Eating Behaviors of Older Adults Participating in Government-Sponsored Programs with Different Demographic Backgrounds

The purpose of this study was to determine the food behaviors of nutritionally high-risk seniors as a function of their racial background, gender, marital status, and education level. A total of 69 seniors were identified to be at high nutritional risk using the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) checklist. A supplemental questionnaire (SQ) was created to examine the risk factors in relation to the participant’s demographic background. Key results indicated that Asians practiced healthy food behaviors and women were more likely to eat alone (p≤0.05). Married participants (90.9%) were most likely to consume 2 meals or more each day. College educated individuals practiced healthier eating, eating 5 servings or more of fruits and vegetables (p≤0.01) and 2 or more servings of milk and milk products (p≤0.01). These preliminary findings indicate that more studies should be conducted to focus on the demographic characteristics and food behaviors among older populations

Diversity-Oriented Synthesis for Novel, Selective and Drug-like Inhibitors for a Phosphatase from Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Mycobacterium protein tyrosine phosphatase B (mPTPB) is a potential drug target of Tuberculosis (TB). Small molecule inhibitors of mPTPB could be a treatment to overcome emerging TB drug resistance. Using a Diversity-Oriented Synthesis (DOS) strategy, we successfully developed a salicylic acid based and drug-like mPTPB inhibitor with an IC50 of 2 μM and >20-fold specificity over many human PTPs, making it an excellent lead molecule for anti-TB drug discovery. In addition, DOS generated bicyclic salicylic acids are also promising starting points for acquiring inhibitors targeting other PTPs

Patient Characteristics Associated with False Arrhythmia Alarms in Intensive Care

Introduction A high rate of false arrhythmia alarms in the intensive care unit (ICU) leads to alarm fatigue, the condition of desensitization and potentially inappropriate silencing of alarms due to frequent invalid and nonactionable alarms, often referred to as false alarms. Objective The aim of this study was to identify patient characteristics, such as gender, age, body mass index, and diagnosis associated with frequent false arrhythmia alarms in the ICU. Methods This descriptive, observational study prospectively enrolled patients who were consecutively admitted to one of five adult ICUs (77 beds) at an urban medical center over a period of 31 days in 2013. All monitor alarms and continuous waveforms were stored on a secure server. Nurse scientists with expertise in cardiac monitoring used a standardized protocol to annotate six clinically important types of arrhythmia alarms (asystole, pause, ventricular fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia, accelerated ventricular rhythm, and ventricular bradycardia) as true or false. Total monitoring time for each patient was measured, and the number of false alarms per hour was calculated for these six alarm types. Medical records were examined to acquire data on patient characteristics. Results A total of 461 unique patients (mean age =60±17 years) were enrolled, generating a total of 2,558,760 alarms, including all levels of arrhythmia, parameter, and technical alarms. There were 48,404 hours of patient monitoring time, and an average overall alarm rate of 52 alarms/hour. Investigators annotated 12,671 arrhythmia alarms; 11,345 (89.5%) were determined to be false. Two hundred and fifty patients (54%) generated at least one of the six annotated alarm types. Two patients generated 6,940 arrhythmia alarms (55%). The number of false alarms per monitored hour for patients’ annotated arrhythmia alarms ranged from 0.0 to 7.7, and the duration of these false alarms per hour ranged from 0.0 to 158.8 seconds. Patient characteristics were compared in relation to 1) the number and 2) the duration of false arrhythmia alarms per 24-hour period, using nonparametric statistics to minimize the influence of outliers. Among the significant associations were the following: age ≥60 years (P=0.013; P=0.034), confused mental status (P\u3c0.001 for both comparisons), cardiovascular diagnoses (P\u3c0.001 for both comparisons), electrocardiographic (ECG) features, such as wide ECG waveforms that correspond to ventricular depolarization known as QRS complex due to bundle branch block (BBB) (P=0.003; P=0.004) or ventricular paced rhythm (P=0.002 for both comparisons), respiratory diagnoses (P=0.004 for both comparisons), and support with mechanical ventilation, including those with primary diagnoses other than respiratory ones (P\u3c0.001 for both comparisons). Conclusion Patients likely to trigger a higher number of false arrhythmia alarms may be those with older age, confusion, cardiovascular diagnoses, and ECG features that indicate BBB or ventricular pacing, respiratory diagnoses, and mechanical ventilatory support. Algorithm improvements could focus on better noise reduction (eg, motion artifact with confused state) and distinguishing BBB and paced rhythms from ventricular arrhythmias. Increasing awareness of patient conditions that apparently trigger a higher rate of false arrhythmia alarms may be useful for reducing unnecessary noise and improving alarm management

2019-2020 Piano and Strings Concert

The chamber music program will feature young virtuosi from the piano and strings studios.https://spiral.lynn.edu/foc-events/1035/thumbnail.jp

Access, Socioeconomic Environment, and Death from COVID-19 in Nebraska

Our study assesses whether factors related to healthcare access in the first year of the pandemic affect mortality and length of stay (LOS). Our cohort study examined hospitalized patients at Nebraska Medicine between April and October 2020 who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 and had a charted sepsis related diagnostic code. Multivariate logistic was used to analyze the odds of mortality and linear regression was used to calculate the parameter estimates of LOS associated with COVID-19 status, age, gender, race/ethnicity, median household income, admission month, and residential distance from definitive care. Among 475 admissions, the odds of mortality is greater among those with older age (OR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.02-1.07) and residence in an area with low median household income (OR: 2.11, 95% CI: 0.52-8.57), however, the relationship between mortality and wealth was not statistically significant. Those with non-COVID-19 sepsis had longer LOS (Parameter Estimate: -5.11, adjusted 95% CI: -7.92 to -2.30). Distance from definitive care had trends toward worse outcomes (Parameter Estimate: 0.164, adjusted 95% CI: -1.39 to 1.97). Physical and social aspects of access to care are linked to poorer COVID-19 outcomes. Non-COVID-19 healthcare outcomes may be negatively impacted in the pandemic. Strategies to advance patient-centered outcomes in vulnerable populations should account for varied aspects (socioeconomic, residential setting, rural populations, racial, and ethnic factors). Indirect impacts of the pandemic on non-COVID-19 health outcomes require further study

2016-2017 Master Class - Stanislav Ioudenitch

The recital of Stanislav Ioudenitch was held on Saturday, December 3, 2016. Please go to the concert page for more details.https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_masterclasses/1191/thumbnail.jp

2016-2017 Sanctuary Series - March 30, 2017

Watch video of the performance here.https://spiral.lynn.edu/sanctuary_series/1007/thumbnail.jp

Binding of NIR-conPK and NIR-6T to Astrocytomas and Microglial Cells: Evidence for a Protein Related to TSPO

PK 11195 and DAA1106 bind with high-affinity to the translocator protein (TSPO, formerly known as the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor). TSPO expression in glial cells increases in response to cytokines and pathological stimuli. Accordingly, [11C]-PK 11195 and [11C]-DAA1106 are recognized molecular imaging (MI) agents capable of monitoring changes in TSPO expression occurring in vivo and in response to various neuropathologies