Digital Commons Network^™

Examining The Use Of Mindfulness Meditation To Enhance Attention Regulation Efficiency In Nursing Students, Kathleen Burger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of mindfully-attentive nursing graduates is a heightened charge for pre-licensure nurse educators given an increasingly complex healthcare workplace in which nurse's must detect patient risk among multiple stimuli, distractions, and interruption (Beyea, 2007; Cornell et al., 2010; Ebright, et al., 2006). Novice nurses frequently report symptoms of cognitive overload associated with error and other negative patient outcomes (Ebright, Urden, Patterson, & Chalko, 2004; McGillis Hall et al., 2010; Unver, Tastan, & Akbayrak, 2012) yet standard pre-licensure nursing curricula does not specifically prepare students for the needed attention regulation skills of safe nursing practice. Recent and accumulating neuroscientific research …

Monoamine Transporter Photoaffinity Ligands Based On Methylphenidate And Citalopram: Rational Design, Chemical Synthesis, And Biochemical Application, Nageswari Yarravarapu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monoamine transporters (MATs) are a family of proteins that include the dopamine transporter (DAT), serotonin transporter (SERT), and norepinephrine transporter (NET). Specifically, dysregulation of MAT function is associated with a host of disease states including drug abuse, major depressive disorder, and anxiety. Additionally, several drugs acting as MAT inhibitors are clinically available to treat multiple disorders. However, details regarding the transport inhibition mechanism created by these drugs, as well as their discrete ligand-binding pockets within their target MAT proteins, remains poorly understood. This knowledge gap in turn hinders rational development of novel therapeutics for numerous MAT-associated disorders. The objective of …

The Visible And Invisible Aspects Of Miscarriage: A Phenomenological, Hermeneutic, Imaginal Study, Denise M. Mahone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative study that used an innovative, phenomenological, hermeneutic, imaginal method to explore the implicit, embodied, and imaginal dimensions of three women's lived experiences of perinatal loss and its aftermath. The study has a dual, but overlapping, focus on a holistic elaboration of women's lived experience of perinatal loss that includes these less articulated dimensions of experience, as well as a focus on the process and implications of the innovative method itself as a research approach. Findings are presented accordingly, addressing both new understandings about the lived phenomenon of miscarriage, and foregrounding the working method through which those …

Well Water Quality In Southern Butler County, Pennsylvania, Scott Mayes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increase in unconventional shale gas extraction in Pennsylvania has resulted in an increased number of groundwater contamination claims. Well water quality was investigated in southern Butler County, PA where 387 unconventional gas wells have been drilled since 2006. A total of 121 households participated in a survey and 238 well water samples were tested. Specific conductivity, pH, and dissolved oxygen in these samples were measured in the field and seven anion concentrations and thirty metal concentrations were measured in the lab. A subset of 91 water wells was also tested for light hydrocarbons (methane, ethane, ethylene, propylene, propane, butane). …

Secretion Of Malaria Transmission-Blocking Proteins From Paratransgenic Bacteria, Nicholas Bongio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Malaria is a debilitating and deadly disease that afflicts over 200 million people and kills over 600 thousand each year. Due to quickly evolving drug resistance and lack of an affordable vaccine, novel interventions are needed to fight the Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria. Targeting Plasmodium inside their mosquito hosts is one approach that could complement other preventative and medicinal interventions by reducing the ability of the mosquitoes to transmit the disease to humans. The research presented here uses paratransgenesis, the genetic modification of symbiotic bacteria within the mosquito midgut, to provide antimalarial protein to the mosquito and to interfere …

Development Of Extraction Method For Persistent Organic Pollutants In Water And Dietary Supplement Using Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction And Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry, Weier Hao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in drinking water and dietary supplements can be sources of xenobiotic pollutants in human body and cause detrimental impacts on human health. In this study, an accurate, precise, sensitive, reproducible, and green method was developed to quantify POPs in water and dietary supplements using stir bar sorptive extraction- gas chromatography- mass spectrometry and isotope dilution mass spectrometry. Different analytical parameters were tested for method optimization. Based on efficiency as well as recovery of the analytes, stirring at room temperature for one hour with water and methanol as solvent was selected as the optimal method. After validation, …

Predictors Of Breast Cancer Screening And Cancer Genetic Services Use Among Young African American Female Breast Cancer Survivors: A Secondary Data Analysis, Tarsha Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the breast cancer screening behaviors and cancer genetic services (genetic testing and counseling) use among African American female breast cancer survivors diagnosed between the ages of 20-45 years of age (Young Breast Cancer Survivors -YBCS). Additionally, this study examined factors that predicted these breast cancer screening behaviors.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: An expanded version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) as modified by (Katapodi et al., 2013) guided this study. According to the original theory, knowledge/attitudes, subjective norms regarding the behavior, and perceived control towards the behavior predicts one's intention to …