The Effects of Social, Personal, and Behavioral Risk Factors and PM on Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in a Cohort of Community Health Center Patients.

(1) Background: Cardio-metabolic diseases (CMD), including cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, have numerous common individual and environmental risk factors. Yet, few studies to date have considered how these multiple risk factors together affect CMD disparities between Blacks and Whites. (2) Methods: We linked daily fine particulate matter (PM) measures with survey responses of participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS).

A novel approach to analyzing lung cancer mortality disparities: Using the exposome and a graph-theoretical toolchain.

Objectives: The aim is to identify exposures associated with lung cancer mortality and mortality disparities by race and gender using an exposome database coupled to a graph theoretical toolchain.

Methods: Graph theoretical algorithms were employed to extract paracliques from correlation graphs using associations between 2162 environmental exposures and lung cancer mortality rates in 2067 counties, with clique doubling applied to compute an absolute threshold of significance. Factor analysis and multiple linear regressions then were used to analyze differences in exposures associated with lung cancer mortality and mortality disparities by race and gender.

Exploration of preterm birth rates using the public health exposome database and computational analysis methods.

Recent advances in informatics technology has made it possible to integrate, manipulate, and analyze variables from a wide range of scientific disciplines allowing for the examination of complex social problems such as health disparities. This study used 589 county-level variables to identify and compare geographical variation of high and low preterm birth rates. Data were collected from a number of publically available sources, bringing together natality outcomes with attributes of the natural, built, social, and policy environments.

Scalable combinatorial tools for health disparities research.

Despite staggering investments made in unraveling the human genome, current estimates suggest that as much as 90% of the variance in cancer and chronic diseases can be attributed to factors outside an individual's genetic endowment, particularly to environmental exposures experienced across his or her life course. New analytical approaches are clearly required as investigators turn to complicated systems theory and ecological, place-based and life-history perspectives in order to understand more clearly the relationships between social determinants, environmental exposures and health disparities. While traditional data analysis techniques remain foundational to health disparities research, they are easily overwhelmed by the ever-increasing size and heterogeneity of available data needed to illuminate latent gene x environment interactions.

Differential Shannon entropy and differential coefficient of variation: alternatives and augmentations to differential expression in the search for disease-related genes.

Differential expression has been a standard tool for analysing case-control transcriptomic data since the advent of microarray technology. It has proved invaluable in characterising the molecular mechanisms of disease. Nevertheless, the expression profile of a gene across samples can be perturbed in ways that leave the expression level unaltered, while a biological effect is nonetheless present.

On finding bicliques in bipartite graphs: a novel algorithm and its application to the integration of diverse biological data types.

Background: Integrating and analyzing heterogeneous genome-scale data is a huge algorithmic challenge for modern systems biology. Bipartite graphs can be useful for representing relationships across pairs of disparate data types, with the interpretation of these relationships accomplished through an enumeration of maximal bicliques. Most previously-known techniques are generally ill-suited to this foundational task, because they are relatively inefficient and without effective scaling.

The maximum clique enumeration problem: algorithms, applications, and implementations.

Background: The maximum clique enumeration (MCE) problem asks that we identify all maximum cliques in a finite, simple graph. MCE is closely related to two other well-known and widely-studied problems: the maximum clique optimization problem, which asks us to determine the size of a largest clique, and the maximal clique enumeration problem, which asks that we compile a listing of all maximal cliques. Naturally, these three problems are NP-hard, given that they subsume the classic version of the NP-complete clique decision problem.

The effect of surgical preparation technique on the bacterial load of surgical needles and suture material used during strabismus surgery.

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of 3 surgical preparation techniques in decreasing bacterial contamination of needles and suture material during strabismus surgery.

Methods: Consecutive patients requiring 2-muscle strabismus surgery were randomized into 1 of 3 groups. In Group A, patients' periocular skin and bulbar conjunctivae underwent preparation with 5% povidone-iodine; the drape was placed without regard to eyebrows; and an open wire-loop lid speculum was used.

Treatment of symptomatic convergence insufficiency with a home-based computer orthoptic exercise program.

Purpose: To determine the efficacy of a home-based computer orthoptic program to treat symptomatic convergence insufficiency.

Methods: A retrospective review of consecutive patients with symptomatic convergence insufficiency treated with a home-based computer orthoptic program was performed. Symptomatic convergence insufficiency was defined as: near point of convergence (NPC) >6 cm, decreased positive fusional vergence, exophoria at near at least 4(Δ) greater than at far, and documented complaints of asthenopia, diplopia, or headaches with reading or near work.

Neural circuit involved in idiopathic infantile nystagmus syndrome based on FMRI.

Purpose: To identify the neural circuitry of idiopathic infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS), characterized by an early onset alternating series of slow and rapid eye movements that can manifest in different waveforms and genetic lines. The neural circuitry of INS is currently unknown.

Methods: A novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method, referred to as the null zone fMRI technique, was used to identify the neural circuitry for INS.

Instruction dependent activation during optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) stimulation: An FMRI study at 3T.

Modifying experimental conditions of optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) result in different outcomes and may not optimally translate into clinical testing. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of subject instruction on the anatomical correlates of OKN. The instructions were to voluntarily look or stare at the same moving grating with fixed contrast and spatial and temporal frequencies.

Corneal power measurements in fixating versus anesthetized nonfixating children using a handheld keratometer.

Purpose: To compare keratometry measurements on a fixating patient with readings from the same nonfixating patient intraoperatively using the Nidek KM-500 handheld keratometer.

Methods: Consecutive patients who were scheduled for strabismus or nasolacrimal surgery between 5 and 11 years of age were included in the study. Handheld keratometry was performed preoperatively on both eyes with the child fixating and intraoperatively with the child anesthetized.

Identifying genetic loci and spleen gene coexpression networks underlying immunophenotypes in BXD recombinant inbred mice.

The immune system plays a pivotal role in the susceptibility to and progression of a variety of diseases. Due to a strong genetic basis, heritable differences in immune function may contribute to differential disease susceptibility between individuals. Genetic reference populations, such as the BXD (C57BL/6J × DBA/2J) panel of recombinant inbred (RI) mouse strains, provide unique models through which to integrate baseline phenotypes in healthy individuals with heritable risk for disease because of the ability to combine data collected from these populations across both multiple studies and time.

Percutaneous drainage and ablation of orbital dermoid cysts.

Background: Vision-threatening intraorbital dermoid cysts have traditionally been treated by complete surgical resection. Such radical surgical intervention may pose serious risks to both vision acuity and cosmesis. We describe a novel, minimally invasive approach for the treatment of orbital dermoid cysts.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and effects of L-dopa on visual function in normal and amblyopic subjects.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of a single dose of levodopa on visual cortex, based on functional MRI (fMRI), and on visual function, based on psychophysical tests, in amblyopic and normal subjects.

Method: A prospective, randomized trial of a single dose of levodopa (2 mg/kg body weight) was undertaken in an institutional setting in nine normal and six amblyopic subjects, who were assessed at baseline and 90 minutes after levodopa ingestion. fMRI of occipital visual cortex was undertaken with a 1.

Long-term follow-up of L-dopa treatment in children with amblyopia.

Purpose: To assess regression of visual acuity in children who previously participated in three longitudinal studies of therapy with levodopa-carbidopa (L-dopa) plus occlusion for amblyopia.

Subjects And Methods: Thirty (91%) of 33 subjects contacted who participated in three similar 7-week, longitudinal dosing studies returned for follow-up. The three previous studies were undertaken approximately 27 (study 1), 21 (study 2), and 9 (study 3) months prior to this follow-up test session.