Matching Items (26)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Health
- All Subjects: Biomedical
- Creators: Harrington Bioengineering Program
- Creators: College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Plants are essential to human life. They release oxygen into the atmosphere for us to breathe. They also provide shelter, medicine, clothing, tools, and food. For many people, the food that is on their tables and in their supermarkets isn't given much thought. Where did it come from? What part of the plant is it? How does it relate to others in the plant kingdom? How do other cultures use this plant? The most many of us know about them is that they are at the supermarket when we need them for dinner (Nabhan, 2009) (Vileisis, 2008).
ContributorsBarron, Kara (Author) / Landrum, Leslie (Thesis director) / Swanson, Tod (Committee member) / Pigg, Kathleen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
DescriptionBased on previous research and findings it is proven that a non-profit class to create awareness will be beneficial in the prevention of eating disorders. This analysis will provide significant research to defend the proposed class.
ContributorsAllen, Brittany (Author) / Chung, Deborah (Author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Mazurkiewicz, Milena (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Background: Latinos represent 40.8% of the population in Phoenix (U.S. Census Bureau Population Division, 2010). South Phoenix, also known as the South Mountain Village, defined in geographical terms as area zip codes 85040 and 85042; is a predominantly Latino community comprised of mixed citizenship status households. During the 2010 United States Census 60.3% of the population in South Phoenix identified as Latino, 25.75% of the total population was foreign born. Of the foreign born population, 88.95% were of Latin American origin (United States Census Bureau, 2007-2011 American Community Survey). Understanding how Latino immigrants perceive differences in health between their communities in country of origin and communities in the United States is largely unknown. Irrespective of political positions, understanding how Latino immigrants perceive personal health and the health of their communities is of interest to inform public policy and implement needed interventions in the
public health sphere.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were collected from 55 adults from the South Phoenix community between November 2009 and September 2010. Interviews were digitally recorded with participant permission and transcribed. Of those collected, 48 transcribed interviews were analyzed using a codebook designed by the researcher. Percent agreement evaluated inter-rater reliability.Results: Latino immigrants in South Phoenix largely agree that health quality is heavily dependent on personal responsibility and not an intrinsic attribute of a given place. Emotional contentedness and distress, both factors of mental health, are impacted by cross-cultural differences between Latino and U.S. culture systems.
Conclusions: As people’s personal perceptions of differences in health are complex concepts influenced by personal backgrounds, culture, and beliefs, attempting to demark a side of the border as ‘healthier’ than the other using personal perceptions is overly simplified and misses central concepts. Instead, exploration of individual variables impacting health allowed this study to gain a more nuanced understanding in how people determine quality of both personal and environmental health. While Latino migrants in South Phoenix largely agree that health is based on personal responsibility and choices, many nonetheless experience higher levels of contentedness and emotional health in their country of origin.
public health sphere.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were collected from 55 adults from the South Phoenix community between November 2009 and September 2010. Interviews were digitally recorded with participant permission and transcribed. Of those collected, 48 transcribed interviews were analyzed using a codebook designed by the researcher. Percent agreement evaluated inter-rater reliability.Results: Latino immigrants in South Phoenix largely agree that health quality is heavily dependent on personal responsibility and not an intrinsic attribute of a given place. Emotional contentedness and distress, both factors of mental health, are impacted by cross-cultural differences between Latino and U.S. culture systems.
Conclusions: As people’s personal perceptions of differences in health are complex concepts influenced by personal backgrounds, culture, and beliefs, attempting to demark a side of the border as ‘healthier’ than the other using personal perceptions is overly simplified and misses central concepts. Instead, exploration of individual variables impacting health allowed this study to gain a more nuanced understanding in how people determine quality of both personal and environmental health. While Latino migrants in South Phoenix largely agree that health is based on personal responsibility and choices, many nonetheless experience higher levels of contentedness and emotional health in their country of origin.
ContributorsGray, Laurel (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Quiroga, S. Seline (Committee member) / Nelson, Margaret (Committee member) / Slade, B. Alexandra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Identifying disease biomarkers may aid in the early detection of breast cancer and improve patient outcomes. Recent evidence suggests that tumors are immunogenic and therefore patients may launch an autoantibody response to tumor associated antigens. Single-chain variable fragments of autoantibodies derived from regional lymph node B cells of breast cancer patients were used to discover these tumor associated biomarkers on protein microarrays. Six candidate biomarkers were discovered from 22 heavy chain-only variable region antibody fragments screened. Validation tests are necessary to confirm the tumorgenicity of these antigens. However, the use of single-chain variable autoantibody fragments presents a novel platform for diagnostics and cancer therapeutics.
ContributorsSharman, M. Camila (Author) / Magee, Dewey (Mitch) (Thesis director) / Wallstrom, Garrick (Committee member) / Petritis, Brianne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor) / Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics (Contributor) / Biodesign Institute (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Affecting over 34 million people worldwide, (0.5% of the world population) HIV/AIDS is a pandemic that is not receding its control anytime soon (Sidibe 2011). Thirty years since the chaotic emergence of fear and misunderstanding, our knowledge of the virus and its subsequent syndrome has grown exponentially, but how much of this information is really getting to the people that need it? In the corners of the Earth, where scientific knowledge rarely reaches, what can we do to stop the deadly spread of this virus? And what of the countries with a large amount of knowledge, but still a ravaging problem present in their countries? When this information is disseminated- sometimes a matter of ‘if’ in certain countries, it is primarily through unreliable sources, most of the countries examined through the media, which has a tendency to skew and misinterpret information-specially scientific. This is the information that enters the lives of people in several different countries, for example, the United States, France, China, Brazil, Uganda, and South Africa: Misunderstandings of how to protect themselves from the virus, and its effects on the body. These misunderstandings have led to millions of lives lost as myths such as showering to cure AIDS and that AIDS only infect the ‘sinners’ continue to surface throughout the globe. The Public Health threat is due to knowledge deficits, and incorrect perceived ‘knowledge’ and ‘awareness of the problem’. Here, in a six-country analysis of common misconceptions and the subsequent policies and prevalence rate, it has begun to be clear that the hardest hit areas are those with the most stigma, the most misguided policies, the most uninformed leadership, and because of this, the most mislead citizens. The biological misunderstandings of HIV/AIDS are at the root of the public health threat continuing to keep its hold in the modern world, 30 years after its documented outbreak.
ContributorsSwanson, Marissa (Author) / Verrelli, Brian (Thesis director) / Rosenberg, Michael (Committee member) / Tassone, Erica (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
This study was conducted as part of an underlying initiative to elucidate the mechanism of action of natural antibacterial clay minerals for application as therapeutic agents for difficult-to-treat infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-derived skin lesions and Buruli ulcer. The goal of this investigation was to determine whether exposure to the leachate of an antibacterial clay mineral, designated as CB, produced DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in Escherichia coli. A neutral comet assay for bacterial cells was adapted to assess DSB levels upon exposure to soluble antimicrobial compounds. Challenges involved with the adaptation process included comet visualization and data collection. To appropriately account for antimicrobial-mediated strand fragmentation, suitable control reactions comprised of exposures to water, ethanol, kanamycin, and bleomycin were developed and optimized for the assay. Bacterial exposure to CB resulted in significantly longer comet lengths compared to negative control exposures, suggesting that CB killing activity involves the induction of DNA DSBs. The results of this investigation further characterize the antimicrobial mechanisms associated with a particular clay mineral mixture. The adapted comet assay protocol described herein functions as an effective tool to assess double-strand fragmentation resulting from exposure to soluble antimicrobial compounds and to visually compare results from experimental and control reactions.
ContributorsSolanky, Dipesh (Author) / Haydel, Shelley (Thesis director) / Stout, Valerie (Committee member) / Adusumilli, Sarojini (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
Spongiform Encephalopathies are a rare family of degenerative brain diseases characterized by the accumulation of plaques and formation of tiny holes in the brain tissue making it look "spongy". Spongiform Encephalopathies have a relatively short history but their origins date back to a time long before they were recognized as a disease. It was not until the 1700s that the first record of their existence was made. In 1732 a shepherd in England noticed that some sheep in his flock had become itchy and were "scraping" themselves on nearby trees and fence posts; he reported it to the agricultural authorities of the time. As the symptoms seen in his sheep progressed they also developed problems walking and began to have seizures. Eventually their neurological symptoms progressed to an unmanageable level and they died. In 1794, over 50 years later, the Board of Agriculture in the UK termed this illness in sheep "the Rubbers". In the following years while coming in and out of mention in many flocks of sheep "the Rubbers" remained a disease of minimal consequence showing negligible ability to spread among sheep and having no precedence for jumping the species barrier and affecting humans. The first mention of "the Rubbers" as Scrapie was in 1853, and it is still the designation of the disease in sheep today.
ContributorsPruniski, Brianna (Author) / Green, Monica (Thesis director) / Hurlbut, James (Committee member) / Hunter, Joel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12
Description
The action/adventure game Grad School: HGH is the final, extended version of a BME Prototyping class project in which the goal was to produce a zombie-themed game that teaches biomedical engineering concepts. The gameplay provides fast paced, exciting, and mildly addicting rooms that the player must battle and survive through, followed by an engineering puzzle that must be solved in order to advance to the next room. The objective of this project was to introduce the core concepts of BME to prospective students, rather than attempt to teach an entire BME curriculum. Based on user testing at various phases in the project, we concluded that the gameplay was engaging enough to keep most users' interest through the educational puzzles, and the potential for expanding this project to reach an even greater audience is vast.
ContributorsNitescu, George (Co-author) / Medawar, Alexandre (Co-author) / Spano, Mark (Thesis director) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Guiang, Kristoffer (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
ContributorsChandler, N. Kayla (Author) / Neisewander, Janet (Thesis director) / Sanabria, Federico (Committee member) / Olive, M. Foster (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Volume depletion can lead to migraines, dizziness, and significant decreases in a subject's ability to physically perform. A major cause of volume depletion is dehydration, or loss in fluids due to an imbalance in fluid intake to fluid excretion. Because proper levels of hydration are necessary in order to maintain both short and long term health, the ability to monitor hydration levels is growing in clinical demand. Although devices capable of monitoring hydration level exist, these devices are expensive, invasive, or inaccurate and do not offer a continuous mode of measurement. The ideal hydration monitor for consumer use needs to be characterized by its portability, affordability, and accuracy. Also, this device would need to be noninvasive and offer continuous hydration monitoring in order to accurately assess fluctuations in hydration data throughout a specified time period. One particular method for hydration monitoring that fits the majority of these criteria is known as bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA). Although current devices using BIA do not provide acceptable levels of accuracy, portability, or continuity in data collection, BIA could potentially be modified to fit many, if not all, desired customer specifications. The analysis presented here assesses the viability of using BIA as a new standard in hydration level measurement. The analysis uses data collected from 22 subjects using an existing device that employs BIA. A regression derived for estimating TBW based on the parameters of age, weight, height, sex, and impedance is presented. Using impedance data collected for each subject, a regression was also derived for estimating impedance based on the factors of age, weight, height, and sex. The derived regression was then used to calculate a new impedance value for each subject, and these new impedance values were used to estimate TBW. Through a paired-t test between the TBW values derived by using the direct measurements versus the calculated measurements of impedance, the two samples were found to be comparable. Considerations for BIA as a noninvasive measurement of hydration are discussed.
ContributorsTenorio, Jorge Antonio (Author) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Thesis director) / Pizziconi, Vincent (Committee member) / Spano, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2013-05