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"George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People": Hip Hop, Public Discourse And Black Politics In The Early 21st Century, Hazel Bell James Cole

Dissertations

Recently, more scholars are examining hip hop as a powerful cultural, communicative force, yet hip hop's political orientation goes unnoticed. This study highlights the politics found in hip hop culture and in rap music since 2000 by exploring hip hop as a social movement. This study utilizes a critical, cultural approach by applying ideological case study and textual analyses methods. Song lyrics, activist efforts and black politics prove the political orientation of hip hop culture, which revealed that rap music in general is limited by capitalistic, hegemonic restraints juxtaposed to rappers serving as the legitimate voice of the marginalized and …

Atomistic-Based Finite Element Simulation Of Carbon Nanotubes, Yang Yang

Dissertations

Since first found in the form of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) by Iijima(1991), carbon nanotube (CNT) for its outstanding and unique properties have gained overwhelming attentions from across the spectrum of the science and engineering fields. CNTs are structurally perfect, small size, low density, high stiffness, high strength (Qian et al., 2002), and their electronic properties depend on the particular distortion as well as the initial tube diameter and chirality, ranging from narrow-gap or moderate-gap semiconducting to metallic (Pantano et al., 2004b), which can be utilized in nanoscale sensors and devices. These appealing characteristics provide strong drives for the possible …

High School Mathematics Teachers' Evolving Understanding Of Comparing Distributions, Sandra R. Madden

Dissertations

Statistics has achieved a position of status in the secondary curriculum (College Board, 2006b; Franklin et al., 2007; NCTM, 2000) and understanding of statistics is essential for high school mathematics teachers if they are to engage students in thoughtful pursuit of statistical ideas. High school teachers typically are ill-prepared in the area of statistics (Ben-Zvi & Garfield, 2004a; CBMS, 2001; Shaughnessy, 1992, 2007). Using methods of design research, this study investigated 56 high school mathematics teachers' understanding of the statistical concept ofcomparing distributions and demonstrated that a modest four-day, statistics-oriented, technology-rich, professional development program may significantly improve teachers' understanding. …

Calculations Of K-Shell Fluorescence Yields And Photoabsorption Cross Sections For Carbon Ions At The K-Edge, Muhammet Fatih Hasoglu

Dissertations

The advent of new space missions providing high-precision observations has engendered the need for reliable and precise K-shell atomic data in order to interpret these X-ray spectra. In response to this need, we focused on the calculation of K-shell fluorescence yields for 2 nd -row ions. A secondary project was undertaken in order to treat theoretically the K-shell X-ray absorption processes in carbon ions. These calculated fluorescence yields of 2nd -row ions and theX-ray photoabsorption cross sections of carbon are astrophysically important in determining (1) charge-changing probabilities, such as Auger vs. radiative decay, and (2) chemical abundances of the interstellar …

Evaluation Of Electron Donor Materials Used To Create Subsurface Permeable Reactive Barriers For Enhanced Reductive Dechlorination Of Chlorinated Ethenes, Elizabeth S. Semkiw

Dissertations

Chlorinated ethenes (CEs) are widespread ground water contaminants, apparently due to their extensive migration from numerous contamination source points. In this study, a long-term field investigation and aquifer microcosm experiments were combined to evaluate the effectiveness of electron donor materials used to create and maintain subsurface permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) for the enhanced in-situ biodegradation of CEs. The laboratory component includes the first side-by-side comparison of electron donor materials dairy whey, lactate syrup, and Hydrogen Release Compound® (HRC), in which dechlorination rates, fermentation product distributions, and H₂ production were monitored as measures of substrate efficiency. Field study allowed the …

Switch On And Switch Off Nanosensors For The Detection Of Nerve Gas Agents, Shankar Varaganti

Dissertations

The central hypothesis of this research is the development of novel nanosensors by a bottom-up approach for the detection of nerve gas agents. The nanosensor assembly consists of four main parts; nanoparticles (N), Monomer (M), Complex (C) and Receptor (R). Two novel Ru (II)-bipyridyl and zinc complexes with tryptophan receptors either in 4,4' or 5,5' position of the bipyridyl ring have been synthesized and characterized by using ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, mass spectrometry and absorption spectroscopy. Silica nanoparticles or quantum dots are used as a platform for the nanosensors. Highly conjugated stilbene type compounds are used as monomers. …

Photopolymerization And Characterization Of Thiol-Enes And Thiourethanes, Qin Li

Dissertations

Compared to conventional acrylic monomer systems, thiol-ene photopolymerization, an efficient click process leading to the formation of dense and uniform molecular networks, has several distinct advantages including relative insensitivity to oxygen inhibition, high monomer conversion and low shrinkage. Although there has been a revival of interest in thiol-enes in the past 6 years, the structure-property relationship of these networks has not been explored in detail. For future applications, thiol-enes with higher shelf-life stability and glass transition temperatures need to be used. Sulfur containing urethanes, thiourethanes and dithiourethanes are a class of widely used materials due to their distinct properties such …

Coincidence Theory: Seeking A Perceptual Preference For Just Intonation, Equal Temperament, And Pythagorean Intonation In Excerpts For Wind Instruments, Derle Ray Long

Dissertations

Coincidence theory states that when the components of harmony are in enhanced alignment the sound will be more consonant to the human auditory system. An objective method of examining the components of harmony is by investigating alignment of the mathematics of a particular sound or harmony. The study examined preference responses to excerpts tuned in just intonation, Pythagorean intonation, and equal temperament. Musical excerpts were presented in pairs and study subjects simply picked one version from the pair that they perceived as the most consonant. Results of the study revealed an overall preference for equal temperament in contradiction to coincidence …

The Relationship Betweeen Dynamic And Chemical Factors On The Morphology In Aot-Water-Polymer Systems, Jolanta Elzbieta Marszalek

Dissertations

Photopolymerization of reverse microemulsion demonstrates strong influences from dynamical and chemical factors on morphology of formed polymer systems. Upon polymerization the clear microemulsion with nanoscale structures transforms into opaque films with larger aggregates that scatter light. Studied here were microemulsions based on acrylate and on thiol-ene chemistries. The difference in the two reaction mechanisms results in the phase separation occurring at different stages of the material formation. Consequently, the morphology of the material demonstrates distinct dissimilarities in the two systems. In addition, the chemical structure of the monomers promotes these morphological differences. When the microemulsion is composed of acrylate and …

A Comparison Of Reading Interventions Based On Preference To Reading Interventions Identified By Brief Experimental Analysis, Debborah Eda Smyth

Dissertations

The available literature on children's acceptability of interventions is rather sparse and offers little support for the link between acceptability and effectiveness (e.g., Foxx & Jones, 1978; Shapiro & Goldberg, 1986; Turco & Elliot, 1990). The present study compared the effects of treatment preference to treatment effectiveness using a brief experimental analysis to select skill-based oral reading fluency interventions. The use of a brief experimental analysis (BEA) (Daly, Martens, Hamler, Dool, & Eckert, 1999) has been demonstrated to be an effective procedure for selecting oral reading interventions. However, the studies on brief experimental analysis to date have not examined student …

South Mississippi Public Elementary School Teachers' Implementation Of And Attitudes Toward Inquiry-Based Science, Thomas Franklin Sumrall

Dissertations

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between the dependent variables of K-5 elementary teachers' attitudes toward inquiry-based science, implementation of National Science Education Standards concerning inquiry-based science, and the number of inquiry-based lessons taught with the predictor variables of gender, school district teaching, ethnic group, educational level, experience, grade level teaching, and number of science courses taken. Four hundred thirty teachers of grades K through 5 from seven school districts in south Mississippi were surveyed using the Revised Science Attitude Scale (Bitner, 1994), Inquiry Beliefs and Practices survey (Jeanpierre, 2006), and a demographic questionnaire. A total of …

Preparation Of Carboxylic Acid Functionalized Glycopolymers Through Raft And Post-Polymerization Modification For Biomedical Application, Husnu Alp Alidedeoglu

Dissertations

The primary theme of this dissertation involves the synthesis of well-defined primary amine functionalized polymers, subsequent modification of the polymers to produce novel carboxylic acid functionalized glycopolymers and surface polymerization of these systems utilizing controlled polymerization techniques. Additionally, the synthesis of new water-based allylic copolymer latexes is described. Carbohydrates are natural polymers which possess unlimited structural variations. They carry a huge density of information, and play major roles in recognition events and complex biological operations. For example, hyaluronic acid (HA), an anionic glycosaminoglycan, provides lubricating and cushioning properties in the extracellular matrix and has been found to be involved in …

Contextual Learning For A Global Economy: A Comparative Case Study Of Two Career Technical Centers And Two Machine-Tool Manufacturing Businesses, Jennifer L. Harrison

Dissertations

This qualitative method research dissertation explored the reactions, insights, and current business practices as they pertained to effectively training workers in areas such as problem-solving, higher order thinking and customer service. This body of work examined both changing economic shifts and global paradigms as well as how a systems thinking approach can help educators prepare students for the 21st century and beyond by implementing action research-based methodologies through effective professional learning communities. The problems to which this study addressed were namely (1) to what extent and in what way are there disparities and similarities between career and technical education settings …

Homefront, Stacy Elaine Pratt

Dissertations

This collection of poetry and essays explores the nature of marriage, time, and human experience. Many of the pieces center on the author's experience as the wife of a soldier deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Others use scientific and mathematical imagery to illustrate spiritual concepts.

Academic Achievement Of Students In A Charter Homeschool, Mary A. Leeds Edd

Dissertations

A recent development in education is the public charter school as a homeschool model. In several states across the nation, a child may enroll in an independent study program of a public charter school and base his or her studies in the home. This model in the realm of education is called charter homeschool. The state of California has over 120 operating charter homeschools, also known as independent study programs or non-classroom based charter schools. The delivery of instruction from non-classroom based programs has begun to challenge traditional definitions of public schooling. The increased state accountability demands of student academic …

An Investigation Of Career And Technical Education In Local School Districts And The Special School District Of St. Louis County, Missouri, David P. Baker

Dissertations

This investigation focuses on the perceptions of knowledge held by public high school guidance counselors in St. Louis County, Missouri regarding career and technical education (CTE), particularly North and South Technical High Schools, a division of the Special School District (SSD). At the time of this investigation 153 high school guidance counselors were identified in public high schools in St. Louis County. Each counselor was given a 35 item survey, which provided the investigator with demographic information and information regarding the counselor?s perceptions in three subsets of counselor knowledge: CTE candidates, CTE reform and post-secondary opportunities, and CTE program development …

Reduction Of Toxicity In The Premature Neonate Addociated With Aluminum As A Contaminant Of Total Parenteral Nutrition Solution, Sujittra Srisung

Dissertations

Aluminum (Al) is the third most common element in the Earth?s crust. It is widely consumed in water, foods, and drugs. However, in humans, the uptake of aluminum into the body and its deposition in tissues has been linked to conditions of medical concern, including many neurological disorders such as dialysis dementia, Alzheimer?s disease, Parkinson?s dementia and Down?s syndrome. Premature neonates who receive intravenous feeding (TPN) are at a high risk for Al toxicity because the TPN solutions are contaminated with Al3+, which is not excreted effectively due to poor kidney development in these patients. The FDA has recommended regulations …

On The Rolling Motion Of Viscous Fluid On A Rigid Surface, Xinli Wang

Dissertations

This thesis considers two closely related problems. First, the influence of insoluble surfactant at a moving contact line is considered. This work is mostly motivated by the air entrainment during the coating process where there is a three-phase contact point (e.g., air, liquid and solid). For moving contact line problems, when the fluid is assumed to be an incompressible Newtonian fluid and a no-slip boundary condition is enforced at the solid boundary, the non-integrable stress singularity arises at the contact line, which is physically unrealistic. The contact angle of 180° is considered as a special case in which the singularity …

A Mathematical And Computational Exploration Of The Effect Of The A-Current In Determining The Activity Phase Of Follower Neurons, Yu Zhang

Dissertations

Bursting oscillations are prevalent in neurons of central pattern generators (CPGs) that produce rhythmic motor activity, and the activity phase plays an important role in determining the normal or dysfunctional network output. The activity phase is the delay time-with respect to some reference time in each cycle and normalized by the oscillation cycle period-of the onset of action potentials by a neuron. This dissertation investigates how the A-current, in conjunction with other intrinsic properties, sets the activity phase of a neuron driven by inhibition.

This dissertation is divided into two major components. In the first component, methods of dynamical systems …

Service Supply Chain Management : A Hierarchical Decision Modeling Approach, Roger Angel Solano-Cayama

Dissertations

A Service Supply Chain (SSC) may be described as a network of service provider facilities (in-house or outsourced), each of which is able to process one or more service tasks on an as needed basis. Two key characteristics of a SSC are (i) the business service is decomposable into several sequential tasks that can be processed by different service providers, and (ii) the primary capacity resource is skilled labor. SSCs are increasingly being developed by companies that experience a high variability of demand for their services (e.g., loan processing, analytical consulting services, emergency repair crews, claims processing, etc.). Typically, the …

Investigation Into The Acupuncture And Meridian System, Jingong Pan

Dissertations

The Meridian system conceived by the ancient Chinese has been described and referenced for more than a thousand years. The Meridians meaning paths are the main trunks that run longitudinally within the body. The Meridian system consists of about 400 acupuncture nodes and 20 Meridian channels connecting most of these points. It deals with the routing and distribution of certain signals that may affect physiological functions. It integrates meridians, tissues and organs into a complex system.

Initially, modeling of the acupuncture system is investigated. The physical effect of injecting an acupuncture needle at a node is suggested by an equivalent …

Degradation Of Polylactic Acid In The Presence Of Microsize And Nanosize Fillers, Quyuan Zhou

Dissertations

Polylactide (PLA)-cationic (montmorillonite, MMT) and anionic (hydrotalcite, HT) clay micro- or nanocomposites based on semicrystalline and amorphous polymers and unmodified and organomodified as well as calcined or non-calcined clays at 5wt% concentration are produced by melt mixing. Depending on the clay type, presence of organomodifiers and calcination, micro- or nanocomposites are produced, as confirmed by XRD and SEM analysis.

Unfilled polymers and their composites are subjected to isothermal degradation in air at 180°C and 200°C. Degradation rate constants are calculated from novel equations incorporating IV. Results show that the thermal degradation rate constants of the amorphous PLA and its composites …

Flexible Electronics : Materials And Sensor Fabrication, Katherine J. Duncan

Dissertations

This dissertation demonstrates how to fabricate piezoelectric/pyroelectric thin films by using different printing techniques. These techniques could replace vacuum techniques for manufacturing piezoelectric/pyroelectric sensors. Ink-jet, screen and stencil printing techniques were developed to print these devices.

This work outlines attempts to develop a solution processable conductive ink for ink-jet printing. It then details the printing of commercial conductive ink on flexible substrates employing the three printing methods. Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, are both used to investigate the structure of the P(VDF-TrFE) films. Optical microscopy is used to investigate the thickness and uniformity of the deposited films. The …

Shadows Over Goshen: Plain Whites, Progressives And Paternalism In The Depression South, Fred Carl Smith

Dissertations

This dissertation is about poverty and rural Southerners and the beginnings of America's rational assault on poverty. By 1932, a sense of emergency and desperation permeated American economic and political thinking. The apparent collapse of the industrial economy and credit markets created an environment in which politicians allowed and the public demanded bold experimentation. The period, 1933-1937, in which most of America approved or tolerated progressive notions, offered an opportunity for progressives to demonstrate their solutions to persistent southern poverty. The Division of Subsistence Homesteads (DSH), an agency of the Department of Interior, created communities that combined subsistence gardening with …

Factors That Are Associated With Students' Standardized Reading Achievement Scores, Cherie Nichole Mothershead

Dissertations

This study examined the factors that are associated with students' standardized reading achievement scores. The participants in this study were obtained from two sources: a national and a regional sample. The national participants were located throughout the United States of America, and the regional participants were from a school district in a southeastern state.

The data for the national sample were provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education, and the regional sample was provided by surveying all fifth grade teachers in a school district from a southeastern state. These two …

The Emotional Intelligence And Resilience Of School Leaders: An Investigation Into Leadership Behaviors, Aileen Thompson Bumphus

Dissertations

Recent research suggests that leadership in schools and emotional intelligence are related. Furthermore, resiliency has been researched and found to be linked to successful leadership. As a result of these findings and the researcher's own professional experiences, it is speculated that emotional intelligence, resilience, and school leadership may be highly related factors in how one leads a school. The study of this three-factor relationship has been virtually overlooked in the research on school leadership and might prove useful in the recruitment, identification, development, and retention of effective school leaders.

A study of the emotional intelligence, resilience, and leadership of public …

Remote Sensing Studies For The Assessment Of Geohazards: Toxic Algal Blooms In The Lower Great Lakes, And The Land Subsidence In The Nile Delta, Richard H. Becker

Dissertations

Remote sensing techniques provide valuable tools for assessing a wide variety of environmental phenomena. They have been used for monitoring and assessment of various types of geologic and environmental hazards occurring on land, in the air, or in oceans. I present results from two studies, the first of which examines the spatial and temporal distribution of algal blooms in the Great Lakes; the second measures subsidence in the Nile Delta.

In the first study, methodologies to investigate the extent and distribution (temporally and spatially) of algal blooms in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are studied. Millions of people in the …

Fort Zumwalt School District Professional Development Plan: A Qualitative Study Of Current District Perceptions And Proposed Changes, Jackie K. Floyd, Jennifer A. White

Dissertations

In the Fort Zumwalt School District, the professional development program lacks a district focus resulting in different professional endeavors dependent upon popular trends or interests rather than teacher and student achievement needs. Written procedures for evaluating the Fort Zumwalt Professional Development Plan have not been implemented at the district level in a systematic manner resulting in the current plan remaining unchanged and with limited evidence of impact on teaching and classroom practices. The researcher collected data from Fort Zumwalt K-12 certified teachers using three instruments: (a) reflection/evaluation sheets, (b) needs assessments, and (c) an electronic questionnaire. The data from these …

Understanding Similarity: Bridging Geometric And Numeric Contexts For Proportional Reasoning, Dana Christine Cox

Dissertations

The concept of similarity is uniquely situated at the crossroads of geometric and numerical proportional reasoning. Although studies have documented the existence and nature of student difficulties with this topic, there exists a gap between documented visual insights of younger children and the quantitative inadequacies of older ones. Using a revised version of the Similarity Perception Test followed by 21 clinical interviews, this study investigated the visual and analytical strategies that are used by middle-school students to differentiate and construct similar figures.

New strategies for construction and differentiation were identified, and three overarching conclusions were drawn from the work. First, …

Zeolite-Based Nanosized Ti02 Photocatalytic Paper For Antimicrobial Barrier And Toxin Passivation In Packaging: Design, Synthesis And Characterization, Seonghyuk Ko

Dissertations

This dissertation describes comprehensive studies, including design, preparation, characterization and evaluation, to develop an innovative zeolite-based nanosized TiO2photocatalytic paper for disinfection and disintegration of organic toxins.

A novel paper with high photocatalytic performance was successfully prepared using natural zeolite (clinoptilolite)-based nanosized TiO2 photocatalyst in a microparticle retention papermaking system. Photocatalytic material, from its sol-gel derived TiO2 colloids to its anchoring onto zeolite, has been designed, prepared and characterized. Prior to photocatalytic papermaking, the characteristics of sol-gel synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles from colloidal to nanopowder were investigated with various initial sizes of colloidal nanoparticles synthesized in the range of 2.5±0.1 nm and …