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The various health benefits of vinegar ingestion have been studied extensively in the<br/>literature. Moreover, emerging research suggests vinegar may also have an effect on mental<br/>health. Beneficial effects of certain diets on mood have been reported, however, the mechanisms<br/>are unknown. The current study aimed to determine if vinegar ingestion positively affects

The various health benefits of vinegar ingestion have been studied extensively in the<br/>literature. Moreover, emerging research suggests vinegar may also have an effect on mental<br/>health. Beneficial effects of certain diets on mood have been reported, however, the mechanisms<br/>are unknown. The current study aimed to determine if vinegar ingestion positively affects mood<br/>state in healthy young adults. This was a randomized, single blinded controlled trial consisting of<br/>25 subjects. Participants were randomly assigned to either the vinegar group (consumed 2<br/>tablespoons of liquid vinegar diluted in one cup water twice daily with meals) or the control<br/>group (consumed one vinegar pill daily with a meal), and the intervention lasted 4 weeks.<br/>Subjects completed mood questionnaires pre- and post-intervention. Results showed a significant<br/>improvement in CES-D and POMS-Depression scores for the vinegar group compared to the<br/>control. This study suggests that vinegar ingestion may improve depressive symptoms in healthy<br/>young adults.

ContributorsWilliams, Susanna (Author) / Johnston, Carol (Thesis director) / Whisner, Corrie (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans are speculated to reduce lung cancer mortality. However LDCT scans impose multiple risks including false-negative results, false- positive results, overdiagnosis, and cancer due to repeated exposure to radiation. Immunosignaturing is a new method

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans are speculated to reduce lung cancer mortality. However LDCT scans impose multiple risks including false-negative results, false- positive results, overdiagnosis, and cancer due to repeated exposure to radiation. Immunosignaturing is a new method proposed to screen and detect lung cancer, eliminating the risks associated with LDCT scans. Known and blinded primary blood sera from participants with lung cancer and no cancer were run on peptide microarrays and analyzed. Immunosignatures for each known sample collectively indicated 120 peptides unique to lung cancer and non-cancer participants. These 120 peptides were used to determine the status of the blinded samples. Verification of the results from Vanderbilt is pending.
ContributorsNguyen, Geneva Trieu (Author) / Woodbury, Neal (Thesis director) / Zhao, Zhan-Gong (Committee member) / Stafford, Phillip (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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Cancer remains one of the leading killers throughout the world. Death and disability due to lung cancer in particular accounts for one of the largest global economic burdens a disease presents. The burden on third-world countries is especially large due to the unusually large financial stress that comes from

Cancer remains one of the leading killers throughout the world. Death and disability due to lung cancer in particular accounts for one of the largest global economic burdens a disease presents. The burden on third-world countries is especially large due to the unusually large financial stress that comes from late tumor detection and expensive treatment options. Early detection using inexpensive techniques may relieve much of the burden throughout the world, not just in more developed countries. I examined the immune responses of lung cancer patients using immunosignatures – patterns of reactivity between host serum antibodies and random peptides. Immunosignatures reveal disease-specific patterns that are very reproducible. Immunosignaturing is a chip-based method that has the ability to display the antibody diversity from individual sera sample with low cost. Immunosignaturing is a medical diagnostic test that has many applications in current medical research and in diagnosis. From a previous clinical study, patients diagnosed for lung cancer were tested for their immunosignature vs. healthy non-cancer volunteers. The pattern of reactivity against the random peptides (the ‘immunosignature’) revealed common signals in cancer patients, absent from healthy controls. My study involved the search for common amino acid motifs in the cancer-specific peptides. My search through the hundreds of ‘hits’ revealed certain motifs that were repeated more times than expected by random chance. The amino acids that were the most conserved in each set include tryptophan, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, proline, alanine, serine, and lysine. The most overall conserved amino acid observed between each set was D - aspartic acid. The motifs were short (no more than 5-6 amino acids in a row), but the total number of motifs I identified was large enough to assure significance. I utilized Excel to organize the large peptide sequence libraries, then CLUSTALW to cluster similar-sequence peptides, then GLAM2 to find common themes in groups of peptides. In so doing, I found sequences that were also present in translated cancer expression libraries (RNA) that matched my motifs, suggesting that immunosignatures can find cancer-specific antigens that can be both diagnostic and potentially therapeutic.
ContributorsShiehzadegan, Shima (Author) / Johnston, Stephen (Thesis director) / Stafford, Phillip (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
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Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in the United States. For several years, many interventions have been established to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity. However, these interventions have not adequately utilized existing models of behavior change, and as a result, have been unsuccessful in increasing levels of

Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern in the United States. For several years, many interventions have been established to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity. However, these interventions have not adequately utilized existing models of behavior change, and as a result, have been unsuccessful in increasing levels of physical activity and healthy dietary intake. One such model of change, the Transtheoretical Model, views behavior change as occurring through a series of stages with progression through the stages being facilitated by cognitive and behavioral processes. Within these processes the constructs of consciousness-raising, helping relationships, and self-efficacy have been shown to be most influential in changing behaviors. Thus, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of such constructs and establish a multi-faceted approach to combat this epidemic.
ContributorsWang, Janice (Author) / Broman, Tannah (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Baldwin, Marjorie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12
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Children's wellbeing has been of utmost concern to society, and recently this topic has taken a particular focus in both health and achievement. As the focus shifts towards promoting a healthier and more academically successful youth, the relationship between the two warrants investigation. Specifically, the relationship between physical fitness and

Children's wellbeing has been of utmost concern to society, and recently this topic has taken a particular focus in both health and achievement. As the focus shifts towards promoting a healthier and more academically successful youth, the relationship between the two warrants investigation. Specifically, the relationship between physical fitness and academic performance (i.e. grades) in 4th grade students was assessed. A cross-sectional design was used to assess physical fitness of children (M=9.39 years) by means of the FITNESSGRAM assessment tool. Third-quarter grades were used to measure academic performance. Relationships between the variables were determined through bivariate plots, Pearson product moment correlation analysis, independent t-tests, and a three-step regression analysis. The results show a significant relationship between students' aerobic fitness and academic performance. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest incremental validity between aerobic fitness and academic performance, thus implying predictive value associated with increased physical fitness and academic achievement.
ContributorsMoore, Shannon (Author) / Kulinna, Pamela (Thesis director) / Hoffner, Kristin (Committee member) / Stylianou, Michalis (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor)
Created2012-12
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Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are a major challenge to healthcare professionals. Treatment of MRSA is expensive, and otherwise avoidable deaths occur every year in the United States due to MRSA infections. Additionally, such infections lengthen patients’ stays in hospitals, keeping them out of work and adversely affecting the economy.

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are a major challenge to healthcare professionals. Treatment of MRSA is expensive, and otherwise avoidable deaths occur every year in the United States due to MRSA infections. Additionally, such infections lengthen patients’ stays in hospitals, keeping them out of work and adversely affecting the economy. Beta lactam antibiotics used to be highly effective against S. aureus infections, but resistance mechanisms have rendered methicillin, oxacillin, and other beta lactam antibiotics ineffective against these infections. A promising avenue for MRSA treatment lies in the use of synthetic antibodies—molecules that bind with specificity to a given compound. Synbody 14 is an example of such a synbody, and has been designed with MRSA treatment in mind. Mouse model studies have even associated Syn14 treatment with reduced weight loss and morbidity in MRSA-infected mice. In this experiment, in vitro activity of Syn 14 and oxacillin was assessed. Early experiments measured Syn 14 and oxacillin’s effectiveness in inhibiting colony growth in growth media, mouse serum, and mouse blood. Syn14 and oxacillin had limited efficacy against USA300 strain MRSA, though interestingly it was noted that Syn14 outperformed oxacillin in mouse serum and whole mouse blood, indicating the benefits of its binding properties. A second experiment measured the impact that a mix of oxacillin and Syn 14 had on colony growth, as well as the effect of adding them simultaneously or one after the other. While use of either bactericidal alone did not show a major inhibitory effect on USA300 MRSA colony growth, their use in combination showed major decreases in colony growth. Moreover, it was found that unlike other combination therapies, Syn14 and oxacillin did not require simultaneous addition to MRSA cells to achieve inhibition of cell growth. They merely required that Syn14 be added first. This result suggests Syn14’s possible utility in therapeutic settings, as the time insensitivity of synergy removes a major hurdle to clinical use—the difficulty in ensuring that two drugs reach an affected area at the same time. Syn14 remains a promising antimicrobial agent, and further study should focus on its precise mechanism of action and suitability in clinical treatment of MRSA infections.
ContributorsMichael, Alexander (Author) / Diehnelt, Chris (Thesis director) / Stafford, Phillip (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor)
Created2015-05
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Description

It is well known that the lack of care coordination in the healthcare system causes numerous problems including cost inefficiency and inconsistent care, specifically for complex pediatric and adult patients. Many pediatric patients have complex medical and social service needs which can be expensive for both the patient’s parents and

It is well known that the lack of care coordination in the healthcare system causes numerous problems including cost inefficiency and inconsistent care, specifically for complex pediatric and adult patients. Many pediatric patients have complex medical and social service needs which can be expensive for both the patient’s parents and the general healthcare system. Therefore, it is difficult for the healthcare system to deliver the highest quality care possible, due to the number of appointments that have to be scheduled (with some being out of state), the large volume of physical health records, and overall lack of time parents have to coordinate this care while also caring for themselves and other family members. It is integral to find a more efficient way to coordinate care for these patients, in order to improve overall care, cost efficiency, and outcomes. <br/>A number of stakeholders in Arizona came together to work on this problem over several years. They were funded through a PCORI Eugene Washington Engagement grant to investigators at ASU. This project, Take Action for Arizona's Children through Care Coordination: A Bridge to Action was developed in order to further develop a research agenda and build the network (PCOR). Regional conferences were conducted in Flagstaff, Yuma, Phoenix, and Tucson, as well as a final capstone conference held in Phoenix. At these conferences, frustrations, suggestions, and opinions regarding Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) and navigating the healthcare system were shared and testimonials were transcribed.<br/>This study focused on the capstone conference. The study design was a strategic design workshop; results of the design analysis were analyzed qualitatively using descriptive content analysis. Themes described parent’s common experiences navigating the system, impacts resulting from such experiences, and desires for the care coordination system. Quotes were then grouped into major themes and subthemes for the capstone conference. After these themes were determined, the overarching goals of stakeholders could be assessed, and implementation projects could be described.

ContributorsBrennan, Bayley (Author) / Doebbeling, Bradley (Thesis director) / Lamb, Gerri (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
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This thesis discusses why there is so much employee turnover in the Sports Programs department, which is a working department of the Sun Devil Fitness Complex on Arizona State’s Tempe Campus. The analysis discusses the problems that have been noticed from personal experience, and the problems that have been

This thesis discusses why there is so much employee turnover in the Sports Programs department, which is a working department of the Sun Devil Fitness Complex on Arizona State’s Tempe Campus. The analysis discusses the problems that have been noticed from personal experience, and the problems that have been explained by employees that left about why they decided to leave. The analysis is done based on the concepts of the four frames, based on research documented by Bolman and Deal in their book. There is an overview of all of the departments and specifically the Sports Programs department, and a deep dive into what that department does. There is a discussion of what problems may be present, and some solutions such as debriefings, trainings, and more objective evaluations that can be implemented into the department to try to fix the problems that have been noticed.

ContributorsRoegge, Kylie Anne (Author) / deLusé, Stephanie (Thesis director) / Cobb, Ethan (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
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This project explorers the potential reasons for the discrepancies between state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the possibility of a correlation between political ideology and a state’s nonpharmacological intervention policy timing. In addition to outlining the current literature on the preferences of conservative and liberal

This project explorers the potential reasons for the discrepancies between state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on the possibility of a correlation between political ideology and a state’s nonpharmacological intervention policy timing. In addition to outlining the current literature on the preferences of conservative and liberal ideology, examples of both past and present scientific based pandemic responses are described as well. Given the current understanding of the social and economic dimension of conservative and liberal political ideology, it was hypothesized that there may be a positive correlation between conservative ideology and premature action by a state. Data was collected on the current ideological landscape and the daily COVID-19 cases numbers of each state in addition to tracking each state’s policy changes. Two correlation tests were performed to find that there was no significant positive or negative correlation between the two variables.

ContributorsArlak, Alexis Taylor (Author) / Green, Ellen (Thesis director) / Biviji, Rizwana (Committee member) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies (Contributor) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description

Vocal emotion production is important for social interactions in daily life. Previous studies found that pre-lingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) children without residual acoustic hearing had significant deficits in producing pitch cues for vocal emotions as compared to post-lingually deafened CI adults, normal-hearing (NH) children, and NH adults. In light

Vocal emotion production is important for social interactions in daily life. Previous studies found that pre-lingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) children without residual acoustic hearing had significant deficits in producing pitch cues for vocal emotions as compared to post-lingually deafened CI adults, normal-hearing (NH) children, and NH adults. In light of the importance of residual acoustic hearing for the development of vocal emotion production, this study tested whether pre-lingually deafened CI children with residual acoustic hearing may produce similar pitch cues for vocal emotions as the other participant groups. Sixteen pre-lingually deafened CI children with residual acoustic hearing, nine post-lingually deafened CI adults with residual acoustic hearing, twelve NH children, and eleven NH adults were asked to produce ten semantically neutral sentences in happy or sad emotion. The results showed that there was no significant group effect for the ratio of mean fundamental frequency (F0) and the ratio of F0 standard deviation between emotions. Instead, CI children showed significantly greater intensity difference between emotions than CI adults, NH children, and NH adults. In CI children, aided pure-tone average hearing threshold of acoustic ear was correlated with the ratio of mean F0 and the ratio of duration between emotions. These results suggest that residual acoustic hearing with low-frequency pitch cues may facilitate the development of vocal emotion production in pre-lingually deafened CI children.

ContributorsMacdonald, Andrina Elizabeth (Author) / Luo, Xin (Thesis director) / Pittman, Andrea (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05