Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Race In Television News Coverage Of Shortcomings In U.S. Secondary Education, Jasmine Elise Haynes

LSU Master's Theses

Scholars and news media alike acknowledge that one of the main problems in education today is the minority achievement gaps in national testing. Although many education scholars have compiled several in-depth reasons as to why minorities, particularly African-American students, seem to generally lag behind their white counterparts, television news fails to give it’s audiences a comprehensive view of why minority achievement gaps are so prevalent in United States secondary public education. The purpose of this study was to examine where news consumers perceive television news places blame for problems in public education with regards to race. Studying how people perceive …

"Everybody Goes Down": Metaphors, Stories, And Simulations In Conversations, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent work has shown that many problematic aspects of metaphor use and comprehension can be resolved through an account that includes both relevance and perceptual simulation. It has also been shown that metaphors often imply stories, and that stories are often metaphorical. Previous research on narratives has focused primarily on stories that appear either in formal literature or in structured interviews; this essay focuses on stories that occur as an integral part of conversation. It extends recent work on metaphor comprehension to show how use and comprehension of stories in natural, informal conversations can be usefully analyzed in terms of …

Pathos, Winter 2010, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

Pathos

Editors: Joel Eisenhower and Richard Hernandez

Issue 11

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: Tito Capobianco, internationally renowned state director, returns for the fifth time to direct opera students; Middle East Studies graduate Peter Bechtold '61 brings his expertise back to Portland State; every year senior students work with hundreds of partners to solve—not just to study—community need; and more.

Workplace Nutrition And Exercise Climate: Scale Development And Preliminary Model, Joseph J. Mazzola

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a major concern in the United States and has a multitude of negative physical and mental health consequences. Proper nutrition and exercise are important elements to initiating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Since most people spend a large amount of their time working, it is important that organizations create an atmosphere that is conducive to employees being able to eat healthy diets and exercise regularly. The social and environmental climate in terms of health was examined through the construct of a Workplace Nutrition and Exercise Climate (WNEC), defined here as the situational, social, and environmental factors within an …

School Choice At The Crossroads Of Race, Class, And Accountability: An Analysis Of The Effects Of Voluntary School Choice On Elementary Schools In A Large District In The Southeastern United States, Teresa Craig Evans

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the responsibility for the desegregation of American public schools has transitioned from federal court mandates to school board programs and policies. There is widespread belief that this has resulted in the resegregation of schools across the country. One popular policy that is purported to provide the opportunity for voluntary integration, along with accountability for academic quality, is school choice. The purpose of this study was to consider the implications of such a policy in one large school district. There is an extensive body of research exploring who participates in school choice, how they make their choices, and …

Understanding School Travel: How Residential Location Choice And The Built Environment Affect Trips To School, Yizhao Yang, Marc Schlossberg, Robert Parker, Bethany Johnson

TREC Final Reports

This project investigates issues related to parents’ decisions about children’s school transportation. This has become an important area of research due to the growing concerns that increased reliance on private automobile in school travel has led to adverse health impacts on children and negative impacts on environment. This study examines school transportation in the context of where families live and how families make decisions about school travel in the process of choosing their residence.

Using a middle-sized school district in Oregon State, we conducted a 5500-household survey and a number of interviews and focus groups. The study shows that parents …

“Why Are Those Leaves Red?” Making Sense Of The Complex Symbols: Ecosemiotics In Education, Creeping Snowberry, Sean Blenkinsop, Veronica Hotton

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deciphering complex signals of constructed educational systems requires symbolic interpretation; deciphering complex signals that are inherently ignorant of their ecological roots requires a modification of a semiotic approach, which we call ecosemiotics. This paper examines one of many average classrooms through this veil of perception. As part of a larger reevaluation of learning in modern culture, we take apart some of the symbols of the classroom and its contained learning. The paper ends with the positing of several more ecosophically inclined teacher responses.

Symbolic Structures As Systems: On The Near Isomorphism Of Two Religious Symbols, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many symbolic structures used in religious and philosophical traditions are composed of “elements” and relations between elements. Similarities between such structures can be described using the systems theoretic idea of “isomorphism.” This paper demonstrates the existence of a near isomorphism between two symbolic structures: the Diagram of the Supreme Pole of Song Neo-Confucianism and the Kabbalistic Tree of medieval Jewish mysticism. The similarities of these two symbols in form and meaning are remarkable in the light of the many differences that exist between Chinese and Judaic thought. Intercultural influence might account for these similarities, but there is no historical evidence …

Decision-Making In Secondary And Tertiary Interventions Of School-Wide Systems Of Positive Behavior Support, Terrance M. Scott, Peter J. Alter, Michael Rosenberg, Christopher Borgmeier

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although the conceptual foundations of PBS at the universal level have been widely described and presented in the literature, secondary and tertiary interventions have been presented through very limited examples. This paper defines the key features of secondary and tertiary interventions and presents a decision-making process to guide schools through a continuum of strategies at these levels. The continuum is described in terms of a recursive loop, repetitively asking four questions: what is predictable about student failure, what is the simplest effective intervention, how can consistent implementation be achieved, and is it working? With each pass through this set of …

Practical Functional Behavioral Assessment Training Manual For School-Based Personnel, Sheldon Loman, Christopher Borgmeier

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

This participant's guide presents specific procedures for school-based personnel to conduct practical functional behavioral assessments (FBA). Practical FBA training methods presented in this workbook are designed to train school-based personnel with flexible roles in a school (i.e. personnel not directly responsible for providing regular instruction for students). The Practical FBA training methods are specifically designed for use with students that exhibit consistent problems that are not dangerous and have not been adequately addressed through previous assessment and intervention.

The Multicultural Family Learning Gardens At The Learning Gardens Laboratory: An Investigation Of Community Collaboration, Madelyn Mickelberry Morris

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

This project explores the role of the small-scale polyculture garden in promoting a resilient community, its importance in helping meet nutritional and medicinal needs, and its role as a site for civic and place-based transformative development. The pedagogical principles of sustainability education address the importance of ecological systems, biocultural diversity, social & economic justice, and multicultural perspectives. Framing the garden as a sustainable solution, I will address the need for vibrant local food networks, particularly in low-income areas; social, ecological, and community resilience; opportunities for ecological education; and increased meaningful opportunities for civic engagement. Using a conceptual framework of the …

Early Psychosis Intervention In Oregon: Building A Positive Future For This Generation, Ryan P. Melton, Tamara Sale

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

The article focuses on the importance of early Schizophrenia intervention.

What’S Missing In Theories Of The Residential Energy User, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Residential energy use has been envisioned in varied ways, each highlighting different factors and capturing a partial truth. This paper outlines assumptions of core theories about household energy use. It gives an abbreviated list of major empirical findings framed by these theories. It then identifies a new set of "blind spots" created by overly-simple reliance on models and by data shortcomings that in combination may block development of a more sophisticated understanding of energy use. Policies and program strategies, in turn, can become oriented toward simplistic approaches to change. We point to the need for improved interpretation and elaboration of …

Sticky Points In Modeling Household Energy Consumption, Loren Lutzenhiser, Mithra Moezzi, David Hungerford, Rafael Friedmann

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A variety of approaches have been proposed to explaining individual household energy consumption, its variation, and its potential reduction. Some focus on technology, some on costs, and some on a combination of behaviors, attitudes, intentions, and norms. All try to make sense of a problem that, from a modeling perspective, involves hundreds of potentially important factors, yet is supported by highly inadequate or at best selective data. While there is value in "doing the best one can" with the resources at hand, building a defensible science requires a cold hard look at the quality of theory, research and data. This …

A Community Of Scholars Educating For Political Engagement, David M. Donahue, Christine M. Cress

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

California Campus Compact (CACC) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching first conceived the Service Learning for Political Engagement Faculty Fellows Program in the autumn of 2006. The idea was to bring together a diverse group of faculty, eventually 23, from across California representing disciplines from engineering and English to agriculture and Asian American studies, from small and large colleges, as well as public, private, and faith-based institutions. These faculty, starting in the summer of 2007, would participate in a two-year effort to define political engagement, explore what their definitions meant for planning service learning projects, and assess …

A Transnational Comparison Of Leadership Development: Pedagogical Implications, Christine M. Cress, Miki Yamashita, Rebecca Duarte, Heather Burns

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – This investigation sought to identify learning outcomes for undergraduate students at a US college enrolled in community-based learning courses. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities and differences between American students' and international students' development of leadership skills through senior level service-learning (SL) courses and analyzed the role of teaching methods on those outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Over 150 SL courses from students representing 30 countries were examined at a major university in the USA. US and non-US student leadership and learning outcomes were cross-tabulated with instructional techniques to analyze for statistically significant differences. Findings …

Seventh-Grade Curriculum In Probability (A Guide For Teachers), David Nganga Njenga

LSU Master's Theses

A review of the literature indicates that teachers try to make connections between experimental and theoretical probabilities while teaching their students, but these connections are often not very clear. This greatly increases misconceptions students have about probability. This thesis presents a treatment of teaching probability that is geared for seventh grade and intended to minimize the misconceptions that both teachers and students may have. We present a concise mathematical exposition of finite probability models as well as collection of examples and activities, so as to help teachers and students organize their thinking and minimize misconceptions. The various examples and activities …

An Investigation Of The Awareness Of Recycling Services At Student Family Housing Units, Eli Kofi Aba

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the awareness of recycling programs at student family housing units at Indiana State University. The purpose of this research was to find out the awareness of recycling in these areas. It allowed the researcher to examine the recycling awareness among other variables such as willingness to take part in pickup and willingness to take part in drop-off, among students at these areas. The researcher employed IRB (Institutional Review Board) approved survey to survey students who resided in four units, and who were willing to participate in the study. An introduction of the researcher, his background and objectives …

A Study Of The Relationship In Financial Performance, Organization Size, Business Classification, And Program Maturity Of Six Sigma Systems, Diane J. Olson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

United States companies are facing increased competition as business continues to grow globally. This is true for large companies and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as manufacturing and non-manufacturing organizations. To remain competitive, organizations need to improve product value, technology, customization, service, and turnaround time while reducing costs and increasing innovation. Many large manufacturers have turned to Six Sigma as a quality method to guide improvement efforts. Reported results have been significant in terms of cost reduction and the bottom line. Leaders in Six Sigma efforts have been Motorola, General Electric (GE), Allied Signal, Honeywell, and Ford. These manufacturers are …

Post-Arrival Performance Interventions That Assist Expatriates' Adjustment And Performance, Evan D. Wood

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the relationship between post-arrival performance interventions and the adjustment and performance of North American expatriates working and living in Hong Kong. The focus was on an integrated view of multiple post-arrival performance interventions in order to examine their combined impact. This research provides information to organizations regarding strategies to improve the adjustment and performance of expatriates. A multivariate design was used to describe the dynamics underlying the dimensions of adjustment and performance by indicating which interventions in combination might be more strongly associated with adjustment and performance. A questionnaire comprised of several existing constructs derived from the …

Comparing The Perceived Relevance Of Informal And Formal Learning In Skill Acquisition In A Leadership Development Program, William Kirk Smith

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Leadership development is at or near the top in importance to senior executives within organizations. In the criteria for the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, leadership has the second highest weighting, behind only business results but ahead of customer focus, measurement, analysis, knowledge management, workforce focus, process management, and strategic planning. Corporations in the United States spend an estimated $20-30 billion per year in leadership training and there is a question of whether the learning that takes place outside the classroom, informal learning, is more relevant than formal learning. Learning within organizations is vital to success. It is the lifeblood …

Thermal Protection Of An Inductive Proximity Sensor Utilizing Low-Density Ceramic Composition Tile, Kim Anger

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the results of a unique method for protecting inductive proximity (IP) sensors from extreme thermal exposure. The method presented in this study employs a barrier of ceramic tile material developed for the space shuttle program. While it may be intuitive that the ceramic tile material will provide adequate protection for extreme temperatures, what is not clear is the adaptability of this material to commercial use in a steel mill environment.One of the potential problems associated with using any thermal barrier is a partial or complete attenuation of the magnetic field generated by the sensor. To effectively utilize …

The Relationship Among Frontline Quality' Performance,Their Personality Traits And Their Perception Of The Work Environment., Yichun Cao

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although effective management of frontline employees has been commonly considered a key element in quality management in both practice and academia, the predominant focus has been on work force training, development, empowerment, involvement, and incentive systems, without utilizing the benefit of understanding the frontline worker's personality and perception of the work environment. This paper utilized the 16 Personality Inventory (16PF) and Work Environment Scale (WES) to explore the relationship of frontline employee's personality and perception of the work environment to their quality assurance performance ratings in a mediumsized manufacturing company in America. By using 16PF and WES Real Form, Vigilance …

Telemaco Signorini: Spokesman Of The Macchiaioli, Christine Elizabeth Morgan

LSU Master's Theses

Telemaco Signorini was a member of a nineteenth-century Italian group of artists called the Macchiaioli. He was the son of Giovanni Signorini, a painter. The group came together against the Italian academies and drew inspiration from Decamps and the artists of the Barbizon school in France. Their style emphasizes effect and emotion. The Macchiaioli were a short lived group that only lasted from 1855 to 1862. Signorini and the members of the group participated in 1859 in the Risorgimento, the Italian struggle for independence. Based on this experience Signorini created several canvases depicting the Italian countryside, especially at La Spezia. …

A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service A Call For K-12 Schools To Invest In Social Justice Education, Olivia Jo Murray

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

In her book, "Other People's Children," Lisa Delpit (1995) criticizes the deficits of teacher education programs that avoid and repress the multicultural voices found in American classrooms today. This author supports Delpit's argument to reform teacher preparation programs, but for the purpose of this article she will explore the responsibility of individual schools that presently ignore and deny the multicultural facets of a typically diverse classroom. In doing so, the author plans to expose three main features of promoting social justice that she suggests individual schools be held accountable for in order to move toward the full inclusion of all …

Effects Of Meal Timing On Anabolic Hormone Status And Energy Metabolism In Neonatal Dairy Calves, Katherine Claire Simon

LSU Master's Theses

Twelve neonatal Holstein bull calves (38.52 ± 5.87 kg) were fed milk replacer at a fixed or varied meal time to determine the effects on metabolic hormone secretion, average daily intake, growth, and energy metabolism. Body weights were measured every two weeks from birth to 8 weeks. Rumen fluid was collected every two weeks from week 2 through 8. Serial blood collections were conducted every two weeks from week 2 through 8. Blood was collected, beginning at 0530, at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135, and 150 minutes. Plasma was analyzed for ghrelin, leptin, growth hormone …

The Effect Of War On Art: The Work Of Mark Rothko, Elizabeth Leigh Doland

LSU Master's Theses

My goal for this thesis was to adequately illustrate the effect war can have on art and artists. I chose to single out one particular artist who lived and worked during a time of war and explore his life and work. My choice of artist was not random: I chose an individual who was particularly concerned about his external environment, and was active in the political and social issues of the time. My subject is Mark Rothko, a Russian-Jewish artist who immigrated from Russia as a boy and spent his life in the hotspot of artistic inspiration, New York City. …

Is A Student's Conceptual Knowledge Affected By Their Vocabulary Instruction?, Daniel C. Cox

LSU Master's Theses

The following paper explores the possible relationship between the manner in which a student is taught vocabulary in a high school physics classroom and the ability of those students to correctly answer physics conceptual questions. Two high school physics classes taught by the same teacher (eight or nine students in one and seventeen in the other) received identical instruction throughout multiple units with the exception of vocabulary instruction. Differences were observed in the students’ ability to correctly answer conceptual questions in only one topic, heat. The students did not get better at answering a question concerning a phase change or …

The Adoption Of Best Management Practices In The Louisiana Crawfish Industry, Narayan P. Nyaupane

LSU Master's Theses

Agricultural production can have result in environmental deterioration in cases where proper management practices have not been implemented. Louisiana, one of the tropical states, has a significant agricultural base with more than 1,600 farmers raising crawfish. Large volumes of waste water containing environmental pollutants result significant environmental problem in the state. Voluntary adoption of a number of best management practices (BMPs) that are considered to be environmentally and economically beneficial is encouraged in Louisiana. The major objectives of this study are to investigate farmer adoption of 18 selected Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) cost share eligible BMPs and the reasons …