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Archive Fever : Performance Art, Anastasia Proshutinskaya

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Risk Ratio Of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, And Xylene (Btex) Exposures And Their Relations To Biological Parameters Of Gasoline Workers In Bangkok, Thailand, Tanasorn Tunsaringkasrn, Panthira Ketkaew, Kalaya Zapaung, Anusorn Rugsiyothin, Surasak Taneepanichkul

Applied Environmental Research

Gasoline station is a common source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions around its perimeter. In order to conduct a monitoring of the VOC's emission, measurements of biological markers of blood benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) in gasolinestation workers are recommended. The purposes of this study were to evaluate exposure risk ratio (110 gasoline station workers from 11 gasoline stations in Bangkok Metropolitan area compared to 10 office workers in the same station as control group) and to determine the relations between blood BTEX and biological parameters of the gasoline workers. Results showed that blood BTEX levels of gasoline …

Training Parents Of An Adolescent With Autism Effective Behavior Management Strategies Across Multiple Settings, Kari Porter

Research Papers

Research suggests that rearing a child with a developmental disability can be highly stressful and may lead to a heightened risk for child maltreatment. This study demonstrates the utility of a behavioral skills teaching model to train parents to engage their child with autism in adaptive behavior and to manage her disruptions at home, in the car, and in public settings. In some conditions, the experimenter trained the child directly in order to establish control in these settings before attempting to train the parents. Parents were trained through a combination of discussion, video presentation, and guided (shadowed) practice. The results …

Defining The “Good” Mother: Examining The Myths Of Motherhood And The Hierarchical Construction Of Femininity In Weeds And Weekly Magazines, Johnanna Joy Ganz

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Throughout this thesis  investigate how images of motherhood in popular culture rely on specific ideological "myths" to convey implicit messages about appropriate femininity. To examine the depictions of motherhood I performed a textual analysis of the contents of the first two seasons of the television program Weeds as well as randomly sampled issues of the following celebrity gossip magazines: People Weekly, US Weekly, In Touch Weekly, and Life & Style Weekly. In order to make sense of the data, I rely on the theoretical concept of hegemonic femininity, as developed by Mimi Schippers. Additionally, I offer a more nuanced argument …

Psychopathy: Correlates Of The Mmpi-2-Rf And Ppi-R, Katherine Achsah Lisa Hall

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The present study sought to examine the utility of the MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) in assessing psychopathic personality traits. In past studies, the Restructured Clinical scales (RC4, RC9, RC7, and RC2) have been positive predictors of psychopathic characteristics. The aim of this study is to validate and build upon the previous research by re-examining the Restructured Clinical scales (RC4, RC9, RC7, and RC2) and investigate the MMPI-2-RF fear scales (Behavioral-Restricting Fears & Multiple Specific Fears), High-Order Scale (Behavioral/Externalizing Dysfunction), Externalizing Scale (Juvenile Conduct Problems and Substance Abuse) and the Personality Psychopathology Five scales (Negative-Emotionality/Neuroticism-Revised & Introversion/Low Positive Emotionality-Revised). It …

Behavior Analysis And Addictive Behavior: A Chance For Change, Mary Avery

Research Papers

Abstract

Drug dependence is a far-reaching problem that goes beyond the individual to society at large. While a myriad of substances have addictive properties, the scope of this review is limited to crack cocaine – how the brain, specifically the mesolimbic dopamine system, is compromised by administration of crack cocaine, physiological changes and the relevance of dopamine levels to susceptibility to addiction.

Studies based on the use of behavior analysis tools including functional analysis, positive and negative reinforcement, delayed discounting, contingency management, stages of readiness, motivation for change, and determining alternate behaviors as replacements for addictive behavior are included. Participants …

Gender Differences Of Multimodal Responses To Child And Non-Child Stressors, Meghan Michelle Kovar

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This investigation explored gender differences and relations among facets of adult stress measured by self-reported cognitive, emotional, and continuous psychophysiological responses to child and non-child stressors. The 46 male and 47 female participants displayed increased heart rate (HR) while watching a video of a happy infant and a decreased HR (associated with increased attentiveness) during a crying infant video. During a cold pressor task, males' HR increased while females revealed a contrary decline in HR. No differences between hyperactive and non-hyperreactive participants were found regarding hypothetical parenting plans or self-reported emotionality. Findings suggest more gender similarity than dissimilarity, possibly due …

The Nicu: Environmental Effects Of The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit On Infants And Caregivers, Kristin N. Hunt

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

A History And Definition Of Green Roof Technology With Recommendations For Future Research, John D. Magill, Karen Midden, John Groninger, Matthew Therrell

Research Papers

Green roof technology has a history that predates the modern era. Many functions of green roofs utilized during human history are analogous to contemporary functions. The justification of the use of green roof technology based on a review of literature shows the multiple and documented benefits that these systems can impart to the urban environment. A case study of the installation of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale green roof, showed the actual process of constructing the system. The maintenance and observation of this system gives firsthand experience. Interviews with green roof professionals allow greater understanding of current research needs. Finally, …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Drug-Crime Relationship, Michael A. Powell

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

A Quantitative And Standardized Robotic Method For The Evaluation Of Arm Proprioception After Stroke, Lucia Simo, Claude Ghez, Lior Botzer, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Stroke often results in both motor and sensory deficits, which may interact in the manifested functional impairment. Proprioception is known to play important roles in the planning and control of limb posture and movement; however, the impact of proprioceptive deficits on motor function has been difficult to elucidate due in part to the qualitative nature of available clinical tests. We present a quantitative and standardized method for evaluating proprioception in tasks directly relevant to those used to assess motor function. Using a robotic manipulandum that exerted controlled displacements of the hand, stroke participants were evaluated, and compared with a control …

A Novel Cable-Driven Robotic Training Improves Locomotor Function In Individuals Post-Stroke, Ming Wu, Jill M. Landry, Sheng-Che Yen, Brian D. Schmit, T. George Hornby, Miriam Rafferty

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A novel cable-driven robotic gait training system has been tested to improve the locomotor function in individuals post stroke. Seven subjects with chronic stroke were recruited to participate in this 6 weeks robot-assisted treadmill training paradigm. A controlled assistance force was applied to the paretic leg at the ankle through a cable-driven robotic system. The force was applied from late stance to mid-swing during treadmill training. Body weight support was provided as necessary to prevent knee buckling or toe drag. Subjects were trained 3 times a week for 6 weeks. Overground gait speed, 6 minute walking distance, and balance were …

Effects Of Environmental Variables On Food Consumption, Denise Eslinger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Overweight and obesity is a growing epidemic among adults, adolescents, and children in the United States. Since 1980, rates of obesity have doubled among adults and tripled among children, and college students are not immune to this trend. This may be due, in part, to portion sizes that exceed individuals' caloric needs. Although many studies have demonstrated that people's food consumption is highly influenced by environmental factors ( e.g., the size of a portion that is given), there has been very little theoretical work exploring the reasons for this influence. To determine if portion size would affect consumption when a …

The Value Of Leisure In Coping With Natural Disaster: A Case Study In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina, Germaine Jackson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have witnessed more than their share of cataclysmic events, both natural and human-made. Most notable is Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm that ravaged the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The infamous history of Hurricane Katrina's devastation stems from a couple of factors. First, the death toll reached what, for Americans, was a shockingly high figure of 1,577 people. Second, and more socially and politically relevant, was the federal government's mismanagement of the crisis.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of leisure services available to adolescents following the traumatic …

Instrument Independent Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy, Bing Yu, Henry L. Fu, Nirmala Ramanujam

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy with a fiber optic probe is a powerful tool for quantitative tissue characterization and disease diagnosis. Significant systematic errors can arise in the measured reflectance spectra and thus in the derived tissue physiological and morphological parameters due to real-time instrument fluctuations. We demonstrate a novel fiber optic probe with real-time, self-calibration capability that can be used for UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy in biological tissue in clinical settings. The probe is tested in a number of synthetic liquid phantoms over a wide range of tissue optical properties for significant variations in source intensity fluctuations caused by instrument warm …

Energy Deposition In The Breast During Ct Scanning: Quantification And Implications For Dose Reduction, Franco Rupcich, Iacovos Kyprianou, Andreu Badal, Taly Gilat Schmidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Studies suggest that dose to the breast leads to a higher lifetime attributable cancer incidence risk from a chest CT scan for women compared to men. Numerous methods have been proposed for reducing dose to the breast during CT scanning, including bismuth shielding, tube current modulation, partial-angular scanning, and reduced kVp. These methods differ in how they alter the spectrum and fluence across projection angle. This study used Monte Carlo CT simulations of a voxelized female phantom to investigate the energy (dose) deposition in the breast as a function of both photon energy and projection angle. The resulting dose deposition …

The Social Origin Of Violent Behavior, Todd Arthur Mensink

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examines the social origins of extremely violent behavior. Numerous explanations of violent offenders have focused on biological, psychological, environmental or a combination of these factors to explain violence. Most explanations of violent behavior fail to take a holistic approach to understand the cause of violent behavior. This study is an analysis of the applicability of the violentization theory. Data was obtained through in-depth semi-structured interviews from six violent offenders in a residential treatment faciIity in the Midwest. Findings indicate that for most offenders, the violentization theory is consistent with their social experiences. However, two exceptions pertained to the …

Reducing Mass Incarceration: Lessons From The Deinstitutionalization Of Mental Hospitals In The 1960s, Bernard Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

In a message to Congress in 1963, President John F. Kennedy outlined a federal program designed to reduce by half the number of persons in custody. The institutions at issue were state hospitals and asylums for the mentally ill, and the number of such persons in custody was staggeringly large, in fact comparable to contemporary levels of mass incarceration in prisons and jails. President Kennedy's message to Congress – the first and perhaps only presidential message to Congress that dealt exclusively with the issue of institutionalization in this country – proposed replacing state mental hospitals with community mental health centers, …

Post-Graduate Settlement Patterns: Tuition Reciprocity And Its Impact On Graduate Retention In Iowa, Minnesota, And Wisconsin, Andrew Miles Duggan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This research project sought to discover the potential role participating in a tuition reciprocity program had on affecting a state's ability to stem the impact of brain drain. In order to do this, alumni records were analyzed from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), Minnesota State University-Mankato (MSU), and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). They were chosen because these schools serve as regional institutions, and realistically would be expected to compete for the same prospective students. Datasets were collected for general locations (ZIP codes), gender, and degree majors for those who graduated in 1999 and 2004 - five and …

Family Law Scholarship Goes To Court: Functional Parenthood And The Case Of Debra H. V. Janice R., Suzanne B. Goldberg, Harriet Antczak, Mark Musico

Faculty Scholarship

Family law literature, while diverse in its exploration of contemporary families, also offers important threads of consensus. These strong points of coherence, when brought together with relevant case law, can be a useful means of advancing the academic conversation as well as engaging directly with courts to shape the law's development.

In a field as complex as family law, myriad academic viewpoints on any given issue often make it difficult to imagine scholarly discussion having utility for courts. As we aim to show here, however, amicus briefs can be important vehicles for synthesizing the literature, highlighting basic points of consensus …

The Role Of Work Environment On Employee Job Engagement, Micayla Michelle Evers

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Employee job engagement is an increasingly popular and important construct in organizations in the United States. Job engagement is widely considered to have a strong influence on employee job performance, turnover rates, burnout, etc. Many variables contribute to this important construct, and work environment encompasses one of these variables. This study addresses the impact of physical work environment and social work environment in predicting employee job engagement. The current study found that both physical work environment and social work environment were significant predictors of employee job engagement and that physical work environment had a slightly larger impact. Exploratory analyses were …

Metabolic Restructuring During Energy-Limited States : Insights From Artemia Franciscana Embryos And Other Animals., Steven Hand, Michael Menze, Apu Borcar, Yuvraj Patil, Joseph Covi, Julie Reynolds, Mehmet Toner

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Many life history stages of animals that experience environmental insults enter developmental arrested states that are characterized by reduced cellular proliferation, with or without a concurrent reduction in overall metabolism. In the case of the most profound metabolic arrest reported in invertebrates, i.e., anaerobic quiescence in Artemia franciscana embryos, acidification of the intracellular milieu is a major factor governing catabolic and anabolic downregulation. Release of ion gradients from intracellular compartments is the source for approximately 50% of the proton equivalents needed for the 1.5 unit acidification that is observed. Recovery from the metabolic arrest requires re-sequestration of the protons with …

Lea Proteins During Water Stress : Not Just For Plants Anymore., Steven Hand, Michael Menze, Mehmet Toner, Leaf Boswell, Daniel Moore

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are extremely hydrophilic proteins that were first identified in land plants. Intracellular accumulation is tightly correlated with acquisition of desiccation tolerance, and data support their capacity to stabilize other proteins and membranes during drying, especially in the presence of sugars like trehalose. Exciting reports now show LEA proteins are not restricted to plants; multiple forms are expressed in desiccation-tolerant animals from at least four phyla. We evaluate here the expression, subcellular localization, biochemical properties and potential functions of LEA proteins in animal species during water stress. LEA proteins are intrinsically unstructured in aqueous solution, but …

Nano-Electromechanical Zero-Dimensional Freestanding Nanogap Actuator, Jun Hyun Han, Norimasa Yoshimizu, T.J. Cheng, Michael Ziwisky, S.A. Bhave, A. Lal, Chung-Hoon Lee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Micromachined free standing nanogap with metal electrodes is presented. The gap size is as small as 17 nm, and can be reduced further with electrostatic or piezoelectric actuation. The nanoscale gap is fabricated by industrial standard optical lithography and anisotropic wet chemical Si etching. Electron transport between the metal electrodes with optical stimulus enhancing photon-electron coupling (plasmon) is presented.

Conformation And Ion Transport Of Neuronal Uncoupling Proteins: Ucp2, Ucp4, And Ucp5, Tuan Hoang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Located in the inner mitochondrial membrane of brown adipose tissue, uncoupling protein -1 (UCP1) dissipates the proton electrochemical gradient, causing reduction in the rate of ATP synthesis, and generates heat by non-shivering thermogenesis. Three other UCP homologs (UCP2, UCP4 and UCP5), expressed in neurons, are suggested to have potential roles in the function and protection of the central nervous system (CNS). Up to date, structural information for UCPs still remains limited. Extensive biochemical studies on UCP2 have provided adequate evidence for its participation in proton and anion transport. So far, no functional studies in proteoliposome systems have been performed on …

The Role Of The Acidic Domain Of The Toc159 Protein Import Receptor Family In Toc Complex Assembly In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Yi Chen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Most chloroplast proteins are encoded in the nucleus and translated in the cytosol with an N-terminal cleavable transit peptide, which can be recognized by the translocon at the outer envelope membrane of chloroplasts (Toc complex). The core Toc complex is composed of two GTPases, Toc159 and Toc34, and the Toc75 channel. atToc159, atToc132 and atToc120 are homologues of the Toc159 family in Arabidopsis, and have been shown to assemble into structurally and functionally distinct Toc complexes. Targeting of atToc159 to the chloroplast outer membrane is mediated by its GTPase (G-) domain. However, the role of the acidic (A-) domain in …

Gingival Abscess Removal Using A Soft-Tissue Laser, Soni Prasad, Edward A. Monaco, Jr., Sebastiano Andreana

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

Gingival abscess, also known as parulis, is defined as a localized, acute inflammatory lesion that may arise from a number of sources, including microbial plaque infection, trauma, and foreign body impaction. It often presents as a smooth, fluctuant, red-color swelling and can occasionally be painful. It is generally limited to marginal and interdental gingiva. Based on its location it has been classified as a type of periodontal abscess which does not involve any attachment loss. The treatment comprises of removal of the cause and, in acute situations, excision of the abscess. A typical gingival abscess is easy to diagnose; however, …

Examination Of The Mitochondrial Health Of The Basigin Null Mouse Retina, Kristine Anne V. Pablo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Basigin gene products are cell adhesion molecules that are expressed by photoreceptor cells, Müller cells and endothelial cells of the mammalian retina. Previous studies have suggested that a lactate shuttle exists between the photoreceptor cells and the Müller cells, with Basigin being an essential component in this shuttle. Deletion of the Basigin gene in mice results in blindness with an eventual retinal degeneration. It was hypothesized that the lactate shuttle between photoreceptors and Müller cells does not form in Basigin null mice and that the blindness is attributed to faulty photoreceptor metabolism. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to …

Protein Expression Of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1-Alpha (Hif-1Α) In Spot (Leiostomus Xanthurus) Under Acute Exposure To Hypoxic Treatments : A Laboratory-Field Comparison Study, Mason James Smith

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hypoxia in coastal estuaries is a topic of increasing concern, as the magnitude and frequency of hypoxic events have increased over the past several decades. These hypoxic events are highly detrimental to the coastal biota, particulary fish. The hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) protein was used as a candidate biomarker for deciphering exposure of fish to hypoxic events. In chapter one, Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus) were exposed to three treatment groups of DO (means 7.32 ± 0.18, 5.15 ± .37, and 2.57 ± 0.01 mg Lˉ¹ DO) and sampled (n = 5) at time zero, 36 and 72-h for each treatment. The …

Determining Students' Working Conceptions Of Evolution Through Formative Assessment Probes, Danielle J. Burras

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Students entering a science classroom bring with them many ideas about science content and the nature of science. Some of those ideas are not congruent with current scientific explanations and can be called working conceptions. Working conceptions have the ability to impact how students respond to new information and whether or not they integrate it into their lives outside of the classroom. Identifying what working conceptions students have prior to instruction allows educators to determine how instruction should be formatted and what concepts may need extra focus. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of formative assessment …