Digital Commons Network^™

Lifelong Learning: A Tri-Sector Responsibility For Ensuring Relevance, Richard Raymond Smith

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When changes cause reduction or elimination of skilled employees, the impact on the business, employees, and local community can be significant. How do we work toward preventing these situations and who is responsible?

Polyball: A New Adsorbent For The Efficient Removal Of Endotoxin From Biopharmaceuticals, Sidharth Razdan, Jee-Ching Wang, Sutapa Barua

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The presence of endotoxin, also known as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), as a side product appears to be a major drawback for the production of certain biomolecules that are essential for research, pharmaceutical, and industrial applications. In the biotechnology industry, gram-negative bacteria (e.g., Escherichia coli ) are widely used to produce recombinant products such as proteins, plasmid DNAs and vaccines. These products are contaminated with LPS, which may cause side effects when administered to animals or humans. Purification of LPS often suffers from product loss. For this reason, special attention must be paid when purifying proteins aiming a product as free as …

Vauban In The Wilderness: The Military Revolution And The Seven Years' War In North America, Joseph M. Green

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

For the past thirty years there has been an ongoing debate regarding the nature of the Early Modern European Military Revolution. Much of this debate centers around whether the military and technological changes which are at the heart of the military revolution created the conditions for the bureaucratic systems of the modern nation state, or if those bureaucratic systems made possible the creation of larger, state sponsored armies and navies, as well as when these changes took place. Instead of focusing on what came first, the chicken or the egg, this thesis explores one aspect of the Military Revolution, focusing …

Multilingual Information Retrieval: A Representation Building Perspective, Ion Madrazo

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Information Retrieval (IR) has changed the way we access digital resources and satisfy our daily information needs. Popular IR tools like Search Engines, Recommendation Systems, and Automatic Question Answering sites, act as a deterrent for information overload while fostering (at least in theory) the democratization of access to resources. Yet, in their majority, IR tools are built with a traditional user in mind. This causes users who deviate from the norm, e.g., users with low educational background, visually-impaired users, or users who speak different languages, to be undeserved and thus struggle to find the information they require. In this manuscript, …

Chinese Transnational Adolescents’ Responses To Multicultural Children’S Literature In Culture Circles, Yuwen Chen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine how Chinese transnational adolescents (CTAs) negotiate their identity based on their cultural knowledge and experiences through book discussion in Freirean “culture circle” (Freire, 2000, p. 120). This study is an interpretivist qualitative study of community-based action research (Glesne, 2010). The participants were seven American-born Chinese, two current Chinese and Taiwanese, and one Chinese adopted adolescent. Within the culture circles, CTAs responded to seven selected multicultural children’s literature which represents Chinese immigrants’ stories in the United States. The topics of the books included (1) who am I, (2) relationships with extended family I, …

‘Overreaching’ Or ‘Overreacting’? Reflections On The Judicial Function And Approaches Of Wto Appellate Body, Weihuan Zhou, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since 2017, the US has blocked appointments to the WTO Appellate Body (AB), citing various concerns over its judicial approach, with the most significant being the issue of judicial overreach. This article provides a critical analysis of this issue and makes important contributions to the ongoing debate. Drawing on the fundamental function of the WTO, it offers a fresh approach to assess judicial overreach and shows that AB rulings in major non-trade remedy cases (that have consistently concerned the US) have served that function and hence should not be treated as ‘overreaching’. We argue that, the allegation of judicial overreach, …

Maintaining Skeletal Muscle Through Eccentric Exercise After Bariatric Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Joshua Jed Kelley

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: To investigate the effects of eccentric exercise on lower body skeletal muscle mass during rapid body mass loss induced by bariatric surgery. Methods: All participants began 6 to 8 weeks after undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) or sleeve gastrectomy (SG). Skeletal muscle mass (SMM) in the lower body was measured via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); additional exercise measurements included muscular strength and functional capacity. Quality of life was measured using Short Form 36 (SF-36). Nineteen females (age = 37.6 ± 9.8 yr, height = 164.4 ± 7.2 cm, mass = 106.9 ± 15.6 kg) were randomly assigned to 1 …

An Equivalence Of Shape And Deck Groups; Further Classification Of Sharkovskii Groups, Tyler Willes Hills

Theses and Dissertations

In part one we show that for a compact, metric, locally path-connected topological space X, the shape group of X - as defined in Foundations of Shape Theory by Mardesic and Segal - is isomorphic to the inverse limit of discrete homotopy groups introduced by Conrad Plaut and Valera Berestovskii. We begin by providing the reader preliminary definitions of the fundamental group of a topological space, inverse systems and inverse limits, the Shape Category, discrete homotopy groups, and culminate by providing an isomorphism of the shape and deck groups for peano continua. In part two we develop work and provide …

Depositional Analysis Of A Holocene Carbonate Strand Plain Using High Resolution Gpr, Sediment Analysis, And C-14 Dating, Kaleb Robert Markert

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding modern carbonate depositional systems gives valuable insights into the interpretation of ancient carbonate systems. Ancient carbonate strand plains have the potential to act as productive hydrocarbon reservoirs because of their relatively high porosity. Unfortunately, they are difficult to identify in the rock record because of the lack of work done on modern analogues. San Salvador Island in the Bahamas hosts a well-exposed and easily accessible Holocene strand plain, ideal as a modern analogue. Sandy Hook, located on the southeast part of the island, consists of approximately 35 ridge-swale features that show signs of four distinct zones of deposition. In …

A New Qpcr Assay To Detect Geosmin-Producing Cyanobacteria, Shane Brian Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Taste-and-odor (T&O) compounds are frequently produced by cyanobacterial blooms in bodies of water. Geosmin, perhaps the most common T&O compound produced by these blooms, is not effectively removed by conventional water treatment processes and frequently causes the tap water to have an off flavor. Although geosmin is not harmful when ingested, it damages the consumers' confidence in the cleanliness of their water. There are treatment options for geosmin removal, but the most common methods are often not implemented until complaints are made by consumers.There has been an increasing amount of research on the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods …

Durability Of Hybrid Large Area Additive Tooling For Vacuum Infusion Of Composites, Nathan Joseph Northrup

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to scientifically validate potential cost-saving measures for production of large area additively manufactured tooling for vacuum infusion of composites. These cost saving measures included using a hybrid additive/subtractive manufacturing system to fabricate the mold, requiring lower capital cost and creating shorter lead times. Fiberglass reinforcement was used instead of carbon in the mold material. The validation was done by designing and fabricating a mold for a custom test artifact and analyzing the surface geometry over the course of multiple infusions until tool failure.After printing and machining, the mold required a sealer in order to …

Design Optimization For A Compliant,Continuum-Joint, Quadruped Robot, Vallan Gray Sherrod

Theses and Dissertations

Legged robots have the potential to cover terrain not accessible to wheel-based robots and vehicles. This makes them better suited to perform tasks, such as search and rescue, in real-world unstructured environments. Pneumatically-actuated, compliant robots are also more suited than their rigid counterparts to work in real-world unstructured environments with humans where unintentional contact may occur. This thesis seeks to combine the benefits of these two type of robots by implementing design methods to aid in the design choice of a 16 degree of freedom (DoF) compliant, continuum-joint quadruped. This work focuses on the design optimization, especially the definition of …

The Use Of Video-Based Instruction To Teach Life Skills To Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Kori Paige Esplin

Theses and Dissertations

Individuals with developmental disabilities struggle to learn important life skills. This deficit impedes their ability to function in the community and live meaningful lives. Video prompting (VP) is an evidence-based practice that has been used to teach a wide variety of skills to individuals with disabilities. VP utilizes technology to create step-by-step videos to teach academic, social, vocational and other life skills This article extends the current literature on VP interventions to hygiene skills and investigates the efficacy, skill maintenance, social validity, and level of independence that can be achieved using VP to teach hygiene skills. Three participants with developmental …

Personalizing Professional Learning For Teachers: Pursuing Equity Through Systematic Personalization, Megan M. Mccarter

Dissertations

Our school system has not changed much in the last 100 years, yet our society and the job market are drastically different. In general, we are not preparing young people for life after high school in a meaningful way; the reality for minority and low-income students is even more depressing. We need to change how education works for students, we need to personalize for their individual needs, push them to collaborate, to innovate, and to own their own learning. This can only happen if we change how we develop, support, and retain teachers. This study examines models of and reflections …

Girls’ Experiences In A Positive Youth Development Sport Program: Developing A Participant-Centered Space, Kelly Johnston, Risto Marttinen, Ray Fredrick Iii, Vidya Bhat

Journal of Youth Development

School-age youth of low-income, urban communities frequently experience systemic inequities, such as limited access to healthy foods, lack of space for physical activity, higher drop-out rates, lower academic performance, and escalating rates of neighborhood violence. These inequities are often exacerbated for girls of color. After-school programs hold great potential for countering these issues, particularly when guided by a positive youth development (PYD) model. This qualitative study examined girls’ experiences in one after-school PYD program called REACH (Reflective Educational Approach to Character and Health). The authors discuss the ways in which the co-creation of a participant-centered space and interrelated connections between …

Barriers And Supports To College Aspiration Among Latinx High School Students, Harold Manzano-Sanchez, David Matarrita-Cascante, Corliss Outley

Journal of Youth Development

This study used a qualitative methodology to identify and describe barriers that Latinx high school students face in their college aspirations and the supports they recognize as pivotal to achieving their goal of attending college. In order to understand barriers and supports for college attendance, 23 Latinx high school students in Southern California participated in 4 focus groups. Students were asked about barriers that most affect the students’ college aspirations and varying supports needed to assist in their goal to go to college. The most common barriers reported by them were: lack of financial resources, family responsibilities, lack of teachers’ …

Barriers And Supports To College Aspiration Among Latinx High School Students, Harold Manzano-Sanchez, David Matarrita-Cascante, Corliss Outley

Journal of Youth Development

This study used a qualitative methodology to identify and describe barriers that Latinx high school students face in their college aspirations and the supports they recognize as pivotal to achieving their goal of attending college. In order to understand barriers and supports for college attendance, 23 Latinx high school students in Southern California participated in 4 focus groups. Students were asked about barriers that most affect the students’ college aspirations and varying supports needed to assist in their goal to go to college. The most common barriers reported by them were: lack of financial resources, family responsibilities, lack of teachers’ …

Teens In The Somali Diaspora: An Evaluative Program Study, Jennifer Skuza

Journal of Youth Development

Program evaluation is a critical part of program sustainability because evaluation can inform improvements and document impact. Here, 2 Minnesota organizations came together in partnership with the Somali American community to work toward a shared vision, which was to develop a new sustainable program that prepared refugee and immigrant youth for their educational and workforce futures while supporting their cultural way of being. This article shares the evaluative study of this program, which reached teens in the Somali diaspora living in Minnesota. The program team had a long-term interest in developing an evidence-based model to suit this special population; this …

Christian Faith In The Immigration And Acculturation Experiences Of Filipino American Youth, Gayle Gabriel

Journal of Youth Development

The Filipino immigration experience began in the Philippines via American-modeled schools and Spanish-enforced Christian Catholicism, and this historical experience may have translated to smoother acculturation experiences for Filipinos immigrating to the United States. However, a smooth acculturation experience may not be the case for all Filipino youth. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of Christian faith in the immigration and acculturation of Filipino American youth. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 5 Filipino American emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. Interview data went through 3 levels of coding and categorization; …

Promoting Pro-Social Skills To Reduce Violence Among Urban Middle School Youth, Deb Risisky, James Macgregor, Deborah Smith, Jamie Abraham

Journal of Youth Development

Adolescent violence is a significant public health problem. The goal of this evaluation was to determine whether communication skills, relationships with adults, and relationships with peers were enhanced through participating in an after-school program aimed at reducing violence-related behaviors among urban middle school youth. Elements that helped to foster success among our population were providing a program that enabled consistent choice in recreational activities in a safe place, and also providing busing home to increase safety. A non-experimental study was conducted with 115 students who participated in the program. Bivariate, ANOVA analysis, and Kruskal–Wallis tests were carried out. Results indicated …

Urban Youth Perspectives On The Benefits And Challenges Of Outdoor Adventure Camp, Edmond Bowers, Lincoln Larson, Alexandra Sandoval

Journal of Youth Development

Consistent evidence indicates that urban youth, and particularly youth of color, report relatively low levels of participation in quality youth program experiences and spend less time outdoors as compared to non-urban and White youth. Outdoor adventure camps (OACs) provide an excellent opportunity for engaging these youth in experiences that can help promote positive youth development (PYD). In the present study, we examined the experiences and perceptions of 75 urban youth who participated in a 3-day high adventure camp experience. Through a mixed-method approach, results indicated that urban youth from all racial and ethnic backgrounds grew in several PYD outcomes including …

Human-Animal-Environment Interactions As A Context For Child And Adolescent Growth, Erin Flynn, Alexandra Zoller, Megan Mueller, Kevin Morris

Journal of Youth Development

Human-animal-environment interaction (HAEI) is increasingly used in special education. While most research of HAEIs has identified effects that broadly support positive special education outcomes, further research of HAEI-based interventions in these environments is needed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 teaching staff at a special education school that utilizes a range of HAEIs. The teachers are responsible for implementing evidence-based interventions to facilitate social-emotional learning (SEL), so assessing their unique perspectives on the impacts of HAEIs on student SEL outcomes is imperative. Phenomenological coding of the interviews identified 9 major themes that represented positive impacts as well as barriers and …

Home Automation System By Voice Commands, Noor Kamil Abdalhameed

Theses and Dissertations

The Home Automation System is one of the most important technologies that are used by humans for controlling electrical devices to reduce manual efforts in their daily tasks. The home automation system by voice has the ability to understand thousands of voice commands and perform the required action to control various electrical devices. The voice recognition is a bit complex and challenging task since each person has his accent. Therefore, Bitvoicer Server used in the home automation system in this thesis since it supports 17 languages from 26 countries and regions, and has the ability to recognize an unlimited number …

Socialization Of Veterans Using Virtual Reality, Joan M. Savage

Theses and Dissertations

Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and video games are growing in popularity and fulfilling genuine human needs that the real world is currently unable to satisfy. Games are providing rewards that reality is not. They are teaching and inspiring and engaging us in ways that reality is not (McGonigal, 2011). The purpose of this study was to capture the essence of socialization in virtual reality as a Ph.D. dissertation topic at Florida Institute of Technology - Human-Centered Design. This study used a phenomenology methodology to capture the experiences of beneficial features of players who use virtual reality. The study …

An Agile And Rapidly Reconfigurable Test Bed For Hardware-Based Security Features, Daniel Smith Beard

Theses and Dissertations

Current general-purpose computing hardware and the software that runs on it have evolved over more than a half century from large mainframe systems in corporate, military, and research use to interconnected commodity devices more common than wrist watches. Computational power, storage capacity, and communication capabilities have increased in wonderful and staggering ways; however, when we read about the latest vulnerability or data breach it seems that cybersecurity is stuck somewhere between 1983 when Matthew Broderick first heard a synthesized voice ask “Shall we play a game?”, [93] and 1988 when the Morris worm hit the Internet [116]. Multics [82] and …

Trends Of Endometrial Cancer Among Adult Women In The United States, Fnu Kanishka

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Background: Endometrial cancer also referred to as uterine corpus cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed among US women. It is also one of the few cancers in the US that has an increasing incidence and mortality rate. This study examined the overall and race specific age-adjusted incidence rate as well as incidence-based mortality rate of endometrial cancer in the United States from 1975-2016.

Methods: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 1975-2016 data were used. Overall and race specific age-adjusted incidence rate, incidence-based mortality rates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated Trend graphs were created, annual average percent change …

Using The Adam Questionnaire In Primary Care To Identify Hypoandrogenism In Males Aged 40 Years Or Older, Jeremy Burns

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) has been shown to improve the symptoms of metabolic syndrome by reducing Hemoglobin A1C, belly fat, cholesterol, and blood pressure (Cunningham, 2015). The ultimate goal for testosterone-deficient patients is to have an improved quality of life by starting TRT. This quality improvement project was conducted at a small primary care clinic in South Texas. The project was started by screening 84 male patients ≥ 40 years of age using the Androgen Deficiency in Aging Males (ADAM) questionnaire. The ADAM questionnaire was considered positive for anyone who answered “yes” to 3 or more questions or “yes” to …

Improving Provider Adherence To Guidelines And Screening For Adult Depression In Primary Care, Amber Crenshaw

Doctor of Nursing Practice

The purpose of this QI project was to improve provider adherence to the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) Guidelines for Adult Depression in Primary Care to enhance the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management of adult major depressive disorder (MDD). MDD is a widespread, disabling, and treatable psychiatric disorder that is primarily treated and managed by primary care providers (PCPs). Untreated depression is prone to become chronic and can lead to pain, suffering, disability, increased morbidity and mortality, and premature death, with serious repercussions for the individual and society. Universal and routine screening in primary care for depression in adults, …

A Quality Improvement Initiative To Improve Depression Screening In Prenatal And Postpartum Mothers, Britanni Greene

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Screening for depression during the prenatal and postpartum period is essential. The United States has the highest mortality rate in the developed world, with mental health complications being 1 of the top 5 reasons women expire within the 1st year of childbirth. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase depression screening during the gestational and postpartum periods in an obstetric and gynecological clinic. An administration schedule was created to administer the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The EPDS was administered during the initial prenatal, 32-weeks prenatal, and 6-week postpartum appointments. Women scoring 10 or higher on the …

Increasing The Incidence Of Referrals And Execution Of Diabetic Eye Examinations In A South Texas Primary Care Clinic, Marisa Macias

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Diabetes is a significant public health problem, decreasing quality of life, causing disability and death (CDC, 2017; Foos et al., 2015; Grover & Joshi, 2015). Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to several eye complications including retinopathy and blindness (ADA, 2013; Liu & Swearingen, 2017). As the number of people afflicted with diabetes rises, the need for diabetic eye examination screenings also increases to prevent disability, improve quality of life and prevent blindness (ADA, 2018; Fisher et al., 2016; Garber et al., 2015; Raman et al., 2016).

The purpose of this project was to increase the rate of diabetic eye examination referrals, …