Digital Commons Network^™

Association Between Latent Toxoplasma Gondii Infection And Alzheimer's Disease, Cynthia Elizabeth Wyman

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Many studies have found an association between Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity and behavioral and cognitive changes in animal models and in humans. In addition, early findings have suggested an association between T. gondii seropositivity and Alzheimer's disease (AD). We sought to determine whether there is an association between T. gondii seropositivity and AD as well as cognitive functioning (including memory, working memory, processing speed, language functioning, executive functioning) in a large, well-characterized sample of subjects with AD and matched controls without dementia. Method: Using ELISA assays, we determined anti-T. gondii IgG antibody titers in 114 control subjects and in 105 …

Quantitative Morphological Classification Of Planetary Craterforms Using Multivariate Methods Of Outline-Based Shape Analysis, Thomas Joseph Slezak

Theses and Dissertations

Craters formed by impact and volcanic processes are among the most fundamental planetary landforms. This study examines the morphology of diverse craterforms on Io, the Moon, Mars, and Earth using quantitative, outline-based shape analysis and multivariate statistical methods to evaluate the differences between different types of. Ultimately, this should help establish relationships between the form and origin of craterforms. Developed in the field of geometric morphometrics by paleontological and biological sciences communities, these methods were used for the analysis of the shapes of crater outlines. The shapes of terrestrial ash-flow calderas, terrestrial basaltic shield calderas, martian calderas, Ionian paterae, and …

An Examination Of The Factor Structure Of The Trauma Inventory For Partners Of Sex Addicts (Tipsa), Heidi A. Vogeler

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the underlying latent factor structure of the Trauma Inventory for Partners of Sex Addicts (TIPSA), a 53-item assessment designed to assess for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the context of sexual addiction. It was theorized that the factor structure mirrored the 5 core criteria for PTSD as constituted in DSM-5. Data were gathered from 3,199 self-selected respondents (ages 21 to 55) who completed an online version of the TIPSA. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed utilizing Mplus in order to confirm the hypothesized factor structure of the TIPSA. Several modifications were …

Influence Of Epstein-Barr Virus On Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Development And The Role Of Depression On Disease Progression, Caleb Cornaby

Theses and Dissertations

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease affecting 20 to 250 individuals per 100,000 worldwide. Symptomology includes dermatological manifestations such as discoid lesions, acute cutaneous rashes, and oral and nasal ulcers, along with musculoskeletal, pulmonary, and renal complications. Abnormal T and B lymphocyte function and apoptosis, immune complex clearance, complement function, and nucleosome processing are typical of disease pathophysiology. SLE is the result of both environmental and genetic factors, which together create the conditions leading to disease onset and progression. Of these environmental factors, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection is known to cause the genesis of cross-reactive antibodies in SLE …

The Effectiveness Of Utilizing The Treatment Support Measure For Treatment Planning In Youth Mental Health Services, Adam D. Garland

Theses and Dissertations

The use of treatment support tools to enhance client outcomes is not well understood in the youth treatment literature. Adult outcome researchers have found that the use of Clinical Support Tools (CST) leads to improved outcomes with clients identified as at risk for treatment failure. However, the American Psychological Association (APA) has noted that understanding important client factors that influence treatment is critical during the clinical formulation and treatment planning phase of therapy. No studies to date have evaluated the effectiveness of utilizing a CST as a treatment planning tool with youth clients. The purpose of this study was to …

It Is A Win-Win For Both: Cross-Age Peer Tutoring, Lisa Cardenas

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Improving the benefits of cross-age peer tutoring is explored in this capstone project. This is important because students will be more successful in school if they receive extra support with the subjects they are struggling with. An evidenced based argument is offered that an effective cross-age peer tutoring program will help to promote a positive school environment for students to thrive in. The three stakeholder perspectives examined were elementary school teachers and a principal because they participate in a cross-age peer tutoring program. Three themes emerged from an analysis of the interview data, training the tutors, organizing and planning the …

Sit With Us: Benefits Of Inclusion, Anali Vargas-Sanchez, Spencer Smith

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone project is on understanding the benefits of an inclusive classroom setting. This is important because, there is a stigma that special education students hinder the learning of general education students, but the data provided in this paper will show otherwise. The primary stakeholders perspectives that were surveyed were three special education educators familiarized with an inclusive setting, one being a teacher and the other two teacher aides. Three ways to improve inclusion include co-teaching, increased training, and using technology to assist students. Based on the findings collected from the interviews and research formulated in this …

Healthy Lifestyle At Headstart In Monterey County, Leticia Manriquez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In Monterey County, the rate of childhood obesity is too high among the Latino/Hispanic community. The Head Start program in Monterey County serves more than 1,245 children each year with the majority of them being Latino/Hispanic. The causes of childhood obesity are a lack of physical activities, cultural beliefs, and financial issues among families. It leads to serious health problems that impact children academically and psychologically. This capstone project is to increase knowledge and awareness on how to live a Healthy Lifestyle among Head Start parents so that they can apply that to their lives and their children. The project …

It Pays To Behave: Investigating Effective Classroom Management, Rei Massie

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone project is on improving the work ethic and engagement of students by reducing challenging behavior that comes with classroom transitions and management. This is an important issue for educators because when an instructor spends too much time redirecting students, a lot of crucial learning time can be lost. Consideration of the issue included the perspectives of the training and program specialist and child program assistants of the observed after school child care center. Based on the findings, action was taken to help refine the educational opportunities and help decrease challenging behavior during instruction time to …

Isis Reimagined Using Isis Recruitment Techniques In A Peaceful Student Organization, Amanda Greer

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Islamic State in al-Sham (ISIS) is one of the most successful recruiting terrorist organization in history. They target people who feel like outsiders and loners. Such groups of people include second generation immigrants and refugees. A student organization was created to help these populations feel included in the community and to spread awareness about the problem. A previous national campaign proved the idea effective now the question comes about how to make it a sustainable long-run buffer to ISIS recruitment. I propose the creation of a peaceful student organization based on the adaptation of ISIS recruitment techniques. The organizational …

Using Multiple Intelligence Theory To Aid In Reading Comprehension, Kelsy Neil

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The main purpose of this study is to determine if using Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory to guide activities for literature groups aids in student comprehension. Students in three literature groups at the fifth and sixth grade level were given a survey to determine each student’s intelligence scores. After each student’s intelligence scores were found, the average of each intelligence score was used to determine the groups’ strongest and weakest intelligences. Activities were then made for each group to correlate with their strongest and weakest intelligences and comprehension was tested after each reading assignment and activity was completed via a …

Administrative Law, Jennifer B. Alewine, Courtney E. Ferrell, Allison W. Pryor

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys cases from the Georgia Supreme Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals from June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017 in which principles of administrative law were a central focus of the case. The Article first discusses the exhaustion of administrative remedies, followed by decisions by state administrative agencies, then on to scope of authority, statutory construction, a review of administrative decisions, and concludes with a brief review of enactments from the 2017 regular session of the Georgia General Assembly.

Domestic Relations, Barry B. Mcgough, Elinor H. Hitt, Abigail M. Herrmann

Mercer Law Review

This Article addresses significant case law during the survey period from June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017.

Improving Outcomes: Diabetes Management In Alaskan Primary Care, An Integrative Review, Stephanie Hand

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease with a rising incidence in the United States. It is a major cause of complications such as renal failure, heart disease, stroke, lower extremity amputations, as well as blindness. The purpose of this integrative review was to discover what strategies are evidence-based and practical for effective diabetes self-management in the primary care setting. There is a plethora of published evidence that proves Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) is effective for the management of diabetes and prevention of complications. A review of the most current evidence revealed there is no standardized system that allows delivery of …

Print Exposure Modulates The Effects Of Repetition Priming During Sentence Reading, Matthew W. Lowder, Peter C. Gordon

Psychology Faculty Publications

Individual readers vary greatly in the quality of their lexical representations and consequently in how quickly and efficiently they can access orthographic and lexical knowledge. This variability may be explained, at least in part, by individual differences in exposure to printed language, as practice at reading promotes the development of stronger reading skills. The current eye-tracking experiment tests the hypothesis that the efficiency of word recognition during reading improves with increases in print exposure by determining whether the magnitude of the repetition priming effect is modulated by individual differences in scores on the Author Recognition Test (ART). Lexical repetition of …

Child Characteristics And Parent Factors In Children With Asd And/Or Adhd: Disruptive Behaviors, Internalizing Symptoms, Parental Distress, And Parenting Practices, Elizabeth Clara Fair

Dissertations

The current study examined disruptive behaviors, internalizing symptoms, parental distress, and parenting practices in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), ASD+ADHD, and typically-developing (TD) children. Specifically, the current study examined how those factors differed according to diagnostic group as well as how child characteristics (i.e., disruptive behaviors and internalizing symptoms) were related to parental factors above and beyond specific symptoms of ASD and ADHD (examined dimensionally). To examine those questions, parents of 14 children with ASD, 16 children with ADHD, 13 children with ASD+ADHD, and 15 TD children participated in the current study (total N = 58). …

The Effects Of Meditation On Perceived Self Efficacy In Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Jessica Miley

Doctoral Projects

Nurse anesthesia programs demand time and commitment for educational requirements and success. Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs) are encumbered with an exponential amount of stress in these programs. Research has shown that mindful-meditation is an effective method for stress reduction and improving attention and concentration. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice project was to determine if mindful-meditation has an influence on perceived self-efficacy in SRNAs.

A pre survey was administered via email to 56 nurse anesthesia students in different levels of one nurse anesthesia program. The survey included the Perceived Stress Scale to measure stress level and the …

The Wright Message, 2017-2018, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Mathematics.

The Wright Message

Inside this issue:

-- New Faculty
--Faculty Spotlight
--Around Wright Hall
--Interview
--Alumni Spotlight
--Hari Shankar Lecture
--Wright Hall Centenary
--News from the CTLM
--Student Spotlights
--Mathematical Ideas Conference
--Donor Spotlight
--Retiring Faculty
--Classrooms Named in Honor of Faculty
--Contributions to an Account – Recognition
--Department Funds

Social Media Marketing Strategies In The Organic Food Industry, John Haff

Senior Theses

This study used content analysis to review the social media marketing strategies of the organic food industry. The results reveal which social media channels are being used and which social media marketing strategies are being used. Qualitative techniques were used to generate a pool of eight organic companies. The social media channels used were highlighted by Chanthinok, Ussahawanitichakit, and Jhundra-indra (2015) as those used by frequency and the ability of the application to achieve the desired marketing goal. The marketing strategies assessed were categorized first as transformational or informational and then further subcategorized by the way it is perceived by …

What Can Tv Teach Us About The Spiritually Healthy Institution?, Susan Scheibler

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

This article posits that the television series Bones offers a model for a lively, vital, and spiritually healthy 21st century Catholic institution of higher education. It does this through a close analysis of the series as a whole as informed by arguments posed by Catholic thinkers, and it argues that the show—through its characters, settings, stories, plots, and themes—self-consciously and consistently engages and explores various aspects of faith and reason, justice and ethics, within the context of a multidisciplinary research institution. In this way, an examination of the series can add depth and dimension within which educators are able to …

Exploring Strategies For Teaching Creatively Online, Conny Van Der Wouw

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The way we learn and teach is changing. There is more emphasis on collaboration and personalization of the learning. Teaching online is becoming common. For my Master’s project I have developed a product that will help designing and delivering teaching programs creatively through the use of online learning opportunities. The product discusses the opportunities and challenges of a creative climate when teaching online and provides strategies to develop creativity during the online learning process. It is developed with the use of the Torrance Incubation Model of Teaching and Learning (TIM) and Ekvall’s ten dimensions of a creative climate. This paper …

Fighting Against Bullfighting: Tackling Spain's Bloody Tradition, Genevieve Hoyt

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Bullfighting has grown to be a serious problem in Spain, bringing severe animal cruelty, economic controversies, and a national identity crisis. This paper synthesizes research from a variety of sources to comprehensively evaluate the problems bullfighting causes in Spain, and it also proposes two policy options to attempt to resolve these issues. While banning bullfighting entirely may seem like an easy fix, it would also provoke a number of issues. This paper will ultimately conclude that bullfighting will likely come to an end on its own. Still, anti-bullfighting groups should continue their protests in order to decrease popularity and encourage …

Invisible Islanders: Precarious Work And Pacific Settlers In Rural Australia, Makiko Nishitani, Helen Lee

Pacific Studies

A growing number of studies have focused on precarious employment in relation to temporary and illegal immigration status. However, few have examined if this precarity is resolved once migrants acquire permanent residency. This article explores the work experiences of Pacific Islander settlers in rural Australia who either overstayed their visas or had temporary visas and later acquired Australian residency. These Pacific people are employed primarily in seasonal labor and find it difficult to gain more secure employment outside the horticultural sector. Even members of the second generation tend to work as casual laborers on farms. The difficulties migrants face in …

Varying Instructional Approaches To Physical Extraction Of Mobile Device Memory, Joan Runs Through, Gary D. Cantrell

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics is a multidisciplinary field encompassing both computer science and criminal justice. This action research compared demonstrated skill levels of university students enrolled in a semester course in small device forensics with 54 hours of instruction in mobile forensics with an emphasis on physical techniques such as JTAG and Chip-Off extraction against the skill levels of industry professionals who have completed an accelerated 40 hour advanced mobile forensics training covering much of the same material to include JTAG and Chip-Off extraction. Participant backgrounds were also examined to determine if those participants with a background in computer science had an …

Delivering Service-Based New Product Development: Stewardship Cabability Differentiates Success From Failure In Back-End Innovation, Nancy Y. Nee

Student Scholarship

Previous research and literature highlight the factors that influence the success and failure of delivering new product development (NPD) to achieve back-end innovation. In particular, previous research identifies the key importance of executive sponsorship/championship on the success of back-end innovation by delivering NPD. Despite this key finding, NPD delivery continues to fail even with executive sponsorship/championship engagement. Stewardship is a construct that executive sponsors/champions use to ensure that the NPD delivery is aligned with the best interests of the organization and its stakeholders. The aim of this study is to provide an understanding of how stewardship affects the sponsorship/championship role …

The Effects Of Language Simplification And Pictures On The Ability Of Emirati University Students To Comprehend And Solve Mathematics Word Problems, Mark Causapin, Timothy Groombridge

All Works

This paper presents a study of Emirati university students learning mathematics in a second language (English). The study focused on students' responses to mathematical word problems in different versions: simpler/more complex versions of the problem in English; an Arabic translation of the problem; and the addition of a picture to support the text of the problem. Our findings suggest that neither language simplification nor pictures significantly affect students' comprehension and performance on word problem assessments; the lexical and syntactic features of the word problems have little effect on their understanding and ability to answer the questions presented to them. In …

Exploring The Relationship Between Silencing The Self And Risky Sexual Behavior In Black Women, Robin Nicole Hardin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Black women are disproportionately affected by HIV. Understanding how sociocultural factors and beliefs contribute to Black women's risky sexual behavior is critical in understanding this health disparity. This study investigated the mediating influence of silencing the self (i.e., putting the needs and wants of a romantic partner before one's own needs) on the relationship between risky sexual behaviors and self-esteem, gender role beliefs, and gender ratio imbalance beliefs and behaviors (GRIBBs) in Black female college students. Participants included 99 female undergraduate students enrolled at a regional Mid-South University. Results demonstrated that risky sexual behavior was not significantly associated wtih the …

Parental Response To Child Sexual Abuse In Zimbabwe: Formative Research For Intervention Development, Christopher Okoth Obong'o

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Nearly 31% of females and 17% of males experienced child sexual abuse (CSA) globally in 2012. In Zimbabwe, about 33% of young women aged 18-24 years experienced sexual abuse by age 18 in 2013. Because CSA perpetrators are likely to be someone known to the victim and the abuse likely to be perpetrated at the home of the victim, parents and other adult caregivers are in a unique position to support timely CSA disclosure and reporting.The purpose of this study was to generate information for development of interventions to strengthen CSA disclosure and reporting in Zimbabwe. The primary aim was …

Pratt's "Don't Panic: How To Keep Going When The Going Gets Tough" (Book Review), Deborah Hunt

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Murphy's "Lisa Murphy On Play: The Foundation Of Children's Learning" (Book Review), Rebekah Phillips

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.