Digital Commons Network^™

Education, Beliefs, And Health Literacy Of Care Providers On Mouth Care Of Older Adults, Molly Lakin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Oral health is important to one’s overall health and quality of life as it can lead to chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and neurodegenerative disorders (Haumschild et al. 2021). In long-term care facilities, it is important that dependent older adults are provided mouth care to maintain their oral health and decrease their chances of developing a chronic illness; however, there are barriers affecting the level, quality, and quantity of mouth care being provided in these facilities. A survey was developed to look at the education, beliefs, and health literacy of care providers on providing mouth care in hopes …

Nvidia Corporation: Pc Gaming Industry Strategic Audit, Charlie Peng

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Nvidia is a semiconductor company focusing on high-performance computer graphics technology. The company designs graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used in a variety of fields such as data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), and gaming. This paper seeks to examine Nvidia’s position within the PC gaming industry. First, PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces analyses are used to detail the overall PC gaming industry. The next section examines how Nvidia competes through its strategy, resources, and competitive advantages. Finally, future challenges and recommendations to position the company are explored.

Mckinsey & Company: People And Organizational Performance Strategic Analysis, Sadie Richards

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

McKinsey & Company is an international management consulting firm for businesses, governments, and institutions. It is one of the five largest consulting services in the United States and one of the “Big Three” management consulting firms of the United States. This report focuses on McKinsey & Company’s People and Organizational Performance sector and provides an internal and external analysis to understand how it has gained and maintained a sustainable competitive advantage in its industry. Specifically, this report uses Porter’s Five Forces and a PESTEL Analysis as tools to analyze the macro environment and competition within the industry. Recommendations are given …

A Review Of How Bioinformatics And Genome Sequencing Are Affecting Precision Medicine, Taylor S. Hickey

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Advancement in genomic sequencing and bioinformatics methods have been affecting biomedical research through precision medicine, especially in the area of cancer. Vaccine therapies can be developed using neoantigens that target specific mutations in tumors. The goals of this research are to identify mutations that lead to cancer and then define subpopulations in which patients can easily be identified. The future goal is to have targeted vaccines that are specific to each subpopulation ready to be used in treatment of their cancer. Limitations to reaching these goals have been due to tumor heterogeneity, cancer location, and difficulty in creating neoantigens for …

Marriott International: A Managerial Strategic Audit, Brooke Eschenbrenner, Alex Zlatic, Madison Bechtel, Brandon Collins, Charlotte Straley, Grant Gubbels

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

A strategic management audit of the public firm, Marriott International, was conducted to identify various factors and managerial strategies that affect Marriott and the global hotels and tourism industry. At the industry level, we conducted a PESTEL and Five Forces analysis, researched the competitive landscape, and assessed the total value potential. We found that the industry experienced a major decline during the COVID-19 pandemic but saw recovery as international travel opened up again. On the company level, we conducted an internal analysis, identified Marriott’s management structure, and identified the firm’s structure and strategies through a SWOT analysis and other relevant …

Northern Oil & Gas Strategic Audit, Jacob Hansen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Northern Oil & Gas is an energy company that operates in various basins across the United States. The company utilizes a non-operating model, meaning it does not drill wells or operate rigs, but rather partners with operators and acquires fractional working interests in drilling units. This report seeks to understand Northern Oil & Gas’ business model by examining its competitive strategy, advantages, and resources. Internal and external environmental factors are also analyzed using both PESTEL analysis and Porter’s Five Forces. In addition, key challenges facing the company are explored and recommendations are given on how Northern Oil & Gas can …

Prefix-Rewriting: The Falsification By Fellow Traveler Property And Practical Computation, Ash Declerk

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The word problem is one of the fundamental areas of research in infinite group theory, and rewriting systems (including finite convergent rewriting systems, automatic structures, and autostackable structures) are key approaches to working on the word problem. In this dissertation, we discuss two approaches to creating bounded regular convergent prefix-rewriting systems.

Groups with the falsification by fellow traveler property are known to have solvable word problem, but they are not known to be automatic or to have finite convergent rewriting systems. We show that groups with this geometric property are geodesically autostackable. As a key part of proving this, we …

Evaluation Of Anaplasma Marginale Elisa Positive Cattle For Co-Infection With Ehrlichia Spp., Grayson Robbins

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bovine Anaplasmosis is an infectious, hemolytic disease transmitted by the rickettsia parasite Anaplasma marginale in cattle. A. marginale parasitizes the red blood cells of an animal throughout their lifetime. The beef cattle industry is the fifth largest agricultural commodity in Arkansas, so potential economic losses due to bovine anaplasmosis is a critical issue. Previously tested beef cattle herds at the University of Arkansas’ Savoy and Batesville units have tested seropositive for A. marginale with low percent inhibitions; however, all seropositive animals tested negative for infection on DNA analysis. The objective of this study was to determine the current infection status …

Title Page - Fragments Of Summer's Past, Natalie Mckenty

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Front Cover - Hidden Worlds, Dannika Graef

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Out West, Kristan Wozniak

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Untitled, Tyler Wisne

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Call Of The Sea, Abdul Malik Mandani

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

On The Other Side, Dannika Graef

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Michigan Ave., Zofia Oles

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Face To Face, Evanna Dymbrowski

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Hello, Natalie Mckenty

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Mechanical And Thermal Performance Of Additively Manufactured Digital Materials, Layth Muayyad Ahmad

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Over the past decades, additive manufacturing has become a critical material processing tool. All ranges of materials including polymers, composites, metals, and ceramics can be used to fabricate structures with complex geometries that are nearly impossible to build using conventional fabrication process. Recently, additive manufacturing methods to build polymeric structures have been advanced significantly. In particular, the emergence of multi-material printers has made it possible to seamlessly print hybrid and digital materials where materials components and compositions are digitally varied to construct fully tailored material system. In this work, using a commercially available polyjet printer (Stratasys J850 Prime 3D printer), …

Parametric Multi-Objective Optimization Of Cold Plate For Single-Phase Immersion Cooling, Geevarghese Joseph Nattasseriedathil

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The increasing demand for high performance computing in applications such as Internet of Things, Deep Learning, Big data for crypto-mining, virtual reality, healthcare research on genomic sequencing, cancer treatment etc. has led to the growth of hyper scale datacenters. To meet the cooling energy demands of HPC datacenters efficient cooling technologies must be adopted. Traditional air cooling, direct to chip liquid cooling and immersion are some of those methods. Among all, Liquid cooling is superior compared to various air-cooling methods in terms of energy consumption. Direct on-chip cooling using cold plate technology is one such method used in removing heat …

Vol. 43, No. 2, Spring 2023: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Table of Contents and Masthead for Volume 43, Issue 2 of the Northern Illinois Law Review

Comment: The Unjust Side Of Civil Asset Forfeiture In Illinois: Innocent Victims And Corrupted Incentives, Sarah Farwick

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Under the broad scope of modern civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement agencies routinely deprive citizens of their property without ever formally charging them with a crime. This system diminishes the ideal values of American justice, yet the Supreme Court has long held that civil asset forfeiture is constitutional, leaving prospects of judicial reform unlikely. Therefore, it is crucial that individual states take action to protect their citizens by abolishing the use of civil asset forfeiture. In 2017, the Illinois General Assembly attempted to reform its civil asset forfeiture system, but upon close analysis and application of the statute, it is …

Identifying Providers As Agents Of Change For Clinical-Based Interventions By Considering Provider's Intrinsic Motivations And Capital, Sofia Gonzalez

Sociology and Anthropology Honors Theses

The theory of cultural health capital factors in a patient’s resources in their likelihood of accessing quality healthcare. The notion of quantifying a patient’s resources when researching equitable care, inadvertently places more of a focus on patient based interventions: policies focused on expanding a patient's resources. Yet, I push past this approach and suggest studying practoner’s capital in parallel to patients as a better predictor of quality of care. Practitioner's employ their own resources to make healthcare more equitable for underserved populations, and empowering clinicians to serve as agents of change in the patient-provider relationship takes the weight off of …

Successful Sports Philanthropy Communication Strategies: A Focus On Major League Soccer’S (Mls) Promotion Of The Safe Places To Play Initiative, Ysabella Ferruzzi

Communication Honors Theses

Organizations have recognized the value and importance of corporate social responsibility by dedicating their time and resources to help the surrounding community. However, primary research centers on the traditional business world and not on how corporate social responsibility has evolved in other highly influential institutions, such as professional sporting organizations. Previous research has also explored nonprofit communication, yet few have followed how various organizations communicate a specific and shared campaign. Therefore, this thesis explores what communication strategies different community relations departments and foundations of Major League Soccer teams utilize regarding the Safe Places to Play initiative. Semi-structured interviews were conducted …

Urodynamic Characteristics Of Patients With Urge Incontinence Treated With Sacral Neuromodulation And Adjunct Botulinum Toxin Injection, Brent Yelton, Jason Gilleran

Posters

Sacral neuromodulation (SN) and intradetrusor botulinum toxin (BTX) are effective treatments for refractory overactive bladder (OAB) and urge incontinence (UI).1 The decision on which treatment to use is based on several factors. Urodynamics (UDS) have not been proven to determine who will respond to SN. Detrusor overactivity (DO) suggests that BTX may be more effective, given its direct role on muscle. The purpose of this study is to determine if presence and severity of DO on UDS is associated with failure of SN and response to BTX.

Evaluating The Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Use And Impact Of Social Media In The Urology Residency Match: A Review Of The Literature, Shivam Patel, Brent Yelton, Andrew Shanholtzer, Brianna Walter, Syed Mohammad Jafri

Posters

Social media (SoMe) use within healthcare has changed significantly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This project highlights recent changes in SoMe use within the field of urology and summarizes how they have impacted the urology residency application and match process.

Investigation Of The Vira Linker Domain To Characterize Its Phenol Interactions, Jessica Garofalo

Honors Theses

The soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes tumors in plants through interkingdom gene transfer. This transfer is initiated upon a wounding event that results in the release of plant signaling factors such as phenols and sugars that are recognized by protein machinery in the periplasm and inner membrane of A. tumefaciens. The histidine kinase protein VirA, in combination with the periplasmic protein ChvE, recognizes these signals and initiates induction of virulence genes via a signaling pathway, culminating with the insertion of tumor-inducing T-DNA into the wounded plant cells. While the interaction between the Periplasmic domain of VirA and sugar-bound ChvE …

The Nature Of Compassion In Yoga: Illuminating Its Modern Role Through An Examination Of Historical Texts, Keren Eshed

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the nature of compassion within various yoga traditions and clarifies its role through historical and textual examination. In doing so, it explores key texts within the yoga traditions that address compassion and highlight the qualities attributed to compassion. While compassion is commonly present within the texts, it varies in meaning and significance within these texts and often is not perceived as central to the text’s teachings. Initially, this paper examines teachings from the Upaniṣads that address moral conduct and the nature of transformative knowledge. Second, verses from the Yogasūtra are discussed. In doing so, this paper addresses …

Examining Transcriptional Regulators During Muscle Development In Drosophila Melanogaster, Chaamy Yapa

Student Theses and Dissertations

In Drosophila melanogaster embryos, a distinct approach to study the transcriptional regulation is to examine the larval somatic muscle development. Transcription factors are essential regulatory proteins that help to control gene expression and respond to signaling pathways and various cues. Today, there are at least twenty transcription factors that have been discovered to contribute to the development of the 30 distinct larval somatic muscles in each abdominal hemisegment of Drosophila melanogaster. Several studies have already been conducted on muscle regulatory transcription factors including midline and apterous. These transcription factors were shown to control the development of muscles through mutant …

The Origins Of The Iraq War: The Role Of Anthrax In The Weapons Of Mass Destruction Claims, John P. Koenig

Student Theses and Dissertations

The 2001 Anthrax Attacks were a critical factor in the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) claims that sparked the Iraq War. Despite its significance, little systematic work has been done regarding the topic. Existing studies primarily focus on the role of the Military Industrial Complex and intelligence failures as the primary explanations for the origins of the Iraq War. These explanations are limited, as they rely on hindsight biases. This thesis contends that anthrax was the catalyst for WMD claims that sparked the Iraq War. The 2001 Anthrax Attacks reinforced the belief that Iraq harbored WMDs and posed a threat …

Dimensionality Reduction Techniques In Macroeconomic Analysis, Abigail Rogot

Student Theses and Dissertations

Over the past several decades, rapid innovation in data collection methods and technology has led to the development of dimensionality reduction techniques when dealing with a large number of predictors and time series observations. Especially relevant to the field of economics, many macroeconomic indicators rely on processing vast sets of data, often dealing with variables of different frequencies. Broadly, monetary policy is influenced by real-time evaluations of current and future economic conditions, meaning that lags in re- leases produce incomplete datasets. This paper closely examines the development and applications of two popular dimensionality reduction techniques: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and …