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Academic Optimism In Middle Schools: A Study Of Factors That Appear To Contribute To Its Development, Zachary A. Best

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The need to increase student academic achievement has been established and well-documented in the literature. With a heightened focus on accountability measures, school personnel are under significant pressure to find ways to increase student achievement. Research suggests that academic emphasis, collective teacher efficacy, and faculty trust in students and teachers actually work in concert and form a newly-identified construct – academic optimism – that has been shown to have a positive relationship with student achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine those factors that may be present in middle schools with high levels of academic optimism. Ten middle …

Impact Of Advanced Placement Student Selection Models On Academic Achievement And Stakeholder Perceptions Of Program Effectiveness, Ryan E. Bandy

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This research study was designed to examine the relationship between the use of open and closed student selection systems for the enrollment of students in Advanced Placement (AP) educational services at the high school level and student academic achievement. The quantitative portion of this study examined the relationship between the use of a particular student selection system and stakeholder perceptions of a school’s educational environment, while the qualitative portion examined the stakeholder perceptions of student selection systems. In order to accomplish these goals student scores on AP examinations from the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013 academic school years were collected from …

A Causal Comparative Investigation Into Transactional Versus Transformational Instructional Delivery Style In Two Freshman-Level Humanities Courses At A Southeastern American University, Michael J. Jaynes

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to utilize a causal comparative approach to compare two contrasting instructional delivery styles to determine if there was any difference in final grade outcome between students whose instructors used transactional instructional delivery techniques and students whose instructors used transformational instructional delivery techniques in two lower division undergraduate humanities courses at a southeastern university. A secondary purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between instructional delivery style and student perception of teacher effectiveness. The primary researcher also examined if student assessment and teacher self-assessment of teacher delivery style would align. The research questions …

Kin And Social Network Structure In Two Populations Of Octodon Degus, Garrett Davis

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A growing body of evidence showing that individuals of some species live in non-kin groups suggests kin selection is not required in all species for sociality to evolve. Here I investigate two populations of Octodon degus, a South American rodent which has been shown to form kin and non-kin groups. I quantified genetic relatedness within social groups in two populations as well as social network parameters (association, strength, and clustering coefficient) in order to determine if these aspects of sociality were driven by kinship. I analyzed social network parameters relative to ecological conditions at burrow systems used by individuals to …

Numerical Simulation Of Human Breathing And Particle Transport Through A Ct-Based Pulmonary Airway Geometry, Richard R. Gruetzemacher Iii

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Chronic respiratory illness afflicts more than a billion people worldwide. In recent years computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been established as a paramount tool for studying treatments of respiratory illnesses. This work investigates physiologically appropriate, lobar-specific boundary conditions for numerical simulation of steady and unsteady flow through a computed tomography (CT) based pulmonary airway geometry. Particle transport is modeled in steady and unsteady flow. Analysis is conducted on flow phenomena and particle transport in both steady and inspiratory flow.

The Effects Of Different Concentrations Of Phosphite On Ectomycorrhiza Formation By Pisolithus Tinctorius In Castanea Dentata, J. Miles Jorgensen

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Phosphites, salts of phosphorous acid, are used to combat the devastating root-rot diseases of American chestnut (Castanea dentata) and other woody plants caused by the Oomycete Phytophthora cinnamomi. However, phosphite treatments may negatively affect the plant’s ability to form ectomycorrhizas, the mutualistic symbioses between tree roots and certain soil fungi, and the phosphites themselves may be phytotoxic at high doses. Container-grown chestnut seedlings were treated with six phosphite solutions ranging from 0.0g/l to 12g/l both with and without a spore inoculation of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Pisolithus tinctorius. Seedling survival, height, root collar diameter, and ectomycorrhizal colonization were measured during one …

Fatigue Damage Prognosis Of Internal Delamination In Composite Plates Under Cyclic Compression Loadings Using Affine Arithmetic As Uncertainty Propagation Tool, Audrey J-M Gbaguidi

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has become indispensable for reducing maintenance costs and increasing the in-service capacity of a structure. The increased use of lightweight composite materials in aircraft structures drastically increased the effects of fatigue induced damage on their critical structural components and thus the necessity to predict the remaining life of those components. Damage prognosis, one of the least investigated fields in SHM, uses the current damage state of the system to forecast its future performance by estimating the expected loading environments. A successful damage prediction model requires the integration of technologies in areas like measurements, materials science, mechanics …

Indium Telluride Cylinder Fiber Laser, Abhinay Sandupatla

Theses - ALL

A new type of fiber laser is described here. The laser consists of a 25 mm long fiber with an approximately 15 nm thick In2Te3 semiconductor layer at the glass core glass cladding boundary. The laser mirrors consist of a thick vacuum deposited aluminum layer at one end and a thin semitransparent aluminum layer deposited at the other end of the fiber. The laser is pumped from the side with either light from a Halogen Tungsten incandescent lamp or a blue, power LED. Since both, the gain of the In2Te3 semi-conductor and aluminum mirrors have a wide bandwidth the output …

Spectroscopy And Gas-Phase Binding Of Modified Desferrioxamine B Indicator Displacement-Based Sensors, William Scott Jones

Dissertations

A coupling reaction has been used to successfully synthesize two novel probes utilizing coumarin derivatives as fluorophores. The structure, spectroscopy, and thermodynamics of these probes were characterized and studied. These probes, along with a classical probe using a N-methyl-anthranilate fluorophore, are used to take advantage of the ability of siderophores to coordinate Fe³⁺ ions which is coupled with the attractive phosphorescence properties of lanthanide ions. The use of lanthanide metals to create an indicator displacement assays is a novel application of these probes for the detection of Fe³⁺ ions. The use of Tb³⁺ ions as the indicator …

A Study Of The Teaching Beliefs Of The Modern Post Secondary Science Instructor And Implications They May Hold For The Future Of Science Education, Michael Charles Howard

Dissertations

It was the purpose of this study to examine the teaching beliefs of community college science instructors and discover whether their teaching beliefs were student oriented or instructor oriented. In addition, this study sought to examine demographic factors and find their relation, if any, to these teaching beliefs, as well as explore topics that may be useful in the future to helping community colleges science instructors’ curricula and beliefs come together and work in unison. To do this, the study built on the foundation laid by Sampson et al., in their creation of the Beliefs about Reformed Science Teaching and …

The Relationship Between The Growth Score And The Overall Team Observation Rating For Teachers In Tennessee, Joshua B. Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the TVAAS growth score given by the Tennessee Department of Education and the overall Tennessee Educator Assessment Model (TEAM) observation rating for teachers in grades 3 through 8. The participating county public school system for this study is located in Northeast Tennessee. Participants were teachers in the school system teaching Math, English/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies in grades 3 through 8 in 10 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, and 2 K-8 schools. Specifically, this research examined the relationship between the TEAM observation scores and overall TVAAS growth score …

An Examination Of Successful Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Males In A Northeast Tennessee Middle School, Stephen E. Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that contribute to positive educational outcomes as measured by the EXPLORE test for eighth grade males who qualify for free or reduced price lunch. In addition, this study was conducted for the purpose of improving the educational program at a Northeast Tennessee middle school. Archival EXPLORE data, as well as free and reduced price lunch data, were used to identify high school graduates, 6 males and 6 females, who had performed at or above expectation on the eighth grade EXPLORE test. Females were included …

Post Buckling Of Non Sway Axially Restrained Columns Under Thermal(Fire) Loads, Bikash Khanal

Theses

The objective of this study was to numerically investigate the effects of slenderness ratios and end rotational restraints on the post-buckling behavior of non-sway columns. To study the effect of end restraints, numerical solutions were generated for three different support conditions, namely, hinged-hinged, fixed-hinged and fixed-fixed. Furthermore, for each of these support conditions, the effects of slenderness ratios on the post-buckling response were analyzed by considering the slenderness ratios of 50,125 and 200. Based on the numerical data presented in this thesis, the following conclusions can be made.  The unrestrained columns under mechanical loads do not exhibit any significant …

The Power Of Reflective Professional Development In Changing Elementary School Teachers' Instructional Practices, Carolina Christmann Cavedon

Dissertations and Theses

With the new goal of K-12 education being to prepare students to be college and career ready at the end of high school, education needs to start changing at the elementary school level. The literature suggests that teachers need reflective professional development (PD) to effectively teach to the new standards and to demonstrate change to their current instructional practices. This mixed-method multiple-case study investigated the impacts of a reflective professional development (PD) in changing elementary school teachers' instructional practices.

Teachers Instructional Portfolios (TIPs) were scored with a TIP rubric based on best practices in teaching mathematics problem-solving and science inquiry. …

4-H And Aquatic Robotics, Brian Mcneill, Patrick Jirik, Bradley Rugg

Journal of Extension

4-H is positioned to engage youth in the areas of environment and engineering. This article shares how Minnesota is engaging youth and adults to identify and solve community issues with the use of an aquatic remotely operated vehicle (ROV). After creating a new program design, the team has attracted new skilled volunteers and new youth to create youth-adult partnerships to take action in the community.

Marshfield Harbor, Rivers, And Waterways Management Plan, Urban Harbors Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Marshfield Waterways Committee

Urban Harbors Institute Publications

This Waterways, Rivers and Harbors Plan is an initiative of the Marshfield Waterways Committee (the Waterways Committee) whose mission is to “recommend procedures, policies and regulations to the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Marshfield on matters affecting the safety, navigation, recreational activities, fishing interests, natural resources and the planning and management of Marshfield's waterways.”

This plan provides recommendations to address safe navigation, natural resource protection, improvements to public access, safe recreational boating, protection of working waterfronts and related infrastructure, improvements to water quality, preparation for impacts from changes in sea level and climate, opportunities for collaboration, and clarification …

The Production Of Voice Onset Time In Voiceless Stops By Spanish-English Natural Bilinguals, Ivan K. Banov

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the production of Voice Onset Time (VOT) of natural Spanish-English bilinguals. VOT is a linguistic characteristic that measures the amount of aspiration occurring after the release of a stop consonant. In terms of VOT, English stop consonants differ substantially from their Spanish equivalents. This study analyzes whether or not natural bilinguals produce VOTs that approximate VOTs of monolingual speakers of each language. Participants completed two surveys to quantify their linguistic dominance in English and Spanish. They were then recorded performing similar speaking tasks in both languages. The conclusions show that natural bilinguals do not produce their English …

A Further Look At Capacitors In Complex Arrangements, Kenneth V. Cartwright, Patrick Russell, Edit J. Kaminsky

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

Recently, a previous contributor showed how the delta-wye conversion may be applied to find the equivalent capacitance of five capacitors arranged in a bridge configuration. In fact, that contributor gave an algorithm for this purpose which showed that the equivalent capacitance depends upon all five capacitors. However, in this paper, we point out that there is a special case where the equivalent capacitance does not depend upon one of the five capacitors.

Finding The Minimum Input Impedance Of A Second-Order Twofold-Gain Sallen-Key Low-Pass Filter Without Calculus, Kenneth V. Cartwright, Edit J. Kaminsky

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

We derive an expression for the input complex impedance of a Sallen-Key second-order low-pass filter of twofold gain as a function of the natural frequency ωo and the quality factor Q. From this expression, it is shown that the filter behaves like a Frequency Dependent Negative Resistance (FDNR) element for low frequencies and as a single resistor at high frequencies. Furthermore, the minimum input impedance magnitude is found without using calculus. We discovered that the minimum input impedance magnitude is inversely proportional to Q and can be substantially less than its high-frequency value. Approximations to the minimum input impedance and …

Biomarker Discovery Of Liver Diseases Using Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics., Xue Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metabolomics has emerged as one of the latest of the "-omics" disciplines that can detect metabolite biomarkers in biological samples. The diverse characteristics of metabolites make the analytical platform challenging in metabolomics. Two bioanalytical platforms were developed in this study to investigate metabolite abundance changes under different biological conditions. We first developed a bioanalytical platform that coupled linear trap quadruple - Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometer (LTQ-FTICR MS) with direct infusion chip-based nano-electrospray ionization (DI-nESI) and applied it to study polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) effects on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We also employed this platform in conjunction with in …

Student Perspectives Of Classroom Assessment, Kyle Hemje

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Unintended Effects Of Charter School Programs, Christian Buerger

Dissertations - ALL

The dissertation is comprised of three essays, which study unintended effects of charter school programs. Chapter 1 evaluates the influence of charter schools on housing values. The dynamics between school quality and housing markets contribute to the isolation of disadvantaged students in low performing school districts. Charter schools reduce the link between residential location and school services, and hence potentially affect both property values and residential sorting. This chapter examines if charter schools influence the differences in housing prices between school districts and neighborhoods. I begin by developing a theoretical model identifying how charter schools influence school quality and how …

Impact Of Birth Order On Autism Spectrum Disorder Children’S Typically-Developing Siblings, Teresa Orozco

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Having a child with autism not only has devastating consequences for the individual child, but it also profoundly influences the entire family, including siblings. Researchers have explored the impact of having an ASD sibling on the typically-developing brother/sister; these studies have yielded inconsistent results, with some children benefitting from the experience while others encounter negative outcomes. The present study examined the role of birth order on ASD children’s typically-developing siblings’ outcome. It was predicted that typically-developing siblings born prior to their ASD sibling would have fewer behavioral difficulties and would do better academically compared to typically-developing siblings born after their …

Qualitative Comparison Of Offset Surfaces Between The Central And Eastern Garlock Fault, Thomas M. Crane

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Garlock Fault consists of three distinct segments, known as western, central, and eastern, together reaching approximately 260 km from the San Andreas Fault to the southern end of Death Valley. Although published slip rates are available along the western and central Garlock Fault segments, little is currently known of the Garlock Fault earthquake history or slip rate farther east. Using LiDAR and satellite imagery, the central and eastern Garlock Fault segments were analyzed for visibly offset, fault-adjacent, geomorphic surfaces that may potentially be used for estimating slip rate. Qualitative methods of assessing preserved alluvial surface maturity were adapted and …

Assessing The Social And Ecological Factors That Influence Childhood Overweight And Obesity, Katie Callahan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States. Currently more than 1 in 3 children aged 2-19 are overweight or obese. This is of major concern because childhood overweight and obesity leads to chronic conditions such as type II diabetes and tracks into adulthood, where more severe adverse health outcomes arise. In this study I used the premise of the social ecological model (SEM) to analyze the common levels that a child is exposed to daily; the intrapersonal level, the interpersonal level, the school level, and the community level to better …

The Phenomenon Of Abstract Cognition Among Scholastic Chess Participants: A Case Study, Brent C. Laws

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore the phenomenon of abstract cognition among a purposive sample of 5 secondary scholastic chess club participants. The case study enabled the researcher to explore the faculties of abstract cognition among students of contrasting skills and abilities in playing chess. The study also allowed for the consideration of potential visual-spatial, logical, academic, social competency and life benefits of chess play. Through analysis of interviews, chess simulations, blindfold chess play, and narration of chess lines and sequences, the investigator was able to extract meaning and code schemata into a holistic understanding of the phenomenon of …

Developing Mastery In Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, And Morphemic Awareness: A Multiple Case Study Of Preservice Early Childhood Educators, Ruth Facun-Granadozo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of early childhood preservice teachers in a southeastern university as they worked for mastery of phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphemic awareness. Mastery was set at 90% accuracy in a series of tests, which required them to perform different tasks related to the said concepts. One aim of the study was to investigate the preservice teachers’ description of their experiences as they worked for mastery of phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphemic awareness. Another aim was to examine how working for mastery of said concepts influenced their perceptions of preparedness …

“Our Weapon Is The Wooden Spoon:” Motherhood, Racism, And War: The Diverse Roles Of Women In Nazi Germany, Cortney Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historiography of women in Nazi Germany attests to the various roles of women in the Third Reich. Although politically invisible, women were deeply involved in the Nazi regime, whether they supported the Party or not. During Nazi racial schemes, men formed and executed Nazi racial programs, but women participated in Nazi racism as students, nurses, and violent perpetrators. Early studies of German women during World War II focused on the lack of Nazi mobilization of women into the wartime labor force, but many women already held positions in the labor force before the war. Nazi mistreatment of lower-class working …

Design, Analysis And Implementation Of An Experimental System To Harvest Energy From Atmospheric Temperature Variations Using Ethyl Chloride Filled Bellows, Gibran Ali

All Theses

The increase in global warming and the dwindling supplies of fossil fuels have shifted the focus from traditional to alternate sources of energy. This has resulted in a concerted effort towards finding new energy sources as well as better understanding traditional renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. In addition to the shift in focus towards alternate energy, the last two decades have offered a dramatic rise in the use of digital technologies such as wireless sensor networks that require small but isolated power supplies. Energy harvesting, a method to gather energy from ambient sources including sunlight, vibrations, …

Data Preparation For Social Network Mining And Analysis, Yazhe Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation studies the problem of preparing good-quality social network data for data analysis and mining. Modern online social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have rapidly grown in popularity. The consequent availability of a wealth of social network data provides an unprecedented opportunity for data analysis and mining researchers to determine useful and actionable information in a wide variety of fields such as social sciences, marketing, management, and security. However, raw social network data are vast, noisy, distributed, and sensitive in nature, which challenge data mining and analysis tasks in storage, efficiency, accuracy, etc. Many mining algorithms cannot …