Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Psychological Stress And High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Levels In Overweight And Obese Men, Olivia L. Moses

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background and Purpose. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), a measure of inflammatory response, is now considered an independent marker for coronary heart disease. Psychological stress also affects the immune system and influences the inflammatory response. Ladwig, et al (2003) found a significant positive association between hs-CRP levels and depression (F=4.9, p^.008) in 726 obese males, even after adjusting for smoking, high blood pressure and age. This study investigated if there was a similar association between increased hs-CRP levels and psychological stress in overweight and obese males.

Method. Sixty-one overweight (n=28) or obese (n= 33) males, ages 20-35, were recmited …

Predictors Of Intention To Use Contraception, Given Alcohol Consumption, Among Women In Southeast Alaska, Donna Louise Hebbeler

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Fetal alcohol exposure is a serious public health problem and is 100% preventable. Traditionally, FASD prevention programs and research recommendations have targeted peri-conceptual or pregnant women. Another approach to the prevention of FASD involves preventing pregnancy in women who use alcohol. The purpose of this cross sectional study was to identify factors that predicted women’s intention to use contraception using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), to determine if predictors of the theoretical constructs varied in women depending on alcohol use, and to examine interactions between alcohol use and TPB constructs. Qualitative data was gathered to triangulate with the quantitative …

Religious Problem Solving And Coping With End Stage Renal Disease, Eva Bella Martinez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study examined the impact of end-stage renal disease life-related couple/family stressors and strains on marital satisfaction, parental satisfaction, life satisfaction, and depression on end-stage renal disease patients and their spouses, as well as quality of life for patients. Also, it examined the moderating effects of three styles of religious problem-solving on the relationship between the ESRD couple/family stressors and strains and the outcome variables. Data included a sample of two hundred subjects and their spouses. Subjects were recruited from seven dialysis centers in southern California. Both patients and spouses were given survey questionnaires (i.e. Personal History Inventory, Religious Problem-Solving …

Thought Suppression Change In Cancer Patients And Survivors After Writing, Erin O'Carroll Bantum

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Breast cancer is a debilitating and many times fatal disease that will affect approximately 215,990 women in the United States alone this year. Treatment for breast cancer can involve many physically and psychologically straining features. The illness perception theory states that individuals form illness representations to make sense of health threats and illness. These representations contain a number of individual, specific attributes about the illness identity, and cause, time-line, consequences of, and cure/control of the illness. Many women who have experienced breast cancer have also been found to be keeping their thoughts inside. Thought suppression has been linked to many …

The Application Of The Transtheoretical Model Of Change To Self-Care Behaviors In Type 2 Diabetics, Heather N. Mercer

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Background. The Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) has been investigated as a model of health behavior change; however, it has only begun to gain recognition in the diabetic population, and has not yet been investigated as it relates to the full-spectrum of diabetes self-care behaviors.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to compare the pattern of stages of change across four self-care behaviors between intervention and control groups, and examine psychosocial and health outcome variables.

Method. In a cross-sectional design, a sample of 132 adult subjects with type 2 diabetes completed surveys. The survey assessed stages of change among …

Social Welfare Systems And Their Effects On Adolescent Violence, Injecting Drug Use, And Negative Health Behaviors, Elvin A. Hernandez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Youth and young adults who are injection drug users (IDU’s) often live and survive in physical and emotional environments that are associated with negative behaviors and outcomes. Past environmental and social factors, such as participation in social welfare systems or institutionalization in foster care or juvenile hall, have been found to be associated with IDU-involved young adults’ health behaviors when they become older. Social networks, which include drug, sex, or hangout networks, may influence their health outcomes and behaviors. The goals of this dissertation include an investigation of how reported past social welfare participation and institutionalization is associated with IDU-involved …

Reasons For Complementary And Alternative Medicine Usage In Japanese Americans, Theodora Stratis

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has received much research attention in the last several years due to marked increase in usage in the U.S. To date, findings indicate that 34% of adults in the U.S. report using at least one form of CAM for the maintenance of general health and acute symptoms and such use continue to increase (Astin, 1998; Eisenberg et al., 1993). CAM therapies are also used by those who suffer from chronic physical and psychological symptoms not successfully treated by conventional medicine (Testerman et al., 2004). Though researchers have examined who is using CAM and why they …

Social Class And Art Therapy, Heather B. Ring

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Research regarding social class and its effects is limited in mental health services, including art therapy. The purpose of this study was to increase awareness about social class differences and their effects on therapeutic services by exploring how social class impacts adolescents’ attitudes and approach toward artmaking as a form of expression and communication. Two artmaking workshops were conducted with two groups of adolescents from contrasting socioeconomic settings. A sample of 14 volunteers participated. It was hypothesized that adolescents from both groups would use art as an effective and desirable means of personal communication and expression.

Results are based on …

The Effects Of Dextromethorphan On Response Acquisition With Delayed Reinforcement, Thomas B. Morgan

Dissertations

The current study examined in 2-h sessions the effects of intraperitoneal injections of dextromethorphan (DM) (0.0, 40.0, 60.0, and 80.0 mg/kg) on the acquisition of lever-press responding in rats that were exposed to a two-lever procedure in which responses on the reinforcement lever (RL) were reinforced with food after a 15-s resetting delay and responses on the cancellation lever cancelled a scheduled reinforcer. Response acquisition was observed at all drug doses. A decrease in RL responses, food deliveries, and the number of subjects that acquired responding was observed at the highest dose of DM. All doses of DM increased latency …

Our Public Health History In Florida: Interview With Laurence G. Branch

Florida Public Health Review

No abstract provided.

Our Public Health History In Florida: Interview With Charles S. Mahan

Florida Public Health Review

No abstract provided.

Information Interface - Volume 33, Issue 2 - May/June 2005, George Washington University, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

Information Interface (1976 - 2009)

News and information about Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library of interest to users. Includes articles on the humanities and health collection, course reserves, and database search tips.

Contribution Of Reference Agents To Recovery Maintenance: A Social World Analysis Of Narcotics Anonymous Affiliation, Christa Moore

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Few studies have examined the social process of drug abuse recovery. To determine how recovering addicts use reference agents, such as reference groups and/or reference others, to achieve and maintain sobriety within the context of the Narcotics Anonymous (NA) support group experience, this study examines how Newcomers learn the norms and values associated with NA, how Newcomers become integrated into the NA group and internalize acceptable recovery behaviors, and how Newcomers transition to becoming Oldtimers. In this study, participant observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviewing (N = 13) based upon convenience sampling were employed. This study elicited six stages of social …

Concurrent Validity Of The Clinical Assessment Of Depression With The Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, Shelley Hicks

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Depression is a disorder that can affect every aspect of one's life, ranging from physical health issues to interpersonal relationship difficulties. Therefore, it is imperative that the depressive symptoms of college students be identified, evaluated, and treated. Self-report measures are a common technique to identify depressive symptomatology in individuals and assist in diagnosis and treatment. Existing measures are often used as a criterion by which to validate the psychometric properties and effectiveness of newly designed, self-report measures. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the concurrent validity of a newly published self-report measure of depression, the Clinical Assessment of …

Mixing Motives: The Relationship Between College Students' Helping Behaviors And Alcohol Use, Randy Lee Halberda

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigates the relationship between volunteer helping and alcohol use and drinking problems in a sample of 396 college students. Two pilot studies were conducted to adapt a measure of helping behavior (Kaskutas, Oberste, & Zemore, 2002) for use with college students. The present study tests the hypothesis that students who help others are less likely to consume alcohol and subsequently less likely to suffer alcohol-related problems than their peers. Additionally, a path model specifying mediators between helping behaviors and drinking outcomes was examined. The proposed path model predicted that volunteer helping affects well being and perceived peer …

Freedom Of Thought, Offensive Fantasies And The Fundamental Human Right To Hold Deviant Ideas: Why The Seventh Circuit Got It Wrong In Doe V. City Of Lafayette, Indiana, Clay Calvert

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “A precarious balance and considerable tension exists between two competing legal interests – the essential, First Amendment-grounded human right to freedom of thought, on the one hand, and the desire to prevent harm and injury that might occur if thought is converted to action, on the other. To understand this tension, it is useful to start by considering three different and disturbing factual scenarios.

This article examines and critiques the majority opinion of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in City of Lafayette. The majority held that the city’s ban of John Doe, a convicted sex offender, from its …

Juvenile Fear Of Crime And Attitudes Towards The Police: The Effect Of Implementing A School Resource Officer Program In Alaska High Schools, Sean A. Case

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents data concerning the effect uniformed police officers have on attitudes towards the police and fear of crime within the high school setting. Two identical surveys were administered to 522 high school students at two periods during a school year. The primary purpose was to determine whether placing uniformed police officers, called School Resource Officers, in high schools would improve attitudes towards the police and reduce the fear of crime. Although opinions towards the police were positively affected and the fear of crime was reduced, neither was affected significantly. The primary implication drawn from this research is that …

Possible Effects Field Hockey Stick Weight May Have On Player Performance During A Penalty Stroke, Lee-Ann Sharp

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Context: Wooden sticks have been used in field hockey since the inception of the game. In recent years, there has been a growing trend among players to use modern composite sticks. However, there has been no research into the possible effects the weight of these composite sticks could have on player's performances. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect stick weight would have on player perfonnance, specifically ball velocity and player accuracy, during a series of penalty strokes. Design: All subjects were required to take twenty penalty strokes on goal with each of the two differently …

Color And Depression In The Diagnostic Drawing Series, Cara Emily Levitt

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

One of the most interesting and widely held assumptions by clinicians who used projective drawings was that the absence of color may indicate depression. The research about color’s relationship to depression was ambiguous, limited and dated. In this study it was hypothesized that the absence or presence of color in the Feeling Drawing of the Diagnostic Drawing Series [DDS] will have a positive correlation with a diagnosis of Major Depression. To test this hypothesis the colors both in the DDS archives Major Depression group and comparison group were counted and then statistically analyze to determine if specified colors were present …

How Diverse Librarians Increased Access To Electronic Journals, Developed A Print/Electronic Collection Development Policy And Preserved The Collection, Kathe Obrig, Patricia Wilson, Cynthia Swope, Laura E. Abate, Anne Linton

Himmelfarb Library Faculty Posters and Presentations

This poster reports on a project initiated to establish a framework for evaluating our serials collection in order to preserve the collection from a flat budget and ever increasing serial costs and to meet patron demand for expanded access to electronic resources. An additional outcome was the development of a combined print and electronic serials collection development policy. A Journals Committee was formed to assess the value and most appropriate format(s) of individual journal titles. Methods used included a mathematical formula calculating a title's relative value and a faculty survey soliciting most-used titles and preferred format. Faculty department heads were …

Reaching Out To All: Medical Informatics As Service To Diverse Populations In An Academic Medical Center, Patricia Wilson, Richard Billingsley

Himmelfarb Library Faculty Posters and Presentations

As an academic health sciences library in an urban area, the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library is challenged to provide outreach services to a diverse user population and to the surrounding community. To respond to this challenge the librarians provide outreach services and programs to accomplish the following goals: Provide additional education to user groups within the medical center; Provide focused services at the point of need within the curricula and the hospital; Reach out to the surrounding health care community, offering medical information and consumer education; Promote consumer resources to underserved populations.

Changing Space Needs And Electronic Resources Migration: Moving Towards A Library For The 21st Century, Anne Linton, Kathe Obrig, Patricia Wilson

Himmelfarb Library Faculty Posters and Presentations

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library underwent a major space renovation during the summer of 2005. Administration and librarians felt the need to modernize the environment to better reflect the needs of the users. This poster describes the planning, changes, and results of the "21st century" version of the library.

Developing A Valid Screening Tool For Assessing Nutritional Adequacy And Osteoporosis Risk Among Vegans In The United States, Patricia Adelle Dyett

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

The vegetarian lifestyle in the United States has increased significantly over recent decades. With this growth trend, it has become necessary to assess the pros and cons of vegetarian diet patterns, particularly with respect to nutrition adequacy and chronic disease concerns.

The vegan diet engenders more concern than other common vegetarian lifestyles because it seeks to replace all nutrient-rich animal food products with only plant foods. Consequently, there are concerns of compromised protein, calcium. vitamin D, vitamin B₁₂, n-3 fatty acid, zinc, and iron status. Moreover, because of typical vegan diet phenomena such as low BMI, low protein …

Heuristic Research Study: Implications For Art Therapy In Smoking Cessation, Sarah Roberts

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the implications for the use of art therapy in smoking cessation, using a heuristic research design. The participant is a 22-year-old female smoker currently enrolled in the graduate art therapy program at Eastern Virginia Medical School. The data in this study consisted of spontaneous art expressions, audio-recordings, and visual and written journal entries throughout smoking cessation. Audio-voice recordings were made during art making and were followed by reflective writings about the art-making experience. Over an 8-week time period the researcher refrained from smoking and relapsed on three occasions. Each period of smoking cessation and relapse was considered …

Our Public Health History In Florida: Interview With Peter J. Levin

Florida Public Health Review

No abstract provided.

Glutamate Receptors In Perirhinal Cortex Mediate Encoding, Retrieval, And Consolidation Of Object Recognition Memory., Boyer D Winters, Timothy J Bussey

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Object recognition is consistently impaired in human amnesia and animal models thereof. Results from subjects with permanent brain damage have revealed the importance of the perirhinal cortex to object recognition memory. Here, we report evidence from rats for interdependent but distinct stages in object recognition memory (encoding, retrieval, and consolidation), which require glutamate receptor activity within perirhinal cortex. Transient blockade of AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission within perirhinal cortex disrupted encoding for short- and long-term memory as well as retrieval and consolidation. In contrast, transient NMDA receptor blockade during encoding affected only long-term object recognition memory; NMDA receptor activity was also …

Reconstructability Analysis And Log-Linear Modeling, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reconstructability Analysis (RA) is a method developed within the systems community for analyzing nominal (or discretized) data. RA both overlaps and extends Log-Linear (LL) modeling, and the purpose of this talk is to introduce RA to researchers unfamiliar with it. Two aspects of RA will be focused on: (1) its use for exploratory, as opposed to confirmatory, modeling – searching for good models in a vast space of possible models, and (2) state-based RA – analyzing data not in terms of relations among variables but in terms of relations among specific states of variables. Examples of applications to social science …

2005 - The Tenth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Tenth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 8, 2005. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Addressing The Marion County Health Department’S Need For A Comprehensive Resource Detailing Florida Medicare’S Medical Necessity Policies

Florida Public Health Review

No abstract provided.

Carbon Dioxide For Euthanasia: Concerns Regarding Pain And Distress, With Special Reference To Mice And Rats, Kathleen Conlee, Martin Stephens, Andrew N. Rowan, Lesley A. King

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the most commonly used agent for euthanasia of laboratory rodents, used on an estimated tens of millions of laboratory rodents per year worldwide, yet there is a growing body of evidence indicating that exposure to CO₂ causes more than momentary pain and distress in these and other animals. We reviewed the available literature on the use of CO₂ for euthanasia (as well as anaesthesia) and also informally canvassed laboratory animal personnel for their opinions regarding this topic. Our review addresses key issues such as CO₂ flow rate and final concentration, presence …