Digital Commons Network^™

Director's Intro & News - 33:4, Brad Sietz

LOEX Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Instructional Design With Expertise In Mind (Part 1), Eric Frierson

LOEX Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Synthesis Of An Isotopically Labelled Analog Of The Antimicrobial Peptide Ll-37, Rajesh Penumatcha

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

LL-37 is a cationic cathelin-associated broad spectrum antibiotic peptide of human neutrophils. Its mechanism of action is by disruption of the bacterial cell membrane structure. LL-21 is a simplified form of the peptide that contains only the core portion of LL-37, which retains antimicrobial activity and is easier to synthesize. We synthesized an 15N –Val-labeled LL-21 peptide which allows us to perform antimicrobial assays to know the antimicrobial activity of the new peptide LL-21 on various gram positive and gram negative bacteria. We found that our new peptide LL-21 shows good minimum inhibitory concentrations on various gram positive and gram …

Approval Of New Drugs By The U. S. Food And Drug Administration: Problems With The Process And Access To Unapproved Drugs, Christine M. Hoeft-Loyer

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Today, the vast majority of drugs available for patient use have gone through a rigorous system of human clinical trials supervised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to ensure the drugs are safe and efficacious. There are now citizen advocacy groups that seek use of drugs not yet approved by the FDA, to be administered to terminally ill patients who have exhausted all other available means of therapy. The FDA has programs for terminal patients, under the supervision of their physicians, to use unapproved drugs; however, the advocacy groups seek access to drugs in much earlier phases than is …

Serum Gamma-Glutamyltransferase And The Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes In A Population-Based Cohort Study Of Older Mexican Americans, Lynn Blythe

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that increased GGT predicts an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in elderly Mexican Americans.

Data from a population-based cohort study of 1789 community-dwelling Mexican American men and women, aged 60-101, in the SALSA study were used. Data for 1,203 participants without diabetes at baseline were evaluated for incident diabetes. Proportional hazard models were used to predict the probability of incident T2D by GGT level.

After adjustment for age, gender, smoking, alcohol use, and BMI, the risk of developing T2D associated with GGT was significant at 1.4 (95% CI 1.2 -1.7). However, …

A Series Of Studies On Professional Rugby League Players, Daniel G. Baker

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Rugby league football is a popular game in Australia, which appears to rely heavily upon strength, power, speed and endurance due to the nature of the phyiscal contacts. In an effort to discern the importance of upper body strength, power speed and endurance to rugby league players a retrospective data analysis was performed. Three areas of investigation were: 1) the testing of upper body physical qualities of strength, power, speed and strength-endurance and their significance to playing status in the elite national first-division (NRL), second-division (SRL) and third-division (CRL), 2) the effect of acute training variable manipulations upon power output …

Assessment And Enhancement Of Lower Extremity Power Of Athletes, Naruhiro Hori

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

STUDY 1: RELIABILITY OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS DERIVED FROM GROUND REACTION FORCE DATA DURING COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP AND INFLUENCE OF SAMPLING FREQUENCY. STUDY 2: COMPARISON OF FOUR DIFFERENT METHODS TO MEASURE POWER OUTPUT DURING THE HANG POWER CLEAN AND THE WEIGHTED JUMP SQUAT. STUDY 3: DOES PERFORMANCE OF HANG POWER CLEAN DIFFERENTIATE PERFORMANCE OF JUMPING, SPRINTING, AND CHANGING OF DIRECTION? STUDY 4: COMPARISON OF WEIGHTED JUMP SQUAT TRAINING WITH AND WITHOUT ECCENTRIC BRAKING.

Comparing The Performance And Satisfaction Of Face-To-Face And Virtual Teams In A Learning Enviroment, Ying-Chieh A. Liu

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The main purpose of this study is to find whether virtual teams perform as effectively as face-to-face teams and if not, whether solutions can be derived to improve the levels of performance. To this end, the study compares the performance and satisfaction perception levels of virtual teams with face-to-face teams in a learning environment. In order to develop a sound framework for the research, a detailed literature review of prior research encompassing team satisfaction and performance in face-to-face and CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) supported environments was undertaken. Additionally the researcher performed a meta-analysis of previous research studies and from these …

Towards Dignity And Respect At Work: An Exploration Of Bullying In The Public Sector, Maryam Omari

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Organisations today function in complex and dynamic environments which exert continual pressure to change and compete. Employees are often seen as a key to success in this world, as flexible and adaptable resources. The quality of their work life therefore takes on an important role in ensuring they reach their full potential. A long-standing safety and performance issue in the workplace is bullying, or mobbing as it is called in the European literature. Bullying can have adverse effects for individuals, including both the perpetrator and the victim, as well as their families, the organisation, and ultimately the wider society.

Changes In A Chinese Interior Design Firm Due To The Development And Use Of A Blog-Based Reflective Practitioner Knowledge Management System Inspired By Chinese Philosophy: An Autoethnographic Case Study, Chun Kwan Law

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Dao (Way)

The Way that can be experienced is not true;

The world that can be constructed is not true.

The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;

The world represents all that exists and may exist.

To experience without intention is to sense the world:

To experience with intention is to anticipate the world.

These two experiences are indistinguishable;

Their construction differs but their effect is the same.

Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way'.

Which is ever greater and more subtle than/he world.

Lao-Tzu, TaoDeChing, tr. Peter A. Merel

This thesis is a reflective practitioner autoethnographic …

From Cannibal To Consumer: The Shifting Poetic Metaphor Of The Vampire, Emma Margetts

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Vampire is a parasitic demon who has ·haunted humanity for thousands of years. Feeding off the living, this bloodsucking, animated corpse could generally be said to embody human fears surrounding death and sexuality. Appearing in a variety of mythologies around the world, the vampire has been connected with excessive and/or repressed desire, the subconscious and dark side of human nature. The vampire and associated metaphors' reflect social boundaries and express forbidden desires, in particular, when the figure appeared in late-Gothic literature of the 18th-century novel. The transitions occurring within the vampire's iconography over the last 200 years of Western …

Collaborative Business Relationships And The Use Of Ict: The Case Of The Marine, Defence And Resources Cluster, Western Australia, Helen Cripps

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The research project was developed from an Australian Research Council Grant designed to investigate collaborative commerce and its impact on regional economic development. Through a process of consultation with the industry partner, the South West Group, the research was designed to investigate the drivers and inhibitors of collaborative relationships and the factors that impact on the creation and sustaining of these relationships. The role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in facilitating and sustaining collaborative relationships and the perceived benefits and drawbacks of collaborative relationships were also investigated. The research sought to identify models of the best adoption of collaborative relationships.

Multidimensional Approach To Nurse Client Communication In Two Malaysian Intensive Care Units, Faridah Hashim

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Communication among patients and nurses m the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has received extensive attention in the nursing research literature. These studies have identified numerous factors both enhancing and impeding effective nurse client communication. Despite the extensive research attention paid to nurse client communication in an ICU setting, no studies can be located that take a multidimensional approach to exploring the factors serving to enhance or impede such nurse "client communications. The literature review searched from 1980 when the landmark study by Ashworth ( 1980) reported on nurse-patient communication in the ICU. Many studies followed on nursing communication

Social Theory & Its Relation To Social Problems: An Essay About Theory And Research With Social Justice In Mind, Richard K. Caputo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This essay examines the relationship between social theory and social problems, the truth-value of theories, and the importance of theorizing about the role of the state, i.e., national government, in the resolution of social problems and the achievement of social justice. The author argues that much contemporary social theory has lost its moorings in regard to amelioration ofsocial problems, that Popper's criterion offalsification is a requisitefor more meaningfully applied social theory, and that the state should be part of any social theory meant to address social problems. Moral and political philosophy is used to provide criteria to justify a positive …

Welcome Home, Meredith Jones-Gray

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Talking To Children About Divorce, Sean Brotherson, Brenda Jacobson

FS Series – Family Science/HDFS

No abstract provided.

Subcentral Governmental Investment Incentives: Assessing Their Lawfulness Under The Gatt And The Scm Agreement, Rex Zedalis

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Teen Women’S Sexuality: Public Policy And The Adolescent Female Body, Michelle Fine, Sara I. Mcclelland

Publications and Research

Teen women's sexual and reproductive lives are shaped by laws and public policies that expand or constrict their educational and health supports. Most adolescents depend substantially on the public sector to help support their healthy sexual development and to protect them from sexual violence, disease, and pregnancy. Thus, it is critical to examine the ways in which public policies concerning young women's sexualities have been forged within religious and "moralizing" discourses. The explicit pairing of law and religious ideology has transformed the role of law and public policy in young women's lives from a supportive function to one that censures …

The State, Ecology, And Society In Western Kenya: Politics Of Soil Conservation And Land Management In Vihiga 1930-1950., Martin Shidende Shanguhyia

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study focuses on the conflict that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s between the British colonial government officials and the African farmers in Vihiga, Western Kenya, over approaches to land management. The colonial state was more than convinced that unprecedented soil erosion in most of the African reserves across the Colony was to blame for much of the social and economic problems that those areas were experiencing. Vihiga, the leading producer of maize in the Colony, was not spared such concerns, hence increased state intervention in this area’s agricultural production and land management processes. Vihiga offered a special place …

Hierarchical Linear Modeling In Organizational Research: Longitudinal Data Outside The Context Of Growth Modeling, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, David Rindskopf

Publications and Research

Organizational researchers, including those carrying out occupational stress research, often conduct longitudinal studies. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; also known as multilevel modeling and random regression) can efficiently organize analyses of longitudinal data by including within- and between-person levels of analysis. A great deal of longitudinal research has been conducted in the context of growth studies in which change in the dependent variable is examined in relation to the passage of time. HLM can treat longitudinal data, including data outside the context of the growth study, as nested data, reducing the problem of censoring. Within-person equation coefficients can represent the impact …

Online Higher Education Faculty: Perceptions, Learning, And Changes In Teaching., Frances M. Dolloph

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine higher education faculty members’ perceptions as compared to their students’ perceptions of the psychosocial environment in distance learning courses as shown in the results of the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) and to understand how faculty learn and change their teaching for course development and delivery using technology. Research shows that an increasing number of colleges and universities are offering online courses and programs and an increased number of students are enrolled in distance learning. The need to look at how faculty teach, learn, and change their online courses is …

Market Failure In The Marketplace Of Ideas: Commercial Speech And The Problem That Won't Go Away, Tamara Piety

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Corporations And Commercial Speech, Tamara Piety, Ronald Collins, Mark Lopez, David Vladeck

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Sails: A New Gypsum Speleothem From Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico, Tullio Bernabei, Paolo Forti, Roberto Villasuso

International Journal of Speleology

The caves of Naica (Chihuahua, Mexico) are perhaps the most famous mine caves of the world due to the presence of gigantic gypsum crystals. Nevertheless, very little research has been carried out on this karst area until now. A multidisciplinary investigation started in 2006 with the aim not only to define the genesis and the age of the Naica gypsum crystals, but also on other scientific aspects of these caves. This paper describes a completely new type of gypsum speleothem: the “sails”, observed only inside the Cueva de las Velas, one of the caves of the Naica system. This speleothem …

Bomb-Spike Dating Of A Mummified Baboon In Ludwig Cave, Namibia, Greg Hodgins, George A. Brook, Eugene Marais

International Journal of Speleology

In 1982 a mummified adult female baboon was discovered on a ledge in Ludwig Cave in Namibia. A toe bone was removed for dating in July 1995. AMS radiocarbon dating of bone collagen, tendon, and skin indicates a post-modern age. Application of the atomic bomb-spike calibration curve suggests death in late 1977 and an age at death of around 19 years. Baboons roost in the cave and the mummified female, along with a mummified juvenile male discovered in 2002 and three rotting corpses discovered in 1995, were probably chased by other baboons or by leopards down a ca. 6 m …

Eogenetic Karst, Glacioeustatic Cave Pools And Anchialine Environments On Mallorca Island: A Discussion Of Coastal Speleogenesis, Angel Ginés, Joaquín Ginés

International Journal of Speleology

Coastal karst is characterized by special geomorphologic and hydrodynamic conditions as well as by peculiar sedimentary, geochemical, and biospeleological environments. Generally, the more distinctive karstic features produced near the coastline are strongly influenced by sea-level changes, which generate a broad set of interactions between littoral processes and karst development. The glacioeustatic rises and falls of sea level affected the littoral karst in different ways, namely: vertical and horizontal shifts in the shoreline position, changes in elevation of the local water table, and vertical displacements of the halocline. Most eogenetic karsts have been subjected over long time spans to repeated changes …

Climatic Differences And Similarities Between Indian And East Asian Monsoon Regions Of China Over The Last Millennium: A Perspective Based Mainly On Stalagmite Records, Ming Tan

International Journal of Speleology

Cave sediments, especially stalagmites, have been providing absolute dated climate records that can extend from the present to over 500,000 years ago. Based on the reconstructed temperature time series, a comprehensive overview of the climatic differences and similarities between the Indian and the East Asian Monsoon regions of China over the last millennium is presented. Evidence from accurately dated and high-resolution records including stalagmites, ice cores and tree rings show that there was a “Medieval Warm Period” (around 1000 to 1400 AD) in north and east China where climate is dominated by the East Asian monsoon; whilst no such interval …

The Impact Of Host Rock Geochemistry On Bacterial Community Structure In Oligotrophic Cave Environments, Hazel A. Barton, Nicholas M. Taylor, Michael P. Kreate, Austin C. Springer, Stuart A. Oehrle, Janet L. Bertog

International Journal of Speleology

Despite extremely starved conditions, caves contain surprisingly diverse microbial communities. Our research is geared toward understanding what ecosystems drivers are responsible for this high diversity. To asses the effect of rock fabric and mineralogy, we carried out a comparative geomicrobiology study within Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico, USA. Samples were collected from two different geologic locations within the cave: WF1 in the Massive Member of the Capitan Formation and sF88 in the calcareous siltstones of the Yates Formation. We examined the organic content at each location using liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy and analyzed microbial community structure using molecular phylogenetic analyses. In …

A Taxonomic Survey Of Lamp Flora (Algae And Cyanobacteria) In Electrically Lit Passages Within Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, Thomas Smith, Rick Olson

International Journal of Speleology

A taxonomic survey of the lamp flora from electrically lit passages in Mammoth Cave, Mammoth Cave National Park, identified 28 species. Overall, cyanobacteria were dominant represented by 14 species (50% of the total), green algae had eight species (29%), and six diatoms species (21%) were present. There was not a correlation between species diversity and temperature, but there is a general trend of increasing diversity with warmer temperatures. There were two algal or cyanobacterial species identified in this study that overlapped with previous studies. There is a lack of continuity between previous studies only having one species identified in more …

Christ At His Sanctuary: Toward Adventist-Evangelical Dialogue, Roy E. Gane

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.