Digital Commons Network^™

Interpersonal And Psychosexual Factors Predicting Hiv-Related Risky Sex Behaviors In Heterosexually Active Women And Men, Asako C. Matsuura

Open Access Dissertations

This study focused on psychosexual and interpersonal constructs and their relationship with partner risk and unprotected intercourse, based on the multifaceted model of HIV risk (MMOHR). The model was examined for 625 men and women (ages 18-24); the model was then compared across gender. The MMOHR-based model was strongly supported. Having a higher sense of self-efficacy in using condoms, and a higher sense of assertiveness in practicing prevention both predicted decreased unprotected vaginal intercourse. Contrastingly, those better able to refuse unwanted sexual advances were more likely to report unprotected vaginal intercourse. Condom use assertiveness significantly predicted condom self-efficacy and condom …

An Integration Of Statistical Approaches To Help Understand Coalition Effectiveness, Nathan Stein

Open Access Dissertations

Although community coalitions have significant promise for reducing substance and alcohol abuse, research on community coalitions has provided mixed results. Whereas some progress has been made towards understanding the dimensions that underlie the effectiveness of coalitions, the research contains several limitations. These limitations include a lack of consensus on measurement tools, limited systematic empirical studies (Kegler, Steckler, McLeroy, & Malek, 1998), and limited research on actual outcomes. The proposed study seeks to address these limitations. There are two levels of participants in this study. The first level of participants consists of eighth-grade students (N=5,045) in Rhode Island. They provided information …

Templated Synthesis For Highly Ordered Metal/Support Nanocomposite Materials With Catalytic Applications, Jayashri Sarkar

Open Access Dissertations

Template synthesis is a powerful method of synthesizing materials with tunable properties. Tailorability of the templates makes it a viable method for high performance material synthesis. Surfactant, polymers and semiconductors have been used as templating tools for a long time. In the present work, we demonstrate the ability to synthesize hexagonally organized porous titania, zirconia and zirconia/titania mixed oxide supports and their respective nanocomposites of Pt from their alkoxide precursors using a highly viscous mixed surfactant template, separating nanoscopic bicontinuous channels of water and isooctane. Oil soluble precursor that eventually forms the support, precipitates at the oil-water interface mimicking the …

Multicultural Awareness In College Freshmen: An Examination Of Measures And Interventions, Clarissa M. Uttley

Open Access Dissertations

An increasing number of higher education institutions are paying conscious attention to enhancing students' experiences with diversity. The University of Rhode Island (URI) has implemented activities to address the growing needs of a diverse population. Students at URI are required to complete at least two courses designed as having a diversity emphasis as part of their undergraduate curriculum. Additionally, the Multicultural Center on the Kingston campus of URI conducts numerous diversity awareness and education programs throughout the year, including Diversity Week. The Munroe Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE) was created in 2004 by Dr. Arnold Munroe to address the need …

The Opportunity To Learn: Identification And Measurement Of School Conditions That Contextualize Student Achievement, Amy L. Burns

Open Access Dissertations

Current educational accountability systems, which are based primarily on school-aggregate and student subgroup results of annual achievement testing, fail to address two fundamental and interrelated issues at the school level: the identification of opportunity-to-learn (OTL) conditions that impact how students perform and the measurement of these conditions for longitudinal school improvement. Three factors which emerge from review of literature as influential OTL conditions are instructional quality, parent involvement, and school climate. A reliable method for determining the existing levels of these OTL factors in schools is sought as a means of gauging school progress over time that does not depend …

An Investigation Of Communication Patterns And Strategies Between International Teaching Assistants And Undergraduate Students In University-Level Science Labs, Barbara Elas Gourlay

Open Access Dissertations

This research project investigates communication between international teaching assistants and their undergraduate students in university-level chemistry labs. During the fall semester, introductory-level chemistry lab sections of three experienced non-native speaking teaching assistants and their undergraduate students were observed. Digital audio and video recordings documented fifteen hours of lab communication, focusing on the activities and interactions in the first hour of the chemistry laboratory sessions. In follow-up one-on-one semi-structured interviews, the participants (undergraduates, teaching assistants, and faculty member) reviewed interactions and responded to a 10-item, 7-point Likert-scaled interview. Interactions were classified into success categories based on participants' opinions. Quantitative and qualitative …

A Concurrent Validation Of The Violence Sensitivity Scale, Jonathan Corey

Open Access Dissertations

A correlational concurrent validity study of the Violence Sensitivity Scale (VSS) was conducted in which respondents (N=169) also completed the Nonviolence Test (NVT), the Attitudes Toward Violence Scale (ATVS) and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSD). The VSS was significantly positively correlated with the NVT and MCSD, and significantly negatively correlated with a transformed ATVS distribution. Principal Factors Analysis limited to four, factors assigned 23 of 38 VSS behaviors to the same factors as in a previous study. Multiple regression tests found the NVT and MCSD to be significant predictors of VSS and VSS subscale scores. Demographic variables were examined …

Consumer Ubiquity Or Anytime Anywhere Consumption: Scale Development And Validation, Syagnik Banerjee

Open Access Dissertations

The research objective of this dissertation is to develop and validate a scale measure of consumer ubiquity that indicates the individuals' propensity to shop online "anytime, anywhere" given a wireless, internet-based ubiquitous marketplace. Through a focus group, two surveys and a set of experiments we generate items, construct and validate a ten-item three-dimension scale and apply it for segmentation and targeting with different mobile advertising strategies. The scale demonstrates sufficient validity as a predictor of proactive mobile shopping behavior, but its applications in terms of segmentation and targeting for mobile advertising are more complex. Though the more ubiquitous consumers show …

How Do You Stop The Boogeyman? An Evaluation Of A Sexual Assault Prevention Program, Hilary Brooke Jones

Open Access Dissertations

Sexual assault is a widespread phenomenon, and most girls are taught from a young age that it is something they should fear. This fear restricts their freedom, and if their fear is realized, there are significant physical, psychological, and societal effects. Because of this, it is in the best interest of all members of society to try to prevent sexual assault. While much previous sexual assault prevention work has focused on self-defense and risk-reduction strategies for women, recent work in prevention programs has focused on changing gender stereotypes, rape myths, and social norms around sexual violence with the hope of …

Grammatical Errors: Perceptions And Responses Of Students, First-Year Composition Instructors, And Business Communication Instructors, Michelle Niestepski

Open Access Dissertations

While most college writing instructors would agree that grammatical errors should not be students' main concern when writing and revising there is little consensus as to how much focus should be placed on grammatical errors and how best to teach students to avoid such errors. This study looks at how and with what frequency first-year writing instructors and business writing instructors indicate errors on student papers and how students view grammatical errors. Instructors at four colleges and universities were given anonymous surveys to fill out. Part one listed ten of the errors found by Chris Anson and Robert Schwegler to …

Advances In Global Optimization, Rajeswar R. Gattupalli

Open Access Dissertations

Optimization is an active area of research and an important computational tool in many fields of science and engineering. While many effective global optimization algorithms have been developed over the past decades, there is still a need for improved robustness, reliability and efficiency. Examples where improvements in robustness, reliability and efficiency are needed include finding the global minimum of molecular modeling problems and finding all physically relevant solutions for mathematical models of chemical engineering applications. This dissertation describes two novel advanced global optimization tools--a multi-scale terrain/funneling methodology and logarithmic barrier-terrain method--that provide improved robustness, reliability and computational efficiency for solving …

Client Nurse Interactions With Schizophrenic Clients: A Descriptive Study, Karen Vincent Pounds

Open Access Dissertations

Social dysfunction is one of the hallmark characteristics of chronic schizophrenia. Social cognition has been identified as having a role in this feature of the disorder. Recent literature and research has focused on facial and vocal affect recognition and social cue perception. Each of these functions influences an individual's ability to respond in a social situation. Despite the growing body of research, little is known about the actual interaction of providers with these clients. This qualitative descriptive research study focused on the interactions of a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) with three clients with schizophrenia in an urban community mental health …

Speaking Out: Class, Race, And Gender In The Writings Of Ruth Mcenery Stuart, Edith Summers Kelley, And Harriette Simpson Arnow, Claire E. Reynolds

Open Access Dissertations

This study analyzes representations in American fiction of social issues during periods of national turmoil. Ruth McEnery Stuart, Edith Summers Kelley, and Harriette Simpson Arnow draw characters marginalized by class, gender, race, and ethnicity who negotiate survival amid crisis and adverse socioeconomic conditions. Giving voice to people who could not speak for themselves, the texts perform the work of cultural resistance to a discourse that privileges capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy while oppressing the poor, women, and non-whites. Following an introductory chapter, I present the authors and their works chronologically, beginning each chapter with a brief overview of the historical …

Using Acidiphilium Acidiphilium To Bioleach Metals From Printed Circuit Boards, Diana Goglia Arora

Open Access Master's Theses

As many as 500 million computers became obsolete between the years of 2000 and 2007 (U.S. EPA, 2007), due in large part to the increasing rate of technological advances. Printed circuit boards (PCB) are the essential components of most electronic waste. Metals that are contained within PCB are potentially hazardous to the environment. These metals include copper, aluminum, chromium, mercury, zinc, lead, and nickel (Li et. al., 2004). If not contained properly, metals can leach into soils and possibly damage the ecosystem. This problem of growing electronic waste not only exists in the USA, but it also extends overseas in …

The 2007 Analysis Of Information Remaining On Disks Offered For Sale On The Second Hand Market, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Glenn S. Dardick, Iain Sutherland

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

All organisations, whether in the public or private sector, increasingly use computers and other devices that contain computer hard disks for the storage and processing of information relating to their business, their employees or their customers. Individual home users also increasingly use computers and other devices containing computer hard disks for the storage and processing of information relating to their private, personal affairs. It continues to be clear that the majority of organisations and individual home users still remain ignorant or misinformed of the volume and type of information that is stored on the hard disks that these devices contain …

Who Is Reading The Data On Your Old Computer?, Vivienne Mee

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Researchers at Rits Information Security performed a study in how the Irish population disposes of their old computers. How would you dispose of your old computer, or how would the company you work for dispose of their old computers?

The majority of Irish homeowners, would bring their old computers to local civic amenity centres, give it away to a relative or sell it on to another party.

Some organisations would give their old equipment to a staff member, as a gift gesture, others may simply discard in the local civic amenity site.

What is wrong with the methods currently being …

Trends In Virtualized User Environments, Diane Barrett

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Virtualized environments can make forensics investigation more difficult. Technological advances in virtualization tools essentially make removable media a PC that can be carried around in a pocket or around a neck. Running operating systems and applications this way leaves very little trace on the host system. This paper will explore all the newest methods for virtualized environments and the implications they have on the world of forensics. It will begin by describing and differentiating between software and hardware virtualization. It will then move on to explain the various methods used for server and desktop virtualization. Next, it will explain how …

Analysis Of Information Remaining On Hand Held Devices Offered For Sale On The Second Hand, Andy Jones, Craig Valli, Iain Sutherland

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The ownership and use of mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants and other hand held devices is now ubiquitous both for home and business use. The majority of these devices have a high initial cost, a relatively short period before they become obsolescent and a relatively low second hand value. As a result of this, when the devices are replaced, there are indications that they tend to be discarded. As technology has continued to develop, it has led to an increasing diversity in the number and type of devices that are available, and the processing power and the storage capacity of …

Steganography: Forensic, Security, And Legal Issues, Merrill Warkentin, Ernst Bekkering, Mark B. Schmidt

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Steganography has long been regarded as a tool used for illicit and destructive purposes such as crime and warfare. Currently, digital tools are widely available to ordinary computer users also. Steganography software allows both illicit and legitimate users to hide messages so that they will not be detected in transit. This article provides a brief history of steganography, discusses the current status in the computer age, and relates this to forensic, security, and legal issues. The paper concludes with recommendations for digital forensics investigators, IT staff, individual users, and other stakeholders.

The Forensics Aspects Of Event Data Recorders, Jeremy S. Daily, Nathan Singleton, Elizabeth Downing, Gavin W. Manes

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The proper generation and preservation of digital data from Event Data Recorders (EDRs) can provide invaluable evidence to automobile crash reconstruction investigations. However, data collected from the EDR can be difficult to use and authenticate, complicating the presentation of such information as evidence in legal proceedings. Indeed, current techniques for removing and preserving such data do not meet the court’s standards for electronic evidence. Experimentation with an EDR unit from a 2001 GMC Sierra pickup truck highlighted particular issues with repeatability of results. Fortunately, advances in the digital forensics field and memory technology can be applied to EDR analysis in …

An Evaluation Of Windows-Based Computer Forensics Application Software Running On A Macintosh, Gregory H. Carlton

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The two most common computer forensics applications perform exclusively on Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, yet contemporary computer forensics examinations frequently encounter one or more of the three most common operating system environments, namely Windows, OS-X, or some form of UNIX or Linux. Additionally, government and private computer forensics laboratories frequently encounter budget constraints that limit their access to computer hardware. Currently, Macintosh computer systems are marketed with the ability to accommodate these three common operating system environments, including Windows XP in native and virtual environments. We performed a series of experiments to measure the functionality and performance of the two …

Book Review: Guide To Computer Forensics And Investigations (3rd Ed.), Keyu Jiang, Ruifeng Xuan

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

No abstract provided.

Data Security Measures In The It Service Industry: A Balance Between Knowledge & Action, N. Mlitwa, Y. Kachala

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

That “knowledge is power” is fast becoming a cliché within the intelligentsia. Such power however, depends largely on how knowledge itself is exchanged and used, which says a lot about the tools of its transmission, exchange, and storage. Information and communication technology (ICT) plays a significant role in this respect. As a networked tool, it enables efficient exchanges of video, audio and text data beyond geographical and time constraints. Since this data is exchanged over the worldwide web (www), it can be accessible by anyone in the world using the internet. The risk of unauthorised access, interception, modification, or even …

Data Recovery From Palmmsgv001, Satheesaan Pasupatheeswaran

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Both SMS and MMS data analysis is an important factor in mobile forensic analysis. Author did not find any mobile forensic tool that is capable of extracting short messages (SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS) from Palm Treo 750. SMS file of Palm Treo 750 is called PalmMgeV001 and it is a proprietary file system. A research work done to find a method to recover SMS data from PalmMsgV001 file. This paper is going to describe the research work and its findings. This paper also discusses a methodology that will help recover SMS data from PalmMsgV001. The PalmMsgV001 file is analysed …

Shanthi Sena: Unarmed Peacekeeping, Dennis August Almeida

Open Access Master's Theses

Where questions of violence and nonviolence cannot be raised inside a polity, it becomes obligatory that social scientists undertake them from the outside (Paige 2002:92). And if we are to "transform our society from a psychology of killing and threats to kill to one that is life-enhancing and spiritually fulfilling," (Ariyaratne 1999:73) then social science research on nonviolence and unarmed peacekeeping is an imperative. With this in mind I investigated the Shanthi Sena (Peace Brigade), an independent unit of the Sarvodaya Sharamadana Movement in Sri Lanka, through a six week in-depth case study; a full description, understanding and appreciation of …

Tolfenamic Acid Interrupts The De Novo Synthesis Of Plaque-Forming Amyloid Beta Peptides: Implications For Alzheimers Disease, Lina I. Adwan

Open Access Master's Theses

Alzheimer's disease (AD) distresses the lives of millions of people around the world. Its costs were estimated to be at least 100 billion dollars each year (Fillit, 2000). And so far, no cure has been found to stop or slow the progression of the disease. Senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are considered to be central in pathogenesis of AD. The plaques are mainly composed of aggregations of amyloid β (Aβ) peptides, which are generated upon the sequential cleavage of the larger amyloid precursor protein (APP) first by the enzyme β-secretase, and then by the enzyme γ-secretase. These plaques are one …

Cross-Frontal Velocity And Temperature Structure Of The New Jersey Midshelf Frontal Zone, Michelle Louise Aleszczyk

Open Access Master's Theses

The cross-shelf structure of fronts, which occur during the winter months along the 30 m and 50 m isobath, are examined using remote sensing observations of the southern New Jersey shelf region. Shipboard observations show that cooler, fresher, less dense water is located inshore of the front; however, little is known of the velocity structure in the frontal zone. Surface current fields from high-frequency radar are analyzed along with surface thermal front observations to describe the cross-shelf spatial variability of surface flow with regard to the fronts. Cloud-cleared, Level 2 MODIS Thermal IR sea-surface temperature (SST) data from AQUA and …

The Waves: An Inspiration For The Women's Armed Services Integration Act, Travis Riley

Open Access Master's Theses

This study investigates the impact of the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) on the decision to pass the U.S. Women's Armed Services Integration Act in June 1948. In addition, it examines who these women were, why they joined the WAVES, the roles they played during the war, what they gained from their experiences and how their services influenced the decision to pass the Integration Act. The performance and professionalism demonstrated by the WAVES during the war had a dramatic impact on the integration of women into the U.S. armed services. Shortly after the outbreak of war in December …

An Examination Of The Association Of Sex And Gender And The Motives For Lying In Intimate Relationships, Anca Moraru

Open Access Master's Theses

The current thesis examined the most common motives for lying in intimate relationships and the possible sex and gender differences in lying behavior. Student participants (N= 250), aged between 19-25 years old, at the University of Rhode Island, completed an anonymous questionnaire concerning motives for lying in intimate relationships. All participants were currently involved in a romantic relationship at the time of the study or had been involved in such a relationship in the recent past. Participants were asked to recall a prior serious deceptive experience with a relational partner. In the second part of the questionnaire students completed a …

Coping With Everyday Classism: Exeriences Of Low-Income People In A Southeastern Rural Community, Susan Faye Ritz

Open Access Dissertations

The present research provided an in-depth look at experiencing and coping with everyday classism in a sample of low-income. people in a mid-size southeastern rural United States community. The study employed a qualitative methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews and analyzing the collected data using Grounded Theory Method. Of 50 participants selected for an interview, 40 described experiences with classism, each discussing two incidents, for a total of 80 incidents shared. Seven of the remaining 10 participants felt that they had not experienced class ism, but at the same time, they provided insight into one proactive coping strategy that they appeared …