Digital Commons Network^™

Extracorporeal Cellular Therapy (Elad) In Severe Alcoholic Hepatitis: A Multinational, Prospective, Controlled, Randomized Trial., Julie Thompson, Natasha Jones, Ali Al-Khafaji, Shahid Malik, David Reich, Santiago Munoz, Ross Macnicholas, Tarek Hassanein, Lewis Teperman, Lance Stein, Andrés Duarte-Rojo, Raza Malik, Talal Adhami, Sumeet Asrani, Nikunj Shah, Paul Gaglio, Anupama Duddempudi, Brian Borg, Rajiv Jalan, Robert Brown, Heather Patton, Rohit Satoskar, Simona Rossi, Amay Parikh, Ahmed Elsharkawy, Parvez Mantry, Linda Sher, David Wolf, Marquis Hart, Charles Landis, Alan Wigg, Shahid Habib, Geoffrey Mccaughan, Steven Colquhoun, Alyssa Henry, Patricia Bedard, Lee Landeen, Michael Millis, Robert Ashley, William Frank, Andrew Henry, Jan Stange, Ram Subramanian

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Severe alcoholic hepatitis (sAH) is associated with a poor prognosis. There is no proven effective treatment for sAH, which is why early transplantation has been increasingly discussed. Hepatoblastoma-derived C3A cells express anti-inflammatory proteins and growth factors and were tested in an extracorporeal cellular therapy (ELAD) study to establish their effect on survival for subjects with sAH. Adults with sAH, bilirubin ≥8 mg/dL, Maddrey's discriminant function ≥ 32, and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score ≤ 35 were randomized to receive standard of care (SOC) only or 3-5 days of continuous ELAD treatment plus SOC. After a minimum follow-up of …

Demographic, Presentation, And Treatment Factors And Racial Disparities In Ovarian Cancer Hospitalization Outcomes, Tomi F. Akinyemiju, Gurudatta Naik, Kemi Ogunsina, Daniel T. Dibaba, Neomi Vin-Raviv

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: This study examines whether racial disparities in hospitalization outcomes persist between African-American and White women with ovarian cancer after matching on demographic, presentation, and treatment factors.

METHODS: Using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database, 5,164 African-American ovarian cancer patients were sequentially matched with White patients on demographic (e.g., age, income), presentation (e.g., stage, comorbidities), and treatment (e.g., surgery, radiation) factors. Racial differences in-hospital length of stay, post-operative complications, and in-hospital mortality were evaluated using conditional logistic regression models.

RESULTS: White ovarian cancer patients had relatively higher odds of post-operative complications when matched on demographics (OR 1.35, 95% CI …

Patient And Hospital Characteristics Predictive Of Inferior Vena Cava Filter Usage In Venous Thromboembolism Patients: A Study From The 2013 To 2014 Nationwide Readmissions Database, Amie Goodin, Ming Chen, Driss Raissi, Qiong Han, Hong Xiao, Joshua Brown

Radiology Faculty Publications

To examine the association between patient and hospital characteristics and inferior vena cava filter (IVCF) utilization in patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE).

The 2013 to 2014 Nationwide Readmissions Database was used to define a cohort of patients with VTE aged ≥ 18 after a primary VTE diagnosis. Comorbidities of interest were classified via diagnosis codes and IVCF placement was identified via procedure code. Chi square analysis tested differences between patient and hospital-level characteristics and whether or not IVCFs were placed. A hierarchical logistic regression model estimated the relationship between patient-level factors (demographics, socioeconomic status, comorbidities), hospital-level factors (bed size, teaching …

Hla-Dqa1 And Apol1 As Risk Loci For Childhood-Onset Steroid-Sensitive And Steroid-Resistant Nephrotic Syndrome., Adebowale Adeyemo, Christopher Esezobor, Adaobi Solarin, Asiri Abeyagunawardena, Jameela A. Kari, Sherif El Desoky, Larry A. Greenbaum, Margret Kamel, Mahmoud Kallash, Cynthia Silva, Alex Young, Tracey E. Hunley, Nilka De Jesus-Gonzalez, Tarak Srivastava, Rasheed Gbadegesin

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Background: Few data exist for the genetic variants underlying the risk for steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) in children. The objectives of this study were to evaluate HLA-DQA1 and APOL1 variants as risk factors for SSNS in African American children and use classic HLA antigen types and amino acid inference to refine the HLA-DQA1 association.

Study design: Case-control study.

Setting & participants: African American children with SSNS or steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) were enrolled from Duke University and centers participating in the Midwest Pediatric Nephrology Consortium.

Factor: Genetic variants in HLA-DQA1 (C34Y [rs1129740]; F41S [rs1071630]) and APOL1 high-risk alleles.

Outcomes: SSNS …

Economic Contributions Of Winter Sports In A Changing Climate, Hagenstad Consulting, Inc., Elizabeth Burakowski, Rebecca Hill

All Materials

In mountain towns across the United States that rely on winter tourism, snow is

currency. For snow lovers and the winter sports industry, predictions of a future with

warmer winters, reduced snowfall, and shorter snow seasons is inspiring them to

innovate, increase their own efforts to address emissions, and speak publicly on the

urgent need for action.

This report examines the economic contribution of winter snow sports tourism to

U.S. national and state-level economies. In a 2012 analysis, Protect Our Winters and

the Natural Resources Defense Council found that the winter sports tourism industry

generates $12.2 billion and 23 million …

Ypfs Lessons Learned Oral History Project: An Interview With Patricia Mosser, Patricia Mosser, Sandra Ward

Documents

No abstract provided.

Nathan Augustus Cobb: The Father Of Nematology In The United States; And Nathan Cobb's Publications, R. N. Huettel, A. Morgan Golden, Donna Ellington

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Introduction

Nathan Augustus Cobb, referred to as the "Father of Nematology in the United States" (56), was a Renaissance man and a man of humble beginnings. His early life experiences instilled in him the creativity, fortitude, and self reliance that were needed to raise himself alone from age 14, to complete college with little formal pre-college education, receive his Ph.D. in Germany, and go on to found a new discipline of science called "Nematology". His scientific and technical accomplishments were impressive, as indicated by the over 250 first-authored manuscripts he produced during his career. He identified over 1000 species of …

Decision Aid Use During Post-Biopsy Consultations For Localized Prostate Cancer., Margaret Holmes-Rovner, Akshay Srikanth, Stephen G. Henry, Aisha Langford, David R. Rovner, Angela Fagerlin

Emergency Medicine Articles

BACKGROUND: Decision Aids (DAs) effectively translate medical evidence for patients but are not routinely used in clinical practice. Little is known about how DAs are used during patient-clinician encounters.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize the content and communicative function of high-quality DAs during diagnostic clinic visits for prostate cancer.

PARTICIPANTS: 252 men newly diagnosed with localized prostate cancer who had received a DA, 45 treating physicians at 4 US Veterans Administration urology clinics.

METHODS: Qualitative analysis of transcribed audio recordings was used to inductively develop categories capturing content and function of all direct references to DAs (booklet talk). The presence or absence …

The Communications Decency Act: Immunity For Internet-Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Haley C. Halverson

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper reviews the original intent and historical application of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), most notably Section 230, with special regard to cases of Internet-facilitated commercial sexual exploitation. Although the CDA was originally created to protect children online, Section 230 of the CDA has been interpreted by the courts to grant broad immunities to websites facilitating the sexual exploitation of children and adults alike. Through analyzing the genesis and evolution of the CDA, it becomes clear that court interpretations of Section 230 are starkly inconsistent with original Congressional intent, and that the primary way to avoid de facto decriminalization …

Military Citizenship In The Post-9/11 Homefront, Estefania Ponti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In discussion with the literature on the treatment of veterans in the United States and the nature of American citizenship ideology, the following dissertation asks how post-9/11 veterans are defining, (re)creating, and contesting citizenship in the contemporary U.S. By studying a localized community of post-9/11 veterans, my dissertation highlights the dilemmas of U.S. citizenship at a time when the U.S. is engaged in a global War on Terror using less than 1% of the U.S. population as paid volunteers. Soldiers and veterans occupy states and spaces of exception, marking military citizens as distinct from civilians. Military citizenship benefits the nation …

Women’S Suffrage In American Art: Recovering Forgotten Contexts, 1900-1920, Elsie Y. Heung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 1920, women in the United States finally won the right to vote. The campaign for suffrage, which began in the 1848, with the first women’s rights convention held at Seneca Falls, NY, involved the efforts and enthusiasm of countless women who believed that they both deserved and needed the right to vote. This dissertation investigates the ways in which women artists both responded to and contributed to this divisive movement through painting and sculpture during the final decades of the campaign, when visual culture and propaganda played a crucial role in advancing the suffrage and anti-suffrage agendas. The literature …

Effects Of Older Donor Age And Cold Ischemic Time On Long-Term Outcomes Of Heart Transplantation, Heidi J Reich, Jon A Kobashigawa, Tamar Aintablian, Danny Ramzy, Michelle M Kittleson, Fardad Esmailian

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

Using older donor hearts in cardiac transplantation may lead to inferior outcomes: older donors have more comorbidities that reduce graft quality, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia. Shorter cold ischemic times might overcome the detrimental effect of older donor age. We examined the relationship between donor allograft age and cold ischemic time on the long-term outcomes of heart transplant recipients. rom 1994 through 2010, surgeons at our hospital performed 745 heart transplantations. We retrospectively classified these cases by donor ages of(younger) and ≥50 years (older), then by cold ischemic times of(short), 120 to 240 min (intermediate), and …

Cybersecurity In The Classroom: Bridging The Gap Between Computer Access And Online Safety, Andrew Malecki

Cyber Security Capstone Research Project Reports

According to ISACA, there will be a global shortage of 2 million cybersecurity professionals worldwide by 2019. Additionally, according to Experian Data Breach Resolution, as much as 80% of all network breaches can be traced to employee negligence. These problems will not solve themselves, and they likewise won’t improve without drastic action. An effort needs to be made to help direct interested and qualified individuals to the field of cybersecurity to move toward closing this gap. Moreover, steps need to be made to better inform the public of general safety measures while online, including the safeguarding of sensitive information.

A …

A Systematic, Intensive Statistical Investigation Of Data From The Comprehensive Analysis Of Reported Drugs (Card) For Compliance And Illicit Opioid Abstinence In Substance Addiction Treatment With Buprenorphine/Naloxone, Kenneth Blum, David Han, Edward J Modestino, Scott Saunders, A Kennison Roy 3rd, W Jacobs, Darryl S Inaba, David Baron, Marlene Oscar-Berman, Mary Hauser, Rajendra D Badgaiyan, David E Smith, John Femino, Mark S Gold

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: Buprenorphine and naloxone (bup/nal), a combination partial mu receptor agonist and low-dose delta mu antagonist, is presently recommended and used to treat opioid-use disorder. However, a literature review revealed a paucity of research involving data from urine drug tests that looked at compliance and abstinence in one sample.

METHOD: Statistical analysis of data from the Comprehensive Analysis of Reported Drugs (CARD) was used to assess compliance and abstinence during treatment in a large cohort of bup/nal patients attending chemical-dependency programs from eastern USA in 2010 and 2011.

RESULTS: Part 1: Bup/nal was present in 93.4% of first (n = …

The Experience Of Volatility In Low- And Moderate-Income Households: Results From A National Survey, Stephen P. Roll, David S. Mitchell, Sam Bufe, Gracie Lynne, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Center for Social Development Research

This is the first in a series of briefs that the Center for Social Development has produced in partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative (EPIC) and the Intuit Tax and Financial Center. It highlights new data on the prevalence of income and expense volatility in low- and moderate-income households.

The Resurrection Of Trust In American Law And Public Discourse, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Harm Reduction Programs: West Virginia Vs. United States, Morgan L. Belcher, Hannah Sayre

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: Harm reduction has been a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs. It has been defined as a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. The U.S. has been experiencing an opioid/heroin epidemic, with significant increases in overdose death among drug users with more than 72,000 Americans having died from drug overdoses in 2017.

Methodology: The methodology for this study was a literature review with a semi structured interview with Tina Rameriz of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department …

Obesity, Noah Rhodes

Global Issues in Public Health

Obesity is a worldwide issue that can be defined as a non-communicable condition which means that it is non-infectious and non-transmissible and it is defined as having a BMI over 30 even though BMI doesn’t account for the person’s muscle mass which causes some athletes to be considered obese just because they weigh a lot for their height. Diagnosing obesity can be a long process which includes a health history being taken, a general physical exam, calculation of BMI, and measuring waist circumference. Diagnosis of obesity also involves checking for problems such as high blood pressure, variation of cholesterol levels …

Food Insecurity: United States, Courtney Handzel

Global Issues in Public Health

Food insecurity is a global issue and has caused struggles to millions of people, specifically in the United States. This environmental issue involves not having the resources to obtain adequate food supply. The economic and social influences that affect food insecurity leave vulnerable populations, such as low-income families and minority races, at a greater disadvantage. This issue causes serious health complications to arise too, the most common being diabetes. The increased risk of diabetes due to food insecurity has been studied on several occasions and the results all show the correlation, lack of food security increases the risk of diabetes. …

Rita, Rita, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Rita Alkhaledy grew up in Sadr City, a poor suburb of Baghdad. Her father is an Iraqi Arab and her mother was Kurdish Iranian. Her mother lived in fear that she would be cast out of Baghdad as being an outsider in Iraq was frowned upon. Her father served in the Iraqi army in the 80s and was gone a great deal, leading to a strained relationship. Their relationship was mended when her mother died from cancer.

After the Iraq war, Rita and her brothers realized that their lives were in danger. They had to move from house to house …

The Resurrection Of Trust In American Law And Public Discourse, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

The Strange Pairing: Building Alliances Between Queer Activists And Conservative Groups To Recognize New Families, Nausica Palazzo

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article explores some of the legal initiatives and reforms that opponents of same-sex marriage in Canada and the United States have pushed forward. Despite being animated by a desire to dilute the protections for same-sex couples, these reforms resulted in “queering” family law, in the sense that they functionalized the notion of family. Consequently, two cohabiting relatives or friends would be eligible for legal recognition, along with all the public and private benefits of such recognition. I term these kinds of “unions” and other nonnormative relationships to be “new families.”

The central claim of this Article is thus that …

Hours Lost To Planned And Unplanned Dental Visits Among Us Adults, Uma Kelekar, Shillpa Naavaal

Dental Public Health and Policy Publications

Introduction

Poor oral health is associated with lost hours at work or school, which may affect a person’s productivity. The objective of our study was to estimate work or school hours lost to dental visits among adults aged 18 and older by the types of visits (emergency or unplanned; routine, planned, or orthodontic; or cosmetic) and to determine the factors associated with hours lost.

Methods

We used the most recent Oral Health Supplement data, from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), to estimate the total hours lost at work or school for dental visits among adults in the United …

Droughtscape, Winter 2018, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Year in review: Drought eased in California, developed in Northern Plains

Quarterly Summary: Drought creeps across the country

Annual impact summary: A year of wildfires

Quarterly impact summary: Drought expands in Texas, Colorado

Drought and water crisis book updated

U.S. Drought Monitor available in Spanish

Study shows cities step up when drought occurs

New staff at the NDMC

Drought Summit in photos

Analysis Of Current Thyroid Function Test Ordering Practices, Joseph K. Kluesner, Darrick J. Beckman, Joshua M. Tate, Alexis A. Beauvais, Maria I. Kravchenko, Jana L. Wardian Phd, Sky D. Graybill, Jeffrey A. Colburn, Irene Folaron, Mark W. True

Journal Articles: Hospital Medicine

RATIONALE: Current guidelines recommend thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) alone as the best test to detect and monitor thyroid dysfunction, yet free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3) are commonly ordered when not clinically indicated. Excessive testing can lead to added economic burden in an era of rising healthcare costs, while rarely contributing to the evaluation or management of thyroid disease.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate our institution's practice in ordering thyroid function tests (TFTs) and to identify strategies to reduce inappropriate FT4 and FT3 testing.

METHODS: A record of all TFTs obtained in the San Antonio Military Health System during a 3-month …

Constitutional Law/Reproductive Justice—Breaking The Trap: How Whole Woman’S Health Protects Abortion Access, And The Substantive Due Process Clause’S Rebuke Of Anti-Abortion Regulations, Chelsea M. Donaldson

Western New England Law Review

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Substantive Due Process Clause is a powerful sword that protects certain rights and liberties. Most of these non-fundamental rights are examined underneath the “rational basis” standard of constitutional review. Despite being a right protected underneath the Substantive Due Process Clause, abortion stands alone in using a unique form of constitutional review: Planned Parenthood v. Casey’s “undue burden” standard.

The striking down of Roe v. Wade’s trimester analysis, and the subsequent creation of the “undue burden” standard, resulted in a catastrophic tidal wave of targeted regulations against abortion providers (TRAP laws). One such TRAP law, House Bill 2 …

Marijuana/Constitutional Law—State Ballot Reforms 2016: The Ramifications On Probable Cause In Massachusetts With Legal Marijuana Cultivation In The Home, Jacob T. Winniman

Western New England Law Review

2016 was a monumental year for state sovereignty regarding marijuana regulation. A total of nine states voted on marijuana reforms, with five deciding whether to legalize recreational use. Among them, Massachusetts voters came together in a display of democracy to end their decades long prohibition on recreational marijuana possession, distribution, and cultivation with a “Yes” on Question 4. By doing so, Massachusetts, as well as California, Alaska, and Nevada, joined the four other states in the Union to have legalized recreational marijuana, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. As Massachusetts implements their marijuana reform, law enforcement faces a …

Higher Education Law—The Negative Effects Of Student Loans: A Plea For Impacted Students, Kelly A. Bednarz

Western New England Law Review

Throughout the United States, college enrollment has overwhelmingly increased, reaching its peak in 2010 with approximately twenty million students. Due to the expanded accessibility to attend college through the Department of Education’s higher education programs, the ability to attend college is no longer solely for the elite. This rapid growth, however, has created additional challenges. Despite the evolving higher education demand, government regulations and oversight have mostly remained stagnant. Colleges began to capitalize and take advantage of this market, prompting the rise of for-profit colleges. In 2012, about 12 percent of students attended for-profit colleges, as opposed to the 0.2 …

The Gendered Impact Of Neoliberalism: Violence And Exploitation Of Women Working In Maquiladoras, Alice Schyllander

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The global production process relies on classism, racism, and sexism to generate a reliable workforce in the global south to produce goods for the global north. Women who work in maquiladoras in Mexico disproportionately occupy low-wage, dangerous jobs that leave them more vulnerable to violence both in the workplace and in their communities. The human rights of women workers in maquiladoras will not be realized until the domestic and international mechanisms that are intended to provide labor protections are strengthened. Better working conditions have been achieved in maquiladoras through grassroots organizing efforts.

Educational Test Scores, Education Spending, And Productivity In Public Education: National Trends And Evidence Across States And Over Time, 1990-2015, John Garen, Rex Bray

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

We examine national trends in educational funding, test score outcomes, and productivity as well as variations in funding and test scores over time and across states to assess how changes in educational spending are (or are not) related to changes in educational test score outcomes for states. National trends show small increases in test scores, large increases in educational funding (until the last recession), and a continued fall in educational productivity. The cross-state, over time analysis indicates a statistically significant but very small association of state funding to test scores; so small that large changes in funding have little effect …