Digital Commons Network^™

Opinions, Attitudes, And Self-Efficacy Of Secondary School Counselors In Ramp And Non-Ramp Designated Schools And Their Work With Students With Disabilities, Christine Denise Lewis Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) implemented standards that aid the professional school counselor via a comprehensive program to serve all students (ASCA, 2019). This study examines secondary school counselors working in RAMP and non-RAMP designated schools. The designation of recognized ASCA model programs (RAMP), which awards schools when they successfully implement comprehensive programs, leads one to believe that RAMP programs exhibit effectiveness, while understanding that lacking RAMP certification does not mean a comprehensive school counseling program does not exist. The current study surveyed secondary school counselors’ attitude, self-efficacy, and opinions toward work with students with disabilities. An independent samples …

Prototypically American: The Influence Of Accent And Race On Hiring Evaluations, Tuong-Vy Cac Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a globalized world, individuals are more likely to travel or migrate between countries; thus, we may encounter more individuals who speak with an accent that is unfamiliar. Accents can serve as a social cue that conveys information about the speakers’ background and national origin. It is a particularly important perceptual cue in the workplace because accented individuals are perceived to be lower in status and competence. The current study attempted to replicate prior findings on accents; disentangle race and accent; and extend the literature on accent by examining the target’s perceived prototypicality of Americanness. Across three studies (N = …

Explorations Of Timbre In Selected Songs From Schubert’S Winterreise, Samuel Clayton Garner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes five songs from Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise (1828) according to timbre using spectrographic images created with the Sonic Visualizer computer program. The report begins with an introduction to timbre, an explanation of spectrographic technology, and defining to terminology to be used in the analyses. The songs and topics to be covered are “Gute Nacht” and how individual performances can dictate timbre; “Die Wetterfahne” and the motive of wind related to timbre; “Der Lindenbaum” and timbral relationships among strophes; “Frühlingstraum” and how emotions, dream sequences, and weather are conveyed by timbre; and “Der stürmische Morgen” and the …

Visual Tracking Speed And Soccer Performance Metrics, Julia Paige Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Visual training has previously been shown to correlate to sport specific level of training and sport specific performance measures in controlled conditions. However, it remains unclear if these relationships exist between visual tracking thresholds and in competition decision making metrics over the duration of a soccer season. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between visual tracking speed (VTS) baseline scores and soccer-specific performance measures. In total, 19 NCAA Division I soccer players were tested before the 2021 spring soccer season, after exclusionary criteria only 13 were utilized for analysis. VTS was measured from 1-core session …

The Black Petromodernism Of Zora Neale Hurston: Energy, Race, And Mobility, Stuart Mullet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis situates Zora Neale Hurston and the folk communities in her oeuvre within the context of modernity’s dependencies on fossil fuels. Such a disciplinary context provides an energy footing for our understandings of African American migrations in the twentieth century—which radically transformed the nation on multiple levels—and it illuminates the communal values that undergird Black approaches to petromodern forms of mobility. Furthermore, by engaging the Black spaces of the South, my argument begins filling a gap in the energy humanities. Few scholars in this field engage deeply those populations and regions that disproportionately experience the underbelly of petromodernity and …

Midwifery And Medicine In Britain: A Comparative View Of Midwifery And Childbearing In Scotland And England, 1650-1780, Summer Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I contend the female midwives and childbearing women did not passively accept the alteration of the experience of birth and the ideology surrounding it in eighteenth-century Britain. While the imposition of the man-midwife and the reframing of birth as a disease to be cured in some ways forced childbearing to shift to a medicalized event, many practices persisted from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, illustrating a vein of consistency in a seemingly tumultuous period. Furthermore, the changes that did take root were not solely the purview of the male medical community, but were influenced by women …

Exploring Current Community College Transfer Students’ Perceptions Of The University Of Mississippi Brand And Potential Connections To College Choice, Sarah Christopher Sapp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Institutions of higher learning today rely on tuition dollars to function. During a time when the pool of high school graduates is shrinking, colleges and universities must look to alternative target markets to meet enrollment goals, including those transferring from community college. Community college transfers have unique attributes that contribute to their brand perception of colleges and universities and their overall college choice process. This dissertation suggests a need to study the college decision-making process for community college students and their perception of brand identity, specifically at the University of Mississippi. As the Flagship university in Mississippi, UM has a …

Autonomy And Higher Education: Insight Into The Autonomy System In The Commonwealth Of Virginia, George Lamar Rutherford, Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have wrangled with state governmental agencies for decades about the role the government should assume in overseeing campus operations. IHEs continue to argue that government intrusion impedes efficient IHE operation. Government agencies counter that IHEs are provided tax dollars to complete the job of educating the states’ citizens and that IHEs must abide by the rules and regulations set by the state. However, over the last two decades, state funding for IHEs is at an all-time low; yet governments still dictate how IHEs operate. With decreased state funding, IHEs sought to replace those funds by …

The Empirical Journey On The Roads Less Traveled To Explore The Concept Of Medication Competence And Address Nursing Students’ Pharmacology Self-Efficacy, Melynda Thelen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Medication competence is a priority within the academic setting, as it allows nurses to provide sound knowledge-based care and ensure safe medication delivery. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of theoretical or conceptual basis and definition of medication competence to guide assessment, analysis, and development of informed empirical evidence. Literature has also suggested current curricula do not support the complex and in-depth nature of nursing pharmacology. This dissertation paper presents three seminal manuscripts which provides the researcher’s pathway in discovering and analyzing an innovative nursing pharmacology educational strategy. The first manuscript focused on a concept analysis on medication competence, which provided …

Estimating The Impacts Of Acculturation On The Health Of Immigrants In The United States, Tingting He

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The growth in the immigration population in the U.S. has transformed American demographic profile and has led to magnification in health disparities in the United States. The main purpose of this dissertation is to examine the relationship between acculturation and health behavior, mental health outcomes, and access to health care service among immigrants in the U.S. Relying on the acculturation framework, the dissertation intends to increase the understanding of health disparities and health patterns among immigrants. The dissertation utilizes the secondary data from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to examine the effects of acculturation on health of immigrants. Measures …

An Lre Placement Loophole: A Critical Policy Analysis Of Lre Placement In Defining Disproportionality Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students In Special Education, Arti Sachdeva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The policies adopted by the Exceptional Children’s Education Act (2016) enabled disproportionality within LEAs by overlooking undocumented classroom removal practices, underestimating the monitoring and reporting criteria, and overlooking non-dominant cultural and linguistic groups within the Colorado community. In this critical policy analysis, I used quantitative methods to analyze and explore the difference between the odds ratio calculation of culturally and linguistically diverse students (CLDS) in special education with a least restrictive environment (LRE) of 40% and greater compared to Colorado’s acceptance of the federal mandate of the minimum requirement of the student LRE of less than 40% and alternate school …

Pulling Back The Curtain: A Student Collaborative Case Study Of Equity Issues In Colorado’S School Finance System, Amy Jo Schwartz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After the Great Recession, a seven percent decrease in funding ended decades of academic growth and further widened the achievement gap between White and Black students (Jackson et al., 2020). Colorado’s school-finance system is particularly distorted and inequitable because of a series of tax-limiting policies which, combined, have led Colorado to become one of the lowest-funded per pupil states in the country (Resnick et al., 2015). The purpose of this study is to describe the policymaking context, as it relates to equity within Colorado’s school-finance system and explore policy alternatives to improve equity within the system. The study was designed …

Use Of Research Tradition And Design In Program Evaluation: An Explanatory Mixed Methods Study Of Practitioners’ Methodological Choices, Margaret Schultz Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this explanatory sequential mixed method study was to assess whether there were observable trends, associations, or group differences in evaluation methodology by settings and content area in published evaluations from the past ten years (quantitative), to illuminate how evaluation practitioners selected these methodologies (qualitative), and assess how emergent findings from each phase fit together or helped contextualize each other. In this study, methodology was operationalized as research tradition and method was operationalized as research design. For phase one (quantitative), a systematized ten-year review of five peer-reviewed evaluation journals was conducted and coded by journal, research tradition, research …

Navigating Internalized Stigma And Identity Development In Bipolar Disorder I: A Grounded Theory Investigation., Kaylyn L. Watterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental illness stigma occurs at multiple levels in Western societies. Internalized stigma, the application of negative stereotypes and prejudice about mental illness to self-concept, has deleterious effects on mental health for adults living with a serious mental illness. Historically, research on stigma in serious mental illness has centered on schizophrenia. Recently, researchers and clinicians have drawn attention to bipolar disorder I, an affective disorder that creates disruptions in functioning and increased risk for substance abuse and suicide. Despite the growing literature establishing the relationship between recovery in serious mental illness and identity, little is known about how adults in long-term …

Noncognitive Attributes As A Measure For College Admission: Exploring The Relationship Between Cognitive And Noncognitive Factors In First-Year College Student Success, Amanda E. Craddock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cognitive factors, such as standardized test scores and high school grade point average, have historically been used to predict college success. Many colleges and universities place great importance on these cognitive factors when making admissions decisions. However, enrollment leaders question the predictive validity of these factors due to recent studies advocating for the use of noncognitive assessments. The purpose of this study was to examine the role that noncognitive attributes have in predicting college student success and whether their predictive power is greater than that of standardized test scores and high school grade point average. This study employed a quantitative …

Mechanical Strength Assessment Of Pharmaceutical Compacts With Refractive Index Measurements From Terahertz Time Of Flight Spectroscopy, Shikhar Mohan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The mechanical strength of pharmaceutical compacts is often considered as a critical quality attribute for roller and tablet compaction processes. Most traditional mechanical strength tests are destructive, thus, preventing further material testing. This thesis expands on the application of terahertz time of flight spectroscopy (THz-TOF) as a nondestructive technique for assessing mechanical strength. This technique is able to extract the refractive index; which is a function of porosity and crystallinity of the solid. Thus, it was hypothesized that refractive index measurements from terahertz time of flight spectroscopy are directly related to porosity; therefore, these nondestructive measurements are able to correlate …

Investigating Teachers’ Perspectives Of Gifted Students With Specific Learning Disabilities In Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Aladsani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ perspectives of gifted students with SLD in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, this study aimed at examining the relationships between teachers’ perspectives and background factors, including years of teaching experience and gender, that might affect the teachers’ perspectives. In addition, it investigated the teachers’ perspectives about the existence, identification, and education of gifted students with SLD in different regions in Saudi Arabia. This study used statistical analysis of quantitative data collected from an online survey that was adopted and modified specifically for this study. The study participants included 936 teachers with various backgrounds …

Subjects Of Economy: Social Documentary Poetics And Contemporary Poetry Of Work, Michelle B. Gaffey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although the term “documentary” originated in film and photography studies, it has been used to describe a range of compositional and research strategies in discussions of twentieth and twenty-first century poetry as well. A study of such documentary poetics, however, requires us to distinguish between documentary poetics in general and social documentary poetics in particular. To illustrate this distinction, I discuss five contemporary books of poetry and photographs: C.D. Wright’s and Deborah Luster’s One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, Cynthia Hogue’s and Rebecca Ross’s When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, Chris Llewellyn’s Fragments from the Fire: …

Effectiveness Of An Interdependent Group Contingency With Randomization Using The Ipad, Chelsea Gyke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Classroom management, although considered one of the essentials of the optimal learning experience, is often a challenge for teachers. Certain classroom management strategies, such as group contingency interventions and token economies, are evidence-based strategies to aid teachers in gaining successful management of the classroom. The utilization of Class Dojo, a popular classroom management website, as a mechanism to implement an interdependent group contingency (IGC) intervention with randomized components may increase both the effectiveness of the intervention and the social validity of the intervention when compared to a manual implementation.

Participants included students in an elementary school self-contained special education classroom …

“That Those Hearing Or Reading Might Strive To Imitate”: Donative Intent, Positive Triangular Mimetic Desire, And The Portrayal Of The Mediator-Divine (Non)Object Relationship In Richard Rolle, Julian Of Norwich, And Richard Crashaw, Steven Geitgey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mystical texts often present themselves as possessing a “donative” intent, in which the writer aims to share the significance of their own experience. This dissertation will show how a consideration of donative intent and its textual results can enrich the study of medieval and early-modern mystical writings, approaching them from the broad concept of triangular mimetic desire in conjunction with other theoretical insights in order to examine the methods through which writers seek to portray their mediator-object relationship with God and inspire reading subjects’ mimetic desire.

I will elucidate Richard Rolle’s portrayal of his mediatorial purpose and unique experiences, and …

Rna Structure And Function: Biological Relevance In Neurodegenerative And Infectious Disease Pathogenesis, Joshua Imperatore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The studies outlined in this dissertation encompass a broad focus, relating to the pathogenesis of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, fragile X syndrome, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as well as a novel infectious disease, COVID-19. However, all four studies detailed within this dissertation contain similar elements, namely, the coordinated role of RNA structure and function in essential molecular mechanisms. The results of these investigations allow us to speculate on various disease- related mechanisms, including dysregulated microRNA processing pathways, nucleocytoplasmic shuttling via distinct RNA-protein interactions, and fine-tuned molecular switches controlling genomic dimerization and viral hijacking of host cellular microRNAs. Taken …

Accurate Quantitation Of Hexavalent Chromium For Reference Standard Certification And Quality Control Testing Using Speciated Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry, James E. Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ability to perform accurate, repeatable, and defensible elemental and molecular speciated analysis is immensely significant for measurements that support human health, environmental science, and industry. This is especially true since trivalent chromium [Cr(III)] is necessary for proper nutrition, while hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is extremely toxic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic. The main challenges associated with speciated analysis are related to reactive species that are continuously transformed or converted to other species during sample processing. Accurate determination of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) species require a method that is capable of monitoring and correcting for interconversion, bias, and instrumental error. Traditional quantitative methods, such …

Design And Synthesis Of Pyrimidine Based Fused Heterocyclics In The Potential Treatment Of Cancer And Opportunistic Infection, Farhana Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dose-limiting toxicities of clinically used agents and development of resistance are two significant limitations in cancer chemotherapy. Microtubule targeting agents (MTAs) are a structurally diverse set of compounds that disrupt microtubule dynamics and exert their anticancer effect. Combination chemotherapy with antiangiogenic agents and microtubule targeting agents has shown an advantage against both these drawbacks. Single agents with dual antiangiogenic activity and cytotoxicity would afford a therapy that circumvents pharmacokinetic problems of multiple agents, avoid drug-drug interactions, lower the drug dose, decrease overlapping toxicities, and delay or prevent tumor cell resistance. The work in this dissertation reflects the progress of fused …

An Investigation Of Postsecondary Centers For Teaching Excellence Support For Universal Design For Learning, David Mcgeehan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research examined factors related to support for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in faculty professional development training programs offered by Centers for Teaching Excellence (CTE) in postsecondary institutions. The factors examined were: administrative support, staffing for CTEs, CTE staff characteristics, CTE level of use of technology, CTE directors’ educational backgrounds, and the espoused support for students with disabilities in university mission statements.

Universal Design for Learning is a pedagogical framework that can be used to design and retrofit curricula to reduce access barriers to course content and activities for all students, particularly students with disabilities. Students with disabilities is …

Impact Of A Nicu Bedside Reading Initiative On Self-Reported Maternal Stress And Mother-Infant Attachment, Lauren Lorenzi Quigley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Premature birth and a corresponding hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) presents infants and their families with an array of medical and psychosocial stressors that have the potential to impact neurodevelopment and social-emotional functioning in both the long-and short-term. Research has demonstrated the importance of family-integrated, developmental care interventions and a need for supportive environmental and sensory stimulation for the infant to optimize developmental, social, and emotional outcomes. Engaging parents in bedside care that fosters sensory development, supports cognitive and language skills, and lays a strong foundation for bonding and attachment can be monumental for the dyad. Implementation …

Railspace: A Geocritical Study Of The Railroad Through American Literature And Culture, Michael A. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uses geocriticism to argue that the American railroad is best understood as a set of discursively constructed railspaces formed through a variety of viewpoints, a polysensorial awareness of space, and stratified social relationships and power struggles. This study takes up four railspaces, the constituent texts of which demonstrate how intertextual discourse shapes and is shaped by the railroad. The observation car, charted through California Zephyr advertisements and Muriel Rukeyser’s “Campaign,” is an apparatus that produces perpetual spectacle. Three novels—Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, and Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith—and …

The Lived Experiences Of Males Within A Committed Relationship Who Are The Primary Caregivers For A Partner Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia, Aniela Scanlon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF MALES WITHIN A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP WHO ARE THE PRIMARY CAREGIVERS FOR A PARTNER DIAGNOSED WITH FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA

By

Aniela Kathryn Scanlon

August 2020

Dissertation supervised by Dr. David Delmonico

Spouses who are caregivers for their partner with dementia experience significant changes within the relationship and in their daily lives. There is a focus in the extant literature on female caregivers and types of dementia that are more mainstream, like Alzheimer’s disease. However, little is known about the lived experiences of male primary caregivers for a spouse or partner diagnosed with dementia such as frontotemporal dementia. …

The Ethical Challenge For Hipaa’S Privacy Rule In The Genomics Era Of Data Analytics., Reem Shinawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis of this dissertation focuses on the Ethical Challenge for HIPAA’s Privacy Rule in the Genomics Era of Data Analytics. Data Analytics in Genomic Medicine challenges the individuals’ right to privacy. Hence, a balance is needed between the previous centrality of individual privacy and the need for population information to make breakthroughs in Genomic Medicine using Data Analytics. Such a problem demands regulatory solutions. And such solutions require the collaboration of professionals. Genomic Medicine is a field that deals with sensitive genetic information in both medicine, and research, it is essential to view it through HIPAA as it is …

Pharmacological Characterization Of Novel Serotonin Transporter Inhibitors Identified Through Computational Structure-Based Virtual Screening, Michael Wasko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression is a mental health disorder affecting greater than 350 million people worldwide with roughly 7% of the United States population diagnosed as of 2017. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been the mainstay of pharmacotherapies for depression for the last 40 years. The SSRIs target the serotonin transporter (SERT), a monoamine transporter (MAT) responsible for terminating serotonergic neurotransmission. The SSRIs are not perfect therapeutics and suffer from delayed response times, inconsistent efficacy among patients, and often produce intolerable side effects. Therefore, a strong need exists to develop new antidepressants that are more efficacious and have fewer adverse effects. …

Antiparasitic Peptide From The Ocean: Discovery, Synthesis And Structure-Activity Relationship Study, Kh Tanvir Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Millions of people die every year because of infectious diseases, and malaria is among the top five of the deadliest infectious disease. In 2018, malaria took more than four hundred thousand lives, and more than half of them are children under five years of age. Most malaria-affected parts of the world are also the home of the most underprivileged people. Seemingly, antimalarial drug discovery never achieved the attraction that it requires. Like malaria, another infectious disease that is not extensively explored by drug discovery campaigns is American trypanosomiasis or Chagas disease. More than a hundred years have passed since discovering …