Digital Commons Network^™

Orenda, Lauren Reeks

Senior Honors Theses

The following work is a feature length screenplay about Anna Morris, an 18-year-old girl who finds herself faced with a moral dilemma when her estranged father, Robert, contacts her on her 18th birthday. When she learns about Robert’s past involvement in an online child pornography ring Anna must decide if she can forgive him, or -- more importantly -- if he is worthy of forgiveness. However, as the story unfolds we find that it is not just Anna who needs to forgive. This story approaches issues of repentance, growth, and the journey into adulthood as Anna takes on each new …

Weeb-Con, Rachel Williams

Senior Honors Theses

One of the most important parts in the development stage of filmmaking is writing a screenplay. Weeb‐Con is a thirty‐two‐page action comedy screenplay. After an anime convention in Galveston, Texas, is forcefully taken over by armed robbers in creepy, badlymade fursuits, it is up to Dolores “Dolly” Lopez, a Lolita who must lead the convention attendees ‐ including her family and her fat pitbull Butterball ‐ and make them band together. Dolly is something of a perfectionist loner; but, with the help of her new friends Seymour, a cowardly nerd, and Boyd, a stoner who is smarter than he looks, …

Teaching Globally, Learning Locally, Dennis R. Falk, Darrell A. Hamlin

eJournal of Public Affairs

No abstract provided.

Participatory Democracy In The Chinese Cyber World: Case Studies From Weibo, Duyi Li

Master's Theses

This thesis discusses features of citizen communication on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, and its relationship to participatory democracy in China. Weibo is a complex social space due to the interplay of different forces and social actors. On the one hand, Weibo provides the space for bottom-up political participation: it expands the horizontal discursive space where plural discourses coexist and interact; provides a social sphere where counter-discourses are created; a space where the culture of resistance is formed; and serves as an alternative source for information. On the other hand, the vertical political control of the state, and the …

Reducing Eating Disorder Risk Factors: A Controlled Investigation Of A Blended Task-Shifting/Train-The-Trainer Approach To Dissemination And Implementation, Lisa S. Kilpela, Kaitlin Hill, Mackenzie Kelly, Joanna Elmquist, Paige Ottoson, D. Keith, Thomas Hildebrandt, Carolyn Becker

Psychology Faculty Research

Recent advances in psychological intervention research have led to an increase in evidence-based interventions (EBIs), yet there remains a lag in dissemination and implementation of EBIs. Task-shifting and the train-the-trainer (TTT) model offer two potential strategies for enhancing reach of EBIs. The Body Project, an EBI found to prevent onset of eating disorders, served as the vehicle for this dissemination/implementation study. The primary aim of this study was to determine if training of peer-leaders for the Body Project could be task-shifted to undergraduate students using a hybrid task-shifting/TTT model. Our secondary aim was to determine if subgroups of participants evidenced …

Nasig's New Mission & Vision Statement

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Vision Speakers Announced For The 2015 Nasig Annual Conference

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

December 2014 Full Issue

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Variations In Fe3+/∑Fe Of Mariana Arc Basalts And Mantle Wedge FO2, M. N. Brounce, K. A. Kelley, E. Cottrell

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Arc basalts are more oxidized than mid-ocean ridge basalts, but it is unclear whether this difference is due to differentiation processes in the Earth’s crust or to a fundamental difference in the oxygen fugacity of their mantle sources. Distinguishing between these two hypotheses is important for understanding redox-sensitive processes related to arc magmatism, and thus more broadly how Earth materials cycle globally. We present major, volatile, and trace element concentrations in combination with Fe³⁺/∑Fe ratios determined in olivine-hosted glass inclusions and submarine glasses from five Mariana arc volcanoes and two regions of the Mariana Trough. For single eruptions, …

Raman Microspectroscopy For The Early Detection Of Pre-Malignant Changes In Cervical Tissue, Nosheen Rashid, Haq Nawaz, Kelvin W. Poon, Franck Bonnier, Salih Bakhiet, Cara Martin, John O'Leary, Hugh Byrne, Fiona Lyng

Articles

Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer affecting women worldwide. The mortality associated with cervical cancer can, however, be significantly reduced if the disease is detected at the pre-malignant stage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of Raman microspectroscopy for elucidation of the biochemical changes associated with the pre-malignant stages of cervical cancer. Formalin fixed paraffin preserved tissue sections from cervical biopsies classified as negative for intraepithelial lesion and malignancy (NILM), low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) or high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) were analysed by Raman spectral mapping. Raman mapping, with K-Means Cluster …

Development And Delivery Of A Brief Intervention To Reduce Suicidal Ideation Among Veterans In A Primary Care Setting, Todd Michael Bishop

Dissertations - ALL

An elevated rate of suicide among Veterans remains a growing and pressing public health concern. Available interventions often lack empirical support or are too protracted and expensive to implement on a wide scale. Primary care represents a unique opportunity with which to engage those Veterans who are experiencing suicidal ideation. However, Veterans who are not at imminent risk often fall into a treatment gap and experience significant wait times until beginning treatment with a specialty mental healthcare provider. An efficacious intervention introduced into this gap in services may reduce suicidal ideation among Veterans and increase rates of follow-up with specialty …

A Critical Race And Critical Whiteness Theory Analysis Of Preservice Teachers' Racialized Practices In A Literacy Across The Curriculum Course, Kathleen Cullen

Dissertations - ALL

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the racialized practices enacted by seven preservice teachers while they participated in a university-based literacy across the curriculum course that included a school-based tutoring component. Research questions asked: 1) what racialized practices were enacted by preservice content-area teachers when they participated in a required literacy across the curriculum course that included one-on-one tutoring of youth at an urban secondary school, and 2) how did preservice content-area teachers' backgrounds contribute to their racialized practices?

This study drew on the premises of critical race theory and critical whiteness theory to define racialized …

Information Outlook, November/December 2014, Special Libraries Association

Information Outlook, 2014

Volume 18, Issue 6

Situational Leadership Styles In United States Air Force Air Traffic Control Towers, William D. Melton, Chad L. Depperschmidt, Timm J. Bliss

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Leadership in air traffic control facilities is critical to the safe, orderly, and efficient flow of air traffic. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the preferred leadership style for United States Air Force air traffic control tower watch supervisors. A panel of 10 functional experts completed a 25 question scenario-based survey to establish a baseline for this study’s four research questions. A purposeful sample of eight control tower chief controllers representing the eight United States Air Force major commands were interviewed and their responses were compared to the mean of the experts panel. The data from the …

Professional Experiences Of Women Administrators In Student Services, Christy M. Mayo

Masters Theses

The number of women pursuing higher education now outnumbers that of men. However, the number of women in administration and faculty roles does not mirror that of the student population. Instead, women are often found in midlevel and low level positions, especially within student services and student affairs. This thesis is a qualitative study that employs the phenomenological method to explore and examine the professional experiences of seven midlevel administrators in student affairs and student services at GVSU. The constant comparative method of coding was used to analyze the data, identify themes, and articulate assertions. The themes that emerged from …

Focusing On Student Research In The Institutional Repository, Danielle M. Barandiaran, Betty Rozum, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

Student research is a significant and rapidly growing component of the institutional repository (IR) at Utah State University (USU). A briefing paper prepared for Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS) points to student works as one of nine purposes for an IR.¹ It is not uncommon to find undergraduate and graduate theses and dissertations in IRs. In 2013, an analysis of 283 U.S. repositories using the bepress or DSpsace platforms indicated 71% include this type of student research. However, other student research such as posters, presentations, or papers were only found in 38% of these repositories. Utah State University’s …

Full-Scale Testing Of Blast-Induced Liquefaction Downdrag On Auger-Cast Piles In Sand, Joseph Erick Hollenbaugh

Theses and Dissertations

Deep foundations like auger-cast piles and drilled shafts frequently extend through liquefiable sand layers and bear on non-liquefiable layers at depth. When liquefaction occurs, the skin friction on the shaft decreases to zero, and then increases again as the pore water pressure dissipates and the layer begins to settle, or compact. As the effective stress increases and the liquefiable layer settles, along with the overlaying layers, negative skin from the soil acts on the shaft. To investigate the loss of skin friction and the development of negative skin friction, soil-induced load was measured in three instrumented, full-scale auger-cast piles after …

Functional Morphology Of The Connective Tissue Of The Clavicular System Of The Domestic Cat, Felis Catus, Amanda N. Cooper

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Angelman Syndrome, Stephanie Sorbara (Class Of 2015)

Biology Undergraduate Publications

Angelman Syndrome (AS) is a neurogenetic disorder that is classically characterized by excessive laughter and a happy demeanor. Aggression, sleep disorders and epilepsy are other phenotypes associated with this disorder as well. Both happy and aggressive demeanors have been expressed in five different consumers at The Kennedy Center, a site which offers programs and services to individuals with varying disabilities. Research proposes several different genetic mechanisms responsible for the development of AS, each of which impact the function of the UBE3A gene located in the 15q11-13 region on chromosome 15. Additionally, from an evolutionary perspective, Emotion Signaling Theory and Kinship …

Two-Dimensional Scalar Differential Equations For Transversely Varying Thickness Modes In Piezoelectric Plates And Applications In Acoustic Wave Resonator Sensors, Huijing He

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Generalizations are made for three types of well-known and widely used twodimensional scalar differential equations in the literature describing transversely varying thickness modes in piezoelectric plate resonators. They are for singly-rotated quartz plates, doubly-rotated quartz plates, and plates of crystals of class 6mm with the c-axis along the plate thickness, respectively. The purpose of the generalizations is to include the effects of surface mechanical loads such as mass layers or fluids for resonator -based acoustic wave sensor applications. Surface acoustic impedance is introduced to take into account various surface loads in a general manner for time-harmonic motions. Both unelectroded and …

Managing Value In Supply Chains: Case Studies On The Sourcing Hub Concept, Anupam Agrawal, Arnoud De Meyer, Luk N. Van Wassenhove

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A firm’s raw material sourcing knowledge can be a strategic resource. This article explores how firms can capture and use this knowledge. It examines the sourcing experiences of four firms in four different countries in the automotive industry and identifies the raw material sourcing knowledge-related parameters. Synthesizing the findings from these case studies, it proposes the concept of the sourcing hub—a collaborative center involving the firm, its suppliers, and raw material suppliers—which can effectively capture and deploy the raw material sourcing knowledge for managing value in upstream sourcing.

On The Limitations Of Using Situational Judgement Tests To Measure Interpersonal Skills: The Moderating Influence Of Employee Anger, Jerel E. Slaughter, Michael S. Christian, Nathan P. Podsakoff, Evan F. Sinar, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many authors have suggested that situational judgment tests (SJTs) are useful tools for assessing applicants because SJT items can be written to assess a number of job-related knowledges, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs). However, SJTs may not be appropriate for measuring certain KSAOs for some applicants. We posit that using SJTs to measure interpersonal skills may lead to invalid inferences about applicants with higher levels of angry hostility (AH), and thus, AH should moderate the relation between interpersonally oriented SJTs and job performance. Three studies, using samples of healthcare workers (n = 225), police officers (n = 54), and …

Rethinking Governance In Management Research: From The Editors, Laszlo Tihanyi, Scott Graffin, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the field of management, the study of governance has primarily dealt with decision-making by boards of directors, chief executives, and senior managers. The corporate governance literature has generated important insights regarding incentive alignment, risk taking, and coordination challenges. Emerging trends, highlighted in this issue, raise new questions regarding managerial roles, organizational contexts, internal and social processes, and changes in governance over time. We encourage management scholars to rethink their approach to governance research by considering stakeholder engagement, the implications of big data, social impact, global dimensions, and comparative analysis of governance. A broadened conceptualization of governance may also deal …

Use Of Remote Imagery And Object-Based Image Methods To Count Plants In An Open-Field Container Nursery, Josue Nahun Leiva

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In general, the nursery industry lacks an automated inventory control system. Object-based image analysis (OBIA) software and aerial images could be used to count plants in nurseries. The objectives of this research were: 1) to evaluate the effect of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight altitude and plant canopy separation of container-grown plants on count accuracy using aerial images and 2) to evaluate the effect of plant canopy shape, presence of flowers, and plant status (living and dead) on counting accuracy of container-grown plants using remote sensing images. Images were analyzed using Feature Analyst® (FA) and an algorithm trained using …

Earth Abundant Thin Film Technology For Next Generation Photovoltaic Modules, Githin Alapatt

All Dissertations

With a cumulative generation capacity of over 100 GW, Photovoltaics (PV) technology is uniquely poised to become increasingly popular in the coming decades. Although, several breakthroughs have propelled PV technology, it accounts for only less than 1% of the energy produced worldwide. This aspect of the PV technology is primarily due to the somewhat high cost per watt, which is dependent on the efficiency of the PV cells as well as the cost of manufacturing and installing them. Currently, the efficiency of the PV conversion process is limited to about 25% for commercial terrestrial cells; improving this efficiency can increase …

Numerical Decoding, Johnson-Lindenstrauss Transforms, And Linear Codes, Yue Mao

All Dissertations

Many computational problems are related to the model y = Ax + e, including compressive sensing, coding theory, dimensionality reduction, etc. The related algorithms are extremely useful in practical applications for high performance computing, for example, digital communications, biological imaging and data streaming, etc. This thesis studies two important problems. One problem is related to efficient decoding for Reed-Solomon codes over complex numbers. In this case, A and y are given, and the goal is to find an efficient stable algorithm to compute x. This is related to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The other problem is related to fast algorithms …

The Emotional Impact Of Teaching In A High Poverty School On First-Year, Early Childhood Teachers In Rural South Carolina: A Photo Elicitation Study, Kimberly Jedlicka

All Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to understand the emotional impact of teaching in a high poverty school on first-year, early childhood teachers in rural South Carolina. The research also explored the extent to which these emotions either empowered or constrained the teachers in their work. The study used photo-elicitation with interviews to generate data. Participants in this study took photographs that represented emotional experiences, wrote captions and discussed their images in an interview session. The data analysis focused on honoring the participants' voices and included first and second cycle coding strategies. In Vivo coding and Emotion coding were …

Assessment Of The Effect Of Sustainability Practices On Financial Leakage In The Hotel Industry In Jordan, Nidal Alzboun

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT Tourism revenues are not an accurate indication of the financial impact of this industry because in some cases a proportion of the profits leaves the host country for various reasons, resulting in what is referred to as leakage. The research reported here investigates this issue in connection with the sustainability practices of hotels in Jordan, one of the strategies firms and governments can adopt to enhance performance and to address problems related to environmental, community, and economic development adding a novel contribution to the tourism literature. A mixed method approach was used to collect and analyze the data obtained …

Ahr-Related Activities In A Creosote-Adapted Population Of Adult Atlantic Killifish, Fundulus Heteroclitus, Two Decades Post-Epa Superfund Status, Josephine Wojdylo

All Dissertations

Atlantic killifish, Fundulus heteroclitus, have adapted to, or at least developed a level of resistance to creosote-based polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found at the Atlantic Wood (AW) superfund site in the southern branch of the Elizabeth River, VA USA. Historically, 90+% of the mummichogs at this site have hepatic lesions of varying severity, and 30+% of these fish have tumors of various origin. Many xenobiotics, including select PAHs found at the Atlantic Wood site, are ligands for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), which is a promiscuous ligand-dependent transcription factor involved in developmental regulation, environmental sensing, and induction of a suite …

Effects Of Transportation Hazards On Package Performance And Food Product Shelf Life, Kyle Dunno

All Dissertations

This research studied the effect of transportation hazards on food product shelf life and package performance. Studies were conducted to determine the effect of package headspace volume, product viscosity and storage temperature on package integrity. Finally, accelerated shelf life testing (ASLT) was utilized to determine how simulated transportation hazards affected the shelf life of a specific food product. Institutional retort pouches containing either water or 5% starch solution were filled with varying amounts of headspace volume to determine if package headspace volume could aid in package performance during simulated engineering tests for packaged products. Fixed displacement vibration testing and compression …