Digital Commons Network^™

Organizationally Mandated Diversity Training: Participants’ Perceptions At A Southeastern State University, Michelle Lynn Hurley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An amplified emphasis on global competency and a projected demographic shift toward an increasingly diverse population necessitates that businesses and organizations prepare adequately to remain competitive and effective. Training to enhance employees' multicultural competence is often used by organizations to address these impending changes; however, there is little research documenting the degree to which these trainings are effective. Using archival training evaluation data, the purpose of this study was to examine participant estimations of the effectiveness of one such training and also to determine if participant demographic variables including gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and employee classification (faculty or staff) …

A Corpus-Based Evaluation Of The Common European Framework Vocabulary For French Teaching And Learning, Francoise S. Kusseling

Theses and Dissertations

The CEFR French profiles have been widely used to teach and evaluate language instruction over the past decade. The profiles were specifications of vocabulary that have been largely untested from a corpus-based, empirical perspective. The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the CEFR profiles by comparing their content with two sizable contemporary corpora. This study quantified and described the vocabulary overlap and uniqueness across all three of these resources. Four areas of overlap and three areas of uniqueness were analyzed and identified. Slightly over 40% of the lexical content was common to the three resources studied. Additionally, 16.3% was …

The Relationship Among Training Policy, Knowledge Transfer, And Performance Improvement: A Study Of Private Sector Organizations In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Fayez M. Shafloot

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore human resource (HR) managers' perceptions of training practices (i.e., needs assessment, trainee preparation, training program review, accountability, management support, knowledge transfer, and performance improvement) in Saudi private sector organizations. The research questions were: (1) How do HR managers perceive the importance and or occurrence of training needs assessment, trainee preparation, training program review, accountability and management support? (2) How do HR managers perceive knowledge transfer and performance improvement as a function of training? and (3) What training factors do HR managers identify as being important to the delivery of training?

Data were …

An Evaluation Of Social Capital's Effect On Depression Among Adolescents, Ezechukwu Awgu

Dissertations

Mental illness has been described as a “global burden of disease,” and depression accounts for a large part of the burden (Aslund, Starrin, Nilsson, 2010). In 2009, 35.7 percent of the adolescent population in the United States who reported past-year symptoms of a major depressive episode, for example, feelings of sadness, discouragement, loss of feelings of self-worth, and loss of interest in social activities, also used illicit drugs including marijuana, inhalants, hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, and prescription-type psychotherapeutics for non-medical purposes (SAMHSA, 2009, APA, 1994). Additionally, substance abuse due to alcoholism was among the major causes of death for adolescents aged …

Development Of The Simulation Thinking Rubric, Jessica Doolen

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Biochemical Evaluation Of Srh Analogs As Potential Luxs Inhibitors, Richa Gupta

Master's Theses

Quorum sensing in bacteria is a process of cell-to-cell communication facilitated by small molecules called autoinducers. Interspecies quorum sensing is facilitated by the autoinducer AI-2. The enzyme LuxS catalyzes the formation of AI-2 from S-ribosyl homocysteine (SRH) in a wide variety of bacterial species. Inhibition of LuxS would therefore inhibit interspecies quorum sensing. The goal of this project is to establish biochemical assays for the evaluation of small molecules as potential LuxS inhibitors. The first assay is a conventional colorimetric assay that utilizes Ellman’s reagent to quantify the homocysteine byproduct of DPD production by LuxS. For this assay purified …

An Evaluation Of An E-Learning Training Course To Teach Instructors To Implement Discrete Trial Teaching, Joy S. Pollard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As the rates of autism are continuing to increase each year, it is imperative that we are able to train teachers to work with these children. Training teachers to use effective teaching strategies can be a time consuming endeavor and is challenging because schools may not have the resources to hire an expert trainer to provide this training. A solution may be to use e-learning. This would allow teachers in rural areas the ability to access the training, while also providing a cost-savings to school districts. The current study evaluated an e-learning training course, which is a multi-media computer-based training, …

Training Professionals’ Usage And Understanding Of Kirkpatrick’S Level 3 And Level 4 Evaluations, Perri Estes Kennedy

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Behavior-based (Level 3) and results-based (Level 4) evaluations of training interventions can provide organizations with substantive proof of the value of those interventions. Training professionals have long acknowledged the necessity of conducting such evaluations, yet Level 3 evaluations are conducted for only about half of all training interventions and Level 4 for about one-third. This research examined the frequency with which training professionals currently conduct Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations, their perceptions on the utility of Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations, and the factors that facilitate or obstruct their attempts to perform such evaluations.

The research was conducted …

Utilization Of A Metabolic Syndrome Index In Evaluating The Life In Balance Lifestyle Intervention For Prevention Of Type 2 Diabetes Among Urban American Indians And Alaska Natives, Hongbin Jin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Background: A myriad of diabetes prevention programs modeled on the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) are carried out worldwide to fight against the current diabetes pandemic. The percentage of weight reduction is a widely used indicator to evaluate diabetes prevention programs. However, weight change alone may not fully reflect the efficacy of lifestyle intervention. A metabolic syndrome index is a promising novel scale for evaluation of diabetes prevention programs because it is a systematic, comprehensive, and stable indicator that reflects the metabolic risk reduction for diabetes and its complications at multiple levels and dimensions.

Methods: A total of 22 overweight and …

Community Interest As An Indicator For Ranking, Xiaozhong Liu

School of Information Studies - Dissertations

Ranking documents in response to users' information needs is a challenging task, due, in part, to the dynamic nature of users' interests with respect to a query. We hypothesize that the interests of a given user are similar to the interests of the broader community of which he or she is a part and propose an innovative method that uses social media to characterize the interests of the community and use this characterization to improve future rankings. By generating a community interest vector (CIV) and community interest language model (CILM) for a given query, we use community interest to alter …

Effects Of Departmental And Institutional Policies On Developmental Mathematics Students, Garth B. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arkansas Department of Higher Education data show that approximately 75% of Arkansas community college students are required to take at least one developmental education class (Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2012, p. 7.2). This is significantly higher than the approximately 30% average (Provasnik & Planty, 2008, p. 11) of community college students across the US. Developmental mathematics is the most commonly needed subject within Arkansas, with over 40% of community college students enrolling in at least one developmental mathematics course (Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2012, p. 7.3). Despite being common, few institutions that teach Developmental Education perform and then …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Curricular Changes In The Undergraduate Tesol Internship Program At Brigham Young University, Lydia Ripplinger

Theses and Dissertations

This MA project consists of the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of intended improvements to the TESOL minor internship program at Brigham Young University (BYU). The majority of changes implemented and evaluated in this study were suggested by Marisa Ontiveros in her 2010 MA thesis, An Evaluation of the Learning Outcomes and Curricular Organization of the Brigham Young University Undergraduate TESOL Internships Course. The present report summarizes relevant literature that led to the current project, including a discussion of the importance of internships in general, information regarding the significance of TESOL internships, and a summary of the BYU …

Evaluation In Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Benjamin L. Mcmurry

Theses and Dissertations

Evaluation of Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) needs to be scrutinized according to the same standards of evaluation as other professional materials. Evaluation can be divided into two distinct, yet similar, categories: formal (following a prescribed evaluation model) and informal. The aim of this dissertation is two-fold. The first purpose is to benefit the field of CALL by situating CALL evaluation in the context of frameworks used formal evaluation. The second purpose is to discover informal evaluation practices of CALL practitioners. First, with regard to formal evaluation of CALL materials, practices and insights from the field of evaluation would help CALL …

A Comparison Of The Effect Of In-Street Pedestrian Signs Alone, The Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacon Alone And Both Together On Yielding Behavior, Hana Sahar Manal

Masters Theses

This study examined the effectiveness of a rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) alone, in-street signs alone, and the RRFB plus in-street sign together on motorist yielding to pedestrians. Participants consisted of drivers in Oakland County, Michigan. Pedestrians were confederate data collectors. The target behavior was driver yielding. The two treatments utilized were the RRFB and the instreet sign. A reversal design was used in which the first set of conditions included baseline, the RRFB alone, two in-street signs alone and the combination of the two in-street signs with the RRFB. All of the treatments affected yielding in the predicted direction, except …

Evaluation And Design Of E-Government: A Holistic Overview Of E-Government Initiatives In Harrisonburg, And The Challenges Of Adopting A Citizen-Centered Design, Brian Perez

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In the past decade, e-Government has received a lot of attention from academia, policy agencies, and IT providers, all of whom attempt to assess and track the factors that lead to a successful e-Government service. I propose a top-level approach assessing e-Government in Harrisonburg as a whole, and then I explore project-level methods of design and implementation. More specifically, I identify 29 electronic services offered by the City and rank them according to a pre-defined four-stage ranking system. This assessment demonstrates that the majority of the services considered fall under the Interaction and Transaction stages (Stages 2 and 3 respectively). …

Parent Evaluation Of A Parent Training Program Of Positive Behavior Interventions, Jeana Washburn

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

Parent training programs have been shown to be helpful to parents in regards to implementing behavior intervention strategies with their children. Parent satisfaction with a parent-training program is an important variable in that, if parents like a program, it is more likely to be successful. The purpose of this project was to provide a brief parent training program using Dr. Glenn I. Latham’s website, Parenting Prescriptions, and examine parent evaluations of the program. The participants were four mothers of preschool age children. Each child had an educational classification of speech and language impairment. The project evaluated the parent training program …

Teaching Evaluator Competencies: An Examination Of Doctoral Programs, Susanne Anna Maria Kaesbauer

Doctoral Dissertations

Program evaluators may currently enter the field of evaluation through a variety of avenues. Entry into the profession at this time is uncontrolled by a professional body of evaluators, as an evaluator certification process does not yet exist in the United States of America. One avenue for evaluators to enter into the profession is through a graduate training program in evaluation. This study sought to understand the preparedness of evaluators who enter the profession in this manner. Specifically, this study aimed to determine the current state of the teaching of evaluator competencies, across 26 doctoral evaluation programs in the United …

Social Marketing: Impact On Elementary School Students' Selection And Consumption Of Salad Bar Food Items, Whitney Jordan Merola

Masters Theses

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of social marketing campaign (SMC) aimed at increasing selection and consumption of fruit and vegetable (FV) salad bar items among 3^rd-5^th grade students in an elementary school setting. Specifically, providing a detailed account of the formative, process, and impact evaluation methods used to evaluate the campaign and its impact on desired changes in behavior. Outcome measures were increases in the selection and consumption of FV salad bar items and changes in mean FV eaten, liking, and preference scores from baseline to post-implementation of the SMC. Formative …

The Differences Between Novice And Experienced Public Middle School Principals In The Decision To Remediate A Tenured Teacher, Andrew James Reuland

Dissertations

School principals in Illinois face an ethical dilemma when evaluating tenured teachers. Giving an unsatisfactory rating and placing a tenured teacher under a remediation plan opens the door to a time-consuming process filled with legal and financial issues that will strain relationships in the school. However, giving a less than honest rating results in leaving the teacher in the classroom and not making decisions in the best interest of students.

Presented here is a review of current research on evaluating tenured teachers and a framework of ethical lenses that can be applied to a principal's decision-making. This study looks at …

Preparing Relative And Near Kin Caregivers : Evaluation Of Roots, Betsaida Macias Gonzalez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Family and Children’s Services at the Monterey County Department of Social and Employment Services, MCDSES, strive for children’s stability and safety. In Monterey County, there are too many unsuccessful relative and near kin placements. Relatives and near kin caregivers are mandated to complete ROOTS training, Relative Offering Ongoing Ties and Support. ROOTS' curriculum intends to increase caregiver's knowledge to prepare and guide them in becoming a stable home for a child in need. The evaluation of ROOTS, a knowledge based pre/posttest, demonstrated the caregivers' appreciation of support and it gave a broad understanding of the knowledge gained by the caregivers.

Evaluation Of Non-Nuclear Devices In Measuring Moisture Content And Density Of Soils, Martin Jesus Sotelo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this report was to assess the ability of several different devices to measure moisture content and dry density of various compacted geomaterials. The experimental research involved the testing of different subgrade soils and one base material. More than a dozen specimens, 2 ft in height and 1.5 ft in diameter, were constructed to evaluate the Transtech SDG 200, Purdue TDR, and the Decagon 10 HS moisture content sensor. The Speedy Moisture Tester and DOT600 Roadbed Water Content Meter were also evaluated using individual soil samples. All materials were tested at five different moisture contents, but at their …

Predictive Modeling For Navigating Social Media, Meiqun Hu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Social media changes the way people use the Web. It has transformed ordinary Web users from information consumers to content contributors. One popular form of content contribution is social tagging, in which users assign tags to Web resources. By the collective efforts of the social tagging community, a new information space has been created for information navigation. Navigation allows serendipitous discovery of information by examining the information objects linked to one another in the social tagging space. In this dissertation, we study prediction tasks that facilitate navigation in social tagging systems. For social tagging systems to meet complex navigation needs …

Efficient And Scalable Evaluation Of Continuous, Spatio-Temporal Queries In Mobile Computing Environments, Jonathan M. Cazalas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A variety of research exists for the processing of continuous queries in large, mobile environments. Each method tries, in its own way, to address the computational bottleneck of constantly processing so many queries. For this research, we present a two-pronged approach at addressing this problem. Firstly, we introduce an efficient and scalable system for monitoring traditional, continuous queries by leveraging the parallel processing capability of the Graphics Processing Unit. We examine a naive CPU-based solution for continuous range-monitoring queries, and we then extend this system using the GPU. Additionally, with mobile communication devices becoming commodity, location-based services will become ubiquitous. …

Theory Building Through Praxis Discourse: A Theory- And Practice-Informed Model Of Transformative Participatory Evaluation, Michael Allen Harnar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Stakeholder participation in evaluation, where the evaluator engages stakeholders in the process, is prevalent in evaluation practice and is an important focus of evaluation research. Cousins and Whitmore proposed a bifurcation of participatory evaluation into the two streams of transformative participatory and practical participatory evaluation (T-PE and P-PE respectively). T-PE stems from a social justice perspective and P-PE has more of a use orientation. T-PE is an underdeveloped evaluation theory with relatively low operational specificity. Case examples provide some understanding of it in practice, but comprehensive empirical support is still forthcoming. This study aims to develop a greater understanding of …

Maintaining And Regaining Organizational Legitimacy : The U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission, Karen R. Bryce

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Focusing on organizational legitimacy is an essential element to the survival of an organization. Suchman (1995) suggests that "Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions" (p. 574). Legitimacy must first be gained and then maintained. If lost, legitimacy must be regained or the organization is unlikely to survive. Organizations can use both symbolic and substantive means of gaining, maintaining or regaining legitimacy. This dissertation explores organizational legitimacy by examining the case of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …

An Application Of Camx Process Analysis Tools : Exploring Process Contributions To Extreme Ozone, Nitrogen Oxides And Sulfur Dioxide, David-Anthony Murray

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The University at Albany Air Quality Forecasting Modeling System (AQFMS) is a state-of-the-art model that generates reliable daily and "day-ahead" air quality forecasts for the Northeastern United States. The three major categories of processes which dictate regional air quality are production from emission sources, horizontal and vertical transport driven by the prevailing meteorology, and chemical transformations. The Advanced Research WRF (ARW) produces meteorological fields. The Sparse Matrix Operator for Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) processes available emission inventories for air quality modeling. The Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extension (CAMx) handles both chemical processes and the integration of ARW-WRF and SMOKE in …

Equipped To Serve Our Youth: A Phenomenological Study Of 4-H Extension Youth Educators' Perceptions Of The Value Of Mentoring, Allison Ann Bruchhaus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Challenging economic times and increasingly complex social contexts intensify the demand for organizations to focus on areas of human resource development that positively contribute to developmental relationships of employees. One such method is the implementation of a formal mentoring program. Mentoring is especially important for 4-H youth educators. Youth educators are usually specialized in program development among other areas and plan, implement, and evaluate programs with the intent of bettering the quality of life for youth. The dynamics of working with today’s youth mandate effective professional development and developmental relationships for career enhancement. This study was developed for the researcher …

"Crappy New Year": Evaluation, Stance And Drinking Stories, Martin Edward Pfeiffer

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is an examination of drinking stories and how authors, through linguistic means, achieve narrative, social, and cultural goals. Language is a biological fact of Homo sapiens and narrative is a universal method by which humans make sense of their world. Humans’ primeval relationship with alcohol is an expression of the innate desire to achieve altered states of consciousness. To study drinking stories is to study a manifestation of the essence of humanity. This research employs the narrative theories of Labov (1997) and Labov and Waletzky (1967) combined with Du Bois’s (2007) model of stance. I focus on the …

Evaluating Premise Relations, Matthew Alexander Stevens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An essential step to evaluating arguments is moving from the weight of individual premises to the weight of the conclusion. In order to perform this step, one must understand the relationship between the premises in the argument. In the past, analyzing premise relations in informal logic has been limited primarily to the linked-convergent distinction. This distinction has failed to resolve some of the basic problems in finding a definition because it has underestimated the degree to which premises interact with each other in some complicated way. Embracing concepts from holistic epistemology, I argue that evaluating a premise involves considering a …

Implementation & Evaluation Of A Peer Mentor Walking Program For Transitionally Housed Women In Missoula, Mt, Emily Jane Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Single women and families with children are rapidly growing segments of the homeless population (NCH, 2009b). Homeless women generally report a lower quality of life, and are at a greater risk for various physical and mental health issues than their housed counterparts (NCH, 2009a). Mental illness, including depression and anxiety, impacts 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States, compared to 6% of the general population (NCH, 2009b). Social support can serve as a mediating factor between undesirable life events and depression (La Gory, Ritchey, Mullis, 1990). Unfortunately, the social support system among homeless individuals is sometimes …