Digital Commons Network^™

Does Emdr Therapy Reduce Anxiety Symptoms In Trauma Survivors More Effectively Than Traditional Talk Therapy?, Deedra L. Treece, Brianna Dotson

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Online Poster Presentation

• Social & Behavioral Sciences

Psychological Adjustment And Coping Strategies In Middle-Aged Adults Following Parental Loss, Tommye Pruett, Jennie Koehler

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Online Poster Presentation

• Arts & Humanities

Social Media And Self-Esteem, Erin Norris

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Online Poster Presentation

• Social & Behavioral Sciences

Teacher Mindfulness In Classrooms And The Association With Student Mindfulness And Anxiety, Abagail Graeser, Brianna Pacquette, Caroline G. Richter

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Online Poster Presentation

• Works in Progress

October 1, 2025 Blazer Weekly, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

Blazer Weekly (student newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Stress On Healthcare Workers During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tim Frink

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Online Poster Presentation

• Health Sciences & Health Professions
• Social & Behavioral Sciences

Utilizing Canine Olfaction As An Early Screening Method For Ovarian Cancer: A Review Of The Literature, Jackson Neyman, Laurie A. Malone

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Poster Presentation

• Works in Progress

Prenatal Exposure To Domestic Violence And Its Impact On Infant Stress-Response Development, Erica Cooper

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Online Poster Presentation

• Health Sciences & Health Professions
• Social & Behavioral Sciences

Mind And Material: Mapping Areas Of Mental Healthcare And Material Hardship​, Sophia Elise Martin, Alexander Dunklin

Expo Student Presentations

2025 Fall Expo Poster Presentation

• Works in Progress - class project

Uab Libraries News, 10 2025, Uab Libraries

UAB Libraries News

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Lightweight Dataset Catalog With Digital Commons, Claire Warner, Amy Reese, Marla Hertz

Libraries Professional Work

Many academic libraries maintain dataset catalogs to make the research data produced by their institutions more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). These catalogs use a variety of approaches to gather metadata for dataset records and may be hosted on one of several platforms. Our approach is to develop Python code and leverage APIs to locate relevant datasets, then harvest and clean the associated metadata. The cleaned metadata is manually curated and enhanced before being added to the Dataset Catalog. We employ the hosted institutional repository Digital Commons to display the dataset records. Combining API harvesting and automated data cleaning …

Uab Libraries Q3 2025 Employee Updates, Uab Libraries

UAB Libraries News

No abstract provided.

September 30, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

September 26, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

“Who All Gon Be There”: The Relationship Between Racial Identity, Perceived Social Distance, And Anxiety Among People Of African Descent, Veronica R. Mixon

All ETDs from UAB

Mental health disparities among people of African descent are an important public health issue within the US. During COVID, between 2020 and 2021, anxiety symptoms among African American adults increased, which led to an overall increase in anxiety and depression rates (Vahratian et al., 2021; CDC, 2023). Despite this increase, only 39% of African Americans who experience mental health difficulties, receive treatment. The pandemic made it difficult for people to come together and there were heightened experiences of racial distress due to the events surrounding George Floyd. Prior research has shown that experiences of racism, isolation, and cultural disconnection have …

September 24, 2025 Blazer Weekly, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

Blazer Weekly (student newsletter)

No abstract provided.

September 23, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

September 19, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

September 17, 2025 Blazer Weekly, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

Blazer Weekly (student newsletter)

No abstract provided.

September 16, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

September 12, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Financial Outcomes In Value-Based Care: A Comparative Claims-Based Study Of Medicare Advantage Patients In Investor-Backed Primary Care Practices Pre/Post Investment, Aaron Mark Bujnowski

All ETDs from UAB

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are value-based care (VBC) models aimed at improving cost and quality through prevention to counter the traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare care model, which disincentivizes preventive care and risks misuse and overutilization. Some primary care practices purporting VBC capabilities have attracted private capital investors, yet whether external investment improves cost outcomes has not yet been definitively established. This dissertation examines whether investor-backed primary care organizations participating in MA demonstrate statistically significant reductions in per-patient, per-year claims costs after investment for seven ambulatory care–sensitive conditions. The study applies two-way fixed-effects regression models to a sample of 98,014 patient-year …

Structural Analysis Of Pseudomonas Phage Dev Virion-Associated Rna Polymerase (Gp71), James Scherer

All ETDs from UAB

DEV is a Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage part of a newly reclassified genus called Schitoviridae. This group of bacteriophages is also referred to as “N4-like” phages, after the prototypical Escherichia coli phage N4, originally isolated from sewage water in 19661. N4, and other phages in the group, contain a large, virion-associated RNA polymerase (vRNAP). This vRNAP is vital to the proliferation of the phage, as it performs the transcription of the early gene products and potentially acts as a motor that helps eject the viral genome into the host bacteria. In DEV, the vRNAP is also known as gene product 71 …

The Hepatic Glucagon Receptor As A Novel Regulator Of Lifespan, Alexander Tate Lasher

All ETDs from UAB

In developed nations the average lifespan has nearly doubled over the last 200 years, and the proportion of humans living into old age is ever increasing. While this is certainly a testament to the effectiveness of modern medicine and infrastructure, it presents a unique challenge to public health. Gains to health have not necessarily kept pace with the gains in lifespan, and the expanding aged population positions age-associated diseases to reach unprecedented prevalence. In light of this challenge, a mechanistic understanding of the aging process is necessary to identify factors that control longevity and to ultimately develop strategies for healthy …

Bayesian Survival Analysis For High-Dimensional Compositional Data, Zhenying Ding

All ETDs from UAB

Survival analysis integrating microbiome and clinical data offers powerful insights into human health. The microbiome influences immunity, inflammation, and cancer outcomes. Combining microbial profiles with clinical factors like tumor stage, treatment, and demographics enhances understanding of how host-microbe interactions affect survival. To analyze these complex datasets, advanced statistical methods, including Bayesian models, penalized Cox proportional hazards models, and machine learning techniques are employed. These approaches can uncover novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets, leading to personalized treatment strategies that optimize patient survival. However, challenges arise due to the compositionality, high-dimensionality, and phylogenetic relation between taxa in microbiome data. In this dissertation, …

Fqhc Turnaround Success – Does Leadership Matter?, Luis Orlando Amaro

All ETDs from UAB

Background: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are essential providers of primary care in underserved communities but face growing risks of financial instability. Leader transitions, particularly at the executive level, may influence an organization's ability to recover from fiscal distress. This study examined whether executive succession—and the type of succession (internal vs. external)—was associated with financial turnaround among distressed FQHCs. Methods: Financial distress was assessed using the Modified Altman Z-Score, a validated indicator of fiscal health in nonprofit organizations. A longitudinal, quantitative design was used to analyze 850 FQHCs across the United States over a six-year period (2017–2022). Financial performance was …

The Resilience In Black Families Scale: A Validation Study, Destiny Kelly

All ETDs from UAB

The Resilience in Black Families Scale (RBFS) was developed to be a culturally relevant measure designed to assess the family resilience processes utilized within Black families. The purpose of this study was to validate the RBFS, which consists of a three-factor structure modeled after Walsh’s family resilience framework and is further enhanced with culturally relevant protective factors. Using a sample of 200 participants, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test the theoretical hierarchical factor structure of the Resilience in Black Families model, consisting of 13 first order factors (making meaning of adversity, positive outlook, religiosity and spirituality, ethnic-racial socialization, …

Interactions Between Staphylococcus Aureus And Corynebacterium Species In The Context Of Chronic Rhinosinusitis, Joshua Tucker Huffines

All ETDs from UAB

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a complex inflammatory disease affecting the upper respiratory tract (URT) for a large portion of the populace, leading to significant economic burdens. Staphylococcus aureus is considered as a significant contributor to CRS inflammation through the production of toxins regulated through quorum sensing (QS). Microbiome studies have characterized the microbial communities present in the healthy URT and in CRS. These studies show that the genus Corynebacterium is associated with the healthy URT, decreased in CRS, and has a negative correlation with S. aureus regardless of health status. A few studies have partially characterized a mechanism to explain …

Analysis Of Telomeric Conformational Dynamics At The Single Molecule Level, Arianna Lacen

All ETDs from UAB

In eukaryotes, the telomere serves as a safeguard against DNA damage and loss during replication and other events. To do so, telomeric DNA folds into a variety of protective secondary and tertiary structures whose formation and conformational dynamics have not been well characterized. We have identified a slow conformational rearrangement in telomeric single stranded DNA that results in a G-Quadruplex (G4) that cannot be unfolded by a complementary strand. We have also determined how the accessibility of G4 forming sequences changes in response to different high K+ environments, which may have implications on how the nascent telomeric overhang interacts with …

Compartmentalized Antigen Presentation By Intestinal Epithelial Cells Directs Cd4 T Cell Fate, Christopher Garrett Wilson

All ETDs from UAB

The intestinal epithelium maintains a complex relationship with both commensal microbiota and enteric pathogens while orchestrating local immune responses. Although intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) can express MHC class II molecules during inflammation, their functional contribution to pathogen-specific adaptive immunity and immunological memory remains poorly defined. This dissertation investigates the hypothesis that IECs actively shape CD4+ T cell responses through antigen presentation, using Citrobacter rodentium infection as a physiologically relevant model of human attaching and effacing bacterial pathogens. The C. rodentium model offers unique advantages for dissecting epithelial-immune interactions: it naturally infects mice through oral inoculation, exhibits precise anatomical tropism for …