Digital Commons Network^™

Years Spent In Secondary Physical Education And Levels Of Physical Activity In College Students And Adults, Katherine A. Dockter

All Zyzzogeton Presentations

Physical education requirements in the United States vary and are often left to local districts in each state to decide. Considering the relationship between physical activity and obesity and physical fitness with mortality, requirements relating to national recommendations appear important. Long term implications of participation in physical education are contradictory at best with the limited studies performed concluding conflicting results.

Purpose: To examine the relationship between years of participation in physical education at a high school level and levels of physical activity and fitness in college students and adults.

Methods: Forty-one participants ranging in age from 18-65 (mean …

Mechanisms Of Statin Effects On Muscle And Neuronal Proteostasis, Daniel Yu

University Scholar Projects

Statins are widely prescribed and used chronically, but we know little about the effects on long-term protein homeostasis during stress and aging. Our aim was to quantify the effect of statins on stress-induced protein damage. We administered atorvastatin in a dose-response curve in Caenorhabditis elegans under naïve control conditions and in conditions of hypertonic and heat stress known to induce muscle damage measurable as countable puncta in a polyglutamine aggregation model of damage. We observed that there is significant polyglutamine aggregation variability among worms at baseline and thus further study requires within experiment baseline controls, per worm. Our results are …

Optimization Of Dna Extraction From Human Milk, Cassandra Z. Rutherford

Graduate Theses

Background: Techniques are emerging for determining the best and most cost-effective way to test for human milk adulteration. Currently, the literature is focused on the use of qPCR testing, a technique used to isolate and amplify pieces of DNA for analysis. However, no recommendation currently exists on the best DNA extraction kit to use to achieve optimal DNA yield or purity from human milk samples for downstream qPCR use. Thus, the objective of this study is to assess and compare two DNA extraction kits for use with human milk samples for future DNA-based analysis in the testing for bovine milk …

Effect Of Protein, Fat, And Both Protein And Fat On The Glycemic Response Of A High Glycemic Index Meal, Muhammed Taai

Theses & Dissertations

Research Focus: Elevated blood glucose (BG) levels from a diet high in refined carbohydrates, even in the absence of diabetes, may increase the risk for chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. The purpose of this study was to determine if supplementation of a high glycemic load breakfast with protein, fat, or a combination of the two attenuates the glycemic response in non-diabetic subjects.

Research Methods: Thirteen healthy adults, age 24.7±4y, BMI 25.1±4.5 completed four trials, having fasted 8-12h for this randomized, double-blind crossover study.

Fasting BG was measured, then subjects consumed 2 slices of white …

Agronomic Evaluation Of Biofortified Beans In Antioquia Producers’ Farms, Álvaro Tamayo-Vélez, Gloria E. Santana-Fonseca, Matthew W. Blair, Carolina Ortiz-Muñoz

Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Faculty Research

The objective of this research was to evaluate genotypes of iron- and zinc-enriched common beans during breeding in producers’ farms. Yield, disease reaction, and commercial grain characteristics were evaluated to achieve this objective. In three locations of Antioquia (Rionegro, Jardín, and Betulia), seven bush beans and eight climbing bean genotypes were planted. A randomized complete block design with four replications was used in each location. There were significant differences between the bush and climbing bean genotypes that were evaluated. The highest yields, in all locations, were for the biofortified bean NUA 45 and the control variety Uribe Rosado, followed by …

Prevalance, Risk Factors For Malnutrition And Effectiveness Of Need-Based Intervention On Nutritional Status And Cognitive Development Of Preschool Children In Anganwadi Centers Of Udupi Dist., Ansuya .

Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Connections Between Alcohol Abuse And Cognitive Deficits: A Review Of Alcohol’S Effects On Brain Development And Memory Formation, Marykate Decker

PCOM Capstone Projects

Often overlooked and trivialized, Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) affects 15 million Americans over the age of 18. As of 2015, it was reported that only 6.7% of these individuals received treatment necessary to recover. Perhaps even more alarming, the NIH reports alcohol to be the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States annually. As these numbers steadily increase, scientists have become more interested in alcohol addiction and reward pathways, memory deficiencies secondary to alcohol abuse, and the potential development of pathologies like Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.

Previous studies have shown that excessive drinking damages nerve cells that ultimately affect …

Opportunities For Food Sovereignty And Urban Agriculture In Lewiston, Eliza Blood, Oaklea Elfstrom, Larsen Schuster

Community Engaged Research Reports

Although there is heightened attention being paid to the importance of access to good, healthy, and locally produced food, there are many barriers and challenges faced by growers in Lewiston’s food system. Many of these barriers are in the form of federal, state, and municipal regulations surrounding licensing, permitting, zoning, and land use. Two of the biggest tools available to municipalities to increase flexibility and accessibility in food systems are urban agriculture and food sovereignty legislation. Urban agriculture legislation works towards an increase in food accessibility on the zoning and land use while food sovereignty deals with the licencing and …

Implementing A Health Promotion Physical Activity Program For Middle School Youth In A Rural, Faith-Based Organization, Karmin Maher-Hasse

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Problem: Childhood obesity is more prevalent in rural areas, and these areas have fewer resources to address it. Geographic distance to available resources, health care provider shortages, parental obesity, and poverty contribute to higher prevalence of obesity in rural children compared to urban children.

Rationale: Obesity prevention and treatment often requires long-term healthy lifestyle behavior changes including nutrition counseling and physical activity (PA). It is likely an obese pre-adolescent will have obesity as an adult, and the likelihood increases if obesity continues into adolescence. Pre-adolescence provides a window of opportunity to influence healthier PA habits to prevent overweight (OW) and …

Subcontracting And Sweatshops During Coronavirus – The Wake-Up Call Businesses Need?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Coronavirus continues to impact the already struggling retail sector. Wesfarmers, one of Australia's largest listed companies and the owner of bargain retailers Kmart and Target, recently announced the closure of some 75 Target stores, with another 90 to be converted to the more profitable Kmart outlets. Fears remain for some 1000 Target workers whose jobs are at risk.

Adolescent Health, Future Outcomes, And Mechanisms Linking Health And Education, Nannan Peng

Behavioral and Computational Economics (MS) Theses

Even though the relationship between the health of infants/children and future outcomes has been established in many studies, little evidence has shown the impact of adolescent health. We extend the literature by exploiting the data from Add Health. We show that poor adolescent health has a significantly negative influence on adulthood outcomes. Among the health problems, mental illnesses have significantly persistent effects. Though specific diagnoses can predict general health measure, they are to some extent independent. We further explore the mediators linking health measures and educational attainment. The validity and effect size of the hypothesized mediators are also tested.

Restraints In Massachusetts Public Schools, Elyce Hall

Master’s Theses and Projects

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the moral and legal issues around physically restraining students in Massachusetts public schools. As Massachusetts law is written, the use of restraints on a student should be the last possible resort. However, this thesis used data on restraint use from the Massachusetts Department of Education and a survey of school administrators to gain a better understanding of the 38,994 student restraints that were used in 2016-2017 school year. Findings of this study include that Hispanic and African-American students were more likely to attend schools that used restraints than those that did …

Symbiosis And Bioinvasive Dynamics Of Durusdinium Trenchii And Its Acroporid Coral Hosts, David Craig Lawson

HCNSO Student Capstones

Biological invasions are a growing threat to coral reef ecosystems, as increasing anthropogenic transport and changing environmental patterns allow invasive species to establish and spread. Durusdinium trenchii is a dinoflagellate that has invaded the Greater Caribbean reef system and established symbioses with coral hosts. Establishment and persistence of invasive endosymbionts like D. trenchii could indicate a shift in the clade composition of coral holobionts worldwide. Statistical analyses were performed on the GeoSymbio database (Franklin et al. 2012) to determine whether differences in clade composition have occurred over time. Factors that influence biological invasions in marine ecosystems were assessed and analogous …

Protecting Children In A Hyper-Media World: Is Media Literacy The Answer?, Marissa Grasso

Honors Projects in Communication

The purpose of this study is to explore ways to protect young children from the harmful effects of media as they grow up in a hyper-media world. As a learned skill, media literacy must first be introduced to kids’ lives before they can benefit from its effects. Children are developing their brains, and until the age of 7 they do not have the cognitive capacity to retain and apply media literacy skills. Not having these skills exposes them to harms from advertisements and general content shows, movies, and video games. This exposure leads to issues in their lives such as …

Inadequate Residential Care For Children In Cambodia, Madison Coleman

Ballard Brief

Residential care institutions, or orphanages, are becoming increasingly more common in Cambodia. These institutions are not closely monitored by the Cambodian government. causing many children to be raised in unsafe and inadequate environments. The vast majority of the children living in these orphanages have at least one living parent but are being sent to live in an institution because their parents cannot afford to provide for their material needs or their education. The donations of time and money from foreigners. as well as the relative ease of implementing institutions rather than alternative care. also contribute to the increasing number of …

Elevated School Dropout Rates In Rural China, Mollie Bradley

Ballard Brief

Children in the rural provinces of northern and western China face challenges in obtaining educational opportunities that could aid them in overcoming their poverty-ridden upbringing. These challenges come due to inherent inequalities between the rural and urban regions of China. which stem from a historical diversion of resources from the western to eastern provinces. The factors that specifically affect students and their families as they strive to attend school and gain a quality education are the lack of properly trained and motivated teachers. the high cost of schooling borne by families. the economic inequality of rural and urban provinces, the …

Effects Of A Noni-Supplemented Diet On Intestinal Tight Junction Proteins And Stress Biomarkers In Heat-Stressed Broiler Chickens, Guillermo Tellez

Poultry Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Heat stress hampers gut health by impeding its ability to absorb nutrients which leads to a lower feed efficiency and sicker birds. Therefore, there is a critical need to identify mechanism-based strategies to alleviate these effects. Polynesian poultry farmers have been supplementing broiler feed with Morinda Citrifolia (Noni), a medicinal plant high in anti-oxidants, to address this problem. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of Morinda Citrifolia (Noni)-supplementation on the expression of tight junction proteins. Male Broilers (Cobb 500, 3 wks, n=480) were subjected to 2 environmental conditions (TN, 24°C vs. HS, 35°C, 1 …

A Faith-Based Quality Improvement Project To Increase Awareness, Prevention, And Management Of Coronary Heart Disease In African Immigrants, Temitope S. Okpebho

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Problem Description: Coronary heart disease (CHD) affects people globally, and it is the leading cause of death in the United States. Despite increased CHD awareness, evidence shows the increased prevalence and low CHD awareness among African Immigrants. According to Boateng et al. (2017), African immigrants are more likely to have CHD risk factors and be unaware. This may be due to changes in eating habits, lack of physical activity, increased stress level, and the adaptation of the Western diet.

Rationale: This project included implementing a culture care theory in a faith-based organization to increase awareness, management, and prevention of CHD …

Professional Women In Agricultural Industry, Grace Vehige

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

A large body of literature suggests there are many barriers to women in the workplace due to gender bias and long history of men in higher leadership roles. Perhaps one of the more complex industries for women to navigate is the agricultural industry. Through observation and personal experience, I have been exposed to the inequalities and biases against women in the agricultural industry. While times are changing and more women are rising to leadership roles, there are still heavy barriers for them to overcome and personal sacrifices to consider. For example, the Pew Research Center concluded in a study that …

Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances In Consumable Fish & Surface Waters Near Sites Using Aqueous Film-Forming Foams: Potential Risks, Suggested Regulatory Standards And Policy Approaches For Massachusetts, Tachalla Gibeau

Sustainability and Social Justice

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are emerging contaminants of concern with potential for adverse effects on both human and environmental health. Hence, long-chain PFAS compounds used in legacy aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) are being phased out, resulting in the stockpiling of them at various commercial installations. PFAS contaminated runoff from these facilities has the potential to contaminate nearby surface water bodies and the fish inhabiting them. An analytical approach was used to identify surface water bodies in Massachusetts that are habitats for fish susceptible to PFAS contamination and where said fish are also popularly consumed by locals – thereby representing …

The Relationship Between Sport Commitment With Off-Season Training Time And Previous In-Season Playing Time In College-Aged Soccer Players 2020., Luke Zuber

Master's Theses

Sport commitment is defined as “…the desire and resolve to continue sport participation” (Scanlan, Carpenter, Schmidt, Simons, & Keeler, 1993, p. 6). Since the first definition, the concept has been further refined to reflect a more multidimensional paradigm. Overall, sport commitment is thought to be comprised of the dimensions of enthusiastic commitment and constrained commitment (Scanlan, Chow, Sousa, Scanlan, & Knifsend, 2016). Those constructs can be broken down further to 12 subconstructs that are represented in the Sport Commitment – 2 (SC; Scanlan, Chow, Sousa, Scanlan, & Knifsend, 2016), in order to evaluate the source and level of an individual’s …

Mrt Supportive Housing Evaluation: Cost Report 3: Treatment Versus Comparison Group, Investments Versus Savings Analyses, Margaret Gullick, Mir Nahid Mahmud, Lauren Polvere, Sandra Mcginnis, Chris E. Rees

Health and Healthcare Services Reports and Research Briefs

This report details Medicaid spending changes associated with enrollment in programs sponsored by the New York State Medicaid Redesign Team’s Supportive Housing Initiative (MRT-SH), including a summary of these projects and the full cross-sector cost characteristics of the people enrolled versus a comparison group of people who were similar to MRT-SH clients but were not enrolled. For each included MRT-SH participant, cost data are presented from one year before participant enrollment (defined here as the pre-period) through the first year post-enrollment (the post-period); for each included Comparison participant, cost data are presented for a similar two-year timespan. Cost data include …

A View From Above: Alternative Perspectives On Smallholder Livelihoods And Agrobiodiversity Conservation In Northern Ecuador, Chris Hair

Dissertations

Food security and deintensification of agriculture are serious concerns in Latin America. Agriculture, especially at small-scale subsistence levels, is hard work, and comes with some economic and physical risk. Transitions from traditional multi-cropping to mono-cropping systems introduce two particular risks that are new to most smallholders: (1) the loss of agricultural diversity and (2) the potential for widespread failure when focusing on the cultivation of a single crop. This research explores how Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), or drones, can be used for rapid inventories of crop diversity and to enhance crop management techniques on small-scale farms. In the community …

Family-Centered Care In The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Madison Winter

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Family-centered care can be useful in any clinical scenario, but more so in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Having a preterm infant admitted into the NICU is not an ideal situation, and can cause high levels of apprehension for the parents. “Stress experienced by parents whose infant is hospitalized in the NICU is strongly correlated with anxiety, fatigue, depression, and sleep disruption” (Busse et al., 2013). [excerpt]

Redesigning Our Conception Of Local Food Utilizing A Value-Based Approach, Heather Riesenberg

Sustainability and Social Justice

The goal of this study was to design a new method of evaluating and building local food systems which is based on a new conception of how we view local food. Beginning with a review of the current literature on how local food is defined and its apparent goals, I begin to pick apart the dated idea that local needs not be more complex than the 400-mile limit offered by the USDA. Utilizing the literature review, I bring together a host of values that local food seems to (want to) embody and use these to form a pathway toward the …

Breakfast Boost Study: Defining The Role Of Breakfast Macronutrient Composition On Markers Of Childhood Obesity, Caroline Ganoung

Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Background: Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, affecting ~19% of children 2-19 years of age. Breakfast is a key component of a healthy diet and can positively impact children’s health. However, there has been a steady decline in breakfast consumption in children over the past 40 years.

Methods: The objective of this study was to determine if breakfast macronutrient composition, protein (PRO)-based breakfast (30 g protein, 31 g carbohydrate, 11.7 g fat) or an isocaloric (360 kcal) carbohydrate (CHO)-based breakfast (13 g protein, 48 g carbohydrate, 11.7 g fat), can influence postprandial appetite and food …

The Biofiltration Ability Of Asparagus Densiflorus To Remove Sulfur Dioxide From The Indoor Atmosphere, Rhiannon De La Rosa

Horticulture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sulfur dioxide is an inorganic compound (IC) and air pollutant that causes health risks in humans at concentrations as small as 6 ppm. The buildup of sulfur dioxide in enclosed indoor spaces is therefore a concern to human health, especially since the average person spends 90% of his/her time indoors. This study focused on decreasing a sulfur dioxide concentration in a cost-effective and simple way—by using botanical biofiltration, or the uptake of pollutants by plants. Research in biofiltration has focused mostly on the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and which plant species are most proficient at VOC uptake. However, …

Temperature Dependence On Enzymatic Activity Of A82f F87a Mutant And Wild-Type Cytochrome P450 Bm-3, Sally Seder

Undergraduate Theses

Cytochrome P450 is an enzyme mainly found in liver cells. It plays a key role in the breakdown of drugs and toxins by hydroxylating substrates making the substrates more water soluble. P450s are also involved in cholesterol and hormone synthesis. The third P450 from bacterium Bacillus Megaterium (BM3) is used as a model P450 enzyme due to its structural similarity to human P450s and due to its efficiency in the hydroxylation of fatty acids. Within the enzyme’s active site, substrates can occupy a distal or proximal conformation monitored by UV-vis spectroscopy. The proximal conformation is more effective when it comes …

Chronic Poverty Among Youth In The United States, Kara Reed

Ballard Brief

In the United States, 15.5 million children are living in poverty. The more time children spend in poverty, the more likely they are to continue to experience poverty as an adult. The cycle of intergenerational and chronic poverty is perpetuated by various factors. such as unsatisfied basic needs. lack of access to quality education, and issues related to underemployment and unemployment. As a result. youth in poverty are more likely to perform poorly in school, be exposed to and affected by crime. and experience health problems. Some leading practices for poverty focus on strengthening the quality of early childhood education. …

Voices Of The Mentors: An Examination Of Perceptions And Meaning-Making Of Mentors In A Site-Based Program, Sheila R. Jacobs

Theses and Dissertations from 2020

Although past studies of mentoring at-risk youth have yielded mixed results (Faith et al., 2011; DeWit et al., 2016), mentoring as an intervention for at-risk youth has increased in the past decade and has been supported by the United States Federal Government (Hughes, Boyd, & Dykstra, 2010; Gordon, Downey, & Bangert, 2013; Reddick, Griffin, & Cherwitz, 2011). Because studies focused on the perceptions and experiences of mentors are limited (Hughes et al., 2010; Haddock et al., 2017), and because of frequency of early mentor/mentee relationship termination (Grossman et al., 2012; Golder, 2016), this qualitative study sought to capture and understand …