Digital Commons Network^™

Abrasion Resistant Concrete Mix Design For Cold Climates, Diane Mariah Murph

Masters Theses

“Studded tire usage in Alaska contributes to rutting damage on pavements resulting in high maintenance costs and safety issues. In this study, binary, ternary, and quaternary highly-abrasion resistant concrete mix designs using supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) were developed. The properties of fresh concrete and mechanical, and durability properties of hardened concrete for these mix designs were then tested to determine an optimum highly-abrasion resistant concrete mixture which could be placed in cold climates to reduce rutting damage. SCMs used included silica fume, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and type F fly ash. Tests including workability, air content, drying shrinkage, compressive …

Soy- Based Flexographic Ink For Linerboard Printing, Rahul Ramchandra Pingale

Masters Theses

Many printing inks use volatile solvents in the formulation, which are hazardous to the environment from emission of VOC’s and at the same time, synthetic resins in these inks are not biodegradable. These problems with the fluctuating and rising price of petroleum are main reasons to look for new resources for making more environmentally friendly printing inks. The majority of the commercially available water based inks are formulated based on using acrylic resins, synthetic colorants, solvents/water and additives, which are the common main components for formulating printing inks. In this research, soy proteins were tested for their suitability to partially …

Reclaiming A Biblical Sexual Ethic: How A Renewed Understanding Of The Doctrine Of The Image Of God Is An Important Response To The Ideas Of The Sexual Revolution And The Self-Esteem Movement, Sarah Stewart

Masters Theses

Sexual ethics have become a large source of debate in modern America and will continue as American sexual mores become more progressive. The church in America also faces the issue of how to respond to issues caused by changes in American sexual ethics. These changes, however, have not been greatly beneficial to society. While debates about sexual ethics are not new, the debate has reemerged in modern society, primarily as the result of two movements, the Sexual Revolution and the Self-esteem Movement. Both of these movements shifted belief in human value away from inherent value, as a result of humans …

Church Life Cycle, Benjamin Boatman

Masters Theses

With thousands of American churches permanently closing their doors each year, it is important to take a closer look at the churches that are in desperate need for renewal. The Body of Christ is eternal, but each church will individually display the life cycle that is observed in the human body. With so many churches in desperate need, all attempts must be made to provide suggestions that may result in their ability to continue on with the mission of Christ. The purpose of this research study is to examine the body of Christ as to its scriptural background, compare the …

The Relationship Between Neuroticism, Self-Esteem, And Disordered Eating Attitudes: Examining The Health At Every Size Theory, Liana Cho

Masters Theses

Background. In the modern day treatment of overweight/obesity, conflicting recommendations regarding treatment have been released by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and advocates of the Health at Every Size (HAES) movement. While the AND have indicated their support for self-monitoring practices, such as keeping a food diary or tracking calories, HAES advocates have claimed that these restrictive practices may result in increased disordered eating tendencies and poor self-esteem.

Subjects. The participants for this study included 410 students at Grand Valley State University. Almost 80% of participants were female, and just over 85% of participants identified as white. …

Analysis Of Growth And Prevalence Of Malnutrition During Total Parenteral Nutrition Weaning: A Methodological Demonstration, Lauren Ashley Kane

Masters Theses

Background: Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) is a life-saving intervention which provides nutrition to premature infants with immature gut functioning. Though essential for nutrition provision in the first days of life, TPN is not without risk. Therefore, it is important to introduce feedings into the gut and to wean off TPN when able. During this weaning phase, calorie and protein deficits have been observed to occur. Very few studies have investigated TPN weaning periods, and there are no studies on malnutrition associated with the TPN weaning period in premature infants.

Methods: This study employed a retrospective chart review, with medical …

Limited By Design: Expanding The Boundaries Of Schooling Policies From Demanded Passivity To Transformative Practice, Natalia T. Carvalho-Pinto

Masters Theses

Schooling is often imagined as the great equalizer and the primary venue towards personal and collective liberation. However, hegemonic ideals and practices have limited the ability for educators to craft and utilize policy in a way that best benefits their students. In this thesis, I utilize the state of Michigan’s Common Core curriculum to examine the limits beyond policy and practice. Specifically, I argue that the demands for student passivity and institutional measurable as signs of success, prohibit student growth. Throughout the document, I describe hope in the ability to instill a variety of transformative educational theories and practices that …

The Design, Analysis, Development, And Test Of A High-Energy Trauma Prevention Safety Device, Samuel B. Schaefer

Masters Theses

The continued development of modern-day vehicles has allowed innovators to shape their design to meet the consumer’s requirements. Vehicles have become faster and larger to accommodate more passengers and their belongings. The increased popularity of Light Trucks or Vans (LTVs) and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) elevated their sales to approximately 50% of all vehicles sold in the United States by 1999 [1]. These advancements have created a high-energy world, which poses a serious threat to the ever-growing population. Unprotected pedestrians come in all too frequent contact with these vehicles creating the potential for high-energy blunt force trauma. This thesis aims …

Associational Republicanism: Antifederalism In Context, 1790 - 1830, Ashley Jordan

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Spark Of Recovery: Artistic Methods That Generate Dialogue And Reduce Stigma In Families Affected By Mood Disorders, Adara Jensen

Masters Theses

Mood disorders, such as major depression and bipolar disorder negatively affect family dynamics, often resulting in trauma, antipathy, mistrust, and the breakdown in communication between the individual suffering from mood disorder and members of his or her family. The impact of mood disorder on family members impedes recovery for the person suffering from the disorder as well as the health and well-being of the family as a whole. Even emotionally healthy families suffer from the subsequent pain, trauma, isolation, and stigma. The project proposes a solution to broken or inhibited family communication: the engagement of all family members in healing …

The Role Of Music In Worship Among Deaf Culture Christianity, Mallory Ruth Dunn

Masters Theses

Throughout the Word of God, we are called to worship our Creator through music. "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn--shout for joy before the Lord, the King" (Psalm 98: 4-6 [NIV]). It has been said that music is a universal language: but all cultures use it differently and therefore it is not a universal language but a universal phenomenon. What about the individual who cannot hear the music or …

Finding Identity Through Irish Music In The Appalachian Mountains, Marina Delores Rayl

Masters Theses

The Appalachian Mountains are filled with remnants of Scot-Irish heritage. The music found in this region includes bluegrass, Old-time, and country music, all created from the blending of Scottish and Irish traditional music with other ethnic sounds. Despite these music variations, traditional Irish music has remained consistent in its original form in the mountain region. This concept is supported by the popularity of two key events occurring in both the northern and southern sections of the Appalachians. Through fieldwork and personal interviews, the rationales of those who participated were discovered. The research brought to light three people sub-groups revealing the …

The Effect Of Patterned Sensory Enhancement On Balance And Ambulation In Persons Diagnosed With Parkinson’S Disease, Brittany Barko

Masters Theses

One rehabilitation protocol effective in delaying the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is Lee Silverman Voice Training BIG (LSVT BIG), comprising pre-gait exercises and gait training. This study seeks to determine if combining Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE), a music therapy intervention, with LSVT BIG will improve quality of movement. During physical therapy sessions with three participants, a music therapist adapted the PSE stimuli to support each patient’s motor needs, which were then recorded on CD and sent with patients to exercise with at home. Results showed improved balance and ambulation comparing pre- and post- measures of the BERG balance scale …

The Determinants Of Affect, Emotional Arousal, And Autobiographical Memories On Music-Evoked Nostalgia, Alycia Sterenberg

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to further explore both person – level and context – level constructs established by Barrett et al. (2010) in relation to music-evoked nostalgia. This study also measures the strength of the relationship between self-reported arousal levels and electrodermal activity (EDA) as well as if they are good predictors of nostalgia. Methods include listening to personalized playlists to elicit feelings of nostalgia while electrodermal activity collects changes in arousal. Participants then answer questions of song familiarity, pleasure, arousal, and autobiographical salience to gather context – level constructs. Results indicate that both person – level and …

The Passive Effects Of Full-Gateway, In-Street Signs On Vehicular Speed, De'lon Dixon

Masters Theses

Reducing motorist’s speed when approaching crosswalks is an important goal in reducing the number of collision between motorist and pedestrian in crosswalks. The current study addresses this goal. The effect of gateway installation of in-street signs (one in-street sign installed between the two travel lanes in each direction and one on both edges of the roadway in each direction) on vehicle speed was evaluated on nine roads. The results demonstrated that the Gateway in-street sign treatment produced large speed reductions as vehicles approached the crosswalk and at the crosswalk. The average speed reduction was 3.8 mph at the crosswalk and …

Fat Bias And Culture Shock: Psychosocial Adjustments In Post-Obesity Life, Scott Thomas Macpherson

Masters Theses

Obesity in the United States is unprecedented levels, affecting adults and children as well. As our society has become for sedentary since industrialization, the nation has become fatter. The escalating rate of obesity has had a negative effect on the health of millions of Americans. Health problems such as metabolic disorders and other comorbidities, for instance, hypertension, Type II diabetes, heart disease, weight related cancers etc., (Mozaffarian and Benjamin 2013). The collective cost of obesity is to the nation is staggering, weighing in at $270 billion a year, childhood obesity costs nearly $15 billion alone (Hammond and Levine 2010). This …

Enabling Robust Distributed Real-Time Hybrid Simulation Method And Expanding Its Applications In Floating Wind Turbine Systems, Mehmet Cinar

Masters Theses

Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), which integrates physical experiment and numerical simulation, plays an essential role in understanding the time-dependent behavior of structures when subject to hazardous loadings. On the other hand, RTHS might not yield accurate results for complex structural systems due to experimental and computational limitations. Distributed real-time hybrid simulation (dRTHS), which takes the advantage of distributed laboratory facilities using network communications, was proposed and proven to address some limitations in RTHS. During dRTHS, Internet delay due to the network communication is added to the actuator delay in RTHS, which may cause inaccurate results or even unstable tests. To …

Stereotypic Repetitive Hand Flapping Movement Detector Children With Autism, Subodh Ashok Bansode

Masters Theses

The prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased at a significant rate in recent years, especially in developed nations such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Extensive research is being carried out to study the behavioral characteristics of the disease. Children affected with autism tend to exhibit a spectrum of symptoms depending on the severity of the disease. These behaviors are primarily repetitive, self-stimulatory, and stereotypic behaviors such as hand flapping (i.e., repeatedly shaking their hands), body rocking (i.e., swaying their body back and forth), drumming, walking around in a confined space, and walking with shortened steps …

Exploring The Impact Of Pretrained Bidirectional Language Models On Protein Secondary Structure Prediction, Dillon G. Daudert

Masters Theses

Protein secondary structure prediction (PSSP) involves determining the local conformations of the peptide backbone in a folded protein, and is often the first step in resolving a protein's global folded structure. Accurate structure prediction has important implications for understanding protein function and de novo protein design, with progress in recent years being driven by the application of deep learning methods such as convolutional and recurrent neural networks. Language models pretrained on large text corpora have been shown to learn useful representations for feature extraction and transfer learning across problem domains in natural language processing, most notably in instances where the …

Growing A Healthy Childhood: The Value Of Cultivating Young Minds Through Gardening Using Design, Sarah Hoyt

Masters Theses

This research analyzes the effects of introducing gardening as an educational and developmental tool in early childhood. Research includes an in-depth exploration of the benefits of gardening regarding physical, mental, and social health. Furthermore, the research studies why parents do not already implement gardening. The thesis delves into the power that artwork can have as a call to action. The thesis concludes with a visual solution that is intended to draw out a desire for parents of young children to introduce gardening in their home.

Technology And The Printed Book: Pursuing A Holistic Human Experience With A Sacred Text, Rachel Dugan

Masters Theses

There exists a sort of gravitas attached to a book that is printed and bound by hand that gets lost on the production line. When holding a hand-printed (or hand-written), hand-bound codex next to a mass-produced book, there is between the two a visible and tactile difference in quality and harmony between form and content. With the modern technological advancements now available, how can the craftsmanship and beauty — the gravitas — evident in books of the past be replicated in a way that is aesthetically pleasing, harmonious in message, and reflective of the present time? As objects, books are …

Equals: Redefining The Way Graphic Design And Narrative Film Combine To Create Visual Metaphor, Kevin Harris

Masters Theses

This paper provides a methodology for combining Graphic Design and Narrative Film together in a way that creates a type of visual metaphor that is central to the story and characters of the film. Because visual mediums of communication are so intrinsically tied to verbal means of communication, this methodology is grounded in the linguistic study of poetry and metaphor. Thus, the concept of metaphor will be analyzed thoroughly in language, poetry, fine arts, and modern arts. The ways in which metaphor is created visually through the art forms of graphic design and narrative film will be of upmost interest …

A Structural And Stratigraphic Study Of The A-2 Carbonate In Southwest Michigan And Reservoir Characterization Of An A-2 Carbonate Gas Storage Field, Clayton Joupperi

Masters Theses

The Overisel and Salem gas storage fields of southwest Michigan annually store 34 Bcf of natural working gas in the upper dolomitized portion of the Silurian A-2 Carbonate. Porosity and permeability in these fields is thought to be enhanced by fracturing and dolomitization associated with the dissolution and collapse of underlying salt units. This study utilizes wire-line logs from 383 wells to explore the structural and stratigraphic controls on the deposition and diagenesis of the A-2 Carbonate in southwest Michigan. Core and thin sections from 4 wells serve as the primary data for investigating the depositional and diagenetic history of …

Music Therapy: Effects On Children Diagnosed With Asd, Jennifer Lynn Mahr

Masters Theses

This study was conducted to focus on the use of music therapy as a treatment to serve people of special needs, including individuals with ASD. The research seeks to inform parents/students of children with ASD that music therapy could be the avenue in which their children/students are treated in certain areas. The information in this research can assist parents with the knowledge and understanding they need relating to music therapy in order for their child to overcome weaknesses associated with ASD. Similarly, music teachers can gain further insight into the world of music therapy to encourage students who struggle in …

Tearing The Guts Out Of The Wehrmacht: A Re-Examination Of The Russo-German War, Randall Wells, Jr.

Masters Theses

Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Hitler’s plan to annihilate Germany’s Eastern neighbor and populate the vast Russian expanse with his own people was as ambitious as it was adventuristic. Although it began successful, the Russo-German War quickly devolved into a quagmire as Russian troops outfought their German opponent and beat them back to Berlin. Contrary to prevailing historiography, the Wehrmacht’s loss on the Eastern Front cannot be solely attributed to a failure to equip German troops with proper winter clothing, an inadequate logistics network or Hitler’s interference in military decisions. For an army that had …

Sinister Subshade: The Revival Of The Ku Klux Klan In Modern America, Taylor Ashton Spicer

Masters Theses

Through the implementation of qualitative analysis this study purposes to discover if there exists possible correlation between President Trump’s assent to power and the increasing legitimacy of the Ku Klux Klan. Using Ernest Bormann’s (1972) Fantasy Theme Criticism, the Knights Party official website and the Donald J. Trump official website are systematically analyzed for dramatis personae (character), setting and action. The rhetorical visions compiled from each analysis are compared employing Ernest Bormann’s (1980) Symbolic Convergence Theory. Resulting analysis suggests little to no correlation between the two movements. The two websites provide very different rhetorical visions with no overlap. The work …

The Origins And Uses Of The Three-Fifths Clause Related To Slavery And Taxation, William F. Hughes

Masters Theses

The Three-fifths clause of the 1787 U.S. Constitution is noted for having a role in perpetuating racial injustices of America’s early slave culture, solidifying the document as pro-slavery in design and practice. This thesis, however, examines the ubiquitous application of the three-fifths ratio as used in ancient societies, medieval governments, and colonial America. Being associated with proportions of scale, this understanding of the three-fifths formula is essential in supporting the intent of the Constitutional framers to create a proportional based system of government that encompassed citizenship, representation, and taxation as related to production theory. The empirical methodology used in this …

C.S. Lewis And The True Myth: A Reconciliation Of Theology, Philosophy, And Mythology, Courage Lowrance

Masters Theses

C.S. Lewis was both a student of pagan philosophy and mythology and a Christian. He never was divided between these two pursuits in his life, though he gave the latter its proper priority. What allowed Lewis to keep this balance was his idea of the gospel as the True Myth, an idea that helped lead to his conversion and remained at the core of his thinking throughout his life. By this idea of True Myth, Lewis was able to not only unite the pagan myths to Christian truth, but also the rest of human thought as well. Thus, in order …

The New England Narrative, Cynnamon C. Mathis

Masters Theses

Though equally successful, noteworthy, inspiring, and crucial as the contributions to American Independence made by New England women patriots, the contributions made by North Carolinian women patriots are excluded from the history of America’s founding as a direct result of sectional nationalism.

Soteriology In Mainstream Monotheistic Religions: The Messiah Conundrum, Jay Fox

Masters Theses

For the promotion of the Gospel, this study seeks to examine Soteriology in Mainstream Monotheistic Religions: The Messiah Conundrum. This decidedly charged topic critically researches the philosophy of salvation doctrine, or soteriology, within major monotheistic religions. The highlighted problem is the Messiah conundrum, with critical research on each doctrine for epistemological significance of a savior and their beliefs surrounding salvation. This mystery of where, or who humans turn to for salvation, is vitally important when considering the principle of sufficient reason in today’s hermeneutic and apologetic circles. The purpose fueling this thesis is the resolute documenting of beliefs of major …