Digital Commons Network^™

Pharmacogenetic Testing For The Pediatric Gastroenterologist: Actionable Drug-Gene Pairs To Know., Tracy L. Sandritter, Rachel Chevalier, Rebecca Abt, Valentina Shakhnovich

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Gastroenterologists represent some of the earlier adopters of precision medicine through pharmacogenetic testing by embracing upfront genotyping for thiopurine S-methyltransferase nucleotide diphosphatase (TPMT) before prescribing 6-mercaptopurine or azathioprine for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. Over the last two decades, pharmacogenetic testing has become more readily available for other genes relevant to drug dose individualization. Common medications prescribed by gastroenterologists for conditions other than inflammatory bowel disease now have actionable guidelines, which can improve medication efficacy and safety; however, a clear understanding of how to interpret the results remains a challenge for many clinicians, precluding wide implementation of …

Strengthening Tobacco 21 Implementation And Enforcement To Reduce Tobacco-Related Health Disparities: A Stakeholder Engagement Project., Summer Woolsey, Athena K. Ramos, Kaeli Samson, Delwyn Catley, Keyonna M. King, Rob Crane, Hongying Daisy Dai

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

INTRODUCTION: As a part of a priority-setting stakeholder engagement project to strengthen the impact of the federal Tobacco 21 (T21) law, we conducted a qualitative study to solicit input from a nationwide sample of tobacco control stakeholders regarding the implementation, enforcement, and equity implications of the T21 law.

METHODS: Following the T21 policy evaluation guidance developed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), we identified T21 experts in four domains: policy, evaluation, subject matter, and implementation from a national search of stakeholders (invitations, n=1279) to account for geographical variation. This study presents results from five focus groups conducted in December …

Sustainability Of Open-Access Author Fund: A Case Study Of Faculty Usage Patterns And Apc Cost, Jayati Chaudhuri, Adele Dobry

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The California State University, Los Angeles Library established a pilot program on Open-Access (OA) Author Fund in 2018. This article presents information about the management of the University Library's Open-Access Author Fund. Particularly, this article focuses on faculty usage of the OA Author Fund by colleges, disciplines, and publishers. Additionally, the authors examined the article processing charges (APCs) and self-archiving policies of the top open-access journals where Cal State LA faculty publish. This analysis will assist the University Library’s Open-Access Group to understand if the University Library needs to provide additional funding and explore new ways to sustain the funding. …

Medicare Modernization—The Urgent Need For Fiscal Solvency, Brian J. Miller, Lisa M. Grabert, Eric D. Hargan

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Launched in 1965 based on the design prevalent in employer-sponsored insurance markets, Medicare began as a fee-for-service (FFS) benefit for the “very elderly,” with eligibility at age 65 years when the average life expectancy in the US was approximately 70 years. Fast forward to 2023, more than 60 million Americans depend on Medicare for financing their health benefits. Today, the program faces questions of fiscal sustainability, with hospital insurance (Part A) trust fund insolvency projected for 2028. Leaders across administrations, including former US Department of Health and Human Services Secretaries Burwell and Leavitt and former Center for Medicare & Medicaid …

Induction Of Astrocytic Slc22a3 Regulates Sensory Processing Through Histone Serotonylation, Debosmita Sardar, Yi-Ting Cheng, Junsung Woo, Dong-Joo Choi, Zhung-Fu Lee, Wookbong Kwon, Hsiao-Chi Chen, Brittney Lozzi, Alexis Cervantes, Kavitha Rajendran, Teng-Wei Huang, Antrix Jain, Benjamin R Arenkiel, Ian Maze, Benjamin Deneen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Neuronal activity drives alterations in gene expression within neurons, yet how it directs transcriptional and epigenomic changes in neighboring astrocytes in functioning circuits is unknown. We found that neuronal activity induces widespread transcriptional upregulation and downregulation in astrocytes, highlighted by the identification of a neuromodulator transporter Slc22a3 as an activity-inducible astrocyte gene regulating sensory processing in the olfactory bulb. Loss of astrocytic Slc22a3 reduced serotonin (5HT) levels in astrocytes, leading to alterations in histone serotonylation. Inhibition of histone serotonylation in astrocytes reduced expression of GABA biosynthetic genes and GABA release, culminating in olfactory deficits. Our study revealed that neuronal activity …

Predicting Chemotherapy Benefit Across Different Races In Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients Using The Oncotype Dx Score, Vikram R Shaw, Christopher I Amos, Chao Cheng

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Oncotype DX assay, a multigene molecular test, has been widely used to stratify relapse risk and guide chemotherapy treatment in breast cancer. However, the optimal threshold of the Oncotype DX score in predicting chemotherapy benefit and its racial variation has not been investigated.

Methods: In this study, we apply a random forest survival model to the SEER-Oncotype cohort data (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results with Oncotype DX test information for breast cancer patients) and determine chemotherapy benefit thresholds in early-stage, estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+), and HER2-negative (HER2-) patients of different races.

Results: Our results indicate that early-stage ER+, HER2-, and LN-/LN+ …

Coronavirus Disease 2019 Convalescent Plasma Outpatient Therapy To Prevent Outpatient Hospitalization: A Meta-Analysis Of Individual Participant Data From 5 Randomized Trials, Adam C Levine, Yuriko Fukuta, Moises A Huaman, Jiangda Ou, Barry R Meisenberg, Bela Patel, James H Paxton, Daniel F Hanley, Bart J A Rijnders, Arvind Gharbharan, Casper Rokx, Jaap Jan Zwaginga, Andrea Alemany, Oriol Mitjà, Dan Ouchi, Pere Millat-Martinez, Valerie Durkalski-Mauldin, Frederick K Korley, Larry J Dumont, Clifton W Callaway, Romina Libster, Gonzalo Perez Marc, Diego Wappner, Ignacio Esteban, Fernando Polack, David J Sullivan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Outpatient monoclonal antibodies are no longer effective and antiviral treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease remain largely unavailable in many countries worldwide. Although treatment with COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) is promising, clinical trials among outpatients have shown mixed results.

METHODS: We conducted an individual participant data meta-analysis from outpatient trials to assess the overall risk reduction for all-cause hospitalizations by day 28 in transfused participants. Relevant trials were identified by searching Medline, Embase, medRxiv, World Health Organization COVID-19 Research Database, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science from January 2020 to September 2022.

RESULTS: Five included studies from 4 …

Targeting Energy Intake And Circadian Biology To Engage Mechanisms Of Aging In Older Adults With Obesity: Calorie Restriction And Time-Restricted Eating, Satchidananda Panda, Geraldine Maier, Dennis T Villareal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

With the rise in obesity across age groups, it has been a hindrance to engaging in physical activity and mobility in older adults. Daily calorie restriction (CR) up to 25% has been the cornerstone of obesity management even though the safety in older adults remains incompletely understood. Although some adults can follow CR with clinically significant weight loss and improved health metrics, CR faces 2 obstacles-many fail to adopt CR and even among those who can adopt it short term, long-term compliance can be difficult. Furthermore, there is a continuing debate about the net benefits of CR-induced weight loss in …

Treatment Decisions And The Use Of Mek Inhibitors For Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1-Related Plexiform Neurofibromas, Amy E Armstrong, Allan J Belzberg, John R Crawford, Angela C Hirbe, Zhihong J Wang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), the most common tumor predisposition syndrome, occurs when NF1 gene variants result in loss of neurofibromin, a negative regulator of RAS activity. Plexiform neurofibromas (PN) are peripheral nerve sheath tumors that develop in patients with NF1 and are associated with substantial morbidity and for which, until recently, the only treatment was surgical resection. However, surgery carries several risks and a proportion of PN are considered inoperable. Understanding the genetic underpinnings of PN led to the investigation of targeted therapies as medical treatment options, and the MEK1/2 inhibitor selumetinib has shown promising efficacy in pediatric patients with …

Personalized [177lu]Lutetium-Psma Therapy For Patients With Pre-Treated Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: A Single Institution Experience From A Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Wolfgang Thaiss, Friedemann Zengerling, Julia Friedrich, Veronika Hechler, Michael Grunert, Christian Bolenz, Thomas Wiegel, Ambros J Beer, Vikas Prasad

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is characterized by an aggressive biological behavior with a relatively short survival time, especially in progressive tumors pretreated with new hormonal agents and taxane chemotherapy. [177Lu]-Lutetium-PSMA (Lu-PSMA) treatment has proven efficacy in these patients. However, around 30% of the CRPC patients do not benefit from Lu-PSMA treatment, and little is known about predictive factors for treatment success if Lu-PSMA is offered in an individualized approach based on clinical and laboratory features. In this monocentric retrospective study, 86 CRPC patients receiving Lu-PSMA treatment were evaluated. The focus of the study was to describe clinical factors at …

The Upper And Lower Respiratory Tract Microbiome In Severe Aspiration Pneumonia, Georgios D Kitsios, Janet S Lee, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Uncertainty persists whether anaerobic bacteria represent important pathogens in aspiration pneumonia. In a nested case-control study of mechanically ventilated patients classified as macro-aspiration pneumonia (MAsP, n = 56), non-macro-aspiration pneumonia (NonMAsP, n = 91), and uninfected controls (n = 11), we profiled upper (URT) and lower respiratory tract (LRT) microbiota with bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing, measured plasma host-response biomarkers, analyzed bacterial communities by diversity and oxygen requirements, and performed unsupervised clustering with Dirichlet Multinomial Models (DMM). MAsP and NonMAsP patients had indistinguishable microbiota profiles by alpha diversity and oxygen requirements with similar host-response profiles and 60-day survival. Unsupervised DMM …

Genetic Deletion Of Skeletal Muscle Ipla2Γ Results In Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Muscle Atrophy And Alterations In Whole-Body Energy Metabolism, Sung Ho Moon, Beverly Gibson Dilthey, Shaoping Guan, Harold F Sims, Sara K Pittman, Amy L Keith, Christopher M Jenkins, Conrad C Weihl, Richard W Gross

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Skeletal muscle is the major site of glucose utilization in mammals integrating serum glucose clearance with mitochondrial respiration. To mechanistically elucidate the roles of iPLA

Workers With Suspected Diagnosis Of Silicosis: A Case Study Of Sarcoidosis Versus Siderosis, Diemen Delgado-García, Patricio Miranda-Astorga, Ashley Delgado-Cano, Juan Gómez-Salgado, Carlos Ruiz-Frutos

School of Medicine Publications

Silicosis is one of the most important occupational respiratory diseases worldwide, hence the importance of making a correct diagnosis. Diagnosis is commonly based on radiological findings according to the ILO International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses and occupational exposure. High-resolution computed tomography is indicated for differential diagnosis. This article presents two cases with an initial diagnosis of silicosis that ended up being diagnosed as sarcoidosis and siderosis, respectively. The first case was a 42-year-old male who worked as a crushing operator in an underground copper and molybdenum mine for 22 years. He had a history of exposure to silicon dioxide …

Dietary Sources Of Linoleic Acid (La) Differ By Race/Ethnicity In Adults Participating In The National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey (Nhanes) Between 2017-2018, Shabnam R Momin, Mackenzie K Senn, Ani Manichaikul, Chaojie Yang, Rasika Mathias, Mimi Phan, Stephen S Rich, Susan Sergeant, Michael Seeds, Lindsay Reynolds, Floyd H Chilton, Alexis C Wood

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Linoleic acid (LA) is a primary n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), which is of interest to nutritional professionals as it has been associated with health outcomes. However, as some LA-rich foods offer protection against chronic diseases such as CVD (e.g., fatty fish), while others increase risk (e.g., red meat), the individual foods contributing to LA intake may be an important factor to consider. Therefore, this analysis sought to examine whether there are racial/ethnic differences in the proportion of overall LA intake accounted for by individual food groups, via a cross-sectional analysis of 3815 adults participating in the National Health …

Book Review: Research Handbook On Ocean Governance Law By Simone Borg, Felicity G Attard And Patricia Mallia Vella De Fremeaux, J Lowther

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Book Review.

Recent Developments In Timber Design & Its Impact On Carbon Emissions, Raquel Jackson

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper explores recent developments in timber building designs and its potential towards reducing carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions are a growing issue worldwide as urbanization and industrialization continues to increase. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide emissions pose significant concerns towards public welfare and environmental health. Despite current methods to reduce greenhouse gasses, carbon emissions remain difficult to reduce from steel and concrete industries. Increasing timber use in building design is a possible solution. Increasing more timber in building design can help reduce carbon emissions due to the carbon-absorbing properties of the construction material. Timber as a construction material …

Shifts In French Jewish Citizenship, 1789-1840s, Jourdin Wilson

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

The citizenship of Jews became more discussed as a result of changes from the French Revolution of 1789. There were a variety of perspectives between non-Jews and Jews, and between different groups of Jews. The research methodology involves the analysis of qualitative primary sources including government texts and debates, groups of everyday Jews, and French Jewish literature and journal excerpts. The theoretical framework of nationalism will guide how citizenship is analyzed in the research, based on Dean Kostantaras’s book Nationalism and Revolution in Europe, 1763-1848. Results show that the way French Jews fit into or engaged with society is quite …

A Vision Without Borders: Magonismo And Mexican Women, Nallely Lozoya

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

Recent scholarship on the Magonista movement centers around the actions of the male leadership, without fully exploring their acceptance of women’s involvement. In fact, Mexican women, through this intelligentsia movement, were able to challenge social expectations and fully participate in political activism during the Mexican Revolution. As a result, Mexican women understood their political power, and were motivated to create radical movements of their own. In the end, Mexican women practiced a feminism that was concerned with multiple issues that impacted Mexican communities on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. In this work, I closely analyzed contemporary speeches, correspondence and …

Humanizing The Dragon, Jocelyn Norcross

Francelia Butler Conference

Peer Choice Award Winner

Waves Of Friendship: Posthumanism In Jules Vs. The Ocean And Swashby And The Sea, Kylee Auten

Francelia Butler Conference

Shirley Henn Award Winner

Rites Of Passage Through Testing In Dystopian Society, Savannah Marquez

Francelia Butler Conference

No abstract provided.

Conquering Copyright: Why Copyright Needs To Be Modernized Based On Practical Illustrations Of Inconsistent Copyright Precedent, Saipranay Vellala

Akron Law Review

Copyright law establishes an author’s right to secure exclusive rights in their writings. If an author finds an infringing work, the author can file a copyright infringement suit to protect their original writings and stop an infringer from misappropriating their work. In analyzing copyright infringement, however, some legal theories, such as the Inverse Ratio Rule, mischaracterize the crux of the copyright infringement inquiry and complicate the infringement inquiry for judges and juries—adversely affecting authors. Using indie musicians as an exemplary embodiment of modern copyright jurisprudence’s adverse effects, indie musicians who merely have access to a more famous musician’s music may …

Parallel Play: The Simultaneous Professional Responsibility Campaigns Against Unethical Ip Practitioners By The United States And China, Mark A. Cohen

Akron Law Review

“Parallel Play: The Simultaneous Professional Responsibility Campaigns Against IP Practitioners by the United States and China” describes efforts by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the China National IP Administration to discipline trademark and patent practitioners through contemporaneous campaign-style approach directed to bad faith filings. At the USPTO, many of these bad faith filings have originated from China. In both countries, these bad faith activities have imposed significant burdens on IP agencies, the courts, and legitimate rights holders. The campaign is likely the largest professional responsibility campaign undertaken by an IP agency, and the largest cross-border IP disciplinary …

Moving From Express Preemption To Conflict Preemption In Scrutinizing Contracts Over Copyrighted Goods., Guy A. Rub

Akron Law Review

There is a built-in tension between the perception of copyright law as promoting a delicate balance between the interests of creators, distributions, and users of information goods and contract law’s laissez-faire philosophy. Legal systems need to decide how to approach this tension and specifically whether, and to what degrees, to allow parties to freely contract around the legal norms set forth by copyright law.

For more than four decades, federal courts have tried to address this tension using the Copyright Act’s express preemption provision, which prohibits states from creating rights that are “equivalent” to copyright. In a previous work, I …

Under Nifty Light: Trademark Considerations For The New Digital World, Willajeanne F. Mclean

Akron Law Review

Three cases involving non-fungible tokens are grabbing the attention of fashionistas, intellectual property mavens, and metaverse cognoscenti alike. All three are cases of first impression, despite involving trademark infringement claims. All are considered to be cases that will determine whether old trademark principles apply to new technology, and each has compelling and competing arguments that may militate against findings of infringement. While most commentators have focused on the questions surrounding alleged infringement, very few have discussed the challenges of applying remedies, such as injunctions, traditionally used in trademark infringement cases.

This article considers trademark law and examines it in a …

Visualizing Copyright Law: Lessons From Conceptual Artists, Sandra M. Aistars

Akron Law Review

Copyright law does not require an object to be “art” to be protectable, except in one respect: copyright protection does not extend to useful articles. As a result, courts engage in analysis strikingly similar to that of conceptual artists visualizing art. Copyright law has an uneasy relationship with conceptual art because the Copyright Act also requires works to be original and fixed in a tangible medium. Requirements that have led some to conclude that the kind of art where “the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work” should not be protectable by copyright.

This article examines …

Protecting Public Health Amidst Data Theft, Sludge, And Dark Patterns: Overcoming The Constitutional Barriers To Health Information Regulations, Jon M. Garon

Akron Law Review

Public health has grown to over $4.1 trillion in spending in the past year, yet for millions of people, their health care is ineffective and sometimes harmful. New technologies have improved health access and treatment, but they can expose an individual’s personal health information to theft and misuse. There is little or no regulation for the reuse of data once it has been lawfully collected for general purposes. Any observer can create a detailed personal diary of an individual or a population by building from a mosaic of inferential data—such as lawfully obtained zip code information, non-regulated health care application …

Review Of Figurations Of The Feminine, By Siobhán Mcilvanney, Tonya J. Moutray

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Siobhán McIlvanney's Figurations of the Feminine, by Tonya J. Moutray

Review Of Carrying All Before Her, By Chelsea Phillips, Jennifer Buckley

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Chelsea Phillips’s Carrying All Before Her: Celebrity Pregnancy and the London Stage, 1689-1800, by Jennifer Buckley

Plotting The Plantationocene With The History Of Mary Prince, Shelby Johnson

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

In this essay, I consider how The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831) extends vital affordances for assembling a literary history of ecological rupture, settler colonialism, and transatlantic slavery. These insights arise from my experiences teaching Prince in “Plotting the Plantationocene in Early Atlantic Literature” (Fall 2021), a course which took up what it means to orient to historical formations of climate change as co-emergent with plantation systems. I argue that my students explored how figures like Prince open politically vibrant pathways for being in the world otherwise to plantation modernity.