Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Aberrant Stat Signaling And T Cell Dysregulation Define A Targetable Pediatric Sepsis Endotype, Robert B. Lindell, Samir U. Sayed, Jose S. Campos Duran, Sydney A. Sheetz, Apoorva Babu, Montana S. Knight, Andrea A. Mauracher, Ceire A. Hay, Peyton E. Conrey, Julie C. Fitzgerald, Nadir Yehya, Stephen T. Famularo, Teresa Arroyo, Richard Tustin, Hossein Fazelinia, Edward M. Behrens, David T. Teachey, Lisa R. Forbes Satter, Alexandra F. Freeman, Jenna Re Bergerson, Steven M. Holland, Jennifer W. Leiding, Scott L. Weiss, Mark W. Hall, Deanne M. Taylor, Rui Feng, E. John Wherry, Nuala J. Meyer, Sarah E. Henrickson

Department of Pediatrics Faculty Papers

BACKGROUNDSepsis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill children, yet heterogeneous immune responses complicate the development of targeted therapies and the host immune factors driving sepsis pathobiology remain unclear.METHODSWe integrated deep immune phenotyping, plasma proteomics, single-cell transcriptomics, and phosphoflow cytometry in a prospective cohort of 88 critically ill children to elucidate the mechanisms underlying immune heterogeneity.RESULTSUnsupervised clustering of plasma cytokines identified 3 immunologic subgroups, including a high-severity group ("Group C") characterized by hypercytokinemia driven by IL-6 and IFN-γ. Group C exhibited distinct alterations in immune cell frequency and activation, with a strong association between hyperinflammatory cytokine …

Tau Seeds Induce Neurofibrillary Tangle Formation Across Brain Regions Via Individual-Specific Connectivity, Audrey J Weber, Bernard Ng, Kelsey M Greathouse, David A Bennett, Shinya Tasaki, Chris Gaiteri, Jeremy H Herskowitz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The spread of tau pathology across the cerebral cortex is closely tied to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD). To investigate mechanisms underlying tau spread, we measured bioactivity of tau seeds from inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG) synaptosomes in 128 individuals and demonstrated that tau seed bioactivity associates with tau phosphorylation, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), and cognitive impairment. Incorporating genotype data from the same individuals within a Mendelian randomization framework showed that tau seeds in ITG induce NFTs locally as well as drive tau seeds and NFTs in SFG. Integrating antemortem functional magnetic resonance imaging data from …

Comparative Analysis Of Traditional And Deep Learning Time Series Architectures For Influenza A Infectious Disease Forecasting, Edmund Fosu Agyemang, Hansapani Rodrigo, Vincent Agbenyeavu

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Influenza A remains a major cause of respiratory mortality worldwide, motivating accurate forecasting to support timely preparedness and resource allocation. This study presents a comparative evaluation of two traditional seasonal time series baselines, ARIMA and Holt–Winters exponential smoothing (ETS), and six deep learning (DL) architectures (Simple RNN, LSTM, GRU, BiLSTM, BiGRU, and a Transformer) for forecasting monthly Influenza A case counts in the United States. Data from January 2009 to December 2023 were analyzed, using January 2009 to December 2022 for training and January 2023 to December 2023 for out-of-sample testing. Models were tuned using a validation split and assessed …

A Systematic Literature Review Of Cvid Reveals Pervasive Detrimental Noninfectious Manifestations, Robert B Lindell, Samir U Sayed, Jose S Campos Duran, Sydney A Sheetz, Apoorva Babu, Montana S Knight, Andrea A Mauracher, Ceire A Hay, Peyton E Conrey, Julie C Fitzgerald, Nadir Yehya, Stephen T Famularo, Teresa Arroyo, Richard Tustin, Hossein Fazelinia, Edward M Behrens, David T Teachey, Lisa R Forbes Satter, Alexandra F Freeman, Jenna Re Bergerson, Steven M Holland, Jennifer W Leiding, Scott L Weiss, Mark W Hall, Deanne M Taylor, Rui Feng, E John Wherry, Nuala J Meyer, Sarah E Henrickson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND

Sepsis is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill children, yet heterogeneous immune responses complicate the development of targeted therapies and the host immune factors driving sepsis pathobiology remain unclear.

METHODS

We integrated deep immune phenotyping, plasma proteomics, single-cell transcriptomics, and phosphoflow cytometry in a prospective cohort of 88 critically ill children to elucidate the mechanisms underlying immune heterogeneity.

RESULTS

Unsupervised clustering of plasma cytokines identified 3 immunologic subgroups, including a high-severity group (“Group C”) characterized by hypercytokinemia driven by IL-6 and IFN-γ. Group C exhibited distinct alterations in immune cell frequency and activation, with a …

Fertility And Birth Rates In The Mountain West, 2024, Sydney Mitchell, Maisoon Faris, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet reports 2024 data on the overall birth rate and birth-related health measures in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. This fact sheet includes information from the National Center for Health Statistics, “Statistics by State” subsection related to birth. This subsection focuses on fertility rates, teen birth rates, infant mortality rates, births to unmarried mothers, cesarean deliveries, pre-term births, and infants with low birth weight.

Rethinking Vaginal Microbiome Resilience: A Conceptual Multi-Omic Framework, Brittnee Cagle-White, Rob E. Carpenter, Alaina Vincent, Ellen Kominek, Andrew Krouse

Human Resource Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

The vaginal microbiome is often interpreted through static taxonomic patterns. Yet microbial composition alone does not explain why some communities resist perturbation, recover after disruption, or transition toward dysbiosis. This narrative review synthesizes evidence that vaginal microbiome stability is shaped by endocrine phase, epithelial substrate availability, microbial functional capacity, mucosal tone and candidate host modifiers. High-estrogen states, particularly pregnancy, are associated with epithelial maturation, glycogen accumulation, low vaginal pH, and Lactobacillus-dominant communities, whereas postpartum, lactational, menopausal, and other hypoestrogenic states are associated with reduced epithelial support and increased vulnerability to diverse anaerobe-rich configurations. We review the linking of the estrogen–glycogen–Lactobacillus …

Testing Elicitors Of Homologous Jadr2 Proteins To Regulate Natural Product Production, Carzon J. Williams, Emilee A. Patterson, Allison S. Walker

SPARK Symposium Presentations

The growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has and will contribute to global economic and public health concerns in the foreseeable future leading into 2050. As mortality rates derived from AMR are projected to reach 10 million if no viable solution is found to combat it through hastened drug discovery. The use of natural products to mitigate AMRs effects is viable as more than 50% of FDA approved drugs are natural products. These natural products are synthesized by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGC), found in bacteria with a regulatory protein not allowing transcription until unbound . Current methods of eliciting the …

Comparable Outcomes, Divergent Learning Pathways: Comparing Metacognitive Reflection And Practice Problems In Organic Chemistry, Jitendra D. Belani

College of Life Sciences Faculty Papers

Organic Chemistry I presents significant challenges for students, requiring both conceptual understanding and effective study strategies. Two commonly used approaches to support learning are structured practice problems and metacognitive reflection activities; however, these strategies are rarely compared directly within the same course context. In this study, students enrolled in a postbaccalaureate Organic Chemistry I course (n = 31) were randomly assigned to one of two low-stakes interventions: weekly practice problem sets or structured reflection surveys focused on study strategies. Student performance was evaluated using three midterm examinations, a cumulative final exam, and overall course grades, along with measures of participation. …

Llm-As-A-Judge For Infection Prevention And Control And Antimicrobial Resistance Impact: Comparing Three Main Llms Vs. Human Experts' Assessment, Marcello Di Pumpo, Leonardo Villani, Maria Rosaria Gualano, Danilo Buonsenso, Francesca Raffaelli, Daniele Donà, Patrizia Laurenti, Vittorio Maio, Stefania Boccia, Walter Ricciardi

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to generate health information, yet their reliability as evaluators remains unclear. This study investigated the feasibility of an LLM-as-a-judge methodology in the context of infection prevention and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), comparing automated ratings with human expert benchmarks.

METHODS: We performed a secondary analysis of an expert-annotated dataset of health messages. Three leading LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) independently evaluated the same messages using an adapted DISCERN tool across five domains: information reliability, quality, AMR impact, persuasiveness, and overall score. We utilized descriptive statistics, intra-rater reliability tests, and mixed-effects ordinal regression to analyze divergence …

Dabrafenib-Induced Cutaneous Eruptions In A Patient With Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, Jaanvi Mehta, Julianna Tolotta, Eleanor Matthews, Daniel Joffe, Safiyyah Bhatti, Lauren Banner, Jenna Mandel, Molly Wallace, Timothy G. Webster, Jason B. Lee, Neda Nikbakht

Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Faculty Papers

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare malignancy marked by clonal proliferation of Langerhans cells, with BRAF V600E mutations identified in over 50% of the cases. BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi), such as dabrafenib, have shown efficacy in treating BRAF V600E-mutant LCH. However, BRAFi therapy is associated with cutaneous adverse effects, including the development of new melanocytic nevi, verrucae, and keratinocyte carcinoma (KC). This case report describes a 78-year-old woman with BRAF V600E-mutant LCH who developed multiple dermatologic side effects following dabrafenib salvage therapy. Seven weeks into treatment, the patient presented with eruptive palmoplantar nevi, verrucae, and a basal cell carcinoma (BCC). …

Expert Opinion: Management Of Intraocular Inflammation And Vasculitis After Intravitreal Pegcetacoplan For Geographic Atrophy, Thomas Albini, Steven Yeh, Carl Regillo, Roy Schwartz, Philip Ferrone, Caroline Baumal, Charles Wykoff

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: This expert opinion review is intended to provide guidelines for diagnosis and management of intraocular inflammation (IOI) and vasculitis following pegcetacoplan.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A case series of all post-marketing reports classified by experts as definite or suspected vasculitis over an 18-month period was assessed.

RESULTS: A total of 306,000 pegcetacoplan intravit real injections were given in the real world between March 1, 2023, and August 31, 2024. Twenty-four eyes from 22 patients (mean age 76 years, 59% female) with definite or suspected vasculitis were evaluated. Comorbidities included hypertension (55%), hypo thyroidism (27%), and recent COVID-19 infection …

Combining Menin And Mek Inhibition To Target Poor Prognosis Kmt2a-Rearranged Ras Pathway-Mutant Acute Myeloid Leukemia., Nastassja Scheidegger, Constanze Schneider, Gabriela Alexe, Yi-Cheng Wang, Todd A. Alonzo, Allen Basanthakumar, Wallace A. Bourgeois, Julia Dudkiewicz-Garbicz, Delan Khalid, Lucy A. Merickel, Jennifer A. Perry, Rhonda E. Ries, Silvi Salhotra, Audrey Taillon, Alan S. Gamis, Richard Aplenc, Marian H. Harris, Mark Wunderlich, Scott A. Armstrong, Jessica A. Pollard, Soheil Meshinchi, Yana Pikman, Kimberly Stegmaier

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

KMT2A-rearranged (KMT2A-r) acute leukemias are especially prevalent in the pediatric population. KMT2A-fusion proteins drive leukemogenic gene expression through an interaction with a chromatin complex that includes the scaffold protein menin, giving rise to aggressive acute leukemias. RAS pathway mutations are also common in pediatric leukemia. In a cohort of 1750 patients enrolled on Children's Oncology Group (COG) trials, we identified RAS pathway mutations in 43% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cases. The presence of RAS pathway mutations in KMT2A-r AML was associated with a lower complete remission rate, poor event-free survival and overall survival (OS), and early relapses. Given the …

Optimizing Orthopedic Outcomes: Correlation Between Postoperative Disposition Planning And Quality Outcomes In Joint Reconstruction Patients, Mahdi Ali, Teresa Latvis Ma, Bsn, Rn, Carissa Hrichak Mba, Bsn, Rn, Ashleigh Solomon, Hannah Fortune Mha

Research Scholars

No abstract provided.

Bridging Pediatric To Adult Care In Cystinosis: A Scoping Review Of Healthcare Transition Of Care Protocols And A Roadmap For Future Practice., Sanat Subhash, Nicholas Pantelakis, Kyle Backston, Ruhaan Bajpai, Amir Safadi, Brandon Petrovich, Bradley A. Warady, Maria Diaz-Gonzalez De Ferris, Rupesh Raina

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Cystinosis is a rare lysosomal storage disorder that affects approximately 1 in 100,000 to 200,000 live births worldwide. Long-term graft success in cystinosis depends on cysteamine adherence and structured multidisciplinary transition, supported by protocols developed by both pediatric nephrologists and hospital organizations. This review explores institutional and regional care models, structured programs such as the RISE protocol and Got Transition's Six Core Elements, and major barriers including adult nephrology expertise, psychosocial stressors, and insurance coverage gaps. Additionally, we explore the impact of digital health tools for their role in supporting cysteamine adherence and maintaining continuity of care. Emerging technologies such …

Brief Of Public Health And Health Law Scholars As Amici Curiae Urging Affirmance In Support Of Plaintiffs-Appellees, Rachel L. Zacharias, Zeinab Bakhet, Kevin Costello, Maya Manian

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

INTRODUCTION: Physicians’ use of their judgment and expertise to prescribe drugs and devices for purposes other than those approved by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”)—colloquially known as off-label use—is an indispensable feature of modern medicine. The FDA approves drugs as “safe and effective for specific indications.” Christopher M. Wittich, Christopher M. Burkle & William L. Lanier, Ten Common Questions (and Their Answers) About OffLabel Drug Use, 87 Mayo Clinic Procs. 982, 982 (2012). Federal law then generally leaves prescribing decisions, including off-label use of FDA-approved drugs and devices for a patient’s particular indication, to physicians acting under state law …

Comments Re: Regulation For Federal Financial Assistance, Fred D. Ledley, Edward Zhou, Brian C. Fox

CISI Publication

This comment focuses on the proposed modifications to §200.205 “Federal Agency Merit Review of Proposals” and §200.340 “Termination and suspension” of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations. We argue that the pre-issuance review, discretionary termination provisions, and other constraints of federal research support that would be established under this proposal create impediments to the scientifically-driven process of discovery and innovation that has long provided the foundation for advances in American prosperity, influence, health, and wellbeing. Our comments focus specifically on federal support for biomedical research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the purpose of advancing healthcare …

Biotic Therapies For Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Current Interventions, Gina Wodarczyk, Maria Winte, Diana Mastellone, Termen Singh, Joshua Desipio, Sangita Phadtare

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by recurrent abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits without measurable disease processes. Recent research emphasizes the gut-brain-microbiome (GBM) axis and explores how microbiota influence gastrointestinal and central nervous system functions. Here, we first discuss a brief overview of various treatment approaches for IBS, focusing on interventions such as probiotics, prebiotics, or synbiotics that target the GBM axis in adults with IBS. Relevant trials discussed the use of probiotics, prebiotics, or synbiotics.

Metabolic Syndrome Is Associated With Increased Mortality In Patients With Breast Or Prostate Cancer, Jessica P Hwang, Ning Zhang, Mercy W Misoi, Sabhi Gull, Zayd A Razouki, Justin R Gregg, Natalia I Heredia, Sharon H Giordano

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We investigated the association of metabolic syndrome (MetS) with mortality in patients with breast and prostate cancer. Breast and prostate cancer cohorts were created retrospectively using the SEER-Medicare database. Patients with first primary breast or prostate cancer diagnosed in 2008-2019 were identified using ICD-O-3 site and histology codes. Among those, patients with MetS were identified using ICD-9/10-CM codes, CPT/HCPCS codes, and prescription drug use from Medicare claims files. We defined continuous enrollment from 12 months before through 12 months after diagnosis, exposure during the first 12 months after diagnosis, and survival follow-up starting 12 months after diagnosis. We used multivariable …

Deep Learning Single-Cell Analysis For Cytologic Evaluation Of Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders, Michael P Mcrae, Kritika S Rajsri, Nadarajah Vigneswaran, A Ross Kerr, Spencer W Redding, Martin H Thornhill, Craig Murdoch, Paul M Speight, Nancy Ruel, Rachelle Wolk, Ryan R Ruff, John T Mcdevitt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) such as leukoplakia and erythroplakia may harbor dysplasia or progress to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), yet visual inspection alone is unreliable for risk assessment. Cytology offers a minimally invasive adjunct, but conventional approaches depend on manual feature extraction and subjective review. Herein we report a deep learning (DL) object detection model that directly classifies four cell phenotypes: differentiated squamous epithelial (DSE) cells, small round (SR) cells, leukocytes, and lone nuclei. The DL model produced cytology-derived parameters that correlated strongly with histopathologic diagnoses across 692 subjects with OPMDs, OSCC, and healthy controls, including declining DSE …

Isolated Transverse Colon Perforation During Corticosteroid Tapering In Quiescent Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Histopathology-Supported Diagnosis Of Exclusion, Ridwan A. Lawal, Nestor Malaga, Nida Asif, Fatimah Bello, Juliana Yang

School of Medicine Publications

Gastrointestinal perforation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is uncommon but potentially fatal, and attribution is clinically consequential because perforation may reflect lupus enteritis with mesenteric vasculitis, infection, diverticular or stercoral disease, malignancy, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), medication-related injury, or a combination of mechanisms. Corticosteroid-associated perforation is therefore best treated as a diagnosis of exclusion rather than as an isolated novel observation. We report a 62-year-old woman with SLE who developed sudden severe right-sided abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, leukocytosis, lactic acidosis, and radiographic pneumoperitoneum while tapering prednisone from 60 mg/day to 10 mg/day over three months, with 10 mg/day documented at …

Nurses’ Knowledge And Practices Regarding Infection Prevention Measures In Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Marwa G. Abouheiba, Maha Adel Salem, Jean Bertin Mudenge

Nursing

Abstract: Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remain a major global patient safety challenge, contributing substantially to morbidity, mortality, prolonged hospitalization, antimicrobial resistance, and increased healthcare costs. Patients admitted to cardiac intensive care units (ICUs) are particularly vulnerable because of their critical illness, frequent exposure to invasive devices, and complex cardiovascular interventions. Nurses play a pivotal role in preventing HAIs through the consistent implementation of evidence-based infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. Therefore, assessing both nurses' knowledge and their observed clinical practices is essential for identifying strengths, potential gaps, and opportunities for quality improvement. Aim: To assess nurses' knowledge and observed practices …

Slc Transporter-Mediated Functional Imaging In Cancer Diagnosis, Lumeng Zhang, Jun He

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Functional imaging has become an important approach for evaluating tumor physiology in vivo beyond morphologic assessment. Radiotracers used for cancer imaging are designed to mimic endogenous substrates or substrate analogues, and their accumulation can depend on membrane transport, intracellular metabolism, and clearance from normal tissues. Specifically, SLC transporters contribute to tracer uptake and signal formation, linking transporter activity with measurable imaging signals in cancer. While [18F]FDG PET/CT remains the most widely used example of transporter-associated metabolic imaging, SLC transporter-mediated imaging strategies have been developed to assess amino acid transport, sodium-dependent glucose uptake, redox metabolism, lactate exchange, nucleoside metabolism, choline metabolism, …

Transforming Advising And Improving Outcomes: Assessing Impacts Of Advising Changes, Amy S. White, Tailisha Gonzalez, Elgloria Harrison

Publications and Research

Abstract

Background: Earning full-time credit loads and persisting are how college students successfully graduate.

Objective: We measured whether credits and persistence at an urban, commuter Hispanic/Minority-Sserving Iinstitution improved after implementing a social work-based advisement strategy.

Methods: Using a quasi-experimental methodology on a college’s enrollment database, we measured the impact of a new advisement model on earned and attempted credit loads to compare traditional student advisement within control groups (n = 171 and n = 899) relative to intervention (n = 130).

Findings: In 2024, the intervention group attempted an average of 14.7 credits and earned an average of 14.3 credits, …

Feasibility Study Of An Artificial Intelligence Chatbot-Powered Cognitive-Behavioral Lifestyle Modification Program, Evans Forman, Charlotte Hagerman, Asher Hong, Zhuoran Huang, Hannah Mccausland, Jasmine Sun, Lauren Taylor, Meghan Butryn, Preetha Chatterjee, Ramtin Ehsani, Nawal Syed

Department of Family & Community Medicine Faculty Papers

Background: Approximately 2 billion adults seek lifestyle modification to improve their health and well-being. However, because of cost and access barriers, only a tiny fraction receive gold-standard lifestyle modification programs led by trained coaches. Digital programs without human coaches are more disseminable but have limited efficacy. Recent advances in large language model (LLM) AI chatbots have the potential to revolutionize digital programs by emulating human coaches, offering a safe, low-cost, and scalable lifestyle modification intervention. Yet, no studies have developed and tested such a program. Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and user engagement of a new …

A Phase Ii Trial Of Defactinib Combined With Avutometinib In Patients With Metastatic Uveal Melanoma, Rino S. Seedor, Mizue Terai, Sergei A. Koshkin, Andrew E. Aplin, Marlana Orloff, Erin Sharpe-Mills, Madeleine Naccarato, Aurora Mills, Alfredo A. Molinolo, J. Silvio Gutkind, Takami Sato

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

Background: Treatment options are limited, and outcomes remain poor for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma (MUM). We conducted an investigator-initiated, prospective, single-arm, single-institution, phase II study evaluating the combination of an FAK inhibitor (defactinib) with a RAF/MEK inhibitor (avutometinib) for the treatment of MUM. Methods: From February 2021 through January 2023, 12 patients with MUM were treated with the combination of defactinib and avutometinib. Defactinib was given 200 mg twice daily, and avutometinib was given 3.2 mg twice a week. Both drugs were given for 3 weeks on and 1 week off (28-day cycle). Disease control rate was the primary …

Leveraging Health Information Exchange (Hie) Data To Demonstrate The Impact On Health Outcomes Of Community Based Organization Interventions: Case Studies Of Housing Placement And Medically Tailored Meal Program, Kevin Kramer, Harm Scherpbier, William Marella

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Objective

Methods

Specific Carbohydrate Diet Versus Mediterranean Diet In Adult Patients With Mild To Moderate Ulcerative Colitis: A Randomized Controlled-Feeding Trial, Albert Sheng-Yin Chen, Long Nguyen, Brianna Gray, Katherine Williams, Jenny Gurung, Lauren Canha, Jessica Mcgoldrick, Jane Hubbard, Hamed Khalili

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

Background and aims: This pilot randomized controlled-feeding trial compared the effect of Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and Mediterranean diet (MeD) in mild to moderate ulcerative colitis (UC).

Methods: Seventeen adults were randomized to a 6-week SCD (n = 8) or MeD (n = 9) intervention. Primary outcome was change in partial Mayo Clinic score (pMCS).

Results: The study was discontinued early due to significant dropout (n = 9, 52.9%). There was no significant between-group differences observed for pMCS change (SCD, -0.8; MeD, -1.3; p = 0.499) or secondary outcomes. Exploratory metagenomic analysis revealed enrichment of Parasutterella excrementihominis …

Progesterone And Cerclage Together For Short Cervix: Evaluating Potential Complementary Effects For Improved Preterm Birth Prevention, Vincenzo Berghella, Ilaria Paladino, Moti Gulersen, Lauren Sayres, Amanda Roman, Rupsa C. Boelig

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Papers

Management of patients with a short cervical length (CL) on transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) often involves therapy with vaginal progesterone and/or cervical cerclage. Although these interventions are frequently viewed as alternative strategies, they may also represent complementary approaches targeting different mechanisms involved in spontaneous preterm birth. As in other areas of medicine, therapies with different mechanisms are often used together rather than as mutually exclusive options. In line with current level 1 evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses of RCTs on either vaginal progesterone or cerclage, in singleton gestations with no prior spontaneous preterm birth (SPTB), vaginal progesterone is …

Signal And Substance: Why Methodological Sophistication Fails To Guarantee Inference, Aamir Rashid, Rizwana Rasheed

Publications and Research

Despite increasing analytical sophistication, empirical research in organization studies continues to suffer from fragile inference, uneven theoretical accumulation, and contested credibility. This paper seeks to explain why these problems persist by shifting attention from authors’ methodological choices to the evaluative dynamics of peer review. Adopting a conceptual and theory-analytic approach, the paper theorizes peer review as an inferential gatekeeping system. Drawing on research design, theory evaluation, and philosophy-of-science literatures, this study develops an analytical framework to examine how evaluative routines shape what constitutes empirical rigor during the review process. The analysis identifies five recurring reviewer blind spots: inferential scope inflation, …

Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension With Negative Brain Mri Findings: A Systematic Review Of Diagnostic Strategies And Clinical Outcomes, Marina Romozzi, Giuseppe Garignano, Valid Rastegar, Francesco Onorati, Catello Vollono, Federico Tosto, Masahito Katsuki, Yasuhiko Matsumori, Francesco Signorelli

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is a debilitating syndrome typically characterized by orthostatic headache and classic brain MRI findings. However, brain MRI abnormalities are indirect manifestations of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume depletion rather than direct evidence of the leak, and some patients may present with unrevealing or absent typical brain MRI findings, posing a considerable diagnostic challenge.

METHODS: A comprehensive search of PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus was conducted to perform a systematic review, according to PRISMA guidelines, analyzing the available evidence on MRI-negative SIH (patients without typical SIH findings on their initial brain MRI), including its clinical features, …