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Dependence Of Craniofacial Growth On Stages Of Cervical Vertebral Maturation And Stages Of Mandibular Canine Mineralization, Charles Allen Chance

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

When an individual presents for orthodontic treatment, orthodontic records are made that also include demographic information. The orthodontic treatment plan is determined not only from the diagnostic records but also from the relative amounts of growth the orthodontist perceives will take place during treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine if pretreatment biological age, as assessed from cervical vertebral (CV) maturity and/or mandibular canine mineralization, are statistically tied to the amount of growth occurring during treatment, and if so, then if biological age has any predictive merit in anticipating the amounts of growth occurring during treatment. The sample …

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Update: May 2006, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2006

LSUHSC Dailly Facilities Updates from May 2006. These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Americans' Attitudes Toward Euthanasia And Physician-Assisted Suicide, 1936-2002, Jen Allen, Sonia Chavez, Sara Desimone, Debbie Howard, Keadron Johnson, Lucinda Lapierr, Darrel Montero, Jerry Sanders

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Public opinion polls conducted from 1936 to 2002 found that Americans support both euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Although public opinion regarding end-oflife decisions appears to have been influenced by the events of the times, Americans have consistently favored the freedom to end one's life when the perceived quality of life has significantly diminished, either by one's own hand or with the assistance of a physician. This paper indicates that existing policy regarding euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide conflicts with the American public's attitudes regarding the matter, as well as examines implications for social workers who serve clients facing end-of-life decisions.

Characteristics Of Human Figure Drawings Created By Students With Learning Disabilities, Monika L. Isip

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Previous research concerning the artistic indicators of learning disabilities has yielded inconsistent results. Children with learning disabilities comprise a heterogeneous population, with diverse strengths and challenges. There has been a lack of research on the graphic indicators of learning disabilities, which takes this diversity into account. This study aimed at exploring the characteristics of Human Figure Drawings (HFDs) created by students with learning disabilities.

The study examined the HFDs of 2 Virginia Beach Public School 2nd graders who were identified by their parents as having learning disabilities; one child’s disability was described as being a decoding deficit and the other …

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: May 2006, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2006

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from May 6 and 27, 2006.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Semiparametric Latent Variable Regression Models For Spatio-Temporal Modeling Of Mobile Source Particles In The Greater Boston Area, Alexandros Gryparis, Brent A. Coull, Joel Schwartz, Helen H. Suh

Harvard University Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Traffic particle concentrations show considerable spatial variability within a metropolitan area. We consider latent variable semiparametric regression models for modeling the spatial and temporal variability of black carbon and elemental carbon concentrations in the greater Boston area. Measurements of these pollutants, which are markers of traffic particles, were obtained from several individual exposure studies conducted at specific household locations as well as 15 ambient monitoring sites in the city. The models allow for both flexible, nonlinear effects of covariates and for unexplained spatial and temporal variability in exposure. In addition, the different individual exposure studies recorded different surrogates of traffic …

Accuracy And Self Correction Of Information Received From An Internet Breast Cancer List: Content Analysis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of false or misleading statements in messages posted by internet cancer support groups and whether these statements were identified as false or misleading and corrected by other participants in subsequent postings. DESIGN: Analysis of content of postings. SETTING: Internet cancer support group Breast Cancer Mailing List. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of false or misleading statements posted from 1 January to 23 April 2005 and whether these were identified and corrected by participants in subsequent postings. RESULTS: 10 of 4600 postings (0.22%) were found to be false or misleading. Of these, seven were identified as false …

A Model Of The Roles Of Essential Kinases In The Induction And Expression Of Late Long-Term Potentiation

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The induction of late long-term potentiation (L-LTP) involves complex interactions among second-messenger cascades. To gain insights into these interactions, a mathematical model was developed for L-LTP induction in the CA1 region of the hippocampus. The differential equation-based model represents actions of protein kinase A (PKA), MAP kinase (MAPK), and CaM kinase II (CAMKII) in the vicinity of the synapse, and activation of transcription by CaM kinase IV (CAMKIV) and MAPK. L-LTP is represented by increases in a synaptic weight. Simulations suggest that steep, supralinear stimulus-response relationships between stimuli (e.g., elevations in [Ca(2+)]) and kinase activation are essential for translating brief …

Simple Records Matching Method For Diagnostic And Clinical Datasets Of Patient’S Records, Salvo Reina, Vito M. Reina, Eugenio A. Debbia

COBRA Preprint Series

Several statistical packages, either commercials or open-source, provide many methods for multi-factorial and discriminant analysis; such a software is poorly used by physicians. Appropriate models and tests have to be used pending on the kind of experiment scheme, adequate distribution assumption are needed for variables and parameters and proper data validation have to be verified for historical records. These are but a few of many critical aspects for a robust and trustable data interpretation needed in the Evidence Based Medicine era. Clinicians always wish to be able to quickly interpreter diagnostic records to discriminate, or alternatively correlate, coherent groups of …

2006 - The Eleventh Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Eleventh Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 7, 2006. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Does Diving Limit Brain Size In Cetaceans?, Lori Marino, Daniel Sol, Kristen Toren, Louis Lefebvre

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

We test the longstanding hypothesis, known as the dive constraint hypothesis, that the oxygenation demands of diving pose a constraint on aquatic mammal brain size.Using a sample of 23 cetacean species we examine the relationship among six different measures of relative brain size, body size, and maximum diving duration. Unlike previous tests we include body size as a covariate and perform independent contrast analyses to control for phylogeny. We show that diving does not limit brain size in cetaceans and therefore provide no support for the dive constraint hypothesis. Instead, body size is the main predictor of maximum diving duration …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 47 Number 4, Spring 2006, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

8 - A DREAM OPPORTUNITY by Monte Lorenzet. Santa Clara University's sleep lab is one of just a handful of similar research facilities at undergraduate institutions. Students, alumni, faculty, and the research community are all benefiting from the fledgling lab.

10 - SCIENCE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE by Kim Kooyers. Social entrepreneurs use technology to address some of the world's urgent needs. Last November, some of these innovators were honored at the Tech Museum Awards, an international awards program.

14 - GIGANTES Y CABEZUDOS by Elizabeth Kelley Gillogly '93. In an intensive workshop featuring seasoned artists from Spain, SCU students explored …

A Framework For The Representation Of Cohesion In Small Combat Units, William Eugene Warner

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Current combat simulations deal well with large unit formations, weapon systems, and physical effects such as attrition. Human factors such as morale, cohesion, and effects of stress are modeled much less adequately. Of the human factors affecting the psychology of a combat unit, military psychologists have identified cohesion as one of the most important. The concept of cohesion, referring to both the interpersonal relationships between soldiers in a military unit and to the morale solidarity of a military force, has been central to military analysis for many years.

A model framework has been developed that can operationalize the concept of …

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: April 2006, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2006

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from April 11 and 22, 2006.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Update: April 2006, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2006

LSUHSC Dailly Facilities Updates from April 2006. These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Bifurcation And Singularity Analysis Of A Molecular Network For The Induction Of Long-Term Memory, John H H. Byrne

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Withdrawal reflexes of the mollusk Aplysia exhibit sensitization, a simple form of long-term memory (LTM). Sensitization is due, in part, to long-term facilitation (LTF) of sensorimotor neuron synapses. LTF is induced by the modulatory actions of serotonin (5-HT). Pettigrew et al. developed a computational model of the nonlinear intracellular signaling and gene network that underlies the induction of 5-HT-induced LTF. The model simulated empirical observations that repeated applications of 5-HT induce persistent activation of protein kinase A (PKA) and that this persistent activation requires a suprathreshold exposure of 5-HT. This study extends the analysis of the Pettigrew model by applying …

Reliability, Effect Size, And Responsiveness And Intraclass Correlation Of Health Status Measures Used In Randomized And Cluster-Randomized Trials, Paula Diehr, Lu Chen, Donald L. Patrick, Ziding Feng, Yutaka Yasui

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Background: New health status instruments are described by psychometric properties, such as Reliability, Effect Size, and Responsiveness. For cluster-randomized trials, another important statistic is the Intraclass Correlation for the instrument within clusters. Studies using better instruments can be performed with smaller sample sizes, but better instruments may be more expensive in terms of dollars, lost opportunities, or poorer data quality due to the response burden of longer instruments. Investigators often need to estimate the psychometric properties of a new instrument, or of an established instrument in a new setting. Optimal sample sizes for estimating these properties have not been studied …

The Introduction Of The Importance Of Identifying Patient Priorities Into A Care Model, Susan Loushin

Theses and Graduate Projects

Nursing has a long history of developing care plans that address what nurses perceive as the problems and needs of the patients under their care. One of the greatest ironies in nursing is that the most important person, the patient, is often excluded from the planning process. The importance of soliciting input from the patient or family has been diminished in recent years, but is now acknowledged to be the key to high quality individualized care. Patient and family involvement is not just about organizational structures-it is a cultural change. lt is empowering patients and their families to have a …

Bivariate Binomial Spatial Modelling Loa Loa Prevalence In Tropical Africa, Ciprian M. Crainiceanu, Peter J. Diggle, Barry Rowlingson

Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Biostatistics Working Papers

We present a state-of-the-art application of smoothing for dependent bivariate binomial spatial data to Loa loa prevalence mapping in West Africa. This application is special because it starts with the non-spatial calibration of survey instruments, continues with the spatial model building and assessment and ends with robust, tested software that will be used by the field scientists of the World Health Organization for online prevalence map updating. From a statistical perspective several important methodological issues were addressed: (a) building spatial models that are complex enough to capture the structure of the data but remain computationally usable; (b)reducing the computational burden …

Successful Treatment Of Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate-Related Vaginal Bleeding Improves Continuation Rates In Adolescents, Kristin M. Rager, Amy Fowler, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

High discontinuation rates for depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) in adolescents may contribute to the number of unintended pregnancies. Many cite vaginal bleeding as a reason for discontinuing DMPA use. In this study, we attempted to determine if treating DMPA-associated vaginal bleeding with monophasic oral contraceptive pills (OCP) raised continuation rates. A total of 131 patients who reported vaginal bleeding while on DMPA were included in this study and 83 were treated with monophasic OCP. Of those who received OCP, 38.7% reported that vaginal bleeding stopped completely, 51.8% reported that vaginal bleeding stopped temporarily, and 6.0% reported no change. Overall, 94% …

Holistic Health: Does It Really Include Mental Health?, Kimberly K. Mcclanahan, Marlene B. Huff, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Holistic health, incorporating mind and body as equally important and unified components of health, is a concept utilized in some health care arenas in the United States (U.S.) over the past 30 years. However, in the U.S., mental health is not seen as conceptually integral to physical health and, thus, holistic health cannot be realized until the historical concept of mind-body dualism, continuing stigma regarding mental illness, lack of mental health parity in insurance, and inaccurate public perceptions regarding mental illness are adequately addressed and resolved. Until then, mental and physical health will continue to be viewed as disparate entities …

Clinical Holistic Medicine: Holistic Sexology And Acupressure Through The Vagina (Hippocratic Pelvic Massage), Søren Ventegodt, Birgitte Clausen, Hatim A. Omar, Joav Merrick

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Many gynecological and sexological problems (like urine incontinence, chronic pelvic pains, vulvodynia, and lack of lust, excitement, and orgasm) are resistant to standard medical treatment. In our work at the Research Clinic for Holistic Medicine in Copenhagen, we have found that vaginal acupressure, or Hippocratic pelvic massage, can help some of these problems. Technically, it is a very simple procedure as it corresponds to the explorative phase of the standard pelvic examination, supplemented with the patient's report on the feelings it provokes and the processing and integration of these feelings. Sometimes it can be very difficult to control the emotions …

Preparation Of Silica-Coated Lanthanum-Strontium Manganite Particles With Designable Curie Point, For Application In Hyperthermia Treatments, Vuk Uskoković, Aljoša Košak, Miha Drofenik

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Silica-coated lanthanum–strontium manganite particles with La_0.76Sr_0.24MnO_3+δ stoichiometric formula, exhibiting Curie temperature at ∼40°C, were prepared by using a traditional solid-state method of synthesis of magnetic ceramic particles, followed by milling and a low-temperature coating procedure in an aqueous alcoholic alkali medium. The properties of the obtained material establish it as a potential candidate for self-regulated power-absorbing and temperature-controlling materials in hyperthermia treatments. Moreover, core-comprising LaSr–manganites with different stoichiometries, ranging from La_0.5Sr_0.5MnO_3+δ to LaMnO_3+δ, were synthesized, with magnetic and structural properties examined thereof. Herein reported findings can potentially be …

Cell-Signalling Dynamics In Time And Space, Boris N. Kholodenko Phd, Dsci

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

The specificity of cellular responses to receptor stimulation is encoded by the spatial and temporal dynamics of downstream signalling networks. Computational models provide insights into the intricate relationships between stimuli and responses and reveal mechanisms that enable networks to amplify signals, reduce noise and generate discontinuous bistable dynamics or oscillations. These temporal dynamics are coupled to precipitous spatial gradients of signalling activities, which guide pivotal intracellular processes, but also necessitate mechanisms to facilitate signal propagation across a cell.

Trading The Micro-World Of Combinatorial Complexity For The Macro-World Of Protein Interaction Domains, Nikolay M. Borisov, Nick I. Markevitch, Jan B. Hoek, Boris N. Kholodenko

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Membrane receptors and proteins involved in signal transduction display numerous binding domains and operate as molecular scaffolds generating a variety of parallel reactions and protein complexes. The resulting combinatorial explosion of the number of feasible chemical species and, hence, different states of a network greatly impedes mechanistic modeling of signaling systems. Here we present novel general principles and identify kinetic requirements that allow us to replace a mechanistic picture of all possible micro-states and transitions by a macro-description of states of separate binding sites of network proteins. This domain-oriented approach dramatically reduces computational models of cellular signaling networks by dissecting …

Analysis Of Patient Information: An Empirical Modeling Approach, Tony A. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

With rising costs and increasing complexities, many hospitals seek to better understand the intricate details of their operations. Increasingly, these organizations have a strong desire to accurately predict the resources required to effectively treat their patient load. This research investigates patient length-of-stay in a hospital neurological unit using an empirical modeling approach. Factors significantly affecting patient length of stay were identified and used to construct a regression model. The predictive model provides hospital decision makers with a compact tool to input what-if scenarios and predict future patient treatment lengths, thus, allowing the hospital to properly allocate resources.

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: March 2006, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2006

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from March 11 and 28, 2006.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Update: March 2006, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2006

LSUHSC Dailly Facilities Updates from March 2006. These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Fortifying Password Authentication In Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems, Yanjiang Yang, Robert H. Deng, Feng Bao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Integrated Delivery Systems (IDSs) now become a primary means of care provision in healthcare domain. However, existing password systems (under either the single-server model or the multi-server model) do not provide adequate security when applied to IDSs. We are thus motivated to present a practical password authentication system built upon a novel two-server model. We generalize the two-server model to an architecture of a single control server supporting multiple service servers, tailored to the organizational structure of IDSs. The underlying user authentication and key exchange protocols we propose are password-only, neat, efficient, and robust against off-line dictionary attacks mounted by …

Different Public Health Interventions Have Varying Effects, Paula Diehr, Anne B. Newman, Liming Cai, Ann Derleth

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Objective: To compare performance of one-time health interventions to those that change the probability of transitioning from one health state to another. Study Design and Setting: We used multi-state life table methods to estimate the impact of eight types of interventions on several outcomes. Results: In a cohort beginning at age 65, curing all the sick persons at baseline would increase life expectancy by 0.23 years and increase years of healthy life by .54 years. An equal amount of improvement could be obtained with a 12% decrease in the probability of getting sick, a 16% increase in the probability of …