Digital Commons Network^™

Lactate Threshold: The Comparison Of Running On A Land Treadmill Versus Head-Out Water Immersion Treadmill Running, Stephanie Alyce Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction. Exercise and head-out water immersion (HOI) have consistently reported an increase in central blood volume associated with the cephalad shift in blood volume. This causes an increase in left ventricular end diastolic volume and greater stroke volume during exercise compared to exercise in air at similar metabolic costs. In contrast, the metabolic response, specifically, blood lactate accumulation during exercise combined with HOI has yielded varying results depending on the mode of exercise. At present it appears that during exercise at similar metabolic costs, cycle ergometry exercise augments plasma lactate over treadmill running while HOI reduces the plasma lactate response …

Are Public Libraries In New Jersey Providing Early Literacy Programs For Children Age Birth To 23 Months Based On The Pla "Every Child Ready To Read @ Your Library" Program?, Beverly C. Jacob

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if public libraries in New Jersey provide early literacy programs for children age birth to 23 months based on PLA "Every Child Ready To Read @ your library" program. Questionnaires were provided electronically to a sample of 52 public children's librarians in New Jersey.

A total of 15 responses were received. When asked if the respondents used the Early Literacy Every Child Ready To Read birth to 23 months program materials sent to them by the State Library in 2005, 33% used some of the aspects of the workshop outline and 33% …

How Do Elementary School Boys Characterize Their Reading Favorites And Behaviors?, Brenda J. Koonce

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a boy crisis in our schools. It also looked at what the boys are interested in and what are they reading. The study investigated the latest research on young boys struggling to read, and their comparison to young girls.

The study provided evidence of their favorite books and authors. It furnished information on the boys' computer and television time. The study showed how the boys selected books and where they located new books. Percentages were presented about their personal libraries.

Overall, the study investigated how to make classrooms and …

Heritage Braided, Akiko B. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The awareness of marginality, oppression, and hierarchy at an early age directly influences the creation of work specific to my identity as a woman of color. Born and raised on an island in the Pacific Ocean, I was aware of my sense of location and space relative to the world. The vast ocean separating me from the ‘mainland’ created a specific understanding of marginality, of what is “main” and what is “minor,” and how these categorical placements continued from my youth to ongoing perpetuation. The work I create has a subtle and persistent investigation into my identity as a socio-economic …

Exploring Calvin And Hobbes: Comic Strip Illuminates Issues Surrounding Family Recreation, Christijan D. Draper

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to inductively examine the content of the popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by analyzing its latent and subjective meaning to discover basic social psychological issues associated with family recreation. The entire collection of 1,360 Calvin and Hobbes strips was evaluated using Grounded Theory techniques influenced by the art scholarship evaluation tool iconography. Review of the strip suggests one way to assess the meaning associated with time use is through preemptive retrospection by which a person looks at current experiences through the lens of an anticipated future to estimate how meaningful that time will …

Collapse, Mia Feuer

Theses and Dissertations

Through large sculptural works that are often caricatures of representational objects, my work explores the complicated moments and tangled histories of childhood Jewish schooling in Winnipeg and travels to Israel and Palestine as an adult. My thesis exhibition Collapse, as well as most of my graduate work, examines my investigation through manmade constructions that control and restrict or unite and connect the movement of others. Sculptures about a destroyed bridge’s imagined longing for exotic places, a giant onion serving as a resuscitation mechanism against tear gas or a construction crane to Armageddon are some examples of work that explore the …

A Tlapalizquixochitl Tree, Christopher Mahonski

Theses and Dissertations

This writing was done in correlation to my thesis show, The Void, the Coach and the Future.

On A Saturday, Thoughts And Revelations, Maria Pithara

Theses and Dissertations

A favorite poet, a strange woman on the beach, pictures I love to look at. Back yard voyeurism, some thoughts on portraiture and why I couldn’t be a photographer. Strange rituals that make sense. Unexpected revelations. Two kinds of light. This essay presents part of the constellation of thoughts, images and ideas that have informed my most recent video installation, Saturday.

Fountains, Toshiyuki Tanaka

Theses and Dissertations

Most of my works are figurative and depend on my memory when I was modeling. I’d like to attempt to clarify the memories through process of modeling. When I model a human, it might not be a perfect imitation of body because it’s a representation of memories, and it’s affected by memories. It is not important to imitate the human form, but I’m interested in gathering memories and giving a form to them. I’m interested in life force and transience of life, so I was looking for a material which can represent these qualities. When I am engaged glass, I …

Using Author Studies To Incorporate Multicultural Literature Across The New Jersey Core Curriculum, Carol Lynn Raines-Sapp

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to incorporate one author's work of multicultural literature to determine its significance in other subject areas within the New Jersey Core Curriculum exclusive of Language Arts/Literacy curriculum. It was to provide media specialists and classroom teachers with integral skills, concepts and ideas found in multicultural literature. The study used one author study, Virginia Hamilton, and one culture, African American in its evaluation within the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. The study showed that readability level of the selected works by Virginia Hamilton was excellent for students in grades four through six. Also, it …

The Ambassador's Residence At 909 West Franklin, Jonathan Janis

Theses and Dissertations

In redesigning the century old Scott House into a modern Class IV residence of an US Ambassador, his/her family, and staff the concepts of transparency, circulation, and materiality and the ideas of openness and design as a display of national identity are explored.

On The Beginning Of Contemporary Tibetan Art: The Exhibitions, Dealers, And Artists., Martha Allison

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary Tibetan art has been internationally exhibited since the year 2000, and it continues to receive increasing recognition among international galleries and collectors. This thesis focuses on three major contributing factors that have affected the rising success of the contemporary Tibetan artists. The factors include ways in which popular stereotypes have influenced Western museum exhibitions of Tibetan art; dealers have marketed the artworks; and artists have created works that are both conceptually and aesthetically appealing to an international audience. Drawing from exhibition catalogs, interviews and art historical scholarship, this thesis looks at how the history of these factors has affected …

The Walter And Inger Rice Center For Environmental Through Time: A Study In Environmental Change, Human Land Use And Its Effects Along The Lower James River, Chris Egghart

Theses and Dissertations

Historic cartographic sources, historical accounts, and ethnographic and archaeological data are used help reconstruct past settlement patterns and land uses that together acted to shape the changing cultural landscape of the Virginia Commonwealth University Walter and Inger Rice for Environmental Studies (Rice Center). The Rice Center is located in Charles City County along the north bank of the James River between Richmond and Williamsburg. Presented is a baseline description of the present day condition of the Rice Center property. This is followed by a detailed account of the physiographic and ecological changes that occurred along the Lower James River since …

Anxiety And Birth Order: Does Birth Order Play A Role In A Child's Anxiety Level?, Tarah R. Pearson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to see if there is an interaction between anxiety levels and birth order. It was hypothesized that the first-born child would have a higher level of total anxiety than a non-first born child. It was also hypothesized that females would have an overall higher level of anxiety than males. The Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale 2^nd Edition, which was used to measure the different subtests of anxiety, tested for specific types of anxiety: total anxiety, worrying, social anxiety, physiological anxiety, and defensiveness. It was hypothesized that females would feel a higher level of …

Exploring Play Attention, Brett Hoyt

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined the Play Attention neurofeedback computer program to determine its efficacy in the classroom. A program that would increase students' ability to pay better attention in the classroom would vastly improve our entire educational system. The two areas that were used to determine the effectiveness of the program were improved task performance and the ability to follow directions the first time they are given. Daily progress reports of twenty different students were compared to each other over a six month period. There were ten students in the experimental group and ten students in the control group. There …

Vernal, Jason Orvis Dilworth

Theses and Dissertations

Culminating with a dream, this project transverses theoretical and geographical boundaries with explorations into the message-carrying potential of video, sound, performance, print, and web. Stories and content are extracted from an autobiographical history of one small western town turned boomtown. That town, the center from which the project emerges, is Vernal, Utah.

The Dismissive Actually, Alexander Egner

Theses and Dissertations

This project is about giving in to the impulse of ideas. My mind is a little messy and cluttered, swirling with bits of stimuli. The spark of an idea happens when the bits collide. I prefer not to initiate or control the process so much as keep it fed and active. Through graphic design, I bear witness to these ideas, giving them form as a series of visible, tangible objects. Viewed comprehensively, the work establishes an ongoing chronicle of my creative life and mind.

Understanding Death Anxiety In Women With Gynecologic Cancer, Hana Kim

Theses and Dissertations

For most of us, thoughts about our own mortality are largely unconscious, an invisible backdrop to our daily living. However, when forced to face a potentially life threatening event, these otherwise underlying thoughts about human transience rise to consciousness. Given the seemingly inherent link between receiving a cancer diagnosis and developing an increased awareness of one’s own mortality, the present study sought to address the following research question, “What are the experiences and processes by which women with gynecologic cancer construct meaning and manage death anxiety in the face of their cancer diagnosis?” Based on an interpretive grounded theory paradigm, …

Attentional Biases And Ptsd Symptomology In Victims Of Sexual Assault And Motor Vehicle Accidents, Orin R. Redmond

Theses and Dissertations

While the field of change detection and attentional biases has become an increasingly popular area of study and much is already known about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), very little research has been done integrating these two areas. In the present study, we chose to investigate two types of traumatic experiences prevalent in the college population, motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and sexual assaults. The flicker paradigm, used to measure change detection, was utilized to examine hypersensitivity to environments with threatening stimuli in individuals whom experienced either of these traumas. The paradigm monitored reaction times to identifying changes that took place in …

Design For Conspicuous Transit, Peter Bain

Theses and Dissertations

My creative project explores design for transit advocacy; aimed at shifting a car-dependent society into one where transit helps meet climate change, energy, and land-use challenges. It incorporates my research into aspects of designing for transit, an understanding of urbanism in Richmond and New York, and an appreciation of planning.

Diet-Related Changes In Sensitivity To The Pharmacological Effects Of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, Mayo Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Recent evidence suggests that sustained consumption of a high-fat diet is associated with reduced CB1 receptor expression in some brain areas. Many of the neuromodulatory functions of endogenous cannabinoids are mediated by the CB1 receptor. The CB1 receptor also mediates the behavioral and physiological effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC), the primary psychoactive constituent of marijuana. While high-fat diets are associated with region-specific changes in CB1 receptor expression, it is not clear whether such changes are behaviorally relevant. To that end, separate groups of male and female rats were placed on either a high-fat diet or a standard diet. Cannabinoid function was …

Comparative Study Of The Ritual Aspects Of Western And Asian Performance, Hyung Don Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This comparative study focuses on ritual aspects of Western and Asian performance. We may say that ritual in contemporary theater production has limitation to become realization. The limitation arises from contemporary period’s nature. We know that these days we do not have common or collective psyche. However, some theatre artists are trying to get back ritual function and process to recover real communion between spectator and performer throughout performance.

Shrinking The Janzen-Connell Doughnut: Consequences Of An Invasive Multiplier (Microstegium Vimineum) On The Mid-Canopy In A Mixed Pine-Oak Forest, Rebekha Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction of invasive species can alter seed fate predictions made by the Janzen-Connell Escape Hypothesis (JCEH). The JCEH states that there is a suitable region around a plant that is ideal for seed germination, growth, and recruitment. Seeds dispersed too close to the maternal plant are subject to competition from the maternal individual and perhaps density-dependent predation, whereas seeds dispersed further away may end up in suboptimal habitats. Invasive species may change the amount of these suitable habitats for native plants by creating unsuitable light environments and as a result, may influence the size of the ideal recruitment zone surrounding …

Examining Campus Crime At Virginia’S Colleges And Universities, Christina M. Barnes

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines reported campus crime at Virginia’s institutions of higher education. Utilizing secondary data and content analysis, the research seeks to determine the amount and types of crime occurring on Virginia campuses and which correlates explain such crimes. Three sources of campus crime statistics are included and scrutinized in detail, including the Clery Act statistics, Virginia Incident-Based Reporting statistics and campus crime logs. Regardless of data source, findings indicate that the vast majority of reported campus crime is comprised of property offenses. The research argues to separate analyses by campus police departments versus campus security departments for more meaningful …

Blood Knot, William Nicholas White

Theses and Dissertations

This collection of original poetry is preceded by a critical introduction that details how Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop’s similar aesthetics in poetry have influenced my own. The following poems focus on themes that challenge the nature of “manhood,” particularly the archetype of Southern masculinity, and highlight characters who struggle to understand themselves, their desires, and their society. The critical essay tracks how Bishop’s personifications, as she grows as a poet and as her narrator’s “drive into the interior” of nature, become harder to define and control and how this loss of control precipitates a jubilant self-awareness—an awareness of the …

Syngas From Biomass Gasification As Fuel For Generator, Ajay Shah

Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of biomass based energy warrants the evaluation of syngas from biomass gasification as a fuel for personal power systems. The objectives of this study were to determine the performance and exhaust emissions of a commercial 5.5 kW generator modified for operation with 100% syngas at different syngas flows and to compare the results with those obtained for gasoline operation at same electrical power. Maximum power output for gasoline operation was 2451 W and maximum power output for syngas operation was 1392 W. Overall efficiencies of the generator were same at maximum electrical power outputs for operation with both …

Characterization Of Late Embryonic B Cell Stages In Chicken Bursa Of Fabricius, Balazs Felfoldi

Theses and Dissertations

B cell development in chicken takes place in a specific primary lymphoid organ, the bursa of Fabricius. The bursa is considered to provide a microenvironment that promotes B lymphocyte survival and maturation. The most important maturation step in the bursa is the immunoglobulin (Ig) gene conversion, a process that is responsible for immunoglobulin repertoire in avian species. The Ig-gene conversion is strictly regulated, and only progenitors that are able to initiate the process will develop into fully functional B lymphocytes. In this study the late embryonic B lymphocyte stages are investigated, the bursal stem cell stage and the onset of …

"A Pbs Mind In An Mtv World": Teaching Teenagers Meteorology By Placing A Weather Forecast On Mtv And The Creation Of The Concert Forecast, Victoria Leigh Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

Studies show teenagers are influenced by television. This study tested the hypothesis that students can learn meteorology by viewing a weather forecast on Music Television (MTV). MTV was used because it is the network watched most by adolescents. Two surveys were administered to 175 high school students along with a DVD showing a weather forecast for MTV’s Spring Break. Half of the sample group was told the forecast was for MTV and the other was told it was for Channel One. Results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between MTV and Channel One in information recalled from the …

The Effects Of Feeding A Ground Raw Soybean Diet On Reproductive Performance And Carcass Quality Of Prepubertal Gilts, Daniel Jason Sykes

Theses and Dissertations

The administration of raw soybeans to the diet of prepubertal gilts had no effect (p>0.05) on age to puberty, number of corpora lutea, or embryos present. Also, the number of pigs farrowed live and 28d litter weights did not differ between gilts consuming the raw soybean diet and gilts consuming the control diet. There was a reduction (p<0.05) in the number of pigs weaned in the group consuming the raw soybeans but no differences (p>0.05) in weaning weights. Gilts fed the raw soybean diet had a reduction (p=0.05) of hot carcass weights compared to gilts consuming the control diet but exhibited no differences for other carcass parameters measured. Thermal imaging was able to differentiate gilts …

The Use Of Non-Invasive Monitoring Techniques For Profiling Hormonal Changes Associated With Stress And Reproductive Cyclicity In Domestic And Non-Domestic Species, Marcus Mcgee

Theses and Dissertations

Accurately examining animal endocrine profiles pose unique challenges due to possible human interaction influencing basal values. Standard methods of gathering information about an animal’s endocrine status are often dependent upon restraint and use of invasive methodologies. However to accurately monitor the influence management practices, blood sampling sometimes requires that hormone measurements be observed from animals in a relaxed state. To this end, methods for non-invasive monitoring (NIM) are greatly needed to obtain basal endocrine measurements. Such methods include fecal collections followed by hormone extraction, and remote sampling technologies for obtaining blood samples without handling. The overall objective of this study …