Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Trapped In A State Of Mitigating Danger: Forgotten Process, Forgotten Women, Alva Hunt Reid

Doctoral Dissertations

Women who are in intimate partner abusive relationships undergo a change process, which is a spectrum of emotional and behavioral responses to violence that is identifiable in stages. The end result is that women terminate their relationships or renegotiate their circumstances to halt the violence: Treatment protocol for abused women is shifting to individualized intervention based on these stages. Leaving and returning to an abusive relationship is a predominant theme in the change process that has not been investigated.

The present study examined this forgotten leave-return process in a sample of forgotten women. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to describe …

Chlorpyrifos In Human Breast Milk?, Karyn Ann Casey

Doctoral Dissertations

The widespread use of pesticides by farmers, pest control operators and even the general public can pose significant risks to children's health. One particular pesticide, chlorpyrifos, was the most widely used pesticide in the United States with total use estimated at approximately 30 million pounds per year. Young children and the developing fetus are far more susceptible to the effects of pesticide exposure as a result of unusual exposure patterns and developmental immaturities. Transplacental transfer and lactational exposure are the pathways exclusive to the developing fetus and infant. Chlorpyrifos exposure is of special concern in this population because of its …

The Only Way Out Is To Die: Perceptions And Experiences Of Rural, Homebound, Older Diabetics, Sharon Robbins George

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the meaning of diabetes, as perceived and experienced by rural, homebound, 65-year and older, diabetics requiring insulin. The sixty-five year and older persons are disproportionately affected by diabetes. They are more likely than younger diabetics to have co-morbidities, disabilities and difficulty preventing diabetic complications. Guidelines for diabetes management and treatment developed by the American Diabetes Association are not specifically targeted for the 65-year and older population. Phenomenological research was used to examine and describe the understanding of diabetes from perspectives of older diabetics.

A purposive sample of participants was recruited from …

A Newly Identified Hantavirus: The Development Of Immunologic Diagnostic Assays And Phylogenetic Analysis For Detection And Characterization, Shawn Lee Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations

Hantaviruses are the etiologic agents of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe and Asia and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) in the Americas. As of July 2005, 396 HCPS cases in 30 U.S. states with a 36% mortality rate have been confirmed since reporting began in 1993.

The primary rodent host of numerous U.S. hantaviruses in Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse) although other strains have been found in association with a district rodent host and geographical region. Reservoir hosts are asymptomatically, persistently infected and shed virus particles intermittently in urine, saliva and feces. Thus, the primary transmission route for hantavirus …

Application Of Polyelectrolyte Layer-By-Layer Nano-Assembly For Surface Modification, Encapsulation And Controlled Release, Nikhil Anil Pargaonkar

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, we applied the traditional Electrostatic layer-by-layer (ELBL) assembly procedure to fabricate nanothin films over flat surfaces, and modify particle surfaces to influence the drug particle size, and drug release. The ELBL assembly has previously been applied to fabricate multilayer nano-scale thin films, but its ability to instantaneously influencing particle size is unique. Other unique observations such as influence on drug release as a result of polymer complexation, and thermal changes occurring during layer fabrication are recorded.

The ELBL self-assembly process was applied to produce dexamethasone particles layered with various polyelectrolyte layer combinations. These combinations were further applied …

Hsv-1 Induced Ocular Angiogenesis: Antiangiogenic Strategies To Prevent Herpetic Stromal Keratitis Pathogenesis, Bum Seok Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

Herpetic stromal keratitis (SK) is an immunopathological and tissue destructive corneal lesion caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, which induces an intense autoimmune inflammatory response and finally leads blindness. Accumulating evidence using the murine model has shown that Th-1 phenotype CD4⁺ T cells orchestrating the inflammation mainly contribute the immunopathological reaction in HSV-1 infected cornea. However, prior to CD4⁺ T cell infiltration into corneal lesions, various innate immune cells recruit and produce numerous inflammatory molecules into the corneal stroma. Interestingly, one prominent event early in the pathogenesis of SK is neovascularization of the usually avascular cornea. It …

Components Of Auditory Closure, Steven Glen Madix

Doctoral Dissertations

Auditory closure (AC) is an aspect of auditory processing that is crucial for understanding speech in background noise. It is a set of abilities that allows listeners to understand speech in the absence of important information, both spectral and temporal. AC is evaluated using monaural low-redundancy speech tasks: low-pass filtered words (LPFW), time-compressed words (TCW), and words-in-noise (WiN). Although not previously used, phonemic restoration with words (PhRW) is also a speech task that has been proposed as a measure of AC. In the present study, four tasks of AC, that are listed above, were used to evaluate AC skills in …

Organization And Signal Processing Of The Descending Tracts In The Cervical Spinal Cord, Yanmei Tie

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the research for the development of spinal cord-computer interface (SCCI). The main objective of SCCI is to generate voluntary motor control signals for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).

In the neuroscience aspect, organization of the fibers in the descending tracts of the dorsolateral funiculus of the cervical spinal cord was investigated in cats. The spinal cord was penetrated with silicon substrate microelectrodes at 400 μm intervals in the medio-lateral direction at the C5/C6 and C6/C7 segmental borders. The stimulus consisted of a 20 ms train of charge-balanced biphasic pulses at 330 Hz. The evoked activities from …

Effect Of Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders On Measures Of Group Cohesion In Substance Abusers, Sharon Bradford Robbins

Doctoral Dissertations

Substance dependence and treatment have been the focus of research for a number of years. Recently more attention has been directed toward identifying the most appropriate treatments for people with more complicated substance disorders, those with substance dependence and mental illness. The current study examined three aspects of group cohesion, a necessary condition for effective outcomes, in 64 substance abusers with a comorbid mental illness. The rated aspects of group cohesion included overall group climate, individual group members' self-worth, and each member's perception of the relationship with the group leader. Groups were divided according to profiles based on results from …

Discovering Strengths Of Homeless Abused Women, Jean Croce Hemphill

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experience of discovering strengths of homeless abused women. An emancipatory feminist and existential phenomenological research design was used. Seventeen homeless abused women participated in facilitative dialogues that explored experiences of strength, and assisted in consciousness raising and then discovery of each woman’s own strengths. There were four levels of analysis used to identify a thematic structure. The thematic structure was derived from the various themes of strength that were facilitated in the dialogue and expressed in the words of the women. These various themes were clustered and organized within a …

Breast Milk Or Formula: An Existential Phenomenological Study Of Infant Feeding Decisions Made By Wic Recipients In East Tennessee, Jenny Blair Short

Doctoral Dissertations

Research indicates that breast milk is superior to formula as a source of infant nutrition. Research also indicates that infants born to impoverished women and women who are nutritionally at risk are at increased risk of a host of neonatal complications. Despite this evidence, women enrolled in the USDA's Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) are less likely to initiate and continue to breastfeed their infants than women in the general population.

This existential phenomenological research study was performed to explore the experience of making infant nutrition decisions for infants 6 months of age and younger …

Murine Herpetic Stromal Keratitis: Elucidating The Early Events Involved In Its Pathogenesis, Partha S. Biswas

Doctoral Dissertations

Herpes simplex viruses (HSV) infection is a common cause of ocular disease and can result in a chronic inflammatory reaction that impairs vision. This latter manifestation is called herpetic stromal keratitis (HSK) and usually occurs as a consequence of virus reactivation from latency in the trigeminal ganglion. The pathogenesis process involves complex interactions of cellular and molecular events. HSK in humans, and certainly its murine experimental model, appears to be an immunopathologic disease process. The crucial cell type orchestrating the inflammation is a CD4⁺ Tcell that has a Thl cytokineproducing profile. However, prior to this immunoinflammatory phase, multiple events …

Genetic Analysis Of Feline Calicivirus (Fcv) Isolates Associated With A Hemorrhagic-Like Disease, Mohamed Mostafa Abd-Eldaim

Doctoral Dissertations

Feline Calicivirus (FCV) is one of the most common causes of upper
respiratory tract disease in cats. Other disease syndromes associated with
FCV infection have been reported. Recently, calicivirus infections
associated with a hemorrhagic-like disease leading to significant mortality in
cats has been reported. The clinical signs are similar to those observed with
the Calicivirus of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease. This investigation
characterized two FCV isolates associated with hemorrhagic-like disease.
Nucleotide sequencing of the complete genome was done on these two
isolates and four isolates representing other disease syndromes. Previously
reported sequence data for the entire genome of classical FCV (six …