Dealing With Uncivil Nurse Practices: Incivility, Unprofessionalism, And Bullying In Nursing, Rasha Yaghan

Theoretical Foundation in Advanced Practice Nursing

No abstract provided.

Black Student Excellence Springs From Historic Inequalities: Unm Offers Resources To Help Students Succeed, Mary Beth King

Black History at UNM

Brandi Stone, Director of UNM African American Student Services (AASS), describes how Black excellence features prominently in the philosophy and work of AASS at UNM. Several UNM students and campus leaders also share their experiences and ideas on the topic. The article includes a list of resources and services at UNM that are aimed at fostering Black excellence and advancing the education of students of color at UNM.

The Investigation Of Surface Structures On Various Pathogens And Their Interactions With The Human Immune System, Carmen M. Villalobos

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

The cell surface is the first interface the host immune system encounters and

its investigation has led to a better understanding of cellular biology and types of

pathways that pathogens target in a host cell. The cell surface has evolved to include

many functions such as manipulation of the cytoskeleton, cell signaling, membrane

trafficking, adhesion, and integration into host tissue. The pathogens of interest are

the pathogenic fungus, Candida albicans, and the parasite, Giardia lamblia and we

investigate the consequences of drug treatments on the cell surface, leading to

promising new targets.

Therapeutic Plasma Exchange Taper Does Not Decrease Exacerbations In Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Patients, Jay S. Raval, Marshall A. Mazepa, Marian A. Rollins-Raval, Raj S. Kasthuri, Yara A. Park

Pathology Research and Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Despite rapid and intensive treatments with therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) and immunosuppression, immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) patients are at risk of disease exacerbation, i.e., early recurrence of TTP within 30 days of achieving treatment response. TPE taper, a practice of performing additional TPE procedures after achieving treatment response, is commonly performed for decreasing exacerbations, although no evidence supports this practice.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: In this prospective observational investigation over four years, our center switched its standard of care for treating all TTP patients from not performing TPE taper after achieving treatment response (i.e., no-taper cohort) to performance …

Imperial Myths, Abject Devotion: Mapping Affect In New Mexican Visual Culture And Discourse, N. C. Lira-Pérez

American Studies ETDs

New Mexican visual art and culture, as molded by state-sanctioned endeavors, is often casted in order to conceal the tension, conflict, and violence of settler colonialism and imperialism. Widely known myths of empire, such as the Tricultural myth, create a visualizing enterprise through which settler colonial logics transit and create political material reality. This thesis explores the following questions: How do New Mexican Hispanos and queer Chicanxs position themselves in relation to the logics of settler colonialism and empire? How are they positioned in relation to settler colonialism and empire? On the one hand, I argue that the state of …

Climate Change And Community Health, Parasto Baghae Pour

Climate Change and Public Health Preparedness

No abstract provided.

Bayesian Analysis Of Single Molecule Fluorescence Microscopy Data, Mohamadreza Fazel

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The diffraction limit can be circumvent by creating and exploiting independent behaviors of the sample at lengths scale below the diffraction limit. In fluorescence microscopy, the independence arises from individual fluorescent labels switching between dark and fluorescence states. The fluorophores can then be localized employing the generated sparse image frames. Finally, the resulting list of coordinates is utilized to generate high resolution images or to gain quantitative insight into the underlying biological structures. Therefore image processing and post-processing are essential stages of SMLM techniques.

In this dissertation, Reversible Jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo was employed to implement Bayesian analysis of …

Online Civic Engagements Among College Students: Exploring Well-Being, Tanupreet Suri

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Ways in which college students use social media for civic engagements and how that usage interplays with their identity development and general well-being have been explored in this study. Civic engagement among college students is imperative to their growth and development. Additionally, social networking sites (SNS) have a great potential for fostering a sense of community and enhancing wellbeing. Thus, how college students’ online civic engagement and general wellbeing interplay was examined. This study employed an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) alongside photo elicitation to explore the experiences of college students. Key findings suggest online civic engagements interplays with college students’ …

Assessing The Environmental Impacts Of Urbanization In Siddharthanagar, Nepal, Bishal Raj Khanal

Economics ETDs

Rapid and haphazard infrastructural expansion often contributes to large negative externalities in cities. Environmental problems like air pollution and degradation of quality-of-life elements in an urban settlement are attributed to urban sprawl. Evidence based planning tools need to be developed which can help manage the rapid urbanization that is taking place in the developing world. In this context, we examine the relationship between health outcomes and the different spatial- temporal aspects of an urban-built environment in Siddharthanagar Metropolitan City which is a major settlement in southwestern Nepal. We attempt to identify the aspects of built environment which are closely associated …

Developing A Virus-Like Particle (Vlp)-Based Vaccine For Neisseria Gonorrhoeae, Ashvini Vaidya

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng) is a sexually transmitted bacterium that infects human reproductive mucosal surfaces. Due to the risk of complications in untreated cases and evolving antibiotic resistance, a prophylactic vaccine is critical for preventing infection. There are four Ng outer-membrane proteins that contribute to Ng survival and resistance: PorB, BamA, TbpA, and MtrE. Each protein contains surface-exposed loops that are targets of bactericidal antibodies. Vaccines were developed by displaying Ng epitopes on the surface of bacteriophage virus-like particles (VLP). VLPs are immunogenic, multivalent, self-assembling complexes composed of viral structural proteins. Antigenic peptide sequences can be displayed on the surface …

Speech Characteristics Of Professional Fighters, Sofiya Krasilshchikova, Amy Neel Ph.D., Jessica Dawn Richardson Ph.D., Rick Arenas Ph.D., Lauren Bennett Ph.D., Sarah Banks Ph.D., Charles Bernick Ph.D.

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

The aims of this project were to accurately measure and describe speech characteristics of professional fighters; and to analyze the future potential of using speech characteristics as biomarkers for acquired neurogenic decline or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The Professional Fighters Brain Health Study (PFBHS) is a longitudinal project investigating the effect of repeated head trauma in professional combatants. The PFBHS provided recorded speech samples for this project. This study measured accurate speech characteristics of 102 professional boxers and mixed martial artists and compared these results to a group of 27 age-matched healthy controls. Analysis revealed a significant difference in articulation …

"A Comparison Of Variable Selection Methods Using Bootstrap Samples From Environmental Metal Mixture Data", Paul-Yvann Djamen

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

In this thesis, I studied a newly developed variable selection method SODA, and three customarily used variable selection methods: LASSO, Elastic net, and Random forest for environmental mixture data. The motivating datasets have neuro-developmental status as responses and metal measurements and demographic variables as covariates. The challenges for variable selections include (1) many measured metal concentrations are highly correlated, (2) there are many possible ways of modeling interactions among the metals, (3) the relationships between the outcomes and explanatory variables are possibly nonlinear, (4) the signal to noise ratio in the real data may be low. To compare these methods …

Sars-Cov-2 Reverse Genetics Reveals A Variable Infection Gradient In The Respiratory Tract, Yixuan J. Hou, Kenichi Okuda, Caitlin E. Edwards, David R. Martinez, Takanori Asakura, Kenneth H. Dinnon, Takafumi Kato, Rhianna E. Lee, Boyd L. Yount, Teresa M. Mascenik, Gang Chen, Kenneth N. Olivier, Andrew Ghio, Longping V. Tse, Sarah R. Leist, Lisa E. Gralinski, Alexandra Schäfer, Hong Dang, Rodney Gilmore, Satoko Nakano, Ling Sun, M Leslie Fulcher, Alessandra Livraghi-Butrico, Nathan I. Nicely, Mark Cameron, Cheryl Cameron, David J. Kelvin, Aravinda De Silva, David M. Margolis, Alena Markmann, Luther Bartelt, Ross Zumwalt, Fernando J. Martinez, Steven P. Salvatore, Alain Borczuk, Purushothama R. Tata, Vishwaraj Sontake, Adam Kimple, Ilona Jaspers, Wanda K. O'Neal, Scott H. Randell, Richard C. Boucher, Ralph S. Baric

Pathology Research and Scholarship

The mode of acquisition and causes for the variable clinical spectrum of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain unknown. We utilized a reverse genetics system to generate a GFP reporter virus to explore severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogenesis and a luciferase reporter virus to demonstrate sera collected from SARS and COVID-19 patients exhibited limited cross-CoV neutralization. High-sensitivity RNA in situ mapping revealed the highest angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) expression in the nose with decreasing expression throughout the lower respiratory tract, paralleled by a striking gradient of SARS-CoV-2 infection in proximal (high) versus distal (low) pulmonary epithelial cultures. COVID-19 …

Danzantes Aztecas Y Promotoras Tradicionales: The Ritual Performances And Identity Politics Of A Mexican American Danzantes Aztecas Y Promotoras Tradicionales: The Ritual Performances And Identity Politics Of A Mexican American Ceremonial Community, Dina K. Barajas

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation is an ethnographic study which examined the ritual performances of an interconnected Mexican American and Mexican immigrant danza Azteca and curanderismo ceremonial community located in central and northern New Mexico, and central México. This project also explored if and how these rituals recognize the practitioners’ indigeneity. As a Mexican American and Native scholar and ceremonial participant of this community, I provided an “insider’s” understanding of the epistemologies and ontologies that inform these ceremonies. My positionality and methodology acted as a lens to critically examine danzantes’ and promotoras tradicionales’ claims of indigeneity. Importantly, this work provides a fluid conceptualization …

The Impact Of Temporal Resolution On Clinical Decision-Making For Individuals With Dysphagia, Shauna Corinne Murray

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

INTRODUCTION: Dysphagia, or a disordered swallow, affects up to 1 in 25 individuals in the United States. The gold standard for assessing dysphagia is the videofluoroscopic evaluation of swallowing (VFES). This allows the clinician to observe the swallow anatomy in motion via an X-ray movie, which historically was recorded at 30 frames per second. In recent years VFES have been performed at less frames per second due to radiation concern. This project investigates the effect of using lower temporal resolutions on assessment of video-fluoroscopic swallow studies.

METHODS: In this investigation, 30 swallow studies, all acquired at 30 frames per second, …

The Ego At An Impasse: Aesthetic Empathy And The Abject D’Art In Fin De Siècle Supernatural Fiction, Leandra E. Binder

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation examines the symbol of an art object which represents a corpse or dead person’s identity, what I call the abject d’art, as it appears in fin de siècle supernatural fiction by Vernon Lee (Violet Paget) to identify late Victorian notions of Kristevan abjection, avant la lettre. Lee’s aesthetic philosophy informs her use of the abject d’art, especially her examination of the empathetic process as part of aesthetics to explain how individuals represent and respond to objects mentally and emotionally. Through her analysis of empathy, Lee identifies the ego as a fallible moderator of an individual’s …

Wildfire Risks And Dangers, Brian Sanchez

Climate Change and Public Health Preparedness

No abstract provided.

Motivation Interviewing: A Tool For Servant Leadership, Jemima Neddy Organ

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to explore Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a tool that Servant Leaders (SL) could use to enhance their own leadership skills in motivating workers. The participants were seven leaders from VA hospitals in the U.S. who had undergone SL and MI training. Narrative Inquiry based on Polkinghorne (1988, 1995, 2005, 2007) with open, action, emotional, and values coding (Saldaña, 2015) along with structural story coding based on Labov (1972, 1982, 1997) and Patterson (2002) revealed the central theme that MI fostered good relations between leaders and workers in addition to four subthemes that MI …

Essays On Emotional Well-Being, Health Insurance Disparities And Health Insurance Markets, Disha Shende

Economics ETDs

This dissertation has three research papers. First paper looks at the effect of social networks on emotional well-being of cancer patients by studying the response of social networks on their depression symptoms. Using the data from a primary survey conducted in Nepal, the study finds that social networks significantly reduce depression symptoms among cancer patients. The results strongly advocate for the importance of the social networks in improving their emotional well-being. Second paper examines the health coverage disparities among Hispanic and non-Hispanic young adults in five southwestern states of the United States. Using the pooled data from American Community Survey …

Small Molecule Analog Studies Of Paramagnetic Dmso Reductase Enzyme Family Intermediates, Khadanand Kc

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Pyranopterin molybdenum and tungsten enzymes are expressed in numerous organisms from all domains of life. These enzymes catalyze a variety of atom, hydride, and electron transfer reactions. The enzymes are of great importance in the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, carbon, and sulfur. In recent years, chemists have investigated applications for some of these enzymes as industrial biocatalysts. The dimethylsulfoxide reductase (DMSOr) enzyme family is the broadest family of pyranopterin Mo enzymes. The first coordination sphere of the Mo or W-containing active site for each member of this family is made up of 4 sulfur donors from the two pyranopterin dithiolenes …

Sex Differences In Age-Related Disease, Matthew Robert Schwartz

Anthropology ETDs

Life history theory posits the evolution of sex-biased traits through asymmetries in the costs of reproduction. The research presented here evaluated the downstream effects of sex-biases in two age-related disease profiles: tooth loss, in which females exhibit a higher disease burden, and melanoma, in which females have a survival advantage.

Among the Tsimane, a natural fertility population of forager-horticulturalists with a high lifetime fertility and no access to oral healthcare, females lose more than males and around half a tooth per child. Parity accounts for 1.2\% of variation in tooth loss within females, but no variation in tooth loss in …

Characterization Of The Overexpression Of The Native H+-Pumping Pyrophosphatase In The Microalga Picochlorum Soloecismus, Kimberly T. Wright

Biology ETDs

Microalgae are of interest for the creation of sustainable and cost competitive alternatives to petroleum-based fuels and chemicals. However, cultivation, extraction and processing of algal biomass requires improved yields to achieve economic feasibility. The advancement of microalgal biotechnology and various genetic engineering techniques allow the improvement of microalgae biomass for this purpose. Here, the characterization of the overexpression of the native vacuolar H+ pumping pyrophosphate (AVP1) in Picochlorum soloecismus was examined. AVP1 overexpression causes biomass increase in relevant plant crops. When overexpressed in this microalga it increases carbon storage in the form of starch in a closed laboratory photobioreactor. However, …

Can A Sex Bias Be A Good Thing: Modeling Spontaneous Clearance And Sexual Susceptibility In Hcv, Tanner K. Shea

Biology ETDs

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global epidemic that has been increasing for decades, afflicting millions of people who inject drugs (PWID) and is a major cause of liver disease. With novel direct-acting antivirals, treating the virus has become possible yet elimination remains out of reach. Prior research has shown significant differences in disease progression between men and women. These differences can lead to variation in incidence or what proportion of infections progress to chronic infections. We develop a mathematical model that accounts for potential differences between the sexes to evaluate the impacts on HCV transmission. We find that susceptibility …

Chronic And Acute Respiratory Pathogens: Evolutionary And Epidemiological Characteristics Of Tuberculosis, Influenza-Like Illness, And Covid-19, Julie Allison Spencer

Biology ETDs

Tuberculosis and influenza-like illness cause major disease burden for humans. In our first study, we conducted a pangenome analysis of 67 Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes from Peru. We supported the paradigm that M. tuberculosis is highly clonal; however, a small amount of genetic diversity originates from infrequent recombina- tion events. In our second study, we reviewed the literature for parameters of five common viruses that contribute to influenza-like illness: influenza, RSV, rhinovirus, human coronavirus, and adenovirus. We found that their epidemiological parameters vary considerably, and can have broad ranges; their basic transmission rates are the most important for model outcomes. When …

Sexual Dimorphism In Host Innate Response To Staphylococcus Aureus: Mechanisms Driving Sex Differences In Immune Cell Function And Host-Directed Interventions, Srijana Pokhrel

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

With the emerging antibiotic resistance, Staphylococcus aureus, primary causative agent of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) as well as other life-threatening conditions has become a global health concern. While factors contributing to host defense against S. aureus SSTIs has been well studied, impact of sex as a variable has not been reported. In Chapter 2, we uncover the sex-specific differences in host response to S. aureus SSTIs and the contribution of female sex hormone, estrogen (E2) in providing protection in females. In Chapter 3, we identify mechanisms of innate differences in neutrophils bactericidal efficacy between sexes and in …

“Pre-Packaged Sovereignty”: The Fallacy Of Indian Self-Determination In The Bureau Of Indian Affairs (Bia) Tribal Social Services Programs, April Kateri Chavez

American Studies ETDs

This thesis examines the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) tribal social services programs in New Mexico Native reservation communities. I rely on interviews with current/former BIA social workers and administrators to contextualize my analysis, while revealing the limits of existing social work scholarship and offering recommendations for future scholarship and community work. Using critical Indigenous studies and feminisms along with critical social work, I advance two primary arguments. The first is, despite the so-called self-determination era, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) functions as a settler colonial administration that diminishes tribal sovereignty and perpetuates racist and gendered violence. The capacity …

Biogeochemical Processes Affecting Arsenic (As) Release And Bioavailability Near Abandoned Mine Wastes, Cherie L. Devore

Civil Engineering ETDs

The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the biogeochemical processes affecting the mobilization and bioavailability of arsenic (As) from mining-impacted sediments to surface water sources and plants. The Cheyenne River Watershed has been affected by mining legacy for several decades. The biogeochemical cycling of As on tribal land is not well understood, which justified the following research objectives: 1) Investigate the effect of competing anions on the release of As from sediments exposed to oxidizing conditions; 2) Evaluate chemical and microbiological processes affecting the release of soluble As, Fe, and Mn from contaminated sediments under laboratory controlled aerobic and …

Interaction Of Optomechanical Cavities With Acoustic Waves And Oscillators, Ke Huang

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Resonators and oscillators are key elements in a wide variety of natural and manmade systems. As such understanding and exploiting their dynamics both as isolated devices and members of coupled systems has been the subject of intensive investigation for more than a century. The advent of optomechanical resonators (OMRs) that support strong coupling between optical and mechanical modes resulting in self-sustained optomechanical oscillations, has created new opportunities for device development and implementation of coupled oscillatory systems. One aspect of this thesis is focused on exploring some of the unique features of OMRs and optomechanical oscillators (OMOs) that can be exploited …

On Love And Treason: Critical White Feminist Thought For Social Justice Praxis, Amanda Joyce Parker

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation is a theoretical piece that examines the positionality of white women in upholding white supremacy and a framework for critical white feminist thought that will move white women toward a self-reflexive and self-implicating praxis. A white matriarchy (Parker, 2018) is fully conceptualized as part of a powerful subsystem that operates under white supremacy. Concepts, such as a race-gender bribe and white women’s negative solidarity (Combahee River Collective, 1977), are exposed and discussed as part of the workings of white matriarchy. White emotionality (Matias, 2015), intergenerational whiteness, and antiracist parenting are also analyzed. I also suggest possibilities for resistance …

Fusion Of Elastin Like Polypeptides To Rna Binding Motifs For Programmable Binding Of Nucleic Acids, Dominic Medina

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) with RNA binding capability have recently been found to play important roles in several cellular processes, including the formation of phase separated membraneless organelles to regulate gene expression. An important class of membraneless organelles is stress granules, which enable cells to survive periods of environmental stress by regulating gene expression in the cytoplasm. Cells use a variety of ribonucleoprotein granules, primarily comprised of RNA and chaperone protein components, and can regulate cellular metabolism by sequestering and processing regulatory components, such as messenger RNAs, within these phases separated ‘organelles’. To recapitulate this cellular behavior, the genetically engineered …