Digital Commons Network^™

Sexual Health For Older Women : Implications For Nurses And Other Healthcare Providers, Joshua K. Muliira, Rhoda S. Muliira

Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal

This article presents findings from a review of the evidence regarding sexual health for older women from MEDLINE, SCOPUS and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health (CINHAL) databases. A total of 10 articles based on primary studies, reporting about the sexuality or sexual health of older women (and older people), and published between 2002–2012, were deemed suitable. The major themes that emerged from the available literature suggest that the sexual health of older people is affected by factors such as physical changes, mental health, changes to their relationship with their husband, chronic ill health and other psychosocial situations. …

Online Healthy Lifestyle Support In The Perinatal Period: What Do Women Want And Do They Use It?, Lydia A. Hearn, Margaret R. Miller, Anna Fletcher

Research outputs 2013

Unhealthy weight gain and retention during pregnancy and postpartum is detrimental to mother and child. Although various barriers limit the capacity for perinatal health care providers (PHCPs) to offer healthy lifestyle counselling, they could guide women to appropriate online resources. This paper presents a project designed to provide online information to promote healthy lifestyles in the perinatal period. Focus groups or interviews were held with 116 perinatal women and 76 PHCPs to determine what online information perinatal women and PHCPs want, in what form, and how best it should be presented. The results indicated that women wanted smartphone applications (apps) …

A Brisk Walk, Compared With Being Sedentary, Reduces Attentional Bias And Chocolate Cravings Among Regular Chocolate Eaters With Different Body Mass., Hwajung Oh, Adrian H. Taylor

Peninsula Medical School

Poor self-regulation of high energy snacking has been linked to weight gain. Physical activity can acutely reduce chocolate consumption and cravings but the effects on attentional bias (AB) are unknown. The study aimed to test the effects of exercise among normal and overweight/obese individuals during temporary and longer abstinence. Participants were 20 normal and 21 overweight regular female chocolate eaters (after 24 h abstinence), and 17 females (after ≥1 week abstinence during Lent). They were randomly assigned to engage in 15 min brisk walking or rest, on separate days. AB was assessed using an adapted dot probe task pre and …

An Integrated Clinico-Metabolomic Model Improves Prediction Of Death In Sepsis., Raymond J. Langley, Ephraim L. Tsalik, Jennifer C. Van Velkinburgh, Seth W. Glickman, Brandon J. Rice, Chunping Wang, Bo Chen, Lawrence Carin, Arturo Suarez, Robert P. Mohney, Debra H. Freeman, Mu Wang, Jinsam You, Jacob Wulff, J Will Thompson, M Arthur Moseley, Stephanie Reisinger, Brian T. Edmonds, Brian Grinnell, David R. Nelson, Darrell L. Dinwiddie, Neil A. Miller, Carol J. Saunders, Sarah Soden, Angela J. Rogers, Lee Gazourian, Laura E. Fredenburgh, Anthony F. Massaro, Rebecca M. Baron, Augustine M K Choi, G Ralph Corey, Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, Charles B. Cairns, Ronny M. Otero, Vance G. Fowler, Emanuel P. Rivers, Christopher W. Woods, Stephen F. Kingsmore

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Sepsis is a common cause of death, but outcomes in individual patients are difficult to predict. Elucidating the molecular processes that differ between sepsis patients who survive and those who die may permit more appropriate treatments to be deployed. We examined the clinical features and the plasma metabolome and proteome of patients with and without community-acquired sepsis, upon their arrival at hospital emergency departments and 24 hours later. The metabolomes and proteomes of patients at hospital admittance who would ultimately die differed markedly from those of patients who would survive. The different profiles of proteins and metabolites clustered into the …

Psychosocial Interventions For Patients With Head And Neck Cancer., Cherith Semple, Kader Parahoo, Alyson Norman, Eilis Mccaughan, Gerry Humphris, Moyra Mills

School of Psychology

BACKGROUND: A diagnosis of head and neck cancer, like many other cancers, can lead to significant psychosocial distress. Patients with head and neck cancer can have very specific needs, due to both the location of their disease and the impact of treatment, which can interfere with basic day-to-day activities such as eating, speaking and breathing. There is a lack of clarity on the effectiveness of the interventions developed to address the psychosocial distress experienced by patients living with head and neck cancer. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions to improve quality of life and psychosocial well-being for patients …

Population Cancer Risks Associated With Coal Mining: A Systematic Review, Wiley D. Jenkins, W. Jay Christian, Georgia Mueller, K. Thomas Robbins

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Coal is produced across 25 states and provides 42% of US energy. With production expected to increase 7.6% by 2035, proximate populations remain at risk of exposure to carcinogenic coal products such as silica dust and organic compounds. It is unclear if population exposure is associated with increased risk, or even which cancers have been studied in this regard.

METHODS: We performed a systematic review of English-language manuscripts published since 1980 to determine if coal mining exposure was associated with increased cancer risk (incidence and mortality).

RESULTS: Of 34 studies identified, 27 studied coal mining as an occupational exposure …

Erosive Arthritis And Hepatic Granuloma Formation Induced By Peptidoglycan Polysaccharide In Rats Is Aggravated By Prasugrel Treatment., Analia E Garcia, Mario C Rico, Elisabetta Liverani, Raul A Dela Cadena, Paul F. Bray, Satya P Kunapuli

Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research

Administration of the thienopyridine P2Y12 receptor antagonist, clopidogrel, increased the erosive arthritis induced by peptidoglycan polysaccharide (PG-PS) in rats or by injection of the arthritogenic K/BxN serum in mice. To determine if the detrimental effects are caused exclusively by clopidogrel, we evaluated prasugrel, a third-generation thienopyridine pro-drug, that contrary to clopidogrel is mostly metabolized into its active metabolite in the intestine. Prasugrel effects were examined on the PG-PS-induced arthritis rat model. Erosive arthritis was induced in Lewis rats followed by treatment with prasugrel for 21 days. Prasugrel treated arthritic animals showed a significant increase in the inflammatory response, compared with …

Support For A Smoke-Free Bylaw In Parks And On Beaches, Chizimuzo T.C. Okoli, Ann Pederson, Wendy Rice

Nursing Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: In September 2010, Vancouver, Canada enacted a smoke-free bylaw in parks and on beaches.

OBJECTIVE: To examine demographic and attitudinal factors associated with the public opinion on Vancouver's outdoor smoke-free bylaw.

METHODS: From 496 randomly selected Vancouver residents, information on demographics, smoking status, and opinions and support for or opposition to the smoke-free bylaw were obtained by telephone surveys.

RESULTS: Approximately 84.2% of the sample endorsed the legislation; a greater proportion of non-smokers supported the bylaw than smokers (88.6% vs. 52.0%). In multivariate analysis, demographic variables significantly associated with supporting the smoke-free bylaw were being female, having completed community …

Two Distinct Ipsilateral Cortical Representations For Individuated Finger Movements., Jörn Diedrichsen, Tobias Wiestler, John W Krakauer

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Movements of the upper limb are controlled mostly through the contralateral hemisphere. Although overall activity changes in the ipsilateral motor cortex have been reported, their functional significance remains unclear. Using human functional imaging, we analyzed neural finger representations by studying differences in fine-grained activation patterns for single isometric finger presses. We demonstrate that cortical motor areas encode ipsilateral movements in 2 fundamentally different ways. During unimanual ipsilateral finger presses, primary sensory and motor cortices show, underneath global suppression, finger-specific activity patterns that are nearly identical to those elicited by contralateral mirror-symmetric action. This component vanishes when both motor cortices are …

Operative Management Of Partial-Thickness Tears Of The Proximal Hamstring Muscles In Athletes., Karl F Bowman, Steven B. Cohen, James P Bradley

Rothman Institute Papers

BACKGROUND: Partial tears of the hamstring muscle origin represent a challenging clinical problem to the patient and orthopaedic surgeon. Although nonoperative treatment is frequently met with limited success, there is a paucity of data on the efficacy of surgical management for partial proximal hamstring tears in the active and athletic population.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the results of an anatomic repair for partial tears of the hamstring muscle origin in athletes.

STUDY DESIGN: Case series; Level of evidence, 4.

METHODS: The records of 17 patients with partial tears of the proximal hamstring origin were reviewed after institutional review board approval was …

Prevalence And Patterns Of Sexting Among Ethnic Minority Urban High School Students, Melissa Fleschler Peskin, Christine M Markham, Robert C Addy, Ross Shegog, Melanie Thiel, Susan R Tortolero

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although sexting among U.S. youth has received much popular media attention, there are only limited data on its prevalence among ethnic minority youth. This study, therefore, specifically examined the prevalence and patterns of sexting (sending and/or receiving a nude or semi-nude picture/video or a sexual text-only message) among a sample of black and Hispanic youth. Data from 1,034 tenth graders from a large, urban school district in southeast Texas were used to calculate the prevalence of sexting by gender-race/ethnicity. Overlap among sexting behaviors was also examined. Electronic surveys were administered via an audio-computer-assisted self-interview on laptop computers. Prevalence estimates were …

Ensemble-Based Methods For Forecasting Census In Hospital Units, Devin C. Koestler, Hernando Ombao, Jesse Bender

Dartmouth Scholarship

The ability to accurately forecast census counts in hospital departments has considerable implications for hospital resource allocation. In recent years several different methods have been proposed forecasting census counts, however many of these approaches do not use available patient-specific information. In this paper we present an ensemble-based methodology for forecasting the census under a framework that simultaneously incorporates both (i) arrival trends over time and (ii) patient-specific baseline and time-varying information. The proposed model for predicting census has three components, namely: current census count, number of daily arrivals and number of daily departures. To model the number of daily arrivals, …

Significant Sequelae After Bacterial Meningitis In Niger: A Cohort Study, Jean-François Jusot, Zilahatou Tohon, Abdoul Aziz Yazi, Jean-Marc Collard

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Beside high mortality, acute bacterial meningitis may lead to a high frequency of neuropsychological sequelae. The Sahelian countries belonging to the meningitis belt experience approximately 50% of the meningitis cases occurring in the world. Studies in Africa have shown that N. meningitidis could cause hearing loss in up to 30% of the cases, exceeding sometimes measles. The situation is similar in Niger which experiences yearly meningitis epidemics and where rehabilitation wards are rare and hearing aids remain unaffordable. The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of neuropsychological sequelae after acute bacterial meningitis in four of the …

Pilot Comparative Effectiveness Study Of Surface Perturbation Treadmill Training To Prevent Falls In Older Adults, Jon D. Lurie, Alexandra B. Zagaria, Dawna M. Pidgeon, Judith L. Forman, Kevin Spratt

Dartmouth Scholarship

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults. Exercise programs appear to reduce fall risk, but the optimal type, frequency, and duration of exercise is unknown. External perturbations such as tripping and slipping are a major contributor to falls, and task-specific perturbation training to enhance dynamic stability has emerged as a promising approach to modifying fall risk. The purpose of this pilot study was 1) to determine the feasibility of conducting a large pragmatic randomized trial comparing a multidimensional exercise program inclusive of the surface perturbation treadmill training (SPTT) to multidimensional exercise alone (Standard PT); …

Grotesque Drag Queens And Toxic Matriarchs: Motherhood And The Subversive Female Body In Disney Animated Films, Allison Footit

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Key Genes For Modulating Information Flow Play A Temporal Role As Breast Tumor Coexpression Networks Are Dynamically Rewired By Letrozole, Nadia M. Penrod, Jason H. Moore

Dartmouth Scholarship

Genes do not act in isolation but instead as part of complex regulatory networks. To understand how breast tumors adapt to the presence of the drug letrozole, at the molecular level, it is necessary to consider how the expression levels of genes in these networks change relative to one another. Using transcriptomic data generated from sequential tumor biopsy samples, taken at diagnosis, following 10-14 days and following 90 days of letrozole treatment, and a pairwise partial orrelation statistic, we build temporal gene coexpression networks. We characterize the structure of each network and identify genes that hold prominent positions for maintaining …

Beyond The Stated Function: Showcasing, Through Everyday Objects, Social Obstacles Imposed On Qatari Female Youth, Kazem Esra

Theses and Dissertations

This critical design project showcases obstacles that the Qatari culture and society impose on their female youth, hindering them from becoming independent individuals. It critiques the society and its social pressures. The project stimulates people to think by challenging their assumptions and perceptions, specifically social perception and judgment, family authority, and gender favoritism. This is achieved through hybridized accessories that are embedded with a meta-meaning that arouses curiosity, invites questions, and stimulates thoughts. Through the design of these appealing, high quality, and functionally viable everyday accessories, the project aims to communicate the social and cultural forces which impede Qatari female …

Common Peroneal Nerve Palsy Following Total Hip Arthroplasty: Prognostic Factors For Recovery., Jai Hyung Park, Bryan Hozack, Peter Kim, Robert Norton, Steven Mandel, Camilo Restrepo, Javad Parvizi

Rothman Institute Papers

BACKGROUND: Common peroneal nerve palsy, although rare, is a serious complication of total hip arthroplasty. Although several publications have dealt with the risk factors for peroneal nerve palsy, there is little literature regarding the time it takes for the nerve to recover and the factors that influence its recovery. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the clinical course of this injury and identify prognostic factors for recovery.

METHODS: From January 2000 to December 2007, 7969 primary and 1601 revision total hip arthroplasties were performed at our institution. Common peroneal nerve palsy developed following thirty-one (0.32%) of these procedures. …

The Mathematics Self-Efficacy Of Rural Central Appalachian Undergraduate Females., Lisa J. Music

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study was a two-part investigation with a sample of undergraduate students from three community and technical colleges and one university in the state of Kentucky. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that contribute to the mathematics self-efficacy of rural Central Appalachian undergraduate females. Two subscales of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scale, the Confidence in Learning Mathematics and the Effectance Motivation Scale in Mathematics, were used to identify potential interview subjects. The 596 subjects, including 360 females and 236 males, also completed a questionnaire designed to determine their classification as being from rural Central Appalachia, …

A Phenomenological Study Of Mid-Career Female Student Affairs Administrators' Experiences Navigating The Career Labyrinth Including Obstacles In Catholic Higher Education, Michele Starzyk

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While the role of women in the Catholic Church has been a topic of much discussion, there has also been a call for the Church to partner with the laity. However, women who choose to work in Catholic co-educational, male sponsored higher education institutions may find a gendered organizational culture to embrace. Little research has been done in regards to the experience women have navigating the career labyrinth at mid-career while employed at Catholic institutions.

This study attempted to answer the grand tour question of what meaning do mid-career female student affairs professionals make of navigating the career labyrinth, including …

Functional And Quality-Of-Life Outcomes In Geriatric Patients With Type-Ii Dens Fracture., Alexander R Vaccaro, Christopher K Kepler, Branko Kopjar, Jens Chapman, Christopher Shaffrey, Paul Arnold, Ziya Gokaslan, Darrel Brodke, John France, Mark Dekutoski, Rick Sasso, S Tim Yoon, Christopher Bono, James Harrop, Michael G Fehlings

Rothman Institute Papers

BACKGROUND: Dens fractures are relatively common in the elderly. The treatment of Type-II dens fractures remains controversial. The aim of this multicenter prospective cohort study was to compare outcomes (assessed with use of validated clinical measures) and complications of nonsurgical and surgical treatment of Type-II dens fractures in patients sixty-five years of age or older.

METHODS: One hundred and fifty-nine patients with a Type-II dens fracture were enrolled in a multicenter prospective study. Subjects were treated either surgically (n = 101) or nonsurgically (n = 58) as determined by the treatment preferences of the treating physicians and the patients. The …

Fluorescent Affibody Peptide Penetration In Glioma Margin Is Superior To Full Antibody, Kristian Sexton, Kenneth Tichauer, Kimberley S. Samkoe, Jason Gunn, P. Jack Hoopes, Brian W. Pogue

Dartmouth Scholarship

Object: Fluorescence imaging has the potential to significantly improve neurosurgical resection of oncologic lesions through improved differentiation between normal and cancerous tissue at the tumor margins. In order to successfully mark glioma tissue a fluorescent tracer must have the ability to penetrate through the blood brain barrier (BBB) and provide delineation in the tumor periphery where heterogeneously intact BBB may exist. In this study it was hypothesized that, due to its smaller size, fluorescently labeled anti-EGFR Affibody protein (~7 kDa) would provide a more clear delineation of the tumor margin than would fluorescently labeled cetuximab, a full antibody (~150 kDa) …

Geographic Variation In Chin Shape Challenges The Universal Facial Attractiveness Hypothesis, Zaneta M. Thayer, Seth D. Dobson

Dartmouth Scholarship

The universal facial attractiveness (UFA) hypothesis proposes that some facial features are universally preferred because they are reliable signals of mate quality. The primary evidence for this hypothesis comes from cross-cultural studies of perceived attractiveness. However, these studies do not directly address patterns of morphological variation at the population level. An unanswered question is therefore: Are universally preferred facial phenotypes geographically invariant, as the UFA hypothesis implies? The purpose of our study is to evaluate this often overlooked aspect of the UFA hypothesis by examining patterns of geographic variation in chin shape. We collected symphyseal outlines from 180 recent human …

Cultural Diversity And Views On Alzheimer Disease In Older African Americans., Barry W. Rovner, Robin J. Casten, Lynn F. Harris

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Faculty Papers

Cultural constructs prevalent in older African Americans may influence their risk perceptions and knowledge of Alzheimer disease (AD). To examine this issue, we administered 3 sociocultural scales, the AD Knowledge Scale, and a Risk Perception questionnaire to 271 older African Americans who were recruited from a large community senior center and local churches. Higher Present Time Orientation was significantly related to perceptions of having little control over risks to health (P=0.004), God's Will in determining AD (P=0.001), and lower AD knowledge (P

Nutrition Intervention To Decrease Symptoms In Patients With Advanced Heart Failure, Terry A. Lennie, Debra K. Moser, Martha J. Biddle, Darlene Welsh, Geza G. Bruckner, D. Travis Thomas, Mary Kay Rayens, Alison L. Bailey

Nursing Faculty Publications

For a majority of patients with advanced heart failure, there is a need for complementary, non-pharmacologic interventions that could be easily implemented by health care providers to provide palliative care. Three major pathologic pathways underlying heart failure symptoms have been identified: fluid overload, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Prior research has demonstrated that three nutrients-sodium, omega-3 fatty acids, and lycopene-can alter these pathologic pathways. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to test the effects of a 6-month nutrition intervention of dietary sodium reduction combined with supplementation of lycopene and omega-3 fatty acids on heart failure symptoms, health-related quality of life, …

Female Authority In A Globalizing Market, Megan R. Mccann

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of A Motivational Interviewing Intervention On Weight Loss, Physical Activity And Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: A Randomised Controlled Trial With A 12-Month Post-Intervention Follow-Up., Sarah J. Hardcastle, Adrian H. Taylor, Martin P. Bailey, Robert A. Harley, Martin S. Hagger

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: Intensive diet and physical activity interventions have been found to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but are resource intensive. The American Heart Association recently recommended motivational interviewing (MI) as an effective approach for low-intensity interventions to promote health-related outcomes such as weight loss. However, there is limited research evaluating the long-term effectiveness of MI-based interventions on health-related outcomes associated with CVD risk. The current research evaluated the effectiveness of a six-month low-intensity MI intervention in a UK primary-care setting in maintaining reductions in CVD risk factors at12 months post-intervention. METHODS: Primary-care patients were randomised to an intervention group that …

Derivation Of Multivariate Syndromic Outcome Metrics For Consistent Testing Across Multiple Models Of Cervical Spinal Cord Injury In Rats, Adam R. Ferguson, Karen-Amanda Irvine, John C. Gensel, Jessica L. Nielson, Amity Lin, Johnathan Ly, Mark R. Segal, Rajiv R. Ratan, Jacqueline C. Bresnahan, Michael S. Beattie

Physiology Faculty Publications

Spinal cord injury (SCI) and other neurological disorders involve complex biological and functional changes. Well-characterized preclinical models provide a powerful tool for understanding mechanisms of disease; however managing information produced by experimental models represents a significant challenge for translating findings across research projects and presents a substantial hurdle for translation of novel therapies to humans. In the present work we demonstrate a novel 'syndromic' information-processing approach for capitalizing on heterogeneous data from diverse preclinical models of SCI to discover translational outcomes for therapeutic testing. We first built a large, detailed repository of preclinical outcome data from 10 years of basic …

Effectiveness Of A Motivational Interviewing Intervention On Weight Loss, Physical Activity And Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: A Randomised Controlled Trial With A 12-Month Post-Intervention Follow-Up., Sarah J. Hardcastle, Adrian H. Taylor, Martin P. Bailey, Robert A. Harley, Martin S. Hagger

Peninsula Medical School

BACKGROUND: Intensive diet and physical activity interventions have been found to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but are resource intensive. The American Heart Association recently recommended motivational interviewing (MI) as an effective approach for low-intensity interventions to promote health-related outcomes such as weight loss. However, there is limited research evaluating the long-term effectiveness of MI-based interventions on health-related outcomes associated with CVD risk. The current research evaluated the effectiveness of a six-month low-intensity MI intervention in a UK primary-care setting in maintaining reductions in CVD risk factors at12 months post-intervention. METHODS: Primary-care patients were randomised to an intervention group that …

Feasibility Of Tomotherapy-Based Image-Guided Radiotherapy To Reduce Aspiration Risk In Patients With Non-Laryngeal And Non-Pharyngeal Head And Neck Cancer, Nam P. Nguyen, Lexie Smith-Raymond, Vincent Vinh-Hung, Paul Vos, Rick Davis, Anand Desai, Thomas Sroka

Dartmouth Scholarship

Purpose: The study aims to assess the feasibility of Tomotherapy-based image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) to reduce the aspiration risk in patients with non-laryngeal and non-hypopharyngeal cancer. A retrospective review of 48 patients undergoing radiation for non-laryngeal and non-hypopharyngeal head and neck cancers was conducted. All patients had a modified barium swallow (MBS) prior to treatment, which was repeated one month following radiotherapy. Mean middle and inferior pharyngeal dose was recorded and correlated with the MBS results to determine aspiration risk.