Digital Commons Network^™

Discovery And Characterization Of Antimalarials With Novel Mechanisms Of Action, Bracken Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Malaria kills over 500,000 people each year and over a third of the global population is at risk of infection. Though the human race has been fighting the malaria war for over 4,000 years and we have made great strides in eliminating malaria from many countries, we are treading on the edge of what could be another malaria epidemic primarily due to widespread drug resistance. There are documented cases of resistance for every known antimalarial in use today, including Artemisinins. It is critical that we open a new window of discovery in development of next generation antimalarials that circumvent current …

A Phenomenological Study On The Implementation Of Louise Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory And Its Impact On Teacher-Efficacy For Literacy Instruction In An Online Environment, Marcus Vu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study sought to examine the teacher-efficacy for literacy instruction (TELI) of instructors who teach in an online environment. The phenomenological methodology sought to answer the following research questions: (1) What pedagogical practices do instructors use to provide literacy instruction in an online environment? (2) How do instructors perceive their TELI in an online environment? and (3) What impact, if any, will a Professional Learning Community (PLC) focused on Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory have on TELI in an online environment? The study consisted of a group of seven online instructors. The researcher the acting as facilitator administered the initial interviews …

The Contribution Of Educators' Levels Of Inspiration And Compassion For Others To Their Degree Of Burnout, Samuel Bierbrauer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the directional relationship between educators' levels of inspiration and compassion for others to their degree of burnout. Specifically, the investigation tested the hypothesized directional relationship that educators' who report higher levels of inspiration (as measured by the Educator Inspire Scale, EIS; Lambie, Barden, & Bierbrauer, 2016) and compassion for others (as measured by the Compassion for Others Scale; COS; Pommier, 2010) would score at lower levels of burnout (as measured by the three components of burnout [emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment] on the Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educator Survey; MBI-ES; Maslach, et al., 1996). In addition, the …

An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study Of Student Awareness In Expressing Emotions And Identifying The Emotions Of Others: Through The Mirror Looking Glass, Christine K. Duff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to determine how the self-awareness process of expressing emotions and identifying emotions of others was impacted during a mirror-based intervention for first grade students from inclusive classrooms. The study investigated the extent that a two-way mirror display helped eight students increase their level of awareness when expressing emotions and identifying the emotions of others. Traditional assessment measures for assessing empathy and accuracy in perception of emotions of others have relied on binary, forced choice responses that have not addressed a student's level of awareness, or increased awareness in identifying the emotions of others. Further, …

Analysis Of The Effects Of Formative Assessment In Promoting Transfer Of Learning In An Undergraduate General Microbiology Laboratory Course, Andrea Rediske

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The undergraduate microbiology lab serves an important role in establishing a foundation of best practices in aseptic technique and infection control for pre-medical, pre-nursing, pre-pharmacy, or pre-allied health students. The high incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) in the US and evidence in the literature of less effective implementation of proper aseptic technique among apprentice doctors and nursing students suggests that more effective transfer of learning could improve implementation of these procedures in the clinical setting. The research described in this study aimed to assess learning transfer as it applied to aseptic techniques and infection control skills learned in the undergraduate …

Examining The Role Of Cardiovascular And Cognitive Fitness In Goal-Directed Aiming Across The Lifespan, Michael Rupp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Older adults experience more difficulties completing goal directed movements than younger adults. The reasons for this have not been completely elucidated within the research literature; however, it is thought that age related movement differences are due to at least one of three possible reasons. The current study investigated the influence of these three hypotheses: (1) biomechanical changes (limbs, joints, or muscles), (2) sensory feedback processing ability, or (3) differences in overall movement strategy on movement kinematics. Additionally, physical activi-ty is known to improve both physical and cognitive functioning and staying cognitively active may also attenuate age-related declines in cognitive ability; …

Rhetoric Of Imagery: Gendering And Consumption Throughout Interwar American Advertisment, Natalie Delgado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interwar American advertising rose alongside new levels of hygiene, personal appearance, and technology in order to sell their products to target audiences. Despite the abundance of scholarship on media and gender, few studies have examined the gendered techniques through which interwar advertisers communicated with consumers in response to changing social norms and economic stability. The question this thesis explores is how these changes and communication shifted in response to consumer culture and how advertisers utilized early market research and persuasion techniques to target their audiences. Building on the studies of gender, consumption, and identity, this thesis examines the relationship between …

Effects Of Symbol Type On Naming And Identification Of Graphic Symbols By Typically Developing Three, Four, Five And Six-Year Olds Children., Pamela Resnick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Speech-language pathologists and educators face unique challenges in assessing the language skills of children with complex communication needs due to the wide array of impairments with which these individuals present. For example, most receptive language assessment tools require that children either point to or label line drawings to determine whether or not they comprehend the depicted concepts; task demands such as these preclude administering such assessment tools with children who are unable to physically point to or verbally label presented stimuli. In light of these challenges, the use of eye tracking technologies has become particularly appealing since this alternate response …

The Coping Assessment For Bereavement And Loss Experiences (Cable): Development And Validation, Anne Crunk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The loss of a loved one through death is a virtually inescapable part of the human experience and one that can elicit marked psychological and physical distress on the part of the survivor. However, not all individuals who lose a loved one cope with their grief in the same way. Variation in the duration and intensity of grief reactions among mourners is well supported, with 10-15% of the bereaved population experiencing a protracted, debilitating, and sometimes life-threatening grief response known as complicated grief (CG). However, most grievers respond to loss with relative resilience, demonstrating an ability to sustain reasonably stable …

Socialization Of Engineering Doctoral Students In The U.S: A Phenomenological Study, Sona Gholizadeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experiences of doctoral engineering students' socialization with their advisors and colleagues. Using snowballing sampling methods, eleven students with research or teaching assistantship from three engineering programs from a large University in the Southeastern US agreed to participate. Face-to-face interviews were audio-recorded, descriptively transcribed, and analyzed using a variation of Colaizzi's method. Participants experienced difficulty adjusting to the workplace norms of the PhD program, which some did not start with clear expectations. Some participants lacked work experience before starting, but were thankful for support from more experienced doctoral students. Most participants …

Using Molecular Genetic And Demographic Tools To Improve Management Of Ex Situ Avian Populations, Gina Ferrie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Small populations, specifically those that are isolated from others, are more prone to extinction than larger inter-connected populations. The risks that these small isolated populations face include loss of genetic diversity due to founder effects and inbreeding due to population bottlenecks, as well as demographic uncertainty due to fluctuating fecundity and mortality rates and impacts of external environmental factors. Ex situ populations, including those managed as conservation breeding programs with species recovery aims, as well as those that do not have reintroduction goals but are managed for long term population sustainability, suffer from the same extinction risks as small and …

Health Behaviors In Military Veterans With And Without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Emily Kitsmiller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A link between posttraumatic stress disorder and health behaviors, such as exercise, alcohol, smoking, and caffeine has been suggested. However, it is unknown whether veterans with combat-related PTSD differ from combat veterans without PTSD and whether health behaviors change over the course of exposure therapy for PTSD or differ based on PTSD severity. This study examined the relationship between health behaviors and PTSD. More specifically, combat veterans with and without PTSD were compared across self-reported levels of alcohol use, smoking, exercise, and caffeine. Health behaviors of combat veterans with PTSD were compared before and after a 17-week treatment for PTSD. …

Faculty Knowledge And Readiness In Reporting Student Victimization Disclosure And Title Ix Compliance, Abigail Malick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Department of Education and Title IX Educational Act of 1972 shaped the way institutions of higher education address and prevent student victimizations. The law originally sought to eliminate sex-based discrimination in education but has evolved to include sexual misconduct. Since the Dear Colleague Letter of 2011, the position of institutions has changed significantly in the way they address student victimization as it relates to dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (Rosenthal, 2017). One requirement is that institutions inform and train Responsible Employees to report when a student discloses experiencing sexual misconduct, including dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. …

Development Of Molecular Diagnostic Tools For Mycobacterium Species, Hillary Bengtson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the development of diagnostic tools for mycobacteria using hybridization based technologies including binary deoxyribozyme (BiDz) sensors and microarrays. The genus Mycobacterium, is a diverse group of bacteria containing 150+ species including M. tuberculosis (M.tb) and non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) which exhibit a range of pathogenicity, drug susceptibility and growth characteristics. M. tuberculosis (M.tb) is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) and the leading cause of infectious disease related deaths worldwide. The control of TB is limited by the lack of sensitive and specific diagnostic tools available at the point of care (POC). The studies presented here illustrate …

Natural Disasters, Rebecca Cobb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural Disasters is a collection of twelve short stories that feature a variety of narrators as they interact with the ones they love. In these stories, characters experience puberty, friendship, love, loss, trauma, and the everyday magic of living as they fight to master their own failings. Those lucky enough find solace in the forgiving beauty of nature, while others succumb to the untamable power of its disasters. This thesis is useful, important, and unique as it focuses on the stories of a variety of characters, mostly women and children, and displays the beauty and fearsome power of nature as …

Targeted Therapy Development For Neurofibromatosis Type 2, Marisa Fuse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) is a debilitating disease characterized by the formation of bilateral vestibular schwannomas, which compress the vestibulocochlear nerve and cause deafness. Additional peripheral schwannomas, meningiomas and ependymomas may also form. NF2 is caused by mutations in the NF2 gene, resulting in the loss of function of the merlin tumor suppressor. Merlin functions in multiple signaling pathways and its absence in Schwann cells yields increased cell survival and proliferation, thereby causing schwannoma formation. First line treatment for NF2 is watchful waiting and surgical removal of tumors, potentially resulting in facial paralysis and deafness. To date, there are no …

An Examination Of Post Implementation Adoption Of Business Intelligence Technologies And The Role Of Training Programs During This Process, Juliana Gully

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study sought to determine if there was any difference in the perception of training modality delivery between participants who attended a face-to-face (F2F) training session or participated in blended training that supported business intelligence (BI) technology adoption. There is minimal information available identifying how training can influence an individual's intention to fully adopt BI technology into daily work processes. Identification of key factors influencing training modalities' effect on technology adoption promotes strategies that allow trainers to better facilitate and develop content that can help organizations to integrating BI technologies into their workflow. This study analyzed survey responses that …

Power Effects On Consumer Well-Being: Two Essays On The Power Effects On Donation And Material/Experiential Consumption, Yue Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Power is a fundamental concept in social science (Russell 1938), which has gained much academic attention in various disciplines. Two essays of this dissertation examine the theoretical and practical implications of power effects on donation decisions and material/experiential consumption. The first essay demonstrates power's moderating effect on the relationship between publicity and donation. Specifically, it is proposed that powerful people tend to donate more in public (vs. private) situation, whereas powerless people do not show such a difference. This effect is driven by people's concern about self-presentation in a donation scenario. Additionally, this effect only holds when people strongly believe …

Saving The Political Consensus In Favor Of Free Trade, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

2016 is the year that the political consensus in favor of liberalized international trade collapsed. Across the world, voters’ belief that international trade agreements lead to economic inequality threatens to derail ratification of the next generation of trade agreements and undo the substantial gains made under existing arrangements. The United States elected Donald Trump president on a platform of rolling back or renegotiating trade agreements. President Trump has moved to fulfill that promise immediately upon taking office by “unsigning” the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the most recent major effort to liberalize global trading rules, and initiating efforts to renegotiate the North …

Biological Individuality: A Relational Reading, Scott F. Gilbert

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Sustained Positive Behavior Intervention Support In Florida And Related Disciplinary Outcomes, Kristin Sweeney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the outcomes associated with sustained school-wide Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) programs in the State of Florida and the impact the length of time of implementation of these programs had on those outcomes. The link between discipline outcomes, as measured by the number of office discipline referrals (ODRs) written over the course of a school year per 100 students and sustained implementation of PBIS systems with documented fidelity, as well as the connection between discipline outcomes for subgroups of students and sustained PBIS programs were examined for schools in the initial implementation …

The Effect Of Repeated Sprint Training In Hypoxia And Beta-Alanine Supplementation On Exercise Performance, Ran Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the synergistic effects of repeated sprint training in hypoxia (RSH) and beta-alanine supplementation on performance in recreationally active men. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: hypoxia + beta-alanine (HB, n = 10), hypoxia + placebo (HP, n = 9), normoxia + beta-alanine (NB, n = 11) and normoxia + placebo (NP, n = 8). All participants completed a total of 8 training sessions (each consisting of 3 sets of 5 × 10-s sprints at a resistance of 7.5% of body mass, with 20-s rest intervals between sprints) …

Brother, Can You Spare A Dollar? Designing An Effective Framework For Foreign Currency Liquidity Assistance, Dan Awrey

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The core principles of financial crisis management call upon central banks to lend freely, against good quality collateral, and at a penalty rate of interest, to solvent but illiquid banks and other financial institutions during periods of widespread panic and instability. While often taken for granted, these principles were designed for a world in which central banks have the capacity to create money denominated in the same currency as the one in which domestic banks and other financial institutions issue deposits and other short-term liabilities.

Unfortunately, this is not the world in which we live. The application of these principles …

Counseling And Creativity: An Analog Study, Sarah J. Graham

All Master's Theses

Researchers recognize that creativity can play a significant role in counseling, both on the part of the counselor and the client. Additionally, creativity is a potentially important and overlooked area when it comes to counselor education. However, the full nature and impact of creativity in counseling is not fully understood. To examine the relationship between creativity and counseling in further detail, this study exposed participants to an analog counseling video of either a low or high creativity level displayed by the counselor. Participants were then asked to take a survey rating dimensions of the counselor's efficacy (i.e., expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness) …

Are Bank Fiduciaries Special?, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

A growing body of post-crisis legal and economic literature suggests that future financial crises might be averted by tinkering with the internal governance structures of banks and other financial institutions. In particular, contributors to this literature propose tightening the fiduciary duties under which officers and directors of the relevant financial institutions labor. I argue in this symposium article that such proposals are doomed to failure under all circumstances save one - namely, that under which the relevant financial institutions are in whole or in part treated as publicly owned.

The argument proceeds in two parts. I first show that the …

Racial And Gender Justice In The Child Welfare And Child Support Systems, Margaret F. Brinig

Journal Articles

While divorcing couples in the United States have been studied for many years, separating unmarried couples and their children have proven more difficult to analyze. Recently there have been successful longitudinal ethnographic and survey-based studies. This piece uses documents from a single Indiana county’s unified family court (called the Probate Court) to trace the effects of race and gender on unmarried families, beginning with a sample of 386 children for whom paternity petitions were brought in four months of 2008. It confirms prior theoretical work on racial differences in noncustodial parenting and poses new questions about how incarceration and gender …

Text Messaging In The Patient-Centered Medical Home To Improve Glucose Control And Retinopathy Screening., Janice M Miller, Ann G. Phalen, Albert Crawford, Anthony Frisby, Barry S. Ziring

College of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a text messaging program (TMP) to improve glucose control, retinopathy screening (RS) rates, and self-care behaviors in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.

Methods: A single-group design with a quasi-systematic random sample (n=20) received educational/exhortational text messages on their cellular phones for 3 months. Subjects, 12 of whom identified as a minority ethnicity, were mostly male, aged 27-73 years.

Results: Glucose control and RS rates improved significantly. Subjects (>70%) reported changes in self-care behaviors.

Conclusion: Leveraging ubiquitous technology, a TMP for patients with limited access to healthcare education, holds promise

Stop Asking Which Came First, The Jail Or The Criminal - Start Reinvesting In Justice In Maryland, Bridget Lowrie

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The numerous cries for reform of the United States criminal justice system in recent time are not without merit based on an examination of the prison population. Despite violent crime being at record low rates in the United States, the prison population has expanded tremendously. On the global stage, the United States is the leader in incarceration rates. The United States has more people incarcerated than any other country, including China, Russia, and India. Looking at a local level, Maryland is not immune to this trend. In Maryland, while violent crime is on the decline, the amount of time an …

Internal Funding Newsletter, Academic Year 2016-2017, Uno Office Of Research And Creative Activity

Internal Funding Newsletters

Each year, University of Nebraska at Omaha faculty and students conduct globally relevant research and creative activity that reflects the metropolitan mission of the university. The Office of Research and Creative Activity’s internal funding programs support those scholarly endeavors through the Fund for Undergraduate Scholarly Experiences (FUSE), Graduate Research and Creative Activity (GRACA), the University Committee on Research and Creative Activity (UCRCA), and the Award for Distinguished Research and Creative Activity (ADROCA).

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis And A Role For Autoimmunity, G Hoyne, H Elliott, S Mutsaers, C Prele

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is the most common of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. It is typically associated with extensive and progressive fibrosis, is fatal and has limited treatment options. Characteristically IPF patients display large lymphocyte aggregates composed of CD3+ T cells and CD20+ B cells within the lung tissue that are located near sites of active fibrosis. In addition, IPF patients can have autoantibodies to a range of host antigens, suggesting a breakdown in immunological tolerance. In this review we examine the role of T and B cells in IPF pathogenesis and discuss how loss of self- tolerance to lung …