Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Brief Report: Hiv-1 Gp120 T-Cell Responses Correspond To Infection Outcomes In The Global Iprex Chemoprophylaxis Trial., Peter J Kuebler, Brian I Shaw, Kaitlyn S Leadabrand, Megha L Mehrotra, Robert M Grant, Esper G Kallás, Douglas F Nixon

Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine Faculty Publications

Association of HIV-1-specific T-cell responses to infection risk in seronegative individuals is controversial. We quantified and phenotypically characterized gp120-specific T-cell responses in HIV-1 exposed, but uninfected subjects enrolled in the global Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Initiative (iPrEx) chemoprophylaxis trial. IFNγ ELISpot responses were detected in 24% of subjects irrespective of infection outcome. HIV-1 gp120 envelope-specific T-cell responses were more uniformly IFN-γ+TNF-α+Mip-1β+ in persistently seronegative subjects relative to subjects who later seroconverted (median frequency of 76.5% and 66.5%, respectively). IFNγ responses targeted the V2 loop for subjects who remained seronegative. HIV-1 gp120 envelope V2 loop-specific CD8 T-cell responses may help to protect against …

Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Colorectal Cancer And Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: The Links., Abdo Jurjus, Assad Eid, Sahar Al Kattar, Marie Noel Zeenny, Alice Gerges-Geagea, Rosalyn A. Jurjus, +10 Additional Authors

Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications

The co-occurrence of the three disease entities, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colorectal cancer (CRC), type 2diabetes mellitus (T2DM) along with inflammation and dismicrobism has been frequently reported. Some authors have even suggested that dysbiosis could be the link through a molecular crosstalk of multiple inflammatory loops including TGFβ, NFKB, TNFα and ROS among others. This review focuses on the inflammatory process along with the role of microbiota in the pathophysiology of the three diseases. The etiology of IBD is multifactorial, and like CRC and T2DM, it is associated with a widespread and sustained GI inflammation and dismicrobism, whereby an array …

Urethral Solitary Fibrous Tumor: A Rare Pathologic Diagnosis Of A Periurethral Mass, Gaby N. Moawad, Elias Abi Khalil, Cheryl Silverbrook, Stephanie Barak, Alice Semerjian, Michael Phillips

Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Publications

Solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) may occur at any site in the body. SFTs can only be conclusively diagnosed based on histopathologic and immunohistochemical characteristics of the tumor. The presence of SFTs in the abdomen and pelvis is extremely rare. To our knowledge no cases of urethral solitary fibrous tumor in the literature have been reported so far. We present a case of a solitary fibrous tumor arising from the urethra in a twenty-three-year-old female presenting with vaginal mass.

Flibanserin Approval: Facts Or Feelings?, James A. Simon, Irwin Goldstein, Noel Kim, Murray Freedman, Sharon Parish

Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Is Aerosalization A Problem With Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii In Thailand Hospital?, Anucha Apisarnthanarak, Ploenpit Tantajina, Pornpimol Laovachirasuwan, David J. Weber, Nalini Singh

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

We evaluated the presence of air contamination with carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) in medical units where patients with CRAB pneumonia were hospitalized, and in Obstetrics and Gynecology units with open-air ventilation in-patient settings. There was no evidence of CRAB contamination in either of the units.

Targeted Echocardiographic Screening For Latent Rheumatic Heart Disease In Northern Uganda: Evaluating Familial Risk Following Identification Of An Index Case., Twalib Aliku, Craig Sable, Amy Scheel, Alison Tompsett, Peter Lwabi, Emmy Okello, Robert Mccarter, Marshall Summar, Andrea Beaton

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic screening for detection of latent RHD has shown potential as a strategy to decrease the burden of disease. However, further research is needed to determine optimal implementation strategies. RHD results from a complex interplay between environment and host susceptibility. Family members share both and relatives of children with latent RHD may represent a high-risk group. The objective of this study was to use echocardiographic family screening to determine the relative risk of RHD among first-degree relatives of children with latent RHD compared to the risk in first-degree relatives of healthy peers.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Previous school-based screening data were …

Early Warning Signs Of Suicide In Service Members Who Engage In Unauthorized Acts Of Violence, Mario Scalora, Denise Bulling, Mark Dekraai, Keith B. Senholzi, Olga G. Shechter

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Despite the importance of both suicide and violence prevention in the military, little is known about how these behaviors relate to one another. The current research sought to elucidate the relationship between early warning signs for suicide and violence in a military population. This study included a review of 200 military law enforcement records maintained by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and identification of early warning signs that may be observable to military law enforcement personnel. Statistical analyses tested for differences in warning signs between cases of suicide, violence, or both suicide and violence. The suicide-only and suicide/violence groups …

A Generalized-Growth Model To Characterize The Early Ascending Phase Of Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Cecile Viboud, Lone Simonsen, Gerardo Chowell

Global Health Faculty Publications

Background

A better characterization of the early growth dynamics of an epidemic is needed to dissect the important drivers of disease transmission, refine existing transmission models, and improve disease forecasts.

Materials and methods

We introduce a 2-parameter generalized-growth model to characterize the ascending phase of an outbreak and capture epidemic profiles ranging from sub-exponential to exponential growth. We test the model against empirical outbreak data representing a variety of viral pathogens in historic and contemporary populations, and provide simulations highlighting the importance of sub-exponential growth for forecasting purposes.

Results

We applied the generalized-growth model to 20 infectious disease outbreaks representing …

Bullying: How Counselors Can Intervene, Aida Midgett

Counselor Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

A brief intervention that establishes school counselors as implementation leaders trains students to intervene as “defender” when they observe instances of bullying.

Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Maria A. Hendrix

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic and often disabling condition that is seen in many patients seeking pain management. The condition leaves patients in excruciating pain that is disproportionate to the inciting injury. In addition, patients with this pain disorder experience abnormal sensations such as cold and heat allodynia, hyperalgesia, edema, abnormal sudomotor activity and trophic changes (D. Lee et al., 2015). CRPS disproportionally affects four times as many women as men (Alexander, Peterlin, Perreault, Grothusen, & Schwartzman, 2012). There are two types of CRPS: type 1, often referred to as reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), is not evident …

Common Chronic Conditions Do Not Affect Performance Of Cell Cycle Arrest Biomarkers For Risk Stratification Of Acute Kidney Injury, Michael Heung, Luis Ortega, Lakhmir S. Chawla, Richard G. Wunderink, Wesley H. Self, Jay Koyner, Jing Shi, John A. Kellum

Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Faculty Publications

Background Identification of acute kidney injury (AKI) can be challenging in patients with underlying chronic disease, and biomarkers often perform poorly in this population. In this study we examined the performance characteristics of the novel biomarker panel of urinary tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 (TIMP2) and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 7 ([IGFBP7]) in patients with a variety of comorbid conditions.

Methods We analyzed data from two multicenter studies of critically ill patients in which [TIMP2]•[IGFBP7] was validated for prediction of Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Stage 2 or 3 AKI within 12 h. We constructed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves …

Himmelfarb Headlines - May/June 2016, George Washington University, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Himmelfarb Headlines (2009 - present)

News and information about Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library of interest to users. Includes articles on the new Serials and Systems Librarian, the annual Himmelfarb Art Show, and new PlumX Metrics.

Theaflavin-3, 3'-Digallate Induces Apoptosis And G2 Cell Cycle Arrest Through The Akt/Mdm2/P53 Pathway In Cisplatin-Resistant Ovarian Cancer A2780/Cp70 Cells, Youying Tu, Eunhye Kim, Ying Gao, Gary O. Rankin, Bo Li, Yi Charlie Chen

Pharmacology, Physiology and Toxicology

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer among women worldwide. Adverse side effects and acquired resistance to conventional platinum based chemotherapy are major impediments in ovarian cancer treatment, and drive the development of more selective anticancer drugs that target cancer-specific defects. In this study, theaflavin-3, 3'-digallate (TF3), the major theaflavin monomer in black tea, exhibited a potent growth inhibitory effect on the cisplatinresistant ovarian cancer A2780/CP70 cells (IC50, 23.81 μM), and was less cytotoxic to a normal ovarian IOSE‑364 cells (IC50, 59.58 μM) than to the cancer cells. Flow cytometry analysis indicated that TF3 induced preferential apoptosis and G2 …

Mitigation Of Nitrogen Mustard Mediated Skin Injury By A Novel Indomethacin Bifunctional Prodrug, Gabriella M. Composto, Jeffrey D. Laskin, Debra L. Laskin, Donald R. Gerecke, Robert P. Casillas, Ned D. Heindel, Laurie B. Joseph, Diane E. Heck

NYMC Faculty Publications

Nitrogen mustard (NM) is a bifunctional alkylating agent that is highly reactive in the skin causing extensive tissue damage and blistering. In the present studies, a modified cutaneous murine patch model was developed to characterize NM-induced injury and to evaluate the efficacy of an indomethacin pro-drug in mitigating toxicity. NM (20μmol) or vehicle control was applied onto 6mm glass microfiber filters affixed to the shaved dorsal skin of CD-1 mice for 6min. This resulted in absorption of approximately 4μmol of NM. NM caused localized skin damage within 1 d, progressing to an eschar within 2-3 d, followed by wound healing …

Linking Inflammation And Parkinson Disease: Hypochlorous Acid Generates Parkinsonian Poisons, Thomas M. Jeitner, Mike Kalogiannis, Boris F. Krasnikov, Irving Gomolin, Morgan R. Peltier, Graham R. Moran

NYMC Faculty Publications

Inflammation is a common feature of Parkinson Disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is a reactive oxygen species formed by neutrophils and other myeloperoxidase-containing cells during inflammation. HOCl chlorinates the amine and catechol moieties of dopamine to produce chlorinated derivatives collectively termed chlorodopamine. Here, we report that chlorodopamine is toxic to dopaminergic neurons both in vivo and in vitro Intrastriatal administration of 90 nmol chlorodopamine to mice resulted in loss of dopaminergic neurons from the substantia nigra and decreased ambulation-results that were comparable to those produced by the same dose of the parkinsonian poison, 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+). Chlorodopamine was …

Female-Favorable Attenuation Of Coronary Myogenic Constriction Via Reciprocal Activations Of Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids And Nitric Oxide, Ghezal Froogh, Jun Qin, Sharath Kandhi, Yicong Le, Houli Jiang, Meng Luo, Dong Sun, An Huang

NYMC Faculty Publications

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are metabolites of arachidonic acid via CYP/epoxygenases, which are catabolized by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) and known to possess cardioprotective properties. To date, the role of sEH in the modulation of pressure-induced myogenic response/constriction in coronary arteries, an important regulatory mechanism in the coronary circulation, and the issue as to whether the disruption of the sEH gene affects the myogenic response sex differentially have never been addressed. To this end, experiments were conducted on male (M) and female (F) wild-type (WT) and sEH-knockout (KO) mice. Pressure-diameter relationships were assessed in isolated and cannulated coronary arteries. All vessels …

Chhs June 2016 Icymi, Dr. John Bonaguro, Vashon S. Wells, Editor, Wku College Of Health & Human Services

College of Health & Human Services Publications

No abstract provided.

Consumer Health Newsletter May 2016, Margot Malachowski Mls

Library Newsletters

Baystate Consumer Health Library Newsletter

Development And Testing Of An Instrument To Measure Informatics Knowledge, Skills, And Attitudes Among Entry-Level Nursing Students, Diane K. Whitehead, Lynne E. Bryant, Jo Ann Kleier

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Informatics competencies in nursing education have long been and continue to be a concern. This article reports on the development and psychometric testing of the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes towards Nursing Informatics (KSANI) Scale to measure these constructs among entry-level nursing students. A measurement instrument was developed based on the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Institute informatics competencies for pre-licensure students (Cronenwett et al., 2007). Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 300 undergraduate nursing students attending the 2014 Florida Student Nurses Association’s annual convention. The data were subjected to Cronbach’s test to estimate the level …

La Folie Comme Aliénation Et Dissidence Chez Mongo Beti Et V.Y. Mudimbe, Florian Alix

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In Le pauvre Christ de Bomba and Entre les eaux, the narrator’s evolution seems a kind of madness, as Ambroise Kom defined it: a process of social exclusion based on alienation because of norms told by dominant discourses. Individuals can’t find their right place in front of “languages in madness” which rule the colonial thought and hide part of reality. Therefore novel becomes a space where individual madness appears as a dissidence against dominant discourses.

Acute Appendicitis: Transcript Profiling Of Blood Identifies Promising Biomarkers And Potential Underlying Processes, Lakhmir S. Chawla, Ian Toma, Danielle L. Davison, Khashayar Vaziri, Juliet Lee, Raymond Lucas, Michael G. Seneff, Aobhinn Nyhan, Timothy A. Mccaffrey

Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Faculty Publications

Background

The diagnosis of acute appendicitis can be surprisingly difficult without computed tomography, which carries significant radiation exposure. Circulating blood cells may carry informative changes in their RNA expression profile that would signal internal infection or inflammation of the appendix.

Methods

Genome-wide expression profiling was applied to whole blood RNA of acute appendicitis patients versus patients with other abdominal disorders, in order to identify biomarkers of appendicitis. From a large cohort of emergency patients, a discovery set of patients with surgically confirmed appendicitis, or abdominal pain from other causes, was identified. RNA from whole blood was profiled by microarrays, and …

Oligodendrocyte Ablation As A Tool To Study Demyelinating Diseases, Ahdeah Pajoohesh-Ganji, Robert H. Miller

Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune mediated neurodegenerative disease characterized by demyelination and oligodendrocyte (OL) loss in the central nervous system and accompanied by local inflammation and infiltration of peripheral immune cells. Although many risk factors and symptoms have been identified in MS, the pathology is complicated and the cause remains unknown. It is also unclear whether OL apoptosis precedes the inflammation or whether the local inflammation is the cause of OL death and demyelination. This review briefly discusses several models that have been developed to specifically ablate oligodendrocytes in an effort to separate the effects of demyelination from inflammation.

Association Between Quality Of Life And Anxiety, Depression, Physical Activity And Physical Performance In Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients., Yi-Nan Li, Bryan Shapiro, Jun Chul Kim, Min Zhang, Janos Porszasz, Rachelle Bross, Usama Feroze, Rajeev Upreti, David Martin, Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, Joel David Kopple

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: Maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients often have impaired quality of life (QOL), anxiety, depression, and reduced daily physical activity (DPA) and physical performance. The contributions of these latter factors to reduced QOL in MHD are poorly understood. We examined the association of QOL with anxiety, depression, DPA, and physical performance.

METHODS: Seventy-two relatively healthy adult MHD patients, vintage ≥6 months, and 39 normals of similar age range and gender distribution were studied. QOL was assessed using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life-Short Form (KDQOL-SF). Anxiety and depression were each evaluated with two questionnaires. DPA and physical performance were assessed with …

Effects Of Core And Non-Dominant Arm Strength Training On Drive Distance In Elite Golfers., Dong Jun Sung, Seung Jun Park, Sojung Kim, Moon Seok Kwon, Young-Tae Lim

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Background: Various training schemes have sought to improve golf-related athletic ability. In the golf swing motion, the muscle strengths of the core and arms play important roles, where a difference typically exists in the power of arm muscles between the dominant and non-dominant sides. The purposes of this study were to determine the effects of exercises strengthening the core and non-dominant arm muscles of elite golf players (handicap < 3) on the increase in drive distance, and to present a corresponding training scheme aimed at improving golf performance ability.

Generation Of Organ-Conditioned Media And Applications For Studying Organ-Specific Influences On Breast Cancer Metastatic Behavior, Matthew M. Piaseczny, Graciella M. Pio, Jenny E. Chu, Ying Xia, Kim Nguyen, David Goodale, Alison Allan

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Breast cancer preferentially metastasizes to the lymph node, bone, lung, brain and liver in breast cancer patients. Previous research efforts have focused on identifying factors inherent to breast cancer cells that are responsible for this observed metastatic pattern (termed organ tropism), however much less is known about factors present within specific organs that contribute to this process. This is in part because of a lack of in vitro model systems that accurately recapitulate the organ microenvironment. To address this, an ex vivo model system has been established that allows for the study of soluble factors present within different organ microenvironments. …

Associative Spike Timing-Dependent Potentiation Of The Basal Dendritic Excitatory Synapses In The Hippocampus In Vivo., Thomas K Fung, Clayton S Law, L Stan Leung

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

Spike timing-dependent plasticity in the hippocampus has rarely been studied in vivo. Using extracellular potential and current source density analysis in urethane-anesthetized adult rats, we studied synaptic plasticity at the basal dendritic excitatory synapse in CA1 after excitation-spike (ES) pairing; E was a weak basal dendritic excitation evoked by stratum oriens stimulation, and S was a population spike evoked by stratum radiatum apical dendritic excitation. We hypothesize that positive ES pairing-generating synaptic excitation before a spike-results in long-term potentiation (LTP) while negative ES pairing results in long-term depression (LTD). Pairing (50 pairs at 5 Hz) at ES intervals of -10 …

Insights Into Quasar Uv Spectra Using Unsupervised Clustering Analysis, A Tammour, S.C. Gallagher, M Daley, G.T. Richards

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Machine learning techniques can provide powerful tools to detect patterns in multidimensional parameter space. We use K-means - a simple yet powerful unsupervised clustering algorithm which picks out structure in unlabelled data - to study a sample of quasar UV spectra from the Quasar Catalog of the 10th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR10) of Paris et al. Detecting patterns in large data sets helps us gain insights into the physical conditions and processes giving rise to the observed properties of quasars. We use K-means to find clusters in the parameter space of the equivalent width (EW), …

Endostatin And Transglutaminase 2 Are Involved In Fibrosis Of The Aging Kidney, Chi Hua Lin, Jun Chen, Zhongtao Zhang, Gail V. Johnson, Arthur J. Cooper, Julianne Feola, Alexander Bank, Jonathan Shein, Heli J. Ruotsalainen, Taina A. Pihlajaniemi, Michael S. Goligorsky

NYMC Faculty Publications

Endostatin (EST), an antiangiogenic factor, is enriched in aging kidneys. EST is also an interactive partner of transglutaminase 2 (TG2), an enzyme that cross-links extracellular matrix proteins. Here we tested whether EST and TG2 play a role in the fibrosis of aging. In wild-type mice, aging kidneys exhibited a 2- to 4-fold increase in TG2 paralleled by increased cross-linked extracellular matrix proteins and fibrosis. Mice transgenic to express EST showed renal fibrosis at a young age. One-month delivery of EST via minipumps to young mice showed increased renal fibrosis that became more robust when superimposed on folic acid-induced nephropathy. Upregulated …

In Vitro Three Dimensional Culture Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma To Measure Prognosis And Responsiveness To Chemotherapeutic Agents., Brad Shrum, Penny Costello, Warren Mcdonald, Christopher Howlett, Marisa Donnelly, Vivian Mcalister

Data and Test Instruments

BACKGROUND:Understanding the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) informs plans for care. Tumor morphology and molecular markers have been correlated with outcomes. Three-dimensional tissue culture (3DTC) allows for direct in vitro measurement of a tumor's ability to grow and metastasize. The impact of chemotherapeutic agents, alone or in combinations, may also be measured.METHODS:All patients with a presumed diagnosis of HCC were eligible for this study including those undergoing resection, chemoembolization and transplantation. Concomitant diseases and outcomes were recorded. One mm(3) HCC specimens were grown in multiwell plates containing gel media, without and with chemotherapeutic agents.RESULTS:Tumors were sampled from 17 patients. Only …

Cutaneous Adverse Events In The Randomized, Double-Blind, Active-Comparator Decide Study Of Daclizumab High-Yield Process Versus Intramuscular Interferon Beta-1a In Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis., James G. Krueger, Leon Kircik, Firas Hougeir, Adam J. Friedman, Xiaojun You, + 6 More

Dermatology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Cutaneous adverse events (AEs) have been observed in clinical studies of daclizumab high-yield process (HYP) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Here, we report cutaneous AEs observed in the randomized, double-blind, active-comparator DECIDE study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT01064401).

METHODS: DECIDE was a randomized, double-blind, active-controlled phase 3 study of daclizumab HYP 150 mg subcutaneous every 4 weeks versus interferon (IFN) beta-1a 30 mcg intramuscular (IM) once weekly in RRMS. Treatment-emergent AEs were classified and recorded by investigators. Investigators also assessed the severity of each AE, and whether it met the criteria for a serious AE. Cutaneous AEs were defined as AEs …