Digital Commons Network^™

Mental Health Among D1 Female College Athletes: Prevalance And Links To Athletic And Academic Performance, Mary Goebel

Honors Theses

Background. NCAA Division I female student-athletes are underrepresented in mental health research; existing research among female athletes tends to focus only on disordered eating and body appearance. This study aims to 1) describe the prevalence of mental health issues (i.e., anxiety, depression, and stress) among female Division I college athletes, and 2) assess the association between mental health issues and the student-athlete experience (i.e., athletic and academic performance).

Methods. This was a quantitative, cross-sectional study that used a self-administered online survey. The participants were NCAA Division I female student-athletes, mainly from the University of Mississippi. Demographics and sample characteristics were …

Aligning Investments To Improve Population Health: A Statewide Strategy To Address The Social Determinants Of Health, Michael E. Swack, Sarah Boege, Kevin Barnett

Carsey Publications

In this report, authors Michael Swack, Sarah Boege, and Kevin Barnett discuss the initiative to develop a statewide strategy to address the social determinants of health in New Hampshire. Launched in 2020, this project is a collaboration between the Center for Impact Finance at the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH, the Center to Advance Community Health and Equity (CACHE) at the Public Health Institute, the Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH, and the New Hampshire Hospital Association/Foundation for Healthy Communities. Michael Swack, director of the Center for Impact Finance at the Carsey School, serves as the …

Oral Health Literacy: A Tool To Reduce Oral Health Disparities Among Californians, Rubina Bukhari

Master's Projects and Capstones

Oral health is the health of the mouth, cheeks, teeth, and their supporting structure within the oral cavity. It helps in performing day-to-day routine functions such as swallowing, tasting, chewing, talking, and making a wide array of complex facial expressions. Apart from performing everyday functions, oral health is a crucial contributor to the overall state of well-being and good quality of life. It is measured by oral conditions such as tooth decay, gum disease (Periodontal), and oral cancers. Tooth decay and cavity formations are the most prevalent oral health conditions which affect people of all age groups. However, children are …

Effects Of Prenatal Pesticide Exposure On The Fetal Brain And Placenta Transcriptomes In A Rodent Model, Corina Lesseur, Kirtan Kaur, Sean D Kelly, Karen Hermetz, Randy Williams, Ke Hao, Carmen J Marsit, W Michael Caudle, Jia Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides are among the most extensively used insecticides worldwide. Prenatal exposures to both classes of pesticides have been linked to a wide range of neurobehavioral deficits in the offspring. The placenta is a neuroendocrine organ and the crucial regulator of the intrauterine environment; early-life toxicant exposures could impact neurobehavior by disrupting placental processes. Female C57BL/6 J mice were exposed via oral gavage to an organophosphate, chlorpyrifos (CPF) at 5 mg/kg, a pyrethroid, deltamethrin (DM), at 3 mg/kg, or vehicle only control (CTL). Exposure began two weeks before breeding and continued every three days until euthanasia at gestational …

Report: Evaluation Of Seal!Nd: School Year 2021-2022: North Dakota Department Of Health Oral Health Program’S School-Based Dental Sealant Program, Shawnda Schroeder, Tonya Connor

Indigenous Health Faculty Publications

The North Dakota Department of Health (DoH)a Oral Health Program (OHP)b has established a school-based dental sealant program, (SEAL!ND)c , which has been providing dental sealants, fluoride varnish applications, oral health education and dental screenings and referrals for students throughout North Dakota dating back to 2012. All services occur in the school during school hours. School-based sealant programs are a highly effective way to deliver preventive oral health services and dental sealants to children less likely to receive private dental care. The SEAL!ND program prioritizes providing preventive oral health care to low-income and underserved students by targeting schools with 45% …

Agricultural Shocks On Household Stability: A Case Study Of Tanzania Maize Farmers, Zimmi Ndlovu

Master's Theses

As the global populations grow, the need for stronger agricultural resilience in areas with high food insecurity like Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a must. Crop failure due to climate related events has increased substantially over the past decade, raising the risks to vulnerable groups like subsistence farmers. Understanding the effects of climate variability on farmers and their crops is a pivotal step towards increasing resilience and productivity. In this paper I approach this question using a Linear Probability Fixed-effects Model on Tanzanian Panel Survey data with monthly temperature and precipitation for years 2008 to 2013. Results suggest a negative relationship …

The Physical Health Of People With Co-Occurring Serious Mental Illness And Substance Use Disorders, Mark R. Hawes

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

People with serious mental illness (SMI; e.g., schizophrenia) die 10–25 years earlier than people in the general population largely due to chronic medical conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease [CVD]), and having a co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD) increases this risk even further compared to having either disorder alone. This is concerning since 50% of people with SMI will be diagnosed with a co-occurring SUD in their lifetime and 40%-80% are current tobacco smokers. Healthy lifestyle interventions can improve the health of people with SMI by offering a package of services aimed at improving physical activity, dietary habits, and engagement in health …

Examining Immigrant Experiences In Asset Building: Implications For Asset-Based Policies, Yingying Zeng

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The economic integration of immigrants has long interested researchers and policymakers, with late but now growing attention on their asset- and wealth-building. Current research on immigrants’ asset building has largely focused on their individual-level characteristics, and not much on opportunities and constraints related to policy arrangements. This dissertation addresses the selection, adaptation, and impacts of immigration, with a goal to expand knowledge about asset-based social welfare policy in light of immigrants’ experiences. This investigation leverages two nationally representative datasets, the New Immigrant Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997), to understand immigrants’ asset accumulation and intergenerational wealth mobility. …

Developing Genetic Tools For Engineered Probiotics, Matthew Brooks Amrofell

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The gut microbiome is increasingly understood to play a key role in human health. Commensal gut microbes influence immunity, pathogen colonization, digestion, and brain chemistry, to name a few impacts on host physiology. As such, efforts to diagnose and treat diseases through manipulation of the microbiome are becoming more commonplace. To date, these efforts revolve around introducing defined native consortia or a single engineered strain. Engineered strains, compared to consortia, offer the advantages of known mechanisms of action, more predictable pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and easier manufacturing, among others. Safe and effective engineered strains should sense and respond to the gut …

Effect Of Obesity And Insulin Resistance On Glucose And Fatty Acid Metabolism, Chao Cao

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

In people with obesity, insulin resistance of glucose and fatty acid metabolism is common and it is thought that insulin resistance of fatty acid metabolism is involved in causing insulin resistance of glucose metabolism and subsequently hyperglycemia through a mechanism referred to as “lipotoxicity”. However, in many individuals with obesity and insulin resistance fasting plasma glucose and free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations are not elevated. It is widely believed that pancreatic beta-cells detect the need to increase insulin secretion in order to compensate for the impaired insulin action caused by insulin resistance in these people, whereas beta-cell dysfunction results in …

Correction Of T-Cell Repertoire And Autoimmune Diabetes In Nod Mice By Non-Myeloablative T-Cell Depleted Allogeneic Hsct, Rakefet Sidlik Muskatel, Bar Nathansohn-Levi, Shlomit Reich-Zeliger, Michal Mark, Liat Stoler-Barak, Chava Rosen, Irit Milman-Krentsis, Esther Bachar Lustig, Robert Pete Gale, Nir Friedman, Yair Reisner

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The induction of partial tolerance toward pancreatic autoantigens in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) can be attained by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). However, most patients treated by autologous HSCT eventually relapse. Furthermore, allogeneic HSCT which could potentially provide a durable non-autoimmune T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire is associated with a substantial risk for transplant-related mortality. We have previously demonstrated an effective approach for attaining engraftment without graft versus host disease (GVHD) of allogeneic T-cell depleted HSCT, following non-myeloablative conditioning, using donor-derived anti-3rd party central memory CD8 veto T cells (Tcm). In the present study, we investigated …

Validity Of Fitbit And Garmin Devices While Ascending And Descending Flights Of Stairs, Alan Garcia

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Two popular wearable fitness device brands are Fitbit and Garmin. The validity of Fitbit and Garmin’s wrist-worn devices in measuring step counts in various settings, such as walking up and down a staircase, is unclear. PURPOSE: To determine if four devices, the Fitbit Charge 2, Fitbit Versa 2, Garmin Fēnix 5 and Garmin Vívosmart HR+ record valid measures of step count when ascending and descending flights of stairs at three different speeds. METHODS: Twenty-eight participants (n=28) were tested individually. Two devices were randomly selected to be placed on each wrist. Participants climbed up and then down one, two, and three …

Three Essays On Public Attitudes Toward Federal Agencies, Zoe Ang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three papers on public attitudes toward US federal agencies. In the first, entitled ``Political Influences of Public Attitudes toward Federal Agencies,'' I argue that individuals rely on agency-adjacent political information to form their attitudes because bureaucratic politics are relatively low-salience and individuals hold little specific knowledge with which to evaluate agencies. Using nationally representative surveys administered from 2007 to 2018, I find that individuals rely on political information to evaluate agencies. Copartisanship with the president and one's ideology, and to a lesser extent partisanship, influence attitudes toward agencies; this effect persists over time but varies …

Function And Regulation Of Virulence-Associated Siderophores In Uropathogenic Enterobacterales, James Robert Heffernan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Siderophores are small molecules created by fungi and bacterial cells to help obtain iron. This may extend to cells in iron-limiting environments within host organisms. Certain siderophores are associated with increased virulence in urinary tract infections (UTIs). Siderophore system activity is typically regulated by feedback inhibition via ferric uptake regulator (Fur) which, in the presence of cytosolic iron, binds to a ~19 base pair inverted DNA repeat (9-1-9) called a Fur box. Once bound to this motif, the iron-Fur complex suppresses siderophore expression when adequate bacterial iron status is achieved. Many organisms produce more than one siderophore, and in the …

Dynamics Of Epithelial Differentiation Following Intestinal Villus Injury, Takahiro Erick Ohara

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Millions of finger-like structures called villi line the small intestine, providing an enormous surface area for rapid and efficient nutrient absorption. Collapse of the villus architecture, known as villus atrophy, is often observed in response to pathogen invasion, inflammation, medications, and ischemia due to loss of intestinal epithelial cells, resulting in symptoms of diarrhea and malabsorption. Though removal of the inciting agent generally allows for near complete tissue recovery, some individuals take longer to restore their villi, a condition known as persistent villus atrophy, for reasons that are unknown. How intestinal villi cope with tissue damage and re-establish their structure …

Loneliness And Social Networks Of Older Adults In Rural Communities: A Narrative Synthesis Systematic Review, Basharat Hussain, Mahrukh Mirza, Rebecca Baines, Lorna Burns, Sebastian Stevens, Sheena Asthana, Arunangsu Chatterjee

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction: Loneliness has significant impacts on the health of older adults. Social networks help to improve psychosocial and quality of life outcomes among older adults. A fifth of older adults live in rural communities, where geographic isolation poses challenges to health. The dynamics of social networks of older adults in rural communities has not been explored. Objective: To synthesize the literature related to loneliness and social networks of older adults in rural settings. Methods: A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted through searching six bibliographic databases to retrieve peer-reviewed literature with no time limits. We performed a methodological assessment of each …

Developing Tools For The Implementation And Evaluation Of Participatory Worker Health Promotion Interventions, Ryan J. Walsh

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

The chronic disease burden among American workers leads to substantial expenditures on healthcare, lost productivity at work, and reduced quality of life. Workers from communities of lower socioeconomic status (SES) shoulder a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases and costs. A promising strategy for addressing this population health burden is to develop and implement participatory worker health promotion interventions in workplaces. Part of this effort to develop and implement these programs entails improving the quality of evaluation tools and approaches. Thus, we completed a series of secondary analyses of a large participatory worker health promotion program trial called Working For You. …

Role Of Fish Oil In Paternal Obesity And In Offspring Skeletal Muscle Health, Ligeng Xiong

Theses - ALL

This study investigates the effects of fish oil in father male mice and how it could potentially affect skeletal muscle health of the next generation. Thirty male mice were fed either a low fat diet (LF), High-Fat Diet (HF), and a High-Fat diet supplemented with fish oil (FO) for 10 weeks to mimic paternal obesity. They were then mated with female mice on chow diet and all mice consumed chow diet during gestation and lactation. Offspring mice were supplemented with chow diet for 16 weeks and half of the mice were sacrificed at 8-weeks and rest at 16-weeks to study …

Implementation Of A Biometric Screening Program And Wellness Coaching Program In A Hospital Employee Wellness Center, Carl Gastanes

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Background: Wellness programs are an emerging priority among organizations concerned about employee wellness and productivity. Data from Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) revealed that in 2019 there were 1,690 employee visits to the ER due to chronic diseases; 30% were classified as ER sick visit and 40% of employees who visited the ER had no primary care provider. Many companies use biometric screening and health risk assessment to measure the health of their employees. The purpose of this improvement project was to implement a biometric screening program (BSP) that included wellness coaching to improve the health outcomes of LIJMC …

Design, Synthesis, And Characterization Of Monomeric Peptide Multiagonists For The Mitigation Of Cns-Associated Side Effects In The Treatment Of Type Ii Diabetes And Obesity, Kylie Sloane Chichura

Dissertations - ALL

Current treatments for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity do not reliably achieve long-termweight-loss and up to 50% of patients experience nausea and vomiting. Thus, there is a critical need for obesity medications that provide glycemic control with enhanced weight loss and without sideeffects. We recently reported on the development of EP45, a first in class monomeric peptide drug, which displayed glucoregulation and profound weight loss in rats, and an absence of visceral malaise in shrews, a mammalian model capable of vomiting (unlike rats). By targeting multiple weight-loss and glucoregulatory pathways simultaneously with a single drug, GEP44, we can …

Essays On The Gender Wage Gap In China And The Returns To Higher Education In The United States, Rui Xu

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation presents three separate essays. The first two essays explore the gender wage gap and its dynamics in urban China from 1995 to 2018. The first chapter decomposes the gender wage gap based on the observed wage for workers with a precise measure of the hourly wages. The first chapter examines the observed average gender wage gap in China in hourly wages from 1995 to 2018. Using data from the China Household Income Survey (CHIP) 1995 – 2013 and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) 2014 and 2018. This chapter computes wage earners' working hours and hourly wages based …

The Effects Of Aloe Vera On The Human Gut Microbiome, Samantha Leon

Honors Theses

The human gut microbiome is a diverse community of bacteria influenced by multiple factors including host age, geographical location, and diet. This study observed the effects of aloe vera juice on the human gut microbiome. Fecal samples were taken every two weeks over a period of one year; the subject consumed aloe vera juice in alternating cycles of consumption “on” and abstaining “off” with each cycle lasting for eight weeks. The bacterial community in each sample was characterized using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Sequences were identified and their relative abundances were used to look for patterns distinguishing “on” and “off” …

Associations Between Tiktok Use, Mental Health, And Body Image Among College Students, Alexz Carpenter

Honors Theses

Background. Social media use continues to increase globally, and there is a large field of research examining the relationships between social media use with anxiety, depression, and body image. College-aged students are particularly vulnerable to these associations because they are at a unique developmental point of their life. College-aged students also use social media more frequently than almost any other age group, which may put them at increased risk for negative mental health and body image outcomes related to their social media use. TikTok is a relatively new social media app that has exponentially risen in popularity, especially among younger …

From Avoidance To Healing: The Portrayal Of Death In Contemporary Children's Literature, Jiayun Xu

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines the portrayal of death in children's literature from three different perspectives. Firstly, it explores how authors approached the topic during the Victorian era when death was an everyday reality due to rampant diseases. Secondly, it analyzes how authors depict death in different ways, including involuntary death, the pursuit of the sublime, and the nature of life cycle. Thirdly, it explores how authors address children's psychological states when dealing with death, including reducing pre-death pain, using poetic expression, promoting healing from grief, and associating memory loss with death. Finally, the author creates a children's book that confronts the …

Hungry For Student Food Security: A Comparative Analysis Of University Food Pantry Policies, Anastasia Jones-Burdick

Honors Theses

This undergraduate research thesis aims to explore the relationship between public institutions of higher education and the operational policies of their university food pantries. The increasing rates of nontraditional students entering public universities correlate to an increasing population of students facing food insecurity, placing strain on institutional interventions, especially university food pantries (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015; Nazmi et al., 2019, p.2). This research conducted a qualitative comparative case analysis of university food pantry policies and semistructured interviews with pantry informants through a USDA-adapted evaluative framework to understand the evolution of public universities’ interventions (Barale et al., 2017). The …

Key Barriers To University-Enrolled Student Parents Enhanced By The Covid-19 Pandemic, Khadeejah Franklin, Alexa Saval

Honors Theses

Student parents, both undergraduate and graduate, already face the difficult task of balancing their studies and raising children. The COVID-19 pandemic enhanced already present issues student parents face, such as virtual-schooling, daycare costs and closings, staying home with sick children, and potentially not having a local support system, among others. Further, students who are performing laboratory research to fulfill their STEM educational requirements had their
research progress come to a halt when the country locked down. This study aims to identify the struggles student parents faced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, what issues the pandemic exacerbated, and what new problems …

An Analysis Of The Sensory Characteristics And Microbial Constituents Of Kefir, Katherine Quay Robinson

Honors Theses

Kefir is a fermented beverage produced using sugar water or milk, kefir grains, either water kefir grains or milk kefir grains, respectively, and microbial aggregates consisting of diverse bacteria and yeasts. As kefir and fermented beverages in general are increasing in popularity, research related to optimal sensory characteristics and consumer-approval is vital. Desirable sensory characteristics for kefir beverages include low sour taste/aroma, high sweetness, carbonation, and high viscosity (Surja et al., 2019; Margareth et al., 2020). Production methods of kefir can alter sensory characteristics, but sensory characteristics are likely strongly influenced by the microbial composition of the grains/product. Thus, an …

Identification And Assessment Of Fixed Versus Growth Mindsets In Human And Anatomy Physiology Undergraduate Students, Jayanti Shukla

Honors Theses

Fixed mindsets and growth mindsets are present in individual’s attitudes, affecting their motivations to complete responsibilities or overcome challenges. In this study, we aim to identify and assess the mindsets of undergraduate students partaking in the Human Anatomy and Physiology (HAP) undergraduate course at the University of Mississippi, the gateway course being well-known for its difficulty and being described as “daunting” to many allied-health majors. By utilizing Carol Dweck’s growth mindset model, we are interested in determining whether students possess a “fixed” mindset versus a “growth” mindset, in conjunction to assessing their classroom performance correlating with that demonstrated mindset. An …

Adulting While Disabled, J Dalton Stevens

Dissertations - ALL

What adulthood goals do young disabled people set and what factors shape their goal setting and achievement? To answer these questions, I conducted 29 life history interviews with young disabled Millennials and analyzed them using an iterative grounded theory approach. My analysis is informed by social ecological theory, life course theory, and biopsychosocial models of disability to gain an understanding of how the social world shapes respondents’ movement through the transition to adulthood in the context of disability. I find that disabled Millennials pursue a diverse array of goals across personal, health, educational, economic, residential, relational, and community domains. However, …

The Biophysics Of Bacterial Collective Motion: Measuring Responses To Mechanical And Genetic Cues, Merrill Einar Asp

Dissertations - ALL

Mechanobiology is an emerging field investigating mechanical signals as a necessary component of cellular and developmental regulation. These mechanical signals play a well-established role in the differentiation of animal cells, whereby cells with identical genes specialize their function and create distinct tissues depending on the physical properties of their environment, such as shear stiffness. These differences arise from the cell’s ability to use those incoming signals to inform which genes it expresses and what molecular machinery it builds and activates. Understanding the various missing factors that cause cells with specific genes to express an emergent phenotype is termed the genotype-to-phenotype …