Digital Commons Network^™

Subacute Neural Stem Cell Therapy For Traumatic Brain Injury, Mikhail Bogdanov, Philip N Heacock, William Dowhan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

A protocol is described using lipid mutants and thiol-specific chemical reagents to study lipid-dependent and host-specific membrane protein topogenesis by the substituted-cysteine accessibility method as applied to transmembrane domains (SCAM). SCAM is adapted to follow changes in membrane protein topology as a function of changes in membrane lipid composition. The strategy described can be adapted to any membrane system.

Demonstrations Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Spanish Liberal Arts And Spanish Education Majors' Writing, Anne Cummings Hlas, Susan A. Hildebrandt

Faculty Publications – Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Second language teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is a sophisticated combination of pedagogical and content knowledge. This study explores the acquisition and articulation of PCK, highlighting the question of whether teacher education programs add to language teachers' knowledge base. Data was gathered using a performance assessment that incorporated teacher writing tasks in Spanish with a reflective paragraph to explain decisions made while writing. Areas of interest were language awareness, knowledge of effective teaching, and knowledge of learners. The study’s primary purpose is to reveal whether PCK differed in preservice Spanish teachers’ writing, as compared to Spanish Liberal Arts majors’ writing. …

More Than Synaptic Plasticity: Role Of Nonsynaptic Plasticity In Learning And Memory, Riccardo Mozzachiodi, John H Byrne

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Decades of research on the cellular mechanisms of memory have led to the widely held view that memories are stored as modifications of synaptic strength. These changes involve presynaptic processes, such as direct modulation of the release machinery, or postsynaptic processes, such as modulation of receptor properties. Parallel studies have revealed that memories might also be stored by nonsynaptic processes, such as modulation of voltage-dependent membrane conductances, which are expressed as changes in neuronal excitability. Although in some cases nonsynaptic changes can function as part of the engram itself, they might also serve as mechanisms through which a neural circuit …

The Role Of Inspiration In The Helping Professions, Kari A. O'Grady, P. Scott Richards

Faculty Publications

This qualitative research study examined the ways that helping professionals experi- ence inspiration, as defined as divine guidance or influence, in their therapeutic work. It also explored their beliefs about how helping professionals can seek inspiration in their work. Open-ended survey questions from 333 respondents from a diverse range of religious and professional backgrounds were qualitatively analyzed. The themes ex- tracted give insight into the ways that these helping professionals have experienced inspiration in their work and about how helping professionals can facilitate a spiritual space in the therapeutic context.

A Bittersweet Heritage: Learning From The Making Of South African Legal Culture, Stephen Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

This essay responds to Martin Chanock's argument that race tainted the entire enterprise of South African judging. It seeks to understand how that could have been so, and looks to such driving forces as whites' guilt, denial, identity-building, self-protection, and legitimation for explanations. Then it asks whether an institution so tainted should now be altogether abandoned as part of the rebuilding of post-apartheid South Africa. The essay answers that much should be changed, but that the existence of a judiciary laying claim to a special expertise and responsibility in interpreting law and protecting rights a key heritage of the old …

Social Support In An Internet Weight Loss Community, Kevin O Hwang, Allison J Ottenbacher, Angela P Green, M Roseann Cannon-Diehl, Oneka Richardson, Elmer V Bernstam, Eric J Thomas

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: To describe social support for weight loss shared by members of a large Internet weight loss community.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study with surveys (n=193) and interviews (n=13) of community members along with a content analysis of discussion forum messages (n=1924 messages). Qualitative data were analyzed for social support themes.

Results: Survey respondents were primarily white (91.4%) and female (93.8%) with mean age 37.3 years and mean body mass index 30.9. They used forums frequently, with 56.8% reading messages, 36.1% replying to messages, and 18.5% posting messages to start a discussion related to weight loss on a daily …

Determinants Of Self-Employment In The United States, Viktoriya Nikolova, Michael S. Bargar

Undergraduate Economic Review

The prominence entrepreneurs have occupied in the popular imagination belies their relative neglect in formal economic theory. This paper adds to the growing body of work on entrepreneurs by examining the characteristics of self-employed individuals in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. We believe our article to be the first that uses this fresh body of data for this purpose. Employing the standard binomial probit model with a list of potentially significant variables drawn from existing literature, we discovered that women are significantly less likely to be self-employed than men.

Reconceptualizing Vagrancy And Reconstructing The Vagrant: A Socio-Legal Analysis Of Criminal Law Reform In Canada, 1953-1972, Prashan Ranasinhe

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

This article explores significant reforms to the vagrancy section of the Criminal Code during the mid-to-late twentieth century. By locating the reforms within their unique social, political, and economic climates, I examine how they reconceptualized the offence of vagrancy and concomitantly reconstructed the vagrant as a social problem. The reforms played a seminal role in reducing the number of vagrancy offences, eventually leading to the demise of vagrancy in the criminal law. Yet, while the "vagrant" ceased to exist in the law, the law still continues to preserve vestiges of the vagrant in a highly gendered manner.

Engineering Education Collaboration: Innovative Pedagogical Methods For High School And University Environmentalists, Leslie Hadaway, Megan Urbaitis, Regina Lamendella, Daniel B. Oerther, Andrea C. Burrows, Mike Borowczak, Anant R. Kukreti

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an innovative teaching approach, how it is implemented, student response results of the implementation, and the assessment of impact on student learning. The findings are based on surveys given to the students after each lab lesson taught in partnership with university (Project STEP) and community members. The purpose of this paper is to showcase authentic molecular technology research methods that have been incorporated into a high school level water quality study in cooperation with a watershed restoration program. Typically, water quality studies focus on chemical analysis such as pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, orthophosphates, nitrates, temperature, …

Condition Assessment Of Bill Emerson Memorial Cable-Stayed Bridge Under Postulated Design Earthquake, Dongming Yan, Wenjian Wang, Genda Chen, Bryan A. Hartnagel

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, a three-dimensional finite element model of the Bill Emerson Memorial cable-stayed bridge was developed and validated with the acceleration data recorded during the M4.1 earthquake of May 1, 2005, in Manila, Arkansas. The model took into account the geometric nonlinear properties associated with cable sagging and soil-foundation-structure interaction. The validated model was used to evaluate the performance of a seismic protective system, the behavior of cable-stayed spans, and the accuracy of two simplified bridge models that have been extensively used by the structural control community. The calculated natural frequencies and mode shapes correlated well with the measured …

Bridge Lessons Learned From The Wenchuan China, Earthquake, W. Phillip Yen, Genda Chen, Mark Yashinski, Youssef M. A. Hashash, Curtis J. Holub, Kehai Wang, Xiaodong Guo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A strong earthquake of M7.9 occurred in Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, China, on May 12, 2008. This paper presents the field observations on various types of bridge damages, including unseating of girders, longitudinal and transverse offset of decks, pounding at expansion joints, shear key failure, bearing displacement, column shear, and flexible cracks. Plausible causes of damages and collapses are discussed and the lessons learned from this event are briefly summarized. Some of the postearthquake temporary constructions are also reported.

Crack Detectability And Durability Of Coaxial Cable Sensors In Reinforced Concrete Bridge Applications, Genda Chen, Ryan D. Mcdaniel, Michael A. Brower, David Pommerenke

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The working mechanism and the measurement principle of topology-based crack sensors made of coaxial cables are briefly reviewed. The sensitivity, spatial resolution, and ruggedness of two coaxial cable sensors, respectively made of rubber and Teflon dielectric materials, were compared and validated with laboratory testing of a 4/5-scale, T-shaped, reinforced concrete beam-column specimen. Two Teflon sensors were installed on one of the solid decks of a three-span continuous highway bridge to investigate their durability and measurement repeatability. Laboratory tests indicated that both types of sensors have high sensitivity, but the Teflon sensor has a higher spatial resolution and a negligible spillover …

Consumer Ethnocentrism: A Comparison Of Arab And Western Audiences, Kevin Keenan, James Pokrywczynski

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

The subject of consumer ethnocentrism is discussed in the context of advertising country-of-origin effects. The literature and suggestions concerning the phenomenon in the Middle East are brought up and a study using U.S. and Egyptian samples is described. The findings show some evidence of consumer ethnocentrism in both countries, though statistical significance is only achieved with U.S. data, generally consistent with prior writing and research focused on developed versus developing countries. Special attention is given to the construct of worldliness and though not statistically significant, results suggest it may be a factor deserving additional study.

Essential Skills For Evidence-Based Practice: Statistics For Therapy Questions, Jeanne T. Grace

Individual Articles

Evidence to support the effectiveness of therapies commonly compares the outcomes between a group of individuals who received the therapy and a group of individuals who did not. Nurses must be able to interpret the statistics used to report these comparisons to determine not only whether there is a “real” (i.e. statistically significant) difference between the outcomes of the groups, but also whether that difference is large enough and precise enough to be clinically meaningful. The statistics involved depend on whether the outcome is expressed as a categorical (e.g. yes/no) or a continuous (e.g. pounds, length of stay) measure. When …

Legislative Histories And The Practice Of Statutory Interpretation In Wyoming, Debora A. Person

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rational Understanding In Competency To Stand Trial: A Qualitative Study And Development Of An Assessment Instrument, Kenneth C. Cole Jr.

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Mental competency as a prerequisite for due process was established by the United States Supreme Court‟s Dusky decision (1960). The Court mandated that a defendant must possess reasonable levels of factual and rational understanding in order to competently participate in the adjudication process. The precise definitions of competence were not included in any of the Court‟s decisions regarding the concept of Competency to Stand Trial (CST). The original purpose of this research was to contribute knowledge regarding the psychological dimensions of CST and to suggest definitions of the psychological dimensions of CST and the standardization of the CST evaluation process. …

Levels Of Acculturation And Resilience Among Southeast Asian Adolescents Who Have And Have Not Witnessed Domestic Violence, Skultip (Jill) Sirikantraporn

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The central purpose of this research study was to elucidate the relationship between the levels of acculturation and resilience among Southeast Asian adolescents in the U.S. who have and have not witnessed domestic violence. There is a voluminous amount of research on resilience, acculturation, and domestic violence and their impacts on adolescents. However, there is virtually no research that investigates the relationship among these three major social constructs. Previous research on acculturation, resilience, and coping abilities showed that immigrant children and adolescents who were bicultural were found to be highly adaptive in the midst of stress. No previous studies were …

The Paradox Of Emotionality & Competence In Multicultural Competency Training: A Grounded Theory, Jude A. Bergkamp

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The American Psychological Association mandates multicultural competency training as a requirement of accredited doctoral programs. The tripartite model of knowledge, skills, and awareness has been the most consistently cited framework in the last two decades. Although multiple pedagogical methods have been researched, there has yet to be a unified theory developed to link educational techniques to the tripartite domain competencies. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research exploring the various learning factors involved in multicultural competency training. Emotionality is an important factor in obtaining multicultural competency. No unified theory of multicultural education can be developed without incorporating the element of …

The Relationship Of Parent Involvement And Student Success In Gear Up Communities In Chicago, Wendy M. Stack

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Nationally, the education pipeline is not preparing enough students for success and high school dropout rates in the nation’s urban areas are alarming. This mixed methods (QUAN→qual) empirical study examines the influence of parent involvement on the academic success of 1,774 GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) students matched to their parents in 21 high schools in Chicago. The results of the regression analyses were presented to focus groups composed of GEAR UP parents and staff to assist in making meaning of the data and to gain deeper insight and understanding of the results. The study …

Expanding Leader Capability: An Exploratory Study Of The Effect Of Daily Practices For Leader Development, Simon Rakoff

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Leadership is, at its essence, an influence relationship between people. Leaders are often thought of as those who are able to influence people to take actions oriented toward achieving specific goals and objectives. While many books have been written, and myriad scholarly research studies conducted enumerating countless personal characteristics, qualities, and skills of the exemplary leader, little has been done to understand and convey the ways in which an individual might go about cultivating these virtues; which are often said to include charisma, empathy, communication skills, and others. Through a multiple single-subject design, this research examines the individual-level effect of …

Rhythms Of Rebellion: Artists Creating Dangerously For Social Change, Susan J. Erenrich

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On December 14, 1957, after winning the Nobel Prize for literature, Albert Camus challenged artists attending a lecture at the University of Uppsala in Sweden to create dangerously. Even though Camus never defined what he meant by his charge, throughout history, artists involved in movements of protest, resistance, and liberation have answered Camus’ call. Quite often, the consequences were costly, resulting in imprisonment, censorship, torture, and death. This dissertation examines the question of what it means to create dangerously by using Camus’ challenge to artists as a starting point. The study then turns its attention to two artists, Augusto Boal …

Threads In A Tapestry: An Ethnographic Evaluation Of Milken Community High School’S Tiferet Fellowship Program, Roger Jason Fuller

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored an essential question, "What does the lived experience of students in the Tiferet program mean for them and others?" By exploring the background, implementation, and lived-experiences of two academic-year sophomore cohorts from Milken Community High School in Los Angeles as they lived and participated in a semester study abroad program at the Alexander Muss Institute of Israel Education in Hod HaSharon, Israel, the study shows the impact-of that experience on the students in the program and the school culture at large. The study engaged in a description of the program’s development and evaluation of the lived-experiences as …

What Is It Like To Be Funny? The Spontaneous Humor Producer’S Subjective Experience, Lisa Goldstein Graham

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of the individual who spontaneously produces humor during conversation. Although a broad humor literature exists, very little research addresses the experience of the spontaneous humor producer. This study represents an early step toward filling this gap in the literature. I gathered data by videotaping organizational meetings and conducting subsequent Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) interviews with individuals who produced humor during the course of the meetings. I analyzed data from the IPR interviews using an emergent thematic analysis. Most humor producers in this sample were consciously aware of specific external cues, …

What Keeps Them Going: Factors That Sustain U.S. Women's Life-Long Peace And Social Justice Activism, Susan Mckevitt

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is a mixed methods sequential study on the factors that sustain U.S. women's life-long peace and social justice activism. The specific cohort of women sought for this study was those who entered their social justice activism during the late 1950s through the early 1970s and were active in the U.S. civil rights struggles, the anti-Vietnam war movement, or participated in the second phase of the women's liberation movement. Through utilizing a snowballing process, fifty-seven participants were obtained for the quantitative survey phase of the study from which the ten participants (five White, five women of Color) were selected …

Arab/American Relations And Human Security, Post-9/11: A Political Narrative Inquiry, Charlotte Moats-Gallagher

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored eighteen women's views and experiences in the arena of Arab/American relations, post-9/11. The study engaged three groups of women: Arab women in Qatar, Arab American women in the U.S., and non-Arab women in the U.S. Qualitative narrative inquiry methodology was used complemented by an innovative use of freewriting to help prepare participants for interviews. Clarke’s (2005a) situational analysis was used to open up and analyze the data. Findings surfaced around the interconnected themes of identity, racism, discrimination and Othering, the role of the media, and how these ultimately influence a collective sense of and experience of human …

Edge Leadership: Using Senior Leadership Perceptions To Explore Organizational Turnarounds, Lynn William Olsen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The researcher developed the concept of an edge leader—that is, one who can mindfully turn around a troubled business to sustain it for the future. In an increasingly turbulent and competitive climate, more edge leaders must be developed to sustain their organizations for the benefit of shareholders, employees, communities, and society. The researcher's review of the classic and contemporary leadership and change literatures suggested that four elements are necessary to develop leaders capable of leading even basic beneficial change. They include: having broad, successful experience; being emotionally and socially aware; having the ability to think differently about priorities and paradoxes …

Strategic Asymmetric Multicultural Alliances In Business, Anthony James Scriffignano

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Global economics and other factors make it increasingly difficult for organizations to operate within the boundaries of one country in a rational way (e.g., leveraging best practices, profitable, achieving goals). In this study, I looked at strategic business alliances, transcending simple quid pro quo relationships to deliver ongoing partner value. I refined my study to multicultural relationships, having differing cultural identities (i.e., ideas, heritage, language, or demographics from differing geographies). Finally, I considered asymmetry (i.e., inequity in working relationship). Using a mixed-methodology design, I surveyed alliance participants and interviewed participants from selected alliances. A multi-case study addresses emergent themes of …

Special Education Teacher Tenacity: The Leadership And Commitment Of Those Who Stay In The Field, Marilyn Shea

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Those who choose to teach special education have accepted some of the most challenging jobs teaching has to offer. Unfortunately for their students, almost half of special education teachers leave the profession within their first five years (Singer, 1992). Finding and keeping qualified special education teachers in positions working with more challenging students has become a national problem. Through qualitative interviews, this study examines the stories of 14 Colorado special educators. These teachers have demonstrated their commitment to the field by teaching for four or more years. Their stories give valuable insight into the issue of teacher commitment in difficult …

Review Of Three Recent Randomized Trials Of School-Based Mentoring: Making Sense Of Mixed Findings, Marc E. Wheeler, Thomas E. Keller, David L. Dubois

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Between 2007 and 2009, reports were released on the results of three separate large-scale random assignment studies of the effectiveness of school-based mentoring programs for youth. The studies evaluated programs implemented by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) affiliates (Herrera et al., 2007), Communities in Schools of San Antonio, Texas (Karcher, 2008), and grantees of the U.S. Department of Education's Student Mentoring Program (Bernstein et al., 2009). Differences in the findings and conclusions of the studies have led to varying responses by those in practice and policy roles. The results of the BBBSA trial led the organization to undertake …

Indigenous And Mestizo Mexican Migrant Farmworkers: A Comparative Mental Health Analysis, William Donlan, Junghee Lee

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mexican-origin migrant farmworkers using: (a) lifetime prevalence of culture-bound syndromes, (b) self-rated emotional/mental health, (c) depression measured by PHQ-9, (d) stress level. Demographic and psychosocial variables were examined by ethnicity and gender using Chi square and independent t-tests. Logistic and linear regression models were constructed for mental health variables. Indigenous participants reported significantly higher stress compared to mestizos, and indigenous women reported significantly higher stress compared to all groups. Prevalence of culture-bound syndromes and mean PHQ-9 severity score was highest for indigenous females. Mean self-rated emotional/mental health was lowest among indigenous females. Controlling for main effects and other interactions, (a) …