Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Developing Novel Therapeutics For Bacterial Lung Infections, Brandon J. Baer, Ruud Veldhuizen, Cory Yamashita

Western Research Forum

Background: Bacterial lung infections are leading causes of death worldwide. Unfortunately, increasing resistance to antibiotics and the inflammation often accompanying these infections are leading to poor outcomes despite antibiotic intervention. Complicating treatment further, the tree-like branching structure of the lung makes drug delivery to distal sites of infection difficult. Our research aims to address these challenges by developing new therapeutics and new tools to improve and assess drug delivery, bacterial killing and inflammation. Our therapy combines host defense peptides, which have been shown to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria and down regulate inflammation, with a pulmonary vehicle, exogenous surfactant, that can improve …

Head Injury Risk And Car Seat Use For Children In Collisions, Peyton A. Schroeder, M.J. Skhurm, D. Fraser, K. Mcclafferty

Western Research Forum

Background: Motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) are the leading cause of death for people under the age of 17 years. Almost 80% of rear seat motor vehicle passengers are children. Previous studies have shown that a large fraction of injuries to children in MVCs involved the head and chest. In this study, the hypothesis that children under the age of eight using a forward-facing child restraint system (FFCRS) will have more severe head injuries than children using any other type of restraints in an MVC was tested.

Methods: Several datasets obtained from Transport Canada and Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Centre emergency …

Perioperative Gait Analysis After Total Hip Arthroplasty: Does Outpatient Surgery Compromise Patient Outcomes?, Bryn O. Zomar, Susan W. Hunter, Dianne Bryant, Brent A. Lanting, James L. Howard

Western Research Forum

Background: There has been a continuing trend towards decreasing the length of hospital stay for patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA). Outpatient procedures, discharging patients on the same day as surgery, have now become possible yet little research has been done to examine the impact this might have on patients during early recovery. We aimed to investigate the impact of discharge time on gait and patient-reported outcomes in the early post-operative period.

Methods: We measured gait velocity, stride length, single-limb support and single-limb support symmetry preoperatively, at discharge from the hospital, and two-, six- and 12-weeks postoperatively. Participants also completed …

Differentiating Midbrain Structures In Parkinson’S Disease Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Erind Alushaj

Western Research Forum

Background: This study aims to differentiate two midbrain structures: substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in patients with early-stage Parkinson’s Disease (PD) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The SNc degenerates earlier in PD causing motor symptoms; whereas, VTA degeneration occurs later leading to non-motor symptoms. Conventionally, the SNc and VTA project to the dorsal and ventral striatum respectively. Evidence suggests this model may be overly simplistic since the dorsal striatum has uneven dopamine loss in PD. So, the dorsal striatum was segmented into six functional subregions and only the caudal motor subregion showed early changes …

Improving Canadian Indigenous Health: Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease, Sukhmeet S. Sachal

Western Research Forum

Background:

This abstract explores improving health outcomes for Canada’s Indigenous peoples. The increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes in this population makes this a public health problem because diabetes has long-term complications that affect the cardiovascular system and can result in disability and premature death.

Methods:

A literature review using specific search terms was performed to find 36 relevant articles. Search databases for the primary and secondary information were CINAHL and PubMED, respectively.

Results:

The results were classified into five groups: (1) Previous Genetic Protection; (2) Current Day Risk; (3) Diet; (4) Barriers in Developing and Maintaining …

Clarifying Dopaminergic Projections Of The Ventral Tegmental Area And Substantia Nigra In Humans Using Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nicholas Handfield-Jones

Western Research Forum

Background

Dopaminergic (DA) pathways from the human midbrain to the striatum mediate movement, decision making, learning, and reward processing. Classically, the scientific consensus has been that there are two main DA pathways: the nigrostriatal and the mesolimbic pathways. In the nigrostriatal pathway, the substantia nigra par compacta (SNc) sends DA to the dorsal striatum (DS), and in the mesolimbic pathway, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) sends DA to the ventral striatum (VS) as well as prefrontal and limbic cortices. Recent findings, however, cast doubt on the accuracy of this model. It seems likely these DA projections are more overlapping and …

Navigating Through The Challenges Of Healthcare Simulated Education, Ryan Chan, Adam Morse

Western Research Forum

Background: The use of simulation as an adjunct tool for student learning and development in addition to traditional didactic teaching modalities has been traditionally favored by health care education. However, evidence suggest that there are limitations to the current use of simulation and thoughtful considerations must be made to leverage the current use of simulation to promote further learning strategies including the use of haptic technology. The aim of this research is to examine the strengths and limitations of haptic technology and to identify opportunities for future research relating to the use and adaptation of haptic technology as part of …

Chronic Ankle Instability And Hip Muscle Function: A Systematic Review, Lindsay Carroll

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Purpose/background

The connection between hip strength and knee function is widely accepted in rehabilitation. The beginnings of evidence supporting a connection between the hip and ankle in people with chronic ankle instability (CAI) causes clinicians to question how the hip and the ankle may interact in this population. The purpose of this review is to provide a cohesive summary of the current available evidence examining hip muscle function in people with chronic ankle instability so that clinicians are better able to treat these patients.

Methods

An electronic search of PubMed was performed to locate studies published in peer-reviewed journals that …

Promo Flyer (Pdf), Lsu Health Sciences Center - New Orleans

Usher Syndrome in Louisiana

3rd Symposium - Usher Syndrome in Louisiana was held Saturday, March 10 at the Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development & Lifelong Learning University of Louisiana, Lafayette. It included ongoing discussions on the diagnosis and treatment of Usher Syndrome, and the progress of research to develop therapies for vision loss for those with Usher Syndrome.

Use Of Excel Spreadsheet Calculators In Handling Data Generated From Uv- Spectrometer, Mercy Okezue, Kari Clase, Steve Byrn

BIRS Symposium

To ease the complexities of handling data generated from different analytical procedures, validated excel spreadsheet containing relevant formulas are developed to ensure the process of data handling will consistently produce the expected results. This paper introduces the use of Excel spreadsheets in handling data generated from using a UV-Spectrometer in determination of analyte concentration in various dosage forms

Instituting Process Control Mechanisms In A Quality Control Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, Mercy Okezue, Kari Lynn Clase, Stephen Byrn

BIRS Symposium

Statistical Process Control by means of using control charts was a means of monitoring performance of analytical equipment. Quality control checks on test items using these equipment generated data used for plotting X-bar charts. The charts generated had warning and control limits which helped monitor system performance

Table Of A Second Chance, Jean P. Belizaire Mr.

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This presentation will help to empower those who work with the drug addicted population to identify, increase, and incorporate better means of services.

Choices And Consequences: A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste, Ian Elmore-Moore, Demecca Jones, Jalani Traxler, John Doyle, Jimez Alexander

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Choices and Consequences: A Mind is a Terrible thing to Waste, is designed for school and community leaders to learn about the human brain. According to Dr. Nirav Shah, a board certified neurosurgeon, “The brain is arguably the most important organ in the human body. It controls and coordinates actions and reactions, allows us to think and feel, and enables us to have memories and feelings – all the things that make us human”. Within our presentation we will highlight the benefits or incorporating brain based instructional practices into the modern classroom. We will display our innovative brain based curriculum …

“Engaging Youth Leaders In Prevention Planning With Developmental Assets, Survey Data And Social Norming”, Joseph H. Markiewicz Mr

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION

Three (3) Learning Objectives:

• To demonstrate how to engage youth (grades 6-12) in the prevention planning process through student leadership councils in the school and community domains. Also, how to engage the community and students to be actively involved in the reduction of substance abuse and other adolescent problem behaviors.

• To demonstrate the connection between three prevention models, Communities That Care (CTC), 40 Developmental Assets, and Positive Community Social Norms. Focus will be placed on how the three prevention frameworks work together to support the Social Development Model of preventing substance abuse.

• To share templates and other materials …

Studies Of Amino Acid Mutations In Drug Resistance Of The Smo Protein, Eunice Wintona

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Smoothened receptor (SMO) is a protein that in humans, is encoded by the SMO gene. A systemic mutation in its binding pocket helps predict the sensitivity of mutant proteins to different drugs. Known as a GPCR-like receptor, it is a component of the hedgehog signaling pathway; a pathway involved in body patterning and the regulation of adult stem cells. An uncontrolled or inappropriate activation of the Hedgehog pathway drives tumor progression in cancers and a number of birth defects. To achieve these goals, the molecular modeling software MOE was used to build small molecules and drug molecules like Vismodegib and …

Addressing Hydrocephaly In Viet Nam: A Plausible Prevention And Intervention Medical Support Program Proposal, Chelle Mcintyre-Brewer

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Families affected by hydrocephalus in Viet Nam have few options for sustainable treatment for a myriad of reasons, primarily centering on barriers to care prevalent to minority, underserved, and economically disadvantaged populations. High morbidity and abandonment rates often result from these circumstances. An interdisciplinary examination of the factors contributing to causal concerns reveals unique cultural considerations, language and literacy barriers, ethnic and geographic differences, as well as economic and governmental issues greatly impacting patient outcome for this condition. The author contends that a program that addresses sociological concerns, along with the medical treatment of the patient, proffers the opportunity for …

Cam Impingement In A Collegiate Male Soccer Player With Bilateral Arthroscopic Labral Repair, Nayun Ahn

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Cam impingement in a collegiate male soccer player with the bilateral arthroscopic labral repair.

To demonstrate cam impingement and recurrent cam deformity caused by femoroacetabular impingement after bilateral arthroscopic labral repair in a collegiate male soccer player. Cam impingement is caused by deformities of the femoral head. The deformity is generated due to overuse and high shear stress on the femoral head leading to restricted hip ROM by grinding the articular cartilage. It is typically detected in young, active male populations playing high-impact sports. In this case, one NCAA Division 1 soccer midfielder reported the recurrent cam impingement after he …

A Delayed Diagnosis Of Tarsometatarsal Ligament (Lisfranc) Sprain In A Female College Soccer Athlete And Foot Rehabilitation, Boyoung Park

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

A Delayed Diagnosis of Tarsometatarsal Ligament (Lisfranc) Sprain in a Female College Soccer Athlete and Foot Rehabilitation

Park B*, Nicola M*, Wilkins S*: *University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE

Objective: To emphasize the importance of the correct treatment protocol and the proper rehabilitation exercises based on the patient’s injury condition and healing process. Background: A 22-year-old female division I soccer athlete underwent tarsometatarsal ligament repair to stabilize midfoot. The patient started feeling pain in the dorsal aspect of her left 1st and 2nd metatarsals at the beginning of the season, however, she reported no specific mechanism of injury …

Developing A Footswitch Device To Assess The Likelihood Of Falls In At-Risk Populations, Arash Mohammadzadeh Gonabadi

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Falls are one of the major cause of injuries, reduced functioning and even mortality in older adults. Most of the falls occur during walking, so considering the mechanics of gait during walking can provide insight to identify the risk of fall in this population. A component of walking mechanics associated with falling in the elderly is gait variability (i.e. the inherent natural fluctuations between strides). Healthy states are associated with an optimal level of movement variability reflecting the adaptability of the underlying control system, while pathological gait can be either too regular, or periodic, or too random and disordered. In …

Venous Thoracic Outlet Syndrome With Paget-Schroetter’S Syndrome In A Male Collegiate Baseball Player, Jaeho Jang

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

A NCAA Division I baseball middle infielder complained of discomfort in his right upper extremity. He reported no specific mechanism of injury. He had a history of right elbow fracture at age eight with joint displacement. However, no other previous injury to his upper extremity was reported. He did not feel any pain or abnormal sensations while exercising, but noted some discomfort in the right arm, shoulder and pectoral muscles afterward. The evaluating athletic trainer also noted obvious swelling and discoloration of the right arm, bilaterally different temperature, decreased radial pulse, and positive Roo’s and Adson’s Tests. The venous duplex …

Subthreshold Vibration Does Not Affect Walking Performance Of Transtibial Amputees, Charles Sloan

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Ian Sloan , Jenny A. Kent, Shane R. Wurdeman, Adam L. Jacobsen, Kota Z. Takahashi, Nicholas Stergiou. Subthreshold vibration does not affect walking performance of transtibial amputees. Objective: To test the hypothesis that adding subthreshold vibrations to the thigh of the affected limb on amputees would allow for better control of the prosthesis. Setting: Biomechanics Research Building at UNO. Participants: 14 transtibial amputees (age range, 33-72y). Intervention: Applying subthreshold vibrations to thigh of affected limb for three different conditions; white noise signal, pink noise signal, and none. Outcome Measures: Step length, step width, and step …

Dynamic Stability Association With Cost Of Transport Is Different In Patients With Copd Compared To Healthy Controls, Farahnaz Fallah Tafti

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), suffer from deficits in their functional performance besides their lung disease. In this situation, increased muscle activity is needed to provide safe walking patterns, stability while walking. This increase in muscle activity leads to increased metabolic cost, i.e., using more oxygen to complete the task. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between walking stability and metabolic cost in patients with COPD in comparison with age-matched controls. Seventeen patients with COPD and 23 healthy controls walked on a treadmill at three different speeds: preferred, fast (+20% preferred) and slow …

Acute Subdural Hematoma In A High School Football Player Requiring Emergent Decompressive Craniecromy, Christine Center

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The purpose of this report is to present the case of a high school football player that was injured in a game causing an acute subdural hematoma (SDH). A SDH is a potential life-threatening arterial vessel bleed in the brain, causing increased intracranial pressure. The intervention used to treat the athlete was an emergent decompressive craniectomy. The uniqueness of the case is due to both rare pathology and treatment method used. The athlete had a positive outcome due to prompt on-field assessment, and advanced surgical treatments. Certified Athletic Trainers (ATC) should know how to recognize symptoms of traumatic brain injury, …

Can The Scale-Free Networks, Improve The Prediction Of Pertussis Infection Rates?, Kimia Ameri

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease with randomness pattern of infection. Outbreaks of whooping cough have increased over the past few years and has drawn the attention of health care providers. Understanding the spread mechanisms of contagious disease is very important and timely. Extension of contagious disease depends on many complicated factors including pathogen and host environment, exposed population and their activities. In this work, we try to find best prediction for the exposed population. A new SEIR model based on network (NB-SEIR) proposed to improve the accuracy of prediction for number of infected individuals. For this purpose, the …

Overall Wellness Of First Generation College Student-Athletes, Shane Warehime

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The present study examined the overall wellness of first-generation student-athletes (FGSA) in comparison to non-first generation student-athletes (non-FGSA),first-generation college students (FGCS), and non-first generation college students (non-FGCS). Overall wellness was assessed using the Five-Factor WellnessInventory. Non-FGSA scored significantly higher than non-FGCS in overall wellness and life satisfaction. Non-FGSA and FGSA scored significantly higher than non-FGCS and FGCS in the physical self subscale (i.e., diet, exercise). In sum, athletics may play an important role in the wellness of student-athletes, which could be enough to mitigate any challenges that first-generation college students face.

Follow My Voice: The Future Of Phr Authentication, Jeanette M. Rose, Ryan Schuetzler, John R. Windle, Ann L. Fruhling

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The current electronic personal health record (PHR) has low patient adoption [1]. Increasing use and adoption of the PHR will improve patient-centered care. Users often have difficulty remembering passwords or share them, giving multiple people access to one account.

Utilizing biometrics for authentication is becoming more common in our daily lives – think of the fingerprint sensor on a smartphone or retina scanners at high security corporations. The quickly evolving technology that runs our lives calls for incorporating biometric authentication into more systems. Using biometric authentication can ensure that passwords would not need to be remembered and that only the …

Impact Of Real World Environments On Movement Variability, Matt Harrison

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Osteoarthritis; OA for short, is the most common form of arthritis and is one of the leading causes of disability. OA is the progressive wearing down of the cartilage covering bones and joints. For those with end stage knee OA, a total knee arthroplasty, or replacement, is the standard treatment with more than 700,000 TKA’s performed annually. While pain is improved in general, the functional performance and activity levels of the joint often do not return to those of healthy individuals. To understand the long-term consequences of poor function post-TKA, we need data that characterizes an individual’s real-world movement and …

Supervised Walking Exercise Therapy Improves Gait Biomechanics In Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease, Anthony Arellano, Sara A. Myers, Iraklis Pipinos, Ben Senderling, Molly Schieber, Jason Johanning, Cassidy Berlin, Holly Despiegelaere

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is commonly caused by atherosclerotic build-up of plaque within the peripheral arteries, affecting the blood flow to the legs. The most common presentation of PAD is intermittent claudication; a condition in which when the patient walks the metabolic demands of the lower limbs exceed the limited supply of blood, causing exercise- induced discomfort and decreased walking ability. Walking exercise is the first line of treatment in patients with claudication with the best results achieved in patients undergoing supervised exercise therapy for at least three months. Supervised walking exercise results in increased maximum walking distances comparable to …

Coffee Drinking And Leukocyte Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis, Bella Kotlyar

Yale Day of Data

Telomeres are long tandem nucleotide repeats responsible for maintaining chromosomal integrity. They shorten with each cell division, serving as markers for cellular aging and replicative ability, and shorter telomere length has been associated with greater risk of various chronic diseases of aging. There is increasing interest in the relationship between telomere length and lifestyle factors, such as components of the diet, that are associated with age-related chronic diseases, like cancer and diabetes.

There is mounting evidence that coffee, one of the most commonly consumed beverages in the world, has potential protective effects against chronic disease and mortality. Few studies have …

Exploring The Influence Of The Peer Educator Role On Physical Activity, Exercise Patterns, Physical Fitness, Daily Functioning, And Health Harming Habits In People Living With Hiv, Stephanie Jen, Jacob Wait, Amanda Pedrazoli, Kenneisha Edmonds

Undergraduate Research Symposium

With the progression of standardized HIV treatment and antiretroviral drugs, the outcomes for people living with HIV (PLHIV) have improved from a death sentence to a manageable chronic disease. Although PLHIV are living longer than before, they experience multi-morbidities more frequently and earlier than persons without HIV. These morbidities, such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity, are associated with sedentary lifestyles. It is well-established in the research of the general population that regular physical activity is a health promotion behavior that can prevent and/or mitigate the onset and severity of chronic diseases. Also recent meta-analyses have linked exercise to …