Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Space Use In Free-Ranging Canids: Are Gonadal Hormones Required For Territory Maintenance?, Eric M. Gese, Patricia A. Terletzky

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Fertility control among carnivores has been used to reduce depredations on livestock and wild neonates, population control, modify behavior, inhibit genetic introgression, and reduce human–wildlife conflicts. Although there is considerable knowledge on techniques to sterilize carnivores, there is little information concerning how the absence of gonadal hormones influences behavior, space use, and survival of wild canids. We examined territorial fidelity, home-range size and overlap, and survival of 179 surgically sterilized free-ranging canids (124 coyotes (Canis latrans Say, 1823), 55 coyote – red wolf (Canis rufus Audubon and Bachman, 1851) hybrids) with gonadal hormones present (tubal-ligated females (n = 70), vasectomized …

Social Identity And Acceptability Of Wild Pig (Sus Scrofa) Control Actions: A Case Study Of Texas Hunters, Lauren Jaebker, Tara L. Teel, Alan D. Bright, Hailey E. Mclean, John M. Tomeček, Maureen G. Frank, Rachael L. Connally, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Keith M. Carlisle

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) pose significant challenges to wildlife managers. This research explored Texas hunters’ acceptability of wild pig control actions, and whether acceptability varied according to hunters’ affiliation with four different categories of natural resource organizations as an indicator of social identity. Results of a survey (n = 37,317) revealed that most hunters were accepting of all control actions except toxicants and non-lethal deterrents. Mean acceptability scores for each action differed significantly across the four affiliation categories, but effect sizes were minimal. Hunters affiliated with agricultural organizations were the most accepting of control actions, while hunters with …

Influenza A Virus Surveillance, Infection And Antibody Persistence In Snow Geese (Anser Caerulescens), Susan A. Shriner, J. Jeffrey Root, Jeremy W. Ellis, Kevin T. Bentler, Kaci K. Vandalen, Thomas Gidlewski, Sarah N. Bevins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Some snow geese (Anser caerulescens) migrate between Eurasia and North America and exhibit high seroprevalence for influenza A viruses (IAVs). Hence, these birds might be expected to play a role in intercontinental dispersal of IAVs. Our objective in this manuscript was to characterize basic incidence and infection characteristics for snow geese to assess whether these birds are likely to significantly contribute to circulation of IAVs. Thus, we 1) estimated snow goose infection prevalence by summarizing > 5,000 snow goose surveillance records, 2) experimentally infected snow geese with a low pathogenic IAV (H4N6) to assess susceptibility and infection dynamics and …

Social Structure Defines Spatial Transmission Of African Swine Fever In Wild Boar, Kim M. Pepin, Andrew J. Golnar, Tomasz Podgórski

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The spatial spread of infectious disease is determined by spatial and social processes such as animal space use and family group structure. Yet, the impacts of social processes on spatial spread remain poorly understood and estimates of spatial transmission kernels (STKs) often exclude social structure. Understanding the impacts of social structure on STKs is important for obtaining robust inferences for policy decisions and optimizing response plans. We fit spatially explicit transmission models with different assumptions about contact structure to African swine fever virus surveillance data from eastern Poland from 2014 to 2015 and evaluated how social structure affected inference of …

Occurrence Of Mesocarnivores In Montane Sky Islands: How Spatial And Temporal Overlap Informs Rabies Management In A Regional Hotspot, Amanda M. Veals, John Koprowski, David L. Bergman, Kurt C. Vercauteren, David B. Wester

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Interspecific interactions among mesocarnivores can influence community dynamics and resource partitioning. Insights into these interactions can enhance understanding of local ecological processes that have impacts on pathogen transmission, such as the rabies lyssavirus. Host species ecology can provide an important baseline for disease management strategies especially in biologically diverse ecosystems and heterogeneous landscapes. We used a mesocarnivore guild native to the southwestern United States, a regional rabies hotspot, that are prone to rabies outbreaks as our study system. Gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), bobcats (Lynx rufus), and coyotes (Canis latrans) share large portions of their geographic ranges …

Sars-Cov-2 Exposure In Wild White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Jeffrey C. Chandler, Sarah N. Bevins, Jeremy W. Ellis, Timothy J. Linder, Rachel M. Tell, Melinda Jenkins-Moore, J. Jeffrey Root, Julianna B. Lenoch, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Thomas J. Deliberto, Tom Gidlewski, Mia Kim Torchetti, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Widespread human SARS-CoV-2 infections combined with human–wildlife interactions create the potential for reverse zoonosis from humans to wildlife. We targeted white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) for serosurveillance based on evidence these deer have angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptors with high affinity for SARS-CoV-2, are permissive to infection, exhibit sustained viral shedding, can transmit to conspecifics, exhibit social behavior, and can be abundant near urban centers. We evaluated 624 prepandemic and postpandemic serum samples from wild deer from four US states for SARS-CoV-2 exposure. Antibodies were detected in 152 samples (40%) from 2021 using a surrogate virus neutralization test. A subset of samples …

Detection Of Two Dissimilar Chronic Wasting Disease Isolates In Two Captive Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus Canadensis) Herds: Two Distinctive Chronic Wasting Disease Isolates Identified In Captive Elk, Tracy A. Nichols, Eric M. Nicholson, Yihui Liu, Wanyin Tao, Terry R. Spraker, Michael Lavelle, Justin W. Fischer, Qingzhong Kong, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) continues to spread in both wild and captive cervid herds in North America and has now been identified in wild reindeer and moose in Norway, Finland and Sweden. There is limited knowledge about the variety and characteristics of isolates or strains of CWD that exist in the landscape and their implications on wild and captive cervid herds. In this study, we evaluated brain samples from two captive elk herds that had differing prevalence, history and timelines of CWD incidence. Site 1 had a 16-year history of CWD with a consistently low prevalence between 5% and 10%. …

Environmental Dna For Conservation, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Biodiversity must be documented before it can be conserved. However, it may be difficult to document species with few individuals (Thompson, 2013; Goldberg et al., 2016), thus it requires a multitude of tools to detect species that occur in low numbers or are elusive (see the various chapters in this volume). One tool that has become useful for conservation efforts utilizes environmental DNA, which is DNA shed into the environment by organisms (eDNA; Taberlet et al., 2018). Typically this involves taking environmental samples such as soil, water, air, or using biological surrogates for sampling biodiversity (e.g. leeches, sponges, carrion flies, …

Allometric Regression Of Snake Body Length From Head Image Measurements, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

As in many fields of wildlife research and management, camera devices and photogrammetry have become an integral part of the toolkit for exploring otherwise‐unseen aspects of the biology, behavior, and control of the invasive brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) on Guam. Because brown treesnakes are cryptic and nocturnal, and nearly all aspects of their ecology are influenced by snake size, methods are needed to estimate snake size from images captured by infrared wildlife cameras. Unfortunately, it is difficult to capture images of an entire snake’s length at a controlled distance from a simple camera setup. Here, I describe the …

Increased Abundance Of The Common Raven Within The Ranges Of Greater And Gunnison Sage-Grouse: Influence Of Anthropogenic Subsidies And Fire, Jonathan B. Dinkins, Lindsey R. Perry, Jeffrey L. Beck, Jimmy D. Taylor

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The common raven (Corvus corax; raven) is native to North America and has increased in abundance, especially throughout western North America, during the last century. Human subsidies have facilitated raven dispersal into less suitable habitats and enabled these populations to maintain higher annual survival and reproduction. Concomitantly, overabundant raven populations are impacting other native at-risk species such as the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and potentially the Gunnison sage-grouse (C. minimus). Using Breeding Bird Survey data from 1995–2014, we evaluated raven count data to quantitatively describe changes in abundance and expansion into sagebrush ( …

A Novel Technique To Improve Capture Success Of Common Ravens, Lindsey R. Perry, Terrah M. Owens, Zachary T. Slick, Jimmy Taylor, Jonathan B. Dinkins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Traditional trapping techniques for common ravens (Corvus corax; raven) require significant effort, often produce low capture rates, and cannot be used in some situations. We designed a 3-m noose pole to secure ravens from nocturnal roost locations while using a strobe spotlight to temporarily disorient them. We collected measures of trapping efficiency and contrasted them with padded leghold traps also used in the study. We effectively implemented our noose pole method in July and August of 2018, 2019, and 2020 in the Baker and Cow Lakes sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) Priority Areas of Conservation in eastern Oregon, USA, which yielded trapping …

Nutritional Approach For Increasing Public Health During Pandemic Of Covid-19: A Comprehensive Review Of Antiviral Nutrients And Nutraceuticals, Vahideh Ebrahimzadeh-Attari, Ghodratollah Panahi, James R. Hébert Scd, Alireza Ostadrahimi, Maryam Saghafi-Asl, Neda Lotfi-Yaghin, Behzad Baradaran

Faculty Publications

Background: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is considered as the most life-threatening pandemic disease during the last decade. The individual nutritional status, though usually ignored in the management of COVID-19, plays a critical role in the immune function and pathogenesis of infection. Accordingly, the present review article aimed to report the effects of nutrients and nutraceuticals on respiratory viral infections including COVID-19, with a focus on their mechanisms of action.

Methods: Studies were identified via systematic searches of the databases including PubMed/ MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Google Scholar from 2000 until April 2020, using keywords. All relevant clinical and experimental studies …

The Need To Incorporate Communities In Compartmental Models, Michael J. Kane, Owais Gilani

Faculty Journal Articles

Tian et al. provide a framework for assessing population- level interventions of disease outbreaks through the construction of counterfactuals in a large-scale, natural experiment assessing the efficacy of mild, but early interventions compared to delayed interventions. The technique is applied to the recent SARS-CoV-2 outbreak with the population of Shenzhen, China acting as the mild-but-early treatment group and a combination of several US counties resembling Shenzhen but enacting a delayed intervention acting as the control. To help further the development of this framework and identify an avenue for further enhancement, we focus on the use and potential limitations of compartmental …

The Enlightening Role Of Explainable Artificial Intelligence In Chronic Wound Classification, Salih Sarp, Murat Kuzlu, Emmanuel Wilson, Umit Cali, Ozgur Guler

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been among the most emerging research and industrial application fields, especially in the healthcare domain, but operated as a black-box model with a limited understanding of its inner working over the past decades. AI algorithms are, in large part, built on weights calculated as a result of large matrix multiplications. It is typically hard to interpret and debug the computationally intensive processes. Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) aims to solve black-box and hard-to-debug approaches through the use of various techniques and tools. In this study, XAI techniques are applied to chronic wound classification. The proposed model classifies …

Food/Non-Food Classification Of Real-Life Egocentric Images In Low- And Middle-Income Countries Based On Image Tagging Features, Guangzong Chen, Wenyan Jia, Yifan Zhao, Zhi-Hong Mao, Benny Lo, Alex K Anderson, Gary Frost, Modou L Jobarteh, Megan A Mccrory, Edward Sazonov, Matilda Steiner-Asiedu, Richard S Ansong, Thomas Baranowski, Lora Burke, Mingui Sun

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Malnutrition, including both undernutrition and obesity, is a significant problem in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In order to study malnutrition and develop effective intervention strategies, it is crucial to evaluate nutritional status in LMICs at the individual, household, and community levels. In a multinational research project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we have been using a wearable technology to conduct objective dietary assessment in sub-Saharan Africa. Our assessment includes multiple diet-related activities in urban and rural families, including food sources (e.g., shopping, harvesting, and gathering), preservation/storage, preparation, cooking, and consumption (e.g., portion size and nutrition analysis). …

A Novel Dimensionality Reduction Approach To Improve Microarray Data Classification, Mohammed Hasim, Ismail El Mouden, Mounir Ouzir, Hicham Moutachaouik, Mustapha Hain

Department of Medicine Faculty Publications

Cancer tumor prediction and diagnosis at an early stage has become a necessity in cancer research, as it provides an increase in the treatment success chances. Recently, DNA microarray technology became a powerful tool for cancer identification, that can analyze the expression level of a different and huge number of genes simultaneously. In microarray data, the large genes number versus a few records may affect the prediction performance. In order to handle this "curse of dimensionality” constraint of microarray dataset while improving the cancer identification performance, a dimensional reduction phase is necessary. In this paper, we proposed a framework that …

Analyzing Tweets On New Norm: Work From Home During Covid-19 Outbreak, Swapna Gottipati, Kyong Jin Shim, Hui Hian Teo, Karthik Nityanand, Shreyansh Shivam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large-scale work-from-home trend globally in recent months. In this paper, we study the phenomenon of “work-from-home” (WFH) by performing social listening. We propose an analytics pipeline designed to crawl social media data and perform text mining analyzes on textual data from tweets scrapped based on hashtags related to WFH in COVID-19 situation. We apply text mining and NLP techniques to analyze the tweets for extracting the WFH themes and sentiments (positive and negative). Our Twitter theme analysis adds further value by summarizing the common key topics, allowing employers to gain more insights on areas of …

Analysis Of Intervention Effectiveness Using Early Outbreak Transmission Dynamics To Guide Future Pandemic Management And Decision-Making In Kuwait, Michael G. Tyshenko, Tamer Oraby, Joseph C. Longenecker, Harri Vainio, Janvier Gasana, Walid Q. Alali, Mohammad Alseaidan, Susie Elsaadany, Mustafa Al-Zoughool

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a World Health Organization designated pandemic that can result in severe symptoms and death that disproportionately affects older patients or those with comorbidities. Kuwait reported its first imported cases of COVID-19 on February 24, 2020. Analysis of data from the first three months of community transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak in Kuwait can provide important guidance for decision-making when dealing with future SARS-CoV-2 epidemic wave management. The analysis of intervention scenarios can help to evaluate the possible impacts of various outbreak control measures going forward which aim to reduce the effective reproduction …

Internet-Based Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy For Tinnitus: Secondary Analysis To Examine Predictors Of Outcomes, Hansapani Rodrigo, Eldré W. Beukes, Gerhard Andersson, Vinaya Manchaiah

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Objectives The current study examined predictors of outcomes of internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy (ICBT) for individuals with tinnitus.

Design Secondary analysis of intervention studies.

Setting Internet-based guided tinnitus intervention provided in the UK.

Participants 228 individuals who underwent ICBT.

Interventions ICBT.

Primary and secondary outcome measures The key predictor variables included demographic, tinnitus, hearing-related and treatment-related variables as well as clinical factors (eg, anxiety, depression, insomnia), which can have an impact on the treatment outcome. A 13-point reduction in Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) scores has been defined as a successful outcome.

Results Of the 228 subjects who were included in the …

A Determination Of The Aerosolization Efficiency Of Drugs Of Abuse In A Eutectic Mixture With Nicotine In Electronic Cigarettes, Laerissa Reveil

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were originally advertised as an alternative nicotine delivery system to facilitate smoking cessation. However, their popularity for recreational use has increased due to focuses on their trendiness, convenience, and discreteness along with concerns for its use to consume drugs other than nicotine (DOTN). With the adulteration of e-liquids, usually containing nicotine, with other substances, a greater understanding on how DOTN interact with the e-liquid constituents and how they are delivered to the user is necessary. E-liquids were prepared with 50:50 propylene glycol:vegetable glycerin, pure nicotine, pure methadone hydrochloride, and 1:1 methadone hydrochloride:nicotine and aerosolized via an automated …

Addressing The Ecological Fallacy With Lagrangian Inference, Michael Schwob

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Most epidemiologists elect to use statistical models that use population-level data to make inference on the spread of some virus or disease. This has become commonplace in the fields of epidemiology and biostatistics since most data used to construct and verify epidemic models are recorded at the population-level. Obtaining inference from a population-level model may be beneficial in studying the spread of disease in a homogeneous population, but the use of such models to describe a heterogeneous population results in inadequate inference. The inaccuracy of these models is further amplified when one tries to make individual-level inference from these population-level …

Single-Molecule Investigation Of I-Motif Folding And Dynamics In Bioinspired Dna Platforms, Anoja Megalathan

Theses and Dissertations

Although the canonical right-handed B-DNA is the predominant form of DNA in cells, DNA can adopt other secondary structures such as hairpins, G-quadruplexes (G4), and intercalated motifs (i-motif). These secondary structures are typically formed in the regions with repeat sequences. Among many secondary structures DNA can adopt, G-quadruplexes and i-motifs (tetraplex structures formed in the G-rich and C-rich sequences, respectively) caught significant research interest in recent years due to the prevalence of G-rich and C-rich sequences in the human genome. While G-quadruplexes are extensively studied, little is known about i-motifs – especially their formation and stability under cellular environments. For …

Conformational Modulation Of Α-Helical N-Acetylated Α-Synuclein, Ricardo Fernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Human N-acetylated α-synuclein (^NAcαSyn) has long been accepted as an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) predominantly found in terminal nerve regions in healthy subjects. ^NAcαSyn structural fluidity enables the formation of transient or dynamic assemblies. Some of these assemblies may serve functional, yet undefined purposes. ^NAcαSyn is highly susceptible to the surrounding environment, leading to misfolding under high cytosolic oxidative stress conditions, which in turn assemble in the form of toxic oligomers or amyloid fibrils. These ^NAcαSyn inclusions along with their accretion and migration within neurons, are pathological hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia, and multiple …

Design, Synthesis, And Anticancer Properties Of Ru(Ii) Complexes With Organometallic, “Expanded” Bipyridine, And O,O’-Chelating Ligands, Raphael Ryan

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

Cancer is a worldwide public health crisis that requires new and improved drugs to be developed to extend survival rates and improve quality of life for the patient. Platinum-based drugs are used in approximately 50% of cancer treatment regimens. These drugs are highly effective in many kinds of cancer; however, cancers can develop platinum resistance and these drugs have troubling side effects that reduced their use and efficacy. To overcome these disadvantages, many other metals have been studied for their anticancer properties. Notably, the anticancer properties of ruthenium-based agents have drawn considerable attention with multiple ruthenium complexes entering clinical trials. …

Carborane-Appended Levodopa For Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen And Boron Neutron Capture Therapy, Alejandra Macias

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

A multi-step organic synthetic method to attach carborane cages to biocompatible organic compounds for application in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) was conducted. Boron Neutron Capture Therapy is a form of radiation therapy that promises a new and effective form of cancer treatment that involves the destruction of tumor cells using an isotope of boron (10B). The effectiveness of this therapy depends on the boron content accumulated in cancerous tissue. Carboranes are boron-rich clusters that possess unique physical and chemical properties making them suitable for a wide range of applications including medicinal chemistry. Because of their high boron content, carborane-appended …

Identifying Sleep-Related Factors Associated With Cognitive Function In A Hispanics/Latinos Cohort: A Dual Random Forest Approach, Li Xiaojin, Cui Licong, Wang Fei, Paul E Schulz, Guo-Qiang Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Disordered sleep is associated with poor cognitive function and cognitive decline. However, little is known regarding the association of sleep-related factors with cognitive function in underrepresented cohorts such as the Hispanic/Latino population. Leveraging the National Sleep Research Resource, one of the most comprehensive collections of sleep studies, we identified a Hispanic/Latino cohort of 1,031 lower cognitive function cases and 2,062 normal controls. We developed a novel dual random forest (DRF) approach to discriminate cases against controls for estimating the potential impact of sleep-related variables related to the decline of cognitive function. Several important sleep-related factors were identified which may be …

Grappling With Covid-19 By Imposing And Lifting Nonpharmaceutical Interventions In Sri Lanka: A Modeling Perspective, Mahesh Jayaweera, Chamath Dannongoda, Dilum Dilshan, Janith Dissanayake, Hasini Perera, Jagath Manatunge, Buddhika Gunawardana

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The imposition and lifting of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to avert the COVID19 pandemic have gained popularity worldwide and will continue to be enforced until herd immunity is achieved. We developed a linear regression model to ascertain the nexus between the time-varying reproduction number averaged over a time window of six days (Rts) and seven NPIs: contact tracing, quarantine efforts, social distancing and health checks, hand hygiene, wearing of facemasks, lockdown and isolation, and health-related supports. Our analysis suggests that the second wave that emerged in Sri Lanka in early October 2020 continued despite numerous NPIs. The model indicates that the …

Impact Of Case Management On Childhood Lead Exposure In Marion County, Indiana, Maliki Yacouba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently declared that no amount of childhood blood lead level (BLL) is safe. The purpose of this quantitative study with a retrospective cohort design was to evaluate the effectiveness of case management intervention on children diagnosed with elevated BLL (EBLL; ≥ 5 μg/dL) in Marion, County, Indiana. The health belief model was used as the theoretical foundation for the study. A data set of 160 lead exposure case management records was analyzed to find whether: (a) BLL at post-case-management time significantly differ from BLL at baseline (b) BLL at post-case-management time is affected …

Meaningful Use Criteria And Staff Accountability In An Office Setting, Marcia Ionie Pender

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Proper documentation for meaningful use (MU) criteria within electronic health records (EHRs) was identified as an issue for office staff at a local primary care office in a metropolitan area of Central Florida. The project question addressed the local gap in knowledge about MU standards necessary to ensure correct documentation of EHRs. The purpose of this doctoral project was to provide an educational program for staff to ensure compliance with the HITECH Act of 2009. Lewin’s Change Theory and Knowles Theory of Adult learning were the conceptual foundations for the educational program. The project question was to determine whether a …

Bayesian-Derived Vancomycin Auc24h Threshold For Nephrotoxicity In Special Populations, Dan Ho

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

A Bayesian-derived 24-hour area under the concentration-time curve over minimum inhibitory concentration from broth microdilution (AUC24h/MICBMD) ratio of 400 to 600 is recommended as the new monitoring parameter for vancomycin to optimize efficacy and minimize nephrotoxicity. The AUC24h threshold of 600 mg*h/L for nephrotoxicity was extrapolated from studies that assessed the general population. It is unclear if this upper threshold is consistent or varies when used in special populations such as critically ill patients, obese patients, patients with preexisting renal disease, and patients on concomitant nephrotoxins.The purpose of this study is to investigate the generalizability of the proposed vancomycin AUC24h …