Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Message Virality And Message Source On Facebook Users’ Perceptions Of Source Credibility, Norms, Attitudes, Emotional Responses, And Behavioral Intentions, Anne M. Borsai

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study explored the effectiveness of an anti-alcohol PSA in the context of Facebook. The study analyzed the effects of message source and message virality (i.e., high shares and likes vs. low shares and likes) on user’s perceived trustworthiness of the post, depth of processing, social norms, attitudes, emotional responses, and behavioral intentions regarding alcohol consumption. Participants viewed an anti-binge drinking PSA developed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted on a mock Facebook profile page in a 2 (message source: CDC post vs. peer-repost) x 2 (virality: high likes and shares vs. low likes and …

Investigating Environmental Inequities In Terms Of Street Greenery Using Google Street View, Xiaojiang Li

Doctoral Dissertations

As an important component of the urban ecosystem, the urban greenery provides a series of benefits to urban residents and plays an important role in maintaining the urban sustainability. Unequal access to urban greenery represents environmental disparities when some urban residents are deprived of the benefits provided by urban greenery. As an important component of the urban greenery, the street greenery provides a series of benefits to urban residents, such as energy saving, provision of shade and aesthetic values. In addition, the street greenery is a kind of publicly financed amenity and the spatial distribution of the street greenery is …

Self Hypnosis For School Success: Empowering Adolescents With Anxiety And Stress, Nilani Shankar

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-hypnosis is a treatment that has been utilized to address the social-emotional concerns of adolescents with high levels of anxiety and stress. In this study, a multiple baseline design across three high school-aged participants was implemented to examine whether self-hypnosis could decrease symptoms of anxiety and stress and help to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The results of the study indicated that the treatment resulted in decreases in trait and state anxiety for two out of three participants, improvements in stress levels for two out of three participants, and improvements in HRQoL for all three participants. Participants reported that …

The Association Of Ethnic-Racial Socialization With Ethnic-Racial Identity In Black Youth: A Meta-Analysis, Khris-Ann K. Small

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Enhanced Patient Education On Patient Satisfaction And 30-Day Readmission Rates After Cardiac Arrhythmia Ablation, Kristin A. Bott

Doctoral Dissertations

Patient satisfaction and 30-day hospital readmission rates are metrics used to assess quality of patient care. Dissatisfied patients pose a high risk of readmission (Boulding, Glickman, Manary, Schulman, Staelin, 2011) and during the vulnerable discharge period, 1 in 7 patients may experience an unavoidable readmission within 30-days post-procedure (Jencks, Williams, &Coleman,2009). Successful patient education programs have been linked to improved patient satisfaction and subsequently reduced unnecessary readmissions (Murdock& Griffin, 2013; Hansen et al., 2011). In an effort to increase satisfaction and reduce readmissions much of the healthcare community’s attention has turned to interventions that have these primary aims. Increased patient …

Novel Methods Of Chromatography And Mass Spectrometry For Quantitative Investigation Of Bacteria-Derived Lipopeptides And Their Relationship With Human Disease, Reza Nemati Josheghani

Doctoral Dissertations

Diseases such as periodontal disease, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune disease are reported to be associated with changes in the bacteria populations in specific locations of the body, particularly the gastrointestinal tract and the oral cavity. Because oral and gastrointestinal microbiomes do not typically invade tissues in the host with chronic inflammatory disease, considerable work has instead focused on virulence factors produced by these organisms and their role in triggering innate immune responses that may promote chronic inflammatory diseases. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are innate immune receptors that recognize specific structural moieties shared among microbes of different classes. My work …

Structural Insight Into The Mechanisms Of Activation And Substrate Specificity Of Human Deubiquitinating Enzyme Usp7, Alexandra Pozhidaeva

Doctoral Dissertations

The major part of this thesis describes studies of human ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7), a deubiquitinating enzyme that regulates cellular levels of key oncoproteins and tumor suppressors. Inactivation of USP7 has recently emerged as a new approach to treatment of malignancies. However, design of potent and specific small-molecule compounds requires detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of USP7 substrate recognition and regulation of its catalytic activity. The goal of this work was to explore these mechanisms using solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in combination with other methods. In our studies of USP7 substrate recognition, we structurally characterized its interaction with …

The Development Of An Online Divergent Thinking Test, Jiajun Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

Divergent thinking (DT) tests are the most frequently used types of creativity assessment and have been administered in traditional paper and pencil format for more than a half century. With the prevalence of computer-based testing and increasing demands for large-scale, faster, and more flexible testing procedures, it is necessary to explore and test the usability of computer-based divergent thinking tests. Yet few studies have focused on the use of technologies in the assessment of creativity, including divergent thinking tests.

The purpose of the present study was to design and test the feasibility of an online divergent thinking (DT) test. The …

Impacts Of Effluent And Stormwater Runoff Sources On Metal Lability And Bioavailability In Developed Streams, Hongwei Luan

Doctoral Dissertations

Urban streams receive Cu from both treated wastewater and stormwater runoff sources. Both sources have significant quantities of organic matter (OM), which is known to control Cu speciation and bioavailability. Individual and mixed water samples from wastewater treatment plant effluents, stormwater runoff, and streams from developed areas were characterized with respect to OM concentration and spectral properties and metal concentration and size distribution. In addition, asymmetric flow-field flow fractionation coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to measure concentration, size distribution and association of metals in the colloidal size range. Results reveal that Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb …

The Relationship Between Emotional Support And Health Related Self-Efficacy In Older Inmates, Deborah N. Steciak-Noujaim

Master's Theses

Inmates age 50 and older are the fastest growing segment of the prison population. Because the majority of inmates return to the community, adequate self-care is essential for managing their overall health. Studies among older community-living persons indicate that emotional support is associated with improved efficacy for managing one’s health (e.g., health related self-efficacy). Data collected from the “Physical Functioning and Mental Health of Older Prisoners” study were analyzed to determine if emotional support is associated with health-related self-efficacy among older inmates in Connecticut. Even after controlling for demographic, incarceration and clinical/behavioral factors, older inmates reporting lower levels of emotional …

Subphonemic Sensitivity In Low Literacy Adults, Monica Y.C. Li

Master's Theses

The link between phonological abilities and reading skills has been well-established in both typical and atypical language development. However, the nature of the phonological deficits in poor readers remains a debated topic. While poor readers have been mostly assumed to have underspecified or “fuzzy” phonological representations (Tallal et al., 1998), the opposite alternative, over-specified phonological representations, has also been hypothesized (Serniclaes, 2006). To examine the two phonological hypotheses, the current study used the eye-tracking paradigm in the study of Dahan et al. (2001) to investigate individuals’ sensitivity to subphonemic information in young adults with a wide range of reading abilities. …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Transition Metal Oxide Catalysts For Environmental And Energy Storage Applications, Wenqiao Song

Doctoral Dissertations

Nowadays, environmental concerns and the global energy crisis have become two of our greatest challenges. The main purpose of this dissertation research is to design highly active mesoporous materials that can efficiently catalyze environmental and energy related reactions. Surface properties can be easily tuned by thermal treatment and cation doping, resulting in improved catalytic activities. Synthesis and characterization of the materials, catalytic activities for carbon monoxide oxidation, oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, and mechanistic studies are covered in this thesis.

The first part describes the synthesis of mesoporous cobalt oxides through an inverse micelle route for low temperature carbon …

Gaussian Kernel Based Medial Zone Computation, Weiling Li

Master's Theses

The medial zone of a 3-dimensional semi-analytic domain Ω, denoted as MZ(Ω), can be thought of as a ``thick'' version of the shape's skeleton with important applications in design, motion planning and geometric reasoning. The utility of the medial zones stems from the fact that they theoretically are homeomorphic to and have the same dimension as the original domain, so in this sense they capture the topology of the domain. However, the original approach to compute them involved a discrete Laplace estimation commonly used in edge detection algorithms, which was used to extract the points belonging to the medial zones. …

The Wu Ming Foundation: A Collective Approach To Literature, Art, And Politics In 21st Century Italy, Melina A. Masterson

Doctoral Dissertations

The early 1990s marked a shift in modern Italian history with the advent of the Second Republic and the arrival of Silvio Berlusconi on the political and cultural scene. Berlusconi’s almost complete control of the country’s media, in addition to his political power as center-right prime minister, presented a unique challenge not only to democracy in general but to Italian culture in particular. It was in this context that Wu Ming, an ‘anonymous’ Bolognese writing collective emerged. In this study, I will argue that the group is both a unique product of and response to the period of 1993-2016, which …

How It Feels To Be Coached: Teacher Perception Of Coaching And Emotional Response To The Coach, Margaret Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Coaching is a strategy employed by districts to improve teacher skill and advance student learning. Despite widespread adoption of coaching, research has not yet explored teachers' emotional responses to coaching, which may impact the success of the coaching practice. This study examines teacher emotions by examining teacher perception of coaching and coinciding emotional response to those perceptions. Using the qualitative case study method, I examined 9 teachers across 3 schools. I found that perception and emotional response were shaped by more than the current coaching practice. Instead, teachers engaged in a mental bookkeeping process, in which perceptions of prior coaching …

Predictive Modeling Of A Two-Stage Gearbox Towards Fault Detection, Edward J. Diehl

Doctoral Dissertations

This research presents a systematic approach to health monitoring using dynamic gearbox models (DGM) and the harmonic wavelet transforms (HWT) for vibration response analysis. A comprehensive DGM is developed, the model parameters are identified through correlated numerical and experimental investigations, and HWT analysis is performed to illustrate the fault detection and diagnosis procedure and capability of this approach. The model fidelity is validated first by spectrum analysis, using constant speed experimental data, and secondly by HWT analysis, using non-stationary experimental data. The comparison confirms that both the frequency content and the predicted, relative response magnitudes match with physical measurements. Model …

Predicting Ultimate Targets With Time-Dependent Predictors, Wei Fu

Doctoral Dissertations

The task of predicting the ultimate payment while a claim is open is critical to insurance claim reserving. It faces three main challenges: (a) right censoring in generalized linear models (GLM), (b) predicting an ultimate fixed target with time-dependent predictors, (c) correlated observations in the same subject. We present three methods in addressing these challenges: (1) a series of GLM and accelerated failure time (AFT) models, (2) a series of Bayesian models, (3) the cumulative longitudinal models (CLM) and generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). For each method, I explore the theoretical foundation, apply it on real claim data, and compare …

Social Capital, Creativity And Cultural Vitality: Prioritization Factors For Sustainable Public Space Systems Design, Rachel D. Gilroy

Master's Theses

The real problems, needs and opportunities of urban neighborhoods are not being served by conventional models of urban planning and sustainable development. The city of New Haven, Connecticut will be studied to develop a framework for planning and design of the public realm (public space/place/landscape) which addresses urban neighborhood sustainability through a social lens, using a mixed-methods, transdisciplinarity research model. Geospatial data on social capital and cultural vitality indicators will be integrated with other sustainability indicators to create a quantitative analysis component. Development of a participatory design process to foster social bonding, creativity and sustainability inquiry will comprise a qualitative …

To Participate Or Not To Participate, That Is The Question: A Critical Phenomenological Study Of Clinical Social Workers And Their Political Participation, Jason A. Ostrander

Doctoral Dissertations

The social work profession is rooted in aiding vulnerable populations to overcome individual problems and the socio-political structures negatively impacting their lives. Firmly embedded in the NASW’s Code of Ethics (2008) are the concepts of social justice, social change, and political engagement, which should transpire in every form of professional practice. This is further evidenced by the CSWE’s (2015) dictum that social work students should engage in collaborative action within the profession and in tandem with clients to usher in equitable policies and forge social reform. Yet, macro-oriented scholars have accused the profession of neglecting its obligation to social change …

The Microbiome Of The Eastern Oyster, Crassostrea Virginica (Gmelin, 1791): Temporal And Spatial Variation, Environmental Influences, And Its Impact On Host Physiology, Melissa L. Pierce

Doctoral Dissertations

Prokaryotic communities are ubiquitous in every environment on earth. In the oceans they are integral to a number of biogeochemical processes and form the base of marine food webs. Microbes have also coevolved with eukaryotes, aiding in a variety of host functions including digestion and nutrient absorption, development of the immune system, and protection against pathogens. The disruption of these microbial communities, especially in the gut, has been linked to altered health statuses and physiological functions in a range of hosts. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin, 1791), is a valuable economic and ecological resource in near-shore environments. As a …

Electrodermal Activity: What It Can Contribute To The Assessment Of The Autonomic Nervous System, Hugo F. Posada-Quintero

Doctoral Dissertations

About 70 million people worldwide are affected by dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). These dysfunctions can lead to life-threatening conditions, because ANS controls vital functions like heart rate, digestion, respiration, among others. Spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) allows noninvasive assessment of the ANS. However, the low frequencies (0.04-0.15 Hz) of HRV are influenced by the two complementary branches of the ANS, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems; hence, the spectral analysis cannot separate the dynamics of these autonomic tones. Developing reliable noninvasive techniques for assessment of the ANS dynamics remains a challenge for scientists. Recently, measure …

“Hey, Nice Run!” Exploring Motives For Smartphone Exercise App Use, Michael S. Fuller

Doctoral Dissertations

The rapid pace at which smartphone applications are currently diffusing through society have made them a very popular form of media. Smartphone applications (commonly referred to as apps) allow users the ability to complete a variety of media functions such as receive news updates, sport scores, view television programs, and listen to the radio. Exercise apps are a sub category of smartphone apps which allow users to monitor their exercise progress through the Global Positioning System included in most smartphones. To date, the motives for exercise apps have not been examined within the framework of Uses and Gratifications. This essay …

Evaluation Of The Therapeutic Management Of Childhood Diarrhea, Ana Francisca Diallo

Doctoral Dissertations

Therapeutic management of childhood diarrhea had led to a significant decrease in diarrhea related morbidity and mortality. However, diarrhea diseases remain one of the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide, especially in children under 5 years. The work presented in this dissertation intended to evaluate the current the management of childhood diarrhea, to identify the major gaps in the management and introduce a novel approach to address these gaps. First, an assessment of oral rehydration therapies (ORT) coverage in the management of childhood diarrhea is performed to evaluate healthcare providers’ prescriptive practices of ORT in South Asia. Next, we assess …

A Novel Tree Structure For Pattern Matching In Biological Sequences, Anas Al-Okaily

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a novel tree structure, Error Tree (ET), to more efficiently solve the Approximate Pattern Matching problem, a fundamental problem in bioinformatics and information retrieval. The problem involves different matching measures such as the Hamming distance, edit distance, and wildcard matching. The input is usually a text of length n over a fixed alphabet of size Σ, a pattern P of length m, and an integer k. The output is those subsequences in the text that are at a distance ≤ k from P by Hamming distance, edit distance, or wildcard matching.

An immediate application …

Hiv Testing Avoidance: A Comparison Of Psychosocial Factors Affecting Hiv Testing In Gay And Bisexual Men, Devon Michelle Price

Master's Theses

This paper explores the role three psychosocial factors influence an at-risk individual’s decision to get tested for HIV. Two of the psychosocial factors, HIV stigma and fatalistic beliefs regarding an HIV positive diagnosis, have been well documented in the literature on HIV testing and psychosocial barriers. However, the third psychosocial factor, the tendency to avoid threatening information, has not been studied in relation to HIV testing. The present paper seeks to explore how each of these factors impact both past and present HIV testing behaviors in gay and bisexual identified men. HIV stigma and fatalistic beliefs related to an …

Understanding Concurrency For Graph Workloads In Large Scale Multicores, Masab Ahmad

Master's Theses

Algorithms operating on a graph setting are known to be highly irregular and un- structured. This leads to workload imbalance and data locality challenge when these algorithms are parallelized and executed on the evolving multicore processors. Previous parallel benchmark suites for shared memory multicores have focused on various workload domains, such as scientific, graphics, and vision. However, these suites lack graph applications that must be evaluated in the context of architectural design space for futuristic multicores. This paper presents CRONO, a benchmark suite composed of multi-threaded graph algorithms for shared memory multicore processors. We analyze and characterize these benchmarks using …

Self-Care Behaviors Of Women Living With Heart Failure: A Mixed Methods Study, Susan Bartos

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-care is paramount to the successful management of heart failure. Although recent trends in heart failure have shown a decline in hospitalizations and emergency room visits, observational unit admissions related to heart failure exacerbations continue to rise (Albert, 2016). Although nearly half (47%) of the heart failure population is female women are historically under-represented in heart failure research that guide best practice recommendations (Pressler, 2016). Therefore, the primary aim of this mixed methods study was to identify differences in women who demonstrate an adequate heart failure self-care maintenance (score >70) behaviors as compared to women who score inadequately (score < 69) as measured by the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) version 6.2. Quantitative data revealed a significant, parabolic relationship between heart failure self-care maintenance and self-care confidence scores. Qualitative analysis suggested that assuming an active or passive role in heart failure self-care plays an important role in women’s heart failure self-care maintenance. Mixed methods analysis revealed high heart failure self-care confidence levels may not reflect an adequate level of heart failure self-care maintenance behaviors. Further research is required to expand on the factors that were found to both facilitate and impede heart failure self-care and to continue to improve health outcomes for women with heart failure.

The Perceived Validity Of Stereotype Threat As An Explanation For Underperformance, Gabriel Camacho

Master's Theses

Research demonstrates that members of stigmatized groups may underperform when stereotype threat is induced. No research, however, has examined whether attributing underperformance to stereotype threat is perceived as a likely or valid explanation. In two experiments White students were randomly assigned to review the test performance of a fellow student described as a racial/ethnic minority (stigmatized group) or White (non-stigmatized group). Experiment 1 revealed that Hispanic and Black students were significantly more likely to have their underperformance attributed to dispositional and stereotypic causes than a White student. Experiment 2 revealed that White students perceived attributing underperformance to stereotype threat as …

The Role Of Diversity Of Academic Major In Influencing Group And Individual Creativity, Xiaochen Liu

Master's Theses

This study examined, on a preliminary basis, the role of diversity of academic major in influencing individual and group divergent thinking. Prior studies on diversity provide evidence that working with diverse individuals can make groups more productive in generating creative ideas. Diversity of academic major is an important element of group diversity that has not been sufficiently studied. This study provided direction for future research to help us understand the ways that diversity may influence creative thinking as well as enrich the school curriculum. A total of 56 graduate students from University of Connecticut were recruited to study this issue. …

How To Beat Without Feet: Weight Scales And Parameter Dependencies In The Computation Of Word Accent, Alexandre Vaxman

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines word accent assignment in phonological, lexical and mixed accent systems with the goal of providing a uniform account of these types of systems in terms of a single accent-assigning mechanism.

Taking as a point of departure the Primary Accent First theory (van der Hulst 1996, 2010, 2012), I introduce here the Scales-and-Parameters (S&P) theory which proposes a set of parameters related by ordering and dependencies. Empirical testing reveals that, for phonological accent systems, the S&P parameter system closely approaches descriptive adequacy.

In order to account for phonological and lexical accent systems with the same grammar, a new …