Digital Commons Network^™

Student's Perception Of School Climate, Jodi L. Roberts

Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate student's perception of school climate in the middle school. More specifically, this study examined school climate as it relates to student's academic achievement, attendance, and disciplinary referrals. Participants consisted of 29 females and 14 males in grades 6th, 7th, and 8th and their parents from a rural middle school located in upstate New York. School climate was measured using the Student version of the Yale Child Study School Development Program, School Climate Survey-Revised Version (Emmons, Haynes, & Comer, 2002). Parents reported on their child's school performance. Data analysis consisted of a One …

The Analysis Of Potential Space Tourism Market, Sandra Sankovic

Theses

In December of 2004, RIT Professor C.J. Wallington and students in the space tourism development course (winter 2004/ 2005) conducted a space tourism market survey. The target markets for these surveys were comprised of acquaintances (including family) of RIT students who took the space tourism course. Professor Wallington was interested in finding out if the student's families, friends, and acquaintances would want to take a space trip. The survey was comprised of twenty-one questions that focused on gathering demographic information, knowledge of and interest in zero-gravity, suborbital flights, and low earth orbit habitats. The results of this survey were never …

School Psychologists' Perceived And Ideal Role In Grade Retention Decisions, Sean P. Scott

Theses

This study examined school psychologists' reports of their perceived and ideal roles in retention making decisions. A random national sample of 231 school psychologists completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the rates and trends of retention in their school, as well as their perceived and ideal role in grade retention decisions. The majority (86.6%) of respondents indicated that their school practices retention, whereas 1 9% noted an increase in the amount of retentions. The rate at which respondents agreed that school psychologists should be involved in retention decisions was significantly higher (91.5%) than the percentage of school psychologists that …

Applying User-Centered Design In The Development Of A Software Application For The Treatment Of A Mental Health Disorder, Stacey L. Meacham

Theses

The research that follows will provide a process for applying a user-centered design methodology to the development of a virtual environment software application for the treatment of a mental health disorder, specifically post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal is to create a screen-based virtual environment product that focuses on the end user rather than the technological aspects of the system. Moreover, past and present treatments in the mental health and healthcare fields and their effectiveness will be analyzed through an extensive literature review.

Implications Of Reading Assessments: Investigating The Developmental Reading Assessment And Dynamic Indicators Of Basic Early Literacy Skills - Oral Reading Fluency As Related To The Terranova 2nd Edition Vocabulary And Comprehension Tasks For Third-Grade Students, Courtney Wheeler

Theses

The present study investigated the relationship between Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Oral Reading Fluency and the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) as related to the TerraNova 2nd Edition Vocabulary and Comprehension. Historical test data gained from 46 third grade participants during 2004- 2005 school year from an urban elementary school was utilized. The DRA protocols were coded and correlations were run to determine the relationship between the three tests. Significant correlations were found consistently between the DIBELS scores with DRA Phrasing and Fluency and DRA Story Level. Of particular interest, the overall best predictor for DIBELS scores …

The Role Of Identity Formation And Career Indecisiveness In Effective School-To-Work Transitions For Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disabilities, Elizabeth S. Garfield

Theses

Many school districts devote the majority of their transition resources to those students that are graduating and continuing their education through college. However, only about 15% of ninth grade students go on to graduate high school and obtain a 4-year college degree within six years of their high school graduation. Schools focus their resources and curriculum on the college bound minority instead of the work bound majority. This contributes to ineffective transition planning for those students going directly from school to work; and is especially true for students with Emotional/Behavioral disabilities (ED/BD). These students are leaving school unprepared to be …

Reading First Teachers' Knowledge Of English Phonology And Attitudes Toward Reading Instruction, Courtney Richmond

Theses

The Reading First grant requires teachers to go through professional development and education about reading instruction to improve their teaching methods. The purpose of this study is to determine whether teachers' knowledge of the English language and their attitudes toward explicit reading instruction improved after working in schools that received the Reading First grant. Seventy-six teachers from four schools that received the Reading First grant were surveyed to determine their knowledge of English phonology and attitudes toward explicit and implicit reading instruction. Reading First teachers had more knowledge of English phonology than other teachers, but did not differ in their …

Environmental Health & Safety Management In The Wake Of Sarbanes-Oxley: A Focus On The Benchmark Alcohol Beverage Industry, Diana V. Vesosky

Theses

In a post-Enron world, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act holds the highest corporate officers of publicly held corporations personally accountable with regard to financial reporting. This project examines the requirements of the law, risks of not complying the law, how Sarbanes-Oxley has impacted environmental health and safety (EHS) management, and what EHS professionals and companies should be doing to comply with the law.

Sustainable Shoe Design With A Single Material, Jungyun Lee

Theses

People tend to throw away a shoe rather than repair it for further use. This means more and more shoes are thrown away, and since a shoe is made out of many kinds of materials that are all glued or stitched together, it is difficult to recycle or reuse the shoe. Additionally, there is a symbolic relation between the land and shoe; a shoe is the product that connects people to the ground. It is ironic that a shoe, which provides the connection, has a negative effect on the land. If we wear a shoe longer, we can reduce the …

Tum Tum Yum Yum, Nongyao Moon Krapugthong

Theses

Not included

Artfully Concealed, Athesia V. Benjamin

Theses

The following document is a summary of the development of my work during two years in the MFA painting program at Rochester Institute of Technology. The process intrinsic to thesis development eventually brought me to my final concept of obscuring my identity as a way to develop a body of figurative paintings. Along with the eleven pieces created during this two-year period, I have thoroughly studied this specific topic within the context of contemporary and historical art and identified artists with like concepts and images.

Communication Issues And Processes At The Rit Inn And Conference Center, Wayne J. Pater

Theses

This study focuses on communication issues at The RIT Inn and Conference Center, (the Inn). Effective communication is crucial to nearly everything. Communication is the learned skill that makes the difference between an average organization and a great one. A great organization's management can fully engage staff in operations at a company that achieves maximum efficiency (Williford, 2002).

This study is important because it will identify the root causes of communication gaps between management and staff. In addition, it will identify problems related to disconnects between service staff and management that have caused several service recovery issues. These disconnects may …

Personality, Perception, Perseverence And Peers - Managing The Transition From Year 10 General Education To A Residential Agricultural Course In The Upper Secondary Years, Francis W. Donohoe

Theses

This intensive single-site case study has taken the entering cohort of Year 11 students in the year 2000 and has used: Point-of-entry and post-experience interviews of students admitted to the course, Parallel entry and on-course surveys, On-course administration of the well-credentialed Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydenberg and Lewis, 1993), and Staff interviews to identify and describe the environmental, personal and contextual factors that are associated with a student’s completion/non-completion of the two year Course and thereby help the College Administration address the on-going unacceptably high numbers of students not completing the Course. By making extensive use of the Adolescent Coping Scale …

Incorporating Triple Bottom Line Strategies Into Corporations, Bill C. Lin

Theses

In this new era of globalization, the competition among multi-national corporations in various industries is tighter than ever. Due to this intense struggle for corporations to grow their bottom line, the corporations have recognized that a new approach to business is necessary. Corporations have realized that they can no longer just think about their economical profitability to survive in this environment, but they also have to be good stewards to the people they employ and be conscious of the impact the corporation's daily operations have on the environment. Because of this new found recognition, corporations have started using phrases such …

Epidemiology Of Hepatitis A In Al Ain: With Emphasis On Age-Related Seroprevalence, Salwa Saeed Al Shamisi

Theses

Hepatitis A (HAV) is common worldwide, but with falling sero-prevalence in residents of developed countries is an indication of improved food and water hygiene. It is well known that the sero-prevalence of hepatitis A are highly correlated with socioeconomic status. The main objective of this study was to have base line data on the age-related sero-prevalence of HAV in Al Ain district and the possible risk factors.

Blood and a questionnaire data were obtained from 280 UAE citizens' outpatients of Tawam Hospital and 333 expatriates' inhabitants of Al Ain city. The expatriate subjects were heterogeneous coming from 24 different countries. …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Role Of The Accountant In The Implementation Of An Integrated System: A Case Study In Cork County Council., Julie Griffin

Theses

The last decade has been a lime of continuous rapid change in the business environment. To survive in this environment, organisations have had to become more competitive and customer focussed. The promised benefits of integrated systems made their implementation a popular attempt at achieving success in the private sector. The implementation process for, and the benefits of integrated systems in the private sector are well documented.

Integrated systems are still a relatively new phenomenon in the public sector. The researcher was working, as an accountant, in Cork County Council, when it was tendering for and implementing a new integrated system. …

Case Study: Enhancing The Customers Product Experience Through Package Revision, Keith J. Vent

Theses

This thesis is a case study to illustrate the importance of a products packaging related to the customers and consumers overall product experience. A company launched a new contact lens product in Europe a year after the product was introduced ... in North America. The lens was manufactured using the company's low-cost, daily disposable lens platform to enable a 10 to 20% cost benefit over the competition. However the new lens was not as well received in Europe as it was in the United States. To identify potential impacts to market acceptance, a third party marketing research firm conducted focus …

Immersion & Iteration: Leading Edge Approaches For Early Stage Product Planning, Christopher Bondy, Jack Rahill, Michael L. Povio

Theses

Not Included

The Effects Of Histone H1 And Benzo[A] Pyrene On Chromatin Modifying Complexes., Zeina Salim Al Natour

Theses

Packaging of DNA into the condensed structure of chromatin presents a barrier to many cellular processes that require DNA access such as transcription and replication. This problem is solved, in part, by the action of various complexes that modify the chromatin structure so that it becomes more accessible and, therefore, a more suitable platform for these processes. ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes and histone acetyltransferases are examples of many chromatin modifying complexes that work to alleviate chromatin-mediated repression. Histone H1 is an important component of chromatin which serves in both stabilizing and folding of chromatin into a higher order structure. Many …

Characterization Of Stress Ulcer Model In Mice, Abeer Hamed Rubayea Hamed Aldhaheri

Theses

Stress ulcer is a common problem in critically ill patients. Recent statistics indicated that bleeding from stress ulcer is a common cause of death in patients admitted to intensive care units. Little is known about the cellular changes that occur in the gastric mucosa during stress ulcer formation. The aim of this study is to define the changes that occur in the mouse stomach during development of stress ulcer by using different microscopy techniques.

The cold-restraint mouse model of stress ulcer was used in this study. Mice of both sexes were restrained and maintained in a cold (4°C) room for …

Effects Of Soil Solarization On Seed Viability Of Serious Weeds Of Crops In The Uae, Fatema Khalil Al-Hammadi

Theses

The efficacy of solarization in weed control under field conditions of the united Arabs Emirates (UAE} was evaluated by conducting field experiments in a farm near Al-Ain. The soil of the farm was artificially infested with seeds of the following weeds: Amaranthus viridus, A. hybridus, Cenchrus ciliaris, Chenopodium murale, Launea mucronata, Malva parviflora, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Echinochloa colona, Portulaca oleracea, and Melilotus indica. The soil was plowed, rotovated to provide a smooth surface and divided into 12 raised plots, 10 x 1 m each: seven were solarized and five non-solarized. Soils …

Bob Breitbard: San Diego Sportsman, Dan Yigal Fulop

Theses

Most people can identify with holding onto possessions from the past. Childhood toys, vintage clothing you're hoping will again one day be fashionable, old dusty scrapbooks, or even that hideous lamp which no longer works. While the majority of our clutter is in fact junk, it still evokes fond trips down memory lane and might serve to tell a story about a specific time, place, or person. And then there was Bob Breitbard's "junk"-- priceless sports artifacts and memorabilia collected over some fifteen years, filling up his garage and forcing his wife to post an eviction notice for his beloved …

An Image Processing Technique For The Improvement Of Sign2 Using A Dual Camera Approach, Kanthi Sarella

Theses

A non-intrusive translation system to transform American Sign Language to digital text forms the pivotal point of discussion in the following thesis. With so many techniques which are being introduced for the same purpose in the present technological arena, this study lays claim to that relatively less trodden path of developing an unobtrusive, user-friendly and straightforward solution. The phase 1 of the Sign2 Project dealt with a single camera approach to achieve the same end of creating a translation system and my present investigation endeavors to develop a solution to improve the accuracy of results employing the methodology pursued in …

Exploring Tourism Development On Uninhabited Islands, Mohamed Jamal

Theses

Travel Industry has become the bread winner of many Island destinations across the globe. The practices, policies and institutional forms used in developing tourism on public lands vary from destination to destination. The research aims to identify the practices, policies and institutional forms in development of tourism consisting of resorts or hotels in public lands specifically on uninhabited islands. Public lands referred in this thesis include lands, beaches, sea owned by governments or the 'public sector'. The term 'public sector' covers the whole range of public organizations from national government ministries and departments to government business enterprises and local government …

Assessing Deaf College Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Behavior Rating Inventory Of Executive Function – Adult Version Versus Caars, Rebecca Mowell

Theses

This study examined the sensitivity of two instruments used in assessing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with deaf individuals. Forty deaf college students, 20 with a diagnosis of ADHD and 20 controls, completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Adult Version (BRIEF-A) and the Connors’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS). An analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA), and sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value analyses found that both the BRIEF-A and CAARS were adequate behavior rating scales for measuring ADHD symptoms in a deaf population. Results also revealed that the BRIEF-A was a more specific measure …

Parental Perceptions Of School Climate And Middle School Students' Performance, Christine Demart

Theses

This research study explored the relationship between parental perceptions of school climate and middle school students' academic and social success. In particular, this study investigated what specific school climate factors may have the greatest impact on students' academic achievement, disciplinary referrals, and school attendance.

Typographic Decision-Making: Children's Book Design, Christina R. Fisher

Theses

Most children's first encounter with words and the act of reading is in the form of having a children's book read to them. Whether it is a cardboard book with only a sprinkling of words, an illustrated storybook with more narrative, or an independent reader with a few images and a larger concentration of words, children's books are essential to developing a child's reading ability and to fostering an enthusiasm for reading. Despite the importance of these books, their typographic design is often neglected. Little attention is paid to the integration of text and image, and typographic variables are often …

Ambivalence & Hope, Jeremy C. Stipano

Theses

A descriptive narration of the creation of the artist's thesis exhibition, the central pieces of which are Ambivalence, a walnut and zebrawood sculpture, and Hope, a mahogany and canary wood sculpture. Other pieces and materials surrounding Ambivalence and Hope include mono-prints made with paint and found objects, ink drawings, and two experimental multimedia sculptures, Inner Hope and External Ambivalence.

The School-To-Work Transition Of Students With Learning Disabilities: The Influence Of Identity Status, Personality, And Career Decidedness On Career Decision Making, Jennifer L. Merry

Theses

Students with learning disabilities have higher dropout rates and have lower wages and employment rates. Furthermore, students with learning disabilities are less likely to have a full-time job and are more likely to attend a two-year college rather than a four-year college compared to those without disabilities. Approximately three million students are classified as having a specific learning disability in the United States. The challenges and struggles they deal with during the school years continues into the world of work. Federal legislation (e.g., IDEA) mandates that a transition plan is included in a student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which needs …

The Effects Of Atmospheric Pressure Changes On Landfill Gas Collection Efficiency And Quality, Jason Leone

Theses

The effects of atmospheric pressure changes on landfill gas collection efficiency and quality are relatively complex and also very important to the effective management of these systems not only for practical operation and maintenance of these systems, but to also minimize the impacts of these fluctuations on the system in general. This thesis examined three areas of collection and control systems that effectively manage landfill gas (LFG), which is generated by the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in municipal solid waste and analyzed the effects of barometric pressure on those systems. The three areas of analysis included the effects of …