Digital Commons Network^™

A Survey Of Upward Bound Programs On The Achievement Of Rural High School Students, Dewayne Middleton

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of African American students on the impact of an Upward Bound Program on their academic performance, self-esteem, and the attitudes toward post-secondary educational success. Specifically, this study was concerned with the following variables: gender, family structure, and age as they related to the students aforementioned perceptions. A survey design was employed in this investigation to collect and analyze the data. Three hundred fifty-three (353) African American high school students participated in this empirical study. An instrument entitled “The Middleton Upward Bound Survey” was used to gather the data. The investigative …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Online Synchronous Versus Online Asynchronous Versus Traditional Approaches On Learner Achievement Via Education Of Mississippi Child Care Providers, Carla Caldwell Stanford

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare three types of instruction: online synchronous, online asynchronous, and traditional, and assess which would yield more learner achievement. Participants for the online groups volunteered then were randomly assigned to either the online synchronous or the online asynchronous. Participants for the traditional group were also voluntary but were not randomly assigned; all that volunteered for the traditional group were accepted. In the final sample, a total of 96 Mississippi child care professionals completed the course Early Learning Guidelines: Lesson Plans and Thematic Units for Three Year Old Children: 31 in the online …

A Comparison Of Brief Experimental Analysis And Extended Intervention Analysis For Identifying Reading Interventions For At-Risk Elementary Students, Kristi Westmoreland Mong

Theses and Dissertations

Extensive research has been conducted regarding the efficacy of brief experimental analysis BEA). However, no studies, to date, have investigated the validity of BEAs in an extended analysis incorporating all BEA intervention conditions. The purpose of this study was to further analyze the stability and effectiveness of interventions that were and were not identified through a BEA then confirm the results through an extended analysis of multiple interventions. A variation of a multi-element and alternating treatment design (ATD) was used to examine the effectiveness of brief experimental analysis (BEA) through extended analyses and follow-up treatment procedures on second and third …

Secondary Career And Technical Student Achievement Measured By The Mississippi Career Planning And Assessment System, Shelley Hemphill Bock

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of teacher attributes and school contextual factors to student achievement in career and technical education in Mississippi. The teacher attributes years of teaching experience, degree(s) of attainment, professional development, and national board certification were included as independent variables. Additionally, the contextual factors of enrollment, academic achievement, and socio-economic status were included as independent variables. The statewide standardized assessment for career and technical education was used as the dependent variable measuring student achievement at the school district, career and technical program area, and individual career and technical course levels. The predictor …

Analysis Of The Effects Of Atropine And Saline On The Hrv Of Rats Using Ensemble Averaging And Frequency Analysis, Donald Lee Green

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to examine heart rate variability (HRV) alteration after the injection of atropine and saline and to determine if ensemble averaging affects the outcome of frequency domain analysis. The HRV data is pre-processed using ensemble averaging and then frequency domain and statistical analysis is done. The HRV readings originate from a previous study of four rats. Ensemble averaging reduces the mean drift effect in the data. The original and ensemble is then processed through an Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The results show that the ensembled data allows frequency peaks and changes to be seen more …

Assessing Impact Of Instruction Treatments On Positive Test Selection In Hypothesis Testing, Daniel Wade Carruth

Theses and Dissertations

The role of factors previously implicated as leading to confirmation bias during hypothesis testing was explored. Confirmation bias is a phenomenon in which people select cases for testing when the expected results of the case are more likely to support their current belief than falsify it. Klayman (1995) proposed three primary determinants for confirmation bias. Klayman and his colleagues proposed that a general positive testing strategy leads to the phenomenon of confirmation bias. According to Klayman’s account, participants in previous research were not actively working to support their hypothesis. Rather, they were applying a valid hypothesis testing strategy that works …

An Examination Of The Prevalence Of Obesity And Student Performance In A Low Socioeconomic School District, Mary L. Hillones

Theses and Dissertations

Since few studies exist that examine the relationships between adolescent obesity and academic performance, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of obesity on high school students’ academic performance in a low socioeconomic school district. The topics addressed in this study included prevalence of overweight and obesity in high school students and the impact of overweight and obesity on student academic performance. The potential population of this study consisted of 236 high school students aged 14 to 19 years old enrolled in a rural Mississippi school district in grades 9 -12. However, only 35 students had usable …

College Students' Behavior On Multiple Choice Self-Tailored Exams In Relation To Metacognitive Ability, Self-Efficacy, And Test Anxiety, Jasna Vuk

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to observe college students’ behavior on five selftailored, multiple choice exams throughout a semester in relation to: a) metacognitive ability, b) self-efficacy expectations, and c) test anxiety. Additionally, the effect of a selftailoring procedure on exam scores and content validity of the tests was observed. Selftailored testing was defined as an option in which students selected up to five questions they wanted to omit from being scored on an exam. Students’ metacognitive ability was defined as the percentage of incorrectly answered questions out of the total number omitted. Ninety-nine college students from two sections …

Common Factors Linking Male High School Completers From A Low Socio-Economic Urban Setting, Terry James Larabee

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if specific characteristics of male students in a low socio-economic urban setting predispose them to successful high school completion. Rather than focusing on dropouts, this research focused on male students who are successful high school completers. They were compared to one another in order to find correlations among variables which made them successful in completing high school. While research exists detailing the reasons students choose to drop out of school, the factors that lead to successful graduation from high school have yet to be determined. This research addresses that gap. This study …

Educational Video Impact On Preservice Teacher Knowledge, Opinions, And Referral Attitudes Regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Brandon Shane Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Educators’ knowledge of and attitudes towards Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) vary. Still, teachers serve a crucial role in the diagnostic and referral processes regarding ADHD in children. Educational videos on ADHD aim to develop or alter viewers’ knowledge and attitudes. This study investigated the impact of two different videos on preservice teacher knowledge, opinions, and referral tendencies for ADHD children. One video was consistent with a medical model, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding ADHD while the other video provided a critical and ultimately negative review of the diagnostic category and its application. Results indicated that preservice teacher knowledge, opinions and referral …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of The Math To Mastery Intervention Package With Elementary School Students In A School Setting, Michael Douglas Mong

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to empirically evaluate the effects of the Math to Mastery intervention package in a school setting. The participants in this study were elementary school students who were performing at least one year below grade level in math. A between-series multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of the Math to Mastery intervention. Results revealed that the multi-component intervention was successful in addressing the student’s academic skill deficits on single skill intervention probes. Improvement was also observed on multiple skill grade level, generalization probes. However, the impact was not as strong …

The Impact Of Principal Salary, District Wealth, Student Socioeconomic Status And School Size On The Achievement Level Of Students In Selected Mississippi Public Schools, Michael Henry Mcneece

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of four variables, principal salary, district wealth, student socioeconomic status, and school size, on the achievement level of public school students in Mississippi. The first, principal salary, was found not to have been studied as a variable that may correlate with student achievement. One may have hypothesized that more effective principals would correlate with increased student achievement test scores and that those principals would have been rewarded with higher salaries. The results of this study did not support that idea. The data indicated that there was no meaningful correlation between …

No Child Left Behind And Teacher Morale Among African-American Teachers In Low-Performing Middle Schools, Kim L Wiley

Theses and Dissertations

With the declining presence of African-American teachers in the teacher workforce, it is necessary to examine plausible causes for this phenomenon. Previous research suggests that most African-American teachers teach in high minority, high poverty schools. Consequently, they face substantial challenges related to student achievement and social and cultural disparities. No Child Left Behind is an education reform policy designed to bridge the gap between the educational disparities which exist, placing emphasis on teacher accountability and student achievement. The accountability requirements established by NCLB have generated significant pressure for teachers, particularly African-American teachers in struggling schools who must make Adequate Yearly …

Physiological Impact Of Hematocrit Level During Stress In Broilers, Lindsay Hale Mcwilliams

Theses and Dissertations

Initial experiments evaluated the impact of hematocrit on a bird’s ability to adapt to stress and what physiological mechanisms occurred to maintain oxygen carrying capacity (OCC). A final experiment was conducted to obtain proteomic evaluation of protein expression in monocytes of unstressed broilers. In initial experiments, ACTH treatment was applied to hematocrit separated broilers. Experiments evaluated effects of ACTH on broilers with low (19 to 22%, Experiment 1; 18-21%, Experiment 3), high (25 to 28%, Experiment 1; 24 to 27%, Experiment 3) or non-selected hematocrit levels (Experiment 2 and 3). After 4 d of ACTH, all treated birds had significantly …

Results Of A User Study On 2d Hurricane Visualization, Joel Paul Martin

Theses and Dissertations

We present the results from a user study looking at the ability of observers to mentally integrate wind direction and magnitude over a vector field. The data set chosen for the study is an MM5 (PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model) simulation of Hurricane Lili over the Gulf of Mexico as it approaches the southeastern United States. Nine observers participated in the study. This study investigates the effect of layering on the observer's ability to detrmine the magnitude and direction of a vector field. We found a tendency for observers to underestimate the magnitude of the vectors and a counter-clockwise bias when determining …

The Use Of A Behavior Screener To Predict Outcomes On High Stakes Tests For Elementary School Students, Rebecca Anne Emens

Theses and Dissertations

Studies have consistently shown that teachers’ ratings of behavior were predictive of academic difficulties. While research has clearly indicated that behavior has a reciprocal relationship with academic achievement, there is a scarcity of research on the relationship between outcomes on high stakes tests and student behavior. Early identification of children at risk for academic difficulties is vital for successful intervention and remediation. Therefore, this researcher investigated use of a brief behavior screener as a predictor of students at risk for failing a high stakes test. Results from the Behavior Assessment System for Children–Teacher Rating Scale–Child Screener (BASC-TRS-C Screener) provided an …

Tutoring Instrument Flight: Patterns Of Instructor And Student Communication, Adnan Okdeh

Theses and Dissertations

Individual tutoring has been successful in facilitating learning in domains such as LISP, physics, and algebra. These tasks are static in that problems do not change while the student is trying to solve them. Dynamic tasks such as flying, where the problem changes spontaneously over time, represent different challenges for tutors. To understand tutoring in dynamic tasks, we conducted a field observation of students being given messages by a flight instructor. Five low flight time student pilots were asked to perform nine instrument flight tasks while being tutored by an instructor pilot in both a virtual simulator flight and in …

Using Longitudinal Data To Estimate The Effect Of Starting To Exercise On The Health Of Sedentary Older Adults, Paula Diehr, Calvin Hirsch

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Background It is difficult to estimate the effect of exercise on future health from observational data because exercising may be both a cause and an effect of health status. Unadjusted analyses suffer from selection bias (healthier persons more likely to exercise), while adjusted analyses may adjust away some of the benefits of exercise.

Objective To obtain a "low-bias" interpretable estimate of the effect of exercise on future health.

Methods We used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a longitudinal study of 5,888 older adults. The number of blocks walked in the previous week, collected annually, were classified as Sedentary (less …

Summer 2008 Commencement - The University Of Texas Of The Permian Basin, The University Of Texas Permian Basin

UTPB Commencement Programs

Summer 2008 Commencement - August 8, 2008

A Search For Creative Class Trail User Experiences Along The Katy Trail, Shirley Jane Mathews

Landscape Architecture Masters & Design Theses - Archive

This research focused on preferred urban trail attributes and related these to restorative places and user experiences. Focused interviews were employed in the study. Restoration was shown in aspects of naturalness and excitement. Responses to the interviews indicated that a convergence of multiple physical features contributed significantly to a user's restorative experience on the trail, especially where tree canopy was juxtaposed with distant views and there were connections to active urban villages. Where the trail did not enhance the user experience the trail was not seen as contributing to the community in a significant way. Themes emerged from the focused …

Why Do People Engage In Social Computing? A Need Fulfillment Perspective, Vishal Sachdev

Information Systems & Operations Management Dissertations - Archive

With the trend towards social interaction over the Internet and the popularity of websites such as Myspace, Facebook and Youtube among others, practitioners and researchers are motivated to explain the sudden surge in user interest, in a phenomenon that we term, Social Computing. We seek to research the question: "Why do people engage in Social Computing?" The motivation is to determine some of the underlying human psychological factors that are driving this phenomenon. Towards this end, we propose a reformulation of the interactivity construct by suggesting new dimensions of interactivity that are unique to social computing. With this reformulated interactivity …

Biology And Therapy Of Fibromyalgia. Evidence-Based Biomarkers For Fibromyalgia Syndrome, Dina Dadabhoy, Leslie J. Crofford, Michael Spaeth, I. Jon Russell, Daniel J. Clauw

Internal Medicine Faculty Publications

Researchers studying fibromyalgia strive to identify objective, measurable biomarkers that may identify susceptible individuals, may facilitate diagnosis, or that parallel activity of the disease. Candidate objective measures range from sophisticated functional neuroimaging to office-ready measures of the pressure pain threshold. A systematic literature review was completed to assess highly investigated, objective measures used in fibromyalgia studies. To date, only experimental pain testing has been shown to coincide with improvements in clinical status in a longitudinal study. Concerted efforts to systematically evaluate additional objective measures in research trials will be vital for ongoing progress in outcome research and translation into clinical …

Youth Assets And Sexual Activity Among Hispanic Youth, Sharon Rodine, Roy F. Oman, Eleni Tolma, Cheryl B. Aspy

Journal of Youth Development

Hispanic females, ages 15-19, experienced the highest birth rates and smallest decline in birth rates over the past decade compared to youth of other racial/ethnic groups. This study’s purpose was to investigate relationships among a series of protective factors, or youth assets, and sexual activity in the Hispanic/Latino youth population. Data were collected from Hispanic youth and their parents (N=232 youth/parent pairs) in randomly selected households using in-person, in-home interview methods. Independent variables were nine youth assets; “never had sexual intercourse” was the dependent variable. Data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. Three assets were found to be significantly associated …

Winthrop Psychology Chair Picked To Head Ncate's Executive Board, Winthrop University

Winthrop News 2008

• Joe Prus elected to head the Executive Board of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
• Prus, a psychologist, sees opportunity and challenge during his tenure.

Goffman Was By Far The Smartest, Most Interesting, Complex, Though, At Times, Snide Or Disparaging Individual I Have Ever Known, John Irwin

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

Dr. John Irwin, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the San Francisco State Unvirersity, gave his approval for posting this memoir in the Erving Goffman Archives.

Michelle Obama: The "Darker Side" Of Presidential Spousal Involvement And Activism, Gregory S. Parks, Quinetta M. Roberson, Phd

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Pundits and commentators have attempted to make sense of the role that race and gender have played in the 2008 presidential campaign. Whereas researchers are drawing on varying bodies of scholarship (legal, cognitive and social psychology, and political science) to illuminate the role that Senator Obama’s race and Senator Clinton’s gender has/had on their campaign, Michelle Obama has been left out of the discussion. As Senator Clinton once noted, elections are like hiring decisions. As such, new frontiers in employment discrimination law place Michelle Obama in context within the current presidential campaign. First, racism and sexism are both alive and …

To Stop The Rose From Falling From Its Prime: Ellen Murphy's World Within., Viki Rae Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the intellectual and inner life of Ellen Murphy, a poet, nun, and teacher who grew up in Eastern North Dakota, and spent most of her adult years in urban Minnesota. The study employed an interpretive biographical methodology, with “The Story” of Ellen's life written in a creative nonfictional format. The focus of the study was Ellen's working years from 1937 through 1984, with women's intellectual educational foundations forming the theoretical backdrop. The study sought to determine the people, places, and things that influenced Ellen's creativity and scholarly endeavors. The four themes of family and friends, school (including …

Oxidative Stress And Diabetic Cardiomyopathy., Loren Eugene Wold

Theses and Dissertations

Diabetic cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease independent of micro-/macro-vascular complications, is manifested by prolonged action potential duration and prolonged cardiac contraction and relaxation. Several rationales have been postulated for the pathogenesis of diabetic cardiomyopathy including reactive oxygen species generation, although the precise mechanism is still undefined. My central hypothesis is that oxidative damage is the ultimate cause of diabetic cardiomyopathy. In vivo: Mice with cardiac-specific overexpression of the antioxidant metallothionein (MT) were made diabetic with the β-cell toxin streptozotocin (STZ) and isolated myocytes were studied. In vitro: Doxorubicin (Dox), a potent anti-cancer drug and reactive oxygen species donor and STZ …

Fmri Evidence Of Group Differences On The Word Memory Test In A Sample Of Traumatic Brain Injury Patients, James Douglas Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

The Word Memory Test (WMT) is a popular effort test that requires participants to memorize lists of paired words and repeat them back in a variety of different memory tasks. Four brain injured patients participated in two trials of the delayed recall (DR) portion of the WMT while undergoing fMRI scanning. In the first trial subjects put forth full effort, and during the second trial subjects were instructed to simulate increased memory impairment in order to represent poor effort. fMRI activation from both trials were compared in order to contrast full and simulated poor effort activation patterns during the WMT. …

The Murray Ledger And Times, August 7, 2008, The Murray Ledger And Times

The Murray Ledger & Times

No abstract provided.