Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing The University Of Kentucky’S Top 20 Business Plan, Kenny Blair

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to begin laying a foundation for assessing the degree of progress the University of Kentucky (UK) has made toward the goals defined in the Top 20 Business Plan. The plan was created to guide the university’s efforts in becoming a top twenty public research institution by 2020 per a mandate by the Kentucky General Assembly.

Up to two strategies and/or policy suggestions were chosen for analysis for each of the four major domains outlined in the plan (undergraduate education, graduate education, faculty recognition, and research). Academic quality indicators were then developed for these strategies …

Analyzing The Presence Of Marketing In Campus Recreation Departments, Amy Gibson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The University of Kentucky’s Campus Recreation department is currently operating without professional marketing personnel to promote the programs and services the facility offers. With the university expanding campus housing for incoming students, the question of how activity spaces will accommodate and reach out to these students is certainly one to consider.

I conducted this research with the aim of analyzing the importance of marketing in Campus Recreation facilities and to see if marketing efforts have an effect on facility usage by participants. The department began conducting surveys in 2010 to assess its programs and services in order to determine student …

Disaster Response And Individuals With Disabilities: An Examination Of Kentucky's Red Cross Shelters, Kandace Bright

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Emergency management consists of four phases—mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Sheltering is an aspect of the response phase. Response involves activities from many different organizations—local, volunteer, state, and federal. The initial response to a disaster is from local emergency management organizations. The American Red Cross, as chartered by the federal government, is primarily responsible for providing initial shelter and food to the affected population during a disaster.

Planning shelter capacity for individuals with disabilities has been historically problematic. It continues to be an issue as claims of inaccessible shelters occur with each new major disaster. Shelters can be accessible or …

Kentucky Pharmacist Opinions Of The Potential Reclassification Of Pseudophedrine As A Legend Drug, Kathleen E. Monson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Methamphetamine is a drug of abuse, which is often produced in clandestine laboratories. Recent efforts to curb methamphetamine abuse are aimed at controlling access to precursors, including pseudoephedrine (PSE), used in illicit methamphetamine production. Currently, access to PSE is controlled in Kentucky by placement behind pharmacy counters, retail quantity limitations and electronic tracking. Recent legislation proposed in Kentucky to change PSE from non-prescription to a legend medication was unsuccessful and highly controversial. The objective of this project is to collect and analyze pharmacists’ opinions on the effectiveness of current precursor controls, proposed legislation to make PSE a legend drug and …

Exploring I.T. Innovation In A Sample Of Kentucky Nonprofits, Candice Rider

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Nonprofit organizations today face an increasingly competitive landscape and often operate under the motto of “doing more with less.” As nonprofits struggle to balance mission fulfillment with financial support, information technology [IT] is usually deemed a luxury or acquired as-needed. I posit, however, that technological innovation must be considered a crucial element to staying competitive, efficient, accountable, and engaged with supporters.

After conducting a survey of a sample of Kentucky nonprofits [NPOs], I explore a number of organizational characteristics that might predict the information technology budget, especially with respect to IT innovation. I combine a set of explanatory variables in …

Uses Of Phage Display In Agriculture: A Review Of Food-Related Protein-Protein Interactions Discovered By Biopanning Over Diverse Baits, Rekha Kushwaha, Christina M. Payne, A. Bruce Downie

Horticulture Faculty Publications

This review highlights discoveries made using phage display that impact the use of agricultural products. The contribution phage display made to our fundamental understanding of how various protective molecules serve to safeguard plants and seeds from herbivores and microbes is discussed. The utility of phage display for directed evolution of enzymes with enhanced capacities to degrade the complex polymers of the cell wall into molecules useful for biofuel production is surveyed. Food allergies are often directed against components of seeds; this review emphasizes how phage display has been employed to determine the seed component(s) contributing most to the allergenic reaction …

Multidimensional Perfectionism And Social Connectivity Among Youth: Findings And Implications, Alexander Nounopoulos

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Although traditional researchers exploring perfectionism frequently cast the construct in a negative light, a steady stream of recent studies have demonstrated that perfectionistic beliefs can yield both positive and negative outcomes. Despite this progression in the research, perfectionism remains an understudied phenomenon among youth, especially as it relates to the ways in which these individuals are perceived by others. The current study builds on the previous literature by exploring adolescent perfectionism across a variety of psychological and psychoeducational dimensions. Moreover, a unique addition to the literature offered by this study was the inclusion of peer-reports along with self-reported measures in …

Academic Support Of Division I Head Coaches: Perceptions Of Student-Athletes, Mikaela M. Raddatz

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Intercollegiate athletics in the United States have continuously become more commercialized, pressuring athletics departments and coaches to produce winning teams. The commanding expectations for successful programs have been thought to take away from the academic mission of colleges and universities, focusing efforts on athletics over academics. This phenomenon has been examined, but the role head coaches play in support of student-athlete academics has yet to be explored.

The purpose of this study is to measure student-athlete perception of academic support from Division I head coaches. Current literature demonstrates the strong influence of coaches on student-athletes, but the effect in the …

The Influence Of Race And Socioeconomic Status On Routine Screening Practices Of Physician Assistants, Deshana Ann Collett

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Health disparities in minorities and those of low socioeconomic status persist despite efforts to eliminate potential causes. Differences in the delivery of services can result in different healthcare outcomes and therefore, a health disparity. Some of this difference in care may attribute to discrimination resulting from clinical biases and stereotyping which may provide a possible source for the persistence of health disparities. Health disparities may occur because the delivery of services at some level is inadequate. Disparities resulting from the quality and quantity of care delivered by a practitioner result in differentiated delivery of healthcare, thus unequal health outcomes. The …

Great Expectations: Twenty-First Century Public Institutions And The Promise Of Technology Based Economic Development: A Case Study, Tara K. Baas

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

American research universities, especially over the past 30 years, have increasingly become involved in technology transfer activities. For public land grant institutions, involvement is largely inspired by a desire to maximize revenue opportunities and demonstrate economic relevance. This intrinsic case study addresses the efforts of a public, land grant and flagship institution, the University of Kentucky, to augment its technology transfer activities, with a specific focus on its attempts to spin off university technology-based firms. The data were gathered primarily through oral history interviews with technology transfer personnel, entrepreneurs, and spinoff personnel. Its purpose is to understand better the structure …

The Use Of A Narrative Simulation In Rural Residential Fire Prevention: A Preliminary Study Of Changes In Behavioral Intention, William Clark Goetz

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Rural Kentucky residents suffer twice as many fire residential deaths than the national average. Fire prevention programs are primarily aimed at elementary school children however these children do not make the decisions nor take the precautions necessary to alter these conditions; their adult parents do. There is little research into the development of fire safety instructional interventions that need to reach these rural at-risk adults. In this study, a well-designed story simulation Uncle Charlie’s Christmas was developed to provide an instructional intervention to prevent injury and fatality from rural residential fires.
An intervention-control repeated measure research design was conducted to …

California Turnaround Schools: An Analysis Of School Improvement Grant Effectiveness, Khalil Graham

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of School Improvement Grants (SIGs) in the state of California (CA) in increasing student achievement using the turnaround implementation model. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) included educational priorities focused on fixing America’s lowest achieving schools. SIGs (i.e., up to $2 million per school annually over 3 years) to the nation’s persistently lowest achieving public schools required schools accepting these awards to implement a federally prescribed school-reform model. Of these models, the school turnaround model is the most aggressive and least used. Using data from CA, the …

Experiences Of Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students: An Exploratory Phenomenological Study, Anysia J. Ensslen

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Within the past decade little research has been conducted in the United States to examine the preparedness of beginning speech-language pathologists; the seminal article used for this research study comes from the United Kingdom (Horton, Byng, Bunning, & Pring, 2004). Literature from the past few decades indicates that there may be deficiencies in the way that beginning speech-language pathologists are being trained clinically.

The review of the literature suggests that the field may lack a clear and broadly supported learning theory or framework for the clinical supervision and training of speech-language pathology graduate students. The literature further supports the importance …

Measuring Transformational Leadership In Athletic Training: A Comparative Analysis, Kristan M. Yates

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

The purpose of this study was to measure the construct of transformational leadership among athletic training academicians and clinicians. Additionally, this study sought to determine whether perspectives regarding transformational leadership were the same or different based on full-time vocational roles. Finally, this study introduced a methodology for survey data analysis relatively unknown in athletic training research circles. Participants included athletic training education program directors as well as individuals in leadership roles at the state, district, and national level.

Education Policies And Migration Realities: Utilizing A State Longitudinal Data System To Understand The Dynamics Of Migration Choices For College Graduates From Appalachian Kentucky, Charles E. Mcgrew

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Census data indicates people with higher levels of education are leaving Appalachian Kentucky as they do in other rural areas. Aside from anecdotal information and primarily qualitative community studies, there is little quantitative evidence of the factors which may influence these migration decisions. State policies and regional efforts to increase educational attainment of people in the region have focused on producing more college degrees however may be contributing to the out-migration of those with higher levels of education. The study incorporates community level data with demographic, academic, and employment data from a cohort of 2005-06 college graduates from Appalachian Kentucky. …

Strategies Under Stress: How Senior Student Affairs Officers Are Managing In The Midst Of Institutional Retrenchment, Christopher Thuringer

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Higher education had been one of the highest funding priorities in most states, however, in recent years, governors and state legislators have focused their efforts in higher education on cutting budgets to deal with historic gaps in revenue. As a result, university administrators have been challenged to modify their institutions’ academic programs, administrative units, and student affairs operations to contain costs and increase revenue. This study examined the extent of financial challenges faced in student affairs divisions at four-year, state-supported institutions during the period between 2008 and 2012 and the strategies utilized by senior student affairs officers to manage them. …

The Design Of P200: Mensural Quantity And Proportion In The Early Version Of The Art Of Fugue, Joel Thomas Runyan

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The intended structure of Bach's ostensibly unfinished Die Kunst der Fuge has been debated since the work's publication in 1751. This study examines the proportional design of an early version of the work, subsisting in the autograph manuscript (P200) of the early 1740s. As the only complete source extant, P200 and its revisions provide substantial insight into Bach's intentions for the later version of the Art of Fugue.

“We Sang Alleluia, Praise The Lord!”: African-American Identity And The Use And Reception Of Music Within A Seventh-Day Adventist Church In New York City, 1970 – 2010, Jeryl Lee Cunningham-Fleming

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The Ephesus Seventh-day Church, one of the first Black SDA churches that were formed in the New York City area during the late 1920s and early 1930s, is one church that has been faced with the challenge of maintaining traditional repertoire and musical practices, while including more popular genres and styles that lay outside the SDA guidelines. Located in Central Harlem, Ephesus is surrounded by the cultural and historical influences within the Harlem community. The Ephesus Church, based on extant hymnals and the recollections of church members, continued in the Euro-centric musical traditions of early SDA churches until the 1960s, …

Funding Defined Benefit State Pension Plans: An Empirical Evaluation, Cezar Brian C. Mamaril

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Defined Benefit (DB) state pension trust funds are an integral component of state finances and play a major role in the country’s labor and capital markets. The last decade though has seen a substantial growth in unfunded pension obligations and a seeming inability by states to make the contributions needed to cover funding shortfalls. When coupled with even larger unfunded retirement health benefits, the looming threat of insolvent state retirement systems pose both current and long-term fiscal challenges to state governments already struggling with the ongoing economic downturn and billions of dollars in budget deficits. The convergence of these factors …

Three Essays On Fiscal Stress And Financial Stability In State Government Finance, James B. Gibson

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

State government finance is a substantial endeavor in the United States. The management of a multitude of revenues and expenditures often involves some level of fiscal stress. In an age of increased public scrutiny, policymakers must be mindful of possible causes of fiscal stress, and the policy options available to mitigate fiscal stress and increase financial stability. This dissertation contains three essays that examine different elements of fiscal stress, and in some cases, the applicable policy responses.

Chapter two examines rainy day funds and their countercyclical goal of reducing recessionary fiscal stress. This essay takes a different approach from much …

A Study Of Corruption, Foreign Aid, And Economic Growth, Amanda Deerfield

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Foreign aid donors increasingly demand that aid is used efficiently and effectively. This study examines the effect of corruption levels, measured by the Corruption Perceptions Index, within a recipient country on the levels of economic growth. A growing literature outlines the mechanisms through which corruption impedes economic growth and is summarized within. Additionally, as longevity gains may result from foreign aid but are not captured in economic growth, this study computes a variable called the Life Quality Indicator (LQI) that combines such gains with economic growth and examines corruption’s effect on LQI growth. As any windfall, foreign aid has been …

Three Essays On Local Government Debt, Robert Greer

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

The local government tax-exempt debt market is a growing, and complex, sector of public finance. As local governments turn to debt financing the factors that contribute to interest costs of that debt have become important considerations for local government officials and politicians. Governance at the local level involves a network of overlapping governments some of which share a tax base. This system of overlapping governments that share a tax base are subject to externalities that arise from taxation, expenditures, and debt. These externalities are usually analyzed in terms of tax or expenditure reactions, but there are implications for local government …

To Produce Or To Buy? Exploring Determinants Of Local Government Privatization Decisions, Zhiwei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

The U.S. is experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. All levels of government have been hit really hard, this is especially apparent at the local level since services provided at the local level are woven into people’s daily life. Thus, how to “do more with less” is more urgent than ever before. The use of privatization came to surface as a sound solution for deficit-plagued governments as it is thought to be more cost effective and outperform the public sector in most cases. This dissertation contains two empirical chapters that examine determinants of privatization and specify the conditions …

Institutional Lending Models, Mission Drift, And Microfinance Institutions, Bethany L. Paris

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Microfinance is a development tool used to reduce poverty among extremely poor households. Impoverished households can access lines of credit through microfinance institutions (MFIs), in order to create a new business, smooth household consumption, fund medical emergencies, etc. Many authors postulate that MFIs are drifting from a welfarist to an institutionalist approach to lending.

Using MIXMarket data on specific MFIs in 118 countries between 1995 and 2011, the average loan balance of these organizations will be regressed against measure of outreach and sustainability of these institutions by charter type through a series of four, fixed effects models. The main research …

Intergenerational Dynamics And Political Outcomes, Joshua J. Poulette

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

This dissertation explores the relationship between intergenerational dynamics and politics outcomes in several distinct contexts. It is motivated by the remarkable demographic shifts exhibited by people in advanced countries over the past several decades. Individuals on average have longer lives and fewer children than ever before. Combining these shifts with the large intergenerational public policies that exist in many such states (education, old-age social welfare, healthcare) provokes several distinct yet related research questions addressed in the chapters below. First, do political traits matter for fertility behavior? If so, could the presence of differential fertility behavior across political groups lead to …

Examination Of The Use Of Online And Offline Networks By Housing Social Movement Organizations, Jessica N. Kropczynski

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Resource mobilization theory and political opportunity theory are often used to describe separate portions of social movements. This dissertation proposes a combined model of these two theoretical perspectives which describes how social movement organizations effectively engage in social marketing both online and offline. The field of social marketing highlights the utility of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals. I argue that, while commercial marketing practices may benefit social movement organizations and are more cost effective given emerging technology, momentum for gathering resources, will be stifled unless a political opportunity presents itself. Guided by theory about the ways that …

Untangling Neoliberalism’S Gordian Knot: Cancer Prevention And Control Services For Rural Appalachian Populations, George F. Bills

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In eastern Kentucky, as in much of central Appalachia, current local storylines narrate the frictions and contradictions involved in the structural transition from a post-WWII Fordist industrial economy and a Keynesian welfare state to a Post-Fordist service economy and Neoliberal hollow state, starving for energy to sustain consumer indulgence (Jessop, 1993; Harvey, 2003; 2005). Neoliberalism is the ideological force redefining the “societal infrastructure of language” that legitimates this transition, in part by redefining the key terms of democracy and citizenship, as well as valorizing the market, the individual, and technocratic innovation (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Harvey, 2005). This project develops …

Natural Treatment Systems As Sustainable Ecotechnologies For The Developing Countries, Qaisar Mahmood, Arshid Pervez, Bibi Saima Zeb, Habiba Zaffar, Hajra Yaqoob, Muhammad Waseem, Zahidullah, Sumera Afsheen

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

The purpose of natural treatment systems is the re-establishment of disturbed ecosystems and their sustainability for benefits to human and nature. The working of natural treatment systems on ecological principles and their sustainability in terms of low cost, low energy consumption, and low mechanical technology is highly desirable. The current review presents pros and cons of the natural treatment systems, their performance, and recent developments to use them in the treatment of various types of wastewaters. Fast population growth and economic pressure in some developing countries compel the implementation of principles of natural treatment to protect natural environment. The employment …

Critical Events In Human Metapneumovirus Infection: From Entry To Egress, Brent A. Hackett

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a respiratory pathogen in Paramyxovirus family that demonstrates extremely high morbidity in the population, with most individuals having been infected by the age of five. Despite the prevalence of this negative-sense RNA virus in the population for decades, it was only identified in 2001. As such, there is currently no specific treatment for HMPV and the potentially severe consequences of infection for elderly and immunocompromised individuals and particularly infants make development of antivirals targeting HMPV of high significance. HMPV constitutes a quarter of all respiratory hospitalizations among infants, placing it second only to RSV, in addition …

A Novel Selective Lipid Uptake Pathway Contributing To Ldl-Induced Macrophage Foam Cell Formation, Jason M. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Atherosclerosis is a disease characterized by cholesterol-rich plaques within the intima of medium and large arteries. Cholesterol deposition is thought to occur by infiltration of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) into lesions followed by uptake into macrophages, generating lipid-loaded “foam cells.” Foam cells can also be generated in vitro by treatment of macrophages with LDL or oxidized LDL (oxLDL). The purpose of the current investigation was to determine the contribution of selective cholesteryl ester (CE) uptake versus whole-particle uptake during LDL-induced foam cell formation in cultured macrophages. Murine bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) exhibited significant cholesterol accumulation when treated with LDL as indicated …