Digital Commons Network^™

New Graduate Nurse Residency Program Development, Allison Kathleen Danzl

Nursing

This Project reports perceptions of how a new nurse residency addresses essential nursing competencies and transition stress. This Project involved development of content for a new graduate nurse residency program. Part of the Project evaluation was answering the questions: Does knowledge level of the Quality, Safety and Education for Nurses’ competencies at a Midwest critical access hospital increase for program evaluators after review of the content in the developed new graduate residency program? Is the content presented in the five modules relevant to new graduate nurse needs at the Midwest critical access hospital in order to decrease transition stress in …

The Fruit And Vegetable Consumption Problem, Natalie Marie Aughinbaugh

Nursing

Fruit and vegetable consumption is an essential component of a healthy diet and one of the most modifiable risk factors for chronic disease. Only a small percentage of the world’s population consumes the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables (Litt et al., 2011). In addition, young adults experience significant lifestyle changes as a result of independence, often establishing life-long dietary habits affecting future health and the health of their future families. The purpose of this project was to improve provider practice by using a food frequencyscreening tool and education within the clinical setting to facilitate increased knowledge, awareness, and fruit …

Analytical Pyrolysis Principles And Applications To Environmental Science, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Over the past half century, analytical pyrolysis has proven itself to be an effective means for the semiquantitative characterization of complex macromolecular organic substances. It has been demonstrated that instruments such as Py-FID, Py-MS, and in particular, Py-GC/MS can provide valuable geochemical insights when applied to a wide variety of problems in environmental science. The more widespread use of analytical pyrolysis methods in the evaluation of environmental pollution is recommended, because of their relatively low cost and information-rich results.

Pyrolysis is the heating of organic substances in an inert, oxygen-free atmosphere, thereby avoiding combustion. When performed on a large scale, …

Where Law And Science (And Religion) Meet, David Faigman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trust In Immigration Enforcement: State Noncooperation And Sanctuary Cities After Secure Communities, Ming Hsu Chen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Nature Of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube-Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells, John Michael Harris

Physics

Since their inception in 2007, nanotube-silicon heterojunction solar cells have experienced rapid improvement due to the diligent work of several research groups. These devices have quickly reached a point where they might begin to possibly compete with current well-established silicon solar technologies; however the development of industrial-scale nanotube synthesis and purification capabilities remains problematic. Although there has been significant recent progress in improving performance, the precise classification of nanotube-silicon heterojunctions has remained ambiguous. In this thesis, I use type, chirality and length purified single-wall carbon nanotubes to clarify the nature of this particular class of solar cell. The junctions that …

Demographic Analysis Of Student Evaluations, Lucas James Huebner

Statistics

Data was collected from North Dakota State University’s student rating of instructor’s forms during the fall of 2013 and the spring of 2014. This thesis investigates differences between male and female instructor’s ratings, as well as attempts to describe outcomes using other demographics. T-tests were performed comparing the means of class averages for male and female instructors for each question on the student evaluation. There was not a difference for the mean class averages between male and female instructors when the whole university was considered and when only looking at the College of Science and Math. The analysis conducted also …

Agency And Empowerment In The Childbirth Process: The Effect Of Medicalization On Women's Decision Making, Alicia Jane Kauffman

Sociology and Anthropology

Over the past decade, rates of caesarean section births and other interventions in childbirth have increased substantially. With increased medicalization of childbirth, it is often viewed as an illness requiring treatment rather than a natural process that women are equipped to handle with little intervention in most cases. A qualitative study was completed that included interviews with nine women participants who had previously given birth to at least one child. The findings elaborate on how women navigated the medical structures of childbirth in order to assert themselves as decision makers in the process, how they related to their bodies during …

The Rhetoric Of Mathematical Logicism, Intuitionism, And Formalism, John Travis Shrontz

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Comparative Classification Of Prostate Cancer Data Using The Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Dualks And K-Nearest Neighbours, Kekoura Sakouvogui

Statistics

This paper compares four classifications tools, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), DualKS and the k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) that are based on different statistical learning theories. The dataset used is a microarray gene expression of 596 male patients with prostate cancer. After treatment, the patients were classified into one group of phenotype with three levels: PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen), Systematic and NED (No Evidence of Disease). The purpose of this research is to determine the performance rate of each classifier by selecting the optimal kernels and parameters that give the best prediction rate of the phenotype. The paper begins with …

Law Enforcement And Military Members: Engaging In The Community, Karen C. Kalmbach, Randy Garner

Psychology Faculty Publications (Archived)

This chapter seeks to assist law enforcement by providing an empirical review of research on the relationship between military service and risk of dangerousness—to self (suicide) or others (violent crime). Risk posed by military members is poorly understood and largely overstated by media reports. The following discussion will reveal that—notwithstanding the unique aspects of military culture and service—most risk factors for violence (towards self and others) are similar for both military members and nonmilitary alike. However, some aspects of military service, (e.g., combat exposure), may impact the behavior and thought processes of service members who come into contact with law …

Compassion Fatigue In Critical Care Nursing And Development Of An Educational Module, Keshia Ryan Kotula

Nursing

Compassion fatigue is a troubling phenomenon which affects those in care giving roles, and nurses are especially susceptible. The first purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of compassion fatigue among critical care nurses. The study also examined which demographic characteristics would be associated with a higher level of compassion fatigue. Registered nurses (N=58) from two intensive care units completed the Professional Quality of Life Scale, Version 5 (ProQOL5) and a demographic questionnaire. Overall, the level of compassion fatigue was low as measured by the burnout and secondary traumatic stress subscales. The overall compassion satisfaction was low as …

The Body Inversion Effect: The Role Of Visual Appearance On Body Processing, Carol Huynh

Psychology

The purpose of this study was to determine if body stimuli are uniquely processed by the visual recognition system. First, my results supported past findings showing that body processing differs from object processing (e.g., cars, chairs, houses). However, body processing depended on the presence/absence of a head. Second, the nature of appearance impacted observers’ performance such that discrimination was better for real than artificial bodies. Finally, I examined the impact of body appearance on event-related potential (ERP) responses, specifically the P100 and N170, and found that amplitudes elicited by real headless bodies was significantly larger than amplitudes elicited by all …

Interplay Of Porous Media And Fracture Stimulation In Sedimentary Enhanced Geothermal Systems : Red River Formation, Williston Basin, North Dakota, Caitlyn M. Hartig

Theses and Dissertations

Fracture stimulated enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) can be installed in both crystalline rocks and sedimentary basins. The Red River Formation (Ordovician), which lies between 3.6 and 4.2 km depth in the Williston Basin, is a viable site for installation of sedimentary EGS (SEGS). SEGS is possible there because temperatures in the formation surpass 140° Celsius and the permeability is 0.1-38 mD; fracture stimulation can be utilized to improve performance. The main objectives of this project were 1) to determine the spatial variation of the intrinsic properties of the Red River Formation across the study area, and 2) to understand the …

False Memories In Depression: Vulnerability Factor Or Symptom?, Samantha Kathleen Myhre

Psychology

False memories are sometimes generated when recalling words from lists in which the words are conceptually related. People think of concepts that are associated with the lists but which were never presented. Previous research has shown that sad mood reduces false memories whereas depression increases false memories, especially to negative information. It is possible that false memories represent a cognitive characteristic that is present prior to depression. I hypothesized that depressed individuals and those vulnerable to depression would falsely recall more negative critical lures than controls. Depressed and vulnerable individuals were not expected to perform differently from each other. The …

Sleep Quality And Sympathovagal Balance During Stress, David Andrew Reichenberger

Psychology

Sleep has been shown to be associated with the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system at rest and during stress. However, sleep has not been examined in the context of sympathovagal balance (the coupled relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems) during stress. The current study investigated whether sleep quality was associated with sympathovagal activity and reactivity to stress. Female participants (N=59) underwent a psychosocial stress task and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index while EKG and ICG data were collected. Sleep quality was associated with pre-ejection period at rest and during stress, ps<.05, but was not associated with high-frequency heart rate variability or with sympathovagal reactivity, ps>.05. These …

Crop Price And Land Use Change: Forecasting Response Of Major Crops Acreage To Price And Economic Variables In North Dakota, Abilio Barros Soares

Natural Resources Management

The objective of this study is to examine land use change for cropping systems in North Dakota. Using Seemingly Unrelated Regression with full information maximum likelihood estimation method, acreage forecasting models for barley, corn, oats, soybean, and wheat were developed to examine the extent to which farmers’ expectations of prices and costs affect their crop choices. The results of the study show that farmers’ decision for acreage allocation is varied across the crops depending on how responsive they are to price, cost and yield of its own and competing crops. Substitutability and complementarity relationship of crops in the production have …

Synthesis, Characterization, And Modeling Of New Molecule-Based Magnets, Christopher Samuel Olson

Materials and Nanotechnology

The chemical bond and its role as a mediator of magnetic exchange interaction remains an important aspect in the study of magnetic insulators and semiconductors. The M[TCNE] (M = transition metal, TCNE = tetracyanoethylene) class of organic-based magnets has attracted considerable interest since VII[TCNE]x (x ~ 2) exhibits one of the highest critical temperatures for its class – Tc ~ 400 K – in addition to highly spin-polarized conduction and valance bands (Eg ~ 0.5 eV), thus foreseeing potential spintronic application. The magneto-structural factors underlying this exceptional behavior remain elusive, however, due to the amorphous nature of the material. To …

The Free And Restricted Diffusion Of Silicon Nanocrystal Clusters, Ahmed Bahgat Elbaradei

Materials and Nanotechnology

Biological applications for silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) have recently gained more attention because of silicon’s low toxicity. But, to be able to use SiNCs in applications such as biological sensors, labeling or drug delivery we need to understand their transport in different environments and their interaction with cell membrane. I will review some different methods for the synthesis of, and I will give an accounting of encapsulating SiNCs with PEGylated phospholipids to make them soluble in water. I also studied the free diffusion of these micelles in water, as well as their restricted diffusion and interaction with giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). …

Semidualizing Dg Modules Over Tensor Products, Hannah Lee Altmann

Mathematics

In this dissertation, we study rings: sets with addition, subtraction, and multiplication. One way to study a ring is by studying its modules: the algebraic objects the ring acts on. Since it is impractical to study all of its modules, I study its semidualizing modules. These modules have proven useful in the study of the composition of local ring homomorphisms of finite G-dimension and Bass numbers of local rings. Let R be a commutative, noetherian ring with identity. A finitely generated R-module C is semidualizing if the homothety map χ(R/C) : R → HomR(C,C) is an isomorphism and Ext(i/R)(C,C) = …

Numerical Simulations Of Electrohydrodynamic Evolution Of Thin Polymer Films, Joshua Christopher Borglum

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Recently developed needleless electrospinning and electrolithography are two successful techniques that have been utilized extensively for low-cost, scalable, and continuous nano-fabrication. Rational understanding of the electrohydrodynamic principles underneath these nano-manufacturing methods is crucial to fabrication of continuous nanofibers and patterned thin films. This research project is to formulate robust, high-efficiency finite-difference Fourier spectral methods to simulate the electrohydrodynamic evolution of thin polymer films. Two thin-film models were considered and refined. The first was based on reduced lubrication theory; the second further took into account the effect of solvent drying and dewetting of the substrate. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based spectral …

Computational Investigation Of Low-Pressure Turbine Aerodynamics, Alexander Paul Flage

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

The design of today’s gas turbine engines is heavily reliant on accurate computational fluid flow models. Creating prototype designs is far more expensive than modeling the design on a computer; however, current turbulence and transitional flow models are not always accurate. Several turbulence and transition models were validated at North Dakota State University by analyzing the flow through a low pressure turbine of a gas turbine engine. Experimental data for these low pressure turbines was provided by the University of North Dakota. Two separate airfoil geometries are analyzed in this study. The first geometry is a first stage flow vane, …

Modeling Financial Swaps And Geophysical Data Using The Barndorff-Nielsen And Shephard Model, Semere Kidane Habtemicael

Mathematics

This dissertation uses Barndoff-Nielsen and Shephard (BN-S) models to model swap, a type of financial derivative, and analyze geophysical data for estimation of major earthquakes. From empirical observation of the stock market activity and earthquake occurrence, we observe that the distributions have high kurtosis and right skewness. Consequently, such data cannot be captured by stochastic models driven by a Wiener process. Non-Gaussian processes of Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type are one of the most significant candidates for being the building blocks of models of financial economics. These models offer the possibility of capturing important distributional deviations from Gaussianity and thus these are more …

The Use Of Electrospun Soy Protein Isolate/Polyvinyl Alcohol Nanofibers For Controlled Drug Delivery As Well As Investigation Into Mass Production, David Paul Gutschmidt

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

As the global movement progresses towards environmental awareness, industries are attempting to become less dependent on petroleum based materials. This study investigates the incorporation of Soy Protein Isolate (SPI) into nanofibers and their potential applications. Initially mechanical testing was conducted; it was found that at 1:1 ratio of SPI to polymer (PVA) was optimal. For drug release test, SPI based nanofibers were tested via three formulations including nanoparticle implementation. Results observed that loading the drug onto the nanoparticle showed sustained release, ~67% release at 70 hours. Mathematical models of both diffusion and erosion confirmed experimental findings. SPI based nanofibers were …

Active Learning For The Automation Of Medical Systematic Review Creation, Prem Timsina, Omar F. El-Gayar, Jun Liu

Research & Publications

While systematic reviews (SRs) are positioned as an essential element of modern evidence-based medical practice, the creation of these reviews is resource intensive. To mitigate this problem there has been some attempts to leverage supervised machine learning to automate the article triage procedure. This approach has been proved to be helpful for updating existing SRs. However, this technique holds very little promise for creating new SRs because training data is rarely available when it comes to SR creation. In this research we propose an active machine learning approach to overcome this labeling bottleneck and develop a classifier for supporting the …

Sensecluster For Exploring Large Data Repositories, Yousra Harb, Surendra Sarnikar, Omar F. El-Gayar

Research & Publications

Exploring and making sense of large data repositories has become a daunting task. This is especially the case for end users who often have limited access to the data due to the complexity of the retrieval process and limited availability of IT support for developing custom queries and reports based on the data. Consequently, traditional interfaces are no longer meeting these requirements. Instead, novel interfaces are required to fully support the sense making process. In this paper, we followed a design science approach and introduced a query clustering system (Sense Cluster) that could serve as a quick exploration tool for …

The Tyger And The Lamb: Exploring The Relationship Between Text And Music In Selected Contemporary Choral Settings Of Two Poems By William Blake (1757-1827), Erik Andrew Zinter

Music

Texts have been influencing composers of choral music for centuries. Some composers manipulate the text through the use of form and compositional technique, whereas others rely on highlighting specific words. Still others work to convey emotions or to conjure aural images for the listener. Expressive poetry, such as The Tyger and The Lamb, two poems by William Blake (1757-1827), has inspired several composers to set these texts to music, among them John Tavener (1944-2013), René Clausen (b. 1953), and Andrew Miller (b. 1983). This dissertation focuses on the choral settings of Blake’s The Tyger and The Lamb by these three …

Corn Stover Removal Effects On Irrigated Sandy Outwash Soils In North Dakota, Dwayne Paul Sanders

Natural Resources Management

Recent interest in utilizing corn (Zea Mays L.) stover for cellulosic ethanol and supplements for distillers' grain in livestock rations has increased corn stover demand. A study was established to evaluate corn stover removal on selected soil properties in irrigated sandy outwash soils under no-tillage management including continuous corn and corn-soybean (glycine max) rotations. For continuous corn, increasing stover removal rates (0 to 100%) increased the wind erodible soil fraction (25.4 to 36.6%), decreased the field-moist water stable soil aggregates (58.78 to 48.3%) and water infiltration rates (22.4 to 8.6 cm/hr). Water infiltration rates decreased in the corn phase of …

The Choral Music Of Frederick Delius (1862-1934) And Its Influence On The Choral Music Of Early Twentieth-Century British Composers, Jonathan Daniel Strommen Campbell

Music

The composer Frederick Delius wrote a large body of choral music including choral/orchestral works and part songs. This body of choral music had an important influence on the younger generation of British choral composers, including Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) (1894-1930), E. J. Moeran (1894-1950), Constant Lambert (1905-1951), and Patrick Hadley (1899-1973). To date, only one dissertation in the United States has been devoted to the choral music of Delius. While several books have been published on Heseltine (Warlock), the others—Moeran, Lambert, and Hadley—are underrepresented in scholarly choral literature. In his book Delius: Portrait of a Cosmopolitan (1976), Christopher Palmer details …

Variability In Plant Growth Promoting Properties Among Clinical And Environmental Isolates Of Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, Yayra Ekui Domfeh

Microbiological Sciences

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has both negative and positive attributes by being a human pathogen and plant growth promoting rhizobacterium. This study sought to determine if environmental and clinical isolates of S. maltophilia are phenotypically distinct. A total of 18 S. maltophilia isolates from clinical and environmental sources were investigated. Under normal growing conditions, S. maltophila isolates did not enhance growth of canola seedlings. However, under sodium chloride stress (6 decisiemens per meter or 0.33% NaCl), canola seedlings inoculated with S. maltophilia isolates had significantly (P < 0.05) higher number of root branches (isolate D457), root length (D457, CDC 2004-33-01-01 and CDC 2007-23-08-03) and stem length (D457, CDC 2005-37-11-04 and CDC 2011-01-42) than the “no bacteria” control. A number of S. maltophilia isolates protected canola plants from the growth limiting effects of Leptosphaeria maculans and Burkholderia cenocepacia. No clear evidence was found between clinical and environmental isolates based on phenotypic data.