Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Pilot Study Of Organizational Performance, Performance Barriers And Faculty Engagement In The Nursing Education Unit, Yolanda Chapman Turner

Dissertations

This pilot study was driven by the problem of market disequilibrium and the subsequent overarching desire to identify and describe principles and processes taken by nursing education units to optimize market equilibrium for nursing service in response to cyclical market demands. Given the complexities of market responsiveness in conjunction with changes in healthcare delivery, health economics, population demographics, higher education and other contextual factors, it is essential for nursing education as a whole to be in a position to respond to demand. The purpose of this study was to investigate organizational performance, performance barriers and faculty engagement in the nursing …

Comparison Of The Differential Roles Of Sphingosine Kinase (Sk) Isoenzymes In Tumor Cells And Characterization Of Sk-Isoenzyme Selective Inhibitors, Peng Gao

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Sphingosine kinases (SK) are promising therapeutic targets for cancer because they regulate the balance between pro-apoptotic ceramides and mitogenic sphingosine-1 phosphate (S1P); however, the functions of the two isoenzymes (SK1 and Sk2) in tumor cells are not well defined, and the systemically comparison of the anti-cancer effects from SK isoform selective inhibitors is elusive. Therefore, firstly, RNA interference was used to assess the individual roles of SK1 and SK2 in tumor cell sphingolipid metabolism, proliferation and migration/invasion. Treatment of A498, Caki-1 or MDA-MB-231 cells with siRNA specific for SK1 and SK2 effectively suppressed the expression of the target mRNA and …

Pharmaceutical Direct-To-Consumer Advertising And Print Media, Vanessa Khim

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine which type of pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising would be the best marketing strategy for pharmaceutical companies to use. The main argument was that one-to-one marketing in the forms of print media and the Internet was the best strategy over mass media marketing in the forms of television and radio.

The study researched various literary sources on the different marketing strategies which facilitated in examining the positive and negative aspects of each. One hundred surveys were distributed to medical personnel and pharmaceutical prescription consumers in both the Bay Area and San Luis Obispo …

Use Of Emoticons For Assessing Emotion And Mood States In Web-Based Interventions, Jennifer Chua So

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

In the rapidly growing field of online psychotherapeutic interventions, an increasing number of clinicians are seeking to extend therapeutic interventions into cyberspace. However, because communication with clients in this medium is often devoid of auditory and visual feedback, these clinicians are not able to rely on their clinical observations. It then becomes incumbent to develop a psychometrically and theoretically sound means of assessing emotion and mood states that can be easily utilized in this forum. Utilizing cross-culturally and empirically supported models of emotion structure shown to be influential in the self-report data, the Positive Affect and Negative Affect factors, this …

Molecular Dynamics Of Adenovirus Type 3 And 7 Infections In Military And Civilian Populations In The United States, Laura M. Dickson

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Human adenoviruses (HAdV) are major causative agents of acute respiratory disease (ARD) worldwide. Military recruits and children are two of the populations most susceptible to HAdV infection in the United States. Infections by species B serotypes, including HAdV-3 and HAdV-7, are often associated with some of the most severe clinical manifestations of respiratory disease. In 1996, the production of the HAdV vaccine that was administered to US military recruits was discontinued. Since then, HAdV-associated ARD has reemerged in military training facilities nationwide compromising readiness and deployability of troops and causing significant financial burden to the Department of Defense (DoD). The …

Can We Get Nurses To Stay? A Qualitative Study To Evaluate The Effectiveness Of A Formal Mentoring Program In An Acute Care Health System, Eileen M. Willits

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological case study was designed to investigate the affect that a formal mentoring program had on job satisfaction including a nurse's intent to stay with their current employer and their intent to stay in the nursing profession. The research was intended to determine whether mentoring programs could be used to help avoid the affect of the upcoming predicted nursing shortage in the acute care hospital.

The findings were based on the results of a sample of twelve nurses who had voluntarily signed up to take part in a formal mentoring program sponsored by the staff development department of …

Clean Water For Developing Countries, Hilary Wighton

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Mental Health Provision To Hispanics In Idaho: Findings From A Provider Survey, Nicole Stickney

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Currently, Idaho’s mental health resources for Hispanics are not designed to meet their mental health needs. According to Jose Valle, the Chief of Children’s Mental Health at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Region III, there are no available data regarding prevalence rates for mental disorders among Hispanics in Idaho (personal communication, September 18, 2007), and little is known about what interventions work best among Hispanics (Gonzalez, 2006). As a first step in addressing the mental health needs of Hispanics in Idaho, information on the capacity of local providers to deliver culturally appropriate care is needed. The Idaho Partnership …

Is Parenting Style Related To Overweight In Mexican Or Mexican-American Preschoolers?, Darlene Mcpherson-Ventura Phd

Dissertations

The prevalence of childhood overweight (OW) continues to rise and children from low-income, Mexican or Mexican-American families are disproportionately affected. The preschool years have been identified as a critical period for excessive weight gain and during this time children respond to parental cues as they form their early eating habits. Certain parenting styles have been associated with improved health outcomes in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of parenting styles and feeding practices to the Mexican or Mexican-American preschool child's risk of overweight. Interdependence Theory was used to inform this study to understand the interaction …

Preferences And Willingness To Pay For Osteoarthritis Treatments Among The Medicare Population, Meghan Alexis Hufstader

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The design of this study is a non-random cross sectional survey to determine Medicare beneficiaries’ preferences and willingness to pay for osteoarthritis (OA) treatments. The population of interest in this study is the Medicare eligible (over age 65) population in Memphis, TN, and surrounding cities. Data were collected at Senior Centers and one internal medicine practice. The sample size was 181.

Choice-based conjoint analysis technique was utilized. The preferences and willingness to pay were determined using choice-based conjoint analysis, advanced design module with a dual-response none option. Choice-based conjoint analysis uses computer guided surveys to elicit patient preference for a …

The Relationship Between Quality Of Maternal Care And The Development Of Infant Sociability In A Captive Group Of Western Lowland Gorillas, Liza Veliz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Maternal factors, e.g., quality and behavior were examined in order to determine if a relationship with enhanced infant social development exists. Gorilla mothers were each nursery reared and are full siblings, providing an unusual opportunity to examine the individual differences that may play a role in infant socialization. Observational data collected during three-time blocks by means of focal animal sampling were used to analyze social behaviors and identify initiators and receivers of contact behaviors, thereby determining a relationship between maternal care and infant sociability. Results indicated that mothers who provided successful maternal care produced more sociable offspring. Findings from this …

Curanderismo And Healing Rituals: An Ethnographic And Historical Study Of The Casma Valley In Northern Peru, Maria Esmeralda Perez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

While curanderismo and shamanism form an important cultural aspect throughout Peru, the healing rituals in the Casma Valley are mostly unknown. This paper attempts to define the historical background of curanderismo in the Casma Valley by describing the traditional healing rituals throughout the Atlantic World. Recounting, not only the history of curanderismo, religion, witchcraft, and sorcery in Latin America, but also the history of these beliefs in Europe and Africa as well. One of the main goals of this paper is to provide sufficient proof of the ties and connections that curanderismo in the Casma Valley in Northern Peru share, …

Association Tests Of The Opioid Receptor System And Alcohol-Related Traits, Ryan Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

The opioid receptors and their endogenous ligands have long been implicated in a variety of traits including addiction, impulsive behaviors and substance dependence. Using phenotypic measurements collected from the IASPSAD, data from a latent class analysis and data from a SNP array and additional genotyping assays, association and regression tests were performed to determine the effects of common SNPs encoded in the genes of the opioid receptors and ligands on various traits relating to alcohol dependence. Although only one SNP can be reported as significant for substance dependence within alcoholics, there were a few results approaching significance that may offer …

Discovery And Validation Of New Regulatory Rna Elements In Chlamydia Trachomatis, Yasser Mohammed Elsayed Metwally Abdelrahman

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate intracellular bacterium that exhibits a unique biphasic developmental cycle that can be disrupted by growth in the presence of IFN-g and b-lactams, giving rise to an abnormal growth state termed persistence. Relatively little is known about the regulatory mechanisms that control temporal gene expression during the developmental cycle or the control of persistence and reactivation. Here we have examined the expression of a newly defined family of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that are differentially expressed during the developmental cycle and the induction of persistence and reactivation (Using IFNγ and Carbenicillin). Non-coding RNAs were initially identified using …

Application Of Different Bioanalytical Workflows For Proteomics Of Prostate Cancer, Li Chen

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

In the current dissertation, we focused on the development and application of multiple mass spectrometry-based bioanalytical platforms for phosphoproteomic characterization in cell culture and clinical specimens of prostate cancer; and on the application of optimized methods to analysis of differential protein expression to reveal molecular mechanism of drug action in animal model of prostate cancer.

Characterization of the phosphoproteome in prostate cancer

Our study in phosphoprotein signatures on a large scale in prostate cancer focused on the LNCaP human prostate cancer cell line, and on human prostate cancer tissue.

For the LNCaP prostate cancer cell line, we applied a combination …

Stepped Care For Smoking Cessation: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis And Simulation Of Future Outcomes, Brandi E. Franklin

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

It has been well established that smoking is the leading avoidable cause of premature morbidity and mortality in the United States and abroad. Smoking is attributable to over 400,000 annual deaths, and $193 billion in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Despite the apparent dangers and tremendous costs of tobacco use and dependence, smokers find difficulty quitting. Recently, stepped care has been proposed as a viable intensive approach for achieving long-term cessation. This research sought to evaluate cost-effectiveness of stepped care in a diverse population of smokers and analyze future health outcomes of smoking cessation.

Cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted from an …

Function And Pain In Community-Dwelling, Adult Mid-Southerners With Limb Loss, Cecile B. Evans

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Background: Limb loss affects about 1 in 190 people in the US. Risk factors for limb loss include diabetes, obesity, smoking, minority race, and poverty, which are all common in the Mid-South population. Function is impaired by limb loss, and pain associated with limb loss may further impair function.

Purpose: Describe the function, pain, health status, and demographics of community-dwelling, adult Mid-Southerners with limb loss. Estimate the relationship between function and pain, health status, and demographics of community-dwelling, adult Mid-Southerners with limb loss. Estimate the joint influences on function by pain, health status, and demographics of community-dwelling, adult Mid-Southerners with …

Chitosan/Ellagic Acid Composite Materials For Local Cancer Therapy, Sung Woo Kim

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Current advances in the drug delivery have improved the therapeutic efficacy of the drug and minimized risks of side effects associated with toxicity of the drug. Implantable polymeric delivery system has gained increasing attentions for controlled drug release and localized treatments. In comparison to conventional chemotherapy, polymeric delivery systems are implantable at a local targeted site and biodegradable after a sufficient therapeutic span. The objectives of this project were to fabricate and characterize an implantable polymeric vehicle for a local chemotherapy and investigate its biological properties against cancer cells including human WM115 melanoma, human U87 glioblastoma, and rat C6 glioma …

Identification Of The Downstream Effector Genes Involved In Hoxb4-Induced Expansion Of Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells, Jie Jiang

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Overexpression of HOXB4, a member of Homeobox transcription factor family, promotes expansion of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells bothin vivo and in vitro. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood. In order to identify direct target genes of HOXB4 in primary murine hematopoietice progenitor cells, we induced HOXB4 function in lineage-negative, murine bone marrow cells, using a tamoxifen-inducibleHOXB4-ER^T2fusion protein. Seventy seven genes with differentially changed expression in early response to HOXB4 have been identified as candidate target genes. Among them, we show that Hemogen (Hemgn), encoding a nuclear protein specifically …

Contribution Of The Membrane-Proximal Region Of The Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Glycoprotein To Host Cell Entry And Membrane Fusion, Elizabeth Lane Matheny

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is an enveloped, nonsegmented, negative-sense, RNA virus belonging to the Rhabdoviridae family. VSV is considered the prototypic Rhabdovirus due to its simple genetic organization, broad host cell tropism, and ability to be easily grown in cell culture. Therefore, VSV has been used as the prototype to study viral entry, transcription, replication, and assembly. Viral entry, a critical step in the lifecycle of the virus, is mediated by the outer surface protein, G and will be the focus of this dissertation.

We hypothesize that the highly conserved residues in the membrane-proximal region of VSV G protein are …

Physical And Functional Coupling Of Cftr And Pde3a, Himabindu Penmatsa

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Formation of multiple-protein macromolecular complexes at specialized subcellular microdomains increases the specificity and efficiency of signaling in cells. In this study, we demonstrated that phosphodiesterase type 3A (PDE3A) is physically and functionally coupled to cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). PDE3A inhibition increases cyclic adenosine 3′, 5′-monophosphate (cAMP) levels in a compartmentalized manner at the plasma membrane, which potentiates CFTR channel function and further clusters PDE3A and CFTR into microdomains. Actin skeleton disruption reduces PDE3A-CFTR interaction; segregates PDE3A from its interacting partners thus compromise the integrity of the macromolecular complex. Consequently, PDE3A inhibition no longer activates CFTR channel function in …

Pandemic Potential Of Reassortant Swine Influenza A Viruses, Christy Brockwell Staats

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Influenza A viruses are capable of causing disease in several species, including birds, humans and swine. Host specificity of the viruses is not absolute, and is influenced by a range of factors. Swine play a pivotal role in the interspecies transmission of influenza A viruses, as they are susceptible to infection with both human and avian strains and have been implicated as a “mixing vessel” for the reassortment of influenza A viruses from different species. The reassortment of influenza A viruses of human and avian origin led to human influenza pandemics in 1957 and 1968.

The dynamics of swine influenza …

The Differences In Levels Of Job Satisfaction Burnout And Self-Efficacy Between Correctional And Community Psychologists: The Effect Of Personality And Work Environment, Allison M. Herlickson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to expand on research regarding levels of job satisfaction, burnout, and counselor self-efficacy within the field of psychology and particularly among correctional and community psychologists; explore the differences between correctional and community psychologists specifically in relation to levels job satisfaction, burnout, and self-efficacy; and examine difference and/or similarities in work environments and personality traits of correctional psychologists and community psychologists. The instruments used to measure job satisfaction, burnout, counselor self-efficacy, work environment, and personality were the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory, Counselor Self-Estimate Inventory, Work Environment Scale-10, and the International Personality Item …

The Relationship Between Residency And Socio-Demographics To Academic Performance In Ncaa Division I Freshman Athletes, Eric Matthew Snyder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Numerous studies have been completed on the academic ability of student athletes. Since the mid 1980s, the NCAA has emphasized the importance of academics and mandated more stringent requirements to be able to participate in intercollegiate athletics. These initial-eligibility standards have been successful in increasing overall graduation rates of student-athletes, but there remain a number of concerns. The purpose of the study was to determine if an NCAA D-I freshman student athlete's place of residency on campus, as opposed to off campus, while attending college during his/her freshman year had a statistically significant relationship to achievement as it relates to …

Mindfulness Meditation And Art Making: Implications For Art Therapy, Susan Kathleen Mahl

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Meditation is being integrated into various fields to aid with healing, especially mindfulness meditation as it focuses on total awareness of the present. This thesis describes a self study that used a heuristic methodology to investigate the effects of mindfulness meditation on this researcher. I progressed through the six phases of heuristic research in a period seven weeks. At the beginning of the study, mindfulness meditation was practiced twice a week for a time period of 30 minutes to one hour for three weeks, followed by art making and reflections. Next, I practiced mindfulness meditation three times a week for …

Immune Regulation Of The Host Autophagic Response And The Elimination Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Sergio A. De Haro

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Autophagy is an immune effector response against a variety of intracellular pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacteria survive in macrophages by blocking maturation of the phagosome. Induction of autophagy by the T helper 1 (Th1) cytokine IFN-γ, or amino acid starvation, enables macrophages to overcome the phagosome maturation block and impedes mycobacterial survival. This study investigates the role of T helper 2 (Th2) cytokines Interleukin 4 (IL-4) and Interleukin 13 (IL-13) in autophagy in macrophages and their ability to eliminate intracellular mycobacteria. The Th2 cytokines abrogated autophagy and autophagy-induced transfer of mycobacteria into lysosomal compartments, thus enhancing mycobacterial survival within infected …

Pulmonary Vasoconstrictor Reactivity Following Intermittent Hypoxia, Jessica Snow

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Sleep apnea (SA) affects as many as 20% of the adult population in the United States. It elicits intermittent hypoxia (IH) and causes pulmonary hypertension (PH), however the mechanisms of this PH have not been well studied. IH has been shown to cause polycythemia, pulmonary vascular remodeling and increases in vasoconstrictor reactivity. CO2 supplementation may be protective in the development of PH, therefore we assessed effects of IH with and without CO2 supplementation on indices of PH and pulmonary vasoconstrictor reactivity. IH with CO2 supplementation resulted in eucapnic IH (E-IH) and the lack of polycythemia or vascular remodeling. However, E-IH …

Microsphere Based Protease Assays And High Throughput Screening Of Bacterial Toxin Proteases, Matthew J. Saunders

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Proteases, proteins which cleave peptide bonds in other proteins, are a large and varied group of proteins which regulate a variety of physiological processes. Methodologies to study proteases are often protease specific and often differ greatly from the roles proteases play in vivo. In vitro protease assays often use peptide based substrates, which do not take into account highly specific interactions distal from the proteolytic site of peptide cleavage on protease substrates. In the work described here we have developed a microsphere based protease assay, capable of using full length protease substrates, and have successfully measured proteolytic activity via loss …

Decreased Functional Connectivity With Aging And Disease Duration In Schizophrenia, Christopher Abbott

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Objective: Progressive brain changes late in the disease course of schizophrenia may be detected with functional connectivity. This study compared functional connectivity between patients with schizophrenia late in the disease course with matched healthy controls.

Method: Subjects included 18 patients with schizophrenia with minimum 15 years disease duration and 28 matched healthy controls from the MIND Clinical Imaging Consortium database. The functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm was the auditory oddball task. We used independent components analysis to identify temporally cohesive but spatially distributed neural networks. We selected the executive control and default mode networks for additional analysis. The temporal course …

Adult Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells In Response To Their Microenvironment: Proliferation, Differentiation, And Migration, Basam Z. Barkho

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

The plasticity of adult neural stem/progenitor cells allows a differential response to a variety of environmental cues. Over the past decade, significant research efforts have been devoted into understanding the regulation of neural stem/progenitor cells due to their promising potential for cell replacement therapies in adult neurological diseases. It has been demonstrated that after brain injury both endogenous and grafted neural stem/progenitor cells have the ability to proliferate to expand their number, migrate long distances to the lesioned site and differentiate into new specific neurons to replace the ones that have been lost. All these procedure are regulated by extrinsic …