Digital Commons Network^™

School Change: Adolescents Transitioning From Conventional Schooling To Home-Based Online Education, Harvey Klamm

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This hermeneutic phenomenological research explored the lived experiences of six recently graduated adolescents to extrapolate the valued essence of their transitional encounters in changing from conventional school to home-based online schooling. The homeschool research shifted the emphasis from the outcome-based academic achievement studies prevalent during the past 20 years to a focus on internal and external factors impacting student learning within this technological instructional process. Findings produced from analysis and interpretation of reflective adolescent lived experiences revealed rich truth regarding the internal emotions, environmental adaptations, academic ramifications, and social adaptations encountered when changing from conventional schooling to home-based online school. …

The Relationship Between Temperament And Facets Of Creativity, Clark Daniel Pinson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purported association between mental illness and creativity has been most heavily researched in individuals diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. The bipolar disorders have been conceptualized as a spectrum of disorders that range from problematic and labile affect to different types of temperament. Temperament has classically been defined as elements of personality that are heritable, stable, based on emotion, and uninfluenced by socio-cultural learning. Contemporary literature suggested that at least some aspects of creativity may be enhanced by an affective range that has been best characterized by the milder part of the bipolar spectrum of disorders. The primary inquiry of …

A Context Centric Model For Building A Knowledge Advantage Machine Based On Personal Ontology Patterns, Luyi Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Throughout the industrial era societal advancement could be attributed in large part to introduction a plethora of electromechanical machines all of which exploited a key concept known as Mechanical Advantage. In the post-industrial era exploitation of knowledge is emerging as the key enabler for societal advancement. With the advent of the Internet and the Web, while there is no dearth of knowledge, what is lacking is an efficient and practical mechanism for organizing knowledge and presenting it in a comprehensible form appropriate for every context. This is the fundamental problem addressed by my dissertation.;We begin by proposing a novel architecture …

Professional Development School Support Of The Elementary Globe Curriculum A Facilitated Adaptation Of Inquiry Science, Vance D. High

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This qualitative study focused on identifying barriers and remedies to those barriers found when teaching elementary school science. The Elementary GLOBE Program (2006) was the curriculum selected when doing the 18 month study. The researcher asked what made Elementary GLOBE (EG) easy and/or difficult to use. The researcher also wished to ascertain what impact did the adoption of EG have on the delivery of science instruction in the K-4 grade classrooms participating in this study. Two professional developments schools (PDS), located in a Mid Atlantic state were the sites for the study. Both schools are in an urban setting and …

Gold Nanoparticle-Based Surface Plasmon Mediated Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering And Energy Transfer Platforms For Sensing Applications, Ming Li

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) exhibit unique optical properties, depending on the particle size, geometrical shape, and medium refractive index and interparticle interactions, etc. Among these optical properties, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has significant effects on the electromagnetic field around the GNPs. The LSPR-induced electromagnetic field enhancement is beneficial to the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and energy transfer processes. This dissertation deals with the effects of LSPR on SERS and energy transfer between CdSe/ZnS quantum dots and GNPs. Specifically, the research aims to gain better understanding of (i) the electromagnetic enhancement induced by charge transfer from GNP to molecules, (ii) the …

Development Of Value-Added Food Products From Isoelectrically Recovered Proteins, Reza Tahergorabi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The amount of fish by-products is huge and there is a large potential for making more value-added products from this raw material. On the other hand, dark chicken meat has been considered as a major underutilized commodity due to the increasing demand for further processed breast meat products. If proper meat recovery technology is successfully applied, the recovered meat can result in added revenue for a processor as well as reduce environmental pollution associated with disposal of the processing by-products. The overall objective of this study was to recover functional proteins from whole gutted fish and dark chicken meat by …

Humboldt Bay Region Sea Level Rise Data Synthesis: Executive Summary, Whelan Gilkerson

Local Reports and Publications

In May 2011, The Humboldt Bay Initiative (HBI) contracted Pacific Watershed Associates (PWA) to conduct a data synthesis project with the goal of identifying and characterizing existing geospatial information and modeling tools relevant to sea level rise planning and adaptation for the Humboldt Bay region.

Emergency Preparedness Nursing, Emily A. Ganjei, Patricia Grimes

Senior Honors Projects

Emergency Preparedness at Newport Hospital

Emily A. Ganjei

Sponsors: Carolyn Hames and Lisa Lima-Tessier, Nursing

The subject of my project is emergency nursing and emergency preparedness in the Emergency Department (ED) of Newport Hospital. I am working alongside Lisa Lima-Tessier, Clinical Nurse Manager of the ED, and Pat Grimes, Assistant Clinical Nurse Manager/Emergency Preparedness Coordinator.

As an undergraduate in the College of Nursing, the topic of emergency preparedness has been discussed in many courses, in particular community health nursing. In community nursing we discussed different types of disaster situations and reviewed hospital policies regarding triage and the nurse’s role in …

The Effect Of Natural Antioxidants On Cla Yield During The Photoisomerization Of Soy Oil Linoleic Acid, Camille Schaffner

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is known to be effective in avoiding many obesity related diseases. Conjugated linoleic acid is a product of ruminant fermentation and 3.4g/day are needed to obtain the clinical benefits. However, it is difficult to obtain sufficient CLA to realize these benefits from a healthy diet containing dairy and beef products, without increasing levels of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. A 20% CLA soy oil with low saturated fat and no cholesterol has been produced by the photoisomerization of linoleic acid in the triacylglyceride oil. Further increasing the CLA yields has been possible by addition of …

The Way We Live Now: Thetorical Persuasion And Democratic Conversation, Eugene Garver

Mercer Law Review

I. WHAT'S NEW?

It would be ungrateful for me to argue with the questions I have been invited to explore. But that is where I have to start. I have been asked to address the following:

What are the virtues required for our common life as citizens in a democracy and for civil democratic conversation? How and why have these virtues been eroded in our Republic as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century? What resources exist within political thought and our American political tradition for confronting this erosion?

I want to quarrel with four presuppositions of my …

Pedagogy And Purpose: Teaching For Practical Wisdom, Daisy Hurst Floyd

Mercer Law Review

This year marks my thirtieth as a legal educator. During that time, I have taught a variety of courses and served in several administrative roles, including seven years as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and six years as Dean. I am now newly returned to full-time teaching after a post-deanship sabbatical. I have served on numerous law school, university, professional, and civic committees and boards, and have attended untold number of professional meetings. From these various perspectives, I have followed closely the debates about what we are and are not doing well in legal education, including such developments as the …

Fundamental Dimensions Of Law And Legal Education: Perspectives On Curriculum Reform, Mercer Law School's Woodruff Curriculum, And... "Perspectives", Mark L. Jones

Mercer Law Review

This Article is the third in a series of articles that are intended to address in depth my central concerns about the law school curriculum and associated professionalism issues. This larger project, which I have entitled "Fundamental Dimensions of Law and Legal Education," seeks to make the case for the liberalization of U.S. legal education, although perhaps the term reliberalization would be more accurate given the emphasis upon a broad education for lawyers during the first phase in the history of U.S. legal education. Whereas the two prior articles are essentially descriptive-the first being conceptual and the second historical in …

The Initiation Of Growth-Focused Relationships Involving Healthy Accountability At The Carbondale Church Of Christ, Stephen Shaffer

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

After several years of transition, the Carbondale Church of Christ is in the early stages of becoming a spiritual growth-focused community. However, the emerging growth community appears to reflect the prevailing cultural assumptions that growth is a personal, private, and an individual task. To shape this emergent growth culture, this project initiated a group of congregational opinion leaders, organized in pairs, into the practice of growth-focused relationships involving healthy accountability. The initiation involved a theological orientation followed by a four-week healthy accountability praxis.

The theological framework of the project involved three main aspects. First, the project used the body image …

Genome Wide Analysis Of Hepatic Gene Silencing In Mammalian Cell Variants, Jeffrey L. Kurkewich

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using microarray data, a genome wide analysis of hepatic gene-silencing in four hepatoma variant cell lines was carried out. The purpose of this analysis was to identify candidate genes that may be able to restore liver function in non-functional cell variants, ultimately giving insight into the mechanisms behind global hepatic gene expression. Based on a selection scheme allowing only for genes activated or repressed at least 5 fold in 2 out of the 4 variant cell lines, 225 genes were found to be repressed while a total of 76 genes were found to be activated. Of the repressed genes identified, …

Structural Analysis Of The Drosophila Innexin Shakb: Role Of The N-Terminus In Rectifying Electrical Synapses, William Marks

Biology Theses

Gap junction channels mediate direct intercellular communication in all multicellular animals. They are comprised of the connexin family of proteins in vertebrates and the innexin family in prechordates. Connexins and innexins share many functional and structural similarities as orthologous proteins. Both types are capable of forming electrical synapses. Rectifying junctions are specialized electrical synapses found in neural systems that control escape responses. It has been shown that heterotypic gap junction channels mediate asymmetric properties of rectifying junctions. Shaking B N+16 and Shaking B lethal are variants of the ShakB locus in Drosophila and the organization of these innexins into heterotypic …

Geometries In Soft Matter, Zhenwei Yao

Physics - Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Lower Extremities Muscle Strength Associated With Early Signs Of Mobility Dependence Among Older Adults Age 65 Years And Older, Moshe Marko

Exercise Science - Dissertations

Background: Loss of muscle strength is evident even in apparently healthy older adults. functionally limited due to an increasing discrepancy between their own physiological capabilities (i.e. physiological impairments) and the challenges set forth by the environment. Functional limitations lead to clinical mobility disability. Clinical mobility disability is associated with physical dependence, poor quality of life, and mortality. Treatment of age-related clinical mobility disability should focus on the prevention of the condition rather than its consequences. Identifying opportunities for early screening and prevention of clinical mobility disability requires a better understanding of the functional loss prior to this medical condition. …

Genomic Analysis Of Characteristics In Swine Contributing To Sow Longevity, Julie Kathleen Tart

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Selection for improved sow lifetime reproductive longevity is of growing importance to swine producers due to recent increases in sow culling rates. Traditional selection results in minimal response due to low heritability and late expression of the trait; incorporation of DNA markers into selection programs could be a more economically viable tool and improve lifetime reproductive performance.

In order to assess the relationship between markers and reproductive longevity, 967 gilts from two maternal crossbred lines were evaluated for age at puberty (AP), litter size traits, and number of successful parities (SP). Females were culled only for death, unsoundness, or reproductive …

The Impact Of Incentives On Neuropsychological Test Performance: An Analog Study, Laura Marie Spenceley

Psychology - Dissertations

Concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), represents a common injury in children, young adults, and athletes in particular. High rates of malingering have been demonstrated in individuals with MTBI when faced with monetary incentives, but research is yet to explore the impact of other incentives on test performance. The present study sought to examine the rate of effort test failure, symptom report, and neuropsychological test performance in college students assigned to one of three conditions: Fake Good, Fake Bad, and No Incentive conditions. All groups were asked to simulate concussion and provided a description of the injury …

The Unfolding Of The Knowledge Commons, Charlotte Hess

Librarian Publications

This piece reports on some of the significant research and activities within the knowledge commons arena since the publication of Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom’s co-edited book Understanding Knowledge as a Commons in 2007. Hess uses this overview to identify major lacunae in the study of the knowledge commons. First, the relationship between local, indigenous knowledge and more globalised forms of knowledge is poorly understood. Second, the principles of local commons have not yet been tested against global commons, which may be characterised by regional inequalities. In both regards, careful case studies are needed to enrich our understanding of the …

The Accused, Nathan Damon Hopper

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Exonerations are increasing, largely thanks to the advent of DNA evidence, which several prisoners’ rights advocacy groups, like the Innocence Project, have used to prove the innocence of the convicted. But returning home after spending years imprisoned for a wrongful conviction brings with it several types of challenges: psychological, financial, and simply personal.

Roy Brown, the main subject of this story (though there are several other important characters) is an incredibly intricate man. Before his 25-to-life sentence for the murder of a county social worker, he’d faced several other convictions for a slew of misbehavings and a general disregard for …

Investigating The Roles Of Lhx1a, Lhx1b, And Lhx5 In Zebrafish Spinal Cord Interneuron Specification And Function, Samantha Balakirsky

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Located in the vertebral column, the human spine is responsible for regulating body movements and receiving sensory input about pain and touch. Currently, few treatments for neurological diseases and spinal cord injuries exist, partly because we know little about how a fully functioning spinal cord is constructed. As such, studying spinal cord development, specifically neuronal specification and patterning, should be useful for developing better treatments for people with spinal cord injuries and diseases. Zebrafish are a prime model organism for studying neuronal specification because their transparent embryos develop outside the mother, allowing us to easily examine gene expression, cell movements …

Signaling Pathways And Genetic Interactions That Lead To Metastatic Cancer In Drosophila Melanogaster, Amanda Cole

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Cancer is a complex and multigenic disease, which is typically initiated by genetic mutations in tumor suppressor genes that regulate homeostatic mechanisms within cells. Oncogenic promoter mutations, like those involved in signal transduction pathways, also have the potential to induce cancer in an otherwise healthy organism. Transformation is highly dependent upon mutations to both tumor suppressor and oncogenes, as neither mutation is exclusive in its ability to generate malignant tumors. In the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, I have generated metastatic cancer through the genetic effect of overactive Raf signaling, in conjugation with silencing selected tumor suppressor genes using RNA …

Effect Of Combining Bcl-2 Inhibition And Radiation On Apoptotic Cell Death In Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines As Determined By Clonogenic Assay And Western Blots, Amari Sasha Howard

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by abnormal control of cell growth and cell survival. Current treatment for cancer employs a combination of modalities including surgery, radiation, chemotherapeutic drugs, and immunotherapy. Our lab focuses on personalized medicine and treatments that can specifically target molecular features of a tumor as presented by the particular patient being treated. Cancers often exhibit an over-expression or under-expression of certain proteins that play a large role in regulating the process of apoptosis, which is programmed cell death. This study focuses on proposing drug treatment for cancer that is personalized in that it targets a …

Role Of Progesterone Receptors In Neonatal Ovary Development, Marta N. Dzyadyk

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In female mammals, proper oocyte development is a vital prerequisite for future gamete viability and fertility. This development of oocytes, known as oogenesis, begins with the migration of primordial germ cells to the genital ridge of the early embryo, where multiple rounds of mitotic division occur without complete cytokinesis. The result is temporary cyst morphology. Cyst breakdown is a crucial process in the next developmental stage, resulting in formation of the single oocytes which will grow in follicles surrounded by granulosa cells and eventually develop into eggs. These aspects of embryogenesis are conserved across multiple species, including Drosophila, mice, and …

Does Vibrational Loading Modulate The Effects Of Radiotherapy On Growing Bone?, Samantha Hay

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Radiotherapy is an important part of cancer therapy, used in addition to surgery for treatment of patients with soft tissue sarcomas, and alternatively for treatment of patients with Ewing sarcoma of bone. Treating pediatric extremity tumors with radiotherapy has been shown to have harmful effects on the epiphyseal plate, resulting in permanent limb shortening and deformity when bone growth centers are exposed to radiation. Mechanical signals, specifically low-magnitude high-frequency vibrations (LMHFV), have been shown to be non-invasive and non-pharmacological growth factors in bone that have the potential to serve as a safe treatment for a number of clinical conditions. Thus, …

Analyzing The Roles Of Scl And Gata3 In Zebrafish Spinal Cord Interneuron Specification And Function, Kadiah Oyah Kamara

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My project focuses on the V2 cells of the zebrafish spinal cord. The V2 cells are an unusual class of spinal cells because they all originate from molecularly indistinguishable p2 progenitor cells in the spinal cord. However, as these cells become post-mitotic and differentiate, they start to express different transcription factor genes that allow them to initially develop into two sets of molecularly distinct cells. As differentiation continues, at least one more class of molecularly distinct cells develops. Just as in other vertebrates, in zebrafish the V2 cells differentiate into at least two functionally distinct classes of cells, specifically, the …

The Expression Pattern Of The Xenopus Laevis Rod-Derived Cone Viability Factor1 (Rdcvf1), Vera Osafo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In the United States alone, more than one million people are blind. One of the leading causes of blindness is the retinal disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). RP is a heterogeneous group of inherited disorders characterized by the initial loss of rod photoreceptors. Approximately 100,000 people in the United States and 1.5 million people worldwide are affected by RP. Unfortunately, there is no cure. In humans with RP, it is known that the loss of rod photoreceptors leads to degeneration of cones. Rods photoreceptors are responsible for vision under low light conditions and cone photoreceptors are required for color vision and …

Design And Implementation Of A Shoulder Simulator, Chelsea Lynn Kowal

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The main objective of this thesis project is to build a shoulder simulator to be able to understand the mechanics of the shoulder, specifically the rotator cuff and deltoid muscles. The shoulder simulator should be able to mimic the important motions of the human shoulder by pulling on tendons of cadaver shoulders and moving the shoulder in various specified motions. In my thesis project, I worked on creating a shoulder simulator that would control the rotator cuff muscles along with the three deltoid muscles. In order to do this, I needed to design and test the shoulder simulator using cadaver …

Drd2 Polymorphisms Imparting Risk For Schizophrenia, Lauren Paish

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Schizophrenia is a disorder that affects 1% of the population and causes enormous deficits in functioning. The development of this disorder is through unclear mechanisms, yet studies suggest that genetics and dopamine processes play a major role in the manifestation of schizophrenia. This study considers the gene that encodes dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) and how single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affect alternative splicing of the gene and the balance between the two different protein isoforms, Long (D2L) and Short (D2S). Four mutations (rs12363125 and rs2511521 from intron 5 and rs6275 and rs6277 from exon 7) were studied. Constructs were derived …