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Mechanisms Of Adaptation In The Newly Invasive Species Brachypodium Sylvaticum (Hudson) Beauv., Gina Lola Marchini

Dissertations and Theses

It is common knowledge that invasive species cause worldwide ecological and economic damage, and are nearly impossible to eradicate. However, upon introduction to a novel environment, alien species should be the underdogs: They are present in small numbers, possess low genetic diversity, and have not adapted to the climate and competitors present in the new habitat. So, how are alien species able to invade an environment occupied by native species that have already adapted to the local environment? To discover some answers to this apparent paradox I conducted four ecological genetic studies that utilized the invasive species Brachypodium sylvaticum (Hudson) …

Thinking About Work At Home: Implications For Safety At Work, Frankie Guros

Dissertations and Theses

Safety at work is of the utmost importance to employees and the organizations they work for, and as such, it is a central issue for occupational health psychology. Although dramatic decreases in the number of worker injuries and fatalities have been observed over the last several decades, safety remains a principal concern for organizations. This is especially true in occupations in which employees face serious threats to their personal safety, such as correctional officers (COs). While a number of studies have identified workplace factors that contribute to worker safety, few have attempted to draw a link between employee nonwork experiences …

Design And Synthesis Of Novel Chloroquine-Based Antimalarials, Kevin Vincent Murphy

Dissertations and Theses

Malaria is an infectious, often fatal disease that afflicts nearly 200 million people every year. The disease, characterized by recurring and extreme flu-like symptoms, is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Victims usually contract the disease through a mosquito vector. Chloroquine is a chemotherapeutic that was introduced in the 1940s. For many years the drug was the foremost treatment of malaria, being effective and producing few side effects. Unfortunately, tolerance to chloroquine developed when the parasite evolved a resistance mechanism. Newer drugs have been developed and implemented, but these medicines also show a decreasing effect with continued administration. …

Upper Body Posture And Pain In Division I Female Volleyball And Softball Athletes, Brittany M. Plunkett Castilla

Dissertations and Theses

Participation in athletics is a popular pastime and form of entertainment. Children often begin to specialize in one sport at a young age in an effort to excel, which increases physical stress and the potential for injuries. Athletes participating in overhead sports are at increased risk of upper body chronic injuries, in part because the shoulder is an unstable hypermobile joint. Posture may also be affected in these athletes because of the demands placed on the upper body. The purpose of this study was to measure the upper body posture in a sample of Division I collegiate volleyball and softball …

Investigation In To The Effect Of Spin Locking On Contrast Agent Relaxivity, Julian Saunders Haigh

Dissertations and Theses

The current trend in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is towards higher external magnetic field strengths (B₀) to take advantage of increased sensitivity and signal to noise ratio (SNR). Unfortunately, as (B₀) increases the effectiveness (relaxivity) of clinical gadolinium (Gd³⁺⁾-based contrast agents (CAs) administered to enhance image contrast is significantly reduced. Excellent soft tissue contrast can be generated with current agents despite their non-optimum relaxivities but necessitates large doses. The limits of detection of a CA at high B₀ fields can be lowered by recovering the lost relaxivity and is a pre-requisite to the …

Mistrust: An Exploration Of African Americans' Attitudes And Perspectives Toward Healthcare, Adolfo Gabriel Cuevas

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explored mistrust through focus group discussions (study 1), responses to standardized laboratory vignettes (study 2), and survey questionnaires (study 3). In the first study, I found that African American community members (N=60) experienced perceived discrimination, medical mistrust, and poor communication in numerous and interrelated ways. For example, medical mistrust occurred when clinicians did not convey respect to patients, leaving patients to wonder whether their clinician's treatment was discriminatory or not. Based on these findings, I wanted to see whether these experiences of perceived discrimination and mistrust were related to other dimensions of Black experience, such as racial identity. …

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Use In Collegiate Athletes, Brian Robert Davis

Dissertations and Theses

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are a class of medications used in the treatment of pain, inflammation, and illness. These medications are common, affordable, and easy to access. For these reasons, NSAIDs are commonly used by athletes of all backgrounds for treating injuries and as ergogenic aids. However, despite these behaviors, NSAIDs have well-documented side effects and the efficacious nature of these medications has been brought into question. Despite this, many athletes continue to use these medications frequently and indiscriminately. It is not known why athletes use these medications in light of their questionable effectiveness and cited adverse effects. Therefore, this …

Training And Application Of Correct Information Unit Analysis To Structured And Unstructured Discourse, Audrey Bretthauer Cohen

Dissertations and Theses

Correct Information Units (CIU) analysis is one of the few measures of discourse that attempts to quantify discourse as a function of communicating information efficiently. Though this analysis is used reliably as a research tool, most studies' apply CIUs to structured discourse tasks and do not specifically describe how raters are trained. If certified clinical speech-language pathologists can likewise reliably apply CIU analysis within clinical settings to unstructured discourse, such as the discourse of people with aphasia (PWA), it may allow clinicians to quantify the information communicated efficiently in clinical populations with discourse deficits. Purpose: The purpose of this study …

Custom Fluorophores For Investigating The Cellular Uptake Mechanisms And Side-Effects Of Pharmaceuticals, Yu-Hsuan Chu

Dissertations and Theses

There is a significant current need to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the side-effects caused by widely-used pharmaceuticals. Examples include the acute nephrotoxicity and irreversible ototoxicity promoted by the cationic drugs gentamicin and cisplatin. Gentamicin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic used for the prevention and treatment of life-threatening gram-negative bacterial infections, such as tuberculosis and meningitis. Cisplatin is used to treat a broad spectrum of cancers including head and neck, ovarian, cervical, stomach, bladder, sarcoma, lymphoma, testicular cancer and others.

The objective of this study is to design and synthesize rhodamine derivatives that can be used for the construction of geometrically …

Facile Methods For The Analysis Of Lysophosphatidic Acids In Human Plasma, Jialu Wang

Dissertations and Theses

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) influences many physiological processes, such as brain and vascular development. It is associated with several diseases including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, multiple myeloma atherosclerotic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary inflammatory diseases and renal diseases. LPA plasma and serum levels have been reported to be important values in diagnosing ovarian cancer and other diseases. However, the extraction and quantification of LPA in plasma are very challenging because of the low physiological concentration and similar structures of LPA to other phospholipids. Many previous studies have not described the separation of LPA from other phospholipids, …

Paleological And Ecological Impacts Of Virus Silicification, James Robert Laidler

Dissertations and Theses

Silicification of organisms in silica-depositing environments can impact both their ecology and their presence in the fossil record. Although microbes have been silicified under laboratory and environmental conditions, viruses had not been, prior to this work. Bacteriophage T4 was successfully silicified under laboratory conditions that closely simulated those found in silica-depositing hot springs. Virus morphology was maintained during the short period of silicification (48 hours), and a clear elemental signature of silicon and phosphorus was detected by energy-dispersive X-ray spectrophotometry (EDX). However, the EDX signature of silicified virus was not sufficiently distinct from that of cell membrane or phosphate minerals …

Analytic Thinking Predicts Vaccine Endorsement: Linking Cognitive Style And Affective Orientation Toward Childhood Vaccination, Daniel A. Anderson

University Honors Theses

Though popular opinion in the US is favorable toward vaccination, a growing hesitancy to vaccinate children threatens rates of uptake and coverage. In response, researchers now study psychological factors thought to influence vaccine-decisions, as having this information might be useful in addressing vaccine hesitancy in the clinic and beyond. The present thesis reviews evidence from this body of work, and shares results of a new study on the influence of analytic and intuitive thinking styles upon endorsement of childhood vaccines. In a national sample (N = 543), analytic thinking predicted endorsement alone and in the presence of covariates in …