Digital Commons Network^™

An Evaluation Of Dsm–5 Section Iii Personality Disorder Criterion A (Impairment) In Accounting For Psychopathology., Chelsea E. Sleep, Donald R. Lynam, Thomas A. Widiger, Michael L. Crowe, Joshua D. Miller

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications

An alternative diagnostic model of personality disorders (AMPD) was introduced in DSM–5 that diagnoses PDs based on the presence of personality impairment (Criterion A) and pathological personality traits (Criterion B). Research examining Criterion A has been limited to date, due to the lack of a specific measure to assess it; this changed, however, with the recent publication of a self-report assessment of personality dysfunction as defined by Criterion A (Levels of Personality Functioning Scale—Self-report; LPFS-SR; Morey, 2017). The aim of the current study was to test several key propositions regarding the role of Criterion A in the AMPD including the …

An Ecological Survey Of Forest Succession In A Northeast Ohio Ecosystem Following An Emerald Ash Borer Infestation, Joseph Haas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper will be an ecological survey of a selected 28 acre piece of land in northeast Ohio impacted by the Emerald Ash Borer. This invasive species arrived in North America in 2002 and has since spread throughout the country wreaking havoc on the ash tree population. The purpose of this study is to determine what tree species are replacing the native ash trees in the succession of the forest. In order to achieve this goal, a section of the selected land will be blocked off and subdivided into manageable sections to facilitate data collection, namely the location of the …

Reliability And Validity Of An Evaluation Capacity Assessment Instrument For Principals Of Public Schools In Michigan And The Current Distribution Of Evaluation Capacity By Poverty Concentration, Christine M. Lewis

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study used Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to investigate the reliability and validity of an Evaluation Capacity Assessment Instrument (ECAI) for principals of K-12 public schools in Michigan. The ECAI was then used to investigate whether scores between principals of high poverty schools and low poverty schools were significantly different. The ECAI was administered to 121 principals across Michigan. Based on the results of the CFA, evidence of fit to the a priori model was not established but internal consistency statistics provide some reliability evidence. A Principle Components Analysis (PCA) was conducted and factor loadings were examined. Some groups of …

Strategies To Enhance The Anti-Leukemic Activity Of Venetoclax (Abt-199) In Aml Through Targeting Of Mcl-1, Daniel Luedtke

Wayne State University Dissertations

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is a frustratingly difficult to treat disease (67% 5 year survival for children and 24% for adults). The standard of care, similar to outcomes, has seen few improvements over the last several decades. The Bcl-2 family, which controls cell survival and apoptosis, is dysregulated in AML. Bcl-2, which is overexpressed in AML and associated with chemoresistance, is a promising therapeutic target. The now FDA approved venetoclax (ABT-199) is a BH3 mimetic that is able to bind to anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and prevent it from sequestering pro-apoptotic Bim. While overall response rates are promising, our lab and others …

Under The Sign Of Suicide, Theodore Emmanuel Prassinos

Wayne State University Dissertations

“Under the Sign of Suicide,” examines modernist writers’ intense and sustained preoccupation with and representations of suicide. Beyond numerous essays on the topic, we also find many fictional characters such as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Svidrigailov and Kirilov both taken by gunshot, Stavrogin and Smerdyakov both by hanging. We also find Franz Kafka’s George Bendemann who takes his life by drowning, and Virginia Woolf’s Septimus Smith by impaling, Her character, Rhoda, dies off a cliff. In American literature, we find Edna Pontellier, Quentin Compson, Clare Kendry, Semour Glass, Teddy McArdle, Willy Loman, Tod Clifton, and on and on. This list is surely …

Sprouty4 Is A Negative Regulator Of Erk/Mapk Signaling In Breast Cancer And Plays A Role In The Transition From In Situ To Invasive Disease, Ethan Brock

Wayne State University Dissertations

Breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-obligate precursor of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). It is still unclear which DCIS will become invasive and which will remain indolent. Previous data by our group found that Sprouty4 transcript was differentially expressed between three DCIS cell lines and a non-transformed breast epithelial cell line. Sprouty proteins are important regulators of ERK/MAPK signaling, and have been studied in various cancers. We hypothesized that Sprouty4 is an endogenous inhibitor of ERK/MAPK signaling and that its loss/reduced expression is a mechanism by which DCIS lesions progress toward IDC, including triple-negative disease. Using immunohistochemistry we …

Empirical Study Of Basic Violations, Pay Incentives, And Safety: Evidence From U.S. Intrastate Carriers, Shengyang Ju

Wayne State University Dissertations

Truck drivers are under financial pressure due to inadequacy in their compensation. Thus, they have strong incentives to work more legally or illegally in pursuing a higher income, which leads to fatigue and HOS violations and ultimately causes crashes. On the other hand, FMCSA oversees the motor carrier’s safety performance and tries to improve the current safety measurement since everyone pays a share of the economic costs due to the externality. This dissertation aims to explore the complex relationship between BASICs violations, pay incentives and crashes, to raise the importance of economic impact on carrier’s safety, and to test the …

A Rhetoric Of Zaniness: The Case Of Pepe The Frog, Sean Milligan

Wayne State University Dissertations

A Rhetoric of Zaniness: The Case of Pepe the Frog argues that Sianne Ngai’s aesthetic category of zaniness is an essential concept for understanding and studying digital rhetoric in the post-truth era. To illustrate how zaniness has come to define online discourse, the dissertation traces the character of Pepe the Frog through various moments of, what Laurie Gries calls, “rhetorical transformation.” Specifically, the dissertation focuses on his initial appearance in Matt Furie’s Boy’s Club comics and transformation into a meme, his appropriation by the alt-right, and his adoption as propaganda for the Trump presidential campaign.

International Economic Sanctions Outcome: The Influence Of Political Agreement, Mehmet Onder

Wayne State University Dissertations

Economic sanctions have been dubbed mainly as ineffective foreign policy tools by political scientists. Despite this, countries continue to use economic sanctions given their less intrusive and offensive nature compared to wars. Therefore, policy-makers have a high stake in learning the critical factors behind effective economic sanctions. Overall, it is understood that an effective sanctions episode compels one state to change its attitude or behavior on an issue, the target state, in line with what another state, sender state, desires. This has given rise to literature known as the determinants of economic sanctions in international political economy. This dissertation contributes …

Gender And Work: An Analysis Of Mid-Level Women Administrators In Student Affairs, Eboni Turnbow

Wayne State University Dissertations

Research has examined the experiences of women faculty in higher education. However, the experiences of non-faculty mid-level women administrators within higher education continues to be understudied. Women are often the majority in non-faculty positions, yet men dominate senior level positions. Instead, women are frequently clustered in entry and mid-level administrative roles within student affairs divisions or departments, often with limited access to career ladders. Drawing on the theoretical framework of gendered work organizations, this study explores the experiences of women working in non-academic departments, and analyzes how these experiences impact their career advancement at four-year public universities. More specifically, I …

Interplay Between Differentially Expressed Enzymes Contributes To Light Color Acclimation In Marine Synechococcus, Wendy M. Schluchter, D. M. Kehoe, F. Partensky, J. A. Strnat, S. Pokhrel, J. A. A. Karty, L. Garczarek, A. A. Nguyen, J. E. Sanfilippo

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Marine Synechococcus, a globally important group of cyanobacteria, thrives in various light niches in part due to its varied photosynthetic light-harvesting pigments. Many Synechococcus strains use a process known as chromatic acclimation to optimize the ratio of two chromophores, green-light-absorbing phycoerythrobilin (PEB) and blue-light-absorbing phycourobilin (PUB), within their light-harvesting complexes. A full mechanistic understanding of how Synechococcus cells tune their PEB to PUB ratio during chromatic acclimation has not yet been obtained. Here, we show that interplay between two enzymes named MpeY and MpeZ controls differential PEB and PUB covalent attachment to the same cysteine residue. MpeY attaches PEB to …

Understanding Relationships Between Cultural Competency And Teacher Efficacy, Azra Ali

Wayne State University Dissertations

Advisor: Dr. Carolyn Shields

Major: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

The teachers in the US classrooms are facing an unprecedented challenge of serving significantly large population of students who come from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds. These challenges are further exasperated because many teachers are not prepared to work with English Language Learners (ELLs) who have specific needs and require pedagogy that goes beyond content teaching. Therefore, many ELL students are not receiving the appropriate principles, practices and strategies necessary for them to succeed in the American classrooms. As the population of ELL students is steadily …

Design And Practical Implementation Of Harmonic-Transponder Sensors, Nasser Alkhaldi

Wayne State University Dissertations

Harmonic radar is a nonlinear detection technology that transmits and receives

radio-frequency (RF) signals at orthogonal frequencies, so as to suppress the undesired

clutters, echoes and electromagnetic interreferences due to multipath scattering.

Its implementation generally comprises a nonlinear tag (i.e, a harmonic transponder),

which picks the interrogation signal at specific fundamental frequency (f0) and converts

it into a high/sub-harmonic signal (nf0). Such a technology has been successfully

applied to tracking small insects and detection of electrically-small objects in

the rich-scattering environment. Similarly, a harmonic sensor is used to interrogate

electrically-small and passive sensors, of which the magnitude and peak frequency …

Utilizing Knowledge Bases In Information Retrieval For Clinical Decision Support And Precision Medicine, Saeid Balaneshinkordan

Wayne State University Dissertations

Accurately answering queries that describe a clinical case and aim at finding articles in a collection of medical literature requires utilizing knowledge bases in capturing many explicit and latent aspects of such queries. Proper representation of these aspects needs knowledge-based query understanding methods that identify the most important query concepts as well as knowledge-based query reformulation methods that add new concepts to a query. In the tasks of Clinical Decision Support (CDS) and Precision Medicine (PM), the query and collection documents may have a complex structure with different components, such as disease and genetic variants that should be transformed to …

Cultivating Transmedia Storytelling: Real World Perceptions Derived From Popular Media, Tabitha Lynn Cassidy

Wayne State University Dissertations

With continued interest in media convergence, transmedia storytelling is as prevalent to communication studies as ever. However, research into the effects of transmedia storytelling remains scarce. Looking at the difference between heavy and light viewers, cultivation theory purports that those who more frequently view violent programming on television are more likely to think the world is a violent place. As of writing, such effects have not yet been extended to transmedia storytelling. This dissertation fills in those gaps in research by examining the cultivation effects of transmedia storytelling usage on participants. First, the main themes or messages of content within …

The Demand And Supply Side Responses To Changes In Health Insurance Status, Naim Chy

Wayne State University Dissertations

We estimate the effects of having health insurance on the probability of facing trouble in accessing provider’s care and that of being refused as a new patient by the provider’s office in chapter 2 of this dissertation. The NHIS data for 2011-2015 are pooled. To fight the potential endogeneity problem arising from the selection bias associated with insurance status we use a 2SLS method with self-employment status of individual and family income as the instruments. The estimated results show that having health insurance reduces the probability of facing difficulty in getting provider’s appointment by 7.3 percentage points. On the other …

Development Of More Light Sensitive And Red-Shifted Channelrhodopsin Variants For Optogenetic Vision Restoration, Tushar Harishkumar Ganjawala

Wayne State University Dissertations

Discovery of channelrhodopsin (ChR), a light sensitive protein from green algae, has revolutionized the field of neuroscience research by empowering scientist to control neuron through the light, the technology popularly known as optogenetics. The ChR based optogenetics is one of the promising approaches for treating blindness caused by photoreceptor degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Fundamentally, the approach is about imparting light sensitivity to surviving inner retinal cells by ectopic expression of genetically encoded light sensitive proteins, such as ChR2. Although the concept of optogenetic approach has been proved by using ChR2, a major …

The Role Of Periodic Conventions In Generating And Undermining Constitutional Loyalty, Kevin Gerald Lorentz

Wayne State University Dissertations

In the U.S., popular support is widespread for both the federal and state constitutional charters, although the former enjoys greater support than the latter. Such support is necessary for maintaining a constitution’s legitimacy; popular support for the laws ensures continued obedience to them. However, critics note that blind support, or excessive veneration, may have negative consequences, including saddling a political community with suboptimal institutions. Support must be balanced with the necessity of “periodic repairs,” allowing each generation to review the prior’s work. In modern parlance, critics advocate for periodic constitutional conventions, permitting constitutional revisions irrespective of tradition or presumed legal …

Framing The Debate: The Role Of Gender, Beneficiaries, And Cost In Paid Parental Leave Policy Support, Kimberly Anne Saks Mcmanaway

Wayne State University Dissertations

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women found that the lack of income security during pregnancy and childbearing “one of the major remaining gaps in the protection of workers against losses of income,” (American Women 1963, p. 27). Despite popular support for such a policy, the United States remains one of only three countries that does not have a such a policy (OECD, 2017). Commentators have argued that the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was successful due to the diverse coalition behind it which included feminist groups and conservative religious organizations alike. The …

Student Use Of Technology For Collaboration, Krystal Gordon

Wayne State University Dissertations

According to the U.S. Department of Education, students need to be prepared for higher education and remain competitive in a globally changing society schools should intertwine 21st century skills including collaboration in the classroom. The purpose of the study is to examine the current use of online tools for group collaboration among high school students. Social constructivists assume learning is collaborative and meaning comes from multiple perspectives. In a social constructivist environment, the goal is for student learning to be maximized. Many states have set guideline and standards that require schools to incorporate collaboration across the curriculum. A nonexperimental, correlational …

“I Was Prepared To Stay Here And Die With My Animals”: Pet Owners, Hurricane Harvey, And The Role Of Communication In Disaster Sense-Making, Ashleigh Day

Wayne State University Dissertations

Companion animals (also referred to as “pets”) are omnipresent in society and, increasingly, many companion animals are considered members of the family unit. However, crisis planning, preparedness, and communication efforts are sparse in including pets and their owners/guardians. This study investigates the disaster experience(s) and sense-making process(es) of pet owners (POs) and animal guardians (AGs) that were affected by the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. More specifically, examination pays close attention to the role and function of PO/AG identity and crisis and risk communication in individuals’ sense-making of their disaster experience. Importantly, participant experiences provide the means to examine the larger context …

3d Surface Registration Using Geometric Spectrum Of Shapes, Hajar Hamidian

Wayne State University Dissertations

Morphometric analysis of 3D surface objects are very important in many biomedical applications and clinical diagnoses. Its critical step lies in shape comparison and registration. Considering that the deformations of most organs such as heart or brain structures are non-isometric, it is very difficult to find the correspondence between the shapes before and after deformation, and therefore, very challenging for diagnosis purposes.

To solve these challenges, we propose two spectral based methods. The first method employs the variation of the eigenvalues of the Laplace-Beltrami operator of the shape and optimize a quadratic equation in order to minimize the distance between …

Health And Natural Capital In An Augmented Solow Growth Model, Sa-Ad Iddrisu

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation explains output growth in nations using two different forms of economic capital (health and natural capital) in separate models under paper 1 and 2. In paper 1, income per worker’s growth in the emerging market economies and developing economies is estimated using health capital. Previous studies done on health capital and output growth have mostly focused on Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and advanced economies, but I focused on emerging market economies and developing economies. I examined the association amongst health capital and economic growth in an augmented Solow Model, using total HEX per capita and …

Understanding The Utilization Of Community-Based Services In Late Old Age: A Participatory Approach For Connecting Through The Communication Ecology, Carrie Leach

Wayne State University Dissertations

As the pool of eligible recipients continues to grow, understanding service system utilization and barriers can help ensure very old adults can access support from their communities when needed. Mounting research demonstrates that investment in community-based services to ensure seniors remain independent translates to saved government dollars. As a contributing researcher of a multi-year county-wide older adult needs assessment in Monroe County, Michigan, data collected from 1,870 people revealed a communication disjuncture between seniors and service providers. In response, officials convened a post assessment working group that focused on communication and outreach. Along with members of the Community Advisory Group …

Reporting Number Needed To Treat In Clinical Trials Published In Physical Therapy Specific Literature 1989 - 2018, Susan Ann Talley

Wayne State University Dissertations

Evidence-based practice requires physical therapists to make clinical decisions about the best intervention to use when providing services to patients/clients. Although null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is frequently used to interpret the outcome of a clinical trial investigating the comparative effectiveness of an intervention, statistical significance does not directly translate into clinical importance. Number needed to treat (NNT) is a measure of effect size (ES) that may be particularly useful when translating the results from clinical trials to PT clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to conduct a bibliometric content analysis of the methods of reporting research results …

Stress-Dependent Regulation Of A Major Node Of The Insulin-Like Peptide Network That Modulates Survival, Rashmi Chandra

Wayne State University Dissertations

Chronic stress disrupts insulin signaling, predisposing human populations to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and other metabolic and neurological disorders, including post-traumatic disorders (PTSD). Thus, efficient recovery from stress optimizes survival. However, stress recovery in humans is difficult to study, but is much easier to dissect in model organisms. The worm genetic model Caenorhabditis elegans can switch between stressed and non-stressed states, and this switch is largely regulated by insulin signaling. Previously, the Alcedo lab proposed that insulin-like peptides (ILPs), which exist as multiple members of a protein family in both C. elegans and humans, implements a combinatorial coding strategy …

Defining The Effect Of Environmental Perturbation On The Male Germline, Molly Estill

Wayne State University Dissertations

Periconceptional environment, according to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) theory, influences offspring phenotype, primarily via epigenetic mechanisms. Although the paternal component in humans is poorly understood, both maternal and paternal peri-conceptional environment are now believed to contribute to this phenomenon. Manipulation of the early embryo for treating human infertility, is suspected of contributing to offspring abnormalities through epigenetic mechanisms. To directly address the effects of common assisted reproductive technology procedures on the offspring epigenome, the DNA methylation profiles of newborns conceived naturally, or through the use of intrauterine insemination (IUI), or in vitro fertilization (IVF) using Fresh …

Medicaid Managed Care And Its Impact On Potentially Preventable Hospital Utilization (Inpatient And Emergency Room Visits), Mohammad Usama Toseef

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: The objective of this study is to compare the performance of Medicaid health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and fee-for-service (FFS) Medicaid regarding the prevalence of potentially preventable hospitalizations and emergency room (ER) visits, a recognized measure of outpatient care quality.

Methods: Nationally representative data on non-institutionalized Medicaid recipients, ages 18-64, from the 2003-2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Separate analyses are conducted for recipients insured through both Medicaid and Medicare (“dual eligibles”) and recipients whose only health insurance is Medicaid (“non-duals”). In each group the occurrence of potentially preventable hospital use is measured, and then survey-weighted multivariable logistic regression models are …

Investigation Of The Role For Methyl-Cpg Binding Protein 2 Variant Mbd2_V2 In Cancer Stem Cells And Obesity-Associated Cancers, Emily A. Teslow

Wayne State University Dissertations

Obesity is a risk factor for both TNBC and PCa, and pro-inflammatory features associated with obesity, including upregulated production of ROS, promote CSCs. Previously published work from the Bollig-Fischer laboratory established that TNBC CSCs could be inhibited by neutralizing ROS in culture with H2O2 targeted antioxidants. In this report, antioxidant treatment resulted in the downregulation of mRNA splicing variant MBD2_v2. MBD2_v2 was highly expressed in CSCs versus bulk TNBC cells and supported self-renewal in vitro. As obesity is coupled with increased ROS, we hypothesized that obesity could drive CSCs via MBD2_v2 expression. The work presented in this thesis addressed this …

Novel Insights Into The Use Of Ercc1 As A Biomarker For Response To Platinum-Based Chemotherapy In Lung Cancer, Joshua Ryan Heyza

Wayne State University Dissertations

ERCC1/XPF is a DNA endonuclease with variable expression in primary tumor specimens, and has been investigated as a predictive biomarker for efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancers where up to 30-60% of tumors harbor low to undetectable ERCC1 expression. The failure of an international, randomized Phase III clinical trial utilizing ERCC1 expression to predict response to platinum-based chemotherapy suggests additional mechanisms underlying the basic biology of ERCC1 in the response to platinum-DNA damage remain unknown. In this work, we aimed to characterize a panel of ERCC1 knockout cell lines generated via CRISPR-Cas9 where we identified a synthetic …