Digital Commons Network^™

High School Students' Perception Of Career Technical Education And Factors That Influence Enrollment In Programs At A Regional Occupational Center, Laurie M. St. Gean

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to learn about: the demographic profile of South Bay area high school Career Technical Education students (those that enroll in Career Technical Education Courses outside the school day), their perceptions related to Career Technical Education, the people and other factos that influence them to enroll in Career Technical Education courses, and students' opinions on which communication strategies present the advantages of enrolling in a career technical education course. The design of the study was quantitative and descriptive in nature and utilized survey methodology. The study was descriptive in that the outcome was an assessment …

Intersection Of Gender, Race, And Poverty: A Study Of Wisdom Through Ida's Eyes, Mona Mikael

Theses and Dissertations

This narrative inquiry study offers an insider's view of how an advanced aged woman of color who faced near homelessness coped with challenges in her life, sought resolution for the challenges she faced, and grew and changed as a consequence of these experiences. Attention to the salience of contextual issues were considered in relation to the participant's personal history and experiences in order to gain an understanding of the intersection of gender, race, and poverty in the lives of senior women and how these factors influence their sense of agency and ability to manage their lives. Through a collaborative narrative …

Social Skills Training: A Parent Education Program For Culturally Diverse Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Nicole Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Current information pertaining to families with a child diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders indicates a need for parent interventions that target social skills training, culturally responsive treatments for ethnic minorities, and stress and coping. In response to these needs, a culturally responsive program was designed to teach parents of children ages 6-12 with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), to facilitate social skills development in their children and reduce the parental stress associated with having a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The program is intended to be a resource for clinicians that want to provide culturally responsive social skills training …

Indian Psychology: The Connection Between Mind, Body, And The Universe, Sandeep Atwal

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to devise a mode of treatment that would be helpful when clinically working with the East Indian community. A theoretical orientation of Indian psychology was describes using the principles found in various Hindu scriptures. The scriptures show that an unbalance and a disconnection from the true self causes psychological problems and as the individual comes in contact with the true self the psychological problems are eliminated. Different theories for understanding the human psyche are used to describe this process: the triguna theory, the kosha theory, Ayurveda, and Patanjali's Yoga. These different theories work together …

A Study Of The Emotional Quotient Of Nursing Managers Compared To The Outcome Of An Employee Opinion Survey, Beverley Turner

Theses and Dissertations

Effective personnel management creates a ripple effect of employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction from the top tiers of leadership through the levels of management, reaching to staff and finally to the client. If staff enjoy their work, colleagues, expectations, experiences and tasks and they have the tools and support needed from their managers and leaders to perform their tasks, they will wish to retain their employment and will also pass on positive attitudes to their clients. The purpose of this study was to determine the Emotional Quotient of a group of nursing managers at Entity X and to compare the results …

Multigenerational Employee Engagement Strategies Within The Credit Union Industry, Dana Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify effective engagement strategies for each generation of the work force in a credit union. Credit unions are nonprofit financial organizations dedicated to the common good of their members. Like many other organizations, credit unions are struggling to survive the current economic recession. An important tactic for surviving (if not thriving) during this recession is to ensure that employees are engaged, as engaged employees tend to produce more, deliver better products and services, and help the organization outperform the competition. While models exist for enhancing employee engagement, these tend to be one-size-fits all …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Courage, Jetter Alizabeth Lord

Theses and Dissertations

Courage has been described as recognizing a worthy goal and taking action to achieve it, despite the presence of fear. While acting courageously does impose risks for the individual or organization and failure is a real possibility, acting courageously also offers the promise of rewards such as attaining a prized goal and enhancing personal or organizational capacity. This study involved a qualitative examination of courage. Specifically, the study examined (a) the factors that influence people and organizations to take courageous action, (b) the characteristics of courageous action, and (c) the outcomes of courageous action. This study involved a qualitative examination …

Leadership Alignment Within A Safety Culture Change Process, Nicholas P. Krump

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to determine the key components of effective leadership alignment within the safety culture change process at the National Cooperative Refinery Association in McPherson, Kansas. The implementation efforts provided data regarding leaders' actions, employee perceptions, and leadership alignment interventions. Research data gathered through 129 paper surveys and 25 group interviews were analyzed to identify relationships between work-related demographic indicators and workplace attitudes. The final analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between the "alignment" composite and salaried employees, meaning salaried employees were more likely to answer positively than hourly employees. Secondly, the findings showed a strong …

Prenatal Psychic Experience: A Psychoanalytic Systematic Exploration Of The Emotional Life Of The Fetus, Joseph H. Turner

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to provide a systematic and comprehensive review of the psychoanalytic literature as it pertains to prenatal psychic experience. The emotional life of the fetus has become an increasingly important topic in psychoanalysis, particularly within object relations theory and theoretical and clinical exploration of primitive mental states. Contemporary psychoanalysts, following the ideas of Freud, Bion, Ploye, Mancia, Grotstein, and Paul have begun to gather research from the fields of infant mental health, developmental psychology, and medicine, among others, to show that not only does the newborn infant have an inherent capacity to communicate with the …

Psychologists' Use Of, Familiarity, And Comfort With Alcoholics Anonymous Slogans In Psychotherapy, Sarah L. Randall

Theses and Dissertations

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is often included as an adjunct to psychotherapy for individuals suffering from addiction. As a culture unto itself, AA has its own customs, philosophy, and language, including what is commonly referred to as AA slogans. This study investigated the frequency with which psychologists use these slogans as well as how familiar and comfortable they are with them. Additionally this study investigated whether these variables were related to psychologists' work setting or percentage of addicted caseload. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, results indicate that more than 80% of respondents utilize AA slogans at least some …

Coaching Preferences Of Generation "Y", Kevin C. Knight

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last twenty years coaching has emerged as a leading personal and professional development tool for individuals and corporations. The recent popularity in coaching stems from employees' needs for greater goal achievement or individuals' needs to enhance growth, implement change, and to reach greater fulfillment in their business or personal lives. This study looked at the coaching preferences of Generation "Y". As coaches prepare to work with Generation "Y" clients, it is important to understand how this new generation differs from previous generations. This knowledge could assist coaches in customizing their approach to address client needs and expectations, and …

Positive Psychology And The Jewish Holiday Calendar: A Resource Manual For Small Groups, Tami Krichiver

Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates the Jewish community could benefit from additional resources aimed at supporting the psychospiritual needs of community members. While clergy and mental health professionals often collaborate to address these needs, there is no model that utilizes psychologists in a non-clinical setting for the purpose of integrating common positive psychology and spiritual concepts. The literature reveals many commonalities between positive psychology strengths and Jewish holiday themes. The purpose of this study was to develop a resource manual for psychologists and rabbis. The primary aims of the manual were to (a) utilize positive psychology to enhance psychospiritual development within the Jewish …

Executive Coaching And Personal Brand: Coach Training, Coach Mastery, And Client Satisfaction, Heather Backstrom

Theses and Dissertations

This project aimed to: (a) account for a method by which executive coaches may be trained in personal brand coaching, (b) describe the executive coaches' abilities to coach in particular personal brand matters pretest, posttest and posttest, and (c) assess levels of client satisfaction based upon receipt of personal brand coaching throughout a 3 month period. Thus, this grounded theory and phenomenological study sought to deduce a training process that can be used to train coaches on how to coach employing personal brand. Furthermore, the study deduced the abilities of these coaches in specific areas of personal brand coaching per …

The Effects Of Brief Psychoeducation On Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms And Perceptions Of Parenting, Mallory Mcbride

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Adolescent depression is a mental health disorder that occurs during the teenage years and involves chronic and persistent feelings of sadness and loss of interest in usual activities, as well as a broad range of additional physical and emotional symptoms. These maladaptive symptoms have repercussions across all areas of adolescents' functioning. One area that is affected when an adolescent is depressed is how the adolescent perceives his/her world, experiences, and situations. Research demonstrates that depressed adolescents are likely to perceive a wide variety of events and situations in overly negative ways, including their parents' parental styles and behaviors. One avenue …

The Effects Of Massage On Mood State, Range Of Motion, Sports Performance, And Perceived Performance, Rebecca Jane Guest

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Introduction: Sports massage is commonly used to treat pain, soreness, and stiffness related to sports injury and training, as well as for injury prevention. Believed to increase blood flow, decrease swelling, reduce muscle tension, and increase a sense of well-being, massage is a widely used manual therapy across the world. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a twenty-minute sports massage on mood state, range of motion, sports performance, and perceived performance. Methods: This repeated measures study consisted of passive recovery and massage recovery trials. Baseline testing included the Profile of Mood States questionnaire, range …

The Faithful Skeptics: Conservative Christian Religious Beliefs And Perceptions Of Climate Change, Wylie Allen Carr

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global climate change presents one of the most challenging ecological and social problems facing the world today. In order to prevent potentially harmful ecological and social impacts from rising global average temperatures, Americans will need to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; our willingness to do so though is questionable as opinion poll data suggests that addressing climate change remains an extremely low priority for most Americans. Social scientists from across a variety of disciplines have suggested a number of reasons why this may be case; however very few have focused on the ways that religious beliefs are …

Creating The Carrot, Ronald Sean O'Leary

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

O’Leary, Ronald, M.A., Summer 2010: Integrated Arts and Education Introducing Media Arts as a Motivational and Educational Tool Chairperson: Richard Hughes Drawing from a wide swath of fine arts disciplines, this project effectively deals with pulling music, movement, creative writing, video and collaborative learning experiences together. Leading other teachers in the direction of media arts is the additional goal, which continues to be a monumental challenge in the face of working with very difficult students at the Yellowstone Academy. The Yellowstone Academy is a K-12 school, which serves the Yellowstone Boys and Girl’s Ranch (a treatment center for emotionally disturbed …

Spatio-Temporal Optimization Of Tree Removal To Efficiently Minimize Crown Fire Potential, Marco A. Contreras

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

High-intensity wildfires have resulted in large financial, social, and environmental costs in the western U.S. This trend is not expected to decline soon, as there are millions of overstocked hectares at medium to high risk of catastrophic wildfires. Thinning is being widely used to restore different types of overstocked forest stands. Typically, thinning prescriptions are derived from average stand attributes and applied to landscapes containing a large number of stands. Stand-level thinning prescriptions have thus limitations when applied for reducing the risk of high-intensity wildfires. They use indicators of crown fire potential (e.g., canopy base height and canopy bulk density) …

Post-Course Environmental Behavior Change Of Wild Rockies Field Institute Participants, Theodore Rosenberger Morrison

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In light of the environmental crisis facing the world, the need for citizens to behave in an environmentally responsible manner is critical to finding lasting solutions. After conducting and analyzing 20 in-depth interviews with alumni of the Wild Rockies Field Institute (WRFI), this study found that despite elevated pre-course levels of environmentally responsible behavior most participants reported an increased level of post course environmental behavior change. Post-course impacts ranged from a change of, or further investment in academic and career goals, lifestyle choices, empowerment, ethical development and political activity. Participants reported these outcomes were influenced by a variety of course …

The Use Of Social Marketing Messages In An Anti-Tobacco Context: An Investigation Of Irish Female Adolescents, Barry Griffin

Theses

The WHO (2008) report states that although tobacco deaths rarely make headlines, tobacco kills one person globally every six seconds. Tobacco kills a third to a half of all people who use it, on average 15 years prematurely. Today tobacco use causes 1 in 10 deaths among adults worldwide - more than 5 million people a year (Murray and Lopez, 2006). The Irish Office of Tobacco Control’s research has confirmed that initiation into smoking is largely a childhood phenomenon. More than 75% of all smokers in Ireland started to smoke before they reached the age of 18 (HBSC Ireland, 2006). …

The Application Of Social Marketing In Increasing Blood Donation Among Donors And Non Donors: The Case Of Third Level Students., John Healy

Theses

In today’s society, blood donation is dependent on the goodwill of people to voluntarily donate blood without financial reward. There is a continuous need for new blood donors, because the demand for donor blood is increasing, whereas the supply of blood is declining. Three thousand blood donations are needed in Ireland every week. Maintaining an adequate supply is the biggest challenge. Only 3.6% of the population in the Republic of Ireland donate blood. This leaves an enormous potential blood donor base, which if tapped into and maintained could lead to an adequate reserve of donations to meet the transfusion needs …

Teacher As Leader In A "Flat World": Preparing Students In A Global Community, Anne Burke

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Detection And Molecular Characterisation Of Rotavirus, Adenovirus And Bocavirus Circulating In Southern Ireland, Olivia Cashman

Theses

This study reports the detection and molecular characterisation of group A rotavirus circulating in the south of Ireland in both the bovine and human population. Characterisation of the group A rotavirus was carried out through the extraction of viral nucleic acid in faecal specimens collected from hospitals in the Cork and Waterford area and Cork regional veterinary laboratory from 2006-2009. Other gastroenteritis viruses characterised during this study include adenovirus type 41, and the newly identified gastrointestinal virus, human bocavirus, which was identified for the first time in Ireland during this study. The human bocaviruses identified in children in the south …

Class Dismissed: Contemporary Judicial Hostility To Small-Claims Consumer Class Actions, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

I start from the view that small-value consumer claims are a primary reason that class actions exist, and that without class actions many - if not most - of the wrongs perpetrated upon small-claims consumers would not be capable of redress. It would then seem to follow that the class action device should be readily available in small-claims consumer cases. And yet, over the past decade, federal district courts have repeatedly declined to certify class actions on grounds that are specific to small-claims consumer cases. Foremost among those grounds is the notion that the federal class action rule carries within …

Politics 2.0 : The Emergence Of New Media And Its Impact On Political Communication In Ireland: A Public Relations Perspective, Gerald Counihan

Theses

Political communication occurs as a by-product of any political action. It can either be managed or not. The traditional methods of communication are still very prevalent in Irish political communication. The party maintains a strong role in communicating, but it does not infringe overly much on is national and local representatives.

The traditional mass media are play a crucial role in facilitating communication but the emergence of web 2.0 applications in social media is slowly beginning to revolutionise political communication in Ireland.

The evolution of communications tools over the past number of years has revolutionised the PR industry, and therefore …

Exploring Aspects Of Social Change In A Newly Multi-Cultural Community, Mary Hopkins

Theses

This research explored aspect of the social changes attached to the arrival of immigrants in a smaller-type rural community. It was particularly concerned with how this newly multicultural community was adapting to and accepting of a new social identity.

This study may have provided the first opportunity for locals and new-comers to engage with the nature of changes happening in the community and to speak out on what they had to say.

Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 5 local population members, 5 adult immigrants and 2 support service staff. This research examined levels of cultural nationalism among local respondents, …

Identification And Molecular Characterisation Of Mycobacteriophages And Their Lysis Proteins, Marine Henry

Theses

Given their potential as specific and natural biocontrol agents, bacteriophages and their associated proteins have become the focus of renewed interest over the last decade. This study reviews the current state of mycobacterial diseases control worldwide and presents how phage therapy and the production of recombinant bacteriophage lysis proteins can be applied as novel biocontrol strategies for mycobacteria.

Chapter 11 presents an overview of the predicted LysA and LysB proteins in all the mycobacteriophages sequenced to date and proposes an in silico 3D predictive model of the lysin B of a recently isolated and characterised mycobacteriophage. Our data also confirms …

Assessing The Impact Of Social Media On The Celebrity Industry: A Public Relations Perspective, Jessica O'Sullivan

Theses

There has been an increased interest from academics, public relations professionals and industry professionals in the importance of social media in the role of public relations. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the effect social media has on the celebrity industry, from a public relations perspective.

A qualitative research design was chosen, and the primary methods used to gather the data were semi-structured interviews with online communication professionals from the public relations industry and an online music producer who uses various forms of social media to distribute and promote his music. All interviewees were chosen due to …

The Rapid Identification Of Novel Anti-Mycobacterial Drugs And The Transporters Involved In Their Resistance, James Carroll

Theses

Despite the success of anti-mycobacterial drugs over the past 70 years, mycobacterial disease, particularly tuberculosis is still responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. Additionally, the emergence of Multidrug Resistant (MDR-TB) and Extensively Drug Resistant (XDR-TB) Tuberculosis throughout the world has motivated calls by the World Health Organization for novel mycobacterial drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests. Consequently, this study sought to identify and evaluate the efficacy of a range of anti-mycobacterial compounds against a representative cohort of pathogenic mycobacterial species. The development and employment of the rapid, robust and inexpensive microtitre alamarBlue assay (MABA) facilitated the assessment of a vast array …

Issues Faced By Female Middle Managers On Returning To The Workplace Following Maternity Leave., Flora Buckley

Theses

The increased participation of women in the workforce has been one of the major changes in the labour force in recent years. The nature of Ireland’s workforce has changed radically in the past twenty years and women, whether for personal or financial reasons, are now an established part of the workforce. Despite the rapid increase in female participation in the paid labour-force, considerable evidence has been gathered that documents a dearth of women in executive level positions not just in Ireland, but internationally.

Many studies have highlighted issues women face in progressing to senior level management. There is, however, very …