published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors related to young black men’s intention to screen for prostate cancer as well as their engagement in prostate cancer risk-reduction behaviors. The study tested the significance of the constructs – age, attitude (direct and indirect), social influence, comfortability, cues to action, health screening experiences and knowledge – in predicting young black men’s intention to screen for prostate cancer; as well as the significance of the constructs – age, cues to action, exercise and knowledge – in predicting engagement in prostate cancer risk-reduction behaviors. Demographic/personal factors were also explored in related to the model predictors. Web-based and paper-pencil surveys were administered to 279 black men aged between 18 – 40 years from the Austin area. Three focus groups were conducted to collect information regarding young black men’s behavioral beliefs toward prostate cancer screening as well as their comfortability with prostate examinations. The number of usable surveys was 267. Using direct and indirect measures, the combination of attitude, social influence, comfortability (indirect model), and knowledge explained 41.0 and 43.0 percent of the variance in intention to screen for prostate cancer, respectively; with social influence being the strongest predictor ([Beta]=0.41; p <0.01 for the direct model and [Beta]=0.47 for the indirect model). For the model with prostate cancer risk-reduction as the outcome variable, the model accounted for 10.0 percent of the variance in behavior with only knowledge ([Beta]=0.19; p=0.03) as significant predictor. Interventions that address young black men’s attitude, social influence, comfortability, and knowledge may be necessary to increase young men’s intention to screen for prostate cancer when it is recommended by a physician. Additionally, factors surrounding exercise and knowledge may be important in increasing young men’s engagement in prostate cancer risk-reduction behaviors. Future studies using intention as a predictor of young men’s behavior are needed to assess the influence of intention on prostate cancer screening. / text

Die Identifikation von Personen mit hoher Expertise in einem spezifischen Gebiet ist in vielen Bereichen des Wirtschaftslebens von zentraler Bedeutung. Um beispielsweise Marktinformationen einzuholen, wird in Unternehmen normalerweise die Marktforschung bemüht. Deren Instrumentarium ist aus guten Gründen stark am Ideal der Repräsentativität ausgerichtet. Was aber, wenn das Ziel nicht ist, allgemeingültige Aussagen zu gewinnen, sondern seltene, besonders wertvolle Informationen gesucht werden, wie etwa Ideen für neue Produkte? Methoden wird hierzu in der Marktforschungsliteratur kaum Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Wissen dazu ist jedoch von hoher Bedeutung. Unternehmen sind einem zunehmenden Innovationsdruck ausgesetzt und daher wird auch die Frage immer wichtiger, wie man zu Ideen für viel versprechende Innovationen gelangen kann. Eine besondere Bedeutung als Träger solcher Ideen haben die so genannten "Lead User" - Produktnutzer, die ihrer Zeit voraus sind. Wie findet man sie? Diese Frage ist keineswegs trivial. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es daher, zentrale Fragen bei der Vewendung der Pyramiding-Methode für die Suche nach Personen mit besonderen Merkmalen theoretisch und empirisch zu beantworten. Die beiden Forschungsfragen dieser Dissertation lauten:(1)Wie effizient ist der Suchprozess im Rahmen der Pyramiding-Methode (im Vergleich zur Screening-Methode)? (2)Welche Faktoren beeinflussen die Effizienz eines Verweises der Auskunftsperson bei der Suche mit der Pyramiding-Methode? Ein aufwändiges Feldexperiment ermöglicht die Analyse von 292 Pyramiding-Verweisketten. Das Ergebnis: Im Rahmen der vorliegenden empirischen Untersuchung sind nur zwischen rund 8% und 70% des Aufwands (Anzahl der befragten Personen) für die Suche mittels der Screening-Methode notwendig, um die gesuchte Person zu identifizieren. Als zentrale Einflussfaktoren auf die Effizienz eines Pyramiding-Verweises einer Auskunftsperson konnten in dieser empirischen Untersuchung unterschiedliche Variablen identifiziert und empirisch bestätigt werden: sowohl personenbezogene als auch populationsbezogene Variablen zeigen einen signifikanten Einfluss. (Autorenref.)

Problem: There is a lack of knowledge about women who are screened for breast cancer, have an abnormal finding on mammogram, and then do not return in a timely manner for diagnostics and treatment. Lack of follow- up likely constitutes delayed treatment and poorer outcomes. Delays may result in later entry into the health system with advanced disease, more extensive and expensive care, burdening resources. Late stage breast cancer likely results in poorer health outcomes or early death.Purpose and Aims: The purpose of this research is to describe contextual characteristics at the health delivery level as well as individual characteristics of women with abnormal mammography, and their association with use of follow- up health services. Particularly, this research examines the differences between women who are early and late responders after an abnormal mammogram.Population: The participants were a convenience sample of 380 women who participated in mobile breast cancer screening. A subset of women with inconclusive or abnormal mammogram findings was the focus of analysis.Methods: This research utilized a descriptive design with quantitative data collection through participant survey at mobile mammogram screening events in multiple urban and rural Arizona sites. Participants requiring further health care were followed by chart review. Analysis of correlations with the outcome variable: time to first follow- up appointment for recommended health care in women with abnormal mammograms was conducted.Findings: Data indicated the time to the first follow- up appointment ranged from 1- 110 days with follow- up for 77.4% of participants within 60 days, 6.5% within 60-90 days, and 16.1% without follow- up after 90 days. Significant relationships between contextual and individual characteristics and follow- up were found. Categories included organizational health system characteristics of geographic location, clinical breast exam and shared case management; individual characteristics of beliefs including value of health care; finance including out of pocket costs and perceptions of financial assistance; perceived needs including breast symptoms; and satisfaction with the last health visit and mammograms in general.Implications: Recognition of barriers to follow- up after breast cancer screening is important for development of interventions to improve outcomes and has implications for screening and treatment management programs, community health centers and private practice. Health disparity related to screening without adequate options for access to health care is ethically untenable. Nurses are well positioned to reduce barriers to health care.

The colony formation assay (CFA) is the gold standard for measuring cytotoxic effects on cells. To increase efficiency, the CFA was converted to a 96-well format using an automated colony counting algorithm. The 96-well CFA was validated using ionizing radiation (IR) on the FaDu and A549 cancer cell lines. Its ability to evaluate combination therapies was investigated using cisplatin and IR. The 96-well CFA was transferred to a robotic platform for evaluation as a high-throughput screen (HTS) readout for the discovery of novel anti-cancer compounds, and radiosensitizers. Screening yielded eight putative anti-cancer hits, and five putative radiosensitizing hits. Secondary screening confirmed 6/8 anti-cancer compounds, and 0/5 radiosensitizing compounds. Thus, the 96-well CFA can be adopted as an alternative assay to the 6-well CFA in the evaluation of cytotoxicity in vitro, providing a possible readout to be utilized in HTS for discovering anti-cancer compounds, but with limited applicability in discovering radiosensitizers.

The aim of the study was to investigate how schools identify primary school children with early reading difficulties and what kind of early intervention special education teachers use to support these students. This study also investigates early interventions that special education teachers con­sider to be effective. Ten special education teachers were interviewed regarding early intervention. The result showed that the schools use several screenings from within the age group of 6-9 year olds. The special education teachers can at an early stage identify primary school children with difficulties in their reading and they use a range of different interventions. It is found in this study that an intense period of individual tuition is the intervention that most special education teachers think leads to good results for primary school children with difficulties in their early reading. That finding is also supported in previous research. It is clear that special education teachers and special education teachers need more time for early intervention. The teachers' opportunities for doing this should be reviewed.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva hur två skolor med likartade förutsättningar från samma skolområde, arbetat med resultaten av den obligatoriska kommunala screeningen i åk 2 vårterminen 2016. Studien avser också att klargöra hur kommunikationen angående screeningen mellan de olika nivåerna fungerar, till exempel mellan kommunens centrala tjänstemän och rektor, samt vidare ut till verksamheten. Avsikten är även att belysa hur den årliga screeningen påverkar specialpedagogers arbete, samt hur de olika skolornas arbete skiljer sig åt. Vi har undersökt detta ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och har använt intervjuer och dokumentstudier som datasamlingsmetod. Vi har intervjuat nio personer i olika positioner inom kommunen för att få en så heltäckande bild av processen som möjligt. Även ett stort antal informella samtal med personer som har beröring med ämnet har skett och har fördjupat förståelsen av det som undersökts. De dokument som studerats har varit instruktioner till genomförandet av screeningen (från kommunens intranät) samt statistik från Skolverkets databas SIRIS. Resultatet visade att arbetet med screeningen skiljer sig åt mellan de två skolorna, framför allt i efterarbetet med resultaten och påverkan på specialpedagogens arbete. Den ena skolan genomför ett arbete med träningstillfällen som sedan avslutas med ett nytt testtillfälle. Allt detta sker på uppdrag av rektor. På den andra skolan genomför ansvarig pedagog ett självständigt arbete med fokus på samarbete eftersom hen anser att det är vad gruppen främst behöver. Dessa skillnader i arbetssätt menar vi hör samman med olikheter i kontinuitet i personalsituationen samt ledningens inställning till resultat. Studien har också visat på brister i kommunikationen mellan de olika organisationsnivåerna och en tveksamhet till materialets utformning. Detta har vi tolkat som att screeningen som fenomen är ifrågasatt, utifrån aktuell läroplans synsätt och modern forskning kring bedömning.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The purpose of this study is to assess rural community members in Cochise County, Arizona, to determine if healthcare screenings and informational sessions are desired by the community members for chronic disease states, and from which healthcare providers the community members prefer to obtain these services. Identify which health professional rural members are most likely to seek for healthcare screening. Identify which health professional rural members are most likely to seek for healthcare informational sessions. Determine if rural community members are willing to pay for healthcare screening and informational sessions. Methods: This descriptive study obtained data through 350 questionnaires distributed during selected Cochise County community events in late 2011. Main Results: 341 surveys were completed. The majority of results favored physicians with 47.7% of the people stating they would very likely attend a health care screening conducted by a physician. 34.5% responded they would very likely attend an informational session conducted by a physician. Of the respondents willing to pay for health screenings, 63.9% would pay $30 or less. 70.9% stated they would not be willing to pay for an informational session. However, the majority of participants, 61.3%, indicated they would utilize pharmacists for OTC questions. Regarding questions about prescription medications, 43.4% would go to pharmacists, and similarly, 44% indicated they use physicians. Conclusions: As seen from the results, pharmacists are underutilized by rural community members; except for OTC questions. Respondents with higher levels of education were also more likely to prefer and attend events held by pharmacists.

The purpose of this study was to rationally design animal component free, chemically defined serum free media (ACF-CD-SFM) for MRC-5 and Vero cells while adhering to the Quality by Design guidelines. This was achieved by using the Modified Vero Serum Free Medium (MVSFM) as the basal formulation and supplementing it with various combinations of growth factors (LONG® EGF, LONG® R3 IGF-I, rTransferrin, bFGF, TGF-3 and PDGF-AA), lipids (linoleic acid, cholesterol, and dexamethasone), lipid precursors (ethanolamine and phosphoethanolamine) and vitamins (all-trans retinoic acid, -tocopherol and ascorbic acid). Media development was achieved by conducting a series of steps using different experimental methodologies with the end goal of satisfying the requirements of each cell line. MRC-5 and Vero cells were each cultured in specific media containing unique concentrations of supplements that were prepared according to the different statistical design methodologies. The original objective was to create a SFM, however due to the stringent nutritious requirements of anchorage dependent cell lines, only a reduction to 0.5% FBS was achieved. For MRC-5 cells, the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) generated the Prototype + 0.5% FBS medium. The Definitive Screening Design (DSD) gave rise to the Delta 1 + 0.5% FBS, which was the optimum medium formulation for MRC-5 cells as it had comparable cell yields to DMEM + 10 % FBS. This result was confirmed by the Genetic Algorithms-Hill Climbing (GA-HC) method. In the case of Vero cells, the OFAT and the DSD confirmed that MVSFM + 0.5 % FBS was the most optimal formulation. The morphology in both media for both cell lines was comparable to that in DMEM-10% FBS. It was concluded that the DSD method successfully achieved a reduction of the serum concentration from 10% to 0.5% FBS. / October 2017

Evolutionary game theory tries to explain the emergence of stable behaviors observed in human and animal societies. Prominent examples of such behaviors are cooperative and conformist behaviors. In the first part of the thesis, we develop a model of indirect reciprocity with institutional screening to study how institutions may promote cooperative behavior. We show that cooperation can emerge if screening institutions are sufficiently reliable at identifying cooperators. The second part presents a large-population learning model in which individuals update their beliefs through time. In the model, only one individual updates his beliefs each period. We show that a population, playing a game with two strategies, eventually learns to play a Nash equilibrium. We focus on coordination games and prove that a unique behavior arises both when players use myopic and perturbed best replies. The third part studies the payoff calculation in an evolutionary setting. By introducing mutual consent as a requirement for game play, we provide a more realistic alternative way to compute payoffs. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>