Digital Commons Network^™

Study Of Stress, Housing Program Use, And Nursing Usage Among Homeless In Chicago, Henry Christian Cheung

Dissertations

Homelessness places people at risk of stressors that translate into stress and subsequently affect their health. Using Neuman Systems Model as a framework to identify modalities for nursing intervention among stressors and health problems of homeless people, this study compared stress levels among homeless people from three different homeless housing program types, investigated variables that predict the presence of stress among homeless, identified the degree of self-reported contact homeless people had with nurses, and measured to what extent nurses are preferred as health care providers by homeless people. This was accomplished through a cross-sectional, secondary data analysis of data from …

Religion, Science, And The Conscious Self: Bio-Psychological Explanation And The Debate Between Dualism And Naturalism, Paul J. Voelker

Dissertations

This dissertation approaches metaphysical and metaethical questions concerning the nature of the human person, the existence and nature of God, and the nature of moral judgment through contemporary neuroscience, cognitive science, scientific moral psychology, and analytic philosophy of mind. Contrary to proposals that seek a harmonious integration of "religion and science" this dissertation argues that contemporary bio-psychological sciences give one ample reason to be skeptical of many of the metaphysical and metaethical claims embedded in religious traditions like Christianity and Buddhism. The first three chapters of the dissertation focus on the metaphysical issue of mind-body dualism while the fourth chapter …

Personal Beliefs And Public Print: The Influence Of Pre-Existing Attitudes And Pretrial Publicity Information On Final Verdicts, Sara Marie Locatelli

Dissertations

Pretrial publicity (PTP), defined as any news story about a case not yet in trial, has been shown to affect trial outcomes. Results, however, are mixed, with studies finding strong effects, others weaker effects, and some no effects. These differences are sometimes attributed to methodology and study stimuli. In the present research, the effect of participant attitudes was explored. Participant attitudes can have a strong influence on perceptions about a piece of information, and could explain differences in use of PTP as well as findings that judicial remedies to alleviate PTP effects are ineffective. Participants were exposed to one of …

Minority Stress Predictors Of Substance Use And Sexual Risk Behavior Among A Cohort Sample Of Men Who Have Sex With Men, Michael P. Dentato

Dissertations

This study examined the impact of factors associated with minority stress theory, including experiences of external prejudice, expectations of rejection and internalized homophobia, upon a cohort sample of men who have sex with men (MSM). Resultant associations with substance use, defined as one time use of a club drug prior to baseline; and sexual risk behavior, defined as unprotected insertive and receptive anal intercourse with primary and non-primary partners, was examined. In addition, this study compared whether each individual aspect of minority stress (external prejudice, expectations of rejection and internalized homophobia) independently or collectively predicted substance use and sexual risk …

Teachers' Perspectives On Race And Gender: Strategic Intersectionality And The Countervailing Effects Of Privilege, Laurie Cooper Stoll

Dissertations

As a policy prescription, education is often considered a panacea for racism and sexism, and teachers therefore the conduits for social equality. Strategic intersectionality suggests that teachers who have marked identities, especially those who inhabit more

than one, may under certain circumstances experience a "multiple identity advantage" that can situate them as particularly effective advocates for others who are disadvantaged. This institutional ethnography explores the underlying premises of strategic

intersectionality and the countervailing effects of privilege through observations and indepth interviews of teachers in a primarily white elementary school, a primarily Hispanic elementary school, and a primarily African American elementary …

The Principle Of Subsidiarity And Catholic Ecclesiology: Implications For The Laity, Kathryn Reyes Hamrlik

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the principle of subsidiarity as articulated within the body of Catholic social thought, and explores its validity within the governance structure of the Catholic church. Special attention is given to the status and role of the laity, and the implications of subsidiarity with regard to lay authority and decision-making in the church. Chapter One outlines some problems with ecclesial governance today, discusses the current status and role of the laity, and proposes an application of subsidiarity in the church. Chapter Two provides an overview of how the laity has been understood throughout church history to the present …

Federico Morelli, L’ Archivio Di Senouthios Anystes E Testi Connessi. Lettere E Documenti Per La Costruzione Di Una Capitale, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This is the first of two projected volumes whose purpose is to gather together, reassemble, select, and present Greek documents from the GreekCoptic archive of the notarios Senouthios, anystes of the northern skelos of the Hermopolite nome just after the Arab conquest. Most of the 32 documents in this volume are assigned by prosopographical associations, subject matter, and so on (“diversi elementi”) to ca. 643/4, based on a pivotal second indiction (see Introduzione, pp. 22-27), in other words, on the very cusp of the new Arab administration. The papyri are all Viennese. They are also all Hermopolite in provenance, but …

Charlotte Brontë’S Villette, Mid-Victorian Anti-Catholicism, And The Turn To Secularism, Michael M. Clarke

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853) is frequently interpreted as anti-Catholic, reconciliation between Catholic and Protestant plays a pivotal role in the novel, as Lucy Snowe’s perspective evolves from narrow sectarianism to a more open stance. Brontë accomplishes this reconciliation by elucidating the differences at their deepest level: at the point where Protestantism challenges and ultimately evolves into a separate set of institutions from Catholicism. Drawing on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, this paper argues that, in its advocacy of the possibility of deep faith combined with religious pluralism, Villette anticipates modern secularism in the best sense of the word.

Role Of Non-Coding Rna Nc4 In Mll And Cyp33 Mediated Regulation Of Hoxc8, Jessica Arvindbhai Solanki

Dissertations

MLL or Mixed Lineage Leukemia gene is clinically known for its involvement in genetic translocation with more than 70 different partners identified each giving rise to a highly leukemogenic fusion protein. With a poor prognosis of MLL related leukemia, an investigation into its role during hematopoiesis has been a very active field of research. In order to design strategies to combat the MLL leukemia, it becomes essential to delineate the molecular mechanisms behind the function of MLL wild type protein. Wild type MLL is a transcriptional maintenance protein from the Trithorax Group (TrxG) that resides in complex with other chromatin …

From Classroom To Workplace: Becoming A Social Worker, Sarah Louise Hessenauer

Dissertations

This exploratory qualitative study examines the key educational experiences that graduated bachelor level social workers identified as being most helpful to them in their current social work careers. Twenty traditional aged social workers who graduated from CSWE accredited, bachelor level, social work programs in the last 4 to 24 months and who had been working in a social work agency for a minimum of three months were asked to voluntarily participate in the study. The social workers participated in one-on-one interviews in which they were asked to describe their educational experiences and their beliefs about how those experiences supported them …

Post-Correctional Education Interventions: A Phenomenological Case Study Of Empowerment Education Curriculum For Formerly Incarcerated African American Males, Rolanda Jean West

Dissertations

This phenomenological case study describes how a Post-Correctional Education Intervention (PCEI) was developed for a local community-based organization that had recently constructed a transition house for formerly incarcerated adults who converted to Islam while incarcerated. The PCEI was an eight-week course curriculum with 60 hours of direct instruction that included social justice, health and wellness and critical thinking teaching modules and affective teaching and learning methodologies. This research contains experiential data used to assess how a PCEI affected the identity and self-concept of the participants of a reentry program designed to create an atmosphere of empowerment.

A Meeting Of Character: An Examination Of Teaching Social, Brannon Terese Aiello

Dissertations

The study's purpose was to examine student and teacher perceptions of classroom meetings by using the lessons in Social Decision Making/Social Problem Solving (SDM/SPS)--as prescribed by Elias and Butler (2005). The research problem determined whether SDM/SPS lessons taught in classroom meetings were a good strategy to teach character education.

The study quantitatively measured participant perceptions of classroom meetings regarding the classroom environment while implementing the character education program SDM/SPS. First, students' perceptions of classroom meetings, where their classroom teacher teaches SMD/SPS lessons within the context of classroom meetings, were quantitatively measured using a survey. Second, teachers responded to a survey …

Illinois Administrator's Perception Of The Existence And Implementation Of School Policies And Practices In Teacher Classroom Supervision In Schools Having Kindergarten To Fifth Grade, Maria Martinez-Valiukenas

Dissertations

Negligence in the school setting is one legal issue that exists and, if case law is any reflection, is a pervasive problem in the educational system. Although negligence affects students, parents, teachers, and staff, the issue has the most impact on administrators' legal responsibility role.

Using a quantitative approach, the researcher surveyed Illinois principals working in Illinois public schools in schools having Kindergarten to Fifth grades. This study was designed to examine Illinois administrators' perception of the existence and implementation of school policies and practices with regard to teacher classroom supervision in elementary public schools having Kindergarten through Fifth grade. …

Response To Violent Prone Female Adolescents: The Chicago Public School Approach, Marian E. Dozier

Dissertations

School violence has become increasingly more prevalent among adolescent females over the last ten years. As administrators, teachers, parents, and law enforcement officials try to control and decrease the number of violent incidents that occur in our schools, adolescent females continue to exhibit inappropriate and violent behavior at an alarming rate within our school communities. Adolescent females who behave badly have historically been overlooked or ignored, as girls have often been perceived as being incapable of demonstrating hostile conduct in an academic setting.

The purpose of this study was to investigate, describe, and analyze the frequency and nature of violent …

Effectiveness Of An Inquiry Based Professional Development Program, Lynne Beyah El-Amin Muhammad

Dissertations

Pre-service and in-service teacher education programs are designed to disseminate large quantities of knowledge in a short period of time (Deng, 2004). However, they have been found to be ineffective with implementing teacher change (Deng, 2004). To increase the level of effective implementation, as measured by the ability of teachers to utilize what they have learned, designers of pre-service and in-service programs for teachers should include cognitively engaging activities (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). This study explored the relationship between student achievement and the level of teacher participation while attending an inquiry-based professional development program. Six teachers at a private school …

Rigorous Honesty: A Cultural History Of Alcoholics Anonymous 1935-1960, Kevin Kaufmann

Dissertations

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 and a great deal has been written about the program and its membership, but little has been done on how it reflects the 1930s and Depression Era culture. Using Warren Susman's writings as a starting point, this dissertation investigates how AA reflects 1930s American culture and what the group can tell us about the era as well. The dissertation begins with examining the temperance and prohibition eras and how they impacted the initial design of the program, especially the writing of the text, Alcoholics Anonymous.

With the advent of World War II, AA, like …

Comics And Conflict: War And Patriotically Themed Comics In American Cultural History From World War Ii Through The Iraq War, Cord A. Scott

Dissertations

Illustration has been an integral part of human history. Particularly before the advent of media such as photography, film, television, and now the Internet, illustrations in all their variety have been the primary visual way to convey history. The comic book, which emerged in its modern form in the 1930s, was another form of visual entertainment that gave readers, especially children, a form of escape.

As World War II began, however, comic books became an integral part of war propaganda as well providing information and education for both children and adults. This dissertation looks at how specific comic books of …

Characteristics Of Advocates: An Exploration Of Skills And Skill Development Used In The Performance Of Advocacy Work In The Mental Health Profession, Lydia R. Wiede

Dissertations

This dissertation sought to explore the skills necessary to become an effective advocate in the mental health profession. Additionally, this study sought to discover how and where mental health professionals learned the necessary skills to be advocates. This qualitative study examined the factors identified by individuals actively engaged in advocacy work.

Education, Fascism, And The Catholic Church In Franco's Spain, Joan Domke

Dissertations

Societies in transition are vulnerable to strong forces for political change. When Franco's fascist government defeated the socialist party that had taken control from 1931 to 1936, it aligned itself with Spain's Catholic Church. For most of Spain's history, the established Church culture had been inseparable from Spanish identity and Catholicism was taught in all schools, private and public. Therefore, under the guise of religion, the government used the educational system as a means of socialization, connecting nationalism and religion to promote their fascist agenda. The purpose of this historiographic study is to examine the relationships among the school, government, …

Leadership Practices Of Science Department Chairs In Secondary Public Schools, Kathryn Marie Baal

Dissertations

This study was designed to explore the transformational leadership practices of science department chairs as perceived by both science department chairs and their principals as measured quantitatively by the third edition of the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). In addition to transformational leadership, three other paradigms of leadership were essential to this study: transactional leadership, teacher leadership, and distributed leadership. Science department chairs are recognized as formal teacher leaders, primarily because their situational position makes them formal leaders; in addition science department chairs teach, to some degree, hence they are acknowledged as teacher leaders. The study further …

William G. Spady, Agent Of Change: An Oral History, John Anthony Hader

Dissertations

What series of circumstances, events, individuals, and factors have shaped and changed the life and career trajectory of William G. Spady, sociologist, educator, and agent of change? This dissertation provided many answers to this guiding research question. What made this dissertation unique was that the answers were provided by the subject himself during a series of interviews at his home in Colorado. This dissertation was an oral history of an important agent of change in the midst of his work.

Meta-Analysis Of The Relationship Between Collective Teacher Efficacy And Student Achievement, Rachel Jean Eells

Dissertations

Collective teacher efficacy is an emergent school level variable reflecting a faculty's collective belief in its ability to positively affect students. It has been linked in the literature to school achievement. This meta-analysis systematically synthesized results from 26 component studies, including dissertations and published articles, which reported at least one correlation between collective teacher efficacy and school achievement.

The research questions addressed the distribution of effect sizes for the relationship and the moderator variables that could explain any variance found among the studies. It was hypothesized that collective teacher efficacy would be strongly associated with subsequent student achievement, and that …

Pcr Detection Of Nearly Any Dengue Virus Strain Using A Highly Sensitive Primer ‘Cocktail’, Charul Gijavanekal, Maria Anez-Lingerfelt, Chen Feng, Catherine Putonti, George E. Fox, Aniko Sabo, Yuriy Fofanov, Richard C. Wilson

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

PCR detection of viral pathogens is extremely useful, but suffers from thechallenge of detecting the many variant strains of a given virus that ariseover time. Here, we report the computational derivation and initial experi-mental testing of a combination of 10 PCR primers to be used in a singlehigh-sensitivity mixed PCR reaction for the detection of dengue virus. Pri-mer sequences were computed such that their probability of misprimingwith human DNA is extremely low. A ‘cocktail’ of 10 primers was shownexperimentally to be able to detect cDNA clones representing the four sero-types and dengue virus RNA spiked into total human whole blood …

Invasion By Exotic Earthworms Alters Litter- And Soil-Dwelling Oribatid Mites, Jordan L. Burke, John C. Maerz, Joseph Milanovich, Melanie C. Fisk, Kamal J.K. Gandhi

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Exotic earthworms are drivers of biotic communities in invaded North American forest stands. Here we used ecologically important oribatid mite (Arachnida: Acari) communities, as model organisms to study the responses of litter- and soil-dwelling microarthropod communities to exotic earthworm invasion in a northern temperate forest. Litter- and soil-dwelling mites were sampled in 2008–2009 from forest areas: (1) with no earthworms; (2) those with epigeic and endogeic species, including Lumbricus rubellus Hoffmeister; and (3) those with epigeic, endogeic, and anecic earthworms including L. terrestris L. Species richness and diversity of litter- and soil-dwelling (0–2 cm soil depth) oribatid mites was 1–2 …

Homoplastic Microinversions And The Avian Tree Of Life, Edward L. Braun, Rebecca T. Kimball, Kin-Lan Han, Naomi R. Iuhasz-Velez, Amber J. Bonilla

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background

Microinversions are cytologically undetectable inversions of DNA sequences that accumulate slowly in genomes. Like many other rare genomic changes (RGCs), microinversions are thought to be virtually homoplasy-free evolutionary characters, suggesting that they may be very useful for difficult phylogenetic problems such as the avian tree of life. However, few detailed surveys of these genomic rearrangements have been conducted, making it difficult to assess this hypothesis or understand the impact of microinversions upon genome evolution.

Results

We surveyed non-coding sequence data from a recent avian phylogenetic study and found substantially more microinversions than expected based upon prior information about vertebrate …

A Mini-History Of Computing, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This book was produced by George K. Thiruvathukal for the American Institute of Physics to promote interest in the interdisciplinary publication, Computing in Science and Engineering. It accompanied a limited edition set of playing cards that is no longer available (except in PDF).

This book features a set of 54 significant computers by era/category, including ancient calculating instruments, pre-electronic mechanical calculators and computers, electronic era computers, and modern computing (minicomputers, maniframes, personal computers, devices, and gaming consoles).

Energy And Environment Chronology, David Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

Exceptional Orthogonal Polynomials, Qhj Formalism And Swkb Quantization Condition, S Ree Ranjani, P K. Panigrahi, A Khare, A K. Kapoor, Asim Gangopadhyaya

Physics: Faculty Publications and Other Works

We study the quantum Hamilton-Jacobi (QHJ) equation of the recently obtained exactly solvable models, related to the newly discovered exceptional polynomials and show that the QHJ formalism reproduces the exact eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions. The fact that the eigenfunctions have zeros and poles in complex locations leads to an unconventional singularity structure of the quantum momentum function p(x), the logarithmic derivative of the wave function, which forms the crux of the QHJ approach to quantization. A comparison of the singularity structure for these systems with the known exactly solvable and quasi-exactly solvable models reveals interesting differences. We find that the …

Catholic Sexual Ethics - A Necessary Revision: Theological Responses To The Sexual Abuse Scandal, Hille Haker

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Medical Alert: Alarming Challenges Facing Medical Technology Innovation, Lawrence M. Sung

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.