March 1, 2022
Survival analysis in Stage II and III Colorectal Cancer Patients Using Novel Exploratory Data Mining
This study leverages clinicopathological data and genomic mutations based on a framework that includes a companion diagnostic template and a novel explainable AI algorithm to improve the selection of prospective patients for adjuvant therapy in colorectal cancer (CRC). Integrating these two emerging technologies may offer better solutions for assessing treatment outcomes by embracing a data-driven, translational approach to patient care. Exploratory data analysis discovered a sizable collection of CRC patient subgroups within Stages II and III, using criteria that ensure the significance of prevalence for these gene mutations, respective of their group. [1] CRC patient data was…
Feb. 16, 2022
Modeling Pyrus calleryana spread in central Missouri using remote sensing and a non-parametric modeling approach
Invasive species pose a unique threat to native species and habitat through direct and indirect competition of resources. Management of invasive species depends on precise identification of their current range and knowledge of how they spread. This project will utilize Plantescope Satellite Imagery to identify the presence of Callery Pear, an invasive ornamental tree species in Missouri. The unique phenology of the Callery Pear should allow for precise identification through Random Forest classification of the imagery. After identification, a logistic model will be built to predict the presence or absence of Callery Pear in the landscape based on a variety…
Feb. 16, 2022
Developing a Web-Based Interface to Manage Sensor Technologies in the Homes of Older Adults
Internet of Things sensors capture daily activities and physiological data that can improve care for older adults. Sensors have the potential to enable health coaching for self-management and care coordination by connecting individuals to care providers and informal caregivers. However, remote management of diverse sensor technologies and integration of disparate data for decision-making are major barriers to this goal. Our aim is to support community-based intervention research through the design of a web-based interface management system for smart home and wearable technologies in the haomes of older adults. The Age-Friendly Sustainable Smart and Equitable Technologies (ASSETs) dashboard relies on low-cost Raspberry Pi…
Feb. 10, 2022
The impact of treatment adjustment in breast cancer by Cerner Real-World Data during pandemic
The global burden of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has predominantly been measured using metrics like case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths. However, the short-term health impacts are more difficult to capture, especially for breast cancer(BC) patients. An expert opinion formulated by multiple national organizations provided preliminary guidance on the prioritization and treatment of breast cancer(BC) during this covid outbreak. Most breast surgery and adjuvant treatment for malignant conditions have been postponed or adjusted. As we know, BC treatment is time-dependent. How standard treatment modifications and surgery postponement would affect BC patients are unknown. Currently, there is no research that has applied…
Jan. 14, 2022
The Soybean Allele Catalog Tool: A Web-Based Interactive Tool for Gene Alleles Discovery
The advancement of sequencing technologies has made a plethora of whole genome sequenced (WGS) data publicly available. However, utilizing the raw WGS data will not generate promising research outcomes for agriculture. To solve this problem, the Soybean Allele Catalog Tool (https://soykb.org/SoybeanAlleleCatalogTool/search.php) has been developed to assist researchers in gaining insights into soybean genotypes associated with phenotypes and selecting accessions based on comprehensive soybean SNPs and InDels data organized into alleles of genes. A variant calling pipeline (SnakyVC, https://github.com/yenon118/snakyVC) and an Allele Catalog pipeline (AlleleCatalog, https://github.com/yenon118/AlleleCatalog) were developed to prepare the datasets for the tool. The variant calling pipeline processes…
Nov. 11, 2021
An Evaluation of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Based System to Characterize and Correlate Physician Burnout and EMR Use
Burnout disproportionately affects healthcare workers and continues to rise, contributing to cost, quality, and patient safety risk in an already overburdened United States healthcare system. While the causes of burnout are complex, evidence suggests that Electronic Medical Record use (EMR) is one major contributor due to the increased clerical burden that decreases patient contact time and disrupts the provider clinical workflow. The challenge of improving the physician EMR experience is exacerbated both by variability across venues and specialty. Targeted training and optimization efforts are generally deployed one-time at a clinic or specialty level but are challenging to deploy longitudinally and in surveillance mode due to the cost and effort of administering traditional survey instruments. To address this…
Nov. 8, 2021
MUIDSI Core Faculty Member Receives $2M Grant
Dr. Lori Popejoy, MUIDSI core faculty member and associate professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing, was recently awarded a $2M grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study the responses in nursing homes to COVID-19. Read More……
Nov. 8, 2021
Understanding Common Key Indicators of Successful and Unsuccessful Cancer Drug Trials Using Contrast Mining
Clinical trials are essential in the process of new drug development. As clinical trials involve significant investments of time and money, it is crucial for trial designers to carefully investigate trial settings prior to designing the trial. Utilizing trial documents from ClinicalTrials.gov, we aim at understanding common characteristics of successful and unsuccessful cancer drug trials to provide insights about what to learn and what to avoid. In this research, we first computationally classified cancer drug trials into successful and unsuccessful cases and then utilized natural language processing to extract information of eligibility criteria from the trial documents. Contrast mining was…
Nov. 4, 2021
Do viruses experience culture shock?
Viruses have the potential to cause enormous health, social, and economic burdens. These burdens are demonstrated by influenza viruses, which cause seasonal epidemics, and SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which caused the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic resulting in over 4.55 million deaths. Virus research and vaccine strain selection often require viruses to be propagated in cell lines or embryonated chicken eggs. However, viruses may acquire culture-adapted mutations during this process, biasing our understanding of the viruses and consequently affecting disease prevention and control strategies. We determined whether culture-adaptations occur during influenza B virus (IBV) and SARS-CoV-2 virus propagation and their phenotypic implications. To do this,…