Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Breastfeeding Interventions On Breastfeeding Behavior, Ryan D. Steele

Theses and Graduate Projects

Breast milk is the natural first food for all infants, and breastfeeding provides multiple benefits for both the mother and child. However, breastfeeding rates in the United States are far from optimal, despite these benefits. There are multiple complex and interrelated reasons for the suboptimal breastfeeding rates, and multiple interventions have been completed with the goal of obtaining optimal breastfeeding rates. This literature review examines the efficacy of these breastfeeding interventions, specifically examining whether antenatal breastfeeding education was associated with increased breastfeeding initiation and duration relative to individualized support. Results of the literature review suggest that a combination of antenatal …

Do Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Increase The Risk For Non- Or Mal-Union Following Acute Fracture? A Literature Review, Bryan Moritz

Theses and Graduate Projects

NSAID medications are among the most commonly used analgesic medications world wide, and it was estimated in 2010 (updated 2015 data is expected to be published next year) that about 29 million adults in the United States regularly used NSAID medications at least three times per week for more than three months. Fracture healing has been shown to be dependent on the inflammatory cascade. NSAID medication use appears to have a mechanistic in-vivo and in-vitro animal risk for the development of non- and mal-union following fracture. However, human data is lacking to support total avoidance of this analgesic option for …

Smallpox Bioterrorism Preparedness: The Importance Of Technology And Education For Early Detection And Response, D Taylor Jorgenson-Rathke

Theses and Graduate Projects

The use of biological agents as weapons has been prevalent throughout history. Only when the US experienced a bioterrorist attack in 2001 did additional funding begin to invest in preparing for other potential attacks. These initial investments, along with others, have funded preventative measures such as mass surveillance through biosensor technology and the development of preparedness programs such as the Laboratory Response Network and Hospital Preparedness Program. Based on learnings from previous outbreak events, in the event of a bioterrorist attack involving smallpox early detection will be the key to initiating a rapid and effective response. Additionally, further measures need …

Local Attitudes And Prevention Around The Nicaraguan Sugarcane Worker With Chronic Renal Disease, Matt Cyr

Theses and Graduate Projects

An epidemic of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Central America and Nicaragua is referred to as Mesoamerican nephropathy (MeN). It’s estimated that the death toll for MeN over the past two decades has reached at least 20,000. Nicaragua is included in the 10 highest overall mortality rate from kidney disease in the world. MeN disproportionately affects young, male agricultural workers who do not exhibit traditional risk factors for CKD such as hypertension and diabetes. A consistent risk factor for MeN is heavy manual labor in the heat, often temperatures over 35 °C with high humidity. Many reasons have been proposed …

Climate Change: Human Health, The Developing World And The Global Response, Cole James Kriett

Theses and Graduate Projects

Changes to the Earth’s biophysical system will extend and exacerbate the rates of vector-borne infectious disease, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and lung disease, and mental health disorders. Developing nations face the greatest burden of climate sensitive human health impacts while also having the lowest capacity to adapt to these changes. Addressing these global ethical challenges cannot be accomplished without supporting organizations like UNEP or the IPCC. However, these organizations cannot achieve global sustainability alone. Human beings collectively taking responsibility for climate change will be vital to this process.

An Analysis Of Music Therapy On Improving Social And Communication Skills In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Steven Koehler

Theses and Graduate Projects

Autism, a diagnosis that has skyrocketed and is worrisome to parents, teachers, clinicians and researchers. Over the past four decades, the rate of children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder has grown 10 times and is the fastest growing disability in the US.1,2 Currently, 1 in 68 births are affected by Autism.1 Due to the high prevalence of this disability, researchers are searching for ways to treat the symptoms of this incurable disorder. Music therapy is gaining popularity as an intervention strategy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).3 This paper will analyze the benefits music therapy has on the improvement …

The Future Of 5-Fluorouracil Treatment Of Colorectal Cancer: Translating A Better Understanding Into Improved Patient Care, Nathan Smits

Theses and Graduate Projects

5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is a pyrimidine analog that has been successfully employed in anticancer therapy for over forty years. Over the past several decades, researchers have characterized its cellular and clinical pharmacology and uncovered multiple mechanisms of action, which include the inhibition of thymidylate synthase (TS) and incorporation of its metabolites into DNA and RNA. The purpose of this quantitative systemic review was to summarize and evaluate what is known of these mechanisms to determine which are of most significance in the anticancer effects of 5-FU in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. A literature search of peer-reviewed articles dating back to …

Global Health And Societal Impacts Of Schistosomiasis, William Ryan

Theses and Graduate Projects

Schistosomiasis, a parasitic infection, is classified as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD). While there are many NTDs that impact poor people across the world, schistosomiasis is one of the most prevalent. Currently 200 million people worldwide are infected with schistosomiasis and 800 million more are at risk for infection. Like other NTDs, this infection is preventable and treatable. Mass drug administration of the anti-parasitic drug praziquantel (the only drug available to treat schistosomiasis) is currently the main method of control. Although, China has recently demonstrated success by employing strategies that involve controlling the infection in the livestock population. Epidemiological surveys …

Pacap Expression In An Auditory Neurocircuit Relay Center, Matthew N. Segil

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

Pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a small pleiotropic neuropeptide found throughout the central and peripheral nervous system. It binds with highest affinity to its complementary receptor, pituitary adenylyl cyclase-activating polypeptide receptor 1. Using PACAP-Cre transgenic mice, an adeno-assisted viral construct was injected into the diencephalon for Cre-dependent expression of mCherry fluorescent protein in PACAP-expressing neurons. We observed red mCherry fluorescence in PACAP expressing neurons in the suprageniculate (SG) thalamic nucleus, a component of the auditory sensory pathway. The nucleus receives afferent fibers from the deep layers of the superior colliculus (SC) and sends axonal projections to various targets including …

Lagrangian Coherent Structures: A Climatological Look, Andrew Sven Mccall Jr.

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

A relatively new area at the crossroads of fluid and nonlinear dynamics are objects known as Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCSs). LCSs are mathematically classified to differentiate parts of fluid flows. They, themselves, are the most influential parts of fluids. These objects have the most influence on the fluids around them and they allow for a sense of hierarchy in an otherwise busy environment of endless variables and trajectories. While all particles of fluids have the same dynamics on an individual basis, areas of fluid are not created equal and to be able to detect which parts will be the most …

88.9: A Documentary Poem Examining Whiteness At The University Of Vermont, Addison Campbell

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

This project is located at the joining of the two fields of documentary poetry and critical race and ethnic studies, specifically that of whiteness. The University of Vermont is a predominantly white institution in a predominantly white state. Though traditionally the docupoet is incidental to the project, in 88.9 I explore the social phenomenon of whiteness by engaging with the political forces that are simultaneously insidious and explicit at UVM. To give this project balance, I also interrogate my own personal role not only as a student, but also as a white woman and a Vermonter. 88.9 is my attempt …

Iterative Exponential Growth Through Manipulation Of Sulfide Oxidation States, Tyler Jacob Jaynes

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

Discovering methods to produce polymers of precisely defined length and sequence has been an age-old vexation for synthetic chemists. Classical polymerization techniques such as step growth and chain growth tend to produce inexact polymer sequences with broad ranges of molecular weights. Other techniques, such as solid state peptide synthesis, that allow construction of sequence defined oligomers, grow at a sluggish, linear rate. This research aims to explore a contemporary technique, iterative exponential growth (IEG), which utilizes a convergent/divergent strategy to grow oligomers of exact sequence and size in an exponential fashion. Specifically, we aim to use nucleophilic aromatic substitutions as …

Characterizing The Information Needs Of Rural Healthcare Practitioners With Language Agnostic Automated Text Analysis, Melissa Resnick

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Objectives – Previous research has characterized urban healthcare providers' information needs, using various qualitative methods. However, little is known about the needs of rural primary care practitioners in Brazil. Communication exchanged during tele-consultations presents a unique data source for the study of these information needs. In this study, I characterize rural healthcare providers' information needs expressed electronically, using automated methods.

Methods – I applied automated methods to categorize messages obtained from the telehealth system from two regions in Brazil. A subset of these messages, annotated with top-level categories in the DeCS terminology (the regional equivalent of MeSH), was used to …

Using The Literature To Identify Confounders, Scott Malec

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Prior work in causal modeling has focused primarily on learning graph structures and parameters to model data generating processes from observational or experimental data, while the focus of the literature-based discovery paradigm was to identify novel therapeutic hypotheses in publicly available knowledge. The critical contribution of this dissertation is to refashion the literature-based discovery paradigm as a means to populate causal models with relevant covariates to abet causal inference. In particular, this dissertation describes a generalizable framework for mapping from causal propositions in the literature to subgraphs populated by instantiated variables that reflect observational data. The observational data are those …

Istabl Qawsun: The History And Reconstruction Of An Abandoned Palace, Mennat-Allah Mohammed El-Mahy

Theses and Dissertations

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Insights From Narrative Reflections Of First Year Medical Students On Their Professional Formation, Laurey Burris

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

First year medical school enrollment is projected to reach 21,349 by the 2018 school year, reflecting a 30 percent increase compared to 2002 enrollment numbers (Erikson, Whatley, & Tilton, 2014). In 2006, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recommended this increase in enrollment in response to concerns about a physician shortage. Unfortunately, the increase in the number of medical students enrolling in medical school may be good for society, but it may not be good for the health of medical students. A commentary in the journal, Academic Medicine, was titled, “Medical Student Distress: A Call to Action” (Dyrbye & …

The Sh2 Domain-Containing Adaptor Protein Shd Reversibly Binds The Crkl-Sh2 Domain And Knockdown Of Shdb Impairs Zebrafish Eye Development, Brendan Chandler

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The adaptor protein CT10-Regulator of Kinase (CRK) and the closely related CRK-Like (CRKL) are adaptor proteins that play important roles in many signaling pathways regulating cell proliferation and cell motility. A notable example is their required role in Reelin signaling during development of the laminated structures of the vertebrate central nervous system, including the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, and retina. As adaptors, CRK/CRKL are important in coupling phosphotyrosine signaling to G protein activity to regulate both cell proliferation and changes in the actin cytoskeleton, thereby exerting control over cell motility, and migration. While many proteins that interact with CRK/CRKL have …

Chronic Kidney Disease And The Risk Of Venous Thromboembolism, Katharine Lana Cheung

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects more than 30 million adults in the U.S. and is strongly associated with cardiovascular events and mortality. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third leading vascular disease, affects up to 900,000 Americans each year and contributes to as many as 100,000 deaths annually. The relationship of CKD and VTE has been described in patients receiving dialysis, kidney transplants recipients and in nephrotic syndrome, however, data supporting the association of VTE in mild to moderate CKD is conflicted. The overall goal of this research was to study the association of CKD and VTE and to understand the …

Simulacra Of The (Un)Real: Reading Margaret Atwood’S Lady Oracle As A Feminist Text Of Bodily Resistance, Kimberly Michelle Dean

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis project is centered on the female body, specifically body image, in relation to Western, cultural images of women. This is a problem that has been around, essentially, since the beginning of Western art. While different scholars argue whether or not this problem has become worse, it is nonetheless problematic that we are still, in 2018, fighting patriarchy’s control of our bodies via body image. Grounding my project in Susan Bordo’s 1993 text Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, this thesis explores Bordo’s argument that the female body is culturally produced through the lens of Jean Baudrillard’s …

Some Results On A Class Of Functional Optimization Problems, David Rushing Dewhurst

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We first describe a general class of optimization problems that describe many natu- ral, economic, and statistical phenomena. After noting the existence of a conserved quantity in a transformed coordinate system, we outline several instances of these problems in statistical physics, facility allocation, and machine learning. A dynamic description and statement of a partial inverse problem follow. When attempting to optimize the state of a system governed by the generalized equipartitioning princi- ple, it is vital to understand the nature of the governing probability distribution. We show that optimiziation for the incorrect probability distribution can have catas- trophic results, e.g., …

Evaluating The Resistome And Microbial Composition During Food Waste Feeding And Composting On A Vermont Poultry Farm, Korin Eckstrom

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

While commonly thought of as a waste product, food scraps and residuals represent an important opportunity for energy and nutrient recapture within the food system. As demands on production continue to increase, conservation of these valuable resources has become a priority area. In the wake of new legislation in Vermont, Act 148, the Universal Recycling Law, the fate of microbial species in food waste, scraps and residuals is increasingly important. The presence of antimicrobial resistance genes in all types of foods calls for an increased need to estimate risk of antibiotic resistance transfer and maintenance across all segments of food …

Genetic And Demographic Consequences Of Lake And River Habitat Fragmentation On Fishes In Vermont, Peter T. Euclide

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Globally, habitat fragmentation has had a major impact on the conservation and management of many species and is one of the primary causes of species extinction. Habitat fragmentation is loosely defined as a process in which a continuous habitat is reduced to smaller, disconnected patches as the result of habitat loss, restriction of migration or the construction of barriers to movement. Aquatic systems are particularly vulnerable to habitat fragmentation, and today an estimated 48% of rivers are fragmented worldwide. My dissertation evaluates how habitat fragmentation has influenced the populations of four different species of fish in the Lake Champlain basin. …

Methods To Identify And Develop Drugs For Cryptosporidiosis, Rajiv Satish Jumani

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Cryptosporidiosis is a common diarrheal disease caused by intestinal infection with the apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium, in humans usually either with C. hominis or C. parvum. Unfortunately, given a large burden of disease in children and immunocompromised people like AIDS patients, the only currently approved treatment, nitazoxanide, is unreliable for these patient populations. To address the urgent need for new drugs for the most vulnerable populations, large phenotypic screening efforts have been established to identify anti-Cryptosporidium growth inhibitors in vitro (hits). However, in the absence of a gold standard drug, the in vitro and in vivo characteristics that should be used …

Protective Actions Of Luminally Restricted 5-Ht4 Receptor Agonist In Dextran Sodium Sulfate Induced Colitis, Alisha Anne Linton

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Background: The 5-hydroxytrptamine receptor 4 (5-HT4 receptor) is heavily expressed on colonic epithelial cells and has been targeted as a therapeutic for functional bowel symptoms and pain; however, adverse cardiac events related to 5-HT4 agonist treatment limited their therapeutic use. Previous studies in the Mawe laboratory have demonstrated that intraluminal application of a 5-HT4 agonist exerts protective epithelial actions in animal models of colitis, and accelerates recovery from colitis. The aim of this study was to test the effects of a luminally restricted 5-HT4 agonist in a mouse model of experimental colitis.

Methods: The luminally restricted 5-HT4 agonist (Takeda Pharmaceuticals; …

Becoming By Believing: One Fraternity And Sorority Life Professional’S Journey In Finding Her Voice, Kimberlee Monteaux De Freitas

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

While fraternity and sorority life continues to make headlines and is called upon regularly to validate the purpose it holds to remain on college campuses today, many still believe that when fraternity and sorority are done right, it is one of the best opportunities on college campuses today outside of the classroom. Much of their success is due to the efforts and support of the fraternity and sorority life professionals.

This dissertation will offer the first Scholarly Personal Narrative of a mid-level, seasoned, fraternity and sorority life professional working in higher education. Current research shows the average age of a …

Identification And Characterization Of Gatase1-Like Arac-Family Transcriptional Regulators In Burkholderia Thailandensis., Adam Michael Nock

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The ability of bacteria to detect their surroundings and enact an appropriate response is critical for survival. Translation of external signals into a coherent response requires specific control over the transcription of DNA into RNA. Much of the regulation at this step is accomplished by transcriptional regulators, proteins that bind to DNA and alter gene expression. A wide-spread variety of regulators in bacteria is the AraC-family. These regulators are divided into two conserved domains and respond to a variety of compounds owing to different N-terminal domains. A subfamily of these regulators, GATase1-like AraC-family transcriptional regulators (GATRs), is described. These proteins …

On The Edge Of Freedom: The Re-Enslavement Of Elizabeth Watson, Franco Paz

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Elizabeth Watson was a Boston-born slave in Halifax, Nova Scotia. After a brutal assault at the hands of master-shipwright Elias Marshall, she petitioned the Halifax Inferior Court of Common Pleas. Watson won her freedom on 23 March 1778. Thirty-one days later, she was seized by Halifax butcher William Proud, who claimed Watson was his runaway slave known as Phillis. The ensuing trial is the object of this thesis, which will survey the historiography of slavery in the Maritime provinces, explore the development of slavery in New England and Nova Scotia, and provide an account of Watson v. Proud.

Elizabeth Watson’s …

Diversification Of Muroid Rodents Driven By The Late Miocene Global Cooling, Nelish Pradhan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Late Miocene, 8 to 6 million years ago (Ma), climatic changes brought about dramatic floral and faunal changes. Cooler and drier climates that prevailed in the Late Miocene led to expansion of grasslands and retreat of forests at a global scale. Palaeogeographic studies suggest a global vegetation change causing an abrupt increase in C4 plant biomass while C3 biomass decreased between 8 and 6 Ma. Subsequent cycles of cooler and drier climatic conditions during the Mid-Pliocene (3.5–3 Ma) and Pleistocene (2.8–2.5; 1.8–1.6; 1.0–0.8 Ma) also caused forests to retreat into isolated refugia which played an important role in events that …

Immaculate Deception: One Educator's Exploration Into The Systemic Shaming Of Women In Ireland, Alanna Diane Scully

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the topic of shame through my perspective as a pro-choice woman and future educator. It tells of the long relationship I have had with shame, which began when I had my first abortion. It also describes the history of shame inflicted on the women of Ireland, who continue to fight for their reproductive rights. I use these narratives to support my position that educators have a responsibility to create safe spaces for controversial topics and vulnerable populations on university campuses.

Single Molecule Imaging Reveals Tau Structure And Function On The Microtubule Surface, Jamie Stern

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Neurons are among the most highly polarized cells in the human body. This polarization allows the neuron to participate in the transfer of chemical and electrical signals which are crucial to the survival of the organism. As part of polarization, each neuron develops a dendritic arbor and an axon. To ensure the survival of the cell, materials synthesized in the cell body must be trafficked through the axon for delivery throughout ultimately ending at the synaptic termini. The bulk of this cargo transport is microtubule-based fast axonal transport which is molecular motor mediated and tightly regulated though many pathways. Motor …