Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Improved Patient Satisfaction As The Result Of Video-Based Education On Neuraxial/Labor Analgesia For Labor Patients In Native Languages, Paula Schultz

Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing Student Projects

Abstract

Improvement of patient satisfaction as the result of video-based education on neuraxial/labor analgesia in primary-spoken languages was the focus of the Quality Improvement Program. The development of a culturally sensitive, patient-centered video on pain management was introduced for the intervention. The Randomized Control was conducted at a single teaching institution in a major metropolitan area of Florida. Subjects recruited include parturients ages 18 to 43, scheduled for induction or early labor, and admitted for vaginal delivery.

The Quality Improvement Program utilized two standardized videos on epidurals in English or Spanish. The control group received the current practice to include …

Medication Reconciliation And Patient Education At A Primary Care Office In South Florida, Maria Elena Nasiff

Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing Student Projects

Mediation reconciliation is a process that is crucial for ensuring drug safety among patients who demonstrate low medication adherence. Medication reconciliation at the Primary Care office is achieved by educating patients about the purpose of prescribed medicines, drug-to-drug, and drug-to-food interactions. Besides, patients are consulted about interactions between conventional and complementary and alternative medicine, and the dangers of consuming substances (illicit drugs, alcohol, nicotine) together with prescribed drugs. This approach is planned to be accomplished by means of combining printed medication reconciliation lists followed by open-ended questions included to check patients’ pharmacovigilance and conduct patient engagement. In addition, the innovative …

Engineering Electromagnetic Systems For Next-Generation Brain-Machine Interface, Brayan Ricardo Navarrete

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

MagnetoElectric Nanoparticles (MENPs) are known to be a powerful tool for a broad range of applications spanning from medicine to energy-efficient electronics. MENPs allow to couple intrinsic electric fields in the nervous system with externally controlled magnetic fields. This thesis exploited MENPs to achieve contactless brain-machine interface (BMIs). Special electromagnetic devices were engineered for controlling the MENPs’ magnetoelectric effect to enable stimulation and recording. The most important engineering breakthroughs of the study are summarized below.

(I) Metastable Physics to Localize Nanoparticles: One of the main challenges is to localize the nanoparticles at any selected site(s) in the brain. The fundamental …

Bioscaffold Valve With And Without Mechanically Conditioned Stem Cells For The Treatment Of Critical Mitral Valve Diseases In The Young, Brittany A. Gonzalez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Congenital heart disease, which includes heart valve defects, are the most common type of birth abnormality in the US. Infants with critical congenital valve disease have no established treatment-measure other than compassionate care options, owing to an absence of prosthetic valves in small sizes and their inability to support somatic growth. A regenerable valve would be appealing since these barriers could be overcome; it can potentially provide for growth, self-repair, infection resistance and be a permanent approach for replacing defective heart valves.

Porcine small intestinal submucosa (PSIS) bioscaffold was used to create valvular constructs with the possibility to grow overtime. …

Investigation Of Dna Damage And Genomic Organization In The Cellular Response To Platinum Chemotherapy, Abdulhadi Abdulwahed

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the primary reason for gynecological cancer-related deaths among women. This cancer rarely has specific symptoms making early detection challenging. Platinum compounds have been used as the first-line treatment for OC. However, OC patients often develop chemoresistance to current platinum/taxane chemotherapy regimens upon recurrence, leaving patients with no alternative treatment options. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the molecular basis of chemoresistance in OC by analyzing the damage of DNA response and gene positioning after treatment exposure. A modified comet assay was used to measure interstrand cross-link (ICL) formation and repair in chemoresistant (CR) (SKOV-3) …

Laboratory And Epidemiological Characteristics Of Zika Virus Infections In Florida, Stephen L. White

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, Zika virus (ZIKV) was an obscure virus that rarely caused infections and was unknown to most. In 2015 and 2016, ZIKV came into the public spotlight as Brazil and other countries began to report large increases in infections with ZIKV and reported potential complications with developing fetuses and neurologic manifestations. In 2016, the state of Florida identified and responded to an outbreak of locally acquired ZIKV infections in Miami-Dade County. This dramatic increase in infections demonstrated both its importance as an emerging infectious disease and the paucity of knowledge surrounding ZIKV. This study seeks to utilize the data …

Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (Cre): Epidemiology, Duration Of Carriage, And Progression To Infection In A Large Healthcare System In Miami, Fl, Adriana Jimenez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) are multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) considered by the CDC as an urgent public health threat that is spreading globally. Little is known about the epidemiology of CRE in Miami, FL. The purpose of this dissertation was to 1) Evaluate trends in the epidemiology of CRE among patients admitted to the acute care facilities of the largest healthcare system in Miami, FL between 2012 and 2016, 2) Identify factors associated with progressing to infection among patients colonized with carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), and 3) Determine the duration of CPE carriage and factors associated with long-term carriage in our cohort.

A …

The Effect Of Emotional State, Interoception, Intuitive Eating, And Self-Regulation On The Energy Intake Of College Students, Padideh Haddadian Lovan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

College students are known to be susceptible to weight gain. Transitioning to college brings new stresses and challenges which may lead to unhealthy eating behaviors and weight gain. There are multiple factors which have been attributed to exacerbating determinants for college weight gain including eating in the absence of hunger, lack of self-regulation, and emotional eating. As researchers have become more aware of the disadvantages of dieting and restricted eating, cognitive related behaviors, as a way to control weight, have gained more attention recently.

The aim of this study is to examine the association between internal bodily signals of hunger …

Heart Failure Patients' Perceptions Of Preparation For Self-Care, Valrie Evadne Reid

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Six and a half million Americans diagnosed with heart failure (HF) face dauntingly complex treatment regimens when transitioning from hospital to home care. Most are not prepared to perform their self-care. Advanced practice nurse (APN) interventions such as home visits as well as interventions that target perceived preparation for self-care have indicated improved health and costs outcomes. However, little is known about targeting perceived preparations for self-care with a low-cost APN intervention.

Purpose: This randomized controlled trial compared health outcomes, and healthcare charges between two groups of adults hospitalized with an HF diagnosis.

Methods: A control (n = 78) …

Formation And Repair Of Environmentally-Induced Damage To Mitochondrial And Nuclear Genomes, Yunhee Ji

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

All living organisms are continually exposed to various environmental stressors, be they anthropogenic or natural in origin. Many stressors share a common toxic mechanism, generating highly reactive chemical species that can have detrimental effects. A proportion of these chemical species evade the cell’s defenses and damage cellular components, including DNA. Measurement of global genome levels of DNA and cellular damage has implicated environmental stressors in major human health issues (e.g., cancer, aging, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases). Current associations between DNA damage and disease are based upon crude assessments of global genome damage, which provide limited mechanistic information on how damage …

Nano-Enabled Biosensing Systems For Intelligent Healthcare: Towards Covid-19 Management, M. A. Mujawar, H. Gohel, S. K. Bhardwaj, S. Srinivasan, N. Hickman, A. Kaushik

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Biosensors are emerging as efficient (sensitive and selective) and affordable analytical diagnostic tools for early-stage disease detection, as required for personalized health wellness management. Low-level detection of a targeted disease biomarker (pM level) has emerged extremely useful to evaluate the progression of disease under therapy. Such collected bioinformatics and its multi-aspects-oriented analytics is in demand to explore the effectiveness of a prescribed treatment, optimize therapy, and correlate biomarker level with disease pathogenesis. Owing to nanotechnology-enabled advancements in sensing unit fabrication, device integration, interfacing, packaging, and sensing performance at point-of-care (POC) has rendered diagnostics according to the requirements of disease management …

Predictive Modelling Of Covid-19 Confirmed Cases In Nigeria, Roseline O. Ogundokun, Adewale F. Lukman, B M Golam Kibria, Joseph B. Awotunde, Benedita B. Aladeitan

Coronavirus Research at FIU

The coronavirus outbreak is the most notable world crisis since the Second World War. The pandemic that originated from Wuhan, China in late 2019 has affected all the nations of the world and triggered a global economic crisis whose impact will be felt for years to come. This necessitates the need to monitor and predict COVID-19 prevalence for adequate control. The linear regression models are prominent tools in predicting the impact of certain factors on COVID-19 outbreak and taking the necessary measures to respond to this crisis. The data was extracted from the NCDC website and spanned from March 31, …

Chronic Aphasia Recovery In Bilingual Spanish-English And Monolingual Adults, Kristina Ruch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigation was to investigate and compare aphasia recovery patterns in bilingual and monolingual adults with chronic aphasia. Ten participants with aphasia who were at least one year post-injury were assessed and compared using the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) (Paradis & Libben, 1987) in order to examine their aphasia recovery and language abilities.Bilingual participants performed significantly better in English than in Spanish in naming . Furthermore, results revealed an overall trend towards significance across all of the verbal subtests, with better performance in English than Spanish. Significant differences were noted between groups in English, with the …

Does The Human Placenta Express The Canonical Cell Entry Mediators For Sarscov-2?, Roger Pique-Regi, Roberto Romero, Adi L. Tarca, Francesca Luca, Yi Xu, Adnan Alazizi, Yaozha Leng, Chaur-Dong Hsu, Nardhy Gomex-Lopez

Coronavirus Research at FIU

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected more than 10 million people, including pregnant women. To date, no consistent evidence for the vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 exists. The novel coronavirus canonically utilizes the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and the serine protease TMPRSS2 for cell entry. Herein, building upon our previous single-cell study (Pique-Regi et al., 2019), another study, and new single-cell/nuclei RNA-sequencing data, we investigated the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 throughout pregnancy in the placenta as well as in third-trimester chorioamniotic membranes. We report that co-transcription …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Balance, Symmetry, And Center Of Mass In The Gait Cycle Of Transfemoral Amputees, Kayla T. Etienne

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to create a framework that assists in the transfemoral prosthesis fitting process by calculating balance and symmetry to quantify patient comfort with an understanding of bipedal locomotion and human anatomy. Three different software applications were used to compare (1) the body position during gait cycle, (2) the natural and amputee anatomies, (3) the natural and prosthetic legs, and (4) the equilibrium and torque movements of the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Models were created in Maya for analysis in Solidworks and MEL code evaluation with MatLab. The MatLab code tested combinations of joint degrees …

Coronavirus (Covid-19) Fulminant Myopericarditis And Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (Ards) In A Middle-Aged Male Patient, Hussain Hussain, Aya Fadel, Haidar Alwaeli, Victor Guardiola

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Myopericarditis remains a prominent infectious inflammatory disorder throughout a patient's lifetime. Moreover, viral pathogens have been proven to be the leading contributors to myopericarditis in the pediatric and adult populations. Despite the current comprehensive knowledge of myocardial injury in viral and post-viral myopericarditis, the cellular and molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-induced myopericarditis are poorly understood. This report presents a case of coronavirus (COVID-19) fulminant myopericarditis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in a middle-aged male patient: a 51-year-old man with a history of hypertension who arrived to the emergency department with a dry cough, fatigue, dyspnea, and a fever. A real-time …

Stigma And The Hispanic Stuttering Experience: A Qualitative Study, Leslee Dean

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The stigmatization of stuttering has profound effects on the education, employment, and mental health of people who stutter. While there is a large body of research into the impact of stuttering stigma, few studies have considered the effects of cultural differences. The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth analysis of how Hispanic adults who stutter experience stigma. To do so, seven Hispanic/Latino adults who stutter were interviewed using ethnographic interviewing techniques. A thematic analysis of participants’ narrative responses gave rise to four major themes: Family, Stigma in Society, Stuttering Experiences in Cultural and Linguistic Contexts, and Stigma’s …

Predictors Of Persistent And Recurrent Bacterial Vaginosis (Bv) Among Young African American (Aa) Women In The United States, Makella S. Coudray

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal dysbiosis among women of reproductive age. Literature presents discordant findings with respect to the predictors of BV and there is a paucity of literature examining the mechanisms by which multiple episodes of BV occur. This dissertation summarized current literature on BV, identified BV incidence patterns over a twelve-month period, and estimated the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among women with episodic and persistent BV. Previously collected randomized clinical trial data were analyzed, where oral metronidazole was the administered treatment. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to assess BV incidence patterns. Multinomial Logistic …

Quality Of Language In Spanish-Speaking Parents Who Are Learning English: Conversations With Their Children, Amber A. Betances

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze adult language in Spanish-speaking parents who are English second language learners, during conversations with their children in both Spanish-only and English-only play sessions. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to determine the difference in the parents’ Spanish and English skills across a variety of different variables such as mean length of utterance in words (MLU-w), number of total words (NTW), number of different words (NTD), type-token ratio (TTR), mazes, and complex sentences.

A total of 11 participants above the age of 18 years old with children between 12-46 months of age …

Spanish-Speaking Parents' Perceptions And Experiences Before And After English-Only And Spanish-Only Interactions With Their Children, Maria Morales

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and experiences of Spanish-speaking parents who are learning English, before and after English-only and Spanish-only interactions with their children to find what their interactions would look like if they followed the advice of speaking English only with their children, as opposed to speaking in their native language. Eleven primarily Spanish speaking parents of typically developing children 12-46 months of age were interviewed prior to completing play samples with their children and again afterwards. The interviews were transcribed, translated, and analyzed using thematic analysis procedures to identify salient themes. Four major …

Examining Stigma And Its Effect On Hiv Prevention & Care Among People Living In Florida, Angel B. Algarin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Persistent increases of HIV incidence in Florida has made it essential to study ways to improve HIV prevention strategies. Treatment as Prevention (TasP) and Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) are two recent methods in HIV prevention; however, their success may be limited due to barriers such as stigma. This dissertation explored the relationship between HIV-related stigma and 1) antiretroviral therapy adherence and viral suppression and 2) symptoms of anxiety and depression. Additionally, it sought to develop and validate a scale to measure community PrEP-related stigma.

We used data from the Florida Cohort Study which include 932 people living with HIV (PLWH). The …

Black-White Risk Differentials In Covid-19 (Sars-Cov2) Transmission, Mortality And Case Fatality In The United States: Translational Epidemiologic Perspective And Challenges, Laurens Holmes Jr., Michael Enwere, Janille Williams, Benjamin Ogundele, Prachi Chavan, Tatiana Piccoli, Chinacherem Chinka, Camillia Comeaux, Lavisha Palaez, Osatohamwen Okundaye, Leslie Stalnaker, Fanta Kalle, Keeti Deepika, Glen Philipcien, Maura Poleon, Gbadebo Ogungbade, Hkima Elmi, Valescia John, Kirk W. Dabney

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Background: Social and health inequities predispose vulnerable populations to adverse morbidity and mortality outcomes of epidemics and pandemics. While racial disparities in cumulative incidence (CmI) and mortality from the influenza pandemics of 1918 and 2009 implicated Blacks with survival disadvantage relative to Whites in the United States, COVID-19 currently indicates comparable disparities. We aimed to: (a) assess COVID-19 CmI by race, (b) determine the Black-White case fatality (CF) and risk differentials, and (c) apply explanatory model for mortality risk differentials. Methods: COVID-19 data on confirmed cases and deaths by selective states health departments were assessed using a cross-sectional ecologic design. …

Indirect Virus Transmission In Cluster Of Covid-19 Cases, Wenzhou, China, 2020, Jing Cai, Wenjie Sun, Jianping Huang, Michelle Gamber, Jing Wu, Guiging He

Coronavirus Research at FIU

To determine possible modes of virus transmission, we investigated a cluster of coronavirus disease cases associated with a shopping mall in Wenzhou, China. Data indicated that indirect transmission of the causative virus occurred, perhaps resulting from virus contamination of common objects, virus aerosolization in a confined space, or spread from asymptomatic infected persons.

Care Of Newborns Born To Mothers With Covid-19 Infection; A Review Of Existing Evidence, Shirin Shahbazi Sighaldeh, Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Background:The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is already wreaking havoc on families and communities' welfare. It is critical to discuss newborn care of infected mothers with COVID-19 based on the latest international guidelines and national guidelines of countries with the highest incidence of COVID-19 cases. Objective:We discuss how to care for a newborn of a suspected or infected mother with COVID-19 using existing evidence. Method:As of 16 April 2020, we reviewed articles and guidelines related to COVID-19 in the reproductive health field, mother, and newborn health. Our review yielded in 10 categories (i) the risk of diagnostic procedures in …

Potential Rna-Dependent Rna Polymerase Inhibitors As Prospective Therapeutics Against Sars-Cov-2, Rudramani Pokhrel, Prem Chapagain, Jessica Siltberg-Liberles

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Introduction. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has taken humanity off guard. Following an outbreak of SARS-CoV in 2002, and MERS-CoV about 10 years later, SARS-CoV-2 is the third coronavirus in less than 20 years to cross the species barrier and start spreading by human-to-human transmission. It is the most infectious of the three, currently causing the COVID-19 pandemic. No treatment has been approved for COVID-19. We previously proposed targets that can serve as binding sites for antiviral drugs for multiple coronaviruses, and here we set out to find current drugs that can be repurposed as COVID-19 therapeutics.

Aim. To identify drugs …

Descriptive Characteristics Of Hospitalized Adult Smokers And Never-Smokers With Covid-19, Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan, Hassan Ghobadi, Ziyad Ben Taleb, Kenneth D. Ward, Davoud Adham, Somaieh Matin, Mehdi Fazlzadeh, Sajjad Narimani

Coronavirus Research at FIU

No abstract provided.

Online National Health Agency Mask Guidance For The Public In Light Of Covid-19: Content Analysis, Linnea Laestadius, Yang Wang, Ziyad Ben Taleb, Mohammad Ebrahimi Kalan, Young Cho, Jennifer Manganello

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Background: The rapid global spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has compelled national governments to issue guidance on the use of face masks for members of the general public. To date, no work has assessed how this guidance differs across governments.

Objective: This study seeks to contribute to a rational and consistent global response to infectious disease by determining how guidelines differ across nations and regions.

Methods: A content analysis of health agency mask guidelines on agency websites was performed in late March 2020 among 25 countries and regions with large numbers of COVID-19 cases. Countries and regions were assigned …

Covid-19 And Acute Kidney Injury; A Case Report, Hassan Ghobadi, Mohammad Ebeahimi Kalan, Jafar Mohammad-Shahi, Ziyad Ben Taleb, Abbas Ebrahimi Kalan, Mehdi Fazkzadeh

Coronavirus Research at FIU

Although there is no definitive evidence that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects the kidneys adversely, amongst those who develop severe COVID-19 infection and require hospitalization, acute kidney injury (AKI) was reported. Here, we report the clinical outcome associated with AKI in a 32-year-old man with confirmed COVID-19 infection with no prior history of renal malfunction. The AKI was identified during intensive care unit (ICU) course with the median creatinine and blood urea nitrogen values of 3.1 mg/dL (normal value: 0.6-1.2 mg/dL) and 145 mg/dL (normal value:15-45 mg/dL), respectively. Renal function of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection needs to be monitored …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On African American Communities In The United States, Elana A. Cyrus, Rachel Clarke, Dexter Hadley, Zoran Bursac, Mary Jo Trepka, Jessy G. Devieux, Ulas Bagci

Coronavirus Research at FIU

No abstract provided.

Current Response And Management Decisions Of The European Union To The Covid-19 Outbreak: A Review, Krzysztof Goniewicz, Amir Khorram-Manesh, Attila J. Hertelendy, Mariusz Goniewicz, Katarzyna Naylor, Frederick M. Burkle

Coronavirus Research at FIU

COVID-19 has proven to be a formidable challenge for many countries in the European Union to manage effectively. The European Union has implemented numerous strategies to face emerging issues. Member States have adopted measures such as the closure of borders and significant limitations on the mobility of people to mitigate the spread of the virus. An unprecedented crisis coordination effort between Member States has facilitated the ability to purchase equipment, personal protective equipment, and other medical supplies. Attention has also been focused on providing substantive money for research to find a vaccine and promote effective treatment therapies. Financial support has …