Digital Commons Network^™

How Long Is Forever This Time? The Broken Promise Of Bankruptcy Trusts, S. Todd Brown

Journal Articles

Bankruptcy trusts consistently fail to protect the interests of future claimants as contemplated by Section 524(g) of the Bankruptcy Code. Although this reality is generally understood, the extent of this failure has not been examined. And, as demonstrated in this study, the degree to which trusts are failing future victims is greater than commonly realized. More than two-thirds of the trusts that have completed their initial claims processing are paying new asbestos personal injury victims at or near historically low rates, and several others appear to be defunct or inactive. Nearly two-thirds of the trusts that remain active have reduced …

Evaluation Of Wetland Plants For Susceptibility To Species Of Phytophthora Present In Runoff Water At Ornamental Plant Nurseries, Garrett Ridge

All Theses

Competition between agricultural producers and urban communities for high quality water is increasing; therefore, growers need to adopt water conservation and reuse practices to ensure an adequate supply of irrigation water. One concern with recycled irrigation water is the potential to recirculate propagules of oomycete pathogens. Constructed wetlands are a biologically-based treatment option for nutrient and chemical remediation that potentially also could filter pathogen propagules. The goal of this study was to assess the susceptibility of plants routinely used in constructed wetlands to infection by species of Phytophthora commonly found at ornamental plant nurseries. In laboratory and greenhouse experiments, an …

Bromus Tectorum Litter Alters Photosynthetic Characteristics Of Biological Soil Crusts From A Semiarid Shrubland, Marcelo D. Serpe, Eric Roberts, David J. Eldridge, Roger Rosentreter

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Invasion by the exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum has increased the cover and connectivity of fine litter in the sagebrush steppes of western North America. This litter tends to cover biological soil crusts, which could affect their metabolism and growth. To investigate this possible phenomenon, biological soil crusts dominated by either the moss Bryum argenteum or the lichen Diploschistes muscorum were covered with B.tectorum litter (litter treatment) or left uncovered (control treatment) and exposed to natural field conditions. After periods of five and ten months, we removed the litter and compared the photosynthetic performance of biological soil crusts …

Skip Trie Matching For Real-Time Ocr Output Error Corrrection On Smartphones, Aditya Vanka

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Many Visually Impaired individuals are managing their daily activities with the help of smartphones. While there are many vision-based mobile applications to identify products, there is a relative dearth of applications for extracting useful nutrition information. In this report, we study the performance of existing OCR systems available for the Android platform, and choose the best to extract the nutrition facts information from U.S grocery store packages. We then provide approaches to improve the results of text strings produced by the Tesseract OCR engine on image segments of nutrition tables automatically extracted by an Android 2.3.6 smartphone application using real-time …

General Practitioners' Knowledge And Approach To Chronic Kidney Disease In Karachi, Pakistan, S Yaqub, W Kashif, M Q. Raza, H Aaqil, A Shahab, M A. Chaudhary, S A. Hussain

Section of Nephrology

Due to lack of adequate number of formally trained nephrologists, many patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are seen by general practitioners (GPs). This study was designed to assess the knowledge of the GPs regarding identification of CKD and its risk factors, and evaluation and management of risk factors as well as complications of CKD. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 232 randomly selected GPs from Karachi during 2011. Data were collected on a structured questionnaire based on the kidney disease outcomes and quality initiative recommendations on screening, diagnosis, and management of CKD. A total of 235 GPs were approached, …

Section Abstracts: Environmental Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Environmental Science Section for the 91st Annual Virginia Journal of Science Meeting, May 2013

Hair Shedding Scores Relating To Maternal Traits And Productivity In Beef Cattle, Ashton Williams

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The objectives of this study were to measure how quickly cattle shed their winter coat in the sub-tropical climate of Arkansas. As well as, to understand the role age may play on cattle shedding efficiency in spring and summer months, in conjunction with the relationship between mother hair coat and calf sex. Angus based commercial beef cattle (n = 224) were observed over a five-month period in 2012. Once monthly, at approximately 28-day intervals, cattle were evaluated for shedding on a scale from 1 to 5. A score of 5 indicated the cow/heifer had a full winter coat and a …

Acting To Address The Ocean-Related Impacts Of Climate Change On Human And National Security, With Recommendations For Priority Actions Drawn From The Discussions Of The Global Conference On Oceans, Climate And Security At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Robbin Peach, Felix Dodds, Michael Strauss, Collaborative Institute For Oceans, Climate And Security, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Collaborative Institute for Oceans, Climate and Security Publications

In the course of the past calendar year the United States has been struck by a series of droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, and floods whose size and path of resulting damage defy previously established patterns. The U.S. thus joins nations on every continent that have increasingly experienced extreme and extremely damaging weather events over the past two decades.

At the same time, the world’s oceans have been exhibiting a less-visible but equally dangerous sequence of temperature rise, acidification increase, fish kills, coastal erosion, salinity shifts, algae blooms, and steady decreases in commercially available fish and shellfish species.

Those impacts …

Advocacy For Marine Management: Contributions To A Policy Advocacy Initiative In The Maldives, Neal Collins

Capstone Collection

On June 5, 2009 a 42-­‐km2 area of coral reef situated in the Alif Dhaalu (South Ari) atoll of the Republic of Maldives was designated the South Ari Atoll Marine Protected Area (S.A. MPA) due to a globally significant whale shark aggregation site. The whale shark is notorious for its gargantuan size and docile nature, which has led to a burgeoning tourist industry that gives people the opportunity to swim with the gentle giants in tropical sites such as the Maldives. The S.A. MPA receives tens of thousands of visitors a year that engage in whale shark excursions, however, there …

The Relationship Between Early Attachment And Adolescent Risky Behaviors With Changes In Loneliness In A Mediating Role., Sze Sze Tong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The premise that attachment in the early stages of development is influential on future development has been extensively researched. Though research denotes that attachment in early development does influence behavioral outcomes in later stages of development, the path of influence is an indirect one, often involving more temporally proximal mediating variables (i.e. mediating variables that occur in the time between the assessment of attachment in the early stages and the measurement of behavioral outcome variables in the later stages of development). Previous research in this area has identified various mediating variables: relationship variables, individual child characteristics, environmental variables, and behavioral …

How Care Demands, Caregiving Appraisal And Coping Affect Self-Care Management Of Informal Caregivers Of Persons With Dementia., Xiaorong Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

BACKGROUND: Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) is very stressful. Chronic stress which increases the risk for the development of disease and chronic illness is prevalent in caregivers of persons with ADRD. However, how caregiving affects self-care management of caregivers of persons with ADRD has not been well defined. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine relationships among care demands, caregiving appraisal, coping and caregiver self-care management and to investigate whether care demands, caregiving appraisal and coping are predictors of caregiver self-care management. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among 45 primary …

Adherence To The American College Of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines For Pharmacotherapy In New York Heart Association Class Ii-Iv Heart Failure Patients And Associated Re-Hospitalization Rates., Matthew T. Mefford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will assess differences in the rates of re-hospitalization among New York Heart Association class II, III, and IV heart failure patients, focusing on levels of adherence to the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for heart failure patient pharmacotherapy. Hospitalization data on 128 HF patients will be analyzed looking at 14 day, 30 day, and 6 month time points, assessing key aspects of treatment and patient characteristics as potential risk factors in predicting re-hospitalization trends. Effectiveness of ACC/AHA adherence to pharmacotherapy upon primary hospital discharge will be itemized in an intention to treat analysis, with guidelines determined …

Cardiovascular Disease Among Diabetic Women With Bilateral Oophorectomy., Duke Appiah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in women and the risk is increased threefold in diabetics. In postmenopausal diabetics, the ovary responds to hyperinsulinemia by increasing secretion of testosterone precursors which increases the risk of CVD. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988-2010) and the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures were used to test the hypothesis that a history of bilateral oophorectomy -surgical removal of both ovaries-would decrease the risk of CVD among postmenopausal diabetic women due to reduced androgen levels. Logistic regression, discrete time logit model, B-Spline regression and Cox proportional hazards models were …

Cigarette Smoke Promotes Genomic Evolution In The Periodontal Pathogen Porphyromonas Gingivalis., Josh George

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

P. gingivalis is an opportunistic, anaerobic, Gram-negative oral pathogen strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. Clinical isolates of P. gingivalis exhibit great genetic diversity. Tobacco smoking greatly increases the risk of P. gingivalis infection. Furthermore, cigarette smoke extract (CSE) is an environmental stressor for P. gingivalis, differentially regulating multiple genes including ones that encode proteins involved in DNA translocation, replication and repair. Therefore, we hypothesized that CSE exposure would promote genomic instability in this important periodontal and systemic pathogen, which may contribute to increased virulence. P. gingivalis W83 was passaged 50 times in CSE-conditioned medium after which, genomic …

The Potential Of Youth Savings Accounts In Three East African Countries: Kenya, Tanzania, And Uganda, Njeri Kagotho, Proscovia Nabunya, Fred Ssewamala, Vilma Ilic

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores the potential of expanding a youth-focused asset-based intervention program for poor communities heavily affected by HIV and AIDS-currently underway in one East African country, Uganda-into similar communities in the other two East African countries: Kenya and Tanzania. This concept paper is informed by prior work on youth-focused asset-based programs first proposed in the United States of America and now successfully implemented in Uganda (Ssewamala, 2008; Ssewamala, Alicea, Bannon, & Ismayilova, 2008; Ssewamala & Ismayilova, 2008, 2009) and grounded in an asset-based development theoretical framework, which denotes an integrated approach to human, social, and economic capital development (Sherraden, …

Vitamin D Plus Calcium Supplementation Among Postmenopausal Women : Effect On Risk Of Heart Failure In The Women's Health Initiative., Macarius Mwinisungee Donneyong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates the impact of vitamin D plus calcium supplementation as a primary intervention for heart failure (HF) prevention and examines whether preexisting conditions that are precursors of HF modify this relationship in a large cohort of postmenopausal women. Analysis included 35,113 postmenopausal women (17,595 intervention, 17,518 control) aged 50 to 81 years enrolled in the randomized trial of vitamin D plus calcium (CaD) in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study. The women in this analysis cohort were free of HF at the time of randomization and during the first year of the trial. The intervention consisted of 1,000 …

Temporal Food Preference And Effectiveness Of Selected Bait Products Against Pachycondyla Chinensis (Emery) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Ying Mo

All Theses

Pachycondyla chinensis (Emery), commonly known as the Asian needle ant is a well-established invasive species in urban and woodland areas in South Carolina. Foraging ants are found around or under places such as sidewalks, flowerbeds, mulch, tree bases, stones, and logs where human outdoor activity takes place in urbanized area. It is not an aggressive ant, but it has a powerful sting that causes severe allergic reactions in some people. It also has a negative impact on native ant species in forest environments. Food preference was studied, followed by an evaluation of selected bait products against P. chinensis.
Protein, carbohydrate, …

Accuracy Of A Bite-Count Based Calorie Estimate Compared To Human Estimates With And Without Calorie Information Available, James Salley

All Theses

Obesity is an increasing health problem in the US, associated with such dangerous health risks as heart disease and diabetes. Self-monitoring in the form of calorie counting is a critical aspect of successful weight loss. However, calorie estimations are subject to several perceptual and cognitive biases, and there are limited tools available to assist these estimations. The present study seeks to assess the accuracy of participants' estimations of the calorie content of meals in the presence or absence of calorie information, and to compare their accuracy with calorie estimations based on bite count. Data were analyzed for 87 participants from …

Food And Community, W. K. Kellog Fou9ndation

Mickey Leland Center Information Portal

The purpose of this guide is to present a consistent voice and set of messages for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Food & Community program. These messages are catalysts that tell the story of our work together – what the work is about and, more importantly, why it matters. This guide is for W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) grantees, partners and staff involved in Food & Community. We are all in this together, working to reach our individual, organizational and collective goals. Though we each have messages specific to our cause, we can build a stronger national voice – and increase our …

Navigating Todays Grocery Stores: Food Labels And The Regulations Behind Them, Jessica Furlan

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Rising concern over food safety issues by consumers has resulted in an increased demand for what are perceived to be healthier food options. Labels have become major marketing tools, and instrumental in consumer choices. This study looks at the history and regulations behind three certified labels: USDA Organic, Demeter Certified Biodynamic, and Certified Naturally Grown, as well as the highly prevalent “natural” food claim, in an attempt to discover whether the claims made by their labels are factually sound. With the exception of the “natural” claim, which is neither certified nor regulated by the FDA, USDA or other organizations, it …

Section Abstracts: Biology With Microbiology And Molecular Biology

Virginia Journal of Science

Abstracts of the Biology with Microbiology and Molecular Biology Section for the 91st Annual Virginia Journal of Science Meeting, May 2013

Bacterial Recovery, Transfer To Hands And Survival On Restaurant Menus, Ibtehal Alsallaiy

All Theses

Some non-food contact surfaces such as restaurant menus are not routinely cleaned or evaluated for microbial contamination and thus may be a potential contamination risk. The main objectives of this study were to detect bacteria on restaurant menus, test the rate of bacteria transfer from menus to consumers and determine the survival rate of bacteria on the menu surface. Evaluation of samples can 'find' that menus harbored detectable levels of aerobic organisms and Staphylococcus spp. The average mean of Total Plate count (TPC) was 28 CFU/15cm2 per sampling area during busy periods and 15 CFU/15cm2 per sampling area during less …

The Green Tray - Nutritional Auditing Service, Nicholas Henry

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Green Tray is a nutritional auditing service that will reduce nutrition-related health problems and their associated costs by connecting educational, business, and health institutions to small, healthy food service providers. The Green Tray is seeking a $250,000 capital investment to enter the $137.8 billion non-commercial food services market. By the end of year 3 of our operations, The Green Tray projects to achieve $3.36 million in net revenue and will be recognized as a leader in institutional nutrition auditing services.

The Effect Of Packaging Material Properties On Consumer Food Quality Perception In Quick-Service Restaurants, Emily Thackston

All Theses

The majority of menu items available in quick-service restaurants (QSR) are consumed directly from a container or package. The main reasons consumers choose to eat fast food are because it is convenient, prepared quickly, a good value, and inexpensive. Therefore, the packaging becomes an integral part of the food product and from a consumer perspective must be consistent with their expectations and motives for choosing to eat fast food. Prior research has directly linked characteristics of consumer food packaging experience to their perception of its contents. The purpose of this research is to determine if consumer quality perception of food …

Community Leader, Vol. 11, No. 03, University Of Dayton. Fitz Center For Leadership In Community

Newsletter: Community Leader

News and notes from the University of Dayton Fitz Center for Leadership in Community.

Sugars: Seductive, Sweet, Secret And Deadly, Kaitlyn Gross

USF St. Petersburg campus Honors Program Theses (Undergraduate)

In America today, obesity has become commonplace and health-related costs are rising. Therefore, it is imperative that Americans start eating healthier foods. To start, Americans need to ingest less sugar. This may be complicated by the fact that food companies might be deceiving consumers with confusing, incomplete or misleading information on food labels that include nutrition facts and the list of ingredients. Certain practices, such as not distinguishing between added sugar and total sugar, although legal, can mislead the consumer into thinking the food is healthier than it is. Currently, such labeling is not required (U.S. Department of Health and …

Genetic Mechanisms Responsible For Dietary Restriction Dependent Lifespan Extension In Drosophila Melanogaster: A Role For Muscle Tissue, Jennika Krisa

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Dietary Restriction (DR) is a robust intervention that is known to extend lifespan and increase spontaneous activity in multiple species. Whether activity increase plays a causal role in mediating the health protective benefits of DR remains unknown. To investigate this relationship, nutritional manipulations and laboratory selection for lifespan were simultaneously applied. Three physiological outputs were used for the screening and characterization of genes that may mediate the effects of DR: starvation resistance, spontaneous activity levels, and lifespan. The physiologic changes that occur are partially mediated by the nutrient sensing TOR pathway and its downstream signaling components, specifically the translational repressor, …

Mutations In Parkin (Pdr-1) Results In Increased Reproductive Fitness In C. Elegans, Tracy Ann Barhydt

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is largely an idiopathic disease that includes contributions from both genetic and environmental factors, with aging itself being the largest risk factor. These combined susceptibility factors are believed to accumulatively contribute to initiation and progression of Parkinson’s disease. Although most cases of PD are idiopathic, rare genetic forms of the disease do exist. In these cases, an important unanswered question is why mutations that cause the disease have come to be maintained within the human population? One possibility is based on what is known as the Antagonist Pleiotropic Theory (APT) of Aging, a theory that states that …

Asian Carp Could Help Us Solve Hunger Problem, Michael (Dung) Tran

Collection of Engaged Learning

Bighead carp and silver carp (Invader Species – Asian Carp) invaded the Illinois River waterway over a decade ago. Populations of these fishes have apparently grown dense in the lower and middle Illinois Rivers and both species are approaching the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) and potentially making their way into Great Lakes. So far, positive DNA of Asian Carp has been found beyond the defensive electrical barrier, which means they have made their way to Great Lakes somehow. Asian Carp are fast growing, aggressive, and adaptable fish that are outcompeting native fish species for food and habitat in much …

Comparison Of Obesity Bias, Attitudes, And Beliefs Among Undergraduate Dietetic Students, Dietetic Interns, And Practicing Registered Dietitians, Sarah E. Welborn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The obesity epidemic in the United States is increasing, and health concerns are also on the rise as they are directly related to obesity. Even though the majority of Americans are overweight or obese, prejudice and weight bias continue to be prevalent and socially accepted in a culture that tolerates discrimination towards these individuals. Health care providers, including registered dietitians, are not exempt from instigating bias towards obese patients causing a decrease in the level of care that they receive. The main purpose of this study was to compare attitudes, beliefs, and bias concerning obesity among undergraduate dietetic students, dietetic …