Digital Commons Network^™

Dying Among Older Adults In Switzerland: Who Dies In Hospital, Who Dies In A Nursing Home?, Xhyljeta Luta, Radoslaw Panczak, Maud Maessen, Matthias Egger, David Goodman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Institutional deaths (hospitals and nursing homes) are an important issue because they are often at odds with patient preference and associated with high healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to examine deaths in institutions and the role of individual, regional, and healthcare supply characteristics in explaining variation across Swiss Hospital Service Areas (HSAs).

Methods: Retrospective study of individuals ≥66 years old who died in a Swiss institution (hospital or nursing homes) in 2010. Using a two-level logistic regression analysis we examined the amount of variation across HSAs adjusting for individual, regional and healthcare supply measures. The outcome …

Gene Discovery In Mendelian And Complex Diseases, Sali Farhan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Through the Finding of Rare Disease Genes in Canada (FORGE Canada) initiative, individuals affected with rare Mendelian diseases were clinically ascertained with a goal of identifying the genetic origin of their disease. Herein, I describe the methods for identifying the genetic basis of four Mendelian diseases. The application of next generation sequencing led to the discovery of non-synonymous variation in the DNA of individuals affected by rare diseases. The effects of the candidate variants were assessed using a series of functional experiments to complement the human genetics data. The variants observed in patients’ cells are extremely rare, were consistently predicted …

Dental Microwear Variation In Teleoceras Fossiger (Rhinocerotidae) From The Miocene (Hemphillian) Of Kansas, With Consideration Of Masticatory Processes And Enamel Microstructure, Kelsie Abrams

Master's Theses

Dental microwear analysis is the study of microscopic features on the surfaces of teeth, and is used to reconstruct and analyze diet in extinct and extant animals. Microwear analysis on ungulates is typically conducted on the paracone or protoconid of the second molar, as these cusps are usually the first point of contact between upper and lower teeth during the chewing stroke. However, the exact method of mastication varies in different groups of ungulates, and the influence of mastication on the location and production of microwear features has been studied very little. Additionally, the role of highly specialized enamel microstructure …

Tongue Twisters Quantified: Ultrasound Analysis Of Speech Stability And Speech Errors, Karen Reddick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates errors on speech sounds (or phonemes) produced in laboratory speech stimuli designed to generate phonological onset errors. The present study adds to the literature on phonological speech errors with an instrumental analysis of tongue posture during speech error production and an investigation of the nature of speech errors as unintended variation in articulation.

This study utilized ultrasound instrumentation to visualize speech errors made on velar and alveolar stop consonants at the point of stop closure. Two types of errors were of interest, categorical errors and gradient errors. Categorical errors are those that are heard by the listener …

Variation In Restaurant Sanitary Scores In New York City, Kyle Gregory

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether restaurants that are homogenous in nature would exhibit substantially different hygiene scores based on the underlying consumer learning behaviors present in the neighborhoods in which the restaurants are located.

Learning From Variation And Change: The 2016 Release Of The National Health Security Preparedness Index, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

The 2016 release of the National Health Security Preparedness Index uses an improved computational methodology and validated set of measures to more accurately track national and state progress in protecting the public from the health effects of disasters, outbreaks and other large-scale emergencies. This presentation provides a preview of the new methodology and results.

The People Of Poquoson, Prue Salasky

Presentations and Projects

Documentation of language variation through ethnographic research.

Morphological Variation Of Mesobuthus Eupeus Mongolicus (Birula, 1911) (Scorpiones: Buthidae) In Mongolia, Mike Heddergott, D. Pohl, Michael Stubbe, Annegret Stubbe, P. Steinbach

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

In the present study, we investigated morphological variation of Mesobuthus eupeus mongolicus (Birula, 1911) in Mongolia. Samples were collected in 16 sites located in the provinces Bayankhongor, Khovd, Dundgovi, Dornogovi, Govisümber and Ömnögovi. Statistical analyses (Kruska-Wallis one-way ANOVA, PCA and hierarchical cluster analysis) showed that (a) morphologically the M. e. mongolicus males sampled in Dundgovi, Dornogovi, Govisümber and Ömnögovi were similar to each other, while the populations of Bayankhongor and Khovd were differentiated, and (b) the females from Bayankhongor, Dundgovi, Dornogovi, Govisümber and Ömnögovi had a similar morphology, while the population from Khovd was differentiated.

Ecological Assembly Of Leaf-Litter Anuran Communities Across A Neotropical Land-Bridge Archipelago, Sandra Patricia Galeano Munoz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The conspicuous variation in time and space of richness and composition of biological communities has intrigued ecologists for decades. In this dissertation, I explore the patterns and ecological mechanisms that underlie the community assembly of leaf-litter anurans on a Neotropical archipelago. I combined experimental and observational approaches to: first, identify patterns of body size variation in leaf-litter anurans; second, assess how coloration and body size variation in a territorial and common species, Oophaga pumilio, associates with aggressiveness and dominance, and how this association influences the outcome of species interactions; and third, examine species co-occurrence and body size overlap patterns, assessing …

Geographic Variation In Health Service Use And Perceived Access Barriers For Australian Adults With Chronic Non-Cancer Pain Receiving Opioid Therapy, Amy Peacock, Suzanne Nielsen, Raimondo Bruno, Gabrielle Campbell, Briony K. Larance, Louisa Degenhardt

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objective. Rates of chronic non-cancer pain are increasing worldwide, with concerns regarding poorer access to specialist treatment services in remote areas. The current study comprised the first in-depth examination of use and barriers to access of health services in Australia according to remoteness. Methods. A cohort of Australian adults prescribed pharmaceutical opioids for chronic non-cancer pain (n = 1,235) were interviewed between August 2012 and April 2014, and grouped into 'major city' (49%), 'inner regional' (37%), and 'outer regional/remote' (14%) according to the Australian Standard Geographical Classification based on postcode. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine geographical differences …

Stress Variation As Unifying Features Of Upstate New York, Tracey Vail

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This study investigates sociophonetic stress variation in the Onondaga County area of Upstate New York. I argue that five variations of stress correlate to factors of age, education level, place of residence, frequency, and analogical change. Dinkin and Evanini (2010) have examined and discovered similar outcomes of stress variation in his work with dialectal features across the state of New York. Rather than analyze the state and its borders in their entirety, I focus on morpheme-specific analogical change of stress in specific social categories within the Syracuse, New York region. In terms of lexical items, I analyze stress placement within …

Epigenetic Response To Habitat Change: Changes Variation In Dna Methylation Frequencies And Generational Transmission Vary With Invasion Status, Aaron W. Schrey, Travis R. Robbins, Jacob D. Lee, David W. Dukes, Alexandria K. Ragsdale, Christopher J. Thawley, Tracy Langkilde

Department of Biology Faculty Publications

Epigenetic mechanisms may be important for a native species’ response to rapid environmental change. Red Imported Fire Ants (Solenopsis invicta Santschi, 1916) were recently introduced to areas occupied by the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus Bosc & Daudin, 1801). Behavioral, morphological and physiological phenotypes of the Eastern Fence Lizard have changed following invasion, creating a natural biological system to investigate environmentally induced epigenetic changes. We tested for variation in DNA methylation patterns in Eastern Fence Lizard populations associated with different histories of invasion by Red Imported Fire Ants. At methylation sensitive amplified fragment length polymorphism loci, we detected a higher …

Houba Retrotransposon-Based Molecular Markers: A Tool For Variation Analysis In Rice, Gözde Yüzbaşioğlu, Si̇bel Yilmaz, Nermi̇n Gözükirmizi

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Rice is one of the most important crop plants as well as a model organism used for genetic studies. Transposons, especially retrotransposons, have a significant impact on the rice genome. A considerable percentage of the rice genome is composed of transposons (about 35%). Thus, transposons are an important internal factor for the genome evolution of rice varieties. In this study, we performed fing?erprint analyses of 37 Oryza sativa L. Cultivars using an IRAP marker. For this purpose, we designed IRAP primers specific to Houba (Tos5/Osr13), RIRE1 and Hopi (Osr27), and Osr30 retrotransposons, the most abundant retrotransposons in the rice genome. …

Characterization Of Inter-Animal Variation In The Innate Immune Response Of The Bovine And Its Relation To S. Aureus Mastitis., Aimee Benjamin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Mastitis represents one of the major economical and animal welfare concerns within the dairy industry. Animals affected with this disease can experience a range of clinical symptoms from mild discomfort and swelling of the udder to a severe systemic inflammatory response that could result in the death of the animal. This range of responses is due to differences in pathogen, environment, and inter-animal differences in their innate immune response. A dermal fibroblast model was used to predict the magnitude of an animal's innate immune response towards an intra-mammary S. aureus challenge. Animals whose fibroblasts exhibited a low response phenotype, characterized …