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Determining The Pathological Effects Of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure On Peripheral Neuropathy Via Spinal And Peripheral Immune Mechanisms, Joshua J. Sanchez

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Previous studies have suggested that children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) display hypersensitivity to light touch. In support of this notion, we have demonstrated that applying a chronic constriction injury (CCI) to the sciatic nerve of rats that have prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) results in heightened sensitivity to light touch, clinically termed allodynia. These observations coincided with heightened glial activation and enhanced peripheral immune reactivity. Considering allodynia is known to be mediated by both peripheral immune responses and spinal glial activation, it is reasonable to speculate that allodynia following PAE may be mediated through an alteration of immune reactivity. …

Modification Of Hiv-1 Protease Inhibitor Pharmacophore To Assess Anti-Malarial Properties, Margaret Ann Street

Honors Theses

For years, the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and malarial parasites have both been prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Coinfections of HIV-1 and malaria are common in areas of geographic overlap as both infections seem to increase the severity of the other. HIV-1 treatments have shown to decrease the Plasmodium infections resulting in a lower malarial incidence. HIV-1 protease inhibitors target a crucial step in the life cycle required for viral maturation and have demonstrated a lower level of resistance compared with other therapies. Recent studies have shown the treatment of HIV-1 with protease inhibitors has resulted in inhibitory effects …

See The Forest For The Leaves: Foliar Fungal Community Composition And Volatile Organic Compound Production, Joshua Copeland

Master's Theses

Endophytes are microbes that live within plants without causing detectable illness. These microorganisms can emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs), airborne signaling molecules that can significantly affect plant growth. Despite the prevalence of endophytes and their VOCs, little is known about these factors important to plant health. With this in mind I isolated fungal endophytes from leaves of Populus trichocarpa and Populus fremontii, tree species with economic and environmental uses, to determine if endophyte communities are reserved between the closely related tree species and over seasons. Surface sterilized leaf fragments were plated onto malt extract agar and the resulting fungi were …

The Efficacy Of An Educational Intervention To Improve Low Influenza Vaccination Rates Among Federal Health Care Workers, Cynthia Berfect-Shelby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Influenza is a preventable communicable illness that has a significant impact on people of all ages. In 2018 it was estimated that 80,000 people died of influenza-related illnesses. Infants and elderly people are among the most vulnerable populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Healthy People 2020 recommend that health care facilities have a 90% vaccination rate. Despite the recommendations and a mandatory directive, many facilities within the Veterans Health Administration struggle to reach influenza vaccination rates above 60%. Pender’s health promotion model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the reasons why health care workers refuse …

Exploring Individual Experiences Obtaining Medication-Assisted Treatment For Opioid Use Disorder In Rural New Mexico, Krista L. Scorsone

Nursing ETDs

In the United States, more than 2.5 million people struggle with opioid use disorder. Compared to people living in urban areas, rural residents are twice as likely to overdose from opioid misuse. Reasons for this increase include excessive opioid prescribing and illegal diversion of opioids. This holds true in the rural counties of northern New Mexico, where drug overdose deaths are among the highest in the nation. Although medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone is globally accepted as the most effective treatment, it is still accessed half as often rurally. The reasons for this imbalance are unknown, and …

Reducing Central Line Bloodstream Infections Using Alcohol Impregnated Caps, Mari St Clair, Todd Stanley

Nursing

No abstract provided.

The Usability And Acceptability Of An Electronic Clinical Decision Support Tool For Antibiotic Selection For Common Pediatric Infections In Outpatient Rural Healthcare Clinics, Samantha Simpson

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Project

The purpose of this project was to determine the potential role, usability and acceptability of an electronic clinical decision support tool (ECDST) for optimizing antibiotic prescribing practices for pediatric patients in outpatient rural healthcare clinics. Providers working with pediatric patients at Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas were asked to use the ECDST to complete two case studies. Following completion of the case studies, participants completed two standardized surveys regarding usability and mental workload of the ECDST. The ECDST used in this project was found to require a low mental demand, have a high usability value, and was accepted as …

The Fault With Asphalt: Towards Absorbent Urban Design In New York City, Scott Paul Redfern Brown

Student Theses 2015-Present

In the time of metropolises and rapid urbanization, design is instrumental in facilitating a mutualistic relationship between the built urban environment and the surrounding natural processes. This paper addresses the issue of stormwater runoff and identifies design techniques in urban areas used to mitigate the destructive consequences of urbanization related to precipitation and impermeability. With a focus on New York City, this study uses historical and current rainfall data as well as particular case studies to address successful rainwater collection and stormwater mitigation design implementations. To provide an interdisciplinary approach to combating stormwater runoff, the disciplines of environmental history, economics …

Effects Of The Pathogen Mycoplasma Gallisepticum Transmission On Growth And Condition Of Eastern Bluebirds Nestlings (Sialia Sialis), Gurshan Kaur

Honors Theses

A critical aspect to understanding disease dynamics is to understand how transmission occurs between hosts. There are two basic modes of transmission: vertical and horizontal. Vertical transmission is the passage of a pathogen from mother to offspring before or during birth, whereas horizontal transmission occurs between an infected host to a susceptible host. Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a common bacterial pathogen of poultry that causes respiratory disease. Infection of MG often results in weight loss, slowed growth rate, and increased mortality. Both vertical and horizontal transmission of MG have been found to occur in poultry. In the mid-90s, MG underwent …

Hepatitis C Treatment In High Risk Patients: Implementation Of A Successful Community Focused Program, Annie Pedlar, Jodie Sandhu Dnp, Fnp-C

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Background: The city of San Francisco boasts a high rate of hepatitis C infection (HCV) among IV drug users indicating the need for a hepatitis C treatment program. It is estimated that over two-thirds of people who are actively infected with HCV are IV drug users (EndHepCSF, 2017), and in 2017 the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) estimated that there are 22,500 active people who inject drugs (PWID) in SF (SFDPH, 2017). With the presence of a wide population of IV drug users in SF there is an identified need for intervention to treat this high-risk patient …

Characterization Of Bacterial Isolates Obtained From Commercial Poultry Feed And Retail Food Using Whole Genome Sequence Analysis And Selected Biochemical Tests, Elena George Olson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The goals of this study is two-fold. The first part investigates bacterial isolates from commercial poultry feed and the second part deals with bacterial isolates recovered from retail food. In order to reduce pathogen contamination in poultry products identification of overall microbial populations in poultry production processing steps have always been considered an important monitoring tool for assessing sanitizer effectiveness and the corresponding responses of bacteria load levels on poultry carcasses. Bacterial isolates recovered from corn-based chicken feed were purified on aerobic plate count agar and eleven morphologically different colonies were selected for whole genome sequencing. In this part, the …

Morphological And Physiological Characteristics Of Endornavirus-Infected And Endornavirus-Free Near-Isogenic Lines Of Bell Pepper (Capsicum Annuum), C. Escalante, R. A. Valverde

Faculty Publications

Plant endornaviruses are persistent viruses that infect plants without causing symptoms. Although endornaviruses have been reported in many economically important plant species, little is known about the effect they have on their hosts. Bell pepper endornavirus (BPEV) has been reported in cultivated peppers (Capsicum spp.). In commercial cultivars of bell pepper (C. annuum) grown in the United States, this virus is found at prevalence rates of 100%. Two bell pepper near-isogenic lines (NILs), one BPEV-infected and the other BPEV-free, were generated and used to investigate the type of symbiotic relationship between BPEV and bell pepper. Selected morphological and physiological characteristics …

Public Health Policy: An Ethical Analysis Of Quarantine, Dina Alqahtani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a public health measure quarantine has both historical and contemporary significance both in the United States and abroad. On the surface it represents a low-cost, low-tech way in which the spread of disease can be mitigated as its core requirement is that those who may have been exposed to an infectious agent are kept away from those who have not been exposed to that agent for enough time to determine whether or not infection has been spread. This has been utilized for centuries with both limited questions and scattered, inconsistent, or impossible to achieve oversight and goals. In understanding …

A Multifaceted Approach To Antibiotic Stewardship In The Outpatient Clinical Setting For Bronchitis, Elizabeth A. Weaver

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Antimicrobial resistance is a world-wide health crisis (Infectious Disease Society of America [IDSA], 2016; World Health Organization [WHO], 2017) expedited by the overuse/inappropriate use of antibiotics. In the outpatient setting it has been determined that approximately 60% of antibiotic therapies are prescribed (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2016). Antibiotic stewardship is the coordinated effort to improve the use of antibiotic therapies, minimize misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis and select appropriate antibiotic drug regimens (IDSA, 2016). The purpose of this evidence-based practice project was to evaluate the effects of an antibiotic stewardship program (presentation, survey collection, bimonthly e-mail reminders, patient …

Utilizing Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy To Study Oncogenesis, Ellen Walford Hatch

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Quantitative fluorescence microscopy is a highly technical, swiftly evolving field of methodologies that are uniquely able to probe the nano-scale biological environment. With these optimized, advanced technologies available, scientists and medical providers are equipped to illuminate a plethora of puzzles in science and medicine through the multiplexing and high spatiotemporal resolution offered. Here I first exploit these capabilities to study a rare cancer with multiplex immunohistofluorescence (IHF) to confirm cell type and undocumented protein expression that may have implications for our understanding of the biology of mast cells and the potential efficacy of treatment and symptom management in mast cell …

Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors And Breast Cancer Metastasis: A Review And Exploration Of Hdac(I)S And Other Chemotherapeutic Agents, William E. Sistrunk

Honors Theses

The traditional perspective of Histone Deacetylase enzymes is focused on their inherent epigenetic modification characteristics. While it is true that the histone modification these enzymes exhibit play a role in cancer and related diseases, Histone Deacetylase has a variety of non-histone targets. The non-histone targets include microtubules and are of specific interest because of the microtubules’ role in cell line differentiation, replication, apoptosis, and cancer metastasis. Using a variety of Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors (HDACi) and other chemotherapeutic compounds, our research group explored the HDACi effect on breast cancer cell lines. Our goal was to indicate the presence of HDACi cell-line …

Precision Medicine And It's Ethical And Social Implications: Public Health And Gobal Persepctives, Evangel Sarwar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since President Obama's launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) in 2015, precision medicine (PM) has been anticipated as the new paradigm for healthcare with the capacity to “empower patients, researchers, and providers to work together toward the development of individualized care,” through research, technologies, and policies (President Obama, 2015). Precision Medicine (PM), in the form of genomics, offers unprecedented promise of providing new tools for improving health and reducing the burden of diseases, not just for the U.S. - but also globally. According to World Health Organization, genomics research and precision medicine will play a major part in …

Effects Of Mycoplasma Gallisepticum On Experimentally Infected Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia Sialis), Meredith A. Fry

Honors Theses

The bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum is an avian respiratory pathogen that causes inflammation and swelling of conjunctiva in domestic poultry and wild finches. In the past, severity of conjunctivitis symptoms has been used to quantify infection severity and host resistance. However, many songbirds function as hosts to M. gallisepticum but do not develop this symptom at all. The absence of conjunctivitis, as well as other clinical signs, hinders our understanding of M. gallisepticum infection in the songbird community because some species are responding very differently than others. One such species is the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), a common songbird of the …

New Trial Set To Determine Efficacy Of Long-Acting Hiv Medication In At-Risk Group, Alicia Rohan

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Reduced Gravity Contributes To Neutrophil To Lymphocyte Ratio Shifting And Promotion Of The Oxidative Stress Response, Amber M. Paul, Siddhita D. Mhatre, Egle Cekanaviciute, Ann-Sofie Schreurs, Candice G.T. Tahimic, Ruth K. Globus, Brian Crucian, Sharmila Bhattacharya

Publications

Spaceflight can cause immune system dysfunction, such as elevated white blood cells (WBC) and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN), along with unchanged or reduced lymphocyte counts. A high PMN to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) can acts as a poor prognosis in cancer and a biomarker for subclinical inflammation however, the NLR has not been identified as a predictor of astronaut health during spaceflight. CBC data collected on board the International Space Station (ISS) was repurposed to determine the granulocyte to lymphocyte ratio (GLR) in humans and the NLR in rodents. The results displayed a progressive increase in GLR and NLR during spaceflight and …

Preferential Parasitism Of Native Oyster Ostrea Edulis Over Non-Native Magallana Gigas By A Polydorid Worm, A. J. Lemasson, A. M. Knights

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Parasites are important structural components of marine communities that can affect organism fitness and ecological interactions, and the provision of ecosystem services. Here, we investigate the host association of Polydora ciliata with two ecologically and economically important oyster species (Ostrea edulis, Magallana gigas) and examine its impacts on two fitness aspects: condition and shell strength. Our results provide strong inferential evidence of host specificity by P. ciliata with a tendency towards infestation of the native O. edulis over the introduced M. gigas. Evidence suggests increasing prevalence of parasitism with organismal age, but no clear indication that parasitism leads to reduced …

An Ecological Assessment Of Ectoparasites On Rodents, Rebecca Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Relationships of ectoparasiteson small-mammal hosts from hardwood forest, pine forest, and grass/forb habitats at The Hobart Ames Plantation in southwestern Tennessee were investigated. Five rodent species (Peromyscus leucopus, Sigmodon hispidus, P. maniculatus, Microtus pinetorum, and Ochrotomys nuttalli) were captured and examined for ectoparasites. Ectoparasites (Amblomma maculatum, A. americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, Ixodes scapularis, Xenopsylla cheopis, Orchopeas howardii) were collected from the rodents and screened for the presence of Rickettsia, a spotted fever group bacterium. Analyses yielded neutral interspecific relationships between D. variabilis and I. scapularis on the rodent host P. leucopus, statistically significant relationships between tick burden and sex, age, and …

A Study Of Marshallese Student Attendance In A Northwest Arkansas Secondary School, Paula Lynn Floyd-Faught

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Northwest Arkansas has one of the largest populations of Marshall Islanders outside of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The first know Marshallese immigrant arrived in the 1986, and the first Marshallese student in Northwest Public Schools arrived in the late 1980’s. Since that time, an estimated 10,000–12,000 Marshallese have settled in Northwest Arkansas (McElfish, 2016, p. 2). Almost 3,000 Marshallese students attend Northwest Public Schools, with Northwest High School having the largest population in the state. There is a perception that Marshallese students have lower attendance rates than peers, and this study was conducted to determine which factors most …

Clostridium Difficile Infection Risk With Important Antibiotic Classes: An Analysis Of The Fda Adverse Event Reporting System, Chengwen Teng Pharm.D., Ph.D., Kelly R. Reveles, Obiageri O. Obodozie-Ofoegbu, Christopher R. Frei

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Antibiotic use is an important risk factor for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Prior meta-analyses have identified antibiotics and antibiotic classes that pose the greatest risk for CDI; however, CDI epidemiology is constantly changing and contemporary analyses are needed.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between CDI and important antibiotic classes in recent years using the FDA Adverse Event Report System (FAERS).

Methods: FAERS reports from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2017 were analyzed. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) was used to identify CDI cases. We computed the Reporting Odds Ratios (RORs) …

Trafficking Of Haitians On The Island Of Hispaniola After The 2010 Earthquake, Caroline Bass

Honors Theses

On January 12th, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the nation of Haiti. The people of Haiti suffered many losses of life, homes, and livelihood. Later that year, as a result of the earthquake, a cholera outbreak occurred in Haiti taking the lives of thousands more. This study attempts to determine if Haitians were at a higher risk of being trafficked and if human trafficking increased on the island after the earthquake. I analyze how human trafficking in Haiti and the Dominican Republic was impacted as a result of the earthquake and the consequent reaction of the Dominican Republic in …

Water Scavenging From Roadside Springs In Appalachia, Leigh-Anne Krometis, Hannah Patton, Austin Wozniak, Emily Sarver

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

Significant challenges in the provision of safe drinking water and appropriate, effective sanitation remain in the United States, particularly among communities with few financial resources and/or situated in challenging terrain. Though previous formal research is limited, anecdotal reports suggest that some households in Appalachia may rely on untreated, unregulated roadside “springs” as a primary source of potable water. This effort monitored the water quality at twenty-one of these springs in Central Appalachia and identified potential motivations for this behavior through volunteer surveys in order to better define community challenges and to establish communication for future outreach. The majority (>80%) …

The Opioid Epidemic, Abigail Hallowell

Theses

Drug abuse, addiction, and overdoses are phenomenon’s that are not new or unfamiliar to the United States. Between 1999 to 2017, there were over 700,000 drug overdose deaths in the country. About 400,000 of those drug overdoses involved an opioid. In 2017, more than 70,000 people died of a drug overdoses and 68% of them involved an opioid. This makes the number of opioid drug overdose deaths in 2017 six times higher than in 1999 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The severity of the increase in opioid related overdose deaths that America is experiencing today did not happen …

Ada News - 05/06/2019, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

A Grounded Theory Approach To Explore The Experience Of Involuntary Childlessness In Couples With Infertility, Taylor L. Grube

Dissertations

Couples who experience involuntary childlessness as a result of infertility are challenged to manage the biological, sociological, and psychological implications of the situation. Furthermore, they are confronted with a variety of options regarding infertility management and resolution of involuntary childlessness. Nurses play a key role in supporting couples as they manage infertility and involuntary childlessness. Since infertility and subsequent involuntary childlessness is a couple's experience, nursing care should aim to meet the needs of both partners. However, there is a lack of evidence to suggest how couples experience and manage this phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to …

Enduring Resilience: An Exploration Of Puerto Rican Colonization, Hurricane Maria, And Ongoing Healing Through Cultural Rituals, Jasmin Isabel Torrejón

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This thesis seeks to illuminate the economic, cultural and social subjugation of Puerto Rico, and its people, through the stripping of personal and political self-determination imposed by U.S. colonization. This research explores historic examples of Puerto Rican perseverance and analyzes psychologically protective factors supporting survivorship and resilience, such as familism and ontological security. The effects of Hurricane Maria on mental health are highlighted in the research, as is the correlation between a lack of electrical power and adverse health/wellness outcomes. Models for collective liberation and social justice are discussed and exemplified through the case study of a march that took …