Digital Commons Network^™

Witnessing The Evolution Of Rna, Xavier Portillo

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The RNA World theory postulates that at a certain point around 4 billion years ago during an RNA World period, a molecule, possibly RNA, developed the ability to self-replicate via polymerization. The theory also suggests that all extant life evolved from this initial RNA-based predecessor. No geological evidence from this RNA World period remains, and a self-replicating RNA polymerase has yet to be discovered or created. However, there is ample evidence from extant life pointing to an RNA-based predecessor. For example, the ribosome is a ribozyme, RNA functions as precursor signaling molecules, riboswitches regulate transcription and translation, and many more. …

Phenol Exposure And Time To Pregnancy, Early Pregnancy Loss, And The Periconceptional Urinary Metabolome, Ana Katherine Rosen Vollmar

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Phenols are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that have been used in everyday consumer products for decades. Exposure is widespread, with detectable levels in populations worldwide. Studies suggest phenols can influence reproductive function through endocrine-disrupting mechanisms. This dissertation focuses on seven less-studied phenols: methyl paraben (MPB), propyl paraben (PPB), butyl paraben (BPB), triclosan (TCS), benzophenone-3 (BP-3), 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP-24), and 2,5-dichlorophenol (DCP-25). These chemicals are found in a range of products including foods, personal care products, cosmetics, soaps, sunscreens, herbicides, and mothballs. Despite plausible mechanisms by which phenols could impact reproductive function, there are inconsistent results across limited epidemiologic studies. Though metabolomics is a …

Contact Tracing In The Era Of Covid-19: Implementation Of Traditional Strategies In Novel Contexts And Innovative Approaches To Address Existing Barriers, Tyler James Shelby

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Background: Contact tracing is an evidence-based intervention that became a core component of many COVID-19 response plans throughout the globe. Despite its demonstrated success within other disease contexts, early studies of COVID-19 contact tracing have reported mixed results regarding the effectiveness and impact of contact tracing on ultimate pandemic objectives such as case incidence or mortality. Yet, there remains a knowledge gap regarding contextual factors that influence implementation outcomes of contact tracing that may in turn influence its ultimate impact. The primary objective of this dissertation is to address this knowledge deficit by evaluating an emergency contact tracing program developed …

Understanding Liberty: The Constitution’S Neoliberal Turn, Amanda Shanor

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The three major essays and two smaller pieces that form this dissertation focus on the recent deregulatory turn in U.S. constitutional law. They analyze changing, and often competing, understandings of liberty and its relationship to concepts of welfare, choice, democracy, and the purposes of the state. Over the past forty years plaintiffs have increasingly invoked the Constitution, and the free speech clause in particular, in efforts to avoid economic regulation. Areas of life that were once thought irrelevant to the Constitution have become the fodder of pitched litigation, circuit splits, top appellate practices, and United States Supreme Court review. This …

Deep Risk Prediction And Embedding Of Patient Data: Application To Acute Gastrointestinal Bleeding, Dennis Shung

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Acute gastrointestinal bleeding is a common and costly condition, accounting for over 2.2 million hospital days and 19.2 billion dollars of medical charges annually. Risk stratification is a critical part of initial assessment of patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding. Although all national and international guidelines recommend the use of risk-assessment scoring systems, they are not commonly used in practice, have sub-optimal performance, may be applied incorrectly, and are not easily updated. With the advent of widespread electronic health record adoption, longitudinal clinical data captured during the clinical encounter is now available. However, this data is often noisy, sparse, and heterogeneous. …

Three Essays In African Politics, Constantine Msisiri Manda

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation advances scholarship on identity politics in sub-Saharan Africa by showing how characteristics of ethnic groups interact with historical events to produce new identities, beliefs and behaviors. Comparisons are centered either on political hierarchy; relative size of ethnic groups; and political, economic, and geographic dimensions with relevant decisions made by pre-colonial and post-colonial African political rulers as they select the extent to which they may use religion to justify their political rule; the extent to which they may favor co-ethnics in cabinets; and the extent to which they take appropriate actions or implement appropriate policies as it relates to …

Structural Origins Of The Stiffness And Work Contributions Of The Human Foot, Ali Yawar

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Human foot mechanics have been extensively studied over the last century to understand human evolution and treat foot pathologies.Much of this understanding has centered on the foot's longitudinal arch that runs from heel to toe, especially its role in making human feet stiff enough to withstand many times our bodyweight during walking and running. But numerous studies on foot biomechanics, orthopedic surgical reconstructions, and human evolution point to substantial gaps in the understanding based on the longitudinal arch alone. In this thesis, I present two new findings related to foot stiffness and how it produces the mechanical power needed for …

Econometric Methods For Program Evaluation And Policy Choice, Kohei Yata

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation presents two essays on econometric methods for program evaluation and policy choice. In Chapter 1, I develop a statistically optimal way of using data to make policy decisions when the performance of counterfactual policies is only partially identified. Specifically, I consider a class of statistical decision problems in which the policy maker must decide between two alternative policies to maximize social welfare (e.g., the population mean of an outcome) based on a finite sample. The central assumption is that the underlying, possibly infinite-dimensional parameter, lies in a known convex set, potentially leading to partial identification of the welfare …

Mixed Methods Evaluation Of Data Systems For Tuberculosis In Uganda, Elizabeth Bennett White

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Surveillance is a cornerstone of public health, providing the data required to monitor disease trends, evaluate the impact of interventions, inform policy, and guide programmatic decision making. In order for this data to be informative and useful, however, it must be timely, accurate, and complete. In the context of tuberculosis (TB), which continues to cause millions of cases of disease and deaths each year, surveillance data is known to have gaps including undercounting cases and incomplete reporting by health facilities. To accelerate TB control and elimination, reliable data is needed to improve quality of TB care. Furthermore, challenges with unique …

Dissecting The Contributions Of Langerhans Cells To Skin Wound Healing And The Angiogenic Niche, Renee R. Wasko

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Mammalian skin is complex, heterogeneous, and essential for survival. It is the primary barrier that protects us from physical, microbial, and chemical hazards, and must therefore be highly regenerative. When skin is wounded, healing occurs through a series of temporally-overlapping and tightly regulated stages of inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels, occurs during the proliferative phase of repair and is essential for the formation of new, healthy tissue. Blood vessels are a vital source of oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells, and failure of these vessels to regenerate after injury results in chronic, …

Towards Understanding The Mechanism Of Wolbachia-Induced Cytoplasmic Incompatibility, Mengwen Zhang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Wolbachia is a vertically transmitted intracellular bacterium that infects a large number of arthropods and filarial nematodes. Many strains of Wolbachia manipulate host reproduction through cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI). In its simplest form, CI is a phenomenon where male host infected with Wolbachia cannot produce viable offspring with uninfected females; this apparent sterility is restored when the male host mates with Wolbachia-infected females—a phenomenon called rescue. Since Wolbachia is transmitted through the female germline, CI helps Wolbachia propagate in the host population. These properties of CI have been utilized in Wolbachia-based methods to control mosquito-borne diseases such as Dengue and Zika …

Machine Learning Methods To Estimate Whole-Brain Effective Connectome For Asd Identification, Juntang Zhuang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is widely used to study neural-developmental diseases such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There are mainly two types of connectome to analyze fMRI: the Functional Connectome (FC) and the Effective Connectome (EC). FC is typically derived as the correlation between fMRI time-series from different brain regions, while EC is derived by fitting the measurement time-series to the Dynamical Causal Model (DCM) described by a system of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). FC is typically easier to compute yet can not reveal the causal relations among brain regions; EC reveals the causal relations yet is much harder …

Essays On Regulation, Antitrust, And Managers, Jinjie Lin

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

In the first chapter of my dissertation, I present the evidence of the effect of financial regulators’ social media use on corporate and individual behavior. Using the staggered launch of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regional offices’ Twitter accounts, I find that financial regulators’ presence on social media reduces opportunistic insider trading, customer complaints against investment advisers, and financial misreporting. Additional tests suggest that the salience and dissemination of regional offices’ enforcement activities via Twitter play a role. The deterrence effect of SEC regional offices’ Twitter use is concentrated among offices with more followers, firms with more retail investors, …

Genetic Covariance Analysis Reveals Heterogeneous Etiologic Sharing Of Complex Traits: Theory, Methodology And Applications, Yiliang Zhang

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Over the past fifteen years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified tens of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with complex human traits and diseases. Besides the success in finding risk loci, the estimation of genetic covariance based on collected GWAS data also provides insights into the genetic basis of complex traits/diseases. Genetic covariance is the covariance of genetic effects contributing to two phenotypes. Methods based on linear mixed model (LMM) in conjunction with the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) algorithm have been developed to estimate these two quantities of significant genetic interests. However, methods based on LMM have only gained …

Modulation Of T Cells To Promote An Anti-Tumor Response: Activation And Inhibition Of T Cells For Efficacy In T-Cell Lymphomas And Melanoma, Samuel Robert Kerr

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Cancer is the leading cause of premature death in the United States and other developed countries. Current decreases in cancer mortality rates are largely being driven by immunotherapies, which leverage an understanding of T cell activation and inhibition to produce an anti-tumor response. T-cell-based therapies may help decrease mortality rates even further. CAR T cell therapies and T cell activators like bispecific T-cell engagers and dendritic cell vaccines have increased survival in patients otherwise out of treatment options. While these therapies have been successful for niche patient populations, applying these therapies to wider patient populations has been difficult. In a …

Dissecting The Impact Of Clonal Hematopoiesis On Age-Related Disease, Seyedeh Maryam Zekavat

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Aging is the strongest risk factor for a number of diseases. Despite current risk prediction, prevention, and therapeutic strategies, age-related diseases including coronary artery disease (CAD), cancer, and now COVID-19, are the leading causes of death in the US and worldwide. The aging hematopoietic system is characterized by increased prevalence of acquired somatic variants predisposing to clonal expansion. Carriers of somatic mutations predisposing to clonal expansion in hematopoietic stem cells (clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, CHIP) are at increased risk for not only hematologic cancer but also atherosclerosis. Other classes of somatic variation besides CHIP, including larger somatic structural variants …

A Panel Data Analysis Of The Effects Of Macroeconomic Variables On Income Inequality In Latin American Countries, Scott Poretsky

Empirical Economic Bulletin, An Undergraduate Journal

This paper investigates the relationship between inflation, trade, unemployment, education, and economic growth on income inequality in the South American OECD countries (Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru). While Argentina, Brazil, and Peru are not official OECD countries, they have a working relationship with OECD and have taken the first steps toward initiation in OECD. The variable that represents income inequality is the Gini Index World Bank estimator, and the variable that represents economic growth is GDP. This paper uses a panel data set from 2006 to 2020. The results of this study show that trade percentage, …

Gender Roles And How They Promote Rape Culture, Janelle Isaacs

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

This study investigated the relationship between gender roles and rape culture in society in order to promote awareness of the harmful impacts that promoting gender stereotypes can have on society. A survey that was presented to 143 adults over the age of 18 was conducted to highlight the aforementioned relationship. The survey addressed the extent to which respondents feel they have been taught/exposed to these gender stereotypes, as well as gauged their opinions on factors related to sexual assault. The data did not indicate a correlation between gender roles and rape culture, however, it did present some key findings. The …

A Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Pilot Using Risk Stratification To Improve Resource Allocation And Reduce Readmissions, Linda Gould

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) impacts 250 million people, is associated with high hospital readmission rates, and costs over $50 billion annually. Purpose: Apply risk stratification identifying higher risk patients to prioritize complex, time-consuming interventions and resources. Methods: Patients hospitalized with COPD were risk stratified using PEARL. Moderate-high risk patients were referred to specialty nurse practitioners, who used real-time interventions and motivational interviewing during intense weekly visits over 30 days targeting self-management, patient-specific risks, and resources. Results: No patients were readmitted or died during the pilot using risk stratification with patient-specific tertiary preventive care to …

Improving Access And Delivery Of Mental Health Care To Veterans Through A Care Coordination Pilot At A Texas Department Of Veterans Affairs Hospital, Jacqueline Buval

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Mental health (MH) disorders are among the leading cause of disabilities in adults, with an even greater prevalence among Veterans who served in combat. Forty percent of troops returning from combat zones report suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression and 33% report trouble accessing MH care. Access to care is directly influenced by care coordination procedures in health care systems. If care coordination is poor or lacking, patients remain in settings that are inappropriate for their level of care. Implementing a care coordination program can improve care transitions, provide the necessary support for patients to successfully …

2022-2023 Boise State University Graduate College Catalog, Boise State University Office Of The Registrar

University Catalogs

No abstract provided.

When Experts Become Liabilities, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Criticism can easily hit the confidence of experts and undermine the accuracy of their predictions, new research shows

Home Victimization And Preadolescents' Parental And Police Trust, Ellie Jarosinski, Brooke Welch

Celebration of Scholarship 2022

This study explored relationships between preadolescents’ perceived trust in parents and police and between home victimization and trust. It utilized extant data from a longitudinal study conducted in São Paulo, Brazil, in which 800 participants completed questionnaires assessing parental legitimacy. Analysis revealed significant relationships between trust in parents and police, although most correlations were weak. Results indicated a positive relationship between trust in parents and police, while home victimization was negatively related to trust. This negative relationship yields implications for preadolescent health and safety and broadens the literature on trust and impacts of victimization. Future studies could incorporate non-self-report measures, …

Judicial Protection Of Medical Liberty, Deana Pollard Sacks

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Library Tools At The Nurses' Station: Exploring Information-Seeking Behaviors And Needs Of Nurses In A War Veterans Nursing Home, Gail M. Kouame

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Objectives: Analyze the information-seeking practices and identify the information and education needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home. Develop an online toolkit for use at the nurses’ stations to meet nurses’ health information needs.

Methods: Investigators employed mixed methods to determine the health information needs of the participating nurses at the skilled nursing facility using an online questionnaire and in-person observations. Resulting data was compared to determine how nurses’ self-reported data corresponded with investigator observations.

Results: Twenty-seven out of a total of thirty-five nurses responded to the online questionnaire. The study principal investigator also observed a total of …

Honors Oracle, April 2022, Marshall University Honors College

Honors Oracle

Marshall University’s Honors College newsletter.

Marshall Magazine Spring 2022, Marshall University

Marshall Magazine

No abstract provided.

Library News, Spring 2022, San Jose State University Library

Library News

No abstract provided.

Insulin Resistance And Hba1c Benefits For Adolescents And Adults Aged 18-70 With Type 1 Diabetes After Completing Hiit Programs, Logan Barrett

EXSI 432/532: Research Methods in Exercise Science: Research Proposal Posters

T1D is considered an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas is unable to produce insulin to balance blood glucose levels. Research has shown that type 1 diabetes is also the result of an autoimmune reaction that induces the destruction to the pancreatic betacells in the pancreas, which produce insulin (Rodbard, 2017). HIIT is a style of exercise that has gained popularity throughout the 2010s (Ito, 2019). HIIT involves a series of anaerobic exercises at high intensity levels (>80% of VO2 peak) (Lee, A., Johnson, N., McGill, M., & Overland, J., 2020).

The Effects Caffeine Has On A 3-Minute Rowing Test, Abby Callahan, Molly Montgomery, Logan Barrett

EXSI 432/532: Research Methods in Exercise Science: Research Proposal Posters

Research question: Does a relative amount of caffeine (2 mg/kg) increase the distance 18-24-year-olds are able to row if implemented 1 hour prior to a 5-minute rowing test when compared to no caffeine? The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of caffeine on 5-minute rowing distance in 18–24-year-olds. According to Grgic et. al (2020), caffeine ingestion of doses of 6 mg/kg and 9 mg/kg significantly improved 2000-meter rowing ergometer by approximately 4 seconds (i.e., caffeine ingestions reduced the time needed to complete the distance). According to Del Coso et. al (2012), during this study the caffeine beverage …