Digital Commons Network^™

Preferences For Evidence-Based Depression Treatments: An Emphasis On Patient-Focused Care, Lauren A. Frye

Dissertations

Research indicates most depressed patients in the general U.S. adult population seek depression treatment in primary care settings where the prevailing method of treatment is antidepressant medication. Although primary care physicians regard this approach as a preferable first line method of depression treatment, studies indicate many patients do not. Several studies have found depressed patients in these settings prefer psychotherapy or counseling over anti-depressant medication. Many advocate patient preferences should be integral to the treatment decision making process. There is a demonstrated propensity towards psychotherapy or counseling over antidepressant medication among depression patients. However, it is unclear which psychological depression …

Innovative Governance And Natural Resource Management In Kenya: Procedural And Substantive Outcomes Of Civil Society Participation, Jane Omudho Okwako

Dissertations

Kenya’s environmental sector is embracing co-management to address major threats to wildlife. In the past two decades, the Municipal-Community-Private Sector Partnership (MCPP) model evolved to address the threats. This dissertation seeks to explain variations in partnership outcomes. It evaluates whether the model as introduced empowers communities to be conservation stewards.

This study hypothesized the impact of five variables. These are decentralization of power, elite support, capacity of community organizations, partnership formalization, and resources expended. The findings confirm that three variables are indispensable and two minimally influence empowerment. More decentralized management structures are enabling and supportive of empowerment. However, empowerment is …

An Evaluation Of The Primary Care Providers’ Perspective Of The Effects Of Moderate Alcohol Consumption On Health, Gisele Tchamba

Dissertations

The complexity of health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption (MAC) is well documented. From the World Health Organization recent report, impact of harm from alcohol consumption was 3.3 million deaths or 5.9 percent of all global deaths (WHO, 2014).

Yet, the benefits of MAC for better health and longer life expectancy compared with abstinence are advocated in numerous studies (Nova, Baccan, Zapatera and Marcos, 2012). However, the nature of alcohol, its role on human sufferings has generated disagreements in the scientific community. Analysis of the results of early studies advocating better health for moderate drinkers, reveal discrepancies regarding the influence …

The Effects Of Incentive Pay Systems With Tiered Goals On Performance, Daniel B. Sundberg

Dissertations

This study examined the relative effects of three incentive pay systems, piece-rate pay, threshold piece-rate pay, and bonus pay, on performance when individuals were given the same five-tiered performance goals. A fourth system, wage pay, served as a control. The task was a computerized simulation of a medical data entry job and the primary dependent variable was the number of correctly completed patient records. Sixty-six college students were randomly assigned to one of the four pay conditions, and attended one 60-minute covariate session and five 60-minute experimental sessions. Participants in the wage pay condition earned $6.50 per session; those in …

A Mixed Method Study Of The Effectiveness Of Gaining Early Awareness And Readiness For Undergraduate Programs (Gear Up) Federal Incentive Program In Southern Mississippi Public Secondary Schools, David Micah Maxwell

Dissertations

The Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) incentive program has been in place since the late 1990s nationally. This grant, which covers a time span of six years and offers up to eighteen million dollars in federal funds, is designed to increase college readiness and decrease dropout rate among high school students. This study examines the effectiveness of this grant in southern Mississippi for the graduating class of 2014. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the effectiveness of this grant, this study draws some conclusions and recommendations for this incentive program.

Running Contradiction: A Negotiated Reading Of Encoding Strategies In The Boondocks Animated Series, 2005-2011, Wesley Tyler French

Dissertations

This study is comprised of a five-point qualitative critical analysis of denotation strategies employed in the first three seasons of The Boondocks Animated Series, which aired on United States cable television between 2005 and 2011. The five encoding strategies discussed in this study were selectively employed into each episode by the cast and crew of The Boondocks Animated Series. The encoding strategies were employed to facilitate audience accessibility between 2005 and 2011 during The Boondocks Animated Series’ successful initial run on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block.

This study focuses on the first three seasons of The Boondocks Animated …

Phylogenetic Relationships Of Samydaceae And Taxonomic Revision Of The Species Of Casearia In South-Central Asia, Tharangamala Samarakoon

Dissertations

The flowering plant family Samydaceae was recently reinstated to include 14 genera and about 256 species of tropical trees and shrubs. Preliminary analyses of relationships in the family, however, indicated that the largest genus in the family, Casearia, is not monophyletic and that several smaller groups are probably misplaced. In order to affirm or refute those hypotheses, additional DNA sequence data with broader taxon sampling from the Old World were gathered for phylogenetic analysis. In particular, rapidly evolving plastid (matK, ndhF, psbA-trnH, trnL, and trnL-F) and nuclear (EMB2765 and GBSSI) DNA …

Return To Holy Hill: Louisiana College, Academic Freedom, And The Southern Baptist Convention's Conservative Resurgence, 1995-2006, Joseph Learned Odenwald

Dissertations

This study examines a period in the history of Louisiana College in which the college’s sponsoring organization, the Louisiana Baptist Convention, a Southern Baptist affiliate, began to insist that professors at the college teach only in accordance with the official views of the Southern Baptist Convention. The literature is replete with studies on the movement affecting the Southern Baptist seminaries, but little has been written about the impact of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence on the colleges.

As such, this study explores the changes that were made to the academic freedom and governance policies as the trustees sought to …

Moving College Students To A Better Understanding Of Substrate Specificity Of Enzymes Through Utilizing Multimedia Pre-Training And An Interactive Enzyme Model, Mounir R. Saleh

Dissertations

Scientists’ progress in understanding enzyme specificity uncovered a complex natural phenomenon. However, not all of the currently available biology textbooks seem to be up to date on this progress. Students’ understanding of how enzymes work is a core requirement in biochemistry and biology tertiary education. Nevertheless, current pre-college science education does not provide students with enough biochemical background to enable them to understand complex material such as this. To bridge this gap, a multimedia pre-training presentation was prepared to fuel the learner’s prior knowledge with discrete facts necessary to understand the presented concept. This treatment is also known to manage …

Novelty Or Knowledge? A Study Of Using A Student Response System In Non-Major Biology Courses At A Community College, Tasha Herrington Thames

Dissertations

The advancement in technology integration is laying the groundwork of a paradigm shift in the higher education system (Noonoo, 2011). The National Dropout Prevention Center (n.d.) [JS1] claims that technology offers some of the best opportunities for presenting instruction to engage students in meaningful education, addressing multiple intelligences, and adjusting to students’ various learning styles. The purpose of this study was to investigate if implementing clicker technology would have a statistically significant difference on student retention and student achievement, while controlling for learning styles, for students in non-major biology courses who were and were not subjected to the technology. This …

Use Of Dietary And Herbal Supplements In Older Adults With Osteoarthritis, Sharon Denise Mcdonald

Dissertations

Over the past several decades, older adults with Osteoarthritis (OA) have increasingly used more natural products in an effort to manage chronic pain. The theoretical framework for this study was the Lazarus and Folkman transactional theory of stress and coping. This framework was chosen based on the belief that older adults with OA are taking natural products as an active problem solving coping strategy to manage the pain, disability, and alterations they experience in their health related quality life including functional status, physical symptoms, emotional health, and social functioning. Older adults also take prescription medications for Osteoarthritis and a variety …

Novel Bioinformatic Approaches For Analyzing Next-Generation Sequencing Data, Yan Peng

Dissertations

In general, DNA reconstruction is deemed as the key of molecular biology since it makes people realize how genotype affects phenotypes. The DNA sequencing technology emerged exactly towards this and has greatly promoted molecular biology’s development. The traditional method, "Sanger," is effective but extremely expensive on a cost-per-base basis. This shortcoming of Sanger method leads to the rapid development of next-generation sequencing technologies. The NGS technologies are widely used by virtue of their low-cost, high-throughput, and fast nature. However, they still face major drawbacks such as huge amounts of data as well as relatively short read length compared with traditional …

Species Delimitation, Phylogenetics, And Biogeography Of The Catfish Genus Rhamdia Bleeker (Heptapteridae) Of Central America And The Trans-Andean Region Of Colombia, Carmen Liliana Hernández Torres

Dissertations

A recent taxonomic revision of the Neotropical catfish genus Rhamdia (Pisces: Siluriformes: Heptapteridae) reduced a number of described species to synonymy, especially under a broadly circumscribed R. quelen. Evidence is presented here from DNA sequence data, external and internal morphology, and morphometrics that argues for the recognition of R. guatemalensis in Central and northern South America and R. saijaensis and R. cinerascens in the Pacific drainages of Colombia and Ecuador, respectively. The DNA data indicate that all trans-Andean samples form a monophyletic group, within which there are separate clades corresponding to R. laticauda and the synonymized R. guatemalensis, …

Assessment Of Student Knowledge Of The Weak And Strong Nuclear Forces, Pramila Shakya

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of active-learning activities to teach weak force and strong force to students enrolled in various courses at The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg campus and Gulf Park campus at different class times would increase their knowledge. There were eighty-six students that took part in this study. The study was conducted in the lab classes of an introductory astronomy survey course (AST 111), an introductory algebra-based physics course (PHY 112), and an introductory calculus-based physics course (PHY 202) during fall semester 2014. Each class was randomly assigned as active-learning or …

A Measure Of Soft Skill Gains Acquisition With Engagement In Baccalaureate Nursing Programs, Wendy J. Williams-Buenzli

Dissertations

This dissertation examined soft skill acquisition from engagement in baccalaureate nursing programs. Baccalaureate nursing programs prepare nurses to be the future leaders of nursing practice. Soft skills include critical thinking, interpersonal communications, and ethical decision-making. To explore the acquisition of soft skills, this research study analyzed data from the National Survey of Student Engagement to explore for gains in critical thinking, ethical decision-making, and critical thinking. After gains scores were identified, then correlations were run to identify key engagement indicators. The findings of the study found gains in soft skill behaviors from freshman year to senior year of baccalaureate education. …

Aqueous Raft Polymerization Of Glycopolymers For Peptide Interaction Studies And Antimicrobial Peptide Mimics For Antimicrobial Activity And Selectivity Studies, Sarah Elizabeth Exley

Dissertations

The first section of this work describes the synthesis and characterization of novel glycopolymers synthesized to model GM1 gangliosides, a glycolipid found in neuronal cells. Glucose and galactose were attached to N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide, using chemistry that granted control over the stereochemistry at the C1’ carbon of each saccharide, and polymerized via aqueous RAFT (aRAFT). Homopolymers, targeting either 30 or 300 DP, and copolymers, with N-dimethyl acrylamide, were prepared as a glycopolymer platform for investigation of amyloid β (Aβ), a naturally occurring peptide associated with Alzheimer’s disease, aggregation. Aβ aggregation kinetics and aggregate size in the presence of glycopolymer were determined. …

Comparison Of Item Response Theory Models For Data Fit Of Quality Control Measurements For Maillard Reaction Browning In Foods, Polly Barrett

Dissertations

In foods, browning is a complex set of reactions known as the Maillard Reaction (MR). As food is cooked, MR yields flavor, color and changes to the chemical properties of the initial food item. It is possible to undercook or overcook the food item, resulting in a less browned or burnt product. Item response theory (IRT) is often used to place subjects and instruments on the same continuum of the measured latent trait. IRT has been widely used in the fields of educational measurement and psychology, but few studies combine IRT and food science. This research tested IRT modeling for …

Transcendence Through Play: Child-Centered Play Therapy And Young Children With Autism, Katherine Elizabeth Carrizales

Dissertations

This qualitative study was designed to explore the impact of child-centered play therapy on young children identified as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with autism often experience difficulties in social, communication, behavioral, and relational domains. Often the treatment protocol for these children is an intense schedule of behavioral interventions designed to decrease problematic and increase desired behaviors. However, little emphasis has been placed on the child’s core deficits in relational skills and even less importance has been placed on his/her adequate emotional development. The current study sought to understand the impact of participation in play therapy on emotional and …

Joint Models Of Longitudinal Outcomes And Informative Time, Jangdong Seo

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Effects Of A Twelve-Week Aerobic And Cognitive Training Intervention On Cognitive Function In Cancer Survivors, Brent Michael Peterson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

School Psychologists' Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Treatment Attitudes And Parent Communication About Complementary Health Approaches To Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Sara Beth Knickerbocker

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Proteomic Analyses Of Snake Venoms With An Examination Of The Biological Roles And Anti-Cancer Effects Of Venom Disintegrins, Anthony J. Saviola

Dissertations

For decades, snakes and snake venoms have been utilized in numerous

aspects of biological and biomedical research. Behaviorally, snakes have been

examined for their extraordinary chemosensory capabilities, providing a detailed

understanding of their foraging ecology and predatory responses. The presence of

a highly complex vomeronasal organ has enabled snakes to not only respond to,

but also discriminate between a high-range of heterospecific, conspecific,

predatory, and prey-derived chemical odors.

Snake venom has allowed for a transition in predatory behaviors, and this

often complex mixture of proteins and peptides has provided researchers with an

ever growing catalog of natural compounds that may …

The Role Of Cyberbullying Victimization In Sexual Minority Adolescents' Reported Levels Of Depression And Anxiety, Jessica Lauryn Byrd

Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relationship between sexual and gender minority adolescents’ and heterosexual adolescents’ frequency of cyberbullying victimization and their reported levels of depression and anxiety. A total of 93 sexual and gender minority adolescents and 113 heterosexual adolescents participated. Results indicated sexual and gender minority participants experienced significantly more victimization than heterosexual participants. Sexual and gender minority participants reported significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety. Participants with the highest levels of victimization reported experiencing significantly higher levels of depression than participants with medium amounts of victimization. When controlling for frequency of victimization, sexual and gender minority and heterosexual …

The Journey Within: Discovering The Sense Of Becoming, Peggy A. Ursuy

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Harlem In Shakespeare And Shakespeare In Harlem: The Sonnets Of Claude Mckay, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, And Gwendolyn Brooks, David J. Leitner

Dissertations

This study responds to the need for an understanding of the relation of form and political critique within the sonnet form, and hopes to demonstrate that the sonnet can be used to effectively articulate the experience of racism, especially the Du Boisian concept of "double- consciousness," a sense of two-ness born of being both black and American. The fundamental structure of the sonnet (octave, volta, sestet) is dialectical; it "contests the idea it just introduced" (Caplan, Poetic Form: An Introduction 75). The sonnet's self-reflexive structure has been adopted and adapted by poets such as McKay, Cullen, Hughes, and Brooks. The …

Romantic Recultivating Of Self And Environment, David R. Schrappe

Dissertations

My project discusses the important philosophical role that interacting with nature (as opposed to having limited access to nature preserves and the like) plays in the life of an individual. As such I discuss the biological implications for experiences of real (as contrasted with simulated) nature and, in so doing, also discuss the connection of biology to philosophy. I go on to discuss the sociological and psychological ramifications of this interactive relationship through notions such as love and community and their ties to philosophy. I then close with a discussion of the necessity of artistic expression and how those endeavors …

Predicting Multi-Trophic Consequences Of An Emerging Disease, Adam D. Chupp

Dissertations

There are numerous examples of how exotic insect pests and pathogens have altered the dominance of native tree species and the ecological processes and function related to those species. While targeted species may persist in a functionally altered state via vegetative sprouting, the widespread decimation of a species can have dramatic direct and indirect consequences for organisms in multiple trophic levels. Devastation due to alien insect herbivores poses the greatest threat to native insect larvae that specialize on the impacted host species. The loss of pollinators whose larvae feed on impacted species and provide services for native plants may also …

Novel Spectroscopic Tools To Differentiate Molecule-Dna Binding Interactions, Sense Dna And Track Dna Melting, Saad Hmoud Alotaibi

Dissertations

The discovery of DNA as a genetic material and its double helical structure led to numerous studies directed at understanding molecule-DNA interactions. These studies have played an integral role in medical diagnostics, forensics, imaging and therapeutics. Typically, molecule-DNA interactions have two prominent modes: intercalation and minor groove binding. Several optical techniques are available that can monitor molecule-DNA binding interactions, but they cannot differentiate between intercalation and minor-groove binding. The major goals of the research are to develop novel optical spectroscopic tools that can differentiate molecule-DNA binding interactions, selectively and sensitively detect one form of DNA over another, and track DNA …

The Development Of Intercultural Maturity In Second Year College Students, Nicole A. Schuessler

Dissertations

Globalization and the development of cultural competence have become increasingly important in our pluralistic society. The ability to effectively interact with, understand, and make meaning of our experiences in a global setting is a critical learning outcome in order to address the complex issues of society. Higher education associations have deemed intercultural competence as an important outcome for graduates and international education is often a key strategy to realizing this goal. Increasingly over the past ten years, the second-year of college stands out as being developmentally significant by higher education scholars and practitioners. As second-year students experience and question the …

Beyond Generosity: The Action Logics In Philanthropy, Jennifer Amanda Jones

Dissertations

What influences the thinking and decision processes of donors when they engage in philanthropy? This study employed developmental psychology to explore this question. Developmental theorists agree that an adult develops in sequential stages over the course of a lifetime, gradually adopting an increasingly complex mental map. An individual’s developmental stage at any point in time, theorists argue, is made manifest as a type of “action logic” through which the individual interprets his/her external world and internal experience. One’s action logic is subtle and, for most of one’s life, operates outside of conscious awareness. It becomes evident, however, through attitudes, thoughts, …