Digital Commons Network^™

Informed Consent: A Right Without A Remedy Examined Through The Lens Of Maternity Care, Kristen Ann Curran

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

California Notwithstanding: Why The Ninth Circuit Erred In Following The California Supreme Court's Grant Of Standing To The Proponents Of Proposition 8, Sara Rappaport

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Spontaneous Cooperative Assembly Of Replicative Catalytic Rna Systems, Nilesh Vaidya

Dissertations and Theses

The RNA World hypothesis proposes a period of time during the origins of life in which RNA molecules were the only source of both genotypes and phenotypes. Although a vast amount of evidence has been obtained in support of this hypothesis, a few critical demonstrations are lacking. A most crucial one is a demonstration of self-replication of RNA molecule from prebiotic soup. Previously in the Lehman laboratory, it has been demonstrated that a 198-nucleotide molecule derived from the Azoarcus group I intron can self-assemble from up to four fragments of RNA via recombination. Furthermore, the covalent full-length molecules are catalytically …

Communication Accommodation In Context: An Analysis Of Convergence And Divergence In Action, Nathan Thomas Sand

Communication

This collection of essays examines nature and relationship of discourse and social distance by focusing largely on the concepts of divergence and convergence throughout the communication process. The first essay examines the risk communication strategies used by officials to effectively and accommodatively confront and manage the outdoor New York City smoking ban. The second essay performs a rhetorical criticism of former-President Bush’s September 11th Speech, outlining specific instances in discourse that both decrease and increase social distance with the audience. And the third essay steps into the ESL classroom to propose ways in which we can better recognize and understand …

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Scorned Soap Fan: A Case Study Of Soap Opera Fan Activism, Sarah Jane Adams

Communication

Soaps operas, or daytime serials, have long been a staple of American culture. In April 2011, ABC-Disney announced the cancellation of All My Children and One Life to Live. Cancellations propelled the fans of these programs to launch efforts to save not only the shows, but the genre. Through the use of social media, websites, and traditional off-line activities that included calling and letter-writing, fans strived to make their voices heard. The study examines the creation of an online community and discourse through a textual-analysis case study of blogs on two fan activist websites. Dahlberg’s criteria for presence in an …

Finding Women In Early Modern English Courts: Evidence From Peter King's Manuscript Reports, Lloyd Bonfield

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Globalization Through The Lens Of Palace Wars: What Elite Lawyers' Careers Can And Cannot Tell Us About Globalization Of Law, Frank W. Munger

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Educational Social Software: The Use Of Social Network Sites For Teaching And Learning, Marvin Dale Lenoue

Education

Although social network sites (SNS) are in use by millions worldwide, the deployment of such sites as tools for teaching and learning is new. Topics related to the ways, means, and outcomes of SNS use in education and training contexts constitute a fresh research area within the field of educational technology. This mixed-methods research project gathered information regarding the use of SNS in education and training settings. Respondents to an Internet survey showed familiarity with a range of social media software, and several had used social network sites including Facebook, Ning, and MySpace in their professional practices. Respondents identified these …

Examining Portfolio-Based Assessment In An Upper-Level Biology Course, Brittany Ziegler

Education

Historically, students have been viewed as empty vessels and passive participants in the learning process but students actually are active forming their own conceptions. One way student learning is impacted is through assessment. Alternative assessment, which contrasts traditional assessment methods, takes into account how students learn by promoting engagement and construction of knowledge. This dissertation explores portfolio-based assessment, a method of alternative assessment, which requires students to compose a purposeful collection of work demonstrating their knowledge in an upper-level biology course. The research objectives include characterizing and contributing to the understanding of portfolio-based assessment in higher education, examining reflection and …

The Paradox And Promise Of Restorative Attorney Discipline, Jennifer Gerarda Brown, Liana G.T. Wolf

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Thinking" In A Deweyan Perspective: The Law School Exam As A Case Study For Thinking In Lawyering, Donald J. Kochan

Nevada Law Journal

As creatures of thought, we are thinking all the time, but that does not necessarily mean that we are thinking well. Answering the law school exam, like solving any problem, requires that the student exercise thinking in an effective and productive manner. This Article provides some guidance in that pursuit. Using John Dewey’s suspended conclusion concept for effective thinking as an organizing theme, this Article presents one basic set of lessons for thinking through issues that arise regarding the approach to a law school exam. This means that the lessons contained here help exercise thought while taking the exam—to think …

Crop And Prairie Grasses Serving As Hosts For The Hessian Fly, Yue Li

Entomology

Insect herbivores typically parasitize a relatively small number of plant species. Host specialization is presumed to be a result of evolutionary arms races, with insect adaptations ultimately restricting host range. Being a gall-maker, the Hessian fly has highly evolved interactions with plant hosts. As a consequence, its host range is expected to be narrow. Two crop species, wheat and barley are hosts of the Hessian fly. I studied whether non-crop grasses can also serve as hosts. Included in tests were seven grass species that are important components of the grasslands of the Northern Great Plains. Although less suitable than wheat …

Where's The Revolution?: From "Code Year" To The Continuum Of Proceduracy, Christopher Aaron Lindgren

English

As the calendar turned over to 2012, an online learning initiative, Codecademy, declared it “Code Year”—the year “for everyone” to learn code. Within six months, this call has received much attention from the public and scholars in the university. Yet, this history and theory paper more deeply investigates this call for a new mass literacy, which was actually proposed back in the 1960s as procedural literacy, i.e., proceduracy. Accordingly, a history is told about how Computer Science ignored Alan Perlis’ call for procedural literacy and Rhetoric and Composition has just recently begun to address Marshall McLuhan’s media turn. From there, …

"Where Everything Goes To Hell": Stephen King As Literary Naturalist, Meghan Joy Perry

English

In his bestselling nonfiction book about the horror genre, Danse Macabre, author Stephen King lists among his idols "the great naturalist writer Frank Norris" (336). While King primarily writes horror fiction, he has often noted his indebtedness to early American literary naturalists. As these naturalist writers have been such an influence in King's life and writing, it seems logical to explore whether King himself, in addition to being a horror writer, can also be considered a literary naturalist. By looking at ideas of both early and contemporary American literary naturalism, I explore how a variety of King's works utilize the …

"Who Are You And I...?": The Rhetoric Of Identity In The Aloha Eagles Letters, Rebecca Joy Hayes

English

In 1969, four years before the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, Aloha Eagles, a Republican legislator in the North Dakota House of Representatives, proposed a House Bill 319 to legalize abortion in North Dakota. Throughout the legislative session, Eagles corresponded with many North Dakotans regarding the bill. This study asks how Eagles and her correspondents construct identities, such as mother, citizen, or medical professional, to support or oppose abortion. Using rhetorical and archival research methods to examine rhetorics of identity in 78 pairs of letters between Eagles and her correspondents, the study reveals that writers construct marital, professional, parental, …

Mathematics Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Low Achievers In Mathematics, Ibrahim El-Shara, Adnan S. Al-Abed

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The present study aimed at identifying mathematics (math) teachers’ attitudes toward low achievers in mathematics, and the degree to which these attitudes are affected by their: sex, stage of school they teach in, years of experience, and their qualifications. For the purpose of the study, the Math Teachers’ Attitudes toward Low Achievers in Mathematics Scale (MTALAMS) was developed. The scale consisted of 30 items, distributed over 3 subscales: feelings, beliefs, and behavior. Validity and reliability of the scale were established. The sample of this study consisted of 217 male and female mathematics teachers in Amman, Jordan in the academic year …

2d And 3d Imaging Of The Metamorphic Carbonates At Omalos Plateau/Polje, Crete, Greece By Employing Independent And Joint Inversion On Resistivity And Seismic Data, Hamdan Ali Hamdan Dr, Nikos Economou, Giorgos Kritikakis, Nikos Andronikidis, Emmanuil Manoutsoglou, Antonis Vafidis, Pangratis Pangratis, Georgina Apostolidou

International Journal of Speleology

A geophysical survey carried out at Omalos plateau in Chania, Western Crete, Greece employed seismic as well as electrical tomography methods in order to image karstic structures and the metamorphic carbonates (Tripali unit and Plattenkalk group) which are covered by post-Mesozoic deposits (terra rossa, clays, sands and gravels). The geoelectrical sections image the metamorphic carbonates which exhibit a highly irregular relief. At the central part of the plateau the thickness of post-Mesozoic deposits (terra rossa, clays, sands and gravels) ranges from 40-130 m. A 3D resistivity image was generated by inverting resistivity data collected on a grid to the south …

Lives At Risk: High School Dropouts In The Northern Plains Region, Bruce Ralph Schumacher

Education

Education is essential to personal welfare. As educational levels increase, personal income rises, the quality of life improves, and society benefits as criminality declines, tax income increases, and the cost of social programs decreases. Unfortunately, every year thousands of students leave high school without graduating. Various factors place students at-risk of dropping out, but the question remains why some at-risk students drop out while others graduate. This phenomenology investigates dropping out by following the philosophy of Jurgen Habermas, guided by the work of Max van Manen. Participants discussed their lifeworld experiences and explained factors that had caused them to leave …

Case Study On The Journey Of An Elementary School Labeled As A Persistently Low-Achieving School, Annette Duncan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examined an elementary school, located in an urban school district, which was labeled as a Persistently Low-Achieving School (PLAS) by the federal government in 2009 in order to determine how the school planned to change leadership and staff; increase student achievement; and implement new approaches for changes in school climate.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the response of this school in the following areas:

1. Professional Practices of Teachers and Administrators: What impact did the PLAS label have on the professional practices of teachers and administrators in this building?

2. Curriculum and Academic Achievement: What …

The Standing Doctrine's Dirty Little Secret, Evan Tsen Lee, Josephine Mason Ellis

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Graduate Recital, Voice, Rebecca Belczyk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This graduate recital in voice presents a wide scope of the soprano recital repertoire and explores the relationship between music and literature throughout the centuries. Mozart's "Bella mia fiamma… Resta, o cara, " K. 528 represents the Italian Classical period; the text is based on the Roman myth of the goddess Ceres. Strauss' Drei Lieder der Ophelia, Op. 67 represents German Lieder from the late-Romantic period; the set presents a German translation of Ophelia's mad scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Argento's Six Elizabethan Songs represent 20th-century music, but Argento draws the text from various poets of the Elizabethan era. Selected songs …

Rooftop Gardening In An Urban Setting: Impacts And Implications, Lisa Barreiro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on green roofs has focused on grasses, sedums, and forbs. The aims of this thesis were to determine the potential of rooftop gardens (RTGs) in an urban setting to reduce local levels of CO2, remediate storm water runoff, and provide boutique vegetables for a restaurant. The garden roof footprint was 238 ft2, with 14% covered by vegetated boxes. The soil mixture used had 96% absorbency with 54.12 gallons of the 55 gallons of precipitation that fell within the rain catcher boxes absorbed. Total biomass production was 37.98 Kg of wet biomass and 5.04 Kg of dry biomass. The amount …

Graduate Recital, Piano, Benjamin Murray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My recital will feature jazz music from different decades in the 20th century. The program will feature well known jazz standard tunes from influential artists such as John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Miles Davis, Steve Swallow, and others. The program will include both solo jazz arrangements for piano such as ‘Alone Together', ‘Quiet Now', and ‘Falling Grace' as well as jazz combo arrangements featuring drums, bass, and trumpet. The jazz music will include different styles of jazz such as ‘swing', ‘modal', and ‘bebop'. In doing so, this will allow me to demonstrate a variety of ways to play and improvise over …

The Effect Of Caffeine And Choline On Short-Term Memory, Natasha Nagrecha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to determine whether caffeine combined with choline could improve short-term memory in healthy adults. The study tested the effect of choline (2 gm) alone and in combination with several concentrations of caffeine (25 mg, 50mg and 100mg) on short-term verbal and visual memory and attention. The Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning-2 was utilized. Choline 2 gm + caffeine 25 mg group showed significantly (p<0.05) higher overall memory performance whereas memory performance in the choline 2 gm + caffeine 50 mg group was significantly impaired compared to placebo. The data suggest that specific combinations of caffeine and choline can either facilitate or impair short-term memory in adults with normal cognitive function. Future studies of caffeine and choline combinations will test memory performance in subjects with memory impairment.

Computational Investigation Of The Mechanism Of N5-Carboxyaminoimidazole Ribonculeotide Synthetase, Venkata Pakkala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

N5-CAIR synthetase catalyzes the conversion of 5-amino-imidazole ribonucleotide (AIR), Mg2ATP, and bicarbonate into N5-CAIR, Mg2ADP, and inorganic phosphate. DFT and ONIOM QM/MM computations revealed that the first step in the reaction mechanism of N5-CAIR synthetase involves the formation of dianionic carboxyphosphate (CP) from the attack of bicarbonate on the γ- phosphate of Mg2ATP, through an SN2 type transition structure. Properties of CP were never reported, as this compound is extremely unstable (t1/2 of 70 ms). Therefore, high level ab inito (MP2 and CCSD(T)), and DFT (B3LYP, BB1K, M05-2X, M06-2X and MPW1K) methods were used to investigate the structure and energetics …

The Effects Of Total Dissolved Solids On Locomotory Behavior And Body Weight Of Streamside Salamanders, And A Baseline Survey Of Salamander Diversity And Abundance, Meghan Pascuzzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increased levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) in stream habitats are of concern due to salinity as well as the presence of potentially toxic ions. Natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale could increase TDS in nearby streams. This thesis investigated the effects of water with elevated TDS on the locomotory activity and body weight of the streamside salamander Desmognathus ochrophaeus. Salamanders were exposed to water collected from streams in southwest Pennsylvania with elevated TDS as well as synthetic ion solutions that mimicked the ionic composition found in streams. Chronic, but not acute exposure to solutions of 1000 ppm TDS …

The Awareness Of Computer-Mediated Communication's Social Presence For Virtual High School Students, Heather Bigley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the perception of social presence that students in a virtual high school have of using computer-mediated communication (CMC): email, discussion board, tutoring sessions, and asynchronous classroom activities. The research analyzed data for social presence based on gender, years of experience in a cyber school, and self-proficiency ratings on each form of CMC. The purpose of this study was to identify if high school students in a virtual community perceive email, discussion board, tutoring sessions and asynchronous classroom activities as enhancing their social presence within the virtual community. The findings of the study are:

1. Students perceived that …

Examining Cross-Cultural Counseling Competencies Of Substance Abuse Counselors In The Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania, Abdelhadi Elamin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With minority Americans expected to comprise more than 40% of the U.S population by 2035 and 47% by 2050 and substance abuse epidemic with 23.5 million nationwide in need for treatment, there is a growing need for cross-cultural counseling competence among substance abuse counselors. This study examined substance abuse counselors' level of cross-cultural counseling competence in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The research method used was quantitative in nature. Substance abuse counselors were asked to self-assess their level of competence by completing a questionnaire and modified Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory Revised (CCCI-R) subscales to determine whether counselor's gender, level of education, field …

The Effects Of A Violence Prevention Intervention On Prosocial Behavior And Perception Of School Safety, Cheon Carlon Graham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order for schools to be successful in providing students with developmentally appropriate instruction and social experiences, an atmosphere of safety and protection is required. The recent spike in school shootings over the past 15 years has created a sense of urgency to examine the dynamics of school violence in order to generate and implement effective security measures (Brooks, Schiraldi, & Ziedenberg, 2000). Unlike traditional problem-focused approaches, the positive approach to school violence is preventive, solution-driven, and systemic. The positive approach to violence prevention at school focuses on building a set of social and emotional strengths that are incompatible with …

Graduate Recital, Saxophone, Abby Gross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The young age of the saxophone in the existence of the music world has influenced the instrument's repertoire and programs to be versatile in genres and stylistic influences. This program features styles from several time periods and cultures including 20th and 21st century contemporary saxophone and piano duets, Brazilian choro, electronic music, and jazz. The nature of the instrument also allows pieces written for other instruments to take a different characteristic and open new meaning to a piece when played on the saxophone. For example, the element of passion in Brahms's Sonata in F minor No. 1 for clarinet takes …