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College Of Computing And Engineering Graduate Catalog 2019-2020, Nova Southeastern University

College of Engineering and Computing Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Graduate Catalog And Student Handbook 2019-2020, Nova Southeastern University

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice Graduate Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

H. Wayne Huizenga College Of Business And Entrepreneurship Catalog 2019-2020, Nova Southeastern University

Huizenga Postgraduate Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Can President Trump Become His Own Judge And Jury? A Legal Analysis Of President Trump's Amenability To Criminal Indictment And Ability To Self-Pardon, Nicolo A. Lozano

Nova Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Current Volume 30 : Issue 11 Homecoming, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

A Multiple Case-Study Approach To Examine Police Officers Perceptions On Narcan® Policies, Casey Gnann

Theses and Dissertations

In October 2017, President Trump officially declared the opioid epidemic to be a public health emergency. Reports from the CDC indicate that over 140 Americans die per day as a result of an opioid overdose (NPR, 2017). This statistic alone highlights the tragic effects of the current opioid climate. To date, an abundance of research has been conducted on opioid addicts, family members, doctors approach to addiction, etc. However, there is a gap in the research regarding law enforcement officers and their ever-changing role in the fight against opioids. As the opioid epidemic has continued to worsen, many law enforcement …

Full Issue

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

It’s easy for us to become trapped in our own minds. As we find ourselves surrounded by challenges, we may sometimes forget that we are not alone in feeling pain. It is through this pain that we grow and it is through dissecting these events that we learn from our struggles.

In this 16th volume of Digressions, you will find a juxtaposition of pain and happiness. In these pages is a collection of personal experiences, and each piece of expression is as unique as its creator. While every contributor’s story is different, their words, photography and artwork reflect what we …

College Of Psychology Graduate Student Catalog 2019-2020, Nova Southeastern University

College of Psychological Services / College of Psychology Postgraduate Student and Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Religion In Incarcerated, Jewish, Female Inmates, Marcia Janine Kesner

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the role religious belief and practice played amongst Jewish, female inmates during their incarceration. A group of ten correctional chaplains who work with Jewish, female, inmates and a comparison group of ten chaplains who work with Protestant, female inmates were interviewed. The study determined the reasons for and benefits of religious observance among these inmates and included assisting in dealing with fear, providing a sense of peace, and deceitful motives for personal gains. Religious practice also assisted inmate populations in healing from trauma, improving self-respect and self-esteem, building support systems, and additionally for Jewish, female inmates constructing …

Implementing A Research-Based Reading Intervention Focused Upon Increasing Reading Comprehension Amongst Third-Grade Students, Kamaria Dalila Mcnair

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the qualitative study was to determine if and how the strategy instruction model Reciprocal Teaching helped low-level readers comprehend what they read. The study also was conducted to measure if and how the Reciprocal Teaching strategies motivated the participants to read and if and how they used the strategies after their exposure to them. Lastly, the study measured the instructional strategies that were currently being used to help third-grade participants. The subjects involved in this study were 10 third-grade students who displayed a need for comprehension development. The sample size was determined by the reading benchmark test …

The News Through Facebook: Discovering The Prevalence Of Rape Myths In User Comments, Leigh Anne Clay

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempted to ascertain the prevalence value of rape myths located within social media user comments on the website Facebook. Research using existing Internet-based comments may provide insight into current attitudes and beliefs surrounding sexual violence. Using a quantitative content analysis, this study gauged the prevalence of rape myths in user comments by referencing a preset code list created with rape myths from the Acceptance of Modern Myths About Sexual Aggression scale (AMMSA) and the Updated Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA) and by locating emergent codes in the dataset.

The Role Of Supervised Community Service And Socio-Economic Status In Recidivism Pertaining To Financial Crimes Among Ex-Convicts, David Adu-Boateng

Theses and Dissertations

An individual’s economic situation impacts the commission of crimes, and ex-convicts inability to earn a living and integrate into society increases their propensity to commit financial crimes. Researchers indicate that the high rate of recidivism points to the fact that ex-convicts face significant challenges in their bid to adjust to life outside prison. Prior research and extant literature show that most ex-convicts re-offend within three years after their initial release from prison. Generally, the propensity to commit a financial crime increases after prison time among convicted felons. However, an elevated socio-economic status reduces an ex-convict’s propensity to commit financial crimes …

Media Effects And Criminal Profiling: How Fiction Influences Perception And Profile Accuracy, Asha Bolton

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation was to investigate whether media and fictional information that is observed daily can influence perception to build a criminal psychological profile. Staggering between a distinguished art and science, the term profiling has been known by several different names – including criminal profiling, psychological profiling, offender profiling and more. Bandura (2009) believed that exposure to television and other media feeds into a socially constructed reality, where the audience is inevitably influenced by the beliefs and cognitions of observed media. The researcher believed that exposure to media can either influence criminal profiling and investigations with increasing accuracy …

The Prevalence Of Hate Crimes Motivated By Sexual Orientation In Florida After The U.S. Supreme Court Legalization Of Same-Sex Marriages, Shawntozi Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Research on the dynamics of violence has revealed that crimes involving a prejudicial motive often occur in close temporal proximity to a galvanizing event such as elections, terrorist attacks, or unprecedented Supreme Court decisions. Given the particularly contested nature of marriage policy, it is not inconceivable that same-sex marriage recognition might incite retaliatory violence. Same-sex couples were granted the right to marry by the United States Supreme Court in June of 2015. By June 2016, Orlando, Florida experienced the “deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQ people in U.S. history,” after a mass shooting at Pulse nightclub resulted in the death …

The Prism Model: Increasing Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Self-Perceptions Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Catharine Mattox

Theses and Dissertations

While graduate teaching assistants teach the majority of introductory lab and discussion sections at colleges and universities across the United States, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how to adequately prepare graduate teaching assistants for faculty roles and responsibilities outside of research. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to address a gap in the literature by examining a professional development activity that encouraged pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development in conjunction with experiential learning for biology graduate teaching assistants. Specifically, this study sought to understand how: (a) the Teaching Triangles professional development activity supported biology graduate teaching …

Examining Stigma Associated With Firefighters Seeking Social Support After Experiencing A Traumatic Event, John Richard Tormos

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to examine stigma associated with firefighters seeking social support after experiencing a traumatic event. This quantitative study employed a survey approach with a cross-sectional design. The researcher self-selected 26 active career firefighters from a medium-sized fire department located in the southeastern United States to participate in the study. Firefighters responded to an array of emergency incidents and were repeatedly exposed to traumatic events. The Secondary Trauma Exposure Scale was employed to answer the first research question: What are the most frequent types of traumatic events that firefighters have experienced? The findings revealed that all of …

Using Video Modeling To Determine The Effects On Play Skills Of Elementary Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Carrietta L. Gaudio

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to enhance the play skills of elementary students diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The current social skills programs available at the writer’s school did not specifically target improving play skills and were not geared toward individuals with autism. The traditional teaching techniques used in the classroom to teach play skills were not adequate, as students continued to show minimal growth on quarterly progress reports and repeated yearly goals focusing on play skills on their individualized education plans.

The writer conducted a study that compared the effects of video modeling and video selfmodeling on play …

Law Enforcement Officer Body-Worn Camera Perceptions: Pre And Post Deployment, Benjamin Aaron Straight

Theses and Dissertations

The 2014 fatal police shooting of Michael Brown resulted in (a) a national outcry for police departments to deploy body-worn cameras; and (b) community members and politicians demanding more transparency in the governmental administration of police work. Despite the increased media attention and deployment of body-worn cameras, there is little research on how law enforcement officers perceive body-worn cameras.

The Miami-Dade Police Department implemented a mandatory body-worn camera program on April 20, 2016. The department agreed to a partnership to conduct research on their officers' body-worn camera perceptions. The department internally distributed an electronic survey to 3,313 sworn officers and …

Federal Offices Of Inspectors General: The Relationship Between Per Capita Staffing Levels And Performance Results, Craig Yuen

Theses and Dissertations

Each year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on operations and in awarding contracts, grants, loans, and other forms of financial assistance. Federal Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs) are charged with auditing and investigating fraud, waste, abuse, and misconduct affecting the government. There are 73 such OIGs – 40 of which have law enforcement authority and oversight responsibilities for a parent agency – and each is a separate organization with varying staffing levels and performance results. This study examined, on a per capita level, the relationship between staffing levels and performance results (criminal charges filed, financial recoveries, and questioned …

The Deaf & Law Enforcement Listening Though Deaf Eyes: A Grounded Theory Approach, John L. Garner

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the perceived and practical schism between deaf society and the police when the deaf attempt to obtain police services. The paper challenges current police culture and operating procedures, which tend to marginalize deaf society and largely ignore the mandates contained in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This qualitative research project is focused upon perceived law enforcement practices and culture through a multi-layered study of police customs, law, policy, and standard operating procedures as experienced, perceived, and reported by deaf individuals.

A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to examine the way law enforcement is perceived by …

Utilization Efficacy Perceptions Of Telepractice For Speech-Language Pathologists And University Faculty And Administrators: A Qualitative Delphi Study, Cybele Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Telepractice (or telehealth, teletherapy, tele-rehabilitation) is becoming more common. Speech-language pathology entered the world of telemedicine later than other fields of medicine. With the increasing size of the aging population with the baby boomers, the need for speech-language pathology can be achieved through practitioners using telepractice. Despite the need, barriers such as reimbursement, licensing, privacy and confidentiality, technology and technology acceptance are hindering the adoption of telepractice. This study uses the Delphi methodology with qualitative data collection and analysis to come to a consensus on how to best regulate and operate telepractice with speech-language pathology so that it is more …

An Analysis Of Selected Clusters Of Fires In Florida (1996 - 2018), Thomas Riley Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Hidden within the day-to-day routine responses of fire departments are possible multiple fires set by individuals in a small area with an unusual frequency. These fires may be the initial announcement of an emerging serial offender who is declaring a wound, an intolerable life situation, or is triggered by unknown events. This study sought to predict incendiary fires within a known cluster by using observable variables, both prior to and after the cluster event. This was done to further our understanding of the characteristics of clusters of intentionally lit fires. This was accomplished by examining the Florida Fire Information Reports …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Adoption Of Social Networking Platforms To Achieve Digital Literacy For All Learners, Anila Sweitzer

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this proposed phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions and experiences of teachers, administrators, and instructional technology professionals during integrations of social networking platforms for educational purposes to enhance classroom instruction focused on improved academic achievement and digital literacy. Specifically, the study focused on understanding the experiences of teachers, administrators, and instructional technology professionals within K-12 public school districts responsible for having implemented 21st-century technology skills into classroom instruction with the use of online interviews. This study was grounded on Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory as a framework with social networking platforms being the innovation.

The study …

Habitual Offender Monitoring Enforcement (H.O.M.E.) Task Force: Combating Auto Thefts Committed By Habitual Juvenile Offenders, Anika Marie Dzik

Theses and Dissertations

Pinellas County was combating a juvenile auto theft-problem evidenced by a major increase in juveniles breaking into and stealing cars across all city jurisdictions. Due to the auto theft-problem, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office created the Habitual Offender Monitoring Enforcement (H.O.M.E.) Task Force that includes multiple law enforcement jurisdictions within the county to address the problem. The purpose of the H.O.M.E. Task Force is to strictly enforce court-ordered sanctions by intensively supervising juveniles to decrease the likelihood of them committing more crimes. The H.O.M.E. Task Force focuses specifically on habitual juvenile offenders and the auto theft-problem, which is currently one …

Confidence In Law Enforcement When African-Americans Are Underrepresented On The Force: An Exploratory Study, Charles E. Maclean

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the prediction that when African-Americans are underrepresented among sworn officers in a community’s local law enforcement agencies compared to the African-American proportions in that community’s overall population, African-American civilians’ confidence in their local law enforcement agencies may suffer, leading to impaired respect for law, reduced civilian cooperation with law enforcement, and civilian impressions of weakened procedural justice and fairness. With low civilian confidence, the argument goes, one could expect an enhanced sense of disenfranchisement among the underrepresented sub-populations.

The purpose of this study is to consider the impact of underrepresentation of African-Americans among sworn officers serving a …

Exploring The Impact Of Disaster Response Preparedness By The New York State Military Forces To The World Trade Center September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks, Robert L. Wolf

Theses and Dissertations

The problem identified in this study concerned the impact of disaster response preparedness (DRP) from the past, present, and future perspectives. The study explored the experiences of four survivors from the 1993 WTC bombing, the effectiveness of seven New York State Military Forces (NYSMF) deployed to Ground Zero (GZ), and perspectives of five Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professionals on DRP operations going forward from 9/11.

Following an explorative heuristic research approach, the study utilized a qualitative and content analysis methodology (both qualitative and quantitative aspects) to investigate the problem using published archival interviews from the informants. Minimally, hypothesis testing, and …

Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of An Undergraduate Teacher Preparation Program In Special Education In Jamaica, Keitha Ava Marie Osborne

Theses and Dissertations

The problem addressed in this study was that stakeholders (i.e., graduates, cooperating teachers, principals, and heads of special education departments) of a teacher preparation program in special education at a teachers’ college in western Jamaica had not been asked their perceptions of the effectiveness of the undergraduate program that was started in 2011.

The purpose of the study was to determine stakeholders’ perceptions of the preparedness and effectiveness of graduates of a teacher preparation program in special education at a teachers’ college in western Jamaica. The stakeholders were the recent fulltime graduates of the program, cooperating teachers, principals, and heads …

Competency-Based Clinical Supervision In Applied Behavior Analysis, Yulema Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation evaluated a new method that provided a systematic way of training and evaluating supervisors in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Using a single-case multiple- baseline across supervisors and supervisees research design, this study assessed the use of a modified behavioral skills protocol (BST) in the training of master’s and doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs/BCBA-Ds) in the supervision of DTT. Additionally, this study evaluated supervisee’s performances before and during the implementation of the modified BST protocol. Included in the new supervisor training curriculum outline (2.0) released by the BACB in 2019, BST is an evidence-based protocol whose efficacy …

Measuring Employee Job Satisfaction During Workplace Downsizing, Trina Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to examine the effects of workplace downsizing on employee job satisfaction among men and women and employees of different age groups. Results from an employee survey conducted annually by the organizational site indicated that employees had high stress levels, low employee satisfaction and morale, negative attitudes, and a lack of trust of leadership following employee downsizing at the company. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the effects of workplace downsizing on employee job satisfaction to determine any differences by gender or age group.

The study utilized a quantitative, descriptive, comparative methodology using …

Acceptability And Usability Of E-Books For Digital Immigrant Teachers In A Title I Elementary School, Allatesha Denise Cain

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to discover the factors that affect digital immigrant teachers’ acceptance and usability of e-books in a Title I elementary school. The term digital immigrant describes individuals born before the adoption of digital technology in 1980. The participant teachers will be interviewed to identify their perception of usefulness of the e-book to improve the reading skills of their students. Data from the interviews will be analyzed to identify the relationship between teachers’ perception of usefulness and ease of use of e-books and their intention to use e-books in a Title I elementary school.

This study …