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Theses/Dissertations

2021

Stress

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Sex Differences In The Co-Expression Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha With Corticotropin Releasing Factor, Deborah Ariyibi Dec 2021

Sex Differences In The Co-Expression Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha With Corticotropin Releasing Factor, Deborah Ariyibi

Biological Sciences

Women are far more likely to develop anxiety and depression than men. It is believed that the dysregulation of the HPA axis by the binding of corticotropin -releasing factor (CRF) to the corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 (CRFR1) contributes to the likelihood of these stress- related disorders. Estrogens acting through Estrogen receptor alpha (ERa) have been shown to increase anxiety production upon activating the HPA axis. In this current study, we explored whether CRF-expressing neurons in various regions of the brain express ERa. The levels of ERa were counted in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST), the medial preoptic …

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Examination Of The Association Between C - Reactive Protein(Crp) And Covid-19 Infection Severity And Length Of Hospitalization, Abdulahi Aremu Ayanwale Dec 2021

Examination Of The Association Between C - Reactive Protein(Crp) And Covid-19 Infection Severity And Length Of Hospitalization, Abdulahi Aremu Ayanwale

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Chronic stress can lead to many systemic complications and low-grade systemic inflammation including increased levels of inflammatory cytokines, such as C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP is a marker of systemic inflammation and is associated with depression and perceived stress. Elevations can result in ineffective immune responses, thereby increasing the risk of complications and mortality from infections. Recent evidence suggests that uncontrolled inflammatory responses associated with COVID 19 are a major determinant of disease severity.  The COVID 19 is transmitted from one person to another through droplets from coughing, sneezing, talking, touching droplets on surfaces and contamination by hand-to-mouth routes. The mechanism …

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University Students Using Physical Activity As A Coping Strategy During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jory Fulcher Oct 2021

University Students Using Physical Activity As A Coping Strategy During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jory Fulcher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the most recent threat to global health (Fauci, Lane, & Redfield, 2020), impacting university students’ mental and physical health. Few studies currently exist that investigate the impact of online learning and COVID-19 have on stress and coping in university students (Bao, 2020; Xiao et al., 2020). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate if students were using physical activity as a coping strategy for stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey assessing student stress, physical activity, and coping flexibility was completed by 276 undergraduate students (mean age 21.1 ± 2.7 …

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Estrogen Modulation Of Vta Dopamine Neuron Physiology And Behavioral Responsivity To Variable Social Stressors, Mary R. Shanley Sep 2021

Estrogen Modulation Of Vta Dopamine Neuron Physiology And Behavioral Responsivity To Variable Social Stressors, Mary R. Shanley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The behavioral output of different animals, or even the same animal in different contexts, is remarkably variable in response to the same external stimulus. This behavioral diversity is due to the complex integration of external and internal stimuli, through both neuronal and hormonal signals that selects the best behavioral response. By their nature as long-distance signaling molecules, hormones play a critical role in communicating information about internal states across the organism. Many hormones produced in the periphery target the central nervous system to modulate animal behavior, selecting for behaviors that are appropriate over behaviors that are maladaptive in that specific …

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A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Psychological Outcomes Of Mobile Guided Resonant Frequency Breathing In Young Adults With Elevated Stress During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Al Amira Safa Shehab Sep 2021

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Psychological Outcomes Of Mobile Guided Resonant Frequency Breathing In Young Adults With Elevated Stress During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Al Amira Safa Shehab

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Deep breathing practices have shown promise in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in different populations, including young adults. Specifically, resonant frequency breathing can exert an impact on stress response systems through the vagus nerve and the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This may induce reductions in stress and improvement in emotion regulation. Young adults, including college students, tend to be at a higher risk for psychological distress, as they face several psychosocial challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed new and unique stressors that resulted in higher levels of stress and emotional symptoms and it has been shown that this may have placed …

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Examining The Role Of Chloride Homeostasis And Pge2 Signaling In The Neuroendocrine Stress Response To Inflammation, Samuel A. Mestern Aug 2021

Examining The Role Of Chloride Homeostasis And Pge2 Signaling In The Neuroendocrine Stress Response To Inflammation, Samuel A. Mestern

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The brain senses inflammatory signals and drives the release of glucocorticoids (GCs) — potent immunosuppressants — via the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This inflammation-induced HPA axis activation is largely mediated by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), acting on two subtypes of the PGE2 receptor, EP1 and EP3. Recently, our group revealed EP3 signaling mechanisms that excite HPA axis regulatory neurons. This thesis sought to tease out the remaining EP1 signaling mechanisms. Considering that the excitability of HPA axis regulatory neurons is constrained by GABAA receptor-mediated synaptic inhibition that relies on low-level intracellular Cl-. We hypothesized that PGE2-EP1 …

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The Correlation Between Dietary Intake, Stress, Food Insecurity, Physical Activity, Sleep, And Screen Time In College Students During Covid-19, Mariana Alves Olguin Aug 2021

The Correlation Between Dietary Intake, Stress, Food Insecurity, Physical Activity, Sleep, And Screen Time In College Students During Covid-19, Mariana Alves Olguin

Theses & Dissertations

College students with high stress levels are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors, which may negatively impact their health. During COVID-19, college student’s lives were disrupted on multiple levels. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between dietary intake, perceived stress, food insecurity, sleep, screen time, and physical activity among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. College students at the University of the Incarnate Word (N=154) completed an online survey to assess dietary choices (Dietary Screener Questionnaires (DSQ) in the NHANES 2009-10: DSQ), food insecurity (6-item Short Form of the US Household Food Security Survey), stress …

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Exploring The Usefulness Of Mindfulness Practices Through Zoom Meetings In Reducing Anxiety And/Or Stress Of Adults With Learning And Developmental Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Thatiane Abra May 2021

Exploring The Usefulness Of Mindfulness Practices Through Zoom Meetings In Reducing Anxiety And/Or Stress Of Adults With Learning And Developmental Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Thatiane Abra

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis explored which mindfulness meditations or mindfulness practices could be beneficial in the online sessions, the extent to which adults with learning and developmental disabilities could learn the practices remotely, and how stress and anxiety disorders could be reduced through online mindfulness interventions. Furthermore, it was also necessary to address the online sessions as the only mental health treatment possibility during the Coronavirus pandemic for the clients observed and the benefits and limitations of these interventions. Additionally, the importance of structure and routine for this population, the multi-modal structure of the interventions, and how attunement plays an important role …

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How The Covid-19 Pandemic Has Affected Physical Activity, Sleep And Mental Health In University Students, Faculty And Staff And To Examine The Relationship Between These Variables, Zachary Parisi May 2021

How The Covid-19 Pandemic Has Affected Physical Activity, Sleep And Mental Health In University Students, Faculty And Staff And To Examine The Relationship Between These Variables, Zachary Parisi

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Increased physical activity has been shown to be beneficial in decreasing stress. This project will expand on this knowledge while also studying college students, a demographic that has been less studied. This study will also examine the impact of COVID-19 on these variables. COVID-19 changed many peoples’ activities of daily life, and possibly physically activity levels, due to public health measures such as lockdowns and remote learning. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected physical activity, sleep, and mental health in university students, faculty and staff and to examine the relationship …

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How Acetylation Regulates Metabolic Enzyme Function During Environmental Shifts, Jared Canonigo May 2021

How Acetylation Regulates Metabolic Enzyme Function During Environmental Shifts, Jared Canonigo

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae can regulate the mechanisms of proteins through post-translational modification. These modifications play a vital role in functional proteomic activity because they can regulate protein activity, localization, and interaction with other cellular molecules. Such modifications include phosphorylation, methylation, and acetylation. The metabolic mechanisms of yeast became of keen interest to our lab because our lab noticed many stress defense proteins were being acetylated during stress heat shock. Notably, Adh1p and Adh2p showed both an increase and a decrease in acetylation at two lysine residues (K315 and K314) overtime during heat shock respectively, though the exact function …

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Intergenerational Embodiment Of Stress : How The Broader Sociocultural Environment Can Shape Child Growth And Development, Elizabeth A. Holdsworth May 2021

Intergenerational Embodiment Of Stress : How The Broader Sociocultural Environment Can Shape Child Growth And Development, Elizabeth A. Holdsworth

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Childhood growth has been a means of identifying systemic, material inequalities within populations. The plasticity of growth is responsive to multiple environmental factors, most notably adequate nutrition, but also psychosocial stress. Psychosocial stress can be a function of the social and political economic ecology, reinforcing power hierarchies within societies. This dissertation proposes that childhood growth can also reflect inequality in the distribution of psychosocial stress exposure through mothers’ feelings of a chronically stressful environment conveyed through maternal-infant interactions.

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Long-Term Impacts Of Acute Stressor Exposure On Locus Coeruleus Function And Anxiety-Like Behavior In Rats, Olga Borodovitsyna Apr 2021

Long-Term Impacts Of Acute Stressor Exposure On Locus Coeruleus Function And Anxiety-Like Behavior In Rats, Olga Borodovitsyna

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Stress is a physiological state characterized by behavioral arousal that occurs during exposure to harmful or threatening stimuli, and usually facilitates an adaptive behavioral response. The persistence of stress sometimes causes it to become maladaptive, potentially contributing to disease development, including physiological complications with altered neuroendocrine signaling and impaired function of organ systems, and psychological conditions including depression and anxiety. Anxiety disorders in particular are associated with a history of stress and are the most common class of mental disorders, with a lifetime prevalence of 33.7% in the general population. The locus coeruleus (LC) is a major node in the …

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The Relationship Between Stress And Quality Of Life In People With Multiple Sclerosis: The Mediating Role Of Resilience, Byung Jin Kim Jan 2021

The Relationship Between Stress And Quality Of Life In People With Multiple Sclerosis: The Mediating Role Of Resilience, Byung Jin Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the central nervous system encompassing the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve, in which the patient’s immune system attacks healthy cells and tissues. Due to the unpredictable characteristics of the disease, MS can lead to an unusually high level of stress and may negatively impact the individual’s QoL. Resilience is a psychological structure that shows positive coping and adaptive ability from difficult or stressful situations. Resilience also indicates a buffering effect on the stressors of individuals with disabilities and serves to protect psychological health and function from disability. The purpose of this …

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Cortisol In Hair As A Measure Of Chronic Stress During Sow Gestation And The Pattern Of Cortisol In Blood During Parturition In Sows, Talia Everding Jan 2021

Cortisol In Hair As A Measure Of Chronic Stress During Sow Gestation And The Pattern Of Cortisol In Blood During Parturition In Sows, Talia Everding

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cortisol is known as the stress hormone, as it influences many metabolic processes to maintain glucose homeostasis during stressful experiences, including physical and psychological stress. It can be detected in biological matrices such as blood and hair and is released rapidly during sudden stressors and continuously during longterm stress. Blood cortisol fluctuates rapidly in response to acute stressors like pain, exertion, and fear; in hair cortisol accumulates steadily over the period of hair growth and may be useful for detecting chronically elevated cortisol resulting from long-term stress. The objective of this research was to, 1) determine the influence of a …

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Stress, Burnout, And Depression Among African Immigrant Direct Support Professionals Working With Adults With Intellectual Disabilities, Mary A. Onyejose Jan 2021

Stress, Burnout, And Depression Among African Immigrant Direct Support Professionals Working With Adults With Intellectual Disabilities, Mary A. Onyejose

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractStress and burnout are recognized problems among staff working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). However, information on stress and burnout in African immigrant direct support professionals (DSPs) is lacking. The purpose of this correlational mediation study was to investigate whether burnout mediates the relationship between stress and depression among African immigrants working with adults with IDDs. Job stress theory and burnout theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. Overall, 111 DSPs completed self-report questionnaires: the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Parker and DeCotiis’ Job Stress Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Results revealed that stress significantly predicted …

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High School Student-Athlete Sleep Habits Using Activity Monitoring, Corey Thomas Ungaro Jan 2021

High School Student-Athlete Sleep Habits Using Activity Monitoring, Corey Thomas Ungaro

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Sleep research is an area of scientific inquiry that impacts all individuals due to sleep's effects on health, well-being, and performance. Healthy sleep habits have been shown to improve academic and athletic performance in collegiate student-athletes. Surprisingly, no sleep research has been conducted on high school student-athletes during a semester. High school student-athletes can benefit from understanding their sleep habits and how sleep can affect the development of the adolescent brain and improve performance giving athletes the potential for a competitive advantage. This retrospective analysis aims to examine the sleep habits of student-athletes while balancing their academic and athletic responsibilities …

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Exploring Early Signaling Associated With Complex Stressors, Julia A. Penatzer Jan 2021

Exploring Early Signaling Associated With Complex Stressors, Julia A. Penatzer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Humans are constantly exposed to a vast number of stressors in our everyday lives from social interactions to physical activity to chemical exposures, to name a few. These stressors have significant impacts on an individual, from the cellular to whole organismal level. The body contains an intricate communication system that elicits a number of both biological and physiological responses as it attempts to maintain homeostasis. Observing these responses to stressors, can offer insight into a number of outcomes, which can be beneficial (increasing life longevity) or detrimental (leading to a disease state). By measuring specific biological adaptations at particular time …

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Behavioral, Endocrine, And Neural Responses To Stress In Postpartum And Nulliparous Rats : Potential Mechanisms Of Postpartum Stress Resilience, Joanna Medina Jan 2021

Behavioral, Endocrine, And Neural Responses To Stress In Postpartum And Nulliparous Rats : Potential Mechanisms Of Postpartum Stress Resilience, Joanna Medina

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Major depressive disorder is one of the most pervasive psychiatric illnesses in the United States. Women are at greater risk for developing depression, particularly during their childbearing years. Approximately 17% of new mothers develop postpartum depression within 4 weeks after parturition. The risk for postpartum depression is even greater in women who do not breastfeed or stop breastfeeding early. Major depressive disorder and postpartum depression share the same symptomology and common etiological bases. Dysregulated stress responses, dopamine activity, and neuroinflammation are recognized mechanisms for depression. The transition to motherhood encompasses physiological and behavioral adaptations in the brain essential for ensuring …

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