Digital Commons Network^™

Sustainability Of A Comprehensive School Reform Model From The Perspectives Of Three Participating Principals, Bethann S. Browning

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

School reform is a deliberate process that requires a strong commitment at all levels. The school leader plays a crucial role in establishing a vision and nurturing an environment that facilitates reform efforts. School reform efforts have witnessed a change in the role of the elementary principal from manager to instructional leader. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the role of the elementary principal in sustaining school reform, in the form of Literacy Collaborative. The study was guided by one research question: how did elementary principals sustain a comprehensive school reform effort in the form of Literacy …

Pale Statue, Richard Graham Bonnington Jr

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This Thesis will focus on the Inciting Incident as described by both Robert McKee and Christopher Vogler, both world renowned for their workshops involving the process of making stories. I will argue that the Inciting Incident is the most important aspect of prose. The creative section of the Thesis is the beginning of a novel called, Pale Statue: Blood Sisters. The novel is cosmic horror set in rural Kentucky. The main protagonist, Maureen Ford, is a teenager who has grown up unaware of her father’s involvement in a cult during his college years and unaware that alien DNA has affected …

A Remote Sensing Based Early Warning System For Algal Blooms In Kuwait Bay And Coastal Waters, Cameron Manche

Masters Theses

The Kuwait Bay and its coastal waters are being threatened by a perpetual hazard, the proliferation of harmful algal blooms (HABS). The frequency of HAB occurrences is a growing problem that is only reported subsequent to the onset of a HAB event. Little effort has been invested in investigating the spatial and temporal distribution of these events in Kuwait Bay and even less is known about their controlling factors. All previous studies within the Kuwait Bay have focused either on measuring nutrient availability and the biodiversity of algal species.

The overall study objective is four-fold: (1) to monitor the spatial …

Mining And Sustainable Communities: A Case Study Of The Red Dog Mine, Bob Loeffler

ISER Articles

Politicians and planners work to attract economic development because of the desire to provide jobs and income for residents, and to find tax revenue to fund government services. Their focus is usually statewide: jobs, income, and taxes for Alaskans. This article is about the impact of one remote development project on nearby, Native communities. It is about the community effects of the Red Dog Lead and Zinc Mine in northwest Alaska. 2014 was the 25th anniversary for the mine, which began operation in 1989. This case study evaluates the mine’s effects on the communities after 25 years of operation. It …

Uaa Graduates: How Many Stay And Work In Alaska?, Alexandra Hill, Gunnar Knapp, Blake Steenhoven

ISER Reports

More and more people have been graduating from the University of Alaska Anchorage in the past decade. Do they stay in Alaska? What kinds of jobs do they have? How much do they earn? It turns out that most of them stay in Alaska for at least five years after they graduate, they work throughout the economy, and by five years after they graduate their average earnings double. Around one-quarter do leave within a few years. But Alaska’s population on the whole is transient, and it looks as if UAA graduates are no more likely than other Alaskans to leave …

2014-12-01 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress newsletter for December 1, 2014.

Psychological And Genetic Contributions To The Development Of Social Cognition In Children, Jacqueline Marie Klaver

Dissertations

This study examined the development of social cognition in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as the influence of behavioral and molecular genetics on these higher-order cognitive abilities. Specifically, it was hypothesized that children with ASD would perform more poorly on all social cognitive tasks compared with typically developing peers. In addition, it was hypothesized that typically developing children who performed better on a simpler social cognitive task at ages 3 or 4 would perform better at follow-up (i.e., one time between the ages of 6-10). Lastly, it was hypothesized that children who had at least …

Low-Power Low-Voltage Analog Circuit Techniques For Wireless Sensors, Chenglong Zhang

Dissertations

This research investigates lower-power lower-voltage analog circuit techniques suitable for wireless sensor applications. Wireless sensors have been used in a wide range of applications and will become ubiquitous with the revolution of internet of things (IoT). Due to the demand of low cost, miniature desirable size and long operating cycle, passive wireless sensors which don't require battery are more preferred. Such sensors harvest energy from energy sources in the environment such as radio frequency (RF) waves, vibration, thermal sources, etc. As a result, the obtained energy is very limited. This creates strong demand for low power, lower voltage circuits. The …

Psychophysiological Predictors Of Working Alliance Among Treatment-Seeking Women With Complex Trauma Exposure, Ashley Doukas, Wendy D'Andrea, Jennifer Doran, Nnamdi Pole

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Research has established that trauma-related symptoms may impede the formation of a strong working alliance (i.e., interpersonal connection, trust, and shared goals between therapist and client). As the alliance is critical in trauma-focused therapy, we studied how clients' pretherapy factors, including symptoms and psychophysiological arousal, predict treatment alliance. We examined symptoms and physiological responses in 27 women who had exposure to extreme interpersonal violence; all of whom were enrolled in therapy. All had symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. Clients completed measures of working alliance and were assessed before and after treatment on measures of symptoms and …

Seeing The World Through Deaf Eyes: Chile Study-Abroad Experiences Of Deaf Students, Joan Marie Naturale

Education Doctoral

Research has indicated that a global education, including study-abroad programs, is increasingly crucial in today’s world and offers intercultural, personal, academic, and career-related benefits to participants. However, there has been a paucity of academic research on best-class and study-abroad program designs for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The research to date has not included the experiences and perceptions of deaf students who participated in study-abroad programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived supports and barriers to study-abroad experiences of deaf students. Information gathered from the unique perspective of deaf study participants was used to assist in …

Laminar And Turbulent Regime Changes In Drinking Water Contact Tanks, Taylor C. Barnett, Subhas K. Venayagamoorthy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Transitions in flow regimes that can occur in drinking water contact tanks may significantly affect the disinfection efficiency of the system. To demonstrate these effects, the authors investigated the internal velocity fields and flow regime of a drinking water contact tank located in Jamestown, Colo. The baffling factor (BF) of the system fluctuated annually between 0.5 and 0.6 because of a shift in flow regime caused by changes in the flow rate of the system. The authors studied the effects of the regime change from laminar to turbulent flow (or vice versa) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models and physical …

From Prix Fixe To A La Carte: Using Lesson Study To Collaborate With Faculty In Customizing Information Literacy, Eric Jennings, Hans Kishel, Jill Markgraf

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2012

The one-shot, prix fixe library instruction session has long been the reality for many information literacy programs. Learn how one library used lesson study, a collaborative process of planning, observing and assessing a single lesson, to put in motion ongoing collaboration with faculty across several disciplines. Through the collaborative process of redesigning a single lesson, librarians and teaching faculty confronted their respective expectations for and challenges in providing library instruction, and ignited the interest of faculty from English, nursing and the sciences. Through work with a variety of faculty, librarians learned that a single instruction model does not work for …

Leadership In Building Communities: Carillon And Edgemont, Fitz Center For Leadership In Community, University Of Dayton

Dayton Neighborhood Studies

No abstract provided.

Cytokine Variations And Mood Disorders: Influence Of Social Stressors And Social Support, Marie-Claude Audet, Robyn J. Mcquaid, Zul Merali, Hymie Anisman

Brain and Mind Institute

Stressful events have been implicated in the evolution of mood disorders. In addition to brain neurotransmitters and growth factors, the view has been offered that these disorders might be provoked by the activation of the inflammatory immune system as well as by de novo changes of inflammatory cytokines within the brain. The present review describes the impact of social stressors in animals and in humans on behavioral changes reminiscent of depressive states as well as on cytokine functioning. Social stressors increase pro-inflammatory cytokines in circulation as well as in brain regions that have been associated with depression, varying with the …

December 2014 Magazine

Ergo

No abstract provided.

Healthy Holidays, Winston J. Craig

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Nothing I’D Rather Do, Pieter Damsteegt

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

The Special Skills Of Advocacy, Warren E. Burger

Fordham Law Review

    To commemorate our founding in 1914, the Board of Editors has selected six influential pieces published by the Law Review over the past 100 years and will republish one piece in each issue.

    The third piece selected by the Board is The Special Skills of Advocacy, a lecture delivered by the late Chief Justice Warren E. Burger that is among the most cited works in the Law Review’s history. Speaking at Fordham Law School on November 26, 1973, Chief Justice Burger advocated for law schools to better prepare students for skillful courtroom advocacy, declaring that “[w]e must acknowledge, …

Aging In Place In Marion: A Community Endeavor, Bernard A. Steinman, Hayley Gleason, Maryam Khaniyan, Ceara Somerville, Jan Mutchler

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report describes collaborative efforts undertaken by the Friends of the Marion Council on Aging (FMCOA) and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging, within the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). Beginning in Fall 2014, these organizations partnered to conduct a study to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of the Town’s older resident population, and the priorities of other stakeholders in the Town, with respect to living and aging in Marion.

In the earliest phase of the project, we met several times with members of the FMCOA to discuss and …

An Empirical Analysis Of Diversity In The Legal Profession, Jason P. Nance, Paul E. Madsen

UF Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this Study is to empirically examine the diversity of the legal profession. The primary distinctive features of this empirical analysis are that it evaluates diversity in the legal profession by (a) carefully comparing it against other prestigious professions that have significant barriers to entry, and (b) focusing on young individuals who recently began their careers. These distinctions are made to isolate anomalies that are more likely caused by forces specific to the legal profession rather than general social forces that limit the eligibility of historically disadvantaged groups to pursue prestigious employment opportunities. Further, by narrowing our focus …

The Predictive Validity Of Pre-Admission Measures On Podiatric Medical School Performance, Kevin M. Smith

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study explored the influence of pre-admission measures on podiatric medical school performance. The purpose of the study was to predict which students are most likely to succeed in podiatric medical school when admitted, and potentially decrease the cost of attrition experienced by the student and institution. A review of the literature on medical school admissions was completed and used to develop this research.

Podiatric medical students from a Midwestern institution who enrolled between the years 2000 and 2015 were included as the sample for the study (n = 804). Pre-admission measures that were available for the subjects included Medical …

The Psychology Of Corporate Rights, Avital Mentovich, Aziz Huq, Moran Cerf

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Relying on the corporate personhood doctrine, the U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly expanded the scope of rights granted to corporations and other forms of collective entities. While this trend has received widespread attention in legal scholarship and

Psychometrics And Test-Enhanced Learning In A Patient-Centered Learning Curriculum, Syed Haris Ali

Theses and Dissertations

Validity and reliability of scores obtained on Multiple-choice questions (MCQs), as well as the benefits of test-enhanced learning, have been of interest to medical educator scholars. Presented in this dissertation are four composite studies on these themes. The following hypotheses were tested:

1. Increased MCQ distractor functioning increases the validity and reliability of obtained scores.

2. Correction of item writing flaws (along with enhancement of tested cognitive level) and replacement or removal of non-functioning distractors equally improves psychometric characteristics of MCQs.

3. Repeated testing via free-response items enhances the retention of knowledge of human anatomy, compared with repeated or once-testing …

Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm Annual Progress Report: 2014, Agricultural Experiment Station

Agricultural Experiment Station and Research Farm Annual Reports

This document highlights 31 crop and livestock research and demonstration reports from projects conducted at Southeast Research Farm in 2014. It is published by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service at South Dakota State University in cooperation with the Southeast South Dakota Experiment Farm Corporation. Reports in this document include information on: weather and climate data, corn production and performance, soybean research and planting, soil testing, alfalfa yield test, fertilizer testing, herbicide research, crop rotation, sorghum, small grains, swine research, and pest and weed control.

Notes From The Director, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Poultry Litter Biochar And Water Source On Radish Growth And Nutrition, Julia Marie Allen

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many row-crop fields today have declined in soil fertility due to poor management practices and overuse of pesticides. Under these conditions, plant nutrient uptake can be sub-optimal. There are several soil amendments that can be used to improve soil quality and plant growth such as traditional fertilizers and manure applications. This study focused on the addition of biochar to the soil and the use of structured water to enhance plant growth. Biochar is a nutrient rich product that is produced by pyrolysis of organic feedstocks and contains high rates of carbon. Previous studies which focused on biochar have shown an …

Windsor, Surrogacy, And Race, Khiara M. Bridges

Washington Law Review

Scholars and activists interested in racial justice have long been opposed to surrogacy arrangements, wherein a couple commissions a woman to become pregnant, give birth to a baby, and surrender the baby to the couple to raise as its own. Their fear has been that surrogacy arrangements will magnify racial inequalities inasmuch as wealthy white people will look to poor women of color to carry and give birth to the white babies that the couples covet. However, perhaps critical thinkers about race should reconsider their contempt for surrogacy following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Windsor. …

Racial Impact Statements: Considering The Consequences Of Racial Disproportionalities In The Criminal Justice System, Jessica Erickson

Washington Law Review

The American criminal justice system is currently suffering from a dramatic increase in mass incarceration and staggering rates of racial disproportionalities and disparities. Many facially neutral laws, policies, and practices within the criminal justice system have disproportionate impacts on minorities. Racial impact statements provide one potential method of addressing such disproportionalities. These proactive tools measure the projected impacts that new criminal justice laws and policies may have upon minorities, and provide this information to legislators before they decide whether to enact the law. Four states currently conduct racial impact statements, and other states are considering adopting their own versions. The …

Motivational Interviewing To Enhance Weight Loss And Eating Self-Efficacy In Overweight And Obese Adults, Theresa K. Buchanan Dr.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Translational and Clinical Research Projects

Greater than six in ten adults in the United States are overweight or obese which can lead to cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes, joint injury and some forms of cancer, costing billions of healthcare dollars each year. Weight loss is difficult, as is maintaining weight loss. The purpose of this project is to investigate if use of the evidenced based (EB) intervention, motivational interviewing (MI), will enhance weight loss and eating self-efficacy (ESE) in overweight and obese adults seeking weight loss at a weight loss clinic over the course of eight weeks. Participants who received MI in addition to current …

Paid Family Leave, Rachel-Lyn Longo, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Senior Honors Projects

Paid Family Leave policies are rare in the United States. Around the world, one hundred and eighty-two countries provide some form of paid maternity leave, and seventy countries also offer paid paternity leave. It is estimated that only 36 percent of U.S. employees have access to paid leave if they get sick, a policy that is almost universal in other developed countries, and only 12 percent of employees have access to paid family leave. Presently, just three states have implemented Paid Family Leave (PFL) to help offset the cost of time taken off of work to care for a newborn …