Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluation Of Performance-Based And Pre-Set Conventional Criterion For Reinforcement In Check In-Check Out, Lauren Lestremau Harpole

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two methods of criterion-setting, performance-based or pre-set conventional, as evidenced by improvements in children’s behavior. Participant behavior was evaluated through teacher reports of appropriate behavior and observed academically engaged behavior as well as decreases in problem behavior and disruptive behavior. Eight elementary school students in a Southeastern town referred for exhibiting behavior problems served as participants in addition to their teachers. The effects of the different methods of criterion setting on the dependent variables were evaluated. Teacher ratings of appropriate behavior were assessed through evaluation of Daily Behavior …

Child Parent Relationship Therapy For Parents Of Children With Disruptive Behavior, Alison Moses

Dissertations

Young children who display extreme levels of disruptive behaviors are at increased risk for later academic difficulties, poor social relationships and adolescent delinquency, making early intervention efforts a priority. Studies evaluating Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) have demonstrated its effectiveness in improving parental empathy, improving parental acceptance, decreasing parenting stress, and decreasing perceived child problem behavior. These outcomes, however, must be evaluated in light of several research limitations (e.g., lack of randomization, use of non-standardized measures, lack of treatment integrity data). Well conducted studies that assess the effectiveness of CPRT on specific presenting problems are needed to evaluate better the impact, …

Deepwater, Deep Ties, Deep Trouble: A State-Corporate Environmental Crime Analysis Of The 2010 Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Elizabeth A. Bradshaw

Dissertations

The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was one of the worst environmental disasters of all time. Using the concept of state-corporate environmental crime, this project applies a case study analysis of secondary data sources including publicly available government reports, corporate documents, academic sources and journalistic accounts to examine the causes of the blowout and the response to the spill. Building on Michalowski and Kramer’s Integrated Theoretical Model of State-Corporate Crime, this study introduces an additional level of analysis- that of the industry- between the organizational and institutional levels.

The causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion are rooted both in …

Exogenous Alpha-Synuclein Induces Cell Death Related Proteins In C6 Oligodendrocyte-Like Cells Corresponding To Protein Expression Observed In Multiple System Atrophy, Derrick Samuel Hilton

Dissertations

Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) consists of three disorders; Autonomic Dysfunction, Cerebellar Ataxia, and Parkinsonism. In MSA, the protein Alpha-Synuclein (SNCA) appears in the central nervous system as misfolded protein aggregates primarily in oligodendrocytes. This dissertation reports the results from studies examining the effect of exogenous SNCA has on a cell model: C6 oligodendrocyte-like cells. Treated cells were evaluated using western blot and DNA microarray. In addition the expression of proteins was evaluated using immunocytochemistry in MSA patient tissue.

C6 cells were shown to take up SNCA when added to the media. SNCA also underwent a truncation when taken up by …

What Psychotherapists Have To Teach Us About Childhood Developmental Trauma: The Roles Of Attachment Orientation And Coping Strategy, Rebecca Klott

Dissertations

Psychotherapists have been found to have higher rates of childhood developmental trauma when compared to non-clinicians, yet they do not report more distress. The current study added to the literature regarding the experiences of psychotherapists and explored a theoretical model integrating attachment and coping as mediators for the relationship between childhood developmental trauma and psychological distress among psychotherapists.

A total of 130 masters' level psychologists participated in this study. These participants were asked to complete the following measures: The Child Abuse and Trauma Scale (Sanders& Becker-Lausen, 1995), the Ways of Coping-Revised (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985; Folkman, Lazarus, Denkel-Schetter, DeLongis, & …

Investigating The Biochemical Activity Of Some Flavonoids, Coumarins And Modified Gold-Nanoparticles As Anti-Breast-Cancer Agents, Amr Ezzat Mohamed Mahmoud

Dissertations

Polyphenols compounds are abundant natural products found in many plants as secondary metabolites. These compounds display many interesting pharmacological activities, which have motivated chemists over the years to explore them, and their synthetic derivatives, as potential drugs, especially anticancer drugs. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally, and in the United States of America the estimated worldwide new breast cancer cases and the number of deaths are 1.38 million and 458 thousand, respectively. Currently in the USA there are 2.6 million women who have been treated for breast cancer, and the estimated number of deaths are 39,520 …

Predictors Of Counselor Self-Efficacy Among Master's Level Counselor Trainees: Impact Of Cohort Versus Non-Cohort Educational Programs, Regina Lynn Meyer

Dissertations

Self-efficacy, a central component of Bandura's social cognitive theory (SCT), is an important construct in the realm of therapist development and has been associated with client outcome. Researchers have found that some of the strongest predictors of counselor self-efficacy are level of experience, level of training, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. Missing from this body of literature, however, is an understanding of how the educational format of training (i.e., cohort versus non-cohort) impacts counselor self-efficacy. Because cohort membership has been associated with professional confidence and self-esteem, it was hypothesized that educational format would contribute significant variance to counselor self-efficacy scores. …

Regulation Of Expression Of Enterohemolysin Toxin By The Global Repressor Hns And Characterization Of A New Class Of Protein Produced By Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia Coli, Miles T. Rogers

Dissertations

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are worldwide pathogens causing an estimated 200,000 infections per year in the United States. Infections with STEC sometimes progress to kidney failure ending in death. Two studies presented below describe a novel virulence factor and mechanisms required for pathogenesis of STEC seropathotype 091 :H21.

First the novel protein, YghJ, was identified and found to be conserved amongst extraintestinal and diarrheal seropathotypes of E. coli with similar proteins carried by pathogens such as Vibrio cholerae. When the yghJ gene was disrupted creating a YghJ null mutant, the defect resulted in a significant growth deficiency in …

Describing The Apprenticeship Of Chemists Through The Language Of Faculty Scientists, Brandy Ann Skjold

Dissertations

Attempts to bring authentic science into the K-16 classroom have led to the use of sociocultural theories of learning, particularly apprenticeship, to frame science education research. Science educators have brought apprenticeship to science classrooms and have brought students to research laboratories in order to gauge its benefits. The assumption is that these learning opportunities are representative of the actual apprenticeship of scientists. However, there have been no attempts in the literature to describe the apprenticeship of scientists using apprenticeship theory. Understanding what science apprenticeship looks like is a critical component of translating this experience into the classroom. This study sought …

Anxiety Symptoms, Parent Anxiety And Functional Impairment In Pediatric Cardiology Patients With Noncardiac Chest Pain And Benign Cardiac Complaints, Cassandra Jo Mcdonnell

Dissertations

Chest pain is regularly encountered in pediatric medical settings. Because of the popular association of chest pain with coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction adults, it is often frightening for both patients and parents. However, up to 88% of pediatric chest pain patients receive no medical explanation for their pain. Chest discomfort in the absence of medical explanation that is characterized by no more than one typical angina symptom is classified as non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP). This study examined parent anxiety, child anxiety and chest pain related functional impairment in a sample of pediatric patients with NCCP in comparison to …

A New Look At Genre And Authenticity: Making Sense Of Reading And Writing Science News In High School Classrooms, Angela Marie Kohnen

Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the importance of the genre and authenticity as teachers sought to bring science journalism to the high school science classroom. Undertaken as part of the National Science Foundation-funded grant “Science Literacy through Science Journalism (SciJourn),” this work was conducted as a series of smaller studies addressing the following issues: the definition of the genre from the point of view of professional journalists; teachers’ motivation for joining the SciJourn project; qualities of science teachers compared to science journalists; science teachers’ approach to writing and writing response; and the teachers’ reflections on their own implementation strategies. Data collected …

Paradigm Adherence And Personality Correlates Across Mental Health Professions, Laura Anne Rauscher

Dissertations

Paradigm adherence has been developed as a meta-theoretical approach to organize and to classify the multitude of different theories of counseling and psychotherapy. Four paradigms have been identified in the literature: The Organic-Medical, The Psychological, The Systemic-Relational, and the Social Constructivist paradigms. Only one other study to date has examined paradigm adherence of a group (Marriage and Family Therapists) and how it can be of value to the mental health professionals. This study examined the relationship between paradigm adherence and different characteristics of mental health professionals in the state of Missouri. In this study, Licensed Psychologists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, …

The Relationship Between Multiplication Fact Speed-Recall And Fluency And Higher Level Mathematics Learning With Eighth Grade Middle School Students, Steven James Curry

Dissertations

This quantitative study investigated relationships between higher level mathematics learning and multiplication fact fluency, multiplication fact speed-recall, and reading grade equivalency of eighth grade students in Algebra I and Pre-Algebra. Higher level mathematics learning was indicated by an average score of 80% or higher on first and second semester mathematics assessments and proficient or advanced descriptor on the mathematics Missouri Assessment Program tests. Timed multiplication fact quizzes were administered to eighth grade students. Speed-recall scores were measured by the number of accurate answers in a 45-second time frame. Fluency was obtained by a student score of 35 accurate answers in …

Beyond The Dream:Improving College-Readiness Of Underprepared Community College Students, Joan L. Kindle

Dissertations

The majority of the nation’s first-year college students are not prepared to assume postsecondary level studies. Many are diverted to developmental education programs and most never attain postsecondary credentials. Educational reform is on the national agenda and challenges community colleges to address the growing lack of postsecondary achievement. The purpose of this instrumental multi-case study was to explore and analyze reformative strategies that effectively address college-readiness and achievement of underprepared community college students.

A qualitative methodology was employed in analyzing strategies implemented at community colleges to improve college-readiness. A criterion-based selection process identified six community colleges recognized by the Achieving …

Design, Modeling And Fabrication Of Shear Mode Bulk Acoustic Wave Sensor As A Potential Biosensor, Chi-Jung Cheng

Dissertations

There has been an increasing interest in development of thin film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) devices for chemical and biological sensing applications in the environmental and biomedical industries. The zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film based FBAR devices provides attractive advantages, such as high resonant frequency, small size, and rapid response. Typically, the ZnO-based FBAR devices are operated in the longitudinal wave mode where the ZnO crystallites are perpendicular to the substrate. In gaseous environments, the longitudinal mode FBAR device provides high sensitivity for mass sensing. However, the longitudinal wave mode is adversely affected when used in liquid environments because …

Discrete Targeting Of Peptide And Non-Peptide Neurotransmitters By A Single Neuron, Daniel Kueh

Dissertations

The heart excitor (HE) motor neuron in the medicinal leech, Hirudo, releases acetylcholine (ACh) and a peptide, FMRFamide, to regulate the contractile activity of the heart tube and associated side vessels. Consistent with Dale’s Principle, it was assumed that both neurotransmitters were coreleased by all presynaptic varicosities. However, discrete peptide-positive and peptide-negative varicosities can be found consistently at particular sites of innervation on the heart tube. Dual-labeled HE neurons were produced by pressure injecting Neurobiotin into single HE neurons and applied antibodies against FMRFamide on the same preparations. Consistent with initial expectations, peptide-labeled varicosities were numerous and widely distributed …

Lesbian/Queer/Same-Gender-Loving Women Graduate Students In Mental Health Related Fields: A Grounded Theory Of Attitudes Toward Transgender Individuals, Bonnie M. Benson

Dissertations

Transgender (trans) issues are an emerging area of research within counseling psychology. As such, little is known about how individuals form their attitudes toward trans people. Despite evidence that lesbian women are one group that has held biased views of the trans population, the literature has not addressed the perceptions that lesbian women have of trans individuals. Furthermore, the campus climate literature has attended to how LGBT students experience campus discrimination, but this literature has not addressed within-group differences, that is, attitudes and interactions among LGBT members of a university community, such as those between lesbians and trans people. The …

Energy Methods For Reaction-Diffusion Problems, Xing Zhong

Dissertations

Nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations arise in many areas of applied sciences such as combustion modeling, population dynamics, chemical kinetics, etc. A fundamental problem in the studies of these equations is to understand the long time behavior of solutions of the associated Cauchy problem. These kinds of questions were originally studied in the context of combustion modeling.

For suitable nonlinearity and a monotone increasing one-parameter family of initial data starting with zero data, small values of the parameter lead to extinction, whereas large values of the parameter may lead to spreading, i.e., the solution converging locally uniformly to a positive spatially independent …

Structural Analysis And Auditing Of Snomed Hierarchies Using Abstraction Networks, Yue Wang

Dissertations

SNOMED is one of the leading healthcare terminologies being used worldwide. Due to its sheer volume and continuing expansion, it is inevitable that errors will make their way into SNOMED. Thus, quality assurance is an important part of its maintenance cycle.

A structural approach is presented in this dissertation, aiming at developing automated techniques that can aid auditors in the discovery of terminology errors more effectively and efficiently. Large SNOMED hierarchies are partitioned, based primarily on their relationships patterns, into concept groups of more manageable sizes. Three related abstraction networks with respect to a SNOMED hierarchy, namely the area taxonomy …

Advanced Intelligent Control And Optimization For Cardiac Pacemaker Systems, Wei Shi

Dissertations

Since cardiovascular diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality in the developed countries and the number one cause of death in the United States, their accurate diagnosis and effective treatment via advanced cardiac pacemaker systems have become very important. Intelligent control and optimization of the pacemakers are significant research subjects. Serious but infrequently occurring arrhythmias are difficult to diagnose. The use of electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform only cannot exactly distinguish between deadly abnormalities and temporary arrhythmias. Thus, this work develops a new method based on frequency entrainment to analyze pole-zero characteristics of the phase error between abnormal ECG and entrained …

Investigation Of The Fracture Phenomena During The Milling Process Of Inorganic Particulates And Brittle Fracture Of Polymer Composites Using Fractal Theory, Zheng Qian

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the applicability and usefulness of applying Fractal mathematics and to the fracture of brittle particulates in Fluid Energy Mill devices, and in particular quantifying the resulting power law particle size distributions, examining the Surface Fractal Dimension of milled particulates, and relating the Izod Impact Strength values of composites of polypropylene and Calcium carbonate particulates which are large un-milled, small milled, as well as small and produced by the simultaneous milling and coating with nano-silica to the Surface Fractal Dimension of the impact fracture surfaces.

First, the dissertation examines the behavior of un-coated and micron-sized wax pre-coated particulates …

Registration And Categorization Of Camera Captured Documents, Venkata Gopal Edupuganti

Dissertations

Camera captured document image analysis concerns with processing of documents captured with hand-held sensors, smart phones, or other capturing devices using advanced image processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, and machine learning techniques. As there is no constrained capturing in the real world, the captured documents suffer from illumination variation, viewpoint variation, highly variable scale/resolution, background clutter, occlusion, and non-rigid deformations e.g., folds and crumples. Document registration is a problem where the image of a template document whose layout is known is registered with a test document image. Literature in camera captured document mosaicing addressed the registration of captured documents with …

Virtual Reality Visual Feedback And Its Effect On Brain Excitability, Soha Saleh

Dissertations

This dissertation examines manipulation of visual feedback in virtual reality (VR) to increase excitability of distinct neural networks in the sensorimotor cortex. The objective is to explore neural responses to visual feedback of motor activities performed in complex virtual environments during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and to identify sensory manipulations that could further optimize VR rehabilitation of persons with hemiparesis. In addition, the effects of VR therapy on brain reorganization are investigated. An MRI-compatible VR system is used to provide subjects with online visual feedback of their hand movement. First, the author develops a protocol to analyze variability in …

Transport Of Terrigenous Sediment And Horseshoe Crab Eggs In The Swash Zone Of An Estuarine Foreshore In Delaware Bay, New Jersey, Usa, Sherestha Saini

Dissertations

Identification of processes responsible for egg exhumation and transport in the swash zone is paramount to conservation of species that use the intertidal foreshore. One example where the understanding of these processes is critical to egg exhumation, transport and deposition is in Delaware Bay, USA. Beaches in Delaware Bay provide foraging grounds to many shorebird species that migrate thousands of miles from Central and South America to feed on nutrient rich horseshoe crab eggs during their peak spawning season. Eggs laid at depth by horseshoe crabs are exhumed and transported by bioturbation, wave and swash processes and made available to …

Adsorption Of Particles On Fluid-Liquid Interfaces, Bhavin Dalal

Dissertations

Particles floating on fluid-liquid interfaces are of considerable interest because of their importance in a range of physical applications and biological processes, e.g., self-- assembly of particles at fluid-fluid interfaces resulting in novel nano structured materials, stabilization of emulsions, formation of pollen and insect egg rafts, etc. The aim of this dissertation is to explore the mechanism by which particles are adsorbed at fluid-liquid interfaces. It is shown that the inertia of a particle plays an important role in its motion in the direction normal to a fluid-liquid interface, and in determining the particles adsorption trajectory and orientation in …

Rational Design Of Hydrogen-Free Catalytic Active Sites, Andrei Ioan Loas

Dissertations

Materials that are organic-based and exhibit oxidative catalytic activity, including free-radical pathways, while being refractory to the activated oxygen species are not known. The synthesis of several classes of such materials, their electronic and structural characterizations as well as catalytic properties are reported. Their rational molecular design and biologically inspired reactivity are based on enzymatic active sites, which are reengineered into robust metal-organic fluoroalkylated scaffolds that, for the first time, exhibit structural asymmetry and tunable π-π interactions both in solution and solid state. In these complexes, labile C-H bonds are replaced with chemically and thermally resistant C-F bonds to create …

Desalination Of Brine And Produced Water By Membrane Distillation At Lower As Well As Higher Temperatures And Pressures, Dhananjay Singh

Dissertations

Direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD)-based desalination process is a thermally- driven separation process where a hydrophobic microporous membrane separates a hot brine feed and a cold distillate which condenses the water vapor from the hot brine passing through the membrane pores. So far, DCMD has been explored for hot brines and other aqueous solutions below 100oC. For feed solutions above 100oC, DCMD has an extra advantage over other conventional separation processes like reverse osmosis (RO) which requires cooling of the feed solution costing additional energy; further, RO can not utilize the heat available in the feed solution. Produced water obtained …

Dispersibility Of And Adsorption On Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes, Susana Addo Ntim

Dissertations

As the applications of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) proliferate, mass production and widespread use of these nanocarbons will continue to rise. While raw, unrefined, and hydrophobic carbon nanotubes tend to settle out of aqueous media/environments, water dispersible, functionalized CNTs (F-CNTs) will contaminate water resources and will also be highly bioavailable on exposure. Therefore, there is a need to develop an understanding of the fate of F-CNTs in aqueous media.

The colloidal behavior of aqueous dispersions of F-CNTs formed via carboxylation and polymer wrapping with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) is investigated. The presence of polymer on the nanotube surface provides steric stabilization, and …

Mathematical Models Of Combustion At High Pressure, Daniel Fong

Dissertations

In this dissertation, we develop new mathematical theories of flame propagation that are valid at elevated, or extreme, pressures. Of particular interest is the regime of burning in which the pressure exceeds the critical pressure of the species undergoing chemical reaction. Fluids and flames are known to behave differently under these extreme conditions as opposed to atmospheric pressure. The focus of this dissertation is to investigate these differences by deriving reduced models that contain the unique features.

In the first part of this dissertation, we analyze the structure of laminar diffusion flames at high pressure in the limit of large …

Inkjet Printing Of Resistive-Type Humidity Sensor For Harsh Environments, Hamed Kazerani

Dissertations

A flexible resistive-type humidity sensor for harsh environments is successfully designed and fabricated by an inkjet printing method using a Dimatix materials printer (DMP-2800 series from Fujifilm). Construction of the sensors is based on inkjet printed interdigitated silver electrodes on a polyimide flexible substrate along with an inkjet printable polyaniline (PANi) as humidity sensitive material. A copolymer of ethylene and vinyl alcohol (EVOH) is used as sensor protective coating. Double strand water- soluble PANi ink is synthesized by polymerization of aniline monomers with poly(4- styrenesulfonic acid) (PSSA) as a template.

Manufactured devices showed high sensitivity (/% @ 45%RH) to humidity …