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A Paper-Based Elisa Device For The Rapid Detection Of Ischemic Stroke, Andrea Elisabeth Larsen

Master's Theses

Diagnosing an ischemic stroke quickly and accurately is essential for appropriate treatment and results in more effective management of the stroke, leading to better patient outcomes. Specifically, the determination of ischemic versus hemorrhagic stroke leads to critically different treatment paths, which would be potentially fatal if administered incorrectly. Currently, ischemic strokes are diagnosed through a series of tests, including a physical examination, CT scans, and a panel of blood tests to exclude hemorrhagic stroke or other similarly presenting conditions, in order to administer tPA (the main treatment) within the three hour window.

The discovery of biomarkers, molecules which are upregulated …

The Investigation Of Methylidyne Radical (Ch) Reactions With Furan, 2-Methylfuran, And 2,5-Dimethlyfuran And The Photoionization And Photodissociation Of Valeric Acid, Erica Carrasco

Master's Theses

This thesis presents the combustion study of three furanic compounds using synchrotron radiation coupled with multiplexed photoionization mass spectrometry at 298 K. The experiments were performed at the Chemical Dynamics Beamline 9.0.2 at the Advanced Light Source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The reactions of the three furanic compounds with methylidyne (CH) radicals were analyzed based on their photoionization spectra and kinetic profiles.

Additionally, the unimolecular dissociation of valeric acid was also studied and presented in this work using the double imaging photoelectron photoion spectrometry (i2PEPICO) coupled with synchrotron radiation from the VUV beamline. The experiments were carried out …

Murder And Machismo: Behind The Motivations Of Salvadoran Women Asylum Seekers, Victoria Colbert

Master's Theses

This thesis aims to draw connections between a culture of machismo, an ideological gender belief distinct to Latin America with heavy traces of patriarchy and misogyny, and the motivations of Salvadoran women seeking asylum in the United States. I develop these connections by first reviewing the literature on structural violence, the form of violence wherein the structure or social institution prevents certain demographics of people from meeting their basic needs and living their optimal lives (Galtung, 1969). I repeatedly use structural violence and its functions to parallel the operations of patriarchy and machismo to suggest that violence against women (VAW) …

Competition And Cooperation In Polygynous & Monogamous Households: Experimental Evidence From Sierra Leone, Bethany Gerdemann

Master's Theses

Competition and cooperation in polygynous households have both been widely documented across various disciplines. There is contradictory evidence as to whether these interpersonal dynamics produce better or worse outcomes for the household. This study uses a competitiveness game and a series of dictator games to measure competition and cooperation within households and between marriage types. Results show that there are key differences between monogamy and polygyny. Monogamous women compete less with their husbands than stranger and less in comparison to polygynous women. Monogamous spouses are more likely to forgo economic opportunities than polygynous spouses and have a greater preference for …

Effects Of Leaf Litter On Amphibian Site Selection, Rebekah Magee

Master's Theses

Leaf litter plays an important role in the forest ecosystem, impacting various processes and hindering erosion. While there is variability in the chemical and nutritional properties of leaf litter, the effects these variables have on organisms within the environment are not well known. In this study, we examined the effects of leaf litter chemistry on amphibian oviposition site selection. Artificial ponds were created using small, plastic pools, and leaf litter of 15 different tree species (including two invasive species) was added. During the 60 day experiment, water quality measurements (including temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and water depth) were taken …

Seizure Detection Using Teager-Kaiser Energy And A Channel Signal Quality Assessment Algorithm, Samuel Clary

Master's Theses

This study investigated the possibility of reducing the time required for accurate epileptic seizure detection through a retroactive analysis. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder affecting over 50 million individuals globally and is defined as a disorder which results in two seizures unprovoked by fever or medication. Diagnosis of epilepsy typically involves a monitored stay at an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). The monitoring and diagnosis process ranges on average from $35,000 to $40,000 for a single stay, and the patient results from EMU are not instantly available to the patient. The collected electroencephalogram (EEG) must be analyzed by a trained EMU …

The Effects Of A Low-Glycemic Index Diabetes Management Program On Weight, Body Mass Index, Triglycerides, Cholesterol And Hemoglobin A1c Values, Morgan Williston

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of a low-glycemic index diet on weight, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, cholesterol levels, and hemoglobin A1c

(HbA1c) following participation in a 12-hour outpatient diabetes self- management education (DSME) program. This DSME program is unique as it

focuses on a low-glycemic index diet rather than the traditional carbohydrate consistent diet to control blood glucose levels. Health outcomes obtained post participation were compared to baseline data. Participants were 283 individuals with type 2 diabetes including 94 (33%) men and 189 (67%) women, with a mean baseline HbA1c of 8.7 ±2.2%. Statistically significant …

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Of Colorectal Cancer Screening Strategies Using Active Learning And Montecarlo Simulation, Amirhosein Fouladi

Master's Theses

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the deadliest types of cancer in the US due to its high incidence and mortality rates. Detection of CRC in the early stages through available screening tests increases the patient's survival chances. In this study, we investigate the cost-effectiveness of a wide variety of multi-modal CRC screening policies. More specifically, we develop a Monte Carlo simulation framework to model the CRC natural history and preventive interventions. Age-specific and size-specific progression rates of adenomatous polyps are estimated using an innovative active learning method. Specifically, we develop a decision tree model to estimate size-specific and age-specific …

Establishing The Validity Of The Polar V800tm Heart Rate Monitor Among Adults With Hypertension, Burak Talip Cilhoroz

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Food Systems Adverse Health Impacts On Latinx Immigrant Communities By Lisa Marquez, Lisa Marquez

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the adverse health impacts food systems have on Latinx immigrant communities. Marquez looks closely at emergency services programs using the food bank run by the Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay, California, and interviewed five Latina immigrants from Mexico and Central America. While the food banks provided these families with fresh produce, the women expressed that it is substandard to the produce in their home countries. The interviews are supplemented with the analysis of three spoken word poems by youth who are second generation or whom have spent the majority of their lives …

Temperature And Tempers: Heats Impact On Mood And Language, John Sutton

Master's Theses

Abstract: Temperatures above 20° Celsius have shown to adversely impact human behavior, leading to increased aggression and violence. Climate change will contribute to both the magnitude and severity of this pattern as temperatures continue their rise. Contributions to this field of research have only recently begun to analyze online behavior and language as a proxy for hedonic state, or well-being. From a development perspective this study is relevant since the poor tend to live in some of the warmest regions on earth, and would thus be disproportionately impacted by increased temperatures. We use several sources of data; U.S. based …

Measuring Cocoa Agricultural Productivity: A Spatio-Temporal Econometric Approach, Yurlady Chaverra-Palacios

Master's Theses

A significant increase of 50.5 percent in the national production of cocoa was registered between 2011 and 2015 in Colombia. Nevertheless, 5,890 tons were imported in 2015 to supply domestic demand. Unlike other crops, the production of cocoa has made a significant contribution to the income of approximately 38,000 families of which 90 percent are small farm-producers with very little capital. Facilitating credit for investment is one of the main strategies of the national government to increase cocoa productivity. Correspondingly, the impact of the credit for investment on the cocoa agricultural productivity and if those investments have a spillover effect …

The Effect Of Disability Status On Parental Input: A Study From India, Susann Skjoldhorne

Master's Theses

Human capital has for a long time been an important factor in economic growth theory. Previous literature shows a strong connection between parental input and the level of human capital attained by a child. The investment in child health and education has a positive effect on building human capital. When resources are scarce the allocation of resources will affect the opportunities that a child is given to achieve their potential. Gender preferences, birth order, and disabilities could all be factors that explain how parents chose to allocate their resources. Previous studies show that the distribution of parental input based on …

The Impact Of Cleft Lip/Palate And Clp Surgical Intervention On The Social Integration Of Adolescents In India, Mustafa Zahid

Master's Theses

Cleft Lip/Palate, a congenital orofacial anomaly, carries an incidence rate of approximately 1 in every 1000 births. In addition to the stigma associated with the condition, the varying levels of cleft severity might result in lower life outcomes which could include lower cognitive ability, physical and psychological well-being, social and behavioral outcomes of adolescents. This paper focuses on the social integration element of life outcomes, which is composed of the social inclusion and prosocial behavior of the adolescent. Despite the affordability of restorative surgeries, patients in rural areas of Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) such as India face accessibility and …

The Long-Run Effects Of Tropical Cyclones On Infant Mortality, Isabel Miranda

Master's Theses

In the United States alone, each tropical cyclone causes an average of $14.6 billion worth of damages. In addition to the destruction of physical infrastructure, natural disasters also negatively impact human capital formation. These losses are often more difficult to observe, and therefore, are over looked when quantifying the true costs of natural disasters. One particular effect is an increase in infant mortality rates, an important indicator of a country’s general socioeconomic level. This paper utilizes a model created by Anttila-Hughes and Hsiang, that takes advantage of annual variation in tropical cyclones using annual spatial average maximum wind speeds and …

Indigenous Women's Bodies: Primer Territorio De Defensa, Ana Gabriela Avalos Tizol

Master's Theses

The teen pregnancy “epidemic” in Guatemala is a focal point when international and national NGOs demand that the government protect the civil and political rights of girls. In accordance, the state created laws (legal age for marriage - Ordinance 13-2017), implemented penal codes (statutory rape - Article 173) and created Programa Vida (conditional cash transfer of Q. 1,500 - $200 every two months) to address this ‘epidemic.’ Yet, only sixty-one teen mothers were involved in the program by the first year in 2018, indicating its inaccessibility. This thesis proposes to challenge the dominant narrative on teenage pregnancies, which blames “Mayan …

Cariño In The Clase: Understanding How Teachers And Staff In San José Navigate Caring, Protecting, And Empowering Undocumented Latinx High School Students In The Trump Era, Nancy Haro

Master's Theses

Latinx students in low-income public schools face structural oppression that limits their educational and career opportunities. Those opportunities are further limited when we consider how many of those students might be undocumented. The current political climate is replete with anti-immigrant sentiment and has already created further difficulty for undocumented students with the recession of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Public high school teachers and staff play an important role in the lives of these students, for they interact in a space in which preparation for adulthood is the goal. However, these spaces do not exist in a vacuum but …

Economic Shocks And Personality Traits Of The Ultra-Poor, Shikhar Mehra

Master's Theses

Personality characteristics and non-cognitive skills are strong determinants of decision- making and economic outcomes. Personality is commonly believed to be stable, especially after age 30, though some evidence exists that changes in occupational or social roles, or exposure to family or health shocks, can change an individual’s personality traits in the medium or long term. Evidence on short-term impacts of shocks on personality, however, is lacking, as is evidence from rural and less educated populations. In this paper, we study the short-term effects of two kinds of shocks on personality traits among young adults from ultra-poor households in Uganda. In …

Captive Nations: Measuring Economic Growth On Native American Reservations In California, Mahsa Ashabi

Master's Theses

A history of institutional oppression and genocide has shaped Native American communities across the United States today, reflected in large disparities of socioeconomic outcomes and infrastructure. Due to a lack of comprehensive data and macroeconomic research, alternative forms of spatial data and theories regarding human settlement are needed to develop an understanding ofthis stagnation. In our efforts to better understand growth on Native American reservations, we utilize nighttime lights data to proxy for economic output in these geographic areas, measuring the settlement characteristics ofreservations themselves and against surrounding U.S. regions. Through a series of log-log regressions that focus on Zipf’s …

The Behavioral Determinants Of Well-Being In Sierra Leone, Madison Levine

Master's Theses

Ensuring the needs of individuals are met leads to a more prosperous economy. Healthy economic activity is dependent on a supported community of people. These people express different levels of happiness depending on where they come from and make behavioral choices every day influenced by their association with their community. Currently most subjective data have come from western educated industrialized rich and democratic (WEIRD) areas. These results are placed as generalizations across all other countries and are not giving an adequate representation of well-being for the population in non-WEIRD areas. Our study outlines an in-depth survey covering subjective well-being measurements …

Are Menstrual Cycles A Biological Determinant Of Well-Being Amongst Sierra Leonean Schoolchildren?, Ashwini Shridhar

Master's Theses

The influence of hormones and biology on behavior is a topic that is rife with controversy, especially when it comes to sexual hormones. There is even more murkiness when it comes to the topic of menstruation and knowledge about women’s menstrual cycles. Recent research on this topic have seen a link between the hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and various behavioral implications on competition, cooperation, and risk behavior. This study tries to expand existing knowledge by examining whether there is a link between hormonal fluctuations during menstrual cycles and risk preferential behavior using economic experiments in the largely understudied context …

Facilitating Greenhouse Gas Reduction And Climate Change Adaptation Within The Coastal Zone: A Policy Analysis For The California Coastal Commission, Nicole Young

Master's Theses

California is already experiencing impacts to its coastline due to climate change, and more severe impacts are anticipated if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. These climate change impacts are especially strong within the California coastal zone, which falls under the jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission. The Commission has a history of rigorous environmental protection and is committed to protecting California’s coast through proactive planning and regulation, however they will need to initiate coastal policies with ambitious targets to facilitate effective climate change adaptation and mitigation. This study analyzed existing California climate policies and Coastal Commission policies to identify …

Frogs Hiding In Plain Sight: Phylogenetic Systematics Of Myanmar’S Occidozyga Species Complex, And The Identification Of A Novel Species, Allison Bogisich

Master's Theses

Different species can be difficult to distinguish from one another when they are morphologically similar. Such cryptic species are the reason many anuran species go undetected. For this study, the taxonomic identity of the Occidozyga complex across Myanmar was investigated. An integrated approach was used combining molecular, morphological and phylogeographic data to better assess its taxonomy. Results indicate the presence of three new candidate species within Occidozyga, and three evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) lineages. Two mitochondrial gene fragments (16S, COI) and one nuclear gene fragment (Rhodopsin) were examined from DNA isolated from forty-seven preserved specimens from the California Academy …

Mentoring Female Entrepreneurs: Revenue Analysis, Candy M. Moreno Garcia

Master's Theses

Throughout the world, significantly less women own businesses than their male counterparts. In addition, they tend to own businesses that are smaller, have less growth, are less profitable and have lower sales turnover than those of men. Supporting female entrepreneurs is crucial as they tend to spend more on the health of the household, nutrition and education. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of a mentorship program between experienced female entrepreneurs and inexperienced entrepreneurs, specifically focusing on the impact to profits. I use data collected from three rounds of survey over the course of six …

Survival Migration & The Need For Just Policies And Front-Line Leadership In Climate Change And Migration, Nik Evasco

Master's Theses

Abstract:

This paper explores the growing phenomenon of migration due to climate change through an analysis of human rights and a review of international conventions. It argues that current migration, refugee and asylum regimes at the regional and international policy levels are inadequate to serve the needs of individuals, families and communities that are preemptively relocating or are forced to migrate due to climate change and its subsequent effects. This paper shows that environmentally-displaced migrants who are either forcibly displaced or preemptively migrating do not have sufficient recognition or legal or political protections compared to ‘traditional’ refugees or migrants. The …

Wildfire Exposure To Critical Habitat Of Endangered And Threatened Species In California, Kristin Butcher

Master's Theses

Researchers, fire ecologists and wildlife managers are concerned about impact to endangered and threatened species and their critical habitat due to the projected increase in future wildfires. Wildfires have been studied in California for the last six decades and have been increasing at an alarming rate since the 1980’s. In this study, I use the 2018 spatial dataset for critical habitat of federally endangered and threatened species located in the state boundaries of California and compare it to a spatial dataset for wildfires that have occurred over the span of 32 years (1984 to 2016). Trends are derived from spatial …

Eugenics In Education Policy And The Impact On African American Students, Ruth Jones

Master's Theses

Eugenics was defined as a science which used selective breeding as a mechanism to increase desirable traits in a population while restricting and eliminating undesirable traits. Eugenicists fell out of favor in the United States after the fall of Nazi Germany. Yet, eugenic ideas continued to prevail as they heavily influenced medical, social, and academic systems in the U.S. The country’s education system still carries the legacy of eugenicists who helped to build it. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify eugenic ideas in federal, district and local school policy and determine their connection to the very local …

Breaking The Chains: Reversing The School-To-Prison Pipeline Through The Academic Experiences Of Formerly Incarcerated Black Males, Folasade Ogunbanwo

Master's Theses

This case study explores the academic experiences of formerly incarcerated Black males. The goal of the case study is to inform policymakers and critical race scholars who take interest in the prison-to-school pipeline and ultimately dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. The historical impact of slavery has manifested into this vicious pipeline and the overrepresentation of Black males in the prison industrial complex. This case study is to demonstrate how the net is casted on those affected by the incarceration system and that break the cycle for themselves by pursuing an education to create an upward academic trajectory.

Indigenization Of Genocide Healing: A Grounded Action Of Culturally And Contextually Relevant Educational And Psychosocial Strategies To Reduce Impacts Of Societal Toxic Stress In Rwanda Post-Genocide, Jean Pierre Ndagijimana

Master's Theses

Sixty percent of the current Rwandan population were born after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and those born since or who were young at the time of the genocide have remained among those affected most. Although Western trauma theorists and interventionists have played the role of experts in the genocide healing, the exclusion of the indigenous population’s experiences, knowledge, and wisdom has limited them from meeting local needs. The post-genocide situation raises various issues, genocide ideology, and increasing family homicides; however, locals do not want to seek counseling services, or run the risk of being labeled as mentally ill. …

Bridging The Gender Gap: Women In Stem Management, Kathryn Skeeters

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to study the current effects of training and accommodations on women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields. Currently, there is a lack of women at the senior levels in the STEM field. This study evaluates the current literature as well as the personal experiences of 14 subjects. This information was collected through interviews. No personal data besides gender and age is communicated in the paper, with company names and signifiers removed. With the information gleaned from this research, the study evaluates the current programs and assesses a path forward. The assumption from …