Digital Commons Network^™

Elucidating Matrix Protein Import And Beta-Oxidation Pathways In Plant Peroxisomes, Bibi Rafeiza Khan

Dissertations

Plant peroxisomes function in fatty acid β-oxidation, jasmonic acid (JA) synthesis, and conversion of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Peroxisomes lack genetic material; proteins required for peroxisomal processes are imported posttranslationally. The PEX5 and PEX7 receptors import proteins containing one of two peroxisomal targeting signals (PTS1 or PTS2). I took a genetic approach to better understand protein import and to elucidate the role of Acyl-CoA Oxidase (ACX) enzymes in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. ACX enzymes catalyze the first step in β-oxidation. There are six ACX genes in Arabidopsis and each ACX enzyme acts on specific chain-length targets, …

Elementary Teachers’ Mental Models Of Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison Of Two Communities Of Practice, Ann Piening Mcmahon

Dissertations

Educating K-12 students in the processes of design engineering is gaining popularity in public schools. Several states have adopted standards for engineering design despite the fact that no common agreement exists on what should be included in the K-12 engineering design process. Furthermore, little pre-service and in-service professional development exists that will prepare teachers to teach a design process that is fundamentally different from the science teaching process found in typical public schools. This study provides a glimpse into what teachers think happens in engineering design compared to articulated best practices in engineering design.

Wenger’s communities of practice work and …

Impact Of Multiple Children On Parental Supervision Practices, Parental Developmental Competence, And Unintentional Injury Risk, Jennifer L. Taylor

Dissertations

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity in the United States. The effects of injury on children, families and society encompass physical, mental, emotional, and financial consequences. The highest injury rates are among preschool age children, especially preschool children who have siblings. Child injury prevention strategies can reduce the rates of childhood unintentional injuries and minimize the burdens to children, families, and society created by these injuries. To design and implement effective child injury prevention strategies, further investigation is needed to understand the relationship between the variables influencing the occurrence of child injuries. The specific aim …

Chest Tube Dressings: A Comparison Of Different Methods, Susan Kathleen Blackburn Jones

Dissertations

This study is an experimental design with randomization comparing the use of standard gauze dressings (SGD) to transparent adhesive dressings (TAD) to cover chest tube insertion sites in post-operative patients who have undergone cardio-thoracic surgery. The study was conducted in a 400 bed, tertiary non-academic teaching hospital in the Midwestern United States. Seventy-nine patients were enrolled in the study; 39 received TAD and 40 received SGD. The non-inferiority margin was set at 15% in keeping with current recommendations (Kaul & Diamond, 2006). The TAD was found to be not inferior to the SGD with regards to the proportional differences in …

Five Year Follow-Up Evaluation Of A Faculty Development Program: A Qualitative Study, Marcia Tennill

Dissertations

This qualitative follow-up evaluation explored the long-term impact of a faculty development program on participants who were five years post program. This study focused on 12 faculty members who participated in the University of Missouri’s New Faculty Teaching Scholars program. The nine month program focused on creating a culture of teaching within the university and enhancing peer networking among participants. Data was collected through the review of existing program documents, interviews with program participants, classroom observations, and the review of participants’ syllabi and curriculum vitae. The primary purpose of this study was to learn how a faculty development program affected …

Leadership Styles Of Female Senior Student Affairs Officers, Montague Theresa Orinthia

Dissertations

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the self-reported leadership styles of female Senior Student Affairs Officers at public and private 4-year institutions. This study sought to determine if (a) there is a dominant leadership frame usage among female SSAO’s, (b) determine if leadership style varies significantly among females with less than 5 years of experience in the profession as compared to those with 5 or more years of experience in the profession and (c) identify whether multi-frame leadership style usage differs between female SSAOs at public and private 4-year institutions. This study employed a cross-sectional research design …

Understanding Turnover Intentions And Behavior Of Indian Information Systems Professionals: A Study Of Organizational Justice, Job Satisfaction And Social Norms, Vidya V. Iyer

Dissertations

Despite the phenomenal growth projected for the Indian information technology (IT) industry, one of the biggest challenges it faces is the high rate of turnover in offshore Indian-based supplier firms (Everest Research Group 2011). In this dissertation, we explored the following determinants of turnover intentions—social norms job attributes, job satisfaction, organizational alternatives, first order supervisory justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice) and second-order organizational justice measured by the first order justice dimensions. The research design was longitudinal to assess turnover behavior and its relationship with turnover intentions. Telephonic interviews were conducted with 75 Indian IS professionals based in …

Explaining Investment Policies In Microstates: The Case Of The Fiji Islands, Sudarsan Kant

Dissertations

Prevailing theories have failed to take into account the development of policy and institutions in microstates that are engineered to attract investments in areas of comparative advantage as these small islands confront the challenges of globalization and instead have emphasized migration, remittances and foreign aid (MIRAB) as an explanation for the survival of microstates in the global economy. This dissertation challenges the MIRAB model as an adequate explanation of investment strategy in microstates and argues that comparative advantage is a better theory to explain policy behavior of microstates. These small economies can take advantage of their exotic locations and natural …

Students With Mental Health Issues In Higher Education: A Survey Of Prevalence And Fall-To-Spring Persistence Rates In A Community College Environment, Pendy J. Pecka

Dissertations

Among the multitude of challenges and adversities students face during their first year of higher education, many experience deterioration of their emotional or mental health. Current research focuses on the perceived rise in the breadth and complexity of student mental health concerns at four-year colleges and universities. Even though community college students encompass the majority of individuals enrolled in the United States higher education system, no research specifically examines the mental health prevalence of these students and whether these difficulties negatively impact persistence. This study explored the relationship between evidence of mental health problems and fall-to-spring persistence for first-year students …

Understanding The Environmental Elements In Religious Student Organizations Through Sharon Park’S Mentoring Community Theory, David Christopher Gill

Dissertations

Students are coming to colleges and universities for spiritual fulfillment and have turned to religious student organizations (i.e. Campus Crusade for Christ, Newman Centers, Muslim Student Association, Hillel, etc.) to attain guidance and support. To better understand the spiritual environment religious student organizations have in place, many researchers have used the spiritual development theories of Sharon Parks. Parks theorized that “mentoring communities” need seven environmental elements in order to offer students the greatest chance for spiritual development. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of Parks’ environmental elements adopted by religious student organizations to help support …

The Effect Of Problem-Solving Video Games On The Science Reasoning Skills Of College Students, Tina Marie Fanetti

Dissertations

As the world continues to rapidly change, students are faced with the need to develop flexible skills, such as science reasoning that will help them thrive in the new knowledge economy. Prensky (2001), Gee (2003), and Van Eck (2007) have all suggested that the way to engage learners and teach them the necessary skills is through digital games, but empirical studies focusing on popular games are scant. One way digital games, especially video games, could potentially be useful if there were a flexible and inexpensive method a student could use at their convenience to improve selected science reasoning skills. Problem-solving …

Exploring The Relationship Between Planning And Training, And Response To Campus Safety Incidents, Kimberly Michele Harvey

Dissertations

Over the past 50 years, campus violence has significantly impacted our institutions of higher education. As a result, campus safety has become an increasingly important topic for all colleges and universities. The Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007 highlighted the necessity of emergency management planning and training as well as employee understanding of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Emergency management plans for 27 institutions in Missouri were collected and evaluated to determine how they instructed employees to respond to various campus safety scenarios and how training factored into the campus plans. Two-hundred, fifty-one employees were then surveyed to …

The Influence Of Context On African American Political Participation And Partisanship, Andre L. Smith

Dissertations

What explains the intensity of African American partisan attraction to the Democratic Party? This dissertation investigates how environmental or contextually based theory informs our understanding of partisan affiliation and political mobilization in general and specifically for African Americans. The dissertation research focuses on the extent to which geographic context at the neighborhood level influences the strength of black partisan attachment. I hypothesize that interactions at the neighborhood level affect African American partisanship; specifically, the racial composition of neighborhoods affects the strength of Democratic affiliation. The data used in this study is based on survey data of individuals residing in concentrated …

Lived Experiences Of Medical Laboratory Science Clinical Instructors As Adult Learners, Linda Jean Mccown

Dissertations

Physicians and patients trust the medical laboratory science (MLS) professionals performing laboratory tests, assuming that they are competent. The education of these professionals includes time spent in clinical rotations; weeks that students spend alongside their clinical instructors who are practicing professionals. When they first have students to teach, these clinical instructors have little or no experience or training in how to conduct clinical instruction. This research examined how medical laboratory science clinical instructors learn to conduct clinical instruction. In order to describe the phenomenon of clinical instructors learning to conduct clinical instruction, a mixed methods approach was used. In the …

Partial Connectivity In Wireless Sensor Networks, Robert Andre Murphy

Dissertations

Given a bounded region of the 2-dimensional plane, a discrete set of nodes is distributed throughout according to a Poisson point process. Given some fixed, finite, real number, two nodes are said to connect and form an edge if their mutual distance is less than this number. Let G be the graph of all such edges over the set of generated nodes and let C be any set of mutually connected nodes. It is shown that there is a critical mutual distance such that at least half of all generated nodes are mutually connected to form a connected cluster. Now, …

An Action Research Inquiry Into The Relationship Among Aerobic Activities, Memory, And Stress With Students Identified As Gifted, Denise Marie Ford

Dissertations

Students identified as gifted come from varying socio-economic strata and nationalities with a range of talents and temperaments comprising a diverse community. They may experience stress for a variety of reasons. Although a certain amount of stress can enhance the learning process, too much stress can impede learning, especially memory. Strategies have been offered for relieving stress, yet the benefits of physical activities as stress reducers for the gifted have frequently been overlooked. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among aerobic activity, stress, and memory ability in students in an elementary school gifted program. An exceptional …

From Juvenile Court To The Adult Criminal Justice System: An Examination Of Judicial Waiver, Sheri Lu Jenkins Cruz

Dissertations

This project was concerned with how extra legal factors impact juvenile court judge‟s decisions to waive juveniles to the adult criminal court. This study had both a general and a specific purpose. Generally, it sought to identify and examine the perceptions of juvenile court judges regarding judicial waiver based on previous positions held and on the state in which the juvenile judge resides. Specifically, this study sought to examine the relationship between individual characteristics of juvenile court judges and their perceptions regarding judicial waiver. Based on the research questions, ten hypotheses were developed and tested. The population for this study …

Contributions Of The Kentucky Comprehensive Universities To The Goals Of Postsecondary Education Reform, Cindy L. Ehresman

Dissertations

Kentucky is well known for its education reform efforts; the Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 ushered in an era of intense focus on higher education in the Commonwealth. Specific and measureable goals for each sector of the state’s higher education institutions were included in the legislation; however, goals set for the comprehensive universities were less well-defined than those for both the research institutions and the community and technical colleges. Through an analysis of changes in capacity and mission, this study identified the ensuing contributions of Kentucky’s six comprehensive universities as they addressed the goals of the landmark reform. …

Caring, Interaction, And Active Teaching Strategies: Factors That Contribute To The Success Of The Associate Degree Nursing Student, Penelope Sue Logsdon

Dissertations

This exploratory study examined successful associate degree nursing students’ perceptions regarding the importance of caring by the nursing faculty, nursing faculty/student interaction, and faculty use of active teaching strategies. Participants completed a researcher developed survey instrument that measured both the importance and frequency of the caring, interaction, and active teaching strategies. The survey instrument measured six demographic factors and 30 statements regarding caring, interaction, and active teaching. Participants rated the statements for both importance and frequency on a four-point Likert scale. Five community and technical college associate degree nursing programs participated in the research with a total of 270 successful …

The Role Of University-Industry Collaboration In Regional Economic Development, Ranjana Srevatsan

Dissertations

Innovation has played an important role in the economic development of regions. It is believed that research collaboration between university and industry has a positive influence on regional growth and development. This research explores the role of university-industry collaboration in regional economic development at the metropolitan level. The collaboration between university and industry is examined through two measures: Industrial research funding (IRF) to universities and science and engineering graduates (SEG). The research is divided into two models. The first model studied the combined effect of the metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and studied the influence of IRF and SEG on per …

Assessing The Efficacy Of A Modified Therapeutic Community On The Reduction Of Institutional Write-Ups In A Medium Security Prison, Lee Maglinger

Dissertations

This study explored the impact a modified Therapeutic Community (TC) had on reducing institutional disorder as documented by institutional write-ups. Substance abuse treatment programs are typically evaluated in terms of their ability to prevent relapse and reduce recidivism. The current study examined the efficacy of a modified TC in relation to these parameters but also explored its overall impact on prison safety and security for both the inmates and staff of a medium security prison located in Kentucky. Specifically, the number of institutional write-ups exhibited by clients participating in a modified Therapeutic Community was compared with the number of write-ups …

Response To Autism: An Assessment Of Services For Students With Autism In Kentucky's Public Schools, Leigh Anne Roden

Dissertations

The full implementation of school-based autism services has grown in importance over the past few decades. School systems are expected to provide high-quality educational services for students with autism spectrum disorders. Though several organizations provide recommendations for appropriate program components, Kentucky does not supply education agencies with a means of evaluating the current autism services offered within their districts and schools.

This descriptive study examined the current level of implementation of school-based autism services within an educational cooperative in Kentucky. The research was conducted to determine whether or not school districts are fully implementing essential program components as recommended by …

Legal Discourse, Conceptual Metaphors, And Basic Writing Programming: A Study Of Ayers V. Fordice, Joyce Olewski Inman

Dissertations

In what ways does legal discourse influence our perceptions of students labeled as basic writers and these students’ perceptions of themselves? How does standards-based discourse affect student writers’ abilities to define themselves in academe? This dissertation involves an examination of legal and public discourse surrounding Ayers v. Fordice, one of the most prominent desegregation cases in higher education, in an attempt to answer these questions. Its intent is to explore how conceptual metaphors prevalent in these discourses affect our understandings of basic writing programming in the state of Mississippi but also in the field of composition more globally.

My …

Understanding Captive-Takers Motivations, Methods And Targets, Jean Garner Larned

Dissertations

Understanding Captive-Takers Motivations, Methods and Targets is the ultimate goal in order to help those who train, manage and prevent hostage taking events which include police officers, negotiators, recovery personnel, academics and psychologists. The overall lack of literature relating to the topic of captive-taker motivations is another impetus for this dissertation. There is a dearth of scholarly material in any of the main areas of understanding kidnapping/captive-taking/hostage-taking from the perspective of the perpetrator within law enforcement, psychology, private sector or academia. It is anticipated that this research study and the data garnered from it will assist academics, psychologists, private corporations, …

That He May Raise, Armond Joseph Boudreaux

Dissertations

This dissertation is a work of fiction written during the author's time as a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Son Of A Thousand Fathers, Colter Patterson Cruthirds

Dissertations

The following collection, which explores the often tenuous relationships between fathers and sons, was written by the author between 2008-2011.

Moral Performances: Melodrama And Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Jeffrey Taylor Pusch

Dissertations

Despite a high number of ticket sales, theater reviews, and innumerable letters and diary entries detailing trips to the theater, the stereotype that theater in nineteenth-century America was almost culturally invisible continued well into the twentieth century. Indeed, a scan of anthologies of American literature fails to yield any examples of nineteenth-century drama, even though figures like Henry James were also theater critics and playwrights. Just as it did in American life, theater exhibits a strong presence in the literature of the time. Considering theater’s pervasiveness, this dissertation seeks to restore it to its proper place in our study of …

The Life That Chose Us: Educators With Tourette Syndrome, Jennifer Kristen Stenger

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how having Tourette syndrome has shaped educators’ relationships in their personal and professional experiences. I completed a series of three in-depth interviews with seven educators in K-12 public schools who self-identify as an educator with Tourette syndrome. I began with a background of the participants’ experiences related to having Tourette syndrome. From there, I discussed participants’ experiences in regard to attaining and retaining employment. My guiding research questions were how having Tourette syndrome shapes relationships with administrators, colleagues, and students and their parents. Also, I asked how Tourette syndrome has shaped …

The Effects Of Positive Behavior Interventions And Supports (Pbis) On Middle Level Students, Michael Raymond Havener

Dissertations

Many theories regarding school discipline have been developed and implemented. In this study, various discipline models are discussed and analyzed. One particular model that claims to significantly reduce discipline referrals is Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The primary purpose of this study was to determine if PBIS is effective in reducing discipline referrals in a particular Midwest suburban 6-8 middle school. In addition, the referrals were analyzed to determine if there was a significant change in the academic achievement in the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) math and communication arts test scores after implementation of PBIS in 2008-2009. The population …

Song Cycles For Soprano By Richard Pearson Thomas, Laura Faith Bateman

Dissertations

No abstract provided.