Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Cognitive Processes Underlying Affective Decision-Making Predicting Adolescent Smoking Behaviors In A Longitudinal Study, C. Anderson Johnson, Lin Xiao, Gilly Koritzky, Antoine Bechara

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This study investigates the relationship between three different cognitive processes underlying the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and adolescent smoking behaviors in a longitudinal study. We conducted a longitudinal study of 181 Chinese adolescents in Chengdu City, China. The participants were followed from 10th to 11th grade. When they were in the 10th grade (Time 1), we tested these adolescents’ decision-making using the IGT and working memory capacity using the Self-ordered Pointing Test (SOPT). Self-report questionnaires were used to assess school academic performance and smoking behaviors. The same questionnaires were completed again at the 1-year follow-up (Time 2). The Expectancy-Valence (EV) …

The Relationship Between Snacking Habits And Impulsivity Levels In Adolescents, Bayley E. Clarke

Scripps Senior Theses

Adolescent obesity is an important public health issue, and one important factor that contributes to the problem is overeating, eating more than required for homeostasis. Appetitive behaviors such as overeating may in part be the result of poor control of impulsive behavior. This study investigated the relationship between impulsivity factors and snacking habits. The Youth/Adolescent Food Frequency Questionnaire (YAQ) and the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS) were completed by 198 Southern California high school students (56% female; age M=15.8, SD=0.9). Four subscales were calculated from responses on the YAQ and included the frequency of consuming sweetened drinks, sweet snacks, salty snacks, …

Sweetened Drink And Snacking Cues In Adolescents. A Study Using Ecological Momentary Assessment, Jerry L. Grenard, Alan W. Stacy, Saul Shiffman, Amanda N. Baraldi, David P. Mackinnon, Ginger Lockhart, Yasemin Kisbu-Sakarya, Sarah Boyle Abd, Yuliyana Beleva Abd, Carol Koprowski, Susan L. Ames, Kim D. Reynolds

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The objective of this study was to identify physical, social, and intrapersonal cues that were associated with the consumption of sweetened beverages and sweet and salty snacks among adolescents from lower SES neighborhoods. Students were recruited from high schools with a minimum level of 25% free or reduced cost lunches. Using ecological momentary assessment, participants (N=158) were trained to answer brief questionnaires on handheld PDA devices: (a) each time they ate or drank, (b) when prompted randomly, and (c) once each evening. Data were collected over 7days for each participant. Participants reported their location (e.g., school grounds, home), mood, social …

La Crisis De Salud En Guatemala: La Biomedicina Y La Medicina Maya En Conflicto, Sophia Willis-Conger

Scripps Senior Theses

Éste ensayo se trata de medicina indígena en communidades Mayas, principalmente en Guatemala, y las maneras en que biomedicina ha infiltrado el país. Los sistemas de salud estan analyizado por lentes feministas, antiracistas, anticlassistas.

Les Enfants Dans Les Coins: Une Comparaison D’Autisme En France Et Aux Etats Unis, Danya J. M. Rubin

Scripps Senior Theses

The year 2012 was a year of great controversy surrounding autism in France. Thus it is an ideal time for an investigation of the treatment of and attitudes about autism in France, specifically in comparison with the United States. This investigation encompass several specific categories, and the Freudian psychoanalytic method against the behavior modification method, the French education system and the identification of autism, "Maternal Madness" - the connection between sexism and autism, the philosophy of humanity and the history of medical experimentation and psychiatry in France. This paper questions how is it that all these categories influence the opinions …

Fertile Lands And Bodies: Connecting The Green Revolution, Pesticides, And Women’S Reproductive Health, Sarah M.K. Cycon

Pitzer Senior Theses

Environmentalists, social scientists, and economists have long critiqued the enduring impacts of the Green Revolution’s diffusion of agricultural technologies throughout the Global South. However, largely missing from the myriad analyses is the relationship between those technologies, namely pesticides, and health outcomes. This thesis explores the social and biological mechanisms through which excessive pesticide use culminated into adverse reproductive health outcomes for rural women in the Global South. Drawing together the history of the Green Revolution’s use of DDT, its social and economic impacts, and the biology of pesticide contamination in women’s bodies exposes how the Green Revolution situated women in …

Cultivating Resistance: Food Justice In The Criminal Justice System, Caitlin M. Watkins

Pitzer Senior Theses

This Senior Thesis in Environmental Analysis seeks to explore the ways in which certain food-oriented programs for incarcerated women and women on parole critically resist the Prison Industrial Complex and the Industrial Food System by securing social and ecological equity through the acquisition of food justice. It focuses on three case studies: the Crossroads’ Meatless Mondays program, Fallen Fruit from Rising Women: A Crossroads Social Enterprise, and Cultivating Dreams Prison Garden Project: An Organic Garden for Women in Prison. Each project utilizes food as a tool to build community, provide valuable skill sets of cooking and gardening, and educate women …

Substance Abuse And Insecure Attachment Styles: A Relational Study, Yasmin Borhani

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The attachment styles an individual forms while they are growing up can impact the type of relationships they form as adults. Research has shown insecure attachment styles can be correlated to substance abuse, emotional distress, and interpersonal problems. More specifically, this study focuses on the correlation between insecure attachment styles and substance abuse. Nineteen participants (nine male, ten female) between the ages of 18 to 32 were selected. Participants were given a 20-question survey that measured substance abuse and attachment styles. A t-test was conducted to compare the differences between participants who abuse substances and participants who do not abuse …

Just Beautiful Portrays Of The Mind? The Relevance Of Aesthetic Strategies On Knowledge Creation In Neuroscience, Valerie Kummer

The STEAM Journal

We live in the age of big data. All types of data are being generated at an increasing rate but theories about the strategies and methods to visualize them is lagging. One of the main challenges we face today in research is to keep up with the massive amounts of data we produce (Allen, Elena A. et.al, 2012). Especially in the field of neuroscience and its use of imaging technologies, the vast array of data has risen to such a high number that it is impossible to grasp the inherent information without additional software tools and intelligent interfaces. Only through …

Memorial/Double Pump Laplace Ii, Fiona Davies

The STEAM Journal

Memorial/Double Pump Laplace II, was a site specific installation, based on narratives from the dying of Davies’ father, in hospital in 2001. The work is an intersection between the experiences of the rituals of blood matching, sampling and testing and a current research project by physicist Dr. Peter Domachuk, looking into the development of silk implantable biophotonic chips allowing real time measurement of the properties of blood while that blood is within the body. In the body's circulatory system relatively impermeable membranes are often selectively permeable; objects make their own way where they choose and in their own time. Some …

A Letter To The Steam Journal Readers, Deborah Freund

The STEAM Journal

A letter to the readers from the President of Claremont Graduate University, President Deborah Freund, welcoming the inaugural issue of 'The STEAM Journal'.

Thermal Selection In Sceloporus Occidentalis During Exercise Recovery, Morgan A. Halley

Scripps Senior Theses

Ectotherms regulate body temperature (T_b) primarily through behavioral interactions with their environment. These animals also have limited aerobic scopes and must rely on anaerobic metabolism to support intense activity; lactate byproduct and glycogen depletion are two consequences of anaerobic metabolism that must be dealt with during exercise recovery. It has been suggested that, in many ectothermic species, T_b may affect the rate of lactate clearance and glycogen repletion during recovery from intense exercise. This study investigated thermoregulatory behavior in Western Fence Lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) to determine preferred T_b during exercise recovery. I hypothesized that …

A Dna Computer For Glioblastoma Multiforme Diagnosis And Drug Delivery, Sumaiya F. Hashmi

CMC Senior Theses

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a debilitating malignant brain tumor with expected patient survival of less than a year and limited responsiveness to most treatments, often requiring biopsy for diagnosis and invasive surgery for treatment. We propose a DNA computer system, consisting of input, computation, and output components, for diagnosis and treatment. The input component will detect the presence of three GBM biomarkers: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), caveolin-1α (CAV), and B2 receptors. The computation component will include indicator segments for each of these genes, and ensure that output is only released if all the biomarkers are present. The output component …

The Silhouettes Of Autism, Chloe J. Dobbert

CMC Senior Theses

My passion as a student at the Claremont Colleges is to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder grow and learn as normal children and to help prepare them for life outside the Autism Center at Claremont McKenna College. In my thesis project, I am exploring the concept of silhouettes through photography and my perceptions of the stories told to me by the children I teach. Esthetically, I am inspired by Kara Walker’s installation of large cutout silhouettes but I am using different mediums to accomplish my project: Artistically, I am inspired by the detailed descriptions of the obsessive stories and …

Linkage Politics And The Persistence Of National Policy Autonomy In Emerging Powers: Patents, Profits, And Patients In The Context Of Trips Compliance, Aseema Sinha, Tricia Olsen

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreement (TRIPS) has had a profound effect on industrialization and innovation, as well as access to medicines in cases of public health crisis such as HIV/AIDS. However, compliance with TRIPS has varied in developing countries, despite heightened international pressure. For instance, Brazil has pursued a coherent approach to its HIV/AIDS health crisis, while India has failed to take care of its HIV patients despite late compliance with the TRIPS agreement and the presence of business firms that produce the generic medicines for HIV/AIDS. This article suggests that divergence in TRIPS compliance is the result of …

A Machine Learning Approach To Diagnosis Of Parkinson’S Disease, Sumaiya F. Hashmi

CMC Senior Theses

I will investigate applications of machine learning algorithms to medical data, adaptations of differences in data collection, and the use of ensemble techniques.

Focusing on the binary classification problem of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) diagnosis, I will apply machine learning algorithms to a primary dataset consisting of voice recordings from healthy and PD subjects. Specifically, I will use Artificial Neural Networks, Support Vector Machines, and an Ensemble Learning algorithm to reproduce results from [MS12] and [GM09].

Next, I will adapt a secondary regression dataset of PD recordings and combine it with the primary binary classification dataset, testing various techniques to consolidate …

Heart Attack Experiences Described In Weblogs: An Analysis Of Sex Differences, Stephanie R. Morley

CMC Senior Theses

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women (Kochanek, Xu, Murphy, Miniño & Kung, 2011). Every year in the United States, more than 600,000 people die from heart disease, which amounts to roughly a quarter of all deaths (Kochanek et al., 2011). Heart attacks account for a large portion of the deaths attributed to heart disease, and include sudden cardiac arrest or chronic cases of heart trouble that develop into heart attack after an extended period of time. Heart attacks affect approximately 935,000 Americans each year, with roughly two-thirds of people experiencing them for a …

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels And C-Reactive Protein In Persons With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection, C. Anderson Johnson, Kalpana Poudel-Tandukar, Krishna C. Poudel, Masamine Jimba, Jun Kobayashi, Paula Palmer

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has frequently been associated with vitamin D deficiency as well as chronic inflammatory response. We tested the hypothesis of an independent relationship between serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) in a cohort of HIV-positive people. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 316 HIV-positive people (181 men and 135 women) aged 16 to 60 years residing in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Serum high-sensitivity CRP concentrations and serum 25(OH)D levels were measured by the latex agglutination nephelometry method and the competitive protein-binding assay, respectively. The relationship between serum CRP concentrations and 25(OH)D …

Do Bha And Bht Induce Morphological Changes And Dna Double-Strand Breaks In Schizosaccharomyces Pombe?, Amy V. Tran

Scripps Senior Theses

Butylated Hydroxyanisole, BHA, and Butylated Hydroxytoluene, BHT, are commonly used as preservatives for our food as well as additives in many products such as cosmetics, petroleum, and medicine. Although their use has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there have been controversies and debates on whether these phenol derivatives or antioxidants are safe to use. Their accumulative toxicology and side effects need to be thoroughly investigated as we continue to consume them on a daily basis. Data obtained by genomic analysis in Tang lab suggested the involvement of DNA damage checkpoint/repair pathways in the response network to …