Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Stress And Alcohol On Hiv-1 Latency, Sarah Ilene Talley

Master's Theses

A major barrier to HIV eradication is the persistence of latent viral reservoirs that exist despite antiretroviral therapy. In order to develop effective therapeutics, a comprehensive understanding of latency and factors driving the formation of the latent reservoir is needed. As stress and alcohol are common comorbidities associated with HIV infection, the goal of this research was to determine how stress and alcohol could affect HIV-latency. Specifically, we hypothesized that the ability of latent proviruses to be reactivated by “shock and kill” approaches would be altered by glucocorticoid and ethanol treatments, and prolonged ethanol exposure would affect the size of …

Utilizing Galectin 3 As A Marker Of Ruptured Vesicles In Vivo, Jonathan London

Master's Theses

Ruptured vesicles have been associated with pathological forms of α-synuclein during the development of PD. Galectin 3 (Gal3) is readily recruited to these ruptured vesicles, making it a potentially useful marker of vesicle rupture in PD and other diseases associated with vesicle rupture and lysosomal dysfunction. We were able to visualize and quantify the differences in Gal3 levels during infection with pathological α-synuclein in the rat brain. Having significantly high basal levels of Gal3, we found that the differentiated monocytes showed a nearly100 percent increase in intercellular levels of Gal3 after treatment with pathological α-synuclein. By expressing only the Carbohydrate …

A Study Of Education Management Organizations: Competition Framing As A Technique In Education Policy, Calli Leigh Burnett

Master's Theses

As world markets become more interconnected through the phenomenon of globalization, many scholars have noted an expansion of capitalist and economic language in the realm of education discourse. This study focuses on the adoption by education policymakers of the "competition" model and framing, which traditionally used in business, is now being used to justify and promote education policies, such as school choice. This study pursues how competition framing occurs within education, the possible effects of such language use on education stakeholders, and the specific historical contexts and different interests being served by such framing in education. Specifically, this study examines …

Characterization Of Exopolysaccharide (Eps) Produced By Bacillus Subtilis Mutants, Alexander Argianas

Master's Theses

Bacillus subtilis is a probiotic bacterium that can protect against the murine-

specific attaching and effacing (A/E) pathogen Citrobacter rodentium. C. rodentium displays many features observed with the human pathogen enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). Protection by B. subtilis is mediated by exopolysaccharide (EPS), which is encoded by the epsA-O operon that contains 15 genes. Disruption of one of these genes, epsH, which appears to encode a putative glycosyltransferase, leads to the loss of protective capacity by B. subtilis and by EPS. EPS is a major component of the B. subtilis biofilm and the ΔepsH mutant is unable to form a …

Role Of Heat Shock Proteins In Maintenance Of The Gut Barrier Following Burn Injury, Abigail Rhea Cannon

Master's Theses

Introduction: Burn injury remains a prominent clinical problem. Patients suffering from burns often succumb to secondary infectious complications leading to sepsis and widespread tissue injury ending in Multiple Organ Dysfunction. However, the mechanism behind the onset of these extraneous symptoms following burn injury is not fully understood. The integrity of the gut barrier is of critical importance as it harbors the largest bacterial reservoir in the body. Following burn injury, we observed a breakdown of the gut barrier resulting in increased gut leakiness and bacterial translocation. Under homeostatic conditions, heat shock proteins (HSPs) stabilize tight junction proteins. Particularly, HSP72 is …

Emetine As An Anti-Cancer Therapeutic In Bladder Cancer, Valerie Davidson

Master's Theses

Bladder cancer is a serious health concern among the older population, as it is responsible for thousands of deaths annually in the United States. Patients that are diagnosed with muscle-invasive disease have a 5-year survival rate of only 20 percent. Additionally, muscle-invasive disease has a high metastatic potential; half of all patients develop metastatic disease within 3 years. Patients with muscle-invasive disease are presented with few treatment options aside from surgery. The current standard of care is a chemotherapeutic combination therapy of cisplatin and gemcitabine. This therapy is highly toxic, and due to the high instance of co-morbidities in these …

Development Of The Personal And Professional Self-Care Scale, Katherine Elizabeth Dorociak

Master's Theses

In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on the importance of self- care for psychologists and other mental health professionals. However, the research on self-care is limited because of the lack of an empirically based, psychometrically sound measure of this construct. Thus, the purpose of this project was to develop a measure of personal and professional self-care. The preliminary phase involved the development of a self-care definition and a two-factor framework that divided self-care into personal and professional activities. Based on this definition and framework, self-care items were generated for expert evaluation. After incorporating the expert feedback, 52 …

Muslims Never Bomb On Stage: Audience Perceptions Of Muslim Standup Comedy, Bilal Hussain

Master's Theses

This research investigates the audience perceptions of Muslim standup comedy by Muslim-American college and university students. The research question is ‘Do Muslim-Americans feel as if Muslim standup comedy is painting a new image of Islam and Muslims?’ There has yet to be any published research that asks Muslim-Americans for their perspectives regarding Muslim standup comedy. Since Muslim-Americans are some of the consumers of Muslim standup comedy, this demographic is necessary to study when it comes to exploring the consumption of Muslim standup comedy. The methodology for this research is a qualitative method that involves semi-structured in-depth interviews with Muslim-Americans. I …

Separating Autoimmune And Anti-Tumor Responses With Hsp70iq435a, James Mahon

Master's Theses

Vitiligo and melanoma are both melanocyte-derived diseases; vitiligo progresses through the autoimmune-targeted destruction of healthy melanocytes while melanoma results from uncontrolled proliferation of cancerous melanocytes. Treatment of vitiligo with HSP70iQ435A inhibits the DC-mediated auto-immune response against melanocytes in vitiligo mouse models; this raises the concern that treatment with this modified HSP may also inhibit natural anti-tumor responses against melanocyte-derived melanoma tumor cells.

We hypothesized that HSP70iQ435A prevents migration of melanocyte-antigen reactive T cells to the skin in a way that is mechanistically different from anti-tumor responses to melanoma and therefore would not have a negative effect on anti-tumor responses. We …

Feeding The Poor: The Interactions Of Not For-Profit Organizations And The Decision Making Process Of Food Pantry Leaders, Russell Madajewski

Master's Theses

Organizational theorist have studied institutions on a macro level in order understand how these structures operate at a social level, accounting for the nature of the written rules and regulations where the involved individuals act both in the internal and external settings. Recently, scholars have focused on the micro level of interactions of individuals within organizations in which they attempt to identify themselves in their given prescript roles. Attempting to understand the interactions of actors within an organization and studying the formation of relationships between organizations, my investigation will also discuss the nature of food distribution in poor communities. Because …

Anthropogenic Litter And Microplastic In Urban Streams: Abundance, Source, And Fate, Amanda Rae Mccormick

Master's Theses

The accumulation and ecological effects of anthropogenic litter (AL) and microplastic are well-documented in marine ecosystems, but these materials’ abundances in rivers is unknown. AL enters rivers from recreation, runoff, and illegal dumping. Microplastic fibers and pellets are abundant in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent which enters rivers. Our objectives were to: (1) quantify AL abundance and composition in urban streams, (2) measure AL flux, accumulation, and export, and (3) measure riverine microplastic concentration and analyze its bacterial communities. We collected AL from 5 urban streams and observed greater AL density in riparian habitats and greater mass in benthic habitats. …

The Role Of Central Metabolism And Electron Transport In Biofilm Formation By Vibrio Fischeri, Jakob Michael Ondrey

Master's Theses

Biofilms protect bacteria from environmental threats, including antibiotics; thus, biofilms formed during infections pose an increasing threat to human health. A natural model used to study biofilm formation in the context of a host is the symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and its host, the squid Euprymna scolopes. Successful colonization depends on the formation of a biofilm and genes involved in making the polysaccharide matrix component, syp. In culture, biofilm phenotypes, including the formation of wrinkled colonies, similarly depend on syp. However, little is known about other factors that contribute to this phenotype. To expand the utility of currently available genetic …

The Contribution Of The Female Urinary Microbiota To Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, Travis Kyle Price

Master's Theses

The recent finding that urine is not sterile raises a lot of questions: first and foremost, what microorganisms are present, and are these microorganisms correlated with clinical urinary symptoms? Recent work on the female urinary microbiota (FUM) found that the communities of microorganisms differ between women with no lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and those with Urgency Urinary Incontinence (UUI) a form of over-active bladder syndrome. Specifically, a diverse or dysbiotic urinary microbiota was found to be associated with symptomatic women. This suggests the possibility that the FUM can be contributing to urinary symptoms. Conversely, it could also suggest that …

Malaria Transmission Blocking Vaccines, Lukasz Jacek Sewera

Master's Theses

Malaria affects 198 million people and kills 584,000 each year, predominantly in Sub-Saharan Africa (WHO). The most severe form of malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Development of a vaccine against P. falciparum has been hindered by its complex life cycle with multiple antigenically distinct human and mosquito stages. To effectively prevent disease and reduce the parasite burden in populations, a vaccine will need to target multiple stages, including blocking transmission at the mosquito stage.

Antibodies generated against P. falciparum mosquito stage antigen Pfs25 can prevent parasite transmission from humans to mosquitoes. However, Pfs25 is poorly immunogenic …

Conditionalities Of The Knowledge Banks And The Financing Of Higher Education In West Africa: A Focus On Ghana, Nigeria, And Sierra Leone, Innocent Chima Ugwoke

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how the loan conditionalities of the knowledge banks—the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are affecting the funding of higher education in West Africa generally by particularly comparing Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The role of higher education has been linked with development, and development has remained a concerned issue in Africa. The commitment of the states in funding higher education in order to achieve the desired goal of development is continuously met with difficulty. The reliance of these countries on the loans of the knowledge banks, which are associated with …

Returning Citizens? The Path From Prison To Politics Among The Formerly Incarcerated, Quintin A. Williams

Master's Theses

This project examines the experiences of a group of formerly incarcerated persons involved in community organizing efforts for felon empowerment. Scholarly works often focus on what is being done on behalf of the formerly incarcerated, this work highlights how men and women with records advocate for themselves. Drawing on 18 months of participant observation and 18 in-depth interviews with a Chicago based group called FORCE (Fighting to Overcome Records and Create Equality) I found that meanings of redemption were essential to advocacy and operated as an imperative. The redemption imperative both constrained and enabled advocacy. It constrained advocacy in its …

The Impacts Of Family Environment And Stress Reactivity On Daily Mood For Low-Income Latino Adolescents, Stephanie K. Brewer

Master's Theses

Low-income Latino adolescents are at an increased risk for developing psychopathology, as the chronic stressors faced by those who grow up in poverty have an adverse cumulative effect, and the relationship between exposure to poverty and negative mental health outcomes is intensified for ethnic minority youth. One of the most impactful ways in which poverty causes deteriorations in adolescent mental health is through heightened levels of parent-child conflict. Another harmful result of the multiple stressors faced by poor youth is the dysregulation of the stress reactivity system. For Latino adolescents, problems with mood are a particular concern, as Latino adolescents …

The Protective Effect Of Kinship Support On The Adjustment Of Youth In Foster Care, Grace Jhe Bai

Master's Theses

The present study examined the contribution of characteristics of the family-of-origin, such as family functioning, to foster youth's psychological adjustment. With particular attention paid to foster youth's broader social contexts after separation from biological parents, this study also examined how kinship support influences the impact of child maltreatment and dysfunction of family-of-origin on foster youth's subsequent adjustment. Unlike previous studies, specific types of relatives (e.g., maternal aunt, paternal uncle, maternal great aunt, paternal grandmother) and their varying involvements were identified. Participants included 171 children and adolescents (mean age = 10.15; 50.3% male). Hierarchical ordinary least squares regressions were conducted to …

The Influence Of Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Reef Restoration On Nitrogen Cycling In A Eutrophic Estuary., Michael Hassett

Master's Theses

Oysters (Crassostrea virginica) are functionally extinct in the urbanized Hudson-Raritan estuary (HRE) in New York City, however, oyster restoration is promoted to mitigate nitrogen (N) pollution via oysters' filtration and excretion. Seasonally, I took 12 sediment cores (45 cm2) adjacent to and 10 m away from a recently constructed reef in the HRE. Cores were incubated in flow-through chambers with site water containing (1) no amendments, (2) 15N-ammonium, or (3) 15N-nitrate, from which I calculated coupled nitrification-denitrification and direct denitrification as isotope-enriched N2. Coupled denitrification was minimal at all sites while direct denitrification was elevated near the reef, suggesting organic …

Latino Youth With Spina Bifida: Psychosocial Functioning, Family Functioning, And Acculturation, Jaclyn M. Lennon

Master's Theses

Objective: Research on Latino youth with spina bifida (SB) is sparse. However, SB rates are highest in this ethnic group, and typically-developing (TD) Latino youth are at risk for poor psychosocial functioning. The aims of this study were to examine: (1) differences in psychosocial and family functioning between Latino and non-Latino Caucasian youth with SB; (2) family functioning as a predictor of youth psychosocial functioning as moderated by ethnicity; (3) the impact of acculturation on youth psychosocial and family functioning in Latino youth with SB. Methods: Participants were recruited as part of a larger, longitudinal study (Devine et al., 2012). …

Positive Peer Pressure Among Black American Youth And The Roles Of Ethnic Identity And Gender, Dakari Quimby

Master's Theses

Peer pressure is a phenomenon that affects many youth due to the importance of peer relations during adolescence (Brinthaupt, 2002). Consequences associated with negative peer pressure have been well documented, but the extant literature on positive peer pressure is sparse though it may be an untapped source of positive development (Padilla-Walker & Bean, 2009). The current study examined whether positive peer association, a form of peer pressure involving the indirect modeling of behaviors, can have a role in promoting healthy youth development longitudinally among African American adolescents living in low-income, urban, high violence neighborhoods. A sample of 316 African American …

Tcr Modifications To Enhance Expression, Chain Pairing, And Antigen Recognition For Adoptive T Cell Transfer, Kendra Foley

Master's Theses

T cell receptor (TCR) gene modified T cells for adoptive T cell transfer therapy have been shown to have clinical success in treating melanoma and other malignancies by redirecting the specificity of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) to recognize tumor and/or viral associated antigens of choice. One of the challenges in using TCR gene modified T cells is the potential mispairing between endogenous and introduced alpha and beta TCR chains, allowing for unwanted off-target reactivity, autoimmunity, or impaired therapeutic efficacy. One approach to augment proper TCR chain pairing and to enhance T cell function involves the modification of the introduced TCR …

Social Policy Shifts And The Relationship Between Snap Workers And Their Clients, Latrese Annette Monden

Master's Theses

In an effort to better understand how federal social policy changes shape the ways in which public service workers assist their clients in obtaining food benefits through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, this study uses ethnography and interviews to capture the experiences of workers and their clients. Specifically, it examines how public service workers implement new policies while maintaining their professional identities and responding to the mission of their organization. These goals may be in tension. The key findings are that workers do not resist changes in policy because of the limitations of their job …

The Relation Between Implicit And Explicit Self-Esteem Predicting Inconsistent Parenting, Bethany Otto

Master's Theses

Recent research has begun to examine insecure high self-esteem, which is characterized by low implicit (unconscious) and high explicit (conscious) self-esteem. However, little work has investigated its possible origins. Examining its origins is important because empirical findings have linked insecure high self-esteem to defensiveness, narcissism, in-group bias (Bosson et al., 2003; Jordan et al., 2003; Trumpeter et al., 2008), and anxiety (Bos, Huijding, Muris, Vogel, and Biesheuvel 2010). The current research investigated the possible origin of insecure high self-esteem in inconsistent parenting based on relevant research and theories that link parenting to the development of implicit and explicit self-esteem. Contrary …

Moral Injury In Veterans : A Theoretical Investigation Of The Psychic, Moral And Social Sequelae Of War Trauma, Sarah C. Towers

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Although the idea that a violation of deeply held moral and ethical values can result in a profound psychic, social and spiritual wounding is an ancient one, the exploration of the phenomenon of moral injury in the field of mental health has only recently gained traction. Moral injury is increasingly being regarded as its own psychological phenomenon, one that shares symptomology with PTSD, but is also distinct, and as yet not sufficiently accounted for in current PTSD criteria. This theoretical thesis charts the evolving clinical construct of moral injury and draws on two bodies of theory, narrative theory and adult …

Examination Of Corporal Punishment From Three Perspectives: A Recommended Corporal Punishment Counseling Model And Its Application, Ayla Akbash

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The corporal punishment has been examined through three different of perspectives, and a new psychological counseling model has been suggested for corporal punishment. The suggested model (CPC) has been applied in a psychological counseling group therapy. Consequently, new psycho-social developments such as behaviors, attitudes, emotions, opinions and experiences thoughts related to corporal punishment have been observed. Counseling sessions and evaluations have been presented in the study as well.

Outsourcing, Data Insourcing, And The Irrelevant Constitution, Kimberly L. Wehle

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

There Is Another Way: The Life Of Galia Golan Of Israel, Claire Doran

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

Galia Golan of Israel knows …

Effects Of A Physical Education Supportive Curriculum And Technological Devices On Physical Activity, Emily Clapham, Eileen C. Sullivan, Lori E. Ciccomascolo

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a physical education supportive curriculum and technological devices, heart rate monitor (HRM) and pedometer (PED), on physical activity. A single-subject ABAB research design was used to examine amount and level of participation in physical activity among 106 suburban fourth and fifth graders during physical education class. A curriculum, which was pedagogically centered on the use of the technological devices, was also developed and studied. Six children from each group and the physical education teacher were interviewed. The results of a one-way ANCOVA indicated group differences between the supportive curriculum …

The West, Deena J. González

History Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.