Digital Commons Network^™

Student Perceptions Of The Online Customer Experience: A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Behavioral And Experiential Factors That Influence Online Student Retention, William Delaney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The acquisition of the accounts blended and online students experienced formed the foundation for this phenomenological investigation. Emanating from the foundation, the findings of the phenomenological investigation suggested both experiential and behavioral factors influenced the blended and online students’ customer experience. The phenomenological investigation concluded that the mechanics of the blended and online students’ customer, experience effected the blended and online students’ persistence to complete the online program.

A Renaissance Of The Visual Arts In Worship For Churches Of Christ, Heather Heflin Hodges

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This Doctor of Ministry thesis presents the results of a project in which a group of four artists from across the United States met via video conference to create liturgical art activities that can be integrated into the Sunday morning worship for Churches of Christ. The problem identified at the beginning of the project was a lack of integration of the visual arts in worship in Churches of Christ. I understood this lack to be due in part to an iconoclastic heritage in Protestantism as well as a focus on rational intellectualism and desire for simplicity in worship as a …

Trauma Therapy And The Need For Cross Cultural Competence, Marijke Sommer

Honors Projects

This project addresses the relevance of cross cultural competence for work in trauma therapy. I begin with a review of the literature on approaches to trauma therapy, identifying similarities and differences in key approaches, and comparing outcomes where that information is available. I then review a variety of cross cultural variations in mental health conditions and symptoms, attempting to roughly position each within the ethnic group or groups in which the variation is mostly likely to be found. Finally, I review the very small existing literature examining the impact of culturally sensitive approaches to trauma therapy in several non-Western ethnic …

Comparing The Therapeutic Efficacy Of Human Amniotic Membrane And Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells In Mitigation Of Osteoarthritis, Mackenzie Catherine Bowman

All Theses

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of disability and pain to patients worldwide, and is characterized by abnormal subchondral bone remodeling, such as sclerosis and osteophyte formation, synovial tissue inflammation, and the destruction of articular cartilage, with limited capability for intrinsic repair. Currently, only palliative options are available to help treat the debilitating effects of the disease as there are no therapies authorized to halt or prevent the progression of OA. Due to the destructive nature of OA and a lack of current treatment options, there is an urgent need to develop novel therapies to mitigate the progression of OA. …

Job Insecurity Across Borders: An Examination Of Job Insecurity, Perceived Organizational Support, And Turnover Intentions In The United States And China, John Alexander Morgan

All Theses

Job insecurity is growing around the world, with employees staying at their jobs for shorter durations and part-time, contract, and even extremely short-term “gig” work becoming increasingly common. Job insecurity has been linked with several undesirable outcomes for both the individual and the organization, such as higher levels of employee burnout and increased turnover. This thesis seeks to extend the job insecurity literature by treating job insecurity as a demand within the Job Demands-Resources model, with perceived organizational support (POS) as its resource opposite. In addition, I utilized data collected in both the United States and China, providing insights into …

Limited By Design: Expanding The Boundaries Of Schooling Policies From Demanded Passivity To Transformative Practice, Natalia T. Carvalho-Pinto

Masters Theses

Schooling is often imagined as the great equalizer and the primary venue towards personal and collective liberation. However, hegemonic ideals and practices have limited the ability for educators to craft and utilize policy in a way that best benefits their students. In this thesis, I utilize the state of Michigan’s Common Core curriculum to examine the limits beyond policy and practice. Specifically, I argue that the demands for student passivity and institutional measurable as signs of success, prohibit student growth. Throughout the document, I describe hope in the ability to instill a variety of transformative educational theories and practices that …

Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions Of Their International Teaching Assistants (Itas) And Perceptions Of Themselves In A Course(S) Instructed By An Ita, Nadia Hanayeen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of Arkansas is a large, diverse public university. International teaching assistants (ITAs) represent 20% of the total graduate teaching assistants at the University of Arkansas. In the Fall semester of 2015, the University of Arkansas ranked 9th among U.S. universities based on the number of ITAs instructing undergraduate classes. Combining quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods, this study investigated domestic undergraduate students’ perceptions of their ITAs and of themselves in courses instructed by ITAs. The descriptive quantitative findings showed that the two most significant challenges facing ITAs are American students’ perceptions of their pedagogical skills and …

The Study Of Culturally Relevant Visual Imagery And Student Interest In Contemporary Secondary Art Classrooms, Carly Marie Anderson

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Contemporary art pedagogy indicates some educators are using visual cultural exemplars that contain little cultural relevance to many students in their secondary art classrooms. The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ preferences and interests concerning visual imagery as the focus of curricular content in current secondary art classrooms in Southwest Missouri. This investigation began with a review of visual imagery within traditional fine art academies and what role this imagery plays in contemporary art rooms. The research question included: Were current secondary art students more interested in contemporary, culturally relevant imagery or traditional Eurocentric Western fine art imagery? …

Connections And Disconnections: The Making Of Bombay/Mumbai As India’S “Global City”, Ravi Ghadge

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Scholarly literature on “global cities” has been criticized for ignoring the long-term historical context within which cities articulate the relationship between the global and the local. Employing a longue durée globalization perspective, this paper historicizes the unequal and uneven nature of contemporary urban development in Mumbai, India’s “global city.” The paper uses two analytical frames: the “port city” and the “colonial city” to highlight two essential dimensions of Mumbai’s contemporary transformation of interconnectedness and segmentation based on unequal power.

The Relationship Between Future Goals And Achievement Goal Orientations: An Intrinsic-Extrinsic Motivation Perspective, Jie Qi Lee, Dennis M. Mcinerney, Gregory Arief D. Liem, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research aimed to study the relationships between students’ future goals (FGs) and their immediate achievement goal orientations (AGOs) among 5733 Singaporean secondary school students (M age = 14.18, SD = 1.26; 53% boys). To this end, we hypothesized that the relationships between like valenced FGs and AGOs (both intrinsic or both extrinsic) will be stronger than those of opposite valenced FGs and AGOs (intrinsic–extrinsic) and tested two alternative models: Model A positing the prediction of AGOs by FGs and Model B positing the prediction of FGs by AGOs. Structural equation modeling showed the heuristic superiority of Model B in …

The Sea Ranch: Unforeseen Failures And Statewide Successes Of An Ecologically Conscious Coastal Community, Robert Daley

Senior Theses

The term “residential development” or “planned community” brings to mind images of a stereotypical suburbia. The planned community of The Sea Ranch, along the Sonoma County coast in Northern California is a direct challenge to the suburban ideal. Construction of the nearly 1500 homes began in the late 1960s and continues to present day. All of the homes must meet specific design requirements including being ecologically sound and they must fit within the landscape. The strict architectural elements is what provides the distinct look of the community. The construction of a housing development along a ten-mile strip of untouched and …

Entrepreneurial Intentions Of Women: A Literature Review, Bhairab Chandra Patra, Usha Lenka

Studia i Materiały Wydział Zarządzania Uniwersytet Warszawski

Entrepreneurial intentions research has been steadily growing and has recently gained more momentum in the twenty-first century. But the field of women entrepreneurial intentions is still in a very nascent stage and lots of research work needs to be done on the entrepreneurial intentions of women. This study attempts to review the literature on entrepreneurial intentions of women and provide necessary actions to be taken. The purpose of this study is to identify the main sub-areas on which women entrepreneurial intentions research is being conducted by the researchers. The Author uses citation analysis as a tool for identifying the fields …

Ka Ulu Koa Ma Kai: The Koa Grove Rises In The Sea, Ty P. Kāwika Tengan

Pacific Studies

Ty P. Kāwika Tengan's response to Hereniko and Schorchʻs "THE CANOE, THE WIND, AND THE MOUNTAIN: SHUNTING THE RASHOMON EFFECT OF MAUNA KEA".

Vol. 41 No. 3 (2018): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

The Canoe, The Wind, And The Mountain: Shunting The Rashomon Effect Of Mauna Kea, Vilsoni Hereniko, Philipp Schorch

Pacific Studies

Akira Kurosawa, one of Japan's famous directors, made a movie in 1950 about a murder and a rape in a forest that was witnessed by four people, all of whom have contradictory interpretations of what happened. Titled Rashomon, this film became one of the best-known movies by cinephiles around the world (1). Soon, different and conflicting accounts of a particular incident or event became generally known as the Rashomon effect (2). In this paper, we deploy this term to refer to the present controversy surrounding Mauna Kea, a mountain in Hawai‘i, and conflicting interpretations about what it is or should …

Personal Ethnography As Applied Learning: A Qualitative Explorative Ethnographic Observational Study Of Social Comparison, Tridereka Hall

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to discuss and evaluate the experience of studying abroad for college students as a participant observer as well as their perceptions of the experience. In Spring 2018, as a part of my studies and as an observational ethnography, I participated in the study abroad program through AIFS at Veritas University. In the study, I will provide my own transformative experience of studying abroad in San Jose, Costa Rica, as well as perspectives of other students who have studied abroad in different locations throughout Costa Rica, and an advisor with experience of assisting study abroad …

Welcome To The Bubble: Experiences Of Liminality And Communitas Among Summer Camp Counsellors, Mandi Baker

Journal of Youth Development

Summer camps provide a special time and space for youth growth and transformation. This growth is possible, in part, due to the physical and social isolation that contribute to the liminality of traditional residential camps. Camps act as a sort of ‘bubble’ in which alternative realities, norms and identities emerge. For many campers and camp counsellors, the community and personal relationships that develop at camp produce feelings of acceptance and belonging. Positive camp experiences do not occur by happenstance and as such, youthful camp counsellors often feel immense pressure to deliver on the promises that camps offer. This article explores …

U.S. Millennials And The Hook-Up Culture: An Online Descriptive Survey Of Hook-Up Attitudes, Beliefs, And Experiences, Allyson S. Maida

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this online survey study was to collect and analyze the attitudes and experiences of 18-24-year-old U.S. millennials. Previous studies have focused exclusively upon hook-up attitudes and experiences among college students using mostly paper-and-pencil surveys or interviews, this study described hook-up experiences and attitudes using a sample of U.S. millennials who were not enrolled full-time in college. Using a Qualtrics panel, 106 respondents (54 males and 52 females), 66 with prior hooking-up experience and 40 with no prior experience, completed an online demographic survey and The Millennial Hook-Up Attitudes and Beliefs Survey. The results revealed more than half …

Finding Identity Through Irish Music In The Appalachian Mountains, Marina Delores Rayl

Masters Theses

The Appalachian Mountains are filled with remnants of Scot-Irish heritage. The music found in this region includes bluegrass, Old-time, and country music, all created from the blending of Scottish and Irish traditional music with other ethnic sounds. Despite these music variations, traditional Irish music has remained consistent in its original form in the mountain region. This concept is supported by the popularity of two key events occurring in both the northern and southern sections of the Appalachians. Through fieldwork and personal interviews, the rationales of those who participated were discovered. The research brought to light three people sub-groups revealing the …

Bluegrass And Old-Time In Catalonia: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Aesthetic Communitas, Michael J. Luchtan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an ethnographic case study of a musical community in Catalonia centered around the performance of bluegrass and old-time music. By using Victor and Edith Turners’ ideas of normative communitas, this paper identifies an aesthetic communitas model which describes a community centered around a performative genre. Through participant observation in the 16th Annual Al Ras Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival and interviews with local musicians, fans, venue owners, and luthiers, the ethnographic narrative details the characteristics of the aesthetic communitas in Catalonia and searches for associations of Appalachia that accompany the cross-cultural manifestation of bluegrass and old-time music …

Epistemic Violence In Beowulf, Joseph W. Krippel

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the more than two centuries of scholarship on Beowulf scholars have engaged in a consistent controversy in interpretation revolving around the issue of Christian versus pre-Christian content in the poem. While scholars largely agree that the understanding of the poem depends on understanding this content, scholars still widely disagree on what that understanding should be. The history of this problem is summarized, moving from viewing the poem as primarily pre-Christian, to general agreement that it is primarily Christian, to the current climate of viewing the text as hybridization. The thesis then proposes that, following the theories of Michel Foucault …

Healing And Resistance Through Humor: A Literary And Cultural Analysis Of Chicana And Latina Cultural Production, Victoria E. Valdez

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes elements of humor used by Chicana cultural producers (poets, performance artists, stand up comediennes) to subvert negative stereotypes of Chicanas. Chicana humorists have challenged harmful images of Mexican American women through poetry, prose, performances, and stand-up comedy. While Américo Paredes created a scholarly foundation for the study of Chicano humor, it is evident that Chicanos and members of dominant society mock Chicanas with their brand of humor. I argue writers like Michele Serros and Lorna Dee Cervantes resist dichotomous Chicana imagery and instead create and add to Chicana representation with humor. This thesis examines performance artist Maria …

Self-Determined Motivation In Foreign Language Learning: Examining The Effects On Students' Achievement, Yawo Badagbo

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between foreign language motivation and self-determined motivation, as well as the issue of students’ perceptions of strategies used to improve foreign language motivation and achievement among undergraduate students in the department of foreign language. This research was conducted in two mid-western universities among undergraduate foreign language learners. The participants were undergraduate foreign language learners. A total of 391 students from 18- 43 years old started the paper-and-pencil surveys in which they shared their views and perceptions about foreign language learning motivations and strategies to improve motivations and achievement. However, only 380 completed the majority of …

Documentary Production As A Site Of Struggle: State, Capital, And Precarity In The Contemporary Chinese Documentary, Jiachun Hong

Dissertations

Documentary filmmakers have been considered artists, authors, or intellectuals, but rarely as labor. This study investigates how the nature of work as well as life is changing for those who work in the expanding area of TV documentary in China, in the midst of China’s shift towards a market-based economy. How do documentary makers reconcile their passion for documentary making with the increasingly precarious conditions of work? And, how do they cope with and resist the pressures of neoliberalism to survive in increasingly competitive local and global markets? Based on data gathered through the interviews with 40 practitioners from January …

December 2018 Commencement Program, Bowling Green State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Signaling Induced By Inflammatory Mediators In The Rodent Pulmonary Microvasculature, Rachel Escue Helms

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Acute lung inflammation (ALI), stemming from a disproportionate and detrimental immune response, may arise from or complicate other disease states, leading to the often-fatal acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Because of the many culpable factors and differing points of induction, pinning down the signaling mechanisms involved in the morbidity of this disorder as well as defining an effective treatment has proved problematic. However, the most detrimental characteristic of this condition is seen regardless of the development of the response: increased microvascular permeability. Because of the architecture and the size of the pulmonary microvascular network, the lungs have a resident, sequestered …

Navigating A New Culture: Analyzing Variables That Influence Intensive English Program Students' Cultural Adjustment Process, Sherie Lyn Kwok

Theses and Dissertations

Research has documented cultural adjustment as an important issue influencing international students and other sojourners in their success abroad (Foster, 1962; Lysgaard, 1955; Oberg, 1960; Smalley, 1963). Few studies, however, have investigated particular variables influencing the cultural adjustment process of ESL learners enrolled in intensive English programs (IEPs). This mixed method study was designed to better understand the individual complexity of IEP learners' cultural adjustment by looking for patterns of variables that aid or hinder these students' experiences. Using the Culture Shock Questionnaire (CSQ), Index of Social Sojourners Support Survey (ISSS), and language-specific focus groups, this study investigated the individual …

The Persistence Of The Past Into The Future: Indigenous Futurism And Future Slave Narratives As Transformative Resistance In Nnedi Okorafor's The Book Of Phoenix, Ellen Eubanks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, a number of authors have written science fiction works that express the concerns and experiences of marginalized people groups, including those in postcolonial societies, Indigenous/First Nations peoples, and other racial minorities. These works provide counter narratives to that of much canonical science fiction, which developed from narrative forms that often explicitly and implicitly supported colonial ideologies, and still often includes these ideologies today. This thesis analyzes the way The Book of Phoenix (2015) by the NigerianAmerican speculative fiction author Nnedi Okorafor uses a combination of the forms of Indigenous futurism and what Isiah Lavender terms meta-slavery narratives …

Portraits With A Posthumous Voice: Reinforcing And Contesting Social Norms In The Heterotopic Museum And Cemetery, Matthew J. Crissey

Museum Studies Theses

Abstract

The following paper qualitatively analyzes and documents over 500 memorial-photographs/etched portraits on tombstones in ten Western New York cemeteries. This paper covers fourteen topics, ranging from religion to gang-violence. A juxtaposition of portraits exhibited within the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery with memorial-portraits on tombstones revealed heterotopic environments creating a public forum enabling the reinforcing or contestation of social ideologies. In other words, the author observed the similarities of identities and social norms publicly expressed on tombstones and gallery portraits.

A Social Constructionist approach enabled the study to examine how one social phenomenon contributes to the shaping of a culture. …

Production And Purification Of Synthetic Minor Ampullate Silk Proteins, Danielle A. Gaztambide

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spider silks are incredible natural materials that have a wide variety of properties that can rival or outperform even common synthetic materials like Nylon and Kevlar. As nature’s architects, orb-weaving spiders spin seven different silks that are used for very specific roles throughout the spider’s lifecycle. These silks are comprised of proteins called spidroins. Each of these spidroins has evolved to have properties such as strength and/or stretch that make these silks successful and highly adapted in their designated roles in web construction, prey capture and reproduction.

This study involves the production of minor ampullate silk by genetically modifying the …