Digital Commons Network^™

The Pharmacist Supply In The United States, 1994-2009: A Population Ecology Perspective, Kevin S.J. Lett

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. healthcare system is a complex segment of our society that is constantly evolving with changes to various areas such as education, financing, safety, and health. There continues to be a critical examination of how healthcare professionals are trained and utilized as healthcare demands increase. One category of healthcare professionals that has evolved over time to address societal needs is pharmacists. Pharmacists have kept their traditional function of dispensing medications while expanding into multiple areas of expertise and training from patient counseling and drug therapy, to being part of multidisciplinary teams treating acute care patients. According to the National …

Artist Alien Ghost Juggler: Performance Of “Troilus And Cressida” As Graduate Thesis, Vladislav Smolkin

Theses and Dissertations

Through an analysis of my adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida”, I will deconstruct the artist’s studio within an institution as a paradoxical heterotopic space.

Understanding Managerial Decisions About Global Sourcing: Offshoring And Reshoring Of Production, Raymond George Purnell

Theses and Dissertations

As international commerce continues to emerge due to telecommunication and transportation breakthroughs, the eagerness of companies to send particular business functions offshore increases. Offshoring is the removal of a company function (particularly, manufacturing) from a domestic location to a remote destination. Since many developing economies contain low labor wages, companies in the United States and Europe are able to leverage cost savings by paying low compensation to foreign production employees. The low cost concept, though, does not always offer significant financial reward. For companies with particular product types, business models, or limited experience, offshoring proves to be an expensive mistake …

A Ten-Millennia Lens: Landscape, Culture And History At Russell Cave National Monument, Jesse Randall English

Theses and Dissertations

Developed out of a need for a reliable methodology of documenting historic landscapes, the National Park Service uses Cultural Landscape Reports to determine the significance and integrity of historic landscapes. Treatment recommendations developed from an analysis of site history and existing conditions guide the management decisions of cultural landscapes. Russell Cave National Monument, located in Bridgeport, Alabama, contains one of the oldest continuous archeological records in North America. A cultural landscape report for the park had not yet been completed. This research consists of a historical narrative covering the 10,000 years of human occupation in the cave, a documentation of …

The Effect Of Regular Participation In An After-School Program On Student Achievement, Attendance, And Behavior, Andrea Sheree Pastchal-Temple

Theses and Dissertations

Many school districts are using research-based strategies to increase student achievement. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was created and implemented to assist all students becoming proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. One strategy many school districts implemented includes an after-school program. One school district in Mississippi operated an after-school program to help increase the academic achievement of 7th and 8th grade students scoring minimal and basic on the MCT2. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of regular participation in an after-school program on indicators of student academic achievement. The dependent variables for …

Cow-Calf Operations In The Southeastern United States: An Analysis Of Farm Characteristics And Production Risks, Tracey Scott Adkins

Theses and Dissertations

Beef cattle production in the southeastern United States differs in size, practice, and production type from other U.S. regions. Smaller, cow-calf type operations dominate in this region because the climate, forage availability, and other land use practices of farmers make this type of cattle operation more ideal for the Southeast. This research summarizes the current practices and characteristics that define the Southeastern cow-calf operation of today’s market and operating environment; it also examines the factors that influence the variability of beef production in these operations. Results indicate the following major points: 1.) 53.0% of respondents with commercial cows have fewer …

The Influence Of The Physical Environment And Culture On Family Member Involvement And Succession Intentions In The Family Business: An Application Of Historical, Cultural And Political Ecology, Gregory Paul Tapis

Theses and Dissertations

Family businesses comprise 80 to 90 percent of all businesses in North America (Shanker & Astrachan, 1996) and account for 60 percent of total U.S. employment (Hutcheson, 1999). Furthermore, 34 percent of the businesses listed on the S&P’s 500 Index are family businesses (Anderson & Reeb, 2003). There are three primary purposes of this dissertation. First, based on a review of the kinship, anthropology, and family business literatures, a definition of family for use in family business research is proposed. Second, specific patterns of family member involvement in a sample of 1,000 family businesses associated with the Small Business Development …

The Origin Of Banana Holes On San Salvador Island, The Bahamas, Louis R. Infante

Theses and Dissertations

Banana holes are a common karst feature of The Bahamas and several theories have been presented to explain their origin. The current model for banana hole formation places their dissolution at the mixing zone at the top of the fresh water lens. This theory is based on the observation that banana holes are often found in the interior of islands, far from the dissolutionally aggressive fresh water lens margin. This study proposes that banana holes form at the lens margin as it follows a prograding strandplain. Spatial observations show that banana holes appear to be associated with low inland ridges …

Quantification Of Storm Surge Probability Using Ensemble Slosh Model Data, David Scott Schlotzhauer

Theses and Dissertations

One of the greatest hazards from hurricanes is the flooding due to storm surge. Emergency managers traditionally plan for storm surge by looking at the worst possible impact and design their plans accordingly. This is a safe course of action, but can also be a wasted expense if the worst case does not occur. Risk-based planning is a way to incorporate the likelihood or probability of an impact occurring into emergency planning. With respect to storm surge, though, there is very little information regarding probability of occurrence. This research uses data from a commonly accepted storm surge model, SLOSH from …

The Economic Contributions Of A Mississippi Rural Community College Utilizing A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of A Remedial Education Program., Curtis Ray Poole

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to track former remedial students at one of Mississippi’s community colleges in order to examine the investment effectiveness of remedial and developmental programs by conducting a cost-benefit analysis. The approach involved tracking, surveying, and evaluation. The method was selected on the basis of data needs and gaps that could enable the state’s system of community colleges to estimate the economic cost and benefits to the state, the community colleges, and the students. The study used a survey instrument, along with existing institutional data on revenues and expenditures, to ascertain whether funds generated for the …

Modeling Effects Of Climatological Variability And Management Practices On Conservation Of Groundwater From The Mississippi River Valley Shallow Alluvial Aquifer In The Mississippi Delta Region, Robert Frank Thornton

Theses and Dissertations

Ninety-eight percent of water taken from the Mississippi River Shallow Alluvial Aquifer, hereafter referred to as “the aquifer” or “MRVA,” is used by the agricultural industry for irrigation. Mississippi Delta agriculture is increasingly using more water from the MRVA and the aquifer has been losing about 300,000 acreeet per year. This research expands on previous work in which a model was developed that simulates the effects of climatic variability, crop acreage changes, and specific irrigation methods on consequent variations in the water volume of the MRVA. This study corrects an identified problem by replacing total growing season precipitation with an …

The Need For Collaboration In Planning Efforts During Natural Disasters: An Evaluation Of The City Of Richmond, Virginia, Jocelyn Leitch

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates whether or not information data sharing is effectively used between federal, state, and local government agencies and non-governmental agencies in a metropolitan area during and immediately after a major natural disaster. Also, whether vulnerable populations were identified and considered during emergency management. The chosen study area is the City of Richmond, VA, and the disaster response is based on flooding episodes that occurred in the city over the last decade following hurricanes and tropical depressions. Questionnaires were administered to representatives of federal, state, and local agencies and NGOs. The questionnaires consisted of a Likert-style series of 10 …

Mapping Women's Movement In Medieval England, Claire Clement

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates women’s geographical movement in medieval England from the perspective of mobility and freedom. It uses pilgrimage accounts from medieval miracle story collections and to gather information about individual travel patterns. The study uses GIS to analyze gendered mobility patterns, and to investigate whether there were noticeable differences in the distance which men and women traveled and the geographical area of the country they originated. It also analyzes the nearness of men’s and women’s respective origin towns to alternative pilgrimage locations, as a means of examining the factors determining gendered travel mobility. The study finds that women’s travel …

Opportunities And Challenges Of Citywide Main Street Programs: Examining The Urban Environment, Coordinating Structures And Political Realities In The Application Of The Four Point Approach, Ryan Rinn

Theses and Dissertations

The Main Street Four Point Approach to commercial revitalization has been applied successfully in thousands of communities across the U.S. Starting in 1995, citywide coordinated programs began applying the balanced points of organization, design, economic restructuring and promotion to urban environments. This thesis focuses on the opportunities and challenges present in five citywide Main Street programs in Boston, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Orlando and Portland through quantitative inquiry and interviews with program administrators. This thesis discusses density, capacity, volunteerism, vernacular culture, and politics as emergent themes of the urban application of the Main Street Approach and recommends expanding the breadth of …

Comparing The Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors Of Native Americans And Non-Native Americans, Franklin Sage

Theses and Dissertations

Are Native Americans different from non-Native Americans when it comes to environmental attitudes and behaviors? Historically and traditionally, Native American preservation of the environment has been interwoven into cultural practice, which led to a special relationship between the environment and Native people. This thesis presents results from a comparative, quantitative study that focuses on Native Americans’ environmental attitudes and behaviors using data from the 1993, 1994, 2000, and 2010 waves of the General Social Survey. The study is framed using multicultural theory, which values the unique standpoint and perspectives of traditionally marginalized groups. This thesis focuses on the standpoints of …

The Validity Of The Group Questionnaire: Construct Clarity Or Construct Drift?, Stephen D. Thayer

Theses and Dissertations

The Group Questionnaire (GQ) is a recently developed measure of the quality of the therapeutic relationship in group treatment. Its 3 subscales-Positive Bonding Relationship, Positive Working Relationship, and Negative Relationship-are taken from a 3-factor conceptualization of the group therapeutic relationship (Johnson et al., 2005). The purpose of the present study was to estimate the GQ's construct and criterion-related validity by 1) replicating the aforementioned factor structure with a similar sample and by 2) correlating the GQ with the measures from which is was derived (i.e., Working Alliance Inventory, Burns Empathy Scale, Therapeutic Factors Inventory, Group Climate Questionnaire) and to 3) …

Socio Demographic And Motivational Differences Between Active Participants And Supporters In Pkk Terrorist Organization, Gokhan Koca

Theses and Dissertations

Especially for last three decades many of the scholars have tried to provide general terrorist profile, which is commonly usable for all terrorists. They were seeking to identify the process of becoming terrorist (Sageman, 2004; Russel&Miller, 1977; Strentz, 1988; Hassan, 2001). The main problem on those studies is that, without looking at degree of involvement of terrorist they just focus on “who becomes a terrorist and why” and they prefer to ignore different type of characteristics about terrorist. Yilmaz (2009) tried to underline and answer this subject by studying on arrest results about DHKP/C and Hizbullah terrorist organizations in Turkey. …

Assessing The Genotoxicity Of Triclosan In Tadpoles Of The American Bullfrog, Lithobates Catesbeianus., David Emery

Theses and Dissertations

Amphibians are particularly sensitive to environmental degradation and, therefore, serve as effective environmental quality indicators. Research has suggested that amphibian declines are exacerbated by manmade environmental toxicants, especially those found in high concentrations in urban areas. The NIH has pinpointed genotoxicity as a major route of cancer causation, and has since developed stringent testing procedures for potentially hazardous chemicals. One such method, recognized for its simplicity and economy, is the micronucleus assay. A study was conducted assessing the genotoxicity of the widely used antimicrobial agent Triclosan to American Bullfrog tadpoles. Lithobates catesbeianus tadpoles were reared in glass aquaria containing ultra-high …

The Eliza-Higgins Model: The Ideology, Rapport And Methods Of Dialect Acquisition, Stacey Cabaj

Theses and Dissertations

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (1912) and its musical adaptation, My Fair Lady (1956) offer 20th century’s most famous example of dialect acquisition: the transformation of Eliza Doolittle under the tutelage of Professor Henry Higgins. The opportunity to work on Barksdale Theatre’s production of My Fair Lady (2012), both as the actress playing Eliza Doolittle and as a dialect coach for the production, prompted an analysis of the dialect pedagogy of Henry Higgins. The centenary of Pygmalion is also a prime juncture to document, in contrast or complement to Higgins’ model, contemporary theories and techniques of dialect pedagogy. Chapter one of …

German Nationalism And The Allegorical Female In Karl Friedrich Schinkel's The Hall Of Stars, Allison Slingting

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I consider Karl Friedrich Schinkel's The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night (1813), a set design of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), in relation to female audiences during a time of Germanic nationalism. Although Schinkel is customarily known as the great modern architect of Germany, his work as a set designer is exceedingly telling of his feelings toward the political and geographical unification of the Germanic regions. Through his set designs, Schinkel successfully used the influential space of the theatre to articulate not only nationalism, but positive female empowerment …

The Effects Of Previous Exposure To Independent Study Courses And Open Courseware On Withdrawal From Subsequent Independent Study Courses, Mary Margaret Dickson Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined factors affecting withdrawal rates using a selection of high school and college-level courses from BYU Independent Study (BYU IS). Exposure to BYU Open Courseware (OCW) curriculum prior to registration had no significant effect on withdrawal rates. Prior enrollment in a BYU IS course had a statistically significant positive effect on withdrawal rates, a surprising result. Further HLM analysis of 83,707 students indicated that at least some of the variability in student withdrawal behavior at the high school level was influenced by prior enrollment, the online course format, and courses offered in the fine arts. For both high …

Community In A Liquid Modern Era, Jeremy S. Flaherty

Theses and Dissertations

The predominant theorists of community in American sociology define community as either geographically confined local solidarities or as networks or relatively close primary ties. These definitions fail to recognize the realities of modern life, let alone life in the context of a global economy. Community according to the earliest community sociologists was a way of organizing society wherein all the social interactions necessary to the reproduction of daily life were embedded in moral relationships, which were historically primary ties located within local solidary communities. With modernity, most of these social interactions have been removed from those moral relationships, and now …

The Correlation Between Land-Use Mixture And Home-Based Trips (The Case Of The City Of Richmond), Yin-Shan Ma

Theses and Dissertations

The city of Richmond has practiced mixed land-use policies to encourage non-private-vehicle commuting for decades based on the successful examples or the empirical evidence of other cities. However, the idea violates one of common logical fallacy—“all things are equal.” Using the indices of land-use diversity, this study explores the correlation between land-use mixture and home-based trip for the city of Richmond. This paper calculates two common indices of land-use mixture—entropy, and dissimilarity. The results indicate that although Richmond’s land-use mixture and home-based trip do have a correlation, the correlation is weak. One possible reason is that socioeconomic actors have a …

Forecasting Effects Of Influence Operations: A Generative Social Science Methodology, Christopher W. Weimer

Theses and Dissertations

Simulation enables analysis of social systems that would be difficult or unethical to experiment upon directly. Agent-based models have been used successfully in the field of generative social science to discover parsimonious sets of factors that generate social behavior. This methodology provides an avenue to explore the spread of anti-government sentiment in populations and to compare the effects of potential Military Information Support Operations (MISO) actions. This research develops an agent-based model to investigate factors that affect the growth of rebel uprisings in a notional population. It adds to the civil violence model developed by Epstein (2006) by enabling communication …

A Benchmarking Study Of Air Force Program Manager Competencies, Kristy N. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, the Department of Defense (DOD) has redesigned its acquisition process and the allocation of funding which in turned has had a major effect on the Air Force Acquisition program management workforce. The current acquisition workforce continues to face serious shortages of highly skilled program managers resulting in programs and projects overrun, undermanaged, and unexplained increased cost. Highly skilled talent with the necessary technology competencies is in high demand. These skills are critical to the success of programs and mission accomplishments.

The purpose of this benchmarking study is to determine if the Air Force are developing and …

A Spatial Risk Analysis Of Oil Refineries Within The United States, Zachary L. Schiff

Theses and Dissertations

A risk analysis methodology is necessary to manage the potential effects of oil refinery outages to the increasingly connected, interdependent critical infrastructure of the United States. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the lack of a critical infrastructure risk mitigation strategy was identified as an area for improvement. In both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina, cascading failures occurred due to the interdependencies among infrastructures and their spatial relationships. Furthermore, the U.S. military is dependent on oil refining capability and a major shortage could potentially have devastating effects on mission accomplishment. As a result, a need has emerged to better …

The Phylogeography Of The Mountain Sucker [Catostomus (Pantosteus) Platyrhynchus], Nina Johanna Laitnen

Theses and Dissertations

Pantosteus, a subgenus of Catostomus, includes the mountain sucker (Catostomus playthyrnchus), whose speculated older origins in the Miocene/Pliocene can provide insight into the ancient geographical events of western North America. We believe that major geologic events influencing the diversification of mountain suckers include the rise of the Colorado Plateau, the connections between the ancient Snake River system and the Lahontan system and subsequently the connection of the Snake River system to the Columbia Basin, dispersal of mountain suckers across the continental divide, as well as the Pleistocene Bonneville flood. If this is true, we should see …

The Efficacy Of Small Multiples In The Visual Language Of Instructional Designs, Douglas B. Stringham

Theses and Dissertations

The visualization strategy of small multiples (Tufte, 1983, 1990, 1997) is not merely the clever or ordered arrangement of similar and personable images; small multiples—purposeful compositions of similarly sized, repeated illustrations—contain a great deal more than the sum of their respective parts. The purpose of this study is to define a set of objectives and guiding tactics for using small multiples in the visual language of instructional designs. This study aims to (1) compile a targeted literature review cataloging the historical treatment of small multiples and their pedagogical and cognitive virtues and (2) analyze examples of small multiples usage in …

Bayesian Pollution Source Apportionment Incorporating Multiple Simultaneous Measurements, Jonathan Casey Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

We describe a method to estimate pollution profiles and contribution levels for distinct prominent pollution sources in a region based on daily pollutant concentration measurements from multiple measurement stations over a period of time. In an extension of existing work, we will estimate common source profiles but distinct contribution levels based on measurements from each station. In addition, we will explore the possibility of extending existing work to allow adjustments for synoptic regimes—large scale weather patterns which may effect the amount of pollution measured from individual sources as well as for particular pollutants. For both extensions we propose Bayesian methods …

Power By Possession: Cuban-American Types And Collecting In The Agüero Sisters, Ashley Noelle Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Although many other ethnic and cultural studies have moved beyond essentialist labels and categories, Cuban-American studies persists in categorizing the people belonging to the cultural group in terms of how much time they have spent in Cuba, thus creating a hierarchy of "authentic" Cuban-ness. Isabel Alvarez Borland gives a comprehensive overview of Cuban-American literary categories, and through her description we can see how these categories may lend themselves to stratification. These categories include: the first generation, the second generation, the one-and-a-halfer, and the ethnic writer. To say that one generation of Cuban exiles is more or less authentically Cuban discounts …