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Examining Classroom Grades As A Predictor Of Student Achievement On A Criterion- Referenced Test: Telling The Truth, Phillip David Kennedy

Dissertations

American education has made many attempts to reform its structure during the last several decades. Many of these reform efforts have been prompted by global events that implied American education as inferior to other nations’ educational systems. The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act required schools to examine their curriculum, instructional practices, and assessments. The problem was a concern regarding inconsistencies between classroom grades and student achievement (Missouri Assessment Program scores). Therefore classroom grades may be misrepresenting student achievement to colleges, military, or corporations recruiting high school graduates. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between student …

L’Art De L’« Écrire » Chez Patrick Chamoiseau, Savrina Parevadee Chinien

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In the works of Patrick Chamoiseau, the act of writing is a main, recurrent theme. The narrator, often, tries to define himself through his writings which have their own autonomy in the novel. This character questions his writing and is torn by the dissatisfaction he feels to get close to the “breath” of the creole storyteller : the chasm between orality and writing creates suffering. He, then, advocates l’“écrire”, closer, according to him, to the utterance of the storyteller and free of the “constraints” of an occidental writing, which he considers as stamped by the ideology of the Universal.

Full Issue 12(4)

Journal of Public Transportation

No abstract provided.

Csbs Kudos, December 2009, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Social And Behavioral Sciences.

CSBS Kudos

Contents:

-- Kudos to:
-- Kudos to CSBS faculty awarded Professional Development Assignments for 2010-2011!

The Role Of Spatial And Genetic Modeling To Biogeography, Dolly Lyne Crawford

Biology ETDs

One of the most persistent challenges in biology is explaining the distribution of animal taxa. Quantitative explanations for the distribution of organisms are challenged by the complexity of factors that potentially limit a species range, including topography, ecology, climate and biology. Because of limits on data and approaches, early biogeographers were hampered in their ability to explain patterns. Here, I benefit from two primary developments in biogeography. My research draws from the accumulation of data across several scientific disciplines and advances in spatial and statistical approaches to examine the distribution of animal taxa within an integrative biogeography framework. I combine …

Perceptions Of Jordanian Secondary Schools Teachers Towardscritical Thinking, Osamah Bataineh, Khaled F. Alazzi

International Education

The purpose of this study was to discover themes or concepts, generated from the collected data, that formed building blocks of grounded theory in the study of secondary school social studies teachers’ perspectives. This research study was conducted in Jordan, where secondary school social studies teachers were interviewed regarding their perspectives of teaching critical thinking skills in their classrooms. All interviews were audio-taped in Arabic and later translated into English. Data, including the translation of the audio, video tapes, the Ministry of Education guidelines, and textbook teacher manuals were analyzed qualitatively. The study results indicated that Jordanian secondary school social …

Education, Migration, And Cultural Capital In The Chinese Diaspora: Transnational Students Between Hong Kong And Canada, Zhihua Zhang

International Education

Book Review for Johanna Waters'book Education, Migration, and Cultural Capital in the Chinese Diaspora: Transnational Students between Hong Kong and Canada.

Medicinal Plants Used In The Health Care System Practiced By Traditional Vaidyas In Alaknanda Catchment Of Uttarakhand, India, P. C. Phondani, R. K. Maikhuri, N. S. Bisht

Ethnobotanical Leaflets

The present study documents the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants used in the Alaknanda catchment of Uttarakhand state in India. Ethnomedicinal uses of 100 medicinal plant species along with botanical name, vernacular name, family, habit, part used and folk medicinal uses are presented. They belong to 91 genera and 51 families. These plants have been used to cure 60 types of different ailments out of the 58 plant species used to cure more than one disease. The most widely sought after plant parts in the preparation of remedies are the underground parts such as root, tuber, bulb, rhizome etc. Most …

Existing Biomass Infrastructure And Theoretical Potential Biomass Production In The U.S, Jeremy R. Porter, Frank M. Howell, Philip B. Mason, Troy C. Blanchard

Faculty Publications

The recent and projected status of energy production and consumption in the U.S., resulting in substantial dependencies upon foreign oil, has continued to provide pressure on domestic energy security. All told, bio-energy systems, and biomass crop production in particular, will be important elements of national security, economic vitality, and public policy. Using biomass crop estimates based upon models developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we identify potential biomass crop production zones within the contiguous 48 states of the United States using spatially centered analytic methods. The Midwest and the South regions of the United States are, by far, the …

State Reports, Southeastern Fishes Council

Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Worthless Movement: Agricultural Regression And Mobility, Luiz Costa

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Theories of agricultural regression have questioned the standard view that Amazonian foraging represents an ancient adaptation to regional environments by demonstrating that contemporary foragers are former agriculturalists whose historical trajectory led to the adoption of a foraging subsistence strategy. Recent studies have further shown that Amazonian foraging is not an adaptation to a pristine environment, but an engagement with tracts of forest that have been transformed by former agriculturalists. These theories, however, explain the historical process of agricultural loss through an investigation of contemporary foragers or trekkers, as if a certain subsistence strategies and mobile patterns were the inevitable outcome …

Population Level Conditions As Signals Of Entrepreneurial Opportunities: A Cognitve Synthesis Of The Entrepreneurial Traits And Population Rates Perspectives, Matthew S. Wood

Dissertations

The ecology based environmental perspective implicitly suggests that population level founding rates, dissolution rates, and density levels influence the likelihood that entrepreneurs will launch new ventures within a given population domain. The central idea is that population rates and densities may act as signals to entrepreneurs regarding the viability of a new venture within a given population. Interestingly, whether or not population level factors actually influence the new venture creation process remains an open question. As such, the central purpose of this research is to utilize a cognitive approach to better understand how population level conditions and the individual differences …

Effectiveness Of Team-Building And Teamwork In Real And Virtual Worlds, Rachana Ranade

All Theses

Given the increasing importance of globalization and collaboration, this research investigates the possibility of performing team-building training for globally dispersed teams using the capabilities of the virtual world Second Life. Three meeting conditions, the 3D virtual world Second Life, a combination of face-to-face and Second Life and face-to-face were evaluated. Thirty randomly assigned 3 person teams performed an ice-breaker session and then a team-building activity in each meeting condition. Four dependent variables were measured: task completion time; quality of task performance; the subjective satisfaction with the process based on group cohesiveness, perception of the process and satisfaction with the outcome; …

Development Of A Coal Reserve Gis Model And Estimation Of The Recoverability And Extraction Costs, Chandrakanth Reddy Apala

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The United States has the world largest coal resource and coal will serve as the major and dependable energy source in the coming 200 years or more. However, the amount of recoverable coal reserve depends on the geological formations and quality of the coal seams, future development of mining technology and the extraction cost. A NETL sponsored cooperative research was conducted by the researchers at Carnegie Mallon University (CMU) and West Virginia University (WVU) to estimate the recoverable coal reserve. This thesis presents some of the works that WVU performed to enhance the coal reserve model including characterization of coal …

Soldiers And Stereotypes: Mountaineers, Cultural Identity, And World War Ii, C. Belmont Keeney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

To what extent are Appalachian stereotypes true and how much is pure fabrication? This study seeks to answer this question by examining the experiences of West Virginia soldiers during World War II. Appalachian hillbillies, believed to be culturally backward, uncivilized, isolated, and prone to violence, were often sent straight to the infantry because it was believed that their wild mountain heritage made them inherently better fighters. Using interviews, letters, and a collection of over 1,200 firsthand written accounts of Appalachian veterans collected by West Virginia University in 1946, this study traces the evolution of the cultural and individual identities of …

Demosprudence, Interactive Federalism, And Twenty Years Of Sheff V. O'Neill, Justin R. Long

Law Faculty Research Publications

Professor Lani Guinier and others have recently developed a theory called "demosprudence" that explains the democracy-enhancing potential of certain types of US. Supreme Court dissents. Separately, state constitutionalists have described state constitutions' capacity to offer a base of resistance against the U.S. Supreme Court's narrow conception of individual rights. Applying these two seemingly unrelated theories to school desegregation litigation in Connecticut and to same-sex marriage litigation in Iowa, this Essay suggests that certain state constitutional decisions might function like U.S. Supreme Court dissents to enhance democratic activism. In this way, interactive federalism might usefully serve as a category of demosprudence.

When Immigration Borders Move, Huyen Pham

Faculty Scholarship

With recent immigration enforcement efforts, we have created a completely new paradigm of moving borders: laws, enacted at all levels of government, that require proof of legal immigration status in order to obtain a driver's license, a job, rental housing, government need-based assistance, and numerous other essential benefits. Unlike the fixed physical border, these laws require proof of immigration status at multiple, moving points within the country's interior and are triggered through everyday transactions; if unable to prove her legal status, a person is denied the restricted benefit. If a person is denied access to multiple essential benefits, then she …

Cyber Attacks: Does Physical Boundary Matter?, Qiu-Hong Wang, Seung-Hyun Kim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Information security issues are characterized with interdependence. Particularly, cyber criminals can easily cross national boundaries and exploit jurisdictional limitations between countries. Thus, whether cyber attacks are spatially autocorrelated is a strategic issue for government authorities and a tactic issue for insurance companies. Through an empirical study of cyber attacks across 62 countries during the period 2003-2007, we find little evidence on the spatial autocorrelation of cyber attacks at any week. However, after considering economic opportunity, IT infrastructure, international collaboration in enforcement and conventional crimes, we find strong evidence that cyber attacks were indeed spatially autocorrelated as they moved over time. …

An Economic Development Paradox: The Impact Of Linkages And Synergies Among Local Agents In The Development Of An Emergent Bioscience Cluster And Associated Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Francisco Montalvo

Student Scholarship

Although bioscience industrial clusters have been widely researched in the last decade, the role of knowledge creation, management, and transfer as driving forces for industrial cluster competitiveness remains unclear. A better appreciation of knowledge creation and retention as determinants of industrial cluster success, and the role of foreign direct investment may be of value to industry decision makers, policy makers, and researchers worldwide. Our research revealed a paradox regarding the intensity of foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational companies (MNCs) and the limited development of a local entrepreneurial ecosystem in an emergent bioscience cluster. While cluster development seems a logical …

Safety Net System: A Case Study Of Primary And Specialty Care For Uninsured Residents In Cobb County, Georgia, Kacie A. Dougherty

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The purpose of this study is to analyze data from Cobb County safety net facilities to determine primary and specialty care accessibility for low-income patients as evidenced by the availability of resources, affordability of services, accountability of quality care, and policies for the uninsured. The study provides insight for assessing the circumstances in Cobb County and supplies information on services that may need evaluation and expansion. Data for safety net facilities were obtained through interviews with a questionnaire that consisted of 13 dichotomous questions, 10 closed-ended questions and 2 open-ended questions. All the executive administrative staff or chief executive officers …

Three Essays On Foreign Aid, Poverty And Growth., Aberra Senbeta

Dissertations

This dissertation studies how foreign aid impacts poverty and economic growth and addresses three interrelated issues: whether aid reduces poverty, how aid affects economic growth, and whether the poverty mitigating role of aid depends on the levels of poverty.

The first essay, "Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty?" examines the direct effects of foreign aid on poverty in developing countries using dynamic panel estimation techniques. The results suggest that aid has a significant poverty reducing effect even after controlling for average income. The findings are robust to model specification and estimation techniques. The policy implication is that poverty reduction can be …

The Ethnic Identity Of Returning Immigrants To A Pueblo In Yucatan, David Piacenti

Dissertations

This study seeks to understand: 1) motivations for leaving and, if applicable, racialized, segregated environment, which is represented by the returned cholo, whose "urban gangbanger" mentality confronts the traditional, rural ethnic identity. San Francisco also affects the overall perception of immigration and desire for permanent U.S. residence. Of the San Francisco cohort, 42% say immigration is "positive overall." Conversely, 62% of the Kalamazoo cohort says that immigration is "positive overall." Only 29% of the San Francisco cohort desire permanent residence in the U.S. while 54% of the Kalamazoo cohort desire permanent U.S. residence. Therefore, the suburban context of Kalamazoo may …

Austral Autumn And Winter Seasonal Affects On Benthic Foraminiferal Communities: Bransfield And Northern Gerlache Straits, Laura Anne Bordelon

Theses

The Southern Ocean has unique seasonal qualities due to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) thermo-isolating the Antarctic continent. During summer months, surface primary productivity from algal blooms is very high. In the winter months, limited daylight hours (4 in winter) and formation of sea ice prevents sun light from reaching surface waters, therefore limiting productivity. The short seasons of productivity and long winters in Antarctica combined with seasonal changes in deep ocean temperatures, salinity, and fluxes of organic matter impact foraminiferal population dynamics. Fluctuations in surface primary productivity, as well as living foraminiferal assemblages have been documented around the Antarctica …

The Implementation Of Interventions And Strategies For Children Who Struggle With Reading Utilizing The Read 180 Program, Rebecca Josephine Haag Guyne

Dissertations

All children can learn if given the opportunity, correct assistance, and appropriate instruction. Finding the learning tools which will enhance and encourage learning is the ultimate way to make certain that all students can and will learn. Many teachers use their gut instinct to determine the interventions and strategies to present in their classroom. Improvement will only occur for teachers and students when best practice or research based interventions and strategies are not only accessible but utilized correctly on a daily basis. Children with reading disabilities find fluency and reading comprehension a challenge. The most effective method reported in the …

A Market Assessment Of Greenhouse Products And Associated Rural Development In Semi-Arid Regions Of Mexico, Edgar Arturo Quevedo-Martinez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Greenhouse products represent a feasible alternative for small producers compared to open-field production. Using a combination of enterprise budgeting, capital investment analysis and optimization, we found that under most of the conditions investigated the six different crops investigated are profitable. Greenhouse production has the added benefits of conserving scarce land and water resources, potentially reducing production and market risk, and offering consumers healthful products of good quality, that can contribute to the development of the local economy. One problem is that a larger up-front investment is often essential.;This study focused on three main areas: (1) A production and market assessment. …

An Empirical Examination Of Firearm Users In Brasilia, Df, Adolfo Sachsida, Andre V. Mollick, Mario Jorge Cardoso De Mendonca

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper relates individuals’ characteristics to the probability of possessing firearms: a) inside the home; b) outside the home; and c) inside and outside the home. Extending the literature on the demand for firearms whose focus is on the first trait, we collected survey data on 2,045 random individuals of Brasília, Brazil, in 2002. The multinominal logit model yields several new results. First, while we do find that a person’s educational level negatively affects the likelihood that an individual will use arms only outside his or her home, education does not affect the probability of an individual possessing a gun …

A Tri-Disciplinary Analysis Of Religion, Alicia Wallace

Social Sciences

This paper analyzes religion using a multi-disciplinary approach. Studying the Social Sciences exposes one to an opportunity not just to learn a single discipline, but three, and this unique learning experience can teach one to look at the world’s phenomena with a multi-perspective view. Using a tri-disciplinary approach when exploring topics can broaden ones outlook on how there are many ways to explore and investigate a topic in greater detail. By using Anthropological, Sociological and Geographical theoretical perspectives one can understand a topic more fully by using a multi-perspective approach when exploring this diverse world culturally, socially and physically.

Clean Water For Developing Countries, Hilary Wighton

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Chains: A Dissection Of The Caribbean's Tourism Mirage, Megan Nellis

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Educational Inequity, Erica Jade Lyons

Social Sciences

Our society’s public school education system is reproducing, if not enhancing, social stratification and inequality. The United States spends less on the schools that have the largest population of low-income and minority children than on schools with children from the more affluent families, typically White children. We are only further widening the gap between rich and poor when we give the children who come from the bottom end of class structure and give them even less when they leave their homes to come to class. In the United States, we spend approximately $900 less per year on each student from …