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Eating And Swallowing, Oral Health, And Saliva Production, Rebecca H. Affoo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Eating and maintaining optimal nutrition are essential to health and quality of life. In both health and disease, eating is influenced by multiple factors including swallowing, oral health, and saliva production. Perturbations to any, or all, of these inter-related factors may result in consequences that negatively affect the health and wellness of an individual. Eating and swallowing impairment are common symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, and these symptoms are associated with a host of negative sequelae such as malnutrition, dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, and reduced quality of life. The studies reported in this dissertation explored elements of eating and …

Differential Gene Expression Profiles Reflecting Macrophage Polarization In Aging And Periodontitis Gingival Tissues, Octavio A. Gonzalez, Michael John Novak, Sreenatha S. Kirakodu, Arnold J. Stromberg, R. Nagarajan, Chifu B. Huang, K. C. Chen, Luis Orraca, J. Martinez-Gonzalez, Jeffrey L. Ebersole

Center for Oral Health Research Faculty Publications

Recent evidence has determined a phenotypic and functional heterogeneity for macrophage populations. This plasticity of macrophage function has been related to specific properties of subsets (M1 and M2) of these cells in inflammation, adaptive immune responses and resolution of tissue destructive processes. This investigation hypothesized that targeted alterations in the distribution of macrophage phenotypes in aged individuals, and with periodontitis would be skewed towards M1 inflammatory macrophages in gingival tissues. The study used a non-human primate model to evaluate gene expression profiles as footprints of macrophage variation in healthy and periodontitis gingival tissues from animals 3-23 years of age and …

The Influence Of Word Frequency And Aging On Lexical Access, Emily Rebecca Cohen-Shikora

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Visual word recognition has been a central area of psychological inquiry over the past century. The current dissertation examines how visual word recognition changes as a function of age by focusing on the influence of word frequency, or how commonly a word is encountered. Word frequency is arguably the strongest predictor of visual word recognition performance across a variety of language tasks, and the most influential factor in models of language processing. All models of visual word recognition include a strong role for word frequency but often assume different underlying mechanisms, which produce differing predictions for age changes. Although there …

A Comparative Evaluation Of Auricular Surface Aging Methods Using The William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection, Kelsey Jo Hailey

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Progerin Expression Disrupts Critical Adult Stem Cell Functions That Mediate Tissue Repair Primarily Through A Mechanism That Permanently Farnesylates Lamin A, Laurin Marie Pacheco

Open Access Dissertations

Vascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Vascular repair, essential for tissue maintenance, is critically reduced during vascular disease and aging. Efficient vascular repair requires functional adult stem cells unimpaired by aging or mutation. One protein candidate for reducing stem cell-mediated vascular repair is progerin, a truncated and permanently farnesylated splice variant of lamin A. Progerin expression significantly increases during aging, and is detected in aged, atherosclerotic tissues. Mutations triggering progerin overexpression cause the premature aging disorder Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), in which patients die at approximately 13-years of age due to atherosclerosis. Non-specific farnesylation inhibitors are currently …

From Data To Community Action: A Case Study Building On The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Community Profiles, Nina M. Silverstein, Brittany Gaines, Darlene Adams, Dorothy Wideman

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Healthy Aging movement is a driver in the promotion of Evidence-Based programs such as Chronic Disease Self- Management (CDSMP) programs related to falls prevention and diabetes. Such programs are critical in any recommendations for short or long term interventions to communities to address challenges to aging well.

Conditioned Pain Modulation Predicts Exercise-Induced Hypoalgesia In Healthy Adults, Kathy J. Lemley, Sandra K. Hunter, Marie K. Hoeger Bement

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction: Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) is the concept that pain inhibits pain and has potential rehabilitation implications for exercise prescription. The purpose of this study was to determine whether changes in pressure pain perception after a thermal conditioning stimulus (i.e., CPM) was attenuated with aging and whether CPM predicted pain relief after exercise (exercise-induced hypoalgesia (EIH)) in healthy young and older adults.

Methods: Twenty young (21.9 ± 3.3 yr, 10 men) and 19 older (72.0 ± 4.5 yr, 10 men) adults participated in three sessions: one familiarization and two experimental (EIH and CPM) sessions. Pressure pain perception was assessed using …

Three-Dimensional Age-Related Changes Of The Adult Face; African American Female Population, Christina Theresa Sutherland

All ETDs from UAB

Objectives: Treatment of older adults is one of the fastest growing areas in orthodontic practice. The objectives of this study are to: 1. Investigate the aging of the female African American face using three-dimensional surface imaging to understand how the soft tissue of the face matures in relation to the teeth and 2.) Compare the effects of aging on African American female faces to aging of Caucasian female faces. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 100 African American females with balanced faces. Five age groups (in years) were included: [20-30], [31-40], [41-50], [51-60], [61-70]. Three-dimensional (3D) surface images of …