Digital Commons Network^™

Digital Media's Transformative Role In Education: Beyond Potential To Essential, Ming-Tso Chien

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Achieving effective learning via digital media continues to be a major concern in contemporary education. The daily use of all forms of digital media is part of our lives and therefore becomes a key component of education. Educators must consider the process of digital media curriculum as a learning model and form of experience adapted to education. This means the significance is on how to learn as well as what to learn. This study demonstrated how the implementation of digital media curriculum via the Scratch game-making project contributed to middle school students' interaction with the entire educational process. The goal …

Lamination Of Inverted Organic Photovoltaics And Associated Physical Properties, Brian A. Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is the result of a series of studies involving hot press lamination of inverted organic photovoltaics. It first gives background and develops a lamination process for fabrication. Then, the process is used to answer fundamental questions about organic photovoltaics and to fabricate previously impossible or overly complicated devices. Finally, the author examines the scientific theory which describes the process and aligns that theory with related measurements.

The field of organic photovoltaics is introduced and the lamination process is developed and optimized. In the lamination process, part of the solar cell is deposited onto a rigid substrate, and the …

Restorative Justice And Recidivism: A Meta-Analysis, Kristin Bain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Restorative Justice is an approach to resolving conflict that has become increasingly relevant as both financial and social costs associated with crime have continued to rise. As alternative methods of managing crime are being considered and implemented there is a call from policy makers for evidence that those programs are indeed the best practice. Although there is a significant amount of research on restorative justice, synthesis of that information is lacking which impedes full understanding of the potential of the impact and role of this approach. A central argument is that restorative based programs produce benefits because they reduce recidivism …

Episodic Recruitment And Climate Analysis Of Ponderosa Pine On The Palmer Divide, Eastern Colorado, William Henry Brenton Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous recruitment studies on populations of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa P. & C. Lawson) in Colorado have been limited to the western mountains and the Front Range. In this research I used tree-ring data to reconstruct recruitment for ponderosa pine near the eastern limits of its distribution at two sites on the Palmer Divide, Eastern Colorado, to determine the relative climate sensitivity of the two sites, and the extent to which climate or other factors may have influenced recruitment at the sites. The results of the tree-ring analysis suggest that ponderosa pines in more the easterly site lower elevation …

Attending High School Algebra I: In Search Of Well-Managed, Engaging, Culturally Relevant, And Caring Classrooms, Cassandra Dunn Gannett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inequities in learning between the rich and the poor have become pervasive in United States. This is evidenced by the high school graduation rates, college attendance percentages, and employment statistics. Upon another wave of reform, the Common Core State Standards in mathematics are currently being adopted in hopes of increasing learning for all students, with a focus on college and career readiness. This study is intent on finding ways to remedy the inequities in mathematics between the high income and low income schools by focusing on one of the great glass ceilings to high school graduation and beyond, high …

Income Inequality In U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Which Areas Have The Greatest Inequality And Why?, C. Peterson Compton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, much focus has been placed on the high and growing level of income inequality in the United States. This composition begins to fill a void in the existing literature by examining specific urban areas that have particularly high levels of inequality and the characteristics that factor into inequality. In this paper, I construct a qualitative model for a particularly unequal metropolitan area. I then apply the model to a set of U.S. metros that are among the most unequal in the country and share a particular set of characteristics consistent with the model.

Korean American Adolescents' And Their Parents' Attitudes And Expectations Toward Group Counseling, Myoung Ah Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the relationships between three important cultural factors—acculturation, self-disclosure, and gender— and Korean American adolescents’ attitudes and expectations about group counseling. In addition, the relationships between two of these factors−acculturation and self-disclosure, and Korean parents’ expectations and attitudes about group counseling as a potential treatment modality for their adolescents were examined. Ninety-three Korean high school students who attended 9 private afterschool programs provided by the Korean Institute of Southern California (KISC) in the Los Angeles area and their 93 corresponding Korean parents participated in the present study. For the student sample, the …

Towards A Fluid Solid Interaction Model Of A Dynamic Lung, Justin C. Jacobs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Because the pulmonary system is a site for both environmental particulate contamination, as well as drug delivery into the body, numerous research groups have focused on precisely understanding its inner-workings. Past research has demonstrated the need to realistically model the lung walls in order to accurately capture the complex airflow profile throughout all of the branches. Since this is paramount to properly replicating particulate transport in the lung, computational fluid dynamics simulations on their own are inadequate, as they cannot account for lung wall dilation. Only by coupling the fluid and solid domains can natural lung behavior can be effectively …

Group Treatment For Adult Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: The Relationship Between Social Bonds And Symptom Severity, Robin E. Lange

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the session-to-session change in symptom severity and social bonding ability in the participants of groups for survivors of sexual trauma. The concept of social bonding ability was addressed by examining the participants’ beliefs about the availability of social support, their beliefs about themselves, and their beliefs about their relationships with their group leaders. Group leader ratings of the level of process focus of their group were also measured. Twenty women between the ages of 19 and 55 receiving group treatment at three community agencies in Colorado were included in the study. Groups included in the study were …

Establishing A Normative Profile On The Mmpi-2 For Missionary Candidates, Jonathan Dimos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined MMPI-2 data of 377 missionary candidates who presented for psychological assessment at Missionary Care Services. The purpose of the study was to establish a normative profile for missionary candidates to enhance interpretive validity and reduce missionary attrition. Mean T scores were established for the missionary candidate sample on the F, L, and K validity scales and the ten Clinical Scales. Analyses were conducted to compare the mean T scores of the missionary candidate sample to the mean T scores of the nonclinical normative population of persons taking the MMPI-2 for employment purposes. For both males and …

Gender Depiction In Preschool Books: A Comparison Between Early Care And Education Classrooms In The United States And Norway, Cathrine Aasen Floyd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Preschool children's perceptions around gender identity and development can be influenced by their experiences. With many children spending a portion of their day in child care, the environmental factors of these programs are important. One aspect of the environment can impact preschool children is the books that are available to them. For over 40 years, children's literature in the United States has been studied and found to be biased in their portrayal of males and females. Males were more often found as main characters and depicted as capable leaders and thinkers. Female characters were shown as weaker, often appearing in …

Student School Engagement As A Potential Predictor Of High School Completion, Jennifer Albanes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a dropout epidemic in the United States. In the US, 25% of high school students do not graduate on time. For Latinos, the number is worse, with only 64% graduating from high school. Current research is clear that 9th grade is a critical year for keeping students in school. Students that earn all their credits for their core classes in 9th grade are more likely to graduate than students who fail one or more class during their freshman year. Prior to this study, engagement has been connected to dropout in the literature, but with differing ideas of how …

Abbot Suger's Silent Soliloquy Of Public Aesthetics In The Medieval Saint Denis Abbey, Sandra Jean Ceas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abbot Suger transformed the twelfth-century medieval Saint Denis abbey from a didactic Romanesque prayer hall to a spiritually illuminating pre-Gothic worship center. The extant culture, although primarily illiterate, was poised on the threshold of Scholasticism, the rational pursuit of "reason," which challenged the Christian doctrine of "faith." Abbot Suger, fully aware of the secular threat, was suitably positioned to be a significant instrument for saving souls from the diversion of their trust in God toward a reliance on logical thinking. Suger undertook a major art restoration campaign for the Saint Denis abbey to create an environment of public aesthetics that …

"That's What Families Do": Rewards And Challenges Of Informal Kinship Care, Betsy Hay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Informal kinship caregivers take on the responsibility of raising a relative's children in situations where those children cannot remain with their parents and are not in the custody of child welfare. The phenomenon is increasing; however it is difficult to obtain information from these families because of the difficulty locating them. As a result, there is limited research on this specific group of kinship care families. The purpose of this study was exploratory, using qualitative methods to gather information from informal kinship caregivers about their experiences caring for a relative's children, with a focus on the rewards and challenges within …

Foreign Savings, Financialization And Minsky: How External Capital Flows Pave The Way For Financial Instability In The Face Of Increasing Risk, Marcus C. Fresques

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis has not come without its fair share of criticism. Much ado about Minsky's endogenous business cycle theory stems from a model where boom-time profit opportunities indelibly encourage firms to finance investment by leveraging their fixed capital assets against their internal liquidity. Opposition to Minsky often points to two distinct circumstances that might discourage the external finance of investment: a rise in effective demand and increasing risk. A rise in effective demand can increase the retained earnings of a firm providing more capital to internally finance investment and investment financed from retained earning is less risky than …

Thermally Actuated Resonant Silicon Crystal Nanobalances, Arash Hajjam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the potential emerging technology for next generation integrated resonant sensors and frequency references as well as electronic filters, micro-electro-mechanical resonators have attracted a lot of attention over the past decade. As a result, a wide variety of high frequency micro/nanoscale electromechanical resonators have recently been presented. MEMS resonators, as low-cost highly integrated and ultra-sensitive mass sensors, can potentially provide new opportunities and unprecedented capabilities in the area of mass sensing. Such devices can provide orders of magnitude higher mass sensitivity and resolution compared to Film Bulk Acoustic resonators (FBAR) or the conventional quartz and Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) resonators …

Affective-Domain Occurrences Reported By Undergraduate Non-Music-Major Students In A Keyboard-Centered Course Incorporating The Nine National Standards For Music Education And A Methodology Based On Constructivist Principles: Patterns That Might Suggest Hypotheses About Cause-And-Effect Relationships, Gergana S. Argirova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, data about occurrences in the affective domain of non-music-major subjects taking a keyboard-centered course that incorporates the nine National Standards for music education along with a methodology based on constructivist principles were collected. The problem of this study was to identify any patterns in those data that might suggest hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships that might be tested later in quantitative studies with experimental design.

The instruction consisted of a keyboard-centered music education curriculum that encompassed the U.S. nine National Standards for music education along with a teaching methodology based on constructivist principles. This study was conducted in …

Development Of A Measure Of Corporate Safety Culture For The Transportation Industry, David V. Colarossi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project was designed to develop the Corporate Safety Culture Scale, a unique measure of corporate safety culture that is supported by a strong theoretical foundation. Items were developed conceptually, discussed in cognitive interviews, and submitted to expert review. Survey items were administered to employees of a large public transportation organization. Principle components analysis reduced the data and identified an empirical model. The empirical model held two domains identified as: 1) "Values," and 2) "Behavior." Confirmatory factor analysis compared the fit of the empirical model with that of a modified empirical model, and the hypothesized model, which held the following …

A Meta-Analytic Review Of Cooperative Learning Practices In Higher Education: A Human Communication Perspective, William Patrick Huddy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The phrase cooperative learning refers to a pedagogical learning and teaching technique in use in schools from kindergarten through higher education. The technique involves the structuring of an active classroom environment with students working in groups to discover, solve, and at its basic, provide a framework for dialogue and conversation. Cooperative learning is grounded in the development of a theory of social interdependence (Morton Deutsch) which states that individuals, working in groups, can in most cases provide for greater productivity and ideas than individuals working alone. The development of cooperative learning was greatly expanded in the late 1960’s and early …

The R Factor: Centering Race In The Mentoring Of African American College Students, Bridgette Coble

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring provides personal support, academic assistance and career guidance to college students of color whose experiences have been documented to be very different from those of their White counterparts. Achievement inequity, problems of persistence, experiences of racism and student reports of feeling marginalized and misunderstood threaten the ability of students of color to succeed in college. While it may be assumed that race plays a central role in the mentoring relationships of students of color, this assumption may be misguided. The existence of formal mentoring programs and informal mentoring relationships that support students of color does not necessarily ensure that …

Invisible Ink: An Analysis Of Meaning Contained In Gender, Race, Performance, And Power Discourses, Susan A. Griggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The number of females in senior level leadership positions in higher education is substantially fewer than males. Yet female students in these same institutions represent over half the population (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2010). The leadership gender gap is a phenomenon that has undergone numerous studies in search of reasons and solutions. Yet the gap remains. One cause of the underrepresentation of women in higher education leadership is ideological views regarding gender and leadership that result in stereotypes regarding who qualifies for leadership, what leadership behaviors are deemed best, who exhibits those behaviors, and what happens when those stereotypes …

Rethinking Rosato: Understanding The Genesis Of European Integration, Andrew J. Brienzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A balance-of-power argument that completely discounts the role played by the United States has been employed in a recent attempt to explain both the origins of European integration and the Continent's recent difficulties. This thesis sets out to rebut these notions through an examination of the historical record. Such an examination makes it clear that France and West Germany's reasons for pursuing the integration of Western Europe were grounded in these states' relationships with one another within the postwar context, not in their fear of Soviet aggression. France, after all, was seeking to rebuild itself and hold down the Germans …

An Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution Looks Toward The Future: A Case Study On A Collaborative, Community-Based Systemic Change Effort At An Urban Land-Grant College, Eric Dunker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many higher education organizations face the issue of structural isolation (Ruben, 2004) based on a lack of integration and functional coordination between faculty, staff, and students. Community-based research (CBR) offers higher education a more collaborative, wider reaching avenue of organizing a variety of stakeholders around social change. The CBR model is an atypical change model due to its interdisciplinary, participatory, and collaborative structure that values multiple sources of knowledge and focuses on social justice action. As opposed to serving as the 'experts' who were performing research on a community of people, academics and community members who utilize CBR focus on …

"A Shade Too Unreserved": Destabilizing Sexuality And Gender Constructs Of The New Negro Identity In Harlem Renaissance Literature, Renee E. Chase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of the Harlem Renaissance artistic movement was directly intertwined with the New Negro social movement of the time. Race leaders spoke to and influenced artistic trends, while artists often engaged with the New Negro race issues and social debates through their works. Wallace Thurman, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston used their own fictional works to explore the New Negro construct being promoted. In examining the constructed nature of this New Negro identity, these artists strove to destabilize the social "norms" upon which the identity was based. As they thematically and stylistically explored such social constructs through their fiction, …

Posthumanist Rhetorical Agency, Matt Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The postmodern criticism of humanist agency initiated by Dilip Gaonkar nearly twenty years ago set in motion a discipline wide discussion concerning the conceptualization rhetorical agency. Rhetorical agency is difficult but vital to conceptualize because the term bears directly on the discipline's theorizing about the speaker or rhetor, the effect of the speaker or rhetor's rhetoric on an audience, and the extent to which the speaker or rhetor's agency is constrained by ideology and discourse. What emerged from this discussion about agency did distance the discipline from the humanist conceptualization of rhetorical agency that persisted at the time Gaonkar published …

Kicking The Can, Peter Ellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kicking the Can is a video documentary that explores the financial crisis of 2008 and the socio-political factors that led to the collapse. The documentary was produced over the course of a year and a half, and contains interviews with economists, politicians, academics, and U.S. citizens. Kicking the Can ultimately reveals that the financial crisis is a complex issue that can be analyzed and interpreted from a variety of political and social perspectives. This paper documents the making of the film, the production involved, and the process of working with collaborators and other crewmates.

Connexin-32 And Connexin-43 Immunoreactivity In Rodent Taste Buds, Amanda E. Bond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies indicate that ATP is one of the primary neurotransmitters in taste transduction. ATP release occurs from taste cells via specific hemichannels such as pannexin/connexin hemichannels (Huang et al., 2007; Romanov et al., 2007). We hypothesize that Type II (receptor) and possibly Type III (presynaptic) cells release ATP at sites containing pannexin/connexin hemichannels. In this study, we examine the presence of connexin–32–LIR (Like Immunoreactivity) and connexin–43–LIR in rodent taste buds through immunocytochemical analysis and DAB (Di–amino–benzidine) immunoelectron microscopy. We observed that connexin–32–LIR co–localizes with P2X2–LIR in nerve fibers and in a small subset of NCAM–LIR cells. Connexin–32–LIR does not co–localize …

The Impact Of Shared Musical Identity, Shared Family Identity, And Accommodation On Satisfaction In Parent/Young Adult Relationships, Ryan C. Hancock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the potential influence of shared musical identities of young adult children and their parents in relation to communicative and relational aspects of family, in order to determine whether musical tastes of individuals impact family relationships. In this research study, 196 college students reported on their perceptions of shared musical identity with their parents, shared family identity, parental accommodative communication behaviors, and family satisfaction. Results indicated that shared musical identity positively predicted perceptions of shared family identity, parental accommodative behaviors, including general accommodation, overaccommodation, topic management, and family satisfaction. Furthermore, shared musical identity and shared family identity positively …

Analyzing The Interaction Between Melanocortin 5 Receptor, Melanocortin Receptor Accessory Protein 1, And Melanocortin 2 Receptor In Rainbow Trout, Domicinda M. Hill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using CHO cells we sought to explore and characterize the functional relationship of rainbow trout MC5 receptor (rtMC5R) with zebrafish MRAP1 (zfMRAP1) and rainbow trout MC2 receptor (rtMC2R), as well as how the effect of such relationships may play a significant role in Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal/Interrenal axis activation. This research demonstrated that rtMC5R can be successfully expressed and functionally activated in CHO cells and, in a manner similar to mammals, α-MSH is the preferred ligand for rtMC5R. The presence of MRAP1 does not seem to inhibit the expression or function of rtMC5R, rather it appears that it may increase expression and total …

Nonprofit Marketing Education In The United States: An Examination And Interpretation Of The Prevalance And Nature Of Curriculum, Theresa Meier Conley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The nonprofit sector is a large, growing, and essential part of the United States economy. There is a history of inspired ideas and complex change in the nonprofit sector that marketing educators and business school administrators must understand if they are to be leaders in the continuing evolution of nonprofit marketing education.

This manuscript includes a summarized historical perspective, a selective review of literature from existing nonprofit management and marketing education, a discussion of relevant contemporary issues for consideration, and mixed-method research results regarding the prevalence and nature of nonprofit marketing education. The mixed-method research strategy includes three phases; the …