Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Of Hydration On Collegiate Athletic Performance, Fatigue, And Recovery, Lauren Woodard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The impact of dehydration on several key physiological functions that are critical for athletic performance is well studied. Hydration monitoring has been known to have significant value on impaired physical functions by maximizing performance during training and competition. Impaired physical functions has been suggested as a limitation on explosive strength, musculoskeletal output, cardiovascular output, and proper technique in contact sports. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between hydration levels and physiological profiles that can be used as a proactive approach in monitoring a collegiate athlete’s athletic performance, fatigue, and recovery status. It was hypothesized that insufficient …

Relationships Between Dietary Habits, Demographics, And Hike Outcome Among 2015 Pacific Crest Trail Backpackers, Lauren Ann Black

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative research study explores the relationship between dietary patterns, hiker demographics, and total miles hiked during a backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Long hiking distances, low rate of thru-hike completion, consumption of processed and ready to eat foods, weight loss, and large time and monetary strains are comthemes accepted anecdotally by the backpacking population11. However, these themes have yet to be adequately researched and validated for long distance backpackers and PCT backpackers specifically. The online survey gathered data from 151 backpackers who hiked the PCT in 2015. Significant positive correlational relationships were found between the number …

A “Human Endeavor”: Killing In Contemporary U.S. Combat Narratives, William Mackenzie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This PH.D dissertation aims to develop a 3-D numerical model of dam-break flows on movable beds. Three tasks are defined to accomplish the goal of this study. The first task is developing a 3-D hydrodynamic model to simulate dam-break flow on fixed beds with simple geometry and test the water surface tracking technique. This model solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations using a finite-difference method on rectilinear, staggered grids. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) technique with SOLA-VOF advection scheme is used to capture the free surface motion. The developed model is tested using several experimental dam-break flows and the VOF technique is …

A Little Difference Makes A Big Difference: Essays On The Link Between Top Management Team Traits And Strategic Marketing Decisions, Cameron Duncan Nicol

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The importance of marketing is growing. This is not just a perception: CEOs appear to see its importance as well. Despite the increase in the understood importance of marketing, there still remains a relatively scant amount of research on the impact that can be had by top management team members on a firm's strategic marketing outcomes. The research which follows explores an important question that has previously been comparatively neglected by researchers: what top management team individual differences can impact the strategic marketing outcomes of the firm? The first essay, based on a multi-industry sample of 325 publicly listed fortune …

Discreet Only: An Exploration Of Discreet Practices On Grindr In A Mississippi Town, Ian Michael Whalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Black Space On A White Campus; Exploring The Relationship Between African American Students And The Physical Structure Of The University Of Mississippi, Drew Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the University of Mississippi, despite institutional efforts to distance the present from the past, issues of race continue to influence the campus and the experiences of African-American students. This thesis examines the relationship between the physical structure of the university of Mississippi campus and African American students, and investigates the creation of "counter-publics." this thesis analyzes works in critical race theory, higher education, and social geography to argue that the "whiteness" of the university of Mississippi campus creates social and educational barriers for African American students. Furthermore, along with being surrounded by "whiteness," African American students lack any physical …

Biochemical And Molecular Assessment Of Toxicity Of Primaquine Metabolites On Erythrocytes, Jagrati Jain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 8-aminoquinoline (8AQ) antimalarial drug primaquine (PQ) is the only drug for prevention of malaria relapse. Moreover, PQ also has gametocytocidal activity against Plasmodium falciparum. However, clinical use of PQ has been limited due to its hemolytic toxicity, especially in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient (G6PDd) individuals. Phenolic and quinone metabolites generated via cytochrome P450-dependent pathways appear to be responsible for hemolytic effects of PQ. However, the mechanism for the hemolytic toxicity of PQ is still poorly understood. To explore the mechanism, targets, and pathways for toxicity of PQ, normal and G6PDd human erythrocytes were treated with the potential hemotoxic metabolites of …

Nucleic Acid Clamp-Mediated Transcriptional And Translational Modulation Of Oncogenes Via The Stabilization Of G-Quadruplexes, Taisen Hao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

G-quadruplexes (G4s) are non-canonical secondary nucleic acid structures that exit in various biologically important regions within a cell, such as the promoters of DNA, 5’-Untranslated regions (UTR) of mRNA and telomeres. These secondary structures tend to cluster around 1 kb from transcriptional start sites across all human chromosomes in addition to at telomeric regions. Extensive efforts from many research groups have been dedicated to targeting G4s in oncogenic promoters, telomeres, and 5’-UTRs with traditional small molecules. However, most small molecules recognizing multiple G4s raising potential issues in terms of utilizing these small molecules clinically. Therefore, we developed a novel nucleic …

Historical Refuges And Recolonization Routes In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Inferred Through Phylogeographic Analysis Of The Spotted Wintergreen (Chimaphila Maculata), John Daniel Banusiewicz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Phylogeography has recently benefited from incorporation of coalescent modeling to test competing scenarios of population history of a species. Ecological niche modeling has also been useful in inferring areas of likely suitable habitat during past climate conditions. Several studies have examined the population history of biota in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and how they responded to climate change associated with the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (~18,000 years ago), though few studies have focused on understory plants. This study redressed that knowledge gap thorough examination of the phylogeographic history of the understory plant Chimaphila maculata, which is native to …

Contribution Of Specific Amino Acids To Calcium-Dependent Dimerization Of Epithelial Cadherin, Xiaoyun Z. Howard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cadherins are calcium-dependent molecules that play essential roles in embryonic development, tissue morphogenesis, and cancer progression. Epithelial (E-) cadherin is present at adherens junctions, structures that are important for maintaining tissue integrity. At adherens junctions, cell–cell adhesion complexes are formed as clusters of cadherin dimers through strand-swapped dimerization between two interacting protomers from adherent cells. Recently, a number of studies of dimer formation of E-cadherin supported a two-step adhesive binding model. First, an inter-molecular initial encounter complex (X-dimer) forms at the linker region of the first two extracellular domains, EC1 and EC2. Next, strand-swap dimerization occurs via exchange or ''swap'' …

One Or Two Things I Know About Us: Narrative Strategies For Autoethnography, Self-Representation And Healing In Four Memoirs By Poor-White Women From The U.S. South, Joseph Aaron Farmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines autobiographical writings by formerly poor white Southern women, who are rarely considered as a group and are more typically studied with “rough South” male writers, which would suggest that few women have contributed their own gendered experience to discussions of class, race, and sexuality vis-à-vis Southern poverty. Correcting this assumption, I examine formative statements by women from poor white backgrounds, including Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Red Dirt, Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Wild Card Quilt, Dorothy Allison’s Trash, and Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. Each of these writers engage in narrative strategies that do not defend …

Structure & Simulation: Growth And Evolution In Generative Music, Dane Filipczak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a series of original interactive computer music compositions that are structured around simulations of natural phenomena. The relationship between simulation and music composition is considered and found to be a likely site of high creative potential due to both domains’ concern with process and becoming as opposed to static artifacts. The medium of the web application is considered as an ideal site for contemporary musical experimentation and a portrait is given of the current affordances and constraints of browser-based applications. Five musical systems are described within the context of their simulation and design techniques and some reflections …

A Cacrep-Informed Counselor Educator Developmental Model: Identifying Counselor Skills And Supports Needed For Neophyte Counselor Educators, Ryan Bowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field of counseling has been undergoing radical change for the past 40 years as it changes with the demands of the population and as new problems arise with changes in societal needs. Groups such as the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs are working to create a program of counselor education that is singular and comprehensive to meet the needs of these changes. This mixed-methods study explored skills and supports that are needed to help counseling education students become effective future counselor educators. The researcher introduces a model of counselor educator development that will help to …

An Ethical Framework For Global Governance For Health Research, Kiarash Aramesh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Global Governance is the way by which various affairs of human social life at the global scale are governed in the absence of a global governance. This field is composed of complex networks of role players. Global Health Governance is a branch of Global Governance that governs the health-related affairs. An important branch of this huge complex of networks that has not been analyzed sufficiently in the scholarly literature yet is Global Governance for Health Research. Global health research, although it is a part of global health affairs, has its own features and conditions that bring about its specific issues …

The Lived Experiences Of School Counselors Participating In Yoga: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Self-Care, Susan Giovengo-Gurrera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of school counselors participating in yoga. The primary objective of this research was to gain a thick, rich understanding of how school counselors experience the practice of yoga. A secondary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of how the regular practice of yoga can serve as a method of self-care for school counselors. This qualitative, phenomenologically-oriented study employed van Manen’s (1990) four lived existentials, Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) bio-ecological model of human development, and current mindfulness literature as its theoretical underpinnings.

School counselors regularly face many issues that …

Toward A Theory Of Action: Opportunities Embedded In Counseling Theory For School Counselors To Improve Their Perceptions Of And Approaches Toward Their Relationship With Their School Principals, Stephanie A. Mchugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study employed perceptions of school counselors relative to their relationships with their principals in order to investigate a theory of action that employs the skills and strategies embedded in counseling theory to identify courses of action that counselors can use to improve the principal-counselor relationship. School counselors attending national and state counselor conferences (N=31) responded to a prompt asking for the perceived strengths and weaknesses of their principal-counselor relationship, and the barriers they perceived to improving the relationship. Responses were analyzed using a close reading process that applied a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) framework to the responses and identified emergent themes …

The Ethical Right To Healthcare In The Affordable Care Act, Stella Morden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, It has been questioned whether the right to healthcare in it can be ethically justified. The objection to a right to healthcare in general has been prominent over many decades in the U.S. The concern over higher personal taxes, quality care, and national debt steered the opposition. Responding to these concerns has a direct effect on each individual in society. In particular, the lack of healthcare is very significant.

The idea of a comprehensive national healthcare in the United States caught the attention of the public in the 1970s. It was inspired …

Revamping The United States Organ Donation System: An Ethical Justification For Compensated Live Organ Donation, Jordan Potter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With over 100,000 Americans currently on organ waiting lists in the United States, the mass shortage of viable organs for transplantation is one of the most pressing healthcare issues that we face as a country today. Thousands of these individuals on organ waiting lists will ultimately die waiting on an organ transplant that will never come. Many differing proposals have been discussed with the aim of increasing organ donation rates and the raw number of organs available for transplant, including changing our default consent status for cadaveric organ donation and the option of incentivizing organ donation by compensating live donors …

Water Quality Analysis Of Watersheds In Southwestern Pennsylvania, Linnea Ellen Manley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Concerns over the potential impacts of extractive activities on water quality have long existed. Hydraulic fracturing has now become common in Pennsylvania, but whether it has impacted water resources is still unclear. Previous studies have been done on localized areas often focusing on county or municipality boundaries. However, as water follows watershed boundaries this work aimed to study water quality at the watershed level. Four hundred forty-four groundwater samples were collected from the water wells of homeowner volunteers and three hundred twenty-two surface water samples were collected from streams throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania in areas with and without unconventional drilling at …

Barriers And Facilitators To Diabetes Self-Management In A Primary Care Setting – Patient And Physician Perspectives, Rahul Khairnar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

OBJECTIVES: To identify patient- and physician-perceived barriers to self-management of type-2 diabetes (T2DM) and explore the challenges physicians face in managing these patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional study of T2DM patients and their physicians used a mixed-methods approach (combination of patient survey and electronic medical record (EMR) database). A random stratified sample of 2,100 patients (age≥18 years) with a recorded diagnosis of T2DM (ICD-9 code: 250.xx) and having ≥2 physician visits was selected from a large physician group’s EMR database, and based on HbA1c level, was categorized into three groups: HbA1c<7, 7–9, and >9. Patients were administered a survey containing standardized instruments to …

Cultural Care And Inviting Practices: Building Relationships In An Urban Elementary School. Teacher Perspectives In Forming Positive Teacher-Student Relationships Based On Care And Equity, Eva J. Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation in practice investigates teacher perceptions of the influence of cultural care and invitational education (IE) on the formation of a positive teacher-student relationship with students of color in an urban elementary school. Cultural care is a theory of practice that utilizes a social-emotional approach for school improvement and to promote positive student outcomes. It is defined as a verbal or nonverbal gesture that displays a genuine interest in another person’s social, emotional, mental, and physical well-being; simultaneously recognizing and acknowledging race and culture as a vital part of a person’s identity. Cultural care must include respecting, valuing, and …

Trauma And Aggression In Juvenile Offenders, Cassandra M. Berbary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Indirect aggression has been found to be more common among females than males and may be an unconsidered contribution to aggression shown in delinquent girls. Although there are no research studies to date that have investigated the link between relational aggression and law violations, there are some studies that have considered indirect and overt aggression in females; however, this research has been largely inconclusive. An additional obstacle for offenders is the presence of previous traumas, which has been closely linked to both overt and indirect aggression. Although both males and females in the juvenile justice system are likely to have …

Structure Or Knot: What Phenomenology And Asperger’S Syndrome Can Teach Lacanian Psychoanalysis About Subjective Constitution, Shannon D. Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project examines Asperger’s Syndrome (now, with the DSM 5, Autism Spectrum Disorder) through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis and speaks to current debates in the field regarding the structural diagnosis of autism. Framed by critiques of Lacanian psychoanalysis, the project takes up autism and treatments for the disorder from within mainstream psychological approaches, from the viewpoint of neurodiversity and autistic self-advocates, and from within Lacanian psychoanalysis, with specific attention paid to the diagnostic approach in Lacanian thinking and the assumed relationship between autism and psychosis. Four published autobiographies written by autistic adults were subjected to two types of …

Impact Of Anti-Viral Immunity On Neural Stem/Progenitor Cell Activity And Implications For Cns Development, Apurva Kulkarni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Viral infection and inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS) can cause neuropathology, particularly in the prenatal and neonatal stages. Severe damage to the CNS may result from cytopathic effects of viral infection or from the immune response that may lyse virally-infected cells or release inflammatory mediators to mediate viral clearance. Neural stem/progenitor cells (NPSCs) are multipotent cells in the CNS that are often disrupted by neurotropic viral infections. They may be directly infected by the virus or respond to inflammatory cytokines released from resident as well as infiltrating immune cells. This bystander effect may affect NSPC differentiation and proliferation …

Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics Of The Self: Living In The Truth, Fergus James Laughland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the relationship of selfhood and ethics from the competing philosophical frameworks developed by Paul Ricoeur and Alain Badiou. Seeking “nothing short of a full victory” on the “battlefield” of history, Badiou argues that Ricoeur deceives his readers by hiding the relationship of the self to history. The purpose of this deception is to defend a definition of history that allows for a Providential sense of history whereby the past could be actively forgotten whereby crimes could be forgiven. In this work I examine Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of the self as developed in Oneself as Another (Soi-même comme …

Examining The Relationship Between Technology & Engineering Instruction And Technology & Engineering Literacy In K-8 Education, Tamarra L. Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between technology and engineering instruction and technology and engineering literacy in grades K-8. The factors identified and used for the purpose of this study were gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and important modes of technology and engineering instruction. These factors were evaluated to determine their relationship to student achievement scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2014 Technology and Engineering Literacy (TEL) assessment. Eight important modes of technology and engineering instruction were identified including: (1) choices people make that affect the environment, (2) inventions changing the way people live, …

Phylogeny, Psychology, And The Vicissitudes Of Human Development: The Anxiety Of Atavism, Frank Pittenger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This cross-disciplinary dissertation provides a missing intellectual history of an ostensibly dead idea. Once widely held and no less elegant for its obsolescence, the principle of biogenetic recapitulation is best remembered by its defining mantra, “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” Among psychologists and sociologists as well as embryologists, the notion that the development of any individual organism repeats in compressed, miniaturized form the entire history of its species enjoyed broad (if not uncontested) acceptance through the early twentieth century. The author reexamines the origins of this theory in the work of Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel, and traces its influence in psychology …

A Bioethics Tool For The Implementation Of Global Principles By The Pharmaceutical Industry, Daniel J. Hurst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to scandals of scientific misconduct, a climate of mistrust of science exists amongst the general public. This becomes of concern when we acknowledge that it is difficult for science and technology to flourish without broad societal trust. The pharmaceutical industry has often felt the brunt of such mistrust and has suffered many reputational setbacks over the past several years. Such reputational decline has a strong moral dimension, as it stems from issues such as the questionable conduct of clinical trials, pricing schemas, and access to medicines for low- or middle-income countries. The end product of such issues is the …

Dna Metabarcoding Reveals Provisioning Of Pollution-Sensitive Aquatic Insects, Resource Partitioning, And Dietary Shifts Among Breeding Neotropical Migratory Songbirds In A Riparian Habitat, Brian K. Trevelline

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Elucidating the diet of Neotropical migratory birds is essential to our understanding of their ecology and to their long-term conservation. Beyond broad taxonomic or morphological categories, however, the diet of Neotropical migrants is poorly documented. Using the molecular techniques of DNA barcoding and next-generation sequencing, we elucidated the diet of Neotropical migratory songbirds breeding in the riparian zones of headwater Appalachian streams. This approach resulted in a genus- or species-level description of diets that improved the current understanding of how songbirds utilize aquatic prey resources in riparian habitats. Furthermore, our approach revealed that breeding songbirds partition prey resources within a …

Examining The Role Of Ethnic Identity In The Relationship Between Characteristics Of Autism Spectrum Disorders And Eating Disorders, Ashley Bojorquez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present work provides a synthetic literature review investigating the potential role of ethnic identity in the relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and eating disorders (EDs). To date, there is no literature that directly examines the role that ethnic identity may play in the relationship between these two disorders. However, there is reason to believe it may; previous literature has shown that race/ethnicity plays a role in both of these disorders, and the role of ethnic identity has been more fully explored in the ED population. Notably, there is little research that examines the role of ethnic identity on …