An Examination of Kant's aesthetic theory

Mullen, Michael Livingston Univ. Microfilms International 1985 국내박사

Nursing together: A grounded theory of acquiring self identity that motivates or obstructs hospital nurses to work after injury

Mullen, Kathleen University of California, San Francisco 2007 해외박사(DDOD)

Purpose. The aim of this study was to examine motivations and obstacles experienced by hospital nurses who endeavor to work after injury by focusing on the injury experience, work climate, risk of re-injury, workers' compensation, and issues related to personal lifestyle. Background/significance. Nurses represent the largest group of hospital workers and experience some of the highest numbers of work-related injuries. Injuries not only cause physical and emotional harm but reduce the number of available hospital nurses and can create socioeconomic hardships for workers and their families. Methods. Motivations and Obstacles to Work for the Injured Hospital Nurse (MORE Nurses study), used ground theory methodology analysis including coding and conceptualization were used in the analysis of the data. Nurses (n = 16) from two different settings were interviewed. Findings. Participants reported fear of injury based on their own experiences and witnessing career ending injuries to co-workers. Many reported altruistic motivations relating to their work as a calling. They were reluctant to report an injury for reasons including their identity, stigma for disability, desensitization of self needs, and loyalty to patient care. Therefore, many nurses reported working with injuries, self-modifying their work duties when possible. Similarities and differences in perceptions of nurses revealed the importance co-worker relationships play in the injured nurses' ability to maintain work. Three conceptual sub-categories emerged from the data. From them, the conceptual description of Nursing Together represented the connections nurses share which motivate them to work. Conclusions. Nurses are compelled to do their work based on deep beliefs related to the importance of caring for another human being in need. The degree to which nurses personally connect with nursing as something more than a job, influences their perseverance to maintain work, the quality of the patient care they delivery, where they chose to work, and how they connect with co-workers. These connections are essential in determining whether nurses will find ways to nurse together as an identity; nurse together as a consequence of injury; or nurse together in the physically and emotionally demanding hospital setting.

Pushing the Limits of Compiler Verification

Mullen, Eric University of Washington ProQuest Dissertations & 2018 해외박사(DDOD)

Modern computer systems rely on the correctness of at least one compiler for correct operation. Formal verification is a powerful technique for constructing correct systems. While there have been many efforts to develop formally verified compile. OEuf: Verifying systems by implementing them in the programming language of a proof assistant (e.g., Gallina for Coq) lets us directly leverage the full power of the proof assistant for verifying the system. But, to execute such an implementatio. Here I present OEuf, a verified compiler from a subset of Gallina to assembly. OEuf's correctness theorem ensures that compilation preserves the semantics of the source Gallina program. I describe how OEuf's specification can be used as a foreig. Using OEuf: OEufwas developed in order to allow verified systems to be developed and verified in Coq, compiled to executable code using OEuf, with all guarantees proven at the Gallina level preserved through compilation to the assembly level. In. Here I present the WordFreq verified system, its correctness guarantee, and the major parts of its correctness proof. I discuss the development of the system and its proof, as well as the axiomatic primitives necessary to tie it together. Peek: Transformations over assembly code are common in many compilers. These transformations are also some of the most bug-dense compiler components. Such bugs could be eliminated by formally verifying the compiler, but state-of-the-art formally. Verifying peephole optimizations in Peek requires proving only a set of local properties, which my collaborators and I have proved are sufficient to ensure global transformation correctness. We have proven these local properties for 28 peephole.

Factors involved in the development and maintenance of exercise identity across time

Mullen, Sean University of Virginia 2009 해외박사(DDOD)

The purpose of this study was to explore heterogeneity in, and predictors and outcomes of, perceiving physical change (PPC) and self-certainty. A key tenet argued in this dissertation is that seeing physical change is not only one of the most cited motives for exercising, but it may be the source of information most frequently used to assess how one is doing; it can also potentially cause uncertainty about the self-as-exerciser over time. People are motivated to reduce uncertainty, and they become more certain when they recognize performance improvement or decline, and less certain when they see no change (Albert, 1977; Trope, 1975). Therefore, it was predicted that exercisers reporting the most positive change over time would have the greatest self-certainty and self-efficacy, whereas those with stable PPC would have less favorable scores. Individual differences, including age, experience, fitness, and continuous exercise were predicted to directly contribute to fluctuation and stability in PPC over time. Results partially supported hypotheses and provided support for the idea that self-certainty is a key to establishing and maintaining exercise identity, and that change in PPC contributes to identity development. Exploratory analyses were also run to examine simultaneous growth across identity makers (i.e., self-description, self-importance, and self-certainty) and the patterns of change and stability in markers supported previous literature and further illuminated the role of self-certainty. The discussion focuses on the study's contributions, theoretical and practical implications. Future recommendations were made highlighting wide open areas of research.

Nomadic Resistance: Postwar Literature and the Formation of a Transatlantic Counterculture

Mullen, Kevin G The University of Wisconsin - Madison 2014 해외박사(DDOD)

This project investigates the imagined political potentials of nomadic subjectivity in the transatlantic literary landscape directly following the Second World War. The figure of the nomad played an integral role in the counter-cultural imaginary of the 1960s and, while it has received extensive attention in terms of postmodernism, an examination of its postwar literary roots will allow for better understanding of its generativity and restrictiveness in both political and cultural terms. While this project is situated within the realm of American Studies, in that it ultimately focuses on American writers and texts, it also seeks to re-establish the transatlantic culture within which these texts were produced---a culture which was grappling with the relationship between art and ideology in the shared wake of the Second World War. At the same time, by concentrating on writers who were, to varying degrees, nomadic, I will explore the relationship between movement and subjectivity through an analysis of their fictional nomads. This project arises from several intertwining questions: first, how does the figuration of nomadic subjectivity for this generation of writers reconcile the relationship between the liberatory aims of an individual's movement and the social engagement required for larger political movements? Secondly, how do conceptualizations of the cross-cultural encounter in this literature, written in the shadow of a war predicated on ideals of racial, national, and ideological purity, allow for the emergence of a rhetoric that celebrates multiculturalism and hybridity? Thirdly, how can contemporary theories of nomadic subjectivity allow scholars in American Studies to move beyond the exceptionalist narrative of the "American Century" as they evaluate the literature of the postwar, or early Cold War, era? Conversely, what value do these texts, which vibrate with the tension between hope and despair as they approach the cross-cultural encounter, have to offer theories that act as a heuristic for understanding our increasingly globalized world?.

California Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) Regional Networks as Self-Sustaining Communities of Practice

Mullen, Adrienne Ann University of California, Los Angeles 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

The Basic Skills Report for California Community Colleges (2007) stresses the importance of comprehensive training and development opportunities for all faculty (tenured and part-time), administrators and staff members who work with underprepared students. With such a large number of academically underprepared students entering the community college system, the ESL/Basic Skills Professional Development Grant (2008) was developed by the California Community College Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) in 2008 to address the fact that few of the 100,000 faculty, administrators, and staff of the California community colleges had received any type of preparation or training to address the needs of basic skills students at the classroom, program, or institutional level. The ESL/Basic Skills Professional Development Grant Progress Report (2009) outlines the considerable need for faculty to learn and practice effective teaching strategies used in the classroom with a diverse group of students at various academic levels. The objectives for the ESL/Basic Skills Professional Development Grant are centered on establishing communities of practice to address faculty needs across regions, institutions, and classrooms in order to impact student success. The goal of my four regional network case studies was to understand the role of the regional coordinators in facilitating the original BSI regional networks into communities of practice, to understand the impact the network has had on student success, and to identify the critical elements a regional network must possess in order to sustain itself once the regional coordinator position is eliminated. In interviewing the regional coordinators, BSI campus coordinators, and 3CSN leadership team members over a three-week period, I have summarized the characteristics and practices of the regional networks. The Bay Area Regional Network information is not included in chapter 4 nor in chapter 5, due to the limited responses from the participants. After several attempts to contact BSI campus coordinators and the North Bay Area RC, the study focused primarily on Los Angeles, Sacramento/Central Valley and San Diego. The information collected on the Bay Area is included in Appendix F. This study adds to the literature on communities of practice at the postsecondary level. Communities of practice traditionally have been implemented in the business sector, online or at a particular school site location for a specified time period. It is unique that the 3CSN regional networks are not isolated to a particular location or group of individuals. The findings show how the networks have emerged from a vision, through various degrees of implementation, to the current focus-driven agenda, and how that agenda affects sustainability and elimination of the regional coordinators. The recommendations from these case studies provide a framework for future CoP to be developed into a network of support for faculty, staff, and administrators across the California community colleges and ultimately improve student outcomes and build student success.

An evaluation of the influence of local anti-smoking ordinances

Mullens, Jennifer K The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationships between the presence or absence of local indoor smoking ordinances, the strength of state laws regulating indoor smoking, the prevalence of smoking at the state level, and lung cancer incidence measured at the state level. METHODS: Repeated measures multiple regression analysis was used as the primary source of statistical analysis. Data used in analyses included data on state smoking laws from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's State System, data on local smoking ordinances from the Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation database, data on smoking prevalence from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, data on age-adjusted lung cancer incidence from the National Program of Cancer Registries, and data on state indoor smoking preemption laws from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's State System. Data on potential confounding influences were included in the analyses as appropriate and included data on state cigarette excise taxes and state tobacco production from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's State System along with data on state funding for tobacco prevention programs from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. RESULTS: There is no evidence to support the supposition that the presence of local smoking ordinances is associated with stronger state indoor smoking laws. Further, there is no evidence indicating that the association of local smokefree ordinances with state smoking law strength, smoking prevalence, or lung cancer incidence has diminished over time as social norms have shifted toward smokefree policies and away from smoking in public places. The findings also indicate that state indoor smoking preemption laws are not associated with a statistically higher smoking prevalence or lung cancer incidence when compared to states without indoor smoking preemption laws, although there is evidence to suggest that the absence of preemption laws is associated with stronger state indoor smoking laws when state tobacco prevention funding or state tobacco production are taken into account. CONCLUSIONS: Although there was no evidence to conclude that the presence of local smoking ordinances is associated with stronger state indoor smoking laws, local policymakers and advocates should be viewed as an integral part of the Clean Indoor Air Movement by continuing to advance numerous and stringent smoking restrictions at the local level which, when combined with restrictions enacted at the state level, cover the majority of the United States population under a smokefree policy. The results of this study suggest that state policymakers and advocates might find success in strengthening a state's indoor smoking law by increasing the state's cigarette excise tax, increasing state funding for tobacco prevention programs in states without an indoor smoking preemption law, and repealing indoor smoking preemption laws in tobacco producing states. Smokefree policies, regardless of their level of implementation, have been shown to be associated with improved health outcomes. State and local policymakers and advocates should work together to direct their resources to the most viable smokefree policy options that have the greatest potential to protect the largest number of people.

Immune-spectrum disease among female veterans: Relations with posttraumatic stress disorder and maladaptive repetitive thought

Mullen-Houser, Elizabeth Ann The University of Iowa 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

BACKGROUND: Female veterans are at risk for stress-related physical disorders given unique environmental stress factors, high rates of trauma exposure and a heightened physiologic stress response. There is a need to identify modifiable risk factors which may help minimize the emergence and impact of veteran illness. RESEARCH QUESTION: The present study investigated the contributions of posttraumatic stress symptoms, maladaptive repetitive thought (MRT), depression, childhood trauma and health behaviors (sleep, alcohol use and smoking) to physical disease as operationalized by immune-mediated inflammatory disease occurrence and related functional disability. METHOD: Female Reserve or National Guard veterans (N = 643) enrolled in a parent study conducted through the Iowa City Veteran's Affairs Hospital completed a one-time computer-assisted telephone interview. The current study examined self-report measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms, MRT, depression, childhood trauma, smoking, alcohol use, sleep, inflammatory disease incidence and physical functioning. RESULTS: Proposed models of primary hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that both physical disease and functional decline were greater in veterans reporting a history of trauma. Physical disease was associated with greater depression and childhood trauma but lower levels of alcohol use after accounting for covariates. Unexpectedly, greater MRT was associated with less physical disease, although it was only related to disease when depression was included as a covariate. Reduced sleep was linked with greater disease but only when depression was not included in the model, and depression was found to fully mediate the relationship between sleep and physical disease. Smoking and the interaction between posttraumatic stress symptoms and MRT were generally unrelated to physical disease in this sample. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that physical disorders and related functional decline are greater in trauma-exposed individuals and that depression, childhood trauma, repetitive thought and alcohol use have independent associations with physical disease. This study offers support for further research and interventions which address these relationships to protect female veteran health.

Design challenges in nanoparticle-based platforms: Implications for targeted drug delivery systems

Mullen, Douglas Gurnett University of Michigan 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

Characterization and control of heterogeneous distributions of nanoparticle-ligand components are major design challenges for nanoparticle-based platforms. This dissertation begins with an examination of poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer-based targeted delivery platform. A folic acid targeted modular platform was developed to target human epithelial cancer cells. Although active targeting was observed in vitro, active targeting was not found in vivo using a mouse tumor model. A major flaw of this platform design was that it did not provide for characterization or control of the component distribution. Motivated by the problems experienced with the modular design, the actual composition of nanoparticle-ligand distributions were examined using a model dendrimer-ligand system. High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) resolved the distribution of components in samples with mean ligand/dendrimer ratios ranging from 0.4 to 13. A peak fitting analysis enabled the quantification of the component distribution. Quantified distributions were found to be significantly more heterogeneous than commonly expected and standard analytical parameters, namely the mean ligand/nanoparticle ratio, failed to adequately represent the component heterogeneity. The distribution of components was also found to be sensitive to particle modifications that preceded the ligand conjugation. With the knowledge gained from this detailed distribution analysis, a new platform design was developed to provide a system with dramatically improved control over the number of components and with improved batch reproducibility. Using semi-preparative HPLC, individual dendrimer-ligand components were isolated. The isolated dendrimer with precise numbers of ligands were characterized by NMR and analytical HPLC. In total, nine different dendrimer-ligand components were obtained with degrees of purity ≥80%. This system has the potential to serve as a platform to which a precise number of functional molecules can be attached and has the potential to dramatically improve platform efficacy. An additional investigation of reproducibility challenges for current dendrimer-based platform designs is also described. The mass transport quality during the partial acetylation reaction of the dendrimer was found to have a major impact on subsequent dendrimer-ligand distributions that cannot be detected by standard analytical techniques. Consequently, this reaction should be eliminated from the platform design. Finally, optimized protocols for purification and characterization of PAMAM dendrimer were detailed.

Composite propellant combustion with low aluminum agglomeration

Mullen, Jessica Christine University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

Aluminum behavior---accumulation, agglomeration and ignition---is studied in a unique, wide-distribution, ammonium perchlorate/hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (AP/HTPB) propellant formulation that results in low Al agglomeration, even at low pressures (1--30 atm). Variations in formulation---such as fine-AP/binder ratio, Al particle size, Al loading, coarse-AP size---are also examined. A fuel-rich, oxygenated binder matrix highly loaded with fine (2-mum) AP (FAP) at 75/25:FAP/binder (by mass) is found to have premixed flame conditions that produce minimal agglomeration (without ignition) of 15-mum Al. Coarse AP (CAP) is added to the system in the form of either particles (200 or 400 mum) or pressed-AP laminates (simulated CAP). In the 2-D laminate system the CAP/oxyfuel-matrix flame structure is seen to be similar to that previously described for non-aluminized laminates with split (diffusion) and merged (partially-premixed) flame regimes, depending on pressure and fuel-matrix thickness. Both laminate and particulate systems show that with CAP present, Al can agglomerate more extensively on CAP via lateral surface migration from fuel matrix to the CAP region. The particulate CAP system also shows that Al can accumulate/agglomerate via settling on CAP from above (in the direction of burning). Both systems, but more clearly the 2-D laminates, show that with CAP present, Al is ignited by the outer CAP/fuel-matrix canopy flames. Thus, a propellant formulation is proposed for reducing overall Al agglomeration through intrinsically reduced agglomeration in the fuel-matrix and a reduced number of CAP-particle agglomerates via higher FAP/CAP ratio.