Digital Commons Network^™

One-Off & Off-Hand: Developing An Appropriate Course Of Liability In Threatening Online Mass Communication Events, Michael Barrett Zimmerman

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

“I’Ll Take Commas For $200”: An Instructional Intervention Using Games To Help Students Master Grammar Skills, Sue Burzynski Bullard, Nancy Anderson

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

Effective writing requires mastering grammar. For journalists, this mastery is critical because research shows poor grammar erodes media credibility. College writing instructors say students do not understand basic grammar concepts, and greater numbers of students are enrolling in remedial writing classes. This quasi-experimental mixed methods study examines whether using games to teach basic grammar skills helps college students understand and retain grammar concepts. It also examines student perceptions of learning.

2014-2015 Lindenwood University-Belleville Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University-Belleville Course Catalog

The Promotion Of Skin-Bleaching Products In Jamaica: Media Representation And Cultural Impact, Jessica D. Edmond Mrs.

Research Papers

AN ABSTRACT OF THE RESEARCH REPORT OF

JESSICA EDMOND, for the Master of Science degree in MASS COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA ARTS, presented on March 31, 2014, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

TITLE: THE PROMOTION OF SKIN BLEACHING PRODUCTS IN JAMAICA:

MEDIA REPRESENTATION AND CULTURAL IMPACT

MAJOR PROFESSOR: William Freivogel and Phil Greer

Through television commercials, print and digital advertisements, magazines, billboards, and the internet, the ideal skin complexion represented in Jamaican media is fair-skin tones. This idea that fair skin is better is common among other cultures in the world and is spreading to developed as well as developing nations …

Assessing Pediatric Nurses' Knowledge And Comfort Level With Recognition And Reporting Of Child Abuse, Andrea Sebastian

DNP Projects

Child abuse is a serious, yet preventable problem in the United States. Child abuse is defined in The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act as “Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation or an act or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm” (United States Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], Children’s Bureau, Child Maltreatment 2009, 2010).

In 2010, there were an estimated 3.3 million referrals to Child Protective Services for the suspected abuse …

Final Dnp Capstone Report: Improving Adolescent Hpv Vaccination Rates, Jessica L. Murray

DNP Projects

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines have been shown to be effective against HPV types that are linked to cervical, vaginal, vulvar, penile, anal, and oropharyngeal cancers. Despite Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations that all 11-12 year old males and females in the U.S. should be vaccinated with the three-dose HPV vaccine series, vaccination rates remain low. In 2012, only 34.9% of adolescent females and 6.8% of adolescent males completed the series. Efforts to increase vaccination rates are needed, and healthcare providers have been shown to be an important part of the solution.

Purpose: This investigation was conducted to …

Delivery Of Evidence-Based Tobacco Use Interventions In Primary Care, Amber Silberman

DNP Projects

This capstone report presents three manuscripts which focus on tobacco use interventions in the primary care setting. The first manuscript presents a critical analysis of the Public Health Service guideline on Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence. The second manuscript presents a literature review pertaining to interventions that increase primary care provider compliance with guideline recommendations. The literature obtained from these first two manuscripts led to a descriptive study, which examined the documentation and implementation of specific guideline recommendations in a primary care clinic. The third and final manuscript details this study, and presents some practical implications for improving documentation …

Tobacco Treatment In College Students, Teresa H. Huber

DNP Projects

This study was conducted in a southeastern University to determine tobacco use status in a population of university students, student intention to quit, treatment options, use of student health service, and student’s degree of support of a tobacco-free policy. A major implication for practice is the need for college health providers to screen all students utilizing the USPHS Guidelines, as even light smokers may be vulnerable to nicotine addiction. However, the study found that a high proportion of the smokers were nondaily smokers who do not consider themselves as smokers and the vast majority of those were undergraduates. Thus, college …

Assessing Provider Knowledge And Attitude Towards Animal-Assisted Therapy As A Complementary Treatment For Children, Shannon Leigh Million

DNP Projects

Objective: The purpose of this project was to determine knowledge and attitudes of pediatric primary care providers working in a university outpatient clinic settings towards the use of animal-assisted therapy as a complementary treatment for children. This report also includes an integrative review of animal-assisted therapy in pediatric populations and a clinical practice guideline analysis regarding the use of equine facilitated learning with high risk children and adolescents in residential psychiatric treatment.

Methods: A survey tool was administered to the Department of Pediatrics at UK Healthcare.

Results: There were 41 respondents to the survey, 36 of which …

The Judge’S Hold: A Struggle For Voice In Cormac Mccarthy’S Blood Meridian, Daniel R. Johnson

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is a novel that provides a clear critique on the ways in which the American west was acquired. The text is awash with gratuitous violence, symbolism and storytelling, together creating a piece that offers a modern interpretation of American identity. This analysis will approach the novel by examining a struggle for voice between the two main characters Judge Holden and The Kid in the narration. In doing so, it will be shown that Blood Meridian uses Holden's voice to suppress all other worldviews within the text in order to show the invulnerability of the political rhetoric …

Mandatory Ultrasound Statutes And The First Amendment, Shifting The Constitutional Perspective, Cheri D. Smith

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The jurisprudence of abortion law is replete with instances in which the concerns of the woman seeking the procedure have taken a back seat. The newest battleground in abortion regulation involves mandatory ultrasound statutes touted as informed consent regulations. The analysis of courts confronting these statutes has turned on whether the mandatory disclosures violate the physician's First Amendment right to be free from compelled speech. The particular breed of statute at issue in this paper requires a physician not only to perform an ultrasound, but also to make the images visible to the woman, to make audible the heartbeat, and …

Physician As Teacher: Promoting Health And Wellness Among Elementary School Students, Jill E. Stefaniak, Victoria C. Lucia

STEMPS Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Every day, physicians engage in teaching during their patient encounters. It may be that medical students who are introduced to the principles of teaching and learning are more likely to become good communicators and learners. Service-learning may be an effective way for medical students to practice skills in teaching and communication in a real-world setting, while also filling a need within the community. The purpose of this study was to identify common themes within medical students' reflections on what they learned through participating in a teaching exercise with local elementary school children.

METHODS: As a required component of a …

From Crisis Pregnancy Centers To Teenbreaks.Com: Anti-Abortion Activism's Use Of Cloaked Websites, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

Anti-abortion activists are making use of a deceptive form of propaganda online through cloaked websites that conceal authorship in order to deliberately disguise their political agenda. This deceptive form of online activism is predated and exists alongside another through the use of brick-and-mortar “Crisis Pregnancy Centers.” Anti-abortion, or “pro-life,” activists have long used storefront outposts designated “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” that masquerade as providers of reproductive health services to deceive women who are pregnant into scheduling appointments with them instead of with abortion providers. Once at the “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” activists then try to convince women seeking an abortion not to …

The Personal And Professional Characteristics Of Master Therapists And Matched Controls, Barbara A. Granville Phd

All Student Scholarship

This dissertation is an attempt to replicate the results of a study conducted by Len Jennings(1996) which provided the data underlying the "cognitive, emotional, and relational" (CER) model of therapist excellence. As outlined in Jennings'(1996) research protocol, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with ten master therapists chosen through a snowball sampling technique. Unlike the original study, this dissertation includes a matched control group intended to provide insight about the generalizability of the categories/domains of CER.

Report Of The Nova Scotia Independent Panel On Hydraulic Fracturing, Frank Atherton, Michael Bradfield, Kevin Christmas, Shawn Dalton, Maurice Dusseault, Graham Gagnon, Brad Hayes, Constance Macintosh, Ian Mauro, Ray Ritcey

Reports & Public Policy Documents

On August 28, 2013, the Province of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Department of Energy signed an agreement with the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment at Cape Breton University to conduct an external review on the environmental, socio-economic, and health impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Simultaneously, Dr. David Wheeler, President and Vice Chancellor of Cape Breton University, was asked to convene and Chair the review and expert panel on a voluntary and unpaid basis.1 The mandate for the review was to: create a panel of technical experts based on input from the public and hire technical …

American Military Strategy In The Vietnam War, 1965– 1973, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

For nearly a decade, American combat soldiers fought in South Vietnam to help sustain an independent, noncommunist nation in Southeast Asia. After U.S. troops departed in 1973, the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975 prompted a lasting search to explain the United States’ first lost war. Historians of the conflict and participants alike have since critiqued the ways in which civilian policymakers and uniformed leaders applied—some argued misapplied—military power that led to such an undesirable political outcome. While some claimed U.S. politicians failed to commit their nation’s full military might to a limited war, others contended that most officers fundamentally …

Effective Learning Strategies For College Students With Asperger's Syndrome, Jamie Susanne Gilbert

All Master's Theses

More and more students with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) are being accepted into college without having the proper foundation in place to successfully graduate with a Bachelor’s degree. Students with AS need support systems in place to properly prepare them to face the challenges of college. The purpose of this study is to discuss the current research in regards to effective learning strategies that lead to academic success for college students with AS and to further discuss how to implement the learning strategies in higher education institutions. A single-subject study, using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, was performed. It involved one …

Revamping The Vampire Heroine: Reshaping The Character Of Bella Swan Through Twilight Fan Fiction, Kaitlyn D. Boisvert

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Due to her bland personality and submissive nature, Stephenie Meyer's Twilight heroine Bella Swan is often ridiculed by critics and readers alike. Yet some fans have taken to writing fan fiction as a way to defend Bella or explore her troublesome characteristics. Building on Henry Jenkins' scholarly approach to fan-generated writings, I analyze fan fiction writings based on Bella Swan in New Moon. I consider what sort of new perspective or interpretation the authors bring into their original works. My findings indicate that while not all fan fiction works deviate from Meyer's original character model, many do manage to flesh …

Parkinson's Diagnosis From The Caregiver's Perspective, Helen Maree Bradley

Theses : Honours

Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder. The irreversible and accumulating disability experienced means that people with Parkinson’s progressively lose their autonomy, eventually requiring complete care. Consequently, Parkinson’s significantly impacts sufferers and the people who care for them. Informal care, predominantly provided by female spouses becomes exceptionally demanding over time, and caregivers experience significant morbidity. Stress manifests across all stages of the caregiving trajectory, with diagnosis reported as a particularly stressful period for caregivers; however, few attempts have been made to understand what makes it stressful. The current study explored female spousal caregivers’ subjective experience of the Parkinson’s diagnosis, …

Assessing Visual Perception Using Letters And Numbers, Janet Richmond

ECU Posters

To create a new visual perceptual test using letters and numbers in isolation and in context. Producing a linear scale to measure the ability of primary school children to visually discriminate upper and lower case letters in readiness for learning to read and perform mathematical calculations.

The Hidden Daubert Factor: How Judges Use Error Rates In Assessing Scientific Evidence, John B. Meixner Jr., Shari Seidman Diamond

Scholarly Works

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, the United States Supreme Court provided a framework under which trial judges must assess the evidentiary reliability of scientific evidence whose admissibility is challenged. One factor of the Daubert test, the “known or potential rate of error” of the expert’s method, has received considerably less scholarly attention than the other factors, and past empirical study has indicated that judges have a difficult time understanding the factor and use it less frequently in their analyses as compared to other factors. In this paper, we examine one possible interpretation of the “known or potential rate of …

Household Food Insecurity And Obesity Risk In An Urban Slum In Brazil, Krysta Peterson

Public Health Theses

Background: The prevalence of obesity is growing among the poor. Household food insecurity (HFI) may partly explain this trend as individuals experiencing it may cope by consuming low-cost high calorie meals with little nutritive value. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of HFI, identify its risk factors, and assess the relationship with obesity among adults in an urban slum community in Salvador, Brazil.

Design: This cross-sectional study interviewed participants at home to assess socioeconomic status, demographics, HFI (measured by the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale (EBIA)), and health. Anthropometric measurements (height, weight, waist circumference) of each respondent were taken to …

The Association Between Perceived Stress And Worse Adherence To Medical Discharge Instructions After Acute Myocardial Infarction, Qiaochu Qi

Public Health Theses

Objectives: This study prospectively followed a cohort of 349 individuals recovering from an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) to investigate the relationship between their perceived stress and their adherence to medical discharge instructions.

Background: Experiencing a heart attack is stressful, and stress post-MI leads to poor outcomes. Worse adherence to discharge instructions can be a pathway, but no prior research has investigated the impact of perceived stress on AMI patients' ability to comply with discharge instructions.

Methods: We assessed adherence to hospital discharge instructions over 12 months among 349 individuals who were hospitalized with AMIs. Linear mixed-effects regression model was used …

Exploring Social Networking Technologies As Tools For Hiv Prevention For Men Who Have Sex With Men In Connecticut, Jorge Augusto Ramallo

Public Health Theses

This study examined the use of social networking technologies (SNTs) and their potential utilization in HIV prevention interventions among HIV positive and HIV negative men who have sex with men (MSM). We conducted 5 focus groups and 1 individual interview of HIV positive and HIV negative individuals (total 34). All participants were recruited with the help of a local non–profit organization and through a Facebook event advertised in neighboring LGBT establishments.

MSM tend to compartmentalize and separate their gay social networks. SNTs are the main way in which MSM meet new sexual partners. Young MSM are high users and early …

Prenatal Depressive Symptoms And Sexual Risk Among Young Urban Pregnant Women Of Color, Abigail Taylor

Public Health Theses

Objective: To determine whether prenatal depressive symptoms are related to sexual risk outcomes 12 months postpartum.

Methods: Participants included 757 pregnant women aged 14-21 years, mainly Latina (54.4%) and Black, non-Latina (37.0%). Women completed structured interviews during the second and third trimester of pregnancy and one-year postpartum. Depressive symptoms were measured using the affect-only items of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). Outcomes included sexual risk behavior (percent condom use, number of partners) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) measured via laboratory testing.

Results: Prenatal depressive symptoms significantly predict a decrease in condom use one-year postpartum, even when controlling for …

Executive Function In Survivors Of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Adrienne Suzanne Viola

Public Health Theses

BACKGROUND Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors are at risk for impaired executive function, but it is unclear how to best screen for such impairment. We sought to determine 1) the reliability of neurocognitive assessment by performance-based testing versus parent report, and 2) how the measures relate to everyday function.

METHODS 256 survivors of standard risk childhood B-ALL (mean age 13.9 years at evaluation) were evaluated for executive function with three performance-based measures (Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC-IV), Controlled Oral Word Association Test, and Conners' Continuous Performance Test-II) and one parent-report measure (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF)). …

Factors Influencing Hiv Testing In A Small Public Hospital In Manglaralto Ecuador, Magdalena Marie Wilson

Public Health Theses

Increasing rates of HIV testing is critical to reducing the spread of the HIV epidemic in Ecuador. HIV testing serves a number of purposes; it can be a gateway for people to enter the HIV care continuum, it may reduce risk behaviors among those tested, and it can influence social norms around HIV. This study investigated individual, interpersonal, institutional, and community level factors influencing HIV testing. A cross sectional survey was administered to a convenience sample of patients at a small, rural, public hospital in coastal Ecuador. Educational attainment, HIV knowledge, and perception of confidentiality of test results were significantly …

Stress, Discrimination And Repeat Pregnancy In Adolescent Parents, Meghan Angley

Public Health Theses

Objective

Adolescent mothers are at high risk of repeat pregnancy and repeat birth with short birth intervals. Perceived stress is known to affect young women's use of contraception, and therefore risk of unintended pregnancy. The primary aim of the study was to examine how stress, stressful life events, discrimination and economic hardship affect adolescent mothers' risk for repeat pregnancy. Secondary aims included examining if the association between stress and repeat pregnancy was mediated by contraception use, if the stress experienced by the mother's partner was associated with risk of pregnancy and if the association between stress and repeat pregnancy was …

Conflict And Vaccine-Preventable Disease In Children Under Five In The Eastern Mediterranean Region: A Systematic Review, Alexandra Marion Adams

Public Health Theses

Background: Conflict is one of the main reasons for our failure to reach worldwide immunization targets. An objective of 90% immunization coverage is included in the fourth Millennium Development Goal to reduce under-five mortality by two thirds, which is still far from achieved in the conflict-ridden Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). Despite global progress, vaccine-preventable deaths still account for 20% of childhood mortality under five years of age in the EMR, and communicable disease a third of all mortality. Conflict remains a critical root cause of low vaccination coverage in the EMR, resulting in high levels of vaccine-preventable disease, disability, and …

Hpv Vaccine Effectiveness In New Haven County, Connecticut Women Age 18-39, 2008-2012, Jennifer Lynn Berry

Public Health Theses

Background: HPV vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy in clinical trials against cervical lesions and infections by HPV vaccine types 16 and 18. Together these two types are responsible for approximately 70% of cervical cancer. Data on HPV vaccine effectiveness in general populations is limited.

Methods: Surveillance data monitoring high-grade cervical lesions in Connecticut was used. Medical records were reviewed and patients were interviewed to ascertain HPV vaccine history. Patients' biopsy specimens were typed to determine the presence of vaccine or non-vaccine type HPV. Odds ratios were determined using logistic regression, adjusting for age at diagnosis, grade of cervical lesion, race/ethnicity, …