Digital Commons Network^™

Orthorexia Nervosa: Healthy Eating Or Eating Disorder?, Sonia Mahesh Shah

Masters Theses

A new concept called orthorexia nervosa has recently become more prevalent in scientific journal articles. Orthorexia nervosa has been defined as a fixation on eating only healthy foods, spending hours ruminating on meals, and an obsession with proper nutrition (Bratman, 1997). Several studies have attempted to investigate this concept, establish prevalence rates, and determine whether orthorexia is a disorder. Some studies have found an association between eating disorders, anxiety, and orthorexia as well as posited risk factors such as higher body-mass index, level of education, and sex. The present study examined an individual's scores on measures of orthorexia, anxiety, eating …

Challenges Of Forming A Registered Student Organization For Students With Asperger's Syndrome Or High Functioning Autism, Jennifer L. Smith

Masters Theses

Autism is a complex disorder, affecting a person's ability to socialize, process information, and communicate effectively. Often, persons with autism struggle with sensory system deficits that compound their isolation. As college campuses welcome an increasing number of students with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) or High Functioning Autism (HF A), student affairs professionals must learn to adapt their skills to challenge and support this population. Student affairs professionals instinctively encourage students to form student organizations (RSO) and to be involved on their campuses to ensure enriching learning experiences. It is important for student affairs professionals to be aware of the effects of …

Expanding The Jazz Repertoire: Reimagining Modern Popular Music, Chad Edwin Mathis

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Positive Bedtime Routines On Sleep In Toddlers, Mallory Osterloo

Masters Theses

Establishment of a consistent bedtime routine is often recommended to parents of toddlers. Few studies have investigated the efficacy of implementing a bedtime routine, without additional behavioral intervention. Sixty-one parents and their toddler (ages 18- 48 months, n = 61) were given written information regarding a positive bedtime routine to examine the effects on bedtime-resistance and improving parent mood. This study found that institution of a consistent nightly bedtime routine with non sleep-disordered toddlers may improve some aspects of bedtime resistance (i.e., calling out), increase sleep duration during the night, and improve parent's negative mood. However, there was no change …

Comparison Of Silver Carp Population Demographics In An Impounded And A Free Flowing River, Jason G. Stuck

Masters Theses

The silver carp, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, is an invasive species that has received increased attention due to the proximity of the population in the Illinois River to the economically important Great Lakes and the species ability to dominate the aquatic biomass of an ecosystem. We sought to assess the population demographics of silver carp on two different river ecosystems, the Illinois River and Wabash River. The Illinois River is channelized and dammed for commercial barges, whereas the Wabash River is the longest free flowing river east of the Mississippi River and is still connected to its natural flood plain. Silver carp …

Experimental Feasibility Study Of A Passive Radio Frequency Identification-Based Distributed Beamforming Framework And Radio Frequency Tag Design For Achieving Dynamic Beamforming, Pratim Shah

Masters Theses

"Passive UHF RFID tags works on the principle of backscattering mechanism. In realistic environment, there are multiple objects and tags that create complex, multipath propagation scenarios with numerous null-points, reduced read range and read rate.

In general, the RF frontend of tags could be controlled such that the negative effects of multipath propagation are reduced or even inverted thus implementing a virtual beamforming. The theoretical framework of beamforming in RFID system, using additional tags as virtual antenna arrays, has been discussed before. The presented study evaluates the feasibility of such beamforming in passive RFID systems. Moreover, it synthesizes an appropriate …

Impact Of Interruptions In White Collar Working Environment, Zafar Akhil Khan

Masters Theses

"An interruption is a randomly occurring, discrete event that breaks continuity of cognitive focuses on a primary task and typically requires immediate attention and insists on action. "White collar interruptions" are those that affect knowledge workers in professional, managerial, or administrative positions. Interruptions are often a common occurrence in the white collar workplace.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of timing of an interruption on the overall performance of white collar workers. This study also analyzes the interruption sources (i.e. externally and internally generated) along with effect of different types of interruptions on both demanding and …

In Planta Solid Phase Sampling Devices Used In Delineating Groundwater Contaminant Plumes, Mikhil Kishore Shetty

Masters Theses

"The widespread and indiscriminate use of chlorinated volatile organic compounds as cleaning agents at dry - cleaning facilities, as metal degreasers and solvents in extraction and removal operations has been well documented in the past resulting in releases, while contaminating soil and groundwater. Current techniques to assess chlorinated solvents such as tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) in the subsurface have been time and cost intensive and more importantly invasive to the surrounding environment. New methods use trees as sources of information to access contaminant plume size and plume delineation. The major goal of these research studies has been to save …

Optical Coherence Tomography For Biomedical Imaging, Edward Henry Pienkowski

Masters Theses

"Two projects are presented in this thesis; 1) a hollow core, concentrically symmetric beam splitting Michelson interferometric probe for optical coherence tomography and 2) the imaging of bioactive ceramic scaffolds using swept source optical coherence tomography. The key component of the interferometer is a compact, small diameter probe composed of a collimating lens, hollow core beam splitting tube, and a focusing lens intended to be used for endoscopic imaging. The beam splitting tube was created by sputter coating the distal endface of a finely polished thick wall capillary tube with a highly reflective gold layer. Part of the light travels …

How Should Plastic-Packaging Companies Apply Artificial Proofs And Topics Of Invention To Communicate Sustainability? : A Heuristic Developed On The Basis Of Rhetorical Analysis, Shristy Bashyal

Masters Theses

"This study examines how the ten plastic-packaging companies use artificial proofs and topics of invention to communicate sustainability-related information. The objective of this study was to answer the following research questions:

(i) Do plastic-packaging companies define sustainability on their website?

(ii) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments in these companies' sustainability-related communications?

(iii) What invention strategies should technical marketing communicators use to communicate company's sustainable practices?

To answer these questions, I analyzed the sustainability-related documents available on the websites of the ten companies. On the basis of this analysis, I developed an invention heuristic that can be …

Surfactant Enhanced Oil Recovery By Wettability Alteration In Sandstone Reservoirs, Omar Elmofty

Masters Theses

"Recovering more oil from existing oil reservoirs using enhanced oil recovery methods holds the key for meeting future energy demands. Even though wettability is a cornerstone in oil recovery, few studies have focused on increasing oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs through wettability alteration. The objective of this thesis is to prove that altering the wettability of a sandstone rock to preferentially water-wet condition will reduce the remaining oil saturation and thus increase the percentage of recovered oil.

Two commercial surfactants were selected after studying both the phase behavior and the interfacial properties of 30 surfactants with oil and 1.00% sodium …

Trace Element Accumulation In Rice :Effects Of Soil Arsenic, Irrigation Management, Phosphate Application And Iron Oxide Amendment, Eric Michael Farrow

Masters Theses

A concern is growing over the accumulation of trace contaminants in rice, a plant which has been estimated to supply 50% of the caloric intake to the world's population. Contamination with arsenic (As) and other trace elements have been shown in many areas including the U.S. and rice intake poses a potential risk to human health. This research investigated the accumulation of selected trace elements including arsenic (As), selenium (Se), molybdenum (Mo) and cadmium (Cd) in as many as six rice cultivars and two control soils common to the south central U.S. A field study was completed to evaluate the …

Transport Of A Methamphetamine Surrogate Through Painted Drywall And Accumulation In Insulation, Nishanthini Vijayakumar Shakila

Masters Theses

"Methamphetamine is a drug of abuse in the United States and it is frequently produced in residential "meth labs." During a specific cooking stage called "salting out", a high concentration of methamphetamine is released into the air and can accumulate on and within indoor surfaces. Even after remediation, methamphetamine and other chemicals can be released into the occupied space by diffusion and desorption from insulation and painted drywall. To better understand the emission characteristics of methamphetamine, the diffusion coefficient of n- isopropylbenzylamine (NIBA; an isomer and surrogate for methamphetamine) was measured in latex painted drywall. To quantify the diffusion coefficient, …

Use Of High Volume Fly Ash-Wood Fiber And Polyurea Layers For Blast Mitigation, Anthony Francis Wulfers

Masters Theses

"This project is a continuation of research done by Natalia Carey and John Myers. The first part of Natalia's research was to develop and characterize an e-glass discrete fiber-reinforced polyurea (DFRP) system for infrastructure applications. She then recommended two polyurea systems (A and B) be further examined. These polyurea systems were then applied to plain reinforced concrete and steel fiber reinforced concrete panels (SFRC). Carey found that the SFRC panels sustained less overall damage. For this project SFRC was used as the base layer in combination with the DFRP systems. In addition to the DFRP and SFRC a high-volume fly …

Energy Efficiency In Wastewater Treatment: Standards For Missouri Facilities, Samantha Lauren Markus

Masters Theses

"Traditionally, energy has been used to treat wastewater. As energy costs rise, so does the financial burden on communities with municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Determining energy efficiency of small to mid-sized plants is difficult because these plants are the least likely to have the resources to conduct an energy audit and the most likely to be overlooked in national models due to their small contribution to the national energy burden. Data was gathered via personal contact the WWTPs in Missouri and from this data metrics fro comparison were developed. The data was also compared to the predicted energy use …

In Vivo Evaluation Of Microfibrous Bioactive Borate Glasses For Use In Wound Healing, Yinan Lin

Masters Theses

"This project consisted of two parts focused on in vivo evaluation of microfibrous bioactive borate glasses for use in wound healing. Part one of the project involved subcutaneous implantation of two types of borate glass microfibers and 45S5 glass micro fibers in the dorsum of rats and histologically evaluating the soft tissues at the implant sites at 2 to 4 weeks post surgery. The primary objective was to assess the angiogenic response to the implanted materials. The 13-93B3 and 13-93B3Cu glass microfibers were found to significantly increase the microvascular density in soft tissue, an outcome that suggests these simple and …

Logistics Modeling And Project Management Practices For Contingency Basing, Amanda Jo Gealy

Masters Theses

"Contingency basing is a critical factor in mission success but requires significant logistical and commander support. Designing and constructing a camp that is safe, secure, and self-sustaining can be a difficult task for a Contingency Basing engineering manager. The infrastructure for basic needs such as electricity, fuel, water, food, and waste management is critical and needs to be flexible.

This research focuses on assisting the Contingency Basing engineering manager in designing and constructing a feasible base camp using project management and modeling tools. Measuring scalability and resiliency with in the contingency base was studied as well. The methodology concentrates on …

Physiochemical Characteristics Contributing To The Cytotoxicity Of Transition Metal Oxides, Chi-Heng Wu

Masters Theses

"In the past ten years nanotechnology has not only evolved to play a prominent role in our economy but also increased the concern over potential adverse effects caused by nanomaterials to human health and the environment. Nanotoxicity is to understand the nature and origin of the toxicity imposed by nanomaterials. Studies from our laboratory have shown that nanoparticle induces oxidative stress, perturbs calcium homeostasis, alter gene expression, and produces pro-inflammatory responses. We also identified a trend of toxicity: TiO₂ < Cr₂O₃ < Fe₂O₃ < Mn₂O₃ < NiO < ZnO < CuO. We then asked a question: what are physiochemical factors of transition metal nanoparticles that contributed to this increasing cytotoxicity. In this thesis I investigated the correlation between physicochemical properties and toxicity of the transition metal oxides in the 4th Period of the Periodic Table of Elements. Particle size, BET surface area, point of zero charge, metal dissolution, and degree of surface adsorption of transition metal oxide nanoparticles were measured. There were no increasing trends in both particle size and specific surface area. The point of zero charge showed an increasing trend as TiO₂ < Cr₂O₃ < Fe₂O₃ < NiO < CuO = ZnO < Mn₂O₃. The number of available binding sites of nanoparticle showed an increasing trend as Cr₂O₃ > ZnO > CuO > NiO > Fe₂O₃ > Mn₂O₃ > TiO₂. The degree of adsorption on the surface of nanoparticles showed an increasing trend with atomic …

3d Spatio-Temporal Analysis For Compressive Sensing In Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of The Murine Cardiac Cycle, Brice Aaron Hirst

Masters Theses

"This thesis consists of two major contributions, each of which has been prepared in a conference paper. These papers will be submitted for publication in the SPIE 2013 Medical Imaging Conference and the ASEE 2013 Annual Conference.

The first paper explores a three-dimensional compressive sensing (CS) technique for reducing measurement time in MR imaging of the murine (mouse) cardiac cycle. By randomly undersampling a single 2D slice of a mouse heart at regular time intervals as it expands and contracts through the stages of a heartbeat, a CS reconstruction algorithm can be made to exploit transform sparsity in time as …

Formation Of Amyloid Fibrils By Diblock Peptides, Kunal Mukesh Naik

Masters Theses

"The objective of this study was to identify and then synthesize a series of peptides which were able to form fibrils rich in ß-sheet structure and to study the effect of the presence of surfaces on their formation. We decided to focus our experimental work on a family of peptides containing one "beta-sheet forming amino acid" and one 'alpha-helix forming amino acid'. This selection covers a wide range of hydrophillicites and charges and, by avoiding highly hydrophobic amino acids we can assure that the diblock peptides are soluble in a wide range of concentrations and solvent conditions. Three different diblocks …

Ultrasonic Communications System For Health Monitoring Of Hydrokinetic Turbine Blades, Andrew James Heckman

Masters Theses

"A health monitoring approach is investigated for hydrokinetic turbine blade applications. In-service monitoring is critical due to the difficult environment for blade inspection and the cost of inspection downtime. Composite blade designs provide a medium for embedding sensors into the blades for in-situ health monitoring. The major challenge with in-situ health monitoring is transmission of sensor signals from the remote rotating reference frame of the blade to the system monitoring station. In the presented work, a novel system for relaying in-situ blade health measurements in hydrokinetic systems is described and demonstrated. An ultrasonic communication system is used to transmit health …

Chemical Risk In Early Design, Carlton Ashley Washburn

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to present a methodology to identify risks in the chemical product development process, including fortification of the failure mode taxonomy by including chemical failures. This work will enable comprehensive risk analysis in technology-based products that have a chemical based subsystem, such as those used in the lithography process in the semiconductor industry. This research broadened the failure mode taxonomy by identifying chemical failures from publications in the semiconductor industry. These failures were analyzed to determine the rudimentary failure modes in each case. The newly identified failure modes were added to the failure mode taxonomy. …

Pediatric Nurses' Death Anxiety And Level Of Comfort In Approaching Families Of Dying Children, Elizabeth J. Cook

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine how demographics; bereavement education; personal death anxiety; and frequency of interaction with death and dying; impact the level of comfort pediatric nurses have in approaching families of dying children. Watson’s Theory of Human Caring (n.d.) and the Quality Caring Model (Duffy & Hoskins, 2003) provide the theoretical framework for nursing actions and outcomes. The convenience sample of 165 pediatric nurses comes from a metropolitan children’s hospital population of 425 pediatric nurses. Nurses are recruited by a mass e-mail to their work e-mails with a link to the online survey. Nurses’ comfort level …

Murder With A Penknife: Individual Identity Formation In Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond, Patrick Prominski

Masters Theses

Charles Brockden Brown’s novel Ormond (1799) is in many ways a typical Gothic novel. However, stripping away its Gothic trappings reveals a more complex tale than Brown’s European Gothic inspirations. Brown seems to have been keenly aware of the struggle to form a distinctly American identity in the wake of the Revolution. Reading Ormond as an attempt by Brown to outline a potential American identity reveals a complexity far beyond Ormond’s Gothic kin. Furthermore, examining Brown’s works Alcuin (1798) and “Walstein’s School of History” (1799) alongside Ormond exposes the basis for Brown’s position on women in the new Republic …

Nutrition And Stature: The Residents Of The Island Of Gotland, Sweden Killed In The Battle Of Wisby, 1361, Michelle A. Miller

Masters Theses

This research examines stature in order to assess the socio-economic status of Gotland, an island (and municipality) off the coast of Sweden, before the 1360's. Gotland was known as a wealthy and autonomous peasant republic although it was loosely ruled by the Swedish Crown. In 1361, the Danish Army laid siege on the seaport city of Wisby to obtain its riches. Three days after the battle, the approximately 1800 dead Gotlanders were tossed haphazardly into five common graves. Archaeological excavations took place from 1905-1930 by Bendt Thordeman, among others. The human remains were analyzed in 1937. Osteological analysis in the …

Holy Horror: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Use Of Religion In The Yearly Top Grossing Horror Films From 2000 To 2009, Jason Duane Wheeler

Masters Theses

The yearly top-grossing films from 2000 to 2009 were analyzed to see if correlation exists between overt religious content and box office success. Also, the films were analyzed to see if correlation exists between overt religious content and IMDb.com user ratings. Neither box office success nor IMDb.com user ratings were found to be correlated with over religious content.

You've Got A Friend In Me: An Analysis Of Coworker Friendship Relationships, Ebonee Johnikin

Masters Theses

Relationships between individuals fashion themselves in many settings and on various levels. Friendships are pivotal relationships that significantly contribute to social life, health and well-being, job satisfaction, and workplace interaction. More specifically, coworker friendship relationships are unique in their length, measurement, development, and maintenance as their formation occurs within mutually shared environments outside of family relationships. This study employed a mixed methods procedure to specifically examine these relationships. Three research questions guided the first study in an attempt to find if gender and length of friendship relationships significantly affect strength measurements of the relationship. The second study was guided by …

“But Enough About Me…”: An Investigation Of Young Adults’ Self-Disclosure In Summer Camp Environments, Courtney Hunt

Masters Theses

Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor's social penetration theory has been applied to numerous studies on self-disclosure for various target groups and contexts. While the self-disclosure of adolescents and young adults has been studied by many researchers, the self-disclosure of young adults at summer camp has not previously been studied, nor has it been compared with young adults' self-disclosure to new acquaintances in familiar settings. In this study, the researcher examined young adults' tendencies in self-disclosure while in camp settings to identify if self- disclosure at camp differed from their typical self-disclosure tendencies and if their self- disclosure at summer camp …

Polar Opposites: A Look At The Role Of Biblical Values In Managing Dialectical Tensions In Marriage, Kimberly Dawn Borland

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to determine what role biblical values play in the management of dialectical tensions and the resolution of conflict in Christian marriages. Specifically, the research questions guiding this study were what, if any, dialectical tensions exist in Christian marriages, do dialectical tensions lead to conflict in marriage, how are dialectical tensions and conflict managed in marriage, and what role do biblical values play in the management of dialectical tensions in Christian marriages? Transcripts from interviews of ten Christian married couples were analyzed using a Relational Dialectics lens. Results of analysis revealed that all six …

Creating Home-Plate In America: American Exceptionalism And Baseball As Imperialistic Home In Irwin Shaw's Short Fiction, August Wilson's Fences, And William Kennedy's Ironweed, Nathaniel Ross Valle

Masters Theses

Baseball has often been viewed as unique among the pantheon of American organized sports. Perhaps this view was spawned from baseball's supposedly pastoral origins, but the sport undeniably carries, as Allen Guttmann mentions, a brand as America's pastime (51). For millions of immigrants who entered America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, baseball was the first and primary institution that provided them with a sense of belonging to America. Foreigners ascribed tremendous value to baseball in the nineteenth century, leading the French philosopher Jacques Barzun to comment that no other sport seemed genuinely entwined with a nation's identity (13). Baseball …