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Proceedings Of The 96th Annual Virginia Academy Of Science Meeting, 2018, Virginia Academy Of Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Proceedings of the 96th Annual Virginia Academy of Science Meeting, May 23-25, 2018, at Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia.

Incivility As A Barrier To Embeddedness Among Engineering Students: Does Gender Matter?, Katelyn R. Reynoldson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

To meet the current demand for engineers, research has focused on how to attract and retain qualified candidates in the field, especially those that are underrepresented (e.g., women; NSB, 2016). The present study investigates incivility and embeddedness, which have been found to be antecedents of retention in both the workplace (Cortina, Magley, Williams, & Langhout, 2001; Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, & Erez, 2001) and the collegiate setting (Caza & Cortina, 2007; Major et al., 2015). To extend previous research, both constructs were examined simultaneously among undergraduate engineering students. Undergraduate, first-year engineers completed an online survey indicating the extent to which …

The Effects Of Selection System Characteristics And Privacy Needs On Procedural Justice Perceptions: An Investigation Of Social Networking Data In Employee Selection, Rachel C. Callan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Privacy violations have been suggested as an important variable in procedural justice perceptions, but the nature of this relationship is not well understood. Privacy has been investigated as a precursor to overall justice perceptions, but to date no published research investigates the role of privacy in the Gilliland procedural justice model (1993), one of the most influential procedural justice models in the literature. This dissertation explored this relationship by applying the Gilliland model to a situation rife with potential privacy issues: the use of social networking site information in employee selection. As in Gilliland’s model, selection system characteristics altered procedural …

Current Radiation Safety Practices Of United States Dental Hygienists, Kimberly Lintag

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

Problem: The purpose of this study was to determine licensed dental hygienists’ current radiation safety practices.

Methods: Data was collected with a 22 item, IRB exempt online survey administered to a sample of 1,500 U.S. dental hygienists who were subscribers of a professional journal. Questions focused on respondents’ use of ADA selection criteria guidelines, policies implemented by their dental practice, and hand-held portable x-ray device use and training. A response rate of 38% (N=566) was obtained. Cross tabulations were obtained using logistic regression and general linear models for significance at a 0.05 level.

Results: A majority of respondents had an …

“For The Homeland”: Die Deutsche Hausfrau And Reader Responses To World War I, Julie Sliva Davis

History Theses & Dissertations

When the Great War broke out in the summer of 1914, many German Americans living in the United States expressed renewed support and loyalty for Germany in the German-language press. While scholars have thoroughly examined the collective experiences and sentiments of German Americans in the U.S. during World War I, particularly in their press, German-American women and their press have remained largely underrepresented. Notably, however, as evidenced by the largest nationally circulated monthly women’s journal of the time, Die Deutsche Hausfrau (The German Housewife), German-American women did indeed use their press as well to convey increasingly pro-German rhetoric in support …

Addiction Counselors' Perceptions Of Clinical Supervision Practices, Marla Harrison Newby

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The addiction counseling clinical supervision literature has been limited in empirical studies focusing on best practices. Researchers have reported as much as 30 percent of addiction counselors are not receiving clinical supervision at all (Culbreth, 1999; Schmidt, 2012). Addiction counselors enter the field with a variety of credentials that can range from paraprofessional to graduate degrees. The inconsistent practices of clinical supervision in the addiction counseling field and limited research warrants concern for counselors’ professional development. Survey data was examined from 84 addiction counselors’ satisfaction with the frequency and quality of clinical supervision received based on professional credentials, years of …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of A Gaze-Based Training Intervention On Latent Hazard Anticipation Skills For Young Drivers: A Driving Simulator Study, Yusuke Yamani, Pinar Biçaksiz, Dakota B. Palmer, Nathan Hatfield, Siby Samuel

Psychology Faculty Publications

A PC-based training program (Road Awareness and Perception Training or RAPT; Pradhan et al., 2009), proven effective for improving young novice drivers' hazard anticipation skills, did not fully maximize the hazard anticipation performance of young drivers despite the use of similar anticipation scenarios in both, the training and the evaluation drives. The current driving simulator experiment examined the additive effects of expert eye movement videos following RAPT training on young drivers' hazard anticipation performance compared to video-only and RAPT-only conditions. The study employed a between-subject design in which 36 young participants (aged 18-21) were equally and randomly assigned to one …

Fem Media Matters: An Inqueery Into Campus Sexual Assault, Andrew Kennedy Garber

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Queer victimization as a topic is often marginalized within research due to hegemonic ideologies within society. When it comes to campus sexual assault research and resources, the focus is primarily on female victimization constructed within a heteronormative framework. Little research and theorization has been done on male victimization or the specificities of LGBTQ victimization of campus sexual assault. The problem this research has identified is that the female-victim-male-perpetrator metanarrative of campus sexual assault portrayed through media exemplifies the heterosexist culture at various levels of analysis within the United States. Further, it has led to an invisibility of LGBT and male …

The Kosovo Moment: The United States And The Post-Cold War Balkans, Visar Xhambazi

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study attempts to assess the importance of the humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, the last phase of Yugoslavian agony. It provides a historical background of the region in order to better understand the mosaic of ethnic divisions and hatred as well as the cultural differences and the rise of nationalism through time. Furthermore, it analyzes the events and evaluates the performance of the United States, Europe and intergovernmental organizations in preventing genocide, pushing for regime change and state-building. The last stage considers the United States role in the Balkans and beyond, aiming to provide essential lessons and recommendations on future …

Behavioral Determinants Of Exercise-Related Injury Prevention Program Participation, Emily M. Hartley

Health Services Research Dissertations

Lower extremity injuries are common among the physically active population. There are many negative consequences associated with these injuries which have led to a shift in clinical practice towards prevention. Exercise-related injury prevention programs (ERIPPs) were created to prevent musculoskeletal injuries that occur due to participation in physical activity. However, one of the major limitations to their effectiveness is the compliance of the users to complete the prescribed exercises. It is imperative to better understand the reasons why compliance is low to develop implementation strategies and improve compliance rates.

The overarching purpose of this dissertation was to gain a better …

Anthropomorphically Inspired Design Of A Tendon-Driven Robotic Prosthesis For Hand Impairments, Manali Bapurao Bhadugale

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents the design of a robotic prosthesis, which mimics the morphology of a human hand. The primary goal of this work is to develop a systematic methodology that allows a custom-build of the prosthesis to match the specific requirements of a person with hand impairments. Two principal research questions are addressed toward this goal: 1) How do we cater to the large variation in the distribution of overall hand-sizes in the human population? 2) How closely do we mimic the complex morphological aspects of a biological hand in order to maximize the anthropomorphism (human-like appearance) of the robotic …

Physiological Tremor In Handgun Aiming And Shooting Tasks, Kyle J. Kellran

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

When holding an outstretched limb or aiming at a target, humans produce small involuntary fluctuations that may hamper performance. Current strategies for minimizing the impact of tremulous oscillations predominantly include both extrinsic and intrinsic support. The aim of the current dissertation is to better understand the parameters of physiological tremor associated with handgun aiming with the end goal of improving shooting accuracy. Experiment 1 focused on handgun aiming and the influence of different arm posture adopted during aiming. Experiment 2 expanded upon the findings of experiment 1 by comparing tremor during finger pointing, handgun aiming, and handgun shooting. Experiment 3 …

Change In The Middle: Implementing Professional Learning Communities For Sustained Instructional Change, Johnna L. Bryd-King

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of school leaders and teachers on surface level vs. sustained change through the implementation of professional learning communities, furthering the understanding of why some schools increase student achievement and others do not. Two predominant psychological theories, Kruglanski’s lay epistemic theory and Schwartz’s value theory, were used to explore the influence of cognition formation and values on the phenomenon within a complex environment. This research studied three Southeastern Virginia suburban middle schools. Case study methodologies were utilized, including school leader and PLC teacher member interviews, and an online survey that included …

The Effect Of The Behavioral Analysis Feedback Model On Improving Performance Of Nursing Students During Clinical Rotations, Melanie Elizabeth Ross

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the effects the Behavioral Analysis Feedback (BAF) Model had on improving nursing student’s performance. Research studies surrounding feedback primarily centered on frameworks designed as models for delivering feedback as well as the timing for delivering feedback. In addition, past research has also focused on individual elements that affect performance with little regard to environmental elements. The BAF Model was conceptualized based on the importance of providing feedback to nursing students while emphasizing three individual and three environmental elements that have the potential to influence behavior.

This multiple measure, single-case study utilized a quasi-experimental pre-post intervention study design. …

Are We All #Nastywomen? The Rhetoric Of Feminist Hashtags And Respectability Politics, Kimberly Lynette Goode

English Theses & Dissertations

In a time where misogynistic phrases from political figures such as Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are being reclaimed by feminists on Twitter, it is crucial for feminist rhetorical scholars to pay close attention to the rhetorical dynamics of such reclamation efforts. In particular, the reclamation of the phrase nasty woman via #NastyWoman, #NastyWomen, #IamANastyWomanBecause, #IamANastyWoman, etc. is a fruitful site for analysis. In this thesis, the reclamation efforts of Twitter feminists will be analyzed to gauge the underlying discourse at work in the hashtag. Based on the origins of the hashtag and the way the tweeters have come to …

Psychosocial Determinants Of Medication Adherence Among Hiv-Positive Individuals In Mexico City, Anthony Vajda

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relationships among disclosure, social support, exposure to violence, impulsivity, depression, stressors, and medication adherence, using a correlational design and a sequential logistic regression. The researcher used two samples of 146 from an archival data set of participants to create two subsets of the data (Data Set 1 & Data Set 2). These participants had been diagnosed with a mental illness and were prescribed a medication regimen for HIV treatment at the time of intake in a specialized clinic in Mexico City. Archival data was obtained through a demographic intake questionnaire and the use of valid and …

Families Communicating About Health: Conceptualization And Validation Of The Family Health Communication Quotient Scale, Erin E. Gafner

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

Research on family health communication is based in part on the assumption that families actually communicate about a wide variety of topics pertaining to their health and wellness (or lack thereof). However, whether they do communicate about health and wellness, and exactly what they communicate about concerning health and wellness as well as how often, remains undocumented. To begin to address this problem of documenting the extent to which families talk about health and wellness, this study adapted Warren and Neer’s (1986) Family Sex Communication Quotient to create and report the preliminary validation of a new measurement instrument called the …

Instructional Designer Awareness And Application Of Strategies To Manage Cognitive Load, Justin A. Sentz

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study examined how practicing instructional designers manage cognitive load in a standardized scenario as they select and implement instructional strategies, message design, content sequencing, and delivery media within various domains with learners at different levels of expertise. The study employed a quasi-experimental, mixed methods design to gain insight into how practicing instructional designers perceive their awareness of strategies to manage cognitive load and implement those strategies within a standardized design scenario. The research design involved the collection of quantitative data from the participants during an initial web-based questionnaire and a second collection of both quantitative and qualitative data as …

Predicting Score Change: An Empirical Investigation Of Cheating On Unproctored Employment Tests, Katelyn J. Cavanaugh

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Unproctored internet testing (UIT) is used widely to administer employment tests (Fallaw, Solomonson, & McClelland, 2009), although cognitively loaded tests delivered by UIT are suspected to offer test takers greater opportunities to cheat and increase the risk of test taker cheating (Chapman & Webster, 2003; Tippins et al., 2006; Tippins, 2009). Despite the wide use and suspected cheating concerns, there is a dearth of research investigating cheating on cognitively loaded UITs (Naglieri et al., 2004; Beaty et al., 2011). Based on the lack of theoretically-grounded empirical studies, the current study had two goals: (1) identify which cheating methods are used …

School Leaders’ Conceptualizations Of Teacher Care For African American Middle School Students, Violet Keene Whiteman

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to describe middle school leaders’ conceptualizations of caring teacher behaviors for African American middle school students. The qualitative case study focused on school leaders’ conceptualizations/identification of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) of care for African American middle school students. Noddings’ (1988) plan of action for implementing an ethic of care, including modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation, was used to inform the study. Data were collected through interviews, discussions of identified incidents of care, and observation documentation from the middle school leaders participating in the study.

Themes identified from the study included: build relationships, identify …

Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Family Adjustment Measure With Lower-Income, Ethnic Minority Parents Of Children With Disabilities, Vanessa Nicole Dominguez-O'Hare

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The primary goal of this study is to add to the validation and psychometric development of the Family Adjustment Measure (FAM; Daire, Dominguez, Carlson, & Case Pease, 2014). The FAM is a treatment-planning tool to assist members of the helping profession assess four different areas in parental and family adjustment for parents of children with disabilities (i.e., parental distress, family-based support, social support, and positive coping skills). Previously, the FAM was normed on predominantly middle- to upper-class, Caucasian females. However, lower-income, ethnic minority families experience systemic prejudice and other contextual and social barriers in their experiences of raising a child …

Motivating And Enabling Factors For Military Service Members Earning A Post-Secondary Degree, Rossie Dean Johnson

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate what motivated and enabled military service members to earn a post-secondary degree. This problem was investigated to better inform institutions of higher education regarding how to recruit and retain military-affiliated members and how to provide career-enhancing information to service members at institutions of higher education.

Education for military service members was a process that facilitated the growth, learning, and maturity of individuals in an effort to achieve their goals while simultaneously achieving the collective goals of the organization. This study sought to identify the enabling and motivating factors that empowered service members …

Online Social Capital: Social Networking Sites' Influence On Civic And Political Engagement, Charles L. Bush

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines how using social networking sites (SNS) is correlated with levels of civic and political engagement of college students at Old Dominion University. Past research has yielded mixed results on the link between online social capital and civic and political engagement. Major limitations of past research include grouping together social networking sites that are substantially different and not considering these sites’ impact on the different forms of social capital. This thesis first examines how social networking site preference, intensity of use, and motives for use factor into an individual’s online social capital. Secondly, this thesis looks at how …

Understanding The Mechanical Behavior Of Costal Cartilage At Their Curved Exterior Surface Via A Tactile Sensor With A Built-In Probe For Distributed-Deflection Detection, Jiayue Shen

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is aimed to determine the mechanical properties at the exterior surface of costal cartilages (CC) and examine how they vary with the cartilage length and the anatomical sites of CC in the ribcage via conformal indentation testing which is built upon a tactile sensor for distributed-deflection detection. The sensor entails a rectangular Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microstructure sensing-plate integrated with a 5 ×1 transducer array with 0.75mm spatial resolution underneath and a built-in probe of 0.5mm×5mm×3mm above. By pressing the sensor against the exterior surface of a CC tissue with a pre-defined indentation pattern, the sensor conforms to the curved …

Two Essays On Value Co-Creation, Hangjun Xu

Marketing Theses & Dissertations

In the past few decades, customer co-creation has received a significant amount of attention in both practice and academics. Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2000) advocated co-opting customer competence as a competitive strategy. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how to engage customers and employees into the value co-creation process. This dissertation is composed of two essays. Essay 1 focuses on customer co-creation behaviors and Essay 2 examines employee co-creation behaviors.

Motivating customers to participate in the value co-creation process can help the firm achieve their long-term financial successes. However, the psychological mechanism underlying customer co-creation behavior is still not …

Bisexuality And Motherhood: An Investigation Of Psychological Distress, Parenting Efficacy, And Self Esteem Through Identity Theory, Laurin B. Roberts

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Bisexual individuals are more likely to be parenting as compared to other sexual minority individuals, however a review of the current research on sexual minority parenting and families demonstrates a limited understanding of the experiences unique to this population. Furthermore, the socialization of parenthood as both a heterosexual practice, and one that is intertwined with womanhood suggests bisexual mothers may encounter unique challenges and experiences in negotiating these two identities. Therefore the current study seeks to expand upon the literature with a primary aim of understanding the relationship between bisexuality and motherhood identities, psychological distress, parenting efficacy, and self-esteem from …

Civilians On The Battlefield: Creating A Realistic Training Aid For The United States Military, Aaron D. Beam

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The United States and our allies and partners have adopted a humane approach to warfare based on established principle of the laws of war centered on the principles of Military Necessity, Humanity, Proportionality, Distinction, and Honor. These principles dictate that US Military forces conduct warfare with a careful consideration of our impact on civilian populations with a special duty to protect and limit harm as much as possible given the accomplishment of a mission. Likewise, the US Military has developed a sound counterinsurgency and unified action military model that recognizes that warfare is not fought simply with kinetic force, but …

Understanding Technological, Pedagogical, And Content Knowledge In An Educational Technology Course: A Case Study Of Social Studies Preservice Teacher's Beliefs And Dispositions, Mark M. Diacopoulos

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

As beliefs and dispositions form the foundation of practice, the situations in which teachers develop belief is an important factor in their development (Roth, 1999). One aspect shaping the beliefs of teacher candidates is their experience with education. Lortie (2002) refers to this as the problem of “apprenticeship of observation”, the learning that occurs from watching teachers in the 12 or more years spent in school as a student. School experiences greatly affect the preconceptions teacher candidates have about teaching and learning. Richardson and Placier (2001) state most preservice teacher beliefs consist of unexamined assumptions. These views tend to focus …

Program: Graduate Research Achievement Day 2018, Graduate School, Old Dominion University

Graduate Research Achievement Day 2017-2018: Programs

Full program for 2018 Graduate Research Achievement Day.

Utilization, Receptivity And Reactivity To Interactive Voice Response Daily Monitoring In Risky Drinking Smokers Who Are Motivated To Quit, Amy M. Cohn, Hoda Elmasry, Sarah J. Ehlke

Psychology Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology has become an increasingly popular and valid method for collecting Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data on a variety of health-risk behaviors, including daily alcohol use and cigarette smoking, and for stimulating behavior change. However, very little research has evaluated the parameters of IVR compliance and reactivity in respondents who may have greater problem severity than samples previously examined in published IVR studies. This study examined the prevalence and correlates of use, receptivity and reactivity to IVR monitoring in 77 untreated risky drinking smokers who were motivated to quit within the next 6 months.

METHODS …