Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2008

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 13141 - 13166 of 13166

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Classroom Environment And Its Effect On Student Achievement In A 3rd Grade Mathematics Classroom: An Autoethnographic Study., Darlene R. Voorhees Jan 2008

Classroom Environment And Its Effect On Student Achievement In A 3rd Grade Mathematics Classroom: An Autoethnographic Study., Darlene R. Voorhees

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Student achievement in mathematics is a concern of policy-makers as well as those who teach the subject. Due to concern regarding lagging mathematical achievement in the United States that began with a series of events that include the launch of Sputnik in the 1950s, the federal report A Nation At Risk, and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study have sparked a fervent desire for school children to succeed and compete mathematically with our global neighbors. Although policy-makers are striving to improve educational practices of mathematics by formulating curriculum plans to foster mathematical achievement and a joy of mathematics, one …

Go to article

Discriminative-Stimulus And Time-Course Effects Of Kava-Kava (Piper Methysticum) In Rats, Natalie R. Bruner Jan 2008

Discriminative-Stimulus And Time-Course Effects Of Kava-Kava (Piper Methysticum) In Rats, Natalie R. Bruner

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Kava-kava is a widely available and used herbal medicine that is not regulated in many countries, including the United States. There are many questions concerning kava-kava's stimulus properties, potential for therapeutic use, and potential for abuse. Although there is evidence that kava may possess some anxiolytic properties, the supplement's mechanism of action and the extent to which it may serve as an alternative to pharmaceutical anxiolytics are unknown. To date, there is no research examining whether kava shares discriminative-stimulus properties with a standard pharmaceutical anxiolytic such as chlordiazepoxide (CDP). The current study compared different doses of kava in two groups …

Go to article

Application Of Machine Vision In Uavs For Autonomous Target Tracking, Joshua Patrick Effland Jan 2008

Application Of Machine Vision In Uavs For Autonomous Target Tracking, Joshua Patrick Effland

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research presents experimental results for the application of Machine Vision (MV) techniques to address the problem of target detection and tracking. The main objective is the design of a prototype "UAV" surveillance environment to emulate real-life conditions. The model environment for this experiment consists of a target simulated by a small electric train system, located at "ground" level, and a MV camera mounted on a motion-based apparatus located directly above the model setup. This system is meant to be a non-flying mockup of an aerial robot retrofitted with a MV sensor. Therefore, the final design is a two degree-of-freedom …

Go to article

Understanding The Motivations Of Ghanaian Bureaucrats, Christine Naa Norley Lokko Jan 2008

Understanding The Motivations Of Ghanaian Bureaucrats, Christine Naa Norley Lokko

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines the factors that affect the work performance of Ghanaian bureaucrats. Three decades ago Robert Price (1975) examined the impact that kinship ties had on the motivation of Ghanaian bureaucrats. He found that Ghanaian bureaucrats behaved in particularistic fashions as opposed to acting in a universalistic manner, suggesting kinship was a major determinant of bureaucratic routine. This study followed the work of Price by replicating his mix of interviews and surveys, with the addition of questions that incorporate recent work on bureaucracy that suggest motivation involves a mix of solidary, functional, and pecuniary preferences (Brehm and Gates, 1997; …

Go to article

Implications Of Motivational Interviewing And Oral Hygiene Instruction For The Reduction Of Oral Health Disparities Among Pregnant Women, Renata K. Martins Jan 2008

Implications Of Motivational Interviewing And Oral Hygiene Instruction For The Reduction Of Oral Health Disparities Among Pregnant Women, Renata K. Martins

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Pregnancy is a "teachable moment" during which women may be particularly amenable to making health behavior changes that can have significant impact, not only on themselves, but also on their offspring. Dental complications during pregnancy, such as periodontal disease, have been linked to low birth weight and premature birth. Additionally, mothers' oral health status has been related to childhood caries, through the direct transmission of oral pathogens. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a promising intervention in the oral health care arena. MI has been empirically supported as a treatment for substance abuse, as well as other health issues including, diabetes, HIV, …

Go to article

Cognitions Of The Community: The Worldview Of U.S. Intelligence, David Alex Mastro Ii Jan 2008

Cognitions Of The Community: The Worldview Of U.S. Intelligence, David Alex Mastro Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation attempts to determine what the worldview of U.S. intelligence looks like so that it can be incorporated into America's intelligence identity. I argue that this is necessary to gain a better understanding of why the agencies that comprise the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) share several behaviors despite having different interests and preferences. To answer my research question, which asks what the worldview of U.S. intelligence is, I conceptualize the IC's core belief system about world politics (its worldview) as the five philosophical beliefs in an operational code. I hypothesize about how the IC views each of these cognitions …

Go to article

Thresholds And Tolerance Of Physical Pain Among Young Adults Who Engage In Self-Injury, Katrina Mccoy Jan 2008

Thresholds And Tolerance Of Physical Pain Among Young Adults Who Engage In Self-Injury, Katrina Mccoy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Prevalence rates of non-suicidal self-injury among college students ranges from 17% to 38%. Research indicates that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) who self-injure sometimes report an absence of pain during self-injury. Furthermore, self-injury in the absence of pain has been associated with more frequent suicide attempts. The present study examined pain thresholds and tolerance among 44 college students (11 self-injurious and 33 non-self-injurious). Pain thresholds and tolerance were measured using an algometer pressure device which has been used to produce pain previous laboratory research. Self-injurious participants had higher pain tolerances than those who do not engage in self-injury. In …

Go to article

Neuropsychological Functioning Of College Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Melanie Ann Nuszkowski Jan 2008

Neuropsychological Functioning Of College Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Melanie Ann Nuszkowski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often experience significant impairment in multiple life domains not only during childhood, but also throughout their adult lives. While there is no single litmus test for identifying ADHD, neuropsychological tests have been proposed as one means of enhancing identification of ADHD in adults. Theories of ADHD have suggested that deficits in executive functioning underlie the symptom appearance for ADHD; however, meta-analyses have suggested that non-executive functioning skills provide nearly equal discriminatory results. Given the increasing proportion of students with ADHD who are pursuing postsecondary education, the need for further research addressing the impact …

Go to article

Mitigating The Effect Of Covariates In Face Recognition, Richa Singh Jan 2008

Mitigating The Effect Of Covariates In Face Recognition, Richa Singh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Current face recognition systems capture faces of cooperative individuals in controlled environment as part of the face recognition process. It is therefore possible to control lighting, pose, background, and quality of images. However, in a real world application, we have to deal with both ideal and imperfect data. Performance of current face recognition systems is affected for such non-ideal and challenging cases. This research focuses on designing algorithms to mitigate the effect of covariates in face recognition.;To address the challenge of facial aging, an age transformation algorithm is proposed that registers two face images and minimizes the aging variations. Unlike …

Go to article

Slow-To-Warm-Up Temperament In Infancy As A Predictor Of Concurrent And Later Child And Maternal Behaviors, Jessica B. Stoltzfus Jan 2008

Slow-To-Warm-Up Temperament In Infancy As A Predictor Of Concurrent And Later Child And Maternal Behaviors, Jessica B. Stoltzfus

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Little is known about the slow-to-warm-up infant temperament. The present study evaluated the usefulness of this temperament as conceptualized by Thomas and Chess in predicting child and maternal parenting behaviors, with a particular focus on its conceptual link to child inhibition. Participants were 1,072 mothers and their children in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. Slow-to-warm-up temperament in infancy did predict later inhibition, p = .000, but not as well as the difficult temperament or the individual temperament subscales of mood and approach. Including maternal sensitivity and stimulation and support increased the prediction of inhibition from the slow-to-warm-up temperament …

Go to article

Why Plea-Bargaining Fails To Achieve Results In So Many Criminal Justice Systems: A New Framework For Assessment, Nuno Garoupa, Frank H. Stephen Jan 2008

Why Plea-Bargaining Fails To Achieve Results In So Many Criminal Justice Systems: A New Framework For Assessment, Nuno Garoupa, Frank H. Stephen

Faculty Scholarship

The myth of American exceptionalism in the matter of plea-bargaining is certainly by now quite untrue. In addition to forming an important part of criminal procedure in the United Kingdom, plea-bargaining has been transplanted to several civil law countries such as France and Italy. Informal versions, based on non-trial settlement, have been observed in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and around the world. The Law and Economics literature on plea-bargaining views it as an efficient instrument of criminal procedure because it reduces enforcement costs (for both parties) and allows the prosecutor to concentrate on more meritorious cases. Yet the success of …

Go to article

The Market For Legal Innovation: Law And Economics In Europe And The United States, Nuno Garoupa, Thomas S. Ulen Jan 2008

The Market For Legal Innovation: Law And Economics In Europe And The United States, Nuno Garoupa, Thomas S. Ulen

Faculty Scholarship

There have been a large number of innovations in legal scholarship in the U.S. legal academy over the past twenty-five or so years and very few from legal scholars in other parts of the world. For instance, because both of us work in the area of law and economics, we are both acutely aware of the large differences in the receptivity to law and economics as between the United States and Europe. The U.S. legal academy has generously embraced law and economics (and some other legal innovations), while Europe (and the rest of the world) has not. Why has the …

Go to article

Design With Benefits : Combining Healthcare Step Programs And Design Tools To Make A Difference In Community Health, Emily E. Frye Jan 2008

Design With Benefits : Combining Healthcare Step Programs And Design Tools To Make A Difference In Community Health, Emily E. Frye

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

I am aware that there is increasing emphasis being placed on designers pro actively designing services as opposed to simply creating artifacts. Looking past “selling” and moving toward enabling solutions that are for the greater good, this paper makes use of ethnographic contexts of communities involved to guide design. My thesis project designs a service plan and a program with artifacts. It is aimed at helping rural West Virginia Clinics intervene with unhealthy patients to help them prepare for a pro-active lifestyle. This program, named BeneFIT, was designed with user-centered methods and incorporates the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) developed by James …

Go to article

Insights From The Field: Perceptions Of In-Home Interventionists Working In Appalachian Maryland., Benjamin T. Brauer Jan 2008

Insights From The Field: Perceptions Of In-Home Interventionists Working In Appalachian Maryland., Benjamin T. Brauer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As No Child Left Behind continues to impact public K-12 education, educators continue to seek new ways in which to reach out to at-risk students. Many school administrators and school interventionists are using in-home interventions to assist families in facilitating their child’s success. These interventions range from simply bringing instructional materials to the home of a frequently absent student, to facilitating the delivery of mental health services in the home. While school officials are taking on additional roles and responsibilities to try and meet the growing expectations placed on the public K-12 educational system, many feel that they are doing …

Go to article

Maternal/Fetal Attachment: Associations Among Family Relationships, Maternal Health Practices, And Antenatal Attachment., Debra Cunningham Facello Jan 2008

Maternal/Fetal Attachment: Associations Among Family Relationships, Maternal Health Practices, And Antenatal Attachment., Debra Cunningham Facello

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background. Maternal/fetal attachment plays an important role in the health of pregnant women and their unborn babies. In addition, maternal attachment is an important component of maternal identity and is essential in promoting healthy growth and development in the child. The proposed theoretical Model of Maternal/Fetal Attachment provides a framework for understanding and investigating this process. Purpose. The primary purpose of this research was to develop and test relationships within a model of maternal/fetal attachment for use in research and practice. Methods. The proposed theoretical relationships between family relationships, maternal health practices, and antenatal attachment were examined using quantitative analysis. …

Go to article

Constitutional Possibilities, Lawrence B. Solum Jan 2008

Constitutional Possibilities, Lawrence B. Solum

Faculty Scholarship

What are our constitutional possibilities? The importance of this question is illustrated by the striking breadth of recent discussions, ranging from the interpretation of the United States Constitution as a guarantee of fundamental economic equality and proposals to restore the lost constitution to arguments for the virtual abandonment of structural provisions of the Constitution of 1789. Such proposals are conventionally understood as placing constitutional options on the table as real options for constitutional change. Normative constitutional theory asks the question whether these options are desirable - whether political actors (citizens, legislators, executives, or judges) should take action to bring about …

Go to article

"Divided Into Double Parts" Race, Gender, And The Double In Books 1-3 Of Spenser’S The Faerie Queene, Rachel N. Holmberg Jan 2008

"Divided Into Double Parts" Race, Gender, And The Double In Books 1-3 Of Spenser’S The Faerie Queene, Rachel N. Holmberg

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the first canto of Book 1 of Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Archimago divides Redcrosse and Una "into double parts," creating the impression that they are not just divided from each other, but divided from themselves. While this is the first time the phrase "divided into double parts" is mentioned, the theme of division and doubling has already appeared in the text. Indeed, this kind of thematic echo, or doubling, is characteristic of Spenser's work. My dissertation argues that only when we are seeing double, do we recognize the unity in The Faerie Queene . The concept of decomposition allows …

Go to article

Instructors And Their Students: The Relationship Between Out -Of -Class Communication, Student Communication Motives, Student Motivation, And Instructor Job Satisfaction And Motivation., Jennifer L. Knapp Jan 2008

Instructors And Their Students: The Relationship Between Out -Of -Class Communication, Student Communication Motives, Student Motivation, And Instructor Job Satisfaction And Motivation., Jennifer L. Knapp

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The bulk of instructional communication research is concerned with the impact of instructors on students, leaving very few studies that focus on the affects of students on instructors. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to identify the impact students have on instructor out-of-class communication (OCC), job satisfaction, and motivation. Student relational, functional, participatory, excuse-making and sycophancy motives for communicating, along with perceived student motivation were examined in order to learn more about the influence of students on instructors. Participants (college instructors, N = 268) completed an online questionnaire about their OCC, job satisfaction, and motivation, as well as perceived …

Go to article

An Examination Of Collectivist And Individualistic Young Adult Women's Future Goals And Their Evaluation., Clare M. Mehta Jan 2008

An Examination Of Collectivist And Individualistic Young Adult Women's Future Goals And Their Evaluation., Clare M. Mehta

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

It is important to understand how young adult women select and evaluate goals for the future because in spite of having a variety of available career options, women are still not entering all careers at an equal rate to men (Hakim, 2006), and are primarily engaging in homemaking (Marks & Houston, 2003) or embarking on careers that are considered to be traditionally feminine, such as teaching or nursing (Kmec, 2005; Okamoto & England, 1999). As such, the present study had two primary research objectives, (1) to quantitatively investigate the career- marriage- and child-related goals that young adult women in an …

Go to article

School Bullying: A Freirean Perspective., Linda Fae Rhone Jan 2008

School Bullying: A Freirean Perspective., Linda Fae Rhone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study addressed the overarching question: Can the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire provide a framework for a better understanding of school bullying in the United States? In order to address the overarching question, the following questions were answered: (1) What is the state of information available on bullying in the United States? (2) How does selected works authored by Paulo Freire provide an understanding of oppressive relationships? (3) What has been written about Paulo Freire's influence on selected educators who teach in America? (4) What were the perspectives on bullying from selected educators whose practices are grounded in …

Go to article

Disability And “Late Style” In Music, Joseph N. Straus Jan 2008

Disability And “Late Style” In Music, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

“Late style” is a longstanding aesthetic category in all the arts. Late-style music is presumed to have certain internal qualities (such as fragmentation, intimacy, nostalgia, or concision) and to be associated with certain external factors (such as the age of the composer, his or her proximity to and foreknowledge of death, lateness within a historical period, or a sense of authorial belatedness with respect to significant predecessors). Upon closer inspection, it appears that many of these external factors are unreliably correlated with a musical style that might be described as late. Late style is often better correlated with the bodily …

Go to article

Does Student Passivity Exist? The Impact Of The Student And Instructor On Involvement In And Outside Of The College Classroom., Robert J. Sidelinger Jan 2008

Does Student Passivity Exist? The Impact Of The Student And Instructor On Involvement In And Outside Of The College Classroom., Robert J. Sidelinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The classroom is the center of students' formal educational experience. It is often the one place students have an opportunity to interact with faculty. This dissertation explored the issue of student involvement both inside and outside of the college classroom. First, this study qualitatively examined in-class involvement from the students' perspective. Based on students' descriptions of their perceptions of their involvement/noninvolvement, and their perceptions of other students' involvement/noninvolvement, six themes (e.g., Active Involvement) emerged for in-class involvement and eight themes (e.g., Student Passivity) for in-class noninvolvement. Second, this study quantitatively examined factors (i.e., student characteristics, perceived instructor communication strategies, and …

Go to article

Madison School "The White Building" Its Beginnings 1916-1939., Judith Ann Stechly Jan 2008

Madison School "The White Building" Its Beginnings 1916-1939., Judith Ann Stechly

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study is a historical descriptive study of the early days of Madison School from the years 1916-1939. Madison School is located on Wheeling Island, Wheeling, West Virginia and is surrounded by the Ohio River. This study traced the history of Madison School and examined factors that were associated with its resilience in the face of many changes: demographics, Progressivism in education, the Great Depression, and the devastating flood of 1936. The events that tell the story of Madison School were collected from primary and secondary sources. The oral histories collected provided the “eyes” of the research from those who …

Go to article

An Examination Of Mental Health Factors Related To Risk -Taking Behaviors In Children And Adolescents., Sarah B. Stevens Jan 2008

An Examination Of Mental Health Factors Related To Risk -Taking Behaviors In Children And Adolescents., Sarah B. Stevens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Children and adolescents within the child welfare system are at risk for developing significant mental health problems, due in large part to the chaotic environments in which they live. In many cases, these youth are removed from their family of origin and placed in out-of-home or “foster” care. Many times these children and adolescents endured repeated placements and transitions, which make them vulnerable to problems in the future, particularly by engaging in risky behaviors that may increase the likelihood that they return to the system as parents themselves. This study investigated the impact of anxiety and depression on sexual activity …

Go to article

(Trans)Forming Belief, Transforming Desire: An Analysis Of Conversion And Belief In Contemporary American Fiction., Anthony Zias Jan 2008

(Trans)Forming Belief, Transforming Desire: An Analysis Of Conversion And Belief In Contemporary American Fiction., Anthony Zias

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation locates a problem in poststructuralism's approach to the concept of believing. Since poststructuralism establishes itself as an intellectual inquiry that deconstructs not only particular beliefs but also the act of believing, many poststructuralists overlook the fact that their own philosophical premises must be initially believed before their critical interventions gain credence. These critics do not explain how belief, as such, emerges within people or why people adopt one belief system over another. To address this aporia, this dissertation reviews both Jacques Derrida's conceptualization of the decision as a choice divorced from rational calculation of evidence and J.F. Lyotard's …

Go to article

Race, Civil Rights, And Hate Speech In The Digital Era, Jessie Daniels Jan 2008

Race, Civil Rights, And Hate Speech In The Digital Era, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

The emergence of the digital era has had unintended consequences for race, civil rights, and hate speech.This chapter looks at the prevalence of both overtly racist sites, such as Stormfront, and at "cloaked" sites, that purport to advocate civil rights but disguise a racist agenda.

Go to article

First Prev