Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Herd Immunity And The Necessity Of Vaccinations: Modeling The Effects Of Mmr Vaccinations, Caitlyn Cardetti, Katie Groskreutz, Melissa Zins

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The MMR vaccination is a two dose vaccine given to children between the ages of 12 – 15 months and the second dose between the ages of 4 – 6 years to prevent measles, mumps, and rubella. The objective was to mathematically model the effects of the MMR vaccinations in a hypothetical school through multiple compartment and spatial models. These models were based on each disease individually with their respective vaccine effectiveness and disease infection rates. These models demonstrated the limits of herd immunity. Herd immunity occurs when a high enough percentage of the population is immune or vaccinated to …

Computational Model Of A Left Ventricle: Showing The Effects Of Inertia On Cardiac Dyssynchrony, Andrew Mcnally, Matthew Korpela, Erin Lamke, Matthew Hudson

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In an effort to research heart failure, a leading cause of death in the industrialized world, this research team has developed a segmented lumped parameter model of the left ventricle. The computations model developed focuses on dyssynchrony, a heart condition where some regions of the heart vary significantly in properties like internal muscle resistance, mass, or elastance. Inertial effects are often assumed as negligible by cardiovascular models. One primary function of this model is to investigate inertial effects as they relate to mechanical cardiac dyssynchrony. An added dimension of this analysis is to observe the thermodynamics of the cardiac cycle …

Kcnj10 Determines The Expression Of The Apical Na-Cl Cotransporter (Ncc) In The Early Distal Convoluted Tubule (Dct1), Chengbiao Zhang, Lijun Wang, Junhui Zhang, Xiao-Tong Su, Dao-Hong Lin, Ute I. Scholl, Gerhard Giebisch, Richard P. Lifton, Wen-Hui Wang

NYMC Faculty Publications

The renal phenotype induced by loss-of-function mutations of inwardly rectifying potassium channel (Kir), Kcnj10 (Kir4.1), includes salt wasting, hypomagnesemia, metabolic alkalosis and hypokalemia. However, the mechanism by which Kir.4.1 mutations cause the tubulopathy is not completely understood. Here we demonstrate that Kcnj10 is a main contributor to the basolateral K conductance in the early distal convoluted tubule (DCT1) and determines the expression of the apical Na-Cl cotransporter (NCC) in the DCT. Immunostaining demonstrated Kcnj10 and Kcnj16 were expressed in the basolateral membrane of DCT, and patch-clamp studies detected a 40-pS K channel in the basolateral membrane of the DCT1 of …

Human Premotor Areas Parse Sequences Into Their Spatial And Temporal Features., Katja Kornysheva, Jörn Diedrichsen

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Skilled performance is characterized by precise and flexible control of movement sequences in space and time. Recent theories suggest that integrated spatio-temporal trajectories are generated by intrinsic dynamics of motor and premotor networks. This contrasts with behavioural advantages that emerge when a trained spatial or temporal feature of sequences is transferred to a new spatio-temporal combination arguing for independent neural representations of these sequence features. We used a new fMRI pattern classification approach to identify brain regions with independent vs integrated representations. A distinct regional dissociation within motor areas was revealed: whereas only the contralateral primary motor cortex exhibited unique …

Quantification Of Left Atrial Strain And Strain Rate Using Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Myocardial Feature Tracking: A Feasibility Study., Johannes Tammo Kowallick, Shelby Kutty, Frank Edelmann, Amedeo Chiribiri, Adriana Villa, Michael Steinmetz, Jan Martin Sohns, Wieland Staab, Nuno Bettencourt, Christina Unterberg-Buchwald, Gerd Hasenfuß, Joachim Lotz, Andreas Schuster

Journal Articles: Cardiology

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance myocardial feature tracking (CMR-FT) is a quantitative technique tracking tissue voxel motion on standard steady-state free precession (SSFP) cine images to assess ventricular myocardial deformation. The importance of left atrial (LA) deformation assessment is increasingly recognized and can be assessed with echocardiographic speckle tracking. However atrial deformation quantification has never previously been demonstrated with CMR. We sought to determine the feasibility and reproducibility of CMR-FT for quantitative derivation of LA strain and strain rate (SR) myocardial mechanics.

METHODS: 10 healthy volunteers, 10 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and 10 patients with heart failure and preserved ejection …

Placental Fkbp5 Genetic And Epigenetic Variation Is Associated With Infant Neurobehavioral Outcomes In The Richs Cohort, Alison G. Paquette, Barry M. Lester, Devin C. Koestler, Corina Lesseur, David A. Armstrong, Carmen J. Marsit

Dartmouth Scholarship

Adverse maternal environments can lead to increased fetal exposure to maternal cortisol, which can cause infant neurobehavioral deficits. The placenta regulates fetal cortisol exposure and response, and placental DNA methylation can influence this function. FK506 binding protein (FKBP5) is a negative regulator of cortisol response, FKBP5 methylation has been linked to brain morphology and mental disorder risk, and genetic variation of FKBP5 was associated with post-traumatic stress disorder in adults. We hypothesized that placental FKBP5 methylation and genetic variation contribute to gene expression control, and are associated with infant neurodevelopmental outcomes assessed using the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Network …

Co-Infection With Hpv Types From The Same Species Provides Natural Cross-Protection From Progression To Cervical Cancer, Rafal S. Sobota, Doreen Ramogola-Masire, Scott M. Williams, Nicola M. Zetola

Dartmouth Scholarship

The worldwide administration of bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines has resulted in cross-protection against non-vaccine HPV types. Infection with multiple HPV types may offer similar cross-protection in the natural setting. We hypothesized that infections with two or more HPV types from the same species, and independently, infections with two or more HPV types from different species, associate with protection from high-grade lesions.

Who Cares? Caregiver Well-Being In Europe, Leah Ruppanner, Georgiana Bostean

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

This paper analyzes a multi-national sample comparing self-reported well-being of those who provide dependent care to that of non-caregivers. We pair individual-level data from the 2004 European Social Survey (ESS) for respondents in 22 nations (n=41,000+) with country-level measures of attitudinal support for co-residential familial caregiving (2007 Eurobarometer), old age and family public transfers (OECD Social Expenditures Database, 2014) and economic development (GDP). Using multi-level modeling, we examine the association between country-level co-residential familial attitudes and public spending and individual-level caregiver well-being, comparing effects by gender. We find that: (1) caregiving is differentially associated with well-being for men and women; …

Genetic Variants In The Sorl1 Gene Are Associated With Age At Onset Of Alzheimer Disease: A Survival Analysis, Ke-Sheng Wang, Xuefeng Liu, Liang Wang, David Briones, Chun Xu

Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications

Few studies focused on the association of SORL1 with the age at onset (AAO) of Alzheimer disease (AD). This study investigated the association of 43 SNPs in SORL1 with the AAO of AD by using the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model in SAS version 9.2 and linear regression model in PLINK software (791 AD patients and 782 controls). Both logrank test and Cox regression model showed that five SNPs (rs1784934, rs676759, rs560573, rs593769, and rs11218313) were associated with the AAO of AD in the male sample, while one SNP (rs17125558) was associated with the AAO of …

What's Happening: August 11, 2014, Maine Medical Center

What's Happening

No abstract provided.

Epoxide-Mediated Differential Packaging Of Cif And Other Virulence Factors Into Outer Membrane Vesicles, A. E. Ballok, L. M. Filkins, J.. M. Bomberger, B. A. Stanton, George A. O'Toole

Dartmouth Scholarship

Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) that contain a number of secreted bacterial proteins, including phospholipases, alkaline phosphatase, and the CFTR inhibitory factor (Cif). Previously, Cif, an epoxide hydrolase, was shown to be regulated at the transcriptional level by epoxides, which serve as ligands of the repressor, CifR. Here, we tested whether epoxides have an effect on Cif levels in OMVs. We showed that growth of P. aeruginosa in the presence of specific epoxi

Acute Demyelinating Polyneuropathy After Lung Transplantation: Guillain-Barré Syndrome Or Tacrolimus Toxicity?, Nirmal S. Sharma, Keith M. Wille, Charles W. Hoopes, Enrique Diaz-Guzman

Surgery Faculty Publications

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) has been described after solid organ and bone marrow transplantation mostly due to viral infections and possibly calcineurin inhibitors. Incidence after bone marrow transplant is 0.3-0.7%, though incidence in other transplants is not well known. We present the first description of tacrolimus associated GBS in lung transplant recipients in the English language literature. The pathophysiology of tacrolimus-induced polyneuropathy is not known, but some have hypothesized that tacrolimus induces an inflammatory phenomenon by differential effects on T cell subsets. Diagnosis of association may be challenging and requires high index of suspicion. The optimal treatment of GBS-associated with tacrolimus …

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - August 10, 2014, Lindsey Lyle

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the August 10, 2014 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine's newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include:

• August Med School Café - Cerebral Aneurysms: Prevention and Management
• USA Physicians Named 'Top Doctors'
• COM Class of 2018 Introduced to Medical School During Orientation
• Mark Your Calendar: Lions Club Run for Sight

Six1 Overexpression Promotes Epithelial– Mesenchymal Transition And Malignant Progression In Models Of Cervical And Colon Cancer, Hanwen Xu

Theses and Dissertations

Inappropriate expression of embryonic genes, particularly homeodomain transcription factors, contributes to tumorigenesis and tumor progression. The overexpression of Six1, a member of the Six family of homeodomain transcription factors, has been found in various human cancers, and is associated with tumor progression and metastasis. We have previously determined that the expression of SIX1 mRNA increased during in vitro progression of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16)- immortalized human keratinocytes (HKc/HPV16) toward a differentiation-resistant (HKc/DR) phenotype. However, the mechanism(s) of how Six1 promotes HPV16- mediated transformation remain unknown. In this study, we explored the role of Six1 at early stages and late …

Making The Threat Of Huntington’S Disease ‘Small Stuff', Kenneth P. Serbin

At Risk for Huntington's Disease

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of The Response And Repair Of Replication, Kathryn Brady

Theses and Dissertations

When a mammalian cell suffers DNA damage, DNA damage signaling responses and repair pathways are invoked. The phosphorylation of histone variant H2AX (γH2AX) and of replication protein A (pRPA) are two well-documented damage signals, marking double strand breaks and stalled replication forks, respectively. Inhibitors of thymidylate synthase (TS) and ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) are chemotherapeutics that act by depriving cells of the deoxynucleotides necessary for DNA synthesis, which causes damage. The response and repair pathways activated by these chemotherapeutics have been studied for a number of years but there remain unanswered questions as to how cancer cells perceive this damage, the …

Role Of Allergic Sensitization, Filaggrin Variants, And Dna, Ali H. Ziyab

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Allergic disorders, including eczema, asthma, and rhinitis, have emerged as a global public health concern due to their elevated prevalence and the associated clinical morbidity. Environmental, immunologic, and genetic factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic disorders. Allergic sensitization (representing deviated immune responses) and filaggrin gene (FLG) variants (leading to dysfunctional epidermal barrier) have shown to be common predisposing factors in the development of allergic disorders. However, there is a lack of knowledge on their joint effects on the development of single and multiple (coexistence) allergic disorders. More recently, epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, have emerged …

Role Of Chronic Inflammation On Liver Function During Cachexia Progression In The ApcMin/+ Mouse Model, Aditi Narsale

Theses and Dissertations

Cachexia is a multifactorial syndrome that manifests during the advanced stage of chronic diseases and is characterized by a progressive loss of body mass sustained by underlying inflammation. The ApcMin/+ mouse is an established model of cachexia that exhibits a gradual loss of body mass correlating with increasing tumor burden and plasma IL – 6 levels. Moreover it also mimics other secondary characteristics observed in cachectic patients like splenomegaly, elevated plasma endotoxin levels, gut barrier dysfunction, hypogonadism and an overall hypermetabolic state. Liver controls the energy metabolism in the body by regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, glycogen storage, filtration of …

The Impact Of Waist Circumference On Function And Physical Activity In Older Adults: Longitudinal Observational Data From The Osteoarthritis Initiative, John A. Batsis, Alicia J. Zbehlik, Laura K. Barre, Todd A. Mackenzie, Stephen J. Bartels

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: We previously demonstrated that BMI is associated with functional decline and reduced quality of life. While BMI in older adults is fraught with challenges, waist circumference (WC) is a marker of visceral adiposity that can also predict mortality. However, its association with function and quality of life in older adults is not well understood and hence we sought to examine the impact of WC on six-year outcomes.

Methods: We identified adults aged ≥60 years from the longitudinal Osteoarthritis Initiative and stratified the cohort into quartiles based on WC. Our primary outcome measures of function at six year follow-up included: …

Status Epilepticus Induced Alterations In Hippocampal Anatomy And Neurotransmission, Denise K. Grosenbaugh

Theses and Dissertations

Status epilepticus (SE) is a life-threatening neurologic emergency occurring when the brain is in an unrelenting state of seizure activity. Approximately 40% of people who encounter a single event of SE go on to develop epilepsy, characterized by spontaneously occurring seizures. While the exact mechanisms underlying seizure origin are not understood, at a fundamental level seizures initiate due to an imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission. We explored the impact of SE and the development of epilepsy on GABAA receptor mediated inhibitory neurotransmission and kainate receptor (KAR) mediated excitatory neurotransmission.

Stiripentol (STP), a positive allosteric modulator of the GABAA receptor, …

Understanding The Relationship Between Health Locus Of Control And God Locus Of Health Control And Health Behaviors In College Students Through Mediation Analysis, Joni Deann Marr

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Similar to the general population, college students have high rates of overweight/obesity and low rates of physical activity (PA) and healthy nutrition habits. Internal health locus of control (LOC) and religiosity/spirituality have been associated with positive health behaviors in various populations, but the mechanisms explaining these associations are still unclear. Purpose: The goals of this study were to understand the relationship between both health LOC and God locus of health control (independent variables) and PA, fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) and dietary fat intake (dependent variables) of college students through mediation analysis. Self-efficacy, social support, congregational social support and …

The Development, Implementation, And Testing Of An Interactive Sexual Health Web-Based Application Intervention To Reduce Sexual Risk Behaviors Among College Students, Dawnyéa Dominique Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

College life is often regarded as a time for exploration and growth. One major area of exploration and growth for college students is sex and sexuality. Growth and exploration involves not only learning how to master these life situations, but also experiencing some negative consequences. Negative consequences for college students engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors often lead to a high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended pregnancies, emotional distress, and large healthcare costs. Given the high prevalence of risky sexual behavior among young adults and the highly negative consequences of risky sexual behavior for this population, it is critical …

Effects Of Hiv-1 Tat Protein On Structure, Function And Trafficking Of The Dopamine Transporter, Narasimha Murty Midde

Theses and Dissertations

The alarming rise in HIV-1 associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) is, at least in part, associated with HIV-1 viral proteins shed from infected macrophages, including transactivator of transcription (Tat) despite the success of anti-retroviral therapies. The dopamine (DA) system is greatly involved in the progression of HAND and is influenced by psychostimulants like cocaine. The DA transporter (DAT), a key regulator of neurocognitive functions, is a major molecular target for both Tat and cocaine. Our lab previously reported that exposure to Tat decreases DA uptake through allosteric regulation and alters cocaine binding sites in DAT.

In this research project the hypothesis …

A Multiple Imputation Approach For Semiparametric Cure Model With Interval Censored Data, Jie Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Interval censored survival data, where the exact event time is only known to lie in an observed time interval, is commonly encountered in practice. Such data analysis may be conducted under the setting where a fraction of patients can be considered as fully recovered and will not experience the event of interest in the future; while the other patients who did not recover totally will have the outcome of interest. We proposed a semiparametric estimation method for the proportional hazard mixture cure model, which is easy to implement and computationally efficient. A multiple imputation approach based on the asymptotic normal …

Longitudinal Evaluations Of Objectively Measured Physical Activity: Capturing The Full Spectrum Of Duration And Intensity, Amanda E. Paluch

Theses and Dissertations

Most physical activity research to date narrows its focus toward intensities and durations only encompassed in the Physical Activity Guidelines of moderate to vigorous intensity in at least 10 minute bouts (MVPA-10). Examining activity in this manner excludes light activity and shorter bouts, sometimes referred to as baseline physical activity (BPA) as it consists of the activity accumulated during daily life at durations and/or intensities below what is recommended. This dissertation provides an evaluation of the entire spectrum of physical activity (PA). Physical activity was studied in a unique way by looking at MVPA-10, then adding shorter bouts and light …

Association Of Serum Immunoglobulin G (Igg) Antibodies Against Periodontal Bacteria In Type 2 Diabetes And Pre-Diabetes And Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Deepika Shrestha

Theses and Dissertations

Periodontal disease is an inflammatory disease caused by polybacterial infection and inflammation plays key role that associates periodontal disease with different systemic diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The main objective of this study is to evaluate and explore the association of serum IgG antibodies in four distinct clusters that were formed empirically from species specific 19 periodontal antibody titers with T2DM and pre-diabetes adjusting for known confounders such as age, sex, race-ethnicity, income to poverty ratio, education, smoking and drinking alcohol, BMI, WC, physical activity, missing teeth, dentist visits and other nutritional factors.

From the first aim, we formed …

Enhancing Peripheral Opioid Analgesia: Development Of Viral Vector And Small Peptide Therapies, Sherika Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Chronic neuropathic pain often decreases quality of life, incurs high medical costs and is difficult to treat. Neuropathic pain can develop as a result of nerve damage induced by trauma or diseases such as diabetes and cancer. This type of pain is often resistant to standard treatments for chronic pain. Effective and safe treatments for persistent neuropathic pain remain an unmet therapeutic need. The primary objective of this work was to test the hypotheses that peripheral opioid analgesia can be enhanced using a herpes simplex virus vector gene therapy approach and peripheral opioid tolerance can be prevented by blocking opioid …

Women’S Hiv Prevention Study (Whips): A Proposal To Pilot Test An Hiv Intervention For Older African American Women Living With Hiv, Charsey Cherry

Theses and Dissertations

Despite improvements in treatments over the past 30 years, HIV /AIDS continues to be a major public health threat, particularly among sub-populations such as African American women. Midlife and older adults (those aged 40 years and over) are fast becoming a growing concern for HIV/AIDS infections, particularly older African American women. There has been limited research targeting midlife and older African American women living with HIV that aimed to reduce their transmission of HIV and promote them becoming prevention advocates. In response to this gap in the literature, a culturally tailored intervention guided by the IMB Model of behavior change …

Prediction Of Coronary Heart Disease Within The Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study Population, Jennifer Carol Gander

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of three studies that were conducted to better 1) Further validate a thoroughly tested Framingham Risk Score (FRS) on a unique cohort with comprehensive measures available, 2) Update and improve the predictability of the FRS through the addition of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) while resolving limitations in previous studies, and 3) Assess the predictability of non-exercise estimated CRF (e-CRF) and FRS on CHD. A manuscript was generated for each study utilizing data from the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study.

To validate the FRS, a multivariable Cox Proportional Hazard Model was used to determine the association between FRS …

Effects Of Language Predictability And Speech Rate On Speech Entrainment Performance In Healthy Individuals, Honey Isabel Hubbard

Theses and Dissertations

Speech entrainment, a paradigm in which a participant shadows the speech of an audiovisual model in real time, has been show to benefit individuals with non-fluent aphasia. A study examining the effects of language predictability and speech rate was conducted to understand factors that influence speech entrainment performance.

A recent study by Fridriksson and colleagues (2012) demonstrated that training with speech entrainment significantly increased the number of words participants with non-fluent aphasia were able to produce. Perhaps even more remarkably, these effects showed generalization. As a result, speech entrainment could be used to rehabilitate speech impairment in stroke. However, there …