Digital Commons Network^™

Onward And Upward: Characteristics Of African American Senior Student Affairs Officers, Marteze Deon Hammonds

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The journey of African American student affairs professionals has evolved throughout the history of higher education and student affairs. This study examined the career profiles of ten African American Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAOs) at predominately White institutions (PWIs) throughout the United States. By using the curriculum vitae and a survey, this research found that the career profile of African American SSAOs at PWI's were African Americans who had earned a terminal degree, averaged eight career moves over 18 years and were involved in national associations where they published and presented. These SSAOs were active in their communities and willing …

Polarization Properties Of Maxwell-Gauss Laser Beams, Jessica Patricia Conry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Laser beams are wave-like optical disturbances. They are characterized by a dominant direction of propagation and a finite extent transverse to the direction of propagation. Many characteristics of laser beams can be described in terms of a scalar function multiplied by a constant vector, which can be real (for linear polarization) or complex (for elliptical polarization). The scalar function is a solution to the paraxial scalar wave equation. This scalar description, however, fails to describe the polarization and focusing characteristics of laser beams correctly. For a correct accounting of these characteristics, the electric and magnetic fields associated with laser beams …

Mobilizing Alumni Constituents For Legislative Advocacy In Higher Education, Elizabeth Saxman Underwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adequate funding has become a critical issue for institutions of higher education, affecting outcomes such as accessibility, affordability, and quality of education. The recent economic recession has been detrimental for state funding, resulting in budget cuts for higher education in a majority of states. Overall, state funding has not kept pace with the rising costs of education. Additionally, the issues of state governance and institutional autonomy have also become heightened. Thus, many higher education institutions are initiating advocacy programs with their external constitutions. Because alumni are integral group of an institution's constituent base, and often exhibit the most passion for …

An Exploratory Study Of Characteristics Associated With Postsecondary Educational Attainment In Students Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Amy Marie Hebert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is well documented that attrition in the postsecondary settings for students who are deaf or hard of hearing is greatly due to their academic and communication skills, as well as pre-entry attributes. However there is little evidence that indicates why students who are deaf or hard of hearing are successful in the postsecondary setting. This study tested a hypothesis that demographic, family, psychological and educational variables have a relationship with postsecondary attainment. The variables included in the study were gender, race, math literacy, reading literacy, high school academic setting (public/residential), communication modality (sign language/oral speech), cochlear implant user, parental …

Two Radio Plays By Günter Eich: The Hundredth Name Of Allah And Zabeth, Thomas Andrew Meunier

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a translation of two radio plays by Günter Eich, the most celebrated author in this genre. They have been translated from the original German into English. These two radio plays illustrate Eich's examination of the limits of language in negotiating the chasm between the spiritual and physical worlds.

English King And German Commoner: An Exploration Of Sixteenth Century Clothing And Identity, Bradley Dale Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper will explore the connections of clothing and identity in the sixteenth century. The fit and construction of clothing can be directly related to how a person is perceived, or indeed, how one perceives one's self. Henry VIII (1491-1547) of England will be compared and contrasted with Matthäus Schwarz (1496-1574), a commoner from Augsburg, Germany. Tudor will represent how identity can be created for others, particularly through legislation and courtly life; while Schwarz' own words will assist in the exploration of the identity of the individual.

Multiliteracies In The Classroom: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach To Teachers' And Students' Perspectives Toward Integration Of Technology, Laura Janine Chitty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An increased number of students graduating from high school lack college and career readiness skills to earn credit in entry-level college courses or begin a career in an entry-level position. Many schools across America have prepared to address students' college and career readiness with the adoption of Common Core State Standards. Twenty-five teachers and 92 students participated in this dissertation study conducted at a high school (grades 10-12) in the southern United States. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain teachers' and students' perspectives toward the integration of technology that enhances multiliteracies in the classroom. An explanatory …

Development And Implementation Of It-Enabled Business Processes: A Knowledge Structure View, Rick Brattin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As competitive pressures mount, organizations must continue to evolve their business processes in order to survive. Increasingly, firms are developing new IT-enabled business processes in response to rising competition, greater customer expectations, and challenging economic conditions. The success rate of these projects remains low despite much industry experience and extensive academic study. Managerial and organizational cognition represents a potentially fruitful lens for studying the design and implementation of IT-enabled business processes. This view assumes that individuals are information workers who spend their days absorbing, processing, and disseminating information as they pursue their goals and objectives. Individuals develop cognitive representations, called …

Time Waits For No One: Using Time As A Lens In Information Systems Research, Christopher M. Conway

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite considerable research interest, IT projects still fail at a higher rate than other projects. Primary causes for these failures are relational, motivational, and scheduling issues on the team. Using the concept of time as a lens, the four essays in this dissertation examine how the ways that individuals and teams structure time can help explain these failures. The essays formulate the concept of temporal dissonance at the individual and team level, and explore how temporal dissonance causes negative consequences for IT workers and IT teams.

Essay one synthesizes temporal dissonance from concepts of temporal congruity and cognitive dissonance. It …

Livestock Production And Wildlife-Based Tourism: Articulating Land-Use And Policy Conflicts In The Okavango Delta Ramsar Site In Botswana, Nelson Kgamanyane Sello

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The management of common pool resources and policy conflicts between livestock and wildlife, two land-use types that take place in the same geo-spatial area has been a subject of debate among scholars for decades. This conflict in policies has engendered in communities which are beneficiaries attitudes that are either negative towards wildlife or favorable depending on the benefits they derive from them. This research therefore set out to understand the conflicts in the management of the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site (ODRS) where the OD is situated. The study used the grounded theory to collect and analyze the data in the …

Water Quality Trends And Nutrient Loads For The Watershed Research And Education Center In Northwest Arkansas, 2009-2012, John Metrailer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment transport is a concern for Northwest Arkansas due to high exports through riverine discharge. Urban, agricultural, and pastured watersheds have been associated with increased N, P, and sediment concentrations when compared to forested catchments. The objective of this study was to evaluate discharge and nutrient loads associated with a small urban, agricultural (row crop), wetland influenced, and pasture/farmland sub-catchment within four ephemeral drainages and located at the Watershed Research and Education Center in Fayetteville, AR. Samples were collected during base flow conditions and periodic storm flow conditions from 2009-2012. Flow adjusted concentration trends were used to …

Wayfaring Strangers: A Case Study Of Rural Developmental Writers In The Missouri Ozarks, Robert Andrew Griffith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes a year-long ethnographic study of rural basic writers in the Missouri Ozarks. Using Richard Hofstadter's concept of "anti-intellectualism" as a theoretical lens, I explored the attitudes of students towards writing and academic culture. This exploration was conducted by means of questionnaires, interviews, writing samples, and several experimental courses.

Using all these data-collection mechanisms, I was able to identify three characteristics of these students. They were likely to demonstrate a dualistic ("right/wrong") epistemology. Accordingly, they expected their academic reading to make matter-of-fact truth claims. Finally, students were unlikely to understand the transformative nature of any educational enterprise, hoping …

Taak In Sutik (I Want To Return), Jose Lopez Bribiesca

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this film is to have four descendants of the Maya tell their stories and through them, explain four difficult concepts facing the 21st century contemporary Maya:

* How do Mayan languages influence a worldview different than the westernized, globalized worldview?

* How do the media, especially through movies, portray the Maya and other indigenous groups unfairly?

* How have the descendants of the Maya coped with adapting to modernity while keeping their traditions intact?

* How will the four protagonists ensure the protection of their language and their culture when they return home?

A Way Out: The History Of The Outing Program From The Haskell Institute To The Phoenix Indian School, Alexandria L. Gough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From the earliest years of the United States, its leaders wrestled with the perceived need to assimilate Indian peoples into American society. Many believed that Indians in their "natural" condition were cultural primitives incapable of taking part in national life. However, with proper guidance they could be elevated to a level of civilization that would allow them to join the national family. After the conclusion of the Indian Wars in the 1880's, the United States government began to address the continued "Indian" problem by establishing Indian boarding schools. Indian children attended school to learn to behave as white, Christian and …

The Relationship Of Women's Magazines And Their Websites: A Comparative Analysis Of Print And Web Content, Allison Walker Ruff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the digital expansion of magazines, it is essential to determine how a magazine's online and digital content compares to its print content. The editorial strategy for print content versus Web content could make a difference in consumers' brand attachment and loyalty to a magazine. Magazines must have a dynamic online strategy that offers a different experience than printed material in order to gain new relationships and strengthen those relationships people already have with the brand. A comparative analysis of the print content versus the online website content of four separate women's publications can help determine if each magazine is …

Phase Control In Atomic Coherence, Utsab Khadka

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, atomic coherence is used to enhance nonlinear optical processes in multi-level atoms. The multi-photon transitions are driven resonantly, and at the same time without absorptive losses, by using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), thereby allowing the study of χ⁽³⁾ and χ⁽⁵⁾ nonlinearities using weak driving fields. The coherently modified probe beam(s) and the atom-radiated signal fields arising from four- and six- wave- mixing (FWM and SWM) processes are measured in the spectral, temporal and spatial domains.

In a three-level ladder-type atomic system, multiple peaks having spectral asymmetries are observed in the EIT window as well as …

Flexible Circuits For Aerospace Applications With Special Emphasis On Rf Connectors, Abhishek Nareshraj Singh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current work focused on the study of flexible electronic circuits for use in aerospace applications with emphasis on RF Connectors. The electrical and mechanical performance of the flexible circuits was studied and compared to a standard coaxial cable for feasibility study in avionics space. Also, Anisotropic Conductive Films (ACF) are studied for connecting the flexible RF connectors and their performance studied for electrical and mechanical behavior with change in bonding parameters.

Marais Des Cygnes, John Michael Orr

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the concept, process, installation, and specific pieces in my Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Marais des Cygnes. The Marais des Cygnes is a river in southeast Kansas and western Missouri, near a Bleeding Kansas-era massacre site of the same name. The river is notorious for flash flooding, was named by French explorers and translates to Marsh of the Swans. The work is about a fictional wandering car thief and alcoholic named Vernon, the bad guy in my novel. Vernon is obsessed with the distant past, particularly the time before the Louisiana Purchase and the Louisiana of …

Integrating Human Variables In Cross-Boundary Monitoring Of Aberdare Preserves In Kenya, Peter K. Njuguna

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research critically examines extant data systems and their linkage of scientific research to policy and public education in east African highland forest conservation preserves. The research indicates that the current state of data and monitoring systems in the region imposes substantial limitations on the ability to manage these preserves. Major outcomes of those constraints manifest in unprecedented cross-boundary pressure such as encroachment and conversion of forest to agriculture, increased human-wildlife conflicts, and constrained relations among primary stakeholders. Current monitoring is biodiversity focused within preserves and fails to capture human dimensions in adjoining areas across preserve boundaries. This study proposes …

Pixel; Ghost, John Christopher Kelley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pixel; Ghost is an exhibition of video and sound installations that explore the creation, change, and degradation of memory, transitional states of mind, and family. The pieces are structured around cinematic clichés such as dream sequences, flashbacks and establishing shots, using them as a language to translate personal experience into something more universal.

In my work, Pixel refers to the individually active component of a larger system. A pixel itself changes and has its own characteristics, though these are ultimately subservient to its role in the larger system of a screen. The purpose and meaning of a pixel comes not …

Spiral Installation, Mauricio Alfredo Linares-Aguilar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spiral is a site-specific gallery installation. Simplicity and subtleness are the goals for this installation. It shapes a spiral from above, and is meant to be experienced by walking through it. It has four different elements: one white cotton scrim, 71 feet long by 9 feet high, one cotton scrim 15 feet long by 9 feet high, a direct wall print, and outside natural air. The piece is made of materials such as cotton fabric, casein, bleach and Arkansas yellow oxide clay.

The intent of Spiral Installation is to convey the idea of the flowing process of life and death …

Dessert, Glenna Worrell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From an early age craft played a major role in my development as a person and as an artist. The traditional 1950s-70s crafts such as quilting, knitting, and sewing as performed by my mother began to influence me as a child and are now what I draw upon in my artwork. This thesis exhibition addresses my future role as a nurturer and how it relates to my relationship with my mother. It is my way of forming a connection with the rich history of craft and that of the studio potter. I draw inspiration from historical and contemporary ceramics, the …

Essays On Mergers And Acquisitions And Governance, Rwan Ibrahim Talib El-Khatib

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a recent strand of corporate finance literature that explores the impact of executives and directors' Social connections on firm value, performance, and governance. Those studies document that such Social connections could be beneficial when they enhance the sharing of information and knowledge, but could also be detrimental when associated with CEOs, as they could provide the CEO with a source of influence that makes her more entrenched and powerful.

In the first essay, I use four common measures of network centrality to compute the position of the CEO within the Social network of all executives and directors of …

Investigation Of A Locus On Chromosome 9 For Contributions To Pulmonary Hypertension Syndrome In Broilers, Sriram Krishnamoorthy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although the ascites syndrome in chickens has been investigated for years, it continues to inflict financial losses to the world poultry industry. It is estimated that 8% of the 361 million broiler deaths are due to ascites leading to losses of millions of dollars annually. Efforts to curb the incidence of ascites are typically designed to slow early growth. This limits the birds' ability to show its true genetic potential and impacts later yields. In 1994 lines divergent for susceptibility to ascites were established from a commercial sire line through sibling selection of birds reared at local altitude after testing …

A Marriage Of Realism And Expressionism: Preparing And Performing The Role Of Mrs. Zero In Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, Rebecca Rivas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Elmer Rice's expressionistic play,The Adding Machine, the character of Mrs. Zero is written to forego authenticity and highlight a husband's absurd perception of his wife. The elements of expressionism in the play paint Mrs. Zero as a caricature rather than a person. In order to effectively portray this caricature, role-preparation must be rooted in realism. It is by connecting organically with Mrs. Zero's underlying truth that the portrayal of this absurd character can be made effective. Here, I attempt to find a balance between realistic role-preparation and expressionistic style of performance. My efforts are documented through journal …

The Truth Between The Teeth: An Analysis Of Interproximal Tooth Wear At The Ables Creek Cemetery, Amy Reynolds Warren

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Current archaeological knowledge suggests that, by the Late Mississippian period, inhabitants of the southeastern United States had adopted maize agriculture and that maize was a key component of the normal diet. However, in some regions where wild food resources were easily attainable, there is evidence that the transition to agriculture was delayed or did not occur at all. This thesis examines Late Mississippian skeletal collections from two sites in eastern Arkansas, Ables Creek and Upper Nodena. Analysis of differences in interproximal tooth wear facet size and caries rates between the two populations reveals that the diets at these roughly contemporary …

A Broken Butterfly: Playing The Role Of Daisy In Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine, Brandi Lynn Hoofnagle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine the process of acting the role of Daisy in Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine. Rehearsals for this production began September 21 continued through November 20, 2011. The production was directed by third year M F A candidate Esteban Arevalo Ibanez and produced at the Kernodle Theatre by the University of Arkansas. The body of this thesis is constructed with a text and character analysis integrated into daily rehearsal journals, documenting the process of this production from auditions to the final performance. Through reflection and description of process, I hope to show the creation the actor goes …

Characterization Of Novel Histone H2b Mutants Associated With Chromosome Segregation Defects In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Thiruchelvam Rajagopal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Histones are small basic proteins that associate with DNA to form the basic unit of chromatin, the nucleosome. Histones H3 and H4 form a tetramer that is bound by two H2A-H2B dimers to form the histone octamer, to which approximately 146 bp of DNA wrap around to form the nucleosome. High resolution structural information and recent advances in the understanding of histone post-translational modifications have illuminated the many regulatory functions chromatin exerts in the cell, from the transcriptional control of gene expression to chromosome segregation. However, the specific role that histones play in these processes is not well understood. Previous …

Disgust Sensitivity, Sexual Trauma History, And Female Sexual Functioning, Tara Mcgahan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual dysfunctions are a common problem for women that negatively impact quality of life (Laumann, Paik, & Rosen 1999). A history of sexual trauma is associated with an increase in sexual difficulties (Neumann et al., 1996). One common reaction to unwanted sexual contact is disgust (Whealin & Barnett, 2010). However, the role of disgust in the relationship between sexual trauma and female sexual dysfunction has not been examined. This study explored how disgust and a history of sexual trauma related to different domains of sexual functioning (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain). Furthermore, this study assessed whether disgust mediated …

Design Of A High Dynamic Range Cmos Variable Gain Amplifier For Wireless Sensor Networks, Yue Yu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the design, simulation, layout and testing results for a dB-linear, high dynamic gain range CMOS variable gain amplifier (VGA). The design adopts a new approximated exponential equation called the pseudo exponential equation to implement the dB-linear function. The proposed VGA is designed to have an extremely wide gain variation, small chip area, low supply voltage, and controllable dynamic gain range. The gain variation of the 3-stage VGA is implemented by a voltage to current converter. It controls the bias currents of each VGA cell, so that the output gain of each cell can be controlled. In order …