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Variables Associated With A Sense Of Classroom Community And Academic Persistence In An Urban Community College Online Setting, Cynthia P. Cadieux

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

No abstract provided.

Major Factors That Influence The Employment Decisions Of Generation X Consulting Engineers, Robert William Mayfield

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to study Generation X consulting engineers (those born between the years 1964 and 1980) in Lynchburg, Virginia, to determine the major factors that influence their employment decisions. Engineering consulting firms throughout the United States, particularly those in Lynchburg, have struggled to recruit young engineers in recent years. The recruiting of young engineers has been regarded by managers and executives as the single greatest challenge to the consulting profession. Despite the consensus within the profession that the problem existed, recommended solutions have been mostly speculative in nature and unsubstantiated by supportive data. This study focused …

Selected Factors That Influenced A State's Collapse: A Historical Analysis Of The Case Of Sierra Leone, I. Betty Williams Conteh

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Throughout the 1990s the United Nations Human Development Index, an annual report that measures human development, depicted Sierra Leone as one of, if not the poorest nation on the planet. In 2001, the same report depicted 162 countries in terms of human development and Sierra Leone ranked 162. This Sub-Saharan nation experienced a total collapse of its state and society beginning in 1990. The United Nations and the rest of the international community are only now beginning to work towards putting Sierra Leone together again.

This study investigate factors that led to the collapse of Sierra Leone--factors such as …

The Effects Of Technology On Urban High School Students' Sense Of Classroom Community, Mervyn J. Wighting

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study measured the sense of classroom community among students from two different grades in an independent urban high school (N = 181). A standardized instrument was used to compare sense of community in classes whose teachers used computers frequently and consistently in their instruction with others in which the teachers seldom or never included computer use in the classroom. Quantitative analysis revealed that there was a significant difference between the classes in terms of one of the sub-scales of the instrument; students whose teachers used computers frequently and consistently scored higher on the learning sub-scale of the sense …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Consumer Ethnocentrism Across Russia's Three Sub-Cultures, Shawn Thelen

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Shimp and Sharma (1987) extended the concept of ethnocentrism to commercial products with the development of a 17-item Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale [CETSCALE]. Consumer ethnocentrism is the belief that purchasing imported products harms the local economy, increases unemployment, and is morally wrong (Skimp and Sharma 1987). Shimp and Sharma (1987) called for studies to determine antecedents to consumer ethnocentrism and to apply the CETSCALE across geographic and regional segments. This dissertation addresses a void in the literature by examining antecedents; Inglehart's Materialism/Post Materialism (1977) and Holbrook's Nostalgia (1993), and outcome variables; product purchase preference, of consumer ethnocentrism across sub-cultures postulated to …

A Study To Examine The Attitudes And Perceptions Of Saudi Women In The United States And Canada Toward Exercise And Physical Activity, Tawfeeq E. Al-Bakry

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

This study is an examination of the knowledge and perceptions of Saudi women in the United States and Canada in regard to exercise and physical activity. No studies on exercise, physical activity or sport for women in Saudi Arabia were found in the literature.

This study focused on ascertaining knowledge of Saudi women regarding physical and psychological benefits of exercise and physical activity. Furthermore, this study investigated the barriers that limit Saudi women from participating in exercise and physical activity. The population for this study included Saudi women who are associated with Saudi clubs and student organizations in the United …

The Effects Of Visual Cues And Interstimulus Interval On Error Rates In Auditory Localization And Detection, Joseph Thomas Coyne

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Auditory localization is an increasingly important topic as the technology for audio displays is becoming more available. However, few studies examine the effects of multiple simultaneous distracters on auditory detection and localization performance. Previous research has found that detection and localization performance significantly drops as the number of distracters increases; however, it is not clear what causes these errors. Six loudspeakers were arranged in a semicircle, and participants either had to localize an auditory stimulus or detect an auditory stimulus among multiple distracters. Participants' response time and accuracy were recorded for each trial. The number of detection errors was equivalent …

Crossing The Line: Juvenile Transfer And Prison Violence, Jessica M. Huffman

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The juvenile court has long held caring and rehabilitation as it's objective for those persons who commit crimes while under age 18. However, arguably, that goal has been compromised with the use of juvenile transfers. Some research has been done on the use of transfers, but little has studied the effects of incarcerating juveniles with adult prisoners at the state level. This thesis examines the use of the juvenile transfer and the effects it has with respect to prison violence using states in the U.S. as the unit of analysis. It was hypothesized that prison violence would increase with an …

A Comparison Of The Learning Styles Of Graduate Athletic Training Students And Their Demographic Characteristics, Jennifer Lynn Plant

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Using the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) and a self­ designed demographic survey, this study assessed the learning styles of students enrolled in a NATA approved graduate athletic training education program and compared the relationship between learning style preferences and the demographic characteristics of the graduate students. The PEPS survey is a 100-item Likert scale learning style inventory relating to 20 learning style elements of 4 domains: environmental, emotional, sociological, and physical. As part of the demographic research, participants completed measures assessing geographic, family, educational, and personal information.

Participants were 163 (55 men, 108 women) graduate athletic training students from …

The Effect Of Socioeconomic Status And Social Support On Work, Family, And Role Balance, April A. Perry

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined socioeconomic status and social supports in the context of balanced work, family, and overall roles. Based on previous research, higher socioeconomic status and increased social supports were hypothesized to increase work, family, and overall role balance. Participants were recruited by the peer adviser and in classrooms at Old Dominion University and surrounding Tidewater campuses. Only one of the correlations hypothesized was statistically significant. Support from Supervisor Index was positively correlated to Family/Work Balance. However, several non-hypothesized trends were found, in addition to non-hypothesized statistically significant correlations. Findings suggest that socioeconomic status and social supports may influence work, …

A Naturalistic Investigation Into The Processes And Themes Of Recovery From Chemical Dependency, Mark Thomas Blagen

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The research on recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction has generally focused on the causes of relapse. Although the study of the causes of relapse is an important endeavor, the results of this focus remain inconclusive. Understanding the process and themes of recovery is also an important question that remains a significant challenge.

This study attempts to explain, in part, why it is that one person can have many relapse indicators and still thrive in recovery, while another who has multiple layers of support and opportunity for recovery, succumbs to addiction. This study also attempts to determine if and how …

An Examination Of The Psychosocial Functioning Of Children With Drug Or Alcohol Dependent Fathers, Cathy G. Cooke

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Parental substance abuse is linked to many of the problems facing American children. Research suggests that children of substance abusing parents are more likely to exhibit emotional and behavioral disorders than children with parents who do not abuse substances (Hogan, 1998); however, previous investigations have focused almost exclusively on children whose fathers misuse alcohol. The purpose of the present study was: 1) to examine the psychosocial adjustment of children whose fathers manifest substance abuse disorder other than alcohol as compared to the psychosocial functioning of children whose fathers exhibit alcohol abuse and to the psychosocial adjustment of children in a …

The Hand Center: Considerations Related To The Design, Planning, Staffing, And Marketing, Marcia L. Miller

Community & Environmental Health Theses & Dissertations

A therapist intent on planning a hand therapy center has no resources that are specific to this specialty area of practice. There are contributions utilized to plan occupational and physical therapy departments that can be synthesized to a degree in the planning of a hand therapy center. The practice of hand therapy incorporates a high degree of physical interaction, with close proximity to the patient and handling by the therapist. This paper explores the unique requirements of a hand therapy department. In order to determine hand therapists' preferences for equipment and space utilization a survey was developed and distributed to …

Stirring The Soul: The Influence Of Prayer On Mind And Body, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

From the Introduction:

Individuals within and outside of the field of communication sometimes ask me what I do for a living. When I respond, “I do prayer research,” nearly everyone looks rather puzzled. After I explain that prayer is a type of spiritual communication, then most individuals immediately see the connection between communication and prayer. However, many communication scholars are not convinced that prayer is a communication-related phenomenon amenable to social scientific inquiry. Yet I believe that prayer is indeed worthy of further investigation.

Characterizing Consumer Motivation As Individual Difference Factors: Augmenting The Sports Interest Inventory (Sii) To Explain Level Of Spectator Support, Daniel C. Funk, Daniel F. Mahony, Lynn L. Ridinger

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The central focus of this study was to examine how individual difference factors could be used to explain various levels of consumer support for a specific sport property. The present study extends the Sport Interest Inventory (SII) in order to enhance current understanding of consumer motives in relation to sport in general and women's competitive sport in particular. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the 12-item Sport Interest Inventory, measuring 14 individual difference factors related to spectator interest in soccer. Multiple Linear regression analysis revealed that five motivational characteristic--(a) sport interest, (b) team interest, (c) vicarious achievement, (d) role modeling, and (e) …

The Effectiveness Of Boxwood Treatment Program On Offender's Supervised In The District 39 Probation And Parole Office To Determine If The Method Of Referral Effected The Relapse Rate, Deborah Papotnik

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The following hypothesis will guide this research project; 1. Offenders are just as likely to relapse when court ordered to complete Boxwood Treatment Program as when they are sanctioned to complete the program by their probation officer.

The Relationship Between A Sense Of Urgency Implementation And Successful Change Strategies In Organizations, Brian Keith Baxter

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The focus of this study was to determine how the sense of urgency has caused the implementation of successful change initiatives in management practices in organizations. How was "establishing a sense of urgency" actually applied in the organizational change process?

A Study To Compare The Effectiveness Of Teletechnet Distance Education With Traditional Classroom Education Among Old Dominion University Industrial Technology Graduates 1998-2000, Robert J. Cartwright

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The following hypothesis guided this research: 1. Among Old Dominion University Industrial Technology majors, there was no significant difference in academic achievement between those students who had been taught by conventional means and those that had used Teletechnet distance education.

Long Term Goals And Program Choices Of New Students Entering Yavapai College - Verde Valley Campus, Alexandra Helm-Correa

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The goals of this study were to answer the following questions: 1. What were the reasons new students entered Yavapai College-Verde Valley Campus in Spring 2002? 2. What were the primary reasons new students took courses in Spring 2002 and what were their long-term goals? 3. What were the academic degree, vocational degree or vocational certification program choices for new students entering Yavapai College? 4. What was the composition of new students entering Yavapai College in terms of whether they were primarily traditional or non-traditional students? 5. What relationship existed between traditional and non-traditional students at Yavapai College and their …

Determinants Of Employee Participation In Agency-Sponsored Health And Fitness Programs, Patricia D. Martin

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that determine the level of employee participation in agency-sponsored health and fitness programs at Southwest Virginia Community College. This study was undertaken to determine the specific types of health and fitness programs that should be sponsored to increase employee participation.

A Study Of Women In Professional Organizations, Deborah Norris

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The objectives that were established to answer this problem were: 1. Identify how members of this organization perceive their job requirements and performance; 2. Identify what overall factors within the Society of Women Engineers organization led them to obtain membership; 3. Determine what types of specific skills these members obtained from this organization to assist them in their professional growth and development; 4. Determine whether these specific skills had any professional impacts by evaluating the current job status of these members in relationship to their job status before membership.

Integrating Academic And Non-Academic Instruction For Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Robert A. Gable, Jo M. Hendrickson, Stephen W. Tonelson, Richard Van Acker

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Students with emotional/behavioral disorders exhibit a wide range of academic and behavioral problems. Not surprisingly, there is growing support for integrating instruction to address overlapping students' needs in both areas. In this article, we discuss instructional variables that contribute to a positive classroom climate and that serve as setting events for more focused group-individual instructional programs. We draw on the accumulated research to identify common non-academic challenges that should be incorporated into those programs. We examine issues that relate to the efficacy of instruction and also the cultural and chronological age differences among students and how they relate to planning …

Being-There And Being-From-Elsewhere: An Existential-Analytic Of Exile, Farhang Erfani

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragrap]

I find myself in an unsettling position, as I do not know where to begin to talk about a philosophically neglected topic: exile. I cannot hide behind the famous names of the tradition; I cannot speak through them about exile in order to make my inquiry sound more legitimate since most of them did not address the topic. Isn't it interesting though that my inability to know where to start and the lack of legitimacy that I feel are in themselves two typical symptoms of the exiled? In all fairness, exile has become a buzzword and is fashionable …

The Cyborgian Self: Toward A Critical Social Theory Of Cyberspace, Michael Ian Borer

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Contemporary social theory currently remains at a virtual standstill, quivering over the decision to radically leave the past behind or to continue within the historical narrative of the Enlightenment. Postmodern social theorists, advocating the position that we have, in fact, entered a new historical epoch, pose serious challenges to our perception of modernity and cultural identity. As an influential strategy that has infiltrated both the humanities and the social sciences for more than thirty years, postmodernism can no longer be dismissed as merely a fad or trend. In a world where the use of complex, and often mobile, …

Solaris, America, Disneyworld And Cyberspace: Salman Rushdie's Fairy-Tale Utopianism In Fury, Justyna Deszcz

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In this paper, I discuss the figure of professor Malik Solanka, the protagonist of Salman Rushdie's latest novel, Fury (2001), and his attempts at constructing a fairy tale utopia as a means of establishing his identity. I try to elucidate this problem referring to the concepts of the fairy tale utopian as formulated by J. R. R. Tolkien, Ernst Bloch, and Jack Zipes, as their propositions can be regarded as the most effective exponents of the utopian imagination and seem very applicable to Rushdie's utopian attempts. On the basis of such a reading, I also reflect on the …

Rorty's Complicit American Neo-Pragmatism, Haidar Eid

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Despite the obvious French origin of poststructuralism, its paradigmatic resonance can be found in the American philosophical scene, an essential part of which is Richard Rorty's neo-pragmatism -- the theoretical basis of American (post)modernism. However, different from poststructuralism's apparent antagonism to the authoritarian establishments, Rorty adopts the Derridean poststructuralist motifs of the decentering of the subject, and the disappearance of meaning and truth in order to defend the establishment -- or rather, the status quo.

Passaic Boys Are Hell: Robert Smithson's Tag As Temporal And Spatial Marker Of The Geographical Self, Felicity Colman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Robert Smithson seductively created stories about his activities as an artist with attention to his duration; his time of existence. Born in 1938 in the New Jersey suburb of Passaic, Smithson lived in the New Jersey suburbs of Rutherford and Clifton with his family until 1957 when he moved to live in downtown Manhattan, New York (Hobbs 1981, 231-232; Tsai 1991, 6). Smithson's adult life was undeniably shaped by his Pascalian/Sopranos awareness of engaging the circumference by which to navigate the centre of everyday life. In 1972 Smithson described New Jersey as: a kind of destroyed California, …

The Ruse Of The Social: Human Waste And The Gated Community, Liam Mcnamara

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

One of the central problems of contemporary society is that of “the social”: how it is defined, constituted, conjured into existence, and supported. Jean Baudrillard has employed the term “the social” in his work, but it is never explicitly defined; it is best understood as a form of simulation that has sprung into existence in the absence of symbolic social relations. The social is constituted of all the phenomena that are generally studied by sociology, so is therefore ideologically conceived of as an organic structure that is waiting for analysis. The “social” is society, both as it stands …

Breaking The Mimetic Contract: Notes On Ideology, Intersubjectivity, And Film Theory, Giorgio Bertellini, C. Paul Sellors

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In this essay we would like to sketch out a few notes outlining historical and theoretical trajectories of the confusing, and often confused, relationships between ideology, history and subjectivity in Marx, Marxism and post-Marxism. Marx and Engels' approach to ideology in The German Ideology (1845-46), spawned and influenced a variety of interpretations and philosophical positions from not only the numerous schools of Marxism proper, but also structuralism, semiotics and psychoanalysis up to the very raison d'être of discourse theory and new historicism. This reaching influence occurs only at the cost of contradiction, however, between Marxist factions -- disagreements …

To Blend In The Place You're In, But With A Mind To Do Something: The Practice Of Merging In James Dickey's To The White Sea, Casey Clabough

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In a final sortie the day before the great fire-bombing raid on Tokyo in the last months of World War II, Muldrow (his first name is purposefully never given), an American tail gunner, parachutes from his burning B-29 into the city. Protected at first by the smoke-blackened anarchy on the ground, he journeys north, away from the chaos and ruin of Tokyo, instinctively drawn toward Japan's sparsely-populated northern island of Hokkaido, a frozen, desolate sanctuary he is certain will assure his survival. With little more than a knife and a small map of Japan he makes his way …