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Articles 1 - 30 of 123
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A Program Evaluation Of The One-To-One Chromebook Initiative In A Rural School District In Virginia, Juvenal Enrique Abrego-Meneses
A Program Evaluation Of The One-To-One Chromebook Initiative In A Rural School District In Virginia, Juvenal Enrique Abrego-Meneses
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the implementation of the One-to-one Chromebook initiative in a rural school district in Virginia. The study used the goals of the district's technology plan as a framework to measure the effectiveness in the implementation of the One-to-one Chromebook Computer initiative in Grades 5, 6, 9, and 10. The study sought to collect the perceptions of stakeholders toward the program, the degree to which students engaged in the purposeful and effective use of Chromebooks as well as the application of technology to demonstrate students' knowledge of 21st century skills. The participants included …
Critical And Creative Thinking In General Education: A Descriptive Case Study, Nicholas Richard Marsella
Critical And Creative Thinking In General Education: A Descriptive Case Study, Nicholas Richard Marsella
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Abstract as part of a strategic planning effort begun in 2008, the College of William & Mary began the process of reviewing and changing its general education program. Approved by the faculty in 2013, the university is implementing an innovative curriculum called the "College Curriculum," designed in part to help students acquire knowledge and develop the skills and habits of critical and creative thinking. The purpose of this study was to investigate the institution's and faculty's understanding of how the new curriculum addressed student development of critical and creative thinking. This descriptive case study provided a review of the literature …
Exploring New Paradigms For Mobile Edge Computing, Yutao Tang
Exploring New Paradigms For Mobile Edge Computing, Yutao Tang
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Edge computing has been rapidly growing in recent years to meet the surging demands from mobile apps and Internet of Things (IoT). Similar to the Cloud, edge computing provides computation, storage, data, and application services to the end-users. However, edge computing is usually deployed at the edge of the network, which can provide low-latency and high-bandwidth services for end devices. So far, edge computing is still not widely adopted. One significant challenge is that the edge computing environment is usually heterogeneous, involving various operating systems and platforms, which complicates app development and maintenance. in this dissertation, we explore to combine …
The Effects Of Dietary Mercury Exposure On Male Fertility In The Zebra Finch, Ananda Menon
The Effects Of Dietary Mercury Exposure On Male Fertility In The Zebra Finch, Ananda Menon
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Sperm traits, including morphology, number and function, have been linked to fertilization ability and offspring quality in several species. However, many of these traits are artificially influenced by anthropogenic pollutants. Mercury, a globally distributed heavy metal pollutant, has been linked to altered testicular morphology and reduced fertility in many vertebrates. in this study, we exposed domestic male zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata) to dietary mercury at concentrations found in prey species in a highly polluted watershed region. We then compared sperm traits from these males to those of controls, and found a significant effect of mercury on sperm length and variability. …
Ecology And Evolution Of Common Milkweed, Angela Ricono
Ecology And Evolution Of Common Milkweed, Angela Ricono
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
All organisms must interact with and adapt to their surrounding environment. There are myriad ways in which species accomplish this; ultimately resulting in the vast diversity of life on earth today. Changes in the environment can have profound impacts on an organisms' ability to compete and utilize their surroundings. Plants are particularly impacted by local environmental differences because of the fact that they are immobile. This environmental variation exists at both large and small spatial scales. For example, on larger scales, forces such as fire and grazers can remove dominant plant competitors. on smaller scales, variation in resource availability (e.g. …
Taking It To The Streets: Race, Space, And Early D.C. Punk, Ashleigh Mae Williams
Taking It To The Streets: Race, Space, And Early D.C. Punk, Ashleigh Mae Williams
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This work examines race and class in early Washington, D.C. punk from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. It is my contention that written punk memoirs rarely give a contextual look at each movement. From rose-colored memoirs, many inside or outside the punk community view the movements as genuine rebellions against mainstream American music and values. It is my view that subversive movements do not emerge completely free from institutional oppression. The same is true with punk. to examine punk's beginnings, I analyze punk movements in the United Kingdom and Los Angeles before turning to a detailed account of …
A State-Level Superintendent Evaluation Policy Analysis, Tracey L. Schneider
A State-Level Superintendent Evaluation Policy Analysis, Tracey L. Schneider
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
It is the superintendent's complex role and ultimate leadership responsibility for all district outcomes that suggests superintendents hold the key to successful reform. Research in the wake of the federal accountability and reform movement has focused on the principal as the mediator of school reform. Consequently, there is a dearth of research focusing on the superintendent's role in school reform, superintendent performance evaluation, and the state's responsibility to ensure a fair, equitable, and high-quality superintendent evaluation process through state-level policy. This study is a comprehensive policy analysis of state-level superintendent evaluation policies nationwide using a basic content analysis methodology and …
Immune Changes In The Anterior Kidney Of Spawning Sockeye Salmon, Meaghan K. Smith
Immune Changes In The Anterior Kidney Of Spawning Sockeye Salmon, Meaghan K. Smith
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
During the return journey to their spawning grounds, sockeye salmon are exposed to various pathogens and undergo major endocrine changes. Little is known about how these changes affect their immune system. The immune system of salmon is similar to mammals; myeloid lineage cells provide the first response to infection and B lineage cells protect against specific pathogens. After activation by pathogen, B cells may differentiate into long-lived plasma cells (LLPCs) in the anterior kidney, where they can survive for years, continuously secreting protective antibody. This research focused on salmon from two rivers, the Kenai and the Copper River, and characterized …
Of Mammies, Minstrels, And Machines: Movement-Image Automaticity And The Impossible Conditions Of Black Humanity, Joseph Frank Lawless
Of Mammies, Minstrels, And Machines: Movement-Image Automaticity And The Impossible Conditions Of Black Humanity, Joseph Frank Lawless
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This thesis argues that the GIF, as an underexplored analytical vertex within the broader matrix of media ecologies, should be understood as a generative nodal point in the American system of racialized violence. Thought in relation to its medium specificity, the GIF's materiality, particularly its capacity for infinite looping, is critically interrogated for its potential to amplify the circuitry of dominating racialization that felicitously condition the GIF's circulation. I open my argument with focus on a subset of the GIF genre known as the reaction GIF, which, in its frequently racialized form, is situated within the interconnected genealogies of the …
Zone-Decorated Pots At The Hatch Site (44pg51): A Late Woodland Manifestation Of An Ancient Tradition, Douglas Makin
Zone-Decorated Pots At The Hatch Site (44pg51): A Late Woodland Manifestation Of An Ancient Tradition, Douglas Makin
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Excavated in the 1970s and 80s by Lefty Gregory, the Hatch site is arguably among the most significant precolonial archaeology sites in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Though the collection sat in storage for decades, it recently became accessible to researchers. The thorough excavation combined with abundant radiocarbon data allow the historical narrative of this magnificent site to come into focus. an unusual place, hidden in a remote location, the Hatch site witnessed at least 600 years of regularly occurring ritualized gatherings. These gatherings involved the sacrifice and internment of dogs as well as elaborate feasts on both estuarine and terrestrial …
A Program Evaluation Of An After-School Reading Intervention Program In A Small Urban Elementary School, Erin Kershner
A Program Evaluation Of An After-School Reading Intervention Program In A Small Urban Elementary School, Erin Kershner
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation of an after-school reading intervention program for reluctant readers. The program is part of a school district initiative to help young students establish positive, productive habits and dispositions toward reading. Program participants included teachers in the after-school program and parents of students who participated for two years. The evaluation questions were designed to assess the perceptions of those stakeholders on the benefit of the program for student participants. Both teachers and parents perceived that the program benefited students' receptive vocabularies. Teachers found that the program significantly improved students' ability …
Ancestral Landscapes: A Study Of Historical Black Cemeteries And Contemporary Practices Of Commemoration Among African Americans In Duval County, Jacksonville, Fl., Brittany Brown
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The end of slavery in North America presented an opportunity for African Americans in Jacksonville, Florida to reinvent themselves. The reconstruction era brought about new social, political, and economic opportunities for African Americans living in Jacksonville. Despite the failure of Reconstruction and the implementation of Jim Crow, Jacksonville gave birth to a vibrant African American aristocracy. Jacksonville's Black elite comprised of doctors, lawyers, morticians, religious leaders, business people and other professionals. Jacksonville's Black elite thrived in the early half of the twentieth century, many of them used their knowledge and skills to contribute to the social and economic development of …
Probe Of Electroweak Interference Effects In Non-Resonant Inelastic Electron-Proton Scattering, James Franklyn Dowd
Probe Of Electroweak Interference Effects In Non-Resonant Inelastic Electron-Proton Scattering, James Franklyn Dowd
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Qweak collaboration at Jefferson Lab made the first direct measurement of the proton's weak charge, Q_W^p, via a measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic e ⃑p scattering with low four-momentum transfer. to meet the high-precision goals, energy-dependent electroweak radiative corrections were applied to the measured asymmetry. The γZ box, □_γZ, where a photon and a Z-boson are simultaneously exchanged, was the most problematic of these corrections. It could not be calculated through the same perturbative methods as the rest of the corrections. The □_γZ correction depends on theoretical models of the γZ interference structure functions, F_1,2^γZ, for which …
Investigating The Spatiotemporal Distribution Of A Tick-Borne Pathogen, Ehrlichia Chaffeensis, Dylan Simpson
Investigating The Spatiotemporal Distribution Of A Tick-Borne Pathogen, Ehrlichia Chaffeensis, Dylan Simpson
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The incidence of tick-borne diseases is on the rise in the US and around the world, due in part to emerging pathogens. However, the environmental drivers affecting these pathogens remain unclear. Most research on the topic in the US has focused on Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme, but it is unknown if the same conditions that affect B. burgdorferi also affect other pathogens, which may be carried by other ticks or reservoirs. The answer will help determine generalizable principles in tick-borne pathogen ecology, if they exist, as well as better manage for tick-borne pathogen risk in areas at risk from …
The Magnificent Seven: A Narrative Analysis Of Suppressed Discourses In Psychiatric Diagnoses, Clayton Vance Martin
The Magnificent Seven: A Narrative Analysis Of Suppressed Discourses In Psychiatric Diagnoses, Clayton Vance Martin
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
This study is a Narrative Analysis of the hidden strengths and positive qualities inherent to identified psychiatric diagnosis. Seven individuals were interviewed on two occasions and also corresponded with me via email and telephone. Analysis of individual narratives yielded common thematic elements and common plot points, these factors were further analyzed and contemplated in the light of their implications for the Counseling profession. an informed critique of the research design is presented, followed by implications and suggestions for future research.
A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Lived Experiences Of Female African American Undergraduate Stem Students At An Elite Predominantly White Institution, Reginald O. Johns
A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Lived Experiences Of Female African American Undergraduate Stem Students At An Elite Predominantly White Institution, Reginald O. Johns
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of the experiences of being a female, African American STEM undergraduate who is enrolled at an elite Predominantly White Institution and who has a mentoring relationship. A hermeneutic approach to phenomenology was used to gather data through open-ended interviews. Research questions included: What are the lived experiences of female, African American, STEM undergraduate students of the STEM community at an elite Predominantly White Institution? What are the lived experiences of high achieving female, African American, STEM undergraduate students with their mentors? Four themes emerged from the interviews: (a) Discouraging …
A Case Study Of The Dynamics Of Trust In A Reconstituted Urban Middle School, Lamarr Moses
A Case Study Of The Dynamics Of Trust In A Reconstituted Urban Middle School, Lamarr Moses
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The primary purpose of this case study was to examine the dynamics and dimensions of trust as perceived by teachers, parents, and students in an urban middle school that experienced school reconstitution as a result of failing to meet adequate yearly progress as required under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Research has documented that the quality of relationships within urban schools influences student achievement. Schools with higher levels of trust are also more likely to meet school reform initiatives. an additional aim of this study was to add to the research base on school reconstitution. Data were …
Education Reform As Moral Disengagement: The Racist Subtext Of The State Takeover Of Little Rock School District, Davis Clement
Education Reform As Moral Disengagement: The Racist Subtext Of The State Takeover Of Little Rock School District, Davis Clement
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Public support for market-based education reforms persists despite evidence that these reforms exacerbate the educational marginalization of Black and Brown students. Even among Democrats and ostensibly equity-minded policy actors, support for reforms like charter schools is widespread. How do people come to support racially stratifying policies despite their supposed commitment to ethic of social justice? The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the theories of unconscious racism (Lawrence, 1995a) and moral disengagement (Bandura, 1999) in the state takeover of a majority Black school district by a majority white state government. Methods included a critical race analysis …
Development Of Large-Scale Unstructured Grid Storm Surge And Sub-Grid Inundation Models For Coastal Applications, Zhuo Liu
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Storm surge and inundation induced by hurricanes and nor'easters pose a profound threat to coastal communities and ecosystems. These storm events with powerful winds, heavy precipitation, and strong wind waves can lead to major flooding for cities along U.S. Coasts. Recent examples of Hurricane Irene (2011) in North Carolina and Virginia and Hurricane Sandy (2012) in New York City not only demonstrated the immense destructive power by the storms, but also revealed the obvious, crucial need for improved forecasting of storm tide and inundation. in part I, a large-scale unstructured-grid 3-D barotropic storm tide model SCHISM (Semi-implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated …
Impact Of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation On Water Quality In Cache Slough Complex, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: A Numerical Modeling Study, Xun Cai
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) plays a significant role in many aquatic systems, and impacts both physical and ecological quantities. It can baffle currents, attenuate waves, recycle nitrogen and phosphorus from the sediment bed, perform ecosystem function as a primary producer, and provide critical habitat for many aquatic species. Conversely, the invasive SAV, Egeria densa (Brazilian waterweed), in the San Francisco Bay & Delta has been a nuisance since its introduction into the system in the 1960s. It has displaced most of the native submersed aquatic plant species in the Delta and restructured the ecosystem, thus threatening the survival of several …
Distinguishing Between Goosebumps, Tingling, Coldness, And Shivers According To Affective Composition, Lena Marie Wadsworth
Distinguishing Between Goosebumps, Tingling, Coldness, And Shivers According To Affective Composition, Lena Marie Wadsworth
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
"The chills" refers to a set of bodily sensations – goosebumps, tingling, coldness, and shivers – that accompany emotion. Maruskin, Thrash and Elliot (2012) identified two higher order clusters of chills sensations that differed in affective tone. "Goosetingles" tend to accompany positive emotions, tend to be elicited by reward-related stimuli, and enhance feelings of closeness with others. "Coldshivers" tend to accompany negative emotions, tend to be elicited by threat-related stimuli, and enhance feelings of social isolation. Factor analyses have also identified four lower order factors of chills (goosebumps, tingling, coldness, and shivers), but validity research has not established distinct nomological …
Exotic Phases In Attractive Fermions: Charge Order, Pairing, And Topological Signatures, Peter Rosenberg
Exotic Phases In Attractive Fermions: Charge Order, Pairing, And Topological Signatures, Peter Rosenberg
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Strongly interacting many-body systems remain a central challenge of modern physics. Recent developments in the field of ultra-cold atomic physics have opened a new window onto this enduring problem. Experimental progress has revolutionized the approach to studying many-body systems and the exotic behaviors that emerge in these systems. It is now possible to engineer and directly measure a variety of models that can capture the essential features of real materials without the added complexity of disorder, impurities, or complicated or irregular geometries. The parameters of these models can be freely tuned with tremendous precision. These experimental realizations are an ideal …
Shifting Patterns Of Ribbed Mussel Distribution And Ecosystem Services In Response To Sea Level Rise, Robert Earl Isdell
Shifting Patterns Of Ribbed Mussel Distribution And Ecosystem Services In Response To Sea Level Rise, Robert Earl Isdell
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Throughout the salt marshes of the US Atlantic Coast, ribbed mussels (Geukensia demissa, Dillwyn, 1817) and smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora Loisel) form an important mutualistic relationship. Spartina provides habitat and promotes settling of ribbed mussels, which, in turn, stabilize and fertilize the Spartina and sediment. This relationship, however, is at risk of interruption due to sea level rise, erosion, and coastal development. Among the most at-risk segments of the marsh, the front (waterward) edge of the marsh is also where ribbed mussels and their ecosystem services are concentrated. Despite their importance of ribbed mussels to the salt …
Quantifying And Explaining Causal Effects Of World Bank Aid Projects, Jianing Simulation Zhao
Quantifying And Explaining Causal Effects Of World Bank Aid Projects, Jianing Simulation Zhao
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
In recent years, machine learning methods have enabled us to predict with good precision using large training data, such as deep learning. However, for many problems, we care more about causality than prediction. For example, instead of knowing that smoking is statistically associated with lung cancer, we are more interested in knowing that smoking is the cause of lung cancer. With causality, we can understand how the world progresses and how impacts are made on an outcome by influencing the cause. This thesis explores how to quantify the causal effects of a treatment on an observable outcome in the presence …
Computational Investigations Of The Structure And Spectroscopy Of Small Biomolecules In The Gas Phase, Zachary Michael Smith
Computational Investigations Of The Structure And Spectroscopy Of Small Biomolecules In The Gas Phase, Zachary Michael Smith
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Small biomolecule systems were interrogated using infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) action spectroscopy and corresponding quantum chemical calculations with a particular focus on peptide fragmentation and protonation site preference. b2+ and b3+ fragment ions with a terminal lysine homolog residue were investigated using IRMPD in the fingerprint region (1000 cm-1 – 2000 cm-1) and a variety of computational methods. We present the first spectroscopic confirmation of b-ion formation with a lactam structure. Infrared spectra for b2+ fragment system indicate the presence of a mixture of structures, though final determination will require further investigation. The b3+ fragment ion infrared spectra show …
Measuring Hypodescent In The Social Categorization Of Multiracial Targets, Matthew Steven Preda
Measuring Hypodescent In The Social Categorization Of Multiracial Targets, Matthew Steven Preda
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Individuals of multiracial descent are often categorized and perceived as belonging to the socially subordinate (i.e. non-White) racial group, according to the rule of hypodescent, a product of the history of racial discrimination and segregation in the United States. This paper describes two studies of racial categorization which illustrate the importance of hypodescent in the social categorization of ambiguous multiracial targets. Hypodescent was observed among both Black and White observers (Studies 1 and 2), suggesting that societally enforced rules about racial categories affect individuals' decisions about the category membership of others. in Study 2, hypodescent was measured using a self-report …
A Measurement Of Nuclear Effects In Deep Inelastic Scattering In Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions, Anne Norrick
A Measurement Of Nuclear Effects In Deep Inelastic Scattering In Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions, Anne Norrick
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Neutrino-Nucleus Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) events provide a probe into the structure of nucleons within a nucleus that cannot be accessed via charged lepton-nucleus interactions. The MINERvA experiment is stationed in the Neutrinos from the Main Injector (NuMI) beam line at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. With the recent increase in average neutrino energy and the greatly increased intensity of the NuMI beam line, projected sensitivities for DIS cross section ratio analyses using MINERvA's suite of nuclear targets (C, CH, Fe and Pb) are greatly increased. an analysis of theMINERvA DIS data on carbon, iron, lead, and plastic has been conducted …
The Effects Of Mating Strategy On Religiosity: Church Attendance As A Mating Strategy Component And The Role Of Religious Belief., Jacob Thomas Henicheck
The Effects Of Mating Strategy On Religiosity: Church Attendance As A Mating Strategy Component And The Role Of Religious Belief., Jacob Thomas Henicheck
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Contrary to traditional theories that religious morals influence sexual attitudes, recent research has found that controlling for sexual attitudes largely reduces associations between various moral views and religiosity. Based on these findings, the reproductive religiosity model was proposed in which being sexually restricted leads individuals to increase their religious involvement. However, the model a) does not account for religious belief and b) claims that sexual behavior mediates the effect of various variables on church attendance without employing a mediation model. to address these points, this study tests reproductive variables in a multiple regression to examine their ability to independently predict …
Dynamics Of Systems With Hamiltonian Monodromy, Daniel Salmon
Dynamics Of Systems With Hamiltonian Monodromy, Daniel Salmon
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
A system is said to have monodromy if, when we carry the system around a closed circuit, it does not return to its initial state. The simplest example is the square-root function in the complex plane. A Hamiltonian system is said to have Hamiltonian monodromy if its fundamental action-angle loops do not return to their initial topological state at the end of a closed circuit. These changes in topology of angle loops carry through to other aspects of these systems, including the classical dynamics of families of trajectories, quantum spectra and even wavefunctions. This topological change in the evolution of …
Extensions Of The Standard Model Higgs Sector, Richard Keith Thrasher
Extensions Of The Standard Model Higgs Sector, Richard Keith Thrasher
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
The Standard Model is regarded as one of the most successful scientific theories, but there is compelling evidence that it is an incomplete theory of particle physics. There is currently no understanding of the observed baryon asymmetry, the nature of dark matter, and dark energy. Field theoretic considerations indicate parameters in the Standard Model are extremely fine-tuned. This suggests the existence of new physics, accessible at higher energies, to explain these seemingly unnatural tunings. to solve these puzzles, and others not addressed by the Standard Model, many extensions of the Standard Model have been proposed. It is of great importance …