Digital Commons Network^™

Mental Health, Health Behaviors, Social Support, Self-Efficacy And Disease: An Integrative Model, N. Simay Gokbayrak

Open Access Dissertations

The utility of modifiable health behaviors for better physical health outcomes is well-established. Because mental illness is a serious public health concern worldwide, an important question pertains to whether health behaviors likewise have benefits for mental health. Although simple research methods indicate positive relations, no investigations have tested models with mediating factors to discern specific pathways between health behaviors and mental health. As such, this study aimed to do so using path analysis to examine the impact of three key health behaviors (i.e., smoking cessation, exercise, and healthy eating) on mental health. In addition, the potential roles of perceived social …

Unexpected Transition From Vfr To Imc: An Examination Of Training Protocols To Mitigate Pilot Gaps In Knowledge And Performance, Julius Keller

Open Access Dissertations

During the past ten years, there have been 264 aircraft accidents identified as Visual Flight Rules (VFR) into Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). These accidents have a nearly 90% fatality rate and hundreds of people have been fatally injured (ASI, 2014a). The general aviation community, including the Federal Aviation Administration, has called for measures to reduce the accident rate. To accomplish this goal, data analyses, education and training, and collaboration are recommended practices. This research study sought to examine the effectiveness of two training protocols as well as pilot knowledge, skills, and abilities pertaining to VFR into IMC. Data were collected …

Quantitative Safety Assessment Of Air Traffic Control Systems Through System Control Capacity, Jingjing Guo

Open Access Dissertations

Quantitative Safety Assessments (QSA) are essential to safety benefit verification and regulations of developmental changes in safety critical systems like the Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems. Effectiveness of the assessments is particularly desirable today in the safe implementations of revolutionary ATC overhauls like NextGen and SESAR. QSA of ATC systems are however challenged by system complexity and lack of accident data.

Automated Essay Evaluation And The Computational Paradigm: Machine Scoring Enters The Classroom, Catherine M. Barrett

Open Access Dissertations

Grading papers is a "tedious, repetitive, and time-consuming" undertaking, one that invites the sort of sympathies one might receive upon the "death of a pet' (Baker, 2014, p. 36). Perhaps, though, the only thing more distasteful for an English professor than having to grade hundreds of essays each semester is having to hand the job over to the likes of a mindless software program. Automated Essay Evaluation (AEE), the process of scoring essays by computer, was developed in the 1960s but has mostly aroused suspicion and derogation from the composition community.

The parable of the blindfolded villagers describing the same …

Synthetic Steganography: Methods For Generating And Detecting Covert Channels In Generated Media, Philip Carson Ritchey

Open Access Dissertations

Issues of privacy in communication are becoming increasingly important. For many people and businesses, the use of strong cryptographic protocols is sufficient to protect their communications. However, the overt use of strong cryptography may be prohibited or individual entities may be prohibited from communicating directly. In these cases, a secure alternative to the overt use of strong cryptography is required. One promising alternative is to hide the use of cryptography by transforming ciphertext into innocuous-seeming messages to be transmitted in the clear. ^ In this dissertation, we consider the problem of synthetic steganography: generating and detecting covert channels in generated …

Intimacy And Autonomy: Twentieth Century American Women And The Quest For Self-Realization, Mary Florence Barford

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the effects of culturally managed gender expectations on intimate spaces. The study of these intimate spaces is rooted in the biographies of four relationships in the post-war period. Through exploration of these individual stories an understanding emerges of how monolithic cultural paradigms work for men and for women in very different ways. For purposes of archival availability and continuity, this dissertation focuses on a very specific group of people, namely women of great talent and ambition who were either married to or in a relationship with a man whose fame eclipsed her own. My question became how …

Examining The Use Of User-Centered Design In Gamification: A Delphi Study, Yang Chen

Open Access Dissertations

This study examined using the user-centered design (UCD) approach in gamification product development with the research question, "What opinions do experienced gamification designers have in using the UCD method as they develop and design gamification products?" Through the multi- phase interactions between researcher and participants of this Delphi study, specific survey questions were developed such as, how does the UCD method work in gamification design, how well does it work, and suggestions on how it should be used. Gamification design experts were recruited as research participants and four Delphi rounds of data collection were conducted. Thirtythree design heuristics within five …

The Efficacy Of The Protection Motivation Theory In Predicting Cruise Ship Passengers' Intentions Regarding Norovirus Disease Incidence, Jeff Fisher

Open Access Dissertations

The cruise industry is the fastest growing segment of the travel industry. Concurrent with its growth is the challenge of mitigating the risk associated with shipboard outbreaks. Norovirus is the leading cause of shipboard outbreaks. This study examined the efficacy of the protection motivation theory for predicting passengers’ intentions towards healthy behaviors in regard to norovirus disease incidence. Outbreaks of norovirus have serious health and economic consequences. Presently there is no vaccination available; however, handwashing and social distancing can have significant impact upon the course of an outbreak. The respondents of this study completed a scenario-based questionnaire regarding norovirus disease …

Investigation Of Acute Stress Impact On Nursery Pig Gastrointestinal Function And Ability Of Bioactive Components Of Garlic To Mitigate Stress-Induced Physiological Changes, Nathan Lane Horn

Open Access Dissertations

Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of post-weaning feed and water deprivation on nursery pig growth performance, gastrointestinal function, and ability of garlic-derived diallyl disulfide (DADS) and diallyl trisulfide (DATS) to mitigate deprivation-induced effects. For the first experiment, the effects of a 24-h post-weaning feed, water, or feed + water deprivation event on nursery pig growth and intestinal characteristics were determined. Water deprivation more severely impacted nursery pig growth and intestinal measurements compared to feed deprivation. The water deprivation event resulted in an increase in serum stress markers and altered intestinal morphology and tight junction gene expression during the …

Aptitude In L2 And L3 Learners Of German, Katharina Neema Kipp

Open Access Dissertations

This study aims at contributing to the notoriously under-researched field of

Social Relationships Between Staff And Youth In A Physical Activity-Based Positive Youth Development Program, Martha Lindley Mcdavid

Open Access Dissertations

Positive youth development (PYD) programs offer enriching experiences that help young people discover and develop skills that will help them become productive, successful, and healthy adults (Damon, 2004; Lerner, von Eye, Lerner, & Lewin-Bizan, 2009). The social context within PYD programs serves as a mechanism in this process and program staff are often responsible for creating a social environment where youth feel safe and supported while participating in activities designed to foster growth (Benson, Scales, Hamilton, & Sesma, 2007; Larson, 2006). Basic psychological needs theory conceptualizes that staff-youth interactions will lead to well-being in youth to the degree that they …

Incorporating A Small-Group Affective Curriculum Model Into A Diverse, Summer Program For Talented Youth: A Design Based Research Study, Enyi Jen

Open Access Dissertations

In this study, I used Design-Based Research (DBR), as a methodological framework, to guide the development and implementation of the GERI Affective Model into a diverse, university-based, summer enrichment residential program for talented youth. The purposes of this study were to build an evidence-based affective intervention, to explore how participation in the affective curriculum influenced high-ability students' social and emotional development and to use the results to refine the GERI Affective Model before dissemination. This research included two phases, an initial design phase in 2012 to 2013 and an outcome study in 2014. In the initial design phase, I designed …

Second Language Writing Instructor Written Feedback Practices In An Esl Freshman Composition Class: A Complexity Theory Perspective, Masakazu Mishima

Open Access Dissertations

This case study investigated second language writing instructors’ written feedback practices from a complexity theory perspective. The purpose of the research was to explore and examine contextual factors and their impact on instructor written feedback practices. Data were collected from two ESL writing instructors and two ESL writers through surveys, interviews, and classroom observations. Based on the results, a complexity theory-based model of second language writing instructor written feedback practices was developed to represent the complexity of written feedback practice situated in the specific instructional context. The findings suggest that the instructors were under constant influence of five different contextual …

Parental Involvement During The College Transition: Trajectories And Associations With Academic Success, Well-Being, And Individuation, Katie Elizabeth Lowe

Open Access Dissertations

Guided by the developmental theory of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2004) and life course theory (Elder, 1984), the goals of the current study were to investigate changes in parent involvement, changes in student outcomes, and links between changes in involvement and student outcomes across the first year in college. Parental involvement was defined as a multidimensional construct that included parent support, contact, and academic engagement. Purdue University domestic freshmen (N = 1279; 55% female; 84% Caucasian) participated in this study that included four online surveys that were evenly distributed across the first year. Through this design and the use of latent …

Using Google Docs To Support Work Flow Management In Teams Of Engineering Students, Nataliia P. Perova-Mello

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how teams of engineering students integrated Google Docs to support their workflow management process. ABET criteria dictate that engineering students need to learn how to work together and practice effective ways of communication. Learning how to work well as a team is linked to the development of positive interdependence, which is at the core of the cooperative learning model and is based on social interdependence theory. A “sink or swim together” attitude in students is an important component of a successful teamwork experience (Smith, 1996). One of the important aspects of …

A Comparison Of Two Instructional Sequences In An Intelligent Tutoring Program On Multiplicative Concepts And Problem Solving Of Students With Mathematics Difficulties, Joo Young Park

Open Access Dissertations

One of the crucial goals of the National Councils of Teachers Mathematics standards (2000) was to have all students, including students with mathematics difficulties (MD), to succeed in establishing a higher-order thinking in mathematic.

Mental Health And Human Minds: Some Theoretical Criteria For Clinical Psychiatry, Natalia Washington

Open Access Dissertations

When it comes to the topic of mental illness, there are three broad areas of concern that are of interest to all of us as human beings—and to the theorists, researchers, and clinicians who wish to offer help—besides knowing what our symptoms are. First, we might be interested in finding out some normative facts about ourselves as individuals, such as whether or not we are mentally healthy, perhaps to what extent, and how this should affect our motivations. A second area of concern involves descriptive facts our minds. In what ways do we deviate from typical human psychological nature, and …

Spanish-Speaking Immigrants In A U.S. Midwestern Community: An Exploration Of Attitudes Towards Spanish, Spanish In The U.S., Language Maintenance, And Bilingualism, Mara Raquel Barbosa

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigated Spanish-speaking immigrants’ attitudes towards Spanish, which includes the evaluative reactions that people have towards the language. One hundred participants living in three different cities in Indiana completed a background questionnaire, a language attitudes questionnaire, and a one-on-one interview about their attitudes towards Spanish. It is imperative to know about Spanish-speaking populations’ attitudes in states with lower numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants like Indiana, because this knowledge helps to influence and make predictions about that language’s maintenance and shift in the community (Luo & Wiseman, 2000; Rivera-Mills, 2000); it guides language policy and planning and promotes language awareness (Pennycook, …

Enlightening Experts: The Effect Of Frames And Values On Expert Attitudes, Amelia Caron Andrews

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is an examination of the framing process among domain experts—that is, authorities in specific policy fields. Driving this inquiry is a seemingly simple argument: frames influence how experts use their values to evaluate framed policy issues. Issue frames lead experts to consider the appropriateness of the values and mental models guiding their domain-relevant choices, and to change their attitude to resolve cognitive dissonance. The quality of this change rests on their perception of the values that issue frames stress. Focusing on farmers’ tillage choices, I use a mixed method approach to test my expectations through a series of …

The Effects Of Instigation, Anger, And Emotion Regulation On Intimate Partner Violence Related Behaviors: Examination Of The Perfect Storm Theory, Erica Lynn Birkley

Open Access Dissertations

The present study was an empirical evaluation of I³ “perfect storm” theory (“I-Cubed”;Finkel & Eckhardt, 2013; Finkel, 2014), in which the interactive risk processes of instigation, emotion regulation, and trait anger were examined in the prediction of intimate partner violence (IPV) related behaviors. In a 2 X 4 between subjects design, a sample of college undergraduates (N = 180) with a history of IPV were randomly assigned to use 1 of 4 emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, distraction, suppression, or no instruction) while listening to either a anger arousing (instigation) or neutral (no instigation) imagined relationship scenario presented using the …

Adaptive Memory: Animacy And The Method Of Loci, Janell R. Blunt

Open Access Dissertations

A functionalist approach to cognition assumes that people’s minds are tuned to process and remember information that benefits our survival or reproduction (Nairne, 2005). One source of information with potentially high fitness value is things that are alive and animate (Nairne, VanArsdall, Pandeirada, Cogdill, & LeBreton, 2013). The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the effects of using an ancient mnemonic – the method of loci – to examine memory for animate objects. Across four experiments, subjects used the method of loci to remember a list of animate or inanimate objects. I manipulated animacy by using animate or inanimate …

The Role Of Bicultural Self-Efficacy And Cognitive-Affective Factors On Psychological Well-Being, Alexandra Broustovetskaia

Open Access Dissertations

Due to increasing number of immigrant and international students, examining factors that contribute to this population’s well-being is of outmost importance. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of bicultural self-efficacy in the relationship between cognitive-affective factors of emotional intelligence (EI) and ambiguity tolerance (AT) and psychological well-being. Immigrant and international students (N = 176) completed measures of Bicultural Self-Efficacy Scale (BSES; David, Okazaki, & Saw, 2009), Trait-Meta Mood Scale (TMMS; Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995), Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II; McLain, 2009), and Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWBS; Ryff, 1989). The following hypotheses …

Selection Versus Rejection: The Role Of Task Framing In Decision Making, Jing Chen

Open Access Dissertations

Procedure invariance is a basic assumption of rational theories of choice, however, it has been shown to be violated: Different response modes, or task frames, sometimes reveal opposite preferences. This study focused on selection and rejection task frames, involving a unique type of problem with enriched and impoverished options, which has led to conflicting findings and theoretical explanations. On the one hand, greater preference has been found for the enriched option in the selection task than in the rejection task; this result is explained by a compatibility account, in which the positive features of the enriched option are more compatible …

Influence Of Social Cognitive Variables On The Career Exploratory Behaviors Of African American Undergraduate Stem-Intensive Agricultural Sciences Majors At Historically Black Land-Grant Institutions, Qi Ding

Open Access Dissertations

Without question, racial and ethnic minority groups are playing more significant roles in American society. However, there still remains a lack of diversity within the STEM workforce, especially within agricultural sciences disciplines. More problematic is the fact that low numbers of African Americans are employed in the agricultural sciences workforce. This study extends the use of Social Cognitive Career Theory by exploring how person, contextual and cognitive factors interplay to influence the career goals and career exploratory behaviors of African American college students pursuing STEM-intensive agricultural sciences majors. Instruments were selected to measure various components of the SCCT framework, focusing …

Exploring The Constitutive And Social Processes Of Ethics In Multidisciplinary Engineering Design Teams, Megan Kenny Feister

Open Access Dissertations

This study seeks to examine the communicative constitution of ethics in team-based design projects in an engineering education context. Engineering and design work involve complex social processes and ethical decision-making activities and collaboration (Bucciarelli, 2010). The understanding and development of ethics in future engineers is a primary concern for engineering educators, students, and the governing bodies that oversee this field (ABET, 2013; NAE, 2012). Specifically, given the highly fluid and subjective nature of ethics and the complications of the team-based context, challenges arise about how to move beyond codes and standards that are intended to guide ethical conduct (ASEE, 2012; …

Functional Study Of Mammary Epithelial Cell Architecture, Yunfeng Bai

Open Access Dissertations

Cell organization confers cellular identity and guides cellular functions. Here, the

Social Antecedents And Health Consequences Of Productive Activity, Seoyoun Kim

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three empirical papers that investigate social antecedents and health consequences of productive activity. The ideas of productive activity and productive aging are the main concepts guiding the dissertation. The project is innovative by (a) testing how components of capital influence productive activities, (b) replicating analyses of productive activity and chronic inflammation in a Korean sample, and (c) examining sleep as a potential mediator and moderator of the relationship between productive activities and chronic inflammation. Chapter 2 attempted to contribute to the knowledge on productive aging by testing components of human, social, and cultural capital and older …

Characterizing Enabling Innovations And Enabling Thinking, Freddy Solis

Open Access Dissertations

The pursuit of innovation is engrained throughout society whether in business via the introduction of offerings, non-profits in their mission-driven initiatives, universities and agencies in their drive for discoveries and inventions, or governments in their desire to improve the quality of life of their citizens. Yet, despite these pursuits, innovations with long-lasting, significant impact represent an infrequent outcome in most domains. The seemingly random nature of these results stems, in part, from the definitions of innovation and the models based on such definitions. Although there is debate on this topic, a comprehensive and pragmatic perspective developed in this work defines …

Modular Human-In-The-Loop Design Framework Based On Human Factors, Hasan Onan Demirel

Open Access Dissertations

Human-in-the-loop design framework introduced in this dissertation utilizes Digital Human Modeling (DHM) to incorporate Human Factors Engineering (HFE) design principles early in design process. It embodies scientific methods (e.g., mathematics) and artistic approaches (e.g., visualization) to assess human well-being and overall system performance. This framework focuses not only on ergonomics assessments but also actual design process including, but not limited to, concept development, structural integrity and digital prototyping. It addresses to three major limitations found in HFE literature and practices:

The Relationship Between Acoustic Features Of Second Language Speech And Listener Evaluation Of Speech Quality, Mengxi Lin

Open Access Dissertations

Second language (L2) speech is typically less fluent than native speech, and differs from it phonetically. While the speech of some L2 English speakers seems to be easily understood by native listeners despite the presence of a foreign accent, other L2 speech seems to be more demanding, such that listeners must expend considerable effort in order to understand it. One reason for this increased difficulty may simply be the speaker’s pronunciation accuracy or phonetic intelligibility. If a L2 speaker’s pronunciations of English sounds differ sufficiently from the sounds that native listeners expect, these differences may force native listeners to work …