Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Mitochondrial And Lysosomal Damage In Neurotoxicity From Parkinson 'S-Related Environmental Exposures, Neda Ilieva

ETDs from 2020-2029

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive motor neurodegenerative disorder with a predominantly idiopathic etiology. More recently, however, the contribution of exogenous risk factors such as environmental contaminants has become of interest. Some endogenous genetic risk factors have been well characterized, but the mechanisms by which exogenous insults, such as environmental contaminants, drive dopaminergic neurodegeneration remain incompletely understood. This dissertation will address how environmental contaminants converge on mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction to activate parallel neurotoxic signaling pathways, with a focus on the LRRK2 kinase and the cGAS-STING innate immune pathway. Chapter 2 demonstrates that pharmacological inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity protects …

June 12, 2026 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

June 10, 2026 Blazer Weekly, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

Blazer Weekly (student newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Emotion Work In Emergency Communication Workers: A Mixed-Methods Analysis On Well-Being, Katherine Luann Sweeney

ETDs from 2020-2029

Emergency communication workers play a vital role in public safety and healthcare, but they are frequently an overlooked population when studying well-being. With a survey sample size of N=336, and an interview sample size of N=24, this dissertation utilizes a mixed-methods approach to explore what kind of factors influence dispatcher well-being. The mixed-methods findings lead to three important outcomes. First, there are detrimental consequences of shift work on dispatchers’ overall health. Second, dispatchers report high levels of emotional exhaustion, stress, and trauma exposure. The qualitative findings suggest that the rewards associated with helping people outweigh the mental health consequences. Lastly, …

June 9, 2026 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

June 5, 2026 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between The Environment And Pollution With Surgical Outcomes And Disparities, Wendelyn Marie Oslock

ETDs from 2020-2029

Air pollution exposure has been linked to many surgically managed diseases and adverse health events that occur in the postoperative period. Despite this, the impact of air pollution on postoperative recovery is poorly understood. This knowledge gap may be one of the underlying mechanisms for persistent disparities in surgical outcomes. Previous studies have found racial and economic disparities in air pollution exposure. These same communities have been shown to experience worse surgical outcomes. The goal of this thesis is to explore if exposure to air pollution impacts surgical outcomes and determine if disparities in socioeconomic factors impact this relationship. The …

Predictors And Outcomes Of Reading Intervention Success In Autistic Children: Memory And Brain Connectivity, Meagan Elizabeth Beckerson

ETDs from 2020-2029

Reading comprehension is a complex skill that relies on linguistic and cognitive abilities, including executive control processes. Creating a cohesive representation of text involves maintaining visual and verbal information in short term memory (STM) and using executive control skills to integrate information, apply it to questions, and draw inferences. Many autistic children demonstrate strong individual word reading (decoding) but poor comprehension, resulting in a discrepant reading profile. The role of STM and executive control—along with the underlying neural systems that support these processes—in reading comprehension and response to intervention has not been examined in autistic children with this profile. The …

Distribution, Abundance And Habitat Utilization Of Sea Turtles In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, With An Emphasis On Coastal Mississippi, Theresa Rose Madrigal

ETDs from 2020-2029

The Gulf of Mexico represents important habitat for a variety of sea turtle species. This includes habitats for the various life history stages ranging from the oceanic stage of hatchling and post-hatchling turtles, neritic subadults, to the adult foraging and reproduc-tive stages. In contrast to many areas of the Gulf of Mexico, there has been a limited amount of data reported on sea turtle nesting as well as sea turtle foraging and develop-mental habitat in the north central Gulf of Mexico. This thesis includes two studies which investigate the importance of the coastal areas of Mississippi as sea turtle habitat. …

Targeting Inflammatory And Growth Signaling Pathways In Breast Cancer Through Diet, Microbiome, And Metabolite Interactions, Brittany Lorraine Witt

ETDs from 2020-2029

Breast cancer (BC) accounts for 1 in 3 (or 30%) of all new female cancers each year and is the most common malignant cancer in women in the United States. Since the 1990s, there has been a 44% decrease in BC, but there is still a significant gap between certain groups in terms of mortality rates. Black women have a higher mortality rate and risk for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This may be due to social (inadequate access to health care facilities, insurance, or completion of therapy) and biological (genetic mutations, tumor characteristics, or comorbidity) factors between races and other …

June 2, 2026 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Lesson Plan For Dataone Lifecycle’S “Describe” Stage Using Historical Data From The Alabama Insane Hospital Annual Report (Aihar) Collection, Marla Hertz, Tricia Martone

Libraries Professional Work

This activity will teach the value of documentation in research data management using real data from Alabama mental institutions. During the Describe stage of data management, the why, who, what, when, where, and how of the data is provided to improve the interpretation and reuse of research data. This lesson includes options to complete the activity in an analog or digital fashion and is appropriate for undergraduate students and up.

Learning outcomes:

• Learners will be able to articulate the value of documentation in data creation and sharing.
• Learners will be able to construct a data README to describe their data …

Novel Oral Fluid Drug Screening Device Evaluation, Sarah Jenkins

ETDs from 2020-2029

Oral fluid (OF) has been determined comparable to blood while being a more accurate specimen to reflect recent use than urine. OF roadside testing devices utilize the ease of access and toxicological information provided by OF. These devices are designed to be used as a roadside screening device that can detect the presence of drugs. In 2018, Alabama was the first state in America to implement a comprehensive state OF drug testing program for screening and laboratory testing. At the current moment, there are five approved devices for use in Alabama. Part of the development of the program involved evaluating …

Metabolic Mechanisms Underlying Obesity In Children Exposed In Utero To Maternal Obesity Or Gestational Diabetes Mellitus, Alysha B. Everett

ETDs from 2020-2029

Background: Childhood obesity increases risk for diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The in utero environment plays an important role in the metabolic programming of offspring, with children exposed to maternal obesity or gestational diabetes (GDM) having high risk for obesity. In adults, metabolic mechanisms such as leptin resistance, energy expenditure, and substrate oxidation are associated with prospective weight and adiposity gain, but less is known in children. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify metabolic mechanisms associated with risk for obesity following in utero exposure to maternal obesity, with or without exposure to GDM. Methods: …

Inverse Modeling The Geo-Spread Of Covid-19 In Brazil, Cameron Keith Mills

ETDs from 2020-2029

In 2021 Fitzgibbon, Morgan, Webb, and Wu used a modified SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infected, and recovered) model to predict how COVID-19 spread through Brazil [12]. For their model, six constant coefficients were used that were fitted, referenced, or assumed. In this thesis, we geo-spatially modify their SEIR model and formulate an inverse problem to recover the now spatial coefficients of the model. We first show there exists a unique solution to the modified model. To solve the inverse problem, we modify an inverse method [17] that focused on minimizing convex functionals. These recovered spatial coefficients can be used with Matlab’s …

Neuroinflammation And Neuropathology In A Novel Tau, Amyloid-Beta And Alpha-Synuclein Co-Pathology Model, Jhodi Mickayla Webster

ETDs from 2020-2029

Neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) often present with overlapping proteinopathies rather than aggregated proteins in isolation. Amyloid-β (Aβ) and phosphorylated tau are found in a substantial proportion of idiopathic PD cases, while α-synuclein (α-syn) pathology is present in over half of AD cases. The presence of these co-pathologies is associated with accelerated cognitive decline and increase mortality in these patients. In parallel, neurodegenerative diseases are increasingly recognized as being shaped by interactions between central nervous system (CNS) pathology and the immune system. Despite this, most experimental animal models of neurodegenerative disease examine single pathologies in …

Heart And Blood, Nasreen Zankawah

ETDs from 2020-2029

Heart and Blood is a historical fiction, set in the 1890s colonial era in present-day Ghana, focusing on the royal family and two rival clans of the Dagbon Kingdom. At its center is Chentiwuni, the protagonist who shares a strained relationship with her father and king of Dagbon, Naa Dawuni Zulandi. She navigates life, barely conforming to traditions and rules and associates with people her father disapproves of. The rift between them deepens when Chenti falls in love with Yumzaa, a sub-chief from a rival clan and a prospective heir to the skin of Dagbon after Naa Dawuni. Chenti’s relationship …

Phosphogypsum-Based Road Materials: A Review Of Practicality, Longevity, And Safety In The United States, Catesby Elisabeth Mallard

ETDs from 2020-2029

The development of the phosphate fertilizer industry, while integral to the success of modern-day agriculture, continues to produce staggering amounts of phosphogypsum (PG), an acidic and hazardous waste byproduct concentrated with heavy metals, technologically enhanced naturally occurring materials (TENORM), and other toxic elements. Due to the potentially harmful emission of radon from PG, the United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated the disposal of PG in engineered stacks under the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for nearly four decades. However, with roughly five tons of PG produced per single ton of phosphoric acid, and a …

Dock7 Is A Novel Modifier Of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Pathology, Katherine English

ETDs from 2020-2029

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive, x-linked neuromuscular disorder affecting 1/5000 male births every year. DMD results from mutations in DMD, a critical structural protein within the muscle. In the absence of Dystrophin, the muscle degrades, increasing inflammation, destabilizing the cell membrane and going through constant cycles of regeneration which depletes the stem cell population. Over time, muscle tissue is replaced by fibrosis and adipose tissue, leading to loss of ambulation, respiratory and cardiac failure leading to death by early 20s. The standard of care for DMD patients is corticosteroid treatment. However, gene therapies have recently emerged which present …

Minding The Body: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Somatic Experiences During Therapeutic Psychedelic Use, Daniel Grossman

ETDs from 2020-2029

Somatic phenomena, including shaking, spontaneous movement, vocalization, and purging, are commonly reported during psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). However, despite their perceived importance to some users, their role in the therapeutic process has remained largely unexamined. This mixed-methods study provides the first systematic investigation of these experiences during therapeutic psychedelic use, with particular attention to observable bodily responses (OBRs) and release-like somatic experiences (RLSEs), defined as a subset characterized by sensations of physical discharge. An online retrospective survey (N = 286) assessed the prevalence of OBRs and RLSEs, and their relationships with body awareness, bodily dissociation, emotional breakthrough, and perceived therapeutic benefit. …

Finite Element Analysis Of Post Vs Threaded-Post Glenoid Baseplates In Reverse Total Shoulder Arthroplasty: A Comparative Study, Christopher Morgan

ETDs from 2020-2029

This study compared a standard‑post baseplate with a threaded‑post baseplate in reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (rTSA) to determine whether threaded central fixation improves micromotion and stress distribution. A finite element model of a left scapula with a commercially available rTSA system was created; the two designs differed only by the central post (standard press‑fit versus threaded). A 756 N physiological load was applied at 60°, 90°, and 120° of abduction. Outcomes included total and directional relative micromotion at the bone–implant interface and von Mises stress in the glenoid and baseplate. Total micromotion remained below the 150 µm osseointegration threshold for …

The Healthcare Transition Experiences Of Emerging Adults With Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Leslie Noojin Pitts

ETDs from 2020-2029

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a group of disorders characterized by enzyme deficiencies impairing adrenal hormone production and requiring lifelong management. Individuals with CAH experience increased morbidity and mortality due to the underlying condition, steroid exposure, and inadequate preventative care. Despite clinical guidelines recommending a structured healthcare transition (HCT), little is known about the HCT experiences of emerging adults with CAH. Understanding these experiences is critical for identifying practice gaps and developing interventions to improve health outcomes. This qualitative descriptive study explored the HCT experiences, challenges, and outcomes of emerging adults with CAH, as guided by the refined Social Ecological …

Uab Libraries News, 06 2026, Uab Libraries

UAB Libraries News

No abstract provided.

Work-Life Dynamics And Career Success Of Physician-Scientists In Academic Medical Centers, Christine Eriks

ETDs from 2020-2029

Physician-scientists sustain careers within one of the most structurally demanding environments in academic medicine, balancing expectations across research, clinical care, teaching, and service during life stages often characterized by intensified personal responsibilities. Although concerns about the stability of the physician-scientist workforce have persisted for decades, less empirical attention has focused on how work-life role conflict shapes career outcomes within this population. This study examines the relationship between work-life role conflict and career success among physician-scientists in academic medical centers. Guided by role theory and boundary theory, this cross-sectional, national study surveyed physician-scientists who served as principal investigators on National Institutes …

Exploring Occupational Exposures And Health Risks Among Long-Haul Truck Drivers: Tobacco Smoke, Cara Harris

ETDs from 2020-2029

Long-haul truck drivers (LHTDs) are exposed to a range of occupational hazards and stressors that threaten their health and well-being. These include, but are not limited to, irregular sleep patterns, fatigue, and chronic exposure to diesel engine exhaust (DEE) and tobacco smoke in the confined spaces of truck cabins. Smoking tobacco cigarettes is often used as a coping mechanism for occupational stressors and nicotine dependence, contributing to a high smoking rate among LHTDs (51%) compared to the general population (19%). Collectively, exposure to DEE and tobacco smoke may have a synergistic effect, increasing LHTD’s risk for lung cancer and other …

From Transcriptome To Function: Multimodal Characterization Of Transcriptionally Defined Ventral Tegmental Area Dopamine Neurons, Natalie Dalton Fitzgerald

ETDs from 2020-2029

Substance use disorder is a complex neurobiological disease characterized by impaired control over drug taking and drug seeking. Drugs of abuse exert their reinforcing effects largely through dopaminergic (DAergic) projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens, where all drugs of abuse increase DA transmission. Beyond reward processing and reward learning, the VTA contributes to a range of psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia and attention-related disorders. Although DA signaling has long been a major focus of addiction research, recent transcriptomic studies have revealed substantial heterogeneity of cell types within the VTA. Previous work from our lab identified two …

Advancing Telehealth Pulmonary Rehabilitation For Individuals With Copd: Integrating Scoping Review, Quantitative, And Qualitative Studies To Inform A Multidomain Telewellness Framework, Pooja Arora

ETDs from 2020-2029

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous, progressive respiratory condition and the third leading cause of death worldwide. It is associated with dyspnea, reduced exercise tolerance, significant psychological burden, and poor quality of life. Telehealth pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has evolved as an effective approach to improve health outcomes and overcome barriers related to center based pulmonary rehabilitation. However, it is important to determine whether these programs are guided by intervention frameworks that effectively promote overall well-being in individuals with COPD. This dissertation examined current telehealth PR models and evaluated the effectiveness of a generic, comprehensive telewellness program (MENTOR: …

Impact Of Institutional Expected Practice Guidelines On Oral And Long-Acting Intravenous Antibiotic Use For Serious Bacterial Infections, William Bradford

ETDs from 2020-2029

Expected practice interventions are a type of antimicrobial stewardship intervention in which local guidelines regarding antimicrobial prescribing are developed and released at an institutional level to establish an institutional standard of care. An expected practice intervention to encourage use of oral and long-acting IV (PO/LAIV) antibiotics for serious infections was performed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospitals in November of 2022. We conducted a quasi-experimental pre/post study using a difference in differences approach to evaluate the effect of these guidelines on a primary outcome of length of stay (LOS) and secondary outcomes of inpatient antibiotic days, 3-month readmission, …

Mapping Structural Mistrust In Medicine, Ashleigh Allgood

ETDs from 2020-2029

Much of the existing literature treats mistrust as resistance or noncompliance. A structural perspective reverses that logic. It views mistrust as a reflection of institutional behavior rather than individual belief. When systems repeatedly fail to protect or repair harm, withdrawal becomes a reasonable and protective response. Structural mistrust represents both an adaptation to inequality and a cumulative record of institutional unreliability. This dissertation develops and tests a theory of structural mistrust as a collective orientation that links institutional design to individual behavior and perceived health. It makes three contributions. First, it conceptualizes structural mistrust as a product of state institutions …

Investigating The Effects Of Increased O-Glcnaylation On Pathology In Alzheimer’S Disease, Melissa Louise Garcia

ETDs from 2020-2029

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is currently the 7th leading cause of death, with few treatment options. It is known that AD pathology begins 20-30 years before clinical symptoms manifest. Some of the earliest pathological changes occur in glial cells of the hippocampus, causing them to become chronically reactive, as well as the accumulation of Amyloid-β (Aβ) in the hippocampus and hyperphosphorylated Tau (pTau) in the locus coeruleus, resulting in dysfunction of the noradrenergic (NA) system. Preclinical studies have shown promise in the abilities of the post-translational modification O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc). O-GlcNAc is a tightly regulated reversible enzymatic modification controlled by the …