Digital Commons Network^™

Wildlife Finds Its Way Back To Polluted Newtown Creek, Suzanna Masih

Capstones

The Newtown Creek in New York is one of the most polluted water bodies in the United States. Scores of chemical factories and industries lined its banks in the 1800s up until the 1950s. Toxic contaminants from these sites and sewage discharges from the city left the creek a barren wasteland. But now, decades of water conservation efforts in New York City have begun to revive the health of the waterway and are making it habitable for wildlife again. Yet, the fight for even cleaner waters continues.

India's Dalit Moment, Gabriel Kenneth Carroll Conlon

Capstones

This summer a brutal attack on Dalit youths in the Indian state of Gujarat set off months of street protests. The attack and subsequent protests underscored the persistence of caste-based discrimination in rural India, and the often brutal manner in which Dalits – members of India’s lowest castes – are excluded from everyday society. “India’s Dalit Moment” is a field report examining the causes and protagonists of the revolt. With on-the-ground reporting in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, this multimedia piece – including print, radio and photo elements – conveys a synthetic, but detailed window into the Dalit community …

How A New York Native American Community Was Polluted For Decades, Tola Brennan

Capstones

General Motors came to the upstate New York's North Country a savior, the bringer of much needed jobs. But after decades of using PCBs, a chemical much later revealed to be highly toxic, it's become the story of one the largest Superfund sites in the country. And the the hardest hit have been the Saint Regis Mohawk whose small reservation is right next door to the now demolished plant. Today, after decades of cleanup, General Motors has capped its liability through a 2009 bankruptcy. With the cleanup set to be completed next year, many Mohawk feel justice was never served. …

The Children Of The Angel Guardian Home, Maria Elena Perez

Capstones

Since the early 1900's, the Angel Guardian Home in Dyker Heights, New York, has been known as a safe haven for orphans in the community. Now that the orphanage is being sold, former children who lived there are finally telling their stories about what it was like to be in the care of the Sisters of Mercy.

Transforming Self And Systems Through Implementation Of A Caring Coach Leader Program, Priscilla Javed

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Assistant nurse managers and nurse managers, often referred to as middle managers, have a direct impact on daily hospital operations, clinical work environments, delivery of high quality safe patient care, and patient outcomes. The stressful demands of this role have caused turnover rates to soar above the national average on some of the inpatient hospital units. Instability of nursing management oversight negatively effects staff job satisfaction and delivery of high quality safe patient care. In reviewing the organizations initial orientation program for transitioning middle managers into their new role, it was missing the supportive guidance of a coach. A Caring …

A Cloud-Based Workflow To Quantify Transcript-Expression Levels In Public Cancer Compendia, P J. Tatlow, Stephen R. Piccolo

Faculty Publications

Public compendia of sequencing data are now measured in petabytes. Accordingly, it is infeasible for researchers to transfer these data to local computers. Recently, the National Cancer Institute began exploring opportunities to work with molecular data in cloud-computing environments. With this approach, it becomes possible for scientists to take their tools to the data and thereby avoid large data transfers. It also becomes feasible to scale computing resources to the needs of a given analysis. We quantified transcript-expression levels for 12,307 RNA-Sequencing samples from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia and The Cancer Genome Atlas. We used two cloud-based configurations and …

Nonpharmacological Approaches In Dementia Care, Gay Lynn Warren

Master's Projects and Capstones

The 6A acute care unit has been seeing a higher number of patients that are afflicted with dementia. Often times, these patients display challenging dementia-related behaviors. It is commonplace for these patients to be medicated with a psychotropic medication in order to halt the challenging behavior. The global aim of this project is to improve dementia care on the 6A acute care unit. The specific aim, educating staff members about the benefits of nonpharmacological approaches in the management of challenging dementia-related behaviors and to encourage their use, is relative as the education is necessary before improvement can be expected to …

Education Through Simulation, Melody A. Padilla-Collings

Master's Projects and Capstones

SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/Mac/Desktop/653Abstract.docx

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if education through simulation was effective in an undergraduate ADN nursing program to improve nursing confidence, knowledge, skill competency, and nursing care. Two groups of second year RN students were selected in their fall semester to participate in a before and after survey to compare traditional learning (required course readings, assignments, and lectures) with the PROMPT Birthing Simulator that allows hands on, interactive learning, and feedback in preparation for the Mother-Baby clinical setting. The first PDSA cycle with Group A revealed 21% were confident in their knowledge with the traditional …

Geographical Incidence Of Antimicrobial Resistant Gonorrhea, Christofer A. Rodriguez

Master's Projects and Capstones

Evolving throughout the last century, Gonorrhea has become a superbug, becoming difficult to treat. As the second most commonly reported notifiable disease, gonorrhea rates have been increasing, despite efforts in prevention and treatment. Populations at risk are mainly MSM and FSW. In 2015, men’s gonorrhea rates in the United States were higher compared to women, at 140.9 and 107.2 per 100,000 population, respectively. Illinois has consecutively had higher rates of infection compared to the US, at 133.5 per 100,000 population compared to the US rate of 123.9 per 100,000 population. The surveillance of gonococcal isolate resistance to current antimicrobials began …

An Interactive Environmental Approach To Teaching English As A Second Language, Jennifer L. Young

Master's Projects and Capstones

This field project offers lessons related to ecoliteracy and environmental understanding for intermediate to advanced English Language Learners. It contains an ESL Ecoliteracy Student Handbook and an ESL Ecoliteracy Teacher Guide. There are two comprehensive units focused on understanding and acknowledging ecosystems in urban areas and foraging. The lessons formed in these units stem from Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and the pedagogical theories of place based and experiential learning. Each unit has an outdoor activity build into the language learning framework, and the lessons are focused on building communicative, reading, vocabulary and grammar skills within an authentic learning …

The Psychological Impacts Of Engaging In Creative Work, Jeanine Kunshek

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Although the literature investigating creativity is extensive, this research is designed to address deficits in knowledge regarding the first-hand accounts of individuals who engage in creative work and the motivations and gratifications they draw from those experiences. This study employs the use of in vivo analysis to articulate and explore the benefits and disadvantages of individuals who pursue careers in five creative industries identified by Taylor and Littleton (2012). Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups and interviews, most frequent benefits include social connections, cognitive challenges, boosted esteem, communication, and personal and professional development. Disadvantages include time demands, lack …

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 …

Chimerscope: A Novel Alignment-Free Algorithm For Fusion Gene Prediction Using Paired-End Short Reads, You Li

Theses & Dissertations

Fusion genes are those that result from the fusion of two or more genes, and they are typically generated due to the perturbations in the genome structure in cancer cells. In turn, fusion genes can contribute to tumor formation and progression by promoting the expression of an oncogene, deregulation of a tumor-suppressor, or producing much more active abnormal proteins. More importantly, oncogenic fusion genes are specifically expressed in the tumor cells, which provide enormous diagnostic and therapeutic advantages for cancer treatment. With the development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, RNA-Seq becomes increasingly popular for transcriptomic study because of its high …

Dna Polymerase Zeta-Dependent Mutagenesis: Molecular Specificity, Extent Of Error-Prone Synthesis, And The Role Of Dntp Pools, Olga V. Kochenova

Theses & Dissertations

Despite multiple DNA repair pathways, DNA lesions can escape repair and compromise normal chromosomal replication, leading to genome instability. Cells utilize specialized low-fidelity Translesion Synthesis (TLS) DNA polymerases to bypass lesions and rescue arrested replication forks. TLS is a highly conserved two-step process that involves insertion of a nucleotide opposite a lesion and extension of the resulting aberrant primer terminus. The first step can be performed by both replicative and TLS DNA polymerases and, because of non-instructive DNA lesions, often results in a nucleotide misincorporation. The second step is almost exclusively catalyzed by DNA polymerase ζ …

Regulation Of Alteration/Deficiency In Activation 3 (Ada3) By Acetylation And Its Role In Cell Cycle Regulation And Oncogenesis, Shashank Srivastava

Theses & Dissertations

The ADA3 (Alteration/Deficiency in Activation 3) protein is a transcriptional adaptor protein that was initially discovered as a component of several HAT (Histone Acetyltransferase) complexes, the enzyme complex responsible for histone acetylation, which is a prerequisite for transcription. Earlier the studies from Dr. Band’s laboratory and that of others’ have deciphered a crucial role of ADA3 in cell cycle regulation (both through G₁/S and G₂/M phase transitions) and in maintaining the genomic stability.

While our laboratory investigated the mechanism behind the role of ADA3 in G₁/S transition, the same remained unknown for G_{2 …}

Design, Synthesis, And Evaluation Of Aryl Hydantoins And Ureas As Antischistosomal Agents, Chunkai Wang

Theses & Dissertations

Schistosomiasis is a tropical parasitic disease caused by infections with flukes of the genus Schistosoma, affecting as many as 440 million individuals worldwide, with 779 million living at risk of infection. A new drug for schistosomiasis is urgently needed as praziquantel (PZQ) is currently the drug of last resort and the development of resistance cannot be ignored, particularly in view of its large-scale use in many endemic countries. Furthermore, PZQ is active against adult but not juvenile schistosomes; this may be an important factor in the frequently observed treatment ‘failures’ in areas endemic for schistosomiasis.

The introduction of PZQ in …

Pancreatic Cancer Invasion Of The Lymphatic Vasculature And Contributions Of The Tumor Microenvironment: Roles For E-Selectin And Cxcr4, Maria M. Steele

Theses & Dissertations

As the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths, pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of cancers in the United States. Lymphatic vessel invasion and subsequent metastasis to the lymph nodes are early and significant events observed during pancreatic cancer progression and are used to determine patient prognosis and therapy selection. Although clinicians and researchers recognize the importance of lymph node involvement for patient prognosis and therapy selection, the biological mechanisms that govern lymphatic invasion and metastasis and the contributions of the pancreatic tumor microenvironment to these processes remain poorly understood. In this dissertation, we characterize the interactions …

Motor Control In Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis, David Arpin

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explored motor control in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) by quantifying the behavioral and neurophysiological deficits present in these individuals. We behaviorally quantified the precision of the ankle plantarflexor musculature of individuals with MS. Our results indicated that the individuals with MS had a greater amount of variability in the precision of the isometric ankle torques, and that this greater variability was related to decreased walking performance. To further explore whether these motor control deficits were due to aberrant cortical activity associated with planning motor actions, we used magnetoencephalography to assess the motor planning and execution stages of …

The Effects Of A Preceptor Coaching Intervention On Use Of Clinical Judgment By New Graduate Nurses, Sue A. Schuelke

Theses & Dissertations

This work attempts to evaluate a preceptor intervention on the development of critical thinking/clinical judgment from the new graduate’s point of view as well as from the preceptor’s point of view. Manuscript 1 is a systematic review of the literature related to preceptor’s interventions and its effect on clinical judgment. Manuscript 2 describes the results of focus group interviews of preceptors and the viewpoint on clinical judgment and related concepts. Results of a pilot study: The effects of a preceptors coaching on new graduates clinical judgement, is reported in Manuscript 3. Each section includes an overview of each manuscript, a …

Numerical Computation Of Transient Response Of 2d Wedge Impact, Naresh Kumar Koyyapu

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The diverse applications of advanced marine craft ascribed to their high speed and technological advancements has led to the use of stronger and lighter metals in such crafts. High speed, in effect also increases slamming loads as higher speed increases frequency of wave encounter while operating in waves. The present study is limited to wedge impact models. Fundamentally, the study is thus about two-dimensional (2D) wedge impact in water. In an attempt to predict the structural response to impact hydrodynamic force, a beam element based finite element (FE) computer program is written and the results of the code are presented …

Kerja Sama Pembangunan Korea Selatan Di Vietnam Dalam Pengembangan Area Pedesaan Melalui Model Saemaul Undong, Indah Lestari

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

In this last decade, a closed cooperation of rural development “Saemaul Undong” between South Korea and Vietnam has been formed. Saemaul Undong is a success model of South Korea’s rural development. Along with it, question related to the possibility of adopting Saemaul Undong by developing countries arises. With this regard, this research attempts to explain the reasons why this cooperation has been formed. By using concept of cooperation, this research tries to observe the existence of goals and benefits in “Saemaul Undong” cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam. Result of this research affirmed that goals and benefits spurred “Saemaul Undong” …

The Diary And Notes Of Marcus Christian As A Site Of Rhetorical Education, Entries 1924-1945, Nordette N. Adams

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis asserts that Marcus Bruce Christian (1900-1976), a New Orleans, Louisiana, black poet, writer, and historian, used his diary and notes as a site of rhetorical education and as a space in which he constructed and reinforced a Duboisian ethos, a particular type of black identity and character shaped by the political rhetoric of W. E. B. Du Bois. Maintaining this ethos, Christian, an autodidact throughout most of his life, negotiated a society strangled by white supremacist ideology and resisted being interpellated into the negative black identity constructed by a hostile and stifling Jim Crow South.

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.

Verge, Jessica A. Collins

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This poetry thesis explores the relationship of the Buddhist concept of nonduality to polar mood disorders by employing motifs of bomb testing, war crimes, spiders, and seascapes. A critical preface credits Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, and Mary Ruefle as influences. The manuscript favors free-verse poetry and field composition, though also includes a lyric essay and two formal poems.

The Relationship Between Perceived Multicultural Disability Competence, Multicultural Counseling Coursework, And Disability-Related Life Experience, Melissa D. Deroche

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to explore the perceived multicultural disability competence of master’s-level counseling students in CACREP-accredited programs given their disability-related life experience(s) and multicultural counseling course completion and to assess the extent to which the topic of ability/disability is addressed in multicultural counseling coursework. Participants (n = 285) were electronically surveyed using the Counseling Clientswith Disabilities Survey (CCDS; Strike, 2001) and a researcher developed biographical questionnaire. Collectively, study results indicated that both disability-related life experience(s) and multicultural counseling course completion positively impacted participant perceived multicultural disability competence. However, disability-related life experience(s) seemed to have a greater …

If It Feels Good, View It: Selective Exposure And Desensitization Moderate The Association Between Video Gameplay And Pleasure-Oriented Aggression, Mejdy M. Jabr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A number of studies have indicated that violent video gameplay is associated with higher levels of aggression, and desensitization to violent content contributes to this association. Utilizing a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, the current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate selective attention (N1 activation), cognitive control (N2 activation), and desensitization (P3 activation) as neurocognitive mechanisms potentially underlying the association between gameplay and subtypes of aggression. Results showed video game players and non-players differed significantly in brain activation when engaged with violent imagery. N1 and P3 amplitude moderated the association between gameplay and pleasure-oriented aggression. Follow-up analyses further …

Jill Jackson: Pioneering In The Press Box, Katherine C. Perkins

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Jill Jackson was one of the first female sports journalists and a pioneer voice for women in athletics. Although heretofore overlooked in the history of American sports journalism, the story of her career is an addition not only to the historiography of female sports journalists but also to the broader study of women in the mid-twentieth century. Jackson was admired, a hard worker, from a prominent New Orleans family, and well educated, yet she still was treated unequally in her primary workspace—the press box. Jackson left well-documented story to the Nadine Vorhoff Library and Special Collections at Newcomb College Institute …

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 …

Supervision Experiences Of School Counselors-In-Training: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Anita M. Pool

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Students pursuing a master’s degree in CACREP-accredited school counseling programs are required to complete supervised field experiences as a part of their course requirements. During their practicum and internships experiences, they receive university supervision by a faculty member or doctoral student supervisor, as well as site supervision at the placement site, typically from a school counselor. University supervisors may lack experience in school counseling and knowledge of the unique roles and supervision needs of school counselors. In addition, site supervisors may lack training or knowledge of clinical supervision. Furthermore, the multiple systems in which SCITs function may have differing goals …

Molecular Dynamics Simulations Of Stimuli-Responsive Polymers, Arjun Sharma

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Polymers that undergo dramatic changes in structural conformations in response to numerous stimuli such as temperature, pH, electric and magnetic fields, light inten- sity, biological molecules, and solvent polarity, are known as stimuli-responsive or ”smart” polymers. There is a broad range of very promising applications of these materials in catalysis, environmental remediation, sensors or actuator systems, and as delivery systems of therapeutic agents. Researchers have been trying to mimic smart polymers based on properties of polymers found in nature such as proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids. Novel bio-compatible polymers with a variety of chemical functional groups, diverse topologies, and cross-linking …