Digital Commons Network^™

Sevoflurane: Practice Change Integration Quality Improvement For Pharmacoeconomic Accountability, Kelly Moore Meyers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Pharmacoeconomic accountability is increasingly of concern to patients, institutions, and healthcare payors alike. Annual sevoflurane expenditure at a large university hospital exceeds $300,000 (personal communication, Eric Likar). Sevoflurane is a liquid, volatile anesthetic delivered from a vaporizer, through a breathing circuit to a patient. Multiple studies focused on reducing sevoflurane use note significant cost savings were attained with a variety of techniques. Moreover, using less sevoflurane reduces the environmental impact of volatile agents which are potent greenhouse gases. Through simple interventions, such as a brief staff education and reminders, Lethbridge et al. (2007) demonstrated over a fifty-percent reduction in …

Unique Biological Applications Of Charge Transfer Dissociation Mass Spectrometry, Halle M. Edwards

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The ever-changing landscape of mass spectrometry is driven by gaps in knowledge, and one of the biggest driving forces is the desire to understand the structure and dynamics of biomolecules in living organisms. New and better methods of tandem mass spectrometry are often at the heart of technological developments. Some fragmentation methods are limited to expensive FTICR instruments, some techniques are limited multiply charged precursors, and others are limited to breaking only the weakest bonds in precursor ions; all of which support the pursuit of new activation methods. Charge transfer dissociation (CTD) addresses some of these concerns by providing structurally …

Response Of Forest Birds To Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila Suzukii Matsumura), A Novel Invasive Fruit Pest, At Allegheny National Forest, Daniel P. Roche

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Non-native invasive insect pests can have dramatic impacts on native ecosystems, feeding on plant foliage, wood, or sap. Little is known, however, about how fruit-targeting NNIIPs may affect native ecosystems. Spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, SWD) is a recently introduced invasive vinegar fly that parasitizes the fruits of many plant species in the United States. While its activity in agricultural systems is well-documented, little is known about its activity in forest ecosystems, despite growing evidence of its presence and parasitism of fruits there. Parasitism could reduce fruit attractiveness for vertebrate fruit consumers, including migratory birds. As such, this …

Terrestrial Salamander And Ant Community Responses To Imidacloprid Application In Central Appalachian Eastern Hemlock Forests, Lenza E. Paul

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Imidacloprid is the most widely used insecticide in the world and has been found to impact non-target taxa in systems in which it is applied. It is used as the primary treatment method in the protection of eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) from impacts of hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA; Adelges tsugae), an invasive insect in the U.S. that is causing widespread mortality of hemlock trees. In this study, we investigated whether imidacloprid applied in eastern hemlock forests is impacting woodland salamander and ant communities.

In Chapter 1, I provide an overview of the ecological importance of eastern hemlocks …

Maternal Engineered Nanomaterial Inhalation Exposure: Cardiac Molecular Reprogramming In Progeny Through Epigenetic And Epitranscriptomic Mechanisms, Amina Kunovac

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Introduction: Nano-titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a prominently utilized engineered nanomaterial (ENM), is being employed for its physiochemical properties in several fields including the food industry, manufacturing, and biomedicine. As the prevalence of this ENM, and other particulate matter grows, so does the concern for antagonistic consequences on long-term heart function in vulnerable populations, which until now have not been investigated. Due to the reliance of the heart on the ATP generating capacity of mitochondria for contraction, understanding the role of mitochondrial bioenergetics and structure is pivotal in understanding the repercussions of particulate matter exposure during gestation. As the mass …

Validation Of Shoulder Strain Index, Fabiha Islam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of shoulder are one of the most frequent and major causes of morbidity and pain among full-time workers in the USA. In 2018, shoulder disorders were the most severe type of MSDs in terms of lost workdays. Recent epidemiological studies have identified several biomechanical, organizational, and psychological factors that increase the risk of shoulder MSDs. Though multiple biomechanical studies have evaluated physical causal factors of shoulder MSDs with a goal of risk mitigation, literature lacks a standardized risk assessment tool. The main objective of this study was to validate a previously developed shoulder strain index. The strain …

Assessing Synthetic Aperture Radar (Sar)-Derived Temporal Patterns And Digital Terrain Data For Palustrine Wetland Mapping, Jaimee L. Pyron

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Palustrine wetland systems are important ecosystems and provide numerous ecosystems services to support society. Unfortunately, they remain under constant threat of devastation due to land use practices and global climate change, which underscores the need to identify, map, and monitor these landscape features. This study explores harmonic coefficients and seasonal median values derived from Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, as well as digital elevation model (DEM)-derived terrain variables, to predict palustrine wetland locations in the Vermont counties of Bennington, Chittenden, and Essex. Support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) machine learning models were used with various combinations of …

Francis Poulenc: The Compositional Influences Of Les Six And Sergei Prokofiev On The Poulenc Oboe Sonata (1962), Evan Klein

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research document contextualizes the compositional influences found within Francis Poulenc’s oboe sonata. In his lifetime, Poulenc was an extremely well-connected individual, often dedicating his works to his close friends and patrons. The Sonata for Oboe and Piano, in particular, is one of these compositions dedicated to his friend and famous composer Sergei Prokofiev. Written in 1962 toward the end of Poulenc’s life, he glanced back to the start of the twentieth century for inspiration and source material. The oboe sonata is then a collage of sorts—it takes on the shared contextual principles of Les Six in which he was …

Psychometric Evaluation Of Genetic Literacy Instruments In A National Sample, Jamey T. Brumbaugh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The concept of genetic literacy continues to grow in clinical and social significance. Whether transforming current healthcare practices or raising questions about genetically-modified foods, genetic information and technologies are primed to further influence people’s lives. There is a growing need to understand how genetic literacy is currently assessed in order to inform and improve future test development. This study aimed to investigate the assessment of genetic literacy by psychometrically examining three contemporary genetic literacy instruments (i.e., Genetic Knowledge Survey, International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (iGLAS-GK), and University of North Carolina Genomic Knowledge Scale (UNC-GKS). Psychometric properties, including internal consistency …

Effects Of Biofertilizer On Soil Nutrient Cycling And The Productivity Of Bioproduct Crops In Marginal Soils, Kieran B. Liseski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Recently there has been increased interest in the use of marginal lands in order to grow bioproduct crops. Utilizing marginal lands to grow bioproduct crops such as Miscanthus x giganteus and Panicum virgatum could not only improve soil quality and minimize negative environmental impacts on the surrounding ecosystems but could also offer economic benefits to growers in rural areas. Because marginal soils tend to reduce crop yields compared to prime farmlands even when growing bioproduct crops, which tend to be more robust than traditional food crops, augmenting the soil with biofertilizers (i.e., the direct addition of viable microbial cells) could …

Examining Relationships Among Person Factors, Psychosocial Factors, And Coping Patterns In People Living With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus In North Central Appalachia, Melissa A. Mccoy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Diabetes is a complex, debilitating illness that imposes disease burden on the individual and society. T2DM is more prevalent in the Appalachian region than in any other Region of the United States. If diabetes is poorly controlled, patients are at risk for negative health outcomes. A gap exists in the literature related to understanding of the relationships among person factors, psychosocial factors, and coping patterns. Another gap in the literature is sex differences among these variables.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examining relationships among person factors, psychosocial factors, and coping patterns in people living with T2DM …

More Than One Story: A Bioecological Model Of Elementary Educators’ Perceptions And Representations Of Diversity, Angela Curfman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Classroom teachers have long employed children’s literature in the classroom. Exposure to children’s literature offers a plethora of gains and benefits. Through the usage of children’s literature, critical thinking skills are fostered and factual information is obtained (Hancock, 2000). Varied cultures, linguistic backgrounds, families with diverse socio-economical, and academic backgrounds constitute our public school classrooms. Children’s literature provides readers an opportunity for self-affirmation; therefore, they often seek a mirror in books, (Bishop, 1990). The thoughtful selection of children’s literature in the classroom is essential. Through the lens of Bishop’s (1993) metaphorical notion of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass …

Using Distributed Ledger Technologies In Vanets To Achieve Trusted Intelligent Transportation Systems, Fares Nabil Elamine

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With the recent advancements in the networking realm of computers as well as achieving real-time communication between devices over the Internet, IoT (Internet of Things) devices have been on the rise; collecting, sharing, and exchanging data with other connected devices or databases online, enabling all sorts of communications and operations without the need for human intervention, oversight, or control. This has caused more computer-based systems to get integrated into the physical world, inching us closer towards developing smart cities.

The automotive industry, alongside other software developers and technology companies have been at the forefront of this advancement towards achieving smart …

Geology Oriented Loading Approach For Underground Coal Mines, Deniz Tuncay

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mining-induced stresses in underground coal mines play a significant role in pillar and support design, hence in the safety of mining operations. Adequate design of pillars and roof control plans rely on the accurate assessment of the mining-induced loads, as well as the load-bearing capacities of the supports. In pillar design tools frequently used by the underground coal mining industry and Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), overburden loading is estimated by geometric concepts such as the tributary area and the abutment angle method. These methods do not explicitly consider important mechanical responses such as specific overall ground behavior. The …

Analyzing Safety Audits To Improve Logging Safety Performance, George Daniel Nolan Jr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines logging safety audits to determine how different variables, and differing amounts of time between audits, affect the outcome of safety score performance. To collect the data for this study a three-page paper audit was used that examined five areas of the logging site which include: Personal protective equipment (PPE), general, felling, mobile equipment and, landing and loading.

The study analyzed 3 aspects of the audit which were the total score and the sub-categories of PPE and felling since they were the two heaviest weighted sections. The analysis only included audits that had a 5 percent or greater …

Improving Broiler Performance And Digestibility Through Feed Enzymes And Production Rate Aids Utilized In Pelleting., Kristina Marie Bowen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Enzymes are commonly added to poultry diets to improve performance parameters that may in turn decrease costs to the producer. Pellet mill production rate aids are also utilized to reduce feed manufacture costs and may have additional benefits when fed to poultry that are associated with the increase in production rate. Past research has shown that Azomite (AZM) can increase pellet mill production rate in diets that include inorganic phosphate sources (IPS) of dicalcium phosphate (DCP) or tricalcium phosphate (TCP). In the first experiment the authors hypothesized that if production rate were held constant then pellet mill energy consumption would …

Returning To Earth: Natural Design For A Cemetery In Otter Tail County, Mn, Amy Kronbeck

Landscape Architecture Theses

As awareness of human impact on the environment grows, ethical concerns are raised over the exploitation of natural resources by traditional cemetery design, and burial practices come into question. America’s parks first began within cemeteries where people enjoyed the serene settings of nature in well-designed rural burial landscapes. In the early 19th century, Mount Auburn Cemetery was built in Massachusetts serving as passive recreational and gathering spaces for a wide variety of users and introducing Americans to the value of public green space. People traveled from the congested city to Mount Auburn’s tranquil rural cemetery setting to enjoy walks and …

Lakeshore Design Intervention, Jacob Miller

Landscape Architecture Theses

This study will quantify the Minnesota County's concerns with shoreline development and private landowner's concerns with the unauthorized use of purchased land due to regulations and wildlife preservation. This study aims to determine what will satisfy the needs of private interests versus the public good in relation to the common Minnesotan lakeside real-estate development problems. This study will investigate the county's concerns with shoreline development on wetlands and bluffs. The reason this study is being conducted is since landowners who want to develop their shoreline cannot do so since the state or county has all the jurisdiction in what they …

Temporary Landscapes: Physically Distanced, Socially Together, Emily Hopfauf

Landscape Architecture Theses

Temporary landscapes are where things happen, the bread and butter of urban life. Social, political, and economic battles have been waged in the open spaces of our cities. This is where change starts and grows. Even now, during a time when daily life is filled with Zoom meetings, Black Lives Matter marches are happening. Another breed of protesters stormed the capital. While the morality of these actions are in question, things are constantly happening in the temporary which effect how we remember and use spaces. The scope of this design thesis is to understand how to leverage temporary spaces during …

Weak Organic Acid Modified Granular Activated Carbon And Ceria Nanomaterial Embedded Graphene Oxide For Drinking Water Fluoride Removal, Umma Salma Rashid

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Excess fluoride (F−) in drinking water leads to detrimental health effects including dental and skeletal fluorosis. More than 260 million people worldwide are affected by excess fluoride (>1.5 mg/L) in their drinking water. In this three-phase study, we have used modified activated carbon and cerium oxide nanomaterials for aqueous fluoride removal. The overarching goal of this research was to develop cost-effective drinking water fluoride removal technologies. In Phase I, a citric acid (0.3 M) modified granular activated carbon (CAGAC) was effectively used to remove >70% of aqueous fluoride within 60 min. The maximum adsorption capacity of CAGAC was two …

Neural Networks And Sensitivity Analysis For Detection And Interpretation Of Structural Damage, Dayakar Naik Lavadiya

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Computer vision (CV)-based approaches have gained a lot of attention in recent years for objective identification of damages both at structural and material scales. In this dissertation, the metallurgical phases and the two important modes of damage in structural steel, namely fracture and corrosion, are considered. Use of CV techniques for metallurgical phase identification and fracture type identification in steel microstructure is minimal and rely on pixel intensity information. When distinct phases or fracture types possess similar pixel intensities, predictions may be erroneous. In this dissertation, various texture recognition algorithms based on an ensemble of machine learning algorithms are proposed …

Assessment Of Engineering Methodologies For Increasing Cubesat Mission Success Rates, Abdulaziz Alanazi

Computer Science

In the last twenty years, CubeSat Systems have gained popularity in educational institutions and commercial industries. CubeSats have attracted educators and manufacturers due to their ability to be quickly produced and their low cost, and small sizes and masses. However, while developers can swiftly design and build their CubeSats, with a team of students from different disciplines using COTS parts, this does not guarantee that the CubeSat mission will be successful. Statistics show that mission failure is frequent. For example, out of 270 “university-class” CubeSats, 139 failed in their mission between 2002 and 2016 [1]. Statistics also show that the …

Comparative Analysis Of Interface Usability For Cybersecurity Applications, Wyly West Andrews

Computer Science

In cybersecurity, understanding the technologies and the best ways to interface with them is paramount for staying ahead of growing cyberthreats. Developers of cybersecurity software will benefit greatly from a greater understanding of how users prefer to interact with cybersecurity technology. In the modern world, two primary interface methods are currently used: the command-line interface (CLI) and the graphical user interface (GUI). This study is a survey and introspective into what benefits and drawbacks that each method has when in the hands of users who do not have a comprehensive background in cybersecurity. Untrained individuals showed proficiency when working with …

Image Registration And Fusion Application, Shreya Singh

Computer Science

Image Registration and Fusion is a process of manipulating two or more input images through a combination of geometric transformation operations and fusion rules to obtain the information from the input images into one fused image. Currently, most existing image registration and fusion techniques are appropriate for grayscale images. There are a few techniques which support colored images but cannot be used for a large input data set. The aim of this research is to propose an image registration and fusion technique that supports large input data sets of both grayscale and colored images. To this end, we explored various …

Investigating Super Learner On Healthcare Data Sets, Humaira Rahman

Computer Science

In the field of machine learning, classification is the essential task that predicts the target class or label for each sample in the data. Improving the performance of a classification model has been a challenging research problem. Researchers try to choose the proper techniques and combine several algorithms to be applied to the specific data set to get better predictions. Nowadays, researchers have used the method called super learner. The idea of super learning is that it combines multiple techniques as base learners and uses a meta-learner to get the final predictions and thus obtain more reliable results. In this …

January 2021 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Ss-Phenylethylamine: A Novel Chemo-Attractant Agent, August Henry Burg

Microbiological Sciences

Bacterial metabolism and physiology are finely tuned mechanisms that maintain homeostasis for the bacterium and allow for responses to environmental signals. Responses could include anything from regulation of cell division to the expression of virulence factors leading to serious infection. This thesis explores the role of neurotransmitter molecules and ß-phenylethylamine (a structurally similar molecule to catecholamines) on the physiological characteristics of flhD expression, biofilm formation, and chemotactic behaviors in the E. coli organism. We observed changes in physiology leading to chemotactic changes in the presence of ß-phenylethylamine through the Plug Agarose Assay as well as the Microfluidic Assay. In a …

Rationally Reconstructed And Attenuated Vaccines For Epidemic Response, Agm Rakibuzzaman

Microbiological Sciences

Most of the recent viral outbreaks were caused by highly mutating RNA and single stranded DNA viruses. The availability of safe and effective rapid response vaccines early on in an epidemic situation, along with good vaccine delivery systems, is critical for pandemic response plans. Additionally, immunodominance patterns in the host response to epitopes in vaccine antigens can complicate immune responses to vaccines. In this thesis, using porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) as a model, we have focused on changing viral immunodominance patterns to rationally improve vaccine efficacy. We hypothesized that rational alteration of the immunodominant decoy epitope would remove nonprotective …

Crushed By Covid-19 Medical Bills, Coronavirus Victims Need Debt Relief Under The Bankruptcy Code And Workers' Compensation Laws, Creola Johnson

Penn State Law Review (2003 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Risky Business: The Risk Of Identity Theft And Standing To Sue, Parker Hudson

Penn State Law Review (2003 - Present)

No abstract provided.