Browsing by Subject "USA"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Images of safe tourism destinations in the United States held by African Americans
    (PASOS, 2013) Liu, Bingjie; Pennington-Gray, Lori; Schroeder, Ashley
    Ensuring a safe destination is an essential factor in travelers’ decision-making, as well as a destination’s success. Recent crises have threatened perceptions of safety related to tourism. Under such circumstances, negative destination images might be produced and destination choices might be altered. Thus, understanding the effect of risk perceptions on destination image is a necessary research stream. This study examined African American travelers’ perceptions of safety related to the top three state tourism destinations in the USA. Factors that influenced perceptions of a safe destination varied among the destinations. Consistently, however, past travel experience and the perception of the likelihood of health-related crisis were significant predictors of perceptions of a safe destination.
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    Infliximab versus second intravenous immunoglobulin for treatment of resistant Kawasaki disease in the USA (KIDCARE): a randomised, multicentre comparative effectiveness trial
    (Elsevier, 2021-12) Burns, Jane C.; Roberts, Samantha C.; Tremoulet, Adriana H.; He, Feng; Printz, Beth F.; Ashouri, Negar; Jain, Supriya S.; Michalik, David E.; Sharma, Kavita; Truong, Dongngan T.; Wood, James B.; Kim, Katherine K.; Jain, Sonia; Anand, Vikram; Anderson, Marsha; Ang, Jocelyn; Ansusinha, Emily; Arditi, Moshe; Bartlett, Allison; Baker, Annette; Chatterjee, Archana; DeBiasi, Roberta; De Ferranti, Sarah; Dekker, Cornelia; DeZure, Chandani; Dominguez, Samuel; Erdem, Guliz; Halasa, Natasha; Harahsheh, Ashraf S.; Hite, Michelle; Jaggi, Preeti; Jone, Pei-Ni; Jones, Jessica; Kaushik, Neeru; Kumar, Madan; Kurio, Gregory; Lloyd, David; Manaloor, John; McNelis, Amy; Nadipuram, Santhosh; Newburger, Jane; Newcomer, Charles; Perkins, Tiffany; Portman, Michael; Romero, José R.; Rometo, Allison; Ronis, Tova; Rosenkranz, Margalit; Rowley, Anne; Samuy, Nichole; Scalici, Paul; Schuster, Jennifer; Sexson Tejtel, S. Kristen; Simonsen, Kari; Szmuszkovicz, Jacqueline; Yeh, Sylvia; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Background Although intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is effective therapy for Kawasaki disease, 10–20% of patients have recrudescent fever as a sign of persistent inflammation and require additional treatment. We aimed to compare infliximab with a second infusion of IVIG for treatment of resistant Kawasaki disease. Methods In this multicentre comparative effectiveness trial, patients (aged 4 weeks to 17 years) with IVIG resistant Kawasaki disease and fever at least 36 h after completion of their first IVIG infusion were recruited from 30 hospitals across the USA. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to second IVIG (2 g/kg over 8–12 h) or intravenous infliximab (10 mg/kg over 2 h without premedication), by using a randomly permuted block randomisation design with block size of two or four. Patients with fever 24 h to 7 days following completion of first study treatment crossed over to receive the other study treatment. The primary outcome measure was resolution of fever at 24 h after initiation of study treatment with no recurrence of fever attributed to Kawasaki disease within 7 days post-discharge. Secondary outcome measures included duration of fever from enrolment, duration of hospitalisation after randomisation, and changes in markers of inflammation and coronary artery Z score. Efficacy was analysed in participants who received treatment and had available outcome values. Safety was analysed in all randomised patients who did not withdraw consent. This clinical trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03065244. Findings Between March 1, 2017, and Aug 31, 2020, 105 patients were randomly assigned to treatment and 103 were included in the intention-to-treat population (54 in the infliximab group, 49 in the second IVIG group). Two patients randomised to infliximab did not receive allocated treatment. The primary outcome was met by 40 (77%) of 52 patients in the infliximab group and 25 (51%) of 49 patients in the second IVIG infusion group (odds ratio 0·31, 95% CI 0·13–0·73, p=0·0076). 31 patients with fever beyond 24 h received crossover treatment: nine (17%) in the infliximab group received second IVIG and 22 (45%) in second IVIG group received infliximab (p=0·0024). Three patients randomly assigned to infliximab and two to second IVIG with fever beyond 24h did not receive crossover treatment. Mean fever days from enrolment was 1·5 (SD 1·4) for the infliximab group and 2·5 (2·5) for the second IVIG group (p=0·014). Mean hospital stay was 3·2 days (2·1) for the infliximab group and 4·5 days (2·5) for the second IVIG group (p<0·001). There was no difference between treatment groups for markers of inflammation or coronary artery outcome. 24 (44%) of 54 patients in the infliximab group and 33 (67%) of 49 in the second IVIG group had at least one adverse event. A drop in haemoglobin concentration of at least 2g/dL was seen in 19 (33%) of 58 patients who received IVIG as either their first or second study treatment (three of whom required transfusion) and in three (7%) of 43 who received only infliximab (none required transfusion; p=0·0028). Haemolytic anaemia was the only serious adverse events deemed definitely or probably related to study treatment, and was reported in nine (15%) of 58 patients who received IVIG as either their first or second study treatment and none who received infliximab only. Interpretation Infliximab is a safe, well tolerated, and effective treatment for patients with IVIG resistant Kawasaki disease, and results in shorter duration of fever, reduced need for additional therapy, less severe anaemia, and shorter hospitalisation compared with second IVIG infusion.
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    Novel Chlamydia trachomatis strains in heterosexual sex partners, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
    (CDC, 2014-11) Batteiger, Byron E.; Wan, Raymond; Williams, James A.; He, Linda; Ma, Arissa; Fortenberry, J. Dennis; Dean, Deborah; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Chlamydia trachomatis causes a high number of sexually transmitted infections worldwide, but reproducible and precise strain typing to link partners is lacking. We evaluated multilocus sequence typing (MLST) for this purpose by detecting sequence types (STs) concordant for the ompA genotype, a single-locus typing standard. We tested samples collected during April 2000–October 2003 from members of established heterosexual partnerships (dyads) in the Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, area who self-reported being coital partners within the previous 30 days. C. trachomatis DNA from 28 dyads was tested by MLST; sequences were aligned and analyzed for ST and phylogenetic relationships. MLST detected 9 C. trachomatis STs, 4 unique to Indianapolis; STs were identical within each dyad. Thirteen unique strains were identified; 9 (32%) dyads harbored novel recombinant strains that phylogenetically clustered with strains comprising the recombinants. The high rate of novel C. trachomatis recombinants identified supports the use of MLST for transmission and strain diversity studies among at-risk populations.
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    Prevalence, Clinical Presentation, and Associated Sociodemographic Characteristics of Molar Hypomineralization in Indiana, USA
    (2020-05) Ahmed, Azza Tagelsir Mohamed; Martinez Mier, E. Angeles; Dean, Jeffrey; Soto, Amanda; Lippert, Frank; Mohammed, Aghareed; Miller, James
    Molar Hypomineralization (MH) of the first permanent molars (FPMs) and the second primary molars (SPMs) is a common developmental defect of enamel, with global prevalence of 14% and 5% respectively. Children with MH represent a special pediatric population because their affected molars have extreme susceptibility to enamel breakdown, decay and tooth sensitivity. Although the problem of MH has been described almost twenty years ago mainly through reports from Europe, there is very little information about the problem from the USA. In this dissertation, MH was explored both from the perspectives of pediatric dentists’ (PDs) and at population level. The majority of the survey respondents perceived MH prevalence to be <10% in their clinical practice (62%). The most cited clinical challenge in managing MH teeth was “long-term success of restorations” (79%). When analyzed individually, responses differed significantly for different demographics and educational characteristics of the respondents (p<0.05). At population level, MH of the FPMs (Molar Incisor Hypomineralization (MIH) cohort: 337 schoolchildren, average age 9 years) and of the SPMs (Hypomineralized Second Primary Molar (HSPM) cohort: 423 schoolchildren, average age 7 years) had prevalence estimates of 13% and 6% respectively. In the MIH cohort, water fluoridation or non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity was significantly associated with higher collective prevalence of enamel defect (EDs) (P<0.05), but not with the prevalence of MH of the FPMs. In the HSPM cohort, race/ethnicity was significantly associated with higher overall prevalence of EDs of SPMs, but not with the HSPM prevalence. Older age group (>10 years), living in central Indiana, and water fluoridation were significantly associated with higher overall prevalence of EDs (P<0.01), but not with the HSPM prevalence. Caries experience was significantly higher in children with MH of FPMs and/or SPMs than in the group without MH. We concluded that USA pediatric dentists’ respondents were well aware of the MH problem, but demonstrated discrepancies in different aspects of the MH problem. At population level, MIH and HSPM were common presentation with prevalence estimates similar to the global figures. Certain demographic characteristics were significantly associated with the overall prevalence of the enamel defects of the examined teeth.
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    Transnational Muslim Americans: Four Women in Jordan
    (University of Marburg (Germany), 2013-02-15) Curtis, Edward E., IV
    American women who have lived in Amman, Jordan. It seeks to understand how residency in this Muslim-majority country in the Middle East has affected their religious attitudes and practices as well as their gender, ethnic, and national identities. In offering analysis of these women’s own thinking about how their time in Jordan had or had not altered their Muslim and American identities and practices, this article contributes to larger scholarly conversations about religion and politics in transnational perspective. The travel and observations of these four women in Amman evidenced the often unpredictable nature of personal change when a human being moves, both physically and spiritually, from one place to another. Their stories confirm that the focus of much social scientific literature on transnationalism on how institutions—both formal and informal, state and non-state--delimit, constrain, and shape political identity is useful and necessary in understanding transnational ventures. But it also shows that such literature does not always account for the possible religious meanings of human movement. The transnational Muslim Americans in this study engage in ethical and cosmic, national and transnational practices all at once. Their stories show how an account sensitive to religious activity can helpfully account for the multiple meanings of transnational practice among Muslim Americans.