Digital Commons Network^™

Practitioners Or Researchers: Ed.D. Or Ph.D.? An Analysis Of Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs, Michael Dwyane Kennedy Jr.

Dissertations

This mostly descriptive study was conducted to analyze differences in doctoral degrees in educational leadership programs across the United States based on U.S. News and World Report (2011) rankings for Graduate Schools of Education. Specifically, this study explored admission, program, and final requirements as well as curriculum and faculty roles to determine the trends that have been evolving, increasing, decreasing, or remaining consistent in certain schools of the United States since the release of the Levine study of educational leadership programs in 2005. Five groups were used: 1) higher ranked 20; 2) lower ranked 20 graduate education schools; 3) top …

Development Of A Scale To Measure Local Residents' Perceived Social Impacts Of Hosting Large-Scale Sport Events, Wonyoung Kim

Dissertations

Existing studies have indicated that local residents‟ perceptions on both positive and negative social impacts toward hosting large-scale sport events have played as a key role for developing successful sport events based on getting community-wide support and involvement. However, examining local residents‟ perceived social impacts have been limited due to its intangible nature and lack of valid and reliable instrument for the adequate measurement. The purpose of this study was to explore a conceptual framework of social impacts and develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure local residents‟ perceived social impacts of hosting large-scale sport events. A preliminary questionnaire …

The Use Of Humor For Emotion Management On The Job: An Exploration Of 911 Communication Centers, Jennifer Dell Mclaughlin

Dissertations

This study sought to understand how humor affects a person’s ability to cope and manage their emotions in a high stress organizational environment. 911 communication centers are work environments where stress is commonplace, and the work environment can instantly become erratic and chaotic.

This study explored the role humor has in assisting organizational members with emotion management in a high stress job and the types of humor used by members to handle their job and cope with the stress.

The results suggest that humor is pervasive in 911 communication centers, and dispatchers use humor for personal coping, co-worker bonding, and …

Genetic Associations With Borderline Personality Disorder And Related Traits And Behaviors, Casey Roy Guillot

Dissertations

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and related traits and behaviors have been linked to a number of neurotransmitter systems, including serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, and dopamine. Because three human single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), COMT rs4680, GABRA2 rs279871, and SNCA rs356195, have been linked to the abovementioned neurotransmitter systems, they may be associated with BPD and related traits and behaviors. The purpose of the current study is to examine associations of COMT rs4680, GABRA2 rs279871, and SNCA rs356195 with both categorical and continuous measures of BPD and with continuous measures of impulse control and self-harm in a nonclinical sample. Healthy volunteers were categorized into …

The Development, Validation, And Application Of The Motivation Scale Of Disability Sport Consumption (Msdsc), Michael Paul Cottingham Ii

Dissertations

Consumer motivation, “the driving force within individuals that impels them to action” (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2004, p. 87), assists in identifying why consumers attend sporting events, and if they plan to repatriate or consume merchandise and media (Byon, Cottingham, & Carroll, 2010; Kim, Greenwell, Andrew, Lee, & Mahony, 2008). The Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC) (Trail & James, 2001), consisting of factors that identify specific consumer motives (Trail & James, 2001; Wann, 1995), was tested in the context of disability sport (Byon, Carroll, Cottingham, Grady, & Allen, 2011; Byon et al., 2010) but did not take into account motives …

Student Success: An Investigation Of The Role The Pre-Admission Variables Of Academic Preparation, Personal Attributes, And Demographic Characteristics Contribute In Predicting Graduation, Lianne Briggs

Dissertations

Despite retention being a significant focus of higher education research, graduation rates remain of concern. Increased numbers of students are advancing to college bringing with them a wider range of abilities, attributes, and characteristics. There is much we know about what predicts success for these students but our knowledge is far from complete. My study therefore explores to what extent pre-admission variables of academic preparation, personal attributes, and demographic characteristics are predictive of graduation with the goal of identifying students who are more or less likely to do well than their high school academic preparation would suggest.

The study examines …

Dissociative Experiences, Subclinical Anxiety And Perceived Level Of Psychological Distress In A Nonclinical Population, Denise L. Lucia

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of School Based Intervention Processes On Secondary School Graduation Rates, Ben H. Yocom

Dissertations

The focus of this research is in the area of academic interventions and their effect on graduation rates in secondary schools in Missouri. In light of the regulations within the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and its accountability requirements for schools, this study is important and timely in order to provide valuable examples of effective intervention processes. The research approach adopted in this dissertation was a mixed methods approach; therefore, quantitative analysis was utilized during a statistical comparison of secondary schools in Missouri and a review of trends from a survey distributed to all secondary school principals in …

Perceptions Of Mentoring, Dropout Rates, School Attendance, And Academic Achievement In Core Subject Areas Among Students In The Various Branches Of Jrotc, Michael Joseph Weaver

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of cadets in the Army, Navy, and Air Force JROTC program regarding their beliefs about mentorship and how it affects students’ perceptions. Funding for education is constantly under review and programs that are considered unnecessary are facing increased scrutiny. Schools are held accountable for educating students and this accountability includes both the quality of the program provided by the district and also the commitment among students to be successful in life.

Haveman, Wolfe, and Wilson (2001) reported that graduating from high school provides benefits to society both socially and economically. …

Regional Differences In Relational Aggression: The Role Of Culture, Katherine Amanda Czar

Dissertations

It is becoming increasingly clear that relational aggression has just as much potential to cause harm as overt verbal and physical aggression. Though the literature base on relational aggression is growing, far fewer studies have been conducted with late adolescents and adults as compared with children and early adolescents. Moreover, the role of culture in relational aggression has received limited attention. The current study aimed to examine the potential impact of one aspect of culture on relational aggression by focusing on North-South regional differences in the United States. Differing norms and expectations for social behavior between Northern and Southern U.S. …

Does Psychopathy Predict Future Risky Sexual Behavior?, Jessica Jade Fulton

Dissertations

Risky sexual behavior (RSB), such as having sex with an unknown partner, is associated with a variety of negative consequences including sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancy. Previous research (e.g., Fulton, Marcus, & Payne, 2010) suggests that psychopathic personality traits as assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) are associated with RSB. Self-Centered Impulsivity (SCI), which is characterized by impulsivity, irresponsibility, and reckless behavior, was positively associated with RSB among men and women. In contrast, Fearless Dominance (FD), which is characterized by fearlessness, manipulativeness, and social dominance, was positively associated with RSB among men but not women. …

The Relationship Between Suicide Ideation And Parasuicide: An Electrophysiological Investigation Using The Loudness Dependence Of Auditory Evoked Potential, Angelika Marsic

Dissertations

The loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) has been proposed as a promising valid and a non-invasive indicator of behaviorally relevant central 5-HT functioning. There is limited research on the utility of the LDAEP in discriminating individuals who engage in various degrees of suicidal behavior. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine if the LDAEP, as a measure of central serotonergic functioning, can be useful in distinguishing groups of individuals who: (a) solely experience suicidal ideation (SI group); (b) experience suicidal ideation and have engaged in deliberate self-harm acts (SH group); and (c) individuals with …

Empirical Identification Of Axis I And Axis Ii Symptom Subtypes Of Sex Addiction Using Lateny Profile Analysis, Maria Isabel Nino De Guzman

Dissertations

Sexual addiction is a disorder characterized by lack of control over sexual urges, pathological relationships and lack of intimacy, mood-altering experiences, and adverse consequences that tend to be disregarded by the person affected. Although not classified as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual-IV-TR (DSM-IV-TR, APA, 2000) this distressful sexual manifestation is increasingly recognized as a clinical and public health problem. Previous studies suggest commonalities with addictive disorders and maladaptive personality traits. The purpose of the current study was to analyze personality configurations of individuals diagnosed as sex addicts and uncover specific subtypes or profiles associated to sexually addictive …

Evaluating The Interpersonal Nature Of Humor: Mapping Humor Styles Onto The Interpersonal Circumplex, Jessica Erin Vaughan

Dissertations

The present study examined the interpersonal content of the four humor styles outlined in the Humor Styles Questionnaire in order to gather additional information about the interpersonal content of these humor styles. This was accomplished by projecting each of the humor styles onto the interpersonal circumplex. Each of the humor styles possessed significant interpersonal content and demonstrated interpersonal cohesion such that the maladaptive humor styles were located in the Cold-Hearted region and the adaptive humor styles were located in the adjacent octants of Gregarious- Extroverted and Warm-Agreeable. These findings suggest that the adaptive humor styles and maladaptive humor styles possess …

The Free Preschool Year In Ireland: The Perspectives Of Early Childhood Educators And Policymakers, Martina Ozonyia

Dissertations

This thesis explores the introduction of the Free Preschool Year (FPY) in Ireland from the early childhood 'educators' and 'policymakers' perspectives. Under the new FPY initiative introduced in 2010, all children between the ages of 3.2 - 4.7 are offered free preschool hours for a period of one year prior to their entrance into primary school. This research identified the need to study the introduction of FPY as research into this topic to date has been limited. The purpose of this research was to understand the rationale behind this new initiative as well as exploring the issues of 'qualification requirements', …

An Investigation Of Relationships Between Body Mass Index And Factors Of Wellness Among Full-Time Employees At Private Kentucky Colleges And Universities, Christopher Schmidt

Dissertations

The United States is in the middle of a health epidemic that shows no signs of stopping. Obesity is a disease that carries a significant number of health-related issues. The adult population has experienced a decrease in overall wellness, where the mental and physical health of individuals is disrupted by the effects of obesity. Even more alarming is the rate of increase in childhood obesity and its impact on America’s future.

The consequences of this health epidemic are especially visible in the increased costs of health care caused by obesity-related diseases. This epidemic reaches across many aspects of life. The …

Anxiety Symptoms, Parent Anxiety And Functional Impairment In Pediatric Cardiology Patients With Noncardiac Chest Pain And Benign Cardiac Complaints, Cassandra Jo Mcdonnell

Dissertations

Chest pain is regularly encountered in pediatric medical settings. Because of the popular association of chest pain with coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction adults, it is often frightening for both patients and parents. However, up to 88% of pediatric chest pain patients receive no medical explanation for their pain. Chest discomfort in the absence of medical explanation that is characterized by no more than one typical angina symptom is classified as non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP). This study examined parent anxiety, child anxiety and chest pain related functional impairment in a sample of pediatric patients with NCCP in comparison to …

The Effect Of Legal Financial Obligations On Reentry Experiences, Breanne Rae Pleggenkuhle

Dissertations

In 2010, over 700,000 offenders were released from prison (Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol, 2012), and on any given day over seven million individual are under some form of correctional supervision (Glaze, 2011). Research has documented the collateral consequences of transition such as diminished employment prospects and limited housing availability. Fiscal concerns have shifted some of the costs of prosecution and correctional supervision to the offender, resulting in accumulation of legal financial obligations. However, little research has examined of the effect of legal financial obligations on reentry outcomes. This study has two broad goals. The first objective was to document the …

Case Study Of Parents Caring For A Child Having Type-1 Diabetes With Optimal Hga1c, Elizabeth Ciaccio Phd

Dissertations

Type 1 diabetes in school age children is a complex condition requiring continuous physical, nutritional, and therapeutic monitoring to prevent lifelong complications and maintain quality of life. In 2011, one in 400 children in the United States were affected by it. The purpose of this research study was to understand how parents achieve optimal HgA1c for their school age children with type-1 diabetes. Currently, there is very little research documenting how parents achieve this goal. Understanding this phenomenon more clearly can be used to inform future research, improve practice and provide information for development of effective health policy. Management of …

Assessing The Feasibility And Perceptions Of Health Services For Refugees Of Resettlement Organizations, Heidi Jean Worabo

Dissertations

Background: Since 1975 the U.S. has resettled 2.6 million refugees who had to flee from their home countries. Many refugee resettlement organizations have developed different models of innovation to promote a smooth transition between previous foreign refugee camps to U.S. communities so that refugees swiftly become economically and socially self-sufficient. Providing refugees with health benefits and resources has been foremost priority upon arrival as they try to overcome health care barriers. Yet there is a lack of literature examining the impact of these health services and how they are perceived by the program recipients. Purpose: This scholarly project aimed to …

Paradigm Adherence And Personality Correlates Across Mental Health Professions, Laura Anne Rauscher

Dissertations

Paradigm adherence has been developed as a meta-theoretical approach to organize and to classify the multitude of different theories of counseling and psychotherapy. Four paradigms have been identified in the literature: The Organic-Medical, The Psychological, The Systemic-Relational, and the Social Constructivist paradigms. Only one other study to date has examined paradigm adherence of a group (Marriage and Family Therapists) and how it can be of value to the mental health professionals. This study examined the relationship between paradigm adherence and different characteristics of mental health professionals in the state of Missouri. In this study, Licensed Psychologists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, …

Discrete Targeting Of Peptide And Non-Peptide Neurotransmitters By A Single Neuron, Daniel Kueh

Dissertations

The heart excitor (HE) motor neuron in the medicinal leech, Hirudo, releases acetylcholine (ACh) and a peptide, FMRFamide, to regulate the contractile activity of the heart tube and associated side vessels. Consistent with Dale’s Principle, it was assumed that both neurotransmitters were coreleased by all presynaptic varicosities. However, discrete peptide-positive and peptide-negative varicosities can be found consistently at particular sites of innervation on the heart tube. Dual-labeled HE neurons were produced by pressure injecting Neurobiotin into single HE neurons and applied antibodies against FMRFamide on the same preparations. Consistent with initial expectations, peptide-labeled varicosities were numerous and widely distributed …

Rank-Based Estimation And Prediction For Mixed Effects Models In Nested Designs, Yusuf K. Bilgic

Dissertations

Hierarchical designs frequently occur in many research areas. The experimental design of interest is expressed in terms of fixed effects but, for these designs, nested factors are a natural part of the experiment. These nested effects are generally considered random and must be taken into account in the statistical analysis. Traditional analyses are quite sensitive to outliers and lose considerable power to detect the fixed effects of interest.

This work proposes three rank-based fitting methods for handling random, fixed and scale effects in k-level nested designs for estimation and inference. An algorithm, which iteratively obtains robust prediction for both scale …

Winds Of Change: The Historical Contingency Of State Crime, Kelly L. Faust

Dissertations

Destruction of the built environment during a natural disaster is by no means a new phenomenon. What has changed over time is how we as a society react to such destruction, as well as what we expect from the state in terms of protection from, and responses to, said destruction. This dissertation explores these changes through a political economic lens with the goal of gaining increased knowledge of the phenomena that constitute state crime. Social structure of accumulation (SSA) theory provides the basis for a view of the state as a social institution which acts according to the goals of …

Adaptive Security-Aware Scheduling For Packet Switched Networks Using Real-Time Multi-Agent Systems, Ma'en Saleh Saleh

Dissertations

Conventional real-time scheduling algorithms are in care of timing constraints; they don’t pay any attention to enhance or optimize the real-time packet’s security performance. In this work, we propose an adaptive security-aware scheduling with congestion control mechanism for packet switching networks using real-time agentbased systems. The proposed system combines the functionality of real-time scheduling with the security service enhancement, where the real-time scheduling unit uses the differentiated-earliest-deadline-first (Diff-EDF) scheduler, while the security service enhancement scheme adopts a congestion control mechanism based on a resource estimation methodology.

The security service enhancement unit was designed based on two models: singlelayer and weighted …

Lesbian/Queer/Same-Gender-Loving Women Graduate Students In Mental Health Related Fields: A Grounded Theory Of Attitudes Toward Transgender Individuals, Bonnie M. Benson

Dissertations

Transgender (trans) issues are an emerging area of research within counseling psychology. As such, little is known about how individuals form their attitudes toward trans people. Despite evidence that lesbian women are one group that has held biased views of the trans population, the literature has not addressed the perceptions that lesbian women have of trans individuals. Furthermore, the campus climate literature has attended to how LGBT students experience campus discrimination, but this literature has not addressed within-group differences, that is, attitudes and interactions among LGBT members of a university community, such as those between lesbians and trans people. The …

Through The Eyes Of Higher Education Attorneys: How Department Chairs Are Navigating The Waters Of Legal Issues And Risk Management, Carol L.J. Hustoles

Dissertations

Legal and risk management issues substantially impact the operations of colleges and universities, which face escalating compliance requirements in an increasingly litigious environment. Failing to assess legal liability issues and to constructively address them with risk management processes create vulnerability to claims and litigation, stretching limited institutional resources. Yet research studies are scarce on this topic.

This study used an online survey to obtain input from higher education attorneys across the U.S. regarding their perceptions of frequency and time spent on legal assistance for department chairpersons, chairs’ level of difficulty handling legal and risk management issues, matters having highest adverse …

Beyond Academics: Challenging Issues Facing Community College Non-Academic Support Services, Judith Lynn Mitchell

Dissertations

This research focused on identifying and exploring the significant current and emerging community college non-academic support service issues. These auxiliary services, not unlike academic or student affairs, support the community college mission and vision as well as students’ academic success. Since December 2007, Americans have been experiencing a lasting recession and community colleges are no different. Due to the dramatic decrease of financial support from Federal and state funding, many institutions are struggling to remain viable as they continue to serve the constituents in their districts. The purpose of this study is to explore significant emerging non-academic support issues …

The Rules Of Corporate Governance In Public Companies In The Uae, Salama Hmoud Hamad Ai Ameri

Dissertations

Due to the recent upheavals and deteriorating global economic outlook, a healthy reevaluation and attention is being focused on the role of corporate governance in global economic and legal debate among policy makers and experts. The urgency has been expedited by the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 ("Financial Crisis") which had negative impact on all corners of the globe. The United Arab Emirates ("UAE") was also affected by the Financial Crisis, albeit in a limited and manageable manner than many other countries around the world.

As a result of the Financial Crisis and its impact, UAE responded with measures to …

Structural Analysis And Auditing Of Snomed Hierarchies Using Abstraction Networks, Yue Wang

Dissertations

SNOMED is one of the leading healthcare terminologies being used worldwide. Due to its sheer volume and continuing expansion, it is inevitable that errors will make their way into SNOMED. Thus, quality assurance is an important part of its maintenance cycle.

A structural approach is presented in this dissertation, aiming at developing automated techniques that can aid auditors in the discovery of terminology errors more effectively and efficiently. Large SNOMED hierarchies are partitioned, based primarily on their relationships patterns, into concept groups of more manageable sizes. Three related abstraction networks with respect to a SNOMED hierarchy, namely the area taxonomy …