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open access

Access to Health Care and Rates of Mortality and Utilization for the Elderly in Rural America

Description: The aging experience of men and women in rural America is different than that of their urban counterparts. In this study, I identified key disparities in access to health care, mortality, and utilization of health care that result from geographic location. Foundational theories are discussed to illustrate that disparities can originate from historical societal behaviors. Secondary data and literary reviews create a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to explore the rural/urban divide… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Johnson, Barbara Ann
open access

Accurate Joint Detection from Depth Videos towards Pose Analysis

Description: Joint detection is vital for characterizing human pose and serves as a foundation for a wide range of computer vision applications such as physical training, health care, entertainment. This dissertation proposed two methods to detect joints in the human body for pose analysis. The first method detects joints by combining body model and automatic feature points detection together. The human body model maps the detected extreme points to the corresponding body parts of the model and detects the … more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Kong, Longbo
open access

Adolescent Academic Adjustment during Chronic Illness: Online Training for Child Life Specialists

Description: Frequent absences resulting from a chronic illness can disrupt adolescent school involvement, impacting academic achievement and psychosocial development as a result. This study explores whether certified child life specialists (CCLSs) could be a resource for parents as they address their adolescents' academic disruptions. Specifically, this study assesses an online training program designed to increase CCLSs' knowledge and self-efficacy as related to adolescents' academic adjustment following … more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Koussa, Michelle D
open access

Advancing a Community's Conversations About and Engagement with Climate Change

Description: The goal of this project completed for the Greater Northfield Sustainability Collaborative (GNSC) was to understand how Northfield, Minnesota citizens are experiencing climate change. Thirty individuals were interviewed to find out what they know about climate change, what actions they are taking, what they think the solutions are to the problems, and what barriers they have to more fully engaging with climate change issues. The interview results are intended to promote and advance the communit… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Hansen, Carla Grace
open access

Adventure in the Classroom: Role and Practices of Adventure Therapy in School Counseling Curriculum

Description: The purpose of this study was to explore the role and impact of adventure therapy (AT) on student development and to identify the greatest challenges to the implementation of AT in schools. The Delphi method was used to generate consensus of opinion within a group of experts in the field of adventure therapy and school counseling. Purposive sampling was used to identify the members of the expert panel and the definition of consensus was set at 80% for each item. Content and descriptive analy… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Sharp, Jason Reid
open access

African-American Achievement in Charter Schools and the Impact of Connectedness, Alignment, Rigor, and Engagement (C.A.R.E.) on School Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Description: The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of charter schools on African-American students, this study sought to determine if the practice of connectedness, alignment, rigor, and engagement (C.A.R.E.) influenced academic outcomes. The research methodology employed a meta-analysis in conjunction with a systematic review as a cross-reference and to address variables not covered in the meta-analysis. Utilizing a meta-analysis allowed for a synthesis of the existing quantitative publishe… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: McCloud, Margie J
open access

Allowing Students to Have VOICES (Voluntary Options in Chemical Education Schedules) in General Chemistry I

Description: The purpose of this investigation (a quasi-experimental design called a non-equivalent design group (NEDG)) was to determine if allowing students in a science majors general Chemistry I course the choice in establishing the due dates that their homework was due to the instructor would improve course averages. This study covered two semesters with a total of 288 students participating with n = 158 in the fall and n = 130 in the spring. The students self-selected the homework group, VOICES, tha… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Ford, Robyn Lynn
open access

Alloy Development and High-Energy X-Ray Diffraction Studies of NiTiZr and NiTiHf High Temperature Shape Memory Alloys

Description: NiTi-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a good combination of high-strength, ductility, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility that has served them well and attracted the attention of many researchers and industries. The alloys unique thermo-mechanical ability to recover their initial shape after relatively large deformations by heating or upon unloading due to a characteristic reversible phase transformation makes them useful as damping devices, solid state actuators, couplings, etc. H… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Carl, Matthew A
open access

Analysis of Mature and Young Thrombocytes in Zebrafish

Description: Eukaryotic platelets are small cell fragments that are released into the bloodstream from megakaryocytes, and their production is initiated in the bone marrow. They are mainly involved in blood hemostasis and thrombus formation. The newly synthesized platelets are called reticulated platelets or young platelets. Zebrafish thrombocytes are equivalent to mammalian platelets and have similar characteristics and functions. Likewise, zebrafish has both young and mature thrombocytes. Only young throm… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Fallatah, Weam
open access

Analyzing Tradeoffs between Privacy Concerns and Active Social Media Presence of 18- to 30-Year-Old College Students

Description: This study applied the impression management theory in the context of social networking to investigate the generalized research question of this dissertation which is "Do active social media presence and various privacy concerns influence online behaviors of students on social media?" The results and conclusions are presented via the conduct of three different studies and the summary provides insights and explain the overall contribution of the research. For each study we developed a research m… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Gadgil, Guruprasad Yashwant
open access

Animal Rights and Human Responsibilities: Towards a Relational Capabilities Approach in Animal Ethics

Description: In this thesis, I analyze some of the most important contributions concerning the inclusion of animals in the moral and political sphere. Moving from these positions, I suggest that a meaningful consideration of animals' sentience demands a profound, radical political theory which considers animals as moral patients endowed with specific capabilities whose actualization needs to be allowed and/or promoted. Such theory would take human-animal different types of relationships into account to deci… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Guerini, Elena
open access

Anthropology of Aging: Assessment of Old Age Needs and Ethical Issues regarding the Use of Assistive Technologies

Description: The main goal of this research has been to investigate elderly people's needs, perceptions, fears, hopes, and expectation regarding elderly care, including ethical issues linked to assistive technologies. As faith seems to take an important place in how some elders face the aging process, the spiritual dimension was also included. Therefore, the research was conducted among 15 church congregants. Results show that most respondents fear the physical and mental decay due to aging, often resulting… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Atibaka, Sunday O
open access

Application of Statistical Physics in Human Physiology: Heart-Brain Dynamics

Description: This dissertation is devoted to study of complex systems in human physiology particularly heartbeats and brain dynamics. We have studied the dynamics of heartbeats that has been a subject of investigation of two independent groups. The first group emphasized the multifractal nature of the heartbeat dynamics of healthy subjects, whereas the second group had established a close connection between healthy subjects and the occurrence of crucial events. We have analyzed the same set of data and esta… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Bohara, Gyanendra
open access

Application-Specific Things Architectures for IoT-Based Smart Healthcare Solutions

Description: Human body is a complex system organized at different levels such as cells, tissues and organs, which contributes to 11 important organ systems. The functional efficiency of this complex system is evaluated as health. Traditional healthcare is unable to accommodate everyone's need due to the ever-increasing population and medical costs. With advancements in technology and medical research, traditional healthcare applications are shaping into smart healthcare solutions. Smart healthcare helps in… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Sundaravadivel, Prabha
open access

Applications of Metallic Clusters and Nanoparticles via Soft Landing Ion Mobility, from Reduced to Ambient Pressures

Description: Nanoparticles, simple yet groundbreaking objects have led to the discovery of invaluable information due to their physiological, chemical, and physical properties, have become a hot topic in various fields of study including but not limited to chemistry, biology, and physics. In the work presented here, demonstrations of various applications of chemical free nanoparticles are explored, from the determination of a non-invasive method for the study of the exposome via using soft-landing ion mobil… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Aguilar Ayala, Roberto
open access

The Art and Science of Data Analysis

Description: This thesis aims to utilize data analysis and predictive modeling techniques and apply them in different domains for gaining insights. The topics were chosen keeping the same in mind. Analysis of customer interests is a crucial factor in present marketing trends and hence we worked on twitter data which is a significant part of digital marketing. Neuroscience, especially psychological behavior, is an important research area. We chose eye tracking data based on which we differentiated human conc… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Daita, Ananda Rohit
open access

The Art of Marimba Articulation: A Guide for Composers, Conductors, and Performers on the Expressive Capabilities of the Marimba

Description: Articulation is an element of musical performance that affects the attack, sustain, and the decay of each sound. Musical articulation facilitates the degree of clarity between successive notes and it is one of the most important elements of musical expression. Many believe that the expressive capabilities of percussion instruments, when it comes to musical articulation, are limited. Because the characteristic attack for most percussion instruments is sharp and clear, followed by a quick decay, … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Davis, Adam Benjamin
open access

Art Unfettered: Bergson and a Fluid Conception of Art

Description: This dissertation applies philosopher Henri Bergson's methodology and his ideas of duration and creativity to the definitional problem of art, particularly as formulated within analytic aesthetics. In mid-20th century, analytic aesthetics rejected essentialist definitions of art, but within a decade, two predominant definitions of art emerged as answers to the anti-essentialism of the decade prior: functionalism and proceduralism. These two definitions define art, respectively, in terms of the … more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Thompson, Seth Aaron
open access

Artificially Structured Boundary for Control and Confinement of Beams and Plasmas

Description: An artificially structured boundary (ASB) produces a short-range, static electromagnetic field that can reflect charged particles. In the work presented, an ASB is considered to consist of a spatially periodic arrangement of electrostatically plugged magnetic cusps. When used to create an enclosed volume, an ASB may confine a non-neutral plasma that is effectively free of applied electromagnetic fields, provided the spatial period of the ASB-applied field is much smaller than any one dimension … more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Hedlof, Ryan
open access

Assessing and Treating Oral Reading Deficits in Children with Developmental Disabilities

Description: A brief reading assessment and preference assessment were conducted with three participants with developmental and learning disabilities (i.e., two participants were diagnosed with Autism, the third participant was diagnosed with intellectual disability) who did not acquire fluent reading in previous individualized instruction. The results of the brief reading assessment were analyzed in an alternating treatment design and a preference assessment was conducted to determine the participants' pre… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Braun, Emily Catherine
open access

Assessing Perception and Attitude of Pianists toward Ergonomically Scaled Piano Keyboards (ESPK): Raising Awareness about ESPK and Evaluating Changes of Attitude through an Educational Survey

Description: As epidemiologic research demonstrates health concerns for hand problems among pianists, scientists are measuring historic piano keyboards and realizing that much of the piano literature was composed for and played on pianos with smaller keys compared to what is used on the modern piano. Having to play this literature on a larger keyboard is especially difficult for small-handed piano students and professionals. Fortunately, smaller keyboards are now available for use with standard pianos - and… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Son, Youjoo
open access

Assessment of Caregiver Generalization of Reinforcement to the Natural Environment in a Large Residential Facility and Use of Prompting and Feedback to Improve Performance

Description: Behavioral skills training (BST) is often used to train caregivers to implement various behavior management procedures; however, additional strategies are sometimes required to promote the generalization of skills from a contrived setting to the natural environment. Generalizing skills to the natural environment requires that the caregiver's behavior transfer from control of stimuli in the contrived setting to stimuli in the natural environment, and the skill continues to be performed with high… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Licausi, Ashley
open access

Association of College and Career Readiness Indicators on Hispanic College Enrollment and Postsecondary Resiliency

Description: This investigation was a post-hoc, quantitative analysis of secondary academic performance and participation choices of Hispanic students. Three years of longitudinal student-level data was collected to examine the likelihood of college enrollment based on college and career readiness (CCR) factors. At the time of the study, CCR was defined as qualifying exam scores, credit for at least two advanced/dual enrollment courses, or enrollment in a career and technology education (CTE) coherent seque… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Parker, Patricia
open access

Association of Personality Facets with Unique Dimensions of PTSD

Description: The present study aims to examine which maladaptive and Big Five personality traits, as well as which lower order facets, are related to symptoms specific to PTSD (i.e., intrusions and avoidance). Unique effects were isolated by controlling for nonspecific general depression that occurs in the disorder but is not specific to it. 707 undergraduate students were administered a self-report online survey to assess their personality, trauma history, PTSD and mood symptoms. Additionally, data from 5… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Shteynberg, Yuliya A
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