Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Protecting Life And Lung: Protected Areas Affect Fine Particulate Matter And Respiratory Hospitalizations In The Brazilian Amazon Biome., Derek Michael Sheehan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I assessed the impacts of upwind protected area coverage on local respiratory health within the Brazilian Amazon. A hypothesized mechanism is the legal prohibition of human ignited fires within protected areas, reducing particulate matter pollution, impacting respiratory health downwind. The connection between fires and respiratory diseases in the Amazon is well established (Smith et al. 2014; Rangel and Vogl 2019; Rocha and Sant’anna 2020). What is not well understood is the potential that government policies aimed at preventing ecosystem loss may also promote health and wellbeing, combining the UN sustainable development goals 3 and 15. Protected areas currently dominate government …

Investigations On Novel Cyp26a1/B1 Inhibitor, Dx308: Using Atra Response As A Theraputic Target For Traumatic Brain Injury And Parkinson’S Disease, Jacob Morgan Leatherwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) take a wide spectrum of pathologies and have a tendency to present themselves later in life. Neurodegenerative diseases affect 6 million Americans annually with ~1 million currently living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). One of the greatest contributors to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases is the occurrence of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) during life.

All-trans-retinoic acid (atRA) is the active metabolite of Vitamin A. The retinoic acid pathway is known to be activated following TBI and is reduced in PD patients. Previous studies found a decrease in inflammation and behavioral deficits following administration of Vitamin …

Implementation Of A Dose Response To Wood Smoke Pm: A Potential Method To Further Explain Cvd In Wildland Firefighters., Dylan Richmond, John Quindry, Christopher T. Migliaccio, Brent Ruby

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The presentation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and comorbidities in aging and retired wildland firefighters (WLFF) continues to be one of the top health priorities to address by The United States Forest Service. In the past 20 years, experts at multiple meetings and conferences have confronted this growing concern as a formal call to action to investigation the individual components related to working in the wildland fire setting. The inhalation of wood smoke particulate matter (PM) shows evidence of altering homeostasis in WLLF’s in the areas of oxidative stress, inflammation, and arterial stiffness, all of which contribute to the development of …

Healthy Heart Project, Emily Hurst

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The Healthy Heart program has been offering fitness testing, cardiovascular and chronic disease testing and education, and clinical experience for students in the course KIN483: Exercise, Disease, and Aging for a number of years. The program offers an important service to the Missoula community by providing each participant with accurate health indicators and results, such as ECG (heart) rhythms, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility and strength measures, body composition, and peripheral artery disease screening. The program gives students experience learning practical skills by performing a 2-hour exercise testing session, communicating with a community member, analyzing testing data, and compiling then discussing results. …

Interleukin-6 And Exercise; Early Evidence Of A Novel Myokine, Brendan Hogg Mr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) was first identified as a pleiotropic cytokine, with a host of body-wide functions. Cytokine functions are characterized by chronically elevated levels within various inflammatory states. In this regard, IL-6 is largely associated with the acute phase response to many stimuli and performs specific actions when produced from certain cell types. Accrued evidence indicates IL-6 release from skeletal muscle often includes myokine functions. Novel myokine functions are adaptive in nature, and as compared to inflammatory/cytokine roles, exhibit a transient time course. Following exercise plasma IL-6 peaks and returns to resting levels within 1-2 hours. In contrast, IL-6 is observed …

University Of Montana Students And The Gardasil Vaccine, Markie C. Glidewell

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Gardasil^® is a vaccine for human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that can cause genital warts, cervical cancer, and other diseases. Males and females ages 9-26 are recommended to receive the Gardasil^® vaccination. Most students attending the University of Montana (UM) are within the recommended age range for Gardasil^® vaccination and would benefit from receiving it if they have not yet done so. Gardasil^® is available at the Health Services Pharmacy on the UM campus and is often covered by insurance plans with no patient copay. In the fall semester of 2016, surveys were …

The Healthy Heart Program At The University Of Montana: A Program Review, Laura B. Porisch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Porisch, Laura, M.S., Spring 2016 Health and Human Performance

Abstract—The Healthy Heart Program at the University of Montana: A Program Review

Chairperson: Steven Gaskill

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify whether the Healthy Heart Program at the University of Montana is successful at facilitating lifestyle behavior changes. Methods: Six participants from Spring of 2015 were interviewed 3-4 months post and again 9-10 months post participation in the program. Interview questions focused on whether participants were working toward goals as well as their opinion of the program and what could be done to improve it. Additionally, 18 participants …

“The Most Poisonous Of All Diseases Of Mind Or Body”: Colorphobia And The Politics Of Reform, April J. Gemeinhardt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Focusing on the mid-1830s through 1865, this thesis explores colorphobia—the irrational fear and hatred of black people otherwise known as racial prejudice—as a reform tactic adopted by abolitionists. It argues that colorphobia played a pivotal role in the radical abolitionist reform agenda for promoting anti-slavery, immediate emancipation, equal rights, and black advancement. By framing racial prejudice as a disease, abolitionists believed connotations, stigmas, and fears of illness would elicit more attention to the rapidly increasing racial prejudice in the free North and persuade prejudiced white Americans into changing their ways. Abolitionists used parallels to cholera, choleraphobia (fear of cholera), and …

Inactivation Of Genes For Antigenic Variation In The Relapsing Fever Spirochete Borrelia Hermsii Reduces Infectivity In Mice And Transmission By Ticks, Sandra J. Raffel, James M. Battisti, Robert J. Fischer, Tom G. Schwan

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Borrelia hermsii, a causative agent of relapsing fever of humans in western North America, is maintained in enzootic cycles that include small mammals and the tick vector Ornithodoros hermsi. In mammals, the spirochetes repeatedly evade the host’s acquired immune response by undergoing antigenic variation of the variable major proteins (Vmps) produced on their outer surface. This mechanism prolongs spirochete circulation in blood, which increases the potential for acquisition by fast-feeding ticks and therefore perpetuation of the spirochete in nature. Antigenic variation also underlies the relapsing disease observed when humans are infected. However, most spirochetes switch off the bloodstream …