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The Relationship Between Emotional & Social Intelligence And Conflict Management Behavior In Leadership, Suzzette A. Harriott

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the relationship between emotional and social intelligence (ESI) and the conflict management behavior (CMB) of lower level members of management or managers in training in a public sector organization in a country in the British Caribbean. The instruments that were utilized were SPSS, the Emotional Intelligence Appraisal-Me Version, and the Conflict Dynamic Profile-Individual (CDP-I). In all cases, due to non-normality, Spearman's rho was used in order to test the five hypotheses incorporated within this study. The Spearman rho, which is also known as the Pearson correlation coefficient between ranked variables, is a …

Inspiring Change: Exercise Self-Efficacy, Dispositional Optimism, And Perceived Stress In College Seniors, Joshua M. Garrin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Prohealth competencies, positive outcome expectancies, and adaptive stress appraisals have profound implications for the real-world transition of college seniors—a population for which engagement in physical activity reflects a preeminent concern. Prior studies on exercise self-efficacy (ESE), dispositional optimism (DO), perceived stress (PS), and physical activity have yielded inconclusive evidence of the emergent psychosocial challenges encountered during the final year of the college experience. Using a triadic framework of self-efficacy, attribution, and cognitive appraisal theories, this crosssectional, quantitative study was conducted using a web survey to examine (a) the impact of physical activity level on ESE, DO, and PS; (b) the …

Consequences For Nursing Graduates Of Failing The National Council Licensure Examination (Nclex), Julius Atemafac

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Little information is available regarding the consequences of new nursing graduates who fail the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). The purpose of this study was to understand how these graduates could successfully pass this examination in subsequent attempts. Guided by Fisher's personal change model, the key research questions addressed the consequences of failing the NCLEX-RN exam and the actions the new graduate took after failing it. A phenomenological design was employed with a purposive sample of 17 new nursing graduates in the metropolitan area who had failed the NCLEX-RN. An inductive approach using a constant comparison, content …

Using Microbial Community Interactions Within Plant Microbiomes To Advance An Evergreen Agricultural Revolution, M. E. Lucero, Seth Debolt, A. Unc, A. Ruiz-Font, L. V. Reyes, Rebecca L. Mcculley, S. C. Alderman, R. D. Dinkins, J. R. Barrow, D. A. Samac

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Innovative plant breeding and technology transfer fostered the Green Revolution (GR), which transformed agriculture worldwide by increasing grain yields in developing countries. The GR temporarily alleviated world hunger, but also reduced biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and carbon (C) sequestration that agricultural lands can provide. Meanwhile, economic disparity and food insecurity within and among countries continues. Subsequent agricultural advances, focused on objectives such as increasing crop yields or reducing the risk of a specific pest, have failed to meet food demands at the local scale or to restore lost ecosystem services. An increasing human population, climate change, growing per capita food and …

Prediction Of Structure Borne Noise Radiation And Propagation From Offshore Impact Pile Driving, Huikwan Kim

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates prediction of structure borne noise radiation and propagation from offshore impact pile driving in shallow water environment. Noise generated by offshore impact pile driving radiates into and propagates through the air, water, and sediment medium. Predicting noise levels around the pile structure at sea is required to estimate the effects of the noise and vibration on marine life. This study used one of the commercial FE (Finite Element) code Abaqus 6.11 to calculate harmonic and transient response of the offshore wind turbine support structure and associated acoustic pressure amplitudes due to hydraulic hammer impact on top. First …

Investigation Of Nitrogen Cycling Using Stable Nitrogen And Oxygen Isotopes In Narragansett Bay, Ri, Courtney Elizabeth Schmidt

Open Access Dissertations

Estuaries regulate nitrogen (N) fluxes transported from land to the open ocean through uptake and denitrification. In Narragansett Bay, anthropogenic N loading has increased over the last century with evidence for eutrophication in some regions of Narragansett Bay. Increased concerns over eutrophication prompted upgrades at wastewater treatment facilities (WWTFs) to decrease the amount of nitrogen discharged. The upgrade to tertiary treatment – where bioavailable nitrogen is reduced and removed through denitrification – has occurred at multiple facilities throughout Narragansett Bay’s watershed. Nitrogen remains limiting to primary production in the Bay proper which led to speculation that primary production throughout the …

Opting-In Online: Participants’ Perceptions Of Knowledge Construction In Public Forum Communities, Jennifer C. Lee

Open Access Dissertations

This project examines knowledge making and sharing amid special interest forums, specifically, online forums for herp (reptile and amphibian) hobbyists. In doing so, it addresses a gap in rhetoricians’ understanding of publicness: its effect on writing and people’s perceptions thereof. Few studies measure public writing unless its telos is change or activism. Additionally, despite increased rhetorical scholarship focusing on new media, much current research on forums situates them in classroom-based learning and collaboration, neglecting online forums that are open to public access. This project is a naturalistic inquiry using qualitative methods to explore collaborative public writing that occurs in discourse …

A Genomic And Electrophysiological Study Of Photoreception In The Eyeless Cnidarian Hydra Vulgaris, Stephanie L. Guertin

Open Access Dissertations

Hydra are tubular coelenterates with two germ layers, the endoderm and ectoderm. A ring of five to eight tentacles surround an oral pore, and the animal attaches to the substrate via adhesion of the peduncle at the opposite end. They possess a complete ectodermal nerve net, with nerve fibers running within the ectoderm throughout the body and along the length of the tentacles (Hufnagel 1976.) Hydra has two nerve rings. One nerve ring surrounds the mouth and is thought to coordinate mouth opening. A second ring, located at the base of the tentacles, coordinates movements of the body, tentacles, mouth, …

Intrapartum Nurses’ Beliefs About Childbirth: A Descriptive Qualitative Study In Nurses That Provide Care To Women In Labor And Birth, Sylvia P. Ross

Open Access Dissertations

In the United States, a large gap exists between what is known as best evidence in maternal-newborn health and the routine practices at the frontline of maternity care. Intrapartum nurses are uniquely positioned to promote practices that are evidencebased and support the normal physiologic process of birth. This qualitative study explored intrapartum nurses’ beliefs about childbirth and the influence of their beliefs on their clinical practice, particularly practices that promoted normal physiologic birth. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 intrapartum registered nurses using Rubin and Rubin’s (2012) responsive interview model. All participants practiced on a labor and delivery unit …

Portraits Of Novice Teacher Learning With Mentors In Urban Schools, Marjorie Kazin-Boyce

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine the learning and development process of three new teachers who were paired with mentors in a formal induction program in an urban district. The qualitative case study focused on three teacher-mentor dyads who were interviewed about their experience during the teachers’ first year of teaching in middle and high school of the district. In addition to interviews with teachers and their mentors, the researcher examined documents that were part of the mentoring process such as teacher reflective journals or mentor feedback forms. Using the Purposeful, Ongoing Mentoring Model (Peno & Silva …

Risk, Promotive, And Protective Influences On Adolescent Alcohol Use Milestones, Scott D. Martin

Open Access Dissertations

Research focused on the initiation and development of alcohol use among adolescents can inform professionals, families, and preventative strategies. Much of the research on adolescent substance use among this population focuses on risk. This study investigated a model of the initiation of adolescent alcohol use milestones including first full drink, first time engaging in heavy drinking, and first time being drunk, extending the risk perspective by emphasizing a model of resilience. This was done by simultaneously including risk, promotive, and protective influences in a single model. It was hypothesized that parental monitoring and reasons for abstaining and limiting drinking would …

Black Carbon Concentrations, Sources, And Fluxes In The Tropical Atlantic Ocean, Kari Ann Pohl

Open Access Dissertations

Black carbon (BC) is the highly graphitized byproduct of incomplete combustion that could be a sink for fixed carbon. Little data is currently available for BC concentrations and fluxes to remote marine environments and there are often great discrepancies between model simulations and actual field measurements. This research analyzed BC concentrations in the mixed boundary layer, surface water, and deep pelagic sediments of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean in order to understand the fate and transport of BC to the marine environment. It also aimed to assess the importance of aeolian versus fluvial BC deposition. Black carbon concentrations were elevated in …

Microbial Diversity And Connectivity Within And Between Oceanic And Marine Sedimentary Communities, Emily Ann Walsh

Open Access Dissertations

Our knowledge of microbial life residing in the oceans- photic and aphoticand within the subseafloor sediment has grown exponentially within the last few decades. This is partly because of advances in next-generation sequencing technology, which has provided an opportunity to address previously unanswerable questions regarding microbial diversity and biogeography (Hamady & Knight, 2009; Petrosino, Highlander, Luna, Gibbs, & Versalovic, 2009). By utilizing a next-generation sequencing approach, I determined microbial community compositions and assessed their response to environmental and geographic variation within and between five different oceanic regimes (i) the South Pacific Gyre (SPG), (ii) the Eastern and Central Equatorial Pacific …

Phytochemical And Biological Investigation Of Gallotannins From Red Maple (Acer Rubrum) Species, Hang Ma

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigated the phytochemical constituents, primarily gallotannins, present in a proprietary extract, namely MaplifaTM, from leaves of the red maple (Acer rubrum L.) species as well as their biological activities and mechanisms of action. Although the red maple species has been traditionally used as folk medicine by Native American Indians for numerous health benefits, the bioactive chemical constituents of the leaves of the red maple still remain unknown. This study carried out the identification of phytochemicals targeting gallotannins, a class of polyphenols, from red maple leaves by using various chromatographic separation techniques and spectroscopic approaches. Furthermore, compounds from the …

Neuropilin In The Vascular System: Mechanistic Basis Of Angiogenesis, Hou-Fu Guo

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

The vascular system is critical for maintaining homeostasis in all vertebrates. Structural studies of Neuropilin (Nrp), an essential angiogenic receptor, have defined its role in regulating angiogenesis, the formation of new vessels from the existing vasculature. Utilizing biochemical and biophysical tools we describe the ability of Nrp to function as a co-receptor for the VEGFR receptor tyrosine kinase. Two families of Nrp-1 ligands, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A) and Semaphorin3F (Sema3F), physically compete for binding to the Nrp-1 b1 domain, and have opposite roles. VEGF-A is a potent pro-angiogenic cytokine while Sema3F is an angiogenesis inhibitor. Using coupled structural …

Characterization Of Jabba, A Ricin-Resistant Mutant Of Leishmania Donovani, Megan Rhea Phillips

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

The abundant cell-surface lipophosphoglycan (LPG) of Leishmania parasites plays a central role throughout the eukaryote’s life cycle. A number of LPG-defective mutants and their complementing genes have been isolated and have proven invaluable in assessing the importance of LPG and related glycoconjugates in parasite virulence. While ricin agglutination selection protocols frequently result in lpg- mutants, one L. donovani variant we isolated, named JABBA, was found to be lpg+. Procyclic (logarithmic) JABBA expresses significant amounts of a large-sized LPG, larger than observed from procyclic wild-type but similar in size to LPG from wild-type from metacyclic (stationary) phase.

Structural analysis of …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Neuropilin-Ligand Binding, Matthew W. Parker

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Neuropilin (Nrp) is an essential cell surface receptor with dual functionality in the cardiovascular and nervous systems. The first identified Nrp-ligand family was the Semaphorin-3 (Sema3) family of axon repulsion molecules. Subsequently, Nrp was found to serve as a receptor for the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family of pro-angiogenic cytokines. In addition to its physiological role, VEGF signaling via Nrp directly contributes to cancer stemness, growth, and metastasis. Thus, the Nrp/VEGF signaling axis is a promising anti-cancer therapeutic target. Interestingly, it has recently been shown that Sema3 and VEGF are functionally opposed to one another, with Sema3 possessing potent …

Leptin Resistance Induced Obesity And Diabetes Promote Neuropathological Changes In The Aging Brain, Thomas Platt

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

The aging brain is prone to the development of pathology and dementia. With a rapidly growing elderly population diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Parkinson’s disease are on the rise. Additionally, diabetes and obesity are linked to an increased risk of dementia. The convergence of this increasingly aged population with the obesity and diabetes epidemic give rise to new concerns regarding the future of prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Our lab has previously shown that leptin, an adipokine involved in signaling satiety to the hypothalamus, can modulate the generation of the amyloid …

Opia: Revealing The I, Calliope

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Within-Day Test-Retest Reliability Of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Measurements Of Corticomotor Excitability For Gastrocnemius And Tibialis Anterior Muscles, Beth E. Fisher, Ya-Yun Lee, Todd E. Davenport, Stephen F. Reischl, Elizabeth Ruckert, Kornelia Kulig

School of Pharmacy Faculty Articles

Background: Manual therapy interventions targeting the talocrural joint can improve gait and balance functions in individuals following ankle sprains. Less is known about the underlying mechanisms of functional improvements after manual therapy. One hypothesis involves change in corticomotor excitability (CE) following manual therapy procedures. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a brain imaging method that could provide important information regarding potential changes in CE associated with manual therapy techniques applied to the talocrural joint. However, within-day reliability of TMS to measure CE must first be established in order to measure CE changes associated with manual therapy procedures.

Objective: To determine the …

Compelled Commercial Speech As Compelled Consent Speech, Leslie Gielow Jacobs

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Morphological And Biometrical Comparisons Of The Baculum In The Genus Nannospalax Palmer, 1903 (Rodentia: Spalacidae) From Turkey With Consideration Of Its Taxonomic Importance, Teoman Kankiliç, Tolga Kankiliç, Peri̇nçek Seçki̇n Ozan Şeker, Erkut Kivanç

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The morphological variability of the baculum (os penis) of 147 adult specimens of species in the genus Nannospalax from 58 localities in Turkey was examined using morphological and numerical taxonomic methods. Significant differences among all of the Turkish species in the genus were determined by morphological and biometrical comparison of the bacula, and the results of this study showed that N. nehringi and N. xanthodon are separate species and that the names are not synonyms. Additionally, because the central Anatolian mole rat populations that were classified by previous studies as members of N. nehringi or N. xanthodon had highly different …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Zoology

No abstract provided.

Efficient B Cell Responses To Borrelia Hermsii Infection Depend On Baff And Baffr But Not Taci., Gregory S. Dickinson, Phd, Guizhi Sun, Richard J Bram, Kishore Alugupalli

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

T cell-independent antibody responses develop rapidly, within 3 to 4 days, and are critical for preventing blood-borne pathogens from evolving into life-threatening infections. The interaction of BAFF, also known as BLyS, with its receptors BAFFR and TACI on B cells is critical for B cell homeostasis and function. Using a synthetic polysaccharide antigen, it has previously been shown that TACI is critical for T cell-independent antibody responses. To examine the role of BAFFR and TACI in T cell-independent antibody responses to an active infection, we utilized the Borrelia hermsii infection system. In this infection system, T cell-independent responses mediated by …

Investigating The Effects Of Applied Electric Fields On Microglial Cell Behaviour, Eman Bani

Theses and Dissertations

As surveyors of the central nervous system (CNS), microglial cells play an integral part in the inflammatory response following traumatic injuries. Thus, they have been implicated in the limited capability of neurons to regenerate in the CNS. Additionally, the roles of endogenous electric fields in the regenerative process of neurons in the mammalian peripheral nervous system (PNS) or amphibian CNS have long been studied. Further, previous studies in our lab have shown that physiological electric fields are capable of directing behaviours in astrocytes and schwann cells. Therefore in this study, a BV-2 microglia cell line was utilized to investigate whether …

Biochemical And Structural Studies Of Aav-2 Rep68-Aavs1 Complex Assembly, Clayton Bishop

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple DNA transactions are at the center of almost all processes regulating the AAV life cycle. A common feature shared by all transactions is the binding of the large AAV Rep proteins Rep78/Rep68 onto DNA sites harboring multiple GCTC repeats. AAV mediated site-specific integration is contingent upon the formation of a productive complex between Rep78/Rep68 and the AAVS1 site located at chromosome 19. In order to understand the mechanistic details of the initial assembly process we carried out equilibrium binding experiments of Rep68 and its individual domains with a 42-mer AAVS1 site. Results show that although Rep68 binds AAVS1 with …

Clusters Bridging Disciplines, Swayamprabha Behera

Theses and Dissertations

Clusters constitute an intermediate state of matter between molecules and solids whose properties are size dependent and can be tailored. In recent years, cluster science has become one of the most exciting areas of research since their study can not only bridge our understanding between atoms and their bulk but also between various disciplines. In addition, clusters can serve as a source of new materials with uncommon properties. This dissertation deals with an in-depth study of clusters as a bridge across physics, chemistry, and materials science and provides a fundamental understanding of the structure-property relationships by focusing on three different …

Modified Seed Growth Of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles In Benzyl Alcohol: Magnetic Nanoparticles For Radio Frequency Hyperthermia Treatment Of Cancer, Stanley E. Gilliland Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Iron oxide nanoparticles have received sustained interest for biomedical applications as synthetic approaches are continually developed for precise control of nanoparticle properties. This thesis presents an investigation of parameters in the benzyl alcohol synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles. A modified seed growth method was designed for obtaining optimal nanoparticle properties for magnetic fluid hyperthermia. With a one or two addition process, iron oxide nanoparticles were produced with crystallite sizes ranging from 5-20 nm using only benzyl alcohol and iron precursor. The effects of reaction environment, temperature, concentration, and modified seed growth parameters were investigated to obtain precise control over properties …

Experimental Development Of Advanced Air Filtration Media Based On Electrospun Polymer Fibers, Negar Ghochaghi

Theses and Dissertations

Electrospinning is a process by which polymer fibers can be produced using an electrostatically driven fluid jet. Electrospun fibers can be produced at the micro- or nano-scale and are, therefore, very promising for air filtration applications. However, because electrospun fibers are electrically charged, it is difficult to control the morphology of filtration media. Fiber size, alignment and uniformity are very important factors that affect filter performance. The focus of this project is to understand the relationship between filter morphology and performance and to develop new methods to create filtration media with optimum morphology.

This study is divided into three focus …

Fabrication And Characterization Of High Surface Area Gold Electrodes, Madhura S. Damle

Theses and Dissertations

High surface area gold electrodes are very good substrates for biosensors, catalysis and drug delivery. Their performance is characterized by good sensitivity, low detection limit and high signal. As a result, extensive research is being carried out in this field using different approaches of fabrication to generate high surface area porous electrodes of different morphology, pore size and structure. The morphology of the electrodes can be changed based on whether the approach involves a template or not, types of metal deposition, method and time of dealloying etc. The deposition of metal can be carried out using various approaches such as …