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Adopting The Unesco Ethics Model To Critique Disease Mongering, Barbara Postol

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The question this dissertation seeks to address is if the process of disease mongering can be ethically assessed. Chapter one provides a broad scope of the ethical challenge of disease mongering, UNESCO model framework, ADHD and PMDD. Chapter two examines disease mongering and its driving forces in detail. Chapter three provides an overview of the UNESCO model framework. Chapter four ethically examines disease mongering in conjunction with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Chapter five examines disease mongering in association with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Chapter six concludes that examined through the UNESCO model ethical framework disease mongering is occurring for …

Life Adversity, Social Support, Resilience, And College Student Mental Health, Joshua Mello

All Master's Theses

This study investigated how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), current college student hassles, and perceived social support relate to college student resilience. This study also explored how ACEs, current college student hassles, perceived social support, and resilience relate to college student mental health. A sample of 507 students from a public university in Washington State completed an online study which consisted of surveys operationalizing each variable. The results showed that current college student hassles and perceived social support significantly predicted resilience. Current college student hassles, resilience, and perceived social support also significantly predicted mental health. The study revealed that ACEs had …

Study Of An Active-State Cb1 Receptor Model And Jwh Compound Interactions To Predict New Emerging Synthetic Cannabinoids, Kelsey Leigh Pettus

Honors Theses

In recent years, a new class of compounds, called synthetic cannabinoids, have made their appearance in the market as a substitute for illegal marijuana or its constituent natural cannabinoids. These compounds, which are active at the same G- protein coupled receptors (GPCRS) as cannabinoids, are continuing to gain popularity because of the same cannabinoid-like effects they create. Though two cannabinoid receptors have been identified in humans, known as CB1 and CB2, synthetic cannabinoid activity at the CB1 receptor has been the focus of much research regarding synthetic cannabinoid ligand binding. In this study, the structure of the CB1 receptor is …

Someday My Prince Will Come: How Are Gender Roles Enabled And Constrained In Disney Music, During Classic Disney, The Disney Renaissance, And Modern Disney?, Lauren Hughes

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to study how Disney has promoted gender roles through its music over three different Disney eras: Classic, Renaissance, and Modern Disney. While Disney movies have been criticized in the past for having characters with unattainable bodies and unrealistic views on love and life, the role that Disney music plays in promoting gender roles has not been as thoroughly researched or as widely criticized. With the immensity that children learn and are surrounded by Disney music, it is imperative that the message that the children take in is a healthy one. Through the analysis of …

Courtship Lateralization And Its Effect On Mating Success Of Male Wild Turkeys (Meleagris Gallopavo), Mara E. Vernier

Honors Theses

Lateralization results from unequal processing of tasks in the different hemispheres of the brain. While lateralization is a widely researched topic of study, little is known about the effects of sexual selection on lateralization. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is lateralization of male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) courtship and whether the presence of lateralization is associated with male mating success. Male behavioral data were collected from video recordings of courtship made by Dr. Richard Buchholz during a previous mating study. Males were categorized as either successful or unsuccessful males based on how often they were …

Gender Rules: Differences In Male And Female First-Year Undergraduate Adherence To Campus Alcohol Policy, Ashley Maiolatesi

Honors Theses

Although differences in both men's and women's risk-taking and alcohol consumption have been respectively examined in previous research, the relationship between the two has not been thoroughly documented. While there have been studies on differences between male and female drinking habits, including those on amount and frequency of consumption, as well as studies documenting how women felt about both risk-taking and gender differences in morality, these factors are rarely, if ever, expressly linked. The current study aims to test past research regarding women's traditional hesitation towards engaging in risky behavior and rebelling against policy through the study of behavioral outcomes …

The Effects Of Tillage, Glyphosate, And Genetic Modification On Bacterial Root Endophyte Composition In Zea Mays, Breena Lori Nolan

Honors Theses

The community structure of the endophytic bacteria in Zea mays roots was examined for the potential effects of glyphosate application, tillage strategies, and whether or not the corn plant in question was of an organic or glyphosate-resistant variety. Roots were harvested from plots designated to receive their specific treatments at the USDA-ARS Crop Production Systems Research Unit Farm. Vortexing, sonication, and tissue grinding, extraction, and next generation sequencing of 16S rRNA genes from these roots were used to describe their bacterial community composition. Results indicated significant differences in the bacterial communities correlated to tillage practice or corn type, whereas glyphosate …

Legal Risk And The Scientific Process, Joseph F. Fielder

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contours Of Gmo Regulation And Labeling, Joanna K. Sax

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Burnout And Depression In Psychiatric Residents, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Eric Laurent, Pierre Vandel, Renzo Bianchi

Publications and Research

Kealy et al. (2016) found that 21% of psychiatric residents were suffering symptoms of burnout. A number of problems call that finding into question. First, the writers used a one-item measure to assess burnout. Second, mounting evidence suggests that burnout is a depressive syndrome. Third, unresolvable job stress is related to depression. Given burnout's overlap with depression and the diagnostic blur around burnout, research on the impact of job stress should connect with depression, which is nosologically well characterized and diagnosable using clinically validated instruments.

Linguistic Cohesion In Middle-School Texts: A Comparison Of Logical Connectives Usage In Science And Social Studies Textbooks, Diego Román, Allison Briceño, Hannah Rhode, Stephanie Hironka

Faculty Publications

Learning from textbooks is challenging because students must understand novel concepts while also comprehending the language used to convey those concepts. In the domain of science, one posited reason for the perceived difficulty in the reading comprehension of science texts is the low frequency of logical connectives (words that signal relationships between sentences and ideas). To test this claim and discuss its potential effects on the reading comprehension of texts used at the middle school level, this study measured whether the usage of logical connectives (e.g., therefore, so) differed between science and social studies textbooks. Our findings from a large …

Pro-Fit: Exercise With Friends, Saumil Dharia, Vijesh Jain, Jvalant Patel, Jainikkumar Vora, Rizen Yamauchi, Magdalini Eirinaki, Iraklis Varlamis

Faculty Publications

The advancements in wearable technology, where embedded accelerometers, gyroscopes and other sensors enable the users to actively monitor their activity have made it easier for individuals to pursue a healthy lifestyle. However, most of the existing applications expect continuous commitment from the end users, who need to proactively interact with the application in order to connect with friends and attain their goals. These applications fail to engage and motivate users who have busy schedules, or are not as committed and self-motivated. In this work, we present PRO-Fit, a personalized fitness assistant application that employs machine learning and recommendation algorithms in …

Properties And Applications Of Self-Assembled Benzophenone Bis-Urea Macrocycles, Arthur Ariston Korous

Theses and Dissertations

Supramolecular chemistry is a vast multidisciplinary field with great potential and application. It is driven by one simple concept, the self-assembly of small building blocks into larger complex architectures without application of external force. This thesis highlights previous applications of supramolecular chemistry in addition to new potential properties and applications. Recently, the Shimizu group reported a self-assembled benzophenone bis-urea macrocycle (host 1) that facilitated the selective oxidation of an encapsulated alkene when UV-irradiated in an oxygen atmosphere to afford products that are typically observed in radical mediated reactions.1 Surprisingly, the host displayed a stable room temperature radical upon UV irradiation. …

From Model Systems To Real Catalysts: Bridging The Pressure And Materials Gaps, Audrey S. Duke

Theses and Dissertations

For decades a fundamental understanding of heterogeneous catalysts has been pursued for rational catalyst design using model systems under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions; however, there exist stark differences between the simplified models investigated under UHV and the industrial catalysts used at high pressures. To bridge these gaps, it becomes essential to utilize progressively more complex materials and to correlate their surface structure and activity using incrementally higher pressure techniques. In this work, both model Pt-Re catalysts and powdered metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were studied using a suite of traditional UHV surface science techniques in addition to ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy …

Numerical Studies Of Arterial Tissue Failure, Xiaochang Leng

Theses and Dissertations

Arterial tissue failure leads to a number of potentially life-threatening clinical conditions, such as atherosclerotic plaque rupture and aortic dissection which develop unpredictably and rapidly in vivo. Thus, a full understanding of the two conditions will provide a solid basis for medical advances in the intervention and prevention of the occurrence of this life-threatening event. The present work aims to develop a cohesive zone model (CZM) approach for analysis and simulation of arterial tissue failure, such as plaque and fibrous cap delamination and tearing, and to validate simulation predictions with experimental results.

To characterize the hysteresis phenomenon of diseased aortic …

Mass Spectrometry-Based Protein Profiling And Investigations Of Tgf-Ss1-Induced Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Signatures In Namru Murine Mammary Gland Epithelial Cells, Matsepo Ramaboli

Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the second-most common cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Despite advances in cancer early detection, prevention and treatment, breast cancer is still a major health challenge due to low survival caused by breast cancer metastasis. This warrants critical attention and intervention. From the proteomic standpoint, a protein-based multiplex system that provides large array of informative signals for cancer identification and prognosis is still limited. In this dissertation work, we developed two mass spectrometry-based strategies involving chemical biology tools for rapid protein fingerprinting of breast cancer cell lines, and for probing the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine …

Organizational Strategy Under Institutional Pluralism: A Latent Variable Analysis Of Institutional Effects On Organizational Behavior In The United States Pharmaceutical Industry, Thomas Christopher Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

The United States pharmaceutical industry is a dynamic organizational system populated by organizations pursuing different strategies to reach different goals. The aim of this dissertation is to examine the organizational field of the pharmaceutical industry to determine if categories of pharmaceutical organizations exist based on organizational strategy. This project applies the theoretical constructs of organizational fields and institutional logics developed by institutional theorists to examine the institutional effects on organizational strategies. This is a mixed methods project using historical analysis, latent class analysis, and case studies to evaluate the drug development process. The findings of this study show field level …

The Counselors’ Sexual Identity Development, Heterosexual Privilege Awareness, Faith Identity Development, And Religiosity As Predictors Of Their Sexual Orientation Counseling Competency In Working With Lgb Clients, James H. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate counselors’ sexual identity development, heterosexual privilege awareness, faith identity development, and intrinsic religiosity as predictors of their sexual orientation counseling competencies in working with LGB clients. The design of the study is a correlational survey design. The data analysis that was used is standard multiple regression.

The participants were 103 self-identified heterosexual licensed counselors. They were asked to fill out a survey consisting of the Measure of Sexual Identity Exploration and Commitment (MoSIEC), the Heterosexual Privilege Awareness (HPA), the Revised Faith Development Scale (RFDS), the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL), and …

Geospatial Modeling And Assessment Of The Environmentally Sensitive Lands In The Midwestern U.S., William M. Soohoo

Theses and Dissertations

Agricultural land-use change, especially corn expansion, has been accelerating since the 2000s to meet the growing bioenergy demand in the United States. This study identifies the environmentally sensitive lands (ESLs) in the U.S. Midwest and explores the environmental implications of land-use changes in this vital agricultural region. A new distance factor is introduced to a soil erodibility model to take wetlands and waterbodies into account. With a GIS-Ranking Model, the ESLs in 2008 and 2011 (two representative years of corn expansion) in the study region are ranked based on their soil erosion severity. Under various scenarios of bioenergy land-use change …

Neural And Behavioral Correlates Of Planning During Vocal Motor Control, Stacey Jean Sangtian

Theses and Dissertations

Speech is a goal-directed movement developed to serve the purpose of human communication. During speech, the brain simultaneously coordinates complex motor behavior and sensory information for planning, execution and online monitoring for error correction in order to ensure accurate delivery of the vocal messages. Models of speech production and voice motor control have adapted the principles of the internal forward model to explain that speech sound production is controlled by comparison of internal predictions with sensory feedback. Growing evidence from studies conducted in speech and limb motor movement indicate that these sensory predictions and responsive commands are loaded in anticipation …

Adhd Symptoms, Social Problems, And Independence In Adolescent And Young Adult Males With Fxs, Marjorie Lee Grefer

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents and young adults with fragile X syndrome (FXS) typically report a range of comorbid, impairing conditions including cognitive deficits, autism, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Similarly these individuals experience social problems and very low levels of proficiency in independent living, which makes it extremely important to better understand what contributes to these deficits and how to potentially intervene and improve outcomes. Despite this importance, very little attention has been paid to the developmental period of adolescence in the FXS population. In addition, no previous work has utilized specific narrow band measures to probe for ADHD symptoms and instead has …

Applications Of Disposable Pipette Technologies With Lc-Ms/Ms For Forensic And Clinical Analyses Of Biological Matrices, Kaylee R. Mastrianni

Theses and Dissertations

Efficiently hydrolyzing glucuronide metabolites is an important step in the analysis of drugs in urine. Amitriptyline and cyclobenzaprine are both tricyclic compounds with tertiary aliphatic amine groups that are subsequently metabolized to a less common form of glucuronide metabolite, quaternary ammonium linked glucuronides (N+- glucuronide). A collaborative study was conducted to investigate discrepancies in recoveries of these two commonly prescribed compounds in patient urine samples when hydrolyzed with different enzyme from four different commercially available β-glucuronidase sources.

Similarly, there is potential for 6-monoacetylmorphine to be converted to morphine during β-glucuronidase hydrolysis of urine samples. 6-monoacetylmorphine is a unique metabolite of …

Depression Among African American Midlife Women: Delineating The Role Of Stress, Heather Page

Theses and Dissertations

Recent multi-ethnic epidemiologic studies indicate an increased risk for the onset of new as well as recurrent episodes of clinical depression among midlife women. However, little is known about the risk factors that influence the occurrence, severity, and course of depression in midlife among African American women (AAW). The purpose of the current study was to statistically model three prevailing conceptual views of stress and depression: 1) life course, 2) stress exposure, and 3) stress generation). The research investigated the abilities of these conceptual models to predict depressive symptoms severity, current depressed days, and major depression among midlife AAW. Data …

Registration And Clustering Of Functional Observations, Zizhen Wu

Theses and Dissertations

As an important exploratory analysis, curves of similar shape are often classified into groups, which we call clustering of functional data. Phase variations or time distortions are often encountered in the biological processes, such as growth patterns or gene profiles. As a result of time distortion, curves of similar shape may not be aligned. Regular clustering methods for functional data usually ignore the presence of phase variations, which may result in low clustering accuracy. However, it is difficult to account for phase variation without knowing the cluster structure.

In this dissertation, we first propose a Bayesian method that simultaneously clusters …

Ligand Engineering For Advanced Functional Composite Materials, Michael H. Bell

Theses and Dissertations

The surface modification of solid inorganic substrates for thermodynamic compatibility with organic polymer media has become an important area of study for the development of advanced functional composite materials. Polymer ligands covalently bound to the substrate surface have been an effective means to achieve said compatibility. Current investigations focus on multifunctional ligand engineering where multiple chemically distinct species, each with specific functionality, can be implemented on the filler surface simultaneously. A combination of matrix compatible polymer brushes and conjugated charge trapping moieties attached to filler surfaces are investigated for enhancements in dielectric properties. Presented herein are the synthesis and characterization …

Role Of Altered Gut Microbiota In Tumor Development, Mucus Production And Inflammation In Apc Min/+ Mouse Model, Kamaljeet Kaur

Theses and Dissertations

The microbiome forms an integral part of the gut microenvironment. Once ignored, the topic has gained momentum in research during the past decade, where studies have strongly suggested the association of microbiota with health and a misbalance thereof, to many disease conditions ranging from inflammation and colitis to diabetes, obesity and colon cancer. The Human Microbiome Project (HMP, NIH common fund - 2008) has used a variety of high throughput analyses in order to study gut microbiota in health. The consortium has so far been able to isolate and characterize more than 1,300 reference bacterial strains from the human body. …

Estimation Of The Quantum Effects Of Nuclei In Large Molecular Systems, Bing Gu

Theses and Dissertations

Chemical dynamics, in principle, should be understood by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a molecular system, describing motion of the nuclei and electrons. However, the computational efforts to solve this partial second-order differential equation scales exponentially with the system size, which prevents us from getting exact numerical solutions for systems larger than 4-5 atoms. Thus, approximations simplifying the picture are necessary. The so-called Born-Oppenheimer approximation, separating motion of the electrons and nuclei is the central one: solution to the electronic Schrödinger equation defines the potential energy surface on which the nuclear motion unfolds, and there are standard quantum chemistry …

Investigating Cross Talk Between The High And Low Iron Sensors In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, John S. Hepburn

Theses and Dissertations

Iron is essential for nearly all life on earth. Cells must maintain sufficient levels of this important nutrient due its function as a central co-factor for many cellular processes. Although iron is extremely plentiful, its poor solubility requires specialized import. On the other side, too much iron inside the cell can lead to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which have deleterious effects on many cellular functions and have been implicated in a wide variety of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Using the model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or budding yeast, our research group has accomplished much in …

The Roots Of Perspective In The American Context: News Media Discourse And Stakeholder Perspectives About The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Nicholas Younginer

Theses and Dissertations

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program serves 46 million people but is controversial. The media is positioned to influence political and public opinions about SNAP policy. This study identifies the SNAP media discourse and investigates perspectives of SNAP participants and frontline workers about the program.

I employed a mixed-methods design with two aims. Aim 1 gathered 295 articles across six news outlets, semi-inductively coding the articles for characters, assignment of responsibility, and framing of the article. I then ran chi-square tests for difference between employed frame and responsibility and employed frame and political ideology.

Aim 2 collected a sample of 20 …

Deserts Will Bloom: Atomic Agriculture And The Promise Of Radioactive Redemption, Chris Fite

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the rhetorical and visual strategies used in marketing atomic agriculture to the American public from the 1940s to the 1960s. The term “atomic agriculture” refers to various agricultural research programs that used radioactive materials, particularly radioisotope tracing and mutation breeding. In print and on screen, atomic boosters from government and industry offered the promise of a better world made possible by applying atomic energy to agriculture. I argue that the proponents of atomic agriculture combined futurism and nostalgia to create a techno-pastoral vision. They hearkened back to the nineteenth century while simultaneously imagining a bright postwar future. …