Digital Commons Network^™

Behavioral Screening And Chiral Bioanalysis Of Emerging Stimulant-Type Drugs In Rats, Tyson R. Baird

Theses and Dissertations

The epidemic of drug use in the United States and elsewhere in the world has resulted in tragic loss of life and substantial economic costs. Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are one of the contributors to this problem, and the lack of information about many of these drugs compounds their risk. This dissertation proposes a strategy to use intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) as a behavioral screening tool to assess emerging drugs of abuse for their abuse potential in order to generate a proactive threat assessment. A series of stimulant-type drugs including methcathinone, α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP), cocaine, and the phenyltropane analogs of cocaine WIN35428 …

Mending Art Classrooms: An Exploration Of The Benefits Of Collaborative Artmaking For Underinvested Black Youth In Richmond, Virginia, Jazmine M. Beatty

Theses and Dissertations

This arts-informed research study explored the experiences of local community artists and educators working to radically transform and heal the experiences of underinvested Black students in Richmond through collaborative arts engagement. Through a series of seven one-on-one interviews with Black teaching artists in the Richmond community, I was able to uncover how collaboration has and can continue to improve the well-being and livelihoods of Black students in Richmond. Also, by tapping into the local Mending Walls mural project, I was able to make a tangible connection between the Richmond community, art, and collaboration. An analysis of the interviews led to …

Sleep Self-Efficacy, Loneliness, And Physical Activity: Assessing The Pathways Between Sleep Quality And Mental Health Using Structural Equation Modeling, Amber M. Fox

Theses and Dissertations

Although there is robust empirical support that poor sleep contributes to declines in mental health, explanations of this relationship remain unclear. The purpose of the present study was to examine the pattern of associations between sleep quality, sleep self-efficacy, loneliness, physical activity, and mental health among U.S. adults across the lifespan, and whether they differed by gender or age group. A structural equation model with invariance analysis was developed and examined data from 2,300 adults (M_age = 44.1, SD = 16.78) participating in the online study Investigating Sleep Longitudinally Across Normal Development (ISLAND). Sleep quality was measured by …

Sleepiness: Clinical Correlates, Association With Performance, And Effects Of Performance Feedback, Spencer Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Daytime sleepiness is a common and debilitating phenomenon. Sleepiness is associated with increased symptoms of insomnia, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Daytime sleepiness is commonly associated with cognitive performance, including performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT). The PVT includes performance feedback, and that feedback may influence an individual’s report of their sleepiness. Whether the feedback on the PVT influences an individual's self-reported sleepiness is unknown. This study sought to investigate how sleepiness was associated with clinical symptoms and performance, whether there are sex differences in sleepiness, and whether manipulating feedback on the PVT influenced an individual’s self-reported sleepiness. …

Identifying The Human Homologs Of Yeast Rab Proteins Ypt10 & Ypt11 And A Global-Scale Louse Endosymbiont Genome Variation, Nathaniel P. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a late-onset fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes loss of upper and/or lower motor neurons, and currently has no treatment or cure available. Over 90% of cases occur spontaneously with unknown causes, highlighting the complexity of the disease, and only 10% of cases are linked to heritable genetic mutations. Numerous ALS-linked genes are conserved through evolution, and model organisms may therefore provide opportunities to understand disease pathology at a molecular or cellular level, proving instrumental in identifying therapeutic targets. ALS subtype 8 (ALS8) is caused by an autosomal dominant P56S mutation in the VAPB gene that …

Learning Robot Motion From Creative Human Demonstration, Charles C. Dietzel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a learning from demonstration framework that enables a robot to learn and perform creative motions from human demonstrations in real-time. In order to satisfy all of the functional requirements for the framework, the developed technique is comprised of two modular components, which integrate together to provide the desired functionality. The first component, called Dancing from Demonstration (DfD), is a kinesthetic learning from demonstration technique. This technique is capable of playing back newly learned motions in real-time, as well as combining multiple learned motions together in a configurable way, either to reduce trajectory error or to generate entirely …

Examination Of Common And Rare Variant Genetic Architecture Of Psychiatric Disorders, Mohammad Ahangari

Theses and Dissertations

Psychiatric disorders are often heterogenous in their manifestation and genome-wide association studies have identified many common risk variants involved in their polygenic architectures with varying degrees of pleiotropy. In recent years, large-scale biobanks have also begun sequencing the genome of their participants to elucidate the role of rare risk variation in the genetic architecture of complex phenotypes, including psychiatric traits. This dissertation sought to better understand the role of both common and rare risk variation in the genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders with a particular focus on schizophrenia and alcohol problems. In the first three analyses, we focused on characterizing …

Electric Field Control Of Confined Magnetic Skyrmions For Energy Efficient Scalable Nanomagnetic Memory, Md Mahadi Rajib

Theses and Dissertations

Nanomagnetic random-access-memory (RAM) devices are considered one of the leading alternatives to the existing Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) based RAM devices due to inherent non-volatility and long endurance compared to other non-CMOS devices. However, new paradigms such as voltage control and spin orbit torque are being explored to write information with low errors in an energy efficient manner. Magnetic skyrmions have emerged as potentially viable paradigm for nanomagnetic memory devices because of their robustness, scalability and extremely low energy requirement for creation and manipulation. Besides, electric field induced manipulation of nanomagnets as well as magnetic skyrmions has been shown …

Smart City Management Using Machine Learning Techniques, Mostafa Zaman

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the growing urban population, "smart cities" are designed to improve people's quality of life by implementing cutting-edge technologies. The concept of a "smart city" refers to an effort to enhance a city's residents' economic and environmental well-being via implementing a centralized management system. With the use of sensors and actuators, smart cities can collect massive amounts of data, which can improve people's quality of life and design cities' services. Although smart cities contain vast amounts of data, only a percentage is used due to the noise and variety of the data sources. Information and communication technology (ICT) …

Training Needs And Challenges In Supporting Young Adults With Autism To Access Integrated Employment, Whitney A. Ham

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to conduct a needs assessment identifying the current level of training, training needs, and challenges to supporting adults with autism and significant support needs, such as challenging behavior, to access integrated employment. Foundational literature in employment indicates that employment service providers must possess an expansive skillset in order to perform the expectations of their profession. Research on supporting adults with autism to access employment indicates that skills above the traditional employment skills may be needed in order to obtain and maintain employment. This was one of the first studies to assess the needs of …

Effects Of A Video Based Intervention On Job Interview Skills Of Youth With Autism, Kelsey T. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I conducted a multiple-probe-across-participants design to examine the impact of a video-based intervention on interview skills of youth with autism. First, I conducted a systematic literature review of interview interventions. Results were used to guide the development of this study’s measure and procedures. Finding that previous literature relied on rubric measures to rate interview skill behaviors, I developed and piloted a primary measure for examining direct speech production. Using transcripts and video analysis, this study captures the construct of interview skills using both quantity (frequency of relevant/irrelevant c-units) and quality (interview skills rubric score). The intervention consisted …

Understanding Structure/Process-Property Relationships To Optimize Development Lifecycle In Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Aerogels For Thermal Management, Rebecca C. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Aerogels are mesoporous materials with unique properties, including high specific surface area, high porosity, low thermal conductivity, and low density, increasing these materials’ effectiveness in applications such as catalyst supports, sorption media, and electrodes in solid oxide fuel cells. Zirconia (ZrO₂) aerogels have special interest for high-temperature applications due to the high melting point of ZrO₂ (2715°C) and stability between 600°C and 1000°C, where other aerogel systems often begin to sinter and densify. These properties and unique pore structure make zirconia aerogels advantageous as thermal management systems, especially in aeronautics and aerospace applications. However, to be effective …

Disparities Between Native Americans And Whites In Trajectories Of Functional Independence And Life Satisfaction Over The 5 Years After Traumatic Brain Injury, Jack Watson

Theses and Dissertations

A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can have a host of negative consequences including impairments to motor and cognitive function and can result in a decrease in quality of life (i.e., life satisfaction). TBI is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide and disproportionately affects Native Americans, who have the highest rates of TBI among all races in the U.S. and elevated likelihood for fatality and severe complications. The current study used a subsample of the national TBI Model Systems Database of 80 demographically and injury severity matched Native American and White individuals (total n = 160) to …

Reds For Ed: Class Struggle In The Classroom, Patrick E. Korte

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing the methodology of participant observation combined with semi-structured interviews, this ethnographic study aims to analyze the socio-historical development of the Richmond chapter of the Virginia Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators (VCORE), a left-wing opposition group inside the Virginia Education Association (VEA). This study aims to assess VCORE’s politics, origins, growth, transformation, organizational structure, and cultural practices, focusing upon the role VCORE members played in the lead-up to and aftermath of the 2020-2022 campaign to reinstate collective bargaining rights of public education employees in Richmond.

Role Of Inhibition And Spiking Variability In Ortho- And Retronasal Olfactory Processing, Michelle F. Craft

Theses and Dissertations

Odor perception is the impetus for important animal behaviors, most pertinently for feeding, but also for mating and communication. There are two predominate modes of odor processing: odors pass through the front of nose (ortho) while inhaling and sniffing, or through the rear (retro) during exhalation and while eating and drinking. Despite the importance of olfaction for an animal’s well-being and specifically that ortho and retro naturally occur, it is unknown whether the modality (ortho versus retro) is transmitted to cortical brain regions, which could significantly instruct how odors are processed. Prior imaging studies show different …

Computational Analysis Of Drug Targets And Prediction Of Protein-Compound Interactions, Sina Ghadermarzi

Theses and Dissertations

Computational prediction of compound-protein interactions generated a substantial amount of interest in the recent years owing to the importance of the knowledge of these interaction for drug discovery and drug repurposing efforts. Research suggests that the currently known drug targets constitute only a fraction of a complete set of drug targets, limiting our ability to identify suitable targets to develop new drugs or to repurpose current drugs for new diseases. These efforts are further thwarted by our limited knowledge of protein-drug (and more generally protein-compound) interactions, where only a subset of drug targets is typically known for the currently used …

Asymmetric Cuh-Catalyzed Reductive Coupling Of Alleneamides With Carbonyl Electrophiles And The Mechanistic Investigation Into The Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Couplings Of Electron-Deficient Systems, Samantha L. Gargaro

Theses and Dissertations

Most natural products and other biologically active small molecules contain multiple stereogenic heteroatoms throughout their carbon scaffold. As a result, methods to install these multi-heteroatom functionalities efficiently are highly desirable. Reductive coupling reactions have been studied extensively, and reductive allylation has been a key method for generating chiral secondary and tertiary allylic alcohols. This work focuses on utilizing naturally abundant and inexpensive Cu for the asymmetric reductive coupling of alleneamides with carbonyl electrophiles to access highly functionalized multi-heteroatom scaffolds that are difficult to produce via traditional methods. Described herein are methods for these asymmetric reductive coupling reactions. Chapter 1 describes …

Putting The "Video" Back In Video Games: Opportunities And Challenges For Visual Studies Approaches To Video Game Analysis, Francis A. Longaker

Theses and Dissertations

I argue for the application of visual studies in video game analysis. This approach presents opportunities for the intersectional analysis of video game visuals as games are brought into dialogue with other visual media like film and painting. This approach also presents challenges due to ontological distinctions between different media as well as due to academic divisions regarding the study of different art and media objects. Despite the challenges presented, a visual studies approach is particularly useful as a critical window into contemporary visual culture at large.

I outline the fields of game studies and visual studies, marking their distinctions …

Family History Of Substance Problems Among African Americans: Associations With Drug Use, Drug Use Disorder, And Prescription Drug Misuse, Rebecca Mahrs-Gould

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Understanding individual risk for substance use and substance use disorders is important in the efforts of reducing risk and prevention of these problems. A family history of alcohol and/or drug problems often increases the risk for these problems, however the majority of research in this area is conducted in samples that are predominantly White. African Americans face disparate outcomes from substance use and substance use disorders, and the risks for substance problems may not be the same as for Whites. A systematic review of the literature identified nine studies that examined a family history of either substance problems or …

Black Hearts Matter: A Comparative Study Of Sociodemographic, Clinical, And Psychosocial Characteristics In Black And White Persons With Heart Failure, Hannah M Anderson Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

Heart failure (HF) is a chronic, progressive, debilitating illness that disproportionately affects Black individuals, often leading to poor quality of life (QOL). Various sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological characteristics are related to QOL in patients with HF. Because most studies do not include representative Black samples or report findings from racial subgroup analyses, these relationships and any existing racial differences are not well understood. The purpose of this descriptive, comparative study was to explore the relationships among sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological characteristics and QOL in patients with HF and to determine if there were racial differences between Black and White individuals. …

Phantom Scripting, Huiyu Yang

Theses and Dissertations

scripted performances enacted by human beings for the purposes of ordering the world. This “world” is seen as being comprised of social things such as male and female relationships; personal or individual things such as the untaught dispositions inherent in human beings; or nonhuman things such as rain, animals, or spiritual powers.

Pharmacists' Role In Opioid Use Disorder And Overdose Prevention And Treatment And Their Attitudes And Perceptions Towards Distributing Naloxone Under A Standing Order, Stephen C. Ijioma

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Opioids are a class of drugs that bind to opioid receptors (mu, delta, and kappa), located in the central and peripheral nervous systems, to exert responses such as analgesia, respiratory depression, euphoria, and miosis. The opioid epidemic is characterized in large part by an increase in opioid overdose deaths. Community pharmacists are one of the most accessible healthcare professionals who frequently interact with patients and can implement OUD and opioid overdose prevention strategies. Treatment for opioid overdose and OUD include naloxone for overdose deaths as well as medication-assisted treatment for OUD.

Objective: The specific aims of this thesis include …

What Motivates Saudi Females' Intentions To Get Mammography? A Randomized Control Trial To Evaluate Effective Preventative Messages, Saleh Bin Khulayf

Theses and Dissertations

Background. In Saudi Arabia, breast cancer mortality is a public health concern where females often discover breast cancer at an advanced stage due to ignoring preventative testing such as mammography. While increasing mammography awareness is essential in Saudi Arabia, almost nothing is known about the effectiveness of health communication messages in mammography's context. This research tested whether exposure to Entertainment-Education (E-E) message or educational infographic messages would influence Saudi females' intentions to get mammography.

Method. This research relied on a randomized control trial among n=240 Saudi females older than 40. Respondents were randomly assigned to watch YouTube E-E message or …

Examining The Impact Of Parental Racial Socialization And Critical Consciousness On Black Adolescents’ Coping With Racism-Related Stress, Chandler Alexandra Golden

Theses and Dissertations

In addition to universal stressors, Black adolescents also experience racism-related stressors. The physical and emotional consequences of racism-related stressors can be harmful to Black youth. To mitigate racism-related stress, Black youth may engage in various forms of coping. Critical consciousness and racial socialization are culturally relevant factors that have been protective against the negative impact of racism-related stress, with coping as one mechanism that undergirds this protection. Moreover, research has also begun to theorize critical action as a type of racialized coping. Past research has largely examined the impact of critical consciousness and racial socialization on coping separately and yielded …

Corticospinal Activity During A Single-Leg Stance In People With Chronic Ankle Instability, Masafumi Terada, Kyle B. Kosik, Ryan S. Mccann, Colin Drinkard, Phillip A. Gribble

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine whether corticospinal excitability and inhibition of the tibialis anterior during single-leg standing differs among individuals with chronic ankle instability (CAI), lateral ankle sprain copers, and healthy controls.

Methods: Twenty-three participants with CAI, 23 lateral ankle sprain copers, and 24 healthy control participants volunteered. Active motor threshold (AMT), normalized motor-evoked potential (MEP), and cortical silent period (CSP) were evaluated by transcranial magnetic stimulation while participants performed a single-leg standing task.

Results: Participants with CAI had significantly longer CSP at 100% of AMT and lower normalized MEP at 120% of AMT compared to …

Trending Tubes: A Social Media Analysis Of Tympanostomy Tubes In Children, Nicholas A Rossi, Katherine R French, Chad L Evans, Jason F Ohlstein, Luis D Neve, Shiva Daram, Dayton L Young, Brian J Mckinnon, Harold S Pine

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the popular social media platforms Instagram and Facebook for public posts related to tympanostomy tubes in children, to discern attitudes and perceptions surrounding tympanostomy tubes, and to evaluate the content of social media posts related to tympanostomy tubes.

STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative study.

SETTING: Instagram and Facebook social media platforms.

METHODS: Instagram and Facebook were searched for public posts from 2018 and 2019 including the search terms "ear tubes,""ear tube surgery,""tympanostomy," and "myringotomy." Posts were excluded if they were unrelated to pediatric tympanostomy tubes or written in a non-English language. Relevant posts underwent subgroup analysis based on 6 …

2022 Morehead State University Benefits Guide, Morehead State University. Office Of Human Resources.

Staff Congress Records

2022 Morehead State University Benefits Guide.

The Derivation Of Geologic Ecosystem Services From Geodiversity In The Black Hills Region Of South Dakota And Wyoming, James Campbell Cooke

Dissertations and Theses

The ecosystem services approach seeks to recognize the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, in order to highlight society’s dependence on natural systems. Ecosystem services fall into four categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Most of the ecosystem services research literature is focused on services that arise from biotic components of ecosystems. Ecosystems are dynamic complexes of biotic communities and their physical, non-living environment, interacting as a functional unit. The emphasis on biotic ecosystem services leaves understudied and undervalued the role of the abiotic, physical environment, especially in providing geologic ecosystem services. Geologic ecosystem services have been the focus …

Ecological Changes Of The Lower Niobrara River Valley And Lewis And Clark Lake Delta From Past To Present, Madalyn Christine Bollig

Dissertations and Theses

Over half of the world’s large river systems are impacted by dams. These may prevent sediment flow downstream, resulting in accumulation in the upstream reservoir. On the Missouri River, deltas and associated backwater-affected areas occur in nine locations across six reservoirs. One of these, the Lewis and Clark Lake delta-backwater, is influenced by sediment inputs from both the Missouri River and the Niobrara River. While the extension of the prograding delta into the reservoir has been well documented, there has been little research on upstream (backwater) effects of the delta on the lower Niobrara River. This study examined ecological changes …

Biodiversity In Residential Yards For Sustainability In Small Cities: Understanding Public Attitudes, Opportunities And Limitations In Vermillion, Sd, Rina Thapa

Dissertations and Theses

As urban areas are expanding with the growing size of human population, it is increasingly important to understand the role that residential yards can play in biodiversity conservation because they often comprise a large proportion of green spaces in cities. Most of the research performed to date on the role of residential yards in biodiversity conservation has been conducted in large cities. The role of residential yards in biodiversity conservation in small cities is still largely unknown. In this research, I discuss the relationship between biodiversity and the structure of green space, public attitudes towards the presence of wildlife, public …