Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Low-Temperature Gas Plasma Combined With Antibiotics For The Reduction Of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Biofilm Both In Vitro And In Vivo, Li Guo, Lu Yang, Yu Qi, Gulimire Niyazi, Jianbao Zheng, Ruobing Xu, Xusong Chen, Jingye Zhang, Wang Xi, Dingxin Liu, Xiaohua Wang, Hailan Chen, Michael G. Kong

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Biofilm infections in wounds seriously delay the healing process, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of wound infections. In addition to inactivating micro-organisms, low-temperature gas plasma can restore the sensitivity of pathogenic microbes to antibiotics. However, the combined treatment has not been applied to infectious diseases. In this study, low-temperature gas plasma treatment promoted the effects of different antibiotics on the reduction of S. aureus biofilms in vitro. Low-temperature gas plasma combined with rifampicin also effectively reduced the S. aureus cells in biofilms in the murine wound infection model. The blood and histochemical analysis demonstrated the biosafety of …

Intense Monochromatic Photons Above 100 Kev From An Inverse Compton Source, Kirsten Deitrick, Georg H. Hoffstaetter, Carl Franck, Bruno D. Muratori, Peter H. Williams, Geoffrey A, Krafft, Balša Terzić, Joe Crone, Hywel Owen

Physics Faculty Publications

Quasimonochromatic x rays are difficult to produce above 100 keV, but have a number of uses in x-ray and nuclear science, particularly in the analysis of transuranic species. Inverse Compton scattering (ICS) is capable of fulfilling this need, producing photon beams with properties and energies well beyond the limits of typical synchrotron radiation facilities. We present the design and predicted output of such an ICS source at CBETA, a multiturn energy-recovery linac with a top energy of 150 MeV, which we anticipate producing x rays with energies above 400 keV and a collimated flux greater than 108 photons per second …

Solutions For Fermi Questions, March 2021, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Solutions For Fermi Questions, January 2022: Question 1: Snow Volume; Question 2: Longbow Arrow Velocity, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Application Of One-, Three-, And Seven-Day Forecasts During Early Onset On The Covid-19 Epidemic Dataset Using Moving Average, Autoregressive, Autoregressive Moving Average, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average, And Naïve Forecasting Methods, Christopher J. Lynch, Ross Gore

VMASC Publications

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread rapidly across the world since its appearance in December 2019. This data set creates one-, three-, and seven-day forecasts of the COVID-19 pandemic's cumulative case counts at the county, health district, and state geographic levels for the state of Virginia. Forecasts are created over the first 46 days of reported COVID-19 cases using the cumulative case count data provided by The New York Times as of April 22, 2020. From this historical data, one-, three-, seven, and all-days prior to the forecast start date are used to generate the forecasts. Forecasts are created using: …

Job Seeking And Daily Workforce Experiences Of Autistic Librarians, Amelia Anderson

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Anecdotal accounts suggest that librarianship is a rewarding career for some autistic adults, though no empirical evidence exists to support such claims. Additionally, barriers may exist for autistic librarians, both in job seeking and in on-the-job experiences. As autistic adults are un- and underemployed more than their neurotypical peers, it is important to understand the role that libraries can play in supporting their employment. In this qualitative study, ten librarians with graduate degrees, who self-identify as autistic, describe their experiences in job seeking and daily working experiences in the library field through interviews in multiple formats. Results indicate issues around …

A Crisis Of Erasure: Transgender And Gender-Nonconforming Populations Navigating Breast Cancer Health Information, Curtis Shane Tenney, Karl J. Surkan, Lynette Hammond Gerido, Dawn Betts-Green

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In this paper, we use the topic of breast cancer as an example of health crisis erasure in both informational and institutional contexts, particularly within the transgender and gender-nonconforming population. Breast cancer health information conforms and defaults to conventional cultural associations with femininity, as is the case with pregnancy and other “single-sex” conditions (Surkan, 2015). Many health information and research practices normalize sexualities, pathologize non-normative gender (Drescher et al., 2012; Fish, 2008; Müller, 2018), and fail to recognize gender-nonconforming categories (Frohard‐Dourlent et al., 2017). Because breast cancer health information is sexually normalized, an information boundary exists for the LGBTQ+ community, …

Simultaneous Wound Border Segmentation And Tissue Classification Using A Conditional Generative Adversarial Network, Salih Sarp, Murat Kuzlu, Manisa Pipattanasomporn, Ozgur Guler

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Generative adversarial network (GAN) applications on medical image synthesis have the potential to assist caregivers in deciding a proper chronic wound treatment plan by understanding the border segmentation and the wound tissue classification visually. This study proposes a hybrid wound border segmentation and tissue classification method utilising conditional GAN, which can mimic real data without expert knowledge. We trained the network on chronic wound datasets with different sizes. The performance of the GAN algorithm is evaluated through the mean squared error, Dice coefficient metrics and visual inspection of generated images. This study also analyses the optimum number of training images …

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 …

Multivariate Distributions Of Correlated Binary Variables Generated By Pair-Copulas, Huihui Lin, N. Rao Chaganty

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Correlated binary data are prevalent in a wide range of scientific disciplines, including healthcare and medicine. The generalized estimating equations (GEEs) and the multivariate probit (MP) model are two of the popular methods for analyzing such data. However, both methods have some significant drawbacks. The GEEs may not have an underlying likelihood and the MP model may fail to generate a multivariate binary distribution with specified marginals and bivariate correlations. In this paper, we study multivariate binary distributions that are based on D-vine pair-copula models as a superior alternative to these methods. We elucidate the construction of these binary distributions …

A Semiparametric Modeling Approach For Analyzing Clinical Biomarkers Restricted To Limits Of Detection, Sandipan Dutta, Susan Halabi

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Before biomarkers can be used in clinical trials or patients' management, the laboratory assays that measure their levels have to go through development and analytical validation. One of the most critical performance metrics for validation of any assay is related to the minimum amount of values that can be detected and any value below this limit is referred to as below the limit of detection (LOD). Most of the existing approaches that model such biomarkers, restricted by LOD, are parametric in nature. These parametric models, however, heavily depend on the distributional assumptions, and can result in loss of precision under …

Toward An Interactive, Patient-Specific, Vr-Based Obstetrics Simulator, Michel A. Audette, Marco Parente, Dulce Oliveira, Sreekanth Arikatla, Alfred Abuhamad, Rumit Singh Kakar, Mark Scerbo, Lucia Tabacu, John Conery, Christopher Macgowan, Renato Natal Jorge

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a nascent collaborative effort to achieve a Virtual Reality (VR)-based, real-time, haptics-driven patient-specific obstetrics simulator. The high-level architecture and preliminary results are presented here; the latter are based on offline birthing simulation developed by team in conjunction with open-source visualization tools. The cornerstones of this simulator will be high-fidelity generic offline birthing simulation, an anatomy-to-image nonrigid registration pipeline exploiting fetal MRI, the open-source interactive medical simulation toolkit IMSTK augmented by high-throughput deep learning-based soft tissue deformation, open-source musculoskeletal dynamics simulation platform SimTk for representing fetal motion. The initial emphasis will be on shoulder dystocia. The two main …

Toward A More Perma(Nent) Conceptualization Of Worker Well-Being? A Cross-Cultural Study Of The Workplace Perma Profiler, William P. Jimenez, Xiaoxiao Hu, Rebecca Garden, Xiaofei Xie

Psychology Faculty Publications

We examined the factor structure of the recently developed worker well-being measure the Workplace PERMA Profiler and relationships between PERMA dimensions (i.e., positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, accomplishment) and job performance (viz., task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors benefiting individuals and the organization at large). The measure exhibited metric (i.e., weak) invariance across samples of participants from the U.S. (N = 284) and China (N = 420). Additionally, for participants who responded to both the Workplace PERMA Profiler and the performance measures, there was a general pattern of positive PERMA–performance relationships across both …

Evaluating Study Procedure Training Methods For A Remote Daily Diary Study Of Sexual Minority Women, Kristin E. Heron, Abby Braitman, Charlotte A. Dawson, Rachel I. Macintyre, Lindsay M. Howard, Robin J. Lewis

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods can be used to remotely assess physical and mental health in daily life for hard-to-reach, marginalized, and geographically dispersed populations in the U.S., such as sexual minority women (e.g., lesbian, bisexual). However, EMA studies are often complex, and engaging participants from afar can be a challenge. This study experimentally examined whether adding videos to written recruitment materials would improve consent rates, reduce dropout rates, and improve survey completion rates for an online daily diary study.

Methods: As part of a 2-week study of same-sex female couples' health, 376 women ages 18-35 were recruited from …

Disordered Eating, Food Insecurity, And Weight Status Among Transgender And Gender Nonbinary Youth And Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Using A Nutrition Screening Protocol, Whitney R. Linsenmeyer, Ian M. Katz, Jaime L. Reed, Andrea M. Giedinghagen, Christopher B. Lewis, Sarah K. Garwood

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of and relationships among disordered eating, food insecurity, and weight status among transgender and gender nonbinary youth and young adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study involved a screening protocol to assess disordered eating and food insecurity risk from September to December of 2019 at a gender clinic using five validated measures: (1) previous eating disorder diagnosis (yes/no); (2) Sick, Control, One Stone, Fat, Food Questionnaire (SCOFF); (3) Adolescent Binge Eating Disorder Questionnaire (ADO-BED); (4) Nine-Item Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Screen (NIAS); and (5) Hunger Vital Sign. Age, assigned sex at …

Consensus Statement On Ethical & Safety Practices For Conducting Digital Monitoring Studies With People At Risk Of Suicide And Related Behaviors, Matthew K. Nock, Evan M. Kleiman, Melissa Abraham, Kate H. Bentley, David A. Brent, Ralph J. Buonopane, Franckie Castro-Ramirez, Christine B. Cha, Walter Dempsey, John Draper, Catherine R. Glenn, Jill Harkavy-Friedman, Michael R. Hollander, Jeffrey C. Huffman, Hye In S. Lee, Alexander J. Millner, David Mou, Jukka-Pekka Onnela, Rosalind W. Picard, Heather M. Quay, Osiris Rankin, Shannon Sewards, John Torous, Joan Wheelis, Ursula Whiteside, Galia Siegel, Anna E. Ordóñez, Jane L. Pearson

Psychology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: Digital monitoring technologies (e.g., smart-phones and wearable devices) provide unprecedented opportunities to study potentially harmful behaviors such as suicide, violence, and alcohol/substance use in real-time. The use of these new technologies has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, prediction, and prevention of these behaviors. However, such technologies also introduce myriad ethical and safety concerns, such as deciding when and how to intervene if a participant's responses indicate elevated risk during the study?

METHODS: We used a modified Delphi process to develop a consensus among a diverse panel of experts on the ethical and safety practices for conducting digital …

Does Team Leader Gender Matter? A Bayesian Reconciliation Of Leadership And Patient Care During Trauma Resuscitations, Elizabeth D. Rosenman, Anthony Misisco, Jeffrey Olenick, Sarah M. Brolliar, Anne K. Chipman, Marie C. Vrablik, Georgia T. Chao, Steve W.J. Kozlowski, James A. Grand, Rosemarie Fernandez

Psychology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: Team leadership facilitates teamwork and is important to patient care. It is unknown whether physician gender-based differences in team leadership exist. The objective of this study was to assess and compare team leadership and patient care in trauma resuscitations led by male and female physicians.

METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of data from a larger randomized controlled trial using video recordings of emergency department trauma resuscitations at a Level 1 trauma center from April 2016 to December 2017. Subjects included emergency medicine and surgery residents functioning as trauma team leaders. Eligible resuscitations included adult patients meeting institutional trauma …

Laypeople Perception And Interpretation Of Simulated Life-Threatening Bleeding: A Controlled Experimental Study, Erik Prytz, Rachel Phillips, Susanna Lönnqvist, Marc Friberg, Carl-Oscar Jonson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduction

First aid performed by immediate responders can be the difference between life and death in the case of trauma with massive bleeding. To develop effective training programs to teach bleeding control to laypersons, it is important to be aware of beliefs and misconceptions people hold on bleeding and severity of bleeding situations.

Method

A controlled study was conducted in which 175 American college students viewed 78 video clips of simulated bleeding injuries. The volume of blood present (between 0 and 1900 ml), rate of blood flow, and victim gender were systematically varied within participants. Participants were asked to rate …

Maternal Depression Trajectories And Child Bmi In A Multi-Ethnic Sample: A Latent Growth Modeling Analysis, Charlotte V. Farewell, Ryley Donohoe, Zaneta Thayer, James Paulson, Jacinda Nicklas, Caroline Walker, Karen Waldie, Jenn A. Leiferman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

Perinatal (antenatal and postpartum) depression impacts approximately 12% of mothers. Perinatal depression can impact everyday functioning for mothers, and the relationship with, and development of, their children. The purpose of this study was to investigate depression trajectories from the antenatal period through 54-months postpartum and associations with child body mass index at 54-months postpartum.

Methods

This study applied latent growth modeling to the Growing Up in New Zealand study, which is a longitudinal pregnancy cohort study that provides nationally representative-level data, to investigate associations between depression at three time points (antenatal, 9-months postpartum, 54-months postpartum) and child body mass …

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury, Suicide Planning, And Suicide Attempt Among High-Risk Adolescents Prior To Psychiatric Hospitalization, Christina M. Sellers, Antonia Díaz-Valdés, Andrew C. Porter, Catherine R. Glenn, Adam Bryant Miller, Adeline Wyman Battalen, Kimberly H. Mcmanama O'Brien

Psychology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to understand the trajectories of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide plans (SP) in the 90 days prior to inpatient hospitalization, understand the role of NSSI and SP in predicting suicide attempts (SA) on a given day, and to test the interaction between NSSI and SP in predicting same-day SA. Participants included 69 adolescents (77% female, 65% white, 77% Non-Hispanic/Latinx, Mage = 15.77 SDage = 1.00) from an inpatient psychiatric unit. Past 90 day NSSI, SP, and SA were measured using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale and Timeline Follow Back. First, mixed effect models …

Examining The Ecological Validity Of The Power Of Food Scale, Lindsay M. Howard, Kristin E. Heron, Kathryn E. Smith, Ross D. Crosby, Scott G. Engel, Stephen A. Wonderlich, Tyler B. Mason

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose

Appetite for palatable foods may impact eating-related behaviors in everyday life. The present study evaluated the real-world predictive validity of the Power of Food Scale (PFS) using ecological momentary assessment (EMA).

Methods

30 women who reported binge eating completed the PFS and related measures. Subsequently, during a 14-day assessment period, participants completed five daily EMA surveys of appetite and binge eating via text message and web.

Results

Results of generalized estimating equations showed that higher PFS scores were associated with higher momentary levels of hunger, eagerness to eat, and urge to eat but were unrelated to fullness, preoccupation with …

Minority Stress And Alcohol Use In Sexual Minority Women's Daily Lives, Robin J. Lewis, Kelly A. Romano, Sarah J. Ehlke, Cathy Lau-Barraco, Cassidy M. Sandoval, Douglas J. Glenn, Kristin E. Heron

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gene Selection For Cancer Classification: A New Hybrid Filter-C5.0 Approach For Breast Cancer Risk Prediction, Mohammed Hamim, Ismail El Moudden, Hicham Moutachaouik, Mustapha Hain

Department of Medicine Faculty Publications

Despite the significant progress made in data mining technologies in recent years, breast cancer risk prediction and diagnosis at an early stage using DNA microarray technology still a real challenging task. This challenge comes especially from the high-dimensionality in gene expression data, i.e., an enormous number of genes versus a few tens of subjects (samples). To overcome this problem of data imbalance, a gene selection phase becomes a crucial step for gene expression data analysis. This study proposes a new Decision Tree model-based attributes (genes) selection strategy, which incorporates two stages: fisher-score-based filter technique and the gene selection ability of …

Matters Of Biocybersecurity With Consideration To Propaganda Outlets And Biological Agents, Xavier-Lewis Palmer, Ernestine Powell, Lucas Potter, Thaddeus Eze (Ed.), Lee Speakman (Ed.), Cyril Onwubiko (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The modern era holds vast modalities in human data utilization. Within Biocybersecurity (BCS), categories of biological information, especially medical information transmitted online, can be viewed as pathways to destabilize organizations. Therefore, analysis of how the public, along with medical providers, process such data, and the methods by which false information, particularly propaganda, can be used to upset the flow of verified information to populations of medical professionals, is important for maintenance of public health. Herein, we discuss some interplay of BCS within the scope of propaganda and considerations for navigating the field.

In Silico Investigation Of Cardiac Arrhythmia Susceptibility In Long Qt Phenotype, Anthony Owusu-Mensah, Victoria Lam, Bright Tsevi, Michel Audette, Makarand Deo

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) is associated with cardiac arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death. The Long QT Type 2 (LQT2) phenotype, which accounts for 35–40 % of all LQTS patients, is caused by mutations in HERG gene. The mechanisms of arrhythmia in presence of LQT2 conditions are not fully understood. We utilized anatomically and electrophysiologically realistic numerical simulations to elucidate the mechanisms of arrhythmia initiation in presence of blockade in rapid component of delayed rectifier potassium current, I_Kr. We utilized a 3D finite element model of rabbit ventricles integrated with His-purkinje network to simulate whole heart response to LQT2 …

Evaluation Of Spinal Anatomy Segmentation Methods Using Synthetic Computed Tomography Volumes, Austin Tapp, Michel Audette

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is corrected by surgical procedures that necessitate ligament releases. To determine appropriate release allotments, soft tissues must be localized on a patient-specific basis, However, routine computer tomography (CT) imaging precludes traditional, voxel-based soft tissue localization. Fortunately, recent studies have proposed top-down segmentation methods, which elucidate soft tissues using pre-operative CT volumes. While the accuracy of vertebral segmentations obtained from these methods has not been determined, the accuracy of soft tissue segmentations has not. To ensure the soft tissue segmentation methods are clinically applicable, soft tissue validation must occur. This study presents an evaluation measure for …

Modeling And Simulation Of Electromagnetic Fields To Maintain Bone Density During Prolonged Low Gravity Exposure, Austin Tapp, Michael Francis, Michel A. Audette

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Astronauts in a long term, low-gravity environments experience bone density loss at 10 times the rate of those diagnosed with osteoporosis. One treatment effective at maintaining bone density in osteoporotic individuals is electromagnetic field (EMF) therapy. Tools that induce EMFs are becoming increasingly prevalent, but to amplify osteogenesis and encourage superior bone density retention for astronauts, ideal EMF therapy parameters must be determined on patient-specific bases. Therefore, this study explores simulation environments that elucidate highly favorable EMF factors. Pulsed electromagnetic field and combined magnetic field generating devices are variably introduced near partient-specific, finite element (FE) models of the femur, spine, …

Monopolar Gene Electrotransfer Enhances Plasmid Dna Delivery To Skin, Anna Bulysheva, Loree Heller, Michael Francis, Frency Varghese, Carly Boye, Richard Heller

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A novel monopolar electroporation system and methodologies were developed for in vivo electroporation intended for potential clinical applications such as gene therapy. We hypothesized that an asymmetric anode/cathode electrode applicator geometry could produce favorable electric fields for electroporation, without the typical drawback associated with traditional needle and parallel plate geometries. Three monopolar electrode applicator prototypes were built and tested for gene delivery of reporter genes to the skin in a guinea pig model. Gene expression was evaluated in terms of kinetics over time and expression distribution within the treatment site. Different pulsing parameters, including pulse amplitude, pulse duration, and pulse …

Deep Neural Network Analysis Of Pathology Images With Integrated Molecular Data For Enhanced Glioma Classification And Grading, Linmin Pei, Karra A. Jones, Zeina A. Shboul, James Y. Chen, Khan M. Iftekharuddin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Gliomas are primary brain tumors that originate from glial cells. Classification and grading of these tumors is critical to prognosis and treatment planning. The current criteria for glioma classification in central nervous system (CNS) was introduced by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2016. This criteria for glioma classification requires the integration of histology with genomics. In 2017, the Consortium to Inform Molecular and Practical Approaches to CNS Tumor Taxonomy (cIMPACT-NOW) was established to provide up-to-date recommendations for CNS tumor classification, which in turn the WHO is expected to adopt in its upcoming edition. In this work, we propose a novel …

Plasma-Treated Solutions (Pts) In Cancer Therapy, Hiromasa Tanaka, Sander Bekeschus, Dayun Yan, Masaru Hori, Michael Keidar, Mounir Laroussi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Cold physical plasma is a partially ionized gas generating various reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) simultaneously. ROS/RNS have therapeutic effects when applied to cells and tissues either directly from the plasma or via exposure to solutions that have been treated beforehand using plasma processes. This review addresses the challenges and opportunities of plasma-treated solutions (PTSs) for cancer treatment. These PTSs include plasma-treated cell culture media in experimental research as well as clinically approved solutions such as saline and Ringer’s lactate, which, in principle, already qualify for testing in therapeutic settings. Several types of cancers were found to succumb to …