Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Vincent H. Smith. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-91).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006. / Prepared for: Dept. of Physical Therapy. Bibliography: leaves 139-151. Also available online.

Previous studies have shown that hands-on cooking classes focusing on fruit and vegetables, nutritional value, and food safety have increased fruit and vegetable consumption in children. Some of the most nutrient rich fruits and vegetables are classified as United States Department of Agriculture specialty crops. USDA specialty crops are used only for consumption and offer a variety of important vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Thus, children who are not receiving the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables each day are not getting the proper nutrition. The design of this study is a prospective cohort of 69 day care participants. The intervention targeted many topics: meal preparation, nutrition education, food safety, food cost, and benefits of buying local foods. After one month in the program, participants showed no change in fruit and vegetable acceptance or fruit consumption. Participants showed a decrease in amount of vegetables eaten "yesterday" after participation in the study. Further research should be done in the area of cooking classes for children living in rural communities.

While academic nursing programs teach the concepts and theory of providing care, these programs cannot provide sufficient experiential learning to prepare the nurse for all that might be faced in diverse clinical practice settings. As a result, each nurse faces transition to practice hardships with the first nursing role and again each time the clinical setting changes. The Specialty Nurse Residency intervention offers support and instruction during the crucial transition period. Efficacy of the intervention is evaluated based on data analysis from pre and post-intervention survey responses. This quantitative, descriptive study solicits feedback from experienced staff to answer the question: Are the positive outcomes of the Specialty Nurse Residency program reproducible in specialty units other than the Burn ICU as evidenced by preceptor, manager and educator feedback before and after program implementation? The intervention engages new-to-specialty nurses within an evidence-based support system that validates competence and development of clinical reasoning skills. Preceptor development and support are key elements of intervention and program delivery, as these crucial staff members safeguard program and learner success. / Doctorate of Nursing Practice

The forensic focus has been a popular career choice and area of study for many of the health science disciplines. Forensic nursing education recently appeared in the curriculum at many colleges and universities. Now more than a decade from when some of the first forensic nursing courses were established, it was timely to explore rather than evaluate this unique specialty that has programs existing at every post-secondary educational level from certificate to doctoral programs. <p>The purpose of the study was to explore forensic nursing knowledge as a specialty area of study, and factors influencing educational development, as perceived by educators who were instrumental in establishing some of the earliest forensic nursing courses or programs. This predominantly qualitative study involved interviewing a purposive sample of nurse educators from Canada and the United States. Data collection involved an email survey to collect demographic information about the educators and course statistics about the programs they created, in addition to a qualitative, semi-structured telephone interview. <p>I utilized a thematic analysis to compare the data to literature relevant to the study, which included the historical evolution of forensic nursing along a sequential pattern of specialty development. I drew on my constructivist worldview to understand and interpret the responses. Although exploring forensic nursing provided a starting place for inquiry, the purpose of the research question was not only to describe what is but to consider the larger socio-technical, media, and economic forces influencing the educational development of this forensic specialty and then to link particular experiences into wider generalized and generalizing social relations. <p>One result of this study was a definition of forensic nursing constructed from the data and compared to earlier definitions in the literature. A further differentiation of forensic nursing determined knowledge that was different from nursing in general, and different from other forensic disciplines, a distinction that has significance for interprofessional education. In addition, it was determined that the unique knowledge content of forensic nursing may be the dual knowledge or dual roles of care and concepts specific to each subspecialty, for example: care and custody, care and collection of evidence, care and chain of custody, care and court room testimony, or care and crisis intervention. <p>In the early years of forensic nursing education development, it became evident that more than one positive factor was needed to create and maintain new specialty programs that were not then recognized as future mainstay programs. Therefore, from the constructivist worldview, multiple perspectives exist, and multiple and alternative factors are recognized to have influenced practice, education, and research in any discipline. From a constructivist interpretation to the findings of this study, all factors have relevance as all are needed for specialty programs to be developed and sustained.

The forensic focus has been a popular career choice and area of study for many of the health science disciplines. Forensic nursing education recently appeared in the curriculum at many colleges and universities. Now more than a decade from when some of the first forensic nursing courses were established, it was timely to explore rather than evaluate this unique specialty that has programs existing at every post-secondary educational level from certificate to doctoral programs. <p>The purpose of the study was to explore forensic nursing knowledge as a specialty area of study, and factors influencing educational development, as perceived by educators who were instrumental in establishing some of the earliest forensic nursing courses or programs. This predominantly qualitative study involved interviewing a purposive sample of nurse educators from Canada and the United States. Data collection involved an email survey to collect demographic information about the educators and course statistics about the programs they created, in addition to a qualitative, semi-structured telephone interview. <p>I utilized a thematic analysis to compare the data to literature relevant to the study, which included the historical evolution of forensic nursing along a sequential pattern of specialty development. I drew on my constructivist worldview to understand and interpret the responses. Although exploring forensic nursing provided a starting place for inquiry, the purpose of the research question was not only to describe what is but to consider the larger socio-technical, media, and economic forces influencing the educational development of this forensic specialty and then to link particular experiences into wider generalized and generalizing social relations. <p>One result of this study was a definition of forensic nursing constructed from the data and compared to earlier definitions in the literature. A further differentiation of forensic nursing determined knowledge that was different from nursing in general, and different from other forensic disciplines, a distinction that has significance for interprofessional education. In addition, it was determined that the unique knowledge content of forensic nursing may be the dual knowledge or dual roles of care and concepts specific to each subspecialty, for example: care and custody, care and collection of evidence, care and chain of custody, care and court room testimony, or care and crisis intervention. <p>In the early years of forensic nursing education development, it became evident that more than one positive factor was needed to create and maintain new specialty programs that were not then recognized as future mainstay programs. Therefore, from the constructivist worldview, multiple perspectives exist, and multiple and alternative factors are recognized to have influenced practice, education, and research in any discipline. From a constructivist interpretation to the findings of this study, all factors have relevance as all are needed for specialty programs to be developed and sustained.

The research focuses on the critical review and prediction of flash points of high molecular weight compounds used mainly in the specialty chemical area. Thus far this area of high molecular weight specialty chemicals has not been thoroughly reviewed for flash point prediction; therefore critical review for accuracy of experimental values is difficult. Without critical review, the chance of hazards occurring in the processing and handling of these compounds increases. A reliable method for making predictions is important to efficiently review experimental values since duplicate experimentation can be time consuming and costly. The flash point is strongly correlated to the normal boiling point (NBP) but experimental NBP is not feasible for chemicals of high molecular weight. The reliability of existing NBP prediction methods was found inadequate for our compounds of interest therefore a new NBP prediction method was developed first. This method is based on ten simple group contributions and the molecular weight of the molecule. The training set included 196 high molecular weight C, H, N and O compounds. It produced an average absolute error (AAE) of 13K, superior to any other model tested so far. An accurate NBP is essential for critical review and new method development for flash point. A preliminary data analysis based on chemical family analysis allowed for detection of erroneous data points. These compounds were re-tested at a Huntsman facility. With a predicted normal boiling point, a new FP method that differentiates strong and iv weak hydrogen bonding compounds was developed. This was done because of the differences in entropy of vaporization for hydrogen bonding compounds. The training set consisted of 191 diverse C, H, N, O compounds ranging from 100 to 4000 g/mol in molecular weight. The test set consisted of 97 compounds of similar diversity. Both data sets produced an AAE of 5K and maximum deviation of 17.5K. It was also found that no substantial decomposition was found for these compounds at flash point conditions. These compounds appear to follow the same physical trends as lower molecular weight compounds. With this new method it is possible to critically review this class of chemicals as well as update NBP and other physical property data. / PDF file replaced 4-20-2012 at request of Thesis Office.

This study aimed to create a holistic understanding of the physician experience in relation to telemedicine. This study examined a Tele-NICU and a Tele-ER program at a large metropolitan pediatric specialty hospital with a Level IV NICU that provides telemedicine consults to 16 remote sites across Texas. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with physicians and nurses at remote hospitals, physicians who provide consultations from the pediatric specialty hospital, and managers of the tele-specialty programs. These interviews were coded using the consolidated framework for implementation science to contextualize program strengths and weaknesses and reviewed to make recommendations for future program development. Remote site participants reported that the programs are useful when they are in need a second opinion and providing reassurance to patient's families. Barriers to program use include issues with the tele-carts, insurance acceptance, and hesitation to request a consult. Study findings demonstrate the need to treat each tele-specialty programs as independent to suit the differing needs of both remote sites and the consulting physicians. This study demonstrates the importance of understanding physician's perspectives, culture, and the role of hospital settings in telemedicine program acceptance and refutes telemedicine as a monolithic solution to limited healthcare access.

Agribusinesses are multifaceted businesses that may be involved in all the phases of agricultural production, processing, manufacturing, distributing, and retailing. Although US agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry, the majority of agribusinesses are considered small firms, having less than $250,000 in annual gross sales. This study investigates potential innovative marketing approaches for US agribusinesses, specifically for small farms and agribusinesses. One marketing approach involves an agritourism marketing tool based on an agricultural geocaching program, AgCache. The second proposed marketing approach explores the specialty crops marketing channel to institutional foodservice establishments.  For AgCache, exploratory qualitative analysis was first conducted through a series of in-depth interviews with current AgCache site owners. This was followed by survey data collection and analysis using a probit model to assess the interest in hosting an AgCache. For the specialty crops marketing channel, a probit model was utilized in order to assess the barriers faced by small-scale specialty crop producers as well as their interests in selling to institutional foodservice establishments. Specific attention was paid to logistic and food safety marketing constraints. The results reveal that with adequate attention towards specified barriers, the two marketing approaches can be implemented by US agribusinesses.  As well, there is also a strong interest by small farms and agribusinesses to implement these two marketing approaches. This study provides information valuable not only to small farms and agribusinesses, but also to rural communities\' economic development and stakeholders involved in the agricultural industry. Results will be of interest to those in, and seeking to support agribusinesses and small-scale farms. / Master of Science

Recent technological innovations allow Southeastern blueberry farmers to machine harvest highly profitable fresh-market berries with marginally equivalent quality as labor intensive hand harvesting, drastically reducing labor costs while minimally increasing equipment costs. Concurrent with these innovations, the largest blueberry producing Southeastern states of North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi have proposed statewide legislation affecting immigrant status and enforcement, leading to documented labor shortages and wage volatility among seasonal agricultural laborers. Using survey information, this study uses ex-post and ex-ante logit regression models to determine if machine harvester technology (MHT) adoption is explained by human capital variables, production differences, risk preferences, wage variability, regional differences and differences in Southeastern blueberry cultivars. Ex-post results conclude that experience, production increases, observed measures of risk-averse preferences, increased wage variation, and regional differences explain current MHT adoption in the Southeast. Ex-ante results conclude regional differences explain future consideration of MHT adoption likelihood.