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Synthesis And Photoluminescence (Pl) Of Gold (I) And Silver (I) Metal Complexes With 1-Methylbenzimidazole Diphenylphosphine (Mbdp): Potential Sensing Applications For Volatile Organic Compounds, Darkus Elizabeth Jenkins

Dissertations

Volatile organic compound(s), VOC(s), detection have become a highly demanding area of research due to potential harmful effects to the ecosystem. The search for methods of VOC sensor devices has led to the examination of photoluminescence and photoluminescent materials such as metal complexes. Their luminescent properties markedly with phosphine and/or nitrogen based ligands, bridging ligands, have the ability to accommodate metal atoms with short metal – metal distances. It is of great interest to accomplish short metal interactions as the photoluminescent properties can be altered. We show the synthesis and structural characterization of the bridging ligand, 1-methylbenzimidazole diphenylphosphine. We examined …

Agricultural Land And Energy Use Implications Of Changes In Energy Prices, Stephen Michael Randall

Dissertations

Field level farm management decisions such as crop rotation, tillage, and nitrogen application are impacted by the energy and other input costs, by the land quality, and by the anticipated grain prices. These decisions can significantly impact the acres planted, the yield, and the crop production, as well as both the fertilizer and energy use. This study develops an Excel based profit-maximizing optimization model for these farm management decisions, all varying by the field level Corn Suitability Rating land quality indicator for the agricultural land in the State of Iowa. The model developed for this analysis incorporates production costs, production …

Genetic And Evolutionary Biometrics:Multiobjective, Multimodal, Feature Selection/Weighting For Tightly Coupled Periocular And Face Recognition, Aniesha Alford

Dissertations

The Genetic & Evolutionary Computation (GEC) research community has seen the emergence of a new subarea, referred to as Genetic & Evolutionary Biometrics (GEB), as GECs have been applied to solve a variety of biometric problems. In this dissertation, we present three new GEB techniques for multibiometric recognition: Genetic & Evolutionary Feature Selection (GEFeS), Weighting (GEFeW), and Weighting/Selection (GEFeWS). Instead of selecting the most salient individual features, these techniques evolve subsets of the most salient combinations of features and/or weight features based on their discriminative ability in an effort to increase accuracy while decreasing the overall number of features needed …

Elementary School Teachers' Reasons For Staying In Their Current Schools: A Comparison Study, Luzmila Beanira Adrianzen

Dissertations

This study examines elementary school teachers' reasons for staying in their current schools, specifically, comparing two schools, one from a low-income district and one from a high-income district. The researcher assesses similarities and differences among teacher's perceptions of these factors in these two schools.

The researcher reviews literature on factors that explain teacher turnover and retention. Furthermore, literature on theories of motivation, such as Herzberg's two-factor theory and Vroom's expectancy theory to motivation was reviewed and also used as a methodological approach to analyze the data.

To examine elementary school teachers' reasons for staying in their current schools a quantitative …

Surface Plasmon Resonance In Super-Periodic Metal Nanostructures, Haisheng Leong

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Porous Silicon Platform Technologies For Transmembrane Protein Investigation, Khalid Hasan Tantawi

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Global Stability And Traveling Wave Solutions For Some Epidemiological Models, Siroj Kansakar

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Marker-Based Head Motion Measurement System To Mitigate Motion Artifacts In 3d Cone-Beam Tomography, Ujjal Kumar Bhowmik

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Volume Estimation Models For Generation And Attraction Of Freight Commodity Groups Using Regression Analysis, Suhil Bagighni

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Social Cognitive Functioning And Social Competence In Children And Adolescents With Spina Bifida And Hydrocephalus: Social Cognitive Neuroscience As A Model, Caitlin Reid Roache

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine social cognition in children with spina bifida and congenital hydrocephalus (SBH) and to determine whether deficits in these domains are associated with poor social competence, utilizing concepts from social cognitive neuroscience. To build upon extant literature, multi-method assessments, multi-informant data, and a developmental, biopsychosocial perspective were utilized. Distinct aspects of social competence, as defined by social performance, social skills, and social adjustment, were considered.

The current study was designed to investigate: (1) differences in social cognition between children and adolescents with SBH and the general population, (2) potential neuroanatomical predictors of …

The Use Of The Bulk Properties Of Gamma-Ray Burst Prompt Emission Spectra For The Study Of Cosmology, Adam Goldstein

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Origin/Destination Matrix Estimation Techniques To Support Aspects Of Traffic Modeling, Jeffrey Paul Wilson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of A 3d Protuberance And Surface Curvature On Wall Pressure Fluctuation In A Supersonic Flow, Philip V. Hahn

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Detecting The Presence Of Extrinsic Nodes In A Virtual Network Using A Message Induced Graph, James A. Jerkins

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Spectropolarimetric Characterization Of Light Scattering Materials, Prashant Raman

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Leadership Programs Designed To Develop Creative Leaders : A Multi-Case Study, Karen Tilstra

Dissertations

Problem. The topic of this study is creative leadership and how it is developed. Three creative leadership development institutes were studied to determine how each provided leadership development: Leadership Development Institute on the campus of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida; International Center for Creative Leadership on the campus of Buffalo State College at University of New York, in Buffalo, New York; and the Banff Centre, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The purpose of this study is to describe the approach and specific components of these three leadership development programs that attempt to deliver training that produces leaders who practice creative …

The Emotional Intelligence Profiles And Cognitive Measures Of Nurse Anesthesia Students In The Southeastern United States, Shawn Bryant Collins

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this cross-sectional correlational study was to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence and personal and academic factors of nurse anesthesia students at three points in a program: matriculation, at one year of study, and in the last semester of study and the relationship of these to clinical scores and national certification examination (NCE) scores.

Method. An ex-post-facto cross-sectional study design was used to gather data at three critical times in nurse anesthesia (NA) programs to explore the relationships between emotional intelligence scores, preadmission demographics, clinical scores, and NCE scores.

Results. Data from 216 nurse anesthesia students …

The Meaning And Function Of System In Theology, Timothy Watson

Dissertations

Topic. Due to the nature of the discipline, the importance of our understanding of the meaning of the term "system" in systematic theology cannot be gainsaid. Unfortunately, however, there seems to be little discussion or critique to how this term is being used and its meaning is often taken for granted, even though it seems to mean different things to different authors.

Purpose. To address this ambiguity, this study takes a close look at the etymological development of this word in its various linguistic forms as it has been used in theology through history. Then, based on this etymological analysis, …

Environmental Literacy Of Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers In The Parochial Schools Of The Florida Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Michael Murdoch

Dissertations

Problem. In the United States, there is an environmental literacy problem. Americans possess limited knowledge about the environment and environmental issues, and they display limited positive action regarding the environment in which they live. Moreover, there is a debate whether a Christian’s interpretation of Gen 1:28 leads either to a lower or to a higher environmental literacy. Does the Seventh-day Adventist teaching community reflect these problems? These are the problems which this dissertation seeks to help solve.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to attempt to assess the environmental literacy of a group of teachers in Seventh-day …

The Systemic Impact Of The Implementation Of The Response To Intervention Model In Elementary Schools, Annette Robin Cronin

Dissertations

The intention of this study was to examine three factors regarding the implementation of the Response to Intervention (RtI) model. First, the study discovered what professional development opportunities were afforded to administrators and certified faculty to support the implementation of the RtI model within schools that make AYP and those that did not make AYP. Second, the study investigated the awareness and utilization of Early Intervening funds within schools that make AYP and those that did not make AYP. Lastly, this study examined how schools monitor student progress within the RtI model for schools that made AYP and those that …

The Effects Of Curriculum And Social Capital On Post-Secondary Educational Attainment Among Public High School Students: A Multi-Level Analysis, Elisabeth Davis

Dissertations

Using a social capital framework, the current study examined the effect of curriculum and cohort size in addition to parental and teacher social capital factors on public high school students' likelihood of college attendance. Using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling with the ELS (2002), student and school level factors were examined on the likelihood of postsecondary educational attainment among public high school students. At the student level, girls, students with higher SES, more intergenerational closure and higher parent and teacher educational expectations were significantly more likely to pursue postsecondary enrollment. At the school level, lower percentages of girls in the cohort, …

Perceptions Of Middle School Teachers On The Quality Of Professional Development, Safurat Anike Giwa

Dissertations

Professional learning and professional development are the essential tools employed in schools, districts, and universities in order to increase teachers' knowledge and skills. To gain the most from professional development in middle schools, the experiences and activities must be based on standards. Few researchers explore how teachers think about the context, process, and content of current professional development at the middle school level. This dissertation examines how teacher learning is demonstrated in professional development activities and experience and assesses whether middle school teachers' perceptions of their professional development experiences is aligned to the standards of Learning Forward (2001) (formerly the …

Culturally Responsive Teaching: An Investigation Of Effective Practices For African American Learners, Antonia L. Hill

Dissertations

Diversity increasingly characterizes the population of the United States. As the number of African Americans, Latina/os, and Asian populations increase, there will be drastic implications for teaching and learning in classrooms where students of color dominate. The purpose of this mixed methodological study was to examine the characteristics, practices and frequency of use of fifty -two strategies employed by two teachers in a predominately African American urban public school to determine their impact on student learning and engagement. The fifty-two effective and culturally responsive strategies used in this study were created by Dr. Johnnie McKinley, Professor in Educational Psychology at …

Superintendent Leadership And Student Achievement In Suburban High Schools: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Analysis, Steven Reese Kellner

Dissertations

This research study explored the critical nature of the connection between student achievement and superintendent leadership. A great deal of scholarship has addressed either student achievement or leadership and previous evidence has suggested the impact of both parental education and racioethnicity on student achievement, but few studies have investigated the relationship between the superintendent's leadership authority and the achievement of his or her students.

The central research questions of this study are:

1) To what degree does parental education predict high school student achievement in suburban Chicagoland?

2) To what degree does racioethnicity predict high school student achievement in suburban …

Mystery Motivator Calendar: An Interdependent Group Contingency, Variable Ratio, Classroom Intervention, Eva Aleksandra Kowalewicz

Dissertations

Classroom behavior management problems are often seen as one of the primary barriers to achieving an educational environment conducive for academic and social-emotional growth of students. The literature indicates there is a need for evidence-based, easy-to-implement classroom behavioral interventions that align with the positive behavioral support philosophy. This study examined the effectiveness of the Mystery Motivator Calendar, an interdependent group contingency, variable-ratio, classwide intervention as a tool for reducing disruptive classroom behavior in eight diverse, general-education elementary school classrooms across seven different schools. The study employed a single-case, ABAB (baseline, intervention, withdrawal, reinstatement and follow-up), changing criterion design. The effectiveness …

Educational Leaders Serving Language Minority Students (1965-2001), Jenny Maria Neal

Dissertations

This study analyzes three legislations that affected education for language

minority students. The research starts with a historical overview of the foundation of the

United States and the education of the non-English speaking population. It examines the

conditions that led to the first Bilingual Education Act of 1968, the changes that appeared

in the Bilingual Education Act of 1974, and the development of Title III of the No Child

Left Behind Act of 2001. The country's response to English language learners and their

individual learning needs is looked at throughout each listed time period, as well as the

implications for …

Neuropsychological Functioning, Parenting Behaviors, And Healthcare Behaviors Among Youth With Spina Bifida, Lauren Kelly O'Hara

Dissertations

Objective This study was designed to examine whether neurocognitive functioning (attention and executive functions) and parenting behaviors (acceptance, behavioral control and psychological control) are associated with medical adherence and autonomy among preadolescents and adolescents with spina bifida. Methods Questionnaire and observational data were collected from a sample of 8 to 15 year olds with spina bifida (n = 139) and their mothers, fathers, and teachers. Youth also completed neuropsychological testing. Results Youth with spina bifida demonstrated impairment on measures of attention and executive function, based on questionnaire and test data. Attention, executive function, and parenting behaviors were associated with medical …

Teachers' Concerns Regarding The Implementation Of Integrated Thematic Instruction: A Study Of Primary Grade Teachers In Kanisius Catholic Schools In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Catur Rismiati

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore primary grade teachers' stages of concern and their implementation of an educational reform initiative called Integrated Thematic Instruction (ITI) in Indonesia. The Indonesian minister of education mandated primary grade teachers to implement ITI in 2006. Using a convenience sampling method, 150 Kanisius primary grade teachers participated in the study. The data collection method used was a questionnaire that consisted of three parts: The Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ), the Integrated Curriculum Implementation Scale, and demographic questions. The data analysis employed in this research were descriptive, a one way ANOVA test and multiple …

Examining The Transition Experience Of Students From Multiage Elementary Programs To Single-Grade Classrooms At The Middle School, Cindy Lynn Ruesch

Dissertations

Multiage programming is a school reform option used throughout the United States. Much of the current literature focuses on the short-term benefits of multiage programs, particularly at the elementary level, with little consideration for long-term effects or for what might happen to students once they leave the multiage classroom and enter middle school. While there has been significant research that generalizes the transition experience of the general population of students, there has been limited research conducted on this transition experience for this specific population, the multiage elementary student.

The purpose of this simultaneous, mixed methods study was to provide an …

Social Cognitive Predictors For Undergraduate College Student's Choice Goals In Math And Science: Understanding The Role Of Coping Efficacy, Matthew David Abrams

Dissertations

This study examined the utility of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in the prediction of undergraduate college student's math and science interests and choice goals. Coping efficacy and self-efficacy beliefs were assessed separately in order to better understand the relationships between supports, barriers, coping efficacy, and math/science self-efficacy within the SCCT model. Two-hundred and forty-six undergraduate college students completed measures of math and science-related supports, barriers, coping efficacy, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and choice goals. A model specifying that barriers, but not supports, were directly related to math and science choice goals provided the best …