Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Recent Submissions
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Planting Seeds: A Naturalistic Inquiry Into the Perceptions and Experiences of WIC Peer Counselors as they Interact with Mothers Making their Infant Feeding Decisions
(2020-12-01)Breastfeeding rates in the United States lag behind other developed and developing nations resulting in poorer outcomes for both the mother and infant (Dieterich, Felice, O’Sullivan, & Rasmussen, 2013). Breastfeeding ... -
Evaluating the use of Dermoscopy in the Primary Care Setting in Improving Clinical Outcomes in the Treatment of Melanoma: A Systematic Review
(2019-12-01)Melanoma is a significant public health problem and is the most lethal type of skin cancer. Rural and underserved populations have disproportionately worse melanoma-related health outcomes and mortality rates. In these ... -
Integration of Homeostatic and Hedonic Brain Centers in the Regulation of Feeding Behaviors
(2019-12-01)Binge-eating disorder (BED) and obesity are major public health problems that are associated with psychosocial distress, impairments in daily function, and life-threatening co-morbidities. Both diseases are driven by ... -
Preserved extracellular matrix in non-enzymatically detached cultured keratinocyte sheets bolsters the healing effects on grafted burn wounds
(2019-12-01)After escharotomy, full thickness large burn wounds are temporarily covered with cadaver skin because of the limited availability of autologous skin. However, cadaver skin is eventually rejected still requiring autologous ... -
Psychosocial Work Environment Stressors, Health, and Health Disparities: Findings from the 2002 to 2014 General Social Surveys
(2019-12-01)In the U.S. poorly understood changing patterns of work limit our ability to determine if the prevalence of factors threatening worker safety and health are changing as well as shifting in their distribution across occupations ... -
Contributions of FGF14 and Axon Initial Segment Proteins to the Pathophysiology of Mental Health Disorders
(2019-12-01)The axon initial segment (AIS) underlies neuronal excitability, which has been implicated in many neuropsychiatric diseases. Despite its relatively small size compared to the rest of the neuron, the AIS contains a highly ... -
A Recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Expressing the Junin Virus Glycoprotein for Arenavirus Countermeasure Development
(2019-12-01)Arenaviruses are pathogens of biodefense importance due to their potential for aerosol transmission and mortality rates reaching 30%. Here, we evaluated the use of a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus expressing the ... -
Characterization of Flavivirus-Infected Neurons
(2023-05-01)Powassan virus (POWV) is a tick-borne flavivirus (TBFV) that can cause severe encephalitis in humans with a case fatality rate as high as 15%. Patients who survived severe encephalitic disease can develop long-term sequelae ... -
Subversion of innate antiviral immunity by SARS-CoV-2: An example from the study of nonstructural protein 16.
(2022-12-01)Understanding the molecular basis of innate immune evasion by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an important consideration for designing the next wave of therapeutics. Here, we investigate ... -
Synaptic Excitatory to Inhibitory imbalance in Alzheimer’s Disease
(2021-12-01)Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia worldwide, and it is characterized by progressive impairment of cognitive performance, brain atrophy, neuronal and synaptic loss, and abnormal aggregation of amyloid ... -
Phenotypic Characterization of Mutations Made to the Envelope Protein of West Nile Virus
(2019-12-01)West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that can cause severe neuroinvasive disease resulting in death or long term neurological sequela. The envelope (E) protein of flaviviruses has three domains and is the ... -
Illness Perception and Cardiovascular Risk Awareness in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
(2019-12-01)Two out of 3 people with T2DM, over the age of 64, will die of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Currently, there is a global push to broaden the awareness of the risk for CVD in the DM population and this study is no exception. ... -
Moderate Acute Malnutrition: Inflammatory Response, Microbiota, and Potential Treatments
(2019-12-01)Acute malnutrition is directly or indirectly responsible for nearly half of all deaths in children under five. Even when treatment is provided in a timely manner, some children fail to recover and others relapse within ... -
Predicting Toxin-Antitoxin Systems Responsible for Host-Induced Persistence of Burkholderia pseudomallei
(2019-12-01)Burkholderia pseudomallei (BPM) is the infectious agent that causes the disease. Melioidosis. The mortality rate for Melioidosis is up to 40% regardless of treatment. Despite the ability of certain antibiotics to reduce ... -
The Serotonin (5-HT) 5-HT2A Receptor is a Priority Target to Reduce Impulsive Action in Substance Use Disorders: Preclinical Evidence
(2019-12-01)The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences (DTMC) recently highlighted the need for pharmacological targets to treat substance use disorders (SUDs) in the near term as ... -
The Effects of Diabetic Foot Care Education on Assessments and Behaviors among Adults with Diabetes Mellitus Experiencing Homelessness
(2019-12-01)Adults with diabetes mellitus experiencing homelessness are at risk for preventable diabetic foot complications, including diabetic foot ulcers and non-traumatic lower extremity amputation. Several risk factors such as the ... -
Bloodmeal determinants of Zika virus infection of Aedes (Stegomyia) aegypti mosquitoes
(2019-12-01)The following dissertation aims to ascertain how factors in the blood of viremic mammals influence the infection of Aedes (Stegomyia) spp. mosquitoes with the arboviruses Zika (ZIKV). It has been repeatedly observed in ... -
Physical function transitions and the role of social determinants of health on functional recovery after an acute hospitalization among older Mexican Americans
(2022-12-01)The purpose of this project is to 1) examine patterns of physical function transitions and predictors of physical function recovery among older Mexican Americans over a 12-year period; 2) identify social determinants of ... -
The introduction of incompatibility between Junin virus Z protein and other viral proteins results in impaired replication and attenuation
The genus Mammarenavirus with the family Arenaviridae contains many species that are pathogenic in human hosts. Among these, Junin virus (JUNV) is a New World mammarenavirus that is the causative agent of Argentine hemorrhagic ... -
Pulmonary vascular malfunction and inflammation during Orientia tsutsugamushi infection
Scrub typhus is a potentially lethal illness caused by infection with the bacterium, Orientia tsutsugamushi. Scrub typhus remains a neglected tropical disease, despite being a tremendous burden in endemic areas. Lung injury ...
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