Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Top-Down Attention And Individual Differences On Recognition Memory And Recollective Experience., Anna Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Memory accuracy and detail hold practical importance, and psychology has studied means to improve memory. One such means is performing visually guided saccades immediately before a memory test. Previous work has found this intervention to improve memory performance, an effect dubbed Saccade-Induced Retrieval Enhancement or SIRE. The top-down attentional control account posits that SIRE occurs because saccades activate attentional control regions in the brain, which contributes to executing top-down attentional control when searching memory. The current experiment tested this account of SIRE by attempting to replicate previous results and investigating whether a different attentional task, the Revised Attention Network Test …

A New Direction For Public Understanding Of Science: Toward A Participant-Centered Model Of Science Engagement., Christopher Rickels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engaging the public with science is not an easy task. When presented, scientific findings, public health recommendations, and other scientific information filter through the personal values, beliefs, and biases of members of the public. Science communicators must contend with these differences in order to be effective in cultivating a public understanding of science. Given the importance of scientific understanding for living well in a complex world, increasing science understanding through science engagement is imperative. The field of public engagement with science is dichotomized by a public information deficit approach and a contextualist approach. The deficit approach prizes the factual content …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Professional Development And Pedagogical Practice: A Study Of A Kentucky Suburban School District., Rachelle Bramlage-Schomburg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Professional development supports teacher growth and enhances pedagogical practice. Teachers in Kentucky must complete annual professional development hours and districts must develop a professional development plan tied to research that supports high-quality professional development. This qualitative case study takes place in a rural district, Bullitt County, where I investigated the teachers’ perception of a customized professional development, Thinking Focus Cohort (TFC), and its impact on their pedagogical practice. While a body of research exists on high quality professional development, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of it, in particular a year-long cohort model with curriculum centered around …

Hgf-Mediated C-Met Signaling In Human Corneal Epithelial Cells., Kate Tarvestad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vision is often regarded as the primary sense of humans. The cornea is the main refractive tissue that permits light through to the retina, allowing a clear image. When the cornea sustains damage, it opens a pathway for infection and blindness through fibrotic processes. Healing the corneal tissue is critical for vision restoration and pain alleviation. Growth factors and their cognate receptors are currently under investigation as tools to restore proper corneal physiology. We hypothesize that manipulating the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/ c-Met signaling pathway is one route to promote quality corneal healing. This thesis investigates the signaling, trafficking, and …

Age-Related Differences In The Relationship Between Activity Familiarity And Well-Being., S. Kelly Shryock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background and Objectives: This study explored age-related differences in the relationship between activity novelty/familiarity and well-being, conceptualized within theories including Selection, Optimization, and Compensation (SOC), Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST). For all ages, participation in activities has been shown to enhance well-being. Known mediators of this relationship include psychological, physical, and psychosocial benefits. It is less clear what types of experiences are optimal across the lifespan. Research Design and Methods: A online cross-sectional, correlational study (N= 200) was conducted. Measures included demographic data, ratings of three self-identified recent activities, three activity choices of familiar or …

Investigating The Income Academic Achievement Gap: An Exploration Of The Roles Of Mindfulness And Self-Concept Clarity In Low-Income College Students., Natalie Burke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether linguistic patterns previously associated with trait mindfulness and self-concept clarity in low-income college students’ application essays are associated with academic performance and psychosocial variables. The aims of the study were as follows: 1) Explore relations between linguistic markers that have been previously associated with higher mindfulness/self-concept clarity and GPA and 2) Explore relations between linguistic markers that have been previously associated with higher mindfulness/self-concept clarity and anxiety/depression. Participants were 54 undergraduate students in the Cardinal Covenant program (a scholarship program for students from low-income families) who began college in the …

A Mixed Methods Assessment Of Menstrual Hygiene Management And School Attendance Among Schoolgirls In Edo State, Nigeria., Madeline Tomlinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Menstrual hygiene in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited and has been linked to many health, educational and social effects. However, the prevalence, details, and impact of menstrual hygiene management have not been well characterized in rural and peri-urban settings across Nigeria. The overall purpose of this research was to investigate menstrual hygiene management (MHM) among adolescent schoolgirls in peri-urban areas of Edo State, Nigeria; and to determine the educational consequences associated with poor MHM. MHM was measured using previously validated questions that were adapted after a formative assessment of MHM within the Edo State community. We used a mixed methods …

Cadence And Range Of Motion Modulate Pedal Force In A Rat Model Of Motorized Cycling After Spinal Cord Injury., Gregory States

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Motorized cycling (MC) can be utilized post-spinal cord injury (SCI) in patients who lack the strength and/or stability to participate in traditional physical exercise interventions. MC has been applied with the goal of improving locomotor function or cardiovascular health in both human and animal models of SCI. However, a discrepancy exists between the results of human and animal studies of MC, particularly regarding cardiovascular outcomes. Despite the abundance of studies in both humans and animals, the mechanism behind the improvements in cardiovascular function following MC are poorly understood. We posited that increased venous return during MC is likely due to …

Self-Regulation In Young School-Aged Children With Williams Syndrome., Holley Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation included two manuscripts which broadly focused on the self-regulation abilities of young school-aged children with Williams syndrome (WS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. Children with WS often exhibit mild to moderate intellectual disability (Kozel et al., 2021), impairments in behavioral and emotional regulation (Greiner de Magalhães et al., 2022), low effortful control (Leyfer et al., 2012), and deficits in adaptive skills (Brawn & Porter, 2018). In the first manuscript, the performance of children with WS on a gift-wrap delay of gratification task was characterized. In the second manuscript, the concurrent effects of the ability to regulate emotions, the ability …

Models And Algorithms For Trauma Network Design., Sagarkumar Dhirubhai Hirpara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trauma continues to be the leading cause of death and disability in the US for people aged 44 and under, making it a major public health problem. The geographical maldistribution of Trauma Centers (TCs), and the resulting higher access time to the nearest TC, has been shown to impact trauma patient safety and increase disability or mortality. State governments often design a trauma network to provide prompt and definitive care to their citizens. However, this process is mainly manual and experience-based and often leads to a suboptimal network in terms of patient safety and resource utilization. This dissertation fills important …

Changing Public Perception Of Dementia: The Effect And Credibility Of Three Informational Models., Diana Hedrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Since the 1970s, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia have been portrayed in a medicalized, symptom-focused manner to help spread awareness, improve diagnosis, and push for treatment research. In recent decades, there has been movement towards a biopsychosocial, person-centered approach that considers social and psychological factors that interact with biological diseases processes. Common biopsychosocial approaches retain an emphasis on deficits and symptoms. New research has integrated positive psychology constructs and dementia. This integration of positive psychology principles and dementia care and research has the potential to more accurately capture the experience of having dementia. Objectives: This dissertation tested how the portrayal …

Re-Engineering Cardio-Oncology Testing Using Biomimetic Heart Slice Cultures., Jessica Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

28% of drug withdrawal from the market are due to unforeseen disruptions in cardiomyocyte contractility and electrophysiology. The most commonly used platforms for drug testing are in vivo animal models and in vitro cell culture models. While both have been of paramount importance for the discovery and detection of many cardiotoxicities and mechanisms of action, they lack the ability to model an intact human myocardium. This work aims to establish cardiac tissue slices, which are 300-micron thin tissue sections taken from the left ventricular myocardium, as an alternative platform for cardio-oncology studies, specifically cardiotoxicity testing. Additionally, this work aims to …

Iot In Smart Communities, Technologies And Applications., Muhammad Zaigham Abbas Shah Syed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Internet of Things is a system that integrates different devices and technologies, removing the necessity of human intervention. This enables the capacity of having smart (or smarter) cities around the world. By hosting different technologies and allowing interactions between them, the internet of things has spearheaded the development of smart city systems for sustainable living, increased comfort and productivity for citizens. The Internet of Things (IoT) for Smart Cities has many different domains and draws upon various underlying systems for its operation, in this work, we provide a holistic coverage of the Internet of Things in Smart Cities by discussing …

Mejorar La Raza: Measuring The Implicit Anti-Black Racial Bias Of Multiracial Individuals., Katalina Traxler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation sought to examine if there are implicit anti-Black racial bias differences across multiracial people who identify as Black/White compared to multiracial people who do not identify as Black/White, accounting for age, citizenship, and education level. It was also determined if age, citizenship status, and education level moderate the relationship between multiracial identity and implicit anti-Black racial bias. The theories guiding this dissertation were: Heider’s Balance Theory, Multiracial Identity Development, and White Identity Development. The data were collected from Project Implicit, a non-profit organization and international collaborative of researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition. The data analysis …

Alpha, Beta-Unsaturated Aldehydes: The Underrepresented Markers Of Disease., Saurin Sutaria

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The peroxidation of unsaturated fatty acids is a widely recognized metabolic process that creates a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds including aldehydes. Elevated levels of reactive oxygen species in cancer cells promote random lipid peroxidation, which leads to an increase in a variety of aldehydes. Many of these volatile aldehydes are exhaled and are of interest as potential markers of disease. Chapter 1 presents a review of reported aldehydes in the exhaled breath of lung cancer patients. alpha,beta-Unsaturated aldehydes, detected primarily when derivatized during exhaled breath preconcentration, are underreported in the reviewed articles. Chapter 1 concludes with our hypothesis …

Increasing Self-Determination Skill Through Behavioral Skills Training For Individuals With Extensive Support Needs To Examine Reversible Contraceptive Choices., Jennifer Pollard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a long history of individuals with extensive support needs (ESN) being sterilized without their knowledge and consent. Students with ESN are defined as individuals who need continuous and widespread supports necessary for academic, communication, and/or daily living skills. These individuals typically have more than one diagnosis including a developmental disability (DD), intellectual disability (ID), and/or traumatic brain injury (Kurth et al., 2019; Taub et al., 2017). Part of the reason this is able to occur is due to a lack of education about sexual development and a lack of interventions to build skills related to self-determination or informed …

Establishing The Efficacy Of Non-Cellular Components Of Adipose-Derived Stromal Vascular Fraction In Promoting Angiogenesis., Daniel Benson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microvascular disease is hallmarked by pathophysiological conditions such as endothelial senescence, intimal thickening which impairs vasodilation, and regression of the capillary beds causing tissue ischemia in the myocardium or in peripheral vascular networks. Adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction (SVF) has previously demonstrated the ability to revascularize tissue. Increasing evidence shows that regenerative cells elicit their therapeutic benefit by paracrine mechanisms, leaving open extracellular vesicles (EVs) as a potential crux of the cell therapy paradigm. To test this idea, three types of gelatin methacrylate hydrogels were employed: SVF gels, EV gels derived from SVF, and blank control gels, which were used in-vitro …

Assessment Of Veteran Satisfaction With Telehealth Services During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Rhonda Kay Howard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

With the advent of the COVID-19 public health emergency in the United States, many U.S. veterans were unable to maintain their usual office visits due to safe access concerns. Patients were strongly encouraged to maintain their healthcare needs at home by utilizing online technology resources like telehealth services with their healthcare providers. Providing excellent healthcare services for veterans during COVID-19 became a challenge for primary care providers at many veteran healthcare organizations. Since little was known about the satisfaction of veteran clients with healthcare management using virtual care during the pandemic, this formative program evaluation was designed to survey …

Understanding The Role Of Faculty Advising In Graduate Allied Healthcare Profession Programs As Practitioners Transition To Professor, Lillie Marie Barnett Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals in allied healthcare professions continue to see growth in all areas, including clinical practice and higher education. Leaders at the university level, alongside leadership within allied healthcare accreditation bodies for disciplines like athletic training, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology, maintain the need to grow the professions through master’s and doctoral degree programs. With the growth, many working practitioners move from clinical practice to academia with little to no experience or understanding of higher education and all the responsibilities of the job. This quantitative research study used a purposive sampling of allied healthcare professionals across the United States …

Benchmarking And Developing Novel Methods For G Protein-Coupled Receptor Ligand Discovery, Gregory Leon Szwabowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) are integral membrane proteins mediating responses from extracellular effectors that regulate a diverse set of physiological functions. Consequently, GPCR are the targets of ~34% of current FDA-approved drugs.3 Although it is clear that GPCR are therapeutically significant, discovery of novel drugs for these receptors is often impeded by a lack of known ligands and/or experimentally determined structures for potential drug targets. However, computational techniques have provided paths to overcome these obstacles. As such, this work discusses the development and application of novel computational methods and workflows for GPCR ligand discovery. Chapter 1 provides an overview of …

The Impact Of Switching Schools On College-Going, Anne Walton Garrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large urban school districts, especially those with high concentrations of minority and economically disadvantaged students, have high rates of nonstructural student mobility (nonpromotional school-switching). The students in these school districts tend to be the very ones who stand to benefit the most from college attainment. However, the extent to which nonstructural student mobility impacts students’ likelihood of going to college is not fully known. This quasi-experimental study of a class of high school graduates in one urban district fills a gap in the literature by both examining the effects of switching schools in grades 3–12 on college-going and establishing causality …

Nuclear Medicine Technologists' Motivations To Pursue Post-Primary Credentials, Donna C. Mars

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the motivations guiding nuclear medicine technologists to pursue post-primary credentials in computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) through the framework of the expectancy-value theory. A survey was used to answer the research question: Do the values nuclear medicine technologists associate with a post-primary certification in CT or MRI predict their intention to pursue a post-primary credential? The study included certified nuclear medicine technologists from eight states in the southeastern regions of the United States. The answers from 237 respondent, which equates to 8.6% of the population, were used in …

Contribution Of The Orbitofrontal Cortex To Delayed Punishment Discounting, Anna E. Liley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to accumulate rewards while minimizing negative consequences is a valuable survival skill. Importantly, many psychiatric diseases such as substance use disorder (SUD; Bechara, 2005; Gowin et al., 2013), attention deficit hyperactivity (Magnus et al., 2021), anxiety (Hartley and Phelps, 2012), major depressive, bipolar, and schizophrenia disorders (Whitton et al., 2015) involve impaired decision-making that can lead to detrimental outcomes. One factor that causes maladaptive decision-making is insensitivity to negative consequences, especially those that occur later in time (Murphy et al., 2001; Bechara and Dolan, 2002; Field et al., 2019). These studies were among the first to investigate how …

Evaluation Of Surficial Non-Liquefiable Soil Layer Impacts On Liquefaction Surface Manifestation Of The West Tennessee Area Based On Finite Difference Methods, Hamed Tohidi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An investigation of the impact of shear strength and thickness of non-liquefiable soil layers on the surface manifestation of liquefaction based on finite difference numerical methods and to investigate the liquefaction potential of the West Tennessee area was performed by (1) analyzing liquefaction potential of Lake, Dyer, Lauderdale, and Tipton Counties, which are in West Tennessee and within or near the New Madrid Seismic Zone, based on the liquefaction potential indices of LPI and LPIISH methods; (2) developing a numerical model to perform liquefaction analysis ; (3) validating the developed numerical model in FLAC based on the evaluation of New …

Improvements In Digital Holographic Microscopy, Raul Andres Castaneda Quintero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Ph.D. dissertation consists of developing a series of innovative computational methods for improving digital holographic microscopy (DHM). DHM systems are widely used in quantitative phase imaging for studying micrometer-size biological and non-biological samples. As any imaging technique, DHM systems have limitations that reduce their applicability. Current limitations in DHM systems are: i) the number of holograms (more than three holograms) required in slightly off-axis DHM systems to reconstruct the object phase information without applying complex computational algorithms; ii) the lack of an automatic and robust computation algorithm to compensate for the interference angle and reconstruct the object phase information …

Predicting Assistive Technology Self-Efficacy In Teachers Of Students With Visual Impairments, Allen Huang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students who are blind and visually impaired can use assistive technology (AT) improve their access to the educational environment. Mastering the use of AT is a crucial part of developing long-term independence and productivity in academic, vocational, and leisure settings. However, teachers of students with visual impairments (TVIs) report poor self-efficacy for teaching and supporting the use of AT. TVIs with low assistive technology self-efficacy (ATSE) may be less likely to use AT with their students, teach and support AT effectively, and persist through difficult experiences with students’ AT. Subsequently, students are at risk of not being exposed to AT …

Medication Adherence And People Living With Hiv: A Qualitative Study, Lisa L. Dale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract While significant strides have developed evidence-based preventions and treatments for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), only 26% percent of HIV-positive people in care achieve the treatment objective of viral suppression (Viral Suppression, 2018). While the literature has identified a positive relationship between patient-provider communication and optimum treatment adherence, nonadherence is poorly understood, and no evidence-based model for such communication exists. This study aims to examine the perspectives of HIV-positive patients and family/friend caregivers (FFC) related to treatment adherence, as most of the literature has been dominated by the clinician’s point of view. Further, this work seeks to provide knowledge …

Deep Learning -Powered Computational Intelligence For Cyber-Attacks Detection And Mitigation In 5g-Enabled Electric Vehicle Charging Station, Manoj Basnet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) infrastructure is the backbone of transportation electrification. However, the EVCS has various cyber-attack vulnerabilities in software, hardware, supply chain, and incumbent legacy technologies such as network, communication, and control. Therefore, proactively monitoring, detecting, and defending against these attacks is very important. The state-of-the-art approaches are not agile and intelligent enough to detect, mitigate, and defend against various cyber-physical attacks in the EVCS system. To overcome these limitations, this dissertation primarily designs, develops, implements, and tests the data-driven deep learning-powered computational intelligence to detect and mitigate cyber-physical attacks at the network and physical layers of …

The Influence Of Audio And Video Quality On Perceptions Of The Psychotherapist, Olivia Glasgow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The recent Coronavirus pandemic made remote means of conducting psychotherapy more common, and although there is a large amount of research on the mode of therapy, little research exists on the effects of video and audio quality on perceptions of the therapist. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the evaluation of a therapist changes when viewing different audiovisual qualities of recorded in-person therapy interactions. Participants were randomly assigned to view audio or video therapy interactions with differing levels of audiovisual quality. Analyses revealed a statistically significant difference in observer perceptions of interpersonal characteristics, such as empathy and …

Investigating The Rat Grimace Scale As A Potential Indicator Of Chronic Pain Following Forelimb Deafferentation, Nasreen Nemati

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reorganization of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) that follows deafferentation may play a role in phantom limb pain (PLP). An animal model of forelimb amputation and subsequent S1 reorganization, like the rat, could advance research in the underlying mechanisms of PLP. The rat grimace scale (RGS) is a method of behavioral analysis used to quantify the affective state. In this study, 8 amputee and 4 sham-operated rats were observed for a minimum of one week pre-surgery and up to 11 weeks post-surgery to score the facial behaviors using RGS. The change in overall average pre-surgery and post-surgery RGS score was …