Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Stress On 9-1-1 Call-Takers And Police Dispatchers: A Study At The San Jose Police Department, Kimberly D. Turner

Master's Theses

This research addresses the significant gap in literature related to stress among 9-1-1 call-takers and dispatchers. The relationship between perceived stress and work-life balance, fairness at work, support at home, and work control as well as physiological and psychological outcomes is examined. Survey responses were collected during the summer of 2012 from 89 police 9-1-1 call-takers and radio dispatchers of the San José Police Department Communications Division in San José, California. Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, I found those who enjoy a balance between work and personal life experience less stress. Also, greater stress is associated with more psychological and …

Location Gathering: An Evaluation Of Smartphone-Based Geographic Mobile Field Data Collection Hardware And Applications, Joel Clark

Master's Theses

Mobile field spatial data collection is the act of gathering attribute data, including spatial position, about features in a study area. A common method of field data collection is to use a handheld computing device attached to a global navigation satellite system in which attribute data are directly inputted into a database table. The market for mobile data collection systems was formerly dominated by bulky positioning systems and highly specialized software. However, recent years have seen the emergence and widespread adoption of highly customizable and user-friendly mobile smartphones and tablets. In this research, smartphone devices and smartphone data collection applications …

Effects Of Acute Exercise, Mindfulness Meditation, And Mindfulness Meditation Neurofeedback On Stroop Performance, Claire Evelyn Balgemann

Master's Theses

Empirical research has demonstrated that acute aerobic physical exercise, neurofeedback, and mindfulness meditation independently have positive effects on executive performance. Technology has enabled a new intervention that combines neurofeedback and mindfulness meditation; however its effects on executive function are unknown. The aim in the present study was to understand how executive function may be enhanced in healthy individuals. Forty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: acute physical exercise, mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness meditation neurofeedback delivered via the Muse brain-sensing headband. Participants completed 50 trials of the Stroop task, a well-established measure of executive function. A statistically …

Assessing Lesbian Gay Bisexual Resistance In Core Team Sports, Kevin Edward Lynch

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine how sport and lesbian-gay-bisexual resistance intersect with economy, media, religion, politics, education, and race and whether those institutions reinforce the hegemonic masculinity gender construction embedded in sport. Through a review of literature, I explore whether the aforementioned institutions are incorporating sociologist Eric Anderson’s inclusive masculinity or whether they are stuck in the hegemonic form mainly in the core team sport of basketball, baseball, football and hockey. Also, I investigate if Allport’s contact hypothesis has played any role in the movement from hegemonic masculinity to inclusive masculinity. Religion, education, and economy all seem …

Walt Kuhn: From Spotlight To Studio, The Art Of Show Business, Emily May Mcewan-Upright

Master's Theses

Walt Kuhn, an American artist born in New York, is often overlooked for his contribution to Modern American Art. Kuhn is typically recognized for his organizational and curatorial role in the 1913 Armory Show, but he was also internationally known in his time for his paintings of show people and as a creative director for several vaudeville and circus acts over his lifetime. During his career as a creative director, Kuhn’s artwork evolved from superficial renderings of theatre scenes to psychologically intense tronies of performers. Kuhn and other American artists, including the Ashcan group and Edward Hopper, examined the relationship …

Identity And User Preference In The Presentation And Content Of Digital Archives: A Study Of The Plumas County Museum’S Haun Collection, Lindsay Morton

Master's Theses

This thesis explores user preference in the presentation and content of online archives in small, local institutions. To obtain data for this study, a collection from the Plumas County Museum in northern California was digitized, and three versions were presented on a custom-built test website: 1) a straightforward reproduction of documents in the collection; 2) a pairing of reproductions and typed transcripts; and 3) a selective, interpretive reproduction with supporting secondary material. Users with a variety of research backgrounds viewed the website and provided feedback through an anonymous, online survey. Google Analytics was also used to measure site traffic.

During …

Microsoft After Fifteen Years, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

United States v. Microsoft Corp. (Microsoft III) is now fifteen years old, and that I would write such a long introduction to a reprint of significant portions from the opinion is a sign its significance has not died out. Just the opposite, I think it will become more significant in the near future, and not only because of its impact on U.S. antitrust law. The decision lays the groundwork for international enforcement of antitrust in high technology markets, at least as we have come to know them, and this is likely to continue to be significant for the foreseeable future.

Addressing Cyber Harassment: An Overview Of Hate Crimes In Cyberspace, Danielle K. Citron

Faculty Scholarship

This short piece will take a step back and give an overhead view of the problem of cyber harassment and the destructive impact it can have on victims’ lives. Then, it will address about what the law can do to combat online harassment and how a legal agenda can be reconciled with the First Amendment. Finally, it will turn to recent changes in social media companies’ treatment of online abuse and what that might mean for our system of free expression.

Off-Label Drug Promotion And The Ephemeral Line Between Marketing And Education, Joan H. Krause

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Prioritization Of Criminal Over Civil Counsel And The Discounted Danger Of Private Power, Kathryn A. Sabbeth

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Psychic Cost Of Tax Evasion, Kathleen Delaney Thomas

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Customized Procedure In Theory And Reality, W. Mark C. Weidemaier

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Operation Red Campus”: An Experimental Analysis Of Crnc Advertisements Targeting The Millennial Generation, Ellen Mullee Schmidt

LSU Master's Theses

Using an experimental survey design, this study evaluated an advertising campaign developed by the College Republican National Committee targeting Millennials in the 2014 midterm elections. Three particular advertisements from “Operation Red Campus” were selected and tested using a pre-survey and two post-surveys. Due to data constraints, only the results of the first post-survey were used in this analysis. This campaign was designed in response to the Republican Party’s continued problems of low youth turnout and poor party perceptions. This thesis analyzes the effectiveness of the strategies employed by the CRNC to target 18-24-year-olds with this campaign, adding to the limited …

This Is My Attempt To Hold On, Kimberly Reneé Jones

LSU Master's Theses

I am an identical twin. The connection I share with my twin sister is intense and immediate. But now, we live over 800 miles apart. This Is My Attempt To Hold On serves as a visual metaphor for the longing for the undiluted rapport we have when we are together, and the frustrations of communicating with her through a digital device. I am constantly dissatisfied with my attempts to connect with her. I watch myself, my words, and my thoughts become diffused through the pixels. The work exists as composites of various mediums, creating a dialogue between photography, printmaking, sculpture, …

Charter Eviction: Litigating Out Of House And Home, Margot Young

All Faculty Publications

The case of Tanudjaja v Attorney General (Canada) takes up the cause of housing rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in a novel and complex way. The government actions and inactions cited as constitutional breaches and the broad remedial requests reflect the “pixelated” picture of housing concerns necessary to understanding Canada’s housing security crisis. In dismissing the challenge at a preliminary stage, the Ontario Superior and Appeal Courts risk rendering the Charter irrelevant to the deep social justice concerns that cross our country. More specifically, formulaic judicial invocation of concerns about positive rights and justiciability leave the …

Surrogates In Quebec: The Good, The Bad And The Foreigner, Régine Tremblay

All Faculty Publications

The regime for the formal establishment of parent-child relationships in the province of Quebec was substantially modified in 2002 in order to achieve equality. Reforms to filiation – the legal bond connecting child and mother or child and father – in Quebec provided means for same-sex couples to adopt, for lesbian couples to conceive using donated sperm and clarified the filiation of children born of assisted procreation. This ‘successful’ reform in terms of equality left untouched an existing rule justified by women’s equality, namely, what the civil law calls the absolute nullity of surrogacy agreements. Surrogacy raises questions about what …

Parent Involvement And Science Achievement During Students’ Transition Years From Elementary School To Middle School: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis Using Ecls-K, Letao Sun

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Transitioning from elementary school to middle school can be a difficult time for many adolescents. It is a period often correlated with a decline in students’ academic achievement, perceptions of performance, potential, and value in schooling. Research has shown evidence that parents’ involvement in their children’s education significantly influences children’s academic achievement. However, there are many conflicting findings regarding this relationship.

The primary purpose of this study is to extend existing research on academic achievement by examining the causal relationship between parent involvement and science achievement during the transition years, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class …

Student Perceived Motivational Climate, Enjoyment, And Physical Activity In Middle School Physical Education, Christine Elizabeth Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Youth physical activity (PA) levels, specifically that of girls, decline as they enter the middle grades (Parish & Treasure, 2003). Physical education (PE) is one area in the school environment where student PA can be increased. One goal recognized by the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) is for students to be physically active for at least 50% of class time and be offered PE for at least 225 minutes per week (SHAPE, 2013). Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) suggests student perceived motivational climate can influence PA levels, student enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. The purpose of this study was to …

“Taking The Stairs” To Break The Ceiling: Understanding Students’ Conceptions Of The Intersections Of Historical Agency, Gender Equity, And Action, Lauren M. Colley

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

The present quasi-naturalistic study used socio-cultural theory (Wertsch, 1998), picture theory (Mitchell, 1994) and the use of historical agency as a second-order concept (Lee & Ashby, 2000; Seixas & Morton, 2013) as a way of examining the historical thinking of high school seniors as they investigated second-wave feminism. Existing literature reflects the ways in which students understand historical agency (Barton, 1997; Winter, 2001; Peck, Poyntz, & Seixas, 2011), but has yet to examine its use as a conceptual tool to dissect controversial issues in history, such as feminism. The main research question was: in what ways do high school seniors …

Transgender Individuals' Social Support Experiences In Central Appalachia, Angela J. Aaron

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

The majority of empirical studies in transgender psychology have focused on the negative experiences of urban transgender individuals (Grossman & D’Augelli, 2007; Koken, Bimbi, & Parsons, 2009; Melendez & Pinto, 2007; Singh & McKleroy, 2011; Strain & Shuff, 2010; Xavier, Bobbin, Singer, & Budd, 2005). Less is known about the experiences of rural transgender individuals (Fassinger & Arseneau, 2007; Grossman, 2008) especially in Central Appalachia (Gray, 2009). The purpose of this study was to examine transgender individuals’ perceptions of social support in Central Appalachia. Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological model framed the analysis of social support experiences within the culture of Central …

Generational Differences In Transfer Student Capital Among Community College Students, Michael J. Rosenberg

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

“Transfer student capital” refers to the learned ability of a student to successfully navigate the process of transferring from a community college to a four-year school. Transfer student capital is accumulated by gathering information about potential destination schools and programs, gaining an understanding of requisite academic skills, campus engagement, and weighing personal concerns surrounding eventual transfer. The more transfer student capital an individual accumulates, the more likely they are to be academically successful and persist to graduation.

This quantitative study examines whether a student’s age cohort may affect the transfer process from community college to a four-year school. The study …

Gaining Understanding Of Capital Disparity In The Community College Classroom From A Faculty Perspective Through Action Research, David J. Heflin

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Positioned between the engagement rich secondary school and the highly social four-year institution, the community college has limited opportunities to connect with students. If community colleges are to meet challenges of providing access to education for students who have traditionally been underserved by higher education, and hold up to new measures of accountability in graduating students, two-year institutions must recognize that faculty-student engagements occurring in the classroom are crucial. Perception and appreciation of student’s capital by faculty through purposeful engagements grounded in theory provide opportunity for understanding capital disparity that exists in the community college classroom.

Active participation of experienced …

Exploring Sense Of Community In A First-Year Experience Course And How Sense Of Community Impacts Students’ Perceptions Of Transition And Persistence In College, Karen L. Mayo

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study examines how community was created in a community college FYE 105 Achieving Academic Success course and the impact of classroom community on students’ perceptions of transition and persistence. Community colleges increasingly are focusing on student success as measured by persistence and goal completion such as transfer or attainment of credentials. The classroom learning environment is critical to student success but is a neglected area in retention research. Therefore, it is important to expand the research on initiatives that support students in their quest for success and educational goal completion.

This research focused on one course section of FYE …

Exploring The Significance Of Social Influences On Epistemic Beliefs, David D. Gatsos

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This document proceeds from an interest in applying theories of student development to higher education policy. The process sobered me from idealistic expectations of profundity to focus on adding relevant building blocks to the established foundation of epistemological development. Progress was found in moving toward clarifying what happens during the change process as a student moves from naïve to mature beliefs. Lead forth out of this ambiguity, unearthing the nature of social influences as a player in the developmental process became a target of this work.

Moving toward a deeper understanding of how concepts of attachment, naiveté, authority, and potential …

Rise Of The Administrator In Higher Education: Focus On Professionalization Of The Registrar At The University Of Kentucky From 1910 To 1937, Nancy D. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

The decades following the Civil War saw a tremendous growth in the number of colleges and universities, both public and private, due in large part to funds provided by federal legislation under the Morrill Act of 1862 and a surge in philanthropy on the part of wealthy industrialists. In the early colleges and universities, administrations were typically run by the president alone. With increased enrollment and the demand for expanded services, one man could no longer handle all the administrative functions, and thus was born the administrative professional in higher education. Due to the increased demand for record-keeping, one of …

Gender Discrimination And Title Ix Implementation: Lessons From The Office For Civil Rights Resolution Letters 1997-2011, Laura S. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Gender discrimination, such as sexual harassment, sexual assault and inequitable treatment has long been considered a prominent issue on higher education campuses and is regulated under the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, commonly known as Title IX. Title IX is enforced by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) who responds to gender discrimination complaints on campus through investigations resulting in what are called OCR Resolution Letters. These letters define numerous policies and procedures Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) must put in place pertaining to the prevention of gender discrimination. This qualitative study looks specifically …

Good Leavers And Bad Stayers: Exploring The Influence Of Defining Student Success Outcomes With A Composite Measure Of Performance And Persistence, Curtis T. Sandberg

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Not all college “stayers” and “leavers” stay or leave for the same reason or with the same experience. However, traditional measures and studies of academic success have limited their scope to either performance or persistence as individual variables. This study explored whether a more nuanced definition of success as a composite of both performance and persistence (GPA and retention) produced different results than when using the variables separately. The influence of academic self-efficacy on student success served as the context for this exploration. The study used an existing incoming student survey dataset from a small private liberal arts college. Subjects …

Concept Mapping: Effects On Content Knowledge And Engagement With Content In Elementary Students’ Persuasive Writing, Melissa E. Gardner

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This comparative pre-test/post-test quantitative study investigated the effect of an instructional strategy using concept mapping as a graphic organizer on the quality of persuasive writing compositions produced by fourth grade elementary school students. Six fourth grade classes were assigned as intact groups to three conditions: concept mapping treatment, four square treatment, and control. Participants wrote a pre-test essay prior to treatment. Treatment consisted of an instructional unit collaboratively developed by the researcher and classroom teachers on persuasive writing. Instruction for the three treatment groups was the same except for type of graphic organizer used (Concept Map, Four Square, or none). …

The Use Of Contrastive Analysis In Code-Switching From Appalachian English Dialect To Standard English Dialect, Shayla D. Mettille

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This study examined the use of an intervention, Contrastive Analysis (CA), with fourth-graders’ writing in a Central Appalachian elementary school. The purpose was to improve the use of Standard English in students’ writing in Appalachia by decreasing the number of vernacular features typically used in the writing. The researcher collected data through Consent and Assent Forms, interviews with the fourth-grade teacher, classroom observations and an accompanying CA observation evaluation rubric, pre- and post-writing prompts, selected writings and Writer Self-Perception Scale (WSPS), as well as communication data. Data analysis was accomplished for both the prompts, writing pieces and the WSPS scores. …

Parentage Prenups And Midnups, Jeffrey A. Parness

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

In July 2012, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws recommended for enactment in all American states the Uniform Premarital and Marital Agreements Act. Unlike its predecessor, the Act treats “premarital agreements and marital agreements under the same set of principles and requirements.” Like its predecessor, it speaks largely to agreements on property, including money. Unlike its predecessor, it expressly recognizes there may be agreements on “custodial responsibility.” Custodial agreements are not “binding” on the courts under the Act because parents and prospective parents do not have the power to waive the rights of third parties (their current …