Digital Commons Network^™

Adsorption Of Lead On Single And Mixed Solid Systems, Soumya Das

Dissertations

Metal oxy-hydroxides and phyllosilicate minerals play a significant role in the fate and transport of heavy metals in the environment (Bertsch and Seaman, 1999). Chemical speciation of metals affects their bioavailability and chemical reactivity (Stumm and Morgan, 1996). Surface complexation models (SCMs) based on equilibrium thermodynamic principles have been successfully used to quantify adsorption of heavy metals on pure solid minerals, including phyllosilicates and oxy-hydroxides. For natural sediments with mixed mineralogy, Davis et al. (1998) suggested two different SCM approaches, namely, the component additivity and generalized composite models. In this study, adsorption of lead on pure HFO, silica and kaolinite …

Perceived Organizational Support And Ethical Work Climates As Predictors Of Turnover Intention Of Licensed Nurses In Skilled Nursing Facilities, Anna A. Filipova

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to replicate Victor and Cullen's (1987; 1988) studies to confirm whether ethical climates (ECs) arise in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and whether organizations and groups within organizations have identifiable ECs; and (2) to test a model that examines the effects of ECs and perceived organizational support (POS) on licensed nurses' turnover intention (TOI) through job satisfaction (JS) and organizational commitment (OC).

A cross-sectional survey design was implemented. Three hundred and fifty nine freestanding SNFs were selected in a midwestern state. While a total of 110 facilities (31%) agreed to participate, responses were …

Perceptions And Intervention Practices Of Speech-Language Pathologists Serving Students With Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Laura A. Getty

Dissertations

A relationship between emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) and language deficits has been validated by researchers in special education (Cantwell & Baker, 1991; Beichman, Cantwell, Forness, Kavale, & Kaufmann, 1998; Cohen, Barwick, Horodezky, Vallance, & Im, 1998) as well as researchers in speech-language pathology (Hyter, 2003; Hyter, Rogers-Adkinson, Self, Simmons, Jantz, 2001; Ruhl, Hughes, & Camarata, 1992; Gallagher, 1999; Fujiki, Brinton, Morgan, & Hart, 1999). The exact prevalence rate between E/BD and language deficits was not definitive as it varies between 35% and 97% depending on the study reviewed (Benner, Nelson, & Epstein, 2002). While it has been documented that a relationship …

Quantum Properties Of Light Emitted By Dipole Nano-Laser, Talal Ghannam

Dissertations

Recent technological advances allow entire optical systems to be lithographically implanted on small silicon chips. These systems include tiny semiconductor lasers that function as light sources for digital optical signals. Future advances will rely on even smaller components. At the theoretical limit of this process, the smallest lasers will have an active medium consisting of a single atom (natural or artificial). Several suggestions for how this can be accomplished have already been published, such as nano-lasers based on photonic crystals and nano wires. In particular, the "dipole nanolaser" consists of a single quantum dot functioning as the active medium. It …

Leadership-Influenced Practices That Impact Classroom Instruction Related To Writing: A Case Study Of A Successful Elementary School, Barb Johnson

Dissertations

This research studied the practices of educators at an ethnically diverse suburban elementary school which had demonstrated success in the area of student writing, even among at-risk students. The overall research goal was to examine to what extent and how leadership-related practices impacted classroom instruction in a manner that helped produce successful writing scores. A case study approach was used to explore four key leadership-related practices (supervision, curriculum, professional development, and knowledgeable leaders) and their impact on classroom literacy-based instructional strategies.

The study participants included two leaders and fourteen teachers from a single elementary school located in a metropolitan Michigan …

Flights Past: The Wright Brothers’ Legacy And Dayton, Ohio, James Clayton Johnson

Dissertations

During the early twentieth century, Wilbur and Orville Wright faced a lengthy struggle over their recognition as the inventors of the airplane. This controversy still lingers today. Even their hometown, Dayton, Ohio, where the brothers spent years engineering and perfecting the airplane, hesitated in acknowledging their success. Promoted by a small group of individuals from the Smithsonian Institution, a decades long struggle ensued over who first invented an aircraft capable of powered flight. During the "Smithsonian controversy," the institution embarked on a long and dangerous path of using its status as the nation's museum in an attempt to rewrite history. …

Exposing Star Teachers Of Children In Poverty, Bobbi Morehead

Dissertations

Public schools have control over whom they choose to hire to serve as teachers. When quality teachers are hired, all students have a better chance at achieving academic success. It is the responsibility of every public school principal to truly understand common patterns, which can assist teachers to become outstanding teachers, defined in this study as Star Teachers. It is also the principals' responsibility to make sure the work conditions of such Star Teachers are conducive to personal and professional renewal.

The passion to educate all children drives the following research questions: (1) How do Star Teachers describe the significant …

Behavioral, Attitudinal, And Decision-Altering Effects Of Aggressive Video Games On Young Adults, Kent Smallwood

Dissertations

Each year, interactive video game technology becomes more and more advanced, offering more lifelike environments, immersive experiences, and realistic situations in which the player must decide how to act. As a result of these technological advancements, the violent content in video games has become increasingly realistic and graphic. Unlike the passive viewing experience of television, video game players adopt roles in which they initiate actions and direct the progression of video game experience. In these active roles, they may engage in and be rewarded for violent acts against fictitious video game characters or other online players. Furthermore, the videogame industry …

A Qualitative Exploration Of First-Generation Asian Indian Women In Cross-Cultural Marriages, Monica Thiagarajan

Dissertations

The literature on Asian Indian women has not adequately addressed the experiences that first generation Asian Indian women face while going through the process of making the decision to marry cross-culturally. The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify, describe, and understand the struggles, challenges, and conflict experienced by Asian Indian women who decide to marry cross-culturally and to understand the consequences of the decision on the lives of these women and their interpersonal relationships.

Initial and follow-up phone interviews were conducted with eight Asian Indian women who had experienced cultural and familial challenges regarding their decision to marry …

Estimating The Impact, Transmission Mechanism And Reaction Function Of Monetary Policy: A Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregressive (Favar) Approach, Dawit Legesse Senbet

Dissertations

This dissertation employs factor-augmented vector autoregressive (FAVAR) models to investigate the impact, transmission mechanism and reaction function of monetary policy. The recent development of augmenting dynamic factor analysis with the vector autoregressive (VAR) models, pioneered by Bernanke et al. (2005), has led to advances in monetary policy analysis. The new approach bases measurements of monetary policy on large data sets that approximate the true information set of policymakers. This is in contrast to low dimensional VAR models. The FAVAR model summarizes information from large data set by a few factors that are incorporated into VAR models.

The first essay investigates …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Stilbenoids And Their Aza-Analogs As Photoluminescent Materials For The Detection Of Nerve Agent Mimics, Chun Wang

Dissertations

A novel series of stilbenoids and their aza analogs were synthesized, characterized and used as photoluminescent components in the detection of nerve agents. Their structure-property relationship was elucidated through UV-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy. The research in this thesis is driven by the hypothesis that the two-block sensor system consisting of a receptor incorporated ruthenium complex and a fluorescent signal molecule of stilbenoids, is capable of detecting chemical warfare agents. The sensor anchored onto nanoparticles and subsequently the nanoparticles were arranged through mediated self-assembly. While photo-induced electron transfer is a well-known mechanism for sensor design, the described system showed that photo-induced …

Vygotsky’S Theory Of The Creative Imagination: A Study Of The Influences On Preservice Teachers’ Creative Thinking Capacities, Stephen J. Worst

Dissertations

This study investigated the effect of formal instruction in the use of creative thinking skills on preservice teachers' capacities for increased creative activity. It emerged from Vygotsky's theory of the creative imagination. Emphasizing the impact of formal schooling on the growth of creative activity, he implied that individuals who are continually adding to accumulation of knowledge develop an abundant imagination from which creativity flows.

This quantitative study used a quasi-experimental design and attempted to test Vygotsky's assumptions within a sample population of 113 preservice teachers. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking served as the pre- and post-tests that measured the creative …

Are High School Gpa, Rank In High School Graduating Class Or Act Scores Adequate Predictors Of College Freshmen Success?, Maryann Michel Townsend, Donna Nack

Dissertations

This study was developed to determine if High School Grade Point Average, High School Class Rank or the ACT scores were effective measures of college freshmen success. Procedure 1. Eight hundred twenty one first-time freshmen were admitted to Lindenwood University in 2005-2006. 2. Of those students, the required information was available for 536 students. 3. Fifty-eight students were used for this study. Findings 1. A statistical significance was found in the correlation of High School Grade Point Average and freshmen success. 2. The ACT scores did not result in as significant a correlation as did the High School Grade Point …

Early Childhood Program Director Leadership Characteristics And Program Quality, Barbara J. June

Dissertations

This phenomenological research study was conducted to explore and describe how the characteristics, traits, and styles of directors, as described and perceived by the teachers, reflect the factors that are currently addressed in the indicators forming the basis for evaluating program quality. Teacher participants from six sites participated in a survey, questionnaire, and interview to determine director and program profiles. The Program Quality Assessment score was used as a standardized data source.

The data were collected, coded, and analyzed to determine the director and program profiles for each of the sites. The director and program data for each site were …

A Narrative Inquiry Of Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Their Professional Development Experiences, Theresa Andrea Nugent

Dissertations

The purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to explore teachers' perceptions of their professional development experiences. Qualitative studies are needed to truly understand through "thick rich" descriptions (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) what is happening (or not) from the viewpoint of the classroom teacher in reference to their professional development experiences and related impact on student outcomes. In an era of accountability, teachers' voices are essential for understanding potential connections between teacher learning, via professional development experiences, and improved student outcomes.

This research project involved a purposeful sample of 8 1st-grade and 2nd-grade teachers, identified by their principals as "committed" …

Attitudes Toward And Knowledge Of Affirmative Action In Higher Education, Erika Ann Carr

Dissertations

Affirmative action has become an increasingly important topic in higher education because colleges and universities are key battlegrounds regarding how affirmative action policies are enacted. Senior-level higher education administrators have historically taken the lead in shaping affirmative action policies in higher education, and knowing their own community's standpoints on the policies could assist them in deciding how to proceed in defending affirmative action in the face of increasing opposition.

This study measures individuals' attitudes toward and knowledge of affirmative action within one university in the state of Michigan, where affirmative action was banned through a state-wide election in November 2006. …

Gender Disparity In Nigerian Education: Women’S Experience Of Barriers To Equal Educational Opportunity, Eugene Okoli

Dissertations

Discrepancies between males and females in access to schooling, school completion rates, and participation in employment opportunities are still more the norm in some regions of the world than others. Limited access to education plagues women in Nigeria as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa. Disparity in access to educational opportunity is a pressing gender equity issue in Nigeria (World Bank, 2003).

Relatively few studies have focused on obtaining the viewpoints of women who experience this phenomenon. To hear the voices of these women regarding how they gained or were denied access to education in the Nigerian context, a cross-section of …

Michigan Elementary School Facility Quality And Its Impact On Student Achievement, Brett A. Geier

Dissertations

Studies on school facility quality and its impact on student achievement have been conducted throughout the nation with varying results. Some studies conclude a significant relationship exists between facility condition and student achievement, while others refute this potential phenomenon. Much of the research concludes that not enough analyses have been conducted to make appropriate generalizations. This research study focused on the condition ofelementary schools in Michigan and utilized the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (M.E.A.P.) examinations in reading and mathematics at the third, fourth and fifth grade levels as the dependent variable to assess the relationship between building condition and student …

Differences In Bachelors Degree Attainment: Are College Degrees A Function Of Habitus?, Colin S. Mccaleb

Dissertations

This study sought evidence that Pierre Bourdieu's habitus influences college graduation and college transferring patterns. Hypothesizing that low socio-economic students have to change their habitus in the elitist environment of higher education, two research questions were advanced to explore this phenomenon, the first asking if there was evidence consistent with the idea that habitus influenced graduation rates, the second question asking if there was evidence consistent with the idea that habitus influenced transferring patterns. Under each research question, several hypotheses were tested using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, Chi square tests of independence, and logistic regressions. Income and civic participation …

What Allows Teachers To Extend Student Thinking During Whole-Group Discussions, Nesrin Cengiz

Dissertations

Research indicates that extending students' mathematical thinking during whole-group discussions is challenging, even for the most experienced teachers. That is, it is challenging for teachers to help students move beyond their initial mathematical observations and solutions during whole-group discussions. To better understand this phenomena, the teaching of six experienced elementary school teachers, who had been teaching aStandards-based curriculum for several years and had participated in a multi-year professional development project focused on that curriculum, is explored in this study. In particular, two issues are addressed: what it looks like to extend student thinking during whole-group discussions and how …

Extensions Of Two-Part Tests To Compare K Independent Populations, Marwan Daoud

Dissertations

We consider two-part models that are mixtures of a point-mass variable with all mass at zero and a continuous random variable. The model may assume a particular distributionh(x) for the continuous part such as a log-normal or a gamma. The response variable is defined as y=(x, d), where d=1 if x > 0 and d=0 if x = 0. The probability distribution function has the following form: fx,d=p ^1-d×1-p ×hx ^d.

Lachenbruch (1976, 2001) proposed several tests to compare means of two populations for this type of data. We proposed a two-part Wald test and …

Audio-Assisted Reading With Digital Audiobooks For Upper Elementary Students With Reading Disabilities, Kelli J. Esteves

Dissertations

Audio-assisted reading has been used as an effective instructional intervention for students with learning disabilities (Carbo, 1978; Gilbert, Williams, & McLaughlin, 1996) and with struggling readers (Chomsky, 1976; Hollingsworth, 1978; Hoskisson & Krohm, 1974; Koskinen, Blum, Bisson, Phillips, Creamer, & Baker, 2000; Rasinski, 1990). The strategy involves reading along while listening to an audio recording of a fluent model (Evans, 1997).

The goal of this study was to compare the efficacy of audio-assisted reading with digital audiobooks against the traditional practice of sustained silent reading in terms of reading fluency rates and reading attitude scores with upper elementary students with …

Treatment Of Co-Morbid Methamphetamine Substance Abuse And Borderline Personality Disorder Features Using Modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Jessica R. Schultz Fischer

Dissertations

The study investigated the effectiveness of a time-limited, skills-based treatment in a population of female substance abusers. This project implemented a pilot clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a 12-session modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) protocol among a small sample of women, with co-morbid borderline personality disorder features, receiving concurrent outpatient treatment for methamphetamine abuse. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design was used. In addition to on-going assessment conducted during baseline and weekly over the course of treatment, a comprehensive assessment battery was administered pre-, and post-treatment as well as at 1 and 3 months following treatment. Findings suggest that …

Therapists' Handling Of Secrets Between Partners In Couple Therapy, Michael Alan Jansen

Dissertations

This study examines couple therapists' policies, procedures, and perspectives regarding secrets between partners in couple therapy. Handling secrets appropriately is necessary to avoid legal, ethical and therapeutic problems, especially when the secret involves contentious or potentially dangerous material such as infidelity, divorce, paternity, and HIV/AIDS infection. One hundred sixty randomly selected Clinical Members of the AAMFT participated in a 38-question researcher-generated mail survey. Data provided descriptive statistics and allowed for between-groups comparisons to explore for differences between therapists with regard to experience and several specific practices related to handling secrets. The study also examined whether courses in HIV/AIDS confidentiality law …

Creating A Culture Of Safety: The Influence Of Medical Simulation On The Attitudes Of Surgical Team Members, Diane J. Jones

Dissertations

The objective of this study was to determine change in individual and aggregate attitudes of the members of two subspecialty surgery teams (cardiac and vascular) in six domains (teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perception of management, and working conditions) following medical team simulation and debriefing exercises. The study was a pre-post partially randomized controlled, quasi-experimental study that took place in a 545-bed hospital with a high-volume cardiovascular surgery program. Participants included interdisciplinary team members caring for cardiac and vascular surgery patients.

Main outcome measures included change in responses to safety attitudes questionnaires (SAQs) administered before, 1 week …

Effects Of Job Stereotype, Applicant Gender, And Powerful And Powerless Speech Styles On Telephone Interview Outcomes, Heather Deanna Palmer Mcfarland

Dissertations

By examining the effects of powerful and powerless speech styles, gender stereotyped jobs, and gendered voices during the employment interviewing process, this study sought to further the research of Parton (1996); Parton, Siltanen, Hosman, and Langenderfer (2002); and Juodvalkis, Grefe, Hogue, Svyantek, and DeLamarter (2003). This study was designed to further explore the possibility of longitudinal changes within acceptable communicative expectations during telephone job interviewing. Participants (undergraduate and professional) listened to two audio taped interviews manipulated by speech style, stereotyped job title, and interviewee gender. Variables were evaluated on semantic differential scales following the previous work of Parton (1996). Similar …

Developing Literacy Practices Through Digital Storytelling, Therese Marie Kulla-Abbott

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the use of multimedia and traditional literacy to answer the question: ?How does creating a ?digital story? impact children?s literacy skills?? Forty-three seventh-grade students from a Midwestern school created a series of three digital stories over the course of several months implementing creative, narrative and persuasive writing. These digital stories utilized the grade level curriculum, integrating communication arts, social studies, science, and technology. The purpose of this study was to better understand how literacy skills were impacted through the use of digital storytelling. This understanding will be used to inform improvements in instruction of writing, story …

St. Louis Charter School History, 1996-2005: A Case Study, Tara Kay Little

Dissertations

This particularistic case study of St. Louis, Missouri charter schools examines the history of the charter school movement in St. Louis from the perspectives of those most closely involved in policy-making and school development, covering the period from the local movement?s inception in 1996 through the first sponsor review year in 2005. Transcribed interviews of ten key participants in the policy development and start-up process, as well as archival data, were thematically coded, deconstructed, triangulated, and reconstructed to form the basis of the history as it is presented in this study. This qualitative study reveals the rich narrative of charter …

A March Of Moral Panic?: An Examination Of Reaction To Crime In Ireland In March 2006, Robin Maginn

Dissertations

Moral Panic is a concept that examines disproportionate reaction towards an event or persons. In March of 2006, several events occurred which provoked strong reactions from the media and from politicians. This thesis explores and examines those reactions, and will try to determine if a moral panic could be said to have occurred. This is accomplished through a qualitative reading of the reactions, by identifying themes running through the discourse on crime of the time in question, and by applying indicators of moral panic to the data. The study finds that though the reactions may not necessarily indicate moral panic, …

Phylogeny And Trichome Evolution In The Plant Family Brassicaceae, Mark Alan Beilstein

Dissertations

The plant family Brassicaceae is economically important and contains the model genetic system Arabidopsis thaliana. Previous phylogenetic studies indicated that the historic classification system of the family was highly artificial, with several tribes likely to be para- or polyphyletic. However, these studies sampled fewer than 30 of the 338 genera of the family. We expanded the sampling of genera by four-fold and inferred phylogeny from both the chloroplast gene ndhF and the nuclear gene phytochrome A (PHYA) to determine which of the previously delimited 19 tribes of the family were monophyletic. Results from both ndhF and PHYA …