Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons^™

An Association Study Between Adult Blood Pressure And Time To First Cardiovascular Disease, Yongjia Pu

Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Several studies have demonstrated the association between the time to hypertension event and multiple baseline measurements for adults, yet other survival cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes such as high cholesterol and heart attack have been somewhat less considered. The Fels Longitudinal Study (FLS) provides us an opportunity to connect adult blood pressure (BP) at certain ages to the time to first CVD outcomes. The availability of long-term serial BP measurements from FLS also potentially allows us to evaluate if the trend of the measured BP biomarkers over time predicts survival outcomes in adulthood through statistical modeling.

METHODS: When the reference …

Transposon Based Gene Therapy As A Treatment For Cancer, Jacob Stauber

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Gene therapy is the use of genes to treat or prevent diseases. Diseases such as cancer, which are difficult to treat using conventional methods, can be treated using gene therapy. The transport of the therapeutic transgene can be accomplished using viral or non-viral methods. However, widespread use of viral vectors is limited due to its high cost of manufacture and safety concern. Non-viral vectors are limited in their effectiveness. The use of transposons such as the Sleeping Beauty transposon system can effectively deliver the transgene with less concern than viral vectors. This review discusses the various vectors and treatment strategies …

The Effects Of Home-Based Pilates In Healthy College-Age Females, Betsy Donahoe-Fillmore, Mary Insana Fisher, C. Jayne Brahler

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Objectives: To quantify and determine the effects of Pilates on core endurance, hamstring flexibility, balance, body composition/mass and perceived stress level in healthy college age females.

Study Design: Randomized controlled trial design.

Background: Emerging research on the Pilates technique is inconclusive regarding benefits to core endurance, flexibility, balance, body mass, and perceived stress.

Methods and Measures: Female college students (n=57; 18-35 years old) were randomly assigned to a Pilates group, who exercised at home with a DVD, or a control group who did not engage in Pilates practice. Core endurance, hamstring flexibility, balance, body composition and stress measurements were taken …

Drug Interactions With Glutaredoxin Orthologues, Kahlilah R. Napper, Thomas C. Leeper, Ram Khattri, Daniel Morris, Caroline Davis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Glutaredoxin, an enzymatic protein, is an important component of cell viability and function. It catalyzes reactions involved in DNA synthesis and innate immunity [1,4]. Glutaredoxin is also essential in antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacterial species. Pseudomonas aeruginosa in particular is responsible for infecting the lung tissue of its human hosts, resulting in the development of pneumonia and cystic fibrosis [3]. Because glutaredoxin is pertinent in cell proliferation of eukaryotic and bacterial cells alike, medicinal fragments that take advantage of the subtle differences in protein structure of the orthologous proteins can be synthesized and enhanced to bind bacterial glutaredoxins, without inhibiting …

Dysregulation Of Micrornas In Blood As Biomarkers For Diagnosing Prostate Cancer, Rhonda W. Daniel

Theses and Dissertations

Prostate cancer is the most common noncutaneous cancer among men, yet current diagnostic methods are insufficient and more reliable diagnostic markers need to be developed. The answer that can bridge this gap and enable more efficient diagnoses may lie in microRNAs. These small, single stranded RNA molecules impact protein expression at the translational level and regulate important cellular pathways. Dysregulation of these small RNA molecules can have tumorigenic effects on cells and lead to many types of cancers.

Currently the Prostate-Stimulating Antigen (PSA) is used as a diagnostic marker for prostate cancer. However, many factors can elevate PSA levels such …

Mapping The Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Sensorimotor Integration During The Perception And Performance Of Wallowing, Megan E. Cuellar

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Similar to other complex sequences of muscle activity, swallowing relies heavily upon ‘sensorimotor integration.’ It is well known that the premotor cortex and primary sensorimotor cortices provide critical sensorimotor contributions that help control the strength and timing of swallowing muscle effectors. However, the temporal dynamics of sensorimotor integration remains unclear, even when performed normally without neurological compromise. Recent advances in EEG analysis blind source separation techniques via independent component analysis offer a novel and exciting opportunity to measure cortical sensorimotor activity in realtime during swallowing, concurrently with muscle activity during swallow initiation. In the current study, mu components were identified, …

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Hybrid Tpr Technology For Obtaining Structural And Mechanistic Insights Into Tpr Proteins, Shanshan Yu

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Tetratricopeptide (TPR) repeats are a 34-residue helix-turn-helix motif that when repeated pack into a superhelical structure. TPR domains are frequently found mediating protein-protein interactions, often through a central groove. One protein complex bearing numerous TPR repeats is the Anaphase Promoting Complex (APC). The anaphase-promoting complex (APC) is a multi-subunit complex, which orchestrates mitotic cell cycles. APC is an E3 ligase in the ubiquitin cascade, and directs the 26S proteosome degradation of cell-cycle regulators. Throughout mitotic progression, proteins that are key regulators of the cell cycle are assembled with polyubiquitin chains by APC.

One domain of the human APC is comprised …

Effects Of Pde4 Pathway Inhibition In Rat Experimental Stroke, Fan Yang, Rachita K. Sumbria, Dong Xue, Chuanhui Yu, Dan He, Shuo Liu, Annlia Paganini-Hill, Mark J. Fisher

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

PURPOSE: The first genomewide association study indicated that variations in the phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) gene confer risk for ischemic stroke. However, inconsistencies among the studies designed to replicate the findings indicated the need for further investigation to elucidate the role of the PDE4 pathway in stroke pathogenesis. Hence, we studied the effect of global inhibition of the PDE4 pathway in two rat experimental stroke models, using the PDE4 inhibitor rolipram. Further, the specific role of the PDE4D isoform in ischemic stroke pathogenesis was studied using PDE4D knockout rats in experimental stroke. METHODS: Rats were subjected to either the …

The Kras/Mapk Pathway And Ligand Independent Activation Of Erα: Implications For The Treatment Of Endometrial Cancer, Kari Ring

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Hormonal therapy remains a first line option for the treatment of recurrent endometrial cancer (EC), however, many tumors demonstrate de novo or acquired resistance. Member kinases of the PI3K/AKT and Ras/MAPK pathways activate estrogen receptor α (ERα) independent of estrogen, however, few studies have evaluated the role of the Ras/MAPK pathway in predicting response to hormonal therapy in EC. The aims of this project were to evaluate the role of ligand independent activation of ERα in EC and to explore therapeutic implications for the treatment of recurrent EC.

A xenograft model for recurrent EC was used to evaluate the effect …

Utilizing Haplotypes For Sensitive Snp Array-Based Discovery Of Somatic Chromosomal Mutations, Selina M. Vattathil

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Somatic copy-number (CN) gains and losses and copy-neutral loss of heterozygosity (CNLOH) frequently occur in tumors and play a major role in the progression of disease by altering gene dosage and unmasking deleterious recessive variants. Characterizing these mutations in an individual tumor sample is therefore critical for research on the relationship of specific mutations to disease outcome and for clinical decision-making based on mutations with known impact. A pervasive hindrance to sensitive detection of these mutations is genetic heterogeneity and high levels of contaminating normal cells in tumor samples, which limit the fraction of cells carrying informative mutations. The method …

Application Of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Based Metabolomics To Study The Central Metabolism Of Staphylococci, Bo Zhang

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Metabolomics studies the collection of small molecules (metabolites) involved in enzymatically catalyzed reactions, cell signaling and cellular structure. Perturbations in metabolite concentrations have been used to reflect the activity of corresponding enzymes or proteins. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a well-known approach for the structure determination of biological macromolecules. Alternatively, NMR has recently been established as a valuable tool of metabolomics, in which NMR spectral signals correlate small molecules with cellular activities. This has been accomplished through the chemometric analysis of high-throughput one dimensional ¹H spectra (metabolic fingerprinting) and quantitative metabolite identification based on two dimensional ¹H, …

A Retrospective Chart Review To Determine Proper Stress Test Utilization In Low Risk Chest Pain Patients, Yassir Nawaz Md, Bilal Ayub Md

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Characterizing The Response Of Multidrug-Resistant Klebsiella Pneumoniae Species To The Application Of A Phage Cocktail, Steven Liu

Symposium

Project Summary: The application of bacteriophages to treat bacterial infections is known as phage therapy, which takes advantage of bacteriophage’s natural ability to infect and lyse bacterial hosts. Phages have been shaped by billions of years of evolution to be highly specialized deliverers of bactericidal agents to the cytoplasm of their target bacteria. Ever since discovery of bacteriophages in 1915, phage therapy was recognized as a potentially powerful tool for eliminating bacterial infections. The effectiveness of phage therapy can be increased by creating a mixture of multiple phages to target a wider variety of bacterial strains. Furthermore, phage therapy has …

Predicting Targeted Drug Combinations Based On Pareto Optimal Patterns Of Coexpression Network Connectivity, Nadia M. Penrod, Casey S. Greene, Jason H. Moore

Dartmouth Scholarship

Molecularly targeted drugs promise a safer and more effective treatment modality than conventional chemotherapy for cancer patients. However, tumors are dynamic systems that readily adapt to these agents activating alternative survival pathways as they evolve resistant phenotypes. Combination therapies can overcome resistance but finding the optimal combinations efficiently presents a formidable challenge. Here we introduce a new paradigm for the design of combination therapy treatment strategies that exploits the tumor adaptive process to identify context-dependent essential genes as druggable targets. We have developed a framework to mine high-throughput transcriptomic data, based on differential coexpression and Pareto optimization, to investigate drug-induced …

Eculizumab In The Successful Treatment Of Postpartum Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome - A Case Report, Craig A. Mackaness Do, Frederick S. Fleszler Md

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Molecular Pap Biomarkers For Cervical Cancer Risk Assessment In Thinprep® Clinical Specimens, Jennifer Taylor

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 500,000 patients are diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide each year, thus making it the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infections induce cervical dysplasia by increasing the expression of two viral oncogenes, E6 and E7. Utilization of the Papanicolaous smear test (Pap test) has contributed to a decrease in morbidity and mortality of cervical cancer; however, subjective analysis of cell morphology with a limited amount of cells has led to a substantial rate of false positive and false negative diagnoses. A more objective and sensitive diagnostic tool for the detection of …

Variation In Feeding Practices Following The Norwood Procedure., Linda M. Lambert, Nancy A. Pike, Barbara Medoff-Cooper, Victor Zak, Victoria L. Pemberton, Lisa Young-Borkowski, Martha L. Clabby, Kathryn N. Nelson, Richard G. Ohye, Bethany Trainor, Karen Uzark, Nancy Rudd, Louise Bannister, Rosalind Korsin, David S. Cooper, Christian Pizarro, Sinai C. Zyblewski, Bronwyn H. Bartle, Richard V. Williams, Pediatric Heart Network Investigators, Girish S. Shirali

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVES: To assess variation in feeding practice at hospital discharge after the Norwood procedure, factors associated with tube feeding, and associations among site, feeding mode, and growth before stage II.

STUDY DESIGN: From May 2005 to July 2008, 555 subjects from 15 centers were enrolled in the Pediatric Heart Network Single Ventricle Reconstruction Trial; 432 survivors with feeding data at hospital discharge after the Norwood procedure were analyzed.

RESULTS: Demographic and clinical variables were compared among 4 feeding modes: oral only (n = 140), oral/tube (n = 195), nasogastric tube (N-tube) only (n = 40), and gastrostomy tube (G-tube) only …

Detection Of Homocysteine With Bridged Viologen Chemical Probes, Davin Rautiola

Dissertations and Theses

Increased blood plasma concentrations of the aminothiol homocysteine (Hcy) are associated with a variety of disease states including those which cause impaired renal function, many forms of cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Therefore, Hcy has the potential to be a significant diagnostic biomarker. Routine monitoring of Hcy plasma concentration is encumbered by the time and resources required to quantify Hcy using currently accepted instrumental analysis methods. As part of the continuing effort to develop a quick, reliable, inexpensive, and user-friendly test to quantify Hcy at the point of care, we have designed a series of novel colorimetric …

Chemopreventive Effects Of Pterostilbene In Metastatic Prostate Cancer Cells, Phillip A. Zook

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

Recent studies find that pterostilbene (PTS) exhibits more favorable drug properties and similar chemopreventive effects to its structural analogue resveratrol (RSV). However, few studies describe the activity of PTS in prostate cancer (PCa). Here, we conducted cell count experiments to assess the effects of PTS on metastatic PCa cell viability and to compare the potency of PTS to RSV in this respect. We also performed experiments to assess the effects of PTS on the androgen receptor (AR) and AR-mediated events. We used qPCR to measure the mRNA levels of the androgenresponsive gene (ARG), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and Western blots to …

An Analysis Of Abnormal Electrocardiograms In First And Second Year Medical School Students, Molly Anne Kalish

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

The high stress level placed upon medical school students, particularly during their first and second didactic years, may have a negative effect on their health. Although surveys and subjective questionnaires have been used to evaluate the effects medical school has upon a student’s cardiovascular health, there has been little clinical data obtained to confirm this notion. The aim of this longitudinal study was to demonstrate whether any abnormal cardiovascular parameters, specifically QTc wave interval, cardiac axis vector and blood pressure abnormalities, could be documented to occur in two different classes of medical students during their first two years. Such information …

Comparison Of Semi-Automated And Manual Measurements Of Carotid Intima-Media Thickening, Oscar Mac Ananey, G Mellotte, V Maher

Articles

Carotid intima-media thickening (CIMT) is a marker of both arteriosclerotic and atherosclerotic risks. Technological advances have semiautomated CIMT image acquisition and quantification. Studies comparing manual and automated methods have yielded conflicting results possibly due to plaque inclusion in measurements. Low atherosclerotic risk subjects (n = 126) were recruited to minimise the effect of focal atherosclerotic lesions on CIMT variability. CIMT was assessed by high-resolution B-mode ultrasound (Philips HDX7E, Phillips, UK) images of the common carotid artery using both manual and semiautomated methods (QLAB, Phillips, UK). Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the mean differences of paired measurements (Bland-Altman method) were used …

The Clinical Utility Of The Halosperm Assay And The Development Of A Simplified Method Of Human Semen Storage For The Testing Of Sperm Dna Fragmentation, Ashleigh Cavell Mcevoy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Male infertility is typically diagnosed upon routine semen analysis following the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) semen analysis manual. Recent editions of the manual have essentially changed the diagnosis of a semen sample, prompting debate between experts as to which edition should be followed. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) integrity analysis is proving to be a useful adjunct to semen analysis as 15% of infertile men have a normal semen analysis but they have an increased DNA fragmentation level (DFL) which has been associated with increased disease incidence in any resultant offspring. However, such tests are not endorsed by the WHO, possibly due …

Scanned Ion Beam Therapy For Thoracic Tumors, John Gordon Eley

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Although frequently cured of Hodgkin lymphoma, adolescents and young adults can develop radiation induced second cancers. These patients could potentially benefit from scanned ion radiotherapy yet likely would require motion mitigation strategies. In theory, four-dimensional (4D) optimization of ion beam fields for individual motion states of respiration can enable superior sparing of healthy tissue near moving targets, compared to other motion mitigation strategies. Furthermore, carbon-ion therapy can sometimes provide greater relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for cell sterilization in a target but nearly equivalent RBE in tissue upstream of the target, compared to proton therapy. Thus, we expected that for some …

We Are… Bridging Medicine And Science, Vol. 1, Issue 3, Fall 2013, Marshall University Biomedical Sciences

We Are... Bridging Medicine Science

No abstract provided.

High Dose, Variable Length, N-Acetylcysteine (Hinac) Therapy For Late-Presenting Acetaminophen Poisoning, Jessica K. Eygnor Do, Suprina Dorai Md, Philip W. Moore Do, J Ward Donovan Md, Keith K. Burkhart Md

Department of Emergency Medicine

No abstract provided.

Development Of Hif-1Α/Hif-1Β Heterodimerization Inhibitors Using A Novel Bioluminescence Reporter Assay System For In Vitro High Throughput Screening And In Vivo Imaging, Yun-Chen Chiang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Tumor growth often outpaces its vascularization, leading to development of a hypoxic tumor microenvironment. In response, an intracellular hypoxia survival pathway is initiated by heterodimerization of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α and HIF-1β, which subsequently upregulates the expression of several hypoxia-inducible genes, promotes cell survival and stimulates angiogenesis in the oxygen-deprived environment. Hypoxic tumor regions are often associated with resistance to various classes of radio- or chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore, development of HIF-1α/β heterodimerization inhibitors may provide a novel approach to anti-cancer therapy. To this end, a novel approach for imaging HIF-1α/β heterodimerization in vitro and in vivo was developed in this study …

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis Of Human Skin Tissue Sections Ex-Vivo: Evaluation Of The Effects Of Tissue Processing And Dewaxing, Syed Mehmood Ali, Franck Bonnier, Ali Tfayli, Helen Lambkin, Kathleen Flynn, Vincent Mcdonagh, Claragh Healy, Thomas Lee, Fiona Lyng, Hugh Byrne

Articles

Raman spectroscopy coupled with K-means clustering analysis (KMCA) is employed to elucidate the biochemical structure of human skin tissue sections, and the effects of tissue processing. Both hand and thigh sections of human cadavers were analysed in their unprocessed and formalin fixed paraffin processed (FFPP) and subsequently dewaxed forms. In unprocessed sections, KMCA reveals clear differentiation of the stratum corneum, intermediate underlying epithelium and dermal layers for sections from both anatomical sites. The stratum corneum is seen to be relatively rich in lipidic content; the spectrum of the subjacent layers is strongly influenced by the presence of melanin, while that …

Characterization Of Differentiation And Prognostic Biomarkers On Cd8+ Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes In Metastatic Melanoma, Richard C. Wu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

CD8⁺ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) frequently infiltrate tumors, yet most melanoma patients fail to undergo tumor regression. We studied the differentiation of the CD8⁺ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) from 44 metastatic melanoma patients using known T-cell differentiation markers. We also compared CD8⁺ TIL against the T cells from matched melanoma patients’ peripheral blood. We discovered a novel subset of CD8⁺ TIL co-expressing early-differentiation markers, CD27, CD28, and a late/senescent CTL differentiation marker, CD57. This CD8⁺CD57⁺ TIL expressed a cytolytic enzyme, granzyme B (GB), yet did not express another cytolytic pore-forming molecule, perforin (Perf). In …

An Informational Algorithm As The Basis For Perception-Action Control Of The Instantaneous Axes Of The Knee, Wangdo Kim, Margarida M. Espanha, António P. Veloso, Duarte Araújo, Filipa João, Luis Carrão, Sean S. Kohles

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Traditional locomotion studies emphasize an optimization of the desired movement trajectories while ignoring sensory feedback. We propose an information based theory that locomotion is neither triggered nor commanded but controlled. The basis for this control is the information derived from perceiving oneself in the world. Control therefore lies in the human-environment system. In order to test this hypothesis, we derived a mathematical foundation characterizing the energy that is required to perform a rotational twist, with small amplitude, of the instantaneous axes of the knee (IAK). We have found that the joint’s perception of the ground reaction force may be replaced …

Just Beautiful Portrays Of The Mind? The Relevance Of Aesthetic Strategies On Knowledge Creation In Neuroscience, Valerie Kummer

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

We live in the age of big data. All types of data are being generated at an increasing rate but theories about the strategies and methods to visualize them is lagging. One of the main challenges we face today in research is to keep up with the massive amounts of data we produce (Allen, Elena A. et.al, 2012). Especially in the field of neuroscience and its use of imaging technologies, the vast array of data has risen to such a high number that it is impossible to grasp the inherent information without additional software tools and intelligent interfaces. Only through …