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Substate Region Contexts in Predictive Models for Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States, 2012-2019
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Epidemiology - Doctor of Philosophy, 2024Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have increased steeply in the United States (US) since the beginning of the 21st century. At the same time the US population has become less religious, with growing numbers of individuals especially in the younger age groups reporting no religious affiliation. As patterns of STIs and religious belief have changed several studies exploring the relationship between these two areas have been conducted with mixed results. This dissertation adds to the existing literature by exploring a suspected predictive relationship between religion and notifiable STI outcomes at the substate level in the US.In the first aim, predicted estimates of substate region-specific religiosity levels were derived from four religion items assessed by the 2002-2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). I then aggregated STI case numbers from 2012-2019 at the NSDUH-defined substate region-level and used the religiosity estimate derived in aim one to examine the role of religiosity in predicting STI outcomes for the three nationally notifiable sexually transmitted infections individually and in aggregate. In aim two I used this data to examine the effect of population size and age distribution of the substate regions on the ability of religiosity to predict STI outcomes. The final aim explores the effect of the addition of supplemental covariates to each of the four models first individually then together to build a final best fit model for each outcome. In the first aim I confirmed that the four religion items assessed by NSDUH can be used to predict a single latent dimension that I have called \u2018religiosity\u2019. In the second aim I assessed the ability of religiosity alone to predict STI outcomes. I then added covariates for population size and the age distributions of the substate regions in 2002-2011 into the crude model which showed that both variables improved the fit of the religiosity predictive model for the 2012-2019 STI outcomes. Finally, in my third aim I considered several additional covariates for inclusion in the model and evaluated whether they might improve the fit of the STI prediction model restricted to terms for religiosity level, population size, and age distributions. Following this I created predictive models with plausible and unlikely predictors to arrive at a best fit model for each outcome under study. While the best fit models for each outcome varied somewhat, several covariates qualified for inclusion in all models including the substate region population, the proportion of 26- to 35-year-olds, and the extra-medical use of a set of drug and medicine sub-types identified in NSDUH modules on this topic. Taken together, the results of this dissertation point towards three conclusions. First, religiosity may be an important predictor of STI outcomes in the US and warrants further consideration. Second, while this project does not draw causal conclusions about the relationship between religiosity and STI outcomes it suggests that a modeling approach like the one used here may be useful for future study and to better target public health programming to high-risk populations. Finally, several covariates assessed as part of this project might prove to have importance in future predictive models for STI occurrence in community and substate regions of the United States. Future studies should build upon these models by considering additional covariates as well as attempting to replicate these results with alternative or expanded data sources.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Multifungicide resistance and population genomics of Botrytis cinerea greenhouse populations
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Plant Pathology - Doctor of Philosophy, 2024Symptoms of Botrytis blight, a disease caused by the ubiquitous fungal plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea, include leaf spots, rot, damping off, and blight of petioles, flowers, leaves, and stems of ornamental crops. B. cinerea is regarded as the second most important fungal plant pathogen in the world partly due to its ability to cause extensive pre- and post- harvest losses in hundreds of economically valuable fruit, vegetable, and ornamental crops. Fungicides are important for Botrytis blight control and represent 10% of the global fungicide market. B. cinerea isolates (386) obtained from herbaceous ornamentals growing in Michigan greenhouses exhibited widespread multifungicide resistance; 63.5% were resistant to four or more site-specific fungicide classes and only 2.3% were sensitive to all fungicides. Resistance profiles of individual isolates were diverse (48 phenotypes). The most common profile (8.7%) demonstrated resistance to all site-specific fungicide classes including thiophanate-methyl (FRAC 1), fenhexamid (FRAC 17), iprodione (FRAC 2), fludioxonil (FRAC 12), boscalid/fluopyram (FRAC 7), cyprodinil (FRAC 9), and pyraclostrobin (FRAC 11). Resistance frequencies and profiles were not associated with location, year, or host. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on 276 single-spored B. cinerea isolates from petunia, geranium, or poinsettia in 11 greenhouses during two growing cycles. De novo assembly and functional annotation were performed with isolates resistant (5) or sensitive (2) to all fungicides. Publicly available assemblies and corresponding annotation data are a resource for research on fungicide resistance, genetic relatedness among global crops and regions, and other Botrytis genomics-related studies. Reference-guided assembly of 276 isolate genomes enabled analyses of i) population structure stratified by multifungicide resistance, ii) novel genomic regions associated with multifungicide resistance, iii) mating type characterization, and iv) other measurements of genetic differentiation based on fungicide resistance, crop, location, and other factors. Isolates with resistance to multiple fungicides (0-7) impacted population structure and were genetically differentiated as indicated by discriminant analyses of principal components, fixation index values, and analyses of molecular variance. A quantitative trait genome-wide association study identified genomic regions significantly associated with multifungicide resistance, including putative efflux pump genes. To date, this is the largest study of B. cinerea population genomics, prompting new questions and highlighting the need for novel management tools due to widespread fungicide resistance.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Factors Related to Variability in Preschool Teachers' Emotion Talk
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. School Psychology - Doctor of Philosophy, 2024Emotion socialization plays a critical role in children\u2019s emotional development (Denham, 2006; Denham et al., 2012), social skills (Burchinal et al., 2010), academic achievement (Djambazova-Popordanoska, 2016), behavioral outcomes (Gottman et al., 1997), and more. Emotion socialization, and specifically emotion talk, has been studied by many researchers in the context of parent-child interactions. Very few studies, however, have examined teacher use of emotion talk, defined as any utterance that mentions emotional states, describes possible causes or consequence of emotions, and/or asks questions about emotional states (Denham et al., 2015; Yelinek & Grady, 2019). This is an essential next step in the field as children spend a large portion of their time outside of the home and in the school setting, thus making teachers key emotion socialization agents.This study sought to provide a descriptive account of the proportion and type of teacher emotion talk used in the classroom and examined potential factors that contribute to variation in teacher emotion talk. Seventeen preschool teachers were audio recorded during a book-reading task and recordings were coded for proportion and function of emotion utterances. Teachers also completed several questionnaires to measure variables of interest (i.e., teacher stress, emotion regulation, emotion beliefs; student characteristics; teacher professional development and perceptions of support) potentially related to teacher use of emotion talk. Results indicated that preschool teachers used emotion talk about 27% of the time they were talking in this book-reading task, but teachers varied widely overall (M = .27, SD = .09, Min = .11, Max = .45). Functions of emotion utterances were calculated and results showed that teachers used mostly questions (40%) and comments (31%) when discussing emotions, followed by explanation (13%), guide (6%), socialization (5%), label (3%), and clarify (1%). Bivariate analyses were conducted and results indicated non-significant findings among several study variables and the outcome measure of emotion talk. However, findings showed a significant relationship between teacher use of emotion talk and students at-risk for disabilities in the classroom. That is, as portion of students at risk for disabilities in the classroom increased, teacher emotion talk decreased and as portion of children in the classroom that were rated as at-risk on the Social Skills Improvement System Social Emotional Learning Edition Screening and Monitoring Scales (SSIS-SEL) increased, the use of higher-level emotion talk decreased. Although largely descriptive and exploratory in nature, these preliminary findings have important implications for the field of emotion socialization and emotion talk in specific. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Tracing Distributed Algorithms Using Replay Clocks
Get PDFThesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Computer Science - Master of Science, 2024In this thesis, we introduce replay clocks (\repcl), a novel clock infrastructure that allows us to do offline analyses of distributed computations. The replay clock structure provides a methodology to \textit{replay} a computation as it happened, with the ability to represent concurrent events effectively. It builds on the structures introduced by vector clocks (\vc) and the Hybrid Logical Clock (\hlc), combining their infrastructures to provide efficient replay. With such a clock, a user can replay a computation whilst considering multiple paths of executions, and check for constraint violations and properties that potential pathways could take, especially in the presence of concurrent events. Specifically, if event must occur before then the replay clock must ensure that is replayed before . On the other hand, if and could occur in any order, replay should not force an order between them. After identifying the limitations of existing clocks to provide the replay primitive, we present the \repcl structure and identify an efficient representation for the same. We demonstrate that \repcl can be implemented with less than four integers for 64 processes for various system parameters if clocks are synchronized within . Furthermore, the overhead of \repcl (for computing/comparing timestamps and message size) is proportional to the size of the clock. Using simulations in a custom distributed system and NS-3, a state-of-the-art network simulator, we identify the expected overhead of \repcl based on the given system settings. We also identify how a user can then identify feasibility region for \repcl. Specifically, given the desired overhead of \repcl, it identifies the region where unabridged replay is possible. Using the \repcl, we provide a tracer for distributed computations, that allows any computation using the \repcl to be replayed efficiently. The visualization allows users to analyze specific properties and constraints in an online fashion, with the ability to consider concurrent paths independently. The visualization provides per-process views and an overarching view of the whole computation based on the time recorded by the \repcl for each event.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
VALIDATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF DNA METABARCODING FOR SEA LAMPREY DIETARY ANALYSIS
Get PDFThesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Fisheries and Wildlife - Master of Science, 2024Genetic dietary analysis has been a rapidly growing area of study due to several advantages it holds over conventional methods, such as enhanced taxonomic resolution and the ability to detect rare or degraded prey items. In this thesis, DNA metabarcoding is applied to investigate the dietary composition of parasitic, hematophagous sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) within the Great Lakes region. This approach aims to enhance our understanding of sea lamprey feeding habits by addressing limitations with traditional diet assessment methods, ultimately contributing to more informed management efforts. The first objective was to design a blocking primer that selectively suppresses amplification of sea lamprey DNA at the 12S rRNA gene region, allowing for clearer observations of host fish DNA detections. With a successful blocking primer, the second objective was to assess the influence of different environmental and biological variables on the retention of host fish DNA in sea lamprey digestive tracts within a controlled setting. Specifically, various temperatures and post-feeding fasting periods were examined in experimental aquaria, along with the ability to detect multiple hosts after sea lamprey had consecutively fed on different species. Results demonstrated that host DNA could remain detectable in sea lamprey digestive tracts for up to 30 days at temperatures between 5-15\ub0C and still produce sequence reads from feedings on multiple host species. In the third objective, DNA metabarcoding was applied to wild-caught sea lamprey samples to assess the applicability of this technique in the field. Both adult and juvenile parasitic sea lamprey were collected from Lakes Huron, Superior, and Champlain during 2022 and 2023, with findings indicating potential sources of dietary differences among lakes and life stages for Great Lakes sea lamprey. Together, these results underscore the utility of DNA metabarcoding in detecting and distinguishing prey taxa, with valuable applications towards sea lamprey management strategies in the Great Lakes.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
INVESTIGATION OF THE PHOTOELECTROCHEMICAL OXYGEN EVOLUTION REACTION ON METAL OXIDE SEMICONDUCTORS
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Chemistry - Doctor of Philosophy, 2024Global warming and carbon emissions are among the most critical challenges of the 21st century. Hydrogen offers a promising solution to mitigate these issues. However, at the R&D level, the cost of hydrogen production is still three times that of gasoline. To commercialize hydrogen as a fuel, production costs must be reduced, particularly by enhancing the efficiency of hydrogen generation and by utilizing value-added products like oxygen generated at the anode.Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has emerged as a viable research avenue for harnessing solar energy. This study focuses on using hematite as a photoanode material for solar water oxidation in a PEC cell, which produces oxygen\u2014a critical and thermodynamically challenging counterpart to clean hydrogen production. Despite the hematite\u2019s attractive properties, such as good light absorption, suitable band positions, and robustness, experimental performance has consistently fallen short of theoretical expectations due to significant recombination processes that limit charge separation and collection. As a result, a large input voltage is required to oxidize water on hematite, leading to substantial efficiency losses. In this work, hematite thin films prepared by atomic layer deposition and electrodeposition were systematically investigated under PEC conditions to explore the mechanisms of oxygen formation during water oxidation. A combination of electrochemical, photoelectrochemical, and spectroscopic analyses was employed to better understand the fundamental mechanisms behind the performance limitations under various light conditions. It was found that the hole transfer rate is highly dependent on illumination conditions, Fermi level position, and band structure.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references
Doctor of nursing practice quality improvement project : free medical clinic diagnostic testing process improvement
Get PDFBackground/Significance: Missed or delayed diagnostics can have an impact on a patient's care and can have medical-legal consequences for health organizations and personnel alike (Callen et al., 2012). Kwan et al. (2019) report that deficient laboratory testing processes can be attributed to safety concerns for patients. According to the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (2022c), in quality standard 4, section D, an audit measure identifies the need for tracking systems for diagnostic studies. Organizations, healthcare personnel, and patients can be negatively affected without a process for care coordination with diagnostic testing. Methods: A literature search was conducted for articles published from 1986 to 2022 utilizing CINAHL, PubMed, and Google. After the literature review, articles had themes related to electronic medical records versus paper, standardization of processes, policies for diagnostic testing, and diagnostic testing processes. A valuable interventional guide was the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research's Improving Your Laboratory Testing Process guideline that assisted with project design. Utilizing the Plan, Do, Study, Act model, a diagnostic testing process was designed and implemented for improved care coordination with diagnostic testing in a free clinic setting. Conclusion: A lack of diagnostic testing processes can lead to negative outcomes for patients and healthcare personnel. Using a literature review and adaptations of a well-designed guideline, a proposed process was derived in the unique setting of a free clinic. With the successful implementation of a diagnostic testing process, measurements of staff satisfaction, review of documentation, and proper documentation placement will be conducted. After the successful implementation of the diagnostic testing process, a policy will be created.Thesis (D.N.P.)--Michigan State University. Psychiatric mental health practitioner, 2024Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-40
Social determinants of health screening and referral follow up initiative : a quality improvement project in an academic primary care clinic
Get PDFBackground: Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) refer to the circumstances present in the surroundings where individuals are born, reside, acquire knowledge, engage in employment, participate in leisure activities, practice religion, and grow old, which have an impact on a diverse array of health-related outcomes, functioning, and risks that affect the quality of life. The presence of disparities based on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location is notably evident in the incidence of mortality and/or morbidity associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, COPD, HIV/AIDS, homicide, psychological distress, hypertension, smoking, obesity, and the availability of high-quality healthcare services. Methods: The Plan Do Study Act method of quality improvement was used for this project. Data of initial screening and referral from November 2022 to January of 2023 were retrieved. Baseline assessment included reviewing the Athena electronic health records of patient's medical records within the Midwestern Academic Internal Medicine Clinic. This review will consist of new patients and annual physical patients that were screened for SDOH between April 2023 to December 2023. Intervention: Newly retrieved data from April 2023 to December 2023 will be compared to the original SDOH screening and referral data from November 2022 to January 2023. With this data, quality improvement opportunities will be formulated with the staff at a Midwestern Academic Internal Medicine Clinic. Internal Medicine staff: Providers- academic faculty physicians or nurse practitioners Staff- RN, case/clinical managers, social workers, medical assistants, and medical receptionists Results: The previous studies assessment following the implementation of the SDOH process map (see Appendix C) and screening tool (see Appendix B), between November 2022 to January 2023, showed 73% of eligible patients were screened (see Appendix E). The current data from April 2023 to December 2023 revealed an 83% completion rate (see Appendix E). Conclusions: The data collected demonstrated an increase of 11% in completion of SDOH screenings in comparison to the initial data. The results suggest that having an SDOH screening process in place, educating, and training staff regarding the screening process can improve the screening rates. It's important to note that despite the increase of percentage of SDOH screening, continued education, monitoring and growth is required to sustain the initiative. SDOH screening sustainability requires continuous monitoring, educating, and training for the staff and newly hired staff involved in the screening process (Zhang & Fornilli, 2023).Thesis (D.N.P.)--Michigan State University. Family nurse practitioner, 2024Includes bibliographical references (pages 17-19
