Digital Commons Network^™

Future Of Mandatory Employee Arbitration Agreements, The, Marcy Greenwade

Journal of Dispute Resolution

First, this note examines the historical interpretations of arbitration agreements under the FAA and the NLRA. Next, it explores the reasoning behind the discrepancies that exist between the judicial and administrative arbitration decisions. Additionally, this note assesses the lack of a uniform standard and its effect on decision makers, employers, and employees. Lastly, this note evaluates the potential implications of a liberal policy favoring arbitration in the context of mandatory employee arbitration agreements.

Why We Still Do Not Know What A “Real” Argument Is, G. C. Goddu

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In his recent paper, “What a Real Argument is,” Ben Hamby attempts to provide an adequate theoretical account of “real” arguments. In this paper I present and evaluate both Hamby’s motivation for distinguishing “real” from non-“real” arguments and his articulation of the distinction. I argue that neither is adequate to ground a theoretically significant class of “real” arguments, for the articulation fails to pick out a stable proper subclass of all arguments that is simultaneously both theoretically relevant and a proper subclass of all arguments.

The End Of The World And Other Times In The Future, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In an interview with his biographer Sylvie Simmons, Leonard Cohen identifies the main interests in his work as "women, song, religion". These are not merely personal concerns for Cohen, they are dimensions of the world that he tries to understand as a poet, singer, and thinker.

Now it's something of a cliché to see the modern romantic or post-romantic singer or poet in terms of personal struggles, failures, triumphs, and reversals. Poets sometimes respond by adopting elusive, ironic, enigmatic, or parodic voices: think, in their different ways, of Bob Dylan and Anne Carson. Yet Cohen has always worn his heart …

Painting (And Photography), Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Two of Foucault's signature essays on painting are especially well known: the analysis of Velazquez's Las Meninas, and an essay on Rene Magritte that includes a striking account of how abstraction displaced representation in Western art. In addition, many of Foucault's texts are studded with acute descriptions of major painters from Breughel to Warhol; he gave lecture courses on quattrocento painting and Manet and published essays on several contemporary artists (Rebeyrolle, Fromanger, Michals). Since one of Foucault's major themes was the relation between visibility and discursivity, it is not surprising to find that painting is a favored site for …

Robert Smithson, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Smithson, Robert (1938-1973), a prominent U.S. artist, original critic, and theorist, is known for the Spiral Jetty (1970) in Utah's Great Salt Lake and other earthworks. He was a continuing influence and significant voice with respect to environmental art and postmodernism, introduced concepts such as entropy and geological time into the making and discussion of art, and focused on the intertwining of text and visual structure or surface.

States And Nomads: Hegel's World And Nietzsche Earth, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

What is Nietzsche's concept of the earth? While "earth" is often taken in a general way to refer to embodied life, to this world rather than to an imaginary and disastrous other world, I propose that the term and concept also have a significant political dimension-a geophilosophical dimension—which is closely related to the radical immanence so central to Nietzsche's thought. I shall argue that he often and pointedly replaces the very term "world" (Welt) with "earth" (Erde) because "world" is tied too closely to ideas of unity, eternity, and transcendence. "World" is a concept with theological …

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 …

Implementation Of A Depression Screening Protocol Specific To Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Patients; A Quality Improvement Project, Kendra M. Kratzwald

DNP Projects

Background: Depression in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) is a problem that has not been well addressed by providers. In 2012 the American Heart Association (AHA) released a scientific statement that recommended structured and routine depression screening of these patients. The AHA statement also recommended further research on depression screening instruments and their use with this population. Aims: 1.) To develop and implement an evidenced based depression screening protocol appropriate for patients with an ICD seen in an outpatient setting. 2.) Evaluate provider knowledge about depression screening (? Is this what you mean) and depression screening practices before and …

Emergency Nurses' Knowledge Of Pediatric Complaints, Kari J. Blackburn

DNP Projects

Each year there are more than 25 million pediatric emergency department (ED) visits, with 37-60% of the complaints being non-urgent (Brosseau, Hoffman, Nattinger, Flores, Zhang and Gorelick, 2007). Injury is the number one reason children present to the ED and is strongly associated with a complaint of pain (AHRQ, 2013). While pain is a high volume reason for visiting the ED, there are other presentation causes that may pose a high risk to pediatric patients. Nausea and vomiting is not typically viewed as a high risk complaint, yet there are some high risk etiologies resulting in nausea and vomiting that …

Assessing Prevalence Of Known Risk Factors In A Regional Central Kentucky Medical Center Heart Failure Population As An Approach To Assessment Of Needs For Development Of A Program To Provide Targeted Services To Reduce 30 Day Readmissions, Christeen Ivy Broaddus

DNP Projects

Abstract

Objectives:

1. Determine demographic, physiologic, and laboratory characteristics at time of admission of the heart failure (HF) population in a regional acute care facility in Central Kentucky through review of patient electronic medical records.
2. Determine which HF population characteristics are significantly associated with readmissions to the hospital.
3. Provide identification of the statistically significant common characteristics of the HF population to this facility so that they may work towards development of an electronic risk for readmission predictive instrument.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Regional acute care facility in Central Kentucky.

Participants: All patients (n = 175) with a diagnosis or history …

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 …

Assessing Blood Pressure Control In Primary Care, Ashley W. Guiliani

DNP Projects

Purpose: To evaluate provider adherence to JNC 7 by assessing documentation of blood pressure control and interventions in the absence of control in order to assist providers in reaching Healthy People 2020 goal of blood pressure control.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted for patients with essential hypertension. Data collected included blood pressure, use of a home blood pressure log, documentation of blood pressure medication compliance, and provider interventions in the absence of blood pressure control across three visits. A provider survey regarding provider barriers to blood pressure control was also completed.

Results: All surveyed providers were aware and …

Assessment Of Pediatric Primary Care Providers Behaviors And Procedures Regarding Pediatric Overweight And Obesity, Jessie N. Meiser

DNP Projects

CAPSTONE INTRODUCTION

Childhood overweight/obesity is a critical public health problem with devastating consequences. Many factors have combined to create the epidemic, and primary care providers can play an important role in addressing the problem by identifying overweight/obese children and encouraging them to engage in healthy behaviors. However, providers face a number of competing priorities making it difficult for them to provide these services effectively without outside support.

Obesity has reached an epidemic proportion in the nation’s youth. The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (2011) found that 35.7% of children age 10 – 17 in Kentucky are overweight …

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 …

Evidence-Based Blood Conservation Education For Icu Nurses: A Pre And Post-Test Evaluation Of Nursing Knowledge, Stefanie M. Bull

DNP Projects

Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based education project was (i) to evaluate baseline nursing knowledge of anemia, blood conservation and transfusion medicine, (ii) to identify current blood conservation practice and the nurse’s prior exposure to blood conservation education (iii) to determine the potential impact of evidence-based education on nursing knowledge, and (iv) to determine the impact of education on the nurse’s attitudes towards future implementation of blood conservation practices based on the nurse’s self report.

Setting: The project was implemented in the Cardiovascular and Thoracic ICU (CVICU) at an 875-bed level-1 Trauma and Multi-Organ Transplant Center located in central Kentucky. …

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 …

Trauma Resuscitation Team Program Evaluation, Lisa J. Fryman

DNP Projects

To evaluate the effectiveness of a newly implemented charge nurse-led trauma resuscitation team approach in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit (TICU). The approach was developed to improve patient throughput efficiency at a Level 1 Trauma Center. Measures of effectiveness include patient throughput efficiency, patient clinical outcomes, and financial impact. The implementation of the charge nurse-led trauma resuscitation team showed an improvement in efficiency of patient throughput without adversely affecting patient outcomes, and opening up critical resources for the next patient that arrives.

Screening For Sepsis: A Key Strategy For Early Identification And Management Of Septic Patients, Amy P. Fisher

DNP Projects

Background: Sepsis, defined as a systemic inflammatory response to infection, is a life-threatening medical condition that rapidly progresses from severe sepsis (characterized by signs of organ dysfunction) to septic shock with fluid-refractory hypotension. Adherence to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines for the management of severe sepsis and septic shock have been associated with improved delivery of care and reduced mortality. Delays in recognition of sepsis has been identified as a barrier to achieving early goal-directed therapy targets.

Purpose: To determine if a sepsis screening protocol could facilitate earlier identification of patients with sepsis

Methods: A retrospective medical record review was …

The Association Of Primary Care Physician Supply To The Prevalence Of Diabetes, Obesity, Smoking, And Hypertension In Georgia, Dennis L. White

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

The primary focus of this study was to compare primary care physician supply throughout Georgia to the prevalence of diabetes, obesity, smoking, and hypertension county by county, identifying potential issues related to primary care physician supply. This research identified the distribution of the primary care physician workforce across Georgia; county by county, and in urban and rural areas, and across public health districts. Then, the research identifies whether the current supply of Georgia primary care physicians is sufficient to meet the growing need for population healthcare. Studying the area of primary care physician supply in correlation to the prevalence of …

Further Characterization Of A Secreted Lipase From The Human Pathogen Leishmania Donovani By Determining The Effect Of Various Metal Ions On Its Enzymatic Activity., Lana Hoertz

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Leishmania donovani, a protozoan parasite, is the causative agent of the often fatal disease visceral leishmaniasis. The current treatments available are minimal and toxic to the patient. It has been shown that these organisms exhibit lipolytic activity during their growth in vitro. Lipases are enzymes that are known to aid in the development and virulence of several pathogenic organisms such as Candida albicans and Staphylococcus warneri. Little information is known, however, about the role of lipases in Leishmania species. We hypothesize that lipase may play a part in Leishmania's ability to survive within the human host as well as its …

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 …

Maille, Tauba Auerbach, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

24 unnumbered pages : all illustrations. "As a weaver, recreational student of topology and collector of wire entanglement puzzles, I've been studying chainmaille and the many variations of meshes that can be made with interlocking rings. The book 'Maille' is a collection of images from this research which have been heavily processed and rendered using a variation on halftoning: a mesh of differently sized white rings. The volume is hinged together with metal rings like those used to make the weaves in the photographs."--artist's statement.

One-Step Production Of Long-Chain Hydrocarbons From Waste-Biomass-Derived Chemicals Using Bi-Functional Heterogeneous Catalysts, Cun Wen, Elizabeth A. Barrow, Jason R. Hattrick-Simpers, Jochen A. Lauterbach

Faculty Publications

n this study, we demonstrate the production of long-chain hydrocarbons (C₈₊) from 2-methylfuran (2MF) and butanal in a single step reactive process by utilizing a bi-functional catalyst with both acid and metallic sites. Our approach utilizes a solid acid for the hydroalkylation function and as a support as well as a transition metal as hydrodeoxygenation catalyst. A series of solid acids was screened, among which MCM-41 demonstrated the best combination of activity and stability. Platinum nanoparticles were then incorporated into the MCM-41. The Pt/MCM-41 catalyst showed 96% yield for C₈₊ hydrocarbons and the catalytic performance was stable …

Sustainable Thermoplastic Elastomers Derived From Renewable Cellulose, Rosin And Fatty Acids, Y. Liu, K. Yao, Xiaoming Chen, Jifu Wang, Zhongkai Wang, Harry J. Ploehn, C. Wang, F. Chu, Chuanbing Tang

Faculty Publications

Two series of graft copolymers, cellulose-g-poly(n-butyl acrylate-co-dehydroabietic ethyl methacrylate) (Cell-g-P(BA-co-DAEMA)) and cellulose-g-poly(lauryl methacrylate-co-dehydroabietic ethyl methacrylate) (Cell-g-P(LMA-co-DAEMA)), were prepared by “grafting from” atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). In these novel graft copolymers, cellulose, DAEMA (derived from rosin), and LMA (derived from fatty acids) are all sourced from renewable natural resources. The “grafting from” ATRP strategy allows the preparation of high molecular weight graft copolymers consisting of a cellulose main chain with acrylate copolymer side chains. By manipulating the monomer ratios in the P(BA- …

Tuning The Underwater Oleophobicity Of Graphene Oxide Coatings Via Uv Irradiation, H. Li, Yi Huang, Y. Mao, W. Xu, Harry J. Ploehn, Miao Yu

Faculty Publications

Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation was utilized to gradually modify the chemistry and structure of graphene oxide (GO) flakes, as confirmed by XPS and AFM. Ultrathin GO coatings/membranes, made of UV-irradiated flakes, showed tunable underwater oleophobicity. UV-treated, superoleophobic GO membranes exhibited excellent antifouling capability for oil/water separation.

Tall Fescue Ergovaline Concentration Based On Sample Handling And Storage Method, Krista La Moen Lea

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Ergovaline is produced by the endophyte Neotyphodium coenophialum (Morgan-Jones and Gams) in tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinacea (Schreb.) Dumort. = Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and is blamed for a multitude of costly livestock disorders. Testing of pastures is common in both research and on farm situations. Since ergovaline is known to be unstable and affected by many variables, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of sample handling and storage on the stability of this compound. Homogeneous milled tall fescue sub-samples were analyzed for ergovaline concentration using HPLC after a range of sample handling procedures or storage. Ergovaline …

Field-Scale Water And Solute Transport, Yang Yang

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Spatial variability of soil properties complicates the understanding of water and solute transport at the field scale. This study evaluated the impact of land use, soil surface roughness, and rainfall characteristics on water transport and Br^- leaching under field conditions by means of a new experimental design employing scale-dependent treatment distribution. On a transect with two land use systems, i.e., cropland and grassland, rainfall intensity and the time delay between Br^- application and subsequent rainfall were arranged in a periodically repetitive pattern at two different scales. Both scales were distinct from the scale of surface roughness as described …

Fusarium Head Blight Resistance And Agronomic Performance In Soft Red Winter Wheat Populations, Daniela Sarti Dvorjak

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by Fusarium graminearum Schwabe [telomorph: Gibberella zeae Schwein.(Petch)], is recognized as one of the most destructive diseases of wheat (Triticum aestivum L. and T. durum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) worldwide. Breeding for FHB resistance must be accompanied by selection for desirable agronomic traits. Donor parents with two FHB resistance quantitative trait loci (QTL) Fhb1 (chromosome 3BS) and QFhs.nau-2DL (chromosome 2DL) were crossed to four adapted SRW wheat lines to generate backcross and forward cross progeny. F₂ individuals were genotyped and assigned to 4 different groups according to presence/ absence of …

Improving Methods For The Successful Establishment Of Switchgrass, Whitney Marie Monin

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Our research investigated whether priming switchgrass seeds with water or ethephon would increase stand establishment in the field. ‘Alamo’ seed germinated faster and grew taller than ‘Cave-in-Rock.Seeds primed for six days in water or for one day in ethephon 10 mM had the greatest seedling densities. In growth chamber environments seed priming were tested to hasten germination velocity. Seeds primed for two, four or six days in water germinated faster than unprimed seeds. Ethephon treatments reduced overall germination and germination velocity. Accent and Accent Q herbicides containing nicosulfuron are used to control weeds. To test ‘Alamo’ sensitivity to these herbicides, …