Digital Commons Network^™

Review Of Biomedical Applications Of Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering, Natalie M. Howard

Honors College Theses

Tissue engineering can be defined as processes that aim to generate three-dimensional functional tissues in vitrothat have been favorably altered according to the structural, biochemical, electrophysiological, and biomechanical properties of the desired tissue before implantation into the human body. In relation to cardiac tissues, these properties would include the ability to conduct action potentials, withstand systolic pressure, permit sufficient O₂ and CO₂penetration, sufficient vascularization to supply nutrients for cellular activity, surface topology that enables cellular communication, and more. As heart diseases and instances of myocardial infarction continue to rise worldwide, there is an increasing need for …

Urban & Deltaic Subsidence In Bangladesh From Sentinel-1 Insar Data Analysis, Gavin Middleton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bangladesh's Bengal Delta faces multiple challenges, such as rising sea levels, coastal flooding, and high population density, leading to land subsidence, saltwater intrusion, and biodiversity loss. The region's groundwater security, essential for the country's survival, is at risk due to climate change and saltwater intrusion. Groundwater security is dependent on the Bengal Water Machine (BWM), which is at risk due to saltwater intrusion and monsoon rainfall distribution from climate change. Groundwater exhaustion leads to natural hazards such as subsidence, landslides, and flooding. A large portion of the population is at risk from groundwater insecurity, which requires mitigating worldwide greenhouse gas …

Adolescent Acceptability Of Mental Health Interventions: A Systematic Review, Norah Bufford

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Many children and adolescents experience a mental health problem, and of those that do, a significant percentage will only receive interventions in the schools. One important part of intervention research is measuring stakeholder acceptability. Research demonstrates that collecting data on student acceptability for mental health interventions in schools helps to understand student satisfaction, level of understanding, and if they would recommend the interventions to peers. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature to determine measures used in assessing student acceptability when receiving mental health interventions in schools. Results suggest that most studies that …

School Climate Research In Elementary Schools: A Systematic Review, Jessica Lafleur

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research demonstrates that schools that cultivate a positive school climate see growth in student’s academic performance and improvements in behavior. However, a majority of the research focuses on either solely middle and high school or a district-wide view of school climate including K-12. There is a lack of research dedicated to school climate of elementary schools. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature surrounding school climate in elementary schools. A systematic search of the literature yielded thirteen studies that focused on the elementary setting. Most studies examined the teaching and learning or institutional …

A United, Not A Divider: Community, Identity, Performance & The Tomato Krewe Parading Group Of East Nashville's Tomato Art Festival, Allison Cate

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the “Tomato Krewe,” a social group that participates in the parade of East Nashville’s annual Tomato Art Festival. Drawing on participant-observation, interviews, and my own experiences as a member of the krewe and resident of East Nashville, I examine krewe members’ narratives about the festival, the material culture that they create for the parade, and the levels of performance that they engage in while parading. Central to my analysis is how krewe members understand the Tomato Art Festival as an expression of East Nashville identity.

Development & Validation Of A Scale Of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Alexander Davy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important to organizations and their employees. However, confusion in conceptualization and operationalization hinders the development of DEI research and application. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, I conceptualized DEI as a composite construct of three interrelated but differentiated components, that is, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Possible relationships among the three constructs were discussed. Second, I developed a three-dimensional scale to measure diversity, equity, and inclusion as separate constructs. The scale showed acceptable reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha levels for the overall scale and subscales range from .81 to .94. Convergent and divergent validity …

Une Library Services Quarterly Report May 2023, Une Library Services

Quarterly Reports

Highlights of accomplishments of the University of New England's Library Services department.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 26: Confessions Of A 'Wallace Enthusiast', Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The author’s longstanding interest in the life and thought of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is profiled in three ways, through: (1) a brief factual review of its history (2) a discussion of some problems with the way Wallace has been treated over the years, and (3) a consideration of the author’s personal experience with the paranormal, and how this has made him, if not always a full believer, more patient with divergent explanations of the type Wallace was famous for.

Missional Renewal In A Large And Established Suburban Western Church, Michael Stevens

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the topic of missional renewal at Clovercrest Baptist Church (CBC), specifically focusing on participating in the mission of God through simple, memorable, and reproducible missional practices. The identified problem is a lack of process or framework for enhancing participation in God’s mission and churchwide missional renewal at CBC, a large suburban Western church. The purpose of this project intervention is to develop a resource guide of missional practices that facilitate participation in the mission of God at CBC towards missional renewal. This intervention is guided by the theological foundation that God is a God of mission. He …

Executing Vision: Operationalizing The Vision Statement Of Logos Preparatory Academy In Sugar Land, Texas, Jason Henderson

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the problem of finding a way to operationalize the vision statement of Logos Preparatory Academy. Logos Preparatory Academy (Logos Prep) is a school of around six hundred students located in Sugar Land, Texas. After interviewing some of the school founders and student leadership and examining documents from the founding of the school, it became evident Logos Prep is a school in need of a more efficient and effective way to execute the vision statement of “Families and students making an impact for Christ” through the goals set forth in their Portrait of a Graduate. Using the works …

Self-Compassion And Online Student Connectedness As Protective Factors Against Stress And Loneliness In Emerging Adulthood, Abigail Caroline Heller

Psychology Dissertations - Archive

The current state of US youth and emerging adult mental health is described as a crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated (US Office of the Surgeon General, 2021). This dissertation examined whether daily hassles and COVID-19 pandemic-related stress were related to negative psychological and physical health outcomes in emerging adulthood. Additionally, the current study aimed to examine loneliness as a mediator of the relationship between stressors and physical and psychological outcomes in adolescents. More importantly, this study examined the protective roles of self-compassion (i.e., how emerging adults treat themselves during hard times; Neff, 2003) and online student connectedness …

Toward Digital Phenotyping: Human Activity Representation For Embodied Cognition Assessment, Mohammad Zakizadehghariehali

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Cognition is the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and senses. Based on Embodied Cognition theory, physical activities are an important manifestation of cognitive functions. As a result, they can be employed to both assess and train cognitive skills. In order to assess various cognitive measures, the ATEC system has been proposed. It consists of physical exercises with different variations and difficulty levels, designed to provide assessment of executive and motor functions. This thesis focuses on obtaining human activity representation from recorded videos of ATEC tasks in order to automatically assess embodied cognition performance. Representation learning …

A Glimpse Into The Climate, Seasonality, Hydrological Cycle, Carbonate Chemistry And Marine Ecosystem Shift Of The Pre-Petm And The Petm Using Ncar Cesm1.2, Jiayi Wang

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations - Archive

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 my ago, 170,000y event) is characterized by a negative δ13C excursion into the atmosphere. This event caused global temperature to increase by about 5-6 °C, followed by climate responses such as marine acidification, ocean stratification, shoaling of calcite compensation depth (CCD), stronger hydrological cycle, and significant changes in marine ecosystems. It is one of the very few analogies of today’s global warming climate and thus is valuable to study. It still holds much potential for research, including using the state-of-the-art model CESM1.2. Proxy records are limited due to the nature of geological preservation and …

Patients With Heart Failure – A Qualitative Study, Elisa St. Clair Stehling

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

PATIENTS WITH HEART FAILURE – A QUALITATIVE STUDY People living with heart failure manage their diagnosis in diverse ways. The lived experiences of qualitative study participants are valuable for helping healthcare providers understand patient perspectives. When interviewed, the themes expressed by people living with heart failure aligned with the resilience theory by Greene (2002). Healthcare providers can use this theory to guide questions when interviewing people with heart failure and designing effective plans of care for this group of patients. Participants with heart failure were recruited for the phenomenological research project using ResearchMatch.org - an online volunteer organization of people …

Medication Safety In Community-Dwelling Older Adults, Fatoumata Jallow

Nursing Dissertations - Archive

This article-based thesis comprises two manuscripts on medication safety strategies in community-dwelling older adults. A phenomenological method was used to conduct semi-structured interviews with 28 community-dwelling older adults over 65 years who took five or more prescription medications daily. Caregivers were encouraged to participate in interviews. The objective of the first manuscript was to explore the roles of patients, pharmacists, and providers in medication safety from the perspective of community-dwelling older adults. Inductive thematic analysis revealed six themes indicating varying perceived roles of medication safety by older adults. In addition, results show that the provider and pharmacist roles overlap but …

Rhettech Wrtc Undergraduate Journal Volume 5 Full Issue

RhetTech

No abstract provided.

The Imbalanced Identity: To First-Generation Immigrant Parents, Isha Alam

RhetTech

Imbalanced Identity is an opinion piece in the form of an open letter directed towards first generation immigrant parents, centered around personal conflict with identity that stems from being raised with conservative Islamic values while being exposed to Western ones. It sympathizes with the struggle that immigrant parents experience when raising their children in a new culture, while critiquing the intolerance and resulting lack of communication that creates a barrier between parent and child.

Organoid Intelligence: The Crossroads Of Biology And Artificial Intelligence, Ishan S. Abdullah, Aditya Loganathan, Ayal Z. Pierce, Ioannis Koutroulis

URGENT Matters

No abstract provided.

Examining The Psychology And Human Behavior Of Sustainable Living: The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status On Climate Change Education, Samantha Nielsen

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Climate change education has become increasingly important as the world faces the challenges of a rapidly changing environment. However, not all individuals have equal access to this education, and socioeconomic status has been identified as a barrier to climate change knowledge. This thesis explores the impact of socioeconomic status on climate change education through a survey-based approach, using the Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey to investigate the relationship between income and degree of education with climate change concern and community interaction. The study finds a significant correlation between higher levels of education and climate change concern, as well as greater …

Rails To Trails Program: Neighborhood Dynamics In Lincoln, Nebraska, Emma Mccormick

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

As cities increasingly move towards creating sustainable, equitable, climate-forward communities, city planners, advocates, and policymakers have begun to focus increasingly on improving access to greenspaces. Studies around the globe have documented the importance of greenspace for multiple individual, group, and community level outcomes. Simultaneously, extant research suggests that access to greenspaces frequently reflects social inequality in urban spaces, stratifying such access by race and socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods. However, few research projects have examined potential unintended consequences, such as contemporary housing issues like gentrification, that greenspaces can create for community infrastructure here in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Casnr L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter: Learning Innovation Network For K-12 Schools, Volume 2, Edition 5, May 2023, Bailey Feit, Tammy Mittelstet

CASNR L.I.N.K.S. Newsletter

The purpose of this L.I.N.K.S. newsletter is to provide a monthly update of opportunities and resources for K-12 schools to connect with the University of Nebraska's CASNR Food, Energy, Water, and Societal Systems (FEWS²) programs and partners.

Contents

K-12 Curriculum & Resources

Career Exploration pathways for students who like animals and insects

Teacher & Student Opportunities

East Campus Discovery Days and Farmers Market

ALEC Department

PGA Management Program

Environmental Studies Program

CandidCareer.com: Career Exploration

Community Leaders Careers Spotlight

Haskell Ag Lab

NCE Conference 2023

Identifying A Consumer–Producer Agricultural Knowledge Gap, Aspen Rittgarn

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

The purpose of this paper and online survey was to see if an agricultural knowledge gap between consumers and producers be found. Low agricultural literacy rates can lead to misconceptions of the agriculture industry, unhealthy food choices, environmentally unfriendly product choices, food waste, etc. The hypothesis for this thesis is that those born in the mid1960s to early 1980s (Generation X) will be the start of an increased knowledge gap. The survey was compiled of both qualitative and quantitative questions and questions were inspired by American Farm Bureau’s AITC Benchmarks. Responses were analyzed and the results revealed that my participants …

Optimizing Resource Utilization, Efficiency And Scalability In Deep Learning Systems, Xiaofeng Wu

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This thesis addresses the challenges of utilization, efficiency, and scalability faced by deep learning systems, which are essential for high-performance training and serving of deep learning models. Deep learning systems play a critical role in developing accurate and complex models for various applications, including image recognition, natural language understanding, and speech recognition. This research focuses on understanding and developing deep learning systems that encompass data preprocessing, resource management, multi-tenancy, and distributed model training. The thesis proposes several solutions to improve the performance, scalability, and efficiency of deep learning applications. Firstly, we introduce SwitchFlow, a scheduling framework that addresses the limitations …

Through Her Eyes: Learning And Teaching About Racism Through "To Kill A Mockingbird" And "The Bluest Eye", Sloane Larsen

English Honors Theses

This thesis argues that Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird both merit a place in te United States’ secondary education systems by using use them in the classroom to encourage students to recognize and challenge their biases, perspectives, and choices. One of the many complex questions this thesis addresses is the efficacy of teaching students about racism using such novels. Teaching these novels through Critical Race Theory could help create a new generation of students who are more likely to address and challenge their biases and privilege. At the same time, this approach requires …

A Project Management Guide For An Organization In The Cultural Resource Management Sector, Emma Graves

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Drayton Archaeology, a cultural resource management company, is working to expand their operations into larger and more complicated projects. Many changes and updates to the company’s internal processes and structure are necessary to ensure a large expansion would be feasible. One of those updates is the creation of a project management guide. For many years, Drayton Archaeology has utilized a close-knit company structure and informal communication to provide instructions to project managers on how to plan, execute, and close projects within the company. To support growth objectives, a more robust project management approach was necessary to improve effectiveness and outcomes, …

The Art Of Mukluk Making; The Preservation Of Yup'ik Boots, Jolene D. Lyon

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

The Art of Mukluk Making has been dwindling for the past 50 years in my lifetime; with the passing of the elderly women within the Yup’ik community, they took this skill’s expertise with them. Today only a tiny handful of elders are alive to share their proficiency. Those interested in the traditional role want to learn to preserve the knowledge to make them for their children and family members; others want to make them for the challenge of wanting to learn, and some for the simplicity of keeping the culture alive. No matter how it is perceived, teachers and experts …

Optimized And Integrated Project Schedule Management Methodology For Ensuring Suitability, Feasibility, And Acceptability Of A Cost-Constrained Affordable Housing Program In Anchorage, Alaska, Fitzgerald Umah

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

The housing deficit in Alaska is growing annually. The Municipality of Anchorage is in dire need of Affordable Housing. The housing sector has been the bedrock of most developed nations' economies. Housing construction indices are vital for measuring economic developments in emerging countries. Urban dwellers make up about 55% of the global population. This share is predicted to rise dramatically by 2030, adding 1.6 billion people to urban regions. Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly India, China, and Nigeria, will account for 90% of this rise. (U.N. 2020). The building sector wants to alleviate Alaska's affordable housing shortfall, but government regulations, …

A Standardized Communication Guide For Anchorage Municipality, Sasha-Gaye Hart

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

As the most populous city in the state of Alaska, with approximately 40% of the state’s total residents, Anchorage has a deficit of affordable housing that affects its residents’ economic standards. There has been an increase in affordable housing for homeless to low-income inhabitants, with recent setbacks due to high unemployment, pandemic and inflation that have hindered Anchorage’s housing sector. An integrated communication guide with effective distribution, collection and storage of information are critical components that bridge information dispersion, negotiation and collaborative processes among stakeholders and resources. Different communication approaches for stakeholders are adapted to impart homogeneity and interconnectivity for …

Application Of Project Management Concepts To Planning A 5k Athletic Event, Dylan Fowler

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is an organization dedicated to teaching students leadership and preparing them to enter the United States Army (Army). Every year within the program, students are given the opportunity to plan and execute events for charity. These events are completed with varying degrees of success. Often, project management tools are not used for planning and executing these events. This project applied concepts of project management to create a guide to planning a charity 5k athletic event by ROTC students and others without prior project management experience. Using project resource management, scope …

An Assessment Of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists' Attitudes And Behaviors In Culinary Medicine And The Role Of The Rdn, Ellen Mcewen

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Culinary medicine (CM) is an emerging practice that combines evidence-based guidelines for health and disease management with practical food preparation techniques.1,2 Americans spend little time in the kitchen. Meanwhile, chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are increasingly common in the American population. CM can teach practical, buildable skills to help alleviate these conditions. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) are food and nutrition experts who are well-positioned to be leaders in CM interventions but current research suggests an overall lack of understanding in how RDNs engage in CM in their work. Most RDNs work in the clinical setting, which …