Digital Commons Network^™

Report: North Dakota Department Of Health Oral Health Program: Full Evaluation Of The Oral Health Program’S Activities Under Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (Cdc) Grant, State Actions To Improve Oral Health Outcomes, Shawnda Schroeder

Indigenous Health Faculty Publications

The Mission of the North Dakota Department of Health (ND DoH) Oral Health Program (OHP) is to improve the oral health of all North Dakotans through prevention and education. Funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) State Actions to Improve Oral Health Outcomes enables the OHP to implement oral health promotion and prevention activities that address targeted need within the state. Component one of the grant addresses oral health disparities by both maintaining the existing public health capacity among the OHP, and identifying, implementing, evaluating, and disseminating best practices for oral health promotion and disease prevention among …

Evaluation Of Landowner Perceptions Of Participating In Conservation Easements In The Beaver Lake And Illinois River Watersheds: Motivators And Barriers, Lauren Gwaltney

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Conservation easements (CEs) are an effective way to protect natural resources with minimal impact on the daily activities of landowners (LOs), but there is still resistance to CE adoption among landowners in Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma. Therefore, there is a need to characterize LOs’ perceptions of CEs in these regions and adjust easement organization programming accordingly. This study followed a non-experimental, exploratory survey research design to gather information regarding demographics, awareness, attitudes, and preferences of LOs in the Beaver Lake and Illinois River watersheds. Likert-scale survey responses were assigned numerical values and averaged to find Pearson correlation coefficients between …

In Vitro Screening Of 12 Strains Of Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus Corniculatus) Against Haemonchus Contortus, Isabella Caldwell, Elizabeth Kass, Rebecca Brown, Katherine Harper Petersson

Senior Honors Projects

Gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN), primarily Haemonchus contortus, are one of the leading causes of death in sheep and goats. As resistance to commercial dewormers continues to rise, alternative strategies for GIN parasite control are needed. Preliminary studies have demonstrated that secondary plant compounds in birdsfoot trefoil (BFT, Lotus corniculatus) possess antiparasitic activity against GIN. In this study, the antiparasitic effect of twelve strains of BFT on the hatching of H. contortus eggs and motility of larvae was determined. BFT strains were harvested in June of 2020 and hay-dried. H. contortus eggs were recovered from mono-infected Dorset yearlings by running fresh …

The Literary Language Of Privacy—How Judges' Use Of Literature Reveals Images Of Privacy In The Law, Elizabeth De Armond

Georgia State University Law Review

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. When we think of literary works and privacy, that is the first book that comes to mind, and the same is true for judges penning privacy law opinions too. Although the novel is notable for expressing fears of authoritarian overreach, other literary works offer judges a tool for describing the plights of parties before them—parties who seek to vindicate breaches of privacy in many different forms. Nineteen Eighty-Four particularly suits cases that challenge government surveillance or non-governmental wiretapping. References to Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller illuminate other privacy harms, such as unease with governmental collection, …

Curio-Stereo: A Vr Application For The Viewing Of Stereograph Cards, Paige Sandheinrich

Theses

This project discusses the historical significance of stereograph cards as a tool for constructing a shared visual culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States and the United Kingdom. Stereographs were widely popularized as an entertainment and educational tool, offering an immersive experience for the viewers. The stereoscopic nature of the images allowed the viewers to immerse themselves in a non-physical reality through visual stimulation, creating a haptic involvement that was unique to the medium. The project of creating a VR application to view stereographs is presented as a potential solution to the problem of …

“Let’S Do The Time Warp, Again!” The Rocky Horror Picture Show As Hysterical Theatre, Frances Wendorf

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

In studying not only the distinct aesthetics and themes of the film but also the experience of the cult midnight movie screenings, this thesis re-positions The Rocky Horror Picture show as a radical descendent of the theatrical legacy of Jean- Martin Charcot’s lectures on hysteria. His “theatre of hysteria” is a retroactive terminology for the physician’s highlytheatricalized lecture series at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris in the 1880s on the diagnosis of hysteria, during which the bodies of hysterical patients were rendered an objectified public spectacle under the guise of medical observation. The thesis explores intersections between queer and hysterical …

The Rape-Revenge Genre In The Digital Age Of Heightened Visibility: The Rise Of Female Storytellers And Fourth-Wave Feminism, Marynell Dethero

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

The rape-revenge cinema genre has continued to evolve since its initial emergence in the 1970s. Many of the most popular films belonging to the genre produced in the 1970s, like Meir Zarchi’s I Spit on Your Grave (1978) or Wes Craven’s directorial debut The Last House on the Left (1972), have been criticized heavily by film critics and scholars for their exploitative tropes. However, I argue that regardless of the production value of the films, the rape-revenge genre is inherently feminist because sexual violence is and always has been an inherent issue to the feminist movement and because the genre …

Balancing Multiple Worlds: The Multiverse And The Fractured Asian American Experience In Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), Austin Kang

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) employs the philosophical ideas concomitant with the multiverse hypothesis in order to narrate an emotionally poignant, yet somewhat typical story about a multi-generational Asian American family. This thesis argues that the film uses its characters as vehicles to not only illustrate the multilayered nature of Asian American realities through the allegory of “auto verse-jumping” across the multiverse, but also to philosophically contemplate and respond to the existence of the multiverse via its presentation of conceptual parallels. The film employs the hypothetical existence of the …

Desire For Transformation: The Actualization Of Self-Identity Through Change In The Films Raw And Titane, Owen Bradford

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

The aim of this thesis is to illustrate a distinction between the films of The New French Extreme and Ducournau’s Raw and Titane, in their handling of gender and identity, primarily in regard to how these films handle transformation and self-identification. Ducournau explores themes of cannibalism, the linking of desire and violence, and transformation in order to disrupt hegemonic conceptions of sex and gender binaries. the disruptions to these binaries are initially perceived as monstrous, due to the implementation of genre conventions, they play on perception of the monstrous feminine, to reveal cultural perceptions that these transgressions are dangerous, …

The Effects Of Circadian Rhythm Disruption On The Behavior, Lifespan, And Fertility In Drosophila Melanogaster, Isaiah Thomas

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Circadian disruptions can have adverse behavioral and/or physiological effects on organisms, impacting their overall health and reproductive fitness. The circadian biology of Drosophila melanogaster was disrupted through exposure to excessive nighttime light. Locomotor, lifespan, and fecundity/fertility assays were used to quantify the negative effects of artificial-light-at-night (ALAN) in Oregon-R and w1118 wildtype flies. Control flies were kept in a 12:12 hr. light-dark cycle (LD) while the experimental flies were kept in a 12:12 hr. light-dim-light cycle (LDim) of 4 lux to mimic exposure to ALAN, a form of photopollution. The data showed significant behavioral differences in the active-rest phases of …

Seasonal Variations In Nutrient And Total Suspended Solids Sources And Fluxes In Rivers Of Northern New Jersey And Newark Bay, Usa, Jing Nie

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In recent decades, aquatic systems have experienced major problems with water quality due to high nutrient concentrations from both point and non-point sources resulting from industrialization, urbanization, and population growth. While nutrient pollution due to land use change cannot be ignored, point sources such as combined sewer overflows and discharging sites have also contributed to the problem. Integrated hydrodynamic, chemical, and biological models have been developed to simulate nutrient transportation from both sources. This paper reviews and analyzes water quality data from published literature to evaluate nutrient pollution in aquatic systems and emphasizes the need for a continuously developed integrated …

The Fate Of Fraxinus Spp. In New Jersey : A Physioeconomic Evaluation Of The Forest System And Infrastructure Implications, Erik W. Lyttek

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Though the impacts of pest infestation on forested ecosystems vary, the natural factors that facilitate outbreaks are of concern across multiple disciplines across the USA, affecting such diverse fields as economics, ecology, hydrology, atmospheric sciences, and pedology. Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a typical example of an aggressive invasive forest pest; it has proven difficult to eliminate, resistant to natural predators, and damaging to local flora. EAB has recently proliferated through the northern and mid-western forests of the USA, devastating the native population of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.), and has invaded an estimated 28% of all susceptible trees. In New …

Assessment Of Phytoplankton Assemblages And Harmful Algal Blooms In New Jersey, Yaritza Acosta Caraballo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Urbanization, industrialization, and climate change have played a major role in the pollution of waterways, leading to a global increasing trend of harmful algal blooms (HAB) while jeopardizing water quality. Phytoplankton and HAB were evaluated within the highly urbanized and historically polluted state of New Jersey to help provide statewide baseline data for HAB and water quality management. A total of three studies were included in this dissertation. In the first study, phytoplankton communities were characterized in freshwaters of New Jersey during the cyanobacterial HAB season and their relationships to water quality at both statewide and ecoregion levels were examined. …

Environmental Drivers Of Stress In Red Pandas (Ailurus Fulgens) : Behavior And Space Use Changes In Response To Redesigned Naturalistic Enclosures, Alexis Michelle Lawson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Animal welfare encompasses the physical and mental state of an animal, as well as how that animal is cared for. Recently, zoological settings have shifted from strictly housing animals to improving the welfare of the animal such that the goal of captivity is for residents to thrive. This is especially crucial as global wildlife numbers and biodiversity continues to decrease due to anthropogenic impacts such as poaching, mining, habitat destruction, fragmentation. Further confounding this issue is climate change, air pollution, invasive species, ocean acidification, and more. In particular, the red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is an endangered species whose declined 50% …

Effects Of Guest Interactions On Cownose Ray (Rhinoptera Bonasus) Behavior In A Zoo Touch Tank, Lauren Hope

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Touch tanks are increasingly popular exhibits at zoos and aquariums, and are at the center of scientific engagement with the public. Touch tanks can provide benefits to marine species through conservation outreach and research, and to guests through education, recreation, and stress reduction. Cownose rays are a popular species found in touch tanks due to their putative stress tolerance and docile nature. Yet, questions remain about ray tolerance to captivity, and studies are rare on their behavioral responses to touch tank environments and guest interactions. Here, I used an observational study to examine: (1) baseline ray behavior in a touch …

The Characterization Of Minicoopr Cell Line Clones For The Expression Of Wild Type Form Of Icer, Samantha Moscoso

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The transcriptional repressor Inducible cyclic-AMP Early Repressor (ICER) is an isoform of the cAMP-responsive element modulator (CREM) gene. ICER protein has tumor suppressor activity by regulating cAMP-induced transcription. ICER has been found to be effective in providing an anti-tumor effect when in many tumors including melanomas. Melanoma is an aggressive type of skin cancer that begins when there is an overproduction of melanocytes. Using a zebrafish model for melanoma, our laboratory has recently demonstrated that zebrafish that are expressing ICER in their melanocytes succumbed to malignancies at a much faster rate than the control Green Fluorescent protein (GFP)- expressing fish. …

Investigating Spinal Cord Injury At Different Locations On The Spinal Cord Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Haley Nauman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The current study is derived from a larger study by Yao et al. (2019) that attempts to understand if Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is a good diagnostic tool for distinguishing spinal cord injured (SCI) participants from healthy controls from a structural perspective. Additionally, the study aims to determine whether the DTI parameters and the clinical functional scores of the Spinal Cord Independence Measure (SCIM) improve over time for SCI when rehabilitation is implemented. The current study has the same aims but takes Yao’s work further by dividing cervical SCI participants based on the exact location of injury (i.e., upper and …

Social Exclusion : How Inhibition And Excitation Of The Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (Dlpfc) Influences Feelings Of Social Exclusion, Anthony Minervini

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social exclusion refers to the experience of rejection by one or more people during a social event. Cyberball, a computer program, is one of the most common tools for analyzing social exclusion. Cyberball simulates a game of catch in which any number of individuals or computer- generated players can pass a virtual ball to one another. Regions of the brain that underlies pain perception include networks lined to the Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC). Direct manipulation of this area may provide a better understanding of how the DLPFC can influence the perception of social exclusion. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was …

Potential Of Increased Thermal Tolerance As A Response To Acute Heat Stress In A Disease-Transmitting Mosquito Species, Nicole Ashley Scanlon

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Each year hundreds of millions of people are infected with mosquito-borne illnesses. West Nile Virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne diseases in the United States (McDonald et al., 2021). The first case of West Nile Virus was detected in the United States in 1999 (Sejvar, 2003). Since that time the number of cases has dramatically risen. Mosquitoes are ectotherms which means their body temperature is dependent on the thermal conditions outside of their body. Because of this they are very sensitive to changes in their environment. The Earth’s average temperature has been slowly but steadily rising. This small but …

Black Garlic Extract As An Antiviral For Herpes Simplex Virus-2 In Lung Cells, Jenna Rose Horowitz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Allicin, a sulfur compound, is known for providing garlic with its unique fragrance and taste, as well as for its antimicrobial properties. This is one of many antioxidant compounds found in garlic, along with polyphenols and flavonoids. When raw garlic is aged using high temperatures and high humidity levels, it develops a black color and a sweeter taste. Garlic in this form, referred to as black garlic, contains higher levels of antioxidants than fresh garlic. Antioxidants play a vital role in alleviating cellular stress during viral infections. Once a virus particle attaches and enters a host cell, a slew of …

The Effects Of Ketamine On Performance In The Progressive Ratio Task And Nucleus Accumbens 5-Ht1b Receptor Expression In Wistar-Kyoto Rats, Andriy Fomin

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the present study, we integrated the recent findings about rapid antidepressant action of ketamine and possible involvement of the serotonergic system, and 5-HT_1B receptor in particular, in the pharmacodynamics of this drug. We modeled anhedonia, a prominent symptom of depression, using the progressive ratio test in Wistar Kyoto rats. This strain of rat is reportedly an endogenously stress-reactive organism that displays an anhedonia-like endophenotype. We hypothesized that Wistar-Kyoto rats’ performance would be impaired, compared to Wistar-Han controls, on this reward- and motivation- related task and that the treatment with 1o mg/kg ketamine 24 hours prior to testing will …

"The Moonlit Path": Reading Marie Howe In Early Motherhood, Alice Hodgkins Courtright

Yale Divinity School Theses

No abstract provided.

From Judgment To Action : Moral Cognition And The Tenuous Link To Moral Courage, Nathan Kemper

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Though specifics differ across cultures and even across individuals, research has shown surprising consensus as to what constitutes immoral behavior across societies (e.g., murder, theft). Even though much research has broadened our understanding of moral cognition, comparatively few studies have investigated moral action. There are real-world examples of people trying to intervene against immoral behavior, a behavior known as moral courage. This dissertation, comprised of a total of six studies across three manuscripts, seeks to add to the corpus of moral psychology by bridging the gap in knowledge regarding how connected moral cognition and action are. In the two studies …

Civil War Journalism: Two Rough Drafts Of One History, Brianna Collora

History Honors Program

This paper addresses journalism in the Civil War by analyzing both Northern and Southern reporting. The severity of censorship changed throughout the duration of the war, with it less harsh in the Union by the end. Southern officials did not censor as much, both because their resources were scarcer, and their officials were more opposed to the use of censorship. While past historians have argued that the decrease in Northern censorship is because the Union began to have the upper hand in the war, I argue that the decrease in Union censorship was not only because the Union was now …

Pilot Study: The Effect Of Individual Versus Group Animal-Assisted Therapy On Undergraduate Student Anxiety, Jessica Hanson, Hannah Tucker

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) on undergraduate student test anxiety; comparing an individual AAT session to a group AAT session. AAT may be a solution for decreasing anxiety for undergraduate students. The study adds empirical knowledge to the field of AAT and student anxiety coping methods. The study question was: What is the effect of one-on-one and group Animal-Assisted Therapy sessions on undergraduate student anxiety?

Methods: This study used a convenience sample randomly assigned to either a group of 3 to 5 students (n=9) or an individual AAT session (n=10) …

Methodical Madness: How Adhd Affects Daily Life, Samuel Gonzalez '23

Honor Scholar Theses

Let me begin by saying that this project is not a kind of “self-help” document. While it may come off that way, that is not the primary objective of my project. My primary objective is to provide people with necessary, and in my opinion, essential information surrounding the experiences and struggles of daily life with ADHD. I am not here to make anyone feel guilty for treating someone with ADHD poorly, nor am I here to convince you that people with ADHD are the same as their neurotypical peers (spoiler alert, we aren’t). Additionally, this is not the kind of …

Beyond Allegory: Postcolonial Debates In Science Fiction, Su Chen

English (MA) Theses

Marxist allegorical reading in Third World literature and the pertinent analysis of binary class struggles in First World literature, typified by Fredric Jameson’s 1986 essay “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism,” have long been canonized in literary studies. The undertaking of a postcolonial debate on literary interpretation is a necessary step toward readjusting postcolonial study into the paradigm of critical analysis prioritized by Marxism. Here, I demonstrate that both The Three-Body Problem (2014) from China and Dawn (1987) from the U.S., science fiction novels typifying Third and First World literature, respectively, primarily reflect a postcolonial struggle rather than …

Effects Of Triptorelin On Global Deoxyribonucleic Acid Methylation In Skeletal Muscle In Male Adolescent Rats, Max Boland

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate how treatment with triptorelin, a gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist, to block puberty in adolescent male rats affects their epigenetic regulation via global DNA methylation changes in skeletal muscle and to determine if physical activity has an effect on DNA methylation status during treatment. Twenty-four male, Sprague-Dewey rats were randomly assigned to different groups: 12 treated with 1 μg of triptorelin daily (PB group) while the other 12 received an equivalent volume of saline as a placebo (control, CON) for four weeks. In order to determine the interaction with physical activity, six PB …

A Cross Sectional Comparison Of The Mental Health, Sleep, And Anaerobic Power Of Cannabis Users, Cannabidiol Users, And Non Users, Taylor Tamanaha

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are differences among groups of individuals who regularly use cannabis, cannabidiol (CBD), or who are non-users with respect to mental health, sleep, and anaerobic power measures. A total of 24 participants (21 males and 3 females) were recruited and placed into groups based on their regular cannabis/CBD or non-cannabis/CBD use. The cannabis user group was using cannabis at least three times per week for the past 8 weeks (CA; n=8), the CBD user group was using CBD at least three times per week for the past 8 weeks (CB; n=8), …

Exploring The Effect Of 8 Weeks Of Cannabidiol On Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, Seth T. Kofman

Master's Theses

Studies have shown that cannabidiol (CBD) consumption may lead to neuroprotective effects. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a circulating biomarker of neural health and studies exploring the effects of CBD on BDNF concentrations are limited. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether a longer-term CBD intervention would significantly change BDNF concentrations in human serum. Methods: This study used a double-blind placebo-controlled design where thirty-five healthy adult participants were randomly assigned into two groups. Participants were 25.94 ± 6.5 years of age with a body weight of 72.35 ± 13.89 kg and a body fat percentage of 22.61 …