Matching Items (13)
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- All Subjects: public health
- Creators: Maienschein, Jane
Description
This dissertation shows that the central conceptual feature and explanatory motivation of theories of evolutionary directionality between 1890 and 1926 was as follows: morphological variation in the developing organism limits the possible outcomes of evolution in definite directions. Put broadly, these theories maintained a conceptual connection between development and evolution as inextricably associated phenomena. This project develops three case studies. The first addresses the Swiss-German zoologist Theodor Eimer's book Organic Evolution (1890), which sought to undermine the work of noted evolutionist August Weismann. Second, the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope's Primary Factors (1896) developed a sophisticated system of inheritance that included the material of heredity and the energy needed to induce and modify ontogenetic phenomena. Third, the Russian biogeographer Leo Berg's Nomogenesis (1926) argued that the biological world is deeply structured in a way that prevents changes to morphology taking place in more than one or a few directions. These authors based their ideas on extensive empirical evidence of long-term evolutionary trajectories. They also sought to synthesize knowledge from a wide range of studies and proposed causes of evolution and development within a unified causal framework based on laws of evolution. While being mindful of the variation between these three theories, this project advances "Definitely Directed Evolution" as a term to designate these shared features. The conceptual coherence and reception of these theories shows that Definitely Directed Evolution from 1890 to 1926 is an important piece in reconstructing the wider history of theories of evolutionary directionality.
ContributorsUlett, Mark Andrew (Author) / Laubichler, Manfred D (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Brian K (Committee member) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Smocovitis, Vassiliki B (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Nearly seven decades ago, the US government established grants to the states for family planning and acknowledged the importance of enabling all women to plan and space their pregnancies, regardless of personal income. Since then, publicly-funded family planning services have empowered millions of women, men, and adolescents to achieve their childbearing goals. Despite the recognized importance of subsidized family planning, services remain funded in a piecemeal fashion. Since the 1940s there have been numerous federal funding sources for family planning, including the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Program, Office of Economic Opportunity grants, Title XX Social Services Program, Title X Family Planning Program, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, alongside state and local support. Spending guidelines allow states varying degrees of flexibility regarding allocation, to best serve the local population. With nearly two billion dollars spent annually on subsidized family planning, criticism often arises surrounding effective local program spending and state politics influencing grant allocation. Political tension regarding the amount of control states should have in managing federal funding is exacerbated in the context of family planning, which has become increasingly controversial among social conservatives in the twenty-first century. This thesis examines how Arizona’s political, geographic, cultural, and ethnic landscape shaped the state management of federal family planning funding since the early twentieth century. Using an extensive literature review, archival research, and oral history interviews, this thesis demonstrates the unique way Arizona state agencies and nonprofits collaborated to maximize the use of federal family planning grants, effectively reaching the most residents possible. That partnership allowed Arizona providers to reduce geographic barriers to family planning in a rural, frontier state. The social and political history surrounding the use of federal family planning funds in Arizona demonstrates the important role states have in efficient, effective, and equitable state implementation of national resources in successfully reaching local populations. The contextualization of government funding of family planning provides insight into recent attempts to defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, cut the Title X Family Planning Program, and restructure Medicaid in the twenty-first century.
ContributorsNunez-Eddy, Claudia (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbut, James (Committee member) / O'Neil, Erica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Influenza has shown its potential to affect and even kill millions of people within an extremely short time frame, yet studies and surveys show that the general public is not well educated about the facts about influenza, including prevention and treatment. For this reason, public perception of influenza is extremely skewed, with people generally not taking the disease as seriously as they should given its severity. To investigate the inconsistencies between action and awareness of best available knowledge regarding influenza, this study conducted literature review and a survey of university students about their knowledge, perceptions, and action taken in relationship to influenza. Due to their dense living quarters, constant daily interactions, and mindset that they are "immune" to fairly common diseases like influenza, university students are a representative sample of urban populations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 54% of the world's population lived in cities as of 2014 (Urban population growth). Between 2015 and 2020, the global urban population is expected to grow 1.84% per year, 1.63% between 2020 and 2025, and 1.44% between 2025 and 2030 (Urban population growth). Similar projections estimate that by 2017, an overwhelming majority of the world's population, even in less developed countries, will be living in cities (Urban population growth). Results of this study suggest possible reasons for the large gap between best available knowledge and the perceptions and actions of individuals on the other hand. This may lead to better-oriented influenza education initiatives, more effective prevention and treatment plans, and generally raise excitement and awareness surrounding public health and scientific communication.
ContributorsGur-Arie, Rachel Ellen Haviva (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Laubichler, Manfred (Committee member) / Creath, Richard (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Vaccinations are important for preventing influenza infection. Maximizing vaccination uptake rates (80-90%) is crucial in generating herd immunity and preventing infection incidence. Vaccination of healthcare professionals (HCP) against influenza is vital to infection control in healthcare settings, given their consistent exposure to high-risk patients like: those with compromised immune systems, children, and the elderly (Johnson & Talbot, 2011). Though vaccination is vital in disease prevention, influenza vaccination uptake among HCP is low overall (50% on average) (Pearson et al., 2006). Mandatory vaccination policies result in HCP influenza vaccination uptake rates substantially higher than opt-in influenza vaccination campaigns (90% vs. 60%). Therefore, influenza vaccination should be mandatory for HCP in order to best prevent influenza infection in healthcare settings. Many HCP cite individual objections to influenza vaccination rooted in personal doubts and ethical concerns, not best available scientific evidence. Nevertheless, HCP ethical responsibility to their patients and work environments to prevent and lower influenza infection incidence overrules such individual objections. Additionally, mandatory HCP influenza vaccination policies respect HCP autonomy via including medical and religious exemption clauses. While vaccination as a prevention method for influenza is logically sound, individuals’ actions are not always rooted in logic. Therefore, I analyze HCP perceptions and actions toward influenza vaccination in an effort to better explain low HCP uptake rates of the influenza vaccine and individual objections to influenza vaccination. Such analysis can aid in gaining HCP trust when implementing mandatory HCP influenza vaccination policies. In summary, mandatory HCP influenza vaccination policies are ethically justified, effective, scientifically-supported method of maximizing HCP influenza vaccine uptake and minimizing the spread of the influenza virus within healthcare settlings.
ContributorsGur-Arie, Rachel (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbut, Ben (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
In the fifteen years between the discovery of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in 1973 and the passage of alcohol beverage warning labels in 1988, FAS transformed from a medical diagnosis between practitioner and pregnant women to a broader societal risk imbued with political and cultural meaning. I examine how scientific, social, moral, and political narratives dynamically interacted to construct the risk of drinking during pregnancy and the public health response of health warning labels on alcohol. To situate such phenomena I first observe the closest regulatory precedents, the public health responses to thalidomide and cigarettes, which established a federal response to fetal risk. I then examine the history of how the US defined and responded to the social problem of alcoholism, paying particular attention to the role of women in that process. Those chapters inform my discussion of how the US reengaged with alcohol control at the federal level in the last quarter of the twentieth century. In the 1970s, FAS allowed federal agencies to carve out disciplinary authority, but robust public health measures were tempered by uncertainty surrounding issues of bureaucratic authority over labeling, and the mechanism and extent of alcohol’s impact on development. A socially conservative presidency, dramatic budgetary cuts, and increased industry funding reshaped the public health approach to alcoholism in the 1980s. The passage of labeling in 1988 required several conditions: a groundswell of other labeling initiatives that normalized the practice; the classification of other high profile, socially unacceptable alcohol-related behaviors such as drunk driving and youth drinking; and the creation of a dual public health population that faced increased medical, social, and political scrutiny, the pregnant woman and her developing fetus.
ContributorsO'Neil, Erica (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbut, James (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Wetmore, Jameson (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
According to traditional Chinese medicine, the month following childbirth is an important period marked by an imbalance of two opposing forces that together make up one’s health and wellbeing. A set of specialized practices called zuoyuezi (sitting the month) aid both the woman’s recovery and restoration of the balance, and require the help of someone else, usually the woman’s mother or mother-in-law. While studies conducted on the practice’s psychosocial and physical benefits have produced varied results, zuoyuezi continues to persist in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. Since the late twentieth century, professional zuoyuezi centers have become very popular as a commercial health care business. While the month experiences of Taiwanese and Chinese women have been widely studied, there is little research on physicians’ opinions regarding the practice, especially in Western medical settings. Taiwanese physicians, who have been trained in the Western medical tradition, present interesting case studies as both experts in Western medicine and citizens in traditional Taiwanese society. The purpose of this project is to observe how Taiwanese physicians negotiate primarily cultural practices with their professional training, and whether there is a conflict between physicians’ beliefs about zuoyuezi and physicians’ personal experiences with the practice. Twenty-seven semi-structured interviews of Taiwanese physicians were conducted at two sites in Taiwan regarding their perspective and understanding of zuoyuezi and their personal experiences with it. Following qualitative analysis, the findings showed that physicians used their Western medical training to explain the traditional worldview that holds zuoyuezi. Secondly, physicians acknowledged the benefits of zuoyuezi and the influence of culture as two primary factors in its continued existence. Finally, physicians incorporated zuoyuezi into their personal lives while modifying the traditional practices. Overall, Taiwanese physicians did not appear to have direct conflict with the cultural practice, zuoyuezi, using their medical expertise to rationalize its existence while becoming active participants and co-creators in the practice.
ContributorsChou, Cecilia (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
This thesis explores concept of "global bioethics" in both its development as well as its current state in an effort to understand exactly where it fits into the larger field of bioethics. Further, the analysis poses specific questions regarding what it may contribute to this field and related fields, and the possibility and scope associated with the continued development of global bioethics as its own discipline. To achieve this, the piece addresses questions regarding current opinions on the subject, the authorities and their associated publications related to global bioethics, and what the aims of the subject should be given its current state. "Global Bioethics" is a term that, while seen frequently in bioethics literature, is difficult to define succinctly. While many opinions are provided on the concept, little consensus exists regarding its application and possible contributions and, in some cases, even its very possibility. Applying ethical principles of health and medicine globally is undoubtedly complicated by the cultural, social, and geographical considerations associated with understanding health and medicine in different populations, leading to a dichotomy between two schools of thought in relation to global bioethics. These two sides consist of those who think that universality of bioethics is possible whereas the opposing viewpoint holds that relativism is the key to applying ethics on a global scale. Despite the aforementioned dichotomy in addressing applications of global bioethics, this analysis shows that the goals of the subject should be more focused on contributing to ethical frameworks and valuable types of thinking related to the ethics health and medicine on a global scale. This is achieved through an exploration of bioethics in general, health as a function of society and culture, the history and development of global bioethics itself, and an exploration of pertinent global health topics. While primarily descriptive in nature, this analysis critiques some of the current discussions and purported goals surrounding global bioethics, recommending that the field focus on fostering valuable discussion and framing of issues rather than the pursuit of concrete judgments on moral issues in global health and medicine.
ContributorsRuffenach, Stephen Charles (Author) / Robert, Jason S (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Hruschka, Daniel J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Sexual violence, as defined by the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN), is used as an all-encompassing term to include crimes of sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse (RAINN, 2016). There are numerous negative impacts of sexual violence on a victim. Victims of sexual violence experience negative health impacts, such as physical injuries from the result of sexual violence and unwanted reproductive consequences, such as the risk of sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancy (Shahali et. al, 2016). They also suffer from long-term psychological impacts, such as long-term emotional trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Reddington & Kriesel, 2005). The long-term consequences of sexual violence on a victim can result in loss of steady employment and engaging in high-risk behaviors, like drug and alcohol abuse, as well as suicidal thoughts and feelings of hopelessness (Mulla, 2014, NAESV, 2011). The negative impacts of sexual violence indicate the various needs of a victim of sexual violence. One method to address the needs of a victim of sexual violence is to put them in contact with resources that address the physical and psychological impacts of sexual violence by providing services and care to victims. The purpose of this thesis is to determine what kinds of resources are available in Arizona and how these resources are being used to help the needs of victims of sexual violence. Through expert interviews and information collected through public online resources, I created a visual aid, a map, that organizes and categorizes the resources that are available in Arizona. I then provide separate descriptions of a list of resources. This was to determine how this set of resources are being used to provide services and care to victims of sexual violence as a means to better understand a local approach to the issues of sexual violence.
ContributorsKim, Grace (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Roe-Sepowitz, Dominique (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Florence Rena Sabin had successful careers as both a researcher and public health reformer. When Johns Hopkins University Medical School opened, accepting women and men on the same basis, Sabin was one of the first to enter. After the successful completion of her MD degree, Sabin went on to become the first female faculty member and later full-time professor at Johns Hopkins. From 1924-1925, she was the first woman elected president of the American Association of Anatomists, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1925, and the first woman to become a full member of the Rockefeller Institute. Her research on the brain, the lymphatic system, and immunology was revolutionary, and her vast scientific knowledge and convincing personality greatly contributed to the passage of much needed public health reform legislation during her retirement years in Colorado.
ContributorsBuettner, Kimberly A. (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Editor) / Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (Publisher) / Arizona Board of Regents (Publisher)
Created2007-11-01
Description
In the US, menstrual education, which provides key information about menstrual hygiene and health to both young girls and boys, historically lacks biologically accurate information about the menstrual cycle and perpetuates harmful perceptions about female reproductive health. When people are unable to differentiate between normal and abnormal menstrual bleeding, based on a lack of quality menstrual education, common gynecological conditions often remain underreported. This raises a question as to how girls’ menstrual education experiences influence the ways in which they perceive normal menstrual bleeding and seek treatment for common abnormalities, such as heavy, painful, or irregular menstrual bleeding. A mixed methods approach allowed evaluation of girls’ abilities to recognize abnormal menstrual bleeding. A literature review established relevant historical and social context on the prevalence and quality of menstrual education in the US. Then, five focus groups, each including five to eight college-aged women, totaling thirty-three participants, allowed for macro-level analysis of current challenges and gaps in knowledge related to menstruation. To better examine the relationship between menstrual education and reproductive health outcomes, twelve semi-structured, one-on-one interviews allowed micro-level analysis. Those interviews consisted of women diagnosed with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, common gynecological conditions that include abnormal menstrual bleeding. Developing a codebook of definitions and exemplars of significant text segments and applying it to the collected data revealed several themes. For example, mothers, friends, teachers, the Internet, and social media are among the most common sources of information about menstrual hygiene and health. Yet, women reported that those sources of information often echoed stigmatized ideas about menstruation, eliciting feelings of shame and fear. That poor quality of information was instrumental to women’s abilities to detect and report abnormal menstrual bleeding. Women desire and need biologically accurate information about reproductive health, including menstruation and ovulation, fertility, and methods of birth control as treatments for abnormal menstrual bleeding. Unfortunately, menstrual education often leaves girls ill-equipped to identify and seek treatment for common gynecological conditions. Those findings may influence current menstrual education, incorporating biological information and actively dismissing common misconceptions about menstruation that influence stigma.
ContributorsSantora, Emily Katherine (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Hurlbut, Ben (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021