Digital Commons Network^™

Stress, Burnout, And Experiential Avoidance In Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students, Katie Marie Connor

Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that clinical psychology doctoral students experience stress and burnout, with attempts to moderate their experience utilizing various coping skills. The current study aimed to expand the literature on stress and burnout in clinical psychology doctoral students and the impact of experiential avoidance as a coping style. The current study surveyed clinical psychology doctoral students on their integration of experiential avoidance, as well as various coping styles, to mitigate stress and burnout. COVID-19 data and descriptive statistics were gathered as well. A correlational analysis and dependent sample t-test were conducted to understand the relationships between variables. The results …

Improving Long-Term Vascular Graft Viability Using Peritoneal Pre-Implantation And Epsin-Mimetic Peptides, Mahyar Sameti

Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this project was to produce and develop a tissue-engineered small-diameter vascular graft which can replace the arteries and function well for long-term grafting. Implanting an electrospun tubular conduit into the peritoneal cavity to recruit autologous cells prior to grafting the conduit into the artery is a method to achieve this goal. Incorporating an epsin-mimetic peptide on the conduit prior to grafting is another proposed method to reach the goal. This will be accomplished through four complementary studies: (1) determining the effect of a pouch in peritoneal pre-implantation and reducing the potential peritoneal adhesion formation;(2) determining the …

Existence And Stability Of The Doubly Nonlinear Anisotropic Parabolic Equation, Huashui Zhan, Zhaosheng Feng

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we are concerned with a doubly nonlinear anisotropic parabolic equation, in which the diffusion coefficient and the variable exponent depend on the time variable t. Under certain conditions, the existence of weak solution is proved by applying the parabolically regularized method. Based on a partial boundary value condition, the stability of weak solution is also investigated.

Extension Professionals' Information Use, Protective Behaviors, And Work-Life Stress During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Glenn D. Israel, David C. Diehl, Sebastian Galindo, Cassandra Ward, Athena K. Ramos, Marcy Harrington, Edward J. Kasner

Journal of Extension

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked Extension professionals about sources used to inform their work, means used to inform clientele, and management of their own health and well-being. Survey data revealed that Extension professionals sought information from trusted sources and that large majorities were involved in disseminating online information to clientele. Extension professionals felt well supported, were prepared to address the pandemic's challenges, and were practicing recommended health behaviors. However, respondents reported high levels of stress and difficulty balancing professional and personal needs. Recommendations focus on collaborative opportunities for Extension as well as professional development and other …

Extension's Role In Changing The Context Of Health, J. Dusti Linnell, Patty Case, Lauren Kraemer

Journal of Extension

The Cooperative Extension National Framework for Health and Wellness calls on Extension professionals to operate in new ways that will shape "the context in which people grow, learn, work, and play" and to practice multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches in communities. In this article, we present three cases in Oregon as examples of how Extension faculty at Oregon State University are working to improve population health in rural Oregon communities in alignment with the Cooperative Extension National Framework for Health and Wellness. These examples highlight the roles Extension faculty can play in such work as well as associated successes and challenges.

Opportunities For Impact: Health Promotion In Rural Early Care And Education Environments, Nancy O'Hara-Tompkins, Gwen Crum, Hannah Fincham, Dianna Lewis, Elaine Bowen, Emily Murphy

Journal of Extension

Early care and education settings are essential partners in the battle against childhood obesity. We describe an Extension-facilitated early childhood obesity prevention intervention conducted in 25 rural early care and education settings. A total of 148 policy, systems, or environmental changes were achieved, reaching approximately 450 young children. Systems changes were the most prevalent outcome achieved. The experiences of Extension professionals in promoting policy, systems, and environmental changes are highlighted as are implications for other Extension systems and professionals promoting policy, systems, or environmental changes in early care and education settings.

Dr. Patricia A. Hendricks And The Targeting Life Skills Model: An Oral History, David J. White, S. Todd Williver, Shannon Andress, Tammy Stuhr

Journal of Extension

The targeting life skills model created by Dr. Patricia A. Hendricks represents the skills developed by youths participating in 4-H. The model is used to identify desired learning and action outcomes of positive youth development programs. An article related to the origins and validation of the model was never published. This oral history describes Hendricks's Extension background, explains the circumstances that led her to create the model, traces the model's genesis, and reveals why the model lacks empirical validation and confirmation. The research-referenced, universally accepted model remains a valuable and systematic approach to planning and engaging youths in high-quality youth …

Professional Development Needs Of Early-Career Extension Agents Beyond The First Year: Florida County Extension Director Perspectives, Matt Benge, Annie F. Muscato, Peyton N. Beattie

Journal of Extension

Extension agents serve important roles in communities but often begin their careers lacking skills crucial for success. We aimed to understand the professional development needs of Florida early-career Extension agents beyond the first year as perceived by eight county Extension directors (CEDs). Through semistructured interviews, CEDs indicated that building community relationships, managing volunteers, communicating effectively, and other Extension-related skills are areas for which early-career Extension agents need professional development. These results suggest a need for additional development opportunities beyond the first year, with a professional development model that is continually adapted as an Extension professional's skill set changes. Our findings …

Creating Opportunities Through An Experiential, Community-Based Cooperative Extension Internship Program, Debra M. Sellers, Cheryl Heronemus, Cindy Gannon, Peggy A. Lockhart

Journal of Extension

Extension is positioned to develop and implement high-quality, high-impact internship experiences for college students in local communities. The creation of the Rising Star Internship program arose from interest in providing experiential work opportunities for Iowa State University students coupled with the organizational goals of promoting awareness of Cooperative Extension and increasing interest in employability within Extension. The program provides a paid county-level summer internship with several unique elements. Evidence collected from student participants suggests that it is a mutually beneficial endeavor for Extension, students, and communities. Extension systems may desire to replicate these efforts if they share similar ambitions.

Using Learning Management Systems To Provide 4-H Programming During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond, Sarah Morefield, Maria G. Fabregas Janeiro

Journal of Extension

Using a learning management system (LMS), such as Canvas, to provide 4-H programming can support program growth. With the onset in 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4-H professionals have been forced to move face-to-face activities online and challenged to work differently and in innovative ways to continue offering youth development opportunities. Responding to this challenge, Missouri 4-H created an online resource using the Canvas LMS to offer 4-H volunteers and families project opportunities and research-based project materials in one easily accessible and affordable platform.

World Transit Research December 2020 Newsletter, Institute Of Transport Studies Monash University

World Transit Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

All Victims Matter. Reconciliation Of The Balkan Faiths And Peoples: An Assessment Of Recent Progress, Vjekoslav Perica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Overall, the recent progress toward reconciliation of the peoples and faiths in the Balkans is good news. The moderates within ruling nationalists’ ranks marginalized the extremists domestically and found support abroad, notably in the European Union, which is interested in fostering greater stability in the troubled southeastern periphery, as well as from the Vatican, both during the pontificate of John Paul II and under Pope Francis, with his ambitious ecumenical agenda concerning the Eastern Orthodox sister church."

Religious Organizations In Belarus During Protests Against The Regime Of Aleksandr Lukashenko, Petro Kraliuk, Yuriy Plyska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

After the presidential election in Belarus on August 9, 2020, which according to the official data, was won by the then President Alexander Lukashenko, mass protests against falsifications began in the country. Believers of various denominations joined these actions. Therefore, the leadership of the country’s religious organizations were faced with the question of determining their attitude toward these actions. The leadership of the largest religious organization in Belarus, the Belarusian Orthodox Church, initially expressed some dissatisfaction with the authorities’ violence. The then exarch of this church, Pavlo, despite congratulating Lukashenko on his election victory, still expressed some sympathy to the …

Unrealistic Body Standards Produced By The Media, Kishana Mckenzie, Jenae Mckenzie, Angelisa Charles

Publications and Research

As decades go by and the media expands, more unrealistic beauty standards are set and produced to affect the minds of people in society. Research is critical to validate the effects in question.

Two different types of research were conducted. The first research was conducted by Jean-Luc Jucker and his team in an area where the people were not exposed to any forms of media whereas the second research was conducted with a group of students who were exposed to any type of media. The findings collected from the research showed negative effects from participants. The findings confirmed that the …

Fundamental Studies Of Nanomaterial-Mediated Photothermal Effects And Novel Applications In Visual Quantitative Disease Diagnoses, Wan Zhou

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Infectious diseases and cancers frequently cause public health concerns and high burdens on health care globally. Early diagnosis of these diseases can provide an important guide on prevention, treatment, and prognosis in clinical practice. However, current laboratory diagnostic methods, such as nucleic acid- and protein-based detection methods, require sophisticated infrastructure, expensive and bulky instrumentation, well-trained personnel, and time-consuming processes, which significantly leads to high cost of detection assays and limit their wide accessibility, especially in low-resource settings. To address these issues, we have developed multiple simple, low-cost, and visual quantitative diagnostic methods based on nanomaterial-mediated photothermal effects for the detection …

Development And Use Of An Environmental Dna Tool To Monitor Recovery Of The Critically Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish, Pristis Pectinata, In The Northwest Atlantic, Ryan N. Lehman

Master's Theses

The Critically Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish, Pristis pectinata, was once common in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean; however, following global declines in range and abundance over the past century, individuals were restricted to the waters of south and southwest Florida (SWFL) by about the 1980’s. Recently, public encounter reports have emerged in historically occupied habitats in United States waters, suggesting individuals are present in, or re-occupying, these areas, although the status of P. pectinata outside of SWFL is not currently well understood. Targeted environmental DNA (eDNA) surveys were chosen to assess the occurrence of P …

My Child’S Keeper: Child Vulnerability And Quality Of Life On Parental Stress And Grit, Abigail Armstrong

Master's Theses

There is a reciprocal relationship between parenting stress and child distress that has been well documented (e.g., Rechenberg, Grey & Sadler, 2017). These effects generalize to physical outcomes such that higher maternal depression has been associated with poorer child health-related quality of life (HRQOL; Jaser, Whittemore, Ambrosino, Lindemann, & Grey, 2008). In the same way that parental distress has been shown to affect the child, parental perceptions of child vulnerability in children with chronic illness has also been associated with negative outcomes, including child depressive symptoms (Mullins et al., 2004), increased health care use (Spurrier et al., 2000), and increased …

Assessment Of Genetic Diversity In Largetooth Sawfish, Pristis Pristis, Populations Over The 20th Century, Ann Fearing

Master's Theses

The Critically Endangered Largetooth Sawfish, Pristis pristis, experienced global declines in range and abundance over the past century and Australia is now their last stronghold. This research aimed to understand whether these declines have been accompanied by a reduction in levels of genetic diversity. Using P. pristis tissue samples sourced from natural history specimens, three fragments (616-bp, 386-bp, 141-bp) in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region were PCR-amplified. At each fragment, significant genetic structure was found in P. pristis overall (Φ_ST=0.946, N=9; 0.813, N=54; 0.771, N=99). The Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic/Eastern Pacific each harbor genetically distinct lineages of …

Hate Speech, Habitus, And Identity Signaling On 4chan’S Politically Incorrect Board, Jonathon Geiger

Master's Theses

Websites, such as 4chan, have provided a place for extremism and hate speech to flourish through anonymous discourse. One group that has been especially important to this growth has been the alt-right. The alt-right is a far-right white nationalist movement that is known for engaging in trolling, creating memes, and generating conspiracy theories. Past research has focused on the amounts of hate speech and characterizing content on the website. However, past studies have not looked at the experience of using the website through the combination of participant observation and content analysis. Here I show that the extensive use of hate …

Nutrition At Tipu: A Comparative Analysis Of Juvenile Health In Maya Populations, Sydnie A. Bianchi

Master's Theses

The site of Tipu in west central Belize provided a foothold for Spanish missionaries in the 17^th century. The effects of contact on adults among the 550 burials recovered in the cemetery there have been well studied, but the children have received less attention. Therefore, this study examined juvenile health through four markers: Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH), a non-specific marker of health disruptions; Porotic Hyperostosis (PH), an indicator of anemia; and Periostitis, an indicator of infection. Some 131 individuals were evaluated using criteria developed by Steckel, Sciulli, and Rose (2002). The results were compared to Late Classic Copán (Storey, …

Diagonalization Of 1-D Schrodinger Operators With Piecewise Constant Potentials, Sarah Wright

Master's Theses

In today's world our lives are very layered. My research is meant to adapt current inefficient numerical methods to more accurately model the complex situations we encounter. This project focuses on a specific equation that is used to model sound speed in the ocean. As depth increases, the sound speed changes. This means the variable related to the sound speed is not constant. We will modify this variable so that it is piecewise constant. The specific operator in this equation also makes current time-stepping methods not practical. The method used here will apply an eigenfunction expansion technique used in previous …

​Burned Out But Barely Begun: A Qualitative Study On Newer Clergy And Communication Surrounding Emotional Labor And Personal Well-Being In South Mississippi, Lauren Noll

Master's Theses

This study provides an overview of the concepts surrounding clergy burnout,

organizational culture, and emotional labor theory. Furthermore, it explains the need

for  clearer understanding of clergy perceptions of their own personal

experiences with burnout and their emotional wellbeing in relation to their organizational environment and careers as clergy members. The methodology of qualitative interviews sought to understand the narratives and experiences of clergy members from their own words and worldviews rather than from a statistical basis or analysis.

This research found answers to key questions involving communication about burnout in the context of organizational culture and emotional labor, including …

Ph Induced Size Tuning Of Gd2hf2o7:Eu3+ Nanoparticles And Its Effect On Their Uv And X-Ray Excited Luminescence, Santosh K. Gupta, Mitzy A. Penilla Garcia, Jose P. Zuniga, Yuanbing Mao

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Size tunable nanoparticles (NPs) have played an important role in areas of optoelectronics, drug delivery, magnetism and many others. Moreover, designing size-tunable NPs without exposing them to high temperature and long time thermal treatment is highly desirable to make agglomerate- and defect-free NPs. In this work, we have designed Gd2Hf2O7:Eu3+ (GHOE) NPs using the molten-salt synthesis (MSS) method with the precursors made from varying precipitant concentrations (correspondingly the pH of the precipitating solution). The obtained NPs have a decreasing size as the pH of the precipitating solution rises and a defect fluorite structure with a large fraction of Eu3+ ions …

La Virgen María Y El Niño Fidencio: Un Análisis Literario Y Cultural De Figuras Veneradas, Emily Schahrer

World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters

Famous historical and literary figures who display characteristics of empathy, wisdom and compassion inspire a great sense of faith in humanity and hope for the future. There are two exemplary figures explored in this study that embody these characteristics. The first is the Virgin Mary, a saint widely known and recognized by the Catholic Church since the 4th century. The other is Niño Fidencio: a famous healer, man of God, nicknamed a “saint of the people” from Espinazo, Mexico who lived in the 20th century. Although Niño Fidencio is not officially recognized by the Catholic Church, he names the source …

Performance And Efficiency Evaluation Of Stormwater Management Lids Using Pcswmm: Numerical Modeling And Sensitivity Analysis, Abdullah Al Fatta

Theses and Dissertations

Implementation of Low Impact Development systems (LIDs) can reduce the detrimental effects of urbanization. In this study, performance of both conventional drainage system and bioretention swales LID green infrastructure was assessed. Personal Computer Storm Water Management Model (PCSWMM) was used to investigate the performance by producing runoff hydrographs. Calibration and validation were conducted with independent storm events to minimize the gap between the simulated and observed outflow. Among different sensitive parameters, saturated hydraulic conductivity, suction head, percent initially saturated, Manning’s N for impervious area, were used in calibration. Each storm event resulted coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.656 or …

When It Comes To Money In Elections, It Doesn't Matter Which Paris You Live In, Jacqueline J. Arias

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue how money influences election outcomes in the Texas Legislature from 2010 to 2018. I explore the political history of Texas, where scholars have long alluded to the role of wealthy elites in the political process. Using an investment theory approach, where money is considered a powerful determinant in elections over other factors, this thesis will analyze total disbursements and vote totals of Texas senate and house candidates in a linear model. Along with this bivariate correlation, this thesis will conduct a multilevel analysis that includes partisanship and regions in Texas. This thesis found a strong …

The Mediating Role Of Emotion Dysregulation In The Association Between Intimate Partner Victimization Types And Symptoms Of Depression In Young Hispanic Women, Maria Gabriela Copeiro De Lestarpe

Theses and Dissertations

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is defined as the abuse or aggression that occurs in a close relationship. Statistics show that the most prevalent types of IPV are psychological, physical, and sexual. In the U.S. 1 in 4 women (24.4%, or 29.2 million) are victims of IPV before the age of 25. Minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged women are most likely to experience it. Depression, among others, is one of the harmful consequences resulting from IPV victimization. The present study focuses on the role of emotion dysregulation in the association between IPV and depression. It was hypothesized that emotion dysregulation mediates the …

Governance And Sustainable Development Goals (Sdgs): Exploring The Relatinship Between Governance And Sdgs Using An International Comparative Perspective, Apu Deb

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between governance and sustainable development goals from an international comparative perspective. The research question of the study was: Does the performance level of governance affect the achievement of SD specifically in terms of reducing poverty, gender inequality, and human inequalities? This study has used the convenient sampling method to select 16 countries based on their income level and secondary data collected from the UNDP, World Bank for statistical analysis. We did the Hausman test to decide whether used fixed effects or random effects and found the Hausman test was significant …

From My Kitchen Window: Reflections And Essays Of A Border Crisis, Melissa Guerra

Theses and Dissertations

Memories and encounters of a life long border resident during the ongoing immigration crisis experienced in the Rio Grande Valley from 2017-2020. Thesis includes published essays that featuring interviews with migrants at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center.

Underlying Principles Of U.S. Media Coverage: A Case Study Of Venezuela’S Political Crisis From January-July 2019, Solange Nirere

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the U.S. mainstream media’s coverage of Venezuela’s political crisis from January to July of 2019. By deciding not only the issues presented, but their tone and stance, the media actively sets policy agendas and influences public opinion. The propaganda model (PM) provides a predictive framework for understanding media behavior and how “filters” determine published content. Using a media content analysis of 270 articles on the Venezuelan crisis in the NYT and WSJ, I found strong evidence for the PM viz a heavy reliance on U.S. government sources, strong U.S. foreign policy support, and an absence of alternate …