Digital Commons Network^™

Postoperative Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome Predicts Increased Mortality In Patients After Elective Craniotomy, Liyuan Peng, Qi Gan, Yangchun Xiao, Jialing He, Xin Cheng, Peng Wang, Lvlin Chen, Tiangui Li, Yan He, Weelic Chong, Yang Hai, Chao You, Fang Fang, Yu Zhang

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

Introduction: Patients undergoing craniotomy are at high risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality due to excessive inflammatory responses. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the prognostic utility of postoperative systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in patients undergoing craniotomy.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent craniotomy between January 2011 and March 2021. SIRS was diagnosed based on two or more criteria (hypo-/hyperthermia, tachypnea, leukopenia/leukocytosis, tachycardia). We used univariate and multivariate analysis for the development of SIRS with postoperative 30-day mortality.

Results: Of 12,887 patients who underwent craniotomy, more than half of the patients …

Gender Equity In Public Affairs Pedagogy: Structure, Content, And Practice For A More Inclusive Public Sector, Nicole M. Elias, Maria J. D’Agostino, Vanessa Diez, Erik Krause

Publications and Research

Gender is an important component of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) pedagogy in public affairs, yet gender remains largely absent from public affairs education in three central ways: how courses are structured, the content of courses, and the practice of pedagogy. This article explains the value and need for gender equitable pedagogy in public affairs curricula. We conduct a descriptive analysis of scholarship and best practices from leading think tanks and public advocacy research organizations. Ultimately, this work provides recommendations to strengthen gender equity pedagogy both inside the classroom and in public sector workplaces.

Implementation And Outcomes Of A Pilot Collaborative Surgical Hydrocele Training In Côte D'Ivoire, Kevin Montes, Georgina Angoa, Catherine M Bjerum, Adama Guira, Olivier K Kouadio, Allassane F Ouattara, Gary J Weil, Peter U Fischer, Aboulaye Meite, Benjamin G Koudou, Philip J Budge

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a neglected tropical disease that can cause hydrocele and its associated stigma, loss of economic productivity, and depression. Hydrocele surgery is an essential part of LF morbidity management but can be difficult for national programs to implement. To improve access to hydrocele surgeries in Côte d'Ivoire, we provided a WHO-certified surgical training for six surgical teams from five health districts in Côte d'Ivoire. We then evaluated the surgical outcomes and assessed the impact of hydrocele surgery on quality of life of hydrocelectomy patients. Preoperative and operative records were reviewed to describe baseline hydrocele characteristics and operative …

Pathways To Care For Psychosis In Rural Uganda: Mixed-Methods Study Of Individuals With Psychosis, Family Members, And Local Leaders, Yang Jae Lee, Sophie Waimon, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) bear a disproportionate burden of mental illness, with limited access to biomedical care. This study examined pathways to care for psychosis in rural Uganda, exploring factors influencing treatment choices.

METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods study in Buyende District, Uganda, involving 67 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions (data collection continued until thematic saturation was reached) with individuals with psychotic disorders, family members, and local leaders. Structured questionnaires were administered to 41 individuals with psychotic disorders.

RESULTS: Three main themes emerged: (1) Positive attitudes towards biomedical providers, (2) Barriers to accessing biomedical care (3) …

"A New Look At Atonement In Leviticus: The Meaning And Purpose Of Kipper Revisited " [Review] / Greenberg, James. A., Slaviša Janković

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review

Core 100 And 399, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Three Full-Time Employees Retire From Dordt, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

It's Hip To Be In The Squares, Sarah Moss

The Voice

No abstract provided.

Beyond Sustenance: An Exploration Of Food And Drink Culture In Ireland, Grace Neville

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

No abstract provided.

"Honest Claret": The Social Meaning Of Georgian Ireland’S Favourite Wine, Tom Jaine

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

No abstract provided.

How I Became A Food Historian: Looking Back On All Manners Of Food, Stephen Mennell

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

The author’s book All Manners of Food was published in 1985 and was well received by historians and (to a lesser extent) by sociologists. In this essay, he reflects on how, having begun his academic career mainly as a sociological theorist, he came to write a large book about the history of food in England and France. In particular, he traces his intellectual debt, in writing this book, to Norbert Elias.

Exploring The Significance Of The Traditional Chef’S Uniform In Making Sense Of Professionalism In Culinary Arts Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Orla Mc Connell

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

Previous studies have found that professionalism is an important success factor for chefs. Yet, research on what professionalism “means” to chefs, and how they “make sense” of it, is currently underexplored. While there is some evidence of the significance of the traditional chef’s uniform in professional identity formation, it also needs further consideration. Culinary arts lecturers and chefs have already contributed to these discussions, but the student voice remains largely unknown. Alongside this, there is no prior research specifically on professionalism in culinary arts in Ireland. Therefore, a research gap emerged, which this paper intends to address. Using interpretative phenomenological …

The Literary Gestalt Of The Restaurant Review, Anke Klitzing

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

The restaurant review is a quintessential form of gastronomic writing, but it has rarely been studied in terms of its literary form. This paper investigates the literary gestalt of restaurant reviews through a gastrocritical reading of two reviews by the Irish restaurant critic Helen Lucy Burke. It concludes that restaurant reviews typically include mimesis and evocative descriptions, a meal plot, inherent tension due to the performance character of the restaurant meal and incorporation anxiety, and a combination of phenomenological and ethnographic reporting. These literary features serve to make reviews an accurate and reliable account of the reviewer’s immersive experience, to …

Utilizing Culturally Responsive Strategies To Inspire African American Female Participation In Cybersecurity, Deanna Bailey, Michel Kornegay, Ladawn Partlow, Charnee Bowens, Karen Gareis, Kevin Kornegay

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The number of African American females participating in cyber fields is significantly low. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education requires a new approach to student engagement to increase African American female participation in cybersecurity. The most common approach to engaging more African American females in STEM is to provide students access to professional images or role models active in STEM; however, more is needed. More race-centered strategies beyond role modeling are necessary to attract and retain African American females in STEM. Research studies show that integrating personal experiences and making cultural connections can help improve student participation in STEM …

Integraciones Hemisféricas (Hemispheric Integrations), Amy Hume, Amy Chaffee, Sarah Nichols, Oscar Quiroz, Jersten Ray Seraile

Theatre: Faculty Scholarship

This article continues the tradition of publishing an annual conference “plenary” article. The Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), this journal’s sponsoring organization, met in person from July 10–14, 2023 for its 36th annual conference, co-hosted by Centro de Estudios Para el uso de la Voz (CEUVOZ) for their Second International Meeting of Voice and Speech. VASTA and CEUVOZ members and delegates met in La Paz, Mexico, for “Integraciones Hemisféricas/Hemispheric Integrations: Theoretical Frameworks for the Future of Vocal Practice and Pedagogy.” There was also an online element to the conference, with member presentations made available on a digital …

Senate Journal History, Colorado General Assembly

Colorado House and Senate Journals

No abstract provided.

Decolonising The Curriculum: A Survey Of Current Practice In A Modern Uk University, J Winter, O Webb, R Turner

Plymouth Institute of Education

Decolonisation is a socio-political movement which challenges Eurocentrism and post-colonial notions of power. This has numerous implications for higher education institutions (HEIs), where the content and delivery of curricula may be seen as products of colonial legacy. The decolonisation agenda has increasing support from students, the academy, and regulatory bodies, which together are invoking HEIs to act. This paper reports on research undertaken within a UK HEI, which benchmarked the extent to which programmes followed characteristics of (de)colonised curricula. A survey, based on existing open access resources, was completed by 99 staff and 290 students across four schools. Findings suggest …

Navigating The Observation Zone: Do Risk Scores Help Stratify Patients With Indeterminate High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponins?, Nicklaus P Ashburn, James K Mccord, Anna C Snavely, Robert H Christenson, Fred S Apple, Richard M Nowak, William F Peacock, Christopher R Defilippi, Simon A Mahler

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Unraveling The Intercellular Communication Disruption And Key Pathways In Alzheimer’S Disease: An Integrative Study Of Single-Nucleus Transcriptomes And Genetic Association, Andi Liu, Brisa S Fernandes, Citu Citu, Zhongming Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Recently, single-nucleus RNA-seq (snRNA-seq) analyses have revealed important cellular and functional features of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a prevalent neurodegenerative disease. However, our knowledge regarding intercellular communication mediated by dysregulated ligand-receptor (LR) interactions remains very limited in AD brains.

METHODS: We systematically assessed the intercellular communication networks by using a discovery snRNA-seq dataset comprising 69,499 nuclei from 48 human postmortem prefrontal cortex (PFC) samples. We replicated the findings using an independent snRNA-seq dataset of 56,440 nuclei from 18 PFC samples. By integrating genetic signals from AD genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics and whole genome sequencing (WGS) data, we prioritized …

Inpatient Costs Of Treating Patients With Covid-19, Kandice A Kapinos, Richard M Peters, Robert E Murphy, Samuel F Hohmann, Ankita Podichetty, Raymond S Greenberg

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: With more than 6.2 million hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the US, recognition of the average hospital costs to provide inpatient care during the pandemic is necessary to understanding the national medical resource use and improving public health readiness and related policies.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the mean cost to provide inpatient care to treat COVID-19 and how it varied through the pandemic waves and by important sociodemographic patient characteristics.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used inpatient-level data from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022, extracted from a repository of clinical, administrative, and financial information covering 97% …

Combinatorial Effects Of Ion Channel Mis-Splicing As A Cause Of Myopathy In Myotonic Dystrophy, Larissa Nitschke, Thomas A Cooper

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by an unstable expanded CTG repeat located in the 3'-UTR of the DM1 protein kinase (DMPK) gene. The pathogenic mechanism results in misregulated alternative splicing of hundreds of genes, creating the dilemma of establishing which genes contribute to the mechanism of DM1 skeletal muscle pathology. In this issue of the JCI, Cisco and colleagues systematically tested the combinatorial effects of DM1-relevant mis-splicing patterns in vivo and identified the synergistic effects of mis-spliced calcium and chloride channels as a major contributor to DM1 skeletal muscle impairment. The authors further demonstrated …

Il-12 Reprograms Car-Expressing Natural Killer T Cells To Long-Lived Th1-Polarized Cells With Potent Antitumor Activity, Elisa Landoni, Mark G Woodcock, Gabriel Barragan, Gabriele Casirati, Vincenzo Cinella, Simone Stucchi, Leah M Flick, Tracy A Withers, Hanna Hudson, Giulia Casorati, Paolo Dellabona, Pietro Genovese, Barbara Savoldo, Leonid S Metelitsa, Gianpietro Dotti

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Human natural killer T cells (NKTs) are innate-like T lymphocytes increasingly used for cancer immunotherapy. Here we show that human NKTs expressing the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) undergo extensive and sustained molecular and functional reprogramming. Specifically, IL-12 instructs and maintains a Th1-polarization program in NKTs in vivo without causing their functional exhaustion. Furthermore, using CD62L as a marker of memory cells in human NKTs, we observe that IL-12 maintains long-term CD62L-expressing memory NKTs in vivo. Notably, IL-12 initiates a de novo programming of memory NKTs in CD62L-negative NKTs indicating that human NKTs circulating in the peripheral blood possess an intrinsic …

Gene Regulation And Speciation In A Migratory Divide Between Songbirds, Matthew I M Louder, Hannah Justen, Abigail A Kimmitt, Koedi S Lawley, Leslie M Turner, J David Dickman, Kira E Delmore

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Behavioral variation abounds in nature. This variation is important for adaptation and speciation, but its molecular basis remains elusive. Here, we use a hybrid zone between two subspecies of songbirds that differ in migration - an ecologically important and taxonomically widespread behavior---to gain insight into this topic. We measure gene expression in five brain regions. Differential expression between migratory states was dominated by circadian genes in all brain regions. The remaining patterns were largely brain-region specific. For example, expression differences between the subspecies that interact with migratory state likely help maintain reproductive isolation in this system and were documented in …

Novel Techniques In Imaging Congenital Heart Disease: Jacc Scientific Statement, Ritu Sachdeva, Aimee K Armstrong, Rima Arnaout, Lars Grosse-Wortmann, B Kelly Han, Luc Mertens, Ryan A Moore, Laura J Olivieri, Anitha Parthiban, Andrew J Powell

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Recent years have witnessed exponential growth in cardiac imaging technologies, allowing better visualization of complex cardiac anatomy and improved assessment of physiology. These advances have become increasingly important as more complex surgical and catheter-based procedures are evolving to address the needs of a growing congenital heart disease population. This state-of-the-art review presents advances in echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance, cardiac computed tomography, invasive angiography, 3-dimensional modeling, and digital twin technology. The paper also highlights the integration of artificial intelligence with imaging technology. While some techniques are in their infancy and need further refinement, others have found their way into clinical workflow …

Crispr-Cas9 Base Editing Of Pathogenic Camkiiδ Improves Cardiac Function In A Humanized Mouse Model, Simon Lebek, Xurde M Caravia, Leon G Straub, Damir Alzhanov, Wei Tan, Hui Li, John R Mcanally, Kenian Chen, Lin Xu, Philipp E Scherer, Ning Liu, Rhonda Bassel-Duby, Eric N Olson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of worldwide morbidity and mortality, highlighting the necessity for advanced therapeutic strategies. Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIδ (CaMKIIδ) is a prominent inducer of various cardiac disorders, which is mediated by 2 oxidation-sensitive methionine residues within the regulatory domain. We have previously shown that ablation of CaMKIIδ oxidation by CRISPR-Cas9 base editing enables the heart to recover function from otherwise severe damage following ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury. Here, we extended this therapeutic concept toward potential clinical translation. We generated a humanized CAMK2D knockin mouse model in which the genomic sequence encoding the entire regulatory domain was …

Holy Cross Magazine, Vol. 58, No. 1, Winter 2024, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Magazine

It Scares Us To Death — And We Love It

Why are we fascinated with things we should fear, and why at Holy Cross is a dusty storage space home to the campus’ most persistent (and unsubstantiated) legend?
Feature by Marybeth Reilly-McGreen ’89

I’ve Jumped in a Lake More Than 1,200 Days in a Row. Here’s What I’ve Learned.
Essay by Dan O’Conor ’90

Suppose We All Presupposed?
How St. Ignatius’ instruction issued 500 years ago could improve your daily life.
Essay by Michele Murray

Tell Us a Story, Jonathan Kruk
For 35 years, storyteller Jonathan Kruk ’77 has been …

Detecting Arabic Misinformation Using An Attention Mechanism-Based Model, Bashar M. Nema, Mohammed Haqqi Al-Tai

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

The proliferation of fake news or misinformation, commonly referred to as fake news, has a significant effect on a global scale, as it is aimed at influencing public opinion as well as crowd decision-making. It istherefore crucial to verifythe truthfulness of news before it is released to the public. Today, most studies on early detection of Arabic misinformation rely on machine learning methods and transformer-based models. Therefore, in the current study, we used deep learning techniques to propose a model for detecting Arabic misinformation by leveraging the contextual features of news article content. The proposed model was built based on …

Lived Experiences: Growing Up With A Seriously Mentally Ill Parent, Deborah Lindell, Elliane Irani

Faculty Scholarship

Introduction: Individuals with serious mental illness often have persistent and disruptive symptoms. These can profoundly affect their children's lives, exposing them to adverse social and psychological conditions. Such conditions can result in traumatic lived experiences during childhood, which can carry over into adulthood, influencing their self-perceptions and shaping their attitudes toward themselves and society. To gain insights into this phenomenon, this study explored the lived experiences of adults who grew up with a parent with serious mental illness and their perceptions of their lives in adulthood. Design: This study used an interpretive phenomenological design. Methods: Participants were invited to voluntarily …

Analyses Of Patients Who Self-Administered Diazepam Nasal Spray For Acute Treatment Of Seizure Clusters, Sunita Misra, Michael R Sperling, Vikram Rao, Jurriaan Peters, Patricia Penovich, James Wheless, R. Edward Hogan, Charles Davis, Enrique Carrazana, Adrian Rabinowicz

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

For acute treatment of seizure clusters in patients with epilepsy, intranasal administration of acute seizure therapies has been shown to provide accessibility and ease of use to care partners as well as the potential for self-administration by patients. Diazepam nasal spray (Valtoco®) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for acute treatment of intermittent, stereotypic episodes of frequent seizure activity (ie, seizure clusters, acute repetitive seizures) in patients with epilepsy aged ≥6 years. Self-administration consistent with the prescribing information is feasible and was reported by a subgroup of patients (n = 27 of 163) in a long-term phase …

Offline Handwritten Signature Identification Based On Hybrid Features And Proposed Deep Model, Zainab Hashim, Hanaa Mohsin, Ahmed Alkhayyat

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

Handwritten signature identification is the process of determining an individual’strue identity by analyzing their signature. This is an important task in various applications such as financial transactions, legal documentverification, and biometric systems. However, verifying handwritten signatures is challenging even in the age of digital transactions and remote document authentication. The inherent variety in people’s signatures, which may occurdue to factors such as mood, exhaustion, or even the writing tool used, contributes to the problem. Furthermore, the proliferation of sophisticated forgery methods, such as freehand mimicking and sophisticated picture manipulation, necessitates the development of reliable and precise tools for identifying authentic …