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2015

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Optical 2d Positional Estimation For A Biomimetic Station-Keeping Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Christopher Nunes Jan 2015

Optical 2d Positional Estimation For A Biomimetic Station-Keeping Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Christopher Nunes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Underwater vehicles often use acoustics or dead reckoning for global positioning, which is impractical for low cost, high proximity applications. An optical based positional feedback system for a wave tank operated biomimetic station-keeping vehicle was made using an extended Kalman filter and a model of a nearby light source. After physical light model verification, the filter estimated surge, sway, and heading with 6 irradiance sensors and a low cost inertial measurement unit (~$15). Physical testing with video feedback suggests an average error of ~2cm in surge and sway, and ~3deg in yaw, over a 1200 cm2 operational area. This is …

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Modernizing Copyright For Equitable Treatment In The Streaming Age, Brandon T. Barrett Jan 2015

Modernizing Copyright For Equitable Treatment In The Streaming Age, Brandon T. Barrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Society’s progression through the digital streaming age has created a music licensing landscape of grave concern to all stakeholders in the industry. These drastic changes have occurred under an outdated legal framework. This paper will recommend a comprehensive reform to our copyright law to uphold the intentions of copyright in the modern, digital age of today. By looking at the history of copyright and its evolution, one can assess how Congress has been tasked with establishing a fair market value for music by promoting the public interest and fairly compensating copyright owners. This will lead to an evaluation and comparison …

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Transportation Engineering Assimilated Livability Planning Using Micro-Simulation Models For Southeast Florida, Athur Dylan O’Berry Jan 2015

Transportation Engineering Assimilated Livability Planning Using Micro-Simulation Models For Southeast Florida, Athur Dylan O’Berry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Transportation engineering has taken upon a new role; to empower the alternative modes of travel: walking, biking, and bus transit. In this new era, engineers are rethinking a network designed predominately for the automobile. The ultimate goal of this research is to create a process that can make a vehicle dominant corridor a desirable, livable thoroughfare by livability design and context sensitive performance measures. Balancing travel modes requires an account of vehicular traffic and the impact of reconfiguring existing conditions. The analysis herein is conducted by field data collection, transportation equations and microsimulation. Simulating traffic behavior will be the means …

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There's A New Sheriff In Town: Caribbean Rewriting Of The American Western In Perry Henzell And Michael Thelwell's The Harder They Come And Paule Marshall's Praisesong For The Widow, Paula J. Wilson Jan 2015

There's A New Sheriff In Town: Caribbean Rewriting Of The American Western In Perry Henzell And Michael Thelwell's The Harder They Come And Paule Marshall's Praisesong For The Widow, Paula J. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this investigation is to analyze the ways in which the American Western genre has been reworked in an Anglophone Caribbean context. This paper focuses on the role of the cowboy figure as it pertains to both a postcolonial Jamaican context a more globalized, diasporic Anglophone Caribbean setting. The Western genre, while not typically associated with the Caribbean, has tropes that certainly occur in both film and literature. There is not much scholarship that details the importance of this reimagination as a positive association in the region, and I have chosen both the film and novel The Harder …

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Transformational Learning And Self-Efficacy: An Investigation Into Their Role In Prophylactic Mastectomy, Faith Gordon Jan 2015

Transformational Learning And Self-Efficacy: An Investigation Into Their Role In Prophylactic Mastectomy, Faith Gordon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Breast cancer affects one in eight women in the United States. Estimated new breast cancer cases for 2012 in the U.S. are 229,060 women (American Cancer Society, 2012). For all women it is important to be informed regarding all current treatment options. For women in high-risk categories of breast cancer it is even more important. Risk-reducing strategies for women at high-risk of breast cancer include surveillance, chemoprevention, and bilateral prophylactic mastectomy. Prophylactic mastectomy reduces the risk of breast cancer by excision of most breast tissue. Breast cancer among those initially diagnosed as high-risk is 90-94.3% (Hartmann et al., 1999). This …

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Tropical Crustose Coralline Algal Community And Individual Growth Responses To Light And Elevated Pco2, Elizabeth A. Dutra Jan 2015

Tropical Crustose Coralline Algal Community And Individual Growth Responses To Light And Elevated Pco2, Elizabeth A. Dutra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Crustose coralline algae (CCA) are important reef stabilizers and their susceptibility to anthropogenic climate change and ocean acidification (OA) is of concern. Ocean acidification effects on benthic algal communities were determined by the response of CCA, fleshy macroalgae and microalgae to the interaction of pCO2 and light. I examined if elevated pCO2 and light influences CCA dominance by assessing their growth, recruitment and calcification. Elevated pCO2 under natural reef diurnal CO2 cycles did not significantly affect CCA percent cover, calcification rates or survival of adult CCA lobes. No significant community pCO2 effects were observed, rather light controlled dominance. The percent …

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Understanding How National Board Certified Secondary Mathematics Teachers Integrate Academic And Social Knowledge Of Students Into Their Practice, Karen Cook Jan 2015

Understanding How National Board Certified Secondary Mathematics Teachers Integrate Academic And Social Knowledge Of Students Into Their Practice, Karen Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This qualitative case study investigated how six National Board Certified secondary mathematics teachers integrate knowledge of students into their practice to create socio- academic spaces for learning. Individual audiotaped interviews were utilized to generate data about what knowledge these teachers had of their students, how they gathered this knowledge, and how this knowledge of students influenced their decisions related to curriculum and instruction. The data were used to form an understanding of the nature and function of the socio- academic spaces that teachers create in planning for and delivering instruction. The study revealed that as teachers interact independently with the …

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Truth And Reconciliation Commissions And The Colombian Justice And Peace Law And Victims, Evelio Jesus Yera Jan 2015

Truth And Reconciliation Commissions And The Colombian Justice And Peace Law And Victims, Evelio Jesus Yera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This dissertation answers the question of what the proper balance is for victims with respect to the formation of a truth or truth and reconciliation commission that is formed to address the aftermath of an authoritarian regime or armed conflict. A review of the historical operation of entities that have operated in the aftermath of authoritarian regimes and armed conflict is conducted in this dissertation. From the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to the present day, nations have struggled to try to devise a systematic way to deal with the aftermath of harm caused to victims as a consequence of authoritarian …

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Universal Physical Access Control System (Upacs), Clyde Carryl Jan 2015

Universal Physical Access Control System (Upacs), Clyde Carryl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This research addresses the need for increased interoperability between the varied access control systems in use today, and for a secure means of providing access to remote physical devices over untrusted networks. The Universal Physical Access Control System (UPACS) is an encryption-enabled security protocol that provides a standard customizable device control mechanism that can be used to control the behavior of a wide variety of physical devices, and provide users the ability to securely access those physical devices over untrusted networks.

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Underwater Acoustic Channel Estimation Using Multiple Sources And Receivers In Shallow Waters At Very-High Frequencies, Samar Kaddouri Jan 2015

Underwater Acoustic Channel Estimation Using Multiple Sources And Receivers In Shallow Waters At Very-High Frequencies, Samar Kaddouri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The underwater channel poses numerous challenges for acoustic communication. Acoustic waves suffer long propagation delay, multipath, fading, and potentially high spatial and temporal variability. In addition, there is no typical underwater acoustic channel; every body of water exhibits quantifiably different properties. Underwater acoustic modems are traditionally operated at low frequencies. However, the use of broadband, high frequency communication is a good alternative because of the lower background noise compared to low-frequencies, considerably larger bandwidth and better source transducer efficiency. One of the biggest problems in the underwater acoustic communications at high frequencies is time-selective fading, resulting in the Doppler spread. …

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The Importance Of Immobilization And Localization Of Gynecological Applicators In High Dose Rate Brachytherapy Treatments, Mikko Hyvärinen Jan 2015

The Importance Of Immobilization And Localization Of Gynecological Applicators In High Dose Rate Brachytherapy Treatments, Mikko Hyvärinen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Intracavitary high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy generally in which a post-surgical tissue margin is treated. The dose gradient of HDR brachytherapy is very steep, and thus small displacements of the applicator, even as small as 1 mm, could potentially cause significant variations of dose which could result in undesired side effects such as overdose of a critical organ. In this retrospective dosimetric study, the variation of dose due to various small range motions of gynecological applicators is investigated. The results show that the implementation of additional immobilization and localization devices along with other safety …

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The Effects Of Dichoptic And Isoluminant-Chromatic Stimuli On The Perception Of Object And Objectless Motion, Matthew S. Seifert Jan 2015

The Effects Of Dichoptic And Isoluminant-Chromatic Stimuli On The Perception Of Object And Objectless Motion, Matthew S. Seifert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Visual motion can be conveyed by a variety of information sources in the environment, and those types of information may be detected at various levels by different motion-perceiving mechanisms in the visual system. High-level visual information has been demonstrated to have 3rd order, or salience-based properties (Lu & Sperling, 1995). The perceptual system they describe that computes motion from these types of information shares several characteristics with Hock and colleagues' counterchange detection system, notably flexibility with respect to types of input from which motion can be computed, which comes at the cost of diminished processing speed. The mechanism of counterchange …

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The Impact Of Willow Encroachment On Water And Carbon Exchange In The Vegetation Of A Subtropical Wetland, Michelle L. Budny Jan 2015

The Impact Of Willow Encroachment On Water And Carbon Exchange In The Vegetation Of A Subtropical Wetland, Michelle L. Budny

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Shortened periods of inundation due to water management have led to the encroachment and expansion of Carolina willow (Salix caroliniana) in sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense) marsh communities. Morphologic and physiologic differences between sawgrass and willow have potential consequences for microhabitat conditions and ecosystem function such as a reduction in temperatures and light availability and changes in primary productivity. Since it is a woody shrub, willow is often assumed to exhibit higher rates of transpiration than non woody plants, which in turn can affect photosynthesis and carbon exchange and ultimately wetland water management. In this study willow was found to have higher …

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The Experience Of Caring For Women With Drug Or Alcohol Problems In The General Hospital, Linda Gail Payne Jan 2015

The Experience Of Caring For Women With Drug Or Alcohol Problems In The General Hospital, Linda Gail Payne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experience of nurses who care for hospitalized women outside of an addiction treatment setting who have a problem with drugs and/or alcohol. The relational experiences of ten registered nurses who had cared for women with drug and alcohol problems were elicited. Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology was the method used to interpret the nurse participant's meaning of their experience. The theoretical framework that was used to explore the nurses' experience o caring for women who abuse or are dependent on alcohol and/or drugs was Boykin and Schoenhofer's Nursing as Caring (1993). The …

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A Camera Trap Study Of The Cyptic, Terrestrial Guenon Cercopithecus Lomamiensis In Central Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Steven G. Mcphee Jan 2015

A Camera Trap Study Of The Cyptic, Terrestrial Guenon Cercopithecus Lomamiensis In Central Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Steven G. Mcphee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

From October-December 2013, we conducted a study of the newly discovered primate species lesula, Cercopithecus lomamiensis, in the DR Congo. We placed 41 camera traps inside a 4 km2 grid outside the proposed Lomami National Park (LNP). We compared an analysis of 140 lesula events over 1,683 camera trap days from the heavily hunted Okulu area to a pilot study (38 events over 462 camera trap days) at the Losekola study site within the LNP. Our data show an unexpected result: capture probability of lesula (0.08) is the same at both the hunted and non-hunted sites. This is in contrast …

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A Critical Analysis Of First Generation Black Male College Students’ Perceptions Of Their Preparation For College Level Mathematics, Kyla L. Williams Jan 2015

A Critical Analysis Of First Generation Black Male College Students’ Perceptions Of Their Preparation For College Level Mathematics, Kyla L. Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

President Obama’s 2014 “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative responds to the continuing educational disparities that the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to have addressed. The preoccupation with standardized testing and accountability over the past decade has revealed evidence of disparities in achievement between Black male students and their White counterparts. Critical Race Theorists have framed these persistent disparities as evidence of the opportunity gap and have advocated culturally responsive pedagogy that would facilitate students’ academic success.

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A Dosimetric Study Of A Heterogeneous Phantom For Lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Comparing Monte Carlo And Pencil Beam Calculations To Dose Distributions Measured With A 2-D Diode Array, Casey Michael Curley Jan 2015

A Dosimetric Study Of A Heterogeneous Phantom For Lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Comparing Monte Carlo And Pencil Beam Calculations To Dose Distributions Measured With A 2-D Diode Array, Casey Michael Curley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Monte Carlo (MC) and Pencil Beam (PB) calculations are compared to their measured planar dose distributions using a 2-D diode array for lung Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT). The planar dose distributions were studied for two different phantom types: an in-house heterogeneous phantom and a homogeneous phantom. The motivation is to mimic the human anatomy during a lung SBRT treatment and incorporate heterogeneities into the pre-treatment Quality Assurance process, where measured and calculated planar dose distributions are compared before the radiation treatment. Individual and combined field dosimetry has been performed for both fixed gantry angle (anterior to posterior) and planned …

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Calibration And Performance Evaluation For A Multiple Overlapping Field Of View Serial Laser Imager, Nicholas Rasoletti Jan 2015

Calibration And Performance Evaluation For A Multiple Overlapping Field Of View Serial Laser Imager, Nicholas Rasoletti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The Combined Laser and Scan Sonar (CLASS) system is an extended range imaging system, incorporating both high-resolution laser images and high frequency sonar images. Both the laser and sonar images are collected simultaneously during testing to provide dual mode imagery of an underwater target, displaying both a 2D image of the target (laser image) and a 3D overlay of the target (sonar image). The laser component of the system is a Multiple Overlapping Field of view Serial Laser Imager (MOFSLI), capable of generating high-resolution sub-centimeter 2D images. MOFSLI generates the images by way of a near diffraction-limited 532 [nm] continuous …

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Birch Roots And Bricks: Finding Home In The Pluralism Of Voice In Migration Novels Of Contemporary Europe, Dorothea Trotter Jan 2015

Birch Roots And Bricks: Finding Home In The Pluralism Of Voice In Migration Novels Of Contemporary Europe, Dorothea Trotter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Through a comparative literary study of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane and Olga Grjasnova’s Der Russe ist einer, der Birken liebt, this thesis concludes that although the migrant experience is heterogeneous and that integration is a difficult process that varies through the diversity of experiences, these experiences can be unified by the common way in which migrants learn to “belong” by connecting with voices of the past and present and by building and maintaining relationships that extend beyond the limits of place. In defending this argument, the thesis draws upon themes of Bakhtinian heteroglossia, nationalism and transnationalism, space, globalism, and migration.

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Birth Across Borders: A Comparative Study Of Guatemalan-Maya Maternal Care In San Miguel Acatán And Palm Beach County, Inbal Mazar Jan 2015

Birth Across Borders: A Comparative Study Of Guatemalan-Maya Maternal Care In San Miguel Acatán And Palm Beach County, Inbal Mazar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Birth across borders: a comparative study of Guatemalan Maya maternal care in San Miguel Acatán and Palm Beach County

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A Feminist Cultural Study Of Identity, Hair Loss, And Chemotherapy, Celine Guillerm Jan 2015

A Feminist Cultural Study Of Identity, Hair Loss, And Chemotherapy, Celine Guillerm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The main aim of this dissertation is to discuss the way women negotiate the cultural meaning of hair loss, alopecia, as a result of undergoing chemotherapy, and to understand, accordingly, how cancer's cultural effects regarding women can be deeply different from those of men. Very few studies have been done about the cultural impact and resonance of alopecia. It is often regarded as "secondary" to other effects of chemotherapy. Because, in many cultures, head hair for women expresses or manifests attractiveness and power, to be bald is to be deprived of the ability to fit into society, whether in the …

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Absence, Sarah Johnson Jan 2015

Absence, Sarah Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Absence is the thesis exhibition resulting from the culmination of my three years in the graduate program. In this documentation, I outline historical and contextual influences that shape my ceramic practice. I specify that my work is centered on my life and describe how my work has evolved since I first started in the program. In the process I have gathered source material and have explored key points in the theory and history of Minimalism. As I developed the work, I was able to discuss how my work applied to these sources, and where it differed. I ended with introspective …

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Acute And Temporal Responses Of Brain–Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Interleukin-6 To High And Low Repetition Resistance Training Programs, Justin M. Quiles Jan 2015

Acute And Temporal Responses Of Brain–Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Interleukin-6 To High And Low Repetition Resistance Training Programs, Justin M. Quiles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this study was to determine if resistance exercise altered peripheral BDNF concentration. Eighteen trained male subjects were split into two groups performing varied repetition ranges. DUP-HR and DUP-LR groups trained 3x/week for 8 weeks, and were equated for total volume (repetitions X sets X intensity). Plasma BDNF and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were measured prior to and immediately following the first exercise session of weeks 1, 2, 4 and 6. Pre-exercise levels were also assessed prior to the second and third sessions of week 1 and 6. Lastly, resting levels were measured before and after training intervention. No …

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Combined Spatial Diversity And Time Equalization For Broadband Multiple Channel Underwater Acoustic Communications, Kaskarovska Violeta Skoro Jan 2015

Combined Spatial Diversity And Time Equalization For Broadband Multiple Channel Underwater Acoustic Communications, Kaskarovska Violeta Skoro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

High data rate acoustic communications become feasible with the use of communication systems that operate at high frequency. The high frequency acoustic transmission in shallow water endures severe distortion as a result of the extensive intersymbol interference and Doppler shift, caused by the time variable multipath nature of the channel. In this research a Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) acoustic communication system is developed to improve the reliability of the high data rate communications at short range in the shallow water acoustic channel. The proposed SIMO communication system operates at very high frequency and combines spatial diversity and decision feedback …

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Cell-Surface Glycan-Lectin Interactions For Biomedical Applications, Benavente Maria Carolina Rodriguez Jan 2015

Cell-Surface Glycan-Lectin Interactions For Biomedical Applications, Benavente Maria Carolina Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Carbohydrate recognition is one of the most sophisticated recognition processes in biological systems, mediating many important aspects of cell-cell recognition, such as inflammation, cell differentiation, and metastasis. Consequently, lectin-glycan interactions have been intensively studied in order to mimic their actions for potential bioanalytical and biomedical applications. Galectins, a class of ß-galactoside-specific animal lectins, have been strongly implicated in inflammation and cancer. Galectin-3 is involved in carbohydrate-mediated metastatic cell heterotypic and homotypic adhesion via interaction with Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) antigen on cancer-associated MUC1. However, the precise mechanism by which galectin-3 recognizes TF antigen is poorly understood. Our thermodynamic studies have shown that …

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Community College Baccalaureate Transitions In Florida: Student Affairs' Perspectives, Laura Antczak Jan 2015

Community College Baccalaureate Transitions In Florida: Student Affairs' Perspectives, Laura Antczak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Many changes are occurring in community colleges offering baccalaureate degrees across the nation, especially in the state of Florida where 24 of 28 colleges in the Florida College System are offering baccalaureate degrees. The impact of these institutions shifting their missions from associate to baccalaureate degree offerings is unknown on a key area of the college - Student Affairs. The purpose of this study was to describe and document the perceived changes in and lessons learned about Student Affairs programs at two large, multi-campus colleges in the Florida College System offering Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) and Bachelor of Science …

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Cognitive Implications Of Biculturalism: Impact On Entrepreneurial Intentions, Ratan Dheer Jan 2015

Cognitive Implications Of Biculturalism: Impact On Entrepreneurial Intentions, Ratan Dheer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Globalization has increased the number of individuals who identify with more than one culture. Studies in cultural psychology suggest that the manner in which bicultural individuals manage their dual cultural identities has important implications for them and for their host societies. While existing studies have examined the psychological and sociocultural consequences of biculturalism, only little attention has been paid to understanding its economic consequences. Importantly, the effect that managing dual cultural identities has on bicultural individual's entrepreneurial intentions has remained unexplored. Given the fact that entrepreneurship is vital to the economic success of nations and biculturals are said to play …

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An Analysis Of Personality And The Effect Of Peer Influence On Deviant Behavior During Adolescence, Kasey Taylor Jan 2015

An Analysis Of Personality And The Effect Of Peer Influence On Deviant Behavior During Adolescence, Kasey Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Criminologists have long since documented a connection between peer deviance and personal deviance. Some theories suggest that this connection is due to a learning process where individuals may adopt the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of those with whom they have significant interactions, such as friends. While individuals may be susceptible to learning anti-social behavior from peers, it is unclear if certain personality characteristics may affect this relationship. The purpose of this study is to determine if differences in specific personality characteristics, such as self-esteem, introversion and extroversion, can have a moderating effect on the pressures to participate in the use …

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Aggression And Prosocial Behavior Predict Changes In Perceptions Of Friendship Quality In Primary And Middle School Students, Lauren Shawcross Jan 2015

Aggression And Prosocial Behavior Predict Changes In Perceptions Of Friendship Quality In Primary And Middle School Students, Lauren Shawcross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This study examines whether aggression and prosocial behavior shape changes in perceptions of friendship quality within stable reciprocal best friend dyads. A longitudinal Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was used to investigate whether individual characteristics predict changes 6 to 12 weeks later in perceptions of relationship support and negativity. The sample included 76 same-sex dyads drawn from classrooms in grades 4 (M = 9.48 years) through 6 (M= 11.43 years) in two public schools in the United States.

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A Private School Leadership Perspective On Highly Qualified Middle School Science Teachers, Carolyn Siniscalchi Bogaski Jan 2015

A Private School Leadership Perspective On Highly Qualified Middle School Science Teachers, Carolyn Siniscalchi Bogaski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this study was to determine how Florida (FL) private, middle school (MS) leaders define highly qualified (HQ) MS science teachers, and how congruent their definitions are. The study also determines how congruent these leaders’ definitions are with FL, national, and National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) definitions. Lastly, the study determines the major challenges these private MS leaders have in hiring MS science teachers who meet the NSTA definition of HQ.

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