Digital Commons Network^™

Chronic Illness And Physicians' Referrals To Psychologists: A Pilot Study, Nicole O'Barto-Trainer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Chronic Care Model (CCM) is an evidenced based healthcare management system that encompasses a multidimensional approach to healthcare for the treatment of patients with chronic conditions. A component of this model is collaborative care. The tenets of the biopsychosocial model are central to collaborative care and evidenced-based health care interventions. These interventions provide integrated, patient-centered healthcare delivered by a multidisciplinary healthcare team. Recent research has indicated that psychologists can play a vital role on such teams. The purpose of this exploratory pilot study was to subject the Biopsychosocial Endorsement Questionnaire (BEQ) to preliminary statistical analysis and to pilot its …

Unifying The Visible And Passive Infrared Bands: Homogeneous And Heterogeneous Multi-Spectral Face Recognition, Nnamdi C. Osia

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Face biometrics leverages tools and technology in order to automate the identification of individuals. In most cases, biometric face recognition (FR) can be used for forensic purposes, but there remains the issue related to the integration of technology into the legal system of the court. The biggest challenge with the acceptance of the face as a modality used in court is the reliability of such systems under varying pose, illumination and expression, which has been an active and widely explored area of research over the last few decades (e.g. same-spectrum or homogeneous matching). The heterogeneous FR problem, which deals with …

Beyond Oraldigital: Ghanaian Electronic Literature As A Paradigm For African Digital Textuality, Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation speaks to a massive dearth of research in African electronic literature (African e-lit), a discipline that boasts a growing number of works but little scholarship. With African literature incorporating digital technology into its creative process, and with electronic literary criticism focusing on areas outside its predominantly western cannon, African e-lit positions itself as an important area of scholarly endeavor. After considering the implications of placing African e-lit as the direction in which both African literature and electronic literature take, this dissertation looks at three different genres of African e-lit in the context of oral literature. There are analyses …

Daily Bread, Andrew C. Nosti

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

A Low-Power Optoelectronic Characterizer For Cubesat: Locc And Iii-V Nitride Based Leds, Matthew J. Pachol

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

III-V semiconductor materials exhibit robustness and natural hardness when exposed to ionizing radiation and temperature swings. With these characteristics in mind, III-V Nitride Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are ideal devices for space-based applications and missions. The effects of ionizing radiation on optoelectronic devices comprised of III-V materials have been studied, but results have been obtained through experiments performed in terrestrial laboratories. While these laboratory tests may lend insight into device lifetimes, performance degradation, etc., they are no substitute for similar measurements and characterization performed in space.;Interest in small satellite applications have grown over the past decade. These solutions range from …

The Mercury 2017

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

Himmelkos Crossing, Katia Rubinstein

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

A Deliverance Story, Thaddeus Cwiklinski

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Police Profanity On Public Perception Of Excessive Force, Christina Patton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Previous research has examined elements of police performance impacting community policing and police-citizen relationships, but no study has considered the impact of police use of profanity during arrest on public rating of force. Police profanity may negatively bias police-citizen interactions, and this bias could shape later interactions with community members, decrease the quality of police-community relations, or even result in public outcry over excessive use of force (White, Cox, & Baseheart, 1994). Further, profanity increases recipient physiological arousal in some settings (LaPointe, 2006) and aggressive behavior, which may exacerbate risk to the officer during an arrest and lead to more …

Presence And Absence, Liam P. Hamilton

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of A Six Week Lumbopelvic Control And Balance Training Program In High School Basketball Players, Margaret Long

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Context: Lumbopelvic control (LPC) and balance training programs are popular in the sport of basketball, but there is little research to indicate whether significant improvements in lumbopelvic control and balance are evident after completion of a training program. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine if conducting a six week lumbopelvic control and balance training program will lead to improvement in lumbopelvic control and balance in high school male basketball players. Design: This study will be a repeated measures design. Setting: High School in Western Pennsylvania. Patients and Other participants: This study includes 15 varsity and junior varsity …

Face Image Modality Recognition And Photo-Sketch Matching, Bingjie Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Face is an important physical characteristic of human body, and is widely used in many crucial applications, such as video surveillance, criminal investigation, and security access system. Based on realistic demand, such as useful face images in dark environment and criminal profile, different modalities of face images appeared, e.g. three-dimensional (3D), near infrared (NIR), and thermal infrared (TIR) face images. Thus, researches with various face image modalities become a hot area. Most of them are set on knowing the modality of face images in advance, which contains a few limitations. In this thesis, we present approaches for face image modality …

The Influence Of Foot Posture And Load On Lumbar Biomechanics During Trunk Bending, Atefeh Malekinezhad

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Low back pain imposed huge expenditures to the industry with many days away from work. Despite industrialization, statistics show the number of work injuries, work transfer, work restriction and absenteeism in recent years is still high. Various factors are involved in low back injuries, which make it complicated to deal with. In many industries (such as construction, transportation, and healthcare) low back pain is highly prevalent.;In the current study, we recruited 14 participants to investigate the effect of staggered foot posture on lifting biomechanics and to understand if maintaining a staggered foot posture could reduce spinal tissue loading and its …

Complex Mixture Analysis Using Ion Mobility Spectrometry-Mass Spectrometry (Ims-Ms) And Computational Techniques, Hossein Maleki

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Compound characterization in complex mixtures has applications in diverse areas such as the pharmaceutical, health, and petroleum industries. Measurement problems arising from complex mixtures include the overwhelming of the analytical peak capacity, the wide concentration range of the different analytes, and the inter-sample concentration variability of given molecular species. Therefore advances in the rapid identification of compounds such as improvements in peak capacity and analyte selectivity are an active area of scientific research. This dissertation presents research that is directed at improving these measurement areas. For petroleum samples, silver cationization coupled with ion mobility spectrometry---tandem mass spectrometry (IMSMS/ MS) is …

The Effectiveness Of Video Education On Pre-Operative Parental Knowledge And Anxiety, Terri Marcischak

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Pre-operative anxiety is a common and anticipated response to patients expecting to undergo anesthesia in preparation for surgery. Pre-operative parental anxiety can lead to increased anxiety in children, which is associated with physiologic alterations in the child. Pre-operative video education is an inexpensive method to increase knowledge and decrease pre-operative parental anxiety related to the perioperative process. The first goal of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a pre-operative video in increasing knowledge of the perioperative experience in parents of children anticipating surgery by viewing a pre-operative video. Parental knowledge was measured before and after viewing the pre-operative …

Proteomic And Metabolomic Analyses Of Biological Systems With Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry And Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry, Megan M. Maurer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Proteomic and metabolomic analyses provide information about altered metabolic processes in plants and animals. This information can be used to assess the impact of toxicant exposure or diseases on biological systems. In this dissertation, development of an ion mobility spectrometry - mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) strategy has been evaluated in addition to utilizing traditional liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) techniques for metabolite and protein analysis. Traditional LC-MS/MS techniques have been applied to the study of: 1) the molecular mechanisms responsible for altered microvasculature function as a result of pulmonary TiO2 exposure in rats; and 2) the effectiveness of intracerebroventricular (ICV) …

Peer-To-Peer Support Responses To Lgbt Suicidal Ideations In An Online Community, Kayla Mccormick

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

LGBTQ individuals, especially youth, are one of the top groups at risk for suicide. They experience social stigma and discrimination which diminishes their access to common support resources, causing many to turn to online communities for support for common issues. This paper utilizes qualitative content analysis guided by the stress-buffering model of the social support theory to investigate the helpfulness of informal social support responses in buffering stress in the suicidal individuals on LGBTchat.net. This model is based on the buffering hypothesis which asserts that persons with high stress and low support will show disproportionately elevated symptomatology, and that higher …

Substrate Nanotopography And Stiffness Modulation Of Cell Behaviors For Disease Detection And Modeling, Lin Shi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In most living tissue, cells resident in a complex microenvironment where these cells interact with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the neighboring cells. The interactions between cells and ECM could regulate the cell behavior. Similar to in vivo, in vitro models have been reported that cells have the ability to sense the nanotopography and stiffness of synthetic substrate and, the variation of substrate nanotopography configuration and stiffness could affect cell phenotype and function.;The first project focused on applying nanotopography to capture circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for early cancer detection. CTCs shed from primary tumors, transport through the bloodstream to distant …

Student Voices For Why College Students Take Physical Activity Classes When It Is Not Required For Graduation, David C. Barney, Kelsey Higginson

Faculty Publications

The time in college is a time to prepare to go out into the world and be a contributing member of society. Typically, a college education should take four years to complete. Many colleges are eliminating the physical activity requirement for graduation, hoping that it will aid the student in graduating in a timely manner. Yet, students still take physical activity classes while working towards graduation. For this study, 420 college students (235 males & 185 females) participated in this study. Students in physical activity classes at a private university of the western United States completed a survey in regards …

The Genetic Basis Of The Comorbidity Between Cannabis Use And Major Depression, Karen Hodgson, Laura Almasy, Emma E. M. Knowles, Jack W. Kent Jr., Joanne E. Curran, Thomas D. Dyer, Harald H. H. Goring, Rene L. Olvera, Mary D. Woolsey, Ravindranath Duggirala, Peter T. Fox, John Blangero, David C. Glahn

School of Medicine Publications

Background and aims—While the prevalence of major depression is elevated amongst cannabis users, the role of genetics in this pattern of comorbidity is not clear. This study aimed to estimate the heritability of cannabis use and major depression, quantify the genetic overlap between these two traits, and localize regions of the genome that segregate in families with cannabis use and major depression.

Design—Family-based univariate and bivariate genetic analysis.

Setting—San Antonio, Texas, USA

Participants—Genetics of Brain Structure and Function study (GOBS) participants: 1,284 Mexican-Americans from 75 large multi-generation families and an additional 57 genetically unrelated spouses.

Measurements …

Multiethnic Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis Of Ectopic Fat Depots Identifies Loci Associated With Adipocyte Development And Differentiation, Audrey Y. Chu, Xuan Deng, Virginia A. Fisher, Alexander Drong, Yang Zhang, Mary F. Feitosa, Ching-Ti Liu, Olivia Weeks, Audrey C. Choh, Qing Duan, Thomas D. Dyer

School of Medicine Publications

Variation in body fat distribution contributes to the metabolic sequelae of obesity. The genetic determinants of body fat distribution are poorly understood. The goal of this study was to gain new insights into the underlying genetics of body fat distribution by conducting sample-size weighted fixed-effects genome-wide association meta-analyses in up to 9,594 women and 8,738 men for six ectopic fat traits in European, African, Hispanic, and Chinese ancestry populations, with and without sex stratification. In total, 7 new loci were identified in association with ectopic fat traits (ATXN1, UBE2E2, EBF1, RREB1, GSDMB, GRAMD3 and ENSA; PATXN1 and UBE2E2 …

In Silico Study Of Rxlr Effectors Of Phytophthora Infestans Hp-10-31, A2 Mating Type Potato Late Blight Pathogen, Youvika Singh, Virupaksh U. Patil, Anupam Dhasmana, Swarup K. Chakraborty, Pradeep K. Shukla, Shashi Rawat

School of Medicine Publications

Phytophthora infestans is one of the most compelling plant pathogen among the scientific community throughout the world. It is the causative agent of potato late blight and responsible for tremendous economic loss worldwide. Pathogenic effector proteins are instrumental in modulating host immunity and disease resistance has been a major concern. In P. infestans, a class of cytoplasmic effectors recognized as RxLR is characterized by highly conserved region and abet in parasitic colonization by modifying the host defense system. We have sequenced an Indian strain of P. infestans HP-10-31 genome and identified several RxLR motif-containing genes.In this study we selected two …

Effects Of Conjugated Linoleic Acid And Metformin On Insulin Sensitivity In Obese Children: Randomized Clinical Trial, Nayely Garibay-Nieto, Gloria Queipo-García, Flor Alvarez, Mayra Bustos, Erendira Villanueva, Fernando Ramírez, Mireya León, Estibalitz Laresgoiti-Servitje, Juan Carlos Lopez Alvarenga, Ravi Duggirala

School of Medicine Publications

Context: Insulin resistance precedes metabolic syndrome abnormalities and may promote cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in children with obesity. Results of lifestyle modification programs have been discouraging, and the use of adjuvant strategies has been necessary.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of metformin and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on insulin sensitivity, measured via euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp technique and insulin pathway expression molecules in muscle biopsies of children with obesity.

Design: A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted.

Setting: Children with obesity were randomly assigned to receive metformin, CLA, or placebo.

Results: Intervention had a …

Association Of Cardiometabolic Genes With Arsenic Metabolism Biomarkers In American Indian Communities: The Strong Heart Family Study (Shfs), Poojitha Balakrishnan, Dhananjay Vaidya, Nora Franceschini, V. Saroja Voruganti, Matthew O. Gribble, Karin Haack, Sandra Laston, Jason G. Umans, Kevin A. Francesconi, Walter Goessler

School of Medicine Publications

Background:

Metabolism of inorganic arsenic (iAs) is subject to inter-individual variability, which is explained partly by genetic determinants.

Objectives:

We investigated the association of genetic variants with arsenic species and principal components of arsenic species in the Strong Heart Family Study (SHFS).

Methods:

We examined variants previously associated with cardiometabolic traits (~ 200,000 from Illumina Cardio MetaboChip) or arsenic metabolism and toxicity (670) among 2,428 American Indian participants in the SHFS. Urine arsenic species were measured by high performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS), and percent arsenic species [iAs, monomethylarsonate (MMA), and dimethylarsinate (DMA), divided by their sum …

Reliability Of Doming And Toe Flexion Testing To Quantify Foot Muscle Strength, Sarah T. Ridge, J. William Myrer, Mark T. Olsen, Kevin Jurgensmeier, A. Wayne Johnson

Faculty Publications

Quantifying the strength of the intrinsic foot muscles has been a challenge for clinicians and researchers. The reliable measurement of this strength is important in order to assess weakness, which may contribute to a variety of functional issues in the foot and lower leg, including plantar fasciitis and hallux valgus. This study reports 3 novel methods for measuring foot strength – doming (previously unmeasured), hallux flexion, and flexion of the lesser toes.

Spiritually Oriented Psychotherapy For Trauma And Meaning Making Among Ethnically Diverse Individuals In The United States, Kawika Allen, P. Scott Richards, T. Lea

Faculty Publications

Esmeralda, a 42-year-old Latina woman from Mexico, had moved to the United States with hopes of a bright new future. Despite not knowing much English, she had worked hard, found and married her husband, and had several beautiful children. She missed her family in Mexico, but loved living in the United States. At least, she had liked it up until the day her 5-year-old son was hit and killed by a truck only a few feet from where she stood. The accident had changed everything. In an instant, Esmeralda went from being a caring and involved mother to barely being …

Racial Discrimination And Psychological Health Among Polynesians In The U.S., Kawika Allen, Hokule'a Conklin, Davis K. Kane

Faculty Publications

There is a dearth of research on the mental health of Polynesians residing in the United States. The aims of this study were to examine experiences of racial discrimination, self-esteem, trait anger, satisfaction with life, and psychological well-being among 628 Polynesians (e.g., Native Hawaiian, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Tahitian, Maori; 60% women (n 378) and 40% men (n 249); mean age 28.7). Method: Measures were administered through an online survey to 628 Polynesians residing in the United States. Comparison analyses between men and women, correlations, and path analyses were analyzed for this Polynesian sample. Results: Polynesian women showed higher levels of …

Statistical Abstract, Fiscal Year 2017, Tennessee. Department Of Correction

Annual Statistical Abstract

This document is the annual statistical report for the Tennessee Department of Correction during the fiscal year.

Diffusion Or Dissent: Examining International Family Planning Frames And Domestic Policy Divergence, Gillian C. Beach

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how issue framing within an international advocacy movement influences and is influenced by the framing of the same issue within politically differentiated regimes, and examines this question through an analysis of the international family planning movement. Existing work on both policy diffusion and international advocacy presents strong evidence that the international community has a powerful effect on the framing and development of domestic policy. However, there is room for refinement of the literature in addressing how international actors affect policy trajectories within dissenting regimes---that is, regimes that espouse explicitly anti-Western ideologies, but which are nevertheless active in …

Exploring Staff Turnover In A Large-Scale Ebt Implementation Initiative, Laurel A. Brabson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Staff turnover in the behavioral health field is a substantial and chronic problem with implications for both agencies and clients (Ben-Dror, 1994). Increased focus on the implementation of evidence-based treatments (EBT) has further highlighted the problems associated with turnover, as EBT trainings are particularly costly and time-consuming for clinicians and their agencies (Cook, Biyanova, & Coyne, 2009). The current study examined rates and predictors of turnover within an EBT implementation initiative designed to assess the effectiveness of three different training models. Data was collected from 110 families, 100 clinicians, 50 supervisors, and 50 administrators involved in the state-wide implementation of …