Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 193

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Measuring And Understanding Health-Related Quality Of Life Among Adult Patients With Hemophilia, Ruchit Mukesh Shah Jan 2016

Measuring And Understanding Health-Related Quality Of Life Among Adult Patients With Hemophilia, Ruchit Mukesh Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to: 1) examine the psychometric properties of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-12 Version 2 (SF-12v2); 2) assess the measurement invariance of the SF-12v2 with respect to age, disease severity, and treatment regimen; 3) identify psychosocial predictors of health-related quality (HRQOL) among adults with hemophilia in the United States. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using both a web-based and paper-based self-administered survey. Adults with hemophilia were recruited using an online panel, a Facebook community of hemophilia patients, and at the University of Mississippi Medical Center hemophilia treatment clinic. Psychometric properties of the …


A Comparison Of Shovel Testing And Surface Collection As Archaeological Site Discovery Methods: A Case Study Using Mississippian Farmsteads, Cameron Smith Howell Jan 2016

A Comparison Of Shovel Testing And Surface Collection As Archaeological Site Discovery Methods: A Case Study Using Mississippian Farmsteads, Cameron Smith Howell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shovel testing and controlled surface collection are commethods of archaeological site investigation that are generally approved by state and federal agencies as well as the academic community for cultural resource management projects and research. While both techniques are equally utilized, little research has been conducted on how equivalent these techniques are in terms of their efficacy for finding site. This thesis seeks to find a way to compare these techniques by creating mathematical models to describe how well the methods behave when tested on known datasets generated from Mississippian period farmsteads. The predicted performance can then be compared to real …


The Impact Of Disclosing Auditor Independence And Tenure On Non-Professional Investor Judgment And Decision-Making, L. Tyler Williams Jan 2016

The Impact Of Disclosing Auditor Independence And Tenure On Non-Professional Investor Judgment And Decision-Making, L. Tyler Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study experimentally investigates how disclosing both the auditor’s obligation to remain independent of its client and auditor tenure in the audit report influence non-professional investors’ judgments and decision-making, especially the decision about whether to invest in a particular auditee. In the Auditor’s Reporting Model (ARM) proposal, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) asserts that inclusion of additional information in the audit report will improve the informativeness of the audit report for investors and as a result will modify its relevance to investment decisions. Using an experiment, I find that these disclosures positively influence non-professional investor judgments of auditor …


Finding The Sweet Spot Of Cause-Related Marketing: Consumer Response To Campaign Tactics, Katharine Michelle Howie Jan 2016

Finding The Sweet Spot Of Cause-Related Marketing: Consumer Response To Campaign Tactics, Katharine Michelle Howie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cause-related marketing is an effective promotional tool that connects with consumers’ emotions and increases sales. Two essays are presented that explore how consumers respond to different marketing tactics. The first essay presents two studies that examine cause-related marketing (CRM) promotions that require consumers’ active participation. Requiring a follow-up behavior has very valuable implications for maximizing marketing expenditures and customer relationship management. Theories related to ethical behavior, like motivated reasoning and defensive denial, are used to explain when and why consumers respond negatively to these effort demands. The first study finds that consumers rationalize not participating in CRM by devaluing the …


Investigation Of Parameters Enabling Admicellar Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer (Raft) Polymerization, Poh Lee Cheah Jan 2016

Investigation Of Parameters Enabling Admicellar Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer (Raft) Polymerization, Poh Lee Cheah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, enormous studies on admicellar polymerization have been recorded since the initial reports in the 1980’s. This technique which offered the advantage of using inexpensive materials and facile procedures, proven to be a successful surface modification technique. Nevertheless, one has to tailor every particular case due to the contribution of various factors in the process. Therefore, understanding the fundamentals parameters affecting the characteristics of polymer formed by admicellar polymerization have become a great interest. The effect of oxygen on the requisite amount of initiator and the polymer formed through the admicellar polymerization of styrene on silica particles was studied …


Rain Induced Runoff Simulation Using A 2d Numerical Model, Tahmina Shirmeen Jan 2016

Rain Induced Runoff Simulation Using A 2d Numerical Model, Tahmina Shirmeen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Runoff plays an important role in the agricultural and urbanized environments. Surface runoff is determined primarily by the amount of precipitation and by infiltration characteristics related to soil type, soil moisture, antecedent rainfall, land cover type, impervious surfaces, and surface retention. In this study, CCHE2D, a numerical model for free surface flow hydrodynamics, is applied to study the rain induced runoff and channel flow mixed problems. The main goal of this study is to incorporate rainfall as an input into the existing free surface flow model, CCHE2D; to verify and validate the CCHE2D model’s runoff simulation capability using analytical solutions …


Reducing Cache Contention On Gpus, Kyoshin Choo Jan 2016

Reducing Cache Contention On Gpus, Kyoshin Choo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The usage of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) as an application accelerator has become increasingly popular because, compared to traditional CPUs, they are more cost-effective, their highly parallel nature complements a CPU, and they are more energy efficient. With the popularity of GPUs, many GPU-based compute-intensive applications (a.k.a., GPGPUs) present significant performance improvement over traditional CPU-based implementations. Caches, which significantly improve CPU performance, are introduced to GPUs to further enhance application performance. However, the effect of caches is not significant for many cases in GPUs and even detrimental for some cases. The massive parallelism of the GPU execution model and the …


The Influence Of Perceived Barriers, Perceived Social Support, And Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy On High School Juniors' And Seniors' Postsecondary Plans, Denise Antwainette Gilstrap Jan 2016

The Influence Of Perceived Barriers, Perceived Social Support, And Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy On High School Juniors' And Seniors' Postsecondary Plans, Denise Antwainette Gilstrap

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

National emphasis on postsecondary education highlights the importance of studies that investigate students’ college and career readiness, specifically how self-efficacy and contextual factors may affect their postsecondary aspirations. The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the influence of perceived barriers, perceived social support, and career decision-making self-efficacy on high school juniors’ and seniors’ postsecondary plans. High school juniors and seniors (n = 124) were surveyed to determine the influence of three predictors on their short-term and long-term postsecondary plans. The first predictor, perceptions of educational barriers, consisted of the following barrier groups: efficacy and motivation, support system, …


Intermediate Russian Through Formula Tales, Tamar Karakozova Jan 2016

Intermediate Russian Through Formula Tales, Tamar Karakozova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation presents a study of on the benefits of formula tales in university-level foreign language classrooms during grammar practice activities. The study investigates students’ attitudes toward the use of such texts in the post-secondary foreign language environment. In addition, differences between and among the participant-students is analyzed. Cognitive learning theory, noticing hypothesis, and content-based instruction provide the theoretical framework for the study.


The Effects Of Homogeneous Differentiation On Reading Achievement: Within-Class Grouping Versus Between-Class Grouping, Sharon Suzanne Liddell Jan 2016

The Effects Of Homogeneous Differentiation On Reading Achievement: Within-Class Grouping Versus Between-Class Grouping, Sharon Suzanne Liddell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, ex-post facto study was to determine through quantitative analysis of longitudinal data, the effects of homogeneous differentiation on reading achievement. Specifically, the study sought to determine the achievement differences in reading of students who were taught using a within-class grouping method or a between-class grouping method. The study population consisted on students from a Mississippi school district who began first grade from the 2006–2007 school year through the 2009–2010 school year. Students who had been assessed over a three-year on the DIBELS, STAR, and the MCT2 assessment were eligible for inclusion in the study. A …


Predictive Modeling Of Sinkhole Hazards Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (Insar) Subsidence Measurements And Local Geology, William G. Powell Jan 2016

Predictive Modeling Of Sinkhole Hazards Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (Insar) Subsidence Measurements And Local Geology, William G. Powell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The mining of salt domes provides economically important resources through salt and brine production and storage of petroleum products as part of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In order to assess the risk to nearby communities for potential of salt dome collapse, it is important to understand the growth of the Bayou Corne sinkhole and the conditions surrounding the Napoleonville Salt Dome that may have exacerbated its formation. The Bayou Corne sinkhole in Assumption Parish, Louisiana has been expanding since it formed overnight on 2 August 2012. Growing from slightly over 2 acres to more than 30 acres today, the …


Predisposing Risk Factors Associated With Stress Fracture Development In Division I Cross Country Runners, Kaci Griffin Jan 2016

Predisposing Risk Factors Associated With Stress Fracture Development In Division I Cross Country Runners, Kaci Griffin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore potential factors that could be associated with increased stress fracture development in division one collegiate cross country runners. Participants for this study consisted of 42 collegiate cross country runners at the University of Mississippi. A nutritional assessment consisting of a 3-day food record and measurements of whole body, lumbar spine and hip bone mineral densities using a Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) was conducted on each athlete. Each athlete was also asked to answer a demographic questionnaire with questions regarding ethnicity, hometown, smoking status, vitamin/mineral intake, previous stress fracture history, birth control usage …


The Corruption Of Promise: The Insane Asylum In Mississippi, 1848-1910, Whitney E. Barringer Jan 2016

The Corruption Of Promise: The Insane Asylum In Mississippi, 1848-1910, Whitney E. Barringer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ideology of insane asylum reform, which emphasized the Enlightenment language of human rights and the humane treatment of the mentally ill, reached American shores in the early-mid-nineteenth century. When asylum reform began to disseminate throughout the United States, forward-thinking Mississippians latched onto the idea of the reformed asylum as a humane way to treat mentally ill Mississippians and to bolster the humanitarian image of a Southern slave society to its Northern critics. When the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum opened in 1855, its superintendents were optimistic about the power of the state to meet mental healthcare needs. While Mississippi slave …


The Impact Of French Camp Academy On Child Abuse And Neglect, Ji Hoon Heo Jan 2016

The Impact Of French Camp Academy On Child Abuse And Neglect, Ji Hoon Heo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the last few decades, child abuse and neglect has not improved in the United States. Government services provides facilities and licensed families for abused and neglected children, but children often do not adjust due to negative past experiences. However, there are other non-governmental programs that help counter child abuse and neglect. This research focuses on one student attending French Camp Academy, a Christian-based boarding school in central Mississippi, in order to shed light on possible ways to stop the vicious cycle that children go through. When children receive the acknowledgment and support from a parental figure, they are more …


Three Essays On Retail Branding, The Makings Of A Great Retail Brand: Antecedents, Outcomes, And Retailer Ad Spending Strategies, Chi Zhang Jan 2016

Three Essays On Retail Branding, The Makings Of A Great Retail Brand: Antecedents, Outcomes, And Retailer Ad Spending Strategies, Chi Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brands are valuable intangible assets with long-term benefits. In the retail industry, branding is of particular importance because of the highly competitive nature of the industry. Even though many of the important branding principles apply, retail brands are distinct from product brands. This dissertation aims to clarify the nature and dimensionality of retail brand equity and explore the effect of retail advertising on its market and financial performance. In the first essay, the primary antecedents of retail brand equity are examined using both functional and experiential dimensions of retail brand association. The results illustrate the salient role of the consumer …


The Effects Promotional Incentives Have On College Basketball Attendance In Power Five Conferences, Alexander Ryan Cramer Jan 2016

The Effects Promotional Incentives Have On College Basketball Attendance In Power Five Conferences, Alexander Ryan Cramer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore promotional incentives effects on attendance at men and women college basketball games in Power Five conferences during the 2015-16 season. The sub-objective was to explore the data to determine if distinct market segments emerged based on the promotional strategies measured as part of the study. The study variables are based on recommendations and suggestions from completed research exploring similar phenomenon among MLB teams (Boyd & Krehbiel, 2003, Boyd & Krehbiel 2006, Browning & Debolt, 2007, Howell, Klenosky, McEvoy, 2015). There were 20 men and 20 women teams from Power Five conference with …


Temperature And Pressure Effects On Elastic Properties Of Relaxor Ferroelectrics And Thermoelectrics: A Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy Study, Sumudu Tennakoon Jan 2016

Temperature And Pressure Effects On Elastic Properties Of Relaxor Ferroelectrics And Thermoelectrics: A Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy Study, Sumudu Tennakoon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Relaxor ferroelectric lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) material exhibits exceptional electromechanical properties. The material undergoes a series of structural phase transitions with changes in temperature and the chemical composition. The work covered in this dissertation seek to gain insight into the phase diagram of PMN-PT using temperature and pressure dependence of the elastic properties. Single crystal PMN-PT with a composition near morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) was investigated using a resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) methodologies in the temperature range of 293 K - 800 K and the pressure range from near vacuum to 3.4 MPa. At atmospheric pressure, significantly high acoustic …


Examining The Impact Of Geosocial Networking On The Sexual Behaviors Of Men Who Have Sex With Men, Curtis Hooks Jan 2016

Examining The Impact Of Geosocial Networking On The Sexual Behaviors Of Men Who Have Sex With Men, Curtis Hooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Identifying Values: Comparing Four Methods Of Values Identification, Emmie Hebert Jan 2016

Identifying Values: Comparing Four Methods Of Values Identification, Emmie Hebert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Values have been described, from a behavioral perspective, as “freely chosen, verbally constructed consequences of ongoing, dynamic, evolving patterns of activity, which establish predominant reinforcers for that activity that are intrinsic in engagement in the valued behavioral pattern itself “ (Wilson & DuFrene, 2009). Emerging research supports the psychological benefits of interventions with a values component. However, there has been little experimental research that explores systematic methods of getting participants and psychotherapy clients to identify their values. This study evaluated four methods of identifying values by comparing within-subject ratings of participant-generated values stimuli. Participants were undergraduate students at the University …


Scrupulosity, Trauma And Disgust, Oh My! Assessing The Potential Relation Between Religiosity, Trauma Symptoms And Disgust, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes Jan 2016

Scrupulosity, Trauma And Disgust, Oh My! Assessing The Potential Relation Between Religiosity, Trauma Symptoms And Disgust, Brooklee Lightsey Tynes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lifetime prevalence rates for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are estimated to be 6% in the general population. In the United States alone, an estimated 5.2 million adults will experience PTSD within the year (National Comorbidity Survey, 2005). However, a much larger number of the population will experience some form of trauma over the course of their lifetime. Research has demonstrated that the development of PTSD may be attributed to some factors (e.g., temperamental vulnerabilities, social ecological factors), which may predispose individuals to the development of the disorder. The purpose of this study was to test the association of moral disgust …


The Role Of Study Strategy Use, Meaning In Life, And Grit On The Academic Success Of University Students, Kwoneathia Rasha Boswell Jan 2016

The Role Of Study Strategy Use, Meaning In Life, And Grit On The Academic Success Of University Students, Kwoneathia Rasha Boswell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Academic achievement is important to successful developmental outcomes. Educators and academic researchers have long been interested in identifying factors that contribute to student achievement. Literature suggests that relative to students who are academically unsuccessful, students with desirable academic outcomes use more study strategies. It has also been shown that academic performance can be enhanced by teaching students study strategies. Several personal factors seem to be associated with high academic achievement. Academically successful college students perceive that they have a greater sense of meaning in their lives compared to poorly performing students. Additionally, students with greater perceived meaning in life de-value …


Testing A Brief Directive Intervention To Reduce Symptoms Associated With Trauma, Fernando Trivelli Alessandri Jan 2016

Testing A Brief Directive Intervention To Reduce Symptoms Associated With Trauma, Fernando Trivelli Alessandri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the relative efficacy of a brief directive protocol (DP) aimed at reducing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and an expressive writing protocol (EW), which has more than a 30-year history (Pennebaker & Chung, 2011) of research showing mostly positive effects. The DP included components with research support from studies of expressive writing, prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, and mindfulness-based therapies. Participants were primarily undergraduate students at a large public university in the southern United States who endorsed at least one traumatic experience and who manifested a minimal level of PTSD symptoms. The …


The Role Of Loneliness And Resilience In Psychosocial Health For Victims Of Cyberbullying In A College Population, Alicia Luscomb Autry Jan 2016

The Role Of Loneliness And Resilience In Psychosocial Health For Victims Of Cyberbullying In A College Population, Alicia Luscomb Autry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has shown that bullying, especially chronic levels of bullying, during childhood may lead to negative outcomes, such as anxiety and depression in adulthood. Cyberbullying, or bullying through electronic media, is a recent phenomenon that has sparked interest in examining bullying with young adults, as early research suggests cyberbullying is becoming increasingly problematic within the young adult population and has the potential for negative psychosocial outcomes. Data indicate a relationship between loneliness and negative psychosocial outcomes, suggesting loneliness may be a key factor in the relationship between stress resulting from cyberbullying victimization and psychological distress. Moreover, although cyberbullying may lead …


An Examination Of Ceo Reputation Decline And Repair In Response To Deviant Actions, Jennifer Marie Palar Jan 2016

An Examination Of Ceo Reputation Decline And Repair In Response To Deviant Actions, Jennifer Marie Palar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite increasing interest in managerial reputation, little research in the management field has attempted to theorize and empirically examine reputation as a dynamic construct. This paper synthesizes prior reputation literature across disciplines to develop a model of reputation change. Using the context of executive termination it is hypothesized that the same managerial outcome (i.e. termination) carries varied meaning to stakeholders depending on the actions leading to and reason for termination and such meaning impacts the level of executive reputation decline and repair. Additionally, drawing on four established theoretical mechanisms in the reputation literature it is hypothesized that various traits, relationships, …


Biophysical Characterization Of A Proline Mutant Of Neural Cadherin, Keshia S. Dykes Jan 2016

Biophysical Characterization Of A Proline Mutant Of Neural Cadherin, Keshia S. Dykes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cadherins are calcium dependent glycoproteins whose homophilic interactions mediate cell-cell adhesion in solid tissues. They are comprised of an extracellular region, a transmembrane region and a cytoplasmic region. The extracellular region plays a critical role in cadherin-mediated cell adhesion, and has five tandemly repeated ectodomains (ec1-ec5), with three calcium binding sites situated in each interface between the domains. Dimerization of cadherin occurs through formation of adhesive interactions between extracellular domains of cadherins from neighboring cells. Adhesive interaction occurs at the interfaces of ec1 domains of two molecules originating from different cell surfaces. Dimerization is critically dependent on the binding of …


Anodic Metal Dissolution In Haloaluminate Molten Salts/Ionic Liquids, Chen Wang Jan 2016

Anodic Metal Dissolution In Haloaluminate Molten Salts/Ionic Liquids, Chen Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The anodization of Aluminium was investigated in the low-melting, mixed halide molten salt system, lialbr4-naalcl4-kalcl4 (30-50-20 m/o), and in the Lewis acidic Chloroaluminate ionic liquid, aluminum chloride-1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (alcl3-etmeimcl) using rotating disk electrode voltammetry. In both cases, at modest overpotentials, the anodization reaction proceeds under mixed kinetic/mass-transport control. However, at larger positive overpotentials and correspondingly higher anodization rates, the reaction transitions to a mass transport-limited process governed by the dissolution of a passive layer of alcl3(s) and/or albr3(s) on the electrode surface. In alcl3-etmeimcl, the passive current density scales linearly with the concentration of alcl4- in the ionic liquid. The …


Bacteria Prediction For Recreational Waters Through The Use Of Artificial Neural Networks, Christopher Douglas Jan 2016

Bacteria Prediction For Recreational Waters Through The Use Of Artificial Neural Networks, Christopher Douglas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many scientists and government agencies rely on Fecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB) to determine the risk of exposure to pathogens in water. If there is a presence of these indicator bacteria, pathogenic microorganisms may also be present. These bacteria in recreational water bodies pose a health threat to people if ingested during activities such as swimming or from the consumption of marine life. The most commonly tested FIBs are total coliforms, Fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, Fecal streptococci, and enterococci. The measurement of bacteria can be time consuming (up to 48 hours) and expensive, creating a difficulty in warning the public of …


Donor Motivation To Ncaa Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Athletic Departments, Daniel White Jan 2016

Donor Motivation To Ncaa Division I Football Bowl Subdivision Athletic Departments, Daniel White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Cavaliers And Crackers: Landless Whites In The Mind Of The Elite Antebellum South, Jeffrey Glossner Jan 2016

Cavaliers And Crackers: Landless Whites In The Mind Of The Elite Antebellum South, Jeffrey Glossner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to their marginalized role in southern society, landless white southerners have often been overlooked by historians who study social class, politics and intellectual culture in the antebellum south. But depictions of landless white southerners were prominent in contemporary elite literature and their place was debated extensively by social commentators. These depictions marginalized landless whites from southern honor culture and marked them as a people who were not quite white in a social and biological sense. This characterization was both a cause and effect of elite southern unease with the presence of a class of poor landless whites. This unease …


Constant Velocity Combustion Scramjet Analysis, Lakshmi Srikanth Tiruveedula Jan 2016

Constant Velocity Combustion Scramjet Analysis, Lakshmi Srikanth Tiruveedula

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The supersonic combustion ramjet or scramjet, is the most suitable engine cycle for sustained hypersonic flight in the atmosphere. The present work deals with the performance of a scramjet engine by parametrically analyzing the performance of the ideal scramjet using the engine parameters: specific thrust, fuel-to-air ratio, thrust specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, propulsive efficiency, overall efficiency and thrust flux. The objective of the work is to determine the desirable performance terms of the ideal scramjet, by varying three different candidate fuels and three different candidate materials for the combustion chamber. The engine parameters are related by the lower heating …