Digital Commons Network^™

What Motives Drive Pornography Consumption, Charlotte R. Esplin

Theses and Dissertations

Pornography use has become widespread and mainstream in American society, with estimates that 60% of men and 35% of women have viewed pornography at some time in the last year. Pornography use has been associated with both positive and negative outcomes depending on the user, and some of these conflicting results may stem from problematic measurement. Using a newly validated measure that assesses frequency, duration, arousal, and deliberate or accidental exposure to seven common types of pornography, we sought to understand if the motivations to view pornography differed depending on biological sex of the user and the type of use …

Stemors: A Stochastic Eco-Hydrological Model For Optimal Reservoir Sizing, Aristotelis Koskinas, Tegos Aristoteles Dr.

Open Water Journal

Dams design and their operation cause strong environmental alteration and therefore a long-term debate is ongoing for the scale of these projects. At the same time, the concept of Environmental Flow Assessment (EFA) is a crucial element of modified ecosystems featuring large infrastructure such as dams and reservoirs for mitigating potential environmental degradation while they operate. Nowadays, integrated scientific frameworks are required to quantify the risks caused by large infrastructure. Through the use of stochastic analysis, it is possible to quantify these uncertainties, and present a solution that incorporates long-term persistence and environmental sustainability into a balanced reservoir simulation model. …

Local Water Management Practice Of Farmers For Irrigated Agriculture In Coastal Region Of Bangladesh, Khalid Md. Bahauddin, Mohammad Touhidul Islam Bhuyan

Open Water Journal

The agricultural system of coastal regions of Bangladesh is heavily dependent on environmental factors such as the timing, intensity and distribution of the monsoon, soil salinity and the availability of freshwater for irrigation. This study explores and documents the farmers’ practices of innovative approaches to fresh water storage and uses in the agriculture and irrigation in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. The study was mostly qualitative in nature but some quantitative primary data were collected based on the study objectives. Primary data were collected through in-depth individual interviews, group discussions, focused group discussions and key informant interviews. The data collection …

Everyday Communication Challenges In Aphasia: Descriptions Of Experiences And Coping Strategies, Tyson G. Harmon

Faculty Publications

Background: Everyday communication often occurs in situations that pose high attentional and social demands. People with aphasia have reported perceiving greater challenge communicating in these situations, but more specific information about these challenges could help clinicians and researchers work toward more meaningful intervention outcomes and increased life participation.

Aims: To explore the everyday communication experiences of people with aphasia based on their own perspectives and to identify how they report coping with everyday communication challenges.

Method: Twenty-one participants with mild or moderate aphasia completed semi-structured interviews that immediately followed the experimental arm of a larger project. Interview questions solicited descriptions …

Exploring Teacher Beliefs Of Adolescent Developmental Needs Through Positive Student Comments Of Their Teachers, Elizabeth Bowers Hinchcliff

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to qualitatively examine the intersection between teachers' practical reasoning and beliefs, adolescent developmental needs, and positive teacher-student relationships. Positive comments about middle school teachers were gathered anonymously from middle school students (grades 6-8; ages 11-14) and coded according to four developmental domains: physical, social, emotional, and physical. Chi square analysis was used to determine statistical significance of which domains students alluded to most often when describing their teachers. The six middle school teachers who were mentioned most frequently in the student comments participated in semi-structured, open-ended interviews in which they were asked about the developmental needs of …

Effect Of Water Consumption On Resting Metabolism In Adults, Brittany Leigh Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the acute effect of water consumption on resting metabolic rate (RMR). It was hypothesized that water would have a small, nonclinically significant effect on RMR. Men and women ages 18–40 years participated in a crossover study in which each participant received a No Water and Water condition (order determined randomly) with a 7-day washout period between each condition. Both conditions began with visual analog scales to gauge hunger and thirst levels, urine spectrometry to quantify hydration status, and height and weight measurements. The No Water condition consisted of a 30-minute rest period followed by 45 minutes of …

Always Something There To Remind Me: The Role Of Nudging In Assignment Submission, Carolyn Anne Bancroft Andrews

Theses and Dissertations

Online learning continues to widen in popularity by providing greater access and flexibility in time and location the learning occurs. There is a shift in the profile of a traditional college student. Almost half of the students who are enrolled in online classes are 24 or older and tend to carry increased time constraints due to external factors such as employment and family responsibilities. Student retention remains a concern for institutions. Many students lack the skills necessary to be successful in the online platform. Research reports self-regulation learning skills are essential. Providing reminders for an upcoming assignment may give needed …

Spared Perception Of The Structure Of Scenes After Hippocampal Damage, Zhisen J. Urgolites, Ramona O. Hopkins, Larry R. Squire

Faculty Publications

To explore whether the hippocampus might be important for certain spatial operations in addition to its well-known role in memory, we administered two tasks in which participants judged whether objects embedded in scenes or whether scenes themselves could exist in 3-D space. Patients with damage limited to the hippocampus performed as well as controls in both tasks. A patient with large medial-temporal lobe lesions had a bias to judge objects in scenes and scenes themselves as possible, performing well with possible stimuli but poorly with impossible stimuli in both tasks. All patients were markedly impaired at remembering the tasks. The …

Assessing Levels Of Corrosion On Extracted Mse Wall Reinforcement, Robert Ashton Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to extract galvanized steel wire reinforcement coupons from mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls along I-15 and determine the rate of corrosion that has taken place since Phase I, which was conducted by Gerber and Billings (2010). The galvanized steel reinforcement analyzed in this study has been in place for 19 to 20 years at the time of extraction. A total of 85 coupons were extracted and laboratory analysis was performed to determine the thickness of remaining zinc galvanization on each coupon. Soil samples were obtained from each one-stage wall extraction location to determine moisture …

Characterization Of Hemicellulose Biosynthesis Genes In Avena, Melissa Coon Fogarty

Theses and Dissertations

Avena sativa L. (2n = 6x = 42, AACCDD genome composition) or common oat is the cereal grain possessing the highest levels of water-soluble seed (1-3,1-4)-β-D-glucan (β-glucan), a hemicellulose important to human health due to its ability to lower serum LDL cholesterol levels. Understanding the mechanisms of β-glucan accumulation in oat endosperm is, consequently, of great interest. We report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling β-glucan production in oat, identifying 58 significantly associated markers. Synteny with the barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genome identified four major regions of interest, the CslF and CslH gene families …

Capillary Morphogenesis Gene Protein 2 (Cmg2) Mediates Matrix Protein Uptake And Is Required For Endothelial Cell Chemotaxis In Response To Multiple Vascular Growth Factors, Tsz Ming Jeremy Tsang

Theses and Dissertations

Pathological angiogenesis, or new blood vessel formation, is involved in many pathologies, including cancer and serious eye diseases. While traditional anti-angiogenic therapies target vascular endothelial growth factor receptors to reduce or inhibit new vessel formation, this approach has several downsides, including unpleasant side effects and low efficacy over time. Therefore, identifying new targets to treat pathological angiogenesis is still needed. CMG2, one of the two identified anthrax toxin receptors, has been proposed as an alternative target to treat pathological angiogenesis. CMG2’s role as a cell surface receptor that mediates anthrax toxin internalization is very well documented. One physiological function for …

Long-Term Opiate-Induced Adaptations In Lateral Paracapsular Neurons Of The Basolateral Amygdala, Sara Jane Werner

Theses and Dissertations

Increases in basolateral amygdala (BLA) activity drive avoidance-seeking behavior that may be associated with stress induced drug seeking. Activity of BLA pyramidal neurons is regulated by local and paracapsular gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) interneurons. The lateral paracapsular interneurons (LPCs) border the external capsule, receive dense cortical/thalamic input and provide feed-forward inhibition onto BLA principle neurons. The GABAergic LPCs also express high concentrations of g-protein coupled µ-opioid receptors (MORs). Therefore, the effects of opiates on LPC activity and local GABA release were examined. Fluorescently double labeled LPCs were observed in glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) 65-mcherry/GAD67-green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic mice. Whole-cell electrophysiology …

Exploring Love In Family Relationships, Joe Meshach Chelladurai

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to qualitatively investigate love in religious family relationships. Participants were from the American Families of Faith Project, a qualitative study on religion and family life with participants from 198 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families (N = 478) across the United States. The primary research questions of present study were (a) what does love mean for families? (b) why do individuals and couples in families love? (c) how is love experienced? (d) what are the related processes of love? (e) how does religion influence love in religious families? and (f) what are the reported outcomes …

Teacher Recruitment: Predictive Factors Of Stem University Students Entering The Teaching Profession, Scott Harris

Student Works

This study examines factors that influence science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) university students’ willingness to consider teaching as a career. Although very few of these students initially consider this profession, we identified four factors using predictive modeling that are strongly associated with these students’ willingness to consider teaching and their belief that teaching might be their best career option. Results indicated that STEM university students were more likely to consider teaching when they believed teaching is something they would be good at, others encouraged them to be a teacher, when family encourages them to teach, and when teachers they …

Cognitive Demands Of Mothers Of Young Children In The Presence Of Emotional Distraction, Michelle Duersch

Theses and Dissertations

Stress and parenting often go hand in hand, with high physical and emotional demands from children often coupled with pressures and responsibilities adults bear from work, school, and other involvements outside the home. Parents often prioritize their children's needs above their own physical, emotional, and social needs. While current literature addresses stress in mothers, it has yet to understand under what circumstances her children may modify her stress levels and whether her stress response, in turn, affects cognition. This study seeks to investigate the impact of such a taxing environment on mothers' stress and cognition using a challenging mnemonic discrimination …

An Open-Source Web-Application For Regional Analysis Of Grace Groundwater Data And Engaging Stakeholders In Groundwater Management, Travis Clinton Mcstraw

Theses and Dissertations

Since 2002, NASA's GRACE Satellite mission has allowed scientists of various disciplines to analyze and map the changes in Earth's total water storage on a global scale. Although the raw data is available to the public, the process of viewing, manipulating, and analyzing the GRACE data can be difficult for those without strong technological backgrounds in programming or geospatial software. This is particularly true for water managers in developing countries, where GRACE data could be a valuable asset for sustainable water resource management. To address this problem, I have a developed a utility for subsetting GRACE data to particular regions …

Learning Centered Leadership: Exploring How Distinguished Learning-Centered Principals Apply Key Processes Of Learning-Centered Leadership, Jared G. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

School leadership is a complex and challenging endeavor, especially in an era when school principals are held accountable for student achievement outcomes. Research on school leadership has shown that a principal’s influence on student achievement is indirect and significant. Over the past three decades, research on school leadership has developed conceptually and now offers more concrete descriptions of the actions and behaviors leaders can utilize for learning-centered leadership. The developers of the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) evaluation framework sought to create a school leader assessment tool that measures learning-centered behaviors, instead of measures that focus on the …

Rewriting "Plumb Crazy Indian Women": Reframing Mental Illness As Cultural Power In Linda Hogan's Solar Storms, Hannah Dian Detavis

Theses and Dissertations

Since the earliest published American narratives, writers and subsequent Western clinicians alike have often mislabeled Indigenous behaviors, especially the behaviors of Indigenous women, as insanity. And yet, as Pemina Yellow Bird (Three Affiliated Tribes) explains, "Native peoples generally do not have a notion of "insane" or "mentally ill." (4). Instead, Indigenous peoples often discuss mental health in their communities through storytelling. As but one example of the ways that cultural narratives work to reclaim Indigenous understandings of mental health, this paper analyzes how the writings of Chickasaw author Linda Hogan challenge non-Indigenous understandings of mental health as a gendered phenomenon …

Aerodynamic Measurement Stability During Rabbit Versus Pig Benchtop Phonation, Megan Caroline Hoggan

Theses and Dissertations

Combination corticosteroid inhalers are the primary treatment option for long-term pulmonary disorders including asthma, persistent bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Common side effects of these medications are xerostomia in the mouth and throat, hoarseness, and soreness in the oropharynx. Research indicates that a large percentage of the inhaler particles are deposited onto laryngeal tissue, leaving an alteration of laryngeal mucosal properties. As the first stage in a long-term project, this thesis addresses the need for baseline phonatory data that will lay groundwork for quantifying inhaler-induced phonatory changes. Excised larynx research is a powerful tool for assessing aerodynamic alterations that …

Establishment Of A Reliable Change Index For The Gad-7, Thomas Bischoff, Shayne R. Anderson, Joy Heafner, Rachel Tambling

Faculty Publications

Aim: It is increasingly important for mental healthcare providers and researchers to reliably assess client change, particularly with common presenting problems such as anxiety. The current study addresses this need by establishing a Reliable Change Index of 6 points for the GAD-7.

Method: Sample size included 116 online community participants using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and archival data for 332 clinical participants. Participants completed measures of the GAD-7 and the MDI in 2 rounds. Using previously established cutoff scores and Jacobson and Truax’s (1991) method, we establish a Reliable Change Index which, when applied to 2 administrations of the GAD-7, …

Priviledge And Place: An Exploratory Study About Healthcare Bypass Behavior, Jorden Elizabeth Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Bypass, or utilizing healthcare outside of one’s community rather than local healthcare, can have serious consequences on rural healthcare availability, quality, and outcomes. Previous studies of the likelihood of healthcare bypass used various individual and community characteristics. This study includes measures for individuals and communities, as well as place-based characteristics. We introduce the social vulnerability of place index (SoVI)—a well-established measure in disaster literature—into healthcare studies to further explain the impact of place on healthcare selection behavior. Additionally, with the use of qualitative data, this study explains why people choose to bypass. By including each of these measures, this study …

A Comparison Of Chikungunya Virus Infection, Dissemination, And Cytokine Induction In Human And Murine Macrophages And Characterization Of Rag2-/-Γc-/- Mice As An Animal Model To Study Neurotropic Chikungunya Disease, Israel Guerrero

Theses and Dissertations

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is classified as an alphavirus in the Togaviridae family. This virus is known to rely on Aedes arthropod vectors for its dissemination. Human infection is characterized by rash, high fever, and severe chronic polyarthritis that can last for years. Recently, efforts in developing animal models have been made in an attempt to better understand CHIKV pathogenesis. CHIKV infection starts with a 7 to 10 day long febrile acute phase, in which most of the symptoms occur (rash, fever, and incapacitating pain in joints and muscle). Once the immune system clears most of the viral infection, a chronic …

Front Matter, Vol. 80 No. 1

Western North American Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Kinematic And Acoustic Adaptation To A Bite Block During Syllable Production, Allison Marie Barney

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to gain a better understanding of speech adaptation by examining kinematic and acoustic adaptation to bite block perturbation over time. Fifteen native American English speakers (7 female, 8 male) with no history of speech, language, or hearing deficits participated in the study. Custom bite blocks were created for speakers which created a 10mm interincisal gap when inserted. Speakers produced five repetitions of the sentence, I say ahraw /ərɑ/ (as part of a larger set) prior to bite block insertion, immediately following bite block insertion, 2-mintues post insertion, 4-minutes post insertion, 6-minutes post insertion, …

Enhanced Efficiency Nitrogen Fertilizer: Coated Urea, Savannah R. Fahning, Bryan G. Hopkins

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2020

Nutrient loss contributes to pollution, depletion of natural resources, and economic loss

Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers (EEF) increase uptake efficiency and crop yield/quality

This research focuses on Nitrogen EEF, namely Coated Urea

Why Parents Say No To Having Their Children Vaccinated Against Measles: A Systematic Review Of The Social Determinants Of Parental Perceptions And Family Approaches To Addressing Mmr Vaccine Hesitancy, M. Lelinneth B. Novilla, Michael C. Goates, Mallory Showalter, L. Kirsten Novilla, Russell Doria, Michael Dang, Katelyn Aldridge, Tyler Leffler

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2020

The increase in vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) outbreaks has caused great alarm to the public health community. While national and state immunization coverages remain high, the resurgence of measles points to local pockets of under-vaccination that coincide with higher parental vaccine hesitancy and more non-medical exemptions.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccine hesitancy is the “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services” and is problematic for highly contagious diseases like measles. Without adequate vaccination coverage to establish herd immunity, person-to-person transmission is facilitated, particularly in under-vaccinated communities. Central to the discussion about measles resurgence …

The Role Of Beta-Hydroxybutyrate In Altering Adipose Mitochondrial Bioenergetics, Chase Mitchell Walton

Theses and Dissertations

The rampant growth of obesity worldwide has stimulated explosive research into human metabolism. Metabolic rate has been shown to be altered by diets differing in macronutrient composition, with low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets eliciting a significant increase over other interventions. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the ketone β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) on mitochondrial respiration and coupling status in adipose tissue. To explore this, we employed three distinct systems, namely cell, rodent, and human models. In every model, βHB robustly increased mitochondrial respiration. Furthermore, in cultured adipocytes and rodent adipose, we quantified the expression of genes involved in mitochondrial …

Conceited Souls And Renaissance Cures: Sympathetic Magic Between Bodies In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Andrew Levine

Theses and Dissertations

Using the sixteenth-century theories of sympathies to examine the inter-character relationships in Hamlet, I argue for a period reading that offers insight into Hamlet’s delay and the basis for his problematic relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia. Asserting Hamlet’s character as an observer in the play with the ultimate goal of healing the infected state of Denmark, this examination of Hamlet explores how sympathetic healing would function between the characters of Hamlet, the Ghost, Gertrude, and Ophelia. Such a reading would present these characters as vulnerable bodies capable of directly affecting each other over a physical distance. Hamlet’s ultimate tragedy then …

Dietitian Work Family Data, Emily Patten, Karla Williams

ScholarsArchive Data

This data set contains information about Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in the USA and their experience with caregiving, work-family conflict, work-family enrichment, and other work- and family- related characteristics. Data was collected electronically in April 2018 through a national survey. Items that are not relevant to the papers being published were removed, especially open-ended responses which could contribute to deductive disclosure. This is the raw data before responses were excluded for being incomplete.

"I Am Pamela, Her Own Self!”: Psychosocial And Moral Development In Samuel Richardson’S Pamela, Angelina Dulong

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines Samuel Richardson's 1740 novel Pamela through two modern models of adolescent development: moral development (Kohlberg and Turiel) and psychosocial development (Erikson, Marcia, and Luyckx et al.). It argues that the novel's eponymous heroine is a complex character who moves beyond the simple stereotypes, being neither a perfect model of feminine virtue nor a coquette on the prowl for a wealthy catch. By examining the developmental arcs Pamela experiences in the novel, it is possible to read her as a typical teenage girl who achieves virtue through errors and growth rather than a static character whose virtue (or …