Digital Commons Network^™

Dynamic Force, Motion, And Life In Digital Design., James Michael Livingston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to explore specific works that I have created as it relates to digital art and design. My works include abstract, organic objects that exist within surrealistic environments. First, I explain the dynamics of the imagery that has emerged from my career in broadcast television, my coursework in the Department of Art and Design at East Tennessee State University, and the works of fantasy, surreal, and abstract artists. In conclusion, the images discussed impose an idea of abstraction and surrealism with a sense of force, motion, life, and dynamic action.

Romantic Attachment Styles, Gender, And Reasons For Living., Niles Adrian Cruz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine reasons for living in people with secure, avoidant, and anxious/ambivalent romantic attachment styles. Romantic attachment style was assessed by use of the Adult Attachment Questionnaire (AAQ). Reasons for living were assessed using the Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL). The independent variables were gender and romantic attachment style. The dependent variable was the RFL score.

Participants included 235 male and female students from a southeastern university. A brief demographic questionnaire, the RFL (Linehan,M., Goodstein, J., Neilson, S., & Chiles J., 1983), and the AAQ (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), were administered in electronic format …

The History Of The Development Of The Department Of Technology At East Tennessee State University (1911-2002)., Vincent Edward Banks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to produce a written account of the history of the development of the Department of Technology at East Tennessee State University, from 1911 to 2002. Information about the department's history was gathered from various sources and was then organized into a manuscript format. Throughout the document, emphasis remained on four main topic areas; significant name changes, academic/curriculum modifications, faculty changes, and other notable changes/events. This research was unique since in the department's ninety-plus years of existence, no consolidated, written account of its history had ever been created.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge And Opium., Donald John Marotta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coleridge's usual use of opium was through laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol. This thesis presents the history of and criticism regarding the poet's use of laudanum and the physical and emotional consequences the drug held for him and his writing career.

Reasons For Living And Suicidal Ideation Among College Students With Varying Levels Of Risk For Alcohol Related Problems., Dorian A. Lamis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every year in the United States approximately 30,000 people commit suicide including approximately 1,100 college students. Furthermore, heavy alcohol consumption is prevalent on many college campuses and has been linked to suicidal behavior. The present study was conducted to examine suicidal ideation and reasons for living in college students with varying levels of risk for alcohol related problems. Undergraduate students (n = 161) were administered a survey to assess demographics, suicide ideation status, reasons for living, and the participant's level of risk for alcohol related problems. Results indicated that suicide ideators are significantly more likely than non-ideators to be at …

A Perceptual Study Of The Impact Of Athletic Programs In Selected Community Colleges In The State Of Tennessee., Lee Martin Cigliano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the economic, institutional, and human impact of athletic programs at community colleges in the Tennessee Board of Regents community college system to determine how the athletic programs affects the benefits, or lack of benefits, for students, the institutions, and the communities.

Sixteen participants were interviewed: two presidents, two athletic directors, four coaches, and eight student-athletes. The student-athletes represented four different sports and came from a variety of educational backgrounds and academic standing. The primary benefits perceived for the institutions and the student-athletes were the impact on missions, enrollment, educational and athletic opportunities, …

The Perceived Impact Of No Child Left Behind On Third- Through Fifth-Grade Elementary Science Classrooms., Angela V. Kinsler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceived impact of No Child Left Behind on elementary science classrooms in 3 Northeast Tennessee school districts. Quantitative descriptive methodology was used to document how No Child Left Behind impacts instructional methodology, professional development, administrative support, materials and resources, and assessment in 3rd through 5th grades.

Data were collected using a survey developed by the researcher. The survey consisted of a demographic section, 28 statements, and 2 open-ended questions. The 51 participants included elementary-school science teachers in 8 schools in 3 upper East Tennessee school districts.

Data analysis was based on …

From Transcendentalism To Progressivism: The Making Of An American Reformer, Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904)., Ann B. Cro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author and activist Abby Morton Diaz (1821-1904) was a member of the Brook Farm Transcendental community from 1842 until it folded in 1847. Although critics have long recognized that Brook Farm played a role in Diaz's intellectual preparation, they have not attempted to demonstrate its influence through a study of her writings.

In this study I will examine in detail two of Diaz's novels and two long essays, with passing references to other works, that reveal how the utopian socialism practiced at Brook Farm influenced Diaz as a writer and reformer. In all her writings Diaz emphasized the importance of …

Conjugative Transfer Pathways Of High-Level Mupirocin Resistance And Conjugative Transfer Genes In Staphylococcus., Danielle Barnard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To combat widespread infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, mupirocin was introduced at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mountain Home, Tennessee. Soon after introduction, high-level mupirocin-resistance emerged. The rapid emergence was hypothesized to be due to conjugative transfer of the mupA resistance gene from S. epidermidis to S. aureus. Results have shown that transfer of high-level mupirocin-resistance from S. aureus donors commonly occurs. However, transfer from naturally-occurring S. epidermidis donors was not attainable. Staphylococcus epidermidis transconjugants, however, were capable of serving as donors. Further examination of non-transmissibility included PCR analysis of conjugative transfer genes (tra genes) in capable …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Their Preparation To Choose And Implement Effective Methods For Teaching Emergent Readers., H. Brooke Blair

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reading is not an easily learned skill for most students. I chose to look at the methodology being used by teachers in East Tennessee to instruct emerging readers. Through my review of literature, I researched reading approaches implemented in American classrooms in the last 150 years. I compared and contrasted data to determine current researchers' findings concerning the most effective techniques for teaching reading and how teachers have implemented this knowledge base into their teaching strategies.

Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. Therefore, I also researched literature addressing the growing concern among educators with teachers' preparation and professional …

Double The Novels, Half The Recognition: Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Contribution To The Evolution Of The Victorian Novel., Lori Elizabeth Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why do we read what we read? Janice Radway examines works that were not popular in an author's time period, but now are affecting the construction of the canon. In her own words, Radway seeks to "establish [popular literature] as something other than a watered-down version of a more authentic high culture [and] to present the middlebrow positively as a culture with its own particular substance and intellectual coherence" (208). Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novels were considered "middlebrow" and were very popular in Victorian England. Along with this facet, her heroines were considered controversial because they were not portrayed as what …

The Cost Of Mupirocin Resistance In Staphylococcus., Susan D. Reynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Control of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is based on the concept that resistance incurs a fitness cost in non-selective conditions. Fitness costs were assessed for low- and high-level mupirocin resistance in locally-derived Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermidis. Costs of resistance were assessed in pure cultures by comparing growth curve characteristics and in mixed culture as the proportion of resistant cells surviving. Costs were not present in comparisons of growth rates among groups of naturally-occurring isolates from the different resistance categories. However, in S. aureus, growth rates within resistance categories differed by approximately 30 – 90%. Among near-isogenic pairs …

"Don't Believe The Hype": The Construction And Export Of African American Images In Hip-Hop Culture., John Ike Sewell Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines recurring motifs and personas in hip-hop.

Interviews with influential hip-hop scholars, writers and music industry personnel were conducted and analyzed using qualitative methods. Interview subjects were selected based on their insider knowledge as music critics, hip-hop scholars, ethnomusicologists, publicists, and music industry positions.

The vast majority of constructed imagery in hip-hop is based on a single persona, the gangsta. This qualitative analysis reveals why gangsta personas and motifs have become the de facto imagery of hip-hop. Gangsta imagery is repeatedly presented because it sells, it is the most readily-available role, and because of music industry pressures.

This …

Trees With Unique Minimum Locating-Dominating Sets., Stephen M. Lane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A set S of vertices in a graph G = (V, E) is a locating-dominating set if S is a dominating set of G, and every pair of distinct vertices {u, v} in V - S is located with respect to S, that is, if the set of neighbors of u that are in S is not equal to the set of neighbors of v that are in S. We give a construction of trees that have unique minimum locating-dominating sets.

Articulation As An Act Of Futility: A Deconstructive Exploration Of Textual Articulation As It Functions Within A First-Person Narrative Structure., Wilson Wright Onstott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The inability of language to convey complete meaning and truth is a central point of address for much post-structuralist literary theory and criticism. When these theories are applied to a first-person narrative structure, whether it is a work of fiction or non-fiction, certain specific incongruities arise. When a narrative seeks to recall certain events, a presupposed reexamination takes place as the narrative unfolds text comes into being. If a narractice is contructed in this way then the intent of the text then is to convey comprehensive meanings or truths of those cataloged experiences. According Deconstructive Theory, it is language's inherent …

On The Chromatic Number Of The Ao(2, K , K-1) Graphs., Navya Arora

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The alphabet overlap graph is a modification of the well known de Bruijn graph. De Bruijn graphs have been highly studied and hence many properties of these graphs have been determined. However, very little is known about alphabet overlap graphs. In this work we determine the chromatic number for a special case of these graphs.

We define the alphabet overlap graph by G = AO(a, k, t, where a, k and t are positive integers such that 0 ≤ t ≤ k. The vertex set of G is the set of all k …

Strategies For Encoding Xml Documents In Relational Databases: Comparisons And Contrasts., Jonathan Lee Leonard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rise of XML as a de facto standard for document and data exchange has created a need to store and query XML documents in relational databases, today's de facto standard for data storage. Two common strategies for storing XML documents in relational databases, a process known as document shredding, are Interval encoding and ORDPATH Encoding. Interval encoding, which uses a fixed mapping for shredding XML documents, tends to favor selection queries, at a potential cost of O(N) for supporting insertion queries. ORDPATH Encoding, which uses a looser mapping for shredding XML, supports fixed-cost insertions, at a potential cost of …

The Influence Om Mentoring On Goal Attainment And Role Satisfaction For Registered Nurses In Acute Care., Christine Benz Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring has been suggested as a means to assist with role transition, career planning, and retention in the profession by providing opportunities for personal and professional growth lead to satisfaction. Satisfaction is especially crucial for the retention of Registered Nurses in a time when the profession has been experiencing a critical shortage. This quantitative study examined the influence of mentoring for RNs who have been employed in acute care facilities for the first time for less than 2 years. Using Bouquillon's mentoring instrument and based in the frameworks of King and Kram, the study suggests mentoring is occurring among new …

An Examination Of Student Performance In Reading/Language And Mathematics After Two Years Of Thinking Maps® Implementation In Three Tennessee Schools., Katharine Mabie Hickie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, association exists between Thinking Maps^® instruction and student achievement in fifth grade students in Reading/Language and Mathematics as reported by the State NCE scores of the criterion referenced portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Achievement Test in 3 Title I elementary schools in northeast Tennessee. The association was examined after 2 years of Thinking Maps^® implementation and instruction. Using a quantitative design, the quasiexperimental study included fifth grade students' State NCE scores from 2005 and the same students' State NCE scores from 2003. Scores obtained …

Childhood Reflections Of Adult Male Incarcerated Child Sexual Abusers., Linda H. Garrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Child sexual abuse has existed since earliest recorded history. It is believed that one in three females and one in five males are sexually abused before their 18^th birthday, and many researchers believe this is a gross underestimation of the problem. Child sexual abuse has been studied extensively from the perspective of the victim. Child sexual abusers have been studied over the last few decades but with inconsistent definitions and methods applied among studies. This qualitative study explored the childhood reflections of 8 incarcerated child sexual abusers in a southern Appalachian prison. One-on-one in-depth interviews were conducted at the …