Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Opportunities And Challenges For Achieving Sustainable Architectural Education In Egypt, In Light Of Universal Design Approach., مي عيد خليل أحمد م/ هناء شعبان حسن

Journal of Engineering Research

الملخص يعتبر التعليم الجامعي هو المفتاح لتغيير الثقافة المهنية في مجالات التصميم، لذا يقع على عاتق المؤسسات التعليمية مسؤولية التعليم والتثقيف للطلاب الجامعيين، حيث يقدم التعليم المعماري حلولاً مجدية للقضايا الدولية الملحة من خلال تحقيق أهداف التنمية المستدامة والتي صاغتها الأمم المتحدة، يمكن التغلب على هذه القضايا من خلال تطبيق مفهوم التصميم العالمي (الشامل) UD والذي يسعي لتبسيط الحياه علي الجميع وتحقيق الوصول والاستخدام اليسير للجميع بغض النظر عن القدرات البدنية والأعمار.

Challenges Of New And Renewable Energy In The Face Of Climate Change: An Introduction To Evaluating The Egyptian Experience, نهي أحمد عبد المنعم السيد, شاهيناز محمد علي طايع Dr, Nevine Gado Dr.

Journal of Engineering Research

أصبحت التغيرات المناخية وما يترتب عليها من المخاطر البيئية قضية من القضايا الحيوية والتي عقدت لها عدة مؤتمرات دولية مثل مؤتمر المناخ العالمي COP 27 والذي استضافته مصر في عام 2023 لوضع الحلول لتلك الأزمة. ومن أجل ذلك أصبح مردود الطاقة الجديدة والمتجددة احدى اليات وادوات التعامل مع هذه القضية الحيوية كبديل مستدام وصديق للبيئة.

The Impact Of Digital Twin On Real Estate Marketing, نوران عاطف محمد غانم Eng, مروة أحمد قمر الدولة أ.د أحمد عبد الوهاب أحمد رزق

Journal of Engineering Research

يتناول هذا البحث أولا الدراسات النظرية الأكثر حداثة التي تناولت تقنية التوأمة الرقمية وعلاقتها بالعقارات وتسويقها ونشأتها ومفهومها ومكوناتها، ثم انتقلنا الي الدراسات المخصصة لاستخداماتها في قطاع العقارات وأهميتها، ومن بعد تناولنا استخدامتها في التسويق العقاري بصفة خاصة من حيث المشاريع والبرامج. ومن ثم وضحنا أهمية تقنية التوأمة وتأثيرها علي التسويق العقاري من حيث العملاء والشركات والأسواق، وبعد ذلك تناولنا تطبيق للتسويق العقاري باستخدام تقنية التوأمة الرقمية علي التخطيط العمراني وكيفية تأثيره علي تسويق المشروع. ومن خلال القيام بدراسة استبيان لقياس أهمية تأثير تقنية التوأمة الرقمية علي أراء العملاء وتفضيلاتهم في اتخاذ القرارات واختيارهم للشركات حين ذاك، وربط تقنية التوأمة …

Sensory Garden Preferences For Autism Spectrum: Insights From Psychologists And Urban Designers, Maram Adel Ebaid

Journal of Engineering Research

Sensory gardens are outdoor environment that stimulate the senses and promote well-being for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In Egypt, there is an absence of gardens, compounded by a limited understanding of the design principles aligned with the needs of people with ASD. The research explores sensory garden features and the specific challenges faced by people with ASD. To bridge this gap, the methodology depends on qualitative approach through interviews with psychology and urban design experts. The results highlight the correlation between prevalent strategies among people with ASD and the elements of sensory gardens, considering both soft and hard …

Incorporation Of Bim Techniques In The Architectural Engineering Curriculum, Ahmed Ahmed M. Saleh, Sherif S. Abdalla

Journal of Engineering Research

In this era, the age of the digital revolution, Egyptian engineering universities and academies compete by integrating new technologies such as building information modeling (BIM) inside the educational curriculum. The research aims to examine and integrate BIM techniques within the course specifications in Egyptian universities and academies, majoring in architectural engineering pathing through the four levels of credit hours system so that, teaching the BIM courses is not limited to one or two only. Furthermore, the current situation of BIM maturity levels, dimensions, and tools implementation in some architecture universities and academies curriculum will be determined and monitored. As a …

Operating Efficiency In Accommodation Units And Its Impact On The Design Of Comprehensive Single Patient Rooms In Hospitals, نهال نبيل محمد مصطفي ، احمد هلال محمد محمد ، نادي مصطفي عبد الكريم

Journal of Engineering Research

هناك الكثير من التحديات التشغيلية والتنظيمية التي تواجهها المجموعات المهنية المختلفة داخل وحدات الإقامة في المستشفيات بسبب عدم كفاية معايير التصميم الموضوعة بالاحتياجات المطلوبة خاصة بغرف المرضي، ومن اهم التحديات التي يواجهها الاطباء وفرق التمريض والفنيين وغيرهم. القدرة السلسة على دخول غرفة المريض والتفاعل مع عناصر الغرفة بشكل واضح دون حدوث تصادمات او احتكاكات، كذلك القدرة علي القيام بالأعمال التحضيرية المتعلقة بالأنشطة التمريضية المطلوبة داخل غرف المرضي وتشمل كافة الأنشطة التي يقوم بها الشخص المهني سواء اكان طبيب ام تمريض ام فني منذ لحظة دخوله غرفة المريض وحتي اداءه المهمة المطلوبة. ويجب ان تتم هذه المهام بشكل مريح وباستجابة سريعة …

Health Policy: Food Allergy Restaurant Education Law, Joanna Ko

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Food allergies are a rising public health concern with no indication of deceleration. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project is to enact an Arkansas state law to protect the food allergy community in dining out at restaurants to increase quality of life and decrease adverse allergic reactions. The current Arkansas state legislation for restaurant food allergy employee training is absent and action needs to be taken to safeguard the food allergy community from life-threatening reactions. The methodology involved contacting the six states that have previously implemented similar food allergy legislation. It encompassed performing a thorough search …

Apomorphine Titration With And Without Anti-Emetic Pretreatment In Patients With Parkinson’S Disease Experiencing Off Episodes: A Modified Delphi Panel, Stuart H. Isaacson, Richard Dewey, Robert A. Hauser, Daniel Kremens, Rajeev Kumar, Mark Lew, William Ondo, Fernando Pagan, Kelly E. Lyons, Rajesh Pahwa

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

INTRODUCTION: In the United States (US), prophylactic treatment with the antiemetic trimethobenzamide has been used before initiating apomorphine therapy. However, US trimethobenzamide stores have been depleted, leaving uncertainty regarding whether antiemetic pretreatment is needed.

METHODS: This modified Delphi panel aimed to inform circumstances when apomorphine is initiated without antiemetic pretreatment. During Round 1, a panel of 9 US movement disorder specialists rated the appropriateness of prescribing apomorphine therapy with and without antiemetic pretreatment across 192 patient scenarios and were able to review their scores in relation to other scores. During the Round 2, consensus was defined for each scenario as …

Voices Of Wisdom: Geriatric Interviews On Self-Management Of Type 2 Diabetes In The United States-A Systematic Review And Metasynthesis, David F Lo, Ahmed Gawash, Kunal P Shah, Jasmine Emanuel, Brandon Goodwin, Don D Shamilov, Gaurav Kumar, Nathan Jean, Christian P White

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

This review is aimed at unraveling the intricacies of diabetic self-management among geriatric people, drawing on current insights and understanding the complex paths geriatric people navigate. A wide search was conducted in health-oriented databases, including CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, while gray literature was excluded. The search combined keywords and subject headings, focusing on the geriatric population, diabetes, self-management, and qualitative research. A three-tiered screening process was employed, with titles and then abstracts initially reviewed. Full-text analysis followed, with disagreements resolved among reviewers. In total, there were 248 participants included across these eight studies. …

The Effect Of Cesarean Delivery On The Neonatal Gut Microbiome In An Under-Resourced Population In The Bronx, Ny, Usa, Sandra E Reznik, Ayodele J Akinyemi, David Harary, Mariam S Latuga, Mamta Fuloria, Maureen J Charron

SKMC Student Presentations and Publications

BACKGROUND: Neonatal and early-life gut microbiome changes are associated with altered cardiometabolic and immune development. In this study, we explored Cesarean delivery effects on the gut microbiome in our high-risk, under-resourced Bronx, NY population.

RESULTS: Fecal samples from the Bronx MomBa Health Study (Bronx MomBa Health Study) were categorized by delivery mode (vaginal/Cesarean) and analyzed via 16 S rRNA gene sequencing at four timepoints over the first two years of life. Bacteroidota organisms, which have been linked to decreased risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes, were relatively reduced by Cesarean delivery, while Firmicutes organisms were increased. Organisms belonging to …

Towards Addressing Mental Health In Rural Louisiana: Blueberry Supplementation As A Natural Intervention, Katy E. Venable

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Depression and anxiety are major public health issues; however, there is an unmet need for novel effective and accessible treatments, particularly in rural communities. Blueberries are an unexplored nutraceutical for these conditions due to their excellent nutritional profile, with particularly high levels of polyphenols and anthocyanins and benefits on mood, cognition, and health. Therefore, we conducted a double-blind, randomized pilot study in a rural population. We employed a cross-over design to test the effects of 12 weeks daily ingestion of 24 g of whole freeze-dried blueberry powder versus placebo on symptoms of depression and anxiety in those diagnosed with depression …

Adapting An Intervention To Address Barriers To Pain Management In Hospice: Formative Research To Inform Empower-D For Dementia Caregivers, Karla T Washington, Morgan L Van Vleck, Todd D Becker, George Demiris, Debra Parker Oliver, Paul E Tatum, Jacquelyn J Benson, John G Cagle

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Nearly half of more than 1.7 million older Americans who receive hospice care each year have a primary or comorbid diagnosis of dementia. Pain is often undertreated in this patient population owing to myriad factors, including unmet informational needs among family caregivers.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to inform the adaptation of a pain education intervention for hospice family caregivers to the context of dementia by eliciting feedback on the educational content covered in adapted intervention materials.

DESIGN: We conducted a multimethod, formative research study to inform the adaptation of an existing, evidence-based intervention.

SETTING/SUBJECTS: The study included a purposively recruited …

Toward Concurrent Identification Of Human Activities With A Single Unifying Neural Network Classification: First Step, Andrew Smith, Musa Azeem, Chrisogonas O. Odhiambo, Pamela J. Wright Phd, Ms, Med, Rn, Cen, Hanim E. Diktas, Spencer Upton, Corby K. Martin, Brett Froeliger, Cynthia F. Corbett, Homayoun Valafar

Publications

The characterization of human behavior in real-world contexts is critical for developing a comprehensive model of human health. Recent technological advancements have enabled wearables and sensors to passively and unobtrusively record and presumably quantify human behavior. Better understanding human activities in unobtrusive and passive ways is an indispensable tool in understanding the relationship between behavioral determinants of health and diseases. Adult individuals (N = 60) emulated the behaviors of smoking, exercising, eating, and medication (pill) taking in a laboratory setting while equipped with smartwatches that captured accelerometer data. The collected data underwent expert annotation and was used to train a …

Set-Based Tests For Genetic Association Studies With Interval-Censored Competing Risks Outcomes, Zhichao Xu, Jaihee Choi, Ryan Sun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Over the past decade, massive genetic compendiums such as the UK Biobank have gathered extensive genetic and phenotypic data that hold the potential to provide unparalleled insight into the genetic etiologies of various complex diseases. However, much of the disease information is collected as time-to-event outcomes in interval-censored form, and conventional tools for genetic association analysis are often not available for this type of data. For example, set-based inference for common and rare variants analysis is a fundamental investigation in germline genetics studies, but there is a lack of approaches that can perform set-based testing when the interval-censored outcome of …

Wearable Device Case-Study: Unveiling Physiological Stress Patterns In A Neurosurgeon Operating Multiple Surgeries, Andy Suarez, Justin Braun, Gabriel J. Sanders, Yoav Ritter, Steven Vanni, Jaime Tartar, Corey A. Peacock

Journal for Sports Neuroscience

Introduction

Utilizing a wearable device, this case study aims to measure stress at different surgical durations to bridge the gap in research regarding the physiological stress of surgery. Significant stress variations throughout the surgeries are anticipated, which will provide valuable insight into the patterns of physiological stress experienced by our neurosurgeon.

Materials and Methods

One male neurosurgeon subject (n=1; age: 48; height: 188 cm; weight: 87.3 kg) conducted 82 surgeries (2023-2024). A wearable device (Whoop 4, Boston, MA) was used to monitor maximum heart rate (MAXHR), average heart rate (AVGHR), calories (CAL), strain (STR) and surgery duration (MIN). Surgeries were …

Medical School Watercooler Newsletter - July 12, 2024, Lindsay Hughes

Watercooler Newsletter

This is the July 12, 2024 edition of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine’s newsletter - Watercooler.

Contents Include

• USA scientist receives $300,000 grant for Alzheimer’s pilot study
• Medical students teach campers lessons in STEM and life
• Whiddon COM employees participate in staff retreat
• Pathology celebrates graduating residents, research symposium winners announced

Medial Patellofemoral Ligament Augmented With A Reinforced Bioinductive Implant Is Biomechanically Similar To The Native Medial Patellofemoral Ligament At Time Zero In A Cadaveric Model, Sean Mcmillan, Seth Sherman, Zachary Brown, Erik Brewer, Elizabeth Ford

Rowan-Virtua School of Translational Biomedical Engineering & Sciences Departmental Research

Purpose: To biomechanically compare primary medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) repair (MPFLr) augmented with a reinforced bioinductive implant (RBI) to the native MPFL ligament and a semitendinosus (semi-T) MPFL reconstruction (MPFLR) at time zero. Methods: Four fresh-frozen matched pair cadavers (8 knees) were used to biomechanically compare the native MPFL to augmented MPFLr (n = 4) and semi-T MPFLR (n = 4). The native MPFL (n = 8) was isolated, preserving the femoral and patellar attachments, and pulled to failure. The semi-T was harvested from 1 of the matched pairs and whipstitched, as was a 250-mm × 5-mm RBI. A standard …

Dental Hygiene Burnout In Clinical Practice From Covid-19; A Pilot Study Using Self-Reported Questionaire, Yvette Valladares

Dental Hygiene ETDs

The purpose of this study was to determine if the Covid-19 pandemic had increased feelings of burnout in registered dental hygienists who were employed in clinical practice before and during 2020. A survey of registered dental hygienists in California was employed. Participants completed a modified Maslach Burnout Inventory, to evaluate emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA). One open-ended question explored specific aspects of Covid-19 contributing to burnout. 162 surveys were completed and 139 met the inclusion criteria. Data analysis revealed that 40.29% reported high Emotional Exhaustion, 43.17% experienced low Depersonalization, and 85.61% reported high Personal Achievement. Lastly, …

Experiences Of Black Males With Generalized Anxiety Disorder During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cynthia Lynn Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative research dissertation involved exploring the intersection of race, gender, and mental health via lived experiences of Black males who were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a comprehensive understanding of how the unique sociocultural context of the pandemic influenced their experiences with anxiety. Using a qualitative Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis research design and semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of seven Black males living in various regions of the United States the interviews involved their personal experiences, coping mechanisms, and perceptions of societal and systemic factors that affected their mental health during the pandemic. …

Ergonomics And Musculoskeletal Disorders: An Evaluation Of Self-Assessment Using Surveys, Shannon L. Sherman

Dental Hygiene ETDs

Musculoskeletal disorders, MSDs, are a serious issue many dental professionals experience. It is understood that improper ergonomics are a contributing factor to developing MSDs. Several factors can be implemented into a dental hygienist’s everyday routine to help decrease the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders. The purpose of this study was to investigate how many practicing dental hygienists experience musculoskeletal pain from daily hygiene practice and how ergonomics contributes to their level of pain. The study also discovered through self-assessment, areas participating dental hygienists would be willing to improve on in their daily ergonomic practice to potentially help decrease or prevent …

Real-World Evidence Study On The Early Use Of Cemiplimab In The Uk: React-Cemi (Real World Evidence Of Advanced Cscc Treatment With Cemiplimab), Amarnath Challapalli, Grant Stewart, Heather Shaw, Peter John Davies, Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez, Edward C Ottley, Stephen Kelly

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cemiplimab was licensed in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019 for the treatment of patients with locally advanced and metastatic CSCC not suitable for curative surgery or radiotherapy (advanced CSCC [aCSCC]). No UK multi-center studies have investigated the real-world experience of cemiplimab post marketing authorization in aCSCC.

METHODS: This non-interventional retrospective study (10 UK centers) involved data collection from medical records of patients with aCSCC who initiated cemiplimab treatment between 2 July 2019 and 30 November 2020. The study period was a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 36 months post cemiplimab initiation. The primary objective was to …

The Experiences Of Icu Nurses Caring For Covid-19 Patients In Zambia, Mable Kasonde Mwila

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of ICU nurses caring for COVID-19 patients in Zambia. The problem was lack of knowledge on what intensive care unit nurses experienced while caring for COVID patients then to investigate the experiences of ICU nurses taking care of COVID patients in Lusaka, Zambia. Using Sister Callista Roy’s nursing adaptation model as a conceptual framework, the qualitative interpretative phenomenology approach was used to interview 14 participants in two hospitals in Zambia. MAXQDA software was used to organize data to develop codes and derive six themes, which were education, emotional and psychological …

Dansyl Fluorophore Functionalized Hierarchically Structured Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles As Novel Latent Fingerprint Development Agents, Lais F A M Oliveira, Lais V A T Da Silva, Artur F Sonsin, Meclycia S Alves, Cristiane V Costa, Jeane C S Melo, Nicholas Ross, Paul T Wady, Thomas Zinn, Ticiano G Do Nascimento, Eduardo J S Fonseca, Alexandro M L De Assis, A Robert Hillman, Adriana S Ribeiro

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A nanostructured hybrid material based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MCM-41) functionalized with chitosan and a fluorescent dye (dansylglycine), designated MCM-41@Ch@DnsGly, was synthesized and characterized with a view to its application for the visualization of latent fingerprints. These nanoparticles were applied as latent fingerprint developers for marks on surfaces of diverse chemical composition, topography, optical characteristics, and spatially variant nature, typical of forensically challenging evidence. For quality assessment of the enhanced fingermarks, the developed images were analyzed holistically using the UK Home Office scale, forensic protocols and, in terms of their constituent features (minutiae), using forensic software. Across a substantive collection …

Multiparametric Mri-Based Radiomic Models For Early Prediction Of Response To Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy In Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Rania M Mohamed, Bikash Panthi, Beatriz E Adrada, Medine Boge, Rosalind P Candelaria, Huiqin Chen, Mary S Guirguis, Kelly K Hunt, Lei Huo, Ken-Pin Hwang, Anil Korkut, Jennifer K Litton, Tanya W Moseley, Sanaz Pashapoor, Miral M Patel, Brandy Reed, Marion E Scoggins, Jong Bum Son, Alastair Thompson, Debu Tripathy, Vicente Valero, Peng Wei, Jason White, Gary J Whitman, Zhan Xu, Wei Yang, Clinton Yam, Jingfei Ma, Gaiane M Rauch

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is often treated with neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST). We investigated if radiomic models based on multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) obtained early during NAST predict pathologic complete response (pCR). We included 163 patients with stage I-III TNBC with multiparametric MRI at baseline and after 2 (C2) and 4 cycles of NAST. Seventy-eight patients (48%) had pCR, and 85 (52%) had non-pCR. Thirty-six multivariate models combining radiomic features from dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging had an area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) > 0.7. The top-performing model combined 35 radiomic features of relative difference between …

A Hybrid Epithelial/Mesenchymal State In Head And Neck Cancer: A Biomarker For Survival With Differential Prognosis By Self-Reported Race, Angela L Mazul, Thomas F Barrett, Graham Colditz, Anuraag S Parikh, Salma Ramadan, Jose P Zevallos, Jason T Rich, R Alex Harbison, Ryan S Jackson, Patrik Pipkorn, Paul Zolkind, Itay Tirosh, Sidharth V Puram

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the 6

METHODS: Given the overlap in gene expression between hybrid E/M malignant cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts, we utilized deconvolution of bulk RNA sequencing data from oral cavity and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We utilized our previously collected single-cell profiles to generate inferred malignant profiles and then scored these for hybrid E/M. We then conducted a survival analysis on overall and disease-free survival among self-reported Black and White Americans.

FINDINGS: The hybrid E/M state was differentially associated with head and neck cancer survival by self-reported …

Thermodynamic Coupling Of The Tandem Rrm Domains Of Hnrnp A1 Underlie Its Pleiotropic Rna Binding Functions, Jeffrey D Levengood, Davit Potoyan, Srinivasa Penumutchu, Abhishek Kumar, Qianzi Zhou, Yiqing Wang, Alexandar L Hansen, Sebla Kutluay, Julien Roche, Blanton S Tolbert

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The functional properties of RNA binding proteins (RBPs) require allosteric regulation through interdomain communication. Despite the importance of allostery to biological regulation, only a few studies have been conducted to describe the biophysical nature by which interdomain communication manifests in RBPs. Here, we show for hnRNP A1 that interdomain communication is vital for the unique stability of its amino-terminal domain, which consists of two RNA recognition motifs (RRMs). These RRMs exhibit drastically different stability under pressure. RRM2 unfolds as an individual domain but remains stable when appended to RRM1. Variants that disrupt interdomain communication between the tandem RRMs show a …

Genetic And Multi-Omic Resources For Alzheimer Disease And Related Dementia From The Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Maria Victoria Fernandez, Menghan Liu, Aleksandra Beric, Matt Johnson, Arda Cetin, Maulik Patel, John Budde, Pat Kohlfeld, Kristy Bergmann, Joseph Lowery, Allison Flynn, William Brock, Brenda Sanchez Montejo, Jen Gentsch, Nicholas Sykora, Joanne Norton, Jen Gentsch, Olga Valdez, Priyanka Gorijala, Jessie Sanford, Yichen Sun, Ciyang Wang, Dan Western, Jigyasha Timsina, Tassia Mangetti Goncalves, Anh N Do, Yun Ju Sung, Guoyan Zhao, John C Morris, Krista Moulder, David M Holtzman, Randall J Bateman, Celeste Karch, Jason Hassenstab, Chengjie Xiong, Suzanne E Schindler, Joyce Joy Balls-Berry, Tammie L S Benzinger, Richard J Perrin, Andrea Denny, B Joy Snider, Susan L Stark, Laura Ibanez, Carlos Cruchaga

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The Knight-Alzheimer Disease Research Center (Knight-ADRC) at Washington University in St. Louis has pioneered and led worldwide seminal studies that have expanded our clinical, social, pathological, and molecular understanding of Alzheimer Disease. Over more than 40 years, research volunteers have been recruited to participate in cognitive, neuropsychologic, imaging, fluid biomarkers, genomic and multi-omic studies. Tissue and longitudinal data collected to foster, facilitate, and support research on dementia and aging. The Genetics and high throughput -omics core (GHTO) have collected of more than 26,000 biological samples from 6,625 Knight-ADRC participants. Samples available include longitudinal DNA, RNA, non-fasted plasma, cerebrospinal fluid pellets, …

East African Refugee Women Seeking Health Care After Government Assistance Ends, Sylivia Chelimo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

East African refugee women arrive as a vulnerable population in their host country. Before coming to the United States, refugee women may have experienced varying levels of trauma due to civil wars, genocide, sexual assault, deaths of loved ones, terrorist attacks, being taken hostage, and torture in their home country. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of refugee women from East African countries seeking health care in the Central United States when government assistance ends. The framework of the behavioral model of health was the guide for examining the experiences of the participant refugee …

Patient-Reported Quality Of Life At Diagnosis In Adolescent And Young Adults With Cancer, Goldy C George, Clark Andersen, Xiaohui Tang, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Midhat Jafry, Maria C Swartz, Sairah Ahmed, Carlos H Barcenas, J Andrew Livingston, Michael E Roth, Michelle A T Hildebrandt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: The overall landscape of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has not been thoroughly investigated in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. Data are also lacking on how well HRQoL at the time of cancer diagnosis can prognosticate long-term survival in AYA survivors.

Patients and methods: We included 3,497 survivors of AYA cancer (age 15-39 years at diagnosis) who completed the Short-Form 12 Health Survey (SF-12) HRQoL questionnaire at diagnosis. Physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) scores were generated, with scores < 50 representing poor HRQoL. Differences in HRQoL by patient characteristics and tumor type were investigated using violin plots and t tests/analysis of variance. The effect of HRQoL on overall survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards models.

Results: Overall mean PCS and MCS scores in this racially/ethnically diverse cohort (64% White, 19% …

Learning To Express Reward Prediction Error-Like Dopaminergic Activity Requires Plastic Representations Of Time, Ian Cone, Claudia Clopath, Harel Z Shouval

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The dominant theoretical framework to account for reinforcement learning in the brain is temporal difference learning (TD) learning, whereby certain units signal reward prediction errors (RPE). The TD algorithm has been traditionally mapped onto the dopaminergic system, as firing properties of dopamine neurons can resemble RPEs. However, certain predictions of TD learning are inconsistent with experimental results, and previous implementations of the algorithm have made unscalable assumptions regarding stimulus-specific fixed temporal bases. We propose an alternate framework to describe dopamine signaling in the brain, FLEX (Flexibly Learned Errors in Expected Reward). In FLEX, dopamine release is similar, but not identical …