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The Role Of Cell Death Mechanisms In Sars-Cov-2 And Respiratory Rna Viruses: From Pathogenesis To Potential Therapeutic Strategies, Sarah Jamal

Biology Honors Theses

Emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) resulted in the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic that affected populations globally for several recent years. While effective vaccines have been developed as the major antiviral strategy against COVID-19, hospitalizations and severe long-term conditions of SARS-CoV-2 patients are still occurring. Cell death mechanisms are known to play a significant role in antiviral host defense mechanisms. However, recent research indicates that cell death may also be involved in the viral pathophysiology associated with coronavirus infection, and determining treatments based on mediators of dysregulated cell death can have advantageous applications for severe cases of …

A Comprehensive Review: Cell Death Pathways And Their Role In Viral Infections, Hala Salama

Biology Honors Theses

Cell death is an integral biological process that plays a critical role in maintaining tissue homeostasis, regulating immune responses, and eliminating damaged or infected cells. There are several different types of cell death pathways, each with their own intricate pathways and results on the afflicted cells. Investigating the different cell death pathways is essential for understanding how organisms manage their cells and respond to stress in their environment. Not only can cell death be a spontaneous process in response to traumatic events, cell death is often a programmed mechanism of the cell which enables them to survive under stressful conditions. …

Mathematical Modeling To Support Public Health Officials With Evaluating Immunization And Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention Strategies During And Outside Periods Of Outbreak Response, Gabriel Rainisch

Public Health Dissertations

A growing number of public health officials rely on mathematical modeling to aid in making decisions, especially during outbreak responses. Math models simulate health phenomenon with equations and are useful for forecasting a disease’s progression in a population and evaluating the potential effects of interventions. We generated three models to aid practicing health officials with addressing real-world issues.

The first model estimates the impact of immunization strategies on RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) among infants <12 months. Users input RSV burden and seasonality and examine the influence of altering product efficacy and uptake assumptions. We used the model to evaluate anticipated immunization products among a US birth cohort. We estimated without immunization, 339,650 – 475,980 LRTIs are attended annually in outpatient clinics, 126,070 – 168,510 in emergency departments (EDs), and 24,760 – 42,900 in hospitals. A passive antibody candidate given to all infants prevented the most LRTIs: 48% of outpatient visits without immunization, 51% of ED visits, and 55% of hospitalizations.

Our second model creates projections of healthcare demand during the early phase of the COVID19 pandemic and evaluates the impacts of social-distancing interventions. Users …

Sars-Cov-2 Receptor-Binding Domain-Based Mucosal Covid-19 Vaccines, Melissa L. Palacios

Biomedical Sciences Theses

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak originating in Wuhan, China in late 2019, declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization, and led to widespread hospitalizations and deaths, prompting a global shutdown. As time progressed, variants emerged, and a solution was needed to prevent the spread. Vaccines and therapeutics were developed, but current vaccines are not able to neutralize all variants and do not have the capability to induce effective mucosal immunity. This study investigates two proteins targeting the receptor-binding domain of the wild-type strain and Omicron variant that are glycosylated and tagged with the Fc …

Sisters Of Conspiracy: A Feminist Analysis Of Evangelical, New Age, And Qanon Movements In Contemporary American Politics., Rachael Rollings

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

This thesis explores the link between New Age ideology, Evangelical Christianity, Qanon and the weaponization of women's body autonomy. It delves into how these factors have brought women into the Qanon conspiracy, leading them to engage in COVID denial, anti-vax movements, spreading medical misinformation, Qanon propaganda, and right-wing beliefs. Employing qualitative data analysis, cyberethnography, and feminist analysis, the research identifies online behavior, shared values, and beliefs in wellness, spiritual, and alt-right spaces through specific hashtags. This thesis focuses on a small set of social media hashtags on Facebook and Instagram between 2016 to 2020, revealing connections and shared agendas between …

Respiratory Therapy Students' Perception On Online Learning During Covid-19 In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Faisal A. Alshehri

Respiratory Therapy Theses

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic learning (E-learning) has emerged as the primary method for delivering educational materials, particularly within the scope of Saudi Arabian (SA) Respiratory Therapy (RT) education. PURPOSE: To evaluate the perception of E-learning among RT students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) by comparing face-to-face learning to E-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey to investigate the perception of E-learning was conducted and distributed using a convenience sample of RT students through an online platform (Google Forms) between September and November 2023. RESULTS: Overall, 221 RT students, with females accounting for …

Application Of Epidemiologic Methods To Investigate The Heterogenous Impact Of Covid-19, Sushma Dahal

Public Health Dissertations

Epidemiologic methods have been critical in shedding light on the dynamics and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including monitoring and quantifying morbidity and mortality over time to guide prevention and mitigation strategies. Here we apply different epidemiologic methods across different geospatial levels, population groups, and time scales to investigate the impact of COVID-19 using epidemiological data from Mexico.

In the first study, we assess the mortality impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by estimating absolute and relative excess mortality above an expected level of deaths and employ a generalized logistic growth model to generate short-term forecasts of excess mortality. We also …

Comparing The Mortality Trends Of Covid - 19 Comorbidities And Recommendations For The Population At Risk, Ogechukwu Igbokwe

Public Health Theses

AIM: The aim of this research is to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mortality rates among people in the United States with comorbid diabetes or cardiovascular disease (CVD)

METHODS: We utilized mortality data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the years 2018–2021. Annual mortality rates were reported, including all-cause mortality, and mortality rates with COVID-19, diabetes and cardiovascular disease listed as a primary or underlying cause of death.

RESULT: Compared to 2018, there was a substantial increase in all-cause mortality across 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively (0.9%, 18.4% and 20.3%). At the same time, we …

The Prevalence Of Sleep Disturbance And Anxiety Among Saudi Respiratory Therapists During The Covid-19 Winter Of 2022., Asim Madkhali

Respiratory Therapy Theses

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The level of anxiety and sleep disturbances among healthcare providers plays an essential role in overcoming epidemics, especially those on the front lines. It is the responsibility of RTs to provide care to patients with respiratory illnesses. Because of their importance in the health care team, respiratory therapists must have good mental health to do their job to the fullest. It is necessary to identify the subpopulations of healthcare workers who are particularly vulnerable to sleep deprivation and anxiety to characterize them to develop targeted interventions and plan for future crises. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was …

Racial Residential Segregation And Covid-19 Mortality, Suresh Nath Neupane

Geosciences Theses

Studies have shown that the social and physical environments are strong predictors of the health of the urban population. This study investigates if racial residential segregation has any impact on the poor health outcome of residents in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a cross-sectional study with 8, 668, 744 observations at the individual level. The hierarchical logistic regression conducted to investigate the association between race and residential segregation with COVID-19 mortality showed that a one unit increase in segregation is associated with a 1 % increase in mortality. Furthermore, people from Black and Asian ethnic communities were more …

Epidemiological Game-Theory Dynamics Of The Co-Evolution Of Infodemic And Pandemic With Vaccination, Seyifunmi Michael Owoeye

Mathematics Theses

COVID-19 pandemic, a highly infectious disease, has led to unprecedented health and socio-economic crisis worldwide. Accompanied by COVID-19 and its vaccination is an overabundance of misinformation promoting unhealthy practices among individuals. We propose a stratified SIS model incorporating an evolutionary game theoretical framework to help understand the simultaneous progression of pandemic and infodemic when vaccination is available. We consider two domains, disease and information domain, and assume that the information domain consists of the good and bad-behaving individuals. We assume that only the infected individuals with bad information can produce secondary cases of the infection. Findings indicate that the weight …

Neuropathogenesis Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection In Mice, Pratima Kumari

Biology Dissertations

Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in humans primarily causes respiratory disease; some patients develop symptoms of neurological disease, such as headache, loss of taste and smell, cognitive dysfunction, and impaired consciousness. In this study, we analyzed the tissue tropism, immune response, and pathology in human ACE2-expressing (hACE2) mice after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Intranasal infection of hACE2 mice with SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a lethal disease with high levels of virus replication in the brain tissue. SARS-CoV-2-infected mice exhibited encephalitis hallmarks characterized by production of cytokines and chemokines, leukocyte infiltration, hemorrhage, and neuronal cell death. SARS-CoV-2 was also found to …

Comparative Assessment Of Methodology To Forecast And Assess The Transmission Potential Of Epidemics/Pandemics, Amna Tariq

Public Health Dissertations

Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases present one of the most important health and security risks to humanity. Mathematical models and statistical and simulation approaches can be useful tools to assess the disease transmission dynamics and forecast the epidemic trends in near real time to inform the public health policies.

We employ mathematical and statistical methods to assess transmission dynamics and forecast the trajectory of epidemics in context of the COVID-19 pandemic in four Latin American countries. Our first investigation utilizes time-series case incidence data from Peru modeled by the generalized growth model to short-term forecast the pandemic trajectory and estimate …

How Adverse Childhood Trauma Affects Coping Behaviors And Anxiety In College Students During Covid-19: A Neurobiological Perspective, Harshita Yepuri

Neuroscience Institute Theses

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has uprooted college students out of the traditional college environment and placed additional stressors on them, yet its effects are still emerging. In the present study, 329 college students (M_age=19.74, SD_age= 1.96) completed measures of generalized anxiety, behavioral coping, and adverse childhood experiences between July 2020 and March 2021 of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is hypothesized that more adverse childhood experiences would be associated with more maladaptive behavioral coping strategies. In addition, less adaptive coping strategies would be positively associated with more anxiety among college students. Results indicated that negative …

Epidemic Vulnerability Index: Vaccine Dissemination Criteria For Successful Resolution To Epidemics, Hunmin Lee

Computer Science Theses

Vaccination is the preventative measure that effectively decelerates the virus proliferation in a community. A successful response strategy toward pandemics can be obtained through selecting the optimal vaccine distribution route and minimizing the casualties by lowering the death rate and infection rate. In this thesis paper, we propose the Epidemic Vulnerability Index (EVI) that quantifies the potential risk of the subject via analyzing the COVID-19 patient dataset that correlates with mortality and social network analysis that affects the infection rate. We propagate the virus and vaccination in an Agent-based model based on real-world statistics of physical connections and features to …

Reducing Feelings Of Unpreparedness Experienced By Registered Nurses Assigned The Care Of Covid-19 Positive Individuals With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Dana N. Scott

Nursing Doctoral Projects (DNP)

Background: Nurses assigned the care of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) individuals, practice within a fragmented healthcare system. Nurses face barriers of patient competence and capacity to consent, communication challenges, a shortage of specialty providers, and fiscal limitation. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered requests from registered nurses, for guidance related to the care of individuals with IDD and diagnosed with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2, the COVID-19 virus.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to reduce, through the administration of in-service, feelings of unpreparedness experienced by registered nurses caring for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities …

A Mathematical Model For Co-Evolution Of Pandemic And Infodemic With Vaccine, Anthony Morciglio

Mathematics Theses

Vaccine hesitancy, resulting from bad information, threatens the possibility of ending the COVID-19 pandemic through mass vaccination. The COVID-19 pandemic coincides with an overabundance of controversial information regarding disease transmission and public health mitigation approaches. We investigate a phenomenological co-evolution of pandemic and infodemic in the context of COVID-19 with an emphasis on evolutionary game theory. Using bifurcation analysis, we determine the limit cycle boundaries and the separation of attraction between stable foci of infection and periodic outbreaks of infection. Our results suggest that low risk perception of vaccination relative to infection is not sufficient to eradicate the disease; promotion …

'We Want Women?': An Examination Of Female Political Leadership During National Public Health Crises, Kelsi Rae Quick

Political Science Theses

While crises of terrorism have often prompted preference for male leadership, COVID-19 poses an ideal situation for examining the impact of gender stereotypes on executive approval in a new type of crisis tied to public health, seen as more of a ‘woman’s domain.’ Employing a survey experiment to examine public perception of male and female political leadership during different types of hypothetical national crises (terrorism v. highly contagious virus), this study ultimately finds that there is not a significant difference in average approval ratings between male and female executives in the virus crisis context, and a small difference with females …

Attitudes, Practices, And Perceptions Towards Covid-19 Patients Among Respiratory Therapists In Saudi Arabia., Rayan Almadni

Respiratory Therapy Theses

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 3 million people across the world, with more than 160 million cases reported. Respiratory therapists (RTs) play an important role in the treatment of COVID-19, including managing ventilators and administering breathing treatments. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate attitudes, practices, and perceptions about COVID-19 disease and the COVID-19 vaccine among respiratory therapists in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: The study utilized an online, cross-sectional survey with 36 questions administered to a convenience sample of RTs in Saudi Arabia. The survey is …

Moving Toward Successful Implementation Of Digital Mental Health Interventions: Improving User Attitudes And Evaluating User Behavior, Anthony Molloy

Psychology Dissertations

This European-style dissertation examines strategies to improve user attitudes, encourage uptake, and evaluate user engagement for digital mental health interventions. This research is discussed in the context of efforts to successfully design, implement, and sustain digital mental health services in clinical settings. In the first chapter, I discuss the need for digital mental health interventions and strategies to implement them sustainably. This includes the burden of mental illness in the United States, poor access to traditional mental health treatment, the efficacy of digital mental health interventions, and challenges in implementation. In the second chapter, I present an experimental study that …

The Impact Of Social Disruption As A Result Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Children With Gastrointestinal Disorders, Abigail Robbertz

Psychology Theses

It is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children with gastrointestinal conditions. This cross-sectional study assessed the impact of social disruption from the pandemic on children with gastrointestinal conditions, and the potential moderating effect of the parent-child relationship. An online survey completed between September - December 2020 asked 185 parents and 146 of their children (ages 8-17) diagnosed with IBD (n = 44), celiac disease (n = 81), and IBS (n = 51) how the pandemic has contributed to social disruption, and child and parent well-being. Increased social disruption predicted worse parent and child well-being. The …

Leveraging Federal Policies To Prevent And Respond To Communicable Disease Outbreaks, Samuel Clasp

Public Health Dissertations

Leveraging Federal Policies to Prevent and Respond to Communicable Disease Outbreaks in Skilled Nursing Facilities

Objective: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic significantly impacted the health, safety and well-being of patients and healthcare workers in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) across the United States (US), resulting in approximately 1.2 million confirmed cases, and 134,000 deaths as of May 30, 2021. The purpose of this study was to apply principles of legal research to identify federal policies aimed at preventing and responding to communicable disease outbreaks in SNFs, to assess these policies based on current evidence and expert opinions, and to provide policy proposals …

Genomic Epidemiology Analysis Of Sars-Cov-2 Transmission Dynamics In Belarus, Ayotomiwa Ezekiel Adeniyi

Chemistry Theses

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has brought about the need for the implementation of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) by governments and public health departments to fight the spread of the virus. Belarus, a small country in the eastern part of Europe implemented a small amount of NPI protocols to control the spread of the virus.

This thesis focuses on the usage of genomic epidemiological methods to analyze the origin and spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Belarus. Results showed that the number of case introductions and exports to other countries are indeed substantial. It was detected that the Belarussian SARS-CoV-2 genetic …

Understanding The Demographics, Behaviors, Attitudes And The Perceived Barriers That Impede Covid-19 Public Health Mitigation Measures Among Residents Of Metro Atlanta, Yomi Bello

Public Health Theses

UNDERSTANDING THE DEMOGRAPHICS, BEHAVIORS, ATTITUDES, AND THE PERCEIVED BARRIERS THAT IMPEDE COVID-19 PUBLIC HEALTH MITIGATION MEASURES AMONG RESIDENTS OF METRO ATLANTA.

By

Yomi Bello

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: The novel COVID-19 is responsible for enormous medical costs, lost earnings, diminished economy, and thousands of deaths in the United States. Face mask-wearing, social distancing, and handwashing habits are effective prevention methods for minimizing the spread of COVID-19 virus infection. However, despite the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Public Health Advisory Committee (PHAC) recommendations in favor of the above non-pharmacological methods, many people are hesitant to adhere to COVID-19 …

Industry 4.0 Technology: A Cross-Industry View Of Adoption, Usage And Covid-19 Effects, Dawn Gregory

Business Administration Dissertations

Industry 4.0 technology (I4.0) is inescapable. It transforms the way businesses and customers interact and revolutionizes how organizations produce goods and services (SAP Insights, 2020). It requires a level of agility that many organizations do not possess. Defending against disruptive business models is no longer enough. Organizations must be nimble to optimize assets and resources in response to adversity. In March 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic ushered a devastating blow to the U.S. economy and job market with pervasive shocks that continue to be a business threat. In response, many organizations are accelerating automation, digitization, and communication capabilities to close …

Research Proposal: Covid-19 Pandemic And Birth Experiences: Describing The Relationship Between Policies And The Birth Experiences Of Georgia Mothers, Katherine Thornburgh

Public Health Capstone Projects

ABSTRACT

RESEARCH PROPOSAL: COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND BIRTH EXPERIENCES: DESCRIBING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POLICIES AND THE BIRTH EXPERIENCES OF GEORGIA MOTHERS

By

KATHERINE RAECHEL THORNBURGH

B.S., KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY

December 5, 2020

INTRODUCTION: A pandemic such as COVID-19 increases stress during pregnancy or early development that can have an adverse effect on the health of an individual. Additionally, COVID-19 affects pregnancy and birth experiences by reducing the number of support personnel and the number of in-person appointments, and possibly potentially separating mother and newborn in the case of a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 status.

The purpose of this capstone is to …