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Social Anxiety And Engagement In Risky Behaviors: Exploring The Role Of Emotion Regulation, Carey J. Sevier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a chronic, prevalent disorder that is characterized by persistent and marked fear of social situations when there is potential for negative evaluation from others. Although SAD is typically characterized by inhibition and escape behaviors, some research suggests some individuals with SAD display approach-oriented behaviors wherein individuals engage in greater risky behaviors (e.g., aggression, sexual impulsivity, substance use). This approach-oriented presentation appears to have an earlier onset, greater symptoms severity and greater functional impairment. Emotion regulation (ER) is the ability to use strategies to engage in goal directed behavior. ER difficulties have been shown to be …

Project Grit: An Applied Research Study Conducted In An Alternative School Program To Promote Alternative Behaviors To Violence, James Ray Howington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students in the Anniston School District are placed in the alternative setting (i.e., the Avery Alternative Center) for fighting and violence more than any other disciplinary infraction. The disproportionality of students of color and minority groups enrolled in the alternative setting for fighting is also alarming. Why is this happening? Why does student conflict often end in physical aggression and violence, especially disputes involving minorities? What can stop the violence? Stakeholders in the Avery Alternative Center created Project GRIT to help answer these questions by incorporating research-based practices and interventions designed to strengthen conflict resolution skills in participants and support …

Harness Therapeutic Potential Of Immune Responses: Molecular Characterization And Targeted Delivery, Nan Ji

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The immune system plays a crucial role in protecting the body from harmful pathogens and cancer cells and maintaining tissue homeostasis. Immunotherapy has shown significant potential in treating various diseases by harnessing the therapeutic potential of immune responses through the targeting of different immune cells, receptors, and signaling pathways. This dissertation investigated two immune modulators for their immune-enhancing potential.In the first chapter, the components of innate immunity are introduced. In the second chapter, Immulina, a commercially available extract of Arthrospira platensis enriched with Braun-type proteins, was studied for its immunostimulatory effect in mouse bone marrow-derived dendritic cells and macrophages. The …

Understanding Financial Toxicity Among Adult Cancer Survivors In The Us, Siddhi Korgaonkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term ‘financial toxicity’ (FT) has been used to describe cancer-related financial hardship and psychological distress experienced by cancer survivors. FT can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of cancer survivors due to its multifarious adverse effects.

This dissertation strives to advance extant knowledge on cancer-related FT research by investigating three key questions: 1. How have the trends in the direct total and out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditures, and OOP financial burden of US cancer survivors aged 18-64 years evolved between 2008 – 2019? 2. What are the self-reported HIL levels among adult cancer survivors aged 27-64 years in the …

Evaluation Of Quality Ratings In Healthcare: Is There Evidence Of Disparities In Their Applications?, Irene B. Nsiah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined racial and ethnic disparities in: (1) the impact of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policy and payment changes to the Medicare Part D Star Ratings Program on adherence to diabetes, renin-angiotensin system antagonists (RASA) and statin medications, (2) the spillover effect of this program onto nontargeted therapies used to treat hypertension (calcium channel blockers and beta blockers), and (3) insulin non-persistence among Medicare beneficiaries, and quantified the contribution of sociodemographic, clinical and cost factors associated with the racial and ethnic disparities.

For objectives 1 and 2, interrupted time series (ITS) analyses were conducted using …

Exploration Of Student Success Programs For Freshmen Students On Academic Warning/Academic Probation At The University Of Mississippi, Jeremy Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nearly ten percent of the first-year class at the University of Mississippi go on Academic Warning or Academic Probation each semester after their first-full semester at the University. During this time, the student's GPA is below a 2.0, which requires them to take the EDHE 101: Academic Skills for College course, if they plan to return to the University that following Spring or Fall semester (depending on which was their first-full semester). Academic Support Programs, under the Center for Student Success and First-Year Experience oversees this course and several other programs to assist students as they look to return to …

Entrepreneurs Want More Than Just Money: The Role Of Subjective Entrepreneurial Success In Predicting Entrepreneur’S Grief Following Venture Failure, Joseph Richard Schaefer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focal topics of this dissertation are subjective entrepreneurial success (SES) and grief. Over the past three decades, the budding SES literature has seen accelerating growth since its conceptual inception in 1987, with 2016 marking a key event in the literature – the formal naming and definition of the SES construct. Research on the SES construct is of interest to scholars because it complements the objective economic conceptualizations of success often seen in the entrepreneurship literature, highlighting the idiosyncratic ways that entrepreneurs conceptualize and evaluate their success.

To contribute to the SES literature, Essay One of my three-essay dissertation, I …

Pharmacy Matters - December 2022/January 2023, University Of Mississippi. School Of Pharmacy

Pharmacy Matters Newsletters

Featured stories: "Partnership Expands Health Care in Union County," "Graduate Students Shine in 3MT Competition"

Hotel Staycationers' Well-Being Perception, Satisfaction, And Loyalty: The Role Of Restorative Qualities And Service Quality, Chanmi Hong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a rising trend for travelers is to stay at a local hotel, known as "hotel staycations," rather than traveling outside of their area. Despite the increasing popularity, empirical studies on customer behavior in the hotel staycation context are limited. Furthermore, existing studies have largely overlooked restorative qualities and service quality of hotel staycations, which can significantly influence customer well-being and satisfaction. To address these gaps, this study aims to examine the impact of restorative qualities and service quality on customers' perception of well-being and satisfaction with the hotel staycation experience by extending Kaplan's (1995) attention restorative …

Combating Teacher Turnover Through Teacher Development In A Collaborative Culture Of Teacher Leadership, Nina M. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This applied action research with program evaluation aimed to determine if teacher-led professional development and empowerment initiatives such as the Teacher Leader Collaborative (TLC) contributed to a group of teachers' efficacy and professional growth to reduce teacher turnover of English Language Arts (ELA) teachers at Bernard Williams Middle School (BWMS). Each year the middle school has a turnover trend in the ELA department. As a result, sustainable school improvement efforts have waned, and teachers have had limited access to professional growth initiatives because of these transitions. The outcome has led to student achievement challenges. Therefore, this applied research study comprises …

A Content Analysis Of State-Level Restorative Justice Statutes, Mason Karlyn Myers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Restorative justice programs have garnered attention as a potential policy solution to address critical issues within the criminal justice system, such as mass incarceration, re-victimization, and costliness. However, effective implementation of these programs faces various challenges, including communication gaps, inadequate program design, and implementation issues. These challenges may be further exacerbated by the lack of consistent policies at the state level guiding restorative justice practices. Surprisingly, limited research has been conducted to examine restorative justice statutes at the state level. In response to this gap in the literature, this study analyzes the restorative justice policies of all fifty states, including …

A Review Of Mental Health Intake Assessments In Mississippi Jails, Sierra Molina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over 64 percent of jail inmates report mental health concerns in the United States. Limited research, however, has explored the guidelines provided by jail facilities for screening and assessing mental illness. To address this gap in the literature, this study used a qualitative design to examine the intake policy guidelines for mental health screening in Mississippi jails. Furthermore, it explored the following questions to discover themes relating to correctional mental health: how many facilities have policies relating to screening for mental health symptoms; how are these guidelines defined by correctional officials; is there variation across location and facility; and are …

Plot Twist: Vomiting Is Good! Online Psychoeducational Intervention Among Internet Support Group Users, Jennifer Petell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emetophobia is a specific phobia of vomit (SPOV) characterized by persistent and chronic symptoms with severe impairment across domains. Research on emetophobia is limited, with even fewer studies examining the impact of intervention. Available treatment studies have broadly been examined through behavioral interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) of which psychoeducation is an important foundational component. The positive role of psychoeducation on symptom reduction has been examined among a variety of psychopathology, including anxiety disorders. However, to date, research has not examined the role of psychoeducation itself (psychoeducational intervention, PI) among specific phobias broadly or emetophobia specifically. Therefore, the …

Development Of A Novel Psychological Screening Tool For Young Children In Educational And Childcare Settings, Diana Tinsley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Young children experience psychological difficulties at comparable rates to school-aged children (Egger & Angold, 2006; Bufferd et al., 2011; Fuchs et al., 2013), yet few screening tools are available for this age range. Childcare and preschool settings present a unique opportunity to increase early screening efforts, particularly in terms of observing children among their peers. The current study presents initial steps toward the development of a new psychological screening tool for young children ages 1.5 – 5 years in childcare and educational settings. The aim of the study was to develop a brief and broad psychological screening tool that can …

Enhancing Student Engagement: Regional Campus Students’ Access To High Impact Practices And Co-Curricular Organizations, Angela Kristina Austin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Regional campuses serve a vital role in today's higher education landscape, extending access to college education for underserved locations and populations. The University of Mississippi’s university system has five regional campuses. The students at a regional campus, like their traditional main campus counterparts, aspire to attain bachelor's or graduate degrees. However, regional campus students often exhibit characteristics more akin to community college or non-traditional students.

While literature on regional campuses is limited, ample research supports the positive impact of student involvement in higher education. Even more limited is research on participation levels of non-traditional students in co-curricular organizations and high-impact …

Formulation Development And Targeted Delivery For Bcs Ii Drugs Using Hot Melt Extrusion Technology, Ahmed Almotairy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hot-melt extrusion (HME) is one of the approaches to formulate an amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) and has gained popularity within the pharmaceutical industry over the past three decades. Additionally, HME has the ability to produce several versatile formulations and its ability to tailor processing materials through modifications in the screw design and mixing and shearing forces or by controlling the material feed rate; additionally, HME allows processing at multiple temperatures and screw speeds. HME has advantages over traditional pharmaceutical processing techniques, including its ability for continuous operation and ability to implement quality by design (QbD) and process analytical technology (PAT) …

Academic Medical Center Governance: A Study Focused On The University Of Mississippi Medical Center, Jacob Daniels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) face many challenges, which can lead to financial constraints. For AMCs to remain sustainable in today’s healthcare system, the literature presents a compelling case for expansion to mitigate their financial burdens. Expansion often requires quick decision-making, and as a result, scholars repeatedly discuss the importance of AMC governance being both nimble and efficient. The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) substantially impacts Mississippians, and the institution must remain a thriving center for education, research, and healthcare for the state. Given the importance of efficient and nimble governance in the institution’s sustainability, this Dissertation in Practice (DiP) …

The Role Of Social Responsibility On Insurers’ Investments And On Suppliers, And The Role Of Internal Capital Markets On Market Entrance And Exit, Patrick Cho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay, we provide a new perspective on the socially responsible investment (SRI) puzzle by examining whether a motive behind investing in socially responsible stocks is to hedge against non-financial income exposure. We examine U.S. Property-Liability (P/L) insurers’ equity portfolios to investigate the probability and extent of investments in socially responsible firms. We focus on one aspect of social responsibility - litigation risk. The level of litigation risk is a direct measure of social responsibility and the observable impact of litigation on P/L insurers’ underwriting portfolios allows us to examine the hedging motive. We find that P/L insurers …

Adolescent Health And Maladaptive Coping: Assessing The Relationship Between Poor Physical Health And Underage Drinking, Shelby Gilbreath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents endure various stressors throughout their lives, making them one of the most vulnerable populations in the United States. Among those life stressors are physical health issues, including physical illness and disabilities. Physical health challenges may serve as a strain that fosters deviant behavior, such as underage drinking. However, prior research has failed to investigate this relationship. The current study uses publicly available data from the National Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the impact of physical health challenges on underage drinking.

"Dug Way To Liberty": Newspapers, Prison, And Jim Crow In Georgia In The Early 1900s, Avery Elise Gross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On April 15, 1907, twelve Black and white convicts escaped from the Durham Mines prison camp located on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Over the next month, newspapers throughout Georgia and in neighboring states reported the escape and discussed the recapture events. Within five days of the prison break, the local white community recaptured all nine Black convicts. None of the white convicts were caught. As this thesis investigates the lives, crimes, and recapture of all twelve prisoners, it connects the convict lease prison system with the newspaper media to understand the impact of white supremacy ideology and the repressive systems that …

“Mississippi’S Greatest Minister”: A Historical Study Of Cornelius W. Grafton’S 61-Year Pastorate, 1873-1934, David Thomas Irving

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cornelius W. Grafton (b.1846, d.1934) pastored two Presbyterian churches in Southwest Mississippi for 61 consecutive years (1873-1934). He moderated the Presbyterian Church, U.S. General Assembly in 1916 and wrote a 658-page unpublished History of Presbyterianism in Mississippi. This dissertation studies Grafton’s ministry—his student years at the University of Mississippi and Columbia Theological Seminary, his sermons, his public opposition to lynching, and his periodical and historical writings—to understand how white Christians in the South thought of and responded to their context from Reconstruction through the Progressive Era and into the 1930’s. Many of the priorities of Grafton’s ministry corresponded to those …

Effects And Mechanisms Of Cognitive Impairment During Vigorous-Intensity Exercise, Myungjin Jung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent research indicates that vigorous-intensity exercise concurrent with a prefrontal cortex (PFC)-dependent cognitive task can temporarily deactivate the PFC, leading to impaired cognition. Shifting attentional focus from a cognitive task to exercise or vice versa during exercise may also affect cognitive performance. However, the underlying mechanisms of this effect remain unclear. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to evaluate whether changes in attention and PFC oxygenation mediate cognitive impairment during vigorous-intensity exercise. Seventy-five young healthy adults (37 males, 38 females; 20.3 ± 1.6 years) completed three visits. The initial visit consisted of a max cycle test to measure VO2max via indirect calorimetry. …

Mathematics And Special Education Co-Teaching In The Middle School: How Teachers Make Sense Of Their Partnership, Bethany Lavalley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Co-teaching is the practice of general educators and special educators sharing instruction in a general education setting to deliberately meet the needs of students with and without disabilities. Co-teacher research tends to focus on the processes of co-teaching, and little is known about how teachers go about creating a system of interconnected professional expertise that flexibly meets the diverse learning needs of students. This comparative case study examines the interpersonal and professional relationships of two co-teaching teams who were supported by their respective administration, who shared common planning time, co-instructed together in the mathematics classroom, and were engaged in a …

Fte2: An Exploration Of Full-Time Employed, Full-Time Enrolled Undergraduate Student Perceptions Regarding The Impact Of Support Systems On Their Ability To Persist, Victoria Lauren Mccord

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Full-time enrolled students participating in full-time employment is a growing trend on college campuses. This dissertation serves to explore the perceptions of full-time employed, full-time enrolled graduate students’ perceptions on the impact of their support systems on their ability to persist. The proposed study utilizes Laura Perna’s Conceptual Model for College Access and Choice (2006), along with Cabrera, Nora, and Castenada’s Integrated Model for Student Retention (1993) to the following research questions: (1) What factors, support systems or resources do students utilize? (2) What formal or informal support systems and/or resources aid in student persistence, if any? This dissertation addresses …

The Combined Effects Of Context And Importance On Prospective Memory, Gage Owens Regier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prospective memory is memory for activities to be performed in the future. These tasks vary in importance – such as remembering to pick up your medicine on the way home versus buying milk for the next morning – and vary in the amount of contextual information available, where contextual information allows an individual to predict when the intended action might be completed. While importance and context have been studied individually, their combined effects have not been explored. This experiment’s goal was to examine this unexplored interaction using established manipulations and tasks to facilitate comparison to previous work. In doing so, …

Galvanizing Parental Involvement In Early Childhood Education To Promote Student Attendance, Marquita Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This applied research study aimed to increase parental involvement to improve kindergarten attendance. The need to increase parental participation arose from low academic achievement ratings and high chronic absenteeism rates among young students. This applied research study used three elements to increase kindergarten attendance. The researcher used surveys, interviews, and kindergarten attendance data to complete the study. Using the abovementioned instruments and the school leadership team's collaborative involvement, findings support that improving parental involvement can lead to improved kindergarten attendance and shared organizational learning.

Quitting: A Phenomenological Study On The Factors Contributing To Mississippi Teacher Exits During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Krystal R. Cormack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This transcendental phenomenological study focused on determining the factors contributing to teacher exits from Mississippi schools during and since the global COVID-19 pandemic. Developing a more robust understanding of the teacher labor market and teacher exits is vital to ensuring that students can access a high-quality education. Participants identified the COVID-19–related factors that influenced their decision to exit the classroom and factors unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants felt the COVID-19 pandemic worsened their teaching experience and created additional work. One educator exited due to complications from long COVID disease. Three major findings unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic emerged …

Prevalence Of Meeting 24-Hour Movement Guidelines And Sociodemographic Correlates Among U.S. Adults, Samantha Cohen-Winans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much evidence exists for the health benefits associated with individual movement behaviors, which include light-intensity physical activity (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep. However, individual movement behaviors are codependent in nature and exist within a finite period of 24-hours, further underlying the importance of examining the integration of movement behaviors. Despite the absence of 24-hour movement guidelines in the U.S., the benefits of adhering to such guidelines outweigh the potential harms, such as with various levels of physical activity intensity. Moreover, many intervention studies focus on one individual movement behavior underscoring the need for studies to examine intervention …

Assessing The Relationship Between School Disengagement And Violence Involvement, Senneca Evans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social control theory suggests that having strong social bonds to a society prevents individuals from engaging in delinquent acts. Consistent with the main assumption of this theoretical framework, the current study assesses whether having a weak bond to school, specifically, school disengagement, impacts violent behavior among adolescents. The current study also assesses whether gender and race/ethnicity moderate the relationship between school disengagement and violence involvement. Data used in this study were obtained from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents to Adult Health public-use data (N = 6,045). Results show that school disengagement is a significant predictor of violent behavior among …

International Forum Shopping: An Instrument Of Domestic Signaling, Giorgi Khatiashvili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation explores the relationship between domestic politics and the choice of international venue for economic sanctions and trade disputes, utilizing the concept of forum shopping. The research argues that forum shopping is not only an outward, but also an inward looking endeavor, shaped by the government’s need to communicate with its domestic audience. The research identifies two main domestic constituencies – the public and economic groups – that influence the government’s behavior with regard to forum shopping. Empirical analysis reveals that when facing pressure from the domestic public, governments tend to choose larger and more legitimate international organizations for …