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The Strength Of Multidimensional Item Response Theory In Exploring Construct Space That Is Multidimensional And Correlated, Steven Gerry Spencer

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation compares the parameter estimates obtained from two item response theory (IRT) models: the 1-PL IRT model and the MC1-PL IRT model. Several scenarios were explored in which both unidimensional and multidimensional item-level and personal-level data were used to generate the item responses. The Monte Carlo simulations mirrored the real-life application of the two correlated dimensions of Necessary Operations and Calculations in the basic mathematics domain. In all scenarios, the MC1-PL IRT model showed greater precision in the recovery of the true underlying item difficulty values and person theta values along each primary dimension as well as along a …

Effects Of Video Modeling On Skill Acquisition In Learning The Golf Swing, Joshua L. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of video modeling on skill acquisition in learning the golf swing. One-hundred-eight college students participated in this study. All participants were pre-tested via videotaping to determine initial skill level. The pre-test videotaping was analyzed using DartTrainer software. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three groups (1) control (2) single-view or (3) multi-view. Participants in the control group viewed a compact disc (CD) with a putting demonstration repeated 40 times. The participants in the single-view group viewed a CD with a front view only demonstration repeated 40 times of …

Marital Satisfaction And Depression In A Study Of Brazilian Women: A Cross-Cultural Test Of The Marital Discord Model Of Depression, Cody S. Hollist

Theses and Dissertations

Depression is a major societal health problem with individual, familial, social, and economic costs. Cross sectional research has linked depression and marital discord, with women frequently having a higher association between variables. Several longitudinal research studies have linked marital satisfaction to subsequent depression. The Marital Discord Model of Depression states that marital discord is an important antecedent in the development of depression. While some empirical evidence exists supporting this premise, no research has been done with Latinos. The purpose of this study was to test the longitudinal relationship between marital satisfaction and depression among Latina women.

The data was conducted …

Automating The Extraction Of Domain-Specific Information From The Web-A Case Study For The Genealogical Domain, Troy L. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Current ways of finding genealogical information within the millions of pages on the Web are inadequate. In an effort to help genealogical researchers find desired information more quickly, we have developed GeneTIQS, a Genealogy Target-based Information Query System. GeneTIQS builds on ontology-based methods of data extraction to allow database-style queries on the Web. This thesis makes two main contributions to GeneTIQS. (1) It builds a framework to do generic ontology-based data extraction. (2) It develops a hybrid record separator based on Vector Space Modeling that uses both formatting clues and data clues to split pages into component records. The record …

The French Expatriate Assignment: Helping Accompanying Spouses To Adapt By Assuming The Role Of Anthropologist, Angela Marsha Williams

Theses and Dissertations

A common practice of multinational companies is to temporarily transfer employees to international locations in order to exchange technology, launch new ventures, and facilitate communication within the company. To do this, multinational companies must make a number of decisions regarding their expatriate programs. Even though international companies would rather stay focused on the professional performance of their employees without having to "meddle" in personal and family affairs, recent research has shown that the adaptation of the accompanying spouse is one of the most critical factors in expatriate assignment success or failure. By studying the available literature on expatriate spouse adaptation, …

Leaving Her Story: The Path To The Second Marriage In The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall And Middlemarch, Angela Myers Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

During the Victorian period marriage proved to be a dominant theme in fiction. Female writers especially focused on the topic of marriage and wrote stories of women whose first marriages were imperfect. Anne Brontë and George Eliot dedicated themselves to portraying in their stories realistic heroines who deal with their own flaws as well as those of the men they marry. Their heroines distance themselves from their expected roles, moving beyond their first failed marriages to wiser second marriages.

Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall follows Helen Huntingdon as she attempts to fulfill the self-appointed role of Savior to …

Exploring The Relationship Between Critical Resource Variables And School Performance In Secondary Schools Of Mukono Uganda, Christopher Byalusago Mugimu

Theses and Dissertations

While good facilities and resources are assumed to affect the quality of teaching and school performance, findings of the growing body of research about resources and school performance remain obscure and highly contested. A central question in effective schooling research is to what extent do resources translate into school performance particularly in impoverished communities of the developing countries. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between school-level financial, physical, and human resources on school performance as measured by aggregated UCE exam scores in 63 secondary schools. This study is grounded in the strategic theoretical perspective of …

Conjoint Marital Therapy: Proxy Voice Intervention And Softening In The Context Of Couple Enactments, Ryan B. Seedall

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the effectiveness of proxy voice intervention, embedded within couple enactments, on client-perceived softening. During enactments, direct couple interaction is the focus while the therapist coaches from the periphery. In the context of an enactment, the therapist may use proxy voice when partners appear to be distressed and expressing themselves in terms of secondary emotions by modeling appropriate attachment and self-concept expression. The primary research question was whether therapist use of proxy voice in an enactment would be more likely to bring about softening effects, or whether use of proxy voice was counter-intuitive to enactment conceptualization and would …

Variance In Percent Body Fat Between And Within Families As Measured By Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry, Laurel Anne Kelsey

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To determine the variance in percent body fat between and within families as measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Methods: Percent body fat (%BF) assessed in 95 females, 120 males (included 54 sets of biological siblings) using DXA. Physical activity questionnaire used to assess current physical activity habits in each participant. Results: Variance in %BF between and within families is similar. Amount of television viewing and levels of physical activity can affect %BF. Discussion: A model such as the one derived in this study can be a useful tool in intervention programs implemented to decrease obesity.

Instructing Teachers Of Children With Disabilities Within The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Katie E. Sampson

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates benefits of in-service training on LDS primary teachers' ability to state an objective, obtain and keep attention, use wait time, incorporate active participation, teach to the multiple intelligences, and employ positive behavior management techniques. Two groups of 30 viewed either a video-tape or read a handout. Pre and post surveys were used to determine mean gain.
Using an ANCOVA, comparisons were made of overall mean gain for each group. Results showed participants made a gain of approximately 1/2 point per question on a 4-point scale on the video and the handout (video gain = .6032 p<.01; handout gain = .6264 p<.01). The results of this study support the hypothesis that teachers receiving one in-service will increase their perception of their ability to teach students with special needs.

Prevalence Of Teleological And Lamarckian Misconceptions Of Natural Selection Among College Students, Bryce T. Battisti

Theses and Dissertations

Science teachers and researchers note that students must correctly understand the role of natural selection in evolution to make sense of biology. The level of understanding of natural selection can be assessed using the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS) which is a 20-item multiple-choice test that incorporates student misconceptions as distractors. In the present study, Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to analyze the occurance of misconceptions on the CINS among 1192 students in an introductory non-majors biology course. The four most difficult topics in the CINS are: (a) how change occurs in a population; (b) origin of variation; …

The Effects Of The Type Of Skill Assessment On The Motivation Of Students In Physical Education, Tyler Gene Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to (1) examine the effects of criterion-referenced (i.e., Programmed Practice Sheet or PPS) and norm-referenced (i.e., standardized) skill assessments on the situational motivation of junior high school physical education students (N = 507), (2) determine if student task and ego dispositions could be affected by the type of skill assessment administered, and (3) determine if having choices of skill level affects student situational motivation and perception of autonomy support. Student situational motivation, task and ego disposition, and sense of autonomy were assessed using the Situational Motivation Scale (SIMS), Perception of Success Questionnaire (POSQ), and …

The Role Of Vocabulary Size In Assessing Second Language Vocabulary, Kevin John Zimmerman

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the role of vocabulary size in assessing learners from various L1 backgrounds and for institutional placement. Participants included native speakers of Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin, who took a test that estimated the size of their productive English vocabulary. First, the vocabulary size of students from each language group was compared and the relationship between vocabulary size and institutional placement level was examined. Then, scores were analyzed to determine how cognates and loan words influenced the participants' performance on the vocabulary test. Further, students' vocabulary size scores were correlated with their placement scores that evaluated reading, writing, …

Casuistical Connections From Dunton To Defoe, John E. Fossum

Theses and Dissertations

This master's thesis is primarily concerned with the philosophical conditions of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England that encouraged the emergence of periodical literature and perpetuated the birth of the novel. While most connections between periodical literature and the novel are made on how the former created the readership that ensured the latter's success, I focus on how the epistemology unique to the advent of empirical science together with the growing prominence of casuistic thought created a space in which periodical literature could emerge and the early novel could flourish. I investigate the underlying assertion of a particular philosophical amalgam …

Probabilistic Methodology For Record Linkage Determining Robustness Of Weights, Krista Peine Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Record linkage is the process that joins separately recorded pieces of information for a particular individual from one or more sources. To facilitate record linkage, a reliable computer based approach is ideal. In genealogical research computerized record linkage is useful in combing information for an individual across multiple censuses.

In creating a computerized method for linking censuse records it needs to be determined if weights calculated from one geographical area, can be used to link records from another geographical area. Research performed by Marcie Francis calculates field weights using census records from 1910 and 1920 for Ascension Parish Louisiana. These …

Family Differentiation, Family Recreation, And Symptoms Of Eating Disorders, Birgitta Lynne Baker

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between family differentiation, family recreation and symptoms of eating disorders. The Family Intrusiveness Scales, the Perceived Social Support from Family, the Family Leisure Activity Profile and the Eating Attitudes Test were used. Participants were students at two large universities, one in the East and one in the West. Data were analyzed using correlation and ANCOVA. Findings supported the hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between family leisure involvement and family differentiation. In addition, a negative relationship between family differentiation and symptoms of eating disorders for individuals whose parents are not …

Hermine Cloeter, Feuilletons, And Vienna: A Flaneuse And Urban Cultural Archaeologist Wandering Through Opaque Spaces, Bridging Past And Present To Reclaim What Could Be Lost, Kelli D. Barbour

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the authority that time holds in the discipline of studying events of the past, not all historians or writers analyzing the past use time to study history—some use space, including writers who write about and interact with an urban topography. The space used by these writers is built space, as well as inhabited and practiced "lived" space. Whereas time provides a transparent overview of history, the urban spaces tend to be opaque. Clarifying history through urban space is additionally troublesome, because built space and its attached memories are visibly forgotten and ignored as time advances. Despite the difficulties of …

Religion And Gender In Christian, Jewish, And Muslim Married Couples, Anna Mae Ridley

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the influence of religion on gender roles in marriage. Past research indicates that previous theories of marital power have ignored couples' own conceptualizations and have relied on taken for granted assumptions. Thirty-two religious couples (from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths) were interviewed regarding their gender roles. Grounded-theory qualitative analyses were conducted for couples' perceptions of religious influence on gender roles, the development of their gender practice, and their operationalization of marital power. Results are reported according to couples' discussion of role organization, role design, and outcomes. Valuing gender differences moderated religious impact on couples' role development and …

Melioration And The Behavioral Addiction Process: An Experimental Analysis, Jared Micah Dinehart

Theses and Dissertations

Melioration can be a factor contributing to behavioral addiction. In this study, 76 university undergraduates operated a "money machine" by selecting between choices that corresponded to maximization and melioration. Participants initially made choices consistent with a strategy of melioration and demonstrated significantly greater variability in choice behavior when visual cues were presented aimed at exposing the internality (or consequence) of the choice situation. Removal of the visual cues resulted in a return to lower responding. Visual cues may aid in interrupting the behavioral addiction pattern by limiting exclusive use of a melioration choice strategy. Methods of restructuring and experimentation with …

The Context Of Contact: White Attitudes Toward Interracial Marriage, Bryan R. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Using a year 2000 national racial poll conducted by the New York Times, I analyze Whites' approval of interracial marriage. I utilize the contact hypothesis, as originally formulated by Gordon Allport, to develop a conceptual model of White's attitudes toward interracial marriage. Specifically I propose and develop an additional dimension of the contact hypothesis, which accounts for the context in which interracial contacts occur. I do so by examining several specific social settings in which White respondents report experiencing contact with Blacks. The contexts examined are ordered in terms of the type of contact they likely provide, from close, personal …

The Million-Dollar Question: Why Pre-Adolescents Watch Television, Emily A. Smurthwaite

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents qualitative research examining the relationship youth have with television. Information for this study was collected through media journals, personal essays, in-depth interviews, and focus groups held with eighteen sixth-graders who attended a charter elementary school in Lindon, Utah.

The question posed to the students multiple times during the data collection was: “Would you give up television for $1 million?” Through the students’ answers and ensuing dialogue, the researcher examined the social value the pre-adolescents attributed to watching television. The findings identify three main categories the students said were reasons they were attached to television, which also corresponded …

Women's Response To Spousal Unemployment: Economic, Labor Force, And Family Constraints, Elizabeth Miklya Legerski

Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from 29 interviews with the wives of steelworkers who were forced into unemployment, I explore the conditions and factors that shape women's choices in response to their husbands' job loss. Access to a unique and under-studied sample of women married to unemployed working-class men necessitates the use of grounded theory research techniques that allow me to "give voice" to working-class women.

Learning To Create: A Collection Of Personal Essays, Naomi Lund Christiansen

Theses and Dissertations

This is a creative thesis that focuses on the infertility experiences of the author. The introduction examines the author's justification for choosing personal essay as a genre and French feminism as the guiding theory in writing the essays. Six personal essays center on the author's attempts to have a child and the discoveries and failures along the way. Throughout literary history, women's bodies have traditionally been viewed from the outside looking in, as objects to be reified and preserved or exploited and used. Using the writing the body critics as a theoretical framework, the essays discuss the comforts and discomforts …

Communities, Place, And Conservation On Mount Kilimanjaro, Marie Bradshaw Durrant

Theses and Dissertations

The Chagga people have lived and worked on Mount Kilimanjaro for more than 250 years. Through traditions and social practices within their communities and families, strong bonds are established between the Chagga and their home on the mountain. Kilimanjaro National Park and Forest Reserve (KINAPA) was established in the 1970s to protect and conserve the mountain, based on a long history of colonialism and western ideals. As KINAPA has attempted to preserve the flora and fauna on the uppermost portion of Mount Kilimanjaro, they have alienated local residents from the land through a conservation approach that relies on "fences and …

Through The Eyes Of Shamans: Childhood And The Construction Of Identity In Rosario Castellanos' "Balun-Canan" And Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima", Tomas Hidalgo Nava

Theses and Dissertations

This study offers a comparative analysis of Rosario Castellanos' Balún-Canán and Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, novels that provide examples on how children construct their identity in hybrid communities in southeastern Mexico and the U.S. southwest. The protagonists grow and develop in a context where they need to build bridges between their European and Amerindian roots in the middle of external influences that complicate the construction of a new mestizo consciousness. In order to attain that consciousness and free themselves from their divided selves, these children receive the aid of an indigenous mentor who teaches them how to establish a …

The Effect Of Religiosity And Spirituality On Work Practices And Trust Levels In Managers And Their Subordinates In Food And Nutrition Care Departments, Jennifer S. Oler

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which religiosity and spirituality affected daily work practices and leader/follower trust levels in foodservice and nutrition directors and their subordinates. A similar 72-item survey questionnaire was developed for both the directors and employees, which was completed by 129 directors and 530 employees. Both questionnaires contained questions on demographics, religious influences on work practices, trust characteristics, and three validated measures of religiosity: 1) worship service attendance (1=Religiosity Score), 2) influence of spiritual beliefs on daily life, and 3) frequency of prayer (2 + 3=Spirituality Score). Frequency data was gathered for …

Body Mass Index And Soft Drink Consumption Among Adolescents, Olivia Love Mccord

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and soft drink consumption among adolescents. It is hypothesized that soft drink consumption contributes to overweight and obesity among adolescents.

Background: Research examining the relationship between body mass index and soft drink consumption is inconsistent. Several studies have found a negative association between total sugar intake and BMI; however, others have found a link between sugar-sweetened drinks and obesity. There are no known studies that have controlled for physical activity.

Data and Methods: Data on approximately 225 adolescents were used. Frequency of soft drink consumption, type of milk, and calcium …

Grouping Search-Engine Returned Citations For Person-Name Queries, Reema Al-Kamha

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we present a technique to group search-engine returned citations for person-name queries, such that the search-engine returned citations in each group belong to the same person. To group the returned citations we use a multi-faceted approach that considers evidence from three facets: (1) attributes, (2) links, and (3) page similarity. For each facet we generate a confidence matrix. Then we construct a final confidence matrix for all facets. Using a threshold, we apply a grouping algorithm on the final confidence matrix. The output is a group of search-engine returned citations, such that the citations in each group …

An Examination Of Perceptions For Family Acculturation, Family Leisure Involvement, And Family Functioning Among Mexican-Americans, Owen D. Christenson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acculturation and aspects of family functioning (cohesion and adaptability) and family leisure involvement from Mexican-American parent, youth, and family perspectives. Acculturation of parents, youth, and families was measured using the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (BAS). Family leisure involvement was measured using the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP). Aspects of family functioning were measured using the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES II). Sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, generation, family size, income, and education were also used to help predict levels of acculturation for family perspectives. The …

Treatment Of Hypertriglyceridemia With Omega-3 Fatty Acids: A Systematic Review, Amanda Gloria Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: To 1) critically appraise available randomized controlled trials (RTCs) addressing the efficacy of long-chain ω-3 fatty acids as a secondary prevention agent of hypertriglyceridemia, and 2) make recommendations for clinical practice.

Data Sources: All RCTs identified from several databases from 1993-2003 were reviewed by two independent reviewers who extracted data from each study and used the previously tested Boyack and Lookinland Methodological Quality Index (MQI) to determine study quality.

Results: Ten studies reported long-chain ω-3 fatty acids to be effective in the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia. The average decrease in triglycerides (TG) was 29%, total cholesterol (TC) 11.6%, very low …