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Trajectories Of Teen Driver Self-Regulation: Role Of Learner Phase Practice And Executive Function, Melanie Grace Albright Jan 2020

Trajectories Of Teen Driver Self-Regulation: Role Of Learner Phase Practice And Executive Function, Melanie Grace Albright

All ETDs from UAB

Motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) continue to claim the lives of many teen drivers each year in the United States despite significant prevention efforts, and the primary contributor to these MVCs is driver behavior. Previous research suggests practice driving in diverse environments during the pre-licensure phase is related to better driving outcomes post-licensure, including a reduced risk of MVCs, especially in the first year of independent driving when teens are at a higher crash risk. The pre-licensure and initial licensure phase typically co-occurs with rapid executive function (EF) development, which may be important for successfully managing the driving task. However, the …


Effects Of Acculturation On Stigma And Knowledge In Relation To Autism Spectrum Disorder Amongst Latino Populations, Monica M. Abdul-Chani Jan 2020

Effects Of Acculturation On Stigma And Knowledge In Relation To Autism Spectrum Disorder Amongst Latino Populations, Monica M. Abdul-Chani

All ETDs from UAB

In the United States, Latino children receive autism diagnoses at a later age compared to non-Latino Black and non-Latino White children (Jo et al., 2015), have the highest rate of misdiagnosis (Magaña, Lopez, Aguinaga, & Morton, 2013), and are more likely to be under-identified (Pedersen et al., 2012). This study examines the presentation of ASD stigma and potentially influencing factors in Latino populations. Through an online survey, 97 Latino and 115 non-Latino White participants were randomly assigned to read one of two vignettes depicting characteristics and symptoms of ASD in lay terms for either their own child (self) or a …


Impact Of Registered Nurse Staffing Ratio On Nursing Home Operating Margins And Quality Measure Star Ratings, Douglas R. Whitman Jan 2020

Impact Of Registered Nurse Staffing Ratio On Nursing Home Operating Margins And Quality Measure Star Ratings, Douglas R. Whitman

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Today’s nursing homes are under immense pressure from government regulators to improve quality while the government simultaneously tightens reimbursement rates. These two forces squeeze operating margins. The question facing nursing home operators is how to improve quality without breaking the bank. This study looks at the association of more registered nurses (RN) with quality and margins in U.S. nursing homes. This research project fills literature gaps which previously found improved nursing home quality correlates with more RNs. However, prior studies used self-reported data and typically considered only two or three quality measures. This study uses recently released electronic payroll data …


Suicidality, Stigma, And Online Help-Seeking, Mercedes Tarasovich Jan 2020

Suicidality, Stigma, And Online Help-Seeking, Mercedes Tarasovich

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Suicide rates in the U.S. have been climbing for over two decades, driving increased suicide prevention efforts nationwide. The population of those who have experienced suicidality or attempted suicide are estimated to be at least 25 times the suicide death rate and are not as well-researched. Stigma regarding the utilization of mental health care services and a fear of institutionalization may affect help-seeking behaviors for individuals who have experienced suicidality, potentially prompting use of more anonymous online sources of support. In this study, I aimed to research whether suicidality and perceived mental health stigma can lead to increased use of …


A Cephalometric Study Of The Effects Of Class Ii Malocclusion Correction Utilizing The Carriere® Motion 3d Appliance And Essix Retainer, Julie Dean Jan 2020

A Cephalometric Study Of The Effects Of Class Ii Malocclusion Correction Utilizing The Carriere® Motion 3d Appliance And Essix Retainer, Julie Dean

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Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the dental and skeletal effects of Class II malocclusion correction with a Carriere® Motion 3D appliance and lower Essix retainer for anchorage, as compared to best-matched controls. Methods: This is a retrospective case-control cephalometric study uses pre- and post-distalization lateral cephalometric images from 44 (32 female, 12 male, average age 13y 7m) class II patients treated with a Carriere® Motion 3D appliance and lower Essix retainer. These films were analyzed to determine treatment effects and compared with 35 (17 female, 18 male, average age 13y 3m) untreated controls from a historical …


Nutrition Transition And Ses As A Fundamental Cause: An Integrative Approach To Examine Weight Status Among Women In Nepal, Sanjeev Acharya Jan 2020

Nutrition Transition And Ses As A Fundamental Cause: An Integrative Approach To Examine Weight Status Among Women In Nepal, Sanjeev Acharya

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The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in developing countries is a public health problem. Globally and in Nepal, women have higher burden of overweight and obesity. Over the recent years, Nepal has made progress in human development and is also experiencing nutrition transition. In this context, the goal of this study is to investigate the change in association between socioeconomic status (SES) and body weight over time, examine whether SES – body mass index (BMI) varies across region and occupation, and test for the double burden of malnutrition among adult women. Using a novel framework that integrates nutrition transition …


The Relationship Between Asthma And Electronic Cigarette Use Among Youth And Young Adults: Mediation And Moderation Approaches, Abdullah M M Alanazi Jan 2020

The Relationship Between Asthma And Electronic Cigarette Use Among Youth And Young Adults: Mediation And Moderation Approaches, Abdullah M M Alanazi

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Asthma is associated with a higher likelihood of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, which may increase the risk of pulmonary complications. Therefore, we sought to identify factors that influence e-cigarette use that may inform future behavior interventions targeting e-cigarette use prevention. In this dissertation, we used mediation and moderation to model the relationship of health beliefs, psychosocial and behavioral factors that may affect the relationship between e-cigarette use and asthma. We used national samples from public datasets, and a clinical sample recruited from healthcare facilities in Alabama. The results of this study are reported in three different papers. In the first …


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 …


Genome-Wide Mirna Regulation Of Stress Susceptibility Across The Brain In A Rodent Model Of Early Life Stress, Lauren Alexis Allen Mckibben Jan 2020

Genome-Wide Mirna Regulation Of Stress Susceptibility Across The Brain In A Rodent Model Of Early Life Stress, Lauren Alexis Allen Mckibben

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Early life stress (ELS) affects a significant portion of the US population in the form of various types of abuse and neglect, as well as household dysfunction and loss of a loved one, among others. Although these experiences happen early in life, they increase risk for mental health disorders, especially major depression (MDD), across the lifespan. MDD is a debilitating psychiatric disorder marked by periods of depressed mood and loss of pleasure in once enjoyable activities. Patients with MDD also report trouble sleeping, unintentional weight loss or gain, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal ideation. MDD is associated with annual $100 …


Rab27 And 14-3-3 Mediated Regulation Of Alpha-Synuclein Pathology, Rachel Nicole Underwood Jan 2020

Rab27 And 14-3-3 Mediated Regulation Of Alpha-Synuclein Pathology, Rachel Nicole Underwood

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Alpha-synuclein (αsyn) is the key component of proteinaceous aggregates termed Lewy Bodies (LBs) that pathologically define a group of disorders known as synucleinopathies, including Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). αSyn is thought to misfold and spread throughout the brain in a prion-like fashion. Transmission of αsyn necessitates the release of misfolded αsyn from one cell and the uptake of that αsyn by another, in which it templates the misfolding of endogenous αsyn. Identifying regulators of this process is essential to understanding how αsyn propagates and furthers disease progression. In this study, we investigated Rab27 and 14-3-3θ …


T Cells In Synucleinopathies, Gregory Paul Williams Jan 2020

T Cells In Synucleinopathies, Gregory Paul Williams

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Synucleinopathies, which include Parkinson disease (PD), dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA), are a collection of neurodegenerative diseases that are in major part defined by the presence of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) rich protein aggregates in the brain. Increasing evidence has highlighted a neuroinflammatory phenotype also associated with these synucleinopathies. This neuroinflammatory phenotype includes the activation of central nervous system (CNS) microglia, increased pro-inflammatory cytokines, and the infiltration of peripheral T cells into the CNS. We sought to further explore the T cell responses associated with PD and MSA. Using two preclinical mouse models of PD and MSA, …


Co-Factors In Fgf Signaling, Christopher Yanucil Jan 2020

Co-Factors In Fgf Signaling, Christopher Yanucil

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The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family consists of a group of proteins whose diverse biological functions are mediated by receptor tyrosine kinases, termed FGF receptors (FGFR) 1-4. While paracrine FGFs require heparin sulfate as a co-factor for FGFR bind-ing and signaling, it has been assumed that endocrine FGFs, such as FGF23, do not bind heparin but instead require klotho, a family of transmembrane proteins, as a co-receptor on specific target cells. FGF23 acts as bone-derived hormone that targets tubular epitheli-al cells in the kidney via FGFR1 and α-klotho to reduce renal phosphate uptake. In chron-ic kidney disease (CKD), the kidney …


Network-Based Analytics For Discovering Gene Modules And Biomarkers In Complex Diseases, Zongliang Yue Jan 2020

Network-Based Analytics For Discovering Gene Modules And Biomarkers In Complex Diseases, Zongliang Yue

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With rapidly increasing novel discoveries of associations between genomic data and complex disease phenotypes, the translation of those associations into knowledge and the identification of critical molecular mechanisms are essential to guild clinical decisions such as the diagnosis of symptomatic individuals, the prediction of disease risk, reproductive genetic counseling, and determining pharmacogenetic profiles for treatment. To decipher the genome of complex diseases, gene-centric analyses focus on detecting molecular mechanisms lead by driver genetics variants, abnormally expressed genes and high-abundance proteins through gene module construction. Additionally, the gene module construction approaches implement systems biology analysis to reveal the causative co-expressed gene …


Development Of Natural Language Processing Algorithm For Dental Charting, Yi-Fan Zhang Jan 2020

Development Of Natural Language Processing Algorithm For Dental Charting, Yi-Fan Zhang

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Purpose: The purpose was to develop a natural language processing algorithm, which will input data from oral examination transcripts to a structured database. Methods: Four case vignettes were produced for primary, mixed, and permanent dentition patients with varying degree of soft tissue pathology, caries, existing restorations and occlusion relationships. After calibration, dental students were instructed to perform simulated oral examinations based on the case vignettes, using natural language as they would to an assistant who was charting the case. The investigator transcribed the audio recordings of the simulated oral exams. Twenty simulated oral examinations were collected to develop a natural …


Dietary Nitrate And The Oral Microbiome In Obesity, Health And Exercise, Christian E. Behrens Jan 2020

Dietary Nitrate And The Oral Microbiome In Obesity, Health And Exercise, Christian E. Behrens

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Obesity ranks among the top growing health concerns worldwide. The prevalence of obesity at all life stages continues to rise with nearly 40% of adults and 35% of children/adolescents being affected. Equally troublesome is the increased risk for a number of comorbidities associated with obesity including cardiovascular disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and certain types of cancer. The successful treatment of obesity, particularly long-term, continues to prove challenging and is often met with limited success. This highlights the importance of continued investigation into alternative strategies that may reduce the incidence and severity of obesity and associated pathophysiologies. Regular physical …


Parents’ Personal Characteristics In Explaining Perceptions Of Infant Temperament, Logan Boe Jan 2020

Parents’ Personal Characteristics In Explaining Perceptions Of Infant Temperament, Logan Boe

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Although a popular topic in developmental psychology research, straightforward ways to interpret measurements of infant temperament (IT) are lacking. Notably, parental personal characteristics, such as psychological distress and regulatory abilities, and resources available to parents may influence parents’ IT reports. The aims of the current project were to: 1) determine if parental characteristics mediate the association between IT and household income; 2) determine if personal resources available to parents (social support, coping, partner satisfaction) moderate the relationships between parental characteristics and IT; and 3) determine which parental characteristics predict differences between mothers’ and fathers’ IT reports. Prenatally, 201 mothers and …


Measuring Student Attitudes Toward Offenders: The Potential Mediating Role Of Familial Incarceration, Susan Faith Boyd Jan 2020

Measuring Student Attitudes Toward Offenders: The Potential Mediating Role Of Familial Incarceration, Susan Faith Boyd

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Each year hundreds of thousands of ex-offenders are released from U.S. jails and prisons to return to their communities. After release, ex-offenders’ families can play a critical role in helping their loved ones re-adjust to life outside of prison as well as meet the terms of their release; however, the severe financial, emotional, and social hardships associated with reentry have great potential to strengthen or weaken ex-offenders’ family support networks. The current study sought to explore how attitudes toward offenders differ between offenders’ family members and individuals who have never experienced familial incarceration. Adaptations of The Attitudes Toward Prisoners Scale …


Symbolic Annihilation, The Politics Of (Mis)Representation, And The Stress And Health Of Millennial Black Women, Chenoia Nicole Bryant Jan 2020

Symbolic Annihilation, The Politics Of (Mis)Representation, And The Stress And Health Of Millennial Black Women, Chenoia Nicole Bryant

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The (mis)representation of Black populations in media has been extensively explored and critiqued by several scholars. From their introduction into media through radio to their visi-bility in television and news, the tropes of Black womanhood have carried over from colo-nialist perspectives to present day. Considering race and gender as cultural structures con-straining Black women through the assignment of stereotypical scripts, it is important to consider how, when and where Black women’s agency enters. Negative racialized and gendered stereotypes are informed by culture at large, but Black women’s agency impacts the interpretation of these (mis)representations, offering space for both conformity and …


Cognitive Factors And Treatment Adherence In Individuals With Cystic Fibrosis, Benjamin Edwin Burgess Jan 2020

Cognitive Factors And Treatment Adherence In Individuals With Cystic Fibrosis, Benjamin Edwin Burgess

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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening chronic illness which requires adherence to a many complex and time-consuming treatments. Adherence is suboptimal in this population. Thus, it is important to consider predictors of treatment adherence. Research has evaluated a number of cognitive factors that are related to adherence in groups with chronic illnesses, including those with CF. The present study considers three factors (health locus of control (HLC), perceived social support, and perceived disease severity) in order to address important gaps in the literature evaluating their relationships with treatment adherence. For each of these factors, the current research is limited by …


Epigenetic Regulation In Cancer And Development, Theodore Busby Jan 2020

Epigenetic Regulation In Cancer And Development, Theodore Busby

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Feedback loops between cellular cues and changes in gene expression mediate the interactions between a multitude of regulatory events that promote development and cancer. Vesicular trafficking is an important process in carrying out signaling events by transporting receptors and ligands to and from the cell surface. GBF1 and BIG1 are large guanine-exchange factors (GEFs) that activate GTPase mediated shuttling of cargo through the Golgi apparatus. This dissertation demonstrates that GBF1 localizes to the cytoplasmic membrane in glioblastoma multiform cells to maintain cell shape and promote migration. Reports have shown that BIG1translocates to the nucleus is hepatocyte carcinoma cell lines in …


Understanding Adolescent Sexual Health Through Exploration Of Their Perceptions, Behaviors, And Beliefs, Jessica L. Corcoran Jan 2020

Understanding Adolescent Sexual Health Through Exploration Of Their Perceptions, Behaviors, And Beliefs, Jessica L. Corcoran

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Adolescents in the United States disproportionately experience adverse sexual health outcomes compared to adolescents in other developed countries. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide an in-depth examination of adolescent sexual health through the generation of three manuscripts. The first manuscript will provide an integrative review of adolescents’ perceptions of sexual health education programs. The second manuscript will illuminate the five-year trends in adolescent chlamydia rates by region, race, and sex. The third manuscript will provide a qualitative analysis from interviews with African American adolescent females in the southern U.S. Manuscript one reviewed studies from 2008 to 2019. The …


Enhancer Rnas As Regulators Of Gene Expression And Neuronal Function, Nancy Verena Nicole Carullo Jan 2020

Enhancer Rnas As Regulators Of Gene Expression And Neuronal Function, Nancy Verena Nicole Carullo

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Genomic enhancers are cis-regulatory elements in the DNA that exhibit spatial and temporal control over intricate gene expression programs shaping fate and function of heterogeneous cell populations in the developing and adult brain. In addition to their role in cellular development and maintenance, enhancer activity drives transcriptional changes in response to stimulation. Active enhancers are subject to bidirectional transcription that yields non-coding enhancer RNAs (eR-NAs). However, the functional role of eRNAs in transcriptional regulation remains controversial. Therefore, we used primary neuronal cultures to investigate en-hancers and eRNAs in the rat genome. We identified and verified enhancer-gene pairs, characterized their response …


Disparities In End-Of-Life Care In Children Dying Of Cancer In Alabama: A Cross Sectional Study, Elizabeth Statham Davis Jan 2020

Disparities In End-Of-Life Care In Children Dying Of Cancer In Alabama: A Cross Sectional Study, Elizabeth Statham Davis

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Regional studies show that children dying of cancer receive medically intense end-of-life care but there is limited information about end-of-life care in the Deep South and limited information about hospice and palliative care involvement at EOL. We conducted a retrospective electronic medical record review of children (0-x years) that died of cancer between 2010-20199 who received cancer directed therapy at Children’s of Alabama. We collected patient clinical and sociodemographics factors, including sex, race, and area deprivation index, cancer diagnosis and treatment, palliative care and hospice involvement, location of death, and medical care in the last 30d of life, including chemotherapy …


Obesity-Induced Immune Dysfunction: Implications For Anti- Tumor Immunity And Immunotherapeutic Efficacy, Justin Tyler Gibson Jan 2020

Obesity-Induced Immune Dysfunction: Implications For Anti- Tumor Immunity And Immunotherapeutic Efficacy, Justin Tyler Gibson

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In the US, nearly 40% of adults have obesity. Further, obesity is known toincrease the risk for development, recurrence, and mortality associated with multiple types of cancer. However, despite such high prevalence, the impact of excess body weight on anti-tumor immunity and response to immunotherapeutics remains poorly and incompletely understood. In order to address these deficiencies, we have utilized multiple approaches to study obesity-associated perturbations in the immunogenetic, soluble protein, and cellular profiles of mice bearing mammary tumors and treatment naive human subjects with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). In a pre-clinical murine model of breast cancer, we find …


Denervation Supersensitivity Of Βeta-Adrenergic Receptors In A Prodromal Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, The Tgf344-Ad Rat, Anthoni Goodman Jan 2020

Denervation Supersensitivity Of Βeta-Adrenergic Receptors In A Prodromal Model Of Alzheimer's Disease, The Tgf344-Ad Rat, Anthoni Goodman

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The central noradrenergic (NA) system is critical for maintenance of attention, behavioral flexibility, spatial navigation, and learning and memory, those cognitive functions lost first in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In fact, the locus coeruleus (LC), the major source of norepinephrine (NE) in brain, is the first site of pathological tau accumulation in human AD associated with axon loss throughout forebrain, including hippocampus. The dentate gyrus (DG) is heavily innervated by LC-NA axons, where released norepinephrine (NE) acts on β adrenergic receptors (ARs) at excitatory synapses from entorhinal cortex (EC) to facilitate long-term synaptic plasticity and memory formation. These synapses show …


Il-17 Producing Cd4 T Cells In Spontaneous Germinal Center And Autoantibody Formation In Murine Lupus, Huixian Hong Jan 2020

Il-17 Producing Cd4 T Cells In Spontaneous Germinal Center And Autoantibody Formation In Murine Lupus, Huixian Hong

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IL-23 promotes autoimmune disease, including Th17 CD4 T-cell development and autoantibody (autoAb) production. Here, we show that a deficiency of the p19 component of IL-23 in the autoimmune BXD2 (BXD2-p19−/−) mouse leads to a shift of the follicular T-helper cell program from Tfh-IL-17 to Tfh-IFN-ɣ. Although the germinal center (GC) size and the number of GC B cells remained the same, BXD2-p19−/− mice exhibited a lower class-switch recombination (CSR) in the GC B cells, leading to lower serum levels of IgG2b. Single-cell transcriptomics analysis of GC B cells revealed that while Ifngr1, Il21r and Il4r genes exhibited a synchronized expression …


Examining The Role Of Neighborhood Quality On The Association Of Mammography Adherence Among Racial/Ethnic Groups, Roman Johnson Jan 2020

Examining The Role Of Neighborhood Quality On The Association Of Mammography Adherence Among Racial/Ethnic Groups, Roman Johnson

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Although several racial/ethnic minority women groups (e.g., Latina, Black, Asian-American, and Native-American women) have lower breast cancer incidence than white women, they are more likely to die from breast cancer. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is racial/ethnic differences in mammography use. Mammography has been shown to contribute to the discovery of tumor proliferation earlier which translates to less breast cancer complications like greater risk of breast cancer-related mortality. Previous studies on racial/ethnic differences in mammography adherence (e.g., annual and biannual mammography adherence) have been inconclusive, and they generally overlook important contextual factors, namely neighborhood quality and geographic location (e.g., …


Is Ambition Consequential? Exploring The Association Between Depressive Symptomatology And The Educational Expectation Trajectories And Achievements Of Immigrant Youth, Fabrice Stanley Julien Jan 2020

Is Ambition Consequential? Exploring The Association Between Depressive Symptomatology And The Educational Expectation Trajectories And Achievements Of Immigrant Youth, Fabrice Stanley Julien

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Concerning mental health outcomes, immigrant youth are a particularly vulnerable population. The lack of health care access contributes to aggrandized and unmet mental health needs. This research explores how the social positions of immigrant families influence stress exposure and contribute to a worsening of well-being. Past research points to the societal stressors experienced by these young people, as significant predictors of their well-being. But what occurs when the source of stress originates within the home? Specifically, this study examines how stress, educational expectations and academic achievement influence the depressive symptomatology of immigrant youth. Education is a widely recognized predictor of …


Pharmacodynamic Responses And Efficacies Associated With Lrrk2 Inhibition, Kaela Kelly Jan 2020

Pharmacodynamic Responses And Efficacies Associated With Lrrk2 Inhibition, Kaela Kelly

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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is an age-related, progressive, movement disorder pathologically characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and the presence of proteinaceous aggregates, termed Lewy bodies, that are largely comprised of αSynuclein (αSyn). Missense mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase (LRRK2) gene are the most common genetic cause of PD and lead to gain-of-function increases in kinase activity. The G2019S-LRRK2 mutation is the most frequent mutation and elevates kinase activity by ~2-3 fold. Genetic and biochemical evidence suggest elevated LRRK2 kinase activity plays a pathogenic role in the development of PD, implicating LRRK2 …


The Effect Of Gi Patients' Health Literacy Levels On Gi Patients' Health Outcomes, Dae Hyun Kim Jan 2020

The Effect Of Gi Patients' Health Literacy Levels On Gi Patients' Health Outcomes, Dae Hyun Kim

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The paper in this dissertation provide empirical evidence on the effect of GI patients’ health literacy levels on GI patients’ health outcomes. The findings of this study contribute to existing body of literature on health literacy and health outcomes. Furthermore, the findings also offer both theoretical and practical implications to physicians, healthcare administrators, and policymakers. Overall, the results of this study show that GI patients’ health literacy levels are negatively associated with GI patients’ health outcomes (hospital length of stay, readmission, and complication). However, partial support was shown for different types of GI surgeries accentuating the negative association between GI …