Digital Commons Network^™

Leveling Up Instruction: Action Research Evaluating The Impact Of Gamification On The Intrinsic Motivation And Academic Performance Of Students Disaffected From High School English Language Arts, Michael Brian Jett

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of gamification on the intrinsic motivation and academic performance of students disaffected from high school English language arts (ELA). Three questions guided this study: (a) how does gamification affect the intrinsic motivation of students disaffected from high school ELA, (b) does gamification affect the academic performance of students disaffected from high school ELA, and (c) what recommendations can students offer after reflecting on their experiences with gamification?

The game elements of challenge, narrative, role-play, and teamwork were incorporated into the design of a five-week instructional unit focused on research …

Can The Curse Be Reversed?: An Action Research Study Of The Effect Of Constructivist-Aligned Instructional Strategies And Practices On The Mathematical Identity Development Of Fifth- Grade Students, Jennifer J. Ledbetter

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this mixed-methods action research study was to determine how my fifth-grade students were impacted by negative mathematical identity and/or math anxiety and to uncover the impact of constructivist-aligned instructional strategies on students’ mathematical identity. Grounded in a theoretical framework based on constructivist learning theory, identity theory, and communities of practice, the study used a convergent mixed-methods action research approach to investigate the following research questions:

How does negative mathematical identity and/or math anxiety impact my students? 2) What classroom practices contribute to the development of negative mathematical identity and how can those practices be replaced? 3) How …

Mindfulness, Culture, And Clinical Practice: Clinician Experiences Utilizing Mindfulness And Acceptance With Hispanics/Latinos, Rebeca Castellanos

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that culturally adapted interventions are superior to unadapted interventions when used with diverse ethnic groups (Hall et al., 2016). There also exists a growing interest psychological interventions that utilize in mindfulness and psychological acceptance (Masuda, 2014). Moreover, there is a significant need to address health inequities among Hispanics/Latinos given that they comprise the fastest growing ethnically diverse population in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). A recent comprehensive review of the literature on cultural adaptations of MBIs for Hispanics/Latinos indicated several critical gaps in the study of culturally adapted MBIs which included a need to systematically assess …

21st Century Physics Homework: A Mixed-Methods Approach Evaluating How An Individualized Online Homework Platform Can Provide Quality Feedback And Help Physics Students Engage In Self-Regulated Learning, Scott Philip Buhr

Theses and Dissertations

American secondary students spend many hours each week working on homework. To get the most out of this homework, students need to receive quality feedback and engage in self-regulated learning when completing homework tasks. For teachers, traditional paper-and-pencil homework means extra time spent grading rather than giving good feedback. This study aims to answer the following questions: 1) How and to what extent does the implementation of individualized online homework and feedback impact self-regulated learning among Honors Physics high school students? and 2) How does the implementation of individualized online homework impact students’ perception of the feedback quality provided by …

Lifting The Veil: A Critical Post-Intentional Phenomenological Action Research Study Of How African American Students Experience Science, Gina Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Research asserts the assimilationist nature of traditional science classroom practices undermines African American students’ intersectional race and science identity. Driven by a problem of practice embedded in the racialized system of science education, this study integrated action research with an innovative critical paradigm to explore how phenomenological data can transform practice. This post-intentional approach relies on experiential, phenomenological data of how African American students experience science to provide a critical analysis of instruction that leads to a change in science pedagogy. Qualitative interviews documented African American students’ experiences with science and an observation journal documented the resulting intervention. A post-reflexive …

Choline Supplementation And Dna Methylation In The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Rats Exposed To Alcohol During Development, Nicha K. H. Otero

Theses and Dissertations

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) refers to the effects of alcohol exposure during development on individuals. Some of the most frequent deficits seen in children with FASD and in animal models of FASD are spatial memory impairments and impaired executive functioning, which are likely related to alcohol-induced alterations of the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), respectively. Choline, a nutrient supplement, has been shown in a rat model to ameliorate some of alcohol‟s teratogenic effects and this effect may be mediated through choline‟ effects on DNA methylation. This study used a rat model of FASD to investigate the underlying mechanisms …

The Impact Of Consumer Perceptions Of Tanking On National Basketball Association Attendance, Hua Gong

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the impact of consumer perceptions of tanking on National Basketball Attendance (NBA) attendance. The prevalence of tanking in the NBA raised concerns that some teams were purposely avoiding winning games in order to improve their draft position. The majority of previous studies on tanking have focused on developing empirical evidence of the existence of tanking in sport. Yet, no study systematically explored the impact of perceived tanking behavior on consumer demand for sport. As tanking teams rarely reveal their tanking strategy to the public, fans may not correctly identify tanking behavior in sport, and thus are likely …

Making Elearning Engaging: The Effect Of Technology Strategies On Student Engagement And Content Knowledge Development In A Secondary Mathematics Digital Classroom, Allison Knapp

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study employed a mixed-methods design to examine the effect of technology strategies on secondary students’ engagement and development of geometry content knowledge in an eLearning setting. Seeking to understand student preferences of the technology tools, this two-week study was conducted during a geometry unit on quadrilaterals and employed the following technology tools: student response systems (SRS), computer-assisted instruction (CAI), gamification, and teacher-made screencasts. Quantitative data was collected on student engagement, the usefulness of the technology, and student self-efficacy through a Likert-scale survey after each day of using technology. Qualitative data were collected through purposeful interviews with students …

The Struggle Is Real: Exploring Epistemological Change Through The Use Of The Next Generation Science Standards In A High School Chemistry Classroom, Nancy Nasr

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative action research study examines my resistance to implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in my high school chemistry classroom, which is not uncommon among teachers. This resistance highlighted my conflicting epistemological beliefs, which, as a product of my own experiences as a student, among other factors, are deep-rooted and difficult to change. The dilemma for many science teachers, like me, is that the NGSS approaches the teaching of science in a constructivist manner, which attempts to move science instruction away from traditional pedagogies. Science teachers whose epistemological beliefs are rooted in traditional pedagogies may understand the inherent …

Bifurcated Elementary Sister-Schools: Do They Affect Student Growth During Transition Years?, Victoria Gelbert

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students who attend a sister-school modeled elementary school experience a negatively disproportionate amount of academic growth the year students transition from the primary school to the elementary school in third grade. This study looked at two different elementary grade span configurations, the traditional PreK–5 model and the 3–5 sister-school model, to determine if there is a difference between third grade student academic growth in different grade configurations. Four sample schools agreed to participate in the study and were paired based on their grade span configuration and demographics. The sample schools provided …

Investigation Of Oxidized Carbon Supported Au Catalysts Synthesized Via Strong Electrostatic Adsorption Of Au(En)2Cl3 For The Hydrochlorination Of Acetylene To Vinyl Chloride Monomer, Sean Reginald Noble

Theses and Dissertations

Over 20 million tons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) is produced every year using acetylene hydrochlorination using a supported mercuric chloride catalyst. During this process mercury is reduced and sublimes into the environment harming all living animals and humans, so carbon-supported Au catalysts have been developed in attempts to replace it. Various techniques have been used to make these catalysts including several variations of dry impregnation. In this study we investigate the ability of Strong Electrostatic Adsorption (SEA) of Au(en)₂Cl₃ onto various supports to demonstrate the ability to rationally and consistently synthesize gold catalysts with ultra-small particle …

Antisaccade Performance As A Measure Of Executive Dysfunction In Women With The Fmr1 Premutation, Lyndsay Schmitt

Theses and Dissertations

Women with the FMR1 premutation appear to be at increased risk for executive dysfunction. Findings in this regard have been mixed, leading to controversy surrounding the executive phenotype. Inhibitory deficits have been a more consistently documented component of this cognitive profile (Klusek et al., 2020; Shelton et al., 2014). This study aimed to clarify the executive phenotype through use of the antisaccade task, a well referenced eye-tracking paradigm that targets oculomotor inhibition and motor control and imposes time constraints that may increase sensitivity to executive deficits in women with the FMR1 premutation. The effects of aging were examined in both …

Smart Sensing Enabled Secure And Usable Pairing And Authentication, Xiaopeng Li

Theses and Dissertations

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have made our lives more convenient and better informed by sensing and monitoring our surroundings. Security applications, such as device pairing and user authentication, are the fundamentals for building a trustworthy smart environment. A secure and convenient pairing approach is critical to IoT enabled applications, as pairing is to establish a secure wireless communication channel for devices. Besides, a smart environment usually has multiple people (e.g., patients and doctors in a hospital), who have physical access to the deployed IoT devices and sensitive dumb objects (e.g., a cabinet storing medical records); but not all of …

Semiparametric Regression Analysis Of Survival Data And Panel Count Data, Lu Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Both censored survival data and panel count data arise commonly in real-life studies in many fields such as epidemiology, social science, and medical research. In these studies, subjects are usually examined multiple times at periodical or irregular follow-up examinations. Censored data are studied when the exact failure times of the events are of interest but not all of these exact times are directly observed. Some of the failure times of event of interest are only known to fall within some intervals formed by the observation times. Panel count data are under investigation when the exact times of the recurrent events …

Bollen-Stine Bootstrapping Of The Chi-Square Statistic In Structural Equation Models: The Effect Of Model Size, Raul Corrêa Ferraz

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on the accuracy of p-values for the chi-square test of model fit has been limited to small models (around 10 variables), revealing that they are accurate provided sample size is not too small. At small sample sizes (N < 100), the usual p-values, obtained using asymptotic methods, are more accurate. However, asymptotic p-values incorrectly suggest that models fit poorly when the number of variables is large. We investigate whether Bollen-Stine (1992) bootstrap p-values are accurate in large models (up to 30 variables) for continuous outcomes using both normal and non-normal data. We found that as model size increases …

Theoretical Investigation Of The Biomass Conversion On Transition Metal Surfaces Based On Density Functional Theory Calculations And Machine Learning, Wenqiang Yang

Theses and Dissertations

During the past decades, heterogenous catalyzed conversion of biomass to hydrocarbons with similar or identical properties to conventional fossil fuels has gained significantly academic and industrial interest. However, the conventional heterogeneous catalysts such as sulfided NiMo/Al₂O₃ and CoMo/Al₂O₃ used have various drawbacks, such as short catalyst lifetime and high sulfur content of product. To overcome the limitations of the conventional sulfided catalysts, new catalysts must be developed, which requires a better understanding of the reaction mechanism of the biomass conversion. Based on density functional theory, in this thesis, we reported a computational calculation study …

Two Studies Of Inclusive And Augmented Physical Education, Matthew Patey

Theses and Dissertations

Students with disabilities participate in inclusive education, to some degree. Unfortunately, students with disabilities often feel feelings of marginalization, social isolation, failure, and othering. Students without disabilities graduating high school today are less empathic than students who graduated in the 1970’s. This dissertation delves into the empirical literature on how school-age students perceive inclusive physical education, through a systematic literature (Study 1), as well as how a students and adults in a high school perceive and experience an augmented physical education program, through an exploratory case study (Study 2).

In Study 1, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and …

Fundamental Understanding Of Plasma Discharge Formation In Liquid And Multiphase Configurations Through Multiphysics Modeling, Ali Charchi Aghdam

Theses and Dissertations

During the last two decades, non-thermal plasma discharges in and in contact with liquids have received significant attention due to their wide range of applications including chemical analysis, medical, water treatment, fuel processing, etc. Despite the tremendous interest and advances attained in the experimental studies, modeling efforts providing a comprehensive understanding of the underlying physicochemical processes are limited. There is still no unified theory on plasma formation in dense medium and various theories have been proposed such as the presence of bubbles and tunneling which are topics of debate. In the first part of this study, a mathematical model is …

The Impact Of Guided Practice In Argument Analysis And Composition Via Computer-Assisted Argument Mapping Software On Students’ Ability To Analyze And Compose Evidence-Based Arguments, Donna Lorain Grant

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative action research study was to document the impact of the use of computer-assisted argument mapping (CAAM) upon high school students’ ability to analyze and compose evidence-based arguments. The study used a one-group pretest posttest design with a convenience sample of the participant researcher’s seventy-one high school sophomores. During the six-week study, each participant generated four sets of artifacts, each consisting of two argument analysis maps from provided source arguments and one argument composition map representing the participant’s position on the given topic. Artifacts were generated at four separate benchmarks, the pretest, week four, week five, …

Cosmic Metal Evolution During The First ∼1 Billion Years After The Big Bang Using Damped/Sub-Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers, Suraj Poudel

Theses and Dissertations

Metal abundance measurements throughout the cosmic ages track the history of galaxy formation and evolution. Measuring abundances during the first ∼1 billion years is especially important, as they are influenced by the nucleosynthetic signatures from the early stars. Evolution of metallicity of Damped/sub-Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers (DLAs/sub-DLAs) detected in the spectra of quasars is a powerful tracer of the cosmic star formation history. A sudden drop in DLA metallicity at z>4.7 was reported in some recent studies. However, these studies were primarily based on refractory elements such as Fe and Si. We present ten new abundance measurements of the elements …

Celebrity Impact On Fashion Brand Choice Using Social Media, Jaclyn Newbert

Theses and Dissertations

Today social media is rapidly growing. Many social media users, specifically Instagram users, are from the Millennial generation (born between 1982 and 1999), and Generation-Z (born between 2000 and 2020) (knoema.com, 2020). They love to share their life through social media, especially by posting and viewing others’ photos and videos on Instagram. Celebrity endorsement of products and brands has shown to increase both brand awareness and sales for companies. The purpose of this study is to investigate social media influence of celebrities on consumers’ brand choices. A conceptual model is developed to investigate the influences of physical attractiveness, celebrity credibility, …

The Role Of Third-Person Perceptions In Predicting The Public’S Support For Electronic Cigarette Advertising Regulations, Joon Kyoung Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has become the most widely used nicotine porduct among adolescents and young adults in the United States. Although some research has shown that e-cigarettes are relatively less harmful than combustible tobacco cigarettes, the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes remain unclear. Some evidence suggests that exposure to e-cigarette marketing leads young people to try e-cigarettes. Given the increased popularity of e-cigarette use, the U.S Food and Drug Administration has implemented regulations on e-cigarette marketing since 2016. To understand the public’s support for media censorship, media scholars have examined gaps in individuals’ perceptions of media effects on themselves …

Aging With Hiv In The United States: Trends And Impact Of Hospital Stays On Inpatient Resource Utilization, And Costs Of Care, 2003-2015, Khairul Alam Siddiqi

Theses and Dissertations

Background:

Due to advances in Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), people living with HIV (PLWH) live longer in the United States. Aging prolongs exposure to HIV and antiretroviral drugs, which could lead to an elevated risk of developing multiple age-related comorbidities [HIV Associated Non-AIDS (HANA) conditions], earlier for PLWH. Higher comorbidity burdens among older PLWH may require greater use of inpatient care, i.e., higher hospitalization, inpatient resource utilization, and costs. This study examined the trends and characteristics of comorbidities, resource utilization, and costs of hospital stays with HIV (HSWH) compared to hospital stays without HIV (HSWOH). We also assessed trends for resource …

Bayesian Zero-Inflated Model For Ordinal Data, Huizhong Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Datasets with a relatively large number of zeros is commonly seen in medical applications. Although models like Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model are proposed for counts data, there is still some issues with ordinal data which have excess zeros. In this paper, we developed a Bayesian approach to accommodate the excess zero in ordinal data. Intellectual disability (ID), also known as mental retardation (MR), is a disability characterized by below-average intelligence or mental ability and a lack of the learning necessary skills for daily life. A person with intellectual disability has intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors limitations. Intellectual disability is a …

How Self-Sentiments And Personal Networks Impact Political Polarization, Matthew Facciani

Theses and Dissertations

This project investigates how identities, self-sentiments, and personal network composition impact political polarization. I apply the framework of Affect Control Theory to capture how Democrats and Republicans feel about their political ingroup and outgroups (through evaluation, potency and activity ratings) and evaluate the likelihood of events involving these groups. In my first experiment, I study if self-uncertainty and self-affirmation primes impact political bias. I also apply Affect Control Theory-Self to measure self-sentiment change (self-evaluation, self-potency, and self-activity) from these primes as well. I predict that priming self-uncertainty should increase political bias (due to inflated self-sentiments) and that priming self-affirmation should …

African, Know Thyself: Hip-Hop Pedagogy, Epistemic Disobedience, And Youth Engagement In West Africa, Noella Binda Niati

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation was a 23-month comparative case study of Y’en a Marre, a civic organizing movement based in Dakar, Senegal and FESCI, a student organization in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. This study investigates the ways in which these organizations view Hip-Hop and its pedagogical utility as a means to encourage socialization, promote authenticity, and foster leadership. Through Hip-Hop, young people are drawn to a cultural expression that reflects the social, economic, and political realities of their lives speaking to them in a language and manner they understand. This is critical given sub- Saharan Africa’s tremendous youth population and their potential impact …

“Library And Information Science” Literature In Web Of Science: What A Decade Tells Us About Scholarly Collaboration In The Field (2007-2016), Kim M. Thompson, Kasey Garrison, Carolina Santelices-Werchez, Paulina Arellano-Rojas, Danilo Reyes-Lillo

Faculty Publications

Ensuring access to published research is increasingly important for demonstrating research impact, supporting wide readership, creating interest in collaboration, and making way for funding opportunities. This article provides a bibliometric analysis of publications from 2007-2016 in the Web of Science (WOS) database to update understanding of recent international library science research as a means of discussing research impact and scientific collaboration. The methodology is a descriptive analysis of publications retrieved from the WOS database using keywords “library science” and WOS-generated subject descriptor “Information Science & Library Science.” Analysis focused on descriptive data related to our research questions including representation of …

Can Children Catch Up From The Consequences Of Undernourishment? Evidence From Child Linear Growth, Developmental Epigenetics, And Brain And Neurocognitive Development, Jef L. Leroy, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Pragya Dewan, Maureen M. Black, Robert A. Waterland

Faculty Publications

Recovery from nutritionally induced height deficits continues to garner attention. The current literature on catch-up growth, however, has 2 important limitations: wide-ranging definitions of catch-up growth are used, and it remains unclear whether children can recover from the broader consequences of undernutrition. We addressed these shortcomings by reviewing the literature on the criteria for catch-up in linear growth and on the potential to recover from undernutrition early in life in 3 domains: linear growth, developmental epigenetics, and child brain and neurocognitive development. Four criteria must be met to demonstrate catch-up growth in height: after a period in which a growth-inhibiting …

Restructuring A Beginner Language Program: A Quantitative Analysis Of Face-To-Face Versus Flipped-Blended Spanish Instruction, Nina Moreno, Paul Malovrh

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Search For Lepton-Flavor-Violating Decays D0→X0E±Μ∓, J. P. Lees, V. Poireau, V. Tisserand, E. Grauges, A. Palano, G. Eigen, D. N. Brown, Yu G. Kolomensky, M. Fritsch, H. Koch, T. Schroeder, R. Cheaib, C. Hearty, T. S. Mattison, J. A. Mckenna, R. Y. So, V. E. Blinov, A. R. Buzykaev, V. P. Druzhinin, Milind Purohit, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

We present a search for seven lepton-flavor-violating neutral charm meson decays of the type D⁰→X⁰e^±μ^∓, where X⁰ represents a π⁰, K ⁰ _S S, K^0* ρ⁰, ϕ, ω, or η meson. The analysis is based on 468 fb⁻¹ of e⁺e^- annihilation data collected at or close to the Υ(4S)resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. No significant signals are observed, and we establish 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions in …