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Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention In 18 To 24-Year-Old Heterosexual Men: Pilot Study, Susan P. Mckeefrey

Doctoral Projects

The CDC reported that there were over 20 million cases in the United States and half affected young adults, 15 to 25-year olds. Strategies STD prevention have been developed by the CDC but does not include avoiding alcohol or other similar agents in the context of a sexual encounter. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of STD prevention education intervention by improving Condom Use Self-Efficacy in heterosexually 18 to 24-year old men. It was hypothesized self-efficacy would improve with a face-to-face brief educational intervention. A quasi-experimental, pre-/post-test design with simple randomization of subjects into control and …

End Of Life Care Practices For Patients Who Die In Intensive Care Units (Icu), Jila Ghabeljoo

Doctoral Projects

Today, one in five hospital deaths happens in the intensive care unit with the expectation of twice as many by 2030. Increasing, mortality has triggered a growing attention to end-of-life (EOL) care in the ICU. However, the lack of coveted EOL and palliative care skills creates a challenge for ICU nurses. The aim of this study was to assess the current practices of EOL care in the ICU. In this quantitative research, a retrospective chart review method was employed to analyze the collected data from a population 60 EOL patients who died in the ICU of a Southern California hospital. …

Biographical Feature: Thomas F. Smith, Ph.D., Erik Munson

Clinical Lab Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Measuring The Presence Of The Amphibian Pathogen Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis In East Tennessee, Erin A. Schrenker

Honors Theses

I examined the presence and absence of the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in three survey areas in Eastern Tennessee. Amphibians were swabbed to assess for Bd and other ecological qualities like canopy cover, and air and water temperature are a few of the measurements evaluated. DNA was extracted from the swabs using a Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit and samples were PCRed in triplicate to confirm presence or absence. All 48 animals that were swabbed in the field were negative for Bd. These results parallel other findings that few Bd positive assays have been conducted in East Tennessee from …

Reducing Tobacco-Related Health Disparities : Exploring The Barriers And Facilitators To Smoking Cessation Among Individuals Experiencing Homelessness., Bernadette Guzman Antoon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although the prevalence of smoking has declined in the U.S., vulnerable populations continue to suffer from tobacco-related health disparities. An estimated 68.0-80.0% of homeless adults are current cigarette smokers compared to 15.1% in the general population. The large gap in smoking rates suggests that current tobacco cessation programs designed to reduce smoking have little impact among individuals experiencing homelessness. The purpose of this study was to explore the barriers and facilitators to smoking cessation among the homeless. The second aim of this study was to explore if the barriers and facilitators to tobacco cessation differed among male smokers experiencing homelessness …

Examining The Link Between Press Freedom And Politics., Megan Wollerton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Freedom of the press is a hallmark of liberal democracy. Denying this civil liberty emboldens a government to exert an undue degree of influence over its citizens. By comparing the media discourse in a democratic country to the media discourse in an authoritarian country, one could reasonably expect to identify unique language markers, which shed light on their divergent political climates. This study specifically sourced articles from the Venezuelan publication El Universal and the Costa Rican publication The Tico Times. The author then analyzed every article related to politics published by both newspapers in March 2014 and in March …

Multi-Type Branching Processes Model Of Nosocomial Epidemic, Zeinab Nageh Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

The potency of an infectious disease to spread between different types of susceptible individuals in a hospital determines the fate of controlling nosocomial epidemics. I use a multi-type branching process with a joint negative binomial offspring distribution to study nosocomial epidemics. In particular, I estimate the basic reproduction number R0 and study its relationship with the offspring distribution’s parameters at different and fixed number of generations. Also, I study the effect of contact tracing on estimates of R0.

Disposition And Success Of Patients Following Discharge In The Acute Setting, Ciera Cortney, Kathryn Lutjens, Kristopher Raines

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Abstract: Background & Purpose: Many patients are seen in the hospital by physical therapists who also help decide where the patient will go after discharge (e.g., home, rehab hospital, skilled nursing facility) with the goal being the safest and best quality of life. Therapists may use different tests and measures along with their own professional judgment to help make a recommendation for a discharge location. The purpose of this study was to examine how PT’s recommendation for discharge location, POMA score, “6-clicks” score, age, diagnosis, and gender determine patient’s fall/readmission status after being discharged by hospital. Subjects: There were 113 …

Characterization Of Murine Breast Cancer Cell Lines For Anti-Cancer Vaccine, Haven N. Frazier

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States (1). While treatments involving radiation and chemotherapy currently exist, disease must be detected early in order for the treatments to be somewhat effective, and there is no effective treatment after metastasis occurs (2). Additionally, current therapies do not mitigate tumor immunosuppression. Decreasing the tumor-associated immunosuppressive conditions while activating antitumor immunity could prevent recurrence and metastasis, possibly leading to an effective treatment for cancer (3). Tumor cell vaccines could possibly address this issue and have become a …

Biophysical And Biochemical Screening Approaches For Antimicrobial Drug Discovery Targeting S. Aureus Clpp, Aman Preet Singh

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The discovery of antibacterial drugs has been among most significant achievements of mankind in saving millions of lives across the planet from infectious diseases. With rise in resistance to almost all existing chemotypes, the design of next generation novel antibiotics has become much more challenging and difficult. The early 21st century witnessed the advancement of multiple novel chemotypes during golden age of antibiotics however the pace of antibiotic drug discovery has slowed down tremendously, contributing to life threatening antimicrobial discovery void since 1980’s. Therefore the need to develop novel antibiotics with unique mechanism of action to leverage against multi drug …

The Role Of Resilience, Emotion Regulation, And Perceived Stress On College Academic Performance, Katherine A. Pendergast

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Stress is a common problem for college students. The goal of this thesis was to examine the relationships between protective and risk factors to experiencing stress and how these factors may predict academic performance in college students. 125 college students were surveyed twice over the course of a semester on emotion regulation strategies, trait resilience, and perceived stress. The relationships between these variables and semester GPA were analyzed using correlational, multiple regression, and hierarchical regression analyses. It was determined that trait resilience scores do predict use of emotion regulation strategies but change in stress and trait resilience do not significantly …

University Of Central Florida Graduate Catalog, 2017 - 2018, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Mathematical Modeling Of Mers-Cov Nosocomial Epidemic, Adriana Quiroz

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis concerns about the analysis and modeling of spread of an infectious disease inside a hospital. We begin from the basic knowledge of the simple models: SIR and SEIR, to show an appropriate understanding of the epidemic dynamic process. We consider the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV), in Saudi Arabia, to introduce MERS-CoV SEIR ward model by developing different systems of equations in each ward (unit). We use the Next Generation Matrix method to calculate the basic reproduction number R0. Simulations of different scenarios are done using different combination of parameters.

To model MERS-CoV we established …

Disease Modeling Using Fractional Differential Equations And Estimation, Daniel P. Medina

Theses and Dissertations

Ordinary differential equations has been the most conventional approach when modeling spread of infectious diseases. Effective research has shown that using fractional-order differentiation can be a very useful and efficient extension for some mathematical models. In this thesis, fractional calculus is used to depict an SEIR model with a system of fractional-order differential equations. I also simulate the fractional-order SEIR using integer-order numerical methods. I also establish the estimation framework and show that it is accurately working.

Range-Wide Prevalence And Impacts Of Pseudocercosporella Inconspicua On Lilium Grayi And An Assessment Of L. Superbum And L. Michauxii As Reservoirs, Cindy L. Barrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lilium grayi (Gray’s Lily), a southern Appalachian endemic species, is threatened by a Lilium-specific fungal pathogen, Pseudocercosporella inconspicua. The disease is characterized by tan lesions that can cause early senescence, while also lowering seed production and viability. This project tested for P. inconspicua conidia and accessed health at nine locations. The disease was present and ubiquitous across the range of L. grayi. Through identification of P. inconspicua conidia in the field, L. superbum (Turk’s Cap Lily) was identified as an additional host, while L. michauxii (Michaux’s Lily) was disease-free. However, infection was inducible in both species. With …

The Increasing Risk Of Vector-Borne Diseases: Mapping The Effects Of Climate Change And Human Population Density On Future Aedes Aegypti Habitats, Julie Obenauer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the vector for four infectious diseases of global concern – Yellow Fever, Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zikavirus. Previous attempts to model the expansion of the vector habitat due to global climate change have rarely included characteristics related to the human populations on which this mosquito is dependent. The purpose of this research was to determine whether the inclusion of human population density improves model performance while creating risk maps that can be used to determine where humans are most likely to be exposed to the vector in the future. The resulting model demonstrated that the inclusion …

Is Prison Why I’M Sick? Examining Health Conditions Among Minority Males Within Correctional Facilities, Mary Hannah Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given the current United States prison population of 1.5 million persons, many states have begun to examine how to effectively reduce correctional expenditures, considering in 2011 healthcare related prison costs increased to approximately eight billion (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2014). Recent research attributes much of this increase to the prevalence of disease and aging within the prison population (Williams et al., 2012; Dumont et al., 2012; Gallagher, 2001; Ahalt et al., 2013). Alternatively, little attention has been devoted to measuring the disparity in health among minority male inmates or the effects of identifying more cost effective health initiatives that address …

Peanut Allergen Threshold Study (Pats): Novel Single-Dose Oral Food Challenge Study To Validate Eliciting Doses In Children With Peanut Allergy, Jonathan O'B. Hourihane, Katrina J. Allen, Wayne G. Shreffler, Gillian Dunngalvin, Julie A. Nordlee, Giovanni A. Zurzolo, Audrey Dunngalvin, Lyle C. Gurrin, Joseph L. Baumert, Steve L. Taylor

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Background: Eliciting doses (EDs) of allergenic foods can be defined by the distribution of threshold doses for subjects within a specific population. The ED₀₅ is the dose that elicits a reaction in 5% of allergic subjects. The predicted ED₀₅ for peanut is 1.5 mg of peanut protein (6 mg of whole peanut).

Objective: We sought to validate the predicted peanut ED₀₅ (1.5 mg) with a novel single-dose challenge. Methods: Consecutive eligible children with peanut allergy in 3 centers were prospectively invited to participate, irrespective of previous reaction severity. Predetermined criteria for objective reactions were used …

A Variant Pfcrt Isoform Can Contribute To Plasmodium Falciparum Resistance To The First-Line Partner Drug Piperaquine, Satish K. Dhingra, Devasha Redhi, Jill M. Combrinck, Tomas Yeo, John Okombo, Philipp P. Henrich, Annie N. Cowell, Purva Gupta, Matthew L. Stegman, Jonathan M. Hoke, Roland A. Cooper, Elizabeth Winzeler, Sachel Mok, Timothy J. Egan, David A. Fidock

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Current efforts to reduce the global burden of malaria are threatened by the rapid spread throughout Asia of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies, which includes increasing rates of clinical failure with dihydroartemisinin plus piperaquine (PPQ) in Cambodia. Using zinc finger nuclease-based gene editing, we report that addition of the C101F mutation to the chloroquine (CQ) resistance-conferring PfCRT Dd2 isoform common to Asia can confer PPQ resistance to cultured parasites. Resistance was demonstrated as significantly higher PPQ concentrations causing 90% inhibition of parasite growth (IC₉₀) or 50% parasite killing (50% lethal dose [LD₅₀]). This mutation …

The Lebanese Trash Crisis, Araz Khajarian

ENV 334 Environmental Justice

Thinking about what it means to be a human being in the 21st century comes with many different aspects that one needs to take into consideration. Human Rights is becoming more complicated as life requires more in some areas and less in other as it proceeds. Clean air and water are one of those rights that every human being should have access to. When humans are denied access to those two, especially for political or class stratification reasons, a case of environmental injustice should be identified. Not everyone has equal access to all resources neither does everyone consume the same …

Tumor-Cell Derived Inhibin, Beta A Is Essential For Adrenergic Effects On Fibroblast Activation, Archana Sidalaghatta Nagaraja

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Objectives: Catecholamine-mediated effects driven by elevated adrenergic signaling are known to increase tumor growth and metastasis by direct effects on tumor cells. However, knowledge of effects of adrenergic signaling on other cells such as cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) within the tumor microenvironment is limited. We hypothesize that adrenergic signaling and norepinephrine can accelerate the induction of CAF-phenotype to promote inflammation and metastasis.

Methods: Ingenuity Pathway Analysis and NetWalker were used to assess gene expression data from patients with known CESD (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression)-score alongside microdissected CAFs from primary ovarian cancer. Tumor samples from mice exposed to daily restraint-stress or non-stressed …

Developing Novel Approaches To Improve Response To T Cell Based Cancer Immunotherapy, Rina M. Mbofung

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Recently, T cell based immunotherapies have moved to the forefront of cancer immunotherapy with the success of Adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) and Immune checkpoint blockade.ACT, where patients are treated with tumour infiltrating T cells (TILs), conferred a clinical response rate of ~50%. Treatment with anti-CTLA4 and anti –PD1 therapy, conferred response rates of up to 50%, greatly improving the overall survival of patients with advanced melanoma amongst other cancer types. Despite the encouraging outcomes, there are relatively low response rates coupled with the delay of weeks to months before tumour shrinkage can be appreciated. Thus, understanding what tumour intrinsic …

Statistical Methods For Assessing Structural Change In Human & Microbial Genomes, Xuan Zhu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Genetic sequencing has been recognized as an effective approach to accurately address biological problems, such as clinical detection of disease, mutation discovery, and targeting specific biomarkers associated with complex diseases. Compared with conventional Sanger sequencing, next-generation sequencing costs much less due to massively parallel high-throughput sequencing. However, due to large numbers of short read sequences, the accuracy of high-throughput sequencing data remains a challenge in that the data obtained from next-generation sequencing often has higher error rates, which may impact downstream genomic analysis. Even if the downstream genomic analysis performs well, the quality of the result will still be impacted …

Peptide Vaccine Formulation Controls The Duration Of Antigen Presentation And Magnitude Of Tumor‐Specific Cd8+ T Cell Response, Hiep Khong

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Despite remarkable progresses in vaccinology, therapeutic cancer vaccines have not achieved their full potential. We previously showed that the duration of antigen presentation critically affected the quantity and quality of T cell response and subsequent anti‐tumor efficacy. Here we describe L‐tyrosine amino acid‐based microparticles as a novel peptide vaccine adjuvant for the induction of tumor‐specific T cells. L‐tyrosine microparticles did not induce inflammasome activation, but instead extended antigen presentation time. The consequent prolongation in antigen presentation translated into prolonged T cell proliferation and superior numbers and anti‐tumor function of vaccination‐induced CD8+ T cells. Indeed, prolonging antigen presentation by repeated injection …

Stromal Fibroblasts Restrain The Rate Of Colon Cancer Progression And Metastasis By Suppressing Regulatory T Cells And Colon Cancer Stem Cells, Changsoo Kwak

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The initiation, progression, and metastasis of tumors involve not only cancer cells, but also the tumor microenvironment, which consists of immune or inflammatory cells, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, and extracellular matrix components (ECM). Fibroblasts are ubiquitous stromal cells that can influence other neighboring cell types through the secretion of chemokines, cytokines, ECM, ECM remodeling enzymes, and other metabolites. Myofibroblasts are a distinct subtype of fibroblasts characterized by expression α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA). These cells are a dominant component of the microenvironment, and a FSP1 and FAP could be a different clone of fibroblasts. Myofibroblasts also have been known to contribute to …

Characterization Of The Role Of The Pkm101-Encoded T4ss Outer Membrane Core Complex In Substrate Transfer, Pilus Biogenesis, And Recipient Cell Contact, Jay E. Gordon

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The bacterial type IV secretion systems (T4SS) encoded on the Escherichia coli pKM101 and R388 conjugative plasmids and the Agrobacterium tumefaciens virB operon are composed of 12 subunits arranged in an architecturally similar fashion. Structural studies of the T4SS from R388 (Trw_R388) highlighted the presence of a distinct outer membrane core complex (OMCC) and inner membrane complex (IMC) joined together by a central stalk. This thesis is focused on the development of the pKM101 model system and the role of an OMCC cap region formed by alpha helical antenna projections (AP) found in VirB10 and TraF_pKM101. …

Economic Assessment Of A Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Outbreak In Washington And Benton Counties In Arkansas, Antonio Beitia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) presents a substantial economic risk to the poultry industry. Domesticated fowl contract HPAI initially through exposure, direct or indirect with migratory waterfowl and outbreaks can result in significant economic losses to growers and the poultry industry at large. A HPAI outbreak occurred in Minnesota and Iowa and spread across over 13 other states in 2014 and 2015. This caused an estimated $1.6 billion in losses (CDC, 2016) and led to shortages of eggs and turkeys together with elevated prices (Anni et al. 2005). Even small outbreaks of HPAI inflict substantial damages as USDA-APHIS guidelines necessitate …

Design And Characterization Of Plasmonic Nanoprobes And Interparticle Interactions For Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering And Biomolecular Detection, Zakiya Skeete

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Functional nanoparticles serve as an intriguing class of probes in medical theranostics for enabling rapid, sensitive, multiplexing, and point-of-care treatment and diagnosis. One important aspect of these applications is the exploitation of the unique plasmonic properties of certain metal nanoparticles. A key challenge is the understanding of effective harnessing of the plasmonic coupling of the nanoparticles upon interacting with the targeted biomolecular species. This thesis work focuses on investigating the interparticle interactions of chemcially-labled and bioconjugated gold and silver based nanoparticles and their influences on the plasmonic coupling for specctroscopic detection of biomolecules. Examples of the interparticle interactions include dye-mediated …

Screening Of Siderophore Producers From Soil, Rana Elgazzar

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Iron is a vital nutrient for the maintenance of enzymatic function, electron transport, DNA synthesis, and other metabolic processes. Thus, bacteria and other microorganisms cope with iron deficiency by secreting high-affinity iron chelators called siderophores. This investigation aimed to characterize siderophore-producing soil bacteria. The soil provides the most complex ecological environment where one can look for promising siderophores to be used for treating either iron overload conditions or to be used as an antibiotic carrier.

Toll Like Receptor 4 Stimulation Increases Scavenger Receptor A Expression On Murine Macrophages, Mackenzie L. Guthrie

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sepsis is the body’s response to an overwhelming infection and is a serious consequence of critical illness. It can cause tissue damage, organ failure, and death. Sepsis continues to have an unacceptably high mortality rate, due to the lack of effective treatments. Specific therapeutic targets for sepsis remain elusive since the complex functional changes that result in a septic state remain poorly understood. Macrophage Scavenger Receptor A (SRA, CD204) is a surface receptor that binds negatively charged, endogenous and exogenous ligands. We have discovered that SRA plays a significant role in the pathophysiology of sepsis. We have shown that mice …