Digital Commons Network^™

Facilitators And Inhibitors To First Adult Care Visits In The Transition From Paediatric To Adult Orientated Inflammatory Bowel Disease Healthcare, Joanna Rea

Theses

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be a very debilitating disease and it is found to be more extensive in children with rapid early progression (Van Limbergen et al., 2008). As adolescents, these children transition from paediatric to adult oriented care. The first adult care visits are a pivotal phase of a successful transition process, where adolescents potentially begin to actively take control of their disease. The aim of this study is to explore the inhibitors and facilitators to first adult care visits in the transition process from paediatric to adult oriented IBD healthcare.

Methods: An exploratory, descriptive, qualitative approach …

Experiences Seeking, Sourcing, And Using Abortion Pills At Home In The United States Through An Online Telemedicine Service, Melissa Madera, Dana M. Johnson, Kathleen Broussard, Luisa Alejandra Tello-Pérez, Carol Armelle Ze-Noah, Aleta Baldwin, Rebecca Gomperts, Abigail R.A. Aiken

Faculty Publications

A growing number of people in the United States seek to self-manage their abortions by self-sourcing abortion medications online. Prior research focuses on people's motivations for seeking self-management of abortion and experiences trying to obtain medications. However, little is known about the experiences of people in the U.S. who actually complete a self-managed abortion using medications they self-sourced online. We conducted anonymous in-depth interviews with 80 individuals who sought abortion medications through Aid Access, the only online telemedicine service that provides abortion medications in all 50 U.S. states. Through grounded theory analysis we identified five key themes: 1) participants viewed …

Covid-19 Vaccination In Africa: A Case Of Unsatisfied Expectation And Ill-Preparedness, Osmond C. Ekwebelem, Phemelo Tamasiga, Abullhai Tunde Abonde, Ismaeel Yunusa Ph. D., Uju Nwauzoma, Helen Onyeaka

Faculty Publications

With a population of 1.3 billion people, of which 56% reside in rural settings, Africa seemed ill-prepared to handle the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, the capacity needed for a successful COVID- 19 vaccination campaign in Africa surpassed the available resources in local and state health agencies. As a result, African governments were advised to coordinate resources, health officials, and vaccinators, including local health practitioners, medical technicians, and pharmacists for the largest-ever vaccination campaign in Africa. Although the rolling out of the SARS-COV-2 vaccine was, as expected, slow in many African countries, and not yet enough to cover …

Introduction: 14(5) 2022: Independent And Special Issue, Rosalind Latiner Raby

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

The Education Process Of Children With Imprisoned Parents After The July 15, 2016 Coup Attempt In Turkey

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Acculturation And Social Media: How Do International Students Engage With Facebook While Abroad?

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

The Mechanisms Of Mitochondrial Dysfunction In T Cell Aging During Chronic Viral Infection, Madison B. Schank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections induce a myriad of disturbances to CD4 T cell functions, including mitochondrial compromise, excessive inflammation, increased telomeric DNA damage and attrition, cellular exhaustion and senescence, and accelerated aging. In this dissertation, the mechanisms underlying metabolic failure, accelerated aging, and cellular dysfunctions were evaluated in CD4 T cells from healthy subjects (HS) treated with a telomere-targeting drug (KML001) or HCV-infected individuals or people living with HIV (PLHIV) compared to HS. We observed that KML001-induced telomere injury resulted in mitochondrial swelling and decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, cellular respiration, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy …

The Development Of Cultural Intelligence (Cq) In The Secondary Social Studies Classroom, Asha Gillette

Senior Honors Theses

Cultural competence is an important skill in our globalized world. Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is a good metric for cultural competence. CQ is used by businesses to improve cultural competence of their employees. There has been a lot of research on the development of CQ in undergraduate business students. Experiential teaching methods are the most effective in improving students’ CQ. CQ is a valuable skill for high school students to learn. The subject most appropriate to include training in CQ is social studies, and specifically World Geography. Pedagogical methods such as cultural interviews used in undergraduate business courses can also be …

A Suggested Data Structure For Transparent And Repeatable Reporting Of Bibliographic Searching, Neal R. Haddaway, Melissa L. Rethlefsen, Melinda Davies, Julie Glanville, Bethany Mcgowan, Kate Nyhan, Sarah Young

Publications

Academic searching is integral to research activities: (1) searching to retrieve specific information, (2) to expand our knowledge iteratively, (3) and to collate a representative and unbiased selection of the literature. Rigorous searching methods are vital for reliable, repeatable and unbiased searches needed for these second and third forms of searches (exploratory and systematic searching, respectively) that form a core part of evidence syntheses. Despite the broad awareness of the importance of transparency in reporting search activities in evidence syntheses, the importance of searching has been highlighted only recently and has been the explicit focus of reporting guidance (PRISMA-S). Ensuring …

Effects Of Home-Based High-Intensity Interval Training Versus Continuous Walking On Cognition In Overweight And Obese Women, Kelsey C. Bourbeau

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to determine whether six weeks of home-based high-intensity interval training versus six weeks of moderate-intensity walking improves cognition, depression, and anxiety in women that are overweight or obese. Design: A randomized control trial design. Subjects: Twelve sedentary women characterized as overweight or obese were randomized into either a six-week home-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT, n = 6, 26.6 ± 8.9 years, 37.4 ± 4.9% body fat) group or a six-week moderate-intensity walking (Walk, n = 6, 22.5 ± 3.7 years, 40.2 ± 4.1% body fat) group. Main Measures: Pre- and post-intervention, participants …

Food Security & Urban Agriculture - Considerations For Soil Improvements And Crop Planning, Aaron Sedivy

Doctor of Plant Health Program: Dissertations and Student Research

Urban agriculture provides many benefits, such as energy conservation, rainwater remediation, increased aesthetic and property value, and therapeutic use for physical, cognitive, and emotional wellbeing. Urban agriculture can also provide critical integrity to each pillar of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. As urban agricultural activities increase, social interactions will follow in concert. This will provide opportunities for building trust through the two-way communication of contrasting perspectives, cultures, and beliefs using impartial narratives. Growers can use knowledge and understanding gained from these positive social interactions to formulate their personal paradigms for practice and better meet the needs of each …

Image Analysis And Machine Learning In Agricultural Research, Xinzheng Chen

Doctor of Plant Health Program: Dissertations and Student Research

Agricultural research has been a focus for academia and industry to improve human well-being. Given the challenges in water scarcity, global warming, and increased prices of fertilizer, and fossil fuel, improving the efficiency of agricultural research has become even more critical. Data collection by humans presents several challenges including: 1) the subjectiveness and reproducibility when doing the visual evaluation, 2) safety when dealing with high toxicity chemicals or severe weather events, 3) mistakes cannot be avoided, and 4) low efficiency and speed.

Image analysis and machine learning are more versatile and advantageous in evaluating different plant characteristics, and this could …

Adverse Health Impacts On Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera L.) Colonies From A Contaminated Environment And Resources, Rogan Tokach

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) continue to experience high annual declines due to a combination of factors including pesticides. Due to increasing agricultural intensification has led to a reliance on systemic pesticide treated seed which can brought back to the colony in pollen and nectar. Treated seed is not subject to the same guidelines as pesticide applications reducing the regulations on the disposal of treated seed. In 2015, an ethanol plant in Mead, Nebraska began processing expired treated seed for ethanol production. Subsequently, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bee Lab started seeing 100% colony failure in apiaries surrounding the plant. …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Germination And Fermentation In Producing Biologically Active Peptides From Pulses, Ashley Newton

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recently, there has been a profound increase in demand of plant-based proteins, especially pulse proteins. However, pulses contain high concentrations of antinutritional factors that hinder the digestibility of proteins. Processing techniques such as enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial fermentation, and physical processing modulate nutritional quality and functionality of pulses. Processing also releases peptides from parent proteins that exhibit health-beneficial bioactivity against various disease risk factors. In this study, germination, gastrointestinal digestion, and microbial fermentation were evaluated to determine the nutritional quality and release of bioactive peptides during and after processing.

Germination of chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.) modulated the protein profile, and …

The North Platte River Valley: The Intersectionality Between Water Quality And People, Anni Poetzl

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The North Platte River (NPR) Valley of western Nebraska is a semi-arid watershed with row crop production, livestock production, and urban land use activity and has a population of diverse stakeholders. These land use activities contribute to the enrichment of surface waters, such as streams, which can affect human and ecosystem health, as well as economic development and recreational activities. The project objectives are to: (1) quantify the movement of dissolved inorganic nutrients from the land within the NPR Valley to the NPR via tributaries and canals, (2) identify spatiotemporal variability of nutrient limitation of periphyton growth within the NPR, …

Exploring Mortgage Loan Opportunities For Native 360, Donald Nam, Brooks Douglass, Michael Buehre Stackpole, Broderick Diez

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Native 360 is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that aims to provide affordable capital, credit, and assistance to develop strong and self-sufficient Native Americans. Native 360 currently accomplishes this by specializing in providing personal and business loans. However, Native 360 would like to expand into home mortgages as an additional offering. Native 360 has reached out to us to have us develop a strategy to raise capital for their ambitious new business line in an attempt to strengthen the Native American community through home ownership.

A Substring Replacement Approach For Identifying Missing Is-A Relations In Snomed Ct, Xubing Hao, Rashmie Abeysinghe, Jay Shi, Licong Cui

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Biomedical ontologies provide formalized information and knowledge in the biomedical domain. Over the years, biomedical ontologies have played an important role in facilitating biomedical research and applications. Common quality issues of biomedical ontologies include inconsistent naming of concepts, redundant concepts, redundant relations, incomplete/incorrect concept definitions, and incomplete/incorrect class hierarchies. In this work, we focus on addressing the incompleteness of the class hierarchy in SNOMED CT. We develop a substring replacement approach, leveraging concepts’ lexical features and existing IS-A relations to identify potential missing IS-A relations in SNOMED CT. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we performed both automated and …

Single Low-Dose Targeted Bevacizumab Infusion In Adult Patients With Steroid-Refractory Radiation Necrosis Of The Brain: A Phase Ii Open-Label Prospective Clinical Trial, Shervin R. Dashti, Robert J. Kadner, Bradley S. Folley, Jason P. Sheehan, Dong Y. Han, Richard J. Kryscio, Mary B. Carter, Lisa B. E. Shields, Brian M. Plato, Renato V. La Rocca, Aaron C. Spalding, Tom L. Yao, Justin F. Fraser

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE There is an unmet need for safe and rapidly effective therapies for refractory brain radiation necrosis (RN). The aim of this prospective single-arm phase II trial was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a single low-dose targeted bevacizumab infusion after blood-brain barrier disruption (BBBD) in adult patients with steroid-refractory brain RN.

METHODS Ten adults with steroid-refractory, imaging-confirmed brain RN were enrolled between November 2016 and January 2018 and followed for 12 months after treatment. Bevacizumab 2.5 mg/kg was administered as a one-time targeted intra-arterial infusion immediately after BBBD. Primary outcomes included safety and > 25% decrease in lesion volume. …

Evaluation Of Practice Patterns And Outcomes After Implementing Smart For Pancreatic Cancer, Eric Schaff, Parag J. Parikh, Pin Li, Rupen Shah, Gazala Khan, Farzan Siddiqui, Benjamin Movsas, David Kwon

Radiation Oncology Meeting Abstracts

Purpose/Objective(s): Stereotactic MRI-guided adaptive radiation therapy (SMART) enables safe dose escalation for locally advanced, borderline resectable, and medically inoperable pancreatic cancer and has shown favorable toxicity and survival outcomes. In late 2018, our institution commissioned SMART for these patients, making it available to all patient referrals. We wanted to review changes in our patient population and differences in clinical outcomes for patients before and after the implementation of SMART.

Materials/Methods: In this IRB approved analysis, we retrospectively reviewed 167 consecutive patients from 2015-2021 with locally advanced, borderline resectable, or medically unresectable pancreatic cancer who were treated with radiation therapy. Chemoradiation …

Medical Imaging Utilization Trends In Radiation Oncology Over The Past Decade, S. Quirk, M. Roumeliotis, L. Van Dyke, K. Martell, L. Barbera, W. L. Smith, Kundan Thind

Radiation Oncology Meeting Abstracts

Purpose/Objective(s): We quantify the increase in use of pre-treatment imaging and verification imaging in radiation oncology over the past decade. We also quantify the trend towards hypofractionation, which has partially led to increased imaging.

Materials/Methods: The pre-treatment and verification imaging data used are from a single, tertiary, university-affiliated cancer center. Pre-treatment imaging was defined as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT). Verification imaging was defined as cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). All treatment approved plans were included from 2012 to 2021. Data extraction was performed using custom scripts interfacing with the treatment planning system …

The Impact Of Implementing Hypofractionation Prescription Regimens And Modernizing Delivery Technique On Treatment Resources In Breast Radiotherapy, S. Quirk, Kundan Thind, L. Van Dyke, K. Long, T. Phan, P. Grendarova, K. Martell, W. L. Smith, L. Barbera, M. Roumeliotis

Radiation Oncology Meeting Abstracts

Purpose/Objective(s): To determine the change in treatment resources due to the implementation of hypofractionated prescription regimen.

Materials/Methods: All patients between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2021 receiving curative intent breast radiotherapy at a tertiary cancer center were included. Plan and patient data were extracted from the patient database with the treatment planning system and direct database query. Treatment plan categorization was completed using data elements to include only curative intent. Treatment plans for seroma boost or supraclavicular irradiation were excluded to ensure this analysis did not double-count regional nodal irradiation contribution or confound boost with hypofractionation. Treatment delivery time …

Exploring Risk Factors Of Alzheimer’S Disease Using Mouse Models, Xian Han

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that accurately recapitulate pathology and molecular changes are crucial for understanding disease mechanisms and subsequent therapeutic development. We examined five commonly used mouse models of AD (5xFAD, J20, APPNL-F, APPNL-G-F, Tau P301S) and compared their whole- and phosphoproteomes with human AD (the integration of three published datasets) to study whether they can mimic protein/RNA expression discrepancies, molecular changes, and enriched pathways found in human AD cases. The mouse models especially 5xFAD and APPNL-G-F show proteomic signatures similar to human AD but lack human-specific AD progressions, such as dysregulation of synaptic pathways and networks. Integration …

Large Event Public Protection Plan With Juneau Ironman Case Study, Christopher E. Phinney

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Due to the increase in large public events being targeted by lone wolf terrorists since September 11, 2001, large sporting events are being categorized by United States Department of Homeland Security as soft targets for potential attacks. (Martin, 2016) The Ironman Group identified Juneau, Alaska, as a premier site for conducting an Ironman Event in August 2022 and is expected to be repeated through 2024. The Juneau fire and police departments have limited resources to support an event of this magnitude. Due to past malicious incidents that have taken place during large public events, the Juneau Ironman event raised concerns …

Impact Of The 2016 American College Of Surgeons Guideline Revision On Overlapping Lumbar Fusion Cases At A Large Academic Medical Center, Ali S. Farooqi, Austin J. Borja, Rashad Jabarkheel, Gregory Glauser, Krista Strouz, Scott Mcclintock, Neil R. Malhotra

Mathematics Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: The American College of Surgeons (ACS) u pdated its guidelines on overlapping surgery in 2016. The objective was to examine differences in postoperative outcomes after overlapping surgery either pre-ACS guide-line revision or post-guideline revision, in a coarsened exact matching sample. -METHODS: A total of 3327 consecutive adult patients u ndergoing single-level posterior lumbar fusion from 2013 to 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were separated into a pre-ACS guideline revision cohort (surgery before April 2016) or a post-guideline revision cohort (surgery after October 2016) for comparison. The primary outcomes were proportion of cases performed with any degree of overlap, and …

Temporary Staffing In Long-Term Care Facilities In Tennessee, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Office of Research and Education Accountability

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of The Reliability Of Four Different Movement Thresholds When Evaluating Vertical Jump Performance, Madeleine Barefoot, Hugh Lamont, J. Chadwick Smith

Kinesiology

Analyzing vertical jumps performed on a force plate can be useful for the strength and conditioning professional in managing neuromuscular fatigue. The purpose of this study was to compare different movement thresholds when analyzing countermovement (CJ) and squat jump (SJ) performance. Twenty-one college-aged participants (9 female, 12 male) performed five CJs and five SJs. Movement initiation was identified when the vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) deviated five standard deviations (5SD), four standard deviations, (4SD), 2.5% of system weight (2.5%SW), and 10% of system weight (10%SW) from their starting position. For CJs, movement was determined when the VGRF deviated either above …

The Dilemma Of Liberal Pluralism, Abner S. Greene

Buffalo Law Review

Supporters of reproductive rights and of queer rights may sometimes live in harmony with advocates for religious exemptions. But sometimes these goals conflict. This Article explores this tension as a matter of liberal democratic theory and U.S. constitutional law, offering a case for seeing a robust pluralism as contained within a proper understanding of the liberal democratic state. The state’s claimed authority may be the starting point, but just as the modern state was born in decentralized religious toleration, so should the modern state accommodate religious and other views of the good that compete with the state’s own views. The …

Factors, Scott Rempell

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Notebook, Sarah Wiggins

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

The Foreboding Campaign System, Michael Fetters

Theses

This project creates a new campaign setting compatible with the Dungeons and Dragons system utilizing the SRD Open Game License content as a starting point. The campaign setting created establishes mechanics allowing for narrative interaction between the past and present timeline of events in the world of Lunaria. This new system, entitled The Foreboding, utilizes a shift mechanic to alter the player characters in several possible ways, ranging from changes in race or character history to interactions with past time periods and events that alter the present timeline of the narrative. New character options for race and class were also …