Digital Commons Network^™

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Student Engagement In The Urban Elementary Classroom: A Qualitative Case Study, Lavern M. Mcneil

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

are responsible for providing opportunities to use learning strategies in the classroom. The students’ engagement shows an observable reflection of the educator's teaching practice. This qualitative case study highlights teachers' perceptions of student engagement in the urban elementary classroom. The research questions asked about teachers’ perceptions of student engagement and the contribution to student engagement. The research questions also asked about the resources and barriers to student engagement. The theory used for consideration was the bioecological framework by Urie Bronfenbrenner. The theory connected to the importance of systems' role in a child's growth and how they have a crucial impact …

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions Of How Developmental Mathematics Courses Prepare Students For Degree-Required Mathematics Courses, Felicia N. Brooks

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Students at most open-enrollment colleges must take a placement exam to determine what courses they will need to enroll in as their first math course. Students who score below a certain threshold are placed in a developmental math course. Students must complete the developmental math sequence before enrolling in degree-required math courses. Students’ perceptions of being enrolled in developmental math courses were investigated for this study. The purpose of this quantitative study was to highlight students’ perspectives on being required to take developmental math and whether such courses adequately prepared them for the mathematics class required for the students’ majors. …

Dyslexia: Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Differentiating Literacy Instruction, Joanne S. Scharff

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, impacting approximately 20% of school-age children. Students with dyslexia need specialized instruction from an educator who can confidently differentiate literacy instruction to accommodate the learning needs of the dyslexic student. The purpose of this study is to measure general education teachers' self-efficacy in differentiating literacy instruction for students with dyslexia in public elementary schools in Florida. Moreover, the study evaluates whether educators are confident in using explicit, systematic, and multisensory methods based on the science of reading to differentiate for students with dyslexia. A survey was completed anonymously by 111 teachers, of which …

Evaluating The Interaction Between Hemorrhagic Transformation And Cerebral Edema On Functional Outcome After Ischemic Stroke, Amrit Avula, Quoc Bui, Atul Kumar, Yasheng Chen, Ali Hamzehloo, Julien Cifarelli, Laura Heitsch, Agnieszka Slowik, Daniel Strbian, Jin-Moo Lee, Rajat Dhar

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) and cerebral edema (CED) are both major complications following ischemic stroke, but few studies have evaluated their overlap. We evaluated the frequency and predictors of CED/HT overlap and whether their co-occurrence impacts functional outcome more than each in isolation.

METHODS: 892 stroke patients enrolled in a prospective study had follow-up CT imaging evaluated for HT and CED; the latter was quantified using the ratio of hemispheric CSF volumes (with hemispheric CSF ratio < 0.90 used as the CED threshold). The interaction between HT and CED on functional outcome (using modified Rankin Scale at 3 months) was compared to that for each condition separately.

RESULTS: Among the 275 (31%) who developed HT, 233 (85%) manifested hemispheric CSF ratio < 0.9 (CED/HT), with this overlap group representing half of the 475 with measurable CED. Higher baseline NIHSS scores and larger infarct volumes were observed in the CED/HT group compared with those with CED or HT alone. Functional outcome was worse in those with CED/HT [median mRS 3 (IQR 2-5)] than those with CED [median 2 (IQR 1-4)] or HT alone [median 1 (IQR 0-2), p < 0.0001]. Overlap of CED/HT independently predicted worse outcome [OR 1.89 (95% CI: 1.12-3.18), p = 0.02] while HT did not; however, CED/HT was no longer associated with worse outcome after adjusting for severity of CED [adjusted OR 0.35 (95% CI: 0.23, 0.51) per 0.21 lower hemispheric CSF ratio, p < 0.001].

CONCLUSIONS: Most stroke patients with HT also have measurable CED. …

Corticosteroid Burst Therapy In Patients With Acute Heart Failure: Design Of The Cortahf Pilot Study, Gad Cotter, Douglas L Mann, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

AIMS: Inflammation has emerged as a potential key pathophysiological mechanism in heart failure (HF) in general and acute HF (AHF) specifically, with inflammatory biomarkers shown to be highly predictive of adverse outcomes in these patients. The CORTAHF study builds on both these data and the fact that steroid burst therapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of respiratory diseases and COVID-19. Our hypothesis is that in patients with AHF and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels without symptoms or signs of infection, a 7-day course of steroid therapy will lead to reduced inflammation and short-term improvement in quality …

Impacts Of Employment Status, Partnership, Cancer Type, And Surgical Treatment On Health-Related Quality Of Life In Irradiated Head And Neck Cancer Survivors, Ching-Rong Lin, Tsung-Min Hung, Eric Yi-Liang Shen, Ann-Joy Cheng, Po-Hung Chang, Shiang-Fu Huang, Chung-Jan Kang, Tuan-Jen Fang, Li-Ang Lee, Chih-Hung Chang, Joseph Tung-Chieh Chang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Green Utopias: A Possible Green Ground For Performing Arts Training, Renee Newman, Alexa Taylor, Luke Cowling, Jason Garbenis, Tom Heath, Fleur Kingsland, Vahri Mckenzie, Jeremy Neideck, Richard Reddrop, Simon Stewart

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

No abstract provided.

The Dallas Donation After Circulatory Death Transplantation Summit: Expanding Donation After Circulatory Death Procedures Through Process Improvement, Broader Utilization, And Innovation, Michele Finotti, William C. Chapman, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Despite a significant increase in utilization over the past decade, the number of donation after circulatory death (DCD) organs that are procured and transplanted in the United States (US) remains well below its potential. There is still room for expansion, as utilizing DCD organs to the fullest extent is currently the most viable solution to the persistent mismatch between supply and demand in transplantation. We convened a multidisciplinary transplantation summit to examine various aspects of DCD, with faculty members from around the world with clinical and academic interest in DCD donation and transplantation, including abdominal and cardiothoracic surgeons, organ procurement …

Caregiver Wellness After Traumatic Brain Injury (Cg-Well): Protocol For A Randomized Clinical Trial, Natalie Kreitzer, Stephanie Fink, Opeolu Adeoye, Brad Kurowski G, Shari Wade, Heidi Sucharew, Tamilyn Bakas

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: After injury, survivors of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (msTBI) depend on informal family caregivers. Upwards of 77 % of family caregivers experience poor outcomes, such as adverse life changes, poor health-related quality of life, and increased depressive symptoms. Caregivers frequently report minimal support or training to prepare them for their new role. The majority of previously developed caregiver and caregiver/survivor dyad interventions after msTBI focus on providing information to either survivors only, or to long-term caregivers, rather than to the new caregiver. This manuscript describes the protocol of an ongoing randomized control trial, Caregiver Wellness after TBI …

Multi-Site Eeg Studies In Early Infancy: Methods To Enhance Data Quality, Abigail Dickinson, John Zempel, Natasha Marrus, John R Pruett Jr, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Brain differences linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can manifest before observable symptoms. Studying these early neural precursors in larger and more diverse cohorts is crucial for advancing our understanding of developmental pathways and potentially facilitating earlier identification. EEG is an ideal tool for investigating early neural differences in ASD, given its scalability and high tolerability in infant populations. In this context, we integrated EEG into an existing multi-site MRI study of infants with a higher familial likelihood of developing ASD. This paper describes the comprehensive protocol established to collect longitudinal, high-density EEG data from infants across five sites as …

Dcrm 2.0: Multispecialty Practice Recommendations For The Management Of Diabetes, Cardiorenal, And Metabolic Diseases, Yehuda Handelsman, Samuel Klein, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The spectrum of cardiorenal and metabolic diseases comprises many disorders, including obesity, type 2 diabetes (T2D), chronic kidney disease (CKD), atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), heart failure (HF), dyslipidemias, hypertension, and associated comorbidities such as pulmonary diseases and metabolism dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and metabolism dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASLD and MASH, respectively, formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis [NAFLD and NASH]). Because cardiorenal and metabolic diseases share pathophysiologic pathways, two or more are often present in the same individual. Findings from recent outcome trials have demonstrated benefits of various treatments across a range of conditions, suggesting a need …

Increased Periventricular Thalamic Damage Gradient In Multiple Sclerosis Detected By Quantitative Gradient Echo Mri, Amjad Samara, Biao Xiang, Bradley Judge, John R Ciotti, Dmitriy A Yablonskiy, Anne H Cross, Matthew R Brier

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: Thalamic tissue damage in multiple sclerosis (MS) follows a 'surface-in' gradient from the ventricular surface. The clinical consequences of this gradient are not completely understood. Using quantitative gradient-recalled echo (qGRE) MRI, we evaluated a periventricular thalamic gradient of tissue integrity in MS and its relationship with clinical variables.

METHODS: Structural and qGRE MRI scans were acquired for a cohort of MS patients and healthy controls (HC). qGRE-derived R2t* values were used as a measure of tissue integrity. Thalamic segmentations were divided into 1-mm concentric bands radiating from the ventricular surface, excluding the CSF-adjacent band. Median R2t* values within these …

Clinical And Research Application Of Fluid Biomarkers In Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer's Disease And Down Syndrome, María Carmona-Iragui, Antoinette O'Connor, Jorge Llibre-Guerra, Patrick Lao, Nicholas J Ashton, Juan Fortea, Raquel Sánchez-Valle

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease (ADAD) and Down syndrome (DS) constitute genetic forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The study of these forms has been crucial in understanding the biomarker changes and disease progression, notably in advancing our knowledge of the natural history of AD. However, some specific characteristics of biomarkers in genetically determined forms and, most importantly, the near full penetrance and predictability of disease onset lead to a very different context of use for biomarkers in these populations. This article delves into the similarities and differences in biomarker profiles between genetically determined AD and sporadic cases, discussing the implications for …

Leveraging Gpt-4 For Identifying Cancer Phenotypes In Electronic Health Records: A Performance Comparison Between Gpt-4, Gpt-3.5-Turbo, Flan-T5, Llama-3-8b, And Spacy's Rule-Based And Machine Learning-Based Methods, Kriti Bhattarai, Inez Y Oh, Jonathan Moran Sierra, Jonathan Tang, Philip R O Payne, Zach Abrams, Albert M Lai

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: Accurately identifying clinical phenotypes from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) provides additional insights into patients' health, especially when such information is unavailable in structured data. This study evaluates the application of OpenAI's Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)-4 model to identify clinical phenotypes from EHR text in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The goal was to identify disease stages, treatments and progression utilizing GPT-4, and compare its performance against GPT-3.5-turbo, Flan-T5-xl, Flan-T5-xxl, Llama-3-8B, and 2 rule-based and machine learning-based methods, namely, scispaCy and medspaCy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Phenotypes such as initial cancer stage, initial treatment, evidence of cancer recurrence, and affected …

Himal: Multimodal Hierarchical Multi-Task Auxiliary Learning Framework For Predicting Alzheimer's Disease Progression, Sayantan Kumar, Sean C Yu, Andrew Michelson, Thomas Kannampallil, Philip R O Payne

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to develop and validate a novel multimodal framework

MATERIALS AND METHODS: HiMAL utilized multimodal longitudinal visit data including imaging features, cognitive assessment scores, and clinical variables from MCI patients in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset, to predict at each visit if an MCI patient will progress to AD within the next 6 months. Performance of HiMAL was compared with state-of-the-art single-task and multitask baselines using area under the receiver operator curve (AUROC) and precision recall curve (AUPRC) metrics. An ablation study was performed to assess the impact of each input modality on model performance. Additionally, longitudinal …

Structural Basis For Adhesin Secretion By The Outer-Membrane Usher In Type 1 Pili, Ryan M Bitter, Maxwell I Zimmerman, Brock T Summers, Jerome S Pinkner, Karen W Dodson, Scott J Hultgren, Peng Yuan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Gram-negative bacteria produce chaperone-usher pathway pili, which are extracellular protein fibers tipped with an adhesive protein that binds to a receptor with stereochemical specificity to determine host and tissue tropism. The outer-membrane usher protein, together with a periplasmic chaperone, assembles thousands of pilin subunits into a highly ordered pilus fiber. The tip adhesin in complex with its cognate chaperone activates the usher to allow extrusion across the outer membrane. The structural requirements to translocate the adhesin through the usher pore from the periplasm to the extracellular space remains incompletely understood. Here, we present a cryoelectron microscopy structure of a quaternary …

Early Detection Of Malignant And Premalignant Peripheral Nerve Tumors Using Cell-Free Dna Fragmentomics, R Taylor Sundby, Paul A Jones, Divya Srihari, Amy E Armstrong, Stacey Chamberlain, Sanita Burgic, Kara Weekley, John S A Chrisinger, Angela C Hirbe, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Early detection of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1)-associated peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNST) informs clinical decision-making, enabling early definitive treatment and potentially averting deadly outcomes. In this study, we describe a cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentomic approach that distinguishes nonmalignant, premalignant, and malignant forms of PNST in the cancer predisposition syndrome, NF1.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: cfDNA was isolated from plasma samples of a novel cohort of 101 patients with NF1 and 21 healthy controls and underwent whole-genome sequencing. We investigated diagnosis-specific signatures of copy-number alterations with in silico size selection as well as fragment profiles. Fragmentomics were analyzed using complementary feature types: …

Adherence To Hygiene Protocols And Doxycycline Therapy In Ameliorating Lymphatic Filariasis Morbidity In An Endemic Area Post-Interruption Of Disease Transmission In Ghana, Linda Batsa Debrah, Philip J Budge, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Filarial lymphedema (LE) remains a significant global problem despite the progress made toward elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF). In Ghana, the main approach to LF is preventive chemotherapy, but this has minimal impact on individuals who have already developed LE. In 2018-2020, a 24-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of stringent hygiene measures using the Essential Package of Care with or without additional administration of doxycycline (DOX) to improve filarial leg LE. This study enrolled 356 participants with LE stages 1-3 from two districts in the Upper East Region of Ghana. In addition to regular …

Cross-Ancestry Genetic Investigation Of Schizophrenia, Cannabis Use Disorder, And Tobacco Smoking, Emma C Johnson, Isabelle Austin-Zimmerman, Hayley H A Thorpe, Daniel F Levey, David A A Baranger, Sarah M C Colbert, Ditte Demontis, Jibran Y Khokhar, Lea K Davis, Howard J Edenberg, Marta Di Forti, Sandra Sanchez-Roige, Joel Gelernter, Arpana Agrawal

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Individuals with schizophrenia frequently experience co-occurring substance use, including tobacco smoking and heavy cannabis use, and substance use disorders. There is interest in understanding the extent to which these relationships are causal, and to what extent shared genetic factors play a role. We explored the relationships between schizophrenia (Scz; European ancestry N = 161,405; African ancestry N = 15,846), cannabis use disorder (CanUD; European ancestry N = 886,025; African ancestry N = 120,208), and ever-regular tobacco smoking (Smk; European ancestry N = 805,431; African ancestry N = 24,278) using the largest available genome-wide studies of these phenotypes in individuals of …

A Retrospective Assessment Of Guideline Adherence And Treatment Outcomes From Clostridioides Difficile Infection Following The Idsa 2021 Clinical Guideline Update: Clostridioides Difficile Infection, Erik R Dubberke, Qinghua Li, Engels N Obi, Vladimir Turzhitsky, Fakhar Siddiqui, Brian H Nathanson

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The 2021 update to the Infectious Diseases Society of America

METHODS: This retrospective, observational study used the PINC AI Healthcare Database on adult patients who received CDI treatment between 1/2020 and 6/2021 (pre period) and between 10/2021 and 9/2022 (post period). We examined treatment patterns of fidaxomicin, vancomycin, and metronidazole, as well as clinical and health care resource use outcomes of patients treated exclusively with fidaxomicin vs vancomycin, using nearest-neighbor propensity matching and hierarchical regression methods. As a sensitivity analysis, we repeated the fidaxomicin vs vancomycin comparisons among patients with recurrent and nonrecurrent index infections.

RESULTS: A total of …

Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide-Based Graft-Versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis Attenuates Disparity In Outcomes Between Use Of Matched Or Mismatched Unrelated Donors, Brian C Shaffer, Ramzi Abboud, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSEAccess to allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) remains limited among persons of non-European ancestry if human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching is required. We evaluated whether post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy)-based graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis improved HCT outcomes with HLA-matched unrelated donor (MUD) and mismatched unrelated donor (MMUD) HCT when compared with calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)-based prophylaxis.METHODSThree-year overall survival (OS) and GVHD-free, relapse-free survival (GRFS) were compared between adult recipients undergoing initial MUD or single HLA locus MMUD HCT with either PTCy- or CNI-based prophylaxis who were reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research between 2017 and 2021.RESULTSIncluded were 10,025 …

Body Mass Index And Postacute Sequelae Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection In Children And Young Adults, Ting Zhou, Chongliang Luo, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Obesity is associated with increased severity of COVID-19. Whether obesity is associated with an increased risk of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) among pediatric populations, independent of its association with acute infection severity, is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the association of body mass index (BMI) status before SARS-CoV-2 infection with pediatric PASC risk, controlling for acute infection severity.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cohort study occurred at 26 US children's hospitals from March 2020 to May 2023 with a minimum follow-up of 179 days. Eligible participants included children and young adults aged 5 to 20 years with …

Perioperative Antibiotic Prophylaxis Duration In Patients Undergoing Cystectomy With Urinary Diversion: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Maria C Thurnheer, Astrid Schürmann, Markus Huber, Jonas Marschall, Patrick Y Wuethrich, Fiona C Burkhard

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) reduces the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs). Guidelines recommend 24 hours or less of PAP for cystectomy with urinary diversion; however, evidence specifying optimal PAP duration for this surgery is lacking, and prolonged administration of PAP is common practice.

OBJECTIVE: To establish noninferiority of 24-hour PAP vs extended-duration PAP in preventing SSIs within 90 days after cystectomy with urinary diversion.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This single-center, noninferiority randomized clinical trial was performed from April 18, 2018, to August 18, 2022, in patients aged older than 18 years undergoing elective open cystectomy with urinary diversion. …

Rehabilitation Transition Program To Improve Community Participation Among Stroke Survivors: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Rebecca M Bollinger, Melissa J Krauss, Emily K Somerville, Brianna M Holden, Gabrielle Blenden, Holly Hollingsworth, Audrey A Keleman, Alexandre Carter, Timothy D Mcbride, Abigail R Barker, Yan Yan, Susan L Stark

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Interventions are needed to support the long-term needs of stroke survivors when they transition from inpatient rehabilitation to home, where they face new home and community environmental barriers.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy of a novel, enhanced rehabilitation transition program with attentional control to improve community participation and activity of daily living (ADL) performance and to reduce environmental barriers in the home and community after stroke.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This phase 2b, parallel randomized clinical trial assessed patients 50 years or older who had experienced an acute ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage, were independent in ADLs before stroke, …

Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training In Caring For People Who Use Drugs: A National Assessment Of An Emerging Training Need, Shilpa Vasishta, Raagini Jawa, Sarah Kurz, Nathanial S Nolan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Infectious complications of substance use are increasingly encountered in infectious diseases (ID) clinical care. In this study, we surveyed ID fellows in the United States to assess training experiences, clinical practices, and perspectives in caring for people who use drugs (PWUD).

METHODS: An 18-item survey was distributed to ID fellows via email and social media platforms. Four focus groups were conducted with a subset of participants to elucidate themes in fellowship experiences and training needs.

RESULTS: Among 196 survey respondents (estimated 24% response rate), all reported caring for PWUD in ID fellowship. Forty-nine percent received some formal fellowship-based didactics …

Network-Level Enrichment Provides A Framework For Biological Interpretation Of Machine Learning Results, Jiaqi Li, Ari Segel, Xinyang Feng, Jiaxin Cindy Tu, Andy Eck, Kelsey T King, Babatunde Adeyemo, Nicole R Karcher, Likai Chen, Adam T Eggebrecht, Muriah D Wheelock

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Machine learning algorithms are increasingly being utilized to identify brain connectivity biomarkers linked to behavioral and clinical outcomes. However, research often prioritizes prediction accuracy at the expense of biological interpretability, and inconsistent implementation of ML methods may hinder model accuracy. To address this, our paper introduces a network-level enrichment approach, which integrates brain system organization in the context of connectome-wide statistical analysis to reveal network-level links between brain connectivity and behavior. To demonstrate the efficacy of this approach, we used linear support vector regression (LSVR) models to examine the relationship between resting-state functional connectivity networks and chronological age. We compared …

Agreement Between Three Noninvasive Temperature Monitoring Devices During Spinal Anaesthesia For Caesarean Delivery: A Prospective Observational Study, D O Vawda, Christopher King, L Du Toit, R A Dyer, N J Masuku, D G Bishop

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Hypothermia during obstetric spinal anaesthesia is a common and important problem, yet temperature monitoring is often not performed due to the lack of a suitable, cost-effective monitor. This study aimed to compare a noninvasive core temperature monitor with two readily available peripheral temperature monitors during obstetric spinal anaesthesia. We undertook a prospective observational study including elective and emergency caesarean deliveries, to determine the agreement between affordable reusable surface temperature monitors (Welch Allyn SureTemp® Plus oral thermometer and the Braun 3-in-1 No Touch infrared thermometer) and the Dräger T-core© (using dual-sensor heat flux technology), in detecting thermoregulatory changes during obstetric spinal …

Generation Of An Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Line (Biortci001-A) From A Healthy Adult Indigenous Nigerian Participant, Zaid Muhammad, Phoebe W Brown, Larema Babazau, Abdulrahman I Alkhamis, Baba W Goni, Haruna A Nggada, Kefas M Mbaya, Selina Wray, Isa H Marte, Celeste M Karch, Louise C Serpell, Mahmoud B Maina

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Genetic backgrounds influence cellular phenotypes, drug responses, and health outcomes, yet most human iPSC lines are derived from individuals of European descent, with lines from indigenous Africans particularly scarce. Addressing this gap, we generated iPSCs from dermal fibroblasts of a healthy 60-year-old indigenous Nigerian male of the Babur ethnic group using Sendai virus. The iPSC line displayed a normal karyotype, was characterized for pluripotency markers and differentiated into neural progenitor cells and astrocytes. To enhance African representation in research, this iPSC line will be available to the scientific community, with ongoing efforts focused on creating an open-access African iPSC biobank. …

Western Diet Reduces Small Intestinal Intraepithelial Lymphocytes Via Fxr-Interferon Pathway, Chen-Ting Hung, Changqing Ma, Santosh K Panda, Tihana Trsan, Miki Hodel, Jennifer Frein, Amanda Foster, Shengxiang Sun, Hung-Ting Wu, Justin Kern, Richa Mishra, Umang Jain, Marco Colonna, Ta-Chiang Liu, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The prevalence of obesity in the United States has continued to increase over the past several decades. Understanding how diet-induced obesity modulates mucosal immunity is of clinical relevance. We previously showed that consumption of a high fat, high sugar "Western" diet (WD) reduces the density and function of small intestinal Paneth cells, a small intestinal epithelial cell type with innate immune function. We hypothesized that obesity could also result in repressed gut adaptive immunity. Using small intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) as a readout, we found that in non-inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) subjects, high body mass index correlated with reduced IEL …

Metabolically Active Neutrophils Represent A Permissive Niche For Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, J Tucker Andrews, G V R Krishna Prasad, Jennifer A Philips, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-infected neutrophils are often found in the airways of patients with active tuberculosis (TB), and excessive recruitment of neutrophils to the lung is linked to increased bacterial burden and aggravated pathology in TB. The basis for the permissiveness of neutrophils for Mtb and the ability to be pathogenic in TB has been elusive. Here, we identified metabolic and functional features of neutrophils that contribute to their permissiveness in Mtb infection. Using single-cell metabolic and transcriptional analyses, we found that neutrophils in the Mtb-infected lung displayed elevated mitochondrial metabolism, which was largely attributed to the induction of activated neutrophils …