Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of Online Faculty Training Practices In The Illinois Community College System, Melissa Andrews

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study investigated existing training practices for online faculty and instructors in the Illinois community college system. From 2004 to 2014, higher education showed a 60% increase in online enrollment, with 1.9 million students enrolled nationally in online courses at public two-year institutions. In the state of Illinois, public two-year institutions enrolled 32.9% of all distance education courses . As online learning continues to alter the educational landscape, new issues confront instructors and students. Preparing faculty to teach online is an important component for student success in online programs but professional development for online instructors varies in different universities.

A …

Fiscal Triumvirate: Analyses Of Crowding Out From Deficit Spending, Of Domestic Migration From State Taxes, And Of The Irrelevance Of Credit Ratings On Municipal Debt Yields, Erwin John Antoni Iii

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The crowding out theory originally predicted substantially large effects from government activity in a market, including the impact of deficit spending on the price of loanable funds, namely, interest rates. Initial empirical testing in the twentieth century showed these effects to be quite small but consistent, while later testing suggested that the theory was wrong entirely and that a phenomenon of “crowding in” is observed during periods of large deficit spending by governments. This dissertation contributes to the existing literature by accounting for the supply side of the loanable funds market. Incorporation of a measure of global savings saves the …

Case Study Examining Foreign Language Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Tpack) In Teaching Listening And Speaking Skills In Virtual Worlds, Rahmi Hartati Aoyama

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study utilizes the lens of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework to provide a holistic view of how language teachers demonstrate their TPACK in teaching listening and speaking in virtual worlds. Seven language teachers who taught in informal virtual language class settings participated in this study. The teachers’ TPACK skills were examined through archived online chat transcripts for each observed class, one-on-one interviews with each language instructor, TPACK and demographic surveys, observation notes, and class documents from the instructors. The researcher took several steps to code the TPACK survey data to identify patterns by comparing the mean …

Wading In A Glycan Sea: Investigations Of, And Developing Bioinformatic Tools For, Carbohydrate Active Enzymes And Gene Clusters In Prokaryotes, Catherine Ann Ausland

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Carbohydrates are immensely important biomolecule found in all organisms on earth, serving roles in structure, energy storage, protection and/or cell signaling. Carbohydrates are composed of an immense diversity of linkages, monosaccharide moieties and substitutions making them likely the most diverse biomolecule on earth, as well as the most abundant, being synthesized by plants and algae. Carbohydrates are synthesized and degraded by all organisms on earth through the expression of carbohydrate active enzymes, or ‘CAZymes’. In bacteria, CAZymes have been characterized to cluster in with transporters, regulators and/or other genes in so-called ‘polysaccharide utilization loci’, or PULs, to degrade carbohydrate substrates …

Examining Boundary Conditions To The Attitude Consistency Effect, Dylan Blaum

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Research on the impact of attitudes on argument processing has found that attitudes and beliefs can impact evaluation and processing, but has not deeply explored boundary conditions to this attitude consistency effect. This dissertation investigates three types of boundary conditions to this effect: whether the quality of the argument matters (argument quality), whether the individual’s strength of that attitude matters (attitude strength), and whether the evaluative nature of the task matters (task).

In Experiment 1, I found some support for argument quality as a boundary condition to the attitude consistency effect. Attitude consistent arguments were rated as higher quality/stronger than …

Elementary School Teacher Characteristics Associated With Self-Efficacy For Using Technology To Implement Constructivist Content Instruction: An Explanatory Correlational Study, Patricia Barton

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Technology mediated constructivist practices may be effective, but there are challenges for implementing them, and one challenge is the teachers themselves and their self-efficacy. Teachers of different backgrounds may differ on self-efficacy in technology mediated constructivist practices, and those possible differences can warrant different training approaches. For this study, 212 K-5 teachers from small to medium sized rural and suburban school districts in the Midwestern US, as well as teachers from a variety of other geographic areas, completed an online survey. The dependent variable self-efficacy in Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (SE-C-TPACK) was regressed on the independent variables. The independent …

Identifying Barriers Faced By Adult Learners In General Educational Development Programs, Matthew Patrick Beasland

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

It is estimated that 70% of all newly created jobs in Illinois by 2020 will need education beyond a high school diploma or General Educational Development (GED) diploma. In Illinois, 12% of adults 25 and older do not have a high school diploma or its equivalent. Individuals without a high school diploma or GED are twice as likely to be unemployed and if they are employed are more likely to be in a low-wage position. On average an individual without a high school diploma or GED will earn roughly $10,000 less annually. Given the increasing need for a high school …

A Qualitative Study: Black Male College Students’ Perceptions Of Campus Law Enforcement Officers On A College Campus, Junelle M. Bennett

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Black males are often the recipients of police brutality, criminal stereotyping, and inequitable treatment in higher education. This qualitative study examined the experiential narratives of 15 Black male college students’ perception towards law enforcement officers. The data was collected via one-on-one interviews, concluded with a focus group, and then presented in narrative forums. The participants’ feelings, attitudes, or beliefs about themselves as Black males significantly contributed to their inherent identification of the cultural challenges associated with law enforcement officers. The participants’ personal and vicarious life experiences prior to enrolling into higher education were significant to the authentic comprehension of the …

Multi-Channel Anc System For Icu Patient Beds, Congzhi Bi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In an intensive care unit (ICU), there are many kinds of noises. For example, patients suffer from the noise which is made by doctors’ or nurses’ activities and devices of ICU can cause some problem too, like stress and losing ability of hearing. In this thesis, we propose to use active noise control (ANC) systems to reduce the high noise level for intensive care unit (ICU) residents.

At first, conventional multiple channel ANC system has been proposed to reduced noise. And then a new method has been proposed which is Auxiliary Filter Based Virtual Sensing (AF-VS) to compensate defect of …

Lane Detection Of Autonomous Vehicles Using Clustering And Augmented Sliding Windows Techniques, Keerti Chand Bhupathi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, detection of solid lines and dashed lines of lanes using augmented sliding window technique, clustering technique and combination of both augmented sliding window and clustering is discussed. The lane points are extracted using image processing techniques. The performance of lane detection using these techniques is analyzed. Lanes are simulated in a laboratory for the input data set. The input data set consists of curved lines of dashed and solid lines which split and merge. Further, partially obscured lanes are also tested with the algorithm. The center of the lanes from vehicle to horizon is found based on …

The Fog Of Blackacre: Exploring Depression, Anxiety, And Stress Of The American Law Student, Amanda Carey

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between depression, anxiety, and stress among first-year law students and the U.S. News and World Report rankings. Surveys using the DASS–21, DREEM questionnaire, Satisfaction with Life scale and qualitative questions were administered to first-year law students at 44 randomly selected law schools across the United States. In the largest modern mental health study to date, responses totaled 5% of the first-year law student population. Results showed no significant relationship between depression, anxiety, and stress of first-year law students and the U.S. News and World Report rankings. Substantial depression, anxiety, and stress of first-year law students …

The Efficacy Of Educational Robotics In An Integrated Stem Elementary Curriculum, Colleen Marie Cannon-Ruffo

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

While there has never been a greater demand for STEM education, the U.S. is still struggling to define and implement this type of instruction. Identifying innovative and effective ways of improving STEM education in the K-12 environment is vital to the U.S. to remain economically viable on a global level. The multidisciplinary aspect of educational robotics facilitates an integrated approach to STEM learning which espouses the educational theories of Constructionism and Computational Thinking. The purpose of this study was to compare the cognitive and affective out-comes of participation in an integrated STEM curriculum based on educational robotics. The integrated STEM …

A Search For Resonant And Non-Resonant Di-Higgs Production In The Γγbb Channel Using The Atlas Detector, Tyler James Burch

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents a search for resonant and non-resonant di-Higgs production in the γγb ̄b final state using data from the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The search is performed on 36.1 fb−1 of data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √s= 13 TeV collected in 2015 and 2016.

No significant excesses are observed in this search. The non-resonant analysis sets limits on the HH→γγb ̄b cross-section times branching ratio, with an upper observed (expected) limit of 0.73 (0.93) pb. The observed (expected) limits on the Higgs boson trilinear coupling at 95% Confidence Level (CL) …

Real-Time Traffic Sign Detection And Classification Based On A Video Feed, Victor Ciuntu

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Autonomous vehicle development is currently progressing at a very fast pace and traffic sign detection and classification has an important role in it. This thesis looks at the history of autonomous vehicles as well as different implementations for traffic sign detection and classification. Multiple possible approaches are analyzed with the final goal of doing this task in real-time using a portable system.

To accomplish this task, the final solution uses a convolutional neural network for detection and classification combined with a custom optical character recognition algorithm for speed limit signs. The optical character recognition algorithm is built from the ground …

An Automated Method For Detecting Water Levels Using Computer Vision And Artificial Intelligence, Priyanjani Chowdary Chandra

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Flooding is one of the most dangerous weather events today. Between 2015-2019, on average, it has caused more than 130 deaths every year in the USA alone. World Health Organization has reported that, between 1998-2017, floods have affected more than 2 billion people worldwide. The devastating nature of flood necessitates the continuous monitoring of water level in the rivers and streams in flood-prone areas to detect the incoming flood. In this thesis, we have designed and implemented a computer vision and AI-based system that continuously detect the water level in the creek. Our solution employs an effective template matching algorithm …

Trans*Forming Educational Spaces: The Experiences Of Trans* And Gender Non-Conforming Students In The Community College Environment, Lori Clark

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This purpose of this study was to collect the stories of trans* and gender non-conforming students who attend community colleges. Very little research has been done on this community attending community colleges, so it is not known if the community college environment is supportive of this marginalized student group. The participants in the study shared their experiences with various aspects of the community college environment, from professors, classmates, student affairs, bathrooms, registration and records, to their gay straight alliances. Ultimately, it was found that the students interviewed faced a cadre of microaggressions throughout the areas of their community colleges. However, …

The Influence Of Student Discipline Practices On Students, School Climate And Culture, Matthew J. Clark

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The enactment of Senate Bill 100/Public Act 099-0456 (SB100) in 2016 compelled school districts throughout Illinois to evaluate student discipline policies. This dissertation examines the impact SB100 had on middle and high schools throughout the state and within a large suburban K-12 school district. This dissertation is organized into three separate papers. Paper 1 provides a historical context for disciplinary practices used for students in public schools both in Illinois and throughout the country and explores new discipline practices that have emerged since the passing of SB100. Paper 2 examines the implementation of SB100 through an SDT framework to investigate …

Investigating Achievement And Mental Health Through The Dual-Factor Model, Kelly Clark

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

School professionals are charged not only with advancing students’ content knowledge, but also with developing their social and emotional skills; however, adolescence is a period in which many individuals experience declines in academic performance and mental health. The current study investigated associations between grit, academic grit, and growth mindset with academic achievement, subjective well-being, and psychopathology. Second, this study examined the demographic makeup of mental health groups posited by the dual-factor model of mental health, as well as group-level differences in grit, academic grit, growth mindset, and academic achievement across mental health groups identified through latent profile analysis. Adolescents (N …

The Transnational Construction Of National Music (Kugak): Musicking In The Korean Diaspora, 1903-1945, Heeyoung Choi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the preservation and adaptation of Korean-ness through musical performances in the Korean peninsula and in Hawai‘i during the early twentieth century, when Korea was a Japanese colony. Hawai‘i deserves special attention because the first and largest Korean diasporic communities in America were established in Hawai‘i during this period. More importantly, cultural environments in early twentieth-century Hawai‘i and Korea were similar in that both featured diverse music cultures of different ethnic origins and new cultural infrastructures under the influence of imperialism. This study investigates the reactions of existing Korean performing arts to the influx of foreign culture affecting …

Environmental Discriminators For Significant Tornadoes And Hail In The U.S. Using Proximity Soundings, Cody Michael Converse

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Over the last 50 years, the United States has experienced an increase in severe storm events that produced $1 billion in damages or greater. Much of this loss is attributed to significant tornadoes and hail associated with deep, moist convection. Improving forecasts for these significant events assist in mitigating the impacts of these events. Previous work has identified statistically significant environmental parameters associated with severe thunderstorms, but more research is needed in identifying statistically significant ingredients associated with environments that produce significant tornadoes and hail.

This thesis aims to answer the following question: “Can diagnostics commonly used to forecast for …

On The Verge Of Violence: How Bar Staff Manage Trouble Customers, Anthony Paul Cusumano

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

How do bouncers and bartenders utilize interpersonal management scripts to handle routinely encountered trouble customers? My study addresses this question and shows how bar staff remedy trouble behaviors without use of force, as well as demonstrates that bartenders play just as pivotal a role in managing those behaviors as bouncers. The data from in-depth interviewing was analyzed through a framework of trouble sociology and the dramaturgical perspective. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and coded into thematic categories based on frameworks and emergent themes. From the data, bar staff identified three major types of trouble customers (entitled, inebriated, creepy) and described …

Harsh Parenting And Familism: Examining The Influence Of Cultural Schemata On Parental Reactions To Child Transgressions, America Lizbeth Davila

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Milner’s (1993, 2000) Social Information Processing (SIP) model of child physical abuse proposes that pre-existing schemata (e.g., belief structures, scripts) influence how parents process information during parent-child interactions, which in turn influences parental responses (e.g., corporal punishment). The purpose of the present study was to examine attitudinal familism (beliefs about unity and commitment/duty towards family) as a pre-existing schema that influences parents’ interpretations, attributions, affective, and behavioral responses to child transgressions. Parents (N = 106) were asked to read vignettes describing child transgressions and report their anticipated cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses. In addition, parents reported on their perceived social …

Writing And Well-Being: Comparing Varied Expressive Writing Tasks On Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms And Life Satisfaction, Zena Dadouch

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Frontline treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been extensively researched, and there is significant support for their efficacy in decreasing PTSD symptomatology and improving life quality. However, the treatments seem to be burdensome, as a significant minority does not improve or drops out before the continuation of treatment. This pattern could be explained partially by the time commitment, cost of and access to treatment, and the resulting emotional overload. Therefore, it is useful to explore other avenues that could lead to improvements in symptomatology and well-being and that are more accessible and manageable. One possible direction is expressive writing …

The Synthesis Of Pb2sr2sm1-Xcaxcu3o8 And Characterization Of Its Structural And Superconducting Properties., Deblina Das

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Superconducting lead-based cuprate materials of the 2213 structural type, Pb2Sr2MCu3O8 (M=Sm1-xCax, Y1-xCax, Er1-xCax and Yb1-xCax), were synthesized and characterized using x-ray powder diffraction and the Rietveld structural refinements method. Pb2Sr2Sm1-xCaxCu3O8 single crystals were grown by an optimized flux method using various combinations of PbO/PbF2 solvents. Samples with different Sm/Ca ratios were investigated for their superconducting properties. Magnetic measurements reveal the presence of a transition at 120K. Preliminary x-ray diffuse scattering experiment at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory demonstrates the high quality of one of our crystals and the presence of rod-like diffuse scattering connecting the Bragg peaks …

The Roles Of Rumination And Social Support In Victimization And Depression, Nicole Dorio

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Unfortunately, bullying is a common phenomenon many adolescent students experience during middle school (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). Given the negative outcomes often associated with experiencing victimization, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms involved in these associations as well as potential protective factors (Nakamoto & Schwartz, 2010). Using 89 students in grades 5 through 8, the current study focused on the negative outcome of depression and it explored rumination as a mediator in this association. Additionally, the roles of gender and social support (from parents, teachers, and close friends) were explored within this mediation model as moderators. …

Experiences Of Southeast Asians At A Community College In The Midwest, Emmanuel Canlas Esperanza Jr.

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explored what contributed to Southeast Asian students’ persistence in an urban community college in the Midwest. A qualitative case study was used to reveal how Southeast Asian students perceived personal and educational experiences and how those experiences created an impact on their persistence. This project addressed the lack of research on Southeast Asians and their challenges attaining academic success in higher education. This study is critical, as there is a lack of research on Southeast Asian students’ experiences within higher education institutions, particularly within community college settings. The majority of research has focused on Asian American or international …

A Comparison Of Bdsm Sadism And Everyday Sadism In Multiple Adult Populations, Jennifer Erickson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Research has begun to investigate subclinical levels of sadism including “everyday sadism:” an enjoyment of cruelty in normal, everyday situations. Thus far, subclinical sadism has been conceptualized as inherently antisocial, as with Internet trolls. I examined a potentially prosocial manifestation of sadism: self-identified sadists in the BDSM community who cause pain only to consenting partners. 532 BDSM practitioners and nonpractitioners completed measures of everyday sadism with consent explicit, nonconsent explicit, or consent ambiguous, and known correlates of everyday sadism (empathy, HEXACO traits, and Dark Triad traits). Consistent with hypotheses, the general adult sample demonstrated negative correlations between everyday sadism and …

Multi-Component Material For Solar Energy Conversion And Fundamentals Of Lead Acid Batteries, Crystal Ferels

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Synthesis of complex inorganic materials is desirable because their complex composition allows more degrees of freedom and tunability, whose properties differ from their parent components. As an expansion on this concept, we synthesized a quinary compound Ce3FeWS3O6, using a molten flux method and a solvothermal method. The compound crystallizes into a hexagonal crystal system with space group P63/m. Its electric partition shows an anion with the form [(Ce3+)3W6+(S2-)3(O2-)6]3- forcing the transition metal Fe3+ state and leaving no conduction electrons, making the material a semiconductor. This compound is the right candidate as photoelectric material capable of absorbing photons from the solar …

From Mcinnis To Adequacy: The Relationship Between School Funding Litigation And Illinois K-12 Public Education Funding Policy, Joel Filas

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Illinois K-12 public school funding has long been characterized by large inter-district disparities in per-pupil expenditures. A primary reason for this characterization was the Illinois legislature’s heavy reliance on local property tax within the various school funding formulas historically used to determine school revenues. The heavy reliance on local property taxes as the primary source of funding for Illinois schools has contributed to one of the largest funding gaps between the state’s highest and lowest property wealth school districts in the United States. The heavy reliance on local property taxes has led to low property wealth school districts receiving a …

The Emotions Of Science: Using Social Media To Gauge Public Emotions Toward Research Topics, Cole C. Freeman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Online and in the real world, communities are bonded together by emotional consensus around core issues. Emotional responses to scientific findings often play a pivotal role in these core issues. When there is too much diversity of opinion on topics of science, emotions flare up and give rise to conflict. This conflict threatens positive outcomes for research. Emotions have the power to shape how people process new information. They can color the public's understanding of science, motivate policy positions, even change lives. And yet little work has been done to evaluate the public's emotional response to science using quantitative methods. …