Digital Commons Network^™

Shaping Leadership: Leadership Standards In The Organizational Language Of University Programs, R. Ben Meador Iv

Dissertations

According to institutional theory, organizations in complex fields like education seek legitimacy by aligning formal descriptions of their activities to institutional rules supported by regulators, professional groups and exemplar organizations. This study presents a new technique for measuring isomorphism and the strength of institutional forces within fields using quantitative content analysis of organizational language. This method is deployed to measure alignment between the formal descriptions of 321 university-based programs for educational leaders and themes from the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (i.e., technology, finance, research, and learning) and the influence of state licensure policy and professional affiliation in the University …

Preparation Of Aminoalcohols And Their Application For The Synthesis Of Heterocycles And As Potential Sensors For Nerve Agents, David L. Sellers

Dissertations

Oxazoles and oxazolines are important heterocyclic scaffolds commonly used in pharmaceuticals and optoelectronic materials. Traditionally these heterocyclic compounds are prepared by condensation methodology that suffers from poor reactivity when using electron deficient or sterically crowded reaction partners. Condensation methods also exhibit low tolerance of many functional groups as the reactions typically use strong acids and high temperatures. This dissertation describes an alternate strategy for the formation of these compounds by employing an epoxide opening followed by oxidation to form these heterocyclic compounds.

Epoxide opening reactions with primary aliphatic, allylic, and benzylic amines, aminolysis reactions, often achieve high yields regardless of …

A Shrine For President Lincoln: An Analysis Of Lincoln Museums And Historic Sites, 1865-2015, Thomas D. Mackie Jr.

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze how communities and special interest groups have presented Abraham Lincoln in historic sites and museums with significant Lincoln collections and interpretive themes. Commemoration of Abraham Lincoln began during the murdered president’s funeral trip and extended throughout the later nineteenth century with statues, biographies, Decoration Day oratories, historic sites, special exhibits, and museums. These sites devoted to the 16th president are among the earliest public historic museums and preserved sites. They include galleries, research exhibits, interactive galleries, pioneer villages, outdoor museums, and historic houses. After continued expansion in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, …

African American Men’S Health: Regulating Race-Related Stress Through Cognitive Flexibility, Brian P. Littleton

Dissertations

African American men have one the highest preventable mortality and morbidity rates in the United States (Rich, 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Moreover, there is substantial health disparity between African American men and White men in the United States (Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2003). It has been stated that pervasive racism and discrimination are the most significant contributors for the disparity. Studies have shown race-related stress, which is derived from experiencing racism, discrimination or having internalized feelings as the result of an individual’s racial status, has been associated with blood pressure, emotional distress, and physical health …

Pedagogical Moves As Characteristics Of One Instructor’S Instrumental Orchestrations With Tinkerplots And The Ti-73 Explorer: A Case Study, James L. Kratky

Dissertations

Those supporting contemporary reform efforts for mathematics education in the United States have called for increased use of technologies to support student-centered learning of mathematical concepts and skills. There is a need for more research and professional development to support teachers in transitioning their instruction to better meet the goals of such reform efforts.

Instrumental approaches to conceptualizing technology use in mathematics education, arising out of the theoretical and empirical work in France and other European nations, show promise for use to frame studies on school mathematics in the United States. Instrumental genesis is used to describe the bidirectional and …

Transitioning Children With Autism From One-On-One Discrete-Trial Settings To Special Education Classrooms, Jennifer L. Freeman

Dissertations

The goal of an early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) program is to teach each child the skills necessary to make meaningful progress in less-restrictive environments (Fox, Dunlap & Crushing, 2002). However, few studies have detailed the steps necessary for a “successful” transition into these educational settings. We transitioned two children, who received 20 hours a week of one-on-one discrete-trial therapy and attended a half-day special education pre-school classroom, to a full-time educational setting. With the goal of aiding each during his/her transition, this study used the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) (Sundberg, 2008), particularly the barriers and …

An Integrated Approach For A Better Understanding Of The Paleo-Hydrology And Landscape Evolution In The Sahara During The Previous Wet Climatic Periods, Abotalib Zaki Abotalib Farag

Dissertations

Paleoclimatic regimes over Saharan Africa alternated between dry and wet periods throughout the Pleistocene Epoch, and it is during the wet periods that the Saharan fossil aquifers were recharged. The present study investigates the role of groundwater-related processes in shaping the Saharan landforms (e.g., theater-headed valleys [THV]; depressions, escarpments, playas, and tufa deposits) over areas occupied by the largest of these aquifer systems, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS). The present study reviews the suggested hypotheses for the origin of these landforms in the Sahara, and in similar settings elsewhere, and presents evidence in support of the following: during the …

Examining International Stock Market Integration: Effects On Portfolio Statistical Moments, Changes To Systematic Risk Significance, And Investor Purchasing Of Foreign Equities, Justin Kingsley Hanig

Dissertations

The internet provides individuals with the ability to find instantaneous information on nearly every corner of the earth. Increasing correlations of international stock markets suggests investors may use information from different parts of the world to assess the value of the assets they hold in their portfolios. This dissertation examines changes in international stock market behavior to identify the effects of international market integration across a time. More specifically, this dissertation studies the effects of integration on the ability of diversification to reduce risk and skewness of portfolios, how global-wide risks significantly impact country-level index returns, and the equity purchasing …

La Sexualidad Como Vehículo De La Identidad De Género, Sexual Y Nacional En La Novelística Panhispánica Del Siglo Xxi, Leticia Isabel Espinoza

Dissertations

The search for identity in twentieth-century Spanish-language literature has primarily been seen through the rewriting of history to better suit new generations. For instance, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez’s novel about the origins of Colombia and Latin America, fictionalizes historical facts and rewrites history to question the very identity of Latin American countries. However, the search for identity in twenty-first-century Spanish language novels is unique in the sense that it does not look for identity through history, but through sexuality. Due to the lack of research in this area, the purpose of this study is to demonstrate …

A Prospective Investigation Of Behavioral Risk Factors And Sexual Victimization Outcome In College Females, Tara E. Casady

Dissertations

The current study was a prospective examination of the potential predictors of sexual victimization in women with and without sexual victimization histories. Utilizing a longitudinal design, we investigated sexually risky behavior, sexual sensation seeking, and substance use disordered behavior with regard to the later experience of sexual victimization during 2-­‐‑, 6-­‐‑, and 12-­‐‑month follow-­‐‑up periods. As reported previously, Time 1 data suggested that women with victimization histories were more likely to engage in sexually risky behaviors, engage in substance use disordered behavior, and were more likely to endorse higher scores of sexual sensation seeking. A statistically significant relationship was not …

Design And Validation Of An Electro-Hydraulic Pressure-Control Valve And Closed-Loop Controller, Jerry Boza

Dissertations

Electro-hydraulic pressure-control valves are used in many applications, such as manufacturing equipment, agricultural machinery, and aircrafts to name a few. They are often used to actuate hydraulic clutches, such as those found in power shift transmissions. A traditional pressure-control valve with open-loop control algorithm is typically used in clutch applications. This scheme often results in inconsistent or undesirable system behavior due to the nature of open-loop control as well as the nonlinear system dynamics and uncertainties.

In this research two new electro-hydraulic pressure-control valves were designed in order to decouple the valve and control port (hydraulic) dynamics. This was achieved …

Factors Affecting Community Participation In Young Adults With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Molly Bathje

Dissertations

Young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) participate less frequently in communities than other disabled and non-disabled peers (Verdonschot, de Witte, Reichrath, Buntinx, & Curfs, 2009) even though they express a desire to participate (Kampert & Goreczny, 2007) and federal policy mandates community inclusion (Haertl, 2014). Participation in one’s community is linked to health and quality of life (World Health Organization, 2002). The broad goal of this three paper dissertation is to contribute to a deeper understanding of what facilitates and impedes community participation for young adults with IDD by (1) developing a new conceptual model, (2) evaluating a …

A Formative Evaluation Of A Program Providing Support To College Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Kourtney Kay Bakalyar

Dissertations

Young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are attending institutions of higher education more than ever before (Smith, 2007). All college students with disabilities have the right to accommodations under the American with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA; P.L. 110-325); however, these accommodations frequently do not address barriers that prevent students with ASD from successfully completing their academic programs. The Autism Services Center at a public, four-year university provides services to its college students with ASD to address difficulties with communication and social skills, unique emotional and behavior characteristics, insufficient executive function, and difficulties with independent living skills. …

Three Essays Assessing Global Value Chain Fragmentation On International Trade Using The World Input-Output Database, Johanna Retana Attoh

Dissertations

The growing fragmentation of supply chains across countries have changed the way nations engage in international trade. Conventionally, studies have used data on exports to measure trade flows; however, the use of this type of data imposes many assumptions that might misrepresent the real world. For instance, the assumption that the supply chain of a product is confined in only the domestic country does not take into consideration the increasing number of foreign inputs needed to produce a final good. In this dissertation, I use the World Input-Output Database (WIOD), since this dataset allows one to track and decompose the …

Indoor Localization Of Mobile Devices Based On Wi-Fi Signals Via Convex Optimization And Bregman Divergence, Osamah Ali Abdullah

Dissertations

Indoor positioning systems (IPS) have been the subject of intense academic and industrial research due to the significance of such systems in a wide range of applications. Applications of IPS include indoor navigation and its associated user services, especially by users in large complex buildings, by emergency healthcare services to locate a patient, and people with vision impairments. IPS can also play an important role in other applications that require tracking and observation, such as those used in care for the elderly or security purposes. Therefore, much research has been focused on IPS methods that fingerprint the Received Signal Strength …

The Effect Of Process Parameters And Surface Condition On Bond Strength Between Additively Manufactured Components And Polymer Substrates, Bharat Bhushan Chivukula

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Additive patching is a process in which printers with multiple axes deposit molten material onto a pre-defined surface to form a bond. Studying the effect of surface roughness and process parameters selected for printing auxiliary part on the bond helps in improving the strength of the final component. Particularly, the influence of surface roughness, as established by adhesion theory, has not been evaluated in the framework of additive manufacturing (AM). A full factorial design of experiments with five replications was conducted on two levels and three factors, viz., layer thickness, surface roughness, and raster angle to examine the underlying effects …

Joe Henderson: A Biographical Study Of His Life And Career, Joel Geoffrey Harris

Dissertations

This study provides an overview of the life and career of Joe Henderson, who was a unique presence within the jazz musical landscape. It provides detailed biographical information, as well as discographical information and the appropriate context for Henderson's two-hundred sixty-seven recordings. His life is presented in the following categories: Early Years; Blue Note Period; Milestone Period; Intervening Years; and Verve Period. Thorough study and collation of published materials produced the framework of this document, while original interviews with those knowledgeable of Henderson's life and career provided insight into his personality and career decisions. The resulting body of research is …

Co-Teaching In Secondary Field Experience Practica, Stephanie A. Fanselow

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the impact on students, teacher candidates, and classroom teachers of applying a co-teaching model to the field experience practica prior to student teaching compared to traditional field experience practica in one secondary teacher preparation program. Participating partner schools were randomized either to receive professional development on co-teaching with a teacher candidate or to the control group. A total of 43 cooperating teachers and 30 teacher candidates participated in the study. The co-teaching treatment group consisted of 18 cooperating teacher-teacher candidate pairs. Quantitative data collection included limited student achievement data from …

The Effects Of Social Identification And Organizational Identification On Student Commitment, Achievement And Satisfaction In Higher Education, S Wilkins, Mm Butt, D Kratochvil, Ms Balakrishnan

Plymouth Business School

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of social and organizational identifications on student commitment, achievement and satisfaction in higher education. The sample comprised 437 students enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate programme in business or management. A model was developed and tested using structural equation modelling. It was found that organizational identification is a stronger predictor of student commitment, achievement and satisfaction than social identification. Although organizational identification was a strong predictor of student satisfaction, student commitment was better at explaining student achievement. The implications for higher education institutions are discussed. To the knowledge of the …

Avoiding The “Too Comfortable In The Saddle” Syndrome: Obtaining High Performance From The Chairperson, Ceo And Inside Directors, T O'Shannassy, Maam Leenders

Plymouth Business School

When the chairperson and chief executive officer experience long co-tenure working together building knowledge and understanding, strategizing, and developing company-specific resources there can be significant organization performance gains. However the broader board context, especially the insider ratio – the number of executive directors as a proportion of the total number of directors – provides clues as to whether an organization is in a less productive configuration. In this study data from 102 Australian Stock Exchange listed companies is gathered on corporate governance configurations and organization performance. Australia is an interesting setting because the chairperson and chief executive officer roles are …

Collective Personalized Change Classification With Multiobjective Search, Xin Xia, David Lo, Xinyu Wang, Xiaohu Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many change classification techniques have been proposed to identify defect-prone changes. These techniques consider all developers' historical change data to build a global prediction model. In practice, since developers have their own coding preferences and behavioral patterns, which causes different defect patterns, a separate change classification model for each developer can help to improve performance. Jiang, Tan, and Kim refer to this problem as personalized change classification, and they propose PCC+ to solve this problem. A software project has a number of developers; for a developer, building a prediction model not only based on his/her change data, but also on …

Unsupervised Feature Selection For Outlier Detection By Modelling Hierarchical Value-Feature Couplings, Guansong Pang, Longbing Cao, Ling Chen, Huan Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Proper feature selection for unsupervised outlier detection can improve detection performance but is very challenging due to complex feature interactions, the mixture of relevant features with noisy/redundant features in imbalanced data, and the unavailability of class labels. Little work has been done on this challenge. This paper proposes a novel Coupled Unsupervised Feature Selection framework (CUFS for short) to filter out noisy or redundant features for subsequent outlier detection in categorical data. CUFS quantifies the outlierness (or relevance) of features by learning and integrating both the feature value couplings and feature couplings. Such value-to-feature couplings capture intrinsic data characteristics and …

Seeking To Lead Timely Innovations In Medical Education In China: An Evolving Story Of Shantou University Medical College, Junhui Bian

Journal of Medical Education

文章暫無收錄摘要

Flipped Classroom As An Effective Model To Teach Electrocardiography To Undergraduate Medical Students, Hsin-Hui Chen, Hsueh-Hsing Pan, Yaw-Don Hsu, Cheng-Yi Cheng, Chun-Hsien Wu, Wei-Shiang Lin, Shu-Meng Cheng, Tai-Lung Cha, Shih-Hua Lin, Chin-Sheng Lin

Journal of Medical Education

Purpose: Few studies have reported the effects of the flipped classroom (FC) on cardiovascular teaching. This study investigated students' performance after using the FC to teach electrocardiogram (ECG) recognition of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: We recruited 56 and 52 students in the FC and traditional lecture (TL) groups, respectively, through cluster sampling. The modified Course Evaluation Questionnaire and the open-ended question, which explored the general thoughts of the students, were applied to both groups. To evaluate the students' performance, the same post-class quizzes including questions on anterior, lateral, and inferior wall MI were presented as multiple-choice questions, which were …

Factors Related To Past Physical Bullying Experiences In Incoming University Students With High Academic Achievements, Shu Hui Cheng, Chih-Ting Lee, Mei Hung Chi, Zih-Jie Sun, Kao Chin Chen, Yin-Fan Chang, Yi-Ching Yang, Yen Kuang Yang

Journal of Medical Education

Background: It is well known that bullying is prevelant among students with low academic performances; however, less attention has been paid to university students with past physical bullying experiences whose academic performences are better. The aim of this study was to explore the physical, social/behavioral and mental characteristics of students with past physical bullying experiences at one of top universities in Taiwan. Methods: A total of 5,362 incoming university students were recruited. The test battery included a self-report questionnaire on past physical bullying experiences, the Measurement of Support Functions, the Chinese Internet Addiction Scale-Revision, Quality of Life assessment, the Brief …

Developing A Complex Simulation Training Program For Emergency Medical Services Paramedics Using A High-Fidelity Simulation Model, Hsiang-Chin Hsu, Chih-Hao Lin, Chih-Chia Hsieh, Pin-Hui Fang, Wei-Tin Shih, Wei-Cheng Liu, Chih-Hsien Chi, Hsin-I Shih

Journal of Medical Education

Purpose: Simulation training has been described as a positive participatory training and education method for paramedics. Therefore, we developed simulation programs for the continuing education of paramedics to improve prehospital acute medical care and medical transport for patients with illnesses and injuries and prevent further injuries by educating emergency medical service (EMS) paramedics Methods: A high-fidelity scenario simulation was performed to create a realistic scene. Skills, communication and leadership required during for the practices in the field were considered to develop simulation scenarios. The simulation curriculum was developed by working group consensus meetings and pre-course scenario discussions. The Ottawa Global …

Construction And Validation Of An Analytic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric For Healthcare Students And Providers, Pan-Fu Kao, Ya-Huei Wang, Hung-Chang Liao

Journal of Medical Education

Purpose: The study attempted to construct and validate a systemized evaluation for critical thinking performance in the Taiwanese medical cultural context. Methods: Literature related to critical thinking and rubric development was reviewed and discussed in expert panels in order to set up a theoretical framework for the proposed Analytic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric for Healthcare Students and Providers (ACTSR‒HSP). Three experts used the index of Item Objective Congruence (IOC) for the critical thinking and scoring rubric to evaluate the congruence between the qualitative scoring items and the objectives. Percent exact agreement and percent adjacent agreement were applied to examine the …

The Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions Over The Earth (Acre) Initiative Acre China Workshop: Recovery, Digitization, And Analysis Of Pre-Mid-Twentieth Century Climate Observational Data In East Asia Workshop On 23-24 August, Beijing, China, Fiona Williamson, Guoyu Ren, Rob Allan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This commentary discusses a recent workshop designed to explore the extant historic instrumental record of weather observations for China, East Asia, and the China Seas region; to uncover new sources of observations; and to work on joint initiatives for their recovery and inclusion in open access data sets. The workshop was funded by the UK Newton Fund's Climate Science for Service Partnership China. It was organized by the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth China, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the Beijing Climate Centre, and the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and held at CMA offices in Beijing.

Servant Leadership And Cultural Characteristics As Predictors Of Follower Engagement, George Bovenzi

Education Doctoral

Servant leadership theory, introduced in the 1970s, has gained in popularity in recent years. Servant leadership’s roots in serving, caring, and behaving ethically makes it a leadership model that is timely and relevant in light of today’s global, organizational, and political challenges. Additionally, an engaged workforce is considered to be a key lever that organizations utilize to gain an advantage in the marketplace while disengaged employees present a significant cost to companies. Nevertheless, servant leadership’s impact on organizations and specifically its ability to engage employees has received limited research. This quantitative study was undertaken in a multinational manufacturing organization and …

Community College Developmental Mathematics Classrooms: Understanding Supportive Faculty Strategies And Impact On Student Success, Rachel Santiago

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore supportive faculty strategies as described by students and faculty of developmental mathematics courses at two community colleges in Upstate New York. Using validation theory, the study focused on compiling information from students and faculty regarding the importance of supportive factors inside and outside of the developmental mathematics classrooms. Data were collected from surveys administered in the spring 2016 semester, and analyses of these data led to several findings: (a) students significantly rated faculty lower than faculty self-reported on caring instruction; (b) there was a weak, positive correlation that showed the longer …