Digital Commons Network^™

Catheter Ablation Of Ventricular Tachycardia, Nilesh Mathuria

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

No abstract provided.

Internet And Social Media Access Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness: Mixed-Methods Study., Lauren A. Houdek Vonholtz, Rosemary Frasso, Jesse M. Golinkoff, Alicia J. Lozano, Alexandra Hanlon, Nadia Dowshen

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Youth experiencing homelessness are at a risk for a variety of adverse outcomes. Given the widespread use of the internet and social media, these new technologies may be used to address their needs and for outreach purposes. However, little is known about how this group uses these resources.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how homeless adolescents use these technologies for general and health-related purposes, whether the scope of their use changes with housing status, and their interest in a website dedicated to youth experiencing homelessness.

METHODS: A convenience sample of youth aged 18 to 21 years was recruited from a …

Decreasing Recurrent Bowel Obstructions, Improving Quality Of Life With Physiotherapy: Controlled Study, Amanda D Rice, Kimberley Patterson, Evette D Reed, Belinda F Wurn, Kristen Robles, Bernhard Klingenberg, Leonard B Weinstock, Janey S. A. Pratt, C. Richard King Iii, Lawrence J Wurn

Open Access Publications

AIM: To compare (1) quality of life and (2) rate of recurrent small bowel obstructions (SBO) for patients treated with novel manual physiotherapy

METHODS: One hundred and three subjects (age 19-89) with a history of recurrent adhesive SBO were treated with a manual physiotherapy called the Clear Passage Approach (CPA) which focused on decreasing adhesive crosslinking in abdominopelvic viscera. Pre- and post-therapy data measured recurring obstructions and quality of life, using a validated test sent 90 d after therapy. Results were compared to 136 untreated control subjects who underwent the same measurements for subjects who did not receive any therapy, …

In Vivo And In Vitro Studies Of Cry5b And Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist Anthelmintics Reveal A Powerful And Unique Combination Therapy Against Intestinal Nematode Parasites, Yan Hu, Melanie Miller, Bo Zhang, Thanh-Thanh Nguyen, Martin K. Nielsen, Raffi V. Aroian

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Background

The soil-transmitted nematodes (STNs) or helminths (hookworms, whipworms, large roundworms) infect the intestines of ~1.5 billion of the poorest peoples and are leading causes of morbidity worldwide. Only one class of anthelmintic or anti-nematode drugs, the benzimidazoles, is currently used in mass drug administrations, which is a dangerous situation. New anti-nematode drugs are urgently needed. Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein Cry5B is a powerful, promising new candidate. Drug combinations, when properly made, are ideal for treating infectious diseases. Although there are some clinical trials using drug combinations against STNs, little quantitative and systemic work has been performed to define the …

Iron Isomaltoside Is Superior To Iron Sucrose In Increasing Hemoglobin In Gynecological Patients With Iron Deficiency Anemia., Richard Derman, Eloy Roman, Gioi N. Smith-Nguyen, Maureen M. Achebe, Lars L. Thomsen, Michael Auerbach

Global Health Articles

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of The Immunological Biomarker Profile During Acute Zika Virus Infection Reveals The Overexpression Of Cxcl10, A Chemokine Linked To Neuronal Damage., Felipe Gomes Naveca, Gemilson Soares Pontes, Aileen Yu-Hen Chang, George Allan Villarouco Da Silva, Valdinete Alves Do Nascimento, Dana Cristina Da Silva Monteiro, +Several Additional Authors

Medicine Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Infection with Zika virus (ZIKV) manifests in a broad spectrum of disease ranging from mild illness to severe neurological complications and little is known about Zika immunopathogenesis.

OBJECTIVES: To define the immunologic biomarkers that correlate with acute ZIKV infection.

METHODS: We characterized the levels of circulating cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors in 54 infected patients of both genders at five different time points after symptom onset using microbeads multiplex immunoassay; comparison to 100 age-matched controls was performed for statistical analysis and data mining.

FINDINGS: ZIKV-infected patients present a striking systemic inflammatory response with high levels of pro-inflammatory mediators. Despite …

Judith Jarvis Thomson On Abortion; A Libertarian Perspective, Walter E. Block

DePaul Journal of Health Care Law

Introduction:

Judith Jarvis Thompson, an eminent philosopher from MIT, has written the most widely cited article of all those ever written about abortion. She likens the fetus to a trespasser. Suppose you wake up in bed next to a famous violinist who is (innocently) connected to your kidney, through a sort of umbilical cord, without which he will die. What rights does he have? What obligations do you have? Using this brilliant analogy to pregnancy, she sheds light on the abortion controversy.

Method:

The method used in the present paper is to widely quote Thompson’s (1971) essay, and then to …

Exacerbation Recovery Patterns In Newly Diagnosed Or Maintenance Treatment-Naïve Patients With Copd: Secondary Analyses Of Ticari 1 Trial Data, David M. Mannino, Emmanuelle M. Clerisme-Beaty, Joanne Franceschina, Naitee Ting, Nancy K. Leidy

Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Little is known about the recovery patterns from acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) in newly diagnosed or maintenance treatment-naïve patients with COPD. This study describes the course of AECOPD in these patients at the time of treatment for the symptoms of acute respiratory tract infection (RTI).

Methods: This study was a secondary analysis of data from a 12-week, randomized clinical trial (TICARI 1) testing the efficacy and safety of once-daily tiotropium 18 µg maintenance therapy versus placebo in newly diagnosed or maintenance treatment-naïve COPD patients with acute RTI symptoms for ≤7 days. Patients received standard care …

Protocol For A Randomised Trial Of Higher Versus Lower Intensity Patient-Provider Communication Interventions To Reduce Antibiotic Misuse In Two Paediatric Ambulatory Clinics In The Usa., Kathy Goggin, Andrea Bradley-Ewing, Angela Myers, Brian R. Lee, Emily A. Hurley, Kirsten B. Delay, Sarah Schlachter, Areli Ramphal, Kimberly Pina, David Yu, Kirsten Weltmer, Sebastian Linnemayr, Christopher C. Butler, Jason G. Newland

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

INTRODUCTION: Children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are prescribed up to 11.4 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions annually. Inadequate parent-provider communication is a chief contributor, yet efforts to reduce overprescribing have only indirectly targeted communication or been impractical. This paper describes our multisite, parallel group, cluster randomised trial comparing two feasible interventions for enhancing parent-provider communication on the rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing (primary outcome) and revisits, adverse drug reactions and parent-rated quality of shared decision-making, parent-provider communication and visit satisfaction (secondary outcomes).

METHODS/ANALYSIS: We will attempt to recruit all eligible paediatricians and nurse practitioners (currently 47) at an academic …

Till Death Do Us Part: The Marriage Of Autophagy And Apoptosis., Katrina F Cooper

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Autophagy is a widely conserved catabolic process that is necessary for maintaining cellular homeostasis under normal physiological conditions and driving the cell to switch back to this status quo under times of starvation, hypoxia, and oxidative stress. The potential similarities and differences between basal autophagy and stimulus-induced autophagy are still largely unknown. Both act by clearing aberrant or unnecessary cytoplasmic material, such as misfolded proteins, supernumerary and defective organelles. The relationship between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and autophagy is complex. Cellular ROS is predominantly derived from mitochondria. Autophagy is triggered by this event, and by clearing the defective organelles effectively, …

Genome-Wide Association Meta-Analysis Of Circulating Odd-Numbered Chain Saturated Fatty Acids: Results From The Charge Consortium, Marcia C. De Oliveira Otto, Rozenn N. Lemaitre, Qi Sun, Irena B. King, Jason H. Y. Wu, Ani Manichaikul, Stephen S. Rich, Michael Y. Tsai, Y. D. Chen, Myriam Fornage, Guan Weihua, Stella Aslibekyan, Marguerite R. Irvin, Edmond K. Kabagambe, Donna K. Arnett, Majken K. Jensen, Barbara Mcknight, Bruce M. Psaty, Lyn M. Steffen, Caren E. Smith, Ulf Risérus, Lars Lind, Frank B. Hu, Eric B. Rimm, David S. Siscovick, Dariush Mozaffarian

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background

Odd-numbered chain saturated fatty acids (OCSFA) have been associated with potential health benefits. Although some OCSFA (e.g., C15:0 and C17:0) are found in meats and dairy products, sources and metabolism of C19:0 and C23:0 are relatively unknown, and the influence of non-dietary determinants, including genetic factors, on circulating levels of OCSFA is not established.

Objective

To elucidate the biological processes that influence circulating levels of OCSFA by investigating associations between genetic variation and OCSFA.

Design

We performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of plasma phospholipid/erythrocyte levels of C15:0, C17:0, C19:0, and C23:0 among 11,494 individuals of European …

Dimerization Of The Voltage-Sensing Phosphatase Controls Its Voltage-Sensing And Catalytic Activity., Vamseedhar Rayaprolu, Perrine Royal, Karen Stengel, Guillaume Sandoz, Susy C Kohout

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University Departmental Research

Multimerization is a key characteristic of most voltage-sensing proteins. The main exception was thought to be the Ciona intestinalis voltage-sensing phosphatase (Ci-VSP). In this study, we show that multimerization is also critical for Ci-VSP function. Using coimmunoprecipitation and single-molecule pull-down, we find that Ci-VSP stoichiometry is flexible. It exists as both monomers and dimers, with dimers favored at higher concentrations. We show strong dimerization via the voltage-sensing domain (VSD) and weak dimerization via the phosphatase domain. Using voltage-clamp fluorometry, we also find that VSDs cooperate to lower the voltage dependence of activation, thus favoring the activation of Ci-VSP. Finally, using …

Teens Implementing A Childhood Obesity Prevention Program In The Community: Feasibility And Perceptions Of A Partnership With Hsta And Icook 4-H., Rebecca L. Hagedorn, Jade A. White, Lisa Franzen-Castle, Sarah E. Colby, Kendra Kattelmann, Adrienne A. White, Melissa D. Olfert

Health and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

High school student researchers and teen leaders from the Health Science Technology Academy (HSTA), under the supervision of HSTA teachers, led a childhood obesity prevention (COP) program (iCook 4-H). The objective was to evaluate the feasibility and perceptions of having teen leaders implement a COP program for dyads of youth (9⁻10 years old) and their primary adult food preparer. Behavior change and perceptions were assessed through surveys and open-ended interviews. Across eight HSTA organizations, 43 teen leaders participated in teaching the iCook 4-H program to 24 dyads. Increased frequency of culinary skills, physical activity and mealtime behavior were reported by …

A Protein Standard That Emulates Homology For The Characterization Of Protein Inference Algorithms., Matthew The, Fredrik Edfors, Yasset Perez-Riverol, Samuel H Payne, Michael R Hoopmann, Magnus Palmblad, Björn Forsström, Lukas Käll

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

A natural way to benchmark the performance of an analytical experimental setup is to use samples of known composition and see to what degree one can correctly infer the content of such a sample from the data. For shotgun proteomics, one of the inherent problems of interpreting data is that the measured analytes are peptides and not the actual proteins themselves. As some proteins share proteolytic peptides, there might be more than one possible causative set of proteins resulting in a given set of peptides and there is a need for mechanisms that infer proteins from lists of detected peptides. …

Understanding The Relationship Between The Neurologic Pupil Index And Constriction Velocity Values., Ifeoluwa Shoyombo, Venkatesh Aiyagari, Sonja E Stutzman, Folefac Atem, Michelle Hill, Stephen A Figueroa, Chad Miller, Amber Howard, Daiwai M Olson

Neuroscience Articles

The pupillary light reflex (PLR) describes the response when light hits the retina and sends a signal (cranial nerve II) to the Edinger-Westphal Nucleus which via cranial nerve III results in pupillary constriction. The Neurological Pupil indexTM (NPi) and pupil constriction velocity (CV) are two distinct variables that can be observed and measured using a pupillometer. We examine NPi and CV in 27,462 pupil readings (1,617 subjects). NPi values < 3.0 and a CV < 0.8 mm/sec were considered abnormal. Regression was used to clarify the effect of pupil size and repeated measures. An odds ratio of abnormal CV given normal NPi (and vice versa) was computed using the glimmixed (SAS) regression. Of 27,462 readings, 49.2% revealed bilaterally normal NPi wtih brisk CV, and 10.8% revealed bilaterally abnormal NPi and slow CV; 9.1% with unilaterally normal NPi and brisk CV where the opposite pupil had an abnormal NPi and slow CV. The remaining 30.9% revealed that one or both PLR had either a normal NPi with slow CV, or abnormal NPi with brisk CV. Brisk CV does not rule out an abnormal PLR; slow CV does not rule in abnormal PLR. Practitioners should consider these implications when interpreting pupillometry readings.

Parabiosis And Single-Cell Rna Sequencing Reveal A Limited Contribution Of Monocytes To Myofibroblasts In Kidney Fibrosis, Rafael Kramann, Flavia Machado, Haojia Wu, Tetsuro Kusaba, Konrad Hoeft, Rebekka K Schneider, Benjamin D Humphreys

Open Access Publications

Fibrosis is the common final pathway of virtually all chronic injury to the kidney. While it is well accepted that myofibroblasts are the scar-producing cells in the kidney, their cellular origin is still hotly debated. The relative contribution of proximal tubular epithelium and circulating cells, including mesenchymal stem cells, macrophages, and fibrocytes, to the myofibroblast pool remains highly controversial. Using inducible genetic fate tracing of proximal tubular epithelium, we confirm that the proximal tubule does not contribute to the myofibroblast pool. However, in parabiosis models in which one parabiont is genetically labeled and the other is unlabeled and undergoes kidney …

Dietary Diversity Predicts The Adequacy Of Micronutrient Intake In Pregnant Adolescent Girls And Women In Bangladesh, But Use Of The 5-Group Cutoff Poorly Identifies Individuals With Inadequate Intake, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Lieven Huybregts, Tina G. Sanghvi, Lan Mai Tran, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Purnima Menon, Marie T. Ruel

Faculty Publications

Background: The Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator based on a 10-food group women dietary diversity score (WDDS-10) has been validated to assess dietary quality in nonpregnant women. Little is known about its applicability in pregnant women, and specifically pregnant adolescent girls with higher nutrient requirements. Objectives: This study aimed to 1) compare the adequacy of micronutrient intakes between pregnant adolescent girls and women, 2) examine the performance of WDDS-10 in predicting the mean probability of adequacy (MPA) of 11 micronutrients, and 3) assess how well the MDD-W cutoff of 5 groups performed in pregnant adolescent girls and women. …

Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus Reduces Cortical Thickness And Decreases Oxidative Metabolism In Sensorimotor Regions After Stroke., Jennifer K Ferris, Sue Peters, Katlyn E Brown, Katherine Tourigny, Lara A Boyd

Physical Therapy Publications

Individuals with type-2 diabetes mellitus experience poor motor outcomes after ischemic stroke. Recent research suggests that type-2 diabetes adversely impacts neuronal integrity and function, yet little work has considered how these neuronal changes affect sensorimotor outcomes after stroke. Here, we considered how type-2 diabetes impacted the structural and metabolic function of the sensorimotor cortex after stroke using volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). We hypothesized that the combination of chronic stroke and type-2 diabetes would negatively impact the integrity of sensorimotor cortex as compared to individuals with chronic stroke alone. Compared to stroke alone, individuals with …

Tat Controls Transcriptional Persistence Of Unintegrated Hiv Genome In Primary Human Macrophages., Beatrix Meltzer, Deemah Dabbagh, Jia Guo, Fatah Kashanchi, Mudit Tyagi, Yuntao Wu

Medicine Faculty Publications

In HIV infected macrophages, a large population of viral genomes persists as the unintegrated form (uDNA) that is transcriptionally active. However, how this transcriptional activity is controlled remains unclear. In this report, we investigated whether Tat, the viral transactivator of transcription, is involved in uDNA transcription. We demonstrate that de novo Tat activity is generated from uDNA, and this uDNA-derived Tat (uTat) transactivates the uDNA LTR. In addition, uTat is required for the transcriptional persistence of uDNA that is assembled into repressive episomal minichromatin. In the absence of uTat, uDNA minichromatin is gradually silenced, but remains highly inducible by HDAC …

Trunk Motion Visual Feedback During Walking Improves Dynamic Balance In Older Adults: Assessor Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial., Eric Anson, Lei Ma, Tippawan Meetam, Elizabeth Thompson, Roshita Rathore, Victoria Dean, John Jeka

Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Virtual reality and augmented feedback have become more prevalent as training methods to improve balance. Few reports exist on the benefits of providing trunk motion visual feedback (VFB) during treadmill walking, and most of those reports only describe within session changes.

RESEARCH QUESTION: To determine whether trunk motion VFB treadmill walking would improve over-ground balance for older adults with self-reported balance problems.

METHODS: 40 adults (75.8 years (SD 6.5)) with self-reported balance difficulties or a history of falling were randomized to a control or experimental group. Everyone walked on a treadmill at a comfortable speed 3×/week for 4 weeks …

Population-Specific Genetic Modification Of Huntington's Disease In Venezuela., Michael J Chao, Kyung-Hee Kim, Jun Wan Shin, Diane Lucente, Vanessa C Wheeler, Hong Li, Jared C Roach, Leroy Hood, Nancy S Wexler, Laura B Jardim, Peter Holmans, Lesley Jones, Michael Orth, Seung Kwak, Marcy E Macdonald, James F Gusella, Jong-Min Lee

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Modifiers of Mendelian disorders can provide insights into disease mechanisms and guide therapeutic strategies. A recent genome-wide association (GWA) study discovered genetic modifiers of Huntington's disease (HD) onset in Europeans. Here, we performed whole genome sequencing and GWA analysis of a Venezuelan HD cluster whose families were crucial for the original mapping of the HD gene defect. The Venezuelan HD subjects develop motor symptoms earlier than their European counterparts, implying the potential for population-specific modifiers. The main Venezuelan HD family inherits HTT haplotype hap.03, which differs subtly at the sequence level from European HD hap.03, suggesting a different ancestral origin …

Digitizing Omics Profiles By Divergence From A Baseline., Wikum Dinalankara, Qian Ke, Yiran Xu, Lanlan Ji, Nicole Pagane, Anching Lien, Tejasvi Matam, Elana J Fertig, Nathan D Price, Laurent Younes, Luigi Marchionni, Donald Geman

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Data collected from omics technologies have revealed pervasive heterogeneity and stochasticity of molecular states within and between phenotypes. A prominent example of such heterogeneity occurs between genome-wide mRNA, microRNA, and methylation profiles from one individual tumor to another, even within a cancer subtype. However, current methods in bioinformatics, such as detecting differentially expressed genes or CpG sites, are population-based and therefore do not effectively model intersample diversity. Here we introduce a unified theory to quantify sample-level heterogeneity that is applicable to a single omics profile. Specifically, we simplify an omics profile to a digital representation based on the omics profiles …

Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling Of Nanoceria Systemic Distribution In Rats Suggests Dose- And Route-Dependent Biokinetics, Ulrika Carlander, Tshepo Paulsen Moto, Anteneh Assefa Desalegn, Robert A. Yokel, Gunnar Johanson

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Cerium dioxide nanoparticles (nanoceria) are increasingly being used in a variety of products as catalysts, coatings, and polishing agents. Furthermore, their antioxidant properties make nanoceria potential candidates for biomedical applications. To predict and avoid toxicity, information about their biokinetics is essential. A useful tool to explore such associations between exposure and internal target dose is physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling. The aim of this study was to test the appropriateness of our previously published PBPK model developed for intravenous (IV) administration when applied to various sizes of nanoceria and to exposure routes relevant for humans.

Methods: Experimental biokinetic data …

Human Gucy2c-Targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor (Car)-Expressing T Cells Eliminate Colorectal Cancer Metastases., Michael S. Magee, Tara S. Abraham, Trevor R. Baybutt, John C. Flickinger, Natalie A. Ridge, Glen P Marszalowicz, Priyanka Prajapati, Adam R. Hersperger, Scott A. Waldman, Adam E. Snook

Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Faculty Papers

One major hurdle to the success of adoptive T-cell therapy is the identification of antigens that permit effective targeting of tumors in the absence of toxicities to essential organs. Previous work has demonstrated that T cells engineered to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) targeting the murine homolog of the colorectal cancer antigen GUCY2C treat established colorectal cancer metastases, without toxicity to the normal GUCY2C-expressing intestinal epithelium, reflecting structural compartmentalization of endogenous GUCY2C to apical membranes comprising the intestinal lumen. Here, we examined the utility of a human-specific, GUCY2C-directed single-chain variable fragment as the basis for a CAR construct targeting …

Potent Immune Modulation By Medi6383, An Engineered Human Ox40 Ligand Igg4p Fc Fusion Protein., Michael D Oberst, Catherine Augé, Chad Morris, Stacy Kentner, Kathy Mulgrew, Kelly Mcglinchey, James Hair, Shino Hanabuchi, Qun Du, Melissa Damschroder, Hui Feng, Steven Eck, Nicholas Buss, Lolke De Haan, Andrew J Pierce, Haesun Park, Andrew Sylwester, Michael K Axthelm, Louis Picker, Nicholas P Morris, Andrew D Weinberg, Scott A Hammond

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Ligation of OX40 (CD134, TNFRSF4) on activated T cells by its natural ligand (OX40L, CD252, TNFSF4) enhances cellular survival, proliferation, and effector functions such as cytokine release and cellular cytotoxicity. We engineered a recombinant human OX40L IgG4P Fc fusion protein termed MEDI6383 that assembles into a hexameric structure and exerts potent agonist activity following engagement of OX40. MEDI6383 displayed solution-phase agonist activity that was enhanced when the fusion protein was clustered by Fc gamma receptors (FcγRs) on the surface of adjacent cells. The resulting costimulation of OX40 on T cells induced NFκB promoter activity in OX40-expressing T cells and induced …

The Cvad Registry For Percutaneous Temporary Hemodynamic Support: A Prospective Registry Of Impella Mechanical Circulatory Support Use In High-Risk Pci, Cardiogenic Shock, And Decompensated Heart Failure, George W.J. Vetrovec, Mark Anderson, Theodore Schreiber, Jeffrey Popma, William Lombardi, Brijeshwar Maini, Jacob E. Moller, Andreas Schäfer, Simon R. Dixon, Shelley Hall, Erik M. Ohman, Catalin Mindrescu, Jeffrey Moses, William O'Neill

Cardiology Articles

Management of patients requiring temporary, mechanical hemodynamic support during high- risk percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or in cardiogenic shock is rapidly evolving. With the availability of the Impella 2.5, CP, 5.0, LD, and RP percutaneous mechanical circulatory support devices, there is a need for continued surveillance of outcomes. Three factors underline the importance of a registry for these populations. First, large randomized trials of hemodynamic support, involving cardiogenic shock, are challenging to conduct. Second, there is increasing interest in the use of registries to provide "real-world" experience and to allow the flexibility to evaluate individual patient uses and outcomes. Third, …

Neural Mechanisms Of The Rejection-Aggression Link, David S. Chester, Donald R. Lynam, Richard Milich, C. Nathan Dewall

Psychology Faculty Publications

Social rejection is a painful event that often increases aggression. However, the neural mechanisms of this rejection–aggression link remain unclear. A potential clue may be that rejected people often recruit the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex’s (VLPFC) self-regulatory processes to manage the pain of rejection. Using functional MRI, we replicated previous links between rejection and activity in the brain’s mentalizing network, social pain network and VLPFC. VLPFC recruitment during rejection was associated with greater activity in the brain’s reward network (i.e. the ventral striatum) when individuals were given an opportunity to retaliate. This retaliation-related striatal response was associated with greater levels of …

Benchmarking Rectal Cancer Care: Institutional Compliance With A Longitudinal Checklist., William C. Chapman, Pamela Choi, Alexander T. Hawkins, Steven R. Hunt, Matthew L. Silviera, Paul E. Wise, Matthew G. Mutch, Sean C. Glasgow

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: In 2012, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons published the Rectal Cancer Surgery Checklist, a consensus document listing 25 essential elements of care for all patients undergoing radical surgery for rectal cancer. The authors herein examine checklist adherence in a mature, multisurgeon specialty academic practice.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective medical record review of patients undergoing elective radical resection for rectal adenocarcinoma over a 23-mo period was conducted. Checklists were completed post hoc for each patient, and these results were tabulated to determine levels of compliance. Subgroup analyses by compliance and experience levels of the treating surgeon …

Patterns Of Tobacco Use In The United Arab Emirates Healthy Future (Uaehfs) Pilot Study, Mohammed Al-Houqani, Andrea Leinberger-Jabari, Abdullah Al Naeemi, Abdullah Al Junaibi, Eiman Al Zaabi, Naima Oumeziane, Marina Kazim, Fatima Al Maskari, Ayesha Al Dhaheri, Leila Abdel Wareth, Wael Al Mahmeed, Habiba Alsafar, Fatme Al Anouti, Abdishakur Abdulle, Claire K. Inman, Aisha Al Hamiz, Muna Haji, Jiyoung Ahn, Tomas Kirchhoff, Richard B. Hayes, Ravichandran Ramasamy, Ann Marie Schmidt, Omar El Shahawy, Michael Weitzman, Raghib Ali, Scott Sherman

All Works

© 2018 Al-Houqani et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction Self-reported tobacco use in the United Arab Emirates is among the highest in the region. Use of tobacco products other than cigarettes is widespread, but little is known about specific behavior use patterns. There have been no studies that have biochemically verified smoking status. Methods The UAE Healthy Future Study (UAEHFS) seeks to understand the causes of non-communicable diseases through …

Longitudinal Measures Of Deformation Are Associated With A Composite Measure Of Contractility Derived From Pressure-Volume Loop Analysis In Children., Shahryar M. Chowdhury, Ryan J. Butts, Carolyn L. Taylor, Varsha M. Bandisode, Karen S. Chessa, Anthony M. Hlavacek, Arni Nutting, Girish S. Shirali, G Hamilton Baker

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Aims: The relationship between echocardiographic measures of left ventricular (LV) systolic function and reference-standard measures have not been assessed in children. The objective of this study was to assess the validity of echocardiographic indices of LV systolic function via direct comparison to a novel composite measure of contractility derived from pressure-volume loop (PVL) analysis.

Methods and results: Children with normal loading conditions undergoing routine left heart catheterization were prospectively enrolled. PVLs were obtained via conductance catheters. A composite invasive composite contractility index (ICCI) was developed using data reduction strategies to combine four measures of contractility derived from PVL analysis. Echocardiograms …