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Unlocking The Gates Of Change: Exploring The Impact Of Transformational Leadership On Openness Toward Organizational Change, William A. Whipple Iii

M.S. in Leadership

This capstone delves into the contemporary challenge of organizational change, specifically focusing on leadership's influence on employee openness to change. The objective is to provide leaders with practical tools for fostering employee receptivity to change in today's dynamic work environment. This study employs a mixed-method approach involving a literature review and a quantitative survey. The research reveals a positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee openness to change. A 21-item survey evaluates the correlation between five subdimensions of transformational leadership and employee openness. Practical implications suggest that leaders emphasizing inspirational communication can enhance employee openness to future organizational changes, contributing …

The Relationship Between Student Engagement And Act Aspire Reading Scores Among Ninth-Grade Students In One Northwest Arkansas Junior High School, Dwight Vincent Jr.

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between academic achievement and attendance. Reading proficiency is foundational to overall academic success. In this study, reading proficiency served as the operational definition for the level of student academic success. Out-of-school suspension is a disciplinary consequence as a result of student behavior and correlates to student attendance. This quantitative, correlational study examined the relationship between student engagement, as defined by student attendance and discipline, and reading proficiency, as measured by the 2021-22 ACT Aspire Reading scores for ninth-grade students in one northwest Arkansas junior high school.

Descriptive data analysis was …

Gifted And Talented Student Performance On State Achievement Tests, Dondre Harris

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

The exploration of dissecting gifted and talented programs combined with student advancement and academic success is one daunting but doable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the equity of the gifted and talented program while analyzing the achievement scores of these students compared to their peers. This quantitative study includes an evaluation of third through fifth grade students in a central Arkansas school district while merging the relationships of the general education population versus the academically gifted and talented population. Both groups were examined through the independent variables classified as ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. A descriptive data …

Commencement [Program], December 16, 2023, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Commencement Programs

The program of the commencement ceremonies, including a list of institutional leadership, a list of the departments by college, awards given at the ceremonies, and a list of undergraduate and graduate degree candidates. This commencement program is not an official graduate list.

Contents:

--- Iowa Board of Regents ... 2
--- Institutional Leadership ... 2
--- The Academic Procession ... 3
--- Academic Honorary Organizations ... 4
--- University Ambassador Organizations ... 5
--- University Honors Program ... 6
--- Legacy Graduates ... 6
--- Order of Events ... 7
--- College of Education ... 10
--- College of Humanities, …

The Generational Journey Of Racial Reconciliation: A Call For Tender Hearts And Continuing Conversation Through A Servant-First Life Of Leadership, Michael T. Von Behren

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

In the polarized context of today’s society ideological differences on how to address issues of race funnel the angst from riot-stricken streets into school board meetings, sour social media posts, and cancel both careers and friendships. This article examines the critical critique of what has been called third wave anti-racism contrasting this critique with foundational tenants of critical race theory. Servant-leadership is presented as a preferred alternative leading to continuing conversation with tender hearts, which choose to remember the abuses of the past while seeking renewed reconciliation for the sake of future generations.

Self-Forgiveness, Servant-Leadership, And Religious Volunteers In A Juvenile Incarceration Setting, Terri Jane Stewart

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Engaging volunteers with religious backgrounds in a juvenile incarceration setting leads to encountering white saviorism (Raypole, 2021, para. 4) and white evangelicalism as expressed through the theology of these volunteers and their racial demographic. Additionally, white evangelicalism used the language and values of Christian nationalism (Boston, 2021). Servant-leadership is an antidote to white Christian nationalism and can balance the inequalities of relationships between volunteer and incarcerated youth. Specifically, self-forgiveness as a practice of servant-leadership and of incarcerated youth can lead to healing from white Christian nationalism and healing from a criminal background.

Servant-Leadership In The Military: An Investigation Of Servant-Leadership Among Technical Sergeants In The United States Air Force, Tracey M. Richardson, Matthew P. Earnhardt, Tori Morris, Steven M. Walker

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Servant-Leadership, developed by Greenleaf (1970), is a leadership theory which prioritizes the follower. Greenleaf contended that putting others first as leaders could lead to a change in society. Patterson (2003) developed a model from Greenleaf’s theory which identified several attributes of the Servant-Leadership model including agapao love, humility, altruism, vision, trust, empowerment, and service. In the military, researchers have used Patterson’s construct to conclude that Servant-Leadership does exist in the military. Though some research involving Servant-Leadership and the military has been conducted, there is a dearth in the literature. In the United States Air Force, leadership development for Non-Commissioned Officers …

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Using Photovoice Methodology To Explore Perceptions Of Servant-Leadership During International Service-Learning, Wendy E. Walsh, Tracey E. Recigno

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Healthcare education programs are tasked to develop the leadership capacity of students in the preparation for them to become future healthcare providers who can holistically address the needs of complex communities and our society at large. Educational institutions often look to experiential learning opportunities where students can be active participants in the exploration of new leadership behaviors. In particular, service-learning experiences may help support the development of servant leadership qualities. These experiences and qualities both aid in the development of empathetic, inclusive practitioners and professions. A gap in literature exists on health profession students’ perceptions of these experiences and if …

Regulation Of Mrna And Circrna As A Cause And Consequence Of Aging In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Rebekah Napier-Jameson

Biological Sciences Theses and Dissertations

A role for RNA binding proteins in regulating lifespan has emerged. We identified a pair of neuronal RBPs, exc-7 and mbl-1, which display synthetic lifespan defects. Such a strong synthetic phenotype represented an opportunity to use transcriptomics to search for potential causative targets that are synthetically regulated. We identified a small handful of genes synthetically dysregulated in double mutants and systematically tested each candidate gene for functional contribution to the exc-7; mbl-1 lifespan phenotype. We identified one such gene, the ion transporter nhx-6, which is highly upregulated in double mutants. Overexpression of nhx-6 causes reduced lifespan, and deletion …

Absolving Conflict Through Principles Of Servant-Leadership, Brandon Stoddard

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

This article explores the inevitable and unchecked conflicts that arise between people and how it can turn into unmanageable rage and harmed relationships. Both instigators and recipients of conflict are ultimately wounded by its accompanying outcomes. By sharing several examples from my life, including the threat of harm from a deadly weapon towards my three-year-old son by his uncle, I demonstrate the hurt caused by conflict and how principles of servant-leaders can help individuals restore positive associations. When faith is stronger than the bitterness and hostility that often plagues humanity, love offers a longer-term perspective thereby opening a way towards …

Servant-Leadership In Nursing Education, Kendrea Todt, Sarah Covington

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Recent changes in healthcare policy including the sentinel paper from the Institutes of Medicine, now known as the National Academy of Medicine, 2010 report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health and the most recent, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity reports have demonstrated the changing role of nurses creating a growing need for nurse leaders. The healthcare industry is seeking to find a leadership style that will facilitate the goals of providing quality care in a collaborative environment. With its natural focus on service, the style of the servant-leader is one option. …

2023 Fall - Commencement Program, Office Of The Registrar, East Tennessee State University

ETSU Commencement Ceremonies and Programs

No abstract provided.

Daily Stress And Negative Affect As Predictors Of Orthorexia Nervosa Symptoms Among College Students: Testing Direct And Moderated Associations Using Daily Diary Methodology, Sharyl Wee

Psychology Theses and Dissertations

Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) is a condition involving a pathological obsession with healthy or “clean” eating (Bratman, 1997). Prevalence estimates of ON range from 35.4% to 83% in the U.S. population (Niedzielski & Kaźmierczak-Wojtás, 2021). Starting out innocuously as a habit of eating healthier foods, ON becomes socially and physically impairing when individuals spend a large amount of time and effort planning and preparing healthy meals, eventually turning into an obsession that interferes with other domains of life (Oberle et al., 2017). Although ON is not in the DSM-5, preliminary investigation has shown that it may fall on the eating disorder …

Community Connect: A Strategy To Mitigate The Effects Of Church Shopping On Small Urban And Rural Congregations, Jimmy Greene

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

While serving as an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, I began to realize that church shopping poses an existential worry to the survival of small churches in North America, mainly those with limited resources. The demand of some church shoppers for social amenities like indoor gyms and theater-style folding seats over personal relationship with God creates low morale for small churches, which often lack a positive response strategy.

This research study proposes a mitigating strategy, Community Connect, to address the social, psychological, missional, and ecclesiological impacts of church shopping on small churches. This socio-missiological, ecclesiological, and pedagogical approach …

Bitcoin Price Modeling Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Azadeh Golduzian

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Forecasting in financial markets with various technologies is critical nowadays. The Bitcoin cryptocurrency has grown in popularity in recent years, and as a result, many people all around the world have attempted to forecast its price. To improve forecast accuracy, we must employ multiple types of data and diverse approaches. This thesis combines textual and financial data and employs statistical methods and machine learning to forecast Bitcoin's price as precisely as possible. We show the performance of each strategy using Bitcoin data at the end of each chapter.

Interpretable Word-Level Sentiment Analysis With Attention-Based Multiple Instance Classification Models, Chenyu Yang

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In this study, our main objective is to tackle the black-box nature of popular machine learning models in sentiment analysis and enhance model interpretability. We aim to gain more insight into the decision-making process of sentiment analysis models, which is often obscure in those complex models. To achieve this goal, we introduce two word-level sentiment analysis models.

The first model is called the attention-based multiple instance classification (AMIC) model. It combines the transparent model structure of multiple instance classification and the self-attention mechanism in deep learning to incorporate the contextual information from documents. As demonstrated by a wine review dataset …

2023 Fall Commencement, Harding University

Commencement Programs

Program for the Harding University Commencement on December 16.

Commencement Speaker: Keith Cronk

2023-December-16-Etsu Celebrates Class Of Fall 2023, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

East Tennessee State University celebrated more than 1,400 members of the Class of 2023 during two Commencement ceremonies held at the Ballad Health Athletic Center today.

During the morning ceremony, Dr. Jessica Burchette, associate professor of Pharmacy Practice at ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, was the keynote speaker. Burchette is the 2023 recipient of the ETSU Distinguished Faculty Award in Teaching, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the university.

In her remarks, Burchette provided five tips to the graduating class. Among them, she encouraged the graduates to “prioritize people” and to find ways to serve and be generous.

“When …

757transfamily: Empowering Parents To Raise Their Transgender Child Through Knowledge, Connection, And Joy, Jessica Gurley

Institute for the Humanities Master's Papers, Projects, and Capstones

Parents of transgender and non-binary children often want to support their children, but are not sure how. Giving these parents the support and resources they need will increase their ability to support their children, further increasing the chance that their children will live a long, healthy, authentic life.

I built a website, and organized a workshop that parents can attend in order to access information and resources about the transgender community. These parents will receive the support they need to be better equipped to support their gender-diverse children. I will be collecting information about the parents' feelings and experience towards …

Ceo Narcissism: An Unconventional Approach To Understanding The Importance Of Further Research, Melissa Goldsmith

Student Theses and Dissertations

CEOs are in a unique position of power and can significantly change an organization's overall work culture, global financial standing, policies/governance, and reputation. As such, the CEO must exemplify good stewardship, implement sound strategies to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders, consider different perspectives, and maintain respect for others' skill sets and expertise. For decades, corporations have focused on this ideal picture of leadership. It is essential to understand how the leadership traits once venerated have changed to include the darker side of a CEO's personality, specifically, the embodiment of narcissistic traits that prove detrimental to the organization's performance …

Creating Space For Black Queer Narratives: A Conversation Between Nella Larsen And James Baldwin, Trinity L. Hollis

Student Theses and Dissertations

My project seeks to use the fiction of James Baldwin and Nella Larsen to understand how queerness interacts with race, namely Black identity. I’m guided by Black feminist thought to consider themes of intersectionality, the notion that all aspects of identity are experienced simultaneously. This thesis makes an effort not to alienate one identity from another; the literature that I’m close reading is proof that Blackness and queerness inform each other.

Portrayals Of Gender And Race In Instagram Advertising: An Exploratory Content Analysis, Taylor Moore

Honors College Theses

Race and gender stereotyping is a longstanding problem in the world of advertising. This research utilized content and statistical analysis to answer three questions regarding race and gender stereotyping in Instagram advertising: (1) what portrayals are being shown? (2) how are these portrayals being shown? And (3) are diverse advertisements reinforcing or challenging stereotypes? Tweny advertisements were chosen off Instagram to analyze. Through an analysis of literature on the topic, a code book defining race, person of color, sex, gender, and gender expression was created. Using these variables and classifying the ads as a stereotype/counterstereotype/neutral, allowed for the creation of …

Machine Learning For Automated Cervical Vertebral Maturation Assessment On Lateral Cephalograms, Nuo Dong

Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: Skeletal maturation age is an important guide in growing adolescent patients to determine the proper time to start orthodontic treatment. The most practical and commonly used method to determine skeletal age in today’s clinical practice is the Cervical Vertebral Maturation (CVM) method [2]. Based on the morphology of the cervical vertebrae, six maturational stages can be determined – designated CS 1 to CS 6. The main drawback of this technique is the time required to determine CS number. Objective: In this research a machine learning (ML) algorithm to automatically determine CVM staging from the lateral cephalometric radiograph was developed. …

Design And Fabrication Of A Low Power 7.2 Terabit Transmitter For Exascale Computing, Scott Mcwilliams

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Enhanced Coupled Strength (ECS) gratings fabricated into III-V based devices offer high reflected power per unit length and broad band reflectivity as compared to conventional 1st order gratings, desired qualities for short-haul high speed transmitters that can be implemented without the need for chip-level temperature control, contributing to the low power per transmitted bit. For commercial DBR lasers, the grating reflectivity results in an extremely narrow reflectivity spectrum, which is highly desired for most/many applications, but requires a power hungry thermo-electric cooler to maintain a fixed frequency. The proposed LEAM (laser electro-absorption modulator) requires a broad reflectivity spectrum, which, by …

Series Aperture Coupled Fed Phased Array Antenna, Guang Yang

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Phased arrays are employed in a wide range of civil and Military contexts, including RADAR, cellular communications, and satellite communications. However, modern phased-array antennas require complex design and bulky structure at high costs, hindering their implementation in many applications. The critical aspect of a phased array design lies in power splitting with a proper phase to each radiating element. Conventional power splitters such as quarter-wavelength or Wilkinson power splitters suffer problems associated with complex array network and high power dissipation. Furthermore, popular phase shifters such as MEMS switch, ferrite-based or PIN diode have drawbacks of low power-handling capability, expensive packaging, …

Effect Of Parenting Techniques On Anxiety In Children, Amber Burton

Student Works

As anxiety among children becomes more prevalent, understanding how parenting styles affect its development may become more relevant. Anxiety affects various aspects of individuals' lives (socially, intellectually, physically, and spiritually), adding extra challenges. Anxiety can be influenced by genetics but is also potentially impacted by the child’s environment. Evidence suggests that children whose parents display higher levels of warmth through acceptance and caring behaviors tend to experience lower levels of anxiety (Butterfield et al., 2021). Additionally, lower levels of anxiety have been found in children with parents who utilize increased levels of autonomy, giving their children the freedom to make …

Bridging The Gaps: Listening To Early Education Leaders As Minnesota Public School Districts Work To Align Their Pre-K And K-12 Systems, Lisa A. Willman

Doctorate in Education

This qualitative study employed a grounded-theory approach to examine how Minnesota public schools align their pre-K to their K-12 systems. One-time, on-line interviews with eight early education leaders probed their districts’ catalyst for aligning the systems, how they continued the work after it was initiated, what successes and challenges they encountered, and their recommendations for other districts planning to do such alignment. Data were gathered using the built-in video-recording option in Google Meet, which also created closed captions and a printed transcript of the information. The resulting data were then analyzed via ATLAS.ti using eight main categories derived from Kauerz …

Main Effects Screening Study Of Fe/Kclo4 Thermal Battery Heat Pellet Resistive Activation, Bryan T. Steiner

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Thermal battery iron-potassium perchlorate (Fe/KClO₄) heat pellets are often ignited by explosive igniters or heat paper. An alternative direct electrical ignition method via resistive heating is explored, which could improve thermal battery manufacturability and design flexibility. A main effects screening experiment was performed with the goal of confirming prior observed trends under more realistic test conditions and ranking the importance of design factors, to optimize future experiments and develop knowledge of the performance space. Relevant literature is examined to advance a theoretical understanding of resistive activation. Ignition sensitivity (go/no-go and time to ignition) and ignition energy are primary …

Colloid Fabrication For Biomedical Engineering Applications Through Droplet Microfluidics, Lewis I. Larsen

Biomedical Engineering ETDs

The goal of this work was to leverage soft colloid fabrication through droplet microfluidics to improve the biomedical fields of radiotracer microspheres for selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT) and 3D hydrogel tissue constructs for cell culture with future potential as a platform to study liver diseases and drug response. The importance of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging microspheres infused with positron-emitting radioisotopes such as Ga-68, Cu-64, and F-18 is that they accurately map tumor-to-liver uptake (TLR) ratio and lung shunting factor of hepatocellular carcinoma. These pretreatment radiotracers model the intravascular accumulation behavior of radioactive therapeutic Y-90 SIRT microspheres. Qualifying patients, …

An Inquiry Into Urban Schooling And The Social Justice Nexus: An Agency Case Study For Transformative Change, Eduardo E. Peña Jr.

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

In an era of accountability and censorship in public schooling, teaching for social justice is a difficult proposition for K-5 teachers. This inquiry explored the pedagogical principles of five elementary school teachers who navigate the rigors of standardization while also providing an education with a social justice orientation. Using a critical lens, this study v i was guided by the following questions: (1) how do elementary teachers approach topics of social justice in their curriculum? (2) what are the pedagogical considerations for teachers in urban schooling? and (3) what structures prohibit or provide proliferation for the integration of social justice …