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The perinatal period, which spans from pregnancy to one year after childbirth, is a time in which a significant number of women experience mood and anxiety-related difficulties. Despite anxiety affecting approximately 21% of perinatal women, research has emphasised examining perinatal depression, with a limited focus on anxiety. Perinatal mental health disorders are a public health concern due to deleterious effects on maternal and child outcomes and social and economic impact, if left untreated. This qualitative study explores experiences of perinatal anxiety within the Covid-19 pandemic, in women with a pre-exiting history of anxiety and those without a pre-existing history of anxiety. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis approach was employed, incorporating a multiperspectival cross-group design to gain insight into the lived experience of the single phenomenon of perinatal anxiety, across two subgroups. Semi-structured interviews were carried out online during the pandemic, with eleven female participants, all of whom were first-time mothers and had experienced anxiety in the perinatal timeframe. Transcribed interviews were analysed using IPA protocol and updated terminology was incorporated (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2022). Four Group Experiential Themes emerged within each group and two Group Experiential Themes emerged from cross-group analysis: 'Loss of connection' and 'Being under-resourced'. Loss of connection to others revealed a deficit of coping resources in each group, which differed in significance between the groups and elucidated differences in perinatal anxiety between women with and without a pre-existing history of anxiety. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of emotion regulation and matrescene. Implications for counselling psychology are considered.

The role of a graduate-level academic advisor is essential to all levels of higher education. With the introduction of the Post 9/11 GI Bill, there has been an influx of military and student veterans enrolling in postsecondary and graduate-level education programs. The role of the academic advisor has increased significantly with the influx of military and student veterans. This dissertation was designed to illuminate and analytically describe the perceptions of the role of a graduate-level academic advisor to military and student veterans at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). The underdeveloped perspective of the individual graduate-level advisor was the focus of this study. An adapted methodology of organizational microethnography was used in this study. The overarching qualitative Research Question was to determine how a graduate-level academic advisor perceived his/her role in advising military and student veterans. The researcher was the primary collection vehicle for the study. Ethnographic data collection was derived from 11 individual semi-structured interviews and 2 focus group sessions. Data was analyzed using coding, reoccurring themes, and patterns for interpretation by using NVivo 10 QSR International qualitative software. The data was coded and categorized into 4 common themes. Graduate-level academic advisors to military and student veterans commonly possess the characteristic of empathy. Graduate-level academic advisors to military and student veterans make themselves accessible, available, and approachable to students they advise. Graduate-level academic advisors advise military and student veterans on a variety of mental health issues as well as administrative and academic matters. Military culture plays an enormous role in defining the duties and responsibilities of graduate-level academic advisors to military and student veterans as mentors, counselors, academic advisors, coaches, educators, administrators, career and life planners, role models, disciplinarians and coordinators. The study concluded that more research is required to address the substantial need of military and student veterans. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge of graduate-level academic advising of military and student veterans, benefiting the military, the faculty, the student veteran population, and academic institutions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Personal response devices, "clickers," that allow students to answer questions and see on a projected screen the results of their voting, followed by discussion and reprocessing, is a form of educational technology that has been embraced by instructors of large classes, particularly in the natural sciences. This dissertation describes their use in an unusual setting, that of developmental writing. This case study proceeds from looking at three of the researcher's fall 2007 Basic Writing classes first through the prism of a written assignment on their participation in their previous English class and a personal technologies survey, to later looking at eleven students' responses to and work within clicker lessons through videotaped observations, student written responses and post-semester interviews. Trying to appeal to the generational and affective factors that traditional age basic writers present, I wanted to see if overlap between those data sets might inform me on my students' use of clickers in my classes. I discovered that these students bring a lack of meaningful experience with co-construction of knowledge to the basic writing classroom and that their work there is hampered by wariness about classmates and a wish to multi-task rather than focus. Further, one class showed several students using a discourse pattern of a series of one-on-one discussions with the instructor while the other class showed a more complex pattern where a few dominant students co-constructed among themselves in a more extended manner. Ironically, the class where students used the simpler discourse patterns had a higher number of verbal participants, and more students credited classmates as influential. Students who saw clicker lessons as integral to their learning (perhaps because it blended with their acknowledged learning style) had a more successful experience than those who saw clicker lessons as peripheral and something that had been imposed upon them. In the most positive manifestation of our use of clickers in the classroom, some students came to see their classmates' portfolio revision work as relevant and inspiring models that they could apply to their own work. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the child care system in the metropolitan Detroit area is responsive to the needs of families. The study is introduced by a literature review examining current tends and providing a historical overview of child care in the United States. Questionnaires sent to parents of children at eight day care centers assessed parents' needs and family characteristics. Questionnaires sent to directors of 13 day care centers elicited information about program operation. Questionnaires sent to 57 staff members of day care centers assessed factors including staff morale and training. Results from the parent questionnaire indicated that a well-trained staff and the opportunity for children's interaction with peers were the most important issues for parents. The program director questionnaires elicited data on such factors as times of operation of the centers, age groups served, and level of staff training. The staff questionnaire provided data on staff age, education level, and satisfaction with various conditions in the centers. It is concluded that there is a disparity between child care services parents need and those offered by centers in the metropolitan Detroit area. A list of 29 references is provided. Appendixes include copies of the questionnaires used in the study. (BC)

Chronic absenteeism is a fairly new concept in education. Many schools have only started tracking chronic absenteeism with the start of Every Student Succeeds Act. The following research studied chronic absenteeism at an Arkansas High School, which answered the two research questions in this study. The first research question studied the demographics of the chronically absent student which included grade level, race/ethnicity, Special Education and English Language Learner status, and free or reduced lunch status. The second research question studied the class period of the chronic absence which included the time of day and type of class. High School X had 40% of free and reduced lunch students who were chronically absent. The research also found that twelfth grade students accounted for the highest-grade level of being chronically absent from one or more of their classes, with 37% in 2016-2017 and 36% in 2017-2018. The Zero-Hour classes accounted for the highest rate of chronically absent students, with at least 20% or more of the students enrolled in Zero-Hour being chronically absent. The research found that the number of students chronically absent from one class period was three times as high as the students chronically absent from all seven periods.

Generally, meditative techniques have been shown to be an effective intervention to relieve stress, regulate emotion, reduce anxiety, and diminish depressive symptoms (Carpena et al., 2019; Goyal et al., 2014; Heppner & Shirk, 2018; Jain et al., 2007; Lau & Grabovac, 2009; Menezes et al., 2012; Wolf & Abell, 2003). While mindfulness meditation has been shown to have a positive effect on overall well-being, further research is necessary to better understand its complex array of effects related to the psychosocial function of emerging adults during this crucial, transitional time period (Baer et al., 2008; Chang et al., 2004; Collard et al., 2008; de Bruin et al., 2015; Eberth, & Sedlmeier, 2012). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to answer the following question: to what extent does mindfulness meditation exclusively impact psychosocial well-being in emerging adults?

Since the beginning of vascularized solid organ transplantation in the last century, the goal after successful surgery has been to prevent the new organ from being rejected by the recipient’s immune system. To prevent transplant rejection, immunosuppressive drugs have been used, albeit suboptimally and with many side effects. Transplantation tolerance, if achieved, would allow the recipient to accept the transplant long-term following a short-term treatment in the absence of any long-term immunosuppression and is a long-standing goal of the transplantation field. To date, transplantation tolerance has been prospectively induced in a limited number of patients through regimens combining donor bone marrow and solid organ transplantation, and has also developed spontaneously in rare individuals initially treated with conventional immunosuppression. To broaden the applicability of tolerance to all patients, a better understanding of tolerance mechanisms is required. In this thesis, we investigated a mouse model of costimulation-blockade-induced tolerance to understand which mechanisms of tolerance were actively engaged to maintain and define robust tolerance. Tolerance exists on a gradient rather than as an all-or-none state—multiple mechanisms need to be simultaneously engaged in order to maintain robust tolerance. A loss of tolerance can occur if enough mechanisms are simultaneously disrupted, but as these re-engage, tolerance can spontaneously reemerge. Two additional elements of T cell tolerance have been newly identified to occur in this model. Together, these data broaden our understanding of tolerance and afford new avenues of research to investigate with the hope of ultimately achieving transplantation tolerance in the clinic.

The rates of PTSD among military veterans are much greater when compared to the general population, and are higher in the U.S. than any other country. Due to the known benefits of physical activity on mental and physical health, it may be beneficial for recreational therapists to use physical activity as an alternative treatment for treating symptoms of PTSD among military veterans. Physical activity has been found to be a critical component to a biopsychosocial approach in recovery-oriented mental health services, which parallels the recreational therapist's goal of treating the four behavioral domains of a person, the cognitive, psycho/social, physical, and affective. The purpose of this study was to determine if a combination Health Belief Model and physical activity intervention could improve symptom severity of PTSD among military veterans when compared to a Health Belief Model only group. Nine participants were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. The dependent variables were symptoms severity of PTSD, measured using the PCL-5, barriers to accessing healthcare, measured using the BACE, and cardiovascular health, measured using the Cooper 12 Minute Walk Test. A 2X2 RM ANOVA was utilized to analyze results as well as Cohen's d for effect size calculations. There were no significant group effects for any dependent variables. There were significant time * group interactions for the following dependent variables, BACE total score, and BACE Stigma score (p < .05), and there were significant time effects for all dependent variables (p < .05). Effect sizes for all dependent variables in the experimental group were all large and greater than the control group effect sizes, with the exclusion of the PCL-5 Cluster E variable. Effect sizes for the control group ranged from small to large. Utilizing physical activity may provide the recreational therapist a viable, effective, efficient, and cost-effective method of treating symptom severity of PTSD among military veterans.

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the leadership styles of African American women entrepreneurs (AAWEs). The fields of entrepreneurship and leadership include an ever-growing population of African American women with unique perspectives worth acknowledging. An examination of leadership experience detailed how AAWEs leveraged various leadership styles to accommodate particular audiences and achieve their business goals. This research study examined the intersectionality of race and gender as contributory factors of entrepreneurial leadership as perceived by fifteen AAWEs. The researcher sought to explore leadership styles that seasoned AAWEs utilized to address entrepreneurial situations where racial and/or gender bias existed in order to provide insight for budding AAWEs. The exploration of leadership styles as well as factors that the AAWEs considered significant in their entrepreneurial pursuits provided the study data. For all of the women interviewed, the inability to gain access to opportunities, specific networks or bids, created challenges for AAWEs. Academic literature reviewed for the study utilized leadership theory as it related to the influence of race and gender on AAWEs, as well as their underrepresentation in entrepreneurial business interactions. The new concept of “double duty” was revealed in this study. This research may also provide additional insight for policymakers and others who are concerned with creating additional access to opportunities for AAWEs. Keywords: African American women entrepreneurs (AAWEs), leadership styles, entrepreneurship, racial and/or gender discrimination, intersectionality

Municipal wastewater discharge to the environment is generally subject to regulations established under the Clean Water Act. Though the water is highly treated it is not suitable for human consumption. Increased interest in water reuse for potable supply introduces concern about trace constituents present in their water, such as pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors. Current treatment processes, such as reverse osmosis, are used to remove many of these compounds, but is expensive and energy intensive. The rise of interest in potable water reuse may cause consumers to be concerned about trace constituents present in their water and would require additional treatment. Membrane distillation may be applicable in some circumstances to treat the effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants with a low grade heat source for direct potable reuse. This project investigated the chemical cleaning efficiency of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) on membrane wastewater effluent fouling for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) to help assist wastewater reuse become a reality. A laboratory scale DCMD system was designed and constructed including a warm feed loop and cold permeate loop to utilize a flat sheet, crossflow membrane cell. Treated wastewater effluent collected from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA) Southside Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP) was used as the feed solution. The performance of the MD system was tested and evaluated using parameters including flow rate, feed and permeate temperature, feed water quality, permeate flux, membrane area, cross flow velocity, and membrane type and pore size. An (EDTA) cleaning solution was used to clean a 0.2μm polypropylene (PP) membrane that had reached a 50% flux decline due to wastewater effluent fouling. The cleaning process was repeated on the membrane three times to determine the effectiveness of removing wastewater effluent fouling by permeate flux recovery. Overall system data collection and analysis determined the influences of system parameters on permeate flux, constituent rejection, membrane fouling rate, and a membrane chemical cleaning. Results produced from this study give a better understanding of the membrane distillation process, and membrane cleaning when treating municipal wastewater effluent, and gives potential to DCMD for becoming an optional process for potable water reuse.

A Nintendo Wii Fit gaming device may eliminate several barriers to exercise and promote participation in balance training among adults with Down syndrome (DS). This study seeks to determine if a Nintendo Wii balance exercise regimen will improve postural control and balance among adults with DS over the age of 18. Nine participants were randomly divided into a treatment (TR) and control (CR) group. A TekScan HR mat was used to measure the following variables: anterior/posterior sway (AP), medial/lateral sway (ML), area (A), distance (D), and variability (V) in two feet eyes open (EO) and two feet eyes closed (EC) stances. A 2X2 RM ANOVA was utilized to analyze results as well as Cohen's d for effect size calculations. There were no significant differences found within group-by-time interaction, time, and group effects for any dependent variable (p>.05). Effect sizes were calculated for EOTR: AP (d = -.44), ML (d = -.03), A (d = -.47), D (d = -.48), and V (d = -.29. Values for the EOCR saw a larger effect among all variables: AP (d = -.84), ML (d = -.17), area (d = -.73), D (d = -.78), and V (d = -.67). ECTR values were as follows: AP (d = -.91), ML (d = -.53), A (d = -.76), D (d = -.69), and V (d = -.71). Values for ECCR are as follows: AP (d = -.41), ML (d = +2.81), A (d = -.48), D (d = -.42), and V (d = -.21). Although there were not statistically significant improvements in postural control between groups or over time, based on effect size calculations either of these training methods may still be an effective mode of improving postural control.

Galectin-1 (gal-1) is defined as an alpha-galactoside-binding protein, which crosslinks apposing glycans to mediate cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. In this way, gal-1 facilitates cellular adhesion and migration and induces signaling pathways for growth and regulation. Gal-1 is overexpressed in an array of human cancers and correlates with poor patient prognosis. Reports on the role of gal-1 in malignant growth provide evidence that gal-1 is involved in tumor immune escape and is essential for angiogenesis as well as promoting metastasis. For these reasons, gal-1 is considered a good target for novel cancer therapeutics. Towards this goal, we used NMR spectroscopy to probe the binding of gal-1 to complex carbohydrates such as davanat, a galactomannan poised to enter into phase III clinical trials for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, and GRG, a galactorhamnogalacturonate being developed as an oncological therapeutic. We found that davanat, an alpha-galactoside, interacts with a novel region on gal-1, outside of its conventional carbohydrate binding site, while GRG interacts at an area that includes and extends out from the carbohydrate binding site. Additionally, we found that gal-1 affects the hydrodynamic behavior of these glycans, and based on these findings, we hypothesized that gal-1 has a role in decongesting cell-surface glycans, which may assist in the formation of plasma-membrane microdomains. These results spurred additional studies with alpha-linked disaccharides and a series of galactomannans with varying Man/Gal ratios. Overall, this work contributes to an expanded understanding of gal-1/glycan interactions, which will be useful towards the design and optimization of gal-1 targeting drugs.

Personal response devices, “clickers,” that allow students to answer questions and see on a projected screen the results of their voting, followed by discussion and reprocessing, is a form of educational technology that has been embraced by instructors of large classes, particularly in the natural sciences. This dissertation describes their use in an unusual setting, that of developmental writing. This case study proceeds from looking at three of the researcher’s fall 2007 Basic Writing classes first through the prism of a written assignment on their participation in their previous English class and a personal technologies survey, to later looking at eleven students’ responses to and work within clicker lessons through videotaped observations, student written responses and post-semester interviews. Trying to appeal to the generational and affective factors that traditional age basic writers present, I wanted to see if overlap between those data sets might inform me on my students’ use of clickers in my classes. I discovered that these students bring a lack of meaningful experience with co-construction of knowledge to the basic writing classroom and that their work there is hampered by wariness about classmates and a wish to multi-task rather than focus. Further, one class showed several students using a discourse pattern of a series of one-on-one discussions with the instructor while the other class showed a more complex pattern where a few dominant students co-constructed among themselves in a more extended manner. Ironically, the class where students used the simpler discourse patterns had a higher number of verbal participants, and more students credited classmates as influential. Students who saw clicker lessons as integral to their learning (perhaps because it blended with their acknowledged learning style) had a more successful experience than those who saw clicker lessons as peripheral and something that had been imposed upon them. In the most positive manifestation of our use of clickers in the classroom, some students came to see their classmates’ portfolio revision work as relevant and inspiring models that they could apply to their own work.

Expressing fondness between individuals, friendship also registers larger cultural trends and affinities. This dissertation argues that in early modern France, friendships between putatively non-equal individuals---masters and servants, rulers and subjects, elders and youths---expressed the culture's new and shifting appreciation of difference. Looking beyond classically-inspired topoi of ressemblant, egalitarian friendship (also prominent in the era), I question the adequacy of the single amical soulmate as a Renaissance cultural ideal. I show that underling friends appear textually valued as purveyors of insight about courtly behavior. Moreover, humanist esteem for encyclopedic knowledge and breadth of identity valorized certain off-the-beaten-path friends. Examining the textual staging of unequal bonds as unions which realize humanist prerogatives, I revise our understanding of the cultural work which service performed in the Renaissance. Chapter One engages early modern writers (Marot, Montaigne) as well as modern-day network theory to conceptualize non-equal friends' relevance in a Renaissance culture at once more demanding and more gentle. Chapter Two develops this notion through a reading of Rabelais, showing that Rabelais figures friendly ties as irrevocably but also humanely grounded in service. If Panurge is the friend of the kindly, humane, progressive Pantagruel, he is also his servant. The vast implications of this service, which play into the full range of Rabelais' literary modes and moods, bespeak the socially encompassing and literarily trans-generic nature of such friendships' relevance. Chapters Three through Five evoke this scope by considering the figuration of unequal friendship in several genres. Memoirs by Marillac, Sully, and La Fayette, novellas by Jean-Pierre Camus, a dialogue by Marie de Romieu, and the writings of Marie de Gournay variously idealize (and show ambivalence toward) unequal friends. Thematically, these chapters address three specific relational types: bonds between secretaries and their masters, between non-equal youths raised together or nourri ensemble, and between young women and aged, Celestina-like mentors. By noting unequal friendships' departure from the praise of sameness and imitatio, as well as from figurations of difference taken to be subversive, such as those addressed by deconstructionist scholarship, I evoke a new, more normative understanding of difference in the Renaissance.

Locating the clandestine burial of human remains has long perplexed law enforcement officials involved in crime scene investigations, and continues to bewilder all the scientific disciplines that have been incorporated into their search and recovery. Locating concealed human remains can often be compared to the proverbial search for a needle in the haystack. Many notable forensic specialists and law enforcement agencies, in an effort to alleviate some of the bewilderment that commonly accompanies the search for a buried body, suggest that multidisciplinary search efforts are becoming more of a necessity, and less of an option. Research at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility (ARF) in Knoxville supports this theory through a collaborative research effort directed toward the development of more efficient and effective methods in the search for, and detection of, buried human remains. The Department of Anthropology, in conjunction with the University’s Department of Biosystems Engineering and Environmental Science, has correlated the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) with postmortem processes of decomposing human targets. Two and three dimensional imagery programs were utilized to optimize the analysis and interpretation of the data acquired over the past eight months. The processed images were then compared to models of human decompositional stages. The results of this research support and acknowledge that GPR is only capable of enhancing field methods in the search for clandestine burials, and when coupled with target-specific geophysical imagery software, contributes valuable working knowledge in regards to the contents of the burial itself. Hence, such resources can only be seen as beneficial to a search teams’ endeavors.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of omega-3 enriched pork products on the blood lipid parameters of students attending South Dakota State University. Thirty-one students participated in the eight week study. Subjects were placed on one of four treatment diets; control, fish, low pork or high pork. The pork products were developed and prepared for consumption by the SDSU Animal Science Department and cooperating facilities. The subjects kept dietary diaries bi-weekly and diets were analyzed using the Food Processor II computer data base. Blood samples were drawn four times. Total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL and LDL levels were determined for each subject. Results based on dietary recalls and blood analysis showed a positive correlation between HDL levels and omega-3 intake. Triglycerides and HDL were negatively related. The high pork group had a significantly higher HDL level than all other treatment groups and did not differ significantly from the control group in the other blood lipid parameters.