Digital Commons Network^™

Degree Program Changes And Curricular Flexibility: Addressing Long Held Beliefs About Student Progression, George Dante Ricco

Open Access Dissertations

In higher education and in engineering education in particular, changing majors is generally considered a negative event - or at least an event with negative consequences. An emergent field of study within engineering education revolves around understanding the factors and processes driving student changes of major. Of key importance to further the field of change of major research is a grasp of large scale phenomena occurring throughout multiple systems, knowledge of previous attempts at describing such issues, and the adoption of metrics to probe them effectively. The problem posed is exacerbated by the drive in higher education institutions and among …

Control-Theoretic Decision Support For Mitigation Of Modeled Software Project Cost Overruns, Scott David Miller

Open Access Dissertations

Despite sixty years of practice, the production of software remains an endeavor that is difficult to manage according to a schedule. Control theory studies the ability to influence the dynamical behavior of systems to achieve desired behaviors or eliminate undesired behaviors. In this work, the management problem of software project schedule adherence is re-cast as a problem in control theory.

Below, a modeling framework is proposed for capturing the constraints and dependencies found in the arbitrary organization specific work-flows underlying software production. Combined with proposed models for productivity, defect introduction, and defect detection, the framework completes a method for producing …

An Existential Proof Of God, Anthony Oscar Malagon

Open Access Dissertations

The following dissertation defends the view that one can have knowledge of God outside of what might be called the realm of objectivity, or objective thought, within which all traditional proofs of God lie. In other words, it will be argued that even if it is conceded that a conclusive proof of God is not possible, one can, nevertheless, be justified in one's belief in God without recourse to the traditional vein of logical-objective proofs. To do so, I call upon the works of Soren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel, both of whom reject the view that there are any conclusive …

Student Success: Approaches To Modeling Student Matriculation And Retention, Jien-Jou Lin

Open Access Dissertations

Every year a group of graduates from high schools enter the engineering programs across this country with remarkable academic record. However, as reported in numerous studies, the number of students switching out of engineering majors continues to be an important issue. Previous studies have suggested various factors as predictors for student retention in engineering. To assist the engineering students with timely advising early in their program, an effective prediction model of matriculation and retention in engineering that use available student data are highly desirable.

In the first part of this work, the author developed new prediction models of student retention …

Assessing The Preparedness Of The Veterinary Profession To Communicate With Limited English Proficient Spanish-Speaking Pet Owners, Ruth Ellen Landau

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to assess the preparedness of the veterinary profession to communicate with limited English proficient Spanish-speaking pet owners (LEP SSPOs). Results of surveys with 393 Latino pet owners, 383 small animal veterinarians and staff, and over 2000 veterinary students indicate that interaction between veterinary professionals and LEP SSPOs is not a rare occurrence: Veterinarians in states with large established or fast-growing Latino communities are seeing LEP SSPOs and their pets on a regular basis: 89% of veterinarians have LEP Spanish-speaking clients, over half of these practitioners are seeing LEP SSPOs weekly, and over half …

Smooth Muscle-Specific Removal Of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Results In Increased Vagal Afferent Innervation To The Intestine And Increased Satiation In Mice, Jessica Erin Biddinger

Open Access Dissertations

Vagal afferents transmit signals regarding food-derived stimuli in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to the brain. Vagal mechanoreceptors called intraganglionic laminar endings (IGLEs) innervate the smooth muscle wall of GI organs and detect stretch and tension to regulate GI reflexes and satiation. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is expressed in the smooth muscle of developing GI organs when vagal afferents from the nodose ganglion begin to innervate the GI tract. Therefore, it was hypothesized BDNF is necessary for development of vagal afferents that innervate this tissue. Targeted smooth muscle-specific BDNF homozygous knockout (BDNF SM -/-) mice were generated and .vagal afferent innervation …

Educational Standards, Teacher Preparation, And Metacognition Instruction For Elementary Students: Studies In Pre-College Engineering Education, Ronald Lee Carr

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a compilation of three separate works representing a wide range of issues related to pre-college engineering. Each work addresses multiple levels of concern for educators from national policy to specific classroom intervention. Although presenting different styles of writing - due to different journals requirements - and various methods of research, all purpose to further research and instruction in pre-college engineering.

The research detailed in these papers has been inspired by the current STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education movement and in particular, by the National Academy of Engineering's leadership in promoting the integration of engineering into …

A Longitudinal Exploration Of Stress-Related Growth Following Relationship Dissolution, Meghan B. Owenz

Open Access Dissertations

The developmental age spanning the years of 18-25 is uniquely primed to the experiences of stress-related growth, due to the emphasis on growth, change and exploration (Aldwin, Levenson, & Kelly, 2009; Arnett, 2000, 2004). In particular, this developmental stage is characterized by many new romantic relationships and breakups in the process of learning about relationships. Recent research on posttraumatic growth has focused on distress and growth following romantic relationship dissolution (Hebert & Popadiuk, 2008; Tashiro & Frazier, 2003; Lewandowski & Bizzoco, 2007). The current study utilized a longitudinal design to assess stress-related growth following relationship dissolution in college students. Participants …

Support And Barriers To Help Seeking In Latina/O Migrant Workers, Rachel Becker

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explored help seeking for mental health concerns in migrant workers using a community-based mixed-methods design. Specifically, the study asked two sets of questions; the first explored individual-level predictors of help seeking and the second focused on contextual-level factors related to mental health, well-being, and help seeking. Participants were 95 Latina/o migrant workers living in South Florida. A portion of these individuals participated in the qualitative phase. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to answer the first set of questions. Results indicated informal help seeking was predicted by gender, acculturation, coping strategy, depressive symptomology, and attitudes toward seeking professional help. …

A Stress Process Model Of Depression And Sexual Risk Among Hiv-Seropositive Men Who Have Sex With Men, Aubrey L. Florom-Smith

Open Access Dissertations

In the United States, men who have sex with men (MSM) remain at greatest risk for acquiring HIV infection. MSM are also at increased risk for depression, and depression and sexual risk behavior among MSM appear to be linked. Stigma, in the forms of gay related stigma and HIV-related stigma, have been associated with depression and high-risk sexual behavior among MSM living with HIV infection, as has the internalization of these stigmata over time. As stigma is socially constructed, the stress process model provides a useful framework for understanding the influence of stress and contextual factors on depressive symptoms and …

The Relationship Of Temporal Discounting And Working Alliance To Substance Abuse Treatment Process In Hispanic Adolescents, James John Weidel

Open Access Dissertations

The association between impulsivity and substance abuse has important implications in the clinical substance abuse treatment field. Adolescents who are characteristically more impulsive by nature of their developmental may be more at risk for treatment failure. The inclination by which individuals devalue future rewards in favor of more immediate rewards with lower monetary values is a type of impulsivity that has received much attention in the substance abuse research field. Identified as temporal discounting (TD) or delay discounting, this phenomenon is not only a factor that influences substance abuse, but also may be a factor that leads to failure in …

Interactive Effects Of Ethnic Identity And A Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management Intervention On Subjective And Objective Stress In Low-Income Minority Women Living With Hiv, Corina Reyes Lopez

Open Access Dissertations

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is more prevalent among minority ethnic groups, with mortality rates highest among African-American women. Additionally, low-income minority women with a positive HIV diagnosis experience a variety of stressors that influence their psychological and physical well-being. Research has found that ethnic identity, an intrapersonal resiliency factor, is associated with lower perceived stress in low-income minority women living with HIV, in part through greater levels of coping self-efficacy and social support. Given the benefits of group-based interventions in reducing stress in HIV positive populations, it is important to understand whether ethnic identity influences the efficacy of these interventions in …

Understanding Nocturnal Ambulatory Blood Pressure In Youth, Katie E. Chipungu

Open Access Dissertations

In adolescents, nocturnal ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) provides a rich and informative picture of cardiovascular health and risk. This study modeled nocturnal ABP taken during one night using multi-level growth modeling. A combination of demographic, daytime, clinical, and sleep related variables were also included as inter-individual predictors of nighttime blood pressure regulation. Adolescents (N = 252) were obtained from three larger studies addressed cardiovascular risk in youth attending public high schools in Miami-Dade County. Participants included in this study completed a baseline medical screening, initial ABP assessment visit and had at least one ABP reading taken during sleep. Within a …

Oc Washing And Checking: Examining The Selective Impairments In Evolved Disease Avoidance And Safety Management Mechanisms, Alison G. Aylward

Open Access Dissertations

Three studies were conducted to examine the possibility that the expression of obsessive-compulsive (OC) washing and checking symptoms reflect impairments in cognitive mechanisms underlying adaptations for disease avoidance and physical harm avoidance, respectively. Studies provided initial evidence that specialized attention, memory and reasoning processes exist depending on whether adaptations for disease avoidance or physical harm avoidance are activated. The data provided no support for the hypothesis that individuals expressing OC contamination and physical harm concerns evince concern-related attention, memory, and reasoning biases.

Parental Support Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Youth Following Disclosure: A Longitudinal, Cohort-Sequential Study, Hallie R. Bregman

Open Access Dissertations

Parent support is believed to be important for lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth, particularly in the context of parental acceptance in response to youth disclosure of their sexual identity. While preliminary research has examined the importance of parental acceptance at the time of disclosure using retrospective reports, few studies have examined if and how parental acceptance changes over time since disclosure, and no study has assessed paired youth and parent perspectives on parental acceptance. Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of the ways that family interaction patterns influence parent reactions to youth disclosure. The present study aimed to understand parental …

Cpsp As A Mediator Of Resiliency And Coping Among Military Healthcare Personnel, Christopher P. Weidlich

Open Access Dissertations

Military healthcare providers who were exposed to direct combat activity are shown to have an increased prevalence of depression and PTSD compared to healthcare providers reporting less frequent exposure. To address these issues, the Army leadership recognized the Care Provider Support Program (CPSP) as a way to improve the resiliency of healthcare providers. The purpose of this pilot longitudinal cohort study was to update what is currently known about the resiliency, coping, and compassion fatigue of Army and Civilian Nurses, LPNs, and Medics who treat wounded Soldiers and whether these factors can be improved over a sustained period of time. …

Improving Exercise Adherence And Physical Measures In Latina Women, Lorena Martin

Open Access Dissertations

Purpose. Epidemiological data have established that lack of physical activity increases risk factors for chronic diseases. Data also suggests that physical activity participation is lowest in women minorities particularly Latina women and that the nature of the exercise and attitudes toward the importance of exercise may influence exercise adherence. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of hypertrophy training (HT) or power training (PT) used concomitantly with evaluative conditioning (EC), or neutral conditioning (NC) as a control, on exercise adherence as well as changes in body composition, neuromuscular performance, functional capacity, and psychosocial variables in Latina women. …

The Influences Of Early Temperament And Emotion Regulation On Social Competence In Middle Childhood, Elizabeth Carmen Penela

Open Access Dissertations

Behaviorally inhibited children are predisposed toward social difficulties, but other environmental and within-child characteristics, such as emotion regulation, also influence social development. This study longitudinally examined: (1) independent influences of behavior inhibition and emotion regulation on future social competence, (2) associations between behavior inhibition and emotion regulation, and (3) the moderating role of emotion regulation on the relation between behavior inhibition and social competence. Participants (N = 257) were enrolled in a larger study of temperament and social development. Maternal-report questionnaires and behavioral observations (ages 2 and 3) were used to assess behavior inhibition. Children’s active and passive regulation strategy …

Exploring The Association Between Mindfulness, Sustained Attention, Experiential Avoidance, And Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Severity Among Females Who Have Been Sexually Victimized, Judelysse Gomez

Open Access Dissertations

Nationally, more males than females endorse experiencing a traumatic event, however, females are more likely to experience sexual trauma, and are more likely to meet criteria for PTSD subsequent to such traumatic event (Kessler, Sonnega, Brome, & Hughes, 1995; Kessler et al., 2005). Although there has been a wealth of information regarding the theoretical underpinnings of posttraumatic stress symptoms after a trauma (Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Foa & Kozak, 1986; Foa, 1997; Foa & Riggs, 1995), little is still known about the association between victims’ relationship with their current experience, and their ability to remain attentive to such experience on …

Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention For Primary Prevention Of Renal Decline In Type 2 Diabetics, Ashley E. Moncrieft

Open Access Dissertations

Reduced glomerular filtration rate and increased albuminuria often develop in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and are predictive of chronic kidney and cardiovascular disease. Risk for renal disease in T2DM has been associated with cardiometabolic risk factors including, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and hyperglycemia. Weight loss is associated with improved outcomes in T2DM patients with existing renal disease and may also reduce risk in patients without renal disease via reduction of cardiometabolic risk factors. The aims of this study were (1) to examine the effects of a behavioral weight loss intervention on renal outcomes in T2DM patients without evidence of renal disease, …

Buscando El Moro: A Constructivist Approach To Health Decision-Making In A Dominican Batey, Hilary Harrison Cook

Open Access Dissertations

The field of public health has long sought to improve health and well-being. Originally incorporating socially embedded views of health, the field of epidemiology has largely abandoned this perspective in exchange for statistics-based approximations in population health research. However, a new movement in public health has been gaining momentum slowly that legitimizes other ways of approaching this research. In particular, value has been placed on lived health experiences, and supporting both social justice and community-based health research. By challenging the epistemological grounds of traditional epidemiological research, an argument is put forth for a constructivist epistemology in health research. Simply put, …

Emotion Regulation In Depression: Investigating Mechanisms Underlying Reappraisal, Catherine M. D'Avanzato

Open Access Dissertations

Sustained negative affect is a hallmark feature of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and much evidence indicates that depression is associated with difficulties regulating negative emotions. Whereas many studies have demonstrated an association between rumination and depression, few studies have examined depressed individuals’ ability to utilize adaptive strategies, such as reappraisal. The present study was the first to investigate whether individuals with depression have difficulty effectively using reappraisal in response to a laboratory mood induction. Further, we examined whether interpretive biases and cognitive control deficits underlie individual differences in the ability to reappraise. Consistent with hypotheses, results demonstrated that reappraisal was …

Cross-Domain Latent Growth Modeling Of Sexuality, Social Support, And Quality Of Life In Men After Treatment For Prostate Cancer, Catherine Benedict

Open Access Dissertations

Treatment for prostate cancer (PC) often leads to sexual side effects that impact patients, partners, and relationship functioning. Research has focused on the direct effects of sexual dysfunction (i.e., physiologic impairment) on quality of life (QOL); empirical evaluation of psychological and relational domains of sexuality is limited. Psychosocial adjustment to sexual dysfunction (i.e., sexual adjustment) may be one mechanism by which post-treatment sexual side effects impact QOL. Furthermore, the extent to which men perceive their partners as being (un)supportive may affect sexual adjustment processes and QOL. It is unknown how changes in sexual adjustment, partner-specific social support, and QOL are …

Working With Cancer: Health Disparities Among Working Cancer Survivors, Tainya C. Clarke

Open Access Dissertations

Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the United States, affecting more than 13 million individuals it has impacted the lives of a significant proportion of the population. With improvements in detection and treatment there have been more early diagnoses and improved prognosis for many survivors. These positive changes have led to an increase in the number of survivors that continue to work through diagnosis and treatment and or return to work. There are an estimated 7.5 million working survivors in the US, though their proportions vary by occupational sectors. With occupational differences in workplace accommodations and perceived …

Fragmented Memories: The Archival Turn In Contemporary Caribbean Literature And Visual Culture, Marta Fernandez Campa

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the ways in which contemporary Caribbean visual artists and writers are creating archives of memory that address the erasures of subaltern perspectives characteristic of colonial, and postcolonial, archives. From an interdisciplinary perspective this project looks at the artwork of visual artists Christopher Cozier and Roshini Kempadoo, Dorothea Smartt’s and M. NourbeSe Philip’s poetry and the fiction of Edwidge Danticat and Junot Díaz. Their creative work configures modes of archiving ‘counter-memory’, that is, memory that contradicts or revises official history. By looking at different forms of counter-memory across genres and geographies I aim to demonstrate common aesthetic concerns …

The Effects Of Health Insurance Of Adolescents On Their Future Well-Being, Lin Zhou

Open Access Dissertations

The number of uninsured children in the United States has declined since the late 1990s. According to the National Health Interview Survey, the percentage of children who were uninsured at the time of the survey decreased from 13.9% in 1997 to 7.0% in 2011. Nevertheless, 5.3 million children lacked health insurance coverage in 2011. Among uninsured children, adolescents tend to be uninsured at higher rates than younger children. The effects of health insurance coverage on children have been widely studied in economics and health care policy literature. Findings have indicated positive correlations between health insurance coverage and children’s health care …

Love In A Time Of Trauma: Imagining Queer Female Sexualities In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Stephanie M. Selvick

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation analyzes competing discourses of sexuality in contemporary South Africa, and contributes to a much-needed nascent critical conversation engaging postcolonial studies, African studies, and sexuality studies. South Africa’s 1996 constitution is celebrated as the most progressive in the world in terms of gender and sexuality, but this legal achievement is belied by the on-going, much-publicized rape crisis -- including the “corrective” rape of lesbians. This crisis has occurred in the context of an AIDS epidemic and government denial of the increase of both rape and AIDS. I argue that authors and artists respond to this crisis by representing stigmatized …

A Series Of Meta-Analytic Tests Of The Depletion Effect, Evan C. Carter

Open Access Dissertations

Few models of self-control have generated as much scientific interest as the limited strength model. The basic pattern of results predicted by this model is that acts of self-control that follow previous acts of self-control will be less likely to succeed (i.e., the so-called depletion effect). Based on results from a recent meta-analysis, researchers have concluded that the depletion effect is robust across experimental contexts and consistently medium in magnitude. Here, I detail three reasons to think that these estimates are inflated. To correct these estimates, I updated the earlier meta-analytic dataset and applied a set of statistical analyses to …

Pathways Between Infant Nonverbal Referential Communication And The Quality Of Later Parent-Child Interaction In The Context Of Autism Risk, Caroline J. Grantz

Open Access Dissertations

The parent-child relationship is a central forum for the development of social and communication competencies within the first two years of life, with both parents and infants contributing to the development of these abilities. Early infant nonverbal referential communication abilities have been posited to be key infant contributions to parent-child interactions. Nonverbal referential communication is frequently, but not always, associated with social competence in typically developing children, and is consistently related to social abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Nonverbal referential communication difficulties are characteristic in children with ASD, and the younger siblings of children with ASD (High-Risk …

Complex Versus Simple Modeling For Differential Item Functioning: When The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (Ρ) Of The Studied Item Is Less Than The Ρ Of The Total Score, Ying Jin

Open Access Dissertations

Previous research has demonstrated that DIF methods that do not account for multilevel data structure could result in too frequent rejection of the null hypothesis (i.e., no DIF) when the intraclass correlation coefficient (ρ) of the studied item was the same as ρ of the total score. The current study extended previous research by comparing the performance of DIF methods when ρ of the studied item was less than ρ of the total score, a condition that may be observed with considerable frequency in practice. The performance of two frequently used simple DIF methods that do not account for multilevel …