Breanna Wong

Telehealth has the objective to provide remote access to healthcare for patients. Irrespective of the widespread advantages, not many providers have adopted telehealth in their practices. Widely discussed challenges to adoption include reimbursements, license issues, technological barriers, expected results and social influence. Beyond these reasons, feeling empowered and satisfied that a doctor or clinician is able to treat a patient at the time of need is crucial for telehealth adoption. In… Show more

Telehealth has the objective to provide remote access to healthcare for patients. Irrespective of the widespread advantages, not many providers have adopted telehealth in their practices. Widely discussed challenges to adoption include reimbursements, license issues, technological barriers, expected results and social influence. Beyond these reasons, feeling empowered and satisfied that a doctor or clinician is able to treat a patient at the time of need is crucial for telehealth adoption. In this study, we explore whether provider empowerment and satisfaction with Telehealth vary across structural context (e.g., hospital vs. non-hospital, including clinics and office), hospital settings (urban vs. rural), the structural distance of the doctor/provider in the organization, and the providers’ demographics (e.g., age and gender). A survey instrument was designed and data was collected from providers. Results show that providers in hospital settings, in urban areas, in the age range of 41-50, and male providers derive higher empowerment and satisfaction from telehealth use. In addition, doctors or providers with an ‘independent’ role in practice feel more empowered and satisfied with telehealth. Insights and implications of the findings are discussed. Show less

The regulation of plant carotenogenesis is an active research area for both biological discovery and practical implementation. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), we demonstrate additional bottlenecks exist in the poly-cis-transformation of phytoene to lycopene in the context of ripening-induced PSY1 expression and activity and reveal phytoene desaturase (PDS), as a target for manipulation towards elevated lycopene content in maturing tomato fruit. Overexpression of Arabidopsis PDS, AtPDS… Show more

The regulation of plant carotenogenesis is an active research area for both biological discovery and practical implementation. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), we demonstrate additional bottlenecks exist in the poly-cis-transformation of phytoene to lycopene in the context of ripening-induced PSY1 expression and activity and reveal phytoene desaturase (PDS), as a target for manipulation towards elevated lycopene content in maturing tomato fruit. Overexpression of Arabidopsis PDS, AtPDS, elevated PDS transcript abundance in all aerial tissues resulting in both altered carotenoid accumulation and associated pathway gene expression in a tissue-specific manner. Significant increases in downstream carotenoids (all-trans-lycopene and β-carotene) and minimal changes in carotenogenic gene expression (carotenoid isomerase-like 1, CRTIL1) suggest overexpression of heterologous AtPDS in tomato circumvents endogenous regulatory mechanism observed with previous strategies. In transgenic leaves, depletion of the PDS substrate, phytoene, was accompanied by minor, but significant increases in xanthophyll production. Alterations in the leaf carotenogenic transcript profile, including the upstream MEP pathway, were observed revealing unique feedback and feedforward regulatory mechanisms in response to AtPDS overexpression. AtPDS overexpression in the background of the tangerine (carotenoid isomerase, CRTISO) mutant exposes its potential in elevating downstream cis-lycopene accumulation in ripe tomato fruit, as cis-lycopene is more bioavailable yet less abundant than all-trans-lycopene in the wild-type control. In summary, we demonstrate the limitation of PDS in ripening fruit, its utility in modifying carotenoid profiles towards improved quality, and reveal novel carotenoid pathway feedback regulation. Show less