Digital Commons Network^™

Black Spaces In White Places: Toward Black Educational Imagination, Shenita Nicole Mayes

Dissertations

Using a combination of Critical Race Theory, self-determination, and Black radical imagination as a theoretical framework, this dissertation explores how the features of Black educational imagination – liberatory pedagogy, critically conscious acts, and a revitalized Black teaching force – animate Black school space. These spaces facilitate the re-humanization of Black people, the recognition of counter-narratives as valuable, and the consideration of racial trauma in hiring practices. Each space represents a meaningful recognition of Black radical imagination and therefore inform my actions in the workplace. I argue that a possible path towards liberating Black people from racialized oppression is paved by …

Improving Veteran Access To Heart Failure Specialty Care: A Change Model Project, Mark Bird Whelchel

Dissertations

Background: Many Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities have cardiac services, but not all VHA centers offer heart failure care. Viable alternative models exist to traditional outpatient treatment by physicians, such as Tele-medicine consultations, the use of nurse practitioner run clinics, and the use of models such as Specialty Care Access Network-Extension for Community (SCAN-ECHO) and site specific contracted physician services models. These have the potential to improve Veteran access to care. Objective: The purpose of this change project was to conduct a needs assessment survey, in joint effort with the Hershey Medical Center Heart and Vascular Institute, to identify barriers …

The Relationship Between Intercollegiate Coaches’ Servant Leadership And Their Athletes’ Ethically-Related Sport Orientations And Behaviors, Lyman (Lee) Estel Ellis Iii

Dissertations

Considerable attention is directed toward the sporting orientations, attitudes and behaviors of athletes in competitive sports. Coach behavior is also a source of interest as it pertains to performance, satisfaction, and motivation of athletes who play for them. Codification of coach behavior as leadership style and the relation to sportspersonship attitudes and behaviors in athletes is understudied. This exploratory study investigated the relationship between intercollegiate coaches’ servant leadership and their athletes’ ethically-related sport orientations and behaviors. Participants included NCAA DIII soccer coaches and their athletes. Coaches were asked demographic information and their cooperation in forwarding a survey link to their …

Synthesis Of Cyclic Enolphosphonates And Enolphosphates As Inhibitors Of Serine Hydrolases, Benjamin Patrick Martin

Dissertations

Cyclophostin is a potent naturally occurring inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase with a novel bicyclic enolphosphate structure. The cyclipostins are a family of potent hormone-sensitive lipase inhibitors which share the same bicyclic enolphosphate core structure with cyclophostin which but differ primarily in that they are long-chain alkyl phosphate esters whereas cyclophostin is a methyl phosphate ester. Due to the novelty of the inhibitor structure, potency, and ability to select between two serine hydrolase enzymes with a simple change in the ester substituent, the ongoing structure activity relationship investigation of this family of inhibitors was continued. Methods of transesterification were investigated in order …

Building Structure In A Land Without Rules: A Delphi Study To Decipher The Best Avenues To Diminish Cyberbullying In A Middle School Setting, Dave A. Kline Dr.

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Building Structure in a Land without Rules: A Delphi Study to Decipher the Best Avenues to Diminish Cyberbullying in a Middle School Setting

by Dave Kline

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify what policies and procedures were most effective in reducing cyberbullying as perceived by a panel of middle school administrators.

Methodology:This Delphi study asked middle school administrators, through a series of three surveys, to determine the best policies and procedures to manage cyberbullying in a middle school setting. Through the survey process, the panel of experts delineated several policies and procedures that are …

The Role Of Technology In Personalized Learning And The Effect On Student Achievement, Allison Jean Pilley

Dissertations

Personalized learning is not a new concept and can be traced back to the 1700s, but it has become increasingly popular in today’s schools (Bray & McClaskey, 2015). With the high rate of technology introduction into classrooms, the implementation of personalized learning has become easier as instruction shifts from teacher-led to student-centered (Grant & Bayse, 2014). The purpose of this study was to identify the role of technology in personalized learning and to determine if the implementation of the pedagogy had an effect on student achievement scores. Elementary classroom teachers and elementary principals served as the participants for this study, …

The Perceived Impact On Bullying Of The Second Step Program At A Kindergarten-8th Grade School: A Program Evaluation, Adam J. Thorns

Dissertations

This program evaluation examines the Second Step program at Baker School, a Kindergarten through 8^th grade building located in Hillsborough, Illinois. The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the perceptions of impact the Second Step program has had on bullying at the school. The study employs a mixed-methods approach involving surveys and interviews with students, educators, and parents. This researcher determined that although bullying does not appear to be prevalent at Baker School, there is inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of the Second Step program. Major themes that emerged from this evaluation were a wide range of student …

Discriminative Stimulus Effects Of 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone And 4-Methylmethcathinone, Michael D. Berquist

Dissertations

Recent escalation in the popularity of recreational synthetic cathinone (“bath salts”) use has prompted numerous scientific investigations of the neurochemical and behavioral effects of 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) and 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC), two of the more common chemical constituents of these illicit “bath salts”. Previous neurochemical and electrophysiological studies have revealed that MDPV functions as a blocker, and 4-MMC as a substrate, at monoamine transporters, and both produce transient increases in extracellular monoamines. In addition, previous research has demonstrated that MDPV and 4-MMC support self-administration in nonhuman experimental subjects, and their rewarding effects are observed when paired with contextual cues in nonhuman models …

The House That Propaganda Built: Historicizing The Democracy Promotion Efforts And Measurement Tools Of Freedom House, Emily A. Zerndt

Dissertations

Democracy promotion has been an overt objective of American foreign policy ever since Woodrow Wilson declared it the goal of WWI. This dissertation examines the influence of Freedom House on those policy decisions as well as academia. Freedom House was created in 1941 with the “quiet encouragement” of both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to combat the pervasive isolationism in the United States. Erected as the Western counterpoint to the Braunhaus, the Nazi propaganda center, Freedom House has distinctly political origins. Over the course of its institutional life, Freedom House has evolved from keeping a “balance sheet” on the level of …

Rising Against The “Enemies Of The Church”: The Dynamics Of Russian Desecularization And The Making Of Its Punitive Regime, Rachel Lynn Schroeder

Dissertations

This study makes an original contribution to theorizing desecularization, which Karpov (2010) defines as “a process of counter-secularization, through which religion reasserts its societal influence in reaction to previous and/or co-occurring, secularizing processes.” Existing theory states that desecularization is agency driven, involves social actors and activists with specific interests, ideologies and strategies. However, the theory does not explain the dynamics whereby desecularization takes place and a particular desecularizing regime—in structural and normative form and symbolic and discursive content—develops through social action and achieves hegemonic status. This dissertation fills this important gap by asking: How and why, in the anomic post-Soviet …

Only The River Remains: History And Memory Of The Eastland Disaster In The Great Lakes Region, 1915 – 2015, Caitlyn Perry Dial

Dissertations

On July 24, 1915, the passenger boat Eastland capsized while docked in the Chicago River, killing 844 of its 2,500 passengers. The Eastland Disaster remains the greatest loss-of-life tragedy on the Great Lakes. Using museum exhibits, government documents, trial transcripts, period newspapers, oral interviews, images, ephemera, and popular culture materials, this study examines the century after the disaster in terms of the place the Eastland has held in regional and national public memory. For much of that period, the public memory of the tragedy had been lost, but private memories survived through storytelling within the families of survivors, rescuers, and …

Conceptualization, Measurement, And Effects Of Helicopter Parenting On College Students From The Millennial Generation, Baochun Z. Hind

Dissertations

The social phenomenon of helicopter parenting (HP) has been rapidly growing. Although HP is generally characterized as overly involved parents who “hover” over their college student children (Cline & Fay, 1990), and some research efforts have been made in recent years on understanding the construct of HP, an essential weakness of the majority of these studies is the inadequate conceptualization of HP, both theoretically and operationally. The aim of the current study was to develop a new scale to measure the construct of helicopter parent controlling (HPC), and three questions were used to guide this study: (1) What are the …

Some Nonparametric Ordered Restricted Inference Problems In The Context Of A Statistical Education Study, Bradford M. Dykes

Dissertations

Over the past 10 years, the Department of Statistics at Western Michigan University has developed a question generating system that can be used for creating multiple forms of exams, quizzes and homework for online and face-to-face use. This system can also be used to provide students with a form of instantaneous feedback. With the goal of analyzing how different levels of feedback in an online learning environment impacts students' performance on assignments, this study presents data collected on two semesters of students enrolled in three different meeting types (strictly online, typical face-to-face, and honors face-to-face) of an introductory Statistics course. …

U.S. State Building And The Second Amendment, Darren Dale Gil

Dissertations

This dissertation used a comparative case study strategy employing a mixed methods thematic content analysis approach¹ to explore U.S. government support for Second Amendment freedoms as compared to other freedoms in the U.S. Bill of Rights in American-led state-building projects in Cuba (1898-1901), Germany (1945-1949), and Iraq (2003-2005). The dissertation tested for Republican and Democratic political party support regarding Second Amendment freedoms in U.S. state-building projects. Findings from the three case studies showed that the American government did not support individual arms rights in its state-building efforts as it did with the other nine Bill of Rights freedoms. Findings …

The Synthesis Of Chemosensors For Toxic Analytes, Johnathan Hugh Broome

Dissertations

A number of chemosensors have been designed and synthesized to target cations (Zn²⁺ions), neutral molecules (cathinones), charged molecules (aminoindanes), and anions. The Zn²⁺ ion sensor featured bistriazole designed binding unit and ferrocene signaling units. Characterization of Zn²⁺ ion binding was carried out with electrochemical techniques (CV and DPV), ¹H-NMR, mass spectrometry, and molecular modelling. It exhibited a 1:1 binding stoichiometry with Zn²⁺ and had an affinity for ZnCl₂ (Log K_1:1 = 4.1 ± 0.02) over other Zn²⁺ salts.

The cathinone probe was designed to selectively bind mephedrone over common street drugs …

Liberating Dialogue: Literature Discussions Of Sociopolitical Texts Among African American Students In An Inner-City School, Elizabeth Kearney

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Although the Common Core State Standards have the potential to guide teachers toward literacy practices that emphasize authentic literature and its use in discussions, high-stakes testing associated with the CCSS has prompted some educators to implement curricula that mirrors the tests. Standards that address authentic literature and discussions are often pushed to the background. Teachers now have access to a plethora of quality young adult novels with sociopolitical themes; that is, themes like gender, culture, abled-ness, immigration, economics, social class, poverty, racism, oppression, and peace. Discussions about such themes can lead to liberating dialogue, which presupposes social action …

An Analysis Of Evaluation Practices Of Two Training Programs In The Healthcare Sector Using The New World Kirkpatrick Model, Michelle Woodhouse

Dissertations

The American Customer Satisfaction Index Report in 2015 indicated that service quality in the healthcare sector has declined even though the demand for healthcare service is rising. Companies invest billions of dollars annually to develop and implement customer service training programs; however, although companies evaluate their programs in order to continuously improve customer satisfaction, service quality is still on the decline. This may be because the evaluation process is neither formal nor comprehensive. Although the literature indicates that companies carry out evaluations, little is known about the actual evaluation process that is utilized to evaluate training programs, the levels at …

Exploring Three Colombian-Andean Folk Style (Danza, Pasillo, And Bambuco): An Analysis And Arrangement Of Three Colombian Pieces For Flute And Piano, Jesus Castro Turriago

Dissertations

This dissertation contains an analysis, comparison, and transcription of three Colombian pieces for flute and piano, written by composers of three different styles of folk music: pasillo, bambuco, and danza. An understanding of the historical context of these Colombian musical genres, and comparison of these instrumental pieces for flute and piano to those of other Colombian composers, informed my subsequent transcription and edition. The selected musical material comprises Bandolita, a pasillo composed by Luis Uribe Bueno, Bambuquísimo, a bambuco by Leon Cardona, and Adiós a Bogotá, a danza by Luis Antonio Calvo.

A Statistically Significant Determination From Pretest To Posttest In Knowledge Of Electrophoresis Concepts, Parker Megehee Nelson

Dissertations

The statistical significance from pretest to posttest of 109 high students constructing an electrophoresis chamber or not was explored. The students tested were from six intact biology classrooms. Three classes were treatment groups and three were control groups. The three biology teachers each taught a control and treatment group classroom. Except for building the electrophoresis chamber, students in both groups received identical instruction and testing. Pre- and posttest data was examined by means of a content valid test constructed by the researcher and biology teachers. In order to examine the statistical significance from pretest to posttest in knowledge of electrophoresis …

An Evaluation Of African American Fathers’ Perceptions And Influences On Child Food Choices And Physical Activity Behaviors, Valerie Annette Richardson

Dissertations

Child obesity is affecting children’s health nationwide. Rates are highest among African Americans (AA) in the South. Research has explored parents’ influence on child eating and activity, but most has reported on mothers’ influences. The purpose of this research was to investigate perceptions about AA fathers’ influences on their children’s eating and physical activity. Using a structured focus group questionnaire based on the parent layer constructs of Birch and Ventura’s Ecological Model for Child Overweight (2009), four focus groups were conducted with 28 AA fathers with children 6- to 11-years-old in a rural and an urban church setting in southeast …

Seeing Is Believing, But Is It The Truth? Reality Vs. Representation Of Men In Contemporary Magazine Advertisements, 1980-2010, Dana Ann Lopez Coleman

Dissertations

McQuail (1994) observed, “The entire study of mass communication is based onthe premise that the media have significant effects” (p. 327). Many of these studies in mass communication have focused specifically on the various consequences that are believed to be a result of advertising. These images and perceptions can also become an individual’s reality which serves to shape society and their day-to-day environment. As Rudy, Popova, and Linz (2010) wrote, “Extensive media exposure leads audience members to adopt media reality as their own, and these altered conceptions of reality can in turn influence behavior” (p. 708). Understanding these visual representations, …

Rebuilding Security And Peace For Women: Exploring Women’S Security Challenges And Activism For Security And Peace Building In Northeast India, Rubi Devi

Dissertations

Women have been affected by violence and conflicts ever since the wars were first waged on earth. Woman as a grieving mother or widow is a common portrayal of war and conflict. However, the common portrayal of women as passive victims does not recount the whole story of women’s experience in conflict/post conflict scenario. Women face countless security challenges in the form of physical, psychological abuses, economic burden and most importantly sexual violence- rape, murder, molestation, kidnapping and sex trafficking. The gendered nature of conflict, thus, increases women’s security challenges and places them at a critical juncture of experiencing and …

Ecological And Phenotypic Factors Influencing The Movement Dynamics Of The Blackspotted Topminnow, Fundulus Olivaceus, Scott Richard Clark

Dissertations

Movement of individuals throughout a landscape is a complex behavior that has important consequences on numerous ecological and evolutionary processes. Perhaps most notably is the relationship between movement and reproduction, as this has implicit ramifications on individual fitness and consequently, population level processes. Although this relationship has been theoretically and empirically demonstrated across a number of animal taxa, its role in fishes remains understudied and largely unknown. Using a series of outdoor mesocosms, in combination with a field study, I employed passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags to experimentally assess the sex-specific movement dynamics of a small-bodied, sexually-dimorphic stream fish, the …

The Effect Of Stereoscopic Three-Dimensional Images On Recall Of Second Language Vocabulary, Regina Kaplan-Rakowski

Dissertations

The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate the effect of stereoscopic three-dimensional (S3D) images on productive and receptive recall of foreign language vocabulary. S3D images are highly-realistic and differ from non-stereoscopic three-dimensional (NS3D) images in that they provide the impression of the added third dimension of depth. This within-subject study exposed the participants (N = 82) in a controlled setting to a series of carefully designed and randomly distributed NS3D and S3D images. The subjects were then given immediate productive and receptive tests of foreign language vocabulary items that were represented by NS3D and S3D images. Quantitative data …

Women's Work: Stitching New Identity Narratives In Conflict And Post-Conflict Settings, Arielle Semmel

Dissertations

Here, I bring communication theories into conversation with peace and conflict scholarship. Specifically, I explore how the ways in which women narrate their experiences of violent conflict through sewing collectives can inform conflict transformation work. I engage in this exploration within the framework of narrative theory, using Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad to analyze the narratives presented in a selection of textile pieces created by women in Chile, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. I situate this project within literature pertaining to feminist approaches to rhetoric, discussions of bridgework in identity negotiation from intercultural communication, concerns related to conflict transformation, and work …

Unbiasing Information Search And Processing Through Personal And Social Identity Mechanisms, Benjamin A. Lyons

Dissertations

Group commitments such as partisanship and religion can bias the way individuals seek information and weigh evidence. This psychological process can lead to distorted views of reality and polarization between opposing social groups. Substantial research confirms the existence and persistence of numerous identity-driven divides in society, but means of attenuating them remain elusive. However, because identity-protective cognition is driven by a need to maintain global and not domain specific integrity, researchers have found that affirming an unrelated core aspect of the self can eliminate the need for ego defense and result in more evenhanded evaluation. This study proposes a competing …

Predictors Of Alcohol Consumption, Use Of Protective Behavioral Strategies, And Alcohol-Related Sexual Consequences: A Gendered Social Learning Perspective, Kayla Darlene Moorer

Dissertations

Given the long standing gender differences in regard to alcohol-related behaviors and consequences, understanding how conformity to gender norms may predict alcohol-related outcomes is an important next step in developing effective prevention efforts aimed at reducing alcohol-related sexual consequences for college women. The current study examined the relationships among conformity to feminine and masculine gender norms and alcohol-related outcomes (harmful drinking patterns, protective behavior strategy use, and sex-related consequences) among college women. Another primary aim of the study was to determine the extent to which sex-specific alcohol expectancies mediated the associations between gender norms and alcohol-related outcomes. Participants were 421 …

“Eye For An Eye” Or “Turn The Other Cheek?” Exploring The Moderating Roles Of Revenge And Forgiveness When Examining Death Penalty Support And Religious Fundamentalism, William Howard Whited

Dissertations

Public attitudes towards the death penalty appear to influence the usage of legislative policies about this highly debated sanction in the United States. However, existing ways of measuring public opinion about the death penalty are limited in the information they provide. As such, one purpose of the study was to further develop the Revised Attitudes towards the Death Penalty Scale (RATDP), an instrument that measures level of support for the death penalty and is inclusive of the rationales that both proponents and opponents use to justify their stance. Support for a five-factor structure of the RATDP was found in an …

Doing Spontaneity, Nicolas J. Zaunbrecher

Dissertations

This dissertation considers the rhetorical use of the term “spontaneity” and action affiliated with it from the perspective of ethnomethodology, as a dynamic social practice emergent from concrete interactions among people. I first consider a variety of existing operationalizations of “spontaneity” in academic research from the perspective of what is ethnomethodologically accomplished by these operationalizations, i.e., what questions do they answer or attempt to answer? I then turn to a detailed rhetorical analysis of the term “spontaneity” as an ideograph in improvisational theatre, a social practice in which enactment of spontaneity is treated as criterial to identity and recognition of …

A Comparison Of Teacher Perceptions Of Students’ Abilities And Students’ Self-Reported Technological Abilities, Karalin Sanders

Dissertations

This study focused on the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the use of instructional technology in the classroom. Participants in this study were from three school districts with student populations between 500-1,000 students in the southwest region of Missouri. Students were given a survey to determine a self-assessment of their own abilities to use certain technologies for learning purposes. Their teachers were given a correlated survey; however, teachers were asked to assess their students’ abilities to use certain technologies for learning purposes. A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted on the results of the surveys to determine if there was …