Digital Commons Network^™

High-Throughput Screening Of A Metagenomic Library Using A Novel E. Coli Chip For Discovery Of Antibiotic Resistance Genes, Richard Paul Manarin Tiongco

Master's Theses

The growing prevalence of antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest challenges facing humankind today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have estimated that about 2 million people in the US each year develop an infection caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and about 23,000 people die. To combat this growing crisis, efforts geared toward the discovery of novel compounds, such as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), have spurred. However, current approaches for identification of such compounds have proven to be costly, time-consuming and ineffective. This problem underscores the need for a new approach, one that is fundamentally different from traditional methods …

The Effects Of A 6-Week Group Meal Prep Program On The Frequency Of Consumption Of Home-Cooked Meals, Shannon Mendez

Master's Theses

Consumption of food away from home is associated with higher caloric intake and poorer diet quality compared to home-cooked food. The advance quantity meal prep (AQMP) program is a group-based program developed to increase the frequency of consumption of home-cooked meals. The AQMP pilot study was a pre-experimental 6-week intervention aimed at analyzing the effects of the program on frequency of consumption of home-cooked meals, cooking attitudes, cooking self-efficacy, and anthropometric measures. Ten study participants met once a week at a commercial kitchen to prepare and package lunches, dinners, and snacks for the work week. A survey was administered and …

Disordered Eating In Collegiate Athletes: Prevalence And Relationships With Body Composition, Sofia Apsey

Master's Theses

Performance pressures and emphasis on body weight and shape put collegiate athletes at risk for disordered eating. If not identified early, disordered eating behaviors could develop into a clinical eating disorder. While such behaviors are a known problem, prevalence rates are not well established in collegiate athletes. Disordered eating may also relate to physiological changes in athletes, such as body composition and performance, although this relationship is not well understood. The aims of this research were to 1) determine the prevalence of disordered eating risk in NCAA Division I student-athletes and 2) determine if such behaviors are related to baseline …

Comparing Levels Of Environmental Literacy Between Stars- And Non-Stars-Rated Universities, Analisa Kathleen Campos

Master's Theses

The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) is a program that measures university sustainability levels. STARS ranks university campuses based on the number of points received from individual specifications such as green buildings, access to mass transit, number of environmental courses, and more. Therefore, the rank a school receives translates directly to its level of sustainability as an institution. Currently, it is unknown if there is a relationship between a campus’s STARS-rating and individual students’ environmental literacy (EL). The purpose of this project was to analyze the impacts of university’s sustainable features on student EL. Surveys were administered to …

Expression And Purification Of Snake Antivenom Peptide In Pichia Pastoris, Israel Juarez Contreras

Master's Theses

It has been shown that a peptide of the first 10-15 N-terminal amino acids of the lethal toxin neutralizing factor (LTNF) protein found in opossums (Didelphis spp.) holds promise as a low-cost therapy for snake envenomation. To date, the 11-mer has been expressed in E. coli and shown to neutralize snake venoms. However, possible endotoxin concerns warrant an investigation into other microbial hosts. The methylotrophic yeast, Pichia pastoris, shows promise as an alternative host. Active LTNF peptide was expressed and purified in P. pastoris. This was accomplished by subcloning a tandem repeat of the first 15 N-terminal amino acids of …

Representations Of Women And Minorities Groups In Comics, Laticia Donelle Marshall

Master's Theses

The focus of this research is to examine the representation of women and minority groups within comic books. Comic books are a cultural product that involves many actors when it comes to changing the representations of women and minorities. Therefore, this research focused on examining not only literary works but also the actions and contributions of producers and consumers throughout the publication of American comics. In the chapters, I examined the various representations of women, African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asians in comic books. To conduct my research on changing cultural productions, I used the method of textual analysis …

Investigating The Relationship Between Hormone Receptors Dax-1 And Estrogen Receptor Within Prostate Cancer Cell Lines, Meghana G. Vijayraghavan

Master's Theses

Prostate cancer (PCa) is estimated to be the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in the United States in 2019. While most prostate tumors rely on androgens for growth signaling, there are subsets of tumors that become androgen-resistant, therefore resisting conventional androgen-depravation therapy. Consequently, research has focused on targeting different hormone receptors for novel therapeutics. One such receptor is Dosage-sensitive sex reversal, adrenal hypoplasia critical region, on chromosome X, gene 1 (DAX-1). DAX-1 is known to interact with other hormone receptors, such as androgen receptor (AR) and estrogen receptors (ERs) to suppress the proliferative effects …

Unfamiliar Territory: A Preliminary Exploration Of The Experiences Of International Junior Transfer Students, Nicole Mcintyre

Master's Theses

Over one million international students attend American institutions of higher education each year. For many of these students, community colleges are an accessible and increasingly popular enrollment option because they offer small class sizes, intensive English language courses, and affordable tuition costs. Many international students enrolled in community college seek to transfer to a four-year university and complete a Bachelor’s degree. To date, the experiences of international students who successfully complete this transfer pathway have gone largely unstudied. As a result, very little is known about the international junior transfer population. This qualitative study utilizes a phenomenology methodology to explore …

Intramuscular Injection Of Plant Derived Antimicrobials: A Potenial Use Against M.Bovis In Cattle, Elizabeth Johnson

Master's Theses

Plant derived antimicrobials (PDAs) such as trans-cinnamaldehyde, eugenol and carvacrol, possess strong antibacterial properties yet are generally regarded as safe. In the current crisis of antibiotic resistance, the use of PDAs as alternatives to prevent and control bacterial infections in livestock has gained momentum. The inhibitory effects of PDAs on common bacteria such as C.difficile, Listeria, Salmonella have been widely studied. PDAs have also been found effective in wall-less bacteria such as Mycoplasma, for which common antibiotics are not effective and vaccines are not always effective. In animal husbandry, PDAs can be potentially added in feed to metaphalactively prevent …

Design, Modeling And Control Of A Two-Wheel Balancing Robot Driven By Bldc Motors, Charles T. Refvem

Master's Theses

The focus of this document is on the design, modeling, and control of a self-balancing two wheel robot, hereafter referred to as the balance bot, driven by independent brushless DC (BLDC) motors. The balance bot frame is composed of stacked layers allowing a lightweight, modular, and rigid mechanical design. The robot is actuated by a pair of brushless DC motors equipped with Hall effect sensors and encoders allowing determination of the angle and angular velocity of each wheel. Absolute orientation measurement is accomplished using a full 9-axis IMU consisting of a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer, and a 3-axis magnetometer. …

Preparing Future Dance Educators For Diverse Student Populations, Kaylee Anne Morrison

Master's Theses

The purposes of this study were to create a curriculum map for a potential Bachelor of Arts in Dance Education for a four-year university, promote quality dance education, and find ways to advocate for dance programs in rural communities. To determine the data, the researcher created an electronic survey, met with participants in person, and recorded interviews to collect the evidence. Thirty-six electronic survey participants were current and former dance educators. The participants for the interviews were ten current and former K-12 administrators, seven university faculty, and six general education teachers/curriculum specialist from diverse K-12 campuses. The researcher designed the …

Alternative Conceptions, Initial Knowledge, And Self-Efficacy Of The Novice And Expert Geologist Regarding Mineral Identification, Amanda Manzanares

Master's Theses

Research shows the novice geologist begins an introductory geology course with alternative conceptions about minerals and other geoscience concepts. Students use their prior understanding of these concepts as the basis for future learning. If students’ frameworks include alternative conceptions about foundational geoscience concepts, these could hinder their ability to learn more factual and complicated ideas and facts in the future. It takes time to change these alternative conceptions. For this reason, instructors need to understand their students’ prior understandings of geoscience concepts at the beginning of the courses to move students to a better understanding of the material. Moreover, the …

Evaluation Of Resuscitation Cardiopulmonary Training For The New Nurse, Nhan Thi Yen Nguyen

Master's Theses

This study aimed to define effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for new nurses. Nurses who respond to emergency situations are required to have the sensitivity and professional skills to respond effectively. Thus, improving resuscitation knowledge and technique for nurses is critical in order to enhance the quality and safety of patient care. This study used a pretest and posttest research design with convenience sampling; the sample consisted of 30 nurses who worked at the study hospital. As a result, new nurses’ knowledge improved from 7% to 73% after training. The psychomotor development of skills after the cardiopulmonary resuscitation training improved to …

The Monkey Queen: Creating Cultural Connections Through Theatre For Young Audiences, Matt Loehrke

Master's Theses

Youth in America have access to numerous stories on stage, page, and screen, yet many of those tales originate from white, Euro-centric cultures. Current trends in American theatre often produce familiar scripts to present to their communities. Unfortunately, too often, stories from other cultures are not adapted and presented. This thesis seeks to provide a culture bridge by adapting one of China’s most beloved stories, The Monkey King, for a young American audience through the medium of Theatre for Young Audiences. Theatre is a great unifier; however, the most critical audience, the audience that will grow into the next generation …

The Missing Art: Dance Advocacy And Inter-Arts Collaboration In New Jersey Public High Schools, Vicki Jenkins

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to explore the effects dance has on New Jersey public high schools’ performing arts curriculum and its students. It also explored how dance was being utilized in schools and the ways in which art teachers worked together in their programs. The research instrument used in this study was an electronic survey that included quantitative and qualitative questions for data gathering. Participants in this study were from eleven New Jersey high schools that included forty-two arts teachers and eight administrators. The data suggested dance was an important component to the performing arts curricula for teachers, …

Dance Competitions: The Culture, The Training, And The Effects On Young Dancers, Teresa Schmitt

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to assist educators, students, and families, in understanding the advantages and disadvantages of participating in competition dance training as it exists in private studios. The researcher evaluated perceptions of competitive dance training through the lens of nine high school aged dancers who participate or did participate in such activities, with a goal of uncovering how this training experience affected them and what they thought about it. The research instrument used in this study was an electronic survey that included questions that produced responses that were analyzed either quantitively or qualitatively, depending on the nature …

Creating A Dancing Classroom: Understanding In What Ways Integrating Dance Into The Classroom Creates Opportunities For Differentiated Instruction, Impacts Classroom Culture, And Enhances Student Outcomes, Maria Ross Campsey

Master's Theses

The aim of this thesis project was to explore the effects of and response to an integrated arts approach that utilized movement and dance to teach a non-dance curriculum. The focus of this descriptive study was to understand the educational benefits of an arts integrated approach to education using movement and dance. The researcher employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze data from twenty-two first-grade students, two classroom teachers, and the researcher’s observations. The researcher posed the following three research questions in this thesis: Q1 Did the movement and dance integrated arts approach help students understand academic concepts? Q2 …

Line As Descriptor, Adel A. Alanmi

Master's Theses

I develop art that speak both to me and to others about the beauty of art. I have always been interested in art since I was young, and the interest has grown tremendously since then. As an artist , I always feel the urge to come up with new ways of interacting with the world and holding on to it for as long a s possible , although their comes a time you have to let go and create room for new memories. Art serves as a haven as I can distant myself from all the stress and craziness life …

Choreography, Student Engagement, And Conclusions: Assessing If Faculty Choreographers Are As Innovative As The Students They Teach, Erika Goe

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to access the effectiveness of choreographic devices and how it impacts student engagement when learning choreography. The research aimed to evaluate if choreographic devices have an impact on student engagement by evaluating the utilization of specific choreographic devices when teaching choreography if there were significant differences between faculty and student exploration when creating work and if the differences explored enhanced or diminished student engagement levels. The forty-two participants were attending a junior college in Riverside, California and the research took place over the course of six weeks during the fall and spring semesters. During …

The Power Of Environment As A Tool For Inspiration: Engaging Students Through In-Studio Vs Site-Specific Choreography, Taylor Kath

Master's Theses

The goal of this study was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of in-studio and site-specific choreographic experiences with the desired result to discoverhow choreographers created, danced, and perceived this work. The research was conducted in a rural area and due to the vast and open terrain, there were incredible opportunities for site-specific work, providing artists with great advantages for inspiration. In a low-populated state with little access to urban art, generating site-specific dance occurrences was vital for both seeing and experiencing dance. The aim of this research was to determine whether in-studio or site-specific choreography provides more inspiration to …

A Slice Of The Big Apple: An Exploration Of The Impact Of Travel On High School Students’ Choreographic Process, Lauren Seibel

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to create, implement, and assess the results of a dance curriculum based on a long-distance travel experience as inspiration for choreography. The research spanned one semester. Participants included twenty high school dance students and nine audience members. In the study, the researcher attempted to answer the following essential questions: Q1 How can a high school dance course enhance the overall experience and understanding of traveling? Q2 In what ways can travel impact a student’s choreographic process? Q3 What aspects of traveling are most helpful for high school students when exploring their ability to choreograph? …

The Power Of Dance: How Dance Effects Mental And Emotional Health And Self-Confidence In Young Adults, Amber Salo

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mental and emotional benefits of dance in young adults. The researcher directed and produced a free, one-day dance workshop that served as the format for the research event. The study involved sixty-three dance students, ranging in age from fourteen through twenty-five, including all years of high school, college, and post-graduation. The classes offered as part of this study were geared toward the joys of dance, setting and attaining goals, having an open, growth mindset, and being self-confident. The study incorporated both qualitative and quantitative research as a means to answer three …

Patient Knowledge About Disease Self-Management Of Cirrhosis, Thuy Xuan Trinh

Master's Theses

This study aimed to define the level of understanding of self-management for patients with liver cirrhosis. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Thirty cirrhotic patients (14 females and 16 males) in the Gastroenterology Department of University Medical Center, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam participated in answering the questionnaire to evaluate their knowledge about liver disease self-management. The majority of cirrhotic patients had an unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding self management of their disease, particularly in terms of recognizing and preventing complications from hepatic encephalopathy, monitoring for liver cancer, and awareness of medications they should not use. Implications of the …

An Analysis Of Registered Sex Offender Reentry Challenges In Mississippi, Kitsya Cordova

Master's Theses

Sex offenders are often considered the most dangerous type of criminal by the public, which is a common misconception (Levenson & D’Amora, 2007; Tewksbury & Copes, 2012). Registered sex offenders usually have the lowest recidivism rates when compared to other offenders (Robbers, 2009). The issue is that registered sex offenders are targeted by multiple set of laws such as the Wetterling Act, Megan’s Law, Adam Walsh Act, among others, Such sex offender legislation creates multiple reentry challenges that other type of offenders may not face (Grossi, 2017; Tewksbury & Copes, 2012). By using secondary data from Griffin and Evans (2019), …

Queering Fertility: Experiences Of Queer/Lesbian People Undergoing Fertility Treatment In A Heteronormative Society, Caitlin Ortis

Master's Theses

Due to the increase in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other (+) (LGBTQ+) people seeking fertility treatments or the “Lesbian Baby Boom” (Amato & Jacob, 2004; Batza, 2016; Dunne, 2000; Simon et al., 1993; Mamo, 2013), in which 30% to 50% of women who identify as lesbians hope to become parents (Amato & Jacob, 2004), it is necessary to examine the relationship between a person’s sexual orientation and her experiences receiving fertility treatments. While fertility treatment from a heterosexual perspective has been studied at length, few studies have examined how LGBTQ+ people are treated in fertility clinic settings. In …

Teacher Evaluation Systems And Their Impact Upon Academic Dance Educators And Their Evaluators, Elizabeth C. Brennan

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore gaps and biases within public school teacher evaluation systems and their effects on traditional public school dance educators and their evaluators. At the heart of this is the attempt to answer a series of questions involving the voice of six dance educators and five instructional evaluators concerning their experiences with teaching evaluation systems and their direct correlation to educational dance in the areas of fairness, equitability and bias. The research instruments used in this study included electronic surveys and face-to-face interviews, both of which were created specifically for each participant population. The …

Characterizing The Role Of Tumor Suppressors Merlin And Expanded In The Stem Cell Niche Of Drosophila Testes, Bryan Johnson

Master's Theses

The ability of adult organisms to maintain tissue homeostasis and repair tissue in response to injury is mediated by small groups of partially differentiated cells called adult stem cells that support the tissue they reside in. Adult stem cell maintenance is highly regulated by signals from the surrounding microenvironment referred to as the stem cell niche. A better understanding of this process will have important implications for the fields of both regenerative medicine and cancer biology. Due to the complexity of most niche environments in mammals, we turned to the less complex model organism Drosophila and the well-characterized niche in …

Involuntary Signal-Based Grounding Of Civilian Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) In Civilian Airspace, Keith Conley

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the involuntary signal-based grounding of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in unauthorized air spaces. The technique proposed here will forcibly land unauthorized UAS in a given area in such a way that the UAS will not be harmed, and the pilot cannot stop the landing. The technique will not involuntarily ground authorized drones which will be determined prior to the landing. Unauthorized airspaces include military bases, university campuses, areas affected by a natural disaster, and stadiums for public events. This thesis proposes an early prototype of a hardware-based signal based involuntary grounding technique to handle the problem …

The Quiet Classroom Game With An Indiscriminable Contingency In A High School, Stefanie Schrieber

Master's Theses

The Quiet Classroom Game (QCG) is an interdependent group contingency utilized to decrease classroom noise levels, increase student engagement, and decrease disruptive behaviors in the classroom setting. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of the QCG in three high school classrooms in the Southeastern United States. Classrooms were recruited based on teacher reports of excessive noise and high rates of disruptive behavior. A multiple baseline design with two intervention phases was utilized to examine the effects of the intervention. The first phase was the QCG alone, and the second phase was the QCG with an …

The Thiol Specific Antioxidant (Tsa1) Gene Is Required For Survival In Macrophages And Oxidative Stress Resistance In Histoplasma Capsulatum, Lauren Kennedy

Master's Theses

Histoplasma capsulatum(Hc) is a pathogenic fungus that causes one of the most common invasive fungal respiratory diseases, Histoplasmosis. Histoplasmaundergoes a dimorphic shift from mold to yeast which is crucial to pathogenesis of the organism.

The thiol specific antioxidant gene, Tsa1,is strongly upregulated in the yeast (pathogenic) morphotype. This data led to the hypothesis that this gene plays a role in protecting Hcfrom host mediated oxidative attack. To characterize Tsa1 function, a knockdown strain (tsa1-RNAi) was created by RNAi gene silencing. Expression of Tsa1in the tsa1-RNAistrain was reduced to 10% that …