Digital Commons Network^™

Are We Missing Opportunities To Encourage Interest In Stem Fields?, Cathy Hall, Jeremy Dickerson, David Batts, Paul Kauffmann, Michael Bosse

Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Influence Of Religion On The Forgiveness Process, Gregory J. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine the religion-forgiveness hypothesis in the context of the forgiveness process in an attempt to better understand the basis of the relationship. Data was collected from 140 participants in an online survey that contained measures of religious behaviors, religious beliefs, religious fundamentalism, empathy, emotional intelligence, forgiveness, and social desirability. A hypothesized model specified that religious variables of religious belief, behavioral religiosity, religious fundamentalism would be predictive of forgiveness when mediated by emotional intelligence and fully mediated by empathy. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that religiosity was predictive of greater levels forgiveness when mediated by …

An Empirical Analysis Of Automotive Manufacturers Supply Chain Performance In China, Wan Ling

Plymouth Business School Theses

The research develops a framework for the evaluation of automotive supply chain performance in China. In addition, the research presents indications from a study of Chinese automotive companies with regards to their evaluation and attempts to propose some alternatives for future improvement.

The Glass Is Half Full: The Positive Effects Of Organizational Identification For Employees Higher In Negative Affectivity, Jason Stoner, Vickie C. Gallagher

Business Faculty Publications

Organizational identification has traditionally been associated with positive organizational outcomes, whereas negative affectivity (NA) has most often been associated with negative individual outcomes. We hypothesize that organizational identification will positively influence self-reported performance for individuals high in NA. Conversely, individuals low in NA will not experience feelings of enhanced performance as organizational identification increases. The findings from 2 samples provided support for the research hypothesis; specifically, the personality factor of NA moderated the organizational-identification/self-reported performance relationship. We discuss our findings in light of important implications for the positive psychology movement and practicing managers.

Three Dimensional Modeling And Animation Of Facial Expressions, Alice J. Lin

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Facial expression and animation are important aspects of the 3D environment featuring human characters. These animations are frequently used in many kinds of applications and there have been many efforts to increase the realism. Three aspects are still stimulating active research: the detailed subtle facial expressions, the process of rigging a face, and the transfer of an expression from one person to another. This dissertation focuses on the above three aspects.

A system for freely designing and creating detailed, dynamic, and animated facial expressions is developed. The presented pattern functions produce detailed and animated facial expressions. The system produces realistic …

Dementia Caregiving Outcomes: The Impact Of Caregiving Onset, Role Occupancy, And Care-Recipient Decline, Katherina Nikzad-Terhune

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Dementia is characterized as a progressive loss of brain function that results in the deterioration of many cognitive and physical abilities. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, causing steady declines in memory, functional abilities, and mental functioning. With a projected increase of degenerative illnesses, such as AD, family caregiving for individuals with the disease is also steadily increasing. Caring for an individual with AD has been characterized as a “career,” and within this career are a number of key transitions, including the onset of caregiving. Preexisting caregiving research reveals a number of negative consequences for AD …

Polyamine Modulation In Alcoholism: Examination Using A Novel Screening Procedure Designed To Predict Anti-Relapse And Neuroprotective Efficacy, J. Ben Lewis

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Alcohol dependence is a major public health concern. Despite the FDA’s approval of multiple anti-relapse drugs, relapse rates remain unacceptably high. Furthermore, cognitive deficits among chronic drinkers are evident and are suggested to contribute to relapse risk. Current evidence suggests that several critical features of alcoholism and alcohol-associated neurodegeneration are mechanistically linked to glutamatergic actions; specifically, they appear positively affected by glutamatergic inhibition, particularly inhibition via polyamine modulation of a subpopulation of n-methyl-d-aspartate receptors. The current project was designed to evaluate the performance of two putative polyamine modulators (JR-220 and CP-101,606) in a variety of screens designed …

Appalachian Bridges To The Baccalaureate: Mattering Perceptions And Transfer Persistence Of Low-Income, First-Generation Community College Students, Michelle Dykes

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Too few community college students who intend to transfer and earn a baccalaureate degree actually do. Further, low-income and first-generation college students are overrepresented at community colleges. Education is considered a means of social and economic mobility for low-income, first-generation students; therefore, retaining this population through baccalaureate attainment is a critical issue. Because of the multitude of obstacles these students must conquer, it is crucial to implement effective strategies for improving transfer rates.

This dissertation has three components: (1) companion research study, (2) individual research study, and (3) reflective essay examining pretesting and telephone-administered survey methods. The companion study was …

Pictorial Map Effects On Learning How To Summarize, Richard Anthony Desoiza

Doctoral Dissertations

Inadvertent plagiarism among college students is caused by misunderstanding the rules and expectations about how to summarize source passages. Visual instruction in the form of a pictorial map is one way to address this problem and to teach students how to properly restate source text. Sixty-six college students from two universities participated in a quasi-experimental study in which an experimental group used a pictorial map instructional strategy and a control group used an underline/circle text instructional strategy to write summaries. The results showed that students in the pictorial map group wrote significantly better quality summaries for both high-interest politics passages …

A Qualitative Study Of The Involvement Of Parents In Career Decisions Of Millennial Participants In Corporate Rotational Programs, Tommy Moreno

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Flow By Skilled Professional Contract Workers, Patricia C. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Elementary Teachers' Views Of Environmental Education, Rose M. Hotchkiss

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' views of environmental education (EE) at the elementary level. The study addresses teachers' attitudes toward the EE at the elementary school level and their self-efficacy in teaching EE.

The study's sample consisted of 201 randomly selected kindergarten through fifth grade United States public school teachers. The participants completed an on-line survey with eight percent of the respondents participating in follow up interviews. The questionnaire measured two constructs; Teachers Attitudes Toward EE and Teacher Efficacy in EE. Teachers Attitudes Toward EE had 3 subscales; Advocacy for EE, Stewardship in EE, …

Making Sense Of Women’S Career Progression: Utilization Of Work/Life Practices In State Government Agencies, Maria J. D'Agostino

Publications and Research

In an effort to make sense of the work/life balance quandary, this article discusses preliminary results of a broader research project (D‘Agostino and Levine 2009) empirically examining the utilization of work/life practices by women in state-level government in the United States.. The purpose of this research is to examine whether women‘s utilization of work/life practices contributes to their career progression. Therefore, the central research question examines, what is the impact of work/life utilization practices on women’s career progression? Findings indicate that women who have reached executive level positions are more likely to utilize specific practices, such as flexible hours, than …

A Qualitative Investigation Of The Use Of An Art-Based Technique In Counselor Group Supervision, Cheryl Shiflett

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

While the counseling community embraces the use of creative approaches in counseling and supervision, few researchers have attempted to empirically describe the process of including an art-based technique into counselor group supervision. A grounded theory design guided the exploration of the factors and processes of including one art-based technique into six counselor supervision groups. Six doctoral-level supervisors who were trained in an art-based technique known as the visual case processing method introduced the method to their group supervisees who were completing a semester-long practicum or internship. Data collection methods included individual and focus group interviews, observations of visual case presentations, …

Kindergarten Teachers' Classroom Management Beliefs And Practices And Their Implications On Students' Social And Academic Outcomes, Lauren D. Florin

Theses and Dissertations in Early Childhood Education

The purpose of this study was to utilize Baumrind's parenting style construct, with early childhood educators, as classroom management styles by assessing the proportion of classroom management styles of Virginia Association of Early Childhood Education (VAECE) educators, and secondly to assess classroom management beliefs and practices of among urban kindergarten teachers in addition to examining whether those differing classroom management styles impacted students' social and academic skills. The study investigated the proportion of classroom management styles of VAECE educators using an online questionnaire and used a case study approach with nine kindergarten teachers to better understand the teachers' classroom management …

At What Cost? Access To Consumer Credit In A Post-Financial Crisis Canada, Janis P. Sarra

All Faculty Publications

Access to consumer credit is influenced by many factors, such as amount and security of the consumer’s income, and credit card company and financial institution practices. Access is also driven by social, cultural and cognitive factors, including consumer understanding of the cost of credit; perceptions regarding ability to repay; cognitive influences regarding immediate consumption and delayed payment; understanding of the benefits and risks of debt to economic security; and the conflicts of interest inherent in the business of lending. Overall, bank and credit union credit has tightened since the global financial crisis. However, the study found that for many Canadians, …

Context, Choice, And Rights: Phs Community Services Society V. Canada (Attorney General), Margot Young

All Faculty Publications

Constitutional law cases that revolve around the rights or circumstances of those groups most marginalized in Canadian society are not frequent cause for celebration. Typically, these cases push the boundaries of classical liberal understandings of the rights our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects, asking the courts to recognize social and economic dimensions to liberties that are traditionally and popularly more narrowly construed. Such demands are more often than not sidestepped (or rejected outright) by courts, with the result that activist agendas focusing on leveraging Charter rights to achieve significant social change are less compelling than initially imagined. It …

Artful Liars: Malingering On The Draw-A-Person Task, Dennis P. Carmody, Angela M. Crossman

Publications and Research

Malingering is a form of deception in which one fakes illness to earn (positive or negative) reinforcement. The purpose of the current research was to explore the ability of naïve participants to malinger distress on a clinical, projective measure (Draw-A-Person; DAP). In two experiments, individuals first drew figures of a man, woman, and self. Then, they imagined they were in a motor vehicle accident and drew the figures again as if they were falsely claiming distress from the accident. In Experiment 1, 65 undergraduates participated and in Experiment 2, 70 undergraduates and 40 high school students participated. The drawings were …

Terrorism: A Guide To Resources, Karen Okamoto, Marta Bladek

Publications and Research

Prior to 9/11, terrorism was subject to political, scholarly, and media debates. A large body of literature on the topic reflected researchers’ long-standing interest in the topic. In the near decade since 9/11, terrorism and its threat have only gained urgency. This paper aims to provide a selected bibliography of resources, in print and electronic format, that focus on terrorism. Public and academic libraries have been providing access to terrorism-related resources, but no thematic bibliography has been published in professional journals since 2001. This guide aims to aid librarians in making decisions about developing and maintaining collections on the topic.

Religion And Volunteering In Four Sub-Saharan African Countries, Meredith J. Grief, Amy Adamczyk, Jacob Felson

Publications and Research

Much research has examined the relationship between religion and civic engagement, finding that more religious people are more likely to donate their time, energy, and money to community organizations. The overwhelming majority of the quantitative research on the relationship between religion and civic engagement has been done in Europe and North America. However, we know that many people living in sub-Saharan Africa volunteer their time, and because of the many economic, social, and health problems that plague the continent, the need for local volunteers is particularly acute. This article uses data from the 2000 World Values Survey and multivariate regression …

The Money Blind: How To Stop Industry Bias In Biomedical Science, Without Violating The First Amendment, Christopher Robertson

Faculty Scholarship

The pharmaceutical and medical device industries use billions of dollars to support the biomedical science that physicians, regulators, and patients use to make healthcare decisions—the decisions that drive an increasingly large portion of the American economy. Compelling evidence suggests that this industry money buys favorable results, biasing the outcomes of scientific research. Current efforts to manage the problem, including disclosure mandates and peer reviews, are ineffective. A blinding mechanism, operating through an intermediary such as the National Institutes of Health, could instead be developed to allow industry support of science without allowing undue influence. If the editors of biomedical journals …

Cryptography Using Steganography: New Algorithms And Applications, Jonathan Blackledge

Articles

Developing methods for ensuring the secure exchange of information is one of the oldest occupations in history. With the revolution in Information Technology, the need for securing information and the variety of methods that have been developed to do it has expanded rapidly. Much of the technology that forms the basis for many of the techniques used today was originally conceived for use in military communications and has since found a place in a wide range of industrial and commercial sectors. This has led to the development of certain industry standards that are compounded in specific data processing algorithms together …

Risk Management Trends: Currency Trading Using The Fractal Market Hypothesis, Jonathan Blackledge, Kieran Murphy

Articles

We report on a research and development programme in financial modelling and economic security undertaken in the Information and Communications Security Research Group (ICSRG, 2011) which has led to the launch of a new company - Currency Traders Ireland Limited - funded by Enterprise Ireland. Currency Traders Ireland Limited (CTI, 2011) has a fifty year exclusive license to develop a new set of indicators for analysing currency exchange rates (Forex trading). We consider the background to the approach taken and present examples of the results obtained to date. In this ‘Introduction’, we provide a background to and brief overview of …

Rethinking Radicalization, Randy Borum

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Radicalization Into Violent Extremism I: A Review Of Social Science Theories, Randy Borum

Journal of Strategic Security

In discourse about countering terrorism, the term "radicalization" is widely used, but remains poorly defined. To focus narrowly on ideological radicalization risks implying that radical beliefs are a proxy—or at least a necessary precursor—for terrorism, though we know this not to be true.Different pathways and mechanisms of terrorism involvement operate in different ways for different people at different points in time and perhaps in different contexts. This article explores the problems in defining radicalization and radicalism, and suggests that radicalization—and more specifically, involvement in terrorism—might best be viewed as a set of diverse processes. It goes on to review several …

Radicalization Into Violent Extremism Ii: A Review Of Conceptual Models And Empirical Research, Randy Borum

Journal of Strategic Security

Over the past decade, analysts have proposed several frameworks to explain the process of radicalization into violent extremism (RVE). These frameworks are based primarily on rational, conceptual models which are neither guided by theory nor derived from systematic research. This article reviews recent (post-9/11) conceptual models of the radicalization process and recent (post-9/11) empirical studies of RVE. It emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between ideological radicalization and terrorism involvement, though both issues deserve further empirical inquiry.Finally, it summarizes some recent RVE-related research efforts, identifies seven things that social science researchers and operational personnel still need to know about violent radicalization, …

Cover & Front Matter

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Radical Islamism And Migrant Integration In Denmark: An Empirical Inquiry, Marco Goli, Shahamak Rezaei

Journal of Strategic Security

It has been suggested that alienation and failed integration may be causes of "Homegrown Radical Islamism" in Western societies. Western countries often expect that migrants and their descendants residing there as citizens will embrace or support common democratic ideals as a predicate for—or consequence of—their societal integration. Conventional wisdom suggests: "The more you associate yourself with the cherished and established goals and means, the more you will disassociate yourself from Radical Islamism," and vice versa. We believe that, quite surprisingly, an empirical test of this idea is lacking. Based on a nationally representative sample of 1,113 youth (ages 15–30) in …

Friction: How Radicalization Happens To Them And Us. By Clark Mccauley And Sophia Moskalenko (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Robin L. Thompson

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Four Lessons From The Study Of Fundamentalism And Psychology Of Religion, Sara Savage

Journal of Strategic Security

What lessons can the study of fundamentalism and the psychology of religion teach the newer field of Radicalization and Involvement in Violent Extremism (RIVE)? Four lessons and an intervention are offered in this article: (1) Religion is a robust human experience and cultural product that adopts a defensive shape when its worldview is threatened. (2) This does not mean that all "fundamentalisms" or radical versions of religion are somehow linked or perform similar functions; rather, they reflect the limited human repertoire to threat, yet within different cultural and historical contexts. (3) Causal explanations on the level of the individual are …