Digital Commons Network^™

The Investigation Of Knowledge And Practice Of Child Welfare Workers Providing Case Management To Children With Disabilities, Giselle Cruz

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study examined the knowledge and practice of child welfare workers providing case management to children with disabilities. The study explores three areas of interest with regard to child welfare workers’ knowledge and practice: identification of disabilities, identification of proper services and resources for children with disabilities, and collaboration among multidisciplinary team members. Past literature has focused on the challenges child welfare workers experience when providing case management services to children with disabilities. This study used an exploratory quantitative design, using a cross-sectional survey to collect data from participants from two Children and Family Service Agencies. The results of this …

Meat Quality Prediction Using Machine Learning, Rohit Buddiga

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Meat quality is an essential aspect of the food industry. However, traditional methods of meat quality prediction have limitations in terms of accuracy, cost, and time efficiency. This project focused on utilizing advanced Deep learning and Machine learning algorithms to develop- machine learning models that could predict the freshness (or spoilage) of meat with a 100% accuracy, based on image data. In addition to accuracy, this study emphasizes the significance of speed and time in selecting the optimal machine learning model. The research questions are: Q1. What hybrid neural networks should be used to predict freshness? Q2. How do hybrid …

Evaluating The Accuracy And Quality Of The Information On Pulmonary Rehabilitation Videos Shared On Youtube Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Payaum Fotovat-Ahmadi, Bilal M. Ali, Bhavinkumar Dalal

Posters

YouTube is a visual library that is growing at incredible pace, especially with the rise of COVID-19 pandemic. Pulmonary rehabilitation refers to the rehabilitation treatment of patients with chronic pulmonary diseases. YouTube has made it possible to practice remote rehabilitation, the effectiveness of which have been proven non-inferior to traditional approaches.

Effects Of Maternal Disease History On Provisioning, Brooding, And Offspring Outcomes, Sakura Roberts

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Disease within a population has the ability to shape the development, evolution, and general performance of a species. Pathogen exposure to hosts can influence their physiology and behavioral patterns to further shape offspring immunity. Parental conditions experienced by offspring during early development can benefit survival and fitness (e.g. increasing provisioning rates), as well as help deter against similar diseases experienced by parents. By testing if parental behavior changes can better prepare offspring outcomes for disease exposure, such as disease severity or duration of infection, we can see the beneficial impacts it has on disease dynamics and host-pathogen processes. Incubation temperature, …

Community And Network Responses For Assisting Mobile Vulnerable Populations, Teresa C. Kulig, Allison V. Schlosser, Morgan A. Vanslyke, Laura E. Alexander, Cristián Doña-Reveco

Latino/Latin American Studies Reports

The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the increasing vulnerability of individuals, households, and communities. It has almost certainly been even more devastating for those who rely on community networks and organizations for aid but are less able to access aid networks in conditions of reduced mobility. This is the case for “mobile vulnerable populations,” among which include persons experiencing homelessness, victims of human trafficking,immigrants, refugees, and Latinos/as. This report summarizes our research with local Omaha service providers about what they need to serve mobile vulnerable populations in the community, how the pandemic has affected their ability to do so, and whether there …

The Impact Of Thiamin (B1) And Its Precursors On Microzooplankton-Phytoplankton Interactions, Sara Smith

Master's Theses and Capstones

Phytoplankton, marine microalgae that are the base of the oceanic food web, significantly influence the flow of essential nutrients throughout marine ecosystems. In particular, phytoplankton have been implicated in the cycling of the vitamin thiamin (B1) and its components 4-methyl-5-thiazoleethanol (HET) and 4-amino-5-hydroxymethyl-2-methylpyrimidine (HMP). These compounds are essential to many marine microbes but are found in relatively small concentrations (<500 pM) throughout the earth’s oceans. Despite the importance of these vitamins in fueling marine microbial growth, very little is understood regarding their sources and sinks. To better understand the impacts of vitamins on phytoplankton growth and interactions with microzooplankton grazers, 20 dilution experiments spiked with additions of B1, HET, or HMP were conducted. These were performed across seasons, and examined changes not only in bulk chlorophyll concentration, but also in size-specific growth and grazing rates. No clear patterns in rate changes in response to additions of B1 or precursors were observed. Additionally, often vitamin addition resulted in compound-dependent significant changes in growth and loss rates. No significant changes in rates were found to correlate with starting phytoplankton abundance, suggesting that the composition of the starting phytoplankton community played a large role in mediating the response to vitamin addition relative to total abundance. Overall, these findings highlight the complexity and importance of understanding the sources and sinks of B1 and its components in the marine environment.

Tiny Tusk Internship: Barriers To Effective Breastfeeding Within Low Socioeconomic Populations, Catherine Johnson

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tiny Tusk Breastfeeding and Infant Support is a program created to facilitate safe and quiet places for mothers to breastfeed at various events at the University of Arkansas. It serves as a platform to spread important and essential information about breastfeeding to mothers and reach various women all from different backgrounds and populations. The purpose of this review of literature is to identify barriers that women within low socioeconomic populations face that influence their decision to breastfeed. These barriers included lack of social support from family, friends, and healthcare providers; latch difficulty; and concerns of milk supply. Altogether, low-income women …

Application Of A High-Resolution Climate Model Dataset To Assess Habitat Suitability For Spotted Wing Drosophila In Southwest Idaho, Elizabeth Padian

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As global climate change continues to produce large deviations from the normals of the 19th and 20th centuries, the agricultural sector will need to adapt to these changes in order to maintain yields and feed the global population. Crop selections, yield amounts, and pest management techniques may need to be adjusted to adapt. The Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) is a small fruit fly-like bug that can infest berries and stone fruit crops by burrowing into the fruit (at most points in the fruit’s lifecycle) and laying its eggs. These eggs will hatch and the larvae will burrow back out of …

An Eye-Tracking Investigation Of Consumer’S Real-Time Behaviors In Professional Minor League Hockey, Alicia B. Romano

Dissertations

Minor league hockey provides a unique setting to investigate consumers’ marketingcontrolled activities in a natural environment. Consumers’ visual attention to sponsorship information has been shown to influence their explicit memory of sponsor brands and their purchase intentions. The current research builds on the sponsorship information processing framework of previous scholars by examining consumers’ real-time behaviors to sponsorship information in a natural setting. To analyze consumers’ behaviors at minor league hockey sporting events, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 16 participants. The qualitative data related to the patterns and observations of consumers’ visual attention behaviors. The quantitative data measured consumers’ …

Effects Of Exercise Training On Objective Measures Of Sleep Quality And Markers Of Peripheral Circadian Rhythm In Cancer Patients Undergoing Treatment, Luke Michael Krynski

Dissertations

Poor sleep quality is a common side effect among cancer survivors, which could lead to a decrease in quality of life and worsen a variety of clinical outcomes for cancer patients including risk of infection and cancer recurrence. The detrimental effects of poor sleep quality are correlated with a disruption in circadian rhythm, which is a vital component of essential physiological processes. Exercise could improve sleep quality and circadian rhythm in an apparently healthy population but evidence was lacking in the cancer population. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore the effects of individualized, prescribed, supervised exercise on …

The Effects Of Puberty Blocking Treatment (Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone Agonist) On Physical Activity And Reproductive Health In Young Female Rats, Brandon Creed Jones

Dissertations

The number of adolescents identifying as transgender has been increasing with many transgender youth receiving treatment with a gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) that suppresses sex hormone production (i.e., puberty blocker). Transgender individuals taking a GnRHa to block puberty have reported improved mental wellbeing, but the physiological impacts need to be examined. Purpose: To investigate the effects of puberty blocking treatment using GnRHa on physical activity, reproductive morphology, and reproductive function in young female rats. Methods: Four-week old female Sprague Dawley rats were given daily subcutaneous injections of the GnRHa triptorelin or saline as control. One group of rats was …

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: Science Practices And Science Identity, Alaina Buchanan

Dissertations

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have become more commonly incorporated in laboratory courses in undergraduate education. Because CUREs incorporate research within the context of a course, the benefits of mentored research (self-efficacy, science identity, persistence, and more) are extended to each student enrolled. CUREs are designed with five key components: discovery, relevance, iteration, collaboration, and science practices. However, the term science practices is broad and includes a diversity of student activities which can make it difficult to compare student outcomes across different CUREs. The first part of this work reviews the components and specific science practices included in all CUREs …

Frequency, Form, And Function Of Dyadic Questions In Children With Autism: A Childes Corpus Study, Rhiannon Luyster, Isabella Leiwant, Sudha Arunachalam

Emerson Authors, Researchers, & Creators

Children’s questions to their caregivers – and caregivers’ questions to their children – play an important role in child development. For children on the autism spectrum, who often experience cognitive, linguistic and social difficulties, prior research on questions has resulted in inconsistent and incomplete findings. The present study characterized the frequency, form, and function of queries posed by children on the autism spectrum (n = 12), non-spectrum peers (n =20), and parents using the Nadig ASD English Corpus in the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES). Results suggested that children on the autism spectrum and their caregivers produced fewer questions …

Sin And Sign: Reading Disability In The Gospels, Helena L. Martin

Yale Divinity School Theses

No abstract provided.

Developing A Physical Therapy Initial Evaluation Screening Tool For A Multidisciplinary Clinic For Adults With Down Syndrome, Isabella Russell, Alvin Lacap, Francis Lacap

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose: Down syndrome (Ds) is a chromosomal condition that can result in intellectual disability, as well as structural or functional disorders impacting the nervous, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal systems. As individuals with Ds age, they can have an increased number of comorbidities that impact their health. Physical therapy can play an important role in managing many of the comorbidities adults with Ds have. Therefore, there is an increased need for physical therapists to efficiently screen, evaluate and treat adults with Ds. The purpose of this work is to create an Initial Evaluation Screening Tool and Patient Intake Form for physical therapists …

Utilization And Perception Of Peer-Support After Lower Limb Loss In The United States: Potential Benefits On Mobility Outcomes, Moriah Maluotoga, Roopkiran Thind

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Introduction: Limb loss is a life-changing event that significantly impacts patients’ functioning as well as psychosocial well-being. Psychosocial support in the form of amputee peer-support is widely recognized as beneficial to individuals after lower limb loss (LLL). However, there is currently a lack of research on the utilization of peer-support after LLL and its perceived benefits to function. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine and quantify participants’ experiences with peer-support after LLL, and how peer-support experience is associated with mobility outcomes. We hypothesized that participants with LLL would express generally positive experiences with peer-support and that it …

Acute Effects Of Post-Activation Potentiation On Increasing Bat Velocity In Competitive Baseball Players: A Case Series, Phillipp Yu, John Macdonald, Katrina Myers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose/Hypothesis: Hitting a baseball is widely considered as one of the most difficult motor tasks in sports. It requires quick decision-making and coordinated activation of key muscles to produce a precise and rapid swing. Higher bat velocity has been shown to be associated with offensive performance of baseball players, as greater bat velocities permit more time to be spent analyzing a pitch and can lead to greater outcomes when a ball is hit in play. Baseball players and coaches have traditionally sought on-deck routines to temporarily enhance bat velocity before an at-bat, primarily swinging a weight bat. However, this method …

Anatomy Academy Service-Learning Project: Attacking The Epidemic Of Childhood Obesity, Kelsey Kjer, Rosedaveia Howell, Brennan Kitchen, Francesca Schutte

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The World Health Organization has classified childhood obesity as one of the most serious public health concerns in the world. Obesity is known to have detrimental health consequences and be a risk for comorbidities. On top of the consequences of obesity already seen in young children at school, a lack of health education interventions in many elementary schools remains a significant health disparity. Anatomy Academy (AA) is a seven-week curriculum designed to educate children about their bodies and the importance of gaining and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The purpose of this service-learning project was to educate elementary school students in …

How Animals Affect Us: Examining The Relationship Between Human-Animal Interactions And Human Well-Being, Elizabeth A. Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods approach which illustrated the potential benefits of HAI in addressing human health concerns, focusing on specific populations within the United States. The chapters presented in this dissertation provide insight into the complex relationships between humans and animals, including the roles of companion animals in promoting human well-being. Chapter three surveys 234 Americans observing COVID-19 stay at home isolation orders and findings suggest that the presence of companion animals alleviates stress and isolation by providing attachment figures and activities on which to focus one’s energy. Chapter four explores women’s oxytocin levels after interacting with their cat …

Preparing Homogenous Composites Of Collagen And Cellulose Nanocrystals For Tissue Engineering Research, Zachary Stanley

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Advancements in medicine and our understanding of stem cells have led to a greater emphasis on further developing research focused on tissue engineering. This research has led to the rise of both two-dimensional and three-dimensional scaffolds that can be utilized to repair bone, skin, vascular, and potentially even nervous tissue. One of the prominent compounds used in modern scaffolds is collagen-based hydrogels due to their low antigenicity and ability to provide structure to cells. There is potential to further improve upon this three-dimensional scaffold by incorporating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) into a composite hydrogel with collagen. The addition would increase the …

Automating Pharmacokinetic Predictions In Artemisia, Celin Younan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Pharmacokinetics (PK) is the time course of a compound in the body that is dependent on mechanisms of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion or ADME. A thorough understanding of PK is essential to predict the consequences of organisms exposed to chemicals. In medicine, predictions of PK of drugs allows us to properly prescribe drug treatments. In toxicology, PK allows us to predict the potential exposure of environmental contaminants and how they may affect organisms at the time of exposure or in the future. Chemical ecology could benefit from computational predictions of PK to better understand which plants are consumed or …

Understanding The Operations And Decision-Making Of Cow-Calf Farmers In Northwest Arkansas, Clayton Weyl

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Societal pressure on farmers has become a more central part of the rhetoric surrounding livestock production. This study includes farmers in the discourse on the rhetoric surrounding climate change via interviews and simulations tailored to their operation. Previous research has addressed regenerative agricultural practices and conditions that influence farmer decision-making, but little research has analyzed decision-making in tandem with environmental practices. The literature reveals that cow-calf producer decision-making is influenced by their reliance on cattle as an income source, and farmers overall choose climate-friendly practices based on their perceptions about climate change. The goal of this research was to gather …

The Scaling Method: Body Mass Reconstruction Of East African Hominins, Julianna Rose

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis details a series of novel methods developed to estimate body masses of hominin fossils using 3-D point cloud registration software. All analyses were conducted through 3-D modeling software that supported the remote study of five fossil femora from East Africa. The fossil computer models were repeatedly aligned with anatomically modern human femora to determine their scaling relationship with the objective of using the scaling factor of the human references to estimate the body mass of the fossils, on the basis of the femoral head breadth. Body mass estimates obtained through this technique were compared to estimates using more …

Fatty Females And Muscular Males: Investigating Human Sexual Dimorphism Across The Upper And Lower Skeleton, Brooklin Edwards

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The sexual dimorphism profile of human body composition produces a unique pattern. Compared to other primates, humans have a mild size dimorphism; however, human males have a particularly muscular upper body and human females have a permanent fatty composition. These findings have resulted in varying interpretations related to sexual selection, mating systems, and male competition. Using humerus and femur measurements collected from 9 primate species, we investigated how the pronounced sexually dimorphic tissue composition of humans influences skeletal elements compared to the other primates. We hypothesized that over the course of human evolution, human females developed a body composition that …

Coh 1500 Healthcare In The Us Oer Syllabus, Shannon Caravello

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Standardizing Initial Inpatient Palliative Care Consultations For Patients Receiving Left Ventricular Assist Devices At A Large Urban Hospital, Deborah A. Szeto

Doctoral Projects

For patients with advanced heart failure (HF) ineligible for or awaiting heart transplantation, left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation can be considered. LVADs have helped to improve recipients’ survival rates and quality of life. However, LVAD patients are at risk for complications such as stroke, bleeding, infection, and right ventricular failure. Moreover, events such as end-stage malignancy or progression of a neurodegenerative disorder may occur. Such complications and repeated hospitalizations can pose questions about the acceptability of LVAD therapy. As such, both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and The Joint Commission require that palliative care (PC) be part …

Does The Enhanced Recovery Pathway Decrease Length Of Stay And Readmission Rates In Patients Undergoing Gynecologic Surgery?, Trinh T. Nguyen

Doctoral Projects

The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathway promotes an early recovery after surgery using an evidence-based multidisciplinary approach. The ERAS protocol is aimed at standardizing care to improve patient outcomes. There is consistent evidence that ERAS pathways reduce hospital length of stay (LOS) and readmission rates, decrease healthcare costs, and improve patient satisfaction and outcomes. By attenuating the surgical stress response and supporting the return of physiological function, the ERAS pathway achieves its effectiveness. This scholarly project aimed to evaluate how ERAS improves patient outcomes in gynecology patients at a county hospital. A standardized method for improving patient recovery was …

Health Promotion Module For Migrant Youth Adults In Obesity Prevention: A Pilot Project, James Chongsu Wong

Doctoral Projects

The obesity epidemic continues to worsen. It is estimated there are over one half billion adults worldwide struggling with obesity. In the United States of America, 42% of the adults and over 15 million children are obese. Obesity leads to a myriad of other chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. With an annual spending exceeding 173 billion dollars, obesity not only has a negative impact on quality of life but also a huge economic impact on the health care system.
This quality improvement project utilized 4 educational modules as intervention and measured the mean changes using a …

Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation Does Not Decrease Torque Loss Over High Intensity Repetitions, Ian Koskinen

All NMU Master's Theses

Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation, TENS, has been used widely as an analgesic and ergogenic aid for many years. Compared to other modalities of electrical stimulation, TENS has been shown to provide some benefits in exercise performance by reducing pain and increasing endurance in low intensity applications, such as time trial cycling or isometric endurance. While TENS has been shown to have a significant effect on exercise induced pain in individuals performing endurance activities, to my knowledge it has not been examined in high intensity contractions. 18 active young adults (age: 23.11 years ± 2.08, resistance training experience: 7.08 years ± 3.79, …

Using Social Practice Theory In Measuring Perceived Stigma Among Female Sex Workers In Mombasa, Kenya, Joseph Newton Guni, Stanley Wechuli Wanjala, Griffins Manguro, Caroline Gichuki, Megan Sc Lim, Minh D. Pham, Stanley Luchters, James Orwa

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background Perceived stigma is a complex societal phenomenon that is harboured especially by female sex workers because of the interplay of a myriad of factors. As such, a precise measure of the contribution of different social practices and characteristics is necessary for both understanding and intervening in matters related to perceived stigma. We developed a Perceived Stigma Index that measures the factors that greatly contribute to the stigma among sex workers in Kenya, and thereby inform a framework for future interventions.

Methods Social Practice Theory was adopted in the development of the Perceived Stigma Index in which three social domains …