Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Balancing The Presentation Of Information And Options In Patient Decision Aids: An Updated Review, Purva Abhyankar, Robert J. Volk, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Paulina Bravo, Angela Buchholz, Elissa Ozanne, Dale C. Vidal, Nananda Col, Peep Stalmeier

Dartmouth Scholarship

Standards for patient decision aids require that information and options be presented in a balanced manner; this requirement is based on the argument that balanced presentation is essential to foster informed decision making. If information is presented in an incomplete/non-neutral manner, it can stimulate cognitive biases that can unduly affect individuals’ knowledge, perceptions of risks and benefits, and, ultimately, preferences. However, there is little clarity about what constitutes balance, and how it can be determined and enhanced. We conducted a literature review to examine the theoretical and empirical evidence related to balancing the presentation of information and options.

Thimerosal Exposure And The Role Of Sulfation Chemistry And Thiol Availability In Autism, Janet K. Kern, Boyd E. Haley, David A. Geier, Lisa K. Sykes, Paul G. King, Mark R. Geier

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder in which a significant number of the children experience a developmental regression characterized by a loss of previously acquired skills and abilities. Typically reported are losses of verbal, nonverbal, and social abilities. Several recent studies suggest that children diagnosed with an ASD have abnormal sulfation chemistry, limited thiol availability, and decreased glutathione (GSH) reserve capacity, resulting in a compromised oxidation/reduction (redox) and detoxification capacity. Research indicates that the availability of thiols, particularly GSH, can influence the effects of thimerosal (TM) and other mercury (Hg) compounds. TM is an organomercurial compound (49.55% Hg …

Amyloid Β-Peptide (1–42)-Induced Oxidative Stress In Alzheimer Disease: Importance In Disease Pathogenesis And Progression, D. Allan Butterfield, Aaron M. Swomley, Rukhsana Sultana

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Significance: Alzheimer disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease. AD is characterized by progressive cognitive impairment. One of the main histopathological hallmarks of AD brain is the presence of senile plaques (SPs) and another is elevated oxidative stress. The main component of SPs is amyloid beta-peptide (Aβ) that is derived from the proteolytic cleavage of amyloid precursor protein.

Recent Advances: Recent studies are consistent with the notion that methionine present at 35 position of Aβ is critical to Aβ-induced oxidative stress and neurotoxicity. Further, we also discuss the signatures of oxidatively modified brain proteins, identified using redox proteomics approaches, during …

Ensemble-Based Methods For Forecasting Census In Hospital Units, Devin C. Koestler, Hernando Ombao, Jesse Bender

Dartmouth Scholarship

The ability to accurately forecast census counts in hospital departments has considerable implications for hospital resource allocation. In recent years several different methods have been proposed forecasting census counts, however many of these approaches do not use available patient-specific information. In this paper we present an ensemble-based methodology for forecasting the census under a framework that simultaneously incorporates both (i) arrival trends over time and (ii) patient-specific baseline and time-varying information. The proposed model for predicting census has three components, namely: current census count, number of daily arrivals and number of daily departures. To model the number of daily arrivals, …

The Cyclomodulin Cycle Inhibiting Factor (Cif) Alters Cullin Neddylation Dynamics, Tasha B. Toro, J. I. Toth, M. D. Petroski

Faculty and Staff Publications

The bacterial effector protein cycle inhibiting factor (CIF) converts glutamine 40 of NEDD8 to glutamate (Q40E), causing cytopathic effects and inhibiting cell proliferation. Although these have been attributed to blocking the functions of cullin-RING ubiquitin ligases, how CIF modulates NEDD8-dependent signaling is unclear. Here we use conditional NEDD8-dependent yeast to explore the effects of CIF on cullin neddylation. Although CIF causes cullin deneddylation and the generation of free NEDD8 Q40E, inhibiting the COP9 signalosome (CSN) allows Q40E to form only on NEDD8 attached to cullins. In the presence of the CSN, NEDD8 Q40E is removed from cullins more rapidly than …

Pilot Comparative Effectiveness Study Of Surface Perturbation Treadmill Training To Prevent Falls In Older Adults, Jon D. Lurie, Alexandra B. Zagaria, Dawna M. Pidgeon, Judith L. Forman, Kevin Spratt

Dartmouth Scholarship

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults. Exercise programs appear to reduce fall risk, but the optimal type, frequency, and duration of exercise is unknown. External perturbations such as tripping and slipping are a major contributor to falls, and task-specific perturbation training to enhance dynamic stability has emerged as a promising approach to modifying fall risk. The purpose of this pilot study was 1) to determine the feasibility of conducting a large pragmatic randomized trial comparing a multidimensional exercise program inclusive of the surface perturbation treadmill training (SPTT) to multidimensional exercise alone (Standard PT); …

Side Chain Requirements For Affinity And Specificity In D5, An Hiv-1 Antibody Derived From The Vh1-69 Germline Segment, Alex Stewart, Joseph S. Harrison, Lauren K. Regula, Jonathan R. Lai

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

BACKGROUND: Analysis of factors contributing to high affinity antibody-protein interactions provides insight into natural antibody evolution, and guides the design of antibodies with new or enhanced function. We previously studied the interaction between antibody D5 and its target, a designed protein based on HIV-1 gp41 known as 5-Helix, as a model system [Da Silva, G. F.; Harrison, J. S.; Lai, J. R., Biochemistry, 2010, 49, 5464-5472]. Antibody D5 represents an interesting case study because it is derived from the VH1-69 germline segment; this germline segment is characterized by a hydrophobic second heavy chain complementarity determining region (HCDR2) that constitutes the …

Observational Intensity Bias Associated With Illness Adjustment: Cross Sectional Analysis Of Insurance Claims, J. E. Wennberg, D. O. Staiger, S. M. Sharp, D. J. Gottlieb

Dartmouth Scholarship

Objective: To determine the bias associated with frequency of visits by physicians in adjusting for illness, using diagnoses recorded in administrative databases.

Setting: Claims data from the US Medicare program for services provided in 2007 among 306 US hospital referral regions.

Design: Cross sectional analysis. Participants 20% sample of fee for service Medicare beneficiaries residing in the United States in 2007 (n=5 153 877).

Sector Expansion And Elliptical Modeling Of Blue-Gray Ovoids For Basal Cell Carcinoma Discrimination In Dermoscopy Images, Pelin Guvenc, Robert W. Leander, Serkan Kefel, William V. Stoecker, Ryan K. Rader, Kristen A. Hinton, Sherea Monica Stricklin, Harold S. Rabinovitz, Margaret C. Oliviero, Randy Hays Moss

Chemistry Faculty Research & Creative Works

Background: Blue-gray ovoids (B-GOs), a critical dermoscopic structure for basal cell carcinoma (BCC), offer an opportunity for automatic detection of BCC. Due to variation in size and color, B-GOs can be easily mistaken for similar structures in benign lesions. Analysis of these structures could afford accurate characterization and automatic recognition of B-GOs, furthering the goal of automatic BCC detection. This study utilizes a novel segmentation method to discriminate B-GOs from their benign mimics.

Methods: Contact dermoscopy images of 68 confirmed BCCs with B-GOs were obtained. Another set of 131 contact dermoscopic images of benign lesions possessing B-GO mimics provided a …

Rna Profiles Of Porcine Embryos During Genome Activation Reveal Complex Metabolic Switch Sensitive To In Vitro Conditions, Olga Østrup, Gayla R. Olbricht, Esben Østrup, Poul Hyttel, Philippe Collas, Ryan A. Cabot

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fertilization is followed by complex changes in cytoplasmic composition and extensive chromatin reprogramming which results in the abundant activation of totipotent embryonic genome at embryonic genome activation (EGA). While chromatin reprogramming has been widely studied in several species, only a handful of reports characterize changing transcriptome profiles and resulting metabolic changes in cleavage stage embryos. The aims of the current study were to investigate RNA profiles of in vivo developed (ivv) and in vitro produced (ivt) porcine embryos before (2-cell stage) and after (late 4-cell stage) EGA and determine major metabolic changes that regulate totipotency. The period before EGA was …

Predictors Of The Number Of Under-Five Malnourished Children In Bangladesh: Application Of The Generalized Poisson Regression Model, Mohammad Mafijul Islam, Morshed Alam, Md Tariquzaman, Mohammad Alamgir Kabir, Rokhsona Pervin, Munni Begum, Md Mobarak Hossain Khan

Journal Articles: Biostatistics

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is one of the principal causes of child mortality in developing countries including Bangladesh. According to our knowledge, most of the available studies, that addressed the issue of malnutrition among under-five children, considered the categorical (dichotomous/polychotomous) outcome variables and applied logistic regression (binary/multinomial) to find their predictors. In this study malnutrition variable (i.e. outcome) is defined as the number of under-five malnourished children in a family, which is a non-negative count variable. The purposes of the study are (i) to demonstrate the applicability of the generalized Poisson regression (GPR) model as an alternative of other statistical methods and …

Determinants Of Negative Pathways To Care And Their Impact On Service Disengagement In First-Episode Psychosis., Kelly K. Anderson, Rebecca Fuhrer, Norbert Schmitz, Ashok K Malla

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

PURPOSE: Although there have been numerous studies on pathways to care in first-episode psychosis (FEP), few have examined the determinants of the pathway to care and its impact on subsequent engagement with mental health services.

METHODS: Using a sample of 324 FEP patients from a catchment area-based early intervention (EI) program in Montréal, we estimated the association of several socio-demographic, clinical, and service-level factors with negative pathways to care and treatment delay. We also assessed the impact of the pathway to care on time to disengagement from EI services.

RESULTS: Few socio-demographic or clinical factors were predictive of negative pathways …

Application Of Glycyrrhiza Glabra Root As A Novel Adsorbent In The Removal Of Toluene Vapors: Equilibrium, Kinetic, And Thermodynamic Study, Fazel Mohammadi-Moghadam, Mohammad Mehdi Amin,, Mehdi Khiadani, Fariborz Momenbeik, Heshmatollah Nourmoradi, Mohammad Sadegh Hatamipour

Research outputs 2013

The aim of this paper is to investigate the removal of toluene from gaseous solution through Glycyrrhiza glabra root (GGR) as a waste material. The batch adsorption experiments were conducted at various conditions including contact time, adsorbate concentration, humidity, and temperature. The adsorption capacity was increased by raising the sorbent humidity up to 50 percent. The adsorption of toluene was also increased over contact time by 12 h when the sorbent was saturated. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich model fitted the adsorption data better than other kinetic and isotherm models, respectively. The Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherm also showed that the …

Identifying Requirements For The Invasion Of A Tick Species And Tick-Borne Pathogen Through Ticksim, Holly Gaff, Robyn Nadolny

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ticks and tick-borne diseases have been on the move throughout the United State over the past twenty years. We use an agent-based model, TICKSIM, to identify the key parameters that determine the success of invasion of the tick and if that is successful, the success of the tick-borne pathogen. We find that if an area has competent hosts, an initial population of ten ticks is predicted to always establish a new population. The establishment of the tick-borne pathogen depends on three parameters: the initial prevalence in the ten founding ticks, the probability that a tick infects the longer-lived hosts and …

Multiple Subject Barycentric Discriminant Analysis (Musubada): How To Assign Scans To Categories Without Using Spatial Normalization, Hervé Abdi, Lynne J. Williams, Andrew C. Connolly, M. Ida Gobbini

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present a new discriminant analysis (DA) method called Multiple Subject Barycentric Discriminant Analysis (MUSUBADA) suited for analyzing fMRI data because it handles datasets with multiple participants that each provides different number of variables (i.e., voxels) that are themselves grouped into regions of interest (ROIs). Like DA, MUSUBADA (1) assigns observations to predefined categories, (2) gives factorial maps displaying observations and categories, and (3) optimally assigns observations to categories. MUSUBADA handles cases with more variables than observations and can project portions of the data table (e.g., subtables, which can represent participants or ROIs) on the factorial maps. Therefore MUSUBADA can …

Slides: Colorado Law: Protecting Water Quantity And Quality, Alan E. Curtis

Monitoring and Protecting Groundwater During Oil and Gas Development (November 26)

Presenter: Alan E. Curtis, White & Jankowski, LLP

23 slides

Lipopolysaccharide Impairs Amyloid Β Efflux From Brain: Altered Vascular Sequestration, Cerebrospinal Fluid Reabsorption, Peripheral Clearance And Transporter Function At The Blood-Brain Barrier, Michelle A. Erickson, Pehr E. Hartvigson, Yoichi Morofuji, Joshua B. Owen, D. Allan Butterfield, William A. Banks

Chemistry Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Defects in the low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein-1 (LRP-1) and p-glycoprotein (Pgp) clearance of amyloid beta (Aβ) from brain are thought to contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have recently shown that induction of systemic inflammation by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) results in impaired efflux of Aβ from the brain. The same treatment also impairs Pgp function. Here, our aim is to determine which physiological routes of Aβ clearance are affected following systemic inflammation, including those relying on LRP-1 and Pgp function at the blood-brain barrier.

METHODS: CD-1 mice aged between 6 and 8 weeks were treated with 3 intraperitoneal injections …

Quantitative Patterns Of Stylistic Influence In The Evolution Of Literature, James M. Hughes, Nicholas J. Foti, David C. Krakauer, Daniel N. Rockmore

Dartmouth Scholarship

Literature is a form of expression whose temporal structure, both in content and style, provides a historical record of the evolution of culture. In this work we take on a quantitative analysis of literary style and conduct the first large-scale temporal stylometric study of literature by using the vast holdings in the Project Gutenberg Digital Library corpus. We find temporal stylistic localization among authors through the analysis of the similarity structure in feature vectors derived from content-free word usage, nonhomogeneous decay rates of stylistic influence, and an accelerating rate of decay of influence among modern authors. Within a given time …

Dna Methylation Arrays As Surrogate Measures Of Cell Mixture Distribution, Eugene Houseman, William P. Accomando, Devin C. Koestler, Brock C. Christensen, Carmen J. Marsit

Dartmouth Scholarship

There has been a long-standing need in biomedical research for a method that quantifies the normally mixed composition of leukocytes beyond what is possible by simple histological or flow cytometric assessments. The latter is restricted by the labile nature of protein epitopes, requirements for cell processing, and timely cell analysis. In a diverse array of diseases and following numerous immune-toxic exposures, leukocyte composition will critically inform the underlying immuno-biology to most chronic medical conditions. Emerging research demonstrates that DNA methylation is responsible for cellular differentiation, and when measured in whole peripheral blood, serves to distinguish cancer cases from controls.

Genetic Association Studies Of Copy-Number Variation: Should Assignment Of Copy Number States Precede Testing?, Patrick Breheny, Prabhakar Chalise, Anthony Batzler, Liewei Wang, Brooke L. Fridley

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Recently, structural variation in the genome has been implicated in many complex diseases. Using genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays, researchers are able to investigate the impact not only of SNP variation, but also of copy-number variants (CNVs) on the phenotype. The most common analytic approach involves estimating, at the level of the individual genome, the underlying number of copies present at each location. Once this is completed, tests are performed to determine the association between copy number state and phenotype. An alternative approach is to carry out association testing first, between phenotype and raw intensities from the SNP array …

Oxidative Stress In Hpv-Driven Viral Carcinogenesis: Redox Proteomics Analysis Of Hpv-16 Dysplastic And Neoplastic Tissues, Federico De Marco, Elona Bucaj, Cesira Foppoli, Ada Fiorini, Carla Blarzino, Kozeta Filipi, Alessandra Giorgi, Maria Eugenia Schininà, Fabio Di Domenico, Raffaella Coccia, D. Allan Butterfield, Marzia Perluigi

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Genital infection by high risk Human Papillomavirus (HR-HPV), although recognized as the main etio-pathogenetic factor of cervical cancer, is not per se sufficient to induce tumour development. Oxidative stress (OS) represents an interesting and under-explored candidate as a promoting factor in HPV-initiated carcinogenesis. To gain insight into the role of OS in cervical cancer, HPV-16 positive tissues were collected from patients with invasive squamous cervical carcinoma, from patients with High Grade dysplastic HPV lesions and from patients with no clinical evidence of HPV lesions. After virological characterization, modulation of proteins involved in the redox status regulation was investigated. ERp57 and …

A Perceptual Metric For Photo Retouching, Eric Kee, Hany Farid

Dartmouth Scholarship

In recent years, advertisers and magazine editors have been widely criticized for taking digital photo retouching to an extreme. Impossibly thin, tall, and wrinkle- and blemish-free models are routinely splashed onto billboards, advertisements, and magazine covers. The ubiquity of these unrealistic and highly idealized images has been linked to eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction in men, women, and children. In response, several countries have considered legislating the labeling of retouched photos. We describe a quantitative and perceptually meaningful metric of photo retouching. Photographs are rated on the degree to which they have been digitally altered by explicitly modeling and …

An Engineered Approach To Stem Cell Culture: Automating The Decision Process For Real-Time Adaptive Subculture Of Stem Cells, Dai Fei Elmer Ker, Lee E. Weiss, Silvina N. Junkers, Mei Chen, Zhaozheng Yin, Mike F. Sandbothe, Seungil Huh, Sungeun Eom, Ryoma Bise, Elvira Osuna-Highley, Takeo Kanade, Phil Gordon Campbell

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Current cell culture practices are dependent upon human operators and remain laborious and highly subjective, resulting in large variations and inconsistent outcomes, especially when using visual assessments of cell confluency to determine the appropriate time to subculture cells. Although efforts to automate cell culture with robotic systems are underway, the majority of such systems still require human intervention to determine when to subculture. Thus, it is necessary to accurately and objectively determine the appropriate time for cell passaging. Optimal stem cell culturing that maintains cell pluripotency while maximizing cell yields will be especially important for efficient, cost-effective stem cell-based therapies. …

Rna Oxidation Adducts 8-Ohg And 8-Oha Change With Aβ42 Levels In Late-Stage Alzheimer's Disease, Adam M. Weidner, Melissa A. Bradley, Tina L. Beckett, Dana M. Niedowicz, Amy L.S. Dowling, Sergey V. Matveev, Harry Levine, Mark A. Lovell, M. Paul Murphy

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

While research supports amyloid-β (Aβ) as the etiologic agent of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the mechanism of action remains unclear. Evidence indicates that adducts of RNA caused by oxidation also represent an early phenomenon in AD. It is currently unknown what type of influence these two observations have on each other, if any. We quantified five RNA adducts by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy across five brain regions from AD cases and age-matched controls. We then used a reductive directed analysis to compare the RNA adducts to common indices of AD neuropathology and various pools of Aβ. Using data from four disease-affected brain …

Assessing Medicare Beneficiaries’ Strength‐Of‐Preference Scores For Health Care Options: How Engaging Does The Elicitation Technique Need To Be?, Trafford Crump, Hilary A. Llewellyn-Thomas

Dartmouth Scholarship

The objective was to determine if participants’ strength‐of‐preference scores for elective health care interventions at the end‐of‐life (EOL) elicited using a non‐engaging technique are affected by their prior use of an engaging elicitation technique.

Human Nature, Rachel Goble

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

The Pathways To Mental Health Care Of First-Episode Psychosis Patients: A Systematic Review., Kelly K. Anderson, Rebecca Fuhrer, Ashok K. Malla

Epidemiology and Biostatistics Publications

BACKGROUND: Although there is agreement on the association between delay in treatment of psychosis and outcome, less is known regarding the pathways to care of patients suffering from a first psychotic episode. Pathways are complex, involve a diverse range of contacts, and are likely to influence delay in treatment. We conducted a systematic review on the nature and determinants of the pathway to care of patients experiencing a first psychotic episode.

METHOD: We searched four databases (Medline, HealthStar, EMBASE, PsycINFO) to identify articles published between 1985 and 2009. We manually searched reference lists and relevant journals and used forward citation …

Nona-Arginine Facilitates Delivery Of Quantum Dots Into Cells Via Multiple Pathways, Yi Xu, Betty Revon Liu, Han Jung Lee, Katie Shannon, Jeffrey G. Winiarz, Tien-Chun Wang, Huey-Jenn Chiang, Yue-Wern Huang

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have recently been used to deliver and monitor biomolecules, such as drugs and proteins. However, QDs alone have a low efficiency of transport across the plasma membrane. In order to increase the efficiency, we used synthetic nona-arginine (SR9), a cell-penetrating peptide, to facilitate uptake. We found that SR9 increased the cellular uptake of QDs in a noncovalent binding manner between QDs and SR9. Further, we investigated mechanisms of QD/SR9 cellular internalization. Low temperature and metabolic inhibitors markedly inhibited the uptake of QD/SR9, indicating that internalization is an energy-dependent process. Results from both the pathway inhibitors and …

Event Study Method For Validating Agent-Based Trading Simulations, Shih-Fen Cheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we introduce how one can validate an event-centric trading simulation platform that is built with multi-agent technology. The issue of validation is extremely important for agent-based simulations, but unfortunately, so far there is no one universal method that would work in all domains. The primary contribution of this paper is a novel combination of event-centric simulation design and event study approach for market dynamics generation and validation. In our event-centric design, the simulation is progressed by announcing news events that affect market prices. Upon receiving these events, event-aware software agents would adjust their views on the market …

Thinking Outside The Curve, Part Ii: Modeling Fetal-Infant Mortality, Richard Charnigo, Lorie W. Chesnut, Tony Lobianco, Russell S. Kirby

Statistics Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Greater epidemiologic understanding of the relationships among fetal-infant mortality and its prognostic factors, including birthweight, could have vast public health implications. A key step toward that understanding is a realistic and tractable framework for analyzing birthweight distributions and fetal-infant mortality. The present paper is the second of a two-part series that introduces such a framework.

METHODS: We propose estimating birthweight-specific mortality within each component of a normal mixture model representing a birthweight distribution, the number of components having been determined from the data rather than fixed a priori.

RESULTS: We address a number of methodological issues related to our …