Public Health Commons^™

The Impact Of Body Mass Index And Sociodemographic Factors On Moderate-To-Vigorous Physical Activity And Sedentary Behaviors Of Women With Young Children: A Cross-Sectional Examination, Danae M. Dinkel, Nicholas Hein, Kailey Snyder, Mohammad Siahpush, Shannon I. Maloney, Lynette M. Smith, Evi A. Farazi, Corrine K. Hanson

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

OBJECTIVES: Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity provides multiple benefits to women after childbirth. To achieve these benefits, the recommendation that adults obtain, 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week and reduce sedentary behaviors, also applies to women in the post-partum phase of the life span. However, research examining the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behaviors of women with young children (0-2 years) is limited. A greater understanding of these behaviors from a nationally representative sample is needed. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to determine the levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behaviors of a nationally representative sample …

The Covid-19 Response In Nebraska: How Students Answered The Call, Sabrine Chengane, Anlan Cheney, Sierra Garth, Sharon J. Medcalf

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

The Student Response Team at the University of Nebraska Medical Center answered the statewide call to assist local health departments during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As a voluntary student-led effort, the SRT assisted health departments to conduct contact tracing, monitor social media, and educate the public. Their experience demonstrates how students can increase the public health surge capacity of local health departments while gaining applied experience during public health emergencies. This call-to-action commentary proposes that SRTs should be formed, trained, and deployed through academic institutions across the nation and the globe, during and beyond the current pandemic.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Uptake: Differences Between Rural And Urban Privately-Insured Population, Mesnad Alyabsi, Jane L. Meza, K. M. Monirul Islam, Amr Soliman, Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Earlier studies investigated rural-urban colorectal cancer (CRC) screening disparities among older adults or used surveys. The objective was to compare screening uptake between rural and urban individuals 50-64 years of age using private health insurance. Data were analyzed from 58,774 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska beneficiaries. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between rural-urban and CRC screening use. Results indicate that rural individuals were 56% more likely to use the Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) compared with urban residents, but rural females were 68% less likely to use FOBT. Individuals with few Primary Care Physician (PCP) visits …

Defining Current Gaps In Quality Measures For Cancer Immunotherapy: Consensus Report From The Society For Immunotherapy Of Cancer (Sitc) 2019 Quality Summit, Sara Pai, David Blaisdell, Rachel Brodie, Robert G. Carlson, Heidi Finnes, Michele Galioto, Roxanne E. Jensen, Tom Valuck, Antonia R. Sepulveda, Howard L. Kaufman

Population and Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background Quality measures are important because they can help improve and standardize the delivery of cancer care among healthcare providers and across tumor types. In an environment characterized by a rapidly shifting immunotherapeutic landscape and lack of associated long-term outcome data, defining quality measures for cancer immunotherapy is a high priority yet fraught with many challenges. Methods Thus, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer convened a multistakeholder expert panel to, first, identify the current gaps in measures of quality cancer care delivery as it relates to immunotherapy and to, second, advance priority concepts surrounding quality measures that could be developed …

Identification And Evaluation Of Epidemic Prediction And Forecasting Reporting Guidelines: A Systematic Review And A Call For Action, Simon Pollett, Michael Johansson, Matthew Biggerstaff, Lindsay C. Morton, Sara L. Bazaco, David Brett-Major, Anna M. Stewart-Ibarra, Julie A. Pavlin, Suzanne Mate, Rachel Sippy, Laurie J. Hartman, Nicholas G. Reich, Irina Maljkovic Berry, Jean-Paul Chretien, Benjamin M. Althouse, Diane Myer, Cecile Viboud, Caitlin Rivers

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

INTRODUCTION: High quality epidemic forecasting and prediction are critical to support response to local, regional and global infectious disease threats. Other fields of biomedical research use consensus reporting guidelines to ensure standardization and quality of research practice among researchers, and to provide a framework for end-users to interpret the validity of study results. The purpose of this study was to determine whether guidelines exist specifically for epidemic forecast and prediction publications.

METHODS: We undertook a formal systematic review to identify and evaluate any published infectious disease epidemic forecasting and prediction reporting guidelines. This review leveraged a team of 18 investigators …

Mitigating A Covid-19 Outbreak Among Major League Baseball Players - United States, 2020, Meghan T. Murray, Margaret A. Riggs, David M. Engelthaler, Caroline Johnson, Sharon Watkins, Allison Longenberger, David Brett-Major, John Lowe, M. Jana Broadhurst, Chandresh N. Ladva, Julie M. Villanueva, Adam Macneil, Shoukat Qari, Hannah L. Kirking, Michael Cherry, Ali S. Khan

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

Mass gatherings have been implicated in higher rates of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and many sporting events have been restricted or canceled to limit disease spread (1). Based on current CDC COVID-19 mitigation recommendations related to events and gatherings (2), Major League Baseball (MLB) developed new health and safety protocols before the July 24 start of the 2020 season. In addition, MLB made the decision that games would be played without spectators. Before a three-game series between teams A and B, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health was notified of a team A …

Deployment And Travel Medicine Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, And Outcomes Study (Kapos): Malaria Chemoprophylaxis Prescription Patterns In The Military Health System, Patrick W. Hickey, Indrani Mitra, Jamie Fraser, David Brett-Major, Mark S. Riddle, David R. Tribble

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

The Deployment and Travel Medicine Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices, and Outcomes Study (KAPOS) examines the integrated relationship between provider and patient inputs and health outcomes associated with travel and deployments. This study describes malaria chemoprophylaxis prescribing patterns by medical providers within the U.S. Department of Defense's Military Health System and its network of civilian healthcare providers during a 5-year period. Chemoprophylaxis varied by practice setting, beneficiary status, and providers' travel medicine expertise. Whereas both civilian and military facilities prescribe an increasing proportion of atovaquone-proguanil, doxycycline remains the most prevalent antimalarial at military facility based practices. Civilian providers dispense higher rates of …

Evaluation Of Mitochondrial Dna Copy Number Estimation Techniques, Ryan J Longchamps, Christina A Castellani, Stephanie Y Yang, Charles E Newcomb, Jason A Sumpter, John Lane, Megan L Grove, Eliseo Guallar, Nathan Pankratz, Kent D Taylor, Jerome I Rotter, Eric Boerwinkle, Dan E Arking

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN), a measure of the number of mitochondrial genomes per cell, is a minimally invasive proxy measure for mitochondrial function and has been associated with several aging-related diseases. Although quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is the current gold standard method for measuring mtDNA-CN, mtDNA-CN can also be measured from genotyping microarray probe intensities and DNA sequencing read counts. to conduct a comprehensive examination on the performance of these methods, we use known mtDNA-CN correlates (age, sex, white blood cell count, Duffy locus genotype, incident cardiovascular disease) to evaluate mtDNA-CN calculated from qPCR, two microarray platforms, as well …

Documenting And Understanding Workplace Injuries Among Latino Day Laborers, Maria Eugenia Fernández-Esquer, Cecilia F Aguerre, Martha Ojeda, Louis D Brown, John S Atkinson, Jayson M Rhoton, Cristina Espinosa Da Silva, Pamela M Diamond

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Latino day laborers face substantial injuries at work. We present a comprehensive assessment of their injury experience and explore the predictors of selfreported injuries.

METHODS: Worker and injury characteristics were collected from 331 day laborers using an innnovative injury assessment tool. The odds of injury were estimated using a logistic regression.

RESULTS: Participants were foreign-born, Spanish monolingual, and employed in construction. Sixty-seven individuals reported 88 past-year injuries, mostly involving the upper or lower extremities. Injuries were caused by moving heavy objects, falling, or being struck an object. Of the documented injuries, 24% were not reported at work due to …

Individual And Community Social Determinants Of Health Associated With Diabetes Management In A Mexican American Population, Kehe Zhang, Belinda Reininger, Miryoung Lee, Qian Xiao, Cici Bauer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Diabetes is a major health burden in Mexican American populations, especially among those in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in the border region of Texas. Understanding the roles that social determinants of health (SDOH) play in diabetes management programs, both at the individual and community level, may inform future intervention strategies.

Methods: This study performed a secondary data analysis on 1,568 individuals who participated in Salud y Vida (SyV), a local diabetes and chronic disease management program, between October 2013 and September 2018 recruited from a local clinic. The primary outcome was the reduction of hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) …

Longitudinal Sensitivity Of Alzheimer's Disease Severity Staging, Julia S Benoit, Wenyaw Chan, Linda Piller, Rachelle Doody

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Understanding Alzheimer's disease (AD) dynamics is essential in diagnosis and measuring progression for clinical decision-making; however, clinical instruments are imperfect at classifying true disease stages. This research evaluates sensitivity and determinants of AD stage changes longitudinally using current classifications of "mild," "moderate," and "severe" AD, using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog), and the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) thresholds. Age and pre-progression rate were significant determinants of AD progression using MMSE alone to stage AD, and pre-progression was found to impact disease progression with CDR-SB. Sensitivity of these instruments for identifying clinical stages of …

Covid-19 Sampling From The Middle Ear And Mastoid: A Case Report, George B Wanna, Zachary G Schwam, Vivian F Kaul, Maura K Cosetti, Enrique Perez, Peter Filip, Waleed Javaid, Avi Kandel, Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, Satish Govindaraj, Eric M Genden

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

The Fms21 (Pila)-Fms20 Locus Encoding One Of Four Distinct Pili Of Enterococcus Faecium Is Harboured On A Large Transferable Plasmid Associated With Gut Colonization And Virulence, Louis Maximilian Buja, Dwayne A Wolf, Bihong Zhao, Bindu Akkanti, Michelle Mcdonald, Laura Lelenwa, Noah Reilly, Giulia Ottaviani, M Tarek Elghetany, Daniel Ocazionez Trujillo, Gabriel M Aisenberg, Mohammad Madjid, Biswajit Kar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This paper collates the pathological findings from initial published autopsy reports on 23 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from 5 centers in the United States of America, including 3 cases from Houston, Texas. Findings confirm that COVID-19 is a systemic disease with major involvement of the lungs and heart. Acute COVID-19 pneumonia has features of a distinctive acute interstitial pneumonia with a diffuse alveolar damage component, coupled with microvascular involvement with intra- and extravascular fibrin deposition and intravascular trapping of neutrophils, and, frequently, with formation of microthombi in arterioles. Major pulmonary thromboemboli with pulmonary infarcts and/or hemorrhage occurred in …

Causal Discovery In Radiographic Markers Of Knee Osteoarthritis And Prediction For Knee Osteoarthritis Severity With Attention-Long Short-Term Memory, Yanfei Wang, Lei You, Jacqueline Chyr, Lan Lan, Weiling Zhao, Yujia Zhou, Hua Xu, Philip Noble, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The goal of this study is to build a prognostic model to predict the severity of radiographic knee osteoarthritis (KOA) and to identify long-term disease progression risk factors for early intervention and treatment. We designed a long short-term memory (LSTM) model with an attention mechanism to predict Kellgren/Lawrence (KL) grade for knee osteoarthritis patients. The attention scores reveal a time-associated impact of different variables on KL grades. We also employed a fast causal inference (FCI) algorithm to estimate the causal relation of key variables, which will aid in clinical interpretability. Based on the clinical information of current visits, we accurately …

Intervention For Cognitive Reserve Enhancement In Delaying The Onset Of Alzheimer's Symptomatic Expression (Increase), A Randomized Controlled Trial: Rationale, Study Design, And Protocol, Daniela C. Moga, Brooke F. Beech, Erin L. Abner, Frederick A. Schmitt, Riham H. El Khouli, Ashley I. Martinez, Lynne Eckmann, Mark Huffmyer, Rosmy George, Gregory A. Jicha

Pharmacy Practice and Science Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) includes a 10-20-year preclinical period with progressive accumulation of amyloid β (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the absence of symptomatic cognitive or functional decline. The duration of this preclinical stage in part depends on the rate of pathologic progression, which is offset by compensatory mechanisms, referred to as cognitive reserve (CR). Comorbid medical conditions, psychosocial stressors, and inappropriate medication use may lower CR, hastening the onset of symptomatic AD. Here, we describe a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to test the efficacy of a medication therapy management (MTM) intervention to reduce inappropriate …

Bone-Loading Physical Activity And Alcohol Intake But Not Bmi Affect Areal Bone Mineral Density In Young College-Aged Korean Women: A Cross-Sectional Study., Dong Jun Sung, Harshvardhan Singh, Seung-Bum Oh, Sojung Kim

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine the differences in areal bone mineral density (aBMD) based on alcohol consumption behaviors, bone-loading history as assessed by a bone-specific physical activity questionnaire (BPAQ), and the body mass index (BMI). College-aged female students (N = 112) were recruited from the universities in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, South Korea. The aBMD of the lumbar spine and non-dominant side of the proximal femur (total hip, TH; femoral neck, FN; femoral trochanter, FT) were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Alcohol consumption was determined by the frequency and amount of alcohol intake during …

Production Of Physician Services Under Fee-For-Service And Blended Fee-For-Service: Evidence From Ontario, Canada., Nibene H Somé, Rose Anne Devlin, Nirav Mehta, Greg Zaric, Lihua Li, Salimah Shariff, Bachir Belhadji, Amardeep Thind, Amit Garg, Sisira Sarma

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

We examine family physicians' responses to financial incentives for medical services in Ontario, Canada. We use administrative data covering 2003-2008, a period during which family physicians could choose between the traditional fee for service (FFS) and blended FFS known as the Family Health Group (FHG) model. Under FHG, FFS physicians are incentivized to provide comprehensive care and after-hours services. A two-stage estimation strategy teases out the impact of switching from FFS to FHG on service production. We account for the selection into FHG using a propensity score matching model, and then we use panel-data regression models to account for observed …

Healthcare Utilization Costs Of Emerging Adults With Mood And Anxiety Disorders In An Early Intervention Treatment Program Compared To A Matched Cohort, Ava A. John-Baptiste, Lihua Li, Wanrudee Isaranuwatchai, Elizabeth Osuch, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

AIM: The First Episode Mood and Anxiety Disorder Program (FEMAP) provides treatment to emerging adults with mood and anxiety disorders in an accessible, youth-friendly environment. We sought to investigate FEMAP's impact on the costs of care.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study of one-year health service costs using linked administrative datasets to compare emerging adults treated at FEMAP (FEMAP users) to propensity-score matched controls (non-users). Costs from the perspective of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, included drug benefit claims, inpatient, physician and ambulatory care services. We used bootstrapping to perform unadjusted comparisons between FEMAP users and …

Post-Acquisition Processing Confounds In Brain Volumetric Quantification Of White Matter Hyperintensities, Ahmed A. Bahrani, Omar M. Al-Janabi, Erin L. Abner, Shoshana H. Bardach, Richard J. Kryscio, Donna M. Wilcock, Charles D. Smith, Gregory A. Jicha

Neurology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Disparate research sites using identical or near-identical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition techniques often produce results that demonstrate significant variability regarding volumetric quantification of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in the aging population. The sources of such variability have not previously been fully explored.

NEW METHOD: 3D FLAIR sequences from a group of randomly selected aged subjects were analyzed to identify sources-of-variability in post-acquisition processing that can be problematic when comparing WMH volumetric data across disparate sites. The methods developed focused on standardizing post-acquisition protocol processing methods to develop a protocol with less than 0.5% inter-rater variance.

RESULTS: A series …

From Suffrage To The Senate: Expanding Inclusion In Women's Rights To Achieve Women's Health Equality., Frances Grimstad

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

No abstract provided.

Exposures At Day Labor Corners: Using Existing Georeferenced Data To Describe Features Of Urban Environments, Maria Eugenia Fernández-Esquer, Amy E Hughes, Sandi L Pruitt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Latino day laborers are male immigrants from mainly Mexico and Central America who congregate at corners, that is, informal hiring sites, to solicit short-term employment. Studies describing the occupational environment of Latino day laborers traditionally measure jobsite exposures, not corner exposures. We sought to elucidate exposures at corners by describing their demographic, socioeconomic, occupational, business, built, and physical environmental characteristics and by comparing corner characteristics with other locations in a large urban county in Texas.

METHODS: We used multiple publicly available data sets from the U.S. Census, local tax authority, Google's Nearby Places Application Programming Interface, and Environmental Protection …

Preliminary Development Of A Questionnaire Measuring Patient Views Of Participation In Clinical Trials, Judith Arnetz, Sukhesh Sudan, Courtney Goetz, Bengt Arnetz, Laura Gowland, Suzanne Manji, Samiran Ghosh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a questionnaire for measuring patient perceptions of participating in clinical trials. Development was based on earlier research on patient views of involvement in medical care and a literature review. Patients were recruited from an ongoing clinical trial focused on cardiovascular illness and from an outpatient psychiatry department. Factor analysis was conducted on a pilot version of the questionnaire in 2016 and on a revised version in 2017.

RESULTS: A total of 53 patients were recruited for the pilot study and 55 were recruited for the main study, substantially below the goal of 100 participants. …

Tinnitus And Self-Perceived Hearing Handicap In Firefighters: A Cross-Sectional Study, Samson Jamesdaniel, Kareem G Elhage, Rita Rosati, Samiran Ghosh, Bengt Arnetz, James Blessman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Firefighters are susceptible to auditory dysfunction due to long-term exposure to noise from sirens, air horns, equipment, and tools used in forcible entry, ventilation, and extrication. In addition, they are exposed to ototoxic chemicals, particularly, during overhaul operations. Studies indicate that 40% of firefighters have hearing loss in the noise-sensitive frequencies of 4 and 6 kHz. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is often accompanied by tinnitus, which is characterized by ringing noise in the ears. The presence of phantom sounds can adversely affect the performance of firefighters. However, there has been limited research conducted on the prevalence of tinnitus in firefighters. …

Enhancing Timeliness Of Drug Overdose Mortality Surveillance: A Machine Learning Approach, Patrick J. Ward, Peter J. Rock, Svetla Slavova, April M. Young, Terry L. Bunn, Ramakanth Kavuluru

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Timely data is key to effective public health responses to epidemics. Drug overdose deaths are identified in surveillance systems through ICD-10 codes present on death certificates. ICD-10 coding takes time, but free-text information is available on death certificates prior to ICD-10 coding. The objective of this study was to develop a machine learning method to classify free-text death certificates as drug overdoses to provide faster drug overdose mortality surveillance.

METHODS: Using 2017–2018 Kentucky death certificate data, free-text fields were tokenized and features were created from these tokens using natural language processing (NLP). Word, bigram, and trigram features were created …

Differences In Duration Of Untreated Psychosis For Racial And Ethnic Minority Groups With First-Episode Psychosis: An Updated Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis., Nicole Schoer, Chen Wei Huang, Kelly K. Anderson

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

PURPOSE: Ethnic minority groups with early psychosis may have longer treatment delays, potentially leading to poorer outcomes. We updated a previous systematic review of the literature on racial and ethnic differences in duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) among people with first-episode psychosis.

RESULTS: Six of 17 studies described significant differences across aggregated racial groups; however, the pooled estimates did not show differences across groups. Additional data from this update allowed for disaggregated analyses, finding that Black-African groups have a shorter DUP, whereas Black-Caribbean groups have longer DUP, relative to White groups.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of in-depth research …

Energy Balance Related Lifestyle Factors And Risk Of Endometrial And Colorectal Cancer Among Individuals With Lynch Syndrome: A Systematic Review, Adriana M Coletta, Susan K Peterson, Leticia A Gatus, Kate J Krause, Susan M Schembre, Susan C Gilchrist, Mala Pande, Eduardo Vilar, Y Nancy You, Miguel A Rodriguez-Bigas, Larkin L Strong, Patrick M Lynch, Karen H Lu, Karen Basen-Engquist

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Lifestyle factors related to energy balance, such as excess body weight, poor diet, and physical inactivity, are associated with risk of sporadic endometrial cancer (EC) and colorectal cancer (CRC). There are limited data on energy balance-related lifestyle factors and EC or CRC risk among individuals with lynch syndrome, who are at extraordinarily higher risk of developing EC or CRC. We conducted a systematic review of evidence related to weight status, weight change, dietary habits, and physical activity on EC and CRC risk among individuals with lynch syndrome. Findings are reported narratively. We searched Medline, EMBASE, CENTRAL, PubMed, and clinicaltrials.gov up …

Temperature, Placental Abruption And Stillbirth, Amal Rammah, Kristina W Whitworth, Inkyu Han, Wenyaw Chan, Judy Wendt Hess, Elaine Symanski

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Pregnant women may be vulnerable to changes in ambient temperature and warming climates. Recent evidence suggests that temperature increases are associated with placental abruption, a risk factor for stillbirth.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effect of acute exposures to apparent temperature on stillbirths in Harris County, Texas, 2008-2013.

METHODS: We conducted a case-crossover study to investigate the association between temperature and stillbirth among 708 women. We used data from the National Climatic Data Center to estimate maternal exposure to daily average apparent temperature over the days (lag days 1 through 6) preceding the stillbirth event. We employed symmetric bidirectional sampling …

Adolescent Dating Violence Prevention Program For Early Adolescents: The Me & You Randomized Controlled Trial, 2014-2015, Melissa F Peskin, Christine M Markham, Ross Shegog, Elizabeth R Baumler, Robert C Addy, Jeff R Temple, Belinda Hernandez, Paula M Cuccaro, Melanie A Thiel, Efrat K Gabay, Susan R Tortolero Emery

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives. To test the efficacy of Me & You, a multilevel technology-enhanced adolescent dating violence (DV) intervention, in reducing DV perpetration and victimization among ethnic-minority early adolescent youths. We assessed secondary impact for specific DV types and psychosocial outcomes.

Methods. We conducted a group-randomized controlled trial of 10 middle schools from a large urban school district in Southeast Texas in 2014 to 2015. We used multilevel regression modeling; the final analytic sample comprised 709 sixth-grade students followed for 1 year.

Results. Among the total sample, odds of DV perpetration were lower among intervention students than among control students (adjusted odds …

Improving The Youth Hiv Prevention And Care Cascades: Innovative Designs In The Adolescent Trials Network For Hiv/Aids Interventions, Sylvie Naar, Michael G Hudgens, Ron Brookmeyer, April Idalski Carcone, Jason Chapman, Shrabanti Chowdhury, Andrea Ciaranello, W Scott Comulada, Samiran Ghosh, Keith J Horvath, Ladrea Ingram, Sara Legrand, Cathy J Reback, Kit Simpson, Bonita Stanton, Tyrel Starks, Dallas Swendeman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Dramatic decreases in HIV transmission are achievable with currently available biomedical and behavioral interventions, including antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis. However, such decreases have not yet been realized among adolescents and young adults. The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network (ATN) for HIV/AIDS interventions is dedicated to research addressing the needs of youth at high risk for HIV acquisition as well as youth living with HIV. This article provides an overview of an array of efficient and effective designs across the translational spectrum that are utilized within the ATN. These designs maximize methodological rigor and real-world applicability of findings while minimizing resource …

Unraveling The Functional Role Of The Orphan Solute Carrier, Slc22a24 In The Transport Of Steroid Conjugates Through Metabolomic And Genome-Wide Association Studies, Sook Wah Yee, Adrian Stecula, Huan-Chieh Chien, Ling Zou, Elena V Feofanova, Marjolein Van Borselen, Kit Wun Kathy Cheung, Noha A Yousri, Karsten Suhre, Jason M Kinchen, Eric Boerwinkle, Roshanak Irannejad, Bing Yu, Kathleen M Giacomini

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Variation in steroid hormone levels has wide implications for health and disease. The genes encoding the proteins involved in steroid disposition represent key determinants of interindividual variation in steroid levels and ultimately, their effects. Beginning with metabolomic data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS), we observed that genetic variants in the orphan transporter, SLC22A24 were significantly associated with levels of androsterone glucuronide and etiocholanolone glucuronide (sentinel SNPs p-value