Digital Commons Network^™

Quality Of Life Among Children With Beta-Thalassemia Major Treated In Western Saudi Arabia, Mohammed D. Ayoub, Suhaib A. Radi, Abdulrahman M. Azab, Abdulrahman A. Abulaban, Abdulrahman H. Balkhoyor, Seif-Eleslam W. Bedair, Soad K. Aljaouni, Jameela A. Kari

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of life among children and adolescents with thalassemia major. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL). Children and adolescents with beta-thalassemia major who attended the Day Care Unit at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from October 2012 to February 2013 were surveyed. The questions highlighted 4 health status scales, namely physical functioning (PF), emotional functioning (EF), school performance (SC), and social functioning (SF). Scores were calculated for each patient and data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. RESULTS: We recruited 46 children (60.9% males). The …

Impact Of Leveled Reading Books On The Fluency And Comprehension Levels Of First Grade Students, Melissa Seals

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this nonequivalent, control group, pretest-posttest design study was to evaluate the effectiveness of leveled book programs on first-grade students' oral reading fluency rates and comprehension levels. This study was conducted over a 10-week time span with four first-grade classes. All of the students in each class were given a pretest to determine their current reading level, and then the classes were randomly placed into the treatment group, which used leveled books during independent reading time, or the controlled group, which used trade books selected by the students during independent reading time. Two individually administered assessments, Developmental Reading …

Constitutionally Tailoring Punishment, Richard A. Bierschbach, Stephanos Bibas

Michigan Law Review

Since the turn of the century, the Supreme Court has regulated noncapital sentencing under the Sixth Amendment in the Apprendi line of cases (requiring jury findings of fact to justify sentence enhancements) as well as under the Eighth Amendment in the Miller and Graham line of cases (forbidding mandatory life imprisonment for juvenile defendants). Although both lines of authority sound in individual rights, in fact they are fundamentally about the structures of criminal justice. These two seemingly disparate doctrines respond to structural imbalances in noncapital sentencing by promoting morally appropriate punishment judgments that are based on individualized input and that …

Peran Employability Dalam Hubungan Job Insecurity Dan Kepuasan Kerja, Byarbreda Mahaputra, Corina D. S. Riantoputra, Adi Respati

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

Job insecurity is often thought to cause lower job satisfaction. However, research shows that the relationship between these two variables is more complicated than previously assumed. Previous studies fail to provide conclusive results, which indicate that the relationships between job insecurity and job satisfaction may be moderated by other variables. Two variables that can explainthis relationship are employability, defined as employees’ perception of their abilities to find a new job, and work status differences (i.e., permanent and contract employees). Therefore, this study hypothesizes that employability will moderate the relationship between job insecurity and job satisfaction for, both, permanent and contract …

Pengaruh Kompleksitas Tugas, Tekanan Waktu, Dan Sifat Kepribadian Pada Kinerja, Ni Wayan Rustiarini

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

The aim of the research in to investigate the influence of task complexity, time pressure, and five traits of auditor personality such as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism on auditor performance. There have been a number of research findings on task complexity and time pressure on auditor performance, yet none shows consistency. This study, therefore, tries to provide a new point of view by using traits personality of auditor, which are rarely used in the research field of accounting. Participants in this studies are auditors who work on a public account firms in Bali. The results showed …

Kecerdasan Emosional Dan Kecerdasan Spiritual Meningkatkan Kompetensi Sosial Guru, Citro W.. Puluhulawa

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

Teacher as a professional educational is demanded to have a set of competence in carrying out the daily tasks. One of the competences is social competence. The social competence of teachers is that teachers have an objective, inclusive and non discriminative attitude, well-mannered eitherin speech or in act, capable in communicating verbally, writtenly and gesture. In addition, teachers have to coordinate with the students, other fellow teachers, educational staff, student’s parents as well asthe society. They must also be able to adapt with the community. This study aims to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence work with …

Meeting The Needs Of Family Members Of Icu Patients., Kalie Nolen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The intensive care unit is an extreme environment which houses the most critically ill patients in a hospital. As a result, an array of equipment, IV lines, medications, and sounds that are unfamiliar to the general public can be found. These factors, added to the fragile emotional state of families and friends who have recently admitted a loved one, can be overwhelming. This rush of unforeseen stimuli often leads to feelings of fear and powerlessness (Farrell, Joseph, & Schwartz-Barcott, 2005).

The patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU) are the primary focus of staff; some need virtually continuous care. As a …

When There's A Will, There Might Be A Way: The Economic Impact Of Mobile Phones And Entrepreneurial Motivation On Female-Owned Microenterprises, Han Ei Chew, Vigneswara P. Ilavarasan, Mark Levy

Research Collection Office of Impact

Based on a survey of 598 urban microentrepreneurs in Chennai, India, we contend that access to mobile phones is a necessary but not sufficient condition for achieving certain development goals. We explicate an innovative concept, entrepreneurial expectations, and explore its linkage with mobile phones and microenterprise growth. We found that among high-expectation microentrepreneurs (14 percent of the sample) business use of mobile phones amplified the impact of entrepreneurial expectations and was associated with greater microenterprise growth.

Still Siblings: The Perceived Importance Of Sibling Relationships For Foster Children, Jessica A. Church

Masters Theses

This research was conducted to answer the question “Do children who are perceived to have strong relationships with siblings and more access to their siblings have fewer problems adjusting to their foster care placement as observed by child welfare professionals?” This qualitative research project was completed through semi-structured interviews with professionals who work with children in foster care in a variety of ways (and may have worked with children in more than one way during their career in child welfare), such as foster care workers, counselors, and sibling visitation supervisors. The snowball sampling method was used in this research. These …

Labeling Research Deviant: A Comparative Analysis Of Federal Ad Hoc Commissions On Human Subject Research, Brian W. Rossana

Masters Theses

A review of the literature suggests there is still reason for concern due to the nature of deviant research in the past and the continued existence of ambiguous guidelines in particular organizational contexts. Federal ad hoc commissions have been a prominent environment where the absorption of the social reaction to deviant events and discussions regarding bioethics has transpired. The goal then was to ask what conditions of commissions lead to the presence of a research deviant? A convenience sample of nine U.S. federal ad hoc commissions was performed utilizing a method known as crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA). The results …

Roatan Honduras And Perceptions Of Divers’ Location Choices In The Caribbean, Juli Dawn Tripicchio

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the hierarchy of location choices that divers make for destinations in the Caribbean; to identify where Roatan, Honduras fits into this hierarchy; and to determine strategies to increase the volume of dive tourists to Roatan. This research may provide resorts on Roatan, along with other Caribbean dive destinations, with data to incorporate into their own planning and marketing processes so they can better accommodate dive customers and their families. In order to get a better understanding of dive customers, a survey was given to customers of a survey was conducted at a …

Virginia Cle Sources: Important Practitioner Tools For Forty Years, Gail F. Zwirner

Law Faculty Publications

Observing the 40th anniversary of the Virginia Law Foundation, Ms. Zwirner highlights some of the foundation's continuing legal education publications of frequent value to practitioners.

This article focuses primarily on the deskbook sources that are the go-to materials in many subject areas for Virginia practitioners. The publisher offers all these sources on CD, USB, or downloads. The titles include the forms that practitioners savor as good starting points for their clients’ needs. These forms account for many reference desk success stories for practitioners who rely on Gouldman’s Virginia Forms and are disappointed when that group does not provide the specificity …

Perceptions Of Equality And National Identity Amongst Young British South Asian Muslims In Bradford, England, Simon J. Reid

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of urban riots and terror attacks in the United Kingdom, British public debate and policy have focused on the nation's immigrant communities. These debates have commonly called into question whether immigrant communities in Britain are sufficiently integrated into "mainstream" society and included in the nation. These questions have been particularly focused on the country's immigrant Muslim communities because they have, over the years, been accused of segregating themselves from, and within, British society. This study explored the local and national identities of young British South Asian Muslims in Bradford, which is one of the largest Muslim communities …

Love, Reason, And Romantic Relationships, Justin Leonard Clardy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The capacity to love is without a doubt one of the most prized features of our existence. However, love offers us a wide range of complex questions with very few answers. Yet, it is important that we get an accurate view of love because knowing what to love and how to live aids us in trying to manage our lives sensibly. In this paper, I plan to present a reasons-responsive account of romantic love that involves the valuing of qualities that the beloved has as well as the valuing of the relationship shared with the beloved. I will also show …

Attitudes And Behaviors In Online Communities: Empirical Studies Of The Effects Of Social, Community, And Individual Characteristics, Richard Kumi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online communities and communities of practice bring people together to promote and support shared goals and exchange information. Personal interactions are important to many of these communities and one of the important outcomes of personal interactions in online communities and communities of practice is user-generated content. The three essays in the current study examines behavior motivation in online communities and communities of practice to understand how Social and personal psychological factors, and user-generated influence attitudes, intentions and behaviors in online communities.

The first essay addresses two research questions. First, how does Social capital influence exchange and combination behaviors in online …

The Effect Of Music Training On Emotion Perception In Childhood, Emese Maroti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies found evidence that music training can enhance cognitive abilities both for children and adults. However, no evidence was found yet, whether music training can enhance abilities in emotion perception. I tested 8-9 year-old children on emotion perception in visual and musical contexts. The tests did not show significant difference between the musically trained and non-trained group neither in visual nor in musical context, however, when emotion scores were analyzed separately for each piece of music, musically trained children's responses reflected stereotypical modes of approaching emotional meanings in music, moreover, musically trained children's judgments were more uniform as there …

Analysis Of Social Networks In A Virtual World, Gregory Thomas Stafford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As three-dimensional virtual environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, studying how users are connected via their avatars and how they benefit from the virtual world community has become a significant area of research. An in-depth analysis of virtual world Social networks is needed to evaluate how users interact in virtual worlds, to better understand the impact of avatar Social networks on the virtual worlds, and to improve future online Social networks.

Our current efforts are focused on building and exploring the Social network aspects of virtual worlds. In this thesis, we build a Social network of avatars based …

Examining The Relations Among Trauma, Distress, Resilience, And Physical Health, Kathryn Elizabeth Chaisson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the role of traumatic distress as a mediator in the relation between trauma exposure and somatic malaise and healthcare utilization. Resilience was examined as a moderator between trauma exposure and somatic malaise and healthcare utilization, then between trauma exposure and traumatic distress. A total of 206 female participants recruited from an obstetrics and gynecology specialty practice completed measures of trauma exposure, traumatic distress, resilience, somatic malaise, and healthcare utilization. Multiple hierarchical regressions were performed to test the hypothesized relations. Results indicated that trauma exposure was a significant predictor of traumatic distress and resilience, and of somatic malaise …

Perceived Impact Of Character Education Program At A Midwest Rural Middle School: A Case Study, Sandra Jean Goss

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today there exist a concern for the safety and success of students in the public education system. Families, educators, and community members are concerned with the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of students in an environment where incidents of violence are growing. Events like the school shootings at Jonesboro, Arkansas, and at Columbine High School left our nation concerned with the problems within the school system. Many believe that character education can be an effective solution. The purposes of this study are to describe key elements of one school's character education program, and to determine the impact that this program …

Compared To What? The Effectiveness Of Synthetic Control Methods For Causal Inference In Educational Assessment, Clay Stephen Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic control methods are an innovative matching technique first introduced within the economics and political science literature that have begun to find application in educational research as well. Synthetic controls create an aggregate-level, time-series comparison for a single treated unit of interest for causal inference with observational data. However, the strict statistical assumptions associated with matching methods for causal inference raise concerns for unobserved bias related to some data models and availability. The small but increasing set of existing synthetic controls studies with student achievement measures as the outcome of interest suggest that research is warranted into the effectiveness of …

The Development Of A Traumatic Brain Injury Bioreactor, Zachery Heller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 1.7 million Americans experience a traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year. Concussive injuries are a subset of TBI in which blows to the head cause the brain to collide against the interior of the skull. Damage to the neurons, supporting cells, and surrounding extra cellular matrix resulting from these collisions can lead to permanent physical, cognitive, and psychological impairment. We believe the prevalence and clinical significance of concussive injures warrants research investment. To study brain injury following TBI, in vivo models have been the gold standard for TBI experiments. Although a valuable research alternative, animals are expensive, raise ethical …

Congruent And Incongruent Effects Of Ethnic Music On Ethnic Menu Item Selection, Ryan David Muniz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated what impact ethnic music had on ethnic menu item selection. College students were randomly divided into three groups and listened to one randomly assigned sound treatment in sensory booths. Three hundred and five participants completed the questionnaire with measures of expected price value and willingness to pay value. One of the groups listened to an Italian folk music, the second group listened to a Thai folk music, and the third group listened to a restaurant background noise in order to examine if the music will impact each participant menu items selection and perceived price values. The result …

The Relationships Between `Push' And `Pull' Factors Of Millennial Generation Tourists To Heritage Tourism Destinations: Antebellum And Civil War Sites In The State Of Arkansas, Kayla Diane Kesterson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated `push' and `pull' motivational factors which influence Millennial Generation tourists' decisions to visit heritage tourism destinations and their knowledge of Civil War and Antebellum heritage sites within the state of Arkansas. A descriptive, six-section survey was distributed to Millennial students from varying degree fields at three universities within Arkansas. Four hundred twenty-four participants completed the questionnaire with measures of demographic information, visitation and frequency to heritage tourism sites, push factors, pull factors, heritage tourism sites in Arkansas, and historic preservation participation.

The results of this study showed that although Millennial students do not visit heritage sites frequently, …

Dropping Out In Southeast Kansas: Why Students Leave School Early, Garon Kent Wire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study takes a deeper look into the lived experiences of students in southeast Kansas who have dropped out of high school. As a result, school and community leaders are better informed to create effective strategy, policy, and practice in dropout prevention.

Framed as a phenomenology, data was collected by conducting in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 12 participants and a focus-group interview with four participants. The researcher administered a survey/questionnaire to an additional 15 participants. Utilizing the Streamlined Codes-To-Theory Model (Saldana, 2009); organizational, structural, and elaborative coding techniques were implemented to reduce the data into categories, which led to the …

Lunch Buddy Mentoring For Bullied Children: Four Case Studies And A Thematic Analysis, Samantha Gregus

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lunch Buddy (LB) mentoring, a type of school-based mentoring, holds promise as a selective intervention for children who are chronically bullied (Elledge, Cavell, Ogle, & Newgent, 2010). This study expanded upon previous research (Elledge et al., 2010) by utilizing a case-study approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods to gain more evidence about the palatability of the intervention and to uncover possible mechanisms by which the intervention is working. Participants were four elementary school children in grades four and five who had been identified as bullied based on child and teacher reports. Quantitative data were collected at multiple points during the …

Apakah Kreativitas Dan Sikap Terhadap Ilmu Ekonomi Meramalkan Partisipasi Politik Mahasiswa? Peran Mediasi Efikasi Politik Pada Mahasiswa Di Malang, Jawa Timur, Juneman Abraham, Diantini Ida Viatre

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

This research aims to find the psychological mechanism of students’ political participation. The research was designed with predictive correlational design and the data analysis technique was path analysis. The dependent variable was political participation intention. The predictor variables were creativity and students’ attitude toward economics. The mediator variables were the necessary political experience and political efficacy. One hundred and four students of Department of Psychology, FPPsi, Malang State University, participated (Mage = 19.50 years old; SDage = 2.397 years). The research found that creativity and attitude toward economics are significant predictors for students’ political participation intention and this prediction is …

Bridging Patient Outcome Gap For Type 2 Diabetes : Can We Bridge Physician Practices To Produce Results Achieved In Evidence-Based Lifestyle Intervention Research?, Brenda Killen Johnson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The United States is abounding in the prevalence and incidence of avoidable chronic diseases, and high among these diseases is type 2 diabetes. Further, according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) Common Fund, 40% of harmful health behaviors is what contributes to chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. NIH noted there are few personalized, effective ways to inspire people to change their behaviors in the shortterm, but if done, this behavior is not sustained long-term (The NIH Common Fund, 2011). Yet, this research discovered a Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is one of these few personalized, effective interventions that …

Framing Of Business In China: East Vs. West, Xueyi Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

China is one of the largest and most promising markets for new global business ventures. This exploratory research investigates the current news-related themes regarding business in China by comparing news originating from eastern countries to western countries. This study applied agenda-setting and framing theoretical frameworks. A mixed-method approach of both qualitative and quantitative content analyses was used to generate key themes and their related concepts. The results indicate some thematic similarities as well as differences in agenda and news framing between eastern and western news samples. This exploratory study contributes to agenda-setting and framing literature as well as by creating …

Feminising Schools In The Emirate Of Abu Dhabi, Uae: Cause For Concern!, Martina Dickson, Johann Le Roux

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

Schools in the UAE have been undergoing radical educational reform over the past six years. Government schools are currently gender segregated from grade 1 and staffed by either male or female teachers, but not by both genders in the same school. In 2011 the Abu Dhabi Educational Council (ADEC) announced plans to completely feminise primary schools in the emirate. Emirati male teachers represent a small minority, but one which potentially has a very powerful significance, both culturally and educationally. This paper intends to explore male pre-service teachers’ perceptions of this issue. Six male Emirati pre-service teachers were interviewed. Our findings …

Ironic American Exceptionalism And The Myth Of The Open Self, Myron Moses Jackson

Dissertations

This work rethinks current interpretations of American exceptionalism, emphasizing dynamic relations, especially those we could call "ironic." I am reading Reinhold Niebuhr's The Irony of American History alongside Eric Voegelin's and Woodrow Wilson's philosophical and political treatment of freedom, expressed through the ideal of American personhood. American entertainment continues to spread globally, and the spreading creates a wider nexus of efficacious relations, allowing for the interplay of hidden relations and symbolic complexes. "Ironic American exceptionalism," as I call it, highlights the positive aspects, usually overlooked, provided by "virtual integration" and the spawning of novel cultural hybrids. By "virtual integration," I …