Digital Commons Network^™

Ethnic Differences In Delusional Content In Schizophrenia: A Comparative Analysis Of Delusional Symptoms In Individuals Of White European Descent And Latino Descent, Jessica A. Valluzzi

Theses and Dissertations

Although the phenomenon of psychosis in schizophrenia has been extensively studied, limited attention has been paid to the relationship of ethnicity/culture and the form and quality of psychotic symptoms. It is widely assumed that culture significantly influences the phenomenology of mental illness. Psychotic experiences, such as delusions and hallucinations, are likely no exception. There is a relatively small body of literature on cross-cultural differences in delusional symptoms that has yielded mixed findings. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the literature by examining potential differences in delusional symptoms among 2 cultural groups of schizophrenia patients: individuals of Latino …

Performance And Leadership In Multiplayer Online Gaming, Timothy Joseph Magner

Theses and Dissertations

Multiplayer online video games are an increasingly popular form of entertainment, and many individuals spend a considerable amount of time playing them. One hallmark of these multiplayer games has been the need for collaboration and teamwork for both individual enjoyment and game success. At the same time the needs of a global marketplace have led to the evolution of the geographically separated, but technology linked, distributed team as a critical business function. The elements and functions of these business-oriented distributed teams closely align with the types of groups that often come together to play online video games. A common trait …

The Triumphs Of Alexander Farnese: A Contextual Analysis Of The Series Of Paintings In Santiago, Chile, Michael J. Panbehchi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines a series of nine paintings depicting the battles of Alexander Farnese in Flanders created by the Cuzco School of Painters in eighteenth-century Peru. This research asks why and how paintings depicting sixteenth-century European battles were meaningful in the eighteenth century. Due to an absence of archival documentation on the authorship, production and patronage of the series, the research method is contextual. Starting with a formal and iconographic analysis of the paintings centered on a comparison between the paintings and the engravings upon which they are based, differences in the use of space and the conspicuousness of individual …

Queer Alchemies: Radical Futurity In The Shell Of The Now, Elizabeth R. Canfield

Theses and Dissertations

This work operates at the intersection of academics, art, and activism. Within queer studies there is a tension between assimilation and liberation, sometimes situated as between pragmatism and utopia. This work re-examines Frankfurt school Marxist views of utopia through a queer theoretical lens in order to employ the radical imagination and queer futurity to examine new ways of practicing liberation. Drawing from theorists like Judith Butler, Jose Esteban Munoz, and Gloria Anzaldua, this work uses art (film, writing, zine-making, and sound) as a way to envision and enact a better world situated in the present.

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Employees Who Work Virtually And Their Perceptions Of Leadership Behaviors That Create A Successful Virtual Organization, Ann Gladys

Theses and Dissertations

Can virtual work simply be described as doing the same work in a different venue? Is the virtual workforce merely a construct of technology? Where does the virtual worker fit into the paradigm of telework? And how does leadership of the virtual workforce need to adapt to accomplishing work in a virtual environment? The fact is that the culture of virtual work has become increasingly rooted over the years. Most recently, economic struggles and the advanced technology associated with a global economy have set the stage for a more connected workforce in more disconnected venues. Virtual work offers distinct positives …

How Online Communication And Social Media Networking Are Used In Alcohol Use Treatment, Susan Finley

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding cultural shifts towards the increasing trend of seeking treatment offered through online communication and utilization of social networking sites has changed the way mental health professionals approach alcohol use treatment. This study illuminates the ways in which mental health professionals are currently exploring methods of counseling through online communication and social networking sites to improve their practice and reach more clients, thus helping increasing numbers of people while earning a greater profit. Through the research, numerous benefits and drawbacks of social networking and online communication used in mental health treatment are identified, particularly when working in alcohol use treatment. …

Dīpaṅkara Buddha And The Patan Samyak Mahādāna In Nepal: Performing The Sacred In Newar Buddhist Art, Kerry Lucinda Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Every four years, in the middle of a cold winter night, devotees bearing images of 126 Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and other important deities assemble in the Nepalese city of Patan for an elaborate gift giving festival known as Samyak Mahādāna (“The Perfect Great Gift”). Celebrated by Nepal’s Newar Buddhist community, Samyak honors one of the Buddhas of the historical past called Dīpaṅkara. Dīpaṅkara’s importance in Buddhism is rooted in ancient textual and visual narratives that promote the cultivation of generosity through religious acts of giving (Skt. dāna). During Samyak, large images of Dīpaṅkara Buddha ceremoniously walk in procession to the …

Gender-Specific Instructional Strategies And Student Achievement In 5th Grade Classrooms, Millicent Whitener Dickey

Theses and Dissertations

There are three purposes of this mixed methods phenomenological case study. First, the researcher attempted to determine if there is evidence that teachers in single-sex classes adjust the delivery of the academic content when compared to coeducational classes. Secondly, while trying to understand the phenomenon of learning in a single-sex classroom, the researcher tried to determine which specific instructional strategies are considered most beneficial by male and female students. The researcher also looked for evidence of differences in achievement between students in single-sex and coeducational environments. Data collection occurred primarily through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and classroom observation over the …

Comparative Recharge Rates Of Isolated And Riverine Wetlands, Chenille Hargrove Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Isolated wetlands have a slightly depressed topography surrounded by an upland area. There is no direct surface water connection, as with riverine wetlands; however, there is a groundwater connection that allows isolated wetlands to have similar hydrologic functions to riverine wetlands. This study sought to compare surficial aquifer groundwater recharge rates of several isolated and riverine wetlands in the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas by evaluating soil characteristics, water table fluctuations, and precipitation from January 2012 - September 2012. Data analysis indicated no significant difference in mean recharge rates between the isolated and riverine wetlands at each study site. Whereas …

Birds And Beaches: The Affective Geographies And Sense Of Place Of Participants In The Coasst Citizen Science Program, Benjamin Kent Haywood

Theses and Dissertations

Participatory science research initiatives within the natural sciences like citizen science or crowd sourcing have enjoyed a recent explosion in popularity due to the efficient and expansive data collection processes they foster and the opportunities for general science outreach and education they provide. Now often the tool of choice among informal science outreach practitioners, Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) programs are purported to expand knowledge and understanding of science and ecology, increase the relevancy of science for society, and cultivate more environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviors. Despite such claims, the influence and impact of participatory science engagement is still …

The Impact Of Culture & Ethnicity On The Counseling Process: Perspectives Of Genetic Counselors From Minority Ethnic Groups, Brittanie Morris

Theses and Dissertations

In the genetic counseling profession, discussions about cross-cultural counseling and cultural competence emphasize the importance of patient culture as well as counselor culture in a counseling session. A culturally competent counselor should be aware of the influence of her own cultural values on interactions with patients and peers (Weil, 2000; & Uhlmann, Schuette, & Yashar, 2011). Focusing specifically on counselors from cultural/ethnic minorities, this mixed-methods study sought to empirically evaluate the influence of a counselor's cultural values and ethnic identity on the genetic counseling process. 162 genetic counselors, 58 of whom self-identified as being from an ethnic minority group, completed …

Predicting And Classifying Packet Transmission Efficiency In Bio-Inspired Wireless Sensor Networks, Ahmad Alkazzaz

Theses and Dissertations

Biological networks (specifically genetic regulatory networks) are known to be robust to various external perturbations. Bio-inspired wireless sensor networks (WSN) are known to be smart communication structures and have a have high packet transmission efficiency. In earlier work neural network models that correlate the average packet receival rates to the five topological features of the bio-inspired WSN were investigated. These features include the degree index, sink coverage, network density, hub node density, and motif index. In this thesis, an appropriate classification algorithm that works with these five features is investigated. The random forest algorithm is the best classification algorithm compared …

Statistical Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of The 'You're Hired!' Program At Changing Students' Attitudes Towards Engineering, Kristin Michelle Brevik

Theses and Dissertations

With the growing need for qualified employees in STEM-based careers, it is critical to develop activities for middle and high school students to increase their awareness of opportunities in these areas. With proper design, increasing awareness of STEM-based careers in conjunction with overcoming current stereotypes can lead to a change in attitudes towards these various careers. As part of this research project I have developed `You're Hired!', a program providing middle and high school students a hands-on, authentic experience in various engineering roles while assessing the change in a student's attitude towards the engineering profession. Project design also incorporates an …

Quantifying Nutrient Cycling And Fate Within An Abandoned Feedlot And Adjacent Wetlands, Prosper Prosper Gbolo

Theses and Dissertations

Feedlot operations over the years have increased revenue and boosted economies of states and countries, but these operations have resulted in elevated concentrations of nutrients in soils, surface water, and groundwater. Feedlot operations generate large quantities of manure and other waste, which when not managed properly can result in environmental problems.

It is hypothesized that nitrogen can cause a short-term contamination of soils and groundwater beneath abandoned feedlots, but phosphorus can cause both short- and long term contamination, especially in well-drained carbonate and iron-rich soils associated with Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. It is also hypothesized that a spectral vegetation index …

Preparing Administrators For Leadership In The Rural Context, Michael David Mcneff

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify advantages and disadvantages, such as scarcity of resources, of the rural principalship in North Dakota. The study and review of literature explored availability and lack of resources that impact North Dakota rural principals' leadership. The unique challenges of a rural principalship had an impact and influenced instructional leadership of rural principals. An era of accountability has forced a shift in the principal's role, duties, and expectations (Rice, 2010). This shift has been difficult on both rural and urban principals. This study included a sampling of six rural principals in North Dakota. The …

A Place Vulnerability Analysis Of Changing Flood Risk In Grand Forks, North Dakota: 1990-2010, Melissa Marianne Wygant

Theses and Dissertations

Floods are the most common natural hazard in the U.S.; each year they leave communities in destruction and despair. Despite the efforts of emergency managers, local government officials, and scientists, flood damages in the U.S. have increased significantly over the past 100 years. It is increasingly important to evaluate a community's risk and vulnerability to flooding in order to develop efficient emergency operation plans, and to improve upon flood management practices.

Communities in the Red River Valley of North Dakota have dealt with flood hazards for a very long time. In particular, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Fargo, North Dakota, Moorhead, …

Evaluation Of Selected Spectral Vegetation Indices In Senescent Rangeland Canopy Using Landsat Imagery, Marla Collins

Theses and Dissertations

Grassland birds are diminishing more steadily and rapidly than other North American birds in general. The nesting success of some grassland bird species depends on the amount of nonproductive vegetation (NPV). To estimate NPV land managers are currently using the Robel pole visual obstruction reading methods. Researchers with the USDA Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory in Mandan, ND, recently established statistical relationships between photosynthetic vegetation (PV), NPV and spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) derived from more sensitive and more detailed, but less accessible and more costly hyperspectral aerial imagery. This study is an extension of this previous …

Deflating Rural North Dakota: Mechanization, Industrialization, And Depopulation In The Small Community, Alyson Leas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis serves to examine the continued decline of population in rural North Dakota. In the face of a large oil boom in the state's western third, agricultural communities in the central third of the state continue to struggle. Through an examination of United States Department of Agriculture yearly agricultural censuses, experiment station notes, personal correspondence, local histories, and the United States decennial census from the first fifty years of the twentieth century, information regarding the rise and fall of communities in northern Towner County, North Dakota, has been tabulated. Results show that the better agriculture did in terms of …

Climate Change Detection And Attribution Using Gps Radio Occultation And Cmip5 Gcm Data, Sergey Molodtsov

Theses and Dissertations

General circulation models (GCMs) show a distinct anthropogenic fingerprint - the thermal expansion of Hadley Cell. This response to the increase of atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) is evident under a variety of forcing scenarios. However the investigation of the anthropogenic signal in the real climate system is challenging because anthropogenic signal is immersed in the natural variability and it requires highly quality data to separate signal from background variability. GPS Radio Occultation (GPS RO) technique becomes close to meeting all of the quality requirements, enabling it to become the benchmark for the climate data. The analysis was implemented …

Linking Local Weather To Climate Change: One Year Of Twitter In The Us, Tatiana Molodtsova

Theses and Dissertations

There is a high level of scientific consensus on climate change. Nevertheless for climate change research to have any practical value, to develop public support for climate policies, the climate research results must find the way to general public. That is why it is important to understand how the public perception of climate change forms.

During the last decades there have been a number of studies on the factors affecting the level of public concern on climate change. Two major groups of factors are hypothesized to have the biggest influence on the level of public concern on climate change: extreme …

Progressing Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem) Education In North Dakota With Near-Space Ballooning, Marissa Elizabeth Saad

Theses and Dissertations

The United States must provide quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in order to maintain a leading role in the global economy. Numerous initiatives have been established across the United States that promote and encourage STEM education within the middle school curriculum. Integrating active learning pedagogy into instructors' lesson plans will prepare the students to think critically - a necessary skill for the twenty first century.

This study integrated a three-week long Near Space Balloon project into six eighth grade Earth Science classes from Valley Middle School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was hypothesized that after the …

A Comparison Of Food Accessibility From 2002 To 2012 In St. Paul, Minnesota, Brett Sergenian

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the changes in the healthy food accessibility landscape of St. Paul from 2002 to 2012. Food deserts are areas of limited or no accessibility to healthy food options. Local food landscapes in the U.S. and Canada have changed significantly over the past 50 years as many supermarkets have relocated out of the inner cities and into the suburbs. As a result, many inner city neighborhoods no longer have adequate access to healthy food. Despite supermarkets relocating out of the inner city, small and mid-sized grocers could stock healthy food options. The research questions answered are: Where are …

Neighborhood Perceptions In The Near South Side Neighborhood Of Grand Forks, Nd, Mikel Elizabeth Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Older neighborhoods across the country are at risk of collapse. In response, city governments are taking a renewed interest in their older inner-city districts. Urban Neighborhood Initiatives (UNI) is one way local governments are renewing and revitalizing these neighborhoods. This is happening in Grand Forks, ND. Consequently, this study's focus is on the perceptions of residents in the Near South Side neighborhood (NSS).

Data was collected through a questionnaire survey. A total of 203 replies were received from the pool of 740 surveys distributed in the Mayors Urban Neighborhood Initiative and the attached historic district. The four research questions focused …

Mapping Techniques For Soil Erosion: Modeling Stream Power Index In Eastern North Dakota, Rick Thalacker

Theses and Dissertations

Soil erosion is a worldwide problem that can negatively affect surface water through the introduction of sediment, nutrients (eg. nitrogen, phosphorus), pesticides, and other chemicals. Soil erosion is often exacerbated by agricultural and other types of land use. The objective of this study was to identify gully locations in agricultural fields adjacent to the Turtle and Forest rivers in eastern North Dakota that accumulate surface flow resulting in areas of critical surface erosion in a GIS using the Stream Power Index (SPI). A field survey was conducted to verify the accuracy of the terrain analysis at identifying 391 gully and …

A Ten-Year Study Of Earned Income Tax Credit Utilization In Western South Dakota: Where You Live Matters, Lizabeth Ann Diers

Theses and Dissertations

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the largest government anti-poverty programs, helping low-income families to build and maintain economic security. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine if where taxpayers live in western South Dakota impacts the utilization of EITC. Results of analysis of tax return information, higher education accounting programs, and interview records were combined to answer the study questions.

Ten years of data (tax return averages) were retrieved from the Brookings Institution and were analyzed to determine if geography was a predictor of the likelihood of filing for EITC and the amount …

Grade Level Retention: A Comparative Study Of Beliefs And Practices In North Dakota And Surrey, Kim Englund

Theses and Dissertations

Many regions of the United States retain students who are not performing at grade level, yet a large body of research shows the ineffectiveness of having students repeat an academic year. The United Kingdom practices social promotion rather than retention. This comparative study sought to better understand the practices in these two countries and the research surrounding retention. First, it compared the interventions before and alternatives to retention used by both a North Dakota school district in the United States and two schools in Surrey, England. Second, it outlined a plan for teachers, parents, school administrators, and school policy makers …

A Remote Sensing Analysis Of The Effects Of Watershed Disturbance And Riparian Integrity On Stream Fish Communities In The Red River Of The North Basin, Nicholas Kludt

Theses and Dissertations

The relationships between fish species guilds, riparian cover, and vegetation disturbances in the surrounding landscape were examined across the 11 western tributaries of the Red River of the North. Archival stream sampling data, collected from 1993-2011 by North Dakota state agencies, were analyzed relative to temporally-appropriate land-cover predictors generated from National Land Cover Database and National Agricultural Imagery Program products.

The 0-30 m riparian cover width was the most influential landscape predictor influencing fish structure. The 0-30 m riparian cover displayed interactive effects with 30-50 m riparian cover width and watershed land-cover disturbance. These riparian scales were identified by a …

A Study Of A Professional Development Initiative To Increase Cultural Competency, Jennifer C. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

A STUDY OF A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE TO INCREASE

CULTURAL COMPETENCY

By Jennifer Crowe Coleman, Ph.D.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014

Major Director: Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Educational Leadership

School of Education

While there are broad, societal forces that contribute to achievement gaps, the professional development of teachers is one way educational leaders have sought to improve schools, improve teacher performance, and increase teacher knowledge and skills. Given the achievement and cultural gaps that exist between teachers and …

Identifying Organizational Containment And Its Effect On The Career Paths Of Black Educators, Risha Berry

Theses and Dissertations

The racial composition of the school workforce is the product of a complex interaction of social forces. School constituencies such as parents, students, and teachers impact new leader preferences. Their ideas influence decisions regarding who fits into school administration and who doesn't (Williams & Loeb, 2012). These "fit" preferences can shape school district ethos, which then influences access to social networks (Tooms, 2010). Limited entry to these networks may produce multiple disadvantages, particularly for Black educators. One way to think of this access is through the concept of containment. Restricted data from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) will …

Legislating The Danville Connection, 1847-1862: Railroads And Regionalism Versus Nationalism In The Confederate States Of America, Philip Stanley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the effect regionalism had upon North Carolina and Virginia during the 1847-1862 legislative battles over the Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, railroad connection. The first chapter examines the rivalry between eastern and western North Carolina for internal improvement legislation, namely westerners’ wish to connect with Virginia and easterners’ desire to remain economically relevant. The second chapter investigates the Tidewater region of Virginia and its battle against the Southside to create a rail connection with North Carolina. The third chapter examines the legislation for the Danville Connection during the American Civil War in the Virginia, North Carolina, …