Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Supplemental Instruction On Generation Z Students In Agn 331, Shania Simons, Candis L. Carraway, Stephanie Jones, Frantisek Majs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness, barriers and benefits of Supplemental Instruction (SI) on Generation Z students in AGN 331. The theory used as a model for this research was the Pace’s Model of College Impress. Prior research indicated that SI improves test scores, final grades, and persistence in historically difficult courses. Correlations and ANOVA’s were performed on SAS in order to determine a relationship between the non-SI attendees to those who did attend SI. The final grade reported an average of 0.56 points higher and on the final exam 4.26 points higher if the student …

Generation Of Full-Length Wild-Type Gata4 Protein And Characterization Of Its Binding To Unc-45 Domains, Morgan Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Striated muscle UNC-45 (SM UNC-45) protein acts as a chaperone for cardiac and skeletal muscle myosins; regulating their folding, assembly into thick filaments, interaction with other sarcomeric proteins, and degradation. GATA4 is an important transcription factor that regulates the expression of several cardiac muscle proteins, including myosin. A previous study demonstrated for the first time that SM UNC-45 (also known as UNC-45B) physically interacted with GATA4. The major revelation from this study is that SM UNC-45 has the potential to exert both short-term (protein level) and long-term (gene level) controls over myosin and therefore muscle structure and function. The aim …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Mindfulness-Based Interventions To Improve Mental Health And Overall Wellbeing Of College Student-Athletes, Haley Katherine Brock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Athletes have several challenges and demands that increase psychological distress

and disturbances to overall wellbeing. Currently, more research is being done to identify issues that college athletes face by not receiving mental health services. College athletes are now being identified in the literature as a vulnerable population. This pilot study looked at a possible mindfulness-based intervention by incorporating yoga sessions. The research hypothesis proposed that the participants who partake in the yoga sessions have a decrease in depression and anxiety, and overall wellbeing. This increase was measured using the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), PHQ-9, and the Behavioral Health Measure …

Outcomes Of Mental Health Crises When Mental Health Professionals Partner With Mental Health Deputies, Melissa Kay Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Law enforcement has historically been on the frontlines of the mental health crisis. This expected role is difficult as police officers are not trained as mental health professionals. Collaboration between police officers, mental health professionals, and mental health authorities have produced integral models to assist with the mental health crisis. Crisis intervention teams (CIT), mobile crisis units, and street triage models are highlighted to gain understanding of the components of these models. This study desires to examine a collaborative, recently implemented mental health deputy grant program aimed at diverting mentally ill individuals in crisis from contact with the criminal justice …

An Exploration Of Self-Care In Relation To Burnout And Compassion Fatigue Among Social Workers, Michael Jared Gonzalez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the impact of self-care, burnout and compassion fatigue on mental health social workers. This correlational study was designed to provide a fuller understanding of this relationship. Stamm’s Theory of Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue and Orem’s self-care deficit theory served as the theoretical foundations of this study. The sample included 38 members of Millwood Hospital and the three Excel Centers, who volunteered to participate in this study. Participants completed online versions of the demographics questionnaire, Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL), and Self-Care Assessment Work Sheet (SCAW). Correlation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regressions were performed …

A Meta-Analytic Review Of Cognitive Functioning In Negative And Positive Symptoms Of Schizophrenia, Tiffany Forsythe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to conduct two meta-analytic reviews examining cognitive functioning and schizophrenia. The first review examined the literature comparing the cognitive functioning of schizophrenic patients to healthy controls. A second review examined the cognitive functioning within schizophrenic patients, examining the differences between individuals with primarily positive symptomatology and those with primarily negative symptomatology. The first meta-analysis included 19 studies which assessed 861 schizophrenic patients and 858 healthy volunteers overall. The second meta-analysis included 10 studies comparing the cognitive functioning of 1,263 schizophrenics across positive and negative symptoms. Results of the first review indicated that healthy controls …

Assessing Social Integration Of African Refugee Students Resettled In Abilene Texas: A Comparative Analysis, Hayven Tudman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assess perceived social and cultural integration among African refugee students participating in the IRC’s youth programs and those students who do not. The study looks at refugee students from a local high school in a small rural town. The sample population (n=20) were from four different Sub-Saharan African countries: Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. The data were collected using an online survey that consisted of two scales, one for measuring social support and one for measuring acculturation. An Independent Samples t-test analysis was run to compare the IRC participants …

A Rhetoric And Philosophy Of Interprofessional Healthcare Education: Communication Ethics In Action, Matthew Corr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare professionals belong to a moral community. Caring for patients is a community act carried out by healthcare professionals working in teams within complex political and organizational systems. This teamwork is crucial to quality patient outcomes; however, incivility threatens to derail necessary and effective collaboration towards the common organizational good. Necessarily, interprofessional healthcare education is becoming a required element for pre-health professionals. Currently, schools are using competency-based approaches to interprofessional education to teach ethics/values, roles/responsibilities. communication, and teamwork. For reasons explicated throughout this dissertation, the categorizing of these particular elements as competencies is problematic and cultivated within a positivistic and …

The Effects Of Constructed Wetlands On Metal Solubilization And Bioavailability In Passive Mine Remediation, Elizabeth Cochran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The legacy of coal mining in Appalachia has left many watersheds impacted by abandoned mine drainage. The drainage degrades streams, groundwater and habitats with acidity and toxic heavy metals. The Lowber Passive Remediation System has been in operation since 2004 to remediate high amounts of dissolved Fe, SO₄, Al, and Mn. The site consists of six settling ponds and an extensive wetlands at the finish. This study investigated the resolubilization of Fe and Mn in the wetlands and the role of bacteria in resolubilization. During three seasons, field measurements of water quality and lab analysis of Fe, Mn, …

Exploring Maternal Factors Linked To Weight Status In Salvadorian Infants, Carmen M. Kiraly, Melanie Turk, Melissa Kalarchian, Cheryl Shaffer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Obesity rates in the US have risen dramatically, especially among Hispanic adults and children. Because of the high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Latino children by preschool age, it is prudent to examine maternal factors potentially linked to weight status during an infant’s first year of life. The literature on risk factors of child obesity has focused primarily on children of Mexican descent, and little research exists for other Latino populations, such as Salvadorans. Objective: To investigate maternal physiologic and infant feeding factors associated with infant overweight and/or obesity in a sample of Salvadoran mother-infant dyads. Methods: A …

Synthesis, Characterization And Crystal Growth Of I2-Ii-Iv-Vi4 And I4-Ii-Iv2-Vi7 Diamond-Like Semiconductors With Potential In Ir-Nlo Applications, Jennifer Glenn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, several new and existing diamond-like semiconductors (DLSs) were synthesized and investigated for their potential in infrared nonlinear optical (IR-NLO) applications. In Chapter 2 growth of large single crystals of Li₂MnGeS₄ was carried out using iodine vapor transport and a newly created graphite-tube containment system. This crystallization method produced sizable single crystals on the scale of 2x1x1 mm³, that were used to determine the material’s magnetic properties. Magnetization data indicate that the compound is antiferromagnetic with a Néel temperature of 10 K and an effective magnetic moment of 5.6 /f.u.. The specific heat …

Enhancing Access And Success Of Underserved Students In Dual Enrollment Programs, Theodore Mbaegbu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines dual enrollment activities and their impact with a focus on equitable recruitment, persistence, and targeted success mechanisms for Black students and students from low-income families. The lived experiences of four former students from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds, and the perspectives of ten dual enrollment practitioners garnered from a purposeful sampling of two Southwestern Pennsylvania universities inform the study. A qualitative approach examines interviews, focus group, and survey data through thematic investigative interpretation to yield common and unique experiences and perspectives relevant to recruitment processes, funding, support systems, and observed outcomes. The findings indicate how adequate preparation, …

The Ethics Of Occultic Communication: An Invocation Of Joshua Gunn And Sissela Bok, James Thomas Begley Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Occultic rhetoric, according to Joshua Gunn, is a genre of discourse concerned with the study and practice of secret communications. The strategic sharing of secret messages involves a host of methods and conventions designed for the selective disclosure of hidden knowledge, thus controlling the boundaries of (and accessibility to power between) insider and outsider groups. Occultic rhetoric has its uses in everyday encounters, but the abuse of such manipulative strategies, especially by those in the academy and other positions of power and trust, calls for an ethical response. This dissertation submits occultic rhetoric to moral investigation by incorporating the works …

Role Of The Glycerophosphocholine Acyltransferase, Gpc1, In Phosphatidylcholine (Pc) Biosynthesis And Remodeling In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Sanket Anaokar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biomembranes are permeable barriers that enclose the cell and the intracellular organelles in a cell. The selective nature of these robust barriers acts as the first line of defense towards the harsh factors that can compromise cell survival. Biomembranes primarily consist of membrane lipids that are organized into layers to form a dynamic bilayer structure. The dynamic nature of the membrane requires the synchronized modulation of lipid composition through de novo synthesis, degradation, intracellular movement, and remodeling. Phospholipids are the major membrane lipid class, and phosphatidylcholine (PC) is the most abundant phospholipid in most eukaryotic biomembranes.

PC is primarily produced …

The Development Of Hybrid Process Control Systems For Fluidized Bed Pellet Coating Processes, Hanzhou Feng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The conventional basic control for pharmaceutical batch processes has several drawbacks. The basic control often uses constant process settings discovered by trial and error. The rigid process operation provides limited process understanding and forgoes the opportunities of process optimization. Product quality attributes are measured by the low efficient off-line tests, therefore these cannot be used to monitor and inform the process to make appropriate adjustments. Frequent reprocessing and batch failures are possible consequences if the process is not under effective control. These issues raise serious concerns of the process capability of a pharmaceutical manufacturing process.

An alternative process control strategy …

Unconventional Oil And Gas Extraction In Ohio: Regulations, Production And Water Quality, Brittany Garman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Utica shale play is the main target for unconventional oil and gas extraction in Ohio. Over 2,000 wells have been drilled since the first in 2011. This rapid expansion has led to concerns over the availability of information and potential environmental impacts. An assessment of readily available data was done through an examination of the ODNR website for oil and gas regulations, permits, spud and completion reports, water usage and waste data, and complaints, as well as brine and de-icer application. Water quality testing of an exceptional warm water tributary in the Captina Creek watershed in Belmont County, Ohio …

The Dialectics Of Cyberspace: Communication Ethics As First Response To Cyber Attacks, Matthew P. Mancino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project recognizes the need to re-conceptualize cyberspace according to its characteristic dialectical tensions in order to offer lasting, adequate responses to cyber attacks. Scholars across multiple disciplines recognize the ineffectiveness of perimeter defense strategies, or the raising of defensive walls to protect sensitive information as the primary response to cyber attacks (Denning, 2001; Jang-Jaccard & Nepal, 2014; MacKinnon, Bacon, Gan, Loukas, Chadwick, Frangiskatos, 2013). Thus, this project suggests that in addition to a literacy in coding, corporations and policy makers must attend to what Ronald C. Arnett, Janie Harden Fritz, and Leeanne M. Bell McManus (2009/2018) term “communication ethics …

The Influence Of Question Sequencing Using Formative Assessment In Introductory Statistics, Bryan Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Formative assessment has long been used to gauge students’ understanding of course material prior to taking an exam. With the advent of more advanced technology, only recently have instructors been able to combine formative assessment with a student response system to allow students to respond to questions in real time during class. Previous studies show mixed findings on the relationship between the use of student response systems and student learning. For example, some studies show that those students who used a student response system performed better on exams or in the course when compared to those who did not, while …

Black Body Memory: A Philosophy Of The Talk, Autumn Redcross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project offers the term Black body memory to point toward the threatened existential disposition of Black people in society today. Moreover, Black body memory points to the narrative paradigm of a shared experience. While popular conceptions theorize race as a social construction, the lived reality of Black people is frequently imbued by racialization and racism. Black body memory emerges from the intersection of the Black body articulated by Franz Fanon, Charles Johnson, and George Yancy, among others, and body memory, as described by Edward Casey and Thomas Fuchs. Black body memory is a culturally-laden and sedimented lived reality. The …

The Ethical Challenge Of Conflicts Of Interest In Healthcare, Fahad Alhazmi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conflicts of interest are prevalent across all walks of society, and unfortunately, the healthcare industry is not immune to these impediments. Conflicts of interest arise when the objective of upholding a patients’ interest collide with the physicians’ secondary goals and is mostly but not always related to monetary gain.

To avoid conflict of interest, it is advisable for medical practitioners to weigh the pros and cons that their actions would inflict. Medical practices whose benefits outweigh the associated risks are ethically upright hence avoid conflict of interest.

Each section proposes solutions for the conflicts of interest encountered at the disparate …

Water Quality Assessment Of Deer Lakes County Park Before, During And After Unconventional Shale Gas Drilling, Daniel Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, signed a lease to allow unconventional natural gas extraction from Marcellus Shale beneath Deer Lakes County Park in 2014. The park has three man-made lakes and four waterways that eventually flow into the Allegheny River. Drilling commenced in early 2016, and there are now five producing wells. The park has an extensive abandoned coal mine network and several abandoned oil and gas wells. Thus, an independent water quality study was undertaken beginning in July 2015. Samples from seven different sites in the park were used to establish a water quality baseline prior to the drilling. Monthly sampling …

Reclaiming Rhetorical Intersectionality: From Silence To Parrhesia And Attuned Listening, Tahirah Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intersectionality is a term applied by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in the late 1980s to a social experience. A person experiences intersectionality when different aspects of her identity converge in a way that causes uniquely amplified marginalization or oppression. The classic three identities that produce intersectionality experiences in the United States are race, gender, and class, making poor women of color the central figures of intersectionality study. Crenshaw explained that these forces take three main forms: structural, political and representational (“Mapping the Margins” 1243).

Intersectionality has always been rhetorical. Structural, political and representational intersectionality are supported in language. The power of …

Nontraditional Hydrogen Bonding In Asymmetric Lewis Acid Catalysis, Brandon Vernier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the field of asymmetric induction, there is a shift from the synthesis of reaction

specific chiral auxiliaries towards a broader mechanistic approach. Our approach is to

develop a theory of asymmetric catalyst design from first principles. The Diels-Alder

reaction of 2-methacrolein and 1,3-cyclopentadiene in the presence of 15 mole % lmenthoxy

aluminum dichloride, reported by Koga, achieved the (S)-exo-Diels-Alder

cycloadduct with 72% ee (0% ee Endo for acrolein). The dramatic change from 72% to 0%

ee is a significant fact that has been overlooked in practical organic synthesis.

In the first phase of this work, the conformational landscape of …

Unconventional Gas Extraction In Southwestern Pennsylvania: Complaints, Production, And Water Quality, Dannielle Pratt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dramatic rise in unconventional oil and gas extraction in Pennsylvania has presented a challenge to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in managing regulatory required data, and the uniformity of public access via their online databases. This study analyzed over a decade of all the oil and gas complaints and unconventional gas production in Washington County. Of the 1,811 wells drilled between 2004 and 2018, 1,683 are producing, 74 are plugged, 52 regulatory inactive, and 2 abandoned. The PADEP received 10,389 complaints from 2004 to 2018. Only 2,420 of 4,489 water quality complaints were resolved within the legally required …

An Ethical Analysis Of Reproductive Justice In The Context Of The Egenics Movement In The United States, Bernetta Welch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The history of forced sterilization and the American cultural agreement with this practice robbed women of color of control of their own bodies, destinies, and communities. Negative eugenics as genetic proof of low intelligence, low possibility, and low productivity fed the system of compulsory sterilization even though the science proved faulty and incorrect. As advances in medical technology and genetic science increases, eugenics is making a return into the American psyche. Vulnerable populations which include women of color make reproduction and the subsequent control of their bodies vulnerable once again.

The Reproductive Justice Movement is a collaboration of organized women …

The Effects Of Learning Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction On Psychosocial Variables And Hba1c In Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes, Denise Van Sant - Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOSOCIAL EFFECTS OF AN ONLINE MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION INTERVENTION ON ADOLESCENTS WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES

By

Denise E. Van Sant – Smith

Date: 4-5-2019

Dissertation Supervised by Linda Goodfellow, PhD, RN, FAAN

Background: Stress has been shown to increase glucose levels through a sympathetic physiological response resulting in a release of chemicals such as adrenalin and cortisol, a response which results in an even greater need for insulin. Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes may not be able to change or decrease the amount of stress in their lives but they may be able to …

Precision Medicine And It's Ethical And Social Implications: Public Health And Gobal Persepctives, Evangel Sarwar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since President Obama's launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) in 2015, precision medicine (PM) has been anticipated as the new paradigm for healthcare with the capacity to “empower patients, researchers, and providers to work together toward the development of individualized care,” through research, technologies, and policies (President Obama, 2015). Precision Medicine (PM), in the form of genomics, offers unprecedented promise of providing new tools for improving health and reducing the burden of diseases, not just for the U.S. - but also globally. According to World Health Organization, genomics research and precision medicine will play a major part in …

Factors Contributing To Successful Completion Of A Holistic Job Skills Training Program, Renee Paul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Job skills training programs are one way to address barriers to employment. As is important with any program that is implemented, it is important to evaluate its effectiveness. Existing literature contains several examples of job skills training programs that measure success by looking at outcomes such as employment rates post-program completion. Another way to measure success, which very few studies report, is to look at program completion rates. This study sought to fill that gap by reporting completion rates and factors that contribute to completion for a holistic job skills training program in West Texas. This study tested five variables …

Effects Of Temperature On Microbial Parameters Associated With Decaying Plant Litter In A Stream Microcosm Experiment, Hunter David Pates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increases in mean surface air temperature under climate-change predictions are expected to affect microbial activity, as well as carbon dynamics in aquatic ecosystems. I explored responses of litter-associated decomposers along temperature ranges typical of temperate streams in laboratory microcosms simulating stream conditions. The objectives of this study were to determine (1) whether the effects of temperature on stream leaf-associated microorganisms can be explained by the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE); (2) if the effects of temperature are the same across temperatures commonly found in temperate streams; and (3) if there are differences in the magnitude of responses to temperature among …

Microplastics In The Digestive System Of The Atlantic Sharpnose Shark (Rhizoprionodon Terraenovae) In Winyah Bay, Sc, Elise Virginia Pullen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The digestive tracts and livers of adult male Atlantic sharpnose sharks (N=16), Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, from Winyah Bay, South Carolina were examined for ingested microplastics. R. terraenovae is a small, locally abundant, coastal mesopredatory elasmobranch belonging to the family Carcharhinidae. Microfibers comprised the largest categories of plastics (94% of the total), and were found in 100% of sharks examined. The number of micro- and other plastics ranged from 34 to 75 per individual and totaled 927. The majority of plastics (40%) were blue in coloration, and 55% were <1 mm in length. Microplastics were observed on both the interior and exterior of the organs examined, and three microfibers were embedded within the stomach lining, an observation not previously reported in marine vertebrates and one which represents a potential pathway for the translocation of ingested microplastics.