Digital Commons Network^™

Aspiring And Doing Activism Under Repressive Systems: A Narrative Inquiry Of Former Student Activists, Kedir Assefa Tessema

Dissertations

The expansion of higher education in the last 24 years in Ethiopia has broadened the causes, alignments, and avenue for students to engage in student organizations and contentious actions. Despite the severity of the state‘s repressive tactics, university students contentious actions have not waned. Not only do students engage in everyday micro resistance, they also use student organizations and clandestine means to challenge policies and practices. Such collective student engagements and contentious actions cannot be done without activists who mobilize and organize students in extremely complex and risky circumstances. Unfortunately, little is known about such activists.

The purpose of the …

Women Experiencing Aggression From Women: A Mixed Methods Study Of How Women Experience Aggression, How It Impacts Leader Efficacy, And How They Navigate Through It, Karen Kitchen Briggs

Dissertations

Despite advancements in education and hiring practices, women are still underrepresented in leadership roles. Contributing to this challenge is the conflict between communal expectations for women and agentic expectations for leaders which can cause some women to doubt their leadership capabilities. While encouragement from women can build leadership confidence, aggression can weaken it.

This convergent parallel mixed methods study explored the prevalence of female aggression among women leaders, the effect on leader efficacy, and response strategies. Women deans at doctoral granting universities were invited to complete an online survey that included the Negative Acts Questionnaire to assess aggression prevalence, the …

Antepartum, Intrapartum, And Postpartum Predictors Of Readiness For Hospital Discharge And Post-Discharge Outcomes, Gabriella Malagon-Maldonado

Dissertations

Pregnancy and childbirth are significant events in the lives of women and their families where the discharge decision-making process involves careful judgment in projecting the mom's ability to cope with care needs after discharge. Research examining the predictors of discharge readiness and post-discharge outcomes taking into consideration antepartum and intrapartum factors influencing readiness for discharge has not been conducted. The purpose of this study was to explore the antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum predictors of readiness for hospital discharge and post-discharge outcomes. The Adaptation to Transitions conceptual framework consisted of conceptually-related variables was developed and guided the descriptive correlational repeated measure …

Psychoneuroimmunology And Chronic Pain, Sarah E. Giron

Dissertations

There is increasing evidence linking chronic pain to altered levels of central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and increased levels of perceived pain, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance. However the inflammatory molecules responsible for physiologic and psychological components of chronic pain still warrant identification and exploration. Using central inflammation as a paramount factor in the creation and maintenance of chronic pain, this study aimed to investigate and describe the physical and psychological aspects of chronic pain associated with CNS inflammation.

Using a cross-sectional correlational design, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) inflammatory cytokine patterns present in 8 chronic pain participants were compared to inflammatory …

Patients' Perception Of Feeling Known By Their Nurses And The Nurse Practice Environment, Deene' L. Mollon

Dissertations

Healthcare leaders have a responsibility to understand the connection between healthy practice environments and patients’ perceptions of care. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between the nurses’ perception of the practice environment and the patients’ perception of feeling known by their nurses.

This descriptive, correlational study used quantitative and qualitative methodology. A convenience sample of 123 patients, on six patient care units, completed the Patients’ Perception of Feeling Known by their Nurses Scale and a supplemental survey designed to determine the content validity of the Patients’ Perception of Feeling Known by their Nurses Scale. To …

Exploration Of Linguistic And Extra-Linguistic Factors In Stroke Knowledge And Emergency Response: Studies Of Input, Output, And Outcome, Laura L. O. Froeschke

Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three studies centered on addressing factors that influence stroke knowledge and decision-making during the acute stroke emergency in both general and Hispanic populations. The first study provided data on patterns of explicit stroke knowledge in a sample of 94 Hispanic subjects. This study assessed relationships between stroke knowledge (Stroke Action Test; STAT; Billings-Gagliardi & Mazor, 2005) and subjects’ typical language use (Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics; Marín, Sabogal, VanOss Marín, Otero-Sabogal, Pérez-Stable, 1987). No relationship was found between language use (Spanish/English) and stroke symptom knowledge. Contrastingly, STAT scores were found to …

The Impact Of Freshman Transition Programs On Achievement, Jeremy Way

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential effects a freshman transition program has on high school success rates. Results could provide the basis for freshman transfer strategies and help academic success following the No Child Left Behind mandate. The research question asked was: Did program complexity have an impact on the success of freshman students, measured by number of failing grades, percentage of discipline referrals assigned, and attendance rates? To answer the question, the researcher studied three homogenous high schools in the greater St. Louis area. These three freshman transition programs varied in complexity provided for incoming …

Case Study On The Efficacy Of An Elementary Steam Laboratory School, Mary Paula Armknecht

Dissertations

A case study was conducted of an elementary STEAM laboratory program in a Midwest Missouri school district, which was unique to the area, and involved risk-taking by the school officials. The delivery model for instruction in the program was inquiry-based learning with a STEAM focus. The planning of the program involved the community, as well as district personnel. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the program at the end of the first year to determine if the goals of the planning committee had been met and if the perceptions of the stakeholders were in favor …

Towards Combined Computational And Experimental Studies On Toxicity Of Silver Nanoparticles, Pamela Cabalu Ubaldo

Dissertations

Despite the growing applications of silver nanoparticles, toxicity information on this nanomaterial is still deficient. Conclusions on the toxicity of silver nanoparticles vary and atomic level toxicity mechanisms are not yet achieved. Consequently, our group conducted combined computational and experimental toxicity studies of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Toxicity of 10 nm citrate stabilized AgNPs on HepG2 cells were investigated. Experimental results show that the 10 nm citrate stabilized AgNPs begin to be toxic to HepG2 cells at a dosage that exceeds 1 ppm and LD50 was observed at 3 ppm. Elevated reactive oxygen species levels were seen upon exposure to AgNPs …

Causes Of The Decline In The Loss Of Vegetated Palustrine Wetlands In The U.S. 1955 - 2009, Roger Kent Wiebusch

Dissertations

By 1980, the United States had lost over 50 percent of its original wetland resources. The U.S. National Wetland Inventory estimates that 95 percent of annual wetland losses since 1955 occurred to palustrine wetlands. The majority of these losses occurred to the three types of palustrine vegetated wetlands: emergent, forested, and shrub. The primary cause for wetland losses from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s was agricultural conversion supported by federal agricultural policies, especially the Agricultural Conservation Program that provided significant direct and indirect support for wetland conversions. The rate of converting wetland to agriculture has declined since the mid-1950's with …

Race, Socialization, And Civility: Interrogating The Communicative Construction Of The White Habitus, Charles Kyle Rudick

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation project was to understand how institutions of higher education, through both punishments and rewards, ensure that dominant cultural codes are "taught" to students of color in ways that normalize whiteness ideologies. I wanted to understand racism in higher education through the lens of socialization to show the ways in which institutional members (un)intentionally conflate dominant cultural codes with the "correct" or "normal" way to think, act, or speak. Furthermore, I was interested in the ways that students of color take up, defer, resist, adapt, mix, subvert, and/or accommodate the institutional practices that (re)produce racial power …

Modeling New Product Success From Component Measures Of Product Advantage: A Model Utilizing Automated Text Classification And Sentiment Analysis, Ashley Nolen Akerman

Dissertations

What attributes of products are most associated with product success from the perspective of the consumer and how is this association affected by the technology level of the product offering? Creating successful new products is an imperative for long term survival for businesses. Past research has focused on the perspectives of manufacturers to understand product attributes that comprise the construct described as product advantage. This study investigated the components of product advantage from the perspective of the consumer and the significance of each component in explaining variance in product success.

A methodology and two classification toolsets were developed for the …

Family Resilience And Sojourning Japanese Families In The U.S., Mitsuyo Izumi

Dissertations

This study examined processes of family resilience sojourning Japanese parents reported using while raising children (between the ages of 4 and 8) in the U.S., the relationship between family resilience and child behavior and impact of stressful life events, and predictors of the impact of stressful life events and child behavior. Seventy mothers and 37 fathers from six Japanese educational institutions completed self-report questionnaires. Measures included Japanese translations of the Family Resilience Assessment (Duncan Lane, 2011), Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997), the Impact of Stressful Life Events Scale (Hasui et al., 2009), the Kansas Marital Satisfaction (Schumm et al., …

Study And Analysis Of "Woman.Life.Song" By Judith Weir, Heather Drummon Cawlfield

Dissertations

The song cycle, woman.life.song, by Judith Weir, is a unique composition because it was a collaborative effort written by women about women’s lives. With financial backing from Henry Kravis, Jessye Norman commissioned the composition in 1997 for a Carnegie Hall performance in 2000. She enlisted authors Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Clarissa Pinkola Estés to write new poems based on stages of a woman’s life: childhood, love, puberty, loss, maturity. Acclaimed Scottish female composer Judith Weir set these texts to music. The songs of the cycle are, in order, “On Youth” (Angelou), “Breasts!! Song of the Innocent Wild Child” (Estés), …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of A Picture Exchange Communication System On Increasing Manding And Vocal Speech In Identical Twin Adults With Autism, Laura C. Hilton

Dissertations

This study examined the effectiveness of a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) on increasing manding (i.e., making requests) and spontaneous vocalizations. Participants were a set of identical twin adult women, both with a diagnosis of autism. The main dependent variable was the number of mands emitted by the participants while utilizing PECS. During each phase of training, participants had to meet a specific criterion before receiving a preferred item. Once the participants met the criterion for each phase of PECS training, a new phase began. Spontaneous vocalizations were tracked during each phase of training to determine if, as previous studies …

Missing Pieces: How Neighborhood Health Context Influences Jail Reentry, Andrew Gregg Verheek

Dissertations

This study explores how neighborhood context influences the odds of reoffending by those released from incarceration at a local jail facility. Using data from four sources, I seek to contribute to the understanding of reentry by including two factors missing from current theoretical and empirical work on inmate recidivism. First, using a social disorganization perspective, I include measures of neighborhood health to gain an understanding of how increased substance abuse, mental health, and physical health issues among neighborhood residents impede the development of social capital and informal control that are crucial to the reduction of recidivism. Additionally, I examine jail …

Preferences For Evidence-Based Depression Treatments: An Emphasis On Patient-Focused Care, Lauren A. Frye

Dissertations

Research indicates most depressed patients in the general U.S. adult population seek depression treatment in primary care settings where the prevailing method of treatment is antidepressant medication. Although primary care physicians regard this approach as a preferable first line method of depression treatment, studies indicate many patients do not. Several studies have found depressed patients in these settings prefer psychotherapy or counseling over anti-depressant medication. Many advocate patient preferences should be integral to the treatment decision making process. There is a demonstrated propensity towards psychotherapy or counseling over antidepressant medication among depression patients. However, it is unclear which psychological depression …

Increasing Physical Activity In Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Katherine B. Lalonde

Dissertations

Experts recommend that individuals walk 10,000 steps or more per day and doing so has been shown to have several health benefits. Unfortunately, many people fall short of 10,000 steps per day. Exercise levels are characteristically lower in people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) than in people without ASD. The present study comprised two experiments that used goal setting and reinforcement to increase physical activity in young adults with ASD. The first study employed a multiple-baseline-across-participants design in combination with a reversal design to determine the effects of a treatment package on the number of daily steps taken by young …

Choices Related To Maximizing Quality Of Life At End Of Life, Theresa Lynn

Dissertations

Humans, including those residing in the United States, can live in denial of their own mortality. Because of this, futile care is sometimes provided, often at great monetary expense and for little or no return in terms of quality or length of life. At least two opportunities exist for making choices regarding care at the end of life in the U.S.: completing advance directives and choosing hospice care. This dissertation consists of three studies related to this topic. The first is a quantitative study about advance directives and attitude toward death. The advance directive completion rate among adults in the …

Understandinq Second Generation Southeast Asian Americans' Lived Experience Of Lnterracial Romantic Partnerships With White European Americans, Sophia K. Rath

Dissertations

Scholars and mental health professionals whose work involves interracial romantic partnerships (IRPs) have a responsibility to be sensitive to the racial, ethnic, and psychological diversity that characterizes these relationships. Although a growing body of research exists about IRPs, no study to date has explored how being a second generation U.S.-born Southeast Asia American (SEAA) impacts individuals’ experiences in IRPs with White European Americans (WEAs). The present study employed qualitative, phenomenological methods to explore how second generation SEAAs make meaning of their personal and relational experiences in IRPs with WEAs. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 participants.

Data were analyzed …

An Evaluation Of The Primary Care Providers’ Perspective Of The Effects Of Moderate Alcohol Consumption On Health, Gisele Tchamba

Dissertations

The complexity of health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption (MAC) is well documented. From the World Health Organization recent report, impact of harm from alcohol consumption was 3.3 million deaths or 5.9 percent of all global deaths (WHO, 2014).

Yet, the benefits of MAC for better health and longer life expectancy compared with abstinence are advocated in numerous studies (Nova, Baccan, Zapatera and Marcos, 2012). However, the nature of alcohol, its role on human sufferings has generated disagreements in the scientific community. Analysis of the results of early studies advocating better health for moderate drinkers, reveal discrepancies regarding the influence …

Measuring A Cognitive Apprenticeship Model Of Instruction In Statistics Education, Amanda Dawn Leimer

Dissertations

Research has continued to support the need for investigating the role of pedagogical models in relation to students’ statistical anxiety, statistical self-efficacy, and academic performance within statistics education. Although models in the literature such as the Cognitive Apprenticeships Model of Instruction (CA-MOI) have emerged and have shown positive educational outcomes for teaching disciplines that involve the use of complex tasks (Kuo, Hwang, Chen, & Chen, 2012; Poitras & Poitras, 2011; Wegner, 2011), only one study has actually measured the degree to which this model was implemented, using the Maastrict Clinical Teaching Questionnaire (MCTQ) (Stalmeijer et al., 2008). Consequently the problem …

Transcendence Through Play: Child-Centered Play Therapy And Young Children With Autism, Katherine Elizabeth Carrizales

Dissertations

This qualitative study was designed to explore the impact of child-centered play therapy on young children identified as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with autism often experience difficulties in social, communication, behavioral, and relational domains. Often the treatment protocol for these children is an intense schedule of behavioral interventions designed to decrease problematic and increase desired behaviors. However, little emphasis has been placed on the child’s core deficits in relational skills and even less importance has been placed on his/her adequate emotional development. The current study sought to understand the impact of participation in play therapy on emotional and …

School Psychologists' Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Treatment Attitudes And Parent Communication About Complementary Health Approaches To Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Sara Beth Knickerbocker

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Three Essays On Panel Data Estimation, Alexander Houser

Dissertations

This work discusses various aspects of panel data estimation. In chapter one, an algorithm for semiparametric random effects estimation is proposed. The performance of bootstrap-based confidence intervals for the proposed estimators are examined and found reasonable. The algorithm is also applied to a set of U.S. state level medical expenditure data to estimate the medical Engel curve. In the second chapter, the predictive performance of various parametric and semiparametric panel data estimators is compared on the same dataset of U.S. state level medical expenditures as well as out of sample forecast performance and bootstrap bias-corrected mean square errors of the …

Factors Influencing Academic Engagement And Achievement: Exploration Of Impact Of Parentification And Poverty In Adolescents’ Student-Teacher Relationships, Nontle Nako

Dissertations

Parentification is the highest form of Adultification; a phenomenon that occurs when some children precociously perform extensive labor in their families, often as a function of poverty, and when their roles, responsibilities, and behaviors are “out of synch” with contemporary social and institutional notions of what children are expected to do (Burton, 2007). Based on the hypothesis that a significant number of children growing up in economically disadvantaged family backgrounds have higher chances of taking on adult roles at a young age and become adultified to a level of being parentified; this study sought to investigate whether and how school-based …

Purchase Behaviors In A Cross-National Analysis Of Sponsorship Effectiveness, Noni Zaharia

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Life And Academic Experiences Of Teenage Mothers And Expecting Teenage Mothers Attending High School In Missouri, Angelo R. Buchanan

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover and understand the life and academic experiences of high school teenage mothers and expecting teenage mothers. The research questions was, How do these teenage mothers and expecting teenage mothers describe their life and academic experiences in a Missouri high school; What challenges do they face to successfully continuing their education; and What would they want and/or need in a high school-based child-care center if it were to be implemented as part of the high school’s intervention with this at-risk population? The study was conducted at a medium-sized Midwestern Urban High School. The …

Special Education Teacher Perceptions Of The Characteristics Of A Satisfactory Working Environment, David John Mccauley

Dissertations

The special education teacher is a part of any school district and with the position comes responsibility for the teacher, building administrators, and district administrators. These school district personnel must work together to create a safe environment for all students to be successful. In 1983, the U.S. Department of Education’s report, A Nation at Risk, brought attention to the issue of retention of schoolteachers, especially those that worked with special needs students. While working as a special educator, the researcher overheard many teachers express concern about poor working conditions within their respective school districts. They expressed a lack of adequate …

Mothers Who Choose Traditional Public Education In Times Of Economic Stress, Criticism, And District Reform, Brian W. Davis

Dissertations

As districts attempt to achieve higher accountability for student results while making complex decisions to balance budgets, it has become increasingly more common to restructure or reorganize educational delivery systems in ways that affect children and their families. Understanding how families and, in particular, mothers translate their experiences with structural and other changes enacted by the schools serving their children can assist in defining a new strategic direction of renewal, growth, and revitalization.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of 18 mothers, and their children, who were participants in multiple school reform initiatives in an …