The Political Economy Of American Militarism: The Military- Industrial Complex, Power Elite, And The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq, Randy S. La Prairie

Dissertations

Sociologists have paid little attention to the structural causes of American participation in wars. Consequently, the discipline offers few theoretical perspectives on American war making. Sociological theories that do exist fall under two headings: state-centric and Marxist theories. Both lack prima facie plausibility. In this dissertation, I advance a unique, alternative theoretical framework that I argue offers a more tenable theory of American militarism in the post-World War II period. The elite model of war mobilization, as I refer to it, consists of five interrelated structural causes of American participation in wars: (1) state-capitalist imperialism; (2) elite control of public …

الإحالة وأثرھا في التماسك النصي: دراسة تطبیقیة في أشعار مانع سعید العتیبة, عائشة عبد لله عرار الظاھري

Dissertations

یركز ھذا البحث على ظاھرة الإحالة، وجاء بعنوان (الإحالة وأثرھا في التماسك النصي: دراسة تطبیقیة في أشعار مانع سعید العتیبة).

وتعُد (الإحالة) من أھم وسائل الترابط النصي، فالنصوص تعتمد علیھا بشكل كبیر في تماسكھا، فینتج عن ذلك نصوص ذات دقة دلالیة عالیة، وركزت الدراسة على إبراز سبل التماسك الإحالي في الأعمال الشعریة للشاعر، وإسھامھا بشكل كبیر في تشكیل النص وإبراز معانیھ، كما أن إحكامھا یؤدي إلى دقة التعبیر وتجنب اللبس، فقامت الدراسة على جزء نظري وجزء تطبیقي على دواوین مختارة من شعره.

وقد تناولت الدراسة تعریفات الإحالة وعناصرھا وأنماطھا، ومعاییر صحة الإحالة، كما بینت الوسائل والتقنیات التي تتحقق بھا الإحالة، …

Faith News In The Digital Age: New Muslim And Non-Muslim Residents Seeking Islamic Information In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Urwa Tariq

Dissertations

When non-Muslims become immersed in an Islamic way of life—a common occurrence in the UAE, a Muslim country where the overwhelming majority of the resident population is foreign-born—some become interested in learning more about the Islamic faith. This interest is also evident among new converts to Islam from other countries when they reside in the UAE. Little is known about how information about Islam is disseminated to non-Muslims and new Muslims in the UAE, how these expatriates search for the religious information they desire, and the challenges they encounter in their enquiries. This study applies the theory of the diffusion …

Private Sound Environments In Public Space: Use Of Headphones In Public Parks And Public Transit, Chathurthi S. De Silva

Dissertations

The use of headphones is now so commonplace that it is almost second nature for many people to use them. Not only do these people use headphones all the time, but they use them nearly everywhere, including in urban public spaces. In using headphones, people create their own “private sound environments” in public space. This phenomenon merits attention from researchers since the creation of private sound environments may well alter people’s experiences of public space.

This study answers five research questions about the use of headphones in parks and on transit: why people use them, when they begin using headphones …

The Associations Of Chronic Stress, Social Support, Health Behaviors And Metabolic Syndrome Among Hispanic Women, Edna Esquer

Dissertations

The Associations of Chronic Stress, Social Support, Health Behaviors and Metabolic Syndrome Among Hispanic Women

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence is 25% among Mexican American women 30 – 49 years of age, compared to 22% among non-Hispanic Whites in the United States. Little is known about the additional contributions of chronic stress, social support and health behaviors to the development of MetS among this population.

Purpose: Describe the associations between chronic stress, social support, and health behaviors and the presence of MetS in Hispanic women living in an underserved community.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study design. The Adult Treatment Panel …

Subaltern Leadership Epistemologies: A Phenomenological Study Of Filipinx Administrative Leaders In Higher Education, Tricia Ryan

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of Filipinx American subaltern leadership epistemologies by unveiling participant life histories, alongside participant leadership approaches and practices carried-out in institutions of higher education in the Unites States. The unique experiences made available in this study provided for an emergence of critical examination into untapped narratives; valuable data from Filipinx voices who, in the research literature about Filipinx Americans, are cited as invisible in educational settings. In-depth qualitative phenomenological research utilizing a three-interview series approach was used to explore and charter the connections between lived experience and current leadership epistemologies for …

Expanding Consciousness Across Disruptions: Developmental Leadership Coaches Growing Together Through Action Inquiry, Ilaria Distefano

Dissertations

The planetary, societal, and personal challenges of our times call for the expansion of leaders’ consciousness. More comprehensive and integrated ways of making meaning of self and systems are required to navigate the current levels of complexity. Based on constructive-developmental theory, developmental leadership coaching supports leaders in this evolution.

The literature on developmental coaching converges on the relevance of the coach’s meaning-making to coaching outcomes and processes. The purpose of this study was to explore how seven developmental leadership coaches, including the researcher, could evolve their consciousness, capacities and skills using action inquiry. Seven meetings were held, and knowledge and …

Panel Data Analysis Of Determinants Of Gini Coefficient, Brandon Parsons

Dissertations

The researcher uses panel data analysis to examine determinants of the Gini coefficient. The researcher uses an unbalanced panel with data from 1988 to 2018. The panel data is from 103 countries. The data has panels based on income-level and region to discern differences among groups of countries. The study's main determinants include the progressiveness of the tax system, regime type, political stability, corruption, ethnic fractionalization, and religion. The econometric model uses Driscoll and Kraay (1998) standard errors for nonparametric heteroscedasticity autocorrelation. The econometric model uses fixed effects for both country and time. The model uses Newey-West corrections to cross-sectional …

Academic Nurse Educator Attitudes Regarding Their Role Educating Ethnically And Racially Diverse Nursing Students: A Focused Ethnography, Melissa Lillian Weir

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore academic nurse educator attitudes, specifically beliefs and values, regarding their role educating ethnically and racially diverse students through the lens of culturally relevant pedagogy. Focused ethnography methodology was applied through all phases of this research. Interviews with 14 academic nurse educators provided insight into a subculture of nursing. Themes that emerged from data analysis included strengths perspective, teacher-student relationships, diversity as an asset, crucial or difficult conversations, and ethnicity and race setting the narrative. In addition, assimilation and white privilege were discussed due to compelling and varied responses from participants. The results …

Creating Appropriate Clinical Guidelines For The Bilingual Population With Acquired Brain Injuries, Sophia L. Pena

Dissertations

While there is a growing bilingual demographic in the United States, relatively little is known about treating this population should they experience a brain injury. This is a growing area of interest, as research has demonstrated that the acquisition of a second language promotes neuroplastic changes that then impact brain functioning pre- and post-brain-injury. Given bilingualism’s cognitive complexity, clinicians are left with challenges on how best to tailor treatment for brain-injured bilingual populations. Therefore, the focus of this review was to provide clinical recommendations to clinicians performing assessments with bilingual individuals with acquired brain injuries. The goal was for the …

The Effects Of Online Parent Training In The Teach- Model-Coach-Review Instructional Approach On Parents’ Use Of Language Expansion During Routine-Based Activities For Children With Cochlear Implants In Thailand, Rumpasri Sukonthaman

Dissertations

Early intervention is not officially implemented in Thailand. The shortage of practitioners, the inaccessibility of early intervention services, and the lack of parental involvement extremely deprive opportunities for children who are deaf and hard of hearing to develop language and communication within the critical period. This dissertation aimed to explore an intervention approach that practitioners can use to encourage and empower parents’ roles and responsibilities, as well as improve the children’s language outcomes. The objectives in this dissertation study were to explore (a) how online parent training in the modified Teach-Model-Coach-Review Instructional approach can be implemented to improve the parents’ …

Leadership Strategies That Exemplary K-12 Latina Superintendents In California Use To Create An Organizational Culture Of Inclusiveness Using Kennedy’S Five Leadership Qualities Of Cultural Differences, Martha Martín Pérez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to identify and describe the leadership strategies that Latina superintendents in California use to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness using Kennedy’s (2008) 5 leadership qualities of cultural differences.

Methodology: This sequential explanatory mixed methods study analyzed quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to identify and describe strategies found when analyzing the data. This study summarized the findings that emerged to identify and describe strategies that create an organizational culture of inclusiveness.

Findings: Examination of mixed methods data from the 15 Latina superintendents in California participating in this study indicated …

At The Top Of The Chart: A Composite Counterstory Of Black Students’ Mathematical Success, Joslyn N. Richardson

Dissertations

Mathematics as a discipline has ignored the experiences of African American students, making it difficult for them to develop strong mathematical identities and racial identities in relation to math. Black children and their academic achievements are often framed negatively, and underachievement and failure are often emphasized over their brilliance and resilience. This qualitative study adds to the limited body of knowledge by examining student perspectives and socialization factors that contribute to positive math identity and achievement in middle school students. Using a Critical Race Theory framework, data was collected through semi-structured interviews and math autobiographies that were structured around the …

Leadership Strategies Exemplary Unified School District Superintendents Use To Create A Culture Of Inclusiveness, Lynn J Carmen Day

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed-method study was to identify and describe the leadership strategies unified school district superintendents used to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness through the lens of Kennedy’s five distinctive qualities of leadership.

Methodology: This mixed-methods study identified strategies exemplary public school superintendents used to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness. The study collected quantitative data from 17 superintendents via a survey and qualitative data from six of those superintendents via one-on-one interviews. Respondents were purposely chosen for their esteemed service in the field of education and based on specific criteria, including a recommendation from …

Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness Among The Undergraduates Through Intentional Design In A Culture Course In The Us—An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Experimental Design, Hua Wang

Dissertations

The cultivation of intercultural competence is a growing trend globally, and integration of intercultural competence into coursework was widely acknowledged as a valid strategy to achieve this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine (1) the effects of the intervention of connecting one’s own culture to affect students' cross-cultural awareness development in American colleges; and (2) students’ perceptions of their own cultural‐awareness changes. Data was collected through pre-and post-questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. This study also compared between-group participants’ posttest ratings on a cross-cultural awareness scale, as well as pre- and post-test ratings within each group. The quantitative and …

How Can School Leaders Support Teachers In Becoming Culturally Proficient? Lessons From Teachers And School Leaders That Support Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices, Sherri Simek Rodriguez

Dissertations

This study was a program evaluation of educator cultural proficiency in a suburban school district in Illinois from 2019-2020. The primary research question explored was how school leaders can support teachers to become culturally proficient in order to support underserved students. Employing a qualitative research methodology, with data gathered from school leader and teacher interviews, and document analysis, this study identified key components to improve culturally proficient practices. Policy implications and recommendations highlight the following: ensure that all staff members examine and eliminate institutional beliefs, policies, practices, and teaching that perpetuate racial inequalities; implement culturally relevant practices; and prepare all …

Support Systems Contributing To Retention Of Latinas In The Superintendent Position, Rachel Lemus Valenzuela

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory mixed-methods study was to identify and describe the support systems that California Latina superintendents perceive contribute to their retention in the position. A second purpose of this study was to discover to what extent these support systems impact their retention as a superintendent.

Methodology: This exploratory sequential mixed-methods study described the experiences of 11 Latina public school district superintendents in California. Participants were selected based on delimiting criteria, and purposive and convenience sampling methods were applied. The qualitative phase consisted of one-to-one interviews to gain in-depth information about the support systems the superintendents perceived …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …

An Examination Of Refugees Strategies Of Survival: A Critical Ethnographic Study Of The Status Of Resettlement Organizations And The Promotion Of Alternative Forms Of Resettlement Setting, Moshood Olanrewaju

Dissertations

Resettled Refugees require humanizing approaches to community integration that promote healthy levels of independence and connection to the U.S. cultural practices, similar to that of home communities. Instead, a host culture dominates with complex and "none-reachable" profit-making institutions suffocating home culture practices. Within this context, this study attends to the social dysfunctionality that occurs beyond an interpersonal stress-adaptation-growth dynamic and clarifies why research often failed to understand a more successful refugee cultural integration experience.

The research was a systemic review of refugee strategies of survival collaboratively obtaining perceptions post-settlement: attitudes, motivations, interests, experiences, and expectations and the different ways in …

Strategies That Exemplary Elementary Dual Immersion Principals Use To Create An Organizational Culture Of Inclusiveness, Stephanie K. Smart

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to identify and describe the leadership strategies that exemplary elementary dual immersion principals in Orange and San Diego counties in Southern California use to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness using Kennedy’s (2008) five leadership qualities of cultural differences.

Methodology: This sequential explanatory mixed methods research study utilized quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews of 15 exemplary elementary dual immersion principals in Orange and San Diego counties in Southern California to identify and describe the strategies used to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness according to Kennedy’s (2008) five qualities …

What Are School Counselors From Exemplary Alternative Schools Doing To Support Social And Emotional Learning With Students?, Sandra Shaw

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe the best practices school counselors from exemplary alternative education schools in San Bernardino County use to support social emotional learning (SEL) using the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) core competencies (self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making). An additional purpose of the study was to describe the CASEL SEL core competencies that were perceived as most important by school counselors from exemplary alternative education schools in San Bernardino County.

Methodology: This qualitative phenomenological study identified and described the best practices school counselors from …

The Challenges Of Lesbian Senior Leaders In The Army Branch Of The Department Of Defense, Ella Nunley-Spaights

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of lesbian senior leaders and the types of challenges they experience while serving in the Army Branch of the Department of Defense. A secondary purpose of this study was to identify strategies lesbian senior leaders employ to overcome perceived challenges while serving in the Army Branch of the Department of Defense.

Methodology: This phenomenological study described the lived experiences of seven lesbian senior leaders serving in the Army who were retired from service within the past five years. Convenience and snowball sampling were utilized to identify women who …

Ethnicity, Issue Voting, And Regime Change In The Gambia; Why Did Yahya Jammeh Lose The 2016 Presidential Election? The Dawning Of Dawning Democracy In The Gambia., Alieu Sanneh

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

In the 2016 presidential election in The Gambia, the opposition coalition party had successfully managed to overthrow an authoritarian government, which has ruled the country for 22 years. Contrary to the notion of the prevalence of ethnic voting in African elections, this study found that ethnicity is not the only issue influencing the voting behavior of Gambian voters. The concerns voters have on human rights abuses by the Jammeh’s admistration has resulted in a regime change. The election was issue-based, even though Gambian voters were split on the question of the economy, their dissatisfaction on Jammeh handling of human …

Home Economics And Food Literacy: An Investigation Into The Factors Influencing The Effective Delivery Of Food Literacy Curricula In Irish Post Primary Schools As Perceived By Key Stakeholders, Aisling Geraghty

Dissertations

In 2018 the new Junior Cycle specification for home economics was introduced. This year also saw the recommendation by the Irish State to make home economics compulsory for all Junior Cycle students. Home economics is a multifaceted, inter disciplinary subject that seeks to empower students with the skills to cultivate reflective, critical decision-making abilities they require to deal with practical perennial problems. Food literacy exists as a key contextual strand to home economics, and to this new Junior Cycle curriculum in particular. This study seeks to identify influences, both positive and negative, that impact on the effective delivery of food …

Adopting A Systematic Approach To Tasting Cider Within The Irish Craft Cider Industry, Richie Brady

Dissertations

Craft cider-makers produce less than 1% of Irish cider which is a significantly smaller percentage than craft producers in other beverage markets. This study contextualises Irish cider’s importance by exploring its rich history in Gaelic and Georgian Ireland. It then examines how that importance is not reflected in today’s market and posits that introducing a new systematic approach to tasting will enable cider to be viewed beyond what many see as a cheap, simple summer drink. A systematic approach to tasting is a structured and repeatable method of describing taste using a lexicon of agreed words. Unlike other drinks, such …

Exploiting Bert And Roberta To Improve Performance For Aspect Based Sentiment Analysis, Gagan Reddy Narayanaswamy

Dissertations

Sentiment Analysis also known as opinion mining is a type of text research that analyses people’s opinions expressed in written language. Sentiment analysis brings together various research areas such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Data Mining, and Text Mining, and is fast becoming of major importance to companies and organizations as it is started to incorporate online commerce data for analysis. Often the data on which sentiment analysis is performed will be reviews. The data can range from reviews of a small product to a big multinational corporation. The goal of performing sentiment analysis is to extract information from those …

Combination Of Facebook Prophet And Attention-Based Lstm With Multi- Source Data For Indian Stock Market Prediction, Pavan Nagesh

Dissertations

The stock market prediction has been the subject of interest to various researchers and analysts due to its highly unpredictable nature and serves as a perfect example for time series forecasting. Over the years deep learning models such as Long-Term Short-Term Memory and statistical models such as Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average have shown promising results in predicting future stock prices. But the results from these models cannot be generalized as they fail to incorporate the dynamics of the market and influence of several external factors such as political, social, investor's emotion, etc on stock markets. Recently Facebook’s creation of the …

Finetuning Bert And Xlnet For Sentiment Analysis Of Stock Market Tweets Using Mixout And Dropout Regularization, Shubham Jangir

Dissertations

Sentiment analysis is also known as Opinion mining or emotional mining which aims to identify the way in which sentiments are expressed in text and written data. Sentiment analysis combines different study areas such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Data Mining, and Text Mining, and is quickly becoming a key concern for businesses and organizations, especially as online commerce data is being used for analysis. Twitter is also becoming a popular microblogging and social networking platform today for information among people as they contribute their opinions, thoughts, and attitudes on social media platforms over the years. Because of the large …

Exploring School Psychologists' Perceived Preparedness, Self-Efficacy, And Motivations For Practice In Urban Schools, Kiley Callahan

Dissertations

The fundamental goal of school psychological service delivery is to enhance the learning and mental health of all students, regardless of their school setting. However, there is evidence to suggest that school psychologists' professional needs and experiences may differ based on the context in which they work. The urban school context, in particular, is associated with several challenges that may impact school psychology practice, including the impact of systemic barriers, systematic marginalization of children and families, and limited resources. To better prepare school psychologists to support urban learners, efforts to understand their training needs must be prioritized. Still, the views …

Reams, Radicals And Revolutionaries: The 'Illinois Staats-Zeitung' And The German-American Milieu In Chicago, 1847-1877, Sebastian Peter Wuepper

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes how a large, German-language newspaper, the Illinois Staats-Zeitung served the German-American immigrant community in Chicago in the second half of the nineteenth century. The German diaspora in the United States was not a secluded, separated, and isolated entity, but a node in a transnational network of cultural exchange that crossed national and natural boundaries. Newspapers contributed significantly to the creation and maintenance of this cultural sphere. The editors of the Staats-Zeitung were refugees of the failed 1848 democratic revolutions in Germany. In Germany they had been academics, intellectuals, lawyers and journalists. They brought their political convictions with …