Digital Commons Network^™

Rethinking Teacher Quality: Narrow Versus Broad Conceptions Of Capability, Anthony Costa

Master's Theses

This paper examines the prevailing notion of teacher quality today. While there is wide agreement that teachers are the primary factor in schools determining student achievement, there is disagreement about which attributes constitute a high-quality teacher. Different approaches to improving teaching spring from different conceptualizations of capability. Since teacher quality consists of particular abilities that allow teachers to excel in their work, we need to understand how the abilities of high quality teachers are acquired, maintained and expanded, or, conversely, how these abilities are unrealized, arrested and diminished. The Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) project represents the dominant approach …

Sexual Behavior Problems In Child Welfare: Predictors Of Reliable Change, Anne Kathleen Fuller

Master's Theses

This study examined predictors of changes in children's sexual behaviors across two time points within a sample of youth in the child welfare system. Hypothesized predictors of increases or decreases in children's sexual behaviors included child attributes, positive parenting, exposure to sexuality and violence, maltreatment history and child welfare placement history, and treatment variables. Participants included 145 children with reported sexual behavior problems and their primary caregivers and mental healthcare providers. Children's sexual behaviors were classified as improved, worsened, or unchanged. Optimal Data Analysis (ODA) and multivariate classification tree analysis (CTA) via ODA were used to identify predictors of children's …

A Study Of Functional Recovery And Axonal Plasticity Following Tbi And Anti-Nogo-A Immunotherapy, Jennifer Crystal Biesiadecki

Master's Theses

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally and often results in long term disability. Unfortunately, the success of rehabilitation techniques as therapy for TBI is limited, which may be due to the growth restrictive environment of the adult central nervous system (CNS). This environment is thought to result from glial scars, lack of neurotrophic factors, and the presence of an array of growth-inhibitory molecules. One such growth-inhibitory molecule is the protein Nogo-A. Our laboratory has shown that neutralization of Nogo-A with anti-Nogo-A immunotherapy after ischemic stroke results in improvement in functional recovery in the …

The Influence Of Ideal Similarity On The Relation Between Self-Discrepancy And Attraction, Natalie Jamila Hall

Master's Theses

Some research indicates that individuals with high self-discrepancy (distance between the actual self and the ideal self) are more prone to interpersonal attraction than those with low self-discrepancy and that perceived ideal similarity (how closely a target individual resembles your own ideal self) strongly influences attraction. To test the hypothesis that ideal similarity moderates the relationship between self-discrepancy and attraction, manufactured Facebook profiles were used to manipulate perceived ideal similarity of target before having participants rate the target on measures of liking and respect. This study surveyed 232 college students; 111 from a mid-sized, private Midwestern university and 121 from …

Learning To Tell Coherent Personal Narratives: Linkages To Mother-Child Reminiscing Over Time, Philip C. Hoffman

Master's Theses

Longitudinal and concurrent predictors of children's narrative coherence are identified and used to model pathways to coherence. Narrative coherence in children's independent narratives was measured at 72-months using a multidimensional (context, chronology, and theme) coding system. Fifty-three potential predictors of children's narrative coherence were considered, including children's vocabulary scores, metamemory knowledge, and measures derived from observations of mothers' and children's talk during reminiscing conversations recorded when the children were 54 and 72 months old. Optimal Data Analysis was used to generate three classification tree models to identify variables associated with whether children were low or high on three dimensions of …

Women In Leadership And The Politics Of Power, Caitlin Maeve Kendall

Master's Theses

With the use of intimate interviews, this qualitative research study employed an experiential, story-telling approach to gather a more thorough understanding of individual female experiences in leadership positions in the field of education in relation to the literature on female leadership in a gendered workforce. Although this study only included the experiences of several women leaders in the field of education in the Chicago area, the preexisting research on the topic guided the interview questions and divulged the nexus between a culture of systematic gendered hierarchy in the workplace and the strategies and characteristics of success employed by female leaders …

Examining The Moderating Role Of Specific Coping Strategies On The Relationship Between Body Image And Eating Disorders In College-Age Women, Alexandra Calvert Kirsch

Master's Theses

A sample of college age women assessed at three time points (Time 1: Baseline, assessed before college, Time 2: End of first semester, Time 3: End of first year of college) completed measures of disordered eating, coping, and body image. Results indicated that neither adaptive (problem-focused coping or social support seeking) nor maladaptive coping styles (active emotional coping or avoidant coping) as measured at Time 1 or Time 2 moderated the significant predictive relationship between body dissatisfaction at Time 1 and disordered eating attitudes at Time 3, when adjusting for disordered eating attitudes and BMI at Time 1. However, significant …

Afghan University Women Graduates Are Not Well-Represented In The Job Market In Afghanistan, Mohammad Kazem Shakib

Master's Theses

Higher education has been one of the prominent sectors in Afghanistan for the past decade. There has been a steady increase in the representation of women within the higher education system in the country. However, the growth of an educated workforce within the job market and the growth of the national economy have not been equal. A high number of university women graduates are jobless, employed in non-relevant professions, or working in part-time jobs like teaching in primary and secondary school.

This paper explores the contribution and representation of university women graduates in the economy of Afghanistan. Through a liberal …

Domestic Violence And The Legal System: A Case Study Of 10 Mexican Women And The Process Of Seeking Legal Recourse, Martha Cecilia Espinosa

Master's Theses

This study explores the experiences of ten Mexican women currently receiving services with Safe Pathways, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources to survivors of domestic violence. In this study, I attend to how these women experience and negotiate gender, intimate relationships, and the legal system, and I explore the strategies that they develop to overcome gendered constraints associated with being undocumented and battered. I find that women's experiences with the legal system are shaped by a variety of factors outside of its auspices, including gendered norms and class constraints. Existing literature on Latinas and battered women in the legal …

Chicago Housing: Understanding How Local Organizations Mobilize To Preserve Public And Affordable Housing, Cameron Williams

Master's Theses

Under the Plan for Transformation section 8 voucher use and mixed-income developments have increased in Chicago. Several developments have been demolished and replaced with mixed-income developments that are argued to provide better conditions and opportunities for public housing residents, but empirically have mixed results. Lathrop Homes is a public housing development that has withstood the mass demolitions and efforts to make it mixed-income because of resident and organizer challenges to the Chicago Housing Authority. Resident and organizer input for this study reveals their strong stance against the mixed-income development Lathrop Homes could become. The interests behind opposition might diverge, but …

The Ethical Viability Of Church Support Of Moral Legislation, Jason Alexander Hines

Master's Theses

When a political question comes to the forefront about which Christians would have an opinion, the religio-political discussion of the issue often turns to the debatable issues within the political question at hand. However, the thesis posits that instead of addressing the particulars of a political question as a rationale for action, Christians should instead be asking questions about the best way to represent our beliefs in secular society, and whether the use of the coercive tool of secular legislation is the ethically proper way to go in light of our beliefs as Christians. This thesis attempts to address this …

Turn Of Events: How Environmental Temperatures And Artificial Nest Habitats Influence Incubation Behaviors Of Cassin's Auklets (Ptychoramphus Aleuticus), Emma Kelsey

Master's Theses

Nest attendance behaviors are critical to hatching success for most bird species. Yet, details of avian incubation behaviors are still not well understood, especially for species that nest in burrows and crevices. Cassin's auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) is a burrow-nesting seabird found throughout the northeastern Pacific Ocean, including Southeast Farallon Island, California (SEFI). Artificial nest boxes have been used to monitor Cassin's auklets (hereafter auklet) breeding on SEFI. Temperatures in un-shaded nest boxes can increase significantly during extreme heat events. The effects of these elevated temperatures on auklet incubation behaviors and egg viability are not clear. In this study, egg data …

Examination Of Multiparticle Transport As A Function Of Slope And Sediment Volume, Alan Kuoch

Master's Theses

Recent studies of sediment transport have shifted from the traditional continuum paradigm to a particle-based approach. A previous dry ravel flume experiment on single particle transport showed that the angle of repose represented a shift between friction-controlled gentle slopes dominated by local transport and inertia-driven steep slopes dominated by nonlocal transport. My flume study explored multiparticle transport and the effect of sediment volume on transport distance. The flume experiments revealed a negative relationship between sediment volume and transport distance. As sediment volume increased, inter-particle collisions increased, which led to particle jamming and a reduction in transport distance. Furthermore, a higher …

Perspiration And Motivation: An Examination Of Body Image And Exercise, Melissa Luu

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between body image and exercise. The study examined reasons for exercise and level of exercise as potential moderators of the relationship between body appreciation and exercise. Three hypotheses were tested: there will be sex differences in level of body appreciation, there will be a positive relationship between body appreciation and level of exercise, and the relationship will be moderated by reason for exercise - either health or appearance reason and exercise level. Two-hundred-eighty-nine participants selected from an introductory psychology course pool responded to four questionnaires: the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), …

Inelastic Analysis Of Seismic Loading Of Precast Concrete Cladding Using Commercially Available Software, Mohammad Ebrahim Mohammadi

Master's Theses

Two nonlinear pushover analyses and three displacement-controlled time history analyses of two precast concrete panel assemblies were completed. The analytical software used was SAP2000 (version 15.0.0). The precast concrete panel modeled was a three-dimensional single panel connected to a one-story, one-bay, concrete-reinforced structural frame with four flexing rods and two bearing connections. The results showed that static analysis is suitable to predict only dynamic analysis with a long input period of vibrations (low acceleration vibrations). As the period of input vibration neared the fundamental period of vibration of the precast concrete panel, the maximum value of forces developed in connections …

The Effects Of Post-Operative Analgesics On Ovarian Surface Angiogenesis After Transplantation Of Young Ovaries Into Aged Mice, Christine Petrovec

Master's Theses

The formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature, termed angiogenesis, is essential for tissue viability and continuous organ function after murine ovary allotransplantation. Interference with the process of angiogenesis can result in cellular injury and tissue necrosis in the transplanted ovarian tissue. Although recommended, the use of analgesics for post-operative pain management has been shown to alter angiogenesis and could negatively affect transplanted ovarian tissue viability. The present study evaluated the effects of two analgesics, the opiate buprenorphine and the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug meloxicam, on superficial ovarian vessel formation after the transplantation of young ovaries into aged mice. One-Way …

The Role Of Large Woody Debris In Inhibiting The Dispersion Of A Post-Fire Sediment Pulse, Lauren Elizabeth Short

Master's Theses

To further the understanding of how rivers process an instantaneous increase in sediment supply, a study was conducted on a gravel bed channel affected by post-fire debris flows. Sleeping Child Creek (SCC), a tributary to the Bitterroot River, is located in the Sapphire Mountains of west central Montana. In the summer of 2000, 1500 acres of Sleeping Child Creek's watershed were burned with 65% of the area classified as a high severity burn. The following summer, intense rainfall triggered debris flows originating from tributaries of SCC with headwaters toward the north. Along a 7-km study reach, cross sections, longitudinal profiles, …

Phase Locked Loop (Pll) Based Clock And Data Recovery Circuits (Cdr) Using Calibrated Delay Flip Flop, Sagar Waghela

Master's Theses

A Delay Flip Flop (DFF) is used in the phase detector circuit of the clock and data recovery circuit. A DFF consists of the three important timing parameters: setup time, hold time, and clock-to-output delay. These timing parameters play a vital role in designing a system at the transistor level. This thesis paper explains the impact of metastablity on the clock and data recovery (CDR) system and the importance of calibrating the DFF using a metastable circuit to improve a system's lock time and peak-to-peak jitter performance. The DFF was modeled in MATLAB Simulink software and calibrated by adjusting timing …

Between, Patricia Valeria Pinedo

Master's Theses

This thesis is a collection of poetry based on the farm worker Grape Boycott of 1965-1970. Through personal narrative and formal poetic techniques, the collection presents a migrant family struggling to understand where it belongs in choosing between joining the boycott or not. The Mexican-American family is depicted in relation to struggles of the time, thus emphasizing the historical situation. The collection asks each reader what side of the Grape Boycott he or she would have joined. The poems shed light on the internal struggle of those who both joined and did not join the boycott.

An Analysis Of An Andean Cosmovisión: Nature, Culture, Ecology, And Cosmos, Christian Ardeleanu

Master's Theses

Modern life may offer certain benefits for humanity, but it can also create a barrier between humans and the natural world. In contrast, the millenarian Aymara culture of the Bolivian Andes exhibits a harmonic interrelation with nature, ecology, and the cosmos, and it also represents a living system of indigenous knowledge and knowledge production/transformation. The Aymara system of knowing and knowledge production, like other indigenous systems, should not be mistaken for antiquated elements of culture and folklore but should be seen as a distinct and dynamic epistemology. The Aymara cosmovisión is similar to the philosophy of ecology, sharing some general …

Effects Of Mlc Gene Modulation On Acetate Accumulation In Escherichia Coli Culture, Melvin Chen

Master's Theses

When Escherichia coli (E. coli) is grown in the presence of excess glucose, acetate is produced, oftentimes as an undesired by-product. Mlc is a global repressor for sugar transporters in E. coli, including glucose. This body of work examines the overexpression of Mlc via expression vectors in E. coli cultures under constitutive and inducible promoters. Sequence changes to the translational start codon and codon 52 of the mlc sequence inserted in the expression vectors were introduced. These changes were evaluated for their impact on glucose uptake rates, acetate production, and overall cell growth when Mlc was overexpressed in E. coli …

Synthesis Of Hybrid Inositol Glycan Analogues, Sudi Sabet

Master's Theses

A 2010 study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has projected that one of three US adults could have diabetes by the year 2050. More than 90% of the diagnosed cases are Type II diabetes, a condition characterized by insulin resistance. In search of new antidiabetic drugs, a class of natural, phosphorylated, inositol-containing pseudosaccharides called inositol glycans (IGs) has been studied for years. These compounds have insulin-mimetic activity in insulin-sensitive cells and can stimulate processes such as lipogenesis and glucose transport. Due to the heterogeneity of IGs, it is very difficult to isolate them from their natural sources, and …

Having Fun About Jesus:" Children's Constructions Of Their Relationship To Church, Henry James Zonio

Master's Theses

Children are not clay tablets upon which adults can etch predetermined futures. Rather, children are active agents who repeatedly interact with various social fields. Religion, one of those fields, is a major social institution that influences one's religious beliefs as well as one's secular behavior. Studying children's views on religion and how they relate to their religious communities makes explicit the ways children actively participate in their own religious socialization. Consequently, this study is an in-depth examination of children's participation in their religious communities at two evangelical Protestant churches in Northern California utilizing a multiple methods qualitative approach including participant …

Effects Of Happiness On Gender Stereotyping In Social Perception, Eurika B. Marina

Master's Theses

Past research has shown that people's perception of others can be influenced by a number of factors, including their own affective state. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of happiness on gender stereotyping. College undergraduate participants in a happy or neutral state completed a social judgment task in which they determined the likelihood of guilt of either a male or a female suspect in a computer hacking case. Happy participants showed increased gender stereotyping, but only against the male suspect. Neutral participants did not show stereotype activation only when the suspect was identified as female. …

Structure, Construction, And Emplacement Of Jurassic And Cretaceous Plutons In The Keiths Dome-Echo Lake Area, Southwest Of Lake Tahoe, California, Pamela Jamie Clay

Master's Theses

Jurassic (Keiths Dome) and Cretaceous (Echo Lake, Glen Alpine) plutons and their host rocks were investigated, and structural and petrographic analyses were conducted, to elucidate the nature and timing of pluton construction and emplacement, deformation, and related tectonic regimes. Evenly distributed enclaves and a lack of internal contacts suggest pluton construction via thorough mixing of multiple increments of magma. Ductile flow of conglomerate host rocks, stoping of volcanic host rocks, and possibly other processes, facilitated emplacement. In Cretaceous plutons, margin-parallel magmatic foliations may record internal processes, whereas the Keiths Dome pluton contains foliations that are discordant to contacts and likely …

Professional Wushu Athletes: Potential Athletic/Personal Dissonance, Yang Zhang

Master's Theses

The success of Chinese professional athletes is attributable to the government-run elite sport system; it is seen as one of the most effective and successful systems at nurturing high-skilled athletes. However, within the Chinese professional sport system, tensions between athletes' athletic skills and overall personal development have been widely documented. Among all studies, very few have employed in-depth interviews with professional wushu athletes. In this study, the researcher utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with professional wushu athletes from three of the 25 professional wushu teams in mainland China. The study was conducted in order to understand the potential conflicts between athletes' …

Environmental Education As A Catalyst For Changing Students' Environmental Attitudes: A Survey Of Ten Universities In The Tokyo Bay And San Francisco Bay Areas, Minako Nishiyama

Master's Theses

Environmental education has been internationally recognized as a key tool to counter increasing threats to the environment. Previous studies have found that environmental values and beliefs are the fundamental factors that shape various pro-environmental behaviors. This study aimed to increase our understanding of how environmental education during childhood and university periods influence students' sense of connectedness to nature and ecological worldview. Two measures, the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, were used for this purpose. A total of 1,266 students in 10 universities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area participated …

U-Pb Geochronology Of The Miocene Peach Spring Tuff Supereruption And Precursor Cook Canyon Tuff, Western Arizona, Usa, Marsha Izabella Lidzbarski

Master's Theses

The 18.8 Ma Peach Spring Tuff, Arizona, is a >600 km3 ignimbrite formed from the Miocene supereruption of Silver Creek caldera, Black Mountains, Arizona, and is an important Miocene stratigraphic bed in the southwestern United States. Peach Spring Tuff overlies the undated and less-voluminous Cook Canyon Tuff. Ion-microprobe and high-precision thermal ionization U-Pb dating of chemically abraded zircon crystals from Peach Spring Tuff and Cook Canyon Tuff reveal the crystallization history of both magma systems leading to eruption. A spread of U-Pb dates from ca. 18.1 to 22.0 Ma for Peach Spring Tuff relative to its 40Ar/39Ar age indicates variable …

Control Of Hydrostatic Transmission Wind Turbine, Danop Rajabhandharaks

Master's Theses

In this study, we proposed a control strategy for a wind turbine that employed a hydrostatic transmission system for transmitting power from the wind turbine rotor via a hydraulic transmission line to a ground level generator. Wind turbine power curve tracking was achieved by controlling the hydraulic pump displacement and, at the other end of the hydraulic line, the hydraulic motor displacement was controlled so that the overall transmission loss was minimized. Steady state response, dynamic response, and system stability were assessed. The maximum transmission efficiency obtained ranged from 79% to 84% at steady state when the proposed control strategy …

Characterization And Development Of An Extended Cavity Tunable Laser Diode, Fnu Traptilisa

Master's Theses

A laser diode emits a narrow range of frequencies. However, drifts in

frequency occur over time due to many factors like changes in laser temperature, current, mechanical vibrations in the apparatus, etc. These frequency drifts make the laser unsuitable for experiments that require high frequency stability. We have used an atomic transition in rubidium as a frequency reference and used Doppler

free saturated spectroscopy to observe the reference peak.

We have designed an electronic locking circuit that operates the diode laser at a specific frequency. It keeps the laser at that frequency for a long period of time with very …