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Implementation and Evaluation of a New Postpartum Depression Screening and Education Standard
No full textD.N.P.Postpartum depression is a contributor to the high rate of maternal mortality in the United States. One approach to improving this national health crisis is through the impact of Postpartum Depression (PPD) education and screening practices in prenatal offices. In the office setting, Medical Assistants (MAs) can function as an initial point of care for PPD education and screening. The project participants included 11 medical assistants who attended a one-hour in-service regarding a new postpartum depression education and screening standard instituted by the physician-owner of a rural, Midwestern women’s health clinic. A Continuing Professional Development Reaction Questionnaire (CPD) that assessed the MA’s intention to implement the new PPD standard was completed following the required in-service. A pre-and post-implementation chart review was conducted to determine alignment with and outcomes of the new PPD standard. Chart data showed the completion rate of the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) screening at 36-weeks gestation and assessed the rate of positive Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) screenings at the two and six-week postpartum intervals. While the CPD questionnaire showed the MAs’ strong intention to implement the new standard, the rate of PHQ-2 screening at 36-weeks gestation was 16.2%. The rate of the EPDS screening at two (pre-89.6%, post-87.5%) and six (pre-100%, post-97.1%) weeks postpartum remained stable, with a high level of completion. A statistically significant difference was noted in EPDS screening scores at two weeks postpartum (p = .037), indicating that more positive EPDS screens were found. The results of this project support the continued utilization of the PPD education and screening standard implemented by the MAs. Providing education to all office staff regarding how PPD can feel or present, along with consistent screening, creates the potential to improve health equity and access to perinatal mental health services for those in rural areas. The implementation of a new PPD screening standard in this rural office location can serve as a guide for other rural perinatal health settings
Hammer of Heritics: Far-Right Conceptions of Spanish Identity During the Franco Regime and Today
No full textCentral Bank Independence in the Wake of Democratization
No full textM.P.P.This thesis investigates the evolution of Central Bank Independence (CBI) amidst democratic transitions. Our findings reveal that central bank reforms start several years before the formal shift from autocracy to democracy, suggesting that nations embark on economic reforms well ahead of the political transition. Post-transition, we uncover that CBI does not immediately react; instead, it demonstrates a gradual yet significant rise, becoming more pronounced five years onwards as democratic institutions solidify. Our findings contribute a nuanced understanding of the timeline and factors influencing CBI throughout democratization processes
Museum Digital Repatriation and Case Studies: Exploring Guidelines for the Future Practice and Digital Bridge to Cultural Continuity
No full textM.A.During the colonial era, large amounts of cultural heritage were unethically transferred from indigenous communities to colonizers, and the decolonization movement seeks to admit and address the historical by advocating for the return of cultural heritage to indigenous communities. Digital repatriation, as part of cultural decolonization, is a compensatory solution that emerges when physical repatriation faces practical challenges. The digital surrogates -- reproduction of cultural heritage through digital technologies such as 3D modeling and database systems -- are created to provide the original community with re-access to the traditional knowledge contained in the cultural heritage. Through analysis of ethical issues of digital repatriation and detailed case studies -- Malagan Carvings, Te Hau-Ki-Turanga, and Mukurtu Content Management System projects, this thesis investigates the process and outcomes of digital repatriation, highlighting its standards to reconnect the indigenous people with cultural heritage and to realize the true cultural decolonization. An introductory guideline framework and its practice example are proposed in the end for museums to implement digital repatriation programs in the future, emphasizing collaboration and Intellectual Property Rights considerations
Oral Administration of Pramipexole Mitigates Depression-Related Endpoints in Female BALB/c Mice
No full textPh.D.Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been associated with deficits in working memory and gamma oscillation power. Consistent with this, overall reductions in cortical excitation have also been described with MDD. In previous work, we have demonstrated that the monoamine reuptake inhibitor venlafaxine increases gamma oscillation power in ex vivo hippocampal slices, and that this is associated with concomitant increases in pyramidal dendritic arbor and reduced levels of plasticity-restricting perineuronal nets (PNNs) via matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) digestion. In the present study we have examined effects of chronic treatment with pramipexole (PPX), a D2 and D3 dopamine receptor agonist, for its effects on depression-like behaviors, proteins involved in affecting plasticity, and gamma oscillation power as measured by in vivo electroencephalography recordings in BALB/c and C57Bl6 female mice.
Proteomic analysis of prefrontal cortex and dorsal striatal lysates from chronically treated BALB/c mice show a number of changes that could contribute to, or follow from, increased pyramidal excitability and/or gamma power. Changes include increased levels of plasminogen, reduced levels of specific PNN components, and reduced tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteases-1 (TIMP-1), which inhibits long term potentiation of synaptic transmission. Additionally, we observed a significant increase in 20-50 Hz gamma power in both strains. Consistent with its effects on gamma power, PNN proteins and TIMP-1, chronic pramipexole also improved working memory and reduced anhedonia and neophobia common to the BALB/c strain. Together these results add to an emerging literature linking extracellular matrix and/or gamma oscillation power to both mood and cognition
Using Molecular Probes to Dissect and Control the Energetics of Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Model Intrinsically Disordered Protein Systems
No full textPh.D.Biomolecular condensates are essential in many eukaryotic cells. Examples of condensates include nuclear stress bodies that regulate gene expression and P-bodies responsible for mRNA processing and decay. These condensates can establish stable boundaries despite the lack of membrane encapsulation. Certain condensates have been linked to disease, as some can convert into insoluble aggregates present in neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers. Many biomolecular condensates are formed via a reversible process known as liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). LLPS describes the demixing of a homogenous liquid into two distinct liquid phases: a dense phase that appears as liquid droplets in coexistence with a dilute phase.Although LLPS is an essential cellular process, the specific energetic contributions of the interactions that establish such phase-separating systems have yet to be fully determined. Interactions contributing to LLPS include multivalent noncovalent interactions such as charge-charge, hydrogen bonding, cation-?, ?-? interactions, and hydrophobic interactions. We also believe that CH-? interactions are important. The lack of understanding and the inability to reliably separate the relative energetic contributions of these interactions makes it challenging to explain the specificity observed in complex condensates.
A common feature of a protein system that undergoes LLPS is an intrinsically disordered region: an ensemble of rapidly fluctuating conformations that lack stable secondary or tertiary structure. We employed bright-field and fluorescence confocal microscopy, rheology, UV-Vis spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy, and HPLC techniques to study a model synthetic peptide system (FSFG) and a model physiological protein system (the intrinsically disordered Laf-1 RGG domain) with molecular probes to define the energetic contribution of specific intermolecular forces controlling the formation of condensates in disordered protein systems.
Our findings elucidate the disordered conformations and specific contributions of various intermolecular forces in the FSFG peptide and Laf-1 RGG systems under LLPS conditions. We report microscopy data and UV-vis turbidity onset temperatures for cosolvents and molecular probes perturbing the condensate systems. Finally, we report partition coefficients and free energies associated with peptides and nucleic acid probes partitioning into the dense phase. These findings show the ability to control LLPS energetics and highlight that intermolecular interactions are system-specific
Independent Reading in the Exploratory Spanish Classroom: Who Is missing from the Picture of “Typical” Second Language Reading Development?
No full textPh.D.In the United States, research on reading difficulties is predominantly carried out by scholars who project findings on L1 English reading difficulty to generalized difficulty in learning a second language (L2; e.g., Galuschka et al., 2020; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020; cf. Sparks, 2023). This research extrapolation creates a negative feedback loop (Sparks, 2016; Wight, 2015) in which more students with reading and learning difficulties are excluded from L2 study (see Ciòe-Peña, 2020; Ritz & Sherf, 2021) and are, as a result, understudied. This dissertation aims to address this issue by conducting a series of paired case studies with American L1 English early elementary learners of Spanish as they participated in an independent reading task tracking their L2 reading development over time within an Exploratory L2 program (Pufahl & Rhodes, 2008, 2011). Participants were aged seven to eight years old and received approximately 700 minutes of task-based (Ellis & Shintani, 2013) L2 instruction over the course of an L1 eight-week summer camp. Participants were video-recorded selecting and reading L2 books aloud (framed as a bilingual “storytime” task). Participants’ reading sessions were coded for accuracy (word and syllable decoding) and each participant diagnosed with a learning difficulty (N = 4) was analyzed in comparison to a typically developing reader (N = 4) of comparable background to illustrate differences in L2 reading development over the course of the summer camp’s Exploratory L2 Spanish program. Results for case participants were triangulated with academic reports to shed additional light on their L1 reading accuracy. An analysis of the participants’ book selection behaviors indicated that those with learning difficulties selected books that were more—and more variably—difficult (Edmunds & Bauserman, 2006; Merga & Roni, 2017) and that L2 book selection strategy instruction may be needed. Though the participants with learning difficulties did not decode their selected L2 books with as much accuracy as their typically developing peers did, their decoding errors patterned in similar ways, indicating that their instructional needs manifest in the same focal areas as their typically developing peers. Pedagogical and research implications are discussed in relation toerror loci to inform future work with young, beginner L2 learners with learning difficulties
Exploring Mechanisms by Which CodY Regulate the Activity of the Sae Two-Component System to Control Virulence in Staphylococcus aureus
No full textPh.D.Staphylococcus aureus is a ubiquitous Gram-positive bacterium that colonizes up to 30% of the human population. As an opportunistic human pathogen, the bacterium is a leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections, endocarditis, and bacteremia. Drug resistance compounds the problem, and the lack of an efficacious vaccine emphasizes the need for new therapies to combat staphylococcal infections. One exciting approach is to target the regulation of virulence genes. Virulence genes are often regulated by multiple factors that respond to different environmental cues. Some of the factors act directly on virulence genes; others control virulence indirectly by controlling the expression or activity of other regulators. My dissertation research focuses on CodY, an amino acid- and GTP-responsive global transcriptional regulator of many metabolic pathways, and the mechanism by which it funnels nutrient depletion signals through a major regulator of virulence-the SaeR/S two-component system. Previous work by others and I in the Brinsmade lab and elsewhere showed that overexpressing the sensor kinase gene saeS and the response regulator gene saeR does not increase the expression of the Sae regulon genes. To explain this surprising result, my thesis provides experimental support for the hypothesis that CodY controls the cellular fraction of activated SaeR (SaeR~P) to adjust the expression of virulence factor genes. In Chapter II, I show that transcriptional regulation of the sae locus is dispensable for CodY-dependent upregulation of the Sae regulon. Moreover, CodY-deficient S. aureus strains have higher SaeS kinase activity, correlating with increased membrane branch- chain fatty acids derived from isoleucine. In chapter III, I show that CodY regulates SaeS kinase activity during periods of nutrient sufficiency by repressing the genes that code for enzymes and proteins that catalyze branched-chain fatty acid synthesis. Additional work herein focuses on the molecular mechanism by which the branched-chain fatty acids alter the SaeS signaling complex. My work contributes to the elucidation of a novel method of post-transcriptional virulence regulation by branched-chain fatty acids. Understanding the molecular basis of this regulation is an important first step in characterizing potentially new anti-virulence targets with therapeutic potential
Learning to Live with AI : Enhancing writing and critical thinking across the disciplines
No full textWhy continue teaching and practicing writing when AI can produce text rapidly and efficiently? What aspects of the human act of writing are essential to retain for thinking, learning, building relationships, and constructing knowledge? Together, we will explore what remains uniquely human in the writing process, and how we can meaningfully integrate AI into writing assignments and other learning activities in our courses. We will also consider ways we can use AI for our own writing, teaching, and thinking.
The session (being held in-person and also streamed) is an interactive workshop that requires participants to bring laptops and access a free AI tool of their choice (with support). We will do our best to make it as interactive as possible for our colleagues on Zoom, although please understand there will be some limitations. Through hands-on learning, participants will consider the role of writing in academia and discuss research-based practices for using writing (including AI-enhanced writing) as a tool for learning. The session will also explore the very real limitations of AI, while working through key use cases:
Designing Writing Assignments that integrate AI: Designing writing assignments (for course in your discipline) that integrate human writing with AI assistance at various stages of the process.
Thinking with and about AI: Developing interactive activities that employ AI to engage students in learning and applying key course concepts; teaching students to critically evaluate AI-generated text about course concepts and readings.
Writing, teaching, and playing with AI: Exploring and practicing ways to use AI for own research and personal writing.
This session is designed to equip faculty with the skills to integrate AI into their academic practices thoughtfully and effectively, ensuring it enhances rather than undermines the educational experience.
This session will be facilitated by J Palmeri (GU Writing Program) and Sarah Jane Grizi (CNDLS