Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of Alcohol Use In The Gastric Bypass Patient, Kathleen Winston Phd, Msn, Rn

Dissertations

Introduction: Obesity and morbid obesity, along with their co-morbidities, are impacting the national and international healthcare delivery systems and policy agendas. Bariatric surgery is a dynamic and fast-changing medical and surgical practice designed to mitigate the consequences of 60 million obese adults in the United States alone. Alcohol consumption after gastric bypass surgery presents potential physiological and psychological problems. Purpose: Examine the prevalence and incidence of increased alcohol consumption among a group of post-gastric bypass patients; identify the relationship of the alcohol use with time since surgery, psychosocial issues (depressive symptomatology, anxiety, coping) and demographic variables. Theoretical Framework: Coping serves …

White Lies: A Critical Race Study Of Power And Privilege, Patricia Jones Brainard

Dissertations

This was a phenomenological study of racial privilege as experienced by White people who have struggled to become more racially aware and socially active in dismantling racism and White privilege. The primary conceptual framework for this study was Critical Race Theory with Transformative Learning theory and Racial Identity Development as additional theoretical lenses. The purpose of this study was to increase our awareness of how White people come to understand their racial privilege and what change in behavior occurs as a result of that increased awareness. Its goal was to promote and influence White adult educators to find explicit ways …

Wellness Characteristics And Health Risk Behaviors Of Young Adult University Students, Nicole Mareno Phd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine wellness and health risk behaviors of young adults at a university in the southwest. Nutrition, physical activity, alcohol use, and safe sexual practices are high priority health concerns on college campuses. Health promotion is integral to nursing. Early identification of risky health behaviors allows for the design of campus health interventions. Health behaviors continue to be formed during college and interventions may have a lasting impact on health promotion and disease prevention. This study added to the research on demographic factors impacting wellness. A correlation between BMI and wellness level was also …

A Correlational Study Of Successful School Bond Issues And Successful Athletic Teams, Mark Beem

Dissertations

This study was completed to determine if there was a relationship between successful school bond issues and successful athletic teams. Data were obtained from 53 school districts in central and southwest Missouri that had attempted to pass a bond issue within the past five years. Superintendents in those districts were asked to respond to a survey regarding the success of their recent bond issues and the success of their football and basketball teams the year of the bond issue and the year preceding. The perceptions of the superintendent’s in regard to community support and the effect of athletics on successful …

Identifying And Addressing Issues Faced By New Community College Presidents, Anthony Raymond Miksa

Dissertations

The American community college system is in the midst of a leadership crisis. Community college presidents are retiring at an alarming rate. Further exacerbating the leadership crisis is the lack of qualified candidates to replace the retiring presidents. Senior administrators at community colleges who are the natural choice to replace the retirees are also retiring or choosing not to pursue a presidency. The overarching purpose driving this research was to identify the challenges encountered by new community college presidents, seek to comprehend the information gathering method utilized by new presidents to identify challenges, and finally, to present the strategies the …

Terahertz Response Of Microfluidic-Jetted Fabricated 3d Flexible Metamaterials, Yew Li Hor

Dissertations

Conventional materials exhibit some restrictions on their electromagnetic properties. Especially in terahertz region, for example, materials that exhibit magnetic response are far less common in nature than materials that exhibit electric response. However, materials can be designed, namely artificial man-made metamaterials that exhibit electromagnetic properties that are not found in natural materials by adjusting, for example, the dielectric, magnetic or structural parameters of the constituent elements.

This dissertation demonstrates the use of new fabrication techniques to construct metamaterials in THz range via a material deposition system. The metamaterials are fabricated by stacking alternative layers with conventional designs such as single …

Phosphate And Thermal Stabilization Of Heavy Metals In Dredged Sediments, Peter Kuria Ndiba

Dissertations

Treatment and reuse of dredged harbor sediments in construction as an alternative to disposal reduces costs and conserves resources. This research focused on leachability of metal contaminants subsequent to phosphate addition and thermal treatment at 700 °C. X- ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in combination with principal component analysis, target transformation, and linear combination revealed that in the untreated sediments Zn precipitated as the relatively soluble smithsonite (ZnCO₃) (67%) and adsorbed to hydrous iron oxides (15%) and hydrous manganese oxides (18%). Phosphate addition and calcination resulted in sparingly soluble phases, hopeite (Zn₃₍PO₄)₂.4H_{2 …}

Collaborative Learning Utilizing A Domain-Based Shared Data Repository To Enhance Learning Outcomes, David J. Lubliner

Dissertations

A number of learning paradigms have postulated that knowledge formation is a dynamic process where learners actively construct a representation of concepts integrating information from multiple sources. Current teaching strategies utilize a compartmentalized approach where individual courses contain a small subset of the knowledge required for a discipline. The intent of this research is to provide a framework to integrate the components of a discipline into a cohesive whole and accelerate the integration of concepts enhancing the learning process. The components utilized to accomplish these goals include two new knowledge integration models; a Knowledge Weighting Model (KWM) and the Aggregate-Integrate-Master …

Voting In Group Support Systems : Theory, Implementation, And Results From An Exploratory Study, Kung-E Cheng

Dissertations

Group decision making is essential in organizations. Group Support Systems (GSS) can aide groups in making decisions by providing tools and process support. GSS is especially useful for geographically or temporally distributed groups. Researchers of GSS have pointed out that convergence processes are hard to accomplish in GSS. Voting tools in GSS can be a valuable asset in alleviating the difficulty of convergence processes because voting is a concise communication of individual preferences with a well defined procedure that is accepted by group members. In addition, voting results can serve as a group memory of the convergence processes. Field observations …

A Novel Storage Area Network (San) Extension Solution Over Passive Optical Networks (Pons), Si Yin

Dissertations

After 9/11 and the 2003 power grid failure in North America, storage area network (SAN) extension has emerged as a critical option to ensure business continuity. However, SAN extension encounters challenges in the access network including the scalability, cost, bandwidth bottleneck, and throughput. In this dissertation, a new solution, SAN extension over passive optical networks (S-PONs), has been proposed to address the above problems. PONs are the mainstream wireline technology for upgrading the megabit-level access solutions (such as xDSL and Cable Modem) into gigabit-level broadband access. To tackle the scalability problem and cost challenge, the S-PON architecture has been designed …

California Education Foundations: A Mixed Methods Study, Laura J. Deitrick Phd

Dissertations

Limited and unstable funding for education has inspired supporters of schools to seek private funds to help pay for public education. Private funds generated at the local level could also, conceivably, reinstate at least a modicum of local control of public schools. Local control, in California at least, has been minimized over the last 30 years as a result of a number of legal decisions related to equity and ballot initiatives such as Proposition 13. One mechanism for channeling private funds to public schools is nonprofit education foundations linked to schools or districts. The total number of these foundations has …

Paper Women: The Representation Of Female Offenders In Irish Newspapers, Lynsey Black

Dissertations

Reductionistic definitions characterise many of the representations of women in our society. From superficial depictions of women as sex objects to the elevation of motherhood as a paragon of womanhood, women navigate myriad roles available to them exclusively because of their gender. Female offenders are potentially more vulnerable to such limitations of representation due to their relative invisibility. Society is largely unacquainted with the realities of circumstance for such women, who are therefore reliant upon media outlets to inform the public. The operation of this process in Ireland has not been the subject of extensive research, and the current study …

Counselor Religiosity And Its Relationship To The Willingness To Encourage Forgiveness And Reconciliation In Clients, Annmarie Cutting

Dissertations

Problem: Although the concept of forgiveness is very old, it has not been systematically studied until fairly recently. As forgiveness therapies and the empirical study of these therapies continue to emerge, the question of the counselor’s own sense of religiosity and forgiveness has not been considered. This study looked at the religiosity of counselors/psychotherapists and how this influences the degree to which they have forgiven an individual who has hurt or offended them, as well as whether a counselor’s religiosity influences their willingness to encourage a client to forgive someone who has hurt or offended them.

Purpose: The purpose of …

Impact Of Interest Group Testimony On Lawmaking In Congress, Nina Therese Kasniunas

Dissertations

Building on interest group and congressional committee literature, the interest group impact theory is created to explicate the role of interest groups in congressional committee hearings. This theory applies not only to the influence interest groups have in congressional hearings, but also to the access given to them to be able to participate. The theory maintains that interest groups are necessary to legislators in this capacity since they provide valuable information relating to politics, elections and policy. Resource rich interest groups with visibility as experts in a policy area are expected to be given more access and influence particularly to …

Transforming Images: Media, Sexuality And Everyday Life, Monica Leigh Edwards

Dissertations

There are many scholars who are critical of modern representations of GLBTQ folks on television (see for example, Larry Gross 1999, Diane Raymond 2005). While it has been established that queer visibility has grown tremendously since the 1990's (post Ellen's coming out), many scholars, noting the absence for example of on-screen intimacy, argue that this greater visibility is still problematic. Queers are rendered a-sexual best friends to straight girls (Ingraham, 1999), and queer couples live lives modeled after "normal" heterosexuals, serving to maintain a binary of sexuality that privileges heteros (Chambers, 2006). All the while, this scholarship seems to pass …

Safety Changes In Blue Ribbon Schools Since The Attack On Columbine High School, Joseph Gust

Dissertations

Measuring school success using a variety of tools is commonplace in America.

For many years, one standard measurement of a school's success was The Blue Ribbon Award from 1982 through 2002. This award quantified success based on schools achieving successful outcomes in a variety of areas with specific criteria.

Blue Ribbon award winning schools are exceptional by Department of Education

standards. They are not exempt from school violence and the issues that plague other

schools. Academic success and awards do not prepare a school for the situation that

occurred at Columbine.

The participants I interviewed were Principals or Designees at …

Principal Evaluation And Student Achievement: A Study Of Public Elementary Schools In Dupage, Will, And Lake Counties, Illinois, Edward John Condon

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the topic of the evaluation of school principals and the role it plays in fostering student achievement. The overarching research question for this study was the following: "Is there a relationship between the type and intensity of principal evaluation and pupil performance in DuPage, Will, and Lake County, Illinois public schools at the K-8 level?"

While there are a number of purposes for principal evaluation, the tools and methods used to evaluate principals vary tremendously by both state and school district. This study addressed the degree to which principal evaluation affects students' …

Rawls, Political Liberalism, And Moral Virtues, Joseph Alava Kabari

Dissertations

The argument of this dissertation is that John Rawls, although primarily concerned with social and political justice, and not with virtue ethics, gives a major place and role to the moral virtues in his theory of political liberalism, as in all of his system of justice as fairness. Some philosophers, mostly of the Aristotelian-Aquinian traditions, have generally lamented what they regard as the abandonment of the moral virtues by modern and contemporary, liberal, moral philosophers. The liberals, the critics claim, turn instead to the principles of justice and right, and to the language of moral obligations and of human rights. …

Perceptions Of Female Hiring In Educational Administration In Rural Pennsylvania Public-School Districts As Perceived By School-Board Members, Barbara J. Kelly

Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the selection practices and requirements for administrators in rural Pennsylvania public-school systems. This study examined aspects of the administrative hiring process in order to explain the significant lack of women in the pool of administrators drawn from the rural Pennsylvania school districts. The research question intended to discern whether school-board members perceived gender bias of female applicants as a deterrent in their hiring or whether there was a paucity of female applicants.

Method

A review of the literature traced the history of education as it pertained to the hiring of women …

Patterns And Challenges Of Parenting School-Age Children Among Selected Sub-Saharan African Immigrant Parents In Southwest Michigan: A Multiple-Case Study, Israel M. Kafeero

Dissertations

Problem. Parenting among immigrants presents unique challenges to parents whose cultural orientation is different from the host culture. Because of the meager research literature on immigrant families in the USA, little is known about the phenomenon of parenting among sub-Saharan African immigrant parents. This study investigated the patterns related to the parenting practices of selected sub-Saharan African immigrant parents, how they conduct corrective discipline to their children, and the challenges they face rearing children in Southwest Michigan.

Method. Qualitative research methods including interviews, observations, focus group discussions, and artifact collection were used in this dissertation to generate data. A snowball …

The Development Of An Instrument For K12 Coordinators Implementing Curriculum Videoconferencing And A Model To Predict Utilization Of Videoconferencing, Janine Monica Lim

Dissertations

Problem. The role of the coordinator and factors affecting their ability to support curriculum videoconferencing in relationship to the utilization of videoconferencing in the school have not been thoroughly studied. The focus of this study is the videoconference coordinatorand their influence on the utilization of videoconferencing.

Method. A measure of the usage of curriculum videoconferencing was developed and compared to a multidimensional conceptualization of factors influencing usage. The conceptualization included the development of a K12 Curriculum Videoconferencing Implementation Scale, as well as measures of educational service agency support, technical support, administrative support, and school and demographic variables. Multiple regression analysis …

The School Climate In A K-12 Single-Campus School As Perceived By Students, Graduates, Parents, And Teachers, Albert P. Lindner

Dissertations

Problem. Pressures created by consistently higher expectations of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation are forcing school boards and professional educators to examine current practices and structures in an effort to reach Average Yearly Progress (AYP). The concept of a single-campus K-12 school may be a viable school structure that can provide an optimum learning climate while addressing academic needs to provide a well- rounded education for the children of America.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to closely examine the school climate of a K-12 school that operated as a single entity for 20 years. The intent was …

An Investigation Of The Knowledge And Beliefs Held By Teachers And Parents In A Parochial School System Regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder And The Variables That Predict Their Knowledge, Kendra-Lee Yvonne Pearman

Dissertations

Problem

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent childhood disorders affecting 3 to 5% of school populations in the United States and other countries. Due to the behavioral and/or academic challenges of children with ADHD, they are at risk for grade retention, dropping out of high school, and teenage delinquency, which can lead to negative consequences in society. Children with ADHD are found in every school setting, including parochial schools. Past studies have found teachers and parents have inadequate knowledge about ADHD, which can negatively affect these children. This study investigated what teachers and parents of children in …

The Stressors And Coping Strategies Of Women In Leadership Positions, Patricia Ann Bernard

Dissertations

Purpose

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) survey, 60% of employed women cited stress as their most serious problem at work. Working outside the home and balancing a family create conflicts between work and family obligations which become a likely cause of stress for women. While stress may be a problem among working women in general, it seems highly probable that women who function in leadership positions may experience additional stressors. Consequently, this study focused on investigating the stressors of women who currently function in leadership positions and the coping strategies they use to combat …

Gender Differences In Antecedents To Academic And Personal Well-Being In Urban Youth: What Is The Role Of Social Support?, Erin Caskey

Dissertations

Urban youth are an important, yet understudied population. Moreover, the vast majority of existing research has focused on negative outcomes. Recently, there has been a trend in the field of adolescent research toward creating models that attempt to understand and explain why some members of at-risk populations are able to overcome adversities and to achieve successful adaptation. The present study investigated the relationships between perceived social support, gender, academic outcomes, and personal well-being in urban youth. Overall, perceived social support was found to be related to many outcome variables for males and females. Gender differences were found in the relationships …

A Rat Model Examining Behavioral And Neurochemical Effects Of Passive Exposure To Aggression On Observers, Hideo Suzuki

Dissertations

Previous studies have consistently reported that passive exposure to aggression is a risk of aggressive inclinations for a human witness. However, it is unclear whether a witness' aggressiveness is semi-permanently socialized or temporarily primed. Furthermore, a neurochemical mechanism of passive exposure to aggression also remains unaddressed in clinical literature. The present research used a rat model to clarify the behavioral and neurochemical effects of passive exposure to aggression. First, rats were screened for their aggressiveness after they were acutely or chronically exposed to aggression or non-aggression. It was found that observer rats chronically exposed to aggression exhibited more aggression than …

Accurate Cylindrical-Coordinate Numerical Models For The Analysis Of Hydrologic Tests, John Edward Keller

Dissertations

Analytical solutions to well hydraulic problems have restrictive assumptions that often do not match real world conditions. Although numerical models more closely match reality, they either ran too slowly to be practical or lacked accuracy because of coarse grid spacing and large time steps. Advances in computer power over the last few decades now allow for accurate, fast numerical models that handle complex flow systems. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop flexible and accurate numerical modeling codes for the simulation of hydrologic tests. One of these numerical modeling codes, the Slug Test Simulator (STS), was designed for the …

Language Attitudes, Linguistic Knowledge, And The Multicultural Education Of Pre-Service Teachers: A Sociolinguistic Study, Maria Elisa Paredes

Dissertations

Abstract This research created, implemented and evaluated the impact of a language unit designed to increase linguistic knowledge and change attitudes toward linguistic diversity for pre-service teachers taking an education class that focused on child and adolescent development at an urban university in Missouri. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were used to document learning and attitude change toward linguistic variety during 4-8 hours of instruction. The language unit included a pretest/posttest design, an overview of general linguistics, phonetics, phonology, sociolinguistics, language acquisition and bilingualism; the unit utilized multiple digital tools (DVD & CD) created by the researcher. Demographic correlates to …

The Development Of Multicultural Counseling Competencies By Using Service Learning, Denise K. Sommers

Dissertations

Forty-six counselors-in-masters-level-training (n = 46) from the Southeast and Midwest provided demographic information and responded to the self-report Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI) and to multicultural counseling scenarios at the beginning of their multicultural counseling class and again at the end of their class. The primary question asked in this study was whether multicultural counseling graduate classes with service learning were more effective than those without service learning in developing multicultural counseling competencies. Consistent with the literature, racial/ethnic self-designation were found to be significantly related to MCI and Cross Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised (CCCI-R) scores. Findings regarding the research questions were inconclusive …

Twelve-Month Administrative Leadership Development Program At The University Of Missouri: Perceived Outcomes By Staff Participants And Participants' Supervisors, Lea-Ann Morton

Dissertations

This study examined the perceived outcomes of a national institute or internship program focused on leadership development at a postsecondary institution by conducting in-depth, qualitative interviews with participants who completed the program and supervisors who oversee these participants in the workplace. The program selected for study was the Administrative Leadership Development Program (ALDP) hosted by the University of Missouri. The perceived outcomes by both populations converged and were identified as Feeling Valued, Relationship Building, Self-Awareness, and Skill Development. The data indicated perceived outcomes by ALDP participants and participants? supervisors were positive in nature and observable differences in participant performance occurred. …