Faculty Research & Creative Scholarship 2019: W-Z

Journal Title: Issues in Mental Health Nursing

Abstract: The treatment of mental illness is often done on a trial-and-error basis and achieving therapeutic benefits from a medication is not always guaranteed. Pharmacogenomics explores the role of gene–gene interactions and interindividual responses to a drug and may be promising in the guidance of pharmacotherapeutic options. In the present study, the impact of pharmacogenomic testing in management of mental health medication was investigated. Participants were identified at a local outpatient mental health facility through convenience sampling. Retrospective chart review included medication history, adverse drug reactions, pharmacogenomic history, and demographic data including insurance coverage. Chart review focused on six months pre- and post-pharmacogenomic for a comparison with the patient serving as their own control. Results indicate a high incidence of alterations in two specific cytochrome enzymes, CYP2D6 and CYP2C19. In total, 82% of the sample had variations with CYP2D6, while 64% of individuals had variations with CYP2C19. In total, 91% of patients tested received Medicaid or Medicare. Post-pharmacogenomic testing, all patient drug regimens were modified, and all reported less adverse side effects. Moreover, advanced practice nurse providers educated patients about the availability of genetic testing, initiated testing and provided care based on findings. These results demonstrate the utility of genetic testing in the realm of mental health. Future directions involve further exploring the benefits of pharmacogenomic testing in this vulnerable population.
Author: Danielle K. Walker, Assistant Professor, Nursing

Journal Title: Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research

Purpose: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that stretch-and-flow voice therapy (SnF) is noninferior to resonant voice therapy (RVT) for speakers with muscle tension dysphonia.
Author: Christopher R. Watts, Director of the Davies School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Professor, Communication Sciences & Disorders

Description: The definitive evidence-based resource on the diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders
Laryngeal Function and Voice Disorders: Basic Science to Clinical Practice by renowned experts Christopher Watts and Shaheen Awan focuses on the latest developments in the assessment and management of voice disorders. New ASHA practice recommendations are included in accessible, digestible, and didactic content. This unique multimedia resource merges historical facts and experiential understanding with recent advances in scientific knowledge and evidence-based practice patterns.
The book includes discussion of the anatomical, physiological, acoustic, aerodynamic, and imaging science informing the understanding of vocal function in normal and disordered states. Major technical components of voice evaluation are covered, including perceptual analyses, acoustic analyses, aerodynamic analyses, and laryngeal visualization.
Author: Christopher R. Watts, Director of the Davies School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Professor, Communication Sciences & Disorders

Description: In this volume Dan Williams displays his remarkable expertise in handling language, in his wide range of mastery over poetic form, and in his ability to engage and delight readers with surprising word choices and unusual subject matter.
Author: Dan Williams, Honors Professor of Humanities and the Director of the TCU Press

Journal Title: Aquatic Botany

Abstract: Monoecious and dioecious biotypes of Hydrilla verticillata were introduced from Asia into the United States (U.S.). Although biological control agent development has been ongoing for many years to combat this invasive aquatic weed, the focus has now shifted towards the monoecious biotype because of apparent incompatibilities between previously introduced agents and this lineage. To facilitate collection of natural enemies, we surveyed eastern areas of China and all of South Korea (592 samples from 129 sites) to locate geographic source areas with the introduced monoecious biotype. We used both chloroplast and nuclear microsatellite markers to identify genotypes. Eastern China had high genetic diversity and significant genetic structure across river basins, including three previously described chloroplast clades (B, C, D), one of which (B) includes both biotypes that were introduced into the U.S. South Korea had the monoecious biotype from clade B and clade C. South Korea had a subset of the genetic diversity in China, consistent with China being the ancestral region for hydrilla. U.S. introduced monoecious hydrilla had significantly lower diversity than this genotype in China and South Korea. U.S. monoecious microsatellite profiles cluster with samples from both China and South Korea, failing to resolve a clear region of origin. Reproductive strategies for clade B are more variable than in the introduced range with both monoecious and dioecious individuals sharing the same chloroplast haplotypes and microsatellite clusters. The introduced monoecious biotype of hydrilla is becoming a major problem in the U.S., but in the native range it is rare, patchily distributed, and often mixed with individuals from clade C. Current exploration for biological control agents will need to determine the genetic identity of the plants from which potential biological control agents are collected.
Author: Dean A.Williams, Associate Professor, Biology

Description: In Slavery’s Long Shadow fourteen historians and other scholars examine how the sobering historical realities of race relations and Christianity have created both unity and division within American churches from the 1790s into the twenty-first century. The book’s three sections offer readers three different entry points into the conversation: major historical periods, case studies, and ways forward. Historians as well as Christians interested in racial reconciliation will find in this book both help for understanding the problem and hope for building a better future.
Author: D. Newell Williams, President & Professor of Modern & American Church History

Journal Title: International Geology Review

Abstract: The Delaware Basin is located near the southwestern end of the Alleghanian–Ouachita–Marathon orogenic belt. The basin is mostly filled by Permian clastic rocks of the Delaware Mountain Group with ramp- to shelf-carbonate rimming basin edges. The Delaware Mountain Group has been well-documented as a deep-water clastic reservoir unit in the prolific Permian Basin, but its sources and related sediment dispersal pathways remain inconclusive. In this study, a total of 55 samples of the Delaware Mountain Group were collected from whole core and sidewall core from the central and southern Delaware Basin, and sandstone modal analyses and U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology were applied to constrain their potential sources. Sandstone modal analyses show that the majority of samples fall within the transitional continental source field. Age spectra of detrital zircon from five selected samples include a prominent middle Palaeozoic age cluster (~490–275 Ma), a major Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic age cluster (~790–510 Ma), and a series of minor age clusters of the middle to late Mesoproterozoic (~1300–920 Ma), early Mesoproterozoic (~1600–1300 Ma), late Palaeoproterozoic (~1825–1600 Ma), and Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic (> ~1825 Ma). Integrating detrital zircon data from all potential sources and coeval sandstones from the northern Delaware Basin suggests that the majority of sediment was derived from the Appalachian foreland, the Ouachita orogenic system, and the peri-Gondwanan terranes. Variation in the abundance of the different age groups reveals a provenance shift between deposition of the Brushy Canyon Formation and the Cherry and Bell Canyon Formations. To accommodate the composition, and the stratigraphic and spatial age spectral variations, we proposed that the sediment dispersal pathway includes a transcontinental fluvial system from the Appalachian orogenic belt to the east, a regional scale fluvial system from the Ouachita orogenic belt to the north and northeast, and a local, proximal fluvial system from the peri-Gondwanan terranes to the south and southeast.
Author: Xiangyang Xie, Associate Professor, Geological Sciences

Journal Title: Journal of Sedimentary Research

Abstract: Early Pennsylvanian sediment dispersal across the Laurentian supercontinent reflects the growth of the Appalachian–Ouachita Orogen that was formed by its collision with Gondwana. Occupying a key position within the Laurentian foreland of the Appalachian–Ouachita Orogen, the middle Bloyd sandstone member of the Bloyd Formation (Early Pennsylvanian) preserves evidence of Morrowan-age fluvio-deltaic depocenters in the southern Laurentian continental margin. The middle Bloyd sandstone provides direct constraints on provenance and dispersal paths of detritus shed from the Appalachian–Ouachita Orogen and other sediment sources on the North American craton during the Early Pennsylvanian. Eight outcrop samples of the middle Bloyd sandstone were collected and analyzed by U-Pb laser ablation ICP-MS detrital-zircon geochronology, producing a total of 850 concordant individual detrital-zircon ages with age ranging from 3.15 Ga to 374 Ma. Detrital-zircon age spectra of the eight middle Bloyd sandstone samples are characterized by a prominent Grenvillian age group (∼ 1350–900 Ma) with two discrete age peaks at ∼ 1070 and ∼ 1169 Ma. The remaining zircon fractions are interpreted as being sourced from the Archean Superior Province (> ∼ 2500 Ma), the Penokean and Trans-Hudson Proterozoic terranes (∼ 1900–1800 Ma), the Yavapai–Mazatzal terrane (∼ 1800–1600 Ma), the Granite–Rhyolite Province (∼ 1600–1350 Ma), and a minor Paleozoic age population (∼ 500–350 Ma) that likely reflects mixed Appalachian and Gondwanan sources. Overall, detrital-zircon age populations of the middle Bloyd sandstone share great similarity with Lower Pennsylvanian sandstones from the Michigan Basin and the central and southern Appalachian foreland, except that the Bloyd sandstone shows greater enrichment in the Yavapai–Mazatzal age population. These new age data provide additional constraints on multiple dispersal paths for fundamentally Laurentian-derived sediment that are ultimately directed southward toward the Ouachita foreland shelf during the Early Pennsylvanian. The Early Pennsylvanian (Morrowan) sediment dispersal in this part of Laurentia was accomplished by a regional-scale drainage system that integrated intracratonic and Appalachian–Ouachita foreland basin depocenters, all recording a recycled orogenic provenance. The new detrital-zircon data indicate that the middle Bloyd sandstone also incorporated significant contributions from Precambrian-age basement uplifts, possibly Ancestral Rocky Mountain uplifts to the west, indicating a complex geography of the Laurentian supercontinent at this time.
Author: Xiangyang Xie, Associate Professor, Geological Sciences

Journal Title: Journal of Health Communication

Abstract: Twitter is one of the largest social networking sites (SNSs) in the world, yet little is known about what cardiovascular health related tweets go viral and what characteristics are associated with retransmission. The current study aims to identify a function of the observable characteristics of cardiovascular tweets, including characteristics of the source, content, and style that predict the retransmission of these tweets. We identified a random sample of 1,251 tweets associated with CVD originating from the United States between 2009 and 2015. Automated coding was conducted on the affect values of the tweets as well as the presence/absence of any URL, mention of another user, question mark, exclamation mark, and hashtag. We hand-coded the tweets’ novelty, utility, theme, and source. The count of retweets was positively predicted by message utility, health organization source, and mention of user handle, but negatively predicted by the presence of URL and nonhealth organization source. Regarding theme, compared to the tweets focusing on risk factor, tweets on treatment and management predicted fewer retweets while supportive tweets predicted more retweets. These findings suggest opportunities for harnessing Twitter to better disseminate cardiovascular educational and supportive information on SNSs.
Author: Qinghua Yang, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies

Journal Title: Health Communication

Abstract: The increasing popularity of computer-mediated support groups (CMSGs) has drawn scholarly attention in recent decades. Fifteen empirical controlled studies have been published since Rains and Young’s meta-analysis, showing mixed results, with a large variation of effect sizes ranging from −.77 to 1.33 in Cohen’s d. To provide a better understanding of CMSGs, the current study meta-analyzed these 15 newly published studies along with the studies included in Rains and Young’s meta-analysis, and tested study design and demographic moderators that have not been examined before. In addition, the study also revisited group size as a moderator and provided updated results with a larger sample size. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.
Author: Qinghua Yang, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies

Journal Title: Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Abstract: Grounded in construal‐level theory (CLT), this experiment examines how messages with different temporal frames (i.e., present‐ vs. future‐framed) influence individuals' perceptions of, and reactions to, water conservation. One hundred ninety‐three participants, 99 from China and 94 from the United States, participated in this study. Results indicated that a present‐framed message results in more positive attitudes toward water conservation than the future‐framed message. Participants who scored higher on individual future‐time orientation show stronger behavioral intention to conserve water than participants who scored lower. A significant interaction between temporal message framing and country emerged such that the future‐framed message resulted in greater behavioral intention for Chinese participants than their U.S. counterparts whereas the present‐framed message did not differentially influence Chinese and U.S. participants. Implications of findings for theory‐building and application are discussed.
Author: Jie Zhuang, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies

Journal Title: Journal of Applied Communication Research

Abstract: This study assessed the impact of coworker support on lactating mothers’ breastfeeding self-efficacy after maternity leave. A cross-sectional survey of 1000 working adults assessed effects of perception of fairness, coworkers’ support for breastfeeding colleagues, and ick response on willingness to help mothers needing breaks to pump breastmilk at work. The study also examined how coworker support affected mothers’ self-efficacy to continue breastfeeding. One out of four coworkers showed moderate to strong stigma, saw breaks to pump breastmilk as unfair, and showed less intention to help new mothers. These results suggest that while the majority of coworkers are generally supportive, lactating women are likely to encounter disapproving coworkers who may discourage them from continuing to breastfeed. The data showed that the majority of organizations included in this study have only passively fostered mother-friendly workplaces and could do more to encourage employees to be supportive of lactating colleagues.
Author: Jie Zhuanga, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies