Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of Education Management Organizations: Competition Framing As A Technique In Education Policy, Calli Leigh Burnett

Master's Theses

As world markets become more interconnected through the phenomenon of globalization, many scholars have noted an expansion of capitalist and economic language in the realm of education discourse. This study focuses on the adoption by education policymakers of the "competition" model and framing, which traditionally used in business, is now being used to justify and promote education policies, such as school choice. This study pursues how competition framing occurs within education, the possible effects of such language use on education stakeholders, and the specific historical contexts and different interests being served by such framing in education. Specifically, this study examines …

Examination Of Script And Non-Script Based Narrative Retellings In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Elizabeth Ann Hilvert

Master's Theses

This study compared the narrative abilities of 19 children with Autism Spectrum

Disorder (ASD) and 26 neurotypical children (NT), between 6 and 12 years of age, on two story retelling tasks: a script-based story and a non-script based story. The script- based story contained the structural aspects of a narrative, but also had the internal framework of a script (Hayward et al., 2007). Given the reduced cognitive and linguistic demands of the script-based story, it was expected that the script-based narrative measure would minimize narrative differences between children with and without ASD. Additionally, the relation between narrative production, theory of …

Feeding The Poor: The Interactions Of Not For-Profit Organizations And The Decision Making Process Of Food Pantry Leaders, Russell Madajewski

Master's Theses

Organizational theorist have studied institutions on a macro level in order understand how these structures operate at a social level, accounting for the nature of the written rules and regulations where the involved individuals act both in the internal and external settings. Recently, scholars have focused on the micro level of interactions of individuals within organizations in which they attempt to identify themselves in their given prescript roles. Attempting to understand the interactions of actors within an organization and studying the formation of relationships between organizations, my investigation will also discuss the nature of food distribution in poor communities. Because …

Muslims Never Bomb On Stage: Audience Perceptions Of Muslim Standup Comedy, Bilal Hussain

Master's Theses

This research investigates the audience perceptions of Muslim standup comedy by Muslim-American college and university students. The research question is ‘Do Muslim-Americans feel as if Muslim standup comedy is painting a new image of Islam and Muslims?’ There has yet to be any published research that asks Muslim-Americans for their perspectives regarding Muslim standup comedy. Since Muslim-Americans are some of the consumers of Muslim standup comedy, this demographic is necessary to study when it comes to exploring the consumption of Muslim standup comedy. The methodology for this research is a qualitative method that involves semi-structured in-depth interviews with Muslim-Americans. I …

Emetine As An Anti-Cancer Therapeutic In Bladder Cancer, Valerie Davidson

Master's Theses

Bladder cancer is a serious health concern among the older population, as it is responsible for thousands of deaths annually in the United States. Patients that are diagnosed with muscle-invasive disease have a 5-year survival rate of only 20 percent. Additionally, muscle-invasive disease has a high metastatic potential; half of all patients develop metastatic disease within 3 years. Patients with muscle-invasive disease are presented with few treatment options aside from surgery. The current standard of care is a chemotherapeutic combination therapy of cisplatin and gemcitabine. This therapy is highly toxic, and due to the high instance of co-morbidities in these …

The Contribution Of The Female Urinary Microbiota To Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, Travis Kyle Price

Master's Theses

The recent finding that urine is not sterile raises a lot of questions: first and foremost, what microorganisms are present, and are these microorganisms correlated with clinical urinary symptoms? Recent work on the female urinary microbiota (FUM) found that the communities of microorganisms differ between women with no lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and those with Urgency Urinary Incontinence (UUI) a form of over-active bladder syndrome. Specifically, a diverse or dysbiotic urinary microbiota was found to be associated with symptomatic women. This suggests the possibility that the FUM can be contributing to urinary symptoms. Conversely, it could also suggest that …

Effects Of Stress On 9-1-1 Call-Takers And Police Dispatchers: A Study At The San Jose Police Department, Kimberly D. Turner

Master's Theses

This research addresses the significant gap in literature related to stress among 9-1-1 call-takers and dispatchers. The relationship between perceived stress and work-life balance, fairness at work, support at home, and work control as well as physiological and psychological outcomes is examined. Survey responses were collected during the summer of 2012 from 89 police 9-1-1 call-takers and radio dispatchers of the San José Police Department Communications Division in San José, California. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, I found those who enjoy a balance between work and personal life experience less stress. Also, greater stress is associated with more psychological and …

Location Gathering: An Evaluation Of Smartphone-Based Geographic Mobile Field Data Collection Hardware And Applications, Joel Clark

Master's Theses

Mobile field spatial data collection is the act of gathering attribute data, including spatial position, about features in a study area. A common method of field data collection is to use a handheld computing device attached to a global navigation satellite system in which attribute data are directly inputted into a database table. The market for mobile data collection systems was formerly dominated by bulky positioning systems and highly specialized software. However, recent years have seen the emergence and widespread adoption of highly customizable and user-friendly mobile smartphones and tablets. In this research, smartphone devices and smartphone data collection applications …

Effects Of Acute Exercise, Mindfulness Meditation, And Mindfulness Meditation Neurofeedback On Stroop Performance, Claire Evelyn Balgemann

Master's Theses

Empirical research has demonstrated that acute aerobic physical exercise, neurofeedback, and mindfulness meditation independently have positive effects on executive performance. Technology has enabled a new intervention that combines neurofeedback and mindfulness meditation; however its effects on executive function are unknown. The aim in the present study was to understand how executive function may be enhanced in healthy individuals. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: acute physical exercise, mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness meditation neurofeedback delivered via the Muse brain-sensing headband. Participants completed 50 trials of the Stroop task, a well-established measure of executive function. A statistically …

Selective Processing By The L3 Auditory Interneuron In Acheta Domesticus : Juvenile Hormone Iii And Protein Kinase C, Ashley Ranae Lynch

Master's Theses

Juvenile Hormone III (JHIII) is a prolific and essential hormone in insects, controlling many aspects of insect physiology such as egg development, nymphal and larval maturation, diapause and metamorphosis. In female crickets, Acheta domesticus, JHIII increases selectivity in phonotactic behavior, narrowing phonotactic choices for Syllable Periods (SPs) of the Calling Songs (CSs) that most closely resemble the natural call of the male. JHIII has been suggested to work through a pathway that activates the protein kinase C (PKC) molecule. Chelerythrine Chloride (CC) is a potent inhibitor of PKC action. This study analyzes the responses of the L3 auditory interneuron, which …

Multi-Directional Warning Message Dissemination Protocol Based On Motion Vector Clustering For Vanets, Hung-Chou Wang

Master's Theses

Problem. Most broadcast suppression protocols in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET) mainly focus on one-dimensional message dissemination model for both highway and urban scenarios. Due to the non-line-of-sight (NLOS) problem occuring frequently in urban scenario, protocols mostly rely on either infrastructure or the vehicle that is passing through the intersection to forward the message in multiple directions manner. However, these one-dimensional message dissemination models fail to take into account realistic road topologies and traffic distribution. As a result, they tend to miss some possible dissemination directions.

Method. Vehicles travelling on the same road share similar motion pattern due to the …

Effective Methods Of Communicating Organizational Values: A Case Study, Caralin B. Mchan

Master's Theses

Organizational values affect business success, and employee satisfaction and commitment. Value training begins during socialization. This qualitative case study of Adventist Frontier Missions explored effective methods the organization’s trainers used to communicate and motivate newcomers to assimilate organizational values during the2015 short-term missions training. Through observation, surveys, focus groups and interviews, I found that newcomers were motivated by seeing a connection between the organization’s values and its mission, and by seeing the values enacted by the trainers. I also found that newcomers perceived nonverbal communication of organizational values to be integral to their value-assimilation process. These findings should be useful …

A Percepcao Sobre A Influencia Que O Lider Exerce Nais Igrejas Adventistas De Vitoria Da Conquista, Helio Sousa Marques

Master's Theses

Proposal

This study addressed the perception of the influence that leaders exerts in Vitória da Conquista`s Adventist churches, located in the southwestern region of the state of Bahia, Brazil. It encompasses concepts, theories, styles, and reflections of leadership pertaining to this population, in order to know the profile of the leaders that followers admire, thereby providing information so that leaders can become increasingly more influential and admired by their subordinates.

Method

The methodology used in this research is qualitative, being guided in a semi-structured interview, on authors dealing with this topic, and on analysis of the historical context of servant …

A Mathematical Framework Of Human Thought Process: Rectifying Software Construction Inefficiency And Identifying Characteristic Efficiencies Of Networked Systems Via Problem-Solution Cycle, Jonathan Sarbah-Yalley

Master's Theses

Problem

The lack of a theory to explain human thought process latently affects the general perception of problem solving activities. This present study was to theorize human thought process (HTP) to ascertain in general the effect of problem solving inadequacy on efficiency.

Method

To theorize human thought process (HTP), basic human problem solving activities were investigated through the vein of problem-solution cycle (PSC). The scope of PSC investigation was focused on the inefficiency problem in software construction and latent characteristic efficiencies of a similar networked system. In order to analyze said PSC activities, three mathematical quotients and a messaging wavefunction …

Teacher's Attitudes Towards Instruction Of Students With Disabilities In An Inclusive Setting, Beverly Nunes

Master's Theses

According to some studies, there is a trend in inclusion of students with disabilities in general classroom. And the key element to deal with this special education issue is the general education teacher. The present research surveyed the variables that would predict teachers' attitudes towards inclusion of students with disabilities in inclusive settings. The variables include years of service, teachers' attendance to special education courses in their program preparation, differentiated instruction, and previous experience with inclusion. Eighty general education teachers from public schools in a very diverse area of Southwest Michigan, answered a survey with 31 questions involving the Scale …

Bystander Confronting Of Anti-Black Racism: Effects Of Belonging Affirmation And Confrontation Training, Rayne Bozeman

Master's Theses

Confronting has the potential to reduce prejudice, especially when implemented by a non-target group member. Not knowing how to respond and fearing social rejection have been identified as barriers to confronting in previous studies. The current study tests whether providing training to confront prejudice and affirming the need to belong helps individuals overcome these barriers. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions: prejudice confrontation training (PCT), rude comment training (RCT), or no training control group (NT). Participants were also randomly assigned to one of two belonging conditions: belonging affirmation or control. Participants were then asked to imagine …

The Influence Of Backlash On Self-Sexualization And Cognitive Depletion, Mallory Helen Elizabeth Nurse Grembowski

Master's Theses

A woman who acts agentically in the workplace is more likely to be disliked and viewed as less competent than a woman who acts caring and communal. The negative consequences for acting outside of a cultural stereotype are called backlash. Cultural gender stereotypes for western society depict women as warm and communal while men are agentic and independent. Women in the workplace act outside of the cultural stereotype, and thus face backlash from their peers. This study examines the extent to which women utilize self-sexualization as a recovery strategy to cope with the fear of backlash, and ultimately how these …

The American Student Abroad And The Perceived Impact In The Local Community, Emily Gaul

Master's Theses

The internationalization of higher education has contributed to the increase of American students studying abroad. Students studying abroad do have an impact the local host communities’ social, economic and cultural traditions. Although, students may or may not be aware of the consequences, both negative and positive, of their impact. This research sought to examine the perceived impact by both alumni and local faculty of a small program in Tanzania. Alumni were reflective on their experience in regards to how they wavered between feeling like a tourist and feeling more connected to the community. Alumni and local faculty both felt that …

Autonomy Support, Elaborativeness, And Problem Solving During Families’ Building Construction In A Children’S Museum, Tayler Grashel

Master's Theses

The current study aimed to promote parent-child interactions that could foster children's early STEM learning. Specifically, the current study focuses on four dimensions of family interactions that have been found in prior work to support children's learning and development: problem solving, parents’ and children’s elaborative talk, and parental autonomy support. This study examined how levels of support on each of these dimensions related to children's abilities to build and fix skyscrapers made out of plastic building materials in the Skyline exhibit at the Chicago Children's Museum. The participants were 74 families with 4- to 8- year old children (M = …

Characterization Of Exopolysaccharide (Eps) Produced By Bacillus Subtilis Mutants, Alexander Argianas

Master's Theses

Bacillus subtilis is a probiotic bacterium that can protect against the murine-

specific attaching and effacing (A/E) pathogen Citrobacter rodentium. C. rodentium displays many features observed with the human pathogen enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). Protection by B. subtilis is mediated by exopolysaccharide (EPS), which is encoded by the epsA-O operon that contains 15 genes. Disruption of one of these genes, epsH, which appears to encode a putative glycosyltransferase, leads to the loss of protective capacity by B. subtilis and by EPS. EPS is a major component of the B. subtilis biofilm and the ΔepsH mutant is unable to form a …

The Impact Of Gender And Cultural Values On Savoring And Happiness Among Korean College Students, Soyeon Kim

Master's Theses

Historically, Korea has been strongly influenced by Chinese Confucianism, which emphasizes gender-role differentiation and patriarchal norms. Through globalization, however, Western values, which accentuate achievement and independence, have influenced Korean society and its emphasis on traditional values and sex roles. In particular, Korean females, relative to males, may gain more empowerment by rejecting traditional cultural values. Literature has shown that Asian cultures traditionally emphasize dampening rather than amplifying of positive emotions—a style of positive emotional regulation (i.e., savoring) that predicts lower reported levels of happiness. The present study examined gender differences in cultural values, savoring responses to positive experience, and happiness …

Conditionalities Of The Knowledge Banks And The Financing Of Higher Education In West Africa: A Focus On Ghana, Nigeria, And Sierra Leone, Innocent Chima Ugwoke

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how the loan conditionalities of the knowledge banks—the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are affecting the funding of higher education in West Africa generally by particularly comparing Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The role of higher education has been linked with development, and development has remained a concerned issue in Africa. The commitment of the states in funding higher education in order to achieve the desired goal of development is continuously met with difficulty. The reliance of these countries on the loans of the knowledge banks, which are associated with …

The Impacts Of Family Environment And Stress Reactivity On Daily Mood For Low-Income Latino Adolescents, Stephanie K. Brewer

Master's Theses

Low-income Latino adolescents are at an increased risk for developing psychopathology, as the chronic stressors faced by those who grow up in poverty have an adverse cumulative effect, and the relationship between exposure to poverty and negative mental health outcomes is intensified for ethnic minority youth. One of the most impactful ways in which poverty causes deteriorations in adolescent mental health is through heightened levels of parent-child conflict. Another harmful result of the multiple stressors faced by poor youth is the dysregulation of the stress reactivity system. For Latino adolescents, problems with mood are a particular concern, as Latino adolescents …

Latino Youth With Spina Bifida: Psychosocial Functioning, Family Functioning, And Acculturation, Jaclyn M. Lennon

Master's Theses

Objective: Research on Latino youth with spina bifida (SB) is sparse. However, SB rates are highest in this ethnic group, and typically-developing (TD) Latino youth are at risk for poor psychosocial functioning. The aims of this study were to examine: (1) differences in psychosocial and family functioning between Latino and non-Latino Caucasian youth with SB; (2) family functioning as a predictor of youth psychosocial functioning as moderated by ethnicity; (3) the impact of acculturation on youth psychosocial and family functioning in Latino youth with SB. Methods: Participants were recruited as part of a larger, longitudinal study (Devine et al., 2012). …

Social Policy Shifts And The Relationship Between Snap Workers And Their Clients, Latrese Annette Monden

Master's Theses

In an effort to better understand how federal social policy changes shape the ways in which public service workers assist their clients in obtaining food benefits through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, this study uses ethnography and interviews to capture the experiences of workers and their clients. Specifically, it examines how public service workers implement new policies while maintaining their professional identities and responding to the mission of their organization. These goals may be in tension. The key findings are that workers do not resist changes in policy because of the limitations of their job …

The Relation Between Implicit And Explicit Self-Esteem Predicting Inconsistent Parenting, Bethany Otto

Master's Theses

Recent research has begun to examine insecure high self-esteem, which is characterized by low implicit (unconscious) and high explicit (conscious) self-esteem. However, little work has investigated its possible origins. Examining its origins is important because empirical findings have linked insecure high self-esteem to defensiveness, narcissism, in-group bias (Bosson et al., 2003; Jordan et al., 2003; Trumpeter et al., 2008), and anxiety (Bos, Huijding, Muris, Vogel, and Biesheuvel 2010). The current research investigated the possible origin of insecure high self-esteem in inconsistent parenting based on relevant research and theories that link parenting to the development of implicit and explicit self-esteem. Contrary …

"They Going To Throw You In Jackson Where You Belong": Depictions Of Mental Disability In The Works Of William Faulkner And Flannery O'Connor, Marie Elizabeth Lawson

Master's Theses

Mentally disabled characters in the works of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor are often subjected to mistreatment, neglect, and violence at the hands of their families and communities. In William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (1929) and The Hamlet (1940) and Flannery O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” (1955) and The Violent Bear it Away (1960), characters with mental disabilities are depicted in such a way as to evoke sympathy for the characters without the narratives overtly calling for sympathy. This is achieved through the juxtaposition of positive narrative portrayals with negative treatment by the characters’ …

Impacts Of Scholarship And Publication On Entry-Level Hiring: Public Services Applicants In Academic Libraries In The United States, James E. Hicks

Master's Theses

This study examines the impact of a single knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA), specifically research and publication experience, on the hiring decisions of selection committees for entry-level public services academic librarian positions in the United States. Current library and information science literature contains few studies focusing on a single KSA factor. For this study, respondents (n=141) from a selective sample of 382 institutions of higher education completed an online survey in January and February 2015. The results show that research and publication experience had a greater impact on hiring decisions at urban research universities with large full-time equivalent (FTE) student …

Health Care In The Us Department Of Veterans Affairs: Critical Issues And Strategic Progress, Kristin Nicole Sandoval

Master's Theses

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is one of the largest executive departments in the nation, providing essential financial and medical assistance to veterans and their families. As the VA continues to evolve and grow it is imperative to understand the department’s current capability constraints and how they arose in order to propose effective methods for addressing current issues and overcoming future policy pitfalls. The most critical issues presently facing the VA concern appalling increases in wait-times and backlogs for services, which have emerged since 9/11 and are primarily the result of growing numbers of disabled veterans from …

30 Ghz Adaptive Receiver Equalization Design Using 28 Nm Cmos Technology, Gustavo Tostado Villanueva

Master's Theses

This thesis consists of a 28 nm submicron circuit design for high speed transceiver circuits used in high-speed wireline communications that operate in the 60 Gb/s range. This thesis is based on research done on high speed equalizer standards for the USB 3.1 SuperSpeed Differential Channel Loss Receiver Equalizer or Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express® Base Specification Revision 3.0. As of 2015, USB 3.1 and PCI Express® 3.0 are technologies with possibilities to be implemented in emerging technology targeted to consumer applications that demand improvements in signal integrity for high speed serial data communication of baud rates above 20 Gb/s. …