Publications

Background Sudden death accounts for 10% of deaths in the United States. Prior research has focused on sudden death in older victims, leaving much unknown about risk factors for younger, working age adults. Compared to older adults, younger adults may be more vulnerable to genetic factors. Understanding age related differences in sudden death risk factors may guide future prevention efforts, as the factors contributing to sudden death in younger patients may warrant different types of prevention than those affecting older adults. ...

Background In the United States, former incarceration is a risk factor for chronic conditions and sudden death (SD) due to poor healthcare continuity after release and lack of community support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all-cause mortality increased, and preexisting risk factors and social limitations of having an incarceration history were exacerbated. We hypothesized that sudden deaths among the formerly incarcerated increased during the pandemic. ...

Background Housing insecurity is a powerful social determinant of health that is associated with increased all-cause mortality. The health consequences of and contributors to housing insecurity are poorly studied, which makes preventative care elusive for this population. In order to address these issues, we assessed the prevalence of housing insecurity among sudden death victims and examined its relationship to sudden death, mental illness, and clinical comorbidities. ...

All organisms must deal with fluid transport and interaction, whether it be internal, such as lungs moving air for the extraction of oxygen, or external, such as the expansion and contraction of a jellyfish bell for locomotion. Most organisms are highly deformable and their elastic deformations can be used to move fluid, move through fluid, and resist fluid forces. A particularly effective numerical method for biological fluid-structure interaction simulations is the immersed boundary (IB) method. An important feature of this method is that the fluid is discretized separately from the boundary interface, meaning that the two meshes do not need to conform with each other. This thesis covers the development of a new software tool for the semi-automated creation of finite difference meshes of complex 2D geometries for use with immersed boundary solvers IB2d and IBAMR, alongside two examples of locomotion - the flight of tiny insects and the metachronal paddling of brine shrimp. ...