Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Women's Way On Rates Of Breast And Cervical Cancers Screening In North Dakota Women, Danielle A. Kenneweg

Theses and Dissertations

The North Dakota Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, Women's Way, is a state program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The goal of the program is to reduce morbidity and mortality from breast and cervical cancer by increasing education, promoting early detection and providing screening among low-income, underserved, high-risk and minority women in North Dakota. Mammography and Pap tests have been underused by women who are low-income, have no health insurance, have no regular source of healthcare, have no access to the screening tests, who are of ethnic minority, and who are recent immigrants. …

Analysis Of Qa/Qc Protocols And Value Of Data To The Development Of Reference Criteria In The Georgia Ecoregions Project, Tracy Jo Ferring

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of Measurements Quality Objectives (MQOs), in bioassessment programs is a useful tool in evaluating the consistency of data and limiting variability and potential sources of measurement error. Typical evaluations of data repeatability and/or data quality center on the use of a series of calculations that quantify variability between measures. These calculations provided some indication of not only the quality of the data collected, but also acted as a measure of how representative the biological data were to each ecoregion. The evaluation of the Quality Control data for this project provides a framework for data users and water resource …

Green Engineering And Gate-To Gate Life Cycle Assessments For Pharmaceutical Products, Daniel Fichana

Theses and Dissertations

The research of this thesis focused on the environmental and processing metrics during the development of two different drugs. Previous research in life cycle assessments and green engineering have focused on other products and processes, but only a limited amount of studies have been conducted for pharmaceutical applications. This analysis concerned a gate-to-gate analysis of two distinct pharmaceutical products along with the development of a solvent selection table. The goal of this research was to determine how various processing and environmental metrics were affected by process improvements.

The first drug was the pravastatin, which was made via a fermentation route. …

School Counselors' Concerns Regarding Effective Crisis Intervention For Students Of Diverse Backgrounds, Michelle Lynn Canada

Theses and Dissertations

Although school counselors routinely provide crisis intervention, minimal research has focused specifically on providing such services in a manner sensitive to multicultural and ethnically diverse students. Responses of a random national sample of school counselors (n = 276, 69% return rate) indicate that approximately half voice some sort of concern related to providing crisis intervention services to students from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study is to summarize school counselor's concerns, providing an initial understanding for this aspect of school-based crisis intervention. Additionally, school counselors' comments were further analyzed to examine possible relationships between the type of concern and …

Preliminary Design Approach For Prosthetic Ankle Joints Using Compliant Mechanisms, Jason Matthew Wiersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to develop design approaches and models for prosthetic ankle joints using kinematic models of the human ankle and compliant mechanisms technology. Compliant mechanisms offer several potential design advantages over traditional rigid-body designs including high reliability and low cost. These design advantages are ideal for use in prosthetics. Some prosthetic ankle/foot systems currently on the market have multiple degrees of freedom yet are expensive. Additionally, even though these systems have multiple degrees of freedom, none of them are designed after the actual movements of the biological ankle. In this thesis a two, single degree-of-freedom hinge …

Simulation For Evaluating The Usability Of Integrated Flight Decks, Troy Ricardo Weeks

Theses and Dissertations

There is a modern revolution of pilot interface designs as technological advancements force industrial progress in general aviation (GA). Recent accident statistics and safety reports indicate that computerized flight decks in Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) present novel safety hazards. Little empirical data have been used to measure the usability of integrated flight decks due to the complexity and time-consuming nature of flight data assessment. The objectives of this thesis are (1) to describe the human factors issues that are induced by the design of the integrated flight deck, (2) to demonstrate the evaluative capabilities of a TAA flight simulator, and …

Asian Indian Perceptions Of Normality: A Qualitative Study, Mohammed S. Lodhi Khan

Theses and Dissertations

Normal mental health has always been defined from a Euro-centric worldview that excludes non-Westem cultures. In fact, what is normal is biased against non-Westem cultural ideals that influenced the definition of mental health. The difference between Eastern and Western cultural values suggest that the two cultures may also have differing views on the definition of normal mental health. The most commonly accepted definition of normality currently in use in the West is based on the models of health, utopia, average, transactional systems, and pragmatism. However, people from non-European cultures, such as Asian Indians, may not be represented by these current …

Perceptions Of Elder Abuse Among Native American Seniors, Twyla B. Baker-Demaray

Theses and Dissertations

Previous elder abuse research has focused much of its efforts on Caucasian populations, leaving a dearth of information for minorities. A particularly overlooked population has been American Indian and Alaska Native populations in the United States. Very few studies have been done on Native populations to assess incidence, types of abuse, and how elder abuse is managed. In June of 2004, the National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA) released the findings of its study on elder abuse in Indian Country, Preventing and Responding to Abuse of Elders in Indian Country. Prior to this writing, only three of the 567 federally …

Factors Associated With Parenting Stress And Self-Competence In Single And Married Mothers Of Preschool-Aged Children, Erin Tentis

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the differences between married and single mothers in parenting stress and parenting self-competence. Fifty married and 45 single mothers of children aged 3- 4- or 5-years old participated in this study. Each mother completed a packet of questionnaires that included a demographics form, the Parenting Stress Index - Short Form, the Parenting Sense of Competence scale, the Daily Hassles subscale of the Hassles and Uplifts Scale, the Social Provisions Scale, the Colorado Child Temperament Inventory, and the Child Behavior Questionnaire.

Results indicated that married and single mothers do not differ in the extent to which they feel …

Factors Of Success At Two Tribal Colleges As Perceived By Tribal College Board Members And Presidents, Erich Steven Longie

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the history of this country, the majority of Native Americans resisted all attempts by the federal government to educate them. Then in the late sixties and early seventies tribal colleges came on the scene. In spite of being faced with seemingly insurmountable odds and located on isolated Indian reservations, tribal colleges became well established in a few short years. They went from being located in dilapidated buildings and relying on affiliations with state institutions to offering their own individual coursework and being located in modem facilities, fully accredited by their respective accreditation agencies. Tribal colleges succeeded where most federal …

Post Merger Bank Performance Associated With Regulatory Evaluation Factors, Brian Emerson

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. banking industry has seen an unprecedented wave of merger activity over the past decade. This study provides an investigation into performance effects of bank mergers on post merger performance from both the banking industry's and bank regulators' perspectives. Using FDIC call report data from 1992 until 2004, I assembled a data set that included 3500 mergers over this time period and found that significant overall improvements in financial performance is difficult to achieve, in agreement with past research. Specific variables showed improvement, while others did not

Perceptions Of Selected Public And Non-Public School Parents About School In Two North Dakota Cities, Thaines Arulandu

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of public and non-public school parents about school choice in two North Dakota cities. Data were gathered through a survey questionnaire administered to randomly selected public and non-public school parents in Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Factor analysis reduced the perceptions of parents to four independent variables, income, education, ethnicity, and employment of parents. Perceptions of parents were studied on 16 issues related to school choice as dependent variables. The data analysis answered the following research questions: What are the perceptions of public and non-public school parents about school …

Mercury Oxidation By Chlorine-Containing Species And Scrubbing In A Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization System, Yongxin Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

This research is particularly related to mercury control technologies. The state of the art in mercury emission control is generally classified into two categories: Mercury Transformation and Mercury Capture. In this research, two chapters (3 & 4) are specifically related to mercury transformation and another two (5 & 6) are related to mercury capture.

Chapter 3 investigates the capabilities of HCI and CU on Hg° oxidation. The resulting data indicated that both were effective in the combustor. However, HCI was less effective in a quartz reactor. Subsequently, the inhibitory effects of NO and S02 were identified in the quartz reactor. …

The Impossibility Of Negation: Punk Rock, Christian Rock, And The Problem Of Negationist Subculture, Brian James Schill

Theses and Dissertations

Both the punk rock end Christian rock music subcultures have been the subject of analyses that cast them in “negationist” terms-as groups critically opposed to popular/secular culture. Despite their categorization of these music genres as antitheses, however, no analysis has gone so far as to read them specifically in the context of German philosopher GAV.F. Hegel whose dialectical model systematized the opposition of thesis and antithesis. Moreover, no analysis has juxtaposed the two suspiciously similar subcultures in dialectical terms, and theorized them in terms of their documented opposition to each other. Such is the goal of this thesis.

Therefore, beginning …

Proposal For Implementation Of A Nursing Theory Into Nursing Care Delivery, Margaret A. Gadaire

Theses and Dissertations

Jean Watson, in the introduction to her book, Nursing: Human Science and Human Care: A Theory of Nursing, states that “A Theory is an imaginative grouping of knowledge, ideas and experience that are represented symbolically and seek to illuminate a given phenomenon. ” (1999, pg.l) The phenomenon in this proposal is nursing care delivery. The symbol of nursing is caring. The question; How does a hospital implement a patient care delivery system that will demonstrate the caring provided by its nurses? This proposal provides a mid-sized urban hospital with a method for implementing a nursing theory into its patient care …

Psychometrically Equivalent Digital Recordings For Speech Audiometry Testing In Mandarin Chinese: Standard Mandarin Dialect, Lara-Jill Jennings

Theses and Dissertations

The development of digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in Mandarin Chinese has been limited to date. High quality materials proliferate in the English language and have been developed for other languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Polish, and Russian. The aims of this study were to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate words and word lists in Mandarin Chinese to use for speech reception threshold testing and for speech discrimination testing. The words that were evaluated were chosen from a Chinese frequency usage dictionary. One native male and one native female talker recorded the words onto …

A Study Of Head Coaches' Attitudes Regarding Academic Support Services For Student Athletes In The New Jersey Athletic Conference, Kenneth M. Dickson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of head coaches in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) regarding the academic support services provided to student athletes. Of related interest was whether the coaches found a need for these services to be provided by the athletic department. Seventy-five head coaches in the NJAC completed the survey to evaluate the attitudes and academic support services. Results showed a statistically significant relationship between years in coaching and attitudes of academic support services. The findings suggested that the head coaches in the NJAC believe that there is a need for academic …

Relationships Between Cohesion And Depression In Parents Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Amy Leigh Giauque

Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined the relationship between family cohesion and depression in mothers and fathers of children with disabilities. One hundred and six two-parent families who had a child with a disability provided information on their feelings of cohesion through Bloom's cohesion subscale and depression through the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D). Analyses indicated that mothers and fathers of this sample are not significantly more depressed than the general population. However, there was a correlation between mothers' and fathers' depression, indicating that when mothers' depression increased, fathers' depression increased. Negative correlations were found between mothers' and fathers' self-reported …

A Provacative Test To Determine Brain Compliance In The Management Of Patients With Hydrocephalus, Preston K. Manwaring

Theses and Dissertations

Non-invasive techniques to explore intracranial compliance and pressure have been extensively explored in recent years. Previous techniques have used expensive technologies to make these measurements, often with difficulty. We present a novel, inexpensive provocative test to observe trends in intracranial compliance measurement targeted towards the treatment and management of hydrocephalus. Two techniques are proposed which derive data from the digital and supraorbital arteries as well as tympanic membrane displacement. This requires the use of two photo-plethysmographic sensors and a TMD sensor. A common tilt table apparatus is used to methodically and artificially increase intracranial pressure to stress the cranial system …

Longitudinal Course Of Eating Disorder Risk Among Undergraduate Females At Brigham Young University, Erin Blue Winters

Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined the prevalence rates and longitudinal course of eating disorder risk among undergraduate females at BYU, and compared the identified prevalence rates at BYU with identified rates at other colleges and universities. Almost 2,000 undergraduate females, in three cohort groups, filled out the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) once a semester for four to eight semesters. Clinical cut-off scores were used to determine what percentage of participants were at high risk for eating disordered behaviors and symptomology. Overall eating disorder risk prevalence rates at BYU ranged from 9-11%. These rates were significantly lower than identified rates at other …

The Eating Survey: Disordered Eating And Clinical Cutoff For Adolescents Ages 14-17, David Scott Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

The Eating Survey is a new screening instrument for adolescent eating disturbances. The purpose of this study was to empirically examine how the Eating Survey functions as a total screening instrument and to find a clinical cutoff score for the current 17 items. The participants were 2,569 non-clinical adolescents with a comparative sample of 41 inpatient adolescents aged 14-17. More specifically, this study examined the age and gender differences of the 2,569 non-clinical adolescent males and females. It also compared the 1,662 non-clinical females to a sample of 41 inpatient females. Specificity and sensitivity analyses were conducted to find the …

Generating Medical Logic Modules For Clinical Trial Eligibility, Craig G. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical trials are important to the advancement of medical science. They provide the experimental and statistical basis needed to determine the benefit of diagnostic and therapeutic agents and procedures. The more patients enrolled in a clinical trial, the more confidence we can have in the trial's results. However, current practices for identifying eligible patients can be expensive and time-consuming. To assist in making identification of eligible patients more cost effective, we have developed a system for translating the eligibility criteria for clinical trials to an executable form. This system takes as input the eligibility criteria for a trial formatted as …

Ideals And Realities, Pamela Bowman

Theses and Dissertations

In order to produce work that prompts the viewer to undergo a process of personal exploration resulting in discourse and the understanding of feelings, it is necessary to balance ideals and realities, combine experience and creativity, and blend concepts and materials. Ideals and realities are discussed in this paper, using an approach that concentrates on foundational principles. The ideals of morality, beauty, goodness, acceptance, and unity form a foundation for the motivation behind my work. They are described in relationship to the philosophy of aesthetics. Ideals are contrasted with realities of life which have patterns and rhythms. These repetitive patterns …

An Exploratory Study On The Impact Of Applied Ancestry On At-Risk Youth In A Wilderness Therapy Program Setting, Elisa M. Rancie

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the Applied Ancestry program meets its objectives of assisting at-risk youth with regard to character development. The sample consisted of 40 youth (12-17 yrs) enrolled in the Anasazi Foundation Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare program. These teens were randomly assigned to either the control (n = 22) or treatment (n = 18) group. To measure the impact of Applied Ancestry on character development the VIA Signature Strengths Survey, developed by the VIA Institute, was used. A pre-post test comparison found no difference between the two groups, however the overall negative changes in survey …

Event Related Potentials: A Study Of The Processing Of Gapping Structures In Adolescents, Michelle Miller Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

Many questions remain unanswered regarding the intricacies of the human brain, especially with regard to the complexities of language processing. One essential component of human sentence processing is the ability to detect, decipher, and recover from errors in the interpretation of both verbal and written language. This process of repair of ungrammatical sentences and revision or reinterpretation of ambiguous sentences has been studied extensively in recent years. A variety of tools have been developed, including the use of event-related potentials (ERPs) in order to assess how language is processed and developed, and to help better identify the nature of these …

At-Risk Individuals' Awareness, Motivation, Roadblocks To Participation In Premarital Interventions, And Behaviors Following Completion Of The Relationship Evaluation (Relate), Melissa Lee Kigin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to gain more knowledge about single individuals with specific premarital risk factors for later marital problems (e.g. neuroticism or low emotional readiness, family-of-origin dysfunction, poor communication skills, and hostile conflict resolution style). The sample (N=39) completed the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE) and were selected for the study based on the presence of one or more risk factors. Participants were contacted via email and asked to complete an online version of the Relationship Follow-up Questionnaire (RFQ) to determine their knowledge or awareness of their risk factor(s) after taking RELATE, their motivation for premarital interventions after …

Effectiveness Of Story Enactments Versus Art Projects In Facilitating Preschool Children's Story Comprehension, Jennifer Ann Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to compare preschool children's comprehension of a story after either enacting the story or participating in an art project, and (b) to qualitatively describe the children's interactions during the more interactive story enactment instruction. Twenty children from two Head Start classrooms were told the stories as a class, and then participated in either an art project (AP) or story enactment (SE) in small groups. The children in each classroom each heard three stories followed by the AP condition, and three followed by the SE condition. The children's comprehension of the story was …

The Frequency And Severity Of Problem Behaviors Among Individuals With Autism, Traumatic Brain Injury, And Mental Retardation From The Utah Dspd Dataset, Melanie Kay Arp

Theses and Dissertations

The study reports on analyses of data collected from the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) for 5,859 children with Autism (n = 511), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI, n = 522), or Mental Retardation (MR, n = 4826) whose legal guardians applied for support services through the Utah Department of Services for People with Disabilities (DSPD). Results indicate that the least to most frequent problem behaviors were (a) destructive to property, (b) hurtful to self, (c) hurtful to others, (d) socially offensive, (e) unusual habits, (f) withdrawal, (g) uncooperative, and (h) disruptive behaviors. The degree of severity varied from …

Facilitating Communication About Death Between Mothers And Adolescent Sons Using Fictional Children's Literature, Deon G. Leavy

Theses and Dissertations

Most children will experience the death of a loved one in their lifetime and will need to develop healthy grieving patterns. Communication between parents and children is a key ingredient in facilitating this development. Current opinions about bibliotherapy, using a book to assist in healing, suggest that books provide understanding about grief and death and open channels of communication. Although the use of bibliotherapy is gaining popularity, little research exists about its efficacy. Utilizing the book The Bridge to Terabithia, this study evaluated the facilitation of communication about death between 19 dyads of mother and adolescent sons. Their answers and …

Development Of Biological Reference Conditions Of Wadeable Streams In The Major Ecoregions And Subecoregions Of Georgia, Duncan L. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

One bioassessment tool available to resource managers to indicate NPS impairment of wadeable streams and rivers are multi-metric invertebrate indices. Such indices are assembled from metrics in broad categories that represent different aspects of community structure and function (e.g. richness, composition, tolerance/intolerance, feeding group, and habit). Indices must incorporate suites of metrics that are ecologically relevant, quantifiable, non-redundant, and that best individually discriminate between reference sites and impaired sites. More than 240 wadeable streams in Georgia were sampled during the September thru February index period using RBP protocols during three successive sample seasons (1999-2003). Ecoregional reference (minimally impaired) sites, as …