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2017

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Prevalence, Age Profile, And Associated Risk Factors For Hymenolepis Nana Infection In A Large Population-Based Study In Northern Peru, Percy M. Vilchez Barreto, Ricardo Gamboa, Saul Santivañez, Seth E. O'Neal, Claudio Muro, Andrés G. Lescano, Luz M. Moyano, Guillermo Gonzálvez, Hector H. García Aug 2017

Prevalence, Age Profile, And Associated Risk Factors For Hymenolepis Nana Infection In A Large Population-Based Study In Northern Peru, Percy M. Vilchez Barreto, Ricardo Gamboa, Saul Santivañez, Seth E. O'Neal, Claudio Muro, Andrés G. Lescano, Luz M. Moyano, Guillermo Gonzálvez, Hector H. García

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Hymenolepis nana, the dwarf tapeworm, is a common intestinal infection of children worldwide. We evaluated infection and risk factor data that were previously collected from 14,761 children aged 2-15 years during a large-scale program in northern Peru. We found that 1,124 of 14,761 children (7.61%) had H. nana infection, a likely underestimate given that only a single stool sample was examined by microscopy for diagnosis. The strongest association with infection was lack of adequate water (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] 2.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.82-2.48) and sanitation infrastructure in the house (aPR 1.94, 95% CI 1.64-2.29). One quarter of …


Planning And Designing The Improving Addiction Care Team (Impact) For Hospitalized Adults With Substance Use Disorder, Honora Englander, Melissa B. Weimer, Rachel Solotaroff, Christina Nicolaidis, Benjamin Chan, Christine M. Velez, Alison Noice, Tim Hartnett, Ed Blackburn, Pen Barnes, P. Todd Korthuis Aug 2017

Planning And Designing The Improving Addiction Care Team (Impact) For Hospitalized Adults With Substance Use Disorder, Honora Englander, Melissa B. Weimer, Rachel Solotaroff, Christina Nicolaidis, Benjamin Chan, Christine M. Velez, Alison Noice, Tim Hartnett, Ed Blackburn, Pen Barnes, P. Todd Korthuis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

People with substance use disorders (SUD) have high rates of hospitalization and readmission, long lengths of stay, and skyrocketing healthcare costs. Yet, models for improving care are extremely limited. We performed a needs assessment and then convened academic and community partners, including a hospital, community SUD organizations, and Medicaid accountable care organizations, to design a care model for medically complex hospitalized patients with SUD. Needs assessment showed that 58% to 67% of participants who reported active substance use said they were interested in cutting back or quitting. Many reported interest in medication for addiction treatment (MAT). Participants had high rates …


The Leadership Of John Wooden, Drew Waters Aug 2017

The Leadership Of John Wooden, Drew Waters

Masters Theses

John Wooden, former coach of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) men’s basketball team, has won twice as many championships as the next most successful men’s collegiate basketball coach. This paper will examine the methods he used in his coaching, his leadership style, and how it compares with various leadership styles of other famous coaches and leaders, and other possible factors which may have led to his achieving such a high level of success. A thorough review of a wide variety of literature has been incorporated in the thesis, as well as a study comparing Wooden’s leadership style with …


The Scoop, Vol. 4 Issue 5, August 2017, Health Sciences Library Aug 2017

The Scoop, Vol. 4 Issue 5, August 2017, Health Sciences Library

Volume 4

Latest news and events from the Health Sciences Library in our monthly newsletter for August 2017.


An Examination Of The Workloads And The Effectiveness Of An Athlete Monitoring Program In Ncaa Division I Men's Soccer, Matthew L. Sams Aug 2017

An Examination Of The Workloads And The Effectiveness Of An Athlete Monitoring Program In Ncaa Division I Men's Soccer, Matthew L. Sams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this dissertation were to examine common athlete training and monitoring practices in men’s collegiate soccer and to report the programming strategies and monitoring outcomes for an NCAA Division I men’s collegiate soccer team whose coaching and sport science staff collaborated on a daily basis. The following are the major findings of the dissertation:

Study 1 – Coaches from all divisions of play responded to a custom survey. A majority of coaches developed an in-season training plan that varied both daily and weekly volume and intensity. One-third of the coaches performed no athlete monitoring, and a number of …


Effects Of Acute Sepsis On Renal Structure And Sympathetic Innervation In Mice, Tuqa Alkhateeb Aug 2017

Effects Of Acute Sepsis On Renal Structure And Sympathetic Innervation In Mice, Tuqa Alkhateeb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sympathetic nerves are important for renal physiology and sepsis pathophysiology. A recent study showed sprouting of sympathetic nerves in spleen of septic mice. This study was done to test if renal sprouting of sympathetic nerves also happens and to investigate renal morphology in septic mice. Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) was used to induce sepsis and kidneys were removed for evaluation. Bowman’s space was diminished with cortical bubble cells present suggestive of acute renal pathology, however, renal function was unchanged. Acute sepsis did not affect either renal sympathetic innervation or non-neuronal cholinergic cells. Mouse kidneys had more epinephrine (EPI) than …


Mirna Expression Changes In Arsenic-Induced Skin Cancer In Vitro And In Vivo., Laila Al-Eryani Aug 2017

Mirna Expression Changes In Arsenic-Induced Skin Cancer In Vitro And In Vivo., Laila Al-Eryani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arsenic is a naturally prevalent metalloid. Chronic arsenic ingestion through drinking water causes skin cancer. Arsenic-induced cancer mechanisms are not well defined. Epigenetic changes, including microRNA expression changes, might be playing a role. This dissertation investigates the impact of miRNA expression changes in arsenic-induced skin cancer. MiRNA expression was measure and compared using 3 different techniques, RTq-PCR, hybridization arrays and RNA-sequencing. MiRNAs differential expression in skin lesions was phenotype- and stage-related. Immortalized human keratinocytes (HaCaT) were transformed by chronic low arsenite exposure serving as a model for arsenic-induced skin carcinogenesis. Early changes in miRNAs and target mRNAs contribute to arsenic-induced …


Discovery Of Novel Tubulin Inhibitors And Selective Survivin Inhibitors For Advanced Melanoma And Total Synthesis Of Bioactive 20s-Hydroxyvitamin D3, Qinghui Wang Aug 2017

Discovery Of Novel Tubulin Inhibitors And Selective Survivin Inhibitors For Advanced Melanoma And Total Synthesis Of Bioactive 20s-Hydroxyvitamin D3, Qinghui Wang

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

According to the statistics from American Cancer Society, the 5-year survival rate for patients with advanced melanoma is as low as 5%. Treatment of advanced melanoma, therefore, represents an unmet medical need. In this dissertation, I will show the effort to develop new generations of bioavailable tubulin inhibitors targeting the colchicine binding site and selective small-molecule survivin inhibitors for treating advanced melanoma. Extensive structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies of lead molecules ABI-231 and UC-112 have been performed.

Chapter 1 will introduce the current situation of advanced or metastatic melanoma, its clinical drug treatments, as well as problems in current drug treatments. …


A Novel Method For Synthesis Of Hydroxytyrosol, Emmanuel Onobun Aug 2017

A Novel Method For Synthesis Of Hydroxytyrosol, Emmanuel Onobun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hydroxytyrosol, 3,4-dihydroxyphenolethanol, a naturally occurring polyphenol most common in olive tree (Olea europaea), is one of the most effective member of the polyphenols family, because of its remarkable antioxidant activity, its ability to inhibit oxidation of low density lipids (LDL), and its protection against DNA oxidative damage. Hydroxytyrosol, which is widely used in cosmetics and food supplements industries, can be purchased as an olive oil extract that contains low concentration of hydroxytyrosol besides other polyphenols. The price and low natural abundance of hydroxytyrosol make alternative synthetic sources very attractive. In this research, a novel method for the synthesis of pure …


Merging Cultures: Organizational Behavior, Leadership, And Differentiation In A Health System Merger, Colin G. Chesley Aug 2017

Merging Cultures: Organizational Behavior, Leadership, And Differentiation In A Health System Merger, Colin G. Chesley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Health system mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have increased exponentially in recent years as a result of the Affordable Care Act (Brown, Werling, Walker, Burgdorfer & Shields, 2012). M&As are consummated as a way to control for interdependencies within the market, control costs and leverage debt, and negotiate better rates among health insurers (Bolman & Deal, 2013; Cooper & Finkelstein, 2010; Mirc, 2013). Regardless of the impetus for a merger, the largest predictor of the success or failure of a M&A lies within the organizational culture (Brown, et al., 2012; Cooper & Finkelstein, 2010; Kastor, 2010; Ovseiko, Melham, Fowler & Buchan, …


Role Of Tlrs, Hippo-Yap1 Signaling, And Micrornas In Cardiac Repair And Regeneration Of Damaged Myocardium During Ischemic Injury, Xiaohui Wang Aug 2017

Role Of Tlrs, Hippo-Yap1 Signaling, And Micrornas In Cardiac Repair And Regeneration Of Damaged Myocardium During Ischemic Injury, Xiaohui Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the United States. Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated pathways have been demonstrated to play a role in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. We and others have shown that PI3K/Akt signaling is involved in regulating cellular survival and protecting the myocardium from I/R induced injury. In this dissertation, we provide compelling evidence that miR-125b serves to “fine tune” TLR mediated NF-kB responses by repressing TNF-a and TRAF6 expression. We constructed lentiviral expressing miR-125b, delivered it into the myocardium. The data showed that delivery of lentivirus expressing miR-125b significantly reduces myocardial infarct size and improves cardiac …


Evaluating Effective Communication Methods: Improving Internal Communication, Amber L. Suthers Aug 2017

Evaluating Effective Communication Methods: Improving Internal Communication, Amber L. Suthers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Relaying information from a Chief Communications Officer (CIO), or centralized communications departments to hospital employees is not always efficient or effective. Employees may not be informed of important changes to department protocols or hospital policies. The purpose of the study was to determine the most efficient and effective forms of internal communications in the hospital setting.

A total of 83 surveys were mailed to communication officers working in Tennessee hospitals in and east of Nashville. Sixteen communication officers responded. This low response rate may be attributed to poor designation of communication responsibilities and an abdication of responsibilities to an off …


A Parapoxviral Virion Protein Inhibits Nf-Κb Signaling Early In Infection, Sushil Khatiwada, Gustavo A. Delhon, Ponnuraj Nagendraprabhu, Sabal Chaulagain, Shuhong Luo, Diego G. Diel, Eduardo F. Flores, D. L. Rock Aug 2017

A Parapoxviral Virion Protein Inhibits Nf-Κb Signaling Early In Infection, Sushil Khatiwada, Gustavo A. Delhon, Ponnuraj Nagendraprabhu, Sabal Chaulagain, Shuhong Luo, Diego G. Diel, Eduardo F. Flores, D. L. Rock

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Faculty Publications

Poxviruses have evolved unique proteins and mechanisms to counteract the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway, which is an essential regulatory pathway of host innate immune responses. Here, we describe a NF-κB inhibitory virion protein of orf virus (ORFV), ORFV073, which functions very early in infected cells. Infection with ORFV073 gene deletion virus (OV-IA82Δ073) led to increased accumulation of NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO), marked phosphorylation of IκB kinase (IKK) subunits IKKα and IKKβ, IκBα and NF-κB subunit p65 (NF-κB-p65), and to early nuclear translocation of NF-κB-p65 in virusinfected cells (30 min post infection). Expression of ORFV073 alone was sufficient to …


Cardiac Arrest Risk Standardization Using Administrative Data Compared To Registry Data., Anne V. Grossestreuer, David F. Gaieski, Michael W. Donnino, Joshua I.M. Nelson, Eric L. Mutter, Brendan G. Carr, Benjamin S. Abella, Douglas J. Wiebe Aug 2017

Cardiac Arrest Risk Standardization Using Administrative Data Compared To Registry Data., Anne V. Grossestreuer, David F. Gaieski, Michael W. Donnino, Joshua I.M. Nelson, Eric L. Mutter, Brendan G. Carr, Benjamin S. Abella, Douglas J. Wiebe

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Methods for comparing hospitals regarding cardiac arrest (CA) outcomes, vital for improving resuscitation performance, rely on data collected by cardiac arrest registries. However, most CA patients are treated at hospitals that do not participate in such registries. This study aimed to determine whether CA risk standardization modeling based on administrative data could perform as well as that based on registry data.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Two risk standardization logistic regression models were developed using 2453 patients treated from 2000-2015 at three hospitals in an academic health system. Registry and administrative data were accessed for all patients. The outcome was death …


Blood Pressure And Visit-To-Visit Blood Pressure Variability Among Individuals With Primary Proteinuric Glomerulopathies., Christine B. Sethna, Kevin E C Meyers, Laura H. Mariani, Kevin J. Psoter, Crystal A. Gadegbeku, Keisha L. Gibson, Tarak Srivastava, Matthias Kretzler, Tammy M. Brady Aug 2017

Blood Pressure And Visit-To-Visit Blood Pressure Variability Among Individuals With Primary Proteinuric Glomerulopathies., Christine B. Sethna, Kevin E C Meyers, Laura H. Mariani, Kevin J. Psoter, Crystal A. Gadegbeku, Keisha L. Gibson, Tarak Srivastava, Matthias Kretzler, Tammy M. Brady

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Hypertension and blood pressure variability (BPV; SD and average real variability) in primary proteinuric glomerulopathies are not well described. Data were from 433 participants in the NEPTUNE (Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network). Hypertensive BP status was defined as previous history of hypertension or BP ≥140/90 mm Hg for adults/≥95th percentile for children at baseline. BPV was measured in participants with ≥3 visits in the first year. Two-hundred ninety-six adults (43 years [interquartile range, 32-57.8 years], 61.5% male) and 147 children (11 years [interquartile range, 5-14 years], 57.8% male) were evaluated. At baseline, 64.8% of adults and 46.9% of children were hypertensive. …


The Effects Of Frondoside A In Acute Leukemia, Fatma Hussain Sajwani Aug 2017

The Effects Of Frondoside A In Acute Leukemia, Fatma Hussain Sajwani

Theses

Among hematological malignancies, acute leukemia is the major cause of mortality. Despite improvement of survival with current chemotherapies, some patients still diefrom the disease or the treatment side effects. Thus, new therapeutic agents are needed. Anti-cancer drugs derived from natural products are of interest. Frondoside A is a triterpenoid glycoside form the sea cucumber, Cucumaria frondosa that has shown potent antitumor effects in various cancers. Previous studies in acute leukemia are limited. The current study investigated the effects of frondoside a in acute leukemia cell lines alone and in combination with drugs currently used for this malignancy. This study is …


Predicting Potential Alzheimer Medical Condition In Elderly Using Iot Sensors - Case Study, Zhi Hao Kevin Chong, Yu Xuan Tee, Ling Jing Toh, Shi Jia Phang, Jie Ying Liew, Bertran Queck, Swapna Gottipati Aug 2017

Predicting Potential Alzheimer Medical Condition In Elderly Using Iot Sensors - Case Study, Zhi Hao Kevin Chong, Yu Xuan Tee, Ling Jing Toh, Shi Jia Phang, Jie Ying Liew, Bertran Queck, Swapna Gottipati

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ageing population would cause profound problems and the impact is already being felt today in many developed countries such as Singapore. The main concern for the Government is to help the citizens with active ageing through home ownership and good healthcare. With Internet of Things (IoT) gaining traction globally, Singapore is set to take advantage of this technology and leverage it to extend its capabilities towards a graceful Ageing-In-Place for the elderly. This ties in nicely with the expertise of SHINE Seniors project by SMU-iCity Lab, which integrates IT with healthcare in ways that creates innovative IT health solutions that …


The Influence Of Parental Communication About Sexual Health On Quality Of Emerging Adult Romantic Relationships, Jaclyn Denise Powers Aug 2017

The Influence Of Parental Communication About Sexual Health On Quality Of Emerging Adult Romantic Relationships, Jaclyn Denise Powers

Master's Theses

The research on relationships between parent-child communication about sexuality and sexual communication between adult partners is currently lacking. The current study aims to examine the influence of parent-child sexual communication on adult sexual communication when those children reach adulthood and engage in romantic relationships. Parent-child sexual communication, attachment styles, sexual attitudes, and partner sexual communication were examined for influence on the physical and emotional relationship satisfaction of emerging adults. Study 1 included a quantitative analysis with 553 emerging adults participating in an online survey, and study 2 incorporated a qualitative analysis with an additional 7 emerging adults participating in online …


Occupational Therapy Faculty Perspectives On The Use Of Telehealth As A Delivery Method For Healthcare Services, Holly Wasserman Aug 2017

Occupational Therapy Faculty Perspectives On The Use Of Telehealth As A Delivery Method For Healthcare Services, Holly Wasserman

All Theses And Dissertations

The use of telehealth for healthcare delivery is on the rise and is expected to increase due to the expansion of technological advances and the shortage of healthcare professionals to serve rural and remote communities. The use of telehealth by occupational therapists (OT) is relatively new, and it is unknown whether educational programs are adequately preparing OT students to practice in this context or if OT faculty members are adequately trained to deliver this content to their students. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to examine how faculty members teaching in a master’s level occupational therapy program …


Cancer In Louisiana: 2010-2014, Volume 32, Louisiana Tumor Registry, Lauren Maniscalco, Christina Lefante, Carla Rosales, Lu Zhang, Mei-Chin Hsieh, Lisa Pareti, Brent Mumphrey, Mary Anne Lynch, Xiao-Cheng Wu Aug 2017

Cancer In Louisiana: 2010-2014, Volume 32, Louisiana Tumor Registry, Lauren Maniscalco, Christina Lefante, Carla Rosales, Lu Zhang, Mei-Chin Hsieh, Lisa Pareti, Brent Mumphrey, Mary Anne Lynch, Xiao-Cheng Wu

Policy & Position Papers

Mission:

To collect and report complete, high-quality, and timely population-based cancer data in Louisiana to support cancer research, control, and prevention.

Vision:

To reduce suffering and death from cancer using information collected by the Louisiana Tumor Registry.

History:

Cancer registration in Louisiana began in 1947 at the Charity Hospital Tumor Registry in New Orleans. In 1974, as part of its Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, the National Cancer Institute provided funds for a population-based cancer incidence and survival registry covering Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard parishes. Five years later, the Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) was transferred to the …


Computer-Aided Detection Of Pathologically Enlarged Lymph Nodes On Non-Contrast Ct In Cervical Cancer Patients For Low-Resource Settings, Brian M. Anderson, Laurence E. Court, Ann Klopp, Stephen F. Kry, Jennifer Johnson, Erik Cressman, Arvind Rao, Jinzhong Yang Aug 2017

Computer-Aided Detection Of Pathologically Enlarged Lymph Nodes On Non-Contrast Ct In Cervical Cancer Patients For Low-Resource Settings, Brian M. Anderson, Laurence E. Court, Ann Klopp, Stephen F. Kry, Jennifer Johnson, Erik Cressman, Arvind Rao, Jinzhong Yang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The mortality rate of cervical cancer is approximately 266,000 people each year, and 70% of the burden occurs in Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMICs). Radiation therapy is the primary modality for treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer cases. In the absence of high quality diagnostic imaging needed to identify nodal metastasis, many LMIC sites treat standard pelvic fields, failing to include node metastasis outside of the field and/or to boost lymph nodes in the abdomen and pelvis. The first goal of this project was to create a program which automatically identifies positive cervical cancer lymph nodes on non-contrast daily …


Involvement Of The Receptor For Advanced Glycation End Products (Rage) In Progression Of Pancreatic Cancer, Nancy Azizian Ms Aug 2017

Involvement Of The Receptor For Advanced Glycation End Products (Rage) In Progression Of Pancreatic Cancer, Nancy Azizian Ms

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Oncogenic KRAS is central to several cancer types including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), but has been determined to be “undruggable”. Recent studies have indicated that oncogenic KRAS is not constitutively active but relies on a feed-forward stimulatory mechanism involving inflammation. In the current study we investigated the mechanisms by which, the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) affects and maintains KRAS activity. We observed that RAGE levels were elevated and there was a shift in the levels of specific isoforms upon inflammation in pancreatic cells and PDAC. Furthermore, RAGE agonists were found to increase Ras activity and downstream signaling …


High-Throughput Mapping Of The Biological Effects Of Particle Therapy, Lawrence Bronk Aug 2017

High-Throughput Mapping Of The Biological Effects Of Particle Therapy, Lawrence Bronk

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Radiation therapy is an essential tool in the cure of many cancer patients. Charged particle based radiation therapies are gaining momentum as the physical dose distributions of ions are superior to standard photons due their limited range. Additionally, charged particle radiation has been shown to have linear energy transfer (LET) specific relative biological effectiveness (RBE) when compared to photons. It is essential to employ accurate biophysical models for particle beams in order to maximize the therapeutic potential of particle therapy through the introduction of biologically optimized treatment planning. The development of such models requires the support of large amounts of …


Gsk3b Regulates Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition And Cancer Stem Cell Properties And Is A Novel Drug Target For Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Geraldine Vidhya Raja Aug 2017

Gsk3b Regulates Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition And Cancer Stem Cell Properties And Is A Novel Drug Target For Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Geraldine Vidhya Raja

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Abstract

GSK3β regulates Epithelial-Mesenchymal-Transition and Cancer Stem Cell properties and is a novel drug target for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Geraldine Vidhya Raja, MS.

Advisory Professor: Sendurai Mani, Ph.D.

Triple-Negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are highly aggressive and lack the expression of Estrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR) as well as Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (HER2). Consequently, patients diagnosed with TNBCs have poor overall- and disease-free survival rates compared to other subtypes of breast cancer due to lack of targeted therapies as well as de novo or acquired chemoresistance, disease recurrence, and lack of targeted therapy. Hence it is critical to …


The Role Of The Epithelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition (Emt) In Lung Cancer Progression, David H. Peng Aug 2017

The Role Of The Epithelial-To-Mesenchymal Transition (Emt) In Lung Cancer Progression, David H. Peng

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths due to conventional therapy resistance and metastatic disease, therefore understanding the mechanisms governing these biological functions is vital for improving patient survival. Approximately 30% of patients with the adenocarcinoma histologic subset of lung cancer possess an activating KRAS mutation, characterized by a lack of response to chemotherapies with a poor overall 5-year survival rate. Despite the mutational frequency, KRAS remains a challenge to pharmacologically inhibit and current drugs undergoing clinical trials that target specific downstream effector proteins of KRAS, such as MEK inhibitors, have failed to produce significant clinical benefits. Previous …


Volumetric, Magnetic Resonance-Visible, And Radiation-Sensitive Detectors For Magnetic Resonance Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, Hannah J. Lee Aug 2017

Volumetric, Magnetic Resonance-Visible, And Radiation-Sensitive Detectors For Magnetic Resonance Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, Hannah J. Lee

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

VOLUMETRIC, MAGNETIC RESONANCE-VISIBLE, AND RADIATION-SENSITIVE DETECTORS FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGE-GUIDED RADIATION THERAPY

Hannah Jungeun Lee

Advisory Professor: Geoffrey S. Ibbott, Ph.D.

Due to the superior soft-tissue contrast of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared to conventional computed tomography (CT) and other on-board imaging techniques, several groups have integrated MRI and radiation treatment machine systems. The advent of MR image-guided radiation therapy (MR-IGRT) using systems, such as the 1.5 MRI – 7 MV linear accelerator (MR-Linac), now allow for improved soft-tissue on-board imaging for patient position and tumor target localization verification and the ability to assess functional biological tissue characteristics with MRI, …


Quantitative Dwi As An Early Imaging Biomarker Of The Response To Chemoradiation In Esophageal Cancer, Benjamin C. Musall Aug 2017

Quantitative Dwi As An Early Imaging Biomarker Of The Response To Chemoradiation In Esophageal Cancer, Benjamin C. Musall

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

For patients diagnosed with stages IIa-IIb esophageal cancer, the current standard of care treatment is tri-modality therapy (TMT), where neoadjuvant chemoradiation (nCRT) is followed by surgical resection. Histopathology of resected tumors reveals that pathological complete response (pCR) is achieved in 20-30% of patients through nCRT alone. Because of the high mortality and morbidity associated with esophagectomy, it may be advantageous for patients exhibiting pCR from nCRT alone to be placed under observation rather than completing their TMT. Therefore, a method for predicting response at an early time-point during nCRT is highly desirable. Conventional methods such as endoscopic ultrasound, re-biopsy, and …


Functional Asymmetry Of The Immune Cell Plasma Membrane, Eric Malmberg Aug 2017

Functional Asymmetry Of The Immune Cell Plasma Membrane, Eric Malmberg

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Mammalian cells maintain a distinct disparity in lipid composition between the two leaflets of the bilayer of the plasma membrane. This compositional asymmetry is most prominent for phosphatidylserine (PS), a negatively charged lipid that is found almost exclusively on the cytoplasmic (inner) leaflet of the plasma membrane. This energetically unfavorable asymmetry is maintained by the activity of ATP-dependent transporters called flippases and destroyed by energy-independent lipid channels called scramblases. Although this compositional asymmetry has been known for decades, there has been little investigation of its structural impact on the physical properties of the membrane, nor its functional impact in healthy …


Contrasting Effects Of An Mdm2 Functional Polymorphism On Tumor Phenotypes, Guadalupe J. Ortiz Iv Aug 2017

Contrasting Effects Of An Mdm2 Functional Polymorphism On Tumor Phenotypes, Guadalupe J. Ortiz Iv

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Cancer predisposition by the cooperation of genetic variants, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), may be of much greater significance to public health than previously appreciated. Functional polymorphisms are genetic variants that alter gene function. Meta-analyses associate many functional polymorphisms with cancer risk. The MDM2 SNP309G allele is a cancer-associated functional polymorphism positioned in the MDM2 P2 promoter that enhances transcription factor SP1 binding, resulting in elevated levels of MDM2 concomitant with decreased p53 tumor-suppressor activity. Mdm2SNP309G/G mice are more prone to spontaneous tumor formation than Mdm2SNP309T/T mice, providing direct evidence for the impact of this SNP on …


Novel Bayesian Adaptive Clinical Trial Designs In Early Phases, Haitao Pan Aug 2017

Novel Bayesian Adaptive Clinical Trial Designs In Early Phases, Haitao Pan

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Early phase, or phase I and phase II, trials are the first step in testing new medicines that have been developed in the lab. The main goal of phase I clinical trials is to establish the recommended dose of new drugs for phase II trials. For the cytotoxic drugs, the goal is to find maximum tolerated dose (MTD). The guiding principle for dose escalation in phase I trials is to avoid exposing too many patients to subtherapeutic doses while preserving safety and maintaining rapid accrual. Therefore, dose escalation methods, especially Bayesian designs, are recommended to be used in phase I …