Digital Commons Network^™

An Untapped Body Of Knowledge : The Use Of Body Language In Clinical Social Work, Alexandria D. Wright

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This mixed-method study explores the role and relevance of nonverbal communication in the clinical encounter as perceived by clinical social workers. A survey of 54 clinical social workers currently practicing with an MSW was used to assess the perceived value, frequency, and presumed usefulness of attending to nonverbal communication between oneself and one's client. The survey also inquired into the depth and breadth of training participants had received in incorporating nonverbal communication into a therapeutic practice. Participants evaluated the quantity and quality of training they received in both MSW and other professional programs, and reflected upon the impact extracurricular, personal …

Resiliency In Survivors Of Human Trafficking : An Exploratory Study Of Clinicians' Perspectives Of Protective Factors, Theresa A. Carter

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study explores the salutogenic question as it relates to female survivors of human trafficking, "Why, when women are exposed to the same trauma which causes some to become ill, do some remain healthy?" Using a standardized open-ended interview format, this author gathered the perspectives of twelve health and social services providers, including executive directors, case management workers, mental health counselors, and advocates. This data was compiled and analyzed, alongside the existing literature on resiliency and within the framework of Salutogenic Theory. All participants identified protective factors that contribute to resiliency based on their professional work with female survivors …

Unh Exploded In The World Of Social Media This Year, Unh Communications And Public Affairs

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

O Come Let Us Adore Him

News Releases

No abstract provided.

Condition-Dependent Risk Assessment Of Large-Scale Grid-Tied Photovoltaic Power Systems, Sherwin Li

Master's Theses

This thesis reviews the methods for evaluating the reliability of large PV systems and techniques for quantifying the impacts of PV interconnection on distribution system reliability. In addition, a comparative study is performed to evaluate the seasonal condition-dependent risk performance of central-inverter and string-inverter grid-tied PV power systems. Major contributions include: 1) risk analysis of seasonal impacts for string and centralized PV systems. Seasonal sensitivities of PV system risks to system structures, temperature variation, solar insolation, and capacitor equivalent series resistance are analyzed; and 2) the incorporation of the effect of operational conditions and the aging failure model into the …

Disordered Eating Attitudes And Behaviors : Comparing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender And Queer Women To Women Who Identify As Straight, Mellissa T. Bonilla

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study used a quantitative, fixed-method research design to explore the trends of eating disordered attitudes and behaviors in women. Specifically, it investigated whether there were differences in prevalence of eating disordered attitudes and behaviors between heterosexual women and women who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer. Participants were found using snowball sampling. 556 women participated in the research by completing an online survey. The survey instrument they were then asked to complete was EAT-26, used to asses if a person may be at high risk for an eating disorder. The ages of the participants ranged from 18-83 …

The Potential Regulatory Challenges Of Increasingly Autonomous Motor Vehicles, Stephen P. Wood, Jesse Chang, Thomas Healy, John Wood

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trauma Care In Tennessee; 2012 Report To The 108th General Assembly, Tennessee. Department Of Health.

Trauma Care in Tennessee

No abstract provided.

Oath Of Office Vs. The Pledge, Larry Witner, Ron Washburn

Accounting Department Faculty Working Papers

All members of Congress take an oath of office to support the Constitution. Some of them make a pledge to Americans for Tax Reform (Grover Norquist, president) to oppose tax increases. For reasons stated in the article, we contend that the pledge has no force and effect and is not binding on members of Congress.

The article identifies and numbers 8 topics. This outline-type format helps a) to organize the subject matter, b) to highlight issues, and c) to reduce the word count as we don’t have to worry about smooth transitions.

State V. Weathers Respondent's Brief Dckt. 39645

Not Reported

No abstract provided.

Mcculloch V. State Respondent's Brief Dckt. 38815

Not Reported

No abstract provided.

Stress And Strain Adaptation In Load-Dependent Remodeling Of The Embryonic Left Ventricle, Christine Buffinton

Faculty Journal Articles

Altered pressure in the developing left ventricle (LV) results in altered morphology and tissue material properties. Mechanical stress and strain may play a role in the regulating process. This study showed that confocal microscopy, three-dimensional reconstruction, and finite element analysis can provide a detailed model of stress and strain in the trabeculated embryonic heart. The method was used to test the hypothesis that end-diastolic strains are normalized after altered loading of the LV during the stages of trabecular compaction and chamber formation. Stage-29 chick LVs subjected to pressure overload and underload at stage 21 were reconstructed with full trabecular morphology …

Sigma Terms And Strangeness Content Of The Nucleon With Nf=2+1+1 Twisted Mass Fermions, V Drach, C Alexandrou, M Constantinou, S Dinter, K Hadjiyiannakou, K Jansen, G Koutsou, A Vaquero, A Strelchenko

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Properties Of Pseudoscalar Flavor- Singlet Mesons From 2+1+1 Twisted Mass Lattice Qcd, K Ottnad, C Michael, C Urbach, F Zimmermann, K Cichy, V Drach, E Garcia-Ramos, K Jansen

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Use Of The County Health Rankings By Local Health Departments In Florida, 2010 - 2011, Nancy L. Winterbauer, Bonita Sorensen, James B. Tidwell

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

This paper describes how local health departments (LHDs) in Florida used the County Health Rankings over the first two years of their release (2010 – 2011). We surveyed LHD leadership to describe if, how and to what extent the Rankings were used by Florida’s 67 LHDs to improve the health of their communities and describe changes in use from the 2010 to the 2011 release. Our results indicate substantial use of the Rankings by Florida’s LHDs, particularly as applied to community health assessments, staff education, as a starting point for examining other indicators and databases, and in grant applications. From …

Effectiveness And Challenges For Implementing Quality Improvement Activities In Nebraska’S Local Health Departments, Li-Wu Chen, Anh Nguyen, Janelle J. Jacobson, Diptee Ojha, David Palm

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

What is already known on this topic? Although the implementation strategies and effectiveness of quality improvement (QI) activities have been examined extensively for many industries, including the health care sector, very few studies have focused on QI activities in the public health context.

What is added by this report? The study results indicated that Nebraska’s LHDs still face significant barriers for QI implementation, including low capacity, knowledge gaps, inadequate resources, and low institutional QI maturity.

What are the implications for public health practice/policy/research? Policy makers and LHDs should provide QI training and external QI expertise to LHD staff and better …

Building Capacity To Support And Study Qi In Local Georgia Public Health Systems, William C. Livingood, Nandi Marshall, Angela Peden, Ketty Gonzales, Gulzar H. Shah, Russ Toal, Kellie Penix, Dayna Alexander, Kay Davis, Sylvester Nixon, Purity Cummings, William Riley, Lynn Woodhouse

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

The study of quality improvement within Georgia’s local public health systems provides important insight into the use of regional bodies as quality improvement (QI) collaboratives and multijurisdictional entities. This report describes QI initiatives following a RWJF funded quick strike research grant to assess health district capacity to conduct QI in Georgia’s local public health systems. These QI initiatives use QI to improve public health outcomes including: Adolescent pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infection prevention, HIV prevention and control, and HIV Management.

Tax Levy Financing For Local Public Health: Relationships Between Fiscal Allocation, Fiscal Effort And Fiscal Capacity, William Riley, Kim J. Gearin, Carmen D. Parrotta, Jill Briggs, M. Elizabeth Gyllstrom

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

This study examines property tax levy (local tax levy) as a source of local health department (LHD) funding during a five year period (2006-2010) in all Minnesota counties by assessing fiscal effort, fiscal allocation and fiscal capacity. Local health departments rely on pluralistic funding from local, state, federal and private sources. However, local tax levy funding is unexplored and little is known regarding the extent of fiscal allocation (tax levy used for LHD), fiscal effort (potential amount of tax levy available for LHD), and fiscal capacity (wealth of community). More important it is not known to what extent variation between …

Mandated Activities And Limited Decision-Making Authority Among Local Public Health Officials, Betty Bekemeier, Anthony L-T Chen, Nami Kawakyu

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Local public health department leaders face difficult decisions regarding the allocation of increasingly scarce resources, yet existing evidence for public health decision making, while still limited, is underutilized by public health officials. Participants in this study described processes regarding resource allocation in response to local budget cuts as based largely on legally mandated activities and categorical funding and perceived these factors as limiting much of their agency-level decision making to a relatively small portion of flexible funding. In the limited areas in which they perceived themselves to have flexibility, they generally considered their agencies to have very little capacity for …

Evidence-Based Decision Making In Local Health Departments, Linda Weiss, Collette Sosnowy, Christopher M. Maylahn, Nancy J. Katagiri, Sylvia Pirani

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Evidence-based decision making (EBDM) represents an important strategy to increase efficacy and efficiency of public health programs and practice. There is insufficient information on the application of EBDM among local health departments (LHDs). This qualitative study examined use of EBDM in New York State (NYS) LHDs and factors facilitating and impeding its adoption through interviews and focus groups with 47 LHD commissioners, health directors, and other upper-level staff. Findings suggest variability in application of EBDM in NYS LHDs. A number of internal factors (e.g., staff capacity, organizational culture) and external factors (e.g., policy environment, appropriate and …

From The Frontier: Translating Research To Practice, Paul C. Erwin

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

The purpose of this invited article is to describe the process of translating research into public health practice. An example is provided, showing how questions arose in the practice setting, a researcher was identified to help answer the questions, and findings from the research were applied in the practice setting. In this example, Dr. Lea LaFave (Community Health Institute/JSI in New Hampshire) worked with Dr. Danielle Varda (Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado/ Denver, School of Public Affairs) to use social network analysis to better understand a network of coalitions focused on underage substance abuse. The social network analysis …

Stimulating Public Health Improvement In Complex And Constrained Delivery Systems: Findings From The Public Health Pbrns, Glen P. Mays

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks Program sponsored a series of studies to examine how public health decision-makers are responding to accreditation, quality improvement, and public reporting initiatives amid the ongoing fiscal pressures. Overall, the evidence to date indicates that these initiatives represent promising strategies for strengthening evidence-based decision-making and expanding the delivery of evidence-tested programs and policies in local public health settings. Continued, comparative research and evaluation activities are needed to provide more definitive evidence about which combination of strategies work best, for which population groups, in which community and organizational settings, and why.

Prohibitions And Policy In The Global Gaming Industry: A Genealogy And Media Content Analysis Of Gaming Restrictions In Contemporary Russia, Pavel V. Vasiliev, Bo Bernhard

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

In an era of widespread gaming expansion, Russia's recent decision to contract its gaming industry stands out as a global anomaly. This article explores factors informing the 2009 restriction of gambling venues in Russia to four remote zones. After a brief discussion of gambling prohibition history across cultures, a genealogical analysis of the origins and development of gaming laws in Russia follows. The authors then use a qualitative content analysis technique to examine the rationales for this contraction that were expressed in Russian news outlets between 2003 and 2010 - the period when the new restrictions were debated, voted on, …

Analyzing The Trends In Gaming-Based Tourism For The State Of Nevada: Implications For Public Policy And Economic Development, William R. Eadington

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Gaming revenue trends for Nevada's three major gaming markets- Las Vegas Strip, Reno-Sparks, and South Lake Tahoe-are examined over the past two decades. The Las Vegas Strip had been characterized by cyclical growth from 1990 until 2007, but the Great Recession had dramatic adverse impacts on revenues and employment. Apparent recovery in 2010 was driven largely by baccarat revenues, but they are not likely to be sustainable in the long term. For South Lake Tahoe, deterioration of its core tourism business has been taking place since 1990, but has accelerated since the beginning of the Great Recession and the opening …

An Interview With Dr. Theda Skocpol, Sarah Russell

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

No abstract provided.

Critique Of Microcredit As A Development Model, Grace Levin

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The field of microcredit (otherwise known as microfinance, microlending, or microcapital) has expanded rapidly since the 1980s as an economic means of lifting people out of poverty. Generally, microcredit has been accepted as an effective method for empowering both individuals and communities. In recent years, however, critics have brought to light some of the problems associated with microlending, such as the complex socioeconomic factors that can cause loan programs to fail. These problems stem from the basic tenet of microfinance: the need for lending programs to be managed locally in order to understand the needs of a community and assess …

Financial Services Innovation: Local Strategy, Management, And Change – A Field Investigation, Ann-Catherine Nave

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This study examines the innovation sources and processes of regional financial services firms through inductive field research. Innovation in these firms, and presumably other financial services firms and other smaller organizations, originate primarily out of three sources, the drive for efficiency, the external environment, and strategic, ambidextrous management. Successfully innovative firms balance the short-term need for efficiency improvements with the long-term desire to grow primarily through visionary, yet adaptive, leadership.

Working From Within: Observations Of Non-Governmental Efforts To Decrease Social Marginalization In Buenos Aires, Elisabeth Tilstra

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This essay is a modification of an excerpt from the senior thesis written for the Chancellor’s Honors Program at The University of Tennessee. The complete project—titled “Bringing the Outside In: An Examination of Non-Governmental Aid Organizations in Buenos Aires”—first examines the political and economic history of Argentina as a context from which to understand the current stage of actors in the social sector. Then, drawing from my fieldwork in the slums surrounding urban Buenos Aires, it introduces the twelve organizations I studied that work with issues of poverty and development, exploring organizational elements that aid or limit a nonprofit’s efficacy. …

Respiration And Carbon Dioxide Accumulation In Soil Microcosms, Jasity Murphy

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The thawing of permafrost leads to liberation of soil organic matter and microbial component resulting in significant effect on the carbon cycle. Changes in permafrost soils upon the global climate warming would significantly impact microbial soil activity. Currently, not a great deal is known about what happens to the microbial community after the permafrost thaws. The activity of microbial community was determined in microcosms experiment using respirometry. To assess the CO₂ fluctuations during permafrost thawing a titration experiment was performed. Based on calculations using the respirometric equation it was found that CO₂ production increases with temperature, core depth, …

Key Factors And Trends In Transportation Mode And Carrier Selection, Keith Roberts

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Companies across the country must deal with the daily question of determining the best way to get their product in the hands of their customers. Weighing all of the various factors that play into this decision can prove to be very difficult at times, and these factors are ever changing as the market fluctuates with varying consumer demand which, in turn, affects the demand for transportation. This paper will look into these factors and relevant market trends to determine what factors play the largest role in a company’s decision of how to deliver its products, focusing specifically on the modal …