Digital Commons Network^™

Nongovernmental Program Replication And Implementation: What Can Community-Based Programs To Support The Uninsured Learn From Other Communities?, Raymond J. Higbea

Dissertations

This research study evaluated the replication and implementation of Project Access (a nongovernmental, structured program providing physician and health care services to the working-poor) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A mixed methodological approach was used and included quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The qualitative method used was a self-administered mailed survey of all Project Access enrollees. This survey evaluated the enrollee's perceived health and lifestyle function, access to physician services, access and adherence to prescribed medication regimen, and barriers to physician services during the year pre- and post-enrollment in Project Access. The survey also evaluated the amount enrollees were able or willing …

Examination Of The Impact Of Age, Family Conflict, And Perceived Parental Involvement On Treatment Adherence For Children And Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis And Diabetes, Blake M. Lancaster

Dissertations

The success of medical interventions for patients with diseases that require consistent adherence to a medical regimen is largely contingent upon the patient’s ability to consistently follow medical recommendations. Medical regimen adherence significantly influences the patient’s health and impacts the health care providers’ ability to treat any disease or medical problem. Adherence levels are particularly low in the pediatric population among young patients with diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Researchers and clinicians hypothesize that levels of adherence are particularly low during adolescence (ages 11-15) because this may be the period in which primary responsibility for daily adherence is transferred from the …

New Tests Of Univariate Symmetry Based On The Gini Mean Difference, Hend Ouda

Dissertations

Gini mean difference (GMD) was proposed as a measure of income inequality by Corrado Gini in 1912. Since then it has been widely applied - mostly in theeconomics, but also in statistical and social science research.

Four statistical tests of univariate symmetry are being proposed---all based on the comparison of variation below and above the median (known or estimated) measured by the GMD. These tests are applicable to the data from populations with median known and unknown, and each of them has its rank-basedcounterpart, so they can also be used for ordinal data.

A Monte Carlo simulation study was performed …

Religion And Semiosphere: From Religious To The Secular And Beyond, Rajka Rush

Dissertations

Religion is a system of structural ideas that involve the natural ability of the mind to engage itself into the process of unlimited semiosis which can be defined as an existential openness of one's consciousness to the universe as a system. This primary religious consciousness becomes limited by language, symbolic, and cultural constraints. The religious semiotic space is a sub-cultural system open to culturally and cross-culturally encoded idioms and concepts. These cultural potentials are interpreted and settled by the religious exegesis expressed in the behavioral patterns of the symbolic actions that reflect a specific worldview of the closed community controlled …

Immediate Surgical Repositioning Following Intrusive Luxation: A Case Report And Review Of The Literature, H. Cem Güngör, S. Burcak Cengiz, Nil Altay

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

This report presents a case of severe intrusive luxation of mature maxillary lateral incisor in a 10-year-old boy. The intruded tooth was immediately repositioned (surgical extrusion) and splinted within 2 h following injury. Tetracycline therapy was initiated at the time of repositioning and maintained for 10 days. Pulp removal and calcium hydroxide treatment of the root canal was carried out after repositioning. Splint was removed 1 month later. Definitive root canal treatment with gutta percha was accomplished at the second month recall. Clinical and radiographic examination 28 months after the surgical extrusion revealed satisfactory apical and periodontal healing.

Looking At The Overlooked: Portraits Of Law School Deans, Peter Goodrich

Articles

The article examines the role of portraits in law schools, arguing that these images are not merely decorative but serve as powerful symbols that shape institutional identity and the legal profession. Despite their ubiquity, these portraits are often overlooked, yet they function as megalographs, inscribing and disseminating the values, history, and authority of the institution. The author contends that these visual elements play a crucial role in the formation of legal identity and the symbolic order of law schools.

Reputation Stretching In Online Auctions, Jianqing Chen, Mei Lin, Andrew B. Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Reputation systems are ubiquitously employed in the online marketplaces to provide information on users’ abilities and trustworthiness. We focus particularly on the problem of reputation stretching, the extension of an established reputation into a new market. By examining various factors—market size, the expected performance in the expanding market, and the risk of performance in the expanding market—we characterize conditions that affect bidder’s stretching decision in the expanding market. Moreover, we analyze both the short-term and the long-term expanding cases, and obtain contrasting results in the two settings.

Supply Chain Information Sharing In A Macro Prediction Market, Zhiling Guo, Fang Fang, Andrew B. Whinston

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper aims to address supply chain partners' incentives for information sharing from an information systems design perspective. Specifically, we consider a supply chain characterized by N geographically distributed retailers who order a homogeneous product from one manufacturer. Each retailer's demand risk consists of two parts: a systematic risk part that affects all retailers and an idiosyncratic risk part that only has a local effect. We propose a macro prediction market to effectively elicit and aggregate useful information about systematic demand risk. We show that such information can be used to achieve accurate demand forecast sharing and better channel coordination …

Towards Effective Content-Based Music Retrieval With Multiple Acoustic Feature Combination, Jialie Shen, John Shepherd, Ann H. H. Ngu

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 …

On The Lower Bound Of Local Optimums In K-Means Algorithms, Zhenjie Zhang, Bing Tian Dai, Anthony K.H. Tung

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Rapid Identification Of Column Heterogeneity, Bing Tian Dai, Nick Koudas, Beng Chin Ooi, Divesh Srivastava, Suresh Venkatasubramanian

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Captured Artifacts, Charles Pearson Burch

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

My art examines the possible existence of an unknown civilization through the presentation of sculptural art objects within the conventional practice of displaying artifacts in a public institution. Historically, artifacts have served as visual records of journeying to and returning from a far-away land, unknown territory, alien soil, or enemy battlefield. Whether that place is tangible or is a fabrication of our subconscious, the presence of an artifact represents validation of the existence of that place. When displayed, artifacts offer a pleasurable challenge to the viewer by evoking the possibilities of a lost civilization or adventurer's journey. I employ these …

Characteristics And Workload Of Full-Time Faculty In Baccalaureate Dental Hygiene Programs, Marie Antoinette Collins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics and workload of full-time faculty in baccalaureate dental hygiene programs. A mail questionnaire was sent to program administrators for distribution to faculty. Program response rate was 89.7% (26/29) and full-time faculty response rate was 68.3% (114/167). The number of faculty who hold the Associate or Assistant Professor ranks was similar (35.1% and 34.2%, respectively). Forty percent of faculty are not on tenure track and 38.6% are tenured. Faculty were most likely to be White (94%) and female (96%) with an average age of 50.2 years. Faculty reported levels of dissatisfaction …

Analysis Of Retention Factors That Influence Georgia's Secondary Career And Technical Education Teachers To Remain In The Teaching Profession, Hope Jackson Morris

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The research study on the retention influences of Georgia's secondary career and technical education teachers was conducted to determine why the teachers chose to remain in the teaching profession. Participants included all program areas of career and technical education in the state of Georgia. Data were gathered to analyze the demographics, personal retention influences, and professional retention influences of the career and technical education teachers. The quantitative study was conducted by an on-line survey. Approximately 700 e-mails were sent, and 154 participants responded. Demographic results suggested that the typical career and technical education teacher respondents had 21 plus years of …

How Georgia Suburban Middle School Principals Work With Teachers To Enhance Student Achievement In This Era Of Standardized Testing, Robert Charles Minter

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how Georgia middle school principals work with teachers to enhance student achievement in this era of standardized testing. This study became the focus of the researcher's attention because of the increased level of accountability for school systems, schools, and administrators in regard to student achievement. Each school is held accountable for the academic success of students, and the No Child Left Behind Act, which is federal law, requires that each state set high academic standards and implement student testing. However, while conducting a review of literature in the area of standardized testing …

Closing The Minority Achievement Gap In Georgia Middle Schools: Principals' Perspectives, Stacy Eugene Johnson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide best practices and strategies for middle school principals that have been struggling to close the minority achievement gap in schools. Three Georgia middle school principals considered to be successful in closing the achievement gap were interviewed to determine the strategies and practices that they use to close the minority achievement gap. These practices and strategies were further examined to determine their effectiveness in the areas of reading and mathematics. The researcher used in-depth interviewing procedures through a structured interview format to encourage research participants to speak openly and candidly about the strategies …

Transformational Educational Leader As Organizer And Administrator Of A Movement Disorders Program, Alice P. Gerber

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

One person in every thousand develops Parkinson's Disease. There is no known cause, no known cure and no existing definitive test for Parkinson's Disease. Qualified neurologists and movement disorders specialists make a diagnosis on the basis of their knowledgeable observations. If a cause is found, a cure will follow. The Savannah Parkinson Support Group has existed for fifteen years. It has a membership of 250 people with Parkinson's Disease, their relatives and caregivers. The North Dakota Parkinson Support Group has a smaller population but there are many commonalities between the two groups. This descriptive study attempts to discover the commonalities …

Educational Talent Search: Assessing Student Outcomes For First-Generation, Low-Income Students In Rural Georgia, Sandra Jean Jenkins

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Educational Talent Search (ETS) program is a pre-college information dissemination program that works with potential first-generation, low-income sixth through twelfth graders. The goal of the ETS program is to increase the number of first-generation, lowincome students graduating from high school and enrolling in programs of postsecondary study. The purpose of this current study is to determine if there are specific ETS program services that facilitate high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment, specifically at the four-year college/university level. The primary data source of this study is the Blumen database system for an ETS program hosted by a small two-year college …

Lived Experiences Of Middle School Principals In Richmond County, Georgia, Janina Collins Dallas

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the behavior of middle school principals as well as the various leadership behaviors and procedures that middle school principals utilize on a daily basis. A review of literature was completed concerning the areas of middle schools, middle school principals, and the history of leadership. The research question for the study was, What are the lived experiences of middle school principals in Richmond County, Georgia? The research design for the study was quantitative. Semi-structured interviews were completed. The data were disaggregated according to themes and patterns. The population for the study consisted of nine middle school principals …

Comparison In Academic Performance Between Distance Learning And Traditional On-Campus Students In Allied Healthcare Education At The Medical College Of Georgia, Barbara Landis Russell

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the differences in academic performance between distance learning students and traditional on-campus students in allied healthcare education. The research was conducted at an academic medical university and three programs were included in the study, clinical laboratory science, health information administration, and nuclear medicine technology. A total of 252 sets of student data were used in the statistical analyses, and of these 252, 174 (69%) were oncampus students and 78 (31%) were distance students. The researcher sought to determine to what extent differences existed between the two groups by the background characteristics …

Georgia Elementary Principals' Perceptions Of Their Ethical Philosophy, Formal Leadership Preparation In Ethics, And Actions Related To The Development And Maintenance Of An Ethical School, Laura Martinez Hughes

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to determine elementary principals' perceptions of their ethical philosophy, formal leadership preparation in graduate school in the area of ethics, and actions needed for the development and maintenance of an ethical school. The persons most appropriate to provide the answers to the research questions included the population of elementary principals. A random sample of 915 elementary principals in Georgia was identified by listings on the Georgia Department of Education Website or by each county's web page. A descriptive, quantitative methodology was used, with a qualitative component of open-ended questions in order to bring …

Prediction Of Student Achievement In Georgia High Schools Based On Principal Competency As Defined By The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium Standards, Amy Teague Loskoski

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The researcher conducted a study of the prediction of student achievement in Georgia high schools based on principal competencies as defined by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards for School Leaders to determine to what extent principal competency, as determined by the ISLLC standards, predict student achievement. The poverty level of the school and the principal's years of experience in a school were additional variables in the analyses. Quantitative and qualitative research was conducted using a survey based on the ISLLC Standards for School Leaders and an interview questionnaire to answer the research questions. A Principal Competency rating …

Exploration Of Common Leadership Behaviors Exhibited By Georgia Elementary Principals From High Performing, High Poverty Schools, Donna Regina Bishop

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Principals of elementary schools continue to be required to perform many duties which include administrative and instructional tasks. The increased accountability for all students to achieve, including the lower achieving students, has made principals focus on their leadership behaviors and practices. Researchers of various studies on principal leadership behaviors and student achievement have found that leadership behaviors make a difference in the academic achievement for all students. Researchers also found that the principal's most important role is that of an instructional leader. Principals leading elementary schools with at risk learners may assist them academically when effective strategies, programs, and organizational …

Emotional Intelligence As A Predictor Of Career Longevity Among Special Education Teachers In The Houston County, Georgia, School System, Jesse Whitaker Davis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In an effort to provide for a better understanding of the factors that exert influence on the career decisions of special educators, the present study sought to examine the influence of emotional intelligence and various demographic factors on the career longevity of special educators. One hundred twenty nine special education teachers in the Houston Count, Georgia School System completed a two-part survey consisting of the General Emotional Intelligence Scale and a researcher-created demographic questionnaire. The following overarching research question was answered through this study- What is the role of emotional intelligence in the career decisions of special education teachers? In …

Pedagogy Of Social Justice: An Inquiry Into The Experiences Of African American Adolescent Males, Natalie Ann Lambright

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Using Critical Race Theory (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas, 1995; Ladson-Billing, 1998; Richard Delgado & Jean Stefanic, 2000; Solorzano & Yasso, 2002) as a theoretical framework, and critical narrative inquiry (Clendanin & Connelly, 1999) as research methodology, I explored stories from five eighth grade African American adolescent males in order to identify how home, community, and school experiences contributed to their academic success and social development. My passion for the inquiry was driven for my desire to foster a sense of agency for social justice and positive changes for the African American community. Selection of participants was based upon reading …

Derrida, Deconstruction And A Dialogue On The Contemporary Nursing Curriculum, Catherine Louise Gilbert

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This theoretical inquiry utilizes the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and deconstruction to begin a discourse on the disconnect between student learning and nursing education within the academy. By entering into a thoughtful, reasoned and responsible critique of the nursing curriculum, this journey of discovery examines those constructs integral to nursing education: students, teachers, identity, the art and science of nursing, the curriculum, power and control, and the university, their (dis)connectedness and begins a dialogue that positions nursing education as the legitimate professional nursing curricula for the next millennium. This journey of discovery recognizes an underlying thesis; meaningful learning that facilitates …

School Renewal In South Georgia, Sean Michael Mulvanity

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the implementation of the Accelerated Schools Project at one school in South Georgia. The Accelerated Schools Project is a comprehensive school renewal effort developed by Henry Levin which attempts to change both the school decision making process and the instructional techniques used in the classroom. The unique governance structure, which attempts to involve all stakeholders in decisions that impact the institution, and the student-centered instructional technique are combined in an effort to instigate school renewal. The phenomenological nature of this study examines the implementation of the Accelerated School Project from a historical and cultural perspective. The author …

Auto/Biographical Inquiry Into The Lives Of Three Female High School Dropouts In The Rural South, Barbara A. Spurlock

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The economic value of an education is thoroughly documented in the United States Census Bureau report, The big payoff: Educational attainment and synthetic estimates of work-life earnings (2002). The report clearly shows that earnings increase with educational level. Yet, students continue to leave school before graduating. In October of 1996, 11.1% of persons aged 16 to 24 years were dropouts. They wree not enrolled in a high school program and had not completed high school. Nearly a half million of them left high school between October 1995 and 1996 (U.S. Census Bureau, 1997). This inquiry examined the lives of three …

Curriculum Of Imagination Beyond The Walls Of Standardization, Robert Lewis Lake

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a theoretical inquiry into ways of seeing, knowing, and learning that are frequently excluded in this present climate of standardized practices in the field of education. In this study, I explore how imagination permeates every aspect of life experience and helps develop personal and political awareness in students to look beyond what they take for granted, to question the normal, and to develop various ways of knowing, seeing, feeling, and acting upon positive social and educational change in an era of accountability. This is accomplished by tracing the historical and contemporary evolution of the concepts of imagination …

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 …