Digital Commons Network^™

Delimitating Species Boundaries Within The Liomys Pictus- Spectabilis Complex (Rodentia: Heteromyidae), Victoria L. Vance

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies based on morphological, allozymic and mitochondrial sequence data have indicated that Liomys pictus is paraplyletic relative to L. spectabilis. The purpose of this study was to determine the species boundaries that exist within this complex. I estimated phylogenetic relationships within this complex using sequence data from 1,140 bp of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene and two nuclear introns from engrailed protein (190 bp) and myosin heavy chain (254 bp) genes for approximately 712 individuals representing 82 localities across the range of L. pictus and L. spectabilis. Maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian analyses suggest that there are …

Usage Of Plant Examples In Secondary School Biology Classes, Tamara L. Egner

Theses and Dissertations

Botanists have expressed concern over the dwindling recognition and emphasis of plants that currently exists in the fields of education and research. To ascertain if these claims pertain to high schools in the State of New Jersey, a survey on the frequency of using plant examples for teaching 10 biological principles was randomly distributed to secondary school biology teachers. Results from 80 respondents showed that on average, plants are used as examples in teaching 66% of these biological principles. The primary rationale cited by teachers for low or non-usage of plants was that they preferred animals as teaching examples. Underlying …

Age Group And Gender Differences In Fears Of Aging, Vicky C. Tomlin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in fears of aging in two age groups (M=20 years and M=30 years) and gender differences in fears of aging. Two hundred twenty-two undergraduate (n=156) and graduate students (n=66) responded to three questionnaires, the Anxiety about Aging Scale (AAS), the Brief Life Satisfaction Scales (BLSS), and an open-ended questionnaire allowing participants to write in their five greatest personal fears of aging. The older age group had significantly higher Anxiety about Aging Psychological Concerns subscale scores. Males scored significantly higher than females in AAS total …

Hearing Health In Utah Special Olympics Athletes Compared To Special Olympics Athletes Worldwide: A Prevalence Study In Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities, Lisa Moses Mullins

Theses and Dissertations

The Special Olympics Healthy Athletes initiative promotes wellness of the athletes with intellectual disabilities and education for medical professionals. Healthy Athletes has created a hearing screening program, Healthy Hearing, to help athletes with intellectual disabilities get the otological and audiological care they need. This program promotes a healthy hearing lifestyle and educates medical professionals regarding the need of health care for the intellectually disabled population. The physiologic, otologic, and audiologic abnormalities often occurring in the intellectually disabled population bring special attention for the need to determine the prevalence rate of hearing loss among the athletes participating in Special Olympics events. …

Entry Level Graphic Design Students: Influences Of Sketching On The Development Of Creativity, Elizabeth A. Becker

Theses and Dissertations

Artists and designers typically utilized sketching for brainstorming because it provides them with a means to transfer their initial ideas from their head onto paper or a computer. Sketching is regarding by research in the field of design to be an essential part of the design process and is believed to be related to creativity and innovation in design. This study explored the role sketching played in the development of graphic design student's creativity. Participants in this study were recruited from six different sections of entry-level, graphic design courses. Their experiences, perceptions of creativity, and attitudes, bout sketching in graphic …

Relevance Of Spirituality To Mental Health Nursing; A Literature Review, Pamela S. Walls

Theses and Dissertations

This independent study is being done to review what clment literature states about s_μirtuality and spiritual care giving within the role of mental health nursing. A review of literature including articles from the past six years and classic articles was be peformed. The information is compared and contrasted to determine the extent of the relevance of spi rituality to present day mental health nursing and to examine the implications for psychiatric mental health nursing practice. Nurses are expected to deliver insightful, holistic and effective care. Many patients in mental health settings have concerns or needs related to spiritual or religious …

Examination Of Perceived Stress And Coping Mechanisms Among Midwest, Undergraduate, Bachelor Of Science Nursing Students, Seth T. Dorman

Theses and Dissertations

Stress is a concept that affects everyone and has been linked to increased incidences of depression and anxiety as well as causing a variety of physical symptoms. College students have been shown to be at an increased risk for higher levels of stress. While studies have been conducted looking at stress levels and causes of stress in undergraduate nursing students in other countries, very few of these studies have been conducted on a population of students within the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine variables that affect levels of stress in undergraduate Bachelor of Science nursing …

Cohabitation In North Dakota: A Socio-Legal Examination Of The Congruence Of The Law And Attitudes Towards Living Arrangements Among College Students, James Lee Foster

Theses and Dissertations

The political wrangling over cohauitation law has been an ongoing ordeal in North Dakota politics in recent years. Even more so since there have been multiple failed attempts to have the State’s law panning cohabitation repealed. The purpose of this thesis is to determine attitudes toward cohabitation and its components from a sample of college students. There were a total of 945 participants who took part in the study which called for them to fill out a short survey. The survey consists of three parts.

Pari I includes such items as race, sex, gender, etc. basically demographic data. Part II …

Needing To Act: Exploring Deliberate Self-Harm In Incarcerated Women, Jacqueline Mangnall

Theses and Dissertations

Deliberate self-harm (DSH), behavior that causes minor to moderate physical injury that is undertaken without conscious suicidal intent, is a frequent behavior in institutions such as prisons. The purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory of DSH in incarcerated women. Seven incarcerated women who self-harm were interviewed and constant comparative analysis techniques were used to develop a model of DSH in incarcerated women. The model of Needing to Act emerged from the data of this study. Adverse childhood and adult events, such as sexual and physical abuse, were the predisposing factors for both acting out (criminal offending) …

Perception Of Entering Freshmen About Drinking On North Dakota Campuses, Karin L. Walton

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined self-reported rates of binge drinking in the community (entering freshmen), during the transition period from high school to college (entering freshmen perception of college drinking), and on the campus (enrolled college student). Subgroups of gender, state of residence and parental congruence regarding knowledge and/or permission about entering freshmen consumption were also examined. The purpose of this study was to determine if students bring drinking behavior to campus or learn to drink after arriving on campus.

Interventions aimed at reducing binge drinking on college campuses have become the focus of national consideration. Attempts to moderate binge drinking of …

Enhancing The Knowledge Level Of Student Nurses About The United States And Guatemala, Lucy A. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive study determined the knowledge level of student nurses before and after an educational presentation. Thirty-two freshman student nurses in the Nursing 298 class took part in this study. Participants were given a questionnaire that measured their knowledge level regarding the impacts of culture, poverty, homelessness, and psychiatric illness in the United States and the third world country of Guatemala.

Data for each of these areas was analyzed and a significant increase in the level of knowledge was noted between pre-test and post-test results. Relevant findings indicated that the average test score on pretests taken prior to the educational …

A Program Evaluation Of The Umc/Und Aerospace Flight Training Center, Paul R. Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Improving Native American College Graduation Rates, Sacheen L. Whitetail

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Acculturation, Locus Of Control, And Glucose Levels Among American Indians With Diabetes, Gennea A. Danks

Theses and Dissertations

Diabetes is a critical health care issue for American Indian tribes throughout the United States. Research is increasingly considering the emotional, psychological, and social aspects of the disease, in addition to the physical attributes and consequences of diabetes. One psychological attribute that has been examined in the context of glucose control and response to diabetes treatment is locus of control, with evidence suggesting that locus of control is an important consideration in terms of physical health and compliance among people diagnosed with diabetes (Konen, 1993). The current study attempted to further this line ofresearch by examining the relationship between locus …

Educational Presentations On Diagnosis And Treatment Of Primary Immune Deficiency Disorders, Joann Almen

Theses and Dissertations

P1imary Immune Deficiency Disorders (PIDD) are rare disorders not commonly encountered in primary care. Therefore healthcare providers have limited knowledge of diagnosis, treatment, and optimal care for individuals with a PIDD. Current research indicates there is a greater prevalence then initially thought and that if the diagnosis is not made promptly detiimental outcomes can occur. Many of the disorders are treated with infusions of immune globulins. This project included preparing a Nurses Self-Study Packet on infusing Intravenous Immunoglobulin and a didactic educational power point presentation on Diagnosis and Treatment of PIDDs in primary care. These presentations offer a low cost, …

Parental Death And Its Impact On The Marital Satisfaction Of The Surviving Adult Child, Ryan Glenn Henry

Theses and Dissertations

Previous literature has identified parental death as having a negative impact on the physical and mental health of the surviving adult child. In addition, research suggests that the marital satisfaction of a male or female adult child is negatively impacted after either a father or mother has died. The purpose of this research is to further study this topic by examining longitudinal dyadic data to determine how the death of a parent or death of an in-law impacts marital interaction when certain mediating variables are taken into account. Some of the mediating variables included quality of the parent-child relationship, caregiving, …

Two New Resorcinarenes: A Pyridine & Acetic Acid Ligand For Metal Coordination And A Deep-Cavity Nitroquinoxaline Resorcinarene, Samantha Sizemore Vernetti

Theses and Dissertations

Functionalizing the upper rim of resorcinarene-based cavitands allows a variety of compounds to be synthesized from a single scaffold. Using the upper-rim moieties as ligands for a variety of transition metal ions further increases the versatility of this class of host compounds. A new resorcinarene-based molecule functionalized with four pyridine and acetic acid ligands has been successfully prepared to explore the properties of metal-assembled complexes. To synthesize this compound, tetra(bromomethyl)cavitand was reacted with N-(2-pyridylmethyl)-N-ethylacetate amine to give ethyl acetate pyridine resorcinarene. Hydrolysis of the ester gave acetic acid pyridine resorcinarene (APRes) in good yield. Complexes with Cu2+, Co2+, and Zn2+ …

Supporting Second Language Acquisition In Head Start Classrooms, Laurie E. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Parent Involvement In The Development Of Literacy At An Elementary Level, Sandra S. Gilje

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Gas Chromatography: Mass Spectrometry Of Chemical Agents And Related Interferents, Lailiang Zhai

Theses and Dissertations

One of the main problems encountered in chemical analysis operations in the field is collecting sufficient sample from the source and transferring that sample to the measurement instrument for fast separation and identification. I have been involved in developing a field-portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) system with solid phase microextraction (SPME) sampling for point detection of chemical agents. The objective is to minimize the analysis time between sampling and detection of a potential chemical threat. SPME offers a convenient means for sampling gaseous and liquid samples, concentrating the analytes, and transferring the analytes to the injection port of a GC …

Quantifying Chlorophyll A Content Through Remote Sensing: A Pilot Study Of Utah Lake, Tiana Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Utah Lake is a really large but shallow lake located in the arid environment of the Western United States. Due to a variety of factors it is listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as an "impaired water body" and must be closely monitored. Because of its large extent and shallow depth the water quality is heterogeneous and can change rapidly. This means that traditional water quality monitoring methods, which require large investments in field personnel, equipment, and water sample analysis, cannot produce a model that is truly representative of the entire water body. This thesis examines the feasibility of using …

Digital Storytelling: The Application Of Vichian Theory, Karen Pierotti

Theses and Dissertations

Storytelling is often looked at as something archaic or something that simpler cultures engage in. However, in our sophisticated and highly technological world storytelling swirls about us though we may not always recognize it. This thesis looks at the phenomenon of digital storytelling that functions to create community on the Internet. In order to ground this phenomenon in theory, I examine the works of Giambattista Vico, the 18th-century Neapolitan philosopher/rhetorician, who lived on the cusp of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. Furthermore, as a teacher of rhetoric to youth, Vico admonished young people to study the arts of …

Uncertainty Estimation For Target Detection System Discrimination And Confidence Performance Metrics, David R. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

This research uses a Bayesian framework to develop probability densities for target detection system performance metrics. The metrics include the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the confidence error generation (CEG) curve. The ROC curve is a discrimination metric that quantifies how well a detection system separates targets and non-targets, and the CEG curve indicates how well the detection system estimates its own confidence. The degree of uncertainty in these metrics is a concern that previous research has not adequately addressed. This research formulates probability densities of the metrics and characterizes their uncertainty using confidence bands. Additional statistics are obtained …

Evaluating Alternatives For Drinking Water At Deployed Locations, Brian S. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

Because of potential improvements to water security and cost savings, military decision makers may want to consider new means of providing potable water to Airmen in deployed locations. Drilling for water and field bottling show great potential because of the increased security and lower per unit cost when compared to bottled water from approved sources. However, the selection of the best means to supply water is a hard decision which must balance multiple objectives (e.g., security, palatability, and convenience) against limited resources (e.g., cost, airlift, trucks, and personnel). A multi-objective decision analysis model quantifies a decision-maker's values regarding the many …

Coalition Modeling In Humanitarian Assistance Operations, Sung Wan Bang

Theses and Dissertations

Multinational operations are carried out to achieve military and diplomatic objectives in various regions. Such operations derive a great deal of benefits from sharing budgets, political legitimacy, sharing each national experience and technological resources, and so forth. However, a coalition, one structure of multinational operations, often involves serious challenges in such areas as command and control, logistic support, communication and language, training, and intelligence and information due to its ad hoc characteristics. This research reviews general problems in a coalition operation, and develops the Coalition Operation Planning Model to assist coalition commanders or staff in producing an efficient operational plan. …

The Role Of Fgfr4 In Trigeminal Placode Cell Development, Stephanie Beth Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

In vertebrate embryos, the ophthalmic trigeminal (opV) placode contributes sensory neurons to the trigeminal ganglion during development of the peripheral nervous system. FGFR4 is expressed transiently in the trigeminal placode as cells undergo an epithelial-mesenchymal transition and begin to migrate toward the condensing ganglion. Because of the restricted spatiotemporal expression of FGFR4 in the opV placode, it was hypothesized that FGFR4 is necessary for the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the opV placode. Using electroporation, an FGFR4 inhibitory gene construct was introduced into 6—10 somite stage chick embryos. This secreted inhibitory form of the FGFR4 gene blocked endogenous FGFR4 signaling, …

Two-Year-Olds' Discrimination Of Gender-Stereotyped Activities, Sara Elizabeth Hill

Theses and Dissertations

Two-year-olds' knowledge of gender-stereotyped tasks was assessed in an experiment that utilized the preferential looking paradigm. The looking times of toddlers' (N = 18) gazes towards gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent activities were measured and assessed. In the procedure, toddlers viewed either a male or female actor on two displays performing a masculine stereotyped activity (shaving, putting on a tie) on one screen and a feminine stereotyped activity (putting on lipstick, putting on nail-polish) on the other screen. Infants also viewed male and female actors performing gender-neutral activities (eating, drinking water) side by side in control trials. Consistent with our predictions and …

Exploring Cultural Competence In The Lived Experience Of Instructional Designers, Paul Clinton Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a limited amount of research concerning culture and online education. Although human beings have the ability to transcend past and current environments, helping professions are recognizing the influence of cultural epistemologies on themselves and those they intend to serve. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of additional challenges and concerns present when designing online instruction in a cross-cultural context. The data collected in this study stands as preliminary work to creating a substantive theory regarding the importance of cultural influences in the thinking, practice and lived experience of instructional designers, specifically those who …

Flight Testing Small, Electric Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Jon N. Ostler

Theses and Dissertations

Flight testing methods are developed to find the drag polar for small UAVs powered by electric motors with fixed-pitch propellers. Wind tunnel testing was used to characterize the propeller-motor efficiency. The drag polar was constructed using data from flight tests. The proposed methods were implemented for a small UAV. A drag polar was found for this aircraft with CDo equal to 0.021, K1 equal to 0.229, and K2 equal to -0.056. This drag polar was then used to find the following performance parameters; maximum velocity, minimum velocity, velocity for maximum range, velocity for maximum endurance, maximum rate of climb, maximum …

Soil Stable Carbon Isoptope Analysis Of Landscape Features At Aguateca, Guatemala, David R. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

The ancient Maya of the Classic period (1700-1050 B.P.) relied on maize agriculture to support their populations. The agricultural systems they employed to produce that maize varied in form and degree of intensity, with more productive forms of agriculture needed in the Late Classic period (1350-1050 B.P.) to sustain the peaking population. It is likely that the ancient systems of production agriculture contributed to environmental degradation that in turn contributed to the pressures that culminated in the collapse of the civilization. In this study, stable carbon isotope ratios contained in the soil organic matter were used to further investigate ancient …