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Cognitive Preference And Skill Acquisition: The Relationship Between Student Nurse Anesthetists And Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Thinking Styles, Thomas Diller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Decision-making in healthcare is a complex and, at times, uncertain process. In the United States Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) administer the majority of anesthesia. Nurse Anesthetists must draw on their educational background, clinical experience, and cognitive processes to make sound clinical judgments. To avoid errors understanding the relationship between cognitive preference and skill acquisition is critical. This study was designed to describe the cognitive preferences of Student Nurse Anesthetists (SRNAs) and CRNAs in the United States. The 2 cognitive preferences explored are rational (analytical) and experiential (intuitive) decision-making.

The researcher used a quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive correlational design. The researcher …

Individual Characteristics Of Postsecondary Underachievement, Natasha Godkin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Underachievement in postsecondary education has been a growing concern for educators and researchers. Higher education institutions have implemented early alert systems to identify students performing below standards. This early warning system has major limitations that confine it to an identification only approach. The current study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Student Attitude Assessment Survey-R (SAAS-R) in a postsecondary sample. First, a confirmatory factor analysis validated the SAAS-R in a postsecondary sample. Predictive validity was then investigated by identifying students as underachieving or achieving based on responses to the SAAS-R and via a regression-based discrepancy model (ability vs. …

A Phenomenological Study Of Contributing Factors And Common Trends Related To Teacher Attrition In Western North Carolina, Preston Clarke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A phenomenological approach was used to identify contributing factors and common trends related teacher attrition by conducting interviews with teachers who decided to exit a North Carolina School District located in Western North Carolina. A qualitative approach allowed the researcher to gain valuable insight into the decision-making process of the 15 research participants. Data collection involved conducting one on one telephone interviews with participants by asking a series of open-ended questions that allowed for probing and follow-up questions. Analysis of researcher notes, evaluation of textual data produced by interviews, and observations allowed the qualitative investigator to identify emerging themes and …

Perceptions Of Tenured Science Faculty Regarding The Provision Of Reasonable Accommodations For Students With Disabilities, Rebecca J. Riggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study used qualitative research methods to explore the perceptions of tenured science faculty regarding the provision of reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. Thirteen tenured science faculty at postsecondary institutions throughout the United States participated in one-on-one interviews. The participants provided their perceptions and experiences regarding the provision of academic accommodations for students with disabilities in a laboratory science. In these interviews key themes emerged, such as the importance of providing reasonable accommodations for successful academic outcomes for students with disabilities, the perception that providing reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities is fair, the concern that providing reasonable …

Phenomenological Study Of Positive Coteaching Dyads Perceptions Of Their Coteaching Relationship, Ashley Weber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how coteaching dyads perceive their coteaching relationships including how they implemented coteaching and how their school leaders supported them. Participants in this study were located in one county school system in East Tennessee. Data was collected through an online survey distributed to 40 teachers, of whom 28 responded. Then data was collected through in person one-on-one interviews. Coteachers who participated in the interview process all rated themselves high on the Coteaching Rating Scale. The overarching research question was What makes coteaching relationships effective? Three research questions were analyzed. From the data, …

The Front Lines Of Student Success: A Phenomenography Exploring The Background And Knowledge Of Primary Role Academic Advisors In Higher Education, Alicia N. Abney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenographic study was to understand the experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives of new, primary role academic advisors at four-year public institutions in the United States. Research on advising has provided insight into advising best practices and the student perceptions of academic advising; however, there is little research illustrating current primary role academic advisors and their experience, or perhaps lack thereof.

To receive highly coveted federal and state funding, higher education institutions must show growth in student success. Academic advisors are on the front lines of student success because they are tasked with the responsibility of retaining …

Look, But Don’T Touch: Impact Of Covid-19 On The Nicu Caregiver, Rebecca C. Otwell-Dove

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admission of an infant into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is an experience that has been associated with a variety of both positive and negative health outcomes for parent and child. While both the setting name and the admitted population alludes to a sole focus on the affected infant, what often remains underrecognized is the impact on the ones who care for the newborn long before and longer after their NICU stay. Given the recency and unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, very little research has examined the impact of COVID-19-specific stress on the experience of parents of infants …

College Students’ Perceptions Of Sense Of Community, Satisfaction, And Cognitive Learning In Online Classes, Laura Lynn Higgs Kappel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this non-experimental, comparative quantitative study was to determine if there were significant differences between the perceptions of undergraduate and graduate students about the importance and presence of sense of community in online classes at two southern public universities using survey data. The study also aimed to determine if there were significant relationships between students’ perceptions of the presence of sense of community and students’ satisfaction with the course and between students’ perception of the presence of sense of community and students’ perceptions of increases in cognitive learning. The study also addressed factors of undergraduate classification, gender, and …

Reduced Fuel Emissions Through Connected Vehicles And Truck Platooning, Paul D. Brummitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication enable the sharing, in real time, of vehicular locations and speeds with other vehicles, traffic signals, and traffic control centers. This shared information can help traffic to better traverse intersections, road segments, and congested neighborhoods, thereby reducing travel times, increasing driver safety, generating data for traffic planning, and reducing vehicular pollution. This study, which focuses on vehicular pollution, used an analysis of data from NREL, BTS, and the EPA to determine that the widespread use of V2V-based truck platooning—the convoying of trucks in close proximity to one another so as to reduce air drag …

Overview Of Transition Care Clinics And Patient No-Shows, Manul Awasthi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction

Transition care clinics (TCCs) have proven to be effective in meeting the time-sensitive needs of patients in the post-discharge period and ensuring smooth transitions of patients from hospital to home. These clinics have led to lower readmissions, lower emergency department visits, cost savings, and lower rates of other adverse events following discharge. However, TCCs, including the East Tennessee State University Family Medicine (ETSU-FM) TCC have been facing high rates of patient no-shows.

Aim

The aim of this dissertation is to identify the different components and outcomes of TCC based on the literature. We further aim to analyze the TCC …

When The Costs Outweigh The Benefits: Examining Variations In Nulliparous, Term, Singleton, Vertex And Elective Cesarean Delivery Rates Across The United States, 2016-2020, Kathleen Tatro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overutilization of cesarean deliveries is a major public health issue in the United States (U.S.). The rates of cesarean deliveries have increased substantially from the mid 1990s. Low-risk, defined as nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex (NTSV) pregnancies with no medical indication of need, and elective cesarean deliveries have been implicated as drivers of these increases. Elective cesarean deliveries are NTSV cesarean deliveries in which no trial of labor was attempted. There is a lack of clear rationale as to the noted increases in cesarean delivery rates as the evidence shows that these procedures provide no additional health benefits to mothers …

The Paleoecology Of High-Elevation Bison In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem And Implications For Modern Bison Conservation, Darian Bouvier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The national mammal of the United States, the American Bison (Bison bison) was once nearly extinct. Populations have recovered to the degree that thousands roam the Great Plains today. Due to their large numbers and body size, this species has an oversized impact on the ecological communities where it lives and is considered a keystone herbivore in modern North American grasslands. This study explores the detailed, seasonally resolved, paleoecology of seven bison from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem during the Late Holocene through stable isotope analyses and species niche modeling. Isotopic analyses of δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, …

Cyclic Di-Gmp Regulates Motility, Biofilm Formation, And Desiccation Tolerance In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Garrett Reynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Acinetobacter baumannii is an increasingly multidrug-resistant pathogen contributing to hospital-acquired infections necessitating the discovery of novel treatments. A bacterial second messenger, cyclic diguanosine monophosphate (cyclic di-GMP), can regulate various persistence factors that are potentially advantageous for survival in hospital environments. Cyclic di-GMP–modulating enzymes and cyclic di-GMP–binding effectors predictively are encoded in the Acinetobacter baumannii genome. I hypothesized that cyclic di-GMP controls motility, biofilm formation, and desiccation tolerance in Acinetobacter baumannii. Disrupting cyclic di-GMP–modulating enzymes or cyclic di-GMP–binding effectors should alter the regulatory effectiveness of these phenotypes. I tested the multidrug-resistant isolate Acinetobacter baumannii strain AB5075 and identified several transposon …

The Role Of Middle And High School Principals During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study, Dustin Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine middle and high school principal roles prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic to gain a better understanding about how leadership responsibilities adapted or changed. Data collection strategies included one-on-one interviews with nine middle and high school principals in East Tennessee. To qualify for the study participants had to have experience in the principalship prior to the pandemic. The analysis of data was based on the theoretical frameworks of adaptive leadership (Heifetz et al., 2009) and change theory (Fullan, 2020). The results revealed five key themes that were consistent during the …

An Evaluation Of Castor Californicus And Implications For The Evolution And Distribution Of The Genus Castor (Rodentia: Castoridae) In North America, Kelly Lubbers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The genus Castor is represented in Eurasia by Castor fiber, North America by C. canadensis, and has been in North America since the late Miocene. This study aims to assess whether morphology of Miocene-Pliocene C. californicus and extant C. canadensis are distinctly different. Specimens of Castor were compared using geometric morphometrics on cranial material and linear measurements of postcranial material. Species occurrence data were compared with past and future climate data to assess Castor distribution in North America through time. Results show that C. canadensis is highly variable in both cranial and postcranial morphology and C. californicus falls …

A Phenomenological Study On How University Employees Experienced Working From Home During A Pandemic, Amy Hill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how employees at a mid-sized public university in the South experienced working from home during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-2021. Most employees in higher education settings were affected in some way by the coronavirus pandemic that hit the United States in the spring of 2020. Administrative, and clerical and support staff had to determine how to continue to provide the university with services while coordinating working from home. Now that we have experienced working from home, will that experience change the future of how staff work in higher education? For many, …

Teachers’ Perceptions On The Effects Of Covid-19 On Juniors And Seniors In High School, Martha J. Meredith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the academic, social, and emotional effects of COVID-19 on 11th- and 12th-grade students. There has been little documentation regarding the specific change that the pandemic has had on these students; it is imperative that we look at the effects of COVID-19 on the students who experienced COVID-19 pandemic.

Data collection was completed through individual interviews. Analysis of data occurred in three phases: (a) categorization of data under the four organizational factors, (b) building the explanation in a phenological form, and (c) re-examination of the data. The analysis of the narrative study was …

Student Achievement And Teacher Perceptions Of School Climate In Title 1 And Non-Title 1 Schools, Jennifer E. Pangle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there is a significant relationship between student achievement and teacher perceptions of school climate. An additional purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant difference in teacher perceptions between Title 1 and non-Title 1 schools. The final purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant difference in teacher perceptions of school climate among the schools according to overall student achievement. A series of Spearman’s Correlation analyses were used to analyze data to determine if there was a significant relationship between TVAAS composite …

An Examination Of The Working Relationships Between General Education Teachers, Special Education Teachers, And Paraprofessionals In General Education Settings, Rita Page Hosay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide an examination of the relationships between general education teachers, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals and the influences of these relationships on students with disabilities. This study was conducted through the process of semi-structured interviews with general education teachers, special education teachers, and paraprofessionals working in two Tennessee school districts. The researcher found that communication practices, training, perspectives, time, role expectations, development of partnerships, and the creation of supportive environments affect the development of working relationships among special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and general education teachers. The researcher found that these relationships influence the …

Evaluating Bat Roost Abundance: A Comparison Of Drone-Acquired Thermal Imagery And Acoustic Estimates With Visual Observations, Karah Jaffe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Roosts provide an opportunity to census philopatric populations of bats. Comparing the efficacy of traditional methods with novel methods can provide guidance on the use of new technologies in the field. This project aims to compare the count efficacy of external emergence methodologies, i.e., drone-acquired thermal imagery, acoustic estimates, and visual counts. Surveys were conducted ten nights at two emergence sites and synchronized to compare counts. Acoustic estimates could not be established as there was a weak prediction of the linear relationship between root-mean-square pressure and emergence count; therefore, this method was removed from the comparative analysis. A linear mixed-effects …

Consequences Of Caring: The Manifestation Of Compassion Fatigue In High School Teachers During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Randi Staggs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the symptoms of compassion fatigue as experienced by teachers in grades 9-12 during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the research on the effects of compassion fatigue on educators is relatively sparse, the literature regarding compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma in other helping professions revealed a 12-symptom framework.

Data collection strategies included individual virtual interviews and field notes. Analysis of data occurred in four phases: (a) analyzing transcripts and identifying themes, (b) categorization of data under the 12 symptoms of compassion fatigue, (c) building the explanation in narrative form, and …

Adaptation Of Instructional Strategies And Practices During A Pandemic, Lacy E. York Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the stories of identified, effective middle school teachers as they experienced changes in instructional strategies and practices as a result of an identified crisis, COVID-19. Although there has been little documentation in the literature specifically regarding adapting instructional strategies and practices as a result of crises, crisis management, change theory, mindset theory, adaptation, and teacher effectiveness characteristics became the framework through which to interpret the data.

Data collection strategies included one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with a total of eight participants, two principals and six teachers, who met specific research participation criteria. Analysis of …

"Agitate, Agitate, Agitate": Stories From Mississippi Valley, Parchman, And The Largest Mass Arrest Of Students In U.S. History, Katherine Aberle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the midst of the turbulent and sometimes violent unrest culminating in the fatal shootingsat Kent State University and Jackson State College in 1970, there is another story of black student activism that has been all but erased from public memory. In February 1970, the largest mass arrest of students in U.S. history took place at a relatively obscure small-town college in the Mississippi Delta. That winter, enrollment at Mississippi Valley State College was barely 2000 students, but on February 11, 1970, almost 900 students, nearly half the student population at the historically black college, would be arrested and find …

Bridging The Oppurtunity Gap Through Exploring The Perceptions Of Disadvantaged African American Students, Anesha Lashal Carter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore student agency’s impact on the lives of successful African American adult students who once identified as being disadvantaged. The opportunity gap, formerly recognized as the achievement gap, continues to negatively affect low socioeconomic status African American students with limited social and cultural capital resources. There are unlimited studies which identify factors that fuel the opportunity gap (Ladson-Billings, 2006). However, many of these studies neglect to incorporate the voices of the stakeholders in which social and economic disparities impact the greatest (Anderson, 2018). This qualitative phenomenological study aims to address this research gap …

Perceptions Of Sexual Refusals: Not So Black And White, Lavina Ying Ho

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault is an issue affecting approximately 1 in 5 women. Compared to White women, Black women report higher rates of lifetime rape, are at risk of developing physical/mental health issues post-assault (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse), and are less likely to engage in help-seeking after sexual victimization. Research reveals the manner in which a woman refuses a sexual advance can influence a man’s perceptions of the genuineness of her refusal. Sexual refusals that are explicit (e.g., not wanting to have sex due to religious beliefs) are identified more quickly as violating a woman’s boundaries than sexual …

Mississippi Modernism: The River Valley And Race In American Culture, 1892-1945, William C. Palmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mississippi Modernism looks to the Mississippi River Valley of the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first few decades of the twentieth century to analyze the ways individuals expressed and determined their experience in the changing world. By engaging with theories of modernity from Marshall Berman and the Black modernism of Houston A. Baker, Jr. this work proposes the Mississippi watershed as a region where individuals indulge in the processes of modernism remaking the environments, both urban and rural, surrounding them. By thinking about the “dry” and “wet” valleys envisioned by European settlers as Christopher Morris terms it, …

Clay Beds Preserved In High-Energy Gravel Deposits On Crowley’S Ridge, Northeastern Arkansas, U.S.A.--Origin And Significance From A Lithofacies And Mineralogical Perspective, Trevor John Dempsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Upland Complex (UC) on the southern half of Crowley’s Ridge in Northeastern Arkansas is a 2.6 to 0.2 Ma high-energy, braided sand and gravel containing two thin zones of clay preserved near the top of the UC. Minimum age of the clay was acquired from overlying Brown and Foreman (2012) thermoluminescence ages and maximum age was acquired from Odom et al. (2019) Al/Be age of the basal UC. This project aims to discern if these clay layers formed from pyroclastic material and if so, what the provenance of the parent material is. The investigation of the clay layers included …

Using Geophysics To Understand The Shallow Geologic Framework Beneath The National Mall And Memorial Parks Of Washington, D.C., And Map The Trend Of A Quaternary Fault, Kristian Macias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Adams Mill fault, exposed near the original entrance to the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., thrusts Cambrian basement 2.4 m over an unconsolidated gravel. The fault is inferred to trend southeast on geological maps. A 451 ± 34 ka luminescence age for the faulted gravel, obtained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 2016, indicates the Adams Mill fault is a Quaternary fault, and this has implications for seismic hazard analyses of the region. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), ground penetrating radar (GPR), and seismic refraction microtremor (ReMi) techniques were used to locate and identify the Adams Mill fault …

The Role Of Values In Communicating Pharmacy Technician Role Expansion, Wesley Patrick Sparkmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background/Objectives The growth of pharmacy technician scope of practice research over the past 20 years has allowed opportunities for researchers to investigate the machinations of technician scope of practice expansion. To investigate what affects pharmacy technicians’ likelihood of taking on role expansion, this study had three objectives. First, researchers aimed to investigate what additional tasks pharmacists believe technicians should have greater involvement in completing. Secondly, researchers aimed to investigate what occupational values pharmacists believe are important to technicians and determine how those perceptions might impact pharmacist messaging regarding technician role expansion. The final objective was to determine how technician occupational …

Teaching In A Remediation Nation: Exploring Journalism And Mass Communication Faculty Perceptions Of Their Professional Practice, Andrew Mark Abernathy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows many new college students may be remedial in English language arts or mathematics (Jaggers & Bickerstaff, 2018). For faculty in journalism and mass communication (JMC) fields, teaching struggling student writers can be especially challenging as these students may not have the fundamental knowledge to build applied writing skills upon. Thus, this lack of readiness for collegiate writing poses challenges to not only these students’ academic success, but also their transition into media professions. Embedded remediation—an alternative to traditional, prerequisite remediation—is one strategy that JMC faculty can use to support struggling student writers. This dissertation explores how JMC faculty …