Digital Commons Network^™

Richwood, West Virginia After The 2016 Flood: Place, Devastation, And Hope In An Appalachian Community, Christine Elizabeth Witt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

How does a community cope with a crisis that threatens its identity or even its existence? This is the question facing the town of Richwood, West Virginia, after a devastating flood that impacted much of the town in 2016. Some of the consequences of the 2016 flood were the loss of the high school building, followed by difficulties receiving the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money to rebuild the school, and a loss of additional FEMA money for other critical issues due to alleged corruption. How do community residents cope emotionally with devastation? How do they understand the causes of …

The Politics Of Drug Courts, Jeffrey Chris Moss

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined drug courts from a public policy and political science perspective. The first portion of the study focused on the history of sentencing policy from the 1970s through the drug court movement. The second chapter addressed gaps in the policy literature about how drug courts were created and how they evolved. Another focal point was determining how state-level actors such as legislators, state supreme courts, and bureaucratic agencies regulated drug court policy in each particular state. From this data, a continuum was formed to determine which states operated from a top-down management style for drug courts and which …

The Acute Effect Of Propanil On Reproductive Hormones, Ovarian Gene Expression And Splenic Cells In C57bl/6 Female Mice, Malia Danielle Berg

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Earlier evidence indicates exposure to propanil, a post-emergent herbicide used on rice and wheat fields, increases the number of antibody-secreting cells (ASC) in the spleen of mice after immunization with heat-killed Streptococcus pneumoniae (HKSP, 2x10⁸ CFU). Interestingly, an intact hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis is required for this immune response assessed on day 7-10 after immunization in female mice. Hence, an overarching premise is that propanil arbitrates the connection between the reproductive and immune system by altering the concentration of hormones involved in the HPG axis, which may then affect the populations of splenic cells. Hypotheses were tested with C57Bl/6 female …

Three Essays On Water Economics, Fahad Alzahrani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three essays that explore the impacts of changes in public water quality, reliability, and raw water source. The first essay explores the relationship between episodes of contaminated drinking water and health care expenditures in the United States. Using panel data from 48 contiguous states from 2000 to 2011 and spatial econometrics modeling methods, the results indicate that there is positive and statistically significant impact on per capita health care expenditures from the percentage of a state’s population exposed to contamination episodes. The second essay examines the problem of water supply reliability due to aging infrastructure of …

Critical Physicochemical Properties For Nanoparticle Toxicity: Impact Of Surface Coating And Size On Particle-Induced Cell Transformation And Inflammatory Response, Tiffany Kornberg

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nanoparticles, which measure 100 nm in at least one dimension, have surged in development, production, and use for a wide range of applications. However, the rapid pace of development for these emerging materials with unclear/unknown toxicity profiles makes it difficult to adequately assess health risk associated with exposure. One critical obstacle which limits scientific research to fill these critical knowledge gaps is the lack of accurate and predictive models for nanotoxicology studies, particularly those which involve occupationally relevant exposure scenarios (pulmonary exposure to low dose of particles in the circulating air). Typically, animal models are used to assess potential systemic …

Examining The Intersection Of Gender And Age In Victim Blaming, Jerin Lee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Victim blaming refers to an attributional tendency in which some level of responsibility for a negative outcome is placed on victims (Maes, 1994). Many victims of crimes face stigmatization in the form of blame from friends, acquaintances, the criminal justice system, media, strangers, and even perpetrators of the crimes themselves (e.g., Cross, Parker, & Sansom, 2019; Gordon & Riger, 1991). Victim characteristics, type of crime, and observer characteristics all influence victim blaming tendencies. However, no studies to date have tested whether these factors in combination elicit differential reactions to victims of crimes. The present research tested how the intersection of …

Psychological Trauma And Resilience Of Police Officers Involved In An Ambush: An Exploratory Study, Erin A. Teaff

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Law enforcement officers are widely recognized as having one of the most dangerous and stressful occupations, which can lead to lasting physical and psychological impacts. While research has examined the psychological trauma and resilience experienced by police officers, there have been very few research studies involving ambushes. Due to the continued risk of ambushes on police officers, gaining insight into the trauma and resilience of officers during these types of situations would be beneficial in providing psychologists with information to aid in their treatment officers involved in an ambush and similar unprovoked attacks. The primary aim of this study was …

Music Technology, Gender, And Sexuality: Case Studies Of Women And Queer Electroacoustic Music Composers, Justin Thomas Massey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This document aims to contribute to the established scholarship that highlights the role gender and sexuality has with one’s fundamental relationship to composition and music technology. The profession of electronic music composition and music production are strongly associated with notions of power and control, as much of this technology was built during the World Wars and Cold War. These aggressive views have created gendered language and metaphors in the field. Metaphors are the primary way in which we accommodate and assimilate information and experience to our conceptual organization of the world. It is at the source of our capacity to …

Folk-Song To Formal Performance: Interpreting The Songs Of Jean Ritchie For Voice Recital, Julianne E. Laird

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to identify the value of incorporating American folk-song into a formal voice recital program, specifically the collections and compositions of Jean Ritchie. This qualitative study identified criteria for choosing specific folk-songs to include in formal recital, assessed quality in a folk-song arrangement, discussed suitable instrumentation for accompaniment, and suggested appropriate performance practices for concert performance. New folk-song literature was discovered through accessing original unpublished sources in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. Finally, a format and program for incorporating the collected and composed folk-songs of Jean Ritchie in formal recital was …

Engineering Plasmonic Nanostructures For Light Management And Sensing, Sujan Phani Kumar Kasani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The two major global problems are to provide health safety and to meet energy demands for ever growing population on a large scale. The study of light interaction with nanostructures has shown a promising solution in improving the fields of bio-sensor and solar energy devices which addresses above mentioned two major global problems. Nanostructures have tunable physicochemical properties such as light absorption, electrical and thermal properties unlike bulk materials, which gives an advantage in applications like bio-sensing and energy harvesting devices. The development of nanofabrication techniques along with the discovery of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) and Plasmon Enhanced Fluorescence …

The Impact Of Post Translational Modification On The Aggregation Of The Ss-Amyloid Peptide In The Presence Or Absence Of Lipids, Albert Walton Pilkington Iv

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition afflicting 5.7 million Americans with no effective treatments. The pathology of AD is described by the formation of neurotoxic oligomers formed by the self-assembly of amyloid-β (Aβ). The affinity of oligomers for cellular membranes disrupts calcium homeostasis and is believed to be the underlying cause of neurotoxicity; however, due to the metastability of oligomers, it has been difficult to understand their role in membrane interactions and self-assembly. Here we utilize post translational modifications (PTM) to understand the role of specific amino acids on Aβ₄₀-membrane interactions and self-assembly. We employ ThT, AFM, …

Making Armenian Politically Exposed Persons’ Money Public: A Data-Driven Journalism Project That Aims To Create A Database Of Armenian Mps’ Assets, Ani Hovhannisyan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This data-driven journalism project tackles an age-old problem that seems common in virtually every government around the world: governmental officials hiding assets. By applying the theory of social responsibility, this paper uses data-journalism methods to trace the full financial assets of Armenian members of parliament and eventually making those assets and income declarations available via an interactive website to the Armenian public as well as other journalists throughout the country and region.

Does Post-Secondary Coursework Predict Perceived Sales Success?, Briana Justin

Education

A sales career is common for recent graduates of post-secondary institutions. Looking to see if post-secondary coursework completed predicts perceived sales success assists new and upcoming programs to determine the most beneficial ways to prepare students. This study asks sales representatives at a major U.S. based corporation to answer in what ways their different levels of post-secondary coursework assists in their sales careers.

Consequential Validity And Social Studies Education: An Examination Of Standards, Assessment Policies, And Teacher Preparation, Michael Scott Learn

Education

Educational quality is a way to influence the future of the American economy (Hanushek, 1986). Large-scale assessments are designed to determine quality in education by measuring student achievement. A connection exists between the standards, teachers, and assessments that form a system of accountability within education. State and national accountability policies place value in certain educational fields, thereby preferring some while excluding others. As a result, accountability systems influence the field of social studies in several unanticipated ways. Consequential validity suggests that assessments should include value implications and relevance (Messick, 1989). While assessment research examines the disciplines of mathematics, science, and …

The Impact Of Educational Technology Integration On School-Based Agricultural Education Teacher Self-Efficacy, Macey Renae Kleinjan

Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of educational technology integration on school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teacher self-efficacy. In-service SBAE teachers from four upper middle-western states were surveyed to assess their current teacher self-efficacy in terms of educational technology in their classroom and curriculum. According to the findings of this study, SBAE teachers are using educational technology in their classroom and curriculum daily and are only slightly confident in their ability to do so. It is recommended that teachers participate in professional development which is focused on not only how to use educational technology, but also on …

Using The Common Measures Evaluation Tool In North Dakota: A Qualitative Study, Amelia Kaye Doll

Education

Using a basic qualitative approach, interviews were conducted with five agents in North Dakota with a range of experiences and lengths of service to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of Common Measures, a set of survey instruments designed to assess the impact of the 4-H program. The study addresses the culture of North Dakota Extension’s views on evaluation and the implementation of Common Measures. The use of a state-wide reporting tool to assess the 4-H program in North Dakota was perceived as necessary, however, many agents felt Common Measures, missed the mark and did not meet the North Dakota reporting. …

Regeneration Enhances Metastasis: A Novel Role For Neurovascular Signaling In Promoting Melanoma Brain Metastasis., Roshini Prakash, Sivan Izraely, Nikita S Thareja, Rex H Lee, Maya Rappaport, Riki Kawaguchi, Orit Sagi-Assif, Shlomit Ben-Menachem, Tsipi Meshel, Michal Machnicki, Shuichi Ohe, Dave S B Hoon, Giovanni Coppola, Isaac P Witz, S Thomas Carmichael

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Neural repair after stroke involves initiation of a cellular proliferative program in the form of angiogenesis, neurogenesis, and molecular growth signals in the surrounding tissue elements. This cellular environment constitutes a niche in which regeneration of new blood vessels and new neurons leads to partial tissue repair after stroke. Cancer metastasis has similar proliferative cellular events in the brain and other organs. Do cancer and CNS tissue repair share similar cellular processes? In this study, we identify a novel role of the regenerative neurovascular niche induced by stroke in promoting brain melanoma metastasis through enhancing cellular interactions with surrounding niche …

Lipid-Polymer Hybrid Nanoparticles As A Next-Generation Drug Delivery Platform: State Of The Art, Emerging Technologies, And Perspectives., Anubhab Mukherjee, Ariana K Waters, Pranav Kalyan, Achal Singh Achrol, Santosh Kesari, Venkata Yenugonda

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPHNPs) are next-generation core-shell nanostructures, conceptually derived from both liposome and polymeric nanoparticles (NPs), where a polymer core remains enveloped by a lipid layer. Although they have garnered significant interest, they remain not yet widely exploited or ubiquitous. Recently, a fundamental transformation has occurred in the preparation of LPHNPs, characterized by a transition from a two-step to a one-step strategy, involving synchronous self-assembly of polymers and lipids. Owing to its two-in-one structure, this approach is of particular interest as a combinatorial drug delivery platform in oncology. In particular, the outer surface can be decorated in multifarious ways …

Bioprinting Of Pancreatic Cancer Cells For Improved Drug Testing, Chad Austin Rehovsky

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Currently, many drugs are preclinically tested on two-dimensional cell cultures. However, this method does not adequately replicate the cellular interactions or diffusion gradient that occur in three-dimensional tissues, leading to poor indicators of how a drug may affect human tissues. The objective of this project was to use bioprinted pancreatic cancer cell cultures as a platform for three-dimensional drug testing. Various bioink formulations of cellulose, gelatin, and alginate were evaluated to determine which provided the best printability and cell viability. A cellulose nanocrystal and alginate hydrogel showed superior printability due to its shear thinning properties. Additionally, initial cell viability was …

Teoria Da Crise E A Queda Da Taxa De Lucro, David Harvey

Publications and Research

Abstract:

David Harvey’s article argues against the importance given to the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF), suggest­ing that Marx derived the « law » under « draconian » assumptions and that Engels was far more enthusiastic about it than Marx, who never went back to the theory later in his life despite its evident incompleteness. Therefore, he argues, we should not take his the­oretical conclusions too far. In his view, Marx perceived crises as momentary and violent eruptions that resolve the existing contra­dictions which can be considered as opportunities of capitalist re­construction rather …

Desarrollo Y Evaluacion De Folletos Para Ensenar La Clase De Etica Y Valores En La Institucion Educativa Agropecuaria Adventista Del Llano (Instival), Colombia, Oscar Eduardo González Lucumí

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Colombia’s educational system currently requires the teaching of a course called Educación Ética y en Valores Humanos [Education in Ethics and Human Values] in all institutions providing elementary and high school education. For the teaching of this course, the Seventh-day Adventist Agricultural Education Institute of the Plains (INSTIVAL, by its Spanish acronym) does not have its own support material in harmony with the educational philosophy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This situation has created the need to design, implement, and evaluate booklets to be used when teaching this course from sixth grade to eleventh grade.

Purpose

The purpose of …

Desarrollo E Implementacion De Un Programa De Entrenamiento Para Predicadores Laicos En Las Iglesias Adventistas Del Distrito De Fort Washington, Nueva York, S. Yeury Ferreira

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The task of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate a training program for lay preachers in the Seventh-day Adventist churches within the district of Fort Washington, New York, where the author of this document has served as pastor since 2014. Given that this missionary district comprises three churches (Fort Washington, Washington Avenue, and Luz y Esperanza), it is impossible for the pastor to always preach in every one of those congregations, Therefore, the preaching responsibility falls on the shoulders of church elders and other lay preachers. Pastoral observation indicates that, out of the 400 church members who …

Comparative Legal History. Edited By Olivier Moréteau, Aniceto Masferrer, And Kjell A. Modéer. Cheltenham, Uk; Northampton, Ma: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019 [Book Review], Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

Comparative Legal History stands out for both its content and its execution. At a time when most law schools devote themselves to the study of hic et nunc (here and now), Comparative Legal History proves there is something more than the rather dogmatic and pragmatic description of what is traditionally recognized as the law. In an age of hyper specialization, it discredits the absurd notion of law as (hard) science. Law, a human product, can easily be the object of scientific observations, but does that scientific observation need to be limited to the study of rules and norms in force …

Toward A More Visually Literate Writing Classroom: An Analysis Of Visual Communication Pedagogy And Practices, Darren Allan Zufelt

English

“Toward a More Visually Literate Writing Classroom: An Analysis of Visual Communication Pedagogy and Practices” examines the teaching of visual communication in undergraduate professional and technical communication courses. Through an analysis of scholarship, textbooks, I argue that a situated visual communication pedagogy that integrates both analysis and reflection throughout the visual production and design process can better allow students to understand the ways in which the visual participates within larger social and cultural contexts. This understanding helps students develop abilities to potentially transform visual discourses emphasizing that all visual documents and texts, including the ones they produce, participate in shaping …

Submission To The U.N. Human Rights Committee In Relation To The List Of Issues Of The United States Concerning The Unsafe Dumping And Mismanagement Of Coal Ash In Puerto Rico, Sarah Dávila A.

Faculty White Papers

The IHRC has investigated the human rights abuses arising out of the environmental injustices imposed on communities in the southern municipalities of Puerto Rico that represent violations of international human rights, and specifically of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”). Since 1994, Applied Energy Systems (“AES”), a private American energy company, has been responsible for continued coal ash contamination of the southern coastal region of Puerto Rico.[i] AES coal-fired power plants in Puerto Rico have released toxic amounts of coal ash into the air and water, negatively impacting air quality and drinking water for residents in …

Going To Extremes: The National Parent Teacher Association And Political Extremism In The 1960s, Sarah E. Heath

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In the 1960s, the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) reported efforts at “infiltration” by conservative extremist groups, including the John Birch Society (JBS). Extremists sought to take over PTA meetings to obtain a mainstream platform for minority opinions. The PTA parried extremists’ efforts with a deluge of activities and publications dedicated to democratic fair play and research-based approaches to education. In spite of a coherent plan for dealing with such techniques in the 1960s, the methods used by the Birch Society and other conservative extremist groups appear to have resumed in contemporary educational discussions. Once again, opinions that appeal to …

Law Is Not Enough, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

In this Carhart Memorial Lecture, Professor Neil Siegel seeks to explain why, over the past several years, many Americans of diverse ideological commitments have been emphasizing the importance of constitutional norms. It is because they understand that law is not enough to sustain the American constitutional project. Why is law not enough? Because the vitally important purposes that Americans ascribe to the U.S. Constitution require more than legal fidelity for their vindication. Constitutional norms are constitutional in the sense that they are closely tied to the purposes, or spirit, of the Constitution. They are constitutional in the sense that it …

Functional Colloids From Amphiphilic Polymer Assemblies And Peptides/Polypeptides, Oksana Zholobko

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

The use of responsive polymers, where even minor changes in one of the macromolecular characteristics triggered by the external stimuli can cause drastic changes in the material function or performance, is widely studying area of research. Formation of the thermodynamically stable polymer-peptide colloids, such as mixed micellar assemblies or polymer-enzyme conjugates, loading capacity of the colloids, and cargo activity all depend on the macromolecular interactions within the peptide/polypeptide-polymer system. The goal of this work is to investigate interactions between range of new polymers and various cargo molecules and determine whether those interactions affect the physicochemical properties of the resulted colloids. …

The Dangers Of International Awards: A Lesson From Aung San Suu Kyi’S Nobel Peace Prize, Taylor Rae Mcmillin

Communication

Having spent over 20 years under house arrest fighting for democracy in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has been a bastion for peace for decades. She has received many international awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, which she accepted in person in 2012. The plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, has marred Suu Kyi’s reputation as a bastion of peace, leading to calls for her to lose her Peace Prize. Why is it that Suu Kyi’s image as the future of peace so different from reality? That question is what this research attempts to answer. …

I’M Not Who I Am: Self-Presentation In Online Communities, Aaron Christian Cross

Communication

This dissertation was performed with the aim of understanding more about how people interact with and deceive one another in an online context. To build that understanding, the study was motivated by five research questions: (1) How do users experience the process of misrepresenting themselves to others? (2) How do users present themselves in online contexts in which they may not feel comfortable with portraying themselves fully? (3) How do perceived norms and expectations within groups inform users’ self-presentations? (4) How do users’ perceptions of who will view their information impact self-representation? (5) How do perceived affordances impact how users …