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Assessing Risk Factors And Levels Of Functioning Across The Continuum Of Psychosis, James Castorina Dec 2014

Assessing Risk Factors And Levels Of Functioning Across The Continuum Of Psychosis, James Castorina

Theses and Dissertations

Schizophrenia and other related psychotic disorders are often associated with impairments in social and general functioning. It has been proposed that there may be underlying factors such as personality traits or cognitive abilities that contribute to one's psychosis proneness, or levels of schizotypy. In the current study, we expect to see a decline in overall functioning and verbal memory according to symptom severity. Particularly, we hypothesize a similar pattern with overall functioning and verbal memory in regards to negative symptomology with comparable results between an outpatient sample and those with high levels of schizotypy. Furthermore, based on prior research, we …


The Role Of School Nurses And Chronic Illness, Melonie Ruiz Nov 2014

The Role Of School Nurses And Chronic Illness, Melonie Ruiz

Theses and Dissertations

With new technological developments, children who may not have survived birth or infancy are now living longer and healthier lives. These advances can be positive and negative to these children. Although the child has survived, they have developed chronic illnesses due to these advances. These conditions they must live with everyday and depending on how severe the illness may be, they will impact the child's social and educational life. The role of the school nurse should be to ease the stresses that the illness is having on the child. There are many techniques that have been shown to help reduce …


Sleep Deprivation And The Negative Effect It Will Have On The Individual's Cognitive Function, Stephen Fisher Nov 2014

Sleep Deprivation And The Negative Effect It Will Have On The Individual's Cognitive Function, Stephen Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a correlation between sleep deprivation and an individual's cognitive function. Cognitive function was evaluated by looking at participants working memory and processing speed. To investigate this extrapolation, data was collected from undergraduate students at Rowan University. Participants were evaluated using an application called sleep time alarm clock to measure their sleep quality, and then measured by the Stroop test to determine their level of processing speed and working memory. Univariate analyses were done to determine if there was any correlational relationship between sleep deprivation and processing speed and working …


Using Random Forest In The Field Of Metabolomics, Curtis White Nov 2014

Using Random Forest In The Field Of Metabolomics, Curtis White

Theses and Dissertations

Metabolomics is the science of comprehensive evaluation of changes in the metabolome with a goal to elucidate underlying biological mechanisms of a living system. There is an opinion in the field of metabolomics, the study of the set of metabolites present within an organism, cell, or tissue, that the future development of the field is contingent upon two factors. One of the factors is the advancement of analytical instrumentation, and the other is developing data mining methodologies for extracting meaningful and interpretable experimental results. There are many different types of data mining methodologies, but the undertaking of selecting a particular …


In The Eye Of The Student: A Qualitative Study Of The Perceptions Of Campus Racial Climate At A Private Pwi, Ashley Rivard Oct 2014

In The Eye Of The Student: A Qualitative Study Of The Perceptions Of Campus Racial Climate At A Private Pwi, Ashley Rivard

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to (a) assess the current campus climate at a private Predominately White Institution, (b) assess is there is a difference between the perceptions of campus racial climate between White students and Black students, (c) assess what the students believe the institution is doing well to promote a welcoming atmosphere, and (d) assess what the students believe the institution should be doing better to promote a welcoming atmosphere. A total of 19 participants took part in individual interviews to examine the above areas. Interviews were transcribed and data were analyzed through content analysis. The …


Bolshevik Voices: Radio Broadcasting In The Soviet Union, 1917 - 1991, Bradley Trinkner Oct 2014

Bolshevik Voices: Radio Broadcasting In The Soviet Union, 1917 - 1991, Bradley Trinkner

Theses and Dissertations

Radio broadcasting has a long and varied history in many industrialized nations yet research into radio in the Soviet Union has been given little attention from scholars. Radio offers the power to unite distant people and reinforce the party agenda yet also leaves the door open to unauthorized transmissions. The story of radio must be understood as two sides of the same coin, namely the motivation and purpose of broadcasting by the regime as well as the effects on those who listened. The dual purpose of broadcasting was represented both by the potential it offered party authorities as well as …


Transforming A System: Leadership To Implement An Intervention And Referral Services Process That Assists Teachers, Michael Lee Oct 2014

Transforming A System: Leadership To Implement An Intervention And Referral Services Process That Assists Teachers, Michael Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Improving instruction to meet diverse student needs via early, intensive, and continuing intervention is an essential part of a comprehensive strategy to serve all students now and to produce the graduates 21st century society requires. Yet, meaningful school reform with transforming leadership, innovative vision, conversations among teachers, and authentic student achievement still remains elusive today. Our limitations in putting new ideas into practice come not from a lack of will or effort, but, in part, from the influences of our personal stories, mental models, and an immunity to change. This action research study explores educators' perceptions and behaviors in implementing …


Towards A Dynamic View Of Genetic Networks: A Kalman Filtering Framework For Recovering Temporally-Rewiring Stable Networks From Undersampled Data, Jehandad Khan Sep 2014

Towards A Dynamic View Of Genetic Networks: A Kalman Filtering Framework For Recovering Temporally-Rewiring Stable Networks From Undersampled Data, Jehandad Khan

Theses and Dissertations

It is widely accepted that cellular requirements and environmental conditions dictate the architecture of genetic regulatory networks. Nonetheless, the status quo in regulatory network modeling and analysis assumes an invariant network topology over time. We refocus on a dynamic perspective of genetic networks, one that can uncover substantial topological changes in network structure during biological processes such as developmental growth and cancer progression. We propose a novel outlook on the inference of time-varying genetic networks, from a limited number of noisy observations, by formulating the networks estimation as a target tracking problem. Assuming linear dynamics, we formulate a constrained Kalman …


Promoting Emotional Intelligence In Adolescence Through Service-Learning, Maggy Hanna, Rosetta Treece Sep 2014

Promoting Emotional Intelligence In Adolescence Through Service-Learning, Maggy Hanna, Rosetta Treece

Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study addresses emotional intelligence (EI) development, through the implementation of service-learning curricula, in adolescents ages 13-18. An interrupted time series with non-equivalent multi-group design was used for this study. This design included multiple pre-tests, an application of a treatment, and post-tests at varying time interval to eliminate internal invalidity threats due to history and the instrumentation (Gay & Airasian, 2000; Shadish, Cook, & Campell, 2011). In this study, global trait EI scores were used to test the theory that engagement in service-learning can positively impact EI growth in teens in the middle and high school settings. The rationale …


An Exploratory Investigation Of The Relationship Between Ptsd Symptoms And Substance Abuse In Undergraduate College Students, Melissa Buscemi Sep 2014

An Exploratory Investigation Of The Relationship Between Ptsd Symptoms And Substance Abuse In Undergraduate College Students, Melissa Buscemi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine a significant correlation between post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms and substance use in undergraduate college students. A review of the existing literature was examined and showed a significant correlation between PTSD and substance use, including alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. Literature also showed correlations between PTSD and cigarette use in undergraduate college students. A PTSD questionnaire was conducted based on DSM-5 criteria scale. A personal Experience Screening questionnaire for adults (PESQ-A) was also used to examine the frequency and degree of substances used by participants. Correlational analyses for this study revealed no …


Altering The Social Learning Climate: Raising The Legal Age Of Tobacco Purchase And Social Learning Theory, Beth Fera Sep 2014

Altering The Social Learning Climate: Raising The Legal Age Of Tobacco Purchase And Social Learning Theory, Beth Fera

Theses and Dissertations

In 2005, New Jersey enacted the Smoke Free Air Act to deter the onset of smoking of high school students by raising the legal age of tobacco purchase from 18 to 19 (Cave, Holl, & Schweber, 2005). This was intended to reduce smoking in this population by restricting virtually all high school students' access to cigarettes; however, this legislation also reduced smoking in ways proposed by the concepts of Ronald Akers' Social Learning Theory (1979). The present study postulated limiting access to cigarettes would reduce all measures of cigarettes use, resulting in fewer smoking associates to model smoking behavior, fewer …


A Case Study: The Implementation Of The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards In A Secondary School Setting, Adam Angelozzi Sep 2014

A Case Study: The Implementation Of The English Language Arts Common Core State Standards In A Secondary School Setting, Adam Angelozzi

Theses and Dissertations

This study provides insight into the curriculum and policy implementation process of the English Language Arts (ELA) Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in a secondary high school setting. The most critical factor to successful implementation of both policy and curriculum involves instructional leadership that provides ongoing support and resources through knowledge- and capacity-building activities. McLaughlin (1976) describes that implementation of educational policy constitutes a mutually adaptive process between the policy implementers and the setting; accordingly, changes in relation to the originally intended outcomes occur across the organizational hierarchy and between policy actors (Anderson, 2011; Fullan, 2007; Sabatier & Mazmanian, 1980). …


An Exploratory Investigation Of Looping High School Math And English And Student Achievement, Lee Langmuir Sep 2014

An Exploratory Investigation Of Looping High School Math And English And Student Achievement, Lee Langmuir

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to compare the standardized test scores of students in looped (n=47) and non-looped (n=38) settings in high school Math and English classes. In doing so, the scores were compared to see if instruction from the same teacher for more than one year had an effect on student achievement as measured by the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA). The HSPA is broken down in to a Math and English section with a possible score of 300 on each; student scores fall in to Partially Proficient (PP), Proficient (P), and Advanced Proficient (AP). Other factors …


Multimethod Study Of A Higher Education Special Admissions Policy: Exploring How Student-Athletes Navigage Their Educational Experiences, Sean Hendricks Sep 2014

Multimethod Study Of A Higher Education Special Admissions Policy: Exploring How Student-Athletes Navigage Their Educational Experiences, Sean Hendricks

Theses and Dissertations

In higher education, it is the role of the institution to ensure the success of all students, even those that failed to meet general admission requirements (Tinto, 1993). This explanatory sequential mixed methods study explored the challenges associated with enrolling student-athletes at a Division III institution with less than desirable admission standards (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). This study examined 199 specially admitted student-athletes that enrolled at Kerry State between 2007 and 2011 and found that increasing tuition, a lack of support and proper advising, time constraints, and issues related to student engagement have contributed to the lack of success …


Does Mentoring Cause A Person To Have Learned Optimism?, Kristine Smalls Sep 2014

Does Mentoring Cause A Person To Have Learned Optimism?, Kristine Smalls

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore "optimism," the characteristics of an optimistic person, and the relationship to the mentoring experience. Are optimistic individuals, likely to engage in helping others through volunteering and mentoring? The study specifically focused on the experiences of being a mentor or mentee and a possible relationship to learned optimism. The relationship between the mentoring experience and learned optimism was examined through the Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R) and a demographic survey. The Life Orientation Test- Revised has been used in numerous studies done to measure optimism in people and to test whether a person …


A Feminist Investigation Of Gender Performance Through A Reflection On The Process Of Certification In A Nontraditional Educational Leadership Program, Kimberly Clark Sep 2014

A Feminist Investigation Of Gender Performance Through A Reflection On The Process Of Certification In A Nontraditional Educational Leadership Program, Kimberly Clark

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to better understand the role of gender performance for aspiring school leaders through a reflection of their journey through the administrative pipeline. The transformation of professional aspirations throughout and following the certification process and during employment was also analyzed. Finally, the appealing factors of a nontraditional administrative preparation program were evaluated to better understand the role of alternative licensure programs in advancing women school leaders. Using heuristic qualitative methods, 18 women graduates of New Jersey's Expedited Certification for Educational Leadership program participated in focus groups and 5 returned for individual interviews. Coding was employed …


Using The Multisensory Approach Of Touch Math To Teach Basic Mathematical Operations To Students With Significant Disabilities, Rebecca Hood Sep 2014

Using The Multisensory Approach Of Touch Math To Teach Basic Mathematical Operations To Students With Significant Disabilities, Rebecca Hood

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines how the multisensory approach of the Touch Math program is used in a school that educates students with significant disabilities to improve their basic operation addition skills. The students who participated in this study struggled with traditional teaching of basic operation skills, and they were having difficulty maintaining fact knowledge, with modifications to their current instruction. The study was conducted in a school in Atco, New Jersey over an eight-week period. The current study used baseline assessments, which the two single digit addends without touch points, to determine the student participant's individual single digit addend knowledge. …


Identifying Tier-Two At Risk Students In New Jersey Public Schools, Danisha Moodie Sep 2014

Identifying Tier-Two At Risk Students In New Jersey Public Schools, Danisha Moodie

Theses and Dissertations

Actions to improve student's socio-emotional success in public education by attempting to identify, and eliminate bullying behaviors within educational institution are a key focus for many educators. Harassment, intimidation and bullying behaviors (HIB) are recognized as a solemn issue across the nation. According to the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, public schools are required to report (HIB) incidents to the New Jersey Department of Education. Moreover, coupled with the mandated guidelines of this new legislation many public schools within New Jersey have also adopted positive behavior interventions. This may help in identifying at-risk students who may require a greater level …


Development Of An Integrated Network Visualization And Graph Analysis Tool For Biological Networks, David Carbonetta Sep 2014

Development Of An Integrated Network Visualization And Graph Analysis Tool For Biological Networks, David Carbonetta

Theses and Dissertations

There has been steady increase in the amount of molecular data generated by experiments and computational methods performed on biological networks. There is a growing need to obtain an insight into the organization and structure of the massive and complex biological networks formed by the interacting molecules. To that end, this work presents the development of an integrated network visualization and graph analysis plugin within the Cytoscape framework. The plugin is capable of computing and visualizing a comprehensive set of dyad, node, and graph level statistics. The evaluation of the plugin on a range of biological networks and its memory …


Optimizing Operation Of A Campus Energy System For Economic And Environmental Considerations, John Imperatore Iii Sep 2014

Optimizing Operation Of A Campus Energy System For Economic And Environmental Considerations, John Imperatore Iii

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to determine effective costs of campus utilities, optimal operation of energy conversion and production subsystems through minimization of economic and environmental costs, and to evaluate how changing electrical grid costs and sources will affect future optimal operations at a campus. Characteristic days were developed to typify campus activities and their impact on energy consumption. At current grid electricity and natural gas prices, utilization of a cogeneration unit, a form of combined heat and power plant, is less expensive than purchasing equivalent amounts of electric and gas to produce steam, as long as there is …


Use Of Blood Oxygenator Membrane Units In Teaching Mass Balances, Friction Factor And Mass Transfer Analysis, Keith Mciver Sep 2014

Use Of Blood Oxygenator Membrane Units In Teaching Mass Balances, Friction Factor And Mass Transfer Analysis, Keith Mciver

Theses and Dissertations

Many applications of chemical engineering principles are biomedical but traditional chemical engineering education does not focus on these applications. New laboratory experiments with hollow fiber blood oxygenators allow integration of concepts into already full programs. This work describes three new educational experiments that have been developed to introduce students to concepts of mass balances, mass transfer and momentum transfer as applied to a hollow fiber blood oxygenator. In addition, a new mass transfer correlation is presented for the Medtronic Affinity NT blood oxygenator, which has not been reported previously in the literature. Mass transfer of oxygen through the hollow fiber …


Arimaa: Developing A Higher Ranked Fall Back Move Generator Using A Relational Database, Patrick Mckee Sep 2014

Arimaa: Developing A Higher Ranked Fall Back Move Generator Using A Relational Database, Patrick Mckee

Theses and Dissertations

Our approach to playing the game of Arimaa understands that the game was created to showcase the limits of brute force computing power. Using a relational database, we will be able to view similar situations that have already been played out, inventory a number of suitable reactions and make the best move given a number of attributes. This results in us making a decision that can theoretically result in a win, and hopefully will. Measurable positive results have been procured specifically from the area of concentration component of the research. In the area of concentration component we target a specific …


Development Of Experiments Involving Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Principles, Alexander Struck Jannini Sep 2014

Development Of Experiments Involving Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Principles, Alexander Struck Jannini

Theses and Dissertations

Laboratory experiments were developed to incorporate pharmaceutical engineering concepts into Freshman-level engineering courses. The goal is to increase the interest of pharmaceutical engineering in students and provide the necessary background for more advanced courses in the field. The experiments can be used on an individual basis, or to be grouped into themes for more focused learning objectives. The laboratory experiments are available at the pharmaceutical knowledge and training website www.PharmaHUB.org under the Teaching Resources tab.


An Editing Framework Guiding Students Toward Self-Correcting Errors In Writing, Stacey Gasper Sep 2014

An Editing Framework Guiding Students Toward Self-Correcting Errors In Writing, Stacey Gasper

Theses and Dissertations

In order to have a successful school experience, a student must be able to write effectively. It is a skill that transfers to nearly every content area, especially once students reach the high school level. From our first year of education to our last, teachers stress the importance of working through the writing process. Unfortunately, for many students getting started proves a struggle to organize ideas, developing those ideas is exhausting, and by the time they complete a draft they want to turn it in without looking back. Furthermore, struggling writers often do not know where to begin analyzing their …


The Impact Of Dance/Movement Classes On Adolescent Behavior In An Urban High School Setting, Dinesha Demesa-Simpson Sep 2014

The Impact Of Dance/Movement Classes On Adolescent Behavior In An Urban High School Setting, Dinesha Demesa-Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

The inclusion of the arts in education has been undervalued and overlooked by many public school districts throughout the country. As a result of cutbacks, dance programs in educational settings have become an afterthought. In this study the relationship between dance/movement classes and disruptive behavior was analyzed in a sample of 45 at risk students in an urban high school setting. The findings supported the hypothesis that a) dance classes can be utilized as an intervention to reduce stress and b) students who participate in dance programs in public school settings will develop self-control, self-regulation and exhibit less disruptive behavior. …


An Exploratory Investigation On The Effects Of Online Social Networking Sites On College Students, Alexis Sims Sep 2014

An Exploratory Investigation On The Effects Of Online Social Networking Sites On College Students, Alexis Sims

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects online social networking sites have on college students, mainly the effects on their communication. A study at Rowan University was conducted using a random selection of undergraduate students. The Rowan Subject pool was used to recruit students. Although each student was in different majors, all of the students were in an introduction to psychology course. To examine the effects online social networking sites have on college students, there were two separate groups of students designed to interact with one another in two different ways. A group was instructed to communicate …


The Role Of Principal Leadership In Special Education: A Delphi Study, Martha Simon Sep 2014

The Role Of Principal Leadership In Special Education: A Delphi Study, Martha Simon

Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the New Jersey principal evaluation system coupled with the demands of leading programs for students with disabilities has resulted in the need for school principals to understand and apply leadership skills that will result in successful achievement for all students. The purpose of this qualitative Delphi study was to explore the behaviors, characteristics, skills, and knowledge elementary school principals identify as essential for leading and supporting successful special education programs in public elementary school settings. Twenty-six elementary school principals with a record of success in leading special education programs provided expert insights through three rounds of data collection …


Using Computer-Based Mnemonic Illustrations To Teach Algebra Word-Problem Solving Skills To High School Students With Learning Disabilities, Lisa Graham Sep 2014

Using Computer-Based Mnemonic Illustrations To Teach Algebra Word-Problem Solving Skills To High School Students With Learning Disabilities, Lisa Graham

Theses and Dissertations

It is clear that students with Learning Disabilities (LD) struggle with complex mathematical problems, particularly in learning algebra. Technology may provide a new way for math instruction, as well as use of a concrete instructional method such as a mnemonic device. Difficulty solving word problems in algebra can be attributed to a variety of deficits, thus it becomes difficult to choose an instructional method that will provide positive results for these students. To date, research on adolescent students in this area is limited. The present study was designed to examine the impact of a combination of two different approaches by …


The Differentiated Effects Of Lyrical And Non-Lyrical Music On Reading Comprehension, Cameron Miller Sep 2014

The Differentiated Effects Of Lyrical And Non-Lyrical Music On Reading Comprehension, Cameron Miller

Theses and Dissertations

The present study seeks to observe the effect of background music on reading comprehension, specifically searching for possible differences between effects brought on by different genres (i.e. classical and rock) and the presence of lyrics. Research on task performance in the presence of background sound is mixed, in part due to the large number of possible applications. An overview of existing research on this topic is presented, including articles on the relationship between music and cognitive ability, distractors and processing resources, and pre-existing studies on music and reading comprehension. University students participated in a randomized experiment, taking the Reading Comprehension …


Developing Pavement Preservation And Mitigation Strategies Using Pavement Me Design Guide For Rhode Island Dot, Sean Coffey Sep 2014

Developing Pavement Preservation And Mitigation Strategies Using Pavement Me Design Guide For Rhode Island Dot, Sean Coffey

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the study is to develop pavement preservation strategies using Pavement ME. The International Roughness Index (IRI), Longitudinal Cracking, and Permanent Deformation (Rutting) in both the asphalt layer and the total structure were predicted using Pavement ME to determine the sensitivity of flexible pavement performance with varying pavement parameters, such as thickness of the surface and existing hot mix asphalt (HMA) layers, traffic volume, binder grade of the surface HMA layer and the base layer modulus. The surface HMA layer thickness and traffic volume were significant at 95% confidence level for both types of rutting and terminal IRI. …