Digital Commons Network^™

Virtual Reality Influence On Moral Reasoning Through Compassion, Dennis W. Dunivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates quantifiable links between virtual reality, moral reasoning, and compassion, contributing to the development of improved pedagogy for moral leadership development through experiential learning. It is the first empirical study to determine how specific virtual reality experiences potentially influence moral reasoning as measured by the DIT-2 (Rest et al., 1999), as well as the possible mediation effects of compassion on this relationship as measured by the Compassion Scale (Pommier et al., 2019). Although pedagogical implications are discussed, including the integration of virtual reality experiences into curriculum, the boundaries of this study are controlled to measure the direct influence …

Terrain Cost Learning From Human Preferences For Robot Path Planning Using A Visual User Interface, Kaivalya Velagapudi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Robot navigation in terrains with limited exploration and limited knowledge has been a problem of interest in robotics due to the potential dangers that may arise during traversal. Due to the large number of path permutations within a complex and feature-rich real-world environment, and in the interest of saving time and ensuring safety, the robot should learn the optimal path without repeated exploration of the terrain. This can be accomplished by leveraging the path preferences of a human operator so that, with selective inputs, the agent can effectively learn a terrain-cost mapping in order to determine the optimal route, thereby …

Black Quarterback, White Masks: A Critical Analysis Of The Nfl Anthem Protests, Cody Walizer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The NFL anthem protests were and are an important cultural moment and social movement. The widespread emulation of the protest, and the adoption of the kneel as a symbol of unity, reverence, and silent objection demonstrates the protests’ continued relevance. This dissertation critically analyzes Colin Kaepernick’s protest through the lens of racial rhetorical criticism (Flores, 2016) and Fanonian communication studies (Towns, 2020). Through the case studies of David Brooks, Lee Siegel, and Colin Fleming, and their New York Times opinion pieces on Kaepernick from 2016-17, this study argues that the common discourses surrounding the protest exist within the strategic rhetoric …

Identifying The Role Of Phospholipase D1 And Phosphatidic Acid In Exocytosis, Broderick L. Bills

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Exocytosis is an essential process for intercellular communication in eukaryotic cells. This process involves significant changes in membrane curvature, and lipids and curvature-sensing proteins can assist these processes. One protein in particular, phospholipase D1 (PLD1), and its product, the lipid phosphatidic acid (PA), are involved in multiple exocytic processes. However, PLD1 and PA’s role in this process has remained unclear. In this work, PLD1 and the production of PA were visualized during exocytosis, and PA localization to regions of membrane curvature was established. Together, these results support the hypothesis that PLD1 production of PA stabilizes negative curvature during membrane fusion. …

Islamic Studies Teachers' Perspectives Of Applying Technology In Saudi Arabia Elementary Schools, Amal Abdulmohsen Alsaif

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the use of technology in education has been on the rise around the world, and Saudi Arabia is no exception. The integration of technology in Saudi education has the potential to enhance the quality of education, increase access to education, and provide students with the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing world. It also has the potential to facilitate collaboration between students and teachers, both within and outside the classroom, and to promote lifelong learning.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate Islamic Studies teachers' perceptions of using technology in their classrooms …

Ethics In Kakadu (1988): Finding Djilile’S “True Tracks”, Natasia T. Boyko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tasmanian-born Peter Sculthorpe (1929 – 2014) was one of Australia’s most iconic modernist classical composers of the twentieth century. Kakadu (1988) seems to have sparked the most controversy of Sculthorpe’s works and has become one of his most well-known pieces. In the program notes provided in the score’s foreword, Sculthorpe asserts that “the melodic material in Kakadu, as in much of my recent music, was suggested by the contours and rhythms of Aboriginal chant.” Sculthorpe attributed this melodic material to the Arnem Land chant, Djilile. Consequently, Sculthorpe has been criticized for extracting Djilile from its authentic context as …

Reviving Heritage In A Historic Gem City: Examining The Management Of History At The Colonial Quarter In St. Augustine, Florida, Madeline Bonner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Colonial Quarter is a living history venue of Spanish and British colonial heritage in St. Augustine, Florida. Since 1966, the site has housed interpretive structures and programming related to St. Augustine’s colonial history. Over time, management of the site has fallen under the purview of the state of Florida, the city of St. Augustine, and the University of Florida Historic St. Augustine (UFHSA) Direct Support Organization, which functions as a managing agency for the state. In 2013, the UFHSA Board entered into a public-private partnership with the Colonial Quarter, LLC. This marks the first instance of private sector involvement …

3 Essays On Protests, Repression, And Signaling, Dogus Aktan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on conceptual development across multiple questions of political contention, with a focus on informational processes. In the first paper, I examine the interaction of informational and disruptive effects of protests with a formal model. The model shows that repression can have a screening purpose. Governments use coercion to set the terms of contention so that they only have to accommodate sufficiently aggrieved and salient groups, while filtering out the rest. The model also demonstrates that decreased cost of mobilization makes repression indirectly cheaper for governments, leading to more repression. In the second paper, I examine why governments …

Defining Business As Usual In Preschool Interventions For Challenging Behavior, Eleanor Bold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Challenging behavior (CB) is a major barrier to service delivery in preschool classrooms. Persistent CB has been found to significantly impact children’s academic and social success long-term, especially amongst children from historically minoritized populations and those with disabilities. Numerous evidence-based intervention strategies exist to prevent and reduce CB, yet preschool teachers continue to voice a desire to increase their capacity to do so in the classroom due to high rates of CB continuing to be observed. This dissertation seeks to address this research to practice gap by ascertaining the current baseline intervention practices utilized to manage CB in preschool classrooms …

The Not-So-Silent Period: Testimonios Of Recently Arrived Latinx Students, Teri M. Hutchinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore and amplify the experiences of recently arrived Latinx¹ students as interpreted through their testimonios in educational borderlands. Through increasingly xenophobic discourses around immigrants and their children (Pérez Huber, 2015), U.S. public schools have become entrenched borderland spaces wherein the humanity of recently arrived students is voided through silencing them with labels of linguistic deficiency and cramming them into one-size-fits-all educational programming (Fine et al., 2007; Flores & Rosa, 2015). There is demand for research that explores the experiences of these children, especially in light of their continued marginalization through neoliberal programming …

Sorry Not Sorry: Microaggression Perpetrator Learning Readiness Factors, Kathryn Elaine Kelly Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microaggressions are commonplace slights perpetuated against out-group members that reinforce negative stereotypes, often inadvertently and unconsciously. Workplace mitigation efforts have traditionally been focused on raising awareness with the belief that perpetrators are simply unaware of their actions. While these efforts have done much to raise awareness—especially for victims of microaggressions, who may be more sensitive than ever of their occurrence—some perpetrators consciously persist through awareness, often with even more negative implications to the victim such as minimization, dismissal, and further stereotype reinforcement. For perpetrators to change their behavior, in addition to classic behavioral change models that require capability, opportunity, and …

Breaking Down Barriers: The Impact Of Segregation On Social Capital And Economic Outcomes, Donyetta A. Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breaking Down Barriers. Does social capital indirectly affect black/white economic outcomes via entrepreneurial activities? Does the relationship between social capital, entrepreneurship, and black/white economic outcomes change when social capital interacts with segregation? Drawing from Bourdieu's (1986) and Coleman’s (1990) social capital theory and prior scholars' regressive view theories of segregation, I propose that 1) social capital improves entrepreneurial activities and black/white economic outcomes, and 2) segregation’s interaction with social capital has an adverse effect on entrepreneurial activities and black/white economic outcomes. To perform the analysis, data were collected at the county- level from multiple sources and aggregated into one file …

How Practices Drive Persistence: The Transformational Consumption Journey Of Native Americans In Higher Education, Gwen Locklear Almodovar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an academic environment where many higher education institutions tout their diversity and inclusion statistics, there is a decline in the enrollment of Native American students and a decrease in Native American scholars. The President of the United States, in an October 2021 briefing and with the issuance of an executive order named The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities, saw the immediate urgency to understand the systematic causes and implement evidence-based strategies that will improve and increase student enrollment and academic advancement. This research takes …

Higher Education’S Effect On Retention: Exploring The Experiences Of Cps Caseworkers, Alisa S. Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study was an exploration of Child Protective Services (CPS) frontline caseworkers' experiences. The problem investigated was the high number of caseworkers who lacked the knowledge and skills necessary to do their job and the constant turnover of workers within the agency. Although previous researchers have explored many factors that cause caseworker turnover, the research has not focused much on the caseworkers’ perspective. Therefore, this qualitative study explored CPS caseworkers’ opinions and experiences using virtual semistructured interviews. The study specifically focused on the impact that education and training has on job performance and turnover. The study population was …

Latino And/Or Hispanic Male Leaders In Community Colleges In Texas: A Narrative Study, Estrella Barrera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to understand the factors influencing the leadership development of Latino and/or Hispanic male leaders serving in Texas community colleges. As the Latino and/or Hispanic population continues to grow, understanding the experiences from middle school to college is critical to gleaning insights into the factors that influence the development of Latino and/or Hispanic male leaders. Using a narrative life span approach to leadership development, the study provided themes regarding the critical factors impacting leadership development across the life span of the participants. Through life stories, the study’s findings described and illustrated key factors that influenced leadership development for …

Leveling Up: Implementing Supportive Practices To Address The Needs Of Students Impacted By Trauma In An Urban Charter School, Altovise Boyd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood trauma is a worldwide issue impacting children as young as toddlers and infants. Children exposed to traumatic events are at a greater risk of having cognitive and academic concerns. Additionally, children impacted by trauma are more likely to exhibit internalizing and externalizing behaviors than their peers who have not been exposed to a traumatic event. The purpose of this mixed-methods applied research study was to support the social-emotional needs of students impacted by trauma by implementing trauma-informed practices. An action plan was developed and implemented to address the three elements of the action plan. The first element was the …

Baby, Ocd, And Me: Psychoeducation Intervention On Perinatal Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Alexandra Marie Gilbert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Awareness towards maternal mental health conditions (MMHC) has recently increased, especially during the perinatal period (pregnancy and the first postpartum year [Kucherer & Byatt, 2020]). However, perinatal Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), continues to face unique challenges. Perinatal OCD is found to be insufficiently recognized, diagnosed, and treated compared to other MMHC (Mulcahy et al., 2020). Researchers have identified a general lack of awareness and/or stigmatization of the disorder as complicating factors (Cooke et al., 2020; McCarty et al., 2017). One promising avenue for addressing such barriers to accessing care is psychoeducation intervention (PEI) focusing on perinatal OCD (Timpano et al., 2011). …

Developing Biomolecular Hydrogen Evolution Catalysts Using De Novo Designed Self-Assembling Metallopeptides And Metallothionein Scaffolds, Sreya Malayam Parambath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The imbalance between the consumption and production of energy is one of the global issues of the century. At present, the most used source of energy is fossil fuel. Even though these are non-renewable source of energy that depletes over time, burning fossil fuel can cause several environmental problems, which include significant issues such as global warming; ocean acidification; and the issues such as water pollution from coal mining. Thus, it is important to find a renewable and environmentally friendly source of energy to meet the increasing demands of the rapidly growing global population. Hydrogen is considered a secure and …

Enhanced-Entropy Chaotic Circuit Design For Overhead-Constrained Hardware Security Applications In Integrated Circuits, Partha Sarathi Paul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This document presents a Ph.D. dissertation that focuses on designing overhead constrained circuits for chaos-based hardware security applications in integrated circuit (IC) technology. The designed circuits are optimized for promising chaotic behavior while maintaining the constrained area, delay, and power budget. This research includes proposing novel circuit topologies for attaining superior chaotic complexity, analyzing chaotic performance with multiple metrics, proposing the designs for real-world hardware-security applications that leverage proposed circuit topologies, and analyzing the security aspects of the designed applications. Multiple circuit design techniques are presented in this document. All the proposed works fall under the central motivation of designing …

Free Speech And Students' Rights In Mississippi Public Schools: Exploring Off-Campus Speech, Diala Husni Chaney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study uses qualitative interviews with building-level principals in Mississippi public high schools along with document analysis to construct standardized policy language for Mississippi School Districts to adopt in order to aid administrators when handling issues involving student off-campus speech. This study rests upon the idea that free speech, and what constitutes free speech, has been and always will be a problem within society, especially with regard to speech used within public schools.

The consensus among researchers is certain types of speech are protected by the First Amendment, while other types of speech are not. By further delving into …

Leadership Matters: An Assessment Of The Mpower Leadership Program At The University Of Mississippi, Ryan Upshaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this manuscript is to examine the importance of student leadership development programs on undergraduate students using the framework of the Social Change Leadership Model. This document will specifically examine the MPower Leadership program held at the University of Mississippi. Student engagement and leadership is extremely important to college campuses as universities seek to prepare their students for the world of work and to become engaged citizens. Student leadership and engagement also has ties to academic success and persistence. A concrete plan that is focused on leadership development also benefits student affairs administrators who are responsible for coordinating, …

Social Anxiety And Engagement In Risky Behaviors: Exploring The Role Of Emotion Regulation, Carey J. Sevier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a chronic, prevalent disorder that is characterized by persistent and marked fear of social situations when there is potential for negative evaluation from others. Although SAD is typically characterized by inhibition and escape behaviors, some research suggests some individuals with SAD display approach-oriented behaviors wherein individuals engage in greater risky behaviors (e.g., aggression, sexual impulsivity, substance use). This approach-oriented presentation appears to have an earlier onset, greater symptoms severity and greater functional impairment. Emotion regulation (ER) is the ability to use strategies to engage in goal directed behavior. ER difficulties have been shown to be …

Project Grit: An Applied Research Study Conducted In An Alternative School Program To Promote Alternative Behaviors To Violence, James Ray Howington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students in the Anniston School District are placed in the alternative setting (i.e., the Avery Alternative Center) for fighting and violence more than any other disciplinary infraction. The disproportionality of students of color and minority groups enrolled in the alternative setting for fighting is also alarming. Why is this happening? Why does student conflict often end in physical aggression and violence, especially disputes involving minorities? What can stop the violence? Stakeholders in the Avery Alternative Center created Project GRIT to help answer these questions by incorporating research-based practices and interventions designed to strengthen conflict resolution skills in participants and support …

Understanding Financial Toxicity Among Adult Cancer Survivors In The Us, Siddhi Korgaonkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term ‘financial toxicity’ (FT) has been used to describe cancer-related financial hardship and psychological distress experienced by cancer survivors. FT can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of cancer survivors due to its multifarious adverse effects.

This dissertation strives to advance extant knowledge on cancer-related FT research by investigating three key questions: 1. How have the trends in the direct total and out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenditures, and OOP financial burden of US cancer survivors aged 18-64 years evolved between 2008 – 2019? 2. What are the self-reported HIL levels among adult cancer survivors aged 27-64 years in the …

Effects Of Pictorial And Imagery Encoding On False Memories, Paul D. Loprinzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior research demonstrates that viewing matched pictures is ineffective in reducing false memories for related lures that have not been previously externally presented during the experiment. However, other types of visual processing, such imagery encoding, have been shown to reduce false memories when evaluated from paradigms where the critical item is also thought to be internally activated, such as when using DRM lists. The prior work showing that imagery encoding can reduce false memories when using DRM lists may be confounded by a potential mismatch between the mentally-generated image and the visual word. Using a category associate procedure, as opposed …

Evaluation Of Quality Ratings In Healthcare: Is There Evidence Of Disparities In Their Applications?, Irene B. Nsiah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined racial and ethnic disparities in: (1) the impact of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policy and payment changes to the Medicare Part D Star Ratings Program on adherence to diabetes, renin-angiotensin system antagonists (RASA) and statin medications, (2) the spillover effect of this program onto nontargeted therapies used to treat hypertension (calcium channel blockers and beta blockers), and (3) insulin non-persistence among Medicare beneficiaries, and quantified the contribution of sociodemographic, clinical and cost factors associated with the racial and ethnic disparities.

For objectives 1 and 2, interrupted time series (ITS) analyses were conducted using …

Determining Background Deep-Time Critical Zone Conditions In Mississippi Preceding The Onset Of Paleocene-Eocene Hyperthermals, Savannah Reese Rathbun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hyperthermals are periods of extremely rapid global warming. In order to understand the magnitude of hyperthermals, a more complete understanding of background conditions must be established. My goal is to study the paleoclimatic conditions that existed prior to the onset of Paleocene- Eocene hyperthermal events in order to establish background conditions. Relatively thick Paleocene and Eocene sedimentary units ideal for this study are present in the Mississippi Embayment (MSE), a major southwest- dipping sedimentary basin in the Gulf of Mexico coastal region of North America. The MSE contains an extensive record of Paleocene strata that were deposited prior to the …

Exploration Of Student Success Programs For Freshmen Students On Academic Warning/Academic Probation At The University Of Mississippi, Jeremy Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nearly ten percent of the first-year class at the University of Mississippi go on Academic Warning or Academic Probation each semester after their first-full semester at the University. During this time, the student's GPA is below a 2.0, which requires them to take the EDHE 101: Academic Skills for College course, if they plan to return to the University that following Spring or Fall semester (depending on which was their first-full semester). Academic Support Programs, under the Center for Student Success and First-Year Experience oversees this course and several other programs to assist students as they look to return to …

Development Of Probiotic Whipped Cream And Butter Using Whey Protein Hydrolysate-Encapsulated Probiotic Organisms, Kritika Gaba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Electrode And Electrolyte Design To Develop Advanced Battery Technologies For Large Scale Energy Storage, Wei He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale energy storage devices play a key role in regulating the renewable energy to build a carbon-free sustainable future, but the widely used lithium-ion batteries cannot meet the demands because of the limited lithium resource and high cost. Thus, it is urgent to develop next-generation battery technologies with low cost and high safety. Sodium-ion battery is considered as a promising candidate due to the abundant sodium resources and low cost. Its practical application, however, is hindered by the absence of the advanced electrode materials. The tin-based anodes deliver high theoretical capacities and show great promise for the sodium-ion batteries, but …