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2019

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Plastics, The Environment And Society: Current Consensus And Future Directions, Richard C. Thompson, Sabine Pahl Jan 2019

Plastics, The Environment And Society: Current Consensus And Future Directions, Richard C. Thompson, Sabine Pahl

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

In less than 60 years, plastics have transformed our daily lives. Usage is increasing and now exceeds 330 million tonnes per annum. In this concluding chapter we summarise current understanding about the benefits and concerns of plastics usage and look to future priorities, challenges and opportunities. It is clear that plastics bring many societal benefits and offer the potential for further advances in medical and technological applications, as well as carbon reductions. However, it is also widely acknowledged that current production, use and disposal of plastics is not sustainable. Our understanding of the issues associated with end of life plastics …


Empowerment Through Architecture: Designing Refugee Habitats To Empower Rohingya Refugees In Kutupalong, Bangladesh, Laura Salmela Jan 2019

Empowerment Through Architecture: Designing Refugee Habitats To Empower Rohingya Refugees In Kutupalong, Bangladesh, Laura Salmela

Architecture Theses

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 602,400 Rohingya refugees reside in the Kutupalong-Balukhali Expansion Site. Located along the coast of south eastern Bangladesh, the camp has become a haven for the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority who have fled their native country of Myanmar. When Myanmar broke out in violence on August 2017, 671,000 Rohingya were forcefully and violently driven out of their homes by the government. This influx of refugees fled into Bangladesh within a single year, most arriving to the Kutupalong camp within a two month window. With rapid vigor, a camp of approximately 14,000 …


Adytrack: A Model For Structural Analysis Of Railroad Trackbed Using Random Finite Element Method, Asif Arshid Jan 2019

Adytrack: A Model For Structural Analysis Of Railroad Trackbed Using Random Finite Element Method, Asif Arshid

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Railroads are playing pivotal role to the economic growth of United States and trackbeds ensure their safe and smooth operations. However, reliable trackbed performance prediction has always been challenging due to many reasons, for instance materials characterization, deteriorations of materials and geometries due to railways operation and environmental changes etc. All these factors exhibit varying levels of intrinsic variabilities and uncertainties. These variations and uncertainties are completely ignored in most of the state-of-the-practice problems due to lack of availability of robust models that can characterize variations in materials, geometries, and/or loadings. In this study, a Random Finite Element based three-dimensional …


The Impact Of Dissent And Workplace Freedom Of Speech On Employees’ Well-Being, Blessing Ekene Okafor Jan 2019

The Impact Of Dissent And Workplace Freedom Of Speech On Employees’ Well-Being, Blessing Ekene Okafor

Communication

This study examined the impact of dissent and workplace freedom of speech on employees’ well-being (subjective, psychological and workplace well-being). Data for the study were collected through an online survey distributed to employees of various organizations. The findings revealed that upward dissent was positively related to subjective well-being (consisting of life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect), psychological well-being, workplace well-being, and workplace freedom of speech. Lateral dissent was positively related to negative affect, workplace well-being and negatively related to life satisfaction and positive affect. However, there was no relationship between lateral dissent and psychological well-being. Workplace freedom of speech …


Introducing Parasocial Relationships To Family Communication Scholarship: A Tripartite Model Of Family Communication Patterns, Parental Management Of Children’S Parasocial Relationships, And Parent-Child Bonding, Shweta Arpit Srivastava Jan 2019

Introducing Parasocial Relationships To Family Communication Scholarship: A Tripartite Model Of Family Communication Patterns, Parental Management Of Children’S Parasocial Relationships, And Parent-Child Bonding, Shweta Arpit Srivastava

Communication

PSRs are one-sided, emotionally-tinged relationships with media characters such as Peter Pan, Batman; Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Mulan; and celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Rihanna, and Harry Stiles (Giles, 2000). This project situates children’s PSRs within the family communication environment by exploring the relationships between Family Communication Patterns (FCPs), parental management of PSRs, and perceptions of parent-child bonding. Four parental management of PSRs behaviors, Guiding, Prohibiting, Supporting, and Neutrality, were studied with respect to the Conversation and Conformity orientations of FCPs. Parental management behaviors of Guiding, Prohibiting, and Supporting had significant impacts on perceptions of parent-child …


“I Love You, But Shut Up And Do Something About It.”: An Appraisal Theory Exploration Of Tough Love, Samantha Jo Severance Jan 2019

“I Love You, But Shut Up And Do Something About It.”: An Appraisal Theory Exploration Of Tough Love, Samantha Jo Severance

Communication

This study aims to better understand tough love as a communication interaction, specifically focusing on defining and understand tough love from a receiver’s perspective. Thirteen respondents between the ages of 18-28 were recruited from a mid-sized Midwestern university. Flexible in-depth interviews were conducted given the exploratory nature of this study. Lazarus’ Appraisal Theory was used as a lens to better understand tough love as a process. Analysis of the data found that emotions in the primary appraisal phase are often negative, with codes such as hurt, angry, and embarrassed arising in the data. The secondary phase demonstrated the intentionality of …


Basic Cybersecurity Awareness Through Gaming, Vikas Krishnarao Kulkarni Jan 2019

Basic Cybersecurity Awareness Through Gaming, Vikas Krishnarao Kulkarni

Computer Science

The goal of this paper is to bring the basic awareness of cybersecurity among students so that they do not become a victim of cybercrime. Studies show that cybersecurity serious games support multiple well-established perspectives of learning and have the potential to motivate individuals to learn by keeping them in a state of flow. Educators use the Bloom’s revised taxonomy, as it provides an effective method for the students who are learning a topic. Bloom's revised taxonomy identifies six cognitive levels, starting from basic steps in learning to the more advances steps. This paper includes developing a game called DodgeTheThreats …


Design Of A Game For Cybersecurity Awareness, Jagjot Bhardwaj Jan 2019

Design Of A Game For Cybersecurity Awareness, Jagjot Bhardwaj

Computer Science

The primary objective of this paper is to use the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy educational objectives in creating a game called Cyber Air-Strike for learning basic concepts of cybersecurity. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is used to design the course material as it makes the learning process easy and effective. This taxonomy divides the course material into increasing levels of complexity starting from basic to advanced. A comprehensive literature was reviewed to understand the research domain and identify the gap in previous research. Cyber Air-Strike aims to target amateur computer users. They will acquire knowledge about the basic concepts of cybersecurity, the most …


Chasing The Dragon: The Social Construction Of The U.S. Opioid Epidemic, Jennafer Vondal Jan 2019

Chasing The Dragon: The Social Construction Of The U.S. Opioid Epidemic, Jennafer Vondal

Criminal Justice and Political Science

Utilizing a social construction perspective, this study uses a mixed method approach to examine the opioid epidemic. The study begins by identifying the numerous claims-making groups along with conducting a content analysis of the rhetoric and symbols used to legitimize the claims about the opioid epidemic. The data for the content analysis was obtained through a search of the websites, newsrooms, and pressrooms of claims-making groups. Additionally, the study examines and assesses the volume of money that is generated and allocated towards opioid research and prevention in an effort to determine who has more power to influence the policy initiatives. …


Mind In The External: A Rehabilitation Facility For The Clinically Depressed, Hannah E. Rummel Jan 2019

Mind In The External: A Rehabilitation Facility For The Clinically Depressed, Hannah E. Rummel

Architecture Theses

Recent studies in neuroscience suggest that our minds are actually projected into the outside world and the outside into our minds. By mixing this new knowledge with philosophy, research has shown that our built environment deeply effects our mental health. Rehabilitation facilities today are either extremely isolated or very under designed and closed off from the city around. My architecture acts as a solution to bring patients back into the city while remaining an open campus to facilitate a transition back into their own homes. The treatment center is focused on patients with depression and provides an environment that changes …


Perceptions Of Modern Meat-Animal Production From Consumers Two To Three Generations Removed From The Farm, Demetris Deon Reed Jan 2019

Perceptions Of Modern Meat-Animal Production From Consumers Two To Three Generations Removed From The Farm, Demetris Deon Reed

Animal Sciences

A consumer is defined as a person who purchases goods and services for personal use or a person or thing that eats or uses something (Merriam-Webster, 2019). Consumers either want or need to eat meat, whether it is for self-gratification or nutritive purposes. The modern consumer definition of “meat” has changed from the original hunter stalking prey to now contemporary livestock production practices that confine and feed sophisticated diets in an effort to achieve outstanding muscle-food quality. Those who produce and supply consumers with food and fiber must achieve a higher level of education in keeping with technological advances. Further, …


Anger From Within: The Role Of Emotions In Disengagement From Violent Extremism, Peter Simi, Steven Windisch, Daniel Harris, Gina Ligon Jan 2019

Anger From Within: The Role Of Emotions In Disengagement From Violent Extremism, Peter Simi, Steven Windisch, Daniel Harris, Gina Ligon

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

There is growing recognition about the similarities between generic criminality and violent extremism. Using data derived from a unique set of in-depth life history interviews with 40 former U.S. white supremacists, as well as previous studies of criminal desistance, we examine the emotional valence that characterizes actors' descriptions of the disengagement process. More specifically, results suggest that negative emotions (i.e., anger and frustration) directed toward the extremist group and oneself function as a catalyst for disengagement. Negative emotions become a source of motivation in re-evaluating the relative importance of the group as it relates to the individual. Ultimately, the reevaluation …


Reflection: The Las Vegas Strip - Introducing Big Data Into Project Planning For User Informed Design, Evan Lecy Jan 2019

Reflection: The Las Vegas Strip - Introducing Big Data Into Project Planning For User Informed Design, Evan Lecy

Landscape Architecture Theses

Every world class city has a landmark, in Vegas it is “The Strip." Yet, this important gateway to Las Vegas venues is little more than a 10 lane downtown street controlled by stop lights. Reminiscent of 1970’s streets in downtown Atlanta, LA or Dallas. Many public review platforms such as TripAdvisor, Expedia, we8there, Foursquare, Google places, etc. have collected an increasing amount of feedback in the form of unstructured user reviews. These reviews are self-posted, volunteer created text about user experiences with products and services which differs from surveys asking targeted questions. Studies show that the Hospitality industries adoption of …


Parental Influence On Mate Selection In Modern Chinese Society, Szu-Yu Lin, Richard B. Miller, Li Ping Su-Kubricht, Jason Whiting, Roy Bean, Chih-Han Hsieh, Tsui-Shan Li Jan 2019

Parental Influence On Mate Selection In Modern Chinese Society, Szu-Yu Lin, Richard B. Miller, Li Ping Su-Kubricht, Jason Whiting, Roy Bean, Chih-Han Hsieh, Tsui-Shan Li

Faculty Publications

Traditional patterns of mate selection in Chinese societies involving arranged marriages by parents have been changing towards individual choice of a marriage partner. However, it is unclear to what extent this transition has occurred in Chinese society. The values and experiences of contemporary Chinese adults about parental influences on mate selection were addressed by conducting six focus groups in Taipei, Taiwan, which included a total of 51 participants. The results from qualitative analysis indicated that most participants did not feel obligated to have their parents' influence who they would marry. However, most of them wished for their parents to approve …


Online Blaming And Intimate Partner Violence: A Content Analysis Of Social Media Comments, Jason B. Whiting, Rachael Dansby Olufuwote, Jaclyn D. Cravens-Pickens, Alyssa Banford Witting Jan 2019

Online Blaming And Intimate Partner Violence: A Content Analysis Of Social Media Comments, Jason B. Whiting, Rachael Dansby Olufuwote, Jaclyn D. Cravens-Pickens, Alyssa Banford Witting

Faculty Publications

Social media has become a ubiquitous form of interacting and sharing information. However, comments on social media sites are often aggressive and contemptuous, especially when topics are controversial or politically charged. For example, discussion of intimate partner violence (IPV) tends to provoke strong reactions from outsiders, who make angry or blaming remarks about those involved. Although IPV is common, it has not been widely discussed in popular media until recent years when high-profile cases of abuse have come to light. In 2016, a celebrity accusation of domestic violence led to thousands of comments on social media, with outsiders weighing in …


Addressing Advance Directive In Rural Primary Care North Dakota: Implementing A Tool For Healthcare Providers, Ryan Michael Heisler Jan 2019

Addressing Advance Directive In Rural Primary Care North Dakota: Implementing A Tool For Healthcare Providers, Ryan Michael Heisler

Nursing

Advance directives are legal documents developed as a tool to allow patients to express their wishes and allow healthcare providers to educate and converse with their patients on disease prognosis and management. Advance directives promote shared decision making, thus enhancing quality medical decisions, improving quality of care at end-of-life, and under certain circumstances, even decreasing healthcare costs by refusing aggressive treatment (Garrido, Balboni, Maciejewski, Bao, & Prigerson, 2015; Hickman & Pinto, 2014). In the United States, less than 30% of the population have a completed advance directive (De Vleminck et al., 2013; Dunlay, Swetz, Mueller, Roger, 2012). The purpose of …


Assessing Postpartum Depression In The Refugee Population In A Primary Care Setting, Aminata Sankoh Kamara Jan 2019

Assessing Postpartum Depression In The Refugee Population In A Primary Care Setting, Aminata Sankoh Kamara

Nursing

Mental health is an area lacking emphasis in the United States healthcare systems. Many patients have suffered due to the decrease in focus and resources required to help individuals struggling with mental disorders (Lieberman, Goldman, Olfson, Pincus, & Sederer, 2017). While the struggle for adequate screening for mental illness continues, minority populations, such as refugee women, are affected more due to multifactorial risk factors and lack of treatment emphasis (Ganann, Sword, Thabane, Newbold & Black, 2016; Lieberman et al., 2017). Due to the increase in the number of refugees that migrate to the United States, particularly in the Midwest, healthcare …


Faith, Feminism, And Marriage: Institutions, Norms, And Relationship Quality, Jason S. Carroll, Spencer James, W. Bradford Wilcox, Richard Reeves, Laurie Derose Jan 2019

Faith, Feminism, And Marriage: Institutions, Norms, And Relationship Quality, Jason S. Carroll, Spencer James, W. Bradford Wilcox, Richard Reeves, Laurie Derose

Faculty Publications

In this essay, we explore the links between religion and relationship quality for cohabiting and married couples. Our evidence from an 11-country sample suggests men and women in highly religious couples enjoy significantly higher levels of relationship quality and sexual satisfaction. Joint decision-making, however, is higher among men in shared secular relationships and women in highly religious relationships, compared to their peers in less/mixed religious couples. We also find a J-Curve in overall relationship quality for women such that women in shared secular, progressive relationships enjoy comparatively high levels of relationship quality, women in the ideological and religious middle report …


Increasing Awareness Of The Role Of Breast Density As An Independent Risk Factor For Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study, Kari Motis Jan 2019

Increasing Awareness Of The Role Of Breast Density As An Independent Risk Factor For Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study, Kari Motis

Nursing

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the United States (U.S.), affecting one in every eight women (American Cancer Society, 2017). Dense breast tissue can mask or hide breast cancer, delaying identification of breast cancer and early treatment (Lei, Yang, Zhang, Wang & Yang, 2013). Breast density (BD) is an independent risk factor for breast cancer (Falcon, Williams, Weinfurtner, & Drukteinis, 2017). A woman’s mammogram determines BD. Current breast-screening guidelines vary from leading U.S. preventative organizations, making prevention education difficult for providers and patients to understand (Nguyen-Pham et al., 2014; Weaver & Gjesfjeld, 2014). …


Perceived Burdensomeness: Exploring Potential Vulnerability Factors, Brandon T. Saxton Jan 2019

Perceived Burdensomeness: Exploring Potential Vulnerability Factors, Brandon T. Saxton

Psychology

Suicide affects hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year. Despite many coordinated efforts to address this problem, in multiple domains, these numbers have risen over the last decade. The Interpersonal Theory of Suicide is a relatively recent theory that has received considerable attention and investigation. Perceived burdensomeness is one of the constructs from this theory. The belief that you are a burden on others is a robust predictor of suicidal ideation and, to a less understood extent, suicidal behavior. To my knowledge, few studies have looked at the factors that lead to perceived burdensomeness. This study was …


Does A Brief Mindfulness Intervention Improve Distress Tolerance Among Athletes?, Tharaki Siyaguna Jan 2019

Does A Brief Mindfulness Intervention Improve Distress Tolerance Among Athletes?, Tharaki Siyaguna

Psychology

Trait mindfulness has been found to be a beneficial characteristic of athletes. However, the research on mindfulness interventions has been limited, poorly described, and poorly designed. The current study sought to determine whether a brief mindfulness intervention improves distress tolerance among athletes. In addition, this experiment tested the impact of cultivating mindfulness on psychological variables that may be important for sport such as anxiety, happiness and capacity for stress. Athletes were randomly assigned to one of the three intervention conditions (brief mindfulness, sham mindfulness and no-intervention control). All participants completed distress tolerance measures, a motor performance measure under distressing conditions, …


Assessing The Neural Correlates, Sources And Consequences Of The Attentional Rhythm, Andrea Bocincova Jan 2019

Assessing The Neural Correlates, Sources And Consequences Of The Attentional Rhythm, Andrea Bocincova

Psychology

Evidence suggests that even when sustained at a single location, spatial attention waxes and wanes over time. These fluctuations are cyclic, lasting about 125-200 ms (i.e., ~4-8 Hz), and are characterized by alternating periods of focused attention to a single location together with exploratory periods during which attention is prone to switching to a new source of stimulation. Despite an increasing interest in this temporal property of spatial attention, multiple aspects of rhythmic attentional sampling remain to be explored. In this dissertation, I introduce and examine three unexplored areas related to this topic. The first area, addressed in Experiment 1, …


Drug Delivery Systems For Treatment Of Diabetes Mellitus, Divya Sharma Jan 2019

Drug Delivery Systems For Treatment Of Diabetes Mellitus, Divya Sharma

Pharmacy

Daily injections for basal insulin therapy are far from ideal resulting in hypo/hyperglycemic episodes associated with fatal complications in type-1 diabetes patients. The purpose of this study was to develop a thermosensitive copolymer-based in situ depot forming delivery system to provide controlled release of insulin for extended duration following a single subcutaneous injection, closely mimicking physiological basal insulin requirement. Size and nature of the incorporated therapeutic were observed to affect the release profile of insulin. Modification with zinc and chitosan preserved thermal, conformational, and chemical stability of insulin during the entire duration of storage (up to 9 months at 4 …


The Mediating Effects Of Intimacy Between Sibling Negative Body Talk And Body Dissatisfaction In Female Adolescents: The Forgotten Sibling Relationship, Emma Lynn Johnson Jan 2019

The Mediating Effects Of Intimacy Between Sibling Negative Body Talk And Body Dissatisfaction In Female Adolescents: The Forgotten Sibling Relationship, Emma Lynn Johnson

Human Development and Family Science

Body dissatisfaction has become so common that most girls and women will experience it at some point in their lives. Teasing and pressure from family members have been shown to be potent influences in the development of body dissatisfaction. However, most research conducted so far focuses on teasing and pressure from mothers, and neglects siblings altogether. I examined how appearance related teasing and pressure from siblings predicted body dissatisfaction and whether sibling intimacy mediated these relationships. Using survey data from 139 female adolescents, I found that appearance related teasing and pressure from siblings significantly predicted higher levels of body dissatisfaction. …


Longitudinal Associations Among Personality, Perceived Control, And Health For American And Japanese Aging Adults, Masahiro Toyama Jan 2019

Longitudinal Associations Among Personality, Perceived Control, And Health For American And Japanese Aging Adults, Masahiro Toyama

Human Development and Family Science

Perceived control is associated with health throughout adulthood, yet has also been found to decline with age possibly due to age-related experiences of increasing losses and limitations in life circumstances. Perceived control may also be affected by individual personality characteristics, which also predict health through late adulthood. Although previous studies have addressed these associations, research is lacking in examining nuanced associations among personality, perceived control, and health all together as well as age and gender differences in these associations. Moreover, perceived control may be related to individualistic values (e.g., autonomy, agency) that vary cross-culturally and the implications of perceived control …


Peer Crowd Affiliations As Predictors Of Prosocial And Risky Behaviors Among College Students, Vimbayi Sandra Chinopfukutwa Jan 2019

Peer Crowd Affiliations As Predictors Of Prosocial And Risky Behaviors Among College Students, Vimbayi Sandra Chinopfukutwa

Human Development and Family Science

College students often affiliate with similar peers, forming identity-based peer crowds. Research has shown that affiliations with certain peer crowds is associated with risky behaviors, thus derailing college success. This study examined whether college peer crowd affiliations predicted risky and prosocial behaviors. Participants were 527 students at a public university in the Midwest (aged 18 - 26). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that Counterculture and Athletic/Social affiliations positively predicted risky behaviors. Arts/Ethnic and Scholastic affiliations positively predicted prosocial behaviors and negatively predicted risky behaviors. In addition, hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that gender moderated the relation between peer crowd affiliation …


Supporting Youth Living In Family Homeless Shelters, Kelsy Reynaga Jan 2019

Supporting Youth Living In Family Homeless Shelters, Kelsy Reynaga

Human Development and Family Science

Supporting youth living in family homeless shelters is important as these families face multiple barriers in their lives. Youth have many strengths that they build upon which can be useful as they bounce from home to home. Youth living in homeless shelters with their family may lack resources to guide them as they navigate life. This paper specifically focuses on the Catholic Charities Emergency Family Homeless Shelter in the city of Des Moines, IA. This is a thirty-day shelter that offers case management for parents but has a lack of programming for youth. This writer reviewed two different family programs …


Identity Development And University Adjustment, Meghan Yerhot Jan 2019

Identity Development And University Adjustment, Meghan Yerhot

Human Development and Family Science

Colleges and universities across the U.S. continue their efforts to enroll students from diverse backgrounds. Those students from lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds and first in their family to attend college have been found to experience a great deal of challenges once enrolled. Individuals from different class backgrounds have been shown to experience a different form of socialization, which may influence their experiences in higher education both positively and negatively. There is limited research, however, on how the presence of internal and external characteristics influence the way in which students make sense of themselves within these new environments. This is particularly …


Iso 9001: 2015 Quality System Manual Development And Implementation For Business And Commerce With Expanded Emphasis On Risk Management, Mahmoud Hesham Ahmad Shawky Mostafa Jan 2019

Iso 9001: 2015 Quality System Manual Development And Implementation For Business And Commerce With Expanded Emphasis On Risk Management, Mahmoud Hesham Ahmad Shawky Mostafa

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

ISO 9001: 2015 is the latest edition of the Quality Management System from the International Standard Organization. One of the most noticeable changes about the new edition is the emphasis on risk-based thinking. This study introduces a template for developing a Quality Manual and a systematic approach to Risk Assessment using a risk-based decision-making framework embedded in the Quality Management System. An extensive discussion on decision-making, risk and opportunity analysis is provided with the aim of developing a seamless integration between QMS, risk analysis, and decision-making. This study proposes a decision-making framework that aligns ISO 9001 requirements with the decision-making …


Automated Speech Recognition In Adult Stroke Survivors: Comparing Human And Computer Transcriptions, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Gary Bishop Jan 2019

Automated Speech Recognition In Adult Stroke Survivors: Comparing Human And Computer Transcriptions, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Gary Bishop

Faculty Publications

Objective: Speech sound errors are common in people with a variety of communication disorders and can result in impaired message transmission to listeners. Valid and reliable metrics exist to quantify this problem, but they are rarely used in clinical settings due to the time-intensive nature of speech transcription by humans. Automated speech recognition (ASR) technologies have advanced substantially in recent years, enabling them to serve as realistic proxies for human listeners. This study aimed to determine how closely transcription scores from human listeners correspond to scores from an ASR system. Patients and Methods: Sentence recordings from 10 stroke survivors with …