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A Non-Voluntarist Theory: An Alternative Evangelical Apologetic For Dealing With The Euthyphro Dilemma, Evan Posey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation presents an alternative response to the Euthyphro dilemma that will be referred to as the Non-Voluntarist Theory. It offers a critical evaluation of contemporary evangelical divine command theories to demonstrate the inherent ambiguity as they relate to Divine Command Theory, and their lack of apologetic force for answering the Euthyphro dilemma. To accomplish this task, it is important to understand how the Euthyphro Dilemma relates to theology and apologetics in general, and the contemporary attempts to ground objective moral values and duties in particular. The topic relates to theology, since one’s response to the Euthyphro Dilemma can implicitly …

Indifference To Chaotic Motion May Be Related To Social Disinterest In Children With Autism, Joshua L. Haworth, Anastasia Kyvelidou, Wayne Fisher, Nicholas Stergiou

Journal Articles

Children with autism spectrum disorder tend to have little interest in the presence, actions, and motives of other persons. In addition, these children tend to present with a limited and overly redundant movement repertoire, often expressing hyperfixation and aversion to novelty. We explore whether this is related to a more fundamental lack of appreciation for various temporal dynamics, including periodic, chaotic, and aperiodic motion structures. Seven children with ASD (age, gender, and height matched with children without ASD) were asked to stand and watch the motion of a visual stimulus displayed on a large (55") video monitor. Gaze and posture …

Exploring Practices Of Novice Head Teachers In Teacher Management In Two Primary Schools In Koboko District, Uganda, Afedra Paschal

Master of Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the practices of novice head teachers in teacher management in two primary schools in Koboko district Uganda. A qualitative research approach was used focusing on case study of two schools whereby the research participants were two head teachers, two deputy head teachers and sixteen teachers. The data was collected using one-on-one face to face unstructured interview, Focus Group Discussion and document analysis. The findings indicated that novice head teachers engaged teacher management in a number of management areas. These areas included; teacher deployment, teacher development, teacher leadership, and teacher retention. However the …

Georgia's Safe Harbor Ruling For Affirmative Defenses In Criminal Cases Should Be Revisited, Ben W. Studdard, Michal A. Arndt

Mercer Law Review

The State has the entire burden of proving the defendant's guilt of the offense charged beyond a reasonable doubt, reads the instruction given to every jury empaneled to try a criminal case in Georgia. The defendant has no burden of proof at all. Where the evidence raises a defense, the burden remains with the State to negate or disprove that defense beyond a reasonable doubt. But those same Georgia citizens, when summoned to federal jury service, may hear a very different instruction: that the defendant, upon raising an affirmative defense, has the burden of proof as to that defense, by …

Torts, Phillip Comer Griffeth, Christopher R. Breault, Christopher Barwick Newbern

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys recent developments in Georgia tort law between June 1, 2015 and May 31, 2016.

In A Bind: The Role Of Transgender Health Care Coverage In Politics, Lucas Johnson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Paper 4: Pathways To Opportunity: Financial Flexibility And Workforce Readiness, Deborah A. Bradbard, Rosalinda Maury, Nicholas Armstrong

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This paper explores key factors that contribute to military family financial readiness—prior to transition—so that service members may exercise control over their finances and optimize their choices at transition to optimize their financial opportunities and minimize the risk of financial hardship. The goal for any service member is to maximize their range of options in transition by capitalizing on their unique assets (education benefits, intangible leadership skills, etc.) and limiting potential liabilities (limited professional network, advanced education or training) through sound financial preparation.

Multi-Generational Design Thinking School, Kyle Mcdowell, Payton Mills, Joseph Seder, Nichole Sloan, Hannah Fernando, Andrew Hereza

Liberal Studies Undergraduate Research

Every great story is full of interesting characters, and one of those characters is always the hero. In each and every story, that hero wants something. Our hero is the GVSU Meijer Campus in Holland, Michigan, but as it is now, that hero is weak, lonely, and not flourishing. Our hero wants to be relevant for the Holland community, but it needs to overcome underutilization to get there. However, what makes a story great is not the resolution; rather, it is the transformation of the hero. Join us in our journey as we design thinkers work to transform the identity …

Does It Take Courage To Start A Business?, Benjamin Hardy

All Theses

Courage is defined by Rate (2010) as an intentional behavior toward worthy goals involving risk. Previous research examining courage has emphasized the risk component of courage, but in large part neglected the worthy goals component. Furthermore, previous courage research has primarily examined courage as a prevention-focused behavior as a singular event. This study sought to explore courage as the pursuit of a promotion-focused goal over a long period of time. Specifically, this study examined courage in the context of starting a business. Latent/nascent entrepreneurs and actual entrepreneurs were interviewed to investigate courage and other constructs, including goal commitment and a …

Sidestepping Interdisciplinary Irrelevance—Current Approaches To Peace & Conflict Graduate Programs, Joseph G. Bock, Amanda Guidero

Faculty Articles

What do you tell a prospective graduate student who asks about job opportunities for interdisciplinary degree holders, such as in International Conflict Management (or other degrees oriented toward peace and justice studies)? First, you make the point that the degree is both academic and practice-oriented. In fact, it can be viewed as a design or applied science—design in the sense of architecture, though the artifact is a peace agreement, a policy, a program, or a diplomatic initiative; applied in that it seeks to prepare people to solve real-world problems

Dance As An Interdisciplinary Tool In Drama Class: Learning Acting Skills Through Dance Movement Experiences, Amandie Jolene Campbell

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

Actors must be able to engage with their audience through their stage presence and showmanship on stage. It is important that actors are able to fully embrace the physical character they are portraying, not just the mental and verbal entities of the character. The goal of this thesis argues and defends the use of dance in a drama classroom to effectively develop movement efficiency in a character’s physical development. Those who experience educational dance, personally or through observation of other students, see that dance enhances a lifestyle positively and creates students of courageous and respectful value to society. Students also …

Understanding Poetry: Integrating Creative Movement And Dance To Enhance The Learning Process For Middle And High School Students, Toni C. Duncan

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

The focus of this thesis project is the integration of creative movement and dance to enhance the learning process for students studying poetry. This project was a descriptive pilot project designed to evaluate a piece of dance curriculum. The researcher posed the following three essential questions: How can creative movement and dance in middle and high school students’ classes be used to enhance their understanding of poetry in terms of its structure? How will creative movement and dance help middle and high school students understand the meaning of poetry? Which creative movement and dance techniques can be used to help …

An All-Volunteer Force: Law Students And Pro Bono Lawyers Helping Veterans, Patricia E. Roberts

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Design Collaboration In Industry: When, Why, And How, Steven Thomas O'Shields

All Theses

This research compares how practicing engineers and designers collaborate inindustry work on design projects as compared to how academic textbooks teach design.Information from design literature textbooks was compared with in-person and over-the-phone interviews from practicing engineers and designers in industry. A case study wasconducted through interviews, which allow for live interactions between the researcherand the interviewees to retrieve targeted information specific to the collaborative designresearch that may be more difficult to attain in written documents. A total of teninterviewees volunteered from three companies to participate in an interview related todesign projects, processes, tools, and meetings. Interviews were then deconstructed toquantify …

Enhanced Mutual Performance Monitoring To Improve Backup Behaviors And Team Performance, Tiffany Nicole Cooper

All Theses

Organizations today are becoming increasingly dependent on teams, as often tasks that need to be completed are too complex for an individual alone. There are a multitude of factors that contribute to how effective a team is; however, an important process that needs to be studied more thoroughly is mutual monitoring and consequential backup behaviors. In the past backup behaviors have been studied solely through a task workload manipulation with methods of mutual monitoring rarely being addressed. The present study explores various types of team monitoring through the use of two experimental conditions: monitoring the task performance levels and a …

Investigating Employee Engagement Through A Self-Determination Theory Framework, Crystal S. Wiedemann

All Theses

Over the last decade, the concept of employee engagement has attractedsubstantial attention in both research settings and organizational applications (Christian,Garza, & Slaughter, 2011). Research has shown employee engagement to be related toseveral positive organizational outcomes, including employee production, employeeretention, customer satisfaction and company profit (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002;Hewitt Associates LLC, 2005). While there has been a recent surge of academic interestin employee engagement, there remains much to be learned about its antecedents. Thisstudy investigates employee engagement within the more established motivationalframework of Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) asproposed by Meyer and Gagne (2008) to …

The Moderating Effects Of Savoring Positive Life Experiences On The Relationship Between Combat Exposure And Mental Health Symptoms, Anton I. Sytine

All Theses

Engaging in firefights or witnessing death and other types of combat experiencesare occupational hazards associated with combat exposure facing military personnel. Thepresent study examined whether savoring beliefs moderate the relationship betweencombat exposure and negative mental health symptoms among U.S. Army soldiersdeployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).Soldiers (N = 885) deployed on at least one combat operation completed a measure ofcombat exposure, savoring beliefs, depression and PTSD at two time periods separatedby five months. Correlational and multiple regression analyses were conducted to assessthe relationship between variables and for the moderating effect of savoring. Savoringwas found to …

Where The Rain Goes, Haley Floyd

All Theses

In this work, I am expressing a deep compulsion to return home. It elicits a sense of nostalgia to return to what once was. The home described in the series is rooted in the landscape and specifically in the creek where I spent much of my time as a child. The work is a type of self-portraiture through my family and the landscape that speaks to my personal identity. As a child, I thought of the creek as being a natural paradise where I could go to escape people. In my mind, nature was isolated and separate from humans. In …

Let's Be Fair Here: The Influence Of Leadership On Interpersonal Justice Climate In A Healthcare Context, Nastassia Savage

All Theses

Although performance is a major interest in most organizations, it has more salient implications in the healthcare industry, in which changes in performance can have a significant effect on patient care. As such, it is important to determine what factors may result in performance increments or decrements. This study focused on how interpersonal justice climate may have an effect and how leaders influence its level. Specifically, it assessed how leaders impact the interpersonal justice climate of their unit by accounting for their political skill and the similarities in leader-member exchange relationships within clinical healthcare units. Additionally, the effect of interpersonal …

An Examination Of Food Insecurity And Its Impact On Violent Crime In American Communities, Jonathan Randel Caughron

All Theses

Food insecurity has been shown to have a negative impact on the health andpsychological well-being of those who suffer from it. Brinkman and Cullen (2011) havealso conducted research that shows food insecurity leads to increased incidences ofviolence and civil conflict in developing nations. However, very little research has beenconducted to examine a potential link between food insecurity and violence in developednations. This paper examines a potential link between food insecurity and the violentcrime rate in the United States at a county level using a least squares regressiontechnique. It also examines how the relationship between food insecurity and violentcrime varies in …

Neighborhood Environment And Self-Rated Health In Mainland China, Japan And South Korea, Jing Liu

All Theses

Neighborhood environments are considered crucial factors in affecting self-ratedhealth. Previous empirical research has documented a positive association between self ratings of neighborhood environments and health status. Although this relationship has been studied extensively in western countries, the relationship between neighborhoodratings and health status in East Asian countries has received far less attention by researchers. Using data from the East Asian Social Survey 2010, this thesis examines the relationship between self-rated health and the three main types of neighborhood environment (built, physical, and social) in Mainland China, Japan, and South Korea. This study also compares the neighborhood effects on self-rated health …

Studying The Use Of Hidden Markov Models In The Detection And Classification Of Eeg Epileptiform Transients Using Lpc Features, Kartikeya Shrikant Bagalore

All Theses

The process of identifying the presence of an AEP (Abnormal Epileptiform Paroxysmal) in a subject's EEG, normally done by neurologist experts, is a particularly long one and involves considerable financial expenses. This research aims to pave an automatic method of detecting and classifying streams of EEGs as to whether or not it has any AEPs present in it. This is a two step process, where step 1 is the classification problem and step 2 is the detection problem. There are many different activities on the EEGs, and the classification task helps to identify which of these activities are AEPs. So, …

Tannic Acid Crosslinked Collagen Type I For Prevention Of Local Her2-Positive Breast Cancer Recurrence, Lauren Gayle Jordan

All Theses

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women in the United States, affecting about 12 percent of women nationally (Ma and Jemal, 2013). The American Cancer Society estimates that 246,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women in 2016 (American Cancer Society, 2016 b). Breast cancer accounts for almost 30% of new cancer diagnoses and is one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths among women in developed countries. In addition, breast cancer is becoming a worldwide problem with incidence and mortality rates increasing steadily over the past 20 years in developing countries …

Effect Of Listening To Music During Warmup On Wingate Anaerobic Test Performance, Russell P. Fox

Masters Theses

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether or not different music conditions would affect performance on the Wingate anaerobic test. We also sought to explore the effect of music on psychological variables such as, rating of perceived exertion (RPE).

16 subject (8 males, 8 females) listened to either pre-selected music, self-selected music or white noise during a 10-minute warmup, cycling at 50 Rev.min-1 for 10 minutes with a light resistance of one kilogram. Once the warmup was completed they performed a Wingate Anaerobic test against a resistance of 7.5% of their body mass in kilograms.

There were …

Gameful Design In The Development Of Asynchronous Online Discussion Activities: A Case Study, William Michael Trest

Dissertations

This study investigates Gameful Design as a method to improve the development and implementation of Asynchronous Online Discussions in online learning environments. A qualitative methodology, an instrumental case study design, was used to examine the effectiveness of this design method by exploring the experiences of the participants and the meaning they gave to those experiences. Data was collected through observation, discussion transcript analysis, and pre/post-course interviews. Validity was strengthened by triangulation of these sources.

The findings showed that gameful design was an effective method to encourage the development of a connected and engaged learning community within an online class and …

Character Interpretation In Poulenc's La Voix Humaine: A Performer's Guide, Stefanie Nicole Anduri

Dissertations

Francis Poulenc’s 1959 opera, La Voix humaine provides uncommon opportunities for divergent character interpretations and unique challenges to the performer. The opera chronicles the final telephone conversation between the sole character and her estranged lover. The opera’s format is unprecedented; because the audience does not hear Monsieur’s responses, the performer must create and portray them through her reactions, a challenge unique to this work. Through the exploration of four distinct characterizations, I discuss the choices and ramifications for the woman’s demeanor towards other people on the telephone line, her relationship with the man, the function of the various musical motives …

The Role Of Performance And Gender In Hiring Decisions, Hayley Capshaw

Applied Economics Theses

Gender is likely the first trait a person will notice when meeting someone new. Typically, there isn’t much thought behind it when it is observed. There is just a basic understanding that this new individual is either male or female. Every characteristic going forward is built on that building block of gender. What if this first observation has a much deeper effect on the outcomes going forward than just knowing someone is male or female? What if it changes the entire relationship structure going forward? This thesis will discuss findings on a gender, negotiation, and risk preferences. These findings are …

Avengers Assemble...In Therapy: An Exploration Of Superheroes And Their Trauma, Megan R. Butler

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Superheroes are more than just their superhero abilities. They are representations of individual and societal traumas experienced by many in our universe. By studying superheroes we may critically develop new methods of therapy to aid in the healing process to traumatic experiences. Through this, individuals may find their own superpower and aid others in the discovery of theirs.

The Benefits Of Outdoor Education Curriculum For Elementary School Students With Nature Deficit Disorder, Madison L. Allen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The benefits of implementing outdoor education curriculum and outdoor learning into the state standards are plentiful, and the consequences of children who do not get the exposure to outdoor learning and activity can be severe. Nature deficit disorder is a term coined by Louv (2008) in his book Last child in the woods describing a child with little to no contact to nature and the outside world around them. Louv (2008) made connections to behavioral and developmental disorders that may have to do with the lack of outdoor exposure in the child’s life. There are countless advantages to implementing outdoor …

Preschool Intervention Programs Addressing The School Readiness Gap For Poor-To-Low-Income Children Entering Kindergarten, Marizela Soria

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Over the last several decades, studies using quantitative and qualitative research methods have produced positive effects on children’s learning and behavioral development. These effects vary in size and lasting effect depending on the type of program implemented. Current public policies for child care, Head Start, and state pre-K do not ensure that most American children will attend a highly effective preschool program. In actuality, a striking amount of children attend weak programs and many others attend no program at all. These fall backs in attendance are mainly associated with children in poverty-to-low-income households, (Barnett, 2008). Data supports that early childhood …