Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Of Leader In Me On Social-Emotional Learning Of Elementary Students, David Danielski

Dissertations

Social-emotional learning and college and career readiness skills are increasingly important in preparing our students for a successful future. The Leader in Me, based on Steven Covey’s seven habits, offers a process intended to increase the leadership skills of students through the explicit teaching of each of the habits. By studying the practices and outcomes of The Leader in Me process from schools with high degrees of implementation, this study evaluates the impact on social-emotional learning of elementary students. The findings inform programmatic decisions for social-emotional learning implementation and advocate for policy that emphasizes teacher preparedness and accountability measures for …

An Evaluation Of School Culture And Its Impact On Student Achievement, Jeremy Johns-Klein

Dissertations

The purpose of this evaluation was to examine if a school’s culture impacts student academic achievement due to initial low attainment on state assessments and low graduation rates. The data collected provides both quantitative and qualitative information using a teacher survey, a teacher focus group, administrator interviews, and school achievement data. The results of the study indicate a need for stronger trust between teachers and administrators, increased professional development to support teaching and learning, and improved partnerships with the parents/guardians of the students. An additional result is that the school’s culture for learning can impact the achievement levels of the …

Diverse Learners In Inclusion Classrooms And Their Standarized Achievement Test, Janice Quartman

Dissertations

Special Education services has opened many opportunities for students with

disabilities and special needs. Disabled students were previously educated

in a separate facility barring them from educational and social interactions

with their non-disabled peers. Disable students are now entering their community

school and receiving services through an I.E.P. (Individual Education Plan). The

primary purpose of this study is to understand the impact of Standard Achievement

Tests of disabled students that learn in a co-taught general education classroom

with a regular teacher and a special education teacher. This study will be valuable

in revealing the academic achievement of students that have …

Social Media In Baptist Churches, Robin Rogers

Dissertations

The integration of social media into Chicago Baptist Churches congregants recently increased over the last few years. This research study allowed church leaders to determine if social media was an effective media outlet in Baptist churches on the Southside of Chicago. The evaluation research approach was to assess the effectiveness of social media, in particular Facebook and Instagram. Within this conceptual framework, the researcher was able to produced flexible, fixed, and multi-design strategies to abstract a full spectrum of evaluation. The subsequent methodology focused on the dual use of social media and themes that coincide, specifically, marketing, politics, communication awareness, …

Person-Level Sources Of Continued Influence Effect: The Roles Of Attention Control, Intolerance Of Ambiguity And Conservatism, Jinhao Chi

Dissertations

People continually rely on disinformation to make judgments after it is corrected or discredited. This phenomenon is termed the continued influence effect (CIE). Using a sample of 152 participants, the current study examined whether the CIE can be explained by a person’s political orientation, attention control (AC) levels, intolerance of ambiguity (IA) and need for specific closure (NSC). It was found that when political orientation was based on self-reports, the overall political conservatism did not predict the CIE (r = .13, p = .09) but economic conservatism did (r = .19, p < .05), suggesting that those with higher self-reported fiscally conservative attitudes may show more prolonged influence of disinformation. In addition, the overall AC levels did not predict the CIE (r = .08, p = .30), but the antisaccade scores reflecting the ability to inhibit automatic responses were a significant positive predictor of the CIE (r = .18, p < .05). Lastly, neither IA nor NSC significantly predicted the CIE (ps > .05). These findings were obtained with only one …

The Relationship Of Organizational Variables And Patient Outcomes In A Home Healthcare Setting, Margaret A. Kroposki

Dissertations

Financial and regulatory changes in home healthcare pose a tremendous challenge to achieve patient outcomes that are sensitive to nursing care and patient satisfaction. This study described the relationship of nurses' understanding of their roles, nurses' decision making, nursing technology, agency ownership, location, and patient outcomes. Research questions investigated the relationship among selected variables and patient outcomes, and whether the relationship differs based on agency ownership and location.

The Meaning Of High-Quality Nursing Care Derived From King's Interacting Systems, Mary E. Gunther

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize quality within a framework unique to nursing, King's Interacting Systems. Clarification of the concept within the metaparadigm and a nursing conceptual framework provides understanding of the domain and scope of nursing for the ultimate benefit of the patient. Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics involves a dialogical interaction between the whole and parts of the text and between the horizons of the text and the interpreter. King's (1981) A theory for nursing: Systems, concepts, process was approached with the question: What are the characteristics of high-quality nursing care?

Testing A Decision Making Model For Nursing, Daniel Bruce Coble

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test a decision making model for nursing developed in a previous qualitative study. Concepts in the decision making model were creativity, experience, leadership, education, risk taking, and informatics. The Chinese philosophy of Cosmogony and chaos theory provided the theoretical framework for the model. Analysis of Decision Making in Nursing (ADMN), a tool developed for this study, incorporated a bipolar scale of 81 items. Pilot testing indicated adequate reliability and validity of the ADMN.

Academic Achievement In Children With New-Onset Seizures Or Asthma, Angela Marie Mcnelis

Dissertations

It has long been recognized that children with epilepsy have more learning difficulties in school than either children without seizures or children with other chronic disorders, such as asthma. Problems such as repeating a grade, receiving special services, and scoring poorly on standardized achievement tests are over-represented in children with epilepsy. Factors that lead to problems with academic underachievement are not well understood. Primary purposes of the study were to examine change in academic achievement over a 12-month period and to identify factors related to achievement in children with new-onset seizures. A secondary purpose was to examine differences in academic …

Benchmarking Nurse Sensitive Quality Patient Outcomes Across The Continuum Of Care, Carla G. Clark

Dissertations

The impact health care delivery changes have on nursing and subsequently on the health of individuals, families, and the community are unknown to the nursing profession as well as the public. Delineation of patient outcomes sensitive to nursing care and their benchmarks would enable the nursing profession to evaluate system changes being implemented. Establishing targets for patient outcomes will provide facilities with benchmarks to measure themselves against. The purposes of this study were first, to identify if the nurse sensitive patient outcomes identified by the AAN expert panel are appropriate and second, to establish benchmarks for these outcomes that are …

Vines In The Neotropics: Phylogenomics, Biogeography And Systematics In Passion Flowers (Passiflora Subgenus Decaloba Section Decaloba), Serena Acha

Dissertations

With 600 species, Passiflora is a large, morphologically complex and broadly distributed genus in Passifloraceae that represents a major challenge to scientists interested in understanding the evolutionary history of tropical vines. Passiflora has been divided into subgenera, super sections and sections. One of the most enigmatic and species-rich (~120 spp.) groups in Passiflora is section Decaloba, which occurs in the Neotropics and is particularly diverse in Andean montane forests. In this study, we used phylogenomic and population genomic approaches to investigate the evolutionary history, biologeography, species boundaries, and taxonomy of Passiflora section Decaloba. We sampled herbarium specimens, extracted …

The Four-Day School Week: Teacher Retention And Recruitment, Perceptions, And Achievement, Peter Damian Fay

Dissertations

In order to explore various issues with the four-day school week in rural, Missouri school districts, the researcher conducted a mixed-methods study which utilized both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The researcher was primarily interested in the ability of the four-day model to attract and retain teaching staff, although he was also interested in the impact on student achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible effects of the four-day school week model on teacher attraction and retention in a rural school district in Missouri. The researcher conducted interviews with seven principals of schools that had adopted …

A Quality Improvement Study On Missed Appointment Management In Primary Care, Aunye' Dina Amos

Dissertations

Abstract

Problem: Patients who miss appointments have poorer health outcomes and increase costs for medical care. The purpose of this quality improvement study was to evaluate the effects of missed appointments on patients’ outcomes for diabetes mellitus, and resulting financial losses to a private primary care practice.

Method: A quality improvement initiative with a retrospective review of patients over a six-month period in 2018 (before) and 2019 (after a missed appointment fee was implemented). All adult patients, aged 18-92 years, were included. For those with diabetes, a HbA1c for each patient who kept or missed their appointment was recorded.

Results: …

Task-Based Estimation And Planning For Application Development Projects And Resources: Models, Methods And Applications, Chidambaram Subbiah

Dissertations

This dissertation takes a new approach to software development effort estimation from the perspective of design patterns at an organization. A new estimating tool is developed to provide bottom up estimates based on the design patterns of the organization. The research also offers guidelines for extracting the unique design patterns specific to an organization that are used to obtain baseline task level estimates in the Estimating Tool. In addition, the tool provides a suite of seven estimates using predictive analytics to estimate the labor hours required for a project using historical data, a bottom-up estimate that is rooted in the …

Towards Completely Automated Glycan Synthesis, Matteo Panza

Dissertations

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous both in nature as biologically active compounds and in medicine as pharmaceuticals. Although there has been continued interest in the synthesis of carbohydrates, chemical methods require specialized knowledge and hence remain cumbersome. The need for development of rapid, efficient and operationally simple procedures has come to the fore. This dissertation focuses on the development of a fully automated platform that will enable both experts and non-specialists to perform the synthesis of glycans. Existing automated methods for the synthesis of oligosaccharides are highly sophisticated, operationally complex, and require significant user know-how. By contrast, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) …

What Does Time Management Mean To You? Exploring Measures Of Time Management And Group Differences., Allison Burrus

Dissertations

For centuries people have been trying to find ways to effectively manage their time. Meanwhile, research in this area has lagged and provided inconsistent results about the outcomes (i.e., well-being and job performance) of the use of time management behaviors. A potential reason for the inconsistent results is the lack of a universal conceptualization of time management making it difficult to compare results. Further, it may be that certain groups use and/or interpret time management behaviors in different ways. This study investigated three of the most popular measures of time management concurrently. First, the measures were examined for statistical artifacts, …

Quality Of Life Of Adults With Congenital Heart Disease, Lynn M. Simko

Dissertations

Adults with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) are a new and growing population of patients who pose a challenge to both medicine and nursing. Medical and surgical advances have increased the number of adults with CHD. These advances may create Quality of Life (QOL) issues which were not previously considered. The purpose of this study was to collect data describing the QOL of adults with CHD in order for health professionals to develop appropriate information, counseling, and anticipatory guidance. This study was a case-control study design utilizing a QOL assessment tool, the Sickness impact Profile (SIP), along with a demographic questionnaire.

African-American Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Perceptions Of Nursing Programs And Factors That Support Or Restrict Academic Success, Sharon Marie Mills-Wisneski

Dissertations

The nursing literature is limited in reporting African-American nursing students' perceptions of nursing programs and factors that are viewed as supportive of or restrictive to academic success in this selected population. Bean and Metzner's (1985) conceptual model of Nontraditional Student Attrition proposed that there are four sets of variables that have a direct affect on whether nontraditional students will persist in their educational endeavors: (1) background and defining variables, (2) academic variables, (3) environmental variables, and (4) psychological outcomes. The National agenda to increase workforce diversity and leadership succession is critical to improving access for a culturally diverse society. The …

The Role Of Multidrug Resistance Regulators Mara, Soxs, Rob And Rama In Regulating Virulence Traits In Salmonella Enterica, Srinivas Thota

Dissertations

Enteric pathogens sense numerous signals specific to the anatomical location in the intestine and integrate them with the complex regulatory networks to temporally and spatially regulate their virulence genes. MarA, SoxS, Rob and RamA are homologous transcription factors that belong to AraC family of proteins in Salmonella enterica that primarily were thought to be involved in rendering antibiotic resistance to bacteria by up regulating efflux pumps and down regulating outer membrane porins. The fact that these transcription factors respond to the same intestinal compounds that regulate virulence genes in Salmonella motivated us to look for other roles of these transcription …

Regional And Historical Influences On The Spatial Distribution Of Neotropical Trees, Maria Isabel Loza

Dissertations

At small spatial scales, the composition of species assemblages depends on local conditions and the dispersal of propagules from surrounding regions. In turn, processes taking place at broad temporal and spatial scales, including changes in regional physiography and climate, shape the species pools in these source regions. This dissertation seeks to understand the effects of regional and historical processes on the spatial distribution of Neotropical tree species. In chapter 1, I investigate regional enrichment of local species assemblages testing two hypothesis: i) local species assemblages are enriched by unfiltered species pools, which are composed of all species that can …

Improving Access To Mental Health Care With Nurse Practitioners, Jessica Whelan

Dissertations

Problem: Over 40% of those with mental illness are untreated since the supply of psychiatrists does not meet the demand. The psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) may be an adjunct in providing those services. The purpose of this quality assurance study was to evaluate outcomes of care between a PMHNP and a psychiatrist (medical doctor [MD]).

Methods: An observational, descriptive design with a retrospective medical record review of adult patients over a six-month period in a suburban, Midwestern, privately owned psychiatric practice.

Results: A total of 787 individual patients encountered at least one visit (N=787) although 3,679 …

Supervisory Working Alliance As A Predictor For Counselor Burnout: The Potential Mediating Role Of Supervisee Nondisclosure, Amanda Bohnenstiehl

Dissertations

Clinical supervision sometimes lacks the elements necessary for a rigorous, helpful, and meaningful experience for the supervisee. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the supervisory working alliance, supervisee nondisclosure (i.e., when a supervisee does not communicate information that would otherwise be shared with the supervisor), and counselor burnout, specifically in a sample of counselors, social workers, and psychologists pursuing their original state licenses. Nondisclosure was examined to determine if it was a mediator of the relationship between the supervisory working alliance and burnout. Participants (n = 288) completed a demographic questionnaire, the supervisee form …

Accessibility To Resources For Homeless Documented Immigrant Families: A Case Study, Antaniece P. Carter

Dissertations

This study seeks to explore the experience of a homeless documented immigrant family attempting to access school and community resources. Research has shown that due to disadvantages including but not limited to lack of economic mobility, employment access, lone parent families, and cultural background, some immigrant families may face challenges accessing services (Arnold, 2004). Difficulty accessing services then can inhibit adjustment and may lead to homelessness.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the issue of homelessness as experienced by immigrants within an urban community. A case study will highlight the experience of a homeless immigrant family, as defined …

Can Free College Programs Level The Playing Field? An Exploratory Study Of Understanding Non-Economic Persistence Barriers For Low-Income Students, Alan Byrd

Dissertations

The rising cost of higher education has created substantial access and persistence barriers for low-income students. Consequently, gaps in educational attainment between low-income students and their middle- and high-income peers have continued to widen over the last few decades. Colleges and universities have taken notice of these growing disparities, and several institutions have responded by developing need-based financial aid programs to close unmet need gaps for Pell Grant recipients. These last-dollar financial aid programs have opened doors for more low-income students to attend selective institutions, but it is unclear how these programs will influence their persistence and completion rates. The …

The Effect Of Union Affiliation On Salary For Female Community College Faculty, Kathleen Kanz White

Dissertations

There is a substantial pay disparity between the highest and lowest paid full-time community college faculty members, more so for women. Faculty unions, which are common at community colleges, are believed to increase pay equity, although research on unions is limited. This study provided evidence addressing gaps in the literature regarding the community college workforce and unionization in higher education. No previous research has been conducted at the community college level examining specific union affiliation and the role it plays in salary.

The purpose of the study was to examine salary variables for female community college faculty members employed in …

Recover Data In Sparse Expansion Forms Modeled By Special Basis Functions, Abdulmtalb Mohamed Hussen

Dissertations

In data analysis and signal processing, the recovery of structured functions (in terms of frequencies and coefficients) with respect to certain basis functions from the given sampling values is a fundamental problem. The original Prony method is the main tool to solve this problem, which requires the equispaced sampling values.

In this dissertation, we use the equispaced sampling values in the frequency domain after the short time Fourier transform in order to reconstruct some signal expansions, such as the exponential expansions and the cosine expansions. In particular, we consider the case that the phase of the cosine expansion is quadratic. …

Perceived Social Support, Coping, And Psychological Distress In Advanced Cancer Patients, Adelaida Zabalegui

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which perceived social support and coping mechanisms contribute to explaining psychological distress in advanced cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The Lazarus and Folkman stress and coping model (1984a) provided the framework.

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (Picc) And The Efficacy Of Tip Placement Confirmation With Ecg Ultrasound-Guided Technology And Chest Radiography, Elizabeth A. Morrell

Dissertations

The aim of this study was to appraise the efficacy of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) tip placement confirmation using a fully-integrated magnetic tracking system and ECG ultrasound-guided insertion technology performed at the patients' bedside by venous access nurses and validated by the post-insertion chest radiography (CXR) report. Labor costs and time were compared with the interventional radiology (IR) team and the venous access nurses to determine if there was a noteworthy cost difference with PICC insertions. PICCs have gained popularity due to improved ECG ultrasound-guided tip navigation technology. Real-time ECG ultrasound-guided technology is the safest, most accurate method of …

Testing An Intervention To Decrease Catastrophizing In Persons With Fibromyalgia, Pamela Jean Nelson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a brief psychoeducational nursing intervention to alter catastrophizing and improve coping with fibromyalgia, a syndrome of chronic, widespread pain. Catastrophizing is defined as a negative way of thinking about pain that interferes with the development of pain coping self-efficacy, the confidence a person has in their ability to manage pain. In fibromyalgia, catastrophizing has demonstrated a strong relationship to pain severity and daily functioning, but brief interventions targeting catastrophizing have not been tested. Theoretical framework. Bandura's social cognitive model emphasizing self-efficacy as a determinant of behavior was used as …

Purpose In Life, Appraisal, And Coping Behaviors In Black, Hispanic, And White Anglo-Saxon Pregnant Adolescents, Bertha Cruz Enders

Dissertations

The purposes of this descriptive study were: (1) to identify differences in perceptions of life purpose, appraisal, and coping behaviors based on ethnicity; and (2) to describe the interrelationship of these variables, among Black, Hispanic, and white Anglo-Saxon pregnant adolescents.