Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Intrinsic Disorder In Proteins With Pathogenic Repeat Expansions, April L. Darling, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Intrinsically disordered proteins and proteins with intrinsically disordered regions have been shown to be highly prevalent in disease. Furthermore, disease-causing expansions of the regions containing tandem amino acid repeats often push repetitive proteins towards formation of irreversible aggregates. In fact, in disease-relevant proteins, the increased repeat length often positively correlates with the increased aggregation efficiency and the increased disease severity and penetrance, being negatively correlated with the age of disease onset. The major categories of repeat extensions involved in disease include poly-glutamine and poly-alanine homorepeats, which are often times located in the intrinsically disordered regions, as well as repeats in …

Osmolyte-Like Stabilizing Effects Of Low Gdnhcl Concentrations On D-Glucose/D-Galactose-Binding Protein, Alexander V. Fonin, Alexandra D. Golikova, Irina A. Zvereva, Sabato D’Auria, Maria Staiano, Vladimir N. Uversky, Irina M. Kuznetsova, Konstantin K. Turoverov

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The ability of d-glucose/d-galactose-binding protein (GGBP) to reversibly interact with its ligands, glucose and galactose, makes this protein an attractive candidate for sensing elements of glucose biosensors. This potential is largely responsible for attracting researchers to study the conformational properties of this protein. Previously, we showed that an increase in the fluorescence intensity of the fluorescent dye 6-bromoacetyl-2-dimetylaminonaphtalene (BADAN) is linked to the holo-form of the GGBP/H152C mutant in solutions containing sub-denaturing concentrations of guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl). It was hypothesized that low GdnHCl concentrations might lead to compaction of the protein, thereby facilitating ligand binding. In this work, we utilize …

Structural Homologies Between Phenformin, Lipitor And Gleevec Aim The Same Metabolic Oncotarget In Leukemia And Melanoma, Gábor Somlyai, T. Que Collins, Emmanuelle J. Meuillet, Patel Hitendra, Dominic P. D’Agostino, László G. Boros

Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology Faculty Publications

Phenformin’s recently demonstrated efficacy in melanoma and Gleevec’s demonstrated anti-proliferative action in chronic myeloid leukemia may lie within these drugs’ significant pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and structural homologies, which are reviewed herein. Gleevec’s success in turning a fatal leukemia into a manageable chronic disease has been trumpeted in medical, economic, political and social circles because it is considered the first successful targeted therapy. Investments have been immense in omics analyses and while in some cases they greatly helped the management of patients, in others targeted therapies failed to achieve clinically stable recurrence-free disease course or to substantially extend survival. Nevertheless protein kinase …

Understanding Preferences For Treatment After Hypothetical First-Time Anterior Shoulder Dislocation: Surveying An Online Panel Utilizing A Novel Shared Decision-Making Tool, Ben Streufert, Shelby D. Reed, Lori A. Orlando, Dean C. Taylor, Joel C. Huber, Richard C. Mather Iii

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Faculty Publications

Background: Although surgical management of a first-time anterior shoulder dislocation (FTASD) can reduce the risk of recurrent dislocation, other treatment characteristics, costs, and outcomes are important to patients considering treatment options. While patient preferences, such as those elicited by conjoint analysis, have been shown to be important in medical decision-making, the magnitudes or effects of patient preferences in treating an FTASD are unknown.

Purpose: To test a novel shared decision-making tool after sustained FTASD. Specifically measured were the following: (1) importance of aspects of operative versus nonoperative treatment, (2) respondents’ agreement with results generated by the tool, (3) willingness to …

What Are The Most Commonly Used Tools To Screen Depression In Hiv-Infected Gay And Bisexual Men?, Michael Isner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Gay and bisexual men infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) comprise a sizable, medically vulnerable population. Depression is the most commonly experienced mental health disorder affecting this group of people, lending itself to a host of risks associated with depression. As screening of depression in this population can be challenging, it is vital that clinicians have the best available tools and guidelines to detect depressive symptomology. This focused, comprehensive review of the literature examined current data describing the clinical instruments used to detect depressive symptoms in HIV-infected gay and bisexual men. The aim of this analysis was to seek out …

Defining A Person: The Nurse At Risk For Compassion Fatigue, Ellen Johnston

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis was to examine compassion fatigue in nurses through analysis of research studies conducted within the past five years in an effort to identify predisposing factors to the experience of compassion fatigue. Individual and institutional factors were identified as well as current strategies to assist with management of compassion fatigue. Findings indicated that being new to practice, having a trait negative affect, being younger in age, having a history of exposure to trauma and working in high emotionally stressful units predisposed individuals to the experience of compassion fatigue. Institutional factors included a lack of managerial support, …

Caring Minds, Uthealth Cizik School Of Nursing

Caring Minds

No abstract provided.

The Promise Of Systems Biology Approaches For Revealing Host Pathogen Interactions In Malaria., Meghan Zuck, Laura S Austin, Samuel A Danziger, John D Aitchison, Alexis Kaushansky

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Despite global eradication efforts over the past century, malaria remains a devastating public health burden, causing almost half a million deaths annually (WHO, 2016). A detailed understanding of the mechanisms that control malaria infection has been hindered by technical challenges of studying a complex parasite life cycle in multiple hosts. While many interventions targeting the parasite have been implemented, the complex biology of

Journey To Preventing Hospital Onset Clostridium Difficile Infection On Our Patients, Rowena Chin, Lynne Orlins

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

A Six Stage Operational Framework For Individualising Injury Risk Management In Sport, Mark Roe, Shane Malone, Catherine Blake, Kieran Collins, Conor Gissane, Fionn Buttner, John C. Murphy, Eamonn Delahunt

Articles

Managing injury risk is important for maximising athlete availability and performance. Although athletes are inherently predisposed to musculoskeletal injuries by participating in sports, etiology models have illustrated how susceptibility is influenced by repeat interactions between the athlete (i.e. intrinsic factors) and environmental stimuli (i.e. extrinsic factors). Such models also reveal that the likelihood of an injury emerging across time is related to the interconnectedness of multiple factors cumulating in a pattern of either positive (i.e. increased fitness) or negative adaptation (i.e. injury).

Effects Of Carbohydrate Mouth Rinse And Caffeine On High-Intensity Interval Running In A Fed State, Simon Devenney, Shane Mangan, Marcus Shortall, Kieran Collins

Articles

The current study aims to identify if mouth rinsing with a 6% carbohydrate mouth-rinse (CMR) solution and mouth rinsing and ingestion of caffeine (CMR+CAFF) can affect exercise performance during steady-state (SS) running and high-intensity intervals (HIIT) in comparison with a 0% control solution (PLA) when in a fed state. Eight recreationally trained males completed 3 trials (CMR, CMR+CAFF, and PLA) of 45 min SS running and an HIIT protocol (90% peak treadmill velocity) until fatigue in a double blinded, repeated-measures study. Participants ingested a capsule of either CAFF or PLA before and after SS. Participants received a 25-mL bolus of …

Isolation And Spectroscopic Characterization Of Zn(Ii), Cu(Ii), And Pd(Ii) Complexes Of 1,3,4-Thiadiazole-Derived Ligand, Dariusz Karcz, Arkadiusz Matwijczuk, Bozena Boron, Bernadette Creaven, Leszek Fiedor, Andrzej Niewiadomy, Mariusz Gagos

Articles

A series of complexes incorporating Zn(II), Cu(II), and Pd(II) ions, and 4-(5-heptyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)benzene-1,3-diol (L1) as model ligand, was synthesized in order to examine the nature of potential interactions between biologically active ligands, 1,3,4-thiadiazoles and metal ions with proven biological relevance. The structures of the compounds isolated were characterized using a number of spectroscopic methods including IR, Uv–vis, AAS, steady state and time-resolved fluorescence (TRF). The results obtained suggest that the L1-Zn(II) and L1-Pd(II) complexes consist of one molecule of L1 and one acetate ion acting as ligands, while the L1-Cu(II) complex adapts a 2:1 (L1: metal) stoichiometry. The coordination of L1 …

Distinct Transcriptome Profiles Of Gag-Specific Cd8+ T Cells Temporally Correlated With The Protection Elicited By Sivδnef Live Attenuated Vaccine, Wuxun Lu, Yanmin Wu, Fangrui Ma, R. Paul Johnson, Qingsheng Li

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The live attenuated vaccine (LAV) SIVmac239Δnef (SIVΔnef) confers the best protection among all the vaccine modalities tested in rhesus macaque model of HIV-1 infection. This vaccine has a unique feature of time-dependent protection: macaques are not protected at 3±5 weeks post vaccination (WPV), whereas immune protection emerges between 15 and 20 WPV. Although the exact mechanisms of the time-dependent protection remain incompletely understood, studies suggested that both cellular and humoral immunities contribute to this time-dependent protection. To further elucidate the mechanisms of protection induced by SIVΔnef, we longitudinally compared the global gene expression profiles of SIV Gag-CM9+ CD8+ (Gag-specific CD8+) …

Chloroviruses Have A Sweet Tooth, James L. Van Etten, Irina V. Agarkova, David D. Dunigan, Michela Tonetti, Cristina De Castro, Garry A. Duncan

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Chloroviruses are large double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses that infect certain isolates of chlorella-like green algae. They contain up to approximately 400 protein-encoding genes and 16 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes. This review summarizes the unexpected finding that many of the chlorovirus genes encode proteins involved in manipulating carbohydrates. These include enzymes involved in making extracellular polysaccharides, such as hyaluronan and chitin, enzymes that make nucleotide sugars, such as GDP-L-fucose and GDP-D-rhamnose and enzymes involved in the synthesis of glycans attached to the virus major capsid proteins. This latter process differs from that of all other glycoprotein containing viruses that traditionally use …

Tryptophan 375 Stabilizes The Outer-Domain Core Of Gp120 For Hiv Vaccine Immunogen Design, Duoyi Hu, Dane Bowder, Wenzhong Wei, Jesse Thompson, Mark A. Wilson, Shi-Hua Xiang

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

The outer-domain core of gp120 may serve as a better HIV vaccine immunogen than the full-length gp120 because of its greater stability and immunogenicity. In our previous report, we introduced two disulfide bonds to the outer-domain core of gp120 to fix its conformation into a CD4-bound state, which resulted in a significant increase in its immunogenicity when compared to the wild-type outer-domain core. In this report, to further improve the immunogenicity of the outer-domain core based immunogen, we have introduced a Tryptophan residue at gp120 amino acid sequence position 375 (375S/W). Our data from immunized guinea pigs indeed shows a …

Impact Of A Localized Lean Six Sigma Implementation On Overall Patient Safety And Process Efficiency, Luvianca Gil, Pilar Pazos, Mamadou Seck, Rolando Delaguila

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Continuous quality improvement tools have caught the attention of the Health Care Industry as a solution to process efficiency, patient safety and cost reduction. This research explores the impact of a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) process improvement initiative in overall process efficiency and patient safety in two Labor and Delivery (L+D) units of two large hospital providers. This study focuses on the application of modeling and simulation methodology to investigate the influence of a localized process improvement intervention on the overall L+D unit output, by considering patient flow, system capacity and unit performance. The simulation models capacity profiles and patient …

Prevention Of Hemiplegic Shoulder Pain (Hsp) In Post-Stroke Patients Presenting With Shoulder Subluxation (Ss), Peter Tumminelli, Alex Bergman, Michael Rubin, Haresh Sampathkumar, Mohammad Islam

Quill & Scope

No abstract provided.

Frontiers In Precision Medicine Ii: Cancer, Big Data And The Public, Emily Coonrod, Jorge L. Contreras, Willard Dere, Jeffrey Botkin, Leslie Francis, Jim Tabery

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Precision medicine is being developed within a complex landscape of public policy, science, economics, law, and regulation. In these and other policy areas, the goal of developing individually-tailored therapies poses novel challenges for health care research, delivery and policy. In this symposium, a range of experts in genetics, medicine, bioinformatics, intellectual property, health economics and bioethics identified and discussed many of the pressing questions raised by the development and practice of precision medicine. These and other issues will need to be taken into account as precision medicine moves ahead and becomes the standard of medical practice and care in the …

The Nursing Community Apgar Questionnaire In Rural Australia: An Evidence Based Approach To Recruiting And Retaining Nurses, Molly Prengaman, Daniel R. Terry, David Schmitz, Ed Baker

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: To date, the Nursing Community Apgar Questionnaire (NCAQ) has been effectivly utlized to quantify resources and capabilities of a rural Idaho communities to recruit and retain nurses. As such, the NCAQ was used in a rural Australian context to examine its efficacy as an evidence-based tool to better inform nursing recruitment and retention.

Sample: The sample included nursing administrators, senior nurses and other nurses from six health facilities who were familiar with the community and knowledgeable with health facility recruitment and retention history. Participants were registered nurses and/or directly involved in nursing recruitment.

Method: The 50 factor NCAQ was …

A Rare Case Of Epstein–Barr Virus-Related Plasmacytoma Involving Maxillary Sinus Mucosa, Julie D. Gibbs, Marino E. Leon, Kenia Liu, Johnny Nguyen, Ling Zhang

Pathology and Cell Biology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Chronic Inflammation And Apoptosis Propagate In Ischemic Cerebellum And Heart Of Non-Human Primates, Sandra A. Acosta, Sherwin Mashkouri, Diana Nwokoye, Jea Y. Lee, Cesar V. Borlongan

Neurosurgery and Brain Repair Faculty Publications

The major pathological consequences of cerebral ischemia are characterized by neurological deficits commonly ascribed to the infarcted tissue and its surrounding region, however, brain areas, as well as peripheral organs, distal from the original injury may manifest as subtle disease sequelae that can increase the risks of co-morbidities complicating the disease symptoms. To evaluate the vulnerability of the cerebellum and the heart to secondary injuries in the late stage of transient global ischemia (TGI) model in non-human primates (NHP), brain and heart tissues were collected at six months post-TGI. Unbiased stereological analyses of immunostained tissues showed significant Purkinje cells loss …

Updates On And Advances In Therapeutic Strategies For Traumatic Brain Injury, Samantha M. Portis, Paul R. Sanberg

Neurosurgery and Brain Repair Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Increasing Primary Care Hepatitis C Screening In The 1945-1965 Birth Cohort, Maria M. Shimizu

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Over 3.2 million American citizens have been infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). It is estimated three fourths of this population are from the birth cohort born between 1945 and 1965, otherwise known as Baby Boomers. Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; 2014) recommendations to screen this population at least one-time regardless of risk factors, screening practices in the primary care setting have been suboptimal (American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases [AASLD], 2015).

Aim: The aim of this project was to identify barriers to HCV screening of the Baby Boomer population in the …

In Situ Digestibility Of Residue Parts Of Corn Planted In Different Populations And Row Widths, Viviane B. Ferrari, Janessa J. Updike, Jana Harding Harding, Keith Glewen, Terry J. Klopfenstein, Jim C. Macdonald

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Plant density can be changed by altering row width and/or number of plants within a row. The use of narrower rows at seeding may increase yield and reduce plant-toplant competition. Corn seeds were planted at 2 row widths (15 and 30- inch rows) and 3 plant populations (25,200, 35,000 and 54,000 seeds / acre). Samples of corn residue were collected 4 dates (October 8, October 24, November 5 and November 19) postharvest and separated into cob, stem, leaf and husk to determine changes in quality over time. Th e greatest plant population increased the NDF content and NDF digestibility of …

Are Clinical Research Professionals More Inclined To Participate In Clinical Trials?, Rania Mohammad Felemban

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this study was to identify the impact of professional knowledge and education on a willingness to participate in clinical trials. It hypothesized that there is no statistical difference in the median rank score between clinical research professionals and other post-graduate educated participants. The research question asked whether the clinical research program graduates were more inclined to participate in clinical trials than other groups with a post-graduate education. A cross-sectional quantitative study of 83 clinical research professionals was conducted. All participants were invited to complete a shortened version of the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research …

Identification Of Pp1 As The First Phosphatase For Irf7, Shunbin Ning, Ling Wang

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 7 (IRF7) is phosphorylated and activated in response to pathogenic infections for production of type I IFNs

Understanding And Promoting Parent-Child Sexual Health Communication, Shannon Phelps

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Parent-child sexual health communication (PCSHC) can have a positive impact on adolescents’ sexual health choices, outcomes, and capabilities for communicating with others about sexual health. Many parents are hesitant and feel unprepared for and uncomfortable with communicating about sexual health with their children. Other parental factors as well as child factors can impact the quality, frequency, coverage, and effectiveness of PCSHC. Some adolescent sexual health outcomes have improved, however, teen birth rates in the United States are elevated compared to other developed countries and half of all sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnoses are made to adolescents and emerging adults. This …

Synthesis Of A 1,2,4-Substituted Imidazole For A Fragment-Based Drug Discovery Library, Tyler Lafferty

Honors Program Theses

The field of medicinal chemistry requires efficient, novel drug development processes to sustain and advance the landscape of current pharmaceutical agents. To this end, fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) is a methodology that aims to provide a balanced approach to the hit detection and lead optimization stage in the identification of small molecule agents (fragments). These small, low-molecular weight (mw<300 amu) molecules are employed in various biochemical assays to identify leads against a biological target. One challenge in FBDD is the synthesis of novel fragments containing heterocycles with a selective synthetic handle, a functional group designed to allow further modification. Heterocyclic fragments that allow for straightforward synthesis and modification are underrepresented in fragment libraries and offer the intriguing opportunity for rapid diversification into a fragment library from single, heterocyclic parent fragment. The imidazole is a heterocycle that presents a unique synthetic challenge for organic chemists, as current imidazole syntheses do not allow for regioselective synthesis of a 1,2,4-substitued imidazole. The research herein describes the approaches taken towards the challenge of synthesizing the 1,2,4-substituted imidazole parent fragment containing a hydrophilic moiety, synthetic handle, and phenyl ring derivative.

How To Explain Cancer To A Child And The Effects Of Coloring Therapy In Children With Cancer, Alexandra Mauer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Did you know that doodling or coloring in a book can have significant therapeutic effects? It has been studied and proven that art therapy can help with anxiety, depression, and even some diseases such as cancer.1 Although coloring may not be able to cure cancer, it can make coping with it more manageable.1 When a child who has cancer is waiting to be seen in a doctor’s office or at the hospital, a coloring book can keep his or her mind off of the diagnosis, provide entertainment, and elicit a relaxing mindset. This coloring book could also have a storyline …

Play It Again! Individualized Music Improves Social Interaction Of Women, But Not Men, With Dementia, Emily Farrer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Dementia is tragic both for patients with the disease and for their family members. As this neurodegenerative disorder progresses, cognitive functions deteriorate, agitation and aggression increase, and mood worsens (McDermott, Orrell, et al., 2014; Spiro, 2010; Vasionyté & Madison, 2013). Non-pharmacological approaches, such as active music therapy or passive music listening, can be effective in reducing these symptoms. However, no past studies have examined how music listening affects the social interactions of patients with dementia. As such, this study examined whether nursing home residents with dementia are more engaged and interactive if they listen to individually selected music for 15 …