Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Screening For Externalizing Behavior Problems In Very Young Children : Applications Of Item Response Theory To Evaluate Instruments In Pediatric Primary Care., Christina Ruth Studts 1971-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Externalizing behavior problems in very young children are associated with an array of negative and costly long-term outcomes. Pediatric primary care is a promising venue for implementing screening practices to improve early identification of this social and public health problem. In this setting, screening requires a brief, easily scored instrument which can detect sub-clinical to clinical levels of the latent construct within the context of early childhood development. Further, items used should perform consistently with children of all sociodemographic backgrounds. This study applied item response theory analyses to investigate the precision, utility, and differential item functioning (DIF) of items measuring …

Matching Records In Multiple Databases Using A Hybridization Of Several Technologies., Xiaoyi Wang 1962-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A major problem with integrating information from multiple databases is that the same data objects can exist in inconsistent data formats across databases and a variety of attribute variations, making it difficult to identify matching objects using exact string matching. In this research, a variety of models and methods have been developed and tested to alleviate this problem. A major motivation for this research is that the lack of efficient tools for patient record matching still exists for health care providers. This research is focused on the approximate matching of patient records with third party payer databases. This is a …

Job Satisfaction Levels Of Juvenile Detention Education Faculties And The Implementation Of Best Teaching Practices Compared To Overall Program Efficacy., Rebecca Minton Painter 1958-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Federal legislation in 1992 entitled the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act reordered many of the previous methods employed in the detention of juvenile offenders. Among the reform measures required by the act, there was a mandate to separate adult and juvenile offenders, provide educational opportunities, and established a process for ensuring juvenile rights. The shift in emphasis from simply incarcerating young offenders to providing educationally sound programs including both academic and life skills continues to be a challenging concept. Even though the legislation was passed in 1992, not all juvenile detention facilities have adopted every reform measure. One of the …

Lipid Aldehydes Are Substrates And Transcriptional Regulators Of Cytochromes P450., Immaculate Amunom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) and propene-2-al (acrolein) are highly reactive á,â-unsaturated aldehydes. 4-HNE and acrolein are generated in vivo as products of lipid peroxidation. These aldehydes are implicated in the onset of several diseases including atherosclerosis and neurodegenerative disease. They also react with nucleophilic cellular macromolecules including proteins, DNA and phospholipids. Some of these reactions in vivo lead to inhibition of enzyme activities, depletion of glutathione and oxidative stress. Because of their pathophysiological relevance, attention has focused during the last decade on the ability of mammals to metabolize these lipid aldehydes. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine the role …

Rural-Urban Residency, Treatment Motivation, And Health Status As Factors Related To Dropout From Correctional Substance Abuse Treatment : A Policy Perspective., Christopher G. Block

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drugs and crime are inextricably connected. Much of the growth in the prisoner population in America is attributable to the misuse and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Offenders who abuse or are dependent on drugs are at high risk for substantial health problems. Without substance abuse treatment, many offenders are destined to continue recycling through an overburdened criminal justice system, costing taxpayers billions of dollars each year in drug-related healthcare costs and lost productivity. A large body of empirical research demonstrates that treatment helps reduce criminal recidivism and relapse, and is cost-effective. Research also shows that one form of treatment …

Security Hardened Remote Terminal Units For Scada Networks., Jeff Hieb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Remote terminal units (RTUs) are perimeter supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) devices that measure and control actual physical devices. Cyber security was largely ignored in SCADA for many years, and the cyber security issues that now face SCADA and DCS, specifically RTU security, are investigated in this research. This dissertation presents a new role based access control model designed specifically for RTUs and process control. The model is developed around the process control specific data element called a point, and point operations. The model includes: assignment constraints that limit the RTU operations that a specific role can be assigned …

Congress, Framing, Media And Bankruptcy Reform, 1997-2005., Dollie Jane Greenwell 1984-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to analyze two Congressional decisionmaking models and two policymaking models to identify which provides the strongest explanation of the bankruptcy reform process between 1997 and 2005. The two models of Congressional decisionmaking are the partisan model described by Mann and Ornstein and Binder's institutional model. The two policymaking models considered in this project are Kingdon's revision of the "garbage can model" delineated in his work on policymaking, and Baumgartner and Jones' punctuated equilibrium model described in their policymaking research. The Binder and Kingdon models provide the most accurate description of the bankruptcy reform process …

Reliability And Validity Of Ems Dispatch Code-Based Categorization Of Emergency Patients For Syndromic Surveillance., Matthew Raymond Groenewold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A retrospective study involving the secondary analysis of public health surveillance records was undertaken to characterize the reliability and validity of an EMS dispatch data-based scheme for assigning emergency patients to surveillance syndromes in relation to two other schemes, one based on hospital ED clinicians' manual categorization according to patients' chief complaint and clinical presentation, and one based on ICD-9 coded hospital ED diagnoses. Comparisons of a sample of individual emergency patients' syndrome assignments according to the EMS versus each of the two hospital categorization schemes were made by matching EMS run records to their corresponding emergency department patient encounter …

Chemical Signals As A Means Of Determining Health Status And Selecting Mates In Humans., Amy M. Cavanaugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of my dissertation research was to determine the role of chemical signals in conveying information regarding an individual's health status and suitability as a mate in humans and to examine the role that commensal microflora play in this system. Chemical signals in humans have been theorized to play a role in disassortative mating relative to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and in selection of mates based on fluctuating asymmetry. In addition, chemical signals have been shown to communicate health status in rodents. Commensal microflora are a necessary component of such chemical signaling systems since it is the microflora …

Examining The Effects Of A Leave No Trace Outdoor Ethics Awareness Workshop On The Environmental Attitudes And Knowledge Of Undergraduate Students, Timothy T. Williamson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The philosophy of Leave No Trace (LNT) has been a component of outdoor ethics education since the late 1970s. LNT is an education program designed to teach stewardship, land ethics and outdoor recreation skills that protect shared resources. The LNT Awareness Workshop is a 30-minute intervention which is designed to introduce these ideas within these time constraints to diverse populations. This study examined the effects of the Workshop presentation on university undergraduate students as it concerned their attitudes and knowledge of outdoor ethics and LNT. A pre-posttest control group design was implemented with two control groups and two experimental groups. …

Emergency Communications Between Water/Wastewater Utilities And Their Public And Local Governments Procedure For Message Content Analysis., Melanie Annette Hunt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the research is to assess the emergency communication messages that water and wastewater utilities used to correspond with the public during a crisis event. This assessment includes a review of data and disseminated messages provided by participating water and wastewater utilities. The work provides a coding procedure for quantitatively reviewing individual messages in a content analysis. This procedure shall be used for analyzing messages, developing trends and ultimately in deciding best management practices for message creation.

Role Of Transient Receptor Potential Canonical-6 (Trpc6) Channel In Metastasis Of Glioblastoma Multiforme, Rajarajeshwari Venkataraman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the extremely fatal brain tumors. The main reason that makes it so lethal is its capability to invade and spread to other parts of CNS producing secondary tumors. Among other factors hypoxia, reduced oxygen availability, is linked to higher metastatic potential of cancers. Hypoxia causes numerous changes in genome and proteome of the cell. These changes help a normal cell to adapt to nutritional deficiency, but the same changes can increase the malignancy and metastasis in tumor cells. Extensive research by a number of curious scientists reveal that various pathways involving numerous proteins cross-talk …

Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of Chloroplast-Derived Antigensagainst Malaria, Melissa Schreiber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Malaria is the most prevalent vector-borne parasitic disease worldwide and a major cause of death from infections. There is a great need to develop a low cost vaccine for malaria to control transmission of infection and impact of disease, due to the emergence of anti-malarial resistance. Two leading blood stage malarial vaccine candidates are the apical membrane antigen-1 (AMA-1) and the merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1). The aim of this project is to express malarial antigens in tobacco plants via plastid transformation and deliver them by subcutaneous or oral gavage of minimally processed transplastomic tissue to evaluate their efficacy to elicit …

The Impact Of Demographic And Perceptual Variables On A Young Adult's Decision To Purchase Health Private Insurance, John Cantiello

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Each year the number of uninsured individuals in the United States continues to grow. This unfortunate occurrence creates negative consequences for those who are uninsured, but also for those who are covered by health insurance plans. Through cost-shifting practices, hospitals and other healthcare organizations are increasing the cost of other healthcare services to help subsidize the care they must provide for those who cannot pay for that care. There have been attempts to solve this problem, but a successful solution has not been implemented. Rather than attempt to study the entire uninsured population, this study seeks to determine precisely why …

Health Transitions And The Aging Population: A Framework To Measure The Value Of Rapid Rehabilitation, Dianne Ross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare services for the aging population in the United States are a complex configuration of acute healthcare organizations, and post acute nursing facilities, home healthcare, and community based services. The system encompasses all services that imply the need for clinical, medical, or professional judgment (Baldrige National Quality Program, 2006). Most Americans believe the system exists to provide preventive services, management for chronic conditions, and health care services to meet the needs of the people (National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), 2004). However, the healthcare delivery system is fragmented across a broad array of settings (Coleman, Smith, Frank, Min, Parry, & …

An Analytical Understanding Of Administrative Practices Minimizing Vicarious Traumatization In Domestic Violence Organizations I, Katharine Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Working within the field of domestic violence can result in the occurrence of vicarious traumatization. The literature supports that collegial support and supervision are effective tools organizations can implement to assist in minimizing vicarious trauma. This study, guided by constructive self development theory and feminist theory, examines whether the level of vicarious trauma is impacted by knowledge base, collegial support, and supervision. Staff within certified shelters in the state of Florida were surveyed using a research designed instrument and the Trauma and Attachment Belief Scale. A total of 112 participants were recruited using the Tailor Design Method of surveying. Findings …

Healthcare Communication Networks: The Dissemination Of Employee Information For Hospital Security, Jennifer Sumner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare in the United States is a system that, organizationally speaking, is fragmented. Each hospital facility is independently operated and is responsible for the hiring of its own employees. However, corrupt individuals can take advantage of this fragmentation and move from hospital to hospital, gaining employment while hiding previous employment history. Traditionally, hospitals have been reluctant to share information on their previous employees, even with other hospitals, for fear of issues surrounding defamation, negligent hiring, and violation of the employee's privacy. However, growth in healthcare services is expected to rise exponentially in the near future, increasing the demand for employees. …

The Impact Of Policy On Student Success In Secondary Online Education: A Case Study Of Florida Virtual School, Rhonda Mcpherson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) was established in 1997 as an online education alternative for the residents of Florida. The purpose of this study was to identify policy changes at the organizational, state, and federal levels that had the propensity to impact student success (as measured by student's final letter grade) at FLVS. In addition, this study identified which type of institutional isomporphic policy (coercive, mimetic, or normative) best classified major policy changes in the organization from 1997-2007. The use of institutional theory as the guiding framework for this study proved to be beneficial and enabled the researcher to conclude which …

Perceptions Of Risk And Need In The Classification And Supervision Of Offenders In The Community Corrections Setting: The Role O, Laurie Gould

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Risk has emerged as a defining feature of punishment in the United States. Feeley and Simon (1992) note that contemporary punishment is increasingly moving away from rehabilitation (the old penology) and moving toward the management and control of offenders (the new penology), often though actuarial techniques. While the profusion of risk assessment instruments, now entering their fourth generation, provides some support for the assertion that risk is indeed an important element in corrections, it was previously unknown if the risk model applied to all offenders, particularly female offenders. This dissertation addressed that gap by examining whether the risk model applied …

Determinants Of The Well-Being Of Police Officers In The Turkish National Police, Serdar Yildiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research evaluates the relationships of time balance, social relations, role conflict, perception of work environment, and fourteen control variables to police officers' well-being in Turkish National Police. Well-being is identified in the management literature as having a strong relationship with performance. Therefore, by finding the factors affecting well-being, this research seeks to identify intervention strategies, which can promote a healthy workforce and police performance. Such interventions, in addition, may improve police performance through improved well-being. Individual police officers were analyzed to better understand the relationship between work environment on family life, social life, and the well-being of the police …

Generation Of Recombinant Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell Lines And Theirapplication For In Vivo Bioluminiscence Imaging In The Heart, Ramana Kammili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the United States, with 80 million people suffering from some form of heart disease each year. One major limitation is the inability of the heart to repair the damaged tissue. Stem cell therapy holds enormous promise to repair and regenerate the damaged myocardium, but there are many technical difficulties that must first be overcome. One such difficulty is the present lack of ability to track and assess transplanted stem cells over time in vivo. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that in vivo bioluminescence imaging is a safe and useful …

Predictors Of Congressional Incivility, Nicholas Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many have decried the lack of civility in Congress. However, to this point, few have attempted to isolate individual level explanations for the lack of comity. This research attempts to rectify this lapse. Through matched pair analysis using quota sampling with replacement, the significant predictors of uncivil behaviors are isolated in a Logistic regression. Initially, a sample is established using the New York Times and Washington Post, 1933-2005, inclusive. This time period begins with the 73rd Congress and ends with the 109th. Incidents of incivility were catalogued and the details concerning the individuals involved were gathered. In the end, the …

The Impact Of Higher Education On The Job Preparedness And Job Performance Of Turkish National Police Officers, Erhan Beyhan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Turkish National Police converted its 9-month Police Training Schools to 2-year college degree programs in 2001 in their pursuit to improve the quality of police officers' job performance, police job preparedness levels, and the police service as a whole. The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual benefits of this higher education policy by empirically measuring and comparing the job preparedness and job performance of police officers with higher education and police officers without higher education. This study consists of two quantitative parts. The first part measured the job performance construct with multiple indicators, including performance evaluation …

Liberalization Of The Capital Market In Russia, Nejc Smole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the empirical events of capital market liberalization in Russia and refers to the procedure of capital market liberalization described in theory as a benchmark to assess the magnitude of events shaping the capital market liberalization in Russia.

The reformers of Russian regime change did not take a gradual approach of adjustments toward a successful socioeconomic transition. The state failed to create market-supporting institutions and instead rather proceeded with an ambitious program of synchronized application of policy changes and the economic liberalization. Lack of market-supporting institutions and an underdeveloped legal system in Russia have been the key tools …

Transcending Curriculum Ideologies: Educating Human Beings Well, Kevin M. Cloninger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to consider the role of well-being in schooling. Recent advances in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and medicine have led to a reexamination of the role of well-being in society. There is a growing body of educational theory on the subject of well-being in schools that draws on these advances (Cohen, 2006; Noddings, 2003, 2006; Ruyter, 2004; Spring, 2007). The few serious treatments on the role of well-being in education consider it from a theoretical perspective. Few if any empirical research studies in the fields of Curriculum or Educational Psychology have been conducted that …

Organizational Conflict Within The Department Of Homeland Security, M. Katherine Manderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to explain why the Department of Homeland Security had difficulty fulfilling its roles when it was formed, specifically its role as grant administrator. Role theory surmises that conflict arises from unclear expectations, conflicting expectations, and too many roles. This study utilized various public testimonies, legislation, and other government documents to examine how the missions of the twenty-two agencies that were merged together to make up DHS changed. Even though DHS has changed continually over the five years since its existence most employees seem to be clear on the mission of the organization in which they work. However, …

Use Of Cooperative Learning And Computer Assisted Instruction To Investigate Mathematics Achievement Scores, Student's Attitude Toward Cooperative Learning And Confidence In Subject Matter, Kathy R. Griffin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated mathematics achievement scores between students working in cooperative learning groups using computer assisted instruction (CAI), and students working alone using CAI in a post-secondary developmental mathematics class. Fifty-one students enrolled in a basic mathematics course participated in the study. Two classes were assigned to work alone using CAI, and two classes were assigned to work in cooperative pairs using CAI. This study was a pre-post-test design, and was administered to all participants to determine their mathematics achievement scores.

A survey using a 5 point Likert Scale further examined if using cooperative learning and CAI would change students' …

A Critical Analysis Of A Paraprofessional Training Program: Teacher Aides Managing Their Journey To Self-Sufficiency, Linda Thornton Lockett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is a critical analysis of a paraprofessional training program that was located in southwestern Pennsylvania. The program was designed, developed and implemented to train and provide employment placement assistance and employment retention services to adults designated as economically and/or academically disadvantaged. There were two research questions: (1) How did the paraprofessional training program components impact the trainees' capacity to successfully complete the program and retain employment and (2) How did the paraprofessional training program components affect the trainees' ability to manage their journey to self-sufficiency? The subjects in this study were a purposive sample. At the time of …

The Occurrence Of Moral Distress In Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Linda Radzvin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Registered nurses are frequently confronted with ethical dilemmas in their nursing practice. As a consequence of their decisions regarding ethical challenges, nurses report experiencing moral distress. This experience is often manifested by such feelings as anger, guilt, sadness, fear, and frustration and has been identified as a contributing factor to burnout and turnover in nursing. A review of the literature has shown that the incidence of moral distress has been examined in various nursing settings. However, to date only one qualitative study has been conducted that examined the occurrence of moral distress in nurse anesthetists related to the delivery of …

Nurses' Attitudes Towards Continuing Formal Education: A Comparison By Level Of Education And Geography, Tanya Altmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quality healthcare is a priority. Many healthcare organization representatives and mission statements, recent research, and research priorities support the contention that improved quality is related to higher educated nurses providing care. What is needed goes beyond what can be acquired through continuing education courses.

What we know is that few U.S. nurses continue their formal education after licensure and that the majority have an Associate Degree or Diploma in nursing. Thus, it is in the publics' interest to invest more in enticing and enabling nurses to achieve higher educational levels consistent with the trends of other health care professionals.

The …