Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Sexual Pleasure And Health: A Study Of Urban Middle-Class Women’S Narratives In New Delhi, India, Solana Chertow

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following study seeks to explore how urban-middle class women in Delhi understand, value, and access sexual pleasure. Simultaneously, it looks to understand the relationship between ideas of agency, power, and pleasure. This project was prompted by the lack of colloquial conversation happening on these subjects both globally, and in the communities familiar to the researcher. Although sex and pleasure, in both theory and practice, are extremely prominent in the lives of people around the world, discussion remains stigmatized. With these constraints in mind, this study investigates how a certain population of women became knowledgeable, and are still learning about …

My Body, Their Choice: Childbearing Attitudes And Practices In Jamkhed, Maharashtra, Sienna Sewell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Understanding the beliefs and practices of women and their families during pregnancy and childbirth is fundamental to the creation of successful public health interventions that target maternal and infant mortality. This study explores the childbearing practices of women in rural Jamkhed, as well as the social and economic factors that influence family planning, reproductive health-seeking, and delivery. Interviews and quantitative surveys were conducted with women in villages that have partnered with the Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) to examine how and why women access prenatal care during pregnancy. The influence of CRHP’s “Jamkhed Model” on healthcare access is considered in …

Exploring Mobility Help-Seeking Behavior Among People With Physical Disabilities: A Case Study Of Jaipur Foot, Alex Podell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

It is estimated that as many as 90 million people living in India experience some sort of disability (The World Bank, 2007). As India’s population keeps growing and aging, not only will the medical aspects, but also the societal impacts of disability need to be brought to the forefront of discussion, developmental strategy, and policy implementation. This study sought to analyze factors influencing the process of seeking help from formal and informal sources for people with physical disabilities. Data was collected from 10 people with physical disabilities receiving a variety of mobility aids from the NGO, Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata …

Sirva Todos Como Un Hermano: Las Filosofías De Los Médicos Tradicionales Mapuches Hacia Los Pacientes Winka, Andrew Turner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent years, the popularity of traditional Mapuche medicine has increased drastically among non-Mapuche, Winka, Chileans. This increase in the soliciting of services as well as an expansion of intercultural health programming exists within the context of the ongoing Mapuche conflict in which Mapuche activists in the Araucunía region are fighting for the territorial and societal rights of their indigenous communities. To ascertain the effects of Winka medical solicitation on Mapuche medical practioners, semi-structured interviews were utilized. 8 Mapuche medical practioners and associated community members such as intercultural hospital directors and Lonkos were interviewed. Participants were questioned about the personal …

Pasantía En Programa De Integración Escolar (Pie): Apoyando Estudiantes Con Discapacidades En La Escuela Secundaria, Emily Sen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The intent behind this internship experience was to gain insight into the relationship between an individual’s physical and mental state in the general panorama of one’s health and wellness, specifically among the adolescent population. Throughout this investigation, I actively focused on helping the individuals with whom I was working by cultivating relationships and assisting in therapies. I completed this work in the Student Integration Program (Programa de Integración Escolar), known as PIE, within Liceo A-1 Octavo Palma Pérez, a public high school in Arica, Chile. PIE is a government sponsored program that provides additional resources to students in the public-school …

Pasantía En Red Oss: Más Que Una Clínica, Saad Ehsan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

RED OSS es una organización en Conchalí, Santiago que provee pruebas rápidas de VIH y actualiza otras pruebas para ETS en una manera gratuita desde 1991. Durante mi pasantía, investigué como una organización disminuye las desigualdades de salud. También aprendí sobre el financiamiento de RED OSS, las pruebas rápidas y el nicho de RED OSS en un país con un sistema pública. Utilicé observaciones y entrevistas para estudiar la clínica. Tuve oportunidades para asistir los talleres para prevenir homofobia y ver las consejerías con un voluntario. También actualicé el sitio web para reflejar los servicios que RED OSS ofrece. En …

Social Support And Discrimination: The Experiences Of Recovering Heroin Addicts In Kunming, China, Phoebe Li

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Opioids have had a long, complex position in Chinese society, dating all the way back to the Ming dynasty. In 1949, 5% of the overall Chinese population and 25% of the population in Yunnan smoked opium regularly, which led to societal collapse and economic downturn. Since then, the Chinese government has used many different methods to attempt to control drug use and trafficking, including registering all users, executing traffickers, and using Compulsory Rehabilitation Centers. Starting in 2008, the government switched to a harm reduction approach and began to invest in methadone clinics, community support groups, and needle exchange programs. Because …

Is Technology The Key To Prevention Of Falls Among The Elderly In Rapidly Aging Societies? A Case Study Of Kunming, China, Phoebe Kiburi

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the aging society rapidly becomes more dominant in the world, there is a pressing need for different stakeholders to tend to the needs of the aging sufficiently. This is crucial in ensuring the robustness of the healthcare system as a whole; given that it can only be as strong as its weakest link. This study focuses on one of the areas of need of the ageing society: fall prevention.

Numerous studies have been done on interventions by the government, private entities, elderly people and their caregivers to prevent occurrence and recurrence of falls. However, most of these have been …

When Crayons Meet Tibetan Living Room Walls: Early Childhood In Exile, Emma Hart

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study aims to understand early childhood caregiving among Tibetan refugees living in Nepal. Due to the brain’s enormous developmental plasticity from ages zero to three, children’s experiences during this period are extremely important to explaining their future learnings in school, interactions with people, and engagements with their surroundings. Through interviews and observations, Tibetan parents shared their conceptions of early childhood, parent-child interaction norms, dreams for their children, and how their status as refugees in Nepal affects these. Research was conducted in two Pokhara district Tibetan settlements and one settlement in Mustang. Connected by the flow of children and adults …

Voices Unheard: Women And Their Children In Nepal’S Incarceration System, Aune Nuyttens, Mikayla Rose

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project focused on women in Nepal’s incarceration system. Our goal was to hear and share their stories with the hopes of humanize and de-stigmatize perceptions of female prisoners in and outside of Nepal. A central component to these stories, as we learned, was also the story of prisoner’s children and the NGOs who provide assistance to this vulnerable group of women and their children. The researchers travelled to the east and west of Kathmandu to visit rural and urban prisons in Nepal, and visited various children homes, however the research was based out of Kathmandu, where many of …

Case Presentation On Congestive Heart Failure And Pulmonary Edema, Tetiana Soloviova, Denise Aris

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Loss-Of-Function Mutations In Lysyl-Trna Synthetase Cause Various Leukoencephalopathy Phenotypes, Chong Sun, Jie Song, Yanjun Jiang, Chongbo Zhao, Jiahong Lu, Yuxin Li, Yin Wang, Mingshi Gao, Jianying Xi, Sushan Luo, Meixia Li, Kevin Donaldson, Stephanie N. Oprescu, Thomas P. Slavin, Sansan Lee, Pilar L. Magoulas, Andrea M. Lewis, Lisa Emrick, Seema R. Lalani, Zhiyv Niu, Megan L. Landsverk, Magdalena Walkiewicz, Richard E. Person, Hui Mei, Jill A. Rosenfeld, Yaping Yang, Anthony Antonellis, Ya-Ming Hou, Jie Lin, Victor W. Zhang

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers

Objective: To expand the clinical spectrum of lysyl-tRNA synthetase (KARS) gene–related diseases, which so far includes Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, congenital visual impairment and microcephaly, and nonsyndromic hearing impairment.

Methods: Whole-exome sequencing was performed on index patients from 4 unrelated families with leukoencephalopathy. Candidate pathogenic variants and their cosegregation were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Effects of mutations on KARS protein function were examined by aminoacylation assays and yeast complementation assays.

Results: Common clinical features of the patients in this study included impaired cognitive ability, seizure, hypotonia, ataxia, and abnormal brain imaging, suggesting that the CNS involvement is the main …

Exploring The Trajectory And Prevention Of Alcohol Use Among Young People From The Perspective Of Professional Youth Workers, Kristin Haglund, Mark Hayter

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Excessive alcohol use is a significant health issue. Underage drinking is one expression of excessive alcohol use. Researchers have identified a trajectory of alcohol involvement. Gaps exist in understanding the influences that delay and promote the trajectory of alcohol use among young people. The purpose of this study was to explore the contexts and influences that limited and contributed to the trajectory of alcohol use among young people. A qualitative descriptive design was used. Eight youth workers from a city in Northern England participated in individual audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. Transcriptions were coded. Data were analyzed within, and across, codes to …

Unleashing Top-Of-License Registered Nurse Practice: An Integrative Review, Michelle Dickerson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In light of a well-renowned report, “The Future of Nursing” released by the Institute of Medicine (2010), recommendations were suggested that nurses should practice at, and to, the full extent of their licensure, also referred to as top-of-license nursing practice. Transforming nursing care models coupled with strong leadership support is critical to fostering an environment where top-of-license practice can be fully achieved and sustained. This integrative review provides a compilation and synthesis of the available published evidence regarding the best practices for fostering environments conducive to top-of-license nursing practice. Results of these studies strongly supports the notion of nurses practicing …

A Correlational Study Of Preadmission And Early Program Predictors Of Physician Assistant Certification Exam Scores, Jennifer Pack

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As the physician assistant profession continues to grow, the number of physician assistant programs and the number of applicants to these programs are increasing dramatically. Programs should be diligent to choose students who are likely to be successful in the program and on passing the Physician Assistant National Certification Exam. In addition to selection processes that consider preadmission criteria, programs should also have processes in place to identify students at risk of failure to allow time to implement remediation plans. This study employed a correlational research design, attempting to demonstrate a predictive relationship between the predictor variables, undergraduate science GPA, …

A Phenomenological Study Of Graduated Nursing Student Athletes' Experiences Balancing Academics And Athletics, Robert E. Steed

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of eleven graduated nursing student athletes who completed traditional, four-year nursing programs while concurrently finishing four years of athletic eligibility in their respective sport at three private, Christian, Midwest universities and across three different competitive collegiate athletic divisions. The theories guiding this study are Tinto’s Theory of Individual Departure from Institutions of Higher Learning, Astin’s Theory of Student Involvement, and Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional Model of Stress Response, as they relate to student athletes’ persistence to graduation and to nursing students who reportedly experience higher levels of …

A Referral Dilemma: Ethics Vs. Hipaa, Michael G. Maihofer Dds

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Regular column featuring ethical guidance and consideration for practicing dentists.

Nutrition Risk Among An Ethnically Diverse Sample Of Community-Dwelling Older Adults, Patricia M. Sheean, Isabel C. Farrar, Suela Sulo, Jamie Partridge, Linda Schiffer, Marian Fitzgibbon

Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health

Objective

To assess the prevalence of nutritional risk among an ethnically diverse group of urban community-dwelling older adults and to explore if risk varied by race/ethnicity. Design

Demographic characteristics, Katz’s activities of daily living and health-care resource utilization were ascertained cross-sectionally via telephone surveys with trained interviewers. Nutrition risk and nutrition symptomology were assessed via the abridged Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment (abPG-SGA); scores of ≥6 points delineated ‘high’ nutrition risk. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Setting

Urban. Participants

White, Black or Hispanic community-dwelling adults, ≥55 years of age, fluent in English or Spanish, residing in the …

Characterizing Aft1/2-Grx3/4 Interaction And The Role Of Bol2 During Iron Regulation In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, William Rivers

Senior Theses

Iron dysregulation has been linked to a variety of human diseases, such as anemia, Friedreich’s ataxia, X-linked sideroblastic anemia, sideroblastic-like microcytic anemia, and myopathy. Thus, it is vitally important to understand the mechanisms for regulating intracellular iron. Here, we use fluorescence microscopy techniques in live cells to study interactions of the yeast proteins Grx3/4, Aft1/2, and Bol2, which have been shown to be involved in turning off iron import when the cell has adequate iron. Modified versions of genes encoding these proteins have been incorporated into several yeast backgrounds to use fluorescence to monitor interactions under varying iron levels.

Behavioral And Neurophysiological Correlates Of Sensorimotor Impairment In Aphasia, Lorelei Phillip Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Developing a clearer understanding of the basic impairments which underlie the behavioral characteristics of aphasia is essential for informing the development of targeted and effective treatment techniques. Impairments in sensorimotor integration have already been implicated in the repetition deficits common to individuals with aphasia, but much less is known about the extent to which these integrative deficits occur outside of conduction aphasia and how this manifests behaviorally in areas other than speech repetition. The goal of the present study was to examine these issues further by addressing the following aims: 1) To examine the behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of sensorimotor …

Effect Of Severe Economic Recession On The Psychological Distress: Evidence Of Modifying Effect Of Risky Behaviors And Insurance Status, Lumi Bakos

Theses and Dissertations

The investigation identified the effect of the 2007-2009 economic recession on the level of psychological distress (PD) as modified by engaging in risky behaviors and insurance status. The objective was to determine if engaging in risky behaviors and insurance status had an impact upon the level of psychological distress experienced during a recession; the timeframe for the study is 2007 representing pre-recession to beginning of recession year, to 2009 representing the recession year, to 2012-2013 representing post-recession years. The study involved the use of a nationwide non- institutionalized adult population, the Mental Health and Stigma optional module found in the …

Factors Associated With Advance Care Plans And End-Of-Life Care Choices Among Elderly Americans: An Analysis Of Health And Retirement Study Data, Agha Ajmal

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction

Advance care plans (ACP) allow people to plan for their end-of-life care before they become incompetent to make their treatment decisions. The umbrella term Advance Care Plans (ACP) includes the three most commonly used end-of-life care plans: Advance Care Planning Discussions (ACP discussions) and two advanced directives: living will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care (DPAHC). The ACP discussions are the verbal discussions about end-of-life plans, whereas the advance directives are written documents.

ACPs are distinct nuances of end-of-life care planning. ACP discussions address a wide array of end-of-life care issues, including terminal care, funeral, burial and …

Role Of Resources For Care In Improving Care Behaviors, Children’S Nutritional Status And Early Childhood Development In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Sulochana Basnet

Theses and Dissertations

Poor child growth and suboptimal early childhood development are global health problems. Provision of appropriate care may help to achieve optimum child growth and development. Maternal resources for care such as education, knowledge, health, autonomy, reasonable workload, and social support may be needed to provide appropriate care behaviors, and improve children’s nutritional status, and early childhood development. The overall goal of this research was to understand the role of resources for care in improving care behaviors, child nutritional status, and early childhood development. The baseline Alive & Thrive household surveys from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ethiopia were used. We examined the …

Parenting And Child Self-Regulation As Mechanisms For The Relationship Of Household Food Insecurity With Child Dietary Behavior, Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Food insecurity is both a nutritional problem and a stressful life experience of adults and children in households dealing with food shortage. Potential mechanisms of the associations between food insecurity and adverse outcomes in children’s health and development are through parenting and child self-regulation.

Objectives: We investigated parenting and child self-regulation as potential mechanisms for the relationship of food insecurity with child dietary behaviors with two specific aims. Specific aim 1 was to understand how food insecurity and its change over time relate to parenting in early childhood. Specific aim 2 was to understand the relationship of parenting in …

The Regulation Of Skeletal Muscle Fatigue During The Progression Of Cancer Cachexia, Brandon N. Vanderveen

Theses and Dissertations

Cachexia is the unintentional loss of body weight secondary to chronic disease and is prevalent is roughly 50% of cancer patients. The loss of body weight and skeletal muscle mass is reduced functional capacity associated with reduced life quality. The etiology of cachexia is multimodal and complex; however, cachexia has been linked to several systemic (e.g. chronic inflammation, hypogonadism, anemia, insulin resistance) and behavioral (e.g. anorexia, inactivity) changes that can compound to accelerate muscle mass and body weight loss. While several inflammatory cytokines are associated with cachexia’s disease progression, our laboratory has established that Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a key regulator …

The Prescribing Patterns Of Gabapentin And Pregabalin In A Medicaid Population Amid The Opioid Epidemic, Sarah Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations

OBJECTIVE: Drug overdoses continue to be the leading cause of accidental death in the United States resulting in a nationwide crisis. Opioids, many of them prescription, are now the primary cause of drug overdose related deaths. Gabapentinoids are being promoted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a safer alternative to opioids and have steadily been rising in prescribing rates. However, growing concern is mounting on the potential for gabapentinoid misuse. The goal of this dissertation was to deepen the knowledge and understanding of how gabapentinoids are currently being prescribed, with an emphasis on their co-prescribing with an …

Examining Caregiver Vigilance For Child Sexual Abuse, Kate K. Chappell

Theses and Dissertations

Child sexual abuse (CSA) affects approximately one in four US children through adolescence. As an adverse childhood experience (ACE) implicated in long-term health and wellbeing, CSA is a pervasive safety concern. The influence of caregivers and healthcare providers is under-realized in CSA prevention. Examining the thinking processes preceding CSA vigilance response has been limited in research. Understanding the complexities in healthcare related to addressing CSA will facilitate caregiver-focused intervention in primary care. Guided by social ecology and protection motivation theories (PMT), the goals of this two-phase study were to explore caregiver cognitive processes towards vigilance for CSA and the challenges …

Psychometric Evaluation Of Lung Cancer Stigma Among Lung Cancer Survivors In South Carolina, Lisa A. Webb

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Despite the improved screening and treatment modalities, lung cancer is the second leading cause of cancer and accounts for 27% of all cancer deaths in the United States. Survivors of lung cancer experience physical, social, and particularly psychological challenges. Lung cancer stigma is a formidable challenge for survivors of lung cancer that complicates their physical, psychological and social well-being.

The Cataldo Lung Cancer Stigma Scale is the first instrument adapted to measure lung cancer stigma. This instrument was adapted from Berger’s HIV Stigma Scale. HIV stigma and lung cancer stigma share similarities. These health-related stigmas reflect behaviors that …

The Role Of Inflammatory Pathways In Development, Growth, And Metabolism Of Skeletal Muscle In Iugr Offspring: Blood Gene Expression Of Inflammatory Factors As Novel Biomarkers For Assessing Stress And Wellbeing In Exotic Species, Robert J. Posont

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Our first study identified the effects of maternal inflammation-induced intrauterine growth restriction (MI-IUGR) on growth and muscle glucose metabolism in offspring supplemented with curcumin. MI-IUGR lambs exhibited asymmetric growth restriction at birth and 30d of age, but normal glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Hindlimb glucose oxidation was reduced by MI-IUGR and not improved by curcumin supplementation. Ex vivo muscle glucose oxidation was reduced by MI-IUGR but improved somewhat by curcumin. These finding indicate that fetal programming responses to MI contribute to neonatal growth and metabolic deficits. Neonatal curcumin supplementation had minimal effect on growth deficits but may improve glucose metabolism. …

Arts-Based Assessments And Projective Tests: An Interpretation Of Self, Hannah Bailey, Noelle M. Giacona, Angel Yang

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This research seeks to understand the relationship between arts-based assessments and perception of self through exploration of participants’ interpretations of their own animal drawings. Subjects’ experiences with projective tests, personality assessments and tools, and art assessments were also examined for contextual understanding and comparison. To conduct this mixed methods pilot study, a survey was administered to alumni of the Loyola Marymount University Marital and Family Therapy Department. The findings suggest evidence of self- projection within arts-based assessment interpretation by way of metaphor, and highlight the potential for interpretation bias in therapeutic assessment, both in administration and perception. This pilot study …