Digital Commons Network^™

Other And Self-Representation: A Pentadic Criticism Of Kosovar Muslim And Roma Identity As Represented In Photographs By James Nachtwey And Djordje Jovanovic, Melody S. Follweiler

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

This is an interdisciplinary study that integrates the fields of visual rhetoric, media, and identity. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of photojournalism as the medium of rhetorical messages and communicative power in terms of representing the identity, experience, and perspective of Kosovar Muslims and Roma in Other and self-representations. By applying Kenneth Burke’s theory of dramatism and pentadic criticism, I seek to illustrate and analyze how an outsider, James Nachtwey, uses rhetorical appeals to represent Kosovar Muslims during the Kosovo War of 1999 and how an insider, Djordje Jovanovic, uses rhetorical appeals to represent Kosovar Roma during …

Natural Mentoring Relationships As A Buffer Against The Negative Effects Of Stressors On Academic Outcomes Of Latino Adolescents, Claudio Rivera

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This cross-sectional study examined 192 Latino adolescents in their ninth grade of high school. A resiliency theory framework was used for this study. The purpose of the study was to determine if natural mentoring relationships served a compensatory and protective role against stressors on the academic outcomes of Latino adolescents in their first year of high school. Using multiple hierarchical regression analyses, it was determined that stressors and mentoring relationship quality had main effects and interaction effects on the academic outcomes of Latino adolescents. Thus, support for the compensatory and protective model of resilience was provided in some aspects of …

Examining Attitudes And Exposure To Poverty Among Undergraduate Students: Contextual Factors, Kathleen Elizabeth Mcauliff

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

In light of the recent economic downturn, poverty is an issue of increasing concerns. Attitudes towards individuals living in poverty, as well as explanations for poverty, vary and may be influenced by contextual factors, such as media portrayals, culture, and exposure. Attitudes and explanations for poverty among undergraduate students were compared among undergraduates (n = 268) who had varying amount of exposure (volunteering and socioeconomic status) to poverty. Three 2x3x3 ANOVAs demonstrated no significant three-way interactions between campus ministry engagement, volunteer hours, and self-identified socioeconomic status on three subscales of the Undergraduate Perceptions of Poverty Tracking Attitudes Survey ( …

Moderators Of The Efficacy Of Child Obesity Prevention: Exploration Of A, Sabrina Karczewski

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

School-based child obesity intervention literature demonstrates variable body mass index (BMI) related outcomes, but studies do not typically explore the effect of interventions on psychological outcomes nor do they examine the interactions between participation in the intervention and individual participant characteristics. In this study, the effects of a universal school-based obesity prevention were examined on the outcomes of BMI, internalizing, and externalizing outcomes. Potential moderators of the relationship between participation in the intervention and outcomes included ethnicity, baseline weight class, baseline internalizing symptoms, and baseline externalizing symptoms. Results confirm differential benefits of the intervention based on a variety of baseline …

Na+/K+-Atpase Isoform Regulation In Three-Spine Stickleback (Gasterosteus Aculeatus) During Salinity Acclimation, Shelby Judd

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Most marine and all freshwater fishes regulate the ionic and osmotic composition of their extracellular fluids different from the outside environment. The gills play a prominent osmoregulatory role in maintaining whole body ion and water balance in fish living in both freshwater and saltwater environments. The ability of the gill to regulate salts is dependent on the action of the Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase. When euryhaline fishes, fishes able to tolerate changes in external salinity, experience changes in environmental salinity, they alter their gill physiology and Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity to handle changing osmotic and ionic stresses. …

Identification And Integration Within Campus Life Among First-Generation U.S. Citizens: An Exploration Of Campus Climate Perception, Shannon Marie Williams

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The current study explored the relationships within a higher education institution between innovative and inclusive mission-identity perceptions and school sense of community among first-generation U.S. citizens and first-generation college students, with varying racial backgrounds. During Fall 2012, a total of 4,492 participants at a large, urban, and Catholic university completed the Innovative and Inclusive (I/I) subscale from the DePaul Mission and Values Inventory as well as the School Sense of Community (SSOC) scale. Two 2 x 2 x 5 ANCOVAS were run to determine whether there were any differences across generation statuses and racial background for both measures. Additionally, regression …

Adolescents' Peer Status, Social Behaviors, And Social Information Processing For Social Behaviors, Michelle Wright

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have conceptualized of two types of high peer statuses (i.e., perceived popularity, social preference), each associated with distinctive behavioral characteristics (Coie et al., 1982; Mayeux & Cillessen, 2004; Parkhurst & Hopmeyer, 1998). Perceived popularity is positively associated with both relational aggression and prosocial behaviors (Cillessen & Mayeux, 2004; Rodkin et al., 2000; Rose et al., 2004; Rubin et al., 1998). On the other hand, social preference is negatively related to relational aggression but positively linked to prosocial behavior (Rose et al., 2004). The social information processing model may provide a better understanding of adolescents’ unique behavioral characteristics as their …

Gender, Country And Community: Exploring Safety, Trust And Empowerment Among Immigrant Survivors Of Torture., Nancy Bothne

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the community lives of immigrant survivors of torture living in theUnited States. The experiences of survivors in their countries of origin and theUnited Statesare examined by gender. This qualitative study relied on interviews with 16 survivors from multiple countries. The participation of a dissertation advisory group contributed to the study’s integrity, as did collaboration with community partners including a torture survivor advocacy group. The study found that the psychological elements of safety, trust and empowerment are important to both women and men. The lack of empowerment of people to counter claims of their government motivated these participants …

Titration Calorimetric Study Of The Interaction Among Calcium, Bile Salts, And The Tetracyclines, Karla Arias

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Tetracyclines are a group of antibiotics that are known to bind physiologically relevant metal ions, such as Ca2+, for antibacterial activity. The formation of the[ antibiotic-Ca2+l complex can interact with components in the gastrointestinal tract, including the bile salts, and reduce their absorption into the blood plasma after oral administration. Metal ion interactions between Ca2+ and tetracycline have been the focus of numerous studies while interactions with minocyclinc and tigccyclinc have been scarcely explored. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was employed to study the interaction of three members of the tetracycline family, tetracycline (TtC), minocyclinc (MC), and tigecycline (TgC), with …

An Examination Through An Ecological Lenses Of The Relationships Among Stressors, Protective Factors, And Psychological Outcomes In The Lives Of Urban Adolescents, Megha Tailor

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Many urban youth are exposed to substantial rates of stressors within different levels of their environment which increases their likelihood for experiencing negative mental health outcomes. Some emerging research suggests that traditional individually-based and family-based protective factors have a limited role in protecting urban youth facing community-based stressors. This study examined whether community-based protective factors moderated the relationship between community-based stressors and psychological symptoms in a sample of 384 urban youth recruited from three schools in the Midwest region. Some support for hypothesis I was found. In particular, community-based protective factor (i.e. religion) was found to lessen the impact of …

How Do American's Think About The Enviornment And What Does It Mean For Public Policy: A Re-Assessment, Todd P. Newman

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Research within the social sciences has attempted to explain what individuals perceive, why they perceive it the way that they do and what are their attitudes, intentions and behavior. This issue is at the root of the contention that surrounds many environmental issues, with individuals worrying about some risks that dramatically exceed the danger they actually pose while ignoring others. Moreover, this fact of the non-rational element in policy decision-making has led researchers to study how to effectively communicate with a public that is emotionally driven. Using the 2010 General Social Survey, this paper attempts to re-assess the bases of …

Campaign Strategy In The Internet Age: The Use And Effectiveness Of Internet Advocacy Tools In American Political Campaigns., Andrew J. Shapero

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the use and effectiveness of Internet Advocacy Tools, including Twitter, Facebook, Email, and blogs, in American Political campaigns in order to better understand their role in the American electoral process. Data was collected through a census of political campaign professionals immediately following the 2010 Congressional elections. The results of this research indicate that simply utilizing Internet Advocacy Tools is not enough to win an election, and that campaign professionals of all political persuasions have reservations regarding their across-the-board usefulness and effectiveness, despite presenting some certain advantages over traditional campaign methods and tools.

Hospital-Based Educational Services And The Well-Being Of Children With Chronic Illness: A Self-Study, Samantha Gold Oberstein

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Nature Versus Nurture: Campus Involvement’S Effect On Student Leadership Development, Stephanie Souvenir

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to find if leadership skills are developed from co-curricular involvement. Research would determine whether natural-born leaders were drawn to student involvement opportunities, or whether involvement develops the average students’ leadership skills. To arrive at a conclusion, research asked the question “Does involvement on a college campus develop leadership skills?” Research was answered by quantitative research. Fifty undergraduate students from a private Midwestern university were surveyed. Each participant was given two assessments. One was a leadership self-assessment and another was a campus involvement assessment. The campus involvement assessment was created for the purpose of this …

Understanding The Meaning African-American Men Give To Their Student Leadership Involvement And Engagement Activities In College, Karl A. Brooks

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the lived experiences and perceptions of African-American (A-A) men who are persisting in college and who demonstrate participation in co-curricular activities defined as student leadership involvement and engagement activities (SLIEA). The study was designed to gain a better understanding of the meaning actively engaged A-A men make of their college experiences and how these experiences serve to guide their actions toward persistence in college. Ten A-A men from three different institutions participated in individual open-ended interviews. Results and findings indicate that regardless of students’ …

Barriers And Supports To Curricular Innovation, James P. Klock

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Teachers and administrators frequently agree that curriculum is not suitably tailored to their specific students. Using paired interviews with teachers and administrators, this study explores how teacher/administrator and teacher/societal interactions support and impede teachers' ability to express curricular freedom.

Through A Feminist Lens: Language, Power And Identity In Catalan Nationalism, Christine Gallagher Kearney

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

The goal for my master’s thesis is to understand how the working class women of Catalunya (specifically women that lived in the small farming villages in the region of Les Garrigues),contributed to the survival of Catalan. Catalunya is an autonomous region of Spain that endured more than three decades of the Francisco Franco dictatorship (1934-1975) that attempted to eradicate the Catalan language and culture. As stated by Everly (2003): “[…] the regional exile of Catalunya from the rest of Spain acts as a backdrop provoking women to go a step further and experiment with their own sense of gender separation …

Applicant Behavior On Internet Job Boards: The Effects Of Content And Style, Samuel Young

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Although job boards are the largest single source of recruitment in the modern workplace, little research on what influences job seeker behavior has been conducted in this context. In order to address this gap in the literature, the present research draws on the theories of planned behavior and signaling theory to hypothesize a series of factors that may impact job seeker behavior. Despite theoretical support for many job posting characteristics, only formatting influenced job seeker behavior. Discussion of the implications and areas for future research are presented.

The Effects Of Motivations To Resist Social Change And Accept Inequality On Perceptions Of System Legitimacy, Mark Brandt

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Two theories. system justification theory (SJT) and social dominance theory (SDT). both attempt to explain the prevalence and stability of unequal social systems and are o-ften consider analogous by their proponents. With the newly proposed Two Dimensional i'vlodel of System Legitimacy (2D-iv10SL). 1 argue that each theory captures a dimension of system relevant motivations: the resistance to social change (RSC). has primarily been studied by SJT and ranges on a continuum from the resistance to the acceptance of social change and the acceptance of inequality (AOI). has primarily been studied by SDT and ranges on a continuum !rom the acceptance …

Advancing Social Change Goals Through Partnership: Community Partner Perspectives, Liezl Alcantara

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Within recent years, researchers have turned their attention to assessing community impact of community-university partnerships. The sustainability of successful partnerships hinges upon evaluating partnership outcomes and integrating community feedback into practice. Successful partnerships between universities and community-based organizations (CBOs) have the potential to critically address social issues and attain social change goals, but to what extent do existing partnerships actualize this potential? The present Dissertation research yields important insights that address this question.

Marullo et al. (2003) described four types of goals associated with social change initiatives: Enhancing capacity, increasing efficiency, empowering constituents, and altering policies or …

Continuity Of Conduct And Substance Use Disorders Among Adolescents In The One Year And Two Years Following Exposure To Substance Abuse Treatment, Brian Mcmanus

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The current study utilized a sample of 138 adolescents from a short-term inpatient chemical dependency recovery hospital. Analyses utilized scales from the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN), a semi-structured interview that was administered multiple times over the two years after treatment intake. Analyses examined the persistence of substance abuse, conduct disorder symptomatology, delinquent behavior, and mental distress following treatment. A primary goal of the study was to examine whether adolescents with severe conduct disorder (i.e., those engaging in behaviors causing considerable harm to others) followed different trajectories than their mild/moderate counterparts. This inquiry was predicated largely on research that …

Internalizing Symptoms In Youth: A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Model Of Maternal Symptoms And Parent-Child Interactions, Sarah Bostick

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

None supplied.

Interaction Effects Of Multiple Levels Of Disadvantage And Kinship Foster Care In African American Youth, Anne Rufa

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Child welfare services' current practice is to attempt to identify kinship foster settings first when removing a child from their home, a practice used disproportionately for African American youth. In this study, potential contextual factors of foster homes (i.e., community environment, caregiver's age, caregiver's physical health) were identified as possible moderators of the relationship between the type of out-of-home placement (i.e., kinship, other out-of-home placement) used and changes in internalizing and externalizing scores in African American youth. Results confirm a significant increase in internalizing and externalizing scores when youth are placed in kinship foster homes with caregivers who are older …

The Role Of Attributions In Stereotype Threat Effects: Female Achievements In Stem Domains, Caitlyn Yantis

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Despite some advances, the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields persists. Stereotype threat has been cited as a debilitating phenomenon that may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in STEM domains (e.g., Ambady, Shih, Kim, & Pittinsky,2001). Using the attributional model of stereotypes (Reyna, 2000), the current work explores the role of attributions in a stereotype threat context. Seventy-two female undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four attribution conditions to explain female detriments in logical reasoning: effort, ability, society, or no stereotype. All participants then completed a test of logical reasoning. Although previous research has …

Effects Of Timeframe On The Recall Reliability Of Me/Cfs Symptoms, Meredyth Evans

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study served as an investigation of the effects of symptom stability, timeframe length, and momentary symptom severity on the recall reliability of symptoms experienced by individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). ME/CFS symptoms were assessed at four recall timeframes (right now, the past week, the past month, and the past six months) and at two assessment points. Analyses revealed that test-retest reliability was significantly stronger for recall of post-exertlonal malaise (PEM), headaches, and memory problems, when these symptoms were perceived to be stable over time rather than variable. It was also revealed that the optimal timeframe for variable …

The First Year College Experience: Predictors Of Natural Mentoring Relationships & Students' Academic Outcomes, Luciano Berardi

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Literature on college mentoring suggests that mentoring relationships has a positive effect on college students’ outcomes (Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Jacobi, 1991). The purpose of this study was to examine the roles of parental attachment and help-seeking strategies in the number of mentoring relationships reported by college students and the role of mentoring in students’ adjustment to the first year transition to college. Moos’ (2002) theoretical framework is used to root the study on an ecological viewpoint of college transition, because it proposes that individual characteristics and the environment thought which a person transitions affect one another and influence individual …

Attracting Talent Across Cultures: The Impact Of Cultural Values On Generating And Maintaining Applicants, Emily Twichell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigated whether different strategies for attracting and maintaining applicants should be used in order to effectively recruit talent from different cultures, which had not been previously researched. It was predicted that culture would have a direct impact on what attracts individuals to apply to an organization, what causes them not to submit an application, and the length of time between submitting an application and being invited to interview. Additionally, it was predicted that culture would interact with perceptions of job posting content, application length, recruiter perceptions, and time delays in predicting job pursuit intentions and changes in …

Assembly Of The Didymium Iridis Mitochondrial Genome By Genome Walking, Dale Kopp

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Organelle inheritance and RNA editing has been studied in Didymium iridis even though the genome has not been completely sequenced. Four segments, comprising 66 kb, have been sequenced in the past. Several approaches have been taken to complete the sequence including restriction mapping and southern hybridization, as well as screening clone banks by PCR with the sequence of contig ends. In this study, genome walking was used to uncover sequences connecting the four segments. Using genome walking, approximately 4,113 bp of new sequence was identified. With the new sequence and the characterization of two previously sequenced D. iridis mt regions …

Meaning, Morality, And Fluid Compensation In Response To Attitude Threat, Geoffrey Wetherell

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Research demonstrates that people desire a sense of existential meaning in life, and imbue attitudes with a sense of moral conviction. People want to protect their beliefs, because they help them to create a sense of meaning in life. No research however, has examined whether or not moral conviction, a facet of attitude strength associated with a sense of ultimate right or wrong, contributes to one's sense of meaning in life. Furthermore, no research has tested whether or not threatening attitudes leads people to imbue them with increased moral conviction, possible as a means of protecting attitudes, and the sense …

A Comparison Of Lmx, Communication, And Demographic Differences In Remote And Co-Located Supervisor-Subordinate Dyads, Larisa Niedle

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this research were to examine the growing organizational trends of distributed work, reliance on various media for communication, and increased diversity in the workforce. Napier and Ferris' (1993) theory of distance, which includes structural, functional, and psychological distance, served as a framework for much of this research. Leader-Member Exchange theory (LMX), which Napier and Ferris (1993) translated into the functional distance component of their theory, was used to inform hypotheses on supervisor-subordinate relationships and performance ratings. Communication theories of media richness and social presence were used as a basis for the hypotheses involving communication. Finally, the similarity-attraction …