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An Evaluation Of Active8 - A Physical Activity Intervention For Teenage Girls., Aileen Fitzgibbon

Theses

Objectives; To evaluate the Active8 intervention which aimed to increase physical activity participation and knowledge among teenage girls aged 11-14 years.

Design; School based trial conducted from February- May 2010, in the Glen Resource and Sports Centre, Cork. Participants; Participants consisted of seventy three first year girls from an all-girls Secondary School in the North Side of Cork City, aged between 11-14 years. Forty eight transition year girls from the same school acted as mentors in the programme. Parental consent was obtained.

Intervention; First year students engaged in weekly one hour physical activity sessions, during their Physical Education classes, for …

A Comparison Of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin And Luteinizing Hormone Releasing Hormone On The Induction Of Spermiation And Amplexus In The American Toad (Anaxyrus Americanus), Andrew J. Kouba, Javier Delbarco-Trillo, Carrie K. Vance, Callie Milam, Meghan Carr

Faculty Publications – Biological Sciences

Background: Captive breeding programs for endangered amphibian species often utilize exogenous hormones for species that are difficult to breed. The purpose of our study was to compare the efficacy of two different hormones at various concentrations on sperm production, quantity and quality over time in order to optimize assisted breeding. Methods: Male American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) were divided into three separate treatment groups, with animals in each group rotated through different concentrations of luteinizing hormone releasing hormone analog (LHRH; 0.1, 1.0, 4.0 and 32 micrograms/toad), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG; 50, 100, 200, and 300 IU), or the control over 24 …

Defense Gland Protein From Coptotermes Formosanus, Ioan-Horia Negulescu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki is the most invasive termite species and has the largest economic impact of all the subterranean termites in the US. Although a lot of work has been done on the determination of chemical composition of frontal gland secretion from different families of termites, the protein component of those secretions was relatively overlooked. This study started with the observation that proteins are present in the frontal gland secretion of Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki soldiers. The goal was to characterize one of these proteins by identifying its DNA sequence which would lead to protein sequence, function, structure and role it …

Training Evaluation In Virtual Worlds: Development Of A Model, Richard N. Landers, Rachel C. Callan

Psychology Faculty Publications

Many organizations have adopted virtual worlds (VWs) as a setting for training programs; however, research on appropriate evaluation of training in this new setting is incomplete. In this article, we address this gap by first exploring the unique issues relevant to evaluation faced by training designers working in VWs. At the macro-organizational level, the primary issue faced is an organizational culture unreceptive to or otherwise skeptical of VWs. At the micro-organizational level, two major issues are identified: individual trainees unreceptive to VWs and general lack of experience navigating VWs. All three of these challenges and their interrelationships may lead to …

A Syntax-Based Reading Intervention For English As Second-Language Learners, Christina Tausch

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Students with English as second language (ESL) are typically behind monolingual peers in reading comprehension even when phonemic awareness skills, phonics and word recognition are at grade level. The lack of syntactic awareness is one of the reasons cited in multiple studies (August & Shanahan, 2010; Da Fountoura & Siegel, 1995; Lesaux & Siegel, 2003; Lesaux et al., 2006; Chong, 2009). This study investigated the effects of a six week intervention designed to increase syntactic awareness, including meta-awareness of key structures of English for young ESL students in the upper elementary grades. Twenty typically developing ESL students in the fourth …

Facilitating Client Centred Learning, Registered Nurses' Association Of Ontario

General Submissions: Community and Population-based Materials

The aim of this guideline is to provide evidence-based recommendations for Registered Nurses, Registered Practical Nurses and other health-care providers to facilitate client centred learning that promotes and enables clients to take action for their health.

Woman Abuse: Screening, Identification And Initial Response, Registered Nurses' Association Of Ontario

General Submissions: Community and Population-based Materials

The overall purpose of this guideline is to facilitate routine universal screening for woman abuse by nurses in all practice settings. The intended outcome is increased opportunity for disclosure, which will promote health, well-being, and safety for women. Using evidence-based approaches and recommendations, this guideline offers nurses a repertoire of strategies that can be adapted to various practice environments.

Beliefs And Technology - Does One Lead To The Other? Evaluating The Effects Of Teacher Self-Efficacy And School Collective Efficacy On Technology Use In The Classroom, Elaine Studnicki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory mixed method study builds upon previous research to investigate the influence of teacher self- and collective efficacy on technology use in the classroom. This population was purposefully sampled to examine first- and second order technology barriers, instructional strategies, and human influences on technology. The quantitative finding was supported by qualitative analysis of the teacher interviews and led to the conclusion that even thought there were strong teacher tendencies towards a belief in using technology actual practice demonstrated a lack of productivity or transference of that belief into classroom practice. A high self- and collective efficacy had no effect …

An Investigation Of The Additive Benefits Of Parent Dialogic Reading Techniques In Older Preschool Children, Sarah O'Neill Switalski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the additive benefit of parent dialogic reading techniques in older, high-risk preschool children using multiple baseline design across participants, a single subject research design, as was as well as pre-test and post-test measures. Five preschoolers age-eligible to begin kindergarten the following school year participated. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-4) and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (EVT-2) were administered pre-intervention and post-intervention implementation. Consistent with multiple baseline design, all students received weekly progress monitoring using the Picture Naming (PN) Individual Growth and Development Indicator (IGDI) throughout the entire investigation. Caregivers received in-person video-based training in …

Embodying Technology: A Hermeneutic Inquiry Into Corporeality And Identity As Manifested In A Case Of Strap-On Dildo Use, Amy Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation takes a deep look at a first-person narrative from a man who develops complete impotence following androgen-deprivation treatment for prostate cancer. After feeling depressed for some time about what he imagined to be the permanent loss of his sexual life, the man, pseudonymously called Michael in this dissertation, tried using a strap-on dildo. Michael was surprised and pleased to find that using the dildo for sex brings him sexual satisfaction including orgasm. The dildo transforms "from object to organ" as Michael gradually comes to experience the dildo as a part of his own body. He also experiences a …

The Impact Of An Informal Science Learning Environment On The Environmentally Responsible Behavior Of Adults: A Case Study, Kathryn Ann March

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since environmental education’s emergence in America, the field has been primarily focused on increasing environmental awareness, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behavior. Yet the nation’s overall level of environmental literacy, especially with regard to the performance of environmentally responsible behaviors, continues to be low (Coyle, 2005). Unlike school-based education programs, which only reach a segment of the population, informal sites have the potential to influence learners of many ages and diverse backgrounds (NRC, 2009). Informal science learning environments (ISLEs) have been shown to provide personally meaningful learning experiences and have the potential to impact environmentally responsible decisions and actions (Falk, 2005). …

Stock Liquidity, Price Informativeness, And Accruals-Based Earnings Management, Jing Fang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

We examine the effect of stock liquidity on accruals-based earnings management. Finance literature suggests that stock liquidity leads to price efficiency. If prices are efficient, more future earnings should be reflected in current prices. Therefore, gain from shifting accruals across periods should be low and managers should have less incentive to manage earnings. We find that higher stock liquidity is associated with higher future earnings response coefficient and lower accruals-based earnings management. Our finding has important implication for the decline in accruals-based earnings management during 2001-2005 documented in prior study. Our additional trend analysis suggests that instead of SOX and …

Exploring The Influence Of Civic Community Structures On Family Poverty In A Multilevel Context, Candice A. Myers

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation integrates the civic community perspective and structuralist and individualist perspectives of poverty to assess the relationships between civic community structures and family poverty outcomes. The key contribution of this project to the larger bodies of civic community and poverty research is the use of a multilevel framework that accounts for both community context and family characteristics in shaping family poverty outcomes. This objective is carried out through a series of multilevel analyses wherein religious and economic civic community structures are examined in relation to various conceptualizations of family-level poverty. The first analysis examines the associations between religious-based measures …

Formal And Informal Care: An Empirical Bayesian Analysis Using The Two-Part Model, Juan Du

Economics Faculty Publications

Informal care provided to the elderly by their children is proposed as a less expensive alternative to institutional long-term care. This paper explores how the elderly's consumption of medical care changes in response to changes in the informal care they receive from their children. Many earlier studies have ignored both the endogeneity of informal care and the complicated nature of health care utilization data. This paper develops a two-part model with informal care treated as an endogenous regressor and imposes exclusion restrictions on the selection process. The model is fitted using the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods, in …

Composing A Method: Écriture Féminine As Performance Practice, Brianne Waychoff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The overall aim of this project is to theorize and invent a method of performance based on écriture féminine. This method is meant to be useable, generative, and transferable to other practitioners. Following a heuretic practice of reading selected texts for what they suggest about making new texts, writerly method that invites expansion in future research is revealed. This project is but a beginning of an articulation and proposes only one path through these texts. The tracking of the process of reading and experimenting with performance provides a space for reflection that illuminates gaps to be explored in future work. …

When Agencies Go Nuclear: A Game Theoretic Approach To The Biggest Sticks In An Agency's Arsenal, Brigham Daniels

Faculty Scholarship

A regulatory agency’s arsenal often contains multiple weapons. Occasionally, however, an agency has the power to completely obliterate its regulatory targets or to make major waves in society by using a “regulatory nuke.” A regulatory nuke is a tool with two primary characteristics. First, it packs power sufficient to profoundly impact individual regulatory targets or significantly affect important aspects of society or the economy. Second, from the perspective of the regulatory agency, it is politically unavailable in all but the most extreme situations. They are found in many corners of the federal bureaucracy. This Article illustrates that even when individual …

Investigation Of Electroosmotic Flow Dynamics And Reproducibility In Capillary Electrophoresis, Funda Kizilkaya

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate electroosmotic flow (EOF) and electric field dynamics during capillary electrophoresis (CE) experiments using methods based on periodic photobleaching of fluorophores added to the separation buffer at nanomolar concentrations. The methods provide time resolved EOF and local electric field information during an experiment, which can be applied to fundamental studies to provide better understanding of CE techniques. The potential of the EOF monitoring method to improve CE migration reproducibility was investigated in Chapter 2. The EOF monitoring method and four other methods from the literature were applied to the same electrophoretic separations, and …

Identification Of Desirable Pharmacy Preceptor Characteristics And Behaviors: A Qualitative Content Analysis Approach, Janet Astle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thirty percent of the doctor of pharmacy degree program, the sole degree recognized by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (APCE), is dedicated to experiential education. Experiential education is comprised of introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPE's), which are interwoven throughout the first three years of the professional curriculum, and advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE's), which serve as a capstone in the final year of the degree program. The majority of these experiences are supervised by external pharmacist practitioners or preceptors. Although ACPE mandates adequate preparation and development for preceptors, it does not define the content of such training. Little is …

The Relationship Between Barcode Medication Administration Satisfaction And The Use Of Workarounds Among Registered Nurses, Sally Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adverse drug events, resulting in preventable patient harm or death, are of great concern. To keep patients safe, hospitals have implemented barcode medication administration (BCMA) technology for RNs who have accepted this technology with varying levels of satisfaction. When nurses are dissatisfied with a BCMA system, they may find alternative methods to complete their work. Framed by the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989), this analytic, cross-sectional study aimed to understand the relationship between BCMA satisfaction and workarounds, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of a BCMA system by 80 hospital-based RNs in northeastern US. Data were collected …

A Single-Subject Study Examining The Effects Of A Behavioral Intervention For Verbal Recurrent Perserveration, Jenifer Juengling-Sudkamp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Approximately 1 million people in the United States suffer from aphasia and > 50% of those people may demonstrate recurrent perseverations. No consensus has been forthcoming on whether (1) a therapy that directly confronts clients with imminent pre-articulatory automatisms (the perseverations) or (2) a more typical neuropsychological therapy that eschews any direct confrontation with automatic behaviors works best. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the treatment efficacy of a non-confrontational picture naming intervention on naming ability in individuals with aphasia and recurrent perseverations. METHODS: This is a prospective single-subject ABAB multiple baseline design replicated across 3 right-handed …

Dynamic Characterization Of Vocal Fold Virbrations, Zhenyi Wei

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

An emerging trend among voice specialists is the use of quantitative protocols for the diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders. Vocal fold vibrations are directly related to voice quality. This research is devoted to providing an objective means of characterizing these vibrations. Our goal is to develop a dynamic model of vocal fold vibration, and map the parameter space of the model to a class of voice disorders; thus, furthering the assessment and diagnosis of voice disorder in clinical settings.

To this end, this dissertation introduces a new seven-mass biomechanical model for the vibration of vocal folds. The model is …

Perceptions Of Opportunity Among Youth Served By The Allegheny County Department Of Human Services: A Program Evaluation Study Of The Partnership For Youth Transition, James Caldwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services implemented the Partnership for Youth Transition Program (PYT) to provide services for transition aged youth in Allegheny County who suffer from Severe Emotional Disturbance. One of the goals of this program was to enhance the perceptions of opportunity of goal attainment held by this population. This research is a program evaluation of the PYT program to find out if the PYT program was successful in enhancing these perceptions. This study uses a Paired-Samples T-Test, a Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and an Analysis of Variance to see if the perceptions of opportunity changed during …

Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing: Learning From The Past And Looking Toward The Future, Stephanie Bair

Faculty Scholarship

A decade after the complete sequencing of the human genome, we have seen a proliferation of genetic testing services marketed directly to the consumer and purporting to use genetic information to generate individualized health information. These tests have been subject to only minimal regulation, despite the fact that scientists and policymakers have serious concerns about both the clinical effectiveness of the tests and the safety of releasing certain types of health information to the public without the supervision of a health care professional. Proponents of minimal regulation argue that the tests allow for patient autonomy and privacy of genetic information, …

Multiplication Theory For Dynamically Biased Avalanche Photodiodes: New Limits For Gain Bandwidth Product, Majeed M. Hayat, David A. Ramirez

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Novel theory is developed for the avalanche multiplication process in avalanche photodiodes (APDs) under time-varying reverse-biasing conditions. Integral equations are derived characterizing the statistics of the multiplication factor and the impulse-response function of APDs, as well as their breakdown probability, all under the assumption that the electric field driving the avalanche process is time varying and spatially nonuniform. Numerical calculations generated by the model predict that by using a bit-synchronous sinusoidal biasing scheme to operate the APD in an optical receiver, the pulse-integrated gain-bandwidth product can be improved by a factor of 5 compared to the same APD operating under …

The Use Of Discrete Computer Simulation Modeling To Estimate The Direct And Diffusion Effects Of Leadership Development Intervention On The Return On Investment, Brett Wayne Richard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Organizational leaders seek monetary returns on their investments (ROI). Thus, making decisions to invest in human capital, such as in leadership development interventions, are often difficult due to the lack of research demonstrating monetary returns on development investment (RODI). Further, little research has been conducted on the diffusion effects of leadership development intervention, or returns on leadership diffusion (ROLD). This research expands on previous research conducted by Avolio, Avey & Quinsenberry (2010), which was the first attempt to estimate RODI using utility analysis. This study is unique in that it uses computer simulation modeling along with current research data to …

The Impact Of The Symphonological Approach To Ethical Decision Making On Advanced Level Nursing Students, Megan Ann Mraz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Problem: The literature revealed two major gaps; the first gap is the lack of current knowledge about ethical decision-making abilities of the advanced level nurse. A second gap is the need to investigate specific models and theories to support the profession of nursing in making ethical decisions.

Purpose: The purpose was to explore the following research questions: What is the effect of a Symphonology-based educational intervention on the ethical decision-making performance of advanced level nursing students, as measured by the JAND? What is the effect of a Symphonology-based educational intervention on the ethical decision-making performance of advanced level nursing students, …

William Blayney - Clarinetist And Teacher, Contributions And Influences On Clarinet Playing In The Twenty-First Century, Branko Pavlovski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was undertaken to document the life and teaching of the American clarinetist William Blayney who was noted for the beauty of his tone and expressive playing. He is representative of the French clarinet school, and through his teaching he carries on this tradition of fine clarinet playing to another generation in the United States. Blayney’s wide range of experience extends from playing with the Atlanta and Seattle symphonies, to opera and ballet companies in New York, Atlanta, Baltimore and Seattle, to playing on Broadway and on movie soundtracks such as Die Hard III and Disney Studio re-scorings of …

Nurse Educators' Perceptions About The Culture Of Nursing And Their Role In Bringing Students Into That Culture: A Focused Ethnography, Susan Maria Strouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to discover nurse educators' perceptions about the culture of nursing and how they bring students into that culture.

Background: Although the extant literature addresses the process of socialization to the profession, literature exploring socialization as enculturation is scant. Nurse educators' perspectives on the culture of nursing needed further exploration, as their voice on this topic is relatively silent and they provide the first formal enculturation to the profession. Viewing nursing as a professional culture may more effectively enable faculty to clarify and explicate for students the values, behaviors, symbols, and beliefs inherent in …

Student Peer-Group Focusing In Psychology Training: A Phenomemological Study, Amanda Burleigh Lowe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study is an empirical phenomenological investigation of the influence of peer group Focusing practice (Gendlin, 1981) on doctoral psychology students' senses of their developing clinical expertise. Focusing, a therapeutic bodily awareness and symbolization practice, was proposed as a method that would support the development of student self-reflection, self-assessment, and self-care. The present study investigates the experiences of three female doctoral students who participated in a peer-initiated and peer-run Focusing group for five semesters. The methodological procedures for a reflective empirical phenomenological study as articulated by Giorgi and Giorgi (2003), Robbins (2006), and Wertz (1984) were followed. Procedures adapted …

Examining Customer Felt Gratitude And Indebtedness In Exchanges: Their Conceptualizations, Causes And Consequences, Dora Elizabeth Schmit

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although gratitude has been termed the second most frequently experienced positive emotion (Fredrickson 2009), marketing research has only recently started to explore the role of gratitude in customer relationships. As a result, many deficiencies exist in the literature, including the distinction between this emotion and indebtedness. Further and related to this issue, little is known about gratitude’s conceptualization, antecedents and consequences. This dissertation was conducted to address these deficiencies and extend knowledge concerning customer felt gratitude and indebtedness. Essay one was conducted to offer in-depth insight to the conceptualizations of customer felt gratitude and indebtedness. A hermeneutical interpretive approach was …