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Spatial Mapping Of Macular Pigment Optical Density And Its Relationship To Contrast Sensitivity And Glare Disability, Christopher Michael Putnam

Dissertations

This dissertation explored the relationship of the macular pigment optical density (MPOD) spatial profile with measures of contrast sensitivity (CS), glare disability (GD), relative glare disability (RGD) and intraocular light scatter. A novel device capable of measuring MPOD across the central 16 degrees of retina along 8 principle meridians using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry (cHFP) at eccentricities of 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 degrees was built. MPOD was calculated as both discrete and integrated values at all measured retinal loci. CS was measured using vertical grating stimuli of 3, 6 and 9 cycles per degree (cpd) also presented at …

Children's Adaptation To Electropalatography: Evidence From Acoustic Analysis Of /T/ And /K/, Kara Brianne Knapp

Theses and Dissertations

Electropalatography (EPG) is a computer-based device that uses a fitted pseudopalate (similar to an orthodontic retainer) with embedded electrodes to track tongue-to-palate contact during speech for the purposes of providing treatment for a variety of communication disorders. This study evaluated six elementary school-aged children's ability to adapt their speech to the presence of the pseudopalate in their mouth. The participants' adaptation for the consonants /t/ and /k/ was examined over eight time intervals throughout a two and half hour time period. Adaptation was evaluated by measuring the duration, spectral mean, spectral variance, and relative intensity of the target sounds. The …

Ada News - 06/16/2014, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

Using Photography And Poetry In Group Therapy For People With Severe And Persistent Mental Illness: An Outcome Study, Sarah H. Eggers

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the experience of participation in a pilot program that integrated poetry and photography for a group of seven adults living with severe and persistent mental illness. Data was gathered in the form of written, visual and verbal responses generated through a semistructured, qualitative focus group that took the week after the end of the pilot program. The data was categorized and coded using a analytical procedure based on Photovoice, a participatory action research model that seeks to empower research participants by providing them with cameras to document and share issues of importance to their lives. Analysis of …

Latino Cultural Implications For Art Therapy: The Influence Of Cultural Risk Factors And Academic Performance In High School, Piera Lynn Carfagno

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Through art therapy, this research examines the influence of the main components of Latino culture as risk and/or protective factors for internalizing and externalizing behaviors and disorders in Latino adolescents. The goal of this research is to also identify how these factors impact academic performance for Latino high school students. First, a literature review examines preexisting research evaluating the presence and influence of particular cultural factors like family expectations and roles, gender, religion, language, and parental involvement in education. Non-cultural factors include peer influence and socioeconomic influences. The literature further examines the impact these factors have been found to influence …

A Model Of Grammatical Category Acquisition Using Adaptation And Selection, Sarah Zitting Cluff

Theses and Dissertations

By the later preschool years, most children have a knowledge of the grammatical categories of their native language and are capable of expanding this knowledge to novel words. To model this accomplishment, researchers have created a variety of explicit, testable models or algorithms. These have had partial but promising success in extracting grammatical word categories from transcriptions of caregiver input to young children. Additional insight into children's learning of the grammatical categories of words might be gained from evolutionary computing algorithms, which apply principles of evolutionary biology such as variation, adaptive change, self-regulation, and inheritance to computational models. The current …

Refugee Health In Montgomery County: A Retrospective Descriptive Study Of Refugee Health Screening Results From April 2007 - April 2008, Marjan Lyons

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

Introduction: The top refugee health concerns characteristically are associated with parasitic infections, infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and parasites, as well as nutritional deficiencies such as anemia, and malnourishment. Understanding the specific health needs of the refugee population will not only improve the transition of the refugees within the United States healthcare systems, but also improve public health within the community.

Methods: Health records from Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery Country were used to obtain the prevalence of both acute and chronic health conditions within the newly resettled refugee population. There were a total of 193 refugees included …

Phonemic Restoration In Developmental Dyslexia, Stephanie N. Del Tufo, Emily B. Myers

Open Access Author Fund Awardees' Articles

The comprehension of fluent speech in one's native language requires that listeners integrate the detailed acoustic-phonetic information available in the sound signal with linguistic knowledge. This interplay is especially apparent in the phoneme restoration effect, a phenomenon in which a missing phoneme is “restored” via the influence of top-down information from the lexicon and through bottom-up acoustic processing. Developmental dyslexia is a disorder characterized by an inability to read at the level of one's peers without any clear failure due to environmental influences. In the current study we utilized the phonemic restoration illusion paradigm to examine individual differences in phonemic …

Toward A Biocommunicable Cartography Of Health Decision-Making In The Amazon Basin Of Ecuador, James Cartwright

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper comprises a critical, ethnographic study of health communication in a rural community of Amazonian Ecuador. By synthesizing approaches from anthropology, discourse studies, and public health, the study explores how conversations influence health decisions, how communities understand health systems, and how macrostructural discourse changes the political economy of healthcare in Ecuador. My work draws on the recent theoretical development of ‘biocommunicability’ in anthropology as well as earlier sociological research on knowledge construction. Most importantly, this paper offers a critique of current interventions by NGOs in the region.

Access To Healthcare For Vulnerable Asian Subgroup Populations In The United States, Deborah Kim-Lu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objectives: This dissertation examines the barriers for access to healthcare for the top four most uninsured Asian American subgroups (Bangladeshi, Cambodian, Korean, and Pakistani communities). Methods: Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study consisted of: (1) an in-depth review of the Health Services Research literature; (2) qualitative interviews with 24 national health experts and advocates on Asian American health; (3) a survey of a non-probability sample of 107 Koreans in the tri-state region (Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York) using the Access to Healthcare Survey for Koreans in the U.S. instrument, which includes a Likert scale with 21 barrier questions …

Speech Adaptation To Electropalatography In Children's Productions Of /S/ And /ʃ/, Marissa Celaya

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has investigated adults' ability to adapt their speech when a electropalatographic (EPG) pseudopalate is placed in the oral cavity; however, less is known about how younger speakers who are continuing to develop their motor speech abilities might adapt their speech to the presence of the device. This study examined the effect of an EPG pseudopalate on elementary school-aged children's ability to produce the fricatives /s/ and /ƒ/. Audio recordings of six children were collected at eight time intervals including before placement of the pseudopalate, at 30-minute increments for two hours with the pseudopalate in place, immediately following removal …

Vulnerability Of The Ventral Language Network In Children With Focal Epilepsy, Louise J. Croft, Torsten Baldeweg, Leigh Sepeta, Lauren Zimmaro, Madison M. Berl, William D. Gaillard

Neurology Faculty Publications

Children with focal epilepsy are at increased risk of language impairment, yet the neural substrate of this dysfunction is not yet known. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated the impact of focal epilepsy on the developing language system using measures of network topology (spatial organization of activation) and synchrony (functional connectivity). We studied healthy children (n = 48, 4–12 years, 24 females) and children with focal epilepsy (n = 21, 5–12 years, nine females) with left hemisphere language dominance. Participants performed an age-adjusted auditory description decision task during functional magnetic resonance imaging, to identify perisylvian language regions. …

Meal Pattern Of Male Rats Maintained On Amino Acid Supplemented Diets: The Effect Of Tryptophan, Lysine, Arginine, Proline And Threonine, Raghad Ayaso, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Mohamad Abiad, Omar Obeid

Faculty Publications

The macronutrient composition of the diet has been shown to affect food intake, with proteins having distinct effects. The present study investigated the effect of diet supplementation with individual amino acids (tryptophan, lysine, arginine, proline and threonine) on meal pattern among male rats. Meal pattern and body weight were monitored for two weeks. Proline and threonine had minimal effects on meal pattern, while the most pronounced changes were observed in the tryptophan group. Both tryptophan and lysine decreased overall food intake, which was translated into a reduction in body weight. The reduced food intake of the tryptophan group was associated …

Co-Constructing Cultural Attunement With Latino Clients In Couple Therapy, Marco Antonio Elias-Juarez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

There is a need for culturally attuned approaches for couple’s therapy with Mexican/ Mexican-American people (Falicov, 2009). However, there have been few theoretical frameworks to conceptualize cultural attunement, and attunement has been primarily understood as a skill or as an attitude rather than as a relationship or as a series of clinical concepts with steps to follow (Hoskins, 1999; Oakes, 2011). From the social constructionist perspective, cultural attunement is related to the cultural context and cultural interactions that shape beliefs and attitudes about what is meaningful in establishing deep relationships for Latino and non-Latino therapists and their Mexican and Mexican-American …

Use Of Homoeopathic Remedies In The Management Of Learning Disabilities, Kumar Dhawale, Madhavi Tamboli, Mariyam Katawala, Namita Tambitkar, Prashant Tamboli

Indian Journal of Research in Homoeopathy

Aims: The objective of the study was to assess the therapeutic usefulness of Homoeopathy in the management of LD, viz., dyslexia and dysgraphia, to ascertain the role of homoeopathic medicines and verify their characteristic symptoms in the management of various types of LD to establish verified characteristic symptoms of medicines used in the management of various types of LD. Settings and Design: A 3-year randomised double blind case control study was carried out on 67 children between ages 8-12 years fulfilling the criteria of LD (ICD-10) for dyslexia and dysgraphia with a minimal observation period of one year. The study …

The Salience And Perceptual Weight Of Secondary Acoustic Cues For Fricative Identification In Normal Hearing Adults, Derek Petti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The primary cue used by normal hearing individuals for identification of the fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ is the most prominent spectrum of frication, which is discrete for this fricative contrast. Secondary cues that influence the identification and discrimination of these fricatives are context dependent. Specifically, the secondary cues that have been found to most significantly impact fricative perception include (a) the second formant transition onset and offset frequencies of a fricative-vowel pair, and (b) the amplitude of the spectral peak in the 2500Hz region of frication relative to an adjacent vowel’s peak amplitude in the same frequency region. However, the …

Social Determinants Of Late Presentation To Hiv Care, Connie Leeper, Michael Mugavero, James Willig, Eric Chamot, Shatomi Kerbawy, Anne Zinski

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: In recent years, increased attention has shifted toward evaluating social determinants of health, and understanding how community, environment, and system factors affect health outcomes. HIV policies and guidelines emphasize the importance of earlier HIV diagnosis and presentation for care. This study evaluated the role of individual and community-level factors in late presentation to HIV care.

Methods: HIV-infected patients newly initiating outpatient HIV medical care at an academic medical center between 2005-2010 were included. Patients' self-reported addresses at their first clinic visit were geocoded using geographic information systems software to the appropriate United States census block group. Using …

Practice-Based Learning: Opportunities And Implications For Stem Education, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

This presentation examines how practice-based research strategies have been used to produce new knowledge and stimulate learning about how to improve the organization, financing, and delivery of public health services. I consider how practice-based research strategies can be adapted to advance knowledge and practice related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and application.

Toward A Dynamical Theory Of Body Movement In Musical Performance, Roger Chaffin, Alexander P. Demos

Open Access Author Fund Awardees' Articles

Musicians sway expressively as they play in ways that seem clearly related to the music, but quantifying the relationship has been difficult. We suggest that a complex systems framework and its accompanying tools for analyzing non-linear dynamical systems can help identify the motor synergies involved. Synergies are temporary assemblies of parts that come together to accomplish specific goals. We assume that the goal of the performer is to convey musical structure and expression to the audience and to other performers. We provide examples of how dynamical systems tools, such as recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), can be used to examine performers' …

Human Factors Contributing To Nursing Errors, Cheryl K. Roth

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

There has been considerable focus on reducing errors in the hospital setting over the last two centuries, but errors continue to occur at an alarming rate. Two articles are discussed that explore nursing errors. The purpose of these studies was to identify human factors that cause nursing errors and to identify the constructs of likelihood to cause error, ability to intervene, importance, and commonness relating to human factors causing errors. The first paper describes a Delphi Study which examined the likely causes of nursing error using an expert group (n=25) of Quality Assurance, Risk Management, Patient Safety, and staff nurses. …

Health, Health Perceptions, Healthcare Practices, And Influencing Factors Among Korean Immigrants Living In Rural Texas, Mary Beth Winton

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

The population of Asian immigrants in the United States increased 43.3% from 2000 to 2010. During the same period, Texas experienced an increase of Korean immigrants of over 47%. Despite the increase of Korean immigrants, only a minimal number of studies explored health and healthcare needs specific to this population. Furthermore, none of the studies addressed Korean immigrants living in rural Texas. Hence, an ethnographic study was conducted to examine the health and healthcare among Korean immigrants living in rural Texas. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and transcribed. Five major themes emerged which included acculturation, health and health perceptions, healthcare, relaxation …

Hispanic Health Initiative: Creating A Sustainable Health Fair For An Immigrant Community, Chaz Arnold

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Previous demographic and social interest research conducted in Bowling Green, Kentucky has prompted concern for access to quality healthcare for immigrant populations, specifically for the Hispanic community. The missions of the preliminary investigation and subsequent implementation of a sustainable health fair for the Spanish-speaking community were to assess the primary health concerns that many Hispanics face and offer long-term solutions to collectively resolve these health issues. Preliminary investigation involved researching population-specific health statistics in order to quantify prevalence of certain conditions which were, in turn, prioritized in terms of necessity to address. Further research reflected personal concern from the target …

Emergencies: Risk And Personal Preparedness Measures, Charleen C. Mcneill

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Personal emergency preparedness efforts that increase the resiliency of individuals and communities and decrease the risk for poor outcomes after an emergency are increasingly of interest to health care leaders, policy makers, and governmental entities. The limited capacity for external aid to provide relief in the first 72 hours after an emergency dictates that individuals and communities become prepared to sustain themselves for this initial period. Failure to prepare for an emergency can result in a multitude of negative outcomes. Those who are economically vulnerable are particularly at risk, including a high risk for negative health outcomes. An initial review …

"Transforming Care Through Disruptive Design": Incorporating A Midwifery Model Of Care Into Obstetric Practices, Lauren Marsh

Senior Theses

Maternal and child health outcomes in the United States are far poorer than in other industrialized nations. To improve women’s experiences with the maternity care system, nurse-midwife Sharon Schindler-Rising developed the CenteringPregnancy (CP) group model of prenatal care (PNC). Research comparing CP with ‘traditional’ one-on-one PNC has found that implementing CP results in decreased rates of preterm birth and low birth weight, increased rates of breastfeeding, and improved outcomes for women who typically experience health disparities, including African Americans. Documented success of the model in the Greenville Health System convinced the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services of …

Exploring Obstacles To Perinatal Care-Seeking Behavior In Women Of Rural Odisha, India Using A Community Based Participatory Research Approach, Sarah Law, Runjhun Bhatia

Senior Theses

This project resulted from collaboration between USC student organization GlobeMed and the Alternative for Rural Movement (ARM), a non-governmental organization in Odisha, India. Rajendra Rana, the head of ARM, expressed the need to delineate the factors underlying the tendency of rural Odishan women to deliver with unskilled birth attendants as opposed to institutionally. A literature review was conducted to explore possible economic, cultural, and social factors. During five weeks in Odisha, discussions with women's groups, community health workers, and ARM staff members built on the literature review. A preliminary survey and plan for its dissemination were developed. The community based …

The Neural Representation And Behavioral Detection Of Frequency Modulation, Daniel Elliott Shearer

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Understanding a speech signal is reliant on the ability of the auditory system to accurately encode rapidly changing spectral and temporal cues over time. Evidence from behavioral studies in humans suggests that relatively poor temporal fine structure (TFS) encoding ability is correlated with poorer performance on speech understanding tasks in quiet and in noise. Electroencephalography, including measurement of the frequency-following response, has been used to assess the human central auditory nervous system’s ability to encode temporal patterns in steady-state and dynamic tonal stimuli and short syllables. To date, the FFR has been used to investigate the accuracy of phase-locked auditory …

Health Literacy And Cancer Prevention: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Health Communication Needs Of Hispanics Residing In Northeast Texas, Jessica R. Hyde

Health and Kinesiology Theses

Introduction: Limited health literacy can impede adherence to cancer screening guidelines. This problem transcends sociocultural boundaries; however, Hispanics are more likely to have limited health literacy than other racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. The purpose of this study is to explore health literacy at a conceptual level in Hispanic adults residing in Northeast Texas in order to better understand this population's communication needs related to cancer prevention. Methods: Focus group methodology and the Spanish-language version of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS-S) were used to gather data. Results: Of the 18 individuals who sat for the NVS-S, 6 were classified as …

The Electromagnetic Articulography Mandarin Accented English (Ema-Mae) Corpus Of Acoustic And 3d Articulatory Kinematic Data, Jeffrey J. Berry, An Ji, Michael T. Johnson

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

There is a significant need for more comprehensive electromagnetic articulography (EMA) datasets that can provide matched acoustics and articulatory kinematic data with good spatial and temporal resolution. The Marquette University Electromagnetic Articulography Mandarin Accented English (EMA-MAE) corpus provides kinematic and acoustic data from 40 gender and dialect balanced speakers representing 20 Midwestern standard American English L1 speakers and 20 Mandarin Accented English (MAE) L2 speakers, half Beijing region dialect and half are Shanghai region dialect. Three dimensional EMA data were collected at a 400 Hz sampling rate using the NDI Wave system, with articulatory sensors on the midsagittal lips, lower …

The Differences In Spelling When Practice Utilizes A Word Processor Versus Writing By Hand; Parent Perceptions, Lauren E. Bleakley

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate parent perceptions about how their children become successful spellers by asking about digital and hand written practice alignment with test taking. Thirty parents of children from the primary grades of school (1st to 4th grade) were sought as participants. There was no control for the type of school (e.g. private versus public). The materials of the study included a brief questionnaire developed from the literature that ask demographic information (age, grade, etc.) and specifics about spelling homework, spelling tests in school, and perceived benefits of types of practice for spelling success. The …

The Impact Of Fluency On Word Choices And Functional Vocabulary In Children Who Stutter, Caillouet M. Clark

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine if stuttering affects word selection and/or narrative word usage in school-age children. Ten school-aged children who are either active stutters or who have a history of stuttering will be sought as participants. A brief questionnaire will separate the participants into two groups, i.e. active vs. history of stuttering. Two vocabulary tests, one receptive and the other expressive, and a written and oral narrative will be used to gather data on word selection and usage. Each child will be seen individually for data collection. Audio recordings will be used throughout this collection and …