Digital Commons Network^™

The Severe Weather Knowledge Of College Students In The State Of Mississippi, David Joseph Nussbaum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify how knowledgeable the students of Mississippi are of severe weather. The state of Mississippi is ranked second in the nation with the total number of deaths per state per year. The state also ranks among the top 10 of all states with number of tornadoes per state and cost of damage per state. Considering the facts mentioned above, a study was designed to discover if the students were taught severe weather awareness while they progressed through their twelve years of elementary and secondary schooling. A survey was created through the research of …

A Library Use Study Of Deptford High School Seniors' English Paper Resources, Anne Denning

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the resources used by high school students enrolled in honors, college preparatory, and general English courses in the completion of their research papers. This applied research study was conducted with the use of a written questionnaire, which was administered to Deptford High School seniors of all academic levels in their English classes. The population and sample of this study were one and the same, 213 Deptford High School senior English students. All seniors attending English class on the day the survey was administered comprised the sample. No attempt was made …

Budget Expenditures Of High School Library Media Centers In Southern New Jersey, Patricia V. Glave

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the expenditures of southern New Jersey high school library media centers for the 2001-2002 school year. The applied research design employed mailed questionnaires to collect data from the sample of library media specialists from all public high schools in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, and Salem counties in New Jersey. Descriptive survey research and statistics were used to describe the characteristics of expenditures in print, non-print and electronic resources for 56 responses. Relationships between expenditures and socioeconomic rank were discussed, as were sources of funding.

As a region, public high school library media centers …

The Past In The Future: A Content Analysis Applying S. R. Ranganathan's Five Laws Of Library Science To Libraries And Information Services In Young Adult Science Fiction, Bruce Duboff

Theses and Dissertations

S. R. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science are considered the basis of modem library philosophy. They have remained after over seventy years as the seminal concepts by which other library science guidelines are judged. However, the world has changed dramatically since 1931, and these laws, along with Ranganathan's philosophy, may be in jeopardy of obsolescence.

What has science fiction written about future libraries? Speculative library and information trends and issues like those discussed in science fiction literature are relevant not only for librarians, but for society as well as it wrestles with the issue of information overload.

This study …

The Effects Of Collaboration Between The Elementary Teacher And Educational Media Specialist On Non-Required Student Library Usage, Kimberly A. Mccauley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not there was a difference in third grade students' non-required school library uses if collaboration on a weekly basis between the educational media specialist and classroom teacher was present. The study contained one experimental group, consisting of one class of third grade students who received collaborative instruction and one comparison group who did not. A comparison of these two groups' non-required library use and their circulation habits, as well as the types of activities they participated in when they were in the library led to the following results: Increased exposure …

The Educational Role Of United States Holocaust Museums/Centers, Christie Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

There are almost three hundred Holocaust museums/centers in the United States whose precise function is unclear. This study of 131 participants was concerned with what materials/resources were in their collection and what educational programs were offered. The electronic mail survey also asked: Who is able to use their collection? Who uses it most frequently? Where do they get funding? What is their main objective: preserve history or educate the public? The results showed that United States Holocaust museums/centers see themselves as responsible for education and furthering public understanding of the Holocaust. There are different angles future research about the relationship …

Minor League Baseball Pr Guidelines: Techniques For First Year Class A Teams, John Sadak

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to accumulate information relative to the various public relations practices, methods and procedures utilized by the 60 Class A Minor League Baseball teams and to determine the extent of common public relations elements. Although the 60 teams are located in different markets, results of interviews and surveys of the teams led the author to conclude that some current practices are common among them.

Phone interviews were conducted with four practitioners to determine a preliminary list of items important to a Minor League Baseball promotional campaign. From that list a survey was created and mailed …

Designing Active Smart Features To Provide Nesting Forces In Exactly Constrained Assemblies, Eric Pearce

Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the design and manufacture of products moved from the craftsman era where individual craftsman designed and manufactured the entire product, to the mass production era, where skilled laborers were crafting interchangeable parts or in some cases single features on interchangeable parts, variation in assemblies has been a major concern to designers, manufacturers, and in a more subtle way, customers. Variation, in the end, affects quality, performance and the cost of products. One particular type of design that is particularly robust to variation is an exactly constrained design.

Several researchers have recently explored the topic of exact constraint design. …

A Study Of Ten Sadist Women For Signs Of Specific Patterns Throughout The School Years, Orlando Bru

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover whether there was a specific pattern apparent in the school years of lifestyle sadist women that caused them to become sadists. The results showed no specific pattern that would lead one to believe there was a cause but some irregular percentages did appear, such as in high percentages of abuse and not fitting in with fellow students in school. Eighty percent of the participants involved reported their sadist interest being inborn however, of which more than half were abused after they already knew they were sadists. These results are discussed along with …

Socioeconomics, Self-Esteem And Locus Of Control In Third Grade Students, Kathryn S. Gipe

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between third grade students' socioeconomic status and their corresponding levels of self-esteem and locus of control. Students who received free or reduced lunch were determined as lower socioeconomic status as compared to those who paid full price for their lunch. Five third grade classes were chosen in a suburban area of Philadelphia. One hundred children were used for the study. Seventy-two children were recipients of free or reduced lunch and twenty-eight paid full price for their lunches. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was given as a measure of self-esteem and the …

Kiosk Engine: A Platform Independent Solution For Multimedia Kiosks, Manish Satish Shah

Theses and Dissertations

In today's fast paced life saving time is the first priority of every business organization and presenting information visually is a highly desirable and the easiest way to impressively communicate to people. For that purpose, there are interactive devices called kiosks, which display multimedia data on a display and are quite often attached to other input/output hardware like keyboard, mouse, printer, etc. Most of today's kiosks are custom made and are designed for specific set of target platform. The task of creating a kiosk can turn out to be difficult and fairly time consuming. The aim of this thesis is …

The Role Of The School Administrators In Supporting Teachers In The Integration Of Educational Technology Into K-12 Classrooms, Lisa M. Christensen Feldner

Theses and Dissertations

While the role of the administrator has been regarded as significant in school improvement activities, little information exists which describes the specific roles and responsibilities of the administrator as a technology leader. This study is based on the premise that the role of the school administrator is crucial to the successful introduction and use of technology in the K-12 classroom. The purpose of the study was to examine relationships that may reflect the influence school administrators have on teachers’ technology integration competencies. The study used transformational leadership theory, specifically Kouzes and Posner’s (1985) five leadership practices, to examine the leadership …

A Taxonomy Of E-Commerce Risks And Failures, Giridharan Vilangadu Vijayaraghavan

Theses and Dissertations

Imagine being asked to test an e-commerce website. If you haven't tested one before, where would you start? What experience would you draw on? Where would you look for more information? Even very experienced testers have blind spots when they try to generate test ideas for an application that they have not tested. This thesis presents a simple outline that will help you generate test ideas and limit your blind spots. The outline is the result of about 18 months of research on classifying e-commerce related failures and risks. The result has 45 top-level categories and 700+ examples of errors …

Teachers And Parents Perception Of How Exposure Computers May Affect The Social Development Of Young Children, Jo-Anne A. Yearwood

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of "Ideal" Images Of Women In The Media: Differences Between College Women Living In Sorority Houses And College Women Living In Residence Halls In The Perceptions And Effects Of Media Images Of Women, Sarah J. Bernhardt

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the differences between college women living in sorority houses and college women living in residence halls in their perceptions of media images and how those perceptions are related to self-esteem, body image, and sociocultural attitudes toward appearance. One hundred thirty four college women living in either sorority houses or residence halls were placed into two groups who either viewed neutral images or those of "ideal" images of women in the media. The groups were randomly assigned and participation was voluntary. It was hypothesized that women living in sorority houses were more negatively affected by images of women …

How Can Technology Be Used To Improve Instruction And Student Learning?, Frank Corley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to research techniques for integrating technology into the curriculum in order to improve the learning of the students. This was accomplished through analyzing material submitted by the Clearview Middle School's teachers and through the research of the intern. Four different requests for technology information were distributed to the teachers. Only 10% of the teachers submitted material for the handbook. The limited amount of information received after the requests resulted in a technology questionnaire that was used to define the teachers' technology aptitudes and determine how technology was being utilized in the school. The results …

Analysis Of Small Learning Communities On Suburban Schools, Matthew G. Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

Students in large schools are getting lost. In a school of over 2300 students, it is very easy for a student, who does not excel academically or athletically or those students who gain attention through negative behavior, to blend into the student body for four years without being noticed. Across the nation the move to create smaller learning communities has been an attempt to solve the ills that plague our inner city schools. The intended question of this study is whether or not the smaller learning communities will have the same measurable impact in a suburban district.

The data collected …

Analysis Of Instructional Technology In The Runnemede School District, David Gentile

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the effectiveness of technology as a tool of instructional delivery. The results informed teachers, administrators, and board members of their current technology status and served in the development of future goals. The goal of the study was to survey the professional teaching staff to gather input and create a focus group to analyze the results.

The Intern surveyed the professional teaching staff at the Volz Middle School to assess how technology was being used to deliver instruction in the Runnemede Public School District. The Intern interviewed a focus group to …

Distance Learning In The Pitman School District: A Window On The World, Marsha K. Hahn

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how a well-developed procedure to facilitate the use of distance learning technology would impact teaching practice and student achievement at Pitman High School. As part of the action research, the intern conducted a survey using a questionnaire that employed a Likert-type format. The population for the study consisted of a sample of the teaching staff from Pitman Schools representing an elementary school, middle and high school. Each of these schools had distance learning technology available. The intern analyzed the results of the survey, and computed the mean response to each question for …

Protecting Sensitive Credential Content During Trust Negotiation, Ryan D. Jarvis

Theses and Dissertations

Keeping sensitive information private in a public world is a common concern to users of digital credentials. A digital credential may contain sensitive attributes certifying characteristics about its owner. X.509v3, the most widely used certificate standard, includes support for certificate extensions that make it possible to bind multiple attributes to a public key contained in the certificate. This feature, although convenient, potentially exploits the certificate holder's private information contained in the certificate. There are currently no privacy considerations in place to protect the disclosure of attributes in a certificate. This thesis focuses on protecting sensitive credential content during trust negotiation …

An External Communication Audit Of The National Tropical Botanical Garden, Jennifer Melody Murdock

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents the results of an external communication audit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG), a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical plant diversity. Information was gathered during the communication audit through interviews with NTBG's key decision makers, content analyses of NTBG's primary publications, and a questionnaire measuring the public-organization relationship.

The audit assesses NTBG's external communication policies, practices, capabilities, and needs in the context of systems theory and external relations strategic planning theories. The findings of the audit identify who NTBG considers its target publics and how well they are reaching certain audiences. …

International Advertising And The Use Of The Sex Appeal: Acceptance Of Sex Appeal In China, Katie Hunt

Theses and Dissertations

China is the most populated country in the world. With a population of over a billion people, it is an attractive market to many companies. However, China has traditionally been a market that was difficult to access due to its communist government and strict regulations. In 1978, China began changing the economy from a centrally planned system to a more market-oriented economy. By 2001, "China stood as the second largest economy in the world after the U.S., measured on a purchasing power parity basis" (World Factbook, 2002). China is a strong business partner with the U.S.; 21% of China's exports …

The Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model For Dynamic Predictions Of Macro And Micro Compliant Mechanisms, Scott Marvin Lyon

Theses and Dissertations

This work discusses the dynamic predictions of compliant mechanisms using the Pseudo-Rigid-Body model (PRBM). In order to improve the number of mechanisms that can be modeled, this research develops and identifies several key concepts in the behavior of beam segments where both ends are fixed to a rigid body (fixed-fixed flexible segments). A model is presented, and several examples are discussed. The dynamic behavior of several compliant segments is predicted using the PRBM and the results are compared to finite element analysis and experimental results. Details are presented as to the transient behavior of a typical uniform rectangular cross section …

Has Technology Created A Safer School Environment?, Mark Leung

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was two-fold. It was to determine and evaluate the effectiveness of technological advances on the maintenance operations of a school district's facilities. It was also to determine and evaluate the types, amounts, and locations of technology equipment implementations in school districts and how these implementations have affected the school environment's overall safety.

Forty-two school districts in Burlington County, New Jersey were surveyed using a questionnaire with twenty-two queries. The survey targeted Directors of Buildings and Grounds and the surveys were distributed and collected via electronic-mail or facsimile. The survey data was analyzed using the SPSS …

Innovative Scheduling, Brian J. Barg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop an academic schedule that was well-thought, thorough, consistent, and beneficial to students' academic achievement. The use of a block scheduling formula for the high school meant providing students and teachers with an opportunity to innovatively and creatively interact in the learning process, while using time-on-task in an efficient manner. Utilizing an innovative schedule determined how teachers used pedagogy to improve academic performance. Innovative scheduling made a contribution to scholarly research, scholarly work, student interest, and cooperative learning.

The intern reviewed research regarding the advantages of block scheduling. In order to gather input …

An Integration Approach To Character Education In The High School, Janet T. Farrell

Theses and Dissertations

Character education provides many opportunities for students to learn how to be responsible citizens in their schools and communities by developing moral and virtuous traits. However, this path to maturity seems to create many challenges for today's students. Recent events in public schools and today's society have demonstrated that society has failed to adequately help students to meet these challenges. Although blame can be placed on the family or schools, schools must address the dilemma and try to correct it. The implementation of a character education program at the high school level and the incorporation of this program into the …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Crisis Management For The Staff Of The Uptown School Complex, Michele Tourigian-Mcgettigan

Theses and Dissertations

The Uptown School Complex has a crisis management plan that needs to be reviewed, updated, and practiced by staff members. In the past year, our country has gone through radical changes with security and crisis management that also need to be addressed in our schools. The focus of this study is to ensure that all staff members are aware of the current crisis management plan and to revise and update the plan.

The purpose of this study is to provide a highly effective organizational unit for dealing with a variety of crises by evaluating the effectiveness of the current crisis …

Reconstruction Of The Temperature Profile Along A Blackbody Optical Fiber Thermometer, David Gary Barker

Theses and Dissertations

A blackbody optical fiber thermometer consists of an optical fiber whose sensing tip is given a metallic coating. The sensing tip of the fiber forms an isothermal cavity, and the emission from this cavity is approximately equal to the emission from a blackbody. Standard two-color optical fiber thermometry involves measuring the spectral intensity at the end of the fiber at two wavelengths. The temperature at the sensing tip of the fiber can then be inferred using Planck's law and the ratio of the spectral intensities. If, however, the length of the optical fiber is exposed to elevated temperatures, erroneous temperature …

Sculpting: An Improved Inside-Out Scheme For All Hexahedral Meshing, Kirk S. Walton

Theses and Dissertations

Generating all hexahedral meshes on arbitrary geometries has been an area of important research in recent history. Hexahedral meshes have advantages over tetrahedral meshes in structural mechanics because they provide more accurate results with fewer degrees of freedom. Many different approaches have been used to create all-hexahedral meshes. Grid-based, inside-out, or superposition meshing all refer to a similar meshing approach that is a very common mesh generation technique. Grid-based algorithms provide the ability to generate all hexahedral meshes by introducing a structured mesh that bounds the complete body modeled, marking hexahedra to define an interior and exterior mesh, manipulating the …

Why Do Scientists And Engineers Leave/Stay?, Jeff Burgess

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.