Digital Commons Network^™

A Job Satisfaction Evaluation Of Nursing In The United States And Greece Utilizing The American Nurses Association's Scope And Standards Of Practice, Audrey Narhi

Honors Projects

Nursing is a multifaceted profession that is constantly evolving with the health needs of the populations it serves. Professional organizations within the field utilize evidence-based practice to provide guidelines of what best-practice nursing is. This study aims to evaluate if the American Nurse's Association (ANA), a professional nursing organization in the United States, supports the realities of nursing in a rural US hospital. An international perspective is also considered by evaluating the same principles to a urban hospital in Athens, Greece. Categories that align with ANA Scope and Standards, including workplace environment, career development, supervisor relationships, and personal work practice, …

Evaluation Of A Collaborative Model Between Managed Care And Affordable Housing On Acute Care Costs, Cecilia Ganduglia Cazaban

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives: This study evaluated a collaborative service model between the largest Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) in Texas, Superior HealthPlan, and the affordable housing provider Prospera Housing Community Services.

Study design: Using a quasi-experimental 2-groups research design, we compared health care outcomes and costs between a sample of 104 participants served by the Prospera+Superior collaborative model and a group of 104 participants who had health care coverage through the Superior HealthPlan Medicaid MCO but did not live at Prospera properties (ie, Superior-only group).

Methods: Data from medical claims were analyzed to examine change in outcomes 12 months before and after …

Racial Discrimination, Knowledge, And Health Outcomes: The Mediating Role Of Hepatitis B-Related Stigma Among Patients With Chronic Hepatitis B, Julia G. Katcher, Ann C. Klassen, Hie-Won Hann, Mimi Chang, Hee-Soon Juon

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

It is well described in current literature that Hepatitis B virus (HBV) affects Asian Americans more than any other racial group in the United States and that there is a stigma attached to this condition. The effects of stigma can be lasting, penetrating physiologically and psychologically, yet few studies have focused on the consequences of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of stigma in the effect of racial discrimination and knowledge (of HBV sequelae) on health status of Korean Americans with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Three hundred sixty-five CHB patients were recruited and …

Notes From The Field: Reemergence Of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Infections In Children And Adolescents After The Covid-19 Pandemic, United States, 2018-2024., Chris Edens, Benjamin R. Clopper, Jourdan Devies, Alvaro Benitez, Erin R. Mckeever, Dylan Johns, Bernard Wolff, Rangaraj Selvarangan, Jennifer E. Schuster, Geoffrey A. Weinberg, Peter G. Szilagyi, Fatimah S. Dawood, Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, Christina Quigley, Leila C. Sahni, Natasha Halasa, Laura S. Stewart, Meredith L. Mcmorrow, Brett Whitaker, Danielle M. Zerr, Vasanthi Avadhanula, John V. Williams, Marian G. Michaels, Aaron Kite-Powell, Janet A. Englund, Mary Allen Staat, Kathleen Hartnett, Heidi L. Moline, Adam L. Cohen, Maureen Diaz

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Local Wellness Policies On District Level Physical Activities, Minh Le, Hoang K. Dao, Mia Putnam, Jacob Szeszulski

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Local wellness policies (LWPs) are state required documents that outline school districts’ goals for improving the physical activity of their students. In Texas, most districts use a template for developing their LWP, which has seven prespecified goals that districts may include or further expand upon to include additional goals. PURPOSE: Determine if physical activity components of districts’ LWPs were related to practices within the district. METHODS: LWPs published by public school districts in Texas were collected from district websites, analyzed for content related to physical activity, and assessed to determine if the district text matched the template. Then, responses were …

Association Of Risk Factors And Comorbidities With Chronic Pain In The Elderly Population., Neil Mookerjee, Nicole Schmalbach, Gianna Antinori, Subhadra Thampi, Dylan Windle-Puente, Amy Gilligan, Ha Huy, Megha Andrews, Angela Sun, Roshni Gandhi, William Benedict, Austin Chang, Ben Sanders, Justin Nguyen, Maanika Reddy Keesara, Janet Aliev, Aneri Patel, Isaiah Hughes, Ian Millstein, Krystal Hunter, Satyajeet Roy

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University Departmental Research

INTRODUCTION/OBJECTIVE: Chronic pain disorders affect about 20% of adults in the United States, and it disproportionately affects individuals living in the neighborhoods of extreme socioeconomic disadvantage. In many instances, chronic pain has been noted to arise from an aggregation of multiple risk factors and events. Therefore, it is of importance to recognize the modifiable risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the comorbid medical conditions and risk factors associated with chronic pain disorders in patients aged 65 years and older.

METHODS: Our team retrospectively reviewed medical records of elderly patients (65 years and older) who were evaluated …

Generalizable Pipeline For Constructing Hiv Risk Prediction Models Across Electronic Health Record Systems, Sarah B May, Thomas P Giordano, Assaf Gottlieb

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: The HIV epidemic remains a significant public health issue in the United States. HIV risk prediction models could be beneficial for reducing HIV transmission by helping clinicians identify patients at high risk for infection and refer them for testing. This would facilitate initiation on treatment for those unaware of their status and pre-exposure prophylaxis for those uninfected but at high risk. Existing HIV risk prediction algorithms rely on manual construction of features and are limited in their application across diverse electronic health record systems. Furthermore, the accuracy of these models in predicting HIV in females has thus far been …

Association Between Sociodemographic Variables And Low Birthweight Among Disabled Black Mothers, Yewunetu Dessalegn Malefia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low birthweight (LBW) affects around 30 million infants annually. Infants with LBW face a 20-fold risk of mortality compared to those weighing 2,500 grams or more at birth. In the United States, the prevalence of LBW is nearly double among Blacks compared to Whites. Despite 61 million U.S. adults with disabilities, including 35 million women, there remains a significant research gap concerning factors that contribute to LBW among Black mothers with a disability (BMWD). This retrospective study employed 2019 and 2020 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) datasets to investigate the association between LBW and sociodemographic factors among BMWD. Bivariate …

Pulmonary Fibrosis Stakeholder Summit: A Joint Nhlbi, Three Lakes Foundation, And Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation Workshop Report, Sydney B Montesi, Christian R Gomez, Michael Beers, Robert Brown, Ishanu Chattopadhyay, Kevin R Flaherty, Christine Kim Garcia, Brigitte Gomperts, Lida P Hariri, Cory M Hogaboam, R Gisli Jenkins, Naftali Kaminski, Grace Hyun J Kim, Melanie Königshoff, Martin Kolb, Darrell N Kotton, Jonathan A Kropski, Joseph Lasky, Chelsea M Magin, Toby M Maher, Mark Mccormick, Bethany B Moore, Cheryl Nickerson-Nutter, Justin Oldham, Anna J Podolanczuk, Ganesh Raghu, Ivan Rosas, Steven M Rowe, William T Schmidt, David Schwartz, Jessica E Shore, Cathie Spino, J Matthew Craig, Fernando J Martinez

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Despite progress in elucidation of disease mechanisms, identification of risk factors, biomarker discovery, and the approval of two medications to slow lung function decline in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and one medication to slow lung function decline in progressive pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis remains a disease with a high morbidity and mortality. In recognition of the need to catalyze ongoing advances and collaboration in the field of pulmonary fibrosis, the NHLBI, the Three Lakes Foundation, and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation hosted the Pulmonary Fibrosis Stakeholder Summit on November 8–9, 2022. This workshop was held virtually and was organized into three topic …

Barriers To Research Among Residents In Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery, Annie H. Ho, Matthew J. Sansevere, Joli C. Chou

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Faculty Papers

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: Research is an integral part of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) residency training. This study aimed to identify the current barriers perceived by OMS residents toward conducting research during training.

METHODS: A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted. The survey was distributed to 670 OMS residents across the United States in 2021 and consisted of questions regarding demographics, residency program requirements and resources, and perceived barriers to research. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and post hoc Dunn's test with a statistical significance of P < 0.05.

RESULTS: The response rate was 24.2%. Most participants' programs had …

Universal Risk Prediction For Individuals With And Without Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease, Yejin Mok, Zeina Dardari, Yingying Sang, Xiao Hu, Michael P Bancks, Lena Mathews, Ron C Hoogeveen, Silvia Koton, Michael J Blaha, Wendy S Post, Christie M Ballantyne, Josef Coresh, Wayne Rosamond, Kunihiro Matsushita

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend distinct risk classification systems for primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention. However, both systems rely on similar predictors (eg, age and diabetes), indicating the possibility of a universal risk prediction approach for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs).

Objectives: The authors examined the performance of predictors in persons with and without atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and developed and validated a universal risk prediction model.

Methods: Among 9,138 ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities) participants with (n = 609) and without (n = 8,529) ASCVD at baseline (1996-1998), we examined established predictors in the …

Opportunities For Pharmacogenetic Testing To Guide Dosing Of Medications In Youths With Medicaid., Sonya Tang Girdwood, Matthew Hall, James W. Antoon, Kathryn Kyler, Derek J. Williams, Samir S. Shah, Lucas E. Orth, Jennifer Goldman, James A. Feinstein, Laura B. Ramsey

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

IMPORTANCE: There are an increasing number of medications with a high level of evidence for pharmacogenetic-guided dosing (PGx drugs). Knowledge of the prevalence of dispensings of PGx drugs and their associated genes may allow hospitals and clinical laboratories to determine which pharmacogenetic tests to implement.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of outpatient dispensings of PGx drugs among Medicaid-insured youths, determine genes most frequently associated with PGx drug dispenses, and describe characteristics of youths who were dispensed at least 1 PGx drug.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This serial cross-sectional study includes data from 2011 to 2019 among youths aged 0 to …

Current Practices, Perceived Barriers, And Promising Implementation Strategies For Improving Quality Of Smoking Cessation Support In Accredited Cancer Programs Of The American College Of Surgeons., Jamie S. Ostroff, Eileen M. Reilly, Jessica L. Burris, Graham W. Warren, Rachel C. Shelton, Timothy W. Mullett, Just Ask Quality Improvement Task Force

Psychology Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Persistent smoking is associated with poor outcomes in cancer care. It is strongly recommended that oncology care providers provide cessation support; however, there is limited information about smoking cessation assessment and treatment patterns in routine oncology practice.

METHODS: Leaders of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) and National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (National Accredited Program for Breast Cancer) elected to participate in a national quality improvement initiative (Just ASK) focused on smoking assessment/treatment in cancer care. Online baseline survey responses were received from 762 accredited programs.

RESULTS: Most programs reported regularly asking about smoking (89.9%), …

Personalized Roadmaps For Returning Results From Digital Phenotyping, Kristin Marie Kostick-Quenet, John Herrington, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Safety And Academic Outcomes Of College Campus-Based Advocacy Services, Rachel J Voth Schrag, Elizabeth Baumler, Dixie Hairston, Cynthia Jones, Leila Wood

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual assault, and stalking are consequential public health and safety issues with wide reaching impacts on emerging adults, including those on college campuses in the United States. In response to high rates of violence among college student populations, universities are developing campus-based advocacy (CBA) programs, which aim to support survivors of interpersonal violence through supportive connections, resource acquisition, and safety planning. However, little data exists related to their impact on key student-survivor outcomes. Thus, this study aims to understand (a) the approach CBA programs use to address safety and academic concerns of student-survivors, and (b) the …

Racial Discrimination And Interpersonal Violence In Asian American Adolescents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Yu Lu, Elizabeth Baumler, Leila Wood, Vi D Le, Shannon P Guillot-Wright, Jeff R Temple

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Racial discrimination targeting Asians in the United States has increased sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a well-established link with mental/physical health outcomes, little is known about how racial discrimination relates to interpersonal violence, particularly in adolescents. To address this gap in knowledge, we examined cross-sectional and longitudinal (1-year follow-up) associations between racial discrimination and interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization in Asian American adolescents in a large US city.

METHODS: Data from Waves 3 (2020) and 4 (2021) of a randomized clinical trial of a school-based violence prevention program were examined. We limited our sample to participants who identified …

Risk Factors For Post-Discharge Adverse Outcomes Following Hospitalization Among Older Adults Diagnosed With Elder Mistreatment, Monique R Pappadis, Leila Wood, Allen Haas, Jordan Westra, Yong-Fang Kuo, Charles P Mouton

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Using 100% Medicare data files, this study explored whether primary elder mistreatment (EM) diagnosis, EM type, and facility type were associated with 3-year mortality and 1-year unplanned hospital readmission among older patients diagnosed with EM with hospital discharge from 10/01/2015 through 12/31/2018 (n = 11,023). We also examined outcome differences between older patients diagnosed with EM and matched non-EM patient controls. Neglect by others was the most common EM diagnosis. Three-year mortality was 56.7% and one-year readmission rate was 53.8%. Compared to matched non-EM patient controls, older EM patients were at an increased risk of mortality and readmission. Among …

Safety And Academic Outcomes Of College Campus-Based Advocacy Services, Rachel J Voth Schrag, Elizabeth Baumler, Dixie Hairston, Cynthia Jones, Leila Wood

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual assault, and stalking are consequential public health and safety issues with wide reaching impacts on emerging adults, including those on college campuses in the United States. In response to high rates of violence among college student populations, universities are developing campus-based advocacy (CBA) programs, which aim to support survivors of interpersonal violence through supportive connections, resource acquisition, and safety planning. However, little data exists related to their impact on key student-survivor outcomes. Thus, this study aims to understand (a) the approach CBA programs use to address safety and academic concerns of student-survivors, and (b) the …

Intracranial Volume Is Driven By Both Genetics And Early Life Exposures: The Sol-Inca-Mri Study, Tamar Sofer, Einat Granot-Hershkovitz, Wassim Tarraf, Paola Filigrana, Carmen R Isasi, Shakira F Suglia, Robert Kaplan, Kent Taylor, Martha L Daviglus, Fernando D Testai, Donglin Zeng, Jianwen Cai, Myriam Fornage, Hector M González, Charles Decarli

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Intracranial volume (ICV) reflects maximal brain development and is associated with later-life cognitive abilities. We quantified ICV among first- and second-generation Hispanic and Latino adults from the Study of Latinos-Investigation of Cognitive Aging - MRI (SOL-INCA-MRI), estimated ICV heritability, and tested its associations with previously reported genetic variants, both individually and as a genetic risk score (GRS). We also estimated the association of ICV with early life environmental measures: nativity or age of immigration and parental education. The estimated heritability of ICV was 19% (95% CI, 0.1%-56%) in n=1781 unrelated SOL-INCA-MRI individuals. Four of 10 tested genetic variants were associated …

Policy Feedback, Varieties Of Federalism, And The Politics Of Health-Care Funding In The United States, Mexico, And Canada, Daniel Béland, Gregory P. Marchildon, Anahely Medrano, Philip Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, health- care spending became a key policy issue across the OECD. Comparing recent institutional trends in public health- care financing in three federal countries—Canada, the United States, and Mexico—this article explores the political struggles over fiscal federalism in health care related to both vertical and horizontal imbalances that can generate regional tensions and pit subnational governments against one an-other and, especially, against the national government. Grounded in a historical institutionalist perspective, the article shows how different institutional legacies shape current conflicts over federal health- care funding in these three highly dissimilar federal countries. Such an …

Determinants Of Referral Network Size For Screening Colonoscopies In The Veterans Health Administration After The Implementation Of The Mission Act, Chase S Eck, Vivian Ho, Cheng Jiang, Laura A Petersen

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: To measure key characteristics of the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) Community Care (CC) referral network for screening colonoscopy and identify market and institutional factors associated with network size.

Data sources: VHA electronic health records, CC claim data, and National Plan and Provider Enumeration System.

Study design: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we measure the size of the VHA's CC referral networks over time and by VHA parent facility (n = 137). We used a multivariable linear regression to identify factors associated with network size at the market-year level. Network size was measured as the number of physicians who performed …

Racial Differences In Treatment And Survival Among Older Patients With Multiple Myeloma, Rong Wang, Natalia Neparidze, Xiaomei Ma, Graham A Colditz, Su-Hsin Chang, Shi-Yi Wang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Treatments for multiple myeloma (MM) have evolved over time and improved MM survival. While racial differences in MM treatment and prognosis between non-Hispanic African American (NHAA) and non-Hispanic White (NHW) patients are well-established, it is unclear whether they have persisted after the introduction of novel agents.

METHODS: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare linked database, our study investigated racial difference in the receipt of treatment within 1 year following diagnosis and assessed survival outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries (≥66 years) diagnosed with MM from 2007 to 2017. We applied multivariable Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the association between …

Improving Veteran Engagement With Virtual Care Technologies: A Veterans Health Administration State Of The Art Conference Research Agenda, Taona P Haderlein, Jenice Guzman-Clark, Navid S Dardashti, Nicholas Mcmahon, Elizabeth L Duran, Jolie N Haun, Stephanie A Robinson, Amanda C Blok, Sarah L Cutrona, Jan A Lindsay, Christina M Armstrong, Kim M Nazi, Stephanie L Shimada, Nancy R Wilck, Erin Reilly, Eric Kuhn, Timothy P Hogan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Although the availability of virtual care technologies in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) continues to expand, ensuring engagement with these technologies among Veterans remains a challenge. VHA Health Services Research & Development convened a Virtual Care State of The Art (SOTA) conference in May 2022 to create a research agenda for improving virtual care access, engagement, and outcomes. This article reports findings from the Virtual Care SOTA engagement workgroup, which comprised fourteen VHA subject matter experts representing VHA clinical care, research, administration, and operations. Workgroup members reviewed current evidence on factors and strategies that may affect Veteran engagement with virtual …

Veterans Health Administration Enrollees’ Choice Of Care Setting Relates To The Expansion Of Care Options: Evidence From Screening Colonoscopies Before And After The Mission Act, Chase S Eck, Cheng Jiang, Laura A Petersen

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: To estimate whether those enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) were less likely to use VHA-delivered colorectal cancer screening colonoscopies after the MISSION Act.

Data sources and study setting: Secondary data were collected on VHA-enrolled Veterans from FY2017-FY2021.

Study design: This retrospective cross-sectional study measured the volume and share of screening colonoscopies that were VHA-delivered over time and by drive time eligibility-defined as living more than 60 min away from the nearest VHA specialty-care clinic. We used a multivariable logistic regression to adjust for patient and facility factors.

Data extraction: Data were extracted for VHA enrollees (n = …

Strategies For Secondary Use Of Real-World Clinical And Administrative Data For Outcome Ascertainment In Pragmatic Clinical Trials, Cynthia Hau, Patricia A Woods, Amanda S Guski, Srihari I Raju, Liang Zhu, Patrick R Alba, William C Cushman, Peter A Glassman, Areef Ishani, Addison A Taylor, Ryan E Ferguson, Sarah M Leatherman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Pragmatic trials are gaining popularity as a cost-effective way to examine treatment effectiveness and generate timely comparative evidence. Incorporating supplementary real-world data is recommended for robust outcome monitoring. However, detailed operational guidelines are needed to inform effective use and integration of heterogeneous databases.

Objective: Lessons learned from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Diuretic Comparison Project (DCP) are reviewed, providing adaptable recommendations to capture clinical outcomes from real-world data.

Methods: Non-cancer deaths and major cardiovascular (CV) outcomes were determined using VA, Medicare, and National Death Index (NDI) data. Multiple ascertainment strategies were applied, including claims-based algorithms, natural language processing, and systematic …

“It’S Not That We Care Less”: Insights Into Health Care Utilization For Comorbid Diabetes And Depression Among Latinos, Sharon Borja, Miriam G. Valdovinos, Kenia M. Rivera, Natalia Giraldo-Santiago, Robin Gearing, Luis R. Torres-Hostos

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Despite robust knowledge regarding the socio-economic and cultural factors affecting Latino* access to healthcare, limited research has explored service utilization in the context of comorbid conditions like diabetes and depression. This qualitative study, embedded in a larger mixed-methods project, aimed to investigate perceptions held by Latinos and their social support systems (i.e., family members) regarding comorbid diabetes and depression and to identify barriers and facilitators to their help-seeking behaviors and treatment engagement. Bilingual and bicultural researchers conducted eight focus groups with 94 participants in a large U.S. metropolitan area and were primarily conducted in Spanish. The participants either had a …

It's Not That We Care Less: Insights Into Health Care Utilization For Comorbid Diabetes And Depression Among Latinos, Sharon Borja, Miriam G Valdovinos, Kenia M Rivera, Natalia Giraldo-Santiago, Robin E Gearing, Luis R Torres

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite robust knowledge regarding the socio-economic and cultural factors affecting Latino* access to healthcare, limited research has explored service utilization in the context of comorbid conditions like diabetes and depression. This qualitative study, embedded in a larger mixed-methods project, aimed to investigate perceptions held by Latinos and their social support systems (i.e., family members) regarding comorbid diabetes and depression and to identify barriers and facilitators to their help-seeking behaviors and treatment engagement. Bilingual and bicultural researchers conducted eight focus groups with 94 participants in a large U.S. metropolitan area and were primarily conducted in Spanish. The participants either had a …

Virology-The Path Forward, Angela L Rasmussen, Gigi K Gronvall, Anice C Lowen, Felicia Goodrum, James Alwine, Kristian G Andersen, Simon J Anthony, Joel Baines, Arinjay Banerjee, Andrew J Broadbent, Christopher B Brooke, Samuel K Campos, Patrizia Caposio, Arturo Casadevall, Gary C Chan, Anna R Cliffe, Donna Collins-Mcmillen, Nancy Connell, Blossom Damania, Matthew D Daugherty, Kari Debbink, Terence S Dermody, Daniel Dimaio, W Paul Duprex, Michael Emerman, Denise A Galloway, Robert F Garry, Stephen A Goldstein, Alexander L Greninger, Amy L Hartman, Brenda G Hogue, Stacy M Horner, Peter J Hotez, Jae U Jung, Jeremy P Kamil, Stephanie M Karst, Lou Laimins, Seema S Lakdawala, Igor Landais, Michael Letko, Brett Lindenbach, Shan-Lu Liu, Micah Luftig, Grant Mcfadden, Andrew Mehle, Juliet Morrison, Anne Moscona, Elke Mühlberger, Joshua Munger, Karl Münger, Eain Murphy, Christopher J Neufeldt, Janko Z Nikolich, Christine M O'Connor, Andrew Pekosz, Sallie R Permar, Julie K Pfeiffer, Saskia V Popescu, John G Purdy, Vincent R Racaniello, Charles M Rice, Jonathan A Runstadler, Martin J Sapp, Rona S Scott, Gregory A Smith, Erin M Sorrell, Emily Speranza, Daniel Streblow, Scott A Tibbetts, Zsolt Toth, Koenraad Van Doorslaer, Susan R Weiss, Elizabeth A White, Timothy M White, Christiane E Wobus, Michael Worobey, Satoko Yamaoka, Andrew Yurochko

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

In the United States (US), biosafety and biosecurity oversight of research on viruses is being reappraised. Safety in virology research is paramount and oversight frameworks should be reviewed periodically. Changes should be made with care, however, to avoid impeding science that is essential for rapidly reducing and responding to pandemic threats as well as addressing more common challenges caused by infectious diseases. Decades of research uniquely positioned the US to be able to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with astounding speed, delivering life-saving vaccines within a year of identifying the virus. We should embolden and empower this strength, which is …

How Fears Of Ai In The Classroom Reflect Anxieties About Choosing Sophistry Over True Knowledge In The American Education System, David Arellano Smith

Critical Humanities

The rise of ChatGPT has educators across the United States of America worried about scholastic integrity like never before. This paper argues, however, that underneath this initial concern lies an even greater one, that the education system in the United States so closely resembles the style of teaching used by the sophists in Ancient Greece that it has ultimately failed to cultivate critical thinking skills in America’s youth, so much so that ChatGPT has become a far greater issue than it ever needed to be. The practice of ‘teaching to the test’ and the commodification of education, which is akin …

Chagas Disease Diagnostic Practices At Four Major Hospital Systems In California And Texas, Emily A Kelly, Jose I Echeverri Alegre, Katherine Promer, Jesica Hayon, Roumen Iordanov, Khuzaima Rangwalla, Jerry J Zhang, Zian Fang, Cindy Huang, Cassiana E Bittencourt, Sharon Reed, Rosa M Andrade, Caryn Bern, Eva H Clark, Jeffrey D Whitman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Chagas disease (CD) is a parasitic disease that affects ∼300 000 people living in the United States. CD leads to cardiac and/or gastrointestinal disease in up to 30% of untreated people. However, end-organ damage can be prevented with early diagnosis and antiparasitic therapy.

METHODS: We reviewed electronic health records of patients who underwent testing for CD at four hospital systems in California and Texas between 2016 and 2020. Descriptive analyses were performed as a needs assessment for improving CD diagnosis.

RESULTS: In total, 470 patients were tested for CD. Cardiac indications made up more than half (60%) of all …