roles in intestinal pathologies. Elucidating these details and translating insights …

“I Missed My Other Oncologist”: Established Relationships As Barriers And Facilitators To Accessing Car-T And Autologous Transplantation, Zachary A. K. Frosch, Clark Meshack, Caitlin Meeker, Asya Varshavsky-Yanovsky, Rashmi Khanal, Michael Bromberg, Ashwin Chandar, Emmanuel Quien, Jordan Carter, Shazia K. Nakhoda, Marcus Messmer, Charissa Montgomery, Jason A. Incorvati, Nadia D. Ali, Michael J. Styler, Carolyn Y. Fang

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) can provide significant clinical benefit, but are not equally available to all patients. Oncologist continuity and trust are important to patients, and may act as barriers to receipt of therapy. However, detailed data are lacking on the mechanism by which these might affect receipt of therapy, or how this barrier may be overcome.

METHODS: We conducted a qualitative interview study with patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) or multiple myeloma (MM) eligible for or treated with ASCT/CAR-T. Participants were recruited from a multi-site academic …

The Mediating Role Of Self-Efficacy And Symptom Distress In Cancer Patients, Kailei Yan, Hsiao-Lan Wang, Brent Small, Victoria Marshall, Amanda Elliott, Danielle Tometich, Theresa M. Beckie, Susan C. Mcmillan

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Cancer symptoms significantly impact the quality of life (QOL) among cancer patients (Almståhl et al., 2019; Bashir et al., 2020; Nayak et al., 2019). Self-efficacy plays a key role in managing symptoms and improving QOL (Cox-Martin et al., 2020; Erickson et al., 2021; Frensham et al., 2020; Thieser et al., 2021; Wu et al., 2019). Symptom distress, defined as the suffering from symptom occurrence, predicts QOL in cancer patients with symptoms (Badana et al., 2019). However, it is not clear whether self-efficacy and/or symptom distress mediate the effects of symptoms on QOL. This study seeks to explore if and how …

Digital Neuropsychology And Social Anxiety: The Effect Of Observer Presence And Personality On Stress And Cognition, Ava M. Dixon

Master's Theses

This study examined how observer presence and social anxiety influence stress and cognitive performance during neuropsychological assessments, focusing on the potential benefits of unsupervised digital testing environments. Eighty university students were randomly assigned to observed or unobserved digital neuropsychological conditions and completed assessments of social cognition and executive functioning and questionnaires of social anxiety and personality. Participants also completed measures of state anxiety and heart rate variability at baseline and after cognitive tests. The findings indicated that observation led to higher subjective anxiety, but it did not produce significant interactions with social anxiety on stress or cognitive performance. Post-hoc analyses …

Perceived Parental Relationship Quality And Adolescent Conscious Bias: Important Links Between Affect, Agency, Gender, And Race/Ethnicity, Amanda Terrall, Michael J. Merten, Thulitha Wickrama

General Human Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction Guided by attachment, social cognitive, and ecological systems theories, this study examined the direct and indirect effects of perceived parent-adolescent relationship quality on youths' conscious bias toward individuals facing socioeconomic or minority-related challenges.Methods Data were collected from 702 U.S. 18-year-olds via Qualtrics online panels. Measures included parent relationship quality, negative affect, human agency, and conscious bias (disregard for minority experiences and blaming attitudes).Results The findings revealed that strong parent-teen bonds indirectly influenced conscious bias through psychosocial wellbeing. However, while negative emotions were universally influential, the impact of human agency varied depending on gender and race/ethnicity.Discussion Study findings underscore the …