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University of Alabama at Birmingham

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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

God Is Always There For Me: Spiritual Coping In Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis And Their Parents - A Qualitative Study, Christina Helen Jagielski Jan 2017

God Is Always There For Me: Spiritual Coping In Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis And Their Parents - A Qualitative Study, Christina Helen Jagielski

All ETDs from UAB

Cystic Fibrosis is a chronic, life threatening genetic disorder involving complex medical treatments and numerous psychosocial stressors affecting both the patient and his or her family. Spiritual coping strategies provide useful means to solving problems, developing a sense of control, and making meaning of negative events and have been shown to be useful for people living with chronic illness. This qualitative study focused on the use of spiritual coping strategies and the subjective impact of using such strategies for 15 adolescents with cystic fibrosis and their parents. Thematic analysis identified themes regarding personal and collective spiritual coping strategies, the impact …


Polymeric Stimuli-Sensitive Self-Assembled Micro- And Nano-Particles For Controlled Drug Delivery, Fei Liu Jan 2017

Polymeric Stimuli-Sensitive Self-Assembled Micro- And Nano-Particles For Controlled Drug Delivery, Fei Liu

All ETDs from UAB

The research presented in this thesis is focused on the design and development of stimuli-responsive polymeric particles for drug delivery, including tannic acid-based layer-by-layer capsules with pH- and ionic strength-dependent permeability as well as size- and structure-tunable poly-(N-vinylcaprolactam)-based temperature-responsive polymersomes and micelles. Polymer-based particles play essential roles in controlled drug delivery due to their tunable sizes and nanostructures, and can be further advanced through functionalization, allowing pH-, ionic strength- and temperature-sensitivities to alter the therapeutics’ pharmacokinetics and bio-distribution. Two typical pathways for engineering polymeric drug delivery vehicles are introduced in this thesis, layer-by-layer self-assembly at inter-faces and self-assembly from block …


Molecular And Biochemical Characterization Of Cellular Stress Sensing Proteins Gcn2 And Ire1 In Arabidopsis Thaliana Immune Responses, Xiaoyu Liu Jan 2017

Molecular And Biochemical Characterization Of Cellular Stress Sensing Proteins Gcn2 And Ire1 In Arabidopsis Thaliana Immune Responses, Xiaoyu Liu

All ETDs from UAB

Plants are capable of recognizing conserved molecular structures from pathogens and precisely regulates gene expression to establish effective and efficient immune responses. Transcriptional regulation has been extensively characterized in plant immunity, while relatively less is understood on the translational level. Moreover, switching cellular energy from growth- to defense-related activity may result in the buildup of misfolded or unfolded proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and activating the unfolded protein response (UPR) is critical for restoringllular homeostasis. My dissertation is set out to understand the function of translational regulatory mechanism and UPR in plant immune responses. As a key transcriptional regulator …


A Metrically Defined Uniformization Map Of Planar Domains, Ivan Holden Mann Jan 2017

A Metrically Defined Uniformization Map Of Planar Domains, Ivan Holden Mann

All ETDs from UAB

Let D be the unit disk in the Riemann sphere C and D ∞ = C\D be its complement. A standard way to uniformize a proper simply connected domain U ⊂ C containing 0 is to consider a Riemann map φ : D → U such that 0 maps to 0. Images in D ∞ of radial line segments are called conformal rays. Brouwer defines metric rays in U using the centers of maximal balls touching ∂U and a function ψ, which we call here the Brouwer map. We use a new definition len of length under which every path …


Fall Out Boys And The Spice Girls: Understanding The Criminal Careers Of Those Who Use Spice, Whitney Julia Marsh Jan 2017

Fall Out Boys And The Spice Girls: Understanding The Criminal Careers Of Those Who Use Spice, Whitney Julia Marsh

All ETDs from UAB

Since the early 2000s, Novel Psychoactive Drugs (NPDs) have been gaining popularity in the illicit drug world. One of the most popular NPDs is synthetic marijuana, commonly referred to as spice. Initially unregulated, spice became popular among and accessible to a diverse array of people throughout the United States. Deleterious health effects, including death, have been attributed to spice use. Recognizing a lack of criminological research available on spice use, this study seeks to understand why individuals use spice—why they began to use spice specifically, why they persisted, and why they quit if applicable. Based on 34 in-depth interviews and …


A Multi-Modal Approach To Sulforaphane-Mediated Chemoprevention Using The Epigenetic Network, Samantha Martin Jan 2017

A Multi-Modal Approach To Sulforaphane-Mediated Chemoprevention Using The Epigenetic Network, Samantha Martin

All ETDs from UAB

Colon cancer is the third most common diagnosed cancer in both women and men in the United States. It is reported that dietary factors are responsible for 70-90% of colon cancer cases. While some investigators have observed a direct correlation in high fat diets and cancer initiation, other studies have observed opposite effects mediated by fruit and vegetable consumption. Recently, studies have highlighted the importance of Epigenetics as it modifies gene expression without changing the DNA sequence. Notably, several nutritive compounds have been reported to alter epigenetic profiles in many cancer forms. SFN, an isothiocyanate found in cruciferous vegetables such …


The Ecology And Evolution Of Invertebrate-Cyanobacterial Symbioses, Kenan Matterson Jan 2017

The Ecology And Evolution Of Invertebrate-Cyanobacterial Symbioses, Kenan Matterson

All ETDs from UAB

Intimate partnerships between marine invertebrates and microbial symbionts have garnered renewed interest, as advances in next generation sequencing have revealed substantial microbial diversity in tropical sponges and ascidians. These datasets have generated a suite of new questions concerning the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that structure these microbial partnerships. The research presented herein addresses such questions by integrating in situ ecological manipulations with modern molecular techniques to characterize the interactions between the host invertebrate and microbiome and its potential role in structuring marine communities. Implementing in situ manipulative shading experiments alongside replicated bacterial clone libraries, I documented significant variation in host …


Predicting Internalizing And Externalizing Child Behavior: A Comparative Analysis Between Autism Spectrum Disorder And Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Elizabeth Mcrae Jan 2017

Predicting Internalizing And Externalizing Child Behavior: A Comparative Analysis Between Autism Spectrum Disorder And Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Elizabeth Mcrae

All ETDs from UAB

Parent-related and environmental factors are both important variables in predicting and understanding internalizing and externalizing child behaviors. In clinical child populations, these factors are particularly important not only because of the increased demands the child’s disorder places on their caregivers and their environment but also because of the increased levels of internalizing and externalizing child behaviors associated with childhood psychopathology. Two such clinical child populations are Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Specifically, parents of children with these disorders are at increased risk of experiencing poorer parental adjustment which affects their parenting behaviors and the routines they …


Diamond-Based Sensors And Diamond Micro-Anvils For Studies On Materials Under Extreme Conditions, Samuel Lawrence Moore Jan 2017

Diamond-Based Sensors And Diamond Micro-Anvils For Studies On Materials Under Extreme Conditions, Samuel Lawrence Moore

All ETDs from UAB

This work encompasses the development and construction of a state of the art Microfabrication facility to produce diamond-based sensors for applications in extreme environments. The facility utilizes maskless lithography housed in a class 7000 clean room and DC-sputter deposition, along with a 1.2 kW Chemical Vapor Deposition system for the encapsulation of metallic micro-probes in single crystal diamond. Extensive research and development has been applied to developing a novel and reproducible method for fabrication of designer diamond anvils, that feature sensing probes integrated into the diamond anvil and are capable of unobtrusively measuring resistivity of a material whilst simultaneously compressing …


Thermodynamics And Kinetics Of Gel-Sol And Liquid-Liquid Phase Transitions: Effects Of Solid Surfaces And Nanoconfinement, Jennifer Rachel Prado Jan 2017

Thermodynamics And Kinetics Of Gel-Sol And Liquid-Liquid Phase Transitions: Effects Of Solid Surfaces And Nanoconfinement, Jennifer Rachel Prado

All ETDs from UAB

This research explores the effects of nanoconfinement and solid surfaces on gel-sol and liquid-liquid phase transitions through the changes in the thermodynamics and kinetics. The transitions that occur in the presence of solid surfaces were studied calorimetrically and compared to bulk. Two systems, gelatin gels and triethylamine/water (TEA/H2O) binary solution both undergo a phase transition on heating. Employing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and isoconversional kinetic analysis, the changes upon introducing a solid surface or nanoconfining were quantified. The first system probes the effect of the addition of laponite, montmorillonite, and chitosan particles on the structure of gelatin gels. It was …


Enhancing Rating-Prediction By Incorporating User Concerns Discovered From User Reviews, Ligaj Pradhan Jan 2017

Enhancing Rating-Prediction By Incorporating User Concerns Discovered From User Reviews, Ligaj Pradhan

All ETDs from UAB

Collaborative filtering (CF) based rating prediction discover similar users and items to predict unknown ratings based on how similar users have rated similar items. Discovering and infusing additional knowledge to supplement the discovery of similar users can potentially improve the accuracy of CF-based rating prediction. Neighborhood discovery and non-negative matrix factorization (MF) are very popular techniques for collaborative filtering. Hence, we try to improve these two techniques to increase rating prediction accuracy by using multi-view clustering to better discover neighborhoods and infusing additional user behavior knowledge, respectively. Additional user behavior knowledge is extracted by mining User-Concern vectors (UC-vectors) which represent …


The Effects Of Incubation Environment On The Phenotype Of Hatchling Turtles: Implications For Ecology, Evolution, And Conservation, Taylor Matthew Roberge Jan 2017

The Effects Of Incubation Environment On The Phenotype Of Hatchling Turtles: Implications For Ecology, Evolution, And Conservation, Taylor Matthew Roberge

All ETDs from UAB

Temperature-dependent sex determination has significant implications for the ecology, evolution, and conservation of reptiles because it can affect sex ratios, reproduction and fitness in a population. The studies presented in this dissertation characterized the impact of temperature on sex determination using both laboratory- and field-based experiments. The effects of fluctuating temperature on sex ratio, incubation duration, and hatchling phenotype were examined at 28.2 ± 5°C and 31 ± 3°C. Fluctuating incubation temperature was found to extend incubation duration, relative to constant incubation temperatures, in both cases and resulted in a significant difference in sex ratio when eggs were incubated at …


From Despised Temporary Governor To First Elected Governor Of Louisiana: The Vindication Of William Charles Cole Claiborne, Stephanie Keller Womack Jan 2017

From Despised Temporary Governor To First Elected Governor Of Louisiana: The Vindication Of William Charles Cole Claiborne, Stephanie Keller Womack

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson commissioned William Charles Cole Claiborne as a representative of the United States to accept the cession of the Louisiana Territory from France. After the United States took control of Louisiana on December 20, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Claiborne as the temporary governor of the territory while Congress devised a governmental structure of the new territory and the president sought more qualified candidates for the position of governor. The inhabitants of Louisiana protested the choice of Claiborne as temporary governor, pointing to his inability to speak their language (French and Spanish), his youth (he …


The Effectiveness And Feasibility Of The Peers® School-Based Social Skills Intervention For Adolescents With Social Difficulties, Caroline Larkin Leonczyk Jan 2017

The Effectiveness And Feasibility Of The Peers® School-Based Social Skills Intervention For Adolescents With Social Difficulties, Caroline Larkin Leonczyk

All ETDs from UAB

The present study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of the PEERS® social skills intervention for a transdiagnostic group of adolescents with social difficulties, both with and without neurodevelopmental disorders or mental health diagnoses, in the public high school setting. Twenty-four students participated in the study. Adolescents in the intervention group displayed significantly improved social skills knowledge and overall involvement in conversation compared to those in the waitlist control group. Almost half of adolescents in the intervention group displayed improvements in at least one conversational skill domain that were observable to an independent rater blinded to treatment status and time point. …


Pterostilbene Inhibits The Progression Of Breast Cancer Through The Down-Regulation Of The Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (Htert) And The Akt/Mtor/P70s6k Pathway, Michael Daniel Jan 2017

Pterostilbene Inhibits The Progression Of Breast Cancer Through The Down-Regulation Of The Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (Htert) And The Akt/Mtor/P70s6k Pathway, Michael Daniel

All ETDs from UAB

Breast cancer is currently the most commonly diagnosed and second most common cause of cancer related deaths among women in the United States. Although overall breast cancer death rates have dropped over the past decades, current chemotherapeutic methods often prove ineffective and result in off-target, cytotoxic effects. Recently, the use of natural, dietary compounds as agents of chemoprevention and therapy has become increasingly provocative. Pterostilbene (PT), a stilbenoid found largely in the blueberries, has been shown to exhibit both antioxidant and antiproliferative effects in a variety of cancer types. We observed that PT, at physiological concentrations, inhibits the proliferation, cell …


White-Beam X-Ray Diffraction And Radiography Studies On High-Boron-Containing Borosilicate Glass At High Pressures, Kathryn Jinae Ham Jan 2017

White-Beam X-Ray Diffraction And Radiography Studies On High-Boron-Containing Borosilicate Glass At High Pressures, Kathryn Jinae Ham

All ETDs from UAB

Multi-angle energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction and white-beam radiography studies were conducted on a borosilicate glass sample (17.6% B2O3) to 13.7 GPa in a Paris-Edinburgh (PE) press at Beamline 16-BM-B, HPCAT, The Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory. The measured structure factor S(q) to q = 19 Å-1 was used to determine internuclear bond distances between various species of atoms contained in the glass sample. Gold foil was used as the pressure standard. Bond distances for Si-O, O-O, and Si-Si were determined from the reduced pair distribution function G(r) and were measured as a function of pressure. The sample height, as …


Intractable Epilepsy: Does Perception Of Epilepsy Stigma Affect Levels Of Caregiver Burden?, Barbara Hansen Jan 2017

Intractable Epilepsy: Does Perception Of Epilepsy Stigma Affect Levels Of Caregiver Burden?, Barbara Hansen

All ETDs from UAB

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between affiliate stigma and the levels of burden experienced by individuals caring for family members with intractable epilepsy and to examine how levels of burden may vary between those caring for children and those caring for adults. Methods: This cross-sectional, quantitative approach utilized a self-administered survey offered to caregivers of family members with confirmed diagnoses of intractable epilepsy in a southern state. Caregiver burden was measured using the 30-item Carer’s Assessment of Difficulties Index while levels of perceived stigma were assessed using a six-item scale. Demographic data concerning both …


Exponential Laminations, Patrick Barry Hartley Jan 2017

Exponential Laminations, Patrick Barry Hartley

All ETDs from UAB

Laminations have proved useful in proving facts about polynomial Julia sets. In this thesis, a process by which to construct laminations for certain exponential Julia sets will be presented. This thesis will consider those exponential Julia sets where hairs are identified at a single repelling fixed point, as opposed to multiple repelling fixed points or repelling periodic points. This construction will make use of known facts about the complex exponential function and an itinerary system similar to those used in polynomial laminations.


Indirect Interactions Affect The Dynamics Of Multidrug Resistance Proteins And Sortase A, Bryan C. Roessler Jan 2017

Indirect Interactions Affect The Dynamics Of Multidrug Resistance Proteins And Sortase A, Bryan C. Roessler

All ETDs from UAB

The concerted model of allosteric protein regulation suggests that the conformational states of a protein are tightly coupled. Therefore, modifications to a protein (or its substrate) that biases the system towards a specific state will also affect the structure and function of other protein domains, even if the site of the modification and the affected domains do not appear to directly interact. These modfications can manifest as gain-of-function (e.g., biasing the active state and thereby promoting protein function and increasing the affinity for activating substrates), loss-of-function (e.g., biasing the inactive state and thereby antagonizing protein function and decreasing the affinity …


Neuro-Physiological Underpinnings Of User-Centered Security, Ajaya Neupane Jan 2017

Neuro-Physiological Underpinnings Of User-Centered Security, Ajaya Neupane

All ETDs from UAB

Computing has become increasingly common in many spheres of users' daily lives. At the same time, the need for securing computer systems has become paramount. The security of computer systems often rely upon decisions and actions of end users -- a principle sometimes referred to as "human in the loop''. User behavior when faced with security tasks can therefore directly or indirectly impact the overall security of the system. In this light, it is vital to understand users' behavior when subject to such tasks. A large volume of prior research in the field of user-centered security has mostly focused on …


Development Of Small Molecule Inhibitors Of S. Mutans Glucosyltransferases For The Prevention Of Dental Caries, Bhavitavya Nijampatnam Jan 2017

Development Of Small Molecule Inhibitors Of S. Mutans Glucosyltransferases For The Prevention Of Dental Caries, Bhavitavya Nijampatnam

All ETDs from UAB

Streptococcus mutans is the primary cariogenic agent of dental caries. This bacterium has developed numerous mechanisms to attach to tooth surfaces and initi-ate the proliferation of biofilms. In addition, S. mutans contributes to the acidification of the oral cavity, as it produces lactic acid from dietary sugars, which ensues tooth decay. Currently marketed caries therapies do not selectively kill cariogenic species, instead they disrupt the whole natural oral flora in the oral cavity including the beneficial species. In order to develop a species specific therapeutic agent, we have targeted the S. mutans glucosyltransferases (Gtfs) for our structure-based drug design. These …


Survivors To Nation Builders: The Story Of The "New Jew", Zoe Zaslawsky Jan 2016

Survivors To Nation Builders: The Story Of The "New Jew", Zoe Zaslawsky

Vulcan Historical Review

pp. 150-162


The Great Melding: War, The Dixiecrat Rebellion, And The Southern Model For America’S New Conservatism, Aaron Getman-Pickering Jan 2016

The Great Melding: War, The Dixiecrat Rebellion, And The Southern Model For America’S New Conservatism, Aaron Getman-Pickering

Vulcan Historical Review

pp. 206-208


Remembering Work On The First Volume Of The Vulcan Historical Review, Colin Davis Jan 2016

Remembering Work On The First Volume Of The Vulcan Historical Review, Colin Davis

Vulcan Historical Review

p. 12


Big Shot, L S. Klatt Jan 2016

Big Shot, L S. Klatt

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 106


Bruges, Ricardo Pau-Llosa Jan 2016

Bruges, Ricardo Pau-Llosa

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 127


The Nature Of Nature, Rebecca A. Spears Jan 2016

The Nature Of Nature, Rebecca A. Spears

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 130-131


Theodicy, Brandon Courtney Jan 2016

Theodicy, Brandon Courtney

Birmingham Poetry Review

pp. 63-64


Lunch Line, Ashley Warner Jan 2016

Lunch Line, Ashley Warner

Birmingham Poetry Review

p. 149


Birmingham Poetry Review 43 (Front Matter), Birmingham Poetry Review Staff Jan 2016

Birmingham Poetry Review 43 (Front Matter), Birmingham Poetry Review Staff

Birmingham Poetry Review

No abstract provided.