Digital Commons Network^™

Bodyweight Changes During Covid-19 For Patients Diagnosed With Depression: A Retrospective Cohort Study, Elias Arellano Villanueva, Kimberly Fulda

Research Colloquium

Background: The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and body weight have been well documented, however a possible direction of the causality of the relationship between depression and weight as affected by lockdown measures has not been studied. This study examined if depression was associated with changes in BMI during the COVID-19 lockdown. We hypothesized that depressed adults (DEP) would have a greater increase in BMI than non-depressed adults (NDEP), and that greater pre-post changes in BMI would be observed among younger DEP compared to middle-aged and older DEP and NDEP.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study design using EHR …

Collateral Damage: A Case Of Refractory Hyperparathyroidism In A Young Woman With End Stage Renal Disease, Ed Wong Alvarado, Valentine S. Alia, Henry Reinhart, Rachel A. Giese

Research Colloquium

Background: The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) is a community with the highest incidence of ESRD in the USA. Hyperparathyroidism (HPT), defined as a serum PTH >65 pg/mL, HPT is a secondary complication of ESRD affecting 80% of individuals in this population. Although hyperparathyroidism may be asymptomatic, a severe form, refractory to medication can occur. Refractory HPT is defined as a PTH level 9 times the upper-limit or a serum level >800 pg/mL. This disease causes mutations in parathyroid cells causing parathyroid-gland hyperplasia. Once PTH levels increase to this extent, systemic issues including electrolyte derangements, weight loss, pathologic fractures, osteoporosis, and …

A Rare Case Of Endocarditis Caused By Streptococcus Anginosus, Cecilia Salinas Domene, Myung-Jin Cha, Ed Wong Alvarado, Simita Gaglani

Research Colloquium

Introduction: This is a 65-year-old male patient with infective endocarditis (IE) caused by Streptococcus anginosus. The patient presented with fever and chills. Past medical history included an aortic valve replacement after an episode of endocarditis. On physical examination, the patient had a new systolic murmur and poor dentition. Blood cultures on admission grew Streptococcus anginosus and a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) showed vegetation on the bioprosthetic valve.

Narrative: This is a 65-year-old male with a past medical history of bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement in 2014 due to IV drug use which reportedly ceased thereafter, who presented with multiple days …

Stroke In A Pregnant Female With A Pfo In The Absence Of A Clot., Arup Ganguly, Hector D. Preciado, Shravan Narmala

Research Colloquium

Background: Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) is a condition affecting about 25% of all adults. While the incidence of PFOs in pregnant women is unknown, there is an increased risk for stroke owing to major changes in hemocoagulative, hormonal, and cardiovascular parameters. Despite this, the incidence of a stroke is rare in pregnant women with a PFO. Furthermore, hemorrhagic strokes are far more common during pregnancy than ischemic strokes, as is the case here. In literature 80% of venous thromboembolisms in pregnancy are found to be associated with a DVT. In the case presented, there was no associated DVT and further …

Experiential Learning Lab Activity On Muscle Physiology In Undergraduate Md Pre-Clerkship Curriculum, Angela Martinez, Daniel Salinas, Amin Shah, Kelsey Baker

Research Colloquium

Background: Experiential learning is an important part of the medical education curriculum as it enhances knowledge gain and retention that can have long-term effects in improving provider skills and patient outcomes. Our goal was to establish an experiential learning muscle physiology lab activity that would improve undergraduate MD pre-clerkship students’ skill to collect muscle force measurements using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD), a popular tool for rehabilitative practice and understanding of the length-tension relationship of muscle.

Methods: The experiential learning muscle physiology lab activity was developed and incorporated in the Musculoskeletal and Dermatology (MSKD) Module in the undergraduate MD pre-clerkship year …

A Novel Nano Fluorescent Nir Probe For Cancer Cells Bioimaging And Targeting, Neeraj Chauhan, Marco A. Cabrera, Pallabita Chowdhury, Prashanth K. B. Nagesh, Anupam Dhasmana, Meena Jaggi, Subhash Chauhan, Murali M. Yallapu

Research Colloquium

Background: Adequate bioimaging is crucial in cancer management in many ways including screening, detection, characterization, staging and grading, therapy response, surgical guidance, and margins assessment. Indocyanine green (ICG) is one of the FDA-approved near infra-red fluorescent (NIRF) probe for cancer imaging and image-guided surgery in clinical setting. However, limitations of ICG includes poor photostability, high concentration toxicity, short circulation time, and poor cancer cell specificity. To overcome these hurdles, we engineered a nanoconstruct composed of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)-indocyanine green that is cloaked self-assembled with tannic acid (termed as ICG-Glow NPs) for the cancer cells/tissues specific targeting.

Methods: Pursuing the novel …

Epithelial Immunomodulation By Aerosolized Toll-Like Receptor Agonists Prevents Allergic Inflammation In Airway Mucosa In Mice, David Goldblatt, Gabriella Valverde Ha, Shradha Wali, Vikram V. Kulkarni, Michael K. Longmire, Ana M. Jaramillo, Rosha P. Chittuluru, Adrienne Fouts, Margarita Martinez-Moczygemba, Jonathan T. Lei

Research Colloquium

Background: Allergic asthma is a chronic inflammatory respiratory disease associated with eosinophilic infiltration, increased mucus production, airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), and airway remodeling. Epidemiologic data has revealed that the prevalence of allergic sensitization and associated diseases has increased in the twentieth century. This has been hypothesized to be partly due to reduced contact with microbial organisms (the hygiene hypothesis) in industrialized society. Airway epithelial cells, once considered a static physical barrier between the body and the external world, are now widely recognized as immunologically active cells that can initiate, maintain, and restrain inflammatory responses, such as those that mediate allergic disease. …

Overexpression Of Rpa194 Is Associated With Mutant P53 In Advanced Human Liver Cancer, Haider Ahsan, Muhammad Bangash, Samuel Owusu-Mireku, Mudassier Ahmad, Sahir Alvi, Aun A. Bangash, Bilal B. B. Hafeez

Research Colloquium

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and in the United States alone, an estimated 42,000 adults were diagnosed with primary liver cancer in the year of 2022. Sorafenib is the first systemic therapy approved for patients with advanced-stage HCC, after a landmark study revealed an improvement in median overall survival from 8 to 11 months. New drugs — lenvatinib in the frontline and regorafenib, cabozantinib, and ramucirumab in the second line — have also been demonstrated to improve clinical outcomes, although the median overall survival remains ~1 year. Therefore, discovery of new potential molecular targets …

Detection Of Caffeine For Consumers Utilizing Infrared Spectroscopy, Michelle M. Pham, Ethan Yang, Christopher Wostenberg

Research Colloquium

Background Caffeine is a stimulant that is often found in tea and coffee. Sometimes, when a person drinks caffeine in excess or too late into the day, there is a disturbance to the sleep cycle. A workaround would be to find out how much caffeine is in these drinks through caffeine extraction. Therefore, consumers can have an accurate awareness of the amount of caffeine they are consuming.

Methods Caffeine extraction is performed to determine the levels present in green tea. If the experiment does work, then the methodology can be used to find the amount of caffeine in other drinks …

Brain Microvessels From Dementia And No Dementia Subjects, Jiye A. Park, Mamatha Damodarasamy, Ali Mirzazadeh, Michelle Erickson, William A. Banks, C. Dirk Keene, May J. Reed

Research Colloquium

Background The brain microvasculature is the foundation of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), an interface that regulates passage between the circulatory system and the brain parenchyma. Tight junction (TJ) proteins function as cell-cell adhesion molecules at the BBB and have been shown to differ in subjects with dementia (D) versus those without dementia (ND), with most studies showing an overall decrease in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

Methods We measured levels of TJ proteins (occludin, claudin-5) and protein markers of neurovascular unit cells (endothelial cell PECAM, pericyte PDGFR, astrocyte foot process GFAP, associated neuronal MAP2 and NeuN) in brain microvessels (MV) to determine …

Oxphos Inhibition Via Luc7l2 As A Target For Sf3b1-Mutant Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Carlos Cisneros, Anagha Inguva, Hunter Tolison, Maria Amaya, Craig Jordan

Research Colloquium

Background: SF3B1 gene mutations are the most common spliceosome mutations seen in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients. Though it is well known SF3B1 mutations cause downstream changes in erythroid differentiation and the cell cycle, which leads to malignancy, metabolic changes arising from this mutation are unknown. Our preliminary data shows that patient samples harboring an SF3B1 mutation exhibit alternative splicing of the gene LUC7L2. Interestingly, this gene encodes for another protein of the spliceosome complex: U1 snRNP. The gene LUC7L2 has been shown to regulate metabolic processes by promoting glycolysis while repressing oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) via various downstream mechanisms. We therefore …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Crowdsourced Medicine And The Human Diagnosis Project, Michelle M. Pham, William Davis

Research Colloquium

Background The usage of crowdsourced medicine is increasing as technology becomes more accessible, and quality healthcare becomes less accessible. This research project will evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of crowdsourced medicine and Human Dx to determine if these platforms have the potential to improve healthcare practices.

Methods The research methodology of this project included gathering relevant articles through EBSCO, PubMed, and Google Scholar and performing an in-depth analysis on each article. Afterwards, an annotated bibliography and a table of benefits and drawbacks were created.

Results The results showed that these online platforms provide a mechanism for increased accessibility of medical …

Does Bimodal Stimulation Improve Or Interfere With Consonant Perception?, Courtney J. Austin, Rose Dumont, Alexander Kain, Holden Sanders, Lina Reiss

Research Colloquium

Bimodal stimulation, the usage of both a cochlear implant and a hearing aid in the contralateral ear, is noted for improving speech perception in noisy backgrounds for some hearing-impaired individuals. However, the usage of both devices provides a range of variability in benefit that relate to difference in pitch fusion range. Hearing impaired populations are noted to have broad binaural fusion ranges compared to normal hearing population, effecting the ability to perceive certain syllables. In studies involving vowels classification and fusion, bimodal CI users showed significant difference in both CI-only conditions and HA-only conditions, compared to the bimodal conditions (Reiss …

Vol. 27 Special Issue - Mythcon Xxi, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 12 - Whole No. 126, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 11 - Whole No. 125, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 10 - Whole No. 124, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 9 - Whole No. 123, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 8 - Whole No. 122, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 7 - Whole No. 121, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 6 - Whole No. 120, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 5 - Whole No. 119, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 4 - Whole No. 118, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 3 - Whole No. 117, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 2 - Whole No. 116, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Vol. 27, No. 1 - Whole No. 115, David Bratman

Mythprint

Mythprint is the monthly bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society, a nonprofit educational organization devoted to the study, discussion, and enjoyment of myth and fantasy literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. To promote these interests, the Society publishes three magazines, maintains a World Wide Web site, and sponsors the annual Mythopoeic Conference and awards for fiction and scholarship, as well as local and written discussion groups.

Navigating Your Research Identity: Essentials For Early-Career Researchers, Ibis Anette Moreno-Lozano

Day Family Research Lab Workshop Series

This workshop will guide participants through the essential elements that make up a research identity, including the proper presentation of your name on publications, the creation of professional profiles, maintaining institutional and organizational affiliations, and the importance of collaborations and citations.

Revealing The Key Ingredient: Understanding How Teachers In Challenging School Environments Navigate School Culture To Enhance Learner Retention, Babalwa Kafu-Quvane Dr

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This paper explores teachers’ professional practices to gain a thorough grasp and a deep understanding of what it takes to retain learners in an environment where most schools fail to do so. I approach the study using a qualitative multiple case study design and position it within the interpretive paradigm. I purposively selected 50 post-level one teachers from five schools. Cavanagh and Dellar’s theory on culture of school improvement, which emphasizes the transformation of schools into learning communities through social interaction, interpersonal relationships, and support among various stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and learners, was used as theoretical lens for this …

The Effects Of High-Intensity Functional Training On The Perceptions Of Exercise In Middle-Aged Females: A Pilot Study, Halle N. Brin, Baylie G. Sigmund, Nathan D. Dicks, Kathryn J. Deshaw, Tanis J. Walch, Michael J. Carper, Allison M. Barry

International Journal of Exercise Science

International Journal of Exercise Science 17(5): 1392-1405, 2024. The high prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity in the U.S. is a public health crisis. This study aims to examine the effects of high-intensity functional training (HIFT) on exercise perceptions and physiological changes in inactive females. A pre-test and post-test, quasi-experimental design was conducted with inactive, middle-aged females (n = 8) participating in an 8-week supervised and verified intervention (2-week High-Intensity Interval Training, 6-weeks HIFT). The Health Belief Model Scale for Exercise (HBMS-E) survey was completed pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 4-week follow-up to assess exercise perceptions. Pre- and post-intervention physiological assessments …

Title: Questioning Attebery’S ‘Bullseye’: Interviews With Young Readers Of Fantasy May De-Center The Lord Of The Rings, Luke Shelton

Journal of Tolkien Research

In 2018 and 2019, I interviewed young readers about their opinions of The Lord of the Rings (LotR) as a part of my PhD thesis. Their ideas concerning the genre of the text destabilize Attebery's use of it as a central point for the genre. Since these readers do not demonstrate a consensus that LotR is a work of fantasy, one is left to wonder if the idea of the fuzzy set proposed by Attebery is accurate when considering the lived experiences of readers. This leads to several questions about why these young readers have categorized the story …