Digital Commons Network^™

The United States And Irregular Warfare 1899-2011, Justin Wike

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

After the United States fought irregular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the amount of scholarship on the topic of counterinsurgency and guerilla warfare grew at a fast pace. Much of this scholarship has focused on a single conflict, or on several recent conflicts. This thesis took a different approach and looked at United States involvement in these irregular conflicts from the Philippine-American War onward through the lens of paternalism and the military strategies and tactics employed by the United States. The Philippine-American War was the first war the United States waged to maintain its overseas empire. This war would set …

Impact Of Highway Work Zones On Traffic Crashes: A Case Study In Michigan, Qadri Hafez Shaheen

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Infrastructure in the US is severely aged and outdated. This presents a seemingly paradoxical problem in the field of construction management: In order to fix and make roads and highways more safe, construction zones must become inherently less safe in the process. There is a high cost to taxpayers and drivers, as work zones experience a significant amount of crashes and fatalities each year. To mitigate some of the factors that contribute to these crashes, this paper attempts to deliver guidelines on how to update relevant crash data, identify relevant factors, and create recommendations accordingly. The research focused particularly on …

An Historical Analysis Of Women’S Emergence Into Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership: Eastern Michigan University, A Case Study, Cheyenne Luzynski

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The implementation of Title IX has increased women’s participation rates in intercollegiate athletics tenfold, yet women’s representation in athletic leadership remains marginal compared to men. As such, the purpose of this study was to understand the social construction of gender as it relates to intercollegiate athletic leadership at Eastern Michigan University. The study explored the history of sporting activities as a mechanism to shape and perpetuate masculine and feminine culture. These values (i.e, competitiveness and cooperativeness) were institutionalized in higher education as sex-segregated physical education and athletic functions. This historical case study applied organizational and institutional theory analyzing the institutional, …

Interaction Between Body Talk In Romantic Relationships And Body Dissatisfaction On Unhealthy Body Change Behaviors, Lillian Ellis

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Unhealthy body change behaviors, such as eating disorder symptoms and muscle dysmorphia symptoms, can cause serious harm in individuals’ lives, impacting physical and emotional health. Body change behaviors have been shown to be associated with body dissatisfaction and body talk. However, individuals’ body talk with their romantic partner has not been well examined. The current study investigated the relationships between body talk with a romantic partner, gender, and body dissatisfaction with body change strategies, using a hierarchical regression that included direct relationships and interaction effects. Participants were college students who took an online study for class credit. Body dissatisfaction and …

Recognizing Addictive Disorders Through Transdiagnostic Assessment, Meagan M. Carr

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Some evidence suggests high rates of comorbidity between substance and other related addictive disorders. However, few self-report instruments adopt a transdiagnostic approach, which would be best positioned to answer questions about comorbidity as well as other related phenomenon, such as discontinuation of one type of behavior and initiation of another. The current work aimed to develop a measure that screened for seven types of potentially addictive behavior: alcohol use, drug use, tobacco use, gambling, binge eating, hypersexual behavior, and excessive video game playing. Data were collected at three time-points to develop a large pool of possible items, establish the initial …

Opioid Use And Abuse In The United States, James Pellerin

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Opioids have quadrupled the number of unintentional drug overdose deaths since 1999 and are now among the leading causes of death in the United States. Though some reform has recently occurred, the United States continues to operate largely under a punitive criminal justice model despite unsuccessful legislative schemes and voluminous research stemming from a previous war on drugs. This thesis serves to explore the history and extent of opioids in the United States and to analyze salient catalysts responsible for creating an epidemic of abuse. While private and governmental coalitions have formed to develop successful interventions and treatments, they are …

Therapist Self-Disclosure And Immediacy: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis, Clara E. Hill, Sarah Knox, Kristen Pinto-Coelho

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

We review definitions and provide case examples of therapist self-disclosure (TSD) and immediacy (Im). We then present a qualitative meta-analysis of 21 studies that examined the subsequent process following TSD and Im in psychotherapy (excluding analogue and correlational studies). Across the 21 studies, the most frequent subsequent processes were enhanced therapy relationship, improved client mental health functioning, gains in insight, and overall helpfulness, suggesting that most often TSD and Im were followed by positive and beneficial therapeutic processes. In additional analyses, TSD was associated more often with improved mental health functioning, overall helpfulness, and enhanced therapy relationships, whereas Im was …

The Effects Of Cultural Participation On Health Outcomes Among American Indian/Alaska Native Elders, Collette Adamsen

Theses and Dissertations

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) history represents a number of traumatic events inflicted upon each tribal generation that has yet to recover. These events have led to major consequences on the health of this population. AI/AN people experience the worst health disparities in the nation (Espey et al., 2014; Warne & Lajimodiere, 2015). Previous studies have shown that loss of land, cultural devastation, and inadequate health care access are associated with the high rates of health disparities endured by AI/AN people throughout North America (Walters, et al., 2011). AI/AN beliefs tell us that culture serves a fundamental role in managing good …

Quantifying Extravehicular Activity Performance Degradation Due To Sustenance Deprivation, Eryn Beisner

Theses and Dissertations

Modern EVAs (spacewalks) performed onboard the International Space Station require astronauts to endure up to twelve hours of intense mental and physical exertion without food, as they do not stop to eat nor do they currently have the capabilities to consume sustenance in their spacesuits. With the future of space exploration taking aim at the Moon, Mars, and beyond, EVAs are expected to become more demanding than ever. This is a pilot study to attempt to quantify astronaut performance during an EVA to determine if there is significant performance degradation because of acute starvation. Astronauts conducting EVA training at NASA’s …

Metropolitan Job Loss In The Great Recession: Where Did Those Who Lost Jobs Reside?, Peter Brandt

Theses and Dissertations

The Great Recession was one of the worst economic downturns in recent history. Lasting approximately from 2007 to 2009, locations faced economic hardships of varying length and severity at regional, metropolitan, and neighborhood scales. Scholars have assessed the geographies of job loss during the recession in a variety of contexts, typically from the workplace perspective. However, the impact of job loss at a workplace location also reaches to the different home locations of the employees who lost jobs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to compare the loss of jobs during the recession, from the perspective of where those …

Health Aspects Of Community-Engaged Natural Play Space Planning, Design, And Implementation, Eric Castle

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity, loss of social capital, and fewer connections to nature are three community health issues faced by many. A team of concerned individuals attempted to address the spectrum of these health issues by collaboratively engaging communities to plan, design, build and program natural play spaces located in public parks. This exploratory study, utilizing a grounded theory approach, conducted focus groups with community members who engaged in this process. The specific objectives of the study were twofold; 1) to generate theory regarding the perceived impact on social capital from the community-driven planning and construction process of the Connecting Children in Nature …

Characteristics Of Individuals Who Participate In Autoerotic Asphyxiation Practices: An Exploratory Study, Lauren Chapple

Theses and Dissertations

The set of behaviors known as Autoerotic Asphyxiation (AeA) have been studied, by contemporary scientific standards, for the better part of sixty years. Within that time, an inadequate amount of research has been completed on a far too narrow sample of the population, namely those who have died from the practice. AeA as a practice has been understudied to this point despite statistics that would note the potential for an unknown number of individuals to currently be practicing these behaviors. There is a paucity of both quantitative and qualitative data about living AeA practitioners. The present study uses Sex Positivity …

Examining Teacher Perceptions On Change In Secondary School Libraries To Promote Informational Literacy, Sarah Crary

Theses and Dissertations

Libraries in schools are changing from a place to check out books to providing access to information from a multitude of media. The specific changes needed in school libraries and the method to accomplish those changes, specifically from the perspective of teachers, is an area of research with few empirical studies. The purpose of the study was to use Fullan’s Change Theory (2007) initiation phase to identify how ready teachers are to engage in changing the way information literacy skills are taught. The researcher investigated teachers’ perception with openness to change. The researcher analyzed teachers’ perceptions about collaborative roles between …

Dieter's Deficit: Preoccupation And Working Memory, Kelly Cuccolo

Theses and Dissertations

Preoccupying thoughts can cause disruptions of ones’ attentional system and may arise as the result of a clinical disorder, societal pressures, or individual predispositions. Goal acquisition requires one to be preoccupied with one’s behaviors in order for success to be achieved, for example dieters must monitor their weight and caloric intake. As dieting is a widespread phenomenon in American culture it is important to understand the cognitive effect of preoccupation. This study examines the relationship between obsessional thoughts about food, weight, and shape, and cognitive task performance. The performance of Dieters and Non-Dieters on a battery of specific working memory …

The Involvement Of Polyol Pathway In Hypgerglycemia And Cadmium Toxicity In The Establishment Of Diabetic Neprhopathy, Bethany Anne Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), where prolonged exposure to hyperglycemia induces damage to proximal tubule cells of the kidney. Since progression to ESRD correlates to pathological changes in the tubular segments of the kidney, the effects of hyperglycemia in the PT portion of the nephron may be particularly relevant to the progression of DN. Development of this disease also is likely to occur in the context of exposure to other renal toxins, and the heavy metal cadmium (Cd2+) may be the most relevant due to the accumulation of this metal in the major …

The War After Battle: Morale, Post-Traumatic Stress And Long-Term Welfare Of Combat Soldiers, Corey Doan

Theses and Dissertations

There is a historical, literary, and philosophical record of the effects of combat on mental health. Modern psychological research has focused on the relationship between combat deployment and a litany of mental health issues which include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), various forms and manifestations of depression, substance abuse with a specific focus on alcohol, as well as social, family, and work-life functional impairment. This study introduces a customized 18-item Integrated Military Morale Questionnaire (IMMQ) which was designed to measure the proposed basic components of military morale: personal morale, cohesion, and esprit de corps. Data from 185 United States military members …

Wild And Domestic: Short Stories, Sara E. Dupree

Theses and Dissertations

Wild and Domestic is a collection of short stories set in rural northwestern Minnesota that center around themes of parenting, family, and the desire for stability and security. This desire for domestic harmony often comes into conflict with the characters’ strong desire for personal freedom, self-expression, sexual gratification, and a deeper connection to the natural world—desires that are linked to the concept of wild. The collection also invites readers to reflect on its animal characters. In many of the stories, animal characters, both wild and domestic, play a role in setting up the crisis or climax of the story by …

Alcohol-Related Regret Among Undergraduate Students, Samantha Jo Feroni

Theses and Dissertations

College alcohol use remains a major public health concern, particularly on campuses in the Midwest. Heavy drinking has been linked to a number of deleterious consequences, ranging from poor academic performance and early school exit to injury or death. Many of the negative consequences linked to alcohol use carry with the possibility of regret. The purpose of this study is to explore the types of alcohol-related regret, any gender and class level differences in regret, and whether students become hesitant to drink alcohol after such a regret occurs. Data used for the study came from semi structured interviews with undergraduates …

Electroencephalogram Signal Processing For Hybrid Brain Computer Interface Systems, Md. Ali Haider

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to evaluate and compare three types of brain computer interface (BCI) systems, P300, steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) and Hybrid as virtual spelling paradigms. Hybrid BCI is an innovative approach to combine the P300 and SSVEP. However, it is challenging to process the resulting hybrid signals to extract both information simultaneously and effectively. The major step executed toward the advancement to modern BCI system was to move the BCI techniques from traditional LED system to electronic LCD monitor. Such a transition allows not only to develop the graphics of interest but also to …

Removal Of Emerging Poly- And Per-Fluoroalkyl Substances By Water Treatment, Ryan Alexander Hanson

Theses and Dissertations

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (per- and poly-PFASs) are emerging contaminants that have raised great concern in recent years. Two anionic per-PFASs in particular, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), has received worldwide attention for their persistence in the natural environment, resistance to typical environmental degradation, bioaccumulation potential, and adverse health effects in humans. The stable chemical characteristics have enabled these chemicals to be used in many industrial and consumer products over the past 50 years. They have been detected all over the world in various environmental matrices.

The water treatment removal of per-PFASs has been well documented, but the full …

A Cmip5 Ensemble Assessment Of Durum Wheat Production & Climate Change In North Dakota, Usa, Timothy Douglas Hochstetler Dillon

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States (US), North Dakota is the largest producer of Durum Wheat (Triticum durum), hereinafter referred to as Durum. Durum grain has a high protein content and multiple utilities in food products. We investigated the historical trends in Durum production and yield as influenced by changes in precipitation (precip) and temperature (temp). The study accounted for variations in environmental conditions by running a dynamic crop model in thirteen Durum producing counties.

The climate of North Dakota is representative of the highly productive agricultural lands of the Northern Great Plains, encompassing five US states and two Canadian provinces. The …

Examining The Relationship Between Technology Usage And Objective Assessments Of Impulsivity And Cognitive Performance In Young Adults, Sheryl Holter Vogel

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined objective measurements of cognitive performance in tasks a clinician may use when evaluating an adult for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to determine if the cell phone behavior and self-reported text-message dependency and social media use accounted for the variance in scores. Seventy-four participants were included. in stepwise multiple regression analyses. Independent sample t-tests found age of first cell phone was significantly higher for men than women and reported significantly decreased sense of control over their social media use. Reported number of texting behavior (i.e. daily number of texts sent, received, and checked) were positively correlated …

Parting A Read Sea Of Images: An Exploration Of Field Dependent-Independent Responses To Minimalist, Pictographic And Infographic Data Displays, Debra Kaye Jenkins

Theses and Dissertations

Western society reflects an “eikoncentric era” when contemporary instruction has become image -centered. Textbooks, journals, popular media as well as computer-based and web- based instructional media are filled by pictures that are intended to accomplish learning. Imagery is widely believed to represent an efficient, understandable method for relaying information and clarifying instruction for nearly all learners. However, those who subscribe to the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” often fail to acknowledge individual differences in visual comprehension and cognition. The field dependent-independent (FDI) cognitive style describes individual learner differences that can thwart visual learning. Information graphics are among …

Staphylococcal Enterotoxins G And I Elicit Long-Term Anti-Tumor Responses In Humanized Hla-Dq8Αβ Transgenic Mice, Peter Knopick

Theses and Dissertations

Immunotherapies have evolved into a collection of tools used clinically in the treatment of several pathologies. Staphylococcal enterotoxin G and I are potent T cell activators that drive multifaceted immune responses and have been implicated in antitumor responses. The addition of SEG and SEI as useful immunotherapies could be underappreciated as mice do not respond as humans would to superantigen stimulation. HLA-DQ8 mice with established B16-F10 tumors receiving 50μg each SEG and SEI 6 and 9 days post tumor implant resulted in 80% progression free survival >300 days. In comparison, allogeneic C57BL/6 mice did not benefit from SEG/SEI therapy. Remarkably, …

Yoga As An Intervention Among College Students: Measuring Changes In Body Dissatisfaction, Disordered Eating, Self-Compassion, Mindfulness, And Experiential Avoidance, Rachel A. Kramer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to elaborate and expand research examining the incorporation of yoga in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders in addition to the amelioration of body image and related factors through a two-study design. Study One recruited participants from a Midwestern psychology subject pool. One-hundred fifty women completed Study One. Results indicated that self-compassion, mindfulness, and body appreciation were negatively related to eating disorder pathology, body mass index (BMI), and experiential avoidance. BMI, eating disorder pathology, and experiential avoidance were all positively correlated with one another. Mediational analyses indicated the self-compassion was a significant mediator …

Amyloid Precursor Protein And Insulin Homeostasis, Joshua Kulas

Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease in which the brain progressively deteriorates resulting in cognitive decline, language impairment, diminished spatial awareness, memory loss and ultimately, death. AD is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease and the number of people afflicted by AD is expected to more than double in the next 30 years. AD is characterized in part by the formation of amyloid plaque deposits in the brain. It is known that these plaques are composed of the peptide Aβ, which aggregates as a function of age and is produced locally within the brain by cleavage of the Amyloid precursor …

A Comparison Of Direct And Indirect Assessments Of Standing Lumbar Lordosis In Asymptomatic Adults, Nolan Adam Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Background: While lumbar lordosis is often indirectly (visually) assessed by practitioners to guide treatment, it is not clear how well direct and indirect assessments agree. The aims of this study were to (a) determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability of two indirect assessments (visual assessments of real and 3D body scanned people), and (b) determine the agreement between direct and indirect assessments (3D scan-extracted vs. visual assessments).

Methods: Fifty asymptomatic participants were physically landmarked and scanned with and without landmarks using the Vitus Smart 3D whole body scanner, after which 10 practitioners visually assessed the lumbar lordosis of each participant. …

The Effects Of Overnight Work Travel On Working Mothers And Fathers, Natalie Martinson

Theses and Dissertations

Work-related travel has become more prevalent since the early 2000s due to the changing global economy (Jeong et al. 2013), and growth in job-related demands, such as traveling to meet customers, attend meetings, and participate in conferences (Gustafson 2006). Despite the benefits of overnight travel, there are drawbacks associated with traveling for work. Guided by role conflict theory and using secondary data from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a subset of data was studied consisting of professional, managerial, and executive working mothers (N = 241) and working fathers (N = 257). This thesis considers how overnight work-related …

The Long-Term Effects Of Parental Military Deployment On Perceived Parent/Child Relationship Quality, Timothy Patrick Pagano

Theses and Dissertations

The lived experiences of children who go through parental military deployment remain largely unexamined. Although the literature surrounding this population continues to expand, there remains a paucity of research surrounding the potential long-term effects of a parent's military deployment. The following study aimed to develop a deeper understanding of the possible long-term effects of parental deployment on the parent/child relationship. The study makes several noteworthy contributions to the knowledge base. Utilizing Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Ecological Systems Theory, this study provides insight regarding how this population views their past and current parental relationships, the factors impacting the relationship with their formerly deployed …

Plate Vibration Dispalcement Curve Measurement Using Pvdf, Aniket Nandkumar Pinjan

Theses and Dissertations

Beam and plate dynamics are often measured using accelerometers and in some cases laserbased systems. Natural frequencies, mode shapes, and deflections are then derived from these measurements. The work presented here describes a method to directly measure the deflection curve of a vibrating beam and plate using piezoelectric films. The sensor consists of constant shape segment of PolyVinyliDene Fluoride (PVDF) films bonded to the surface of the structure. We show in here that each segment of the sensor measures the deflection slope at its particular location. The overall lateral displacement curve of the structure (beam/plate) is calculated from these slopes …