Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Transforming The Medical Psyche, Robert Zheda

Quill & Scope

Due to the multitude of challenges medical students and professionals face, there is a general undercurrent of negativity and a tendency to complain in health care. The purpose of this paper is to 1) discuss whether this negativity is necessary and 2) to advocate a more positive attitude in the medical field.

A Curious Cause Of Strangulation, Nadia Nocera

Quill & Scope

Ludwig’s angina is a rare cellulitis of the floor of the mouth. If it is not swiftly diagnosed, the patient may suffer from death by strangulation. Here, a case of Ludwig’s angina is presented.

Role Of Health Behaviors In Sexual Quality Of Life Among Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Survivors, Keagan Lee Mcpherson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients are a population increasingly characterized by survivorship. A psychosocial outcome integral to overall quality of life and optimal survivorship outcomes is sexual quality of life (SQOL). In this arena, HSCT patients' prognostics are markedly grim. Though examinations of variables that affect overall survivorship in HSCT patients are relatively novel, SQOL outcomes have still received a disproportionately minimal amount of focus both in research and practice. Because health behaviors and their correlates are implicated in SQOL outcomes in the general population as well as survivorship and overall QOL outcomes in HSCT patients, inquiring about the …

Access To Ems Services And Training, Knowledge, And Perceptions Related To First Aid And Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (Cpr) Skills Among College Students, Feifei Sun

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study included two purposes. The first purpose of this study was to compare undergraduate students' knowledge and perceptions related to first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) according to their level of first aid and CPR training. The second purpose of this study was to compare the students' perceptions of access to emergency medical services (EMS) by the geographic location of their hometown. A quantitative survey was distributed to students enrolled in three HLTH 101: Health and Environment classes in Spring, 2013. The survey included questions related to the participants' demographic characteristics, perceptions of the time needed for EMS services …

High Jump Analysis, Paige Cooke

Undergraduate Journal of Mathematical Modeling: One + Two

This project presents a mathematical analysis of the high jump, a popular track and field event. The first and second stages of the high jump correspond to the athlete’s run along two distinct trajectories. The third stage is the actual jump. We propose an individual model for each of these stages and show how to combine these models to study the dynamics of the entire high jump.

A Correlational Study Of A Reading Comprehension Program And Attrition Rates Of Esl Nursing Students In Texas, Wendy Morris Donnell

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

Decreasing the attrition rate of nursing students has become an important issue for programs in Texas as a means to alleviate the nursing shortage (THECB, 2009). Programs are admitting a more diverse group of students but attrition has historically been high among minority groups (Gilchrist & Rector, 2007). The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between English as a Second Language (ESL), a reading comprehension program, and attrition rates of nursing students. A secondary analysis of a large database which included nursing students from 27 initial licensure programs in Texas was completed. Jeffreys (2012) NURS model was …

Timing Of Breastfeeding Initiation In Rural Haiti: A Focused Ethnography, Christy Bomer-Norton

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

A focused ethnography aimed at describing the factors affecting the timing of breastfeeding initiation among Haitian mothers, particularly the specific cultural beliefs and practices was conducted in Artribonite, Haiti. A total of 25 Haitian mothers with children less than 12 months old participated in the study which included the use of interviews, observations and artifacts. A thick description was developed by integration of qualitative and quantitative data. Self-reported timing of breastfeeding initiation ranged from 10 minutes to 24 hours post birth among the 23 participants able to quantify the specific time of breastfeeding initiation. Birth attendants were identified as key …

Integrating Primary Care Into Behavioral Health: Evaluating An Evidence-Based Referral Process In A Community Mental Health Facility, Marcia Harris

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

A collaboration to serve individuals with mental disorders and co-morbid physical health issues is vital to improving health care outcomes for the individual as a whole. Objective: This project sought to answer the following research questions: (a) Did the patients with mental illness attend referred appointments at the co-located primary health care clinic?; (b) If referred appointments at the primary health care clinic were missed, what were the most common reasons?; ( c) Did the primary care and mental health care prescribers at the colocated clinics report that the referral process was beneficial? Results: Throughout this 8 week project, there …

Beliefs In Medications And Treatment Complexity As Predictors Of Medication Adherence Among Adults 18-65 Years Old With Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Donna Bacchus

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

Low adherence to medications in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) results in relapses and subsequently increased healthcare costs, poor quality of life, and increased comorbidities. In this correlational study, treatment complexity and beliefs in medications were tested to determine if they are predictors of medication adherence. Through convenience sampling, participants were recruited through face book, IBD organizations, and foundation websites (n = 369 final sample size). Females comprised the overwhelming majority (81.8%) of the sample. Using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale, approximately 56% were classified as nonadherent and 44% as adherent. Beliefs in medications were measured by four subscales: …

Validation Of A Transcutaneous Bilirubin Nomogram In Identifying Hispanic Neonates At Risk For Hyperbilirubinemia, Nancy G. Engle

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

All newborns are at potential risk of adverse outcomes if they are not monitored for hyperbilirubinemia or if treatment for this problem is inadequate. Strategies are needed to accurately identify those newborns with clinically significant hyperbilirubinemia. Transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) nomograms offer a useful screening tool to identify and monitor newborns with jaundice, as well as a way to predict the subsequent development of hyperbilirubinemia; however, there have been few studies examining the accuracy of TcB nomograms. The primary purpose of this study was to validate a previously published but unvalidated TcB nomogram to independently determine its accuracy in identifying Hispanic …

Profile Of Alcohol And Drug Indicators For Hillsborough County, Florida, Kathleen A. Moore, M. Scott Young, Ellen Snelling

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

Alcohol has the highest prevalence of use of any substance in Hillsborough County and throughout the nation. In 2011, Hillsborough County ranked first among all counties in alcohol-related fatalities. Although Hillsborough County DUI arrests decreased in 2011, Hillsborough still had more DUI arrests than any other Florida county. To address these concerns, the Hillsborough County Anti Drug Alliance (HCADA) and the Tampa Alcohol Coalition (TAC) have continued to support: DUI law enforcement operations, The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Alcohol Vendor Enforcement program (SAVE), DUI Counterattack, DUI media coverage, alcohol awareness programs, improved alcohol policies and community coalitions’ collaborative efforts to reduce …

Malleable Ribonucleoprotein Machine: Protein Intrinsic Disorder In The Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Spliceosome, Maria De Lourdes Coelho Ribeiro, Julio Espinosa, Sameen Islam, Osvaldo Martinez, Jayesh Jamnadas Thanki, Stephanie Mazariegos, Tam Nguyen, Maya Larina, Bin Xue, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Recent studies revealed that a significant fraction of any given proteome is presented by proteins that do not have unique 3D structures as a whole or in significant parts. These intrinsically disordered proteins possess dramatic structural and functional variability, being especially enriched in signaling and regulatory functions since their lack of fixed structure defines their ability to be involved in interaction with several proteins and allows them to be re-used in multiple pathways. Among recognized disorder-based protein functions are interactions with nucleic acids and multi-target binding; i.e., the functions ascribed to many spliceosomal proteins. Therefore, the spliceosome, a multimegadalton ribonucleoprotein …

Persistent Human Herpesvirus-6 Infection In Patients With An Inherited Form Of The Virus, Shara N. Pantry, Maria M. Medveczky, Jesse H. Arbuckle, Janos Luka, Jose G. Montoya, Jianhong Hu, Rolf Renne, Daniel Peterson, Joshua C. Pritchett, Dharam V. Ablashi, Peter G. Medveczky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6)A and 6B are ubiquitous betaherpesviruses viruses with lymphotropic and neurotropic potential. As reported earlier, these viruses establish latency by integration into the telomeres of host chromosomes. Chromosomally integrated HHV-6 (CIHHV-6) can be transmitted vertically from parent to child. Some CIHHV-6 patients are suffering from neurological symptoms, while others remain asymptomatic. Four patients with CIHHV-6 and CNS dysfunction were treated with valganciclovir or foscarnet. HHV-6 replication was detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction amplification of a late envelope glycoprotein. In this study we also compared the inherited and persistent HHV-6 viruses by DNA sequencing. The prevalence of …

Structural Characterizations Of Phosphorylatable Residues In Transmembrane Proteins From Arabidopsis Thaliana, Bin Xue, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Phosphorylation is a common post-translational modification that plays important roles in a wide range of biochemical and cellular processes. Many enzymes and receptors can be switched “on” or “off” by conformational changes induced by phosphorylation. The phosphorylation process is mediated by a family of enzymes called kinase. Currently, more than 1,000 different kinases have been identified in Arabidopsis thaliana proteome. Kinases interact with each other and with many regulatory proteins forming phosphorylation networks. These phosphorylation networks modulate the signaling processes and control the functions of cells. Normally, kinases phosphorylate serines, threonines, and tyrosines. However, in many proteins, not all of …

Distribution And Cluster Analysis Of Predicted Intrinsically Disordered Protein Pfam Domains, Robert W. Williams, Bin Xue, Vladimir N. Uversky, A. Keith Dunker

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The Pfam database groups regions of proteins by how well hidden Markov models (HMMs) can be trained to recognize similarities among them. Conservation pressure is probably in play here. The Pfam seed training set includes sequence and structure information, being drawn largely from the PDB. A long standing hypothesis among intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) investigators has held that conservation pressures are also at play in the evolution of different kinds of intrinsic disorder, but we find that predicted intrinsic disorder (PID) is not always conserved across Pfam domains. Here we analyze distributions and clusters of PID regions in 193024 members …

Digested Disorder: Quarterly Intrinsic Disorder Digest (January/February/March, 2013), Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The current literature on intrinsically disordered proteins is blooming. A simple PubMed search for "intrinsically disordered protein OR natively unfolded protein" returns about 1,800 hits (as of June 17, 2013), with many papers published quite recently. To keep interested readers up to speed with this literature, we are starting a "Digested Disorder" project, which will encompass a series of reader's digest type of publications aiming at the objective representation of the research papers and reviews on intrinsically disordered proteins. The only two criteria for inclusion in this digest are the publication date (a paper should be published within the covered …

The Alphabet Of Intrinsic Disorder: Ii. Various Roles Of Glutamic Acid In Ordered And Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The ability of a protein to fold into unique functional state or to stay intrinsically disordered is encoded in its amino acid sequence. Both ordered and intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are natural polypeptides that use the same arsenal of 20 proteinogenic amino acid residues as their major building blocks. The exceptional structural plasticity of IDPs, their capability to exist as heterogeneous structural ensembles and their wide array of important disorder-based biological functions that complements functional repertoire of ordered proteins are all rooted within the peculiar differential usage of these building blocks by ordered proteins and IDPs. In fact, some residues …

Looking At Microbial Metabolism By High-Resolution (2)H-Nmr Spectroscopy, Victor P. Kutyshenko, Peter M. Beskaravayny, Maxim V. Molchanov, Svetlana I. Paskevich, Dmitry A. Prokhorov, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

We analyzed the applicability of high-resolution (2)H-HMR spectroscopy for the analysis of microbe metabolism in samples of mitochondrion isolated from rat liver and from aqueous extracts of homogenates of rat liver and other organs and tissues in the presence of high D2O contents. Such analysis is possible due to the fast microbe adaptation to life in the heavy water. It is also shown that some enzymatic processes typical for the intact cells are preserved in the homogenized tissue preparations. The microbial and cellular metabolic processes can be differentiated via the strategic use of cell poisons and antibiotics.

Biophysical Characterization Of Α-Synuclein And Rotenone Interaction, Blanca A. Silva, Olöf Einarsdóttir, Anthony L. Fink, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Previous studies revealed that pesticides interact with α-synuclein and accelerate the rate of fibrillation. These results are consistent with the prevailing hypothesis that the direct interaction of α-synuclein with pesticides is one of many suspected factors leading to α-synuclein fibrillation and ultimately to Parkinson's disease. In this study, the biophysical properties and fibrillation kinetics of α-synuclein in the presence of rotenone were investigated and, more specifically, the effects of rotenone on the early-stage misfolded forms of α-synuclein were considered. The thioflavine T (ThT) fluorescence assay studies provide evidence that early-phase misfolded α-synuclein forms are affected by rotenone and that the …

The Case For Intrinsically Disordered Proteins Playing Contributory Roles In Molecular Recognition Without A Stable 3d Structure, Vladimir N. Uversky, A. Keith Dunker

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The classical ‘lock-and-key’ and ‘induced-fit’ mechanisms for binding both originated in attempts to explain features of enzyme catalysis. For both of these mechanisms and for their recent refinements, enzyme catalysis requires exquisite spatial and electronic complementarity between the substrate and the catalyst. Thus, binding models derived from models originally based on catalysis will be highly biased towards mechanisms that utilize structural complementarity. If mere binding without catalysis is the endpoint, then the structural requirements for the interaction become much more relaxed. Recent observations on specific examples suggest that this relaxation can reach an extreme lack of specific 3D structure, leading …

Ordered Disorder Of The Astrocytic Dystrophin-Associated Protein Complex In The Norm And Pathology, Insung Na, Derek Redmon, Markus Kopa, Yiru Qin, Bin Xue, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The abundance and potential functional roles of intrinsically disordered regions in aquaporin-4, Kir4.1, a dystrophin isoforms Dp71, α-1 syntrophin, and α-dystrobrevin; i.e., proteins constituting the functional core of the astrocytic dystrophin-associated protein complex (DAPC), are analyzed by a wealth of computational tools. The correlation between protein intrinsic disorder, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and protein function is also studied together with the peculiarities of structural and functional conservation of these proteins. Our study revealed that the DAPC members are typical hybrid proteins that contain both ordered and intrinsically disordered regions. Both ordered and disordered regions are important for the stabilization of …

Actinidia Drm1 - An Intrinsically Disordered Protein Whose Mrna Expression Is Inversely Correlated With Spring Budbreak In Kiwifruit, Marion Wood, Georgina M. Rae, Rong-Mei Wu, Eric F. Walton, Bin Xue, Roger P. Hellens, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are a relatively recently defined class of proteins which, under native conditions, lack a unique tertiary structure whilst maintaining essential biological functions. Functional classification of IDPs have implicated such proteins as being involved in various physiological processes including transcription and translation regulation, signal transduction and protein modification. Actinidia DRM1 (Ade DORMANCY ASSOCIATED GENE 1), represents a robust dormancy marker whose mRNA transcript expression exhibits a strong inverse correlation with the onset of growth following periods of physiological dormancy. Bioinformatic analyses suggest that DRM1 is plant specific and highly conserved at both the nucleotide and protein …

The Alphabet Of Intrinsic Disorder: I. Act Like A Pro: On The Abundance And Roles Of Proline Residues In Intrinsically Disordered Proteins, Francois-Xavier Theillet, Lajos Kalmar, Peter Tompa, Kyou-Hoon Han, Philipp Selenko, A. Keith Dunker, Gary W. Daughdrill, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

A significant fraction of every proteome is occupied by biologically active proteins that do not form unique three-dimensional structures. These intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and IDP regions (IDPRs) have essential biological functions and are characterized by extensive structural plasticity. Such structural and functional behavior is encoded in the amino acid sequences of IDPs/IDPRs, which are enriched in disorder-promoting residues and depleted in order-promoting residues. In fact, amino acid residues can be arranged according to their disorder-promoting tendency to form an alphabet of intrinsic disorder that defines the structural complexity and diversity of IDPs/IDPRs. This review is the first in a …

The Ube2e Proteins As Conjugating Dispersers: Extending Function With Extended Extensions, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Surgical Management Of A Locally Advanced Symptomatic Recurrence Of Penile Sarcoma Secondary To Prostate Brachytherapy, Tariq S. Hakky, Patrick Espiritu, Alejandro R. Rodriguez, Nicholas Gould, Philippe E. Spiess

Urology Faculty Publications

Background: The surgical management of patients with symptomatic metastatic or locally advanced recurrences involving the penis remains poorly characterized. The aim of the present abstract and video is to detail our experience in the surgical management of a specific patient with a locally advanced symptomatic recurrence of penile sarcoma secondary to prostate cancer treated with primary brachytherapy.

Materials and Methods: A 70 year old male patient initially treated for localized prostate cancer with interstitial brachytherapy at an outside facility developed an unfortunate secondary malignancy consisting of a locally advanced penile sarcoma involving as well the prostate and base of the …

Acute Activation, Desensitization And Smoldering Activation Of Human Acetylcholine Receptors., Barbara Campling, M.D., Frcpc, Alexander Kuryatov, Jon Lindstrom

Department of Neuroscience Faculty Papers

The behavioral effects of nicotine and other nicotinic agonists are mediated by AChRs in the brain. The relative contribution of acute activation versus chronic desensitization of AChRs is unknown. Sustained "smoldering activation" occurs over a range of agonist concentrations at which activated and desensitized AChRs are present in equilibrium. We used a fluorescent dye sensitive to changes in membrane potential to examine the effects of acute activation and chronic desensitization by nicotinic AChR agonists on cell lines expressing human α4β2, α3β4 and α7 AChRs. We examined the effects of acute and prolonged application of nicotine and the partial agonists varenicline, …

Bioactive Natural Products, A. Hamid A. Hadi, Mehmet Emin Duru, Ana Belen Martin-Diana

Other resources

Bioactive natural products have never ceased to play an important role in the search of novel therapeutic agents. Natural products from the nature such as the plant and marine sources form an integral part of the living system, and they have existed ever since the beginning of life. Therefore, it is undeniable that works related to natural products continue to develop in many aspects involving researchers from various scientific backgrounds. This special issue is dedicated to compile twelve articles on chemical and biological aspects of research developments in natural products.

Business Plan: Sports Facility In Rochester, Minnesota, Nikki Scherr

Master of Arts in Sport Management

This capstone project involves the construction of a new sports facility, The Sports Hut, located in Rochester, Minnesota. The mission of The Sports Hut organization is to get kids active at a young age, which allows the opportunity for athletes to thrive in their sport and passions, while providing a place to learn and grow in a healthy environment. Although obesity can be a very complex issue, Miller, Rosenbloom and Silverstein (2004) have discovered that obesity affects more than 30% of children and can be found commonly due to the environment and lifestyle in which they group up in. It …

Molecular Architecture Of The Uncleaved Hiv-1 Envelope Glycoprotein Trimer, Youdong Mao, Luis Castillo-Menendez, Liping Wang, Christopher Gu, Alon Herschhorn, Anik Désormeaux, Andrés Finzi, Shi-Hua Xiang, Joseph Sodroski

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimer, a membrane-fusing machine, mediates virus entry into host cells and is the sole virusspecific target for neutralizing antibodies. Binding the receptors, CD4 and CCR5/CXCR4, triggers Env conformational changes from the metastable unliganded state to the fusion-active state. We used cryo-electron microscopy to obtain a 6-Å structure of the membranebound, heavily glycosylated HIV-1 Env trimer in its uncleaved and unliganded state. The spatial organization of secondary structure elements reveals that the unliganded conformations of both gp120 and gp41 subunits differ from those induced by receptor binding. The gp120 trimer association domains, which …

Variations In The Biological Functions Of Hiv-1 Clade C Envelope In A Shiv-Infected Rhesus Macaque During Disease Progression, For Yue Tso, Levon Abrahamyan, Shiu-Lok Hu, Ruth M. Ruprecht, Charles Wood

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

A better understanding of how the biological functions of the HIV-1 envelope (Env) changes during disease progression may aid the design of an efficacious anti-HIV-1 vaccine. Although studies from patient had provided some insights on this issue, the differences in the study cohorts and methodology had make it difficult to reach a consensus of the variations in the HIV-1 Env functions during disease progression. To this end, an animal model that can be infected under controlled environment and reflect the disease course of HIV-1 infection in human will be beneficial. Such an animal model was previously demonstrated by the infection …