Translational Medical Research Commons^™

Social Dominance Alters Stress-Induced Neural Activity And Generates Individual Differences In Stress Vulnerability, Jenna Lee Laymon

Masters Theses

Identifying the physiological and behavioral mechanisms that underlie stress vulnerability is a crucial step toward identifying novel targets for the prevention and treatment of stress-related disorders. Social status is a key environmental factor that contributes to individual variations in stress vulnerability. In particular, achieving a subordinate social status has been shown to produce susceptibility to anxiety-like and depressive-like behavior. In this project, our aim was to identify neural ensembles regulating how dominance status modulated stress-induced changes in avoidant behavior in male and female Syrian hamsters. Using a viral vector that codes for robust activity marker (RAM), we investigated whether stress-induced …

Implantable Medical Devices For Local Drug Delivery And Tissue Regeneration To Combat Chronic Bacterial Infection, Caroline J. Billings

Doctoral Dissertations

Local drug delivery has been an area of exceptional interest in the treatment of chronic bacterial infections, particularly in areas where there are medical implants placed. Medical implants are widely utilized and are becoming increasingly popular with time. With the increasing use of medical implants, concomitant bacterial infection is also increasing, and this type of bacterial infection can be exceedingly difficult to clear. The following body of work focuses on implant-associated bacterial infection, with an emphasis on chronic Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection, particularly osteomyelitis. Specifically, this work is focused within the scope of utilizing locally implantable medical …

Biomaterials For Soft Tissue Applications, Alisha P. Pedersen

Doctoral Dissertations

Biomaterial applications in the biomedical field have resulted in great advancements in the availability and efficacy of medical devices and therapeutic options for a host of conditions. Applications of biomaterials span all organ systems and tissue types, and have served a range of purposes including mechanical support, drug delivery, tissue regeneration, and reduction of surgical complications. Biomaterials are delineated by their ability to be utilized on or within the body with minimal-to-no adverse reaction and can be manipulated to feature various structures, degradative properties, topographies, and inclusion of bioactive substances or drugs. Soft tissue applications of biomaterials is an expansive …

Angiogenic Roles Of Vegfb And Vegfr1 In Vitro And In Vivo, Jacob Cecil

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Digging Deeper: Quality Of Patient-Provider Communication Across Hispanic Subgroups, Lorraine S. Wallace, Jennifer E. Devoe, Edwin S. Rogers, Joanne Protheroe, Gillian Rowlands, George E. Fryer

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- UT Graduate School of Medicine

Background

Recent research suggests that ethnic subgroup designation plays an important role in health-related disparities among Hispanics. Our objective was to examine the influence of Hispanics' self-reported ethnic subgroup designation on perceptions of their health care providers' communication behaviors.

Methods

Cross-sectional analysis of the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Participants included non-institutionalized Hispanics (n = 5197; US population estimate = 27,070,906), aged ≥18 years, reporting visiting a health care provider within the past 12 months. Six (n = 6) items were used to capture respondents' perceptions of their health care providers' communication behaviors.

Results

After controlling for socio-demographic covariates, …