Digital Commons Network^™

Manager-In-Chief: Applying Public Management Theory To Examine White House Chief Of Staff Performance, David Cohen, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

Departmental Papers (PS)

In an effort to examine the causal determinants of performance dynamics for the administrative presidency, we apply empirical public management theory to White House administration to explain managerial performance. Utilizing original survey data that measures the perceptions of former officials from the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, we conduct quantitative analyses to determine the extent to which a chief of staff’s background, relationship with the president, and internal as well as external management approaches shape overall perceptions of White House administrative efforts. We find that managerial dimensions matter considerably when explaining the dynamics of White House organizational performance.

How Crucial Are Multi-Cultural Texts To Social Awareness And Acceptance In The Universal Pre-Kindergarten Setting?: A Study On Views On Family Structure, Elisabeth Addyman

Education Masters

This study examined the impact that multi-cultural picture books have on students’ views on different family structures in the Universal Pre-Kindergarten setting. Research was conducted in a Universal Pre-Kindergarten classroom in a whole and small group setting. Data was collected through informal observations, student work, and pre and post interviews. The findings showed that the students could benefit greatly from multi-cultural picture books when coupled with meaningful discussions and/or extending activities. In order to determine the full potential of using multi-cultural picture books within the classroom to impact students’ views on different family structures, more research needs to be conducted.

The Impact Of Student Interest And Instructor Effectiveness On Student Performance, Kate Sauer

Education Masters

This research project began by asking if and how student interest and instructor effectiveness impacted student performance. Research was conducted with two middle school students. The data was gathered by administering questionnaires, collecting student work, and recording observations. Findings revealed that students’ interest and their relationship with the instructor were contributing factors in successful academic performance. Therefore, the data implied that teachers need consider student interest and develop a relationship with them in order to foster student growth and success.

Using Technology As A Teacher Differentiation Tool To Increase Students' High Frequency Word Recognition, Shannon Mclaughlin

Education Masters

This research asked, “how does technology, as a teacher assistive differentiation tool, increase students high frequency word recognition?” Research was conducted in Greenville, New York with a group of nine first grade students all classified with a disability. Students were placed in either an iPad or flash card group. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected through questionnaires/interviews, student observations, and assessment. Findings revealed that both the groups increased their word recognition; however, the iPad group revealed a greater percentage increase when compared to the flash card group. The data implies there is a correlation among students with disabilities and using …

The Second Vatican Council Fifty Years Later: Achievements And Challenges, John Colacino

Verbum

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

"I would like to begin this lecture with a personal perspective followed by some introductory comments concerning the ongoing “clash of interpretations” surrounding Vatican II and its documents, followed by a brief survey of each document noting some of its achievements and, in my opinion, ongoing challenges."

Full Issue, No Author

Verbum

This is the full issue of Volume 10, Issue 1 of Verbum, published in Fall 2012 by the REST Club at St. John Fisher College. Articles from this issue are available as separate PDFs at http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/verbum/vol10/iss1/

The Home Literacy Environment Impact On A Struggling Reader And Emergent Reader's Readiness For A Pre-Kindergarten Program, Ashley Colarocco

Education Masters

The goal of this study was to examine the impact the home literacy environment has on a struggling reader and an emergent reader. It was determined that the home literacy environment has a greater impact on a struggling reader and an emergent reader. Data was collected through teacher field notes, questionnaires, and student test scores. The data showed the home literacy environment does have an impact on both a struggling reader and an emergent reader. The more involved a parent is in their child’s academics, the more successful the child will be. Children will be more prepared for school and …

A Realistic View Of Returning To The Classroom After Cancer Survival: A Double Entendré, Heidi Suzanne Zimmer

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Returning to work after cancer treatment provides its own set of challenges. The purpose of this research paper is to inform cancer survivors of the reality of returning to work after treatment. From personal experience and hearing others’ stories; I am convinced that getting back to a “normal” life is a large part of the recovery from cancer. Returning to work can be the conclusion to a very long battle and reassures survivors, that they truly have beaten the beast. The literature revealed that it takes time for the body to follow the head and heart when it comes to …

Zoomorphic Penannular Brooches In 6th And 7th Century Ireland, Esther G. Ward

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

In this thesis the author examines the evolution, manufacture, and societal significance of zoomorphic penannular brooches, a type of metal dress fastener used in early medieval Ireland that is often decorated. The brooches examined are dated to the 6^th and 7^th centuries, during which the Irish underwent a process of religious conversion from Celtic paganism to Christianity, and social rank was paramount. It is in this social context that the brooches are examined. Despite the significance of this time of social change, brooches from this period tend to be overlooked by scholarship in favor of the more ornate …

Capturing The Holy City: The Latter-Day Saint Quest For Zion, Chad Nielsen

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

The quest to create a Zion community was a defining feature of the early Mormon movement. As they were forced to move from place to place in nineteenth-century America, the early Latter-day Saints attempted to gather to central locations and create holy cities—utopian communities based on religious principles taught by Joseph Smith. The practice of this ideal has changed within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over time, resulting in a very different application of the Zion ideal in the Mormon community today. In many ways, the term “building Zion” has become an abstraction within the Church used …

What Has Athens To Do With Mormonism?, Benjamin Wade Harman

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

In his lecture, Terryl Givens presents one with a new way to approach the prophecy of Enoch that was received by Joseph Smith. Contained in this short narrative is a new, innovative conception about God that differs greatly from traditional Christianity. This notion is that of a passible deity, a God that is susceptible to feeling and emotion. It is a God who weeps, a God who is vulnerable and suffers emotional pain. God, as defined by the Christian creeds, is one who lacks passions.1 Givens, in drawing attention to the passible deity, is illuminating just a small portion of …

Cloud Technology And Ehr Data Management, Jonathan Tancer, Aparna S. Varde

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Cloud technology today is being leveraged in various aspects of life ranging from entertainment to business. Among its several applications, interesting ones are those in the general field of scientific data management. The data generated here is typically of huge volumes from multiple sources and sharing often becomes imperative for collaboration among professionals and access to users. At the same time, the information involved is usually of a highly sensitive nature posing risks in sharing. In this work, we look closely at the healthcare domain where data was traditionally stored using pen-and-paper and has now shifted to electronic records being …

Cd4+ Regulatory And Effector/Memory T Cell Subsets Profile Motor Dysfunction In Parkinson’S Disease, Jessica A. Hutter Saunders, Katherine A. Estes, Lisa M. Kosloski, Heather E. Allen, Kathryn Dempsey Cooper, Diego R. Torres-Russotto, Jane L. Meza, Pamela M. Santamaria, John M. Bertoni, Daniel L. Murman, Hesham Ali, David G. Standaert, R. Lee Mosley, Howard E. Gendelman

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Publications

Animal models and clinical studies have linked the innate and adaptive immune system to the pathology of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Despite such progress, the specific immune responses that influence disease progression have eluded investigators. Herein, we assessed relationships between T cell phenotype and function with PD progression. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from two separate cohorts, a discovery cohort and a validation cohort, totaling 113 PD patients and 96 age- and environment-matched caregivers were examined by flow cytometric analysis and T cell proliferation assays. Increased effector/memory T cells (Tem), defined as CD45RO+ and FAS+ CD4+ T cells and decreased CD31+ and α4β7+ …

Teacher Internship Report - Paramount Bard Academy, Erin M. Hanger

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship project includes required documents of validation in meeting quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. These documents are often used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process conducted by California Department of Education representatives. Currently, Paramount Bard Academy does not qualify for such funding. Since the Agricultural Incentive Grant is not available to Paramount Bard Academy, the internship project was directed at the development of a comprehensive program plan for Paramount Bard Academy. Paramount Bard Academy is a developing program, of less than four years, that has been benefited by this internship project.

Promoting Physics Faculty, Students And Research Through The Library’S Institutional Repository, Betty Rozum, Andrew Wesolek

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Utah State University Libraries hosts a thriving institutional repository, DigitalCommons@USU. The Library and Physics department developed a partnership to transcend traditional repository structures and emphasizes faculty research groups within the department.

This poster session highlights the features of the University's repository and describes what is required to establish a similar structure at an academic institution. We anticipate several long-term benefits of this new structure, which benefits students, the department, and the library.

Sir Walter Scott And Kenilworth Castle: Ruins Restored By Historical Imagination, Rumiko Handa

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This is a study of how the architectural ruins of Kenilworth Castle contributed to the historical imagination of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and how he forged their literary restoration. The castle, located between Warwick and Coventry, was first constructed in the early twelfth century by Geoffrey de Clinton, the royal chamberlain to King Henry I (r. 1100-1135). Major additions were made by King Henry II (r. 1154-1189); King John (r. 1199-1216); John of Gaunt (1340-1399), son of King Edward III and Duke of Lancaster; and Robert Dudley (1532-1588), Earl of Leicester. The castle played a number of important roles throughout …

Does Economic Decline Contribute To A Decline In Children’S Food Security?, Kimberly Groover, Bradford Mills, George Davis

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Most Americans believe that children should not experience persistent worry about the quality or quantity of food consumed due to low household resources. Since 1995, the USDA has tracked children’s food security based upon household responses to the annual Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS). During this time, a small, but recently growing, share of U.S. households report multiple indicators of reduced food intake and disrupted eating patterns among children due to inadequate resources to obtain food (Coleman- Jenson et al, 2012). The USDA classifies children as food secure, low food secure, or very low food secure based upon …

Competing Sovereignties: Corporate Social Responsibility, Oil Extraction, And Indigenous Subjectivity In Ecuador, Emily Billo

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs developed in recent years as the business response to social and environmental criticism of corporate operations, and are most debated in those societies where neoliberalism emerged most prominently, the United States and the United Kingdom. My dissertation expands these debates investigating the CSR programs of a Spanish-owned multinational oil company, Repsol-YPF operating in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. It explores CSR programs as institutions that can facilitate ongoing resource extraction, and particular technologies of rule that serve to discipline indigenous peoples at the point of extraction. I conducted an institutional ethnography to examine the social relationships …

An Examination Of Acculturative Stress, Perceived Social Support And Depression Among Chinese International Students, Yue Zhang

Child and Family Studies - Theses

Cross-cultural living can be exciting but also challenging, as it may be accompanied by stress due to constant adaption to a series of continual changes. In addition to adjusting to a new physical environment, individuals must also make psychological adjustments. This study explored Chinese international students' acculturation processes through an examination of the association between acculturative stress, students' perceived social support and symptoms of depression. The study applied the modified conceptual framework from the acculturation model and the stress and coping theory to assess how students' acculturation experience affected their psychological well-being. Also, other contextual factors associated with this acculturation …

Coarticulation In American Sign Language Fingerspelling, Caitlin S. Channer

Linguistics ETDs

Fingerspelling is a category of American Sign Language (ASL) signs that are signed sequentially as an alphabetic representation. The present study proposes to examine the coarticulation and feature-spreading characteristics of fingerspelling. A preliminary study identified feature categories to be examined. In keeping with these results and feature categories, three hypotheses were constructed: (1) anticipatory effects are more common than perseverative effects, (2) coarticulation is most prevalent word medially, rather than word initially or word finally, and (3) larger articulators show spreading more often than smaller articulators and spread across multiple handshapes. To test these hypotheses, five fluent ASL fingerspellers were …

Pagkababae At Pagkalalake (Femininity And Masculinity): Developing A Filipino Gender Trait Inventory And Predicting Self-Esteem And Sexism, Vivienne Velez Valledor-Lukey

Child and Family Studies - Dissertations

This study focused on the construction of a gender trait inventory from a Filipino perspective, guided by social constructionist, symbolic interactionist, and feminist theories. Traits that were identified as being typical of Filipino men and women were grouped into positive (i.e., socially desirable) and negative (i.e., socially undesirable) subscales. Development and validity testing were conducted using data from 296 Filipino university students. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to develop the subscales of the instrument. The Filipino femininity subscale included positive traits such as being caring and supportive and negative traits such as being timid or keeping things to one's …

Indigenous Peoples And Epistemic Injustice: Science, Ethics, And Human Rights, Rebecca Tsosie

Washington Law Review

This Article explores the use of science as a tool of public policy and examines how science policy impacts indigenous peoples in the areas of environmental protection, public health, and repatriation. Professor Tsosie draws on Miranda Fricker’s account of “epistemic injustice” to show how indigenous peoples have been harmed by the domestic legal system and the policies that guide the implementation of the law in those three arenas. Professor Tsosie argues that the theme of “discovery,” which is pivotal to scientific inquiry, has governed the violation of indigenous peoples’ human rights since the colonial era. Today, science policy is overtly …

Are The Mara Salvatrucha And 18th Street Gangs A Threat To Our National Security, José A. Ortiz

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pc-Based Automated Control System For Jordan Northern Grain Silo, Salem Al-Agtash

Computer Science and Engineering

This paper presents a PC-based automated control system operation of the Northern Grain Silo of Jordan. The system connects to a PLC (programmable logic controller) device, and combines operator interface, PLC programming and monitoring functions into one platform. The PLC portion handles direct operations control, while the PC portion handles interfacing and data intensive functions. A simulation package is developed. The package generates a graphical user interface for real-time graphic animations of the Grain Silo operation. We discuss anticipated benefits of such a system and phases of implementation.

Building Healthy Communities: Integrating Walkability Concepts Into Local Land Use Planning, Jenna Danelle Muhlbach

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

In recent years, American communities have been diagnosed with several chronic health diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Several researchers attribute sedentary lifestyles as one of the contributing factors to chronic diseases. The lack of physical exercise can be blamed by the auto-dependent suburbia lifestyle that many generations have become accustomed to. Poor land use developments have roads and freeways dominating the use of space, with the intent of having an automobile get from one place to another as efficiently as possible. This has allowed places to be much further apart therefore it has had a negative impact …

Attachment Security Among Toddlers: The Impacts Of Supportive Coparenting And Father Engagement, Sangita Pudasainee-Kapri

Child and Family Studies - Theses

The present study examined the longitudinal associations among supportive coparenting and father engagement during infancy and mother-child attachment at age three within an at-risk sample (N= 1371), using secondary data from Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) study. Mothers reported on coparenting and father engagement during the one-year phone interview and mother-child attachment was assessed using the Toddler Attachment Sort-39 (TAS-39) at age three during the three-year in-home interview. Findings suggest that supportive coparenting was significantly associated with higher levels of father engagement and more secure mother-child attachment relationship across three racial/ethnic groups including white, African American, and Hispanic. Interestingly, …

Early Permian Seawater From The Delta18o Record Of Fossil Bivalves: Seasonality And A Latitudinal Gradient, James Andrew Beard

Earth & Environmental Sciences - Theses

The transition from a glaciated world to one that was ice-free makes the early Permian a time interval that in many ways mirrors the present, and hence there is great interest in constraining paleoclimate conditions over that transition. A common method for estimating ancient temperatures uses the oxygen isotope composition of marine carbonate, but this approach becomes significantly more complicated prior to the Cretaceous due to uncertainties about diagenesis and the isotopic composition of seawater, which has been hypothesized to be more depleted than during the Cenozoic. I use stable isotope compositions of sequentially microsampled accretionary calcite from fossil bivalves …

The Body Machinic: Technology, Labor, And Mechanized Bodies In Victorian Culture, Jessica Kuskey

English - Dissertations

While recent scholarship focuses on the fluidity or dissolution of the boundary between body and machine, "The Body Machinic" historicizes the emergence of the categories of "human" and "mechanical" labor. Beginning with nineteenth-century debates about the mechanized labor process, these categories became defined in opposition to each other, providing the ideological foundation for a dichotomy that continues to structure thinking about our relation to technology. These perspectives are polarized into technophobic fears of dehumanization and machines "taking over," or technological determinist celebrations of new technologies as improvements to human life, offering the tempting promise of maximizing human efficiency. "The Body …

Unlocking Students' Perspectives Of Leadership, Jonathan Damiani

Teaching and Leadership - Dissertations

The need for principals to have the time and tools to focus on instruction and student learning has continued to intensify. At the same time, the incongruence between what principals want to do instructionally and have time to do, creates dire consequences for school leaders and their work in making a difference in schools regarding staff and student improvement.

This study examines whether and how principals take their lead from students, and use student voice, to create more responsive schools, and more responsible models of leadership. In order to describe and explain whether and how principals have used students' perspectives …

The Risks Of Outsourcing Security: Foreign Security Forces In United States National Security Policy, Eric Rittinger

Political Science - Dissertations

This study combines insights from international relations, diplomatic history, and civil-military relations to improve our understanding of the tenuous arrangement between the United States and its foreign military proxies. For over a century, the U.S. has armed and trained these proxies to assume responsibilities that its own military might otherwise have to bear. But throughout that time, critics have doubted whether the U.S. could or should delegate sensitive security responsibilities to "dubious" foreign soldiers. Such doubt highlights an international analog to the principal-agent problem normally associated with domestic civil-military relations. I examine why this international principal-agent problem arose, how it …