Digital Commons Network^™

Long-Term Persistency And Costs Associated With The Use Of Iron Chelation Therapies In The Treatment Of Sickle Cell Disease Within Medicaid Programs., Edward P Armstrong, Grant H Skrepnek, Medha Sasane, Susan M Snodgrass, Samir K. Ballas

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study evaluated iron chelating therapy (ICT) discontinuation and costs in Sickle cell disease (SCD) Medicaid recipients using healthcare claims from 2006-2010.

METHODS: Patients with ≥1 SCD diagnosis claim, ≥2 claims for deferoxamine (DFO) or deferosirox (DFX), and continuous enrollment ≥6 months prior to and 18 months following ICT initiation were included. Outcomes included treatment discontinuation, persistence (i.e., refill gaps ≥6 weeks), and total healthcare costs.

RESULTS: The average age among 404 SCD patients meeting study inclusion criteria was 18.7 (±11.0) years, with 45.8% being males and 66.7% being Blacks. Switches or combinations from DFO at index occurred …

Perceptions Of Parental Success: Implications For Family-To-Work Conflict And Family-To-Work Enhancement, Tami J. Vigesaa

Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have indicated an increased occurrence of dual-earner households, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reporting that as of 2001, 64% of couples with children were dual-earners. This trend means less free time for working parents, resulting in many parents expressing concerns about finding adequate time for work and family (Galinsky, 2000). This is especially true for mothers, as evidenced in the additional pressures entailed in the prevailing ideology of intensive mothering (Hays, 1996). As such, these worries and concerns might impact parents while they are working, with people's feelings about their parenting potentially shaping their experiences …

Putting The Cart Before The Horse: Understanding The Family Assessment Process In Early Intervention, Kristen Michelle Votava

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of six state-wide policies and procedures used in the family assessment process within early intervention services. This study looked at the administrative understanding of the family assessment federal regulations, state policies and procedures, and local implementation from the perspective of the Part C coordinator in his or her state.

This qualitative study utilized methodologies associated with a grounded theory approach through in-depth interviews. The participants in this study included six state Part C coordinators. Based on the findings of this study, two broad conclusions are offered:

1. There was a …

Crew Training Requirements For Long Duration Missions, Ann Wargetz

Theses and Dissertations

After reviewing the journals of astronauts, cosmonauts, and others who lived and worked in confinement, a new pre-mission training approach for missions in confinement was developed. This new training approach is founded on the idea that conflicts in confinement often arise due to humanity's propensity to focus on how others behave rather than our own behavior. After reviewing the stresses experienced during spaceflight and astronaut training and selection methods, a survey was written and distributed to researchers with experience living and working in confined environments. The questions sought to discover whether conflicts arise for these reasons based on the participant's …

Online Self-Injury Forums, Social Support, And Psychological Distress, Kirsten Louise Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a behavior being seen with increasing frequency among clinicians and the general population. Internet forums where people who engage in the behavior may discuss topics related to NSSI have become widespread. The effects of those websites on people who engage in the behavior have not been researched. This study used structural equation modeling to better understand the relationship between identification with these groups, time online, comfort discussing NSSI, social support, and psychological distress. The final model suggests a complicated relationship between Internet use and offline effects. Identification with such an online group appears to lead to …

Creating The Role Of Iago: An Analysis Of The Pre-Rehearsal Process, Jordan Brent Wolfe

Theses and Dissertations

The process of creating a character entails much more than memorizing a few lines, learning blocking, and repeating them on stage. An important aspect for an actor passionate about improving their craft as an artist comes during the pre-rehearsal process. Before the audience enters the theatre, or the director has taken control of the actors on stage, it is important, as an actor, to begin to develop the many aspects of the character that he or she will bring to the play. This thesis is a character study of Iago, from Othello. The first chapter will explore a textual analysis …

Is There A Disconnect? Comparing North Dakota And National Geography Standards, Lori Jean Young

Theses and Dissertations

In 1994, Geography for Life was published. From this publication the national geography and state geography standards were developed. These national standards were the basis of the state standards.

North Dakota Studies is a Grade 9-12 course offered in North Dakota high schools. This course is offered under mandate in North Dakota high schools, so a broad range of data could be obtained by contacting those teachers.

Prior research has shown that students exposed to 3-D geographic technologies have better spatial abilities than students without a technologic background. A recent study showed that adults wanted to know more about geography …

Efficient Regeneration Of Chemical Solvents For Carbon Dioxide Capture By Polymeric Membrane Contactors, Xuefei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Although extensive research attention has been drawn to using membranes for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from flue gas, the use of membranes for stripping CO2 solvents has rarely been studied. The technical feasibility of using polymeric membrane based separation technology to recover CO2 from CO2 saturated chemical solvents such as monoethanolamine is investigated in the present research. A membrane system was built to study the performance of several common polymeric porous membranes for the recovery of CO2 from saturated aqueous MEA solution by the thermal swing process. The stripped CO2 gas was swept by mass flow controlled N2 reference gas …

Synthesis And Catalytic Studies Of Zinc Complexes Of Amido-Oxazolinate Ligands, Srinivas Abbina

Theses and Dissertations

This current work primarily focuses on the fundamental study of zinc complexes of amido-oxazolinate ligands that have shown a great deal of promise in their ability to catalyze various polymerization reactions. A family of new C1-symmetric, monoanionic, amido-oxazolinate ligands containing oxazoline moiety has been synthesized in moderate to high yields (typically 30-95%) via a Pd-catalyzed amination reaction of chiral oxazolines with primary amines and amides. The obtained ligands were treated with Zn[N(SiMe3)2]2 to generate the corresponding C1-symmetric, monometallic zinc complexes. Single-crystal X-ray crystallographic studies confirm that most of the complexes are three-coordinate and mononuclear in nature. These complexes are viable …

Evaluating The Impact Of Above-Cloud Aerosols On Cloud Optical Depth Retrievals From Modis, Ricardo Alfaro

Theses and Dissertations

Using two different operational Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud optical depth (COD) retrievals (visible and shortwave infrared), the impacts of above-cloud absorbing aerosols on the standard COD retrievals are evaluated. For fine-mode aerosol particles, aerosol optical depth (AOD) values diminish sharply from the visible to the shortwave infrared channels. Thus, a suppressed above-cloud particle radiance aliasing effect occurs for COD retrievals using shortwave infrared channels. Aerosol Index (AI) from the spatially and temporally collocated Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) are used to identify above-cloud aerosol particle loading over the southern Atlantic Ocean, including both smoke and dust from the …

Acetate Increases Brain Purine Metabolism And Glial Cell Culture Fatty Acid Content: Studies Investigating Glyceryl Triacetate's Therapeutic Mechanism Of Action, Dhaval Paresh Bhatt

Theses and Dissertations

Acetate supplementation is anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective in rat models of neuroinflammation and Lyme neuroborreliosis. Oral administration of glyceryl triacetate (GTA) is used to induce acetate supplementation in rodents, which increases plasma acetate and brain acetyl-CoA levels. Acetyl-CoA is a ubiquitous substrate for several biochemical pathways including carbohydrate, protein, and lipid metabolism. Acetate increases the in vivo and in vitro acetylation-state of histones and is associated with altered cytokine balance. However, the effect that acetate supplementation has on brain purine and lipid content remains unknown. Since labeled-acetate is incorporated into the purine and lipid pools, we proposed that acetate supplementation by …

The Influence Of Brief Mindfulness Exercise On Encoding Of Novel Words, Kristin Bonamo

Theses and Dissertations

Based on research associating mindfulness with improvements in well-being, attention, and memory processes, brief mindfulness exercises may be helpful in enhancing the encoding of novel semantic information. A Swahili-English word pair association task was used to examine whether engaging in a brief mindfulness exercise enhanced the encoding of Swahili-English word pairs, thus improving long-term recall. Participants recruited from the undergraduate population at a Midwestern university were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: engaging in a 20 minute body scan meditation, a 45 minute body scan meditation, or a control group prior to learning Swahili-English word pairs. Separate analyses of …

Characterization Of Phosphorus, Nitrogen, And Sulfur Concentrations In A Paired Disturbed And Natural Wetland In Northwest Minnesota, Nicolas Buer

Theses and Dissertations

A degraded wetland with a history of human-induced hydrologic alterations lies within northwestern Minnesota's Skull Lake Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Although conservation practices have been enacted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR), there remains interest in the wetland's potential for ecological restoration. Restoration should not be undertaken without an understanding of underlying factors leading to degradation. A paired study between the disturbed wetland at Skull Lake WMA and the relatively natural wetland in the nearby Caribou WMA was designed to help understand near surface pore water geochemistry in an effort to determine causes of degradation and the potential …

The Epidemiology Of Taekwondo Injuries In Youth And Adult Competitors, Matthew Felix Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To study the nature and incidence rate of injuries affecting young and adult taekwondo competitors during training and competition and to examine the relationship between injury rates and specific injury risk factors.

Background: Taekwondo is becoming an increasingly popular sport among youth and adult populations. With this increase in popularity, the epidemiology of injury in taekwondo is becoming an increasingly important area of investigation. There has been little research investigating the incidence and distribution of injuries affecting taekwondo athletes, and the research that does exist lacks consistency in research methods. Analytical studies are limited to those which have examined …

Effects Of Parental Support On Physical Activity Levels In Children, Julie Ann Caspers

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: The literature is mixed regarding behavioral methods that may effectively motivate children to increase physical activity levels. Because some research has shown parental influence can affect children's behavior, it is hypothesized that trained parental support may increase children's physical activity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of parental support on children's physical activity. Pender's Health Promotion Model (HPM) served as a guide. The theoretical underpinnings of this model are based on the assumption that individuals are influenced by interpersonal factors such as parental support.

Design and Sample: For this pre-test/post-test interventional study, 30 children …

From "The Dead Center Of This Place That Is No Place": The Novel Of Abjection, Alexander Cavanaugh

Theses and Dissertations

This essay is a comparative reading of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood as examples of abjection in the novel form. This subgenre, termed the Novel of Abjection, exemplifies Julia Kristeva's notion of abjection as occurring after a distinct separation from social norms and a movement toward destruction, violence, and insanity. This breaking-off occurs through catastrophe on the part of tragic characters, anomie, and the collection of a group sensibility through a first-person narrator. By carefully reading the two novels and exploring these common themes, the narrative mechanisms of the novels operate around abjection. As …

Mechanical Characterization Of Composite Repairs For Fiber-Glass Wind Turbine Blades, Tanveer Singh Chawla

Theses and Dissertations

While in service, wind turbine blades experience various modes of loading. An example is impact loading in the form of hail or bird strikes, which might lead to localized damage or formation of cracks a few plies deep on the blade surface. One of the methods to conduct repairs on wind turbine blades that are damaged while in service is hand lay-up of the repair part after grinding out the damaged portion and some of its surrounding area. The resin used for such repairs usually differs from the parent plate resin in composition and properties such as gel time, viscosity, …

Self-Objectification, Eating Attitudes, And Sexual Coercion In College Women, Lauren Alexis Henrikson

Theses and Dissertations

The theory of self-objectification, developed by Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) explains how women view their bodies as objects. Studies have looked at self-objectification and its associated negative effects, such as cognitive decline, body shame, disordered eating, and low self-esteem in a number of different populations; however, no study to date has utilized path analysis to examine the role that self-objectification plays in unwanted sexual contact. If self-objectification does lead to decreases in self-esteem and increases in viewing one's body as a sexual object, then women may feel they have little choice when faced with sexual coercion. The present study examined …

Using Social Influence To Enhance Post-Experimental Inquiry Success, Travis Daryl Clark

Theses and Dissertations

An experiment was performed to assess the efficacy of Post-experimental Inquiry (PEI) questions. Experiments involving deception assume participant naiveté to the study protocol. The present study implemented a PEI to assess the influence of an ethnic prime on stereotyped attitudes in order to assess PEI accuracy. A confederate (posting as another participant) additionally informed some participants as to the true purpose of the study, a violation of study integrity. The PEI was used to assess accuracy in two ways: awareness of the study hypotheses and admission to receiving information. The PEI was itself manipulated in one of two ways; the …

Effect Of Candidate Spending On Vote Share, Charles Denowh

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research on the effect that candidate spending has on vote share has produced conflicting results, with some research finding that only spending by challenger candidates has an effect on the vote outcome and other research finding incumbent and challenger spending roughly equally effective. The paper explores two suspected causes of the discrepancy in prior results: measurement error and endogeneity in the spending variables. Using new spending data from the Federal Election Commission that can readily be categorized into different spending types, I find evidence of significant amounts of inconsequential spending that should be excluded from candidate spending totals. Additionally, …

Perceptions Of Legal Policy And Sex Offender Treatment, Kirsten Sierra Engel

Theses and Dissertations

Sex offender policy, treatment, and public perception are greatly intertwined in the numerous policies in place regarding sex offenders. These policies tend to reflect the underlying perceptions and myths about sex offenders than the reality of sexual offenses and treatment. These perceptions have also had a role in shaping psychological treatment of sex offenders through enacted policies and public support, or dissent, for community treatment centers, half-way houses, or residency restriction laws. With the sizeable potential impact of the public's perceptions of these issues, examination of their perceptions of sex offenders, sex offender policies, and sex offender treatment, and whether …

Conflict In Couples Therapy: Enhancing Relationships Through A Video Tape Feedback Intervention Intending To Develop Effective Conflict Communication Skills, Chasidy I. Faith

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the effectiveness of a Gottman-based intervention (2007) aimed to increase effective conflict communication. The study utilized a single case design to examine two couple's conflict interactions through the use of a video tape feedback intervention and psychoeducation about effective and ineffective conflict communication. Couples completed a four week pre-test measurement phase, three sessions of video tape feedback, and four week post-test measurement phase. Through visual analysis, the study investigated the effect that this conflict management intervention had on relational satisfaction and adjustment, life satisfaction, overall distress levels, and conflict abilities. Findings of the current study were …

Bacterial Colonization And Extinction On Marine Aggregates: Stochastic Model Of Species Presence And Abundance, Andrew M. Kramer, M. Maille Lyons, Fred C. Dobbs, John M. Drake

OES Faculty Publications

Organic aggregates provide a favorable habitat for aquatic microbes, are efficiently filtered by shellfish, and may play a major role in the dynamics of aquatic pathogens. Quantifying this role requires understanding how pathogen abundance in the water and aggregate size interact to determine the presence and abundance of pathogen cells on individual aggregates. We build upon current understanding of the dynamics of bacteria and bacterial grazers on aggregates to develop a model for the dynamics of a bacterial pathogen species. The model accounts for the importance of stochasticity and the balance between colonization and extinction. Simulation results suggest that while …

Theoretical Studies Of Oxides Relevant To The Combustion Of Fossil Fuels, Jason Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic pollution has greatly increased since the industrial revolution and continues to increase as more of the world becomes dependent upon fossil fuels for important applications like transportation and power production. In a general case, whenever a fossil fuel is consumed, a primary product of a complete combustion reaction is carbon dioxide. In a more specific case, the collection, processing and combustion of coal for power production are one of the primary ways by which trace elements, such as arsenic and selenium, are released into the environment. All of these pollutants are known to have harmful effects, whether on the …

Targeted Overexpression Of Metallothionein In Endothelial Cells Mitigates Pulmonary Alveolar Basement Membrane Thickening In Transgenic Diabetic Ove Mice: An Unbiased Tem Morphometric Analysis, Holly M. Hewitt

Theses and Dissertations

Damage to small blood vessels in diabetes mellitus (DM) is largely the result of hyperglycemia-driven oxidative stress. This is manifested morphologically by capillary basement membrane (BM) thickening, the hallmark feature of chronic complications of DM. In an effort to demonstrate pulmonary alveolar BM (PABM) thickness increase in DM and to demonstrate for the first time, mitigation of the increase utilizing antioxidant therapy, we crossed the severely diabetic transgenic mouse (OVE) with Jtmt, our recently developed transgenic animal model that overexpresses the antioxidant metallothionein (MT) in endothelial cells. Unbiased TEM morphometry demonstrated that PABM widths in diabetic (OVE) mice were significantly …

The Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Concussion-Education Protocol, Liam Higginson

Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) legislated that all NCAA institutions have a concussion management plan for their student-athletes. This new legislation only requires that member institutions "ensure student-athletes are educated about signs and symptoms of concussions," but provides no guidelines as to how this education should be delivered. Despite this initiative, researchers have shown that student-athletes still do not report all concussions to team personnel. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the NCAA's concussion-education protocol. This study was cross-sectional and retrospective in design, and used a paper-and-pencil questionnaire to gather data. One …

An Investigation Of Sub-Pixel Cloud/Clear-Sky Contamination Using Hyper-Spectral Aviris Data, Celil Kaplan

Theses and Dissertations

Cloud and clear sky contamination due to sub-pixel clouds remains as a troubling issue for scientific applications that rely on remotely sensed data. Sub-pixel level clouds may not be detected by a standard cloud filtering process, and thus can cause uncertainties in satellite-based meteorological property retrievals. In this study, using collocated data from Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) data, sub-pixel cloud and clear-sky contamination were studied over the west coast of Northern California. The hyper-spectral data from AVIRIS have a spatial resolution on the order of 11.5 m for the study case, thus can …

Neuropsychological Comparisons Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Subtype And Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptomatology, Linda Renee Keenan

Theses and Dissertations

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) are often severe and disabling psychiatric conditions. Although BDD is currently regarded as a somatoform disorder in the DSM-IV, it has been suggested that it would be better classified as being part of an obsessive-compulsive spectrum, as it shares many characteristics with OCD in terms of its clinical presentation. Although both disorders have been found to be associated with executive function deficits and other neuropsychological correlates, few studies have compared the two disorders directly in this regard. Further, some research has indicated that OCD symptom dimensions are associated with varying patterns of …

Mobile Vehicle Road And Weather Observation Quality Check Methods, Daniel Raymond Koller

Theses and Dissertations

Today State Departments of Transportation rely more and more on road weather data to make maintenance decisions. Inaccurate data can result in wrong treatment applications or inadequate staffing levels to maintain the roadway at the desired level of service.

Previous methods of road condition data reporting have been limited to static in situ sensor stations. These road weather information systems (RWIS) provide varied data about precipitation, winds, temperature, and more, but their siting does not always provide an accurate representation of weather and road conditions along the roadway. The use of mobile data collection from vehicles travelling the highway corridors …

Women's Use Of Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination Of Attachment, Coping, And Gender Ideology, Theresa Elizabeth Magelky

Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, much of the research on intimate partner violence has focused primarily on male aggressors. However, research has increasingly indicated that women use violence against male intimate partners at higher rates than previously suspected. Significant controversy exists with regard to the context, motivation, and types of violence used by women. The current study explored the degree to which female aggressors' attachment styles are associated with and predictive of their use of intimate partner violence against men. In addition, coping processes and feminine ideology were studied, particularly in combination with attachment style, to determine their relationship with use of partner …