Digital Commons Network^™

Park Place At North Main, Joseph Toledo, Adam Giordano, Rachel Bradshaw, Daniel Raynor

Master of Real Estate Development

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Investigated In Terms Of Disparities: An Analysis Of The Past, Present, And Future Of Public Health In Illinois, Hannah Deblock

University Honors College

As a relatively new topic, previous literature fails to address the relation of social determinants of health to COVID-19. By combining existing knowledge on previous epidemics, information on the role of social determinants of health, and data on COVID-19, conclusions can be made about the path going forward. Historically, nonpharmacologic interventions such as quarantine periods, face coverings, and social distancing have been used in epidemics such as the Spanish Influenza of 1918-19. In terms of social determinants of health, geographical location, educational level, and income level all play a part in the health of an individual. Rather than emphasizing personal …

Risk Factors Associated With Infection In Open Fractures Of The Upper And Lower Extremities, Paul Tornetta, Gregory J. Della Rocca, Saam Morshed, Clifford Jones, Diane Heels-Ansdell, Sheila Sprague, Brad Petrisor, Kyle J. Jeray, Gina Del Fabbro, Sofia Bzovsky, Mohit Bhandari, Gordon H. Guyatt, Stephen D. Walter, Emil H. Schemitsch, Jeffrey Anglen, Michael Bosse, Susan Liew, Parag Sancheti, Paula Mckay, Kim Madden, Kerry Tai, Lisa Buckingham, Aravin Duraikannan, Stephanie L. Tanner, Rebecca G. Snider, Douglas Altman, Rajiv Gandhi, Markus Bischoff, Bill Ristevski, Krishan Rajaratnam, Dale Williams, Flow Investigators

Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Publications

Introduction: Open fractures are associated with a high risk of infection. The prevention of infection is the single most important goal, influencing perioperative care of patients with open fractures. Using data from 2,500 participants with open fracture wounds enrolled in the Fluid Lavage of Open Wounds trial, we conducted a multivariable analysis to determine the factors that are associated with infections 12 months postfracture. Methods: Eighteen predictor variables were identified for infection a priori from baseline data, fracture characteristics, and surgical data from the Fluid Lavage of Open Wounds trial. Twelve predictor variables were identified for deep infection, which included …

Physiological And Anatomical Responses Of Douglas-Fir And Lodgepole Pine To Bark Beetle Attack And Blue-Stain Fungi Inoculations, Robert Walker

Master's Theses

Bark beetles are important native insect pests to conifer forests in North America and their irruptive beetle populations are of serious concern both ecologically and economically. As bark beetles bore into the phloem of a host tree to excavate brood galleries, they simultaneously deposit spores of blue-stain fungi. Both the partial girdling of the tree’s phloem by beetles and the blockage of xylem by fungi can overcome the tree’s defenses and cause its death. To combat colonization by insects and pathogens, conifers allocate large amounts of metabolic resources into defense mechanisms, of which, resin ducts play important roles. As resin …

A Restorative Resource: Dance-Based Non-Profits That Operate To Benefit Sex Trafficked Victims, Jessica Coleman

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to bring awareness to dance-based non-profits which operate for the purpose of being a restorative resource for victims of sex trafficking. The goal of the researcher was to answer these five essential questions: Q1 What is the structure of the program? Q2 What are the outreach strategies being used to bring in participants? Q3 What kind of curriculum is being used in the program? Q4 What are the benefits that dance-based non-profits provide for victims of sex trafficking? Q5 How are the benefits of these programs being measured? This research was significant because with …

Participation In Ballroom Dancing: The Effects On The Social And Emotional Intelligence Of Adolescents, Ashley Baxter

Master's Theses

The goal of this study was to determine the impact that ballroom dancing had on the social and emotional intelligence of adolescents as well as to examine which areas of social and emotional intelligence were most affected by participating in ballroom dancing. In the text Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning: Research and Practice, there are five competencies of social-emotional intelligence as defined by Celene E. Domitrovich et al.: “. . . self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making” (6). The researcher examined the effect that ballroom dancing had on four out of five of these social-emotional …

Dignity And Respect In The Salsa Dance Classroom: Fostering Healthy Self-Esteem To Promote Compassion, Diana Sanchez

Master's Theses

Many students that have attempted to take salsa dance classes often express their disillusionment in the way in which they are treated by salsa dance instructors. Salsa dance classes have the possibility to function to awaken in the student greater integration with the society in which people live, while stimulating actions, improving self-esteem, and self-confidence, improving vocabulary, awakening sensitivity, attenuating shyness, as well as increasing communicative and social skills. If the content of a course is well designed and delivered with an intentional student-centered approach, it can positively contribute to greater and more sincere learning. In this sense, the objective …

With A Little Help From My Friends: Determining The Role Of Physical Activity And Belonging In Retention Of First-Year University Students, Bryson Kelly

Master's Theses

There exists an issue facing colleges and universities across the United States. Roughly 29% of first-year students do not return for their second year of school. Previous research has shown a significant relationship between a student’s sense of belonging or fit within the university and their decision to continue enrollment (retention). Physical activity has also been shown to have a significant relationship with a sense of belonging. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine if physical activity and sense of belonging predict retention of university students from their first year to their second year using a Relationships …

Rethinking Classical Ballet Pedagogy: Examining Advancements That Integrate A Modern Approach, Erika Lindblom

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to explore how recent advancements in technology and medical science have or have not pushed ballet pedagogy to evolve. Also examined were the principles of classical ballet that continue to be included despite current knowledge that these practices are outdated and may be unsafe. The 180-degree turn-out, dancing en pointe, and the grand plié were the specific areas of interest for this study. The following essential questions guided the research: Q1 What impact have advancements in anatomy and physiology had on ballet and ballet training? Q2 What are the origins of ballet principles such …

Strictly Ballroom: Examining How The Culture Of Collegiate Ballroom Dance Influences Body Image Perceptions, Rachel Neil

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence that collegiate ballroom dance programs have on participants’ body image perception and self-esteem and to identify what sort of effect those perceptions have on performance satisfaction. In this project the researcher surveyed twenty-four students, ten males and fourteen females, who were presently involved in a collegiate ballroom dance program with a goal of identifying what sort of influence the culture of their ballroom dance programs had on each participant’s body image and self-esteem. The research instrument used in this study was an electronic survey that included yes or no questions, …

Educational Leadership Can Dance: A Deeper Look Into The Efficiency Behind Evaluations Of Dance Educators, Helen Brown

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to provide information on the issue of dance educator evaluation’s level of integrity, potential biases, and efficiency. Further, this study also acts as a review of current evaluation systems within public schools across the United States. The researcher received information about the evaluation systems from eleven dance educators in addition to how nine educational leaders evaluate their dance educators, along with one educational leader’s personal insight into their respective evaluation process. The research instruments utilized were online surveys and interviews. Both the surveys and interview responses were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, depending on …

A Two-Clone Approach To Study Signaling Interactions Among Neuronal Cells In A Pre-Clinical Alzheimer’S Disease Model, Catherine J. Yeates, Ankita Sarkar, Prajakta Deshpande, Madhuri Kango-Singh, Amit Singh

Biology Faculty Publications

To understand the progression of Alzheimer's disease, studies often rely on ectopic expression of amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) throughout an entire tissue. Uniform ectopic expression of Aβ42 may obscure cell-cell interactions that contribute to the progression of the disease. We developed a two-clone system to study the signaling cross talk between GFP-labeled clones of Aβ42-expressing neurons and wild-type neurons simultaneously generated from the same progenitor cell by a single recombination event. Surprisingly, wild-type clones are reduced in size as compared with Aβ42-producing clones. We found that wild-type cells are eliminated by the induction of cell death. Furthermore, aberrant activation of c-Jun-N-terminal …

Does The Presence Of Multiple Β-Lactamases In Gram-Negative Bacilli Impact The Results Of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Tests And Extended-Spectrum Β-Lactamase And Carbapenemase Confirmation Methods?, Fred C. Tenover, Caitlin M. Dela Cruz, Scott Dewell, Victoria M. Le, Isabella A. Tickler

Biology Faculty Publications

Objectives: Many multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli (MDR-GNB) harbour multiple β-lactamases. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of multiple β-lactamase carriage on the accuracy of susceptibility tests and extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and carbapenemase confirmation methods.

Methods: A total of 50 MDR-GNB, of which 29 carried multiple β-lactamases, underwent broth microdilution (BMD) and disk diffusion (DD) testing as well as confirmation tests for ESBLs and carbapenemases. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used for β-lactamase gene identification.

Results: Categorical agreement of BMD and DD testing results ranged from 86.5 to 97.7% for 10 β-lactam agents. BMD and DD algorithms for ESBL …

Identifying Depressive Symptoms From Tweets: Figurative Language Enabled Multitask Learning Framework, Shweta Yadav, Jainish Chauhan, Joy Prakash Sain, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth, Jeremiah Schumm

Publications

Existing studies on using social media for deriving mental health status of users focus on the depression detection task. However, for case management and referral to psychiatrists, healthcare workers require practical and scalable depressive disorder screening and triage system. This study aims to design and evaluate a decision support system (DSS) to reliably determine the depressive triage level by capturing fine-grained depressive symptoms expressed in user tweets through the emulation of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) that is routinely used in clinical practice. The reliable detection of depressive symptoms from tweets is challenging because the 280-character limit on tweets incentivizes the …

Vol 65 #6, Melanie Argo

MPLA Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Quantifying The Simultaneous Effect Of Socio-Economic Predictors And Build Environment On Spatial Crime Trends, Alfieri Daniel Ek

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Proper allocation of law enforcement agencies falls under the umbrella of risk terrainmodeling (Caplan et al., 2011, 2015; Drawve, 2016) that primarily focuses on crime prediction and prevention by spatially aggregating response and predictor variables of interest. Although mental health incidents demand resource allocation from law enforcement agencies and the city, relatively less emphasis has been placed on building spatial models for mental health incidents events. Analyzing spatial mental health events in Little Rock, AR over 2015 to 2018, we found evidence of spatial heterogeneity via Moran’s I statistic. A spatial modeling framework is then built using generalized linear models, …

Carbon Sequestration By Reforesting Legacy Grasslands On Coal Mining Sites, James F. Fox, J. Elliott Campbell, Peter M. Acton

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Future carbon management during energy production will rely on carbon capture and sequestration technology and carbon sequestration methods for offsetting non-capturable losses. The present study quantifies carbon sequestration via reforestation using measurements and modeling for recent and legacy surface coal mining grasslands that are re-restored through tree planting. This paper focuses on a case study of legacy coal mining sites in the southern Appalachia the United States. This five million-hectare region has a surface mining footprint of approximately 12% of the land area, and the reclamation method was primarily grassland. The results of the soil carbon sequestration rates for restored …

What's In A Name? An Assessment Of Degradation Of Women In The Name Of Climbing Routes, Raiza Barahona

Honors Theses

Gendered behavior is reinforced at an early age. In media, women are usually portrayed following gender stereotypical behaviors and are often sexualized, meaning that their worth is often determined by their body shape and clothing type and as such women are often wearing revealing clothing, following gender stereotypical behaviors, and portraying unrealistic body proportions (e.g., Gentlemen’s Quarterly Magazine; Collins, 2011). The representation of women in climbing media is similar to that of the general media. The present study focused on route names within the climbing community and presents a qualitative analysis on the sexism and other derogatory (i.e., overtly sexual) …

Politicized Prayer: How Thoughts And Prayers Hinder Gun Legislation, Hope Cody

Honors Theses

Thoughts and prayers are a strategic rhetorical tool, rather than a religious sentiment, when it comes to gun reform in the US. I confirm my three hypotheses: that the rhetorical use of thoughts and prayers do rise sharply after a mass shooting, that the use is centered in the gun rights coalition, and the use of thoughts and prayers is intentional. This establishes a direct link between the sending of thoughts and prayers and the lack of measurable gun reform laws in the United States.

Envisioning Success: A Naturalistic Investigation Into Prospective Memory Performance, Reminder Use, And Memory Strategies In An Academic Context, John Whittemore

Honors Theses

Prospective memory encompasses the ability to remember to carry out future intentions. Prospective memory performance is essential for students. College students are expected to remember and complete a variety of assignments on a daily basis. In these naturalistic experiments taking place before and after COVID-19, college students were required to set academic goals for themselves for three consecutive days following specific guidelines. Each day, the participant identified a time specific academic goal and a non-time specific academic goal. Participants were randomizing assigned experimental or control condition. The experimental group performed an episodic future thinking exercise during encoding. Additionally, each time …

Starting A Residential Real Estate Business, Caelan Shurina

Honors Theses

Hello fellow entrepreneur! It seems you have set your heart on residential real estate. Great! This guide explores the steps you will need to take to turn this interest into a profitable business in real estate investing. By laying out the discoveries I made while creating my own real estate management business in downtown Chattanooga, I’ve created a step by step guide to help you streamline the process from evaluating the market before you buy to selling the property after renovations are complete.

An Exploratory Study Of Occupational And Secondary Traumatic Stress Among A Mid-Sized Public Defenders’ Office, Elizabeth Dotson, David C. Brody, Ruibin Lu

Journal of Criminal Justice and Law

The impact of stress on the mental and physical well-being of criminal justice professionals is of critical import for the effective operation of the criminal justice system. While a number of studies have examined various forms of stress among law enforcement and correctional officers, minimal research has examined the presence and impact of stressors among individuals working in the criminal courts. This exploratory study examines whether indigent defense attorneys suffer from occupational stress and secondary traumatic stress. A survey of attorneys from a mid-sized public defender’s office were found to have symptoms of severe occupational stress as well as high …

Radio-Frequency Sensors For High Performance Liquid Chromatography Applications, Duye Ye

All Dissertations

As a fast-developing analytical technique for separation, purification, identification and quantification of components in a mixture, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been widely used in various fields including biology, food, environment, pharmacy and so on. As a critical part in the HPLC system, the detector with the feature of high sensitivity, universal detection and gradient-elution compatibility is highly desired. In this dissertation, two types of radio-frequency (RF) sensors for HPLC gradient applications are presented: a tunable interferometer (TIM) and a modified square ring loaded resonator (SRLR). For the TIM-based sensor, the sensitivity is evaluated by measuring a few common …

Development Of Cutaneotrichosporon Oleaginosus To Convert Lignin-Derived Phenolics To Oleochemicals, Allison Yaguchi

All Dissertations

Oleaginous yeasts have long been a target for developing industrial-scale biorefineries due to their ability to accumulate high amounts of lipids, synthesize complex chemicals and proteins, and robustly metabolize diverse feedstocks. In parallel, interest in lignocellulosic biomass as a feedstock has grown. While most processes focus on the carbohydrates from cellulose and hemicellulose, the most energy-dense biopolymer, lignin, remains underutilized.

This dissertation describes foundational work describing lignin conversion by Cutaneotrichosporon oleaginosus, a non-model oleaginous yeast known for its metabolism of alternative sugars, including xylose, and tolerance and metabolism toxic lignocellulosic hydrolysate inhibitors such as 5-HMF, furfural, acetic acid. This …

Redefining Creativity To Advance Our Understanding Of Behavior Change And Agency, Philip F. Brunner

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Change is hard, and shifting one’s behavior, even with the support of a counselor, can be challenging. While it has not been common for the field of counseling and therapeutic behavior change to draw on it, creativity studies have much to offer counselors and practitioners as well as individuals who just want to realize change in their lives. The potential contributions of creativity studies to lasting and meaningful behavior change are enhanced especially if we take up a definition of creativity that draws on traditional definitions and theories but that also integrates insights from fields like neuroscience and complex dynamical …

2020-December-01-Dr Timir Paul Receives Grant To Study Peripheral Artery Disease Treatments, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Dr. Timir Paul

JOHNSON CITY (Dec. 17, 2020)  – Dr. Timir Paul of East Tennessee State University’s Quillen College of Medicine has received a $200,000 research grant from the University of Texas Southwestern to evaluate the “real world” effectiveness and use of non-stent and stent-based therapies among patients treated with peripheral artery disease.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a narrowing of the peripheral …

2020-December-01-Welcome To The Etsu College Of Nursing, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

As the largest nursing program in Tennessee, the ETSU College of Nursing has a long history of preparing nurses and nurse educators to make a difference in health care in the Appalachian Highlands and beyond. A few of headlines from 2020 provide a glimpse of the College’s impact and reach.

Rankings & Accolades

Curriculum Innovation

Top in Tennessee: ETSU College of Nursing was recently named the No. 1 RN to BSN program in the state of Tennessee …

Plasma Resuscitation Attenuates Intestinal Barrier Disturbance Following Hemorrhagic Shock., Jessica E. Schucht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IIRI) following resuscitated hemorrhagic shock (HS/RES) leads to endothelial damage, microcirculatory dysfunction and intestinal barrier breakdown, increasing intestinal permeability. This pathologic process contributes pathophysiology of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in some trauma patients. Although vascular smooth muscle machinery remains intact, microvascular vasoconstriction occurs secondary to endothelial cell damage, resulting in further ischemia and organ injury. Used separately, resuscitation with Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) or Direct Peritoneal Resuscitation (DPR) improves the intestinal microcirculation and alleviates organ injury. Further examination of these effects individually or combined could aid in the resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock. Methods: Sprague Dawley …

"Don't Put An 'Or' Where God Puts An 'And'": Constitutive Rhetoric In Queer Appalachia., Brooke Elizabeth Boling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachians who use the word “queer” to specifically refer to being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and/or asexual, are regularly faced with negotiating how these parts of their identity can exist simultaneously, as many both within and without the region believe it is impossible to be Appalachian and queer at the same time. Despite rampant homophobia in the region and external narratives suggesting that queer Appalachians do not exist, these folkx have carved out spaces for themselves to assert their identities and create community and belonging through rhetorical actions. Many of these spaces are online, taking place through digital …

Characterization Of Adiposity And Inflammation Genetic Pleiotropy Underlying Cardiovascular Risk Factors In Hispanics., Mohammad Yaser (Anwar)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The observed overlap between genetic variants associated with both adiposity and inflammatory markers suggests that changes in both adiposity and inflammation could be partially mediated by common pathways. The pervasive but sparsely characterized “pleiotropic” genetic variants associated with both adiposity and inflammation have been hypothesized to provide insight into the shared biology. This study explored and characterized the genetic pleiotropy underpinning adiposity and inflammation using genetic and phenotypic observations from the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC). A total of 3,313 samples and >9 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were examined in this study. Mixed model genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were …