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Exploration Of Gratitude In Cardiovascular Health: Mediators, Medication Adherence And Psychometrics, Lakeshia A. Cousin

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the effect of gratitude on cardiovascular health outcomes using mediators, medication adherence, and psychometrics. The specific aims were to (1) establish the state of the science for gratitude and cardiovascular health outcomes via a state-of-the-science literature review, (2) explore mediators affecting gratitude and medication adherence using a structural equation model in patients with cardiovascular disease, and (3) analyze the psychometric properties of the Gratitude Questionnaire-6, a self-report questionnaire designed to assess individual differences to express dispositional gratitude, to provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the instrument in African Americans at …

The Marginalization Of Social Studies In Missouri: An Analysis Of Elementary Instructional Time And High School Standardized Assessment Scores, Stephanie Lovette

Dissertations

Social studies education plays a vital role in an evolving American society. Through social studies, students are equipped with skills to become active and informed citizens in a democracy (National Council for Social Studies, 2017a). With the implementation of the No Child Left (NCLB) Act in 2001, educational reforms have increasingly emphasized student performance in mathematics, communication arts, and science (Libresco, 2015). As a result, instructional time has been drastically shifted to these subjects (Heafner & Fitchett, 2015). This mixed-methods study was conducted to explore the impact of NCLB and subsequent federal education policies on the marginalization of social studies …

Perceptions Of Associate Degree Nursing Students Regarding The Effects Of Pervious Work Experiences On Their Academic Progress, Latifah Davis

Dissertations

The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how ADN nursing students eligible to graduate, with prior or concurrent healthcare work experience, describe their academic experiences and progress in an associate nursing degree program. The theoretical framework was Kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory and Knowles's (1980) adult learning theory. ADN students from three community colleges in the South Atlantic region of the United States were asked ten questions via face-to-face and telephone interviews. Three themes arose from the data analysis, valued work experience, financial obligations, and faculty support. All students verbalized that future nursing students should have some …

Relationship Between Perceptions Of Home Discharge Readiness And Parental Health Literacy (Phl) Of Nicu Parents Of Black Preterm Infants, Mia K. Waldron

Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) ranks last among western nations in overall infant mortality rates and ranks second highest in rates of preterm birth among the same nation group (MacDorman, Matthews, Mohangoo & Zeitlin, 2014). The U.S. infant mortality data show that Black infants have the highest incidence among all groups (Ely, Driscoll & Matthews, 2018; Murphy, Xu, Kochanek & Arias, 2018). Infants born prematurely are among those at highest risk for infant death with Black women delivering premature infants at rates higher than all other U.S. groups (Ely, Driscoll & Matthews, 2018; Murphy, Xu, Kochanek & Arias, 2018; Xu, Murphy, …

Cultural Practices, Knowledge, And Beliefs Of Newborn Care And Health-Seeking In Rural Zambia, Julie M. Buser

Dissertations

Decreasing newborn morbidity and mortality remains a serious global health challenge. For this reason, interventions like maternity waiting homes (MWHs) and the Saving Mothers, Giving Life (SMGL) initiative may improve maternal-newborn newborn health and delivery outcomes. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to explore and describe the cultural practices, knowledge, and beliefs of essential newborn care and health-seeking in the context of MWHs and the SMGL initiative in rural Zambia. Guided by the Ecological Systems Theory, this goal was met through three studies with the following aims: (1) Describe knowledge and beliefs of newborn care and illness from the …

The Association Of Patients' Analgesic Treatment Beliefs And Trade-Offs With Analgesic Adherence Behaviors Among Outpatients With Cancer Pain, William E. Rosa

Dissertations

Pain is one of the most burdensome symptoms for patients with cancer. Per cancer pain guidelines, opioids remain one of the primary modalities for managing moderate to severe cancer pain. Analgesic nonadherence is common among cancer patients despite unmanaged pain symptoms. We investigated how patients prioritized analgesic treatment beliefs for cancer pain and whether those beliefs predicted objective analgesic adherence behaviors.

Nursing Students' Perceptions Of Spiritual Well-Being, Academic Persistence And Academic Success, Mindy Barna

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological research study explores the perceptions and beliefs of undergraduate senior-level nursing students about spiritual well-being in relation to academic persistence and ultimately academic success as measured by timely graduation at a private women's university in the Midwest. By adding to the body of research and knowledge, nurse educators may better assist students to achieve academic success, which could potentially alleviate the national nursing shortage and decrease financial losses of academic institutions. Nine Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students at a private university in the Midwest participated in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. Participants were in their senior year …

Exercise To Reduce Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Nephropathy: A Pilot Rct, Grace A. Kanzawa-Lee

Dissertations

Oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy (OIPN) occurs in 85-95% of patients receiving FOLFOX or FOLFIRINOX, oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for invasive gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Persistent OIPN can impair long-term quality of life (QOL). No OIPN cures are known. Aerobic physical activity (PA) may reduce OIPN by enhancing circulation and re-distributing neurotoxic oxaliplatin away from vulnerable neurons. However, no trials have evaluated solely aerobic exercise for OIPN. This dissertation reports the results of a 1) literature review on exercise for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and 2) pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of brisk walking for OIPN in FOLFOX/FOLFIRINOX-receiving GI cancer survivors. The "MI-Walk Intervention" - an …

Identifying Transfer Of Care Gaps: Electronic Health Record Capture Of Perioperative Handoff Communications, Sharon Giarrizzo-Wilson

Dissertations

Transitions in patient care are held together by interdisciplinary handoff communications intended to coordinate the patient's ongoing care requirements. Patients with complexity in care encumber the transfer of care process requiring a higher level of care coordination between the interdisciplinary team (Coleman, 2003; Naylor et al., 2004). While the literature is abundant on the characteristics and quality of handoff communications, it is limited on the requirements of what data is necessary for ongoing care following transfer communications (Galatzan & Carrington, 2018).

Teachers Attitudes Regarding Adverse Childhood Experiences, Trauma-Informed Educational Practices, And Student Resiliency, Alyson Reynolds Kohl

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this convergent parallel design mixed methods case study was to determine how training on Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma-Informed Educational Practice affected the attitudes of teachers, in Shasta County’s Enterprise Elementary School District (EESD), regarding students who had experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). A further purpose of this study was to understand if teachers in EESD perceived training in ACE and Trauma-Informed Educational Practices (TIEP) was effective in changing their classroom practices to support the resiliency of students who had experienced ACEs.

Methodology: The methods for this research included: an online survey, The Attitudes Regarding Trauma-Informed …

Ensemble Data Fitting For Bathymetric Models Informed By Nominal Data, Samantha Zambo

Dissertations

Due to the difficulty and expense of collecting bathymetric data, modeling is the primary tool to produce detailed maps of the ocean floor. Current modeling practices typically utilize only one interpolator; the industry standard is splines-in-tension.

In this dissertation we introduce a new nominal-informed ensemble interpolator designed to improve modeling accuracy in regions of sparse data. The method is guided by a priori domain knowledge provided by artificially intelligent classifiers. We recast such geomorphological classifications, such as ‘seamount’ or ‘ridge’, as nominal data which we utilize as foundational shapes in an expanded ordinary least squares regression-based algorithm. To our knowledge …

Doping Of Conjugated Polymers: Preparation, Characterization And Device Fabrication, Kan Tang

Dissertations

Semiconducting conjugated polymers (CPs) as emerging materials for advanced electronic applications such as sensors, OPVs, and OEFTs has become an intriguing research topic in the past decades. It opens a new avenue of “flexible” electronics, which has shown great potential in next-generation electronic devices.

However, due to the nature of CP materials and related solution processing techniques, unlike almost perfectly crystalline silicon materials, CPs in the solid-state often exhibit much lower crystallinity if it is not complete amorphous, which severely hinder the electronic property and optical property of the materials. The crystallinity of CPs in a film is often uniquely …

Identification Of Cultural Differences And Their Effects On International Relations: A Novel Approach, Stephen W. Jones

Dissertations

International Relations suffers from underspecified treatments of culture that risk reifying, essentializing, or ignoring the effects of cultural differences in the conduct of relationships between states. Following a review of the development of the culture concept, this interpretivist, epistemologically critical realist, dissertation introduces intercultural adaptive frameshifting from the intercultural communication literature. To assess whether culture has effect within an epistemic community, four frameworks are evaluated within a non-IR field (global Christian reasoning). Speech act theory is used to assess meaningful affect through illocutionary and/or perlocutionary divergence based on cultural difference.

Following the findings that such cultural differences do in fact …

Interleukin-17a Facilitates Chikungunya Virus Infection By Inhibiting Ifn-Α2 Expression, Biswas Neupane

Dissertations

Interferons (IFNs) are the key components of innate immunity and are crucial for host defense against viral infections. Here, we report a novel role of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) in inhibiting IFN-α2 expression, thus promoting chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection. CHIKV infected IL-17A deficient (Il17a^-/-) mice expressed a higher level of IFN-α2 and developed diminished viremia and milder footpad swelling in comparison to wild-type (WT) control mice, this was also recapitulated in IL-17A receptor-deficient (Il17ra^-/-) mice. Interestingly, IL-17A selectively blocked IFN-α2 production during CHIKV, but not West Nile virus (WNV) or Zika virus (ZIKV), infections. Recombinant IL-17A …

The Role Of The Msaabcr Operon In Cell Wall Integrity And Programmed Cell Death During Biofilm Development, Bibek G C

Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus is an important human pathogen in both community and health care settings. Biggest challenges with S. aureus as a pathogen is its ability to acquire antibiotic resistance and produce robust biofilms. In this work, we investigated the nature of the cell wall defect in the msaABCR operon mutant in the Mu50 (VISA) and USA300 LAC methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. Results showed that msaABCR-mutant cells had decreased cell wall thickness and cell wall crosslinking in both strains. These defects are most likely due to increased murein hydrolase activity and/or nonspecific processing of murein hydrolases mediated by increased …

Gender And Cross-Cultural Invariance Of Attitudes Toward Statistics Among Non-Stem Undergraduate Students, Mihili Edirisooriya

Dissertations

Because of the wide usage of statistics in almost every field, many universities have incorporated statistics into their undergraduate and graduate curricula. Students taking statistics have often reported negative experiences and an aversion to statistics. Non-STEM students have often reported negative attitudes toward statistics (Chew & Dillon, 2014; Keeley et al., 2008). Researchers have used qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure attitudes toward statistics. The Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics-36 (SATS-36) scale has been the most widely accepted measure to investigate attitudes toward statistics. Any psychometrically sound measurement instrument requires invariance across groups in its usage. Otherwise, measurement biases could …

Doing More With Less: A Quantitative Analysis Of Mindfulness, Meditation, Sustainable Consumption Awareness And Practice Among University Undergraduates, Teresa Van Horn

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Climate change, overconsumption, air, and water pollution continue to be pressing issues for society. Given the significant impact of overconsumption, the search for strategies to promote more sustainable behavior has become a topic for investigation. Universities are uniquely positioned to help students work toward sustainable solutions. This research explored the role of mindfulness in university students' sustainable consumption awareness and practice as there are gaps in the literature concerning definitions, constructs, and research regarding mindfulness and sustainable consumption.

To address these disparities, this research used stepwise regression analysis to investigate the extent to which mindfulness and select demographic measures …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The Patient Care Experience As Perceived By Hispanic Patients Receiving Care At A Safety-Net Facility, Silvinia Cuizon

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand how English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanic patients seeking kidney and liver transplant care at a safety-net facility perceive and interpret the care experience with the goal of generating a grounded theory model to guide care delivery and improve perception of care for this population.

Background/Rationale: The patient experience is the current federally mandated hospital quality indicator that measures the range of interactions patients have with their hospital admission, which has fiscal and clinical implications for the delivery of care. Many safety-net health care delivery systems, which primarily serve traditionally underserved populations, and …

Transdiagnostic Classification Of Behavior In Childhood: Profile Analysis And Interrater Stability, Gary Rempe

Dissertations

There is growing concern among both researchers and practitioners that mainstream psychopathological classification schemes inadequately meet the needs of individuals seeking treatment for mental illness. Recent efforts in childhood psychopathology have sought to derive new diagnostic subgroups that are less susceptible to the heterogeneity and comorbidity issues that have been reported with categories specified in more recent versions of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental illness. These transdiagnostic subgroups are generated by using unsupervised machine-learning algorithms that separate cases into homogenous groups with information from multiple continuous indicators. This dissertation seeks to expand on this work by exploring natural …

Anxiety, Depression, And Perceived Barriers To Adherence Among Parents Of Pediatric Transplant Patients, Alice Marie Wille

Dissertations

Before being listed for an organ transplant, pediatric patients and families undergo a psychosocial pre-transplant evaluation to determine familial strengths and risk factors that may impact the success of transplant. Adherence is considered to be one of the primary factors in the survival of the transplanted organ and existing research has suggested a link between parental functioning and post-transplant adherence. To better understand the relationship between parental mental health and perceived barriers to adherence, this study examined whether parental symptoms of anxiety and depression significantly predicted parent and patient perceived barriers to adherence in the pre-transplant phase (n=65 parents and …

Special Education Directors’ Perspectives On The Written State Complaint Process: A Phenomenological Study, Amy Elizabeth Kilpatrick

Dissertations

The right of parents of students with disabilities to dispute decisions or actions by the school district is one of the tenets of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Of the three formal dispute resolution mechanisms under the IDEA, written state complaints (WSC) are the most commonly completed, from start to finish, yet the least researched. Research of the other dispute resolution processes, due process hearings and mediation, suggests that the processes are costly, stressful for all parties, and cause damage to the FPPs. To address this gap in research, this qualitative study investigated the WSC process from the …

Predicting Parent Attendance For Group-Delivered Pcit Workshops In Head Start Centers, Jennifer Tannehill

Dissertations

Group PCIT was offered to parents of Head Start children as part of a larger study that investigated the Impact of a Preschool Obesity Prevention (IPOP) Program Enhanced with Positive Behavioral Supports. The dependent variable (DV) in this study was number of group PCIT sessions attended. The independent variables were marital status, income, education level, parenting practices measured by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-PR, and responses from the Caregiver Feeding Style Questionnaire. Predictions were made regarding the impact each of these variables had on attendance to group PCIT sessions. An ordinal logistic regression model was used to analyze the data. No …

Evaluating The Contributions Of Recollection And Familiarity On Testing And Guessing Benefits In Recognition Memory, Kendal Smith

Dissertations

Completing an interpolated memory test or trying to guess non-studied information following study has yielded powerful memory benefits relative to restudy on a final memory test. Across repetitions of testing and guessing, participants may form an expectancy of an upcoming test type, and consequently, adjust their encoding of information in anticipation of the upcoming test. Research has shown that after several task repetitions, participants form an expectancy of the upcoming task type and will encode materials to match task constraints (Huff, Yates, and Balota, 2018). It is uncertain to what extent these expectancy processes aid in facilitating recollection of specific …

Patterns Of Habitat Use And Trophic Structure In Turtle Grass (Thalassia Testudinum)-Dominated Systems Across The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Christian Hayes

Dissertations

Seagrass structural complexity is a primary driver of nekton recruitment and faunal community structure. Few studies, however, have quantified the role of seagrass complexity on habitat use and trophic structures over large spatial scales. A large-scale simultaneous survey was conducted to assess relationships of multiple seagrass morphological complexity metrics to nekton habitat use, trophic dynamics, and blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) growth and mortality across the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Seagrass morphological and nekton community characteristics depended on site and season, and regional variation in seagrass morphology was an important driver of juvenile nekton abundance, species richness, beta diversity, …

Latent Variables Predicting Drug Use In Adolescents With High Versus Low Protective Factors, Jessica Jorgenson

Dissertations

The present study utilized archival data provided from the Minnesota Student Survey (2013). The study consisted of two levels of analysis. The first level involved the development of measurement models for various latent constructs (i.e., disaffiliation, normalized use, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors). Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the second level applied the observed (i.e., abuse) and measured latent variables to the prediction of the outcomes of interest (i.e., a latent variable estimate of substance use) for middle- and high school-aged youth. Models for adolescent girls and boys were examined separately based on sex and high vs low protective factors. …

The Power Of Presentation: How Attire, Cosmetics, And Posture Impact The Source Credibility Of The Female Expert Witness, Alexandra Repke

Dissertations

While previous research has examined behavior-based presentation styles of the female expert witness in light of source credibility, further research is required to examine the effect of other modifiable factors on her credibility, since perceived credibility affects the intermediate judgments that lead to ultimate legal decisions. This study investigated the impact of both behavior-based (i.e., posture) and appearance-based (i.e., attire and cosmetic use) factors on the female expert witness’ source credibility Model attractiveness served as a covariate in this study. A four-way (2 x 2 x 2 x 2) between-subjects analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that, beyond an effect of …

Attachment Quality Across Contexts: The Mediating Role Of Cognitive-Affective Traits, Christian Ammons

Dissertations

Attachment quality throughout the lifespan has been found to be impacted by a variety of factors including prior attachments with parents and other adults (Rholes, Simpson, & Friedman, 2006). The mechanisms that impact the transmission of attachment to parent-child attachment quality has not been fully explored. Individual differences such as traits involving appraisal of self and others and affective components have been found to be important in relationship functioning across contexts (Eisenberg, 2000). Thus, the current study evaluated the relationship between adult attachment quality and parent-child attachment quality and specifically examined the mediating effects of cognitive-affective traits (i.e. trait forgiveness, …

Role Identity And Engagement Behaviors Of Student-Athlete Alumnae, Matthew Charles Brinton

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research study was to explore the meanings volleyball student-athlete alumnae (SAA) from a doctoral granting research institution in the Rocky Mountain region (Rocky Mountain Regional University or RMRU) associate with their lived experiences and how those interpretations shape their engagement behaviors as alumnae. Using Stryker’s (1980) interpretation of Symbolic Interactionism as a theoretical framework, I interviewed seven participants and found that the meaning they associated with their experiences varied by their placement in different types of closed positions, those that require permission, invitation, or special status for membership. My findings suggest that there is …

The Impact Of Perceived Parenting Styles During Childhood Experiences Of Bullying On Emerging Adult Attachment, Callie Kathryn King

Dissertations

Given the prevalence of bullying during youth and the substantial negative outcomes of these experiences during adulthood, this study evaluated youth bullying experiences, perceived parenting style, and emerging adult attachment styles. The purpose was to determine the extent to which perceived parenting style moderates the relationship between youth bullying experience and emerging adult attachment to primary caregivers, romantic partners, and best friends above and beyond what youth bullying experience already predicts. The interaction between youth bullying experience and perceived parenting style were hypothesized to account for a significant amount of the variance in the outcome of emerging adult attachment style. …

Career Development In Sport And Leisure: An Application Of Social Cognitive Career Theory, Nicole Sellars

Dissertations

Utilizing Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent et al., 1994) this research aimed to determine perception differences related to sport and leisure management employment for undergraduate students in related degree programs with a specific focus on the minority groups of women and People of Color (POC). Given the lack of diversity in sport and leisure enrollment and employment (Adriaanse, 2016; Massengale & Lough, 2013; Shropshire, 2004; Vianden & Gregg, 2017), this research sought to explore whether gender and/or race were predictors of feelings of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, barriers, and supports. An electronic survey was distributed to sport and leisure management undergraduate …