Digital Commons Network^™

Why A Healthy Diet Is Important For Women's Health, Halley Doster

Theses and Dissertations

Nutrition plays a critical role in women’s reproductive health, yet many women face barriers to maintaining a balanced diet. This study aimed to examine the relationship between nutritional intake and reproductive health outcomes among women of reproductive age, as well as to assess their knowledge and challenges related to healthy eating. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 50 women at a community health center and analyzed using SPSS to generate descriptive statistics and explore patterns through chi-square and regression analyses. Findings revealed that most participants had moderate to low fruit and vegetable intake, and fewer than half …

Attacking Diabetes One Day At A Time, Kyla Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

The "Attacking Diabetes One Day at a Time" initiative targets the growing concern of public health, type 2 diabetes, among under-reserved communities. This comprehensive care program emphasizes the importance of prevention through education, improving lifestyles, and access to care. Based on insights from the Self-Care Management Theory, this initiative seeks to provide individuals with sound, culturally tailored strategies that reduce disease risk and help them manage healthy lifestyles. Major components include educational workshops, and resource navigation. The success of this program, from community engagement through evaluation on a phased implementation plan, is guaranteed. The expected outcomes of this work will …

Associations Between Dietary Sodium And Potassium Intakes, Urinary Sodium And Potassium Excretion And Blood Pressure Among Adult Females In Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Fred Baffour Addo

Open Access Master's Theses

Introduction: Accurate assessment of sodium (Na) and potassium (K) intake is essential for population level monitoring of salt intake as part of global strategies to reduce salt consumption to control the increasing prevalence of high blood pressure (BP). Thus, a simple, cost-effective, and low-burden method is particularly valuable in resource-limited settings for population level monitoring of Na and K intake. This study aimed to compare the reliability of various methods of Na and K intake assessment, and their associations with blood pressure measurements.

Methods: This secondary analysis was based on a cross-sectional study of 100 non-pregnant women of …

Effect Of Ventilation And Wearing A Facemask In Reducing Indoor Aerosol Transmission, Clothilde Brochot, Ali Bahloul

Articles dans des actes de congrès

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted research in respiratory protection and transmission routes. Indeed, the pandemic has highlighted a number of issues, including those related to the performance and use of respiratory protective equipment such as masks and ventilation. A plethora of commercial and homemade masks have widely appeared during the pandemic, although they are not yet fully regulated in performance and fit test. However, with regard to the source reduction process, testing facemasks not at the inhalation, but at the source (exhalation) offers a new perspective on how to prevent particle emissions. Different means of transmission reduction are measured …

Genomic Epidemiology Of Staphylococcus Aureus Sequence-Type 72, Sachitaa Senthilkumar

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus, SA) is a gram-positive bacterial colonizer and pathogen commonly carried on the skin and in the anterior nares of humans. SA colonization may lead to a variety of non-invasive (e.g., skin and soft tissue infections, SSTIs) and invasive (e.g., bacteremia and osteomyelitis) infections. The SA population is comprised of multiple lineages that can be delineated through multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), which compares nucleotide sequences within seven housekeeping genes. Strains belonging to an MLST share a common evolutionary history and phenotypic characteristics like antibiotic resistance or virulence. As a result, the epidemiology of lineages can be …

Archaeoparasitology Of The Colorado Plateau, Karl J. Reinhard, Morgana Caacho

Karl Reinhard Publications

Archaeoparasitology has been conducted in the Southwest for 57 years. In the first decade of the period, two pictures of parasitism emerged. Analysis of compressed organic sediments from a latrine at Elden Pueblo presented a spectrum of geohelminths not different from medieval Europe. These findings contrast pronouncedly with an analysis of coprolites from all other studies that show consistent pinworm parasitism at other sites in the Southwest. We summarize the paleoepidemiological bases for these contrasting phenomena.

Longitudinal Viral Load Clustering For People With Hiv Using Functional Principal Component Analysis, Yunqing Ma, Xueying Yang Ph.D., Jiayang Xiao, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background: Longitudinal measures of viral load (VL) are critical in monitoring the HIV status. While multiple lab indicators exist for monitoring measures of VL, research on clustering historical/longitudinal VL measures is limited. Analyzing longitudinal VL patterns rather than aggregated measures offers deeper insights into HIV status. This study uses functional data clustering to classify longitudinal VL patterns and characterize each cluster by demographics, comorbidities, social behaviors, and CD4 count.

Methods: Adult PWH diagnosed from 2005 to 2015 in South Carolina with a 5-year minimum follow-up were included. We compared functional principal component analysis (FPCA), K-means, hierarchical clustering, and Gaussian mixture …

Caregiving Burdens Of Task Time And Task Difficulty Among Paid And Unpaid Caregivers Of Persons Living With Dementia, Matthew Lee Smith, Jodi L. Southerland, Malinee Neelamegam, Gang Han, Shinduk Lee, Chung Lin Kew, Juanita Dawne R. Bacsu, Elyse Couch, Steffi M. Kim, Monique J. Brown Ph.D., Mph, Ayse Malatyali, Lucas Wilson, Zahra Rahemi, Jeremy Holloway, Marcia G. Ory

Faculty Publications

Background: Demands of caregivers of persons living with dementia (PLWD) are often influenced by the context of their caregiving situation. This study examines common and unique factors associated with caregiving burden in terms of task time and task difficulty among paid and unpaid caregivers of PLWD. Methods: Cross-sectional baseline survey data were analyzed from 107 paid and unpaid caregivers of PLWD participating in a larger NIH-funded study assessing the feasibility of using a novel in-situ sensor system. Oberst Caregiving Burden Scale constructs of task time and task difficulty served as dependent variables. Two least squares regression models were fitted, controlling …

Sars-Cov-2 Detection And Persistence In A Remote Amazonian Settlement, Glauco M. Silva, Roberto C. Ilacqua, Franciely G. Gonçalves, Carla M. Santana, Felipe T. Jordão, Paula R. Prist, Melissa S. Nolan Ph.D., Mph, Andreia F. Brilhante, Marcia A. Sperança, Gabriel Z. Laporta

Faculty Publications

Background: COVID-19 continues to pose a major global health challenge. Despite its geographic distance from Brazil’s major urban centers, Acre state has experienced notable outbreaks. This study assessed the detection and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the rural settlement of Santa Luzia, located in the remote municipality of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre state, Brazil. Methods: In July 2022, a cross-sectional survey was conducted at 40 sites from an ongoing environmental study, selected by deforestation patterns and proximity to health posts. Saliva samples were collected from residents aged 5–90 years, followed by nucleic acid extraction and multiplex RT-qPCR for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Results: …

Dirty Water, Breanna Booker, Michael S. Sinha

All Faculty Scholarship

Plastics are taking over. Every day, humans are exposed to plastic pollutants in a variety of ways. From the water we use to water crops in the field, to the water in our taps, to the liquids we drink from plastic containers, it can be found virtually anywhere you look. Not only is it everywhere in the environment, but it is also within us. It builds up in our bodies. Plastics have become a major public health concern; researchers estimate that the total healthcare cost related to plastic chemicals may be as much as $250 billion.[1]

Water has always …

Évaluation Et Caractérisation De L'Exposition Aux Fumées De Soudage Et Leurs Composantes Métalliques Lors D'Activités De Soudage Au Québec, Michèle Bouchard, Jairo Buitrago-Cortes, Naïma El Majidi, Jonathan Côté, Denis Dieme, Marc Mantha, Philippe Sarazin, Capucine Ouellet, Loïc Wingert

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Problématique et objectifs :

Les fumées de soudage sont classées comme cancérogènes chez l’humain et sont associées à un risque accru de plusieurs autres effets sur la santé des soudeurs. L’objectif général de cette recherche était d’établir la nature et le niveau d’exposition aux composantes métalliques lors d'activités de soudage chez des apprentis soudeurs au Québec, en effectuant des mesures dans différentes matrices biologiques et dans l’air lors d’un suivi longitudinal.

Méthode :Cette recherche a été réalisée dans des écoles d'apprentis soudeurs de la région de Montréal, où les techniques de soudage les plus courantes sont utilisées. Elle a …

Swift: Strong-Signal Weighted Prs Integration For Fine-Tuning, Yikai Dong

Public Health Theses

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) hold immense promise for personalized medicine but suffer from reduced accuracy in non-European populations, hindering equitable application. We introduce SWIFT (Strong-signal Weighted PRS Integration for Fine-Tuning), a novel framework to enhance cross-population PRS prediction by optimally combining base scores from diverse ancestries using only GWAS summary statistics. SWIFT employs a GWAS subsampling technique based on data fission to generate internal training and tuning sets, circumventing the need for external validation cohorts. A key innovation is its focus on strong genetic signals (p < 0.1) for estimating robust combination weights via cross-validation, which mitigates overfitting and significantly reduces computational burden. We evaluated SWIFT across 22 complex traits using data from five populations (EUR, AFR, AMR, EAS, SAS) and independent validation cohorts (UK Biobank, All of Us). Applied to state-of-the art base methods (PRS-CSx, X-Wing, JointPRS), SWIFT achieved predictive accuracy comparable or superior to the recent LEOPARD integration method and baseline implementations. Crucially, SWIFT demonstrated a 3.5- to 9.5-fold reduction in computational runtime compared to LEOPARD and exhibited robust performance even when using a single, unified LD reference panel. SWIFT provides an efficient, robust, and practical approach to improve the accuracy and applicability of PRS across diverse populations, representing a significant step towards more equitable genomic medicine.

Comparative Effectiveness Of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis And Digital Mammography In Detecting Invasive Lobular Carcinoma And Smaller Tumors Among Older Women, Sida Huang

Public Health Theses

AbstractBackground: Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has demonstrated improved cancer detection and reduced false-positive and recall rates compared with digital mammography (DM) alone in trials of women aged over 50. However, its benefits for older women remain uncertain. We hypothesized that among women aged 67+, breast cancer detected via DBT are more likely to be invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) and present at a smaller size at diagnosis, and this association persists among women aged 75+. Additionally, we hypothesized that DBT detects ILC at a smaller tumor size. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of women aged 67+ with screen-detected ER+/HER2- …

Joint Realities: Prevalence, Frequency, And Modality Of Cannabis Use By Sexual Identity In A Multi-State Brfss Sample (2022–2023), Meredith Audrey Rose Mcgee

Public Health Theses

Cannabis use has increased substantially among U.S. adults, yet disparities by sexual orientation and sex remain underexplored, particularly regarding frequency and consumption modality (Hammond et al., 2022; Dyar, 2022). Leveraging 2022–2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from eight U.S. states, this study examined patterns of past-month cannabis use among U.S. adults, stratified by sexual orientation–sex group (e.g., bisexual women, gay men).Guided by minority stress theory and prior research (Dyar, 2022; Meyer, 2003; Poole et al., 2021; Schofield et al., 2023), we hypothesized that sexual minority adults, especially bisexual individuals across both sexes, would report: (1) higher prevalence of …

From Success To Setbacks: A Case Study Of The Sex Wrap And The Impact Of Instagram's Evolving Policies On Sexual Health Education, Megan Piller

Public Health Theses

Due to the inconsistent and noncomprehensive nature of sexual health education across the United States, many adolescents and emerging adults are turning to digital platforms, specifically social media, for necessary information. The Sex Wrap (TSW), a podcast and Instagram-focused intervention, was established to fill critical knowledge gaps among these populations and empower them in their sexual decision-making. To serve as a case study, engagement metrics from TSW’s Instagram account between October 2020 and September 2021 were analyzed to determine which post types, tones, and thematic categories resonated most with users across the platform. However, Instagram, once a highly effective tool …

Under-Five Malaria And Malnutrition Syndemic In Rajasthan, Nandini Sinha

Public Health Theses

Background: The syndemic of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and malaria in under-five children in Rajasthan presents a critical public health challenge. Current SAM and malaria programs are implemented as siloed interventions despite the potential benefits of integrated approaches. A better understanding of the interactions between these factors is important to strengthen the delivery of integrated services.

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between under-five SAM and malaria infections at the block level in Rajasthan to inform targeted, integrated interventions. By running regression analysis, we will identify associations between these co-occurring health threats to guide state-level policy integration. To the best …

Integrating Rare Variant Association Studies With Embedding-Based Methods: Simiskato, Changheng Wang

Public Health Theses

Understanding the genetic basis of rare diseases remains a central challenge in human genomics, especially when conventional methods rely on case-control labels that may oversimplify complex clinical variation. In this thesis, we introduce SimiSKATO, a novel approach that integrates phenotype embeddings with rare variant association testing. Using PERADIGM-generated similarity scores to represent clinical resemblance between individuals, SimiSKATO treats these scores as continuous traits within the SKAT-O framework. By applying this method to rare diseases in the UK Biobank, we demonstrate that SimiSKATO not only replicates known gene-disease associations but also identifies biologically plausible novel candidates missed by other methods. This …

Temporal Analysis In Connectivity Structure Of Human Disease Co-Occurance Network, Jingxuan Xu

Public Health Theses

Recent research on human disease networks (HDNs) has revealed the importance of jointly analyzing multiple diseasesand their interconnections, yet many existing approaches focus on molecular-based data and do not fully capture non-molecular relationships. Building on the concept of the phenotypical HDN, we leverage Medicare inpatient claims data to construct a comprehensive disease co-occurrence network. In our framework, two diseases are deemed interconnected if their observed probability of co-occurrence significantly deviates from that expected under independence. We adopt the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) framework to build our network, using a ϕ-correlation measure and a hard threshold to ensure a …

Theoretical Foundations And Applied Performance Of Periodicity-Aware Imputation: Variable Bandpass Block Bootstrap Methods For Incomplete Time Series, Asmaa Ahmad

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Time series data are prevalent across a wide range of disciplines, including health surveillance, public policy, and environmental monitoring. In the presence of underlying cyclical patterns, the integrity of time series analysis depends critically on the ability to detect, model, and impute structured missing data without compromising the temporal structure. This dissertation introduces and validates a novel imputation framework that integrates the Variable Bandpass Periodic Block Bootstrap (VBPBB) into multiple imputation procedures, improving the accuracy, robustness, and interpretability of time series models under high rates of missingness and noise. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to develop and evaluate …

A Study Of Glyphosate, Pesticide Mixtures, And Metabolic Health Outcomes: Integrating Epidemiologic, Mechanistic, And Ecological Evidence On Environmental Drivers Of Metabolic Health, Sarah Otaru

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Glyphosate, the most extensively used herbicide worldwide, has become a ubiquitous environmental contaminant. Although initially considered safe due to its specific biochemical target in plants, emerging evidence suggests that chronic, low-level human exposure may disrupt metabolic processes. Simultaneously, the global rise in metabolic disorders such as metabolic syndrome (MetS), obesity, and type 2 diabetes, has created a pressing need to identify novel, potentially modifiable environmental contributors. This dissertation investigates the relationship between glyphosate and metabolic health through a triangulated framework that integrates individual-level epidemiological analysis, systematic synthesis of mechanistic evidence, and ecological evaluation of pesticide mixtures.

The first study employed …

Prevalence Of Hypertension Among Low-Income Individuals In Muscogee County Columbus, Georgia, Amelia K. Fallah

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the prevalence and predictors of elevated blood pressure (BP) among 409 low-income adults in Muscogee County, Columbus, Georgia—a population disproportionately burdened by hypertension. The findings reveal that elevated BP is significantly more prevalent among African Americans (71.4%) compared to non-African Americans (27.1%), highlighting the role of racial disparities influenced by systemic inequities, healthcare access, and chronic stress. Gender differences were modest, with females exhibiting a slightly higher prevalence (77.9%) than males (76.7%), potentially due to age-related hormonal changes post-menopause. Older adults (50+ years) represented most of the sample and showed significantly higher hypertension rates, consistent with established …

From Fields To Fast Foods: Food Culture, Identity, And Health In Puerto Rico Under The U.S. Empire, Ivanna Morales Mercado

CMC Senior Theses

Operation Bootstrap, launched in 1947, fundamentally altered Puerto Rico’s economy, just as much as its food culture. Prioritizing manufacturing over agriculture led to the collapse of the island’s farming sector, increasing reliance on food imports and leading to a rise in diet-related diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular issues. This thesis examines the legacies of Operation Bootstrap on Puerto Rico’s food system, health outcomes, and cultural identity by emphasizing the need to value intergenerational knowledge. The oral history research in this study highlights the importance of intergenerational knowledge in reclaiming sustainable agricultural practices and healthy, culturally significant …

Investigating The Impact Of Phthalate Exposures From Personal Care Products On Uterine Fibroid Incidence And Prevalence In Us-Born Black Women, Ella Brissett

CMC Senior Theses

Uterine fibroids are benign tumors composed of smooth muscle cells and connective tissue that develop within or on the walls of the uterus. Despite being non-cancerous, they can severely affect quality of life by causing heavy bleeding, chronic pain, and reproductive complications. Fibroids are typically found in women of reproductive age, but they disproportionately affect Black women, who experience higher incidence and severity. The underlying causes of this disparity is poorly understood; however, an emerging body of research is highlighting the role of phthalates, endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in many personal care products, in exacerbating fibroid development. Through a critical analysis …

Money Matters: Investigating The Emotional, Cognitive, And Biological Pathways Connecting Maternal Early Life Financial Insecurity And Parenting Quality, Elise Power, Stacey N. Doan

CMC Senior Theses

Early life adversity has been shown to have a variety of negative effects on adult functioning, including parenting quality, with implications for child wellbeing. Adverse early life experiences including poverty have been linked to long-term disruptions in emotional, cognitive, and physiological functioning that compromise the ability to provide sensitive, nurturing care. The present study investigated whether emotional regulation difficulties, physiological regulation, and cognitive function mediate the relationship between early life financial insecurity and parenting quality. A sample of 132 mother-child dyads completed self-report measures, biological samples, and cognitive assessments. A multiple mediation model ran in SPSS, revealed a significant indirect …

Dual Inhibitor Of Mdm2 And Nfat1 For Experimental Therapy Of Breast Cancer: In Vitro And In Vivo Anticancer Activities And Newly Discovered Effects On Cancer Metabolic Pathways, Wei Wang, Marlene Aguilar, Sayantap Datta, Abigail Alley, Meheret Tadesse, Xinshi Wang, Xia Gao, Ruiwen Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: The oncogene MDM2 has garnered attention not only for its role in cancer as a negative regulator of the tumor suppressor p53 but also for its p53-independent oncogenic activities. MDM2 also involves metabolic reprogramming, such as serine metabolism, respiration, mitochondrial functions, the folate cycle, and redox balance. Traditional MDM2 inhibitors blocking the protein-protein binding between MDM2 and p53 have shown limited clinical success in various stages of clinical trials, most likely due to low efficacy, drug toxicity, and drug resistance, highlighting the need for a novel, p53-independent strategy to inhibit MDM2. The present study investigated the antitumor effects of …

A Scoping Review Of The Social Determinants Of Pediatric And Adolescent Obesity, Deepali K Ernest, Elizabeth A Onugha, Bipin Singh, Shreela V Sharma, Jayna M Dave

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Context: Social determinants of health (SDOH) play a large role in pediatric and adolescent metabolic health worldwide.

Objective: The study is aimed at exploring key SDOH related to childhood obesity, worldwide.

Methods: Primary research articles from PubMed, Embase, and Medline databases published between 2013 and 2023, had a study population of 0-19-year-olds, and examined the association between WHO-defined SDOH and childhood obesity were included. Non-English papers and those outside WHO-defined SDOHs were excluded. Two reviewers independently performed a blinded screening of titles and abstracts, followed by a full-text assessment of selected articles.

Results: Of the 703 initial articles, 22 duplicates …

General Kernel Machine Methods For Multi-Omics Integration And Genome-Wide Association Testing With Related Individuals, Amarise Little, Ni Zhao, Anna Mikhaylova, Angela Zhang, Wodan Ling, Florian Thibord, Andrew D Johnson, Laura M Raffield, Joanne E Curran, John Blangero, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Huichun Xu, Jerome I Rotter, Stephen S Rich, Kenneth M Rice, Ming-Huei Chen, Alexander Reiner, Charles Kooperberg, Thao Vu, Lifang Hou, Myriam Fornage, Ruth J F Loos, Eimear Kenny, Rasika Mathias, Lewis Becker, Albert V Smith, Eric Boerwinkle, Bing Yu, Timothy Thornton, Michael C Wu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Integrating multi-omics data may help researchers understand the genetic underpinnings of complex traits and diseases. However, the best ways to integrate multi-omics data and use them to address pressing scientific questions remain a challenge. One important and topical problem is how to assess the aggregate effect of multiple genomic data types (e.g. genotypes and gene expression levels) on a phenotype, particularly while accommodating routine issues, such as having related subjects' data in analyses. In this paper, we extend an existing composite kernel machine regression model to integrate two multi-omics data types, while accommodating for general correlation structures amongst outcomes. Due …

Principles Of Biomedical Research, Faina Linkov, Matthew C. Kostek

Open Education Materials

HLT 430/530

CC BY-NC-SA

Elucidating The Adverse Effects Of Chronic Pfos Exposure On Gastrointestinal Pathology And Colorectal Cancer, Jerika Durham

Theses and Dissertations--Toxicology and Cancer Biology

Commonly referred to as "forever chemicals," per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been linked to a number of detrimental health effects, including an elevated risk of cancer. One "long-chain" subtype of PFAS, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), has a long elimination half-life and a significant propensity for bioaccumulation. Because PFOS is commonly found in drinking water, the gastrointestinal system absorbs it at a high rate. Recent studies demonstrate that PFAS exposures promote intestinal inflammation and gut barrier dysfunction. However, how a long-term PFOS exposure affects colorectal cancer (CRC) progression is not known. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand how …

Loneliness Associates With Endothelial Dysfunction In A Community-Based Cohort: A Pilot Study And Translational Approach, Yvonne Baumer, Brian A. Tirado, Lola R. Ortiz-Whittingham, Andrew S. Baez, Cristhian A. Gutierrez-Huerta, Laurel G. Mendelsohn, Abhinav Saurabh, Joshua A. Jacobs, Marcus R. Andrews, Valerie M. Mitchell, Billy S. Collins, Antwan Jones, Danielle M. Schwartz, Anca D. Dobrian, Michael V. Stanton, Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

Loneliness is known to be an important contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, little is known about the impact of loneliness on endothelial barrier integrity, a crucial hallmark of CVD development and progression. In this study, we aimed to investigate how loneliness might impact the endothelium. We found greater perceived loneliness associated with the product of circulating epinephrine and TNFα (E/T), which, in turn, associated with lower VE-cadherin on endothelial cells in an ex vivo experiment. Additionally, circulating plasma levels of soluble VE-cadherin were associated significantly with subclinical CVD. To explore the mechanistic aspects of these associations, we measured the …