Digital Commons Network^™

Towards Deposition Of Iron & Nickel Onto Cadmium Selenide/Cadmium Sulfide Nanorods, Rajib Nath

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Metal-semiconductor hybrids have been studied extensively as photocatalysts for the watersplitting reaction to generate hydrogen gas and oxygen gas to use as a renewable energy source. The semiconductor component converts light into electrochemical energy, while the metal component provides a site for chemical reactions with water. Here, the choice of metal can have a significant impact on the efficiency of the catalyst. Platinum efficiently catalyzes the watersplitting reaction and is therefore commonly used in metal-semiconductor hybrids to generate hydrogen. Platinum is very expensive, which motivates research into improving less costly metals like iron or nickel that do not have nearly …

Guide And Algorithm Creation For Hepatitis B Vaccination And Tuberculosis Testing Requirements For A Nursing Program., Jumoke Owolabi

Doctor of Nursing Practice Papers

This project developed a guide and algorithm for hepatitis B vaccination and tuberculosis (TB) testing requirements for nursing students at the University of Louisville [UofL] School of Nursing [SON] before clinical placement. Clarifying the requirements for hepatitis B vaccination, testing, and tuberculosis testing was paramount for clinical compliance because the current policy was determined to be ambiguous. The literature review revealed discrepancies with policies for hepatitis B and TB among countries and with individual institutions confirming the need for aligning with evidence-based vaccination guidelines. Based on these findings, an evidence-based guide and algorithm were created. Feedback from the clinical compliance …

Francisco Naula-Leon V. Attorney General United States Of America

2023 Decisions

Agency

Smu Redefines Lifelong Learning With Innovative Stackable, Applied Industry Practice Master, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Singapore Management University (SMU) will soon introduce a new educational offering – Industry Practice Master programme (行业实践硕士课程) – through its professional training arm, SMU Academy. For a start, SMU Academy will offer the Industry Practice Master of Digital Economy with two track specialisations - Data Protection and Data Governance, and Digital Supply Chain and Intelligence. SMU is the first university in Singapore to launch a stackable postgraduate programme that focuses on practical application. The programme also stands out for its emphasis on flexible learning, personalised learning, integrated SMU-employer partnership, and experiential and work-based learning; furthermore, lifelong learning coaches will also …

Laryngeal Symptoms Related To Motor Phenotypes In Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review, Zoë Thijs Ph.D., Matthew Dumican

Communication Sciences and Disorders: Faculty Publications

Objective This study aimed to systematically review the associations between motor clinical phenotypes in Parkinson's disease (PD) and laryngeal disease symptoms. Laryngeal dysfunctions such as dysphonia and dysphagia are ubiquitous in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). Similar to other disease symptoms, they manifest variably across PwPD. Some of the variability within PD has been explained by clinical phenotypes. However, it is unclear how laryngeal symptoms of PD express themselves across these phenotypes.

Methods Five databases were searched (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus) in May 2022. After the removal of duplicates, all retrieved records were screened. Cohort, case–control, and …

Noaa Hurricane Preparedness Summit 2023 Report, Crrc, Noaa

Coastal Response Research Center

The theme for the 4^th annual summit was to advance NOAA’s ability to adapt and respond to the effects of a changing climate and extreme weather events. NOAA’s Disaster Preparedness Program partnered with CRRC to facilitate webinars on two consecutive days focusing on NOAA’s hurricane preparedness and readiness for personnel (people), mission, and infrastructure (PMI). The virtual event entitled “NOAA Hurricane Preparedness Summit 2023,” helped put NOAA in a better posture for the 2023 hurricane season by identifying best practices and lessons learned from the 2022 season, recognizing and discussing challenges related to climate change and extreme weather events, …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Healthcare Professionals Who Are Experts In Cannabinoid Therapy And The Endocannabinoid System (Ecs), Courtney Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cannabis is a prevalent alternative treatment for many symptoms and conditions given its medicinal qualities and few side effects. As legalization for both medical and recreational purposes continue to develop quickly across the United States of America, there is serious discrepancy between legalization and clinical research. Clinical data is difficult since the U.S. federal government still classifies cannabis as a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Schedule I drug with no clearly established medical value. This lag in evidence-base data has affected cannabinoid therapy and endocannabinoid system education (ECS) for healthcare professionals. There are gaps in medical school and continuing medical education …

The Words. Or Holes. Or Both: Writing As An Integrative Methodology For Trauma, Daniel A. Castle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to identify methods authors have used to integrate their traumatic experiences. My work will analyze the genre of War Literature and specific authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and Kurt Vonnegut to explore the way writers describe the trauma of combat. Using insights from neuroscience and psychology, I will expand the field of Cognitive Literary Studies from a focus on the reader to a focus on the writer by linking neurological functions with narrative tools.

Fatigue And Fracture Of Electron Beam Melting Ti-6al-4v, William A. Grell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For applications in the aerospace field, selection of materials for a given design requires an understanding of critical properties, like fatigue and fracture, in addition to static mechanical and physical properties. With the ongoing advancements in metallic additive manufacturing techniques and the interest in applying the process to aerospace applications, there is a clear need to fully characterize properties. Arguably, the most attractive alloy for applications in aerospace is the Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The current dissertation examines the mechanical properties of the alloy, made by the Electron Beam Melting (EBM) Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) method. As illustrated in this work, the …

Hemodynamic Assessment Of Y-Incision Aortic Root Enlargement Using Computational Simulations, Astitwa Ghimire

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Yang procedure is a new aortic root enlargement technique used to enlarge the aortic annulus by multiple valve sizes. The procedure prevents patient prosthesis mismatch and establishes a viable platform for future valve-in-valve implantation. This study used the Yang procedure to investigate the hemodynamics in the aortic root and bioprosthetic valve regions after aortic root enlargement. Results indicate the velocity magnitude at the sinus regions of a patient who underwent the Yang procedure was slower, indicating risks of flow stasis and thrombosis. Simulation results denote computational models can be created for optimization of surgical procedures.

Examining Access To Decent Work Among Women Veterans: A Psychology Of Working Theory Perspective, Rebecca C. Gaines

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated predictors of decent work among a sample of women Veterans (N = 354), grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT). A structural equation model demonstrated that women Veterans’ experiences of marginalization, economic constraints, work volition, and career adaptability all directly predicted their ability to secure decent work, and economic constraints and marginalization experiences indirectly predicted decent work via work volition. Proactive personality was additionally examined as a moderator variable and did not significantly moderate any model paths; however, it was found to be a unique predictor of decent work and work volition, as well …

Counselors’ Spirituality, Attitudes Toward Suicide, And Self-Efficacy In Conducting Suicide Risk Assessment, Tayler Hendrix

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between perceived spiritual support and counselor self-efficacy in conducting suicide risk assessment, and the moderating effects of attitudes about suicide on this relationship. Based on existing theory and empirical evidence, perceived spiritual support was hypothesized to have a positive predictive relationship with counselor self-efficacy in performing suicide risk assessment; further, four different constructs pertaining to attitudes toward suicide were also hypothesized to moderate the strength and direction of this relationship. A sample of Master’s level clinicians and advanced standing Master’s graduate students (N=132) completed on online survey containing instruments measuring perceived spiritual …

Mechanisms Behind The Chaperone Activity Of Nucleic Acids, Theodore J. Litberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the interplay between nucleic acids and protein aggregation is integral to the understanding of proteostasis, aging, and neurodegenerative disease progression. Nucleic acids are known to modulate the aggregation of PrP, tau, ⍺-synuclein, and other disease relevant proteins. Although the interactions between misfolded protein and nucleic acids can play a role in disease, this interaction may potentially be beneficial as well. Our group and others have shown nucleic acids can be powerful chaperones. Previous work has shown both RNA and DNA can prevent protein aggregation and RNA can pass off protein clients to the heat shock protein (Hsp) system. Here …

Taiwanese International Students In Clinical Supervision: A Phenomenological Study, Joey Chiao-Yin Hsiao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The population of international students has continued to grow in the past two decades and become an important segment of U.S. university enrollment (Ng & Smith, 2001). Altogether, there is limited literature that is devoted to international students’ experience in clinical supervision and merely any international students studies specifically focused on the Taiwanese international student subgroup. This study examined the experiences of Taiwanese international students in clinical supervision. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to extract the phenomenon of participants’ lifeworld and qualitative data were collected from individual semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese international students (N=6). Data analysis led to four …

Enhancing Employee Voice In Government: Transparency, Trust, And Cognitive Empowerment, Jomarie Phelan Honcoop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For organizational change to take root, develop, and realize the desired goals and benefits, employees are increasingly asked to be an integral part of the change process, to speak up and use their voice to point out areas to improve and ways to be more efficient. Organizations and managers must create a climate where this employee voice, a multidimensional construct comprised of promotive and prohibitive voice, is encouraged and heard, and where the employee is empowered to effect change and make improvements. Both types of voice are potent mechanisms for improving public services, and government organizations in particular, as compared …

Teaching On The Möbius: Exploring The Inner And Outer Landscapes Of Teacher Practice, Barth A. Quenzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The practice of teaching takes on renewed significance in today’s changing educational landscape. In the quest for transformative teaching and learning, there are both familiar and unfamiliar paths to be traversed. While significant contributions are being made by culturally responsive pedagogies, less is understood about the inner life of teachers as they navigate the outer systems of their practice. To address this area of research opportunity, the author used the conceptual framework of humanizing pedagogy and deep pedagogy to explore the inner and outer landscapes of teacher practice. As a method of inquiry, educational criticism afforded a qualitative approach for …

Consensus-Based Active And Reactive Power Control And Management Of Microgrids, Shruti Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microgrids incorporating distributed generation and renewable energy sources offer potential solutions to the energy crisis while modernizing traditional grids. Despite cost-effectiveness in some technologies, financial support remains crucial for expensive ones like PV, fuel cells, and storage technologies. Microgrids bring economic benefits, efficiency, reduced emissions, and improved power quality. Their success hinges on cost reductions in renewables, storage, reliability, and energy management systems, enabling operation both with and without the utility grid.

Economic Dispatch optimizes system costs, considering all constraints. Various methods tackle this problem, including quadratic convex functions, Lagrangian relaxation, and quadratic programming. For microgrids with distributed generators, seamless …

Queer Interethnic Relationships: Couple-Level Minority Stress And Resilience For Intersectionally Marginalized Partners, Sree Sinha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interethnic relationships and same-sex relationships continue to increase in the U.S. While LGBQ and heterosexual people are equally likely to be in romantic relationships, LGBQ individuals are more likely than their straight peers to be in an interracial or interethnic romantic relationship. The present work aims to expand intersectional investigations regarding queer people of color (QPOC), including accounting for their individual as well as relational well-being, by use of the couple-level minority stress (CLMS) paradigm. CLMS theory speaks to the unique stressors experienced as a result of being in a relationship that is societally marginalized, impacting both dyadic and individual …

Exploring The Intersectional Higher Education Experiences Of Latinx Students, Miguel A. Trujillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intersectional experiences of Latinx students in higher education have largely gone underexplored in the literature, particularly when it comes to Latino men. The current literature treats the experiences of the Latinx community as a monolith, when there are multiple potentially impactful intersectional aspects of identity that could influence our lived experiences, such as generational status, documentation status, country of origin, and gender. This three-manuscript dissertation addresses these gaps in the literature by both conducting research that is more descriptive of our respective within-group community and by focusing on the impact that gender may play in the experiences of Latinx …

Older Women’S Stories Of Covid-19 Loss: Communicated Narrative Sense-Making Through Photography, Anne Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The diverse array of challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic make it difficult to assess the full impact of this global health crisis. More than 300,000 older Americans died, leaving a nation of grieving survivors in their absence. This profound loss of life will undoubtedly inform the field’s understanding of grief and grieving for many years to come. Pre-pandemic, older women in the United States understood grief to be part of their life stage; COVID-19 amplified the grief experience through both cumulative losses and the isolation particular to the novel coronavirus response. However, few qualitative studies explore older women’s grief, …

Controllable Language Generation Using Deep Learning, Rohola Zandie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The advent of deep neural networks has sparked a revolution in Artificial Intelligence (AI), notably with the creation of Transformer models like GPT-X and ChatGPT. These models have surpassed previous methods in various Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. As the NLP field evolves, there is a need to further understand and question the capabilities of these models. Text generation, a crucial part of NLP, remains an area where our comprehension is limited while being critical in research.

This dissertation focuses on the challenging problem of controlling the general behaviors of language models such as sentiment, topical focus, and logical reasoning. …

Do-It-Together: Informal Transformative Sustainability Education, Derek Brannon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Climate Crisis is an urgent and inescapable reality students are thrust into. Learners must be prepared adequately for their futures, not only for their sakes but also because collective and transformative change is required. Transformative sustainability education provides one pathway to this transformation and focuses on radically altering students’ perceptions about the world and their agency in effecting change on ecological issues. The field of transformative sustainability education is emergent and thus is still fragmented, leaving gaps in the literature. Little research has been conducted on how informal and nonformal university spaces can be used to create transformative experiences …

Health-Care And Supportive Services In General Population Disaster Shelters, Ashlea Bennett Milburn, Charleen C. Mcneill, Lauren Clay, Janice Springer, Mary Casey-Lockyer

Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objectives:

The Communication (C), Maintaining Health (M), Independence (I), Services, Support and Self-Determination (S), and Transportation (T) is a framework (C-MIST) for identifying functional needs in an emergency response. A C-MIST documentation tool provides shelter staff with a list of potential client needs and actions to address them. This retrospective review describes the needs and actions indicated on completed C-MIST documentation tools (ie, records) within domestic general population shelters following Hurricane Florence in 2018.

Methods:

A convenience sample of 1209 records completed by shelter disaster health services personnel was provided by the American Red Cross. The records correspond to client …

Effects Of Using Behavioral Skills Training To Teach Interview Skills To College Students With Autism, Kimberly Degroot

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Unemployment and underemployment rates for college students with autism following graduation are higher than other college graduates. One area of need identified for students with autism is interview skill development. Therefore, it is important for them to improve their interviewing skills to help them better succeed in their search for employment. Currently, there are a variety of procedures used for improving interviewing skills with individuals with autism (e.g., video modeling, applied behavior analytic techniques, and virtual interviews). This study replicated the procedures of Stocco et al. (2017) and Roberts et al. (2021) who evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training …

Hydrological Dynamics Of Surface-Groundwater Interactions Between Major Springs Of Mammoth Cave And The Green River, Kentucky, Usa, Matthew Cecil

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Mammoth Cave is an iconic example of the cave and karst systems that underlie over 50% of the United States and provide around 13% of the world’s population with water resources. These environmental features are vulnerable to drought, pollution, and human impacts. The complex hydrological regime of the Mammoth Cave system has been studied in the past, but there are improvements and updates that can be made to the past research. The dynamics of the surface-groundwater system, particularly reversals of the Green River and how it backfloods into the cave, are some examples. Echo River and River Styx Springs provide …

Biomarkers In Borrelia Burgdorferi Infected Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells, Sambuddha Paul

Master's Theses

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer with limited treatment options and a poor prognosis. Although some studies have attempted to identify new biomarkers and therapies, only a few have shown promise in clinical trials. In the context of cancer development, infectious agents rank as the third major risk factor, contributing to approximately 15-20% of cancer cases, according to the American Cancer Society. Hence, the identification of biomarkers associated with infection-originated cancer is crucial for enhancing cancer prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment. Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, has been linked to TNBC …

My Life, Malik Ahmad Ii

Melanated Monograms: Exploring African American and Black Identities and Cultivating Community

No abstract provided.

Untitled Melanated Monogram 1, Chai Jordan

Melanated Monograms: Exploring African American and Black Identities and Cultivating Community

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Warbler (Vol. 99, No. 3), Department Of Library Special Collections

The Kentucky Warbler

No abstract provided.

How Can Windbreaks Protect Livestock From The Cold?

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Windbreaks can protect livestock from the cold resulting in improved feeding efficiency, increased milk production, improved overall animal health, increased forage yield, and other benefits.