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Courting male ruff sandpipers (Calidris pugnax): do males vary their tactics in the absence of one morph?
No full textThe ruff sandpiper (Calidris pugnax) is a medium sized wading bird native to Eurasia that displays strong sexual dimorphism in plumage. Unique among shorebirds, the ruff has a lek mating system where breeders gather on an arena and males display with the purpose of enticing females to mate. Within ruff populations there are three distinct genetic morphs that specify differences in male mating behavior and plumages. During migration, Independents and Satellites grow ornamental mating plumage, a head tuft and ruff around the neck, which is showcased during ritualized displays. Independents display ‘Resident’ behavior, each defending a small court on the lek, whereas Satellites move among courts and co-display with the Resident. Faeders, the third and rarest morph, are smaller in size and resemble females in appearance, lacking ornamental plumage. These are heritable, permanent genetic morphs: the Satellite and Faeder morphs are determined by variants of an autosomal chromosomal inversion. I observed behavior on the lek of captive bred ruff sandpipers at Sylvan Heights Bird Park (SHBP) in Scotland Neck, NC. This colony presently lacks Satellite males providing an opportunity to observe males for potentially compensatory behavior in the absence of this morph. Anecdotally, Faeder males have been observed to display in captivity under some circumstances, and an Independent male was observed co-displaying at SHBP in a previous year. To further explore this behavior, observations were made both in person and using video of ruffs before and during the mating season. Behaviors categorized as aggressive and display were recorded, as well as proximity to other males. These observations were then quantified using standardized methodologies to characterize the behavior of individual males and identify instances of co-display behavior by Independents and the Faeder. Observations of this colony from the 2020-2022 breeding seasons captured co-display behavior by the Faeder and at least one Independent. Observations from the 2023 breeding season did not. Failure to observe co-display behavior on 2023 may have been influenced by subdividing the males among two aviaries, thereby reducing the density of males. It is conceivable that previous peculiar observations of co-displaying by Independents and the Faeder were due to both the absence of Satellites in conjunction with limiting space for all males to have courts. Data from the 2023 season did reveal a significant relation between male level of aggression and rate of display. Neither of these parameters were significantly related to male mass, body condition (mass/wing chord), or age. Future studies should examine the possible role social environment plays in the behaviors of a species with a permanent genetic morphs. Such investigations are important for understanding the interplay between gene expression under different social contexts
Effects of Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy on Self-Efficacy, Motivation, and Real-World Bimanual Performance in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy
No full textBackground: Unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes deficits in the child's upper extremity motor control, which further affects hand-arm use in relation to bimanual coordination tasks which are essential for daily living activities. These motor control deficits are known to cause low self-esteem, low self-efficacy, and anxiety in social settings. It is also known that children with UCP may experience issues with appropriate emotional regulation when facing new challenges during motor performance tasks. However, the effects that low self-esteem, low self-efficacy, emotional regulation, and motivation have on real-world bimanual performance are still unknown. Purpose: This study aims to evaluate whether hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy (HABIT), a structured, task-specific intensive intervention to improve bimanual coordination, improves self-efficacy and motivation along with real-world bimanual hand use in children with UCP. We hypothesize that (1) self-efficacy levels, in addition to motivation, affected hand use, and perceptual hand use will increase through the child's participation in the intensive bimanual intervention, HABIT and that (2) children with UCP with higher levels of motivation and self-efficacy will have greater bimanual performance gains in a real-world environment following HABIT. Methods: Twenty-two children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP) underwent HABIT, 6-hours per day for 5 consecutive days. During HABIT, children participated in age appropriate, intensive, task-specific, structured bimanual activities. Children with UCP were also administered questionnaires before, during, and after HABIT to evaluate changes in perceptual hand use, affected hand use, self-efficacy, and motivation levels throughout the intervention. The Children's Hand-Use Experience Questionnaire (CHEQ) and The Dimensions of Mastery Motivation Questionnaire (DMQ-18) were used to evaluate perceptual hand use and motivation levels pre- to post-intervention. Real-world bimanual performance was assessed using bilateral wrist-worn accelerometer data. Each child's responses were then recorded for further data analysis along with a self-efficacy and motivation survey that was administered during HABIT on intervention day four. A paired t-test was used to assess changes in all perceptual, motivation, and real-world bimanual performance measures. Mean improvement scores were calculated to measure improvements in self-efficacy during HABIT. A Pearson correlation analysis assessed the relationship between perceptual, self-efficacy, and real-world bimanual performance measures. Results: Following HABIT, there was a significant improvement in the perception of hand use and hand use count (p[less-than]0.01). There was a significant improvement in cognitive object persistence as well as gross motor persistence which indicates an increase in motivation to perform daily living activities in a real-world environment following HABIT (p[less-than]0.001). Mean improvement scores from both parents and interventionists showed improvements in self-efficacy because of HABIT (parents = 7± 2.08, interventionists = 7±1.01) on a 10-point Likert scale, which indicates that both parents and interventions believed their child's self-efficacy related to their affected hand use improved. There was also a significant increase in use ratio (p= 0.04), which indicates an increased contribution of the affected hand use in real-world bimanual activities. However, no correlation (p [greater-than]0.05) was found between perceptual hand use, self-efficacy, motivation, and real-world bimanual performance. Conclusion: HABIT improves the perception of hand use, self-efficacy, as well as the affected arm use in real-world activities; however, improved perception of hand use in addition to increased hand use count and motivation do not directly correlate to improved real-world bimanual performance outcomes. Given the importance of hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy as an efficacious intervention in children with UCP, more research is needed to understand the relationship between the perception and action paradigm and the factors that influence the real-world bimanual performance
Developing Mentorship for Novice Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners
No full textExecutive summary of DNP project to fulfill the requirements of the DNP-FNP program.D.N.P
Evaluating the Impact of Fitness Social Media Influencers on Exercise Addiction in College Women Aged 18-25
No full textIntroduction: The modern landscape of social media has allowed for limitless connection between technology users and overwhelming and broad sweeping access to information and data. The vast landscape of social media has also allowed for very in-depth and specific niche communities, such as fitness communities on Tik Tok and Instagram, sometimes referred to as “fitstagram” and “fit tok.” Social media influencers, or those who make a living by generating a following on social media by creating a specific kind of content, hold the most power within these specific social media communities simply by having built a following. In recent years, a phenomenon known as exercise addiction or dependency has become increasingly common, specifically in young women. Exercise addiction is a dependance on exercise or compulsion to exercise often. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between college-aged women and their relationship to social media influencers and how that changes the way they perceive and engage in exercise, including their goals, habits, exercise routines and their habits on social media.
Methods: Data was collected using an online Qualtrics survey. All study collection procedures were approved by East Carolina University’s Institutional Review Board. Participants were recruited based on enrollment at a higher education institution, identifying as female in the age range of 18-25. Participants were recruited through word of mouth as well as social media advertising and were incentivized with a $10 Amazon gift card to participate. Participants were asked self-reported demographic questions, open-ended questions about exercise habits and feelings about exercise, and the survey employed the Exercise Addiction Inventory, a six-item inventory that uses a Likert scale to assess thoughts and feelings about exercise.
Results: Out of the data collected from 78 respondents, the average BMI was 26.37 ± 6.5 kg/m2, eighteen respondents identified as freshman, 18 as sophomores, 8 as juniors, 13 as seniors, and 20 as graduate students. The average age of respondents was 21 ± 2.23 years old. Nearly 34% (33.7%) of respondents identified as being a part of a collegiate Greek council. Approximately 4% (3.8%) of respondents identified as Asian, 5.2% of respondents identified as black or African American, 89.6% of respondents identified as white or Caucasian, and finally 3.8% of respondents identified as other, or chose not to respond. When asked about the types of activities performed most often, 42 out of 77 respondents reported focusing on cardio-based activities. When asked if they believed themselves to be easily influenced by users on social media, 34 responded with definitely or probably yes, and 18 responded with maybe, totaling 52 out of 77 respondents. When asked an open-ended question about feelings associated with missing or skipping a workout, there were overwhelmingly negative words and phrases used, for example “guilty,” “disappointed,” or “stressed and anxious” from 43 out of 77 responses. More positively, 57 out of 77 respondents report consistently eating three or more meals a day, therefore receiving adequate nutrition, and responses about social media content reported following cooking trends on social media among other well-known influencer handles, some fitness related and others not.
Discussion:
Findings show that young, college-aged women within the ages of 18-25 are at a higher risk for exercise dependent behaviors due to the current nature of social media and pressure to follow trends. Public health implications of these findings are that social media is a major factor that contributes to these exercise dependent behaviors, and these behaviors put college aged women at a higher risk for poor mental health which can have negative effects that carry through adulthood and effect overall social, physical, and mental health. The strengths of this study are the questions asked regarding habits and feelings about exercise, as the data is deep and extensive including the questions asked within the exercise addiction inventory, while the limitations of the study are that respondents were not asked about specific influencers or hashtags, so habits cannot be traced to a specific creator or online community. Based on the findings, future practical implications could be increased monitoring on social media for proven information, more emphasis on mental health in women at routine medical appointments, and increased conversation regarding exercise and health in schools. Future research should focus on the negative mental health effects and exercise behaviors caused by specific fitness influencers, and the difference between those influencers, as this research did not focus on specific social media content creators
Complementary Square Wave Voltammetry and LC-MS/MS Analysis to Elucidate Induced Damaged and Mutated Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA from Biological Organisms
No full textElectrochemical methods coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were developed and applied to rapidly analyze DNA structure, sequence variations, and damage in biological systems. Square wave voltammetry (SWV) at pyrolytic graphite electrodes with immobilized DNA allowed detection of guanine oxidation peaks catalyzed by Ru(bpy)32+. Peak current differences compared to wild-type (WT) or unaltered samples indicated DNA structural changes, which were validated through LC-MS/MS base compositional analysis of hydrolyzed DNA samples. Breast cancer 1, early onset (BRCA1) gene codes for the DNA repair enzyme Brca1 and impacts skeletal muscle function when mutated. To study Brca1's role, inducible skeletal muscle-specific BRCA1 knockout (KO) mice were generated. Initial phenotypic assays indicated increased mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation frequency in KO vs wildtype (WT). Applying the electrochemical approach, mtDNA from Brca1 KO skeletal muscle displayed statistically significantly decreased oxidative currents vs. WT, consistent with guanine depletion due to mtDNA mutations. Conversely, nuclear DNA (nDNA) showed increased currents in KO samples, suggesting accumulation of oxidatively damaged guanine (p < 0.05). Subsequent LC-MS/MS composition analysis validated these hypotheses, allowing us to quantify suspected guanine variations, as well as detect the remaining DNA bases (adenine, thymine and cytosine) and commonly damaged bases (8-oxoguanine, fapyadenine). The electrochemical - LC-MS/MS approach was further utilized to study the role of overexpressed Brca1 in various muscle locations, detect and identify DNA variations in Ni2+- treated Caenorhabditis elegans, study genetic changes in additional mouse models (i.e. Col5a1 for Ehlers-Danlos, MDX for muscular-dystrophy), and monitor DNA change in Hydrogenophaga taeniospiralis, a benzene-exposed bacteria. Combining electrochemical and mass spectrometry techniques allowed for validation of DNA structural changes observed in phenotypic studies, while also providing a versatile approach to comprehensively investigate a wide range of biological questions, as well as chemical analyses of historical artifacts. Finally, further utilization of analytical methodology, predominantly LC-MS/MS, for historical medicines provided insight into often unlisted ingredients and potential contaminants, addressing lingering historical biases towards alternative treatments during the 19th century
Full Search Strategy for Patient Guided technological interventions for disease management among non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients: a Scoping review
No full textThis is the full search strategy for "Patient Guided technological interventions for disease management among non-dialysis chronic kidney disease patients: a Scoping review" in Medline via PubMed, Embase via Embase.com, CINAHL via EBSCOhost, Scopus via Elsevier, ERIC via ProQuest and Cochrane Central via Ovid. This search was last run in April of 2024
The Future of Kidney Transplant Care: Leveraging Telemedicine for Better Patient Outcomes
No full textExecutive summary for DNP completion.D.N.P
Improving Sleep in Young Children
No full textSleep disorders are a serious problem in the United States alone, affecting between 50 and 70 million individuals. Between 20% and 30% of toddlers, infants and preschoolers around the world suffer from problems with falling asleep or staying asleep throughout the night. One of the most common sleep problems in young children is delayed sleep onset (DSO). This occurs when the child has difficulty going to bed within 20 minutes. Night waking episodes, when the child wakes up at least once per night and does not reinitiate sleep independently, are another common problem. DSO and night waking episodes in children can negatively impact caregiver sleep as well. Because these children lack the ability to self-soothe, their caregiver(s) have to wake up and help them fall back to sleep. One evidence-based intervention for DSO is letting the child "cry it out", also called "extinction". However, some caregivers are not comfortable with this method. Other interventions include moving the child's bedtime back by small increments until the child's desired bedtime is reached, called fading. Fading interventions have been effective when paired with response cost, but this has only been studied in the case of one typically developing child. This pilot study tested a novel fading intervention for typically developing children between the ages of two and six. During the intervention, caregivers moved the child's bedtime back by 15 minutes every night and woke them at the same time every morning. Sleep was monitored using ActiGraphs to objectively examine frequency of night waking episodes and how well the intervention worked over 3.5 to 6.5 weeks. By implementing this pilot study of sleep, I aimed to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a sleep intervention in promoting independent sleep onset (ISO) and less frequent night waking episodes in typically developing preschool aged children with DSO. While the two caregivers who completed this intervention demonstrated that it was feasible for some, it was not feasible for the 12 caregivers who declined to participate in either part or all parts of the study. The two caregivers who completed this intervention found it to be acceptable. The intervention was also effective at reducing night waking episodes in both participants. For one participant, diaries revealed night waking episodes were reduced from five episodes during baseline (an average of one episode per night) to zero at intervention and post-intervention. For the other participant, the sleep diary revealed eight night waking episodes during baseline, three episodes during the intervention, and the caregiver reported qualitatively that night waking episodes had ceased altogether post-intervention (the caregiver did not fill out diaries during post-intervention). The intervention was also effective at promoting ISO, which was found to continue past the post-intervention phase based on a follow up email survey for both participants. Both caregivers reported a decrease in the length of time it took their child to fall asleep independently from 30 minutes at baseline to 15 minutes at post-intervention. Limitations of this study included a small sample size, homogeneity of participants, unforeseen barriers to approval of the study, including difficulties with recruitment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and multiple barriers to participants completing the study as written in the protocol. Future studies of sleep should include larger, more diverse samples, seek to reduce caregiver barriers to participation, and increase feasibility of sleep interventions for night waking and delayed sleep onset
Establishing a Proper Balance: A Study of How the Relationship of Church and State Evolved in the Hands of Constantine, Clovis and Charlemagne
No full textThis thesis will evaluate how the relationship between the Church and State was established in Western Society. I will look at three foundational civil leaders in the first millennia of this process: Emperor Constantine, Clovis, King of the Franks, and Charlemagne, who would later be called the first Holy Roman Emperor. These men will make up a common thread in this historical study, each becoming an essential turning point in the relationship between the governing bodies. Each man's relationship with the Church will be evaluated by how they pursued unity in their kingdoms and the Church, how they involved significant religious leaders in their most important decisions, and how they organized their civil structure and provided for the Church in a way that promoted the local bishops. Constantine's conversion, legalization of Christianity, and calling of the Council of Nicaea were all significant moments in Church History, followed by Clovis's conversion, unifying the Germanic Franks and Gallo-Roman majority of the fallen western portion of the Roman Empire, which would build a foundation that allowed for Charlemagne's growth of his kingdom, partnership with the popes, and Carolingian Renaissance that would set up the backdrop for Europe through the Middle Ages
Illuminating Collagen: Exploring Triple Helix Formation with Fluorescence-Based Kinetics
No full textCollagen mimicking peptides (CMPs) can be used to understand the properties of collagen, a vital protein in the human body. Synthesis of collagen chains with a naphthalimide fluorophore allows for monitoring triple helix folding kinetics via fluorescence spectroscopy. Here we address whether kinetic behavior of the CMP system changes when Pro-Hyp-Gly (POG) repeats are interrupted by a non-native fluorescent amino acid, and if the folding rate can be controlled. Results indicate that the (POG)7 core can be interrupted by a fluorophore and still show first-order folding rates (k=0.001 s-1). However, this is dependent on the location of the fluorophore