Digital Commons Network^™

Gwas Of Qrs Duration Identifies New Loci Specific To Hispanic/Latino Populations, Brenton R Swenson, Tin Louie, Henry J Lin, Raúl Méndez-Giráldez, Jennifer E Below, Cathy C Laurie, Kathleen F Kerr, Heather Highland, Timothy A Thornton, Kelli K Ryckman, Charles Kooperberg, Elsayed Z Soliman, Amanda A Seyerle, Xiuqing Guo, Kent D Taylor, Jie Yao, Susan R Heckbert, Dawood Darbar, Lauren E Petty, Barbara Mcknight, Susan Cheng, Natalie A Bello, Eric A Whitsel, Craig L Hanis, Mike A Nalls, Daniel S Evans, Jerome I Rotter, Tamar Sofer, Christy L Avery, Nona Sotoodehnia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The electrocardiographically quantified QRS duration measures ventricular depolarization and conduction. QRS prolongation has been associated with poor heart failure prognosis and cardiovascular mortality, including sudden death. While previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 32 QRS SNPs across 26 loci among European, African, and Asian-descent populations, the genetics of QRS among Hispanics/Latinos has not been previously explored.

METHODS: We performed a GWAS of QRS duration among Hispanic/Latino ancestry populations (n = 15,124) from four studies using 1000 Genomes imputed genotype data (adjusted for age, sex, global ancestry, clinical and study-specific covariates). Study-specific results were combined using fixed-effects, inverse variance-weighted …

Free Water In White Matter Differentiates Mci And Ad From Control Subjects, Matthieu Dumont, Maggie Roy, Pierre-Marc Jodoin, Felix C Morency, Jean-Christophe Houde, Zhiyong Xie, Cici Bauer, Tarek A Samad, Koene R A Van Dijk, James A Goodman, Maxime Descoteaux

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Recent evidence shows that neuroinflammation plays a role in many neurological diseases including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), and that free water (FW) modeling from clinically acquired diffusion MRI (DTI-like acquisitions) can be sensitive to this phenomenon. This FW index measures the fraction of the diffusion signal explained by isotropically unconstrained water, as estimated from a bi-tensor model. In this study, we developed a simple but powerful whole-brain FW measure designed for easy translation to clinical settings and potential use as a priori outcome measure in clinical trials. These simple FW measures use a "safe" white matter …

Multistate Outbreaks Of Foodborne Illness In The United States Associated With Fresh Produce From 2010 To 2017, Christina K Carstens, Joelle K Salazar, Charles Darkoh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

In the United States, the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables has increased during recent years as consumers seek to make healthier lifestyle choices. However, the number of outbreaks associated with fresh produce that involve cases in more than one state (multistate) has increased concomitantly. As the distance along the farm-to-fork continuum has lengthened over time, there are also more opportunities for fresh produce contamination with bacterial pathogens before it reaches the consumer. This review provides an overview of the three bacterial pathogens (i.e., pathogenic

High Order Volumetric Directional Pattern For Video-Based Face Recognition, Almabrok Essa, Vijayan Asari

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Describing the dynamic textures has attracted growing attention in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition. In this paper, a novel approach for recognizing dynamic textures, namely, high order volumetric directional pattern (HOVDP), is proposed. It is an extension of the volumetric directional pattern (VDP) which extracts and fuses the temporal information (dynamic features) from three consecutive frames. HOVDP combines the movement and appearance features together considering the nth order volumetric directional variation patterns of all neighboring pixels from three consecutive frames. In experiments with two challenging video face databases, YouTube Celebrities and Honda/UCSD, HOVDP clearly outperformed a set …

Leadership Challenges For Patient Advocates: A Cross Sector Alliance Perspective, Monica Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Innovative and enduring solutions to the myriad of complex social and environmental challenges facing the world today require the shared resources and combined talents of government, nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Interactions between these sectors are called cross sector partnerships (CSPs). An example of CSPs, nonprofit patient advocacy organizations (PAOs) are increasingly entering relationships and collaborations with for-profit pharmaceutical companies (FPPCs). Using a phenomenological approach, this study sought to contribute to the body of knowledge on PAO/FFPC partnerships, as well as broader CSP phenomenon, by exploring how leaders in the field of PAO/FFPC alliances experience collaborations with one another. Three research …

Authentic Leadership, Employee Engagement, And Trust At A Major Logistics Service Company, John C. Mason

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study examined the correlation between authentic leadership among management and employee engagement among unionized hourly workers in a major logistics service company and examined the factor of trust between management and union workers. Within a context of positive organizational behavior, by analyzing and comparing results of the Authentic Leadership Inventory and the Employee Engagement Survey and conducting interviews within a business division, the study determined that there are high levels of authentic leadership, employee engagement, and trust with the district where the study took place. The qualitative part of the study found a very weak negative correlation …

Leading Consciously: Examining Global Leadership Self-Awareness Across Healthcare Executives, Carole N. Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

The well-being of people around the world and in every community depend on healthcare. Yet, exponential shifts in globalization, technology and the environment have destabilized healthcare systems across the globe. Hence, the future of healthcare is forecast to be volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (Porter & Teisberg, 2006). To face current and future challenges, healthcare leaders will be expected to operate consciously and effectively while under extreme pressure. While a number of inter- and intra-personal characteristics and traits are associated with effective leadership through volatility, chief among them is self-awareness (Hernandez, Luthanen, Ramsel, & Ostauke, 2015). Unfortunately, however, no study …

Healthcare Leadership Styles, Competencies And Affinity For Technology In The Digital Era, Zahra Ghafari

Theses and Dissertations

Digital technology has become a continuous disruptor in healthcare research, education, record keeping, and communication, resulting in both opportunities and challenges. The purpose of this study was fourfold, to (a) identify the leadership practices of healthcare executives, (b) measure the attitudes of healthcare leaders toward technology, (c) explore the relation between leadership styles and attitudes toward technology, and (d) examine the relation between demographic factors (gender, age, practice type) and attitudes toward technology. Healthcare leaders in the United States were recruited from different specialties. They were asked to respond to 3 survey instruments: The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5X), Affinity for …

The Role Of Religiosity, Spirituality, And Creative Arts In The Recovery Process Of Latina Survivors Of Child Sexual Abuse, Bridget M. Vazquez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study aimed to examine the use and effectiveness of religiosity, spirituality, and creative arts as culturally sensitive forms of coping among adult Latina and/or Hispanic child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors. Research has demonstrated that methods of coping serve as culturally sensitive techniques that help Latinas cope with CSA experiences by fostering feelings of empowerment, pride, and safety (Becker, 2015; Collins, O'Neill-Arana, Fontes, & Osseg, 2014; Ligiero, Fassinger, McCauley, Moore, & Lyytinen, 2009; Marques et al., 2016; Meston, Lorenz, & Stephenson, 2013; Sabina, Cuevas, & Schally, 2012; Sweig, 2000). Despite these findings, these interventions with this specific …

Adaptation Of A Resilience-Oriented Stress Management Intervention For Youth With Type 1 Diabetes, Tamara Michele Rumburg

Theses and Dissertations

Managing type 1 diabetes involves a complex treatment regimen, and often results in increased stress and mental health issues in youth and families as youth enter adolescence. Research indicates that effective management of diabetes-related stress can have a positive impact on both the psychological and physical health of youth and their families. While traditional stress management interventions have aimed to reduce stress through coping, building resilience is a more recent approach to stress management that can be cultivated even in the absence of stress. Interventions specifically aimed at increasing resilience in youth with chronic illnesses have shown promising results; however, …

Best Practices Of Motivation In A Self-Directed Distance Education At A Community College, Hong T. Hoang

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to identify predictors that influence a learner’s motivation in a self-directed online business administration course in learning contexts by collecting a sample size population, sample of demographics, and indicators from online students from Business Administration Department at a Southern California Community College. The study explored significant correlation between students’ motivation and learning strategies in a self-directed online business administration course using demographics. Results from this study show demographics including age, education, and ethnicity were statistically significant, but none of the gender differences were statistically significant. This research also explored the educational needs of adult …

They, Them, And Theirs, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Nonbinary gender identities have quickly gone from obscurity to prominence in American public life, with growing acceptance of gender-neutral pronouns, such as “they, them, and theirs,” and recognition of a third gender category by U.S. states including California, Oregon, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Washington. People with nonbinary gender identities do not exclusively identify as men or women. Feminist legal reformers have long argued that discrimination on the basis of gender nonconformity — in other words, discrimination against men perceived as feminine or women perceived as masculine — is a harmful type of sex discrimination that the law should redress. But …

How The First Forty Years Of Circuit Precedent Got Title Vii's Sex Discrimination Provision Wrong, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is discrimination “because of sex” to fire an employee because of their sexual orientation or transgender identity. There’s a simple textual argument that it is: An employer cannot take action on the basis of an employee’s sexual orientation or transgender identity without considering the employee’s sex. But while this argument is simple, it was not one that federal courts adopted until recently. This has caused some judges to object that the simple argument must be inconsistent with the original meaning of Title …

The Rules Of #Metoo, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In their article Unsexing Pregnancy, David Fontana and Naomi Schoenbaum undertake the important project of disentangling the social aspects of pregnancy from those that relate to a pregnant woman’s body. They argue that the law should stop treating the types of work either parent can do—such as purchasing a car seat, finding a pediatrician, or choosing a daycare—as exclusively the domain of the pregnant woman. The project’s primary aim is to undermine legal rules that assume a gendered division of labor in which men are breadwinners and women are caretakers. But Fontana and Schoenbaum argue their project will also have …

Investigating The Late Woodland Climate Of Old Tampa Bay, Florida, Jaime Rogers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tampa Bay and the broader Central Gulf Coast region of Florida bear evidence of site reduction and population decline during the onset of the Late Woodland period (AD 500-1000). Concomitantly, Weeden Island culture flourished to the north, while climatic instability loomed to the south. It is unclear if the site abandonments in the area between the two are related to social or cultural change, an unstable climate, or a combination thereof. Interdisciplinary research has provided evidence for climate change and sea level regression during the sixth and seventh centuries in Southwest Florida, but these variables have yet to be investigated …

Business In The Estuary, Party In The Sea: Migration Patterns Of Striped Mullet (Mugil Cephalus) Within The Indian River Lagoon Complex, Olivia Myers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Commercial and recreational environmental enterprises in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), Florida supply nearly 10,000 jobs and produce $1.6 billion dollars a year in revenue. These waters contain iconic species of sportfish, including red drum, snook, and sea trout, as well as their lower trophic level prey such as snapper and mullet. Striped mullet (Mugil cephalus) are both commercially valuable as well as an indicator species for overall ecosystem health. From September to December, mullet in the IRL undergo an annual migration from their inshore foraging habitats to oceanic spawning sites. However, their actual migratory pathways remain unknown. To address …

Hydrodynamic Limitations And The Effects Of Living Shoreline Stabilization On Mangrove Recruitment Along Florida Coastlines, Christian Pilato

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The recruitment success of mangroves is influenced by a variety of factors, including propagule availability, desiccation, herbivory, and hydraulic habitat limitations. Hydrodynamic forces (waves and currents) act as obstacles to mangrove recruitment, restricting the successful colonization of mangrove species. We evaluated the biological and physical limitations to mangrove recruitment through monthly shoreline surveys and lateral pull-tests. Surveys followed mangroves from propagule release through recruitment along the shorelines of De Soto National Memorial (Bradenton, FL), capturing differences in propagule availability and recruitment along natural areas and across differing forms of shoreline stabilization ("living shorelines" and revetments). Propagule densities were highest along …

Analyzing Pre-Inhumation Breakage Ceramics At Lamanai, Belize: A Conjunctive Approach, Ryan Enger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Terminal Classic period (9th-10th centuries A.D.), the ancient Maya at Lamanai, Belize, began to practice pre-inhumation breakage of ceramics in mortuary contexts. Previously, the custom had been to bury whole vessels with the deceased. This conspicuous shift in behavior suggests important changes in beliefs regarding the role of ceramics in death and interment at a pivotal moment in ancient Maya culture history. Despite this significant change, there has been no published research conducted specifically on these vessels. In fact, there has been no clearly delineated set of characteristics for what qualifies as a pre-inhumation breakage vessel (PBV). This …

Fear And Loathing In The Super Organism: Foraging Strategy Doesn't Change Forager Response In A Landscape Of Fear., Philip Schadegg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how predators impact keystone species, like ants, is very important for our understanding of ecology because of ants' importance in shaping community dynamics and ecosystem functions. In this thesis I present research investigating the role of the ant-specialized spider Anasaitis canosa in influencing the foraging behavior of four ant species (Formica pallidefulva, Odontomachus ruginodis, Pheidole obscurithorax & Solenopsis invicta). Collectively, these four species use foraging strategies exhibited by most ants. I conducted two experiments to quantify the impacts of spider predation on ant prey. The first used forty colonies of four ant species to investigate how A. canosa changed …

Metastable-State Photoacids: Synthesis, Properties, And Applications, Parth Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reversible photochromic compounds have the ability to reversibly change its color when it absorbs photons of a particular wavelength. This process of color change is a consequence of structural changes within the compound, such as cis-trans photo-isomerization. Some examples of photochromic compounds are spiropyrans, spirooxazines, diarylethenes and azobenzenes. These compounds have been extensively studied for decades, and are used in various applications such as biomedicine, chemical sensors and harvesting solar energy. However, majority of photochromic compounds are initially activated by ultraviolet (UV) light. The use of UV light is harmful for biological applications and photo-degrade the compound over repeated use. …

Acoustic Ecology And Sound Mapping The University Of Central Florida Main Campus, Robert Clarke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"Acoustic Ecology and Sound Mapping the University of Central Florida Main Campus" explores the intersection of place and space, sound studies and acoustic ecology, visualization, and archives. The end result consists of a collection of "soundwalk" and stationary recordings conducted from 2016-2019 at the University of Central Florida (UCF) main campus in Orlando presented as an online Sound Map. This archive previously did not exist and provides a snapshot of the various sounds heard throughout the campus as well as a starting point and context for future research into this still-emerging field of acoustic ecology and sound studies. While the …

Discovering Latent Gender Bias In Children's Stem Literature, Christine Herlihy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A mixed method, exploratory, sequential research design was conducted to investigate the presence of latent bias in early childhood STEM literature content, applying a non-biased, sociocultural, STEM identity, theoretical framework. A survey of children's perceptions of gender and a content analysis found unintentional bias. Exploratory findings confirmed 102 children were gendering images. An examination of the relationship between the participants' gender and how the participant gendered AND preferred the images indicated differences existed between boys and girls. Children preferred images perceived as matching their own, with statistical significance. Girls were found to prefer images less than boys AND they were …

Utilizing Geographic Information Systems To Record And Analyze Osteoarthritis Data In Joints Of The Arm: A Methodology For Dry Bones, Adam Biernaski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common pathologies encountered in dry bone contexts. However, even with the wealth of publications on documenting the presence of OA from skeletons, these studies prove to be largely incomparable due to different scoring methodologies and procedures in calculating prevalence. The standardization of a new OA data collection procedure would mitigate variability in evaluating, scoring, and calculating the prevalence of OA, thus allowing accurate comparison between studies. However, this level of data collection has often been described as unwieldy and lacking concordance. This research outlines a new methodology that utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) …

Determining Differential Effects Of Interleukin-2 On Innate And Adaptive Immune Cells In Lymphoid Organs And The Gastrointestinal Tract, Ayushi Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is a pleiotropic cytokine demonstrated to be effective in treating cancer. However, the clinical use of IL-2 can be associated with severe side effects including gastrointestinal toxicity (GT). Similar GT symptoms are observed in inflammatory diseases such as CD (CD). Interestingly mounting evidence indicates a role for IL-2 in CD, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Indeed, studies on the in-vivo activities of IL-2 have mostly focused on secondary lymphoid organs and immune cells associated with them. Very few studies have addressed how IL-2 signals impact populations of immune cells in the gut. Here, we aim to identify …

The Characterization Of Condom Lubricants And Personal Hygiene Products Using Dart-Tofms And Gc- Ms And The Investigation Of Gold Nanoparticle Behavior In Water And The Interaction With Blood Serum Proteins, Yasmine Moustafa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is divided into two independent research projects. First, condom lubricants, sexual lubricants, and personal hygiene products (PHPs) were studied using direct analysis in real time-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (DART-TOFMS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The purpose addressed the concern of perpetrators resorting to new tactics, i.e. using condoms to remove seminal fluid that could provide a DNA link to a suspect, leading to the need of the consideration of condom lubricants as pieces of sexual assault evidence. Due to condom lubricants having a chemical composition resembling PHPs, the investigation of both sample groups was analyzed to prevent false positives. Although …

Mapping Addiction: A Digital Psychogeographic Approach To America's Addiction Epidemic, Clayton Benjamin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Focusing on policy consultation, my dissertation consults on the current US addiction epidemic and aims to answer, "What is our disposition to addiction?" Borrowing and clarifying Ulmer's MEmorial method, as established in his text Electronic Monuments, the dissertation combines the ancient Greek practice of theoria, Deleuzian theory, and psychogeographic counter-mapping methods to trace ways in which ideological apparatuses construct addiction. The aim of the dissertation is to reveal an abject value by constructing MEmorials which provide space for individuals to mourn loss and see their relation to that loss. Through mourning, individuals strengthen their ties to other community members and …

Design And Fabrication Of Scalable Multifunctional Multimaterial Fibers And Textiles, Felix Tan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multimaterial fibers eschew the traditional mono-material structures typical of traditional optical fibers for novel internal architectures that combine disparate materials with distinct optical, mechanical, and electronic properties, thereby enabling novel optoelectronic functionalities delivered in the form factor of an extended fiber. This new class of fibers developed over the past two decades is attracting interest from researchers in such different fields as optics, textiles, and biomedicine. The juxtaposition of multiple materials integrated at micro- and nanoscales in complex geometries while ensuring intimate smooth interfaces extending continuously for kilometers facilitates unique applications such as non-invasive laser surgery, self-monitoring fibers, e-textiles, and …

Assessing The Effects Of Habitat And Manatee Exclusion Devices On Red Drum (Sciaenops Ocellatus) Movement Patterns In Estuarine Impoundments, Steven Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Integrate-Transfer-Launch (ITL) complex impoundments located within the Kennedy Space Center security zone are known spawning sites for red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus). However, recent construction of manatee exclusion bollards around culverts leading into these impoundments may impede movement to and from this critical habitat. The goals of this study were to: 1) utilize passive acoustic telemetry to document patterns of red drum movement and habitat use within and around the ITL impoundments to assess how manatee exclusion bollards and environmental conditions may impact movement of red drum; and 2) explore red drum movement in response to environmental disturbance, specifically a …

Computational Imaging With Limited Photon Budget, Zheyuan Zhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The capability of retrieving the image/signal of interest from extremely low photon flux is attractive in scientific, industrial, and medical imaging applications. Conventional imaging modalities and reconstruction algorithms rely on hundreds to thousands of photons per pixel (or per measurement) to ensure enough signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio for extracting the image/signal of interest. Unfortunately, the potential of radiation or photon damage prohibits high SNR measurements in dose-sensitive diagnosis scenarios. In addition, imaging systems utilizing inherently weak signals as contrast mechanism, such as X-ray scattering-based tomography, or attosecond pulse retrieval from the streaking trace, entail prolonged integration time to acquire hundreds of …

Optical Sensing Of Structural Dynamics In Complex Media, Jose Rafael Guzman Sepulveda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quantifying the structural dynamics of complex media is challenging because of the multiple temporal and spatial scales involved. Thanks to the ability to retrieve collective dynamics noninvasively, light scattering-based approaches are often the methods of choice. This dissertation discusses specific features of dynamic light scattering that utilizes spatio-temporal coherence gating. It is demonstrated that this optical fiber-based approach can operate over a large range of optical regimes and it has a number of unique capabilities such as an effective isolation of single scattering, a large sensitivity, and a high collection efficiency. Moreover, the approach also provides means for proper ensemble …