Digital Commons Network^™

Demographic Factors Associated With Childhood Obesity Among Women, Infants, Children (Wic) Participants In 2014, Olukayode Wisdom Oduwole

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the past few years, there has been an alarming increase in childhood obesity in the United States and worldwide, however there is little consensus around how to respond to the problem. What has now become an epidemic, was uncommon decades ago. This study assessed the demographic factors associated with childhood obesity among WIC participants in 2014. The study utilized demographic data from 3,011,119 participants in 2014 nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and social cognitive theory (SCT) to understand the demographical factors associated with childhood obesity. Adjusted odds of obesity were calculated to assess association between males …

The Politics Of Decentralizing Criminal Justice Systems In Postconflict Societies: Insights From Liberia (2011-2017), Samuel Opoku-Agyakwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

After the end of Liberia’s brutal 14 year civil war, the process of rebuilding Liberia has focused on a number of interventions including reforming the criminal justice system. In the current study, institutional, policy, legal reform, and infrastructure development were the approaches used to decentralize Liberia’s Criminal Justice System. Thirty experts were interviewed, and their responses coded using NVivo 12.0. Seven themes and 25 subthemes emerged from the data. It was that found that a top down internationally led approach with minimal involvement of local communities and the neglect of the traditional justice system characterized the decentralization process. Results also …

2019-2020 Oak Wilt Surveys, Cooperative Extension

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

The Cultural Construct Of Stress In Luganda-Speaking Women In Uganda, Courtney Skiera

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Luganda, the primary language spoken in Uganda has no word for stress, but this does not necessarily preclude the Luganda-speaking population from experiencing stress. There is currently no research that reveals the stress phenomenon from a Ugandan’s perspective. The purpose of this study was to examine how Luganda-speaking Ugandans conceptualize stress. Two theoretical foundations formed the basis of this study: the cognitive appraisal of stress theory and the coordinated management of meaning. Using a qualitative interpretive design, this study examined the conceptualization of stress by Luganda-speaking women in terms of understanding, experiencing, and communicating the stress phenomenon. Participants were 7 …

Intercultural Communication Between African American Managers And Hispanic Workers With Esl, Reva Ann Stanton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

By 2050, individuals of Hispanic descent will represent nearly 30% of the total American population with English as a second language (ESL). The problem addressed the lack of strategies being used by African American Managers on communicating with Hispanic workers with ESL. The purpose of the study was to explore what communication strategies African American managers can use when managing Hispanic workers with ESL in a government agency in Illinois. The importance of this study is exemplified in the findings; the results provided a new way of thinking about the social world that is interwoven in an intercultural environment. The …

Strategies For It Product Managers To Manage Microservice Systems In Enterprises, Walter Zrzavy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many information technology (IT) product managers have experienced significant challenges in adopting microservice architecture (MSA) systems successfully in their organizations. Inefficiencies resulting from MSA system adoption are of concern to IT product managers as these inefficiencies increase the cost of maintenance and increase the time to deliver software updates to the business. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by IT product managers for the domain-driven design and development and operations practices to reduce the inefficiencies during the MSA system adoption. The participants were 18 IT product managers …

Staff Education On Fall Reduction Strategies For Residents Of A Long-Term Care Facility, Olivia C. Anaele-Nwogu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fall-reduction programs are frequently ineffective in reducing falls among geriatric patients in long-term care (LTC) facilities. Multicomponent strategies have proved to be effective in reducing these falls. However, these strategies require staff education to ensure their success. The purpose of this project was to support the integration of multicomponent fall prevention strategies into practice by providing staff education focusing on the appropriateness use of hourly rounding and the 4Ps (pain, position, prompted voiding and placement) in addition to bed alarms to prevent falls among geriatric patients in the local LTC facility. The Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-based model was the conceptual …

Life In A Harsh Environment: The Effects Of Age, Sex, Reproductive Condition, And Season On Hair Cortisol Concentration In A Wild Non-Human Primate, P. A. Garber, A. Mckenney, Evelyn Elizabeth Bartling-John, J. C. Bicca-Marques, M. F. De La Fuente, F. Abreu, N. Schiel, A. Souto, Kimberley A. Phillips

Psychology Faculty Research

Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) provides a long-term retrospective measure of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity, and is increasingly used to assess the life history, health and ecology of wild mammals. Given that sex, age, season and pregnancy influence HCC, and that it may indicate ongoing stress, we examined HCC in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) naturally inhabiting a hot and dry semi-desert like habitat, Caatinga, in northeastern Brazil. We trapped, measured, weighed, marked and collected shaved hair from the back of the neck of 61 wild marmosets during the wet and dry seasons. Using enzyme immunoassay, we found that HCC was …

Food Insecurity And Eating Disorders: A Review Of Emerging Evidence, V. M. Hazzard, K. A. Loth, L. Hooper, Carolyn Black Becker

Psychology Faculty Research

Purpose of Review: This review summarizes emerging evidence for the relationship between food insecurity and eating disorder (ED) pathology, outlines priorities for future research in this area, and comments on considerations for clinical and public health practice.

Recent Findings: Among adults, food insecurity is cross-sectionally associated with higher levels of overall ED pathology, binge eating, compensatory behaviors, binge-eating disorder, and bulimia nervosa. Evidence for similar relationships among adolescents has been less robust; however, compared to studies of adults, there have been substantially fewer studies conducted in adolescents to date.

Summary: Emerging evidence consistently indicates that food insecurity …

Nigerian Women Entrepreneurs’ Strategies For Financial Inclusion: A Generic Qualitative Inquiry, Oluwatoyin Madein

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women in Nigeria are approximately 50% of the population and operate significantly in the micro, small, and medium enterprises. Women entrepreneurs in Nigeria are experiencing business failure, early exit, stagnant growth, and low return on investment due to inadequate finance. This study’s specific management problem is that many women entrepreneurs in Nigeria lack strategies to develop financial literacy and access to external loans for business sustainability. Using the concepts of financial inclusion and financial exclusion, the purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to explore the strategies women entrepreneurs use and whether they have the required experience and knowledge of financial …

The Executive Director Experiences Of African American Women In Mainstream Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations, Davida S. Gobin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American women are presently underrepresented in mainstream nonprofit performing arts organizations (PAOs) throughout the United States. Despite this inequality, a small number of African American women have overcome the odds and have productively earned senior leadership roles as executive directors in mainstream nonprofit PAOs. Using the conceptual frameworks of intersectionality and critical race feminism, the purpose of this study was to explore the shared lived experiences of African American women in executive director positions and the impact of race and gender on their leadership development and training for advancement in a mainstream nonprofit PAO. Four research questions explored the …

Recognition, Classification, And Help-Seeking Behavior Of Nigerian Immigrants In Minnesota, Frederick Nnabuchionye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Immigrants from non-Western cultures are known to underutilize mental health services in the United States. Part of the problem is in the way how cultures recognize and classify symptoms as a mental disorder. A report from the Minnesota Ombudsman's Office for Mental Health showed that out of every 6 suicide-related deaths in Anoka Regional Treatment Center in Minnesota, 4 are of African descent. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the cultural view of depressive symptoms as possible predictors of attitude toward seeking professional psychiatric help. The theory of reasoned action/ theory of planned behavior provided the framework …

An Exploration Of The Gross National Happiness Approach To Assure Patient Safety And Healthcare Quality In Bhutan, Rinchen Pelzang, Alison M. Hutchinson

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Although the principles of Gross National Happiness (GNH) are currently being used as the overall framework for Bhutan’s development programs (including healthcare services), little is known about how Bhutanese healthcare professionals perceive the relationship between GNH and patient safety or how the GNH principles could help in improving patient safety in Bhutan’s healthcare system. The aim of this study was to explore how Bhutanese healthcare professionals, educators, managers, and policy makers perceive the relationship between GNH and patient safety and what they believe should be done to improve patient safety in Bhutan. A qualitative exploratory descriptive study using in-depth interviews …

Female Psychopathy And The Personality Assessment Inventory (Pai): A Study With Incarcerated Women, Jason M. Smith, Carl B. Gacono, Ted B. Cunliffe

Archives of Assessment Psychology

In this study, PCL-R scores were used in correlational analyses with PAI scales in a sample of incarcerated women (N = 133). The total PCL-R score was significantly correlated with many PAI scales including ANT, DRG, and AGG. Categorical analyses were also used where the psychopathic women (N = 71; PCL-R ≥ 30) were significantly higher on the PAI scales of MAN, VPI, PAR, BOR, ANT, AGG, DOM; the non-psychopathic women (N = 28; PCL-R total score ≤ 24) scored higher on the RXR scale. These results further elucidate the conceptualization of female psychopathy (borderline and histrionic personality traits) and …

Interpreting Intelligence Test Scores In Forensic Mental Health Assessments: Conceptual And Psychometric Considerations For “Intelligent” Testing, James R. Andretta, Ryan J. Mcgill

Archives of Assessment Psychology

The assessment and interpretation of intelligence tests and intelligence test scores are featured in many forensic mental health assessments (FMHA). Given the role these instruments play in adjudicating legal decisions for individuals (i.e., Atkins cases), it is critical that the scores possess adequate reliability and validity. Unfortunately, a growing body of empirical literature has raised significant psychometric and conceptual concerns about the integrity and clinical utility of IQ test part- and subtest-level scores. Apprehension has also been raised regarding the use of cognitive profile analysis interpretive methods such as the popular “Intelligent Testing” (IT) framework, which emphasize primary interpretation of …

Developmental Implications Of Child Maltreatment: Rorschach Assessment Of Object Representations, David Joubert, Linda Webster

Archives of Assessment Psychology

Child maltreatment is associated with a variety of negative psychological, social, and health outcomes. It is particularly important for healthcare professionals to assess psychosocial functioning in children and adolescents in foster care in order to facilitate optimal levels of adjustment in this population. The relative validity of two developmentally-based scales applied to Rorschach data, the Primitive Object Relations scheme (Kwawer, 1979) and the Developmental Object Relations Scale (Ipp, 1986), was investigated in a sample of 71 youth in foster care. Results from dimension reduction analyses suggest that the POR captures specific elements of primitive object relations, characterized by themes of …

Increasing Access To Interventional Pain Management Therapies For Palliative Care Patients With Cancer Through Referral System Improvement, Ewelina Karolina Gibek

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Introduction: The need for palliative care increases as the number of patients continues to grow due to the aging population and rising cancer rates. Pain management is one of the essential components of palliative care. Anesthesia providers are well-positioned to become active members of palliative care teams and to provide pain management services, including regional and interventional therapies to patients in the acute care setting. Due to lack of awareness of the need, there have been few referrals for these services. Consequently, despite anesthesia providers’ knowledge of pain management and anesthesia care delivery, they have not been consistently involved in …

Diabetes Education Revisited: Addressing Inpatient Diabetes Care Through An Interactive Educational Video Module For Registered Nurses, Abigail Tamru

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Insulin is the most common medication used to treat patients with diabetes in the inpatient setting. Among injectable drugs, insulin has the highest risk for error, which may result in dire consequences for patients. Registered nurses are among the main groups of clinicians that work with insulin, yet they may sometimes lack the comprehensive knowledge associated with inpatient diabetes care and insulin. The purpose of this project is to educate registered nurses at a major academic medical center about inpatient diabetes management focused on insulin therapy. The educational content was based on a medical error analysis and a current inpatient …

Risk Communication Framework For Parental Control In The Digital World, Moneerah N Alotaibi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

The Internet is growing rapidly and is becoming an essential part of children’s lives. Internet use has many benefits for learning, participation, creativity, entertainment and communication. Along with such benefits, however, Internet use might expose children to a wide range of online risks. Some of those risks, such as bullying, exposure to pornography, and sexual exploitation, are known in the offline world but there are also new ones, such as the invasion of personal data and privacy, geolocation tracking, sexual messaging and harassment. Unfortunately, the existing mechanisms for protecting children online are ineffective. The parental controls currently available focus on …

Making Time For Food When ‘Doing Time’; How Enhanced Status Prisoners Counter The Indignity Of Prison Foodways, Julie M. Parsons

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

In contemporary neo-liberal societies, forms of responsible individualism and approaches to everyday foodways that reify healthy home-cooked food prepared from scratch, eaten together around a table are imbued with high cultural capital. What are the implications of this for criminalised individuals incarcerated in a prison system in England and Wales, that works with extremely low budgets, makes heavy use of pre-packaged convenience food and serves food to prisoners in their cells? Indeed, findings from Her Majesty's Inspectorate for Prison Report on food (2016:13), claims that ‘the quantity and quality of the food provided [in prison] is insufficient, and the conditions …

Establishing Parent Company Liability For Extraterritorial Environmental Harm Caused By A Subsidiary, J Lowther

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Going Down, Catherine Day

Wraparound South (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Health Of An Established Urban Church To Develop A Strategic Plan For Growth, Alfonse Javed

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The health of a church is solely dependent on the health of its leadership. The more the leadership becomes imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2), the more the church resembles the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This work seeks to determine the kind of healthy church leadership, which generates a healthy church culture for multiplying disciples. The purpose of this study is to assess the health of an established urban church in midtown Manhattan, and to evaluate the perception that one large church is more effective than multiple churches in order to discover an evangelistic approach that may help this and …

Transitioning To A Televised Worship Service Via Internet To Provide For The Continued Existence Of A Small, Declining Congregation, Clifford L. Herd

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Prince of Peace (POP) congregation, Ft. Payne, Alabama has less than twenty members and is struggling to survive. POP needed another option for her continued existence and sustainability as a small, declining congregation. Utilizing Internet technologies, it was possible for this small congregation to connect with a host congregation to receive their worship service and message on a large screen television. The thesis project investigated if POP congregation could make a transition from a live person-led worship service/message to a televised worship service/message to enable them to continue to worship and survive as a congregation. The congregation was prepared to …

Fostering Self-Efficacy For Biblical Learning And Doctrinal Awareness With Micro-Teaching In A Brief Course On Bible Study, Robin K. Henson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Self-efficacy for biblical learning was explored in the context of a small group experience focused on how to study the Bible. After first developing a new instrument to measure self-efficacy for biblical learning in a pilot study, ten church attendees participated in a seven-week course designed around the hermeneutical principles of understanding a Scripture passage in textual and historical context, placing the passage in the grand story of God, and relating it to relevant doctrine. The small group process employed micro-teaching as a mechanism to facilitate challenge and mastery experience in learning. Micro-teaching places the student in the role of …

Retrospective Unbiased Plasma Lipidomic Of Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Patients-Identifies Lipids Discriminating Those With Faster Clinical Deterioration, Mario Amatruda, Maria Petracca, Maureen Wentling, Benjamin Inbar, Kamilah Castro, Emily Y. Chen, Michael A. Kiebish, Keith Edwards, Matilde Inglese, Patrizia Casaccia

Advanced Science Research Center

The disease course of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) is uncertain. In an attempt to identify potential signaling pathways involved in the evolution of the disease, we conducted an exploratory unbiased lipidomic analysis of plasma from non-diseased controls (n = 8) and patients with primary progressive MS (PPMS, n = 19) and either a rapid (PPMS-P, n = 9) or slow (PPMS-NP, n = 10) disease course based on worsening disability and/or MRI-visible appearance of new T2 lesions over a one-year-assessment. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis of the MS/MSALL lipidomic dataset, identified lipids driving the …

Demonstration Of A Third-Order Hierarchy Of Topological States In A Three-Dimensional Acoustic Metamaterial, Matthew Weiner, Xiang Ni, Mengyao Li, Andrea Alù, Alexander B. Khanikaev

Advanced Science Research Center

Classical wave systems have constituted an excellent platform for emulating complex quantum phenomena, such as demonstrating topological phenomena in photonics and acoustics. Recently, a new class of topological states localized in more than one dimension of a D-dimensional system, referred to as higher-order topological (HOT) states, has been reported, offering an even more versatile platform to confine and control classical radiation and mechanical motion. Here, we design and experimentally study a 3D topological acoustic metamaterial supporting third-order (0D) topological corner states along with second-order (1D) edge states and first-order (2D) surface states within the same topological bandgap, thus establishing …

Tunable Multiphase Dynamics Of Arginine And Lysine Liquid Condensates, Rachel S. Fisher, Shana Elbaum-Garfinkle

Advanced Science Research Center

Liquid phase separation into two or more coexisting phases has emerged as a new paradigm for understanding subcellular organization, prebiotic life, and the origins of disease. The design principles underlying biomolecular phase separation have the potential to drive the development of novel liquid-based organelles and therapeutics, however, an understanding of how individual molecules contribute to emergent material properties, and approaches to directly manipulate phase dynamics are lacking. Here, using microrheology, we demonstrate that droplets of poly-arginine coassembled with mono/polynucleotides have approximately 100 fold greater viscosity than comparable lysine droplets, both of which can be finer tuned by polymer length. We …

The Development Of A Principal's Conceptual Framework Within An Early College High School, Edmond Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Educational leadership literature and research are dominated by linear, evidence-based methodologies to describe and guide decisions made by the school principal. These methodologies and conclusions do not examine the conceptualizations made by the principal to form the professional knowledge that makes up the framework that the principal might use to define problems, understand the problem in context and create a response. How principals form these conceptualizations by using experiences, multiple perspectives, and theories might explain how principals understand the school to address needs that are specific to the nature of the campus.

An early college high school is the setting …

Tram System Automation For Environmental Spectroscopy And Vegetation Monitoring, Enrique Anguiano Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Spectroscopy is the science of studying the interactions of matter and electromagnetic radiation (EMR). In particular, field spectroscopy takes place in a natural environment with a natural source of EMR. The paper presents progress towards the development and automation of a tram cart system. The new system in development collects high resolution, hyperspectral images and data from a spectrometer. Alternatives for a sensor cover mechanism to provide cover for the sensors mounted while the system is not operating are discussed, analyzing and comparing the benefits and disadvantages. An implementation for a charging station in an environment isolated from the electric …