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Everything Is Flat: The Transcendence Of The One In Neoplatonic Ontology, Joshua Packwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation research addresses the relationship between the One and everything else in Neoplatonic metaphysics. Plato is vague in describing this distinction and thus much of late antiquity attempts to fill in the gaps, as it were. The potential difficulty, however, is that the hierarchy of existence in late antiquity is susceptible to being understood as postulating a being that is "beyond being." To avoid this difficulty, I propose an interpretation of Dionysius the Areopagite to show that being is, by definition, intelligible and thus finite and limited. Since the first principle is that which is infinite it therefore cannot …

Subtle Messages: An Examination Of Diversity In The Illustrations Of Secondary Level One French Textbooks, Stephen Richard Adamson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Textbooks in all content areas have been criticized for the hidden curriculum that subtly teaches messages, which elevate some cultural groups while diminishing the efforts and contributions of other cultural groups. Research into the hidden curriculum and inclusion of diversity in French textbooks has been limited. The present study focused on the inclusion of diversity in terms of race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, and body size present in the illustrations of the three newest French One textbooks. Results indicate that diversity has increased but the diversity within the illustrations does not always mirror the actual demographics of the United States …

Does Emotion Invalidation Cause Emotion Dysregulation? Evidence From A Healthy Sample Of College Students And Implications For The Development Of Borderline Personality Disorder, Melissa Jean Zielinski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Linehan's BioSocial theory is a widely accepted model of the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, the tenet that experiences of invalidation causally influence the development of the emotion dysregulation that characterizes BPD has been subject to relatively little empirical attention. The purpose of this study thus was to experimentally investigate the effects of validation and invalidation on indices of emotion dysregulation including self-invalidation, distress tolerance, and Social problem solving. The current study used a laboratory-based emotion induction procedure in which ninety college students participated in validating or invalidating conversations about emotional events with a peer confederate. Contrary to …

An Analysis Of Firearms Training Performance Among Active Law Enforcement Officers, John Thomasson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Firearms proficiency is an implicit expectation, held by the public of police officers, due to presumption that the required firearm training is an adequate preparation for a deadly force encounter. However, anecdotal evidence and available data on police shootings suggest that conventional, unrealistic training methods are wholly inadequate. To present stress into firearms training, some departments have opted for exercises such as physical exertion and shoot-house training as a substitute for realistic simulation of force-on-force confrontations.

To determine whether such exercises are comparable, an observation of performance and heart rate levels was conducted on a group of eight police officers, …

Context And The Assessment Of Peer Preference: The Lunch Table Rating Scale, James Thomas Craig

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study reports on the development and initial evaluation of a novel peer-report measure of lunch mate preference. The Lunch Table Rating Scale (LTRS) was designed to assess peer preference within a narrow but important Social context while limiting the unwanted influence of reputational bias on peer ratings. Psychometric properties of the LTRS were examined using a sample of 298 fourth-grade students. The LTRS demonstrated good internal consistency and adequate stability over a four-month interval. LTRS scores were positively correlated with Social preference scores from a traditional classroom sociometric instrument and negatively correlated with self-, teacher-, and peer-reported levels of …

A Conceptual Model Of Exploration Wayfinding: An Integrated Theoretical Framework And Computational Methodology, Matthew Lee Tenney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an attempt to integrate contending cognitive approaches to modeling wayfinding behavior. The primary goal is to create a plausible model for exploration tasks within indoor environments. This conceptual model can be extended for practical applications in the design, planning, and Social sciences. Using empirical evidence a cognitive schema is designed that accounts for perceptual and behavioral preferences in pedestrian navigation. Using this created schema, as a guiding framework, the use of network analysis and space syntax act as a computational methods to simulate human exploration wayfinding in unfamiliar indoor environments. The conceptual model provided is then implemented …

Classification Of Satellite Time Series-Derived Land Surface Phenology Focused On The Northern Fertile Crescent, Brian Embree Bunker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land surface phenology describes events in a seasonal vegetation cycle and can be used in a variety of applications from predicting onset of future drought conditions, to revealing potential limits of historical dry farming, to guiding more accurate dating of archeological sites. Traditional methods of monitoring vegetation phenology use data collected in situ. However, vegetation health indices derived from satellite remote sensor data, such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), have been used as proxy for vegetation phenology due to their repeated acquisition and broad area coverage. Land surface phenology is accessible in the NDVI satellite record when images …

"And So We Moved Quietly": Southern Methodist University And Desegregation, 1950-1970, Scott A. Cashion

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Southern Methodist University was the first Methodist institution in the South to open its doors to African Americans in the early 1950s. There were several factors that contributed to SMU pushing for desegregation when it did. When SMU started the process of desegregation in the fall of 1950, two schools in the Southwest Conference had already admitted at least one black graduate student. University officials, namely then President Umphrey Lee, realized that because other schools had desegregated, it would not be long before SMU would have to do the same. Lee started the path towards desegregation in 1950, and it …

After Orwell: Totalitarian Fears And The English Political Novel, 1950-2010, Jackson Ayres

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

After Orwell: Totalitarian Fears and the English Political Novel, 1950-2010 gives a coherent account of the English political novel after World War II, a critical narrative absent from current scholarship. I contend that George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), a touchstone for political fiction, is underwritten by Orwell's conflicted attitude toward politics: despite embracing politics as the necessary means to genuinely improve people's lives, he also remained suspicious of politics' apparently inherent potential to diminish or even eliminate autonomy. Orwell's simultaneous attraction and vigorous resistance to politics, I argue, is tied to broader contemporaneous anxieties over political and cultural totalization. Such …

Theoretical Underpinnings Of Jury Decision Making In Excuse Defense Cases, Christopher Sean Peters

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the typical criminal trial, a defendant is trying to prove he/she is not guilty because they were not the individual that committed the crime. However, another type of defense exists in which the defendant admits they were the culprit, but provides an excuse in an attempt to avoid criminal punishment. These so called "excuse defenses" include insanity, involuntary intoxication, age, and entrapment. In all cases, juries are required to determine whether the defendant had sufficient mental capacity to form the intent to commit the crime. Although jury decision making is a popular research area in psychology, relatively little has …

Citizen Support For Northern Ohio Community College Funding Initiatives During An Economic Recession Recovery, Patricia Flores

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current research, Citizen Support for Northern Ohio Community College Funding Initiatives during an Economic Recession Recovery, asks the question: Do the citizens of Northern Ohio support community college funding during difficult economic times? Based on the theory of Stakeholder Analysis, the purpose of this concurrent, mixed-methods study was to investigate stakeholder support of community college funding initiatives, particularly for levy-funded community colleges that rely on the voting public to voluntarily contribute property taxes to support their institutions.

A comparison of Ohio community college statements and survey responses regarding stakeholder needs and beliefs indicated a significantly higher instance of …

Learning Experiences And Perspective Transformation In Evangelical Faith-Based Adult Nonformal Education Programs, Philip Gerke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study adapted an existing instrument to examine perspective transformation and its associated factors in participants of evangelical faith-based adult nonformal education in the Midwestern United States. Stratified random one-stage cluster sampling of 11 churches produced a nonprobability sample (N = 597) that was significantly (p < .05) different from the population of the geographical location of the study. An 86% majority self-reported a level of agreement or stronger of perceived transformation of perspectives, but differences predicted by gender were insignificant. The difference in perceived perspective transformations between respondents aged 40-59 that had the highest levels and respondents aged 60 and above that had the lowest levels was significant. The factors of influential individuals, personal reflection, and thought-provoking learning assignments significantly predicted all four factors of perspective transformation; the Writing Assignment factor was a significant negative predictor of only the Perception of Change factor, and a significant positive predictor of only the Future Benefits factor. The study recommended that additional research on faith-based frames of reference and age category differences. The study also recommended that faith-based practitioners consider emphasizing transformative learning experiences and personal reflection in their programs for adults.

The Effects Of Summer Reading Programs On The Academic Achievement Of Elementary Students, Renee Deshommes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children with weakened academic skills face the possibility of having less access to higher education, or advanced career opportunities later in life. Such disadvantages, if not addressed, may result in a series of diminished opportunities that may affect a child's overall quality of life. Several educational experts suggest that the negative effects of the academic achievement gap are cumulative, and many educational experts also believe that the achievement gap between high and low socioeconomic students continues to be a persistent problem for which few solutions have materialized. The potential for summer reading programs to be implemented as a mechanism to …

A Comparative Study Of Middle And Junior High School Athlete And Non-Athlete Self-Perceptions Of Body Image And Satisfaction With Apparel Fit Using 3d Body Scan Technology, Lauren Speight

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of athletic program participation in middle and junior high school students' self-perceptions of body image, body satisfaction and apparel fit satisfaction. A survey was used to assess the students' self-perception of individual body image, satisfaction with different areas of the body and satisfaction with apparel fit. The research also assessed the accuracy between the students' perceived body image on a body image scale and their 3D body scan image. By using 3D body scanning technology, body scan images were obtained to accurately determine the size and shape for male and …

A Mixed-Method Examination Of Homicides Targeting Lgbt Individuals In The United States, Kristin Kaye Kelley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to understand the dynamic processes of fatal attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals across different situational circumstances. Recent scholarship has begun to identify the heterogeneous nature of anti-LGBT homicides, including possible differences in how victims are targeted by offenders. However, several limitations of prior research have stunted the systematic examination of these circumstances. Few studies, for instance, have disaggregated by crime type and bias type, thus masking unique patterns and causal processes associated with varying types of anti-LGBT homicide events. Others have relied on official data sources whose validity and …

Resources And Relationships: Food Insecurity And Social Capital Among Middle School Students, Don Edward Willis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between food insecurity and Social capital among 5th-7th graders attending an intermediate school in Northwest Arkansas where nearly 70 percent of students participate in the free or reduced lunch program. The central research questions are: Does Social capital have a direct impact on children's food insecurity? And, does Social capital mediate the influence of negative circumstances on children's food insecurity? This study finds that Social capital does have a significant association with food insecurity, even when controlling for multiple demographic and circumstantial factors. However, there appears to be no mediation of circumstance by Social capital. …

Math, Science, And Social Studies Teachers' Attitudes Toward Diversity And Accommodation Of Diversity With Reference To Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Seventh, Eighth, And Ninth Grade Students In A Mid-South State, Nadia Khrais

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was exploring seventh, eighth, and ninth grade teachers' attitudes and beliefs in response to classroom diversity and how that is reflected on their instruction, learning styles, communication patterns, instrumental materials, and assessment patterns in math, science, and Social studies subject areas. In this mixed-method research, the designed survey consisted of 59 questions based on Likert scale and obtained information of ten demographic factors. The survey was delivered in two formats (online link and hard copy) to the participating schools in three urban school districts in a Mid-South State. The survey data were analyzed by using …

A Comparison Of Perceived Fit Issues Of Apparel As It Relates To Body Image And Body Satisfaction Among High School Athletes And Non-Athletes Using 3-D Body Scan Technology, Stephanie Kay Hubert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to first, determine whether high school students have the perception that they have problems finding clothing that fits their bodies, as well as the second objective which was to determine if the problem is common among both athletes and non-athletes or if one group finds fit of apparel more problematic. The third objective was to determine if body image and body satisfaction have an effect on the likelihood of athletes and non-athletes reporting problems with fit issues of clothing available from ready-to-wear stores. Hypothesis I and III analyzed body image, Hypothesis IV analyzed body …

Development Of The Cultural Appreciation Of Martial Arts Scale, John Roderick Malmo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid Social sciences instrument designed to measure the construct of Cultural Appreciation of Martial Arts. Data were collected from 114 adult martial arts participants. Study participants represented Taekwondo schools located in Arkansas and Filipino martial arts schools located in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Development of the instrument involved the use of an expert panel, a Q-sort, test-retest reliability test, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Cronbach's alpha.

The study resulted in a 20-item, 3-factor scale that measures Cultural Knowledge, Cultural Sensitivity, and Cultural Awareness and is named the Cultural Appreciation …

Liberal Arts Colleges During The Great Recession: Examining Organizational Adaptation And Institutional Change, Ashlie Junot Hilbun

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Liberal arts colleges strived to adapt to environmental shifts at the turn of the twenty-first century and remain relevant in American society while the Great Recession of 2007 compounded their challenges and created new fiscal and enrollment burdens, which forced these institutions to confront paradigm-changing circumstances. In an effort to advance the historical perspective of liberal arts colleges and expand the organizational adaptation research base, the current study aimed to understand how private liberal arts colleges adapted during the Great Recession of 2007 by examining institutional changes at three private liberal arts colleges and their effects on the institutions' operations. …

Development Of A Predictive Modeling System For Validation Of The Cumulative Mirobial Inactivation Of The Salmonellae In Pepperoni Utilizing A Non-Pathogenic Surrogate Microorganism (Enterococcus Faecalis), Scott Donald Stillwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Salmonellosis is the most frequently occurring bacterial foodborne illness in the United States and the human case rate has not improved for the past two decades. The federal agency responsible for oversight of meat and poultry processors has announced the intent to extend existing pathogen reduction performance standards for Salmonella spp. to cover all classes of products including fermented sausages that are currently produced under HACCP plans that are validated for control of Escherichia coli O157:H7. The proposed regulatory modifications will require processors to revalidate HACCP plan controls to achieve either a 6.5 or a 7.0 log10 inactivation of the …

Ecology And Flock-Following Behavior Of The Wedge-Billed Woodcreeper In Eastern Ecuador, Abigail Darrah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The wedge-billed woodcreeper (Glyphorynchus spirurus) is a common understory suboscine passerine of lowland Neotropical rainforests. It frequently joins mixed-species understory flocks but also regularly forages alone, and thus is an excellent model species on which to conduct comparative behavioral observations to examine the hypothesized costs and benefits of flock-following. Individuals exhibit variable flocking propensities (proportion of time spent with flocks), and thus observing the correlations between flocking propensity and physical and environmental factors can provide further insight into the importance of flock-following to the ecology of this species. Despite its abundance at many sites and its wide geographic range, surprisingly …

Nature And The Environment In Ana Castillo's So Far From God And Elmaz Abinader's Children Of The Roojme, Rosario Nolasco-Bell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the role of nature and the environment in two works by the ethnic minority women writers Ana Castillo and Elmaz Abinader. The works examined are Castillo's novel So Far From God and Abinader's memoir Children of the Roojme. My research begins with a review of these authors' ouvre, contextualizing it within the themes here addressed. It continues with an analysis of a spectrum of Arab American and Chicano/a works that lend fruitful content and perspective to an ecocritical analysis. Although these two works are dissimilar in genre, my study demonstrates significant parallels in the following areas: characters' …

Times Are A Changin': Gender Role Orientation And Alcohol Use, Jessica Lauren Fugitt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol misuse is an important public health concern as it is related to an elevated probability of experiencing a number of negative life events. Historically, alcohol consumption patterns seemed to differ according to sex, but more recent research suggests that the difference has narrowed as gender role orientations have converged. Further, it seems that gender role orientation more reliably predicts differences in patterns of use than biological sex. The goal of this two-part study was to investigate the relation of gender role orientation and alcohol use behaviors with the expectation that masculine gender role orientation would be associated with these …

Alternative Education Completers: A Phenomenological Study, Becky Lynne Murray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Billy is a bright, wide-eyed, little boy with bounding enthusiasm and wonder as he enters the doors of school on his first day of kindergarten. When the school doors open in Billy's sixth grade year the wide eyes and bounding enthusiasm have diminished only to leave behind dread and dismay at the thought of confronting yet another abysmal nine months of failure. How can we, as educators, better serve the needs of at-risk students like Billy? Shouldn't we ask them? What elements of the alternative education experience were significant to successful completion of the alternative education program? The phenomenological paradigm …

The Perceived Influence Of Divergent Parent And Teacher Perceptions Of Student Abilities On Students And The Establishment Of Effective Family-School Partnerships, Kara Ann Lasater

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the essence of parent, teacher, and student experiences when parent and teacher perceptions of student abilities diverge; of particular importance was the perceived influence of these divergent accounts on students and the establishment of effective family-school partnerships. This purpose was achieved through a qualitative investigation of parent, teacher, and student experiences when parent and teacher perceptions of student abilities diverge. Analysis of data collected from 10 in-depth interviews with students, parents, and teachers revealed five themes and one subtheme related to discrepant parent and teacher perceptions of student abilities. These themes …

Attention And Criminal Charge, Profile And Description: The Effect On Prospective Person Memory, Lindsey Nicole Sweeney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prospective person memory is the ability to recognize and react to a missing or wanted individual that one has been asked to be on the lookout for in the future. Prospective person memory relies on several processes including face recognition, event-based prospective memory, and attention. Only recently has research on the role of visual attention on prospective person memory been examined. In this dissertation, the gap between prospective person memory and attention is addressed. Although research on prospective person memory is steadily increasing, the research in this area is still in its infancy and the exact memory mechanisms that affect …

The Recruitment Of African American Graduate Students At The University Of Arkansas, 2000-2010, Rhonda F. Gray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting this qualitative study was to identify how the U of A approached the recruiting of African American graduate students over a ten year period of time. Based upon best practices for recruiting African American graduate students which was identified in current and scholarly literature in the field, the study examined the recruiting practices at U of A from 2000-2010. The personal interview was the instrument of choice, and within this time period, 40 interviews were conducted. The participants included the chancellor, college deans, faculty, graduate coordinators and recruiters from the various departments and colleges which offered …

Are All Voices Created Equal?: Conditional Indirect Effects Of Directness Of One's Voice On Perceived Uncertainty And Performance, Dennis Lawrence Poepsel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current investigations was to examine the effects of the amount of voice one is given during decision-making on group behaviors. In particular, across two studies, participants were members of groups that needed to make a decision. In these situations, participants were provided varying degrees of voice during a decision-making process. Depending on the study, participants were either given a direct voice (Personal Voice), an indirect voice (Group Voice), a direct voice and an indirect voice (Composite Voice), or were not allowed a voice (No Voice). The results of Study 1 found that having Personal Voice or …

Content And Concept: An Examination Of Transcendental Empiricism, Charles Macmillan Urban

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I critically examine the philosophy of transcendental empiricism. Transcendental empiricism is, among other things, a philosophy of mental content. It attempts to dissolve an epistemological dilemma of mental content by splitting the difference between two diametrically opposed accounts of content. John McDowell's minimal empiricism and Richard Gaskin's minimalist empiricism are two versions of transcendental empiricism. Transcendental empiricism itself originates with McDowell's work. This dissertation is divided into five parts. First, in the Introduction, I state the Wittgensteinian metaphilosophical orientation of transcendental empiricism. This metaphilosophical approach provides a plateau upon which much of the rest of this work …