Digital Commons Network^™

Values And Power As Levers To Influence Accountability Policy In Virginia: A Case Study, Angela M. Rhett

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The education landscape has been inundated in recent decades with a plethora of accountability measures. New mandates and processes are conceived at the hands of policymakers, and concepts such as power and values are at the core of accountability changes. The purpose of this research study was to uncover the web of unwritten structures and systems in place that influence the educational accountability policy process using complexity theory as the guiding theoretical framework (Shoup & Studer, 2010). Complexity theory dispels the notion of simplistic cause and effect relationships as predictors for accountability trends, and, instead, posits the multiplicity of factors …

Trauma And Crisis Counselor Preparation: The Relationship Of An Online Trauma And Crisis Course And Counseling Self-Efficacy, Julia Leigh Lancaster

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

The field of trauma and crisis is growing and ubiquitous to all counseling specialties. Updates in 2009 and 2016 to the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) counselor preparation standards added mandated teachings on crisis, trauma, and disaster counseling in counselor preparation programs’ (CPPs) curricula. Since then, some CPPs have created stand-alone crisis courses, while the majority have infused various related content and trainings into already established counseling courses. Research does, in fact, support an increased crisis, trauma, and disaster readiness with more hours dedicated to the study and practice of domain specific content, and confirms …

Investigating The Process Of Consequential Validity With The Ambassador Questionnaire, Melissa Gayle Kuhn

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Validity in psychometrics refers to the degree to which evidence and theory supports the interpretations drawn from a test, and Messick’s Contemporary Validity Theory (1994) includes several facets with well-established evidence collection methods. However, there is a lack of consensus on appropriate methods of evaluating the facet of consequential validity, which is the degree to which interpretation of scores could have consequences for test-takers. The primary objective of this study was to illustrate a method of identifying potential consequences of survey in the stage of manual development. This method was placed in the context of the Ambassador Questionnaire (AQ) used …

Natural History Of Discourse Of Missouri House Bill 1042: Bringing A Critical Perspective To Policy Engagement In Two-Year Contexts, Mary Casey Reid

English Theses & Dissertations

In this autoethnographically-infused natural history of discourse (NHD) (Silverstein and Urban, 1996; Slembrouck, 2001), I use methods from critical discourse studies (CDS) to trace 10 years of changes in “remediation” discourses within a corpus of texts associated with Missouri HB 1042, a piece of legislation passed in 2012 that requires higher education institutions to “replicate best practices in remediation” (CBHE, 2013). After providing national and state context related to HB 1042 and the discourses circulating within the HB 1042 corpus of texts, I describe what I call the “higher ed’s remediation problem” discourse, focusing on three discourse features that I …

Machine Learning-Based Event Generator, Yasir Alanazi

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Monte Carlo-based event generators have been the primary source for simulating particle collision experiments for the study of interesting physics scenarios. Monte Carlo generators rely on theoretical assumptions, which limit their ability to capture the full range of possible correlations between particle’s momenta. In addition, the simulations of the complete pipeline often take minutes to generate a single event even with the help of supercomputers.

In recent years, much attention has been devoted to the development of machine learning event generators. They demonstrate attractive advantages, including fast simulations, data compression, and being agnostic of theoretical assumptions. However, most of the …

A Dialogical Approach To Peer Coaching For Asset Pedagogies, Elisabeth Van Beek

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how dialogical peer coaching using an asset pedagogical framework supported the development of culturally sustaining pedagogy (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Paris & Alim, 2017). This action research study followed one teacher and eight emergent bilingual students during an intervention. The intervention consisted of asset projects developed from the funds of identity framework (Esteban-Guitart, 2016). The peer coaching process consisted of a period of observation followed by repeated co-planning, coteaching, and reflection. The researcher took a dialogical stance on creating asset projects with the students as well as peer coaching with the teacher …

The Graduate Record Examination And Graduate Admissions: Issues In Diversity, Lauren Rankin

Dissertations

Doctoral education is an expensive and difficult endeavor. Program faculty are interested in finding students who will be successful in completing their courses and obtaining employment. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is often used to assess a student’s readiness for the rigors of graduate education. A student’s readiness for doctoral education can be assessed through analyzing the predictive validity of the GRE with various outcomes such as grade point average, scholarly output, and time to completion. However, this measure may not predict success for all students with potential bias towards students who are international and linguistically diverse. A total of …

Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching As Decision-Making For The University Mathematician Developing Coherence In Review Of Discrete Mathematics, Julie Lang

Dissertations

Mathematicians teaching at the university level have a deep understanding and appreciation for the mathematics that they teach. However, they rarely receive much formal training in teaching. Thus, university mathematicians must rely on their mathematical understandings and personally developed ideas of teaching to guide their decision-making. Relatively little research exists on mathematicians’ teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) of a university mathematician teaching discrete mathematics and how he leveraged his knowledge to make decisions and develop coherence among mathematical ideas during a semester review. An enactivist perspective examining a mathematician’s …

Middle School Students’ Perceptions, Experiences, And Behaviors Towards Using A Virtual Reality Application To Build Molecules, Dalal Za'al Ali Alrmuny

Dissertations

To deliver successful integration of virtual reality (VR) technology into chemistry education, it is essential that students have clear and positive perceptions about the purpose and the value of such integration. An important part of establishing a plan for integrating virtual reality technology into chemistry education is to explore the current perceptions, experiences, and behaviors of students towards the use of VR technology to establish an initial baseline of skills and areas in need of development. The purpose of this exploratory mixed methods study was to explore the perceptions, experiences, and behaviors of 62 middle school students in the state …

An Ensemble Machine Learning Approach To Causal Inference In High-Dimensional Settings, Sami Saad Alanazi

Dissertations

The machine-learning algorithms have gained popularity and have gotten the attention of many researchers in the fields of statistics and computer sciences in recent decades. Due to their computational capabilities in big data, many researchers have been attempting to incorporate machine-learning in prediction and inference problems. One of the recent methods that got a lot of attentions was referred to as the double machine learning method (DML). This method attempts to estimate the effect of the treatment variable in the presence of high-dimensional nuisance function by incorporating machine-learning algorithms. Previous studies have shown that the DML method is able to …

Estimating The Distribution Of Ratio Of Paired Event Times In Phase Ii Oncology Trials, Li Chen, Mark Burkard, Jianrong Wu, Jill M. Kolesar, Chi Wang

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

With the rapid development of new anti-cancer agents which are cytostatic, new endpoints are needed to better measure treatment efficacy in phase II trials. For this purpose, Von Hoff (1998) proposed the growth modulation index (GMI), that is, the ratio between times to progression or progression-free survival times in two successive treatment lines. An essential task in studies using GMI as an endpoint is to estimate the distribution of GMI. Traditional methods for survival data have been used for estimating the GMI distribution because censoring is common for GMI data. However, we point out that the independent censoring assumption required …

The Effect Of Numeracy And Math Anxiety On Whole Number Bias, Jasmine Jessica Leanna Bonsel

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Whole number bias (WNB) has been defined as the tendency to apply natural number knowledge to rational numbers. This misapplication can often lead to erroneous responses in mathematical tasks and understanding of rational number properties. Whole number bias can be explored using Dual Processing Theories. According to Dual Processing Theory we have two types of thinking: Type I and Type II. Type I is fast, heuristic based, intuitive, and doesn’t require working memory, while Type II is slow, logic based, analytical, and requires working memory. Some researchers argue that WNB is an intuitive phenomenon and occurs from a failure to …

Fossil Mammals From Hickory Tree Cave, Sullivan County, Tennessee, Alexis Rivera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hickory Tree Cave, also known as Big Spring Cave, is located in the southern Appalachians and is known for fossils that are considered to be Quaternary in age. Fossil mammals were identified and assigned to the lowest taxonomical level possible. Most remains are fragmented or digested and it seems likely that various taphonomic processes are responsible for the resulting assemblage. The site lacks the extreme boreal component of Pleistocene cave faunas in the region (e.g. Baker Bluff Cave), with most reported taxa inhabiting Appalachian deciduous forest environments in North America today. While the presence of tapir (Tapirus sp.) …

Community College Faculty’S Perceptions Of Culturally Responsive Teaching, Sarah Tolbert-Hurysz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study sought to understand community college faculty’s perceptions of and experiences with culturally responsive teaching. Participants were full- and part-time faculty currently employed at community colleges in the Southeastern United States and purposefully selected to provide information-rich data. Data collected from the semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the participants were coded and thematically analyzed. Emerging themes included faculty’s inclusion of varied categories of cultural diversity when describing students; limited knowledge related to culturally responsive teaching; perception that culturally responsive teaching is centered on connecting and building relationships with students; belief in the value of providing students exposure to different …

Importance Of The Microhabitat And Microclimate Conditions In The Northern Gray-Cheeked Salamander (Plethodon Montanus) Across An Elevation Gradient, Trevor Chapman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The southern Appalachian Mountains have among the highest salamander diversity in the world, largely due to local speciation in the family Plethodontidae. Plethodontid salamanders (i.e., lungless salamanders) are particularly sensitive to habitat climate conditions due to their reliance on cutaneous respiration, and their immediate environmental conditions (microhabitat) likely influence their dispersion and activity more than the large-scale atmospheric conditions. The Northern Gray-cheeked salamander (Plethodon montanus) is restricted to high elevations in the Appalachian Mountains. Our goal was to investigate the relationship between P. montanus and its microhabitat by examining behavioral preference for climatic conditions, characterizing the microclimate with …

Perceptions Of Middle School Teachers Regarding Differentiation Instruction, Karen Mclerran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the perceptions of middle school teachers regarding differentiation of instruction for students with mild to moderate disabilities. Although there has been little documentation in the literature regarding instructional differentiation five factors that facilitate change have been identified in the framework.

Data collection strategies included one-on-one semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Analysis of data occurred in three phases: (a) transcribing interviews, (b) member checking of the transcripts, (c) coding-recoding of the data. The analysis of data was based on the theoretical proposition that student achievement, positive behaviors, and increased learner motivation fosters …

Can We Efficiently Help Adults Strengthen Their Relational Practice?, Tom Akiva, Annie M. White, Sharon Colvin, Junlei Li, Peter Wardrip

Journal of Youth Development

Human interactions across settings shape young people’s learning and development, and building adult expertise in facilitating productive interactions takes deliberate practice and reflective experience. However, relational practices are not consistently part of adult learning for those who work with youth. We describe a 2-year design study to develop the Simple Interactions Leadership Program, a professional learning workshop focused on relational practices. We refined the program across 3 iterations with library and after-school staff (with a total of 41 participants). Iterative changes included adding participant-driven “try-it-out” projects, adding external accountability features, and combining staff from the library and after-school sectors. Using …

“This Isn't Working For Me. Can We Do It A Different Way?" The Lived Experiences Of Geoscience Students With Learning Disabilities, Nina Morris

Masters Theses

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to better understand the lived experiences of geoscience students with learning disabilities in their geoscience classes. Students with learning disabilities bring a unique perspective while also facing unique challenges in post-secondary education. In the literature, there is limited information on what support and teaching strategies are beneficial to this population. Undergraduate and graduate geoscience students who identify as having a learning disability from colleges and universities in the United States were recruited. Six students consented to participate in the study, and each completed a semi-structured interview. Semi-structured interviews were designed to prompt …

Exploring The Effects Of Tree Roots On Infiltration Process, Nazife Onaral

Masters Theses

Effects of the root structures on soil infiltration dynamics are not clearly defined. Imaging the complex tree root structures and movement of water through the root ball is a challenging task to achieve without damaging the trees and roots by conventional methods. Commonly used methods are invasive, labor-intensive, and not easily accessible. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has commonly been used to characterize soil profiles and it can be a reliable tool to map complex root structures with a novel high-resolution circular data collection technique. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is another reliable geophysical method to image infiltration processes by the change …

Rapid Metabolism Fosters Microbial Survival In The Deep, Hot Subseafloor Biosphere, F. Beulig, F. Schubert, R. R. Adhikari, C. Glombitza, V. B. Heuer, K. U. Hinrichs, K. L. Homola, F. Inagaki, B. B. Jørgensen, J. Kallmeyer, S. J.E. Krause, Y. Morono, J. Sauvage, A. J. Spivack, T. Treude

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

A fourth of the global seabed sediment volume is buried at depths where temperatures exceed 80 °C, a previously proposed thermal barrier for life in the subsurface. Here, we demonstrate, utilizing an extensive suite of radiotracer experiments, the prevalence of active methanogenic and sulfate-reducing populations in deeply buried marine sediment from the Nankai Trough subduction zone, heated to extreme temperature (up to ~120 °C). The small microbial community subsisted with high potential cell-specific rates of energy metabolism, which approach the rates of active surface sediments and laboratory cultures. Our discovery is in stark contrast to the extremely low metabolic rates …

An Analysis Of Uk Swap Yields, Tanweer Akram, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Working Papers

John Maynard Keynes argued that the central bank influences the long-term interest rate through the effect of its policy rate on the short-term interest rate. However, Keynes’s claim was confined to the behavior of the long-term government bond yield. This paper investigates whether Keynes’s claim holds for the yields of spread products and over-the-counter financial derivatives by econometrically modeling the dynamics of the pound sterling–denominated longterm interest rate swap yield. It uses the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) modeling approach to examine the relationship between the month-over-month changes in the short-term swap yield and the month-over-month change in the long-term …

Montclair Magazine (Fall/Winter 2022), Montclair State University

Montclair: The magazine of Montclair State University

No abstract provided.

Fitness Of Interspecific Hybrids In The Genus Cyprinella: An Evaluation Of Swimming Performance In North American Stream Fishes, Jessica Wilks

Biology Theses

Due to anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are being rapidly destroyed worldwide. Accordingly, human impacts have also resulted in the loss of native aquatic biodiversity. In particular, the introduction of non-native species to aquatic habitats is of great concern. Historically, the introductions of many non-native freshwater fishes are the result of commercial baitfish aquaculture, food industries, and private aquarium release. The red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) is a small stream fish that is endemic to the Central U.S., and its natural range is restricted to East of the Mississippi River. Since the 1950’s, red shiner have been commercially raised and transported …

Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity Is Mediated By Neutrophils Through Release Of Neutrophil Elastase, Anchit Bhagat

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Doxorubicin (Dox) is one of the most effective chemotherapy agents that is used for the treatment of childhood cancer. Unfortunately Dox treatment can cause damage to the heart. Indeed, childhood cancer survivors are at a higher risk of developing a cardiovascular disease at an earlier age. The mechanisms by which Dox causes acute and late cardiotoxicity are not completely understood. One understudied area in Dox-induced cardiotoxicity is the contribution of inflammation and innate immune cells, in particular neutrophils. Recognizing that neutrophils have been implicated in a number of heart diseases, we evaluated the role of neutrophils in Dox-induced cardiotoxicity. Here, …

Hiring Now Versus Later: The Impact Of Psychological Distance On Personnel Selection Decisions, Emily Ann Frye

Theses and Dissertations

Personnel selection is an important part of successful organizations, yet little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying selection decisions as well as the influence of external factors, such as time, on those mechanisms. Therefore, the present study aims to address these issues by integrating construal level theory of psychological distance and decision-making theories contextualized to personnel selection decisions. More specifically, the present study examined how hiring lag (i.e., hiring for an immediate start vs. for several months later) impacts the selection decision-making process by looking through the lens of two competing time-based theories: construal level theory of psychological distance …

Inactivation Kinetics Of Bacillus Atrophaeus In Liquid Hydrogen Peroxide For Aseptic Package Sterilization, Manoj Sawale, Xiang Cheng, Rishi Drolia, Patnarin Benyathiar, Ferhan Ozadali, Arun Bhunia, Dharmendra Mishra

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Liquid hydrogen peroxide is used as a common sterilant for the aseptic packaging materials. Based on the Food Safety Objective (FSO) for specific products, a surrogate organism, Bacillus atrophaeus, is used to validate the sterilization processes. This study aims to develop a methodology for the kinetic inactivation parameter estimation of B. atrophaeus. Spores of B. atrophaeus were challenged with various peroxide concentrations (20%, 28%, and 33%; v/v) and temperatures such as 23, 55, 71.1, and 82.2 °C. The log-linear and Weibull models were used for the inactivation models for liquid peroxide at different temperatures. The parameters …

Quantifying The Magnitude Of To Tal Dose Deviation Caused By Various Sources Of Error Among Iroc Phantom Irradiation Results, Sharbacha S. Edward

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) phantoms are used as an end-to-end test of an institution’s radiotherapy processes, and for clinical trial credentialing. Phantoms are treated like patients, and evaluation of the doses received by the thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) inside the phantom, reflects the accuracy with which an institution can image, plan and irradiate a phantom or patient. Recent phantom results show that among the hundreds of various IROC phantoms irradiated annually, 8-17% of institutions fail this test. The purpose of this work was to investigate the various types of errors that may occur during the treatment process and …

Bayesian Adaptive Clinical Trial Design, Mengyi Lu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The landscape of drug development in oncology has changed from conventional chemotherapies to molecular targeted therapies and immunotherapies, which provide innovative therapeutic modalities for treating cancers. These novel therapeutic agents work through mechanisms that fundamentally differ from standard chemotherapeutic agents, making the conventional trial design paradigm inefficient and dysfunctional. Specifically, the focus of dose-finding trials has shifted from finding the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) to the optimal biological dose (OBD), defined as the dose that optimizes the risk–benefit tradeoff. How to accurately identify the OBD and its dosing schedule is of great importance to maximize efficacy and safety of targeted …

Infrastructure Development For Personalized Risk Prediction To Reduce Cardiovascular Disease In Childhood Cancer Survivors, Suman Shrestha

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Although childhood cancer survivors have lengthy life expectancies, they run the risk of experiencing long-term health issues as a result of their treatment. The most frequent non-cancerous cause of morbidity and mortality for these survivors is cardiac disease. Radiation therapy (RT) has been linked in numerous cohort studies to a higher chance of developing a late cardiac disease in these survivors, and this risk rises with higher mean heart doses and increased RT exposure to larger cardiac volumes. Since, the heart is a heterogeneous organ made up of several distinct substructures, RT dose received by the entire heart does not …

Irreducible Representations From Group Actions On Trees, Charlie Liou

Master's Theses

We study the representations of the symmetric group $S_n$ found by acting on

labeled graphs and trees with $n$ vertices. Our main results provide

combinatorial interpretations that give the number of times the irreducible

representations associated with the integer partitions $(n)$ and $(1^n)$ appear

in the representations. We describe a new sign

reversing involution with fixed points that provide a combinatorial

interpretation for the number of times the irreducible associated with the

integer partition $(n-1, 1)$ appears in the representations.