Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Health Related Quality Of Life In Hispanic Versus Non-Hispanic White Congestive Heart Failure Patients And Predictors Of Healthcare Utilization, Stanley Scott Snowden

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a prevalent disease in the US. CHF diminishes health related quality of life (HRQOL) to those who have it. Evaluation of HRQOL between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White CHF patients were conducted. OBJECTIVES: To determine if there are mean-score differences in HRQOL between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White CHF patients using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ). To examine the relationship of HRQOL in these two groups with: (1) hospital admissions, (2) emergency department (ED) visits, (3) CHF clinic visits, and (4) a combination of all three within a 6-month period after completing the MLHFQ. …

Liberty Without Capacity: Why States Should Ban Adolescent Driving, Vivian E. Hamilton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Emotional Intelligence And Spiritual Well-Being, Audrey M. Beauvais, Julie G. Stewart, Susan M. Denisco

Nursing Faculty Publications

Understanding factors that influence spiritual well-being may improve nurses’ spiritual caregiving. This study examined relationships between emotional intelligence (EI) and spiritual well-being (SWB) in undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Using the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), relationships were found between managing emotion and spiritual well-being, and managing emotion and existential well-being. Implications for education and practice are discussed.

2014-2015 Lsu Health Sciences Center In New Orleans Catalog/Bulletin, Office Of The Registrar

Catalogs and Bulletins

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Environmental Enrichment On Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis In A Preclinical Mouse Model Of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (Fasd), Kenta Kajimoto

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Alcohol is a potent teratogen to the developing CNS, and moderate-heavy alcohol intake during pregnancy causes fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). These patients display CNS symptoms associated with developmental deficits, cognitive impairment and social abnormalities, with structural impairments in several brain regions. In this dissertation, we investigated the role of FASD in neurogenic functional deficits in the adult hippocampal dentate gyrus. The dentate gyrus is a subregion of the hippocampus that displays unique plasticity, in that new dentate granule neurons are continuously produced throughout life. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is thought to play key roles in …

Pregnancy Anxiety And Prenatal Cortisol Trajectories, Heidi S. Kane, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Laura M. Glynn, Calvin J. Hobel, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Pregnancy anxiety is a potent predictor of adverse birth and infant outcomes. The goal of the current study was to examine one potential mechanism whereby these effects may occur by testing associations between pregnancy anxiety and maternal salivary cortisol on 4 occasions during pregnancy in a sample of 448 women. Higher mean levels of pregnancy anxiety over the course of pregnancy predicted steeper increases in cortisol trajectories compared to lower pregnancy anxiety. Significant differences between cortisol trajectories emerged between 30 to 31 weeks of gestation. Results remained significant when adjusted for state anxiety and perceived stress. Neither changes in pregnancy …

The Unique Needs Of Older Adults Readmitted To The Hospital, Laila Hasan, Maharaj Singh, Ariba Khan, John Lung, Michael Malone, Anna Karst

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Approximately 20% of Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted within 30 days of discharge from the hospital, costing $17.4 billion per year.1 A number of studies have examined the factors associated with risk of hospital readmissions.1 To the best of the knowledge of the authors of the current study, no studies have examined the characteristics of individuals who are on their second hospital stay. Identification of these characteristics is important for quality care, better interventions, and economic reasons.2 This study was performed to examine the characteristics and vulnerabilities of individuals aged 65 and older who had a second hospital stay within 30 …

Psychophysical Auditory Filter Estimates Reveal Sharper Cochlear Tuning In Musicians, Gavin Bidelman, Jonathan Schug, Skyler Jennings, Shaum Bhagat

Faculty Publications

Musicianship confers enhancements to hearing at nearly all levels of the auditory system from periphery to percept. Musicians' superior psychophysical abilities are particularly evident in spectral discrimination and noise-degraded listening tasks, achieving higher perceptual sensitivity than their nonmusician peers. Greater spectral acuity implies that musicianship may increase auditory filter selectivity. This hypothesis was directly tested by measuring both forward- and simultaneous-masked psychophysical tuning curves. Sharper filter tuning (i.e., higher Q10) was observed in musicians compared to nonmusicians. Findings suggest musicians' pervasive listening benefits may be facilitated, in part, by superior spectral processing/decomposition as early as the auditory periphery.

The Regulator Of G Protein Signaling (Rgs) Domain Of G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 5 (Grk5) Regulates Plasma Membrane Localization And Function., Hua Xu, Xiaoshan Jiang, Ke Shen, Christopher C. Fischer, Philip B Wedegaertner

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

The G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) kinases (GRKs) phosphorylate activated GPCRs at the plasma membrane (PM). Here GRK5/GRK4 chimeras and point mutations in GRK5 identify a short sequence within the regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) domain in GRK5 that is critical for GRK5 PM localization. This region of the RGS domain of GRK5 coincides with a region of GRK6 and GRK1 shown to form a hydrophobic dimeric interface (HDI) in crystal structures. Coimmunoprecipitation (coIP) and acceptor photobleaching fluorescence resonance energy transfer assays show that expressed GRK5 self-associates in cells, whereas GRK5-M165E/F166E (GRK5-EE), containing hydrophilic mutations in the HDI region of …

Issue Of Adjustment To Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion Devices, Emily F. Piven, Ursel Lovett, Homer Nazeran, Julia Bader

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Introduction: Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion with an insulin pump provides best practice for prevention of tertiary complications of insulin-dependent diabetes. Purpose: The aim of the study was to identify self-care adjustment issues to pump technology via a computer-based survey. Method: Internal reliability of the Adaptation to Insulin Pumps Survey was 0.765 (Cronbach’s alpha). The validated survey was emailed to a convenience sample of 10,000 users. Logistic regression analysis was done on each binary variable, testing for Group effect, while controlling for age and gender. Results: There were 959 responders. Seventeen survey statements relating to barriers, intrusiveness, attitude, and adaptations had …

Death Of A Child In The Emergency Department., American Academy Of Pediatrics Committee On Pediatric Emergency Medicine, American College Of Emergency Physicians Pediatric Emergency Medicine Committee, Emergency Nurses Association Pediatric Committee, Gregory P. Conners

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

The American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians, and Emergency Nurses Association have collaborated to identify practices and principles to guide the care of children, families, and staff in the challenging and uncommon event of the death of a child in the emergency department in this policy statement and in an accompanying technical report.

Epidemic Surveillance Using An Electronic Medical Record: An Empiric Approach To Performance Improvement, Hongzhang Zheng, Holly Gaff, Gary Smith, Sylvain Delisle

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

BACKGROUNDS: Electronic medical records (EMR) form a rich repository of information that could benefit public health. We asked how structured and free-text narrative EMR data should be combined to improve epidemic surveillance for acute respiratory infections (ARI).

METHODS: Eight previously characterized ARI case detection algorithms (CDA) were applied to historical EMR entries to create authentic time series of daily ARI case counts (background). An epidemic model simulated influenza cases (injection). From the time of the injection, cluster-detection statistics were applied daily on paired background+injection (combined) and background-only time series. This cycle was then repeated with the injection shifted to each …

Interactions Of Various Bacterial Populations With Chemical And Physical Factors From Seasonal Inputs And Outputs Of Retention Ponds, Felicia A. Krelwitz

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Retention ponds at Governors State University play an important role in collecting and treating storm water runoff before leaving campus and entering Thorn Creek. Many chemical and physical factors influence the diversity of bacterial populations in freshwater ecosystems. The main objective of this study was to compare the interactions of various bacterial populations with chemical and physical factors from seasonal inputs and outputs of Governors State University retention ponds before being discharged into Thorn Creek. The retention ponds studied include the Café Settling pond, Café pond and Beaver pond. Water and sediment were collected from inputs and outputs every other …

A New Reinforced Fibrin Collagen Glycosaminoglycan Material To Resist Tissue Contraction In Heart Valves, Claire Brougham, Gerard Cooney, Stefan Jockenhoevel, Thomas Flanagan, Fergal O'Brien

Conference Papers

A crosslinked, multicomponent scaffold of collagen, GAG and fibrin has been characterised for heart valve applications. Fibrin gels reinforced with a 0.75% collagen, 0.044% GAG scaffolds can resist VSMC induced contraction significantly more than fibrin-only gels, while allowing cell proliferation and maintaining excellent cell viability. This improvement in structural integrity may facilitate the use of fibrin based materials for heart valve tissue engineering.

Use Of System Dynamics Modeling To Explicate The Theory-Of-Change Of A Social Marketing Innovation, Brian J. Biroscak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community coalitions are an important part of the public health milieu and thus subject to many of the same external pressures as public health organizations--including changes in required strategic orientation. Many funding agencies have shifted their funding agenda from program development to policy change. Thus, the Florida Prevention Research Center created the Community-Based Prevention Marketing for Policy Development framework to teach community coalitions how to apply social marketing to policy change. The dissertation research reported here was designed to explicate the framework's theory-of-change. The research question was: "What are the linkages and connections between CBPM inputs, activities, immediate outcomes, intermediate …

Her-Storicizing Baldness: Situating Women's Experiences With Baldness From Skin And Hair Disorders, Kasie Holmes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A general goal to my study was to promote an inclusive approach to baldness by sharing and centering women's experiences with baldness from skin and hair conditions, such as autoimmune alopecia areata conditions and monilethrix. Specifically, a main goal of my study was to her-storicize the lived experiences of women who are bald from skin and hair conditions by examining medical and cultural discourses surrounding these conditions, femininity, and female baldness. Additionally, my study considers strategies of accommodation and resistance that bald women perform in a given context, space, or time. For instance, I consider the ways participants manage their …

Medical Pluralism In A Neoliberal State: Health And Deservingness In Southern Belize, Douglas Carl Reeser

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography explores the varied contours of a national health care system and how it is used in conjunction with traditional forms of health care in Toledo District, Belize, focused on the largest town of Punta Gorda (P.G.), In a medically plural environment, a variety of health care options are used based on a wide range of social, economic, and structural factors that shape people's choices and decisions. The convenience of and experience with low-cost home- and self-care options make these the most common first choice during an illness event in P.G., however a deeper exploration of health behavior reveals …

Quality Of Life In Patients With Thalassemia Major In A Developing Country., Sarah H. Siddiqui, Ruba Ishtiaq, Faiza Sajid, Raihan Sajid

Department of Medicine

Objective: To determine the problems faced by thalassemic patients in their personal, psychological and social life.

Study Design: A cross-sectional multi-centre survey.

Place and Duration of Study: Karachi, Lahore and Quetta Centres of Fatimid Foundation, from October 2009 to October 2010.

Methodology: An indigenously developed Qualifty of Life (QoL) questionnaire modified from SF-36 questionnaire was administered to 101 transfusion dependent subjects suffering from thalassemia major. Variables were analyzed using SPSS version 15 for descriptive statistics.

Results: The mean age of the subjects was 10.5 years ranging from 6 - 21 years. Less than one third of the patients felt that …

Time Course Of Cocaine-Induced Behavioral And Neurochemical Plasticity, Victoria Lutgen, Linghai Kong, Kristen S. Kau, Aric Madayag, John Mantsch, David A. Baker

Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Factors that result in augmented reinstatement, including increased withdrawal period duration and high levels of cocaine consumption, may provide insight into relapse vulnerability. The neural basis of augmented reinstatement may arise from more pronounced changes in plasticity required for reinstatement and/or the emergence of plasticity expressed only during a specific withdrawal period or under specific intake conditions. In this study, we examined the impact of withdrawal period duration and cocaine intake on the magnitude of cocaine-primed reinstatement and extracellular glutamate in the nucleus accumbens, which has been shown to be required for cocaine-primed reinstatement. Rats were assigned to self-administer under …

Commitment, Forgiveness, And Relationship Self-Regulation: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, Heather Michele Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Relationship self-regulation (RSR) refers to the “work”, or effort and strategies, that partners exert over time to maintain the health of their romantic relationships. Most research focuses on self-reports of RSR, however, several studies suggest that partner perceptions are more influential in relationship appraisal. In addition, most RSR research has focused not on partners' attitudes and virtues like commitment, but instead on personality traits, emotional health, and communication skills. In this study, we examine the relationship between partners' levels of commitment and forgiveness within their relationships, and how they perceive their partner's use of RSR behaviors. Using paired data from …

Treatment Outcomes For Mood Disorders With Concurrent Partner Relational Distress: A Comparison By Treatment Modality And Profession, Holly Pack

Theses and Dissertations

Mood disorders are often linked with concurrent partner relational distress. The present study compared the cost effectiveness of treating mood disorder alone versus when the condition is comorbid with partner relational distress. Cigna, a leading health insurance management company in the US, provided outpatient data. Participants included patients with solely a mood disorder diagnosis (n = 72,712) and those with both a mood disorder and a comorbid partner relational distress diagnosis (n = 113, including 69 females and 44 males). These participants were treated in outpatient settings throughout the US. These numbers are surprisingly low considering the extensive literature showing …

Definition Of Periprosthetic Joint Infection, Javad Parvizi, Md, Frcs, Thorsten Gehrke, Md

Rothman Institute Papers

Diagnosis of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) remains challenging as no “gold standard” for diagnosis exists [3]. The challenge is then what test(s) or criterion (ia) can be used to define PJI. In an effort to standardize the definition of PJI, Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) convened a workgroup in 2011 to issue diagnostic criteria for PJI [1]. The MSIS definition of PJI consists of two major criteria, when the presence of either criterion would indicate PJI, and six minor criteria, when the presence of four or more would indicate PJI.

Evaluation Of Ct Images Created Using A New Metal Artifact Reduction Reconstruction Algorithm For Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning, John Niemkiewicz, Andrew G. Palmiotti, Marc S. Miner, Lee E. Stunja, Jenelle Bergene

Department of Radiation Oncology

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Life Without Parole Sentences For The Intellectually Disabled: A Violation Of The Eighth Amendment, Nick Bonham

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note argues that mandatory life without parole (LWOP) sentences for intellectually disabled individuals violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It contends that such sentences fail to account for the diminished culpability and rehabilitative potential of the intellectually disabled, rendering them disproportionate and unconstitutional. The analysis builds on precedents like Atkins v. Virginia, Graham v. Florida, and Miller v. Alabama, which established protections for groups with reduced moral responsibility. The note advocates for individualized sentencing to align with evolving standards of decency and constitutional safeguards.

Division Of Rheumatology New Frontiers, Debra Bergman, John Keenan

New Frontiers

Table of Contents

• Nebraska Arthritis Outcomes Research Center puts UNMC on cutting edge
• Medical education: A fresh perspective
• The reader
• Lupus study becomes international affair
• The puzzle of ‘the loss of self-tolerance’
• An icon in rheumatology
• Registry, research offer insights into RA risk factors
• On the RISE
• RAIN man
• A top-tier team player
• Faculty Publications & Research Awards

Nurse Practice Environment And Peripheral Intravenous Infiltrations In A Pediatric Hospital On The Magnet Journey, Jannise Topacio Baclig Phd

Dissertations

Background: Characteristics such as quality patient care, excellence in nursing, and innovations in professional nursing practice shape a health care organization into a "magnet" organization. Magnet designation is a key aspect of nursing, which places pressure on healthcare organizations to commit to nursing excellence and patient care should they take the challenge of attaining this prestige. With growing focus on quality and safety, nursing needs to remain diligent in ensuring a healthy work environment that not only supports the profession, but also sustains exceptional patient outcomes. The purpose of this research study was to describe the relationship of the nurse …

Effect Of Cueing On Learning Transfer Among Health Profession Students Engaged In A Case-Based Analogical Reasoning Exercise, Timothy Speicher, Alexandra Bell, Marijke Kehrhahn, Douglas Casa

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cueing on learning transfer among pre-professional, health profession undergraduates engaged in a case-based analogical reasoning exercise. Methods: The study design was a quasi-experimental, randomized post-test design. Volunteer undergraduate pre-professional health profession students (N = 192) were assigned to either an experimental group, which received two written clinical cases with cues or the control, which received the same cases, but no cues. After participants read the cases, a target case was provided for solution based on the previous cases. Target case solutions were scored by content experts for extent …

Health Promotion Strategies Derived From A Metropolitan Police Weight Loss Competition With Weight Loss Comparisons By Gender And Bmi Category, Robert Boyce, Tyler Willett, Allen Mullins, Glenn Jones, Randy Cottrell

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Background: Weight management is critical in police work. It can have both legal and life-saving implications as it is linked to the health and physical readiness of the officers. A weight loss competition is one way to address weight management in police work. Among the factors to consider is gender impact, as females forge forward within a male environment. Also, assessing weight loss among obesity categories is essential for designing effective programing. Purpose: To compare mass changes among body mass index (BMI) categories and between genders at biweekly weigh-ins during a 12-week competition with recommendations for professionals. Methods: Before the …

A Comparison Of Two Formulas Of Topical Menthol On Vascular Responses And Perceived Intensity Prior To And Following A Bout Of Maximum Voluntary Muscular Contractions (Mvmcs), Robert V. Topp, Alexander V. Ng, Alyson Cybulski, Katalin W. Skelton, Paula E. Papanek

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this study was to compare the vascular responses in the brachial artery and perceived intensity of two different formulas of topical menthol gels prior to and following a bout of maximum voluntary muscular contractions (MVMCs).

18 adults completed the same protocol on different days using blinded topical menthol gels (Old Formula and New Formula). Heart rate, brachial artery blood flow (ml/min), vessel diameter and reported intensity of sensation were measured at baseline (T1), at 5 min after application of the gel to the upper arm (T2), and immediately following five MVMCs hand grips (T3).

The New Formula …

Shifting Of Vitamin D Deficiency To Hypervitaminosis And Toxicity, Aysha Habib, Hafsa Majid, Romaina Iqbal

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

No abstract provided.