Diseases Commons^™

Can Viruses Cause Lupus?, Stephen I. Reeder

Selected Honors Theses

Like so many autoimmune diseases, the exact cause of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remains unknown. Evidence points to both genetics and environment playing roles in the onset of the disease, but neither acts independent of the other. Genetics are the easier of the two to study with recent advances in the field making it easier to isolate genes shared by individuals with the disease. However, genetic studies reveal that there is almost certainly an environmental component to the development of SLE. The underlying pathology and existing research on environmental contributors to the development of SLE suggest that viruses could potentially …

The Effects Of E-Vapor On The Pathogenesis Of Rheumatoid Arthritis Mouse Models And Potential Implications For Future Generations, Christiana Daas

Selected Honors Theses

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most prevalent autoimmune disease. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has no cure, and the direct cause of the disease is still unknown. The two leading hypotheses concerning its etiology are based on the effects of HLA-DRB1 gene expression, and cigarette smoke. Conjunctively, the use of vaping devices amongst adolescents has increased significantly since introduced in 2007. There is no long-term data on the effects of e-vapor and its aerosols on bodily health. Cigarette smoke is the most noteworthy environmental factor contributing to RA therefore the question is raised as to whether or not vaping relates to rheumatoid arthritis …

Contraceptive Methods In The United States: The Question Of Abortive Mechanisms, Tara Ferenczy

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis reviews the many methods of contraception available in the United States. Although society’s understanding of women’s health has become a major topic, there is still a significant deficit of information regarding how the accessible methods affect women’s bodies, specifically reproductive tissue. The thesis analyzes numerous contraceptive options focusing specifically on the mechanisms of action to determine whether options have abortifacient properties so that readers may develop educated opinions regarding medical and ethical uses. Information involving strengths and limitations of each technique and the effects on both the female body and the reproductive material assist in understanding the process …

Dana Drozina Ll.M. '21: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Dana Drozina

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Professor Jennifer S. Stevenson: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Jennifer S. Stevenson

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Professor Jeffrey Bellin: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Jeffrey Bellin

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Samy W. Abdallah '21: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Samy W. Abdallah

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Julian Miller '23: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Julian Miller

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Professor Stacy Kern-Scheerer: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Stacy Kern-Scheerer

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Tobacco Smoke Carcinogens Induce Dna Repair Machinery Function Loss: Protection By Carbon Nanotubes, Anukriti Dhasmana, Anupam Dhasmana, Hobani Yahya H, Abdullah Farasani, Mahmoud Habibullah, Freah L. Alshammary, Saif Khan, Shafiul Haque, Mohtashim Lohani

School of Medicine Publications

Purpose: DNA damage is a continuous process occurring within the cells caused by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, but it gets repaired regularly. If the DNA repair process is faulty, the incidences of damages/mutations can accumulate in cells resulting in cell transformation. It is hypothesized that the negative variations in DNA repair pathways in even at one point viz. genetic, translational or posttranslational stage may fairly be crucial for the beginning and development of carcinogenesis. Therefore, we investigated the potential of tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNs) related carcinogens to interact with the enzymes involved in DNA repair mechanisms in the current study. …

Ruptured Mycotic Reverse Saphenous Vein Graft Aneurysm: A Late Complication Of Mediastinitis, Yasir Bilal Khan, Shiraz Hashmi, Saulat Hasnain Fatimi

Section of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Reverse saphenous vein graft aneurysm (RSVGA) is a rare complication that occurs after coronary bypass grafting surgery. Mycotic aneurysm of reverse saphenous vein graft is even more rare. We describe the case of a 76-year-old man who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting 10 years back and had mediastinitis four to five months after surgery. He presented with chest pain in July 2017 and was diagnosed as NSTEMI. Angiography showed left main coronary artery disease (90%) with aneurysm of reverse saphenous vein graft to right posterior descending artery(RPDA). Emergent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of the left main artery was performed as …

Type Iii Gastric Neuroendocrine Tumor: Case Report Of A Rare Gastric Carcinoma, Christopher L. Orpiano, Michael Quinn, Gurjeet Kang, Aric Tucker, Aric Tucker, Lakshminarasimhan Venu, Joseph Staffetti

Gastroenterology

No abstract provided.

Haiti's Hiv Surveillance System: Past, Present, And Future, Chris Delcher, Ermane G. Robin, Daniella Myriam Pierre

Pharmacy Practice and Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Oral Conditions In Hepatitis C Virus‐Infected Egyptian Patients: A Case‐Control Study, Asmaa Ras, Eman Khalil

Dentistry

Introduction: One of the serious public health problems nowadays is the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Hepatitis C virus infection morbidity is associated with a diversity of extrahepatic disorders counting the oral cavity. Some of the oral manifestations are oral diseases like lichen planus and xerostomia and side effects of the virus therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the oral health status, of patients with and without virus C in a sample of the Egyptian population.
Methods: Data were collected from the Gastroenterology department at Benha University. The study was designed as a case-control study; …

Retrospective Study Examining Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome In Covid+ Patients, Lily Chen, Areeb Masood, Ayman Khaddam, Alyssa Chen, Ildiko Lingvay, Henry Kwang

MEDI 9331 Scholarly Activities Clinical Years

Purpose: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions of people all over the world with worse proven outcomes in those with certain comorbid conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary complications. The Rio Grande Valley located in South Texas with a largely Hispanic population has been hit especially hard during this pandemic with over 3,200 virus-related deaths. This region’s high population of diabetic and obese patients is likely correlated with the especially high mortality rate. While it is understood the impact that obesity has on worsening health outcomes, further research is needed to better understand whether more adverse COVID-19 …

Validation And Application Of A Novel Target-Based Whole-Cell Screen To Identify Antifungal Compounds, Christian Alexander Dejarnette

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Traditional approaches to drug discovery are inefficient and have several key limitations that constrain our capacity to rapidly identify and develop novel experimental therapeutics. To address this, we have devised a second-generation target-based whole-cell screening assay based on the principles of competitive fitness, which can rapidly identify target-specific and physiologically-active compounds. Briefly, strains expressing high, intermediate, and low levels of a preselected target protein were constructed, tagged with spectrally distinct fluorescent proteins (FPs), and mixed together. The pooled strains were then grown in the presence of various small molecules, and the relative growth of each strain within the mixed culture …

Covid-19 And The Case For Global Development, Johan A. Oldekop, Rory Horner, David Hulme, Roshan Adhikari, Bina Agarwal, Matthew Alford, Oliver Bakewell, Nicola Banks, Stephanie Barrientos, Tanja Bastia, Anthony J. Bebbington, Upasak Das, Ralitza Dimova, Richard Duncombe, Charis Enns, David Fielding, Christopher Foster, Timothy Foster, Tomas Frederiksen, Ping Gao, Tom Gillespie, Richard Heeks, Sam Hickey, Martin Hess, Nicholas Jepson, Ambarish Karamchedu, Uma Kothari, Aarti Krishnan, Tom Lavers, Aminu Mamman, Diana Mitlin, Negar Monazam Tabrizi

Geography

COVID-19 accentuates the case for a global, rather than an international, development paradigm. The novel disease is a prime example of a development challenge for all countries, through the failure of public health as a global public good. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the falsity of any assumption that the global North has all the expertise and solutions to tackle global challenges, and has further highlighted the need for multi-directional learning and transformation in all countries towards a more sustainable and equitable world. We illustrate our argument for a global development paradigm by examining the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic …

Professor Katherine Mims Crocker: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Katherine Mims Crocker

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Sylvanna Gross ’23: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Sylvanna Gross

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Mechelle King ’21: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Mechelle King

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Cleidiane Perez Ll.M. '21: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Cleidiane Perez

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Associate Dean Laura N. Shepherd: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Laura N. Shepherd

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Professor Aaron-Andrew Bruhl: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Max Chu '22: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Max Chu

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Joseph Demarco '22: Reflections On The Fall 2020 Semester, Joseph Demarco

Law School Personal Reflections on COVID-19

No abstract provided.

Improving Data For Decision-Making: A Toolkit For Cervical Cancer Prevention And Control Programmes, Elkanah Omenge, Edwin Were, Oliver Rode, Kapten Muthoka, Michael Byczkowski, Heike Sartor, Davy Vanden Broeck, Dietmar Schmidt, Miriam Reuschenbach, Magnus Von Knebel Doeberitz

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Background: Screening of unvaccinated women remains essential to mitigate the high morbidity/mortality of cervical cancer. Here, we compared visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), recommended by WHO as the most cost-effective screening approach in LMICs, with HPV-based screening, and usage of p16INK4a/Ki-67 dual stain cytology.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled women participating in a VIA-based cervical cancer screening program in two peri-urban health centers of Kenya. Consenting women had a VIA examination preceded by collection of a liquid-based cytology sample from the cervix stored in PreservCyt medium (Hologic®). Analysis of all samples included a hrHPV DNA test and evaluation of a …

Effect Of Bout Length On Gait Measures In People With And Without Parkinson’S Disease During Daily Life, Vrutangkumar Shah, James Mcnames, Graham Harker, Martina Mancini, Patricia Carlson-Kuhta, John G. Nutt, Mahmoud El-Gohary, Carolin Curtze, Fay Horak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although the use of wearable technology to characterize gait disorders in daily life is increasing, there is no consensus on which specific gait bout length should be used to characterize gait. Clinical trialists using daily life gait quality as study outcomes need to understand how gait bout length affects the sensitivity and specificity of measures to discriminate pathological gait as well as the reliability of gait measures across gait bout lengths. We investigated whether Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects how gait characteristics change as bout length changes, and how gait bout length affects the reliability and discriminative ability of gait measures …

Reorganising For Covid-19 Pandemic: A Review Of Structural Modifications By The Department Of Internal Medicine In Low To Middle-Income Countries, Shakeel Ur Rehman, Muhammad Arslan Ahmed, Ghufran Adnan, Maria Ali Khan

Department of Medicine

Scientists classified the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a novel coronavirus on January 7, 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the SARS-CoV-2 outburst a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020. Since its origin, this virus has disrupted the best healthcare systems, economies, and strained financial resources; and for underdeveloped countries' healthcare systems, the virus has become a crisis. To tackle the potential hazards from this virus, our Department restructured the services that not only helped us to cope with the pandemic, but also provided an example to copy for other contemporary institutes. …

Human Genes Differ By Their Uv Sensitivity Estimated Through Analysis Of Uv-Induced Silent Mutations In Melanoma, Ivan P Gorlov, Christopher I Amos, Spiridon Tsavachidis, Colin Begg, Eva Hernando, Chao Cheng, Ronglai Shen, Irene Orlow, Li Luo, Marc S Ernstoff, Joel Parker, Nancy E Thomas, Olga Y Gorlova, Marianne Berwick

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

We hypothesized that human genes differ by their sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) exposure. We used somatic mutations detected by genome-wide screens in melanoma and reported in the Catalog Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer. As a measure of UV sensitivity, we used the number of silent mutations generated by C>T transitions in pyrimidine dimers of a given transcript divided by the number of potential sites for this type of mutations in the transcript. We found that human genes varied by UV sensitivity by two orders of magnitude. We noted that the melanoma-associated tumor suppressor gene CDKN2A was among the top …

Mir-30a Targets Gene Networks That Promote Browning Of Human And Mouse Adipocytes, Pradip K Saha, Mark P Hamilton, Kimal Rajapakshe, Vasanta Putluri, Jessica B Felix, Peter Masschelin, Aaron R Cox, Mandeep Bajaj, Nagireddy Putluri, Cristian Coarfa, Sean M Hartig

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

MicroRNA-30a (miR-30a) impacts adipocyte function, and its expression in white adipose tissue (WAT) correlates with insulin sensitivity in obesity. Bioinformatic analysis demonstrates that miR-30a expression contributes to 2% of all miRNA expression in human tissues. However, molecular mechanisms of miR-30a function in fat cells remain unclear. Here, we expanded our understanding of how miR-30a expression contributes to antidiabetic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) agonist activity and metabolic functions in adipocytes. We found that WAT isolated from diabetic patients shows reduced miR-30a levels and diminished expression of the canonical PPARγ target genes ADIPOQ and FABP4 relative to lean counterparts. In human adipocytes, …