Vibrio bacteria are emerging pathogens responsible for 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the United States each year. Infections are directly linked to the marine environment and are acquired by consuming contaminated seafood or exposing wounds during aquatic activities. Florida has the highest national incidence of vibriosis, with 20% of its cases reported from the Indian River Lagoon region, a popular recreation destination. This study utilized a combination of cultivation and molecular techniques to investigate the local distribution of V. vulnificus, V. parahaemolyticus and V. cholerae in this local waterway. The targeted species were found in an array of samples which may facilitate their transmission to humans. Overall, these bacteria were abundant in estuarine sediments (Vp: 2,439 CFU/g, Vv: 303 CFU/g, Vc: 176 CFU/g), on the sharp edges of oyster shells (Vp: 82 CFU/cm, Vv: 102 CFU/cm, Vc: 41 CFU/cm), and in the water column (Vp: 3.78 CFU/ml, Vv: 5.51 CFU/ml, Vc: 2.46 CFU/ml). Vibrio also pose a hazard to recreational anglers as they were recovered from fish (Vp: 61%, Vv: 55%, Vc: 30%), live bait shrimp (Vp: 80%, Vv: 37%, Vc: 0%) and hooks (Vp: 32%, Vv: 18%, Vc: 0%). Additionally, a molecular analysis of the V. vulnificus virulence revealed that the local population was dominated by disease-causing (vcgC) strains, which may explain why wound-related infections are common in this region. Vibrio occurrence varied both spatially and temporally due to their relationship with salinity and temperature. These bacteria exhibited a strong negative correlation with salinity, being particularly abundant near freshwater discharge locations. Due to Florida’s year-round warm climate, these species were found to be permanent members of the local microbial community. Seasonal peaks in abundance occurred between August and October, a period which corresponds with the warmest water temperatures as well as frequent rainfall. Predictive models were constructed based on these parameters to provide a better understanding of how, when and where Vibrio spp. may be encountered by humans. This information is important for both water management and healthcare initiatives, with an overall goal of improving local recreational safety. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This dissertation examines risk factors and outcomes associated with bloodstream infection (BSI). In Chapter One, the problems of BSI are introduced and their significance described. In Chapter Two, the results of a systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing the prevalence of one of the most rapidly emerging causes of BSI among nursing home residents, multidrug resistant-gram negative bacteria are described. In Chapter Three, a retrospective cohort study identifying the prevalence and risk factors for BSI present on hospital admission (POA) is reported, including an assessment of antimicrobial resistance in isolates causing BSI-POA by admission source (i.e. private homes, other hospitals and skilled nursing facilities). In Chapter Four, a retrospective cohort study explaining risks for hospital-associated infections (HAIs) among the BSI-POA cohort is described. Length of stay and mortality among patients with a BSI-POA who develop HAI and those who do not are reported. Finally, in Chapter Five, findings of the previous chapters are synthesized and the conclusion is provided including strengths, limitations and implications for policy and practice.

It is estimated that US children 2 to 18 years of age spend an average of 5.5 hours, daily, using media of all types. 1 During these years, it is estimated they will have viewed over 200,000 acts of violence just on television. 2 In this issue of the Southern Medical Journal, Dr. Robert DuRant and colleagues reported on their findings that an increased frequency of watching professional wrestling on television was associated with an increase in reported date fighting and other violent behaviors, risky sexual behavior, and smoking cigarettes, among a multistate random sample of adolescents aged 16 to 20 years. 3 In this cross-sectional study, 22.4% of males and 13.6% of females reported watching professional wrestling on television during the 2 weeks before the survey. Prior research, including experimental and longitudinal studies, has consistently demonstrated strong associations between exposure to media violence and desensitization to violence, greater acceptance of violence as a means of solving problems, and violent behavior, as well as depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance. 4

Graduation date: 1998

Although research evidence clearly indicates support surface properties are a major factor contributing to fall risk among the elderly, investigations examining the influence of variations in surface conditions on the postural control of older adults during task performance have been limited. Thus, the primary purpose of the present studies was to determine whether the coordination and control of body kinematics exhibited by older adults during upright leaning (i.e., leaning forward through the region of stability) and gait would be different across variations in support surface properties. Secondary objectives of these studies included, examining if coordination and control measures of body kinematics differed as a function of the participants' level of postural stability and/or repeated exposure to the support surface properties. Three support surface conditions were selected for inclusion based on resistance properties to applied forces (i.e., normal and shear): rigid, high friction; compliant; and rigid, low friction. For both tasks performed, body kinematics for trials 1-3 (T1) and 10-12 (T2) from 12 completed trials on each support surface were analyzed using three-dimensional (3-D) video analyses. Results of separate univariate repeated measures analyses of variance yielded significant surface condition main effects for lower extremity coordination patterns and postural control strategies in the gait and leaning task, respectively. Additionally, a significant surface condition main effect and an interaction effect of surface condition by trial block were identified for the measure of head stability in the gait and leaning tasks, respectively. Differences in head stability and the control of lower extremity joint motions as a function of level of postural stability (i.e., group differences) were observed only during the walking task. Present findings indicate that during goal-directed behavior, the coordinated movements of the body and its segments emerge from constraints imposed by the interaction of the support surface, the task and the individual. The observed adaptations in the coordination and control of posture in response to support surface constraints evidenced in the present studies provide support for the theory of perception and the control of bodily orientation (Riccio & Stoffregen, 1988). / Graduation date: 1998

The likelihood of achieving an effective environmental health communications program increases with a knowledge of the target audience's attitudes toward their environmental health concerns, source credibility, preferred channels of communication, and desire to participate in environmental issues. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was threefold: 1) to examine selected personal and social variables that influence attitudes towards environmental health communications; 2) to explore differences in those attitudes between groups that share a common environmental hazard within a defined geographic region; and, 3) to develop a communication needs assessment tool that other public health agencies might be able to use. A stratified random telephone sampling of 407 households was conducted in Idaho's Coeur d'Alene River Basin. Nonparametric statistical methods, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of ranks, were utilized for the data analysis. The results, showed significant differences in the environmental concerns between the residents of Couer d'Alene and residents of the Silver Valley. Respondents in Coeur d'Alene were more concerned with air pollution, while respondents in the Silver Valley were more concerned with the effects of mining. Secondly, the state government was less negatively received as a source of environmental information than were the local or federal governments. In addition, respondents earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year have the highest amount of trust in information coming from the federal government. Both TV news and local newspaper were the preferred channels of communication for the majority of respondents in the region. Qualitative data revealed that media sources from Spokane, Washington were a dominant influence in the region. Respondents with a college degree were less likely than respondents from other educational levels to prefer TV news as a source of environmental information. They were, however, more likely to participate in a public meeting than were respondents from other educational levels. Finally, research findings suggest that women, and respondents earning less than $10,000 per year, feel less control over their environmental health than do men and respondents from higher income levels. They are also less likely than either men or respondents earning more than $10,000 per year to feel that a citizen's efforts to protect the environment are usually effective. / Graduation date: 1996

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Andrew Dzurik, Florida State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Title and description from dissertation home page (June 18, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor : Roderic Beresford. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis considers how in the course of their work female sex workers in Hong Kong experience risk. It concerns the indoor side of the sex market, an area which has so far been largely ignored in studies on commercial sex. The focus is on women working independently from flats. Focusing on women's own accounts of work-related risks, risky behaviour and coping strategies, this study investigates sex workers' reflexive understandings of prostitution and their occupational risk in late modern societies. The study emphasises the social, cultural, interactional and situational context, to understand the ways in which women involved in sex work conceptualise and respond to risk. There are three main themes emerge in sex workers' accounts. The first one is sexual health and diseases. In this empirical chapter, the main focus is on the flat-working women's accounts of themselves and their risk-taking (or risk-avoiding) behaviour in (potentially) risky situations, where, for example, unprotected sex has occurred. The findings suggest that, despite sex workers are being frequently seen as most susceptible to sexual health problems, the social norms which exist among sex workers and their clients play a crucial role in enabling sex workers to gain control over the sexual encounter and avoid risk behaviour. The next theme is violence against sex workers. Findings suggest that what violent crime symbolises in the context of sex work is that some women are beneath contempt because of their working identity. It is more “acceptable” to perpetrate violence against sex workers because this group is set apart from women in other service occupations. The last theme is concerned with sex workers' accounts of their emotional experiences at work, which mainly explores how social and cultural factors influence individuals' interpretation and accounts of their emotions. Accounts given by women demonstrate that many of them seemingly did not conceive their involvement in the sex business as “wrong”. Nevertheless, because sex work is still largely marginalised and stigmatised in Chinese societies, they might experience unpleasant emotions which were mostly related to the “whore” stigma.

Emerging infectious diseases are one of the growing risks the global community faces. From recent experiences of the bird flu and SARS outbreaks, we have learned how quickly and broadly a virus could spread, and how great the impact it could have on our lives. The outbreaks have highlighted the importance of risk communication. The media, as a major source of health information for the public, has been recognized as an important public health tool for communicating health risk during a pandemic. However, to what extent the media can help during an outbreak and what impact news coverage can have on the public is not clear. While many risk communication research related to infectious diseases focus on the public’s perception and responses to risk, related studies of news media content from a public health perspective are comparatively few. Existing studies generally focus on particular aspects of media coverage, such as sensationalism and the socio-cultural effects of the coverage. Findings from these studies are diverse. Also, most studies look at the English-language media, and studies on the Chinese-language media are sparse. This study examines how and what the news media reported about the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, using Hong Kong’s Chinese-language media coverage as a case. Based on content analysis and news frame analysis, and the concepts of perceived severity and efficacy in risk message process theories, an analytical scheme was constructed to examine to what extent the media provided “useful” information to the public, and how this information was presented. The analysis of newspaper content on swine flu focused on three aspects: Firstly, to examine the volume of coverage related to the pandemic and the relationship between the reporting trends and the disease’s development; secondly, to identify information about disease prevention measures presented in the news content; and thirdly, to describe how the media portrayed the new H1N1 vaccine, in an attempt to draw inferences about the public’s response to the vaccine. Results showed that the news reporting trend had no relationship with the infection case numbers. What triggered the peaks of coverage were event-oriented and government policy-related developments rather than case numbers. Content analysis showed that only a small proportion of the news stories presented health information, with particular prevention measures mentioned frequently but with limited explanation for how and why to do it. Frame analysis showed that the selected newspapers differed in framing the new vaccine. While the tabloid-styled papers tended to use more disfavor-vaccine frame, the up-market newspapers tended to use more favour-vaccine frame. Due to the limitation of the theoretical framework that this study is based on, it is not able to link the findings of the news content with the findings of the existing studies on public’s perception to the disease and related issues. However, the findings can provide an account of some characteristics of the news coverage of the Hong Kong Chinese-language media during a global public health crisis, which may serve as primary data for further study. / published_or_final_version / Journalism and Media Studies Centre / Master / Master of Philosophy