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Exploring Nurses' Perceptions Of Dignity During End-Of-Life Care, Barbara Crump

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to understand nurses' perceptions of care that supports patients' dignity during hospitalization at the end of life, and to propose a theoretical foundation consistent with these perceptions as a guide to practice. The research involved analyzing perceptions about processes that can explain how nurses perceive care that supports patients' dignity at the end of life during hospitalization. The aim of the research in this study included a focus on the general problem that patients' dignity is not always respected by healthcare providers according to the review of the literature and the …

Development And Evaluation Of A Connective Tissue Phantom Model For Subsurface Visualization Of Cancers Requiring Wide Local Excision, Kimberly S. Samkoe, Brent D. Bates, Niki N. Tselepidakis, Alisha V. Dsouza, Jason R. Gunn, Dipak B. Ramkumar, Keith D. Paulsen, Brian W. Pogue, Eric R. Henderson

Dartmouth Scholarship

Wide local excision (WLE) of tumors with negative margins remains a challenge because surgeons cannot directly visualize the mass. Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) may improve surgical accuracy; however, conventional methods with direct surface tumor visualization are not immediately applicable, and properties of tissues surrounding the cancer must be considered. We developed a phantom model for sarcoma resection with the near-infrared fluorophore IRDye 800CW and used it to iteratively define the properties of connective tissues that typically surround sarcoma tumors. We then tested the ability of a blinded surgeon to resect fluorescent tumor-simulating inclusions with ∼1-cm margins using predetermined target fluorescence intensities …

Prevalence And Possible Factors Associated With Anaemia, And Vitamin B 12 And Folate Deficiencies In Women Of Reproductive Age In Pakistan: Analysis Of National-Level Secondary Survey Data, Sajid Bashir Soofi, Gul Nawaz Khan, Kamran Sadiq, Shabina Ariff, Atif Habib, Sumra Kureishy, Imtiaz Hussain, Muhammad Umer, Zamir Suhag, Arjumand Rizvi, Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Objective: To determine the prevalence and possible factors associated with anaemia, and vitamin B12 and folate deficiencies in women of reproductive age (WRA) in Pakistan.
Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on data collected through the large-scale National Nutrition Survey in Pakistan in 2011. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin levels <12 g/dL, vitamin B12 deficiency as serum vitamin B12 levels of <203 pg/mL (150 pmol/L) and folate deficiency as serum folate levels <4 ng/mL (10 nmol/L).
Results: A total of 11751 blood samples were collected and analysed. The prevalence of anaemia, vitamin B12 deficiency and folate deficiency was 50.4%, 52.4% and 50.8%, respectively. After adjustment, the following factors were positively associated with anaemia: living in Sindh province (RR 1.07; 95%CI 1.04 to 1.09)P<0.00, food insecure with moderate hunger (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.00 to 1.06)P=0.02, four or more pregnancies (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.01 to 1.05)P<0.00, being underweight (RR 1.03; 95%CI 1.00 to 1.05)P=0.02, being overweight or obese (RR 0.95; 95%CI 0.93 to 0.97)P<0.00 and weekly intake of leafy green vegetables (RR 0.98; 95%CI 0.95 to 1.00)P=0.04. For vitamin B12 deficiency, a positive association was observed with rural population (RR 0.81; 95%CI 0.66 to 1.00)P=0.04, living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (RR 1.25; 95%CI 1.11 to 1.43)P<0.00 and living in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (RR 1.50; 95%CI 1.08 to 2.08)P=0.01. Folate deficiency was negatively associated with daily and weekly intake of eggs (RR 0.89; 95%CI 0.81 to 0.98)P=0.02 and (RR 0.88; 95%CI 0.78 to 0.99)P=0.03.
Conclusions: In Pakistan, …

Facilitating Social Support Systems For Adults In Assisted Living Communities, Kathryn Marie Detwiler

Theses - ALL

This thesis project seeks to unpack how older adults living in assisted living facilities

maintain and deepen their social connections. According to established research, social support systems and active lifestyles are major factors in improving quality of life. By sitting down with residents in the assisted living division of Menorah Park in

Syracuse, and conducting a series of research activities, a better understanding of how older adults live in assisted living facilities.

One potential design solution currently being explored to keep older adults socially engaged could be the design of a social hub terminal that encourages residents to congregate daily …

Cdc Grand Rounds: National Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als) Registry Impact, Challenges, And Future Directions, Paul Mehta, D. Kevin Horton, Edward J. Kasarskis, Ed Tessaro, M. Shira Eisenberg, Susan Laird, John Iskander

Neurology Faculty Publications

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive fatal neurologic disease. Currently, there is no cure for ALS and the available treatments only extend life by an average of a few months. The majority of ALS patients die within 2–5 years of diagnosis, though survival time varies depending on disease progression (1,2). For approximately 10% of patients, ALS is familial, meaning it and has a genetic component; the remaining 90% have sporadic ALS, where etiology is unknown, but might be linked to environmental factors such as chemical exposures (e.g., heavy …

Developing A “Sense Of Community”: Exploring A Cognitive Component Of Civic Engagement, Tabitha Underwood

eJournal of Public Affairs

Civic engagement has become an important component of higher education practice that assists colleges and universities in fulfilling their civic mission and public purpose. This reflective essay outlines an oftentimes forgotten aspect of that work—how we integrate students into the life of a community and help them develop a sense of interdependence with it. The concept of “sense of community” allows this opportunity and should be incorporated in higher education professions as both a guiding principle and an outcome of engaged scholarship. The author outlines the idea of incorporating the sense of community concept into higher education civic engagement, including …

Civic Intentions And Actions: Exploring Civic Engagement Among College Students In Mainland China, Jonathan F. Zaff, Jingtong Pan, Wei Zhang, Shuangju Zhen

eJournal of Public Affairs

For the study discussed in this article, the authors developed a survey instrument to assess civic engagement among college students in China. Derived from focus-group interviews and extant literature on civic engagement, the survey was administered to 587 students from three universities in Southern China. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a randomly split-half sample, and a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the other split-half sample to evaluate measurement structure and measurement invariance of the survey. A total of 22 items were included in the final measurement model. The authors identified five first-order factors from the survey (i.e., …

Rethinking Service-Learning: Bridging The Gapbetween Academic And Student Affairs, Tamara J. Lynn

eJournal of Public Affairs

Although the service-learning literature has clearly demonstrated the importance of reflection in connecting service to learning, this is often a difficult task for faculty. As colleges and universities continue to promote civic engagement through a wide array of service activities, in the classroom, and increasingly through co-curricular projects, greater emphasis needs to be placed on reflecting well. This study evaluated changes in perceptions of poverty by undergraduate students engaged in a co-curricular service project. Poverty was selected as one indicator for understanding concepts of justice. Pre- and post-project surveys were conducted by the student participants, who were members of an …

Detection, Diagnosis And Mitigation Of Malicious Javascript With Enriched Javascript Executions, Xunchao Hu

Dissertations - ALL

Malicious JavaScript has become an important attack vector for software exploitation attacks and imposes a severe threat to computer security. In particular, three major class of problems, malware detection, exploit diagnosis, and exploits mitigation, bring considerable challenges to security researchers. Although a lot of research efforts have been made to address these threats, they have fundamental limitations and thus cannot solve the problems.

Existing analysis techniques fall into two general categories: static analysis and dynamic analysis. Static analysis tends to produce inaccurate results (both false positive and false negative) and is vulnerable to a wide series of obfuscation techniques. Thus, …

Ensemble Methods For Anomaly Detection, Zhiruo Zhao

Dissertations - ALL

Anomaly detection has many applications in numerous areas such as intrusion detection, fraud detection, and medical diagnosis. Most current techniques are specialized for detecting one type of anomaly, and work well on specific domains and when the data satisfies specific assumptions.

We address this problem, proposing ensemble anomaly detection techniques that perform well in many applications, with four major contributions: using bootstrapping to better detect anomalies on multiple subsamples, sequential application of diverse detection

algorithms, a novel adaptive sampling and learning algorithm in which the anomalies are iteratively examined, and improving the random forest algorithms for detecting anomalies in streaming …

Adsorption Of Iodine And Water On Silver-Exchanged Mordenite, Yue Nan

Dissertations - ALL

The reprocessing of used nuclear fuel to recover the fissile materials generates off gases including radioactive nuclides namely 3H (tritiated water, H3HO), 129I, 85Kr, 135Xe, and 14C. Due to its high quantity in off-gas streams and long half-life (1.59 million years), 129I removal from the off-gas streams is a significant objective of off-gas treatment.

129I retention by solid adsorbents was recognized a better strategy in comparison to liquid scrubbers due to the simplicity of system design and low cost. Among the studied adsorbents, reduced silver-exchanged mordenite (Ag0Z) was widely recognized as the state-of-art adsorbent for iodine removal. It has been …

Design Of Tribologically Enhanced Polymeric Materials For Biomedical Applications, Allen Osaheni

Dissertations - ALL

Anytime two surfaces are in normal contact, accompanied by tangential motion, there is potential for deterioration of one or both surfaces. Gradual wear, or the removal of surface material, is typically an undesirable event. Therefore, the need for lubrication arises to minimize the amount of shear stress that develops between opposing surfaces. This reduction in shear stress is characterized by the coefficient of friction (COF). Friction is one of the primary subjects of interest in tribology, the science of the friction and wear of articulating surfaces.

A number of fascinating tribological systems can be found in nature. One example which …

Readers’ Perceptions Of Newsworthiness And Bias As Factors In Participation With Digital News Content, Gregory James Munno

Dissertations - ALL

Audience participation with digital news content has become a central feature of news consumption. These participatory news behaviors – commenting on, sharing, and “liking” news stories – have implications for both newsreaders and producers of news. This dissertation tests a structural model of commenting behavior using survey data (N = 335). The model builds on suggestions of a connection between hostile-media effects and commenting. This study adds newsworthiness to the structural equation, hypothesizing that newsworthiness increases readers’ perceptions that an article will influence other readers. These relationships should increase hostile-media effects, and, therefore, a reader’s likelihood of commenting. The model …

The Effects Of Gross-Motor Fluency Training On Physical Activity Levels In Young Children, Allison Jayne Womack

Dissertations - ALL

Engaging in regular physical activity is one of the most important factors related to good health. Encouraging and promoting physical activity in young children aids in preventing overweight and obesity, promoting health, preventing disease, and supporting bone and overall growth development. However, physical activity levels in young children are low, and efficient and effective interventions to increase physical activity in young children are unclear. One creative method to increase physical activity in young children is gross-motor fluency training. A multielement single-case experimental design was employed to assess the effects of fluency training in six gross-motor skills on children’s levels of …

Fort Hays State University Tiger Weekly, December 22, 2017, University Relations

Tiger Weekly Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Clinical Nurse Specialist Mentored Staff Nurse As Champion Of Performance Improvement, Jennifer L. Kitchens, Eldonna Rees, Janet S. Fulton

General Submissions: Presentations (Oral and Poster)

Purpose: The clinical nurse specialist (CNS) mentored a unit based staff nurse as Champion of Performance Improvement through nursing's shared governance council.

Significance: Within shared governance, nurses are empowered to make decisions about practice, quality, and development. A staff nurse, acting as a unit based champion, can role-model effective decision making affecting clinical practice and patient outcomes. Performance improvement is one area that benefits from staff nurse participation. CNSs can be instrumental in developing staff nurse knowledge of and skills in performance improvement.

Background: The CNS identified within the shared governance structure at a large, public hospital that identification and …

Structural Evidence Of A Major Conformational Change Triggered By Substrate Binding In Dape Enzymes: Impact On The Catalytic Mechanism, Boguslaw Nocek, Cory Reid, Anna Starus, Tahirah Heath, David Bienvenues, Jerzy Osipiuk, Robert Jedrzeczak, Andrzej Joachimiak, Daniel P. Becker Ph.D., Richard C. Holz

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The X-ray crystal structure of the dapE-encoded N-succinyl-l,l-diaminopimelic acid desuccinylase from Haemophilus influenzae (HiDapE) bound by the products of hydrolysis, succinic acid and l,l-DAP, was determined at 1.95 Å. Surprisingly, the structure bound to the products revealed that HiDapE undergoes a significant conformational change in which the catalytic domain rotates ∼50° and shifts ∼10.1 Å (as measured at the position of the Zn atoms) relative to the dimerization domain. This heretofore unobserved closed conformation revealed significant movements within the catalytic domain compared to that of wild-type HiDapE, which results in effectively closing off access to …

Treatment And Prevention Of Opioid Use Disorder: Challenges And Opportunities, Dennis Mccarty, Kelsey C. Priest, P. Todd Korthuis

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Treatment for opioid use disorder in the United States evolved in response to changing federal policy and advances in science. Inpatient care began in 1935 with the US Public Health Service Hospitals in Lexington, Kentucky, and Fort Worth, Texas. Outpatient clinics emerged in the 1960s to provide aftercare. Research advances led to opioid agonist and opioid antagonist therapies. When patients complete opioid withdrawal, return to use is often rapid and frequently deadly. US and international authorities recommend opioid agonist therapy (i.e., methadone or buprenorphine). Opioid antagonist therapy (i.e., extended-release naltrexone) may also inhibit return to use. Prevention efforts emphasize public …

Mammy Representations In The 21st Century, Ayondela Mcdole

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines the signification of the mammy stereotype in the 21st century. The performances of Martin Lawrence, Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy’s as mammies in drag are the selected texts for the project. By presenting the many mammy representations over the past 150 years, I outline the ways in which the mammy stereotype dehumanizes black women and hinders the Pan African agenda. Through the commodification of the mammy stereotype it has been de-historicized and thus separated from its beginnings as a part of the white supremacist imagination. Discourse analysis is used to analyze its meaning and signification while black …

Utilization Of Evidence-Based Health Teaching By Providers To Improve Parents Perception Of Immunizations And Vaccine Schedules, Jo A. Silvaroli

DNP and Student Works

Parental refusal or delay in administering vaccines for their children has become a public health concern, contributing to an increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. Informed decision-making is necessary for parents deciding to immunize, helping parents understand the evidence-based information will aid in reducing concerns. The method was providing a parental education about immunizations and vaccine schedules, with the use of a health teaching corroborate, about me, science, explain/advise a (CASE) method to help families in making an informed decision to immunize.

The Core Of Professional Growth In Work-Related Teacher Education, Leena Aarto-Pesonen, Päivi Tynjälä

The Qualitative Report

This paper presents a Glaserian grounded theory study of adult students’ holistic professional growth in a two-year tailored, work-related, teacher qualification program in physical education. The data consisted of reflective learning diaries, interviews and the written texts of 20 adult students. The data analysis followed the stages of Glaserian grounded theory analysis with substantive and theoretical coding processes carried out using the constant comparative method. The article presents the emotional core and its properties (criticality, ethicality and empowerment) of physical education teacher students’ professional growth. In addition, the article introduces a substantive theory of a process of adult students’ multifaceted …

Including Pork In The Mediterranean Diet For An Australian Population: Protocol For Arandomised Controlled Trial Assessing Cardiovascular Risk And Cognitive Function, Alexandra T. Wade, Courtney R. Davis, Kathryn A. Dyer, Jonathan M. Hodgson, Richard Woodman, Hannah A. Keage, Karen J. Murphy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

The Mediterranean diet is characterised by the high consumption of extra virgin olive oil, fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and nuts; moderate consumption of fish, poultry, eggs and dairy; and low consumption of red meat and sweets. Cross sectional, longitudinal and intervention studies indicate that a Mediterranean diet may be effective for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and dementia. However, previous research suggests that an Australian population may find red meat restrictions difficult, which could affect long term sustainability of the diet.

Methods

This paper outlines the protocol for a randomised controlled trial that will assess the cardiovascular and cognitive …

Vitamin B12 Bioconjugates In Pharmaceutical Design, Jayme Leigh Workinger

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

This thesis addresses several questions focused on the vitamin B12 (B12) dietary uptake pathway, in particular that of the enteric B12 transport protein intrinsic factor (IF) and its receptor cubilin, and the expression and exploitation of IF/cubilin in pharmaceutical development.

Q1: (Chapter 2) Does an 89Zr-B12 conjugate allow for improved background/noise ratio, relative to 99mTc and 64Cu B12 conjugates, in in vivo tumor uptake?

Goal: Conduct positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and biodistribution studies in mice bearing MDA-MB-453 breast cancer tumors using a new 89Zr-B12 conjugate.

Q2: (Chapter 3) What is the uptake of systemically administered holo-intrinisic factor bound …

Semi-Open Space And Micro-Environmental Control For Improving Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality, And Building Energy Efficiency, Meng Kong

Dissertations - ALL

Local air delivery, heating, and cooling combined with local space partition and confinement (called semi-open space or SOS) have the potential to provide micro-environment that is tailored to the individual preference of the occupants, and hence increase the percentage of satisfied occupancy from currently 80% to near 100%. This research investigates the use of a micro-environmental control system (µX) and semi-open space (SOS) to efficiently provide the desired thermal comfort and air quality conditions for individual occupants while the ambient air temperature set-points were relaxed for reducing the overall energy consumption of the building. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model …

“In Our Own Words”: The Phenomenological Exploration Into The African American Experience Of Relational Therapy With White Therapists, Melody Michele Brown

Dissertations - ALL

The consideration of one’s cultural context is a critical component of systemic therapy. Marriage and family therapy literature underscores this importance with a wealth of information on working with various diverse family systems. The literature has not adequately reflected the voices of the African American client. The purpose of this study was to understand the African American experience in relational therapy with White clinicians. Phenomenological methodology was employed via semi-structured interviews with eleven participants across the United States. The findings revealed three themes (lived experiences of African Americans, lack of culturally responsive clinical practice, and what works in therapy). The …

Limits Of Liberation: Youth And Politics In Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement, Melinda Gurr

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis examines the forces that strengthen and weaken young people’s involvement in Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement, the MST, during the twilight of the PT years, 2012-2014. The MST responds to displacement, environmental devastation, and capital- intensive development by fighting for land reform and socialist transformation. Although the MST’s politics of redistribution have attracted significant attention from activists and academics worldwide, little ethnographic attention had yet been paid to the experiences and subjectivities of rural youth affiliated with the movement. By attending to structural conditions, dynamics of family, sexuality, and gender, and political socialization in three regions of Brazil, …

Are Fireworms Venomous? Evidence For The Convergent Evolution Of Toxin Homologs In Three Species Of Fireworms (Annelida, Amphinomidae), Aida Verdes, Danny Simpson, Mandë Holford

Publications and Research

Amphinomids, more commonly known as fireworms, are a basal lineage of marine annelids characterized by the presence of defensive dorsal calcareous chaetae, which break off upon contact. It has long been hypothesized that amphinomids are venomous and use the chaetae to inject a toxic substance. However, studies investigating fireworm venom from a morphological or molecular perspective are scarce and no venom gland has been identified to date, nor any toxin characterized at the molecular level. To investigate this question, we analyzed the transcriptomes of three species of fireworms— Eurythoe complanata, Hermodice carunculata, andParamphinome jeffreysii—following a venomics approach to identify putative …

The Application And Usefulness Of Economic Analyses For Water Quality Management In Coastal Areas, Sheri L. Jewhurst, Kate K. Mulvaney, Marisa J. Mazzotta

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Economic studies are increasingly sought as tools to contribute to water quality management in estuaries and coastal communities, yet little is known about how the results from existing studies have been received and utilized by the organizations who solicited them. We interviewed managers from eight organizations who solicited economic studies over the past 15 years to understand how useful the studies were to their organizations and what economic research would be most helpful for their management needs. In terms of utility for coastal managers, there are a number of limitations in the studies. These include lack of site-specific data, the …

Welcome To The Inaugural Issue Of Collaborations: A Journal Of Community-Based Research And Practice, Scotney D. Evans

Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice

This is an introduction to the inaugural issue of Collaborations: A Journal of Community-based Research and Practice. Collaborations is a free, open access, online journal, sponsored by the University of Miami and Rutgers University. We’ve created this journal to be a home for sharing research, practice, and learning emanating from community-university collaborations.

Tomicus Piniperda (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Reproduction And Behavior On Scotch Pine Christmas Trees Taken Indoors, Robert A. Haack, Robert K. Lawrence

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Tomicus piniperda, the pine shoot beetle, is an exotic insect that was first found in North America in 1992. A federal quarantine currently restricts movement of pine products, including Christmas trees, from infested to uninfested counties. We conducted a study to determine if T. piniperda would re- produce in Christmas trees that were cut and taken indoors during the Christmas season. Twelve Scotch pine, Pinus sylvestris, Christmas trees infested with overwintering T. piniperda beetles were cut in Indiana in early December 1993 and taken to Michigan. Four trees were dissected immediately, while the other 8 trees were taken …