Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Using Word Embeddings To Explore The Language Of Depression On Twitter, Sandhya Gopchandani

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

How do people discuss mental health on social media? Can we train a computer program to recognize differences between discussions of depression and other topics? Can an algorithm predict that someone is depressed from their tweets alone? In this project, we collect tweets referencing “depression” and “depressed” over a seven year period, and train word embeddings to characterize linguistic structures within the corpus. We find that neural word embeddings capture the contextual differences between “depressed” and “healthy” language. We also looked at how context around words may have changed over time to get deeper understanding of contextual shifts in the …

On The Subject Of Autism: Lacan, First-Person Writing, And Research, Adam Neil Poulin

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In his essay, Don’t Mourn for Us, Jim Sinclair describes autism as a “way of being.” He maintains there is “no normal child hidden behind the autism” and that “it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence.” In an attempt to appreciate the depth of Sinclair’s statements, this thesis approaches autism as a “way of being” through the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan. By applying Lacan’s conceptual framework to first-person writing and scientific research, I lay an interdisciplinary foundation for the case I make. Although this project requires significant conceptual scaffolding across different …

Clinical Evidence Technologies And Patient Care, Marianne D. Burke

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Clinical evidence technologies (CETs) are information sources derived from medical research literature that may assist health care providers in continued learning, decision-making, and patient care. Examples of CETs include: MEDLINE/PubMed and Cochrane Reviews, research journal literature, print and electronic medical texts, clinical topic summaries, guidelines, and interactive decision tools. Clinicians utilize CETs to find answers to questions that arise during patient care. However, it was unclear if CETs had a measurable impact on provider practice or patient outcomes.

A literature review identified twenty-two articles evaluating CETs’ impact. Study designs included surveys, observational studies, randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental methods. …

Association Of Sickle Cell Trait With Exertional Rhabdomyolysis And Atrial Fibrillation., Daniel R. Douce

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Sickle cell trait (SCT), sickle cell disease’s carrier status, is a common genetic variant found in many people of African, South Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean descent. While overall considered a benign carrier status, it has been associated with an increased risk of several diseases, including exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER), and chronic kidney disease. While epidemiological evidence links SCT with ER, the actual pathophysiological mechanism less understood. Additionally, while there is an increased prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) documented in people with sickle cell disease, studies in individuals with SCT are lacking.

The objectives of this thesis are twofold: The first …

Referral Patterns And Service Provision In Child Protective Services: Child, Caregiver, And Case Predictors, Hannah Mead Holbrook

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Child maltreatment, and recurrent maltreatment in particular, occurs at an alarmingly high rate. Frequency of reports to Child Protective Services (CPS) is associated with negative psychological outcomes, and children whose reports are unsubstantiated experience similar risk of behavioral, emotional, and substance use disorders as those whose reports are substantiated. Prior research has demonstrated that children with no CPS reports and children with one CPS report showed no significant differences in rates of maltreatment perpetration or substance use in adulthood, suggesting that prevention efforts after one report may have strong merit in reducing negative outcomes in adulthood. However, patterns and risk …

An Analysis Of Beverage Consumption In The United States Using The National Health And Examination Survey 2007-2017, Sean Morris

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) are liquids sweetened with various forms of added sugar. They are the leading source of calories and added sugar in the American diet (Drewnowski & Rehm, 2014; National Cancer Institute, 2016; Powell, Chriqui, Khan, Wada, & Chaloupka, 2013). The health and nutrition literature has increasingly identified added sugars and SSBs as a key potential contributor to a host of public health issues including obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (Johnson et al., 2009; Malik, Popkin, Bray, Despres, & Hu, 2010; Vartanian, Schwartz, & Brownell, 2007). Concern about these public health crises has recently animated regional …

Exosomes And Their Role In Asbestos Exposure And Mesothelioma, Phillip Blake Munson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a locally invasive and highly aggressive cancer arising on the mesothelial surface of organ cavities (mainly pleural) as a direct result of asbestos exposure. The latency period of MM is long (20-50yrs) after initial asbestos exposure, and the prognostic outcomes are dismal with median life expectancy of 6-12 months post-diagnosis. There are no useful biomarkers for early MM diagnosis, no successful therapeutic interventions. These vast voids of knowledge led to our hypotheses that secreted vesicles, termed exosomes, play an important role in MM development and tumorigenic properties. Exosomes are nano-sized particles secreted from all cell types …

Predictors Of Psychotherapy Attrition Among Refugees, Emily Robin Pichler

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

It is estimated that approximately one in five patients will terminate therapy early, before participating in full treatment and obtaining maximum therapeutic benefits. Millions of people are forcibly displaced as refugees each year, and therefore at increased risk for poverty, discrimination, and complex mental health needs, yet no research has yet examined rates or predictors of psychotherapy attrition among refugees. The current study draws upon a sample of refugee clients seeking treatment at a community clinic (N = 196), and a comparison group of 165 non-refugee clients at the same clinic. Logistic regression was employed to (1) compare rates of …