Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
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- Creators: School of Nutrition and Health Promotion
Description
This longitudinal research study addresses the correlations between infant feeding status in relation to infant temperament, maternal postpartum depression, and weight changes over time in a lower income, diverse population sample. The majority of participants were enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in Mesa, Arizona. Each participant was recruited in their third trimester and followed for the infants' first six months of life. A series of four home visits were made in which demographic surveys, temperament questionnaires, postpartum depression scales, weight changes over time, fecal, vaginal, saliva, and breast milk samples were taken. Due to the extensive process of extracting and sequencing of the microbiome samples, data has yet to be collected from the fecal, vaginal, saliva, and breast milk samples and were not included in this study. Correlational and descriptive statistics were run on the qualitative data including various demographic questions, total temperament, depression, and healthy eating index scores. It was found that lower socioeconomic factors contributed to more difficult infant temperaments, mothers who breastfed had higher post-delivery postpartum depression scores, and mothers with healthier eating indexes formula or mixed fed their infants. The findings from this data will be compared to the incoming microbiome data to examine the role of the microbiome of mothers and infants and its effects on infant temperament, postpartum depression, and weight changes over time.
ContributorsWong, Lindsay Alissa (Author) / Reifsnider, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Zheng, Lu (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Background: Gait disturbance, clumsiness, and other mild movement problems are often observed in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Maurer and Damasio 1982). As the brain ages, these symptoms may persist or worsen in late adulthood in those diagnosed with ASD. This study focused on older adults with ASD to study motor behavior and underlying brain integrity. Using a finger tapping task, motor performance was measured in a cross-sectional study comparing older adults with ASD and age-matched typically developing (TD) controls. We hypothesized that older adults with ASD would show poorer motor performance (slower finger tapping speed). We also hypothesized that underlying brain differences, measured using MRI, in regions associated with motor function including the primary motor cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, as well as the white matter connecting tracts would exist between groups and be associated with the proposed disparity in motor performance.
Method: A finger oscillation (Finger Tapping) test was administered to both ASD (n=21) and TD (n=20) participants aged 40-70 year old participants as a test of fine motor speed. Magnetic resonance (MR) images were collected using a Philips 3 Tesla scanner. 3D T1-weighted and diffusion tensor images (DTI) were obtained to measure gray and white matter volume and white matter integrity, respectively. FreeSurfer, an automated volumetric measurement software, was used to determine group volumetric differences. Mean, radial, and axial diffusivity, fractional anisotropy, and local diffusion homogeneity were measured from DTI images using PANDA software in order to evaluate white matter integrity.
Results: All participants were right-handed and there were no significant differences in demographic variables (ASD/TD, means) including age (51.9/49.1 years), IQ (107/112) and years education (15/16). Total brain volume was not significantly different between groups. No statistically significant group differences were observed in finger tapping speed. ASD participants compared to TDs showed a trend of slower finger tapping (taps/10 seconds) speed on the dominant hand (47.00 (±11.2) vs. (50.5 (±6.6)) and nondominant hand (44.6 (±7.6) vs. (47.2 (±6.6)). However, a large degree of variability was observed in the ASD group, and the Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance approached significance (p=0.053) on the dominant, but not the nondominant, hand. No significant group differences in gray matter regional volume were found for brain regions associated with performing motor tasks. In contrast, group differences were found on several measures of white matter including the corticospinal tract, anterior internal capsule and middle cerebellar peduncle. Brain-behavior correlations showed that dominant finger tapping speed correlated with left hemisphere white matter integrity of the corticospinal tract and right hemisphere cerebellar white matter in the ASD group.
Conclusions: No significant differences were observed between groups in finger tapping speed but the high degree of variability seen in the ASD group. Differences in motor performance appear to be associated with observed brain differences, particularly in the integrity of white matter tracts contributing to motor functioning.
Method: A finger oscillation (Finger Tapping) test was administered to both ASD (n=21) and TD (n=20) participants aged 40-70 year old participants as a test of fine motor speed. Magnetic resonance (MR) images were collected using a Philips 3 Tesla scanner. 3D T1-weighted and diffusion tensor images (DTI) were obtained to measure gray and white matter volume and white matter integrity, respectively. FreeSurfer, an automated volumetric measurement software, was used to determine group volumetric differences. Mean, radial, and axial diffusivity, fractional anisotropy, and local diffusion homogeneity were measured from DTI images using PANDA software in order to evaluate white matter integrity.
Results: All participants were right-handed and there were no significant differences in demographic variables (ASD/TD, means) including age (51.9/49.1 years), IQ (107/112) and years education (15/16). Total brain volume was not significantly different between groups. No statistically significant group differences were observed in finger tapping speed. ASD participants compared to TDs showed a trend of slower finger tapping (taps/10 seconds) speed on the dominant hand (47.00 (±11.2) vs. (50.5 (±6.6)) and nondominant hand (44.6 (±7.6) vs. (47.2 (±6.6)). However, a large degree of variability was observed in the ASD group, and the Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance approached significance (p=0.053) on the dominant, but not the nondominant, hand. No significant group differences in gray matter regional volume were found for brain regions associated with performing motor tasks. In contrast, group differences were found on several measures of white matter including the corticospinal tract, anterior internal capsule and middle cerebellar peduncle. Brain-behavior correlations showed that dominant finger tapping speed correlated with left hemisphere white matter integrity of the corticospinal tract and right hemisphere cerebellar white matter in the ASD group.
Conclusions: No significant differences were observed between groups in finger tapping speed but the high degree of variability seen in the ASD group. Differences in motor performance appear to be associated with observed brain differences, particularly in the integrity of white matter tracts contributing to motor functioning.
ContributorsDeatherage, Brandon R. (Co-author) / Braden, B. Blair (Co-author, Committee member) / Smith, Christopher J. (Co-author) / McBeath, Michael (Co-author, Thesis director) / Thompson, Aimee M. (Co-author) / Wood, Emily G. (Co-author) / McGee, Samuel C. (Co-author) / Sinha, Krishna (Co-author) / Baxter, Leslie (Co-author, Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The purpose of this secondary data-analysis was to explore the factors that predict a healthy birth outcome and a healthful postpartum weight for Mexican American mothers. There is a need to educate women who are overweight and obese that in order to have a healthier pregnancy and delivery they need to reduce their BMI. Demographic factors, the frequency of pregnancy complications, the weight and BMI of the mother, and Gestational Weight Gain were all factors investigated. These factors were investigated to determine parameters to obtain healthy birth weights in Mexican American infants.
ContributorsRemackel, Jacqueline Joy (Author) / Reifsnider, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Zheng, Lu (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12