Digital Commons Network^™

Talking Back To The Elpac: Resilient Resistance And (Re)Imagining Through Ypart, Zulema Reynoso

Dissertations

Policies that label and track students based on language and race dismiss the voices and lived experiences of English learners (ELs) through forced fits and ideologies that devalue multiple languaging and ways of knowing. This qualitative study explores how an educator and 20 seventh-grade bi/multilingual Latinx students labeled long-term English learners (LTELs) reimagined how language is perceived, taught, and assessed across traditional schooling contexts and language policy landscapes. Drawing from LatCrit theory, Latina/Chicana feminisms, and dimensions of youth participatory action research (YPAR), this study centered both LTELs as jóvenes educados (dignified youth) and a conceptualized taller (studio space) to affirm …

The Development Of The Holistic Pastoral Wellbeing Assessment: A Mixed Methods Study, Timothy Captain

Dissertations

Some pastors are clearly in crisis. Research has indicated that clergy struggle to cope with the stressors of their profession. While pastoral work is overtly spiritual in nature, day-to-day tasks include interactions with God, themselves, congregants, and the world at large. Without multi-dimensional tools to consider their wellbeing, specifically assessments that reflect their worldview and role, pastors may remain unaware of dangerously low levels of wellbeing until they reach a place of crisis. Therefore, in this mixed methods study, the Holistic Pastoral Wellbeing Assessment (HPWA) was developed and tested to offer a validated, useful tool for pastors and those who …

From Childhood Through Adulthood To Godhood: Trodding The African Ancestral Path To Become A Shining Star Of Ourstory, Salim Kenyatta

Dissertations

This autoethnographic narrative examines the importance of conceiving and sharing liberating stories, and participating in independent communal training processes that advance young African American males' psychosocial and mental development. To bring my analyses to light, I applied the foundational frameworks of African Worldview and Critical Race Theory to my research to uncover many of the influences that helped me evolve from boyhood (nescient) to manhood (laborer) and later to Godhood (master who is in union with all).

Employing the autoethnographic methodology enabled me to share key points in my educational journey, which propelled my transformation. This contemplative engagement was a …

Effects Of Membrane Components On The Oligomerization Of Amyloid-Β (Aβ) In Alzheimer Disease, Jhinuk Saha

Dissertations

Deposition of extracellular proteinaceous plaques of amyloid-β (Aβ) is one of the major hallmarks of Alzheimer disease (AD). Although, insoluble high molecular fibrils of Aβ are the main constituents of the senile plaques in AD, low molecular weight soluble Aβ oligomers have emerged as the key toxic species involved in memory impairment and neuronal cell death in AD. The process for generation of oligomers can be highly diverse and can involve homotypic interactions of Aβ as well as heterotypic interaction of Aβ with other macromolecules. Previously, the generation of Aβ oligomers with distinct biochemical and biophysical characteristics catalyzed non-esterified fatty …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Of Cue Identification And Problem Framing In Nurses' Clinical Decision Making, Kereen F. Mullenbach

Dissertations

This qualitative descriptive study was designed to explore the relationship of cue identification and problem framing as part of the problem solving and decision making of medical surgical nurses as they thought-aloud while they performed an assessment of a human patient simulator. The most important aspect of problem solving is the identification of the correct problem. Nurses are expected to identify problems in complex, uncertain, unstable, and time-limited situations. Few studies have been conducted using a Human Patient Simulator to create a realistic situation while controlling for uniformity and consistency. The conceptual framework for the study was Information Processing Theory …

Using Imagery Practice To Improve Airline Pilot Situational Awareness, Brian Christopher Sajdak

Dissertations

Pilot error remains the primary cause of airline airplane accidents (Federal Aviation Administration, n.d.). Airline pilots have relied on Crew Resource Management and Threat Error Management to reduce or eliminate errors (Helmreich & Foushee, 2019). Unfortunately, the worldwide accident rate continues to increase (International Air Transport Association, 2021), demonstrating the need for further research into improving aviation safety. Current regulations do not require imagery training for airline pilots to improve situational awareness (Federal Aviation Administration, 2017a). Athletes and other professionals, such as musicians and medical professionals, use imagery to improve performance (Munzert et al., 2009). Imagery practice may improve the …

Post-Racism As Ideology: Character Construction And Placement, & Narrative Structure In Dear White People, Mphatso Kaufulu

Dissertations

My project looks at post-racism as ideology. Through my chosen text – the Netflix streamed television series called Dear White People – I examine the ways in which post-racism is persists through representational abstractions which reformulate race as largely sets of interpersonal and intercultural, person-to-person social problems rather that a more general condition rooted in institutional or structural social, political and economic arrangements which organize society and produce its cultural dispensation.

To do this, I applied some of Stuart Hall’s ideas – on identity, ideology and commodification – and Bonilla-Silva – specifically in the area of obfuscations or abstractions of …

Friedrich Warnecke: Toward A New Edition Of Ad Infinitum, Elton Machado

Dissertations

The dissertation collects and organizes information on German double bassist, pedagogue, and author Friedrich Warnecke and investigates the significance of his life and work to the double bass history. The ever-changing European musical environment throughout Warnecke’s life, the challenges double bassists faced during that time, and the rapid developments of the double bass at the turn of the twentieth century provide a rich historical background. The study addresses Warnecke’s life, pioneering writings on the history of double bass, pedagogical contribution and influence as a teacher and author, and work as a performing double bassist. Finally, it discusses Warnecke’s substantial pedagogical-technical …

The Speech-Language Pathologist & Emotional Labor, Stress, And Compassion Fatigue, Patricia Martin

Dissertations

Employees in service professions often utilize emotional labor strategies. The purpose of this quantitative study was to evaluate speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) experiences regarding emotional labor and the extent to which emotional labor is possibly related to job stress, compassion satisfaction, and compassion fatigue. This study also considered the SLPs’ occupational settings in relationship to emotional labor.

A pilot study was conducted and minor revisions were made to the instrument prior to the final study. The researcher collected and analyzed data using an online survey comprised of three validated instruments, ELS, SLPSI, and ProQOL-5. The participants were 270 certified speech-language pathologists …

Social Media Usage And Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role Of Media Literacy, Comparison Tendency, And User Motivation, Feng Li

Dissertations

Studies on Facebook and Twitter have shown that social media usage negatively influences individuals’ self-esteem. Many scholars believe media literacy could help reduce this negative impact. Social comparison tendencies and user motivations may also influence this dynamic. The current study is designed to test the moderation effects of media literacy, comparison tendency, and user motivation influencing WeChat Moments usage on individuals’ self-esteem. A group of Chinese college students (N= 299) participated in an online survey. Results show no negative association between WeChat Moments usage and self-esteem. Media literacy only negatively moderates this effect among those who reported having 20-50 friends. …

Origin And Structure Of The First Sharp Diffraction Peak Of Amorphous Solids, Devilal Dahal

Dissertations

Several explanations have been reported in the literature about the origin of extended-range oscillations (EROs) in the atomic pair-correlation function of amorphous materials. Although the radial ordering beyond the short-range order of about 5 Å has been extensively studied in amorphous materials, the exact nature of the radial ordering beyond a nanometer is still not resolved. This dissertation address this problem and explains the nature of the EROs by using high-quality models of amorphous silicon (a-Si) obtained from Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations. The extended-range ordering in a-Si is examined through radial oscillations on the length …

"If These Walls Could Speak": Judson College And The Formation Of The New Baptist Woman, 1838-1930, E.Gabrielle Walker

Dissertations

Southern Baptist women’s collegiate education and experiences led to their questioning traditional Baptist gender roles and interpreting religion to fit a modern, progressive worldview. Judson College established in 1838 in Marion, Alabama, created a space for its Baptist students to consider socially appropriate ways, outside of doctrinal boundaries, to serve God, themselves, their families, and humanity. Judson remained theologically and culturally conservative, perpetuating inherited religious and social notions of female subordination to men, while increasingly offering students more progressive curricula to meet changing economic and cultural realities. In compliance with white Southern and Baptist conservative values, Judson’s students generally accepted …

Note-Taking In College Mathematics: An Examination Of The Effectiveness Of Guided Notes And Interactive Notebooks On Student Achievement In College Algebra, Verlonda Neal

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the use of interactive guided notes influences the mathematical performance of college algebra students when solving univariate linear equations. The research involved 68 students enrolled in College Algebra at a community college. The participants were divided into two groups: those who took notes using an interactive guided notes method and those who did not use the interactive guided notes note-taking method to cite instructional information. The participants were administered a test on solving univariate linear equations before and after receiving instruction to answer the research questions posed by the study. An …

Haramed And Dangerous: A Thematic Examination Of Muslim Women’S Representation In We Are Lady Parts, Reham Bohamad

Dissertations

Since the early days of Western media, Muslim women have been portrayed in a negative way. From belly dancers to oil-rich horny sheikhs to voiceless passive wives of terrorists. This image has led the Western spectator to associate Islam and the Muslim women’s headscarf (Hijab) with backwardness, extremism, and oppression. In recent years, there has been a positive shift towards a more inclusive and authentic representation of Muslim women. This shift is the result of the post-network era which provides on-demand media outlets that challenge the dominant hegemonic production system and provide diverse and inclusive images that cater to niche …

A Critical Analysis Of Political And Media Discourse On Immigration During The Trump Era, Daleana Phillips

Dissertations

This research examines political and media discourse on Immigration through four studies: Trump’s immigration reform speech, newspaper coverage of DACA, a Saturday Night Live episode, and social media via #ColoradoBorderWall memes. Various critical cultural theoretical frameworks are used within critical discourse and textual analysis is to examine media and political rhetoric about immigrants and immigration policy during a period of drastic institutional political change evidenced by Trump’s administration. As a collective, these narratives examine how Trump’s rhetoric and populist style of communication demonstrate a return to restrictive immigration rhetoric not witnessed in a presidential administration since the 1920s. This research …

An Examination Of Teachers’, Instructional Support Staff, And Administrators’ Attitudes And Beliefs Concerning Data, Data-Driven Decision-Making And Its Relationship To Student Achievement., Lashandra Antionette Hodge-Mcclure

Dissertations

The Every Student Succeeds Act has an accountability model that holds the educational system in the United States accountable. It was decided that students throughout the United States should be held to the same standards, independent of where they lived. Furthermore, the Every Student Succeeds Act seeks to provide considerable opportunity for all students to obtain a fair, equitable, and high-quality education and reduce academic performance disparities. The study aims to identify the role teachers, instructional support staff, and administrators’ attitudes and beliefs regarding data-driven decision-making plays in student achievement.

Data-driven decision-making is the systematic process of gathering, evaluating, and …

The Effect Of Sulfonamides Structural And Reactive Properties Examined Through Difunctionalization Of Alkenes, Gavin Rustin

Dissertations

Alkenes as masked functional groups have been a hallmark of organic chemistry and have been utilized to diversify natural products and medicinal targets. Disubstitutions have been a challenge for researchers as the reactions that are implemented most are not selective for the face that they attack. Investigations into electrophilic cyclization looked to overcome this phenomenon by introducing a known chiral center α to an amine where a protecting group, sulfonamide, is added to increase the torsional and allylic strain in the molecules. X-ray crystal structures and NMR techniques prove that the strain does affect the diastereoselectivity of the reaction through …

The Experience Of Pediatric Intensive Care Nurses Caring For Dying Children, Rebecca L. Meyer

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the experience of pediatric nurses caring for dying children. An estimated 55,000 children die every year in the United States and another 400,000 live with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions requiring them to be admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Nurses who work in this area may have unexplored information and knowledge about the experience itself which could contribute to a better understanding of caring to the nursing profession. Watson's Theory of Human Caring was selected as the framework for the study.

Longitudinal Follow-Up Of Yezidis Displaced By Isis Genocide To A Host Village In Iraq, Jordan Greaser

Dissertations

This research examined the quality of life and the religious leadership reliance of the Sinjari Yezidis based on their migration patterns. The study employed a mixed-method research design, exploring a Yezidi case study and discriminant analysis on 2022 survey data from Sinjari Yezidis who fled the ISIS genocide by initially moving to a single village in northern Iraq between 2014-2015. The study hypothesized migration patterns played a role in the quality of life and religious leadership reliance outcomes between 2015 and 2022.

This study showed no difference in the quality of life outcomes between Yezidis who stayed in their displacement …

A Quantitative Study Of Moral Distress In Vha Nurses, Mary E. Kelly

Dissertations

Ethical issues continue to be an important aspect in the practice of professional nursing. The complexities of nursing practice begin in nursing school and continue throughout a nurse's career. Advances in health-care technology, emphasis on cost-effectiveness, and higher acuity level patients in hospitals lead to ethical conflicts and a phenomenon known as moral distress. Moral distress constitutes a serious problem in nursing practice. Studies regarding moral distress correlate the phenomenon to nurse turnover, intent to leave, burnout, job dissatisfaction, and stress. Moral distress differs from experiencing an ethical dilemma in that moral distress is the inability to do what one …

When Nurse-Teachers Become Ill: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Personal Illness Experiences Of Three Nurse-Teachers, Jasna K. Schwind

Dissertations

In this inquiry I explore how a personal serious illness of three nurse-teachers impacts their teaching and nursing practice. My interest in illness stories emerges in response to my own experience of becoming a patient thirteen years ago. As a result of this circumstance I became curious to learn how other nurse-teachers may experience personal illness events. To help me think about my puzzle I chose Connelly and Clandinin's narrative inquiry, where narrative is both the method and the phenomenon of study. In this research my two co-participants and I talk about what it is like for a person, who …

Agreement Of Psychiatric Diagnoses Within And Between Groups Of Mental Health Clinicians From Different Disciplines, Wade Mcguire

Dissertations

The development of therapy as a treatment option for mental health problems has led to the creation of different disciplines. Each discipline has developed its own conceptualization of classification and treatment of mental health problems. These conceptualizations have led to different areas of focus for each of the disciplines, specifically counseling, psychology, and social work. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether these areas of focus influence how each discipline diagnoses. For this study, data was collected by having clinicians provide diagnoses for three fictitious clients. The vignettes for the clients were taken from a psychopathology textbook to …

The Effects Of Personalized Learning On Student Achievement, Keile Phillips

Dissertations

Although many studies have been conducted on personalized learning strategies, teacher attitudes and perceptions, and student engagement, few studies have focused on personalized learning and its impact on student achievement when compared to the traditional classroom. The purpose of this study was to determine if personalized learning increased student achievement in three school districts by analyzing student assessments for three consecutive school years. The study utilized data from three school districts located in Western Kentucky for the 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 school years. The data were collected from Renaissance Learning for math and reading. In addition to examining the students’ …

Threading Memory: Performing Animacy In Text, Memorial, And Travel, Alex Keith Davenport

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the process of creating and touring a community-sourced memorial quilt for the anti-mountaintop removal activist Julia “Judy” Bonds, who died in 2011. As a practice, the project positions memorialization as a possible framework for social movements to utilize when faced with loss that allows for actions that honor members of the movement while still engaging in consciousness raising and organizing efforts. From a theoretical standpoint, the practice of memorialization—especially when it is intentionally designed to align with the practices/legacy of the person(s) being remembered—is also considered through an object oriented ontology perspective, providing insight into the affective …

Essays On Risk Preferences, Altruism, And Life Events, Fitri Safira

Dissertations

In this applied microeconomics dissertation, we study the effect of religiosity and life events on risk preferences and how happiness affect altruism. We begin with the first chapter by examining the relationship between high-risk health behavior and religiosity. Religious beliefs can impact an individual's behavior, including their future health. The 2021 CDC analyses shows that sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are still common, with an estimated 1 in 5 people in the US having an STI, and 13% of persons in the US with age 12 years old and above consuming any illicit drugs. We estimate the effect of religiosity on …

A Research On Automatic Hyperparameter Recommendation Via Meta-Learning, Liping Deng

Dissertations

The performance of classification algorithms is mainly governed by the hyperparameter configurations deployed. Traditional search-based algorithms tend to require extensive hyperparameter evaluations to select the desirable configurations during the process, and they are often very inefficient for implementations on large-scale tasks. In this dissertation, we resort to solving the problem of hyperparameter selection via meta-learning which provides a mechanism that automatically recommends the promising ones without any inefficient evaluations. In its approach, a meta-learner is constructed on the metadata extracted from historical classification problems which directly determines the success of recommendations. Designing fine meta-learners to recommend effective hyperparameter configurations efficiently …

Oiko-Logic In Literature, Elias Joshua Taylor

Dissertations

My study utilizes ecocriticism, eco-Marxism, and posthumanism to discover how the sympathetic practices of both reading and ecology provide us with what I call an oiko-logic. Specifically, I read Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, and John Williams’ Butcher’s Crossing. In Gulliver’s Travels we see Gulliver as an ecological threat in every journey, and Swift says that this is because we forget ourselves and deliberately choose to not attune—sometimes even choosing destruction. For Swift, we bungle things no matter which system we try, and we create degenerative devolution despite the fact that we can help. …

Considerations And Pedagogical Approaches For Transitioning From Soprano To Mezzo-Soprano, Caitlin Hammon Moore

Dissertations

Within the operatic and classical music realms, Fach is an identifier based on voice classification, as well as non-vocal factors such as acting style and physical appearance. For singers, stating one’s Fach is a way to advertise oneself for suitable operatic roles and concert solos. However, not all singers fit perfectly into a Fach, and some choose to switch between Fach categories over the course of their careers. Although such choices require careful consideration with the potential to impact a career, many have found success after transitioning to a lower Fach. While several studies have investigated singers transitioning to higher …

Use Them Or Lose Them: Inservice Teacher Perceptions Of The Usability And Sustainability Of Facilitated Individual Education Program Meeting Training And Learned Techniques, Robin O'Shea

Dissertations

Effective collaboration among family professional partnerships (FPPs) and work groups such as a multidisciplinary individualized education program (IEP) team has been identified as a critical characteristic in developing a specially designed program for students with a disability. Unfortunately, educators often do not feel prepared to interact and collaborate with colleagues, parents, and community partners due to limited instruction and practice during preservice coursework or in-service professional development workshops. Thus, there continues to be the need for guidance on how to prepare preservice and licensed educators to collaborate effectively within IEP team meetings. An emerging IEP meeting practice called facilitated IEP …

Response Of Bats And Nocturnal Food Webs To Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonous Ponderosae) Outbreaks, Amanda Bevan

Dissertations

Climate change has led to increased severity and frequency of forest disturbances globally which would predictably alter species compositions in affected habitats. Bats, as important bioindicators of ecosystem health, are known to respond to changes in habitat structure and prey composition. This dissertation describes how a forest disturbance event and ensuing successional changes altered the structure of bat-associated food web components along the highly biodiverse Front Range of Colorado. Mountain pine beetles (MPB) are important drivers of forest regeneration when populations are at background levels, however, unprecedented outbreaks of MPB populations in recent decades have severely impacted over 1.3 million …