Digital Commons Network^™

It's Not Just About The Technology: Changing The Focus From Technology To Collaboration In Videoconferencing Room Design, Tamela W. Smith

Dissertations

Videoconferencing technologies are being increasingly utilized in today’s business and educational environments. However, implementation rates continue to be lower than projected, and user perceptions on the level of collaborative environment provided by videoconferencing rooms vary widely, depending on room design. This study found that, while few videoconferencing professional characteristics impact the level of collaborative environment designed for end-users, the perceived closeness levels provided to end-users significantly impacted their perceptions on the technology. The study also found that videoconferencing professionals’ views and end-users’ views on the level of collaboration within videoconferencing environments vary significantly. By shifting the design of videoconferencing rooms …

Alcoholism On The American Stage: De-Stigmatizing Socially Constructed Depictions Of The Alcoholic Through Performance, Thomas Michael Campbell

Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to address the societal problems associated with alcohol abuse and alcohol dependency in relationship to problematic depictions that have appeared on the American stage. It examines plays that perpetuate stigmas as well as plays that seek to subvert stigmas and stereotypical depictions as a means of creating avenues for discourse. This study asks how we, as practitioners of the theatre, can use the theatre and the act of storytelling to initiate empathy and compassion toward what is still considered a marginalized topic of discussion. Cultural misconceptions regarding the development of and (mis)understandings of alcohol abuse/dependency are perpetuated …

Scheler's Phenomenological Ontology Of Value: Implications And Reflections For Ethical Theory, James Edward Hackett

Dissertations

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF J. Edward Hackett, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Philosophy, presented on December 6, 2012 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: Scheler's Phenomenological Ontology of Value: Implications and Reflections for Ethical Theory MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Kenneth W. Stikkers My dissertation provides the first comprehensive account of what values are in Max Scheler's Formalism in Ethics (Formalism hereafter). As a phenomenologist, Scheler did not attempt to invent a new ontological language to describe value experience clearly as Heidegger invented for his fundamental ontology of Dasein. In so doing, Scheler's phenomenological descriptions often use metaphysically …

Mediating The Bubble: Espn's Sportscenter's Coverage Of The Ncaa Men's Basketball Bubble, Scott David Lambert

Dissertations

This dissertation examines ESPN's SportsCenter's coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament bubble. The dissertation examines the differences in coverage between average teams from the six major NCAA Division I men's basketball conferences and teams from the other 25 conferences. The dissertation examines SportsCenter's coverage from an effects method, questioning whether SportsCenter sets the agenda for other news media in terms of national sports coverage, in this case coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament bubble. The dissertation also takes an effects method in terms of framing, examining the narratives SportsCenter uses to describe tournament teams and the attributes that …

Watching The Watchdogs: Defining Journalists In The United States, Wendy Marie Weinhold

Dissertations

The word journalist, and the domain of producers and texts that inhabit its boundaries, often lacks a clear and agreed definition. The dominant body of literature looks at journalists in the United States through a remote lens, locates them within a cadre of journalists operating out of a newsroom, and overlooks the multiple roles they inhabit at once. This dissertation represents an attempt to build on and extend the depth of definitions afforded the American print journalist offered in literature that dominates journalism studies. This dissertation utilizes critical textual analysis for a case study of journalists' letters to editors of …

Counselor Educator Knowledge, Experience, Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Jennifer Mills Langeland

Dissertations

Following growing public interest and widespread use, many health professions have begun to explore the attitudes toward, knowledge of and experience with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) of the various stakeholders within their professions. This foundational information has enabled disciplines such as medicine, nursing, psychology, and marriage and family therapy to take a closer look at how students, patients, clients, and faculty think about and utilize CAM and its relevance to their professions. Surveying the practices and attitudes of stakeholders has been an important starting point for professions undertaking the task of integrating these practices into training programs.

This study …

How Schools Are Meeting State Legal Mandates To Provide Online Education, Mark Edward Deschaine

Dissertations

This study explores how public schools in Michigan are meeting the mandate to provide online learning opportunities as a condition of graduation. Michigan became the first state in the nation to mandate online learning opportunities as a condition for graduation with the passage of the Michigan Merit Curriculum. Although the mandate for compliance has been in effect since the 2010-2011 school year, there has been no systemic exploration as to how the mandate is affecting students, teachers, schools and systems.

This quantitative study surveyed administrators from all public traditional and charter high school programs across the state of Michigan. Using …

Evaluation Of A Successful High Risk Nursing Student Assistance Program: One Adn Program's Journey, Ciaran O'Sullivan

Dissertations

A college education is, for many in America, part and parcel of the American Dream, and is certainly achievable. For countless reasons, students may enroll at community colleges underprepared, unprepared, anxious, and destined for a high risk of failure. Although community colleges are higher education institutions open and accessible to all who want to pursue an education, some degree programs are selective enrollment programs, such as nursing. Considering the stringent admission criteria and rigors of an associate degree in nursing (ADN) program, few are admitted. However, due to the pending shortage of registered nurses, assistance programs to help high risk …

Air Too Pure For Slavery And The Rights Of British Liberty: The Black Experience In London, 1772-1883, Tony A. Frazier

Dissertations

This dissertation presents abundant evidence that people of African descent were very present and visible in eighteenth-century London society. In the eighteenth century, London was one of the largest cities in the world with a population that reached almost 700,000 in 1750 and over a million in 1800. In addition, Great Britain was the leading slave trafficking nation in the world. Therefore, it was no surprise that the debate concerning black freedom and liberty was center stage in one of the most important regions in Europe and the Atlantic world. This question, much like the development of slavery in eighteenth-century …

Factors Influencing Student Motivation Within Two University-Offered Physical Activity Classes, Chad A. Grabau

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Characterization Of New Light Emitting Probes For Sensitive Detection Of Bio-Molecules And Live Cells, Shyamala Pravin Pillai

Dissertations

A variety of contemporary analytical platforms in technical and biological applications take advantage of labeling the objects of interest with fluorescent or luminescent tracers. Luminescent tracers take advantage of the unique property of some lanthanide metals to absorb and emit light. Long lifetime of lanthanide emission allows temporal gating of the signal, which avoids the short-lived background of interfering sample components. This property in combination with large Stokes shift contributes to extreme sensitivity of detection (ca. 10^-13-10^-14 M), which makes lanthanide-based probes suitable for large variety of challenging tasks ( e.g., intracellular detection of single DNA/RNA, or …

Extension To Pv Optics To Include Front Electrode Design In Solar Cells, Debraj Guhabiswas

Dissertations

Proper optical designing of solar cells and modules is of paramount importance towards achieving high photovoltaic conversion efficiencies. Modeling softwares such as PV OPTICS, BIRANDY and SUNRAYS have been created to aid such optical designing of cells and modules; but none of these modeling packages take the front metal electrode architecture of a solar cell into account.

A new model, has been developed to include the front metal electrode architecture to finished solar cells for optical calculations. This has been implemented in C++ in order to add a new module to PV OPTICS (NREL’s photovoltaic modeling tool) to include …

Novel Algorithms For Fair Bandwidth Sharing On Counter Rotating Rings, Mete Yilmaz

Dissertations

Rings are often preferred technology for networks as ring networks can virtually create fully connected mesh networks efficiently and they are also easy to manage. However, providing fair service to all the stations on the ring is not always easy to achieve.

In order to capitalize on the advantages of ring networks, new buffer insertion techniques, such as Spatial Reuse Protocol (SRP), were introduced in early 2000s. As a result, a new standard known as IEEE 802.17 Resilient Packet Ring was defined in 2004 by the IEEE Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) Working Group. Since then two addenda have been introduced; …

Separation Of Various Organic-Organic And Aqueous-Organic Solutions Via Pervaporation, John Tang

Dissertations

Pervaporation, an energy saving separation process, can be useful in pharmaceutical processing. However, the organic solvents involved in pharmaceutical product synthesis are chemically demanding; very few polymers are able to withstand them. An ideal membrane would be polymeric having a high thermal, chemical and mechanical stability. Such a membrane is made of a copolymer of polydimethyldioxole and tetrafluoroethylene known as PDD-TFE of the CMS-3 variety with a very high free volume. This novel membrane is used to separate a variety of organic-organic and aqueous-organic mixtures. An earlier study based on water-ethanol-isopropanol has shown evidence that the membrane selectivity may be …

Development Of Luminescent Probes For Ultrasensitive Detection Of Biopolymers, Their Complexes, And Living Cells, Laura A. Wirpsza

Dissertations

New luminescent probes with enhanced brightness convenient for bioconjugation were synthesized and tested in major biological applications including the detection of nucleic acids and living cells. The first project used luminescent lanthanide ion probes that take advantage of hyper-sensitive acquisition of their long-lived emission signal in time- resolved mode, which avoids short-lived background fluorescence of the medium. Two model carbostyril fluorophores (cs 124-CH₃ and cs 124-CF₃) were modified by inclusion of two spacers (diamino and bi-phenyl) for the attachment of amine and thiol reactive cross-linking groups. In this project, time-resolved measurements are presented for spectroscopy and microscopy. …

Fabrication And Evaluation Of A Collagen-Based Fiber-Gel Three-Dimensional Construct For Peripheral Nerve Repair, Mevan Lakmal Siriwardane

Dissertations

Nerve regeneration following a peripheral nerve injury often relies on growth cone- mediated guidance and the presence of Schwann cells to support the regenerating axons and remyelinate portions of denervated nerve pathways. The emphasis of this work is to develop a synthetic nervous tissue construct that contains similar basal lamina or extracellular matrix to peripheral nerve in order to achieve a level of effectiveness in nerve repair and future peripheral nerve regeneration applications. To this end, three- dimensional nervous tissue constructs consisting of type I collagen are fabricated into a composite biomaterial scaffold to promote contact-guided growth of neuronal and …

Mathematical Modeling Of Heavy Metals Diffusion And Removal From Cylindrical Cement Forms Coated With Bio-Film, Mojdeh Tabatabaie

Dissertations

A mathematical model is developed to predict bioleachi ng of heavy metals from long cylindrical shape cementitious samples. In this model, the metal concentration difference within the solid and its surface is considered as the main driving force for transport of metals to the surface of a sample at a given temperature and pressure. Fick’s first and second law are applied to explain the motion of contaminants in a long and uniform cylindrical solid. In addition, the model considers Michaelis-Menten type kinetics, a special case of the widely accepted Langmuir-Hinshelwood reaction mechanism, at the surface of the encapsulating cylinder. The …

Retail Visual Assistant Digital Artefact, Neville Knott

Dissertations

Window display, store layout and visual merchandising are defined as the ability to attract and sell to the consumer silently. One of the biggest challenges facing small retail businesses in towns and villages around the globe is how to compete against large multinationals in the visual layout and presentation of their merchandise and shops. One of the key advantages that large retail units have over small ones is professionally merchandised stock incorporated into a strategic spatial layout. The cost of employing a full- or part-time design expert within the field of visual merchandising is not viable for smaller shops, resulting …

Promoting A Culture Of Integrity: A Study Of Faculty And Student Perceptions Of Academic Dishonesty At A Large Public Midwestern University, Tanisha Nicole Stevens

Dissertations

Research reveals that reducing academic misconduct requires an understanding of factors that influence the two key stakeholders in the epidemic: students who engage in academically dishonest behaviors and faculty who are charged with the responsibility of reporting and deterring the behavior (e.g., Prenshaw, Straughan & Albers-Miller, 2000). In response, a body of research reveals that in order to alter the environment in which academic dishonesty occurs, an understanding of how individuals perceive dishonesty and its severity is of great importance (Roberts & Rabinowitz, 1992). Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to examine faculty perceptions and student perceptions of academic …

A Methodology For Coronary Stent Product Development: Design, Simulation And Optimization, Anweshana Vaizasatya

Dissertations

Coronary stents are slotted tubes made of metals, alloys, or polymers. They are deployed in human arteries, which are blocked by calcified plaque, to keep the arteries open and allow the blood to flow with ease. Coronary stents have been proven as an effective treatment device for heart diseases such as acute myocardial infarction. Design plays an important role for coronary stents to perform the clinical functions properly. Various parameters such as materials, structures, dimensions, and deployment methods etc., need to be considered in the design of coronary stents. There are numerous studies on design of coronary stents and many …

Examining The Teacher Perceptions, Implementations, Barriers, And Benefits Associated With The Missouri Reading Initiative, Paula Suzanne Roberts

Dissertations

Reading is an essential skill taught during elementary academic years. The Sunny Day School District recognized the need of locating a reading program tailored to effectively meeting the instructional needs of students. A preliminary question was, “how do we increase the reading achievement of all our students?” In response to this instructional concern, the Sunny Day School District decided to implement the Missouri Reading Initiative (MRI), a state program created to assist teachers with scientifically research based reading instructional strategies. This study addressed the problem of a lack of a program evaluation for the MRI program as implemented within the …

Booklet Of Selected Theses From The Ma In Criminology, Ma In Law, Ma In Child, Family And Community Studies, And The International Masters In Early Childhood Education, 2010-2012, Matt Bowden, Carmel Gallagher, Kevin Lalor

Dissertations

This booklet highlights and celebrates the research work of graduates from taught Masters programmes in the School of Social Sciences and Law:

• the MA in Criminology

• the MA in Law

• the MA in Child, Family and Community Studies

• the International Masters in Early Childhood Education, co-delivered with Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (Norway) and the University of Malta (Malta).

The MA in Criminology and the MA in Law commenced in 2006 and the MA in Child, Family and Community Studies commenced in 2007. Each has quickly become established in its field as a …

Music Education In America: A Content Analysis And National Perspective Of Standards-Based Outcomes For K-8 General Music, Joseph A. Alsobrook

Dissertations

The aim of this study was explore and measure desired results that are fundamental and essential to standards-based accountability and comprehensive musicianship for students in K-8 general music classes. Using a clustered sample of state achievement standards aligned with the National Content Standards for Music Education (n = 16), an exploratory content analysis was conducted. Qualitative analysis was employed to identify desired results as fundamental, or basic, elemental, or underlying; qualitative analysis and measurement was employed to identify fundamental desired results as essential, or frequent among 50% or more of the sample. Sub-samples were also analyzed for equivalent-forms reliability.

The …

Significance Of Protein Interactions In Mediating Af9 Function, Bhavna Malik

Dissertations

Rearrangements of the MLL gene at chromosome band 11q23 have been associated with a heterogeneous group of lymphoid, myeloid and mixed lineage leukemias. MLL rearrangements occur approximately in 70% of infant leukemias and are also common in therapy-related leukemias where patients were previously treated with topoisomerase II inhibitors. Unfortunately, these patients have a poor prognosis. MLL gene rearrangements give rise to chimeric proteins that contain the N-terminal portion of MLL fused to the C-terminal portion of over 50 different fusion partners. The chimeric proteins cause constitutive expression of some MLL target genes such as HOXA9 and MEIS1, and enhanced proliferation …

Gothic Slumming: Realist Writers And Gothic Texts In Progressive Era America, Gillian Nelson Bauer

Dissertations

During the Progressive Era, American realist and naturalist writers frequently employed the gothic mode. In contrast with critics who contend that the gothic is a subversive or disruptive mode, I suggest that the relationship between realism and the gothic is one of collaboration rather than conflict. These modally mixed works, which I refer to as gothic realism, express class anxieties that arose during this period, concerns that resulted from the rapid urbanization, immigration, increased cross-class interaction, and economic precariousness that mark the latter end of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth centuries. Following Teresa Goddu, I consider …

Making Something Out Of Nothing: Asexuality And Narrative, Elizabeth Hanna Hanson

Dissertations

The existence of asexuality, the non-experience of sexual attraction, forces us to reconsider a great deal of received wisdom about sexuality, subjectivity, and narrative, which are all closely bound together in modernity. These discourses, whose interactions we find in distilled form in the novel, have both necessitated and facilitated asexual erasure. I read asexuality as a threatening absence or stasis jamming the economy of desire that operates between subjects or propels a narrative forward. Grounding my study of asexuality in narrative theory and queer theory, I explore narratives that confront asexuality at the level of content--its manifestations, misrecognitions, and repudiations …

Value-Centric Methodology For Requirement Verification Under Uncertainty, José F. Martin

Dissertations

The development of a Department of Defense (DoD) Product, no matter how simple or complex, will ultimately undergo the execution of a requirement verification plan to make sure that the product being developed meets the requirements that it was designed to meet. In DoD organizations, these plans are usually developed and executed with cost and schedule as two significant variables. Technical risk is also addressed but from the context of acknowledging that certain attributes have the potential to impact cost, schedule, or mission. While other influential pressure points are also critical (e.g., expected results, benefits, and uncertainty) these do not …

Numerical Simulations Of Plasma Dynamics Using The Flowfield Dependent Variation (Fdv) Method, Bassem Girgis

Dissertations

The Flowfield Dependent Variation (FDV) method is a generalized numerical method for solving the partial differential equations that govern fluid dynamics, heat transfer, as well as multi-physics scenarios involving external electric and magnetic fields, and shock-turbulent boundary layer interactions. A unique feature of the FDV method is that most of the currently available Finite Difference Method (FDM) and Finite Element Method (FEM) computational schemes can be obtained from it as special cases. For this reason, the FDV method has the potential for application to a broad range of problems in science and engineering. The principal objective of this dissertation is …

Structure And Mission Effectiveness: A Study Focused On Seventh-Day Adventist Mission To Unreached People Groups Between 1980 And 2010, Abraham Guerrero

Dissertations

The present study examines the impact of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's structure on mission effectiveness in taking the gospel to unreached people groups between 1980 and 2010. A historical descriptive study, this dissertation's theory base includes structure from an anthropological perspective; structure, mission, and effectiveness from an organizational perspective; and church structure and mission effectiveness in Christian history.

The impact of structure on mission effectivenessis evaluated in the present work by looking for patterns in history in which the structure has been either a facilitator or a hindrance for establishing churches among those who have not been reached with the …

Environmental Factors Influencing Oxidative Stress In Respiratory Cells, Carresse L. Gerald

Dissertations

Agriculture workers inhale a variety of dusts, gases, microbes and compounds on a daily basis. Several respiratory diseases display inflammation and oxidative stress as key factors of pathogenesis. To better understand the effects of agricultural dusts on the airway there first needs to be characterization of dust components. Thus, we hypothesized that confinement facilities contain high levels of respirable particles, bacteria, and elements of respiratory importance. We further hypothesized that SCF dust alone or in combination with diepoxybutane (DEB) will result in oxidative stress and phytonutrients from the sorrel plant will reduce these effects. Several bacterial species were identified via …