Digital Commons Network^™

Outcomes And Presurgical Correlates Of Lumbar Fusion In Utah Workers' Compensation Patients: A Replication Study, Jessica M. Gundy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the past 2 decades, lumbar fusion surgeries performed in the United States have increased dramatically, particularly for compensated workers. Costs for these procedures have also risen substantially in the past decade, primarily due to the use of more sophisticated surgical devices such as interbody fusion cages. While surgical instrumentation and technology may improve the rates of solid bony vertebral fusion, overall improvements in quality of life and pain outcomes related to this new technology are still inconclusive.

In collaboration with the Workers Compensation Fund of Utah (WCFU) and Utah State University (USU), a psychology professor, Dr. M. Scott DeBerard, …

A Study Of Secondary District-Level Literacy Coaches’ Beliefs About How To Teach Reading, Pamela Sharp Crawford

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This case study explored the knowledge and beliefs held by six district-level reading coaches about how to teach reading at the middle-school level. It narrowed in on the possible influence past personal experiences, past academic and work experiences, and the influence of domain specific knowledge (i.e., English, social studies, elementary education, special education, ESL, etc.) might possibly have had upon the development of their knowledge and beliefs about how to teach reading. Finally, the study looked at how these influenced practice and decisions made in their roles as a cohort of district-level literacy coaches involved in developing and implementing a …

A Study Of Mothers’ Perceptions And Practices Of Kindergarten Readiness, Kirsten Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to understand what mothers with children enrolled in a developmentally appropriate preschool program believe and are actually doing to help prepare their children for kindergarten, something of key importance, as kindergarten success is a foundation for later school success. There is very little research on the topic of parental perceptions and practices in kindergarten readiness and the transition into kindergarten.

A survey was sent home to 60 families who had their child enrolled in the Adele and Dale Young Child Development Laboratory at Utah State University during the 2010-2011 school year. In the survey, parents were …

Do Attitudes About Spoiling Children Affect Attitudes Regarding What Infants Need For Early Social-Emotional Development, Kathleen Westover

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Infants that are raised in a warm loving environment have an increased probability of growing into responsible loving adults. Infants have the ability to make their needs known through different cues such as crying. Many parents do not understand how to respond appropriately to their infant’s cues. For instance many parents believe that if you pick up an infant every time they cry they will become spoiled. Researchers have studied the effects of responding appropriately to an infant. Infants who have their needs met when they demonstrate signs of distress learn that the world is a safe place for exploration. …

A Case Study Of Professors' And Instructional Designers' Experiences In The Development Of Online Courses, Karl B. Stevens

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this study was to examine the experiences of instructional designers and professors during their efforts to develop online courses and to determine what effect their experiences had on the development process. Five professors and five instructional designers at Utah State University participated in this qualitative, single-case study. Participants were purposefully selected as matched pairs of development teams based on their respective levels of expertise in course development.

The ADDIE instructional design model was used as a conceptual framework to which emergent themes were aligned. ADDIE is an acronym for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The key …

Social Organization And Decision Making In North American Bison: Implications For Management, Ryan A. Shaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Social organization varies widely among herbivores, and the level of social organization in bison is widely debated. I hypothesized that when mother-daughter relationships are allowed to develop, bison form long-term associations. In my study, 25 treatment mothers were selected from a free-ranging herd and kept together with their calves, while 25 control females had their calves forcefully removed. Treatment mothers and offspring had by far the greatest number of associations with a greater percentage of individuals with a half weight index (HWI) > 0.50. The strongest associations (HWI > 0.31) were among treatment mothers and their offspring. Moreover, these associations persisted over …

Exitus: An Agent-Based Evacuation Simulation Model For Heterogeneous Populations, Matthew T. Manley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evacuation planning is important for businesses given the continuing occurrence of both natural and human-caused disasters throughout the world. Unfortunately, the traditional fire-drill approach is impractical for many large organizations but especially those responsible for airports and sports arenas. The purpose of this research was to develop a new computer program capable of simulating large scale evacuations in such buildings. The program, called Exitus, is different from other evacuation simulators in the way it considers the physical, psychological, and social characteristics of individuals with disabilities during emergency situations.

In this research, Exitus was used to simulate evacuations of three buildings …

Problem Solving In Latino Families, Eliza Torres

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this dissertation is to learn if the quality of problem solving, parent engagement, and child engagement improve as a result of participating in a parenting intervention. The quality of problem solving was coded by independent observers watching a 5-minute videotaped task. Parent and child engagement were also coded by an observer and were evident in behaviors such as making eye contact, using good social skills, using humor, minimizing problems, and showing empathy were also rated by individual coders who were blinded to treatment/control groups. Each parent-child pair had a total of three scores, one for each variable …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Transformational And Transactional Leadership Styles On Branch Level Success Of Industrial Distribution Companies, Rod L. Flanigan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wholesale distribution represents an estimated 7% of our country's GDP. The industrial distribution segment of this market is nearly $400 billion, annually. The rapid change of technology, foreign imports, and societal change continues to have significant impact on the industrial distribution market. Combined with the imminent leadership gap in the industry over the next several years, and the impact of developing and understanding effective leadership at the branch levels of industrial distributors, this becomes critically important for the long-term success of the entire organization.

This study attempts to understand the impact of leadership style on the success of industrial distributors …

Web Usage Mining: Application To An Online Educational Digital Library Service, Bart C. Palmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation examined how users of the Instructional Architect (IA; http://ia.usu.edu) utilized the system in order to find online learning resources, place them in a new online instructional activities, and share and use them with students. The online learning resources can be found in educational digital libraries such as the National Science Digital Library (NSLD; http://nsdl.org) or the wider Web. Usage data from 22 months of IA use were processed to form usage features that were analyzed in order to find clusters of user behavior using latent class analysis (LCA).

The users were segmented into two samples with 5–90 and …

Parent Nutrition Education And The Influence On Family Lifestyle Behavior Changes, Kelsey Rich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah State University in the collaboration with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) proposes to develop and implement a program to help families develop healthy eating habits and lifestyle behaviors. Recently, childhood overweight and obesity has reached epidemic proportions. The diseases associated with adult obesity are now being seen in the pediatric population; therefore, there is a call for preventative efforts. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in combination with an active lifestyle discourages the presence of obesity. Currently, most childhood obesity prevention efforts have taken place in the school setting and have only had short term …

Exploring The Reliability And Validity Of The Experiential Discounting Task, Rochelle R. Smits

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Delay discounting is the devaluation of rewards that are delayed in time. This phenomenon was first studied with animals in controlled laboratory environments and later translated to human procedures. Though the decrease in value of outcomes as the delay to receipt increases is the same across species (money for humans, food for animals), a number of methodological concerns have been raised about the procedures used to study delay discounting in humans.

The Experiential Discounting Task (EDT) was recently developed in order to study delay discounting in humans in a way that is more similar to that used with animals. That …

Research Into The Utility Of Standards In Foreign Language Instruction: A Case Study Of Methods Used In The High School Setting, Paul S. Kirby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Given the increased emphasis on language acquisition in public education, and in university, government, and military settings there will be an increased focus on the
language classroom. My goal in this study was to investigate how five foreign language instructors in the Salt Lake metropolitan area perceived and implemented the national standards disseminated by the American Council for the Teachers of Foreign Language (ACTFL) known as the five Cs. These standards have also been adopted by the Utah State Office of Education (USOE). A broadened understanding was achieved through analysis of structured interviews, direct observation of foreign language instructors, evaluation …

The Intersection Of Multiple Oppressed Identities: Implications For Identity Development, Angela Marie Enno

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the experiences and identity development of ethnic minority LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning) individuals presents a challenge because the theories of identity development that exist to date may not take into account their unique perspectives. Theories of identity development that are not specific to ethnic minority or LGBTQ identities may not represent their experiences well. At the same time, theories of ethnic identity development may not fit for individuals who are LGBTQ; and theories of LGBTQ identity development may not fit for ethnic minorities. No theory of identity development to date takes into account all …

Treatment Of Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Utilizing Parent-Facilitated Acceptance And Commitment Therapy, Jennifer Yardley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects as many as 2.7% of children. Pediatric OCD is associated with significant distress for both families and children in multiple domains. Unfortunately, the majority of children with OCD do not receive adequate treatment. Without treatment pediatric OCD often persists into adulthood.

The current primary psychological treatment for pediatric OCD is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response prevention (ERP). However, there are multiple limitations of this treatment. Some children either do not respond to current treatments or respond only minimally, while others drop out or refuse treatment.
Exposure-based treatments yield problems with treatment adherence, …

The Effects Of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia On Social Functioning: An Investigation Into The First Year Of Treatment, Rachel L. Duchoslav

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cancer is currently the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age of 15 in the US. While the number of childhood cancer survivors continues to grow, psychological research on this population has lagged. Existing research on the psychosocial effects of childhood cancer is marked by inconsistent conclusions as well as methodological limitations. However, the effect of childhood cancer on social functioning is one area with relatively more consistency. Existing research suggests that childhood cancer can lead to deficits in prosocial skills as well as the emergence of social problems.

The present study investigated individual change in …

Behavioral Mechanisms Of Pramipexole-Induced Impulsivity: Discrimination Processes Underlying Decision-Making, Patrick S. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Impulsivity represents a substantial and devastating cost to our economic, cultural, and physical prosperity. Using quantitative models of choice behavior, researchers are able to identify environmental conditions likely to promote impulsive decision-making. Such an approach is especially valuable in experimental efforts to better understand how drugs negatively affect choice in humans and nonhumans alike. For instance, pramipexole, a dopamine agonist medication prescribed for Parkinson’s disease, has been associated with reports of increased rates of impulsive behavior. By which behavioral mechanisms pramipexole achieves these effects is unknown and requires further investigation.

The research reported herein sought to clarify pramipexole’s effects on …

A Phenomenological Study Of Professional Identity Change In Released-Time Seminary Teachers, Mark Daniel Mason

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many practitioners commonly deal with implementing a change that is imposed by an organization. Some imposed changes require practitioners to alter more than what they do in practice but also to change their identity. Many researchers have studied identity change through the lens of sociocultural theory, specifically utilizing communities of practice theory (CoP). However, the majority of these studies used CoP theory as a vehicle to implement the imposed change. Yet some studies have found that after the trial period ends many practitioners revert back to the way they performed in practice prior to the study. One reason for this …

A Demographic Evaluation Of Increasing Rates Of Suicide Mortality In Japan And South Korea, Sun Young Jeon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

According to a World Health Organization report, about one million people die by suicide each year. Fortunately, rates of suicide mortality have been decreasing
among most of the OECD countries, but Japan and South Korea are the only two exceptions to this trend, which has shown increasing suicide rates over the last 25
years. A number of studies have focused on psychological motives and individual-level causes of suicide, such as depression, mental disorder, and disability. However,
as Durkheim pointed out, suicide in a society does not have any obvious relationship to the prevalence of mental disorder. With his theory indicating …

The Relationship Of Outdoor Recreation And Gardening With Depression Among Individuals With Disabilities, Justin Floyd Wilson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Activities involving natural environments have positive psychological impacts on participants. Both outdoor recreation and gardening have been shown to reduce feelings of depression. However, the effects of these activities on the depression levels of individuals with disabilities have not yet been studied. In order to better understand the relationship between these activities and depression among individuals with disabilities, two separate studies were conducted.

The first study seeks to better understand the relationship between outdoor recreation participation and depression among Montana residents with disabilities using publicly available Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. It hypothesizes that depression would be negatively …

Breathe In, Breathe Out: Utilizing Mindfulness In The Social Work Practicum, Allison Leigh Leonard

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Mindfulness is defined as the ability to be aware of your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and actions – in the present moment – without judging or criticizing yourself or your experience (McKay, Wood, & Brantley, 2007). It has been used in a variety of settings and in a variety of ways. Within the context of social work, mindfulness can be used to prevent burnout and increase awareness. This paper reports research on teaching mindfulness techniques with the purpose of training students to use mindfulness and improve their professional development. Specifically, the paper presents the following: review of current literature on …

Experience Design, Alexandra Lee Davis

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This undergraduate research project aims to explore the question: “What is Experience Design(XD)?” and “How can Experience Design be executed in a magazine, both print and online versions?” My methods included extensive research on the history of XD, ethnography of typical magazine users, the study of magazine layout and design principles (both in print and online form) and finally, the execution of an XD-minded print and online digital-comp version of a fashion/lifestyle magazine. I used the Adobe Creative Suite to compile my research into tangible proof of the theory of XD in action. My results proved to be difficult to …

Effective Poster Design, Kaylee S. White

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

It is claimed that a poster has about three seconds to catch the attention of a passer-by. The success of that poster teeters on those few seconds. If it fails to attract attention, then it is ineffective. However, if it catches the interest of its viewer, then half of the battle is won. Having caught attention, the poster must next deliver a swift, effective, convincing message, which then leads the viewer to a desired thought or action. Quite an ambitious to-do list for one poster, right? Quickly arrest the attention of the viewer, deliver a swift clear message, effectively accomplish …

Interactions Between Emotion Regulation Measures, Depression, And Gender, Rachael Kimberly Wicker

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Throughout history there has been anecdotal, observational and empirical evidence, as well as entire theoretical frameworks indicating that there are differences between men and women when it comes to emotional expression and regulation. For example, differences exist in how and why different emotions are felt in a given circumstance for men versus women and what behaviors these emotions elicit in others. Yet despite these differences the same questionnaires are used to assess emotion regulation. Furthermore, the same diagnostic criteria are used to assess mood disorders in men and women. In the present study the domains of emotion regulation assessed are: …

The Utah Statesman, April 18, 2012, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

The Utah Statesman, April 11, 2012, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

The Utah Statesman, April 6, 2012, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, April 5, 2012, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Utah State University

• New Course

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences

• New Course

Department of Plants, Soils and Climate

• Prerequisite Change
• Title Change, Course Description Change

Department of Agricultural Systems Technology and Education School of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education

• Prefix Change

Department of Art and Design

• New Course
• Course Number Change, Dual List Change
• Course Number Change
• Title Change, Course Number Change, Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change, Dual List Change
• Title Change, Course Number Change, Course Description Change, Dual List Change
• Course Number Change, Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change
• Course Number Change, Title Change, Course Description Change
• Course …

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, April 5, 2012, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, April 5, 2012, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee