Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Characterization And Investigation Of Cold Atmospheric Plasma And Its Effects On Cancer Cell Biology, Thomas M. Ritrosky

Theses and Dissertations

Modern cancer treatment uses radiation therapy in over 50% of patient cases. It is an e↵ective way of treating tumors because the mechanisms of cell killing are well known through the damage that ionizing radiation does to DNA. The amount of radiation can be tracked through measuring the dose of the clinical photon or electron beam used. However, there are limitations in the usage of radiation therapy, for example, a tumor can create hypoxic areas that become radioresistant leading to complete ine↵ectiveness of further radiation treatment. This project looks into the application of cold atmospheric plasma as an adjuvant therapy …

Contribution Of Metabolic Cell Swelling On Microcirculatory Perfusion In Septic Shock, Charles E. Payne

Theses and Dissertations

Sepsis, a systemic immunological response that leads to organ-dysfunction, the development of septic shock, and death has mortality rate of 15-25%. A subset of sepsis, septic shock, has an in-hospital mortality rate of 30-50%. Sepsis and its treatment are the most expensive healthcare problem in the United States with the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimating annual costs over $20 billion. Hypoxia experienced in septic shock induces metabolic cell and tissue swelling leading to further microcirculatory dysfunction and poor tissue perfusion. Reversing metabolic cell swelling corrects these perfusion defects. Two models were used in rats to induce septic …

Characterization Of A Solid-State Detector For Dosimetry In The Diagnostic Energy Range With Verification Via Monte Carlo Estimation Of Average Breast Dose In Mammography, Areej Aljabal

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to develop a simplified QA metric for estimating radiation dose in mammography. This metric, the Mid-Breast Dose (MDB) Index, maybe be proposed as an alternative dose index, consistent with average glandular dose (AGD), for routine QA. MBD was obtained using “Phantom mid-point Air Kerma (AK) measurement” for conventional mammography. The advantage of this method is that MBD can be measured directly without requiring multiple conversion factors. The accuracy of clinical measurements in computing the MBD was assessed by comparing it with the AGD estimated by the Dance formalism experimentally and Monte Carlo simulation.

MBD methodology relies on …

Addressing Death Distress In Caregivers Of Patients With Malignant Glioma, Kelcie D. Willis

Theses and Dissertations

The field of psychosocial oncology seeks to improve the quality of life of patients and families affected by cancer. This task becomes increasingly important when there are limited, non-curative treatment options, a high probability of recurrence, and rapid functional decline, such as in the case of a malignant glioma (MG). Indeed, the diagnosis of a MG is associated with negative sequalae that often translates to higher caregiver burden. Caregivers—who must manage the functional decline of the patient, changes within the family, and a complicated medical system—often feel overwhelmed, isolated, and ill-equipped to handle these myriad responsibilities. While they also report …

Role Of Histone Deacetylase (Hdac) In Epithelial To Mesenchymal Transition (Emt) In A Human Cholangiocyte Model Of Ischemic Cholangiopathy, Priyanshi Pragnesh Parikh

Theses and Dissertations

Organ transplants are a vital intervention for many diseases that result in end stage organ failure. Currently, the donation pool is not meeting the demands of the transplant list. Expanding this pool to include donation after cardiac death (DCD) is highly sought-after. However, the use of DCD livers can lead to increased odds of graft failure and ischemic cholangiopathy. The loss of epithelialization and fibrosis that occurs during ischemic cholangiopathy is characteristic of these cells undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The biological changes the cell experiences enhance migratory capacity, invasiveness, and increased resistance to apoptosis. Our earlier studies have shown differential …

Prospective Investigation Of Insomnia Symptoms And Sleep Duration As Risk Factors For Stroke Incidence And All-Cause Mortality In U.S Adult, Wendemi Sawadogo

Theses and Dissertations

Background and Objectives: Stroke is the second leading cause of death in the world. In the United States, on average, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds and someone dies as a result of stroke every 3.5 minutes. Identifying modifiable risk factors of stroke is therefore a public health priority. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which insomnia symptoms and sleep duration contribute to stroke incidence, all-cause mortality, and explore potential causal pathways.

Methods: The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study were …

Characterizing The Effects Of Antiandrogens And Senolytics To Enhance The Therapeutic Response To Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer, Justin M. Silverman

Theses and Dissertations

Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in males and the second most common cause of cancer deaths. Androgen deprivation therapy, whether through surgical or chemical castration, is the mainstay for treatment of advanced prostate cancer; however, despite an initial response, most patients eventually develop a progressive PSA rise, and castration- sensitive prostate cancer gives rise to castration-resistant prostate cancer. The standard of care therapy includes the antiandrogens such as enzalutamide and abiraterone acetate as well as the microtubule poison, docetaxel, and various immunotherapies; however, while prostate cancer research is progressing, there continues to be a compelling need for …

A Learning Health System For Radiation Oncology, Rishabh Kapoor

Theses and Dissertations

The proposed research aims to address the challenges faced by clinical data science researchers in radiation oncology accessing, integrating, and analyzing heterogeneous data from various sources. The research presents a scalable intelligent infrastructure, called the Health Information Gateway and Exchange (HINGE), which captures and structures data from multiple sources into a knowledge base with semantically interlinked entities. This infrastructure enables researchers to mine novel associations and gather relevant knowledge for personalized clinical outcomes.

The dissertation discusses the design framework and implementation of HINGE, which abstracts structured data from treatment planning systems, treatment management systems, and electronic health records. It utilizes …

Isoprenylation Inhibition Significantly Reduces Ige Mediated Mast Cell Function And Allergic Disease, Jordan Dailey

Theses and Dissertations

Allergic disease is the 6^th leading cause of chronic illness in the US and accounts for billions of dollars in healthcare annually. Mast cells are tissue resident innate immune cells linked to allergic disease and activated by IgE and other ligands. Upon activation, they release histamine, cytokines, chemokines, proteases, and lipid mediators evoking allergic symptoms. New ways of targeting mast cells could greatly benefit allergic disease therapy. Previous findings supported repurposing statin drugs, such as Fluvastatin, as a therapeutic treatment of allergic disease reduced allergic symptoms in vitro and in vivo. We found that Fluvastatin suppressed IgE-mediated mast cell …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Prdm16 As A Tumor Suppressor In Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, Eric Hurwitz

Theses and Dissertations

The transcription factor Prdm16 functions as a potent suppressor of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-b) signaling, whose inactivation is deemed essential to the progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Using the Kras^G12D-based mouse model of human PDAC, we surprisingly found that ablating Prdm16 did not block but instead accelerated PDAC formation and progression, suggesting that Prdm16 might function as a tumor suppressor in this malignancy. Subsequent genetic experiments showed that ablating Prdm16 along with Smad4 resulted in a shift from a well-differentiated and confined neoplasm to a highly aggressive and metastatic disease, which was associated with a striking deviation …