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All ETDs from UAB

Theses/Dissertations

2020

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Public Health

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Incorporating Spatial Structure Into Bayesian Variable Selection Using Spike-And-Slab Priors With Application To Imaging Data, Justin Leach Jan 2020

Incorporating Spatial Structure Into Bayesian Variable Selection Using Spike-And-Slab Priors With Application To Imaging Data, Justin Leach

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Many applications in neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and public health require collecting and analyzing imaging data. While fine resolution images may appear continuous to the naked eye, they are in fact made up of measurements at discrete locations, either pixels in 2D or voxels in 3D. These data may be treated as the scientific outcomes of interest, or as predictors of outcomes of interest. Here, the concern is with the latter situation, which involves converting images into formats amenable to a linear modeling framework; i.e., each subject’s image is converted into a vector, and used to model the subject’s (scalar) outcome …


Genetic And Immunologic Predictors Of Genital Chlamydia Reinfection In African American Women Using Bayesian Hierarchical Models, Kristin Olson Jan 2020

Genetic And Immunologic Predictors Of Genital Chlamydia Reinfection In African American Women Using Bayesian Hierarchical Models, Kristin Olson

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Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) infection is the most common sexually transmitted infec-tion. The burden is greatest in young, African American women. CT reinfections are common and increase risk for reproductive morbidity. Why some women are more sus-ceptible to reinfection is not well understood. Emerging evidence suggests immunologic and genetic variants may predict reinfection susceptibility. The primary goal of this dissertation is to evaluate immunologic and genetic vari-ants as predictors of CT reinfection in young, African American women using different modeling approaches, which has never been reported previously. To evaluate a much larger number of potential predictors than our sample size (a …


Smoke Inhalation, Lung Function, And Heart Rate In Wildland Firefighters, Jordan E. Nelson Jan 2020

Smoke Inhalation, Lung Function, And Heart Rate In Wildland Firefighters, Jordan E. Nelson

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Given the close proximity to the fire front and limited use of respiratory protection, wildland firefighters are exposed to elevated levels of biomass smoke during regular occupational shifts. Due to the complex composition of biomass smoke, the relationships relating biomass smoke exposure to health outcomes has yet to be elucidated. In addition to occupational exposures, increasing intensity of wildfire events may place communities within close proximity to wildfires at risk of biomass smoke exposure. This study aimed to assess exposures to biomass smoke particles and quantify respiratory and cardiovascular health responses during active fire events using novel monitoring techniques. Personal …


Pheochromocytoma: A Systematic Review Of The Diagnosis, Treatment, And Risk Factors, Brandon A. Singletary Jan 2020

Pheochromocytoma: A Systematic Review Of The Diagnosis, Treatment, And Risk Factors, Brandon A. Singletary

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ABSTRACT Pheochromocytomas and extra-adrenal paragangliomas (PGLs) are forms of neuroendocrine tumors which when left untreated lead to debilitating complications of cerebral hemorrhaging, stroke, and death. Typically, the tumors present with symptoms of episodic headaches, sweating, and palpitations, however hypertension is considered one of the more predominant signs. As a result of the rarity of the disease and wide range of symptoms, there are often difficulties in screening and diagnosis to identify these tumors. While there are many case studies and results in small populations, large epidemiologic driven studies are limited. To date the majority of large-scale studies exist in countries …


Peace. Love. Youth. (In) Yoga: Development Of A Mental Health Program Among Adolescents Living In The Inner City, Sherilyn Jonnell Garner Jan 2020

Peace. Love. Youth. (In) Yoga: Development Of A Mental Health Program Among Adolescents Living In The Inner City, Sherilyn Jonnell Garner

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Adolescence is a unique developmental stage during which physical, cognitive, social, and emotional changes occur simultaneously and the traumatic effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can be particularly salient for the emotional and cognitive development of adolescents as they navigate and adjust to the social environment (Blakemore & Mills, 2014). Seventy-seven percent of Black adolescents have unmet mental health needs, and only 13% of those adolescents receive services compared to 31% of White adolescents. Meeting mental health needs of Black adolescents is imperative as their mental health needs continue to grow and resources become increasingly scarce. Innovative, culturally acceptable, accessible …


Exploring The Physical And Mental Health Disparities In The Transgender Male Community In A Southern Community-Based Medical Lgbtq Organization, Karen E. Musgrove Jan 2020

Exploring The Physical And Mental Health Disparities In The Transgender Male Community In A Southern Community-Based Medical Lgbtq Organization, Karen E. Musgrove

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This dissertation examined the physical and mental health disparities in the transgender male community in a Southern community-based medical LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) organization via a convergent mixed methods study design. There is a paucity of research on the transgender male community in terms of their physical and mental health care needs, services, and disparities. Quantitative data were col-lected via a chart review of 130 transgender male medical charts at the Magic City Well-ness Center (MCWC). The MCWC transgender male medical chart data were compared to three groups separately of the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) …


Marginalized Models With Heterogeneous Random Effects For Zero-Inflated Longitudinal Count Data, Steve Boateng Ampah Jan 2020

Marginalized Models With Heterogeneous Random Effects For Zero-Inflated Longitudinal Count Data, Steve Boateng Ampah

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Longitudinal count data sometimes called panel data come up most often in publichealth and biomedical research, where investigators are interested in assessing the association between an identified exposure and the correlated count outcomes. It is worth mentioning most of these correlated count data exhibit over-dispersion, excess zeros and heterogeneous properties which when ignored during analysis can lead to biased estimates of covariate effects. The traditional zero-inflated count models with random effects have been developed to analyze such correlated count data, however the two sets of regression coefficients from this model, directly allow subgroup interpretations with the first set of coefficients …