Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Bioscaffold Valve With And Without Mechanically Conditioned Stem Cells For The Treatment Of Critical Mitral Valve Diseases In The Young, Brittany A. Gonzalez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Congenital heart disease, which includes heart valve defects, are the most common type of birth abnormality in the US. Infants with critical congenital valve disease have no established treatment-measure other than compassionate care options, owing to an absence of prosthetic valves in small sizes and their inability to support somatic growth. A regenerable valve would be appealing since these barriers could be overcome; it can potentially provide for growth, self-repair, infection resistance and be a permanent approach for replacing defective heart valves.

Porcine small intestinal submucosa (PSIS) bioscaffold was used to create valvular constructs with the possibility to grow overtime. …

Laboratory And Epidemiological Characteristics Of Zika Virus Infections In Florida, Stephen L. White

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, Zika virus (ZIKV) was an obscure virus that rarely caused infections and was unknown to most. In 2015 and 2016, ZIKV came into the public spotlight as Brazil and other countries began to report large increases in infections with ZIKV and reported potential complications with developing fetuses and neurologic manifestations. In 2016, the state of Florida identified and responded to an outbreak of locally acquired ZIKV infections in Miami-Dade County. This dramatic increase in infections demonstrated both its importance as an emerging infectious disease and the paucity of knowledge surrounding ZIKV. This study seeks to utilize the data …

Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (Cre): Epidemiology, Duration Of Carriage, And Progression To Infection In A Large Healthcare System In Miami, Fl, Adriana Jimenez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) considered by the CDC as an urgent public health threat that is spreading globally. Little is known about the epidemiology of CRE in Miami, FL. The purpose of this dissertation was to 1) Evaluate trends in the epidemiology of CRE among patients admitted to the acute care facilities of the largest healthcare system in Miami, FL between 2012 and 2016, 2) Identify factors associated with progressing to infection among patients colonized with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), and 3) Determine the duration of CPE carriage and factors associated with long-term carriage in our cohort.

A …

Examining Stigma And Its Effect On Hiv Prevention & Care Among People Living In Florida, Angel B. Algarin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Persistent increases of HIV incidence in Florida has made it essential to study ways to improve HIV prevention strategies. Treatment as Prevention (TasP) and Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) are two recent methods in HIV prevention; however, their success may be limited due to barriers such as stigma. This dissertation explored the relationship between HIV-related stigma and 1) antiretroviral therapy adherence and viral suppression and 2) symptoms of anxiety and depression. Additionally, it sought to develop and validate a scale to measure community PrEP-related stigma.

We used data from the Florida Cohort Study which include 932 people living with HIV (PLWH). The …

Gut Integrity, Microbial Translocation, Immune Activation, Inflammation And Vitamin D In Drug Users Living With Hiv, Jacqueline S. Hernandez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine associations between MT, immune activation, inflammation, gut integrity and vitamin D status in the context of cocaine use among People Living with HIV (PLWH). One hundred cocaine and non-cocaine users living with HIV were selected from the Miami Adult Studies in HIV cohort. Blood samples were collected to assess MT (LPS), immune activation (sCD163 and sCD27), inflammation (IL-6, TNF-a, hs-CRP, IL-17 and IL-22), gut integrity damage (I-FABP) and vitamin D status. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, anthropometrics, diet and disease progression were collected. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, multiple linear and logistic regressions were …

Scalable Profiling And Visualization For Characterizing Microbiomes, Camilo Valdes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metagenomics is the study of the combined genetic material found in microbiome samples, and it serves as an instrument for studying microbial communities, their biodiversities, and the relationships to their host environments. Creating, interpreting, and understanding microbial community profiles produced from microbiome samples is a challenging task as it requires large computational resources along with innovative techniques to process and analyze datasets that can contain terabytes of information.

The community profiles are critical because they provide information about what microorganisms are present in the sample, and in what proportions. This is particularly important as many human diseases and environmental disasters …

Randomized Clinical Trial Of The Effect Of Oral Supplementation With N-Acetyl Cysteine And Glycine On Biomarkers Of Oxidative Stress And Inflammation In People Living With Hiv (Plwh) From The Mash Cohort, Alhanoof Al-Ohaly

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HIV infection has been associated with glutathione (GSH) depletion, oxidatively damaged DNA, and inflammation. People living with HIV (PLWH) have subnormal levels of GSH and elevated levels of inflammation biomarkers such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP). Failure of the antioxidant enzymatic system increases oxidatively damaged DNA. The objective of this double-blinded randomized clinical trial was to supplement PLWH with a combination of N-acetylcysteine, a powerful antioxidant, and glycine, a precursor of GSH or placebo for three months to decrease oxidative stress and inflammation.

The trial recruited 30 PLWH from the Miami Adult Studies on HIV (MASH) cohort at the FIU Research …