Florida Atlantic University

Although there is an emerging body of evidence that addresses the adverse health outcomes of individuals with sickle cell trait (SCT), it is not clear if the findings are generalizable from a sex and gender perspective. The purpose of this scoping review was to complete an assessment of main concepts, identify knowledge gaps, and determine the potential value of conducting an eventual systematic review. The research question guiding this scoping review is: In SCT individuals with adverse health outcomes, what is known about sex and gender differences? We conducted a scoping review of research on SCT from 2016 to 2022 across five databases, with 36 research studies included in the review. The majority of the included studies were cohort studies (67%) in the United States (61%) focusing on a variety of health outcomes. One-third reported health outcomes by both SCT status and sex, and one-third controlled for sex; no studies addressed gender. Further research is needed on the role of sex and gender for individuals with SCT.

Given the complexity of agricultural problems, it is essential to develop acceptable solutions for various stakeholders with diverse knowledge, viewpoints, and preferences. However, European public opinion has become highly polarized, making constructive discussions on these issues difficult. We present the results of the narrative analysis of media debate on new genomic techniques. The study identified two primary narrative groups: ‘precaution-focused’ and ‘innovation-focused.’ The former emphasizes caution, potential risks, and the need for stringent regulation, while the latter highlights benefits, progress, and the promise of genome editing for sustainable agricultural practices. Within each group of narratives, several distinct narratives were identified. The research has revealed that despite the high polarization, the narratives shared important values and beliefs. Going beyond the dividing narratives and concentrating on common values can depolarize the debate and set the stage for new narratives, enabling constructive debate, concentrating on solving problems, and maximizing collective outcomes.

Genetic variants of deregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in tumorigenesis, cancer progression and cancer recurrence. Single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the lncRNA cyclin‐dependent kinase inhibitor 2B antisense RNA 1 (CDKN2B‐AS1) have been associated with the risk and progression of various cancers; however, their role in prostate cancer (PCa) remains underexplored. In this case–control study, we investigated the associations of CDKN2B‐AS1 expression levels and variants with PCa risk and progression. For this, five SNPs of CDKN2B‐AS1—rs564398, rs1333048, rs1537373, rs2151280 and rs8181047—were genotyped using a TaqMan allelic discrimination assay; data were collected from 695 patients with PCa and 695 healthy controls. Our findings revealed that, under a dominant model, patients with PCa carrying at least one minor C allele of rs1333048 exhibited an increased risk of developing tumours with high Gleason grades; this risk was particularly high in patients without biochemical recurrence. Data from the Genotype‐Tissue Expression database indicated upregulated CDKN2B‐AS1 expression in the prostates of individuals carrying the polymorphic C allele of rs1333048. Genotype screening of rs1333048 in PCa cell lines showed that cells with at least one minor C allele had higher CDKN2B‐AS1 levels than those with the AA genotype. Furthermore, data from The Cancer Genome Atlas indicated that higher CDKN2B‐AS1 levels in PCa tissues were correlated with larger tumour sizes (T3 + T4), more lymph node metastasis (N1), higher Gleason scores and shorter progression‐free survival. In conclusion, the polymorphic variants of CDKN2B‐AS1 at rs1333048 may modulate CDKN2B‐AS1 expression, thus accelerating PCa progression.

Lately, magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) hyperthermia gained much attention because of its therapeutic efficiency. It is challenging to predict all the treatment parameters during the actual therapeutic environment. Hence, the numerical approaches can be utilized to optimize various parameters of interest. In the present research, MNP hyperthermia on a cancerous tumor placed inside the human brain is investigated numerically using a realistically shaped model for the head layers and the tumor. Applying the boundary conditions, a steady-state Pennes’s bioheat transfer equation is solved using the finite element method scheme. The effects of MNP injection volume and location on tumor thermal distribution are examined and discussed in detail. The total volume of the brain tumor is 5990 mm3. Three different volumes of injection per point, namely, 0.6, 1.2, and 3 μl, as well as several injection points, are performed. It is observed that choosing a higher number of MNP injection points affects the temperature distribution in terms of uniformity. In contrast, an accurate injection volume provides lower temperatures for the treatment of cancerous tissue. Moreover, it is concluded that interfaces between the different layers of the anatomically correct brain model play a critical role in thermal therapy. Based on the obtained results, it is concluded that the optimal condition for MNP hyperthermia of a cancerous tumor with a volume of 5990 mm3 is the total injection volume of 80 μl through 20 different points all over the brain tumor considering an injection volume of 4 μl for each point.

Introduction According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Florida became the epicenter of the COVID‐19 delta variant during the summer of 2021. There is limited knowledge on how the pandemic impacted postpartum women's lived experiences in the United States. The purpose of the study was to explore the lived experiences of postpartum women living in South Florida during the COVID‐19 pandemic and their responses. Methods A descriptive qualitative study design was used. Study participants included 26 postpartum women living in South Florida who had given birth to a live newborn from March 2020 to May 2022. We used purposeful sampling and social media recruitment methods. Sociodemographic information was collected using REDCap, and live face‐to‐face in‐depth interviews were conducted on Webex using a semistructured questionnaire. Content analysis was used to analyze the research data and develop themes and subthemes. Results The first central theme, raising an infant during a pandemic, included 3 subthemes: (1) protecting the infant, (2) feeling isolated, and (3) food for thought. The second central theme, maternal needs during a pandemic, included 3 subthemes: (1) mental health needs, (2) support needs, and (3) health care needs. Conclusion Findings suggest women experienced significant challenges in caring for themselves and their infants during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Findings highlight the need for policy reform that secures comprehensive and quality postpartum health care for women that includes mental health screenings.

Animal populations can exhibit dramatic variation in individual fitness, and microbiota are emerging as a potentially understudied factor influencing host health. Bacterial diversity and community structure of the gut microbiome are associated with many aspects of fitness in animals, but relatively little is known about the generality of these relationships in wild populations and non‐mammalian taxa. We studied the northern cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis , a member of a taxon that is ecologically important but underrepresented in microbiome research: songbirds. To test for relationships between the microbiota and host fitness, we sampled the cloacal microbiomes of wild cardinals and measured body condition index, assessed coloration of sexual ornaments (beak and plumage), and collected blood to estimate the glucocorticoid response to stress. Both alpha and beta bacterial diversity were related to individual variation in body condition and several sexual ornaments, but not glucocorticoid concentrations. Our results from a free‐living songbird population add to a growing body of research linking avian host fitness to internal bacterial community characteristics. This study sets the stage for manipulative experiments to determine how challenges to fitness and microbiomes may upset these relationships.

Objective As the number of individuals diagnosed with dementia increases, so does the need to understand the preferences of persons living with dementia (PLWD) and caregivers for how clinicians can deliver a dementia diagnosis effectively, which can be a difficult process. This study describes the diagnostic communication preferences of PLWD and caregivers. Methods We conducted semi-structured individual phone interviews with two groups: PLWD who were diagnosed in the past two years (n = 11) and family caregivers of PLWD (n = 19) living in Florida. PLWD and caregivers were not recruited/enrolled as dyads. Results The groups' communication preferences were largely similar. Data were analyzed thematically into five themes: communicate the diagnosis clearly, meet information needs, discuss PLWD/caregiver resources, prepare for continued care, and communicate to establish and maintain relationships. Conclusion Participants wanted clear communication, information, and support, but differed in some details (e.g. the language used to describe the diagnosis and the amount/type of desired information). Clinicians can apply general principles but will need to tailor them to individual preferences of PLWD and caregivers. Innovation Limited research has elicited PLWD and caregivers' communication preferences for receiving dementia diagnoses, particularly through an individualized data collection method allowing for richer descriptions and deeper understanding.

During the collection of time-series data, many reasons lead to imbalanced and incomplete datasets. Consequently, it becomes challenging to develop deep convolutional models without suffering from overfitting. Our objective in this paper was to investigate an emerging but rather underutilized framework of Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks (cGANs) for improving deep regression models for time-series data with an imbalanced and incomplete distribution. First, we investigated the potential of using a vanilla cGAN as a data imputation to improve the generalizability of the developed models to unseen data in such datasets. Next, we proposed a modified cGAN architecture with improved extrapolation and generalizability of the regression models. Our investigations used an imbalanced synthetic non-stationary dataset, a real-world dataset in Parkinson's disease (PD) application domain, and one publicly-available dataset for Negative Affect (NA) estimation. We found that vanilla cGAN failed to generate realistic time-series data due to severe mode collapse, limiting its application as a data imputation for imbalanced and incomplete data. Importantly, the proposed cGAN framework significantly improved extrapolation and generalizability for the prediction of regression scores with an average improvement of 56%, 34%, and 18%, respectively, in mean absolute error for the synthetic, PD, and NA datasets when compared with traditional Convolutional Neural Networks. The codes are publicly available on Github.

It is well-studied that quantum computing breaks the security of the current worldwide implemented public key cryptosystems. This forces us toward post quantum cryptography (PQC) whose security remains solid even against adversaries having access to quantum computers. For this matter, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced four winners in 2022. Among them, CRYSTALS-Kyber which is the only KEM/PKE algorithm, is the aim of this paper. In this paper, through using physical unclonable functions (PUF) and true random number generators (TRNG), we improve the overall security of Kyber and provide physical security to it. Our implementation results on ARMv7 and ARMv8 architectures, indicate significant speedup, compared to the reference work. For example, for the CCA.KEM-KeyGen() algorithm, we achieved roughly 26%, 13%, and 10% speedup at security levels of 512, 768, and 1024 on ARMv7 implementation, and 25%, 12%, and 10% for ARMv8 implementation. Comparing the implementation results of our design with the reference work indicates that both the security and the system performance are improved.

This paper presents a novel and practical methodology for freight tonnage estimation by leveraging two complementary datasets: Telemetric Traffic Monitoring Sites (TTMS) data and Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) systems. To estimate freight tonnage statewide and potentially nationwide with limited truck weigh-in-motion stations, we have proposed a multi-objective location-allocation model that associated TTMSs with WIM stations based on similar attributes. Additionally, we have developed a fuzzy k-prototype clustering-based non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm -simulated annealing algorithm (FKC-NSGASA) to solve the multi-objective location-allocation problem, enabling accurate estimation of truck volumes. To address the over-counting problem, we introduced a truck volume elimination method. Finally, we have aggregated annual truck tonnage using the truck volume data and the average tonnage of WIM stations. The proposed methodologies are validated using WIM data from 2012 and 2017 in Florida. The results demonstrate that our approach achieves higher estimation accuracy, showcasing its potential for accurately estimating statewide freight tonnage. Furthermore, the developed estimation framework and algorithm offer an effective and computationally efficient method for statewide freight traffic evaluation.

Hybridization and introgression are widespread in nature, with important implications for adaptation and speciation. Since heterogametic hybrids often have lower fitness than homogametic individuals, a phenomenon known as Haldane’s rule, loci inherited strictly through the heterogametic sex rarely introgress. We focus on the Y-chromosomal history of guenons, African primates that hybridized extensively in the past. Although our inferences suggest that Haldane’s rule generally applies, we uncover a Y chromosome introgression event between two species ca. six million years after their initial divergence. Using simulations, we show that selection likely drove the introgressing Y chromosome to fixation from a low initial frequency. We identify non-synonymous substitutions on the novel Y chromosome as candidate targets of selection, and explore meiotic drive as an alternative mechanism. Our results provide a rare example of Y chromosome introgression, showing that the ability to produce fertile heterogametic hybrids likely persisted for six million years in guenons.

The present paper investigates the accuracy of the finite element method (FEM) in stochastic setting. The performance of the FEM for solving the transversal vibration eigenvalue problem of a uniform, homogeneous beam in presence of uncertainties is considered aiming to establish how accurate the method is in predicting the beam’s reliability as well as its probability of failure. An explicit solution is first provided for the approximate fundamental frequency of the beam as a function of the number of elements, for different boundary conditions when the mesh is uniform along the length of the beam allowing an analytical evaluation of the structural reliability and the probability of failure when, e.g., the random uncertainty in the Young modulus of the beam is considered. The exact solution of the vibration problem derived within Bernoulli-Euler beam theory is exploited to evaluate the actual reliability as well as the actual probability of failure which, being compared with required reliability or allowed probability of failure thresholds, permits to verify the accuracy of the FEM in the probabilistic context and to warn about “unreliability of reliability conclusions”.

Objective Benzodiazepine rescue medications are established as therapy for acute termination of seizure clusters. A post‐hoc analysis of a clinical trial of seizure cluster treatment with diazepam nasal spray found a potential longer‐term impact over a year of treatment. In this retrospective analysis, we tested the hypothesis that benzodiazepine‐treated seizure clusters are associated with prolonged time to the next seizure cluster compared with untreated seizure clusters in a patient‐reported real‐world database. Methods We analyzed data on self‐reported seizures and benzodiazepine rescue medication administration in the Seizure Tracker™ database between 2007 and 2022. Kaplan–Meier analysis was used to compare treated vs untreated seizure clusters with respect to time to start of the next seizure cluster or immediate‐use medication administration. Mixed‐effects analysis was used to compare the number of seizures per cluster for treated and untreated seizure clusters. Robustness of findings was evaluated across three operational seizure‐cluster definitions: ≥2 seizures in 4 hours as primary analysis and in 6 and 24 hours as sensitivity analyses. Results A total of 10 889 benzodiazepine immediate‐use medication administrations (n = 220 patients) met inclusion criteria. Benzodiazepine rescue administrations were followed by longer time to the next seizure cluster or rescue administration, compared with untreated seizure clusters, corresponding to a median of 4.9 days following treated seizure clusters and a median of 0.8 days following untreated seizure clusters. This prolongation was driven by a minority of patients (accounting for 45.9% of seizure clusters in the sample) and patients were more likely to be women. The number of seizures per cluster was lower when treatment was administered earlier in the seizure cluster. Significance These retrospective real‐world data suggest that the effect of benzodiazepines on termination of seizure clusters may be more pronounced when administration occurs earlier after onset, and support a hypothesis of a possible longer‐term effect of benzodiazepines beyond immediate‐use acute seizure termination.

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a promising treatment for hematologic malignancies, but intensive conditioning leads to immunosuppression and susceptibility to healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Despite standard prevention measures, bloodstream infections (BSI) impact a significant percentage of immunocompromised HCT patients. Incidence of BSI can be mitigated by chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing—an underutilized infection-prevention strategy. Gaining HCT recipients’ perceptions on CHG bathing can inform strategies to improve adherence and enhance patient outcomes. Purpose This study explored patients’ perceived facilitators, barriers, and education/knowledge related to CHG bathing and thus addresses the gap in implementation for immunocompromised HCT patients. Methods This study used a qualitative description approach to explore patients’ perceived facilitators, barriers, and knowledge of CHG bathing. Fourteen HCT recipients (mean 51 ± 16 years) completed semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using a rapid qualitative analysis approach to identify themes. Results Participants identified facilitators to using CHG wipes including ease of use, comfort, and staff assistance, along with barriers including wait time, discomfort, and physical challenges. Patient education themes encompassed patient understanding of CHG purpose, perceived ease in learning/application, inconsistent instruction, and inconsistent procedures. Conclusion CHG bathing is a valuable infection prevention strategy for HCT patients. Participants’ perspectives highlight the importance of addressing practical challenges and improving education to enhance adherence. This study contributes insights from HCT recipients, emphasizing the need for patient-centered interventions to reduce HAI and improve overall patient care.

Recently, leadership education researchers and practitioners have raised significant concerns about the gap between the expectations of, and professional training for, leadership educators in student affairs. These professionals are frequently required to facilitate leadership learning, especially in co‐curricular training spaces for student leaders. However, they are often not adequately prepared or resourced by their professional development to deliver these training experiences. Moreover, the growing professional development opportunities in leadership education suggest practitioners need education earlier to be effective in their jobs. This article focuses on these gaps in preparing student affairs professionals as leadership educators in leadership training capacities and suggestions for future research to meet these unaddressed needs.

In situations where mental health and social services are needed, aggressive law enforcement responses can be harmful. Increasing knowledge in this area has led to the creation of programs involving collaborations between police and mental health professionals. Embedded co-responder programs, also known as police-social work programs, in which clinicians are physically located at police departments, have emerged as an alternative model for responding to the mental health needs of community members in crisis and the threat of violence. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of detectives and clinicians who serve on an embedded co-responder team at a large police agency in Florida. The study explores perspectives on the professional roles of police and clinicians and the perceived impact of the co-responder program, also known as the Targeted Violence Unit, in connecting individuals to services and preventing crime. Broader implications for justice and mental health partnerships are discussed.