Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 8 of 8
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Photothermal Desorption Of Volatile Organic Compounds From Buckypaper Sorbents, For Occupational Exposure Assessment, Jacob S. Shedd
Photothermal Desorption Of Volatile Organic Compounds From Buckypaper Sorbents, For Occupational Exposure Assessment, Jacob S. Shedd
All ETDs from UAB
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a common source of occupational exposures. To prevent adverse health effects in employees, industrial hygienists must regularly conduct occupational air sampling to ensure exposures remain below regulatory limits. As such, the need for sensitive and reliable exposure assessment methodologies becomes apparent. Currently, diffusive sampling is popular and well-established exposure assessment method amongst professionals. However, its reliance on diffusion-driven mass uptake and chemical extraction, results in limited analytical sensitivity. In response to this, a pre-analytical technology, known as photothermal desorption (PTD), has been in development over the past decade. PTD uses pulses of high-energy light to …
Multilevel Influences On Physical Activity Participation In Rural And Cancer Populations With Obesity, Nashira Inika Brown
Multilevel Influences On Physical Activity Participation In Rural And Cancer Populations With Obesity, Nashira Inika Brown
All ETDs from UAB
espite the strong evidence of physical activity benefits, the prevalence of physical inactivity and associated obesity continues to increase. Rural and cancer survivor populations with obesity, in particular, remain highly inactive and are at increased risk of comorbidities. Thus, physical activity interventions are needed to promote active lifestyles. However, before developing or adapting existing multi-level physical activity interventions, more research is needed to understand the necessary components to meet the needs and preferences of these unique populations. Therefore, this project involved identifying the gaps in literature followed by three studies to investigate the multilevel influences on physical activity in rural …
Filtration And Adsorption Performance Of Activated Carbon Fiber: Applications For Respiratory Protection, Margaret C. Summers
Filtration And Adsorption Performance Of Activated Carbon Fiber: Applications For Respiratory Protection, Margaret C. Summers
All ETDs from UAB
Activated Carbon Fiber (ACF) is an adsorbent material that can be used to re-move volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air. Unlike granular adsorbents that are currently used in organic vapor respirators, ACF is a self-supporting fiber structure that can be tailored into non-woven forms and can potentially be used to support particu-late filtration. While ACF-containing respirators first appear in patent literature in the 1980s, the use of ACF in respiratory protection has not been widely considered in the PPE market in the intervening years. To develop the concept of an ACF-containing N95 that offers particulate filtration in addition to …
Non-Mean Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Parameters And Left Ventricular Hypertrophy: Analysis Of Pooled Population- And Community-Based Studies, Swati Sakhuja
All ETDs from UAB
High mean blood pressure (BP) on ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) is a strong risk factor for left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), an early manifestation of hypertension-related cardiovascular disease (CVD). Typically, 48-72 systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP) readings are obtained on a 24-hour ABPM recording. The large number of readings from ABPM allows for the estimation of parameters beyond mean BP that capture level and fluctuation in BP over 24-hours, which may be useful for identifying individuals at high risk for CVD. The measures of BP level other than mean BP obtained from ABPM recording include BP load (percentage of …
Power And Sample Size Calculations For Linear Mixed Models Of Longitudinal Data Using The Kenward-Roger Adjusted Wald Test, Tarrant Oliver Mcpherson
Power And Sample Size Calculations For Linear Mixed Models Of Longitudinal Data Using The Kenward-Roger Adjusted Wald Test, Tarrant Oliver Mcpherson
All ETDs from UAB
The linear mixed model has become a popular technique for the analysis of longitudinal data, but Wald test statistics of fixed effects for these models frequently lack well defined distributions. A common approach to this problem uses the Kenward-Roger adjustment, which attempts to approximate the distribution of the Wald statistic by matching its moments obtained via Taylor expansion to those of an F distribution. However, this approach only matches moments obtained under the null hypothesis of no effect and cannot currently be used to approximate the distribution of the test statistic under some alternative hypothesis. This limitation prevents a straightforward …
Spike-And-Slab Additive Models And Scalable Algorithms For High Dimensional Data Analysis, Boyi Guo
Spike-And-Slab Additive Models And Scalable Algorithms For High Dimensional Data Analysis, Boyi Guo
All ETDs from UAB
There are proposals that extend classical additive models (AMs) to accommodate high-dimensional data (p >> n) using group sparse regularization. However, the sparse regularization may induce excess shrinkage when estimating smooth functions, damaging predictive performance. Moreover, most of these AMs consider an “all-in-allout” approach for functional selection, rendering them difficult to answer if nonlinear effects are necessary. While some Bayesian models can address these shortcomings, model fitting can create a new challenge, scalability. In this dissertation, we propose Bayesian hierarchical additive models to address the previous shortcomings: we consider the smoothing penalty for proper shrinkage of curve interpolation via reparameterization. A …
Evaluation Of A Living Shoreline Technique On A Southeastern United States Reservoir, Eric V. Muth
Evaluation Of A Living Shoreline Technique On A Southeastern United States Reservoir, Eric V. Muth
All ETDs from UAB
The impoundment of rivers in the southeastern United States has led to the creation of reservoirs that have seen the riparian zone become heavily developed with residential real estate. As the hybrid river/lake systems started forming new shorelines, property owners reacted by attempting to reduce their losses. This has been done in a variety of ways, with the majority falling into the bulkhead category. The use of vertical hard armament has resulted in a loss of ecological function and an increase in erosion of the lakebed at the toe or escarpment. In response to this, the idea was proposed by …
Parent And Healthcare Provider Beliefs About Chlamydia Adolescent Vaccine, Alison P. Footman
Parent And Healthcare Provider Beliefs About Chlamydia Adolescent Vaccine, Alison P. Footman
All ETDs from UAB
Introduction: Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) worldwide and it disproportionally affects young people and those living in the Southern United States. If left untreated chlamydia infections can lead to complications such as infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease. Currently, chlamydia vaccines are being development. A successful chlamydia immunization program would require adolescents to be vaccinated before engagement in sexual activity and would require parental approval and recommendations from healthcare providers. Therefore, this project aims to explore parent and healthcare provider opinions about chlamydia vaccines to identify potential barriers and facilitators to uptake. Because the COVID-19 pandemic …