Browsing HMS Theses and Dissertations by Issue Date
Now showing items 1-20 of 506
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A Critical Period for Functional Motor Recovery After Peripheral Nerve Injury in the Mouse
(2014-07-07)Repair of peripheral nerve injury often results in poor functional motor recovery. This deficit has previously been attributed to the failure of axons to regenerate into the muscle. However, we have recently reported that ... -
The Role of SPARC in Aqueous Humor Outflow and TGFß2-mediated Ocular Hypertension in a Murine Model
(2014-07-07)Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and is a major cause of blindness in the United States. It affects approximately 5% of Caucasians and 10% of African- Americans over the age of 60 years. ... -
Technology Adoption in the United States: The Impact of Hospital Market Competition
(2014-07-07)Objectives: Technological innovation in medicine is a significant driver of healthcare spending growth in the United States. Factors driving adoption and utilization of new technology is poorly understood, however market ... -
The Emotional Intelligence of Resident Physicians
(2014-07-07)Since academic literature indicates that emotional intelligence (EI) is tied to work performance, there is increasing interest in understanding physician EI. We studied the EI of resident physicians in surgery, pediatric, ... -
PROPHYLACTIC MASTECTOMIES: OCCULT HISTOLOGY AND FISCAL IMPACTS OF SURVEILLANCE VS. SURGERY
(2014-07-07)Introduction: During the last decade, our institution saw a 260% increase in bilateral breast reconstruction cases, consistent with national trends. We reported a drop in average age of prophylactic mastectomy from 57 to ... -
DEFINITIVE PRIMARY THERAPY IN PATIENTS PRESENTING WITH OLIGOMETASTATIC NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER (NSCLC)
(2014-07-07)Background: Although palliative chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC, patients with a small metastatic burden, “oligometastatic” disease, may benefit from definitive local therapy. ... -
Modulation of Pain with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Diffuse Noxious Inhibitory Controls
(2014-07-07)Background: While pain is essential for physiological functioning, chronic or pathologic pain is responsible for a major burden of disease in society. Novel approaches to treating acute and chronic pain have employed ... -
Identifying Targetable Liabilities in Ewing Sarcoma
(2014-07-07)Background: Despite multi-modality therapy, the majority of patients with metastatic or recurrent Ewing sarcoma (ES), the second most common pediatric bone malignancy, will die of their disease. ES tumors express aberrantly ... -
Imaging of PARP1/2-Overexpressing Cancers with Novel AZD2281-Derived Probes
(2014-07-07)Poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase-1 and -2 (PARP1/2) are nuclear proteins involved in DNA repair. Tumors with defects in homologous recombination, including BRCA1- and BRCA2-deficient cancers, have been shown to be sensitive to ... -
Optimizing siRNA Efficacy through Alteration in the Target Cell-Adhesion Substrate Interaction
(2014-07-07)Short interfering RNA (siRNA) is a class of nucleotide drugs with a profound potential to improve patient health through its ability to silence the expression of specific genes at the post-transcriptional level. However, ... -
The Molecular Characterization of the Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter
(2014-07-07)By buffering cytosolic calcium, mitochondria can shape the magnitude and duration of intracellular calcium transients, which in turn govern key physiological events. Although controlled uptake of calcium into the matrix ... -
A Pilot Study on Women's Health Education in Rural Guatemala: Impact on Beliefs and Behaviors
(2014-07-07)Great disparities exist in women’s health outcomes in rural indigenous communities in Guatemala; indigenous women are less likely to utilize family planning and cervical cancer screening services. This pilot study assessed ... -
Characterization and Optimization of the CRISPR/Cas System for Applications in Genome Engineering
(2014-07-07)The ability to precisely manipulate the genome in a targeted manner is fundamental to driving both basic science research and development of medical therapeutics. Until recently, this has been primarily achieved through ... -
Clean Lighting Leads to Improved Health in Rural Africa: Field Study and Design of a Dirt-Powered Generator
(2014-07-07)Two billion people world-wide use kerosene-burning lamps for household lighting. These lamps produce large quantities of soot. In Chapter 2, I describe our field study examining 230 people in rural Uganda. I show that ... -
A Functional Polymorphism in the Epidermal Growth Factor Gene Independently Predicts Clinical Decompensation in HCV-Related Cirrhosis
(2014-07-07)Background and Aims: Several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including rs4444903 in the epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene, rs12979860 near the interleukin-28B (IL28B) gene, and rs738409 in the patatin-like ... -
PROMOTING BREAKTHROUGH MEDICAL INNOVATION: INSIGHTS FROM AN ANALYSIS OF RECENT TRANSFORMATIVE DRUGS, BIOLOGICS AND MEDICAL DEVICES
(2014-07-07)Given the recent concern from multiple healthcare stakeholders that the pipeline of medical innovation is slowing, this thesis provides insights on how to spur breakthrough medical innovation in present day. The findings ... -
Optimal Systolic Blood Pressure Target, Time-to-Intensification and Time-to-Follow-up in the Treatment of Hypertension
(2014-07-07)Objective: I sought to determine the systolic intensification threshold, time-to-intensification and time-to-follow-up associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular events or death in primary care patients with ... -
Payment Reform in Massachusetts: Health Care Spending and Quality in Accountable Care Organizations Four Years into Global Payment
(2014-07-07)Background: The United States health care system faces two fundamental challenges: a high growth rate of health care spending and deficiencies in quality of care. The growth rate of health care spending is the dominant ... -
Changes in Language Pathways in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Patients with Autism
(2014-07-07)Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal-dominant neurocutaneous disease caused by loss of the TSC1 (encoding hamartin) or TSC2 (encoding tuberin) genes. Neurologic symptoms are common and varied in TSC and include ... -
A Qualitative Assessment of Healthy Food Access in Navajo Nation
(2014-10-15)Background: The Navajo population experiences high rates of food insecurity, contributing to high rates of chronic disease. We conducted in-depth interviews with Navajo tribal members in order to understand food insecurity ...