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A Policy Analysis Of The Endangered Species Act, Kendall Beggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis was to identify and analyze common characteristics that are shared by recovering species listed in the Endangered Species Act (ESA). NatureServe population data was used to determine which listed species were recovering, and a logistic regression analysis was performed to identify which aspects of the ESA most contribute to recovery. Of the 747 species tested, only 24% had a population that was stable or improving. Time listed and classification group were found to significantly influence recovery, and recovery plan presence and critical habitat designation also increase the odds of recovery. The analysis found no relationship …

Identifying Risk Factors For Anchoring Bias During Emergency Department Transitions Of Care, Roni Matin

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Transitions of care have been associated with breakdowns in communication and medical errors. In emergency departments (ED) these handoffs are typically known as sign outs. Sign outs provide continuity of care for ED patients whose diagnosis and care fall across shift changes. They are short interactions where pertinent information and responsibility for the patient is transferred to the physician assuming care for them. However, these exchanges may also be an opportunity for cognitive biases to be transferred or introduced, leading to erroneous decision making. Anchoring bias is known to have a significant impact on clinical decision making. Yet, little is …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Self-Healing Polyampholyte Gel Particles For The Severe Leakoff Control Of Drilling Fluids, Lili Yang, Chunlin Xie, Tian Ao, Kaixiao Cui, Guancheng Jiang, Baojun Bai, Yongwei Zhang, Jun Yang, Xingxing Wang, Weiguo Tian

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lost circulation has been a serious problem to be solved in many drilling practices during oil, gas and geothermal well drillings. Many materials have been developed and evaluated for the purpose. However, their performance to plug severe leakoff is very limited. Herein, an injectable self-healing hydrogel based on polyampholyte with sulfonated and quaternary ammonium functionalities (P(MPTC-co-NaSS)) was developed and comprehensively evaluated to prevent the severe loss of fluids to formation. By incorporating cation-π (π is for aromatic residues) interaction, the hydrogel shown self-healing property and robustness in severe environment (temperature, salt) by comparison with other hydrogels merely consisting of cation-anion …

An Empirical And Theoretical Analysis Of Leadership In Two Egalitarian Horticultural Societies, Edmond Seabright

Anthropology ETDs

Leadership is a central subject of interest in anthropology and the evolutionary social sciences more generally because of its ubiquity in human societies as well as its role in the evolution of cooperation, social complexity, and social hierarchy. Explaining the variation in the form and functions of leadership across different societies and settings remains a major challenge for social scientists. Although it is often associated with social hierarchy, here I argue that leadership can and does evolve even in egalitarian settings where leaders cannot hope to fully make up the burdens and expenses associated with their service. I further show …

Covid-19 And Incidence Of Necrotizing Fasciitis: A Case Study, Tehreem Sajjad, Carmen Johnson, Janet Baatile-Ajrouche

Posters

COVID-19 manifests as a flu-like respiratory infection affecting multiple organ systems. Symptoms range from mild viral illness to severe acute respiratory infection. There is no definitive relationship between COVID-19 and cellulitis, inflammatory myositis, vasculitis, or necrotizing fasciitis. It is interesting to note that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (Receptor for SARS-CoV-2) is present on endothelial cells in multiple organs, including dermal blood vessels and arterial smooth muscle cells. There are several theories that have formed to explain the relationship between COVID-19 and a necrotizing fasciitis infection. This study presents one unique case of an unvaccinated COVID+ patient and the necrotizing fasciitis infection …

Teacher Autonomy: A Multi-Site Case Study, Carrie Manning

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teacher autonomy and practices that school leaders implement to promote teacher autonomy at three schools in a small rural town in the southern United States. The study examined how school leaders influenced teacher autonomy in the classroom. This study incorporated an instrumental case study method and determined how teachers interpret, construct, and apply meaning to the autonomy they experience in the classroom and at the school. The researcher examined how school leaders interpret, construct, and apply meaning to their roles in enabling teacher autonomy. The study implemented the transformational leadership …

Finding Change Agents: A Qualitative Case Study On Perceptions Of Education Leaders During The Implementation Of The Next Generation Science Standards, Billy Dwain Niell Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

This study is a qualitative case study of middle schools located in a rural public school district in a southern state in the United States that has implemented the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which explored the roles of education leaders in the implementation of NGSS. Participants included teachers, instructional coaches, and district administrators. The findings of the study include how a lack of training for NGSS impacted the effectiveness of education leaders, district leadership focused on curriculum instead of the standards, the response to teacher frustrations led to an adversarial relationship with the district, and education leaders exist in …

Racial Discrimination From A Self-Determination Lens, Lindsey Shamp

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite significant advances toward equality, racism and discrimination have been a central feature of America’s culture. This inequality has been presented from the history of slavery to the present-day violence against unarmed Black men. Oppression and inequalities have led calls to action from the African American community and activist groups including the Black Lives Matter Movement. Many White individuals are unaware of the existing benefits of their Whiteness and are simultaneously unaware of the significant psychological, emotional, physical, and social consequences for African American individuals. While there are several established theories to address the psychological and social aspects of how …

What Do Facial Products Have To Do With A Waterfall? The Role Of Remoteness, Social Comparison, And Envy In The Purchasing Effectiveness Of Sponsored Product Social Media Content, Louis J. Zmich

Doctoral Dissertations

Advertising has gone from magazines, to television, and now social media. However, unlike the robust advertisement literature, the influencer marketing literature has not caught up to explain how social media sponsored content can perform its best. While companies rely on follower count and interaction (i.e., likes) to determine who to partner with, the need for clarity on how to best predict digital advertisement success is needed. This study brings the literature of advertising and cognitive psychology, and applies the associative memory, visual persuasion, and remote conveyor theories into the influencer marketing context. This study specifically looks at how creativity through …

Antifragility: Disorder As The Wind That Energizes The Fire Within Us, Abdulah Bajaba

Doctoral Dissertations

Today’s business world is more complex and uncertain than ever due to the unpredictable interdependencies caused by factors such as technology and globalization; accordingly, stress-inducing job demands have never been more prevalent. In order to cope with such demands, employees need to go beyond resilience and embrace disorder as a tool for growth. In this dissertation, I introduce the concept of antifragility to the workplace as a psychological resource that utilizes disorder to its advantage. In order to efficiently coincide with today’s complexity and uncertainty, an employee has to gain more than lose from disorder, simply put, s/he has to …

Novice Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Most Effective Instructional Leadership Practices, Schbrett Lewis Myers

Doctoral Dissertations

This quantitative study examined novice teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ most effective instructional leadership practices to ensure a positive school climate. Principals’ perceptions were examined to assess their understandings of novice teachers’ needs and whether principals have the knowledge to support novice teachers’ pedagogical needs. Novice teacher experts (n=11) and principals (n=8) participated in a modified Delphi study of three rounds. A three-part instrument, comprised of a survey, Likert scale (Compass Louisiana Leader Performance Evaluation Rubric), and suggestions were used to assess principals’ and novice teachers’ perceptions. Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio (CVR) measured validity. Novice teacher experts and principals validated …

Effective Lifestyle Modifications Pro Football Players Utilize To Prevent Future Complications Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Matthew Nicolas

Nursing | Senior Theses

The National Football League (NFL) is a billion-dollar entertainment industry that values itself on the physical and gritty sport of football. Even though these athletes are revered for their physical prowess and durability, at some point in their professional football careers these players are likely to sustain some variation of head injury—if not multiple. Each of the 22 players on the gridiron must physically wear out their matchup with tackles, stiff arms, bullrushes, rip moves, and any illegal hits the referee may not be able to see. The repeated blows these players sustain over the course of their career often …

An Exploration Of Covid-19 Impact On Healthcare Workers’ Mental Health In China, Jenny Yang

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

In December 2019, the first confirmed human case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19 occurred in Wuhan, China. By March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) had classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic due to the rapid spread of the virus to other countries. Many people have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in various aspects, especially front-line healthcare workers. Hospital working conditions are constantly changing to cope with the problems that arise from the pandemic. These problems can result in an unsafe patient-to-nurse ratio, understaffed healthcare workers in hospitals, equipment shortage, and increased …

Nlr Eats: A Nonprofit To Feed Hungry Kids, Sydney Eagan

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

Organization Description: Dog-Town Eats is a not-for-profit organization set up in North Little Rock, Arkansas, for the purpose of providing nutritious meals to underprivileged children on the weekends. The organization will also strive to provide meals when children are not in school over the summer months.

Specific Concept: Dog-Town Eats would like to purchase a food truck as well as supplies to offer meals. The organization will progressively expand to the areas surrounding North Little Rock and then eventually the entire state of Arkansas.

Market Description: Children who do not have the means of finding and or providing themselves …

Effective Leadership Of Institutional Effectiveness Accreditation Initiaties: A Qualitative Case Study, Mallory Marie Herlevic

Doctoral Dissertations

A qualitative case study of a two-year institution of higher education which had recently completed a successful institutional effectiveness initiative explored the factors that faculty and administrators believe encourage the support of institutional effectiveness initiatives and how certain factors encourage faculty and administrative support for institutional effectiveness activities that lead to their success. Participants included faculty and administrators at institutions of higher education and experts in the field of institutional effectiveness. There were four basic findings of the study. First, leaders of institutional effectiveness initiatives should ensure that the motivation of the topic of a project is perceived to be …

A Qualitative Study Identifying A School Leadership Model Promoting And Fostering Technology-Enhanced Teaching And Learning, Lisa Flanders-Dick

Doctoral Dissertations

Technology-enhanced teaching and learning (TETL) is the integration of technology into teaching and learning practices to improve the quality of learning outcomes. This is an essential strategy for improving educational quality. School leaders significantly affect the integration of effective TETL in the classroom. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) provides Standards for Leaders that serve as a framework for innovation in education. Situational Leadership Theory contends that one leadership style cannot be applied to all leadership tasks. This study expands upon the current use of SLT to help derive characteristics needed to develop a school leadership model that …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Distributed Leadership In An Elementary School Setting, Kristel Webb

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigated the processes by which an elementary school principal uses Distributed Leadership to accomplish leadership tasks and progress toward organizational goals. It aimed to provide a thick description of the practices, behaviors, perspectives, and experiences of the participants of Distributed Leadership. The research participants included one principal and eight teacher leaders in a prekindergarten through second grade school in the southeastern part of the United States, having been identified as having Distributed Leadership. The study used observations, interviews, and document analysis to collect qualitative data. The study's finding revealed four themes: leaders’ abilities to pinpoint other …

Surveillance Of Teleworkers: A Grounded Theory Approach, William Grant Clary

Doctoral Dissertations

In March of 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The pandemic mandated teleworking across the world as many organizations tried to social distance. Two years into the pandemic, we have seen quite the increase in telework. Thus, with the benefits being realized, it is reasonable to expect a continuance in telework after the pandemic is over. When forced to work from home, many variables with the work process must be changed, including how managers surveil their employees. My work is an early, exploratory effort to understand how teleworkers are surveilled and how they feel about being surveilled at home. …

Gender & Sexuality Services Newsletter, May 2022, University Of Northern Iowa. Gender & Sexuality Services.

Gender & Sexuality Services Newsletter

In This Issue:

--- Lav Grad
--- Safe Zone Ally Training
--- Upcoming Events

Summary Report: Essential Programs And Services Career And Technical Education Component Review, James E. Sloan, Amy F. Johnson, Sharon Gerrish

School Funding - Essential Programs and Services (EPS)

Background

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) funding model was implemented in FY2019 after a lengthy period of development. The component was scheduled for a review in FY2020 and FY2021 as part of the ongoing cycle of analysis of all major components of Maine’s Essential Programs and Services (EPS) education cost model. Due to the breadth and complexity of the CTE funding model, and the fact that this is the first time it has been reviewed to see how it is being implemented in actual practice, the findings have been broken into several sections. Appendix A provides the overall plan …

Reducing Medication Non-Adherence With Improved Health Literacy Interventions: An Evidence-Based Practice Quality Improvement Project, Unity Wiles

DNP Projects

Introduction

Health literacy is the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate healthcare decisions and follow instructions for treatment. Patients with low health literacy have been predicted to have poor health outcomes. The inclusion of the single-item literacy tool into the admission process of this project involved the patient-centered-care characteristics of improved patient experience, lower health cost, improved clinical experience, and better outcomes.

Purpose

The National Action Plan to improve Health Literacy seeks to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals, and families in a linked multi-sector effort to improve health literacy. Low …

Application Of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure For Thoracic Respiratory Motion Management: An Assessment In A Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Guided Radiation Therapy Environment, Evan Liang, Jennifer L. Dolan, Eric D. Morris, Jonathan Vono, Luisa F. Bazan, Mei Lu, Carri K. Glide-Hurst

Radiation Oncology Articles

PURPOSE: Patient tolerability of magnetic resonance (MR)-guided radiation treatment delivery is limited by the need for repeated deep inspiratory breath holds (DIBHs). This volunteer study assessed the feasibility of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with and without DIBH for respiratory motion management during radiation treatment with an MR-linear accelerator (MR-linac).

METHODS AND MATERIALS: MR imaging safety was first addressed by placing the CPAP device in an MR-safe closet and configuring a tube circuit via waveguide to the magnet bore. Reproducibility and linearity of the final configuration were assessed. Six healthy volunteers underwent thoracic imaging in a 0.35T MR-linac, with one …

University Of South Dakota 2022 Aashe Stars Assessment Report, Holly Black, Jacob Ridgway, Megan Warner, Morgan Hughes, Charles Bean, Meredith King, Kian Rexroat-Potts, Emily Theroux, Zachary Schild, Meghann Elizabeth Jarchow

Sustainability & Environment Projects

Overview

This report provides a brief summary of the University of South Dakota’s STARS Report that was started by the Sustainability Capstone class and is projected to be completed during the summer of 2022. Currently the University of South Dakota has a Bronze rating, which is expected to be set throughout the completion of this report and hopefully increase in the future.

Problem Summary

Throughout the University of South Dakota’s STARS report there were two common problems. The first was a lack of record keeping for information such as emissions and employee satisfaction. The second was that the University did …

Evidence That The Transcriptional Repressor Icer Is Regulated Via The N-End Rule For Ubiquitination, Angelo Cirinelli, Justin Wheelan, Christopher Grieg, Carlos A. Molina

Department of Biology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

ICER is a transcriptional repressor that is mono- or poly-ubiquitinated. This either causes ICER to be translocated from the nucleus, or degraded via the proteasome, respectively. In order to further studies the proteins involved in ICER regulation mass spectrometry analysis was performed to identify potential candidates. We identified twenty eight ICER-interacting proteins in human melanoma cells, Sk-Mel-24. In this study we focus on two proteins with potential roles in ICER proteasomal degradation in response to the N-end rule for ubiquitination: the N-alpha-acetyltransferase 15 (NAA15) and the E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase UBR4. Using an HA-tag on the N- or C-terminus of ICER …

Invited Perspective: Eliminating Toxics To Prevent Disease: Asbestos Leads The Way, David Kriebel, Douglas J. Myers

Public and Population Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Countries that have consumed more asbestos have historically had higher mortality rates from asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) than countries with lower asbestos consumption. A research letter in this issue by Rath et al. provides a 15-y update on evidence for this link and uses this evidence to support calls for a worldwide ban on the use of asbestos. We find their results convincing, and we agree with the urgent need to stop producing and using asbestos. For those who might be skeptical of this conclusion or who are considering how much weight to give this evidence, we offer this perspective as …

Navigating The Cold And Flu Aisle: An Evidence-Based Approach For Nurse Practitioners, Elizabeth Edwards

Student Works

Background: The most common illness know is the common cold. Antibiotics are inappropriate for treating the common cold, but there are many over-the-counter medications available. These over-the-counter medications have not been shown to decrease the length of a cold, though they can ease symptoms. In this paper, we aimed to review the active ingredients in recommended OTC cold remedies for the general population and assess the evidence for their effectiveness. We hope this information will provide NPs with evidence-based strategies to help their patients be better prepared to navigate the cold and flu aisle.

Methods: The US News 2020 …

Bird Abundance And Diversity In Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, Usa, Jessica L. Copertino, Paul E. Sacks, Jacob Hromyak, Linda J. Walters

Florida Field Naturalist

Mosquito Lagoon, the northernmost portion of the Indian River Lagoon along the eastern coast of Florida, is home to a variety of both resident and migratory bird species, including over a dozen categorized as either threatened or endangered in the state of Florida. Though birds have previously been monitored in parts of the central and southern Indian River Lagoon system, there has been little research on birds in Mosquito Lagoon. In this study, we used 2 years of survey data to evaluate the abundance and diversity of the avian community in Mosquito Lagoon. We made 22,085 bird observations, including 67 …

Vocalizations Help Distinguish Male And Female Brown-Headed Nuthatches (Sitta Pusilla) In The Field, James A. Cox, Jessica A. Cusick, Samantha Dietz, Mary Mack Gray, Heather E. Levy, Heather I. Hill, Robert T. Meyer

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Unsupervised Anomaly Detection Via Dual Transformation-Aware Embeddings, Zhipeng Wang, Chunping Hou, Bangbang Ge, Yang Liu, Zhicheng Dong, Zhiqiang Wu

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

Unsupervised anomaly detection refers to the discovery of unconventional images that are globally or locally different from the training set. Recently, reconstruction-based anomaly detection methods have made great progress. However, most of the existing methods take reconstructing the original image as the goal of latent feature learning. Due to lack of effective semantic guidance, latent features have intrinsic characteristics which retain redundant details of spatial structure. Such information is too general and cause over-expression problem. To solve this problem, in this paper, dual transformation-aware embeddings are coined which aims to achieve a stable model to learn high-level latent features in …

2022 May, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for May of 2022.