Digital Commons Network^™

An Evaluation Of Needleless Intravenous Therapy Devices, Tina Jones

Theses

As the number of persons infected with bloodborne diseases continues to increase, it is paramount that all health care workers exhibit behaviors reflecting unerring compliance with universal precaution.

The majority of occupational exposures to potentially infectious blood and body fluids occur via needlestick injury. The morbidity and mortality from these exposures is significant. A review of research examining work practices mandated by the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard challenges their effectiveness. Principles identified provide insight into why work practice may not prevent needlesticks.

Several industries are developing new products to address this situation, but there are few data on how well these …

Correlations Of Income Level And Employee Tradeoff Preference Between Wages And Fringe Benefits, Perry G. Hirtz

Theses

This thesis seeks to determine if a relationship exits between income level and employee preferences for various benefits as measured against a form of wage trade- off value utilizing Maslow's theory of hierarchy of needs as a basis.

The ever increasing cost of providing benefits makes it important for organizations to formulate benefit packages that maximize their value to employees as part of the overall compensation package . Research which adds to the understanding of how benefits are valued by employees can aid in the formulation of successful and efficient compensation structures.

A limited amount of research has been conducted …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Locus Of Control And Teen Pregnancy, Donra J. Yochum

Theses

The relationship between teenage pregnancy and locus of control was explored. Participants included 60 girls between the ages of 14 and 18. Thirty of these girls had given birth to a child in high school; the other 30 had not. The participants completed Levenson's IPC Locus of Control test. It was predicted that the re would be no relationship between the two groups and their locus of control . Belief in Internal Control, belief in Powerful Others, and belief in control by Chance were explored . It was found that there was no significant relationship between these factors and teenage …

Perceptions Of A Moment, Irene G. Brozyna

Theses

The works of art in my graduate exhibition reflect historical and personal influences on my life. The show includes 40 oil paintings (predominately oil pastels) and five watercolors. The works presented are divided into several categories: Genre paintings, Impressionistic paintings, the Boston Series, Figure paintings , Series in White, Still Lifes, the Luminist group, and Watercolors.

The inspirations for the paintings are my personal life experiences and, in some cases, the pieces represent my heritage. Renditions are derived from many styles and artists . However, Luminists, Romanticists and Impressionists are the greatest influences. The show will hang in the Hendren …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Coping Effectiveness In Stepmothers And The Length Of Their Marriage, Bonnie M. Rudden

Theses

The relationship between coping effectiveness of step-parenting and length of marriage was examined for 30 stepmothers. Participants included stepmothers in St. Louis and St. Louis County who volunteered to complete the Coping Response Inventory and a cover/survey letter that contained demographic questions. Where it was predicted that there would be no relationship between coping effectiveness and length of marriage, it was found that length of time remarried does affect coping effectiveness in stepmothers in that the type of coping style used changes with length of time remarried.

Geriatric Care Management And The Development Of A Long-Term Care Facilities Database, Patricia J. Iverson

Theses

The purpose of this project was to investigate the professional field of geriatric care management. Information was obtained by reviewing the needs of the caregiver and the aging adult and the dynamics of the relationship which exists between them, by exploring the reasons why this relationship sometimes inhibits the caregiver from pursuing the services that are needed, and by examining the role of the geriatric care manager in helping the caregiver and aging adult sort through the fragmented web of services in order to match the caregiver and the aging adult with the appropriate services.

Locating and selecting appropriate services …

A Human Resource Manual For Registered Nurse Managers Working In Non-Hospital Settings, Jane Elizabeth Gausch

Theses

"Becoming a successful manager in a health care agency is, for most new managers, an awesome and extremely challenging goal. Most new managers have little idea of the complexities of a management position and of the difficulties they will encounter" (Dajvidhaizar 65). Ever more, nurses are finding employment opportunities in small business environments and without the services of the human resource management department that is available to their counterparts in traditional hospital settings. Due to changes in the way health-care is being delivered, there is a pressing need for today's nurse manager to be better prepared than in the past. …

Court Decisions Defining The Americans With Disabilities Act For Businesses, Peggy R. Shaw

Theses

This thesis documents how the impact of court decisions will define the terms of The Americans With Disabilities Act.

Research on The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) shows the lack of clearly defined terms in the regulations. Terms like essential functions, reasonable accommodation, and undue hardship may have different meanings for each individual business.

The Americans With Disabilities Act is not a group rights piece of legislation. Individuals having a like disability may have dissimilar needs of accommodation. All muscular dystrophy patients, for example, do not have like symptoms or progression of the disease. At different stages each individual will …

Electronic Commerce And The Communication Of Information, Donna Carroll Bigelow

Theses

Electronic Commerce is a relatively new phenomenon in today's market place. Commerce or the buying and selling of goods and services can take many forms. In the early years of computerization. commercial activities revolved around the exchange of financial data between businesses and banks (Electronic Funds Transfer). Then businesses began exploring the transfer of data in an electronic format between individual businesses in the form of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Over time much broader types of business transactions began occurring. Data exchange included inventory items, marketing. sales materials, product design. Items which were sent via mail took on an electronic …

Business And Education: A Partnership Worth Investment, Keith W. Harkins

Theses

This thesis will focus on the potential benefits of a collaboration between business and education in an effort to prepare today's youth for entry into the workforce.

The number of large companies that are becoming involved with education is steadily increasing. Many business leaders have come to realize that business has the ability to provide human and material resources that would enable schools to significantly improve the education students receive.

Student internships may provide a method for both business and education to benefit from such partnerships.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate research regarding partnerships between business …

Is One Parent Rating Scale Enough: A Comparison Of Three Adhd Parent Rating Scales, Nicole Lesiak

Theses

This study examined the accuracy of three parent rating scales in identifying Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children who had been diagnosed previously with this disorder. If the assumption is made that all previous diagnoses were accurate, then all diagnoses on all scales should be positive. The rating scales selected were The Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scales Second Edition - Home Version (ADDES) (1995), Conners' Abbreviated Symptom Questionnaire, Parent Version (ASQ-P) (1990), and the Revised Home Situations Questionnaire (HSQ-R) (1990). Subjects consisted of parents of fifty elementary age children. Results indicated that none of the three scales correctly indicated …

The Influences Of Consumer Attitudes And Perceptions About Pesticides And Produce Quality On Technology Transfer, William Mclaren Pool

Theses

Consumers have expressed concern about the human health and environmental consequences resulting from the use of agrichemicals by growers to produce food. This paper reports the results of a 1995 survey of consumer attitudes and perceptions about pesticides and fresh fruit and vegetable quality. While there is widespread concern about the human health hazards presented by pesticide residues in food at the time of consumption, this survey population reports greater consumer concern about environmental contamination from agrichemical use. Once familiar with the process of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), the respondents of this survey indicate they would prefer to purchase fruits …

Acidic Marine Biotoxins Implicated In Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning, Eoin P. Carmody

Theses

An okadaic acid (OA) etiology has been demonstrated for most outbreaks of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) in Europe, An isomer of OA, dinophysistoxin-2 (DTX-2), has recently been found in Irish waters and, in 1991 and 1994, was the major toxin during prolonged infestations in cultivated mussels (Mytilus edulis) along the south-west coast of Ireland.

The OA class of DSP toxins have been analysed by HPLC using modified versions of three established fluorescent derivatisation methods. A ‘dual tag’ method for the confirmation of specific toxins has also been developed.

Survey work has been carried out over the past four years on …

Cross-Correlation: A Contrast Method For Studying Fetal Cardiovascular Time Series, Stacy Kalisz

Theses

Congenital cardiac malformations are a serious health concern affecting the development of the fetal cardiovascular system. Identification of a fetus with abnormalities early in pregnancy, 10-20 weeks gestation, could assist in clinical diagnosis and be a great asset in health care. This thesis is a continuation of, and works in concert with, other research efforts conducted at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) aimed at characterizing fetal cardiovascular health through applied signal processing. This thesis utilizes cross-correlation as a technique for analyzing the cyclic variations and assessing commonalities of individual parts of fetal umbilical artery time series data. These time series …

Development Of A Synthetic Polymer Film As A Replacement For Cellophane, Sam Chebeir

Theses

This study evaluates the feasibility of Styrene-Butadiene, also known as SBS copolymers, as an excellent substitute for cellophane in packaging hard candy. Packaging hard candy presents an excellent potential for the plastics industry. The study will consider the problems inherently existent with cellophane, be they environmental, of a use of resources nature, or simply the physical properties. The methodology followed describes the various stages that led to the development of a product code named TA-1010, a blend of SBS copolymer and other polymers. This revolutionary product simulates the excellent packaging properties of cellophane, but without the above mentioned disadvantages. Furthermore, …

A Simulation Environment For Cdma Wireless Communication Systems In Awgn Channels, Muzaffer Kanaan

Theses

The goal of this work is the development of a, wireless communication system simulator. The simulator has been developed primarily to aid in the studies of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital cellular systems. We begin by introducing the fundamentals of spread spectrum communications and the motivation for this work. We then take a detailed look at CDMA systems and their structure. We then verify the accuracy of the simulator by using it to simulate some familiar system scenarios. We end this work by presenting conclusions and suggestions for further work.

Student Satisfaction With A Community College's Counseling Services: Gender And Race Differences, Carla Denise Noto

Theses

Forty-five community college students (8 males and 37 females) were surveyed to determine their level of satisfaction with counseling services offered at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley. The three areas of counseling explored were academic counseling, career counseling, and personal counseling. Results indicated that neither the gender of the student n or the ethnic group the student belonged to related to the level of satisfaction he/she received from any of the three areas of counseling. Academic counseling was found to have the highest satisfaction rankings and Personal counseling was found to have the lowest. ii

Design And Performance Evaluation Of A Modular Imaging Spectrometer Instrument, Xiaofan Feng

Theses

This thesis involved the design and testing of a modular imaging spectrometer instrument (MISI), which can provide hyperspectral image data at a very high ground resolution. The instrument can serve as an airborne laboratory for many remote sensing applications. The optical/mechanical/electrical system was designed using a system engineering approach with emphasis on system and sub-system modulation transfer function (MTF) analysis. Extensive modeling was used to predict the system performance and to aid the design trade process. Many sensor testing methodologies were developed to evaluate the performance of this electro-optical imaging system. The system engineering approach, the modeling tools developed, and …

Non-Steady Time Series Analysis In The Developing Embryo, Daniel Kettles

Theses

Cardiovascular diseases with origins in early fetal development are a serious health concern in the United States. Presently, there are few, if any, diagnostic tools available for doctors to determine the overall health of the early fetal cardiovascular system in a non-invasive manner. This thesis is a step toward the development of a non-invasive system for the detection of cardiovascular malformations in the early human fetus. The computer algorithms presented in this work dovetail with other algorithms to represent embryonic /fetal cardiovascular output and variability data in the frequency domain. Algorithms in this thesis allow the capability to edit external …

Safer Sex, Fay Pattee

Theses

None provided.

Butler Center : A Case For The Adaptive Reuse Of Industrial Buildings, Lori J. Ryder

Theses

This thesis is a study of the viability of adaptive reuse principles through a comparison between the rehabilitation of the industrial city of Lowell, Massachusetts and the former American Hard Rubber Company building in Butler, New Jersey. Historical, social, and architectural profiles of both sites were made to support my feasibility study and designs for the complex at Butler. The site at Lowell was analyzed as a successful model of an adaptive reuse project to measure the proposals for Butler.

Butler's site has been reused, but this study found it to be largely deficient in its adherence to accepted adaptive …

Investigation Into Fracture Behavior And Longevity Of Pneumatically Fractured Fine-Grained Formations, Heathe Ann Hall

Theses

This study investigates volume changes in fine-grained soil formations and their effect on pneumatically induced fractures. Pneumatic fracturing is an enhancement technology for in situ remediation of hazardous waste sites, which increases the formation permeability by creating fractures. A number of formation properties and environmental conditions which affect fracture aperture were identified in this study.

Laboratory experiments were performed with control devices to investigate idealized fracture flow under linear and radial flow geometries. These tests exhibited cubic law behavior, and gas compressibility was seen as a measurable effect. A horizontal infiltrometer device was successfully developed to induce and control volume …

The Effect Of Liquid Gallium On Plastics, Vivek P. Dwivedi

Theses

As part of a joint effort by Cornell University and NJIT to find a replacement for mercury as a pressuring medium for P-V-T devices, we investigated the effect of liquid gallium on four thermoplastics: two semi-crystalline ( high density polyethylene and polypropylene ) and two amorphous ( polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate ). Test specimens were covered with liquid gallium and held in vacuum oven at temperatures close to their melting points for up to two weeks. Change in weight after treatment with gallium was measured, along with tensile testing and particle analysis using dispersion x-ray spectroscopy. The results are compared with …

Congestion Management Systems Development And Implementation : Four Case Studies, Arlene Rose-Marie Willis

Theses

To address concerns of poor air quality, congested highways and the need to manage and plan for transportation within budgetary constraints, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) mandated the development and implementation of a Congestion Management System (CMS). Primarily, a CMS will fuel transportation decision making with information on system performance and alternate strategies to alleviate congestion and enhance mobility. Efforts through ISTEA are expected to produce a more efficient American transportation system -- this thesis takes a look at the preparatory activities.

It is based on a federally funded project with metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in …

Academy Retzor: Teaching Social Skills Through Computers, Cynthia Stilwill

Theses

None provided.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Deborah Nowak

Theses

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is one of many neuromuscular diseases affect ing motor neurons and skeletal muscles. This disorder causes deterioration of the motor neurons (specifically the Anterior Horn Cells of the spinal cord). These motor neurons that control muscles are selectively destroyed resulting in varying degrees of atrophy, weakness and paralysis of the trunk and limb muscles. In this first half of the thesis report, various aspects of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, including history, anatomy/ physiology, diagnosis, theories of its function, types, characteristics, heredity, research, and treatment will be examined. A second portion of this report focuses upon both illustration …

The History Of Neurosurgery, Savitha Viswanathan

Theses

None provided.

The Introduction Of Color And Art Into A Division For Youth Facility Of The New York State Prison System, Joan Janas Schwamlein

Theses

None provided.

Seven Panels On Preservation: Ruminations Of A One-Eyed Fat Man, Phillip Austin

Theses

None provided.

A Personal Mobile Computer (A Notebook Computer Without A Keyboard), Kwan-Sik Cho

Theses

None provided.