Digital Commons Network^™

Turtle Cam: Live Multimedia Interaction For Engaging Potential Visitor Population To Canaveral National Seashore, Brian Alfred Tortorelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project expands the outreach of the Canaveral National Seashore to its visitors, potential visitors, and virtual visitors through its goals in conservancy and preservation of its natural resources. This paper is involved with the current iteration of a series of digital media projects, the Sea Turtle Nest Camera, also known as, Turtle Cam. It details how and why this project was designed to be an ongoing initiative to assist in those goals.

Intervention Program Graduate On Time As Related To The Number Of High School Dropouts In A Rural Northeast Tennessee High School., Mischelle Nichole Gambill Simcox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the intervention program Graduate on Time as related to the number of high school dropouts in a rural northeast Tennessee high school. Graduation rates and dropout rates were gathered from Report Card information from the Tennessee Department of Education website. Archival data for the students in this study were obtained from the STAR student management data system. Former students in the Graduate on Time program were surveyed for their perceptions about the program.

The population for this study consisted of 96 students who were enrolled in the Graduate on Time program from …

K-6 Classroom Teachers' Perceptions Of Effective Teacher Education Programs., Pauletta J. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The demands placed upon stakeholders of the public education system have become more and more compelling with each passing year. With the success of schools and students at stake, it is imperative to examine multiple facets of the public education structure. One of the most important aspects of this process is the development of preservice teachers entering the classroom.

This study initially chronicled the history of teacher education and state licensure. Subsequently, standards enforced by the Tennessee Department of Education and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education were also explored to gain information about the guidelines and criteria required …

Student Outcomes And The Implementation Of A Ninth Grade Academy In A Western North Carolina High School., Monet Calloway Samuelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One purpose of this study was to compare outcomes of students who were part of a 9^th grade academy during their freshman year with outcomes of students who were not part of a 9^th grade academy during their freshman year. Student outcomes are defined for this study to include attendance, promotion rate to 10^th grade on time, in-school suspension assignments, Algebra I End-of-Course exam scores, and English I End-of-Course exam scores. The second purpose of this study was to compare outcomes of 10^th grade students who were part of a 9^th grade academy during their …

On The Imperishable Face Of Granite: Civil War Monuments And The Evolution Of Historical Memory In East Tennessee 1878-1931., Kelli Brooke Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After the Civil War individuals throughout the country erected monuments dedicated to the soldiers and events of the conflict. In East Tennessee these memorials allowed some citizens to promote their ideas by invoking both Union and Confederate Civil War sympathies. Initially, East Tennesseans endorsed the creation of a Unionist image to advertise the region's potential for industrialization. By 1910 this depiction waned as local and northern whites joined to promote reconciliation and Confederate sympathizers met less opposition to their ideas than in the past. After 1919 white East Tennesseans, enmeshed in the boom and bust cycles of the national economy, …

Health Disparities And Depression In Rural And Urban Older Adults., Jennifer Ann Zimmerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression is one of the most prevalent psychiatric conditions experienced by older adults and represents a major public health concern. Rural/urban residence may affect the prevalence of depression as rural older adults differ from their urban counterparts in many respects. One important difference found in the literature is that rural OAs are often faced with more health disparities (HDs) compared to their urban counterparts. The current study investigated the association between HDs and depression in a sample of rural and urban OAs, and examined whether HDs contribute to our understanding of how rurality impacts the prevalence and severity of depression. …

Exploring The Scholar-Practitioner Gap In Personnel Selection Assessments : An Analysis Of Scholarly Versus Practitioner Literature., Whitney L. Martin 1977-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that a gap exists between scholarly findings and practitioner knowledge, beliefs, and practices in the Human Resource field, particularly in the area of employee selection (Deadrick & Gibson, 2007; Rynes, Giluk, & Brown, 2007). This study seeks to explore this gap relative to self-report selection assessments by examining practitioner-oriented versus scholarly literature. Articles published between January 2006 and September 2011 from two scholarly sources (Journal of Applied Psychology and Personnel Psychology) and two practitioner sources (HR Magazine and HR Executive) were reviewed, and 49 articles were selected for inclusion in analysis. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze …

Noir Ontology : Existing In The Fragmented Spaces Of Los Angeles., Jacob Andrew Goessling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Noir Ontology: Existing in the Fragmented Urban Spaces of Los Angeles explores the role of decentered urban geography within the body of noir texts set within Los Angeles. By focusing on the development of the idea of Los Angeles in early to mid-Twentieth century literature and film, this essay argues that Alain Badiou's system of ontology provides a critical apparatus for investigating the many ways in which the Los Angeles sunshine myth organizes the relations between individuals within particular urban spaces. Through an analysis of the city's early cultural history, Roman Polanski and Robert Towne's film Chinatown, and Chester Himes's …

That Terrifying Center : Poetry, Language, And Embodied Subjectivities., Yalonda J. D. Green 1980-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

That Terrifying Center is a creative and philosophical experiment in the transmission of corporeal experiences and socio-cultural knowledge through poetry. I am bringing together the seemingly disparate threads of my studies into one creative-theoretical project: a collection of original poems exploring the development of multiple subjectivities, the terror of self-examination, and the scrutiny of memory; it is also a collection of poems that bear witness, that simply tell stories. These are poems that talk about what it's like to live in a body; they ask questions and translate answers related to becoming woman, demystifying fear, investigating genealogies of pain, and …

Early Detection And Control Of Potential Pandemics., Shengpeng Jin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Early information is crucial for policy makers and public health officials responsible for protecting the public from the virulent spread of contagious diseases. Current indicators of the spread of contagious outbreaks lag behind the actual spread of the epidemic, leaving no time for a planned response. The studies of Christakis et al. in 2010 have shown that social networks can provide more timely information for prediction. Our focus, however, is on the effective control of the spread of contagious outbreaks in their early stages. We do this by defining a more effective way to chart the spread of contagious outbreaks, …

Three Essays On The Influence Of Formal Institutions On Entrepreneurship., Michael David Crum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays in which I examine the influence of formal institutions on entrepreneurs and new firms. In the first essay, "The Influence of Institutions on the Likelihood of Self-Employment: A Multilevel Analysis," I examine how institutions at the country-level are related to the likelihood that individuals in those country are self-employed. Country-level measures of formal institutions are paired with individual-level data on self-employment from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Reynolds et al., 2005). Using the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World index and the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom separately as measures of institutions, …

Transmission Linked To Structural Vulnerability: How Low-Income Countries Endured The Great Recession, Rachel F. Hartgen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The implosion of the 2008 financial crisis ignited fears that integration would transmit the crisis’ effects throughout the global system. Examining two countries, Bangladesh and Zambia, this project shows that low-income countries with relatively little integration also saw negative impacts. This occurred through three main transmission mechanisms: trade flows, rising prices and financial flows that could have possible long-term effects at the macro and micro level. The manner and impact of each transmission mechanism, however, varied among LICs according to each country’s individual structural economic and financial vulnerabilities. Bangladesh saw a delayed impact but did not avoid the crisis completely, …

Studies Of Editorials Of Chinese Newspapers In Regard To Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945)., Kuangyi Pei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More than sixty years have passed since China's Resistance War against Japan in 1937-1945 ended. Chinese people made a significant contribution to winning the victory over Japan. Chinese newspapers and magazines, especially editorials at that time, played a key role in the propaganda of the War of Resistance, boosting national morale, and exposing war crimes of Japanese aggressors.

Chinese newspapers and magazines included many important incidents and issues regarding the War of Resistance. This thesis selects editorials of three representative topics: the future of the War of Resistance, the defensive combat of the Chinese nationalist army in the front lines, …

Thieves Apostates And Bloody Viragos: Female Irish Catholic Rebels In The Irish Rebellion Of 1641., Edwin Marshall Galloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the roles played by Irish Catholic women in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. The primary goal is to examine the factors that determined the nature of those roles. To achieve this end, I used the information contained in the 1641 depositions, a collection of sworn statements given by the victims of the rebellion. The depositions are valuable in two ways. First, eyewitness testimony contained therein is generally reliable, and can be used to construct an accurate narrative of the rebellion. Second, less reliable hearsay evidence is crucial to understanding the fears of …

The Performance Of Intercultural Communication: China's "New Face" And The 2008 Beijing Olympics, Patrick Shaou-Whea Dodge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores Chinese communication practices. I focus on the performance of intercultural communication and how the "New Face" of China was performed to the world and in day-to-day intercultural communication encounters during the 2008 Olympics. I analyze the Olympic Volunteer Training Manual as performative text as well as interviewed Beijing Olympic volunteers about their encounters with international visitors. Specifically, I discuss why the Olympics were a crucial moment for China to unveil its "New Face" to the world, what the "New Face" of China entails, and the reasons why China is in need of a new image on the …

Transforming Atypical Challenges Into Innovative Solutions: A Gendered Analysis Of The Un Interagency Rehabilitation Program In Nepal, Sarabeth Harrelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nearly five years after signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended ten years of civil war in Nepal, key issues are still unresolved and political progress on implementation has been slow at its best. While every disarmament demobilization and reintegration (DDR) operation is unique, Nepal's DDR process has included atypical conditions such as no government support, continued military command over program participants, an unusually long time spent in cantonments prior to discharge, and the absence of an adequate pre-planning phase. This analysis is presented in the form of a case study and examines the United Nations Interagency Rehabilitation Program …

Climate Change And Intrastate Conflict In Africa, Eli Samuel Margolese-Malin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Africa has the dubious distinction of being the continent most likely to experience the worst climate change has to offer while having the population most vulnerable to its effects. Many of the continent's sub regions and countries also have recent histories of violence or are currently mired in conflict. Africa's proneness to conflict and its vulnerability to climate change provide the best model for showing how climate change, by the way it interacts with other, better understood drivers of conflict, will likely become an important source of conflict within the region and around the world over the rest of this …

Multinational Teams: The Relationship Between Work Values And Productivity And The Moderating Effect Of Degree Of Operational Integration, Kelly C. Kinnebrew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study gathered data from 147 employees in two U.S. headquartered multinational manufacturing companies. Participants responded to questions about their work-related values, perceptions of the productivity of their work teams, and the degree of operational integration between firms‟ foreign affiliate offices and their U.S. based headquarters. Additionally, analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between team productivity and psychic distance, which is a measure of country-level cultural differences. Work values were assessed using The Values Scale (Neville & Super, 1989), perceptions of team productivity were assessed used an instrument by Kirkman and Rosen (1999), degree of operational integration was …

Re-Visioning The Semantic And Semiotic Registers In The Study Of Culture And Religion, Gary S. Bedford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term `God' may be understood as the desire for the complete epistemological condition of thought; language expresses this condition in statements of `meaning.' `Religion' expresses this desire in texts and ritual practice which may be examined by in academic study; however, because the `third term' of religio is understood as the condition of being `bounded to or by,' the study of religion is itself bounded to or by this desire for the completion of thought. This desire cannot be understood as an `alterity' of thought but is rather the internal native or `alter-native' condition of thought itself. …

Simulation Modeling And Analysis Of A Multi-Resource Medical Clinic., Bo Sun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Healthy for Life is a relatively new University of Louisville medical clinic which attempts to stem the epidemic of childhood obesity. This program offers a range of face-to-face services for overweight children. The main problem addressed by this research is the no show rate (nearly 50%) of the clinic. There are two goals of this thesis. One is to increase the staff utilization; the other is to decrease the waiting time. In this thesis, we study two potential methods to solve this problem. One involves using multiple resources for every visit; the other involves overbooking the patients. Two simulation models …

The Barriers And Enabling Factors To Public Health Advocacy Skills In Kentucky Local Health Departments., Joan Buchar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: One of the core functions of public health is to develop policies that support community and individual health. There are many historic examples in which public health practitioners have advocated successfully for policies that ultimately protected and improved populations' health. Prior research suggests that local health departments are not fully engaged in health policy advocacy, thereby missing opportunities to more effectively solve public health problems. Objective: To identify the barriers and enabling factors to advocacy in Kentucky local health departments. Methods: Kentucky health policymakers and advocates were interviewed to determine which advocacy skills were effective and appropriate for use …

Nuclear Dependence: The Russian Federation's Future Reliance On Nuclear Weapons For National Security, Adam J. Lukszo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Russian Federation‘s reliance on nuclear weapons for national security will steadily increase over time. Based on current evidence and historical data, the Russian state will be unable to recruit, arm, train, equip, reform, and fund their conventional forces well enough to match up with capabilities of what it views to be its potential adversaries. Russia‘s historic experience with invasion and vulnerable geographic position reinforce the need for a powerful weapon with which to maintain the current regime and ensure its territorial integrity. Declining demographics and persistent social illnesses will reduce the number of eligible male candidates able to serve …

Comparative Achievement Of Students In A Freshman Academy With Those Not In A Freshman Academy By Race And Gender In One East Tennessee High School., April Campbell Leonard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of students who participated in a freshman academy program to the achievement of those who participated in the traditional high school curriculum. The researcher used grade point average and composite ACT score as determinants of achievement. The population consisted of the graduating classes of 2009 and 2010 at one East Tennessee high school. Independent sample t tests evaluated the relationship between achievement and type of freshman experience. The independent variables were participation in the freshman academy, being male, being female, and race. The dependent variables were grade point average and …

Western Media Use Of The Third World Construct: A Framing Analysis Of Its Validity., James Tutu Fiske

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study will provide a clearer understanding of the construct, Third World, which may not seem to have a consensus meaning. This is because its perceived definition, which is linked, first to feudalism and then to the socio-politico conditions that existed during the period leading up to and immediately after the cold war means that its conceptual metamorphosis should have ceased once these periods were relegated to the annals of history.

Whether and how contemporary definitions of Third World have changed since then should be of interest to scholars and is the focus of this study. This is because …

Teacher Self-Efficacy And Student Achievement As Measured By North Carolina Reading And Math End-Of-Grade Tests., Wayne M. Eberle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers continue to experience an increased sense of responsibility as it relates to job performance while still being required to produce at the same level with relation to student performance. This can cause an increase in personal stress and result in lowered feelings of self- worth, having a negative impact on service delivery to children and overall job performance.

Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as a judgment of one's ability to organize and execute given types of performances. Furthermore, he suggests that the outcomes people anticipate depend largely upon their judgments of how well they will be able to perform in …

Relationships Between Teacher Attendance And Student Scores On The Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program Achievement Test In East Tennessee., Melissa Miniard Hensley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study examined relationships between third, fourth, and fifth grade teacher attendance as well as teacher and administrator perceptions of teacher attendance during the 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 school years. Third, fourth, and fifth grade student test scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Achievement test given in the spring of 2006, 2007, and 2008 were also examined. TCAP score data for this study were gathered electronically, with published data from the Tennessee Department of Education. Teacher attendance records were collected using Siesta, a teacher attendance tracking program. Teacher and administrator perceptions were gathered through surveys, interviews, …

Computationally Generated Music Using Reinforcement Learning., Kristopher W. Reese

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Computers and music have shared a rich history since the 1950s. Many languages and standards have been built around music. Yet even before the advent of the computer, music shared algorithmic ideas with mathematics which brought about many new styles over the centuries. Today's computers provide even more power, and with Intelligence algorithms, are able to create complex systems for generating art. Music is no exception, but very little has been done in generating music using such algorithms. Reinforcement Learning provides a means of learning good motions of chord progressions in music theory. Dmitri Tymoczko's Latent model for the underlying …

Knowledge-Sharing Networks Of Hospital-Based Infection Preventionists In Kentucky., Timothy Lee Wiemken 1979-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Infection preventionists (IPs) have a multitude of tasks aimed at the prevention and control of infections in the healthcare setting. These tasks require a great deal of knowledge that has been more challenging to gain over the past decade due to the rapidly changing healthcare environment, the IPs' increasing numbers of duties, limited staffing, and a number of other issues. Because of these challenges, other mechanisms of rapid and efficient knowledge acquisition are needed for optimal job performance. One possible mechanism is knowledge sharing through social or professional networks. Objective: To examine the knowledge-sharing network structure of hospital-based IPs …

The Texas 10% Law And Its Impact On Admitted Students., C. J. Woods

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored the experiences of 10 Top 10% African American and Hispanic students at Texas A&M University. The purpose of the study was to examine how the Texas Top 10% Law influenced underrepresented students' perceptions of the law, application to universities under the law's provisions, and feelings of acceptance at a Texas flagship institution. Critical race theory (CRT) served as the theoretical framework for the study. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The study confirmed linkages with CRT research on underrepresented students' experiences with Affirmative Action policy through exploration of social construction, differential …

Cycling And Women's Rights In The Suffrage Press., Christine Neejer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Responding to research gaps in both cycling and women's rights history, the purpose of my thesis is to investigate conceptualizations of cycling in the 1890's suffrage press. I analyze six aspects of cycling in suffrage periodicals: advice and tips to women cyclists; dress reform and women's cycling; women's cycling clubs; health, medicine and exercise; travel and touring; and cycling among anti-suffrage women reformers. I argue cycling and women's rights activism should not be framed as separate aspects of women's lives in the 1890's, but joint practices that influenced and informed the other. Suffrage press authors did not view cycling as …