Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Identification Of Unknown Mold Sample From Lappin Hall, Devan Herald, Geoff Gearner

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The purpose of this undergraduate research project is to identify an unknown species of mold that was found growing in the B-wing of Lappin Hall, on Morehead State University Campus, after the summer holiday of 2022. A sample of the unknown mold was collected and isolated for identification.

Religious Beliefs & Marital Satisfaction: Examining The Impact Of Religious Beliefs On Marital Satisfaction, Trenton Rose, Monica Himes

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The focus of the study is to examine the relationship between religious beliefs and marital satisfaction. The goal was to look at how religion was being incorporated into marriages and how it impacted their satisfaction with the marriage.

Fundamental Or Negligible?: Kentucky P-12 Teacher Websites, Maddie Stamper, Lesia Lennix

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

How does a P-12 classroom teacher communicate at large with their students or their parents? There are countless ways for teachers to communicate with others. We determined that the more effective route in teacher communication would be an access-key-based Google Classroom, or an open-access teacher website linked directly to their respective school's website. An available, published teacher website allows anyone with internet access to view teacher-proffered information. This information could include their name, email, phone number, short biography, picture, or Google Classroom link. We found that the most effective information to include on a teacher's website would be their name, …

The Kentucky Ant Project: An Attempt To Catalogue The Ant Species Of Kentucky, Josiah Kilburn, Sean O'Keefe

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

There are 74 ant species in Kentucky and 55 ant species in West Virginia. In most of the surrounding states, ant species counts are nearly double, or at least 49 more ant species than either of these two states. This indicates that there have been minimal sampling efforts in Kentucky and West Virginia.

Impact Of Nurse- Patient Interactions On Patient Outcome: A Quality Improvement Project, Suzie White

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The purpose of this project is to address the benefits of care related to nurse and patient interactions. Throughout the project we have researched these benefits within different specialties of medicine. Some different specialties we studied include, communication in the ICU (intensive care unit), communication within the palliative/hospice setting, communication in the ED (emergency department), communication in the med surgical setting, patients’ perception of nurse/ patient interactions, nurse communication techniques and training, and lastly the costs of effective and ineffective communication.

Adverse Childhood Events, Safety, & Comfort: Associations With Adolescent Symptoms, C. Skaggs, M. Howard, T. Pangallo, Shari L. Kidwell

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

A PowerPoint that accompanied a oral presentation.

Leadership Initiatives International Public Health Internship Program, Brooklyn Adams, Mahathi Siripurapu, Jennifer Nguyen, Landon Pritchett, Josh Day, Jeremyah Cabrera, Rox Lockard, Rachel Rogers

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

In a nine-month internship for Leadership Initiatives, our team worked together to develop and implement an international public health campaign to address major health concerns prevalent in the region of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Our topic was the issue of selfmedication and its effects among the community. We launched a campaign to collect survey data and develop an educational workshop for the project.

The Impact Of Early Identification Of Declining Patients: A Quality Improvement Study, Courtlyn Salyers, Kyla Wilson, Cedric Meadows, Savannah Sizemore, Savannah Thompson, Gg Ferguson, Payton Mcglone, Leah Moore, Jordan Sims, Suzi White

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

This presentation focuses on the prevalence of failure to rescue in healthcare, that we have evidenced in the clinical setting. Proper identification of declining patient health plays a major role in early intervention, resulting in a positive patient outcome. Analyzing common themes in these issues provided a “bigger picture” of the need for proactive patient care.

Craft Academy Solar Electric Racing: The Building Of A Solar Car, Bray Paynter, Sophia Day, Casey Hovis, Hailey Castle, Hope Meyers, Landon Ray, Rachel Rogers, Joyce Stubbs, Steve Stubbs

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The Solar Car Challenge is a nationwide program in which high school and college students design and build a car powered by solar panels, competing at Texas Motor Speedway or in a cross-country race. In the Spring of 2021, The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics founded a Solar Car Team called Craft Academy Solar Electric Racing (CASER).

First Examination Of Palynolgy Across The K-Pg Boundary In The Jackson Purchase Region Of Kentucky, Maeve Mccarty, Jarred Asselta, Gary Stinchcomb, William Lukens, Ingrid Romero, Matthew Pound, Jen O’Keefe

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

This study examines the Independence School section of the K-Pg Boundary, which is located in a creek cutbank exposure in Carlisle County, in the Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky. This section has not otherwise been examined since 1980 and has not previously been palynologically studied in detail. Specifically, we are examining the Owl Creek and upper McNairy Formations, deposited as Maastrictian-age sediments and the Clayton Formation, deposited as Danian- age sediments, in a mosaic of onshore, nearshore, and coastal environments (Tschudy, 1970; Olive, 1980). The site was relocated by G. Stinchcomb and students from Murray State University in 2020 and …

The Effects Of Cloth & Surgical Masks On The Environment, Dana Jurgielewicz

Honors Projects in Science and Technology

The objective of this study is to assess the environmental effects of different types of face masks (surgical and cloth). A comparison between different mask components is analyzed and an environmental impact is produced through the OpenLCA Software. The research question for this study is: What are the effects of different types of face masks on the environment? The expected result was that surgical masks would be worse for the environment because of the high consumption usage. The results of this study suggest that cloth masks have a worse environmental impact because of their level of usage.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 64 Number 1 Spring 2023 [Print Issue 62:2], Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

16 - A BRIDGE TO TOMORROW How one university can change the world when it widens the path to opportunity. SCU Staff

22 - THE INTERNET'S LAST TRUE BELIEVER For more than two decades, Law Professor Eric Goldman has been one of the most influential legal voices fighting for the ’net. Chris O’Brien

26 - OPPORTUNITY ON SET Meet five Broncos who scored the opportunity of a lifetime—production assistants on an indie film crew—via Professor Nico Opper. Nicole Calande

28 - SPIRITUAL SOUP With a little bit of this, a dash of that, and a sprinkling of something else, humans …

2023- The Twenty-Seventh Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Twenty-seventh Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 18-21, 2023. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Colorimetric Redox Reactions To Determine Base Composition In Unknown Monomeric Dna Samples, James T. Dials, Mara J. Stout, Elizabeth M. Thomas

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) codes for proteins using a unique order of four major nitrogenous bases adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. In several biological applications, such as the determination of DNA stability, production of biologic based drugs, and even taxonomic reorganization of species, it becomes necessary to understand the relative amounts of each nucleotide in a DNA sample, regardless of their sequence. However, most assays used to determine base composition use expensive equipment, harsh chemicals, and advanced computer software. In addition, the determination of base composition is an important educational tool in undergraduate laboratories, but these limitations are infeasible for many …

2022-2023 Program And Abstracts: Celebration Of Student Scholarship, Morehead State University. Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program.

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

The 2022-2023 Program and Abstracts for the Celebration of Student Scholarship at Morehead State University held on April 19, 2023. A Showcase of Student Research, Scholarship, Creative Work, and Performance Arts.

Sharprazor: Automatic Removal Of Hair And Ruler Marks From Dermoscopy Images, Reda Kasmi, Jason Hagerty, Reagan Harris Young, Norsang Lama, Januka Nepal, Jessica Miinch, William V. Stoecker, R. Joe Stanley

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: The removal of hair and ruler marks is critical in handcrafted image analysis of dermoscopic skin lesions. No other dermoscopic artifacts cause more problems in segmentation and structure detection. Purpose: The aim of the work is to detect both white and black hair, artifacts and finally inpaint correctly the image. Method: We introduce a new algorithm: SharpRazor, to detect hair and ruler marks and remove them from the image. Our multiple-filter approach detects hairs of varying widths within varying backgrounds, while avoiding detection of vessels and bubbles. The proposed algorithm utilizes grayscale plane modification, hair enhancement, segmentation using tri-directional …

Healthcare Disparities Among Incarcerated Populations: A Quality Improvement Project, Mariam Bradley, Morgan Callihan, Sandra Frederick, Riley Hall, Marty Helms, Aaliyah Manson, Katelyn Martha, Madison Mason, Suzi White

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

A population that has been consistently subject to unequal treatment when receiving medical attention is the population of prisoners or jail inmates. It is essential to explore the discrepancies prisoners face and the effects it has on their health. The objective of this research was to bring to light the disparities incarcerated patients experience, and how to eliminate these. In order to develop a better understanding of the prejudiced actions incarcerated patients face in the healthcare spectrum, numerous studies have been analyzed.

Are Gender And Social Disparities Associated With Stem Persistence In Kentucky Colleges?, Riley E. Hicks, Wilson Gonzalez-Espada

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Children have the right to receive a quality education, but concerns about county disparities in school funding, facilities, and resources exist. This is known as the "zip code effect". Because high school STEM classes require lab space, materials, equipment, and specialized teachers, disparities in school funding can impact students who want STEM careers.

Visual Pollution Classification Using Convolutional Neural Networks, Jacob Vogelpohl, Heba Elgazzar

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Visual pollution is an impairment on an individual's ability to enjoy their surroundings. It usually takes the form of a messy and chaotic environment that can cause overstimulation of the visual senses. This includes trash, advertisements, construction, electric cables, and similar objects. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are a form of artificial intelligence that use supervised learning to process and classify images. In this research, a CNN processed images of city streets and classified them as polluted or not polluted based on the visual characteristics that it learned from during its training period. The CNN achieved a training accuracy of 98% …

Predicting The Mechanism And Products Of Cs2 Capture By Nh3 - An Exemplar Benchmark Study, Shelbie A. Black, David A. Dixon, Zachary R. Lee

2023 Celebration of Student Scholarship - Poster Presentations

Carbon disulfide is a toxic gas emitted from industrial plants and a common greenhouse gas. Acute poisonings from carbon disulfide are rare, but recurring exposure to low doses can have long term health effects. Currently, there are two approaches being considered for the removal of acid gas pollutants: (1) sequester these gases from the atmosphere or (2) remove these gases directly upon combustion (post-combustion). Potential energy surfaces (PES) for a series of CS2 capture reactions by NH3 in the presence H2O were calculated at the MP2/a(D+d) evel in the gas phase. G3(MP2) and FPD calculations are in progress. Extensive thermodynamic …

Discerning Conversational Context In Online Health Communities For Personalized Digital Behavior Change Solutions Using Pragmatics To Reveal Intent In Social Media (Prism) Framework, Tavleen Singh, Kirk Roberts, Trevor Cohen, Nathan Cobb, Amy Franklin, Sahiti Myneni

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Online health communities (OHCs) have emerged as prominent platforms for behavior modification, and the digitization of online peer interactions has afforded researchers with unique opportunities to model multilevel mechanisms that drive behavior change. Existing studies, however, have been limited by a lack of methods that allow the capture of conversational context and socio-behavioral dynamics at scale, as manifested in these digital platforms.

OBJECTIVE: We develop, evaluate, and apply a novel methodological framework, Pragmatics to Reveal Intent in Social Media (PRISM), to facilitate granular characterization of peer interactions by combining multidimensional facets of human communication.

METHODS: We developed and applied …

Moral Injury To Inform Analysis Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Amanda Julia Manea

Senior Theses

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that almost one out of ten veterans struggle with. Although the National Center for PTSD has made extensive progress in characterizing and developing new treatments for PTSD, most veterans still experience symptoms of PTSD following treatment. Novel avenues of investigation, such as developing algorithms to review electronic health record (EHR) data and better understanding moral injury, are being pursued to address the gap that still exists when it comes to treating veterans. Moral injury is the individual evaluation of exposure to a potentially morally injurious event (PMIE) and can lead to …

Prediction Of Brain Metastases Development In Patients With Lung Cancer By Explainable Artificial Intelligence From Electronic Health Records, Zhao Li, Rongbin Li, Yujia Zhou, Laila Rasmy, Degui Zhi, Ping Zhu, Antonio Dono, Xiaoqian Jiang, Hua Xu, Yoshua Esquenazi, W Jim Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Early detection of brain metastases (BMs) is critical for prompt treatment and optimal control of the disease. In this study, we seek to predict the risk of developing BM among patients diagnosed with lung cancer on the basis of electronic health record (EHR) data and to understand what factors are important for the model to predict BM development through explainable artificial intelligence approaches accurately.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We trained a recurrent neural network model, REverse Time AttentIoN (RETAIN), to predict the risk of developing BM using structured EHR data. To interpret the model's decision process, we analyzed the attention …

Why Is Biomedical Informatics Hard? A Fundamental Framework, Todd R Johnson, Elmer V Bernstam

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Building on previous work to define the scientific discipline of biomedical informatics, we present a framework that categorizes fundamental challenges into groups based on data, information, and knowledge, along with the transitions between these levels. We define each level and argue that the framework provides a basis for separating informatics problems from non-informatics problems, identifying fundamental challenges in biomedical informatics, and provides guidance regarding the search for general, reusable solutions to informatics problems. We distinguish between processing data (symbols) and processing meaning. Computational systems, that are the basis for modern information technology (IT), process data. In contrast, many important challenges …

Convolutional Neural Network For Biomarker Discovery For Triple Negative Breast Cancer With Rna Sequencing Data, Xiangning Chen, Justin M Balko, Fei Ling, Yabin Jin, Anneliese Gonzalez, Zhongming Zhao, Jingchun Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are tumors with a poor treatment response and prognosis. In this study, we propose a new approach, candidate extraction from convolutional neural network (CNN) elements (CECE), for discovery of biomarkers for TNBCs. We used the GSE96058 and GSE81538 datasets to build a CNN model to classify TNBCs and non-TNBCs and used the model to make TNBC predictions for two additional datasets, the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) breast cancer RNA sequencing data and the data from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC). Using correctly predicted TNBCs from the GSE96058 and TCGA datasets, we calculated saliency maps …

Application Of An Ontology For Model Cards To Generate Computable Artifacts For Linking Machine Learning Information From Biomedical Research, Muhammad Tuan Amith, Licong Cui, Kirk Roberts, Cui Tao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Model card reports provide a transparent description of machine learning models which includes information about their evaluation, limitations, intended use, etc. Federal health agencies have expressed an interest in model cards report for research studies using machine-learning based AI. Previously, we have developed an ontology model for model card reports to structure and formalize these reports. In this paper, we demonstrate a Java-based library (OWL API, FaCT++) that leverages our ontology to publish computable model card reports. We discuss future directions and other use cases that highlight applicability and feasibility of ontology-driven systems to support FAIR challenges.

De Novo Mutations Disturb Early Brain Development More Frequently Than Common Variants In Schizophrenia, Toshiyuki Itai, Peilin Jia, Yulin Dai, Jingchun Chen, Xiangning Chen, Zhongming Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Investigating functional, temporal, and cell-type expression features of mutations is important for understanding a complex disease. Here, we collected and analyzed common variants and de novo mutations (DNMs) in schizophrenia (SCZ). We collected 2,636 missense and loss-of-function (LoF) DNMs in 2,263 genes across 3,477 SCZ patients (SCZ-DNMs). We curated three gene lists: (a) SCZ-neuroGenes (159 genes), which are intolerant to LoF and missense DNMs and are neurologically important, (b) SCZ-moduleGenes (52 genes), which were derived from network analyses of SCZ-DNMs, and (c) SCZ-commonGenes (120 genes) from a recent GWAS as reference. To compare temporal gene expression, we used the BrainSpan …

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5n1) Virus Outbreak In New England Seals, United States, Wendy Puryear, Kaitlin Sawatzki, Nichola Hill, Alexa Foss, Jonathon J. Stone, Lynda Doughty, Dominique Walk, Katie Gilbert, Maureen Murray, Elena Cox, Priya Patel, Zak Mertz, Stephanie Ellis, Jennifer Taylor, Deborah Fauquier, Ainsley Smith, Robert A. Digiovanni, Adriana Van De Guchte, Ana Silvia Gonzalez-Reiche, Zain Khalil, Harm Van Bakel, Mia K. Torchetti, Kristina Lantz, Julianna B. Lenoch, Jonathan Runstadler

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We report the spillover of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) into marine mammals in the northeastern United States, coincident with H5N1 in sympatric wild birds. Our data indicate monitoring both wild coastal birds and marine mammals will be critical to determine pandemic potential of influenza A viruses.

In Situ Microwave Fixation Provides An Instantaneous Snapshot Of The Brain Metabolome, Jelena A. Juras, Madison B. Webb, Lyndsay E. A. Young, Kia H. Markussen, Tara R. Hawkinson, Michael D. Buoncristiani, Kayli E. Bolton, Peyton T. Coburn, Meredith I. Williams, Lisa P. Y. Sun, William C. Sanders, Ronald C. Bruntz, Lindsey R. Conroy, Chi Wang, Matthew S. Gentry, Bret N. Smith, Ramon C. Sun

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Brain glucose metabolism is highly heterogeneous among brain regions and continues postmortem. In particular, we demonstrate exhaustion of glycogen and glucose and an increase in lactate production during conventional rapid brain resection and preservation by liquid nitrogen. In contrast, we show that these post- mortem changes are not observed with simultaneous animal sacrifice and in situ fixation with focused, high- power microwave. We further employ microwave fixation to define brain glucose metabolism in the mouse model of streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetes. Using both total pool and isotope tracing analyses, we identified global glucose hypometabolism in multiple brain regions, evidenced by …

Targeting Lncrna Ddit4-As1 Sensitizes Triple Negative Breast Cancer To Chemotherapy Via Suppressing Of Autophagy, Ting Jiang, Jiaojiao Zhu, Shilong Jiang, Zonglin Chen, Ping Xu, Rong Gong, Changxin Zhong, Yueying Cheng, Xinyuan Sun, Wenjun Yi, Jinming Yang, Wenhu Zhou, Yan Cheng

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

In this study, it is found that the lncRNA, DNA damage inducible transcript 4 antisense RNA1 (DDIT4-AS1), is highly expressed in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines and tissues due to H3K27 acetylation in the promoter region, and promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion of TNBC cells via activating autophagy. Mechanistically, it is shown that DDIT4-AS1 induces autophagy by stabilizing DDIT4 mRNA via recruiting the RNA binding protein AUF1 and promoting the interaction between DDIT4 mRNA and AUF1, thereby inhibiting mTOR signaling pathway. Furthermore, silencing of DDIT4-AS1 enhances the sensitivity of TNBC cells to chemotherapeutic agents such as paclitaxel both …