Digital Commons Network^™

Using The Social-Ecological Model To Better Understand Sexual Assertiveness Among Undergraduate Women At An Institution Of Higher Education In The Southeastern United States, Lisa Wright

Dissertations

This study examined sexual assertiveness among female undergraduate students at an institution of higher education in the southeastern United States from the context of the social-ecological model. An online survey instrument examined sexual assertiveness, sexual communication self-efficacy, campus climate, and sexual scripts. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between these variables and all variables significantly predicted sexual assertiveness individually, but when examining the relationships collectively, only sexual communication self-efficacy and campus climate remained significant predictors of sexual assertiveness.

The Impact Of A Five-Day Number Sense Intervention On High School Student's Quantitative Reasoning Skills And Self-Efficacy, Rebecca Steele-Mackey

Dissertations

Understanding numerical quantities and applying this knowledge in practical applications is essential throughout life. A well-developed number sense comes from learning foundational skills and continuing to rely on these skills and concepts in higher mathematical education as well as in adulthood. Prior research shows that K-8 students lack a conceptual understanding of fraction, decimal, and percentage concepts (NCTM, 2009). While there is literature that identifies a deficit in these mathematical areas, there is a need to examine possible activities and interventions that can be performed throughout secondary education courses that support growth in students' conceptual understanding of rational number concepts. …

The Presence Of Relational Trust In Teacher-Principal Relationships And The Correlation Of Teacher Intent-To-Persist And Teacher Efficacy, Maryum Bilal

Dissertations

Principals and teachers must work together for students to be academically successful. Teachers directly influence the students, and principals directly affect the teachers. Before students' success can occur, the principal and teachers must have a relationship. The development of trust begins with leaders who have quality relationships with their teachers (Bryk & Schneider, 2002). When teachers trust their principals, teachers are loyal and develop self-efficacy. According to Lacks and Watson (2018), teacher self-efficacy is developed through significant interactions with the principal, making teachers feel better about themselves and their collective mission, and they become more effective in the classroom. Trust …

Investigating The Involvement Of The Tick Vector In The Induction Of Alpha-Galactose Hypersensitivity (Alpha-Gal Syndrome, Red Meat Allergy) In The United States., Gary Crispell

Dissertations

Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS or sometimes called red meat allergy) is a result of the development of specific IgE antibodies to the oligosaccharide galactose-α-1,3-galactose (α-gal) after a person has had exposure to tick bites. This dissertation investigates four common tick species found in North America: the lone-star tick (Amblyomma americanum), the Gulf-Coast tick (Amblyomma maculatum), the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), and the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis) for the presence of α-gal by utilizing a combination of immunoproteomic approaches and carbohydrate analysis techniques.

Anti-α-gal IgM antibodies (M86) were used in immunoblotting to detect …

Strategic Human Resource Management Practice Integration And Organizational Ambidexterity In Vuca Times, Gizzatta Cook

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The failure rate of business strategy implementation hovers around 50% due to a lack of organizational ambidexterity in the realities associated with a four-dimensional paradigm referred to as a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment (Chattopadhyay et al., 2017). Anwar and Abdullah (2021) state that organizational success depends highly on how well organizational leaders manage and administer their human resource management practices. Today's successful organizations must adapt to societal changes to survive and thrive (Chattopadhyay et al., 2017).

Surviving and thriving beyond today’s organizational constraints also involves a business's ability to demonstrate organizational ambidexterity. Organizational ambidexterity is the …

The Role Of Mate Seeking Motives, Status Acquisition Motives, And Dark Personality In Predicting Responses To An Aggression-Provoking Situation, Savannah Merold

Dissertations

Aggressive behavior is associated with many adverse consequences, prompting extensive research on the potential adaptive functions of aggression. For example, there is evidence that aggression may be beneficial for attaining status and attracting a potential mate (e.g., Buss & Dedden, 1990; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Griskevicius et al., 2009). Additionally, several personality traits have been identified as robust predictors of aggressive behavior (e.g., psychopathic, Machiavellian, narcissistic, and sadistic traits; Chester et al., 2019; Neumann & Hare, 2008; Paulhus & Jones, 2017; Twenge & Campbell, 2003). These two research traditions (i.e., evolutionary and personality) have remained separate, with few studies combining …

The Expanding Marine Built Environment And Biofilm Formation Processes, Rachel Mugge

Dissertations

The marine built environment (i.e., places or things made or modified by humans) in the northern Gulf of Mexico is rapidly expanding and includes over 2,000 known historic shipwrecks, nearly 4,100 artificial reefs, and other built structures for natural resource extraction, marine aquaculture, renewable energy generation, munitions dumping areas, and commercial and recreational activities. While these structures have the potential to develop into artificial reefs, acting as biodiversity hotspots that provide food and shelter and facilitate organism transport, it is unclear how they affect biodiversity and ecosystem function in the marine environment. The success of artificial reefs to become ecosystems …

Towards High-Rate Thermoplastic Composites, Chris Croshaw

Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to identify and address the problems associated with high-rate thermoplastic composites. Herein, three primary research thrusts were investigated; the first two chapters focus on the melt-state degradation mechanism of PEKK copolymers and its role on downstream crystallization and thermomechanical properties, the third chapter examines the role of graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) on the crystallization and melting behavior of PEKK 70/30, and the final chapter focused on radio frequency and induction heating of PEKK nanocomposites.

The melt-state degradation mechanism was identified using a combination of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), molecular dynamics (MD), and quantum mechanics (QM) simulations. Melt-state degradation …

Factors Associated With New Hospital Nurses' Self-Efficacy In Providing Palliative End-Of-Life Care, Penny Marie Briese

Dissertations

Self-efficacy is defined as confidence in one's competence; the ability to successfully accomplish tasks and achieve favorable outcomes (Bandura, 1997). Many nurses today say they feel their undergraduate education was inadequate for them to feel competent to provide palliative and EOL patient care. (Chiplaskey, 2016; Scherlin & Quinn, 2016; Zheng et al., 2018).). Inadequate EOL preparation also results in nurses experiencing distress, death anxiety, burnout, feeling overwhelmed and leaving practice within just a few years (Friedman et al., 2011; Gaw, 2012; Kovner et al., 2006; Parry, 2008; Silverstein, 2017, November 28; Suzuki et al., 2008; Wilson & Kirshbaum, 2013). This …

Classroom Climate, Culture, Parenting Skills, And Student Grit, Karen Ochoa

Dissertations

The education system has noted that student motivation and perseverance are lacking, yet the focus on standardized testing over the last decade has increased the rigor and expectations in the classroom. As such, educational researchers are always looking for new and inventive ways to enhance student achievement without increasing the financial burden on the schools. Grit is the non-cognitive skill that a person processes that enable them to work hard, endure, and persevere through challenging times. A person who exhibits grit often succeeds over those who have the cognitive ability but do not have grit. Children in countries with collectivist …

A Look At The Effectiveness Of High School Chemistry Curriculum In Preparing Students For Act, Shanna Nesser

Dissertations

In the ever-changing world, students are challenged with cultivating the skills and knowledge needed to handle the pace and level of understanding required to excel in their future. The foundation for a student's future begins in their formative years, but high school is a prime environment for nurturing the applied, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills needed to move forward into independent, adult life. Mississippi schools are ranked by an accountability score, which is used to determine fund allocation and the development of improvement plans. This score is compiled by looking at various state-tested courses, College and Career Readiness Standards (MS …

Social Class And Employability: Equalizing Perceived Competence And Warmth To Control Biased Decision-Making During Resumé Screening, Mindy Gambino

Dissertations

Implicit bias during the resumé screening process can adversely impact the ability of an organization to achieve a competitive advantage through human capital (Coff & Kryscynski, 2011). The purpose of this study was to determine if teaching resumé screeners how to control biased decision-making during resumé screening results in equal employability ratings for upper-middle and lower-middle-class applicants. The study used a quantitative, causal, quasi-experimental, single-group pretest-post-test design. The target population was people in the United States who screen resumés as part of their current job duties (Thomas, 2018). The researcher used Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to recruit participants.

Participants received …

Instance Segmentation-Based Depth Completion Using Sensor Fusion And Adaptive Clustering For Autonomous Vehicle Perception, Mohammad Z. El-Yabroudi

Dissertations

Depth sensing is critical for safe and accurate maneuvering in robotics and self-driving car (SDC) applications. Most recent LiDAR sensors, such as Ouster and Velodyne, offer 360 degrees of scanning at the rate of ten frames per second, making them very appropriate for autonomous driving applications. However, LiDAR point cloud data show many shortcomings, especially its data sparsity and unassigned nature, making it very challenging to utilize in applications such as perception, 3D object detection, 3D scene reconstruction, and simultaneous localization and mapping.

In this study, a novel framework using instance image segmentation and the raw LiDAR data for the …

A Framework For Assessing The 4th Rank Dispersivity Tensor Under Anisotropic Axial Symmetries, Xiang Fan

Dissertations

Multi-dimensional expansion of the advection-dispersion equation necessitated the representation of dispersivity as a 4th rank tensor. This tensorial form of dispersivity has 81 terms in three-dimensions with a maximum of 36 independent terms that may be used to describe Fickian spreading of a dissolved contaminant plume according to intrinsic properties of a porous medium. The complexity of the 4th rank tensor has led to the common practice of simplifying the tensor to only 2 or 3 independent terms by assuming isotropic conditions, although isotropic porous media are uncommon in nature as many natural geologic systems exhibit pronounced anisotropy. A broad …

Algebraic Reasoning And Conceptual Understanding: A Mixed Methods Comparison Of In-Person And Virtual Classroom Strategies, Erneice J. Jackson

Dissertations

Algebraic reasoning is the beginning school of thought to critical thinking. Employers are looking for this 21st century skill. The purpose of this research was to investigate equity in mathematics education using the NCTM Teaching and Learnings Beliefs Survey. Four area were studied: the number of years in education, the degree earned, the grade level taught in education, and the number of years in an educator’s teaching position. A mixed methods inventory was used. Most results were not rejected in this study. Two statements in the survey warranted a discussion. Recommendations were made for further research.

The College Admissions Process For Returning Citizens And Ex-Offenders At A Small, Private Midwestern College, Donna Bradley

Dissertations

It is well-known that higher education faces the challenge of declining enrollment, particularly post-COVID. However, there is a population of students that higher education institutions may overlook, returning citizens and ex-offenders. Reintegration is a challenging endeavor for returning citizens and ex-offenders, without regard to the length of incarceration or the circumstances surrounding system-involvement. They face barriers and stigmatization while attempting to achieve some sense of normalization post-incarceration, including the pursuit of higher education. Using mixed methodology, specifically a qualitative case study and descriptive statistics, the extant research examined the college admission process for returning citizens and ex-offenders through the lens …

Higher Education Professional Involved In Or Aspiring To Careers In Strategic Enrollment Management: Competency Development And Career Pathways, Jodi Ward

Dissertations

Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) is an emergent and evolving field in higher education (HE). While the concept has often been researched as a system or process implemented by an institution of HE to optimize enrollment, this study examined the professionals that currently lead or aspire to lead those systems. The HE competencies areas that current SEM professionals are most engaged with, the activities they participate in to gain and cultivate competency development, as well as their educational backgrounds and career pathways was the focus of this study. Additionally, this study investigated the competency development opportunities available to individuals working in …

Complex Adaptive Systems Leadership In A Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, And Ambiguous (Vuca) Environment: A Case Study Of A First-Year Female Superintendent Of Color, Karika Ann Parker

Dissertations

Superintendents in the K-12 education system in the United States are called upon to ameliorate problems and issues derived from many internal and external forces since its inception. Current literature reveals that, superintendents face complex challenges to improve district level educational outcomes for students within environments that are more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) and do require a shift from dominant traditional (hierarchal and control) leadership approaches. The aim of this qualitative case study of interviews is to represent the single voice of a first-year female superintendent of color’s (Asian, Indian descent) perspective, perceptions, thoughts, and experiences. The interviews …

Exploring Formative Versus Summative Assessment Models On Creative Mindset Development, Dylan Patrick James Kriescher

Dissertations

The purpose of the current research was to explore how the repeated presentation of process-oriented feedback from multiple task attempts can help develop students’ growth mindset. A standard model of assessment practices often involves a one-time summative assessment at the end of a learning period. An alternative model involves the use of formative assessments as intermittent process-oriented feedback throughout a learning period. The use of formative assessment feedback may demonstrate growth to students, while this opportunity is not offered by the summative assessment model. Using elements of formative assessment and guided by Dweck’s (2006) conceptualization of growth mindset, this study …

Preclinical Behavioral Assessments Of Mitraginyne, The Main Psychoactive Alkaloid In Kratom, Rachel Burroughs

Dissertations

Mitragyna speciosa (kratom) is a medicinal plant indigenous to Southeast Asia and Africa with a long history of use for a variety of ailments, including diarrhea, pain relief, cough suppression, and amelioration of opiate withdrawal symptoms. Despite its status as an herbal remedy, kratom is banned in some countries due to a myriad of negative health risks. Preclinical psychopharmacology studies of mitragynine (MG), the main alkaloid of kratom, indicate it has opioid-like effects at higher doses and psychostimulant-like effects at lower doses. The current study utilized three rodent behavioral paradigms to evaluate the putative psychostimulant effects of MG. The specific …

Developing And Assessing The Psychometric Properties Of A Multidimensional College Mental Health Assessment Inventory: A Mixed-Methods Study, John Sylvester

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a multidimensional College Mental Health Assessment Inventory (CMHAI) specifically for the college student population. In the first phase, a conceptual and theoretical review of general existing scales was performed, followed by conducting exploratory semi-structured interviews with twelve participants. From the interviews, I identified themes/constructs (domains) comprised of 52 items to make up the initial inventory. Participants believed these themes to be worthy of note: (a) admission to college with pre-existing mental conditions; (b) students’ expectation about college versus the actual experience; (c) college as a new environment brings about feelings of loneliness; …

Study Of Sustainable Development In Paper, Printing And Packaging Material Applications To Support Circular Economy, Prashant Ramesh Kotkar

Dissertations

To support circular economy and sustainability, the use of suitable material in paper, printing, and packaging industries, for several types of industrial printing material and printed product applications, plays a significant role for end user applications. Several types of packaging printing materials, specifically those finished with different printing technologies and exposed to different environmental conditions are targeted.

The purpose of this research study is to improve design and evaluation for paper, printing, and packaging material sustainability in end-user applications, to deal with the addressed sustainability issues brought by the paper, printing and packaging products end user groups. As the impacts …

Developing Distributed Real-Time Hybrid Simulation For Dynamic Response Evaluation Of Floating Wind Turbine, Hezha Lutfalla Sadraddin

Dissertations

Floating wind turbine (FWT) has a significant role in producing clean and sustainable energy in unlimited spaces with more steady wind and less cost. The design, construction, and safe operation of FWTs require a deep understanding of their dynamic responses under combined aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loads. Conventional FWT model experiments utilize wave tanks and wind tunnels. However, laboratory size and capacity and the scaling conflicts between the Froude and the Reynold numbers in these coupled wind-wave loading tests impose challenges to replicate dynamic responses of FWT. Alternatively, real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), which combines numerical simulation and physical experiment of FWT …

Heterogeneity Estimators In Random-Effects Meta-Analysis In Education, Qian Wang

Dissertations

Over the last four decades, meta-analysis has proven to be a vital analysis strategy in educational research for synthesizing research findings from different studies. When synthesizing studies in a meta-analysis, it is common to assume that the true underlying effect varies from study to study, as studies will differ in design, participants, interventions, or sample size that can lead to heterogeneity in their underlying effects. The magnitude of this heterogeneity between studies can be quantified as τ2 in a random-effects meta-analysis. Estimating the between-study heterogeneity (τ2) becomes an important part of random effects meta-analysis reporting, since this quantity plays a …

The Graduate Record Examination And Graduate Admissions: Issues In Diversity, Lauren Rankin

Dissertations

Doctoral education is an expensive and difficult endeavor. Program faculty are interested in finding students who will be successful in completing their courses and obtaining employment. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is often used to assess a student’s readiness for the rigors of graduate education. A student’s readiness for doctoral education can be assessed through analyzing the predictive validity of the GRE with various outcomes such as grade point average, scholarly output, and time to completion. However, this measure may not predict success for all students with potential bias towards students who are international and linguistically diverse. A total of …

Law Enforcement Efficacy In Domestic Violence Calls Based On The Responding Officer’S Experience, Training, And Scholarly Level, Idilio Moncivais Pinedo

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide insights into whether law enforcement officers (LEO) have been able to produce positive outcomes based on their responses when the victims have called 911. Law enforcement officers in this sample were grouped into three clusters based on the number of years of patrol experience (10 years or less versus more than 10 years), the education level (less than a bachelor’s degree versus at least a bachelor’s degree), and training (advanced training versus basic training). The key findings were A) The three clusters of law enforcement officers were well distinguished. The first cluster …

Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching As Decision-Making For The University Mathematician Developing Coherence In Review Of Discrete Mathematics, Julie Lang

Dissertations

Mathematicians teaching at the university level have a deep understanding and appreciation for the mathematics that they teach. However, they rarely receive much formal training in teaching. Thus, university mathematicians must rely on their mathematical understandings and personally developed ideas of teaching to guide their decision-making. Relatively little research exists on mathematicians’ teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) of a university mathematician teaching discrete mathematics and how he leveraged his knowledge to make decisions and develop coherence among mathematical ideas during a semester review. An enactivist perspective examining a mathematician’s …

Political Astuteness Of Nurse Educators, Gail Marie Hanson Brenner

Dissertations

Nurses comprise the largest segment of the healthcare workforce. Although nurses have advocated for patients since Florence Nightingale’s time, advocating for changes in health policies that affect populations on a larger scale has not changed over time (Rasheed et al., 2020). Professional nursing associations, nurse educators, and the Institute of Medicine have all identified the need to educate nurses in advocacy and health policy. With the recent revision of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Essentials publication, health policy has moved from an essential to a featured concept that is found in the competencies and subcompetencies of the domains. …

Middle School Students’ Perceptions, Experiences, And Behaviors Towards Using A Virtual Reality Application To Build Molecules, Dalal Za'al Ali Alrmuny

Dissertations

To deliver successful integration of virtual reality (VR) technology into chemistry education, it is essential that students have clear and positive perceptions about the purpose and the value of such integration. An important part of establishing a plan for integrating virtual reality technology into chemistry education is to explore the current perceptions, experiences, and behaviors of students towards the use of VR technology to establish an initial baseline of skills and areas in need of development. The purpose of this exploratory mixed methods study was to explore the perceptions, experiences, and behaviors of 62 middle school students in the state …

An Ensemble Machine Learning Approach To Causal Inference In High-Dimensional Settings, Sami Saad Alanazi

Dissertations

The machine-learning algorithms have gained popularity and have gotten the attention of many researchers in the fields of statistics and computer sciences in recent decades. Due to their computational capabilities in big data, many researchers have been attempting to incorporate machine-learning in prediction and inference problems. One of the recent methods that got a lot of attentions was referred to as the double machine learning method (DML). This method attempts to estimate the effect of the treatment variable in the presence of high-dimensional nuisance function by incorporating machine-learning algorithms. Previous studies have shown that the DML method is able to …