Digital Commons Network^™

Switchgrass And Miscanthus Biomass And Theoretical Ethanol Production From Reclaimed Mine Lands In West Virginia, Steffany M. Scagline

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Awareness of environmental issues surrounding current energy practices has opened doors for new possibilities for energy solutions. The 2003 Energy Independence and Security Act mandates that by the year 2022, 16 billion gallons per year of fuel in the United States (U.S.) will be coming from cellulosic bioenergy sources. Herbaceous crop species like switchgrass have been proposed as potential cellulosic crops to meet future energy needs. Switchgrass is a native warm season grass to North America and has been studied on marginal lands and reclaimed mine lands for biomass production capabilities in the U.S. Another species which has been considered …

Challenging Historical Gis Through Unstructured Historical Primary Source Materials: Uncovering Sixteenth-Century St. Vincent, Aosta, Italy, James P. Schindling

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The challenge to Historical GIS examined in this study is how to enable a system to accommodate sparse, unstructured, and spatially ambiguous data. The goal of this research is to take up this challenge by developing an Historical GIS that allows researchers to gain an understanding of a geography of the past. The study area for this research is the town of St. Vincent in what is now the Italian Alps and the time period is the sixteenth century. Three primary criteria were used in the selection of sixteenth-century St. Vincent as the case study for this research. The first …

Three Essays On The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (Hipc) Initiative Debt Relief, Minh Tam Tammy Schlosky

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three essays that investigate the effects of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to my dissertation essays. Chapter 2 is composed of my first essay, which attempts to answer whether there is any moral hazard committed by the HIPC member countries as they work toward completing the requirements set by the HIPC Initiative. Chapter 3 takes a spatial econometrics approach and investigates whether there are any spillover effects of HIPC membership on adjacent countries. I use the Spatial Durbin Model to estimate the effects of HIPC affiliation on neighboring countries. …

Music Videos As Meaningful Entertainment? Psychological Responses To Audio-Visual Presentations Of Song Narratives, Lea Margarete Schlue

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Combining auditive, visual, and textual elements in a unique way, music videos are currently one of the most popular and viral forms of entertainment media. Narrative music videos, in particular, engage their viewers by visually communicating the meaning of a song and its lyrics, which possibly employs them as a useful tool to communicate social, political and cultural messages to a broad audience, and implicates their social and cultural relevance. The purpose of this study was to test whether visual presentations of song narratives (as in music videos) foster a more transporting, engaging, enjoyable, and appreciative entertainment experience than listening …

Petrophysical Analysis And Sequence Stratigraphy Of The Middle Ordovician Point Pleasant From A Cored Interval In Morgan County, Ohio, Erica Schubert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Middle Ordovician Point Pleasant Formation has become a major focus in the United States for unconventional, horizontal drilling. It stretches throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, and West Virginia and is estimated to contain upwards of 38 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 940 million barrels of oil. Due to its low porosity, low permeability, and great burial depth, the Point Pleasant was not considered an economically feasible option until recent advancements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques. In order to increase production and drill more profitable wells, the geology of the Point Pleasant Formation needs to …

The Crucible Of Globalization: Latin America In The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade 1973-1994, Madison Sergent

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Latin America has traditionally not been considered the center of global trade and economic policy, but this common perception is an inadequate view of Latin American foreign policy. Through the use of membership in intergovernmental organizations, specifically the GATT and WTO, Latin American governments were able to advance a development agenda through GATT and later the WTO. While there is a lot of literature on both of these organizations, not much of it has paid attention to the contributions of Latin American member states. Latin American governments cooperated with other developing nations and helped change the international system of trade …

The External Dimension Of Eu Investment Law, Fernanda Nicola

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

EU trade and investment policy is in flux. The rate at which the global trade and investment architecture is evolving through the mega-regional Free Trade Agreements ("FTAs") is unprecedented. In this context, we explain how European lawyers and trade negotiators are addressing the newly acquired investment competence, while at the same time reforming investment arbitration and proposing new systems of dispute resolution at the international level. EU trade negotiators have put forward transformative proposals for investment chapters in their FTAs to safeguard, above all, the autonomy of the EU legal order in its relationship with international arbitration law. By mapping …

International Survey On Skin Patch Test Procedures, Attitudes And Interpretation., Luciana K. Tanno, Razvigor Darlenski, Silvia Sánchez-Garcia, Matteo Bonini, Andrea Vereda, Pavel Kolkhir, Dario Antolin-Amerigo, Vesselin Dimov, Claudia Gallego-Corella, Juan Carlos Aldave Becerra, Alexander Diaz, Virginia Bellido Linares, Leonor Villa, Lanny J. Rosenwasser, Mario Sanchez-Borges, Ignacio Ansotegui, Ruby Pawankar, Thomas Bieber, Wao Junior Members Group

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Skin patch test is the gold standard method in diagnosing contact allergy. Although used for more than 100 years, the patch test procedure is performed with variability around the world. A number of factors can influence the test results, namely the quality of reagents used, the timing of the application, the patch test series (allergens/haptens) that have been used for testing, the appropriate interpretation of the skin reactions or the evaluation of the patient's benefit.

METHODS: We performed an Internet -based survey with 38 questions covering the educational background of respondents, patch test methods and interpretation. The questionnaire was …

Design And Testing Of An Ehr-Integrated, Busulfan Pharmacokinetic Decision Support Tool For The Point-Of-Care Clinician., Susan M. Abdel-Rahman, Matthew L. Breitkreutz, Charlie Bi, Brett J. Matzuka, Jignesh Dalal, K Leigh Casey, Uttam Garg, Sara Winkle, J Steven Leeder, Jeanann Breedlove, Brian Rivera

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Busulfan demonstrates a narrow therapeutic index for which clinicians routinely employ therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). However, operationalizing TDM can be fraught with inefficiency. We developed and tested software encoding a clinical decision support tool (DST) that is embedded into our electronic health record (EHR) and designed to streamline the TDM process for our oncology partners.

METHODS: Our development strategy was modeled based on the features associated with successful DSTs. An initial Requirements Analysis was performed to characterize tasks, information flow, user needs, and system requirements to enable push/pull from the EHR. Back-end development was coded based on the algorithm …

Mineral Asset Valuation Under Economic Uncertainty: A Complex System For Operational Flexibility, Marcell B. B. Silveira

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The global mineral industry faces constant challenges that are incited and intensified by market uncertainty. Demand constrictions, resource scarcity, and market volatility all generate market risk that is compounded by the high capital and long payback periods inherent to mining projects. Quantitative risk assessments provide a methodology to leverage uncertain economic scenarios and accurately assess profitability; however, current mine valuation techniques and engineering economic approaches tend to scrutinize the uncertainty of technical factors, such as ore grade and metallurgical recovery, to a much greater degree than market factors, like price-demand restrictions. Nevertheless, the optimal operating conditions for mining, mineral processing …

The Role Of West Virginia University In The Economic Development Of West Virginia: A General Equilibrium Approach, Priyanjali Sinha

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Universities, industries and government are major institutions and play an important role in local economic growth and development. They often work collectively in achieving these goals. While the role of institutions in economic development is well-founded in the literature, a university's strategic role as an institution to encourage local area development is only now being recognized. The existing literature recognizes the spillover effect of mainly university research on local industrial productivity and innovations at the national level. The impact of various university activities on numerous other local economic development indicators like per capita income, poverty, school enrollments etc., at county …

Robustness Of Topological Superconductivity In Solid State Hybrid Structures, Piyapong Sitthison

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The non-Abelian statistics of Majorana fermions (MFs) makes them an ideal platform for implementing topological quantum computation. In addition to the fascinating fundamental physics underlying the emergence of MFs, this potential for applications makes the study of these quasiparticles an extremely popular subject in condensed matter physics. The commonly called `Majorana fermions' are zero-energy bound states that emerge near boundaries and defects in topological superconducting phases, which can be engineered, for example, by proximity coupling strong spin-orbit coupling semiconductor nanowires and ordinary s-wave superconductors. The stability of these bound states is determined by the stability of the underlying topological superconducting …

Adolescent Involvement In Volunteerism In Relation To Identity And Educational And Occupational Expectations, Katie Snider

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study evaluated volunteerism, identity, and educational and occupational expectations in order to look more closely at their relationships. The purpose was to fill the gap in the existing literature on how adolescent volunteerism relates to identity development and educational and occupational expectations. The study looked specifically at the type of volunteer activity in which adolescents were involved and the amount of time they spent volunteering each week. Data were collected from 500 10th and 11th grade students in non-urban West Virginia schools. Measures included a volunteer questionnaire, the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOMEIS), the Psychosocial Inventory …

The Trajectory Of Coping With Trauma: Meaning Making As A Factor In Determining The Trauma Outcome For Combat Veterans, Rachel A. Spero

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Specific ways in which an individual makes meaning following a stressful life event have been conceptualized as contributing to the emergence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, little is known about how meaning making impacts the trauma trajectory and how that transition affects the outcomes of PTSD, Posttraumatic Growth (PTG), or resiliency. In this study, 166 combat veterans nationwide completed self-report surveys that were analyzed using a multivariate Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method to create a model of how PTSD, PTG, and resiliency are impacted based upon meaning making. The results suggest that following a stressful life event, individuals who …

Communicative Solutions Through Technology: An Evaluation Of Esl Textbooks In Brazil, Natalia De Souza Sterci

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Textbooks are the main tools used by teachers and students in English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) teaching settings; Therefore, it is important to select the most appropriate textbook that meets both teachers' and students' needs. This study examines three textbooks commonly used in Brazilian private schools: New Interchange (Richards, 2000), American Headway 1 (Soars & Soars, 2001), and Top Notch 1 (Saslow & Ascher, 2006), all of which are published by non-Brazilian companies, to see how well they address the urgent need for communication-based EFL textbooks in Brazil. The current study seeks to help …

Geotechnical Testing And Finite Element Modeling Of Geomorphic Landform Design With A Multi-Layer Cap And Cover System, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research was aimed at implementation of Geomorphic Landform Design (GLD) principles to the Royal Scot abandoned coal refuse disposal facility in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA. This facility currently exhibits many undesirable environmental problems including acid-mine drainage and significant erosion and sediment transport.;A multi-layer cap and cover system in conjunction with GLD principles was proposed as a solution to these environmental problems. This cover is proposed to be constructed from the coarse coal refuse material on-site and a short paper fiber material (MGro(TM)) from the MeadWestVaco paper mill in nearby Covington, Virginia, USA. To determine the possible effectiveness of …

Empowering English Language Teachers Through History, Eun-Young Julia Kim

Faculty Publications

TESOL training programs typically offer courses in methods and pedagogy, along with other classes to equip future English language teaching (ELT) professionals with essential teaching skills and knowledge. Not as frequently offered or required, however, is a course focusing on critically examining political and philosophical aspects of ELT. This article discusses why I believe it is important for TESOL curriculums to include topics on the diachronic development and synchronic variations of the English language and to engage students in topics that would allow them to critically examine embedded power relations in ELT. By reflecting on my own classroom experience as …

Sex, Drugs And Alcohol: What Adventist College Students Say About The Role Of Parents And Religion, Alina M. Baltazar, Duane C. Mcbride, Curtis J. Vanderwaal, Kathryn Conopio

Faculty Publications

Relationships with peers, parents, and God make a difference in the behavior choices of youth. If a young person spends time with peers who don’t use substances and are planning to wait until they get married to have sex, they are less likely to engage in these behaviors. In addition, if the youth has a close relationship with parents who clearly state their standards regarding substance use and premarital sex, they are less likely to practice these behaviors. Finally, when the young person has a close relationship with God, they are more likely to care about the religious standards such …

Scripture And Modern Epistemological Methodologies In Adventist Hermeneutics: An Uneasy Relationship, Denis Fortin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Notes On The Literary Structure Of The Book Of Ezekiel, Jiří Moskala

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Does Isaiah 65:17–25 Describe The Eschatological New Heavens And The New Earth?, Jiří Moskala

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cosmic Conflict And Divine Kingship In Babylonian Religion And Biblical Apocalypses, Roy E. Gane, Constance E. Gane

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Shakespeare And The Cultural Olympiad: Contesting Gender And The British Nation In The Bbc’S Hollow Crown, L Monique Pittman

Faculty Publications

As part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad celebrating both the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics, the BBC launched a season of programs, entitled Shakespeare Unlocked, most notably presenting the plays of the second tetralogy in four feature-length adaptations released under the unifying title The Hollow Crown. These plays so obviously engaged with the question of English nationalism suited a year in which the United Kingdom wrestled with British identity in a post-colonial and post-Great Recession world. Through its adaptative and filmic vocabularies, however, The Hollow Crown advances a British nationalism unresponsive to the casualties — often women and …

Linear, Narrative-Plot Development In The Song Of Songs—Part One, Richard M. Davidson

Faculty Publications

This article examines the linear, narrative-plot development in the Song of Songs. Evidence is first given supporting several hermeneutical presuppositions which underpin this study: (1) the unity of the Song, revealed especially in its exquisitely designed symmetrical literary macrostructure; (2) Solomonic authorship of the Song, written early in his reign while he was still monogamous; (3) King Solomon and Pharaoh’s daughter (Shulamit) as the couple in the Song; and (4) a literal (not allegorical) interpretation of the Song as human love poetry. Building upon these presuppositions, this article explores text-indicators for the historical narrative-plot progression of the Song, building largely …

Improved Analysis Of Gw150914 Using A Fully Spin-Precessing Waveform Model, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, Mario C. Diaz, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Malik Rakhmanov

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

This paper presents updated estimates of source parameters for GW150914, a binary black-hole coalescence event detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015 [Abbott et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016).]. Abbott et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 241102 (2016).] presented parameter estimation of the source using a 13-dimensional, phenomenological precessing-spin model (precessing IMRPhenom) and an 11-dimensional nonprecessing effective-one body (EOB) model calibrated to numerical-relativity simulations, which forces spin alignment (nonprecessing EOBNR). Here, we present new results that include a 15-dimensional precessingspin waveform model (precessing EOBNR) developed within the EOB formalism. We find good agreement with the …

Life Skills At A Tribal College: Effects Of A Culturally Relevant Educational Intervention On College Retention & Self-Efficacy For Healthy Choices Among American Indian Tribal College Students, Jill Fabricius Keith

Health Nutrition and Exercise Science

American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AIAN) have the lowest rates of college retention and graduation in the U.S. Additionally, AIAN face health disparities including higher rates of obesity/overweight and Type 2 diabetes. The study purpose was to explore the effects of a culturally relevant life skills curriculum delivered in a family-style environment on self-efficacy, healthy choices, and college retention in tribal college students over four separate semesters. A non-experimental cohort design using mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) was utilized for the study. Participants in the study (full study completion, n=9; initial participants, n=26) were purposively sampled newly enrolled, academically under-prepared …

The Relationship Between Athletic Trainer Personality And Patient Trust, Kyle Allen Mccuskey

Health Nutrition and Exercise Science

Context: Trust has been researched in accordance with patient-provider relationships and patient outcomes.1-3 Factors known to influence patient provider trust include: competence, compassion, privacy and confidentiality, reliability and dependability, and communication.2-5 Although a variety of behaviors and characteristics have been evaluated, personality of careproviders has not been researched. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the influence an athletic trainer’s (AT) personality has on patient trust. Participants: Eighteen athletic trainers from three local universities were recruited for the study. A sample of athletes per athletic trainer were randomly selected. Data Collection: Personality assessments were administered online using skillsone.com, …

Preface, Desmond H. Murray

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Metabolic Control In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus In A Public Hospital In Peru: A Cross-Sectional Study In A Low-Middle Income Country, Irma Huayanay, Felix Guerra-Castañon, Maria Lazo-Porras, Ana Castaneda-Guarderas, Nimmy Josephine Thomas, Ana-Lucia Garcia-Guarniz, Augusto A. Valdivia Bustamante, German Malaga

School of Medicine Publications

Objective

The objective of this study was to assess patients’ achievement of ADA (American Diabetes Association) guideline recommendations for glycosylated hemoglobin, lipid profile, and blood pressure in a type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) outpatient clinic in a low-middle income country (LMIC) setting.

Methods

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with 123 ambulatory T2DM patients who are being treated at a public hospital in Lima, Peru. Data was gathered via standardized interviews, clinical surveys, and anthropomorphic measurements for each patient. Blood samples were drawn in fasting state for measures of glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and lipid profile. Laboratory parameters and blood …

Jordan Conference In Amman, Paul J. Ray

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.