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For The Good Of Association: The Call-And-Response Communication Ethics Of The Early Naacp, Rodney Adam Lyde

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of the formation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), from the standpoint of communication studies. In particular, this dissertation is based on the research of several crucial, communicative artifacts, including: “The Call” penned by William English Walling; the addresses, speeches, and the panel discussion of the Negro National Conference; and the editorial of the first issue The Crisis magazine. The contention is that the communication of the NAACP was catalyzed by a communication ethic, nominated as call-and-response communication ethics. Therefore, this dissertation elucidates the four practices of call-and-response communication ethics: …

Relationships Between Students’ Ict Usage, Self-Efficacy And Literacy, Malimi Kazi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information and communication technology (ICT) usage, self-efficacy, and literacy are very important for people in the 21st century. People need them to participate successfully in various activities including learning and working. Because of the importance of ICT, nations around the world, including the United States, have developed and are implementing ICT policies. Also, in 2013 the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) introduced the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) for grade eight students. However, ICT usage, ICT self-efficacy, and ICT literacy can be affected by students’ gender, race and socioeconomic status (SES). The purpose of …

Surface Water Quality Assessment Of Mingo Creek County Park: The Impacts Of Extractive Industries, Mikayla J. Bayto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historical and current extraction operations and infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines, conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas drilling, longwall coal mining, and strip coal mining, occur throughout the Mingo Creek watershed of Washington County, Pennsylvania, including Mingo Creek County Park. Mingo Creek and several associated tributaries flow through Mingo Creek County Park, eventually discharging into the Monongahela River. An independent water quality study was conducted from June 2020 through July 2023 in Mingo Creek County Park to determine if historical and current extraction activities impact Mingo Creek and its associated tributaries. Weekly sampling of Mingo Creek and associated tributaries …

The Ethical Justification Of Medical Interventions Across The Spectrum Of Healthcare For Patients Preceding The Age Of Consent: The Tension Between Surrogate Consent And Minor Assent, Erin Scroggins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation, The Ethical Justification of Medical Interventions Across the Spectrum of Healthcare for Patients Preceding the Age of Consent: the Tension Between Surrogate Consent and Minor Assent, will aim to provide ethical justification for medical intervention for patients preceding the age of consent. To begin, decision-making for medical intervention in all forms will be examined. Followed by, beginning of life interventions into complex and controversial situations for medical intervention which then leads into end-of-life considerations for patients preceding the age of consent. These chapters will pose various ethical considerations for some more contentious dilemmas. It has been pondered …

Impact Of Glycerophosphocholine Metabolism On Phenotypes In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae And Schizosaccharomyces Pombe, Victoria Hrach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glycerophosphocholine (GPC) is an abundant metabolite in eukaryotes. In baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, GPC can be produced via deacylation of the major membrane glycerophospholipid phosphatidylcholine (PC). My lab has identified a novel pathway to re-synthesize PC from GPC by acylating it at the sn-1 and sn-2 positions; this pathway has been termed the PC Deacylation-Reacylation Pathway (PC-DRP). We previously characterized the acyltransferase Gpc1 and its ability to synthesize one-tailed lyso-PC from GPC, as well as that noting that GPC1 is upregulated in inositol-free conditions and results in more saturated PC. Here, I add to this basic characterization by establishing …

Characterization Of A Novel Metalloid Reductase Outer Membrane Porin Rara From Sulfurospirillum Barnesii Ses-3, Narthana Jeganathar Kanmanii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sulfurospirillum barnesii SES-3 is a gram-negative epsilon proteobacterium that grows anaerobically by coupling the oxidation of lactate to the reduction of arsenate. Previous work on metal and metalloid metabolism in S. barnesii had identified a redox active protein, designated RarA that when provided an artificial electron donor (i.e., reduced methyl viologen, FMN, or NADH), could reduce a variety of substrates, including arsenate, selenate, selenite, nitrite, and even phosphate. The enzyme’s inferred amino acid sequence showed weak similarity (30%) to outer membrane porins with homologs found in only certain species of Sulfurospirillum. Further, the enzyme did not contain cysteine residues …

Comparative Functional And Computational Analyses Of Primate Seminal Proteins: Insights Into Sexual Selection And Hiv/Siv, Emine Feride Kahveci

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Male reproductive protein-coding genes are among the most rapidly evolving genes across many animal taxa, commonly attributed to sexual selection; however, pathogen defense mechanisms might also be contributing factors. This study aimed to both computationally and experimentally investigate the selective pressures responsible for the rapid evolution of seminal proteins. In the first part, the research focused on sexual selection in the form of post-copulatory sperm competition as a driving force behind the evolution of kallikrein related peptidase 3 (KLK3), also known as prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a key prostatic seminal protein. KLK3 is responsible for the liquefaction of semen coagulum through …

Quaternary Diamond-Like Sulfides For Nonlinear Optical Applications: Investigation Into Composition-Structure-Property Relationships Of The I2-Ii-Iv-Vi4 And I4-Ii-Iv2-Vi7 Formulae, Jordan Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research work presented in this dissertation focuses on the synthesis, characterization, and property assessment of new and existing quaternary diamond-like semiconductor (DLS) materials for the potential application in infrared (IR) nonlinear optics (NLO). Chapter 2 discusses the previously discovered temperature-dependent polymorphs of Cu₂ZnGeS₄ (CZGS); however, the IR NLO properties, neutron powder diffraction data, and single crystal X-ray diffraction structures were previously undetermined. The high-temperature α-CZGS polymorph was superior to the low-temperature β-CZGS analog in both second harmonic generation (SHG) and laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT). Chapter 3 presents the discovery of Li₂MgGeS₄ and comparison …

Targeting Cancer- One Carbon At A Time: Design And Synthesis Of Pyrimidine Based Heterocycles As Potential Cancer Chemotherapeutics, Md Junayed Nayeen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With over 6 million death counts, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 23% (136,084 death count) of all cancer deaths. Other than that, colon and rectal (9%, 51,869 death count), pancreas (8%, 46,774 death count), female breast (7%, 42,275 death count), prostate (5%, 32,707 death count), and liver and intrahepatic bile duct (5%, 28,227 death count). Other cancers individually accounted for less than 5% of cancer deaths. Although cancer death rates decreased about 27% from 2001 to 2020, the therapeutic options are limited …

Development Of A Rapid Bacterial Quantification Method Based On Droplet Microfluidics, Shawn Bliss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The capacity to identify bacteria quickly and accurately is critical for applications such as medical diagnosis, environmental monitoring, and food safety. For instance, sepsis diagnosis requires blood cultures that take as long as 1-5 days, preventing timely intervention and increasing mortality rate. Here, we propose the joint use of microfluidics and a machine learning algorithm for rapid bacterial cell capture and quantification. The combination of high-throughput droplet microfluidics and a support vector machine (SVM) enables analysis and quantification of bacterial samples within as short as 4 hours. We have performed successful encapsulation of pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli, …

The Contribution Of Pope Francis’ Integral Ecology To Global Ethics, Salvatore Enzo Del Brocco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The defense of the dignity and inviolability of human life has always gained prominence in the doctrine of the Catholic Church. With Pope Francis' concept of integral ecology, Catholic bioethics is expanded to a broader understanding. His vision of integral ecology, global bioethics, and solidarity emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of caring for one another and the planet. It calls us to recognize our common humanity and to work together for the common good by facing the numerous emerging problems of our times, which threaten the dignity of human life and the future life of the …

The Moral Legitimacy Of Ethics Consultation, Jason Lesandrini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the moral legitimacy of ethics consultation in healthcare. It delves into the historical development of ethics committees and the shift towards ethics programs, addressing clinical and organizational ethics challenges. The work explores the field of clinical ethics, its professionalization, and the role of ethics consultation services, highlighting their expanding scope and complexity. The discussion includes the formation of professional standards for ethicists and the development of graduate programs in bioethics. Central to the dissertation is the question of whether ethics consultation is morally legitimate, a query yet to be adequately answered. The text scrutinizes various models and …

Patagonian Precarity: Extractive Tourism And Subaltern Activism In El Chaltén, Argentina, Kaitlyn C. Sisco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between extractive tourism and social activism in Southern Andean Patagonia. Its central goal is to unpack the systems that structurally marginalize subaltern populations and inspire their resistance. Through ethnographic attention to El Chaltén, Argentina, I investigate how extractive tourism generates various forms of social activism that manifest in social dimensions such as class and gender. In El Chaltén’s ecotourism terrain, feminine and dissident experiences have been historically devalued. I argue that El Chaltén is a crucible for subaltern, structurally marginalized activism. The extractive tourism industry—tied to housing/land inequality and gender violence—generates and catalyzes various forms …

Perinatal Ethics: The Role Of Ethics Consultation Around Parental Dilemmas Before And After Birth, Giulia Adele Dinicola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation, “Perinatal Ethics: the Role of Ethics Consultation around Parental Dilemmas Before and After Birth,” aims to examine the nuances of clinical ethics consultations in the field of perinatal ethics. Perinatal ethics entails ethical quandaries that emerge during a life-changing shift in prospective parents’ lives: pregnancy, childbirth, and the first days to months of their child’s life. Although pregnancy and childbirth often come with happy and joyful memories; this is not always the case. When fetal anomalies are diagnosed either with prenatal screening tests, or when maternal health complications develop during pregnancy, or when delivery-related emergencies occur during childbirth, …

Transforming Chaplain Ethics: The Clinical Ethics Of Spiritual Care In A Pluralistic Healthcare Environment In The United States, Robert Alan Price

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation, “Transforming Chaplain Ethics: The Clinical Ethics of Spiritual Care in a Pluralistic Healthcare Environment in the United States,” aims to examine the clinical ethics of religious and spiritual care provided by clinical chaplains for patients and families receiving treatment in a pluralistic healthcare context in the United States.

Clinical chaplains are more than clergypersons and they are more than clinicians; they are a highly specialized marriage of both worlds. There is a fundamental asymmetry between functioning as a leader in a local religious community or faith tradition and providing clinical spiritual care in a pluralistic healthcare environment. This …

The Distinctive Contribution Of The Catholic Tradition On Emerging Ethical Issues Around Embryos., Michael Donkor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considered the distinctive contribution of the Catholic Church surrounding emerging ethical issues around embryos. In many Catholic doctrines, the church has stated that the embryo must be treated as if it were a human person with (soul) and must be protected. The embryo is considered an individual with relational qualities worthy of all the rights given all humans per the natural law.

The Church continues to oppose all forms of assisted reproduction that eliminates the unitive and procreative nature of marriage as it violates the dignity of the child and marriage. Technologies such as lower tubal ovum transfer(LTOT), …

The Contributions Of Philosophical Anthropology To Healthcare Ethics, Bura Koroba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first principles of bioethics, autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice have contributed immensely to healthcare ethics. The procedural approach streamlines the decision-making process, protects vulnerable subjects, and fosters stability and trust in the patient-caregiver relationship. Yet, the principles are demonstrably insufficient, riddled with limitations and loopholes that could stand in the way of care.[i] Several recommendations have been proffered to remedy the deficiencies. Value ethics, for instance, has been touted as a proficient addendum to the foundations established by the principles. Still, these have not sufficiently addressed all arising issues in bioethics. Besides the challenges encountered in decision-making, opposing …

A Critique Of The Pivotal Ethical Issues In Organ/Tissue Donation & Transplantation, Francis Sarpong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organ or tissue donation has proven to be a lifesaving intervention for patients battling failing or failed organs or tissues. However, scholars have raised concerns about just and rational procurement and transplantation in a global shortage. This dissertation addresses normative approaches for organ/tissue procurement, allocation and transplantation to highlight the related pivotal ethical issues. It defends normative approaches such as queuing and nudging, and upholds their universal obligatoriness. It provides illumination about the demands of an effective solution to who shall receive or give organs when not all can. The introductory chapter employs common morality as a principal source of …

Pedal Points: Harmony And The Double-Action Pedal System In Modern Harp Music, Mckenna Jennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pedals are an invisible guide in chromatic harp repertoire. While the evolution of tonality and rise in chromaticism incentivized the invention of the double-action pedal harp, the unique restraints and extensions of this technological system influence harmony and pitch collections in chromatic harp music. This thesis explores the pedal harp and the influence the affordance and idiomacy of the pedal layout exerts onto chromatic harp repertoire. It draws on embodiment and schema theory to describe patterns of pedal motion in harp music, thus presenting and demonstrating an original theory of pedal schemas. Pedal schemas are patterns of motion defined by …

When Trying To Reach Zombies And Other Stories, Caleb James Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When Trying to Reach Zombies and Other Stories is a collection of nine short stories and a novella that focuses on Christian speculative fiction. The collection uses the themes and images from Christianity and the tools of speculative fiction to tell stories. In “When Trying to Reach Zombies,” zombies are able to come back to life through Christian conversion. “Smokin’ Hot Wife” focuses on small church politics. “Free From Responsibility” explores a world where AI has religion. “Mrs. Peterson’s Hedge” is a retelling of an Old Testament story of destruction. “Sea Foam on the Rocky Beach” explores a world of …

The Ethical Connection Between Patient Care And Patient Safety, Caitlin Walsh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uses the care ethics framework to describe potential solutions to patient safety issues seen across different areas in healthcare. Many of the works already published on Care Ethics apply the theory to only one aspect of relationships in healthcare. This dissertation uses Care Ethics to describe different levels of relationships in the various tiers and domains of healthcare in the United States. It first will describe the relationship between patients and their healthcare teams, then it describes the relationship between society and patient’s access to care. There are many barriers in society that prevent patients from accessing care …

Dredging The Wetlands, Tilling The Field: Ecotonal Poetics Of The Anthropocene, Stacey Balkun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation interrogates the use of poetic fragmentation as a tool of ecological representation and coins the term “ecotonal poetics.” Ecotonal poesis, this dissertation explains, is the stretching of lyric across the field of the page, using space, sound, language, and parataxis in its attempt to not only represent but create ecotonal ecologies through text, sound, and visual cues. This dissertation puts forth four case studies of contemporary American women poets turning the space of the page into an ecotone where text, white space, author, reader, body, and environment meet. The poets studied here rely heavily on textual experimentation, suggesting …

Paranormal Beliefs And The Big Five: Extrinsic Optimism, Trust In People, And Fantasy Proneness, Caitlyn Ariel Irene Harvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are many inconsistent findings on the relationship between paranormal beliefs and The Big Five. This study aims to clarify the correlations by assessing extrinsic optimism, trust in people, and fantasy proneness. Extrinsic optimism is associated with neuroticism and extraversion. Trust is associated with agreeableness. Lastly, fantasy proneness is associated with openness to experience. It was predicted that paranormal beliefs would be positively correlated with extrinsic optimism, trust in people, and fantasy proneness. It was also predicted that paranormal beliefs would be positively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, and openness. Correlational and regression analyses were run to test these predictions. Results …

Comparative Analysis Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy’S Effectiveness In An Intensive Outpatient Program Setting, Efrain Frank Ellin Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a comparative analysis of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and treatment as usual (TAU) within an intensive outpatient program setting, evaluating their effectiveness in enhancing various dimensions of psychological well-being. Guided by two main research questions, the study investigates whether ACT demonstrates greater or equal effectiveness compared to TAU and if it provides more immediate effects on psychological well-being within three weeks. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, the research incorporates a comprehensive array of measurement tools to assess outcomes related to anxiety, depression, stress, psychological flexibility, cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, mindfulness self-efficacy, and life satisfaction among participants. The …

The Affable Raphael: Milton's Surrogate Instructor In Paradise Lost., Beau Kilpatrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) is a beautifully written epic that continues to be a stalwart text in the English literary canon, with unlimited potential for interpretation. In this dissertation I propose that Paradise Lost can be read as a pedagogical lesson for Milton’s “fit audience,” where the author implements his views on education in the context of heaven, hell, and Paradise. In the poem, Milton presents three pedagogical methodologies: first, the wrong way to knowledge is presented through Satan’s manipulations of the fallen angels and Eve; second, the divine way to knowledge is illustrated via Michael’s prophecy to Adam …

You Don’T Look Sick: Epistemic Injustice, Ethos, And Embodied Expertise In Narratives Of Chronic Illness., Caitlin Burns Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project emerges at a cultural moment when diagnoses of chronic illness are increasing, and heightened attention is being paid to gendered medical bias and chronically ill women’s negative experiences both within and outside of the medical system. Analysis of personal narratives written by women and nonbinary people with chronic illnesses revealed deeply entrenched cultural logics related to health and gender and the significant affective and material consequences for the mobilization of those logics. Chapter One of the dissertation describes the exigence of the project in more detail, provides a robust overview of the dissertation’s methods, and reviews related …

Authentic Fake: Authenticity And Authentication., Suyun Son

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis exhibition questions the modern sanctification of authenticity. No longer believing in objective truths, the postmodern society seeks epistemic grounding on being true to oneself. The categories of authentic-or-fake replaced the binary of true-or-false. But authenticity is a trojan horse for authentication. As a Korean American artist, I'm encouraged to express my “authentic” Korean identity. This encouragement can also imply my works will receive recognition as authentic and meaningful only when they embody Korean cultural expression. Authenticity becomes a performance for the sake of authentication. Ironically, authenticity turns into an act of conformity/confirmation. Authenticity demands you stay true to …

Exploring Resilience With Neuroimaging: Moderators Of The Impacts Of Childhood Traumatic Stress On Fear Processing., Karisa June Hunt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood trauma is an alarming public health crisis, and the field of trauma research is relatively underdeveloped given population rates of childhood trauma and post-trauma pathology. Even less studied than the impacts of trauma are the impacts of resilience, and the protective factors that foster it. It is widely acknowledged that an investigation of trauma is incomplete without an investigation of its impacts on fear processing. Understanding the neural underpinnings of resilience to childhood trauma during fear conditioning is vital to the development of therapeutic interventions able to moderate its devastating impacts. The present study investigated the complex neurobiological interplay …

Faculty And "Teams": Academic Literacies In The Post-Lockdown, Digital University., Morgan Suzanne Blair

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increased presence of disruptive digital technologies in academia has been a subject of multidisciplinary scholarly conversation and public speculation over the past few decades. Many literacy studies scholars have contributed to this discourse, examining topics like multimodal literacies and perceptions of agency among students. These scholars have noted with skepticism that such technologies may mask operations of power, surveillance, and control which serve the demands of an increasingly “corporate” or “neoliberal” university. Building upon this scholarship, my study contends that the evolving literacy environment of the digital university requires a closer examination of corporate-sponsored narratives and literacy practices implicating …

As The Night Is Lit: The Nocturnal Urban Landscapes Of Childe Hassam., Diana M. Wilder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The scientific investigations into light that began with the Enlightenment garnered added information useful for artists. To depict the changes in light due to weather, time of day, and season more accurately, artists took the information reaped from studies of the refraction of light gained from Isaac Newton’s color theories. The new technological advances of gaslight and electric arc lighting also changed the way that light was represented on canvas. Artists were now able to paint in their ateliers due to modern lighting that would light up the rooms like the day. Some artists decided to explore the night and …