Digital Commons Network^™

Social Support Satisfaction As A Protective Factor For Postpartum Maternal Distress, Amy-Lynn Elisabeth Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social support has been identified as a protective factor for postpartum maternal distress, a prevalent women's health issue, and most research focuses on the amount of support women receive. However, research in this area has failed to explore whether increasing satisfaction with social support may be a worthwhile approach to alleviating postpartum maternal distress, beyond increasing amounts. There is also little known regarding specific aspects of support, like satisfaction with emotional and instrumental support, that might lead to differences in postpartum distress outcomes. In this prospective, longitudinal study, we hypothesized that greater social support satisfaction will be associated with less …

Exploring The Lived Religious Experiences Of Gay And Lesbian Ordained Clergy In The United Methodist Church, Tracy Allen Temple

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United Methodist Church (UMC) as an institution has strict language against lesbian and gay people and against the ordination of the lesbian and gay people. Prior research has focused on how denominations and congregations discuss issues around sexuality, how attitudes have shifted around issues of sexuality, and how to provide spiritual care for the LGBTQ+ community. This qualitative study interviewed lesbian and gay ordained elders in the UMC to learn about their experiences of serving as clergy people in the UMC even though there are prohibitive statements in church documents. Firstly, the interviews revealed that the participants feel loved …

Rapid-Scan Epr And Imaging, Yilin Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

EPR imaging at low frequency is a powerful tool to obtain important biological information in vivo in a non-invasive way. Properties of nitroxide and trityl radical imaging reagents have been studied. Developments in rapid scan imaging techniques are reported that improve efficiency of experiments and user-friendliness of software.

Relaxation and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in pulse experiments on trityl radicals were measured at frequencies between 400 MHz and 1.5 GHz. Relaxation time increases as the frequency increases and the radical concentration decreases. Since relaxation time is a sensitive and accurate measure of oxygen pressure, this study provides criteria for the selection …

Unraveling Pdi And Its Interaction With Ab Toxins, Jessica Guyette

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) is an essential endoplasmic reticulum (ER) protein that acts as both an oxidoreductase and chaperone. It exhibits substantial flexibility and undergoes cycles of unfolding and refolding in its interaction with cholera toxin (Ctx), which is a unique property of PDI. This unfolding allows PDI to disassemble the Ctx holotoxin, which is required for Ctx activity. Here, we investigated the unfolding and refolding property of PDI and how this affects its interaction with bacterial toxins. PDI showed remarkable redox-linked conformational resilience that allows it to refold after being thermally stressed. Deletion constructs of PDI showed that both …

Differences In Complete 2 Compete Participant Characteristics: What Can They Tell Us?, Audra Joan Trnovec

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The majority of C2C students participating at the University of Mississippi (UM) are adult students who face different barriers in their return to higher education than traditional students. These barriers necessitate the review of and changes in student services. To better understand this population, an analysis was conducted of 582 C2C participants who had already acquired some college credit at UM. The purpose of this study is to develop a sustainable program that assists more students to successfully return and complete a degree. The study looked at students’ ages, overall earned credits, gender, overall grade point average, ethnicity, number of …

Optimization And Characterization Of Hot-Melt Extruded Anti-Inflammatory And Local Anesthetic Bio-Adhesive Semisolid Formulation Using Design Of Experiments (Doe), Rishi Chinmay Thakkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hot melt extrusion is a versatile continuous manufacturing process extensively investigated for its applications with production of oral solid dosage forms, the aim of this study was to venture the applicability of HME in continuous manufacturing of topical semi-solid ointment formulations. Novel combination of a topical corticosteroid (Triamcinolone Acetonide) and local anesthetic (Lidocaine hydrochloride) were selected to be formulated with a water-soluble ointment base consisting of PEG 4000, PEG 1500 and Propylene glycol after performing appropriate drug-excipient compatibility studies. To determine the ratios of the solid to liquid components of the macrogol base, ‘quality by design’ approach was employed by …

Basketball Officials' Training And Development: Links To Retention, Nathan Ferdinand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sharp decline in retention from year-to-year among sport officials is considered a “crisis” among the officiating community and research has attempted to explore the issue by identifying factors that impact retention (Warner et al. 2013). The seven-factor “Referee Retention Scale” (RRS) seeks to predict the likelihood of retention for officials one factor being officials’ ratings of their continuing education (Ridinger et al. 2017). However there is a lack of study for examining the relationships among methods and outcomes of training continuing education and referee retention across sporting contexts. A cross-sectional design was created using an online survey which combined …

A Mechanistic Study Of The Teratogenic Potential Of 4-O-Methylhonokiol (Mh) On Japanese Medaka (Oryzias Latipes), Santu Kumar Singha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An additional goal of this project was to characterize the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to unravel the adverse potential of MH on the cardiovascular system (CVS). Our study suggested that MH-mediated cardiovascular injury may be caused due to upregulation of some major components of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway through expression of excessive pro-inflammatory mediators. Moreover MH decreased expression of ErbB3 and NRG-2 suggesting impaired cardiac structure. MH exposure caused a slow heartbeat blood occlusion absence of blood circulation decreased hatching efficiency and increased mortality in medaka embryos in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. MH might cause blood vessel occlusion by increasing the …

Institutional Factors That Affect Transfer Student Sucess At A University In The Mid-South Region Of The U.S., Patricia Ann Coats

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At a four-year university located in the Mid-South region of the United States, students who transfer do so with the likelihood of spending more time and money completing a baccalaureate degree than non-transfer students. This is what research scholar Kevin Dougherty (1992) entitled the Baccalaureate Attainment Gap or the transfer gap. In this companion dissertation, using a multi-method approach, we use the quantitative data of transfer student graduation and retention rates along with qualitative data from interviews conducted with administrative staff about transfer student success. We consider these selected outcomes and administrative staff interviews to be institutional factors that help …

Food Insecurity And Health Of International Students, Jamie Nichole Benefield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

International college students may be at risk for suffering from food insecurity and poor health. The purposes of this study were to: 1) determine if the household adult food security status (HAFSS) differs between undergraduate and graduate international students (INSTUD) attending the University of Mississippi (UM); 2) establish if a statistically significant relationship exists between health (physical functioning (PF) , role limitations due to physical health (RLPH), role limitations due to emotional problems (RLEP), energy/fatigue (EF), emotional well-being (EWB), social functioning (SF), pain (P), and general health (GH) and HAFSS; 3) assess if health differs between INSTUD living in food …

Safety Assessment And Chemical Fingerprint Analysis Of Medicinal Plants Commonly Consumed As Herbal Teas; Rooibos (Aspalathus Linearis) And Moringa (Moringa Oleifera), Omer I. Fantoukh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first chapter discusses the significance of natural products, safety challenges, and quality issues concisely. Specifically, the impact of herb-drug interaction on consumers and the quest for chemical markers for chemical fingerprinting development are provided. Rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis) is a popular South African herbal tea enjoyed worldwide. Limited reports indicate the potential of rooibos tea to alter the activity of CYP450 isozymes. In chapter two, the phytochemical investigation of A. linearis resulted in the isolation and characterization of 14 phenolic compounds. Safety assessment of the phytochemicals through interaction with CYP, PXR, and P gp was conducted. The …

The Carolina Gay Association, The Southeastern Gay Conferences, And Gay Liberation In The 1970s South, David Hooper Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores how the successes and failures of local organizing networks in the South shaped national conversations on the rights of queer Americans. Its starting point is 1970 with the Triangle Gay Alliance’s formation in Raleigh, and it ends in 1978 with the third annual Southeastern Gay Conference and repeal of Miami-Dade County’s nondiscrimination ordinance. Paying close attention to the founding of the Carolina Gay Association in 1975 and the subsequent Southeastern Gay Conferences (SEGCs), the thesis connects the attendance at conferences to locally-organized activist groups from North Carolina to Florida to show that rather than being “lonely hunters” …

Exploring The Impact Of Mississippi Virtual Community College Academy Professional Development For Online Teaching, Terry Woodrow Pollard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As online courses and programs continue to grow in number across Mississippi’s community college system, an examination of the system which trains and supports faculty has gone largely unexamined. The aim of this research was to study the impact of the Mississippi Virtual Community College Academy, the state’s online professional development system, on faculty. Structured interviews were conducted with nine faculty in four community colleges across the state to determine conditions that helped or hindered faculty in their implementation of content learned in online professional development courses on credit-bearing courses they would later teach. Analysis of faculty transcripts indicate faculty …

Subjective Measures Of Implicit Categorization Learning, Audrey Zlatkin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The neuropsychological theory known as COVIS (COmpetition between Verbal and Implicit Systems) postulates that distinct brain systems compete during category learning. The explicit system involves conscious hypothesis testing about verbalizable rules, while the implicit system relies on procedural learning of rules that are difficult to verbalize. Specifically from a behavioral approach, COVIS has been supported through demonstrating empirical dissociations between explicit and implicit learning tasks. The current studies were designed to gain deeper understanding of implicit category learning through the implementation of a subjective measure of awareness, Meta d', which until now has not been validated within a COVIS framework. …

Metabolic Effects Of 17a-Estradiol Are Growth Hormone Independent And Sex Specific, Silvana Sidhom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aging is a major risk factor for metabolic syndromes and type two diabetes. With growing elderly populations worldwide and increasing incidence of age-related diseases there is a great need to develop pharmacological interventions that would delay aging and protect from age-related diseases. 17-alpha estradiol (17α-E2) is an epimer of the primary female sex hormone estradiol and has been shown to extend lifespan and downregulate markers of age-related metabolic dysfunction in male mice. Because 17α-E2 does not induce feminization in males it holds potential as a novel therapeutic in humans for age-related metabolic dysfunction. Importantly, we have previously shown that 17α-E2 …

Mechanism Of Nanogp8 In Glioblastoma Multiforme, Jonhoi Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an incurable brain tumor, with patients only expecting to live 15 to 16 months post-diagnosis with the most current treatments options including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. How GBM resist treatment is still not very well known. However, cancer stem cells (CSCs), a subset of cells in GBM tissue considered responsible for therapeutic resistance and the poor patient prognosis. NANOG, a homeobox gene, is responsible for maintaining pluripotency of embryonic stem cells and is observed in CSCs. NANOGP8, a retrogene in the NANOG family is expressed in CSCs and provides cells with stem-like characteristics previously observed in …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Safety Regarding School Shootings, Megan Olive

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a result of high media attention surrounding school shootings in recent years, it may appear that American public schools are becoming dangerous places (Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016; Elsass, Schildkraut, & Stafford, 2016; Toppo, 2013). Though schools remain to be one of the safest locations for children, various safety measures are discussed and implemented in schools to combat this perceived problem and ensure the safety of school campuses. Discussions of best safety practices spikes directly following a school shooting event from relevant parties, such as school administration, law enforcement agencies, parents, and students, (Crawford & Burns, 2015; Chrusciel, Wolfe, Hansen, …

Development Of A Functional Testing Platform For The Sensory Segment Of The Neuromuscular Reflex Arc, Alisha Colon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Investigations of human biology and disease have been hindered by the use of animal models. The information obtained from such studies often results in clinically irrelevant results and drug trial failures. Additionally, several governing bodies have been formulating legislation to move away from animal models and toward more ethical and efficient testing platforms for drug discovery and cosmetic research. As an answer to these issues, "body-on-a-chip" systems have been a rapidly developing field which easily recapitulates in vivo functionality, providing a more relevant, repeatable, and ethical testing platform to better predict biology. These systems can be used as human-based testing …

Stochastic Optimization And Applications With Endogenous Uncertainties Via Discrete Choice Models, Mengnan Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stochastic optimization is an optimization method that solves stochastic problems for minimizing or maximizing an objective function when there is randomness in the optimization process. In this dissertation, various stochastic optimization problems from the areas of Manufacturing, Health care, and Information Cascade are investigated in networks systems. These stochastic optimization problems aim to make plan for using existing resources to improve production efficiency, customer satisfaction, and information influence within limitation. Since the strategies are made for future planning, there are environmental uncertainties in the network systems. Sometimes, the environment may be changed due to the action of the decision maker. …

Filling The Gaps: Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Population Dynamics, Structure, And Connectivity Within Florida Panhandle Bays, Sounds, And Estuaries, Christina Toms

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the time of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, very little was known about the inshore bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) populations hit hardest by the spill. Without previous population demographic data impacts were challenging to assess. My dissertation was designed to build research capacity moving forward by helping to fill data gaps in the western Florida Panhandle. The first study presented here resulted in the first system-wide assessment of seasonal abundance, survival, and site fidelity patterns of bottlenose dolphins that inhabit the Pensacola Bay system. In contrast to a previous study that reported only 33 dolphins, results from …

Biomass Density Based Adjustment Of Lidar-Derived Digital Elevation Models: A Machine Learning Approach, Khalid Abdelwahab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Salt marshes are valued for providing protective and non-protective ecosystem services. Accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) in salt marshes are crucial for modeling storm surges and determining the initial DEM elevations for modelling marsh evolution. Due to high biomass density, lidar DEMs in coastal wetlands are seldom reliable. In an aim to reduce lidar-derived DEM error, several multilinear regression and random forest models were developed and tested to estimate biomass density in the salt marshes near Saint Marks Lighthouse in Crawfordville, Florida. Between summer of 2017 and spring of 2018, two field trips were conducted to acquire true elevation and …

Assessing Pedestrian Safety Conditions On Campus, Morgan Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pedestrian-related crashes are a significant safety issue in the United States and cause considerable amounts of deaths and economic cost. Pedestrian safety is an issue that must be uniquely evaluated in a college campus, where pedestrian volumes are dense. The objective of this research is to identify issues at specific locations around UCF and suggest solutions for improvement. To address this problem, a survey that identifies pedestrian safety issues and locations is distributed to UCF students and staff, and an evaluation of drivers reactions to pedestrian to vehicle (P2V) warning systems is studied through the use of a NADS MiniSim …

Optimization Algorithms For Deep Learning Based Medical Image Segmentations, Aliasghar Mortazi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Medical image segmentation is one of the fundamental processes to understand and assess the functionality of different organs and tissues as well as quantifying diseases and helping treatment planning. With ever increasing number of medical scans, the automated, accurate, and efficient medical image segmentation is as unmet need for improving healthcare. Recently, deep learning has emerged as one the most powerful methods for almost all image analysis tasks such as segmentation, detection, and classification and so in medical imaging. In this regard, this dissertation introduces new algorithms to perform medical image segmentation for different (a) imaging modalities, (b) number of …

A Multi-Species Single-Led Hazardous Gas Sensor For Commercial Space Applications, Akshita Parupalli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the interest of furthering both commercial and government-funded opportunities for deep space exploration, the safety of life and equipment onboard must be absolutely certain. In this regard, the presence of any hazardous gases or combustion events onboard space vehicles must be quickly characterized and detected. Several hazardous gases of interest have absorption features in the mid-infrared range and can be detected with an infrared light source, via the principles of absorption spectroscopy. A non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensor that follows these principles has been developed to utilize light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for gas detection and quantification. LEDs contain a particular advantage …

An Assessment Of Biosorption Activated Media For The Removal Of Pollutants In Up-Flow Stormwater Treatment Systems, Andrew Hood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen and phosphorus are often the limiting nutrients for marine and freshwater systems respectively. Additionally, stormwater often contains elevated levels of pathogens which can pollute the receiving water body and impact reuse applications [1-4]. The reduction of limiting nutrients and pathogens is a common primary target for stormwater best management practices (BMPs) [5]. Traditional BMPs, such as retention/detention treatment ponds require large footprints and may not be practical in ultra-urban environments where above ground space is limited. Upflow filters utilizing biosorption activated media (BAM) that can be placed underground offer a small footprint alternative. Additionally, BAM upflow filters can be …

Probabilistic Spatio-Magnitude Sinkhole Hazard Analysis For East Central Flrodia, Yong Je Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Karst areas, sinkholes are a major geohazard that creates damage and economic loss to building and civil infrastructure. The main goal of the proposed study is to develop a probabilistic spatio-magnitude sinkhole susceptibility model that predicts the potential of sinkhole occurrence on a regional scale. The dissertation presents statistical techniques such as frequency ratio (FR) and logistic regression (LR), and a machine learning technique such as artificial neural network (ANN) to develop the sinkhole hazard models. The study area was limited to the East Central Floria (ECF) region. Seven hydrogeological factors were identified as key contributing factors to sinkhole …

Development Of In Vitro Point Of Care Diagnostics (Ivpcd) Based On Aptamers Integrated Biosensors, Nileshi Saraf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The global market for the medical diagnostic industry is worth 25 billion dollars in the United States and is expected to grow exponentially each year. Presently available methods for biodetection, such as immunoassays, chemiluminescence and fluorescent based assays are expensive, time consuming and require skilled labor with high-end instruments. Therefore, development of novel, passive colorimetric sensors and diagnostic technologies for detection and surveillance is of utmost importance especially in resource constrained communities. The present work focusses on developing novel and advanced in vitro biodiagnostic tools based on aptamer integrated biosensors for an early detection of specific viral proteins or small …

Enhanced Concrete Bridge Assessment Using Artificial Intelligence And Mixed Reality, Enes Karaaslan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conventional methods for visual assessment of civil infrastructures have certain limitations, such as subjectivity of the collected data, long inspection time, and high cost of labor. Although some new technologies (i.e. robotic techniques) that are currently in practice can collect objective, quantified data, the inspector's own expertise is still critical in many instances since these technologies are not designed to work interactively with human inspector. This study aims to create a smart, human-centered method that offers significant contributions to infrastructure inspection, maintenance, management practice, and safety for the bridge owners. By developing a smart Mixed Reality (MR) framework, which can …

Investigation Of Coastal Vegetation Dynamics And Persistence In Response To Hydrologic And Climatic Events Using Remote Sensing, Subrina Tahsin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal Wetlands (CW) provide numerous imperative functions and provide an economic base for human societies. Therefore, it is imperative to track and quantify both short and long-term changes in these systems. In this dissertation, CW dynamics related to hydro-meteorological signals were investigated using a series of LANDSAT-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data and hydro-meteorological time-series data in Apalachicola Bay, Florida, from 1984 to 2015. NDVI in forested wetlands exhibited more persistence compared to that for scrub and emergent wetlands. NDVI fluctuations generally lagged temperature by approximately three months, and water level by approximately two months. This analysis provided insight …

A Study Of Perceptions On Incident Response Exercises, Information Sharing, Situational Awareness, And Incident Response Planning In Power Grid Utilities, Joseph Garmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The power grid is facing increasing risks from a cybersecurity attack. Attacks that shut off electricity in Ukraine have already occurred, and successful compromises of the power grid that did not shut off electricity to customers have been privately disclosed in North America. The objective of this study is to identify how perceptions of various factors emphasized in the electric sector affect incident response planning. Methods used include a survey of 229 power grid personnel and the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling to identify causal relationships. This study reveals the relationships between perceptions by personnel responsible for …