ScholarWorks@Georgia State University
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Publication Open Access Disease Risk Perceptions, Culture, Body Image, and Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Dietary Intake in Young African American Women(2025-12-05)African American (AA) women have a higher prevalence of overweight, obesity, and related chronic diseases compared to women of other racial or ethnic groups. Eating a healthy diet is critical to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and reducing the risk of obesity and its related diseases. There is limited literature on relevant factors that influence dietary intake among young adult AA women. The purpose of this study was to examine perceived risk of cardiometabolic disease, body image, family and culture, and self-efficacy as predictors of intentions to eat a healthy diet and current dietary intake among young adult AA women. A non-experimental, descriptive, correlational design was used. Participants were recruited using paper and electronic flyers distributed at two Universities in Atlanta, Georgia. Data were collected by surveys administered through Qualtrics XM and in person measures of height, weight, and waist circumference. Data were primarily analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Participants (N = 97) ranged in age from 18-30 years (M = 23, SD = 3.3), and most had a college degree (57.7%), were employed part-time (52.6%), and lived at home with parents or family (44.3%). Their body mass index (BMI) categories varied; 36.5% were normal weight, 28.1% overweight, and 26.8% obese. Most participants (58.8%) had an accurate estimation of their BMI status (58.8%) and were unsatisfied with their body image (64.9%). On average, participants perceived a moderate risk of cardiometabolic disease, believed family and culture had a moderate influence on their diet, and had moderate intentions to eat healthy in the next 3 months. The regression model did not explain dietary intake but significantly explained 29% of the variance in their intentions to eat healthy, with self-efficacy and being unsatisfied with their body image identified as significant predictors. Overweight and obesity were prevalent in this convenience sample of young, mostly college-educated AA women, and they associated weight with cardiometabolic disease risk and had moderate intentions to eat healthy. Findings indicate an opportunity to intervene with this population utilizing self-efficacy and body image satisfaction, which may motivate behavior change. Further research should examine these factors in greater depth, along with other variables that may more fully explain dietary intentions and actual intake.Publication Open Access COVID-19 Pandemic Mortality at the Country Level: A Functional Analysis of Vaccination Trajectories Accounting for Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics(2025)The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial global morbidity and mortality, with considerable variation in outcomes across countries. This ecological study investigates the association between country-level COVID-19 vaccination rates and mortality, considering socioeconomic and demographic factors, using Functional Data Analysis. A scalar-on-function regression framework was applied to analyze 77 countries across six pandemic periods, encompassing the Delta and Omicron variant waves. The response variable was the log-transformed COVID-19 death rate, modeled as a scalar outcome. The primary predictor was the cumulative daily vaccination rate, while covariates included log-transformed population size, percent of adults aged 65 years and older, life expectancy at age 60, and health expenditure in USD. Analysis showed that higher vaccination rates were associated with lower mortality during the initial vaccine rollout phase and during the beginning of the late Delta and Omicron periods, after accounting for socioeconomic and demographic covariates. Results also indicate that the percent of the population aged 65+ and life expectancy at age 60 were consistently significant determinants of COVID-19 mortality, whereas the vaccination rate coefficients varied across periods and were not consistently statistically significant. Model R² values ranged from weak to moderate, suggesting that selected statistical methods and additional contextual factors—such as outbreak timing, containment policies, and healthcare system differences—likely influenced mortality outcomes. This study highlights that while vaccination remains a key tool in mitigating COVID-19 mortality, demographic and structural characteristics play substantial roles in shaping outcomes at the country level. The findings underscore the importance of integrating temporal modeling with contextual considerations in assessing global pandemic responses and can inform future strategies to enhance preparedness and equity in public health interventions.Publication Embargo Development of mRNA Vaccine Platforms Targeting Spike and Non-Spike SARS-CoV-2 Antigens(2025)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), has continued to circulate globally since its emergence in 2019, leading to recurrent waves of infection and the emergence of multiple variants of concern (VOCs). Successive viral evolution has introduced extensive mutations, particularly in the spike (S) glycoprotein, which remains the primary target of most mRNA vaccine strategies. Early vaccines encoded the ancestral S protein and provided significant protection during the initial pandemic phases. However, as viral evolution progressed, the effectiveness of ancestral formulations declined. Current vaccine strategies rotate full-length S protein constructs adapted to the variant dominant at the time, providing improved but still limited breadth and durability of immune protection. This underscores the need for vaccine approaches that extend beyond the full-length S protein. T-cell responses play a critical role in controlling viral replication and preventing severe disease by eliminating infected cells and supporting long-term immune memory. Structural proteins such as nucleocapsid (N) and membrane (M) are highly conserved across Sarbecoviruses, abundantly expressed, and are capable of eliciting strong immune responses in prior studies. Incorporating these non-S protein antigens into vaccine designs provides an opportunity to evaluate their role in shaping broader immune responses. This dissertation focuses on the development of mRNA vaccine platforms encoding both S and non-S protein SARS-CoV-2 antigens. One construct employed a chimeric S protein design, in which the backbone of one variant was combined with the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of another, to explore how such configurations influence immune recognition while maintaining overall structural integrity. Additional constructs included N and M proteins to investigate their potential roles in cellular immunity. These immunogens were encoded in nucleoside-modified mRNA and formulated with lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to enable efficient encapsulation and delivery. Evaluation in a human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) transgenic mouse model compared these mRNA-LNP vaccines against LNP-only controls, assessing humoral and cellular responses to explore potential for cross-protection. Findings from these studies provide insights into the potential of using both S-based and non-S protein–based antigens within mRNA platforms to broaden immune coverage and inform future vaccine development against current and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.Publication Open Access Evaluating Equity and Access in Higher Education: Regression Discontinuity, Meta-Analysis, and Institutional-level Analysis(2025)This dissertation evaluates equity and access in higher education through three distinct empirical studies: a regression discontinuity design, a meta-analysis, and an institutional-level regression analysis. First, the dissertation employs a Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity design to estimate the causal effects of Georgia State University’s Summer Success Academy (SSA) on conditionally admitted students. This study finds a statistically significant positive effect on student persistence, particularly for Pell Grant recipients. The analysis does not find a corresponding positive effect on cumulative GPA. Second, a meta-analysis synthesizes the existing evidence on summer bridge programs (SBPs) for at-risk students. This study finds a modest, statistically significant positive association with first-year persistence. This finding, however, must be interpreted with caution, given significant heterogeneity, a high risk of bias, and potential publication bias in the underlying literature. Third, an institutional-level OLS regression examines the association between institutional racial/ethnic diversity and social capital formation. This study finds that institutional context moderates diversity's baseline negative association with the formation of cross-class social ties, which becomes attenuated or positive in institutions with greater financial resources or a larger low-income, Pell-recipient student population. Collectively, this research contributes to the understanding of equity and access by demonstrating that support interventions show measurable impacts on persistence, while institutional context is critical in moderating the social outcomes of diversity.Publication Embargo Lipid Nanoparticles: Modular Formulation and Optimization for mRNA Expression(2025-12-03)With mRNA vaccines showing their efficacy in the response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-caused COVID-19, a critical role in the success was the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery platform that stabilized the mRNA. LNPs, once administered, will traverse the body’s circulatory system and often end up being processed in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. Scientists have hypothesized the idea of charging LNPs whether positively or negatively to affect where they localized post administration through the addition of an extra lipid within a stable four-lipid formulation. In this study, we focused on the process of optimizing mRNA expression and particle stability in modular five-lipid LNP formulations. The findings indicate that not only are the storage stabilities of five-lipid formulations possible across time and temperature, but the manipulation and optimization of these formulations allow for increased expression of the payload mRNA depending on application.
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