Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Development And Validation Of The Lifetime Sense Of Safety Scale In Kenyan Adults, Karen Blackmon, Anne Nyambura, Anne Gitere, Levi Muyela, Catherine Onyancha, Kendi Muchungi, Catherine Ajalo, Litha Musili, Rachel Maina, Edna Bosire, Lukoye Atwoli, Zul Merali, Chinedu Momoh

Brain and Mind Institute

Background. Safety supports psychological wellbeing and potentially shapes brain aging yet existing scales overlook cumulative lifespan safety experiences.

Methods. To address this gap, we developed and validated the Lifetime Sense of Safety (LSS) scale in Kenyan adults. The LSS uses visual analog scaling with a red-to-green color gradient to retrospectively rate felt safety across life stages and settings. We evaluated scale psychometrics and associations with social determinants of health and indicators of brain health.

Results. The LSS shows adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability, with two distinct but correlated factors representing childhood and adulthood safety. Women and …

Contextual Variability In Under-Diagnosed Cardiometabolic Disease And Cognitive Vulnerability Among Populations At High Risk For Alzheimer's Disease And Related Dementias, Nwanyieze Jiakponnah, Joseph Curran, Tamlyn Watermeyer, Jasmit Shah, Litha Musili, Stanely Onyango, Benard Aliwa, Zul Merali, Karen Blackmon, Chinedu Momoh

Brain and Mind Institute

Underdiagnosis of cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs) may represent an unrecognised biological pathway contributing to dementia risk; yet remains poorly characterised in African and African diaspora populations. We quantified the prevalence and determinants of underdiagnosed hypertension and abnormal glycaemia across four cohorts comprising up to 7000 adults aged ≥40 years from Nigeria, Kenya, and The United States: Indianapolis, and North Texas. Underdiagnosis was defined as absence of self-reported diagnosis despite elevated systolic blood pressure ( ≥130 mmHg) or fasting blood glucose ( ≥100 mg/dL). Cohort-stratified analyses examined demographic, socioeconomic, cognitive, Alzheimer’s genetic, and blood-based biomarker correlates. Underdiagnosis was pervasive in African …

Breaking Barriers: Harnessing Collaboration Between Individuals With Disabilities And Emergency Management In New Jersey, Daniel Wrinn

Master of Science in Emergency & Disaster Management Capstones

No abstract provided.

Comparable Endogenous Immune Reconstitution, Car-T Expansion, And Cytokine Profiles With Bendamustine Versus Fludarabine/Cyclophosphamide Lymphodepletion, Matthew Schwede

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Silent Bones, Visible Changes: Increasing Osteoporosis Screening At Swedish Fmr, Alissa Kummer, Devin Beecher, Tara Ahmadi, Amanda Maxwell

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Quality Improvement: Referral Algorithm For Team-Based Care Of Blood Pressure Control, Hai-Yen Tang, Elise Gibson

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Beyond Ce Credit: A Retrospective Analysis Of Cme And Cpe Impact In A Health System, Diem Pham, Michelle Eng, Brandon Wu

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Nurses' Perspectives On Caring For Critically Ill Children During A Measles Outbreak: A Case Report, Nicole Roehrig

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Gum Chewing On Postoperative Ileus Following Open Heart Surgery At Swedish Cherry Hill, Jacinta Smith

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Design For Belonging: Environmental Factors Shaping Safety, Trust, And Engagement, Lauren Cole, Rebecca Hawkins

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

Innovating Cauti Prevention: The Cauti Café And Multidisciplinary Catheter Stewardship At The Bedside, Erik Enquist, Jennifer Neal, Naz Akhavan, Harnishad Binner

All Podium Presentations

No abstract provided.

June 2026, Swosu Rural Health Center

RURAL ROCKS

Rural Rocks

Second Generation Antipsychotics in the Treatment of Depression

Dr. Debra L. Stevens, Pharm.D., BCPP 

Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as depression, affects 1 in 5 individuals in their lifetime.¹ Worldwide approximately 246 to 286 million individuals are afflicted with MDD.² MDD may cause significant morbidity and disability. The World Health Organization estimates that MDD will be one of the leading causes of disease burden by 2030.²

A significant number of patients diagnosed with MDD do not respond adequately despite appropriate treatment with antidepressants.² Treatment resistance may occur in up to one-third of patients …

An Obligatory Role For Agrp Neurons In Maintaining Body Temperature During Time-Restricted Feeding, Cunjin Su, Jing Cai, Yuanzhong Xu, Benjamin R Arenkiel, Qingchun Tong

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Homeotherms maintain a steady body temperature through thermoregulation, a process critical for survival during fasting, in which the brain has to defend energy-costly body temperature while reducing energy expenditure to conserve energy reserve; however, the neural basis for defending body temperature remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that AgRP neuron lesion led to lethality during time-restricted feeding on chow but not on HFD, and caused no obvious impact on HFD-induced obesity or obesity-reducing responses to glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonism. The lesion disrupted adaptive feeding behaviors during time-restricted feeding and reduced motivational feeding on chow. Notably, the lethality was caused by hypothermia …

Understanding And Enhancing Suicide Prevention Strategies In The Military: The Roles Of Culture, Leadership, And Command Climate, Kelly Johanna Pires

Dissertations

Military service members are shaped and molded to fit a military culture that emphasizes mission readiness and continuous preparedness. Countless hours are spent training for various situations that can arise. Many trainings are geared toward worst-case scenarios that can cause an increase in stressors and traumatic events. They are expected to demonstrate resilience and overcome adversity to remain mission-ready. This expectation to be mission-ready creates the space for mental health difficulties as well as stigma and avoidance of help-seeking behaviors. In many cases, the desire to stay mission-ready creates a barrier for conversations around mental health. The military emphasizes qualities …

Addressing Mental Health Issues And The Effectiveness Of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Mindfulness-Based Interventions Among Athletes, Shelby Jones-Stachnik

Dissertations

This literature review identifies mental health concerns among competitive athletes and evaluates psychological interventions to address these challenges. Specifically, the review explores the mental health concerns experienced by athletes engaged in high-level sport. It examines whether cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based interventions are effective approaches for improving psychological outcomes in this population. A systematic review of peer-reviewed research was conducted, and findings were synthesized to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based interventions. The review included randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and meta-analyses examining psychological interventions in athletic populations. Findings across the literature indicate that both cognitive behavioral …

Diverse Families Navigating Mental Health At The Pediatrician’S Office: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of The Interplay Of Stress, Culture, And Child Mental Health In The Primary Care Setting, Sara B. Budowsky

Dissertations

Low-income and ethnic minority youth experience high psychiatric need but persistently low participation in traditional mental health care. General pediatricians are often the first and only healthcare providers with whom many families engage around their child’s emotional and behavioral development. Using both quantitative analysis of retrospective secondary data and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of in-depth interviews with diverse caregivers, this project explored influencers of child mental health and family utilization of pediatric primary-care-based mental health services in the context of a uniquely multicultural clinic serving a predominantly Medicaid population. Three key findings include: 1) Caregiver Stress was a highly significant, …

Parkinson’S Disease Phenotype Stratification Using Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Kelly Astudillo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, with over 12 million people projected to be affected by 2040 (Dorsey et al., 2018). Deep phenotyping and stratification can provide useful information regarding PD pathogenesis and can aid in the  development of disease modifying therapies that aim to delay the progression or prevent the onset of neurodegeneration (Blandini et al., 2019; Smith & Schapira, 2022). Utilizing multivariate methods such as multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) permits for the simultaneous analysis of distinct data modalities. To the best of our knowledge, MCA has not been previously used to explore phenotype patterns …

A Predictive Coding Account Of Spatial Working Memory Following Prophylactic Levetiracetam Administration Prior To Traumatic Brain Injury, Omeima Mutwali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) symptom prevention and remediation is an important area of research that would benefit vulnerable groups, including active-duty and veteran soldiers. These patients can sustain penetrative forces in fields of combat or in training, which result in focal lesions that trigger inflammatory and degenerative processes in the brain. Both primary and secondary injuries are associated with changes to cognition, behavior and affective state. This disease poses increased risk of epileptogenesis, as well. Given these outcomes, prior research has evaluated levetiracetam (LEV) as a prophylactic treatment for seizures, cognitive deficits and negative emotionality. LEV acts as a presynaptic …

Investigating Individual And Group Level Mediators Of Fear Acquisition, Rachel S. Lese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ability to discriminate between cues predictive of threat vs. safety (fear acquisition) and subsequently update fear responding when contingencies change (fear extinction) is crucial to survival for all organisms. While these processes have been the subject of intense experimental scrutiny for several decades, most human fear learning studies have focused primarily on extinction learning and fear recovery processes, with less focus on fear acquisition itself. Indeed, researchers typically aim to minimize variability during fear acquisition in order to rule out differences in extinction being driven by variability during the initial learning phase. Thus, experimental protocols are often optimized to …

Exploring The Influence Of Ear-Level Devices On Adult Perceptions Across Professional, Social, And Educational Settings, Lucia R. Berry

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: The hearing aid market is continuously advancing to address the increasing prevalence of hearing loss and the barriers to obtaining hearing aids. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Apple AirPods Pro 2 devices to function as over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. This is an alternative option to manage hearing difficulties; however, it presents secondary complications related to headphone use and stigma.

Objective: Limited research is available regarding attitudes towards individuals wearing Apple AirPods Pro 2 as OTC hearing aids. This study intended to analyze if people’s pre-established perceptions of Apple AirPods shift once they learn they are being used …

Computational Insights Into Nucleosome Dynamics In Epigenetics Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Rutika Patel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Nucleosome core particles (NCP) are the building blocks that form a highly organized and compact chromatin structure. Nucleosomes package DNA in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. The NCP consists of about 147 base pairs of DNA wrapped around the histone octamer, with 1.65 superhelical turns in a left-handed manner. The histone octamer is composed of two copies of H3, H4, H2A, and H2B. Together with histone H1 and linker DNA, they further assemble into a higher-order chromatin structure. The nucleosome complex is stabilized by electrostatic interactions between positively charged histone residues and the negatively charged DNA backbone. To effectively access …

Enhancing Ecological Validity In Speech-In-Noise Testing: Integrating Virtual Reality For A Multisensory Audiological Experience, Paulina Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the remarkable advances in hearing healthcare technology, the speech recognition tests used in routine clinical audiological assessment have remained essentially the same for decades.  Monosyllabic word recognition tests in quiet, such as the Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6; Tillman & Carhart, 1966), have served as the audiology field’s default measure of speech understanding.  Modern speech-in-noise (SIN) tests, such as the QuickSIN (Killion et al., 2004), have emerged, yet they remain auditory-only, leaving an unignorable gap between what clinical tests measure and how patients communicate in daily life.  The present study examined whether pairing a standard SIN test …

Reflections And Revisionism: Rethinking The U.S. Response To Covid-19, Wendy E. Parmet

Michigan Law Review

A review of In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us. By Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee.

Exploring Psychosocial Risk Factors For Disordered Eating Among Future Healthcare Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Ayron Walker, Manan Roy, Jenna Warnock, Karlee Prater, Alisha Farris, Danielle Nunnery

Appalachian Student Healthcare Research Review

Background. The prevalence of disordered eating (DE) patterns is significantly higher among college-aged students and health-related majors. This study explored associations between DE behaviors and psychosocial risk factors, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), food insecurity, weight stigma, fat phobia, and family ‘fat talk’, among health science students at a large, rural U.S university, using an anonymous online survey.

Method. An anonymous online survey was distributed to a randomly selected, cross-sectional sample of 3,000 health science students. Participant responses (n = 550; 18.3% response rate) were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, and multiple linear regression.

Results. The sample was …

Intouch Week Of June 1, 2026, New York Medical College

InTouch

• Annual NYMC Golf Tournament Recognizes Excellence in Leadership and Service
• NYMC Announces 2026-2027 Translational Science Initiative Recipients
• Suicidality Is Key Predictor of Treatment-Resistant Focal Epilepsy
• TCDM Celebrates Class of 2026 Commencement
• Top It Off: 20% Off Select Hats
• Student Spotlight: Inspired to Innovate, Driven to Heal 
• Alumni Spotlight: A Passion for Performing Arts and Physical Therapy
• Alumni Spotlight: Two Lives in One Career

Genetic Ancestry-Concordant Ceramide Metabolism And Response To Androgen Receptor Pathway Inhibition In Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer, Sean Piwarski, Lauren Howard, Morgan Paul, Nick Bachelder, Bonnie Lacroix, Angela Clayton, Donna Allen, Julie Kephart, Andrew Armstrong, Steven Patierno, Daniel George, Terry Hyslop, Jennifer Freedman

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The authors observed differences in response between Black and White patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who were treated prospectively with androgen receptor pathway inhibition (ARPI) in the Abi Race and PANTHER studies. In addition, genetic ancestry-related single nucleotide variants in ceramide metabolism genes were associated with the time to prostate-specific antigen progression in the Abi Race study. For this report, the authors analyzed ceramide metabolites and their association with response to ARPI treatment in the Abi Race and PANTHER studies.

METHODS: Fasting serum levels were obtained from 22 Black patients and 22 White patients in the Abi …

Co-Designed Interventions Package For Enhancing Women's Resilience In Reproductive And Child Health Through Income-Generating Associations: A Human-Centered Design Study In Tanzania, Kahabi Isangula, Aminieli Itaeli Usiri, Eunice Pallangyo

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Background: Maternal and under-five mortality remain major public health concerns in many low- and middle-income countries, including Tanzania. Despite their widespread use in strengthening economic resilience, income-generating associations (IGAs) have not fully utilized their potential as platforms for addressing reproductive and child health (RCH) challenges.

Objective: This study aimed to co-design an intervention package with women participating in income-generating associations to enhance their preparedness and resilience in addressing RCH challenges in Tanzania.

Methods: A qualitative descriptive study guided by a Human-Centered Design (HCD) framework was conducted in the Arusha and Shinyanga regions of Tanzania. The study followed …

Oculocardiac Reflex Elicited From An Exenterated Orbit, Joseph Desimone, Edward H. Bedrossian

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

No abstract provided.

Socioeconomic Inequalities In Health-Related Quality Of Life During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Six-Country Comparison Using The Eq-5d-5 L, Joëlle Eijkens, Joshua M. Bonsel, You-Shan Feng, M. F. Bas Janssen, Erica I. Lubetkin, Juanita A. Haagsma

Publications and Research

Purpose

Despite the growing attention to health inequalities, there is no global consensus on how to measure socio-economic status. This study examined inequalities in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic across six countries—China, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US)—using three SES indicators: education level, income, and work status.

Methods

Between April and June 2020, individuals aged 18–75 years old completed a web-based survey. HRQoL was measured using the EQ-5D-5L Level Sum Score (LSS), where higher scores indicate poorer health. Country-specific differences in LSS across SES groups …

Sex-Based Disparities In Health Care Access And Utilization Among Patients With Atrial Fibrillation, Ji Mei May Wong, Peter R. Kowey

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: Females with atrial fibrillation (AF) experience a higher risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, and mortality than males with AF. Theories suggest that sex-based differences in hormonal, structural, and electrophysiologic factors are associated with this imbalance; we hypothesized that sex-based differences in health care access and utilization (HCAU) are also underlying factors.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether sex-based disparities in HCAU barriers exist among individuals with AF.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used data on patients with AF in the All of Us Research Program Registered Tier dataset (version 8), which contains integrated data from the electronic health record …