Digital Commons Network^™

Sales Performance And Intuition – The Role Of Gut Feelings, David Locander

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation extends the dual theory of salesperson information processing by examining the relationship between salespersons' emotional intelligence (EI) and their preference for and use of decision-making styles (intuition and/or deliberation) in the selling process. This dissertation contains two studies, Study 1 employs a descriptive research design and Study 2 uses experimental manipulations to investigate the role that intuition and deliberation play within the sales process. Data for both studies come from a sample derived from a national online panel of business to business salespeople.

Study 1, using a survey approach, assesses two competing models and one post hoc model …

What We Thought We Knew: Intellectual Assessment Of Individuals Who Are Blind, Richard L. Sylvester Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Throughout the history of intellectual assessment, research involving individuals who are blind has often been scarce. Currently, there are no intellectual assessment procedures based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of intelligence available to individuals who are blind. CHC theory is considered to be the gold standard of intellectual assessment and many government and diagnostic policies rely upon CHC theory. The proposed research sought to extend the current reach of CHC theory to individuals who are blind by developing a new measure of tactile performance ability. The Tactile Assessment of Performance (TAP) was developed and administered to participants who were blind …

Common Method Variance: An Experimental Manipulation, Alison Wall

Doctoral Dissertations

Although common method variance has been a subject of research concern for over fifty years, its influence on study results is still not well understood. Common method variance concerns are frequently cited as an issue in the publication of self-report data; yet, there is no consensus as to when, or if, common method variance creates bias. This dissertation examines common method variance by approaching it from an experimental standpoint. If groups of respondents can be influenced to vary their answers to survey items based upon the presence or absence of procedural remedies, a better understanding of common method variance can …

Thermoelectric Elisa For Quantification Of 8ohdg In A Microfluidic Device, Gergana Nestorova

Doctoral Dissertations

This research demonstrates the feasibility of a novel method for performing thermoelectric enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a microfluidic device. The feasibility of the thermoelectric ELISA is demonstrated by measuring the concentration of 8-hydroxy 2-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG) in urine samples from amyloid precursor protein (APP) transgenic mice. The detection method is based on formation of a complex between 8OHdG and anti-8OHdG capture antibody conjugated to biotin. The complex is immobilized over the measuring junctions of a thermopile via biotin streptavidin interaction. The concentration of the analyte is determined by using enzyme linked secondary IgG antibody specific to the primary one. The …

Modeling Profile-Attribute Disclosure In Online Social Networks From A Game Theoretic Perspective, Jundong Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

Privacy settings are a crucial part of any online social network as users are confronted with determining which and how many profile attributes to disclose. Revealing more attributes increases users chances of finding friends and yet leaves users more vulnerable to dangers such as identity theft. In this dissertation, we consider the problem of finding the optimal strategy for the disclosure of user attributes in social networks from a game-theoretic perspective.

We model the privacy settings' dynamics of social networks with three game-theoretic approaches. In a two-user game, each user selects an ideal number of attributes to disclose to each …

Traveling Wave Solutions To The Allen-Cahn Equations With Fractional Laplacians, Mingfeng Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

We show the existence of traveling wave solutions to the Allen-Cahn equation with fractional Laplacians. A key ingredient is the estimation of the traveling speed of traveling wave solutions. In the meantime, we prove some qualitative properties of the solution, e.g., monotonicity, polynomial decays at infinity, Hamiltonian identity and Modica type estimates, and non-degeneracy. Moreover, we prove that for any balanced bistable nonlinearity, the traveling speeds linearly depend on the perturbation parameters.

An Rbac, Lbac And Dac Security Framework For Tree-Structured Documents, Alberto De La Rosa Algarin

Doctoral Dissertations

Information modeling is focused on representing, using, and exchanging information in large-scale applications that include law-enforcement, healthcare, e-commerce, and others. Information modeling, as achieved by varied data formats, creates new security challenges. First, there is a need to integrate the security requirements of existing information applications that use and exchange information in via tree-structured documents. Second, there exists a need to consolidate this security in support of a newly developed information system. Third, we ask if is it possible to develop an approach for security for information applications that is able to reconcile the security policies across potential constituent component …

Alban Berg’S Sieben Frühe Lieder: An Analysis Of Musical Structures And Selected Performances, Lisa A. Lynch

Doctoral Dissertations

Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, composed between 1905-08, lie on the border between late 19^th-century Romanticism and early atonality, resulting in their particularly lyrical and yet distinctly modern character. This dissertation looks in detail at the songs with an emphasis on the relevance of a musical analysis to performers. Part I provides an overview of the historical context surrounding the Sieben frühe Lieder, including Berg’s studies with Schoenberg, stylistic features, biographical details, and analytic approaches to Berg’s work. The primary focus of the dissertation, Part II, is a study of each individual song. Each analysis begins …

Remote Sensing Suspended Sediment Concentration In The Yellow River, Liqin Qu

Doctoral Dissertations

This study aimed to develop an approach to use publicly accessible satellite imagery to quantify the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the Yellow River. The suspended sediment in the river affects to the hydrologic, geomorphologic, and ecologic functioning of river floodplains. Commonly used sampling methods are time consuming, labor intensive, and provide only point data. Current studies using re- mote sensing have focused mild waters (e.g. coastal, estuarine, lagoon, lakes and reservoirs) from where the method developed might not be appropriate for highly turbid inland waters. A laboratory spectrum experiment was conducted to investigate the reflective nature of sediment-laden water …

Wisdom Of Crowds: Tests Of The Theory Of Collective Accuracy, Scott Ryan

Doctoral Dissertations

Archival abstract submitted.

Transport Architectures For An Evolving Internet, Keith Winstein '99

Doctoral Dissertations

In the Internet architecture, transport protocols are the glue between an application’s needs and the network’s abilities. But as the Internet has evolved over the last 30 years, the implicit assumptions of these protocols have held less and less well. This can cause poor performance on newer networks—cellular networks, datacenters—and makes it challenging to roll out networking technologies that break markedly with the past.

Working with collaborators at MIT, I have built two systems that explore an objective-driven, computer-generated approach to protocol design. My thesis is that making protocols a function of stated assumptions and objectives can improve application performance …

Anisotropic Earth Structure Revealed By Simulated Annealing Inversion Of Seismic Waves, Hao Xie

Doctoral Dissertations

In a wide range of geophysical problems, the mismatch between theoretical prediction and observation may be caused by lacking the consideration of medium anisotropy. Ever increasing accuracy and scale of geophysical field observations require inclusion of anisotropy now. This PhD dissertation focuses on extracting anisotropic earth structure using simulated annealing (SA) inversion of seismic waves.

In the first part of this dissertation, the nature of seismic anisotropy, the dispersion properties of surface waves with the consideration of material anisotropy, and the stochastic inversion using SA are reviewed with certain algorithm development. In Chapter 2 the generalized Hooke’s law is presented …

Structural Health Monitoring Of An In-Service Highway Bridge With Uncertainties, Jingcheng Li

Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, structural health monitoring (SHM) has become increasingly important for the assessment and maintenance of aging infrastructure. However, some challenges remain in applying SHM in the field. For example, high cost of wired sensors limits the SHM application to small number of structures within a network. Wireless smart sensors (WSSs), on the other hand, provide a versatile, cost-effective method of monitoring dynamic conditions of structures in near real-time. While the wireless sensor technology has been available for nearly a decade, there have been limited numbers of full-scale applications due to its intrinsic limitations such as power supply issue. …

Resource Discovery And Cooperation In Decentralized Systems, Seda Davtyan

Doctoral Dissertations

Massive distributed cooperative computing in networks involves marshaling large collection of network nodes possessing the necessary computational resources. The computing power of the resources is used in solving partitionable, computation intensive problems. This is referred to as Internet, or network, supercomputing. Traditional approaches to Internet supercomputing employ a master processor and many worker processors that execute a collection of tasks on behalf of the master. Despite the simplicity and advantages of centralized schemes, the master processor is a performance bottleneck and a single point of failure. Additionally, a phenomenon of increasing concern is that workers may return incorrect results.

In …

Advanced Simulation Of Wave Reflection: Theory And Applications For Subsurface Imaging, Zhao Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

This Ph. D. dissertation focuses on the numerical simulation of physical wave propagation in time domain focusing on the wave reflection simulation and their relationship with the inner structure imaging. First of all, this dissertation studies the wave phenomena from a systematic perspective.

Secondly, a series of wave propagation simulation methods are developed. These methods include the finite difference time domain method (FDTD), pseudospectral time domain (PSTD) method and multi-region (MR) method. The advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed. The novel efficient recursive integration perfectly matched layer is used as the absorbing boundary condition.

The third, a novel …

The Student Of Voice And The French Baroque Aria: Practical Applications And An Annotated Anthology, Rebecca R. Grimes

Doctoral Dissertations

French opera has a special place in the baroque canon. Although it has roots in the Italian tradition, certain aspects of rhythmic gesture, form, embellishment, and performance practices are unique to French baroque opera. The origins of French baroque opera has a complicated history, and this history and performance tradition have shaped the development of the solo vocal form in this genre. Despite the resurgence of early music performance in the last thirty years, French baroque opera — and by extension the use of French baroque aria literature — has not caught on among teachers and performers of mainstream vocal …

Interventions To Reduce Anxiety For Gifted Children And Adolescents, Amy H. Gaesser

Doctoral Dissertations

Interventions to Reduce Anxiety for Gifted Children and Adolescents

Amy H. Gaesser, PhD

University of Connecticut, 2014

This study examined the anxiety levels of gifted students, as well as the effectiveness of two interventions: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Using the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale-2 (RCMAS-2), Phase I of this study examined anxiety levels in gifted youth (n = 153) participating in private and public gifted education programs, grades 6-12, in two Northeastern states. ANOVA analyses indicated that gender (F [1, 149] = 13.52, p< .001, h₂= .08) and school setting (F …

Stirling's Formula In Number Fields, Matthew Lamoureux

Doctoral Dissertations

In 1997 Bhargava generalized the factorial sequence to factorials in any Dedekind domain. He asked if there is an analogue of Stirling's formula for generalized factorials. Using techniques of analytic number theory, my thesis presents such an analogue when the Dedekind domain is the ring of integers in a number field. Unlike the classical case of Stirling's formula, which corresponds to the number field Q, its generalization to the factorials in a number field other than Q has a surprising ingredient: the formula involves a sum over nontrivial zeros of the zeta-function of the number field.

Pluralism And The Absence Of Truth, Jeremy W. Wyatt

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that we should be pluralists about truth and in turn, eliminativists about the property truth. Traditional deflationists were right to suspect that there is no such property as truth. Yet there is a plurality of pluralities of properties which enjoy defining features that truth would have, were it to exist. So although, in this sense, truth is plural, truth is non-existent. The resulting account of truth is indebted to deflationism as the provenance of the suspicion that truth doesn't exist. But it would be hasty to simply classify the account as deflationary. Each …

Geometric Methods In Analysis On Fractals, Daniel J. Kelleher

Doctoral Dissertations

Our study of the analysis on fractals is broken into three parts: Analysis of post- critically finite (p.c.f.) fractals, non-p.c.f. fractals and applications to Neurobiology. In the first chapter, we focus on how to construct and compute the harmonic structure on p.c.f. fractals. In the second chapter we calculate the spectrum of the Laplacian on an infinite class of fractals. In chapter 3 we discuss the relationship between p.c.f. self-similar structures and self-similar groups. In chapter 4 we discuss a new example of a non-p.c.f. fractal, namely the hexacarpet. Finally in chapter 5 we discuss applications of this analysis to …

Adoption Of Diffused Renewable Energy Technologies: Patterns And Drivers Of Residential Photovoltaic (Pv) Systems In Connecticut, 2005-2013, Marcello Graziano

Doctoral Dissertations

Growing concern about global climate change and energy security are prompting reconsideration of how energy—particularly electricity—is generated, transmitted, and consumed in the United States and across the globe. While an increasing amount of households are adopting solar power across the developed world, the spatial and socioeconomic factors that shape whether or not people adopt this technology is under-theorized (especially with regard to spatial drivers), and not well researched from an empirical perspective. In my dissertation, I present a conceptual model to describe and understand the socioeconomic and spatial factors affecting the diffusion of PV systems. I build my model on …

Middle School Teachers’ Listening Orientations During Individualized Conferences With Struggling, Average, And High-Ability Readers, Cindy M. Gilson

Doctoral Dissertations

Incorporating higher-level questions into classroom discourse as an instructional practice is one recommendation for challenging readers. Recent evidence has demonstrated that teachers’ effective use of follow-up questions during classroom discourse can be used in a variety of ways to support student learning. Interpreting students’ contributions and then responding with appropriate follow-up questions, while concurrently engaged in discourse around text, requires careful listening on the part of the teacher. Teachers’ listening orientations, or how teachers listen, has gained increased attention in the field of mathematics education. This research has indicated that mathematics teachers listen to students for different purposes. Furthermore, …

Integration Of Reaction Kinetics Theory And Gene Expression Programming To Infer Reaction Mechanism, Jason R. White

Doctoral Dissertations

Mechanistic mathematical models of biological systems have been used to describe biological phenomena, including human disease, in the hope that one day these models may be used to better understand diseases, as well as to develop and optimize therapeutic strategies. Evolutionary algorithms, such as genetic programming, may be used to symbolically regress mathematical models describing chemical and biochemical species for which kinetic data are available. However, current evolutionary algorithms are restricted to the formulation of simple or approximate models due to the computational cost of evolving mechanistic models for more complex systems.

It was hypothesized that chemical reaction kinetic theory …

Academically Gifted University Students With Learning Differences: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Experiences And Perceptions Of Twice Exceptional University Students, Stephanie L. D'Souza

Doctoral Dissertations

Twice exceptional learners are typically defined as learners who fit the description of gifted while also meeting the parameters for a learning difference, such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, emotional disturbances, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, etc. These students have special social/emotional needs and special needs in education, and are at particular risk of underachievement and not meeting their full academic potential. The bulk of the previous research has focused primarily on gifted students with learning disabilities, and also has been conducted principally in primary and secondary education settings. This study examined four gifted post-secondary students with a variety of …

Understanding The Impact Of Iron Availability On Bacillus Anthracis Metabolism, Eddy Johana Bautista Bautista

Doctoral Dissertations

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, has to be able to adapt to different physical conditions encountered during the beginning and establishment of the infection process inside the host. One of these conditions is the availability of nutrients like iron. B. anthracis secretes siderophores capable of competing with the iron transport/storage proteins of the host. Previous studies have been dedicated to the analysis of these systems. However, the impact of iron availability on B. anthracis metabolism from a global perspective remains as unclear. In this dissertation, I combined an in silico genome-scale metabolic analysis with experimental studies for B. …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Soundfield Amplification On Acoustical Characteristics And Word Recognition Performance In Relocatable And Permanent Classrooms, Sarah M. Babin

Doctoral Dissertations

There are three acoustical characteristics that should be addressed when developing a good classroom listening environment: signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), reverberation time (RT), and levels of background noise. Previous research has shown that soundfield (SF) amplification systems help to improve these three characteristics, thus improving the classroom listening environment. In the present study, two seventh-grade classrooms were used: one relocatable classroom and one permanent classroom. Acoustical characteristics and speech levels were measured in both classrooms under two amplification conditions (unamplified and amplified). Word recognition abilities of 37 students were also measured under the two amplification conditions in both classrooms. Results showed …

Cooperating Teachers As Models Of Best Practice: Student Teachers' Perceptions, Connie B. Melder

Doctoral Dissertations

The selection of expert, effective cooperating teachers who can foster successful student teacher experiences and serve as primary role models for teacher candidates is central to the success of student teaching. However, a lack of consensus exists among education professionals on a standardized definition of effective cooperating teachers. The purpose of this dissertation study was to determine if student teachers' perceptions of cooperating teachers' modeled actions of professional standards differed across four certification grade bands: (a) early childhood certification (grades PK-3), (b) elementary certification (grades 1-5), (c) secondary content (grades 6-12) certification in English, mathematics, science, and social studies, and …

Numerical Simulation Of Hydrogen Absorption/Desorption Processes In Cylindrical Metal-Hydrogen Reactors For Hydrogen Storage, Fei Han

Doctoral Dissertations

Hydrogen is one of the best fuels because of its high calorific value and environmental friendliness. However, because of its low density, it has storage problems such as high pressure, large volume requirements, heavy weight and safely risks; this quality prevents its wide usage and commercialization.

Researchers have found that some metal/inter-metallic compounds/alloys, such as Mg, La, LaNi5, ZrV2, Mg2Ni and Ti 2Ni, can react with hydrogen and attain relatively large amounts of hydrogen at a relatively low pressure and near normal temperature. Under certain conditions, hydride can desorb hydrogen quickly. Thus, the metal- hydrogen reaction could be a practical …

The Predictive Validity Of Oral Reading Fluency Measures On The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program For Third And Fourth Grade Students, Tracy Elkins Bennett

Doctoral Dissertations

Good, Kaminski, Simmons and Kamenui (2001) declared a national awareness of the benefits of early reading success and the negative consequences of early reading failure. One method discussed for prevention of reading failure was the implementation of screening programs employed to measure reading skills, predict success of future reading success, and inform instruction that would hopefully eliminate reading failure. In the current study, the primary research question was to investigate the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS ORF) benchmark and screening program and its predictive abilities on reading comprehension achievement measured by the integrated …

Numerical Solutions For Problems With Complex Physics In Complex Geometry, Yifan Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, two high order accurate numerical methods, Spectral Element Method (SEM) and Discontinuous Galerkin method (DG), are discussed and investigated. The advantages of both methods and their applicable areas are studied. Particular problems in complex geometry with complex physics are investigated and their high order accurate numerical solutions obtained by using either SEM or DG are presented. Furthermore, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) (a mesh-free weighted interpolation method) is implemented on graphics processing unit (GPU). Some numerical simulations of the complex flow with a free surface are presented and discussed to show the advantages of SPH method in …