Digital Commons Network^™

Contributors, Barbara Thayer-Bacon

International Education

N/A

Exempting High-Level Employees And Small Employers From Legislation Invalidating Predispute Employment Arbitration Agreements, E. Gary Spitko

Faculty Publications

On February 12, 2009, lawmakers in the U.S.House of Representatives introduced the "Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009. " This bill, if enacted, will invalidate any predispute arbitration agreement between an employer and its employee. Last year, the 110th Congress considered the narrower "Preservation of Civil Rights Protections Act of 2008, " which would have invalidated such predispute arbitration agreements if they required "arbitration of a dispute arising under" federal civil rights laws. This Article explores how best to structure any such invalidation of predispute employment arbitration agreements, both in light of the rationales for and against regulation of the employment …

Police Blotter, Unlv Department Of Police Services

Police Blotter

No abstract provided.

Social Networking: Is It Another Stage In The Evolution Of Communication And Does It Affect The Way We Think About Problem Solving And Communicating?, Sandy L. Robinson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores whether participants in online social networking sites differ from non-participants in their approach to problem solving or in their attitudes about their interactions with their own social networks. Walter Ong (1982) determined that people’s thinking changed with different media usage, particularly from oral to script, script to print, and print to electronic. This research examines problem solving and attitudes about interactions with social networks as two criteria for exploring how people think. In a review of the literature, the thesis explores the theory of media ecology, which expands on the work of McLuhan (1967) and Ong (1982), …

A Time For Necessary Change: Fdr’S First Inaugural Address, Corey Lenzen

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

School Breakfast Program: Efficacy And Impact, Amber Ward

Food Science and Nutrition

The primary goals of the school breakfast program are to reduce food-insecurity among low-income students and to decrease the growing habit of breakfast skipping. Consumption of school breakfast has been associated with improved health and academic performance. The purpose of this review was to investigate these alleged beneficial outcomes and to evaluate the program’s success in promoting accessibility and participation for all students. Results showed that children who ate a school breakfast were more likely to have a healthier BMI and a broader daily nutrient intake. Participation also helped students achieve higher math and reading grades. Their teachers reported improvements …

Communication Within The Packaging Industry, Lauren K. Soares

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to show the potential that strategic packaging communication could have on attracting a larger client base. Through revealing current packaging innovations and the psychology behind it, a business should be well informed on how to appeal to the maximum amount of customers.

The study consisted of elite and specialized interviewing of industry experts in order to get an inside look at packaging and how companies are using it to communicate to their target markets. The next step was to survey this targeted customer base and discover the psychology behind their purchases and what is …

A Shift Towards Gender Equality In Prosecutions: Realizing Legitimate Enforcement Of Crimes Committed Against Women In Municipal And International Criminal Law, Tamara F. Lawson

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

A new era of law enforcement has emerged recognizing the importance of punishing gender-specific violence.  This first wave of "gender-sensitive prosecutors" has changed the way crimes against women are handled in the criminal justice system.  The enactment of gender neutralizing laws and policies has dramatically improved the enforcement of crimes against women and attempts to end the era of impunity.  This Article addresses the changes in prosecutions and further considers international human rights treaties that require gender equality in law enforcement.

In criminal law, it is the willingness of a prosecutor to exercise his or her discretionary authority to file …

A Conversation With Philippe Descola, Eduardo Kohn

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

The distinguished anthropologist Philippe Descola has worked among the Jivaroan Achuar in Ecuador’s Amazon region, since the mid-1970s. Author of numerous influential books and publications, he holds a professorship at the Collège de France and is also Directeur d’études and Directeur du Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Creation And Implementation Plan For A Sales Engineering Minor At California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, Joshua M. Checkis

Biomedical Engineering

The profession of Sales Engineering (S.E.) offers engineers a unique opportunity to fuse their technical background with communication and business skills in order to seek a rewarding alternative to the typical engineering career path. The shortfall of this niche industry is the lack of formal academic programs that seek to develop the skills necessary to prepare engineers for the field. At this time only two sales engineering minors exist in the nation, one at Iowa State University and the other at the University of Florida. The process for this senior project was to clearly identify the scope of a competitive …

With The Sweat Of Our Brows: A Qualitative Interview Study On The Meaning Of Work For Illinois And Nebraska Family Farming Couples With Long Careers, Sheri J. Hink

Master's Theses - Sociology and Anthropology

This thesis explores the social identities and the work and business strategies of five farming couples who had long farming careers in the Midwest. Much of the literature presented within this thesis discusses the hardships that family farmers face in today’s economy. However, the research also points to a strong attachment to farming and the farming lifestyle despite its many challenges. Using a qualitative interviewing method, I was interested in studying what meaning these farming couples attached to their work, including any gendered division of labor, and what survival techniques they had employed. I found that the five family farming …

The Role Of Is Project Critical Success Factors: A Revelatory Case, Cecil Eng Huang Chua, Wee-Kiat Lim

CCX Research

Research in Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of Enterprise Systems (ES) projects has identified numerous practitioner governance mechanisms for ensuring project success. However, such research has not developed a theory of why certain critical success factors encourage project success. Our research develops such theory on a case study where even though the levels of several critical success factors were weak, the project nevertheless succeeded. Specifically, the logistics ES project succeeded even though there was (1) only marginal top management support, (2) low key user commitment, and (3) change management, training and other critical aspects of user management and communication were not …

Complete Issue

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Heme Reversibly Damps Period2 Rhythms In Mouse Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Explants, C. J. Guenthner, David Bickar, Mary E. Harrington

Psychology: Faculty Publications

The hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which in mammals serves as the master circadian pacemaker by synchronizing autonomous clocks in peripheral tissues, is composed of coupled single-cell oscillators that are driven by interlocking positive/negative transcriptional/translational feedback loops. Several studies have suggested that heme, a common prosthetic group that is synthesized and degraded in a circadian manner in the SCN, may modulate the function of several feedback loop components, including the REV-ERB nuclear receptors and PERIOD2 (PER2). We found that ferric heme (hemin, 3-100 μM) dose-dependently and reversibly damped luminescence rhythms in SCN explants from mice expressing a PER2::LUCIFERASE (PER2::LUC) fusion protein. …

Southern Alumni, Siu Alumni Association

SIU Alumni Magazine

No abstract provided.

Neural Replay : A Possible Mechanism For Differing Rehersal Strategies Across Parity, Cassie Brooke Jones

Master's Theses

All mammalian females undergo behavioral and neurological changes during pregnancy and motherhood. Many of these changes lead to an enhanced ability to be an effective mother including: increased memory, foraging behaviors, and boldness. Here, we examined the differences in rehearsal strategies between mother and virgin rats. Stops made by rats when exploring their environment have been found to result in reverse replay activity in the hippocampus (Foster & Wilson, 2006). Reverse replay is sequential replay that occurs in the hippocampus immediately after a spatial experience; this replay/activation is in reversed order of the initial spatial episode (Foster & Wilson, 2006). …

Environmental Implications Of Francisella Tularensis Biofilms, Jeffrey J. Margolis '00

Doctoral Dissertations

Francisella tularensis survives in one of the widest environmental ranges of any pathogen. Numerous mammals and arthropod vectors are infected by this highly virulent organism. How this zoonotic pathogen persists outside of its many hosts remains unexplored. We aimed to examine how F. tularensis interacts with environmental surfaces, and hypothesized that biofilm formation may enable survival of this organism in nature. By understanding the role these surface-attached bacterial communities play in F. tularensis ecology, we hope to gain insight into the mechanisms of environmental persistence and transmission of this pathogen.

We identify chitin as a potential non-host niche for F. …

07. Environmental Implications Of Francisella Tularensis Biofilms, Jeffrey J. Margolis '00

Class of 2000

No abstract provided.

The Program Evaluation Standards Applied For Metaevaluation Purposes: Investigating Interrater Reliabiity And Implications For Use, Lori A. Wingate

Dissertations

Metaevaluation is the evaluation of evaluation. Metaevaluation may focus particular evaluation cases, evaluation systems, or the discipline overall. Leading scholars within the discipline consider metaevaluation to be a professional imperative, demonstrating that evaluation is a reflexive enterprise. Various criteria have been set forth for what constitutes excellence in evaluation. In the context of educational program evaluation, the dominant criteria are the Program Evaluation Standards, developed by the developed by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation.

There has been widespread acceptance and application of the Program Evaluation Standards, and their use is advocated by major organizations and several of …

The Prevalence Of Osteoarthritis In Wild Vs Captive Great Ape Skeletons, Demelza J. Poe

Anthropology ETDs

This research examined whether the prevalence and skeletal distribution of osteoarthritis (OA) differed between wild and captive great ape skeletons. A secondary, but important, aspect of this research focused on the development of improved aging techniques based on methods commonly used on human osteological samples. Tests were conducted pertaining to the effect that wild versus captive status, sex, and species has on vertebral body lipping, marginal lipping, and eburnation. Age was considered a co-factor. Of the aging methods examined, use of the basilar suture to distinguish between adult and old adult specimens proved to be very imprecise. The ribs and …

Biological Sciences Collection Development Policy, Jacquelyn Petzold

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Collection Development Policies

The biological sciences collection exists to support the teaching, research, and service functions of the School of Biological Sciences and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln community. The public may benefit from the biological sciences collection, although specific materials are not collected to meet their needs. Biology-related materials not available in the library’s collection are generally readily available through Interlibrary Loan. The collection is focused on the biologically-based subsections of the Q Library of Congress call number range, although the heavily interdisciplinary nature of scientific study necessitates some overlap with R, S, T, and other areas.

Coping Methods And Meaning Making Of Liberian Refugees In The Buduburam Refugee Camp Of Ghana, Abena Gyamfuah Sarfo-Mensah

Honors Scholar Theses

The mental health of war-impacted individuals has been an issue of growing concern to many researchers and practitioners internationally (Miller, Kulkarni, & Kushner, 2006). According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2006a), Africans are disproportionately impacted by conflict-related displacement. To date, however, much of the research on the mental health of refugees has been based mostly on Western views of health and trauma. The current study is a mixed-methods investigation of stressors, coping strategies, and meaning making of Liberian refugees in the Buduburam Refugee Camp of Ghana. Results from the Brief COPE, focus groups, and semi-structured ethnographic interviews …

Women Leaders In Student Affairs: A Case Study Exploring Career Choices, Julie C. Taylor-Costello

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative, multiple case study explored what women working in student affairs reported as influences on their career choices and the impact that the type and level of student interaction has on their careers.

Data from semi-structured interviews and journal entries were obtained from ten women working in student affairs at private, four-year institutions of higher education in the Midwest. The “Stage Model of the Careers of Successful Women” (White, Cox, & Cooper, 1992) provided the theoretical framework and the basis for selecting women for the study. Two women at each of the five stages of White, Cox, and Cooper’s …

Experiences Of Community College Students With Adhd: A Qualitative Study In The Tradition Of Phenomenology, Charla N. Lawrence

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Postsecondary educational institutions of all types have seen increases in the number of enrollees diagnosed with ADHD. Despite such increases less in known about ADHD among college students because the majority of research has focused on children and adolescents. This qualitative study conducted in the tradition of phenomenology, explored the lived experiences of ten students attending a community college. Personal interviews were conducted for the purpose of gaining insight into how students with ADHD experience higher education in a community college environment; what support services were most/least useful; challenges faced and successes enjoyed; factors influencing success or failure, and the …

Music Instruction And The Reading Achievement Of Middle School Students, Juanita Huber

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Comparative analysis examined responses on a descriptive questionnaire from 267 students in grades 6, 7, and 8. The study compared duration of and participation in music instruction, types of musical instruments learned, and experience in musical ensembles to scores from the state English language arts assessment. Analysis of results included descriptive statistics and the use of the Pearson r correlation coefficient. Overall findings yielded a significant positive relationship between the study of music and reading development in middle school students. A comparison of test scores to music instruction lasting longer than two years, performance on a brass or woodwind instrument, …

Globalization, Diversity, And The Search For Culturally Relevant Models For Adult Education, Patricia K. Kubow

International Education

This is a book review for Curriculum Development for Adult Learners in the Global Community (Volume II, Teaching and Learning). Victor C.X. Wang (Ed.), 2009. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company.

Board Level Strategic Decision-Making: Process Characteristics And Context, Bernard C. Bailey

Student Scholarship

How do boards make strategic decisions? Semi-structured interviews with twenty eight directors of small to medium size publicly traded U.S. companies in the high technology sector were conducted in order to gain insights into strategic decision-making at the board level. We identified six characteristics that distinguish two divergent views about strategic decision-making. These characteristics include the role of the board chair, the boardroom climate, the board's shared vision and goals, the board's agency primacy, the board's process for decision closure and the board's level of involvement in the strategic planning process.

Workers' Compensation, H. Michael Bagley, J. Benson Ward

Mercer Law Review

There were minimal legislative changes during the survey period from June 1, 2008 to May 31, 2009, but several interesting decisions were issued by the Georgia Court of Appeals. Among those were cases affirming the exclusive remedy doctrine, a case providing insight on the applicability of statutory employment when the general contractor is an owner in possession of the property, and several statute of limitations cases

Optimal Experience In Relationships, Activities, And Beyond: Connecting Flow With Self-Expansion, Brandy M. Dean

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flow is a state of optimal experience characterized by complete immersion in an enjoyable activity and has been associated with positive experience in activities. Self-expansion is a state of increase in the diversity and complexity of the self and has been linked with positive experience in relationships. Despite phenomenological similarities, the connection between these two states has not been examined. The current study used a correlational design to explore the degrees of overlap between these states by comparing them in general, situation-specific, and predictive contexts. It was expected that flow and self-expansion would occur at similar frequencies, be produced by …

Working Memory, Cues, And Wayfinding In Older Women, Rebecca L. Davis, Barbara A. Therrien, Brady T. West

Peer Reviewed Articles

Individuals create cognitive maps based on relationships between cues in the environment. Older individuals are often impaired in wayfinding, especially in environments that lack distinctive features. This study examines how working memory ability in older women is related to wayfinding performance in the presence of salient (distinctive, prominent) or nonsalient cues. The degree of salient cue complexity is also examined, thus leading to the hypothesis that salient, complex cues are important in wayfinding and that working memory capacity is related to wayfinding performance. The virtual computer-generated arena is used to test this hypothesis in 20 healthy older women in three …