Digital Commons Network^™

Discovering The Healthcare Beliefs And Practices Of Rural Mestizo Ecuadorians: An Ethnonursing Study, Julie A. Moss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose

This qualitative ethnonursing study was to discover and understand the role of the nurse, healthcare beliefs and practices of rural mestizo Ecuadorians. Discovering these beliefs and practices will enable nurses and other healthcare workers to provide care that is acceptable, congruent in culture and health promoting.

Background

The current literature regarding Ecuadorian health practices has been limited to the study of indigenous Americo-Indian groups living in Ecuador. No studies have been conducted in the mestizo rural setting.

Research Design

An ethnonursing method developed by Leininger was used to guide this study which took place in Tosagua, Ecuador.

Conclusions and …

Unconventional Natural Gas Development As A Reasonable Alternative For Energy Strategy And Policy: Implications For The People's Republic Of China, Ekaterina Pushkareva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research argues that development of unconventional natural gas is a reasonable alternative for energy future of the People's Republic of China. Four major factors, including economic growth, social development, environmental constraints, and technological breakthroughs and foreign energy expertise, are singled out as the key determinants that encourage development of unconventional natural gas in China and improvement of its energy strategy and policy.

To meet growing demand for energy resources, satisfy socio-economic needs and address environmental issues in a sound manner is a current ongoing challenge for the Chinese energy sector. Unconventional natural gas is proposed as one of the …

Hospital Resource Utilization Among Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - An Analysis Of 2002 - 2005 Healthcare Cost And Utilization Project Data, Pallavi Balwant Rane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a national assessment of the length of stay (LOS), total costs, and in-hospital mortality among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), using retrospective data derived from Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).

Roots: Agrarian Movements And The Importance Of Ground Within The Philosophy Of Communication (A Synecdoche), Maryl Roberts Mcginley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work looks at the way in which an agrarian philosophy communicates the meaningful connection between cultivating land and being attentive to the philosophical notion of ground. It tells the story of agrarian movements from the last century with special attention to what about the philosophy has durability. This work outlines the possibility of an agrarian framework as a potential alternative to modernity. Each chapter is attentive to a different voice in the movement, exploring his engagement with an agrarian philosophy and connection to the philosophy of communication.

Beyond Dissolution And Dispersion: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Student Perception As Related To Resiliency, Franny Jo Serenka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research study is entitled, Beyond Dissolution and Dispersion: A Phenomenological Analysis of Student Perceptions as related to Resiliency. Resiliency as a concept has been studied in various disciplines for the past thirty years. The information in the literature review bears out that building resiliency in students and in school communities has been a very important topic in education for about the last ten years. Resilience as defined is "the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change (Henderson, 2004, p. 7). Students from the former Duquesne City High School endured a difficult event in their school …

The Rhetorical Marketplace: Interpreting The Rhetoric Of Marketers And Consumers As Civil Public Discourse, Casey Joseph Slott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The claim that we live in a time of uncivil public discourse is well-documented. Because public discourse is significantly influenced by commercial forms of conversation, many believe that marketing communication shares responsibility for the way public discourse shapes civil society. Jurgen Habermas, for example, has argued that marketers have transformed the public sphere into a space of passive consumption rather than the critical participation of ordinary people. Habermas' theory of "communicative action" provides an intriguing, yet incommensurable theoretical approach to address both concerns regarding the marketer's strategic teleology and the call for alternative communication processes to guide marketer to consumer …

Family Cap Programs: The Future Of Pennsylvania Welfare Reform, Robin Barngrover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Welfare reform has been a highly debated topic since before the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and continues to be at the forefront of many policy makers' agendas. Although significant positive changes have occurred in welfare policy since PRWORA's adoption, welfare costs remain unwieldy. This study aims to review the controversial family cap program, already implemented in various states, to determine if it would be a beneficial step to reducing Pennsylvania welfare costs. The following consists of a discussion of previous national and state-level family cap research in order to determine a framework for the economic, …

Indicators Of Linguistic Processing Constraints In The Narratives Of Individuals With High-Functioning Autism, Katherine Michael Belardi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A current model of autism proposes that it is a disorder of information processing. The purpose of this study was to compare the language production of adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) to that of age and Verbal IQ-matched controls with respect to speech disruptions and formulaic expressions, features which indicate linguistic processing challenges. Standard language measures and language samples from the ADOS Telling a Story from a Book and Create a Story tasks were collected and analyzed. No between-group measures were found to be statistically significant. However, 10 of 16 individuals with HFA exhibited speech disruptions consistent with clinically "tangled" …

An Exploration Of The Role Of Occupation In School-Based Occupational Therapy Practice, Jeryl Benson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of occupation in school-based occupational therapy practice. The research questions were 1. How do school-based occupational therapists describe the role of occupation during intervention? 2. Which theories of occupation do school-based occupational therapists associate with their own practice? 3. How is occupational language represented in the Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) written by school-based occupational therapists? Participants included 16 occupational therapists currently practicing in the schools. Data were collected via an interview with the participants and the collection of Individualized Educational Plans (IEP) written by the participants. The methodology used in …

Transcending Private Friendships To Public Hearts: Implications Of Interracial Friendships For Public Life, Danielle L. Blackburn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasingly multicultural society presents both challenges and opportunities to the public sphere. These challenges are frequently answered with calls for diversity and inclusion. However, this project suggests that interracial friendship overcomes the inherent limitations of diversity and inclusion and is therefore a more desirable alternative with which to enter the public sphere. This project explores the phenomenon of friendship and the particular notion that interracial friendship is critical to developing and disciplining our public hearts.

While long standing philosophical conceptions and more recent social science perspective of friendship are examined, friendship is conceptualized here using Emerson's notion of "truth" …

The Experiences Of Counseling Victims Of Trauma As Perceived By Master's Level Post-Practicum Students, Elizabeth More Ventura

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of master's level post-practicum students as they encountered trauma-related cases during their practicum experience. This qualitative, phenomenologically oriented study used Van Manen's (1990) four lived existentials, Bronfenbrenner's (1979) bio-ecological model of human development, and existing traumatology literature as its theoretical underpinnings. There is no existing literature that examines the experiences of beginning counselors as they encounter trauma-related cases in their academic training programs. The literature base surrounding traumatology is quickly expanding due to the increased awareness and prevalence of trauma in our culture. As the demand for services related …

Children With Mental Retardation / Intellectual Disability: The Function Of Adaptive Behavior And Parental Stress Across Childhood, Wendy Westwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between child functioning, problematic child behaviors, and parental stress. However, previous research has not fully examined variables of parental stress across adaptive behavior and the lifespan span of a child with MR/ID. The present study investigated parental stress differences among children's adaptive behavior and childhood life stages, according to the family life cycle theory. Stress was examined in parents of a child with a disability whose age fell in the life cycle stages of preschool, school age, or adolescence. Results indicated that parents of preschool and school age children with disabilities (M =31.17, SD …

Sex, Entrepreneurship, And Benefits: The Role Of Small Business Owners In Promoting Gender Equity In The Workplace Through Benefits Offerings, Iris Winter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether the sex of a business owner influences the benefits offered by a given business. Specifically, are female-owned businesses more likely than male-owned firms to have family-friendly employment benefits in place? My hypothesis is that there is a relationship between the sex of a business owner and the benefits that are available and offered to the employees of that firm. I use a sample drawn from the Kauffman Firm Survey Third Follow-Up that includes independently-started businesses with 5-29 employees and 1-2 owners that have been in business for 4 years. I analyze …

Community Partner Perspectives Of Community-University Partnerships That Support Service Learning, Anne Marie Witchger Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Community partner voices are important to understand because they provide the contexts in which occupational therapy students meet course objectives by applying clinical reasoning theory and developing clinical reasoning skills in a natural context (Witchger-Hansen et al., 2007; Provident, et al., 2011). To sustain these community-university partnerships, faculty must understand how community partners are experiencing these partnerships. This understanding provides the faculty with insight on how to adjust, revise or enhance the partnership process that supports the service-learning pedagogy to sustain this community work of meeting community-identified needs while providing students with an opportunity to apply theory and develop clinical …

The Transcendent Comedy Of The "Canterbury Tales": Harmony In "Quyting," Harmony In Fragmentation, John Zedolik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer has been a controversial work for many years due in part to its tonal variety which leads to questions of genre and the work's purpose. Ambiguity regarding the work's hypothetical finished state, due to its actual fragmented condition, also contributes to critical controversy. Thus the dissertation analyzes certain tales and these tales' relationships to other tales to arrive at an argument that sees the Canterbury Tales as indeed fragmented, but harmoniously complete.

The most important critical point in the dissertation is the "quyting"--paying-back or balancing--which one tale and teller perform upon another tale and …

Low-Income Health Care Networks: Initial Conditions, Extent, And Intensity Relevant To County Government Participation, Hillary Knepper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary health care systems in the United States are not equitable. Indeed, as the literature indicates, there are substantial differences in the variety and scope of service delivery based on age, income, and other socio-economic indicators. The recent passage of health care reform in the United States illustrates that Americans are seeking to bring balance and equity to health care. However, as learned in this study, county governments across the country have been working in their communities to ensure some balance and equity, by making a safety net available for those citizens who are unable to access health care. Perhaps …

The Effects Of Teacher Ideology On Student Performance As Related To Poverty And Ethnicity, Jessica Webb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to explore the impact of teacher ideology on student performance. A definition of teacher ideology was drawn from the pupil control ideology, PCI, created by Willower, Eidell and Hoy (1967). Research concerned with teacher ideology has suggested that there is a definite difference between the custodial ideology and the humanistic ideology (Gaffney, 1997). In particular, the custodial teacher views rules and regulations as a priority, while the humanistic teacher views the student as the priority. Factors which influenced student achievement, such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and behavior in relation to how teacher ideology affects student performance …

Development Of A Measure Of Disseminability (Mod) / Lindsay Rae Trent, Lindsay Rae Trent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Pre-Operative Mupirocin Prophylaxis On Surgical Site Infections In Same-Day Admission Open Heart Patients, Joanna Gerry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The CDC estimates that one in 20 patients admitted to the hospital is a carrier of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Staphylococci are commonly found on the skin and mucous membranes within the anterior nares, which provides the principle reservoir for this organism. These organisms can go on to cause surgical site infections in hospitalized patients. Mupirocin is an effective topical medication used to eliminate nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Based on Level A evidence, the 2007 Society of Thoracic Surgeons has made a Class I recommendation for the use of mupirocin for all patients undergoing cardiac surgery in …

Prevalence Of And Risk Factors For Intraoperative Non-Euglycemia Events In Premature Neonates >2500 Grams, Zulay Ritrosky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the rates and risks of premature neonates >2500grams developing intraoperative non-euglycemia events (IONEE). A retrospective chart review of 26 premature neonates >2500 grams who underwent surgical procedures between January 1 and December 31, 2009 was conducted. Statistical analysis was done using Chi square and t-tests. Ten of the 26 subjects (38%) experienced an IONEE. Hyperglycemia was the primary IONEE that was noted in the neonates. (Mean: 143.19; sd: 56.041) Length of surgery was significantly longer in those premature neonates with IONEE than those with euglycemia (71.7 0± 27.03 vs. 45.62 ± 17.98 minutes). All IONEE subjects received …

Fathers' Language Influence On Their Six-Month-Old Infants' Vocalization During Free-Play, Lu Xia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Data for this study were derived from videotapes of 26 father-infant dyads, specifically from a five minute period of free-play. The first step was the creation of a literal transcription of the father-infant dyads interaction. Subsequently, nine variables of fathers' language characteristics and one infant characteristic were coded employing the literal transcriptions and observing the videotapes. The fathers' language variables were number of : (1) father utterances, (2) father words, (3) father contingent responses, (4) father teaching utterances, (5) father descriptive teaching utterances, (6) father directive teaching utterances - making commands, (7) father directive teaching utterance - asking questions, (8) …

Evaluation Of An Expectnacy Challenge Curriculum In Reducing High Risk Alcohol Use Among College Students When Modified For Larg, Amy Schreiner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol consumption has repeatedly been recognized as the primary public health concern impacting students on college campuses. In response to the prevalence of risky alcohol use and lack of effective response among colleges and universities, the National Advisory Council of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism created a task force to review the relevant research literature on alcohol interventions to advise college administrators on effective program implementation and evaluation as well as provide recommendations for future research directions. Only three strategies met criteria for Tier 1 designation (empirical support specifically with college students) and two of these strategies …

Evaluation Of An Online Alcohol Education Program For First-Time-In-College Students, Elayne Reiss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use among college students has maintained its place as a major issue in American higher education since its inception. Although dangerous drinking has always proliferated among college students, institutions have only provided alcohol and other drug (AOD) education and interventions encouraging students to adapt less harmful habits for a much shorter period of time. During this relatively short history of postsecondary alcohol interventions, colleges and universities have shifted away from abstinence-only, education-based methods. Instead, institutions have begun to adapt cognitive behavior-centric, motivational enhancement-based strategies emphasizing harm reduction through the use of protective behaviors. In order to reach a greater …

Patterned Cell Cultures For High Throughput Studies Of Cell Electrophysiology And Drug Screening Applications, Anupama Natarajan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, the field of tissue and bio-engineering has seen an increase in the development of in vitro high-throughput hybrid systems that can be used to understand cell function and behavior at the cellular and tissue levels. These tools would have a wide array of applications including for implants, drug discovery, and toxicology, as well as for studying cell developmental behavior and as disease models. Currently, there are a limited number of efficient, functional drug screening assays in the pharmacology industry and studies of cell-surface interactions are complicated and invasive. Most cell physiology studies are performed using conventional …

Studies On A Novel Human Cardiospecific Transcription Factor And Its Involvement In Omi/Htra2 Mediated Cell Death, Meenakshi Puthucode Balakrishnan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Omi/HtrA2 is a mitochondrial serine protease that is known to translocate to the cytoplasm upon induction of apoptosis and to activate caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death. The molecular mechanism of Omi/HtrA2's function is not clear but involves degradation of specific substrates. These substrates include cytoplasmic, mitochondrial, as well as nuclear proteins. We have isolated a new Omi/HtrA2 interactor, the THAP5 protein. THAP5 is a fifth member of a large family of transcription factors that are involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle control, chromosome segregation, chromatin modification and transcriptional regulation. THAP5 is an approximately 50kDa nuclear protein, with a restricted …

Changes To Operational, Financial, And Organizational Structures Of School Districts During Mayoral Takeovers, Mark E. Shanoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research was to examine the effects of mayoral control on operational and financial structures within school systems. Furthermore, this study focused on the public perception and political implications of the mayor’s position on local education. The four systems chosen for this study were: Boston, Chicago, District of Columbia, and New York City. All four systems were total control districts, which allowed for each mayor to appoint a majority to the school board and appoint a superintendent or chancellor to oversee the day to day operations of the school district. This study focused on operational and financial …

Swine Flu, Drug Wars, And Riots: Media And Tourism In Oaxaca, Mexico, Joshua Crosby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how travelers evaluate and process mass media news stories about local events. Thanks to its colonial architecture, white sand beaches, and indigenous history, the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca receives millions of foreign and domestic visitors each year. Between 2006 and through 2009 Oaxaca has received a great deal of negative international media coverage, including stories of street riots, drug violence, and the fall out of the H1N1 flu virus. The overall impact of these unfavorable reports, and the resulting decline in the local tourism industry, has been predictable and severe. This thesis is based on anthropological …

Characterizing The Vertical Structure And Structural Diversity Of Florida Oak Scrub Vegetation Using Discrete-Return Lidar, James J. Angelo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vertical structure, the top-to-bottom arrangement of aboveground vegetation, is an important component of forest and shrubland ecosystems. For many decades, ecologists have used foliage height profiles and other measures of vertical structure to identify discrete stages in post-disturbance succession and to quantify the heterogeneity of vegetation. Such studies have, however, required resource-intensive field surveys and have been limited to relatively small spatial extents (e.g.,

Novel Improvements On The Analytical Chemistry Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons And Their Metabolites, Wang Huiyong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are important environmental pollutants originating from a wide variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. Because many of them are highly suspect as etiological agents in human cancer, chemical analysis of PAH is of great environmental and toxicological importance. Current methodology for PAH follows the classical pattern of sample preparation and chromatographic analysis. Sample preparation preconcentrates PAH, simplifies matrix composition, and facilitates analytical resolution in the chromatographic column. Among the several approaches that exist to pre-concentrate PAH from water samples, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends the use of solid-phase extraction (SPE). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and …

General Education Reform At A Community College A Grounded Theory Study, Daniel Dutkofski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The attempts to reform general education programs in higher education have been applied and studied throughout the history of higher education in the United States, but with even greater frequency and urgency over the past fifty years. Countless studies show the high percentage of institutions participating in these efforts and further studies lament the state of general education both as a reason to initiate reforms and as a result of the reforms. This effort is difficult enough for universities, but is further complicated when the curriculum for general education is part of a community college degree program. A grounded theory …