Digital Commons Network^™

Recommendations For Change In Infection Prevention Programs And Practice, Robert Garcia, Sue Barnes, Roy Boukidjian, Linda K. Goss, Maureen Spencer, Edward J. Septimus, Marc-Oliver Wright, Shannon Munro, Sara M. Reese, Mohamad G. Fakih, Charles E. Edmiston, Martin Levesque

Clinical Quality and Safety Articles

Fifty years of evolution in infection prevention and control programs have involved significant accomplishments related to clinical practices, methodologies, and technology. However, regulatory mandates, and resource and research limitations, coupled with emerging infection threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic, present considerable challenges for infection preventionists. This article provides guidance and recommendations in 14 key areas. These interventions should be considered for implementation by United States health care facilities in the near future.

Mechanical Properties Of Nanoparticles In The Drug Delivery Kinetics, Kaivon Assani, Amy Neidhard-Doll, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Nanoparticle formulation is a recently developed drug delivery technology with enhanced targeting potential. Nanoparticles encapsulate the drug of choice and delivers it to the target via a targeting molecules (ex. antigen) located on the nanoparticle surface. Nanoparticles can even be targeted to deeply penetrating tissue and can be modeled to deliver drugs through the blood brain barrier. These advancements are providing better disease targeting such as to cancer and Alzheimer’s. Various polymers can be manufactured into nanoparticles. The polymers examined in this paper are polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), and poly(glycolic acid) (PGA). The purpose of this …

Ot Entrepreneurship: Perceived Challenges & Resources, Gunnar Daniel Olson

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

The focus of my capstone is OT entrepreneurship and management with substantive focus areas including research skills, administration, and education. Ultimately, the dual purpose of this capstone was to investigate the experience of OT entrepreneurship and management through scholarly research and experiential learning and facilitate knowledge transfer through education and future research publication. The former purpose was be met through 1) the design and implementation of a mixed-methods research study investigating the perspectives and lived experiences of current and former OT entrepreneurs and 2) experiences and projects completed at Piller Child Development in Arizona focused on gaining exposure and experience …

Sb111-21/22-Resolution Amending Article V Section 2(11) And Section 5(3) Of The Asum Bylaws Regarding Third-Party Endorsements, Nicholas Ververis, Emma Kiefer

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB111-21/22-Resolution Amending Article V Section 2(11) and Section 5(3) of the ASUM Bylaws Regarding Third-Party Endorsements. This resolution passed during the May 4, 2022 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Sb110-21/22-Resolution Amending The Bylaws To Require Ally Training For Executives And Senators, O'Shay Birdinground, Emma Kiefer

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB110-21/22-Resolution Amending the Bylaws to Require Ally Training for Executives and Senators. This resolution passed unanimously during the May 4, 2022 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Sb109-21/22-Resolution Urging The University Of Montana To Institute A Naloxone Policy, Emma Kiefer

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB109-21/22-Resolution Urging the University of Montana to Institute a Naloxone Policy. This resolution passed unanimously during the May 4, 2022 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Sb103-21/22-Resolution Encouraging The Native American Studies Department To Add More Indigenous Language Courses, O'Shay Birdinground

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB103-21/22-Resolution Encouraging the Native American Studies Department to Add More Indigenous Language Courses. This resolution passed unanimously during the May 4, 2022 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Sb103_21-22_Resolution Encouraging The Native American Studies Department To Add More Indigenous Language Courses, O'Shay Birdinground

Senate Resolutions, 2007-Present

SB103_21-22_Resolution Encouraging the Native American Studies Department to Add More Indigenous Language Courses. This resolution passed unanimously during the May 4, 2022 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM).

Implications Of Educational Counseling On Prep Uptake In Msm At A Community Health Clinic, Thanh T. Dinh

Doctoral Projects

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication is 99% effective at preventing HIV acquisition if used daily (CDC, 2020; FDA, 2019). Despite its effectiveness and wide availability, PrEP uptake and adherence remained low, especially among MSM of color (Bradley et al., 2019; Kuhns et al., 2017). Prior studies have shown that participants exposed to PrEP information, counseling, and education were more likely to show interest in PrEP and uptake of PrEP. Although various studies support the effectiveness of educational interventions in increasing PrEP uptake, it has not been widely implemented in the practice setting in communities that would benefit from it. The …

Uncaring Universe, Jingqi Wang Steinhiser

Masters Theses

Depicting the mythical and chaotic, my work revisits traditional and pop-cultural icons. I borrow my framing of absurdity from Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus: “In a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. [...]This divorce between man and his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.”

I grew up as the only child in a family of diplomats, a learning journey that mutated across geographies. Born in China, I lived in Russia, Mongolia and Korea before coming to the USA. My world is an aesthetic amalgamation of dissonant …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Georgia Southern Graduate Student Discovering Savannah History ‘From the Ground Up’

Bridging The Gap Between Doing Math And Teaching Math: Supporting Mathematically Competent And Confident K-6 Preservice Teachers., Athena Novack

Doctorate in Education

Teachers with math anxiety can inadvertently pass along their own anxiety to the younger generation, creating a cycle of math anxiety. This study aims to interrupt this cycle by learning more about math anxiety and self-efficacy of the preservice teacher. This sequential, mixed methods action research study sought to explore ways to decrease math anxiety and increase self-efficacy among preservice teachers by examining how the use of self-recordings and mircoteaching throughout a semester-long course for preservice teachers at a small midwestern university impacted their math anxiety and self-efficacy.

Using the abbreviated Math Anxiety Rating Scale (A-MARS) 20 participants realized an …

Strategic Planning With Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship At The University Of Mississippi, Taylor R. Coe

Honors Theses

In this paper, I detail the strategic planning process undertaken by Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship at the University of Mississippi. I do this by first presenting information about strategic planning and about Chi Alpha as an organization. Then, I present a narrative detailing how we completed the planning process. After that, I present the results that make up the strategic plan itself. I end with an evaluation of the overall effort. Our planning process created strategies to address five strategic issues: reaching international students, lacking a unified discipleship structure, lacking a property, developing a “missions mindset” instead of a “leadership …

The Efficacy Of The Covid-19 Vaccine In Mississippi, Ilyse Miriam Levy

Honors Theses

The Efficacy of The COVID-19 Vaccine in Mississippi

(Under the direction of Dr. Xin Dang)

By tracking and analyzing fifty-three weeks of COVID-19 data, this thesis analyzes the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine within the State of Mississippi. Over the course of these fifty-three weeks, I have also been able to calculate the confidence intervals for vaccination efficacy and the risk reduction due to vaccination by using data regarding the correlations between deaths and vaccination status, provided to me by the Mississippi Office of Epidemiology. My analysis demonstrates that the COVID-19 vaccine is effective not only in Mississippi but also …

Characterizing The Roles Of Cannabinoid Receptor 1 & 2 In Zebrafish Behavior, Metabolism, And Seizure-Induced Activity, Kayci Kimmons

Honors Theses

Epileptic disorders like Dravet Syndrome require novel studies to determine the most ideal treatment. New research linking the endocannabinoid system (ECS) to epileptic disorders is arising, but there is still much to be discovered about the function and regulatory impact of the endocannabinoid system and its receptors in epilepsies like Dravet. In this study, knockout models of larval and adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) were used to investigate the roles of cannabinoid receptors 1 & 2 in behavior, brain mitochondrial metabolism, and seizure-induced activity following exposure to THC and CBD. Larval zebrafish which lacked cannabinoid receptor 1 exhibited increased …

Species Diversity And Growth Rates Of Overstory Vegetation Over 25 Years In Response To Physical And Chemical Properties In Long-Term Monitoring Plots At The University Of Mississippi Field Station, Mitchell Tharp

Honors Theses

Overstory vegetation for twenty-two long-term monitoring plots (LTMPs) was sampled from 1996 to 2021 to study the changes in vegetation due to natural and human disturbance. From the fall of 2020 through the fall of 2021, the overstory of the 22 LTMPs was resampled and soil samples were collected from each plot. The circumference at breast height (CBH) and species diversity were recorded and compared to previous years’ data. The objectives of this study were to: (1) document changes in the overstory species of the LTMPs, (2) measure growth rates of surviving trees, (3) survey how elevation and slope impact …

Covalent Modification Of Recombinant Protein With Reactive Thiols, Sawyer Dulaney, Bailey Taylor

Honors Theses

Many diseases cause chronic and painful inflammation in different body systems. One of the front-line drug classes to treat such inflammation is Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs). Despite the benefits of oral administration of NSAIDs, there are drawbacks to their long-term usage because they can cause detrimental effects on off-target systems in the body such as the liver, kidney, or the lining of the intestinal tract. An alternative to NSAIDs is the usage of hydrogels for targeted drug delivery. Hydrogels can provide drug delivery in a specific portion of the site of inflammation, thus allowing higher doses of medication to be …

Optimization Of A Fluidized Bed Reactor For The Production Of Styrene From Ethylbenzene, Gregory Espenan

Honors Theses

In order to optimize Unit 500, a styrene production plant, the Net Present Value (NPV) was used as the objective function to ensure every optimization strategy had a positive economic effect. To optimize a chemical plant, it is important to note efficiency, economics, product specifications, and production requirements. The goal of this project was to make changes to the base case of Unit 500 to minimize the cost to produce styrene for an upstream unit. PRO/II was used to simulate various points in different unit operations throughout the process. The NPV was measured after each unit operation was simulated to …

The Effects Of Crowding Agents On The Pka Of Physiologically Stable I-Motif Dna, Courtney Turner

Honors Theses

The overall goal of this thesis was to investigate the environmental conditions that induce i-Motif folding of the DNA strand DUX4L22, a cytosine-rich segment of DNA found in the human genome. Cellular conditions were simulated using sodium cacodylate buffer and multiple weights of polyethylene glycol as a crowding agent. The presence of i-motifs were confirmed by Circular Dichroism spectroscopy. I found that DUX4L22 does form i-motifs under these physiological simulations at both acidic and neutral pHs. DUX4L22 therefore shows potential for use in studies of a wide variety of biotechnological advances, such as regulatory switches in nanomachines or drug-delivery systems.

The Influence Of Culture On The Accounting Profession: An Investigation Into The Implementation Of The Oecd's Inclusive Framework On Beps In The United States And Germany, Vivian Francis

Honors Theses

This research investigates the United States and Germany’s implementation of the OECD’s Inclusive Framework on BEPS and assesses the degree to which each country’s response was influenced by its culture. The objective of this research is to present a perspective on how international accounting regulations can take cultural characteristics into consideration in order to produce their desired outcomes. For the purpose of this thesis culture is defined and quantified through the framework developed by Geert Hofstede. Furthermore, this thesis investigates the relationship between the neoliberal political paradigm and the role of culture in accounting. This research uses a combination of …

Confronting Stigma: Ethical Leadership, Influence, And The Dignity Of People Struggling With Addiction, Jacob Fennell

Honors Theses

People struggling with addiction in the United States of America deserve better treatment. The current stigma of people struggling with addiction as moral failures perpetuates a policy of drugs that sees them as criminal. This policy should be repealed and a better culture of care should be created. People struggling with addiction deserve a standard of treatment based on the core tenet of human dignity. In engaging with the history and cultural beliefs that are the foundation of this mistreatment, this same tenet of dignity must be upheld. This specifically comes into my project when exploring methods of changing these …

American Goldfinches (Spinus Tristis): Changes In Behavior During Mycoplasma Gallisepticum Infection, Hetal Shingrani

Honors Theses

Animal sickness behavior is an important component of disease ecology and is essential to understanding wildlife diseases and how and where animals allocate resources for survival. This study examines sickness behaviors, the extent of conjunctivitis, and the presence of an antibody response in relation to a Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) respiratory infection in American goldfinches. We conducted an experimental infection of American goldfinches and recorded behavior videos, and collected blood samples, throat swabs, eye swelling, and mass data at multiple time points throughout the experiment. An ELISA-serum assay was run after the conclusion of the study to identify the presence of …

The Design Of A Pcr-Based Assay To Detect And Isolate The Serine Palmitolytransferase Gene From Environmental Bacteria, Lana Taylor

Honors Theses

Sphingolipids are a natural class of lipids that function as structural elements of cell membranes and signaling molecules for important cellular activities such as cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis, recognition, and adhesion. These lipids can be found universally in eukaryotic cells as well as some species of bacteria, such as those found in the human gut microbiome and in the environment in soils. Though sphingolipid production is rare in bacteria, both eukaryotic and prokaryotic sphingolipid biosynthesis begin with the condensation of serine and palmitoyl CoA into 3-ketodihydrosphingosine catalyzed by the enzyme serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT). In recent years, several studies have shown …

Individual Beef Cattle Identification Using Muzzle Images And Deep Learning Techniques, Guoming Li, Galen E. Erickson, Yijie Xiong

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

The ability to identify individual animals has gained great interest in beef feedlots to allow for animal tracking and all applications for precision management of individuals. This study assessed the feasibility and performance of a total of 59 deep learning models in identifying individual cattle with muzzle images. The best identification accuracy was 98.7%, and the fastest processing speed was 28.3 ms/image. A dataset containing 268 US feedlot cattle and 4923 muzzle images was published along with this article. This study demonstrates the great potential of using deep learning techniques to identify individual cattle using muzzle images and to support …

Wiley Family Papers (Sc 3637), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3637. Weather summary for 1936 by Ed Wiley, Summer Shade, Kentucky; weather summary for January-February 1951 by his daughter Nina; and memoranda of animal remedies, 1937, and roofing expenses, 1939.

Senior Farewell: Anna Kate Munsey, Anna Kate Munsey

Digital Edition

An independent student produced newspaper from the University of New Hampshire.

The Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Of Faculty Towards Scholarly And Predatory Open Access Publishing, Julie H. Schiavo

Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Making Rules Vs Ruling, Ramsi Woodcock

Law Faculty Popular Media

In an effort to fight inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee raised interest rates to 20% over the course of 1980 and 1981, triggering a recession that threw more than 4 million Americans, many in well-paying manufacturing jobs, out of work.

As it continues to do today, the committee met in secret and explained its rate decisions in a handful of paragraphs.

None of the millions of Americans thrown out of work—or the many businesses driven to bankruptcy—sued the FOMC. No one argued that the FOMC’s power to disrupt the American economy was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. No …

Male Song Stability Shows Cross‐Year Repeatability But Does Not Affect Reproductive Success In A Wild Passerine Bird, Alexander Hutfluss, E Bermúdez‐Cuamatzin, Alexia Mouchet, Mark Briffa, Hans Slabbekoorn, Niels J. Dingemanse

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Focus On Top Tier 2.0 - Unlv Health, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Focus on Top Tier 2.0

UNLV Health seeks to create a healthier Nevada by caring for our communities and by driving the future of healthcare; it will transform the way that care is delivered in Southern Nevada. UNLV's five health science schools (Medicine, Dental Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, and Integrated Health Sciences), along with programs in behavior and mental health, are working together utilizing a model of comprehensive care where those who seek care are provided with a range of highly trained healthcare providers in a single visit.