Digital Commons Network^™

Critical Issues For Administrators Of Specialized Schools, Amanda Thomas Kirk

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The current call for accountability in education increases the need for an understanding of best practices for administrators of specialized schools that serve students with special needs, including residential and day treatment programs. The literature revealed issues in curriculum planning and resource allocation to meet the complex and interrelated needs of students in specialized schools, and in effective program design for students with specific low incidence disabilities. No literature could be identified that addressed the challenges of administering specialized schools that integrate educational, therapeutic, and transitional and vocational programs in one setting. A survey of administrators of specialized schools in …

Manufacturing The Next Generation Of Vaccines: Non-Egg Based Platform For Influenza Vaccine, Andrew B. Price

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This report explores the design of an influenza vaccine manufacturing facility using a non-egg based expression platform. The current standard procedure in flu vaccine production is to grow the virus in bird eggs. However, recently there is evidence that supports production by other expression platforms. The Sf9 insect cell is considered in this report. Facility design including cell culture media formulation through product storage for shipment and final formulation is considered based on the use of an existing facility. The new design also employs the use of disposable equipment such as bioreactors and purification unit operations. These disposables help reduce …

The Pink And Yellow Star, Naomi Cahn

Writing Programs

Cahn utilized a history major and Jewish studies minor to write her fictional piece for Dr. Michael Datcher’s Creative Writing class of fall 2013. “The Pink and Yellow Star” tells the story of a young woman’s struggle to survive as a homosexual during the Holocaust. There were many difficulties writing this heavy-handed of a story, both factually and emotionally. Cahn wanted to make good the motto that Jews had promised, “Never again.” However, she believed that Jews and most of the world had not abided by this ideal. There’s still genocide in the world; there’s still discrimination, oppression, and persecution. …

Jesus And Paul’S Teachings Today, Parker Mccloud

Writing Programs

A freshman history major from Laguna Niguel, California, Parker McCloud addresses the relationship between Christian ethics and its effect on the contemporary political and social climate in the United States. By weaving in examples of Jesus and Paul’s biblical teachings, McCloud examines the role that Christian ethics plays in defining American sociopolitical debates, including freedom of religion, war, and women’s reproductive rights. The essay was written for a First Year Seminar course entitled On Faith and Politics in the fall of 2013 with Dr. Siker.

Reformed Worship (Rw) 110 - Lent / Easter (December 2013), Reformed Worship Editors

Reformed Worship Magazine

Features

From Dark to Sight by Tony Maan....3

Noteworthy: Experiencing the Bitter Hour by Joy Engelsman....12

Come and See: At the Cross by Laura Keeley....18

Articles

Editorial: The Poetry of Lent by Joyce Borger....2

Q&A: Serious Joy in Lenten Obedience by John Witvliet....45

Transformational Baptism by Rochelle Stackhouse....47

Resources

Washing Feet and Breaking Bread by Steven Brooks....22

Last Words by Jenn Cavanaugh....24

Eyewitnesses by Carol VandeKraats....27

The Three Days by Wendy De Jong....31

It Is Over. It Begins by Nick Engbers....37

Lent Prayer Stations by Erica Schemper....41

Birthday Curse, Vichida Vongvanij

Writing Programs

A freshman major in entrepreneurship from Bangkok, Thailand, Vichida Vongvanij takes her reader on an exhilarating and colorful science fiction journey. In her short story, the protagonist, Sally, endures terrifying nightmares every year on her birthday. This year, she wakes up alone in a dense forest and finds herself in perilous defense against the dark forces of nature that pursue her. As an international student, Vongvanij eloquently incorporates a unique voice and style in crafting the animated story of Sally and her birthday curse, culminating in an unexpected plot twist. This short story was written for Dr. Janna Goebel’s English …

Passive Stormwater Samplers For Sampling Highway Runoff From Bmps: Feasibility Studies, Tian C. Zhang, John S. Stansbury, Massom Moussavi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Fertilizer Effects On Attaining Vegetation Requirements, Walter H. Schacht, Carol Wienhold

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of Precast Concrete Deck System Nudeck (2nd Generation), George Morcous, Maher K. Tadros

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Development And Evaluation If Best Management Practices For Highway Runoff Pollution Control, Tian C. Zhang, John S. Stansbury, Massom Moussavi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

A System For Automated Disassembly Of Snap-Fit Covers, Paul Schumacher, Musa Jouaneh

Mechanical, Industrial & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper reports on a prototype automated system for the disassembly of batteries from a family of electronic devices whose plastic, snap-fit covers house AA or AAA batteries, such as remote controls and calculators. Included in the development of the prototype system was the design of a disassembly tool that uses three force-sensing resistors to provide force feedback information. A pneumatically actuated vacuum gripper and electromagnet system was also developed for recovering the snap-fit cover and batteries once they were released by the disassembly tool. The disassembly module was mounted on the tool head of a three-axis translational motion robot, …

Storied Lives In A Living Tradition: Women Rabbis And Jewish Community In 21st Century New Mexico, Miria Kano

Anthropology ETDs

Between 2001 and 2012, I collaborated with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Rabbi Shefa Gold, Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, and Rabbi Deborah Brin to investigate the challenges and opportunities afforded by womens recent attainment of rabbinic ordination. As members of the first and second generations of women rabbis, they offer unique perspectives on the recent histories of both American and Jewish cultures. This dissertation is a narrative exploration of how these rabbis came of age, cultivated self-understanding, chose careers as spiritual leaders, crafted public identities, and formed communities in 20th/21st Century American Jewish societies. This research focuses on the role …

Lack Of Innovation In Sugar Packaging, Kaitlyn Friedel

Graphic Communication

No abstract provided.

A Meta-Analysis Of Robotic-Assisted Pancreatectomy Versus Laparoscopic And Open Pancreatectomy, Yigang Chen, Jun Yan, Ziming Yuan, Song Yu, Zhigang Wang, Qi Zheng

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To perform a meta-analysis of eligible studies from multiple medical centers to assess the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of robotic-assisted pancreatectomy (RP). METHODS: We searched the electronic databases PubMed and EMBASE for studies comparing RP with laparoscopic pancreatectomy (LP) and open pancreatectomy (OP) for patients with pancreatic disease from June 2009 to June 2012. Continuous variables were pooled using the standardized mean difference (SMD) and odds ratio (OR), and dichotomous variables were pooled using the risk difference (RD) method. For all analyses, the 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Three studies comparing RP and LP, and 4 studies comparing …

Development Of Novel Subunit Vaccine Against H5n1 Influenza, Lu Zhang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Influenza is a common infectious disease resulting from a frequently mutated RNA virus. Vaccination is currently the most effective method to prevent people from seasonal or pandemic influenza. The production of traditional egg-based influenza vaccine is time-consuming and provides limited effect against new strains. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a rapid method to produce influenza vaccines. We proposed a novel influenza vaccine based on the E.coli expression system. Hemagglutinin (HA) is the major target surface protein of influenza virus for vaccine development. In this study, we sub-cloned the HAs encoding gene into an E. coli expression vector; the signal …

Solving Your Ethical Conundrums: Researching The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Joyce Manna Janto

Law Faculty Publications

Ms. Janto provides a practical guide to researching issues of attorney professional responsibilities using both print and online resources, emphasizing Virginia rules and decisions.

Attitudinal Factors Of Teachers Regarding Arts Integration, Sara Elston Williams

Dissertations

The integration of the arts provides an enriched learning and teaching environment where teachers become facilitators of meaningful and engaging activities and lessons that increase student achievement. This study examined the attitudinal factors possessed by educators in schools who participate in the Whole Schools Initiative and those who do not. This study also reported the perceptions of arts integration by classroom teachers who participate in the Whole Schools Initiative and those who do not participate in the Whole Schools Initiative. The Teaching With the Arts Survey (TWAS) was used to determine if statistically significant differences exist on teacher attitudes, self-efficacy, …

Surface Shape Perception In Volumetric Stereo Displays, Meng Zhu

All Dissertations

In complex volume visualization applications, understanding the displayed objects and their spatial relationships is challenging for several reasons. One of the most important obstacles is that these objects can be translucent and can overlap spatially, making it difficult to understand their spatial structures. However, in many applications, for example medical visualization, it is crucial to have an accurate understanding of the spatial relationships among objects. The addition of visual cues has the potential to help human perception in these visualization tasks. Descriptive line elements, in particular, have been found to be effective in conveying shape information in surface-based graphics as …

In Vitro Simulation Of Pathological Bone Conditions To Predict Clinical Outcome Of Bone Tissue Engineered Materials, Duong Nguyen

All Dissertations

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the geriatric population of ≥65 years of age will increase to 51.5 million in 2020; 40% of white women and 13% of white men will be at risk for fragility fractures or fractures sustained under normal stress and loading conditions due to bone disease, leading to hospitalization and surgical treatment. Fracture management strategies can be divided into pharmaceutical therapy, surgical intervention, and tissue regeneration for fracture prevention, fracture stabilization, and fracture site regeneration, respectively. However, these strategies fail to accommodate the pathological nature of fragility fractures, leading to unwanted side effects, implant failures, …

Prolactin And Isplatin Combination Treatment Inhibit Tumorspheres Formation And Tumor Growth In Mice, Eric Hingleung Lee

All Dissertations

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are defined as a small population of tumor initiating cells that are responsible for the initiation, development, progression, and recurrence of cancer. The chemo and radiation resistance of CSCs remains one of the major obstacles in conventional anti-cancer therapies. One of the reasons that conventional chemotherapeutics are not effective in targeting CSCs is that CSCs are usually in a non-proliferative or dormant state. In this perspective, targeting CSCs by inducing its proliferation and differentiation and simultaneously applying chemotherapeutics may be an alternative approach. The current study investigates the effect of prolactin (PRL), a hormone intimately involved …

Exploratory Synthesis Of New Iron(Ii,Iii)-Containing Polyanion Framework Solids Of Electrochemical And Magnetic Interest, Liurukara Sanjeewa

All Dissertations

The studies demonstrated in this dissertation were primarily focused on the synthesis, structure and property characterizations of iron(II,III) containing framework solids. The scope of this research is threefold: 1) explore new iron(II, III)-containing open framework structures in hopes of creating new materials, useful in the areas of both Li- and Na-ion battery applications; 2) synthesis and characterization of low-dimensional magnetic nanostructures exhibiting novel magnetic properties due to confined magnetic lattices; and 3) conduct structure/property correlation studies to identify the origins of any unusual physical phenomena associated with these new compounds.

In the syntheses of new compounds, molten salt fluxes were …

Predictive Maturity Of Inexact And Uncertain Strongly Coupled Numerical Models, Ismail Farajpour

All Dissertations

The Computer simulations are commonly used to predict the response of complex systems in many branches of engineering and science. These computer simulations involve the theoretical foundation, numerical modeling and supporting experimental data, all of which contain their associated errors. Furthermore, real-world problems are generally complex in nature, in which each phenomenon is described by the respective constituent models representing different physics and/or scales. The interactions between such constituents are typically complex in nature, such that the outputs of a particular constituent may be the inputs for one or more constituents. Thus, the natural question then arises concerning the validity …

The Mediating Effect Of Contextual Characteristics On Collectivist Dynamics And Entity Based Creativity Among Faculty In Higher Education, Anthony Olalere

All Dissertations

This study examines the mediating effect of the entity based creativity on the interaction between complexity theory and creativity among faculty members in higher education organizations. The purpose of study was to investigate how mechanisms for intellectual productivity and creativity foster intellectual and disciplinary interactions among faculty members in higher education. The theoretical framework of complexity theory and KEYS model constructs were employed in order to examine how complexity dynamics, motivation, stimulants and inhibitors foster faculty creativity in higher education.

The Partial Least Square of Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data using the PLS algorithm, bootstrapping and …

Designing Complex, Interactive, Architectural Systems With Cias-Dm: A Model-Based, Human-Centered, Design & Analysis Methodology, Joe Manganelli

All Dissertations

The built environment increasingly contributes to improving human health, well-being, and performance in measurable, predictable, and tailorable ways. Achieving high-performance environmental systems requires real-time-interactive sensing, monitoring, actuation, and communication subsystems, as well as real-time interactions of these environmental systems with their users and other internal and external systems. Developing theories, constructs, methods, and tools necessary for designing such high-performance, complex, interactive systems is an active area of research.

This dissertation focused on methods and tools for representing the cognitive and physical affordances of complex, interactive, architectural systems (CIAS). The Complex, Interactive, Architectural Systems Design Methodology (CIAS-DM) was proposed as a …

Recent Competition Policy Developments In Hungary – Unfair Commercial Practices, Cartels And Abuse Of Dominance, Pál Szilágyi, Tihamér Tóth

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

No abstract provided.

9th Amendment To The Czech Competition Act, Robert Neruda, Lenka Gachová, Roman Světnický

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

No abstract provided.

Sociocultural Influences On Diabetes Self-Management Behaviors In Older African Americans, Barry W. Rovner, Robin J. Casten, Lynn Fields Harris

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Faculty Papers

Objective. The purpose of this observational study was to describe the associations between cultural beliefs that are prevalent in older African Americans and adherence to diabetes self-management (DSM) behaviors.

Methods. In a community population of 110 older African Americans with type 2 diabetes, the investigators administered surveys that assess present time orientation (PTO), future time orientation (FTO), and religiosity, as well as exercising habits, reading food labels, and checking blood glucose.

Results. Participants who reported regularly exercising had significantly lower PTO scores and higher FTO and religiosity scores than participants who did not regularly exercise. Similarly, participants who reported reading …

Heat Treatment Of Steel Parts In Different Media, Sc Maidargi, V Rani

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This study reports an investigation of the effect of different media (oil and polymer) on the properties of different grade steel parts. Steel parts after manufacture, will not have the desired properties like wear resistance, tensile strength, surface and core hardness. To attain these, heat treatment processes like Case Hardening (CH) or Through Hardening (TH) were carried out in sealed quench furnace and rotary furnace. The microstructure of the steel part influences the hardness of the same. The required microstructure is Fine Tempered Martensite (FTM) and the Quench media has a very important role in achieving this. Using different grades …

The Update, December 2013, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Humanities, Arts And Sciences.

Update

Inside this issue...

-- Milkweed Seed Harvesting and Prairie Restoration
-- Department News
-- Environmental Science B.A. Degree
-- James Davis Presentation at National Convention
-- School of Music Events
-- UNI Women's & Gender Studies Presents CROW Forum
-- Alumni Spotlight: Physics: Cary Pint
-- Student Spotlight: Philosophy & World Religions: Corey Cooling
-- Featured Organization: UNI Interpreters Theatre
-- Interpreters Theatre Productions Schedule
-- Iowa Teachers Named Finalists for Math, Science
-- UNI Marching Band

Thermal Modeling And Validation Testing Of A Miniature Xenon Ion Thruster, Samuel R. Parker

Master's Theses

To support the research of miniature ion propulsion, Cal Poly's Miniature Xenon

Ion (MiXI) thruster has been modeled and tested. Using ANSYS Fluent, a two-

dimensional model of the transient thermal environment of MiXI-CP-V3 was

created. Validation testing was conducted in order to assess the accuracy of the

thermal model. During testing, temperature was measured at eight locations

across MiXI. From the test data it was determined that the thermal model did a

poor job of predicting temperature due to incident radiation at the four locations

nearest the keeper electrode. The four remaining locations were affected mostly

by conduction and …