Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Framework To Reveal Clandestine Organ Trafficking In The Dark Web And Beyond, Michael P. Heinl, Bo Yu, Duminda Wijesekera

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Due to the scarcity of transplantable organs, patients have to wait on long lists for many years to get a matching kidney. This scarcity has created an illicit market place for wealthy recipients to avoid long waiting times. Brokers arrange such organ transplants and collect most of the payment that is sometimes channeled to fund other illicit activities. In order to collect and disburse payments, they often resort to money laundering-like schemes of money transfers. As the low-cost Internet arrives in some of the affected countries, social media and the dark web are used to illegally trade human organs. This …

Determination Of Radiation Doses To Patients Undergoing Fluoroscopically Guided Orthopaedic Procedures At Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute In Tanzania, Jacob Busumabu, Ismael N. Makundi, Justin E. Ngaile

Tanzania Journal of Science

The aim of the present study was to determine the magnitude of radiation doses delivered to patients undergoing Fluoroscopically Guided Orthopaedic Procedures (FGOP’s) in Tanzania. The air Kerma Area Product (KAP), fluoroscopy time, organ dose and effective dose to patients undergoing FGOP’s were obtained from Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute. A total of 72 adult patients from selected three FGOPs namely Lumbar Spine (LS), Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS) and Thoracic Spine (TS) procedures were investigated using C-arm fluoroscopy machine. The knowledge of patient demographic data, radiographic data, KAP and Monte Carlo-based PCXMC software were used to obtain the magnitude of organ doses …

Nutrition And Environmental Pollution Extension Curriculum Improved Diet-Related Behaviors And Environmental Health Literacy, Dawn Brewer, Hannah Bellamy, Anna Hoover, Annie Koempel, Lisa Gaetke

Dietetics and Human Nutrition Faculty Publications

Kentucky experiences some of the nation’s worst health outcomes related to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other age-related chronic diseases linked with oxidative stress and inflammation, which in turn are associated with poor diet, lack of physical activity, and exposure to certain environmental pollutants. In the Commonwealth, deteriorating infrastructure, inappropriate waste disposal, and potential occupational injury related to mining, agriculture, and other regionally important industries exacerbate the need for residents to have basic knowledge of potential environmental health threats. Unfortunately, community-level understanding of the complex connections between environmental exposures and health is limited, with many Kentuckians unaware that the …

Tobacco Smoking And Dementia In A Kentucky Cohort: A Competing Risk Analysis, Erin L. Abner, Peter T. Nelson, Gregory A. Jicha, Gregory E. Cooper, David W. Fardo, Frederick A. Schmitt, Richard J. Kryscio

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Tobacco smoking was examined as a risk for dementia and neuropathological burden in 531 initially cognitively normal older adults followed longitudinally at the University of Kentucky’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The cohort was followed for an average of 11.5 years; 111 (20.9%) participants were diagnosed with dementia, while 242 (45.6%) died without dementia. At baseline, 49 (9.2%) participants reported current smoking (median pack-years = 47.3) and 231 (43.5%) former smoking (median pack-years = 24.5). The hazard ratio (HR) for dementia for former smokers versus never smokers based on the Cox model was 1.64 (95% CI: 1.09, 2.46), while the HR for …

Comparative Clinical Outcomes Between Direct Oral Anticoagulants And Warfarin Among Elderly Patients With Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation In The Cms Medicare Population, Alpesh Amin, Oluwaseyi Dina, Allison Keshishian, Amol Dhamane, Anagha Nadkarni, Eric Carda, Cristina Russ, Lisa Rosenblatt, Jack Mardekian, Huseyin Yuce, Christine L. Baker

Publications and Research

Atrial fibrillation (AF) prevalence increases with age; > 80% of US adults with AF are aged ≥ 65 years. Compare the risk of stroke/systemic embolism (SE), major bleeding (MB), net clinical outcome (NCO), and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) among elderly non-valvular AF (NVAF) Medicare patients prescribed direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) vs warfarin. NVAF patients aged ≥ 65 years who initiated DOACs (apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban) or warfarin were selected from 01JAN2013-31DEC2015 in CMS Medicare data. Propensity score matching was used to balance DOAC and warfarin cohorts. Cox proportional hazards models estimated the risk of stroke/SE, MB, NCO, and MACE. 37,525 …

Ecological Determinants Of Respiratory Health: Examining Associations Between Asthma Emergency Department Visits, Diesel Particulate Matter, And Public Parks And Open Space In Los Angeles, California, Jason A. Douglas, Reginald S. Archer, Serena E. Alexander

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Los Angeles County (LAC) low-income communities of color experience uneven asthma rates, evidenced by asthma emergency department visits (AEDV). This has partly been attributed to inequitable exposure to diesel particulate matter (DPM). Promisingly, public parks and open space (PPOS) contribute to DPM mitigation. However, low-income communities of color with limited access to PPOS may be deprived of associated public health benefits. Therefore, this novel study investigates the AEDV, DPM, PPOS nexus to address this public health dilemma and inform public policy in at-risk communities. Optimized Hotspot Analysis was used to examine geographic clustering of AEDVs, DPM, and PPOS at the …

Six-Month Outcome Of Transient Ischemic Attack And Its Mimics, Alireza Sadighi, Vida Abedi, Alia C. Stanciu, Nada El Andary, Mihai Banciu, Neil Holland, Ramin Zand

Faculty Journal Articles

Background and Objective: Although the risk of recurrent cerebral ischemia is higher after a transient ischemic attack (TIA), there is limited data on the outcome of TIA mimics. The goal of this study is to compare the 6-month outcome of patients with negative and positive diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) TIAs (DWI-neg TIA vs. DWI-pos TIA) and also TIA mimics.

Methods: We prospectively studied consecutive patients with an initial diagnosis of TIA in our tertiary stroke centers in a 2-year period. Every included patient had an initial magnetic resonance (MR) with DWI and one-, three-, and six-month follow-up visits. The primary outcome …

Ethanolamine Regulates Cqsr Quorum-Sensing Signaling In Vibrio Cholerae, Samit Watve, Kelsey Barrasso, Sarah A. Jung, Kristen J. Davis, Lisa A. Hawver, Atul Khataokar, Ryan G. Palaganas, Matthew B. Neiditch, Lark Perez, Wai-Leung Ng

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

The pathogen that causes cholera, Vibrio cholerae, uses the cell-cell communication process known as quorum sensing (QS) to regulate virulence factor production and biofilm formation in response to changes in population density and complexity. QS is mediated through the detection of extracellular chemical signals called autoinducers. Four histidine kinases, LuxPQ, CqsS, CqsR and VpsS, have been identified as receptors to activate the key QS regulator LuxO at low cell density. At high cell density, detection of autoinducers by these receptors leads to deactivation of LuxO, resulting in population-wide gene expression changes. While the cognate autoinducers that regulate the activity of …

Proceedings Of The Cuny Games Conference 5.0, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Kathleen Offenholley, Carolyn Stallard, Deborah Sturm, Anders A. Wallace

Publications and Research

The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. We connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning. The CUNY Games Conference distills its best cutting-edge interactive presentations into a two-day event to promote and discuss game-based pedagogies in higher education, focusing particularly on non-digital learning activities that faculty can use in the classroom every day. The conference will include workshops lead by CUNY Games Organizers on …

The Ability Of The U.S. Military’S Wbgt-Based Flag System To Recommend Safe Heat Stress Exposures, David R. Almario

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. military currently uses a flag system based on wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and metabolic rate to recommend heat stress exposure limits. This paper addresses the ability of the flag system to recommend safe heat exposures in a non-military population.

Two progressive heat stress studies provided data on 528 observations of safe or unsafe exposures of 4 hours over a range of WBGT conditions and metabolic rates using 29 participants wearing woven cotton clothing. For the two studies, range of WBGT conditions was 25 to 42C, and the range of metabolic rates was 100 to 650 watts. These exposures …

Yielding To The Necessities Of A Great Public Industry: Denial And Concealment Of The Harmful Health Effects Of Coal Mining, Caitlyn Greene, Patrick Charles Mcginley

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In the mid-nineteenth century, coal mined in Central Appalachia began to flow into industrial markets. Those mines and the coal they produced provided jobs, put food on family tables in coalfield households, and even provided housing for hundreds of thousands of coal miners and their families. The bounty from America’s expanding coalfields fueled the Industrial Revolution and powered the nation’s steel mills, factories,steamboats, and railroads. It powered America’s defense through two World Wars and later military conflicts. Coal-fired power plants generated more than half of the electricity used in the United States in the latter quarter of the twentieth century. …

Improving Risk Assessment Of The Emergence Of Novel Influenza A Viruses By Incorporating Environmental Surveillance, Kim M. Pepin, Matthew W. Hopken, Susan A. Shriner, Erica Spackman, Zaid Abdo, Colin Parrish, Steven Steven, James O. Lloyd-Smith, Antoinette J. Piaggio

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Reassortment is an evolutionary mechanism by which influenza A viruses (IAV) generate genetic novelty. Reassortment is an important driver of host jumps and is widespread according to retrospective surveillance studies.However, predicting the epidemiological risk of reassortant emergence in novel hosts from surveillance data remains challenging. IAV strains persist and cooccur in the environment, promoting co-infection during environmental transmission. These conditions offer opportunity to understand reassortant emergence in reservoir and spillover hosts. Specifically, environmental RNA could provide rich information for understanding the evolutionary ecology of segmented viruses, and transform our ability to quantify epidemiological risk to spillover hosts. However, significant challenges …

Purification And Characterization Of A Nonspecific Lipid Transfer Protein 1 (Nsltp1) From Ajwain (Trachyspermum Ammi) Seeds, Meshal Nazeer, Humera Waheed, Maria Saeed, Saman Yousuf Ali, M. Iqbal Choudhary, Zaheer Ul-Haq, Aftab Ahmed

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi) belongs to the family Umbelliferae, is commonly used in traditional, and folk medicine due to its carminative, stimulant, antiseptic, diuretic, antihypertensive, and hepatoprotective activities. Non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) reported from various plants are known to be involved in transferring lipids between membranes and in plants defense response. Here, we describe the complete primary structure of a monomeric non-specific lipid transfer protein 1 (nsLTP1), with molecular weight of 9.66 kDa, from ajwain seeds. The nsLTP1 has been purified by combination of chromatographic techniques, and further characterized by mass spectrometry, and Edman degradation. The ajwain nsLTP1 …

Table Of Contents

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Evaluating An Electronic Protocol In A Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Jeanette Rose

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

A team of clinicians at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center (CHMC) developed a standardized protocol in 2018 for the care of patients needing sedation. This protocol is ordered through the EPIC electronic health record system for patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). When used, electronic protocols reduce the variation in clinical decision making which can ultimately improve patient outcomes. The goal of this project is to evaluate this technology, how the protocol is being used, and how it may be improved. Actual users of the EPIC sedation protocol were the subjects of this study, including PICU physicians, physician …

The Effect Of Arm Swing On Countermovement Vertical Jump Performance, Arash Mohammadzadeh Gonabadi

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Vertical jumping is one of the popular ways to evaluate ankle-knee efficiency in athletic population. Arm swing can play a crucial role in enhancing vertical jump performance. This study aimed to address the differences in kinetic and kinematic parameters during countermovement jump motion with arm swing (AS) and no arm swing (NAS). We used OpenSim to examine the efficacy of AS in reducing the impulse applied to the body and changes in range of lower limb joint angles at landing instant. We calculated the maximum vertical peak of the ground reaction force and impulse generated at landing in two different …

Estimating Variations In Metabolic Cost Within The Stride Cycle During Level And Uphill Walking, Arash Mohammadzadeh Gonabadi

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Indirect calorimetry provides the average cost of a stride cycle and prevents from identifying which part of the gait cycle causes increased metabolic cost in patients, however, recent simulation methods allow estimating the time profile of metabolic cost within the stride cycle. In this study, we compare the estimations of the time profile of the metabolic cost of two simulation methods for level and uphill walking. We used kinematic, kinetic and electromyography data from level and uphill walking (one participant) to estimate the time profiles of metabolic cost using the muscle-level metabolic model of Umberger using electromyography and kinematic data …

Large Scale Dynamical Model Of Macrophage/Hiv Interactions, Sean T. Bresnahan, Matthew M. Froid

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Properties emerge from the dynamics of large-scale molecular networks that are not discernible at the individual gene or protein level. Mathematical models - such as probabilistic Boolean networks - of molecular systems offer a deeper insight into how these emergent properties arise. Here, we introduce a non-linear, deterministic Boolean model of protein, gene, and chemical interactions in human macrophage cells during HIV infection. Our model is composed of 713 nodes with 1583 interactions between nodes and is responsive to 38 different inputs including signaling molecules, bacteria, viruses, and HIV viral particles. Additionally, the model accurately simulates the dynamics of over …

Synthesis Of A Sulfur Variant For Treatment Of Trypanosomiasis, Carlos Vera-Esquivel

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Previous work in our lab has found diphenyl ether benzylamines showed a successful response with a micromolar concentration of our lead compound to treat the deadly Trypanosamiosis rhodesience. Furthermore, mammalian cell lines saw promising resistance towards damages. The goal of this study was to synthesize a diphenyl thio benzylamine variant. This variant was more active toward T. b. rhodesience but showed more toxicity to both rat 10 (IC₅₀ mM) and human cell lines (HFF, HC-₀₄, U-₂ OS, and HEK₂₉₃). The selectivity index (ratio of toxicity to activity in the same concentration units (SI)) …

Scale-Invariance-Based Pre-Processing Drastically Improves Neural Network Learning: Case Study Of Diagnosing Lung Dysfunction In Children, Nancy Avila, Julio Urenda, Nelly Gordillo, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

To adequately treat different types of lung dysfunctions in children, it is important to properly diagnose the corresponding dysfunction, and this is not an easy task. Neural networks have been trained to perform this diagnosis, but they are not perfect in diagnostics: their success rate is 60%. In this paper, we show that by selecting an appropriate invariance-based pre-processing, we can drastically improve the diagnostic success, to 100% for diagnosing the presence of a lung dysfunction.

Air Quality Modelling For Ireland, Aoife Donnelly, Bruce Misstear, Brian Broderick

Reports

Air pollution is the primary environmental cause of premature death in the EU (European Commission, 2013) and the most problematic pollutants across Europe have consistently been oxides of nitrogen (e.g. nitrogen dioxide (NO₂)), particulate matter (e.g. PM₁₀, PM_2.5) and ozone (O₃). While measurements form an important aspect of air quality assessment, on their own they are unlikely to be sufficient to provide an accurate spatial and temporal description of the pollutant concentrations for exposure assessment and moreover they cannot provide information regarding future air quality. Annex XVI of 2008/50/EC requires member states …

Allergen Sensitization And Asthma Outcomes Among World Trade Center Rescue And Recovery Workers, Belen Rojano, Erin West, Emily Federmann, Steven Markowitz, Denise Harrison, Laura Crowley, Paula Busse, Alex D. Federman, Juan P. Wisnivesky

Publications and Research

A large number of World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers are affected by asthma. While physical and mental health comorbidities have been associated with poor asthma control in this population, the potential role of allergen sensitization is unknown. This study examined the association of indoor sensitization and exposure as a risk factor for increased asthma morbidity in WTC workers. We used data from a prospective cohort of 331 WTC workers with asthma. Sensitization to indoor allergens was assessed by measurement of antigen-specific serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels. We used validated tools to evaluate the exposure to indoor allergens. …

Pharmacological Aspects Of Resveratrol, Raisa Ramirez, Debasish Bandyopadhyay

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Resveratrol [(E)-5-(4-hydroxystyryl) benzene-1,3-diol], also known as 3,4′,5-trihydroxystilbene also known as resveratrol is classified as a phytoalexin in plants such as nuts, cocoa, berries and grapes for self-defense against injury and pathogenic attacks by bacteria and fungi. Research on this compound did not gain popularity until the 1990s when a published paper implied the relationship between resveratrol and the decrease in cardiovascular complications due to the consumption of grape fermented wine in French populations. This observation sparked research on resveratrol even though its concentration in wine is relatively low, leading to the realization that resveratrol has potential for benefits in other …

Design And Assessment Of Myoelectric Games For Prosthesis Training Of Upper Limb Amputees, Meeralakshmi Radhakrishnan, Asim Smailagic, Brian French, Daniel P. Siewiorek, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of our system, which provides an engaging game-based pre-prosthesis training environment for upper limb transradial amputees. We believe that patients who train using such a training tool will demonstrate significantly higher improvement in functional performance tests using a myoelectric prosthesis than when conventional pre-prosthesis training protocols are used. We re-designed two simple games to be playable using three muscle contractions which are appropriate to pre-prosthesis exercises and are detected by an EMG-based arm sleeve. Through user studies conducted with 16 non-amputee subjects, we show that the proposed games are enjoyable, fun …

The Santa Clara, 2019-02-28, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

Perception Of People Living With Hiv/Aids On Social Stigma Of Hiv/Aids In Sukoharjo District, Titik Haryanti, Wartini Wartini

Kesmas

The stigma of wrong society about HIV / AIDS is one of the obstacles to prevention and control of HIV / AIDS in Sukoharjo District. This study aims to determine the relationship of characteristics, causal factors and duration of HIV / AIDS with the perception of people living with HIV to the stigma of society about HIV / AIDS in Sukoharjo District. The research used is analytical descriptive with cross sectional approach. The population is all people with HIV / AIDS until April 2016 amounted to 256 with a sample of 156 people with sampling technique quota sampling. Bivariate analysis …

Prediction Models For Descreasing Visual Acuity In Wig Makers, Nur Ulfah, Siti Harwanti, Ngadiman Ngadiman

Kesmas

One of the occupational diseases that can arise for workers with high accuracy is a decrease in their visual acuity. Therefore, it is necessary to study the risk factors of decreasing visual acuity in workers with high accuracy, such as in wig makers. This study aimed to examine the correlation between age, working period, lighting intensity, fatigue, and nutritional status with visual acuity, and to observe the main risk factors that can be used as a reference for predicting decreasing visual acuity. This study was an observational study that used a cross-sectional design. The population number for this study was …

Influence Of Decentralization And Type Of Patient On Loss To Follow-Up Among Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Patients In Indonesia From 2014 To 2015, Noerfitri Noerfitri, R. Sutiawan, Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, Pratiwi Ayuningtyas Hartono

Kesmas

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients have a greater risk of loss to follow-up (LTFU) than drug-sensitive TB patients, due to their longer treatment duration. This study aimed to determine the influence of decentralization and patient type on LTFU among multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) patients in Indonesia. A retrospective cohort study was conducted at all MDR-TB treatment healthcare facilities in Indonesia from 014 to 2015. Using total sampling technique, 961 patients were examined and sampled. Of these patients, 86.03% were decentralized. Patients were classified into types as follows: 35.17% were “relapse” patients, 5.52% were “new,” 13.94% were classified as “after LTFU” patients, 23.10% …

Knowledge And Practice In Household Waste Management, Agnes Fitria Widiyanto, Suratman Suratman, Nisrina Alifah, Tri Murniati, Oktafiani Catur Pratiwi

Kesmas

Declining environmental quality is one of population caused by household consumption behavior. Some of the highest contaminant contributions are domestic waste, waste, and company waste. Waste contamination will lead to dead fish, decreased water quality and disease transmission. Community approach can be done to solve the waste problem, especially at the household level. This study uses quantitative methods to analyze the effect of intervention and waste management training on changes in household waste management knowledge and practices. This type of research uses quasi experiment with one group of pre and post test design. The results showed that there was an …

Exclusive Breastfeeding And Decrease Of Upper Respiratory Infection Incidence Among Infants Aged 6-12 Months In Kampar District, Riau Province, Musfardi Rustam, Renti Mahkota, Nasrin Kodim

Kesmas

Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality of infants and toddlers in developing countries. The high infant morbidity and mortality rates in Indonesia are associated with the low exclusive breastfeeding ability. Breast milk is a natural drink for newborns in the first month of life that is beneficial not only for the babies, but also for mothers. The aim of study was to determine exclusive breastfeeding and decrease in incidence of URI among infants aged 6-12 months. This study was conducted by using case control design. Samples were taken by using cluster random sampling. Subject …