Digital Commons Network^™

The Alternatives To Detention Program : Assessment Of One Kentucky County's Efforts To Deinstitutionalize Status Offenders., Arthur Hayden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the beginning of the juvenile justice movement in the United States over a century ago, considerable debate has persisted among policymakers and practitioners concerning the causes of juvenile offending and the appropriate responses to control it. Although the juvenile justice system was conceived and developed to provide individualized, benevolent treatment to young offenders, the system has gradually shifted to resemble a more punitive, adult criminal justice model. While presently the system includes characteristics of both the juvenile and adult justice models, future directions are uncertain. This is problematic for young offenders who need and deserve more solicitous care in …

Disciplining P-12 Public School Personnel For Off-Duty Conduct : An Analysis Of The Judicial Response., Ruth Louise Davison 1965-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The right to discipline a P-12 public school employee for off-duty conduct remains unclear. Historically, society has held teachers up to a higher standard of conduct than persons in most other professions. The researcher traced the teacher-as-role-model theory back to antiquity. The literature further indicated that courts often rely on the role model theory when deciding judicial challenges based on adverse employment decisions. Courts also refer to the nexus theory, demanding that a relationship exist between off-duty conduct and the job. The following research question guided this study: When is it legal for P-12 public school employers to discipline employees …

News Or Speculation? A Comparative Content Analysis Of Headlines And The Prevalence Of Speculative Language In Corporate And Independently Owned Newspapers, Lindsay Hudock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study began with the question of whether the press is conveying messages that contain speculation of future events as opposed to the recounting of current events. Speculative language is a form of subjective speech and as such its presence in press content defies the journalist principle of objectivity. The analysis sought to identify two newspaper's use of speculative language within headlines in the news sections. Two other variables considered were article placement, and the ownership structure of the news organizations. Previous research supports the claim that the ownership structure of an organization can influence the content it publishes (Lacy, …

The Scholarship And Praxis Of Communication Ethics: Rhetorical Interruptions In Historical Narratives, Melissa Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Creating a praxis model for performing communication ethics scholarship is important in Postmodernity, as a multiplicity of narratives requires knowledgeable life-long learners who are willing to understand historicity and one's place within traditions. This study relies on Alasdair MacIntyre's seminal work, A Short History of Ethics, as it provides an historical lineage of Western philosophers who wrote about ethics within the time span from ancient Greece, to modern day. Major metaphors are extracted from the works of these philosophers as guiding hermeneutical entrances into historical and temporally bound narratives, used as the praxis portion of this work. Narratives, epics and …

C. M. Sedgwick's 'Patient Investigation' Of America's Past: An Intertextual Study Of Hope Leslie, Ellen Adrienne Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1987 republication of Catharine Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie ; or, Early Times in the Massachusetts (1827), literary-historical interpretations have most often explored its proto-feminist impulses, revisionary history of the Pequod War, and models of American citizenship. Inquiries into Sedgwick's historical research for Hope Leslie have largely been limited to internal textual references. This dissertation answers questions regarding Sedgwick's research and also provides a foundation for a number of future studies. That foundation derives from extensive archival research conducted at and supported by the Massachusetts Historical Society, involving the examination of several layers of textual evidence (the unpublished correspondence …

Reducing Non-Urgent Utilization Of The Emergency Department By Self-Pay Patients: Analysis Of The Impact Of A Community-Wide Provider Network, Karen Karen Van Caulil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a coordinated and comprehensive system of care for the uninsured changed the behavior of the uninsured by decreasing non-urgent utilization of the emergency departments within a large, urban county. The literature on emergency department trends and interventions designed to decrease "inappropriate" or non-urgent use of the emergency departments was reviewed and links to relevant theoretical concepts were identified. Utilization data from six emergency departments and six federally qualified health centers were evaluated. Secondary data over a three-year time period were abstracted from patient and organizational records at the hospitals and federally …

The Role Of Domain Expertise And Judgment In Dealing With Unexpected Events, Janeen Kochan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unexpected events, particularly those creating surprise, interrupt ongoing mental and behavioral processes, creating an increased potential for unwanted outcomes to the situation. Human reactions to unexpected events vary. One can hypothesize a number of reasons for this variation, including level of domain expertise, previous experience with similar events, emotional connotation, and the contextual surround of the event. Whereas interrupting ongoing activities and focusing attention temporarily on a surprising event may be a useful evolutionary response to a threatening situation, the same process may be maladaptive in today's highly dynamic world. The purpose of this study was to investigate how different …

Gender Differences In Characteristics Of Intimate Partner Homicide Offenders, Heather Lynn Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses whether or not male and female intimate partner homicide offenders differ in a variety of characteristics using data from the Chicago Women's Health Risk Study, 1995-1998. Frequencies of male and female intimate partner homicide offender's risk factors were compared to look at how they differ. The areas that were explored were demographics, prior abuse, and the criminal justices response. A number of gender differences were found. Directions for future research pertaining to intimate partner homicide offenders are discussed.

The Great Divide: Citizenship And Statelessness, Kristy Belton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the implications of State control of citizenship upon the individual's ability to choose membership in a given State polity. It briefly examines how States gained absolute control over the granting, denying and revoking of citizenship and demonstrates how the acquisition of citizenship and statelessness are both State-determined statuses. The repercussions of statelessness at the individual, regional and global levels are presented to demonstrate the severity of being unable to choose a citizenship. Efforts made by States and the international community to prevent and reduce statelessness are examined in order to illustrate the lack of prioritization given to …

A Methodology For Minimizing The Oscillations In Supply Chains Using System Dynamics And Genetic Algorithms, Ramamoorthy C.V.V. Lakkoju

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a critically significant strategy that enterprises depend on to meet challenges that they face because of highly competitive and dynamic business environments of today. Supply chain management involves the entire network of processes from procurement of raw materials/services/technologies to manufacturing or servicing intermediate products/services to converting them into final products or services and then distributing and retailing them till they reach final customers. A supply chain network by nature is a large and complex, engineering and management system. Oscillations occurring in a supply chain because of internal and/or external influences and measures to be taken …

Ascertaining The Growth Of A Company A System Dynamics Approach, Fakir Mohideen Noor Mohideen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Business is often about creating change for other businesses. At times, these changes affect only the company and at other times they affect the entire industry. There is a time in the life of a business when its fundamental way of functioning is questioned and is subjected to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights, or it might even signal the beginning of the end. This fundamental change in any business is known as an inflection point. Understanding the nature of its inflection point and responding to that point suitably will help to safeguard a …

Development Of A Knowledge Management Model In Large-Scale International Space Science Projects, Jose Luis Nunez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale international science projects (LISPs) are those projects where two or more countries formally agree to cooperate toward the achievement of a scientific, research and development, or engineering goal. In general, only projects exceeding $1 billion U.S. are considered LISPs, so sheer size commands attention, and because they are so costly and visible, failure can lead to significant scientific, financial and political consequences. This researched focused on how 7 different critical success factors impacted the level of technical interface knowledge shared among international partners involved in a large-scale international space science project (LISSP) – the International Space Station (ISS), which …

Designing A Document Delivery System For Ucf S Interlibrary Loan Department, Abha Y. Trivedi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interlibrary Loan entails obtaining copies of library materials not found in the library's collection on behalf of the library's patrons (borrowing), as well as providing copies of library materials requested by other libraries (lending). The dynamic nature of today's library environment is well illustrated by the rapid changes occurring in the role of interlibrary loan. The vision statement of the University of Central Florida Library is: The library performs a central role of adding value to information for the academic community by creatively improving and providing information resources and services. The library strives to create an environment that encourages the …

Union Impact On Police Expenditures In Florida, Laurence Putchinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The continued steady growth of public sector unions compels public administrators to understand the influence labor organizations exert upon local governments. The following study demonstrates the extent of union influence upon police expenditures in Florida. Union influence not only increases total police expenditures and personal services expenditures, it also causes operating expenses to rise. Union influence is less pronounced, and possibly even non-existent in capital outlays expenditures because of possible lack of interest on the part of the union in this area and also because of the existence of economically predetermined policies regarding capital outlays such as vehicle purchases. Public …

Willie Morris : Toward A Literary Biography, Richard Malcolm Caldwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of Organizational Commitment Among U.S. Workers, Richard Johns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between organizational commitment, job performance, and several individual and work-related variables. My research proceeds in two steps. First, I replicate the analysis between job performance and the individual and workrelated characteristics found in, Organizational Commitment and Job Performance in the U.S. Labor Force (Research in the Sociology of Work, Volume 5, 1995), by Arne Kalleberg and Peter Marsden. Second, I analyze the relationship between affective, effort, and continuance commitment and the individual and work-related characteristics using both bivariate and multivariate analyses. My findings suggest that autonomy and career advancement are the strongest indicators followed by …

The Us Government-Sponsored Graduate-Level Exchange Programs: The Goals Of The Major Stakeholders And The Students' Academic Interests, Ekaterina Kharlamova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A steady increase in student mobility levels has become a widely recognized component of general globalization trends in the modern world. Yet, internationalization of education is not merely a product of bigger globalization processes. Educational exchange, in many instances sponsored and administered by national governments, is an effective tool in governmental foreign policies. The shift of focus in governmental policies towards the political rather than educational purposes of educational international exchange could lead for lack of attention paid to the issues of foreign students' academic interests. At the same time, universities, although prompted by the globalization tendencies to internationalize their …

The Church And The Voice Of The Other: The Growth Of The Faith Community And Dialogue In The Church, John Amankwah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the Second Vatican Council ended over forty years ago, the Catholic Church has been struggling to find a firm ground in a world of ever-advancing technological change and increasing globalization. Prior to the convening of the Council, the church virtually isolated itself from the rest of the world because it considered itself as a societa prefecta. Dialogue as a communicative act of openness to the other with willingness to change did not exist in the Church because of its understanding of communication as uni-directional-- from the hierarchy to the rest of the people.

This study examined the church's communicative …

City On A Hill : John Mccrady's Oxford, Mississippi, Teresa Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Constructionist Analysis Of Same-Sex Marriage, Sandra Kay Nead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Same-sex marriage has been heavily debated in academics and in the public sphere. During the 2004 Presidential election same-sex marriage became an issue that polarized the candidates. It has become a lightning rod for public debate. Due to the increasing attention to the controversy of legalizing same-sex marriage, it is an important topic for research. This paper seeks to contribute to the research of same-sex marriage by providing insight into claims-making efforts to define same-sex marriage as a social problem. My findings shed light on this topic from a social constructionist perspective by examining the use of rhetorical idioms of …

A Consumer-Based Assessment Of Alliance Performance: An Examination Of Consumer Value, Satisfaction And Post-Purchase Behavior, Nacef Mouri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Strategic alliances have become a recognized strategy used by firms in the pursuit of their diverse organizational objectives. Consequently, the literature on alliances is replete with research investigating the value strategic alliances generate for participating organizations. Strategic alliances have been shown to contribute to firm value through numerous sources, including scale economies, effective risk management, cost efficient market entries, and learning from partners. Largely overlooked in the literature however, are issues investigating the relationship between strategic alliances and one of the organization's most important constituents, the consumer. Questions such as how the consumer reacts to inter-firm alliances, how strategic alliances …

An Evaluation Of Enrollment Management Models Of The 28 Florida Community Colleges, Thomas Lobasso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which enrollment management models have been successfully implemented within the 28 Florida community colleges. The study also sought to determine when enrollment management structures began and whether expected benefits were achieved. Analysis of the data collected in this study indicated the following five major findings. First, enrollment management concepts and practices have been implemented at some level within the 23 Florida community colleges surveyed. This was evident by the use of the word "enrollment" in the organizational titles as well as in the titles of the individuals who were …

Race, Socio-Economic Status, School Level-Resources, And Parental Influences On Fcat Scores In Florida: A Quantitative Study., Tara King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is an abundance of literature that focuses on the standardized test score difference between minority and non-minority students. Within this literature, socio-economic factors, parental influences, and school-level resources have been used to explain the difference in test scores. The purpose of this study is to identify the variables that are thought to significantly influence test score achievement. The data come from the Florida Department of Education and the US Census. Linear regression analyses results are used to examine the relationship between the independent and the dependent variables. The results showed that overall economic factors are more closely related to …

Selected School Characteristics And Their Relationshipto High School Teacher Retention, Jhunu Mohapatra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the perceptions of Orange County high school teachers and administrators regarding selected school characteristics and their relationship to teacher retention. The study was based on another investigation conducted by the Charlotte Advocates of Education (2004) inquiring into the working conditions in schools and their impact on teacher retention. A total of 292 teachers with less than 4 years of experience and 14 administrators with more than 1 year of experience responded to 25 survey items related to the 6 factors comprising positive school characteristics. Factors such as School Facility, Resources, and Professional Development contributed …

An Hedonomic Evaluation Of Pleasurable Human-Technology Experience: The Effect Of Exposure And Aesthetics On The Experience Of Flow, Lauren Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A framework was developed called the Extended Hedonomic Hierarchy (EHH) that provides a basis for evaluating pleasurable human-system experience. Results from a number of experiments within this framework that evaluated specific dimensions of the framework are reported. The 'Exposure' component of the EHH framework and hedonics of the system were investigated to see how changes would affect other dimensions, such as the occurrence of flow, the mode of interaction, and the needs of the user. Simulations and video games were used to investigate how repeated exposure affects flow, interaction mode, and the user needs. The Kansei Engineering method was used …

Old And Homeless,A Second Look At Two Surveys, Brian Bigelow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the comparison between the Rich et al (1995) study done in Tampa Bay, Fl and Burt et al (2001) national study. Rich et al conducted a study of elder homeless Americans and later, Burt et al conducted a replication study on a national level using a similar study. My secondary analysis of the data covered four aspects: Demographics between the two groups of respondents; current housing issues; current alcohol, drug and mental health issues; and finally homeless services being used by both homeless, formally homeless and never homeless respondents. This was all compared to those that were …

Analyzing The Community Structure Of Web-Like Networks: Models And Algorithms, Aurel Cami

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the community structure of web-like networks (i.e., large, random, real-life networks such as the World Wide Web and the Internet). Recently, it has been shown that many such networks have a locally dense and globally sparse structure with certain small, dense subgraphs occurring much more frequently than they do in the classical Erdös-Rényi random graphs. This peculiarity--which is commonly referred to as community structure--has been observed in seemingly unrelated networks such as the Web, email networks, citation networks, biological networks, etc. The pervasiveness of this phenomenon has led many researchers to believe that such cohesive groups of …

Honor, Commerce, Suffrage, And Civil Rights, Sean Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Multicultural Music Perspectives Of Faculty Members At The University Of Mississippi / By Jill A. Ward, Jill A. Ward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coherence Properties Of Optical Near-Fields, Debbie Arthur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The National Science Education Standards (1996) support inquiry-based instruction. According to the National Science Education Standards. When children or scientists inquire into the natural world they: ask questions, plan investigations and collect relevant data, and organize and analyze collected data. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of inquiry-based instruction on third-grade students' attitudes and participation in an elementary science classroom. Students were encouraged to ask and answer their own questions. In this study, analysis of data gathered form: pre and post survey, student journals, teacher field notes, and student interviews were triangulated to provide the support …