Digital Commons Network^™

Principals' Perceptions Of The Importance Of Classroom Walkthroughs, Shannon Anne Mcgill

Dissertations

Education reform has required school administrators to become instructional leaders that ensure teacher effectiveness and academic success for all students. Classroom walkthroughs are one way that instructional leaders can accomplish this task. This study examined the level of importance that principals place on the practice of classroom walkthroughs and on specific elements of classroom walkthroughs; it further explored the relationships among perceptions about classroom walkthroughs and student achievement, school performance levels (AYP), and socio-economic status (SES) of the school.

This was a quantitative study that utilized survey methodology, archival data and correlational analyses to identify the relationships among principals‟ perceptions …

The Instructional Practice Implications Of A School Reform Model Versus No School Reform Model On Reading Achievement, Adebimpe Adebisi Solaru Odunjo

Dissertations

School reform seems to be the answer to redeeming the US public school system, but as observed by Slavin (1989) the cycle of reform has been for schools to jump from one prescriptive fad to another without any real congealing of ideas. Plagued by earlier installments of school reform programs reading instructional practice has resembled a mass of ideas that differ greatly in varying theoretical approaches.

The NCLB Act of 2000 came under widespread criticism which has lately been revised under President Obama's initiative Blue Print for Reform. Over the years, the validity of NCLB measures have been doubted and …

Exploration In Metallic Nitride Fullerenes And Oxometallic Fullerenes: A New Class Of Metallofullerenes, Mary Alice Mackey

Dissertations

Research groups around the world have taken an interest in the synthesis, purification, characterization, and functionalization of Metallic Nitride Fullerenes (MNFs) since their discovery in 1999. This dissertation details the discovery of another new class of molecules—Oxometallic Fullerenes (OMFs).

There are many groups worldwide doing research on MNFs, and there is a large database of published MNF research, but we have had a unique opportunity to fill a research void on OMFs as at present no one else is doing research on these molecules; herein we take molecules that we discover and perform seminal research relating to them. MNF research …

Development And Utilization Of Digital Image Correlation Techniques For The Study Of Structural Isomerism Effects On Strain Development In Epoxy Network Glasses, Stephen Robert Heinz

Dissertations

The specific aim of this dissertation is to present the findings regarding the effects of molecular structure on macroscopic mechanical performance and strain development in epoxy networks. Network molecular structure was altered through monomer isomerism and crosslink density/molecular weight between crosslinks. The use of structural isomerism provided a pathway for altering mechanical performance while maintaining identical chemical composition within the network. Isomerism was investigated primarily by the curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) using either the para- or meta-substituted derivatives of diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS). Additional insights into isomerism were gained through the investigation of networks composed of either …

Investments In Leadership And Management Succession Planning At A Department Of Defense Organization In The Southeastern United States: A Review Of Strategic Implications, Richard Allen Jeffries

Dissertations

With the impending aging workforce retirement tidal wave, targeted investments are needed in leadership and management skills for new leader growth. Some organizations currently invest in leadership and management skill development. However, the impacts of the investments remain unknown in the organizations. A Department of Defense Organization in the Southeast United States (DODSE) serves as a scientific knowledge generating organization that supports the Department of Defense. At the DODSE, investments in leadership and management skills training began in 2007 with little understanding of how an increased investment in leadership and management training would be utilized within the organization. To create …

A Historical Perspective Of Testing And Assessment Including The Impact Of Summative And Formative Assessment On Student Achievement, Carole Sanger Brink

Dissertations

In 2007, Georgia developed a comprehensive framework to define what students need to know. One component of this framework emphasizes the use of both formative and summative assessments as part of an integral and specific component of the teachers' performance evaluation. Georgia administers the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) to every elementary student in Grades 1 though 8. Before 2008, the state tested eighth-grade students on a quality core curriculum. In 2008, the state began testing students on a Georgia Performance Standard curriculum. A direct comparison of the curriculum change should have contained items to test both curriculums. However, this was …

A Critical Analysis Of Job-Embedded Professional Learning Within A Distributed Leadership Framework, Ashley Jimerson Campoli

Dissertations

Leadership style and professional learning have been linked to student achievement. Studies have linked leadership styles such as distributed leadership to job-embedded professional learning. However, research is mixed when these two constructs are related to student achievement.

This study evaluated the relationship between distributed leadership and jobembedded professional learning. This study also evaluated relationships among jobembedded professional learning, distributed leadership, and third-grade achievement scores.

The study involved third grade mathematics teachers and school administrators in 46 elementary schools in the state of Georgia. Pearson’s bivariate correlation test was used to explore the relationship between job-embedded professional learning and distributed leadership. …

At Issue: Einstein Fellowship, Terrie Rust

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Application Of Threshold Concepts To Improve A Design-Focused Course In Transportation Engineering, Dan Cernusca, Ghulam Bham

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Design is an integral part of engineering courses. to address its associated problems, however, is a challenging task in instruction because of design's open-endedness and complexity. in this study, two theoretical models were implemented in an introductory transportation engineering course to address the challenges associated with design of a highway. First, the theoretical framework proposed by the threshold concepts model was used to identify a candidate concept for the instructional redesign process. Two major characteristics of threshold concepts, integrativity and transformativity, were used to identify horizontal alignment as a candidate concept for the highway design process. Second, concept mapping was …

Teacher Candidates' Digital Literacy And Their Technology Integration Efficacy, Rona Lynette Tyger

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceived digital literacy levels and technology integration efficacy of preservice teaching (PST) candidates. The sample was comprised of PST candidates from two universities and one college in the southeastern United States that differ in size and culture. The study used a quantitative approach. PST candidates self-rated their digital literacy levels and technology integration efficacy using an online digital literacy survey. The relationship between PST candidates' perceptions of their digital literacy level and their level of technology integration efficacy was investigated. The existence of a digital divide has recently been of concern to …

A Delayed Birth Of Freedom? Public School Graduates' Perceptions Of School Choice Viewed Through The Pragmatic Lenses Of The American Ideal, Donald B. Porter

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study was conducted to identify public school graduates perceptions regarding school choice options and their preparedness for success after high school. This is accomplished by presenting a historical and contextual overview of education as it specifically relates to low socioeconomic and minority populations. It analyzes governmental controls that may serve to restrict access to a quality education. This study seeks to promote equity through education as viewed through a social justice perspective. While governmental mandates, societal changes, and legal remedies have evolved and shaped America's education history, it has yet to fully empower parents and guardians to freely choose …

Credit Rating And Assignment Of Naics Codes Using Lsi Method, Jerome Ouedraogo

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The objective here is first, to improve automatic assignment of industry codes using LSI (lexical processing) by increasing the algorithm efficiency (both computationally and in term of input requirements), then quantify the lender's risk as "distance to default" (higher distance to default indicates default is less likely to occur), estimate the distance to default for each company and combine the results to obtain an estimate of the distance to default for each NAICS code.

On Gorenstein Projective And Gorenstein Flat Modules, Chasen Grady Smith

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: H. Holm's metatheorem states, "Every result in classical homological algebra has a counterpart in Gorenstein homological algebra". We support this statement by showing over commutative Noetherian rings of finite Krull dimension, every Gorenstein at module has finite Gorenstein projective dimension. This statement is the Gorenstein counterpart of a famous theorem of Gruson, Jensen, and Raynaud. Using this result we prove that over such rings, a module M having finite Gorenstein at dimension is equivalent to M having finite Gorenstein projective dimension.

Methodology For Behavioral-Based Malware Analysis And Detection Using Random Projections And K-Nearest Neighbors Classifiers, Jozsef Hegedus, Yoan Miche, Alexander Ilin, Amaury Lendasse

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In This Paper, a Two-Stage Methodology to Analyze and Detect Behavioral-Based Malware is Presented. in the First Stage, a Random Projection is Decreasing the Variable Dimensionality of the Problem and is Simultaneously Reducing the Computational Time of the Classification Task by Several Orders of Magnitude. in the Second Stage, a Modified K-Nearest Neighbors Classifier is Used with Virus total Labeling of the File Samples. This Methodology is Applied to a Large Number of File Samples Provided by F-Secure Corporation, for Which a Dynamic Feature Has Been Extracted during Deep guard Sandbox Execution. as a Result, the Files Classified as False …

Mahalanobis-Taguchi System As A Multi-Sensor Based Decision Making Prognostics Tool For Centrifugal Pump Failures, Ahmet Soylemezoglu, Sarangapani Jagannathan, Can Saygin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel Mahalanobis Taguchi System (MTS) based fault detection, isolation, and prognostics scheme is presented. the proposed scheme fuses data from multiple sensors into a single system level performance metric using Mahalanobis Distance (MD) and generates fault clusters based on MD values. MD thresholds derived from the clustering analysis are used for fault detection and isolation. When a fault is detected, the prognostics scheme, which monitors the progression of the MD values over time, is initiated. Then, using a linear approximation, time to failure is estimated. the performance of the scheme has been validated via experiments performed on a mono-block …

On The Preconditioner Of Conjugate Gradient Method A Power Grid Simulation Perspective, Chung Han Chou, Nien Yu Tsai, Hao Yu, Che Rung Lee, Yiyu Shi, Shih Chieh Chang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) method has been demonstrated to be effective in solving large-scale linear systems for sparse and symmetric positive definite matrices. One critical problem in PCG is to design a good preconditioner, which can significantly reduce the runtime while keeping memory usage efficient. Universal preconditioners are simple and easy to construct, but their effectiveness is highly problem dependent. on the other hand, domain-specific preconditioners that explore the underlying physical meaning of the matrices usually work better but are difficult to design. in this paper, we study the problem in the context of power grid simulation, and develop a …

Work In Progress - Exercises In Squeak Smalltalk For Pre-College Education, Steve Eugene Watkins, Nicolette Kowalewski, Kathryn N. Rodhouse, Benjamin Cooper

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Computer programming education helps to prepare pre-college students to function in a technology-based society and to promote technical careers. However, opportunities are limited for pre-college students to learn computer programming and effective programming instruction can be difficult. A set of introductory, self-paced tutorials in Squeak Smalltalk has been developed for students in high school and middle school. This work describes two supplementary exercises that address the needs of new learners, especially those at younger ages. Students are given tools for drawing and image manipulation. The optional exercises integrate basic concepts while allowing more interactivity and customization through creative "play." © …

Localization Of Objects Using Cross-Correlation Of Shadow Fading Noise And Copulas, Mohammed Rana Basheer, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

While fading, in general, is detrimental to accurately localizing a target, fading correlation between adjacent receivers may be exploited to improve localization accuracy. Therefore, this paper presents a novel wireless localization scheme that employs a combination of cross-correlation between shadow fading noise and copula technique to recursively estimate the location of a transmitter. a stochastic filter that models multipath fading as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process followed by a Generalized Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) filtering is proposed to extract shadow fading residuals from measured RSSI values. Subsequently, Student-t Copula function is used to create the log likelihood function, which acts as …

Contingency Constrained Economic Dispatch In Smart Grids With Correlated Demands, Yiyu Shi, Jinjun Xiong

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Contingency constrained economic dispatch has been an extensively studied research topic. However, most existing works assume that the load demands at all buses are given. Such an assumption works well for conventional power grids, where the load demands are relatively easy to predict. We can select a few representative demand profiles and perform economic dispatch over them. However, such a practice will no longer work in smart grids, where the load demands fluctuate dramatically. We will need a huge number of demand profiles to cover all possible scenarios, which is computationally expensive. to address the problem, we propose a parameterized …

Econometric Analysis Of Erie County, Ny Schools: The Effects Of Poverty On Our Schools And Evaluating Possible Solutions, Ryan B. Keem

Multidisciplinary Studies Theses

School districts in the Buffalo Metropolitan Area are very segregated by socioeconomic status which has resulted in very different educational outcomes for the region's students as measured by New York State assessment results at the 4^th grade and 8^th grade level in English Language Arts and Math. This study measured the correlation between average test score results for each school building in Erie County and the rate of low-income students in those schools. The multiple regression analysis performed controlled for race, percentage of students that had a disability, class size, and per-pupil expenditures by the district.

The study …

The Examination Of Real-Life Implementations Of Critical Elements In A Professional Learning Community For High-Performing Middle Schools And Low-Performing Middle Schools, Damita Griffin Bynes

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In a September 2 Education Week Commentary, Kahlenberg (2009) identified 5,000 schools across the nation categorized as failing or low-performing schools. A significant amount of attention and resources are dedicated to transform low-performing schools to high-performing schools promoting student achievement. Because of the increasing demand that low-performing schools be turned around, Georgia schools that do not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) two consecutive years for the same indicator are placed in Needs Improvement (NI) status and face escalating consequences from the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE). In the midst of all of the demands to meet local and state requirements, …

Why Do Parents Choose To Send Their Children To Private Schools?, Ava M. Davis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Private schools were the original educational entities in the United States and have continued playing a prominent role in educating America's youth. The number of private schools has increased over the last decade while the number of private school students has remained stable at approximately nine percent of school-aged children. The reasons for choosing a private school are just as varied as the types of private schools available. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the reasons parents give for choosing a private school education for their children. A basic interpretive qualitative study was used to discover and …

Instructional Coaching In Elementary Schools: Perceptions Of Principals, Instructional Coaches, And Teachers, Latoya Doby-Holmes

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The political climate surrounding academic achievement and teacher accountability is more demanding than ever before. Administrators might be able to improve teacher quality and address teacher accountability with the use of instructional coaching. It is important for all stakeholders to have data on the effectiveness of instructional coaches to enhance teacher performance and student achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of instructional coaches in terms of student achievement through the perceptions of principals, instructional coaches, and teachers in Georgia elementary schools. A phenomenological research approach was designed for this purpose. In order to triangulate data, …

Overcoming The Odds: An Exploration Of Resilience Strategies Used By Female Superintendents In School Districts In Georgia, Kathy H. Simmons

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences in the professional lives of female superintendents in Georgia to better understand the role of resilience when faced with adversity. The researcher utilized a mixed method design to determine the strategies employed by female superintendents to successfully overcome adversity and become more resilient. The experiences of female superintendents and strategies utilized in the position when faced with adversity were explored by administering a Leadership Resilience Profile questionnaire followed by in-depth interviews with five Georgia female superintendents. The questionnaire featured a rating scale to identify each participant's perception of individual resilience …

Secondary Students' Perceptions Of Teacher Quality, Catherine P. Sutcliff

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the perceptions of secondary students and teacher quality during their years in high school. The study sought to compare responses among males and females and among ethnicities to determine if there were differences in perceptions of teacher quality with respect to student-teacher relationships, instructional methods, and justice and fairness. Surveys were given to students from eight public high schools in a southeastern region of Georgia. Demographic questions were included in the survey to delineate responses by gender and ethnicity. This study generated data from 663 students to determine student perceptions of teacher quality in the areas of …

Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach, M Bateson, B Brilot, D Nettle

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses, with huge attendant suffering. Current treatments are not universally effective, suggesting that a deeper understanding of the causes of anxiety is needed. To understand anxiety disorders better, it is first necessary to understand the normal anxiety response. This entails considering its evolutionary function as well as the mechanisms underlying it. We argue that the function of the human anxiety response, and homologues in other species, is to prepare the individual to detect and deal with threats. We use a signal detection framework to show that the threshold for expressing the anxiety …

Fluid Flow-Related Transport Phenomena In Steel Slab Continuous Casting Strands Under Electromagnetic Brake, Yufeng Wang, Lifeng Zhang

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the current study, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model is built to investigate the effect of a local-type electromagnetic brake (EMBr) on the fluid flow, heat transfer, and inclusion motion in slab continuous casting strands. the results indicate that the magnetic force affects the jet characteristics, including jet angle, turbulent kinetic energy, and its dissipation rate. to reduce the top surface velocity and stabilize the top surface, the magnetic flux intensity should be larger than a critical value. with a 0.39 T magnetic flux intensity, the top surface velocity and its fluctuation can be well controlled, and less slag is …

Efficient Uncertainty Quantification In Multidisciplinary Analysis Of A Reusable Launch Vehicle, Benjamin R. Bettis, Serhat Hosder, Tyler Winter

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The objective of this study was to apply a recently developed uncertainty quantification framework to the multidisciplinary analysis of a reusable launch vehicle (RLV). This particular framework is capable of efficiently propagating mixed (inherent and epistemic) uncertainties through complex simulation codes. the goal of the analysis was to quantify uncertainty in various output parameters obtained from the RLV analysis, including the maximum dynamic pressure, cross-range, range, and vehicle takeoff gross weight. Three main uncertainty sources were treated in the simulations: (1) reentry angle of attack (inherent uncertainty), (2) altitude of the initial reentry point (inherent uncertainty), and (3) the Young's …

Assessing The Impact Of Recommendation Agents On On-Line Consumer Unplanned Purchase Behavior, R. Eric Hostler, Victoria Y. Yoon, Zhiling Guo, Tor Guimaraes, Guisseppi Forgionne

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recommendation agents (RAs) have been used by many Internet businesses such as Amazon and Netflix. However, few authors have studied how consumer behavior is affected by those that make suggestions to online consumers based on their recent shopping behavior. Fewer still have examined the role that RAs play in influencing impulse purchasing decisions online. Our study developed a theoretical model to illustrate the impact of RAs on online consumer behavior. The model was tested through an online shopping simulation which used a collaborative filtering based product RA. Particular attention was paid to the effects of an RA on consumer behavior; …

Discussion Of "Biomedical Ontologies: Toward Scientific Debate", Brochhausen M., Burgun A., Ceusters W., Hasman A., Tze-Yun Leong, Musen M., Oliveira J., Peleg M., Rector A., Schulz S.

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With these comments on the paper “Biomedical Ontologies: Toward scientific debate”, written by Victor Maojo et al., Methods of Information in Medicine wants to stimulate a discussion on advantages and challenges of biomedical ontologies. An international group of experts have been invited by the editor of Methods to comment on this paper. Each of the invited commentaries forms one section of this paper.