Public Health Commons^™

Covid-19 And Employee Job Performance Trajectories: The Moderating Effect Of Different Sources Of Status, Xin Liu, Xiaoming Zheng, Byron Y Lee, Yu Yu, Mengyi Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employee job performance trajectories, and further examines the moderating effects of different sources of status. Drawing from event system theory (EST), we propose that employee job performance decreases upon COVID-19 onset, but gradually increases during the postonset period. Furthermore, we argue that status from society, occupation, and workplace functions to moderate such performance trajectories. We test our hypotheses with a unique dataset of 708 employees that combines survey responses and job performance archival data over 21 consecutive months (10,808 observations) spanning the preonset, onset, and postonset periods of the initial …

Short-Term Neonatal Outcomes Of Pregnancies Complicated By Maternal Obesity, Mara J Dinsmoor, Lynda G Ugwu, Jennifer L Bailit, Uma M Reddy, Ronald J Wapner, Michael W Varner, John M Thorp, Steve N Caritis, Mona Prasad, Alan T N Tita, George R Saade, Yoram Sorokin, Dwight J Rouse, Sean C Blackwell, Jorge E Tolosa, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health And Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (Mfmu) Network

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Maternal obesity complicates a high number of pregnancies. The degree to which neonatal outcomes are adversely affected is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate neonatal outcomes of pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity.

STUDY DESIGN: This study was a secondary analysis of a cohort of deliveries occurring on randomly selected days at 25 hospitals from 2008 to 2011. Data were collected by certified abstractors. This analysis included singleton deliveries between 24 and 42 weeks of gestation. Body mass index was calculated on the basis of maternal height and most recent weight before delivery. Normal and overweight (reference group; body …

The Association Of Smoking And Coffee Consumption With Occurrence Of Upper Gastrointestinal Symptoms In Patients With Active Helicobacter Pylori Infection In Jazan City: A Cross-Sectional Study, Anna Palatnik, Paula Mcgee, Jennifer L Bailit, Ronald J Wapner, Michael W Varner, John M Thorp, Steve N Caritis, Mona Prasad, Alan T N Tita, George R Saade, Dwight J Rouse, Sean C Blackwell, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health And Human Development Maternal-Fetal Medicine Units (Mfmu) Networ

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective:

To examine whether there are racial disparities in severe maternal morbidity in patients with hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP).

Study Design:

Secondary analysis of an observational study of 115,502 patients who had a live birth at ≥ 20 weeks in 25 hospitals in the US from 2008 to 2011. Only patients with HDP were included in this analysis. Race and ethnicity were categorized as non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic and were abstracted from the medical charts. Patients of other races and ethnicities were excluded. Associations were estimated between race and ethnicity and the primary outcome of severe maternal …

The Indirect Influence Of ‘Invisible’ Support On Pulmonary Function Among Adults With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Aliza A Panjwani, Joel Erblich, Tracey A Revenson, Hoda J Badr, Alex D Federman, Juan P Wisnivesky

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Individuals living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often require support from family or friends. We examined whether invisible support - support that is provided but goes unnoticed - is related to pulmonary function, and whether this association is mediated by depressive symptoms and illness perceptions. Sixty-six dyads of individuals with COPD and their informal caregivers reported on receipt and provision of support, respectively. Those with COPD completed measures of depressive symptoms, illness perceptions and pulmonary function. Although invisible support was not directly related to pulmonary function, mediation analyses revealed a combined indirect effect through lower depressive symptoms and less …

Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Colonoscopy Surveillance After Polyp Removal: A Pooled Analysis Of Randomized Trials, Yuichi Mori, Pu Wang, Magnus Løberg, Masashi Misawa, Alessandro Repici, Marco Spadaccini, Loredana Correale, Giulio Antonelli, Honggang Yu, Dexin Gong, Misaki Ishiyama, Shin-Ei Kudo, Shunsuke Kamba, Kazuki Sumiyama, Yutaka Saito, Haruo Nishino, Peixi Liu, Jeremy R Glissen Brown, Nabil M Mansour, Seth A Gross, Mette Kalager, Michael Bretthauer, Douglas K Rex, Prateek Sharma, Tyler M Berzin, Cesare Hassan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background and aims: Artificial intelligence (AI) tools aimed at improving polyp detection have been shown to increase the adenoma detection rate during colonoscopy. However, it is unknown how increased polyp detection rates by AI affect the burden of patient surveillance after polyp removal.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of 9 randomized controlled trials (5 in China, 2 in Italy, 1 in Japan, and 1 in the United States) comparing colonoscopy with or without AI detection aids. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients recommended to undergo intensive surveillance (ie, 3-year interval). We analyzed intervals for AI and non-AI …

Clonal Haematopoiesis And Risk Of Chronic Liver Disease, Waihay J Wong, Connor Emdin, Alexander G Bick, Seyedeh M Zekavat, Abhishek Niroula, James P Pirruccello, Laura Dichtel, Gabriel Griffin, Md Mesbah Uddin, Christopher J Gibson, Veronica Kovalcik, Amy E Lin, Marie E Mcconkey, Amelie Vromman, Rob S Sellar, Peter G Kim, Mridul Agrawal, Joshua Weinstock, Michelle T Long, Bing Yu, Rajarshi Banerjee, Rowan C Nicholls, Andrea Dennis, Matt Kelly, Po-Ru Loh, Steve Mccarroll, Eric Boerwinkle, Ramachandran S Vasan, Siddhartha Jaiswal, Andrew D Johnson, Raymond T Chung, Kathleen Corey, Daniel Levy, Christie Ballantyne, Benjamin L Ebert, Pradeep Natarajan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic liver disease is a major public health burden worldwide1. Although different aetiologies and mechanisms of liver injury exist, progression of chronic liver disease follows a common pathway of liver inflammation, injury and fibrosis2. Here we examined the association between clonal haematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) and chronic liver disease in 214,563 individuals from 4 independent cohorts with whole-exome sequencing data (Framingham Heart Study, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, UK Biobank and Mass General Brigham Biobank). CHIP was associated with an increased risk of prevalent and incident chronic liver disease (odds ratio = 2.01, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) [1.46, …

Aberrant Activation Of Tcl1a Promotes Stem Cell Expansion In Clonal Haematopoiesis, Joshua S Weinstock, Jayakrishnan Gopakumar, Bala Bharathi Burugula, Md Mesbah Uddin, Nikolaus Jahn, Julia A Belk, Hind Bouzid, Bence Daniel, Zhuang Miao, Nghi Ly, Taralynn M Mack, Sofia E Luna, Katherine P Prothro, Shaneice R Mitchell, Cecelia A Laurie, Jai G Broome, Kent D Taylor, Xiuqing Guo, Moritz F Sinner, Aenne S Von Falkenhausen, Stefan Kääb, Alan R Shuldiner, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Joshua P Lewis, Eric Boerwinkle, Kathleen C Barnes, Nathalie Chami, Eimear E Kenny, Ruth J F Loos, Myriam Fornage, Lifang Hou, Donald M Lloyd-Jones, Susan Redline, Brian E Cade, Bruce M Psaty, Joshua C Bis, Jennifer A Brody, Edwin K Silverman, Jeong H Yun, Dandi Qiao, Nicholette D Palmer, Barry I Freedman, Donald W Bowden, Michael H Cho, Dawn L Demeo, Ramachandran S Vasan, Lisa R Yanek, Lewis C Becker, Sharon L R Kardia, Patricia A Peyser, Jiang He, Michiel Rienstra, Pim Van Der Harst, Robert Kaplan, Susan R Heckbert, Nicholas L Smith, Kerri L Wiggins, Donna K Arnett, Marguerite R Irvin, Hemant Tiwari, Michael J Cutler, Stacey Knight, J Brent Muhlestein, Adolfo Correa, Laura M Raffield, Yan Gao, Mariza De Andrade, Jerome I Rotter, Stephen S Rich, Russell P Tracy, Barbara A Konkle, Jill M Johnsen, Marsha M Wheeler, J Gustav Smith, Olle Melander, Peter M Nilsson, Brian S Custer, Ravindranath Duggirala, Joanne E Curran, John Blangero, Stephen Mcgarvey, L Keoki Williams, Shujie Xiao, Mao Yang, C Charles Gu, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Wen-Jane Lee, Gregory M Marcus, John P Kane, Clive R Pullinger, M Benjamin Shoemaker, Dawood Darbar, Dan M Roden, Christine Albert, Charles Kooperberg, Ying Zhou, Joann E Manson, Pinkal Desai, Andrew D Johnson, Rasika A Mathias, Thomas W Blackwell, Goncalo R Abecasis, Albert V Smith, Hyun M Kang, Ansuman T Satpathy, Pradeep Natarajan, Jacob O Kitzman, Eric A Whitsel, Alexander P Reiner, Alexander G Bick, Siddhartha Jaiswal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mutations in a diverse set of driver genes increase the fitness of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), leading to clonal haematopoiesis1. These lesions are precursors for blood cancers2-6, but the basis of their fitness advantage remains largely unknown, partly owing to a paucity of large cohorts in which the clonal expansion rate has been assessed by longitudinal sampling. Here, to circumvent this limitation, we developed a method to infer the expansion rate from data from a single time point. We applied this method to 5,071 people with clonal haematopoiesis. A genome-wide association study revealed that a common inherited polymorphism in the …

Area Deprivation Index And Segregation On The Risk Of Hiv: A Us Veteran Case-Control Study, Abiodun O Oluyomi, Angela L Mazul, Yongquan Dong, Donna L White, Christine M Hartman, Peter Richardson, Wenyaw Chan, Jose M Garcia, Jennifer R Kramer, Elizabeth Chiao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Preventing HIV infection remains a critically important tool in the continuing fight against HIV/AIDS. The primary aim is to evaluate the effect and interactions between a composite area-level social determinants of health measure and an area-level measure of residential segregation on the risk of HIV/AIDS in U.S. Veterans.

METHODS: Using the individual-level patient data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, we constructed a case-control study of veterans living with HIV/AIDS (VLWH) and age-, sex assigned at birth- and index date-matched controls. We geocoded patient's residential address to ascertain their neighborhood and linked their information to two measures of …

Incidence Rates Of Medically Attended Covid-19 In Infants Less Than 6 Months Of Age, Isabel Griffin, Stephanie A Irving, Carmen Sofia Arriola, Angela P Campbell, De-Kun Li, Fatimah S Dawood, Caroline Doughty-Skierski, Jeannette R Ferber, Nickolas Ferguson, Louise Hadden, Jillian T Henderson, Mary Juergens, Venkatesh Kancharla, Allison L Naleway, Gabriella Newes-Adeyi, Erin Nicholson, Roxana Odouli, Lawrence Reichle, Mo Sanyang, Kate Woodworth, Flor M Munoz

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Studies suggest infants may be at increased risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) relative to older children, but few data exist regarding the incidence of COVID-19 episodes and associated risk factors. We estimate incidence rates and describe characteristics associated with medically attended COVID-19 episodes among infants younger than 6 months of age.

METHODS: We analyzed electronic medical record data from a cohort of infants born March 1, 2020-February 28, 2021. Data from 3 health care delivery systems included demographic characteristics, maternal and infant outpatient visit and hospitalization diagnoses and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test …

Advancing Diagnostic Equity Through Clinician Engagement, Community Partnerships, And Connected Care, Traber D Giardina, Lechauncy D Woodard, Hardeep Singh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Covid-19 On Outcomes Of Patients Hospitalized With Stemi: A Nationwide Propensity-Matched Analysis, Akshay Goel, Aaqib H Malik, Dhrubajyoti Bandyopadhyay, Ameesh Isath, Rahul Gupta, Adrija Hajra, Rishi Shrivastav, Salim S Virani, Gregg C Fonarow, Carl J Lavie, Srihari S Naidu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and concurrent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported to have poor outcomes. However, previous studies are small and limited. The National Inpatient Sample database for the year 2020 was queried to identify all adult hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of STEMI, with and without concurrent COVID-19. A 1:1 propensity score matching was performed. A total of 159,890 hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of STEMI were identified. Of these, 2210 (1.38%) had concurrent COVID-19. After propensity matching, STEMI patients with concurrent COVID-19 had a significantly higher mortality (17.8% vs 9.1%, OR 1.96, P< 0.001), lower likelihood to receive same-day percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (63.6% vs 70.6%, P = 0.019), with a trend towards lower overall PCI (74.9% vs 80.2%, P = 0.057) and significantly lower coronary artery bypass grafting) (3.0% vs 6.8%, P = 0.008) prior to discharge, compared with STEMI patients without COVID-19. The prevalence of cardiogenic shock, need for mechanical circulatory support, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, cardiac arrest, acute kidney injury (AKI), dialysis, major bleeding and stroke were not significantly different between the groups. COVID-19-positive STEMI patients who received same-day PCI had significantly lower odds of in-hospital mortality (adjusted OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.20-0.85, P = 0.017). STEMI patients with concurrent COVID-19 infection had a significantly higher (almost 2 times) in-hospital mortality, and lower likelihood of receiving same-day PCI, overall (any-day) PCI, and CABG during their admission, compared with STEMI patients without COVID-19.

Nfkb2 Haploinsufficiency Identified Via Screening For Ifn-Α2 Autoantibodies In Children And Adolescents Hospitalized With Sars-Cov-2-Related Complications, Aaron Bodansky, Sara E Vazquez, Janet Chou, Tanya Novak, Amer Al-Musa, Cameron Young, Margaret Newhams, Suden Kucukak, Laura D Zambrano, Anthea Mitchell, Chung-Yu Wang, Kristin Moffitt, Natasha B Halasa, Laura L Loftis, Stephanie P Schwartz, Tracie C Walker, Elizabeth H Mack, Julie C Fitzgerald, Shira J Gertz, Courtney M Rowan, Katherine Irby, Ronald C Sanders, Michele Kong, Jennifer E Schuster, Mary A Staat, Matt S Zinter, Natalie Z Cvijanovich, Keiko M Tarquinio, Bria M Coates, Heidi R Flori, Mary K Dahmer, Hillary Crandall, Melissa L Cullimore, Emily R Levy, Brandon Chatani, Ryan Nofziger, Overcoming Covid-19 Network Study Group Investigators, Raif S Geha, Joseph Derisi, Angela P Campbell, Mark Anderson, Adrienne G Randolph

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Autoantibodies against type I IFNs occur in approximately 10% of adults with life-threatening coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The frequency of anti-IFN autoantibodies in children with severe sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: We quantified anti-type I IFN autoantibodies in a multicenter cohort of children with severe COVID-19, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and mild SARS-CoV-2 infections.

METHODS: Circulating anti-IFN-α2 antibodies were measured by a radioligand binding assay. Whole-exome sequencing, RNA sequencing, and functional studies of peripheral blood mononuclear cells were used to study any patients with levels of anti-IFN-α2 autoantibodies exceeding …

Paving The Road For Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells: American Society For Transplantation And Cellular Therapy 80/20 Task Force Consensus On Challenges And Solutions To Improving Efficiency Of Clinical Center Certification And Maintenance Of Operations For Commercially Approved Immune Effector Cell Therapies, Sarah Nikiforow, Matthew J Frigault, Noelle V Frey, Rebecca A Gardner, Krishna V Komanduri, Miguel-Angel Perales, Partow Kebriaei, Phyllis Irene Warkentin, Marcelo Pasquini, Joy Lynn Aho, Bruce L Levine, Helen E Heslop, Tracey L Hlucky, Karen Habucky, Mecide Gharibo, Madan Jagasia, Frederick L Locke

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

As the number and type of regulatory authority-approved cellular therapies grow, clinical treatment centers face a heavy burden of duplicative documentation around initial qualification, ongoing auditing, and reporting, with overlapping requirements from each manufacturer to ensure safe use of their specific product, which in the United States are stipulated under individual Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Biologic License Applications. The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) convened the 80/20 Task Force to consider challenges and potential solutions to these issues. The Task Force proposed that 80% of manufacturers' requirements for onboarding and ongoing operations of commercially available products …

Telemental Health In Emergency Care Settings: A Qualitative Analysis Of Considerations For Sustainability And Spread, Mckenzie K Roddy, Patricia Chen, Alvin D Jeffery, Jeydith Gutierrez, Melissa Rubenstein, Corey Campbell, Eric Blake, Michael J Ward

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Objectives: Following rapid uptake of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, we examined barriers and facilitators for sustainability and spread of telemental health video (TMH-V) as policies regarding precautions from the pandemic waned.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study using semistructured interviews and observations guided by RE-AIM. We asked four groups, local clinicians, facility leadership, Veterans, and external partners, about barriers and facilitators impacting patient willingness to engage in TMH-V (reach), quality of care (effectiveness), barriers and facilitators impacting provider uptake (adoption), possible adaptations to TMH-V (implementation), and possibilities for long-term use of TMH-V (maintenance). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed …

Lung Volume Reduction In Copd: Scope Or Surgery, Francesca Polverino, Frank Sciurba

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

International Society For Prenatal Diagnosis 2022 Debate 3-Fetal Genome Sequencing Should Be Offered To All Pregnant Patients, Ignatia B Van Den Veyver, Yuval Yaron, Zandra C Deans

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Prenatal trio exome sequencing (ES) has become integrated into the care for pregnant women when the fetus has structural anomalies. Details regarding optimizing indications for prenatal exome sequencing, its detection rates with different categories of fetal anomalies, and principles of interpretation of pathogenicity of sequence variants are still under investigation. However, there is now growing consensus about its benefits for finding the cause of fetal structural anomalies. What is not established, is whether exome or genome sequencing (GS) has a place in the care of all pregnant women. This report is a summary of the debate on this topic at …

Effect Of Thromboprophylaxis On Clinical Outcomes After Covid-19 Hospitalization, Tracy Y Wang, Abdus S Wahed, Alison Morris, Lisa Baumann Kreuziger, John G Quigley, Gervasio A Lamas, Alexandra J Weissman, Jose Lopez-Sendon, M Margaret Knudson, Deborah M Siegal, Raj S Kasthuri, Andrew J Alexander, Lana Wahid, Bassel Atassi, Peter J Miller, Janice W Lawson, Bela Patel, Jerry A Krishnan, Nancy L Shapiro, Deborah E Martin, Andrei L Kindzelski, Eric S Leifer, Jungnam Joo, Lingyun Lyu, Annie Pennella, Brendan M Everett, Mark W Geraci, Kevin J Anstrom, Thomas L Ortel, Activ-4c Study Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have an increased incidence of thromboembolism. The role of extended thromboprophylaxis after hospital discharge is unclear.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether anticoagulation is superior to placebo in reducing death and thromboembolic complications among patients discharged after COVID-19 hospitalization.

DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04650087).

SETTING: Done during 2021 to 2022 among 127 U.S. hospitals.

PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged 18 years or older hospitalized with COVID-19 for 48 hours or more and ready for discharge, excluding those with a requirement for, or contraindication to, anticoagulation.

INTERVENTION: 2.5 mg of apixaban versus placebo twice daily for …

Damaged Mitochondria Coincide With Presynaptic Vesicle Loss And Abnormalities In Alzheimer’S Disease Brain, Wenzhang Wang, Fanpeng Zhao, Yubing Lu, Sandra L Siedlak, Hisashi Fujioka, Hao Feng, George Perry, Xiongwei Zhu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Loss of synapses is the most robust pathological correlate of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-associated cognitive deficits, although the underlying mechanism remains incompletely understood. Synaptic terminals have abundant mitochondria which play an indispensable role in synaptic function through ATP provision and calcium buffering. Mitochondrial dysfunction is an early and prominent feature in AD which could contribute to synaptic deficits. Here, using electron microscopy, we examined synapses with a focus on mitochondrial deficits in presynaptic axonal terminals and dendritic spines in cortical biopsy samples from clinically diagnosed AD and age-matched non-AD control patients. Synaptic vesicle density within the presynaptic axon terminals was significantly …

Environmental Enrichment Devices Are Safe And Effective At Reducing Undesirable Behaviors In California Sea Lions And Northern Elephant Seals During Rehabilitation, Kirsten Donald, Amanda Benedetti, Vinícius Donisete Lima Rodrigues Goulart, Alissa Deming, Hendrik Nollens, Grey Stafford, Sabrina Brando

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Environmental enrichment devices (EEDs) have been proven to promote positive wellbeing in zoos and aquariums, and support animals' reintroduction success; however, their use in rehabilitation centers is still limited. This pilot study investigated the safety and efficacy of three EEDs, Artificial Kelp, Horse KONG™ and Wubba Kong™, and their ability to decrease and/or eliminate undesired stereotypic behaviors or looking at staff/staff areas in seven wild California sea lions (CSLs) and eight northern elephant seals (NESs) undergoing rehabilitation in Southern California. Observers conducted instantaneous sampling once a minute during a 30-min baseline, followed by a 30-min EED implementation on one focal …

Functional Effects Of Disease-Associated Variants Reveal That The S1-M1 Linker Of The Nmda Receptor Critically Controls Channel Opening, Lingling Xie, Miranda J Mcdaniel, Riley E Perszyk, Sukhan Kim, Gerarda Cappuccio, Kevin A Shapiro, Beatriz Muñoz-Cabello, Pedro A Sanchez-Lara, Katheryn Grand, Jing Zhang, Kelsey A Nocilla, Rehan Sheikh, Lluis Armengol, Roberta Romano, Tyler Mark Pierson, Hongjie Yuan, Scott J Myers, Stephen F Traynelis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The short pre-M1 helix within the S1-M1 linker (also referred to as the pre-M1 linker) between the agonist-binding domain (ABD, S1) and the M1 transmembrane helix of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) is devoid of missense variants within the healthy population but is a locus for de novo pathogenic variants associated with neurological disorders. Several de novo variants within this helix have been identified in patients presenting early in life with intellectual disability, developmental delay, and/or epilepsy. In this study, we evaluated functional properties for twenty variants within the pre-M1 linker in GRIN1, GRIN2A, and GRIN2B genes, including six novel missense …

Interaction Analysis Of Ancestry-Enriched Variants With Apoe-Ɛ4 On Mci In The Study Of Latinos-Investigation Of Neurocognitive Aging, Einat Granot-Hershkovitz, Rui Xia, Yunju Yang, Brian Spitzer, Wassim Tarraf, Priscilla M Vásquez, Richard B Lipton, Martha Daviglus, Maria Argos, Jianwen Cai, Robert Kaplan, Myriam Fornage, Charles Decarli, Hector M Gonzalez, Tamar Sofer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

APOE-ɛ4 risk on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) differs between race/ethnic groups, presumably due to ancestral genomic background surrounding the APOE locus. We studied whether African and Amerindian ancestry-enriched genetic variants in the APOE region modify the effect of the APOE-ɛ4 alleles on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Hispanics/Latinos. We defined African and Amerindian ancestry-enriched variants as those common in one Hispanic/Latino parental ancestry and rare in the other two. We identified such variants in the APOE region with a predicted moderate impact based on the SnpEff tool. We tested their interaction with APOE-ɛ4 on MCI in …

The Emergence Of A Virus Variant: Dynamics Of A Competition Model With Cross-Immunity Time-Delay Validated By Wastewater Surveillance Data For Covid-19, Bruce Pell, Samantha Brozak, Tin Phan, Fuqing Wu, Yang Kuang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

We consider the dynamics of a virus spreading through a population that produces a mutant strain with the ability to infect individuals that were infected with the established strain. Temporary cross-immunity is included using a time delay, but is found to be a harmless delay. We provide some sufficient conditions that guarantee local and global asymptotic stability of the disease-free equilibrium and the two boundary equilibria when the two strains outcompete one another. It is shown that, due to the immune evasion of the emerging strain, the reproduction number of the emerging strain must be significantly lower than that of …

Dissemination And Implementation Of A Text Messaging Campaign To Improve Health Disparities Among Im/Migrant Workers, Ellie Cherryhomes, Shannon Guillot-Wright

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The use of short message service (SMS) text messaging technology has grown in popularity over the last twenty years, but there is limited data on the design and feasibility of campaigns to reduce work-related injury, particularly among rural workers, non-native English speakers, and illiterate or low-literacy populations. Although there is a critical need for tech equity or 'TechQuity' interventions that reduce injury and enhance the wellbeing of under-reached communities, the barriers and benefits to implementation must be empirically and systematically examined. Thus, our team used D&I science to design and implement an 18-week texting campaign for under-reached workers with a …

Geographic Variations And The Associated Factors In Adherence To And Persistence With Adjuvant Hormonal Therapy For The Privately Insured Women Aged 18-64 With Breast Cancer In Texas, Junghyun Kim, Man S Kim, Suja S Rajan, Xianglin L Du, Luisa Franzini, Tae Gi Kim, Sharon H Giordano, Robert O Morgan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The purpose of this study is to examine the geographical patterns of adjuvant hormonal therapy adherence and persistence and the associated factors in insured Texan women aged 18-64 with early breast cancer. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using 5-year claims data for the population insured by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX). Women diagnosed with early breast cancer who were taking tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors (AIs) for adjuvant hormonal therapy with at least one prescription claim were identified. Adherence to adjuvant hormonal therapy and persistence with adjuvant hormonal therapy were calculated as outcome measures. Women without a …

School Parent Attitudes And Perceptions Relating To Animals, Animal-Assisted Interventions, And The Support Of Children's Mental Health, Rhoda A Leos, Paula M Cuccaro, John R Herbold, Belinda F Hernandez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Growing awareness of the negative effects of trauma has led San Antonio, TX, school districts to expand efforts that can help mitigate these effects and support mental health. Given the literature around the psychological benefits of human-animal interactions, the concept of incorporating animals in treatments or interventions is not a new one. While schools have begun considering or utilizing animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), there have been limited efforts to understand existing perceptions relating to animals and AAIs among school parents in this Hispanic community. to address this gap, a cross-sectional study consisting of a 34-item survey was conducted to explore attitudes, …

Soybean Gmsaul1, A Bona Fide U-Box E3 Ligase, Negatively Regulates Immunity Likely Through Repressing The Activation Of Gmmpk3, Jun-Mei Li, Mei-Yan Ye, Chaofeng Wang, Xiao-Han Ma, Ni-Ni Wu, Chen-Li Zhong, Yanjun Zhang, Ninghui Cheng, Paul A Nakata, Lirong Zeng, Jian-Zhong Liu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

E3 ubiquitin ligases play important roles in plant immunity, but their role in soybean has not been investigated previously. Here, we used Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV)-mediated virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to investigate the function of GmSAUL1 (Senescence-Associated E3 Ubiquitin Ligase 1) homologs in soybean. When two closely related SAUL1 homologs were silenced simultaneously, the soybean plants displayed autoimmune phenotypes, which were significantly alleviated by high temperature, suggesting that GmSAUL1a/1b might be guarded by an R protein. Interestingly, silencing GmSAUL1a/1b resulted in the decreased activation of GmMPK6, but increased activation of GmMPK3 in response to flg22, …

Cervicovaginal Microbiota Profiles In Precancerous Lesions And Cervical Cancer Among Ethiopian Women, Brhanu Teka, Kyoko Yoshida-Court, Ededia Firdawoke, Zewditu Chanyalew, Muluken Gizaw, Adamu Addissie, Adane Mihret, Lauren E Colbert, Tatiana Cisneros Napravnik, Molly B El Alam, Erica J Lynn, Melissa Mezzari, Jhingran Anuja, Eva Johanna Kantelhardt, Andreas M Kaufmann, Ann H Klopp, Tamrat Abebe

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Although high-risk human papillomavirus infection is a well-established risk factor for cervical cancer, other co-factors within the local microenvironment may play an important role in the development of cervical cancer. The current study aimed to characterize the cervicovaginal microbiota in women with premalignant dysplasia or invasive cervical cancer compared with that of healthy women. The study comprised 120 Ethiopian women (60 cervical cancer patients who had not received any treatment, 25 patients with premalignant dysplasia, and 35 healthy women). Cervicovaginal specimens were collected using either an Isohelix DNA buccal swab or an Evalyn brush, and ribosomal RNA sequencing was used …

Cardiopulmonary Outcomes In Covid-19 Patients Discharged From A Tertiary Care Center: A Prospective Study, Lakshmi Prasanna Vaishnavi Kattamuri, Vibhav Sharma, Radhika Sarda, Kunal Sharma, Anuj Ajayababu, Gaurav Gupta, Surabhi Vyas, Shivam Pandey, Arvind Kumar, Naveet Wig, Rajiv Narang, Sanjeev Sinha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

To determine the cardiopulmonary changes in the survivors of acute COVID-19 infection at 3-6 month and 6-12 month. We followed up 53 patients out of which 28 (52%) had mild COVID-19 and 25 (48%) had severe COVID-19. The first follow-up was between 3 month after diagnosis up to 6 month and second follow-up between 6 and 12 month from the date of diagnosis of acute COVID-19. They were monitored using vital parameters, pulmonary function tests, echocardiography and a chest computed tomography (CT) scan. We found improvement in diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) with a median of 52% of predicted …

Author Correction: Repeated Out-Of-Africa Expansions Of Helicobacter Pylori Driven By Replacement Of Deleterious Mutations, Harry A Thorpe, Elise Tourrette, Koji Yahara, Filipa F Vale, Siqi Liu, Mónica Oleastro, Teresa Alarcon, Tsachi-Tsadok Perets, Saeid Latifi-Navid, Yoshio Yamaoka, Beatriz Martinez-Gonzalez, Ioannis Karayiannis, Timokratis Karamitros, Dionyssios N Sgouras, Wael Elamin, Ben Pascoe, Samuel K Sheppard, Jukka Ronkainen, Pertti Aro, Lars Engstrand, Lars Agreus, Sebastian Suerbaum, Kaisa Thorell, Daniel Falush

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Ad-Syn-Net: Systematic Identification Of Alzheimer's Disease-Associated Mutation And Co-Mutation Vulnerabilities Via Deep Learning, Xingxin Pan, Zeynep H Coban Akdemir, Ruixuan Gao, Xiaoqian Jiang, Gloria M Sheynkman, Erxi Wu, Jason H Huang, Nidhi Sahni, S Stephen Yi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most challenging neurodegenerative diseases because of its complicated and progressive mechanisms, and multiple risk factors. Increasing research evidence demonstrates that genetics may be a key factor responsible for the occurrence of the disease. Although previous reports identified quite a few AD-associated genes, they were mostly limited owing to patient sample size and selection bias. There is a lack of comprehensive research aimed to identify AD-associated risk mutations systematically. to address this challenge, we hereby construct a large-scale AD mutation and co-mutation framework ('AD-Syn-Net'), and propose deep learning models named Deep-SMCI and Deep-CMCI configured …