Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Validation Of The Masculine Gender Role Stress Scale In A Diverse Population, Amanda Eliza Sherman

Masters Theses

Adherence to traditional masculinity has been associated with negative physical and psychological health outcomes. Specifically, the standards of masculinity imposed on men have been associated with high levels of stress reactivity, interpersonal violence, and substance abuse. However, previous research has been limited to primarily Caucasian samples. In order to better understand masculinity and the stress associated with adherence to masculinity across ethnicity, we examined the validity of the Masculine Gender Role Stress scale in a diverse sample. We hypothesized that the MGRS in a diverse sample would function similarly to the MGRS in a primarily Caucasian sample in that it …

Non-Syndromic Cleft Lip And Palate: Could Stress Be A Causal Factor?, Graeme Wallace, Jacinta Arellano, Tini Gruner

Dr Tini M Gruner

The aetiology of non-syndromic cleft lip and palate has as yet not been clearly defined. Familial relationships, environmental toxins and nutritional status have all been considered without conclusive results, although in some studies a potential link between non-syndromic cleft lip and palate and any one or more of these factors has been proposed. Elevated stress, particularly an extended term of traumatic stress, can lead to oxidative damage at the cellular level via hypothalmus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation, high cortisol and cytokine production. The effect of this hormonal shift is to re-direct the blood supply to the mother's muscles, thereby reducing the …

The Lysr-Type Virulence Activator Aphb Regulates The Expression Of Genes In Vibrio Cholerae In Response To Low Ph And Anaerobiosis, Gabriela Kovacikova, Wei Lin, Karen Skorupski

Dartmouth Scholarship

AphB is a LysR-type activator that initiates the expression of the virulence cascade in Vibrio cholerae by cooperating with the quorum-sensing-regulated activator AphA at the tcpPH promoter on the Vibrio pathogenicity island (VPI). To identify the ancestral chromosomal genes in V. cholerae regulated by AphB, we carried out a microarray analysis and show here that AphB influences the expression of a number of genes that are not associated with the VPI. One gene strongly activated by AphB is cadC, which encodes the ToxR-like transcriptional activator responsible for activating the expression of lysine decarboxylase, which plays an important role in …

The Lived Experience Of College Sudents Who Have Been Medicated With Antidepressants, Pamela Joan Aselton

Open Access Dissertations

Increasingly in the last two decades college students have been diagnosed with depression, with estimates of major depression higher than the general population (American Psychiatric Association {APA}, 2005). According to the literature, the stresses of college life along with increased rates of substance abuse, and binge drinking have contributed to the rise in depression in this population. In a large survey of American college students, over half reported some depression since entering college (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse {NCASA}, 2003). Correspondingly, the percentage of young people treated with antidepressants has grown over the past decade, and there is …

Enhanced Psychosocial Well-Being Following Participation In A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Is Associated With Increased Natural Killer Cell Activity., Carolyn Y Fang, Diane K Reibel, Margaret L Longacre, Steven Rosenzweig, Donald E Campbell, Steven D Douglas

Marcus Institute of Integrative Health Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs have consistently been shown to enhance the psychosocial well-being of participants. Given the well-established association between psychosocial factors and immunologic functioning, it has been hypothesized that enhanced psychosocial well-being among MBSR participants would be associated with corresponding changes in markers of immune activity.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine changes in psychosocial and immunologic measures in a heterogeneous patient sample following participation in a MBSR program.

DESIGN: A single-group, pretest/post-test design was utilized.

SETTING: The intervention was conducted at an academic health center.

SUBJECTS: This pilot study involved 24 participants (aged …

Optimal Bone Strength And Mineralization Requires The Type 2 Iodothyronine Deiodinase In Osteoblasts, J. H. D. Bassett, Alan Boyde, Peter G. T. Howell, Richard H. Bassett, Thomas M. Galliford, Marta Archanco, Holly Evans, Michelle A. Lawson, Peter Croucher, Donald L. St. Germain, Valerie A. Galton, Graham R. Williams

Dartmouth Scholarship

Hypothyroidism and thyrotoxicosis are each associated with an increased risk of fracture. Although thyroxine (T4) is the predominant circulating thyroid hormone, target cell responses are determined by local intracellular availability of the active hormone 3,5,3'-L-triiodothyronine (T3), which is generated from T4 by the type 2 deiodinase enzyme (D2). To investigate the role of locally produced T3 in bone, we characterized mice deficient in D2 (D2KO) in which the serum T3 level is normal. Bones from adult D2KO mice have reduced toughness and are brittle, displaying an increased susceptibility to fracture. This phenotype is characterized by a 50% reduction in bone …

The Effect Of Combat Exercises On Cardiovascular Response: An Exploratory Study, Melisa Gantt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

PURPOSE: Hypertension (HTN) affects one in every three adults in the United States. Often associated with the older population, this silent killer has emerged in an unsuspecting group, young military soldiers. With the rapid succession of multiple deployments, long intervals between blood pressure (BP) assessments, and the absence of cardiovascular (CV) measures during the pre and post deployment health screenings; soldiers may be at higher risk for HTN than their civilian counterparts of the same age. The purpose of this study was to explore real-time continuous CV measures of soldiers before, during, and after exposure to a simulated combat stressor …

Relationship Between Precipitant Stressor And Timing Of Clinical Diagnosis In Tako-Tsubo Cardiomyopathy., C Neil, Angela M. Kucia, H Nguyen, A Sverdlov, A Chan, D Dautov, I Mohasseb, J Selvanayagam, M Arstall, C Zeitz, J Beltrame, J Horowitz

Angela Kucia

In practice, TTC is diagnosed almost exclusively either via (1) emergency cardiac catheterisation, primarily for apparent 'STEMI', or (2) recognition of a potentially precipating stress, primarily in patients with a non-ST-elevation (N-STE) ECG pattern. We therefore hypothesized that the greatest delays in diagnosis would occur in the subgroup with N-STE and no known stressor. A seasonality analysis was also undertaken, to test a possible association between heat stress and TTC.

Toward Consensus In The Analysis Of Urinary 8-Oxo-7,8-Dihydro-2′- Deoxyguanosine As A Noninvasive Biomarker Of Oxidative Stress, M D Evans, R Olinski, S Loft, M S Cooke, Jr P Rossner, R Sram, T Henriksen, H E Poulsen, Allan Weimann, A Barbieri, L Sabatini, F Violante, S Kino, T Ochi, K Sakai, M Takeuchi, H Kasai, J H N Meerman, D Gackowski, R Rozalski, A Siomek, Barry Halliwell, Andrew M. Jenner, H Wang, C Cerda, G Saez, S Haghdoost, P Svoboda, C-W Hu, M-R Chao, K-Y Peng, W-C Shih, K-Y Wu, H Orhan, N S Istanbullu, V Mistry, P B Farmer, J Sandhu, R Singh, C Cortez, Y Su, R M Santella, P Lambert, R Smith

Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute

Of the DNA-derived biomarkers of oxidative stress, urinary 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) is the most frequently measured. However, there is significant discrepancy between chromatographic and immunoassay approaches, and intratechnique agreement among all available chromatography-based assays and ELISAs is yet to be established. This is a significant obstacle to their use in large molecular epidemiological studies. To evaluate the accuracy of intra/intertechnique and interlaboratory measurements, samples of phosphate buffered saline and urine, spiked with different concentrations of 8-oxoG, together with a series of urine samples from healthy individuals were distributed to ESCULA members. All laboratories received identical samples, including 2 negative controls that …

Response To Task-Specific Sex Differences In Muscle Fatigue: Is There A Common Underlying Cause?, Sandra K. Hunter

Exercise Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Library Anxiety Of Law Students: A Study Utilizing The Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale, Stacey L. Bowers

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to determine whether law students experienced library anxiety and, if so, which components contributed to that anxiety. The Multidimensional Library Anxiety Scale (mlas) developed by Dr. Doris Van Kampen was used to assess library anxiety levels of law students. The mlas is a 53 question Likert scale instrument that measures the construct of library anxiety. Participants in the study were law students enrolled in a private midwestern university during the 2009-2010 academic year who completed the survey instrument. Law students are a unique graduate school population who undergo an extremely rigorous and competitive course …

Communalism Predicts Prenatal Affect, Stress, And Physiology Better Than Ethnicity And Socioeconomic Status, Cleopatra M. Abdou, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Belinda Campos, Clayton J. Hilmert, Tyan Parker Dominguez, Calvin J. Hobel, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The authors examined the relevance of communalism, operationalized as a cultural orientation emphasizing interdependence, to maternal prenatal emotional health and physiology and distinguished its effects from those of ethnicity and childhood and adult socioeconomic status (SES). African American and European American women (N = 297) were recruited early in pregnancy and followed through 32 weeks gestation using interviews and medical chart review. Overall, African American women and women of lower socioeconomic backgrounds had higher levels of negative affect, stress, and blood pressure, but these ethnic and socioeconomic disparities were not observed among women higher in communalism. Hierarchical multivariate regression analyses …

The Physiological Correlates Of Race-Related Stress And Health Among African Americans And Latinos, Daniel Cruz

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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A Qualitative Study Of Stressors, Stress Symptoms, And Coping Mechanisms Among College Students Using Nominal Group Process, Helen W. Bland, Bridget F. Melton, Stephen Patrick Gonzalez

Community Health Faculty Publications

Background: Stress is part of the college experience; however, how students deal with stress can greatly impact their behaviors and health status. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to qualitatively assess sources of stress, types of stressors, and coping mechanisms employed among undergraduate students.

Methods: Nominal group process was utilized to obtain information related to study variables and help prioritize the accounts provided by study participants (n = 173).

Results: Participants gave insight into the unique stress faced by this generation (grades, GPA, multitasking, parental expectations), stress symptoms (more psychological in nature), and coping strategies (prayer, talking to mom, …

Lifting Without Seeing: The Role Of Vision In Perceiving And Acting Upon The Size Weight Illusion, Gavin Buckingham, Melvyn Goodale

Gavin Buckingham

BACKGROUND: Our expectations of an object's heaviness not only drive our fingertip forces, but also our perception of heaviness. This effect is highlighted by the classic size-weight illusion (SWI), where different-sized objects of identical mass feel different weights. Here, we examined whether these expectations are sufficient to induce the SWI in a single wooden cube when lifted without visual feedback, by varying the size of the object seen prior to the lift.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants, who believed that they were lifting the same object that they had just seen, reported that the weight of the single, standard-sized cube that they …

Parents, Parenting And Toddler Adaptation: Evidence From A National Longitudinal Study Of Australian Children, Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck, Rae Thomas

Rae Thomas

Because infants and toddlers are particularly susceptible to parents’ socialization efforts, the purpose of this 2-year longitudinal study (N= 4271 infants) was to forecast toddlers’ competence and problems (adaptational outcomes, ageM= 30 months) from parenting experiences when they were infants (age M= 9 months). Using structural equation modeling and data from a nationally representative sample, parenting during infancy was important to toddlers’ adaptational outcomes, with parenting warmth most strongly connected to toddler competence and parenting hostility most strongly connected to toddler problems. Additionally, toddlers’ outcomes were associated with their parents’ mental health symptoms, life difficulty, coping and self-efficacy when measured …