Digital Commons Network^™

Believing Mary Karr, Stephanie Rae Guedet

Theses and Dissertations

Believing Mary Karr examines how belief, represented in the memoirs of Mary Karr, works in our contemporary moment. This examination is supported by the argument that our identities and the stories we tell about them are always constructions of belief, and that these beliefs are ultimately relational, enacted in the intersubjective relationship between writers and readers of autobiography. This dissertation provides the fields of both rhetoric and life writing studies not only an awareness of how ideas about belief—how beliefs about belief—have already shaped our scholarly imagination but also the possibilities a rhetoric of belief can offer to future conversations …

Exploring The Potential To Motivate High School Environmental Science Students With Environmental Justice: A Mixed Methods Approach, Elliott Karetny

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods, design-based study was to explore the potential for socioscientific issues framed by environmental to motivate high school environmental science students. The embedded design began and ended with a survey of student dispositions, and included interviews of particular students in an effort to capture views of general and personal dispositions. Statistical analyses uncovered a moralistic approach to environmental decision-making, and a positive outlook of the future, including the confidence to solve environmental problems. Students revealed an abstract notion of the environment that requires innovative approaches to teaching environmental science, and view scientists as essential change agents …

The Redesign Of School Discipline: One School’S Approach To Rethink And Redesign Discipline Practices Through The Restorative Justice Model, Heath J. Mcfaul

Theses and Dissertations

An over reliance on punitive discipline methods for addressing wrongdoing in schools has caused educational leaders to pause, and consider their alternatives. The enforcement of zero-tolerance policies and the use of corresponding strategies like detentions, suspensions and expulsions, are no longer proving effective. These antiquated efforts focus only on the rules that were broken and the deserved punishment, failing to actually repair relationships and recognize root causes.

In 2014, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan stated, “The need to rethink and redesign school discipline practices is long overdue.” Restorative discipline has emerged as an effective tool that responds to …

A Qualitative Investigation Of Secondary General Education Teachers' Perspectives On Their Involvement In Transition Services, Stephen M. Kwiatek

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory qualitative study was designed to examine the perspectives of secondary general education teachers’ involvement within the transition for all youth, including youth with disabilities. Youth with disabilities continue to find less success than peers without disabilities during postsecondary life. Research has examined special education teachers and transition professionals’ roles within the transition process, but limited research has been conducted relating to general education teachers’ roles. Qualitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews indicate the opportunity for more substantive involvement in transition planning for all students, including those with disabilities. Overall findings suggest that general educators have desired student outcomes …

Determining The Effects Of Sulfur Fertility Levels On Edamame Soybean [ Glycine Max ( L. ) Merrill ] Protein Components, Theoneste Nzaranyimana

Theses and Dissertations

Edamame [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] a vegetable type soybean is harvested and consumed before reaching its maturity stage (R6). Its health properties drew attention to U.S. consumers because of its high protein content. Proteins are the major structural component of all cells in the living organisms. They are made of essential and non-essential amino acids which play a big role in growth and development and are source of energy. Proteins act as enzymes, antibodies, and hormones and blood protein. Sulfur (S) is a component of the amino acids cysteine (Cys) and methionine (Met) which are the building blocks for proteins. …

Examining The Career Transitions And Transformations Of An Urban Educator, Frank E. Penick Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the critical career transitions that transformed who I am on both personal and professional levels during my fifteen-year teaching career as an urban educator. This autoethnographic research approach systematically analyzed and described personal experiences within the broader cultural context (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2010), utilizing Scholssberg's (1995) Transition Theory, as an analytical framework. I found that engaging in this autoethnographic study increased my awareness of the situations, self, support, and strategies (Schlossberg, 1995) impacting the career transitions I navigated throughout my career. I also found that this narrative examination fostered a deeper …

Self-Regulated Learning And Self-Efficacy In Prekindergarten Students, Leonard Wayne Long

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand prekindergarten teacher perceptions of self-regulation and to investigate how prekindergarten students regulate their learning.

Research entailed video recorded observations of prekindergarten students engaged in social-cognitive behaviors during centers. The Creative Curriculum - one of several State recommended programs for prekindergarten - provided the foundational guidelines for teachers to incorporate into daily lessons - one of which is for students to play in organized centers. Naturalistic observations were conducted in five-minute intervals per student and coded according to The Play Observation Scale. During play, students' activities were coded according to interaction with …

Intervention Effects Of An Eating Disorder Prevention Program Utilized By A Public University, Krista B. Deceault

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Negative body image, disordered eating, and eating disorders affect large numbers of young women each year. The use of dissonance-based eating disorder prevention programs in college-aged women has been shown to improve how women feel about their bodies and better equip women for challenging stereotypes that exist in the culture today.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the intervention strategies of the “Body Project,” an eating disorder prevention program, and assess the effectiveness on reducing five eating disorder risk factors; thin-ideal internalization, diet restraint, body dissatisfaction, negative affect, and eating disorder symptoms.

Design: Two years of …

Identifying The Brain Mechanisms Encoding Trust Behaviors, Gokce Hazaroglu

Theses and Dissertations

Early life trauma may disrupt the family dynamic by altering trust. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the brain mechanisms that encode trust. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researchers are currently conducting a triadic cooperative experiment (TCE) while participants’ brain activity is concurrently being recorded via a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. The TCE is a socioeconomic task in which two caregivers and an adolescent take turns transferring wealth to each other which is multiplied by a constant factor. The task encourages cooperation between participants by first, randomly assigning who must give wealth on any …

Electronic Apprenticeship In The Social Construction Of Teacher Knowledge: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Online Learning, Michelle Anne Elliott

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic case study sought to understand the complex social phenomena of reflective practice for increasing teacher knowledge through an online learning community. This study adapted the cognitive apprenticeship model for use in the design of online professional development for teachers. The activity system engaged 13 veteran reading teachers from three different school districts participating in weekly online focused discussion and reflection. These activities served as the core of the 12-week online intervention for inquiry teaching. Three research questions framed the study: 1) How do teachers perceive the effectiveness of participating in an online activity system toward professional reflection? 2) …

Understanding Disease Network Associations Using Biological And Molecular Networks, Ravi Teja Mahavrathayajula

Theses and Dissertations

Background The genome project had given us a brief view of what and how an organ is made up of. In 2000’s after the genome project, every year the FDA approved around 100 drugs and was an estimate that these numbers would grow up each year, unlike the numbers only decreased. Hence, it was concluded that these facts would not be necessary, as diseases were treated with respect to the organs effected. With a growing data of molecular interaction in a cell or tissue type, proteomic, genomic, and metabolic data, will the old classification still hold good? These large-scale data …

Superconvergence Of A Modified Weak Galerkin Approximation For Second Order Elliptic Problems By L^2 Projection Method, Betul Bogrek

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the general superconvergence result of a modified weak Galerkin finite element approximation for the second order elliptic problem by using L^2 projection method is introduced. The novel weak Galerkin finite element method, which was first proposed and analyzed by Wang J. and Ye X., uses the appropriately defined weak functions and discrete weak gradients on arbitrary shapes for higher order polynomial functions. The modified weak Galerkin finite element method was introduced by Wang X. & et al. It reduces the number of unknowns by modifying weak functions from the weak Galerkin finite element method. The superconvergence for …

Construction And Comparison Of The Recombinant Strains Of Synechocystis Sp. Pcc 6803 Able To Grow On Wood Sugars, Saurabh Jayant Ranade

Theses and Dissertations

The wood sugars present in the lignocellulosic biomass can be used to support microbial growth to synthesize a number of value added products. The objective of this research was to metabolically engineer model cyanobacterium Synechocystis to enable it to harvest carbon and energy stored in the wood sugars in addition to the light energy. In the xylose-specific work, we generated five Synechocystis strains that heterologously expressed XylAB enzymes, which mediate xylose catabolism, either in combination with or without one of four xylose transporters, namely XylE, XylFGH, GalP, or Glf. In terms of dry biomass accumulation and xylose consumption, the strains …

A Mother's Madness: One Child's Journey Out Of Darkness, Wendy Kay Mccloud

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is the story of a recalcitrant mother and me, her unwitting daughter, as I desperately tried to survive her insanity while growing up. It is a healing narrative, a therapeutic method accepted by mental health professionals around the world, allowing myself to express the rage and frustration towards a woman who should have been loving and nurturing instead was cold and neglectful. This healing narrative is one small step towards letting go of the years old anger and frustration inside me. It is a cathartic attempt to find internal peace and understanding for a woman who battled inner …

Life-History And Energetics Of The Diamond-Backed Watersnake, Jeremy David Chamberlain

Theses and Dissertations

Life-history research explores how environmental variation and physiological constraints shift the energy allocation decisions to competing functions of the body among individuals and populations. Variation in the energy available across the environmental landscape is of particular interest as it dictates the amount energy available for organisms to acquire and allocate to their life-history. Additionally, individuals vary in their ability to capture and assimilate energy from the environment. This dissertation seeks to understand how environmental variation in energy availability and physiological constraints of attaining this energy shape allocation decisions among individuals and populations. I examined diamond-backed watersnakes (Nerodia rhombifer) from five …

Making Sense Of School Reform: A Case Study Of Mathematics And Science Teachers' Sensemaking With One District's Differentiation And Detracking Initiatives, Katelyn Daplyn Skinner

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to examine how individual science and mathematics teachers within a particular high school made sense of a district differentiation effort. A focus on teachers' perceptions and interpretations of this effort was targeted through the theoretical framework of sensemaking. Two of the teachers were present for an initial detracking reform effort, which enabled the researcher to examine their sensemaking of both initiatives.

There were clear differences in the sense that teachers made of the differentiation initiative. Additionally, there were multiple factors that impacted teacher sensemaking; the district initiative was not one of these factors. …

Lake Powell Food Web Structure: Predicting Effects Of Quagga Mussel, Joshua A. Verde

Theses and Dissertations

Food webs in aquatic ecosystems can be dramatically altered by invasive species. Quagga mussels are prevalent invaders that compete with existing species and disrupt nutrient cycling. In 2012, the Quagga Mussel (Dreissena rostriformus bugensis) was introduced into Lake Powell and is expected to move throughout the reservoir in the near future. Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool for characterizing food webs and trophic interactions. To predict the long-term effects of Quagga Mussels, we used stable isotope analysis of primary producers, primary consumers, prey fish species, and predator fish species in Lake Powell to determine food web structure. …

Phylogenetics, Biogeography, And Patterns Of Diversification Of Geckosacross The Sunda Shelf With An Emphasis On The Genuscnemaspis (Strauch, 1887), Perry Lee Wood

Theses and Dissertations

In my dissertation I investigate two genera of geckos (Cyrtodactylus and Cnemaspis) that are distributed across Southeast Asia with an emphasis on Cnemaspis. In Chapter 1 I use a multilocus dataset, ancestral area analyses, and molecular clock dating to generate a species level time calibrated phylogeny to test the monophyly of Cyrtodactylus and to identify major biogeographical patterns. I identified that Cyrtodactylus is monophyletic only if the the Sri Lankan genus often recognized as Geckoella is included. The results of the Biogeographical analyses reveal a west to east pattern of diversification. Chapter 2 I use a traditional morphological dataset to …

The Mediating Role Of Relational Aggression Between Neuroticism And Couple Attachment And Relationship Quality In Long-Term Committed Relationships, Sarah Annis Eliason

Theses and Dissertations

Much of the literature regarding relational aggression in romantic relationships has focused on the behaviors and outcomes of the actor and victim independently. Additionally, the relationships studied usually cover emerging adult samples, and rarely expand to long-term committed relationships, such as cohabiting or married couples. In this paper I sought to determine if relationally aggressive behaviors in long-term committed relationships over time resulted as a function of individual predictors (e.g. neuroticism), or as a process of couple interactions (e.g. couple attachment); and how these traits directly and indirectly (through relational aggression) influenced relationship quality. An Actor Partner Independence Model (APIM) …

The Perceptual Learning Style Preferences Of Hispanic Students In Higher Education, Catherine Johnston Lui

Theses and Dissertations

This paper addresses the question of whether higher education Hispanic students of different nationalities have different perceptual learning style preferences. Independent samples t-tests findings suggest the country of origin of a Hispanic student's parents has a statistically significant relationship (n=165, p<0.0073) with student's learning style preferences. ANOVA results also identified a statistically significant relationship between SES and group learning style (p<0.004,) and between visual learning style and two factors: age (p<0.011) and family education (p<0.033).

Differences In The Motivations Of Chinese Learners Of English In Different (Foreign Or Second Language) Contexts, Rui Li

Theses and Dissertations

This study employed the L2 Motivational Self-System (Dörnyei, 2005) as a framework to compare differences in the types of motivation reported by Chinese learners of English in a foreign language context (China) and a second language context (USA). It followed up on studies by Taguchi, Magid, and Papi (2009) and You and Dörnyei (2016). The participants consisted of 61 current students at an American university who come from Mainland China. This study adopted a mixed-method approach, using an internet-based questionnaire followed by an individual interview. The investigation aimed to explore what types of English learning motivation Chinese students have in …

Are Cardiovascular Disease Inflammatory Markers Elevated In Those With Nonspecific Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain Compared To Nonpain Case Controls?, Jeffrey Ray Tolley

Theses and Dissertations

CONTEXT: Recent studies have considered the role of inflammation in the development of both cardiovascular disease (CVD) and musculoskeletal conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis. Studies suggest that inflammation plays a significant role in the development of cardiovascular disease. In conditions of chronic pain, as with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation has also been noted through elevated levels of inflammatory markers. There are currently no studies that examine the possible connection between inflammatory markers related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and nonspecific chronic musculoskeletal pain (NCMP). OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether urinary levels of microalbumin (MA) and …

Ecological And Genetic Variation Among Populations Of Boechera Caeruleamontana Sp. Nov. (Brassicaceae) From Blue Mountain And Dinosaur National Monumentin Eastern Utah And Western Colorado, Melissa Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

Boechera is a large genus of flowering plants whose taxa are found primarily in North America. Boechera vivariensis (S.L. Welsh) W.A. Weber (the Park rockcress) is restricted to the Uintah Basin on Weber sandstone substrates in the vicinity of Dinosaur National Monument and Blue Mountain. The nomenclature of Park rockcress is significantly impacted by the discovery that the type collections of the taxon represent a rare, apomictic diploid resulting from the hybridization between B. thompsonii and an undescribed sexual diploid (to be called Boechera caeruleamontana sp. nov. Allphin and Windham). As a result, greater information is needed regarding how B. …

Decellularization And Recellularization Processes For Whole Porcine Kidneys, Nafiseh Poornejad

Theses and Dissertations

Concern over kidney disease has increased dramatically in recent years within the medical community. It is estimated that approximately one in fifteen Americans, nearly 20 million people, experience chronic kidney disease with most of those diagnosed progressing to kidney failure. The ultimate treatment available for end stage renal failure is whole kidney transplantation. However, there are very few kidneys available for patients to receive and those patients who are fortunate enough to receive an organ must remain on immunosuppressive medication for the remainder of their lives. The United States Department of Health & Human Services have reported that 18 people …

Nabataean Subadult Mortuary Practices, Courtney Dotson Ewert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides the beginnings of further research on the correlation between Nabataean mortuary practices and specific biological age ranges. It seeks to answer the question of whether Nabataean infants were absent from, or under-represented, in Nabataean cemeteries. Several quantitative analyses and descriptive statistics were performed, comparing Nabataean adult and subadult burials from fourteen sites. Nabataean cemetery populations were also compared with Walter Scheidel's model life table. These analyses demonstrate that Nabataean burials typically consisted of either a single adult or multiple individuals of various age ranges. Subadults, individuals under the age of 20 years, were rarely found buried by …

Smartphone Usage And Religiosity In Lds Young Adults, Matthew R. Fereday

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to identify any smartphone usage with significant positive or negative relationships with the religiosity of LDS young adults, with the hypothesis that smartphone usage would indeed have significant relationships with religiosity, both positively and negatively. Over 1,000 BYU students were surveyed for their usage of 36 popular and religious apps and of 33 different categories of content consumption, their content sharing, and compulsive use. That data was compared with their private religiosity (prayer, scripture study, and thinking seriously about religion) and religious experience (strength of beliefs, feeling the Spirit, finding strength through their faith, etc.) BYU students' …

A Physical And Computational Comparison Of Floating Breakwater Design Efficiencies For Habitat Restoration In The Indian River Lagoon, Abigail Lynn Stehno

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the design and implementation of floating breakwaters (FB) in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) to support and protect living shoreline restoration projects from damaging wave climates. The design significant wave climate of the IRL in a 0.6 m water depth had an incident significant wave height of 0.20 m with a wave period of 1.6 s. Based on previous studies, it has been found that habitat restoration will be successful if the wave height is reduced from 0.20 m to 0.10 m with the use of a FB structure. FB structures attenuate wave energies and are transportable, …

English Language Learners Transitioning From High School To College: A Case Study On The Upward Bound Program For Ells At Rowan University, Margarita Olivencia

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine and document the role the Upward Bound program played in Upward Bound alumni's transition from high school to Rowan University applying Maeroff's (1999) four-sense model of effective educational programs. This study gave ELL Upward Bound alumni students a voice using a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. A total of 10 former Upward Bound alumni were interviewed, all of who were current Rowan students. Key findings of the study indicate that the Upward Bound program contributed to their academic, social development, and motivation to seek institutions of higher learning and played a significant …

“I Did N’T Even Think Of This ”: Examining The Influence Of Student Disability Accommodation Training On Basic Course Instructor Attitudes And Self-Efficacy, Jillian A. Joyce

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing number of students with disabilities in the university setting, few resources are offered to teach instructors about specific disabilities or provide direction for how to accommodate these students. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the influence of disability accommodation training on basic communication course instructors’ attitudes and self-efficacy regarding students with disabilities. The training used attribution theory as a lens to specifically focus on stuttering, a disability that is often stigmatized and uniquely affects the basic communication course classroom. I gathered pre-test and posttest data from 12 basic course instructors who attended the training …

Open Mic: A Documentary Film Exploring Humorous Narratives, Ryan T. Cashman

Theses and Dissertations

This documentary investigates hardship and identity through humor. The film shadows the lives of three individuals who are all going through a watershed experience with their identities ranging from changes in their family dynamics, gender, or environment. Participants will be writing and performing a stand-up routine in front of a live audience that focuses on a story about their identity. The film underscores how, or if, the sender’s use of humor helps them cope or achieve closure. The film does not explore the audience’s reaction to humor. Using in-depth interviews with each comic, the film centers around the sender, highlighting …