Digital Commons Network^™

The Mediational Role Of Motivation In The Model Of Motor Development In Childhood: A Longitudinal Study, Cristina Menescardi, An V. De Meester, Octavio Álvarez, Isabel Castillo, Leen Haerens, Isaac Estevan

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was twofold: first, to examine the stability of the hypothesized conceptual model of motor development (without and with including various types of motivation) when children are followed up one-year later, and second to examine longitudinally whether changes in one model variable predict changes in other variables, according to the hypothesized pathways in the model. A sample of 361 Spanish students (50.7% girls, 8–11 years old) voluntarily participated in this study. In relation to the first aim, structural equation modeling revealed the expected positive relationship between the model variables in both measurement times. That is: actual …

Religion, Discrimination, And The Future Of Public Education, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court’s recent decisions regarding the free exercise of religion threaten fundamental changes to public education. On their face, these decisions are relatively narrow. They prohibit states from explicitly excluding religious schools from participating in states’ tuition subsidy programs, otherwise known as private school vouchers. But school choice advocates and some scholars argue that the rationale in these cases also extends to religious organizations that want to operate public charter schools.

While these changes would drain enormous resources from an already underfunded public education system, even more important interests are at stake: antidiscrimination and basic core curriculum. More specifically, …

Myth-Busting Restorative Justice: Uncovering The Past And Finding Lessons In Community, Aparna Polavarapu

Faculty Publications

A common narrative about modern restorative justice is that it is a revival of historic and indigenous justice practices that have been practiced around the world. Critics of this narrative call it a myth, arguing that the claim is overbroad and unsupported by existing evidence. Embedded in this conversation are questions about how to respect the contributions of indigenous traditions and avoid whitewashing. Such an overwhelmingly broad claim tends to lead to romanticization and whitewashing of indigenous traditions, serving the needs of largely white, Western advocates in yet another colonial endeavor. But ignoring the indigenous contribution to restorative justice altogether …

The Racialized Violence Of Police Canine Force, Madalyn K. Wasilczuk

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gli3 Is Required For M2 Macrophage Polarization And M2-Mediated Waldenström Macroglobulinemia Growth And Survival, Ava J. Boutilier

Master's Theses and Capstones

The macrophage polarization paradigm has become at the forefront of cancer research in recent years; however, the effects of this phenomenon have yet to be investigated in Waldenström Macroglobulinemia (WM). WM is an indolent, B-cell lymphoma, characterized by increased IgM production and infiltration of the bone marrow niche by malignant cells. Macrophages may polarize to one of 2 phenotypes: M1, which is inflammatory or M2, which is inhibitory. While macrophage polarization is typically investigated as a singular point in time, it is important to understand that M2-type macrophages can switch to an M1 phenotype, or vice versa, based on environmental …

Patriarchal Violence, Rona Kaufman

Law Faculty Publications

For over a century, feminist theorists and activists have sought equality for women. They have aimed their efforts at the many distinct and related causes of women's inequality, among them gendered violence, sexual violence, domestic violence, and violence against women. Recognizing the need to understand problems in order to solve them, feminist theorists have devoted decades to conceptualizing various manifestations of such violence, ranging from private acts, such as sexual assault and intimate partner abuse, to public acts, such as the incarceration of mothers and the criminalization of pregnancy. In this article, I argue in favor of conceptualizing the many …

A Machine Learning Specklegram Wavemeter (Maswave) Based On A Short Section Of Multimode Fiber As The Dispersive Element, Ogbole C. Inalegwu, Rex E. Gerald, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Wavemeters are very important for precise and accurate measurements of both pulses and continuous-wave optical sources. Conventional wavemeters employ gratings, prisms, and other wavelength-sensitive devices in their design. Here, we report a simple and low-cost wavemeter based on a section of multimode fiber (MMF). The concept is to correlate the multimodal interference pattern (i.e., speckle patterns or specklegrams) at the end face of an MMF with the wavelength of the input light source. Through a series of experiments, specklegrams from the end face of an MMF as captured by a CCD camera (acting as a low-cost interrogation unit) were analyzed …

Simultaneous And Multiplexed Measurement Of Curvature And Strain Based On Optical Fiber Fabry-Perot Interferometric Sensors, Chen Zhu, Hongkun Zheng, Osamah Alsalman, Wassana Naku, Lingmei Ma

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Optical fiber sensors that have a compact size and the capability for multi-parameter sensing are desired in various applications. This article reports a miniaturized optical fiber Fabry-Perot interferometric sensor with a length of hundreds of µm that is able to simultaneously measure variations of curvature, temperature, and strain. The sensor is easy to fabricate, requiring only the fusion splicing of a short section of the silica capillary tube between two single-mode fibers (SMFs). The combined mechanism of the Fabry-Perot interference occurred in the two interfaces between the capillary and the SMFs, and the Anti resonant guidance induced by the capillary …

The Impact Of Internal Barriers On Technology Use In Rural Schools, Coquesa G. Dotson

College of Education

Technology implementation in rural schools can ensure that students are more prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Therefore, it is important to remove internal barriers to technology implementation. By revealing the current levels of implementation , insight will be provided to rural districts on how to address internal barriers. The purpose of this quantitative, comparative, correlational study was to identify how integrate technology into their instruction influenced their actual practices. Data were collected using a closed-ended online survey using a 7-point Likert scale. Nonparametric measures were taken to analyze data. Comparative data analysis (Kruskal-Wallis Test and Dunn …

Histological Evaluation Of Offspring Kidneys Following Prenatal Vaping Exposure., Lucas Georges

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

A variety of nicotine-containing products have been making their way to the market as alternatives to cigarette smoking. These include, but are not limited to, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco, and electronic cigarettes, with the last one being more prevalent than the others. With these alternatives, there are more tobacco users now than ever, with an increase from 1990 to 2017, which contrasts with the reduction in number of smokers observed by the Surgeon General in his Smoking Cessation report between 1990 and 2017, meaning that more and more tobacco users are using these. Pregnant women are advised to switch from …

Diversification And Convergence Following The Transition From Saltwater To Freshwater In Stingrays., Autumn D. Magnuson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

One of the most fundamental questions in biology is why some groups of organisms are more diverse than others. Classic hypotheses for explaining differences in diversity consider distinctions in time, place, resources, and competitors as the staging grounds for differential diversification. Freshwater and saltwater environments have similar levels of diversity despite significant differences in size, so studying transitions between the two systems can provide insights into evolutionary processes. Despite the challenges associated with this transition, stingrays have invaded freshwater habitats multiple times across different continents, making them useful for better understanding these systems. In this study, I evaluated the frequency …

The Lost Cause And The Commonwealth: The United Daughters Of The Confederacy And Forging Civil War Memory In Kentucky., Emma Donaghy

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

For over a century, the Kentucky division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has worked to instill the Lost Cause myth of the Confederacy in the state’s public schools, libraries, and places where a white child could learn about the past. Few scholars have studied the activities of the Kentucky division of the UDC, although some of the organization’s most influential work took place in the state, and the organization’s national founder, Caroline Meriwether Goodlett, was born in Todd County, Kentucky. This honors thesis offers an in-depth examination of the work of the Kentucky division, drawing from the rich …

Does Using Clicker Questions Before Instruction Improve Students' Conceptual Understanding., Edward "Walker" Goshorn

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Active learning can be incorporated into STEM classrooms in multiple ways. With exploratory learning, students explore a novel activity before learning the concepts or procedures. With personal response devices (e.g., clickers), students respond to real-time questions posed during lecture. The current studies examined whether, and how, clicker questions can be used as exploratory learning, to improve students’ conceptual understanding and engagement over traditional instruction. Biology professors integrated clicker questions into a lecture, and either closed the clicker poll prior to (Restricted Clicker Experiment, N = 164) or after (Extended Clicker Experiment, N = 188) giving feedback to the class. Undergraduate …

The Philosophy Of Activism And Its Paradox., Omar Arar

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Activist organizations have been at the forefront of countless progressive efforts, seeking to ameliorate social injustices, expand the rights of marginalized people, and strengthen democratic institutions. However, the efforts of activists always seem to lead to incremental victories or a minimal change to the status quo. In this paper, I argue that the primary cause of this largely stagnant social justice landscape is the professionalization of activism. Activism in its professional form, as people who make a living out of their activist efforts, brings with it numerous issues, the most problematic among them is the manifestation a paradox. Namely, professional …

Other Bodies: Deconstructing Visual Binaries By Subverting Visual Representations Of The Other., Amaiya L. Crawford

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The goal of creating my sculptural work, The Avian, is both to broaden the visual categorization of sentient bodies, as well as to deconstruct binary thinking regarding the way that bodies display racialized, gendered, and sexualized characteristics. The Avian does this by subverting visual and aesthetic tropes that construct labels like human, monster, and animal. Subversion acts as the main design influence that illustrates how the display how othered bodies can be used to highlight the constructed nature of how we construct humanity. This paper posits that by acknowledging an expansion in visual categorization, in addition to further pushing opportunities …

Osteoimmunology And The Reconstruction Of Host Immunological Status In Treponemal Infection: Effect Of Activated Immune Cells By Oral Pathogens And Treponema Pallidum On Osteoclastogenesis., Michayla Gatsos

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Syphilitic infection caused by bacterium Treponema pallidum pallidum (Tp) offers an excellent model to study the long-lasting interplay between the immune and skeletal systems and could be used to reconstruct host immunological status. We propose that a hyper-inflammatory phenotype developed during acquired syphilis will have a systemic impact on most bone microenvironments involving inflammatory processes, such as the one developed in periodontal disease (PD). Using osteoimmunological in vitro protocols, we explore whether immune activation by Tp antigens and PD pathogens can impact osteoclastogenesis (OCG), ultimately helping to understand the bone alterations caused by systemic inflammatory processes in skeletal material. We …

Understanding The Role Of Emotion Regulation Tendencies In The Momentary Associations Between Negative Affect And Eating Disorder Behaviors., Coby D. Banet

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) are becoming increasingly commonplace and are associated with a broad array of dangerous medical complications. Further, EDs frequently present alongside comorbid psychiatric disorders (e.g., depressive and anxiety-related disorders), which are known to both predict ED severity and reduce treatment efficacy. While diagnostic categorization persists, Fairburn et al.’s (1993) transdiagnostic model suggests EDs may be more closely related and maintained through core, shared symptoms. To assess ED maintenance, momentary triggers such as negative affect (NA) are becoming increasingly centralized. The present study examines the roles of depressive symptoms and worry in predicting and moderating the relationships among …

Interpreting San Cecilio: Ritual And Discourse In A Granadan Celebration., Martha M. Popescu

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The romería de San Cecilio is an annual, local short pilgrimage and celebration of the patron saint of Granada, a city in Andalusia, Spain. The romería takes place at the Abbey of Sacromonte, a monastery built on top of the site where San Cecilio’s remains were found as part of the famous discoveries of the Lead Books of Granada in the late sixteenth century. These books were ultimately declared to be Islamic forgeries, yet the romería persists today as a granadino, or Granadan, tradition. Consisting of both a Mass at the Abbey as well as a popular celebration, the …

Community Planning, Environmental Stewardship, And Water: A Comparative Assessment Of Green Infrastructure In Texas Cities, Amruta A. Sakalker

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

Riparian lands, the interface between terrestrial and water ecologies, play a critical role in keeping urban ecosystems healthy. However, rapidly sprawling metropolitan regions in Texas continue to urbanize environmentally vulnerable riparian areas. As urban areas are growing, access to green spaces is shrinking, bringing contestation for programming, ownership, and use of lands around water bodies. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing trend of using greenbelt plans for trails, parks, preserves, and wetlands around water bodies. Although these plans mitigate some environmental impacts, their ability to address equity and justice needs to be examined to ensure that …

Preoperative Pain Management Education And Narcotic Use: A Quality Improvement Project, Sarah Scheller

DNP Projects

Introduction: Comprehensive preoperative education is an important aspect of pain management and helps empower patients prior to their surgery. Evidence supports the use of a combination of the teach-back method, videos, and pamphlets to educate patients prior to their surgery. A quality improvement project was initiated for patients having total shoulder arthroplasty surgery with an orthopedic surgeon in Connecticut.

Methods: An educational video and handout were created, and preoperative education sessions using the teach-back methods were performed. Postoperative phone calls were placed at 24 and 72 hours to assess the patient’s use of narcotic pain medication, alternative pain management medication …

Exploring Sex Differences In Conditioned Place Aversion, Houda Hussein Chamseddine

Psychology Theses - Archive

Substance use disorder is a chronic condition characterized by cycles of intoxication, withdrawal, and relapse. Negative affective and somatic symptoms commonly accompany cessation of substance use. These symptoms can be incredibly aversive, to the extent that they can be classically conditioned to be associated with cues or environments. Women show greater cue-reactivity to drug-associated stimuli and progress from casual drug use to abuse at a faster rate compared to men. Human and animal literatures strongly suggests that these elevated vulnerabilities in females are associated with changes in levels of circulating ovarian hormones. Studies investigating sex differences and hormonal influences during …

Evaluation Of Zero-Net-Rate Pumping Tests, Austin Smith-Jones

All Theses

Accurately estimating the distribution of aquifer properties is key to understanding contaminant movement in the subsurface. The distribution of aquifer properties is typically addressed using slug or constant-rate well tests, and the pros and cons of these tests are well known. Slug tests are appealing because they avoid removing contaminated water, but their results are affected by well skin and the small volume of displaced water limits the volume of aquifer that can be evaluated. Constant-rate well tests have the disadvantage of requiring disposal of potentially contaminated water, but they can generate properties that are more representative than slug tests, …

Integrating Omim And Intact Data For The Analysis Of Gene-Phenotype Interactions In Complex Diseases: A Linux-Based Computational Tool For Network Analysis, Devin Keane

All Theses

The field of genetics is constantly evolving. New advances in bioinformatics and computational approaches are leading to exciting new developments in our ability to treat and prevent diseases. Computational genetics provides valuable insights into the complex mechanisms and layers of biological communication that shape an organism's phenotype. Understanding these mechanisms is critical to advancing human health.

The study of diseases in genetics requires a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between various biological processes, including gene expression, protein synthesis, RNA, metabolism, and cell-cell communication. To effectively address the root causes of such diseases, multi-disciplinary approaches that integrate information from different levels …

Adapting Cultural Storytelling Styles To Modern Media, Julie Huang

All Theses

In the face of modern media, it is inevitable that certain cultural art forms will fade in popularity. Some may even fade out of existence altogether. However, there are continuous efforts to reframe these cultural gems in contemporary forms to preserve them for the younger generations. Digital media, such as animation and video games, provide the perfect vehicle to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary. This paper investigates how storytelling practices have been carried through time and the creative ways they have evolved in the face of an ever-changing mediascape.

To support this research, I present a narrative in …

Personal Health Questionnaire-9 And Interventions In Adults, Grace Alford

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

This is an evaluation of the PHQ-9 depression screening and interventions in adults within an urban setting.

A Retrospective Review Of Catheter-Directed Therapy For Patients With Intermediate Risk Pulmonary Embolisms, Austin Lehew, Michael Tucciarone

Posters

Each year, hundreds of patients present to the William Beaumont hospital system with intermediate risk pulmonary embolisms (IRPE) with common symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, and hypoxia. Conventional treatments include anticoagulants alone, or a more aggressive approach with systemic thrombolytics which come with a higher risk of major bleeding and death. However, in the last few years, catheter-directed therapies (CDT) have been developed to mechanically remove clots in a minimally invasive fashion. The goal of this study is to determine the safety and efficacy of novel CDT at Beaumont Troy and Royal Oak.

Pillow Cpr: Using A Low Resource Method To Teach Hands-Only Cpr To Hispanic Adolescents In A Community Setting, Benjamin Goldstein, Ekaterina Clark, Alan Silverman, Virginia Uhley

Posters

Hands-only Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training for adolescents in community settings is often limited by training device availability. This pilot study’s objective was to investigate the feasibility, participant knowledge gains, and attitude changes through hands-only CPR training using a pillow for skill development.

Medical Student Knowledge Of Physician Involvement In The Holocaust And The Importance Of Incorporating Holocaust Studies And Ethics Into Medical School Curricula, Megan Bricely, Jason Wasserman

Posters

A 2019 Claims Conference study demonstrated an alarming lack of knowledge about the Holocaust in the United States general population. There is currently no specific data on medical student knowledge of the Holocaust and the role that the medical community played. The goal of this study was to gather baseline data on medical student knowledge of the Holocaust and medicine’s involvement to demonstrate the need for Holocaust teaching in medical school.

East Tennessee Spatial And Temporal Species-Specific Bat Activity Patterns, Seth Morelock

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Determining the activity among species-specific bat populations within specific habitat selections can help contribute to the conservation of Appalachian bat species. This study examines the differences in species-specific bat activity patterns between three ponds of variable sizes and a southeast-facing open field with a wooded edge. Four Song Meter SM4BAT FS bioacoustics detectors were used on a 15-acre property in Fall Branch, TN, with a wildlife acoustics detector being placed at three ponds and one field. There were three stages of data collection for this study which all took place during 2023. The first stage was during the spring (March …

Notes For The Stalled, V15n10, May 2023, University Of Northern Iowa. Rod Library.

Rod Library newsletter: Notes for the Stalled

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