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Five Years Of The Ferguson Effect: An Officer Perspective, Darrin Neil Wilcox

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

De-policing or pulling back from proactive policing existed before the shooting death of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014. Shortly after this incident, de-policing was blamed for alleged increasing national crime rates and this connection came to be called the “Ferguson Effect.” Since then, most Ferguson Effect research has focused mainly on this connection, with little research into officer perceptions. This nonexperimental quantitative study examined officer perceptions of the Ferguson Effect 5 years after the incident and compared it with their views of government oversight of local law enforcement, legal liability, and officer …

Noncompliance With Regulations On The Use Of Safety Helmets By Motorcyclists In Tamale, Ghana, Mohammed Wumbei

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractMotorcyclists’ nonadherence to safety helmet regulations results in an increased risk of accidents, often leading to traumatic injuries or death. This noncompliance is prevalent in the rural and peri-urban areas of the developing world, particularly in Tamale, Ghana. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to apply the theoretical framework of rational choice theory in the examination of motorcyclists’ considerations in deciding whether to comply with government safety helmet regulations. Motorcyclists in Tamale were convenience sampled for observation and a subset recruited for interview. The study followed the qualitative case study approach by conducting observations and in-depth face-to-face …

Managerial Support Strategies To Minimize Job Insecurity Among Nigerian Private Firms, Dakoru Jethro Atukpa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Studies have shown that job insecurity is one of the factors affecting the performance, productivity, and high turnover of employees in the banking and construction industries in Nigeria. However, there is a gap in knowledge on managerial support strategies implemented by banks and construction firms in Nigeria to minimize job insecurity. The purpose of this qualitative comparative multiple case study was to explore these managerial support strategies as perceived by managers and employees of banking and construction firms in Nigeria. The participatory organization-level intervention concept and perceived-organizational support concept provided the conceptual frameworks for the study. Fifteen participants including operations …

The Use Of Social Media In Moderating Feelings Of Belongingness And Suicidal Ideation Among Women, Latasha Davidson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicide among women in the United States increased significantly over the last decade, now accounting for six suicides per 100,000 population. Concurrently, there has been an increase in social media use, with women exhibiting elevated presence on social networking platforms. Grounded in the theoretical framework of the theory of suicide and the interpersonal theory of suicide, the purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to evaluate the association between social media use, feelings of belongingness, and suicidal ideation to address the increased suicide rate among adult women in the United States. One research question focused on how social media use …

An Acceptable Cloud Computing Model For Public Sectors, Eswar Kumar Devarakonda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cloud computing enables information technology (IT) leaders to shift from passive business support to active value creators. However, social economic-communication barriers inhibit individual users from strategic use of the cloud. Grounded in the theory of technology acceptance, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies IT leaders in public sector organizations implement to utilize cloud computing. The participants included nine IT leaders from public sector organizations in Texas, USA. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, field notes, and publicly available artifacts documents. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis: five themes emerged (a) user-centric and data-driven cloud model; …

Health Care Providers’ Responses To Fibroid Prevalence Among African American Women, Sadio Noni Green

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American women are disproportionately affected by fibroids, and many of them have reported health care experiences of discrimination, biases, and differential care that have affected their overall health significantly. African American women are less likely to receive necessary clinical services and often choose not to seek professional help for psychological symptoms. Discriminating experiences and the suppression of internal struggles has resulted in African American women coping independently with loneliness, anxiety, and depression. There is a need for health care providers to analyze their care management of African American women’s fibroid concerns and to provide interactions and interventions that focus …

The Lived Experiences Of Avoiding Recidivism Among African American Male (First-Time) Former Offenders, Jeff Hines

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe United States has a high recidivism rate within its criminal population, especially among men of African American descent. However, within this population, some first-time former offenders have used successful approaches to avoid re-incarceration. The objective of this study was to investigate how these first-time former offenders desist from crime and avoid recidivism. This was a phenomenological study, utilizing the Desistance Theory as a framework, to explore how these men survived the consequences of post-incarceration and remained crime-free. In-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with six African American male first-time former offenders (age 25 and older) who were not on …

Retrospective And Forecasting Analysis Of Increased Long Term Care Demand In Niagara, Breanne Alissa Hines

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A problem exists within the Canadian healthcare system as many patients experience longer lengths of stay (LOS) in acute care (AC) and complex care (CC) beds within hospitals because of a lack of long term care (LTC) facilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extra days patients wait for placement and assess the benefits of increasing the number of LTC beds. The theoretical framework used was the four-level model of the health care system. Research questions involved 2017-2019 data for the number of LTC beds required to eliminate waits and evaluate beds needed in the future. This …

Program Evaluation: Assessing A Housing First Initiative, Caitlin Pennicooke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Housing First is a nationally recognized approach to solving homelessness, but literature does not account for the unique characteristics of geographic locations that are isolated and have high cost of living. This study examined one such city and benchmarked it against another. To protect the identities of these cities, the alias Island City (IC) for the city under examination and Sun City for the benchmark. This research explored IC’s Housing First program related to mitigating homelessness. The purpose of this study was to benchmark IC’s Housing First program against Sun City’s program using the context, input, process, and product (CIPP) …

The Impact Of Financial Education On The Lives Of Cherokee Nation Citizens, Ron Pense

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Financial literacy is something that is important for financial well-being for individuals, but it is lacking, leading to problems such as inadequate saving and poor financial decision making. This research was conducted to examine the impact of financial education for citizens of Cherokee Nation on saving and financial decision making and was grounded in prospect theory and quasi-rational economics. Accordingly, the research questions focused on the extent of differences between individuals with and without financial education for decision making and saving as well as the extent demographic factors play a role. The research design was non-experimental causal comparative with financial …

Resilience As A Mediator Of Perceived Organizational Justice And Turnover Intention For Licensed School Counselors, Autumn Warren Raffety

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School counselor shortages and high turnover rates have been reported in school districts across the United States. These high turnover rates have led to critical problems for educational institutions as counselors serve a vital role in organizational success and stability. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationship between organizational justice and turnover intention and whether resilience mediated this relationship for 102 licensed school counselors working in elementary and secondary schools in the United States. Equity theory provided the theoretical foundation for this study, and a nonexperimental correlational research design was used to examine the research questions. …

Counselor Experiences With Clients Who Bring Emotional Support Animals To Sessions, Jennifer Reynolds

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractLimited research on emotional support animals (ESAs) has led to distorted viewpoints of ESAs and how they are used; many individuals are not utilizing ESAs appropriately, and heightened awareness of the negative uses of ESAs in media and other public sources. ESAs can be an effective intervention when working with clients during counseling sessions, but due to the limited research and the negative stigma media this intervention may not be adequately represented. The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore lived experiences of counselors who allow their clients to bring ESAs to counseling session, the goal of reducing …

Strategies For Increasing Information Technology Employee Work-Life Balance, Kimberly D. Seymour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small to medium enterprise (SME) information technology (IT) managers’ lack of strategic planning initiatives in creating a work life balance environment has created personal and financial concerns for some employees in the United States. Managers must develop and implement strategies that increase profits and productivity as well as create work life balance. Grounded in Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies SME IT business managers used to develop and implement an employee work-life balance environment. The participants were three IT managers and two human resources business managers. Data were collected from semistructured …

Mss0079. John Wilton Collection Finding Aid

Special Collections Finding Aids

Manuscript musical compositions and arrangements of civil engineer, John Wilton, 1847-1922, Memphis, Tennessee.

The Significance Of The Automobile In 20th C. American Short Fiction, Megan M. Flanery

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Midcentury American life featured a post-war economy that established a middle class in which disposable income and time for leisure were commonplace. In this socio-economic environment, consumerism flourished, ushering in the Golden Age of the automobile: from 1950 to 1960, Americans spent more time in their automobiles than ever before, and, by the end of the decade, the number of cars on the road had more than doubled. While much critical attention has been given to the role of the automobile in American novels, less has been given to its role in American short stories. The automobile has been featured …

Firefighters Self-Efficacy Of Injuries And Willingness To Report Injuries Within The Southeast Region Of The United States, Marissa Villafuerte

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

CONTEXT: Firefighting is a dangerous profession often leading to minor and severe injuries. Injuries range from basic first aid to fatalities. Over a third of injuries linked to muscular-skeletal injuries (MSKI). To address MSKI, the fire service has turned to preventative and rehabilitation care such as on-site health care professionals.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was 1) to understand rural firefighters' self-efficacy of injury care and willingness to report MSKIs, 2) compare on-site preventative care fire departments to traditional fire departments and 3) describe the influence of on-site self-efficacy of MSKI care and willingness to report injuries based on …

Design, Synthesis And Applications Of Nanoparticles In Suppression Of Mosquito-Born Flaviviridae Viruses, Maria R. Blahove

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Recently, nanoparticles have become an origin of exploration in the chemistry field due to their unique medical uses. The current drug delivery models of nanoparticles often include a metal base with a drug conjugated to its surface. However this raises concerns regarding toxicity. A novel approach to solving this dilemma is the development of nanosized biocompatible polymer-based micelles, created from PEG-PCL-PEG triblock polymer, and formed around a drug of choice. The goal is to create a drug carrier nanoparticle system that is labile at a specific intracellular pH, without undue toxicity to the cell. This creates a drug-loaded nanoparticle that …

Comparative Conservation Genomics Of A Suite Of Imperiled Freshwater Mussels, Scott C. Meyer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Maintenance of genetic diversity is a critical component to the management and recovery of imperiled species. By ensuring that a species’ genetic diversity is maintained, issues like inbreeding depression and loss of local adaptation can be prevented. However, the genetic diversity of many species are not well-characterized, and the factors that influence a species’ genetic diversity are often not well understood. In the case of imperiled unionid freshwater mussels, it is important to conduct conservation genetic assessments to aid in their management and preserve genetic diversity. This is the first study to conduct a comparative conservation genomic assessment for eight …

Do The Age And Drama Type Of Individuals Affect Their Perceived Social Status?, Bradly A. Mcginnis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Drama is a type of performative, interpersonal conflict where traditional victim/aggressor dynamics seen in most types of bullying does not always appear. Different personalities display different types of drama, which may have different levels of usefulness across development. I am interested in discovering whether the level of target social status changes for different drama types across the lifespan. This interaction between target social status and drama type was analyzed by a 2 x 3 design with an expected 2 x 2 interaction. Overall, there were non-significant main effects and a non-significant interaction in the 2 x 3 between subjects ANOVA. …

A Research Assistant's Perceived Skillset When Utilizing Deception, Ahmad Sarris

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The use of deception in research has been a long-debated topic for several decades. Generally, research on deception has concerned its justifications, common methods, controversies, and uses inside and outside the broad field of psychology. Although the bulk of this research is typically concerned with exploring the potential drawbacks and controversies of deception on participants, the potential advantages and disadvantages to those implementing it has not been explored. More specifically, there are unanswered questions about what skills can be gained or perceived to be gained by research assistants utilizing deception. The present study explored whether deception utilization and/or the presence …

The Effects Of Nacl On The Triple Helix Structure Of Collagen And The Reinforcement Of Tung Oil-Based Polymers With Collagen Peptides, Christopher Dzorkpata

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this research, a collagen-reinforced bio-composite from tung oil was prepared using free radical initiation and thermal polymerization, leading to polyolefinic tung oil-based matrix. Two peptides (long and short) were synthesized and their secondary features were analyzed using circular dichroism spectroscopy. After this analysis, the long peptide exhibited more triple helix characteristics as compared to the short peptide. The full protein will ultimately have a better interaction with the tung oil, was used in the synthesis of the collagen-reinforced bio-composite. The presence of NaCl in the triple helix and its overall effect on the thermal and mechanical properties of the …

Impact Of Blended Salt Anti-Icers/Deicers On Properties Of Asphalt Binders, Nurudeen A. Abidoye

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Anyone who has ever attempted to remove a layer of ice from a roadway or sidewalk by plowing or shoveling knows it is no easy task when the ice is firmly bonded to the asphalt/concrete surface. Winter anti-icing/deicing operations are moral choices that mankind has made to combat winter storms. This research is aimed at evaluating the macro and nano structural impacts of (anti-icing/de-icing) salt on aged and unaged asphalt binders. The macro structural impacts focused on the rheological and creep properties, and the nano structural impacts focused on the surface topography, adhesion force, and modulus of asphalt binders. Rheological …

Numerical Approximation Of Lyapunov Exponents And Its Applications In Control Systems, Nakita K. Andrews

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The progression of state trajectories with respect to time, and its stability properties can be described by a system of nonlinear differential equations. However, since most nonlinear dynamical systems cannot be solved by hand, one must rely on computer simulations to observe the behavior of the system. This work focuses on chaotic systems. The Lyapunov Exponent (LE) is frequently used in the quantitative studies of a chaotic system. Lyapunov exponents give the average rate of separation of nearby orbits in phase space, which can be used to determine the state of a system, e.g. stable or unstable. The objective of …

The Devaluation Of Career Technical Education (Cte) By The Graduates Of Wonderwood High School, Jason J. Weiss

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In Georgia, high school graduates are expected to be college and career ready, however due to recent educational legislative changes the focus has been placed on being college ready. These modifications have led to a low number of graduates completing a Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway as well as a low number of graduates passing their CTE End-of-Pathway assessments and earning industry credentials. To assist in determining the factors that have led to the devaluation of CTE by Georgia graduates, a critical qualitative inquiry study was conducted on a sample of 13 graduates from Wonderwood High School, in South Heights, …

Lstm-Based Model For Human Brain Decisions Using Eeg Signals Analysis, Lorela Bano

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As machine learning models become more sophisticated, and biometric data becomes more readily available through new non-invasive technologies, it becomes increasingly possible to gain access to interesting biometric data that could revolutionize Human Computer Interaction. In this research, we propose a framework to assess and quantify human preference (like or dislike) on presenting various external visual stimuli. Our framework relies on an Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) based model and on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals analysis to predict Like or Dislike preference of human subjects when presented with various marketing images.

Analysis Of Miniaturized, Circularly Polarized Antennas For Bidirectional Propagation, Mason C. Moore

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Size reduction is necessary to fit the recent demand for small sized communication systems in consumer electronics. Wireless communication systems rely on antennas for long range transmission of signals, so size reduced antennas have been sought after in recent years. Also, not many antennas are designed for use in bidirectional scenarios like subways, tunnels, bridges, etc. Three sized reduced antennas with circular polarization are presented for use in bidirectional communication systems. An electrically small pattern reconfigurable array, an electrically small two-sided printed cross dipole, and a size reduced printed wideband antenna are introduced within this thesis. All antennas’ results are …

A Semi-Active Vibration Isolator For 3d Printing On Shipboard, Mohammad Z. Shahabuddin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In the recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) (aka 3D printing)-has become a viable alternative to traditional manufacturing due to its unique advantages, such as enabling the fabrication of complex geometries at reduced weight and costs as well as allowing on-site fabrication for maintenance and repair. One specific application area of the AM is the navy vessels. During extended voyages, the navy vessels likely require the convenience of on-site fabrication of the malfunctioned parts. However, the shipboard equipment suffers from a broad range of external excitations arising not only from the waves but also from the vessel’s engines, which …

Reclamation Of Fused Silica From Investment Shells Used For Casting Steel, Samuel L. Holt

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Fused silica is widely used for investment casting shell molds. Fused silica shells are discarded after being used for casting one time. This is due to the transformation of fused silica to beta cristobalite above 1652℉ (900℃). To reduce cost and waste of investment casting foundries, this study is exploring a method to inhibit transformation of fused silica and reclaim it from high temperature investment casting shells. This research has employed firing to minimalize fused silica transformation to cristobalite. The phase transformation is minimalized due to sintering and coarsening of the particles during firing. Coarsening reduces surface area to volume …

Evaluation Of Supervised Deep-Learning For Improved Pneumonia Diagnosis, Andrew Kalaani

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of infections in the lung area and deaths worldwide. The mortality rate is 24.8% for patients over 70 years of age due to other health complications present along with it. In least fortunate countries, pneumonia can often times go untreated because of how cost extensive it is to diagnose, especially severe cases that cannot be seen by a plain X-ray. Other scanning methods can find the lung abnormality but are time-extensive and not cost effective. An autonomous approach however can help aid diagnosing pneumonia with a plain X-ray scan due to the structural …

Mechanical Properties Of Nanomodified Hybrid Gfrp Composite Materials, Micah Rop Kimutai

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The mechanical behavior of the nanomodified hybrid epoxy matrix was investigated in glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP). In this study, five nanocomposites enriched with as received halloysite, nanomer I.28E, HNT-APTES, and the hybrid combinations of the two HNTs with the nanomer I.28E were successfully fabricated. To evaluate the effects and morphological characteristics of the individual fillers and the hybrid configurations on the epoxy resin matrix, TGA, DSC, and DMA were analyzed. To understand the effect of the five configurations on the neat GFRP laminate, mode I interlaminar fracture toughness, tensile, and vibration properties were investigated. Electron microscopy testing techniques were …