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An Analysis Of Functional Behavioral Assessments Used In Public Schools In Tennessee And Georgia., Dana Winningham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to survey special education supervisors in public school systems throughout Tennessee and Georgia to determine the types of Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) procedures used and training provided to assessment personnel in their school systems. The primary focus of the study was on who conducts assessments, differences between the amount of training and support provided by school districts, and the use of best practices in conducting these assessments.

Surveys were mailed to 317 supervisors, 108 in Tennessee, and 123 in Georgia. These supervisors were asked to respond to questions concerning assessments in their respective school …

Assessment Of Groundwater Resources In Selected Areas Of Al Ain In The U.A.E., Fatma Abdullatif Al Shahi

Theses

The sustainable development of any region depends on the availability of water resources. In arid and semi-arid regions, the shortage in freshwater resources constitutes the major constraint against the expansion in agricultural and industrial activities. Therefore, every possible effort should be made to assess, develop and sustain the limited freshwater water resource in such regions.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is located in an arid region, where the climate is harsh and the renewable freshwater resources are very limited. Despite the severe shortage in water resources, water is misused and sometimes wasted. The per capita daily consumption in the UAE …

Integrated Software System For The Collection And Evaluation Of Wellness Information., Rebecca Elizabeth Sweeney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is an absence of a complete, easy to use, software system that can evaluate all areas of wellness. Although there are software programs and equipment available to examine certain aspects of wellness, they are incomplete. The solution to the difficulties of assessing wellness is the design and development of a software system that can be used to collect and evaluate wellness information. The system allows for complete reporting as it entails the six major components to wellness: demographics, body composition, lab work, nutritional intake, physical activity, and body measures. The system allows for ease of use by providing a …

A Water And Wastewater Sector Performance Assessment: A Comparative Study, Reham Khalifa

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The water and wastewater sector has been one of the infrastructure sectors gaining increasing importance recently. Governments have been focusing major efforts and significant volumes of their budgets towards the improvement of this sector and the increase of water and wastewater coverage. The key problem in most of the water_and wastewater utilities is the absence of performance assessment tools.

This research utilizes the calculation of a group of financial and operational indicators for a sample size of 234 utilities from countries across the world as a mean of comparison of their performance. Egypt is represented in the sample size by …

Brain Injury In Children: Assessment And School-Based Interventions, Deanne Smith

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

A traumatic brain injury is an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. It is considered the leading cause of mortality and disability among children with estimates of over one million occurrences each year. The 1990 revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act included Traumatic Brain Injury as a special education diagnostic category. Although this allowed students greater access to appropriate services, it pointed out the need for additional knowledge and training for educators working with this population. …

Minority Representation Among National Board Certified Teachers, Ronna L. Gilani

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

A case study examines the experiences of six teachers who have been candidates for certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Teachers needed specific kinds of support from the NBPTS, their school districts, and county-organized support groups, which were not fully met. Needs of minority candidates, in particular, are unfulfilled, leading to an inequity in the certification rates of minority candidates.

United States Post Gulf-War Policy Toward Iraq: A Systemic Assessment, Amanda Christine Ringelberg

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis proposes that US policy is structurally flawed toward Iraq and the Middle East in general. This structural flaw in US policy-making is a result of ignoring the regional considerations of the Middle East as a subsystem. Current US strategy toward Iraq is doomed to fail because of the unique structural considerations in the Middle East and the failure of policy-makers to recognize them; The thesis begins with a theoretical examination of the Middle East subsystem, based on principles from international systems theory. Several patterns of regularity that define the subsystem are then outlined. An assessment of US goals …

Gis For Source Water Assessment And Nonpoint Source Modeling In The Las Vegas Valley, Marcelo Reginato

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis develops a better understanding of issues related to surface water contamination and protection of drinking water sources in the Las Vegas Valley. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to identify source water protection zones and to estimate nonpoint source loads for the entire watershed; The extent of the source water protection zones is represented by the valley's dry weather flows. After source water protection zones were defined, field work and GIS defined the potential contaminant sources and land uses within the protection zones; The GIS nonpoint source model shows that roads account for approximately 25% of the …

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Of Off-Ramp Structures Of The Las Vegas Downtown Viaduct, Mohammad Ohidul Hasan

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents the results of analytical studies conducted on the off ramp structures of the Las Vegas downtown viaduct. In the first stage, the moment, shear and deformation capacities of the columns were determined by moment-curvature analysis. Then, the existing design of the bridge columns was compared to the requirements of the current bridge design codes. In the second stage, the moment, shear and deformation demands on the columns due to a strong earthquake were determined using the seismic provisions of the current bridge design codes. In the third stage, non-linear three dimensional finite element models of the off …

Confidence Intervals For Exposure Risk Assessment, Mark S Kirkham

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The problem of estimating exposure to a pollutant involves estimation of chemical intake Q. Typically, Q has the form Q = q11q12&cdots;q 1r1/q211q22 &cdots;q2r2t where all thetaij's are unknown means of certain random variables. In assessing the risk to human health from exposure to the pollutant of concern, a confidence interval estimate of Q is needed. In the case of independent normal random variables, point estimates and certain types of interval estimates of a product of several parameters exist in the literature, but not for a ratio of products. In many situations, lot of prior knowledge is available regarding the …

Teaching And Assessment Practices Of Instructors In Two Public Community Colleges In Nevada, Simon A Lei

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine variations of teaching and assessment strategies based on status and education level of faculty members at the Community College of Southern Nevada (CCSN) and the Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC). To facilitate this study, a survey instrument was developed and distributed to 400 randomly selected faculty members employed at CCSN and TMCC, with an overall response rate of 45.8%; Adjunct and nondoctorate instructors focused significantly more on lectures than their full-time and doctorate colleagues. Full-time instructors, however, placed significantly more emphasis on class discussion, slide/powerpoint presentation, lab teaching, and distance learning compared …

Development Of A Phosphorus Management Model To Address Filamentous Algae In A Shallow, Subtropical, Urban Hypereutrophic Lake, Jennifer Eileen Ruley

LSU Master's Theses

City Park Lake is a shallow, subtropical, urban hypereutrophic lake located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. By the late 1970’s, this artificial lake had experienced extreme eutrophication and suffered from frequent algal blooms and fish kills. Restoration of City Park Lake occurred in 1983 and consisted of dredging nutrient-laden sediments and the rehabilitation of sewage pipelines. Pre- and post-restoration water quality monitoring programs have provided valuable information by which to gage the long-term success of the restoration work. Following the restoration effort, dramatic improvements were observed in the lake including lower nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a concentrations, reduced frequencies in algal blooms …

The Body Morph Assessment Version 2.0 (Bma 2.0): A Psychometric Study, Tiffany M. Stewart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A computerized procedure for assessing body image, called the Body Morph Assessment Version 2.0 (BMA 2.0), was developed to serve as reliable and valid measure of body image. The BMA 2.0 is an extention of an earlier prototype called the Body Morph Assessment (BMA; Stewart, Williamson, Smeets, & Greenway, 2000). Although flexible in its uses, the BMA 2.0 targets the measurement of body image in people ranging in body size from very thin to very obese. The BMA was evaluated in terms of its psychometric characteristics. A sample of 217 subjects, composed of four distinct groups classified by gender and …

The Matson And Mayville (M&M) Seizure Scale: An Assessment Of Psychological And Environmental Variables Contributing To Seizure Activity In Persons With Mental Retardation, Erik Andrew Mayville

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Seizure activity can be debilitating across a number of physical, social, occupational, and personal domains. Given the deficits in all of these areas frequently present in persons with mental retardation, the control and elimination of seizures is a primary goal for individuals with both mental retardation and epilepsy. Antiepileptic medication can reduce seizure activity. However, this intervention often carries with it a range of untoward side effects that may adversely affect clients over what is typically a long-term treatment regimen. Over the last 20 years, literature has emerged emphasizing the importance of environmental variables in the initiation and maintenance of …

The Development And Validation Of The Parent Instruction-Giving Game With Youngsters (Piggy) In A Head Start Population, Stephen Danial Anthony Hupp

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Head Start families demonstrate many of the risk factors that relate to the development of noncompliance and other behavior problems in young children, such as low income, limited education, teenage pregnancy, isolation, family stress, single parenthood, and parental psychopathology. Noncompliant preschool-aged children often continue to display difficulties through adolescence. Parent Management Training programs have been developed which can improve child compliance. However, many of the same risk factors that lead to child noncompliance also reduce the effectiveness of parenting interventions. Thus, more efficient assessment and intervention strategies need to be developed to facilitate the treatment of child behavior problems in …

Qualitative Scoring Of The Rey 15-Item Memory Test In A Forensic Population, James A. Martin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Several studies have examined the ability of the Rey 15-Item Memory Test (MFIT) to identify malingering of memory problems among a variety of psychiatric and neurologically impaired populations. The consensus has been that the quantitative scoring method is overly sensitive to genuine memory impairment and lacks sensitivity to simulated amnesia. However, a reexamination of these studies and available data indicates the MFIT is both valid and effective at identifying actual malingerers among civil litigants, and a number of these studies were limited through inappropriate inclusion of severely impaired patients and research designs of questionable validity. Also, the performance of a …

Teacher Evaluation As Professional Development, Cynthia Suverkrop

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This qualitative study examines the connection between teacher evaluation and the goals of professional development by using the perceptions of a sample of experienced teachers. Teacher performance significantly impacts student learning outcomes. It is the teacher evaluation process that is intended to provide the public a process to ensure the quality of teaching in its schools and give teachers a tool to identify, improve, and validate effective teaching practice. This study looks at the current state law, local practices and teacher views to gain insight into how effective teacher evaluation is as a means of developing teachers' professional performance.