Digital Commons Network^™

Retention Of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Knowledge And Psychomotor Skill Among Undergraduate Nursing Students: An Integrative Review Of Literature, Fernanda Tirado

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this integrative literature review is to explore the effectiveness of different training modalities on the acquisition and retention of CPR knowledge and psychomotor skill among undergraduate nursing students. Background: It is well known that standard CPR-training is ineffective at preparing nurses for the rigors of a cardiac arrest event. Survival rates for in-hospital cardiac arrests remain low and the proportion of neurobehavioral sequelae among survivors is very high. Methods: A review of relevant literature published between 2006 and 2016 was conducted using the CINAHL and MEDLINE databases. The following key terms were used in the search: …

Participant's Perception Of Realism And Pediatric Pain Assessment Utilizing A Virtual Patient: A Pilot Study, Alexandra Carson

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The use of simulation in curriculum affords students with the opportunity to enhance clinical skills in a safe environment. However, certain aspects of patient assessment are difficult to reproduce in current simulators, such as changes in facial expressions. Facial expressions are of particular importance when assessing for the presence and severity of pain in the pediatric population. Inconsistencies found in accurate identification of pain suggest the necessity of improved pain assessment training. This study evaluated nursing student’s perceptions of a virtual patient designed to realistically display varying levels of pain in the pediatric patient. Additional purposes of this study were …

Behavioral Interventions Versus Pharmaceutical Interventions To Reduce Preoperative Anxiety In School Aged Children, Jennifer J. Cline

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Surgical procedures that require general anesthesia can be stressful and create needless anxiety for school-age children. Interventions aimed at reducing preoperative anxiety can improve cooperation and enhance postoperative outcomes by lowering anxiety levels prior to induction of general anesthesia. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of behavioral interventions versus drug therapy in reducing pre-operative anxiety in children. The secondary purpose was to compare methods used to integrate anxiety reduction interventions into pre-operative care and to evaluate the most widely used and effective strategy for clinical practice. A literature review exploring behavioral based stress reduction interventions and …

Business Case Studies In Sustainability Practices, Sheri L. Lynch

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Protecting the environment for future generations is crucial. Although businesses are under strong pressure to support sustainability, many leaders find it challenging to meet the environmental needs of the present without negatively impacting their economic goals. This paper describes some methods that businesses have adopted to effectively manage environmental issues and offer an opportunity for competitive advantage. In particular, three case studies show ways that the companies have embraced and integrated sustainability into their strategic planning process, which helped them achieve growth and success in the context of social and environmental concerns. The paper shows how these businesses have chosen …

Applied Advanced Error Control Coding For General Purpose Representation And Association Machine Systems, Bowen Dai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

General-Purpose Representation and Association Machine (GPRAM) is proposed to be focusing on computations in terms of variation and flexibility, rather than precision and speed. GPRAM system has a vague representation and has no predefined tasks. With several important lessons learned from error control coding, neuroscience and human visual system, we investigate several types of error control codes, including Hamming code and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes, and extend them to different directions. While in error control codes, solely XOR logic gate is used to connect different nodes. Inspired by bio-systems and Turbo codes, we suggest and study non-linear codes with …

The Effect Of Glycerol On Readily Biodegradable Chemical Oxygen Demand (Rbcod) In A Wastewater Stream, Rojina Rawut

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the short-term effects of glycerol addition on readily biodegradable (RB) chemical oxygen demand (COD) in a carbon limited wastewater influent. The presence of an RB fraction provides with a suitable substrate for microorganisms to produce volatile fatty acids (VFA). The oxygen utilization rate (OUR) has been used to evaluate the oxygen consumption for RB substrate in wastewater. Wastewater with low organic content contains limited RB substrate, and thus, additional carbon source is required to improve biological treatment capability. Acetate, propionate, methanol, and glycerol are the commonly available carbon sources for biological treatment process. However, the cost of …

An Integrated Hydrodynamic-Marsh Model With Applications In Fluvial, Marine, And Mixed Estuarine Systems, Karim Alizad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal wetlands experience fluctuating productivity when subjected to various stressors. One of the most impactful stressors is sea level rise (SLR) associated with global warming. Research has shown that under SLR, salt marshes may not have time to establish an equilibrium with sea level and may migrate landward or become open water. Salt marsh systems play an important role in the coastal ecosystem by providing intertidal habitats and food for birds, fish, crabs, mussels, and other animals. They also protect shorelines by dissipating flow and damping wave energy through an increase in drag forces. Due to the serious consequences of …

The Florida Project: A Micro-Budget Feature Comedy, Benjamin Lancaster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Further Adventures of Walt's Frozen Head is a feature comedy written, directed, and produced by Benjamin Lancaster. It is a part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. This film hopes to engage the popular urban legend and mythologies surrounding Walt Disney and the Disney company, and uses the story of a father letting go of his daughter to contradict the central messages of the Disney Company, i.e. believe in your dreams, and they will come true. A film of this subject matter requires the mircobudget …

La Influencia De La Medicina: Relación Entre Literatura Y Cultura En La Temprana Edad Moderna Española, Nicole Cruz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sciences, in particular the field of medicine, have had an important role in society since its significance has been recorded in historical texts. Due to this fact, the future of medicine depends on, to a certain extent, the knowledge that has been collected in the past from the previously catalogued records. In addition to these records, literature from a specific time period could be useful to study and analyze how opinions have been formulated throughout history, how scientific accomplishments were shared, and what influences impacted society. This study will first explore panoramically the historical context of medicine in Spain …

To Be Magic: The Art Of Ana Mendieta Through An Ecofeminist Lens, Elizabeth Ann Baker

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-born American artist whose unique body of work incorporated performance, activism, Earth art, installation, and the Afro-Cuban practices of Santería. She began her career at the University of Iowa, were she initially received her degree in painting in 1969. It was not until 1972 that Mendieta shifted radically to performance art.

Though she was raised Catholic, she developed an interest in the rituals involved with Santería, a culturally predominant Cuban religion, and it deeply influenced her work in her choice of materials and settings. Santería is one of the major faith-based lifestyles of Cuba …

Two Terms Of The Cuban Counterpoint: Transculturation In The Poetry Of Nicolás Guillén, Alanna L. Fulk

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The history of Latin America and the Caribbean was irreversibly altered by the arrival of the conquistadors, destruction of native civilizations and implementation of colonialism for hundreds of years. However, Spain also introduced the high culture of the baroque to Latin America and the Caribbean, which mixed with the cultures of native and African peoples, creating new, distinct forms of literary expression. Subsequent post-colonial cultural movements attempted to explore and reaffirm the variety of cultures that shaped both regions, including the movement of Afrocubanismo in Cuba, which occurred from 1910-1940. Afrocubanismo was a movement intended to incorporate African folklore and …

Left Brain Vs. Right Brain: An Analysis Of Cervantes' Don Quixote, Michael D. Scimeca

Honors Undergraduate Theses

El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha sits at the crossroads of two defined Spanish early modern contexts, combining Renaissance ideals with Baroque elements into one Golden Age masterpiece. The theme of duality present throughout the work finds true expression in Cervantes’ well-educated protagonist, Alonso Quijano. In him, the reader glimpses the struggle between antiquity versus early modernity, ideality versus reality, instability versus sanity, and unhealthiness versus healthiness. These medical themes and the underlying sociocultural facets will be investigated by thoroughly evaluating Cervantes’ treatment of human consciousness. In doing so, this study aims to explore the following questions: to …

Reason Is King And Science Is His Crown: A Study Of French Science-Fiction For The Dissemination Of Philosophical Thought, Lauren A. Gandy

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The thesis seeks to explore the didactic application of French science-fiction during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the portrayal and dissemination of their respective philosophical theories. Studying science-fiction novels during these centuries will allow a comparison of seventeenth and eighteenth-century dissemination methods, to determine if the foundational seventeenth-century methods were retained or modified to more accurately represent the change in philosophical attitudes. Exploration of this topic will contribute to a greater understanding of French Enlightenment theory, analysis of relatively unstudied novels in the science-fiction genre, and a novel approach to “proto” science-fiction literature by connecting the previously separate genres …

Process And Mind: Exploring The Relationship Between Process Philosophy And The Nonlinear Dynamical Systems Science Of Cognition, Larry A. Moralez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This work examines the relationship between Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and the nonlinear dynamical systems framework for studying cognition. I argue that the nonlinear dynamical systems approach to cognitive science presupposes many key elements of his process philosophy. The process philosophical interpretation of nature posits events and the dynamic relations between events as the fundamental substrate of reality, as opposed to static physical substances. I present a brief history of the development of substance thought before describing Whitehead’s characterization of nature as a process. In following, I will examine the both the computational and nonlinear dynamical systems frameworks for …

Situating Political Obligation In Political Ontology: Ethical Marxism And The Embedded Self, Chris A. Chambers

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Though various obligations typically affect our behavior without being recognized, they have a substantial impact on how we operate as human beings. The relationships we have between, say, our parents when in their household obligate us to take out the trash at certain times and wash the dishes after dinner. The relationships we have between our closest friends often oblige us to hear them out when they have undergone a traumatic experience. Upon reflection, it may be easy to point out a number of the obligations which inform our social behavior. What is not so easy, however, is pointing out …

Slough: Revealing The Animal, Clay Dunklin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

When making my work I constantly reflect on past mythologies, images, and objects. These served people as a way to make sense of and understand the dynamics of the world around them. As we continue to alter and shape the world into one designed for exclusively human benefit, we need new models that reveal the dynamics of our relationship to the world around us. This is what artists have been doing for centuries, and I specifically look to those using animals and animal imagery in their work to further mythologize our contemporary understanding of the human-other animal relationship. My body …

Destabilizing Identity: The Works Of Dorothy Cross, Aileen Dowling

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis aims to analyze Dorothy Cross’s sculptural, installation, and video works in relation to Ireland’s Post-Conflict struggle with its cultural and global identity. Throughout the course of history, Ireland’s identity has always been in question, sparking new interest over the last thirty years in producing an Irish identity discerned by “hybridity, multiplicity, and mobility.”[1] Declan McGonagle states that the traditional Irish constructs of gender and sexuality were primarily challenged by Dorothy Cross during this period of rapid sociopolitical change.[2] Cross consistently deconstructs pre-Christian Mother Ireland and patriarchal Catholic Ireland in her early sculptural works, and ultimately transitions …

Excerpt From: Won, A Novel, Jenna Ellenbogen

Honors Undergraduate Theses

High school is bad enough with cliques, coursework, and the impending threat of college – now some old evil is coming to Solomon Starek High School (SSH for short). It’s up to transfer student Ella, older than time and unthinkably powerful, to stop it. Ella’s certainly up to the task, but the world’s changed since the last time she was in it. Society has merged magic with science, and Ella’s not sure she’s up for that. Can her new classmates help her stop what’s coming, or will they fall short? This excerpt tracks Ella’s first days at school, and sets …

The Cost Of Feeling Good, Casey M. Field

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Cost of Feeling Good attempts to quantify the optimum portfolio returns of Socially Responsible Investment Funds and Dual-Purpose Portfolios. In order to meet the demands of investors who want to create a social impact and generate financial returns, investors can choose two methods. For the purpose of this study, the social returns were quantified and the financial returns were quantified using net present value. In every scenario, the socially responsible investment decision generated higher financial returns. Because of the immediate loss to an investor after choosing the DPP strategy, financially, the SRI fund appears to be the better approach …

The Mothers: An Exploration Of Memory And Secondary Knowledge, Taylor Battle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I consider the experiences of past generations of women in my family and my relationship to them. This body of work began with Bessie, a portrait of my father's mother. I painted it after attending her funeral. I did not have a meaningful relationship with either of my grandmothers. This led me to consider my right to portray them. My need to admit my incomplete memory and avoid the objectification of my subjects caused me to question my perspective. I wanted to memorialize these women to avoid their erasure. Through the progressive abstraction of these women's figures, I chase an …

Hidden Narrative: A Family Of Objects, Alesha Hassard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My artwork aims to create an ephemeral world filled with metaphorical materials. I examine and use my own experiences and perspectives, presenting fluctuations between childhood and adulthood. The personal objects that represent these times frame an implied sentience. The objects, gathered and installed in specific groupings, connote familial relationships.

"The Cause Of Zion": Divisions Between Southern Baptists In Antebellum North Carolina, Kristian Steele

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the ways in which divisions within Baptist churches in antebellum western North Carolina were caused by the Second Great Awakening and the Market Revolution. More precisely, these schisms were reactions to theological changes made by the governing bodies of the Baptist denomination as well as the social reform endeavors propagated by the new emerging middle class. With state funding no longer going to certain churches, denominations now competed on equal footing for congregants. Baptists began to adapt their theology in order to reach a broader audience. But their accommodations in doctrine were challenged by members of their …

Estimating A Freight Mode Choice Model: A Case Study Of Commodity Flow Survey 2012, Nowreen Keya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research effort develops a national freight mode choice model employing data from the 2012 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS). While several research efforts have developed mode choice model with multiple modes in the passenger travel context, the literature is sparse in the freight context. The primary reasons being unavailability and/or the high cost associated with the acquisition of mode choice and level of service (LOS) measures – such as travel time and travel cost. The first contribution of the research effort is to develop travel time and cost measures for various modes reported in the CFS. The study considers five …

Computational Methods For Comparative Non-Coding Rna Analysis: From Secondary Structures To Tertiary Structures, Ping Ge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unlike message RNAs (mRNAs) whose information is encoded in the primary sequences, the cellular roles of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) originate from the structures. Therefore studying the structural conservation in ncRNAs is important to yield an in-depth understanding of their functionalities. In the past years, many computational methods have been proposed to analyze the common structural patterns in ncRNAs using comparative methods. However, the RNA structural comparison is not a trivial task, and the existing approaches still have numerous issues in efficiency and accuracy. In this dissertation, we will introduce a suite of novel computational tools that extend the classic models …

Navigating New Relationships During Recovery From Intimate Partner Violence: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Female Survivors' Experiences, Paulina Flasch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of the extant literature on intimate partner violence (IPV) centers on immediate needs and crisis interventions for victims and survivors, and limited emphasis is placed on the long-term recovery process. Researchers have identified post-IPV romantic relationships as a topic in need of further investigation, but to date, little to no research has focused on romantic relationships post-IPV. The present investigation provides a thorough literature review on the topic of recovery from IPV, introduces a phenomenological investigation of survivors' experiences of considering or navigating new relationships during recovery from intimate partner violence, and discusses findings and implications for counselors and …

Patterns In Dental Health: Investigating Dental Disease At The Archaeological Site Of Kuelap In Chachapoyas, Peru, Vu Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social organization influences individual well-being and overall community health, which may lead to health disparities that manifest in teeth. The research in this thesis explores social variability by analyzing patterns in dental disease at the archaeological site of Kuelap in Chachapoyas, Peru. The ancient Chachapoya (AD 900-1535) were a complex society but the nature of that complexity is not well understood based on traditional archaeological correlates. Since burials at Kuelap lack grave goods that are often used to discriminate variation in social status or identity, bioarchaeological dental proxies were tested. The dental remains of 106 individuals (7 subadults, 54 adult …

Chlamydia Trachomatis Transformants Show A Significant Reduction In Rates Of Invasion Upon Removal Of Key Tarp Domains, Christopher Parrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chlamydia trachomatis is an obligate, intracellular bacterium which is known to cause multiple human infections including nongonococcal urethritis (serovars D-K), lymphogranuloma venereum (serovars L1, L2, L3) and trachoma (serovars A-C). The infectious form of the bacterium, called the elementary body (EB), harbors a type III secreted effector known as Tarp (translocated actin recruiting phosphoprotein) which is a candidate virulence factor and is hypothesized to play a role in C. trachomatis' ability to invade and grow within epithelial cells in a human host. C. trachomatis L2 Tarp harbors five unique protein domains which include the Phosphorylation Domain, the Proline Rich Domain, …

Mainstreaming Disaster-Relief Service-Learning In Communication Departments: Integrating Communication Pedagogy, Praxis, And Engagement, Vinita Agarwal

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Communication is the primary mode through which students inculcate critical thinking skills for (re)construction of social reality and engagement with communities in need (Craig, 1989). Thus it is well-suited to disaster-relief service-learning approaches that provide a pathway for democratic engagement with the material consequences of inequality evidenced in disaster-struck communities. Communication administrators can advocate for disaster-relief service-learning programs by aligning theoretically-informed student input in faculty–administration partnerships to construct transformative learning experiences sustaining trusting relationships. This study is the first to employ the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1986) to identify themes comprising student composite disaster-relief volunteering belief-structure and disaster-relief volunteering …

Authoritariansim And Collectivism: Antecedents And Consequences Among College Students, Jasmine Samuel Ms.

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) suggests there are five distinct moral dimensions, which define morality as a whole. MFT can be broken down into two groups binding: in group/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity-which encompass group morality. Harm/Care, fairness/reciprocity are individualizing dimensions, which highlight individual morality. Recent work has found MFT predicts sociopolitical ideologies, as well as sociopolitical attitudes. In an effort to better understand the existing relationships we investigate MFT as a predictor of sociopolitical parties, and attitudes Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). We also draw on similarities between Individualism/Collectivism and MFT. Specifically we demonstrate individualizing foundations, and dimensions …

The Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Financial Performance, Marly Mentor

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Companies have taken the initiative to be socially responsible over the years. In the past, the focus for companies has been on maximizing wealth. With the growth of corporate social responsibility (CSR), there has been many debates regarding its benefits. More companies are beginning to realize the value of being socially responsible and how critical it is to business function. This paper researches past studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance. This relationship is then tested using a reliable source of data on corporate social responsibility performance. This study uniquely looks at the accounting and market-based …