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Theses/Dissertations

2019

Aging

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Loneliness And Sleep Disturbance In Older Americans, Sarah C. Griffin Jan 2019

Loneliness And Sleep Disturbance In Older Americans, Sarah C. Griffin

Theses and Dissertations

Loneliness is a risk factor for premature mortality but the mechanics of this relationship remain obscure. A potential mechanism is sleep disturbance. The present study aimed to examine the association between loneliness and sleep disturbance, evaluate loneliness as a risk factor for sleep disturbance and vice-versa, model effects between loneliness and sleep disturbance over time, and evaluate a mediation model of loneliness, sleep disturbance, and health. Data came from the 2006-2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally-representative study of older Americans; participants > 65 were included (n=11,400). Analyses included (i) linear regressions accounting for complex sampling and (ii) …

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Empirical Essays On Science And New Technology Adoption, Huifeng Yu Jan 2019

Empirical Essays On Science And New Technology Adoption, Huifeng Yu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The first chapter studies how the quantity and quality of research output varies over the career using 5.6 million biomedical science articles published over three decades. We show that controlling for selective attrition reconciles conflicts in a longstanding, interdisciplinary literature. While research quality declines monotonically over the career, this decline is easily overlooked because the highest “ability” authors have the longest publishing careers. Our results have implications for broader questions of human capital accumulation over the career and also for federal research policies that shift funding from late- to early-career researchers – while providing more funding to researchers when they …

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Mechanisms Of Fibrosis In Regeneration Of Aged Skeletal Muscle, Fasih Ahmad Rahman Jan 2019

Mechanisms Of Fibrosis In Regeneration Of Aged Skeletal Muscle, Fasih Ahmad Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Skeletal muscle is a highly adaptive tissue that possesses the ability to regenerate following damage. Regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle declines as age advances, leading to restricted mobility and poor quality of life. The impairment of the regeneration process in aged muscle is partly due to the accumulation of structural proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM), termed fibrosis. In this study, two important proteins regulating ECM remodeling, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), were investigated to determine their role in modulating changes in the ECM during aged muscle regeneration. The regeneration process was studied in young (3 month …

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Quantifying Human Biological Age: A Machine Learning Approach, Syed Ashiqur Rahman Jan 2019

Quantifying Human Biological Age: A Machine Learning Approach, Syed Ashiqur Rahman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Quantifying human biological age is an important and difficult challenge. Different biomarkers and numerous approaches have been studied for biological age prediction, each with its advantages and limitations. In this work, we first introduce a new anthropometric measure (called Surface-based Body Shape Index, SBSI) that accounts for both body shape and body size, and evaluate its performance as a predictor of all-cause mortality. We analyzed data from the National Health and Human Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Based on the analysis, we introduce a new body shape index constructed from four important anthropometric determinants of body shape and body size: body …

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Manipulating Belief Bias Across The Lifespan, William D. Carney Jan 2019

Manipulating Belief Bias Across The Lifespan, William D. Carney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In today’s political climate, when basic facts and reasoning are seemingly up for debate, it is increasingly important to be able to identify well-reasoned arguments, regardless of one’s political leanings, and to retain this skill throughout the lifespan. Research has shown, however, a persistent belief bias—a tendency to judge an argument’s validity based on its conclusion’s agreement with one’s beliefs, rather than its logical quality. Other findings suggest that belief bias can be reduced by instruction to avoid belief bias. The current project seeks to explore whether older adults, believed to be more prone to biased reasoning, respond differently to …

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Evaluating Sex Related Differences In The Osteocyte Lacunar Canalicular Network Across The Lifespan: A Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy Approach, Gina Tubo Jan 2019

Evaluating Sex Related Differences In The Osteocyte Lacunar Canalicular Network Across The Lifespan: A Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy Approach, Gina Tubo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Bone is a dynamic tissue with the ability to remodel itself. This capability is facilitated via communication mechanisms through the osteocyte-lacunar-canalicular (LCN) network. Osteocytes are bone cells housed in small, hollow spaces called lacunae. Lacunae are linked by canals called canaliculi. A diminished network can lead to the inability to form bone following breakdown. A decrease in osteocyte-LCN density has been shown to correlate with aging (Ashique et al. 2017). This decline leads to the development of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis preferentially affects women. Prior studies have shown that women older than 50 are four times more likely to be osteoporotic when …

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From Sunrise To Sunset: A Lifespan Approach To Understanding The Mental Health Of A Subset Of American Farmers, Janna L. Imel Jan 2019

From Sunrise To Sunset: A Lifespan Approach To Understanding The Mental Health Of A Subset Of American Farmers, Janna L. Imel

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has indicated higher risk of suicide for farmers and identified depression and anxiety as mental health concerns, though the majority of research was conducted in the 1980s-1990s. In today’s economic, social, and political climate, farmers are exposed to situations and stressors reminiscent of the 1980s Farm Crisis. An added risk is the aging workforce of farmers, as age-related conditions can make farming even riskier. This study investigated the mental health of a subset of American farmers by exploring farm-related stressors, coping mechanisms, and mental health outcomes. Dispositional mindfulness was explored as a specific coping mechanism. Participants (N …

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Implicit Attitudes Of Asian American Older Adults Toward Aging, Anita Ho Jan 2019

Implicit Attitudes Of Asian American Older Adults Toward Aging, Anita Ho

Scripps Senior Theses

Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz (1998) developed the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a measure of mental associations between target pairs and positive or negative attributes. Highly associative categories yield faster responses than the reverse mental associations, which is thought to reflect implicit attitudes toward stereotypes. The present study investigated the effect of ethnic group on one’s implicit attitudes toward aging and gender stereotypes by comparing two groups of older adults, Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans, that likely hold different culture values. Past qualitative studies have established the existence of mental health stigma in Asian American populations, including negative Asian American perceptions …

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Axon Initial Segment Integrity In Aging And Traumatic Brain Injury, Mazen M. Gouda Jan 2019

Axon Initial Segment Integrity In Aging And Traumatic Brain Injury, Mazen M. Gouda

Theses and Dissertations

According to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) report to the Congress, there are 2.2 million emergency department visits; 80,000 hospitalizations; and 50,000 deaths each year due to traumatic brain injury. Adults 65 years and older account substantially for the majority of the hospitalization and deaths. Over 70% of the traumatic brain injuries of the older adults are classified as mild to moderate; however, even with these milder injuries, older adults present with a significantly higher morbidity and mortality compared to all other age groups (LeBlanc et al., 2006). With that in mind, it seems essential to develop a deeper …

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Age-Related Differences In Cognition And Affect At Work : The Impact Of Mindfulness, Sara Michelle Stevens Jan 2019

Age-Related Differences In Cognition And Affect At Work : The Impact Of Mindfulness, Sara Michelle Stevens

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present research examined job-related affective and cognitive processes across ages, and the role of trait mindfulness as a mechanism that influences the strength of these relationships. Specifically, job-related affective well-being, job satisfaction, and fluid intelligence were investigated as they relate to dynamics of aging. Participants on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 174) completed a two-time longitudinal survey separating individual difference tests of trait mindfulness and fluid intelligence at Time 1 from self-report assessments of job satisfaction and job-related affective well-being at Time 2. Overall, the results from this study provide strong evidence that age and mindfulness both play an …

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