Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Small Class Setting On The Algebra I Achievement Of Ninth-Grade Students, Lisa Kissire

College of Education Dissertations

The effects of class size on student outcomes has been widely studied at the elementary level. Many such studies have found important relationships between class size and outcome in the areas of academic achievement, student discipline, and teacher retention. However, little attention has been given to the examination of how class size may affect student outcomes in the middle school and high school levels. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine the effects of class size setting, gender, socioeconomic status, and school configuration on the Algebra I achievement of ninthgrade students. Participants were drawn from four rural schools …

The Effects Of Explicit And Systematic Phonemic Awareness Instruction On Reading For English Language Learners, Annette Freeman

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to find effective phonological instruction for improving reading comprehension and oral language proficiency of ELLs. In addition, this study was conducted to inform school administrators without ESL certification about best practices in ELL education so they could make informed, school-wide decisions for better serving ELLs before entry into secondary schools.

The sample included first and second-grade students identified as ELLs in two Northwest Arkansas elementary schools. The two schools were selected based on their similar student demographics of grade configuration, ethnicity, and poverty rate. All students selected for the study were identified as ELLs …

2016-12-01 Faculty Senate Newsletter, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Faculty Senate newsletter for December 1, 2016.

2016-12-01 Senator Adam's Statement On Athletics, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Statement on Athletics Department by Senator Annie Adams on December 1, 2016.

Reconfigurable Model For Risc Processors, Thiago Pinheiro Felix Da Silva E Lima

Theses

The instruction set of a processor is embodied in the particular micro-architecture representing the processor hardware. Verifying proper operation of the instruction set for a particular processor hardware implementation requires exhaustive testing to expose unknown dependencies and other elusive design flaws. This paper presents the research and development of a flexible micro-architectural model written in SystemC for a RISC processor based upon a user defined configuration database; the RISC processor is based on an architecture assigned in course Design of Computer Systems (DCS) offered at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). This model will be tested by a test bench written …

Perceptions Of The Effects Of Homework On Student Achievement At A Suburban Middle School: A Program Evaluation, Cody Huisman

Dissertations

The purpose of this program evaluation was to gain a clear understanding of how homework supports or deters the achievement of students, specifically the overall grade a student attains. This document details how students and teachers at a suburban Middle School perceive homework and its effect on student learning. The findings were that many students received failing grades in classes, primarily due to missing homework. The program evaluation used mixed methodology. Using survey and focus group results in conjunction with current literature, the conclusion revealed a need for homework policies that would support student learning without punishing students’ grades. Students …

The Impact Of After-School Tutoring On Elementary Student Achievement: A Program Evaluation, Robert Tomic

Dissertations

The purpose of this program evaluation is to evaluate an after-school elementary tutoring program to determine the impact it has on student achievement. The study is a mixed-method approach with both quantitative and qualitative data that include the following: teacher surveys, teacher interviews, pre- and post-student achievement data, student attendance, and a reflective journal based off observations. Findings and recommendations for tutoring programs include the following: establish a skill focus in math or reading to help remediate core skills, group students in each grade level according to skill deficiencies, conduct pre- and post-assessment to confirm growth and or additional supports, …

A Mother's Spiritual Journey With Her Disabled Son: An Autoethnography, Margaret C. Higgins Edd

Dissertations

Abstract

This autoethnographic research delves into a mother’s experiences with her disabled son over thirty-five years. Beginning with a thick description of the crib accident that resulted in physical and cognitive disabilities that profoundly change the course of both mother and son’s life, this research chronicles the search for meaning, community, and healing as they negotiate the realms of medicine, education, career, family, and spirituality. Models of disability that seek to explain various ways in which society often views disability are examined, but none resonate with the researcher’s intimate experiences nor satisfies her deepest needs for insight and healing. Making …

Effective School Discipline Policy And Practice: Supporting Student Learning Through Restorative Practices And Social Emotional Learning Skills, Jennifer Camilleri

Dissertations

School discipline is an ongoing area of concern, as keeping children in school and engaged in learning is required not only for their well-being, but also for that of society. In response to the failure of zero-tolerance policies and to the passing of Illinois Senate Bill 100, which restricts disciplinary action that remove students from school, XYZ Middle School is adopting a restorative justice model of school discipline. This model, based on Social Emotional Learning (SEL), is projected to reduce suspensions and address the racial disparity existing in disciplinary practices at the school. Combining SEL and restorative justice practices will …

Blended Learning And Educational Technology: Using An Online-Digital Curriculum To Support Student Learning, Jennifer Camilleri

Dissertations

XYZ District has recently invested in a one-to-one technology initiative, providing each student in grades three through eight with an iPad. However, consistent integration of this new technology with classroom teaching strategy has been lacking, even though teachers were provided with a digital curriculum and guidance in blendedlearning pedagogy through the XYZ Internal University. This may be due, in part, to the evolving culture in many schools, as well as teacher competencies and self-efficacy in using the technology. Given the potential for significant student learning gains through the proper implementation of this technology, two representative teachers were surveyed to gather …

Transforming A School's Culture Through Collaboration, Relationships, And Shared Values: A Change Leadership Plan, Robert Tomic

Dissertations

The change leadership paper centers around transforming a school culture with the focus being on collaboration, relationships, and shared values among its stakeholders.Building trust among staff and administration while making daily decisions based on the same value system is necessary to enact an effective transformation. Tools used to collect data included the School Culture Triage Survey and the Teacher Belief Survey. The staff completed the School Culture Triage Survey to establish baseline data and then completed the survey a second time with the results confirming growth in the three main categories: professional collaboration, collegial relationships, and self-determination. Correlating and comparing …

Investigation Of Polymer–Plasticizer Blends As Sh-Saw Sensor Coatings For Detection Of Benzene In Water With High Sensitivity And Long-Term Stability, Pintu Adhikari, Laura Jeanne Alderson, Florian Bender, Antonio J. Ricco, Fabien Josse

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We report the first-ever direct detection of benzene in water at concentrations below 100 ppb (parts per billion) using acoustic wave (specifically, shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave, SH-SAW) sensors with plasticized polymer coatings. Two polymers and two plasticizers were studied as materials for sensor coatings. For each polymer–plasticizer combination, the influence of the mixing ratio of the blend on the sensitivity to benzene was measured and compared to commercially available polymers that were used for BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) detection in previous work. After optimizing the coating parameters, the highest sensitivity and lowest detection limit for benzene were found …

Relative Importance Of Microplastics As A Pathway For The Transfer Of Hydrophobic Organic Chemicals To Marine Life, Adil Bakir, Isabel A. O'Connor, Steven J. Rowland, A. Jan Hendriks, Richard C. Thompson

More Faculty of Science and Engineering Research

No abstract provided.

Turning It Up To Eleven: Belligerent Rhetoric In North Korea's Propaganda, Mason Richey

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Pushback: Critical Data Designers And Pollution Politics, Kim Fortun, Lindsay Poirier, Alli Morgan, Brandon Costelloe-Kuehn, Mike Fortun

Statistical and Data Sciences: Faculty Publications

In this paper, we describe how critical data designers have created projects that ‘push back’ against the eclipse of environmental problems by dominant orders: the pioneering pollution database Scorecard, released by the US NGO Environmental Defense Fund in 1997; the US Environmental Protection Agency’s EnviroAtlas that brings together numerous data sets and provides tools for valuing ecosystem services; and the Houston Clean Air Network’s maps of real-time ozone levels in Houston. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews, we analyse how critical data designers turn scientific data and findings into claims and visualisations that are meaningful in contemporary political terms. The …

Making Disciples In Buddhist Asia, Gregory P. Whitsett

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Stress In Assessing Life Satisfaction And Self-Efficacy Among Prison Officers, Kamilla Bargiel-Matusiewicz, Paulina Stelmachowska, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Stress is a major public health concern. It can be observed in all aspects of life, in everyday family life and work life. The focus of this article is work-related stress. Work stress can be observed in any work environment and in all professions. As a complex condition it affects different people in different ways. The study presented in this article was done on a sample of 59 prison officers who volunteered to participate. Among those 59 participants 34 were males and 25 were females aged between 25 to 52. Each participant received a survey to collect general information about …

Consenting To Computer Use, James Grimmelmann

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) makes it a crime to “access a computer without authorization or exceed authorized access.” Courts and commentators have struggled to explain what types of conduct by a computer user are “without authorization.” But this approach is backwards; authorization is not so much a question of what a computer user does, as it is a question of what a computer owner allows.

In other words, authorization under the CFAA is an issue of consent, not conduct; to understand authorization, we need to understand consent. Building on Peter Westen’s taxonomy of consent, I argue …

Comparison Of Two Methods For Developing Aggregate Population-Based Models, Oyebola E. Oyero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aggregate models incorporate the variation between individual parameters of individualbased models to construct a population-based model. This thesis focuses on the comparison of two different methods for creating these population-based models. The first method, the individual parameter distribution technique (IPD) focuses on the similarities and variation of parameters in an individual-based model as calculated using individual data sets [4]. The second method we consider is the nonlinear mixed effect method (NLME), which is primarily used in modeling repeated measurement data. In the NLME approach, both the fixed effects and random effects of the parameter values are estimated in the model …

Complex Vegetation Dynamics At The Fire–Grazing–Drought Nexus, Christine H. Bielski

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The discipline of ecology long ago moved away from viewing systems as static entities where disturbance processes, environmental stochasticity, and spatiotemporal variability play minor roles in determining ecosystem structure and function. Ecological theory continue to develop frameworks and statistical techniques capable of describing the inherent complexity in natural systems. However, in dealing with the complexity in nature, many applied disciplines have yet to adopt such frameworks or statistical techniques. The objective of this study was bridge the gap between ecological theory and application by using complex systems theory to describe grassland vegetation dynamics at the fire-grazing-drought nexus. Chapters 2 and …

Has The Usage Of Precision Agriculture Technologies Actually Led To Increased Profits For Nebraska Producers?, Michael H. Castle

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

An ever-increasing global demand for food, coupled with increasingly volatile commodity prices have charged producers with the task of becoming more efficient. As such, technologies aimed at producing more with less are continually being developed and marketed to producers. However, whether or not these expensive new technologies have resulted in improved profitability is still unknown, as the vast majority of studies showing their impact on profitability have been performed using hypothetical farms and simulations. These studies have shown the potential for increases in profitability from use, but their impact in the real world is still uncertain.

This project uses various …

Hey, Where's The Monster? How A Storytelling Game Is Played In A Preschool Classroom, Jeremy Sydik

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how early childhood learners between the ages of 4 and 6 and their teachers experience the play of a structured cooperative storytelling game in their shared classroom environment at a university preschool child development center, with specific focus on issues of cognitive and social knowledge construction. This study used an instrumental case study approach to observe classroom game play sessions as well as qualitative interviews to explore the features of a cooperative storytelling game play activity, to ask how these features inform understanding of cognitive and social knowledge construction, to identify …

Investigation Of Subjective Perception And Objective Metrics Of Acoustic Room Diffusion, Jay Michael Bliefnick

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While a variety of assessment methodologies have been proposed to quantify acoustic diffusivity within rooms, a link between these and the perception of diffusion has not been fully established. This study investigated various ways of analyzing diffusion, through both human perception and objective metrics. Numerous impulse response measurements were collected from a physical acoustics testing facility designed for diffusion research. This space featured reversible absorptive/diffusive/reflective wall panels, which allowed numerous testing configurations. One such setup investigated how changing the diffusivity of an isolated wall surface impacted diffusive room conditions. Alternatively, the effects diffuser configurations had on diffusive room conditions were …

Truth And Justice? Towards Comprehensive Transitional Justice In Uganda And The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Alicia Weaver

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The field of transitional justice currently views retributive and restorative justice as a means of reconciliation dichotomously. With practice becoming increasingly legalistic, the restorative approach is seen as not forcing accountability. This is a mistake. This article will attempt to show that prosecutions and truth and reconciliation commissions can complement one another to attain the most justice for the most people. Using the case studies of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I will examine under what conditions retributive and restorative justice will be used, and how they can be used to promote national reconciliation.

Advisor: Ariel Kohen

College And University Sustainability Officers’ Experiences With Green Office Programs: A Qualitative Investigation, Logan Lamb

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The number of sustainability programs in higher education continues to increase. Green office programs have become a cornerstone of sustainability programming on college and university campuses across the country. This exploratory qualitative study involves college and university sustainability officers and investigates their experiences changing behaviors through green office programs. The goal of this study was to provide insight into green office programs. Two side-by-side studies were conducted to provide a detailed analysis of green office programs at both small and large institutions of higher education. Eleven major themes emerged from the study. Six themes emerged from the qualitative analysis of …

Wellbeing And Data Quality In The American Time Use Survey (Atus) From A Total Survey Error Perspective, Ana Lucía Córdova Cazar

Survey Research and Methodology Program: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this dissertation, I seek to develop a tool for the enhancement of time-use and wellbeing measures from a total survey error perspective. In particular, I evaluate the quality of the time use data produced in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), by exploring its indicators and identifying its main predictors, including interview rapport. Results from these analyses are then used to evaluate the extent to which certain variables correlate, as predicted, with expected levels of wellbeing.

The first specific objective was to investigate the data quality of the 2010 ATUS by constructing a data quality index. In my dissertation, …

Design And Synthesis Of Novel Octacarboxy Porphyrinic Metal–Organic Frameworks, Jacob A. Johnson

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are a class of nanoporous crystalline materials constructed via the interconnection between metal-ions/inorganic clusters and organic ligands. Since the surface area, pore size and distribution, and chemical functionalities of MOFs are highly tunable via the judicious combinations of inorganic clusters and organic ligands, MOFs have attracted intensive interests for a variety of applications including gas adsorption and separation, catalysis, chemical sensing, and drug delivery among others. Porphyrin based ligands are of particular interest for building functional MOFs due to their unique photo-, electro-, and catalytic properties. In addition, the four-fold symmetry of porphyrin ligands offers an effective …

The Influence Of Functional Weights On The Performance Of Least Squares Finite Element Formulation On Hybrid Meshes, Anirudh Rajagopal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The Least-Squares Finite Element Method (LSFEM) is a numerical method for solving partial differential equations (PDE) approximately by minimizing the L-2 norm of the PDE residuals. Unlike the more common Galerkin approach, this method does not employ integration by parts to reduce the continuity requirements of the basis functions. Instead, the PDE is cast as a first-order system of differential equations, which allows for the solution of primary and secondary variables with the same order of accuracy. In addition, this approach always leads to a direct minimization problem and therefore not subject to the restrictive inf-sup condition and does not …

Shape Optimization Of Helical Coil Tube For Maximizing Heat Transfer, Venkat Manoj Kandukuri

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Many researchers have observed the enhancement of heat transfer in coiled tubes compared to straight tubes with the same diameter and length. It is known fact, that in a helical coil tube the maximum axial velocity shifted towards the outer wall of the pipe and imbalance between centrifugal forces and inertial loads to a secondary motion of the fluid in the cross-section of the tube. This secondary motion is responsible for improved transport of heat energy to/from the tube walls. Previous conducted Experimental and computational parametric studies show the relationship between the increased heat transfer and parameters such as pitch, …

Thermal Stress Analysis Of Unidirectional Composite Material By Fem Modeling, Gopal D. Gulwani

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Micromechanics of composite is study of complex mechanism of stress and strain transfer between fiber and matrix within a composite as well as distributions of physical fields inside heterogeneous medium. It was used successfully in predicting accurately physical properties like effective stiffness, effective linear thermal expansion of heterogeneous materials like composite. However, when it comes to strength characteristics of composite especially in transversal direction it failed to predict more accurate results. This thesis is focused on thermally induced stress analysis of unidirectional composite by finite element method. Thermal stresses which are dangerously ignored factor in mechanics of composite usually occur …