Digital Commons Network^™

The Relationship Between Advanced Academic Services And College Readiness Among Public High School Students In Rural Remote Appalachian Kentucky, Franklin Brian Thomas

Online Theses and Dissertations

The importance of college to the individual and society has prompted recent policies and accountability systems to emphasize college readiness as the primary benchmark for high school success. Advanced/honors courses, Advanced Placement (AP)/dual credit courses, and gifted programs are the most common advanced academic service options available in public schools to ensure college readiness. This study investigated 2014-2015 school year data associated with 2,792 students in five high schools in five different school districts in rural remote Appalachian Kentucky. The goal was to see which advanced academic service was most associated with college ready students. College readiness was measured in …

The Tower: Prison Architecture And The Verticality Of Carcerality, Jordan Frazier

Online Theses and Dissertations

The architecture of incarceration has undergone many well-documented changes since the late 18th Century. However, one of the constants has been the architectural symbolism of incarceration itself, and the role it plays in communicating ideas about punishment and control. In this thesis, I examine one of the most fundamental logics of control within this architecture that has largely gone unquestioned: verticality. Specifically, my interest lies in the role that verticality plays in the form of the prison gun tower, which I link to other measures of vertical dominance, such as the aerial drone, and the fortified hilltop. To better situate …

Are Mussel Shells Environmental Dna Time Capsules? A Comparison Of Extraction Methods For Obtaining Dna From Shell Material., Kelsey Elizabeth Rogers

Online Theses and Dissertations

Freshwater mussels have become some of the most imperiled species in North America and widespread populations have succumbed to pollution and many other anthropogenic-related factors. With molecular techniques evolving, a recent interest in ancient DNA and museum specimens has emerged and prompted a study to test the ability of several extraction methods to isolate DNA from museum mussel specimens. The purpose of this study was to determine if four DNA extraction methods had influence on total DNA yield (ng/mg) from mussel tissue. The hinge ligaments of freshwater mussels ranging in collection date (1984-2015) were used as the source of genetic …

Federal Preparedness Grants: An Investigation Of The Impacts To Local And State Emergency Management Programs, Brian Alan Barnes

Online Theses and Dissertations

Disasters begin and end locally, but anecdotal evidence suggests that national disaster policies significantly influence state and local approaches. The federal government influences local and state emergency management through national emergency management doctrine as well as providing considerable grant programs to local and state governments who adopt the federal policies. The study attempts to explore some effects of this policy dichotomy.

A survey along with selective interviews were conducted of local and state emergency management officials in North Carolina to examine the impacts of select federal preparedness grants. From 70 surveys and 6 interviews, the following findings were identified. There …

Black Minds Matter: Black Student Perceptions Of Three Kentucky Regional Comprehensive Predominantly White Institutions And The Role Of Campus Support Initiatives In Reducing The Frequence Of Stop-Out And Drop-Out, Christopher W. Blakely

Online Theses and Dissertations

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2015), between 1996 and 2008, Black (African-American may be used interchangeably with Black, as defined through this study) college students had the lowest graduation rates among racial groups at four-year public institutions. Furthermore, more recent provisional data from the National Center for Education Statistics for 2008-2013, further support continued disproportional retention and graduation rates of Black college students. Therefore, given this, the present study examined the relationship between academic achievement and an increase in Black students' satisfaction with their college experience at Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) and institutionally funded supportive associations for …

Enclosed From All Sides: Reading Contact And Ambivalence In The Imaginary Al-Andalus Of Hrotsvit's The Passion Of Pelagius And The Song Of Roland, Briana J. Wipf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hrotsvit of Gandersheim’s The Passion of Pelagius and The Song of Roland have never been read together in terms of their shared engagement with the Muslim other in the Iberian Peninsula, known during the Middle Ages as Al-Andalus. This project is a comparative reading of the texts’ approach to the presentation of an imaginary Al-Andalus as a space of alterity. The texts’ emphasis on imaginative as opposed to accurate portrayals of Andalusian history and Islamic culture suggests their engagement with a process of Christian identity-building, where the “Christian,” as portrayed in each text, is defined against and in comparison to …

Bubbles In Experimental Asset Markets, Praveen Kujal, Owen Powell

ESI Working Papers

"One can define a bubble as a persistent increase in the price of an asset over and above its fundamental value with an abrupt fall in prices when no buyers are available to make purchases. The occurrence of market bubbles has a long history, starting with the Dutch Tulip Mania (1624-1637) to the South Sea and Mississippi Bubble (1716-1720), the British Railway Mania (1840´s) to the crash of 1929. Recent events have been the crash of 1987, the dot-com bubble (1990s) to the most recent housing crisis in early 2000. Even though bubbles, and a subsequent crash, may reallocate resources …

The Normative Approach Of The Catholic Tradition In The Ethical And Religious Directives For Resolving Ethical Dilemmas Regarding Medical Technology, David G. Garvis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation engages the Catholic Tradition enunciated in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services to provide a normative approach for resolving ethical dilemmas regarding pivotal breakthroughs in medical technology.

This normative ethical approach has two components: a normative framework for Catholic health care ethics that adopts practical ethical principles as enunciated in the Ethical and Religious Directives (Chapter 2) and secular decision-making models in organizational and clinical ethics that are consistent with the Catholic Tradition (Chapter 3).

At the end of the theoretical analysis in these chapters, the conclusion to Chapter 3 explains how this normative …

Leandro's Left Behind: How North Carolina's English Learners Have Been Denied Their Fundamental Right To A Sound Basic Education, Karlie Love Hudson

Campbell Law Review

Under Leandro v. State, the North Carolina Constitution guarantees a sound basic education for all students enrolled in public schools. This Comment addresses the state's current system for educating the rising number of non-native English speaking students and demonstrates how that system has failed to meet Leandro's command.

This Comment uses the framework constructed in Leandro to explore North Carolina's current challenges in educating English Learners ("EL"). It examines the long-standing achievement gap that exists between EL students and their native-English speaking peers and demonstrates that EL students are not receiving a sound basic education. Additionally, this Comment examines the …

Great Plains Geology, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Great Plains Geology concisely guides readers through the geological development of the Great Plains region. It describes the distinct features of fifty-seven geologic sites, including fascinating places such as Raton Pass in Colorado and New Mexico, the Missouri Breaks of Montana, and the Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska. This guide addresses the tricky question of what constitutes the Great Plains, showing that the region is defined in part through its unique geologic features.

Illinois's Performance Evaluation Reform Act (Pera) And Its Effect On The Dismissal Of Teachers For Unsatisfactory Teaching Performance : A Review Of Related Litigation, Kristin M. Humphries

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

With the federal government's expanding role in K-12 public education, this study examines how the government's role led to the passage of the Illinois Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA). PERA made changes to Article 24A of the School Code, specifically the section that deals with teacher performance evaluation. PERA created a public school teacher evaluation system that included---for the first time---a requirement that student academic growth data be part of the public school teacher classroom performance evaluation calculus. As a result of PERA, for the first time in Illinois teacher tenure, reductions in force (RIF), and teacher dismissals are now …

Quantitative Morphometric Analysis Of Terrestrial Glacial Valleys And The Application To Mars, Kory Allred

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Although the current climate on Mars is very cold and dry, it is generally accepted that the past environments on the planet were very different. Paleo-environments may have been warm and wet with oceans and rivers. And there is abundant evidence of water ice and glaciers on the surface as well. However, much of that comes from visual interpretation of imagery and other remote sensing data. For example, some of the characteristics that have been utilized to distinguish glacial forms are the presence of landscape features that appear similar to terrestrial glacial landforms, constraining surrounding topography, evidence of flow, orientation, …

Tim Marshall: Prisoners Of Geography Study Guide, 2017, Steven A. Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Study Guide

The Strategic Potential Of Community-Based Hybrid Models: The Case Of Global Business Services In Africa, Stephan Manning, Chacko G. Kannothra, Nichole K. Wissman-Weber

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

As a latecomer economy, Africa faces persistent difficulties with catching up in global markets. This study examines the strategic potential of community-based hybrid models, which balance market profitability with social impact in local communities. Focusing on the global business services industry in Kenya and South Africa, and the practice of ‘impact sourcing’ – hiring and training of disadvantaged staff servicing business clients – we find that while regular providers struggle to compete with global peers, hybrid model adopters manage to access underutilized labor pools through community organizations, and target less competitive niche client markets. We further identify key industry, institutional …

Effects Of Donor- And Supporter-Based Campaign Networks On Crowdfunding Campaign Success, Bin Wang, Babajide Osatuyi, Wanrong Hou

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Driven by the increasing popularity of crowdfunding, academic researchers have examined the impacts of internal social capital accumulated on crowdfunding platforms and external social capital formed through online and offline friend networks on campaign success. However, no research has examined the impacts of social networks from a structural perspective. In the current research, we investigate the extent to which donor- and supporter-based campaign network centralities affect the amount of capital a fundraising campaign is able to generate. Using a panel data set collected from a donation-based crowdfunding platform, Fundly, we reveal that campaign network centralities based on strong ties (shared …

Conceptions Of Justice From Below: Distributive Justice As A Means To Address Local Conflicts In European Law And Policy, Fernanda Giorgia Nicola Dr.

Contributions to Books

The impact of European Union (EU) law and policy on social groups has been examined in important scholarly work on European Law. Mainstream European legal scholarship, however, makes seldom use of a ‘law and society’ methodology, committed to an understanding of law, its internal logic and its practice yet influenced by external political and social forces. By means of two different theoretical perspectives, American legal realism and Amartya Sen’s idea of comparative justice, this chapter focuses on the impact of European decision-making on social groups and local actors embracing different conceptions of justice from below. Lawyers, judges and policy-makers in …

Safe And Supportive Schools For Lgbtq+ Youth, Emily Fisher, Karla Anhalt, Amy Cannava, Sharon Gorenstein, Jo Saint, G. Thomas Schanding Jr., Amy E. Tiberi, Kris Varjas

School of Education Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Deadly Heat Waves Projected In The Densely Populated Agricultural Regions Of South Asia, Eun-Soon Im, Jeremy S. Pal, Elfatih A. B. Eltahir

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Works

The risk associated with any climate change impact reflects intensity of natural hazard and level of human vulnerability. Previous work has shown that a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C can be considered an upper limit on human survivability. On the basis of an ensemble of high-resolution climate change simulations, we project that extremes of wet-bulb temperature in South Asia are likely to approach and, in a few locations, exceed this critical threshold by the late 21st century under the business-as-usual scenario of future greenhouse gas emissions. The most intense hazard from extreme future heat waves is concentrated around densely populated agricultural …

The Business Of Personal Jurisdiction, Cassandra Burke Robertson, Chalres W. "Rocky" Rhodes

Case Western Reserve Law Review

This contribution to a symposium on business and the Roberts Court examines the recent significant reshaping of the contours of personal jurisdiction. Although the changes limit the scope of jurisdiction in ways that may favor defendants overall, the Court does not appear directly motivated by a desire to favor business—and, in fact, the Court erected significant obstacles to business interests in some contexts. Instead, the results in the cases may be better explained by the Court’s commitment to a formalist approach with respect for territorial boundaries and by a skepticism of transnational litigation not clearly related to a U.S. forum. …

A Model For Oral Health Claims Analysis: Understanding Correlations Between Oral Health And Overall Health Through Analysis Of Dental And Medical Claims, Abbott Willard, Josephine B. Porter, Amy Costello, H. Chris White

All Materials

No abstract provided.

Corruption, Culture, Context & Killing: A Phenomenological Analysis Of The Effects Of Corruption Upon Lethality And Feelings Of Insecurity In Regions Of Extreme Conflict, Mark Thaller

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Like an elephant, while it may be difficult to describe, corruption is generally not difficult to recognize when observed (Tanzi, 1998, p. 564). Many countries have been, or are currently typified by both lethal conflict and massive corruption. Historically, post-conflict development programs have imposed policies of zero corruption, yet they routinely fail. Initial research into “corruption” also identified significant ambiguities and self-contradiction with the definition of corruption, itself. This study used an Existential Phenomenological methodology with 8 participants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan to: 1) redefine and model corruption within a global construct, 2) examine the current …

The Use Of Social Media As A Conduit To Promote Social Justice In The Deaf Community, As A Cultural And Linguistic Minority, Through The Visual Language Of American Sign Language: A Movement Against Audism, Sarah K. Glenn-Smith

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This research employed a case study approach to understand emerging themes that may be garnered through documenting the lived experiences of online Deaf activists who have used the video feature available through social media outlets, such as YouTube, as a way to overcome the language barrier typically present for linguistic minorities who are leading social movements within an English-speaking, hearing majority. The focus of this study was the members of the Deaf Community that have taken to an online podium in their fight for autonomy and equality. They champion their Deaf identity, their right to agency and autonomy in areas …

A Qualitative Media Analysis Of The Depiction Of Workplace Bullying In Hollywood Films, Maria C. Georgo

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Work is a significant part of everyday life for many, so it is not surprising that it would be included in the storylines of many Hollywood films. Movies incorporate elements from everyday life, real or imagined. There is a plethora of research making connections between film and the social world, but not regarding workplace bullying. This study takes a close and in-depth look at workplace bullying as it is depicted in scenes from a sampling of 100 Hollywood films released 1994-2016. It is interpretive in nature and guided by the theoretical underpinnings of film theory, social construction of reality theory, …

The People's Republic Of China And The Global Class War, Collin L. Chambers

Theses - ALL

This thesis attempts to provide a more sufficient understanding of post-reform China’s position in global political economic space than the understandings and conceptions that currently exist in geography and the broader critical social sciences and humanities. This thesis argues that post-reform China is best understood through the global class war framework. The global class war does not conceive post-reform China as “imperialist,” “neoliberal,” or even “capitalist.” Instead the framework understands post-reform China as a social formation that is simply attempting to arise within a global political economic system that is dominated by the global imperialist class camp. Additionally, the global …

Psicobag, Shane Siever

Program of Industrial Design Capstones

Psicobag is a waterproof, accessible, chalk dispersal system for the deep water solo climber. Psicobag uses a system of valves to spray chalk powder onto the hand when pumped, then seals instantly upon water submersion so the chalk remains dry and ready for the next ascent of the rock face.

In The Butternut Big Time: Food Hubs, Farmers, And The Development Of Community Agro-Food Economies, Lilian Brislen

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Food hubs, a new model of values-based agro-food enterprise, are promoted by their advocates as a means to simultaneously improve the livelihoods of small and mid-sized farmers, increase the social and environmental sustainability of the food system, and supply the ever increasing consumer demand for health, local food. Noting the contradictions embedded in the promise of simultaneously generating both social values and economic value, this study explores how goals of promoting positive social, economic, or environmental change are achieved and/or inhibited when implemented though marketbased activities. Through a series of three in-depth case studies of food hubs in the Southeastern …

Modeling Gas Budgets In Marginal Sea Ice Zones, Arash Bigdeli

Open Access Dissertations

Biogeochemical gas budgets at high-latitude regions and sea ice zones are a source of uncertainty in climate models. The four main processes that regulate these budgets include advection, ventilation, mixing, and accumulation/release from sea ice. Considering the scarcity of data in sea ice zones, specifically during winter time, the environment is too poorly sampled to constrain these processes through direct measurements; hence we proposed models to systematically investigate these processes. The models proposed in this dissertation consist of regional numerical ice-ocean models, 1D forward and inversion numerical models, and analytical models.

Manuscript I of this dissertation focuses on a 3D …

Writing Irish America: Communal Memory And The Narrative Of Nation In Diaspora, Beth O'Leary Anish

Open Access Dissertations

In this project I trace Irish ethnic identity formation in the United States and the creation of the Irish-American narrative throughout the twentieth century as reflected in Irish-American life-writing—autobiographical or at least semi-autobiographical fiction and memoir—from just after World War II to the early 2000s. All of the works included in this study examine in some way the question of what it means to be Irish in America. The authors in this study collectively show how an Irish identity was given up in America and eventually pieced back together again. Some of the original elements remained, but others were forgotten, …

Hydrogen Sulfide Regulation Of Kir Channels, Junghoon Ha

Theses and Dissertations

Inwardly rectifying potassium (Kir) channels establish and regulate the resting membrane potential of excitable cells in the heart, brain and other peripheral tissues. Phosphatidylinositol- 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) is a key direct activator of ion channels, including Kir channels. Gasotransmitters, such as carbon monoxide (CO), have been reported to regulate the activity of Kir channels by altering channel-PIP2 interactions. We tested, in a model system, the effects and mechanism of action of another important gasotransmitter, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) thought to play a key role in cellular responses under ischemic conditions. Direct administration of sodium hydrogen sulfide (NaHS), as an exogenous H2S source, …

The Molecular Epidemiology Of Tuberculosis In South Carolina, 2005-2011: Estimates Of Recent Transmission And Risk Factors For Genotype Clustering, Amy Kathleen Roach

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Because tuberculosis (TB) is a public health threat that continues to elude elimination in the United States, there is a need to identify contributing factors that may have implications for targeted control measures. Molecular studies of genetic clustering are crucial for pinpointing these contributing factors. It is for this reason this study was conducted. This was a non-experimental, cross-sectional population-based molecular epidemiological study of TB in SC from 2005 to 2011. Its purpose was to estimate the proportion of TB that may be due to recently acquired infection and to determine the risk factors associated with the genetic clustering of …