Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Populations Of Eastern Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) Above And Below Waterfalls In Mountain Streams Of Virginia, Hannah Eisemann Macmillan

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Anthropogenically driven factors, such as increasing temperature and sediment in valley streams, acidification of mountain streams, and the introduction of non-native trout, are restricting habitat suitable for healthy populations of eastern brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) throughout their native Appalachian range. Brook trout are important as predators of insects in mountain streams and as a favorite of anglers. It is crucial that remaining populations in sustainable habitats be identified and preserved. Waterfalls are geologic knickpoints preventing base-level lowering that create unique, stable landscapes above them, which may alleviate the temperature-productivity/acidity “habitat squeeze” for populations of brook trout and could …

Herpetological Assemblages In Tropical Dry Forests Of The Azuero Peninsula, Panama: An Evaluation Of Reforestation, Tyler Kovacs

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Tropical dry forests are considered one of the most endangered tropical ecosystems making reforestation increasingly necessary to restore Panama’s unique ecoregion. The isolated dry ecoregion surrounding the Bay of Parita in Panama has a long history of deforestation and cattle grazing. Successful reforestation of this land is important to restore ecosystem health and biodiversity. In Panama, reforestation ranges from monocultures of exotic teak (Tectona grandis) to passive regeneration. Faunal recovery within these reforestation systems may vary due to different habitat characteristics. In this study, amphibian and reptile communities were compared in two types of reforestation systems and protected riparian forests …

Rapid Demand Curves: Reward Valuation Using Behavioral Economics, Charles Nastos

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Within the past few decades, the psychological field of operant behaviorism has converged with the field of economics to aid in the description and interpretation of behavior. In doing so, more stringent, empirical methods of measuring and analyzing behavior have been produced. Laboratory experiments with both human and non-human animals have been used to study concepts that are integral to both fields, such as supply and demand, scarcity, and choice behavior. One goal of behavioral-economic research is to establish a demand function; that is, how does a change in the price of a commodity influence changes in its consumption? Consequently, …

Effects Of A Carbohydrate Hydrogel Beverage On Endurance Cycling Performance And Gastrointestinal Comfort, Harrison R. Toney

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of a novel maltodextrin-fructose hydrogel (MF-H) on cycling performance and gastrointestinal distress symptoms. METHODS: Nine endurance-trained male cyclists completed three experimental trials consisting of a 98-min varied-intensity cycling protocol followed by a performance test of ten consecutive sprint intervals. In a cross-over design, subjects consumed 250 mL of a treatment beverage every 15 min of cycling. The treatments consisted of 78 g ^. hr^-1 of either a) MF-H, b) maltodextrin-fructose (MF), and c) maltodextrin only (MD) All data were assessed using repeated measures ANOVA’s. RESULTS: There were no differences in average sprint power …

Assessing The Mental Health Awareness And Training Needs Of College Professors, Kendall Perez

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This study identified the relationship between college professor knowledge of mental illness, their ability to identify mental illness, and assist students exhibiting symptoms of mental health distress. The study utilized an explanatory mixed method research design and combined an initial faculty survey and with follow-up interviews. The design allowed for a deep examination of the research questions and helped identify the current needs of JMU professors. The study found that faculty felt ill prepared to identify and refer students to mental health resources. Other findings suggested that the majority of respondents were willing to participate in mental health training, yet …

White Noise, Chris Cohen

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

White Noise investigates moments when white supremacist ideology injects itself into the conversation about American Identity and American History in an attempt to co- opt those definitions and control the conversation. The exhibition considers the effects of this identity crisis on American identity, white identity, American history, and family unity. The exhibition looks at these issues through the lens of the Virginia Historical Markers program, Civil War Re-enactment, contemporary white identity politics and supremacy, monuments, educational history museums, and the artist’s personal narrative about white supremacy as it relates to his own sense of loyalty and connection to his family. …

Pain-Related Fear: Metacognitive And Health Belief Predictors Of Cogniphobia, Maddison Miles

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Individuals who have an unreasonable fear of headache pain or painful re-injury during cognitive exertion are said to suffer from a pain-related fear referred to as cogniphobia. Specifically, individuals high in cogniphobia avoid cognitive tasks in an attempt to reduce the risk of initiating or exacerbating headache-related pain. While health beliefs concerning pain-related fear have been examined through the concept of kinesiophobia, defined as the unreasonable fear of pain or painful re-injury during physical movement, little research has been done through a cognitive framework. The health anxiety beliefs, metacognitive factors, and negative thinking patterns related to cogniphobia remain unclear. This …

In Vitro Propagation Of A Critically Endangered African Violets (Saintpaulia Rupicola B.L. Burtt), Thomas W. Lowry Iii

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The in vitro propagation is a promising method for the production of plants in species that are endangered, commercially valuable, and/or otherwise difficult to propagate through traditional horticultural methods. Leaf and petiole explants of critically endangered African violets (Saintpaulia rupicola B.L. Burtt) were cultured on a chemically defined medium that was supplemented with six different concentrations of thidiazuron (TDZ). The concentrations were used for either an induction medium on which the explants remained throughout development, or an induction medium on which the explants remained for 10 days followed by a basal growth medium for the remainder of the 12 …

Unintended Consequences: U.S. Interference In El Salvador, The Salvadoran Diaspora, And The Role Of Activist Community Organizations In Establishing A Salvadoran-American Community In Los Angeles, Blake Bergstrom

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The U.S. intervention in El Salvador had a number of unintended consequences, some negative and some positive, that still have a great impact on the U.S., El Salvador, and the international community as a whole today. Although the focus of the mass media is on the negative unintended consequences, the positive really outweigh the negative. These so-called unintended consequences began with a massive increase in immigration to escape the violent human rights violations and political persecutions of El Salvador’s Civil War. This migration to the U.S. in the 1980s is referred to as the Salvadoran Diaspora, which led to an …

A Rhetoric Of Coupons: Analyzing Fsis And Fsi Coupons Through Rhetorical Lenses, Blake Lubinski

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis consists of two journal articles that examine newspaper coupon booklets called free-standing inserts (FSIs) through feminist and visual rhetoric lenses. The first article attempts to identify the “ideal couponer,” or the audience suggested by the product categories, visuals, and language appearing in FSIs. Through content and textual analyses using a feminist rhetoric lens, the article argues that FSIs evoke the idea of an audience of mothers who conform to gendered cultural assumptions about womanhood and parenthood. The article concludes with theoretical and business implications of these findings, contending that more rhetorical research is necessary to understand how FSIs …

How Array Size Affects The Efficiency Of Constant Time Delay In Systematic Instruction For Students With Intellectual Disability, Amanda T. Kousen

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The purpose of this research study was to determine how three different array sizes affect the efficiency of acquiring target functional words utilizing constant time delay in systematic instruction for students with intellectual disability. The results shown throughout this study can support teachers and administrators to know if adaptations to the array size in which the materials are presented visually during constant time delay instruction yield a more efficient way to teach. The current study utilized an adapted alternating treatment design, replicated across two students, to determine efficiency through trials-to-criterion for functional food and grocery words. The researcher presented array …

A Collective Case Study Of The Personal Practice And Meanings Of Mindfulness To Music Educators, Jennifer M. Hoye

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The practice of mindfulness, defined as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4), may be an effective form of self-care for music educators suffering from stress. Stressors that music educators may encounter in their professional lives include such issues as role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, the underutilization of skills, resource inadequacy, non-participation, professional isolation, and Music Performance Anxiety (Scheib, 2003; Sindberg, 2011; Kenny, Davis, & Oates, 2004; Kenny & Osborne, 2006). The purpose of this collective case study was to explore the personal mindfulness practices of the three …

The Perception Of Career Readiness Skill Development In College Seniors, Venus Miller

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

As universities and colleges around the world strive to provide rigorous academic instruction, they are also preparing their students to enter into the world of work. According to research conducted by American College Test (ACT), Americans value education because they believe it will provide economic benefit to those that participate in the system. By the year 2018, the majority of newly created jobs in the United States of America (U.S.) are likely to require a college degree (Matter, Burrus, Camara, O’Connor, Hansen, Gambrell, Casillas, & Bobek, 2014). This fact suggests that in order for students to be prepared to enter …

Urban Stream Restoration: An Evaluation Of Material Processing And Conveyance Channels, Madeline Berg

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Stream restoration is gaining popularity in the Mid - Atlantic region to offset impacts from urbanization. Increased levels of impervious surfaces, decreased vegetation along banks, and changes in water flow patterns make urban stream ecosystems flashy and result in high erosion rates, increasing the amount of nutrients entering the Chesapeake Bay. Different restoration practices can play a large role in the amount of nutrients and organic matter leaving a stream and the amount of habitat that is present in-stream.

Due to the recent interest in stream restoration as a tool to help the health of the Chesapeake Bay, this study …

Learning New Tricks: Teacher Self-Improvement In Kodály Solfege Study And Its Relation To Student Growth, Jeffrey Alan Ryman

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Music literacy and its acquisition are vital components of all high school choral programs. Chief among the skills necessary and developed at the high school level are audiation, sight-reading, and the acquisition of age appropriate choral literature. Over time, research has informed best practices in choral pedagogy to include specific implementation of audiation and sight-reading programs based on the developmental hierarchy of student music learners. The Kodály system, developed by Hungarian music educator and composer Zoltán Kodály in the ’40s and ’50s, and researched and documented in studies from the ’60s through ’80s, is based on the foundation that only …

Forest Structure Of Long-Term Conserved Areas Utilizing Different Strategies On A Continental, Glacial Moraine Formed Island, Christopher Coggin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Understanding patterns of forest succession can help advise management plans within New England nature preserves. This study took place on Block Island, 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The island has greater than 200+ years of farming practices. After 1960, conservation groups began reforesting the island using different strategies, such as actively planting with native and exotic tree species, mowing, and preventing further development. In 2018, woody vegetation was inventoried along transects within four reforested sites. Sites were characterized as the following: actively planted with exotic and native tree species and mowed (AP-M), actively planted with exotic and …

Memorializing Men Of The Lost Cause: Public Opinion Of Confederate Monuments In Virginia 1900-Present, Morgan Brittany Pendleton

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Prior to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia in August of 2017, there has been debate about what should or should not be done with Confederate monuments that dot the Southern landscape. The debate continues as to what these monuments mean to those in the communities they are located. Many individuals see them as a symbol of heritage and history, while others see them as racist and glorifying men who fought to maintain slavery. Public opinion and memory surrounding these monuments has not always been negative however. During the time of their creation Lost Cause ideology played a large part in …

Assessing The Prevalence Of Multidrug Resistant Salmonella Enterica From Stream Sediment And Poultry Litter In The Shenandoah Valley Of Virginia, Noah Greenman

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Multidrug resistant Salmonella enterica present in stream sediment and poultry litter represent a critical health concern. A small number of S. enterica serotypes are responsible for most lab-confirmed infections in the US each year. To assess the prevalence of these significant strains, we isolated 88 S. enterica from stream sediment and poultry litter. Sequence data for all isolates were generated using an Illumina® sequencing platform, with long-reads for some isolates from the Oxford Nanopore MinION™ used in a hybrid genome assembly approach. Isolates were typed according to their serotype and multi-locus sequence type using SeqSero/SISTR and Enterobase respectively. Antibiotic resistance …

Factors And Considerations For Change At James Madison University, Robert P. Zaepfel Jr.

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The objective of this qualitative case study was to develop a thematic change model and taxonomy of change factors specifically designed for higher education practitioners at James Madison University (JMU). This research will provide resources to guide future institutional change at JMU while focusing on the practical nature of applying resources and techniques to facilitate organizational change. This study will bridge the gap between academic research and practitioner application by creating a cyclical theoretical framework grounding the exploration of complex higher education change dynamics at JMU. Individual interviews focused on recent change events were conducted with participants identified through the …

Documenting Fifth-Grade Band Students’ Experiences In A Kodály-Centered Beginning Band Curriculum, Elisabeth Henderson Dhillon

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

ABSTRACT

Based on the work of Hungarian composer and educator Zoltán Kodály, the Kodály method, a sound-to-symbol approach to music-making and literacy stemming from an aural and auditory entry point, forms an integral aspect of many elementary level general music curricula in the United States. In this process-oriented, experiential approach, students hear and explore music kinesthetically, aurally and through folk and art song before visual concepts in the form of notes in formal notation are introduced.

In contrast, traditional beginning band methodologies tend not to incorporate a sound-to-symbol approach, teaching the intricacies of a complex new instrument in conjunction with …

Arab Nationalism In Interwar Period Iraq: A Descriptive Analysis Of Sami Shawkat’S Al-Futuwwah Youth Movement, Saman Nasser

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Abstract

Historiography of Iraqi Arab nationalism has studied the Iraqi Futuwwah Youth Movement of the interwar period in relation to the European fascist youth model of the post-World War I era. Moreover, the futuwwah is limited by linking its objective to training high school students of Iraq in the area of paramilitary exercises. By re-reading the futuwwah lectures of Sami Shawkat, the Director General of Education and founder of the futuwwah in Iraq, this thesis demonstrates how the movement was rather at the core of Iraqi Arab nationalism. The lectures appear in Shawkat’s book Hadhihi Ahdafuna (These are Our Goals), …

One Great And Noble Source: The Development Of Democratic Thought In Early America, 1776-1787, Kelly Coats

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

It had been a long summer, filled with hot and muggy forecasts with temperatures ranging from the low 60s to the high 90s. One can imagine what it must have felt like, anywhere between forty and fifty men crowded into the small chamber at Independence Hall in Philadelphia over the course of the summer which was described by many to be “hot and oppressive.” For the past four months and change, delegates to the Federal Convention had come together to accomplish what, at the beginning of the summer, seemed to be an impossible task: to form a new government. Perhaps …

Where No Fandom Has Gone Before: Exploring The Development Of Fandom Through Star Trek Fanzines, Jacqueline Guerrier

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Where No Fandom Has Gone Before: Exploring the Development of Fandom Through Star Trek Fanzines is a digital archive and exhibit project centered around a collection of forty earlyStar Trek fanzines. The website serves two functions: primarily to archive these fanzines, and secondarily to showcase their viability as research tools which can provide valuable data. Through the use of several digital exhibits, this project supports the argument that fanzines had an integral role in the development of early Star Trek fandom and served as a primary means of communication between fans. The website project can be found at: https://guerrijd.wixsite.com/wherenofandomhasgone

Microplastics In Full View: Birds As Bioindicators Of Malta's Coastal Ecosystem Health, Dalton Brauer

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Plastic pollution has recently become a widely studied topic, yet research on microplastics has remained lacking for specific geographic regions. Microplastics are small plastics resulting from degradation or the dumping of raw material and can lead to deleterious impacts on the coastal marine environment and its organisms. To assess Malta’s coastal environmental health, water birds (inshore, offshore and pelagic species) were used as bioindicators by assessing the presence and abundance of plastic within their stomach contents. The project hoped to fill some of the current gaps in knowledge on microplastics within Malta by creating a working baseline, as well as …

Rhetoric In Film: Three Explorations Of Influence In Documentaries And Digital Stories, Emily Knapp

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis is made up of three distinct articles, two written with the intention of publication while the third consists of a digital story and subsequent reflection on the process of creation. The first article serves to answer the question “Do documentary films inspire activism?” by analyzing data gained after surveying 266 members of the James Madison University community. The results suggest that viewers are moved to emotion when witnessing struggle but that they are moved to action when said action directly impacts their own life. The second article is a rhetorical analysis of the 2013 documentary film Blackfish. …

Pupillometry As A Test Of Infant Word Recognition, Amy Vinyard

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Pupillometry holds great promise as a tool for infant language research but has not yet been used to probe word recognition. The goal of the described study was to design a functioning method that can later be used to test the possibility of using pupil dilation as a gauge of word recognition in 11-month-olds. To do this, we used the methods of an existing study (The Role of Accentual Pattern in Early Lexical Representation, Vihman, Nakai, DePaolis, & Hallé 2004) with modifications. Our method ran a one-sided head turn preference paradigm with the addition of an eye tracker for pupil …

Consolidation: Race, Politics, And Suburbanization In The Newport News-Warwick Merger, David Le Moal

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The Hampton Roads area of Virginia changed dramatically during the 20^th century as it transformed from rural farmland to suburban sprawl. Two cities in the region, Newport News and Warwick, employed a policy known as consolidation. While many cities throughout the United States utilized consolidation in the post-war era, the merging of Newport News and Warwick illustrates how consolidations manipulated and altered the landscape of the city. The modern city of Newport News is split between a large, prosperous, suburban area mainly populated by whites, and a small urban, declining, urban area mainly populated by blacks. The Newport News/Warwick …

A Self-Assessment Of Hrd Competency Development In Undergraduate Students: Indigenous Project-Based Learning Experience, Kendra Hall

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In the field of human resource development, the literature and research suggest that in order for students to become proficient practitioners in a global business world, there is a need for the inclusion of diversity education. The purpose of this study is to understand student’s perceptions of their competency development after a semester-long engagement with an Indigenous organization. The current study examines HRD undergraduate student’s competency development, using the Association for Talent Development (ATD) standards and focuses on the global mindset foundational competency. The participants completed a retrospective pre-post self-assessment to measure their competency development prior to and after the …

Beyond Motivation: Differences In Score Meaning Between Assessment Conditions, Nikole Gregg

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Written communication is a skill necessary for not only the success of undergraduate students, but for post-graduates in the workplace. Furthermore, according to employers the writing skills of post-graduates tend to be below expectations. Therefore, the assessment of such skills within higher education is in high demand. Written communication assessments tend to be administered in one of two conditions: 1) course embedded and 2) a low-stakes, non-embedded condition. The current study investigated possible construct-irrelevant variance in writing assessment scores by using data from a mid-sized public university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Specifically, 157 student products were …

Staying With And Telling Different Stories: Toward A Theory Of Environmental Advocacy That Bridges The Scholarly And Political Selves, Michael Clay

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

As human agents, narratives allow us to make sense of the world. They weave together lived experiences into meaningful webs of understanding. One such web of understanding is the way we narratively make sense of our relationship with the environment in which we find ourselves. The aim of this project is take a closer look at how many current environmental narratives establish an understanding that places the human agent as superior to, and thus master of, the environment within that relationship. This project works to articulate different ways of changing those narratives so that the agency of non-human actants is …