Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Relationship Quality And Longevity From Patterns Of Interaction In Adolescent Romantic Relationships, Renee Vickerman Galliher

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the association between adolescent romantic couple members' interaction with each other and both their overall relationship quality and the stability of their relationships over time. Males', females', and trained observers' perceptions of couple interaction were used to predict couple members' commitment, intimacy, support, depth, and conflict. Both positive and negative behaviors effectively predicted several indices of relationship quality, with different patterns of association emerging for the different raters. Also, sequential patterns of interaction were associated with relationship quality. Couples who were able to manage low-intensity conflict in a reciprocal, mutually involved manner and in which males were …

Investigating Variation Among Arikara Crania Using Geometric Morphometry, Ashley H. Mckeown

Doctoral Dissertations

Geometric morphometry has seen minimal application in studies of biological variability among subpopulations of humans. However, as landmark coordinates are highly effective for capturing information regarding size and shape variation, the tools of geometric morphometry are appropriate for investigating such questions. This research utilizes landmark coordinate data to quantify morphological variation among Arikara crania to evaluate the biological relationships between skeletal samples from late prehistoric, protohistoric and historic sites. These samples are derived from well documented archaeological contexts, and the presence of biological variability among them has been reported in previous studies. These factors make these samples appropriate for assessing …

Tennessee Performance Funding And The University Of Tennessee, Knoxville: A Case Study, Kimberely B. Hall

Doctoral Dissertations

This case study was undertaken to provide a description of the Tennessee Performance Funding Policy's impact on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville over the past twenty years. Answers to three research questions were sought:

1. How has the Tennessee Performance Funding Policy impacted the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with regard to (a) awareness of the policy and its purposes and (b) the activities of the institution in relation to the policy?

2. How has educational decision making been affected by the Tennessee Performance Funding Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville?

3. Based on professional experience and opinion, are strengths/liabilities …

An Examination Of Upland South Farmsteads Using An Evolutionary Ecology Methodology, Todd Michael Ahlman

Doctoral Dissertations

The study of historic farmsteads in the Upland South has generally taken a normative approach that compared archaeologically recorded farmsteads to an idealized Upland South farmstead. This approach tends to avoid the issue of variation that is inherent among farmsteads within the region. To address this variation, a Darwinian evolutionary theoretical perspective is proposed. Of the different evolutionary perspectives in archaeology today, including selectionism, evolutionary psychology, and evolutionary ecology, it is proposed that an evolutionary ecological theoretical perspective is the best for examining and explaining the variation among Upland South farmsteads.

In employing an evolutionary ecology theoretical perspective, a resource …

Secretory Immunoglobulin A And Heart Rate Reactions To Mental Arithmetic And Hypnotic Suggestions, Grant Benham

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study replicates and extends previous research on the effects of both specific hypnotic suggestions and a mental arithmetic task on secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA). Participants (14 males, 16 females) were shown a short video on immune functioning and then sat quietly for 8 minutes in order to obtain an initial baseline measure of sIgA. Participants were then administered an 8-min mental arithmetic (stress) task and a 16-min hypnosis task in a counterbalanced order and separated by a second 8-min baseline period. During the hypnosis condition, participants received a taped hypnotic induction followed by specific suggestions for increasing immune …

Instrument Performance Enhancement And Modification Through An Extended Instrument Paradigm, Stephen L. Mahan

Doctoral Dissertations

An extended instrument paradigm is proposed, developed and shown in various applications. The CBM (Chin, Blass, Mahan) method is an extension to the linear systems model of observing systems. In the most obvious and practical application of image enhancement of an instrument characterized by a time-invariant instrumental response function, CBM can be used to enhance images or spectra through a simple convolution application of the CBM filter for a resolution improvement of as much as a factor of two. The CBM method can be used in many applications. We discuss several within this work including imaging through turbulent atmospheres, or …

Questing For The Grail: Core Collapse Supernova Simulations With Boltzmann Neutrino Transport, Otis Earl Messer

Doctoral Dissertations

The importance of exact neutrino transport in spherically symmetric core collapse supernova simulations is explored in this dissertation. The primary tool for these studies is the neutrino radiation hydrodynamics code AGILE-BOLTZTRAN (Mezzacappa & Bruenn 1993a,b,c; Mezzacappa & Messer 1998; Liebendörfer 2000). AGILE-BOLTZTRAN couples the solution of the Boltzmann equation for all three flavors of neutrinos and antineutrinos to a one-dimensional, implicit, adaptive grid hydrodynamics code. Emission, absorption, and scattering of neutrinos from nucleons and nuclei, neutrino-electron scattering, and pair production and annihilation are included as neutrino-matter couplings. Details of the code are described, including the equations solved and their finite …

Electronic Excitations In Metals And Semiconductors: Ab Initio Studies Of Realistic Many-Particle Systems, Wei Ku

Doctoral Dissertations

Electronic excitations in metals and semiconductors, measured through inelastic x-ray scattering, electronic energy-loss spectroscopy, and angle-resolved photoemission, provide valuable information about the intrinsic many-body interactions between electrons in the crystal environment. These dynamical interactions are usually analyzed with intuitive simple models. With the problems studied, which correspond to linear response and quasi-particle excitation, it will be shown that ab initio approaches not only can provide more realistic understanding of microscopic processes and mechanisms, but also result in new theoretical interpretations that resolve a number of remarkable "anomalies." Specifically, these problems include the dispersion of the plasmon lifetime in potassium, the …

Fatigue Behavior Of Ultimet Alloy: Experiment And Theoretical Modeling, Liang Jiang

Doctoral Dissertations

ULTIMET® alloy is a commercial Co-26Cr-9Ni (weight percent) superalloy, which possesses excellent resistance to both wear and corrosion. In order to extend the structural applications of this alloy and improve the fundamental understanding of the fatigue damage mechanisms, stress- and strain-controlled fatigue tests were performed at various temperatures and in different environments. The stress- and strain-life data were developed for the structural design and engineering applications of this material. Fractographic studies characterized the crack-initiation and propagation behavior of the alloy. Microstructure evolution during fatigue was revealed by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Specifically, it was found …

Potassium Dynamics And Exchange Equilibria In Loess-Derived Soils, Sloane Alicia Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

A lack of cotton response to the recommended application of fertilizer potassium (K) has been well documented, prompting a renewed interest in the evaluation of soil and plant analysis. A study was conducted to evaluate varying rates and residual effects of fertilizer K on no-till cotton, in conjunction with the evaluation of cation exchange studies to establish the dynamics of K behavior in the loess-derived soils of west Tennessee. The soils were comprised of kaolinite, mica, and HIV-vermiculite. The effect of four rates of fertilizer K (0, 67, 134, and 269 kg K ha^-1) , on yield and …

Leader Decision Making Quality And Subordinate Performance, Steven M. Barnard

Doctoral Dissertations

In the recent past, the study of transformational leaders has been the most predominant leadership research conducted. There have been strong linkages found between these behaviors and subordinate outcomes such as motivation and performance. For this reason, it was used as a base comparison for the addition of manager decision making quality. It was hypothesized that managers who make higher quality decisions will be able to guide subordinates in a more strategic fashion, ultimately increasing their motivation and performance. In addition, it was hypothesized that this effect of better decisions would be over and above that associated with transformational leader …

Maternal Age At Transition To Parenthood : Prediction Of Children's Perceptions Of Well-Being, Denise Judd Brandon

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate maternal age at the transition to parenthood as a predictor of children’s perceptions of educational and socioemotional well-being. Parenting attributes were studied for their relationships to maternal age at the transition to parenthood and its associated demographic variables and as predictors of children’s well-being. Data were obtained through interviews of 250 first born children ages 10 to 17 from. Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households. Data regressions with a .05 alpha level as the criterion for significance.

Maternal age at the transition to parenthood was predictive of educational …

The Three Ring Self : Robert Penn Warren's Circus Aesthetic And Southern Intertextuality, Patricia Anne Lankford Bradley

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the extent to which Robert Penn Warren’s 1947 novella “The Circus in the Attic” and his use there in of the circus trope establish a matrix for his fiction, poetry, essays, and literary criticism and align his canon with the selected works of several authors of the Southern Renaissance, including William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, and Ralph Ellison. All of these authors observed the American circus in its heyday during the beginning of the twentieth century. Yet, by the end of World War I, the process of the circus’s cultural rehabilitation had begun; …

The Functional Capacity Of Differentiated K-562 Leukemia Cells, Erich Jonathan Baker

Doctoral Dissertations

K-562 cells are undifferentiated blast cells developed from the pleural effusion ofa patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia(CML) The properties ofthepleiotropically diverse K-562 cell line mimic the hematopoietic divergence of malignant blast cells found in CML cell populations Subclones of the original passage maintain the potential to differentiate along early erythrocytic, myelocytic, lymphocytic,megakaryocytic and monocytic lineages This dissertation provides evidence that K-562 sublmes can be induced to acquire characteristics of monocytic, megakaryocytic orgranulocytic differentiation, rendering them functionally competent mediators of several immune processes K-562 cells co-cultured with the tumor promoter phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) presented properties ofthe megakaryoblastic and monocytic lineages …

Posthuman Podiums : The Technological Life-History Narratives Of Elite Track And Field Athletes, Ted M. Butryn

Doctoral Dissertations

Narrative research has emerged as a powerful means of exploring athletes’ lives through the stones they tell about themselves (Duncan, 1998, Foley, 1992, McDonald & Birrell, 1999, Sparkes, 1999, 2000). In this study I examined the technological life-histories of seven elite track and field athletes using a narrative analysis (Polkinghome, 1997). As Haraway (1985) points out, the "cyborg era" has ushered in multiple modes of subjectivity which are best understood through narratives, the stories we tell within the context of an early 21st century technoculture. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews, observational data, personal photographs, and the application of theoretical …

Finite Element Model For Segmented Active Constrained Layer Damping Treatments That Includes Bonding Layer Strain Energy, Peter Francis Cento

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary objective of this study is to develop a more accurate research and design tool than those in the currently available literature for active constrained layer treatments applied in bending. A finite element model is presented that extends current finite element model for Euler-Bernoulli beams with segmented active constrained layer damping treatments towards a more physically motivated model. Active Constrained layer damping utilizes modern piezoelectric materials as the constraining layer for these types of damping treatments. Preliminary studies have confirmed that strains in the bonding layers can have a significant effect on damping ratios at modal frequencies, especially when …

The Ghosts That Haunt Us : Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Stories Of The Supernatural, Sally E. Corran

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's short stories of the supernatural in which he emphasizes the presence of forces beyond human knowledge and control. Using Todorov's notion of the fantastic and Freud's notion of the uncanny,I Argue that Le Fanu presents spiritual, historical, and psychological forces as supernatural in order to warn his readers that there are powers in the material world working in ways that cannot be explained by science or rationalism.Le Fanu challenges the increasing rationalism and materialism of the nineteenth century by creating stories that leave readers questioning the veracity of events depicted,the reliability of …

Characteristics Of Foster Family Applicants Willing To Accept Hard To Place Foster Children, Mary Ellen Cox

Doctoral Dissertations

In addition to a shortage of foster homes,the unwillingness of many licensed fosterparents to accept the growing number of hard to place foster children has jeopardized the quality of care provided to children in state custody.The purpose of this study was to determine the number of foster family applicants willing to foster different types of hard to place children and the types of foster families willing to foster such children.Resource theory guided this study. Data were collected from 153 foster family applicants during preservice training. The following foster parent resources were measured: income,education, race, marital status, parenting experience,fostering experience, employed …

Attributions Of School Children And Their Relationship To Depression, Janette A. Doucette

Doctoral Dissertations

Hypothesized relationships between students' attributions for academic and social success and failure on two newly developed attribution scales were examined and compared to students' general attributions for success and failure on an established attribution scale, the Children's Attribution Style Questionnaire (CASQ). The newly developed scales were used to assess students' academic attributions (Student Academic Attribution Scale, SAAS) and social attributions (Student Social Attribution Scale, SSAS)The SAAS and SSAS were developed to allow students to rate success and failure due to internal causes, ability and effort, or external causes, chance and task difficulty, for typical school situations; also, optimism and pessimism …

Surface Phases Of Transition Metal Oxides, Hani Dulli

Doctoral Dissertations

A signature of transition metal oxides is the ability to accommodate stoichiometry variations by forming thermodynamically stable structures. This means that the overall composition is sensitive to thermochemical history and composition gradients near surfaces and interfaces can exist at equilibrium. Since the phase diagram of most transition metal oxides is critically dependent upon the chemical composition, the surface should be a 'different material'. Thus a thorough knowledge of the surface composition and structure is of primary importance for understanding the electronic and magnetic properties of transition metal oxides surfaces and interfaces. Here, differences in the chemical composition, lattice structure, and …

Assessing Forgiveness : Development And Validation Of The Act Of Forgiveness Scale, Joy Rogers Drinnon

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently, considerable research attention has been devoted to the process of forgiving interpersonal transgressions. An unresolved issue in this literature concerns the measurement of the construct of forgiveness. The primary purpose of this research project was to develop a valid and reliable measure of state forgiveness, that is, the degree to which a respondent has forgiven a specific person or a specific instance of betrayal or hurt. Three separate phases of research were conducted.

In Phase 1, an initial pool of items were written and subsequently refined using both traditional Likert analyses and itemmetric analyses. Initial estimates of reliability were …

The Experience Of Sexual Desire : An Empirial-Phenomenological Investigation, Johnny M. Dossett

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous efforts to investigate sexual desire have been hampered by inadequate concern for the phenomena's largely personal nature. In this qualitative study sixteen participants were interviewed who provided detailed descriptions of their experiences of sexual desire. Protocols were prepared and analyzed, individually by the primary researcher and in a group setting by The University of Tennessee Phenomenology Interpretive Group.

A thematic structure with one global theme, several lesser themes, and some notable departures from exiting notions of sexual desire emerged. Virtually all participants found it necessary to describe two kinds of experiences: "lust" and "love," and they showed a strong …

The Relationship And Communication Experiences Between Student-Teachers And Their Supervisors In A University Child Care Laboratory Setting : A Qualitative Study, Matthew John Devereaux

Doctoral Dissertations

This is a qualitative study about student-teachers and their supervisors and the perceptions of their relationship. Interviewing, participant observation, and tape recording student-teacher/supervisor meetings were the data gathering methods used. Data for the study were collected over a sixteen week period and included field notes of many observations in five different child care classrooms within a university child care laboratory setting.

The goal of this study is to provide information about how student-teachers and their supervisors perceive their experiences. Their viewpoints are presented as expectations, likes and dislikes, as well as comparisons on how the study participants were similar and …

Application Of Occasional Feedback Trajectory Correction To Enhance Lean Combustion Quality In A Pulsed Combustor, Kevin Dean Edwards

Doctoral Dissertations

The behavior of a laboratory-scale pulsed combustor is characterized over a wide range of operating conditions. The behavior of the combustor is shown to be driven by two differ- ent mechanisms. Acoustic coupling with the tailpipe produces large-amplitude pressure oscillations which are nonlinear in nature due to interaction with the combustion reac- tion and turbulent mixing. Due to the highly nonlinear nature of the combustion reaction at lean conditions, the system dynamics undergo a bifurcation as the equivalence ratio approaches the lean flammability limit which introduces low-frequency combustion instabilities that are superimposed upon the acoustically driven pressure oscillations. Rapid consumption …

The Use Of Art Therapy To Deal With Low Self-Esteem Among The Aged ; Selected Case Studies, Elizabeth Eichelbaum

Doctoral Dissertations

The major purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, effect art therapy had on the self-concepts of elderly patients who were confined to either a restricted living facility or to a nursing home. The researcher, a trained art therapist, developed case studies of eleven patients who were part of a volunteer art therapy program at one restricted living facility and one nursing home in Knoxville, Tennessee. The art therapy given to these elderly patients consisted of activities in which they could engage. These activities were designed to show the patients that they could still function and be …

Effects Of Hand-Held Calculators On Precollege Students In Mathematics Classes - A Meta-Analysis, Aimee Joy Ellington

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to determine the effect of hand-held calculators on students in precollege mathematics classes. Achievement and attitude were the educational constructs under consideration. The findings of fifty-three calculator-based research studies were integrated through meta-analysis. The methods of data analysis were based on Hembree's model, featuring fundamental meta-analytic procedures developed by Glass. Meta-analytic methods advocated by Hedges were also incorporated. Hembree conducted a similar meta-analysis in 1984. This study was an update to his work.

Data collection from all locatable studies from 1984 through June 2000 resulted in 307 effect magnitudes. Meta-analytical evaluation of mean effect sizes and …

The Experience Of Performance Funding On Higher Education At The Campus Level In The Past 20 Years, Michelle Susong Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations

Tennessee was the first state in the nation to adopt a performance funding policy which links a portion of state appropriations to colleges and universities to their performance on several educational performance indicators. The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of a single community college with the policy over the 20 year period since the policy was first implemented. A case study method was employed and involved extensive interviews with executive administrators, administrative faculty and faculty. The case study also made use of pertinent document analysis, and observations. Although few of the participants felt that the policy …

Cost-Benefit Analysis For Software Process Improvement, Daniel T. Fetzer

Doctoral Dissertations

Justification of investments to improve software development processes and technol- ogy continues to be a significant challenge for software management. Managers interested in improving quality, cost, and cycle-time of their products have a large set of methods, tools, and techniques from which to choose. The implementation of one or more of these potential improvements can require considerable time and cost. Decision makers must be able to understand the benefits from each proposed improvement and decide which improvements to implement. While a variety of approaches exist for evaluating the costs and benefits of a few specific improvements such as inspections or …

Autonomy And Chronic Impairment, Carolyn Norine Ells

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation challenges the conception of autonomy that dominates bioethics and health care and defends a feminist relational conception of autonomy as an alternative. The work proceeds in four major steps. First, I analyze the conception of autonomy put forth by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress (B&C) that dominates bioethics and health care. While noting the value of autonomy, I show significant limitations of B&C's view.

Second, I explore the experience of autonomy for people with chronic impairment. I discover that any acceptable conception of autonomy will account for relational features of self-identity and self-governance. To the extent that autonomous …

Electric Utilities, Fiscal Illusion And The Provision Of Local Public Services, Paula Dowell

Doctoral Dissertations

Restructuring activity in the electric utility industry is threatening a once stable and significant source of revenue for local governments. Potentially declining revenues from electric utilities leaves local policymakers with the unpopular decision of raising taxes or reducing the level of public services provided. This has led to pressure on state governments to introduce legislation aimed at mitigating potential revenue loss for local government due to restructuring activity. However, before imposing such legislation, a better understanding of the potential distortionary effects of internal subsidization by electric utilities is needed.

Two models of the demand for local public services- a structural …