Digital Commons Network^™

Macromolecule Loading On Plga Particles Through Surface Adsorption, Yiwei Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The advent of biotherapeutics have impacted the ways in which diseases are treated. In many instances development of recombinant proteins and oligonucleotides into therapeutics are slowed by poor stability of the candidate drugs. Progress has been made in using polymeric particles as carriers of macromolecule drugs. Historically the method is to encapsulate biological drugs into spherical polymeric matrices. Owing to its biocompatible and biodegradable nature, poly (d,l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) has been used extensively in formulating biological drugs into nano- and micro-sized particles. The development of PLGA biologic formulations, however, has been hampered by matrix acidification; the hydrolysis of the polymer …

The Association Between Medication Adherence In Mental Illness And Substance Use Disorder Relapse In Patients With Dual Diagnosis, Tyler Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The aims of the study were to (1) identify personal, social, and clinical history for patients with substance use disorder (SUD) and mental illness, (2) measure agreeance between patient self-report versus facility record history for mental illness, substance abuse, and psychotropic medication, (3) investigate the specific role of medication adherence and barriers to use for psychotropic medications upon SUD relapse, and (4) assess follow-up changes in mental illness severity and medication adherence in dual diagnosis patients enrolled in a substance abuse rehabilitation program.

Methods: The pilot study utilized a mixed methodology. Inclusion criteria included male patients at least 18 …

Environmental Assessment Of Road Brining And Injection Wells For Disposal Of Oil And Gas Liquid Waste, Marissa Madia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dramatic increase in oil and gas drilling operations in Pennsylvania over the last decade has presented a challenge for their wastewater disposal (e.g., flowback, produced water). Currently, these fluids are treated in permitted brine treatment plants or exported out of state to deep injection well facilities. In Pennsylvania, road brining for dust control is permitted for conventional well brines, and permits for three injection wells for unconventional brines are pending. This study focused on water quality impacts due to road brining in Farmington Township (45 samples) and ground and surface water in Grant Township (41 samples) prior to the …

The Creative Feud Of Andy Warhol: A Philosophy Of Communication Ethics, Sarah Deiuliis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Creative Feud of Andy Warhol: A Philosophy of Communication Ethics begins with the assumption that the current historical moment is defined by Gilles Lipovetsky’s philosophical project known as hypermodernity. The dominant paradigm of hypermodernity, as consumption and commodity culture, elicits particularity of embedded responsiveness situated within history. Ronald C. Arnett and Pat Arneson contend that communication ethics are “value-laden philosophies of communication” uniting background narratives with foreground communicative practices (Philosophy xi). This dissertation positions Andy Warhol as a hypermodern communicative prophet. Through his life, works, and human communication, Warhol utilized art to communicate embedded ethical questions, responding to …

Understanding Lists: Umberto Eco's Rhetoric Of Communication And Signification, Susan Mancino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project, Understanding Lists: Umberto Eco’s Rhetoric of Communication and Signification, begins and ends with an observation and warning suggested throughout Eco’s work: lists are the origin of culture and the Internet as the Mother of All Lists threatens to end culture. To understand this warning, I turn to Eco’s work on lists, contextualized within a 2009 exhibition at the Musée du Louvre and in an illustrated collection, The Infinity of Lists. This project offers an analysis of Eco’s understanding of lists concurrent to his commentary on the social and cultural implications of the algorithmic-obsessed Internet age. To understand …

Synthesis Of Novel 5-Substituted Pyrrolo[2,3-D]Pyrimidine Antifolates As Selective And Potent Anti-Tumor Agents, Mohammad Karim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In last few decades many folate analogs have been discovered and several compounds are successfully being used as anticancer agents. Methotrexate (MTX), pemetrexed (PMX), raltitrexed (RTX): are a few examples of classical antifolates that are currently in clinical use. Although these compounds are widely used, all of them show dose limiting toxicity due to their non-specific transport into normal cells as well as malignant cells. Currently, clinically used classical antifolates suffer from this disadvantage because there is no way to selectively transport them into malignant cells. Currently available antifolates are transported via reduced folate career (RFC) as well as Folate …

The Logic Of Sexuation In Deleuze And Lacan, Matthew Lovett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In The Logic of Sexuation in Deleuze and Lacan, I argue for an account of sexual difference that responds to a tension in feminist philosophy, namely, the problem of the ontological status of the sexed body. In so doing, I turn to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Lacan. I argue that, rather than being antithetical, the two can be productively read together, in particular with regard to this very question. Ultimately basing my reading in the Deleuzian passive syntheses and dynamic geneses of Difference and Repetition and The Logic of Sense as well as in Lacan’s twentieth …

Key Components For An Ethics Consultation Curriculum, Joseph Bertino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to a lack of formal credentials for clinical ethics consultants, the professionalization of clinical ethics as a normative discipline in contemporary American health care is diminished amongst other health care professionals. While medical specialties, organizational leadership positions, and other miscellaneous health care occupations possess governing bodies that posit credentials that justify these roles, clinical ethics consultants lack a standard of competence. While this gap has been temporarily reconciled by individual employer criteria, a national standard that attempts to educate and demonstrate a clinical ethicist’s abilities does not exist. Still, various attempts have been made to establish a certification program …

The Title, Laurent Turgeon-Dharmoo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present dissertation seeks to address and redress clinical psychology’s disciplinary silence around the title of ‘Doctor’ and attempts to uncover possible meanings gathering around it by following several angles of disclosure: The self-disclosure angle recounts my own resistances and attempts at coming to terms with the title; The disciplinary disclosure angle critically reviews the scarce literature on the topic using discourse analysis; The empirical disclosure angle provides quantitative and qualitative analyses of data obtained from 27 Directors of Clinical Training and Training Clinic Directors, who were prompted to report how they use the title with various interlocutors, to outline …

Communication Ethics: Ellul's Complexity Of Form, Marianne Pabis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to enlarge understanding of Ellul’s dilemma of the ethical Christian communicator through a hermeneutic exploration of his intentionally un-paradigmatic treatment of technology as the determining factor in the formation of contemporary structural realities, a claim central to Ellul’s theory of technological society. It attends to the question of why, over the course of more than 50 books and over 1,000 articles, Ellul has refused to expound upon this claim as an overarching theoretical construct. As a contribution to the field of communication ethics from Ellul’s Christocentric perspective, this work also explicates the importance of what has become …

The Effect Of A Mindfulness Intervention On The Depression Symptoms Of Mothers In Treatment For An Opioid Use Disorder, Karen Alexander

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Mothers in treatment for an opioid use disorder experience a high prevalence of depression which may influence their relationship with their child. In the general population, mindfulness-based parenting intervention has been seen in the literature to have a clear positive effect on maternal depression. No research has been published regarding the effect of mindfulness intervention on maternal depression of women in treatment for an opioid use disorder.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the characteristics of mothers in treatment for opioid use disorder, including depression and adverse childhood experiences, and to evaluate the characteristics associated with participation in a mindfulness intervention. Lastly, …

H. Odera Oruka And The Right To A Human Minimum: A Sagacious Quest For Global Justice, Michael Kamau Mburu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation primarily aims at making contribution to the advancement of philosophy from the practical point of view. It does so by analytically and critically studying H. Odera Oruka (1944-1995), arguably one of the finest 20^th century African philosophers. Thus, it identifies, expounds, and critiques Oruka’s philosophical cum ethical commitment by situating him within various philosophical discourses touching such important global issues as justice, human rights, ethical duty, ecology, humanism and politics. It specifically advances Oruka’s argument for the right to a human minimum, establishing how that ethical principle can be applicable in addressing some distressing human conditions …

The Effect Of Motivation On Student Persistence In Online Higher Education: A Phenomenological Study Of How Adult Learners Experience Motivation In A Web-Based Distance Learning Environment, Kevin Lucey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of motivation in the persistence of adults enrolled in online higher education. Since the 1990’s, online courses and programs have proliferated across higher education, with adults (ages 25 and over) currently making up the largest portion of online enrollments. Online courses, however, suffer from a higher rate of student attrition than their hybrid and face-to-face counterparts. Although it is difficult to attribute the high rate of attrition in online education to any one factor, research has identified a lack of motivation as a primary cause of student dropout. Likewise, studies …

The Rhetoric Of The Opioid Crisis And Addiction To Prescription Pain Medicine, Rachel Kaplan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this historical moment, the United States is amidst an opioid crisis killing the young and the old; at least seventy-eight people die every day from an opioid-related overdose (Enomoto in Murthy III). Changing mindsets of the doctors who prescribe opioids is just as important as asking the patients who are prescribed them to demand an alternative medication. The different parties involved in the crisis all have a different agenda and their rhetorical bias is explored throughout this project. The pharmaceutical companies have launched aggressive marketing campaigns expressing the benefits of opioids and encouraged physicians to prescribe, the CDC has …

Effects Of A Green Chemistry Laboratory Design On First- Semester General Chemistry Students' Transformative Experiences In Chemistry, Lurea Joan Doody

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand if a green chemistry laboratory design facilitated students’ transformative experiences in a first-semester general chemistry course for science majors. The study population consisted of 18 college students enrolled in the course at a small, rural, mid-Atlantic university. Traditional chemistry laboratories were replaced with three signature green chemistry laboratories over a period of 6-weeks at the end of the spring semester. Impact data were collected pre- and post, of the three labs using the Transformative Experience Questionnaire (TEQ) surveys. Open ended guided reflection questions were coded for elements of transformative experience (TE): expansion …

The Relationship Between Perceptions Of Patient Safety Culture, Nurse Advocacy, And Nurse Sensitive Patient Outcomes, Margaret Dicuccio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to understand relationships between and among patient safety culture, nurse reported attitude toward patient advocacy and key patient outcomes. Nurses play an integral role in patient safety, providing care through constant interaction with the patient and clinical team. Advocating for patients is part of that role; however little research existed that explored how advocacy was related to the safety culture or specific patient outcomes.

A correlational cross-sectional design was chosen for this secondary data analysis. Correlation and regression models were applied to medical/surgical unit data from seven facilities within one hospital system. Sources of …

Jon Sobrino’S Liberation Christology And Its Implication For The “Crucified People” Of The Niger Delta Region In Nigeria., Augustine Wayii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis was carried out to investigate Sobrino’s liberation Christology and its implication for the “crucified people” of Niger Delta region in Nigeria. The thesis became very crucial because God’s gift of oil to the Niger Delta region has become a source of sorrow and death as a result of unjust structures by the Nigerian government and the multinational oil companies. Sobrino’s liberation Christology was very much appropriate for this research work because of the way he uses the present-day crucified people to understand better the crucified Christ. The “crucified people” in the Niger Delta region like the other crucified …

A Qualitative Study Of Counseling Students’ Attitudes Toward The Use Of Medication Assisted Treatments With Opioid Dependent Clients, Bethany L. Ackerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dissertation supervised by Dr. William Casile

Counseling students’ perceptions of medication assisted treatment for opioid addition was explored. This study sought to understand how the students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding the use of medication assisted treatments developed, and also how these attitudes and beliefs may affect client care and professional career choices. Specifically, this study examined how their professional counselor education experiences played a role in the formation/development of these attitudes and beliefs.

This qualitative study was conducted with six counseling students who participated in semi-structured, individual interviews. At the time of the study, all of the students were currently …

A Computational Model Of Team-Based Dynamics In The Workplace: Assessing The Impact Of Incentive-Based Motivation On Productivity, Josef Di Pietrantonio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large organizations often divide workers into small teams for the completion of essential tasks. In an effort to maximize the number of tasks completed over time, it is common practice for organizations to hire workers with the highest level of education and experience. However, despite capable workers being hired, the ability of teams to complete tasks may suffer if the workers' individual motivational needs are not satisfied.

To explore the impact of incentive-based motivation on the success of team-based organizations, we developed an agent-based model that stochastically simulates the proficiency of 100 workers with varying abilities and motive profiles to …

Life Satisfaction Typologies Among Roman Catholic Secular Clergy: A Q Methodological Investigation, Raju Antony

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Life satisfaction typologies among Roman Catholic secular clergy were studied using a Q methodological design. Using Q-Assessor, a web-based tool for Q methodological studies, 33 priests sorted and ranked 34 predetermined statements about their life satisfaction. By-person factor analysis and varimax rotation extracted three predominant category prototypes – pro-spirituals, professionals, and pro-relationals– representing three different views regarding the life satisfaction of clergy. The findings led to the creation of an explanatory model recognizing a multi-factorial pathway to understanding clergy life satisfaction.

An Ethics Of Care Approach To Managing The Burden Of Alzheimer's Disease, Carrie L. Stott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease for which there is currently no cure or effective treatments. The disease has devastating effects on the individuals whom it strikes and because its prevalence continues to rise, it significantly threatens the public good. Throughout its lengthy duration from diagnosis to death there are numerous ethical issues concerning patients individually as well as society generally. The management of the burdens of Alzheimer’s disease presents a formidable ethical challenge from the perspective of patients and society. The ethics of care is adopted to address this problem because of its flexibility to integrate personal care …

Re-Evaluating Performance Measurement: New Mathematical Methods To Address Common Performance Measurement Challenges, Jordan David Benis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Performance Measurement is an essential discipline for any business. Robust and reliable performance metrics for people, processes, and technologies enable a business to identify and address deficiencies to improve performance and profitability. The complexity of modern operating environments presents real challenges to developing equitable and accurate performance metrics. This thesis explores and develops two new methods to address common challenges encountered in businesses across the world. The first method addresses the challenge of estimating the relative complexity of various tasks by utilizing the Pearson Correlation Coefficient to identify potentially over weighted and under weighted tasks. The second method addresses the …

A Narrative Of Uncertain Intent: Communication Ethics Literacy And Fbi Counterterrorism Practices, Hannah Karolak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project works in the horizon of one driving question: What value does communication ethics bring to counterterrorism practices in this current moment? Following insights of communication ethics scholars that have come before, this work understands communication ethics as practices that yield social literacy about what matters to an other. This work adds to communication ethics scholarship the following finding: When applied to current and future events, communication ethics literacy affords one a lens for opening and sustaining spaces for creative communicative response. Through five chapters—which work in tandem to perform an application of communication ethics literacy to the current …

Semantic Realism And Historicity: Brandom, Habermas And Hegel, Norman Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis of this dissertation is that Habermas’ universal pragmatic and the recent neo-pragmatist semantic realism of Brandom, aimed at bridging the divide, are both based on misinterpretations of Hegel. Both approaches misunderstand the central Hegelian idea of historicity, and thus fail to establish a correct connection to Hegel. The aim of the dissertation is to point to and sketch Hegel’s idea of historicity. As part of the discussion, I will defend the controversial thesis that Hegel did not have a system, but rather a historical account of how we develop knowledge under the historical conditions of society. Hegel, unlike …

Toward A New Reading Of Cicero's De Finibus, Kelsey Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that Cicero has two primary, interdependent aims in De finibus: the critical assessment of the dominant ethical positions, and the education of his readers. These aims are accomplished through four key devices. First, Cicero develops flat, useful readings of the dominant ethical positions without rejecting eudaimonism itself. This allows Cicero to demonstrate Academic practices while also insisting upon the importance of virtue, which suggests the best ethical view for Cicero is a skeptically grounded eudaimonism. Second, the arrangement of the text in reverse chronological order dramatically enacts Cicero’s own alternative to the cradle argument on …

Melatonin-Micronutrients Osteopenia Treatment Study (Mots): A Translational Study Assessing The Effects Of Melatonin, Strontium Citrate, Vitamin D3 And Vitamin K2 On Bone Density, Bone Turnover Markers And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Postmenopausal Osteopenic Women Following A One-Year Double-Blind Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial And On Osteoblast-Osteoclast Co-Cultures, Sifat Maria

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess if a novel combination of melatonin and three other natural bone-aiding micronutrients: strontium citrate, vitamins D₃ and K₂ (MSDK) could improve bone health by modulating the activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts in favor of balanced bone remodeling and by improving the overall health-related quality of life in postmenopausal osteopenic women.

Methods: The Melatonin-micronutrients Osteopenia Treatment Study (MOTS) is a translational research study that used both clinical and in vitro approaches to assess the efficacy of MSDK on bone health in women and to identify potential mechanisms for its effects. …

American Myth And Ideologies Of Straight White Masculinity In Men's Literary Self-Representations, Mary Parish

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines three autobiographical texts written in post-World War II America (1959-1973) that take as their subject a straight white man’s reflection on and engagement with the exercise of male power and the forces, both internal and external, that shape the degree to which he is “self-made,” i.e., an autonomous agent able to exert his will within a life domain (domestic, public, and war). Each of these writers engages in surveillance not solely of their own power, but also of the men who influence their experience, using their observations to critique, assert, and question the gendered realities and expectations …

Illuminating The Eighteenth-Century British Stage: Perfecting Performance Through Education, Bethany Csomay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Actress studies has become “a truly interdisciplinary field” that “intersect[s] with art, music, literature, history, economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and fashion” (Engel 752). While much scholarship has been conducted on the actress’ life, interaction with material culture, public spectacle, authority, femininity, and writings, the role of an actress’ education in her success has yet to be explored adequately or examined beyond biography. My project seeks to examine the educational beginnings of actresses and I assert there are three modes that eighteenth-century actresses often undertook to cultivate their celebrity and success: inheritance, discovery, and trial and error. This project examines the …

On Hypothetical Contracts, Karim Barakat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation develops a critique of Rawlsian social contract theory by arguing that the normative component of democratic practices must be grounded in nonpolitical reasons. With John Rawls’s rights-based approach, social contract theory has strongly resurfaced by focusing on consent as the basic condition for the formation of a just state. The emphasis on agreement leads Rawls to exclude historical, religious, or philosophical reasons from justifying the ideal conception of justice. Consequently, Rawls completely separates politics from any nonpolitical grounding. I argue, however that Rawls’s project cannot account for its normative commitments unless it makes use of a nonpolitical ground. …

A Theological Analysis Of Confessional-Centric Curriculum Of Christian Religious Education: Towards An Inclusive Religious Pluralistic Centered Curriculum For Nigeria Colleges Of Education, Ilesanmi Ajibola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Desire to live in peace and unity despite the multi ethnic and multi religious composition of Nigeria, remain ideals that are constant in the nation’s Constitution. However, accruable benefits of a culturally and religiously pluralistic society have continued to elude Nigeria due to incessant religious violence arising from the mutual suspicion of Christians and Muslims in the country. Nevertheless, the nation’s National Policy on Education proposes the education sector as one of the platforms to inculcate a sense of unity and religious tolerance in the country. The policy considers the nation’s learning centers and religious courses offered in such institutions …