Digital Commons Network^™

Bone Loss Quantification Following Extraction In Rats: A Foundation For Grafting And Regenerative Studies, Emily Willett

Theses & Dissertations

Background: Loss of the alveolar ridge width and height following extraction is well-documented and several techniques, including grafting, have been proposed to reduce bone loss. Purpose: To characterize the pattern of bone turnover and inflammation after extraction and to initiate a study of the effect of grafting and local administration of simvastatin (SIM). Methods: Thirty-two retired-breeder rats underwent extraction of the right maxillary first molar and standard surgical defect creation under inhalation anesthesia. The left side of each animal served as the unmanipulated control. Comparison of groups (n=8, ANOVA) was done at days 0, 7, 14, and …

Wandering Sagebrush, Andrea Cyrus

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Wandering Sagebrush is a collection of eight unified short stories. The main themes of the thesis include: the struggle of identity and how one finds the people and places to call family and home. The stories focus on family we make, family we lose, family we choose, and the decisions one makes in the name of family.

Advocacy Coalition Formation, Mobilization, Sustainment, And Fragmentation: A Case Study Of The New Orleans Federal Alliance (Nofa) And The Federal City Project, Gerald J. Ormerod

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

U.S. military bases and installations represent trillions of dollars of capital investment towards the nation’s defense infrastructure. The Department of Defense, in its response to the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union in the 1980s, sought to reorganize and optimize this basing infrastructure to meet the emerging threats of the 21^st century. A series of nationwide Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) efforts were chartered by Congress to facilitate this task, identifying hundreds of obsolete or unneeded military installations. During the last BRAC effort in 2005, the Naval Support Activity New Orleans was targeted for closure, with …

The Present, A Thousand Times Deeper, Edie Talley

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The creative nonfiction essays and poetry in this collection explore family survival during the hardest of times--when the desire to give up is at its greatest--as told from the perspective of a woman who is a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother. These are not stories of defeat. Nor are they merely explorations of death and dying. They are cleebrations of living, of surviving, of loving and being loved against all odds.

Territoriality And Spatial Structure In The Green Anole, Anolis Carolinensis, William D. Weber Jr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Anolis carolinensis has been a model organism for ecology and evolutionary biology since the seventies, yet there are still understudied aspects of their ecology. A five-year study has provided microsatellite genotypes to be used in building a pedigree and assess relatedness, enabling us to evaluate the spatial distribution of an urban population of A. carolinensis. Results indicate no correlation between a male’s size and the distance others keep from it; however, males belonging in the heavyweight morph are dictating the spatial distribution in this population. In addition, juvenile dispersal of male offspring and partial philopatry of female offspring are …

Parenting Style And Adolescent Gender As Moderators Of The Association Between Parental Restrictions And Adolescents' Risky Driving, Megan M. Zeringue

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teenage deaths in the United States, highlighting the need for ways to reduce teenage driver crash rates. Adolescents (n = 176, M age = 16.4 years, 53% female) and their parents (n = 204, 71% mothers) self-reported on parenting style, driving restrictions, and risky driving. Results showed that more parental restrictions were associated with less adolescent risky driving. Three-way interactions were found such that more restrictions were associated with less concurrent risky driving in boys only under conditions of high parental warmth, structure, or autonomy support. Parenting style generally did …

Parents' Perceptions Regarding The Special Education Classification Of Other Health Impairment (Ohi), Michael C. Norman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Students identified by the special education classification Other Health Impairment (OHI) represent the third largest group of students receiving special education services in the United States. The special education services offered these students include both academic and health related supports. The delivery of these services is enhanced when a partnership exits between the primary stakeholders; the student, parents, the school personnel, and the medical personnel. The use of Family Centered Care principles in the delivery of these services supports and maintains the partnership.

Following the qualitative analysis of a series of interviews of parents whose children were classified as OHI, …

An Investigation Into The Origin, Composition, And Commercial Significance Of A Sedimentary Subsalt Formation: Keathley Canyon, Gulf Of Mexico, David Aaron Brassieur

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Sub-salt oil and gas formations in deep-water northern Gulf of Mexico are high priority targets. Advances in seismic processing allow for high-resolution, below-salt imaging. Understanding the modes of salt emplacement provide insight into sub-salt traps and potential drilling hazards.

A sub-salt sedimentary unit lies in the Keathley Canyon protraction. Autosutures created the transport-parallel lineaments of the upper surface of the unit. In addition, highly variable sediment aggradation rates created ramps, flats, and basal cutoffs along the base of the allochthon as salt and sediment competed for space. Seismic models identify modes of salt emplacement, salt/sediment interactions, and mechanisms responsible for …

You Gotta Crack A Few Begs To Make An Honest, Jonathan Alexander Brown

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores childhood, relationships, teaching, and god.

Behavioral Care For Children In Urban And Rural Integrated Primary Care, David I. Taylor

Theses & Dissertations

Mental, emotional, and behavioral issues in children are a significant concern for the children, their families, and society. Despite the existence of evidence-based treatments, the success of behavioral healthcare to meet the needs of these families will require high quality communication and relationships across a wide range of stakeholders. Integration of care represents a patient-centered strategy to unify these stakeholders into a single cohesive care team. The purpose of this dissertation is to define the behavioral healthcare team in integrated primary care for children in terms of the functional roles involved and to evaluate the quality of relationships and communications …

Defining The Role Of Phosphorylation And Dephosphorylation In The Regulation Of Gap Junction Proteins, Hanjun Li

Theses & Dissertations

Gap junctions are intercellular channels that permit the free passage of ions, small metabolites, and signaling molecules between neighboring cells. In the diseased human heart, altered ventricular gap junction organization and connexin expression (i.e., remodeling) are key contributors to rhythm disturbances and contractile dysfunction. Connexin43 (Cx43) is the dominant gap junction protein isoform in the ventricle which is under tight regulation by serine/tyrosine phosphorylation. Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation regulate many aspects of Cx43 function including trafficking, assembly and disassembly, electrical and metabolic coupling at the plaque, as well as to modulate the interaction with other proteins.

Serine phosphorylation has long been …

Development Of Cxcr4-Inhibiting Nanoparticles For The Treatment Of Metastatic Cancer, Yan Wang

Theses & Dissertations

Metastasis is the main cause of cancer mortality and morbidity, leading to several million deaths every year. Less than 20% of pancreatic cancer (PC) patients are candidates for surgery due to spread beyond the pancreas. Desmoplasia presents substantial barriers to perfusion, diffusion, and convection of antitumor therapeutics into the PC tissues. We focus on developing novel therapies that regulates tumor microenvironment, chemosensitizing tumor to therapeutics and preventing metastasis.

Gene therapy is emerging as a promising new therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. A targeted, systemic, effective and safe gene delivery system should be developed. CXCR4/SDF-1 axis plays a crucial role in …

Altered Levels Of Sox2, And Its Associated Protein Musashi2, Disrupt Critical Cell Functions In Cancer And Embryonic Stem Cells, Erin L. Wuebben

Theses & Dissertations

The transcription factor SOX2 is widely recognized for its critical roles during mammalian embryogenesis. SOX2 has also been examined in cancer; and it has been implicated in the growth, tumorigenicity, drug resistance, or metastasis of over 20 different cancers, including cancers of the brain and pancreas. Thus, we hypothesized that SOX2 is a major player in cancer and may be a potential therapeutic target; however, the effects of SOX2 on the many facets of human cancer have only begun to be explored. Recently, efforts to understand the mechanisms by which SOX2 mediates its effects have explored SOX2 protein-protein interaction landscapes …

Adoption Of Medication Management Technologies By U.S. Acute Care Hospitals After The Hitech Act, Aastha Chandak

Theses & Dissertations

Medication errors and adverse drug events (ADEs) are a significant public health concern in the United States as they pose a threat to patient safety. The medication management process is a complicated process in U.S. acute care hospitals, consisting of a series of steps such as ordering, transcribing, dispensing and administration and each step is prone to medication errors.The use of technology is considered to be an important intervention in improving the medication management process and thereby reducing medication errors and ADEs and further improve patient safety. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, implemented in …

Barriers To Pediatric Triage Guideline Compliance: A Survey Of Nebraska Emergency Departments, Jonathon J. Gruba

Theses & Dissertations

Nebraska emergency departments may be underprepared for a mass casualty event involving a large number of children, as indicated by the results from the 2013 Emergency Medical Services for Children’s (EMSC) Pediatric Readiness Project (PRP) report. This was primarily evident by the lack of existence of a pediatric triage policy among Nebraska emergency departments. Utilizing a survey, this study attempted to identify the emergency departments in Nebraska that followed the EMSC guideline of having a pediatric triage policy, as well as to identify possible barriers to guideline adherence among those that did not have the policy.

It was found that …

911 Calls In Homicide Cases: What Does The Verbal Behavior Of The Caller Reveal?, Jon D. Cromer

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Each year, numerous 911 calls reporting a death or a serious injury that leads to death are received by emergency communications centers; many of these turn out to be related to a homicide. Interestingly, a small percentage of these calls are made by the perpetrator. These calls constitute the first available evidence in most homicide cases. They are recorded at times of great stress and are the first versions of what the callers purport to know. The ability to develop hypotheses about a caller’s truthfulness enhances the police response by objectively informing the process of formulating early investigative strategies. For …

Primer On Perspectives And Practices Of Trauma, Trevor P. Haase

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

A large majority of the general population has endured at least one traumatic event in their lifetime and many will seek counseling services to process and resolve the impact from the traumatic experience. Counselors and mental health providers will likely encounter trauma survivors in a high frequency in the majority of therapeutic settings. Practicum and internship level counselors are often not prepared for navigating the complexities that arise working with trauma survivors. This paper outlines the various perspectives and practices of the works of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Narrative Therapy, and Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These orientations were designed …

Variation In Female Mating Behavior And Success In The Damselfly, Calopteryx Maculata, Suzanne E. Allison

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Traditionally, the study of sexual selection has focused on the evolution of elaborate male traits and how they enhance the ability to out-compete other males directly (access to females) and indirectly (access to desirable territories or resources). Female trait studies have focused most on evolved preferences for male traits. While we know much about how sexual selection acts on males, there is a deficit of equivalent study on females. In insects, including damselflies, male size and pigmentation are positively correlated with fat reserves and immune abilities, and therefore with male competitive ability. Here, we show that phenotypic variation that has …

Occurrence, Antibiotic Resistance, And Survival Of Fecal Enterococci In Turkey Litter, Steven Glynn Mcbride Ii

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Water Quality Inventory and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report show fecal bacteria to be the most common cause of impairment for both streams and estuaries. Human and animal sources have both been identified as significant contributors of pathogenic bacteria to surface waters. In this study, turkey litter from a farm in Shenandoah County, VA was surveyed for total culturable bacteria and total culturable enterococci before and after a transition to organic rearing practices. The enterococci were identified to species phenotypically using the Biolog Microbial Identification System and resistance …

Gender Inequity Within Public Accounting, Paige Petersen

Honors Thesis

Traditionally a male-dominated field, the public accounting industry has seen recent progress in the presence and advancement of women in the profession. Today, women comprise half of accounting students, Certified Public Accountant test-takers, and employees at public accounting firms. However, women in public accounting face an invisible barrier when it comes to reaching the level of partner, where they represent only nineteen percent of partners. Uneven distribution of female representation should be of concern to public accounting firms seeking to maximize the potential of their talent pool and gain the benefits of diverse leadership. Traditional viewpoints on this issue promote …

How Threat Assessment Could Become Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Case Of U.S.-China Relations, Muhamad Arif

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

This article tries to explain how misperception can trigger conflict between countries. The article would employ spiral model of conflict proposed by Robert Jervis as a theoretical framework to scrutinize contemporary US and Chinese contemporary competition. As a result, this paper shows how threat assessment could trigger a spiral of conflict through state’s tendency to overestimate threat level and its failure to perceive that defensive behavior can be interpreted as offensive by the belligerent. Based on this analysis, the probability of conflicts can be reduced as each country tries to comprehend motivations that drive other behavior, perceptions and reactions that …

Utilizing Pre-Education Assessment And A Targeted Education Module To Enhance Nurse Knowledge Of Standard And Transmissible Precautions, Deborah A. Ard

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

The aim of this project was to protect patient safety and prevent healthcare acquired infections by improving nurses’ knowledge of infection prevention practices. A second practical benefit was creating a pilot for an RN education program.

I propose that the reason compliance with hand hygiene is low at any facility can be explained by Rosenstock’s Health Belief Model. Nurses may not believe that 1) There is a high chance of spreading or themselves contracting infectious illness, 2) That the illnesses they are exposed to would be just as serious in them as they are seeing in patients, 3) They …

Improving Cal Nagpra: Honoring Native American Rights, Kim Turner

Master's Projects and Capstones

The California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Cal NAGPRA) became state law in 2001. Its purpose was to create a process whereby California tribes could seek to repatriate human remains and objects from their cultural heritage from museums and custodial institutions. Cal NAGPRA includes a number of shortcomings that have impeded the ability of tribes to successfully reclaim objects from their heritage. The ethical implications of museums retaining cultural objects and human remains, often confiscated from Native peoples or their tribal lands, has been a principal social justice topic of USF’s museum studies program. This capstone describes a …

Hidden Museum: A Behind-The-Scenes Tour For Contemporary Audiences, Michael B. Glazier

Master's Projects and Capstones

The mystery of what lies behind a museum’s closed doors has intrigued visitors and perpetuated museum mythology for decades. Whether it’s peeking into collections storage, or being guided through rooms off the exhibition floor, visitors want unique access to museum collections. This Master’s Capstone project investigates the topic of behind-the-scenes tours within museums, asks what they look like today, and how they will develop in the future. Using this research I have created a project proposal to film a behind-the-scenes tour that will solve questions of public visibility and collection access for a San Francisco area history museum. A successful …

Adobe Medicus 2016 5 September-December, Unm Hslic

adobe medicus

No abstract provided.

Teaching Place: Heritage, Home And Community, The Heart Of Education, Judy Kay Lorenzen

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation examines the implementation of a Place-conscious pedagogy as a means to teach heritage and sense of place. This pedagogy is framed upon the premise that trying to understand our heritage and place—ourselves—are crucial elements in our ability to live well as individuals who are connected school/community members, who help our schools/communities thrive, becoming Place-conscious citizens. I argue that in teaching in such a culturally diverse community, tensions rise as immigration has become a main focus. Our school/community has experienced many ethnic groups with vast social differences for which Place-conscious education offers practical solutions. These students have a great …

Implementing Strategies To Improve Patient Perception Of Nursing Communication, Ghada Dunbar, Stacey Nagar

DNP and Student Works

According to the Joint Commission (TJC), effective communication and patient and family centered care impacts quality and safety (2014). The aim of this project was to improve patients' perception of nurse communication in an adult inpatient telemetry unit in California by creating a training module for nurses on caring behaviors and implementing a structured rounding tool (SRT) to evaluate patient perception of nursing caring behaviors. The SRT was implemented prior to nurse education and responses before the training were compared with those after. The nurses attending a training session on caring behaviors completed the Caring Assessment for Caregivers (CACG) survey …

Pelvic And Breast Examination Skills Curricula In United States Medical Schools: A Survey Of Obstetrics And Gynecology Clerkship Directors., Lorraine Dugoff, Archana Pradhan, Petra Casey, John L. Dalrymple, Jodi F. Abbott, Samantha D. Buery-Joyner, Alice Chuang, Amie J. Cullimore, David A. Forstein, Brittany S== S. Hampton, Joseph M. Kaczmarczyk, Nadine T. Katz, Francis S. Nuthalapaty, Sarah M. Page-Ramsey, Abigail Wolf, Nancy A Hueppchen

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Learning to perform pelvic and breast examinations produces anxiety for many medical students. Clerkship directors have long sought strategies to help students become comfortable with the sensitive nature of these examinations. Incorporating standardized patients, simulation and gynecologic teaching associates (GTAs) are approaches gaining widespread use. However, there is a paucity of literature guiding optimal approach and timing. Our primary objective was to survey obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) clerkship directors regarding timing and methods for teaching and assessment of pelvic and breast examination skills in United States medical school curricula, and to assess clerkship director satisfaction with current educational strategies …

Pelvic And Breast Examination Skills Curricula In United States Medical Schools: A Survey Of Obstetrics And Gynecology Clerkship Directors, Lorraine Dugoff, Archana Pradhan, Petra Casey, John L Dalrymple, Jodi F Abbott, Samantha D Buery-Joyner, Alice Chuang, Amie J Cullimore, David A Forstein, Brittany S Hampton, Joseph M. Kaczmarczyk, Nadine T Katz, Francis S Nuthalapaty, Sarah M Page-Ramsey, Abigail Wolf, Nancy A Hueppchen

PCOM Scholarly Works

BACKGROUND: Learning to perform pelvic and breast examinations produces anxiety for many medical students. Clerkship directors have long sought strategies to help students become comfortable with the sensitive nature of these examinations. Incorporating standardized patients, simulation and gynecologic teaching associates (GTAs) are approaches gaining widespread use. However, there is a paucity of literature guiding optimal approach and timing. Our primary objective was to survey obstetrics and gynecology (Ob/Gyn) clerkship directors regarding timing and methods for teaching and assessment of pelvic and breast examination skills in United States medical school curricula, and to assess clerkship director satisfaction with current educational strategies …

Staphylococcus Aureus Biofilms Interfere With Macrophage Antimicrobial Responses Through Differential Gene Regulation, Toxin Production, And Purine Metabolism, Tyler D. Scherr

Theses & Dissertations

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an opportunistic pathogen that is a leading cause of both nosocomial and community-associated infections. Armed with a myriad of virulence factors and the propensity to form a biofilm on native tissues and implanted medical devices alike, S. aureus infections represent a very real public health threat, the treatment of which results in an excessive economic burden. S. aureus biofilm infections are notoriously recalcitrant to antibiotic therapy and adept at evading and neutralizing the host immune antimicrobial response. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that S. aureus biofilms are able to cause persistent …