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Integer Solutions To Optimization Problems And Modular Sequences Of Nexus Numbers, Jeremy T. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we examine the use of integers through two ideas. As mathematics teachers, we prefer students not use calculators on assessments. In order to require this, students compute the problems by hand. We take a look at the classic Calculus I optimization box problem while restricting values to integers. In addition, sticking with the integer theme, we take a new look at the nexus numbers. Nexus numbers are extensions of the hex and rhombic dodecahedral numbers. We put these numbers into a sequence, and through a few computations of modular arithmetic, we analyze the sequences and their patterns …

La Sangre Llama, Alicia Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

LA SANGRE LLAMA is an exhibition of paintings featuring works by Alicia Perez. The series of paintings are acrylic on canvas all 24" x 36", and explore the contemporary Latino immigrant experience that often involves instability, acculturation, and loss of identity. The attire found on the subjects all vary in patterns and colors to represent different nationalities that fall under the umbrella of Hispanic Culture. Intentionally concealed faces in the paintings emphasize the belief that many Hispanic immigrants are frequently viewed as stereotypes, rather than individuals. LA SANGRE LLAMA, which translates to "the blood beckons," affirms the notion that regardless …

Drawing In Space, Wesley Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the artwork for the thesis Drawing in Space. The title refers to the correlation between drawing on paper and fabricating in metal. For me these are highly similar processes. Contemporary artists are presented and referenced to convey inspiration and locate historical context. The paper discusses the importance of Street Art and video games in my decision making about color choices and linear qualities. Each sculpture will be analyzed individually and their connection to Street Art, video games and Contemporary art will be identified.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder And Bronfenbrenner's Ecology Of Human Development, Carol Medders Denis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the norms associated with this condition in the United States have evolved over time. Culturally established beliefs control how the disorder is defined and treated. This study will explore the idea that ADHD is a socially constructed disorder that impacts multiple levels of society. These levels include the child, the family, the school, the medical community, and the advertising agencies. Social construction theory will be used to establish a framework for this study. Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) system theory describing the ecology of human development will also be used to investigate the impact that different …

Through Smoke And Mirrors: Constructing Identity Between The Myths Of Black Inferiority And A Post-Racial America, Gwyneira Yvette Dixon Ledford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an inquiry into my life. It is an exploration of my lived experience as an African American female negotiating through traditions in Southern culture and societal pressures to create a positive identity. Using autobiographical narrative (Connelly, He, & Phillion, 2008, Pinar, 2008) as a methodology and Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000), double consciousness (DuBois, 1903), and the Nigrescence Theory of black identity development (Cross, 1991) as the theoretical framework, I examine my experiences from childhood to adulthood. Through these narrations, I note paradigm shifts in my thinking that identify the psychological struggles between feeling racially inferior and …

On The Verge Of Change: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, Mallary Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the effects of war on the southern plantation lifestyle depicted in Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding. This thesis focuses on the female characters who adapt to the absence of the husbands during wartime. Wars are the catalyst for societal change in the novel, and the women must adapt to the new social changes that are encroaching upon the plantation. The chapters explore each individual reaction of female characters in the novel. The female characters in Delta Wedding represent varying wars of reacting to shifting social norms brought about by war.

Finding A Better Confidence Interval For A Single Regression Changepoint Using Different Bootstrap Confidence Interval Procedures, Bodhipaksha Thilakarathne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently a number of papers have been published in the area of regression changepoints but there is not much literature concerning confidence intervals for regression changepoints. The purpose of this paper is to find a better bootstrap confidence interval for a single regression changepoint. ("Better" confidence interval means having a minimum length and coverage probability which is close to a chosen significance level). Several methods will be used to find bootstrap confidence intervals. Among those methods a better confidence interval will be presented.

The Effects Of Locomotor Posture On Kinematics, Performance And Behavior During Obstacle Negotiation In Lizards, Jessica Self

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to efficiently move over uneven terrain is critical for most terrestrial animals. Bipedal running is common in lizard species, however the biological advantage of a bipedal running posture remains uncertain. I examined the hypothesis that a bipedal posture is advantageous when crossing obstacles. Particularly, I determined whether kinematic adjustments differ among four focal species with contrasting body forms and ecology. I also examined how sprint speed changed when crossing obstacles with a quadrupedal versus a bipedal posture. I quantified kinematics from high-speed video (300 frames/second) of lizards running down a 3m runway both with and without the presence …

Integer Compositions, Gray Code, And The Fibonacci Sequence, Linus Lindroos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I show the relation of binary and Gray Code to integer compositions and the Fibonacci sequence through the use of analytic combinatorics, Zeckendorf's Theorem, and generating functions.

Patterns Of Chemosensory Behavior In A Closed Population Of Wild African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana), Russell W. Blogg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chemosensory behaviors are used by many mammalian species to assess chemical signals in the environment. These chemical signals may contain important information about reproductive state, identity, status, or location of conspecifics. Elephants are a long-lived species and males reproduce at a much later age than females, which provides a protracted developmental period for males. This study examined chemosensory behaviors in a population of African elephants living in Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa and demonstrated that patterns emerge as elephants develop and approach sexual maturity. Older pubescent males (15-19 year olds) performed more chemosensory behaviors than younger pubescent males (10-14 …

Compositions, Bijections, And Enumerations, Charles R. Dedrickson Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we give an introduction to colored-compositions of an integer. This is a generalization of traditional integer compositions, and we show a few results for n-color compositions which are analogous to regular compositions with both combinatorial and analytic proofs. We also show several bijections between various types of compositions to certain types of numeric strings, and provide a generalization of a classic bijection between compositions and binary strings.

Exonerating Manuel I Komnenos: Byzantine Foreign Policy (1143-1180), Darryl Keith Gentry Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Manuel I of Byzantium (1143-80) has been unfairly judged as misguided, reckless, and, ultimately, as a failure. This work endeavors to refute the claims that Manuel's imperial policy lacked any coherent strategy, and that Byzantium simply reacted to external stimuli. The most ambitious aim of this thesis is to present a cogent analysis of Manuel's imperial policy to demonstrate the emperor's efficacy and strategic flexibility. The perception, generally accepted by historians, that Manuel left his empire exhausted and vulnerable to outside aggression is also seriously challenged. Regardless of Manuel's defeat at Myriokephalon in 1176, he could claim that the empire …

Do The Opportunities Offered During The School Day Provide The Recommended Physical Activity Levels For Children?: An Assessment Of The Upson County Pre-Kindergarten And Elementary School Physical Activity Occurrences, Cheryl Lynn Robinson Gaddis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Problem Statement: Almost 90% of students do not meet the national recommendations for physical activity in school. The purpose of this study was to determine the need for school policy changes to incorporate classroom-based physical activity programs in an effort to increase school physical activity levels for children in grades pre-kindergarten through five by assessing the levels of and the barriers/facilitators to physical activity engagement.

Methods: This was a sequential explanatory mixed methods study utilizing school board members, principals, and teachers in the Upson County School System as participants. The online survey was adapted from the School Health …

Role Of Provisions And Season On Foraging And Female Dominance Behavior In Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur Catta) On St. Catherine's Island, Timothy Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Madagascar is undergoing habitat destruction and degradation that is threatening its unique species, including ring-tailed lemurs. Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) live in matriarchal groups composed of a dominant female, adult males, subadult males and females, and young. Due to their dominance, it has been suggested that female ringtailed lemurs have access to the highest quality resources and can monopolize food patches. Lemurs on St. Catherine's are free ranging and have unlimited access to natural food sources, but they are also provisioned with supplementary food to ensure a balanced diet. My study aimed to determine the impact of provisions on female …

Leaving In The Past: The Role History Plays In Video Games, Joseph Fordham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How can something considered by many within academia as childish or a waste of time be potentially useful in presenting or even studying history? Not only has the video game industry grown into one of the largest forms of media in the world, but these games are also finding use as a training aid for the military and major companies, as an advertising medium, and, most importantly, as a tool for teaching. As developmental capabilities improve with new generations of graphics hardware, video games are turning towards the recreation of real-world and historical events. This drive towards realism and accuracy …

Monster Quest: Background Myth And Contemporary Context Of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Conqueror Worm", Farrah Senn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poe's short story "Ligeia" and its companion poem "The Conqueror Worm" have garnered little critical attention, though he believed them to be his best works. Considering the archetypal image of the worm, contemporary references, and Poe's other uses of the symbol, an analysis of the poem and its context within the short story reveals the identity of the "hero" described in the final verse. This paper explores the archetypal nature of the worm by looking at snake myths from across the globe and applying Platonic/Jungian ideas to the image and its function in the poem. This work also discusses the …

Bird Use Of Cumberland Island's Freshwater Wetlands, Lisa Dlugolecki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cumberland Island is the southernmost barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Its freshwater wetlands are an important, rare habitat to have on a barrier island surrounded by saltmarsh and ocean. Many species of birds require freshwater wetlands as feeding, roosting and nesting grounds. However, the freshwater wetlands on Cumberland Island have been impacted by humans for centuries causing birds to abandon their historic nesting ground. Known land use histories of Cumberland Island's freshwater wetlands were gathered to try and determine how the wetlands changed over time Wetlands were analyzed for presence of wetland-dependent birds and recorded. Thirty-six species of …

A Non-Parametric Approach To Change-Point Detection In Cross-Asset Correlations, L. Kaili Diamond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we explore the problem of detecting change-points in cross-asset correlations using a non-parametric approach. We began by comparing and contrasting several common methods for change-point detection as well as methods for measuring correlation. We finally settle on a statistic introduced in early 2012 by Herold Dehling et.al. and test this statistic against real world financial data. We provide the estimated change-point for this data as well as the asymptotic p-value associated with this statistic. Once this process was complete we went on to use simulated data to measure the accuracy, power, and type 1 error associated with …

A Comparison Of The Associative And Multiple Bearing Hypotheses Through Landmark Stability In Humans Using A Virtual Environment, Martha R. Forloines

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current experiment investigated the mixed results seen in spatial blocking paradigms; there have been procedures that have shown and not shown blocking of added landmarks in the spatial domain. Typically, the Associative theory of learning has been applied to spatial learning. However, spatial blocking paradigms cannot be explained solely with this theory. The Multiple Bearings Hypothesis (MBH) may be able to explain these differences. The current experiment employed a three-phase blocking paradigm to examine what factors are responsible for the mixed results. The first Phase, Phase 0, incrementally shaped human participants' goal location behavior with two ambiguous landmarks. In …

Spatial And Temporal Immune Response In House Flies In Response To Ingestion Of Bacillus Cereus And Eschericha Coli 0157-H7, Adam Fleming

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

House flies (Musca domestica L.) feed and breed on septic substrates, putting them in direct contact with a multitude of disease causing agents and can act as a bridge for those agents to humans. The house fly has previously been shown to carry many different species of bacteria that are pathogenic. Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a pathogenic enterohemorrhagic serotype of E. coli that can be vectored by the house fly. Bacillus cereus is a foodborne pathogen that has also been isolated from the house fly in previous studies. To examine vector potential for these pathogens, house flies were fed green …

Predation Risk And Colony Structure In The Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon Pisum, Carl Nicolas Keiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many organisms live in transient or permanent aggregations to reduce individual predation risk. Hamilton's "Selfish Herd" theory states that an individual should assume a central position within a group to decrease individual predation risk relative to that of its neighbors (i.e., individuals should be selfish). This theory, however, cannot predict the spatial distribution of individuals within clonal aggregations, that is, when individuals are genetically identical (the "evolutionary self"). As aphids (small, herbivorous insects) are parthenogenetic, emit alarm signals, and have high levels of phenotypic plasticity to cope with environmental stressors like predation risk, they are a model organism for investigating …

The Relationship Between Teacher Empowerment And Student Achievement, Valerie Denise Squire-Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between teacher empowerment and student achievement. Participants in this study were administered the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES); this scale measures teacher empowerment on six dimensions: decision making; professional growth; status; self-efficacy; autonomy; and impact (Martin Crossland, & Johnson, 2001). The participants' mean score of the 2010-2011 Criterion Referenced Competency Test scores (CRCT) were used as a measure of student achievement. The SPES were distributed to teachers in five middle schools in one school district in Georgia. The response rate for this study was 85.2 percent. A Pearson Correlation was …

The Last Word, Kristin Lawhon Kyzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The last word, as defined by Webster's dictionary, describes the final remark in a verbal exchange, the power of a final decision, a definitive statement or treatment, and the most advanced, up-to-date, or fashionable exemplar of its kind. I venture to explore and utilize the meaning of this well-known idiom through the creation of visual artworks that comprise my Master of Fine Art thesis research. Within this body of visual artworks, titled The Last Word, I explore the evolution and realization of self-image through the examination of disparate and reciprocal relationships. Utilizing personal symbolic imagery, provocative text and mixed media …

Intentional Internationalization Of Higher Education: A Strategic Institutional Response To Globalization, Adrian Raul Cornelius

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Campus internationalization is increasingly becoming a profitable strategy used by colleges and universities to counteract the transformative effects of globalization on higher education. As institutions begin to rely more heavily on this dimension of their organizational programming, it becomes essential that they engage in the best possible planning practices to ensure a systematic and sustainable initiative. Failure to plan effectively might derail expectations and compromise institutional viability. The literature investigation of this study suggests that organizational intentionality might be a useful strategy for systemic internationalization planning. The purpose of this mixed-methods study, therefore, was to determine how organizational intentionality has …

Utilizing Self-Determination Theory To Assist In Understanding College Students' Motivation For Physical Activity, Tyler Coe Mcdaniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Obesity has become a national epidemic, (CDC, 2006; Desai, Miller, Staples, & Bravender, 2008), while causing life-threatening health conditions including cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and other functional issues (Schoenborn & Strommel, 2011). It has been estimated that less than half of populations in industrialized countries are sufficiently physically active to prevent health issues (Sapkota, Bowles, Ham, & Kohl, 2005). The current study utilized the Self-Determination theory (SDT) by Deci and Ryan (1985, 2002) to help understand motivation, but more specifically exercise motivations. This study targeted basic psychological need (PNSE) and motivation regulations (BREQ-2) of a general population of …

An Examination Of An Optimism Training Intervention On Optimism Levels Of Ncaa Division I Athletes: A Single Subject Design, Anya Marie Salzgeber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Optimism has been shown to provide many benefits, such as better health, increased satisfaction, confidence, motivation, and higher athletic performance. Research has also suggested the ability to increase the frequency of experiencing those benefits through the use of certain cognitive behavior therapy techniques. While the research shows the ability to increase optimism in a random sample of individuals, there is a lack of research on increasing optimism in athletes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an optimism training intervention on state optimism levels of NCAA Division 1 athletes. It was hypothesized the intervention will …

Thinking Through Objects, Brent S. Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Thinking through objects: is the culmination of my research on objects and design. It is a reflection of my interest in the concise construction of a three dimensional object from cut, manipulated, and glued sheets of paper. As a material, paper has an implied commonness, familiarity, fragility, and temporariness, with clearly understood characteristics and qualities. In the same way, the objects the paper sculptures represent have a familiarity and temporariness about them, serving a specific role for a period of time before being replaced or updated. Selected from my own person experience, the works represent a personal history or narrative. …

An Examination Of An Ice House At Old Town Plantation, Elizabeth A. Gillispie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Old Town plantation has had a long and prosperous life. The property has been occupied historically for more than 200 hundred years. Christopher Fitzsimmons' purchased the property in 1809. Fitzsimmons' created a working plantation and an elaborate homestead at Old Town. It is his occupation that this research centers around. Excavations in 1994 revealed the foundation footings of his home, the associated springhouse and his ice house. This thesis is an in depth examination of ice houses around the world comparatively and how these structures relate to the ice house at Old Town.

Preschool Children's Perceptions Of Fruit And Vegetable Messages And Their Relationship To Parenting Practices, And Child Knowledge, Preference, And Consumption, Andrew Rasmus Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies involving school aged children (>5 years of age) have reported that positive and negative outcome messages influence a child's fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption. Positive outcome messages have the most significant mediating effect. However, there is a deficiency of studies involving children <5 years of age. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the perceptions preschool aged children (4 years old) have about F&V messages and how these perceptions relate to F&V knowledge, preference, and consumption. Methods: Parents (n =175) were surveyed about their nutrition behavior, parenting practices and the home food environment. Children's (n = 201) school lunch-time F&V consumption was recorded over five days. Children (n=195) were individually interviewed about their knowledge, preference, and perceptions of F&Vs. Child perceived messages were operationalized into Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs to assist in behavior explanation. Pearson's correlations were used to determine variable relationships and an independent samples t-test was done to determine gender and socioeconomic status (SES) group differences. Results: Preschool children conveyed positive outcome expectancies (POE), negative outcome expectancies (NOE), and prompts most frequently when describing F&Vs. Knowledge was positively correlated to prompts, POE and NOE. Child preference (likes) was negatively correlated to NOE. Dislikes were positively correlated to NOE. Differences between income levels were observed. Discussion: This study provides information about the food environment from the perspective of both parent and child. Providing appropriate messages early in the developmental years of a child's life can play dividends for positive future health outcomes.

Home Field Advantage: Sprint Sensitivity To Ecologically Relevant Substrates In Lizards, Clint Edward Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Effectively moving across variable substrates is important to all terrestrial animals. Much attention has been given to the effects of different substrates on locomotor performance in an attempt to link ecology and morphology. Sprint sensitivity is the decrease in sprint speed due to change in substrate. This study measures sprint sensitivity to substrate rugosity among six lizard species that occupy rocky, sandy, and/or semi-arboreal habitats. Lizards that use rocky habitats are less sensitive to changes in substrate rugosity, followed by arboreal lizards, and then by lizards that use sandy habitats. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that using rocks is highly correlated with …