Digital Commons Network^™

Self-Concept Cognitive Perception And Adherence To Recommended Health Regimes In Adults With Heart Failure, Christine M. Thomas

Dissertations

This study used Roy's Self-concept Mode Theory to examine the relationships between components of self-concept including body sensation, body image, self-consistency, self-ideal, and moral-ethical-spiritual self and adherence to recommended health regimes in individuals with heart failure (HF). The study also examined the extent to which aspects of self-concept cognitive perception of health regimes might predict adherence to health regimes.

The Relationship Of Illness Demands And Marital Support To Psychological Adjustment To Chronic Illness Among Middle-Aged Batswana Couples, Motshedisi Boitumelo Sabone

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of illness demands and marital support on psychological adjustment to chronic illness among Botswana couples, and to determine whether there were differences between patients and spouses in the study's variables. The study employed a cross-sectional explanatory design with convenience sampling.

Attention Process Training: Its Effectiveness In Remediating Attention And Memory Deficits Following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Julia Nobelungu Mekwa

Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury is an insult to the brain capable of producing physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and vocational changes. Statistics show a rapid increase in the number of brain injuries each decade in both developed and developing countries. Disorders of memory and attention are among those regarded as most prominent following non-penetrating traumatic brain injury (TBI). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Attention Process Training (APT) in remediating attention deficits and memory dysfunctions following mild TBI.

The Relationship Between Symptoms And Feelings In Young Breast Cancer Survivors, Anita Elizabeth Broxson

Dissertations

Women diagnosed with breast cancer are often more vulnerable to the untoward effects of treatment, which may continue years beyond a diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which young breast cancer survivors (YBCS) experience cognitive problems, pain, sexual problems, and fatigue and the relationship between these symptoms and feelings, both positive and negative. The relationship between age at diagnosis and each symptom experience was also explored. A quantitative retrospective analysis was conducted of data from 905 young breast cancer survivors.

Processes Underlying Children's Responses To Witnessing Physical Aggression In Their Families, Judee E. Onyskiw

Dissertations

According to the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), 8% of Canadian children aged 4 to 11 years have witnessed physical aggression in their families. This study used structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses that intra-family aggression affects children: (1) because of observational learning/modeling of aggressive behaviour, and (2) because intra-family aggression disrupts mother's ability to provide warm, responsive parenting. The study examined whether there were effects due to the child's age or gender, and if there were differences depending on whether the information was provided from the mother or the child.

The Social Organization Of Women's Preterm Labour Experiences, Karen Ann Mackinnon

Dissertations

This study is grounded in a deep sense of respect for the work that women do in the family and by a desire to make that work visible so that women can be recognized for the valuable contributions they make to our Canadian society. I have explored the unpaid work that women do while also living with the threat of preterm labour. Women were able to talk about the complex nature of their work and described their many family responsibilities. They also described their fear of going home from the hospital and feeling alone with the responsibility for their work …

Adolescents' Responses To Single Mothers' Chronic Physical Illness, Sheila S. Green

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe selected concepts of adolescents living with a single, chronically physically ill mother and to examine the self-concept of these adolescents and the relationship of the self-concept to the perception of the family environment. The family environment from the mothers' and the adolescents' perspectives is described. An additional purpose of this study was to examine the congruence of the mothers' and adolescents' perceptions of the family environment. Using a descriptive-correlational paired sample design, two groups were established. Both groups were single mothers with adolescents in the home.

Calming Music And Hand Massage With Agitated Elderly, Ruth M. Remington

Dissertations

Agitated behavior is a widespread problem that adversely affects the health of nursing home residents and increases the cost of their care. Agitated nursing home residents are more likely to be physically or chemically restrained, to fall and to have a lower quality of life. Current strategies to reduce agitated behavior tend to be costly.

This dissertation research examined a relatively inexpensive intervention to reduce the agitated behavior of cognitively impaired nursing home residents. The specific aim was to compare the effect of calming music or hand massage or a combination of calming music and hand massage on the level …

Parental Attitude And Parental Adjustment To Epilepsy In A Child, Joan K. Austin

Dissertations

Parental attitudes and parental adjustment to epilepsy were assessed on 50 parents (33 mothers and 17 fathers) of children (ages 6 to 14 years) with epilepsy. Fishbein's expectancy-value model of attitude was utilized to assess parental attitudes. Parental adjustment was measured with a self-report questionnaire and an independent psychosocial assessment by a psychiatric social worker. Acceptable indices of internal consistency reliability (r = .82), content, and construct validity (r = .65) were found on the instrument for the sample. Construct validity for the mothers was higher (r = .73). Demographic and seizure data were also collected in order to investigate …

A Validation Study For The Classification Of The Level Of Severity Of Malignant Skin Lesions In Cancer Patients, Mary Ann Gilmore

Dissertations

A methodological study using a modified Delphi survey was conducted to determine whether or not there was consensus among wound care experts in identifying categories and characteristics essential for classifying malignant skin lesion severity in cancer patients.

Accessing Prenatal And Perinatal Health Care Services: Experiences Of First Generation Latina Immigrants In A Rural West Tennessee County, Jacqueline Rosenjack Burchum

Dissertations

Between 1990 and 2000, there was a substantial immigration of people of Latino heritage to the United States. Tennessee, with an increase in Latino residents of 278.2%, had the fourth largest percentage Latino population increase in the nation. Research findings show that people of Latino heritage experience difficulties accessing healthcare services. Furthermore, people of all ethnicities and races living in rural areas experience greater difficulty in accessing healthcare services than do people living in non-rural areas. The purpose of this research was to explore how first generation Latina immigrants in a rural West Tennessee county accessed prenatal and perinatal healthcare …

The Evaluation Of Neuroendocrine Measures In Women With Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Leah Z. Fitzgerald

Dissertations

Increased cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of stress mediators, such as corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), norepinephrine (NE) and Substance P (Sp) have been reported to be abnormal in several stress-related syndromes (post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, fibromyalgia) which frequently co-exist with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

To determine if CSF levels of CRF, NE and SP differ between IBS and healthy controls and if CSF levels correlate with peripheral measures of HPA axis regulation and clinical parameters.

Qualitative Study Investigating Elementary And Middle School Comprehensive School Counseling Programs And Secondary Schooling In Privately Funded And Publicly Funded Schools In Missouri, Natalie Rohlfing

Dissertations

The purpose of this proposed qualitative study was to explore whether the absence of Comprehensive School Counseling Programs (CSCP) in privately-funded elementary and middle school impacts student personal, social-emotional, and academic growth in secondary school. This researcher used surveys and focus groups to gather data. The information resulting from this study will provide private and public schools reliable data to be used to implement and/or improve school counseling programs in elementary and middle school. A Comprehensive School Counseling Program is able to address the needs of students by facilitating their academic, career, and social-emotional development as well as helping create …

Perceptions Of Elementary School Support Staff Of Their Role In Supporting The School Mission Statement, Matthew Dean

Dissertations

School district mission statements are intended to be unifying declarations that set a tone and direction for organizations and provide a unifying motivator for the individuals who serve those organizations (Rey, 2017). School district mission statements should be created and articulated in a manner that can be understood and followed by certified administrators and teachers, as well as classified personnel such as district support staff (Lynch, 2016). Without adequate articulation, school district mission statements can fall short of providing guidance and motivation to every employee in the district (Rey, 2017). This qualitative study was initiated to gain the perceptions of …

The Effect Of The Missouri Preschool Program On School Readiness, Madeline June Allin

Dissertations

National policymakers, practitioners, and researchers have consistently questioned how to develop the necessary skills for the nation’s youth to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The answer points directly to the provision of highquality early childhood programs to prepare children for entrance to kindergarten and put them on a trajectory toward lifelong positive outcomes (Ferrarello, 2017; Phillips et al., 2017). The Missouri Preschool Program is a high-quality, state grant-funded program, with grant priority given to schools serving a large number of disadvantaged children (MODESE, 2018a). The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to compare the school readiness skills …

Disparities In Health Care For The Transgender Population, Shannon Crowe

Dissertations

Individuals identifying as transgender, gender nonconforming, or those born with differences of sex development from societal norms have specific healthcare needs. These individuals experience disparities in healthcare treatment as a result of a lack of cultural competence, stereotypes, and personal bias among healthcare professionals. Despite being inclusive of all patients and acceptance of cultural beliefs, many organizations fall short of being inclusive when caring for transgender or gender nonconforming patients. Front line healthcare workers can have a positive impact on the psychological and physical care delivered to transgender patients; thus, setting the stage for a patient of a minority having …

A Study Of Information Bots And Knowledge Bots, Amartya Hatua

Dissertations

In this dissertation, a study of different aspects of information bots and knowledge bots is done. The research contributes to a better understanding of the various characteristics of information bots as well as the different patterns and factors responsible for the information diffusion in a social network. This research also shows how these factors can be used to predict information diffusion for a particular topic in a social network. The second part of the research is focused on strategies for improving the knowledge base of knowledge bots, where two different approaches are studied. In the first approach, knowledge is transferred …

Microcelebrity Endorsement Of Public Relations Campaigns For Nonprofit Organizations: A Study Of Snapchat In Saudi Arabia, Sami Altuwayjiri

Dissertations

This research investigates the influence of Snapchat microcelebrity endorsement for nonprofit organizations’ PR campaigns through testing the self-disclosure model, source attractiveness model, and congruence or fit model in relation to individuals’ donation intentions and attitudes toward the endorsement. This paper has highlighted the effectiveness of the three models through testing each model three times via three endorsements featuring three different microcelebrities. The result of the survey suggests that self-disclosure practiced by the endorsing microcelebrity has a weak influence on peoples’ donation intention and attitude towards the endorsement. However, physical attractiveness of the endorsing microcelebrity has an influence on people’s donation …

Variable Compact Multi-Point Upscaling Schemes For Anisotropic Diffusion Problems In Three-Dimensions, James Quinlan

Dissertations

Simulation is a useful tool to mitigate risk and uncertainty in subsurface flow models that contain geometrically complex features and in which the permeability field is highly heterogeneous. However, due to the level of detail in the underlying geocellular description, an upscaling procedure is needed to generate a coarsened model that is computationally feasible to perform simulations. These procedures require additional attention when coefficients in the system exhibit full-tensor anisotropy due to heterogeneity or not aligned with the computational grid. In this thesis, we generalize a multi-point finite volume scheme in several ways and benchmark it against the industry-standard routines. …

A Study Of Select World-Federated International Piano Competitions: Influential Factors In Performer Repertoire Choices, Yuan-Hung Lin

Dissertations

In the last ninety years, international music competitions have increased steadily. According to the 2011 Yearbook of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC)—founded in 1957—there were only thirteen world-federated international competitions at its founding, with at least nine competitions featuring or including piano. One of the founding competitions, the Chopin competition held in Warsaw, dates back to 1927. The number of world-federated international competitions has since increased to 122 in 2019, with a total of fifty-nine piano competitions (thirty-two dedicated solely to piano). More and more, pianists strive to participate in several competitions in order to win a …

Synthesis Of Alpha-Methylselenocysteine, Its Relevant Analogues, And An Unnatural Glutathione Disulfide Core, Robert J. Wehrle

Dissertations

Selenoproteins, such as glutathione peroxidase, have gained interest for their ability to act as antioxidants, and their potential to act as anti-cancer agents. Synthesizing and studying selenoproteins can be problematic, however, due to their propensity to degrade from over-oxidation. The degradation from over-oxidation can be avoided by the incorporation of the unnatural amino acid, alpha-methylselenocysteine. A synthesis utilizing methyl malonic esters was used to synthesize protected (R)-alpha-methylselenocysteine efficiently (46% over four steps) and in high enantio-purity (88% enantiomeric excess). Using similar procedures, the (S)-enantiomer was also synthesized as well as a beta-analogue.

The use of enzymes …

Merging Two Scales: A Comprehensive Measure Of Physical Appearance-Related Social Anxieties, Kimberly Smith

Dissertations

Physical appearance-related social anxieties have been identified as feelings individuals experience in general and in different social situations based on their outward appearance. Two instruments have been used to assess the construct of social anxiety, the social physique anxiety scale (SPAS) and the social appearance anxiety scale (SAAS). This cross-sectional study implemented a non-experimental design with randomization of the total sample (n=1214) into three equal groups. Participants were recruited using a crowdsource sampling platform, MTurk. This study was broken into three Phases: confirming the factor models for the SPAS and SAAS, using an exploratory technique to determine the factor structure …

Empirical Studies Of Deep Learning On Information Diffusion On Social Networks And Collective Task Learning For Swarm Robotics, Trung T. Nguyen

Dissertations

Researchers in multiple disciplines have recently adopted deep learning because of its ability of high accuracy representation learning from big and complex data. My research goal in this thesis is developing deep learning models for information diffusion analysis on social networks and collective tasks learning in swarm robotics. Firstly, the information diffusion on social networks is modeled as a multivariate time series in three dimensions with ten features. Then, we applied time-series clustering algorithms with Dynamic Time Warping to discover different patterns of our models. Then, we build a prediction model based on LSTM, which outperforms traditional time-series prediction methods. …

Core Subject Integration In The K-6 Music Classroom, Rose Bowe

Dissertations

Federal legislation through No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2002) and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2015) held schools accountable for improved test scores and academic achievement. The heightened scrutiny in performance and expectations placed enormous pressure on students, teachers, and administrators to reach the lofty goals of the accountability model and put emphasis on state-mandated tests for several subjects. Non-tested subjects often encountered a shift in funds and their programs became diminished or even eliminated. Subjects that were not tested, such as music education, were considered non-essential. Nonetheless, the value of music used for instruction to stimulate knowledge retention was …

Globalization, Immigration, And Cultural Change: Conditions That Predict Shifts In Nationalistic Attitudes, Kelly Trail

Dissertations

Globalization is on the rise across the globe. In many instances, nationalism appears to be, too, as evidenced by the anti-immigrant and “nation first” rhetoric and success of presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump in the United States and Sebastian Pinera in Chile. However, the author questioned whether nationalistic attitudes are truly on the rise across the globe and what conditions cause some countries to shift toward nationalistic attitudes in the face of rising globalization, while others to shift away from it. She utilizes descriptive statistics, case studies, and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyze the conditions that influence …

Watching Disability: A Discourse Analysis Of Representations Of Disabled Characters In Scripted Television Programs, Wilbur Martin

Dissertations

This dissertation is a discourse analysis of three television series, Speechless, Atypical, and Breaking Bad. A close reading of those series was performed to analyze the representations of disability in those television series and whether those representations enforced classic stereotypes or differed from those classic stereotypes for disabilities. The representations were also analyzed to see if those representations enforced the medical or social model of disability.

All three series had instances of stereotypical representations as well as representations that were not stereotypical. All three series representations identified with the medical and social model of disabilities. Series that …

The Principal And Teacher Evaluation: A Study Of Influencing Pressures, Andy Brock

Dissertations

This quantitative study focused on determining the amount of influencing pressure principals encountered during summative teacher evaluations, determining if there was a relationship between the pressures a principal experienced while completing a summative teacher evaluation and the summative evaluation score teachers received, and determining if there was a relationship between teacher evaluation scores and district accountability levels. A survey instrument was created containing 23 possible influencing pressures derived from a literature review along with 14 items for the purpose of collecting demographic data from each participant. The survey instrument used a horizontal numeric scale to measure the amount of influencing …

Teacher Beliefs And The Intent And Current Use Of Movement As It Influences Students With And Without Adhd, Kimberly Mcquagge

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to add to the knowledge base regarding utilizing movement in the classroom as it influences reading and mathematics achievement for students with and without Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Mississippi public school teachers (n= 379) responded to an online questionnaire that gathered demographic data and collected ratings based on teacher beliefs and both their current use of movement and intent to use movement in the classroom based on a 5-point Likert scale.

In order to predict if a relationship existed between teacher beliefs of utilizing movement in the classroom and both their current use of movement …

Examining Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, And Differentiating Instruction For Educating Gifted Learners, Marla Freitag

Dissertations

This study examined preservice teachers’ attitudes, self-efficacy, and use of differentiation for gifted learners during the various stages of a teacher education program. The theoretical framework of this study was based on the premise that implicit personality theories held by preservice teachers influence both attitudes towards gifted learners and instructional practices in the general education, elementary classroom. The research design utilized quantitative methods to gather data from undergraduate general education preservice teachers from two regional universities within Mississippi. A total of 204 preservice teachers completed the Survey of Practices with Students of Varying Needs. Data gathered during this study was …

A Narrative Case Study Of Transfer Students In Instrumental Music Education, Ashley Glenn

Dissertations

Transfer students in music fields face challenges that are different from other fields of study. Research has shown that transfer students in music are expected to acclimate and operate as upperclassmen with minimal onboarding while also potentially having to retake courses they received credit for at the community college level. This study examines the experiences of five transfer students in music education through the lens of Schlossberg’s transition theory and Dewey’s model of transaction. Building on existing transfer student research, it asks: what do transfer students experience in terms of acceptance and self-integration, and how do these experiences affect transfer …