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2016

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Entropic Considerations Of Efficiency In The West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures Market, Ryan Sagul Jan 2016

Entropic Considerations Of Efficiency In The West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures Market, Ryan Sagul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

For the last fifty years, the efficient market hypothesis has been the central pillar of economic thought and touted by all, despite Sanford Grossman’ and Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz’ objection in 1980. Andrew Lo updated the efficient market hypothesis in 2004 to reconcile irrational human behavior and cold, calculating automatons. This thesis utilizes 33 years of oil futures, GARCH regressions, and the Jensen-Shannon informational criteria to provide extensive empirical objections to informational efficiency. The results demonstrate continuously inefficient oil future markets which exhibit decreased informational efficiency during recessionary periods, advocating the adaptive market hypothesis over the efficient market hypothesis.

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Exploring The College Choice And Sense Of Belonging Of Haitian Students At A Highly Selective Hbcu, Paul-Arthur Pierre-Louis Jan 2016

Exploring The College Choice And Sense Of Belonging Of Haitian Students At A Highly Selective Hbcu, Paul-Arthur Pierre-Louis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The growing Haitian population in the United States is directly affecting all institutions of higher education As institutions continue to diversify across the country, HBCUs are also responding to this trend According to Ricard and Brown (2008), HBCUs are changing in order to keep up with the growing demand of institutional diversity, and they recognize that having a diversified student body will make the institutions more competitive Although their historic mission focuses on educating Black students, there remains a gap in the literature on HBCUs on one of the largest Black groups in the United States: the Haitian immigrant In …

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Factors Related To The Experience Of Situations: Time Of Day, Gender, And Employment Status, Nicolas A. Brown Jan 2016

Factors Related To The Experience Of Situations: Time Of Day, Gender, And Employment Status, Nicolas A. Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Throughout the course of a day, individuals experience a number of different situations that affect how they think, feel, and behave. However, until recently, there was little research aimed at describing what factors may be related to the psychological properties of situations in individuals' everyday lives. Recent theoretical (e.g., the Situational Eight DIAMONDS) and methodological (e.g., experience sampling, Day Reconstruction Method) advances make the present research tractable. Based on the extant literature, three studies, employing different methodologies, were designed to explore whether three specific factors are related to the experience of situations: time of day, gender, and employment status. Study …

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Eye Fixations Of The Face Are Modulated By Perception Of A Bidirectional Social Interaction, Michael J. Kleiman Jan 2016

Eye Fixations Of The Face Are Modulated By Perception Of A Bidirectional Social Interaction, Michael J. Kleiman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Eye fixations of the face are normally directed towards either the eyes or the mouth, however the proportions of gaze to either of these regions are dependent on context. Previous studies of gaze behavior demonstrate a tendency to stare into a target’s eyes, however no studies investigate the differences between when participants believe they are engaging in a live interaction compared to knowingly watching a pre-recorded video, a distinction that may contribute to studies of memory encoding. This study examined differences in fixation behavior for when participants falsely believed they were engaging in a real-time interaction over the internet (“Real-time …

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Food Buzzwords: Understanding How Schemas Of Proper Dieting Are Formed, Sacha Franklin-Jeune Jan 2016

Food Buzzwords: Understanding How Schemas Of Proper Dieting Are Formed, Sacha Franklin-Jeune

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

In the modern United States, the concept of food has become as much of a social phenomenon as it is a biological need. The process of eating has become highly structured into a system of communication. Food terms used to share ideas are referred to as food buzzwords, terms rife with additional meanings whose values are continuously debated, discussed, and altered. Such terminology has swayed how middle-class Americans interpret the proper status quo of food consumption and production. This thesis analyzes how middle-class Americans form their view of a proper diet based on their understanding of food buzzwords and other …

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Gender, Myth, And Warfare: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Women Warriors, Anne-Louise Lyttle Boomer Jan 2016

Gender, Myth, And Warfare: A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Women Warriors, Anne-Louise Lyttle Boomer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

A combination of cross-cultural and symbolic methodologies suggests that women warriors occur in societies where there is both an emphasis on the sacred feminine that allows women greater access to positions of power and authority (as per Peggy Sanday) and where marital residency rules permit female fighters (following David B. Adams´s theory on women warriors). While neither theory can stand alone in explaining the existence of women warriors, when combined both theories give a solid picture of societies that allow for female combatants. In this paper I propose that by combining Sanday’s work on female power and Adams’s work on …

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Fostering Creativity Using Special Library Collections: A Case Study Of The Arthur & Mata Jaffe Center For The Book Arts, Andrew D. Binder Jan 2016

Fostering Creativity Using Special Library Collections: A Case Study Of The Arthur & Mata Jaffe Center For The Book Arts, Andrew D. Binder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This dissertation examines the Arthur & Mata Jaffe Center for the Book Arts (JCBA) at Florida Atlantic University, focusing on creativity. Sixteen artists whose artwork is collected by the center were chosen to provide an overview of the creative process of book artists: Susan Allix, Julie Chen, Béatrice Coron, Johanna Drucker, Timothy Ely, Karen Hanmer, Linda K. Johnson, Marie Marcano, Bea Nettles, Matthew Reinhart, Robert Sabuda, Susan Joy Share, Keith Smith, Beth Thielen, Carol Todaro, and Marshall Weber. The artists and the JCBA were selected for this study not only because these artists‘ books provide a unique opportunity to explore …

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Going On The Grid: Secondary Teachers’ Implementation Of Mobile Handheld Devices As Instructional Tools, Allison S. Berger Jan 2016

Going On The Grid: Secondary Teachers’ Implementation Of Mobile Handheld Devices As Instructional Tools, Allison S. Berger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This mixed methods study examined secondary teachers’ technology selfefficacy, their professional development activities regarding mobile handheld devices, and how those activities affect their use of mobile devices as instructional tools. Additionally, this study also explored teachers’ perceptions of other factors that act as barriers or enablers to their use of such devices. The study included 104 middle and high school teachers who taught in a large, urban public school district in the Southeastern United States. Data were collected through the administration of an electronic survey and semi-structured interviews. The researcher utilized multiple regression and moderator analyses, as well as qualitative …

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Florida University Faculty Compensation: Market Competitive Or Not?, Lori Allen Ford Jan 2016

Florida University Faculty Compensation: Market Competitive Or Not?, Lori Allen Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The most important asset of any organization is its people (Danish & Usman, 2010). Whatever the market segment, they are the driving force behind creating and delivering on the organization’s strategic and financial objectives. The ability to attract, retain and motivate the necessary workforce, through use of financial rewards, is a main determinant in the degree to which these objectives are met (Fong & Tosi, 2007; Gomez- Mejia & Balkin, 1992b; Newman, Gerhart, & Milkovich, 2016). While there are many approaches to pay strategy, a key aspect, and the focus of this dissertation, is the market positioning of cash compensation. …

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Hey God, It’S Me: Development And Initial Validation Of The Personal Prayer Content Scale, Lucas D. Schipper Jan 2016

Hey God, It’S Me: Development And Initial Validation Of The Personal Prayer Content Scale, Lucas D. Schipper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

I present the development and initial validation a new measure designed to assess specific personal prayer content I used feedback from men and women, along with a review of the relevant literature, to identify specific prayer content for inclusion in the Personal Prayer Content Scale (PPCS) (Study 1) I administered the PPCS to a sample of participants from southeast Florida and southeast Michigan allowing for a cross-national investigation of the specific content of the thoughts that individuals privately direct towards a god, gods, or god-like entity (Study 2) I compared men’s and women’s responses (Study 3) and responses between Christians …

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Healing Transcendence: Social Media Use By Persons In The Transplant Journey, Valarie S. Grumme Jan 2016

Healing Transcendence: Social Media Use By Persons In The Transplant Journey, Valarie S. Grumme

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

An increasing number of individuals are looking for health information, interacting with health care providers, and participating in health-related online support groups The virtual landscape of the internet offers the opportunity for individuals to establish contact and relationships with persons having similar health concerns anywhere, anytime The phenomenon of health-related social media use generated an interest in why persons in the transplant journey chose to participate in an online support community, how they interacted and made use of the online community, and how this knowledge could assist nursing in improving care for this growing population A six month sample of …

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Health Challenges Of Family Members In End Of Life Situations, Janet Sopcheck Jan 2016

Health Challenges Of Family Members In End Of Life Situations, Janet Sopcheck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The growing older adult population, their age-related morbidities, and lifelimiting chronic illnesses increase the demand for quality yet cost-effective end of life (EOL) care. Losing a loved one creates emotional turmoil, heightened uneasiness, and EOL uncertainties for family members. Understanding the complex needs of family members and supportive actions deemed most significant to them can guide nurses to enhance EOL care, encouraging palliation and peaceful death experiences. This study used a qualitative descriptive exploratory design guided by story theory methodology to explore the dimensions of the health challenge of losing a loved one who had been in an acute care …

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Historians Of 19th Century Baseball: Exploring Their Experiences Regarding Their Avocation, Wade Berstler Jan 2016

Historians Of 19th Century Baseball: Exploring Their Experiences Regarding Their Avocation, Wade Berstler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The following document offers a qualitative case study in the field of adult and community education from an educational leadership perspective using baseball as an adult learning tool. Relevant existing theories (adult education, lifelong learning, adult learners, and certain leadership practices) for successful facilitation of historical baseball research were examined. The study focused on a purposeful sample population upon which a pilot study was conducted, revealing the experiences of adult self-directed learners who produce the seminal work in their field as an avocation. The findings of this study included, but are not limited to, the passionate approach the study group …

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How Interpersonal Coordination Changes The Self: Theory, Experiment, And Adaptive Hkb Model Of Social Memory, Craig A. Nordham Jan 2016

How Interpersonal Coordination Changes The Self: Theory, Experiment, And Adaptive Hkb Model Of Social Memory, Craig A. Nordham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

How one behaves after interacting with a friend may not be the same as before the interaction began What factors a ect the formation of social interactions between people and, once formed, how do social interactions leave lasting changes on individual behavior? In this dissertation, a thorough review and conceptual synthesis is provided Major features of coordination dynamics are demonstrated with examples from both the intrapersonal and interpersonal coordination literature that are interpreted via a conceptual scheme, the causal loops of coordination dynamics An empirical, behavioral study of interpersonal coordination was conducted to determine which spontaneous patterns of coordination formed …

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Informational Aspects Of Audiovisual Identity Matching, Lauren Wood Mavica Jan 2016

Informational Aspects Of Audiovisual Identity Matching, Lauren Wood Mavica

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

In this study, we investigated what informational aspects of faces could account for the ability to match an individual’s face to their voice, using only static images. In each of the first six experiments, we simultaneously presented one voice recording along with two manipulated images of faces (e.g. top half of the face, bottom half of the face, etc.), a target face and distractor face. The participant’s task was to choose which of the images they thought belonged to the same individual as the voice recording. The voices remained un-manipulated. In Experiment 7 we used eye tracking in order to …

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Like, Follow, Share, Naghmeh Goodarzi Jan 2016

Like, Follow, Share, Naghmeh Goodarzi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

My intention for this show is to explore the effect of alienation that ironically is being produced by social media. The principal concept is developed around shame, sharing, and notoriety on three different social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. This show explores the social media perception of myself in the realms of human interaction, identity, and memory in social media through the critical appropriation of the languages of design and photography. The installation with four Facebook profile pictures in large scale and framed looks at the way a personal image can convey the impression of widely different personalities. …

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Large-Scale Cortical Functional Connectivity Underlying Visuospatial Attention, Timothy Patrick Meehan Jan 2016

Large-Scale Cortical Functional Connectivity Underlying Visuospatial Attention, Timothy Patrick Meehan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The endogenous, or voluntary, control of visuospatial attention relies upon interactions within a frontoparietal dorsal attention network (DAN) and this network’s top-down influence on visual occipital cortex (VOC). While these interactions have been shown to occur during attention tasks, they are also known to occur to some extent at rest, but the degree to which task-related interactions reflect either modulation or reorganization of such ongoing intrinsic interactions is poorly understood. In addition, it is known that in spatial neglect—a syndrome following unilateral brain lesions in which patients fail to attend to the contralesional side of space—symptom severity covaries with disruptions …

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Managed Discourse: Legitimizing Principal Identity And Agency, Matias Arellano Jan 2016

Managed Discourse: Legitimizing Principal Identity And Agency, Matias Arellano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Given the demands of the era of accountability and standardization, the purpose of this study was to explore how educational leaders construct their identity and agency. The study utilized overlapping post-structural and critical theoretical frameworks on identity and agency to analyze how high school principals interpret and enact comprehensive school reform rhetoric and their state’s educational leadership standards. In addition to several cycles of coding, a critical discourse analysis was performed with the input of the participants’ high schools in order to further analyze the form and function of discourses, socially situated meanings, and ideologies that constitute being an educational …

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Moving Mountains: Animal Rights Organizations, Emotion, And Autodidactic Frame Alignment, Lee Charles Jr Jarvis Jan 2016

Moving Mountains: Animal Rights Organizations, Emotion, And Autodidactic Frame Alignment, Lee Charles Jr Jarvis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Animal rights organizations, in attempting to affect institutional change in industrial animal agriculture, face an institutional mountain. I show how these organizations, though contesting institutions which are highly reified, tacitly endorsed, and historically inertial, leverage emotional experiences and regulation to incrementally move this mountain. Using a grounded qualitative study of interview data from animal rights advocates and archival data generated by animal rights organizations, this study finds that animal rights organizations have encoded both response- and antecedent-focused emotion regulation into two distinct strategies used to garner support for their institutional change project: transgression mining and seed planting. Furthermore, this study …

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Moving Towards Fairness And Diversity? An Analysis Of Perceptions From Employees Working In The United States Department Of The Interior, Stacey Lisbeth Beals Jan 2016

Moving Towards Fairness And Diversity? An Analysis Of Perceptions From Employees Working In The United States Department Of The Interior, Stacey Lisbeth Beals

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This dissertation examines how different United States Department of the Interior (USDOI) employees’ perceive fairness and support for diversity. The USDOI is an agency with numerous STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) employees who have the opportunity to influence future generations through their STEM internship. Specifically, this dissertation examines the relationship between: (1) the perceived fairness of performance appraisals and the empowerment index, demographic characteristics, satisfaction, accountability and recognition; and (2) the perceived support (or lack thereof) of departmental programs and supervisors to foster diversity in the workforce and the empowerment index and demographic characteristics. This dissertation accomplishes several things. …

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Mozart’S Die Zauberflöte: A Kingdom Of Notes And Numbers, Daemon Garafallo Jan 2016

Mozart’S Die Zauberflöte: A Kingdom Of Notes And Numbers, Daemon Garafallo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed Die Zauberflöte in the last year of his life. It was intended in part to glorify Freemasonry as a new Emperor, more hostile to the Masons, took his office. After a brief survey of his life and works, this paper shows how Mozart used number symbolism in the opera, and will equip the reader with an understanding of this as practiced by the Freemasons. Further, it will show how Mozart associated the characters of the opera with specific musical tones. It will expose a deeper understanding of the question of meaning in word and text in …

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Predicting Graduation Rates At Non-Residential Research Universities, Jamonique K. Harrison Jan 2016

Predicting Graduation Rates At Non-Residential Research Universities, Jamonique K. Harrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this study was to develop a prediction model for graduation rate at non-residential research universities. As well, this study investigated, described, and compared the student characteristics of non-residential and residential institutions. Making distinctions between significant predictor variables at non-residential research universities and significant predictor variables at residential institutions was also an aim. The researcher obtained data from the Integrated Postsecondary Data System. Student and institutional variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, analysis of variance, and regression analyses. Results indicated that student and institutional characteristics can be used to significantly predict graduation rate at nonresidential …

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Professional Public Administration: A Synthesis Of An Inchoate Concept, Joseph Christian Heilman Jan 2016

Professional Public Administration: A Synthesis Of An Inchoate Concept, Joseph Christian Heilman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The term profession is found throughout the scholarly literature; despite frequent use of the term, there exists little or no means of providing a common conception of the term. Consequently, calls for increasing professionalization of public administration appear to be premature. Therefore, this dissertation utilizes inductive research to generate theory, which synthesizes the inchoate concept of the professional public administrator. The motivation to pursue this line of inquiry stems from a personal need to weigh in on the perennial debate about what skills, knowledge, and information should be communicated to future generations of public administration thinkers and practitioners. To that …

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Properties Of Child-Directed Speech In Mothers’ Native And Nonnative Languages: A Comparison Of English Monolingual And Spanish-English Bilingual Mothers’ Talk To 2-Year-Olds, Katherine Alexandra Filippi Shanks Jan 2016

Properties Of Child-Directed Speech In Mothers’ Native And Nonnative Languages: A Comparison Of English Monolingual And Spanish-English Bilingual Mothers’ Talk To 2-Year-Olds, Katherine Alexandra Filippi Shanks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Previous studies have found that bilingual children’s vocabulary development benefits more from child-directed speech from native speakers than child-directed speech from nonnative speakers. The current study compared the native English child-directed speech of 20 English monolingual mothers, the nonnative English child-directed speech of 20 Spanish-English bilingual mothers, and the native Spanish child-directed speech of the same bilingual mothers in terms of three aspects of input previously associated with children’s language development: data-providing properties, topic contingency, and speech function. There were significant differences between native English and nonnative English child-directed speech, and between nonnative English and native Spanish. The results suggest …

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Rapid Analysis Of Fecal Glucocorticoid Metabolites: Testing An Alternative Method For Analyzing Stress Markers In Chimpanzees, Benni Litman Jan 2016

Rapid Analysis Of Fecal Glucocorticoid Metabolites: Testing An Alternative Method For Analyzing Stress Markers In Chimpanzees, Benni Litman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

This study explores the application of two methods of spectroscopy; Near Infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR) as alternative approaches for measuring glucocorticoid metabolites in chimpanzee feces. The goals of this study were twofold: The first was to determine if cortisol can be identified within the NIR and/or FTIR spectra of chimpanzee fecal hormone extract in ethanol solution. The second objective was to determine the capability of NIR and FTIR to predict FGM concentrations obtained using standard laboratory methods. Fecal glucocorticoid concentrations measured by Enzyme Immunoassay were used as the reference data of partial least square (PLS) regression …

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Self-Directed Learning And The Lupus Patient: Using Adult: Education Strategies To Actively Cope With Chronic Illness, Kristin Brittain Jan 2016

Self-Directed Learning And The Lupus Patient: Using Adult: Education Strategies To Actively Cope With Chronic Illness, Kristin Brittain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this study was 1) to examine the significance of a patient’s active or passive role in terms of his/her health management; 2) to determine if a relationship exists between one’s active and passive scores and his/her self-directed learning readiness, and 3) to identify if his/her view of one’s self as a patient (when diagnosed with a chronic disease) impacted his/her own personal health management. Utilizing the quantitative analysis of The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale and the Vanderbilt Pain Management Inventory, 81 individuals’ descriptive statistics were analyzed. Self-directed learning was found to positively influence an individual’s ability to …

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Sources Of Popularity: Aggressive And Prosocial Strategists And The Adolescents Who Affiliate With Them., Cody Hiatt Jan 2016

Sources Of Popularity: Aggressive And Prosocial Strategists And The Adolescents Who Affiliate With Them., Cody Hiatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

Popular children are visible and influential in an adolescent peer group (LaFontana & Cillessen, 2002). Previous studies have demonstrated that there are two types of popular children: aggressive-popular and prosocial-popular (Cillessen & Rose, 2005). The current study was designed to determine that, while both types are well liked and accepted, they draw favor from different sources of affiliation. The Study uses a sample of 450 adolescents (36.2% boys and 63.1% girls) from one high school in Lithuania. Hierarchical generalized logistic linear models (HGLLM) were conducted to determine if there was differential acceptance of aggressive-popular and prosocialpopular adolescents. Also, models determined …

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Social Interaction On Facebook, Jeffrey Hanrahan Jan 2016

Social Interaction On Facebook, Jeffrey Hanrahan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

How we share our good news with people can have a significant effect on our lives. Sharing good news on social media sites involves a process called capitalization. Capitalization has been shown to increase well-being when others provide appropriate responses in face-to-face interactions. To see if this effect on well-being extends to our online presence, this study utilized the social media site Facebook to observe if capitalization predicted well-being and relationship satisfaction. This study used data collected from 137 participants recruited from an undergraduate participant pool and from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Consistent with hypotheses, participants who reported receiving active and …

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Simulation For A Continuing Professional Education Course: Examining The Learning Gains And Perceptions Of Athletic Trainers, Eva M. Frank Jan 2016

Simulation For A Continuing Professional Education Course: Examining The Learning Gains And Perceptions Of Athletic Trainers, Eva M. Frank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was threefold. First, this study compared the effects of two different simulation-based instructional strategies on athletic trainers’ clinical competence in performing cardiovascular screening with cardiac auscultations. Second, this study identified the athletic trainers’ perceptions of learning through simulation-based instructional strategies. Third, this study attempted to identify and offer instructional recommendations based on the outcomes. The quantitative phase analyzed cognitive and diagnostic reasoning knowledge and history-taking and clinical skills specific to cardiovascular screenings with cardiac auscultations as it was taught to athletic trainers (ATs) at a continuing professional education (CPE) course. The …

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Sparse Coding And Compressed Sensing: Locally Competitive Algorithms And Random Projections, William E. Hahn Jan 2016

Sparse Coding And Compressed Sensing: Locally Competitive Algorithms And Random Projections, William E. Hahn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2010 - 2019

For an 8-bit grayscale image patch of size n x n, the number of distinguishable signals is 256(n2). Natural images (e.g.,photographs of a natural scene) comprise a very small subset of these possible signals. Traditional image and video processing relies on band-limited or low-pass signal models. In contrast, we will explore the observation that most signals of interest are sparse, i.e. in a particular basis most of the expansion coefficients will be zero. Recent developments in sparse modeling and L1 optimization have allowed for extraordinary applications such as the single pixel camera, as well as computer vision systems that can …

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