Digital Commons Network^™

Żółty Dom: A Digital Archive Of A Grandmother’S Legacy, Hailey Stessman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Archives, as separate entities and as a practice, have been used as a means to preserve and conserve pieces of history across a range of subjects. Physical artifacts, personal photography, or important classified documents may be included within these capsules of the past. Prolific individuals have had their lives collected, organized, and stored away in such minute detail for the ease and accessibility of public use. Not only does the precise organization aid easy research, but it also lends to the art of storytelling. One can trace an individual’s legacy from their childhood to their final breath by exploring their …

The Effects Of Prior Calculus Classes On Success In Organic Chemistry, Tori Williamson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Within University of Nebraska – Omaha (UNO) chemistry-based degree programs, organic chemistry along with at least two semesters of calculus are required courses. There is, however, no requirement for the order in which these courses should be taken. This is mainly due to the notion that for chemistry courses, organic chemistry is detached from the typical quantitative concepts studied in other chemistry-based courses. This is untrue, however, as many organic chemistry concepts rely on three-dimensional spatial visualizations and manipulations. Spatial awareness skills are strengthened within higher-level calculus classes. A survey was administered to organic chemistry students enrolled in 2022-2023. The …

Ingredients For An Invisibility Cloak Or A Blindfold, Laine Knowles

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

An artist book is an art object that expressly utilizes the linear, time-based form of a book in a way that will best serve the artist’s intentions. The contents of this 16 page book are an expansion of the ideas and themes in my BFA thesis show. This will include original writing, drawings, watercolor paintings, prints, and collaged elements that will inform each other artistically. The title of this art book refers to the circumstances and ideas that inform my sense of self-perception, and how I relate to others.

Chopin’S Piano Sonata No. 3 In B Minor Op. 58: A Structural Analysis, Maverick Harrold

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor Op. 58 is an incredibly important composition to the world of music. This work will uncover many of the unique facets and features of this piece as well as discover the beautiful intricacies of each of the four movements. By learning about this sonata, the reader will gain an understanding of the importance of musical structure and musical form and will gain insight into the ways of Chopin’s compositional style and of romantic piano music as a whole.

The Impact Of Glacial Proximity On The Elemental Composition Of Leachate Derived From Sediment Weathering, Karoline Ford

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This study assesses chemical weathering trends as they relate to glacial retreat. The chemical environment of surfaces exposed to the atmosphere differs significantly from beneath a glacier. As a glacier melts, changes to the biogeochemical processes generate environmental gradients. This study analyzed chemical weathering signals at different distances from a glacial front by comparing the elemental composition of leachate derived from sediments in southeastern Greenland. Samples from proglacial, nonglacial, and moraine locations were weathered in a laboratory setting, and ion chromatography was used to determine the elemental composition of the products. Divergent trends in leachate composition were observed as distance …

Correlation Between Stress Coping Styles And Genetic Variation In The Adenosine Pathway Of Zebrafish, Sydney Klucas

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Anxiety is a common mental disorder and is caused in part by dysregulation of neurotransmitter systems. Specifically, the adenosine pathway has been correlated with anxiety disorders, but it is not yet known if genetic differences in this pathway are responsible for anxiety-related behavior. In this study, I used bioinformatic analyses (EdgeR and WGCNA) to investigate an RNA-sequencing dataset to assess differences in differential gene expression and gene co-expression networks within the adenosine pathway of zebrafish with different stress coping styles. These analyses included three brain regions: basolateral amygdala, hippocampus, and habenula. The differential gene expression analysis demonstrated that the adenosine …

Analysis Of Fire Safety Preparedness And Risk In University Housing, Sophia House

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In the growing field of fire safety and preparedness, university dormitories are a prime location to observe unique residential circumstances that contribute to fire risk. This study will utilize survey responses from student housing residents from four universities to analyze if and how certain factors affect fire safety preparedness. Additionally, the results will be compared to existing literature to examine any gaps in research or contributions to current data. This study seeks to confirm that university housing is a higher risk category of residential fires because of student contributions and a lack of direct intervention to improve fire safety preparedness.

Universal Design For Learning (Udl): Integrating Udl Instructional And Assessment Strategies To Assess Student Learning In A Middle School Classroom, Katie Hill

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project investigates the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in a seventh grade Social Studies classroom through teaching and assessing multiple skills, such as analyzing multiple perspectives in a text. The topic of the four-week unit was the Scientific Revolution and the European Age of Exploration. To meet the unique needs of all learners, the curriculum was differentiated. The students completed a pre-test, several formative assessments, and two summative assessments to assess learning. I analyzed the data from these assessments to determine the effect the strategies utilized had on student learning. Based on student data, student …

Evidence-Based Practice As An Undergraduate Clinician, Abigail Guinan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Evidence-based practice consists of client perspectives, clinical expertise, and research evidence to make clinical decisions for client treatment. This project evaluated evidence-based practice in the field of speech-language pathology. One evidence-based treatment method was found for each of the Big Nine areas of treatment in speech-language pathology. More focus was put on the area of language, specifically late language emergence in pediatric populations. Late language emergence is a delay in language development that is not caused by any comorbidities. Children with late language emergence struggle in all areas of language. The three intervention strategies for late language emergence are family-centered, …

Utilizing The Touch Point Math Strategy To Increase Math Proficiency, Grace Giebler

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This Capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies that were integrated throughout a math intervention unit with a student receiving special education services. The capstone reports the effectiveness of four instructional strategies and two assessment strategies that were integrated into a math unit that focused on the effectiveness of touch point math as an intervention. The unit had eight lessons taught over two weeks. I will elaborate on the instructional strategies and assessment strategies and the effects they had on the students' learning. I collected data throughout the implementation of lessons and found that the Touch Point math strategy, modeling, …

Impact Of Differentiated Instructional Strategies On Student Comprehension Of Fractions, Alaina Pihlgren

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the influence of incorporating differentiated instructional and assessment strategies throughout a fourth-grade math unit. Throughout the unit two instructional strategies of ‘questioning’ and ‘exit tickets’ were integrated to determine and assess student comprehension and growth. The students took identical pre- and post-assessments at the beginning and end of the unit. Between the assessments, I taught a fractional unit that lasted approximately 13 days. At the completion of the unit, the students completed the post-assessment. I collected and analyzed the pre- and post-assessment data and found that questioning and exit tickets are effective instructional strategies for increasing …

Systematic Barriers To Success: The Impact Of Redlining On Modern Educational Outcomes In Omaha Public Schools, Sarah Sedivy

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The systemic denial of mortgages, loans, and other financial services to specific neighborhoods on the basis of race, a practice known as redlining, has continued to have a disproportionately negative effect on communities of color since its inception in the 1930s. The contemporary impacts of redlining can be seen in ongoing disparities in household income, property values, generational wealth, and more. This paper uses a three-pronged approach to extensively examine the history, application, and implications of redlining, with an emphasis on how the practice affects modern educational outcomes in Omaha public schools. The paper analyzes statistical data from the Nebraska …

Implementing Nonlinguistic Representations In Language Arts, Joy Ondrak

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project analyzes the use of nonlinguistic representation as both instructional and assessment strategies in a Language Arts unit. The project reports the effectiveness of nonlinguistic forms of representation that were integrated into a persuasive unit that focused on students’ comprehension of the modes of appeal, specifically in advertising. The persuasive unit included 12 lessons that were taught over a four-week period. This project analyzed the effectiveness of the implemented instructional and assessment strategies on student’s learning based on pre- and post- assessment scores. Following analysis of the pre- and post- assessment data, I discovered that nonlinguistic forms of …

The State And Use Of Virtual Tutors, Thomas Anthone

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Virtual tutoring is the process by which students and teachers participate in the learning experience in an online, virtual, or networked environment. This process can not only separate the participants from each other in a physical space, but it can also separate them by time. Virtual tutoring can take the form of the group of students coming together synchronously in an online setting and receiving lessons from a single tutor, or by asynchronous learning in which the teacher pre-plans lessons in advance that the students consume on their own time. The advent of online learning technologies and virtual learning environments …

An Unfiltered Reality: The Impact Of Social Media Usage On Personal Satisfaction, Jack Cosgrove

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of social media use on the personal life satisfaction of emerging adults (ages 18 to 25). All told, 172 participants completed a survey that asked them to report their social media usage, social media habits, and their personal satisfaction with life. The social media use variables were reduced using exploratory factor analysis. This allowed a greater breakdown of the effects of social media habits across age and gender. Some gender differences emerged, but overall, social media use was negatively related to satisfaction with life. Additionally, other significant effects were …

Teaching Time And Graphs With Differentiated Instruction And Assessment Strategies, Catie Tangeman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone reports the effectiveness of using differentiated instructional and assessment strategies to improve student performance in math. Based on pretest data, instruction was planned and implemented to best meet the needs of each student to help them succeed. This unit started with a pretest, had ten days of lessons and instruction, and then concluded with a post-test. Based on student data, student performance and learning increased by using differentiated instruction and instructional strategies that were adapted to help each student. Using feedback, nonlinguistic representations (a big piece of assessment), think-pair-shares, and physical models/manipulatives, students successfully showed the increase in …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Graphic Organizers In An English Classroom, Alexandra Espinoza

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The use of graphic organizers has risen in classrooms over the past few decades. However, it is essential to assess whether they lead to improved student learning, as some trending instructional strategies are not well-backed by quality research. The purpose of this study was to analyze if graphic organizers are indeed effective to use in a high school English class. This study took place in a secondary school setting for a weeklong unit. For this project, students completed three graphic organizers throughout the unit in order to better understand selected topics relating to the unit’s nonfiction text including inferences, characterization, …

Accountng Analysis Of A Goodwill Industries International, Elizabeth Howard

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Goodwill Industries International has clean financial health. They are liquid after COVID but plan to invest in different services directed at digital skills. They have no long-term debt, which frees up cash for services and can be considered a strength. Weaknesses in the financials directly attributable to COVID were: a cancellation of 2 million dollars’ worth of pledges in 2020, a decrease of 40 million dollars of program expense over two years, and a drop in investment return to 2.88%. Program expense ratio and Fund-Raising ratio are excellent at 91% and 2.2% respectively in 2021. Weaknesses I find are mostly …

Teaching The Processes That Shape The Earth Through Note-Taking, Summarizing, And Collaborative Sharing, Marisa Kilzer

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project is on the effectiveness of research-based instructional strategies and assessments implemented in a fourth-grade science unit. The science unit required students to comprehend and explain the scientific processes that shape our Earth. The unit included 7 lessons taught over 2 weeks, involving science experiments and a pre- and post-assessment. The methods and materials, as well as the effectiveness of the strategies on students’ learning, were documented. After collecting and analyzing the data from the unit, it was found that notetaking and summarizing, and collaborative sharing, are effective strategies for instruction and assessment

Investigating Novel Chemotherapeutics Against The Parasite Toxoplasma Gondii, Braydon Dreher

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Toxoplasma gondii, an intracellular protozoan, is a globally prevalent parasite due to the infectivity of T. gondii with nearly 2.5 billion people affected worldwide. Toxoplasma gondii can cause toxoplasmosis, which is a disease acquired through the consumption of undercooked meat or found in the feces of felines, and often leads to profound neuropathology and potentially death. Currently, acute toxoplasmosis is treated with pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, which is a combination of an antiprotozoal and a sulfonamide. This combination of drugs directly targets the acute stage of infection but has failed to eliminate or impact the chronic carriage of bradyzoites while …

A Queer History Of Seattle Pacific University: Reconciliation And Recovery In Oral History Management And Special Collection Creation, Rebecca Cavanaugh

Honors Projects

In order to deconstruct the process and product of the two-year long SERVE Grant funded research project, “A History of Queer Student Presence and Activism at Seattle Pacific University: 1990-2019”, I analyze it through the acts of knowledge recovery and reconciliation. As an act of knowledge recovery, this project sought to uncover the unacknowledged history about SPU’s queer community through the use of The Falcon and oral history interviews as primary sources. To properly commit to this act of recovery, the project also created a historical narrative, timeline, Special Collection, and website to preserve these findings and make them available …

Dengue Virus And Blood Safety: A Mini-Review Of Research Publications, Festus Mulakoli, George Gachara, Eric Ndombi, Samoel Khamadi

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

The growing demand for donated whole blood and blood products to save lives has both health benefits and health risks for blood recipients at the same time. Dengue virus, a re-emerging viral disease poses a threat to blood safety, and it has spread to over 128 countries in the world. Several studies have documented transfusion-transmitted (TT) dengue, with the first cases being reported in China in 2002 and Singapore in 2008. To understand the magnitude and broader picture of the dengue virus and blood safety, we conducted a mini-review of published literature from the Scopus database. The review focused on …

Are Third Parties Creating A Loophole For Police Investigations?, Alexandria N. Short

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

This article discusses the current case law and statutory law related to the privacy of information collected by third parties. At times, we see the private sector and law enforcement working together to solve crimes. However, that may not always be a good thing. This article offers a solution to these problems of uncertainty by suggesting a uniform code to regulate the private sector, or, in the alternative, a change to the Fourth Amendment that encompasses a more modern interpretation of the information that law enforcement should have access to.

Vol. 13, No. 2, Spring 2023: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review Online Supplement

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

No abstract provided.

Nearly-Lossless-To-Lossy Medical Image Compression By The Optimized Jpegxt And Jpeg Algorithms Through The Anatomical Regions Of Interest, Zhongqiang Li, Alexandra Ramos, Zheng Li, Michelle L. Osborn, Waleed Zaid, Xin Li, Yanping Li, Jian Xu

Faculty Publications

Currently, plenty of image data is generated that complicate storage and image transmission. Great efforts have been attempted on how to increase compression ratio (CR) without loss of critical diagnostic information. In this study, we designed two optimized JPEGXT (JPEGXT_OPT) and JPEG (JPEG_OPT) approaches by amplifying discrete cosine transform coefficients and using the entire anatomical region as ROI (region of interest). We found that ROI percentages have a great impact CR: smaller ROI percentages (10–30 %) could obtain a larger CR. Under the near-lossless compression, JPEGXT_OPT could have CRs up to 4.0 under small ROI percentages (10–30 %), while only …

Act I, Scene 3 - Int. Bedroom, Victoria De Dios

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

No abstract provided.

Airline Quality Rating 2023, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Airline Quality Rating Report

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an objective method for assessing airline quality on combined multiple performance criteria. This current reporting, the Airline Quality Rating 2023, reflects monthly Airline Quality Rating scores for calendar year 2022. AQR scores for 2022 are based on 15 elements in four major areas that focus on airline performance aspects important to air travel consumers over the calendar year of 2022.

The Airline Quality Rating 2023 is a summary of data for U.S. airlines that are required to report performance by virtue of having at least 0.05% …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between K-12 Public Education Spending And Student Academic Achievement In Iowa [Paper, Bolton Award Version], Lydia Berns-Schweingruber

Mary Ann Bolton Undergraduate Research Award

Student academic achievement in Iowa is on the decline (U.S. Department of Education 2022). Some politicians propose increasing public education spending in order to address worrisome trends in academic achievement (Richardson 2022). Prior studies disagree about we whether there is a relationship between school spending and student outcomes (Betts 1995; Card and Krueger 1996; Card and Payne 2002; Coleman et al. 1966; Downes and Figlio 1997; Greenwald et al. 1996; Hanushek 1986; Jackson et al. 2015; Lafortune et al. 2018; Martorell et al. 2016; Miller 2018; Rajpal 1969). The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a …

Is Hindsight 20/20? Reconsidering Popular Perceptions Of Civil War Surgeons, Miller Bacon

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper provides a cursory examination of the history and truth of the modern “butcher” stereotype associated with Civil War surgeons. Beginning with a review of modern examples of the stereotype in cinema, educational materials, children’s literature, and academic literature, this thesis further provides a detailed historical analysis of the source of this stereotype in the nineteenth century. This analysis completes the cultural analysis present within the paper by demonstrating the presence of the “butcher” stereotype in Civil War era newspapers and literature.

Finally, after the cultural analysis of the modern stereotype and its historical roots in the nineteenth century, …

Masthead

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.