Digital Commons Network^™

Nyar Savannah Program 2012, National Youth-At-Risk Conference, Savannah

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

N/A

Sustainability With An Ethical Aim: Lessons From An American Nun In Amazonia, Stephanie Denise Demaree

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

Human imagination, an ethical aim and action are the progenitors for reconciliation between humans and their environment. Two examples of such reconciliation are found in Brazil and are the result of the tireless work of an American Nun, Sister Dorothy Stang and the staff of the Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research and Conservation Center. The present inquiry portrays the history, current programs, and the potential for the findings to shape the lives of those committed to work toward creating a balance between human endeavors and sustainable environments.

Theory and Protocol

This research is grounded in critical hermeneutics and follows …

Framework For Analyzing The Future Threat Of Wmd Terrorism, James J.F. Forest

Journal of Strategic Security

This article examines theories of practical and strategic constraints that collectively explain why so few terrorist groups in history have crossed (or attempted to cross) the WMD threshold. From this analysis, it becomes clear that a terrorist group's deliberations about WMD can be influenced (positively or negatively) by a variety of factors. Our projections of the future WMD terrorism threat must therefore account for changes in the kinds of practical and strategic constraints that could lead to an increased willingness and/or capability of a group to pursue these kinds of weapons. Further, there are ways in which governments can influence …

Point Of Care Diagnostics: Status And Future, Vladimir Gubala, Leanne Harris, Antonio J. Ricco, Ming X. Tan, David Williams

Articles

The most commonly used test for monitoring heparin therapy is the activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT). The response of available aPTT reagents to heparin varies significantly. The aim of this study was to highlight the differences between aPTT reagents stored in a dried format to select the most suitable formulations to be used for the development of point-of-care diagnostic devices used for monitoring of unfractionated heparin dose response.

METHODS:

Ten reagents were analysed in terms of their performance in liquid and in dried form after storage for 24 h and 14 days. Performance was assessed by measurement of the clotting …

Factors Associated With Loss To Follow-Up Among Hiv-Infected Patients At An Urban, Hospital-Based Outpatient Hiv Clinic, Timothy J. Friel Md, Anthony Nerino, Lynn Nagel, J D'Aversa, Anthony Strobel, Dorothy Faulkner Phd

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

A Quality Improvement Initiative Using A Novel Travel Survey To Define High-Risk International Travel And Promote Patient-Centered Counseling, Craig A. Mackaness Do, Mark Knouse Md, Suzanne J. Templer Do, Deepti Verma Md, Allison Osborne Ba, Michael J. Weiss Mph

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Vitamin E Supplementation On An Experimental Haemonchus Contortus Infection In Dorset Lambs, Brittany Marie De Wolf

Open Access Master's Theses

Gastrointestinal parasitism in sheep, particularly lambs, results in substantial economic losses to producers worldwide. Nutritional status has been shown to play an important role in host immune response to parasitic infections. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of vitamin E supplementation on an artificial Haemonchus contortus (H. contortus) infection in immature lambs. Twenty Dorset lambs were stratified into two treatment groups according to parasite susceptibility. Worm-free lambs, 28 to 32 weeks of age, were supplemented with vitamin E (d-α-tocopherol) for twelve weeks following the recommendations of the National Research Council for minimal daily requirement …

Effect Of Different Rehydration Temperatures On The Moisture And Phytochemical Constituents Of Dried Edible Irish Brown Seaweed., Sabrina Cox, Shilpi Gupta, Nissreen Abu-Ghannam

Articles

The effect of temperature (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 °C) on the rehydration kinetics and phytochemical constituents of dried edible Irish brown seaweed, Himanthalia elongata, were studied. The moisture content of fresh and dried seaweed was 4.07 and 0.07 g water/g dry basis, representing a 98.1% reduction in water content. All rehydration moisture curves had a clear exponential tendency, and it was observed that the rehydration time decreased when temperature was increased. Although restoration of the product to its original moisture content was achieved, rehydration resulted in losses in phytochemical content. Moisture equilibrium was achieved fastest at 100 °C …

Bacterial Host Interactions In Cystic Fibrosis, Máire Callaghan, Siobhan Mcclean

Articles

Chronic infection is a hallmark of cystic fibrosis (CF) and the main contributor to morbidity. Microbial infection in CF is complex, due to the number of different species that colonise the CF lung. Their colonisation is facilitated by a host response that is impaired or compromised by highly viscous mucous, zones of hypoxia and the lack of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR). Successful dominant CF pathogens combine an effective arsenal to establish infection and counter-attack the host response, together with an ability to adapt readily to an unfavourable environment. Hypermutability is common among CF pathogens facilitating adaptation and as …

Prevalence And Determinants For Overweight And Obesity Among Residents Of A Mining Township In Kitwe, Zambia, In 2011: A Population-Based Survey, Cosmas Zyaambo, Olesegun Babaniyi, Peter Songolo, Adamson S. Muula, Emmanuel Rudatsikira, Victor M. Mukonka, Seter Siziya

Faculty Publications

Background: Obesity and overweight in Africa have been attributed to demogra- phic and nutritional changes that have resulted from urbanization and sedentary lifestyles and increased caloric intake without much physical activities. This has put populations at an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, dyslipidemia, and cancer. The objective of this study was to deter- mine the prevalence and associated factors for combined overweight and obesity among residents of a mining town, Kitwe, in Zambia.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted using a modified WHO glo- bal Non Communicable Diseases Surveillance Initiative STEPs 1 and 2 method of …

Attitudes Toward Complementary And Alternative Medicine In College Students As A Function Of Nationality, Familiarity, And Personality Traits, Joanna S. Ho

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Personal and cultural forces leading to health care choices that deviate from conventional medicine have been minimally investigated. Success with treatment of illnesses is reliant on an adequate understanding of factors that influence attitudes and beliefs about medicine. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between attitudes toward complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among college students as a function of American or Asian nationality, Familiarity/Exposure to CAM, and the personality construct of Openness to Experience. A web-based survey instrument was administered to 72 Asian international and 76 American college students at Indiana State University. No significant differences …

Paediatric Nursing : An Investigation Of The Effect Of Specialist Paediatric Nurse Education On The Quality Of Children’S Nursing Care In Western Australia, Jonathan Mark Mould

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In Australia, specialist education in paediatrics is not a requirement for nurses caring for hospitalised children. Thus, nurses can work in paediatrics without any prior knowledge of the unique needs of children such as developmental stages or separation anxiety. As a consequence, there are some clinicians and authors who advocate that when children require health care, they should be cared for by nurses who are educated in, and understand the specific physical, psychological and social needs of children. Despite this, the evidence is lacking as to whether specialist nurse education affects the quality of care in paediatrics. This study investigates …

Defationary Truth And Truth-Aptness Illuminated By Language And Norms: Paul Horwich, Huw Price, And Michael Lynch, Jeff Young

Theses

In contemporary epistemology there is a movement toward deflationary understandings of core philosophical concepts. Prominent among these is the concept of truth. This thesis examines contemporary deflationary theories of truth, such as those of Paul Horwich and Huw Price. I argue that while Horwich’s canonical deflationary approach is by itself insufficient as a complete theory of truth, Price’s minimal, pragmatic, theory of truth points toward a combination that is prima facie satisfactory. Once this new approach has been established, I will use Michael Lynch’s recent functionalist theory of truth to examine the questions of what we want from a theory …

With Child, Without Rights?: Restoring A Pregnant Woman's Right To Refuse Medical Treatment Through The Hiv Lens, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

In Doe v. Division of Youth & Family Services , a hospital employee sought state intervention when an HIV-positive woman refused to comply with treatment recommendations during her pregnancy to drastically reduce the chances of mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT), eventually triggering a lawsuit against the hospital. With an increase in the number of HIV-positive women becoming pregnant and the court avoiding constitutional analysis of the woman’s right to refuse medical treatment, there is a clear void where legal analysis is surely needed. This Article fills this void for the inevitable case where an HIV-positive pregnant woman’s right to refuse medical treatment is …

All Pain, No Gain: Need For Prudent Antimicrobial Use Provisions To Complement The Gain Act, Kevin Outterson

Faculty Scholarship

Once every five years, Congress re-authorizes funding for the FDA under PDUFA. In the current PDUFA legislation, Congress also addressed issues relating to antimicrobial resistance in the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act. This short article critiques the absence of antimicrobial stewardship incentives in the GAIN Act, which is a serious error in the long-term struggle with pathogenic microbes.

A Tale Of Two Cases: Urging Caution In The Prosecution Of Hiv Non-Disclosure, Isabel Grant, Jonathan Glenn Betteridge

All Faculty Publications

Two provincial Courts of Appeal have recently released unanimous decisions that clarify the law regarding the obligation imposed upon people living with HIV to disclose their HIV status prior to sexual relations. The decision of the Manitoba Court of Appeal in R v. Mabior and of the Quebec Court of Appeal in R c. D.C. must be seen against a background of increasing criminal prosecutions in Canada of people with HIV who allegedly do not disclose their HIV status to sexual partners. Since the first HIV nondisclosure prosecution in 1989, there have been over 120 prosecutions. A high proportion of …

Internationalization Of An African University In The Post-Colonial Era: A Case Study Of The University Of Nairobi, Iddah A. Otieno

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This case study uses post-colonial and dependency theoretical lenses to investigate the forces influencing policy, procedures, and participation in international activity in the post-colonial African university environment of Kenya’s first national public university—the University of Nairobi (UoN). The research addresses (1) the approaches and strategies adopted by UoN to engage in international activity; (2) the changes that have taken place over time in international activity engagement at UoN since the attainment of political independence by the Republic of Kenya; and (3) the rationales driving participation in international activity. This investigation included library research, document analysis, multiple campus visits, and 20 …

Investigating The Role Of Genetic Variation In Long Run Economic Outcomes, Charles Justin Cook

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation empirically tests whether adaptations resulting from the Neolithic Revolution, or the widespread adoption of sedentary agriculture for sustenance, have led to economic differences. The development of sedentary agriculture constituted an environmen- tal shift from the previous sustenance method of hunting and gathering. This environmental shift resulted in the natural selection of certain traits. I seek to exploit differences in these traits to measure differing economic outcomes. Two main adaptations are considered in this work: the ability to consume milk, or lactose tolerance, and resistance to infectious Eurasian diseases, which is the result of genetic variation. The first essay …

Development And Characterization Of A Murine Model Of Rickettsia Parkeri Rickettsiosis, Britton Grasperge

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rickettsia parkeri, a member of the spotted fever group of Rickettsia, is the agent of an emerging rickettsiosis in the southeastern United States and South America. Despite increased recognition of human cases, limited information is available regarding infection of invertebrate and vertebrate hosts for this emerging tick-borne disease. Towards development of a viable transmission model and to further characterize the pathology associated with R. parkeri infection, inbred mouse strains (A/J, Balb/C, C3H/HeJ, and C3H/HeN) were intravenously and intradermally inoculated with R. parkeri. The C3H/HeJ strain of mice were identified as the most susceptible to R. parkeri infection and were found …

Developing A Geospatial Protocol For Coral Epizootiology, Jennifer Anne Lentz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics, specifically the techniques used to map, detect, and spatially analyze disease epidemics, could be used to advance our understanding of coral reef health. Given that different types of spatial analysis, as well as different parameter settings within each analysis, can produce noticeably different results, poor selection or improper use of a given technique would likely lead to inaccurate representations of the spatial distribution and false interpretations of the disease. For this reason, I performed a comprehensive review of the following types of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA): mapping and …

An Introduction To Ecology Of Infectious Diseases - Oysters And Estuaries, Eileen E. Hofmann, Susan E. Ford

OES Faculty Publications

Infectious diseases are recognized as an important factor regulating marine ecosystems (Harvell et al., 1999, 2002, 2004; Porter et al., 2001; McCallum et al., 2004; Ward and Lafferty, 2004; Stewart et al., 2008; Bienfang et al., 2011). Many of the organisms affected by marine diseases have important ecological roles in estuarine and coastal environments and some are also commercially important. Outbreaks of infectious diseases in these environments, referred to as epizootics, can produce significant population declines and extinctions, both of which threaten biodiversity, food web interactions, and ecosystem productivity (Harvell et al., 2002, 2004).

The Yellow Flag Of Quarantine: An Analysis Of The Historical And Prospective Impacts Of Socio-Legal Controls Over Contagion, Peter Oliver Okin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Under the ancient threat of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, human societies have responded for thousands of years by imposing social containment measures. Even before theorists and laymen recognized the existence of pathogenic organisms, or fully understood the principles of contagion, many societies and individuals did empirically infer that such diseases were transmissible from human to human (as well as sometimes between animals and humans). Having few effective technological measures to prevent or treat contagions, they did devise a variety of socio-behavioral procedures for separating overtly ill persons or suspected disease-carriers from nominally uninfected people. These methods included various …

Occupational Stressors Among Providers Of Hiv Prevention And Support Services, Mackenzie Kaye Rapp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Much literature has documented the high levels of burnout, stress, and grief in HIV physicians and nurses due to the challenging nature of the chronic, fatal disease with which they deal on a daily basis. Providers of social and HIV prevention services face similar challenges while working with stigmatized, terminally ill clients. However, since these latter occupations deal with social, rather than clinical interventions, their experiences may differ from those of medical personnel. Through open-ended interviews with HIV counselors, educators, case managers, and outreach workers, this exploratory study assesses the occupational stressors of providers of social and HIV prevention services …

Stochastic Modeling Of Network-Centric Epidemiological Processes, Divine Wanduku

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The technological changes and educational expansion have created the heterogeneity in the human species. Clearly, this heterogeneity generates a structure in the population

dynamics, namely: citizen, permanent resident, visitor, and etc. Furthermore, as the heterogeneity in the population increases, the human mobility between meta-populations patches

also increases. Depending on spatial scales, a meta-population patch can be decomposed into sub-patches, for examples: homes, neighborhoods, towns, etc. The dynamics of human

mobility in a heterogeneous and scaled structured population is still its infancy level. We develop and investigate (1) an algorithmic two scale human mobility dynamic model for a meta-population. Moreover,the two …

Therapeutic Peptide-Based Vaccination Strategies Against Hpv-Induced Cancers, Kelly Barrios Marrugo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an urgent need for the development of an effective therapeutic vaccine against cancer caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). We focused on HPV-induced malignancies because of their high worldwide prevalence (e.g., cervical carcinoma and head & neck cancer). A successful therapeutic vaccine could prevent the 250 000 deaths/year worldwide and the 2.25 billion dollars that

are expended in related care in the US.

We used an HPV-induced mouse cancer model to test vaccines

composed of a CD8 T cell peptide epitope administered with potent adjuvants designed to generate vast numbers of high avidity cytotoxic T lymphocytes specific for …

Behavioral And Immunological Phenotypes Of Transgenic Mice Overexpressing Human Secreted Amyloid Precursor Protein Alpha: Implications For Autism, Antoinette R. Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Autism is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication as well as restricted and repetitive behaviors and focused interests. In addition to the cardinal behavioral characteristics observed for diagnosis, autistic individuals exhibit a number of comorbid conditions as well as a variety of aberrant immunological features. Recent studies report that plasma from autistic children contained elevated levels of secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha (sAPP-á), the á-secretase cleavage product of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) which is ubiquitously expressed in the brain, spleen, thymus and other organs. Interestingly, the sAPP-á fragment functions as a neurotrophic …

Drug Discovery From Floridian Mangrove Endophytes, Jeremy Beau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant challenge of the 21st century is the growing health threat stemming from drug-resistant infectious diseases. There is an undeniable need to discover new, safe and effective drugs with novel mechanisms of action to combat this threat. A study of drugs currently on the market showed that natural products account for approximately 75% of new anti-infective drugs, either as new agents or analogs based upon their structure. Unfortunately, major pharmaceutical companies have cut back tremendously in natural products research in part due to the frustrating obstacle of frequent rediscovery of compounds. Fungi in particular are difficult to work with …

The Effects Of Food Insecurity On Mental Wellbeing In Monteverde Costa Rica, Robert Eugene Cowherd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion of ecotourism in the Monteverde zone of Costa Rica has increased the incidence in food insecurity in the area. Changes in food preferences and availability have led to a more homogenized diet that is increasingly delocalized and reliant on processed foods. Additionally, there has been a rapid economic shift away from agricultural and dairy farming to an economy more reliant on tourism. This NSF supported study builds upon data from a longitudinal investigation (#BNS 0753017) examining the nutritional effects of this rapid economic transition. Using a mixed methods approach, a culturally appropriate scale of stress was developed …

Lenalidomide Targets The T-Cell Co-Stimulatory Pathway To Mediate Immune Modulation, Jessica Marie Mcdaniel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

T-cells are lymphocytes that make up part of the adaptive arm of the immune system, and are essential for efficient protection from and eradication of viruses and pathogens. T-cells not only play an important role in protection from external agents, but also regulate and prevent activation towards self-peptides and detect and remove erratically growing cells. Alterations in T-cell activation and suppression contribute to auto-immunity, immunocompromised disorders, and cancer progression.

The immune system, and T-cells in particular, provides daily surveillance, recognition and destruction of aberrant cells. Although the immune system is proficient at suppressing malignant progression, tumor cells acquire various methods …

The Color Of Water: Observations Of A Brown Buffalo On Water Law And Policy In Ten Stanzas, Tom I. Romero Ii

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.