Digital Commons Network^™

Tortured Souls: Unhappy Lawyers Viewed Through The Medium Of Film, Lance Mcmillian

Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law

No abstract provided.

Title Ix: An Opportunity To Level The Olympic Playing Field, Susannah Carr

Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law

No abstract provided.

Human Cloning, Stem Cell Research. An Islamic Perspective., Aida I. Al-Aqeel

Saudi Medical Journal

The rapidly changing technologies that involve human subjects raise complex ethical, legal, social, and religious issues. Recent advances in the field of cloning and stem cell research have introduced new hopes for the treatment of serious diseases. But this promise has raised many complex questions. This field causes debate and challenge, not only among scientists but also among ethicists, religious scholars, governments, and politicians. There is no consensus on the morality of human cloning, even within specific religious traditions. In countries in which religion has a strong influence on political decision making, the moral status of the human embryo is …

Development And Validation Of The Arabic Allergic Rhinitis Quality Of Life Questionnaire., Salah M. Aburuz, Naela R. Bulatova, Mohammed I. Tawalbeh

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVES: To develop and validate an Arabic allergic rhinitis quality of life questionnaire (AAQQ). METHODS: The study was conducted at the Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic at the University of Jordan Hospital, Amman, Jordan, from February 2006 to June 2007. A questionnaire was developed from data obtained from 90 patients, and the validation study was conducted on 140 patients. The study was a 5-week observational study. We evaluated the measurement properties necessary for use of the AAQQ in clinical practice, clinical trials, and cross-sectional surveys. RESULTS: The intraclass correlation coefficient for the repeated AAQQ measurements was excellent (0.93), indicating a …

Avoiding Another Eldorado: Balancing Parental Liberty And The Risk Of Error With Governmental Interest In The Well-Being Of Children In Complex Cases Of Child Removal, Andrew T. Erwin

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Direct And Indirect Effects Of Injunctive Norms On Marijuana Use: The Role Of Reference Groups, Joseph W. Labrie, Justin F. Hummer, Andrew Lac, Christine M. Lee

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Objective: Little work has evaluated the relationship between injunctive norms and marijuana use. This study sought to establish whether misperceptions exist between perceived injunctive norms of typical college students and the actual approval level of the students. We also examined respondents’ perceptions of which groups (typical student, close friends, and parents) were the most and least approving of marijuana. These variables were then applied to an explanatory model to assess their relationships with marijuana use.

Method: Participants were 3,753 students (61% female) randomly recruited from two West Coast campuses. Participants were asked about their own marijuana use and their own …

How Effectively Do People Learn From A Variety Of Different Opinions?, Andrew Healy

Economics Faculty Works

This paper presents experimental evidence about how effectively individuals learn from information coming from heterogeneous sources. In the experiment, Thai subjects observed information that came from Americans and from other Thais that they could use to help them answer a series of questions. Despite listening too little to either group, subjects demonstrated a significant amount of statistical sophistication in how they weighed observed American information relative to observed Thai information. The data indicate that subjects understood that outside information has extra value because people from the same group tend to make the same kinds of mistakes. The results illustrate the …

The Effect Of A State Department Of Education Mentoring Program For Teachers On Science Student Achievement, Gilda Darlene Lyon

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of the Georgia Department of Education Science Specialist teacher-mentoring program on student achievement on science standardized tests. This study analyzed the impact this program has had on student achievement in participating high schools when compared with high schools across the state where the program had not intervened. The Georgia High School Graduation Test, physical science end-of-course, and biology end-of-course test data, from a three year period, we re collected from the Georgia Department of Education website and analyzed using an independent-t test and the Mann-Whitney test. While test score improvements …

Impact Of Increased Technology Use In The Free-Time Choices Of Fifth And Seventh Grade Students In A Southern School District, Cynthia Susan Miller

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The study sought to determine if increased technology use affects the free-time choices of students. While technology options have grown exponentially, time remains a fixed commodity. Therefore, it is suggested that students who increasingly use technology must draw time from more traditional childhood activities. Students' free-time activities were examined to document discernable patterns among the activities valued by students who use technology extensively and the activities valued by students who use technology less frequently. Study participants were fifth and seventh grade students in a semi-rural suburban county in the southeastern United States. The data collection instrument was a self-reporting survey …

"Like An Old Song They Carried In Their Memory": Eudora Welty's Transformation Of Folklore In The Wide Net And Other Stories, Leigh Anna Pendergrass

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

No abstract

The Impact Of Captivity On The Behaviour Of Mute Swans (Cygnus Olor), Jessica Guyon

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The mute swan (Cygnus olor) is a large water fowl species widely distributed in Great Britain. They are residential and territorial so often there is no interchange between groups. Swans face many injuries in the wild so are brought into wild life centres for treatment and rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to see if their captive behaviour differed from the behaviour of wild conspecifics. This was achieved by performing observations of captive and wild mute swans. From this it was found that several behaviours were more common in captivity these were standing, standing whilst preening or feeding, lying, …

Recent Advances In Marine Microbiology - A Selection Of Critical Evaluations Of Research Papers, Colin Munn, Heather Guy, Grace Phillips, Elizabeth Robertson

The Plymouth Student Scientist

This collection of articles features examples of coursework submitted by three students taking the module BIOL3309 „Marine Microbiology – Ecology & Applications‟ as part of the BSc Hons Marine Biology degree at Plymouth. In this module, students discuss recent research papers in regular seminars, and keep a portfolio of critical evaluations of papers that they have studied. This subject is arguably one of the fastest moving fields in marine science and recent discoveries, made possible by the application of new techniques (especially metagenomics and rapid DNA sequencing) have revolutionized our understanding of ocean processes and the interactions of microbes with …

Patterns Of Abundance And Diversity In Epiphytic Orchids On Parashorea Malaanonan Trees In Danum Valley, Sabah, Kiki O'Malley

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Research in forest canopies has been restricted by access difficulties for a long time, however in the last 20 years techniques to provide access into tree canopies have been developed, now opening a field of biology to more scientists. This study uses rope techniques for accessing the canopy in a primary rainforest system in Borneo, Malaysia, to study the occurrence and patterns of orchid distribution in Parashorea malaanonan dipterocarp trees. Five trees were sampled, a total of 42 orchids from 8 genera were present. Data on branch height, distance from bole, position of the orchid on branch, substrate and associations …

The Experience And Perception Of Concurrent Versus Retrospective Chocolate Cravings, Harriet Taylor

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Seventy undergraduate students participated in a self-report study to investigate the perception of concurrent versus retrospective chocolate-related cravings. This study was interested in exploring whether retrospective cravings were reported as more intense than concurrent cravings due to cognitive distortions over time. Results showed that retrospective chocolate cravings were reported as significantly stronger and more urgent (p< .001), and were characterised by more vivid gustatory imagery (p< .025), than concurrent cravings. All other aspects of chocolate craving were reported similarly across groups. This indicates that retrospective measures of chocolate cravings may provide inaccurate representations of the craving experience. This difference may potentially be found with other types of cravings, and for that reason, where possible, concurrent measures of craving should be given priority.

Can Children Use Similarity Between Actions To Learn Grammar?, Fiona Anning

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The present study was a replication and extension of Casenhiser and Goldberg (2005). Children aged 5;0 to 7;6 were assigned to one of two training conditions, either they were only taught novel verbs in a novel construction paired with appearance scenes or they were additionally trained on novel verbs in the transitive construction. All participants were assessed on both word orders with new novel verbs using a forced-choice comprehension test. The children in both conditions performed significantly worse on the appearance items than the causative trials, which fails to replicate the original study. The translation post-test responses suggest that poor …

"Like An Old Song They Carried In Their Memory": Eudora Welty's Transformation Of Folklore In The Wide Net And Other Stories, Leigh Anna Pendergrass

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis looks at the importance of folklore in Eudora Welty's The Wide Net and Other Stories. Folklore fulfills several functions in this collection of stories: it connects the characters within the stories to their culture and the people around them as it highlights the differences between the stark real world and the idealistic folkloric world; folklore also creates a more realistic and relatable experience for the readers of Welty's fiction while Welty allows herself to intertwine her local folklore with more universally known folklore in order to show her respect for her local lore as she allows herself the …

Climate Change In The Casco Bay Watershed: Past, Present, And Future, Cameron P. Wake, Elizabeth Burakowski, Katharine Hayhoe, Chris Watson, Ellen Douglas, Jeff Vandorn, Vaishali Naik, Clare Keating

The Sustainability Institute Publications

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Preschool Education On Reading Achievement Of Kindergarten Through Fifth Grade Students, Melissa Harvey Clark

Dissertations

This study examines the impact of various types of preschool care and education on the reading achievement of children, kindergarten through fifth grade, who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). The participants in this study are located throughout the United States of America. These students attend public and private schools.

The data for this study were provided by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education. The researcher utilized ECLS-K's Public Use Data File and Electronic Codebook to create an SPSS syntax file in order to determine if …

Predictors And Influences Of Graduation Rates In Mississippi Public Schools, Donna Rebekah Holden Chiasson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine if possible predictors of graduation rates in Mississippi existed. This study included 10 independent variables and one dependent variable. The independent variables consisted of average daily attendance, algebra I scores, teacher salary, socioeconomic status (as expressed in the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch within a school), eighth grade math MCT scores, eighth grade language MCT scores, the number of teachers with advanced degrees, the school's outcome of Adequate Yearly Progress, school size, and principal leadership style.

The dependent variable was graduation rate. A total of 100 schools were …

Mathematics Achievement Of Regular Education Students By Placement In Inclusion And Non-Inclusion Classrooms And Their Principals' Perceptions Of Inclusion, Loretta Rodgers Hartfield

Dissertations

This study examined mathematics achievement of fourth and fifth grade students in Mississippi and principals' perceptions of inclusion.

A sample of 462 students from eight separate elementary schools was selected for this study. Fifteen principals completed the Principal and Inclusion Survey regarding inclusion education. Eight of the 15 principals were interviewed with 10 open-ended questions regarding their perceptions of inclusion.

Data were analyzed using an independent two-tailed t test and Pearson product moment correlation. The independent two-tailed / test was used to determine differences in mathematics achievement for fourth and fifth grade students in inclusion classrooms compared to non-inclusion classrooms …

Principal Efficacy: An Investigation Of School Principals' Sense Of Efficacy And Indicators Of School Effectiveness, Charles Wayne Lovell

Dissertations

At the individual school level, the responsibility for demonstrating school effectiveness lies on the shoulders of the building administrator. In fact, "it is widely accepted that good principals are the cornerstones of good schools and that, without a principal's leadership efforts to raise student achievement, schools cannot succeed" (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2004, p. 573). However, federal, state, and local mandates have increased the pressure on school administrators to demonstrate effectiveness. As a result, the work of school administrators has changed. Furthermore, Fullan (2003) identifies a trend that demonstrates a dramatic decrease in the principal's perceptions of effectiveness, authority, trust, and …

The Relationships Of Learning Style Balance And Learning Dimensions To Self-Directed Learning Propensity Among Adult Learners, Sarah Tullos Hutto

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of learning style characteristics to self-directed learning propensity among adult learners. The learning style characteristics investigated were learning style balance as measured by a scoring method developed by Mainemelis, Boyatzis, and Kolb (2002) and learning style dimensions as measured by the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI). The Oddi Continuous Learning Instrument (OCLI) was used to measure self-directed learning propensity. A questionnaire was used to collect descriptive information about the participants for age, gender, years of professional work experience, and graduate degree program in the categories of business, education, health, and …

The Advanced Placement And International Baccalaureate Programs: The Graduates' Perspective, Shannon Saxby Smith

Dissertations

This study was designed to solicit the perspectives of AP and IB graduates who have completed at least one semester of postsecondary education about their experiences while in their respective programs. This study was also conducted to determine whether these IB graduates report that they were better prepared for postsecondary studies than students who participated in the AP program. The researcher was also able to determine whether AP and IB graduates believed they experienced any long-term benefits or detriments by having been in their programs and whether they believed their experiences were worthwhile. Lastly, the researcher was able to determine …

A Pilot Study Of Organizational Performance, Performance Barriers And Faculty Engagement In The Nursing Education Unit, Yolanda Chapman Turner

Dissertations

This pilot study was driven by the problem of market disequilibrium and the subsequent overarching desire to identify and describe principles and processes taken by nursing education units to optimize market equilibrium for nursing service in response to cyclical market demands. Given the complexities of market responsiveness in conjunction with changes in healthcare delivery, health economics, population demographics, higher education and other contextual factors, it is essential for nursing education as a whole to be in a position to respond to demand. The purpose of this study was to investigate organizational performance, performance barriers and faculty engagement in the nursing …

High School Sophomores' Perceptions Of The Role Of Extra-Curricular Activities As Preparation For College Admission, John Earl Wyble

Dissertations

While there is significant interest and emphasis on student participation in extra-curricular activities, limited research on such participation and the benefits it may possess toward preparing students for college admissions exists. A survey of 312 high school sophomores in a rural, southeastern Louisiana school district was conducted. Data were collected through the survey on the students' participation in extra-curricular activities and their perceived value of such participation toward gaining admission to a postsecondary institution. The purpose of the study was to analyze the relationship between participation in extra-curricular activity and the perceived value of such participation toward gaining admission to …

Teacher Education Preparation Assessment System And The National Council For Accreditation Of Teacher Education Accreditation, Deborah Lynn Vaughan Stoulig

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the assessment systems of teacher preparation programs have changed since the new NCATE Standards were implemented in 2004, what methods of data collections are being used, and to measure coordinators' perceptions of the assessment systems. An electronic survey was developed by the researcher based upon a review of related literature, the researcher's personal experience, and years of reviewing data collection software. An invitation to the survey was emailed to 631 NCATE Coordinators or equivalent as identified from their institution's website with 221 participants completing the survey for a return rate of …

The Impact Of Multicultural Trade Books And An Intervention On Fourth Graders' Cultural Attitudes, Susan Herberger Whitcomb

Dissertations

As the United States population has become more diverse and the civil rights movement of the 1960s increased attentiveness to the change in population, the need for multicultural awareness has grown (Perry & Fraser, 1993). This study examined if teacher read alouds of multicultural trade books and a scripted instructional intervention could impact 187 fourth graders' cultural attitudes. The 10-session, 5-week study involved six reading teacher volunteers participating in one of the three group levels (treatment one: multicultural trade book read alouds, treatment two: multicultural trade books and a scripted instructional intervention, and treatment three: a control group). The mixed …

Interpersonal Perception Of Narcissism In An At-Risk Adolescent Sample: A Social Relations Analysis, Sarah June Grafeman

Dissertations

The current study utilized Kenny's (1994) social relations model to explore the interpersonal consequences of narcissism in an at-risk adolescent residential sample. Members of two platoons (N= 47) attending a 22-week military-style intervention program completed a self-report measure of narcissism and rated one another on narcissism-related traits as well as social status within the peer group. Interpersonal ratings demonstrated small but significant consensus as well as self-other agreement for narcissism-related traits. Individuals with relatively high levels of self-reported narcissism were perceived by peers as hostile, competitive, and likely to engage in future delinquent behaviors. Self-reported narcissism was also associated with …

Determinants Of Resident Assistant Job Satisfaction In Privatized University Housing, Jennifer Lynn Casey

Dissertations

The general purpose of a residence life program is the improvement of the oncampus student experience in hopes of promoting personal growth, development, and education as well as bolstering retention rates and cultivating future alumni relationships. A residence life program can be found on most four year college and university campuses. Many colleges and universities facilitate their own residence life programs in whole or in part. Other colleges and universities outsource their residence life programs, in whole or in part, to what is called a privatized university housing company. The goals of a residence life program, be it facilitated by …

Il-4(-/-) Mice With Lethal Mesocestoides Corti Infections--Reduced Th2 Cytokines And Alternatively Activated Macrophages., A. E. O'Connell, L. A. Kerepesi, G. L. Vandergrift, D. R. Herbert, T J. Van Winkle, D. C. Hooper, E J. Pearce, D. Abraham

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Protection against Mesocestoides corti, a cestode that invades vital organs, is dependent on the production of IL-4, as IL-4(-/-) mice were found to have higher parasite burdens when compared with wild-type mice. The goal of this study was to investigate the role of IL-4 in immunity to M. corti, focusing on the immunological profile and on potential mediators of pathology. IL-4(-/-) mice infected with M. corti showed 100% mortality by 32 days, whereas wild-type mice survived for approximately 1 year. Parasite burdens were significantly increased in the liver, peritoneal, and thoracic cavities of IL-4(-/-) mice, associated with impaired recruitment of …