Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of A Parent-Only Pediatric Obesity Intervention Program On Quality Of Life In Racially Diverse Children, Taylor Vashro

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric obesity has been associated with significant decrements in pediatric quality of life (QOL) comparable with severe pediatric diseases such as cancer. Parenting interventions have yielded health benefits for children with obesity; however, few studies have investigated the impact of parent-focused interventions on QOL in children with overweight and obesity. This study investigated the impact of a 6-week intensive parenting intervention program on the QOL of 5-12 year old, predominantly Black children with overweight and obesity. Parents were randomized into either the parenting intervention (NOURISH+) or a control group, and QOL, as well as variables related to child and parenting …

The Impact Of Patient Characteristics On Dysphagia Therapy Utilization And Feeding Outcomes For Premature Infants In The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Tiana Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

Medical advances have significantly increased the survival rates of preterm infants at lower gestational ages. However, infants born at lower gestational ages have an increased risk for developmental disabilities and oral feeding difficulties. A stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is very costly and inadequate oral feeding is the most common barrier to discharge for premature infants. Infants can receive dysphagia therapy services during their NICU stay that focuses on the development of oral feeding and swallowing skills. However, literature to this date has mainly focused on the impact of therapy services for premature infants after NICU discharge. …

Qvoices: Queer Voices In Oncology Igniting Change Through Empowered Stories Of Survivorship, Viktor Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Each year in the United States there are roughly 2 million new cancer diagnoses, with over 600,000 deaths due to cancer. The National Cancer Institute developed a six-stage cancer control continuum framework ranging from etiology to survivorship to organize the cancer experience. Sexual and gender minorities (SGM) are comprised of multiple communities representing ~23.6 million adults in the US, SGM face disparities at each stage of the cancer control continuum. This study emphasizes three stages, prevention, detection, and treatment. Engagement in prevention can prevent or prolong cancer, early detection through engagement in cancer screening improves cancer trajectories and compliance …

Breaking Bread & Boundaries : Finding Home In Every Bite, Steffi Ann Braganza

Theses and Dissertations

Raised outside of their “passport” countries, Third Culture Individuals (TCIs) often experience a lack of rootedness and belonging, and home is often everywhere and nowhere. Childhood food memories can provide the sense of connection and identity TCIs crave. Four Qatar-raised TCIs, from very different backgrounds share memories of their childhood comfort foods, now hybridized dishes, that reflect their unique third culture experiences. Each dish, in turn, inspired the creation of a bespoke set of cooking /dining ware designed to trigger a specific sensory memory: the sight, smell, touch, or sound associated with the original comfort dish. This specialized cooking/dining ware …

How Do Cultural Norms Shape Healthy Eating In African Americans? The Role Of Cultural Congruence And Mindsets Of Health In Healthy Eating Intentions Among African American College Students, Danyel Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Targeting dietary behaviors is a predominant strategy to reduce rates of obesity among African Americans, across the lifespan. Notably, dietary behaviors are shaped by social, cultural and environmental affordances. This study integrated Theory of planned behavior (TPB), identity-based motivation, and mindset theory to unearth cultural mechanisms that inform motivations to eat healthy among African American college students. This project employed a cross-sectional (Study 1) and experimental design (Study 2) to contextualize the antecedents of intentions to eat healthy among African American college students. Recruitment occurred via university-wide digital channels. Eligible participants: were 18+ years; Black/African American; were undergraduate students; and …

The Private Costs Of Behavioral Interventions, Avishalom Tor

Journal Articles

The increasing popularity of behavioral interventions—also known as nudges—is largely due to their perceived potential to promote public and private welfare at dramatically lower costs than those of traditional regulatory instruments, such as mandates or taxes. Yet, though nudges typically involve low implementation costs, scholars and policymakers alike tend to underestimate their often-substantial private costs. Once these costs are accounted for, most nudges turn out to generate significantly lower net benefits than assumed, and some prove less efficient or less cost-effective than traditional instruments. At other times, the private costs of behavioral interventions are sufficiently large to render them socially …

Investing In Teachers: Understanding The Relationship Between The Standards Assessment Inventory And School District Spending On Professional Learning, Ankhe Bradley

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation in practice will focus on gaining insights into the relationship between money spent on professional development and the Standards Assessment Inventory Scores. The Standards Assessment Inventory is an assessment tool aligned with the Standards of Professional Learning and provides insight into the perceptions of professional learning, the degree of success or challenges of professional learning, and systematic ways to provide decision makers with information on how to align professional development, educator effectiveness, and student achievement. The standards for professional learning include the following key areas: learning communities, leadership, resources, data, learning designs, implementation, and outcomes. Learning Forward’s Standards …

Using Machine Learning To Predict Student Outcomes, Saba Fatima

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Predicting students’ performance to identify which students are at risk of receiving aD/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) grade and ensuring their timely graduation is not just desirable but also necessary in most educational entities. In the US, not only is the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) major becoming less popular among students, the graduation rate of STEM students is steadily declining. The lack of STEM graduates in the US is a serious problem that will place this country at a disadvantage as a competitor in international technological advancement. In order to secure its status as a technological leader internationally, the US institutions …

Effects Of Weight Bias Internalization On Disordered Eating, Dieting, And Intuitive Eating In College Students, Stacia Tietje

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Weight bias internalization (WBI) is the tendency to blame oneself for negative weight-based stereotypes and external influences. WBI has been shown to have negative effects on both physical and mental health. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between WBI, disordered eating, and dieting and whether intuitive eating moderates these relationships in a sample of college students. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey design to gather quantitative data. College undergraduate students (N = 652) from a Midwestern university were recruited via email. Data were analyzed in SPSS, using descriptive statistics, multiple linear regression, ordinal, and binary logistic …

Development Of A Chemical Biology Approach To Uncover The Influence Of Sequence Variations On Ces1 Activity In Live Cells, Samuel James Knebel

Masters Theses

Drug metabolism is the biochemical process of modifying drugs to detoxify and remove them through enzymatic transformations. These biotransformation’s occur primarily in the liver and are critical to understanding how pharmaceutical compounds are chemically altered inside the human body. Human carboxylesterases (CESs) catalyze the hydrolysis of esters, amides, thioesters, and carbamates. CES-mediated hydrolysis plays an important role in the metabolism of many drugs including the first FDA approved antiviral treatment for COVID-19, remdesivir (Veklury), the seizure control medication rufinamide (Banzel), and the flu antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu). CES activity is known to be influenced by a variety of factors including …

Three Essays On The Effects Of Parental Income And Labor Supply On Child Health And Labor Market Outcomes., Kassahun Mamo Geleta

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation constitutes three separate essays on labor and health economics using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) dataset. The first essay examines the long-run effect of childhood poverty on labor market outcomes using propensity score matching (PSM) and average causal mediation effect (ACME) methods. The results show that persistent childhood poverty significantly decreases average annual labor income and hours worked, whereas it increases the number of weeks unemployed per annum during adulthood. The study also shows that a significant portion of the total effect of childhood poverty on labor market outcomes passes indirectly through its negative effect on …

Intergenerational Transmission Of Parenting: Does Emotion Regulation Buffer The Effect Of Negative Early Care Experiences On The Cortisol Stress Response And Subsequent Caregiving?, Erin Rochelle Mckay

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

A phenomenon known as the intergenerational transmission of parenting, where children tend to parent their children in a manner similar to how their own parents provided care, has received notable attention within developmental research. While several mechanisms focusing on cognitive and psychological factors have been proposed, there is less research examining biological mechanisms within the intergenerational transmission of parenting framework, especially when considering caregiving behavior exhibited in the context of child distress. Further, few studies have examined parent attributes which may disrupt the intergenerational transmission of parenting. The current study seeks to examine the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress response as …

The Impact Of Climate Change On The Cultural Identity Of Indigenous Peoples And The Nation’S First “Climate Refugees”, Jordan K. Medaris

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Maternal Resilience After Hurricane Maria: The Foregrounding Of Productive Action And Use Of Alternative Logics In The Development Of Proactive Maternal Agency, Sara Potter

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Dpird Grains Research And Development (R&D) Stakeholder Update 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grain and other field crops published reports

The Grains R&D (Research and Development) Stakeholder Update was developed to showcase the industry-leading work delivered by the Grains Research and Industry Development team at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) in Western Australia (WA).

Grains R&D is critical to the ongoing productivity and international competitiveness of our industry and the economic prosperity of WA. This newsletter highlights some of the vital research helping farmers grow the industry.

Reflections On A Career Unplanned, Robert A. Glazer

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Sometimes life takes unexpected turns. I never planned to be a marine biologist; yet, after a long and unpredictable journey, that’s exactly where I found myself. After obtaining my B.S. in Fishery Biology from Colorado State University, I found myself meandering from job to job like a golden retriever following some vague scent. At first, I was hired by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to work seasonally in Grand Teton National Park on the freshwater trout fisheries. Soon thereafter, I found myself cultivating oysters, clams, and other shellfish in California. The skills I developed there as an algologist led …

Improving Educational Access, Quality, And Environment In Rural Intabazwe, South Africa, Divya Joshi

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Despite the rapid modernization and urban development in South Africa in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, many of the country’s citizens in its rural and underdeveloped areas struggle with meeting their basic needs such as food security, sanitation, and education due to mismanagement of resources and government corruption. Through my Service-Learning Project, I aimed to try to lessen these disparities through targeting educational access, quality, and environment in the rural town of Intabazwe, South Africa. For access to education, I wanted to have a menstrual product drive since millions of South African girls miss a large part of …

Attitudes Toward Implicit Bias Among Ncaa Medical Support Staff, B J. Warner, A P. Jacobsen, M Decker, S A. Cage

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Introduction: Implicit biases are unconscious attitudes, emotions, or stereotypes that have the potential to negatively affect behaviors, actions, and decisions. Recent research has shown that healthcare workers do not provide equitable care to patients from different demographics. When patients are receiving different levels of care, there is a potential for different patient-related outcomes. One of their first steps in many implicit bias interventions for healthcare professionals is identifying one’s implicit bias. The purpose of this study was to describe the attitudes toward implicit bias among non-athletic training healthcare professionals who provide care to collegiate student-athletes. Methods: An electronic survey was …

Leveraging Informative Missing Data To Learn About Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome And Mortality In Long-Term Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients Throughout The Years Of The Pandemic, Emily Getzen, Amelia Lm Tan, Gabriel Brat, Gilbert S Omenn, Zachary Strasser, Qi Long, John H Holmes, Danielle Mowery

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Electronic health records (EHRs) contain a wealth of information that can be used to further precision health. One particular data element in EHRs that is not only under-utilized but oftentimes unaccounted for is missing data. However, missingness can provide valuable information about comorbidities and best practices for monitoring patients, which could save lives and reduce burden on the healthcare system. We characterize patterns of missing data in laboratory measurements collected at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital System from long-term COVID-19 patients and focus on the changes in these patterns between 2020 and 2021. We investigate how these patterns are associated …

The Effects Of Weather On Facilitating The Intensification And Collapse Of Bark Beetle Outbreaks In Ponderosa Pine Forests Of The Northern Rocky Mountains And The Black Hills, Jordan T. Lestina

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Bark beetles are a diverse family of insect herbivores, of which the most aggressive species can cause significant tree mortality, and are integral components of disturbance regimes in conifer dominated forests of North America. Recent drought events across the western U.S. have been broadly associated with the initiation of multiple bark beetle outbreaks in ponderosa pine forests during the last two decades. Changing weather conditions, such as those observed during the onset of drought, affect outbreak progression through their influence on bark beetle physiology and life history traits and the overall vigor and defensiveness of host trees. This study used …

Genetic And Environmental Contributions To Wolbachia-Induced Cytoplasmic Incompatibility, Kelley Van Vaerenberghe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Maternally-transmitted Wolbachia infect the cells of most insect species, but their frequencies in host populations vary. While much of their success can be attributed to their ability to manipulate host reproduction, these manipulations are context-dependent, varying due to several biotic and abiotic factors. Wolbachia’s most common manipulation, cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), is a conditional sterility phenotype where male-female host compatibility depends on their infection status. Specifically, CI occurs when infected males produce modified sperm that cause increased embryonic lethality unless the female carries a similar infection. Rescuing their eggs from CI increases the relative fitness of infected females, promoting Wolbachia spread …

Addressing Soil Carbon Sequestration Response From Multispecies Dairy Forage Systems And Modeling Rangeland Beef Cow Dry Matter Intake Using Precision Enteric Emissions Measurements, Lillian J. Mcfadden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regenerative agriculture is a pressing matter for the dairy industry to address cropland sustainability and carbon sequestration. One regenerative management practice that has been identified to help with row crop sustainability for key metrics like soil organic carbon (SOC) is complex covers. When producers use complex covers one of the main challenges is that it takes time to detect a change in SOC. However, simulation models are a tool that can be used to help determine if a regenerative practice is a strategy that gives the best results (i.e., increased SOC) while aligning with long-term production goals. Therefore, our objectives …

Role Of Human Gut Microbiota In Shaping The Diet-Induced Metabolome, Samitinjaya Dhakal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Strategies To Optimize Confinement Fed Beef Cattle In The Northern Plains, Erin R. Gubbels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to understand the strategies needed to optimize performance of confinement fed beef cattle in the Northern Plains. This was accomplished through three objectives: 1) evaluate health, growth performance, and antibody titers in previously vaccinated, newly weaned calves administered a respiratory and clostridia vaccine upon arrival compared to no vaccination; 2) determine the influence of manger space restriction on program-fed feedlot heifers during the growing phase; and 3) to evaluate growth performance and carcass traits following transit of feedlot heifers sourced and finished in different regions of the United States. For objective 1, single-sourced, newly …

'Logics Of Redistribution' Under Welfare Reform: The Case Of Welfare For Families With Children, Anthony Huaqui

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article builds upon the “logics of redistribution” approach to welfare state theory, which argues that different theoretical explanations, referred to as “logics”, apply to different programs based on context and constituencies. I argue that individual programs’ can have their logics change over time as well via institutional restructuring in policymaking. To demonstrate this, I use Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), later renamed Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), as a case. This program underwent institutional restructuring in 1996 by way of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). I use yearly state-level data from 1984 …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 50, Issue 3 (2023)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Social Determinant Of Health Impact On Diabetes Device Use And Clinical Outcomes In Youth With Type 1 Diabetes, Emily R Crain, Ryan Ramphul, Ashley M Butler, Xiaofan Huang, Charles G Minard, Maria J Redondo, Daniel J Desalvo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Youth with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) who are Black, Hispanic, or lower socioeconomic status (SES) have lower rates of diabetes device use, higher hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and higher rates of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). However, the associations of individual-level social determinants of health (SDoH) and neighborhood-level factors with device use and clinical outcomes are unknown. Area deprivation index (ADI) is a neighborhood level measure of SES reported in deciles (range 1-10 with 10 representing most deprived neighborhood).

Methods: We evaluated the association of ADI and other SDoH factors with pump/continuous glucose monitor (CGM) use, HbA1c, and DKA in 1,461 youth …

Influences Of Race/Ethnicity In Periodontal Treatment Response And Bacterial Distribution, A Cohort Pilot Study, Bing-Yan Wang, Grayson Burgardt, Kavitha Parthasarathy, Daniel K Ho, Robin L Weltman, Gena D Tribble, Jianming Hong, Stanley Cron, Hua Xie

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Periodontitis disproportionately affects different racial and ethnic populations. We have previously reported the higher levels of

METHODS: This prospective cohort pilot study was carried out in an academic setting, at the School of Dentistry, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dental plaque was collected from a total of 75 African Americans, Caucasians and Hispanics periodontitis patients in a 3-year period. Quantitation of

RESULTS: The gains in clinical attachment levels after treatment significantly differed amongst the 3 groups-Caucasians responded most favorably, followed by African-Americans, lastly Hispanics, while numbers of

CONCLUSION: Differential response to nonsurgical periodontal treatment and distribution …

Identification Of Microbiological Factors Associated With Periodontal Health Disparities, Bing-Yan Wang, Aize Cao, Meng-Hsuan Ho, Derek Wilus, Sally Sheng, Hsiu-Wan Meng, Elissa Guerra, Jianming Hong, Hua Xie

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The present study aimed at identifying risk factors associated with periodontitis development and periodontal health disparities with emphasis on differential oral microbiota. The prevalence of periodontitis is recently rising dentate adults in the US, which presents a challenge to oral health and overall health. The risk of developing periodontitis is higher in African Americans (AAs), and Hispanic Americans (HAs) than in Caucasian Americans (CAs). To identify potentially microbiological determinations of periodontal health disparities, we examined the distribution of several potentially beneficial and pathogenic bacteria in the oral cavities of AA, CA, and HA study participants. Dental plaque samples from 340 …

Child Psychological Well-Being And Adult Health Behavior And Body Mass Index, Julia Boehm, Farah Qureshi, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Psychological well-being (PWB) is linked with health behaviors among adults, but it is unclear if childhood PWB prospectively predicts healthy adulthood biobehavioral profiles. Such evidence may identify developmental windows for establishing positive health trajectories across the lifespan. Using data spanning 30 years, we investigated whether PWB at age 11 was associated with health behaviors and body mass index (BMI) at ages 33 and 42. We hypothesized children with higher versus lower PWB would engage in healthier behaviors, have lower BMI in adulthood, and be more likely to maintain optimal levels over time. Method: Data were from 4,728 participants of …