Digital Commons Network^™

Effectiveness Of "Counseling As A Related Service" In Hawaii's Public Schools As Measured By The Behavior Assessment System For Children, Second Edition (Basc-2), Gregory A. Lobb

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the effectiveness of "counseling as a related service" in Hawaii's public schools by examining the improvement on a teacher rating scale and also examining counseling minutes received by these same students. This study utilized 346 students receiving Level 4 and Level 5 services who were first refereed for "counseling as a related service" during the first quarter of 2055. Improvement is measured using the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition (BASC-2) (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). Findings revealed that counseling interventions indicated statistically significant change in T Scores on the BASC-2 from Pre assessment to Post assessment. …

Enhanced Iris Recognition: Algorithms For Segmentation, Matching And Synthesis, Samir Shah

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis addresses the issues of segmentation, matching, fusion and synthesis in the context of irises and makes a four-fold contribution. The first contribution of this thesis is a post matching algorithm that observes the structure of the differences in feature templates to enhance recognition accuracy. The significance of the scheme is its robustness to inaccuracies in the iris segmentation process. Experimental results on the CASIA database indicate the efficacy of the proposed technique. The second contribution of this thesis is a novel iris segmentation scheme that employs Geodesic Active Contours to extract the iris from the surrounding structures. The …

Application Of A Statistical Zonation Technique To Granny Creek Field In West Virginia, Venkata Kristamsetty

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The significance of dividing the sedimentary intervals into flow units reflects groups of rocks that has similar geologic, physical properties and depositional environment that affect fluid flow. Variations in rock properties result from depositional, diagenetic and post-depositional changes. A flow unit is a volume of a reservoir rock that is continuous laterally and vertically and has similar averages of those rock properties that affect fluid flow.;In this study, a statistical zonation technique developed by Testerman to identify and describe naturally occurring zones in a reservoir is applied to Granny Creek field in West Virginia. This technique is particularly useful in …

Collective Action By Women’S Groups To Combat Drought And Poverty In Northern Kenya, D. Layne Coppock, Solomon Desta, Getachew Gebru, Adan Wako, Ibrahim Aden, Chachu Tadecha, Seyoum Tezera

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Collective action can be an effective means of local development and risk reduction among rural people, but few examples have been documented in pastoral areas. We conducted extensive interviews for 16 women’s groups residing in northern Kenya. Our objectives were to understand how groups were formed, governed, and sustained and what activities they have pursued. The groups we interviewed were 10 years old, on average. Charter memberships averaged about 24 women, 20 of whom were illiterate. Half of the groups formed after facilitation by a development partner and half formed spontaneously. Groups are governed under detailed constitutional frameworks with elected …

Community Perceptions Concerning Key Ecological Resources At Risk In Baringo District, Kenya, D. Layne Coppock, Mark N. Mutinda, Abdillahi A. Aboud

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Key ecological resources in arid and semi-arid lands are often characterized by small patches of seasonal grazing and important water points that lend critical support to entire production systems. When key resources are degraded or lost, production systems can be badly compromised. The Baringo District of north-central Kenya is well known for enduring decades of environmental degradation and food relief. As an initial part of an effort to map and characterize key ecological resources at risk in Baringo, we interviewed 136 resident leaders from pastoral and agro-pastoral areas. We asked them to identify and rank their most vulnerable ecological resources, …

Public Engagement To Prioritize The Pastoral Research Agenda At The Pastoral And Agro-Pastoral Research Center Of Oari In Ethiopia, D. Layne Coppock, Getachew Gebru, Lemma Gizachew, Sintayehu Mesele, Mohammed Hassena, Solomon Desta

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The Oromia Agricultural Research Institute (OARI) has a mandate to conduct agricultural and livestock research throughout the Regional State of Oromia in Ethiopia. OARI has recently opened a facility near Yabello town on the Borana Plateau called the Pastoral and Agro-Pastoral Research Center. A meeting was held in August 2006 at Yabello that involved representatives from pastoral communities, the private sector, government, and non-governmental organizations. The aim was to engage stakeholders in a process of problem prioritization and set the stage to create new partnerships to better address pressing problems. The final priorities included: addressing a general decline in forage …

Variability In Selecting Lateral Cephalometric Landmarks In Two Cbct Image Modes, Dana Nguyen

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the variability of lateral cephalometric landmark selection in two cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) lateral cephalometric simulations: 1) a mean projection image (MPI) and 2) a serial sagittal slice image (SSSI).

Methods: A MPI is a two-dimensional (2D) image obtained from the NewTom 3G^TM CBCT that resembles the conventional lateral cephalogram. A SSSI is a 2D image also obtained from CBCT data, but is created by superimposing a series of selected thin sagittal slices containing the required cephalometric landmarks. This study compared the Ricketts and Steiner analysis of the MPI …

Differential Induction Of Proteins In Anopheles Gambiae Sensu Stricto (Diptera: Culicidae) Larvae In Response To Heavy Metal Selection, Paul Odhiambo Mireji, Joseph Keating, Eucharia Kenya, Charles Mbogo, Hudson Nyambaka, Ellie Osir, John Githure, John Beier

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Investigations were conducted to establish the magnitude and pattern of differential expression of proteins due to generational selection of third instar Anopheles gambiae s.s. Giles larvae by cadmium, copper and lead heavy metals, the three possible common urban pollutants. A susceptible strain of A. gambiae s.s. third instar larvae was separately placed under selection pressure with cadmium, copper and lead at LC30 and controls through five generations. First, third and fifth generation selection survivors were screened for differentially expressed proteins relative to non-exposed control by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Distribution patterns of the spots were analyzed by χ2 or Fishers' exact …

Discussing Laddering Application By The Means-End Chain Theory, Tânia Modesto Veludo-De-Oliveira, Ana Akemi Ikeda, Marcos Cortez Campomar

The Qualitative Report

This article aims at analyzing laddering as a technique of qualitative research, emphasizing the procedures for data collection, analysis and interpretation, and its main limitations as well. “Laddering refers to an in-depth, one-on-one interviewing technique used to develop an understanding of how consumers translate the attributes of products into meaningful associations with respect to self, following means-end theory” (Reynolds & Gutman, 1988, p. 12). The critical literature review shows that laddering is useful in studies on human behavior, especially those related to the Means-End Chain (MEC) model. For a successful application, highly trained interviewers, homogeneous groups of respondents, and the …

The Pre-Conceptual Map Methodology: Development And Application, Shellie Hipsky

The Qualitative Report

The objective of this article is to present the Pre-Conceptual Map methodology as a formalized way to identify, document, and utilize preconceived assumptions on the part of the researcher in qualitative inquiry. This technique can be used as a stand alone method or in conjunction with other qualitative techniques (i.e., naturalistic inquiry). This document explains how to utilize the process and includes specific examples based on a formal study of the pilot of The Drama Discovery Curriculum. The article highlights the Pre-Conceptual Map methodology for use by other researchers by examining: the need for the methodology, how it is related …

Elaborating The Grounding Of The Knowledge Base On Language And Learning For Preservice Literacy Teachers, Carolyn L. Piazza, Cynthia Wallat

The Qualitative Report

This purpose of this article is to present a qualitative inquiry into the genesis of sociolinguistic s and the contributions of eight sociolinguistic pioneers. This inquiry, based on an historical interpretation of events, reformulates the concept of validation as the social construction of a scientific knowledge base, and explicates three themes that offer a set of sociolinguistic constructs, questions, and propositions that can provide aspiring teachers with a frame of reference and set of guidelines for teaching language and literacy. An implication section, at the end of the article, illustrates sociolinguistic components that can be added to course syllabi in …

Preservice Teachers’ Professional Development In A Community Of Practice Summer Literacy Camp For Children At-Risk: A Sociocultural Perspective, Janet C. Richards

The Qualitative Report

This inquiry applied an innovative sociocultural framework to examine transformations in preservice teachers’ professional development as they worked with children at-risk in a summer literacy camp. The camp incorporated a community of practice model in which teams of master’s and doctoral students mentored small groups of preservice teachers. The study examined preservice teachers ’ learning following Rogoff’s (1995, 1997) notions of the personal, interpersonal, and community planes of analysis. The research also employed a postmodernist crystallization imagery to capture multiple perspectives on the preservice teachers’ growth. The study assigns importance to the contextual dimensions in which learning takes place, and …

Board/Ceo Engagement: Bridging The Governance Gap, Brian L. Newton

Student Scholarship

The role that leaders perform in governing nonprofit organizations has confounded practitioners and scholars since the time of the early settlers, when the functions of governance were first separated. Is governance the role of the board, management, or both? Today, little has changed. Public and private nonprofit organizations, almost all of which are governed by boards of lay citizens and by professional executives, continue to define the gap between what the board's role is and what the chief executive officer's (CEO) role is. Organizations such as BoardSource (formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards), The Aspen Institute, the Independent Sector, …

"I Think We Never Looked At A Financial Analysis" : Making Sense Of Resource Allocation Decisions In Technical Innovation In The Durable Consumer Goods Industry, Martin Zummersch

Student Scholarship

The purpose of this research study was to investigate how practitioners' of the durable consumer goods industry make resource allocation decisions in technical innovation, in an industry shaped by high uncertainty and low barriers to entry. Few studies have been conducted that generated qualitative data that allowed for comparisons between prescriptive models and the actual lived-world experiences of practitioners. During the investigation we conducted interviews with executives of the industry that allowed us to better understand how practitioners derived at decisions and why certain organizations were able to innovate more successfully than others. This analysis leveraged the theories of the …

Investment Consumer Satisfaction: Identifying Factors Of Influence In Financial Advisory Relationships, Betty Moon

Student Scholarship

The search for key factors that influence consumer satisfaction and loyalty in financial advisory relationships, originating in consumer behavior theory, suggests that consumer/financial advisor similarity and superior investment portfolio performance may be key drivers of client satisfaction. Conversely 70% of respondents in this study indicated that similarity played no role at all in their satisfaction with advisors, and 20% of respondents asserted that they specifically selected advisors for their dissimilarity. Our results suggest three discrete, potentially important, drivers of consumer satisfaction- client self-efficacy, client financial self-worth and financial advisor interpersonal performance. In conclusion, we discuss how these findings may enhance …

The Impact Of Organization Destruction On Social Capital Value, R. Drew Sellers

Student Scholarship

This paper links social capital dynamics and value with organization destruction. It produces the finding that organizational destruction may in some cases increase the value of social capital. A key theoretical contribution of this study is extending the metaphor of social capital to encompass asset recoverability. Based upon cases studies of 15 individuals who lived through the destruction of Arthur Andersen, this paper examines the persistence and value of an individual's social capital when an organization destructs. It explores the question, "Is the value of an individual's investment in organization-specific social capital a recoverable asset post-destruction?" Interviews with Andersen alumni …

Enabling Trust And Performance In Distributed Collaborative Teams, Eugene A. Pierce

Student Scholarship

Virtual teams allow organizations to bring together critical contributors who might not otherwise be able to work together due to time, travel and cost restrictions. In addition, virtual teams can enhance the available pool of resources by including people from outside the sponsoring organization, such as consultants, or members of partner organizations. Virtual teams also allow organizations to hire and retain the best people, who may be either unable or unwilling to relocate, and to facilitate dynamic membership changes as a result of changes in project requirements or the unexpected loss of team members. As such they are sometimes unable …

Embracing Chance: Post-Modern Meditations On Punishment, Bernard E. Harcourt

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Negotiated Boundaries: Conceptual Locations Of Pregnancy And Childbirth, Shannon Houvouras

The Qualitative Report

Dominant notions of reproduction perceive childbearing as physical processes that take place within women’s bodies. This perception undermines non-physical components and removes men from the process. This project uses social constructionism to explore the locations women describe pregnancy and childbirth taking place in their childbearing narratives. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 mothers, findings reveal that women conceptualize childbearing as taking place in multiple locations: (1) within the female body, (2) within both the female body and a non-physical realm (e.g., emotional) of one or both partners, (3) detached from any particular location, and (4) within both partners’ bodies. Conceptualizing …

Southern Rural Public Schools: A Study Of Teacher Perspectives, Leah P. Mccoy

The Qualitative Report

This ethnography explores teachers’ perspectives of the cultural issues affecting academic performance in twelve public high schools in rural Mississippi and Louisiana. Fr om a thematic analysis of the tape-recorded interviews of forty-one mathematics teachers, five categories emerged, each comprising a qualitative aspect of teaching high school in an economically depressed area of the deep South: society, race, students, families, and schools. Each of these categories is discussed and explicated using exemplars from the interviews to show how each category emerged from the data. In addition, the relationships among these categories, which form a destructive cycle of poverty, low expectations, …

Meeting The Needs Of A Latino English Language Learner Through Teacher Research, Sylvia R. Taube, Barbara E. Polnick, Jacqueline Minor Lane

The Qualitative Report

Over the years, Ms. Lane’s third grade mathematics classroom had become increasingly diverse. Challenged by the growing population of English Language Learners (ELL) and he r need to change her teaching practice to meet their needs, Ms. Lane selected to study how best to teach one of her greatest challenges, Ana, a Latino ELL who also had a learning disability. Ms. Lane and her two university mentors found that using a collaborative action research model provided a structure for researching, designing, and implementing strategies that helped Ana improve her mathematics performance. The university mentors found that they, too, benefited from …

Integrated Conceptual Design Of Joined-Wing Sensor Craft Using Response Surface Models, Josh E. Dittmar

Theses and Dissertations

A multidisciplinary conceptual design and analysis of Boeing's joined-wing SensorCraft has been conducted. This analysis was completed using geometrical optimization, aerodynamic analyses, and response surface methodology on a composite structural model. Phoenix Integration's Model Center was used to integrate the sizing and analysis codes found in Raymer's text, "Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach" as well as those from the NASA derived conceptual design tool AirCraft Synthesis (ACSYNT), and a modified Boeing Finite Element Model (FEM). This research demonstrated the utility of integrated low-order models for fast and inexpensive conceptual modeling of unconventional aircraft designs.

Culturally Adapted Mental Health Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Review, Timothy B. Smith, Derek Griner

Faculty Publications

There is a pressing need to enhance the availability and quality of mental health services provided to persons from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups. Many previous authors have advocated that traditional mental health treatments be modified to better match clients? cultural contexts. Numerous studies evaluating culturally adapted interventions have appeared, and the present study used meta-analytic methodology to summarize these data. Across 76 studies the resulting random effects weighted average effect size was d = .45, indicating a moderately strong benefit of culturally adapted interventions. Interventions targeted to a specific cultural group were four times more effective than interventions …

December 1, 2006, The Daily Mississippian

Daily Mississippian (all digitized issues)

No abstract provided.

Autoethnographical Inquiry Into Joyful Teaching: Explorations With National Teachers Of The Year, Camille Lowe Shirah

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Presently, schools in the United States are held within the tight grip of No Child Left Behind, signed into law in 2001. Since accountability is high, some teachers experience burnout and succumb to disenchantment with the profession (Palmer, 1998). Others find their commitments to education so diminished that they abuse their position and fail terribly in their charge to educate our youth. There are some, however, who find ways to continually affirm and sustain their commitments to education. Within the following autoethnographical inquiry, the lives of three National Teachers of the Year are examined with the hope of finding out …

Towards Effective Content-Based Music Retrieval With Multiple Acoustic Feature Composition, Jialie Shen, John Shepherd, Ngu Ahh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we present a new approach to constructing music descriptors to support efficient content-based music retrieval and classification. The system applies multiple musical properties combined with a hybrid architecture based on principal component analysis (PCA) and a multilayer perceptron neural network. This architecture enables straightforward incorporation of multiple musical feature vectors, based on properties such as timbral texture, pitch, and rhythm structure, into a single low-dimensioned vector that is more effective for classification than the larger individual feature vectors. The use of supervised training enables incorporation of human musical perception that further enhances the classification process. We compare …

Query-Based Watermarking For Xml Data, Xuan Zhou, Hwee Hwa Pang, Kian-Lee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As increasing amount of XML data is exchanged over the internet, copyright protection of this type of data is becoming an important requirement for many applications. In this paper, we introduce a rights protection scheme for XML data based on digital watermarking. One of the main challenges for watermarking XML data is that the data could be easily reorganized by an adversary in an attempt to destroy any embedded watermark. To overcome it, we propose a query-based watermarking scheme, which creates queries to identify available watermarking capacity, such that watermarks could be recovered from reorganized data through query rewriting. The …

The Association Between Earnings Quality And Regulatory Report Opinions In The Accounting Industry, Tracey Chunqi Zhang, Katherine Gunny

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We compare the outcome of two different information systems – self regulation versus private sector regulation – in the accounting industry. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspections replaced American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) peer reviews of auditors. Peer review opinions are useful with respect to decisions about hiring and firing of auditors (Hilary and Lennox, 2005); therefore, the question remains what are the benefits of incurring the cost to replace a selfregulatory system with a private regulatory agency. We examine the usefulness of these two information systems at distinguishing earnings quality at firms …

Escalation And De-Escalation Of Commitment To Information Systems Projects: Insights From An Approach-Avoidance Process Model, Gary Pan, Shan Ling Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We view escalation and de-escalation of commitment as processes involving recurring instances of approach-avoidance conflict. This paper outlines an approach-avoidance process model for describing and analyzing escalation and de-escalation of commitment in information systems projects. In the model, the sequential mapping of project events is integrated with a model of approach-avoidance conflict that identifies periods of gradual evolution at two separate levels of social analysis (project and work) that are punctuated by sudden, revolutionary periods of rapid change. By conceiving the processes of commitment escalation and de-escalation as sequences of events involving approach-avoidance conflicts, researchers may develop a deeper understanding …

Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima As National Trauma, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines historical transformations of Japanese collective memory of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by utilizing a theoretical framework that combines a model of reiterated problem solving and a theory of cultural trauma. I illustrate how the event of the nuclear fallout in March 1954 allowed actors to consolidate previously fragmented commemorative practices into a master frame to define the postwar Japanese identity in terms of transnational commemoration of "Hiroshima." I also show that nationalization of trauma of "Hiroshima" involved a shift from pity to sympathy in structures of feeling about the event. This historical study suggests that a …