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In Search Of The Qualitative Clear Majority: Democratic Experimentalism And The Quebec Secession Reference, Cristie Ford

All Faculty Publications

This article attempts to marry direct democratic deliberation with the enforcement of important constitutional norms in the context of a real-life policy question. The question is the secession of Quebec from Canada. The article argues that a referendum is neither the most legitimate nor the most effective way to address the issue. The debate over Quebec's future must be reoriented by reference to the broad normative framework set out by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Reference Re Secession of Quebec, [1998] 2 S.C.R. 217, combined with a new democratic process. This article introduces an innovative constitutional model called …

Providing Phonemic Awareness Instruction To Pre-First Graders: An Extended-Year Kindergarten Program, Thomas Terrence Cleary

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents a longitudinal study of kindergartners who participated in a summer instructional program. The study addressed the question: To what extent does an extended school year program for kindergartners, featuring phonemic awareness instruction, improve children's reading proficiency in the 1st and 2nd grade? Utilizing two district made surveys, the Phonemic Awareness Interview (PAI) and the Literacy Curriculum Scale (LCS) as pre-tests, 62 children from the 1997-1998 kindergarten cohort of 238 children were identified as exhibiting literacy and phonemic awareness deficits; they were invited to participate in the Kinder Camp Program. Of the 62 children invited 40 elected to …

Biological Vibrational Spectroscopy: From A Cellular To A Sub-Cellular Level, Scott Wade Huffman

Open Access Dissertations

The prevention of fatality from disease has long been a goal of medical and food sciences. In the field of cervical cancer research, the early detection of cancerous cells via Pap smear screening has proven to be an effective tool in combating cancer related deaths. However the sheer magnitude of Pap smears needing diagnosis has led to a decrease in efficiency and accuracy. In a different field, a similar problem persists. The goal of food science is to provide mass quantities of food that is safe for consumption. The amount of food prepared for dispersal is staggering in that it …

Movin' On Up To The 21st Century: Multiculturalism… Making The Abstract Applied, Vonda Dionne Jones-Hudson

Open Access Dissertations

The following evaluative study looks at a psychology department's organizational development and change process. Using the Multicultural Environment Inventory (MEI) (Pope-Davis & Liu, 1995), the Departmental Cross Reference to the MEI (DCR-MEI) (Jones-Hudson, 1997), and a short version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Reynolds, 1982), this research assessed the psychometric properties of the surveys and the effects of the 3-year intervention designed to assist the University of Rhode Island's Psychology Department in its journey towards multicultural proficiency. Using information from an initial consult in 1995, data was collected in 1998 to measure change specific to the environment and curricula …

An Analysis Of Rhode Island Child Opportunity Zones Through The Lens Of Whole-School Change, Susan Patricia Casey Torrey

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigated Rhode Island Child Opportunity Zones (COZ), a school-linked service integration initiative that provides students and their families' links to health, mental health, and social services. Twenty-one elementary and three middle COZ schools were compared to twenty-one and three middle matched schools on a whole school level utilizing the High Performance Learning Communities Assessment, which is a comprehensive measure of school change. Comparison schools were matched on student demographics of gender, ethnicity, and free lunch status. Schools were compared on hundreds of variables across various stakeholders, including parents, school staff, school administrators, and students. The study found limited …

Cultural Conditioning And Mother/Daughter Conflicts In The Development Of Identity And Voice: The Autobiographical Fiction Of Dorothy Allison, Wan-So Pak, And Maxine Hong Kingston, Eunjoo Woo

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the fictionalized autobiographies of three women writers from different cultures and ethnicities and analyzes the development of female identity, subjectivity, and voice through the mother/daughter relationships in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out Of Carolina, Wan-So Pak's The Naked Tree and Mother's Stake 1, and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. These three women writers introduce the mother/daughter conflicts and suggest ways to reconcile with each other or to solve their problems in their particular and cultural contexts. Also, in spite of their cultural differences, all three women writers share their belief that the process of the daughter's search …

Testing The River Continuum Concept: Exploring Ecological Processes In The Wheeling Creek Watershed., Deborah Ann Carpenter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The river continuum concept (RCC) asserts that the biological community in a stream system is largely regulated by geomorphological factors (Vannote, et al., 1980, 131). The concept states that community structure in natural stream systems is structured in order to capitalize on the most efficient energy utilization throughout. The objective of this research is to test the RCC in the Wheeling Creek watershed of northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania and to compare the results with those hypothesized under the RCC. One of the strongest criticisms of the RCC is that the continuum assumes an undisturbed stream system. Anomalies found …

Departure: A Novella And Other Stories., William Matthew Carter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Departure: A Novella and Other Stories is my master’s thesis written during the fall semester of 2000. The novella and two of the stories are original works created during this time. The remaining stories were written during various fiction workshops. The stories and novella all deal with individuals coming to the precipice of a major experience in their lives. My work deals with the psychological or worldly concerns these characters must ponder in deciding whether to withdraw, act, or leap from their precipice. Some themes I explore in this work as a whole include addictions, homelessness, death, and physical, mental, …

A Break-Even Analysis Of Trout Processing In West Virginia: A Case Study Approach., Ryan M. Fincham

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this study was to determine the current status of trout processing in West Virginia and to determine break-even quantities of whole pounds of trout required for the two main processors in the state. Simulation models were developed for each firm specific to the characteristics of the plant. Scenarios were developed according to historical demand for products and product profit margins determined by the model. Results show that the smaller of the plants experiences regional prices, which are higher than what the industry acquires. If the prices decrease, the plant will have to make changes in processing techniques …

Social Exchange Theory, Interpersonal Communication Motives, And Volunteerism: Identifying Motivation To Volunteer And The Rewards And Costs Associated., Michael Wesley Corrigan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The research objective of this study was to identify the motives behind an individual’s reasons for volunteering and discuss the equilibrium of rewards versus costs needed in order to sustain and better manage volunteer staffs. The participants for this study were drawn from a sample population of 177 individuals from three states (Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) who actively participated as volunteers. The sample participants were active volunteers in six different organizations that assisted hospital patients, underprivileged or at-risk youth, church related concerns, schools, and other miscellaneous services. Answers to the research questions proposed in this study offered a start …

A Comparison Of The Operating Envelopes Of Diesel-Fueled Truck Engines And Hybrid Electric Bus Engines To The Federal Testing Procedure Cycle., Nene Akunor Azu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recent chassis and on-road testing of hybrid electric buses (HEBs) performed by West Virginia University demonstrated the potential of hybrid technology to be significantly fuel efficient and reduce regulated emissions and greenhouse gas output compared to buses with conventional drivetrains. All heavy-duty engines, including the engines in HEBs, need to be certified through the Federal Testing Procedure (FTP) prescribed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The operation of series HEBs with engine-generator units does not follow the behavior of the FTP, which is transient in nature. It was evident that, unlike conventional buses, HEBs were designed to operate over …

Diversity, Abundance, And The Effect Of Bacillus Thuringiensis Var. Kurstaki Berliner And Gypchek™ On Larval And Adult Symphyta In Virginia And West Virginia, Rachel Ann Braud

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Eighteen 200 ha plots were established in the Monongahela National Forest (MNF), Pocahontas County, West Virginia, and in the George Washington National Forest (GWNF), Augusta County, Virginia. From 1995-1999 Malaise traps and foliage pruning were used to collect Symphyta adults and larvae. During 1997 and 1998, six plots each were aerially treated with nucleopolyhedrosis virus (Gypchek™) and Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki. The remaining six plots were left untreated. Adult Symphyta richness and abundance were studied using Malaise traps. Each plot contained two Malaise traps, located at different elevations, which were monitored from early May through mid-August of 1995 through 1999. …

Exploring Out-Of-Class Communication: The Development And Testing Of A Measure., Jennifer Lee-Ann Knapp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to examine out-of-class communication (OCC) between students and instructors. More specifically, the study was concerned with student immediacy, instructor immediacy, student affect for the course and affect for the instructor, and student motives for communicating with their instructors outside of the classroom. Participants were students enrolled in undergraduate communication classes at two institutions, Canisius College and West Virginia University. 218 participants completed surveys regarding the instructor they talked to the most outside of the classroom (e.g. during office hours, on campus, or around town). Results of the study show that OCC is positively and …

A Synthetic Approach To Fr901483., Li Sha

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A novel immunosuppressant, FR901483 (1) was discovered by a Fujisawa company, which was isolated from the fermentation broth of a fungal strain. It exerts a potent immunosuppressive activity in vitro and significantly prolongs graft survival time in the rat skin allograft model. Our group has postulated a novel synthetic approach to the target compound (1) that can be used for the preparation of a structurally diverse set of compounds. And our group has successfully synthesized the aminoaldehyde 42 that possesses the core structure of FR901483 using the tandem cationic aza-Cope rearrangement-Mannich cyclization strategy. In order to apply this strategy to …

Growth And Physiological Responses Of Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus Mykiss, To Elevated Carbon Dioxide: Chronic And Acute Challenges., Melody Louisea Mae Danley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

West Virginia aquaculture is an expanding industry currently characterized by smallscale, widely dispersed farms. In 2000, state sales of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss reached US$611,000. To facilitate future expansion with a focus on product quality as well as production efficiency, identification of limiting factors and new or alternative management techniques are needed. Objectives of this three-month study were to identify how carbon dioxide, a common water quality problem in the region, affects the growth and physiological stress responses of intensively cultured rainbow trout. Growth (weight, specific growth rate, thermal growth coefficient, and condition factor) and physiological stress responses (hematocrit, plasma …

Generational Factors And Resource Availability: A Study Of The Key Components Of Social Capital Formation., Jeffrey Jay Himes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this study, we join the discourse concerning social capital and its formation. Social capital has been identified as a key ingredient to the creation of interconnected community. We theorize that access to resources plays a more prominent role than does membership in a particular age set in the production of engaged and involved community members. In our study, we categorize individuals by age set and resource level and make comparisons between groups and upon individuals among the various (5) indicators of social capital. Our analysis of the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation data implies that individuals who are resource low …

An Analysis Of A Reformulated Emission Control Diesel Effects On Heavy-Duty Vehicle Diesel Exhaust Emissions., Paidamoyo Andrea Nyika

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Four fleets of heavy-duty diesel engine vehicles were emissions characterized using the West Virginia University (WVU) Transportable Heavy Duty Vehicle Emissions Testing Laboratory chassis dynamometer. Diesel exhaust emissions are comprised of a mixture of gases, liquid aerosols and substances made up of trace elements. They contain complex products of combustion including; carbon (soot), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and water. With tougher laws and regulations being implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to achieve cleaner air in the future, pressure has been mounting on vehicle users, factories, power …

Erisa Preemption And The Case For A Federal Common Law Of Agency Governing Employer-Administrators, Joshua Fairfield

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Behavioral Inhibition, Social Withdrawal, And Parenting, Kim B. Burgess, Kenneth H. Rubin, Charissa S. L. Cheah, Larry J. Nelson

Faculty Publications

The study of children's social and emotional development requires that attention be paid to such factors as dispositional/biological factors (e.g., temperament), familial interactions and relationships, social contexts (e.g., school, neighborhood), and culture. For example, Hinde (1995) has advanced the notion that development be considered from a multi-level perspective beginning with individual characteristics and progressing the interaction, relationship, and group levels of analysis and conjecture. At the level of the individual child, developmental scientists have studies such constructs as temperament that might lead to problematic social or behavioral outcomes. One such interpersonal characteristic is that of "difficult" temperament – a phenomenon …

Hard Cases For Autonomy, Respect, And Professionalism In Medical Genetics, Roger B. Dworkin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review. Ordinary Resurrections: Children In The Years Of Hope By Jonathan Kozol, Michael Jenuwine, Jane E. Barden

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Controllability And Anxious Responding: Experimental Evaluation Using 20% Carbon Dioxide-Enriched Air., Michael J. Zvolensky

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Although emotional control maintains a central role in contemporary models of anxiety pathology, particularly panic disorder, there is little understanding about the ways in which specific control processes alter anxiety-related responding. In the present study, offset control over eight 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air administrations was experimentally manipulated in a large nonclinical population (n = 96) varying in anxiety sensitivity (high or low) and gender. Dependent measures included self-reported anxiety, affective reports of valence, arousal, emotional control, and physiological indices of heart rate and skin conductance. High anxiety sensitive participants who lacked offset control reported significantly greater elevations in self-reported anxiety, …

The Relationship Of Motivation And Psychological Skills Of Senior Game Participants To Performance., Keiba Lynn Shaw

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Involvement in physical activity and sports in the senior population has been shown within the literature to provide these athletes with improved health status and psychological benefits (McPherson, 1984). To date, few studies have examined psychological factors, such as motivation and psychological skills, in relation to senior athletes' participation in competitive sports. The sport psychology literature does include the measurement of the constructs of motivation and psychological skills via the use of the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory - 28 (ACSI-28) (Smith, Schultz, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1995) and the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) (Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, Tuson, Briere, & Blais, 1995) …

The Globalization Of Public Health: The First 100 Years Of International Health Diplomacy, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Global threats to public health in the 19th century sparked the development of international health diplomacy. Many international regimes on public health issues were created between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. The present article analyses the global risks in this field and the international legal responses to them between 1851 and 1951, and explores the lessons from the first century of international health diplomacy of relevance to contemporary efforts to deal with the globalization of public health.

Thou Shalt Not Put A Stumbling Block Before The Blind": The Americans With Disabilities Act And Public Transit For The Disabled, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), ordered local governments to make bus and train systems more accessible to the disabled, and imposed costly requirements upon local public transit systems - but did not give local governments funds with which to satisfy this mandate. By reducing the funds available to transit systems, the ADA has sometimes forced cutbacks in transit service for everyone including, ironically, the disabled to the extent that disabled people were able to use public transit before the ADA's enactment). Thus, the ADA has occasionally (at least in times of budgetary austerity) been counterproductive. The ADA's inadequacy is …

13-C Nmr Analysis Of Soot Produced From Model Compounds And A Coal, Mark S. Solum, Adel F. Sarofim, Ronald J. Pugmire, Thomas H. Fletcher, Haifeng Zhang

Faculty Publications

Soot samples, including the associated organics, produced from an Illinois No. 6 coal (five samples) and two model compounds, biphenyl (three samples) and pyrene (two samples), have been studied by ¹³C NMR methods. The coal soot data served as a guide to selection of the temperature range that would be most fruitful for investigation of the evolution of aerosols composed of soot and tars that are generated from model compounds. The evolution of the different materials in the gas phase followed different paths. The coal derived soots exhibited loss of aliphatic and oxygen functional groups prior to significant growth …

Suffolk University Academic Catalog And Handbook, College Of Arts And Sciences And School Of Management, 2001-2002, Suffolk University

College of Arts and Sciences and Sawyer Business School Academic Catalogs

This catalog contains information for the day, evening, and graduate programs

Polimorfismo De Apolipoproteína E Y Valores De Presión Arterial Ambulatoria Durante 24 Horas En Adolescentes [Apolipoprotein E Polimorphisms And Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring During 24 Hours In Adolescents], Egle Silva, Tulio Sulbarán, Gladys E. Maestre, Aldrin Molero, Waleska Fulkado

School of Medicine Publications

Objectives: To find the predictive value of apolipoprotein E (apo E) and ambulatory measure of blood pressure in adolescents.

Methods: We performed ambulatory monitoring of blood pres- sure (AMBP) in 176 adolescents (13.18 years old) of both genders who came to the Center of cardiovascular Disease at the University of Zulia (Venezuela). The average BP during wake, sleep and 24 hours as well as their variations, were regístered. Apo E gen was also determined by Polimerase chain and the diagnosis of the genotype was made on the gel photography according to the combination of bands of different sizes.

Results: …

Dealing With Conflicts Of Interest In Biomedical Research: Irb Oversight As The Next Best Solution To The Abolitionist Approach, Jesse Goldner

All Faculty Scholarship

The author details the conflicts of interest facing individual investigators and research institutions and describes the current mechanisms, primarily focused at the relationship between the investigator and the research institution, to regulate these conflicts. The author finds these mechanisms insufficient and believes that the best approach is not to regulate conflicts, but to abolish them. The author acknowledges, however, that there is a lack of political will in an abolitionist approach. He proposes, therefore, institutional review board oversight at the level of the relationship between researcher and individual subjects as the next best solution.

Leadership, Episodes And Change In The Early Kanawha Valley, Stephen Annese Smoot

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The frontier period of the Kanawha Valley provides an interesting example of the sometimes dramatic change that occurred on the fringes of American civilization as it inched across the continent. Within twelve years of the creation of the county, it had developed from an embattled military buffer region into a quiet backwoods town. For the first six years, Indian attacks constantly assailed the settlements along the Kanawha River. Very likely, without the quality of leadership in the towns and military posts, the population would have retreated into safer regions of Virginia. Somehow men such as George Clendenin, founder of the …