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The Effects Of E-Cigarette Vapor Exposure, And The Role Of A7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors And Micro-Rna, On The Regeneration Potential Of Periodontal Ligament Derived Stem Cells, Carlos Miguel Carballosa

Open Access Dissertations

The electronic cigarette (EC) has recently been deemed as a “safer alternative” to cigarette smoking; however, EC are still believed to cause major health concerns due to the concentrated delivery of toxic chemicals. ECs have not been fully regulated by the FDA and the long-term effects of EC vapor exposure have yet to be identified, yet according to the 2016 Surgeon General Report, EC use among young adults has grown by more than 900% within the last 5 years and is currently the most popular form of tobacco use among this group. The proposed research will investigate how EC use …

Oral Health Related Quality Of Life, Dental Care Utilization, And Serostatus Disclosure Among Hiv-Positive Women In The Women’S Interagency Hiv Study (Wihs) Cohort, Carrigan Parish

Open Access Dissertations

Persons living with HIV are more likely than HIV-negative individuals to experience oral health problems, yet are also more likely to have unmet dental care treatment needs. Dental needs among HIV-positive individuals can also be more severe and difficult to manage compared to the general population, often contributing to the onset of opportunistic oral infections. Furthermore, dental problems in patients with HIV can be associated with low CD4 counts and poor immune function. Due to the underutilization of dental services, oral health problems and symptoms, especially those that are related to HIV infection, remain prevalent in this population. Neglected dental …

A Comparative Study Of Whether The Relationship Between Moral Reasoning And Academic Misconduct Differs Between Traditional And Nontraditional Students, Janiel Francisco Vargas

Open Access Dissertations

Academic misconduct exists among undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds and continues to undermine higher education. To better understand the decision to engage in such behavior, this study examined whether the relationship between moral reasoning and academic misconduct differed between traditional and nontraditional students. An electronic questionnaire was used to survey a convenience sample of undergraduates at a public university in the Southeast. Three research questions guided the study: (1) Does moral reasoning differ between traditional and nontraditional students? (2) Do unethical behaviors, pertaining to academic misconduct, vary between traditional and nontraditional students? and (3) Does the relationship between …

Computational Insights Into The Structures, Mechanisms, And Chemical Properties Of Metal Complexes, Enzymes, And Bio-Molecules, Thomas J. Paul

Open Access Dissertations

In this thesis, we have focus on the following three projects: (1) the inhibition of amyloid beta aggregation, (2) structural and mechanical properties of amyloid peptides, and (3) complex biological systems of molecular recognition pertaining to hydrolysis. In the first project, we have looked at the inhibition of early and late forms of Aß peptides using heparin derived disaccharides, small molecules, and a Rhenium centered photoluminescence probe. We have determined and characterized the most relevant binding sites of these complexes to both the monomeric and fibrillar forms of the Aß peptide. Currently, the aggregation of biomolecules has been implicated in …

Paracrine Signaling In The Pancreatic Islet: Mechanisms For Macrophage Maintenance Of Tissue Homeostasis, Jonathan Weitz

Open Access Dissertations

Dysfunction or death of the islet’s endocrine cells leads to diabetes, a devastating disease affecting millions worldwide. Islet hormones secreted from endocrine cells are responsible for maintenance of blood glucose levels. However, hormone secretion from beta cells also involves the co-release of pro-inflammatory molecules such as ATP and serotonin. Thus, as a by-product of hormone secretion, islet endocrine cells may activate and interact with the local population of immune cells. The immune system mediates inflammatory responses, but in many tissues, immune cells also provide a homeostatic function. Resident macrophages in the liver (Kupffer Cells), and brain (microglia), for instance, fulfill …

Examining Periodontal Disease And Cardiovascular Disease Risk - Assessing The Feasibility And Acceptability Of Screening In The Dental Care Setting, Richard H. Singer

Open Access Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. and is responsible for 1 in 4 deaths annually. While mounting evidence points to an association of periodontal disease (PD) with a significant increase in the risk of CVD, independent of established CVD risk factors, this association has not been studied in Hispanic/Latino populations. Dental care settings offer an untapped health care setting to expand access to screening and early identification of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, little is known about dentist or patient viewpoints towards CVD screening in the dental office. The …

Photodimerization Of Cis-Cinnamic Acids And Cis-Cinnamides In Crystalline State And Aqueous Solution, Giri Babu Veerakanellore

Open Access Dissertations

The research work presented in this thesis describes the photochemical reactions carried out in the solid-state and X-ray structural studies to understand the photochemical behavior of cis-cinnamic acids by exploiting topochemical postulates. The photochemistry of excited cis-cinnamic acids can be understood from the photochemistry of corresponding trans-cinnamic acids but not from cis-cinnamic acids alone. Existence of dual reactive centers and its photoreactivity of cis-olefinic crystals are thoroughly investigated. Similar to trans-cinnamic acids, cis-cinnamic acids can also undergo direct photodimerization when the intermolecular distance of double bonds is less than 4.2 Å. Key contributing factors for the isomerization of cis-cinnamic acids …

Giving Voice To Underserved Foreign-Born Latino Youth: Trauma, Stress, And Health In The Primary Care Setting, Ashley Nicole Marchante-Hoffman

Open Access Dissertations

Exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) is common in the United States and may be more frequent among foreign-born Latino youth. Research has shown that PTEs negatively affect mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety. However, less is known about physical health outcomes during childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, foreign-born Latino youth, who are often a high-risk group, have been largely neglected in the trauma literature. Thus, the purpose of this study was to: (1) examine rates of pre-, during, and post-migration PTEs in foreign-born Latino youth and (2) assess the relationship between PTEs and markers of physical health problems …

The Allocation Of Attentional Resources: Exploring Fluctuations In Mind Wandering With Variation In Performance And Affective Variables, Marissa Krimsky

Open Access Dissertations

Mind wandering (MW) corresponds to performance across a variety of tasks, especially sustained attention. MW has been shown to increase with task-related requirements such as time-on-task, and individual differences, such as depression, and negative mood. The present study sought to investigate mechanisms that increase MW, specifically task-related requirements and individual differences tied to negative mood and depressive symptomology. Participants (N = 69) completed self-report measures of depression and negative mood and the sustained attention to response task (SART) with subjective measures of MW assessed intermittently throughout the task. Self-reported MW and task performance (variability in response time, and non-target accuracy) …

The Role Of Retinal Ganglion Cell Subtype In Survival And Regeneration Following Axonal Injury, Eric Raymond Bray

Open Access Dissertations

Failure of axon regeneration is a major barrier for recovery following neurological injury. Neurons of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) differ in their ability to regenerate axons. Cell-type specific differences in regenerative capacity are recognized in retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), but the underlying molecular mechanism remains poorly understood. I have shown a previously unappreciated regenerative capacity for melanopsin expressing RGCs (mRGCs) by using transgenic mice that allow reliable surveillance of axonal fates. I identified Thombospondin-1 (Thbs1) as an injury response gene that is unique to RGCs that regenerate. Loss- and gain-of-function studies showed that Thbs1 is important for the …

Physiological And Affective Reactivity To Emotional Comments In Individuals At High Risk For Psychosis, Marc Joshua Weintraub

Open Access Dissertations

Psychotic symptoms are distributed along a continuum, ranging from subclinical experiences to clinically-defined psychosis. Individuals who are on the clinically diagnosable end of the psychosis spectrum (e.g. schizophrenia) tend to have a heightened sensitivity to social stressors, like Expressed Emotion (EE). EE measures how critical or overly-involved a family member is towards an identified patient, and is positively associated with higher rates of relapse and greater symptomatic presentations following a patient’s hospitalization. Additionally, the mere exposure to a family member who is high in EE leads to greater physiological arousal in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. It is …

A Model Of Parental Involvement In The Music Education Of Students With Special Education Needs, Vimari Colon-Leon

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Schools’ Values and Practices, Parents’ Motivational Beliefs, and Home Musical Background on School-Based Parental Involvement in the form of a predictive model. Survey data were collected from a sample of 205 caregivers of elementary and middle school students with special education needs in the United States East Coast. All the participants’ children were enrolled in music courses at public schools when the study was conducted. Data analysis included Pearson correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis, and maximum likelihood structural equation modeling. Results of the CFA …

Synthesis And Applications Of Carbon Dots, Yiwen Ji

Open Access Dissertations

Carbon dots (C-Dots) are recognized as excellent, zero-dimensional, bio-compatible nanoparticles with diameters less than 10 nm. Since its discovery in 2004 by unintentional single-wall nanotube purification, C-Dots have been extensively studied and applied in many aspects in the past couple decades. C-Dots are mainly made from carbon source and nitrogen/sulfur doping, which made them bio-compatible and non-toxic nanomaterials, in comparison to other nanoparticles, such as semi-conductor quantum dots. In addition to non-toxicity, C-Dots possess excellent photostability and high fluorescence (QY up to 94 %), which is comparable to quantum dots for bio-imaging applications. In contrast to quantum dots, the synthesis …

Role Of Cancer Testis Antigens In Uveal And Cutaneous Melanoma, Julia Escandon

Open Access Dissertations

Aberrant gene expression is a feature of cancer. Cancer Testis Antigens (CTAs) which are normally expressed in the gonads are a group of proteins which are abnormally expressed in cancer and whose function remains elusive. Interestingly, the presence of cancer testis antigens is associated with bad prognosis in multiple tumor types. Cutaneous melanoma is a deadly disease which presents aneuploidy which is the aberrant gains and losses of chromosomes. REC8 is a meiotic cohesin that is normally present in testes and ovaries where it participates in meiotic division. In melanoma, REC8 is expressed compared to normal tissue and melanoma cell …

Fiducial-Less Real-Time Tracking For The Radiation Therapy Of Liver Tumors Using Artificial Neural Networks, Deon Martina Dick

Open Access Dissertations

For the Cyberknife radiation therapy treatment modality, the gold standard of real-time tracking of abdominal tumors requires the use of fiducial markers. The use of fiducial markers has not only reduced the dose to the organs-at-risk (OARs) but has also improved the accuracy with which tumors influenced by motion are tracked during treatment delivery. However, there are some drawbacks when using fiducial markers such as infection, pain at the injection site, treatment delay and cost. These complications were a catalyst for many research groups trying to determine the feasibility of using the diaphragm as a motion surrogate. The main limitations …

Exploring Density Incorporation In Inverse Radiotherapy Optimization, Maria De La Luz De Ornelas

Open Access Dissertations

Inverse radiotherapy optimization is based on a cost function that tries to minimize the radiation dose to volumes within a patient’s body. This dissertation explores the incorporation of electron/physical density information into the cost function. This can be termed dose-mass-based (DM) inverse optimization, as mass is the product of density and volume. Another approach for incorporating density in the optimization objective function is Energy-based optimization, where density is utilized to minimize energy deposition in mass (i.e. integral dose). The explorations herein included the investigation of sensitivity of mass-based inverse optimization with varying intensity modulation delivery parameters. The results of the …

Ocular Cancer Biomarkers, Mutation Profiles, And Therapeutic Strategies, Matthew G. Field

Open Access Dissertations

Uveal melanoma and retinoblastoma are the two most common primary intraocular malignancies, with uveal melanoma being the most common in adults and retinoblastoma in children. For both tumors, a critical need exists to find better biomarkers for disease progression and metastasis and therapeutic targets to help treat these deadly and debilitating diseases. For uveal melanoma, our laboratory has previously developed a gene expression profile test (UM-GEP) that is performed on a needle biopsy sample from the primary tumor and renders a result of Class 1 (low risk) or Class 2 (highrisk). While the UM-GEP provides the most accurate prognostication currently …

Systematics, Evolution, And Biogeography Of Ayenia (Malvaceae Subfamily Byttnerioideae), Wyatt Vann Sharber

Open Access Dissertations

Plant systematics broadly explores the origins and maintenance of plant diversity on earth. Here I describe four systematic investigations of the plant genus Ayenia, a New World genus of shrubs and subshrubs with approximately 85 species found mostly in dry habitats. In the first chapter, I show that the unusual trithecate anthers that Ayenia and its close relative Megatritheca share are a result of parallel evolution. In the second chapter, I focus on reconstructing the historical biogeography of the genus and thus show that Ayenia originated in South America, but has spread throughout tropical and subtropical America, including at least …

Knowledge Acquisition And Representation Methodology (Knarm) And Its Applications, Hande Küçük Mcginty

Open Access Dissertations

Technological advancements in many fields have led to huge increases in data production, including data volume, diversity, and the speed at which new data is becoming available. In accordance with this, there is a lack of conformity in the ways data is interpreted. In-depth analyses making use of various data types and data sources, and extracting knowledge has become one of the many challenges with this big data. This is especially the case in life-sciences where simplification and flattening of diverse data types often leads to incorrect predictions. Effective applications of big data approaches in the life sciences require better, …

Caged Molecules Released From Capsules: Photochemical And Photophysical Studies Of Coumarin Triggers, Nareshbabu Kamatham

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis comprises a detailed investigation on the photochemical and photophysical properties of various organic molecules encapsulated in molecular containers. Exploiting these photochemical and photophysical properties of fascinating organic molecules are often frustrating and tricky as they tend to get influenced by several environmental factors. For instance, in the solution phase, solvent can influence the properties of short-lived and reactive intermediates that are generated upon excitation. In order to control these properties, one of the promising approaches is to encapsulate them in an inert and confined environment. This strategy involves the encapsulation of the desired molecule in a stable enclosure, …

Opera Kardashian: An Opera In One Act, Dana E. Kaufman

Open Access Dissertations

This essay discusses the making of and philosophies behind Opera Kardashian, a one-act opera about tragedy and the human condition, as told through the infamous Kardashian clan. The opera, composed in collaboration with librettist Tom Swift and approximately an hour in length, creates one of the first known trans roles in opera written exclusively for performance by trans women.

Prospects For A Data-Driven Task-Fmri Ontology, Taylor Sullivan Bolt

Open Access Dissertations

The growing literature of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (task-fMRI) has increased calls for an adequate organizing ontology, or taxonomy, of task fMRI experiments. Researchers differ over what should be the dominant features of such an ontology: should it be concrete/observable dimensions, such as task paradigm (e.g. n-back vs. flanker task), or latent/theoretical dimensions, such as cognitive domains (e.g. working-memory vs. bottom-up attention)? This dissertation attempts to address what is important for a task-fMRI ontology in a quantifiable manner. We use a simple quantitative criterion for categories/dimensions of a task-fMRI ontology: the ability to explain observed variations in task-fMRI activation …

Testing An Evolutionary-Psychological Model Of Incest, Carlton J. Patrick

Open Access Dissertations

Predictive literature on incest has focused extensively on the dynamics of the home environment, but much less attention has been paid to the individual characteristics of offenders and the victims they target. Using the 2015 dataset from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), a national database of criminal offenders maintained by the National Archive of Criminal Data, this dissertation sets out to complement the existing predictive framework by identifying individual characteristics associated with incest. Findings include: males constituted 93% of all biological incest offenders; females constituted 78% of all biological incest victims, the majority of which fell within fertile ages …

Toward Understanding Law And Exploration: Citizen Science, Technology And Regulation, Annie Brett

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation consists of a series of case studies that explore the relationship between law and scientific exploration, focusing on how these fields interact to co-create emerging methods of collecting baseline environmental data. Chapter 1 situates this work in the larger methodological contexts of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and legal studies of scientific evidence, integrating these two approaches to form the theoretical framework for this dissertation as a whole. Chapter 2 introduces the intertwined relationship between law and exploration, arguing that analyzing these fields together brings new insight on both sides and addressing the key features that define this …

A Trust Management Framework For Decision Support Systems, Yefeng Ruan

Open Access Dissertations

In the era of information explosion, it is critical to develop a framework which can extract useful information and help people to make “educated” decisions. In our lives, whether we are aware of it, trust has turned out to be very helpful for us to make decisions. At the same time, cognitive trust, especially in large systems, such as Facebook, Twitter, and so on, needs support from computer systems. Therefore, we need a framework that can effectively, but also intuitively, let people express their trust, and enable the system to automatically and securely summarize the massive amounts of trust information, …

Quantifying Human Heat Stress In Working Environments, And Their Relationship To Atmospheric Dynamics, Due To Global Climate Change, Jonathan R. Buzan

Open Access Dissertations

Heat stress is a global issue that crosses socioeconomic status. Heat stress leads to reduced worker capacity on seasonal scales, and weekly to sub-daily timescales, incapacitation, morbidity, and mortality. This dissertation focuses on 2 distinct parts: quantification methods of heat stress, and heat stress applications. Quantification methods of heat stress Chapters 1–3 focus on historical analysis of heat stress. Chapter 1 is a detailed assessment of previous work in heat stress—methods, history, and future research outlook. Chapter 2 focuses on the implementation and quantification of a battery of heat stress metrics within the global circulation model framework. The ultimate outcome …

Modeling Anthropogenic Disturbance Of Wildlife, Laura E. D'Acunto

Open Access Dissertations

Anthropogenic disturbance of wildlife refers to a broad range of non-lethal human activities that can impact animal behavior during critical life functions resulting in reduced fitness for those animals. Human disturbance of wildlife can take the form of recreation, resource extraction, noise, and infrastructure development. Animals perceive human presence on the landscape as a predation risk and thus exhibit behaviors such as vigilance, flight, alter their habitat selection, and show signs of stress in response. In this dissertation, we use several different modeling techniques using diverse data types to address the consequences of human disturbance on wildlife species. First, we …

Intimacies Of Power: Eroticized Violence And Gendered Sexuality In Transgressive Art 1890s— #Metoo, Julia Louisa Smith

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand eroticized violence by analyzing sadism and masochism as models of modern masculinity and power. I look at the literature and theory of male sexual sadism and masochism as “artefacts of art” as metaphors of male subjectivity expressed across vast and interdisciplinary cultural fields of cultural expression (Bersani, Freudian Body 5). Best understood as an aesthetic formation, masochism shows how cultural formations of subjectivity and sexualized violence are a modern for m of power that operates by means of subversion and can tolerate its own castration. As a metaphor of modern masculinity, de Sade’s sadism shows …

A Study Of The Piston Cylinder Interface Of Axial Piston Machines, Daniel Mizell

Open Access Dissertations

The piston cylinder interface of axial piston machines of swash plate type is one of three critical lubricating interfaces that are responsible for proper machine operation. The interface must simultaneously bear large time changing external loads while preventing excessive leakage or friction. For long term machine reliability, a full fluid film must be maintained between the piston and cylinder surfaces. The goal of this work is to further the understanding of the phenomena contributing to fluid film behavior. A novel multi-body non-isothermal fluid-structure-thermal-interaction piston cylinder interface model is introduced that considers compressible fluid flow, squeeze due to transient deformation, as …

Using Computational Musicological Approaches And Informatics To Characterize Soundscapes In Diverse Natural And Human-Dominated Ecosystems, Kristen M. Bellisario

Open Access Dissertations

The overarching objective of my dissertation research is to use computational musicology and informatics methods to characterize soundscapes in myriad ecosystems across different disturbance gradients. Three questions guided my research:

Can my methods place sound signals into three major sound source bins (classes) better than current approaches?

How can traditional metrics quantify disturbance and temporal periods within a time-dependent structure?

Can a multi-labeling approach allow for content discovery in a soundscape ecology database?

To address these questions, I organized the dissertation into three research chapters.

The second chapter, “Spectral timbral analysis for discrimination of soundscape components,” explores sound beyond traditional …