Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Stepfamily Experiences Of Young People In Ireland., Audrey Mcgee

Dissertations

This qualitative research study conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the stepfamily experiences of ten individuals, aged eighteen to twenty four years. The findings indicated that the stepfamily brought challenges and a range of benefits to the participants’ life experiences. The key difficulties pertained to issues regarding conflict, lack of communication and complex challenges. The cited benefits of stepfamily experiences included improved financial resources, an additional parental figure, a sense of stability, opportunities for personal growth and the gaining of additional siblings. One significant finding of the study was the positive enduring bonds that some individuals made with stepparents and stepsiblings. …

The Effects Of A Videoconferencing Implementation Project On Educators' Level Of Concern In Southwest Michigan Schools, Dennis David Lundgren

Dissertations

Problem. Two-way, interactive videoconferencing is emerging as an important technology tool for K-12 educators. The challenge is to identify and describe successful implementation. Educator concerns related to implementation may inhibit success. The focus of this study of a federally funded videoconferencing project is to address the factors that influence educators' level of concern.

Method. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Stages of Concern (SoC) instrument was administered to measure the level of concern of two cohorts of participants. Data related to project, including number of connections, district and building technical support, professional development, and equipment reliability were also collected. One-way …

Image Slavery And Mass Media Pollution: Examining The Sociopolitical Context Of Beauty And Self Image In The Lives Of Black Women, Jennifer Richardson

Dissertations

The ways in which African American women negotiate the intersections of popular media, dominant discourses of beauty, and identity are rarely explored. This work brings into focus how African American women consume, understand, and make meaning of mediated images and representations of African American women. In order to inform this particular research project, this study engages a constellation of literature and theoretical perspectives and explores historical representations of African American women and beauty messages they contain. Throughout this process I examine concepts of identity formation; discuss connections between sexuality and the politics of imagery; and investigate linkages between structural racism, …

Towards A Multidimensional Model Of Adaptation For African American Adolescents Exposed To Racial Discrimination, Jamila Cunningham

Dissertations

The purposes of the current study were to 1) examine the associations of racial discrimination to internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and perceived life satisfaction in African American adolescents, and 2) determine Africultural cluster profiles based on indicators of racial socialization, racial identity and culturally relevant coping strategies 3) examine whether cluster profile buffers stress exposed African American adolescents from increased internalizing symptoms, anger and decreased life satisfaction. One hundred-fifty-one African American adolescents (grades 9th - 12th) from four high schools and a community group from a major Midwest city and a major city from the Southeast reported on exposure to …

Aliens Found In Waiting: Women Of The Ku Klux Klan In Suburban Chicago, 1870-1930, Sarah Elizabeth Doherty

Dissertations

"Aliens Found in Waiting" is a case study of the Walosas Club chapter of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan in the suburban Chicago community of Oak Park, Illinois. Through the use of a rare manuscript collection this study provides a glimpse into the daily lives of suburban Klanswomen grappling with changing demographics in the village where they lived. Examination of the Walosas Club also provides a new context for the study of suburban history. New suburban historians have traditionally viewed suburbs as battlegrounds for the intersection of race, class and gender. Oak Park adds religion as an agent …

Statin-Mediated Attenuation Of Chemokine Expression In Peripheral Nerve Vascular Endothelial Cells, Kelly Ann Langert

Dissertations

Pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), a debilitating autoimmune disorder that affects the peripheral nervous system. By up-regulating endothelial expression of chemokines and cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), TNF-α facilitates the recruitment and trafficking of autoreactive leukocytes across the blood-nerve barrier and into peripheral nerves, an early pathological hallmark of GBS. Literature indicates that TNF-α, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) are locally increased in patients with GBS, correlating with disease severity. Similar findings have been demonstrated in an animal model of GBS, experimental autoimmune neuritis …

Analysis Of Illicit Drugs, Their Metabolites And Other Micropollutants In Water By Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Deepika P. Panawennage

Dissertations

The goal of this project is to develop liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) methods for the analysis of different, novel micropollutants in waste water and natural water. Micropollutants are compounds that can exert adverse environmental and human health effects at low concentrations. Most of these compounds include personal care products and pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics and controlled substances. In the first part of this study, we focused in the analysis of illicit drugs and drug metabolites because these analyses have the potential to serve as markers of drug abuse. We have detected over sixteen different illicit drugs and their …

You Had Me At Helen: The Name Letter Effect In Judgments Of Humor, Jenna Ryan

Dissertations

The present study demonstrates that implicit egotism is relevant to not only letter attractiveness ratings on the Name Letter Test (NLT), but also to judgments of humor--albeit to a lesser degree. Respondents participated as "mock" judges in a simulated cartoon caption contest and evaluated writers' caption submissions for two cartoons. It was hypothesized that participants would exhibit biases toward captions submitted by writers with whom they shared a first initial letter, and additionally, their gender. A name letter effect was found in participants' judgments of humor and on the NLT. Shared gender with a caption writer--when coupled with a shared …

The Effects Of Smooth Muscle Cells On Engineered Microvasculatures In Fibrin Hydrogels, Areck A. Ucuzian

Dissertations

Capillaries are comprised of two cell types: the endothelial cells (ECs) which line the lumen of the capillary, and the supporting pericytes which are closely apposed to the abluminal surface of the capillary wall (sometimes called mural cells). These pericytes are phenotypic derivations of mesenchymal organ stromal cells (from smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts in blood vessels, for example), are recruited and incorporate into the neocapillaries, and are known to mediate reciprocal interactions with ECs during angiogenesis. The overall purpose of this project is to determine how smooth muscle cells (SMCs) affect angiogenesis during microvascular development in fibrin hydrogels using …

Cell Biology Of Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells, Mariko Takami

Dissertations

T cells play a central role in the immune response to fight against pathogens and orchestrate other immune cells. An overreactive immune response can lead to autoimmune diseases, therefore the immune system must possess negative regulation mechanisms. In the periphery, naturally arising regulatory T cells (nTregs) negatively regulate immune responses and play an important role in maintaining immune homeostasis. When antigens are present, conventional CD4+ T cells recognize their cognate antigen and proliferate. After pathogen clearance, expanded effector T cells eventually decline in number due to activation induced cell death (AICD) to terminate immune response. However, it is not understood …

Spectroelectrochemical Studies Of The Reductive Intermediates Of Anthraquinone-2,6-Disulfonate In Aqueous Media, Anna Weiss

Dissertations

Reactive intermediates in the reduction of anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (AQDS) by dithionite combine to form a transient dimer which has shown to give rise to a series of charge transfer bands in the visible range (600-750 nm). Additional wavelengths associated with these intermediate species have been observed at wavelengths 402, 444 and 510 nm. These transient intermediates are generated as dithionite decomposition products re-oxidize AQDS. Evidence of the dimer was also found in experiments in which reduction of AQDS was achieved electrochemically by the use of a potentiostat. This implies three things: 1. dithionite is not required for dimerization of reactive intermediates; …

Populus Defense And Stress Response Regulation During Ectomycorrhizal Symbiosis With Laccaria As Revealed By Global Transcriptome Analysis, Avinash Sreedasyam

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Agnes Nestor: Labor Leader, Politician, And Social Reformer--A Portrait Of A Leader, Timothy Michael Grivois-Shah

Dissertations

School leadership is about effecting change in education and promoting excellence in teaching and learning. School leaders, however, practice leadership in multiple arenas with diverse stakeholders. Students, local community members, faculty, staff, and each layer of government represent unique and often conflicting interests. Understanding how a leader such as Agnes Nestor resolved conflicts of interests has the potential for helping school leaders access various sources of power to effect change in their milieu.

This study explores the life of Agnes Nestor, a labor leader, politician, and social reformer. Nestor's public life included organizing women workers in Chicago in the early …

Rethinking Nation-Building: A Christian Socio-Ethical And Theo-Political Task For Appropriating The Common Good, Artemus Wlemongar Gaye

Dissertations

nation-building as a coomon good

Modeling And Optimal Mitigation Of Impulsive Low Frequency, Meng Vang

Dissertations

Low-frequency outdoor noise is very common in urban environments and can propagate over long distances. Residents living in the vicinity of a military base and other noisy areas often are annoyed by this noise. Most of the theoretical and experimental work that have been done to study and reduce this type of noise involved the use of barriers and sound proofing the residential houses. The attenuation of acoustic waves propagating above hard surfaces over long distances depends on the shape of the surface. Therefore, the landscape is a factor in combating outdoor noise. In this dissertation, an anti-propagation approach involving …

Understanding Controlled Evaporation Of Microdroplets Towards Scalable Micro/Nano Manufacturing, Taye Dickson Esho

Dissertations

This research investigates the controlled evaporation of microdroplets to the nano scale regime for scalable micro/nano manufacturing. A customized direct write inkjet printing system was utilized to generate monodisperse microdroplets of different fluid types. Two novel approaches were employed to achieve the research objective. The first approach incorporated a convective heat source (i.e. resistive heated ring) to induce controlled heat flux for microdroplet evaporation after ejection from the inkjet system. The temperature of the heated ring was varied to observe reduction of the microdroplet via heat transfer to its lateral periphery. The second approach employed a radiative source (i.e. CO …

Ultra-Low Power Wake Up Receiver For Medical Implant Communications Service Transceiver, James Griggs

Dissertations

The Medical Implant Communications Service (MICS) is an ultra-low power, unlicensed, mobile radio service for transmitting data in support of diagnostic or therapeutic functions associated with implanted medical devices. Medical devices that are implanted in the human body have limited size and battery capacity thus requires ultralow power circuitry. Due to the power consumed by the radio transceiver when the system is active, system level power saving techniques such as “sleep mode” is very essential to achieve “low-power”. A wake up receiver (WuRx) is used to detect wireless traffic directed to a node’s receiver and activate it upon detection, without …

Network Survivability Analysis: Coarse-Graining And Graph-Theoretic Strategies, Teshome Feyessa

Dissertations

Survivability is the ability of a system to continuously deliver essential services despite attacks, failures, or accidents that damage a significant portion of the system. Most of existing survivability measures evaluate global impact of faults on a network by averaging the loss in performance over the whole network. These approaches undermine the fact that a fault is not expected to impact all parts of the network equally. Impacts of some faults are contained in local neighborhoods while others have a global reach. In addition, graph algorithms are often computationally intensive, and even polynomial time algorithms get impractical for a fair …

An Examination Of The Use Of Assessing Capacity To Stimulate Capacity Building With Nonprofit Organizations, Pamela M. Palmer

Dissertations

An in-depth examination of the use of assessing capacity to stimulate capacity building was conducted with member nonprofits of the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium, in Guilford County, North Carolina. The primary research question was "to what extent and in what ways does assessing the capacity of a nonprofit organization help that organization‘s executive director engage in capacity building?" As an academic and practitioner in nonprofit leadership and management, the researcher was interested in exploring the use of assessing capacity prior to implementing capacity building initiatives. The research question prescribes the mixing of research methods and stipulated a connected mixed methods design …

Multimodal Human-Machine Interface For Haptic-Controlled Excavators, Benjamin Osafo-Yeboah

Dissertations

Since the 1940s, fluid power has been used effectively in combination with other technologies to provide power in the form of hydraulics or pneumatics for a variety of industries. One such machinery is the excavator. Although the excavator is widely used in industry, numerous design constraints make the interface less intuitive, resulting in long operator training and high cost. Further, traditional excavator-operator interfaces rely mainly on visual and to some extent auditory senses. This often leads to cognitive overload with its negative effect on performance. A haptic-controlled excavator interface has been proposed as an alternative to the traditional excavator interface. …

Biofunctional Coatings Using Direct-Write Fabrication Technique For Surgical Implant Devices, Jessica L. Perkins

Dissertations

Surface modification of biomaterials is of critical value to attain desired functionality of biomedical devices and implants. Many of the conventional manufacturing methods used for the fabrication of thin film coatings lack the ability to precisely dispense biological compounds without compromising its chemical integrity. This research investigates the use of direct-write inkjet technique for the deposition of multi-layer coatings of biodegradable polymers. The Direct Write inkjet method provides selective deposition and patterning capability for depositing multi-material coatings on biomaterials for a vast array of surgical implant devices (e.g. stents for cardiovascular applications and orthopedic implants). In the first phase of …

A Multiple-Case Study Describing Collaborative Relations Between Adventist Pastors And Teachers In The Eastern United States, Pamela Consuegra

Dissertations

Introduction. Adventist schools and churches are embedded within a system that provides them with rich opportunities to achieve their missional goals. However, this is possible only through collaboration and the use of available social networks. The purpose of this study was to identify situations where the church and school work together collaboratively and then to describe the collaborative practices between those selected Adventist pastors and teachers. In the context of Adventist elementary schools, the school principal also fulfills a teaching role. Therefore, inthis study, the term "teacher" also refers to the principal. The broad research question was, How do Adventist …

Testing Mobile Web Applications For W3c Best Practice Compliance, Sean Mee

Dissertations

Adherence to best practices and standards when developing mobile web applications is important to achieving a quality outcome. As smartphones and tablet PCs continue to proliferate in the consumer electronics market, businesses and individuals are increasingly turning from the native application paradigm to HTML 5-based web applications as a means of software development and distribution. With an everincreasing reliance by users on the correct functioning of such applications, the requirement for stringent and comprehensive quality assurance measures is also brought sharply into focus. This research investigates the increasing trend towards mobile web application development in the mobile software domain, and …

Towards Universally Designed Assistive Technology E-Learning, Karl O'Keeffe

Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to provide Assistive Technology (AT) professionals involved in the area of education and training with a set of reusable technological tools and techniques that will enable them to increase the reach, efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility of their training through online delivery. There are a number of broadly accepted reasons why an organisation in any field might choose to make training available online or partially online (blended) rather than relying on traditional face to face methods. Of the four considered here and mentioned above, accessibility is the biggest concern in the context of AT. It …

Surface Plasmon Resonance In Super-Periodic Metal Nanostructures, Haisheng Leong

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Porous Silicon Platform Technologies For Transmembrane Protein Investigation, Khalid Hasan Tantawi

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Studies On Metallic Three-Dimensional Photonic Crystals, Po Sun

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

What We Can Learn From The Lived Experience Of Asperger's Syndrome, Craig Allen Talbot Edd

Dissertations

The overall purpose of this study was to survey the personal experiences of individuals with Asperger's Syndrome (AS), analyze and combine them into a shared lived experience in order to provide information pertinent to treatment and intervention, particularly in educational and extra-curricular settings. Those teaching, volunteering or working with individuals with AS must consider their behavioral propensities and natural inclinations in both characteristics and individual personality traits when guiding them in schooling, career preparation, life skills, social interactions and other responsibilities. The goal of the study was to identify common interventions, including technology interventions, or patterns of behavior used by …

Preferred Dna Binding Orientation Of The Hyperthermophile Protein Sac7d, Gokul Krishna Turaga

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Anaerobic Fermentation Of Biodiesel Derived Crude Glycerol Into Butanol Using Clostridium Pasteurianum Atcc 6013, Keerthi Prasad Venkataramanan

Dissertations

No abstract provided.