Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions Of Low-Income Parents On Kindergarten Readiness: A Qualitative Study, Farrah Woodberry Owens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a significant amount of research documenting the importance of school readiness and its implication for life-long consequences (Jarrett & Coba-Rodriguez, 2017, 2018; Kang et al., 2017; Malsch et al., 2011). Parents play a critical role in supporting the acquisition of all skills needed to prepare children for school readiness. Readiness refers to being prepared with the necessary skills to access learning (Saracho, 2023). The purpose of this study is to explore the practices and perceptions of low-income parents on kindergarten readiness skills in the Hollywood School District (HSD) as measured by the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA). Students in …

Environmental Change And Population Dynamics Of Small Mammals In Northern Alaska, Jess K. Steketee

Doctoral Dissertations

Rodent populations at northern latitudes undergo cyclic dynamics characterized by high amplitude interannual fluctuations every 3-5 years. Population cycles have puzzled mammalogists for over a century and disentangling their drivers remains a central goal. Understanding which factors drive rodent populations and how these dynamics might change with warming is essential for predicting the impacts of climate change on arctic ecosystems as herbivore pressure shapes plant community composition, soil nutrient availability and carbon concentrations. My research focused on potential drivers of brown lemming (Lemmus trimucronatus) and tundra vole (Microtus oeconomus) population fluctuations in Arctic Alaska. I combined field techniques with laboratory …

Three Essays On Disability Policy And Employment Of People With Disabilities, Xueting Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

The employment of people with disabilities is substantially and persistently lower than the employment of people without disabilities (Burkhauser et al., 2002; Houtenville & Bach, 2024; Livermore & Honeycutt, 2015). In 2022, using American Community Survey data, the employment-to-population ratio of people with disabilities ages 18-64 was 44.5 percent, compared to 78.9 percent for their counterparts without disabilities (Houtenville & Bach, 2024). This dissertation consists of three essays on disability policy and employment of people with disabilities. The first essay (Chapter 2) explores the effect of the Medicaid expansion, authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, on employment …

Special Considerations For The Child With Obesity: An Obesity Medicine Association (Oma) Clinical Practice Statement (Cps) 2024., Suzanne Cuda, Marisa Censani, Valerie O'Hara, Jennifer Paisley, Roohi Kharofa, Rushika Conroy, Brooke Sweeney, Cristina Fernandez Md, Meredith Dreyer, Nancy T. Browne

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: This Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) Clinical Practice Statement (CPS) details assessment and management of the child with overweight or obesity. The term "child" is defined as the child between 2 and 12 years of age. Because children are in a continual state of development during this age range, we will specify when our discussion applies to subsets within this age range. For the purposes of this CPS, we will use the following definitions: overweight in the child is a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 85th andpercentile, obesity in the child is a BMI ≥95th percentile, and severe obesity is …

The Effect Of Woodfiber Additives On Pythium Root Rot And Substrate Microbiome, Isabella Alexandra Borrero

Master's Theses and Capstones

The exponential growth of the greenhouse industry in recent years has led to an increasing demand for economic, “green”, soilless substrates and soilless substrate amendments. To meet this demand, many growers have begun incorporating wood fibers (WFs) into their production systems because they are both economic and renewable. WF’s rise in popularity has motivated an uptick in research focused on understanding how WF amendments affect substrate physical and chemical properties, and how these changes influence plant health, soil-borne disease trends, and microbiome dynamics. Wood fibers have been reported to suppress damping-off of radish caused by Rhizoctonia solani, however, the scope …

Pediatric And Pregnancy-Related Visits At Rural Health Clinics In 2018 Among Medicaid/Chip Enrollees In 20 States, Katherine A. Ahrens Mph, Phd, Zachariah T. Croll, Yvonne Jonk Phd, John Gale, Heidi O'Connor

All Maine Rural Health Research Center Publications

Background: There is limited information on the extent to which Rural Health Clinics (RHC) provide pediatric and pregnancy-related services to individuals enrolled in state Medicaid/CHIP programs. Methods: We used a 100% sample of the 2018 Medicaid Demographic and Eligibility and Other Services Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files for 20 states to estimate pediatric and pregnancy-related services to patients enrolled in state Medicaid/CHIP programs. Results: Among children and young adults enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP in 20 states, around 1 in 10 visited a RHC in 2018. For those living in rural areas, around 1 in 5 visited an RHC …

Control And Management Of Type-Ii Diabetes Among People Living With Hiv (Plwh) Compared To Hiv-Negative Patients And By Clinic Type In The Bronx, Nyc, Aprielle Wills

Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Control and Management of Type-II Diabetes Among People Living with HIV (PLWH) compared to HIV-Negative Patients and by Clinic Type in the Bronx, NYC

by

Aprielle Wills

Advisor: Heidi E Jones, MPH PHD

Background: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that approximately 1.3 million people in the United States (U.S.) were living with an HIV diagnosis by the end of 2021. With advancements of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and improved access to care, HIV has become a chronic condition in the U.S. As PLWH age, they are experiencing higher rates of other chronic conditions, specifically type-II diabetes (type-II …

Examining Well-Being And Healthy Lifestyle Interventions Among Nursing Students Worldwide: A Scoping Review, Christine S. Gipson, Belinda Deal, Michael Skinner

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: The purpose of this scoping review was to identify intervention studies related to well-being and healthy lifestyles in nursing students to identify research gaps in the literature for future research. Methods: The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis, and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews checklist. Five databases were searched to retrieve the articles assessed by this review: APA PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria included articles with a sample population of nursing students; addressed the well-being, wellness, health, or healthy lifestyle(s) …

Let’S Not Be Creative: “Rigid Irac” And The Hidden Power Of Formalistic Legal Writing, Andrew J. Turner

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

When E And G Disagree: Esg Scores Between Hedonic And Utilitarian Firms, Timothy Loomas

Executive DBA Dissertations

How do Environmental (E), Social (S), and Governance (G) scores vary when examined under a hedonic-utilitarian lens? The happiness and guilt associated with hedonic (pleasure oriented) products have been shown to increase altruism and prosocial behavior as compared to utilitarian (need oriented) products. Based on this we examine whether Social- and Environmental-pillar scores for firms associated with hedonic products and/or services will be greater than for firms associated with utilitarian products and/or services. To test these hypotheses, data from the Thompson-Refinitiv ESG database were used to compare the ESG pillar scores between hedonic and utilitarian firms. The research finds higher …

There Is Such A Thing As A Free Lunch, But That Isn't Enough: Incentivizing Elementary School-Age Children To Participate In The Healthy Free Meals Program, Angelia Nava

Executive DBA Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the influence of incentives on school-age children's participation in school meal programs, aiming to understand the impact of different incentive strategies on student behavior. This research delves into the dynamics of reward structures (team versus individual) and their implications on school-age children's short- and long-term participation in school meal programs. We find that both incentives increase meal participation and that the team incentive is more effective than the individual incentive, especially in the short run. We also find that once the incentive is removed that motivation to do the activity also returns to pre- incentive levels.

Dirt/Μ: Automated Extraction Of Root Hair Traits Using Combinatorial Optimization, Peter Pietrzyk, Neen Phan-Udom, Chartinun Chutoe, Lise Pingault, Ankita Roy, Marc Libault, Patompong Johns Saengwilai, Alexander Bucksch

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

As with phenotyping of any microscopic appendages, such as cilia or antennae, phenotyping of root hairs has been a challenge due to their complex intersecting arrangements in two-dimensional images and the technical limitations of automated measurements. Digital Imaging of Root Traits at Microscale (DIRT/μ) is a newly developed algorithm that addresses this issue by computationally resolving intersections and extracting individual root hairs from two-dimensional microscopy images. This solution enables automatic and precise trait measurements of individual root hairs. DIRT/μ rigorously defines a set of rules to resolve intersecting root hairs and minimizes a newly designed cost function to combinatorically identify …

Target Engagement And Immunogenicity Of An Active Immunotherapeutic Targeting Pathological Α-Synuclein: A Phase 1 Placebo-Controlled Trial, Pepijn Eijsvogel, Pinaki Misra, Luis Concha-Marambio, Justin D Boyd, Shuang Ding, Lauren Fedor, Yueh-Ting Hsieh, Yu Shuang Sun, Madeline M Vroom, Carly M Farris, Yihua Ma, Marieke L De Kam, Igor Radanovic, Maurits F J M Vissers, Dario Mirski, Ghazal Shareghi, Mohammad Shahnawaz, Wolfgang Singer, Philip Kremer, Geert Jan Groeneveld, Hui Jing Yu, Jean-Cosme Dodart

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Investigational therapeutics that target toxic species of α-synuclein (αSyn) aim to slow down or halt disease progression in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Here this 44-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, single-center phase 1 study investigated safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of UB-312, an active immunotherapeutic targeting pathological αSyn, in patients with PD. The primary outcome measures were adverse event frequency and change in anti-αSyn antibody titers in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Exploratory outcomes were changes in clinical scales and biomarker-based target engagement as measured by seed amplification assays. Twenty patients were randomized 7:3 (UB-312:placebo) into 300/100/100 μg or 300/300/300 μg (weeks …

Mechanistic Insights Into Metabolic Function Of Dynamin-Related Protein 1, Xin Li, Katherine Pham, Jazmin Ysaguirre, Iqbal Mahmud, Lin Tan, Bo Wei, Long J Shao, Maryam Elizondo, Rabie Habib, Fathima Elizondo, Hiromi Sesaki, Philip L Lorenzi, Kai Sun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1) plays crucial roles in mitochondrial and peroxisome fission. However, the mechanisms underlying the functional regulation of DRP1 in adipose tissue during obesity remain unclear. To elucidate the metabolic and pathological significance of diminished DRP1 in obese adipose tissue, we utilized adipose tissue-specific DRP1 KO mice challenged with a high-fat diet. We observed significant metabolic dysregulations in the KO mice. Mechanistically, DRP1 exerts multifaceted functions in mitochondrial dynamics and endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-lipid droplet crosstalk in normal mice. Loss of function of DRP1 resulted in abnormally giant mitochondrial shapes, distorted mitochondrial membrane structure, and disrupted cristae architecture. Meanwhile, …

An Analysis Of Suspected Microplastics In The Muscle And Gastrointestinal Tissues Of Fish From Sarasota Bay, Fl: Exposure And Implications For Apex Predators And Seafood Consumers, Eric Conger, Miranda Dziobak, Elizabeth J Berens Mccabe, Tita Curtin, Ayushi Gaur, Randall S Wells, John E Weinstein, Leslie B Hart

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Microplastics have been found in the gastrointestinal (GI) fluid of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), inhabiting Sarasota Bay, FL, suggesting exposure by ingestion, possibly via contaminated fish. To better understand the potential for trophic transfer, muscle and GI tissues from 11 species of dolphin prey fish collected from Sarasota Bay were screened for microplastics (particles <5 mm diameter). Suspected microplastics were found in 82% of muscle samples (n=89), and 97% of GI samples (n=86). Particle abundance and shapes varied by species (p<0.05) and foraging habit (omnivore vs. carnivore, p<0.05). Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides) had the highest particle abundance for both tissue types (muscle: 0.38 …

From Turf To Turf: Fungal Invasion Of Ascocoryne Turficola In A Northern Michigan Bog, Evan L. Coscarelli-Trott

All NMU Master's Theses

This is the first paper to report Ascocoryne turficola Boud. 1905 (Helotiales: Ascomycota) within the United States. It is an obligate bog fungus native to Europe and Siberia, where it is extremely rare across most of its range. A. turficola appeared at Lily Pond Bog in Marquette, Michigan (87.47º W, 46.59º N) in 2019, almost contemporaneous with anecdotal reports in Minnesota and Ontario. Since 2019, the Lily Pond population has exploded and become the dominant fungus in this bog but has yet to spread to similar bogs nearby. This species is adapted to long distance dispersal and carries the potential …

Drying Techniques For Precooked Hybrid Rice To Ensure Quality Of Instantized Rice, Anne Adhiambo Okeyo, Kaushik Luthra, Justin Siebenmorgen, Alan R. Vazquez, Griffiths Atungulu

Food Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background and Objectives

Due to the emergence of new hybrid rice cultivars, rice processors must refine their processing protocols to maintain the production of high-quality products. This is crucial for the instant rice processing industry. Therefore, this study aims to refine current convective heated air-drying processing methods to suit the new hybrid rice cultivars intended for instant rice production. New strategies to dry cooked rice were investigated. These included drying in a stepwise manner with high (230–200°C) and medium (190–160°C) air temperatures and drying at constant high (200°C) and medium (160°C) air temperatures. Changes in quality attributes of two new …

Nrsg 246.50: Health And Illness Of Child And Family Nursing, Ginger M. Sillars

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Hemp Regulates The Fitness Of Corn Earworm (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) And Its Tachinid (Diptera) Parasitoids, Armando Falcon-Brindis, Raul Villanueva

Entomology Faculty Publications

Pest management on hemp is still in its infancy, and biological control options are limited. Helicoverpa zea (corn earworm) is one of the key pests of hemp cultivated outdoors, especially on cultivars grown for cannabinoids and grain. In a three-year study, we assessed the effect of diet on the performance of H. zea and its tachinid parasitoids. Parasitized (bearing fly eggs) and unparasitized (without eggs) H. zea larvae were fed on hemp flowers or an artificial diet. Five tachinid species parasitized H. zea larvae, but the most abundant species were Winthemia rufopicta (68.8%) and Lespesia aletiae (28.3%). Overall, 55.2% of …

The Web Of Life - Volume 8

be Still

No abstract provided.

To Which We Return, Marianne Koleng

be Still

This work is an attempt to reconcile the vibrance of life as evidenced by the colorful collage and bismuth crystal with death, which is portrayed by a somber skull emerging from an aorta and ventricles of a human heart. Understanding the temporal nature of our existence is key to subtle references to beauty and imperfection latent in the background of this image to cue the idea of beauty in life and death to the viewer.

Going Under, Marianne Koleng

be Still

This paper is a meditation on a journey through the humanities and the pages of the works of the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the eventual conclusion to a pursuit of a medical career. It identifies that while not all paths to a similar endpoint are identical, but each has its own rich merits, twists, and turns.

From Seed To Sourdough And Barley To Beer: Values-Based Grain Supply Chain Models To Support Mid-Scale Farm Viability In The Upper Northeast, Elise Neidecker

Master's Theses and Capstones

The industrialization and commodification of grains has had major environmental, health, and economic implications. Pushing back against this commodity system, alternative grain networks are emerging in the form of collaborations between farmers, millers, bakers, maltsters, and brewers creating localized grain supply chains. These grain chains are part of a broader movement toward the development of values-based supply chains in the food system, in which business partners form long-term, strategic partnerships based on shared extra-economic values like sustainability and equity and deliver value-added and differentiated products that allow farmers to capture a price premium. Despite the presence of localized grain chains …

Justifying Redistributive Regulations, Jack Lienke

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Conventional cost-benefit analysis asks whether a regulation’s total benefits exceed its total costs but not whether those benefits and costs are distributed fairly across society. The traditional justification for this indifference to equity is that distributional concerns are most efficiently addressed through the tax-and-transfer system. Agencies issuing regulations, the story goes, should focus on growing the pie (i.e., increasing aggregate welfare). If the regulation that yields the largest pie also yields inequitably apportioned slices, Congress can correct the problem with taxes and transfers.

But Congress often asks agencies to fill in the details of its transfer programs with regulations, such …

Ketogenic Diets Hold Therapeutic Potential Against Periodontal Inflammation, Shaswata Karmakar, Shivaprasad, Ramya Arangaraju, Baishakhi Modak

Open Access archive

Purpose of Review: Periodontitis, one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, is caused by the accumulation of dysbiotic microbial biofilm on the teeth leading to chronic inflammation of the tissues surrounding the teeth. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity, chronic stress, and smoking are some of the risk factors for the disease. A high-carbohydrate diet also increases the risk of periodontal inflammation. Modifying diet and nutrition could serve as a preventive and therapeutic tool to target multiple risk factors simultaneously. Recent Findings: Emerging evidence shows that the ketogenic diet induces hormetic stress and switches on various cell-protective anti-inflammatory …

Nasogastric Tube Insertion Aid, Lauren S. Ark, Angela D. Biezins, Zachary B. Crum, Claire E. Nodine, Morgan N. Pope, Natsumi L. Shudo

Biomedical Engineering

The Nasogastric Tube Insertion Aid project, developed under the sponsorship of the BiCEP Program at California Polytechnic State University, aims to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of nasogastric (NG) tube placement. This initiative was inspired by challenges observed during the BiCEP summer program, where difficulties in NG tube insertions led to multiple attempts, increased patient discomfort, and serious medical risks, including lung punctures and brain trauma. The project's goal was to design an insertion aid that improves placement accuracy while being cost-effective and user-friendly for medical professionals. The device features an external tensioning mechanism that allows controlled deflection of the …

Impact Of Agricultural Trade Liberalization On Food Consumption Patterns In The Philippines, Ma. Rafaella T. David, Cara Isabel P. Del Rosario, Kate Alexandra R. Fabro, Rona Mae Paula H. Martin, Mitzie Irene P. Conchada, Caesar Cororaton, Ma. Ella Oplas, Marites Tiongco

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

No abstract provided.

Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index Predicts Postoperative Delirium In Elderly: A Meta-Analysis, Siye Xie, Qi Wu

Saudi Medical Journal

Objectives: To review current evidence on using the geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) in predicting postoperative delirium (POD) in elderly patients. Methods: The literature search was performed in core databases to include all the cohort studies on the association between GNRI and risk of POD for further meta-analysis. Results: A total of 6 studies with 4242 patients underwent this meta-analysis, which showed that the risk of POD was higher in patients with moderate and high GNRI than the ones with low GNRI (odds ratio [OR]=2.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.58, 2.64], p <0.001), and moderate and high GNRI significantly increased the risk of POD in patients of 60 to 75 years or above [OR=1.98, 95%CI (1.49, 2.62), p <0.001; OR=2.79, 95%CI (1.38, 5.64), p =0.004, respectively]. Conclusion: Therefore, moderate and high GNRI increased the risk of POD in elderly patients.

Pathways To Learning In Data-Based Policy Innovation Labs, Sojeong Kim, Tanya Heikkila, Adam Wellstead

Michigan Tech Publications

In recent years, policy innovation labs (PILs) have emerged to develop greater capacity for addressing pressing public policy problems and achieving policy objectives. An implicit assumption is that PILs can bring new data and evidence to support policy learning. Policy learning enables individuals, organizations, and systems to advance their capacity to achieve policy objectives and produce desirable policy outcomes. We investigate the role of policy learning in “data-based” PILs, which address the growing interest in big data and advanced technologies to address public policy issues. With a focus on applying new information and data systems technologies to assess public policy …

Age-Induced Changes In Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Dna Synthesis, Quantity, And Quality In Genetically Unique Rats, Robert V. Musci, Jordan D. Fuqua, Frederick F. Peelor Iii, Hoang Van Michelle Nguyen, Arlan Richardson, Solbie Choi, Benjamin F. Miller, Jonathan Wanagat

Health and Human Sciences Faculty Works

Mitochondrial genomic integrity is a key element of physiological processes and health. Changes in the half-life of the mitochondrial genome are implicated in the generation and accumulation of age-induced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations, which are implicated in skeletal muscle aging and sarcopenia. There are conflicting data on the half-life of mtDNA, and there is limited information on how aging affects half-life in skeletal muscle. We hypothesized that skeletal muscle mtDNA synthesis rates would decrease with age in both female and male rats concomitant with changes in mtDNA integrity reflected in mtDNA copy number and mutation frequency. We measured mitochondrial genome …