Digital Commons Network^™

Toward Intelligence-Led Policing: A Qualitative Study And Assessment Of How The Critical Factors Of Intelligence-Led Policing Are Perceived By Chicago Police Department's Organized Crime Division (Ocd), Tobin Hensgen

Dissertations

The interest in the use and development of intelligence from information by law enforcement has escalated since the events of 9/11. This dissertation investigates the contemporary phenomenon of intelligence in police work from its real life context and explores the critical factors of the Intelligence-led policing model through an assessment of how these factors are perceived by supervisors and decision makers of the Chicago Police Department's Organized Crime Division. This is a case study which will use inductive qualitative analysis and assessment on themes derived from semi-structured interviews and observations of police supervisors who are involved in decision-making tasks that …

Education, Fascism, And The Catholic Church In Franco's Spain, Joan Domke

Dissertations

Societies in transition are vulnerable to strong forces for political change. When Franco's fascist government defeated the socialist party that had taken control from 1931 to 1936, it aligned itself with Spain's Catholic Church. For most of Spain's history, the established Church culture had been inseparable from Spanish identity and Catholicism was taught in all schools, private and public. Therefore, under the guise of religion, the government used the educational system as a means of socialization, connecting nationalism and religion to promote their fascist agenda. The purpose of this historiographic study is to examine the relationships among the school, government, …

Three Instances Of Western Colonial Governments And Christian Missions In Cameroon Education: 1884-1961, Asenju Callistus Tamanji

Dissertations

This dissertation is a historical comparative education study that revisits colonial education in Cameroon. The purpose of the study is to undertake a broad, documentary, synthetic analysis of the colonial policies of the three formidable Western powers that colonized the country: the Germans (1884-1914), the British (1914-19621), and the French (1914-1960). This study focuses on the interactions that these Western colonial governments had with various Western Christian missionary organizations; these interactions and collaborations led to the establishment of the German, British, and French colonial formal schools in Cameroon up until Independence from colonial rule in 1960 and 1961. The official …

Leadership Practices Of Science Department Chairs In Secondary Public Schools, Kathryn Marie Baal

Dissertations

This study was designed to explore the transformational leadership practices of science department chairs as perceived by both science department chairs and their principals as measured quantitatively by the third edition of the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). In addition to transformational leadership, three other paradigms of leadership were essential to this study: transactional leadership, teacher leadership, and distributed leadership. Science department chairs are recognized as formal teacher leaders, primarily because their situational position makes them formal leaders; in addition science department chairs teach, to some degree, hence they are acknowledged as teacher leaders. The study further …

William G. Spady, Agent Of Change: An Oral History, John Anthony Hader

Dissertations

What series of circumstances, events, individuals, and factors have shaped and changed the life and career trajectory of William G. Spady, sociologist, educator, and agent of change? This dissertation provided many answers to this guiding research question. What made this dissertation unique was that the answers were provided by the subject himself during a series of interviews at his home in Colorado. This dissertation was an oral history of an important agent of change in the midst of his work.

Examining Leadership Styles In Ten High Poverty Elementary Schools, John Will Cook

Dissertations

This qualitative research study examines the construct of leadership styles as perceived by the principals and the teachers. The personal experiences of the participants, their perspectives, and their insights will be an important element of this researcher's inquiry and significant to understanding how leadership is perceived at 10 elementary schools with a high poverty student population.

The research questions of this study are as follows:

1. What is the perception of principals and select teachers of the leadership style of five principals at low SES area elementary schools (kindergarten through eighth grade) that achieve adequate yearly progress overall for 3 …

Meta-Analysis Of The Relationship Between Collective Teacher Efficacy And Student Achievement, Rachel Jean Eells

Dissertations

Collective teacher efficacy is an emergent school level variable reflecting a faculty's collective belief in its ability to positively affect students. It has been linked in the literature to school achievement. This meta-analysis systematically synthesized results from 26 component studies, including dissertations and published articles, which reported at least one correlation between collective teacher efficacy and school achievement.

The research questions addressed the distribution of effect sizes for the relationship and the moderator variables that could explain any variance found among the studies. It was hypothesized that collective teacher efficacy would be strongly associated with subsequent student achievement, and that …

High School Teacher Attitudes Toward Implementing Positive Behavior Support Systems, Lauren Mcardle

Dissertations

Positive behavior support (PBS) is a systems change effort that entails explicitly teaching expected social behaviors and rewarding students for behaving appropriately. Additionally, PBS systems involve developing a hierarchy of consequences that are matched to the severity of behavioral infractions. While there is growing research support for the effectiveness of PBS systems in elementary and middle school settings, there is very limited research about positive behavior support implementation at the high school level. Preliminary studies suggest that teacher and staff buy-in and attitudes toward implementation practices are critical to implementation success at the high school level. Additionally, the some theoretical …

Incompatible: The Construction Of The Homosexual Subject In American Mainline Protestantism, John Joseph Anderson

Dissertations

Many American mainline Protestant denominations discriminate against gays and lesbians or have discriminated against them in recent history by denying ordination to "self-avowed practicing homosexuals." This dissertation analyzes such ordination policies and their enforcement in ecclesial courts in three denominations, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Moving from a theoretical framework that integrates Michel Foucault's theories of discourse and subjectivity with Christian body theology, this dissertation argues that the language of the "self-avowed practicing homosexual" discursively produces a homosexual subject that does violence to gays and lesbians in these churches.

The …

An Examination Of Internet Pornography Usage Among Male Students At Evangelical Christian Colleges, Paul Olaf Chelsen

Dissertations

Internet pornography access among male students at Evangelical Christian colleges presents two dilemmas. First, Internet pornography access is institutionally prohibited based on a Biblical view of sexuality. The second dilemma is that individual students who choose to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ in the context of Evangelical Christian faith tradition can experience internal distress in response to Internet pornography access. No empirical study to date has examined Internet pornography access only among male undergraduates only at Evangelical Christian colleges. The first guiding research question is, "To what extent do male undergraduates at select Evangelical Christian colleges in the Midwest …

To Advance A Race: A Historical Analysis Of The Intersection Of Personal Belief, Industrial Philanthropy And Black Liberal Arts Higher Education In Fayette Mckenzie's Presidency At Fisk University, 1915-1925, Christopher Nicholson

Dissertations

This dissertation used archival and historical methods to examine Fayette Avery McKenzie's tenure as President at Fisk University from 1915-1925. Specifically, this project investigates the influence McKenzie's work with Native Americans, industrial philanthropy, and American culture of the period played in McKenzie's administration. The research seeks to provide a more complete narrative of McKenzie's administration that is absent from current scholarship, and examine how McKenzie's work at Fisk helped advance Black liberal arts higher education. Analysis of McKenzie's personal papers and other primary and secondary sources provide a strong scholarly basis to examine his administration from multiple perspectives. Through an …

Australia V. Usa: Indian Engineering Students Pursuing Graduate Degrees Abroad, An Analysis Of Factors Influencing The Choice And Location Of Institution, Louis Berends

Dissertations

The global market of higher education is growing at a rapid pace. Prospective graduate students in engineering have more options - domestically and internationally - than ever before. At this moment, the international setting of engineering graduate programs continues to shift and expand. This study analyzes the decision-making processes of students from India who pursue graduate education in Australia and the United States of America. In this setting, decision-making processes of student choice were examined after study participants selected higher education institutions in Australian and U.S. The research question is: why do graduate degree-seeking engineering students from India pursue studies …

Depopulation And Education In A Mexican Migrant Town: Schools In Villa Juarez, San Luis Potosi, 1942-2000, Magda Banda

Dissertations

While educational systems have been governed by the policies of the nation-state and have been contained within state borders, the transformations brought about by the economic, social, and political repercussions of globalization have added layers of complexity to issues in education. This is true in particular of agrarian communities, such as Villa Juarez, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. National educational policies have led to new challenges in agrarian societies as they undergo not only ideological exchanges but the movement of populations that have led to international and national demographic shifts. One of the main issues that this research will investigate is …

Infanticide, M. Therese Lysaught

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Pcr Detection Of Nearly Any Dengue Virus Strain Using A Highly Sensitive Primer ‘Cocktail’, Charul Gijavanekal, Maria Anez-Lingerfelt, Chen Feng, Catherine Putonti, George E. Fox, Aniko Sabo, Yuriy Fofanov, Richard C. Wilson

Bioinformatics Faculty Publications

PCR detection of viral pathogens is extremely useful, but suffers from thechallenge of detecting the many variant strains of a given virus that ariseover time. Here, we report the computational derivation and initial experi-mental testing of a combination of 10 PCR primers to be used in a singlehigh-sensitivity mixed PCR reaction for the detection of dengue virus. Pri-mer sequences were computed such that their probability of misprimingwith human DNA is extremely low. A ‘cocktail’ of 10 primers was shownexperimentally to be able to detect cDNA clones representing the four sero-types and dengue virus RNA spiked into total human whole blood …

Invasion By Exotic Earthworms Alters Litter- And Soil-Dwelling Oribatid Mites, Jordan L. Burke, John C. Maerz, Joseph Milanovich, Melanie C. Fisk, Kamal J.K. Gandhi

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Exotic earthworms are drivers of biotic communities in invaded North American forest stands. Here we used ecologically important oribatid mite (Arachnida: Acari) communities, as model organisms to study the responses of litter- and soil-dwelling microarthropod communities to exotic earthworm invasion in a northern temperate forest. Litter- and soil-dwelling mites were sampled in 2008–2009 from forest areas: (1) with no earthworms; (2) those with epigeic and endogeic species, including Lumbricus rubellus Hoffmeister; and (3) those with epigeic, endogeic, and anecic earthworms including L. terrestris L. Species richness and diversity of litter- and soil-dwelling (0–2 cm soil depth) oribatid mites was 1–2 …

Homoplastic Microinversions And The Avian Tree Of Life, Edward L. Braun, Rebecca T. Kimball, Kin-Lan Han, Naomi R. Iuhasz-Velez, Amber J. Bonilla

Biology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Background

Microinversions are cytologically undetectable inversions of DNA sequences that accumulate slowly in genomes. Like many other rare genomic changes (RGCs), microinversions are thought to be virtually homoplasy-free evolutionary characters, suggesting that they may be very useful for difficult phylogenetic problems such as the avian tree of life. However, few detailed surveys of these genomic rearrangements have been conducted, making it difficult to assess this hypothesis or understand the impact of microinversions upon genome evolution.

Results

We surveyed non-coding sequence data from a recent avian phylogenetic study and found substantially more microinversions than expected based upon prior information about vertebrate …

An Exceptionally Useful Exploration, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A book review for Computing in Science and Engineering by D. Easley and J. Kleinberg, Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly-Connected World, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-521-1953-1, 736 pp.

A Mini-History Of Computing, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This book was produced by George K. Thiruvathukal for the American Institute of Physics to promote interest in the interdisciplinary publication, Computing in Science and Engineering. It accompanied a limited edition set of playing cards that is no longer available (except in PDF).

This book features a set of 54 significant computers by era/category, including ancient calculating instruments, pre-electronic mechanical calculators and computers, electronic era computers, and modern computing (minicomputers, maniframes, personal computers, devices, and gaming consoles).

Book Review Of "Networks, Crowds, And Markets: Reasoning About A Highly-Connected World; Easley, D. And Kleinberg, J.; 2010, George K. Thiruvathukal

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A book review I wrote for CISE about the excellent textbook, Networks, Crowds and Markets, which I used as an anchor textbook in Honors 204 at Loyola University Chicago (Science and Society).

Starbucks-Colored Glasses (From Just Moms: Conveying Justice In An Unjust World), Lisa Graham Mcminn

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Excerpt: "Sarah, my middle school daughter, finished her hot chocolate as I licked the last bit of foam from my mocha. We returned the white mugs to the counter and started our walk home. Glen Ellyn, the suburb next door, sits less than a mile from our house in Wheaton and is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Chicago.

In 1996, it also held the nearest Starbucks.

Wheaton ranks high on the affluent scale, too, and Mark and I found raising our daughters in Chicago's wealthy western suburbs a challenge. Our neighborhood, like most others, displayed well-landscaped front yards conspicuously …

Dividends, Momentum And Macroeconomic Variables As Determinants Of The U.S. Equity Premium Across Economic Regimes, Anastasios G. Malliaris, Ramaprasad Bhar

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The equity premium of the S&P 500 index is explained in this paper by several variables that can be grouped into fundamental, behavioral, and macroeconomic factors. We hypothesize that the statistical significance of these variables changes across economic regimes. The three regimes we consider are the low‐volatility, medium‐volatility, and high‐volatility regimes in contrast to previous studies that do not differentiate across economic regimes. By using the three‐state Markov switching regime econometric methodology, we confirm that the statistical significance of the independent variables representing fundamentals, macroeconomic conditions, and a behavioral variable changes across economic regimes. Our findings offer an improved understanding …

Youth And Risky Consumption: Moving Toward A Transformative Approach, Marlys J. Mason, John F. Tanner, Maria Piacentini, Dan Freeman, Trena Anastasia, Wided Batat, Wendy Boland, Murad Canbulut, Jenna M. Drenten, Anne Hamby, Priyamvadha Rangan, Zhiyong Yang

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Recent statistics indicate that youth continue to engage in a wide variety of risky behaviours in spite of significant investment devoted to improving their well-being. One possible factor is a paternalistic view in understanding risk and promoting well-being. Participants in the Youth and Risk track of the Transformative Consumer Research conference challenge the paternalistic view, arguing in this paper for a more inclusive perspective that requires a reexamination of the nature of risk. The paternalistic view is discussed, and then countered with a more participatory approach that develops a role for youth in research in order to achieve socially desirable …

Using Student Course Evaluations To Design Faculty Development Workshops, Raymond Benton

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Current practice is to administer end-of-course student evaluations and to use the results as part of a faculty member’s annual teaching performance evaluation. Since the administration collects the data it ought to use it to help faculty improve their course evaluation scores. This may seem self-defeating but satisfied students not only rate the professor higher but likely rate the program and the university higher. In this era of external and public rankings of programs, this is important. Factor analysis can help administrators analyze student course evaluations and identify problem areas that can then be the targeted for faculty development programs …

Steps Toward Accurate Large Area Analyzes Of Genesis Solar Wind Samples: Evaluation Of Surface Cleaning Methods Using Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry, Martina Schmeling, Donald S. Burnett, Amy Jg Jurewicz, Igor V. Veryovkin

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (TXRF) was used to analyze residual surface contamination on Genesis solar wind samples and to evaluate different cleaning methods. The Genesis mission collected solar wind during a period of 854 days by embedding the charged particles into collectors made of various ultra clean materials such as silicon, sapphire and silicon-on-sapphire. The sample return capsule unexpectedly crashed on return to Earth fracturing the collectors and exposing them to the desert soil of the landing side. The ubiquitous contaminants are separated from the atoms of solar wind by only 5-15 nm, presenting significant challenges for solar wind …

Strategies To Disrupt Online Child Pornography Networks, Kila Joffres, Martin Bouchard, Richard Frank, Bryce Westlake

Faculty Publications

This paper seeks to determine which attack strategies (hub, bridge, or fragmentation) are most effective at disrupting two online child pornography networks in terms of outcome measures that include density, clustering, compactness, and average path length. For this purpose, two networks were extracted using a web-crawler that recursively follows child exploitation sites. It was found that different attack strategies were warranted depending on the outcome measure and the network structure. Overall, hub attacks were most effective at reducing network density and clustering, whereas fragmentation attacks were most effective at reducing the network's distance-based cohesion and average path length. In certain …

First-Year Library Mentorship Opportunities, Crystal Goldman

Faculty and Staff Publications

The first-year experience at any university library sets the foundation for the future relationship between the new faculty member and the library as a whole. Not only is the librarian being acculturated to the organization, but he or she must decide if the library and university will provide a supportive environment for his or her career goals. In this probationary process, the tenured librarians evaluate their tenure-track colleagues’ professional progression and merit.

Many libraries institute a formal first-year mentoring program in order to facilitate the immersion of new faculty members into the organizational culture of the library and university. There …

Is Strategic Management (Still) Responsible For The Demise Of Society?, Nancy E. Landrum, Sandra Edwards

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Over fourteen years ago, Bill Richardson stated that modern strategic management is leading to the demise of society with its profit-maximization focus. Furthermore, there is criticism that strategic management research is lacking relevance for practitioners. In contrast to this criticism of academia, practitioners are increasingly engaged in sustainability-related activities and reporting and are moving beyond the historical focus on profits. This study examined trends in strategic management academic and practitioner publications since Richardson's claim. Since academicians are charged with educating future managers for the workforce, we sought to determine if academic strategic management research publications are reflecting the practitioner sustainability …

Energy And Environment Chronology, David Hafemeister

Physics

No abstract provided.

No Little Plans: Envisioning The Bay Area Rapid Transit System And The Renewal Of Rapid Transit In The United States, Jake Coolidge

Master's Theses

Cities across the United States and Canada in the years following the Second World War witnessed reinvigorated efforts to construct rapid transit systems despite a decades-long decline in transit patronage, and central to these efforts was the visionary plan for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District. The proponents of these new systems used their initial plans and feasibility studies to articulate a new vision for rapid transit, one that imagined rapid transit not merely as a practical transportation solution, but as a technologically advanced tool for reshaping urban regions. This evolving vision emerges in an examination of …