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Electronic Theses and Dissertations

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Mcdonald’S Users’ Perceptions Of Health And Nutrition, Quality, And Value On Visit Frequency, Claire Adams Jan 2018

Mcdonald’S Users’ Perceptions Of Health And Nutrition, Quality, And Value On Visit Frequency, Claire Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the vast amount of quick service restaurants (QSRs) that are available to consumers in the United States (U.S.), the hospitality industry has become an integral part of Americans’ diet and lifestyle. This study examines how McDonald’s customers’ perceptions of health and nutrition, quality, and value vary demographically (gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, and body mass index [BMI]) by McDonald’s visit frequency. An online survey was employed to collect data of participants who were 18 years of age and older, McDonald’s customers, and a resident of the U.S. Of the 843 respondents who filled out the survey, 607 (72%) surveys …


Modernized Approach For Generating Micro-Layering And Macro-Heterogeneous Structures In Porous Media For Use In Transmitted-Light Method Flow Visualization Experiments, Aaron A. Jones Jan 2018

Modernized Approach For Generating Micro-Layering And Macro-Heterogeneous Structures In Porous Media For Use In Transmitted-Light Method Flow Visualization Experiments, Aaron A. Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Image capturing in flow experiments has been used for fluid mechanics research since the early 1970s. Interactions of fluid flow between the vadose zone and permanent water table are of great interest to researchers because this zone is responsible for all recharge waters, pollutant transport and even irrigation efficiency for agriculture. Griffith, et al. (2011) developed an approach where constructed reproducible “geologically realistic” sand configurations are deposited in sand-filled experimental chambers or cells for light-transmitted flow visualization experiments. This method creates reproducible, reverse graded, layered (stratified) thin-slab sand chambers for visualizing multiphase flow through porous media. Reverse-graded stratification of sand …


Experiences Of Mississippi Community College Students Who Are Deaf And Hard Of Hearing, Ronda Bryan Jan 2018

Experiences Of Mississippi Community College Students Who Are Deaf And Hard Of Hearing, Ronda Bryan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Generalized Characteristics Of A Generic Polytope, Tommy Naugle Jan 2018

Generalized Characteristics Of A Generic Polytope, Tommy Naugle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For a smooth hypersurface S ⊂ R 2n given by the level set of a Hamiltonian function H, a symplectic form ω on R2n induces a vector field XH which flows tangent to S. By the nondegeneracy of ω, there exists a distinguished line bundle LS whose characteristics are the integral curves of XH. When S is the boundary of a smooth convex domain K˜ ⊂ R 2n, then the least action among closed characteristics of LS is equal to the Ekeland-Hofer-Zehnder capacity, a symplectic invariant. From a result due to Artstein-Avidan and Ostrover, there exists a continuous extension of …


The Impact Of Chinese Air Pollution On Match Attendance Of Chinese Super League, Wantong Fu Jan 2018

The Impact Of Chinese Air Pollution On Match Attendance Of Chinese Super League, Wantong Fu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, environmental issues have become one of the most complex social and economic issues across the globe. Specifically, in the context of sport, the literature has considered how sport organizations may use environmental concerns as a way to connect to consumers, such as through the use of environmentally practices to help build the image of sport organizations. However, despite this lineage of studies, research which has focused on how changing environmental conditions may influence sport consumers are virtually non-existent. Such research is especially important in the case of China, where due to the rapid growth of urban areas and …


Preparation And Evaluation Of Valacyclovir Hydrochloride Ocular Inserts By Hot Melt Extrusion Technique, Gauri Shadambikar Jan 2018

Preparation And Evaluation Of Valacyclovir Hydrochloride Ocular Inserts By Hot Melt Extrusion Technique, Gauri Shadambikar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the current study was to investigate the processability of Hot Melt Extrusion to formulate Ocular Inserts of Valacyclovir Hydrochloride and Evaluate its drug release in vitro and in vivo. Valacyclovir is the prodrug of Acyclovir, which is used in treatment of ocular keratitis and HSV infections. The bioavailability of the prodrug is better than the acyclovir and it is proved to permeate extensively through the corneal barrier. The polymer of choice was Klucel® Pharm MF and JF grades for the study. To optimize the formulation, different physical mixtures of the polymers and plasticizers (PEG 400 and Propylene …


The Beam Dynamics And Beam Related Uncertainties In Fermilab Muon G-2 Experiment, Wanwei Wu Jan 2018

The Beam Dynamics And Beam Related Uncertainties In Fermilab Muon G-2 Experiment, Wanwei Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The anomaly of the muon magnetic moment, aμ ≡ (g-2)/2, has played an important role in constraining physics beyond the Standard Model for many years. Currently, the Standard Model prediction for aμ is accurate to 0.42 parts per million (ppm). The most recent muon g-2 experiment was done at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and determined aμ to 0.54 ppm, with a central value that differs from the Standard Model prediction by 3.3-3.6 standard deviations and provides a strong hint of new physics. The Fermilab Muon g-2 Experiment has a goal to measure aμ to unprecedented precision: 0.14 ppm, which could …


Invisible Labor: A Mixed-Method Study Of African American Women And Their Emotional Labor In The Academy, Danielle Buckingham Jan 2018

Invisible Labor: A Mixed-Method Study Of African American Women And Their Emotional Labor In The Academy, Danielle Buckingham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examined how black women instructors and professors engage in emotional labor through performances in order to resist controlling images and stereotypes related to their race and gender. The goal was to add to the extensive literature on emotional labor and its impact on how women and people of color navigate white hegemonic institutions (Patton 2004; Harley 2007; Evans and Moore 2015). My hope is to contribute the perspectives and counter-narratives of African American women who are on the margins of race and gender. This can provide a more intersectional explanation for some of the social issues …


The Same Old Blues Crap: Selling The Blues At Fat Possum Records, Jacqueline Sahagian Jan 2018

The Same Old Blues Crap: Selling The Blues At Fat Possum Records, Jacqueline Sahagian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis interrogates the marketing strategies of the Oxford, Mississippi-based record label Fat Possum, which was founded in the early 1990s by Matthew Johnson with the goal of recording obscure hill country blues artists. Fat Possum gained recognition for its raw-sounding recordings of bluesmen, including R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Cedell Davis, and T-Model Ford, as well as its irreverent marketing techniques. Adopting the tagline “not the same old blues crap,” Fat Possum asserted that its blues were both different from and superior to all other blues music. This thesis argues that while Fat Possum claimed to be a disruptive force …


The Effect Of Using Board Games In Reducing Language Anxiety And Improving Oral Performance, Yi-Chun Cheng Jan 2018

The Effect Of Using Board Games In Reducing Language Anxiety And Improving Oral Performance, Yi-Chun Cheng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many English as a second language (ESL) learners feel anxiety about speaking English, and their oral performance is affected in this situation. This study aims to determine the effect of using board games on the improvement of ESL students’ oral performance. Task-based instruction and communicative approaches to pedagogy were used for the games. This is a descriptive method of research which intends to determine the correlation between the usage of educational board games and the level of learners’ language anxiety as well as their improvement in oral performance. The pre-test and post-test which were adapted from the Speaking Proficiency English …


A Relational Study Of International General Certificate Of Secondary Education (Igcse) Scores To The American College Test (Act) Scores In A Mississippi Innovative High School, Dane Nicholas Aubé Jan 2018

A Relational Study Of International General Certificate Of Secondary Education (Igcse) Scores To The American College Test (Act) Scores In A Mississippi Innovative High School, Dane Nicholas Aubé

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: the purpose of the quantitative, correlational study of expo/facto data was to determine if a relationship exists between the Cambridge international general certificate of Secondary Education College and career readiness PUM scores and the corresponding act subsection scores of eleventh graders at a municipal pubic high school in a southern state. The degree of correlation between the two assessment results illustrated the effectiveness of the Cambridge curriculum in preparing students for the college and achievement on the act. The research is particularly important to Mississippi because Cambridge is a pilot program for the state. Performance data from Corinth school …


Building An Autonomous Indoor Drone System, Hunter Gossett Jan 2018

Building An Autonomous Indoor Drone System, Hunter Gossett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an indoor autonomous drone system using a self assembled drone which uses a companion computer as well as external sensors for autonomous flight. While autonomous drone systems have been around for some time, originating with the military, the vast majority of them are designed for outdoor use, because of their heavy reliance on GPS for their positioning systems. In order to achieve autonomous flight indoors we choose to use simultaneous localization and mapping (slam) as our positioning system. The contributions of this thesis is an in depth guide to the hardware and assembly of a drone system, …


Evaluation Of Parent Involvement In Families In Transformation (Fit) Wellness Program For Children, Heather Walker Jan 2018

Evaluation Of Parent Involvement In Families In Transformation (Fit) Wellness Program For Children, Heather Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Characterizing Variable Flow Pathways And Geochemical History Of Seepage Under The Mississippi River Levee: 2011, 2015, And 2016 Floods, Kaitlin Marie Voll Jan 2018

Characterizing Variable Flow Pathways And Geochemical History Of Seepage Under The Mississippi River Levee: 2011, 2015, And 2016 Floods, Kaitlin Marie Voll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Seepage beneath levees during flood stage becomes a concern when piping occurs, creating channels beneath the levee and forming sand boils where transported sediments discharge. Along the lower Mississippi River, pathways beneath the levee vary with surface geology, following deeper paths where the levee overlies channel fill deposits, and shallower paths where it overlies sand bar deposits. A preliminary investigation north of Vicksburg, MS, during the 2011 flood, demonstrated the potential for using aqueous geochemistry to differentiate sand boils forming at the end of deep and shallow flow pathways, though the study was limited to cation and trace metal analyses. …


Elastodynamic Model For Wind Induced Ground Motion, Mohammad Mohammadi Jan 2018

Elastodynamic Model For Wind Induced Ground Motion, Mohammad Mohammadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Cumulative Disadvantage, Poverty, And The Role Of Community Capitals: A Spatial Analysis Of Uneven Development In The Multi-State Delta Region, Katrina Danielle Alford Jan 2018

Cumulative Disadvantage, Poverty, And The Role Of Community Capitals: A Spatial Analysis Of Uneven Development In The Multi-State Delta Region, Katrina Danielle Alford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding space and how space impacts uneven development is crucial when examining inequalities within sociology. Uneven development perpetuates the segregation of space, highlighting disparities in power and inequalities that are rooted in spatial design and relations. Characteristics like geographic location and history have long-term influences on development, yet are not able to be easily changed within a community. Historical events have helped shape the successes and failures of communities, creating a "path dependence" that goes beyond any one individual's control. There are, however, locally-modifiable characteristics of people in spaces, such as human and social capital. These community capitals can be …


Down Under Punks And Dixie Rock: Reflections On Making The Documentary Film Chinese Whispers - Southern Roots In The Australian Swampy Sound, Gretchen Labudde Wood Jan 2018

Down Under Punks And Dixie Rock: Reflections On Making The Documentary Film Chinese Whispers - Southern Roots In The Australian Swampy Sound, Gretchen Labudde Wood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Transitioning From A Monolingual To A Dual Language Program: A Case Study Of An Elementary School, Alex Davies Jan 2018

Transitioning From A Monolingual To A Dual Language Program: A Case Study Of An Elementary School, Alex Davies

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of administrators, teachers, and parents from an elementary school that was in its first year of dual language transition. The majority of past studies conducted on dual language education focused on students' linguistic and academic outcomes (Lindholm-Leary, 2012). Studies investigating dual language schools' planning, policies, and classroom implementation are significantly less, and those that have, were at schools that were already functioning as dual language with the intent to examine what made the school successful (Alanis & Rodriguez, 2008; Freeman, 1996; Hunt, 2011). Through a phenomenological and case study approach, the current study …


Throne Of Fans: Examining The Roles Of Feminism, Platform And Community In An Online Fandom, Sarah Leiser Jan 2018

Throne Of Fans: Examining The Roles Of Feminism, Platform And Community In An Online Fandom, Sarah Leiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis involves examining the influence of feminism, platform and community on the fandom of Sarah J Maas (SJM) novels on the social network site Tumblr. The goals are to show how a shift to an open social network site has changed the practice of fandom and how various feminisms are applied to popular culture and learned through Tumblr. An ethnographic study and textual analysis on SJM fandom posts and interactions on Tumblr were utilized in order to reach these goals. The observations and analysis examines the data in three categories: the established characteristics of fandom on Tumblr, the characteristics …


The Ecology Of Land Managers In Riparian Restoration, Lisa Buie Clark Jan 2018

The Ecology Of Land Managers In Riparian Restoration, Lisa Buie Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While previous studies in restoration ecology have focused on the efficacy of direct management actions, the driving forces on management decisions (e.g., managers' characteristics or attitudes, environmental conditions) and the indirect impacts on restoration outcomes from management decisions (such as whether to collaborate) are quantified here for the first time. As a case study, I used data from 244 sites across the riparian Southwest US where the invasive shrubby tree Tamarix sp. was removed using various different methods. I surveyed and interviewed the 45 land managers who were responsible for the removal projects to determine their characteristics, attitudes, and …


Development Of A Locomotion And Balancing Strategy For Humanoid Robots, Emile Bahdi Jan 2018

Development Of A Locomotion And Balancing Strategy For Humanoid Robots, Emile Bahdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The locomotion ability and high mobility are the most distinguished features of humanoid robots. Due to the non-linear dynamics of walking, developing and controlling the locomotion of humanoid robots is a challenging task. In this thesis, we study and develop a walking engine for the humanoid robot, NAO, which is the official robotic platform used in the RoboCup Spl. Aldebaran Robotics, the manufacturing company of NAO provides a walking module that has disadvantages, such as being a black box that does not provide control of the gait as well as the robot walk with a bent knee. The latter disadvantage, …


Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Photonics For Electro-Optics, Nonlinear Optics, And Quantum Optics On Silicon, Ashutosh Rao Jan 2018

Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Photonics For Electro-Optics, Nonlinear Optics, And Quantum Optics On Silicon, Ashutosh Rao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ion-sliced thin-film lithium niobate (LN) compact waveguide technology has facilitated the resurgence of integrated photonics based on lithium niobate. These thin-film LN waveguides offer over an order of magnitude improvement in optical confinement, and about two orders of magnitude reduction in waveguide bending radius, compared to conventional LN waveguides. Harnessing the improved confinement, a variety of miniaturized and efficient photonic devices are demonstrated in this work. First, two types of compact electrooptic modulators are presented – microring modulators, and Mach-Zehnder modulators. Next, two distinct approaches to nonlinear optical frequency converters are implemented – periodically poled lithium niobate, and mode shape …


Investigating Compositional Variations Of S-Complex Near-Earth Asteroids: (1627) Ivar, Jenna Jones Jan 2018

Investigating Compositional Variations Of S-Complex Near-Earth Asteroids: (1627) Ivar, Jenna Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We seek to investigate the complexity and heterogeneity of the surfaces of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). In particular, we are studying the S-complex NEAs, which account for a large portion of the observed near-Earth objects. Here we present our results for (1627) Ivar, an Amor class NEA with taxonomic type Sqw. In 2013, Ivar's large size and close approach to Earth (minimum distance 0.32 AU) provided an opportunity to observe the asteroid over many different viewing angles for an extended period of time. We collected delay-Doppler radar images and Doppler spectra using the Arecibo Observatory's 2380 MHz radar, and, by incorporating …


Electronic, Optical, And Magnetic Properties Of Graphene And Single-Layer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides In The Presence Of Defects, Mahtab Khan Jan 2018

Electronic, Optical, And Magnetic Properties Of Graphene And Single-Layer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides In The Presence Of Defects, Mahtab Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene and single-layer (SL) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), have attracted a lot of attention due to their fascinating electronic and optical properties. Graphene was the first 2D material that has successfully been exfoliated from bulk graphite in 2004. In graphene, charge carriers interacting with the honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms of graphene to appear as massless Dirac fermions. Massless quasiparticles with linear dispersion are also observed in surface states of 3D topological insulators and quantum Hall edge states. My first project deals with the two-dimensional Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) type interference experiment for massless Dirac fermions in …


Subjective-Objective Discrepancies Among Patients With Sleep Complaints In The Patient-Centered Medical Home, Keri Bayley Jan 2018

Subjective-Objective Discrepancies Among Patients With Sleep Complaints In The Patient-Centered Medical Home, Keri Bayley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sleep misperception – the discrepancy between objective and subjective measures of sleep – has been shown to be prevalent among patients with insomnia and may be a promising target for sleep intervention. This study examined sleep misperception in a diverse outpatient medical sample using consumer-grade wearable actigraphs (i.e., Fitbit Charge HR™). Forty-four self-identified problem sleepers aged 20 to 79 participated in the study. Participants completed sleep diaries for one week while also tracking their sleep using the Fitbit Charge HR™. After receiving a personalized sleep report based on these data, participants repeated another week of sleep assessment. Sleep misperception was …


Demanding Reduction: An Exploration Of County-Level Characteristics Associated With Areas Of Human Trafficking In Florida, Madelyn Diaz Jan 2018

Demanding Reduction: An Exploration Of County-Level Characteristics Associated With Areas Of Human Trafficking In Florida, Madelyn Diaz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on the prevalence of human trafficking (HT) is relatively scarce, even though more attention has been brought to this human rights issue in the past couple of decades. Widely known as a form of modern day slavery, trafficking of persons for sexual exploitative reasons to earn a profit for the trafficker occurs in every major city across the country, despite common misconceptions that it only thrives in foreign countries. To expand on limited existing literature on human trafficking, this research study explores possible correlations among areas of high violent crime rates, drug arrests, the presence of demand reduction strategies, …


State Gun Control Laws, Jacob Lafleur Jan 2018

State Gun Control Laws, Jacob Lafleur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The gun control debate has been placed at the forefront of American politics, as some of the most deadly mass shootings have happened in the last year. Much of the research on the effectiveness of gun control laws have shown inconsistent results. The purpose of the study is to compare states with stricter gun laws to states with more lax laws. This in turn will allow policy makers to identify effective strategies to implement in states that are lacking effective laws. The study examined state gun laws for all 50 states using the Gifford's Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. …


Don't Do The Crime If You Can't Do A Man's Time: Examining Sentencing Disparities Using Offender Demographics, Vanessa Rinker Jan 2018

Don't Do The Crime If You Can't Do A Man's Time: Examining Sentencing Disparities Using Offender Demographics, Vanessa Rinker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Looking back, America has seen its fair share of differences among its population, so it should not come as a shock that sentencing disparities are a serious criminal justice issue in the United States. Each year, thousands of people are sent to Federal prisons where they receive sentences for crimes they have been convicted of committing. The United States Sentencing Commission publishes these results annually. No matter the number of persons entering the prison system on the federal level, the number of female offenders often remains about the same (8555 in 2000; 9451 in 2007; and 9302 in 2008). While …


The Effects Of Regulatory Orientation On Subjective Task Values, Ability Beliefs, And Gameplay In A Grammar Editing Computer Game, Stephen Strnad Jan 2018

The Effects Of Regulatory Orientation On Subjective Task Values, Ability Beliefs, And Gameplay In A Grammar Editing Computer Game, Stephen Strnad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated mean group differences in composite subjective task values, ability beliefs, and gameplay behaviors between low promotion and high promotion English as a Second Language (ESL) postsecondary students while playing two versions of a grammar-editing computer game. First, students were categorized according to their scores on the General Regulatory Focus Measure. Next, students played two identical versions of the grammar-editing game; in the second game version, an independent variable was added in the form of an in-game punishment. In the middle of each game version, students completed a modified version of the Expectancy-value Questionnaire. Independent samples t-tests were …


Interpersonal Behavior Traits And Their Relationship To Administrator-To-Teacher Feedback: A Quantitative Study, Robert Walker Jan 2018

Interpersonal Behavior Traits And Their Relationship To Administrator-To-Teacher Feedback: A Quantitative Study, Robert Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore what, if any, relationship exists between the interpersonal behavior traits held by administrators and the quality of the feedback they provide to teachers. The Interpersonal Behavior Survey (IBS) was used to develop interpersonal behavior profiles for all the school-based administrators from a moderately sized school district who consented to participate in the study. Additionally, the comments submitted as feedback to teachers by the participating administrators were reviewed and scored using a rubric. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine what, if any, relationship exists between the traits measured by the IBS and …