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- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
In the past 100 years pet, zoo/aquarium, and research animals have gained unprecedented legal protection from unnecessary human harm via the creation of strict animal cruelty laws. Due to the work of moral philosophers and compassionate lawyers/judges animal cruelty laws have been improved to provide harsher punishments for violations, had their scopes widened to include more animals and had their language changed to better match our evolving conception of animals as independent living entities rather than as merely things for human use. However, while the group of pet, zoo/aquarium, and research animals has enjoyed more consideration by the US legal system, another group of animals has inexplicably been ignored. The farm animals that humans raise for use as food are exempted from nearly every state and federal animal cruelty law for no justifiable reason. In this paper I will argue that our best moral and legal theories concede that we should take animal suffering seriously, and that no relevant difference exists between the group of animals protected by animal cruelty laws and farm animals. Given the lack of a relevant distinction between these two groups I will conclude that current animal cruelty laws should be amended to include farm animals.
ContributorsDeCoster, Miles (Author) / McGregor, Joan (Thesis advisor) / Blackson, Thomas (Committee member) / Calhoun, Cheshire (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Anxiety and depression are among the most prevalent disorders in youth, with prevalence rates ranging from 15% to 25% for anxiety and 5% to 14% for depression. Anxiety and depressive disorders cause significant impairment, fail to spontaneously remit, and have been prospectively linked to problematic substance use and legal problems in adulthood. These disorders often share a high-degree of comorbidity in both clinical and community samples, with anxiety disorders typically preceding the onset of depression. Given the nature and consequences of anxiety and depressive disorders, a plethora of treatment and preventative interventions have been developed and tested with data showing significant pre to post to follow-up reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms. However, little is known about the mediators by which these interventions achieve their effects. To address this gap in the literature, the present thesis study combined meta-analytic methods and path analysis to evaluate the effects of youth anxiety and depression interventions on outcomes and four theory-driven mediators using data from 55 randomized controlled trials (N = 11,413). The mediators included: (1) information-processing biases, (2) coping strategies, (3) social competence, and (4) physiological hyperarousal. Meta-analytic results showed that treatment and preventative interventions reliably produced moderate effect sizes on outcomes and three of the four mediators (information-processing biases, coping strategies, social competence). Most importantly, findings from the path analysis showed that changes in information-processing biases and coping strategies consistently mediated changes in outcomes for anxiety and depression at both levels of intervention, whereas gains in social competence and reductions in physiological hyperarousal did not emerge as significant mediators. Knowledge of the mediators underlying intervention effects is important because they can refine testable models of treatment and prevention efforts and identify which anxiety and depression components need to be packaged or strengthened to maximize intervention effects. Allocating additional resources to significant mediators has the potential to reduce costs associated with adopting and implementing evidence-based interventions and improve dissemination and sustainability in real-world settings, thus setting the stage to be more readily integrated into clinical and non-clinical settings on a large scale.
ContributorsStoll, Ryan (Author) / Pina, Armando A (Thesis advisor) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Knight, George (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Development of effective therapeutic interventions for the treatment of mental health disorders has been a significant driving force in the search to understand the human brain. Current treatments for mental health disorders rely on modulating neurotransmitter systems such as norepinephrine (NE), serotonin (5-HT), dopamine (DA) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to achieve clinically relevant relief of symptoms. While many medications are available to the clinician that individually target these neural systems, treatment often results in patients reporting unwanted side effects or experiencing incomplete relief. To counter this lack of treatment efficacy, further investigation of other avenues for achieving similar or better outcomes and potentially reach patients refractory to common therapies must be undertaken. One of these potential new target systems is the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS), which is currently composed of cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2). These metabotropic seven transmembrane (7-TM) loop G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) are responsible for mediating the effects of acute Cannabis ingestion as well as modulating several core functions of the nervous system including emotion, memory, and learning behavior. Due ubiquitous expression of ECS proteins, there is broad overlap between brain regions that show high levels of receptor expression and those thought to be involved in the etiology of a range of mental health disorders including depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. Consequently, modulation of cannabinoid receptor function is a novel and potentially clinically relevant mechanism for influencing the levels of other neuromodulators and neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, that are known to play crucial roles in the progression of mental illness. In addition, characterization of endogenous cannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors with respect to their normal physiological function and possible roles in pathophysiology may provide insight for the development of future ECS-based therapies.
ContributorsStratton, Harrison (Author) / Shafer, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Olive, Micahel F (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Jie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Latest estimates show that roughly 188 individuals in the United States die everyday due to an opioid-related overdose. This dissertation explores three avenues for
mitigating opioid use disorder (OUD) and the opioid epidemic in the United States (1.)
How can researchers and public health professionals identify areas most in need of
treatment for OUD in an easy-to-use and publicly accessible interface?; (2.) What do
practitioners see as opportunities for reducing barriers to treatment?; and (3.) Why do
differences in opioid mortality exist between demographic groups? To address question
one, I developed an interactive web-based to assist in identifying those counties with the
greatest unmet need of medically assisted treatment (MAT). To answer question two, I
conducted a study of stakeholders (medical providers, peer support specialists, public
health practitioners, etc.) in four New Mexico counties with high unmet need of MAT. to
identify cultural and structural barriers to MAT provision in underserved areas as well as
opportunities for improving access. To answer the third question. I conducted a
systematic review of peer-reviewed literature and government reports to identify how
previous research accounts for race/ethnic and sex disparities in opioid-related
mortality. While many opioid mortality studies show demographic differences, little is
known about why they exist. According to the findings of this systematic review, research
needs to go beyond identifying demographic differences in opioid-related mortality to
understand the reasons for those differences to reduce these inequities.
ContributorsDrake, Alexandria (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Jehn, Megan (Committee member) / Scott, Mary Alice (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
This review aims to provide a comprehensive review of the most recent literature on adaptive therapy, a promising new approach to cancer treatment that leverages evolutionary theory to prolong tumor control1. By capitalizing on the competition between drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cells, adaptive therapy has led to a paradigm shift in oncology. Through mathematical and in silico models, researchers have examined key factors such as dose timing, cost of resistance, and spatial dynamics in tumor response to adaptive therapy. With a partial focus on preclinical experiments involving ovarian and breast cancer, this review will discuss the demonstrated effectiveness of adaptive therapy in improving progression free survival and tumor control. Through the review process, it was determined that dose modulation outperformed drug-vacation strategies, emphasizing the significance of tumor heterogeneity and spatial structure in accurately modeling adaptive therapy mechanisms. The potential of ongoing clinical trials to improve patient outcomes and long-term treatment efficacy is emphasized, while a thorough analysis of study methodologies shapes the future direction of adaptive therapy research.
ContributorsRichker, Harley (Author) / Maley, Carlo C (Thesis advisor) / Compton, Carolyn (Committee member) / Wilson, Melisaa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
There is a need to reinvent evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for pediatric anxiety problems to better address the demands of real-word service delivery settings and achieve public health impact. The time- and resource-intensive nature of most EBIs for youth anxiety has frequently been noted as a barrier to the utilization of EBIs in community settings, leading to increased attention towards exploring the viability of briefer, more accessible protocols. Principally, this research reports between-group effect sizes from brief-interventions targeting pediatric anxiety and classifies each as well-established, probably efficacious, possibly efficacious, experimental, or questionable. brief interventions yielded an overall mean effect size of 0.19 on pediatric anxiety outcomes from pre to post. Effect sizes varied significantly by level of intervention: Pre to post-intervention effects were strongest for brief-treatments (0.35), followed by brief-targeted prevention (0.22), and weakest for brief-universal prevention (0.09). No participant or other intervention characteristic emerged as significant moderators of effect sizes. In terms of standard of evidence, one brief intervention is well-established, and five are probably efficacious, with most drawing on cognitive and behavioral change procedures and/or family systems models. At this juncture, the minimal intervention needed for clinical change in pediatric anxiety points to in-vivo exposures for specific phobias (~3 hours), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with social skills training (~3 hours), and CBT based parent training (~6 hours, eight digital modules with clinician support). This research concludes with a discussion on limitations to available brief EBIs, practice guidelines, and future research needed to capitalize on the viability of briefer protocols in enhancing access to, and impact of, evidence-based care in the real-world.
ContributorsStoll, Ryan (Author) / Pina, Armando A. (Thesis advisor) / Gonzales, Nancy (Committee member) / MacKinnon, David (Committee member) / Perez, Marisol (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019