Digital Commons Network^™

Law Enforcement Officers' Perceptions Of Their Skill Development And Transfer Of Learning Post-Training, Jane Northup

Open Access Dissertations

This research examined how law enforcement officers who took a course in criminal investigative techniques developed their skill and transferred what was learned post-training. The data was collected using document reviews and interviews. The participants were ten law enforcement officers who expected to use their newly acquired skill after leaving a course in criminal investigations. As a result of the qualitative multiple case study data analysis, four constructs were revealed as aids to the participants in transferring what was learned in the course and further improving their skills. The constructs were supports, experience, reflection, and motivation. The constructs can serve …

Fabrication Of Conductive Hydrogels And Their Application In Neuroprosthetic Intervention And Drug Delivery, Rosa Ghatee

Open Access Dissertations

Electrically-responsive biomaterials such as conductive polymers and conductive hydrogels have piqued the interest of scientists for targeted payload delivery applications in recent years since generating electricity is easy. Conductive composite hydrogels are a specific class of hydrogel that can be designed to not only have mechanical properties similar to skin and soft tissue, but can also have electrical properties comparable to metals and organic semiconductors. These composite hydrogels have been considered for a wide range of technological applications. Conductive hydrogels can be fabricated to ensure that they exhibit: 1) excellent biocompatibility; 2) soft and tunable mechanical properties similar to biological …

Measure Development And Validation Of A Self-Efficacy Scale For Advance Care Planning, Alexandra N. Murray

Open Access Dissertations

A disparity exists between the medical intervention people say they want to receive at end-of-life and the care that is typically delivered. Advance care planning (ACP) involves discussing end-of-life care wishes, including relevant values and cultural beliefs, and documenting these preferences for medical providers and loved ones to minimize unwanted suffering and maximize quality of life. Numerous healthcare institutions have emphasized the importance of doing ACP prior to an imminent medical need, prompting researchers to implement awareness campaigns and interventions in earlier stages of healthcare interactions (e.g., primary care). However, motivation to follow through with ACP varies depending on numerous …

Three-Dimensional Passive‐Source Reverse Time Migration Of Convert Waves: A New Method To Image The Earth’S Discontinuities, Jiahang Li

Open Access Dissertations

At seismic discontinuities in the crust and mantle, part of the compressional-wave energy converts to shear wave, and vice versa. These converted waves have been widely used in receiver function (RF) studies to image discontinuity structures in the Earth. While generally successful, the conventional RF method has its limitations and is suited mostly to flat or gently dipping structures. Among the efforts to overcome the limitations of the conventional RF method is the development of the wave-­‐theory-­‐based, passive-­‐source reverse-­‐time migration (PS-­RTM) for imaging complex seismic discontinuities and scatters. To date, PS-­RTM has been implemented only in 2D in the Cartesian …

Exploring The Incredible 5-Point Scale: Impact On Target Behaviors In Preschool, Beth A. Mcbride Pinheiro

Open Access Dissertations

In the following experimental study, a multiple-probe, single subject design (SSD) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible 5-Point Scale (Buron & Curtis, 2012) as an intervention tool for a preschool aged child with developmental delays (DD). The scale, originally designed for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) but found through noted experiences to have positive effects for individuals with other disabilities as well, is a teaching tool that aids teachers, therapists, and families in encouraging positive social and behavioral development in individuals (Buron & Curtis, 2012). While not an identified evidence-based practice (EBP) itself, the Incredible 5- …

Welcome To The Club: An Archival Inquiry Into The Dewey Laboratory School As Rhetorical Education, Krysten Manke

Open Access Dissertations

This project contributes to scholarship extending the traditional scope of rhetorical education. Specifically, this dissertation recovers educational practices and ideas from records documenting the early years of the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School, an experimental elementary school founded and directed by the American pragmatist John Dewey. Researchers have employed John Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy to gain insights into progressive, student-centered composition and rhetoric instruction. However, the field has neglected Dewey’s actual pedagogy as a source for insights into rhetorical education. Using archival analysis methods, this dissertation recovers educational practices from the Laboratory School that were not recognized as rhetorical during their …

Behavior And Transport Of Organic Acids In The Troposphere Using Observational Data And Models, Victoria Ann Treadaway

Open Access Dissertations

Formic acid (HFo) and acetic acid (HAc) have both natural and anthropogenic sources and a role in the atmospheric processing of carbon. These organic acids also have an increasing importance in setting the acidity of precipitation as nitrate and sulfate concentrations have decreased. This dissertation examines HFo and HAc tropospheric formation and transport in the continental United States using observations and models. Observational data from two field campaigns were collected with the peroxide chemical ionization mass spectrometer (PCIMS) using iodide clusters for both HFo and HAc recorded at mass-to-charge ratios of 173 and 187. The first campaign, the Deep Convective …

Charmed Modernisms: Fantasies Of Sociality And Difference In Twentieth-Century British And American Literature, Kara Watts

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine what mobilized the simultaneous discourses of charm and anti-charm rhetoric in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British and American modernist literature. Charm moves through texts as a trojan horse of sorts, ostensibly supporting normative ideologies of the social order while its use actually imagines sociopolitical transformation. I look to Oscar Wilde’s works to assess how charm possesses an aesthetic magic that bonds persons across normative time and social stratification. Charm becomes an experimental force of social form in the early decades of the twentieth-century. In the works of Gertrude Stein and Sylvia Townsend Warner, charm’s …

Practicing Translingualism: Faculty Conceptions And Practices, Adrienne Jones Daly

Open Access Dissertations

Translingualism (Horner, Lu, Royster, & Trimbur, 2011; Sugiharto, 2015) has received increasing interest in recent years as a way of recognizing and valuing students’ linguistic diversity and of pushing back against language ideology that can disenfranchise minority groups. Composition scholarship has taken on the task of understanding how to implement the translingual paradigm in the writing classroom and has examined the importance of an openness to language difference in reading practices (Gallagher & Noonan, 2017; Horner, 2017) and assessment practices (Kraemer Sohan, 2014; Dryer & Mitchell, 2017) and at translanguaging, or code-meshing, in student writing (Canagarajah, 2011; Lu; Bommarito & …

Attitudes Towards Commercial Sexual Exploitation: An Ecological Systems Approach, Rachel Small

Open Access Dissertations

Sex trafficking is one of the largest and fastest-growing criminal enterprises in the world (Cecchet & Thoburn, 2014), and represents a systematic form of violence against women (Curva, 2012; Ekberg, 2004). Despite growing social awareness and scholarly interest in commercial sexual exploitation (CSE), it remains an underdeveloped research area, and little research has been conducted from a social-psychological standpoint. A comprehensive review of qualitative research was conducted utilizing ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1992) as a framework for identifying major themes in the described experiences of survivors of CSE. In Study 1, emergent themes served as the basis for the development …

Nanomaterials For Sensing, Heating And Applications In Composites And Emulsion Biofouling, Akram Abbasi

Open Access Dissertations

Nanoscale materials often exhibit fascinating physical, chemical, and biological properties which are considerably different from those of their macro-and/or microscale counterparts. These unique characteristics have led to considerable growth over the last decade in nanomaterial-enabled applications in areas such as biomedicine, environmental sensing and remediation, and energy production and storage. In this dissertation, techniques are presented to create new nanomaterials relevant to these areas.

Gold nanostructures are an example of a nanomaterial with great interest in biomedical therapy and sensing applications due to their high chemical and physical stability, ease of synthesis and surface functionalization and their unique optical properties. …

Development And Characterization Of Nanomaterials For Pulmonary Drug Delivery Applications, Elisa A. Torrico Guzman

Open Access Dissertations

Chronic pulmonary diseases such as lung cancer and cystic fibrosis represent significant global health concerns because of their resulting high mortality and low life expectancy. Pulmonary drug delivery has demonstrated advantages over other delivery routes due to the ability to use lower concentrations of drug, reduction in systemic toxicity, and offering better targeting to the area of disease. Effective application of dry powder therapeutics requires the optimization of particle deposition in the lungs and avoidance of physiologic defense mechanisms such as mucosal entrapment, mucociliary clearance, and macrophage engulfment. Evaluation of aerosol pulmonary therapeutic parameters demands accurate in vitro models that …

“There Is No Racism In Cuba”: A Field Study Of The “Post-Race” Rhetoric Of Modern Cuba, Clarissa J. Walker

Open Access Dissertations

Claims of racelessness in present-day Cuba conflate identities and generate public discourse that misalign with the social realities of black Cubans on the island. Decolonial and critical race theorists argue the necessity of racial-identity language: Unconfronted race-based injustice and unproblematized whiteness are among the unaddressed issues concretized by racial democracy rhetoric. The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate the collective narrative of modern-day Cuban interviewees to determine their epistemological knowledge and current uses for the rhetorics of racelessness; further, the study tracks the island’s century-old rhetorical practices designed to sustain erasure of race rhetoric in Cuba. This work …

The Development Of The Self-Efficacy During Exposure – Child (See-C) Measure: A Pilot Study, Mary Kathryn M. Cancilliere

Open Access Dissertations

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders but involves acute discomfort, rendering treatment engagement a challenge. Willingness to engage in exposure is of interest, because a child has to willingly approach a feared stimulus. This preliminary study investigated child engagement during exposures in CBT for anxiety disorders, with the development, validation, and field testing of a measure of self-efficacy over three time points. The measure, Self-Efficacy During Exposure-Child (SEE-C), is a 9-item, self-report measure of self-efficacy during exposure for youth 8-17 years old. A sample of eight reviewers at least 2-years post licensure (M = …

Ultrafast Coherent Spectroscopies And Laser Sources Based On Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Phenomena, Adam D. Card

Open Access Dissertations

This document is composed of four different research efforts. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I present my experimental work on seeded Yb-doped Q-switched fiber laser based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). I began by experimenting with different types of fiber laser cavity configurations in order to find an ideal cavity that would successfully generate the free-running stochastic nonlinear SBS mirror as well as to reinforce the injected light mode. Experimentally, the ideal configuration involved a diffraction grating as the cavity back-mirror in the Littrow configuration with added cavity losses to enhance the SBS effect. Single SBS pulses exhibited …

Exploring The Lived Experience Of Being Pregnant While A College Student, Kristina M. Perrelli

Open Access Dissertations

Almost five million college students in the United States have child dependents (U.S. Department of Education, 2015), but little is known about the experience of pregnancy in college. This qualitative study addressed this gap in scholarship. A feminist intersectional theoretical framework and a feminist interpretive phenomenology methodology were used to explore the experiences of ten women from three institutions of higher education who were currently pregnant or recently pregnant. Most participants identified as low-income or working-class women of color. The phenomenological goal of this study was to learn about each woman’s lived experience of pregnancy in college toward identifying commonalities …

Effect Of Exercise On Cognitive Function In Persons With Dementia: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Southey F. Saul

Open Access Dissertations

As the population ages, the number of people suffering from dementia will rise significantly. Current estimates of total societal cost of dementia exceed $8 billion dollars (US). Epidemiological studies have shown that increased lifetime engagement in exercise reduces cognitive decline and the incidence of dementia in normal older adults. While existing research suggests that lifelong exercise may be preferable, the adoption of exercise at any age and stage of dementia-onset to delay or reverse cognitive decline is worthwhile given the prevalence of sedentary lifestyle, and the increasing proportion of older adults and dementia incidence. Recently, trials have started to explore …

Molecular Chains Under Tension And Torque: Activation Of Statistically Interacting Extension, Twist, And Contact Particles, Aaron C. Meyer

Open Access Dissertations

This study presents a statistical mechanical analysis of single molecular chains at thermal equilibrium subject to tension, torque, and contact with a fluid medium. Polymeric chains are modeled as one-dimensional, microscopic groups of monomers. The methodology treats the response of monomers to tension, torque, and fluid medium contact as sets of statistically interacting quasi-particles. Complex elastic behavior and structural transitions as observed in single-molecule manipulation experiments are successfully described using this methodology. Models pertaining to thermal unbending, linear elasticity, torque-twist characteristics, and structural transformations including effects of cooperativity are presented. Dynamic phenomena associated with fluid-medium contact are considered as an …

School Leader Development: Perceptions Of Skill Development On The Job, Nicole Rose Lyons

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores the ways school leaders develop their leadership skills on the job as they navigate through the increasingly complex demands on them (Drago-Severson, 2009). This study sought to understand how school leaders of varying years of experience perceive their skill development once on the job. Participants in this study are members of an Association of School Principals in New England. Each participant was interviewed, identified their perceived skill development using the Five-Stage Model of Adult Skill Acquisition (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1992) and supplied an artifact that supported their level of skill development. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed. …

Investigation Of Iron Mediated Molecular Transformations And Synthesis Of 2-Amino-Α-Carboline And Its Analogues Relevant For Dna Adduct Formation, Anita Adjoa Oppong

Open Access Dissertations

The discovery of new synthetic methods and routes for making new bonds is one of the highest incentives to an organic chemist. Innovative, efficient, effective, economical and exceptionally environmentally friendly synthetic methods are being continuously discovered. Transition metal catalyzed C-H activation has been unearthed as one of these methods, especially iron catalyzed direct C-H activation. Fundamental to making more discoveries is understanding the mechanism behind a specific reaction. To this end, the mechanism behind iron catalyzed C-H activation was investigated. Results indicate the intermediary transition state for the iron species involves an Fe(I) species but the attempt to synthesize this …

Examining Motivational Interviewing Addressing Adolescent Substance Use During Psychiatric Hospitalization, Danielle Hill

Open Access Dissertations

Adolescent suicide is a serious public health issue, given that it is the second most common cause of death among individuals aged 10 to 24 years in the United States. Substance use is among the major risk factors for continued adolescent suicidal behavior and having a substance use disorder (SUD), has been identified as a risk factor for adolescents being readmitted to acute psychiatric care. However, adolescents often do not receive treatment that adequately addresses substance use in the same setting. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether or not adding a Brief Motivational Interviewing intervention (BMI …

Nanoparticle-Cell Membrane Interactions: Adsorption Kinetics And The Monolayer Response, Nasim Ganji

Open Access Dissertations

The fast-growing production and utilization of nanomaterials in diverse applications will undoubtedly lead to the release of these materials into the environment. As nanomaterials enter the environment, determining their interaction with biological systems is a key aspect to understanding their impact on environmental health and safety. It has been shown that engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) can interact with cell membranes by adhering onto their surface and compromising their integrity, permeability, and function. The interfacial and biophysical forces that drive these processes can be examined using lipid monolayers or bilayers as model cell membranes.

Interfacial interactions between NPs and cell membranes have …

Changing Consumer Experiences And Behaviors & The Role Of The Marketer Within Mobile Environments, Jennifer Bonoff

Open Access Dissertations

Global proliferation of mobile technology and widespread ownership of mobile phones has ushered in a new era of behavior and patterns of consumption when using mobile phones. As a result, the way that we look at mobile consumption and its relation to the marketplace needs to be re-evaluated. As usage behaviors are being transformed, my research offers a better understanding of the consumption behaviors associated with using mobile devices in mobile environments. Through analysis of interview and mobile diary data, using liminality as a sensitizing theoretical framework, themes emerged that can help form a better understanding of how people consume …

Oyster-Associated Microbial Community Dynamics, Rebecca Jean Stevick

Open Access Dissertations

Oysters are keystone species in the coastal environment, providing ecological, economic, and cultural services. A significant ecosystem service is their ability to improve water quality by filtration and denitrification. These ecological functions are made possible by oyster-associated microbes, but may also be threatened by microbial pathogens. This positions the oyster as a model system for the study of marine host-associated microbial diversity and function. However, studies of microbial diversity and function in shellfish are lacking, particularly in response to environmental perturbations. As coastal ecosystems change due to anthropogenic impacts and climate variability, it is important to understand how the oyster …

Detection Of Ions And Small Molecule Toxicants In Aqueous Media Using New Colorimetric And Fluorimetric Methods, Teresa Louise Mako

Open Access Dissertations

Chapter 1 Abstract

Ultrasensitive Detection of Nitrite through Implementation of N-(1-Naphthyl)ethylenediamine-Grafted Cellulose into a Paper-Based Device

[Refer to PDF for graphical portion]

Reported herein is the immobilization of N-(1-naphthyl)ethylenediamine on cellulose via an epichlorohydrin-based covalent attachment and the implementation of the functionalized cellulose into an ultrasensitive, paper-based device for nitrite detection. There is high demand for affordable, robust, sensitive, selective, and user-friendly detection methods for nitrite, a nutrient which is harmful at high concentrations in both marine environments and physiological systems. The reported functionalization procedure resulted in a 12.9-fold higher functionalization density than previously reported procedures using epichlorohydrin, …

Resilience, Coping Strategies, And Internalizing Disorders Among Childhood Maltreatment Victims, Bryana E. Killion

Open Access Dissertations

The relationship between childhood maltreatment and internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and depression, is well-substantiated; however, fewer studies have investigated the pathways leading to this association. Additionally, although rates of internalizing disorders are higher among maltreated individuals than in the general population, less is known about why some maltreated individuals appear resilient, continuing to thrive and display relatively normative development despite these traumatic experiences. Accordingly, research has begun to investigate the interplay between coping and resilience in relation to long-term outcomes following childhood maltreatment. While resilience may influence how a stressor is appraised, coping strategies refer to the cognitive and …

A Wearable, Configurable Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy System For Wireless Neuroimaging, Manob Jyoti Saikia

Open Access Dissertations

Decoding the human's brain functional architecture is the most profound and far-reaching scientific challenges of our time. Currently existing noninvasive brain imaging technologies are constrained by costly, bulky and fixed hardware that preclude imaging of the functioning brain in a wide range of temporal and naturalistic environments.

This doctoral dissertation focused on designing and developing of a new generation portable, wearable, configurable, and wireless functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging system that allows us to monitor and study brain function in a naturalistic environment. The developed optical system maps changes in chromophore concentration, oxy hemoglobin (HbO₂) and deoxyhemoglobin (Hb) …

Product Evaluations As A Factor Of Unknown Attribute Positioning, Brand Trust, Need For Cognition And Message Diagnosticity, Ahmet Hattat

Open Access Dissertations

This research investigates how consumer evaluations are shaped towards products that highlight either presence or absence of attributes that are unknown to consumers. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk online panel and randomly assigned to a variety of experimental conditions in four studies. Results of Study 1 show that, under the low brand trust condition, consumers have more positive evaluations of products with absence positioning than presence positioning. Study 1 results also show that under the high brand trust condition, the disjunctive gap between the absence versus presence positioning closes. In Study 2, these results are extended by utilizing …

Computational Gene Association Based On Relative Species Displacement In Gene And Morphology Trees, Martin D. Hellwig

Open Access Dissertations

While a number of methods exist for gene based fin prediction, these studies are mostly limited to single sites and to binary morphological characters and they are very susceptible to missing data. Here we present GATRS (Gene Association in TRee Space), a novel algorithm than can operate on continuous morphological observations such as fin size and is robust to missing data by operating in gene tree space, analyzing linkages between entire genes and morphological traits. GATRS performs a large number of comparisons between closely related trees which requires a tree distance method that is particularly apt at distinguishing closely related …

Dynamic Behavior Of Composite Structures Subjected To Aggressive Marine Environments: An Experimental And Computational Investigation, Carlos Rafael Javier Mella

Open Access Dissertations

Four studies were completed to investigate the dynamic behavior of composite structures after exposure to marine environments, with a fifth study which deals with the energy absoption effects of foam materials in underwater implosion. These studies evaluated the following: In-air blast response of composite plates after prolonged exposure to saline water; The in-air blast response of composite plates after prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation; Hydrostatic and blast initiated implosion of composite cylinders after exposure to saline water; Underwater blast response of fully submerged composite plates after exposure to saline water; Hydrostatic initiated implosion of metallic cylinders with foam fillers. Two …