Digital Commons Network^™

Constructing A Professional Identity: Non-Native Speakers As Teachers In College Freshman Composition Classes In An American University, Marcela Hebbard

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study is a qualitative, quantitative investigation of how non-native speakers of English construct a professional identity as teachers of English composition and rhetoric in freshman classes in an American University and how their students perceived such identity. A sample of 4 participants teaching ENG 1301 Rhetoric and Composition classes were recruited. Data were gathered through personal interviews, questionnaires, class observations, and students' anonymous survey at the end of their course to measure course satisfaction and their perception of their non-native speaker instructors. The investigation revealed that in order to develop a Professional Teacher Identity, non-native speakers of English need …

Gardner-Webb, The Magazine 2012, Fall (Volume 47 No. 3), Noel T. Manning Ii

Gardner-Webb, The Magazine

Gardner-Webb, The Magazine, previously titled The Webb Magazine, focuses on alumni news and campus events from Gardner-Webb College; now Gardner-Webb University. This particular issue focuses heavily on the relationship between GWU and medicine. Article topics range from being about the new Exercise Science Major to honoring medical legacies in Boiling Springs, such as Gene Washburn. In between are articles featuring Gardner-Webb alumni and current students alike and how they are becoming involved in the medical world. The opening of the Tucker Student Center is featured along with sports updates and praise for a new enrollment record.

Role Based Access Control And Authentication For Scada Field Devices Using A Dual Bloom Filter And Challenge-Response., Jacob Schreiver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are networked control systems used in many critical infrastructure areas such as power water and transportation. Many of these systems continue to use legacy field devices that lack cyber security features. The field device security preprocessor is a bump-in-the-wire security solution of legacy field devices. This thesis describes the design and analysis of a dual Bloom filter structure for use in a field device security preprocessor. A dual Bloom filter is a variant of the traditional Bloom filter, that performs role based access checks in O(1) time. It is shown this structure, which …

Tobacco Dependence Treatment Education For Dental Students Using Standardized Patients., Jacqueline A. Singleton 1955-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dentists can play a key role in helping patients quit tobacco use by providing tobacco cessation treatment (TCT) in their practice. Although the majority of dentists receive training in TCT, most do not provide adequate intervention. Many feel they are not adequately trained. Using standardized patients (SPs) shows promise in TCT training by providing a simulated clinical environment for students to practice counseling skills with individuals trained to portray patients. Standardized patients evaluate students' skills and provide immediate feedback. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a difference in dental students' attitudes, perceived barriers, subjective norms, …

Sagestep News, Winter 2012, No. 17, Sagestep

Newsletters

Seasonal newsletter of SageSTEP.

Perspective And Practices To Address Rough-And-Tumble Play In The School Setting: A Survey Of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Teams In Utah, Jason C. Basinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Prior research of rough-and-tumble play (RTP) has shown mixed results—different definitions, varying functions, and positive and negative outcomes. Few researchers have studied interventions to address RTP in school settings. With unclear evidence of RTP outcomes and the extent school interventions are addressing RTP in school settings, this study explored the extent and effectiveness of intervention programs being implemented to prevent/reduce negative outcomes of RTP in elementary schools.

A survey was created and conducted with 30 school problem-solving teams in a western state to obtain information concerning RTP in elementary school settings. Teams provided estimated percentages of RTP leading to beneficial …

Analysis Of Irrigation Decision Behavior And Forecasting Future Irrigation Decisions, Sanyogita Andriyas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Farmers play a pivotal role in food production. To be economically successful, farmers must make many decisions during the course of a growing season about the allocation of inputs to production. For farmers in arid regions, one of these decisions on any given day is whether to irrigate. This research is the first of its kind to investigate the probable reasons that lead a farmer to make irrigation decisions and use those reasons/factors to forecast future irrigation decisions. This study can help water managers and canal operators to estimate short-term irrigation demands, thereby gaining information that might be useful to …

Evaluation Of The Optimum Duration And Effectiveness Of A Plyometric Training Program For Improving The Motor Abilities Of Youth With Cerebral Palsy, Barbara A. Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Pediatric Section of the American Physical Therapy Association determined that dosing of treatments for children with cerebral palsy (CP) was a priority topic for research funding in 2013. Pediatric physical therapists currently have very little information about the best duration for treatment. Research that could answer the question "How long should my child's treatment last?" would be of interest to families of children with CP and their physical therapists.

A type of resistive exercise called plyometric exercise was used as a treatment for three children with cerebral palsy. This study used a design called single subject that allowed the …

Performance Characterization Of Complex Fuel Port Geometries For Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grains, Andrew Bath

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extensive research in hybrid rocket motors has taken place at the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at USU (Utah State University) in the last several years. USU has one of the few facilities in the country capable of static-test firing rocket motors on-campus, which allows for fast-paced testing and development not available elsewhere. Research has involved investigating propulsion devices for a range of applications, including micro-satellite thrusters, hot-gas generators, and even jet-assisted takeoff kick motors. Hybrid motors have the advantage of safety over any other chemical propulsion. Since the fuel and oxidizer are stored seperately, they are relatively inert …

Developing A Framework To Analyze The Effect Of Mobile Technology Within A Department Of Transportation, Devin Squire

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mobile technology has the potential to have a substantial impact on governmental agencies. In order to understand the effects of mobile technology within an agency, an analysis has to be performed. This thesis presents two mobile applications that were developed to address specific areas of concern within the Utah Department of Transportation. It then, using mobile-technology specific surveys, provides a framework for effect analysis following application implementation. This framework employs both user and developer surveys to obtain data necessary to, through statistical methods, determine either a positive or a negative application induced effect. The analysis process and survey development used …

I Would Teach It If I Knew How: Inquiry, Modeling, Shared Writing, Collaborative Writing, And Independent Writing (Imsci), A Model For Increasing Secondary Teacher Self-Efficacy In Integrating Writing Instruction In The Content Areas, Melanie M. Landon-Hays

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Framed in theories of pragmatism, self-efficacy, and ecology, this design-based research study attempted to make explicit connections between theory and field-based research. The pedagogical goal of this study was to expose in-service teachers to a scaffolded model of professional development for writing (IMSCI) that could be implemented in their own teaching. This model of professional development also served to place research participants in a professional learning community. Teachers worked in focus groups made of another teacher in their own discipline, and a collective focus group, and worked through the steps of the scaffolded model in consideration of their own writing …

Teaching Accessibility And Design-For-All In The Information And Communication Technology Curriculum: Three Case Studies Of Universities In The United States, England, And Austria, Paul Ryan Bohman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Digital technologies allow people with disabilities to participate independently in society in ways they never could before. The full realization of these new opportunities remains elusive, though, because working professionals in the information and communication technology (ICT) field rarely receive adequate training in how to make digital ICT accessible to people with disabilities. Adding accessibility to the university ICT curriculum can help create a critical mass of ICT professionals with accessibility awareness and expertise to finally realize the full accessibility potential of digital technologies. This dissertation provides a rich informational context from which ICT curriculum leaders can decide how to …

Closed-Loop Thrust And Pressure Profile Throttling Of A Nitrous Oxide/Hydroxyl-Terminated Polybutadiene Hybrid Rocket Motor, Zachary W. Peterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Hybrid motors that employ non-toxic, non-explosive components with a liquid oxidizer and a solid hydrocarbon fuel grain have inherently safe operating characteristics. The inherent safety of hybrid rocket motors offers the potential to greatly reduce overall operating costs. Another key advantage of hybrid rocket motors is the potential for in-flight shutdown, restart, and throttle by controlling the pressure drop between the oxidizer tank and the injector. This research designed, developed, and ground tested a closed-loop throttle controller for a hybrid rocket motor using nitrous oxide and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene as propellants. The research simultaneously developed closed-loop throttle algorithms and lab scale …

Modeling Lithospheric Rheology From Modern Measurements Of Bonneville Shoreline Deformation, Eric P. Beard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Here I develop a new method for estimating differences in elevation between pairs of paleo-lake shoreline features. This method is applied to Lake Bonneville, a large lake that inundated nearly 1/3 of the state of Utah as well as parts of Nevada and Idaho from 34 to 11.5 thousand years ago. Under the weight of the lake water load, the surface of the Earth was depressed by up to 75 m. This occurred as Earth mantle rock at depth flowed outward in response to the weight of the lake. I use this new methodology to compile here a denser sample …

Factors Influencing Relocation Success Of Utah Prairie Dog (Cynomys Parvidens), Rachel Curtis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah prairie dogs have been extirpated in 90% of their historic range due to introduced disease, eradication, and habitat destruction. Most of the population lives on private land where animals burrow in lawns and agricultural fields, which keeps this threatened species continually in conflict with landowners. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has been relocating prairie dogs from private to public land since the 1970s, but relocations have been largely unsuccessful due to high mortality. Prairie dogs are highly social animals, but they are usually relocated without regard to their family group, or coterie. Coteries typically consist of one reproductive …

Design And Construction Of A Tunable Light Source With Light Emitting Diodes For Photosynthetic Organisms, Nathan Phillipps

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis describes and documents the design and construction of a light source which is tunable and has the ability to mimic the spectral output of the sun in the photosynthetic active radiation range (400 - 700 nm). To adjust the spectral output at different wavelengths different types of LEDs were chosen and combined. This thesis describes the design, construction, testing, and suggestions for further improvements to this light source. The light source is comprised of 900 LEDs with 26 different peak wavelengths within the photosynthetically active radiation range. The light source is made tunable through the use of a …

Transportation Network Resiliency: A Study Of Self-Annealing, Sunil Babu Pant

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Disasters have the potential to hit any geographical location with or without warning. As such, it is desirable that transportation networks are able to withstand the adverse effect of disasters and maintain the normal functioning of all sectors of society. Resilient transportation networks are least affected by disruptions created by natural and manmade disasters and are still able function with an acceptable level of service. Such networks also have ability to return earlier from disrupted state to the normal functioning state. Resilience possessed by a transportation network measures the ability of networks to maintain functionality despite adverse conditions posed by …

Space Plug-And-Play Architecture Networking: A Self-Configuring Heterogeneous Network Architecture, Jacob Holt Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In spacecraft engineering, the time and money involved in satellite construction is largely spent on design and integration of custom hardware and software. These efforts are duplicated for nearly every satellite with little to no reuse between spacecraft. There is a huge potential for cost savings in removing the duplication of work. However, there is a lack of standardization in the spaceflight community, causing soaring costs and delayed schedules as each component of a spacecraft is individually designed and custom built.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has developed the Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA) to address this problem. SPA provides …

Examination Of Nonpoint Source Nutrient Export From A Snowfall-Dominated Watershed, Lindsey Deboer Carrigan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined nonpoint source pollution via tributaries to Pineview Reservoir. Since few literature values of export coefficients are available for snowfall-dominated watersheds such as Pineview, locally scaled rates were quantified using an upstream-downstream bracketing technique. Nitrogen and phosphorus grab samples were manually collected and discharge measurements were conducted during the annual study period. Additionally, high-frequency monitoring sensors that measured EC, temperature, turbidity, and water level were deployed at the up- and downstream sites to represent short-duration transport events and to examine watershed processes on a more representative time scale.

Daily nutrient loads were estimated from grab samples and flow …

Common Ownership And Equality Of Autonomy, Anna Di Robilant

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, common ownership has enjoyed unprecedented favour among policy-makers and citizens in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Conservation land trusts, affordable-housing co-operatives, community gardens, and neighborhood-managed parks are spreading throughout major cities. Normatively, these common-ownership regimes are seen as yielding a variety of benefits, such as a communitarian ethos in the efficient use of scarce resources, or greater freedom to interact and create in new ways. The design of common-ownership regimes, however, requires difficult trade-offs. Most importantly, successful achievement of the goals of common-ownership regimes requires the limitation of individual co-owners’ ability to freely use the common …

Hyperhomocysteinemia Alters Sinoatrial And Atrioventricular Nodal Function : Role Of The Cardiac Nmda Receptor., Chirag V. Soni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is a pathological condition characterized by excessive levels of plasma homocysteine (Hcy). Patients with HHcy are reported to be at risk for arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation and sudden cardiac death (SCD); however, the causative mechanisms remain unknown. The effects of HHcy on sinus node function, atrioventricular conduction and ventricular vulnerability were investigated by in vivo electrophysiological (EP) analysis, and the role of the cardiac N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) in promoting Hcy-induced conduction abnormalities was explored. Materials and Methods: Anesthetized wild-type control mice (WT), mice receiving Hcy in the drinking water for 12 weeks (DW), and heterozygous cystathionine-ß-synthase knockout …

Combating The Sophomore Slump Through Peer-Mentoring Among African American Students At Predominantly White Institutions., Tiffany Christina Evans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a plethora of research regarding the first year undergraduate student experience; however, 2nd year students are facing adversity and consequently high rates of attrition. This phenomenon is known as the sophomore slump. There is limited research of how the sophomore slump impacts African Americans and research supports involvement, particularly as a peer mentor, increases student persistence beyond the 2nd year. This study uses Tinto's theory of student departure and Collin's theory of other-mothering to explore how the academic and social skills of CONECT peer mentors contribute to their experiences as peer mentors and their overall persistence.

A Submodular Optimization Framework For Never-Ending Learning : Semi-Supervised, Online, And Active Learning., Wael Emara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The revolution in information technology and the explosion in the use of computing devices in people's everyday activities has forever changed the perspective of the data mining and machine learning fields. The enormous amounts of easily accessible, information rich data is pushing the data analysis community in general towards a shift of paradigm. In the new paradigm, data comes in the form a stream of billions of records received everyday. The dynamic nature of the data and its sheer size makes it impossible to use the traditional notion of offline learning where the whole data is accessible at any time …

The Rancor Of Republicans, The Diatribe Of Democrats A Social Network Analysis Of Partisan Interconnectivity On Facebook, Sean Langille

Masters Theses

The Internet has played a more active role in shaping modern American political communication. With the increased popularity of social networking through websites like Facebook, more are taking to the Internet to engage in civic dialogue. This study will explore how the exchange of socially networked images, texts, and audio between Democrats and Republicans affect beliefs, behaviors and perceptions. Utilizing qualitative methodologies, the researcher interviewed ten (10) registered democrats and ten (10) registered republicans. The participants were basked ten questions and ten follow up questions. The study applied a social network analysis to evaluate how socially networked dialogue between Republicans …

Anthropological Apologetics: A Proposal Of An Anthropological Compendium As Evidence For The Imago Dei, Jeffrey R. Dickson

Masters Theses

Evangelical scholarship has shown great admiration for the work of Gary Habermas and others in their contribution to Christian apologetics by validating the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with a list of minimal facts generally agreed to by historical and biblical scholars. This thesis will explore the methodology of the minimal facts approach and appropriate it as a tool to explore the data within the field of anthropology which offers evidence for the biblical concept of the Imago Dei. This study will focus on Wolfhart Pannenberg in his critically acclaimed work demonstrating the importance of the theological perspective …

Gsk3Β Inhibition Blocks Melanoma Cell/Host Interactions By Downregulating N-Cadherin Expression And Decreasing Fak Phosphorylation., Jobin K John, Kim H T Paraiso, Vito W Rebecca, Liliana P Cantini, Ethan V Abel, Nicholas Pagano, Eric Meggers, Rahel Mathew, Clemens Krepler, Victoria Izumi, Bin Fang, John M Koomen, Jane L Messina, Meenhard Herlyn, Keiran S M Smalley

Department of Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

This study addresses the role of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3β signaling in the tumorigenic behavior of melanoma. Immunohistochemical staining revealed GSK3β to be focally expressed in the invasive portions of 12 and 33% of primary and metastatic melanomas, respectively. GSK3 inhibitors and small interfering RNA (siRNA) knockdown of GSK3β were found to inhibit the motile behavior of melanoma cells in scratch wound, three-dimensional collagen-implanted spheroid, and modified Boyden chamber assays. Functionally, inhibition of GSK3β signaling was found to suppress N-cadherin expression at the messenger RNA and protein levels, and was associated with decreased expression of the transcription factor Slug. Pharmacological …

Aerospace Section, Barbara A. Williams

Sci-Tech News

No abstract provided.

Science-Technology Division, Cheryl A. Hansen, Sarah K. Oelker

Sci-Tech News

Sci-Tech Division news from the Chair. An overview of 2012.

Inside Voices: Protecting The Student-Critic In Public Schools, Josie F. Brown

Faculty Publications

First Amendment doctrine acknowledges the constructive potential of citizens’ criticism of public officials and governmental policies by offering such speech vigilant protection. However, when students speak out about perceived injustice or dysfunction in their public schools, teachers and administrators too often react by squelching and even punishing student-critics. To counteract school officials’ reflexively repressive responses to student protest and petition activities, this Article explains why the faithful performance of public schools’ responsibility to prepare students for constitutional citizenship demands the adoption of a more receptive and respectful attitude toward student dissent. After documenting how both educators and courts have mistakenly …

Transforming The Healthcare Response To Intimate Partner Violence And Taking Best Practices To Scale, Michele R. Decker, Shannon Frattaroli, Brigid Mccaw, Ann L. Coker, Elizabeth Miller, Phyllis Sharps, Wendy G. Lane, Mahua Mandal, Kelli Hirsch, Donna M. Strobino, Wendy L. Bennett, Jacquelyn Campbell, Andrea Gielen

CRVAW Faculty Journal Articles

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is prevalent among adolescent and adult women, with significant physical, sexual, and mental health consequences. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine's Clinical Preventive Services for Women consensus report recommended universal screening for violence as a component of women's preventive services; this policy has been adopted by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These policy developments require that effective clinic-based interventions be identified, easily implemented, and taken to scale.

METHODS: To foster dialogue about implementing effective interventions, we convened a symposium entitled "Responding to Violence Against Women: Emerging Evidence, Implementation Science, and Innovative Interventions," on …