Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of Veteran Status, Psychiatric Diagnosis, And Traumatic Brain Injury On Inadequate Sleep, Andrew S. London, Sarah A. Burgard, Janet Wilmoth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Adequate sleep is essential for health, social participation, and wellbeing. We use 2010 and 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (N = 35,602) to examine differences in sleep adequacy between: non-veterans; non-combat veterans with no psychiatric diagnosis or traumatic brain injury (TBI); combat veterans with no psychiatric diagnosis or TBI; and veterans (non-combat and combat combined) with a psychiatric diagnosis and/or TBI. On average, respondents reported 9.28 days of inadequate sleep; veterans with a psychiatric diagnosis and/or TBI reported the most—12.25 days. Multivariate analyses indicated that veterans with a psychiatric diagnosis and/or TBI had significantly more days of inadequate …

The Islamic Influence In (Pre-)Colonial And Early America: A Historico-Legal Snapshot, Nadia B. Ahmad

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Non-Additive Toxicity Of Bi-Metal Mixtures To Fathead Minnows, Natalie Rae Lynch

Master's Theses

Much research has been conducted to assess the toxicity of metals to aquatic organisms. Most of the research has focused on the toxicity of individual metals. Recently, attention has been paid to metal mixture toxicity because metals are usually present as mixtures in contaminated environments. The literature review indicates that metal mixtures may be additive, synergistic, or antagonistic to freshwater species. However, the data is not consistent and is dependent on the metal and organisms. The goal of this research is to use a systematic experimental design to characterize the toxicity of Cu, Zn, Cd and Ni mixtures to Pimephales …

Lifetime Racism And Blood Pressure Changes During Pregnancy: Implications For Fetal Growth, Clayton J. Hilmert, Tyan Parker Dominguez, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Sindhu K. Srinivas, Laura M. Glynn, Calvin J. Hobel, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Research suggests that exposure to racism partially explains why African American women are 2 to 3 times more likely to deliver low birth weight and preterm infants. However, the physiological pathways by which racism exerts these effects are unclear. This study examined how lifetime exposure to racism, in combination with maternal blood pressure changes during pregnancy, was associated with fetal growth. Methods: African American pregnant women (n = 39) reported exposure to childhood and adulthood racism in several life domains (e.g., at school, at work), which were experienced directly or indirectly, meaning vicariously experienced when someone …

Veteran Educators' Perceptions Of The Internet's Impact On Learning And Social Development, Matthew Vincent Glowiak

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a time where some 2.4 billion Internet users exist worldwide, children are increasingly impacted by the Internet's influence, both directly and indirectly. With technology now playing a significant role in childhood learning and social development, many unforeseen shifts are occurring that will ultimately impact lifespan development. Although researchers have provided mixed results concerning the impact of the Internet on learning and social development, the body of evidence indicates that veteran K-8 educators who are comfortable and experienced with the Internet view it more favorably. This grounded theory study systematically generated the multisystem technological engagement theory (MSTET) to explain the …

The Burden Of Avian Influenza Viruses In Community Ponds In California, Zin Htway

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Emerging influenza viruses continue to challenge public health. The problem is public health science professionals have been battling emerging human influenza diseases with tactile and reactionary methods because there is a lack of knowledge and data at the human-animal interface. This research was a baseline study of the proportion of influenza A virus (IAV) in urban and rural communities in California. The population was artificial recirculating water ponds in the geographic locations of rural and urban Californian communities. Surface water samples [N = 182] were collected from artificial recirculating ponds in California. Positivity for IAV was verified by real time …

Prevalence Of Neonatal Tetanus In Northeastern Nigeria, Jalal-Eddeen Abubakar Saleh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although efforts have been made towards improving the health of children across the globe with notable results, neonatal tetanus (NNT) remains a major contributor to the neonatal death rates in Nigeria. This problem calls for a concerted effort by the government to achieve the revised global NNT elimination deadline of 2015. The purpose of this cross-sectional quantitative study using secondary data was to establish the prevalence of NNT in Nigeria's northeast region and to ascertain if there was any significant difference in frequency of antenatal care (ANC), trained traditional birth attendants (TBAs), and umbilical cord treatments, using single sample proportions …

Electrochemotherapy: From The Drawing Board Into Medical Practice, Damijan Miklavčič, Barbara Mali, Bor Kos, Richard Heller, Gregor Serša

Bioelectrics Publications

Electrochemotherapy is a local treatment of cancer employing electric pulses to improve transmembrane transfer of cytotoxic drugs. In this paper we discuss electrochemotherapy from the perspective of biomedical engineering and review the steps needed to move such a treatment from initial prototypes into clinical practice. In the paper also basic theory of electrochemotherapy and preclinical studies in vitro and in vivo are briefly reviewed. Following this we present a short review of recent clinical publications and discuss implementation of electrochemotherapy into standard of care for treatment of skin tumors, and use of electrochemotherapy for other targets such as head and …

Gene Electrotransfer Enhanced By Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Fields, Sigi Guo, Diane L. Jackson, Niculina I. Burcus, Yeong-Jer Chen, Shu Xiao, Richard Heller

Bioelectrics Publications

The impact of nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) on gene electrotransfer has not been clearly demonstrated in previous studies. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of nsPEFs on the delivery of plasmids encoding luciferase or green fluorescent protein and subsequent expression in HACAT keratinocyte cells. Delivery was performed using millisecond electric pulses (msEPs) with or without nsPEFs. In contrast to reports in the literature, we discovered that gene expression was significantly increased up to 40-fold by applying nsPEFs to cells first followed by one msEP but not in the opposite order. We demonstrated that the effect of nsPEFs …

Heat Shock Protein 90 Inhibitors Prevent Lps-Induced Endothelial Barrier Dysfunction By Disrupting Rhoa Signaling, Atul D. Joshi, Christiana Dimitropoulou, Gagan S. Thangjam, Connie Snead, Sara Feldman, Nektarios Barabutis, David Fulton, Yali Hou, Sanjiv Kumar, Vijay Patel, Boris Gorshkov, Alexander D. Verin, Stephen M. Black, John D. Catravas

Bioelectrics Publications

Permeability of the endothelial monolayer is increased when exposed to the bacterial endotoxin LPS. Our previous studies have shown that heat shock protein (Hsp) 90 inhibitors protect and restore LPS-mediated hyperpermeability in bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells. In this study, we assessed the effect of Hsp90 inhibition against LPS-mediated hyperpermeability in cultured human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HLMVECs) and delineated the underlying molecular mechanisms. We demonstrate that Hsp90 inhibition is critical in the early phase, to prevent LPS-mediated hyperpermeability, and also in the later phase, to restore LPS-mediated hyperpermeability in HLMVECs. Because RhoA is a well known mediator of endothelial …

Dimethylarginine Dimethylaminohydrolase Ii Overexpression Attenuates Lps-Mediated Lung Leak In Acute Lung Injury, Saurabh Aggarwal, Christine M. Gross, Sanjiv Kumar, Christiana Dimitropoulou, Shruti Sharma, Boris A. Gorshkov, Supriya Sridhar, Qing Lu, Natalia V. Bogatcheva, Agnieszka J. Jezierska-Drutel, Rudolf Lucas, John D. Catravas, Stephen M. Black

Bioelectrics Publications

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a severe hypoxemic respiratory insufficiency associated with lung leak, diffuse alveolar damage, inflammation, and loss of lung function. Decreased dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) activity and increases in asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), together with exaggerated oxidative/nitrative stress, contributes to the development of ALI in mice exposed to LPS. Whether restoring DDAH function and suppressing ADMA levels can effectively ameliorate vascular hyperpermeability and lung injury in ALI is unknown, and was the focus of this study. In human lung microvascular endothelial cells, DDAH II overexpression prevented the LPS-dependent increase in ADMA, superoxide, peroxynitrite, and protein nitration. DDAH II also attenuated …

Carbon-Nitrogen Bond Formation Via Tandem Carbon-Hydrogen (C-H) And Nitrogen-Hydrogen (N-H) Bond Functionalization, Abhishek A. Kantak

Open Access Dissertations

The oxidative cross-coupling of carbon-hydrogen (C-H) and nitrogenhydrogen (N-H) bonds to form carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonds is an important synthetic advance, as amine and amide functional groups are ubiquitous in biologically active molecules. This technique is orthogonal to conventional amination techniques, which rely on electrophilic nitration/reduction strategies or metal catalyzed coupling of prefunctionalized arenes.

This dissertation’s main focus is on the development of oxidative methods for constructing N-arylamines and amides via tandem C-H/N-H bond activation and increasing synthetic efficiency for total synthesis of an inhibitor of botulinum neurotoxin via direct C–H functionalization.

The first manuscript, “Metal-Free Intermolecular Oxidative C-N Bond …

A Potential Mechanism For Extracellular Matrix Induction Of Breast Cancer Cell Normality, Robert D. Bruno, Gilbert H. Smith

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

Extracellular matrix proteins from embryonic mesenchyme have a normalizing effect on cancer cells in vitro and slow tumor growth in vivo. This concept is suggestive of a new method for controlling the growth and spread of existing cancer cells in situ and indicates the possibility that extracellular proteins and/or embryonic mesenchymal fibroblasts may represent a fertile subject for study of new anti-cancer treatments.

A Potential Mechanism For Extracellular Matrix Induction Of Breast Cancer Cell Normality, Robert D. Bruno, Gilbert H. Smith

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

Extracellular matrix proteins from embryonic mesenchyme have a normalizing effect on cancer cells in vitro and slow tumor growth in vivo. This concept is suggestive of a new method for controlling the growth and spread of existing cancer cells in situ and indicates the possibility that extracellular proteins and/or embryonic mesenchymal fibroblasts may represent a fertile subject for study of new anti-cancer treatments.

Facilitating The Serendipitous Discovery Of Information: Planning And Weeding The Fine Art Collection, Alessia Zanin-Yost, Katy Ginanni

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

As many academic libraries face shrinking space, weeding collections has become a necessity. At Western Carolina University plans for a library renovation provided the opportunity to do a library-wide weeding project of the print collection. This article explains the collaborative undertaking of the arts liaison and the collection development librarian in weeding the fine art print collection. Included are some best practices for weeding an academic library, the importance of creating a collection that is smaller but well utilized by undergraduate students, and a description of the weeding process.

Osteoblast And Odontoblast Specific Regulatory Actions Of Runx2 For The Development Of Mineralized Tissues, Mitra Darice Adhami

All ETDs from UAB

The Runx2 transcription factor is necessary for commitment and differentiation of mesenchymal cells into the chondroblasts, osteoblasts and odontoblasts. Runx2 induces the expression of several key genes involved in mineralization of both the bone and dentin matrices. Global Runx2-null mice are completely void of mineralized tissue and do not express osteoblast markers, indicating that Runx2 is required for commitment to the osteoblast lineage. Tooth development in Runx2-null mice is arrested in the bell stage, prior to the differentiation of odontoblasts. Thus, Runx2 is essential for development of osteoblast and odontoblast lineages. However, the functional requirements of Runx2 after commitment to …

Formaldehyde Exposure In Pregnant Women And Its Relationship To Fetal Growth, Azita Amiri

All ETDs from UAB

Formaldehyde exposure during pregnancy has been linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as poor fetal growth, although few studies have examined formaldehyde exposure during pregnancy and its relationship to fetal growth. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of formaldehyde exposure during pregnancy and examine the relationship between formaldehyde exposure and fetal growth. Formaldehyde exposure was examined, using vapor monitor badge and urine formic acid, in 140 women in their second trimester of pregnancy. One time urine samples were collected during a routine prenatal visit, and women wore the vapor badges for 24 hours. Fetal growth was …

Modulating The Cxcl12/Cxcr4 Axis In The Pulmonary Vasculature By Adenoviral Vector-Mediated Delivery Of Soluble Cxcr4 (Scxcr4): A Prophylactic Approach To The Prevention Of Cancer Metastasis To The Lung, Anand Chandrasekaran Annan

All ETDs from UAB

The results also indicate that in situ nests were cooler than egg corral nests but still

Fatigue Testing Of Straight And Angled Abutments In A High Torque Dental Implant System, Rana M. Atieh

All ETDs from UAB

Root form dental implants are a common solution used today to replace missing teeth. However current designs still suffer from a number of limitations. Angled abutments are used for incisors, where maximum human bite forces are normally < 200N, while straight abutments are used for molars subjected to higher forces > 200 N. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mechanical performance of a novel dental implant system by fatigue testing straight and 15-degree angled abutments. It was hypothesized that the novel thread design will dissipate the load evenly throughout the implant allowing the system to withstand normal chewing forces. Implants with 4.2mm diameter were tested according to ISO 14801 in specimen …

Retention Pathways For African American Males, Thaddeus L. Shubert

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of a dropout prevention intervention on attitudes toward education among African American males in a rural alternative school in southeast Georgia as a means of understanding retention pathways for this population of students. The researcher approach to retention personified the slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally” by examining the nationwide dropout rate in the United States and implementing a dropout prevention program in a rural Georgia county. African American males have an alarmingly high attrition rate at the middle school, high school, and college levels and so research on how to …

Sessile Invertebrate Colonization On Rocky Outcrops At Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Brittany Poirson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Documenting patterns of sessile invertebrate community development is important for predicting recovery patterns after disturbance and designing effective marine reserves. In the South Atlantic Bight, invertebrate assemblages can differ significantly from one rocky outcrop to another, but the factors driving these differences are not well understood. I tracked community development for fourteen months at four rocky outcrops at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary (GRNMS) to address the predictions that (i) developing sessile invertebrate communities in this system do not exhibit a predictable pattern of succession and (ii) recolonization patterns for small patches of open space that become available are influenced …

Microbial Communities Colonizing Leaves During Early Decomposition Stages, Stephanie Harper

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Microbial communities associated with decaying leaves play an important role in the cycling of nutrients in stream ecosystems. In headwater streams that are deemed as heterotrophic, bacteria and fungi are main drivers of organic matter decomposition and thus partly responsible for facilitating the cycling of nutrients from leaves that fall into the stream. The main objective of this study was to compare microbial community composition between different leaf types during breakdown in stream ecosystems. To achieve this objective, I used a combination of field and laboratory trials. Field experiments were performed at the Luquillo Experimental Forest using Dacryodes excelsa and …

A Concern For The Future Of Sport Managemet: Female Students' Perceptions Toward Their Sport Management Degree, Kristin Fowler Harris, Heidi Grappendorf, Cynthia M. Veraldo, Thomas J. Aicher

Global Sport Business Journal

Women continue to be underrepresented in both management positions in sport as well as sport management academic degree programs. Despite the increase in the number of women participating in sport at the high school and college levels as well as the increase of women pursuing non-traditional academic majors, a disparity remains. This qualitative study utilized focus groups of female sport management undergraduates to examine their perceptions of the academic environment and their degrees. Results indicate women perceive there to be a lack of information about the sport management degree, a concern regarding outsider’s perceptions of the degree, and a chilly …

"When Elephants Are In Must": Peggy Shaw, Acts Of Trans/Fer, And The Present Future Of Queer Desire, Jaclyn Pryor

English Faculty Scholarship

Performed three months after performance artist Peggy Shaw nearly died from a stroke, the 2011 production of Must in Amherst was infused with the exigencies of the present: Shaw “must” perform Mustin order to pass her butch legacy onto the next generation of queer and trans folk in the audience.

Modulation Of Immunity Via Antibodies Displayed On In Situ Forming Peptide Co-Assemblies, Yi Wen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many diseases are associated with disruption of immune homeostasis. Monoclonal antibodies (mAb) targeting soluble antigens or immune cell surface molecules have been developed to modulate immunity. However, systemic administration can lead to severe immune related side effects. This dissertation investigated a versatile platform to display antibodies locally in diseased tissues to minimize unwanted systemic exposure. This system is a stimuli-responsive and injectable formulation utilizing in situ forming peptide co-assemblies and two linker proteins. The self-assembling peptides EAK16-II and EAKIIH6 co-assemble into fibrous structures with accessible His-tags when exposed to salts. Anti-His-tag antibodies (αH6-IgG) bind to these His-tags and provide fragment …

Religion And Aids In Sub-Saharan Africa: Unbundling Religious Institutions, Amanda Mandzik, Andrew T. Young

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Evidence of relationships between religious affiliation and the African AIDS pandemic is found in the medical, religion, and sociology literatures. In particular, studies have shown that predominantly Christian countries tend to have higher HIV rates than predominantly Muslim countries. These relationships have been largely unexplored by economists and we seek to identify underlying institutions using a panel of up to 43 sub-Saharan African countries for 1990- 2010. Catholic antagonism towards condom use has often but proposed, but we report that the protestant (rather than the Catholic) population share drives the Christianity/HIV correlation. (Also, condom use actually correlates positively with HIV …

Caregiver Impact Of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Assessing Stress, Sense Of Competence, And Relationship Satisfaction, Nicole M. Kline

Theses and Dissertations

While the impact of psycho-social variables has been evaluated for children with chronic illness and related disabilities, questions remain unanswered for families affected by ASD. Participants included 68 primary caregivers seeking services for a child aged fifteen months to 12 years suspected of or diagnosed with an ASD. Assessment tools included: 1. Parenting Stress Index-Fourth Edition-Short-Form (PSI-4-SF; Abidin, 2012), 2. Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC; Johnston and Mash, 1989), and 3. Relationship Assessment Scale (Hendrick, 1988). Independent samples t-tests were conducted to determine differences with a nonclinical control population (60 participants with a typically-developed child) regarding perceptions of stress, …

The Role Of Histone Methyltransferases In Determining Developmental Potential Of Bovine Oocytes, Jairo Alberto Sarmiento

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Histone proteins are proteins found in eukaryotic cells that associate with DNA to form the most basic structural unit of chromatin, called nucleosomes. The post-translational modifications of histones regulate developmental competence in bovine oocytes and early embryos. The difference in developmental competence between in vitro matured oocytes and in vivo matured oocytes was used to investigate the accumulation of transcripts for histone methyltransferases (HMTs) during oocyte maturation. Methyltransferases ASH1L, EHMT2, SUV39H1 and KDM6B were selected as genes of interest. Transvaginal ultrasound-guided aspiration (TUGA) was used to collect immature and in vivo matured bovine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs). Immature COCs collected via …

Parallel Processes In Hpx: Designing An Infrastructure For Adaptive Resource Management, Vinay Chandra Amatya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Advancement in cutting edge technologies have enabled better energy efficiency as well as scaling computational power for the latest High Performance Computing(HPC) systems. However, complexity, due to hybrid architectures as well as emerging classes of applications, have shown poor computational scalability using conventional execution models. Thus alternative means of computation, that addresses the bottlenecks in computation, is warranted. More precisely, dynamic adaptive resource management feature, both from systems as well as application's perspective, is essential for better computational scalability and efficiency. This research presents and expands the notion of Parallel Processes as a placeholder for procedure definitions, targeted at one …

A New Framework For Assessing Clinical Data Transparency Initiatives, Erika Lietzan

Faculty Publications

Biopharmaceutical companies submit vast amounts of clinical data and analysis to support approval of their medicines, expecting the information to be kept confidential, as has been the practice of regulators around the world for decades. Over the last ten years, however, pressure has been mounting for regulators or industry to release this information. Legal scholars have generally taken the view that no relevant doctrines or bodies of law preclude the release of this material and that public policy considerations compel its release. This article argues that the scholarship to date has overlooked key considerations: the special issues presented by operation …