Digital Commons Network^™

Weak Shear Study Of Galaxy Clusters By Simulated Gravitational Lensing, David Raymond Coss

Dissertations

Gravitational lensing has been simulated for numerical galaxy clusters in order to characterize the effects of substructure and shape variations of dark matter halos on the weak lensing properties of clusters. In order to analyze realistic galaxy clusters, 6 high-resolution Adaptive Refinement Tree N-body simulations of clusters with hydrodynamics are used, in addition to a simulation of one group undergoing a merger. For each cluster, the three-dimensional particle distribution is projected perpendicular to three orthogonal lines of sight, providing 21 projected mass density maps. The clusters have representative concentration and mass values for clusters in the concordance cosmology. Two gravitational …

"It's No Secret": The Experiences Of Eight Lesbian Public School Administrators With District Personnel, Students And Their Parents, Kelly Marie Grigsby

Dissertations

“…These questions are always hard to answer because when you’re living gay, you don’t know which decisions you’re making because you’re gay or because you’re living” (Adrian 596 – 598). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the ways lesbian school administrators in K-12 public schools answer questions about their sexuality from students and their parents and how their feelings, experiences and this partial or potential closet affect their leadership. I completed a series of three in depth interviews with eight European American school administrators that identify as lesbian. I begin by sharing a snapshot of the participants’ …

The Effectiveness Of A Unit Study – Technology Approach, Melissa Anne Gustafson-Hinds

Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the usefulness of implementing a Comprehensive Musicianship (CMP)-Unit Study within a high school band rehearsal setting, using music technology as a supplementary tool. This quasi-experimental study examined three ability-based high school concert bands: the middle level concert band, (Symphonic Band), served as the experimental group. The bottom level concert band (Concert Band) and the top level concert band (Wind Ensemble) served as control groups. Data included student performance pretests and posttests of all three bands, daily field note observations of the CMP implementations with the experimental group, student journal entries, informal …

In Their Voices-Retaining African American Students At A Predominately White University: An Examination Of Theoretical Implications And Student Cerntered Practices, Gwendolyn Deloach-Packnett

Dissertations

This investigation is a study on the impact of a research-based holistic developmental retention plan for African American students who attend/attended a predominately White institution (PWI). The strategic praxis connected theoretical implications and student centered practices to enhance positive retention outcomes. This study examined the impact of these student centered retention offerings used in the Office of Multicultural Relations (MCR) at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). Founded in 1997, the expressed mission of MCR was to address the challenges of the University’s largest minority population, placing emphasis on the retention of its African American students. Two focus groups (graduate …

Project-Based Learning About Nutrition With Technology In An African-American Middle School: An Action Research Study, Sibyl A. Banks

Dissertations

In the last few years, there has been a growing problem with the prevalence of being overweight. This is becoming an accepted lifestyle in the African American community, and has begun to impact not just adults, but also adolescents and young children. There are problems associated with being overweight or obese that could have lifetime consequences. Causes of African American adolescents becoming overweight include cultural factors, lack of access to large grocery stores and insufficient outlets for exercise. This action research study investigated the effect a project based approach, utilizing technology, had on students from three 7th and 8th grade …

Northern Ireland And The Irish Constitution: Pragmatism Or Principle?:The Mcgimpsey Case, Rory Mcgimpsey

Dissertations

The central theme of my thesis concerns the case of McGimpsey v. Ireland [1990] I.R. 110 and its wider significance. All discussion in the thesis can be traced back to this seminal case. On a wider level, the thesis discusses Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, tracing their history from their ideologically irredentist origins through to their amendment following the Good Friday Agreement, with its pluralist, inclusive re-definition of nationality. In essence, the thesis attempts to analyse the relationship between the two jurisdictions in Ireland, and how it evolved over time. I have endeavoured to explain how the 1937 …

An Analysis Of The Community College Concept In The Socialist Republic Of Viet Nam, Cynthia (Cindy) Kay Epperson

Dissertations

This study determined the existence of a community college model in Viet utilizing three theoretical orientations (human capital theory, social capital theory and organization theory) while reviewing the existing literature, formulating the research questions, examining the data and drawing conclusions. Eleven of the existing 12 community colleges were examined utilizing a multiple qualitative case study approach. During June 2009, field work was conducted in Viet Nam that involved visits to the 11 case study community colleges, to the Vietnam Association of Community Colleges (VACC), and to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, field …

The Use Of A Metacognitive Tool In An Online Social Supportive Learning Environment: An Activity Theory Analysis, Ray Earl Martinez

Dissertations

This investigation is an exploratory study of the use of a metacognitive software tool in a social supportive learning environment. The tool combined metacognitive knowledge and regulation functionality embedded within the content of an eight week online graduate education course. Twenty-three learners, who were practicing teachers, used the tool. Prior knowledge of metacognition, including responses to the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (Schraw & Dennison, 1994), was obtained. Prior knowledge of community instructional approaches was also obtained. Learner interviews focused on the mediational aspects of the metacognitive tool and the social supportive learning environment, as well as an evaluation of the tool. …

Strategic Information Systems Alignment: A Longitudinal Investigation, Chowa Kachaka Charles

Dissertations

The alignment between business and information systems’ strategies (strategic IS alignment) has occupied researchers’ and practitioners’ interest over the past two decades. This is due to the belief that strategic IS alignment positively affects business performance. However, despite the concerted effort in seeking to understand the alignment phenomenon, executives in organizations continue to complain of the difficulty in achieving and sustaining alignment. This may be due to a lack of a comprehensive model of alignment that takes into account its dynamic nature and the factors that affect it over time. Therefore, this study seeks to add to our accumulated knowledge …

Have Metropolitan Planning Organizations Improved Regional Policy Making? The Cases Of Kansas City And St. Louis., Joseph Edward Campbell

Dissertations

Historically, municipalities and regions continually competed for a share of transportation funds. The process was dominated by state Departments of Transportation where cooperation, equity and participation were limited. Eighteen years ago the federal government provided metropolitan areas with the opportunity to play a larger role in the regional transportation process. On December 18, 1991 President George H.W. Bush signed the Intermodal Surface Transportation Equity Act (ISTEA). The legislation ushered in a new era of cooperation between state and local leaders by empowering regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). The federal legislation’s intention was to allow a region, through their MPO, to …

Factors Influencing State Prescription Drug Policy, Rochelle Rene' Henderson

Dissertations

Within the realm of health care, prescription drugs have been of particular concern for state legislators in terms of cost, safety, and distribution. Whether prompted by financial, social, or political pressure, states have tried to address issues associated with prescription medications by adopting or attempting to adopt a variety of prescription drug policies. My dissertation expands beyond the analysis of a singular prescription drug policy and examines the factors affecting prescription drug policies aimed at acquisition, safety and distribution. A negative binomial regression model is employed for each of the prescription drug policy areas to ascertain the influence of internal, …

Structure And Flow: Toward An Organic Approach To Critical Multiliteracies In A Writing Workshop, Inda Lynn Schaenen

Dissertations

This qualitative case study reports on a three-year writing enrichment program among second, third, and fourth graders at a public urban elementary school in a medium-sized midwestern city. Designed as teacher research, the inquiry is a phenomenological examination of the experience of the workshop for its participants, including more than one hundred African American students and a White, female teacher-researcher. Teaching methods, classroom activities and material culture, student and teacher talk, and student compositions were subjected to a variety of analytic approaches and methods, including qualitative textual analysis, critical discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, and individual case study, in order …

Pharmaceutical Marketing: A Comparison Of Different Markets, Paul Sherlock

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Development Of Representative Species-Level Molecular Markers And Morphological Character Analysis Of Leucothoid Amphipods (Crustacea: Amphipoda), Kristine Nicolle White

Dissertations

Leucothoid amphipods were investigated using morphology and molecular rDNA gene sequence fragments. The morphological diagnostic characters for traditional taxonomy have been clarified, a molecular marker for representative species has been developed, and one of the current anamorph-leucomorph connections has been confirmed with molecular sequence data. Ultimately this study has combined traditional morphological and modern molecular methods to clarify the taxonomy and to propose a preliminary phylogeny of the Leucothoidae. Analysis of 18S rDNA gene fragments from 13 species in two genera supported the current morphological species designations and the separation of the family into two clades. Combined analysis of 18S …

The Italian Emigration Of Modern Times: Relations Between Italy And The United States Concerning Emigration Policy, Diplomacy, And Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, 1870-1927, Patrizia Fama Stahle

Dissertations

In the late 1800s, the United States was the great destination of Italian emigrants. In North America, employers considered Italians industrious individuals, but held them in low esteem. Italian immigrants were seen as dangerous subversives, anarchists, cheap laborers who were always ready to accept jobs for lower wages. Indeed, numerous episodes of violence and even lynching of Italians occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. In most cases, the violence went unpunished by the local authorities. Such episodes of violence provoked a diplomatic controversy between Italy and the United States concerning treaty-guaranteed protection of …

Systematic Revision Of The Kalliapseudidae (Crustacea: Peracarida: Tanaidacea) And The Population Genetic Structure And Phylogeography Of A Species Along The Southeastern And Gulf Coasts Of North America, David Thomas Drumm

Dissertations

The Kalliapseudidae is a family of shallow burrow-dwelling marine and estuarine tanaidaceans. There are currently 39 known species of 12 genera and three subfamilies. They are primarily circumtropical in distribution; however, several species are found in temperate waters. The phylogeny of Kalliapseudidae is assessed to test the monophyly of currently accepted subfamilies and genera, based largely on examination of material loaned from various museums and institutions. Multiple exemplars from other apseudomorph families were also included in the ingroup to test the monophyly of the family. Parsimony analyses included 41 terminal taxa and 64 binary and multistate morphological characters. Analyses based …

Global Agricultural Price Supports: The Political And Economic Forces That Drive Unsustainable Agricultural Protectionism Policy, John Francis Hays

Dissertations

Agricultural tariffs and price supports are the last bastion of US and European protectionism. While all other areas of commerce have embraced change and welcomed open-market international commerce, agriculture has remained the lone holdout.

The small farmers for whom these support programs were designed no longer exist. Yet governments appropriate billions of dollars annually for the continued support of these outdated programs.

The fact that these governmental agencies resist change, even in an age of economic crises, record national debt, and one of the highest negative trade balances in history, is testimony to American civic indifference.

Public apathy precludes timely …

The Son's Return, Gary Charles Wilkens

Dissertations

This dissertation is a collection of poems accompanied by a critical preface.

Freshman Transition And Its Effectiveness On Student Success As Measured By Improved Attendance, Improved Grades, Decreased Discipline Referrals, And Decreased Dropout Rate, Jana Lea Thornsberry

Dissertations

Research on freshman transition programs suggests the need for a transition program that assists students as they enter high school. Many freshman transition programs consist of a visit from the high school counselors or a tour of the school. These programs do not help meet the needs of many students who will need constant support throughout the school year. The study school implemented a freshman transition program to help meet the needs of students academically and emotionally. The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of a freshman transition program would make a difference in student success …

A Summer Literacy Intervention For Struggling Readers At The Middle School Level Using Strategies In Comprehension, Fluency, Vocabulary, And Positive School Climate To Improve Reading Comprehension: An Evaluation Study, Jeffrey Joseph Haug

Dissertations

A middle school created an intervention called the Summer Literacy Program to increase reading comprehension levels. The middle school believed that by exposing students to fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies in a positive school culture, reading comprehension levels would improve. The program was created due to a high number of students reading below grade level. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the four-week Summer Literacy Program designed to provide extra interventions for struggling readers. The study is significant because it demonstrated that a four-week summer program can improve reading comprehension levels. The statistical analysis for …

The Nightingale Of Austerlitz, Lindsay Marianna Walker

Dissertations

The Nightingale of Austerlitz employs poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to articulate the theme of (mis)communication. A pliable, multi-genre approach was necessary to convey the urgency of two central characters’ desire to connect despite the impossibility of doing so. Prose interrupts and challenges the set precision of poetry in order to embody the stops and starts—the literal and figurative breakdowns—of communication. The juxtaposition of genres dramatizes dialogue, silence, affective distance, and desire. Song, sound, repetition (using lullaby, referencing music, thematizing the ear) further assert the power of language as performance and aesthetics as consolation, and provoke a particular kind of attention …

Scopophilia And Spectacle: Fashion And Femininity In The Novels Of Frances Burney, Cheryl Denise Clark

Dissertations

My dissertation investigates how the relationship between looking and being seen, or the interaction between scopophilia and spectacle, intersects with the rise of consumer culture and the ascendance of eighteenth-century fashion and fashionable places. By using Frances Burney’s novels as a lens through which to examine the eighteenth century’s fascination with looking, I consider the ways in which attracting “the look” or gaining attention through the visibility of stylish apparel and goods becomes a pathway to social agency in Burney’s novels. Fashion for Burney, I argue, emerges as a multifaceted system that manifests as a means of as social power …

Upstate Roadkill Memorial Service, Scott Christian Fynboe

Dissertations

Upstate Roadkill Memorial Service is a collection of poems that examines death and mortality and includes a critical preface.

Curriculum Coherence: A Comparative Analysis Of Elementary Science Content Standards In People's Republic Of China And The Usa, Fang Huang

Dissertations

This study examines elementary science content standards curriculum coherence between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America. Three aspects of curriculum coherence are examined in this study: topic inclusion, topic duration, and curriculum structure. Specifically this study centers on the following research questions: 1) What science knowledge is intended for elementary students in each country? 2) How long each topic stays in the curriculum? 3) How these topics sequence and connect with each other? 4) And finally, what is the implication for elementary science curriculum development?

Four intended science curriculum frameworks were selected respectively for each …

The Effect Of Shapedown On Habits And Self-Esteem For Overweight And Obese Children, Susan Bonnell Phd

Dissertations

Obesity in children is increased in the United States and globally which creates both physical and psychological health risks and co-morbidities affecting the development of positive self-esteem (Sinton & Birch, 2005; Whetstone, Morrissey, & Cummings, 2007). The development of poor self-esteem in children increases the risk of problem behaviors such as aggression, crime, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol use, tobacco use, and eating disorders (Brook et al., 2007). Treatment of childhood obesity is multifaceted, requiring behavioral and lifestyle changes for both child and family to achieve a healthy weight (De-Santis-Moniaci & Altshuler, 2007; Plourde, 2006; Ritchie, Crawford, Hoelscher, & Sothern, …

Battery And Abuse In The Elderly: A Forensic Analysis, Amy Y. Carney Phd, Mfs, Np

Dissertations

Elder abuse is a recognized social problem in the United States. First labeled as "granny battering" and originally studied under the umbrella of family violence, maltreatment of the elderly has received more funding and research in recent years. Multiple aspects of elder abuse have been examined in the literature including measures for detection, assessment, and documentation. Although studies have examined the circumstances surrounding abuse as well as theories of causation and characteristics of the abuser and the abused, studies of the relationship between the abuser and the abused are less well documented. The purpose of this research was to examine …

Predictors Of Job Satisfaction And Burnout In Travel Nurses, Marcia Faller Phd, Msn, Rn

Dissertations

This study examined various individual and work environment characteristics and their influence as predictors of travel nurse job satisfaction and burnout. In addition it described travel nurses; a population of nurses that has not been previously studied. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used in order to take advantage of the exploratory nature of the qualitative portion in describing the attitudes and motivations of travel nurses in detail; and to further explain the findings from the quantitative portion of the study. The quantitative portion of the study used a descriptive correlational methodology with secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional …

Violence, Depression, Parental Stress, And Child Neglect Among High Risk Postpartum Women, Kristen D. Lambert Phd, Msn, Rn

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to characterize a vulnerable population of postpartum women at risk for family violence and maladaptive outcomes and to determine the degree the identified attributes increase the risk of child neglect and psychological aggression. Lazarus' Appraisal Theory and Scaer's Traumatic Spectrum framework provided a conceptual basis to examine the interrelationships between intimate partner violence (IPV), depression, previous traumatic history, and child neglect. A descriptive correlation design using secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected for the Healthy Families San Diego Clinical Trial was used. Standardized measures including the CTS, CTS2, CTSPC, CES-D and PSI were administered …

Application Of Systems Engineering Science To The Healthcare Environment, Jonathan Mack Phd, Msn, Anp, Rn

Dissertations

This Doctoral dissertation consists of a research portfolio examining the application of systems engineering techniques to the healthcare environment. The portfolio consists of three final publishable articles submitted to meet the program requirements for the, Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing degree from the University of San Diego, Hahn school of Nursing and Health Sciences. Article one is titled; "Use of a bed projection tool to predict ICU bed needs." This article describes the dissertation research study in which a bed projection tool was piloted on an ICU unit to determine the tool's ability to predict inpatient bed requirements. Article 2 …

Latina First Year Experience: Factors That Contribute To Persistence From The First To The Second Year In Higher Education, Guadalupe Rodriguez Corona Edd

Dissertations

There is limited research that identifies the university, familial and community factors that support the persistence of Latinas in higher education from the first to second year. The research that does exist has tended to focus on how institutional programs and activities have failed to work for first-generation students. Therefore, there is a need to study the persistence of Latinas in higher education that is as focused on discovering what works as it is with documenting what is ineffective. Research that focuses on Catholic universities is especially needed since many Latinas come from Roman Catholic families and, consequently, Catholic universities …