Digital Commons Network^™

Systems For Free Parking Assignment, Abeer M. Hakeem

Dissertations

Finding a free, curbside parking spaces in metropolitan areas, especially during rush hours, is difficult for drivers. The difficulty arises from not knowing where the available spaces may be at that time; and, even if the spaces are known, many vehicles may pursue the same spaces, causing serious parking contention and traffic congestion. This dissertation presents three cost-effective and easily deployable free parking assignment systems that optimize the travel time of the drivers.

The first contribution is the Free Parking System (FPS), a centralized solution that solves the curbside parking problem. Unlike existing solutions, FPS is cost-effective, as it does …

Deverne Calloway: “I Am A Teacher---I Will Teach”, Holly Hick

Dissertations

In 1962, DeVerne Calloway was the first Black woman elected to the Missouri General Assembly and the first Black woman elected to any public office in the state of Missouri. A political activist and educator by nature, a legislator by trade, DeVerne has decades of historically documented critical work within the intersections of race, gender, and class. Her work, though well documented, remains undertheorized. This study seeks to explore DeVerne’s life and work through Black feminist theory and Critical Race Theory’s tenets of intersectionality and interest convergence, ultimately tracing her actions as a public intellectual. Written as an educational biography, …

Core Subject Integration In The K-6 Music Classroom, Rose Bowe

Dissertations

Federal legislation through No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2002) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2015) held schools accountable for improved test scores and academic achievement. The heightened scrutiny in performance and expectations placed enormous pressure on students, teachers, and administrators to reach the lofty goals of the accountability model and put emphasis on state-mandated tests for several subjects. Non-tested subjects often encountered a shift in funds and their programs became diminished or even eliminated. Subjects that were not tested, such as music education, were considered non-essential. Nonetheless, the value of music used for instruction to stimulate knowledge retention was …

Between Two Worlds: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Experiences And Understandings Related To Race For Black Transracially Adopted Emerging Adults, Kyrai Antares

Dissertations

The current study provides a rich description of experiences and understandings related to race for transracially adopted Black emerging adults who were raised in Michigan or Ohio by White parents. Current adoption policy requires that race not be considered as a factor in foster and adoptive placements, and there is no required multicultural, race-focused training for White adoptive parents of children of color. This study begins a new line of research looking closely at the stories of transracial adoptees of a specific age group, racial identity, and geographical location of upbringing. The intention is to gain a better understanding of …

Three Essays In The Dynamics Of Oil Prices, Ahmed Alaabodi

Dissertations

The main objective of my three essays is to study the dynamics and interaction of the price of oil with the downstream sector (refined products), upstream sector (oil production), and across regional markets. I shed light on how the new technological innovation of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracking that caused the shale oil revolution in the last decade impact the price of oil and impact the petroleum market in the United States.

In the first essay, the dynamic relationship between the monthly price of crude oil and its refined products is modeled. The long-run equilibrium carries valuable information for risk …

Beyond The Hundredth Meridian: Student Success On The High Plains Of Western Kansas, Matthew Alan Clay

Dissertations

Clay, Matthew A. Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: Student Success on the High Plains of Western Kansas. Published Doctor of Education dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2020. In 2017 the Kansas State Department of Education unveiled the new Kansans Can policy. The initiative carried the vision of “Kansas leads the world in the success of each student.” From this idealistic vision, an operational definition of success was created from a listening tour that traveled throughout the state. However, condensing a plurality of people and communities’ perspectives into a single, placeless definition of success provides an opportunity to compare that definition to …

Ally Or Enemy: The Impact Of Leadership On United States Army Combat Veterans’ Deployment Experiences Who Have Served In Iraq And Afghanistan, Derik Van Baale

Dissertations

Soldiers’ deployment experiences have been well-researched and studied, but the primary focus has been on enemy-induced trauma. Being a combat veteran who served in Iraq myself, and as someone who has counseled a plethora of combat veterans, I am keenly aware that there is more than exposure to enemy fire and the loss of comrades that can leave a lasting impression. Often, the actions by and interactions with leaders during deployments can also prove to be quite impactful to soldiers. However, very little research exists on the impact of leadership behavior as a factor during a soldier’s deployment experience and …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence And Geographic Information System For Developing Automated Walkability Score, Md Mehedi Hasan

Dissertations

Walking is considered as one of the major modes of active transportation, which contributes to the livability of cities. It is highly important to ensure walk friendly sidewalks to promote human physical activities along roads. Over the last two decades, different walk scores were estimated in respect to walkability measures by applying different methods and approaches. However, in the era of big data and machine learning revolution, there is still a gap to measure the composite walkability score in an automated way by applying and quantifying the activityfriendliness of walkable streets. In this study, a street-level automated walkability score was …

The Assessment Of Co2 Exposures, Workload Demands, And Musculoskeletal Disorder Risk On Heart Rate For Select Craft Brewery Job Tasks, David L. Huizen

Dissertations

Americans have embraced craft beer, and the ensuing demand has resulted in an ever-increasing number of craft breweries opening over the past 20 years. Craft brewers are generally small employers and, as such, lack the resources necessary to address the safety and health of their employees adequately. Brewers face many safety and health hazards in their work environment. These hazards include exposures to carbon dioxide (CO₂), workload demand, and MSD risk. It is essential to evaluate these hazards in craft breweries as they handle carbon dioxide (CO₂) differently than large breweries by having the CO_{2 …}

Essays On Climate Change-Related Extreme Events, Alvin E. Harris

Dissertations

There are increasing and urgent calls for global economies to join in the fight against the impacts of climate change (World Bank, 2020). With reports such as the World Bank (2020) of climate change costing billions of dollars in losses for economies, the purpose of my dissertation is to examine the effects of climate change-related extreme events and their potential economic effects in three areas: agriculture, migration, and the labor market.

My first essay focuses on the factors that influence farmers’ perception of risk and adaptive strategies against the effects of climate change-related extreme events. I examine whether farmers’ social …

Path Dependence In Geographic Crime Patterns, Theodore Lentz

Dissertations

This dissertation argues that status quo bias in crime location choice has substantial effects on geographic crime patterns. Offenders often re-select prior crime locations when they commit crimes. Mainstream theories argue this is because such locations are objectively more suitable for crime and thereby attract offending behavior at higher rates. I contend that locational suitability is only one consideration and that offenders may re-select a location that has been established as a status quo option, despite availability of more optimal alternatives. When individuals re-select prior crime locations, crimes will increasingly concentrate and create hotspots that are stable over time and …

Grow Your Own Teacher Programs: A Qualitative Study Of Best Practices To Address The Teacher Shortage, Jack August Harris

Dissertations

Teacher shortages have motivated school districts and state educational agencies to focus on targeted teacher recruitment strategies as a means to mitigate the crisis (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver-Thomas, 2016). One specific strategy, Grow Your Own Teacher programs, involves recruiting and developing future teachers from within the local community (MODESE, 2019). While a significant body of research exists about this topic, many districts and state organizations are left to determine what specific program practices best meet their needs. This qualitative study included an analysis of the perceptions of participants and key personnel of Grow Your Own Teacher programs to determine best …

Primary Care-Non-Profit Partnerships: Improving Ptsd Screening And Treatment Access For Veteran Patients, Nickolai Detert

Dissertations

Approximately 50% of 22 million American military veterans use civilian healthcare in addition to, or in lieu of, the Department of Veteran's Affairs health facilities. Studies find that theses veterans may have unidentified mental health needs and lack access to appropriate mental health services. Barriers to adequate mental health care include: (a) undisclosed veteran status; (b) stigma; (c) lack of cultural competency in civilian healthcare; and (d) an overall shortage of mental health services. With veteran post-traumatic stress disorder rates as high as 23%, we conducted a quality improvement project to improve veteran identification, mental health needs assessment, and access …

Training Practitioners On The Effects Of Psychotropic Medication Via A Web-Based Platform, Anita Li

Dissertations

Many individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) receive multiple therapeutic services in an attempt to supplement behavioral therapy. These services include pharmacological interventions. Two drugs, risperidone (Risperdal) and aripiprazole (Abilify), are FDA-approved to treat “irritability” in children with ASD. Research shows that the effects of risperidone and aripiprazole on irritability varies greatly across treated individuals. Therefore, individualized monitoring and evaluation must be conducted to provide the physician with data to determine if the medication is resulting in desired changes and effects. Certified behavior analysts are trained in data collection and experience high levels of contact with individuals diagnosed with …

Building The Petro-Polis: Oil Capitalism, Imperialism, And The Making Of Abadan, 1908-1933, Reza Mortaheb

Dissertations

Abadan is the most prominent of all the oil company towns the British Petroleum Company built in Southwest Iran. Located at the border of Iran and present-day Iraq, by the mid twentieth century Abadan not only accommodated the world’s largest refinery, it had also become Iran’s most populous industrial city. This dissertation focuses on the process of urban development on Abadan Island between 1908 and 1933. Drawing on primary archival documents and secondary sources, this dissertation discusses how Abadan’s establishment and its changing urban form and spatial organization were the product of broader historical processes. Imperial intelligence and practical requirements …

Brasilidade In Built Form: Tracing National Identity In Modernist Architecture In Brazil, 1922–1968, Angela Starita

Dissertations

The conceptual framework of Brazilian national identity in built form changed drastically between the 1930s and the 1960s, from the Baroque of colonial-era Brazil to the improvised constructions of the poor. The advocates of these architectural imaginaries were not suggesting that these styles be copied. Instead, they used them as a type of hermeneutic for explicating how Modernism should be deployed in order for it to be authentically Brazilian. The transition from the colonial model to an aesthetics of poverty was a result of a confluence of factors. These included the country’s relatively new struggle to define itself away from …

Leadership Adapted: Towards An Understanding Of How Western-Developed Leadership Theories Are Translated And Practiced In The Modern Arab Middle East, Derek R. Olson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how western-developed leadership theories are translated and practiced in the Modern Arab Middle East (MAME). Over the past century the notion of leadership has progressed through phases of understanding, definition, and practice. This evolution continues today and is no longer contained to the academic and practice-oriented institutions of North America and Europe. Through western-styled educational institutions and professional industries, western-developed leadership theories have stretched around the globe, including the MAME. While this is known, what is much less understood is how these theories are adopted and adapted. This study’s objective is to …

La Maestra’S Circle Of Care: Studying The Impact Of An Integrated Service Model On The Health And Well-Being Of Vulnerable Populations, Zara Marselian

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

There is an urgent need to reform the health care delivery system in the United States, as recognized through current bipartisan efforts. Society’s vulnerable populations especially need health care reform as health care outcomes are the poorest among disadvantaged populations. Moreover, vulnerable populations are twice as likely to develop chronic diseases than the general population and they remain ill due to other contextual, societal factors affecting their ability to achieve health and well-being. This population is subjected to adverse life events that suggest a more comprehensive approach to health and well-being is called for.

The Circle of Care is …

Perceived Risk For Cardiovascular Disease Among Japanese Adults, Satomi Hayashi

Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) including coronary artery disease and stroke is a significant health problem in Japan regardless of well established health care and insurance system and various public campaigns and exhibitions in the contemporary Japanese society. Higher and increasing prevalence and incidence of well-known risk factor of CVD may contribute to increasing mortality and morbidity of CVD in the future. However, limited knowledge was available for understanding perceptions of risk for CVD among Japanese adults. This grounded theory study aimed to explore social psychological process in perception of risk for CVD among Japanese adults.

The Face Of Intervention: Military Humanitarianism During The 1965 Dominican Crisis, Wesley Hazzard

Dissertations

On April 28, 1965 the US military intervened in the Dominican Republic’s civil war. This dissertation argues that the military did not deploy to fight a war but to create a favorable environment for the establishment of a pro-US government. The US military relied on humanitarian aid through civic action programs and civil affairs operations to diminish the Dominican populations’ interest in leftist political organizations and platforms. The civil affairs and civic action programs served to both alleviate the hardships of the Dominican people, turn them away from leftist policies, and build support for a US friendly government. The US …

A View From Above: Alternative Perspectives On Smallholder Livelihoods And Agrobiodiversity Conservation In Northern Ecuador, Chris Hair

Dissertations

Food security and deintensification of agriculture are serious concerns in Latin America. Agriculture, especially at small-scale subsistence levels, is hard work, and comes with some economic and physical risk. Transitions from traditional multi-cropping to mono-cropping systems introduce two particular risks that are new to most smallholders: (1) the loss of agricultural diversity and (2) the potential for widespread failure when focusing on the cultivation of a single crop. This research explores how Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), or drones, can be used for rapid inventories of crop diversity and to enhance crop management techniques on small-scale farms. In the community …

Foodism In Ireland 2019: Feeding Foodie Philosophy Or Showing A Shift In Contemporary Food Culture?, Sinéad Reil

Dissertations

“Everybody eats and drinks; yet only few appreciate the taste of food”

Confucius (551- 479BC).

This research study examines contemporary food culture in Ireland through the phenomenon of foodism and the habits and traits expressed through the subculture of foodies. Elements and actors of the Irish foodscape are also considered. Other topics it discusses are Irish food history, Ireland’s gastronomical global position and the modern Irish chef.

The thesis defined foodism as: “A keen or exaggerated interest in food, especially in the minute details of preparation, presentation, and consumption of food” (‘Foodism’, 2018a). In order to answer the five sub-research …

“From Behind The Plow”: Agrarianism And Racial Uplift In African American Literature, 1881-1917, James O'Donoghue

Dissertations

My study challenges our current valorization of movement and flow in readings of African American literature. I do so through an exploration of the representations of the black agrarian masses who either choose to remain or could not afford the spectacular forms of escape to urban life which many essentialized as freedom. In the dramatic and pivotal decades following emancipation, African American leaders attempted to check the growing apartheid by the “combination” of diverse African American communities: North and South, professional and working class. This required that they move beyond the question of whether one was free or slave to …

Mathematical Literacy: A Case Study Of Pre-Service Teachers, Maria Gabriela Lopez Jaramillo

Dissertations

This study addresses the question of whether or not pre-service teachers are ready and prepared to use and teach the highly-specialized language of each discipline. The disciplinary languages present teaching and learning challenges due to their lack of parallels in the daily language (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Additionally, the languages of the disciplines are rarely taught and are commonly acquired through an isolated representation of words without a situated meaning within the theory (Gee, 2002). The knowledge of the particular ways of reading, writing, listening to, and talking in the content areas provides opportunities for students’ apprenticeship within the disciplines …

An Investigation Of The Impacts Of Traditional, Virtual, And Hybrid Biological Laboratories On College Students’ Achievement And Motivation To Learn Biology, Shavonda Jackson

Dissertations

Virtual courses function in a different manner than traditional courses, therefore they require teaching methods and assessment techniques geared specifically to maximize this learning experience. Internet-based learning and distance-education are no longer new concepts in the science field. Because of this, many collegiate biology programs have created courses that can be taken virtual or hybrid. A number of experimental studies have had great influence in terms of the effects and impacts of educational technology in relation to virtual laboratories.

However, not many studies emphasize the impact of hybrid laboratories on student achievement or assess students’ motivation to learn in a …

Geochemical Tracers Of Arctic Ocean Processes: A Study Of Gallium, Barium, And Vanadium, Laura M. Whitmore

Dissertations

The Arctic Ocean is linked to the global oceans and climate through its connectivity with the North Atlantic Ocean and the regional thermohaline deep water formation sites. It’s also a region undergoing rapid environmental change. To inform the community of potential changes in geochemical and biogeochemical cycles, this dissertation addresses three dissolved geochemical tracers (gallium, barium, and vanadium) as indicators of Arctic Ocean processes. Gallium is tested as a replacement for nutrient-type tracers in an effort to deconvolve Pacific and Atlantic derived waters in the Arctic Ocean basins. These water masses carry different heat and salt content and can influence …

Investigating Drivers Of Genetic Structure In Plants: Global, Regional And Local Scales, Diana Gamba-Moreno

Dissertations

Genetic structure within and among plant populations is a critical component of plant biodiversity, informing local adaptation, conservation, and incipient speciation. However, its drivers remain poorly understood, especially across different spatial scales. In my dissertation I examined factors that affect plant population genetic structure at global, regional, and local scales. At the global scale, I performed a literature review of population genetic differentiation (F_ST) in seed plants based on a 337-species dataset with data on F_ST and species traits. Using phylogenetic multiple regressions, I found that F_ST is higher for tropical, mixed-mating, non-woody species pollinated by …

Academic Field Influence On Acquisition Of Global Awareness In Undergraduate Study Abroad Students, Tim Schmalz

Dissertations

Very little comprehensive research has been done thus far examining the effects of academic discipline on study abroad outcomes. This study investigated potential differences between global awareness scores across different academic disciplines for students that participated in study abroad during their undergraduate academic programs. Five hundred and eight-five current and past university students took a short survey modified from a Chieffo & Griffiths 2004 study. Overall global awareness scores, as well as scores for four sub-characteristics: intercultural awareness, personal growth & development, awareness of global interdependence, and functional knowledge of world geography & languages – were compared across student majors …

A Focused Ethnography: Nursing Students' Perceptions Of Cultural Competence And Social Justice, Wanda Elizabeth Thuma-Mcdermond

Dissertations

Disparities in health care suggest a need for greater social justice in national and international health care systems. Nurses are uniquely involved with disparities since the nursing profession has emphasized social justice not only as a moral value but also as the foundation for social action. Social justice, however, may be difficult to conceptualize, especially for nursing students. Since cultural competence has been identified as an important aspect for decreasing disparities, it may be a vehicle or tool students could use for the social action necessary for social justice. A focused ethnographic design was selected for this study because of …

Assessment Of The Impact Of Climate Change On Land Use In The Emirate Of Abu Dhabi - An Environmental And Socio-Economic Perspective, Latifa Saeed Al Blooshi

Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the impact of climate change on land use in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi – UAE. Climate change is a significant challenge resulting from natural and anthropogenic causes. Land use can stimulate changes in communities under climate change. The main objective of this dissertation is to assess the impact of climate change from an environmental and socio-economic perspective. In 2001, coastal sabkhas, mixed class and urbanized areas experienced an increase in temperature by (0.67, 1.14 and 1.16°C) respectively. In cities, urban areas are warmer than neighbouring rural areas. Unexpectedly, urbanization in desert areas in UAE led …