Digital Commons Network^™

Monitoring Opioid Use In Cancer Survivors: Implementation Of Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment (Sbirt) In A Clinical Setting, Jennifer M. Dolly Prothro

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Kentucky is a disparate state, ranking as one of the top states in incidence, prevalence, and mortality for both opioid use disorders (OUD) and cancer. Due to the high volume of both diseases in the state, there is a rising concern about the overlap of these two populations. Cancer and its’ treatment are known to cause chronic pain, defined as daily pain lasting 3 months or longer. Generally, chronic pain patients of any type are known to experience higher rates of opioid misuse (21-28%) and opioid dependence (8-12%) than the general population (4.1%, 0.9% respectively). The risk of OUD must …

Dynamic Balancing Of Foraging And Defensive Effort Contribute To The Optimality Of The Honey Bee Robbing Strategy, Grayson James Grume

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

The optimality of a foraging strategy shifts in response to dynamic ecological conditions and the need to devote effort to other tasks. Nest defense and foraging effort in the honey bee may trade off as both tasks are performed by a shared workforce of physiologically-specialized individuals in exclusive roles. Honey robbing is a foraging strategy predicted to benefit from simultaneous increases in foraging and defensive effort, but may be constrained by workforce specialization. We developed a methodology to induce robbing behaviors with uninhabited bait hives. We used this methodology to evaluate foraging and defensive effort before and during robbing by …

The Role Of Neural Precursor Cell Expressed Developmentally Down-Regulated Protein 9 In Enhanced Aggressiveness Of Hexavalent Chromium Transformed Bronchial Epithelial Cells, Peter Van Wie

Theses and Dissertations--Toxicology and Cancer Biology

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is classified as a confirmed human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research and Cancer (IARC) and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Chronic exposure to (Cr(VI)) causes malignant cell transformation in human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells. These Cr(VI)-transformed cells exhibit a highly aggressive phenotype including increased migration, invasion, and angiogenesis. The Cas family protein neuronal precursor developmentally down regulated protein 9 (NEDD9/Cas-L/HEF1) was dramatically overexpressed in Cr(VI)-transformed cells compared to normal BEAS-2B cells. Knockdown of NEDD9 by its shRNA reduced migration and invasion in vitro measured by migration and invasion assays. shNEDD9 reduced tumor formation …

Unitary And Symmetric Structure In Deep Neural Networks, Kehelwala Dewage Gayan Maduranga

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have been successfully used on a wide range of sequential data problems. A well-known difficulty in using RNNs is the vanishing or exploding gradient problem. Recently, there have been several different RNN architectures that try to mitigate this issue by maintaining an orthogonal or unitary recurrent weight matrix. One such architecture is the scaled Cayley orthogonal recurrent neural network (scoRNN), which parameterizes the orthogonal recurrent weight matrix through a scaled Cayley transform. This parametrization contains a diagonal scaling matrix consisting of positive or negative one entries that can not be optimized by gradient descent. Thus the …

Queering The Carceral Cycle: Women's Resistance To The Carceral State, Ashley Ruderman-Looff

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

Building upon feminist and queer scholarship that recognizes mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex as elements of an inherently violent carceral state, Queering the Carceral Cycle excavates and analyzes twentieth-century incidents in which women resisted the state’s criminalization and/or punishment of multiply marginalized women. I argue that the state’s response to women’s acts of resistance prompted the development of new carceral strategies and technologies that expanded the carceral state’s investment in control and punishment. Moreover, by critically embracing a Foucauldian scheme known as the “carceral cycle,” I demonstrate how the state traps multiply marginalized women in a seemingly endless recurrence …

Knee Joint Loading Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Link To Patient Reported Outcomes And A Novel Method To Monitor With Wearable Sensors, Alex Spencer

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Recovery from anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) commonly results in undesirable physical and patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Identification of modifiable factors such as knee contact force (KCF) early in rehabilitation that can improve these outcomes is important due to the rapid decrease in function, quality of life, and joint health in this population. Additionally, if noninvasive measurement of KCFs outside of a traditional laboratory were possible, clinicians could optimize patient treatment with personalized care. Therefore, there are two primary aims to this thesis: 1) quantify the link between KCF and PROs which measure pain, ability to perform activities of daily living, …

Health Priorities, Current Lifestyle Behaviors, And Barriers To A Healthy Lifestyle Among Emergency Department Nurses, Shannon C. White

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Background: Emergency nurses are tasked with managing the hectic, unpredictable, and constantly changing environment of an ED. In addition, emergency nurses have been shown to have high levels of stress, irregular meal schedules, rotating shift work, long hours, and a lack of physical activity. Furthermore, research has suggested that nurses are at an increased risk for non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart disease (Phiri, et al., 2014), in addition to a high prevalence of obesity (Kyle, et al., 2016).

Methodology: In this study, 23 emergency nurses completed a 43-item survey regarding current behaviors and constructs of …

Effects Of Relative Inertial Load On Performance Measures And Quadriceps Electromyography During Flywheel Resistance Training Squats, Jason Todd Brantley Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Flywheel resistance training (FRT) has become an increasingly popular modality for exercising due to its unique application of providing external resistance. Little is known about how changes in relative inertial loads affects performance and electromyography (EMG) activity. The purpose of this study was to examine how performance metrics and quadriceps EMG activity are affected by relative inertial load during FRT-based squats. Fifteen resistance trained individuals completed five sets of five repetitions of squats with varying relative inertial loads in random order. Peak Eccentric Power (PEP), Peak Concentric Power (PCP), average force, total work, and repetition time were measured. Surface level …

Exploring Positive Identity And Relationship Satisfaction In Bisexual Women In Relationships With Men, Kamryn Michel

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Bi-negative discrimination, negative attitudes, and beliefs regarding bisexual individuals are at least partially responsible for mental and physical distress in the bisexual community (Friedman et al., 2014). Romantic relationships can act as a buffer against negative health outcomes as well as increase overall well-being (Dush & Amato, 2005). However, research has shown that binegitive attitudes can impact a person’s willingness to begin relationships with bisexual individuals (Fienstein et al., 2014). This study aimed to explore the impact of positive identity on relationship satisfaction of bisexual women in relationships with men. In particular, we investigated five possible facets of positive identity: …

Noncontact Multiscale Diffuse Optical Imaging Of Deep Tissue Hemodynamics In Animals And Humans, Siavash Mazdeyasna

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Blood flow (BF) impacts the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to tissues and the removal of metabolic byproducts from tissues. Imaging of BF distributions helps characterize many diseases associated with tissue hypoxia/ischemia. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a novel, noninvasive, noncontact, high-density camera-based speckle contrast diffuse correlation tomography (scDCT) device for use in both animal and human studies. The scDCT uses a galvo-mirror to remotely deliver the focused point near-infrared light to source positions and a sensitive 2D camera to quantify spatial diffuse speckle fluctuations, resulting from the movement of red blood cells in deep …

Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble: How A Hands-On Engineering Project Affects High School Girls' Science/Engineering Self-Efficacy, Interest And Career Considerations, Jennifer Corbett Ferguson

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Engineering education as part of the K-12 curriculum can be an effective instructional tool and its benefits include improved science and mathematical achievement as well as an increased interest and understanding of the engineering field, especially for female students. However, there is a serious lack of research-based engineering curriculum being used at the middle and high school levels and lessons most often rely on building or construction competitions. Over the past decade or two, many well-known colleges have implemented a reverse engineering instructional unit known as Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble projects within their introductory engineering courses. These units have been shown to improve …

Can Less Be More? Study Load And Its Effect On Science Achievement Among Chinese Eighth-Grade Students, Xian Wu

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The present study addressed a core research question of “Can less be more?” concerning study load, which has become increasingly worrisome and controversial around the world. This idea reflects the philosophy of pursuing efficiency and effectiveness on learning, namely that a lighter study load may result in more successful academic achievement. The study adopted the IPO (input-process-output) model to address five interrelated research questions: 1) What are the structural characteristics of study load? 2) Is there any individual difference in study load? 3) What are the characteristics of teachers and schools under which students tend to have a heavier study …

Sexual Health Education In Kentucky's Public High Schools, Marjorie Stanek

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This dissertation seeks to enhance the understanding of sexual health education efforts, as they currently exist in Kentucky’s public high schools. It will include an examination of the factors that influence the provision of sexual health education in Kentucky schools, including relevant legislation, directives from the Kentucky Department of Education, and the presence of site-based councils within the Commonwealth. Additionally, the suggested curriculum elements from the Kentucky Department of Education’s Academic Standards, which were implemented during the 2019-2020 school year, will be compared to those established within the National Sexuality Education Standards (NSES), which serve as a gold standard …

Fluvial Sediment Organic Matter Degradation Identified With Elemental And Isotopic Fate During Laboratory Incubation, Brenden Riddle

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Fluvial sediment is well recognized as a critical factor in both carbon and nutrient budgets within stream systems. However, we find very few studies of reactivity and isotope enrichment for stream water from agricultural and urban streams and the class of substrate known as fluvial sediment organic matter. This study investigated the hypothesis that fluvial sediment is subject to degradation even though many previous studies have considered this class of substrate generally inert. Therefore we qualify that elemental and isotopic signatures of fluvial sediment organic matter should be considered potentially non-conservative when used in tracer studies. Methods applied to this …

Probabilistic Approach To Water, Sediment, And Nutrient Connectivity For Advancing Watershed Modelling, David Tyler Mahoney

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The goal of this dissertation is to represent the spatial and temporal domains of water, sediment, and nutrient flux and pathways within fluvial and watershed settings. To complete this goal, we integrate connectivity theory into watershed model structures to simulate water, sediment, and nutrient movement at the fundamental unit they occur. Fluvial-based sediment and nutrient flux is an important driver of global sediment and nutrient budgets, and the quantification of which serves as an ongoing challenge to limnologists, engineers, and watershed managers. Watershed models have been richly developed over the past century, but are currently restrained by problems related to …

A Modeling Approach To Understanding Glyphosate Transport In The Belize River Watershed, Barbara Anmei Astmann

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide worldwide and is often transported from application areas to surface water when solubilized in runoff or sorbed to eroded sediment. There is evidence that suggests both glyphosate and its main metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) may pose a risk to human health, as well as cause adverse effects in the environment. However, consistent monitoring data is still limited, especially in developing countries. Belize is a developing nation with agriculture being a major sector of its economy and is heavily reliant on glyphosate. The widespread use of glyphosate in Belize may be resulting in glyphosate …

Variance Decomposition Of Forecasted Water Budget And Sediment Processes Under Changing Climate In Fluvial And Fluviokarst Systems, Nabil Al Aamery

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Variance decomposition is the partitioning of different factors affecting the variance structure of a response variable. The present research focuses on future streamflow and sediment transport processes projections as the response variables. The authors propose using numerous climate factors and hydrological modeling factors that can cause any response variable to vary from historic to future conditions in any given watershed system. The climate modeling factors include global climate model, downscaling method, emission scenario, project phase, bias correction. The hydrological modeling factor includes hydrological model parametrization, and meteorological variable inclusion in the analysis. This research uses a wide spectrum of data, …

Reliability Assessment And Optimization Of Water Distribution Systems Explicitly Considering Isolation Valve Locations, Erika Hernandez Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Water distribution systems have changed the landscape of communities through two services: 1) providing water supply for domestic and industrial use, and 2) providing water required to fight fires. However, a substantial portion of the water infrastructure in the country, as many of other public assets built over 50 years ago, are now reaching the end of their useful life; which combined with rapid growth and changes in demographics have placed water distribution pipe networks at a state that requires revitalization. The aging infrastructure along with the growing threat of natural and man-made disruptions have led water utilities to place …

Landscape Ecology And Population Genomics Of Two Sympatric Pitviper Species Across A Fragmented Appalachian Landscape, Thomas Maigret

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Understanding the link between landscape patterns and ecological and evolutionary processes is an important prerequisite for informed wildlife conservation and management, especially in rapidly changing landscapes. Until recently, the inaccessibility of spatial and genomic data sets of sufficient resolution limited our ability to incorporate the impacts of landscape patterns into predictions of ecological and environmental outcomes. In this dissertation, I utilized several high-resolution spatial and genomic data sets to address ecological questions in a rapidly fragmenting landscape in southeastern Kentucky. Overall, my results indicate that large-scale surface coal mining is causing widespread homogenization of landforms, resulting in a uniquely permanent …

Predicting Patterns Of Gene Family Evolution In Taxa With Similar Ecological Niches, Kim Vertacnik

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

To fully understand the genetic basis of adaptation, we need to know its predictability—the extent to which specific selective pressures and contexts can yield corresponding genetic changes. In particular, the repeated colonization of similar, specialized environments by different taxa is ideal for assessing the frequency of reoccurring changes in the same genes or functions. But compared to a growing body of literature on the convergent evolution of individual genes, far less is known about the repeatability of gene family evolution, where families (defined here as groups of genes that share sequence and functional similarity from common ancestry) can expand (gain …

The Role Of Melatonin In Biological Rhythms Of Songbirds, Clifford E. Harpole

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

In vertebrates, melatonin is a hormone that is produced and secreted at night and inhibited by light. This unique “darkness-only” expression profile makes it an intellectually appealing candidate for a means of transmitting temporal information to an individual, both time of day and time of year.

In passerine birds, “time of day” information is certainly transmitted via melatonin secretion. The primary producer of systemic melatonin in this family of birds is the pineal gland, and surgical removal of it causes a bird to become arrhythmic in constant conditions. I find that as pinealectomized house sparrows (Passer domesticus) become …

Investigation Into The Roles Of Her9 And Capn5 During Retinal Development And Regeneration, Cagney Coomer

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The formation of a healthy and functioning eye requires coordinated interactions between numerous signaling pathways and gene regulatory networks within the developing neural retina. Tight regulation of gene expression is required for cell specification and differentiation in this multilayered, light sensitive tissue. The photoreceptors are the light detecting cells of the retina, capable of functioning in both intense sunlight and dim light at night. When pigment cells of the photoreceptor outer segment are activated by light, a complex chain of events called phototransduction leads to the electrical signal cascade that is transmitted through the retina and ultimately to the brain …

Limb Development In Salamanders: An Evolutionary Perspective To The Tetrapod Limb, Sruthi Purushothaman

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Vertebrate limb is an ideal model to study growth, patterning and morphogenesis and the interplay between these processes. The developing limb bud is a three-dimensional structure and its outgrowth depends on the interaction between 2 important signaling centers: the Apical Ectodermal Ridge (AER) at the junction of the dorsal and ventral halves of the limb bud and the Zone of Polarizing activity (ZPA) in the posterior mesenchyme. These centers produce their respective key molecules and the close interplay between them specifies structures along the anterior-posterior (thumb to pinky), proximal-distal (shoulder to fingertips) and dorsal-ventral (knuckle to palm) axes.

Developmental biologists …

A Multi-Method Investigation Of The Modern Sedimentation And Late Holocene Paleolimnology Of June Lake (Mono County, Ca), And A Survey-Based Analysis Of Ninth Graders’ Attitudes Towards Geology, Eva Lyon

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Three distinct manuscripts comprise this dissertation. The first analyzes the modern sedimentary basin of June Lake, a small glacial lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada of California (USA) using a number of data sets, including bathymetry, surface sediment composition, and seismic stratigraphy. The seismic survey revealed sublacustrine morphological features that suggest the basin originated due to ice scour, as well as four acoustically distinct stratigraphic units that reflect the history of sedimentation following glacial scouring. Corroborating the seismic record, sediment cores from the youngest unit are composed of hemipelagically deposited, organic-rich, laminated diatomaceous oozes alternating with coarse tephra beds. The …

Biogeomorphology Of Bedrock Fluvial Systems: Example From Shawnee Run, Kentucky, Usa, Tasnuba Jerin

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

The dynamic interactions between fluvial processes and vegetation vary in different environments and are uncertain in bedrock settings. Bedrock streams are much less studied than alluvial in all aspects, and in many respects act in qualitatively different ways. This research seeks to fill this lacuna by studying bedrock streams from a biogeomorphic perspective. The first part of this research aims to identify the impacts of woody vegetation that may be common to fluvial systems and rocky hillslopes in general, or that may be unique to bedrock channels. A review of the existing literature on biogeomorphology — mostly fluvial and rocky …

Reserved For The Whole Earth: Forms Of Evidence, Ought Anxiety, And The Futures Of Geographic Inquiry, Eric M. Robsky Huntley

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines geographic forms of evidence in the practices of landscape architects and geographers. I analyze evidence not only as an epistemic phenomenon, but as an aesthetic one, as well. Convincing an audience that the world is (or should be) one way and not another requires that knowledges be stacked, extended, and stitched together in a manner admissable to an audience. In the first two chapters, I use the case of the landscape architect Ian McHarg to examine how his approach to integrating scientific knowledge---a aesthetic response to what I theorize as 'ought anxiety'---grew alongside the environmental bureaucracy in …

Waking Sleep: The Uncanny In Modernist Literary Aesthetics, Delmar R. Reffett Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--English

With the dawning of the twentieth century, writers and critics found themselves facing a social world undergoing massive change, the forces of capitalist modernity leaving the individual increasingly disaffected and disconnected from her surroundings. This social world, rent as it was by alienation, offered a hostile environment for the sort of coherence that had traditionally been prized by Western aesthetics since the Enlightenment. How could a literary work attain a degree of coherence while reflecting a deeply dissonant modernity? Navigating this contradiction between literature’s inherited values and literature’s possibilities in alienated society can be seen as central to the project …

Curious Natures: Constructing Queer Ecologies In Early America, Richard Lee Parmer Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation argues that early American writers often constructed queer ecologies in order to naturalize Anglo-American civilization and justify its expansion into Native American territories. Since there is so little textual evidence on the subject, the major challenge to studying sexuality in early America is approaching sexuality studies creatively—to broaden both our understanding of what counts as sexual discourse and our frameworks for analyzing it. My dissertation addresses this challenge through what many ecocritical scholars of sexuality call queer ecology. In their groundbreaking anthology on the topic, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erikson remind us that, historically and in the present, …

Relevant Angry Affect Slows Response Time To Commands, Aleah Combs

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Previous research has found that emotional prosody can interact with speech perception and listeners’ processing of the meaning of particular word/emotion pairings(Kim and Sumner, 2017). What remains unclear is how this interactive processing can affect behavioral responses such as responses to imperatives. To answer this question,71 participants were presented with a series of commands given in a relevant affect.Commands were read either with angry prosody, happy prosody, or neutral prosody (control) and the participants were instructed to press the requested button on a response box as quickly and accurately as possible. All emotional states were simulated and normed for perceived …

An Intonational Description Of African American Language In Princeville, Nc, Christopher M. Dale

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

This thesis uses data from the Princeville, NC section of the Corpus of Regional African American Language (CORAAL) in order to address two topics concerning language: first, what the intonation of the Princeville participants of the CORAAL looks like acoustically; and second, if intonation is the salient feature that categorizes a speaker as Black or non-Black. The acoustic analysis software, Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2019), is used to take average, minimum, and maximum f0 measurements for 16 participants (9 women and 7 men) across three age groups. From these measurements, the rate of change is calculated in Hz/second to determine …