Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Methylmercury Exposure Via Canned Tuna Fish Consumption And Breast Cancer, Jennifer Bodenrader

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Widespread consumption of canned tuna fish since the 1950s may explain some of the increase in breast cancer prevalence in the United States and Europe. Although canned tuna is the primary source of human exposure to methylmercury, its role as an estrogen activating metalloestrogen has been overlooked in the etiology and incidence of breast cancer. Carcinogenic theory asserts that increased exposure to estrogen elevates the risk of breast cancer. The purpose of this population-based, case control study was to examine the association between canned tuna consumption, total blood mercury, and breast cancer in the NHANES 2003-2006 surveys. A multivariable logistic …

Falls And Related Injuries Based On Surveillance Data: U.S. Hospital Emergency Departments, George K. Quarranttey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Falls can lead to unintentional injuries and possibly death, making falls an important public health problem in terms of related health care cost, incurred disabilities, and years of life lost. Approximately 1 in every 3 Americans ages 65 years and older is at risk of falling at least once every year. Children, young adults, and middle-aged adults are also vulnerable to falls. The purpose of this study was to examine the epidemiology of falls and fall-related injuries using surveillance data from nationally representative samples of hospital emergency departments in United States. The study was guided by a social-ecological model on …

Contribution Of New Thiol Antioxidant In The Treatment Of Acetaminophen Toxicity, Ahdab Naeem Khayyat

Doctoral Dissertations

"Acetaminophen (N-acetyl-p-aminophenol, APAP) is one of the most widely used over-the-counter antipyretic analgesic medications. It is safe at therapeutic doses, but an overdose can result in severe hepato-nephrotoxicity, a leading cause of drug-induced acute liver failure in the U.S. Although a few different mechanisms have been proposed for APAP-induced toxicity, a significant amount of evidence has pointed to the potential involvement of oxidative stress in acetaminophen toxicity. Depletion of glutathione (GSH) is one of the initiating steps in APAP-induced toxicity; therefore, one strategy for restricting organ damage is to restore GSH levels by using GSH prodrugs like N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Although …

Detecting, Segmenting And Tracking Bio-Medical Objects, Mingzhong Li

Doctoral Dissertations

"Studying the behavior patterns of biomedical objects helps scientists understand the underlying mechanisms. With computer vision techniques, automated monitoring can be implemented for efficient and effective analysis in biomedical studies. Promising applications have been carried out in various research topics, including insect group monitoring, malignant cell detection and segmentation, human organ segmentation and nano-particle tracking.

In general, applications of computer vision techniques in monitoring biomedical objects include the following stages: detection, segmentation and tracking. Challenges in each stage will potentially lead to unsatisfactory results of automated monitoring. These challenges include different foreground-background contrast, fast motion blur, clutter, object overlap and …

Hepatitis C Virus In Mexican Americans: A Population-Based Study Reveals Relatively High Prevalence And Negative Association With Diabetes, Gordon P. Watt, Kristina Vatcheva, Laura Beretta, Jen-Jung Pan, Michael Fallon, Joseph B. Mccormick, Susan P. Fisher-Hoch

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and risk factors for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Mexican Americans living in South Texas. We tested plasma for the presence of HCV antibody from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC), a randomized, population-based cohort in an economically disadvantaged Mexican American community on the United States/Mexico border with high rates of chronic disease. A weighted prevalence of HCV antibody of 2·3% [n = 1131, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·2-3·4] was found. Participants with diabetes had low rates of HCV antibody (0·4%, 95% CI 0·0-0·9) and logistic regression revealed a statistically significant negative …

Open Educational Resources Textbook List, Zachariah Claybaugh, Chelsea Stone

Librarian Publications

Discipline specific OER textbook list for departments at SHU, compiled by Zach Claybaugh and Chelsea Stone.

Methyl Transfer By Substrate Signaling From A Knotted Protein Fold, Thomas Christian, Reiko Sakaguchi, Agata P. Perlinska, George Lahoud, Takuhiro Ito, Erika A. Taylor, Shigeyuki Yokoyama, Joanna I. Sulkowska, Ya-Ming Hou

Erika A. Taylor, Ph.D.

Preparing Underrepresented And First-Generation Students For Careers In Biomedical Big Data Science, Judith Canner, Carla Fresquez

Judith Canner

Introduction To Targeted Learning, Laura Balzer

Laura B. Balzer

No abstract provided.

Interrogating Metabolism In Brain Cancer, Travis Salzillo, Jingzhe Hu, Linda Nguyen, Nicholas Whiting, Jaehyuk Lee, Joseph Weygand, Prasanta Dutta, Shivanand Pudakalakatti, Niki Zacharias Millward, Seth Gammon, Frederick F. Lang, Amy B. Heimberger, Pratip Bhattacharya

Nicholas Whiting

Penyebab Lemah Syahwat Tiba Tiba | Makanan Penyembuh Lemah Syahwat, Chelsea Fc

chelsea fc

Merk Obat Sipilis Yang Paling Banyak Digunakan, Ndas Kura

Ndas Kura

Early Diagnosis Of Dengue Disease Severity In A Resource-Limited Asian Country, Philippe Cavailler, Arnaud Tarantola, Yee Sin Leo, Andrew A. Lover, Anne Rachline, Duch Moniboth, Rekol Huy, Ai Li Quake, Kdan Yuvatha, Veasna Duong, Jeremy L. Brett, Philippe Buchy

Andrew Lover

Serological Evidence For Localized And Persistent Antibody Response In Zika Virus-Positive Neonates With Microcephaly (Brazil, 2015)- A Secondary Analysis, Andrew A. Lover

Andrew Lover

Correction Of Verication Bias Using Log-Linear Models For A Single Binaryscale Diagnostic Tests, Haresh Rochani, Hani M. Samawi, Robert L. Vogel, Jingjing Yin

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

In diagnostic medicine, the test that determines the true disease status without an error is referred to as the gold standard. Even when a gold standard exists, it is extremely difficult to verify each patient due to the issues of costeffectiveness and invasive nature of the procedures. In practice some of the patients with test results are not selected for verification of the disease status which results in verification bias for diagnostic tests. The ability of the diagnostic test to correctly identify the patients with and without the disease can be evaluated by measures such as sensitivity, specificity and predictive …

Antiviral Peptide Nanocomplexes As Potential Therapeutics For The Treatment Of Infectious Diseases, Jinjin Zhang

Theses & Dissertations

Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is recognized as a major burden in global public health, which can be further exacerbated by several cofactors such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Currently, there is no vaccine for HCV. The emergence of potent and highly specific direct-acting antivirals (DAA) has marked a new era in HCV therapy, however, the remaining issues like affordability, genotype dependency, and potential resistance still necessitate the development of additional therapeutic approaches to be used instead or in combination with DAA.

Recently, the antiviral peptide C5A (in our studies designated as p1) and its cationic derivative p41 have been identified …

Postural Responses To Perturbations Of The Vestibular System During Walking In Healthy Young And Older Adults, Jung Hung Chien

Theses & Dissertations

It has been shown that approximate one-third of US adults aged 40 years and older (69 million US citizens) have some type of vestibular problems. These declining abilities of the vestibular system affect quality of life. Difficulties in performing daily activities (dressing, bathing, getting in and out of the bed and etc.) have been highly correlated to loss of balance due to vestibular disorders. The exact number of people affected by vestibular disorders is still difficult to quantify. This might be because symptoms are difficult to describe and differences exist in the qualifying criteria within and across studies. Thus, it …

Characterizing The Performance And Behaviors Of Runners Using Twitter, Qian He, Emmanuel Agu, Diane Strong, Bengisu Tulu, Peder Pedersen

Emmanuel O. Agu

Running is a popular physical activity that improves physical and mental wellbeing. Unfortunately, up-to- date information about runners’ performance and psychological wellbeing is limited. Many questions remain unanswered, such as how far and how fast runners typically run, their preferred running times and frequencies, how long new runners persist before dropping out, and what factors cause runners to quit. Without hard data, establishing patterns of runner behavior and mitigating the challenges they face are difficult. Collecting data manually from large numbers of runners for research studies is costly and time consuming. Emerging Social Networking Services (SNS) and fitness tracking devices …

Detection Of Diabetic Foot Ulcers Using Svm Based Classification, Lei Wang, Peder Pedersen, Diane Strong, Bengisu Tulu, Emmanuel Agu, Qian He, Ronald Ignotz, Raymond Dunn, David Harlan, Sherry Pagoto

Emmanuel O. Agu

Diabetic foot ulcers represent a significant health issue, for both patients’ quality of life and healthcare system costs. Currently, wound care is mainly based on visual assessment of wound size, which suffers from lack of accuracy and consistency. Hence, a more quantitative and computer-based method is needed. Supervised machine learning based object recognition is an attractive option, using training sample images with boundaries labeled by experienced clinicians. We use forty sample images collected from the UMASS Wound Clinic by tracking 8 subjects over 6 months with a smartphone camera. To maintain a consistent imaging environment and facilitate the capture process …

A Context-Aware Activity Recommendation Smartphone Application To Mitigate Sedentary Lifestyles, Qian He, Emmanuel Agu

Emmanuel O. Agu

A sedentary lifestyle involves irregular or no physical activity. In this kind of lifestyle, people’s activities do not increase their energy expenditure substantially above resting levels. Long periods of sitting, lying, watching television, playing video games, and using the computer are typical examples. Energy expenditures at 1.0-1.5 Metabolic Equivalent Units (METs) are considered sedentary behaviors. A recent study of sedentary lifestyles found that the length of sedentary times is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. In this study, we developed a smartphone application called “On11”, which continuously tracks and informs the user …

Effects Of Cost Sharing On Seeking Care For Serious And Minor Symptoms. Results Of A Randomized Controlled Trial, Martin Shapiro, John Ware, Cathy Sherbourne

Martin Shapiro

To estimate the effect of cost sharing on seeking care for serious and minor symptoms, we analyzed data for 3539 persons aged 17 to 61 from the Rand Health Insurance Experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to a free-care group or to insurance plans requiring them to pay part of the costs (cost-sharing group). Annual surveys were administered to determine if participants had serious and minor symptoms during the preceding month and whether they saw a physician. Serious symptoms were judged by a panel of physicians to warrant care in most instances; minor symptoms were judged neither to be severe nor …

Disease Will Limit Future Food Supply From The Global Crustacean Fishery And Aquaculture Sectors, G. Stentiford, D. Neil, E. Peeler, J. Shields, H. Small, T. Flegel, J. Vlak, B. Jones, F. Morado, S. Moss, J. Lotz, Lyric Bartholomay, D. Behringer, C. Hauton, D. Lightner

Lyric Bartholomay

Seafood is a highly traded food commodity. Farmed and captured crustaceans contribute a significant proportion with annual production exceeding 10 M metric tonnes with first sale value of $40bn. The sector is dominated by farmed tropical marine shrimp, the fastest growing sector of the global aquaculture industry. It is significant in supporting rural livelihoods and alleviating poverty in producing nations within Asia and Latin America while forming an increasing contribution to aquatic food supply in more developed countries. Nations with marine borders often also support important marine fisheries for crustaceans that are regionally traded as live animals and commodity products. …

Study Of Potential Risk Of Dengue Disease Outbreak In Sri Lanka Using Gis And Statistical Modelling, Sumith Pathirana, Masato Kawabata, Rohitha Goonatilake

Adjunct Associate Professor Sumith Pathirana

The increasing incidence of dengue fever has become a priority health issue for Sri Lanka. Recent dengue outbreaks in Sri Lanka show two trends: yearly increase of total number of dengue incidence and increasing dengue outbreaks outside the endemic urbanised areas in the south and the west. Identification of factors responsible for dengue outbreaks and the mapping of potential risk areas in Sri Lanka are long overdue. This study examines the association between weekly rainfall patterns and dengue outbreaks in the western province between 2000 and 2004. Methods: The study develops a model to quantitatively assess the relationship between rainfall …

Direct Phenotypic Screening In Mice: Identification Of Individual, Novel Antinociceptive Compounds From A Library Of 734 821 Pyrrolidine Bis-Piperazines, Richard A. Houghten, Michelle L. Ganno, Jay P. Mclaughlin, Colette T. Dooley, Shainnel O. Eans Torrey Pines Institute For Molecular Studies, Radleigh Santos, Travis Lavoi, Adel Nefzi, Greg Welmaker, Marc A. Giulianotti, Lawrence Toll

Mathematics Faculty Articles

The hypothesis in the current study is that the simultaneous direct in vivo testing of thousands to millions of systematically arranged mixture-based libraries will facilitate the identification of enhanced individual compounds. Individual compounds identified from such libraries may have increased specificity and decreased side effects early in the discovery phase. Testing began by screening ten diverse scaffolds as single mixtures (ranging from 17 340 to 4 879 681 compounds) for analgesia directly in the mouse tail withdrawal model. The “all X” mixture representing the library TPI-1954 was found to produce significant antinociception and lacked respiratory depression and hyperlocomotor effects using …

Evaluation Of Animal Model Research, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Kenneth J. Shapiro, PhD

It is argued that a concept of evaluation of animal models that is broader and more useful than validation is available. Productive generativity refers to the degree to which a model furthers understanding and leads to more-effective treatment interventions. Results of the application of this novel evaluative frame to several animal models of eating disorders show that this animal-based research has not been productive. The question of the relation between clinic and animal laboratory is discussed.

Designing For Positive Health Affect: Decoupling Negative Emotion And Health Monitoring Technologies, Tammy R. Toscos, Kay Connelly, Yvonne Rogers

Tammy R Toscos

Through various health-focused technology projects, we discovered that the emotional response to technology was related to uptake and sustained use of health monitoring technologies. In this paper we present a case study of how we synthesized constructs of social cognitive theory, technology as experience, and diabetes management guidelines as a framework for making design recommendations for blood glucose monitoring technology that address the emotional response of users. We suggest applying this theoretical lens for design may help attend to emotional responses of users in an effort to decouple strong negative emotions that are paired to health monitoring technologies that provide …

Patient-Centered Appointment Scheduling Using Agent-Based Simulation, Tammy Toscos, Ayten Turkcan, Brad Doebbeling

Tammy R Toscos

Enhanced access and continuity are key components of patient-centered care. Existing studies show that several interventions such as providing same day appointments, walk-in services, after-hours care, and group appointments, have been used to redesign the healthcare systems for improved access to primary care. However, an intervention focusing on a single component of care delivery (i.e. improving access to acute care) might have a negative impact other components of the system (i.e. reduced continuity of care for chronic patients). Therefore, primary care clinics should consider implementing multiple interventions tailored for their patient population needs. We collected rapid ethnography and observations to …

Estimated Probability Of Becoming Alcohol Dependent: Extending A Multiparametric Approach, Olga A. Vsevolozhskaya, James C. Anthony

Biostatistics Presentations

Background: United States (US) epidemiological studies suggest that for every 5-8 who start drinking alcoholic beverages, at least one drinker will develop an alcohol dependence (AD) syndrome within the first 10 years after onset of drinking (Lopez-Quintero et al., 2011; Wagner & Anthony, 2002). Recently, we described a multiparametric functional analysis approach for new research to estimate these transition probabilities with a one-dimensional function (1D; Vsevolozhskaya & Anthony, 2015). Here, we demonstrate extension of this analysis to two-dimensional (2D) functions that combine information about number of recent drinking days and number of drinks on the typical drinking day.

Methods: Data …

Nursing: The Career That Saves Lives [Career Paper], Maggie Flanagan

Undergraduate Research Award

No abstract provided.

Progression Magazine, 2015 Winter, Coastal Carolina University

Progression Magazine

Magazine of the College of Science at Coastal Carolina University.