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Comparison Of Traditional Educative Delivery To Online Education In United States History As Measured By Florida's End-Of-Course Examinations In A Large Urban School District In Central Florida, William Wilson Jan 2014

Comparison Of Traditional Educative Delivery To Online Education In United States History As Measured By Florida's End-Of-Course Examinations In A Large Urban School District In Central Florida, William Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student participation in online courses has been growing steadily for the past decade, and the trend appears to continue the growth in this form of instructional delivery method for the foreseeable future (iNACOL, 2012). To date, little research exploring student success rates exists in the social studies. This particular study was conducted to examine what differences, if any, existed in the End-Of-Course (EOC) scores of 11th grade United States history students who took the course in a traditional, face-to-face format versus students who took the same course online through Florida Virtual School. For this study, proper permission was received from …

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Human Detection, Tracking And Segmentation In Surveillance Video, Guang Shu Jan 2014

Human Detection, Tracking And Segmentation In Surveillance Video, Guang Shu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the problem of human detection and tracking in surveillance videos. Even though this is a well-explored topic, many challenges remain when confronted with data from real world situations. These challenges include appearance variation, illumination changes, camera motion, cluttered scenes and occlusion. In this dissertation several novel methods for improving on the current state of human detection and tracking based on learning scene-specific information in video feeds are proposed. Firstly, we propose a novel method for human detection which employs unsupervised learning and superpixel segmentation. The performance of generic human detectors is usually degraded in unconstrained video environments …

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Examining The Effects Of Interactive Dynamic Multimedia And Direct Touch Input On Performance Of A Procedural Motor Task, Matthew Marraffino Jan 2014

Examining The Effects Of Interactive Dynamic Multimedia And Direct Touch Input On Performance Of A Procedural Motor Task, Matthew Marraffino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ownership of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, has quickly risen in the last decade. Unsurprisingly, they are now being integrated into the training and classroom setting. Specifically, the U.S. Army has mapped out a plan in the Army Learning Model of 2015 to utilize mobile devices for training purposes. However, before these tools can be used effectively, it is important to identify how the tablets' unique properties can be leveraged. For this dissertation, the touch interface and the interactivity that tablets afford were investigated using a procedural-motor task. The procedural motor task was the disassembly procedures of a …

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Calamity Of The White Picket, Garnelo Harstien Jan 2014

Calamity Of The White Picket, Garnelo Harstien

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Calamity of the White Picket is a collection of essays that portray how perfection-whether a perfect image, perfect relationship, perfect friendship, or perfect family-becomes withered down, destroyed, and turned into something else. They explore how the idealized image of a family surrounded by a cute white picket fence is dismantled and rearranged through theft, addiction, and a disintegrated family. The essays explore drug addictions, childhood nostalgia, the relationship between heritage and property, innocence, and a stolen best friend. The collection is a train ride of family problems, broken friendships, lying and stealing, and hidden secrets about love and sex. Through …

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Performing On The Screen: An Exploration Of Gender Representation In Technology Video Advertisements, Subriena Persaud Jan 2014

Performing On The Screen: An Exploration Of Gender Representation In Technology Video Advertisements, Subriena Persaud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the representation of gender in technology-related video advertisements. This thesis quantitatively and qualitatively examined 54 of the most recent commercials by the top nine Fortune 500 technology companies. A total of 407 characters were coded and quantitatively analyzed while the videos themselves were qualitatively assessed with particular attention given to the videos' themes and the interactions between the characters and the technology products and services. Results of the analyses showed that there were more male, Caucasian characters than any other character type based on gender and race/ethnicity. Females were mainly characterized according to traditional stereotypes, such as …

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The Effects Of Narrative And Achievements On Learning In A 2d Platformer Video Game, Joseph Fanfarelli Jan 2014

The Effects Of Narrative And Achievements On Learning In A 2d Platformer Video Game, Joseph Fanfarelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Game design is a rigorous practice rife with complexity. The design of learning games is similarly complex to the design of their entertainment-based relatives. This complexity is partially due to the many interacting components that comprise games. The impacts of these individual components are not well understood. Advancing the understanding of how such component parts contribute to the formed game will inform decisions related to their inclusion and subsequent design within games. Achievements and narrative are two such components. They have been examined within gamified systems, but little research has studied them within the context of a serious game. The …

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Practical Issues In Gpram Development, Yin Li Jan 2014

Practical Issues In Gpram Development, Yin Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, two parts of practical issues in the GPRAM system design are included. The first part is the coding part. The sum-product decoding algorithm of LDPC codes has been refined to fit for the GPRAM hardware implementation. As we all know, communication channel has noise. The noise in telecom system is different from that in GPRAM systems. So the noise should be handled well in the GPRAM design. A noise look-up table was created for FPGA and those noises in the table are quantized. The second part of the thesis is to convert perfect images in video stream …

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The Effects Of Bam As An Adsorptive Media On Phosphorus Removal In Stormwater, Sultan Salamah Jan 2014

The Effects Of Bam As An Adsorptive Media On Phosphorus Removal In Stormwater, Sultan Salamah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To maintain the quality of receiving water bodies, it is desirable to remove total phosphorus (TP) in stormwater runoff. Many media filtration technologies have been developed to achieve TP and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) removal. Efficient media adsorption is essential to insure control of stormwater phosphorus inputs to the receiving water body. This project develops and analyzes a functionalized Biosorption Media (BAM) to remove phosphorus species from stormwater runoff. One goal of this project is to find the BAM values for coefficients such as maximum adsorption capacity (QM: 4.35E-05) for the media through SRP isotherm equilibrium experiments using the Langmuir …

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Dishwashing Water Recycling System And Related Water Quality Standards For Military Use, Jared Church Jan 2014

Dishwashing Water Recycling System And Related Water Quality Standards For Military Use, Jared Church

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the demand for reliable and safe water supplies increases, both water quality and available quantity are being challenged by population growth and climate change. Greywater reuse is becoming a common practice worldwide; however, in remote locations of limited water supply, such as those encountered in military installations, it is desirable to expand its classification to include dishwashing water to maximize the conservation of fresh water. Given that no standards for dishwashing greywater reuse by the military are currently available, the current study determined a specific set of water quality standards for dishwater recycling systems for U.S military field operations. …

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Instructional Strategies For Scenario-Based Training Of Human Behavior Cue Analysis With Robot-Aided Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Julie Salcedo Jan 2014

Instructional Strategies For Scenario-Based Training Of Human Behavior Cue Analysis With Robot-Aided Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, Julie Salcedo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Army desires to improve safety during Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) operations by removing Warfighters from direct line-of-fire by enhancing ISR operational capabilities with unmanned systems, also known as Robot-Aided ISR (RAISR) (DOD, 2013). Additionally, RAISR presents an opportunity to fulfill ISR capability requirements of modern combat environments including: detection of High-Value Individuals (HVI) from safer distances, identification of baseline behavior, and interpretation of adversarial intent (U.S. Army, 2008). Along with the demand and projected acquisition of RAISR technology, there is the added need to design training requirements for system operation and task execution instruction. While documentation identifying specific …

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Automatic 3d Human Modeling: An Initial Stage Towards 2-Way Inside Interaction In Mixed Reality, Yiyan Xiong Jan 2014

Automatic 3d Human Modeling: An Initial Stage Towards 2-Way Inside Interaction In Mixed Reality, Yiyan Xiong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

3D human models play an important role in computer graphics applications from a wide range of domains, including education, entertainment, medical care simulation and military training. In many situations, we want the 3D model to have a visual appearance that matches that of a specific living person and to be able to be controlled by that person in a natural manner. Among other uses, this approach supports the notion of human surrogacy, where the virtual counterpart provides a remote presence for the human who controls the virtual character's behavior. In this dissertation, a human modeling pipeline is proposed for the …

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Exploring Sparsity, Self-Similarity, And Low Rank Approximation In Action Recognition, Motion Retrieval, And Action Spotting, Chuan Sun Jan 2014

Exploring Sparsity, Self-Similarity, And Low Rank Approximation In Action Recognition, Motion Retrieval, And Action Spotting, Chuan Sun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of 4 major parts. In the first part (Chapters 1-2), we introduce the overview, motivation, and contribution of our works, and extensively survey the current literature for 6 related topics. In the second part (Chapters 3-7), we explore the concept of "Self-Similarity" in two challenging scenarios, namely, the Action Recognition and the Motion Retrieval. We build three-dimensional volume representations for both scenarios, and devise effective techniques that can produce compact representations encoding the internal dynamics of data. In the third part (Chapter 8), we explore the challenging action spotting problem, and propose a feature-independent unsupervised framework that …

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A Longer Spoon: A Novel, Elizabeth Macdonald Jan 2014

A Longer Spoon: A Novel, Elizabeth Macdonald

HIM 1990-2015

The intent of this thesis is to create a novel-length narrative based around a premise conceived in a workshop setting. The novel, while containing elements of fantasy, will be character-driven and feature psychological character development as its primary goal. Lawrence Caligny, a young cook newly instated at a castle, is coerced by his mother, an infamous witch named Mallory, to concoct a sleeping potion for the country’s crown prince, beckoning comparison to the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. As Lawrence prepares for his opportunity, he unwittingly befriends the prince and his sister and stumbles across an assassination plot. Being thoroughly inept …

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Pinning Motherhood: The Construction Of Mothering Identities On Pinterest, Kate Griffin Jan 2014

Pinning Motherhood: The Construction Of Mothering Identities On Pinterest, Kate Griffin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the new social media site, Pinterest, to uncover the processes through which mothers construct self- and public-identities. Despite being valued at over $3.8 billion dollars (Perez 2013), having an impressive user retention rate (Moore 2014), and having a highly gendered user base (Tekobbe 2013), Pinterest has been the site of limited sociological inquiry. Seventeen semi-structured qualitative interviews on mothering and Pinterest use were conducted with central Florida mothers who have a Pinterest account and at least one child between 6 months and 10 years old. Through analysis based in a grounded theory approach, three central themes emerged …

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The American Way: The Influence Of Race On The Treatment Of Prisoners Of War During World War Two, Adam Rock Jan 2014

The American Way: The Influence Of Race On The Treatment Of Prisoners Of War During World War Two, Adam Rock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When examining the Second World War, it is impossible to overlook the influence race had in both creating the conflict and determining the intensity with which it was fought. While this factor existed in the European theater, it pales in comparison to how race influenced the fighting in the Pacific. John Dower produced a comprehensive study that examined the racial aspects of the Pacific theater in his book War Without Mercy. Dower concluded that Americans viewed themselves as racially superior to the Asian "other" and this influenced the ferocity of the Pacific war. While Dower's work focused on this relationship …

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Traversing The Terrain: A Least Cost Analysis On Intersite Causeways In The Maya Region, Alexander Rivas Jan 2014

Traversing The Terrain: A Least Cost Analysis On Intersite Causeways In The Maya Region, Alexander Rivas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of ancient Maya causeways is crucial for understanding Maya social and spatial organization. Archaeologists have been interested in Maya causeways for decades, specifically documenting their locations. More recently, the use of Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, has been used for understanding the spatial organization of archaeological sites. GIS analyses on ancient Maya causeways however have been very limited. This thesis aims to evaluate ancient Maya causeways through GIS analysis. Specifically, five intersite causeway systems are looked at: the Mirador Basin, Yaxuna-Coba-Ixil, Uxmal-Nohpat-Kabah, Ake-Izamal-Kantunil, and Uci-Kancab-Ukana- Cansahcab. These causeway systems were evaluated using least-cost paths based on the terrain. …

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Movements, Fishery Interactions, And Unusual Mortalities Of Bottlenose Dolphins, Steven Shippee Jan 2014

Movements, Fishery Interactions, And Unusual Mortalities Of Bottlenose Dolphins, Steven Shippee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins inhabiting coastlines and estuaries in Florida have been impacted in the past decade by development, algal blooms, catastrophic pollution, and fishery interactions (FI). Dolphins react to disturbance and environmental stressors by modifying their movements and habitat use, which may put them in jeopardy of conflict with humans. FI plays an increasing role in contributing to dolphin mortalities. I investigated dolphin movements, habitat use, residency patterns, and frequency of FI with sport fishing. Tagging studies with short-term data tags and bolt on radio-transmitters were done in several locations in Florida and the east coast providing fine-scale measurements of swimming, …

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Photo-Induced Protonation Of Polyaniline Composites And Mechanistic Study Of The Degradation Of Polychlorinated Biphenyls With Zero-Valent Magnesium, Candace Kirkland Jan 2014

Photo-Induced Protonation Of Polyaniline Composites And Mechanistic Study Of The Degradation Of Polychlorinated Biphenyls With Zero-Valent Magnesium, Candace Kirkland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As technology advances, a need for non-metal, conductive materials has arisen for several types of applications. Lithographic techniques are helpful to develop some of these applications. Such techniques require materials that are insulating and become conductive after irradiated. Composites of polyaniline in its emeraldine base form (PANI-EB) doped with photo-acid generators (PAG) become conductive upon photo-irradiation. This increase in conductivity is due to the protonation of PANI-EB. Such materials may be utilized to fabricate conducting patterns by photo-irradiation; however, the conductivity obtained by direct irradiation of PANI-EB/PAG composites is normally quite low (<10-3 S/cm) due to aggregation of highly loaded PAG. In this work, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), a proton transfer polymer, was added to PANI-EB/PAG. Results showed the addition of low molecular weight (MW) (550) PEG significantly enhanced the photo-induced conductivity to a level comparable to that of PANI-salt synthesized by oxidizing aniline in the presence of an acid. High MW (8000) PEG is less effective than PEG 550, and composites of PANI-EB and N-PEG-PANI showed conductivity as high as 102 S/cm after treatment with HCl vapor. The photo-induced conductivity of the N-PEG-PANI/PANI-EB/PAG composite reached 10-2-10-1 S/cm. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of chemicals with 209 different congeners, some of which are known carcinogens, and are persistent organic pollutants in the environment. After its synthesis, it was seen as a phenomenal additive in a multitude of different applications leading to the wide spread use of PCBs and a need for a safe, effective, and inexpensive remediation technique. While it is known that magnesium can degrade PCBs, the mechanism of this reaction was not well-understood. In order for magnesium to be broadly used as a remediation tool, it is necessary to fully understand how the reaction is taking place and if the PCBs are able to be fully dechlorinated into biphenyl. This research focuses on the hydrodechlorination of PCBs with zero-valent magnesium in acidified ethanol. The degradation pathways of 2, 2', 3, 5, 5', 6- hexachlorobiphenyl were investigated to determine the identity of the daughter PCBs produced, how and if they continue to be dechlorinated into biphenyl. The proton source for this hydrodehalogenation reaction was also studied using both deuterated solvent and acid to give more detail to the mechanism of this reaction.

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Speaking With The Orishas: Divination And Propitiation In The Lukumi Religion, Kristi Marrero Jan 2014

Speaking With The Orishas: Divination And Propitiation In The Lukumi Religion, Kristi Marrero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Lucumi religion was born in Cuba from African and European religious systems. The enslaved Yoruba were brought to the New World through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. They were taken from their homes, family, language, and religion and brought to countries like Cuba to provide free labor to growing agricultural markets that benefited European colonizers of the Americas. The Yoruba would hold on to their religion, but in order to keep it alive, they would have to make it into a new religion. This new religion would become the religion known as Lucumi. In Cuba, Lucumi practitioners would hide their …

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Physiological Constraints On Warm-Water Habitat Site Selection And Utilization By The Florida Manatee (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) In East Central Florida, Ann Spellman Jan 2014

Physiological Constraints On Warm-Water Habitat Site Selection And Utilization By The Florida Manatee (Trichechus Manatus Latirostris) In East Central Florida, Ann Spellman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Living at the northern limits of its geographic range, the Florida manatee is particularly susceptible to cold stress-related mortality during the winter months, with most deaths occurring in the lower two-thirds of the state. Contributing to this cold stress susceptibility is the manatee's limited physiological and behavioral responses available when thermally stressed. While capable of migrating south in response to falling water temperatures, manatees must still find warm water when ambient river temperature drops below 20°C for more than a few days. This is in part due to the species low metabolic rate, limited capacity for thermogenesis, and limited ability …

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Role Of Cardiac Catecholamines In Embryos And Adults Under Stress, Candice Baker Jan 2014

Role Of Cardiac Catecholamines In Embryos And Adults Under Stress, Candice Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for the loss of one life every 38 seconds and accounts for 26.6 percent of all infants that die of congenital birth defects. Adrenergic hormones are critically important regulators of cardiovascular physiology in embryos and adults. They are key mediators of stress responses and have profound stimulatory effects on cardiovascular function, and dysregulation of adrenergic function has been associated with many adverse cardiac conditions, including congenital malformations, arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death. Despite intensive study, the specific roles these hormones play in the developing heart is not well-understood. Further, there is …

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Land Of Flowers, Michael Morrison Jan 2014

Land Of Flowers, Michael Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land of Flowers is a collection of short fiction presenting a Florida that stands in counterpoint to the image the state holds in the national consciousness-an image of a backward region rife with rednecks, retirees, racists, and religious kooks. In contrast, these stories feature the natives, the tourists, the immigrants, and also the transplants who are drawn to this "paradise" with hopes of finding warmth, escape, and a new life that so often fails to materialize. Many of the inhabitants of these stories are mired in a state of introspection. In the title piece, an early Spanish explorer contemplates his …

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Ar Physics: Transforming Physics Diagrammatic Representations On Paper Into Interactive Simulations., Yao Zhou Jan 2014

Ar Physics: Transforming Physics Diagrammatic Representations On Paper Into Interactive Simulations., Yao Zhou

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A problem representation is a cognitive structure created by the solver in correspondence to the problem. Sketching representative diagrams in the domain of physics encourages a problem solving strategy that starts from 'envisionment' by which one internally simulates the physical events and predicts outcomes. Research studies also show that sketching representative diagrams improves learner's performance in solving physics problems. The pedagogic benefits of sketching representations on paper make this traditional learning strategy remain pivotal and worthwhile to be preserved and integrated into the current digital learning landscape. In this paper, I describe AR Physics, an Augmented Reality based application that …

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A Thomistic Critique Of The Ethics Of Alasdair Macintyre, Marcus Otte Jan 2014

A Thomistic Critique Of The Ethics Of Alasdair Macintyre, Marcus Otte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alasdair MacIntyre argues in favor of a historicist Thomism in ethics and political philosophy. In his theory, sociological categories take up much of the space traditionally occupied by metaphysics. This peculiar feature of MacIntyre's Thomism, and its merits and demerits, is already a subject that has been taken up by many critics. In this thesis, these criticisms are supplemented and unified by identifying what is perhaps the most fundamental difficulty with MacIntyre's ethics: his version of Thomism is problematic because it treats epistemology as first philosophy. This misstep compromises MacIntyre's ability to provide a defense of moral objectivity, while also …

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How Many Are Out There? A Novel Approach For Open And Closed Systems, Zia Rehman Jan 2014

How Many Are Out There? A Novel Approach For Open And Closed Systems, Zia Rehman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We propose a ratio estimator to determine population estimates using capture-recapture sampling. It's different than traditional approaches in the following ways: (1) Ordering of recaptures: Currently data sets do not take into account the "ordering" of the recaptures, although this crucial information is available to them at no cost. (2) Dependence of trials and cluster sampling: Our model explicitly considers trials to be dependent and improves existing literature which assumes independence. (3) Rate of convergence: The percentage sampled has an inverse relationship with population size, for a chosen degree of accuracy. (4) Asymptotic Attainment of Minimum Variance (Open Systems: (=population …

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Effect Of Acute L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine (Sustamine) And Electrolyte Ingestion On Cognitive Function, Multiple Object Tracking And Reaction Time Following Prolonged Exercise, Gabriel Pruna Jan 2014

Effect Of Acute L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine (Sustamine) And Electrolyte Ingestion On Cognitive Function, Multiple Object Tracking And Reaction Time Following Prolonged Exercise, Gabriel Pruna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Changes in physiological function occurring during a body water deficit may result in significant decrements in performance, cognitive function and fine motor control during exercise. This may be due to the magnitude of the body water deficit. Rehydration strategies are important to prevent these deleterious effects in performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes before and after prolonged exercise of an alanine-glutamine dipeptide (AG) on cognitive function and reaction time. Twelve male endurance-trained runners (age: 23.5 [plus or minus] 3.7 y; height: 175.5 [plus or minus] 5.4 cm; weight: 70.7 [plus or minus] 7.6 kg) participated …

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Effects Of Mechanical Habitat Disturbance On The Diversity And Network Structure Of Plant-Bee Interaction Networks In Central Florida, Karlie Carman Jan 2014

Effects Of Mechanical Habitat Disturbance On The Diversity And Network Structure Of Plant-Bee Interaction Networks In Central Florida, Karlie Carman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological interactions within a community shape the structure of ecosystems and influence ecosystem function. Plant-pollinator interactions exist as mutualistic exchange networks that may collapse as habitat loss occurs, thereby threatening the overall health of an ecosystem. Understanding the impacts of human-mediated habitat disturbance on ecological interactions is therefore crucial for conservation efforts. Archbold Biological Station (ABS) in Venus, Florida contains over 2000 hectares of protected Florida scrub habitat nested within a human-dominated environment that is threatened by anthropogenic habitat disturbance. In past studies, over 113 bee species and 157 associated host plants, many endemic to the Lake Wales Ridge, have …

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A Multimedia Approach To Game-Based Training: Exploring The Effects Of The Modality And Temporal Contiguity Principles On Learning In A Virtual Environment, Stephen Serge Jan 2014

A Multimedia Approach To Game-Based Training: Exploring The Effects Of The Modality And Temporal Contiguity Principles On Learning In A Virtual Environment, Stephen Serge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is an increasing interest in using video games as a means to deliver training to individuals learning new skills or tasks. However, current research lacks a clear method of developing effective instructional material when these games are used as training tools and explaining how gameplay may affect learning. The literature contains multiple approaches to training and GBT but generally lacks a foundational-level and theoretically relevant approach to how people learn specifically from video games and how to design instructional guidance within these gaming environments. This study investigated instructional delivery within GBT. Video games are a form of multimedia, consisting …

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Effects Of Biotic Interactions On Coastal Wetland Communities With Applications For Restoration, Melinda Donnelly Jan 2014

Effects Of Biotic Interactions On Coastal Wetland Communities With Applications For Restoration, Melinda Donnelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coastal wetland plants serve as ecological engineers in a physiologically stressful environment and the loss of coastal wetlands can cause negative effects throughout the estuarine system. Due to increased degradation of coastal habitats worldwide, interest in restoration has increased around the world. An understanding of the biotic processes affecting species distribution and diversity is critical for future conservation, management, and restoration of coastal wetlands. The purpose of my study was to test the effects of biotic interactions on native coastal wetland plants and determine how these interactions may be incorporated into current and future restoration projects. I had three primary …

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Dog Ownership As A Catalyst Of Conflict And Relationship Maintenance In Romantic Relationships, Ashley Elrick Jan 2014

Dog Ownership As A Catalyst Of Conflict And Relationship Maintenance In Romantic Relationships, Ashley Elrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pets are a common aspect of life for many Americans. In 2012, 36.5% of American household owned dogs and 30.4% owned cats (American Veterinary Medical Foundation, 2012). The purpose on this study was to explore the influence of dog ownership on romantic relationships. Specifically, this thesis investigates how dog ownership acts as a catalyst of relational maintenance and conflict behavior in interactions about the couple's dog. No prior research has been conducted on the role dogs' play in enacting relational maintenance or conflict in romantic relationships, so it is unclear if there is an influence to the these behaviors. This …

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