Digital Commons Network^™

Zu Viel Zukunft!, Grace Brecht

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Punk rock developed in the 1970s and local scenes developed throughout Europe and the United States. East Germany was no exception. Despite — and because of — the brutal state-sponsored violence against and repression of anyone who did not conform to the government’s ideals, punk flourished in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Although the initial exposure to punk came via English punk bands on West German radio, the Eastern punks had little interest in the West and were largely anti-capitalist. Instead, they focused their attention on their own country and on the vast social reform needed there. The punks channeled their …

Creating An Educational Intervention To Combat Nursing Incivility Benchmark Study, Kathleen P. Melancon

MSN Capstone Projects

When most people reflect on the nursing as a profession, the term compassionate typically comes to mind. The association with compassion is no surprise as nursing is considered to be the most compassionate profession in the world. Nurses, by trade and in all areas of practice, have an ethical and professional responsibility to create and uphold an environment of mutual respect and civility. However, the notion of “nurses eat their young” and the behaviors that stem from this mindset are causing detrimental effects not only to those organizations employing nurses but to patients and the nurses themselves.

Over the last …

An Unbroken Thread: African American Exclusion From Jury Service, Past And Present, Alexis Hoag

Louisiana Law Review

The article examines the historical exclusion and contemporary underrepresentation of African Americans from jury service in the U.S. as of October 2020, and proposes legal and policy solutions to increase their representation in jury pools.

The Surprising Views Of Montesquieu And Tocqueville About Juries: Juries Empower Judges, Renée Lettow Lerner

Louisiana Law Review

Both Montesquieu and Tocqueville thought that an independent judiciary was key to maintaining a moderate government of ordered liberty. But judicial power should not be exercised too openly, or the people would view judges as tyrannical. In Montesquieu's and Tocqueville's view, the jury was an excellent mask for the power of judges. Both Montesquieu and Tocqueville thought that popular juries had many weaknesses in deciding cases. But, as Tocqueville made clear, the firm guidance of the judge in instructions on law and comments on evidence could prevent juries from going astray and make the institution a "free school" for democracy. …

Maintaining Team Vitality In The Asu Pacu During The Covid-19 Crisis, Melissa Eagleton

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Problem: COVID-19 has generated issues and concerns in the healthcare field for staff and clinical settings worldwide, especially for this ambulatory surgery unit post-anesthesia care unit (ASU PACU). Although there was no measurable quality gap, there was a concern for a decrease in patient safety, employee satisfaction, and burnout because the staff were required to become critical care nurses to provide care for the critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Context: The ASU PACU was a critical part of the surge plan if the hospital could no longer house the influx of COVID-19 patients. The unit was shut down entirely two …

To Reach The Unreachable Stars: Reexamining The Shared Arthurian Vision Of C. S. Lewis's Science Fiction Trilogy And Raymond Chandler's Marlowe Novels, Hollis Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although Raymond Chandler and C. S. Lewis seem to be a rather strange pairing, the ways in which they both borrow from Arthurian literature and use the myth to speak to their cultural moment are strikingly similar. Following T. S. Eliot’s use of the Grail quest in The Waste Land (which set a standard for the use of such material in Modern literature), these authors use Arthurian elements as a means of exposing hidden connections between the fragments of the literary past and the present within Chandler’s Marlowe novels and Lewis’s science fiction trilogy. Both men present Western identity as …

Pressure-Induced Formation And Mechanical Properties Of 2d Diamond Boron Nitride, Filippo Cellini, Francesco Lavini, Elton Chen, Angelo Bongiorno, Filip Popovic, Ryan L. Hartman, Remi Dingreville, Elisa Riedo

Publications and Research

Understanding phase transformations in 2D materials can unlock unprecedented developments in nanotechnology, since their unique properties can be dramatically modified by external fields that control the phase change. Here, experiments and simulations are used to investigate the mechanical properties of a 2D diamond boron nitride (BN) phase induced by applying local pressure on atomically thin h-BN on a SiO2 substrate, at room temperature, and without chemical functionalization. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations show a metastable local rearrangement of the h-BN atoms into diamond crystal clusters when increasing the indentation pressure. Raman spectroscopy experiments confirm the presence of a pressure-induced cubic BN …

Exposing Lettuce Plants To Cyanobacteria In A Closed Hydroponics System To Reduce Cyanobacterial Growth And Production, Emily Eberly

Honors Projects

Sandusky Bay is largely populated by cyanobacterial algal blooms, mainly formed by Planktothrix. Fertilizers containing nitrogen and phosphorus run from agricultural lands into the bay, building up excess nutrients forming eutrophic waters. The Planktothrix feed off these nutrients and grow into algal blooms. To determine a potential solution to the growth of these blooms, I implemented a hydroponics system involving Lactuca Sativa for analysis of Planktothrix growth and productivity. Four different nutrient conditions were added to a Planktothrix-only solution and a solution growing Planktothrix with the lettuce in the hydroponics system. The four conditions consisted of no nutrient …

Promoting 21st-Century Learning: Online Collaboration Through Design Thinking Framework For Today's Esl Students, Hande Yildiz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Learners of the 21st-century engage and learn differently than ever before. Policymakers and teachers are now challenged to makeshift into the 21st-century education model and adapt their approaches to better prepare the students for the future work world. 21st-century ESL classrooms should reflect this learning model through a more engaging, collaborative, and student-centered approach. Collaboration and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills are vital in 21st-century learning. Research shows that ESL learners can benefit from collaborative activities and the use of technology improves students' language reception and production. However, due to the lack of understanding of the paradigm shift in …

Reducing The Incidence Of Anaphylaxis Events In School Settings, Sabina L. Muresan

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Statistics show in a 2014 nationwide study that a 16% rate of anaphylaxis was reported in over five thousand schools. The anaphylactic reaction occurred between 79-83 % in classrooms and 12-15% in lunchrooms; 19% of the life-threatening reactions occurred on field trips, playgrounds, and other school events. Recent studies identified a knowledge deficit among school personnel when it comes to addressing food allergies.

Context: The microsystem that will benefit from this project is part of a broader educational organization, a School District, in San Jose, Ca. The organization serves over 9000 students with diverse backgrounds, rich in ethnic and …

Long-Term Exposure Of Human Endothelial Cells To Metformin Modulates Mirnas And Isomirs., Angelica Giuliani, Eric Londin, Manuela Ferracin, Emanuela Mensà, Francesco Prattichizzo, Deborah Ramini, Fiorella Marcheselli, Rina Recchioni, Maria Rita Rippo, Massimiliano Bonafè, Isidore Rigoutsos, Fabiola Olivieri, Jacopo Sabbatinelli

Computational Medicine Center Faculty Papers

Increasing evidence suggest that the glucose-lowering drug metformin exerts a valuable anti-senescence role. The ability of metformin to affect the biogenesis of selected microRNAs (miRNAs) was recently suggested. MicroRNA isoforms (isomiRs) are distinct variations of miRNA sequences, harboring addition or deletion of one or more nucleotides at the 5' and/or 3' ends of the canonical miRNA sequence. We performed a comprehensive analysis of miRNA and isomiR profile in human endothelial cells undergoing replicative senescence in presence of metformin. Metformin treatment was associated with the differential expression of 27 miRNAs (including miR-100-5p, -125b-5p, -654-3p, -217 and -216a-3p/5p). IsomiR analysis revealed that …

Identification Of Genes That Determine Fitness, Virulence, And Disease Outcomes In Mastitis Associated Eschericia Coli, Michael Andrew Olson

Theses and Dissertations

Escherichia coli is an incredibly diverse group of bacteria that consist of both commensal and pathogenic strains that cause disease in a wide variety of tissues in many different animals. The current dogma, based on years of extensive molecular and genetic studies, is that individual strains have adapted to specific environments through acquisition of specific genes or come from lineages that are particularly suited to a unique tissue or host. However, mastitis-associated E. coli (MAEC) have thus far resisted such descriptions. The fitness and virulence factors of MAEC are poorly understood and molecular tools are rarely applied. This dissertation reports …

Exploring Dialogue Journals As A Context For Connecting With And Supporting The Emotional Lives Of Fourth Graders, Samantha Simone Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

About 20 percent of school-aged children, 18 years and younger, struggle with mental health issues in America today. Mental health issues lead to greater rates of suicide, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and bullying that takes place in and out of schools. This exploratory multiple case study looks at how 10 fourth graders, five male and five female, use a weekly entry in a dialogue journal letter to their teacher to share their emotional lives. I explore how a dialogue journal can open up a space between students and teachers for emotional aspects of life and learning to be included in schools. …

Nature And Origin Of The East Traverse Mountains Mega-Landslide, Northern Utah (Usa), Rodney Ryan Chadburn

Theses and Dissertations

The East Traverse Mountains are an E-W trending mountain range dividing Utah and Salt Lake valleys in northern Utah. Geologically perplexing, the nature of the East Traverse Mountains has been under investigation for 140 years. Previously, the mountain range was proposed to be a dismembered but still coherent down-faulted block that experienced 4 km of post-thrusting extension within the Charleston-Nebo thrust sheet. However, new insight on the origin of the East Traverse Mountains indicate that it is a mega landslide, roughly ~100 km3 in size, which catastrophically slid from the upper reaches of the Little-Cottonwood stock to its present-day location. …

Relationship Between Diabetic Self-Management Education And Microvascular Complications In Adults With Type Ii Diabetes: An Integrative Review, Emily Hallberg

Master of Science in Nursing Final Projects

Aims. The aim of this integrative review is to explore the impact of diabetic self-management education on reduction or delay in progression of microvascular complications in adults age 18 and older.

Background. According to the Center of Disease Control, more than 34 million Americans have diabetes. Between 90 and 95% of them have type II diabetes making it the most prevalent type of diabetes. Microvascular complications are a sad reality for people diagnosed with diabetes with poor glycemic control. Microvascular complications of diabetes are long term complications that affect small blood vessels including neuropathy, nephropathy and retinopathy. These microvascular complications …

Through The Devil's Mirror: The Villain And The Sinthomosexual As Manifestations Of The Death Drive, Andrew Markus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lee Edelman’s No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004) offers a model for reading queer sexuality and societal place very much in line with that which begins to emerge in early Gothic literature, including Matthew Lewis’s The Monk: A Romance (1796). The Gothic villain aligns with Edelman’s sinthomosexual to illustrate a pattern of victimization and retaliation which results in both the villain and sinthomosexual’s persistent abjection from the social order. However, a close reading of Lewis’s narrative for its depiction of psychological trauma rooted in sexual expression suggests that this queer negativity is not the sum total of …

The Diamond, December 11, 2020, Dordt University

Dordt Diamond

• Front Page: Dordt Ends Semester with 153 Total Recorded Positive COVID-19 Cases; Home to Quarantine: Dordt Students to Spend Last Two Weeks in Isolation; Saving Those Who Served
• News: Marriage Culture at Dordt University; Ed Starkenburg to Retire from Dordt University; Is Theft a Problem at Dordt?; Small Business Saturday a Life Vest to Some; Students on Campus During Online Learning
• Feature: A Fractured Faith; Rain or Snow, Hot or Cold, 712 Nutrition Has the Healthy Treat for You; Married Professors Share Their Story; De Vries' Agricultural Journey; Custom Clips and College Profits; Buker Brought to Dordt
• Art & Entertainment: …

Volcanoes & Other Yards, Rebeca Flores

Master's Theses

Volcanoes & Other Yards is a collection of short stories set in the yards of California, Mexico, and El Salvador. Characters see the manifestations of their labor through imagination and purposeful acts of play. Working class characters are pushed to eruptions that make them question what it means to witness racism, capitalism, and noble acts of good. They undergo solitude, loss of home, and welfare lines, and they witness their country gas children, government intrusions, and grief. To reconcile with their generational trauma, they must encounter land and labor. The collection explores the idea of an imaginary volcano to bring …

Effects Of Agricultural Intensification Practices On Smallholder Farmers’ Livelihood Outcomes In Kenyan Hotspots Of Climate Change, F. O. Ouya, O. I. Ayuya, M. I. Kariuki

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Developing countries, Kenya included are mostly affected by food shortage and poverty as a result of high dependence on agriculture constrained by climate variability, declining land sizes and low agricultural technologies. Agricultural intensification is key in solving these problems to ensure increased farm output per unit land area. This study analyzed the role of agricultural intensification on smallholders’ poverty and food security status. The study is based on data collected from a sample of 320 smallholder households from two Sub-counties of Kenya, Makueni and Nyando. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was first used to group agricultural intensification practices into clusters. The …

Noted Mirrors, Dennis Spears

Master's Theses

Noted Mirrors seeks exploration, it seeks discovery it seeks experience. I think, like most of us, I’ve often had far more wonders than answers, but I often like it that way. Noted Mirrors tries to understand a romance that frightened, a friend taken away too soon that crippled. An unconditional love from grandparents and a mother that rescued. A relationship with an absent father that poisoned. Revelational relationships with familiar strangers that taught so much in the form of freeing. A fascination with Redwoods and Orcas that brought so much life into merely being. And a curiosity of the abstract …

Niche Dynamics Of The Felid Guild Following The Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction, Nicholas A. Freymueller

Biology ETDs

The loss of large carnivores is fundamentally restructuring modern mammal communities. However, large carnivore removal is not exclusively a modern trend. The Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction (PME) resulted in a near-eradication of hyper-carnivorous felids such as saber-toothed cats. However, it is unclear if smaller surviving meso-felids began to infill this ecological vacuum post-PME. I apply Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM) to test evaluate whether surviving felids filled in vacant niches post-extinction, and hypothesize that they ought to have shown increased niche-overlap patterns with mega-felids post-extinction. I model species’ fundamental niches using a multi-temporal approach, and develop a novel test to model realized …

New Mexico In Depth Interviews Vinay Harpalani: Complexity Of Colorism, Vinay Harpalani, Claudia Silva

Faculty Scholarship

“Our discourse on race in this country has largely been framed around black or white,” said University of New Mexico civil rights law professor Vinay Harpalani.

But assumptions about varying shades of skin color can, for example, lead someone who is Indian, like himself, to be mistaken as Hispanic, he said.

Academics who’ve studied racial discrimination say discrimination based on a person’s skin-tone exists across many racial and ethnic groups and generally manifests as a systematic preference for lighter skin over darker skin.

Harpalani explains it can be the other way around in some instances, such as the bullying Clark …

Maternal Prenatal Cortisol Programs The Infant Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis, Jessica L. Irwin, Amy L. Meyering, Gage Peterson, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Laurel M. Hicks, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

One of the key proposed agents of fetal programming is exposure to maternal glucocorticoids. Experimental animal studies provide evidence that prenatal exposure to elevated maternal glucocorticoids has consequences for hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis functioning in the offspring. There are very few direct tests of maternal glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, during human pregnancy and associations with infant cortisol reactivity. The current study examined the link between maternal prenatal cortisol trajectories and infant cortisol reactivity to the pain of inoculation in a sample of 152 mother-infant (47.4% girls) pairs. The results from the current study provide insight into fetal programming of the infant …

How Palestinian Aid Organizations Adapt To The Possibility Of Further Annexation And Rights Abuses In The Wake Of "The Deal Of The Century", Nadia L. Wiggins

Capstone Collection

This research explores the question, “To what extent has the ‘Deal of the Century’ impacted Palestinian aid organizations, and how might it impact them in the future?” The significance of this question lies in the fact that the “Deal of the Century” claims to solve one of the longest and most complex conflicts, yet it has not been sufficiently analyzed from a Palestinian perspective nor a humanitarian perspective. Furthermore, by presenting scholarly critiques of the deal and aid worker’s concerns, my hope is that an American audience may be convinced of the complicity of our government in devising a failed …

Displaying Information Relating To Selected Text, Lukas Zilka, Jacek Jurewicz, Abodunrinwa Toki, Jan Althaus

Defensive Publications Series

A device (e.g., a mobile phone, a camera device, a smart display, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a gaming system, a media player, an e-book reader, a television platform, a vehicle infotainment system or head unit, etc.) may display useful information such as a translation, definition, and/or description of text selected on the device by a user. The user may select text, such as a character, word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, passage, etc. on the device (e.g., by using a long press, drag, tap, click, or other gesture or input) to cause a language identification module to …

The Effects Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Humanitarian Aid Operations In Jordan, Hana Driss

Capstone Collection

Abstract

This is a qualitative descriptive exploratory study on the effects of humanitarian aid operations during the onset of Covid-19 through the perspective of aid workers in Jordan. The kingdom of Jordan was chosen for this study due to the country’s place as a humanitarian oasis in a region in crisis and to the government mandating one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in response to Covid-19. These measures closed borders and completely halted inter-city travel within Jordan, making the delivery of aid to refugees and inaccessible communities difficult. Ten participants were contacted and interviewed for this study. Each …

Pragmatic Approach To The Analysis Of Expressing Connotative Meaning In The English And Uzbek Literary Texts, Mukharam Khayatovna Alimova, Jilina O. Yu

Central Asian Journal of Education

The article deals with the expression of connotation in the English and Uzbek literary texts proceeding from the pragmatic approach to the analysis. In the paper the utterances selected from the English and Uzbek literary texts manifest the expression of various shades of connotation on the phonetic, phonological, lexical, morphological and syntactical levels of the language. The analysis of the English and Uzbek literary texts shows that in spite of the fact that English and Uzbek languages belong to different typological systems and different genealogical families there are a lot of common similarities in expressing connotation. On the basis of …

Artistic Aspects Of The Performing Interpretation Of Piano Ensemble Music By The Ligeti György, Marat Gumarov, Madina Fayziyeva, Vladimir Ovchinnikov

Eurasian music science journal

This article is the result of international scientific collaboration of leading pianists-performers from Uzbekistan and Russia. Turning to the study of piano ensemble music by György Ligeti (1923-2006), the authors focus on piano pieces in four hands that date back to the early period of the leader of the modern musical avant-garde, revealing their artistic world, reflecting the composer's aesthetics. The aim is to study Ligeti's works for piano in four hands, revealing their stylistic features. The musical material for the study is original miniatures for the four-handed piano (March and Three Wedding Dances), in which the composer's innovative style …

Mental Health Stigma: A Wicked Problem (Slides), Katelyn Yoh

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Mental health stigma began in the 5th century, continued through the 18th century, and began to improve in the 1840s. Mental health has been viewed as negative and those who suffer from a mental illness or disorder also suffer from stigma as well as negative consequences, such as other mental health concerns, physical issues, and psychological issues due to stigma. This paper goes into deep detail about what mental health stigma is, how stigma is used from peers and internalizes and creates self stigma, what the results of stigma are (all negative), and lastly ways to help put an end …

Osl Newsletter, Office Of Student Life

Newsletters

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