Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Significance Of Gata3 Expression In Breast Cancer: A 10-Year Follow-Up Study., Vincenzo Ciocca, Constantine Daskalakis, Robin M. Ciocca, Alejandra Ruiz-Orrico, Juan P. Palazzo

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

GATA3 is a transcription factor closely associated with estrogen receptor alpha in breast carcinoma, with a potential prognostic utility. This study investigated the immunohistochemical expression of GATA3 in estrogen receptor alpha-positive and estrogen receptor alpha-negative breast carcinomas. One hundred sixty-six cases of invasive breast carcinomas with 10-year follow-up information were analyzed. Positive GATA3 and estrogen receptor alpha cases were defined as greater than 20% of cells staining. Time to cancer recurrence and time to death were analyzed with survival methods. Of 166 patients, 40 were estrogen receptor alpha negative and 121 estrogen receptor alpha positive. Thirty-eight (23%) recurrences and 51 …

When Old-Order Amish Meet New Order Science: Genetic Maladies And The Amish Dilemma, Kelley Downey

Undergraduate Research Conference

The Old World Amish, an Anabaptist Christian domination in the United States and Canada are know for their plain dress, avoidance of modern technology, and separation from the mainstream society.

A traditional agricultural religious group, the Old World Amish maintains isolation from the rest of the community. Financially well-off, they are homogeneous on education, occupation by gender, age at marriage, religion/ethnicity, and health care.

Although the Amish strongly discourage marriage between close cousins, the Lancaster Amish genealogy is described as mutational - inbreeding from multiple, remote connections rather than close consanguinity (first-cousin marriages).

Amish settlements have been identified with certain …

Healthy Paws Doggie Day Camp, Alexandra Salazar

Undergraduate Research Conference

“Healthy Paws Doggie Day Camp” is an event that will help owners and dogs incorporate physical activity into their daily lives. General knowledge of exercise concerning dogs is considerably lacking, obviously observed as they become more obese over time (Fennell, 2005). Between 40-50 percent of our dogs are overweight (Fennell, 2005). It is not only humans who have trouble controlling their body weight, while metabolism begins to slow down with age, canines are also affected. (Borzendowski, 2007).Walking a dog could help a large proportion of the U.S. population [dog owners] increase their physical activity as well as that of their …

Elder Abuse: A Policy Analysis, Cortni Davis

Undergraduate Research Conference

Elder abuse is a growing social problem in the United States. It takes on many forms, and is prevalent throughout various cultures. Elder Abuse Reporting Laws have been enacted throughout various states to prevent and intervene in elder abuse cases. California’s Financial Abuse Reporting Act of 2005 is one among many laws in the United States which was formed to help ensure social justice for the elderly citizens of America.

Utilizing Community Based Participatory Research To Address Health Literacy Issues: An Example In Southeastern Mn, Jennifer A. Weis

Theses and Graduate Projects

Low health literacy interferes with an individual's ability to reduce and treat preventable diseases. Given the spectrum of disease burden throughout the US, there are a number of important health topics deserving of our immediate attention in order to improve the public's health literacy. Overweight and obesity have surfaced as societal topics and any quest to improve health literacy must address these growing problems as they are likely to contribute to disease prevention and improved disease management. Unfortunately, the growing problem of overweight and obesity is not restricted to adults. America's youth are also experiencing epidemic rates of overweight and …

Nonparametric Incidence Estimation From Prevalent Cohort Survival Data, Marco Carone, Masoud Asgharian, Mei-Cheng Wang

COBRA Preprint Series

Incidence is an important epidemiologic concept particularly useful in assessing an intervention, quantifying disease risk, and planning health resources. Incident cohort studies constitute the gold-standard in estimating disease incidence. However, due to material constraints, data are often collected from prevalent cohort studies whereby diseased individuals are recruited through a cross-sectional survey and followed forward in time. We discuss the identifiability of measures of incidence in the context of prevalent cohort survival studies and derive nonparametric maximum likelihood estimators and their asymptotic properties. The proposed methodology accounts for calendar-time and age-at-onset variation in disease incidence while also addressing common complications arising …

Comparison Of Replication-Competent, First Generation, And Helper-Dependent Adenoviral Vaccines, Eric A. Weaver, Pramod N. Nehete, Stephanie S. Buchl, Julien S. Senac, Donna Palmer, Philip Ng, K. Jagannadha Sastry, Michael A. Barry

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

All studies using human serotype 5 Adenovirus (Ad) vectors must address two major obstacles: safety and the presence of pre-existing neutralizing antibodies. Helper-Dependent (HD) Ads have been proposed as alternative vectors for gene therapy and vaccine development because they have an improved safety profile. To evaluate the potential of HD-Ad vaccines, we compared replication-competent (RC), first-generation (FG) and HD vectors for their ability to induce immune responses in mice. We show that RC-Ad5 and HD-Ad5 vectors generate stronger immune responses than FG-Ad5 vectors. HD-Ad5 vectors gave lower side effects than RC or FG-Ad, producing lower levels of tissue damage and …

Assembly And Development Of The Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Biofilm Matrix., Luyan Ma, Matthew Conover, Haiping Lu, Matthew R. Parsek, Kenneth W. Bayles, Daniel J. Wozniak

Journal Articles: Pathology and Microbiology

Virtually all cells living in multicellular structures such as tissues and organs are encased in an extracellular matrix. One of the most important features of a biofilm is the extracellular polymeric substance that functions as a matrix, holding bacterial cells together. Yet very little is known about how the matrix forms or how matrix components encase bacteria during biofilm development. Pseudomonas aeruginosa forms environmentally and clinically relevant biofilms and is a paradigm organism for the study of biofilms. The extracellular polymeric substance of P. aeruginosa biofilms is an ill-defined mix of polysaccharides, nucleic acids, and proteins. Here, we directly visualize …

All Hands On Deck, V.1, 26 March 2009

Articles - Patient Care

No abstract provided.

Teaching Effective Pain Management Of Acute Thoracic Postoperative Pain In Chronic Pain Patients, Sheila L. Hoehn

Theses and Graduate Projects

This thesis will address the growing demand for the development of best practice initiatives when nurses care for patients experiencing acute postoperative pain while already coping with long-term chronic pain. The growing use of preoperative opioids has contributed to the incidence of escalated and unrelieved pain following a Thoracic surgical procedure. This occurrence continues to increase as the preoperative usage of opioids for medical and non-medical reasons is rising. The focus of addressing the challenges for providing adequate and individualized analgesia will be reviewed. Specific emphasis and analysis will be provided regarding current pain theories and recent nursing research that …

Hyperglycemia And Acquired Weakness In Critically Ill Patients: Potential Mechanisms, Leigh Ann Callahan, Gerald S. Supinski

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Critical illness polyneuropathy/critical illness myopathy (CIP/CIM) is a major cause of mortality and long-term morbidity in critically ill patients, but the true incidence and prevalence of these syndromes are not known. Hermans and colleagues show that when intensive insulin therapy is used as part of routine clinical practice in the intensive care unit, the incidence of CIP/CIM as determined by electrophysiologic testing is reduced. Our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for inducing prolonged weakness in intensive care unit patients is limited, and the role of hyperglycemia in modulating these processes is unknown. Intensive insulin therapy currently remains the only effective …

Fourth Annual Stand Up Against Cancer Comedy Event, Jessica Block ‘09

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

What Do Young Adults Know About The Hiv/Aids Epidemic? Findings From A Population Based Study In Karachi, Pakistan., Syed Farid-Ul-Hasnain, Eva Johansson, Gunilla Krantz

Community Health Sciences

Background: HIVAIDS is spreading globally, hitting the younger generations. In Pakistan, the prevalence of HIV in high-risk subpopulations is five per cent or higher. This poses a serious threat of a generalised epidemic especially among the younger population. In the wake of HIVAIDS epidemic this is worrying as a well informed younger generation is crucial in restricting the spread of this epidemic. This study investigated Pakistani young adults' (male and female) knowledge and awareness of the HIV/AIDS disease. Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional study of 1,650 male and female adults aged 17-21 years living in Karachi was conducted using a structured …

In Vitro Ovarian Tumor Growth And Treatment Response Dynamics Visualized With Time-Lapse Oct Imaging, Conor L. Evans, Imran Rizvi, Tayyaba Hasan, Johannes F. De Boer

Dartmouth Scholarship

In vitro three-dimensional models for metastatic ovarian cancer have been useful for recapitulating the human disease. These spheroidal tumor cultures, however, can grow in excess of 1 mm in diameter, which are difficult to visualize without suitable imaging technology.Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an ideal live imaging method for non-perturbatively visualizing these complex systems. OCT enabled detailed observations of the model at both nodular and cellular levels, revealing growth dynamics not previously observed. The development of a time-lapse OCT system, capable of automated, multidimensional acquisition, further provided insights into the growth and chemotherapeutic response of ovarian cancer.

The Importance Of Scale For Spatial-Confounding Bias And Precision Of Spatial Regression Estimators, Christopher J. Paciorek

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Increasingly, regression models are used when residuals are spatially correlated. Prominent examples include studies in environmental epidemiology to understand the chronic health effects of pollutants. I consider the effects of residual spatial structure on the bias and precision of regression coefficients, developing a simple framework in which to understand the key issues and derive informative analytic results. When the spatial residual is induced by an unmeasured confounder, regression models with spatial random effects and closely-related models such as kriging and penalized splines are biased, even when the residual variance components are known. Analytic and simulation results show how the bias …

Prevalence Of Obesity In School-Going Children Of Karachi., Haider Javed Warraich, Faisal Javed, Mohammed Faraz-Ul-Haq, Fariha Batool Khawaja, Sarah Saleem

Community Health Sciences

Background: Obesity is an emerging problem in Pakistan. The authors sought to determine prevalence of obesity and malnutrition in school-going children, from grades 6(th) to 8(th) of different schools of Karachi and assess associations that affect the weight of the children.
Methodology/Principal Findings: A cross sectional Study Design with children studying in grades 6(th) to 8(th) grade, in different schools of Karachi. We visited 10 schools of which 4 consented, two subsidized government schools and two private schools. A questionnaire was developed in consultation with a qualified nutritionist. Height and weight were measured on calibrated scales. A modified BMI criterion …

A Contrast Of Bilingual And Monolingual Children In Regards To Semantic And Syntactic Language Acquisition, Jessica Michelle Pfister

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Multiple language acquisition has only recently become a heavily researched and focused topic. Many questions have been left unanswered and furthermore, experts in the field are coming to contradicting results and conclusions. The presented thesis investigates the culmination of recent research in this newly developed field, as well as provides feedback from bilingual individuals on their experiences of being bilingual. Through analyzing current studies, the conclusion is made that bilingual children will follow a series of stages in their semantic and syntactic acquisition in which there is a bilingual disadvantage, followed by a bilingual advantage, and lastly a continuous stage …

Today - March 23, 2009, Loma Linda University

TODAY

Inside this issue:

-- LLUSM Annual Postgraduate Convention addresses wide spectrum of medical topics
-- SPH conference focuses on obesity and type-2 diabetes research, and how to apply the findings to people’s lives in practical ways
-- Art that Heals lecture series set for April 15, 23
-- National Professional Social Workers Month
-- Requiem for a fallen giant: historic tree
-- Coats 4 Kids Drive at SACHS-Norton is successful
-- Medical students hablan español during SM parent day festivities
-- LLU physical therapy program assists Montemorelos University with developing its PT bachelor’s program
-- LLUSM alumna to be featured …

The Use Of A Semiochemical Bait To Enhance Exposure Of Amblyomma Variegatum (Acari: Ixodidae) To Metarhizium Anisopliae (Ascomycota: Hypocreales), F. Nchu, N. K. Maniania, A. Touré, A. Hassanali, J. N. Eloff

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Experiments were conducted to explore the use of a semiochemical bait to enhance exposure of Amblyomma variegatum Fabricius (Acari: Ixodidae) to different formulations of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sorok. (Ascomycota: Hypocreales). Initially, the relative efficacies of attraction-aggregation-attachment pheromone (AAAP), made up of o-nitrophenol, methyl salicylate and nonanoic acid in the ratio 2:1:8, 1-octen-3-ol and butyric acid, were evaluated in an olfactometer. Only AAAP and 1-octen-3-ol were found to elicit attractive responses to the tick. Simultaneous release of 1-octen-3-ol and AAAP together with CO2 from a trap in semifield plots attracted up to 94.0 ± 6% of adult ticks …

Smoking Enhances Risk For New External Genital Warts In Men, Dorothy J. Wiley, David Elashoff, Emmanuel V. Masongsong, Diane M. Harper

Dartmouth Scholarship

Repeat episodes of HPV-related external genital warts reflect recurring or new infections. No study before has been sufficiently powered to delineate how tobacco use, prior history of EGWs and HIV infection affect the risk for new EGWs. Behavioral, laboratory and examination data for 2,835 Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study participants examined at 21,519 semi-annual visits were evaluated. Fourteen percent (391/2835) of men reported or were diagnosed with EGWs at 3% (675/21,519) of study visits. Multivariate analyses showed smoking, prior episodes of EGWs, HIV infection and CD4+ T-lymphocyte count among the infected, each differentially influenced the risk for new EGWs.

Use Of Clopidogrel In The Reduction Of Myocardial Damage During Percutaneous Coronary Intervention, Arijit Dasgupta, Debabrata Mukherjee

Gill Heart & Vascular Institute Faculty Publications

It is estimated that approximately a quarter of patients undergoing coronary intervention may have significant post-procedural creatinine (CK)/creatinine kinase myocardial band (CK-MB) elevations and approximately half may have post-procedural troponin elevations. Current data suggest that periprocedural infarction is associated with short-, intermediate-, and long-term adverse outcomes, most notably mortality. This review examines the role of clopidogrel in decreasing periprocedural myonecrosis following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Clopidogrel is an important pharmacologic agent used to reduce myocardial infarction post-coronary intervention as assessed directly by the evaluation of cardiac biomarkers and indirectly by the evaluation of short-term ischemic events. The optimal dose of …

The Relationship Of Language And Emotion Understanding To Sociable Behavior Of Children With Language Impairment, Jami L. Potter

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotion understanding and language ability to the sociable behavior in children with language impairment (LI) and their typically developing peers. Twenty-nine children with LI and 29 age- and gender-matched peers with typical language were used in this study. Sociability was rated by his/her classroom teacher using the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (Hart & Robinson, 1996). Language ability was assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999). To assess emotion understanding, each participant was asked to perform several structural dissemblance tasks. Children with LI received scores significantly lower …

The Effect Of Simulated Nodules On Vocal Fold Movement In A Two Layer Synthetic Model, Rachelle Nevitt Rauma

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the differences between normal vocal fold vibration and the movement patterns of vocal folds with mass lesions by means of a synthetic model. The experimenter molded and cast three sets of vocal folds, representing normal structure, small nodules, and larger nodules. Acoustic, aerodynamic, and digital video signals were recorded and analyzed in order to quantify air flow and pressure, measure vibratory stability, and visually assess closure patterns across the three structural conditions. Statistical analysis revealed that the presence of vocal nodules resulted in a significantly higher onset pressure, fundamental frequency, airflow at onset, and offset pressure. However, …

Shelter-In-Place: Indoor Exposure Assessment During An Airborne Chemical, Biological, Radiological, And Nuclear (Cbrn) Event, Robert D. Schmidtgoessling

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of Shelter-In-Place (SIP) is to reduce human exposure to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents in the event of an accidental or intentional airborne release into the outdoor environment. The Air Force Bioenvironmental Engineering (BE) career field is responsible for providing hazard identification, evaluation, and control capabilities as well as executing health risk assessments to recommend appropriate courses of action to commanders pre-, trans-, and post-incident. Specifically, BE is responsible for providing sampling, identification, and quantification input to hazard prediction models and supporting evacuation plan development to provide risk-based control recommendations. This also includes providing exposure and …

Treatment Resistant Depression, Amresh Srivastava

Psychiatry Presentations

No abstract provided.

Detection Of Cwd Prions In Urine And Saliva Of Deer By Transgenic Mouse Bioassay, Nicholas J. Haley, Davis M. Seelig, Mark D. Zabel, Glenn C. Telling, Edward A. Hoover

Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics Faculty Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease affecting captive and free-ranging cervids (e.g. deer, elk, and moose). The mechanisms of CWD transmission are poorly understood, though bodily fluids are thought to play an important role. Here we report the presence of infectious prions in the urine and saliva of deer with chronic wasting disease (CWD). Prion infectivity was detected by bioassay of concentrated, dialyzed urine and saliva in transgenic mice expressing the cervid PrP gene (Tg[CerPrP] mice). In addition, PrP(CWD) was detected in pooled and concentrated urine by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). The concentration of abnormal prion protein …

Carbon Nanotube Membranes For Use In The Transdermal Treatment Of Nicotine Addiction And Opioid Withdrawal Symptoms, Caroline L. Strasinger, Nicole N. Scheff, Ji Wu, Bruce J. Hinds, Audra L. Stinchcomb

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Transdermal systems are attractive methods of drug administration specifically when treating patients for drug addiction. Current systems however are deficient in therapies that allow variable flux values of drug, such as nicotine for smoking cessation or complex dosing regimens using clonidine when treating opioid withdrawal symptoms. Through the use of functionalized carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes, drug delivery to the skin can be controlled by applying a small electrical bias to create a programmable drug delivery system. Clearly, a transdermal patch system that can be tailored to an individual's needs will increase patient compliance as well as provide much more efficient …

Field Evaluation Of A Novel Exposure Assessment Strategy Using Respirable Coal Dust Exposures During Heat Plant Coal Receiving Operations, Timothy W. Batten

Theses and Dissertations

An exposure assessment strategy (EAS) determines the number of samples required to characterize an occupational health exposure’s acceptability. A novel EAS (AFIT-EAS) was developed with the objective of maximizing the sensitivity for detecting unacceptable exposures, while minimizing the total number of samples needed. The purpose of this field evaluation was to use data from a comprehensive sampling campaign (SC) to compare the AFIT-EAS with two commonly used EASs: the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA-EAS) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s (AIHA-EAS). 10 randomly sampled replicates were selected from the SC. The number of samples selected per replicate was in …

A Barrier To Exclusive Breastfeeding For Wic Enrollees: Limited Use Of Exclusive Breastfeeding Food Package For Mothers, Alison Volpe Holmes, Nancy P. Chin, Jeffrey Kaczorowski, Cindy R. Howard

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: In the first 2 weeks of life, most breastfeeding mother–infant dyads in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) receive infant formula from WIC, instead of a larger food package designed for exclusively breastfeeding mothers. This study was designed to explore reasons for high rates of formula supplementation of breastfeeding newborns enrolled in WIC and the limited use of the WIC expanded food package.

Methods: We conducted in-depth interviews with 29 mothers who either partially or exclusively breastfed for at least 2 months. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, analyzed, coded, and organized into 10 themes.

Results: …

Ada News - 03/16/2009, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.