Digital Commons Network^™

Risks Of Skin Cancer And Photoaging Associated With Indoor Tanning, Amy Knutson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pool And Spa Entrapment Among Children, Andrea M. Riendeau

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Drowning continues to be a leading cause of accidental death in children of all age groups. Furthermore, parents and caregivers are unaware or know little about the issue of suction entrapment and entanglement in pools and spas. This issue is also overlooked in the public eye and when an entrapment or entanglement does occur causing the death of a child, it is simply reported as an accidental drowning. Therefore, suction entrapment and entanglement along with drowning will be explained in great detail to educate the reader on this health risk.

Purpose: The purpose of this project is to examine …

Parental Satisfiers With Children's Care, Michael Kropp

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Although it is easy to determine dissatisfiers with healthcare, satisfiers may be difficult to discern and may depend on the uniqueness of each person receiving care. Determining common satisfiers for parents of hospitalized children would aid in alerting healthcare professionals of parent expectations in quality patient-centered care. To achieve the goal of parent satisfaction, it is imperative to understand healthcare provider behaviors that contribute to holistic care and lead to parents feeling empowered.

Purpose: This project investigated the literature for behaviors of healthcare professionals that reportedly lead to parental satisfaction with the care of their children, in …

Reactive Airway Disease In Relation To Indoor Air Quality, Latoria Williams

Theses and Dissertations

You're at work. The housekeepers have just sprayed a chemical in the air. You can't breathe. The purpose of this project is to identify the types of diseases and symptomology created by poor indoor air quality and use this information to inform other healthcare professionals

Many different terms are used to describe this phenomenon; environmental health, environmental illness, sick building/house syndrome, and multiple chemical sensitivity. There are also a wide variety of diseases/symptoms created by this phenomenon. The search revealed that back in the 70s and 80s the term used was reactive airways dysfunction syndrome (RADS) but the more popular …

Childless Women In The Plays Of William Inge, Tennessee Williams, And Edward Albee, Suzanne Macdonald Winkel

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an examination of three major twentieth-century American playwrights—William Inge, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee—and their dramatic use of childless women characters in Come Back, Little Sheba (1950), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) respectively. Although the plays of Inge, Williams, and Albee have been analyzed individually by numerous scholars, they have not been studied together as works about procreation and childlessness. The study's historical focus is the post World War II era during which time the three plays proposed for analysis were written and produced. Commonly called the baby boom …

The Effects That A One-To-One Laptop Initiative Has On Student Academic Performance And Acheievement, Allen A. Burgard

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how a one-to-one laptop initiative in a small, rural North Dakota school effected student academic performance based on the perceptions of participating students, teachers, and parents. Existing Northwest Evaluation Association Measure of Academic Progress student test results also were used to determine if the laptop initiative had any significant impact on student achievement in reading, language arts, and math. The primary focus of the study was based on pre-existing data regarding students', teachers', and parents' perceptions of academic performance versus academic achievement. Perceptions of academic performance were utilized by the researcher primarily …

Review Of Literature In Response To In-Service/Workshop On Autism Spectrum Disorders, Kelli Henke

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Sexual Harassment Jury Instructions' Effects On Jury Decisions, Karen Leigh Matsinger

Theses and Dissertations

This study compares the effect of reasonable standards on the jury's verdict in a sexual harassment lawsuit. One hundred and fifty seven participants (82 males, 74 females and 1 unidentified), ages ranging from 16 to 90, (M= 22.74) were randomly divided into juries (7 reasonable woman, 8 reasonable person, and 9 reasonable worker). Participants were given a written sexual harassment case, judge's instructions, and a survey to complete before and after the group had reached a unanimous verdict.

It was hypothesized that participants who applied the reasonable woman standard would be more likely to take the complainant's perspective. This hypothesis …

The Experience Of Volunteering For Hurricane Katrina Relief / Theoretical Explanations For Nurses’ Involvement As Volunteers In Global Disasters, Deborah Ulmer

Theses and Dissertations

This study is about the nature of nurses' decision making related to volunteering to provide humanitarian aid in a major national disaster. Additionally, it is about the lived experience of nurses who volunteered in that disaster. It is a transcendental phenomenological study using the approach of Clarke Moustakas and the purpose of the study was to describe the experiences of the nurses, their reasons for volunteering, and the impact of their experience on their lives several years later.

Comparison Of Legal Standards In Sexual Harassment Hostile Work Environment, Jeanne M. O'Brien Rice

Theses and Dissertations

This research compares the previously studied reasonable person and reasonable woman legal standards with a new reasonable employee standard on hostile work environment sexual harassment. Participants included 115 college students from a mid-Atlantic university. Measures were taken across genuine legal cases based on explicit, ambiguous, and non-traditional occupation fact patterns. No statistically significant difference was found among legal standards on measures of severity, hostile work environment, because of sex or conduct unwelcome. There was however a statistically significant difference between fact patterns on liability. Age, employment experience, and being a victim of sexual harassment produced statistically significant interactions with legal …

Healing, Learning And Play, Kangana Bhatnagar

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that the first five years of life are critical for building the foundation for children’s success throughout their schooling and life. Throughout these first years of life there are a number of essential windows of opportunity during which certain kinds of stimuli are needed to help the brain develop and maintain critical connections necessary for learning. This project is a unification of a Child Development Center and a therapeutic center. This center includes children who suffer from bereavement; a broken home, death of a parent or child abuse. These children are provided with therapy by a specialist, and …

Corporate Housing And Training, Cojo Gerardo Del

Theses and Dissertations

Corporate Housing & Training is a hybrid project that promotes the future use of living-and-working environments in the same site offering the amenities of a hotel, apartment and an office in one. The challenge of approaching this type of project is the way the program works and how it flows together with different users and different needs without even getting out of the building at the same time. This project helps the actual local and global needs because it would be a big impact for the traveling executives and companies by promoting business, exchange of ideas, and socializing; due to …

Expert Witness Testimony In Jury Verdicts When Battered Women Kill, Asma Sheikh

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this investigation were to (a) explore the relationship between jury verdicts when traumatic brain injury expert testimony is provided and (b) examine the relationship between the verdicts when battered women syndrome expert witness testimony is provided, in Rowan University undergraduate students (N = 100). Students were provided with experimental packets, read a mock legal case, answered four questionnaires, and conducted a mock jury deliberation. Students indicated their verdicts were of lesser severity when there was traumatic brain injury expert witness testimony when compared to battered women syndrome expert witness testimony. Analysis of variance statistics indicated that expert …

Internet Addiction And Social Satisfaction, Michael Attanasio

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Internet addiction on a participant's level of satisfaction with their social life. Participants were gathered from both Rowan University and the Internet at large (n = 122) and asked to complete an online survey. The survey contained criteria questions for Internet addiction and social satisfaction as well as numerous questions that determined the effects of the participant's Internet usage on various aspects of their life (social, academic, job performance, etc). Results show that knowing a participant's level of Internet addiction allows researchers to weakly predict their level of satisfaction …

Effects Of Altered Superoxide Dismutase Expression On Age-Related Functional Declines And Survival In Drosophila, Ian Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Most organisms experience progressive declines in physiological function as they age. A number of studies in a variety of species support a strong link between oxidative damage, age-related functional declines and life span determination. Here, manipulating the expression levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) isoenzymes SOD1 and SOD2, resulted in altered functional senescence and survival characteristics in Drosophila. Overexpression of cytosolic Sod1 using the yeast GAL4/UAS system conferred a 30-34% increase in mean life span and resulted in an attenuated senescence of odor avoidance behavior in aging flies. Tissue-specific Sod1 overexpression selectively in the nervous system or muscle failed to reproduce …

Electrical Behavior Of Non-Aqueous Formulations: Role Of Electrostatic Interactions In Pressurized Metered Dose Inhalers (Pmdis), Reshma Kotian

Theses and Dissertations

Aerosol electrostatics is an important property of pharmaceutical aerosols. The electrostatic properties of pMDI aerosols have been shown to be a function of both formulation and packaging components. The modified ELPI enables measurement of aerosol charge as a function of particle size, and the simultaneous determination of the mass distribution using chemical analysis. However, in order to fully assess the cause and effects of aerosol electrostatics in terms of its biological and regulatory implications, it is necessary to understand the basic charging mechanisms inside the pMDI formulation.

Electrical resistivity and zeta potential measurements confirmed the presence of charged species within …

Inflammatory Regulation Of Cysteine Cathepsins, Blaine Creasy

Theses and Dissertations

Cysteine cathepsins B, L and S are endosomal/lysosomal proteases that participate in numerous physiological systems. Cathepsin expression and activity are altered during various inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. Early immune responses to microbial pathogens are mediated by pattern-recognition receptors, including Toll-like receptors (TLR). Signaling through TLR causes cell activation and release of inflammatory mediators, which can contribute to the severity of chronic inflammatory diseases. The impact of TLR cell activation on cathepsins B, L and S activities was investigated using live-cell enzymatic assays. Individual ligands of TLR4, TLR2 and TLR3 increased intracellular activities of the …

The Ecology Of Fear: Oviposition And Colonization In Aquatic Systems, Leeanna Pletcher

Theses and Dissertations

Amphibians and aquatic invertebrates have complex life histories that link aquatic and terrestrial food webs. It has been suggested that amphibian reproduction is an important source of carbon to some aquatic systems. This process of energy flow may be shaped by shifts in habitat selection in response to predators. We hypothesized that predators decrease colonization and oviposition of prey, reducing active inputs. Thus predation risk is expected to shift the relative amounts of active and passive subsidies. We manipulated the presence of fish predators in aquatic mesocosms. Results suggest hylid treefrog eggs and hydrophilid beetles were less abundant in predator …

Contamination Of Dental Waterlines: Efficacy Of Seven Waterline Treatments And Three In-Office Bacteria Test Kits, Adam Davis

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared seven dental unit water line (DUWL) treatments and three in-office bacteria test kits. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) 1:10 in tap water weekly; 3 drops of NaOCl in 1 liter of water; Dentapure® DP 40; ICX™ tablet; Sterilex® Ultra powder; Lines™; and Selective Micro® Dental-Clean. Traditional culture technique was compared to HPC Dental Sampler; Aquasafe™ Dental Unit Water Line Test Kit; and Bacteria in Water Test Kit. Eight dental units in the Virginia Commonwealth University Graduate Endodontic Clinic were randomly assigned treatment regimens. Samples were taken weekly initially and after flushing for 1 minute. In conclusion NaOCl hypochlorite 1:10 …

Mechanistic Studies On The Electrochemistry Of Glutathione And Homocysteine, Olufemi Oyesanya

Theses and Dissertations

This research work has investigated the electrochemistry of glutathione (GSH)and homocysteine (HCSH) in order to develop sensors for these biological thiols.Ru(bpy)₃³⁺ and IrCl₆²⁻ have been used as mediators for the electrooxidation of GSH andHCSH because direct oxidation of these thiols is slow at most conventional electrodes.The electrochemical detection of GSH and HCSH has been pursued because of their biological roles.

Concerted proton electron transfer (CPET) and stepwise proton electron transfer(PT/ET) pathways have been observed in the electrooxidation of GSH and HCSH.Oxidation of GSH by Ru(bpy)₃³⁺ carried out in deuterated and undeuterated buffered (pH= pD …

Characterization Of Histone Acetylation During Sv40 Transcription, Lata Balakrishnan

Theses and Dissertations

Compaction of DNA by histone proteins helps to package the DNA into the nucleus at the expense of acting as a bather to biological processes that require access to the DNA. Addition and removal of acetyl groups from the histone tails with the help of enzymes known as histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) appear to play a critical role in maintaining the structure of chromosomes and the regulation of gene expression. In order to better understand the role of histone hyperacetylation in the regulation of gene expression I studied histone hyperacetylation in Simian Virus 40 (SV40) chromosomes during …

Light Induced Changes In The Photoreceptor Outer Segments, Vikram Palamalai

Theses and Dissertations

Light induced retinal degeneration in animals has been used to study human retinal degenerative disorders. Apoptosis is the final common pathway for photoreceptor degeneration in both the experimental model and human disease but the mechanism is unknown. Oxidative stress plays a role because antioxidants have been shown to be protective against experimental degeneration. Inhibitors of nitric oxide synthases (NOS) are also protective suggesting a role for nitric oxide. Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) a key enzyme in glycolysis was identified as one of the proteins undergoing significant nitration in our studies on light induced retinal degeneration. This study focuses on the changes …

Toward A New Perspective In Literary Criticism: Transgenerational Psychoanalysis And Anasemic Procedures, Gustav Arnold

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation—Toward a New Perspective in Literary Criticism: Transgenerational Psychoanalysis and Anasemic Procedures"—is a contribution to literary criticism. It offers a new perspective in psychoanalytical criticism on how characters in literary narratives can be interpreted. By examining key concepts in psychoanalysis, which have been used in the humanities for decades, the present inquiry draws on transgenerational psychology, as elaborated by German and French theorists, and anasemic interpretations generated by M. Torok and N. Abraham's psychoanalytical approach. Based on the assumption that a character's psychic life is determined by factors that cannot be confined to intrapsychic processes alone, the transgenerational perspective …

Theoretical Studies Of Low-Lying Electronic States Of Lithium, Titanium, And Mercury Compounds, Alexander Azenkeng

Theses and Dissertations

Ground and low-lying excited electronic states of lithium, titanium and mercury compounds were investigated using high-level ab initio and density functional theory methods. Two Cs-symmetry triply hydrogen bridged equilibrium structures of Ti2H6 and Ti2[special characters omitted] were obtained at the GVVPT2 level of theory. Twelve low-lying 1A' and 1A" states were calculated at both the GVVPT2 and MRCISD levels. A weakly coordinating H2 unit was observed for the Ti2[special characters omitted] system, which seems to suggest that, subject to further studies, polyhydrido dititanium hydrides could serve as suitable precursors for hydrogen storage materials. Studies of the [special characters omitted] system …

The Impact Of Interdisciplinary Education On College Student Development, Kendra Ellenbecker

Theses and Dissertations

The study summarized in this paper specifically involves an assessment of the experiences of college students who engaged in a nontraditional, interdisciplinary curriculum traditional versus those who engaged in a lecture-based curriculum. The overarching hypothesis of the study was that students involved in an interdisciplinary curriculum would demonstrate higher posttest levels on several constructs. The study employed a quasi-experimental quantitative research design, and included a total sample of 60 undergraduate college students from a mid-sized university in the Midwestern United States. Participants were 31 students enrolled in an interdisciplinary program and 29 students enrolled in traditional education classes, who were …

How Soviet Russia Liberated Women: The Soviet Model In Clara Zetkin's Periodical 'Die Kommunistische Fraueninternationale', Liberty Peterson Sproat

Theses and Dissertations

Clara Zetkin was celebrated in both Germany and the Soviet Union before World War II because of her active involvement in the communist movement. She wrote prolifically and preached the virtues of socialism. She concerned herself particularly with women's needs, arguing that women would respond best to a different form of agitation than that used among men. Zetkin asserted that communism was the only way to respond to women's concerns as mothers and that only state involvement in domestic life would allow women to be fully emancipated. Women needed freedom from household work and increased training and support to aid …

Effects Of Predation Risk, Density And Disease On Energy Efficiency In A Larval Anuran, Sarah Crane

Theses and Dissertations

Predation, density and disease affect behavior, morphology and growth. There is a lack of information on how these changes relate to efficiency of energy transfer in anuran larvae, although previous studies suggest that predation should decrease and competition should increase efficiency. Using a 2 x 2 factorial design, we manipulated predation presence and larval density to test how predation risk and density affect energy efficiency. During the experiment, approximately half of the tadpoles were infected by an unknown disease. Neither predation risk nor density affected assimilation or growth efficiency, despite changes in growth and development. Disease, however, decreased gut length …

A Longitudinal Examination Of The Influences Of Family Processes And Demographic Variables On Adolescent Weight, Jessica Lee Price

Theses and Dissertations

Nationally representative studies estimate that almost one in five adolescents in the United States is overweight. This is a major concern for individuals' physical and psychological health and the overall economy in terms of health care costs and loss of productivity. The approach of this study was to understand adolescent overweight as influenced by family processes including: parent-adolescent relationship, monitoring or parental knowledge, control, family meals, and parenting styles. Race, sex, family structure, income, and mother Body Mass Index (BMI) were also included. A sub-sample of 4,688 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 was used to address …

Biological Functions Of The Novel Lysophosphatidic Acid (Lpa) Receptor, Lpa4/P2y9/Gpr23, Peilun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a naturally occurring phospholipid present in serum and malignant effusions, elicits diverse biological functions through binding and activating specific cell surface G-protein coupled receptors. In addition to the conventional LPA1/Edg2, LPA2/Edg4 and LPA3/Edg7 receptors of the endothelial differentiation gene (Edg) family, LPA4/p2y9/GPR23 of the purinergic receptor family and the related LPA5/GPR92 and LPA6/p2y5 have been identified as novel LPA receptors. These newly identified LPA receptors are structurally distant from the Edg LPA1-3 receptors and couple to Gq, G12/13 and probably Gs subunits. However, the roles of the LPA4-6 receptors in LPA signal transduction and physiology are poorly …

Designing Non-Saccharide Heparin/Heparan Sulfate Mimics, Arjun Raghuraman

Theses and Dissertations

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are complex biopolymers that play important roles in inflammation, coagulation, angiogenesis, cell adhesion and viral invasion by interacting with several different proteins.1,2 Structurally, GAGs are built up of several different sulfated disaccharide units.3 Specific GAG sequences that uniquely recognize their cognate proteins exist. Such specificity typically arises from the binding of unique sulfation patterns on the linear GAG chain to highly electropositive protein domains. Thus, these highly charged, sulfated biopolymers potentially represent a new class of therapeutics. Yet, the major stumbling block to the development to these agents is their extremely complicated and tedious chemical synthesis. We hypothesized …