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Pedagogy, Social Transformation, And Space: Toward A Revolutionary Critical Pedagogy For Space, Derek R. Ford

Dissertations - ALL

Building on the work of Peter McLaren, Henri Lefebvre, and David Harvey, this dissertation develops a revolutionary critical pedagogy for space. I begin with a historical and theoretical survey of the roots critical pedagogy, a pedagogical orientation that is often called upon but rarely situated deeply. I then break down revolutionary critical pedagogy into seven components. I elaborate the dominant trends in the current social-political moment. I introduce two terms here, neoliberalism and the global class war. I argue that the former is a necessary but ultimately insufficient framework for understanding the present moment, and that the latter provides a …

The Decision To Pursue The Principalship: Perspectives Of Certified Administrators In Upstate Central New York, Frederick Paul Kirsch

Dissertations - ALL

This qualitative research study sought to uncover the attractants and deterrents of educational administrative positions in Upstate Central New York (CNY) public schools by exploring the perspectives of both practicing principals and those that are certified but not currently employed in an administrative position. The study posed three research questions. First, how do educators who are certified as administrators in Upstate Central New York describe experiences that have influenced them to pursue or not pursue the principalship? Second, what do certified administrators perceive as the attractants and deterrents to the principalship in Upstate Central New York and which of these …

Negotiating Dse Teaching Identity In Today’S Public Schools: Complexity, Camaraderie, & Subversion, Carrie Eileen Rood

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explored the experiences and perspectives of eleven classroom teachers who self-identify and commit to disability studies in their practices in their current roles as teachers in k-12 schools. The study uncovered the lived experience of what it means to take on a disability studies in education (DSE) identity, including the particular pedagogical methods and strategies that these teachers assigned to and named as DSE. Through phenomenological interviewing, participant’s experiences around practicing their identities were recorded and analyzed. The data collected offers a glimpse into how a DSE identity manifests itself within today’s schools, including the complicated and complex …

Controlling Biofilm And Persister Cells By Targeting Cell Membranes, Ali Adem Bahar

Dissertations - ALL

The rapid increase in antibiotic resistant infections and the slowing pace of antibiotic development emphasize the need for alternative therapeutic agents to cure infectious diseases especially those caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains. Bacteria obtain resistance to antibiotics through multiple mechanisms. One of intrinsic mechanisms of drug resistance is persister formation, by which bacterial cells enter a metabolically inactive stage and become highly tolerant to essentially all antibiotics, even at the concentrations that are hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose required to kill normal planktonic cells of the same strain. Persister cells in biofilms are even more difficult to …

Leading Curricular Change: The Role Of The School Principal In Implementation Of The Common Core State Standards, Tiffany Marie Squires

Dissertations - ALL

Principals, whose jobs are increasingly being reframed as requiring instructional leadership (Lunenburg, 2013; Hallinger, 2005), serve as a vital link between standards-based reform and its successful implementation at the school level (Fullan, 2011; Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Leithwood & Riehl, 2005; Spillane & Hunt, 2010). Standards-based reform or guidelines for change mandated by state government significantly influence teaching and learning (Beane, 2013). Our nation’s latest iteration of standards-based reform is comprised within the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which are currently fully implemented in 42 states. Despite the essential role of the school leader in implementation of standards-based reform, research …

Coteaching In Secondary Schools, Carol A. Willard

Dissertations - ALL

The use of coteaching as a means of supporting students with disabilities in the general education classroom is becoming more common. The literature base on the effectiveness of coteaching in elementary grade levels is well established; however, coteaching in secondary school is a less documented topic. Therefore, this study examines coteaching in secondary schools. Coteaching, as defined in this study, is one general and one special education teacher sharing instructional responsibilities for at least one group of students in one classroom for at least one instructional period. The research questions guiding the study focused on the models of coteaching used …

Effects Of Ultrasound As Visual Feedback Of The Tongue On Generalization, Retention, And Acquisition In Speech Therapy For Rhotics, Greta Sjolie

Dissertations - ALL

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide an initial comparison of exposure to ultrasound visual feedback of the tongue and no exposure to ultrasound in speech therapy for postvocalic rhotics (the /r/ family of sounds). Effects of the two treatments on acquisition, retention, and generalization were explored in participants ages 7-9.

Methods: A single-subject randomized block design replicated across four participants was used. Each week for seven weeks, one session containing high frequency ultrasound use and one session containing no ultrasound use were randomly ordered. A Training Probe List and Generalization Probe List consisting of monosyllabic words, multisyllabic …

Indoor Environmental Quality (Ieq) And Building Energy Optimization Through Model Predictive Control (Mpc), Korbaga Fantu Woldekidan

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation aims at developing a novel and systematic approach to apply Model Predictive Control (MPC) to improve energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality in office buildings. Model predictive control is one of the advanced optimal control approaches that use models to predict the behavior of the process beyond the current time to optimize the system operation at the present time. In building system, MPC helps to exploit buildings’ thermal storage capacity and to use the information on future disturbances like weather and internal heat gains to estimate optimal control inputs ahead of time.

In this research the major challenges …

What Is The Relationship Between The Degree Middle Schools Implement The Essential Elements, Student Achievement And The Programs And Practices Applied In Each School, Ravo Root Iii

Dissertations - ALL

ABSTRACT

By 2003, both the New York State Board of Regents Policy Statement and the new Commissioner’s Regulation 100.4, required all middle level programs to implement a set of policies and practices called the NYS Essential Elements of Standards-Focused Middle-Level Schools and Programs. Early adolescence (ages 10-14) is a time when students experience, the most tumultuous physical and mental changes occur during adolescence, with the exception of a child’s first year of life (Montessori, 2004). Middle grade level philosophy and a description of what middle schools should be like are directly linked to taking a balanced approach to meeting the …

Detecting At-Risk Drinking In University Primary Care: Validity Of The Audit-C, Clare Elizabeth Campbell

Dissertations - ALL

Research has shown that primary care physicians are more likely to discuss alcohol use with their patients when brief screens are routinely administered. One such screen, the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C; Bush, Kivlahan, McDonnell, Fihn, & Bradley, 1998), has yet to be validated for detecting at-risk alcohol consumption and negative drinking consequences among students presenting to a university student health service for primary care. Accordingly, the proposed study aimed to assess the construct validity of the AUDIT-C among students (N = 387) recruited from Syracuse University's University Health Service (UHS). Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analyses were used to …

Dancing With Gender: A Reception Analysis Of Chinese Women's Viewing Experiences Of Ann Hui's The Golden Era, Li Chen

Dissertations - ALL

The issue that this study addressed was the unprivileged status of women audience members and women directors in the male dominated Chinese film industry. To investigate this problem, the purpose of this study was to explore how Chinese women audience members produce different meanings in terms of gender identity and gender relations through viewing The Golden Era (2014), directed by a female filmmaker Ann Hui. To deeply understand the viewing experiences of Chinese women audience members, this qualitative research project was designed as a reception analysis. To gather data, interviews with 18 Chinese women with viewing experiences of this film …

"We'd Always Return To This Center:" Understanding Urban Space As A Dakota Place In Mni Sota Makoce, Kelsey Marie Carlson

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis intends to bring to popular consciousness the historical and ongoing injustices committed against Indigenous peoples by sharing the knowledges and experiences of a number of Dakota people in Minnesota. Part landscape analysis, part ethnography, and by most substantially relying on narrative and lengthy excerpts from interviews, I challenge the dominant notion that Minnesota is a non-Native space. Rather, Mni Sota Makoce, the land where the waters reflect the sky, with a place called Bdote at its center, forms the traditional territory of the Dakota Oyate, the Dakota Nation. More specifically, this thesis tells a story about Dakota peoples' …

Deciphering The Neuroprotective Potential Of Interleukin-1Β (Il-1Β) Using In Vitro Murine Models Of Oxidative Stress, Twinkle Chowdhury

Dissertations - ALL

Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), a key cytokine driving neuroinflammation in the Central Nervous System (CNS), is enhanced in many neurological diseases/disorders, including but not limited to ischemic stroke, Parkinson's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease. The dominant view is that IL-1β contributes to and/or sustains pathophysiological processes. However, other studies demonstrate that IL-1β can play an important role in neural protection and repair. It may do so by modifying astrocyte behavior. Indeed, studies from our laboratory demonstrate that IL-1β increases the synthesis and release of the antioxidant molecule glutathione (GSH) from astrocytes and that IL-1β-treated astrocytes show increased resistance …

Permitting Joint-Control In Asymmetric Dependence Relationships: Investigating A Strategy For Increasing Trust, Michael Ioerger

Dissertations - ALL

Most work related to trust in dyadic interactions has focused on the establishment and development of trust in situations where partners are of relatively equal status and have the ability to impact each other's outcomes (Rempel, Holmes, & Zanna, 1985; for a review Simpson, 2007a; 2007b). However, many social interactions can be characterized as asymmetric dependence situations where the outcomes of one partner (i.e., the dependent partner) are completely controlled by another (i.e., the controlling partner). The current work investigated trust in the context of one-off asymmetric dependence interactions, and experimentally explored one strategy for increasing trust in these exchanges. …

Label Free Analysis Of Native Planktonic P. Aeruginosa Cells And Growth Media By Near Infrared (Nir) Binary Spectronephelometry (Bsn), Steven Ortiz

Dissertations - ALL

Current noninvasive methods are unable to continuously and simultaneously monitor the concentration of cells and chemical components that define the state of native bacterial cultures because of the changing turbidity. We seek to solve this problem without subjecting the growing culture to the risk of contamination afforded by physical sampling. The Binary Spectronephelometry (BSN) algorithm uses laser induced emission to probe mildly turbid media. A training set spanning the linear range of elastic emission (EE) i.e. physical scattering and inelastic emission (IE) i.e. fluorescence and Raman emission was produced with varying concentrations of bacteria and standard media using a modified …

Effects Of An Expressive Writing Intervention Aimed At Improving Academic Performance By Reducing Test Anxiety, Stephanie Lauren Spielberger

Dissertations - ALL

This study examined the effectiveness of a brief, class-wide, expressive writing intervention aimed at improving academic performance and decreasing test anxiety. This study included 110 students from six undergraduate psychology classes. In the first phase of the study, students completed a trait test anxiety measure and a demographic survey. In the second phase of the study, students completed a pre-intervention state test anxiety measure, responded to a 10-minute writing prompt (expressive or neutral), and completed the same state test anxiety measure, and then were administered an in-class exam. Approximately half the students were randomly assigned to the expressive writing group, …

The Relationship Of Spirituality And Depression On The Subjective Well-Being Of Jamaican College Students: A Cross Sectional Study Of Teacher Training Institutions In Jamaica, Claudette A. Brown-Smythe

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

Spiritual is an integral component of one’s well-being and can serve as a barrier to our wellness as well as a protective factor from ill health. Spirituality helps one to make meaning of life’s circumstances and can be an intrinsic motivator helping to regain balance in our world. This study examined the relationship between spirituality, depression, and subjective well-being in 214 students enrolled in teachers’ colleges in Jamaica. Researchers (Campbell, Roberti, Maynard & Emmanuel, 2009; Kameel & Kamal, 2011; Lipps, Lowe & Gibbons, 2004; Lowe, Lipps & Young, 2009) have documented depression as an issue for college students in …

Student Characteristics That Predict Persistence And Performance In Online Courses And The Face-To-Face Equivalents At A Four-Year Private Northeastern University, Karen Zannini Bull

Dissertations - ALL

Attrition in online courses is of growing concern in higher education. Many researchers and practitioners are concerned about student persistence (course completion) and performance (completion of a course with a grade of C or better) in online courses. This study investigated the undergraduate student characteristics that predict student persistence and performance in online courses and the face-to-face equivalents at a four-year private northeastern university. The sample consists of undergraduate students (42,280 observations, 25,167 unduplicated student headcount, which is the actual number of individual students in the population) who enrolled in courses, regardless of delivery format, from fall 2002 to spring …

Composite Minimization: Proximity Algorithms And Their Applications, Feishe Chen

Dissertations - ALL

ABSTRACT

Image and signal processing problems of practical importance, such as incomplete

data recovery and compressed sensing, are often modeled as nonsmooth optimization

problems whose objective functions are the sum of two terms, each of which is the

composition of a prox-friendly function with a matrix. Therefore, there is a practical

need to solve such optimization problems. Besides the nondifferentiability of the

objective functions of the associated optimization problems and the larger dimension

of the underlying images and signals, the sum of the objective functions is not,

in general, prox-friendly, which makes solving the problems challenging. Many algorithms have been …

A Qualitative Approach To Studying The Lived Experiences Of High School Aged Sexual Minority And Gender Nonconforming Youth Across Relationships And Contexts., Michael Calloway

Dissertations - ALL

Four youth who identified as sexual or gender minorities were recruited from a high school in Upstate New York for a study designed to investigate the experiences that facilitate or hinder their ability to fully question and explore their identities between and across relationships and contexts. This current investigation utilized Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory as a means with which to structure both the interviews with the informants as well as the findings. I also utilized Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis as the means of gathering, interpreting, and presenting the data in a meaningful way. The participants engaged in a range of interpersonal and …

Coordination Chemistry In Biology And Medicine, Christopher Chu

Dissertations - ALL

PART I. Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Metal-Citrate Complexes and the Investigation of Metal-Citrate Transporters in Gram-Positive Bacteria

Abstract.

Syntheses of new barium, cadmium, calcium, cobalt, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, nickel, and strontium citrate complexes have been attempted using different methods such as room temperature slow evaporation and hydrothermal reactions to create new metal-citrate complexes. Crystallizations were conducted under conditions varying metal and ligand concentrations, solution pH, temperature, solvents, and the presence of coligands. All structures of crystals obtained were characterized by X-ray crystallography. A novel lead-citrate complex was synthesized with a formula of (Na)[Pb5(C6H5O7)3(C6H6O7)(H2O)] 8H2O. The structure is two-dimensional …

Characterization And Chemical Kinetic Analysis Of The Ignition Of Representative Conventional And Bio-Derived Fuels, Mazen Eldeeb

Dissertations - ALL

Fossil fuels are the main energy source in the world. However, they are responsible for negative environmental impacts, such as global climate change and rising sea levels. Biofuels are an environmentally friendly alternative which can substitute fossil fuels without major engine modications, especially in the transportation sector. Furans, a class of biofuels, are considered as possible alternative fuels for SI engines. They can be produced from sugars, derived from non-food biomass sources. This thesis is a contribution to fundamental characterization of their combustion properties.

Reactivity trends in furan combustion are established through ignition delay measurements of selected furans; 2,5-dimethyl furan …

Power-Aware Planning And Design For Next Generation Wireless Networks, Chenfei Gao

Dissertations - ALL

Mobile network operators have witnessed a transition from being voice dominated to video/data domination, which leads to a dramatic traffic growth over the past decade. With the 4G wireless communication systems being deployed in the world most recently, the fifth generation (5G) mobile and wireless communica- tion technologies are emerging into research fields. The fast growing data traffic volume and dramatic expansion of network infrastructures will inevitably trigger tremendous escalation of energy consumption in wireless networks, which will re- sult in the increase of greenhouse gas emission and pose ever increasing urgency on the environmental protection and sustainable network development. …

Heterogeneous Sensor Signal Processing For Inference With Nonlinear Dependence, Hao He

Dissertations - ALL

Inferring events of interest by fusing data from multiple heterogeneous sources has been an interesting and important topic in recent years. Several issues related to inference using heterogeneous data with complex and nonlinear dependence are investigated in this dissertation. We apply copula theory to characterize the dependence among heterogeneous data.

In centralized detection, where sensor observations are available at the fusion center (FC), we study copula-based fusion. We design detection algorithms based on sample-wise copula selection and mixture of copulas model in different scenarios of the true dependence. The proposed approaches are theoretically justified and perform well when applied to …

Angular Trapping Of A Mirror Using Radiation Pressure, David Bruce Kelley

Dissertations - ALL

Alignment control in gravitational-wave detectors has consistently proven to be a

dicult problem due to the stringent noise contamination requirement for the gravitational

wave readout and the radiation-pressure induced angular instability in Fabry-

Perot cavities (Sidles-Sigg instability). In this thesis, I present optical springs as a

tool to damp the motion of a mirror. I discuss the design and implementation of a single

degree-of-freedom optical spring system and the importance of the photothermal

eect in properly predicting optical spring behavior.

I also present the development and implementation of an angular control scheme,

attempting to damp two degrees of freedom with …

Design Of A High Capacity, Scalable, And Green Wireless Communication System Leveraging The Unlicensed Spectrum, Mohammad Riaz Khawer

Dissertations - ALL

The stunning demand for mobile wireless data that has been recently growing at an exponential rate requires a several fold increase in spectrum. The use of unlicensed spectrum is thus critically needed to aid the existing licensed spectrum to meet such a huge mobile wireless data traffic growth demand in a cost effective manner. The deployment of Long Term Evolution (LTE) in the unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) has recently been gaining significant industry momentum. The lower transmit power regulation of the unlicensed spectrum makes LTE deployment in the unlicensed spectrum suitable only for a small cell. A small cell utilizing LTE-L …

Optimizing Acyclic Identification Of Aptamers, Caitlin M. Miller

Dissertations - ALL

The minimal human alpha-thrombin binding aptamer, d(GGTTGGTGTGGTTGG), has previously been successfully identified from a DNA library of randomized hairpin loop, m=15, with the High Throughput Screening of Aptamers (HTSA) technique, later termed Acyclic Identification of Aptamers (AIA). AIA eliminated the need for multiple cycles of in vitro evolution typically used for aptamer discovery by employing libraries with an over-representation of all possible sequences and high throughput sequencing. Although the method was successful at identifying the thrombin binding aptamer, improvements to partitioning and sample preparation inconsistencies encountered during replication attempts were necessary in order to maximize its value. Subsequent revisions and …

Assessing The Quantified Impact Of A Hybrid Pogil Methodology On Student Averages In A Forensic Science Survey Course, Tyna Lynn Meeks

Dissertations - ALL

A causal-comparative/quasi experimental study examined the effect of incorporating a hybrid teaching methodology that blended lecture with Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Lessons (POGILs) on the overall academic achievement of a diverse student body in a large lecture setting. Additional considerations included student gender, ethnicity, declared major (STEM or non-STEM), and SAT scores. An evaluation of the effect that these characteristics had on student achievement due to differentiating import placed on the use of POGILs as a learning tool was included. This study used data obtained from a longitudinal examination of eight years of student data from an introductory forensic science …

Reconfiguring French Secularism: The Mosque As The New Multicultural Space Of Young Muslims, Ayse Ozcan

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation explores the ways in which secularism communicates with Islam both as a socio-political concept and as daily practice in the context of France. Most studies examine this process through the uses of the headscarf or within the framework of terrorism. This study suggests a fresh perspective by using an experimental spatial analysis with a focus on the major mosques and the practices of mosque congregants. It poses the question how French Muslims reconcile French secularism (laïcité) with Islam through the use of the mosque space. In this respect, mosques are transformed into alternative multicultural spaces where the secular …

Understanding Disordered Systems Through Numerical Simulation And Algorithm Development, Sean M. Sweeney

Dissertations - ALL

Disordered systems arise in many physical contexts. Not all matter is uni-

form, and impurities or heterogeneities can be modeled by fixed random disor-

der. Numerous complex networks also possess fixed disorder, leading to appli-

cations in transportation systems [1], telecommunications [2], social networks

[3, 4], and epidemic modeling [5], to name a few.

Due to their random nature and power law critical behavior, disordered

systems are difficult to study analytically. Numerical simulation can help

overcome this hurdle by allowing for the rapid computation of system states.

In order to get precise statistics and extrapolate to the thermodynamic limit,

large …