ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- Creators: Abbaszadegan, Morteza
- Creators: Chassin, Laurie
Description
Research has shown that a developmental process of maturing out of alcohol involvement occurs during young adulthood, and that this process is related to both young adult role transitions (e.g., marriage) and personality developmental (e.g., decreased disinhibition and neuroticism). The current study extended past research by testing whether protective marriage and personality effects on maturing out were stronger among more severe late adolescent drinkers, and whether protective marriage effects were stronger among those who experienced more personality development. Parental alcoholism and gender were tested as moderators of marriage, personality, and late adolescent drinking effects on maturing out; and as distal predictors mediated by these effects. Participants were a subsample (N = 844; 51% children of alcoholics; 53% male, 71% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 27% Hispanic; Chassin, Barrera, Bech, & Kossak-Fuller, 1992) from a larger longitudinal study of familial alcoholism. Hypotheses were tested with latent growth models characterizing alcohol consumption and drinking consequence trajectories from late adolescence to adulthood (age 17-40). Past findings were replicated by showing protective effects of becoming married, sensation-seeking reductions, and neuroticism reductions on the drinking trajectories. Moderation tests showed that protective marriage effects on the drinking trajectories were stronger among those with higher pre-marriage drinking in late adolescence (i.e., higher growth intercepts). This might reflect role socialization mechanisms such that more severe drinking produces more conflict with the demands of new roles (i.e., role incompatibility), thus requiring greater drinking reductions to resolve this conflict. In contrast, little evidence was found for moderation of personality effects by late adolescent drinking or for moderation of marriage effects by personality. Parental alcoholism findings suggested complex moderated mediation pathways. Parental alcoholism predicted less drinking reduction through decreasing the likelihood of marriage (mediation) and muting marriage's effect on the drinking trajectories (moderation), but parental alcoholism also predicted more drinking reduction through increasing initial drinking in late adolescence (mediation). The current study provides new insights into naturally occurring processes of recovery during young adulthood and suggests that developmentally-tailored interventions for young adults could harness these natural recovery processes (e.g., by integrating role incompatibility themes and addressing factors that block role effects among those with familial alcoholism).
ContributorsLee, Matthew R. (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Corbin, William R. (Committee member) / Mackinnon, David P (Committee member) / Presson, Clark C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Past literature has indicated that the majority of people with alcohol problems never seek treatment and that this is especially true of women. Relatively few studies have investigated how different types of alcohol-related consequences longitudinally predict men and women's perceived need for treatment and their utilization of treatment services. The current study sought to expand the literature by examining whether gender moderates the links between four frequently endorsed types of consequences and perceived need for or actual utilization of treatment. Two-hundred thirty-seven adults ages 21-36 completed a battery of questionnaires at two time points five years apart. Results indicated that there were four broad types of consequences endorsed by both men and women. Multiple-group models and Wald chi square tests indicated that there were no significant relationships between consequences and treatment outcomes. No gender moderation was found but post-hoc power analyses indicated that the study was underpowered to detect moderation. Researchers need to continue to study factors that predict utilization of alcohol treatment services and the process of recovery so that treatment providers can better address the needs of people with alcohol-related consequences in the areas of referral procedures, clinical assessment, and treatment service provision and planning.
ContributorsBeltran Gonzalez, Iris (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Barrera, Jr., Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Juvenile offenders suffer from substance use disorders at higher rates than adolescents in the general public. Substance use disorders also predict an increased risk for re-offending. Therefore, it is important that these juveniles, in particular, receive the appropriate substance use disorder treatment. The present study used logistic regression to test whether race/ethnicity would moderate the match between substance use disorder diagnosis and the receipt of a substance use disorder related service in a sample of male, serious juvenile offenders. Results showed that among those with a substance use disorder diagnosis, there were no race/ethnicity differences in the receipt of the appropriate service. However, among those without a substance use disorder diagnosis, non-Hispanic Caucasians were more likely to receive substance use service than were Hispanics or African-Americans. Post-hoc analyses revealed that when using a broader definition of substance use problems, significant differences by race/ethnicity in the prediction of service receipt were only observed at low levels of substance use problems. These findings shed light on how race/ethnicity may play a role in the recommendation of substance use disorder services in the juvenile justice system.
ContributorsMansion, Andre (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Dishion, Thomas (Committee member) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Levels of heavy episodic drinking peak during emerging adulthood and contribute to the experience of negative consequences. Previous research has identified a number of trait-like personality characteristics that are associated with drinking. Studies of the Acquired Preparedness Model have supported positive expectancies, and to a lesser extent negative expectancies, as mediators of the relation between trait-like characteristics and alcohol outcomes. However, expectancies measured via self-report may reflect differences in learned expectancies in spite of similar alcohol-related responses, or they may reflect true individual differences in subjective responses to alcohol. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by assessing the relative roles of expectancies and subjective response as mediators within the APM in a sample of 236 emerging adults (74.7% male) participating in a placebo-controlled alcohol challenge study. The study tested four mediation models collapsed across beverage condition as well as eight separate mediation models with four models (2 beverage by 2 expectancy/subjective response) for each outcome (alcohol use and alcohol-related problems). Consistent with previous studies, SS was positively associated with alcohol outcomes in models collapsed across beverage condition. SS was also associated with positive subjective response in collapsed models and in the alcohol models. The hypothesized negative relation between SS and sedation was not significant. In contrast to previous studies, neither stimulation nor sedation predicted either weekly drinking or alcohol-related problems. While stimulation and alcohol use appeared to have a positive and significant association, this relation did not hold when controlling for SS, suggesting that SS and stimulation account for shared variability in drinking behavior. Failure to find this association in the placebo group suggests that, while explicit positive expectancies are related to alcohol use after controlling for levels of sensation seeking, implicit expectancies (at least as assessed by a placebo manipulation) are not. That the relation between SS and stimulation held only in the alcohol condition in analyses separate by beverage condition indicates that sensation seeking is a significant predictor of positive subjective response to alcohol (stimulation), potentially above and beyond expectancies.
ContributorsScott, Caitlin (Author) / Corbin, William (Thesis advisor) / Shiota, Michelle (Committee member) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and the human genome are important components of the biological etiology of externalizing disorders. By studying the associations between specific genetic variants, diurnal cortisol, and externalizing symptoms we can begin to unpack this complex etiology. It was hypothesized that genetic variants from the corticotropine releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1), FK506 binding protein 51 (FKBP5), catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT), and dopamine transporter (DAT1) genes and diurnal cortisol intercepts and slopes would separately predict externalizing symptoms. It was also hypothesized that genetic variants would moderate the association between cortisol and externalizing. Participants were 800 twins (51% boys), 88.5% Caucasian, M=7.93 years (SD=0.87) participating in the Wisconsin Twin Project. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to separate the variance associated with state and trait cortisol measured across three consecutive days and trait cortisol measures were used. There were no main effects of genes on externalizing symptoms. The evening cortisol intercept, the morning cortisol slope and the evening cortisol slope predicted externalizing, but only in boys, such that boys with higher cortisol and flatter slopes across the day also had more externalizing symptoms. The morning cortisol intercept and CRHR1 rs242924 interacted to predict externalizing in both boys and girls, with GG carriers significantly higher compared to TT carriers at one standard deviation below the mean of morning cortisol. For boys only there was a significant interaction between the DAT1 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) and the afternoon slope and a significant slope for 9/9 carriers and 9/10 carriers such that when the slope was more steep, boys carrying a nine had fewer externalizing symptoms but when the slope was less steep, they had more. Results confirm a link between diurnal trait cortisol and externalizing in boys, as well as moderation of that association by genetic polymorphisms. This is the first study to empirically examine this association and should encourage further research on the biological etiology of externalizing disorder symptoms.
ContributorsSwann, Gregory (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Doane-Sampey, Leah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The National Research Council 2011 report lists quantifying the extent of de facto (or unplanned) potable reuse in the U.S. as the top research need associated with assessing the potential for expanding the nations water supply through reuse of municipal wastewater. Efforts to identify the significance and potential health impacts of de facto water reuse are impeded by out dated information regarding the contribution of municipal wastewater effluent to potable water supplies. This project aims to answer this research need. The overall goal of the this project is to quantify the extent of de facto reuse by developing a model that estimates the amount of wastewater effluent that is present within drinking water treatment plants; and to use the model in conjunction with a survey to help assess public perceptions. The four-step approach to accomplish this goal includes: (1) creating a GIS-based model coupled with Python programming; (2) validating the model with field studies by analyzing sucralose as a wastewater tracer; (3) estimating the percentage of wastewater in raw drinking water sources under varying streamflow conditions; (4) and assessing through a social survey the perceptions of the general public relating to acceptance and occurrence of de facto reuse. The resulting De Facto Reuse in our Nations Consumable Supply (DRINCS) Model, estimates that treated municipal wastewater is present at nearly 50% of drinking water treatment plant intake sites serving greater than 10,000 people (N=2,056). Contrary to the high frequency of occurrence, the magnitude of occurrence is relatively low with 50% of impacted intakes yielding less than 1% de facto reuse under average streamflow conditions. Model estimates increase under low flow conditions (modeled by Q95), in several cases treated wastewater makes up 100% of the water supply. De facto reuse occurs at levels that surpass what is publically perceived in the three cities of Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA, and Phoenix, AZ. Respondents with knowledge of de facto reuse occurrence are 10 times more likely to have a high acceptance (greater than 75%) of treated wastewater at their home tap.
ContributorsRice, Jacelyn (Author) / Westerhoff, Paul (Thesis advisor) / Abbaszadegan, Morteza (Committee member) / Vivoni, Enrique (Committee member) / Wutich, Amber (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Although research has documented robust prospective relationships between externalizing symptomatology and subsequent binge drinking among adolescents, the extent to which internalizing symptoms increase risk for drinking remains controversial. In particular, the role of anxiety as a predictor of binge drinking remains unclear. Recent evidence suggests that one possible reason for these mixed findings is that separate dimensions of anxiety may differentially confer risk for alcohol use. The present study tested two dimensions of anxiety - worry and physiological anxiety -- as predictors of binge drinking in a longitudinal study of juvenile delinquents. Overall, results indicate that worry and physiological anxiety showed differential relations with drinking behavior. In general, worry was protective against alcohol use, whereas physiological anxiety conferred risk for binge drinking, but both effects were conditional on levels of offending. Implications for future research examining the role of anxiety in predicting drinking behavior among youth are discussed.
ContributorsNichter, Brandon (Author) / Chassin, Laurie (Thesis advisor) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Bacteria of the Legionella genus are a water-borne pathogen of increasing concern due to being responsible for more annual drinking water related disease outbreaks in the United States than all other microbes combined. Unfortunately, the development of public health policies concerning Legionella has impeded by several key factors, including a paucity of data on their interactions and growth requirements in water distribution networks, a poor understanding of potential transmission sources for legionellosis, and limitations in current methodology for the characterization of these pathogens. To address these issues, a variety of research approaches were taken. By measuring Legionella survival in tap water, association in pipe material biofilms, population dynamics in a model distribution system, and occurrence in drinking water distribution system biofilms, key aspects of Legionella ecology in drinking water systems were revealed. Through a series of experiments qualitatively and quantitatively examining the growth of Legionella via nutrients obtained from several water sources, environmental nutritional requirements and capability for growth in the absence of host organisms were demonstrated. An examination of automobile windshield washer fluid as a possible source of legionellosis transmission revealed Legionella survival in certain windshield washer fluids, growth within washer fluid reservoirs, high levels and frequency of contamination in washer fluid reservoirs, and the presence of viable cells in washer fluid spray, suggesting the potential for exposure to Legionella from this novel source. After performing a systematic and quantitative analysis of methodology optimization for the analysis of Legionella cells via matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, several strains of this microbe isolated from separated and varied environmental water sampling sites were distinctly typed, demonstrating a potential application of this technology for the characterization of Legionella. The results from this study provide novel insight and methodology relevant to the development of programs for the monitoring and treatment of Legionella in drinking water systems.
ContributorsSchwake, David Otto (Author) / Abbaszadegan, Morteza (Thesis advisor) / Alum, Absar (Committee member) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Since its first report in 1976, many outbreaks of Legionella have been reported in the world. These outbreaks are a public health concern because of legionellosis, which cause Pontiac fever and Legionnaires disease. Legionnaires disease is a type of pneumonia responsible for the majority of the illness in the reported outbreaks. This study consists of an extensive literature review and experimental work on the aerosolization of Legionella and a bacterial surrogate under laboratory conditions. The literature review summarizes Legionella characteristics, legionellosis, potential sources of Legionella, disease outbreaks, collection and detection methodologies, environmental conditions for growth and survival of Legionella, Gaussian plume dispersion modeling, and recommendations for reducing potential Legionella outbreaks. The aerosolization and airborne dispersion of Legionella and E. coli was conducted separately inside of a closed environment. First, the bacterial cells were sprayed inside of an airtight box and then samples were collected using a microbial air sampler to measure the number of bacterial cells aerosolized and transported in air. Furthermore, a Gaussian plume dispersion model was used to estimate the dispersion under the experimental conditions and parameters. The concentration of Legionella was estimated for a person inhaling the air at three different distances away from the spray. The concentration of Legionella at distances of 0.1 km, 1 km, and 10 km away from the source was predicted to be 1.7x10-1, 2.2x10-3, and 2.6x10-5 CFU/m3, respectively.
ContributorsTaghdiri, Sepideh (Author) / Abbaszadegan, Morteza (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Estes, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Granular activated carbon (GAC) filters are final polishing step in the drinking water treatment systems for removal of dissolved organic carbon fractions. Generally filters are colonized by bacterial communities and their activity reduces biodegradable solutes allowing partial regeneration of GAC's adsorptive capacity. When the bacteria pass into the filtrate due to increased growth, microbiological quality of drinking water is compromised and regrowth in the distribution system occurs. Bacteria attached to carbon particles as biofilms or in conjugation with other bacteria were observed to be highly resistant to post filtration microbial mitigation techniques. Some of these bacteria were identified as pathogenic.
This study focuses on one such pathogen Legionella pneumophila which is resistant to environmental stressors and treatment conditions. It is also responsible for Legionnaires' disease outbreak through drinking water thus attracting attention of regulatory agencies. The work assessed the attachment and colonization of Legionella and heterotrophic bacteria in lab scale GAC media column filters. Quantification of Legionella and HPC in the influent, effluent, column's biofilms and on the GAC particles was performed over time using fluorescent microscopy and culture based techniques.
The results indicated gradual increase in the colonization of the GAC particles with HPC bacteria. Initially high number of Legionella cells were detected in the column effluent and were not detected on GAC suggesting low attachment of the cells to the particles potentially due to lack of any previous biofilms. With the initial colonization of the filter media by other bacteria the number of Legionella cells on the GAC particles and biofilms also increased. Presence of Legionella was confirmed in all the samples collected from the columns spiked with Legionella. Significant increase in the Legionella was observed in column's inner surface biofilm (0.25 logs up to 0.52 logs) and on GAC particles (0.42 logs up to 0.63 logs) after 2 months. Legionella and HPC attached to column's biofilm were higher than that on GAC particles indicating the strong association with biofilms. The bacterial concentration slowly increased in the effluent. This may be due to column's wall effect decreasing filter efficiency, possible exhaustion of GAC capacity over time and potential bacterial growth.
This study focuses on one such pathogen Legionella pneumophila which is resistant to environmental stressors and treatment conditions. It is also responsible for Legionnaires' disease outbreak through drinking water thus attracting attention of regulatory agencies. The work assessed the attachment and colonization of Legionella and heterotrophic bacteria in lab scale GAC media column filters. Quantification of Legionella and HPC in the influent, effluent, column's biofilms and on the GAC particles was performed over time using fluorescent microscopy and culture based techniques.
The results indicated gradual increase in the colonization of the GAC particles with HPC bacteria. Initially high number of Legionella cells were detected in the column effluent and were not detected on GAC suggesting low attachment of the cells to the particles potentially due to lack of any previous biofilms. With the initial colonization of the filter media by other bacteria the number of Legionella cells on the GAC particles and biofilms also increased. Presence of Legionella was confirmed in all the samples collected from the columns spiked with Legionella. Significant increase in the Legionella was observed in column's inner surface biofilm (0.25 logs up to 0.52 logs) and on GAC particles (0.42 logs up to 0.63 logs) after 2 months. Legionella and HPC attached to column's biofilm were higher than that on GAC particles indicating the strong association with biofilms. The bacterial concentration slowly increased in the effluent. This may be due to column's wall effect decreasing filter efficiency, possible exhaustion of GAC capacity over time and potential bacterial growth.
ContributorsSharma, Harsha (Author) / Abbaszadegan, Morteza (Thesis advisor) / Alum, Absar (Committee member) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014