Environmental Public Health Commons^™

E-Cigarette Or Vaping Product Use-Associated Lung Injury: A Comprehensive Review, Mohammad Asim Amjad, Daniel Ocazionez Trujillo, Rosa M Estrada-Y-Martin, Sujith V Cherian

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

E-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) is a critical and potentially fatal form of lung injury that gained considerable public health concern in 2019. The use of e-cigarettes and vaping products is causally associated with EVALI, a condition characterized by a constellation of respiratory symptoms, such as coughing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. This comprehensive narrative literature review explores the complexities of EVALI, including its association with the structure and composition of e-cigarettes and its epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical and radiological manifestations, management strategies, and public health implications. Moreover, it uncovers the long-term repercussions of EVALI and underscores …

Association Of Parental Oral Health Knowledge And Self-Efficacy With Early Childhood Caries And Oral Health Quality Of Life In Texas Schoolchildren, Shreela V Sharma, Jeanette E Deason, Mengxi Wang, Alejandra Garcia-Quintana, Ru-Jye Chuang, Kila Johnson, Shalisa Garner, Steven Kelder, Jose-Miguel Yamal

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Improving children's oral health is a national priority. Parental knowledge and self-efficacy influence children's health behaviors; however, the relationship between parental oral health-related knowledge, self-efficacy, child oral health-related quality of life (OHQoL), and dental caries remains unclear, especially among low-income, ethnically diverse U.S. families. This study assesses the relationship between parental oral health-related knowledge, self-efficacy, child dental caries, and OHQoL. This cross-sectional seco ndary analysis uses baseline data from a school-based cluster-randomized controlled trial among children (kindergarten-second grade). Dental assessments were conducted using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) on site in schools at baseline (n = 34 …

The 2024 Report Of The Lancet Countdown On Health And Climate Change: Facing Record-Breaking Threats From Delayed Action, Marina Romanello, Maria Walawender, Shih-Che Hsu, Annalyse Moskeland, Yasna Palmeiro-Silva, Daniel Scamman, Zakari Ali, Nadia Ameli, Denitsa Angelova, Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson, Sara Basart, Jessica Beagley, Paul J Beggs, Luciana Blanco-Villafuerte, Wenjia Cai, Max Callaghan, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, Jonathan D Chambers, Victoria Chicmana-Zapata, Lingzhi Chu, Troy J Cross, Kim R Van Daalen, Carole Dalin, Niheer Dasandi, Shouro Dasgupta, Michael Davies, Robert Dubrow, Matthew J Eckelman, James D Ford, Chris Freyberg, Olga Gasparyan, Georgiana Gordon-Strachan, Michael Grubb, Samuel H Gunther, Ian Hamilton, Yun Hang, Risto Hänninen, Stella Hartinger, Kehan He, Julian Heidecke, Jeremy J Hess, Louis Jamart, Slava Jankin, Harshavardhan Jatkar, Ollie Jay, Ilan Kelman, Harry Kennard, Gregor Kiesewetter, Patrick Kinney, Dominic Kniveton, Rostislav Kouznetsov, Pete Lampard, Jason K W Lee, Bruno Lemke, Bo Li, Yang Liu, Zhao Liu, Alba Llabrés-Brustenga, Melissa Lott, Rachel Lowe, Jaime Martinez-Urtaza, Mark Maslin, Lucy Mcallister, Celia Mcmichael, Zhifu Mi, James Milner, Kelton Minor, Jan Minx, Nahid Mohajeri, Natalie C Momen, Maziar Moradi-Lakeh, Karyn Morrisey, Simon Munzert, Kris A Murray, Nick Obradovich, Megan B O'Hare, Camile Oliveira, Tadj Oreszczyn, Matthias Otto, Fereidoon Owfi, Olivia L Pearman, Frank Pega, Andrew J Perishing, Ana-Catarina Pinho-Gomes, Jamie Ponmattam, Mahnaz Rabbaniha, Jamie Rickman, Elizabeth Robinson, Joacim Rocklöv, David Rojas-Rueda, Renee N Salas, Jan C Semenza, Jodi D Sherman, Joy Shumake-Guillemot, Pratik Singh, Henrik Sjödin, Jessica Slater, Mikhail Sofiev, Cecilia Sorensen, Marco Springmann, Zélie Stalhandske, Jennifer D Stowell, Meisam Tabatabaei, Jonathon Taylor, Daniel Tong, Cathryn Tonne, Marina Treskova, Joaquin A Trinanes, Andreas Uppstu, Fabian Wagner, Laura Warnecke, Hannah Whitcombe, Peng Xian, Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo, Chi Zhang, Ran Zhang, Shihui Zhang, Ying Zhang, Qiao Zhu, Peng Gong, Hugh Montgomery, Anthony Costello

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite the initial hope inspired by the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world is now dangerously close to breaching its target of limiting global multiyear mean heating to 1·5°C. Annual mean surface temperature reached a record high of 1·45°C above the pre-industrial baseline in 2023, and new temperature highs were recorded throughout 2024. The resulting climatic extremes are increasingly claiming lives and livelihoods worldwide.

Health Risks Associated With Adopting New-Generation Disposable Products Among Young Adults Who Use E-Cigarettes, Shuyao Ran, James J Yang, Megan E Piper, Hsien-Chang Lin, Anne Buu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

New-generation disposable e-cigarettes have become increasingly popular among young adults in the USA since the FDA's partial flavor ban. This study aims to examine longitudinal changes in health risks among young adults who adopted these novel products, as well as the health effects of device types beyond the effects of other important e-cigarette characteristics. This study recruited e-cigarette users via voluntary response sampling from three college campuses in the USA to respond to four-wave online surveys conducted in four consecutive semesters. Among the participants who adopted disposables during the study, their health risks (dependence symptoms, respiratory symptoms, combustible tobacco use) …

Viability Discrimination Of Bacterial Microbiomes In Home Kitchen Dish Sponges Using Propidium Monoazide Treatment, Christina K Carstens, Joelle K Salazar, Shreela Sharma, Wenyaw Chan, Charles Darkoh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Dish sponges are known to support the proliferation of human bacterial pathogens, yet they are commonly used by consumers. Exposure to foodborne pathogens via sponge use may lead to illness, a serious concern among susceptible populations. The extent of exposure risks from sponge use has been limited by constraints associated with culture-independent or dependent methods for bacterial community characterization. Therefore, five used dish sponges were characterized to evaluate the presence of viable bacterial foodborne pathogens using the novel application of propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment and targeted 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Select pathogen viability was confirmed using targeted selective enrichment. …

Examining Management And Employees' Perceptions Of Occupational Heat Exposure And The Effectiveness Of A Heat Stress Prevention Intervention On Safety And Well-Being Among Natural Gas Construction Workers: A Qualitative Field-Based Study, Muinat Abolore Idris, Christine Markham, Kristina D Mena, William B Perkison

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Numerous risk factors have been identified as significantly influencing outdoor workers' risk for heat stress and heat-related conditions, impacting their health, well-being, and productivity. However, the specific effects of these factors on construction workers' safety, health, and well-being remain under-researched. With climate change increasing temperatures, assessing heat stress among construction workers is imperative.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the barriers and facilitators influencing the safety of natural gas construction workers and evaluate an implemented heat stress intervention.

METHODS: In the summer of 2023, two semi-structured interviews and six focus groups were conducted with twenty-one stakeholders at a Texas natural gas construction …

An Analysis Of Suspected Microplastics In The Muscle And Gastrointestinal Tissues Of Fish From Sarasota Bay, Fl: Exposure And Implications For Apex Predators And Seafood Consumers, Eric Conger, Miranda Dziobak, Elizabeth J Berens Mccabe, Tita Curtin, Ayushi Gaur, Randall S Wells, John E Weinstein, Leslie B Hart

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Microplastics have been found in the gastrointestinal (GI) fluid of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), inhabiting Sarasota Bay, FL, suggesting exposure by ingestion, possibly via contaminated fish. To better understand the potential for trophic transfer, muscle and GI tissues from 11 species of dolphin prey fish collected from Sarasota Bay were screened for microplastics (particles <5 mm diameter). Suspected microplastics were found in 82% of muscle samples (n=89), and 97% of GI samples (n=86). Particle abundance and shapes varied by species (p<0.05) and foraging habit (omnivore vs. carnivore, p<0.05). Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) had the highest particle abundance for both tissue types (muscle: 0.38 …

Hiv/Aids-Associated Knowledge And Attitudes Towards Treating Disadvantaged Communities Among Pre-Community-Based Dental Education Dental Students In The Us, Aditi Tomar, Hannah Balcezak, Shirley Lewis Miranda, Marie C Latortue, Richa Chinchkhandi, Lisa Wigfall

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study examines HIV/AIDS-associated knowledge and attitudes towards treating disadvantaged communities among predoctoral dental students in U.S. dental schools who have not yet commenced their Community-Based Dental Education (CBDE) training. It also compares the difference in the knowledge and attitudes between students with reported community engagement with PLWHA and those without. Our study comprised 89 predoctoral dental students within their D1-D3 years of dental school who had not yet initiated their Community-Based Dental Education (referred to as pre-CBDE dental students). Their responses were collected via an online survey. The participants were 68% females, 94% heterosexual, and with a mean age …

Prevalence And Relevant Factors Of Nocturia And Its Impact On Sleep Quality In Chinese University Students, Yakai Liu, Zhenwei Zhang, Huijie Hu, Xiangfei He, Pengchao Xu, Qifeng Dou, Cuiping Song, Huiqing Zhang, Israel Franco, Konstantinos Kamperis, Søren Rittig, Jianguo Wen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and relevant factors of nocturia and its impact on sleep quality in university students in Mainland China. A large-scale survey was conducted on 14,000 university students from 3 universities in Henan province, China by using an anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire collected the information from the past six months. The relationships between the prevalence of nocturia and its relevant factors were evaluated. A total of 13,874 questionnaires were collected and 13,104 qualified for statistical analysis. A total of 659 students suffered from clinically relevant nocturia (CRN) (4.56% in male and 5.34% …

Legacy Effects Of Historical Gold Mining On Floodplains Of An Australian River, Francesco Colombi, Aleicia Holland, Darren Baldwin, Susan Lawrence, Peter Davies, Ian Rutherfurd, James Grove, Jodi Turnbull, Mark Macklin, Greg Hil, Ewen Silvester

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century in south-eastern Australia resulted in the mobilization and re-deposition of vast quantities of tailings that modified the geomorphology of the associated river valleys. Previous studies of contamination risk in these systems have either been performed directly on mine wastes (e.g., battery sand) or at locations close to historical mine sites but have largely ignored the extensive area of riverine alluvial deposits extending downstream from gold mining locations. Here we studied the distribution of contaminant metal(loids) in the Loddon River catchment, one of the most intensively mined areas of the historical …

Adsorbents From Rice Husk And Shrimp Shell For Effective Removal Of Heavy Metals And Reactive Dyes In Water, Md Ibrahim H Mondal, Shovra Chandra Chakraborty, Md Saifur Rahman, Shaik Merkatur Hakim Marjuban, Firoz Ahmed, John L Zhou, Mohammad Boshir Ahmed, Masoumeh Zargar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Widespread contamination by heavy metals (HMs) and dyes poses a major health risk to people and ecosystems requiring effective treatment. In this work, rice husk (RH) and shrimp shells were extracted to obtain amorphous silica and chitosan, respectively, which were utilized to produce nano-chitosan-coated silica (NCCS). To ensure the stability of the nanoparticles, silica was freeze-dried after being coated with nano-chitosan. Functional groups (-NH

Aloe Vera Assisted Green Synthesis Of Ag And Cu Co-Doped Zno Nanoparticles And A Comprehensive Analysis Of Their Structural, Morphological, Optical, Electrical And Antibacterial Properties, Md Hasnat Rashid, Saiful Islam Sujoy, Md Saifur Rahman, Md Jahidul Haque

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study investigates the potential of utilizing Aloe vera-assisted green synthesis with transition metal dopants of Ag and Cu for greater efficiency and sustainability in advanced scientific applications utilizing ZnO nanoparticles. Samples were prepared using the co-precipitation method, maintaining a basic pH media of 10. Aloe vera gel extract was chosen for its acclaimed role as a stabilizing and reducing agent and its proven antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer properties. The XRD report revealed the hexagonal Wurtzite crystal structure of nanoparticles, exhibiting a crystallite size range of 17-23 nm with substantial alterations in lattice parameters, dislocation density, and bond lengths when …

Modernizing And Harmonizing Regulatory Data Requirements For Genetically Modified Crops-Perspectives From A Workshop, Nicholas P Storer, Abigail R Simmons, Jordan Sottosanto, Jennifer A Anderson, Ming Hua Huang, Debbie Mahadeo, Carey A Mathesius, Mitscheli Sanches Da Rocha, Shuang Song, Ewa Urbanczyk-Wochniak

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Genetically modified (GM) crops that have been engineered to express transgenes have been in commercial use since 1995 and are annually grown on 200 million hectares globally. These crops have provided documented benefits to food security, rural economies, and the environment, with no substantiated case of food, feed, or environmental harm attributable to cultivation or consumption. Despite this extensive history of advantages and safety, the level of regulatory scrutiny has continually increased, placing undue burdens on regulators, developers, and society, while reinforcing consumer distrust of the technology. CropLife International held a workshop at the 16th International Society of Biosafety Research …

Cleaning Tasks And Products And Asthma Among Health Care Professionals, Jenil Patel, David Gimeno Ruiz De Porras, Laura E Mitchell, Arch Carson, Lawrence W Whitehead, Inkyu Han, Lisa Pompeii, Sadie Conway, Jan-Paul Zock, Paul K Henneberger, Riddhi Patel, Joy De Los Reyes, George L Delclos

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Health care workers are at risk for work-related asthma, which may be affected by changes in cleaning practices. We examined associations of cleaning tasks and products with work-related asthma in health care workers in 2016, comparing them with prior results from 2003.

METHODS: We estimated asthma prevalence by professional group and explored associations of self-reported asthma with job-exposure matrix-based cleaning tasks/products in a representative Texas sample of 9914 physicians, nurses, respiratory/occupational therapists, and nurse aides.

RESULTS: Response rate was 34.8% (n = 2421). The weighted prevalence rates of physician-diagnosed (15.3%), work-exacerbated (4.1%), and new-onset asthma (6.7%) and bronchial hyperresponsiveness …

Plants As Vectors For Environmental Prion Transmission, Christina M Carlson, Samuel Thomas, Matthew W Keating, Paulina Soto, Nicole M Gibbs, Haeyoon Chang, Jamie K Wiepz, Annabel G Austin, Jay R Schneider, Rodrigo Morales, Christopher J Johnson, Joel A Pedersen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Prions cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases and exhibit remarkable durability, which engenders a wide array of potential exposure scenarios. In chronic wasting disease of deer, elk, moose, and reindeer and in scrapie of sheep and goats, prions are transmitted via environmental routes and the ability of plants to accumulate and subsequently transmit prions has been hypothesized, but not previously demonstrated. Here, we establish the ability of several crop and other plant species to take up prions via their roots and translocate them to above-ground tissues from various growth media including soils. We demonstrate that plants can accumulate prions in above-ground tissues …

Review Of Generic Scenario Environmental Release And Occupational Exposure Models Used In Chemical Risk Assessment, William M Barrett, David E Meyer, Raymond L Smith, Sudhakar Takkellapati, Michael A Gonzalez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is required to determine whether a new chemical substance poses an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment before the chemical is manufactured in or imported into the United States. This manuscript provides a review of the process used to evaluate the risk associated with a chemical based on the scenarios and models used in the evaluation. Specifically, the Generic Scenarios and Emission Scenario Documents developed by the USEPA were reviewed, along with background documentation prepared by USEPA to identify the core elements of the …

Association Of Social Vulnerability And Covid-19 Mortality Rates In Texas Between 15 March 2020, And 21 July 2022: An Ecological Analysis, Dennis Ogeto Nyachoti, Nalini Ranjit, Ryan Ramphul, Leah D Whigham, Andrew E Springer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite the key role of social vulnerability such as economic disadvantage in health outcomes, research is limited on the impact of social vulnerabilities on COVID-19-related deaths, especially at the state and county level in the USA.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional ecologic analysis of COVID-19 mortality by the county-level Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index (MH SVI) and each of its components in Texas. Negative binomial regression (NBR) analyses were used to estimate the association between the composite MH SVI (and its components) and COVID-19 mortality.

RESULTS: A 0.1-unit increase in the overall MH SVI (IRR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.04-1.55; …

Restructuring And Serving Web-Accessible Streamflow Data From The Noaa National Water Model Historic Simulations, J Michael Johnson, David L Blodgett, Keith C Clarke, Jon Pollak

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deployed the first iteration of an operational National Water Model (NWM) to forecast the water cycle in the continental United States. With many versions, an hourly, multi-decadal historic simulation is made available to the public. In all released to date, the files containing simulated streamflow contain a snapshot of model conditions across the entire domain for a single timestep which makes accessing time series a technical and resource-intensive challenge. In the most recent release, extracting a complete streamflow time series for a single location requires managing 367,920 files (~16.2 TB). In this …

Helping Frontline Workers In Texas-A Framework For Resource Development, Karima Lalani, Meredith O'Neal, Simone Lee Joannou, Bhanumathi Gopal, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

First responders disproportionately experience occupational stress when compared to the general population, and COVID-19 has exacerbated this stress. The nature of their duties as law enforcement officers, firefighters, and medics exposes them to repeated trauma, increasing their risk of developing a broad array of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), and compassion fatigue. This paper describes the need for resources for frontline workers and provides a framework for creating and implementing resources. A team of interdisciplinary subject matter experts developed two major resources. The first resource was a 24/7 helpline to support first responders …

Indoor Airborne Microbiome And Endotoxin: Meteorological Events And Occupant Characteristics Are Important Determinants, Hesham Amin, Tina Šantl-Temkiv, Christine Cramer, Kai Finster, Francisco Gomez Real, Thorarinn Gislason, Mathias Holm, Christer Janson, Nils Oskar Jögi, Rain Jogi, Andrei Malinovschi, Ian P G Marshall, Lars Modig, Dan Norbäck, Rajesh Shigdel, Torben Sigsgaard, Cecilie Svanes, Hulda Thorarinsdottir, Inge M Wouters, Vivi Schlünssen, Randi J Bertelsen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Airborne bacteria and endotoxin may affect asthma and allergies. However, there is limited understanding of the environmental determinants that influence them. This study investigated the airborne microbiomes in the homes of 1038 participants from five cities in Northern Europe: Aarhus, Bergen, Reykjavik, Tartu, and Uppsala. Airborne dust particles were sampled with electrostatic dust fall collectors (EDCs) from the participants’ bedrooms. The dust washed from the EDCs’ clothes was used to extract DNA and endotoxin. The DNA extracts were used for quantitative polymerase chain (qPCR) measurement and 16S rRNA gene sequencing, while endotoxin was measured using the kinetic chromogenic limulus amoebocyte …

Assessing Coastline Recession For Adaptation Planning: Sea Level Rise Versus Storm Erosion, Roshanka Ranasinghe, David P Callaghan, Fan Li, David J Wainwright, Trang Minh Duong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The Sixth Assessment report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states with high confidence that most sandy coasts around the world will experience an increase in coastal erosion over the twenty-first century. An increase in long term coastal erosion (coastline recession) along sandy coasts can translate into massive socio-economic impacts, unless appropriate adaptation measures are implemented in the next few decades. To adequately inform adaptation measures, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the relative importance of the physical processes driving coastline recession, as well as of linkages between consideration (or not) of certain processes …

Colonizing And Virulence Factors In Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli From Peru, Fulton P Rivera, Anicia Medina, Maribel Riveros, Theresa J Ochoa, Maria J Pons, Joaquim Ruiz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) ranks among the most relevant diarrheagenic pathogens. Efforts to design vaccines to fight ETEC have been focused on colonizing factors (CFs) and atypical virulence factors (AVF). An effective vaccine must account for differences in the regional prevalence of these CFs and AVFs to be truly effective in a given area. In the present study, the presence of 16 CFs and 9 AVFs, as well as the heat-stable (ST) variants (STh or STp), was established by polymerase chain reaction in 205 Peruvian ETEC isolates (120 from diarrhea cases and 85 from healthy controls). Ninety-nine (48.3%) isolates were …

Updated Analysis To Reject The Laboratory-Engineering Hypothesis Of Sars-Cov-2, Fuqing Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A clear understanding of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is important for future pandemic preparedness. Here, I provided an updated analysis of the type IIS endonuclease maps in genomes of alphacoronavirus, betacoronavirus, and SARS-CoV-2. Scenarios to engineer SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory and the associated workload was also discussed. The analysis clearly shows that the endonuclease fingerprint does not indicate a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2 and engineering a SARS-CoV-2 virus in the laboratory is extremely challenging both scientifically and financially. On the contrary, current scientific evidence does support the animal origin of SARS-CoV-2.

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 …

Preparation And Synergy Of Supported Ru0 And Pd0 For Rapid Chlorate Reduction At Ph 7, Jinyu Gao, Shaohua Xie, Fudong Liu, Jinyong Liu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chlorate (ClO3–) is a common water pollutant due to its gigantic scale of production, wide applications in agriculture and industry, and formation as a toxic byproduct in various water treatment processes. This work reports on the facile preparation, mechanistic elucidation, and kinetic evaluation of a bimetallic catalyst for highly active ClO3– reduction into Cl–. Under 1 atm H2 and 20 °C, PdII and RuIII were sequentially adsorbed and reduced on a powdered activated carbon support, affording Ru0–Pd0/C from scratch within only 20 min. The Pd0 particles significantly accelerated the reductive immobilization of RuIII as >55% dispersed Ru0 outside Pd0. At …

Ending The Hiv Epidemic: Identifying Barriers And Facilitators To Implement Molecular Hiv Surveillance To Develop Real-Time Cluster Detection And Response Interventions For Local Communities, Moctezuma Garcia, Samantha Devlin, Jared Kerman, Kayo Fujimoto, Lisa R Hirschhorn, Gregory Phillips, John Schneider, Moira C Mcnulty

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The rapid implementation of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) has resulted in significant challenges for local health departments to develop real-time cluster detection and response (CDR) interventions for priority populations impacted by HIV. This study is among the first to explore professionals' strategies to implement MHS and develop CDR interventions in real-world public health settings. Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were completed by 21 public health stakeholders in the United States' southern and midwestern regions throughout 2020-2022 to identify themes related to the implementation and development of MHS and CDR. Results for the thematic analysis revealed (1) strengths and limitations in utilizing …

Association Between E-Cigarette Use Behaviors And Anxiety/Depression Among Black/African American Adults Based On Sexual Identity, David Adzrago, Melissa B Harrell, Kayo Fujimoto, Antwan Jones, J Michael Wilkerson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Limited studies have examined disparities in e-cigarette use among Black/African American adults by sexual identity and whether the relationship between symptoms of anxiety/depression and e-cigarette use varies by sexual identity. We examined the association between e-cigarette use behaviors (never, former, and current use) and anxiety/depression among a nationally representative sample of Black/African American adults who identified as a sexual minority (lesbian/gay, bisexual, and others) or heterosexual individuals. We combined cross-sectional data from the 2011 to 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey (n = 6267), which is a nationally representative data set. We computed weighted e-cigarette use prevalence and multinomial logistic …

A Simple Seir-V Model To Estimate Covid-19 Prevalence And Predict Sars-Cov-2 Transmission Using Wastewater-Based Surveillance Data, Tin Phan, Samantha Brozak, Bruce Pell, Anna Gitter, Amy Xiao, Kristina D Mena, Yang Kuang, Fuqing Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) has been widely used as a public health tool to monitor SARS-CoV-2 transmission. However, epidemiological inference from WBS data remains understudied and limits its application. In this study, we have established a quantitative framework to estimate COVID-19 prevalence and predict SARS-CoV-2 transmission through integrating WBS data into an SEIR-V model. We conceptually divide the individual-level viral shedding course into exposed, infectious, and recovery phases as an analogy to the compartments in a population-level SEIR model. We demonstrated that the effect of temperature on viral losses in the sewer can be straightforwardly incorporated in our framework. Using WBS …

Physical Activity, Seasonal Sensitivity And Psychological Well-Being Of People Of Different Age Groups Living In Extreme Environments, Caren Alvarado, Matías Castillo-Aguilar, Valeska Villegas, Claudia Estrada Goic, Katherine Harris, Patricio Barria, Michele M Moraes, Thiago T Mendes, Rosa M E Arantes, Pablo Valdés-Badilla, Cristian Núñez-Espinosa

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Physical activity can prevent many organic and mental pathologies. For people living in extreme southern high-latitude environments, weather conditions can affect these activities, altering their psychological well-being and favoring the prevalence of seasonal sensitivity (SS). This study aims to determine the relationships between the practice of physical activity, seasonal sensitivity and well-being in people living in high southern latitudes. A cross-sectional study was conducted, using the Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ), applying a psychological well-being scale, and determining sports practice according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the 370 male (n = 209; 55%) and female …

Class 1 And 2 Integrons In Escherichia Coli Strains Isolated From Diarrhea And Bacteremia In Children Less Than 2 Years Of Age From Peru, Maribel Riveros, Maria J Pons, David Durand, Theresa J Ochoa, Joaquim Ruiz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Class 1 and Class 2 integrons are mobilizable elements able to carry a variety of antibiotic resistance determinants. In the present study, Class 1 and 2 integrons present in 355 pathogenic Escherichia coli (285 diarrheagenic, of these 129 were enteropathogenic, 90 enteroaggregative, 66 enterotoxigenic, and 70 bacteremic) isolated from healthy and ill children under age 5 from periurban areas of Lima, Peru, were characterized. The presence of integrase 1 and 2 was established by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and variable regions were grouped by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism and subsequent sequencing. Antimicrobial resistance was established by disk diffusion. Ninety-seven isolates …