Digital Commons Network^™

Validated Determination Of Nrg1 Ig-Like Domain Structure By Mass Spectrometry Coupled With Computational Modeling, Niloofar Abolhasani Khaje, Alexander Eletsky, Sarah E. Biehn, Charles K. Mobley, Monique J. Rogals, Yoonkyoo Kim, Sushil K. Mishra, Robert J. Doerksen, Steffen Lindert, James H. Prestegard, Joshua S. Sharp

Faculty and Student Publications

High resolution hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HR-HRPF) is a mass spectrometry-based method that measures the solvent exposure of multiple amino acids in a single experiment, offering constraints for experimentally informed computational modeling. HR-HRPF-based modeling has previously been used to accurately model the structure of proteins of known structure, but the technique has never been used to determine the structure of a protein of unknown structure. Here, we present the use of HR-HRPF-based modeling to determine the structure of the Ig-like domain of NRG1, a protein with no close homolog of known structure. Independent determination of the protein structure by both …

Just Cut It Out, Jack Barbosa, Ashley Curcio, Emiliana Martinez-Nobrega, Matthew Robledo

Student Work

Why should we care about trees? Social, Economic, and Environmental benefits.

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Novel Coanda-Based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Zaid Feroz Siddiqi

Theses and Dissertations

To alleviate the thrust losses in radial direction experienced in conventional saucer-shaped Coanda Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), a rectangular, linear arrangement of the Coanda surface is adopted in the novel design. This arrangement minimizes the area change in the radial direction to recover such thrust losses. A prototype of the proposed UAV structure is 3D printed and assembled with a single 9-inch propeller. In addition, a custom-built dynamometer is designed specifically to measure propeller thrust under different loading conditions. Performance characteristics of the UAV are evaluated through static testing on the dynamometer which uses a load cell to measure the …

Behavioral, Cognitive, And Socioemotional Pathways From Early Childhood Adversity To Bmi: Evidence From Two Prospective, Longitudinal Studies, Jenalee R. Doom, Ethan S. Young, Allison K. Farrell, Glenn I. Roisman, Jeffry A. Simpson

Psychology: Faculty Scholarship

Childhood adversity is associated with higher adult weight, but few investigations prospectively test mechanisms accounting for this association. Using two socioeconomically high-risk prospective longitudinal investigations, the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (MLSRA; N = 267; 45.3% female) and the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS; n = 2,587; 48.5% female), pathways between childhood adversity and later body mass index (BMI) were tested using impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and overeating as mediators. Childhood adversity from 0 to 5 years included four types of adversities: greater unpredictability, threat/abuse, deprivation/neglect, and low socioeconomic status. Parents reported on child impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, …

A Poet's Voice: Music In Service To Poetry: Elements Of Text Painting In Juliana Hall's Song Cycle "How Do I Love Thee?", Hayley Z. Coughin

Dissertations, 2020-current

American composer Juliana Hall has established a reputation as one of the leading composers of contemporary American art songs, having composed over 60 song cycles, totaling over 300 works for the voice. Hall’s song cycle How Do I Love Thee? expresses a narrative arc told through five selections from Victorian-era poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. The poems selected include Sonnet 3: “Unlike,” Sonnet 43: “How Do I Love Thee?,” Sonnet 37: “Pardon,” Sonnet 21: “Say Over,” and Sonnet 41: “Thank You.” Hall’s cycle describes the relationship between the lover and the object of their love, including …

Decolonizing And Enriching Opera: A Nigerian Folktale One Act Opera, Miracle O. Amah

Dissertations, 2020-current

Aligned with the decolonial aims of this project, this English and Yoruba language opera promotes an international understanding of African operatic styles which reflect literary, musical, instrumental and dance cultural traditions. This paper addresses some of the issues faced by people of color in the opera world, ways that people of color have been resilient in this genre and ways to enrich the opera world with the aim of decolonizing and deframing the white racial structure. This opera was first performed on March 29th, 2022 and was created as a workshop for performances in high schools, colleges, music institutions, and …

The “New” Normal: A Mixed Methods Study Of The Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On College Student Sense Of Belonging, Hunter Swanson

Dissertations, 2020-current

This mixed-methods study used the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) model to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on college student sense of belonging. The purpose of this study was to explore how environmental changes related to the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered students’ sense of belonging to their institution. The results revealed a strong relationship between the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) engagement indicators and sense of belonging. Furthermore, the results suggest that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic altered how students experienced the CECE indicators. The implications for change leaders in higher education …

The Relationship Between Quality Of Life Outcomes And Social Hearing For Cochlear Implant Recipients Using The Nciq And Pipsl, Bonnie A. Purtill

Dissertations, 2020-current

Unmanaged hearing loss can have profound cognitive, social, and emotional impacts on a person’s life. Cochlear implants improve functional skills such as auditory detection and speech discrimination, and have also been shown to improve quality of life. Health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures are a great tool to assess mental, physical, and social changes after cochlear implantation. While previous research has established improvement in HRQoL after cochlear implantation, there remains a lack of research evaluating long-term effects of cochlear implants for post-lingually and bilaterally deafened adults. Using a disease specific HRQoL questionnaire—Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ) and a social …

Promoting Attainment: Examining The Impact Of Institutional Expenditure Patterns On Graduation Rates, Matthew Lovesky

Dissertations, 2020-current

This study explored how university expenditures differently impact attainment of enrolled students at regional public universities in the United States. Research of this nature is vital with an increasing number of professions requiring a postsecondary education and the unmistakable personal, social, and economic benefits of postsecondary attainment. The purpose of this study was to add to the expenditure literature by focusing strictly on regional public universities, who tend to be more understudied and undervalued compared to the more affluent and prestigious 4-year institutions (McClure et al., 2020). Two separate hierarchical/sequential multiple regression analyses using block-wise entry were utilized to examine …

Exploring The Role Of Defense Styles In The Relationship Between Childhood Adversity And Vicarious Trauma, Stewart Nafziger

Dissertations, 2020-current

The National Council for Behavioral Health (2013) estimated that the majority of clients in public behavioral healthcare settings have experienced trauma. Providing high quality mental health services to clients who suffer from traumatic stress can take a toll on the professional (Trippany et al., 2004). Vicarious trauma is a unique form of traumatic stress that results from treating clients who suffer from traumatic stress (McCann & Pearlman, 1990). It has been recognized by the American Counseling Association (2011) as an occupation hazard. Yet, not all professionals who treat clients suffering from traumatic stress develop it. There is a lack of …

Black Girl Magic: The Endurance Of Enslaved Mothers’ Lessons, Briana G. Gaines

Dissertations, 2020-current

Intergenerational trauma involves a traumatic event that began years prior to the current generation and has impacted the ways in which individuals cope with and heal from trauma. Intergenerational trauma can negatively impact families and individuals as a result of unresolved emotions and thoughts about a traumatic event. Motherhood has always been an important role for Black women (Green, 1990) and although all women face challenges in their role as mothers, Black women are faced with unique tasks that their White counterparts are not. Black women are often the transmitter of culture to their children and frequently set the example …

Amplitude-Modulated Cvemp (Amcvemps) Versus Transient Cvemp Response Properties: Possible Implications, Andrew Thorne

Dissertations, 2020-current

Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) elicited by steady-state amplitude-modulated (AM) tones yield different information than conventional cVEMPs elicited by transient tonebursts, such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and phase coherence (PC). This study systematically examined the effects of tonic EMG activation on AMcVEMP response properties versus conventional transient cVEMPs. Thirty five young, healthy adults (ages 19–23) with normal audiograms and no known vestibular lesions participated in this study. AMcVEMPs were elicited with bone-conducted tones with a carrier frequency of 500 Hz and an amplitude modulation frequency of 37 Hz, and transient cVEMPs were elicited by 4-0-4 Blackman-gated 500 Hz tonebursts …

The Relationship Between The Vestibular Ocular Reflex And Perception In Young Healthy Adults, Susanne Nelson

Dissertations, 2020-current

Vestibular impairments are often identified through measures of vestibular reflexes such as the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). However, in clinical practice measures of the VOR do not always correlate with the patient’s reported symptoms. In contrast to physiologic measures like the VOR, psychophysical methods can be used to assess a person’s perception of movement. Previous psychophysics research shows that perceptual thresholds of angular motion do not correlate with VOR measures, but this has not been assessed at suprathreshold levels. The purpose of this study was to assess whether vestibular reflexive responses (i.e., VOR) were correlated to the patient’s perception of movement …

Temporal Modulation Transfer Functions Of Amplitude-Modulated Cervical Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials In Young Adults, Kerri Lawlor

Dissertations, 2020-current

Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) are widely used to evaluate saccular function in clinical and research applications. Typically, transient tonebursts are used to elicit cVEMPs. In this study, we used bone-conducted amplitude-modulated (AM) tones to elicit AMcVEMPs. This new approach allows the examination of phase-locked vestibular responses across a range of modulation frequencies. Currently, cVEMP temporal modulation transfer functions (TMTFs) are not well defined. The purposes of the present study were 1) to characterize the AMcVEMP TMTF in young, healthy individuals, 2) to compare AMcVEMP TMTFs across different analysis approaches, and 3) to determine the upper frequency limit of …

A Survey Of Cochlear Implant Clinical Protocols In India, Ariana Morris

Dissertations, 2020-current

The most recent data published in December 2019 records that approximately 736,900 registered cochlear implantation devices have been received since their approval in the 1980s. While 183,100 of these devices belong to U.S. Citizens, the large majority of cochlear implant recipients live in other countries (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). While a lack of standardized practices exists in relation to audiologic care and management of cochlear implant devices and patients, Browning et al. (2020) attempts to assess and analyze common practices amongst audiologists practicing within the United States of America. This survey uses a modified questionnaire based …

An Investigation Of The Violin Teaching Method Of Lin Yaoji From A Personal Perspective, Mo Zhou

Dissertations, 2020-current

As a Western musical instrument, the Violin has a history spanning more than three hundred years. Contemporary approaches to its performance and pedagogy have been developed and influenced by the Russian, the Franco-Belgian, and the German Violin Schools. It was not until the 1920s and '30s, that the violin entered the public realm of Chinese society.

From the 1980s until today, several generations of violinists have emerged as Violin Educators in China. Among them, Lin Yaoji was the most famous. This study will research and examine Lin Yaoji’s violin teaching method. Specifically, this document will consist of five chapters discussing …

Taking Time: Part-Time Students And Student Learning Outcomes Assessment, Sarah K. H. Macdonald

Dissertations, 2020-current

For decades, higher education institutions have undertaken comprehensive and systematic efforts to explore, document, and improve the assessment of student learning outcomes, as well as improving learning itself. However, many of these assessment practices have been designed for full-time traditional students, even as the number of non-traditional students enrolled in higher education continues to grow. One group of these non-traditional students remains particularly invisible on their campuses, in their classrooms, and in assessment practices: part-time students.

Part-time students, defined by the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), are students who are not full-time (USDOE, n.d.). This …

Remote-Frequency Masking And Speech Perception In Adults, Taylor L. Arbogast

Dissertations, 2020-current

The primary purpose of this study is threefold: to use SRT measurements to examine the effect of various remote-frequency, narrowband maskers on adult’s perception of narrowband speech, to compare the performance between low and high band speech stimuli, and to evaluate the combination of these approaches by examining the correlation between the masking effect observed with speech and pure tone stimuli. Twelve subjects aged 22-34, with hearing thresholds no worse than 15 dB HL for frequencies 500-8000 Hz, participated in two listening tasks. In the speech perception task, coordinate response measure (CRM) sentences and their maskers were separately filtered into …

Quasi-Experimental Design And Outcomes Of A Graduate Clinician And Caregiver-Infant Coaching Intervention In A University Speech-Language Pathology Program, Shiree C. Harbick

Dissertations, 2020-current

Infants are born ready to learn language as one of their most critical developmental tasks, yet infants subject to environmental risk factors related to poverty and low maternal education have been shown to lag behind their peers in language development as early as 8 months of age. Research also indicates the quality of an infant’s language environment can significantly diminish the effects of these risk factors. This quasi-experimental clinical research study explored the effects of a preventive caregiver-infant coaching intervention delivered by graduate student clinicians in a university speech-language pathology program.

Developed based on a systematic review of preventive programs …

Learning Improvement At Scale: Improving Rhetorical Awareness In A First-Year Writing Program, Caroline Prendergast

Dissertations, 2020-current

Despite decades of increasing assessment activity in higher education, the literature provides few examples of assessment leading to improved student learning (Banta & Blaich, 2011). The simple model for learning improvement provides an avenue for linking assessment efforts with faculty development and pedagogical changes in order to increase students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities (Fulcher et al., 2014). Although this model has been applied successfully in prior improvement efforts, previous initiatives have focused on relatively small programs (reaching 200 or fewer students). This dissertation reflects a large-scale application of the learning improvement model to improve rhetorical awareness in general education writing …

The Use Of Complex-Structure Items In Multistage Testing, Paulius Satkus

Dissertations, 2020-current

When developing tests, measurement experts may prefer simple-structure items because they measure one trait, which simplifies scoring and scoring interpretation. Conversely, complex-structure items may be preferred to reflect the complexity of multidimensional constructs. The current study sought to address the gap in the literature of multi-stage testing by conducting a simulation study with a hypothetical two-stage adaptive test with a purpose of comparing the performance of simple and complex structure items. The findings suggest that with a longer test (60 items), the two types of items performed similarly with respect to bias and RMSE of the trait estimates. For the …

Delivery Of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy In A Telehealth Format: Reducing Disruptive Behaviors In Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury, Emily D. Pogue

Dissertations, 2020-current

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in childhood have been associated with disruptive behaviors and attentional problems that may worsen over time and are often experienced as challenging for those in caregiving roles. Parents of children with TBI may evoke negative interactions to manage their child’s behavior through reliance on ineffective parenting practices. This results in increasingly maladaptive parent-child interactions that maintain or worsen problem behaviors of the child and further disrupt family functioning. Despite the importance of family functioning on child post-injury outcomes, the availability of family-based treatments for children with TBI is extremely limited. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an …

A Poet's Voice: Music In Service To Poetry: Elements Of Text Painting In Juliana Hall's Song Cycle "How Do I Love Thee?", Hayley Z. Coughin

Dissertations, 2020-current

American composer Juliana Hall has established a reputation as one of the leading composers of contemporary American art songs, having composed over 60 song cycles, totaling over 300 works for the voice. Hall’s song cycle How Do I Love Thee? expresses a narrative arc told through five selections from Victorian-era poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. The poems selected include Sonnet 3: “Unlike,” Sonnet 43: “How Do I Love Thee?,” Sonnet 37: “Pardon,” Sonnet 21: “Say Over,” and Sonnet 41: “Thank You.” Hall’s cycle describes the relationship between the lover and the object of their love, including …

The Effect Of Acute Caffeine Withdrawal On Exercise Performance In Habitual Caffeine Users, Timothy D. Griest

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how exercise performance is impacted by acute withdrawal from caffeine (CAF) in habitual users and if CAF ingestion will reverse the negative impact of withdrawal or have a net positive benefit. Methods: Ten recreational cyclists (age 39.1 ± 14.9 y; VO_2max 54.2 ± 6.2 mL/kg/min) who were habitual CAF consumers (394 ± 146 mg/d) completed four trials, each consisting of peak isokinetic torque testing and a 10-km time trial (TT). On each trial day, subjects consumed either 1.5 mg/kg CAF to prevent withdrawal or placebo (PLA) 8 hours before their …

Praying For The South: Catholics And The Confederacy, Thomas Richardson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the distinctiveness of Southern Catholic support of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, with a geographic emphasis on Virginian Catholics. During the antebellum decades, the Catholic Church in America thrived despite facing increasing hostility from the largely-Protestant United States. In response to these challenges, Catholics learned to support their state and federal governments whenever and wherever they could as a means to defuse anti-Catholic attacks. This led Catholics to condone (and involve themselves in) American racialized slavery, even after the Church itself condemned the practice. Seen in this light, Catholics who fought for and supported the …

Urban Habitats Impact The Song And Reproductive Success Of A Migratory Bird, The Gray Catbird (Dumetella Carolinensis), Sasha Ewing

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Urban environments are relatively recent on an evolutionary timescale, and, as such, they create novel selection pressures that may influence fitness and mate choice. Many ecologically significant factors change with increasing levels of urbanization, such as increasing anthropogenic noise, increasing impervious surface, and decreasing forest cover. There is growing empirical evidence that anthropogenic noise affects features of birdsong and, separately, that avian nesting success varies across an urban gradient, but rarely do studies examine both – a necessary step to elucidate the evolutionary potential of these novel pressures. I investigated song features, body morphometrics, and reproductive success in male gray …

America's Main Street Misremembered: The Myth Of Route 66, Jessica Corsentino

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Most Americans’ idea of Route 66 is misinformed. The collective memory of the iconic highway was built on the existing problematic image of the American West, shaped by early Route 66 boosters, and perpetuated through popular media and amateur preservationists, all of whom stood to benefit from a selective, marketable version of the highway’s past. The gaps left by these promotional revisions are indicative of problems with the transmission of collective memory on a larger scale, in which elements of history that do not align with the desired image are softened or removed. The sense of continuity and shared identity …

Like, It’S Important: The Frequency And Use Of Like In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Rebekah Jones

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Background & Aims: Discourse markers, such as well or like serve a variety of functions to support conversational reciprocity: filling pauses, aiding word-finding, holding conversational turns, and providing information about pause length. Previous research shows that individuals with ASD use discourse markers less frequently than neurotypical (NT) peers; however, the discourse marker like has been left out of that research, despite its ubiquitous use by NT individuals, and despite the fact that like serves important pragmatic functions that are not encoded by any other discourse marker. Specifically, like signals to the listener that the content of upcoming speech is 1) …

Early Career Music Teachers And Trauma: A Mixed Methods Study, Tiffany N. Sitton

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Existing research rarely directly addresses individual trauma experiences of early career music teachers, despite copious research on adjacent areas such as stress and burnout. Early career music teachers have seldom had the opportunity to share stories of their trauma in the literature. Following an explanatory-sequential mixed method (Creswell, 2015), the researcher surveyed 250 music educators about their self-reported trauma experiences and then interviewed six of those participants to gain explanation of the survey data and to further illuminate their stories. Participants evaluated their own experiences using the definition of individual trauma from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration …

The Impact Of Iaa And Tryptophan On Microcystis Bloom Community Dynamics, Hunter R. Baylous

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Microcystis aeruginosa is a freshwater cyanobacterial species that degrades freshwater and brackish ecosystems due to its capacity to form toxic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). There both abiotic and the biotic factors that exacerbate the presence of cyanoHABs. Current research is looking at the microbial interactions that occur between microbes and phytoplankton. Microbes interact with cyanobacteria in the phycosphere, where nutrients are exchanged between the two. Understanding the chemical currencies exchanged can help to show interactions that are beneficial for cyanoHAB formation A key player in the growth promotion of cyanoHABs is hypothesized to be auxins, which are synthesized by …