Jan. 23, 2017

Building an online quality improvement information exchange for home visiting programs in Missouri

Early childhood home visiting programs date back to the 1880s and deliver a vital public service of providing and connecting families with health, educational, and economic resources to support optimal development. Continuous quality improvement (CQI) consists of systematic and continuous actions that lead to measurable improvement in services for targeted groups. CQI initiatives (CQII) in home visiting programs have traditionally occurred within a local implementing agency (LIA), parent organization, or funding provision. LIA CQII are often lost to the benefit of external agencies facing similar challenges. We developed a web-based environment, the Gateway, to virtually connect and engage users within…

Dec. 5, 2016

Genetic variation, population structure, and genome assembly of the threatened Neosho madtom catfish

The Neosho madtom (Noturus placidus) is a small catfish, generally less than 3 inches in length, unique to the Neosho-Spring River system within the Arkansas River Basin. It was federally listed as threatened in 1990, largely due to habitat loss. As part of conservation efforts, we generated whole genome Illumina paired-end sequence data from ten Neosho madtom (average 39X coverage) originating from three geographically separated subpopulations to evaluate genetic diversity and population structure. One slender madtom (Noturus exilis) was also sequenced as an outgroup. Although over 1 million variants were found between Neosho and slender madtom, only 86,155 SNPs were…

Nov. 17, 2016

MUII Comprehensive Exam – Awatef Ben Ramadan

Steps in Transforming the Missouri Cancer Registry (MCR) from an Incidence Registry to a Survival Registry The Problem: Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer among women of all races and ethnicities in the United States (US). About 12 percent of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in one stage of their lives in the US. Significance: The Missouri Cancer Registry (MCR) needs to be transformed from an incidence registry to a survival registry to accurately measure the impact of Missouri public health programs. Using interactive mapping software reports of maps and statistics to improve data visualization and…

Nov. 15, 2016

MUII Comprehensive Exam Announcement – Lynsey Whitacre

De novo assembly and comparison of whole genome consensus sequences for nine breeds of beef cattle With the recent rise in re-sequencing efforts fueled by next-generation short read sequencing technologies, we have lost sight of the overarching goal of trying to understand what functions a genetic variant has at the molecular level, which is one of the main reasons we started sequencing genomes to begin with. Instead, immense focus has been placed on identifying SNPs that are associated with important phenotypes. These association studies have undoubtedly allowed forward progression of the industry through genetics through providing variants that can be…

Nov. 14, 2016

Quantification of selective constraint in the polyploid genomes of Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica rapa

Polyploidy is an important mechanism in plant evolution. We are interested in studying how selective pressures change after a lineage experiences whole genome duplication (WGD) or triplication (WGT). Alpha duplication is the most recent WGD event in Arabidopsis. Then a WGT event occurred in genus Brassica when they diverged from Arabidopsis thaliana. We examined selection at both the population and the species level, by calculating the ratio of non-synonymous to synonymous polymorphisms (pN/pS) and computing Ka/Ks between species. In both lineages of Arabidopsis and Brassica, pN/pS values are larger than Ka/Ks, in accord with the expectation that most populations include…

Nov. 7, 2016

Identifying Patients at Risk of High Healthcare Utilization

Objective: To develop a systematic and reproducible way to identify patients at increased risk for higher healthcare costs. Methods: Medical records were analyzed for 9,581 adults who were primary care patients in the University of Missouri Health System and who were enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid. Patients were categorized into one of four risk tiers as of October 1, 2013, and the four tiers were compared on demographic characteristics, number of healthcare episodes, and healthcare charges in the year before and the year after cohort formation. Results: The mean number of healthcare episodes and the sum of healthcare charges in…

Oct. 11, 2016

A Metagenomic Analysis of the Effect of Residual Feed Intake on Rumen Metabolism

Ruminant animals have a symbiotic relationship with gastrointestinal microorganisms in the rumen where microbes degrade compounds that can be used in the host animal’s metabolism. Currently, changes in the diet or feed efficiency of the sheep results in differences to the rumen’s microbiota population. By using a metabolic approach, the effects of differing residual feed intake (RFI) on the rumen’s microbiome are analyzed to determine the network interface between the host’s metabolism and rumen microbiome. These findings demonstrate important network structure differences between low and high RFI animals providing a greater understanding of the complexities in the rumen ecosystem.

Oct. 7, 2016

Big Data Colloquium Distinguished Speaker – Dr. Jianjiong Gao

Thanks to the advancements of technology such as next-generation sequencing, an overwhelming amount of cancer genomics data has been generated by large-scale cancer genomics projects such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). This has imposed an increasing challenge in the translation of the wealth of the resulting “big data” into biological discoveries and clinical applications. In this talk, I will present two major platforms we developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to address this challenge: cBioPortal and OncoKB. The cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics (http://cbioportal.org/) collects, integrates, and visualizes multi-dimensional, high-level cancer genomics and clinical data. It was specifically…

Sep. 19, 2016

Diabetes Self-Management Applications: Focus Group Findings from Elderly Diabetic Patients

The number of mobile diabetes self-management (DSM) apps has risen. However, it is not certain whether these apps provide effective DSM for elderly diabetic patients. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers in functionality and usability related to needs of elderly diabetic patients for DSM apps. We conducted two focus groups with 10 older diabetic patients. Participants completed a set of DSM tasks using nine representative DSM apps on iPads. They answered a questionnaire which included basic information, System Usability Scale (SUS), app specific questions, and open-ended questions. We found DSM apps did not adhere to diabetes guidelines.