Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of Factors Contributing To Acculturation Stress For International Graduate Students In A Small Non-Profit Graduate School, Nkenge Friday

Theses and Dissertations

The increase of international students studying in universities and colleges in the United States has led to the need for additional programming and resources on campuses that support the transitioning needs related to campus and community culture. Given the diverse cultural needs of international students and the metropolitan culture of Washington, DC, acculturation stress can be a common occurrence while attending the intensive graduate program.

In this study, international students attending a small graduate school in Washington, DC were interviewed while resources provided for transitioning and ongoing support for the students were examined. Factors related to areas of programming and …

Factors Contributing To Juvenile Crime Leading To The Disparity Of The Risk Levels For Secure Detainment, Dawn Prystajko

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this research was to explore the factors that contributed to juvenile crime which in turn caused disparity in secure detainment among juveniles. This was based upon the alternate hypothesis that there is a noticeable disparity with minority youths being more securely detained opposed to majority youths. Therefore, the research was designed to examine raw data obtained from the Juvenile Justice Services Planner/JDAI Coordinator of the excel database of juvenile arrests/detainment.

The findings revealed several key points. The finding revealed that useable data extracted from the excel database was not able to neither agree with nor support …

An Examination Of The Scale Of Accurate Personality Prediction’S (Sapp) Test-Retest Reliability Across A Four-Week Period, Taylor Catherine Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The questions surrounding how well one can truly know him/herself dates as far back as Ancient Greek times, and answering the question has been a difficult task given the complexity of human beings, and a somewhat subjective term such as the “self.” As science and technology continue to advance, so do the attempts to accurately define self-knowledge. Miller (2000) took defining self-knowledge a step further, and developed a test derived from the Sixteen Personality Prediction Questionnaire (16PF) to measure individuals’ level of self-knowledge how well they know themselves, based on their ability to accurately predict their scores on the 16PF. …

The Long-Term Significance Of Working As An Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Christopher J. Felege

Theses and Dissertations

The use of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) has increased in recent years at a number of institutions, especially in active-learning and high-enrollment introductory courses. Currently, there is research demonstrating their benefit to students, and the short-term impacts of the experience on the UTAs. However, no study to date has investigated the long-term impacts of the UTA experience on the participants themselves, and a number of studies call for such an investigation. This dissertation sought to fill that gap in understanding by utilizing a Grounded Theory approach to investigate the perceptions of participants who had served as an UTA in the …

Electroencephalogram Signal Processing For Hybrid Brain Computer Interface Systems, Md. Ali Haider

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to evaluate and compare three types of brain computer interface (BCI) systems, P300, steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) and Hybrid as virtual spelling paradigms. Hybrid BCI is an innovative approach to combine the P300 and SSVEP. However, it is challenging to process the resulting hybrid signals to extract both information simultaneously and effectively. The major step executed toward the advancement to modern BCI system was to move the BCI techniques from traditional LED system to electronic LCD monitor. Such a transition allows not only to develop the graphics of interest but also to …

Parting A Read Sea Of Images: An Exploration Of Field Dependent-Independent Responses To Minimalist, Pictographic And Infographic Data Displays, Debra Kaye Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

Western society reflects an “eikoncentric era” when contemporary instruction has become image -centered. Textbooks, journals, popular media as well as computer-based and web- based instructional media are filled by pictures that are intended to accomplish learning. Imagery is widely believed to represent an efficient, understandable method for relaying information and clarifying instruction for nearly all learners. However, those who subscribe to the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” often fail to acknowledge individual differences in visual comprehension and cognition. The field dependent-independent (FDI) cognitive style describes individual learner differences that can thwart visual learning. Information graphics are among …

Dead End Body Component Inspections With Convolutional Neural Networks Using Uas Imagery, Ian Edward Nordeng

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a novel system utilizing previously developed convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures to aid in automating maintenance inspections of the dead-end body component (DEBC) from high-tension power lines. To maximize resolution of inspection images gathered via unmanned aerial systems (UAS), two different CNNs were developed. One to detect and crop the DEBC from an image. The second to classify the likelihood the component in question contains a crack. The DEBC detection CNN utilized a Python implementation of Faster R-CNN fine-tuned for three classes via 270 inspection photos collected during UAS inspection, alongside 111 images from provided simulated imagery. …

Automatic Approach To Morphological Classification Of Galaxies With Analysis Of Galaxy Populations In Clusters, Madina Renatovna Sultanova

Theses and Dissertations

The classification of galaxies based on their morphology (i.e. structural properties) is a field in astrophysics that aims to understand galaxy formation and evolution based on their physical differences. Whether structural differences are due to internal factors or a result of local environment, the dominate mechanism that determines galaxy type needs to be robustly quantified in order to have a thorough grasp of the origin of the different types of galaxies (e.g., elliptical, S0, spiral, and irregular). The main subject of this thesis is to explore the use of computers to automatically analyze and classify large numbers of galaxies based …

To “Own Yourself A Little More”: Afropolitan Feminism In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, Bridget Tetteh-Batsa

Theses and Dissertations

Afropolitanism, in part, accounts for itinerant and so autonomous Africans who shape the contours of a late-modern global history. If Afropolitanism describes the work and activism of 21st century Africans in Euro-America determined to challenge western discourses that malign Africa, it is important to witness the distinctive character and voice Afropolitan women bring to that history defining exercise. Otherwise, as critics and scholars interested in what Afropolitanism brings to the work of reframing master narratives hitherto encircled for western primacy, we risk reinforcing the injustice we address.

To fill this gap in the literature, I employ Selasi’s initial conception of …

Assessment Of Blood Pressure Regulatory Controls To Detect Hypovolemia And Orthostatic Intolerance, Ajay Kumar Verma

Theses and Dissertations

Regulation of blood pressure is vital for maintaining organ perfusion and homeostasis. A significant decline in arterial blood pressure could lead to fainting and hypovolemic shock. In contrast to young and healthy, people with impaired autonomic control due to aging or disease find regulating blood pressure rather demanding during orthostatic challenge. This thesis performed an assessment of blood pressure regulatory controls during orthostatic challenge via traditional as well as novel approaches with two distinct applications 1) to design a robust automated system for early identification of hypovolemia and 2) to assess orthostatic tolerance in humans. In chapter 3, moderate intensity …

Examining Determinants Of Patient Activation In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study, Marnie M. Wetzstein

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Self-management plays a central role in the treatment chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the patient characteristics necessary for effective self-management are not understood. The skills, confidence, and knowledge to engage in chronic disease self-care, known as patient activation, may play a key role in the capacity of people to self-manage COPD. How the complex, systemic nature of COPD influences patient activation has not been explored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among patient characteristics and health outcomes as determinants of patient activation among community-dwelling adults in the U.S. with COPD. The Revised Wilson …

Effects Of Early Cadmium And Selenium Exposure On Zebrafish Neural Development And Behavior, Marissa Wold

Theses and Dissertations

Cadmium is a naturally-occurring trace metal frequently found in soil that has been linked with increased prevalence of various cancers via formation of reactive oxygen species. Selenium, a widely-prevalent metalloid, antagonizes the detrimental action of cadmium and has been demonstrated to exert a rescue effect. The present work focuses on the short- and long-term effects of exposure to ecologically-relevant cadmium concentrations on zebrafish development and behavior, and compares this to co-treatment with selenium. This study has demonstrated a decrease in overall brain size, specifically telencephalic area, in response to cadmium exposure, and has documented a sparing effect of selenium treatment. …

Morphological And Genetic Analysis Of Embryo Specific Mutants In Maize, Dale Cletus Brunelle

Theses and Dissertations

The maize zygote normally develops over approximately 45-days into a mature embryo comprised of five or six leaf primordia and several root primordia. The developing embryo passes through the proembryo, transition, coleoptilar and stage 1 (first leaf primordium) morphogenetic stages followed by the iterative formation of additional leaf primordia during stages 2 through 6 according to Abbe and Stein (1954). Using ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) treatment of maize pollen from W22 inbreed we have produced lethal embryo specific (emb) mutants that have no obvious effects on endosperm development except for some reduction in kernel size in some cases. Thirteen emb mutants …

Reliability Of The Styku 3d Whole Body Scanner For The Assessment Of Body Size In College Athletes, Joseph Daniel Derouchey

Theses and Dissertations

3-dimensional (3D) anthropometrics, such as volumes and surface area, have been shown to be important in predicting sport performance, and assessing health status, but most commercially available whole-body scanners are cost prohibitive. The main purpose of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability of a commercially available single camera 3D body scanning system to assess whole body and segmental circumferences, surface areas, and volumes of healthy collegiate athletes and students. Forty-nine male and female student-athletes active in various sports from a division I institute were scanned and measurements were analyzed. The single camera system demonstrated good within- and between-session …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Novel Bioplastics By Innovative 3d Printing Approaches, Kathryn Marie Hall

Theses and Dissertations

This work describes the synthesis and characterization of novel bioplastic composites by using novel additive manufacturing (AM) approaches. As a background, global plastic consumption has become a problem with the accumulation of plastics in landfills and the ocean. Recently, bioplastics have emerged as a viable option to petrochemicals. Currently, there are some issues like biodegradability, property optimization with bioplastics etc. In thesis, novel methods and engineering of composition of bioplastics are being reported. In Chapter II, the addition of lignin to the PLA polymer matrix by using solvent mixing will be reported. During this study, liquid ink mixture was successfully …

Examining Cultural Identification And Alcohol Use Among College Students, Lynn Martell

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found American Indians (AI) to demonstrate higher levels of alcohol use than Caucasians (CA); however, recent research has found that AI may be drinking at similar or lower rates than CA. Cultural identification (i.e., degree to which an individual associate with, and represents themselves as a member of a specific cultural group) may be a factor contributing to the level of alcohol use among AI. The current study examined cultural identification and alcohol use among University of North Dakota (UND) AI (n=56) and CA (n=88) college students. Results indicated non-significant differences in alcohol use between cultural identification …

Extraversion And Person-Environment Fit: Towards Consideration Of Jungian Theory In Organizational Psychology, Nicholas Rosemarino

Theses and Dissertations

Historically, the field of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology has relied on the Big 5 taxonomy of personality. The purpose of this study was to examine the value of a Jungian conception of extraversion in the context of the relationship between the physical work environment and person-environment (PE) fit. The MBTI and the NEO-IPIP, representing a Jungian and a taxonomic conception of personality, respectively, were hypothesized to predict the within-person relationship between extraverted environment and PE fit. PE fit was hypothesized to predict perceived satisfaction and perceived performance. To examine these hypotheses, 110 participants were recruited from Mturk and responded to 18 …

Racial Identity Development Of Somali Refugees In The Midwest, Nnenna Lindsay

Theses and Dissertations

The number of Somali refugees in the United States continue s to increase, yet research on their racial identity development, racialization experiences, and strategies used to cope with racism and discrimination is lacking. This qualitative study was conducted to explore the unique racial narratives of Somali refugees. In order to better understand how Somalis make meaning of their racial identity and adjust to the contemporary racial climate of the Midwest, in-depth interviews were conducted with seven Somali refugees and a narrative methodology was used to analyze the results. The overarching narrative highlighted the journey to becoming Black for Somali refugees …

Computational Studies Of Oxides Relevant To Clean Energy, Catalytic Processing Of Renewables, And Biological Systems, Jason M. Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Computational chemistry has grown into a large field and is continuing to grow every year in both number and variety of applications. This dissertation will give a few such applications relevant to cleaner energy production from coal, catalytic degradation of renewable agricultural and forest waste into valuable chemicals, and extending the reach of electronic structure methods to systems of biological and macromolecular interest. The first two studies presented in this dissertation are concerned with the remediation of trace elements released into the environment through the combustion of coal for power production. In flue gases, arsenic and antimony exists most often …

Enhancement Of Phoshorus Removal Via Bioretention Cells Amended With Low Cost Materials, Nick Lindstrom

Theses and Dissertations

As bioretention systems are becoming an increasingly popular low impact development (LID) application for stormwater mitigation, they lack mechanisms that demobilize phosphorus (P) especially dissolved phosphorus (DP). In many cases, these LIDs release more P than is input due to a high P index derived from the plant material inherent within bioretention systems. The objectives of this project are to utilize low-cost water treatment residuals (WTR) as bioretention amendments to capture P. The adsorption characteristics are observed by means of batch level experiments to observe the P adsorption potential without the influence of hydraulic parameters, and column experiments to observe …

Using Citizen Scientists To Inform Machine Learning Algorithms To Automate The Detection Of Species In Ecological Imagery, Marshall Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations

Modern data collection techniques used by ecologists has created a deluge of data that is becoming increasingly difficult to store, filter, and analyze in an efficient and timely manner. In just two summers, over 65,000 unmanned aerial system (UAS) images were collected, comprising the several terabytes (TB) of data that was reviewed by citizen scientists to generate inputs for machine learning algorithms. Uncontrolled conditions and the small size of target species relative to the background further increase the difficulty of manually cataloging the images. To assist with locating and identifying snow geese in the UAS images, a citizen science web …

Women Engineering Majors' Choice To Stay: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Persistence Experiences, Victoria Morrissette

Theses and Dissertations

The historical underrepresentation of women in engineering persists for women engineering majors in college and once they enter the workforce. While some engineering disciplines have seen an increase in women students, overall the numbers still have fallen well behind other STEM disciplines despite years of research. Most studies on this issue have been quantitative and have looked at factors associated with why women leave engineering. This qualitative study, in contrast, gave women engineering majors the opportunity to share their experiences in answer to the question of why women choose to stay in an engineering major. Phenomenological methods, including semi-structured interviews, …

A Channel Ranking And Selection Scheme Based On Channel Occupancy And Snr For Cognitive Radio Systems, Adnan Quadri

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless networks and information traffic have grown exponentially over the last decade. Consequently, an increase in demand for radio spectrum frequency bandwidth has resulted. Recent studies have shown that with the current fixed spectrum allocation (FSA), radio frequency band utilization ranges from 15% to 85%. Therefore, there are spectrum holes that are not utilized all the time by the licensed users, and, thus the radio spectrum is inefficiently exploited. To solve the problem of scarcity and inefficient utilization of the spectrum resources, dynamic spectrum access has been proposed as a solution to enable sharing and using available frequency channels. With …

Characterization Of Infectious Isolates Of Borrelia Burgdorferi In North Dakota, Bb0399 And Bbb28 In B. Burgdorferi, And Borrelia Miyamotoi In Vitro And In Vivo, Brandee Lynn Stone

Theses and Dissertations

The Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) complex contains species carried by hard-shell ticks (Ixodes spp.) and causing Lyme disease and related non-pathogenic species. Relapsing fever Borrelia include both tick-borne (soft-shell, Ornithodoros spp.) and louse-borne species knowns to cause relapsing fever. A subgroup includes relapsing fever spirochetes carried by hard-shell ticks, including B. miyamotoi, an emerging pathogen. Despite bordering high-risk counties in Minnesota, little attention has been given to Lyme disease, B. burgdorferi, I. scapularis, or reservoirs in eastern North Dakota. Reports of B. burgdorferi and I. scapularis in North Dakota, however, prompted a more detailed examination. Through trapping Peromyscus and …

Novel Bio-Kinetic Modeling And 2,3-Butanediol Productivity Optimization Of Clostridium Autoethanogenum, Timothy Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this work is to elucidate the viable significance and technological implications for the fermentative production of 2,3-BDO from syngas by researching the following: derivation of a novel bio-kinetic model with substrate inhibition, analyzing product formation with the use of syngas from coal, and conducting an experimental design for potential significant factors that affect product formation. A critical review and analysis of the state-of-the-art developments for gas to liquid (GTL) technologies and syngas formation from coal are provided.

Origin And Preservation Of Organic-Rich Zones And Kukersite Beds Of The Red River Formation (Upper Ordovician), Williston Basin, North Dakota, Spencer Wheeling

Theses and Dissertations

The Red River Formation is North Dakota’s third most productive hydrocarbon unit. The unit has been interpreted to be self-sourced, but the locations of the source beds has not been thoroughly investigated within the North Dakota portion of the Williston Basin. Using the most current available data, this study investigated the source beds of the Red River Formation. This present study agrees with past studies that there are two source bed types; the first type being a higher organic-rich, thin kukersite bed and the second being a less organic-rich, thicker organic zone. Both types of source beds commonly occur as …

The Relationship Between The Digit Ratio (2d:4d) And Explosive Muscular Strength In College Football Players, Jacob Disterhaupt

Theses and Dissertations

Prenatal testosterone, reflected by digit ratio (2D:4D), is thought to benefit the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems and has been shown to benefit long-duration exercise performance, but little is known about the relationship between 2D:4D and short-duration exercise performance (e.g., explosive muscular strength). This study describes the relationship between 2D:4D and lower-body explosive strength, a key factor in successful sports performance, in college athletes. Sixty-one Division I American Football players from a Midwestern U.S. university had their 2D:4D measured digitally and squat jump performance measured using force-platform jumping mechanography. In addition to the primary outcome of jump height, secondary outcomes depicting …

Exploring Student Perspectives On Elementary To Middle School Transition Practices, Erin Spies

Theses and Dissertations

Characteristics of effective transition programs include (a) providing realistic experiences of middle school expectations for incoming students, (b) frequent communication with students, parents, and staff, and (c) extensive and ongoing planning, assessment, and redesign of the transition program. While these effective components of a transition program have been recommended based on research, student reflection on essential elements have not been included. The purpose of this study was to use phenomenology research methods to identify components of middle school transition programs from the perspective of middle school students. The study analyzed current transitional practices and their alignment with Schlossberg’s Transition Theory …

Effect Of Cisplatin On Metallothionein Expression In Urotsa Cells Malignantly Transformed With Arsenite Or Cadmium, Brooke Alexandra Freeberg

Theses and Dissertations

Heavy metals Arsenite (As3+) and Cadmium (Cd2+) are known human carcinogens and exposure to them occurs through cigarette smoking, industrialization, and contaminated water sources. Epidemiological studies have shown that prolonged exposure to these heavy metals are associated with several health issues, including bladder cancer. With survival rates directly correlated to detection age and tumor stage, the demand for early detection would effectively cut costs and improve the patient prognosis of human bladder cancer.

Metallothioneins (MT) play an essential role in metal regulation, heavy metal detoxification, and cellular redox chemistry in cellular biological systems and tissues. Previous studies in literature have …

A Mixed Method Study Of The Impact Of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, And Dual Enrollment Courses On College Transition And Success, Kazimir Bartley Gazdzik

Theses and Dissertations

In an educational environment that has limited resources, and greater pressures for increased academic standards, what is the best option to help prepare high school students for college academics? This research study: A Mixed Method Study of the Impact of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and Dual Enrollment Courses on College Transition and Success attempted to investigate the impact of advanced courses on college transition.

The results of this research showed no statistical difference in academic success or transition to college between students who had taken advanced classes and those who had not. There were also no statistical differences between students …