The ONR FRONTPAGE Volume 3, Issue 1 - November 2014 by Emory University's Office of Nursing Research

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THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE OFFICE OF NURSING RESEARCH

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New PUBLICATION @ErinFerranti @Sandra_Dunbar #AnneDunlop @ElizabethCorwi2 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Human Gut http://goo.gl/X7sEsI

Congratulations Elizabeth Corwin @ElizabethCorwi2 winner 2014 @MarchofDimesGA #NurseoftheYear Academics

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FROM THE ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH score she received on her R01 application “The Girasoles (Sunflower) Study”. This I am very pleased to report that once puts her in an exclusive 1% club of which again the Nell Hodgson Woodruff most mortal nurse scientists only dream. School of Nursing has had an over the top, amazing year of scholarship and Likewise stellar are the awards received grant funding! Our faculty, students, by the colleagues listed on the next and fellows continue to exemplify the page. They also have done our School core values of our School through their proud! These include faculty of every tireless (ok, sometimes tired) conduct stripe; assistant, associate, and full proand dissemination of high quality, imfessor, clinical, research, and tenure-track, pactful, socially responsible and cutting and students and fellows alike. And of edge research. Total grant awards are up course, none of this would be possible 28% from FY13 to FY14 and I am proud without the support of our School’s dedto report that once again we are ranked icated, top-notch staff. Thank you every10th in the nation in NIH funding with $4.5 million. This is quite an accomplish- one, and now please turn the page to be amazed! ment in today’s funding environment and it has truly taken a village to make it possible. One member of our village in particular our fearless leader, Dr. Linda Elizabeth Corwin, McCauley, deserves a special shout-out, not only by us in the ONR for her support Associate Dean for Research and Professor at every turn, but also for the perfect

Research News Research Awards and Sponsored Projects:

and behavior, so that effective health interventions can be designed and implemented.

Ashley Darcy-Mahoney PhD, RN, NNP-BC was named a Nurse Faculty Scholar by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This highly competitive program is supporting research and advancing leadership skills of the next generation of nursing faculty.

Jessica Wells received a supplement to an award from the National Cancer Institutes (NCI). Knowledge, Perceived Risk, and Actual Risk for Anal Cancer in HIV-infected Women will examine knowledge, perception of risk, and actual risk for anal cancer and to develop a model of risk for women infected with HIV.

A Naturalistic Investigation of Brain Neuroplasticity in Children Born Preterm will examine prematurity and children’s linguistic environment, exploring the possibility that bilingualism can be advantageous to children born premature. Rebecca Gary RN, PhD, FAHA, FAAN received an award the Center for Aids Research (CFAR). Healing Hearts, Mending Minds among Older Persons Living with HIV (OPLWH) will test the Lets Move Program, a home-based, 5 day per week moderate intensity walking intervention in 40 OPLWH using a one-arm, pre post-test design. This will evaluate the limited efficacy and feasibility measures of cognitive functioning (neurocognitive battery), immune activation (interleukin-6, soluble CD14, D-dimer), endothelial function (flow mediated dilation) and neuroplasticity (brain derived neurotrophic factor) at 3 and 6 months. Kenneth Hepburn PhD, received an award the Center for Aids Research (CFAR). Developing a Testable Psychoeducation Program for Informal Caregivers of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS and Associated Neurocognitive Disorders seeks to develop a psychoeducation training program for informal caregivers of older PLWHA (>50 years of age); the project’s overall intent is to produce a training program that can be tested in a later randomized trial. The project will employ focus group methods to design a prototype curriculum and a quasi-experimental field test to establish acceptability, utility, and preliminary efficacy. Linda McCauley PhD, RN, FAAN, FAAOHN received an award from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The Girasoles (Sunflower) Study will examine the nature of heat related symptoms in multiple farmworker populations by conducting sophisticated biomonitoring data to explore the relationship between individual physiologic responses to heat stress and prevalence of HRI symptoms within and between occupational settings. Meredith Mikulich received a training grant from the National Institutes of Nursing Research (NINR). Determinants of Infant Feeding Practice among HIV-Positive Mothers in Ethiopia will use the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine the factors that underlie women’s infant feeding decision-making

Things You Didn’t Know About the Human Gut Microbiome: 1. Unless you have avoided all mass

media recently, you are likely hearing about the ‘‘human microbiome,’’ particularly the gut and how people are sampling their own feces for the purposes of science (more on that below in point 6), taking probiotics and eating loads of yogurt, kombucha, or kimchiVto try to foster the ‘‘good’’ bacteria. The science is exploding, and we are just in the early stages of making some sense of it all, so here are some things about the gut microbiome that you might find helpful to know. Cardiovascular nurses interested in prevention and diet counseling are encouraged to follow this line of work. 2. The microbiome is defined as all the bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea, and eukaryotes that inhabit the human body. Collectively referred to as the ‘‘second human genome,’’ the gut microbiome in particular is now being considered a separate ‘‘organ’’ with distinctmetabolic and immune activity. The 2 major areas of microbiota investigation include taxonomic diversity, to identify ‘‘who” is there, and functional metagenomics, to figure out what they are doing. 3. There are 10 times the number of microbial cells in the human gut than in the whole human body, totaling roughly 100 trillion microbes, representing as many as 5000 different species and weighing approximately 2 kilograms. There are other human microbiome sites as well, including skin, oral, and vaginal, but the gut is the most popular and diverse neighborhood! 4. Until the entry of next-generation sequencing in 2005 and the birth of metagenomics, the ability to measure the vast community of microbiota in the human gastrointestinal tract was not possible since most of the bacteria that reside in the gut are anaerobic and unable to be grown via culture. 5. Our understanding of the ‘‘normal’’ microbiome patterns, including what constitutes a healthy versus diseased pattern, is still in its infancy. Only a few associations have been established in human studies thus far. Read the full publication here: http://goo.gl/jckGMB Lead Author: Erin Ferranti PhD, MPH, RN

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Research News

arch of Dimes Nurse of the Year: Elizabeth Corwin PhD, RN,

FAAN was Honored as a 2014 March of Dimes Nurse of the Year.

Sixteen of the most outstanding nurses in Georgia were honored during the 5th annual March of Dimes Nurse of the Year Awards. Through Nurse of the Year Awards, the March of Dimes recognizes nurses who demonstrate exceptional patient care, compassion, and service. Where serving as a health care provider, educator, researcher, or chapter volunteer/advisor, these nurses have played a critical role in improving the health of Georgia’s residents. Nurse of the Year Awards are given annually in approximately sixteen award categories. More than 800 nurses were nominated in Georgia and of these, 240 were selected as finalists. Award recipients were announced at a special awards gala held on Saturday, November 1st at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta, Buckhead. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Corwin, who was awarded in the category of Academic Education sponsored by the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing of Mercer University.

The Lotus flower symbolically represents good karma.

t’s Good Karma to Complete a PIF: When a faculty mem-

bers decides she or he will be submitting a grant application, that person is asked to complete the electronic Proposal Initiation Form (PIF) at https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=5pk0pUEDPUL6m7MBwjywwQ#. This will lead to a review of sponsor guidelines by the appropriate ONR team member. A timeline will then be generated which starts in motion a number of the grant application support processes such as budget planning, statistical and design support, and scientific critique and editing. Do it early and do it often.

hanges to the Biosketch: We are set for a major change

in how work is portrayed when applying for NIH funds. The new biosketch emphasizes accomplishments instead of simply listing publications.

The primary focus of the new NIH biosketch will be the magnitude and significance of the scientific advances associated with a researcher’s discoveries and the specific role the researcher played

in those findings. This change will help reviewers evaluate you not by where you’ve published or how many times, but instead by what you’ve accomplished. Hopefully, this change will redirect the focus of reviewers and the scientific community more generally from widely questioned metrics, like the number of published papers, the number of citations received by those papers, or one of several statistical approaches used to normalize citations. ONR has held several workshops on the biosketch changes to help our school make a smooth transition to the new format. The new biosketch template will be required for all submissions going out after January 16, 2015. Learn more at: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2014/05/22/changes-tothe-biosketch/#sthash.QbijahWF.dpuf

NR Welcomes: Mei Bai PhD, is a graduate

of Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in China, where she completed her Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Medical Science degree in nursing. With a commitment toward palliative care of cancer patients and their families, Mei was admitted to the doctoral program at Yale University School of Nursing in 2009 to solidify her research experience. Dr. Bai has received excellent research training working with her academic advisor Dr. Ruth McCorkle and other leading researchers. Her dissertation was completed in three manuscripts examining spiritual well-being in people with cancer from different methodological approaches. Dr. Bai joined the Emory Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing this Fall as a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Dr. Deborah Bruner. Her research interests include conceptual and methodological exploration of spiritual well-being, self-concept and quality of life. Mei’s long-term goal is to develop clinical interventions to improve or restore quality of life for people with advanced cancer through enhancing their self-related resources.

orking to Fulfill the Vision for Symptom Science: Emory School of Nursing’s Common Data Elements and Data Repository. In 2011, NINR posted a

request for information on the standardization of measurements for biobehavioral assessment of symptoms (NOT-NR-11-010, http:// grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-NR-11-010.html). They had 3 main objectives: (1) identifying optimal measures for assessing symptoms along a biobehavioral continuum; (2) establishing projects that incorporate standardized biobehavioral symptom assessment within a research network; and (3) creating a virtual symptom data repository for effective data mining and sharing. Their initial focus included 12 common symptoms: fatigue, dyspnea, pain, nausea, constipation, depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, lack of appetite, itching, insomnia, and mucosal dryness. Most recently, Dr. Corwin (Associate Dean for Research and Professor), in partnership with faculty from six other Nursing schools

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Research News across the United States, published an article entitled “Envisioning the Future in Symptom Science” (Nursing Outlook, 62 (2014) 346-351). In this article these Nursing leaders emphasized that in order to better address the complexity of symptom etiology, new approaches and technologies are needed. Their recommendations included: incorporating common tools and measures; creating and maintaining a common data elements (CDEs) registry; leveraging “big data” for finding better ways to manage symptoms in context and to explore symptom clusters; considering symptom trajectories to better understand patterns of change and development over the life-span; and promoting policy initiatives focused on symptom management to improve outcomes and quality of life. To meet these goals, the ONR has been encouraging and supporting our researchers to use the REDCAP data collection system (http://www.project-redcap.org/ and https://redcap.emory.edu/). REDCAP is centrally managed by Emory as a research data collection system, which increases security and accessibility and improves storage and management of our research projects. However, REDCAP also enables the rapid use and reuse of data collection templates which include not only a complete list of every data element collected (i.e. the variables) but also maintains a database of every form, questionnaire, instrument, and measurement tool used across all of our Nursing research. To date, Emory School of Nursing has managed 26 projects using the REDCAP system with over 120 forms, questionnaires and instruments. The ONR has compiled these forms, questionnaires and instruments into standardized templates (standardized variable

naming, labeling and coding) ready for immediate use on new research projects and which comprise our initial CDEs. Through the REDCAP system we can also easily import an additional 81 PROMIS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) measures from the Assessment Center (see http://www.assessmentcenter.net/ and https://redcap.vanderbilt.edu/consortium/library/search.php). By establishing these CDEs, we have enabled easy merging of datasets across all of our research projects for creating bigger datasets (larger sample sizes) and addressing more complex research questions either related to specific diseases (e.g. collective studies on heart failure, Alzheimers, caregivers, and HIV) or across diseases (e.g. looking for commonalities managing chronic diseases in general). Our standardized data collection and encoding of CDEs will also greatly enhance our ability to provide and advance research through secondary data analyses made possible by using well-organized and documented datasets. We encourage everyone, students and faculty alike, to add one or more of these CDEs to your research protocols whenever appropriate. If we each do this, then we will grow the NHWSN common data registry into a resource that is unmatchable by any other school in its ability to drive innovative and cutting edge symptom science research

Article Author: Melinda Higgins, PhD Associate Professor, Research Senior Biostatistician

he Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing (NHWSN) Biobehavioral Laboratory

supports the research of all of our faculty, students and fellows. The Lab is located in the Department of Physiology on the 6th floor of the Whitehead Building, a short walk towards the hospital, from the NHWSN. The Director of the Lab is Dr. Charles Downs and both he and Dr. Elizabeth Corwin, Associate Dean for Research, hold secondary appointments in Physiology and interact regularly with our colleagues from that Department. The Lab is supported by the ONR, Dr. Downs’ research grants, and in the future, by our faculty who identify the use of the Lab in their grant proposals and support some percent effort of our highly experienced Senior Research Specialist, Ms. Nicholle Johnson. Ms. Johnson is well-qualified and happy to assist any of our students and faculty with assays and other procedures. A few examples of some of the assays that can be conducted include ELISAs for measurement of proteins such as cytokines, cortisol, BDNF, among many others. The Lab can also perform protein biochemistry for the detection of a specific protein, e.g., tumor marker or other protein(s) of interest, or group of proteins from biological samples using western blotting. Molecular assays are also performed in the lab—quantification of telomere length from immune or buccal (mouth) cells, evaluation of gene expression profiles using PCR-based plate platforms, designing PCR primers and single or multiple gene analysis among others. The equipment available in the 400 sq. ft lab includes: incubators, microscopes, -80 and -20 freezers, cold room, Beckman centrifuge, and a microcentrifuge. Also available are tissue culture facilities (600 sq. ft.) and a tissue culture hood; protein biochemistry equipment, Kodak Imaging station, and electrophoresis equipment; a state-of-the-art plate reader, BioRad Bioplex, confocal imaging unit (Olympus MRC-600) with digital imaging capabilities, 2 upright Zeiss microscopes with fluorescence capabilities, and accompanying camera for computer-controlled digital imaging. The molecular biology lab is equipped with dedicated temperature controlled microcentrifuge, PCR thermocycler, and computer controlled RT-PCR workstation. Bottom line: Blood, saliva and other samples can be processed, stored, and analyzed in this laboratory. If you plan to collect, process, store, and/or analyze biological samples in your research, please set up an appointment to talk with Dr. Downs (7-6936 or charles.downs@ emory.edu ). You have come to the right place: the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing!

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