Digital Commons Network^™

Lgb-Affirmative Therapists' Use Of Developmental Models Of Lgb-Identity In Therapy. A Phenomenological Investigation, Victoria E. Cane

Dissertations

Socially sanctioned hostility toward sexual minority persons continues to be a reality in the United States and worldwide. Therapists working with sexual minorities have responsibility to provide non-pathologizing, affirmative therapy to these clients. A central aspect of affirmative therapy is therapists' recognition and understanding of sexual orientation (SO) identity and developmental models of sexual minority identity have a played a vital role in promoting this understanding. Although such models have been central to the practice and training of affirmative therapy, therapists' applied use of the models has not been empirically investigated. For this phenomenological study, nine affirmative therapists were interviewed …

The Scholarly Activity Predictor Model Among Counseling Psychology Doctoral Students: A Modification And Extension, Daniel M. Huber

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to help understand scholarly activity better among counseling psychology doctoral students. Two new variables were added to the previously created predictor model of scholarly activity: advisory working alliance and research competence. Three path analytic models were designed in the current study: (1) a primary hypothesized model, (2) an alternative model, and (3) a trimmed model. In the first model, grounded in social-cognitive career theory (SCCT) and the research training environment (RTE) theory, scholarly activity was hypothesized to be explained directly by research interests, research outcome expectations, research self-efficacy, research competence, and year in …

A Sequential Analysis Of Staff Training Procedures To Efficiently Teach Novice Instructors To Implement Errorless Discrete-Trial Teaching Procedures, Jamie M. Severtson

Dissertations

Discrete trial teaching (DTT) is the most common techniques incorporated into intensive behavioral intervention programs for children diagnosed with autism. Errorless learning (EL) prompt fading strategies are frequently recommended during DTT because they often result in more efficient and effective instruction. Several variables may prevent agencies from offering extensive supervised training to instructors; therefore, timeefficient DTT staff training protocols are needed. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a sequential analysis of the efficacy of three methods for teaching errorless DTT procedures to novice instructors. These methods included: (a) a self-instruction manual, (b) an instructional video, (c) and …

Gold Nanoparticle - Modified Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles As Novel Photocatalytic Materials, Nayane Udawatte

Dissertations

The current study entails the construction of a novel nano-composite catalyst based on ZnO and Au nanoparticles and demonstrates its distinctive photocatalytic characteristics. Monodisperse gold nanoparticles (GNPs) passivated with monolayers of tiopronin or glutathione were synthesized via facile methods, and they were assembled on ZnO nanoparticles to form the nanocatalyst.

Steady state and time resolved photoluminescent studies on the nanocomposite revealed interesting charge transfer characteristics within the nanocomposite. Enhanced photooxidation of rhodamine 6G was observed for the nano-composite over bare ZnO, and modulation of photoactivity with the extent of GNP loading was illustrated. Photoreduction of thionine over the nanocomposite was …

Grown Men, Daniel Charles Crocker

Dissertations

Grown Men is a collection of short fiction that articulates the themes of poverty, adulthood, alcoholism and faith. Some of the stories use the same characters in order to further explore place and economic and social status. Set in small towns in Missouri and Mississippi, Grown Men seeks to examine the way men deal with their changing roles when they lose their jobs, relationships and families. The collection is accompanied by a critical introduction. ii

Studies Of Meson Mass Spectra In The Context Of Quark-Antiquark Bound States, Mallika Dhar

Dissertations

This dissertation deals with the computation of meson mass spectra in the context of quarkantiquark (q ¯ q) bound-state. Traditionally the q ¯ q bound-state problem is treated by solving the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation in position representation with a linear confining potential and a Coulomb-like attractive potential. For high energy, relativistic kinematics is necessary. It is well known that relativistic kinematics cannot be treated properly in position representation, but it can easily be handled in momentum representation. On the other hand, the linear potential and Coulomb-like potential have singularities in momentum-space and complicated subtraction procedure is necessary to treat the …

Pattern Recognition For Fault Detection, Classification, And Localization In Electrical Power Systems, Qais Hashim Alsafasfeh

Dissertations

The longer it takes to identify and repair a fault, the more damage may result in the electrical power system, especially in periods of peak loads, which could lead to the collapse of the system, causing the power outage to extend for a longer period and larger parts of the electrical network. Reducing the outage time and immediate restoration of service can be achieved if the fault type and location are determined in a timely and precise manner.

An integrated algorithm that is based on generating unique signatures from the electric current signal to detect, classify, and localize a fault …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Monolayer Protected Gold Nanoparticles And A Gold-Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposite Intended For Photocatalytic Degradation Of Environmental Pollutants, Piyadarsha Amaratunga

Dissertations

Semiconductor and metal clusters in the nanometer size regime display interesting optical, electronic and chemical properties that are size dependant. Highly monodisperse gold nanoparticles of different sizes have been synthesized and isolated by newly developed methodologies, using tiopronin as the capping ligand. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (Ti0₂) have been used as the photocatalytic center and gold nanoparticles have been attached on Ti0₂ to make a nanocomposite. According to the findings, gold nanoparticles play a vital role in enhancing the photocatalytic activity of Ti0₂, by facilitating the charge separation. Further, the photocatalytic activity also can be tuned …

Development Of A Task Assignment Tool To Customize Job Descriptions And Close Person-Job Fit Gaps, Bryan W. Booker

Dissertations

Does the knowledge worker fit the job or should the job fit the knowledge worker? This research developed a methodology and a tool to customize a knowledge worker’s job design to better fit their knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics. The research outcomes support the customization of the job design to improve person-job fit, the documentation of the customized job design as a position description, and the use of a structured person-task assignment process. The recommended task assignment process includes a job aid that uses multivariate equations to predict expected task performance. Data were collected from two knowledge worker sub-groups: lean …

Assessing Problem Solving Strategy Differences Within Online And Face-To-Face Courses And Their Relationship To Pre-Service Teachers' Competence And Confidence For Integrating Technology Into Teaching, Sharon L. Peterson

Dissertations

This quantitative research study identifies the problem solving strategies preservice teachers use in learning specific technology skills within an educational technology methods class which is offered both online and face to face. It also examines how such strategies differ by the format of this course, and to what extent these strategies and/or course format correlate with the students' expressed level of confidence and competence to integrate technology into their future classroom settings. The study utilizes data extracted from surveys of over 1,500 students who had taken the educational technology methods course via online or face-to-face format during one of nineteen …

Urban Middle School General Education: Tenured Versus Non-Tenured Teachers And The Impact On Academic Achievement, Trenese Nicole Dancy

Dissertations

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) is used in the Cahokia Unit School District No. 187 to give insight on student academic skill level in terms of years and months. Teacher strategies and expertise in the area of education is an integral part of the educational process. Tenure status, or the years of experience, is plagued with the idea that it promotes or has an impact on student achievement. In this study the researchers wanted to determine if there was a significant relationship between teacher tenure status (independent variable) and student academic achievement (dependent variable). Preand post-ITBS reading and …

Postsecondary Education Of Students With Disabilities: Review Of Faculty And Of Students With Disabilities Perceptions For Training, Jerry René Alliston

Dissertations

The percentage of students with disabilities who are pursuing post-secondary education has consistently increased over the past few decades. To meet all legal requirements, postsecondary institutions have established disability support services for students with disabilities. One notable responsibility given to postsecondary disability support service staff was the training of faculty on various issues related to disability in general. The focus of this study was to determine the perceived issues of faculty to students and students to faculty, in a two-campus university system in the southeastern United States, in working with students with disabilities in postsecondary education on the six theme …

Algal Community Structure In Water Bodies Of Mississippi: The Role Of Environmental Factors In Its Spatial And Temporal Dynamics, Nestor Raul Anzola

Dissertations

A meta-analysis was done on studies that included six major taxa groups: Cyanobacteria, Chlorophyta, Chrysophyta (primarily diatoms), Euglenophyta, Pyrrophyta, and Rhodophyta and six aquatic habitats of Mississippi to determine the abundance and richness of the algal community and to identify relevant environmental drivers of algal assemblage composition. Twenty algae data sets on small order streams, large streams and rivers, lakes and reservoirs, fish production ponds, brackish water, and marine water were analyzed. Chlorophyta was dominant in lakes and reservoirs and was the most diverse taxa in the phytoplankton of small order streams and large streams and rivers. Cyanobacteria were the …

Hope, Optimism, Stress, And Social Support In Parents Of Children With Intellectual Disabilities, Josephine Estelle Cooke

Dissertations

Hope, optimism, and social support have been shown to be important protective factors for parents of children with intellectual disabilities, and these factors have been shown to have important relationships with parenting behaviors. Hope and optimism have not been studied as possible predictive variables for parenting behaviors for this population, and the interactions of these three variables with parenting behaviors have not been examined with this population. Stress has been shown to relate to positive and negative parenting behaviors (Abidin, 1995), and high levels of stress are correlated with a perception of low levels of social support. No studies have …

Criterion-Referenced Assessment Literacy Of Educators, James David King

Dissertations

This study investigated the assessment literacy of educators in regard to criterion-referenced tests. For the purpose of this study, administrators included principals and assistant principals within a school. First, the study determined the degree of training in measurement, assessment, and statistics that educators have received. Second, the study investigated the assessment knowledge of educators based on their performance on the Criterion-Referenced Questionnaire. Third, the study investigated if years experience, type of certification, or highest degree held had a significant difference on their performance on the Criterion-Referenced Questionnaire. Fourth, the study investigated educators’ attitudes toward the use of measurement, assessment, and …

Disappearing Children, Beth Lynn Couture

Dissertations

This collection of short stories is primarily concerned with the dynamic between adults and children—parents and their own children, teachers and their students, and other adult/child relationships. In each of the stories, children present a psychological or emotional challenge to the adults, one with which they are not always equipped to cope. They are a problem which cannot be solved easily, if it can be solved at all. On a formal level, the stories in this collection seek to blur the line between the mundane and the magical. Though the collection is riddled with the fantastic, at its center is …

The Relationship And Effects Of Mindfulness On Comfort, Work Satisfaction, And Burnout Among Nurses Who Provide Direct Patient Care, Pamela Lichtenberg Heard

Dissertations

This study proposed to examine the problem of burnout in the nursing profession and ways to ameliorate burnout. Many burnout studies in the past focused on the problem and possible solutions that managers and/or hospital administrators could incorporate into their organization. The focus of this study is to evaluate ways that nurses can decrease their own propensity to burnout through the use of mindfulness. Therefore, this study examined burnout in a non-traditional manner. It is not assumed that others must assist nurses with decreasing their levels of burnout. Mindfulness is a means by which nurses can empower themselves to combat …

Principals' Perceptions Of Distributed Leadership In An Elementary School Setting, David Dwain Eggen

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

School Principals: Illuminating The Behaviors And Practices Of Effective School Principals In Challenging Public School Contexts, Sophia Deborah Marsh Masewicz

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Urban Middle School Instructional Special Education: Tenured Versus Non-Tenured Teachers And The Impact On Academic Achievement, Sheryl Marie Wilson

Dissertations

The Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) is used in the Cahokia Unit School District No. 187 to give insight on student academic skill level in terms of years and months. Teacher strategies and expertise in the area of education are an integral part of the educational process. Tenure status, or the years of teaching experience, is plagued with the idea that it promotes or has an impact on student achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine if students receiving instruction from non-tenured special education teachers demonstrate the same gains in the areas of reading and math as …

Perceived Levels Of Nurse Educators' Attainment Of Nln Core Competencies, Julie Kinney Higbie

Dissertations

Nurse educators need to be well-prepared with essential competencies, to prepare nurses for their future in health care. Nurses who are recruited to teach, must meet at least minimal competencies and be provided appropriate resources to assume their roles in academia. The recently published National League for Nursing (NLN) Core Competencies for Nurse Educators (2005) identify the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for both novice and experienced faculty.

This research study explored faculty's perceived attainment of these competencies utilizing Benner's Novice to Expert theory as a framework. It examined several areas of interest related to nurse educator competency, years of …

The Perceived Impacts Of The 14-Year (1989-2003) Civil War On Higher Education In Liberia: An Analysis Of The Case For The University Of Liberia And Cuttington University, Manjerngie Cecelia Ndebe

Dissertations

Civil wars affect the social systems of a nation, including higher education. The purpose of this study was to do an in-depth concurrent mixed method analysis of the perceived impacts of the 14-year (1989–2003) civil war on higher education institutions in Liberia during the civil war years and from the end of the civil war in 2003 to the point of data collection in 2007. The literature is replete with expert opinions on the impacts of the Liberian civil war, but only limited evidence for quantitative and qualitative studies on war impacts in general exists.

No study on the context …

Qualitative And Quantitative Inquiry Into The Affective Domain Of Preservice Teachers Enrolled In Children's Literature Courses, Jennifer Augusta Davis-Duerr

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Relativistic Studies Of The Charmonium And Bottomonium Systems Using The Sucher Equation, Charles Martin Werneth

Dissertations

In this dissertation, bound states of quarks and anti-quarks (mesons) are studied with a relativistic equation known as the Sucher equation. Prior to the work in this dissertation, the Sucher equation had never been used for meson mass spectra. Furthermore, a full angular momentum analysis of the Sucher equation has never been studied. The Sucher equation is a relativistic equation with positive energy projectors imposed on the interaction. Since spin is inherent to the equation, the Sucher equation is equivalent to a relativistic Schrödinger equation with a spin-dependent effective potential. Through a complete general angular momentum analysis of the equation, …

Local Radial Basis Function Methods For Solving Partial Differential Equations, Guangming Yao

Dissertations

Meshless methods are relatively new numerical methods which have gained popularity in computational and engineering sciences during the last two decades. This dissertation develops two new localized meshless methods for solving a variety partial differential equations.

Recently, some localized meshless methods have been introduced in order to handle large-scale problems, or to avoid ill-conditioned problems involving global radial basis function approximations. This dissertation explains two new localized meshelss methods, each derived from the global Method of Approximate Particular Solutions (MAPS). One method, the Localized Method of Approximate Particular Solutions (LMAPS), is used for elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) …

The Holiness And Other Stories, Leslie Michelle Nichols

Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of an introductory essay and ten original short stories written and submitted to fiction workshops in the PhD program at The University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers.

Daimon, Miranda Foster Merklein

Dissertations

The following creative dissertation is a book of 57 poems.

Academic Dishonesty In Online Education, Wren Allen Mills

Dissertations

This dissertation examined cheating attitudes and behaviors of undergraduates, especially those enrolled in online courses. While cheating is an established problem within the academy, it is also an issue on the job and has been in the spotlight in recent years, with ethics scandals in corporate America and plagiarism in the media. With this in mind, and the foundational philosophy of the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (Bureau of Education, 1928) and the American Council on Education’s (1937) Student Personnel Point of View, this study sought insight into students’ attitudes about cheating behaviors and practices of them in online courses …

Exploring The Accuracy Of Highly Positive Self-Evaluations: A Bogus Pipeline Examination Of Fragile Self-Esteem, Erin Michele Myers

Dissertations

The present study tested the prediction that individuals with fragile high selfesteem are engaging in impression management when they claim to possess highly positive feelings of self-worth. Phase One participants (N = 449) completed internetbased measures of self-esteem level and self-esteem fragility under standard conditions. Phase Two participants (N = 75) completed laboratory-based measures of self-esteem under control or ‘bogus pipeline’ conditions designed to encourage participants to respond more honestly to questionnaires concerning their self-worth. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed partial support for the impression management hypothesis such that individuals with discrepant high self-esteem (i.e., high explicit selfesteem and low …

Change Capacity As A Determinant Of Sustainable Roi Implementation In Human Resource Development Practice, Hollis Jo Ann Burkett

Dissertations

The demand for accountability through measurement continues to heighten application and use of the ROI (return-on-investment) Methodology™ as an essential part of human resource development (HRD) and program evaluation in both private and public sector organizations. Although progress has been made towards identifying best practices in ROI process implementation, sustainability of the process is an aspect of implementation that is often overlooked and under-estimated.

This research identifies characteristics of sustainable ROI process implementation in HRD practice and offers a framework for ROI process maturity, along with practical guidelines to enhance evaluation process and practice maturity. The target population was drawn …