Digital Commons Network^™

A Quantitative Review Of Costs: Heart Failure Patients Before And After Implementation Of An Integrated Practice Unit Model At University Of Utah Health, Dayle E. Benson

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Knowing the cost of delivering patient care is a mandatory first step as health care leaders are tasked with reducing the cost of US health care. The Integrated Practice Unit (IPU) model espoused by Michal Porter is a patient centered organizational framework whose tenets support value driven care. University of Utah Health has developed a proprietary costing model that gives them the ability to measure both costs and outcomes at the patient, provider, or in this research case, IPU program level. An interrupted time series (ITS) study design methodology is used to evaluate whether there has been an immediate effect …

The Impact Of Sugar Derived Metabolites (Ages) On Pubertal Mammary Gland Development, Bradley Krisanits

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

The mammary gland is one of few organs that continues to develop postnatally, through puberty, pregnancy, lactation and involution. Interestingly, these times of development are also considered windows of susceptibility for future development of breast cancer. Studies have shown that processes important in mammary gland development are often deregulated during breast cancer tumorigenesis. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are highly reactive metabolites produced during normal metabolism. AGE content in the Western Diet has consistently increased over the years and accumulation of AGEs in the body leads to pro- inflammatory and pro-oxidant effects. Diet, including a diet high in fat has …

Prevalence And Potential Reproductive Health Impacts Of Phthalates And Phthalate Alternatives In Pregnant Women In Charleston, South Carolina, Abby Goodson Wenzel

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Phthalates are plasticizers commonly detected in humans due to widespread exposure from PVC plastics, food packaging, and personal care products. Several phthalates are known antiandrogens, raising concern for prenatal exposures during critical windows of fetal development. The goal of the research presented here is to 1) Determine if certain demographics have greater or lesser phthalate concentrations, 2) Evaluate associations between prenatal phthalate exposure and AGD, a marker of in utero androgen exposure, in newborns, and 3) Investigate the prevalence and bioactivity of a novel phthalate replacement, DINCH. We sampled urine from 378 pregnant women during the second trimester of pregnancy …

Using Blubber To Assess Steroid Hormone Homeostasis In Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Exposed To Organochlorine Pesticides, Thomas Matthew Galligan

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impacts of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites (collectively DDTs or DDx) on steroid hormone homeostasis in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) using only remotely collected blubber. First, I examined whether blubber is a suitable proxy for blood in the assessment of steroid hormone homeostasis in dolphins. To do so, I developed a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay for the simultaneous measurement of multi-class steroid hormones in dolphin blood matrices. Then I quantified steroids in matched blood and blubber samples collected from reference populations, and modeled the relationships between the hormones …

Therapeutic Alliance And Adherence To A Plant-Based Eating Plan To Treat Chronic Disease, Michiel A. Zyl, Lesley M. Harris, Rachel Hale

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Systematic reviews show that a plant-based diet offers many benefits to patients with a variety of chronic illnesses. However, more research is needed to show how plant-based diets are successfully prescribed by physicians and what supports are essential for adherence. The primary research questions in this study were: Is therapeutic alliance correlated with adherence to the eating plan?; Does a change in therapeutic alliance result in a change in adherence?; and How do patients view the doctor-patient relationship and adherence? Methods: This multiple methods feasibility study combined cross-sectional pre-post and six-month follow-up survey, a focus group and case study …

Resisting The Hospice Narrative In Pursuit Of Quality Of Life, Jillian A. Tullis, Lori A. Roscoe, Patrick J. Dillon

Communication Faculty Publications

The overall hospice philosophy is to provide care that enhances a dying person’s quality of life. Most individual’s quality of life is improved when they embrace hospice eligibility and reimbursement requirements, such as stopping burdensome and ineffective curative treatment, addressing pain and other symptoms, and seeking avenues for closure. However, this institutionalized prescription for enhancing quality of life at the end of life does not work for all patients. This article considers what happens when patients’ personal definitions of quality of life at the end of life resist the prevailing narrative of appropriate hospice care. Using a series of examples …

Age And Gender Differences In Particpation Rates, Motivators For, And Barriers To Exercise, Margot E. Hickey, Susan E. Mason

Modern Psychological Studies

Participants completed a questionnaire about their involvement in exercise and the motivators for and barriers to their participation in physical activities. There was a significant age difference in the total number of barriers reported. There were also significant gender differences in several aspects of exercise, within both a college sample and a sample of community residents. Because of the numerous health benefits of exercise for men and women of all ages, it is important that we understand what motivates individuals to be active. The findings of the present study suggest that the individual’s age and gender are important factors to …

"And Palate Call Judicious": Paradise Lost And The Question Of Taste, Eric B. Song

English Literature Faculty Works

Paradise Lost repeatedly emphasizes the taste of the forbidden fruit. This essay argues that the poem averts, for discernible religious reasons, any binding judgment concerning whether the fruit is genuinely delicious or delicious only to a palate on the brink of corruption. The divine creator's participation in sensory delight would suggest his unseemly pleasure in sacrifice. This essay argues that John Milton advances a warning against grounding shared knowledge in taste. Although this lesson would go unheeded by Edmund Burke in his project of theistic empiricism, it speaks to problems within the Kantian account of aesthetic judgment and collective reason.

Foraging Behavior Of The Variegated Flycatcher (Empidonomus Varius) At Two North American Vagrancy Sites In The Context Of Foraging In Its Native Range, Jon S. Greenlaw

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Does Survival Vary For Breast Cancer Patients In The United States? A Study From Six Randomly Selected States, Hafiz Mohammad Rafiqullah Khan, Lisaann S. Gittner, Abhilash Perisetti, Anshul Saxena, Aamrin Rafiq, Kemesha Gabbidon, Sarah Mende, Maria Lyuksyutova

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

Background . Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Disparities in some characteristics of breast cancer patients and their survival data for six randomly selected states in the US were examined. Materials and Methods . A probability random sampling method was used to select the records of 2,000 patients from each of six randomly selected states. Demographic and disease characteristics were extracted from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. To evaluate relationships between variables, we employed a Cox Proportional Regression to compare survival times in the different states. Results . Iowa had the highest mean age …

Feasibility Study Of Using Electrodialysis To Treat Anion Exchange Brine, Katerina Messologitis

Master's Theses and Capstones

In the drinking water sector, anion exchange technologies are increasingly used for color and disinfection by-products removal, which targets low molecular weight natural organic matter, particularly humic substances (HS). After treatment, resins are regenerated to 99.9% recovery with NaCl resulting in a saline waste stream, referred to as brine. The resulting brine contains left-over NaCl, as well as desorbed inorganic and organic anions (SO42-, HCO3-, HS, etc.) from raw water. Disposal of this brine is a problem, especially with regulations becoming increasingly strict. Fortunately, compounds in the brine can be reclaimed if properly separated: NaCl for direct reuse in the …

The Effect Of Whole Body Vibration On Equine Hoof Growth, Sharlee Lowe

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Equine foot pain can be a result of many conditions and disease processes, all of which lead to a loss of function in the horse. When the horse loads the foot, pressure applied to the frog translates to the digital cushion and lateral cartilages, compressing the blood vessels, perfusing the area, and circulating blood back up the leg; this constant flow of blood stimulates growth of the hoof wall. Whole body vibration plates are thought to result in rapid muscle contractions and subsequently, increased circulation through the foot. An increase in hoof growth could prove whole body vibration beneficial as …

Greening The Thrifty Food Plan – How Adding A Sustainability Constraint Affects Price, Availability And Market Basket Composition, Laura Brown

Theses - ALL

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the potential impacts of a sustainability constraint on monthly cost, composition and availability of the USDA Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) market basket.

Methods: A sustainability constraint was specified to include a sustainable eating pattern, organic certification, seasonality, regionally or locally produced foods. Three levels of natural resource costs were considered. A store food list of 68 foods (119 items reflecting different food forms) produced in the Northeast region was generated reflecting the TFP. Price and availability data for conventional and organic varieties were recorded at four distinct food retail store types: …

Intuitive Eating Practices And Attitudes Of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists., Marlei Blair Simon

Theses - ALL

Background: Dieting is proven to be ineffective for weight management. Research shows that non-diet approaches, such as intuitive eating (IE), improve weight status and health outcomes. Cognitive factors may influence Registered Dietitian Nutritionists’ (RD/Ns) dietary and IE attitudes and practices. RD/Ns play an important role in communicating diet and non-diet approaches in practice with clients. IE can only be communicated to clients by RD/Ns as strongly as RD/Ns practice IE.

Objective: The primary goal of this research was to assess and evaluate Registered Dietitians intuitive eating attitudes and dietary behaviors and practices. RD/Ns IE scores were compared to their body …

Quinua Or Quinoa? Transformation, Certification, And The Contestation Of The Commodity Chain On The Bolivian Altiplano, Andria Maria Aguilar

Theses - ALL

The rise in popularity for quinua in the Global North, known as the quinua boom, has created an incredible transformation on Bolivia’s altiplano. Over a short period of time, quinua has transitioned from a subsistence crop to an international luxury commodity. By placing the boom in a wider historical context, and detailing two distinct commodity chains through which quinua might flow, I show that the “ecological harmony” championed by the organic commodity chain has not delivered all that it has promised. Despite the long list of standards designed to ensure that quinua is grown organically, the quinua boom has changed …

Estimating Swiss Chard Foliar Macro- And Micronutrient Concentrations Under Different Irrigation Water Sources Using Ground-Based Hyperspectral Data And Four Partial Least Squares (Pls)-Based (Pls1, Pls2, Spls1 And Spls2) Regression Algorithms, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman, Onisimo Mutanga, John Odindi, Elhadi Adam, Alfred Odindo, Riyad Ismail

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Timely information on crop foliar nutrient content provides a measure of crop nutritional and vitality status. Growers and farm managers use such information for precision crop management such as an appropriate fertilizer application to correct for any crop nutrient deficiencies at identified hotspots. Foliar heavy nutrient content could also be a direct indicator of crops having been polluted from the surroundings, which may be a result of heavy metals absorbed from, among others, contaminated soils and waste water. In the present study, we explored the potential use of four partial least squares (PLS)-based regression algorithms for estimating foliar Swiss chard …

Impact Of Push-Pull Technology On The Nutritional Status Of Farmers' Children In Western Kenya, Nicholas O. Ogot, J. O. Pittchar, C. A.O. Midega, Z. R. Khan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

This study examined the impact of push-pull technology (PPT) on the nutritional status of children aged 1-12 years. Non-push-pull (NPPT) farmers were used as a control group to establish a comparative model for this study. It determined household production, consumption, and surpluses, comparing the PPT adopters to the nonadopters; found out the incomes and food expenditures from farm products; found out the household dietary diversity scores; and finally found the nutritional status of the two household groups. A six faceted household-level metrics was employed. A sample of 216 households that registered 326 children was derived. This study was conducted in …

Aspects Of Intentionality In Two 16th Century Aristotelians, James B. South

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Twenty-First Century Climate Change And Submerged Aquatic Vegetation In A Temperate Estuary: The Case Of Chesapeake Bay, Thomas M. Arnold, Richard C. Zimmerman, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt, J. Court Stevenson

OES Faculty Publications

Introduction: The Chesapeake Bay was once renowned for expansive meadows of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV). However, only 10% of the original meadows survive. Future restoration effortswill be complicated by accelerating climate change, including physiological stressors such as a predicted mean temperature increase of 2-6°C and a 50-160% increase in CO2 concentrations.

Outcomes: As the Chesapeake Bay begins to exhibit characteristics of a subtropical estuary, summer heat waves will become more frequent and severe. Warming alone would eventually eliminate eelgrass (Zostera marina) from the region. It will favor native heat-tolerant species such as widgeon grass (Ruppia maritima) while facilitating colonization by …

Competition, Compromises, And Complicity: An Analysis Of The Humanitarian Aid Sector, Fiona Bare

CMC Senior Theses

This paper analyzes humanitarian assistance to complex humanitarian emergencies to understand why suboptimal outcomes result even when humanitarians have ethical principles and good intentions. It focuses on the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations, and Médecins Sans Frontières to understand their core principles before looking at how these principles operationalize during emergencies. Challenges arise due to complex relationships with donors, local actors, and recipients, along with issues of marketization and competition. This paper’s case studies of the post-genocide Rwandan refugee crisis and post-9/11 Afghanistan explore how humanitarian principles clash with such dilemmas. In the end, humanitarian organizations …

Partisanship In Mexico: Influence Of Violence And State Spending, Christopher White

CMC Senior Theses

This paper serves to further investigate factors influencing partisanship in Mexican politics with a focus on state spending and drug violence. With state spending, this paper builds on prior literature about political effects of federal social spending (Handelman 1997, Domínguez and Chappell 2004, Díaz-Cayeros 2009) to propose a similar theory regarding state social spending. The proposed panel data model for national elections between 2000 and 2012 finds that for diputados elections, a thousand-peso increase in state spending had a statistically significant influence on party voting – boosting PRI candidates (typically incumbents) by 0.66% and hurting both PAN and PRD candidates …

Next Up: A Proposal For Values-Based Law Reform On Unilateral Withholding And Withdrawal Of Potentially Life-Sustaining Treatment, Jocelyn Downie, Lindy Willmott, Ben White

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As the legalization of assisted dying shifts from a project for law reform to one of implementation, the gaze for Canadian end of life law and policy academics and practitioners should be turned quickly to another pressing issue – the unilateral withholding and withdrawal of potentially life-sustaining treatment. What should happen when the health care team believes that treatment should not be provided and the patient’s loved ones believe that it should? While the future of end of life law and policy no doubt includes many other issues, this is an urgent and immediate horizon issue for Canada as well …

The Rules Of Maternity, Dara Purvis

Faculty Scholarship

A diverse body of laws and regulations speaking to reproductive rights, healthcare, criminal punishment of drug use, termination of parental rights, and more creates the rules of maternity. These rules are guidance provided both obliquely and explicitly by the law's coercive power telling women both how to and who should mother. Rule one begins in pregnancy, with the message that "your body is your child's vessel." During pregnancy, women are counselled that doctor knows best. After the child's birth, the mother remains responsible for the people who enter a child's life, leading to rule 3: "mothers must always protect." …

Law And Economics Of Information, Tim Wu

Faculty Scholarship

Information is of enormous importance to contemporary economics, science, and technology. Since the 1970s, economists and legal scholars, relying on a simplified “public good” model of information, have constructed an impressively extensive body of scholarship devoted to the relationship between law and information. The public good model tends to justify law, such as the intellectual property laws or various forms of securities regulation that seek to incentivize the production of information or its broader dissemination. This chapter reviews the public choice model and identifies two recent trends. First, scholars have extended the public good model of information to an ever-increasing …

Characterizing Food Selectivity In Children With Autism, Samantha H. Wohlmacher

Honors Theses and Capstones

Food selectivity or “picky eating” affects a large percentage of children on the autism spectrum and as a result can have negative impacts on a child’s health and nutritional status (Cermak, Curtin, & Bandini, 2010). Few studies compare food selectivity in children on the autism spectrum to children with other developmental issues. Such a comparison may reveal how food selectivity presents itself uniquely in children on the autism spectrum. This study examined data from past health records collected from the Seacoast Childhood Development Center (SCDC). Thirty-eight children whose parents were concerned about their diets were taken from a larger sample …

Comparison Of Environmental Supports To A Healthy Lifestyle On The Unh Campus With Student Behaviors, Mary Hammar

Honors Theses and Capstones

Background: Environmental factors play a large role in shaping diet and lifestyle behaviors. Creating a college campus environment conducive to healthy dietary choices and physical activity may promote student health.

Objective: The objective of this study was to explore and describe the availability of environmental supports for a healthy lifestyle on the UNH campus and student behaviors.

Design: The Healthy Campus Environmental Audit (HCEA), a comprehensive tool developed by a USDA multi-state research team led by Syracuse University, was implemented to measure the availability of healthy options in dining establishments (n=12) and the adequacy of recreation facilities (n=3) and walking/biking …

Livestock-Livelihood Linkages In Uganda: The Benefits For Women And Rural Households?, Elizabeth Ransom, Carmen Bain, Iim Halimatusa'diyah

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Livestock are an important component of rural households and gendered livelihood practices throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Widespread within the development literature is the belief in the livestock ladder, with poorer households often owning small stock and wealthier households owning large stock, with the assumption that poor households can utilize livestock to build their asset base and overtime this would allow poorer households to expand from small stock to large stock, in so doing climb the livestock ladder. There is also an assumption in the literature that women are more likely to oversee small stock. In addition, some well-known agricultural development programs …

Disrupting The Trajectory: Representing Disabled African American Boys In A System Designed To Send Them To Prison, Leah Aileen Hill

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Foe More Than A Friend: Law And The Health Of The American Urban Poor, David Ray Papke, Mary Elise Papke

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Preemption, Federalism, And Local Democracy, Kenneth A. Stahl

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.