Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Mindfulness Based Teacher Training On Developing Teachers, Timothy Walsh

Mindfulness Studies Theses

Interest in the effects of mindful interventions in school settings continues to draw increasing interest. Mindfulness techniques for students as well as mindfulness training for teachers are consistently producing encouraging results. This study focused on teachers and support staff at the middle and high school levels. Specifically, teachers and staff who were within 0-5 years of teaching or 0-5 years new to a teaching position. Because other studies have produced positive results of mindfulness interventions on teachers, this study is focused on evaluating the impact of mindfulness training on teachers in the formative years of teaching and in new environments. …

Moral Crimes Post-Mellouli: Making A Case For Eliminating State-Based Prostitution Convictions As A Basis For Inadmissibility In Immigration Proceedings, Kerry Q. Battenfeld

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Medicaid Expansion, Medicaid Reimbursement Methodologies, And Counselor Employment At Federally Qualified Health Centers, Alison Phillips Sheesley

Dissertations

Advocacy for the counseling profession necessitates a thorough understanding of the factors influencing the hiring and reimbursement of licensed professional counselors. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted several health care reforms that may influence the utilization of mental health services and the employment of mental health professionals. These reforms included the option for states to expand their Medicaid population (effective January 1, 2014), mental health parity requirements for most insurance plans including Medicaid plans, and increased funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs or health centers). FQHCs, created by Congress in 1989, provide primary care services, including …

Cultural Influences Upon Soviet-Era Programmatic Piano Music For Children, Maria Pisarenko

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Russian Revolution and the ensuing Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) spawned an era of Soviet music education that resulted in generations of gifted musicians. Soviet-era piano composers contributed to the emergence and the development of a unique style of piano training, a Soviet piano school, represented by great pianists and music educators known all over the world. Recent research on Soviet-era piano music focuses on non-programmatic piano compositions. The research conducted in this work appears to be the first to produce a comparative overview of major programmatic piano compositions for children written during the Soviet era.

In Cultural …

Maintaining Nurses' Currency In Informatics, Jennifer Alaine Strawn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Technology has changed how registered nurses (RNs) provide care at the bedside. As more technologies are utilized to improve quality of care, safety of care, maximize efficiencies, and decrease costs of care, one must question how well the information technologies (IT) are fully integrated and utilized by the front-line bedside nurse in his or her practice. Despite the pervasiveness of IT in healthcare, there is a paucity of literature on how Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) assure the ongoing education and training for nurses to maintain IT competencies in the practice environment.

From this author’s lived experience as a CNO, it …

Male Urinary Incontinence: A Critical Appraisal Of The Literature With Practice Recommendations, Deborah J. Forcht

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Urinary Incontinence (UI) is a debilitating medical condition that affects individuals’ quality of life. People with this condition describe decreased enjoyment of sexual activity, as well as increased risk of experiencing depression, and anxiety. Data show that incontinence is less prevalent in men than women, which may explain the dearth of studies focusing specifically on men. As men age, their rate of suffering from UI increases from 4.8% at ages 19 to 44 to over 21% by the age of 65 years. Additionally, men who suffer from permanent UI are more likely to be institutionalized compared to those without UI …

Is Community Based Policing The Answer? Yemen’S Fight Against Aqap, Maximilian Kaehler

Senior Theses

Throughout history we have seen drastic changes in methods for combating terrorism; however, as a society we have never been able to find an effective solution. In recent years we have seen countries use community based policing in an effort to fight terrorism at home; how would adopting community based policing efforts help or hurt countries throughout the Middle East in combating terrorism? I believe that implementing community based policing into these countries would drastically improve civilian and government relationships as well as hinder terrorists’ ability to recruit new member from these areas. I conduct a multi-case study then apply …

Community Connectedness Within The Lgbt* Community, Vivian Carney

Honors Projects

The purpose of the literature review is to understand community connectedness in regards to LGBT* community resilience, and the interdependence that community connectedness may have with other, similar concepts. The literature review revealed strong ties between the concepts of community interaction, community involvement, and community connectedness including a process of development for community connectedness. In general, the LGBT* community is largely understudied, especially in terms of examining subgroups of the LGBT* community (e.g. transgender) or intersecting identities. Secondly, the purpose of the applied research was to carry out an educational event that would adequately inform attendees the information learned in …

Scholarworks Statistics - May 2017, Scholarworks

ScholarWorks Reports

For the month of May 2017, ScholarWorks recorded a total of 19,310 full-text and additional file downloads and 8,774 page views.

Entering The Inclusive Space: An Autoethnography Of A Future Educator, Lindsey Reuter

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Inclusive Education is the practice of educating all students in one classroom. Students with disabilities or who qualify for special education are members of regular education classrooms, and remain in the classroom for as much of the day as possible. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) legalized that schools provide free and appropriate education, as well as educate students in the least restrictive environment. The least restrictive environment is in the general education classroom. This legislation helped to increase the prevalence of inclusion in schools.

This research represents my development as a future educator. I entered Syracuse University as in …

Serving Syracuse Youth Through Mentorship, Neha Rauf

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project seeks to explore the use of mentorship as an intervention mechanism for at-risk youth in Syracuse, living with the consequences of poverty and community violence. The first part is an interview-based study that analyzes the effects on youth and mentors that participate in mentorship programs in Syracuse, New York focusing on the reciprocal nature of those benefits. While mentors guide urban youth through academic, social, and personal challenges, this study finds the principal benefits to the mentees interviewed were exposure to new opportunities and improved interpersonal and communication skills. Furthermore, the mentors themselves felt the relationship was an …

Examining The Needs Of Refugees And Refugee Service Providers: A Case File Examination, Alyson D. Miller

Honors Theses

Refugees are people who have fled their country as a result of experienced persecution or fear of persecution. Research shows that refugees face many challenges and have many needs after being relocated in the United States. Once refugees are resettled, the goal of resettlement organizations and agencies is that refugees achieve self-sufficiency and be integrated into the community. This research aims to discover if refugee demographic characteristics have an effect on the amount of financial assistance refugees receive for relocations or an effect on achievement of self-sufficiency. This research is a quantitative secondary analysis taken from the case files of …

Demographic Differences In Drug Dependency: Implications For Policy, Practice, And Research, Charles D. Baker

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research study was to examine whether there are differences in drug dependency based on demographic characteristics. The four most commonly used or abused drugs were included in this analysis (i.e., nicotine, alcohol, pain relievers, and marijuana). The secondary purpose is to explore whether there were demographic differences in mental health and drug treatment among those with a substance use disorder. Substance dependence is a state in which someone can only function normally with the presence of a drug. Past research has examined this topic to some degree; however, trends often change over time. This study found …

Instructional Teacher Job Resources And Student Achievement In Mathematics., Amy Stokes-Levine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that teachers who are supported with job resources are more engaged regardless of the level of demands (Klusmann et al., 2008). Additionally, teachers who are engaged with their work are less likely to report their intention to leave the teaching profession (Klassen et al., 2012), which is particularly important for mathematics teachers who are in high demand (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver-Thomas, 2016). Supporting employees with job resources is a commonly accepted practice in many professional fields (e.g., Christian, Garza, & Slaughter, 2011), yet is not a common practice in education (e.g., Bidwell, 2013; Gewertz, 2014; Layton, 2015; Rentner …

The Crime And The Criminal: Perceptions Of Crime Seriousness, Amanda Stephens

Honors College

Crime in the United States has been and will continue to be a public problem (Saad, 2007). Thus, it is important to know how the public perceives different types of crime. For the focus of this study, perceptions of crime seriousness will be analyzed based on the race of the criminal and the type of crime committed (white-collar vs. non-violent property crime) as the variables of interest. This exploratory research will be used to discover the relationship between the factors of a specific crime and the public’s perception of the seriousness of that crime in terms of seriousness and punishment. …

Hot Or Not: The Reality Of Body Image Perceptions In The 21st Century For Female College Students, Raychel Duncan

Honors College

Everyone looks in the mirror at some point in their lives, and they do not feel fully satisfied with what they see. Maybe it is their weight or their hair color or perhaps their height—there is always something that “needs” to be changed. College-age women seem especially impacted by negative body image perceptions. Research shows that this desire to look like and be something different is often brought on from societal pressures, social media and familial opinions and comments. The existing research often looks at why women are dissatisfied with their looks but not routinely at what specific impacts this …

University Of Central Florida Undergraduate Catalog, 2017 - 2018, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

University Of Central Florida Graduate Catalog, 2017 - 2018, University Of Central Florida

UCF Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Resilience And Social Support Among College Students With Disabilities, Rachita Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

Since the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, individuals with disabilities have found enhanced opportunities in various areas of living. The numbers of students with disabilities in institutions of postsecondary education have also increased in the past few decades; however, despite this increase, the degree completion rates of students with disabilities continue to lag in comparison to their non-disabled peers in colleges and universities. As such, most universities currently have a designated office or department of disability accommodations designed to provide academic accommodations for students with disabilities. Nonetheless, current rehabilitation research is lacking in knowledge regarding interventions …

"What Is My Environment, I Will Change": Exploring The Possibilities Of Transnational Feminism Through Kennesaw State University's Middle Eastern And North African Students, Lissa M. Small

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

Much research has been done on feminism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as well as on the international student experience. This paper combines the two areas of research to study the international student’s role in promoting transnational feminism. Combining select works of fiction with data collected from Kennesaw State University (KSU) students via an online survey and personal interviews, the paper identifies the challenges the MENA women face in creating connections with others in the U.S. while noting the women's influence in changing perceptions. Similarly, the paper highlights the observations of the MENA students in regard to …

The Effect Of Chronotherapy On Depressive Symptoms: Evidence-Based Practice, Anas H. Khalifeh

Saudi Medical Journal

The global prevalence of depression is increasing, along with rates of depression-associated disability and mortality, rendering depressive disorders a major public health issue. Chronotherapy involves a variety of strategies that control exposure to environmental stimuli that influence the biological clock, such as sleep deprivation (SD) or wake therapy (WT), sleep phase advance (SPA), and light and dark therapy (LT, DT). The purpose of this Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) paper is to answer PICOT questions by a review the effectiveness of chronotherapeutics interventions on depressive symptoms with depression and the depressive episode in the course of bipolar disorder. Early studies suggested the …

The Nurse’S Story: A Qualitative Study Of How Nurses Experience Caring For Patients Who Die Unexpectedly, Shantel Sullivan

All Theses And Dissertations

The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experience of compassion fatigue among nurse professionals in order to examine natural grieving reactions and how they potentially change nurses’ lives. The focus of this study included nurse professionals working in rural community hospitals in Upstate New York. The nurse professionals in the study were exclusively those who identify and practice as registered nurses (RN). The nurses were asked to share their experiences of repetitive exposure to critical incidents (unexpected outcomes, mass casualties, and/or death of infant/child/young adult). Purposive sampling was utilized as a means to select participants. The …

An Observation Of The Operational Processes Of Community-Based, Non-Profit Organizations Through Use Of Volunteers, Lillian Cleveland

All Theses

Abstract This paper is an observational analysis five (5) non-profit organizations located in upstate South Carolina. The organizations are community based, non-profits that represent diverse communities. Each organization relies on the assistance of volunteer workers to accomplish operative goals. The analysis of each organization was completed through the use of observation and personal interview processes. Value stream mapping was used to detail process maps to analyze the effectiveness of each organization's operations. The mapping detailed the intake, decision, and exit processes. It utilized value stream mapping to suggest possible improvements for the organizations' processes to increase their efficiency. The analysis …

A Geographical Analysis Of Food Access In The Greater Hartford Area Of Connecticut, Mengyao Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Food access is an important measurement in food deserts and food insecurity research, yet it is one, which has not been defined or employed systematically in urban settings. To some authors access refers to physical distance to grocery stores, or simply the number of stores, while to others it characterizes factors such as price and quality of food sold. This ambiguity leads to contrasting delineation of food deserts, which has ramifications on estimating its effects on vulnerable populations and subsequent food policies.

The main goal of this dissertation is to formulate a taxonomic index of access, which summarizes a set …

May 2017 Commencement Program, Bowling Green State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Meaning Of Pregnancy Terms Among African-American Women, Stephanie Solomon, Sandra G. Suther, Ivette Lopez, Alicestine Ashford, Linda C. Amankwaa, Gareth Dutton

The Qualitative Report

The concept of pregnancy intendedness is complex and may not bear the same meaning to all women. Moreover, researcher definition and women’s meaning were thought to be different. Some researchers have indicated that it is unclear how well women understand and relate to questions used by the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and how the classifications relate to women’s lives. The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of terms such as planned and/or intended pregnancy among African-American women of childbearing age using a qualitative exploratory descriptive method. Although African-American women want children, they are three times …

Working With Mental Illness And The Preparation Of Social Workers, Destini Triplett

Honors Theses

Social workers are often the front line responders for individuals with mental illness. However, there has been limited research related to how social workers are prepared, what the best practices are, and what suggestions have been made to improve preparation in this kind of setting. This research study included a cross-sectional mixed methods study examining the knowledge and preparation of social work professionals as well as recommendations for improving education. The results indicated that social work educators and professionals are competent in their knowledge of mental health. The qualitative responses indicated three overarching themes: (1) confidence in abilities but acknowledgement …

Suicidal Behaviors Among College Students: Are Transfer Students At Greater Risk?, Laura S. Bogardus

All Dissertations

Suicide is a major health concern on U.S. college campuses. Research on risk and protective factors related to suicidal behaviors among college students has revealed that certain student populations such as veterans, international students, and LGBTQ students may be at greater risk for suicide. However, no known research on undergraduate transfer student status in relation to suicide ideation and attempts exists. Using the Triadic Theory of Influence (TTI) (Flay & Petraitis, 1994) as a framework, this study seeks to shed light on the relationship between transfer student status and suicide ideation and attempts, as well as the hypothesized mediating effects …

The Impact Of High School Extracurriculars: Similarities And Differences In Sense Of Community Among Competitive, Performance, And Participatory Activities, Erica M. Hawvermale

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Extant research links high sense of community in adolescence to adaptive outcomes such as enhanced motivation, self-efficacy, and coping ability (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Vieno, Perkins, Smith, & Santinello, 2005; Henry & Slater, 2007), as well as reduced stress, anxiety, and depression (Chipuer, Bramston, & Pretty, 2002). In light of these findings, the present study was designed to assess the relationship between high school students’ participation in extracurricular activities and their perceptions of sense of community, enjoyment, and commitment, as well as the aspects of these organizations that help to facilitate feelings of community. Study 1 participants (N= …

Exploring The Moderating Effects Of Drinking Context On The Relationship Between Harmful Drinking And Risky Sexual Behaviors Among College Females, Lauren A. Gardner

Honors Theses

Females are engaging in harmful amounts of drinking at higher rates than ever before. Because these rates are increasing, studying harmful drinking in the college female population is imperative. Previous studies have noted that an increase in harmful drinking correlates positively with an increase in risky sexual behavior. Although these correlations are evident, no previous study has looked at drinking context as a moderator between these two variables. The current study examined the degree to which drinking context moderates the relationship between harmful drinking and risky sexual behavior in college females. This study consisted of 387 female college students ages …