Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling Social Participation As Predictive Of Life Satisfaction And Social Support: Scale Or Index?, Anne T. Zelenka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social participation in late adulthood through activities such as volunteering with charities, playing sports, and joining clubs can increase life satisfaction, directly by providing enjoyable engagement and indirectly by increasing a person's sense of social connectedness. When reported levels of different types of activities are used to measure social participation, conventional measure development procedures based on classical test theory lead to a proliferation of small participation subscales that don't show good reliability, don't have theoretical power, and don't match researchers' conceptions of the dimensions of participation. Based on the poor performance of conventional approaches, some researchers have suggested that social …

China And The United States' Recovery From The Global Financial Crisis, Yufei Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Faced with the global financial crisis, which has a large impact on the world's economy, China and the United Stated took different actions to pull the economy out of it, based on the fairly different financial, fiscal, and even political systems they have. This thesis focuses on the comparison of the financial and fiscal systems and trade structures between the two different countries, and how these have impact on their stimulus packages, thus influencing the economic recovery as a whole.

The Role Of Reflective Judgment In The Relationship Between Religious Orientation And Prejudice, Alison Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in the psychology of religion over the past five decades has found that religious individuals tend to be more prejudiced than those who are not religious. In addition, research has identified various orientations to religion, each having a unique relationship to prejudice. The purpose of this study was to explore whether cognitive complexity, as defined by the Reflective Judgment Model (RJM), might emerge as a predictor both of religious orientation and of prejudice, thereby explaining the variability in the relationships between religious orientation and prejudice. While a relationship between cognitive complexity, religious orientation, and prejudice has been theorized (Hunsberger …

Hybrid Sensing And Adaptive Control For Direct Brain Actuation Of Artificial Limbs, Christopher Aasted

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Developing a non-invasive direct brain control of artificial limbs is both challenging and desirable. Such a sensory and control system, if successful, will have a profound impact on the disabled. In this dissertation, we present the design and development of a non-invasive, hybrid sensory system, which uses near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity with simultaneous electromyography (EMG) to provide feedback data in a healthy limb. Through the combination of these sensory techniques, we have successfully trained a control system capable of mapping brain activity onto muscle actuation. The design of a control algorithm capable of automatic …

Structured Finance And Its Effects On Macroeconomic Stability, Brian Charles Fahey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The tools and techniques of structured finance have changed banking remarkably over the past twenty years. This area grew to become larger than the sum total of traditional banking deposits in 2007. Despite this, the field is poorly understood and its connection to macroeconomic stability was underestimated until the credit crisis. This paper explores the structured finance market in three phases. First, the market is broken into parts based on the incentives and motivations of each of the three major agents in the field. Next, a critical review of pricing models that are used to justify the valuations of the …

Taking A Deep Breadth: The Rhetorical Construction Of Solidarity In The American Labor Movement, William O'Shannon Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the rhetorical fragments in three case studies of the American Labor Movement constituting movement members in solidarity. Using Kenneth Burke's discussion of rhetorical substance, this project explores the possibilities for developing deep and broad forms of solidarity within the American Labor Movement. Rhetorical fragments of the Industrial Workers of the World, the United Farm Workers, and contingent faculty unionization efforts are explored.

I argue Burke's ideas of substance and identification provide a powerful lens through which we can examine the solidary practices of social movements. Through the examination of the case studies mentioned, I demonstrate that solidarity …

Development Of A Cognitive Work Analysis Framework Tutorial Using Systems Modeling Language, Wilfred Henry Wells

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the present time, most systems engineers do not have access to cognitive work analysis information or training in terms they can understand. This may lead to a disregard of the cognitive aspect of system design. The impact of this issue is system requirements that do not account for the cognitive strengths and limitations of users. Systems engineers cannot design effective decision support systems without defining cognitive work requirements. In order to improve system requirements, integration of cognitive work requirements into the systems engineering process has to be improved. One option to address this gap is the development of a …

An Ecological Analysis Of Social And Economic Influences On Black And White Infant Mortality Risk In Orange County, Fl, Littleton, Vanessa Lopez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black health disparities are a salient public health issue with blacks in every socioeconomic level at a greater health disadvantage than their white counterparts. In particular, disparity in infant mortality rates between blacks and whites have widened in recent decades to differentials never before experienced in the United States. Social ecologists investigating the myriad of individual and environmental risk factors have failed to fully account for the persistent differential. This study examines the relationships between individual and environmental influences on the health risk experienced by blacks, whites, as well as the differential between the two populations. This multi-level analysis was …

Harmony Oriented Architecture, Kyle A. Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents Harmony Oriented Architecture: a novel architectural paradigm that applies the principles of Harmony Oriented Programming to the architecture of scalable and evolvable distributed systems. It is motivated by research on Ultra Large Scale systems that has revealed inherent limitations in human ability to design large-scale software systems that can only be overcome through radical alternatives to traditional object-oriented software engineering practice that simplifies the construction of highly scalable and evolvable system. HOP eschews encapsulation and information hiding, the core principles of objectoriented design, in favor of exposure and information sharing through a spatial abstraction. This helps to …

Structural Health Monitoring For Damage Detection Using Wired And Wireless Sensor Clusters, Thomas Terrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sensing and analysis of a structure for the purpose of detecting, tracking, and evaluating damage and deterioration, during both regular operation and extreme events, is referred to as Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). SHM is a multi-disciplinary field, with a complete system incorporating sensing technology, hardware, signal processing, networking, data analysis, and management for interpretation and decision making. However, many of these processes and subsequent integration into a practical SHM framework are in need of development. In this study, various components of an SHM system will be investigated. A particular focus is paid to the investigation of a previously developed damage …

Does Religiosity Deter Juvenile Delinquency?, Brittany N. Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study presented here uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health Wave I (Add Health) to examine the association between juvenile delinquency and religiosity. Juvenile delinquency is an area that has received increasing research interest over the last decade; however, much of this research has primarily focused on family, peers, and education as factors that may reduce delinquent involvement. While all of these are influential in the lives of youth, it is possible there are other factors as well. Religiosity has been shown to have influential effects throughout the life course; however, little research has focused specifically …

The Lived Experience Of K-12 Educators Who Practice Within An Acute Care Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital, William Davies

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human service professionals serve roles in society in which they are responsible for the well-being of countless numbers of people. These professionals span important fields including nursing, social work, law enforcement, medicine, and education. This study focused on a specific subgroup of human service professionals: special education teachers who practice within an acute care inpatient psychiatric facility. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the lived experiences of educators in order to identify emergent themes that best describe their experiences.

The psychiatric hospital in this study is a large hospital located within an urban area of the Northeastern …

Pain, Human Redemption, And Medicine: James Hinton's Theological Appropriation Of Pain, Steven Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hinton's theology of pain posits that an individual's suffering contributes to God's redemptive work in the world. This dissertation explores Hinton's theological appropriation of pain in four ways. First, we examine Hinton's life and writings to establish his personal interest about pain. Factors that contribute to Hinton's theological interest were the death of his brother, his sojourn in Whitechapel, his mental health, and his practice and skepticism of medicine. Second, we examine Hinton's redemptive nexus of suffering, beneficence, and deification in light of the Jewish and Christian traditions. While our exploration shows that the biblical tradition interweaves suffering, beneficence and …

Austen, Byron, And Scott: Domestic Virtues And Fashioning History—Britain 1805 Through 1819, Joan Garden Cooper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

James Chandler in England in 1819: the Politics Of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism says that the second-generation Romantic writers were in essence historicist. According to Chandler, the literary work of England in 1819 is concerned with its own historical self-representation. Romantic writers can be regarded as fashioning the history by which they must be understood. Chandler regards Romanticism as a crucial period because despite the relatively short span of years to which it is usually assigned (1790-1830), close attention has been paid to its literary activity (3). Chandler's concern is "with writings that seek to state …

An Examination Of The Impact Of Smart Pen Technology On Mathematics Achievement And Attitudes Of Community College Students, Amy Marie Marolt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine the impact of instructional use of smart pen technology on the mathematics achievement and attitudes of community college students enrolled in a College Algebra course. This quasi-experimental, mixed-methods study utilized a nonequivalent control-group design. In this study, two sections of College Algebra were analyzed with one section serving as a treatment group which had access to an online archival of smart pen documents. The other section served as a control group which had access to an online archival of digital documents which did not have smart pen capabilities. The first hypothesis sought to analyze the …

Biopharmaceutic And Pharmacokinetic Evaluation Of Hesperidin And Hesperetin For Ocular Delivery, Ramesh Srirangam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The bioflavonoid hesperidin and its aglycone hesperetin are promising candidates for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema because of their pharmacological properties. The objective of this project was to characterize the biopharmaceutic and pharmacokinetic characteristics of hesperidin and hesperetin for ocular delivery, especially with respect to the distribution of these compounds to the posterior segment of the eye. Hesperidin and hesperetin were found to be water insoluble compounds. Although they demonstrated good permeability across the ocular tissues, hesperetin's permeability was found to be higher than that of hesperidin. Hesperidin demonstrated symmetrical transcorneal and transretinal permeation whereas hesperetin …

Examining The Sleep Hygiene Behaviors Of Migraineurs In A University Setting, Ashli Brooke Walters

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Migraine is a commonly-occurring primary headache disorder that is often comorbid with many conditions, including depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Previous research has shown that sleep problems are comamong migraineurs, with insomnia being the most prevalent. Insomnia in migraineurs has many possible causes, including inadequate sleep hygiene, or participating in behaviors that are not conducive to sleep. Modifying sleep hygiene behavior has been shown to be effective in reducing migraine intensity and frequency, but research characterizing the specific sleep hygiene behaviors of migraineurs is limited. The present study sought to identify problematic sleep behaviors and their association with episodic migraine …

Zaftig: A Magazine Prototype And Accompanying Business Plan, Alexandra Wagner Pence

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Currently, there is no voice or home for plus-sized women within the mainstream media. The media industry reflects and promotes an increasingly thin ideal, one that multiple studies have concluded is causing negatiVe self-perception and low self-esteem among young women nationwide. This is especially true for the full-figured woman, whom society tells that she is not skinny enough, and therefore not good enough. This thesis project sets out to prove the host of social benefits that could and would be offered as a result of the instatement of a mainstream women's interest magazine geared specifically towards young plus-sized women. To …

Mechanisms Of Alpha]-Synuclein-Induced Neurodegenertaion In Parkinson's Disease And Stroke, Cherine Belal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder affecting one million Americans. Despite its social and economic impact, the pathological cascades that lead to neuron dysfunction and degeneration in PD are poorly understood. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been implicated as an initiator or contributing factor in neurodegenerative diseases including PD. The ER is an organelle central to protein folding and intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis. Perturbations of these functions result in ER stress and upregulation of ER stress proteins, of which some have been implicated in counteracting ER stress-induced cell death. The mechanisms that lead to ER stress and how ER …

Rule-Based Decision Support System For Sensor Deployment In Drinking Water Networks, Natthaphon Prapinpongsanone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drinking water distribution systems are inherently vulnerable to malicious contaminant events with environmental health concerns such as total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), lead, and chlorine residual. In response to the needs for long-term monitoring, one of the most significant challenges currently facing the water industry is to investigate the sensor placement strategies with modern concepts of and approaches to risk management. This study develops a Rule-based Decision Support System (RBDSS) to generate sensor deployment strategies with no computational burden as we oftentimes encountered via large-scale optimization analyses. Three rules were derived to address the efficacy and efficiency characteristics and they include: 1) …

Identification Of Fabrics Likely To Collect And Disperse Fel D 1, Mary Janice Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals sensitive to domestic cat allergen Fel d 1 experience a variety of symptoms including eye irritation, respiratory irritation, asthma, and severe respiratory distress. Fel d 1 is a protein produced in the saliva and on the skin of domestic cats. Previous studies have demonstrated that Fel d 1 adheres to clothing, upholstery, and human hair and has been found in non-cat environments in levels high enough to cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. In a general sense, two very different approaches have been adopted to study Fel d 1. One area of the literature focuses on the molecular biology …

Photodisruption In Ocular Tissue Near And At The Boundary Between The Anterior Chamber And Crystalline Lens, Richard Ty Olmstead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lasers have been involved in Ophthalmology in the treatment of myopia and hyperopia for several years. Laser systems have transformed patients‟ quality of life, freeing them from the need for glasses, as in the case of LASIK. Ultrafast lasers have played an important role in surgery of the eye. In LASIK, they are used to cut the flap that is lifted to expose the stroma for UV Excimer laser treatment of this region. They are now being used for surgery deeper into the eye,for instance, treating the lens as part of treatments for cataract surgery. The use of ultrafast lasers …

Comparative Retrospective Analysis Assessment Of Extracellular Volume Excess In Hypertensive Hemodialysis Patients, Amma Serwaah-Bonsu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, accounts for almost 50% of the deaths in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis (HD) yet hypertension remains very poorly controlled in this population. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively compare control of hypertension in hemodialysis (HD) patients when extracellular volume (ECV) was assessed and managed by clinical parameters and physical assessment data alone with control of hypertension when data from blood volume monitoring (BVM) technology was also used to assess and manage ECV in a freestanding outpatient hemodialysis unit. The main cause of hypertension in the ESRD population has been …

Healthy Aging And Self-Objectification The Impact Of Empowerment And Feminist Attitudes On Body Image, Eating Behavior, And Aging Satisfaction, Karen P. Grippo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to women’s healthy aging across the adult lifespan by empirically examining potential protective factors (e.g., empowerment and feminist attitudes) in maintaining positive body image, healthy eating behavior, and aging satisfaction. Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) provided a theoretical framework for understanding the connections between sexual-objectification experiences, media influences, and self-objectification, and the resulting negative psychological consequences for women in Western society. This study was the first to examine empowerment in relation to Objectification Theory. Additionally, a developmental perspective was gained by using a diverse sample of young, middle-aged, and older women …

A Comparison Of College Students' Perceptions Of Older Tattooed Women And Younger Tattooed Women, Laura Raymond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study examined how college students perceive older versus younger women based on their tattoo status (i.e., no tattoo, feminine tattoo, or masculine tattoo). A randomly assigned sample of 376 responded to a survey involving a 2 X 3 experiment designed to assess the impact of age (older versus younger) and tattoo status on four dependent measures: credibility, promiscuity, and attractiveness. Results indicate that older and younger women are perceived differently depending on their tattoo status. Not wearing a tattoo may lead to a more favorable perception of older women than wearing one, but wearing a feminine tattoo may engender …

Maize And Stone A Functional Analysis Of The Manos And Metates Of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize, Lisa Glynns Duffy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The manos and metates of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize are analyzed to compare traditional maize-grinding types to the overall assemblage. A reciprocal, back-and-forth grinding motion is the most efficient way to process large amounts of maize. However, rotary movements are also associated with some ground stone implements. The number of flat and trough metates and two handed manos are compared to the rotary-motion basin and concave type metates and one-handed manos to determine predominance and distribution. Flat is the predominant type and, together with the trough type, these grinding stones make up the majority of metates at the site. Manos …

Communication Apprehension Vs. Social Phobia And Related Conditions A Correlational Study, Christine M. Donaldson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Of all social situations, public speaking is the most prevalent fear in both the general population and among social phobic individuals (Mannuzza, Schneier, Chapman, & Liebowitz, 1995; Stein, Walker, & Forde, 1996). The fear of public speaking is referred to as communication apprehension (CA) by members of the communication field; in other programs of study, this condition has been categorized and conceptualized in a wide variety of ways ranging from stage fright to reticence. Several scholarly fields including communication, social psychology, the health sciences and the social sciences, seek to find an explanation and effective intervention for this prevalent condition. …

Effects Of 3d Stereoscopy, Visuo-Spatial Working Memory, And Perceptions Of Simulation Experience On The Memorization Of Confusable Objects, Joseph R. Keebler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the impact of active stereoscopic 3-dimensional (3D) imagery equipment and individual differences in visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) capacity on retention of a set of similar, novel objects (i.e., armored military vehicles). Seventy-one participants were assessed on their visuo-spatial working memory using the Visual Patterns Test (Della Sala, Gray, Baddeley, & Wilson, 1997). They were then assigned to one of four different conditions (3D high VSWM, 3D low VSWM, 2D high VSWM, 2D low VSWM) based upon their visuo-spatial working memory. Participants were then trained to identify military vehicles using a simulation that presented the training stimuli in …

Identifying Patients At Risk For Obstructive Sleep Apnea In Primary Health Care : Can Obesity In Combination With Other High-Risk Diagnoses Be Used For Screening Purposes?, Clelia Lima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects about 15 million adults in the United States, and is an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality. The under-diagnosing of OSA has been linked to the inadequate screening by primary care practitioners (PCPs). Existing screening tools are not widely used by PCPs possibly due to time constraints they experience as providers. This study demonstrates how common high-risk diagnoses (obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, arrhythmia, and coronary artery disease) can be used to help PCPs identify adult patients at risk for OSA. Unlike other screening tools, these diagnoses are easy to identify in a …

Factors Related To Birth Transition Success Of Late-Preterm Infants, Karen L. Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Problem: Identifying the factors effecting birth transition success of late preterm infants may improve early recognition of newborn compromise. Multiple explanatory variables may be associated with birth transition success or failure. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of, and clinical-epidemiological and demographic predictive factors for birth transition success of late preterm infants. Methods: A retrospective case-control chart review was used to compare the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful birth transition of 35 and 36 week gestational age late-preterm infants delivered in a large tertiary-care center during calendar year 2007. A mixture of categorical and numeric variables …