Digital Commons Network^™

Paleopathology In Ancient Eygpt: Evidence From The Sites Of Dayr Al-Barsha And Sheikh Said, Cindy Malnasi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For centuries, people have been fascinated with how the ancient Egyptians lived, and particularly how they died. Although Egyptologists in the past had a greater interest in the treasures that accompanied the dead, there has now been a shift in focus on the actual ancient Egyptians themselves and their ways of life. Recognizing the health and disease status of ancient Egyptians has become particularly important. The aim of this research project is to document the paleopathology of the individuals from the sites of Dayr al-Barsha and Sheikh Said encompassing the Old Kingdom (2686 - 2160 BC), the First Intermediate Period …

Source Representation And Framing In Childhood Immunization Communication, April Raneri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has indicated a strong interest in knowing who is being represented and how information is being represented in the communication about childhood immunization. This study uses a two-part analysis to look at source representation and framing in childhood immunization communication. A quantitative analysis of articles from the New York Times and USA Today were examined for their source representation, their use of fear appeals, through the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), and the use of frames, through the application of Prospect Theory. A qualitative semiotic analysis was conducted on 36 images that appeared on www.yahoo.com and www.google.com to find …

Breaking The Silence: A Health Narratives Approach To Understanding Tuberculosis In El Paso, Texas, Angelica Forero-Quintana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tuberculosis is a chronic illness affecting people in El Paso, Texas. TB continues to be a disease of great concern along the US-México border. The TB rates in El Paso for 2008 and 2009 were 5.4 and 8.9 per 100,000 and 13.5 and 13.3 per 100,000 in Ciudad Juárez. The number of new TB cases in 2008 and 2009 for El Paso were 40 and 67 cases and in Ciudad Juárez, they were 311 and 306 cases (Moya, 2010). This study relied on interviews with fifteen people undergoing treatment for TB (and three of their children) using a health narratives …

Tuberculosis And Stigma: Impacts On Health-Seeking Behaviors And Access In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico And El Paso, Texas., Eva Margarita Moya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory research is a study of tuberculosis (TB) and health-related stigma which examines the experiences and perspectives on the disease from the vantage point of the Persons Affected by Tuberculosis (PATB). Research on the causes and sustainability of stigma will be useful to guide health and social interventions that reduce its effects. Also of importance is research that focuses on the behavioral and psychological as well as in the social context and dimensions of TB-related stigma. The personal experience of tuberculosis illustrates that an infectious disease entails much more than treatment involving medications, microbes and risk categories. Stigma associated …

Reporting Hiv In Papua New Guinea: Trends And Omissions From 2000 To 2010, Trevor A. Cullen

Research outputs pre 2011

This article presents the findings from a longitudinal content analysis on the reporting of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) in Papua New Guinea’s two national newspapers—The National and Post-Courier—in 2000, 2005 and 2010. The authors tried to answer two key questions: Did press coverage of the disease increase and did the topics change or remain the same? Data from the content analysis showed that coverage of the disease increased significantly during the ten-year study period, and that the framing of the disease moved beyond representing HIV as purely a health story to one that was linked to socio-economic conditions and cultural …

The Role Of Choice And Control In Women’S Childbirth Experiences, Katie M. Cook

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The current study seeks to understand the role of choice and control in both planning and giving birth. This study explores three research questions: 1) What are the key influences on women’s birth plan decisions? 2) How do changes to a woman’s initial birth plan impact her overall birth experience? 3) What is the role of choice and control in women’s childbirth experiences? Narrative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 16 women who had given birth in Waterloo Region within the two years preceding data collection. The findings of this study cover five categories. The first category …

Cost, Quality And Access: An Analysis Of Health Care In The United States, Canada And The United Kingdom, Katherine Elizabeth Reidy

Honors Program Theses

Comparing international health care systems assists in identifying effective reforms to address three constant problems within health care around the globe: cost, quality and access. Until recently, the United States health care scheme has been administered through private enterprise while Canada and the United Kingdom have implemented national forms of health care. In order to determine which system more effectively deals issues related to cost, quality, and access, statistical information was gathered to compare each system based on cost, quality and access. Such statistics include but are not limited to waiting times for specialized care, financial expenditures for each country …

Cannabinoid Conditioned Reward And Aversion: Behavioral And Neural Processes, Jennifer E. Murray, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The discovery that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol

(Δ⁹-THC) is the primary psychoactive ingredient in

marijuana prompted research that helped elucidate

the endogenous cannabinoid system of the brain.

Δ⁹-THC and other cannabinoid ligands with agonist

action (CP 55,940, HU210, and WIN 55,212-2)

increase firing of dopamine neurons and increase

synaptic dopamine in brain regions associated with

reward and drug addiction. Such changes in cellular

processes have prompted investigators to examine

the conditioned rewarding effects of the cannabinoid

ligands using the place conditioning task with rats and

mice. As reviewed here, these cannabinoid ligands

can condition place preferences (evidence for rewarding …

Exploring Science Through Media: The Omaha Science Media Project 2009–2010, Belita Kalala, Scott Barry, Rebecca Aiken, Soo Hui-Lee, Mary Claire Rice, Elizabeth Gamez, Nkem Kalu, Amy Struthers, Adam Wagler, Bruce Mitchell, Julie Nichols

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Student Advertising Projects

The Omaha Science Media Project represents the efforts of more than a hundred people across eight organizations. Working together, these individuals explored innovations in teaching and learning science that challenged and contributed to Omaha’s learning community. This program owes tremendous gratitude to Katie Weitz White and the Sherwood Foundation for their vision, support, and enthusiasm. The Sherwood Foundation’s work has been critical to inspiring students, energizing teachers, and building strong programs for all. We also thank the Omaha Schools Foundation for its guidance and support. The project’s principal investigator is Judy Diamond, Ph.D., Professor and Curator of Informal Science Education …

Asia's Participation In Global Health Diplomacy And Global Health Governance, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article provides a framework for thinking about Asian approaches to and impact on global health diplomacy and governance that might contribute to more sophisticated analyses on Asia in global health politics, diplomacy, and governance. First, the article examines the "rise of Asia" and "rise of health" as overlapping but unconnected developments in international relations. Second, it analyzes how the shift of power and influence towards Asia, largely caused by China's and India's emergence as great powers; affects global health politics and potential Asian contributions to global health diplomacy and governance in the future. Third, the article looks at normative …

Toward A Grounded Theory On The Management Of Orphanages In South Africa And Zimbabwe, Anna Siyavora

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of orphaned children in many parts of Africa is increasing as their parents die from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The research problem addressed in this qualitative study was lack of understanding by others about how the managers of orphanages in 2 African countries -- South Africa and Zimbabwe - were responding to the emotional and social needs of these orphans. The purpose of this study was to develop an orphanage management theory or model that could replicate the African kinship environment in the orphanages under study. Nurturing leadership theory provided the conceptual …

Managing Female Foreign Domestic Workers In Singapore: Economic Pragmatism, Coercive Legal Regulation, Or Human Rights, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore's immigration discourse is deeply influenced by its need to “right-size” its population. As a society that has and remains in need of immigration, contemporary immigration and globalization have rigorously challenged the conventional thinking and understanding of citizenship, as well as notions of who belongs and who does not. Nevertheless, international marriages and pervasive in-and out-migration for purposes of employment, study, and family, conspire to make more pronounced the decoupling of citizenship and residence in Singapore. This transnational dimension sits uncomfortably with the policy makers' desire for, and the imperatives of, state sovereignty, control, and jurisdiction.Although one quarter of people …

Does The Theory Of Planned Behavior Predict Intentions To Seek Help For Suicidality?, Jennifer Lynn Mills

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of the current project is to relate disparate lines of research on suicide prevention and help-seeking using Azjen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (TpB). Two studies examined college students’ beliefs about help-seeking for emotional problems. In Study 1, 37 undergraduates responded to open-ended questions about a variety of help-seeking behaviors. These responses were categorized. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for each category. In Study 2, 143 undergraduates completed two mental health inventories and a TpB survey constructed by the experimenter. A model containing the three TpB predictor variables—attitudes (M = 15.29, SD = 3.57), perceived social norms (M …

Mass Privatisation And The Post-Communist Mortality Crisis: Is There Really A Relationship?, John S. Earle, Scott G. Gehlbach

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We reexamine the recent, well-publicized claim that "rapid mass privatisation [of state-owned enterprises]...was a crucial determinant of differences in adult mortality trends in postcommunist countries" (Stuckler, King and McKee, 2009). Our analysis shows that the estimated correlation of privatization and mortality in country-level data is not robust to recomputing the mass-privatization measure, to assuming a short lag for economic policies to affect mortality, and to controlling for country-specific mortality trends. Further, in an analysis of the determinants of mortality in Russian regions, we find no evidence that privatization increased mortality during the early 1990s. Finally, we reanalyze the relationship between …

People And Nature: Toward An Ecological Model Of Health Promotion, Daniel L. Dustin, Kelly S. Bricker, Keri Schwab

Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration

Striving for a healthier relationship among individuals, families, communities, nations, and the environment is imperative at a time in history when humankind can change the face of the earth in monumental ways. This dynamic health relationship, with an emphasis on the contributions of parks, recreation, and tourism to health promotion, is the subject of this article. A broader conception of health that moves beyond human physical and mental health to include familial, communal, national, international, and global ecological health is called for, and a more comprehensive ecological model of health promotion, including consideration of health from a holistic ecological perspective, …

Empirical Essays On The Impact Of Health-Aid On Health Outcomes, Elsy Thomas Kizhakethalackal

Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays that empirically explore the impact of multilateral health-aid on health outcomes like infant mortality rate (IMR) and incidences of an infectious disease, Tuberculosis, in developing economies. The first essay uses parametric and semiparametric mean regressions (additive and non-additive specifications) to capture the impact of education and health-aid on the IMR, after controlling for other covariates. Both specifications confirm education as an important factor in reducing IMR. However, the effect of health-aid on IMR is not significant. In our additive model, we do see a threshold level of health-aid after which the impacts of health-aid …

Canadian Food Law Update, Patricia L. Farnese

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Provided below is an overview of developments in Canadian food law and policy in 2009. This update primarily analyzes the regulatory and policy developments and litigation activities by the federal government. This focus reflects the significance of federal activities in the food policy realm. In 2009, regulatory and policy developments continue to be dominated by the 2008 Listeriosis outbreak in ready-to-eat, deli meats. Other noted activities include Canada's ongoing efforts to minimize the effects of infectious diseases related to meat production, Canada's request for a WTO panel to consider the effects of American Country of Origin Labelling, and an initiative …

Empirical Likelihood In Missing Data Problems, Jing Qin, Biao Zhang, Denis H. Y. Leung

Research Collection School Of Economics

Missing data is a ubiquitous problem in medical and social sciences. It is well known that inferences based only on the complete data may not only lose efficiency, but may also lead to biased results if the data is not missing completely at random (MCAR). The inverse-probability weighting method proposed by Horvitz and Thompson (1952) is a popular alternative when the data is not MCAR. The Horvitz–Thompson method, however, is sensitive to the inverse weights and may suffer from loss of efficiency. In this paper, we propose a unified empirical likelihood approach to missing data problems and explore the use …

Impact Of Empire Expansion On Household Diet: The Inka In Northern Chile's Atacama Desert, Sheila Dorsey Vinton, Linda Perry, Karl J. Reinhard, Calogero M. Santoro, Isabel Teixeira-Santos

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The impact of expanding civilization on the health of American indigenous societies has long been studied. Most studies have focused on infections and malnutrition that occurred when less complex societies were incorporated into more complex civilizations. The details of dietary change, however, have rarely been explored. Using the analysis of starch residues recovered from coprolites, here we evaluate the dietary adaptations of indigenous farmers in northern Chile's Atacama Desert during the time that the Inka Empire incorporated these communities into their economic system. This system has been described as "complementarity" because it involves interaction and trade in goods produced at …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 41 No. 87, November 12, 2009

Central Florida Future

Student arrested after Classroom I bomb threat; Knight of a thousand laughs; UCF, Beta agree on summer return; Professor receives $100K grant for HIV research; More H1N1 vaccines available.

Alcohol Use And Gender Effects On Hiv Risk Behaviors In Cocaine-Using Methadone Patients, Carla J. Rash, Nancy M. Petry

UCHC Articles - Research

Injection drug users engage in behaviors that increase the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other infectious diseases. Although methadone maintenance (MM) is highly effective in decreasing heroin use and the spread of HIV, polydrug use, especially the combined use of cocaine and alcohol, is common in MM patients. Alcohol use is independently associated with HIV risk behaviors, and the effects of alcohol use on risk behaviors may vary by gender. This study evaluated the effects of recent heavy alcohol use and gender with respect to HIV risk behaviors in 118 cocaine-abusing methadone patients. Both lifetime and past month …

On Some Discrete Distributions And Their Applications With Real Life Data, Shipra Banik, B. M. Golam Kibria

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

This article reviews some useful discrete models and compares their performance in terms of the high frequency of zeroes, which is observed in many discrete data (e.g., motor crash, earthquake, strike data, etc.). A simulation study is conducted to determine how commonly used discrete models (such as the binomial, Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated and zero-truncated models) behave if excess zeroes are present in the data. Results indicate that the negative binomial model and the ZIP model are better able to capture the effect of excess zeroes. Some real-life environmental data are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed models.

Personality Scale Validities Increase Throughout Medical School, Filip Lievens, Deniz S. Ones, Stephan Dilchert

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Admissions and personnel decisions rely on stable predictor-criterion relationships. The authors studied the validity of Big Five personality factors and their facets for predicting academic performance in medical school across multiple years, investigating whether criterion-related validities change over time. In this longitudinal investigation, an entire European country's 1997 cohort of medical students was studied throughout their medical school career (Year 1, N = 627; Year 7, N = 306). Over time, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness factor and facet scale scores showed increases in operational validity for predicting grade point averages. Although there may not be any advantages to being open …

Social Science In A Water Observing System, John B. Braden, Daniel G. Brown, Jeff Dozier, Patricia Gober, Sara M. Hughes, David R. Maidment, Sandra L. Schneider, P. Wesley Schultz, James S. Shortle, Stephen K. Swallow, Carol M. Werner

Psychology Faculty Publications

We set forth an argument for the integration of social science research with natural science and engineering research in major research infrastructure investments addressing water science. A program of integrated observation of water resources offers great opportunities to address several environmental “grand challenges” identified by the National Research Council, including climate variability, institutions and resource use, and land use dynamics, and their importance for hydrologic forecasting. We argue that such a program has the potential to advance both water science and the contributing disciplines. However, to realize this potential, it is essential to recognize that social science requires critical infrastructure …

Rrh Library Newsletter, November 2009, Libraries At Rochester Regional Health

Rochester Regional Health authored publications and proceedings

Newsletter sections include: Hospital-Acquired Infections

High Content Screening Identifies Decaprenyl-Phosphoribose 2’ Epimerase As A Target For Intracellular Antimycobacterial Inhibitors, Thierry Christophe, Mary Jackson, Hee Kyoung Jeon, Denis Fenistein, Monica Contreras-Dominguez, Jaeseung Kim, Auguste Genovesio, Jean-Philippe Carralot, Fanny Ewann, Eun Hye Kim, Sae Yeon Lee, Sunhee Kang, Min Jung Seo, Eun Jung Park, Henrieta Skovierová, Ha Pham, Giovanna Riccardi, Ji Youn Nam, Laurent Marsollier, Marie Kempf, Marie-Laure Joly-Guillou, Taegwon Oh, Won Kyung Shin, Zaesung No, Ulf Nehrbass, Roland Brosch, Stewart T. Cole

Faculty and Staff Publications

A critical feature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of human tuberculosis (TB), is its ability to survive and multiply within macrophages, making these host cells an ideal niche for persisting microbes. Killing the intracellular tubercle bacilli is a key requirement for efficient tuberculosis treatment, yet identifying potent inhibitors has been hampered by labor-intensive techniques and lack of validated targets. Here, we present the development of a phenotypic cell-based assay that uses automated confocal fluorescence microscopy for high throughput screening of chemicals that interfere with the replication of M. tuberculosis within macrophages. Screening a library of 57,000 small molecules led …

October 2009: Novel H1n1 Flue (Swine Flu), Dacus Library

Dacus Docs News

No abstract provided.

Nor'easter News Volume 3 Issue 1, Nor'easter News Staff

Nor'easter News

The fourteenth issue of the University of New England's student-run newspaper, Nor'easter News.

Prospectus, September 23, 2009, Sean Hermann, Chuck Shepherd, Chrissie Mckenney, Sean Whitsitt, Joel Reuter, Alishia Reynolds, Shagun Pradhan, Patrick Wood, Isaac Mitchell

Prospectus 2009

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Congressional Testimony

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …