Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Editorial - Sure Journal Vol 6, Anne M. Friel, Eva Campion, Sinead Loughran

SURE Journal: Science Undergraduate Research Experience Journal

.

¿Qué Futuro Les Espera A Los Trabajadores Latinos? El Calor Extremo, Las Promesas Vacías Y La Incertidumbre Política, Yunior Rivas Garcia

Capstones

Este artículo explora las condiciones mortales que enfrentan los trabajadores latinos en Estados Unidos debido al estrés por calor, un riesgo creciente en sectores esenciales como la construcción, la agricultura y el almacenamiento. A pesar de representar una proporción significativa de las muertes laborales, las protecciones contra el calor son insuficientes, y la falta de regulación federal agrava la vulnerabilidad de estos trabajadores, muchos de los cuales son indocumentados. A través de casos específicos, como la muerte de Esvin Cruz Mateo, y un análisis de las políticas laborales actuales, el texto examina las fallas estructurales que perpetúan la inseguridad laboral …

Key Epigenetic And Signaling Factors In The Formation And Maintenance Of The Blood-Brain Barrier, Jayanarayanan Sadanandan, Sithara Thomas, Iny Elizabeth Mathew, Zhen Huang, Spiros L Blackburn, Nitin Tandon, Hrishikesh Lokhande, Pierre D Mccrea, Emery H Bresnick, Pramod K Dash, Devin W Mcbride, Arif Harmanci, Lalit K Ahirwar, Dania Jose, Ari C Dienel, Hussein A Zeineddine, Sungha Hong, Peeyush Kumar T

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) controls the movement of molecules into and out of the central nervous system (CNS). Since a functional BBB forms by mouse embryonic day E15.5, we reasoned that gene cohorts expressed in CNS endothelial cells (EC) at E13.5 contribute to BBB formation. In contrast, adult gene signatures reflect BBB maintenance mechanisms. Supporting this hypothesis, transcriptomic analysis revealed distinct cohorts of EC genes involved in BBB formation and maintenance. Here, we demonstrate that epigenetic regulator's histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) and polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) control EC gene expression for BBB development and prevent Wnt/β-catenin (Wnt) target genes …

A Supervised Machine Learning Statistical Design Of Experiment Approach To Modeling The Barriers To Effective Snakebite Treatment In Ghana, Eric Nyarko, Edmund F. Agyemang, Ebenezer Kwesi Ameho, Louis Agyekum, José María Gutiérrez, Eduardo Alberto Fernandez

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Snakebite envenoming is a serious condition that affects 2.5 million people and causes 81,000–138,000 deaths every year, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. The World Health Organization has set a goal to halve the deaths and disabilities related to snakebite envenoming by 2030. However, significant challenges in achieving this goal include a lack of robust research evidence related to snakebite incidence and treatment, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to combine established methodologies with the latest tools in Artificial Intelligence to assess the barriers to effective snakebite treatment in Ghana.

Method

We used a MaxDiff statistical experiment design …

12.02.2024 Orsp Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

Email Address Matters

All of Us Researcher Symposium

Welcome Anya Goldman

Design, Synthesis, And Nmr-Guided Characterization Of A Targeted Covalent Inhibitor-Like Molecule Against Ivyp1 From P. Aeruginosa, Samuel Taylor Moore

Master's Theses

Multi-drug resistance poses a serious threat to future generations and historical antibiotic pipelines; consequently, the medical and economic burdens associated with treating multidrug-resistant bacteria are substantiated. In this context, P. aeruginosa (PA) emerges as one of the most significant healthcare challenges, being a leading cause of resistance-associated mortality worldwide. Despite modern efforts to combat these poor outcomes, drug-resistant cases continue to rise, and the need for novel antibiotic treatment is apparent. To this end, we investigated relevant resistance mechanisms and past antibiotic targets within PA, and in doing so, we identified relationships between peptidoglycan biology and a periplasmic protein, Inhibitor …

Impact Of Pathogenic E. Coli In Drinking Water On The Well-Being Of Children, Aysha Khatoon

CBER Conference

Despite global advancements, unsafe drinking water is a major cause of illness, ranked as the eighth highest worldwide (Forouzanfar et al., 2015). Studies indicate that even improved water sources, can harbour faecal contamination (Shaheed et al., 2014; Bain et al., 2014b). Globally, 1.8 billion people rely on drinking water contaminated with faecal matter (Bain et al., 2014a), with pathogenic E. coli being a primary concern. In Pakistan, the situation is dire. About 25 million people, particularly children, suffer due to open defecation, leading to 53,000 child deaths annually from diarrhoea (UNICEF, 2021). Pathogenic E. coli is a significant contributor to …

12.09.2024 Orsp Connect, Liz Williamson

ORED Newsletter

Employee Profiles

In Person Account Reconciliation and Tableau Training

NSF Proposals with Consultant or Professional Services

Computational Logp Calculations And Determination Of Lipophilicity Values Of Fluorinated Morphine Derivatives, Mirabella Romano, Allison Vu, Emily Chen

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The addictive effect of opioids impacted 60 million people globally in 2023. This opioid crisis necessitates the development of opioid derivatives that maintain analgesic efficacy while minimizing addictive effects from opioid use. The present work focuses on morphine, a commonly prescribed opioid with high affinity to the mu-opioid receptor (MOR). Morphine binds non-selectively within both healthy and inflamed tissue. By modifying morphine’s structure through fluorination to counteract its non-selective binding, the drug’s pharmacological ability to provide effective pain relief comes with a lower risk of addiction. Specifically, the addition of fluorine to differing beta positions of the main binding site …

Rings Of Power: Controlling Sod Mimic Activity By The Addition Of Pyridine Rings Within The Pyridinophane Scaffold, Katherine J. Smith, Timothy M. Schwartz, David M. Freire, Cameron Bowers, Sarah K. Dunn, Jackson F. Bonnell, Magy A. Mekhail, Giridhar Akkaraju, Kayla N. Green

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Superoxide dismutase enzymes are a major defense against superoxide, which is a potent reactive oxygen species. Misregulation of reactive oxygen species and subsequent neuronal damage are etiological hallmarks of neurodegenerative disease. Macrocyclic small molecules have offered inroads toward functional SOD1 mimics. Herein, we report a series of five tetra-aza macrocyclic ^RPy₂N₂ ligands, varied by 4-position substitution of the pyridine ring with both electron-donating (R = OMe) and withdrawing groups (R = Cl, I, and CF₃) to offer the first comparison to well-studied ^RPyN₃ congeners and other mimics in the literature. New ligands …

Alphafold2-Based Characterization Of Apo And Holo Protein Structures And Conformational Ensembles Using Randomized Alanine Sequence Scanning Adaptation: Capturing Shared Signature Dynamics And Ligand-Induced Conformational Changes, Nishank Raisinghani, Vedant Parikh, Brandon Foley, Gennady M. Verkhivker

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Proteins often exist in multiple conformational states, influenced by the binding of ligands or substrates. The study of these states, particularly the apo (unbound) and holo (ligand-bound) forms, is crucial for understanding protein function, dynamics, and interactions. In the current study, we use AlphaFold2, which combines randomized alanine sequence masking with shallow multiple sequence alignment subsampling to expand the conformational diversity of the predicted structural ensembles and capture conformational changes between apo and holo protein forms. Using several well-established datasets of structurally diverse apo-holo protein pairs, the proposed approach enables robust predictions of apo and holo structures and conformational ensembles, …

Screensafefuture: A Parent-Empathetic And Pragmatic Mhealth Application For Toddlers' Brain Development Addressing Screen-Addiction Challenges, Nafisa Anjum, Md. Mehedi Hasan, Syeda Umme Salma, Liang Zhao, Maria Valero, Nazmus Sakib

Faculty Articles

The surging incidents of infants and toddlers screen addiction in the United States are becoming a pressing concern, given its compound impact on cognitive, mental, and physical growth. To address this era's critical child health and development problem, in this paper an innovative mHealth application—ScreenSafeFuture—is proposed. ScreenSafeFuture provides practical solutions that seamlessly fit into parents' busy lifestyles, acknowledging the effectiveness and convenience of smartphones as a healthcare tool. The solution includes essential features designed to enhance the experience between parents and their children under 3 years old encompassing an alternative activity advocator for a personalized parent-offspring scenario, screen time tracking …

A Latent Class Assessment Of Healthcare Access Factors And Disparities In Breast Cancer Care Timeliness, Matthew Dunn, Didong Li, Marc Emerson, Caroline Thompson, Hazel Nichols, Sarah Van Alsten, Mya Roberson, Stephanie Wheeler, Lisa Carey, Terry Hyslop, Jennifer Elston Lafata, Melissa Troester

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Delays in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment lead to worse survival and quality of life. Racial disparities in care timeliness have been reported, but few studies have examined access at multiple points along the care continuum (diagnosis, treatment initiation, treatment duration, and genomic testing).

METHODS AND FINDINGS: The Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS) Phase 3 is a population-based, case-only cohort (n = 2,998, 50% black) of patients with invasive breast cancer diagnoses (2008 to 2013). We used latent class analysis (LCA) to group participants based on patterns of factors within 3 separate domains: socioeconomic status ("SES"), "care barriers," and …

D101n: A Unique And Ill-Understood Familial Als-Related Sod1 Mutant, Analisa Lott

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease, with 90% of documented cases considered sporadic and about 10% showing a hereditary link; such cases are deemed as familial ALS (fALS). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), a copper-zinc binding enzyme that protects cells from damaging free radicals, has been linked to fALS with certain toxic gain of function mutations, such as the D101N mutant. The human SOD1 D101N mutant has been shown to be associated with rapidly progressing neurodegeneration yet is less prone to aggregation than similar mutants, but its deviation from wild-type (WT) SOD1 remains misunderstood.

Objective: Although the D101N …

Safeguarding Virtual Healthcare: A Novel Attacker-Centric Model For Data Security And Privacy, Suvineetha Herath, Haywood Gelman, John Hastings, Yong Wang

Research & Publications

The rapid growth of remote healthcare delivery has introduced significant security and privacy risks to protected health information (PHI). Analysis of a comprehensive healthcare security breach dataset covering 2009-2023 reveals their significant prevalence and impact. This study investigates the root causes of such security incidents and introduces the Attacker-Centric Approach (ACA), a novel threat model tailored to protect PHI. ACA addresses limitations in existing threat models and regulatory frameworks by adopting a holistic attacker-focused perspective, examining threats from the viewpoint of cyber adversaries, their motivations, tactics, and potential attack vectors. Leveraging established risk management frameworks, ACA provides a multi-layered approach …

Everyone Brings Something To The Table: A Culturally Sustaining Analysis Of Teacher Candidates’ Mixed Reality Teaching Simulations, Erin Scott

Faculty Publications

Discussions of HBCU students’ content knowledge have centered around developing high impact, asset-based approaches to learning (Williams et al, 2022). So, HBCU teacher preparation providers (TPPs) can also focus efforts on culturally sustaining approaches to developing candidates’ content knowledge and researching how high impact practices, like teaching simulations, can help prepare candidates for classrooms. This exploratory case study uses critical cases (n=2); findings suggest candidates have a developing understanding of content, which forms a solid basis for increasing their knowledge. MRTSs are addressed as a potential high impact, culturally sustaining practice for building candidates’ content knowledge. Further, HBCU TPPs can …

Scholarships, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Periconceptional, Physical Activity, Environment, Nutrition And Diet (Prepared) Study, Aaliyah Devore

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Accessibility: Policy Innovations For Lower Limb Prosthetic Users, Hannah Huggans

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

About The Mcnair Scholars Program, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Using Machine Learning To Improve Confidence In Lung Cancer Diagnosis, Sandra Channeary Khoun

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Health professionals must diagnose correctly to avoid unnecessary costs in care and medicine. Different conditions, come with different treatments. Therefore, it is key to produce the right diagnoses promptly to help treat people appropriately and quickly. As lung cancer is the leading cancer type in the world, it is often diagnosed too late once symptoms appear which becomes difficult to treat at certain stages. In the race against time, recruiting the use of machine learning next to traditional methods of diagnosing will improve the confidence of professionals to predict specific conditions accurately and with speed. For our research, we will …

Assessing The Potential For Soil-Mediated Transmission Of Symbiotic Bacteria In The Leaffooted Bug (Leptoglossus Phyllopus), Armeen Nasir

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Recent evidence suggests insects might indirectly provide symbionts to their offspring by releasing them into the soil via feces. We investigated whether this is occurring in the Eastern leaf-footed bug, Leptoglosuss phyllopus. We hypothesized that if adults release viable symbiont cells into their environment, then nymphs will have a higher survival rate, develop faster, and be larger at adulthood when exposed to soil that has been in contact with adult insects for longer. To measure the rate and whether the bugs acquired Caballeronia from the soil, insect nymphs were exposed to soil that had been exposed to a lab colony …

Identification Of Novel Genes Regulating Caenorhabditis Elegans Morphologically Complex Cellelimination, Brenda Amata

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of 12 Exoplanet-Star Systems And Their Exomoon Candidates, Connor Jackson

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Investing The Therapeutic Possibilities Of Glassblowing, Isabella Posca

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

A Machine Learning Approach To Multifactorial Modeling Of Episodic Memory Performance, Evan Fletcher, Marianne Chanti-Ketterl, Emily Hokett, Yi Lor, Umesh Venkatesan, Paola Gilsanz, Rachel Whitmer, Ruijia Chen, Kristen George, Zvinka Zlatar

Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Papers

BACKGROUND: Neurocognitive health is influenced by multiple modifiable and non-modifiable lifestyle factors. Machine learning tools offer a promising approach to better understand complex models of cognitive function. We used extreme gradient boosting (XG Boost), an algorithm of decision-tree modeling, to analyze the association between 15 late-life lifestyle and demographic factors with episodic memory performance. METHOD: Our dataset consisted of 2247 participants from the KHANDLE and STAR cohorts. Participants included 841 men and 1406 women, an ethnoracial diversity of 413 Asian, 987 Black, 349 Latinx, and 496 White adults with age range 54-90 (mean = 74). XG Boost models of continuous …

Methanogenesis Kinetics Of Organic Matter Of The Leachate In An Up-Flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor, Mohamad Ali Fulazzaky, Ali Yuzir, Tiffany L. Messer, Agus Sofyan

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Understanding the treatment of leachate mediated by the development of anaerobic sludge makes it possible to create an effective design process of biodegradation technology. This study used an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor equipped with a gas–liquid-solid separator to capture CH4 for treating landfill leachate to improve understanding of methanogenesis kinetics of organic matter. The performance of UASB was able to remove 154.75 g/L of chemical oxygen demand (COD) content of the leachate originally anticipated to emit 2.99 L of CH4 production into the atmosphere. The trend in the variation of internal mass transfer (IMT) factor was close to …

Resting-State Brain Activity And Its Relationship To Mental Health In Epilepsy Using Fmri, Florian Gobellan Rodriguez

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Efficiency Of Lossless Compression Algorithms Across Multiple Formats In Archival Compression, Matthew Gonzales

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Data storage or retention is an essential part of all business operations. Modern companies opt to store user data seven years or more after it is deleted and even longer when it’s still being hosted. Therefore, when storing files for long periods of time compression becomes an essential step in reducing cost and total file storage. Compression is the strategic removement of portions of data while ensuring that enough data is left behind to reconstruct the file during decompression. This experiment seeks to identify potential benefits of compression in groups of files of differing formats in comparison to individual file …

Postpartum Depression In North American Ghanaian Women, Natalie Bawuah

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.