Digital Commons Network^™

Research And Benefits Of The Outdoor Learning Lab: A School Improvement Project, Crystal A. Berkenes

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This school improvement plan (SIP) is a comprehensive review of research, action plan and steps to provide evidence-based strategies for implementing an effective Outdoor Learning Lab (OLL) at North High School (NHS). The literature review will detail foundational research, which has demonstrated students’ academic and social-emotional gains in a science-based outdoor learning or garden-based education setting. The goal is to increase student conscientiousness in the self-contained earth science classroom during the 2024-2025 school year.

Implementing Restorative Practices To Reduce Suspension Rate, Haley Spohr

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Data from schools around America have shown that suspension rates have increased, resulting in lower student outcomes. Studies have revealed that using restorative practices as an alternative to discipline can have a positive effect on student success, relationships at school, and school culture/climate. A school improvement plan was created to decrease the use of exclusionary discipline by embedding whole-school restorative practices. This comprehensive plan is designed to provide staff members with a skill set to keep students in the building more and to teach students accountability, respect, and empathy.

Strengthening Parental Involvement, Danielle M. Castaneda

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Parental involvement has been empirically shown to improve assessment growth over the years throughout a teacher’s career. Research has revealed foundational pillars, Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model and Epstein’s six types of parental involvement, that are used to encourage parents to understand the importance of parental involvement. Barriers to consistency have been identified as having differing attitudes based on culture and climate, discrepancies in school leadership related to policies and programs, effective communication among teachers and parents, and advocation in early childhood parental involvement. Three components are linked to implementing an operational plan that addresses and overcomes these barriers. This school improvement …

Implementing Pbis With Fidelity, Emily Distler

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports is a data-driven framework aimed at improving student behavior, school climate and academic performance, but its successful implementation requires staff buy-in and consistent application despite its potential. This school improvement plan aims to implement PBIS with fidelity, address student behavior and staff buy-in barriers and ensure consistent applications for a positive school climate and improved student outcomes. The implementation strategy involves staff training, continuous professional development and regular data collection and analysis. Training will focus on PBIS principles, emphasizing its benefits for students and the school environment. Continuous professional development will incorporate feedback and adapt …

Students Speak: A Qualitative Examination Of The Intersection Of Identity And Sexual Violence In A University Setting, Danika M. Charles

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence remains a public health concern in the United States. Much of the research has focused on gender-binary individuals, despite the heightened vulnerability of Black, transgender, and nonbinary (BTN) individuals due to societal stigma and discrimination. Campus climate surveys have been recommended by the Obama Administration to address sexual violence, though they often underrepresent BTN students, failing to capture their unique experiences. This study aims to bridge this gap by focusing on the intersection of gender and racial identities, using an intersectional stigma framework to explore the prevalence and impact of sexual violence on BTN students and advocate for …

Why Has Peace Not Come To Colombia? Between Total Peace And Armed Peace, César Niño

Journal of Strategic Security

This research asks why peace has not come to Colombia despite the end of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Total Peace is an ambitious project of Gustavo Petro’s government to build the elusive peace in Colombia. However, the country's current security and violence situation shows a crisis in realizing the peace project. New criminal actors are proliferating, massacres are increasing, the confinement of marginal populations is on the rise, and ambushes against members of the security forces continue. The disconnection of the Total Peace policy with the security and defense policy has led to the strengthening of armed structures …

Online Teaching And Learning At Chinese Universities During Covid-19: Insiders’ Perspectives, Youliang Zhang, Yidan Zhu, Tongjie Chen, Tongfei Ma

Journal of Global Education and Research

During attempts to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic in China, higher education programs shifted their traditional educational models to online models. This paper aimed to explore how Chinese universities organized online teaching and learning during the pandemic. It investigated the factors affecting the implementation of online teaching and provided policy recommendations for improving the quality of education in the post-pandemic period. The primary data for this study came from in-depth interviews with nine students and five teaching and administrative staff at eight major universities in mainland China. Literature was obtained in both English and Chinese from January 2020 to …

Supplier-Complementor Alliances: Enhancing Value Creation For The Ecosystem, Liang Chen

Asian Management Insights

1. Suppliers can better protect their positions in an ecosystem by building stronger relationships with ‘complementors’, which are businesses that offer products or services that enhance the value of the core product. Such supplier-complementor alliances (SCAs) can enhance the value of the entire ecosystem, including that of the leader.

2. SCAs such as Nvidia-Adobe drive innovation by encouraging suppliers to develop products that cater to broader needs beyond the ecosystem leader’s specific demands. This strategic alignment between suppliers and complementors also ensures that suppliers build a more resilient and diversified business model.

3. SCAs present both opportunities and challenges within …

Entrepreneurial (Re)Vision, Patricia Lui, Jovina Ang, Lipika Bhattacharya

Asian Management Insights

Transforming DMK footwear for the next-gen market.

The Growth Of Southeast Asia’S Msmes, Shoeb Kagda

Asian Management Insights

Funding winter presents opportunities to reboot for the future.

Setting Up The Right Guardrails, Vijaya Sunder, Ram Nidumolu, Milind Sohoni, Siddhartha Modukuri

Asian Management Insights

1. Emerging economies need public-private partnerships (PPPs) to deliver much-needed large-scale infrastructural projects.

2. An ‘orientation precedes strategy’ approach to partnerships generates wider societal acceptance and financial viability for stakeholders.

3. The stakeholder-orientation framework improves decision-making by promoting adaptability and inclusive engagement, as illustrated by the success of India’s Hyderabad Metro Rail Project.

Cognitive Technologies, Tom Davenport

Asian Management Insights

AI and the revolution of work.

Professor Tom Davenport, the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, speaks about how companies can integrate generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into their operations while ensuring workforce adaptation and skills development.

Lessons From Developing A Rubric For Evaluating Need Statements On Health Technology Innovation Projects, L. Denend, R. Venook, R. D. Pamnani, K. Sheth, Joseph D. Towles

Engineering Faculty Works

In design-oriented biomedical engineering courses, some instructors teach need-driven methods for health technology innovation that use a “need statement” to reflect a student team’s hypothesis about the most fruitful direction for their project. While need statements are of the utmost importance to the projects, we were not aware of any comprehensive rubric for helping instructors evaluate them. Leveraging resources such as the Biodesign textbook along with input from faculty teaching health technology design at our university, we created a rubric for evaluating the construction of need statements. We then introduced the rubric to undergraduate students in a 3-week intersession course …

Effective Elementary School Leadership: Does Teacher Perception Of Leadership Effectiveness Matter To The Academic Performance Of Elementary School Students?, Goldy Brown Iii, Tina Salzman

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This study investigated one research question regarding the potential school leaders have in increasing student outcomes in low socio economic elementary schools. Based on teacher perception, are certain aspects of effective leadership more vital to the success of low socio economic elementary schools than others? The findings show that a school leader’s ability to build a productive school climate may have a more exigent connection to student outcomes in low-socioeconomic elementary schools than in elementary schools with a majority of affluent students.

Experiential Leadership Learning: Narratives Of A Multiple Case Study Of Mexican School Leaders Appointed To Indigenous Schools, Manuel Lopez-Delgado, Argelia Estrada-Loya

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Training and preparation of school leaders have an impact on the quality of leadership displayed in their readiness for the leadership practice. However, in Mexico the training and preparation processes for school leaders are unclear and lack uniformity. The way of access to headship has promoted that school leaders learn to lead in their role without previous preparation for the position. This paper presents the findings of a study conducted through narratives that analyzed the leadership learning processes of novice and experienced school leaders. The study identified important learning experiences as the receptive observation, malleable observation, practical experiences of leadership, …

Foreword: Voting Rights In A Politically Polarized Era, Maureen Edobor, Christopher B. Seaman

Washington and Lee Law Review

American democracy is under profound stress. Increasing polarization and a winner-take-all mentality to politics have led to increased conflict both within the halls of Congress and nationwide. In an era of exceedingly close elections where control of the Presidency, Congress, and state governments can turn on a relative handful of votes, the laws and processes governing democracy have themselves become a battleground.

Spcl 3800: Introduction To Counseling Professions, Gerald Corbin

Open Educational Resources

This course introduces students to the practice of various counseling professions including school counseling, school psychology, clinical mental health counseling, clinical social work, substance abuse counseling, and clinical psychology. Foundations of these professions are explored including job descriptions, typical duties, education requirements, and licensure.  The role of these various professions and settings will be explored.

Development Of An Algorithm To Identify And Calculate The Amount Of File Slack On An Image Of A Given Drive, Nicholas Flynn

Honors Theses

As society increasingly relies on technology, the rates of cyber crime have been increasing at exponential rates. Cyber criminals are also discovering new ways to hide evidence of their crimes. This study develops a forensic analysis algorithm to evaluate the amount of file slack on an image of a drive. Slack space, leftover drive space on a disk sector after a file has been written, can be exploited to hide data. The algorithm aims to detect and calculate this slack space to help direct forensic investigations. The algorithm was evaluated on a population dataset of 100,000 files with random data …

Stream Water Microbial Communities Within The Portneuf Watershed In Pocatello, Idaho, Isreal Martinez, Hannah Sanger, Anirban Chakraborty

Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research

Stream water microbial communities often contain waterborne pathogens and can impact water quality and public health at large. To investigate stream water microbial diversity, 43 water samples were collected across 16 locations along the Portneuf river and its tributaries in Fall of 2022 and in the summer of 2023. Microbial communities were analyzed using high throughput 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing conducted at Idaho State University’s Molecular Research Core Facility. The predominant bacterial phylum across all sampling locations was Proteobacteria constituting more than 25% of the community in each location. Furthermore, the relative abundance of potentially pathogenic genera varied …

Poly(Thioether) Thermosets With Gated Photodegradation, Surabhi Jha

Dissertations

Photodegradable polymer networks are attractive due to the precise spatiotemporal control and large-area applicability of light. Chemical linkages that enable these polymer networks to be photo-responsive, also hinder their applicability in ambient light. Photostable and photodegradable networks have recently been reported to overcome this challenge by combining other stimuli with light for degradation. We report the design of a network that responds to a simultaneous, dual stimulus for photodegradation. We design poly(thioether acetal) networks with benzylidene acetal moieties that are known to undergo β-scission in the presence of free thiols. By blocking these free thiols with a thermally labile protecting …

Crosssections, Summer 2024, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Physics.

CrossSections

Contents:

A Message from the Department Head, Dr. Paul Shand --- 01
New Secretary --- 02
Homecoming Picnic --- 03
Visits to the Department --- 04
Awards Banquet --- 05
Begeman Lecture --- 05
Physics Competition --- 06
Holiday Colloquium --- 06
Tim Kidd Lecture --- 07
Faculty Profile - Larry Escalada --- 07
Student Profile - Ashley Harrington --- 08
Student Research - Haley Harms --- 10
Physics Scholarships and Awards --- 12
Teacher Education Transformation --- 13
Alumni Profile - Justin Bohnet --- 14
Alumni News - Corey Cooling --- 15
Alumni News - John Bolte --- 16 …

Summer 2024 Census Enrollment Indicators Campus Report Tables 1-3, Systems Intelligence And Data Analytics, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Enrollment Reports

No abstract provided.

Summer 2024 Degree Summary, Systems Intelligence And Data Analytics, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Enrollment Reports

No abstract provided.

Increasing Drift Capacity Of Non-Ductile Concrete Shear Walls Through Confinement With Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Application, Andrew Duong, Sophia Maglabe, Sheyna Rongong, Peter Laursen, Andrew Kline, Anahid Behrouzi

Architectural Engineering

The seismic response and laboratory testing of pre-1980s reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls commonly exhibit undesirable concrete crushing and rebar buckling in the wall end-zones leading to a flexural compressive failure. The lack of ductility of these walls is attributed to low reinforcement ratios and absence of special boundary elements (SBE) as required by modern design code. Thus, the authors are proposing a fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) retrofit method to provide confinement to the end-zones of pre-1980s walls equivalent to that of an SBE.

Current industry applications of FRP have largely been for shear strengthening of RC beams, columns, and …

Establishment Of Protocols To Measure Near-Ir(Nir) Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (Sers) Signals Of Nir Dye, Justin B. Ramsey

Forensic Science Master's Projects

Biomedical imaging techniques are crucial for early disease diagnostics, particularly for life-threatening conditions. However, traditional methods have inherent limitations, such as restricted spatial resolution and potential risks associated with repeated exposure to ionizing radiation. Near-infrared (NIR) surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) presents a promising alternative due to its minimal risks and potential for high-resolution biomedical imaging. A key challenge in NIR-SERS biomedical imaging is the development of biocompatible, nontoxic SERS substrates that can be safely introduced into the human body, targeting specific cells and tissues effectively.

NIR-SERS substrates typically consist of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) modified with biorecognition elements and reporter molecules, …

Editorial – July 2024, Edwin Van Teijlingen, Abeer Musaddique, Rafat Jan

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

No abstract provided.

Staging Singapore’S Cultural Economy, Buck Song Koh

Asian Management Insights

Growing and cultivating soft power is the name of the game.

Nurturing Entrepreneurship And Growing Entrepreneurs, Sun Sun Lim, Abdullah Khurshid, Dexter Ye Kai Tan, Gabrielle Lay Khim Tan

Asian Management Insights

How Southeast Asia’s universities can pave the way.

Universities in Southeast Asia:

1. Can unlock the potential of changemakers in driving economic growth through entrepreneurship education.

2. Accelerate the growth of the ASEAN start-up ecosystem by facilitating technology commercialisation, leveraging regional networks for mentorship and funding, and fostering cross-border collaborations.

3. Have birthed at least five of Southeast Asia's unicorns and are set to lead the way in producing more.

The Creativity Conundrum, Andrew Heng

Asian Management Insights

1. My survey of Chinese and German workers shows that the impact of remote work on creativity varies by gender, culture, and age.

2. Chinese women, in particular, grapple with cultural and gender norms that hamper creativity in remote work settings.

3. Hybrid work models can provide flexibility without sacrificing talent or creativity.

Analyzing Thermal Maturity Effect On Shale Organic Matter Via Peakforce Quantitative Nanomechanical Mapping, Chioma Onwumelu, Oladoyin Kolawole, Stephan Nordeng, Olufemi Olorode

Faculty Publications

Organic-rich shales have gained significant attention in recent years due to their pivotal role in unconventional hydrocarbon production. These shale rocks undergo thermal maturation processes that alter their mechanical properties, making their study essential for subsurface operations. However, characterizing the mechanical properties of organic-rich shale is often challenging due to its multiscale nature and complex composition. This work aims to bridge that knowledge gap to fully understand the nanomechanical properties of Shale organic matter at various thermal maturation stages. This study employs PeakForce Quantitative Nanomechanical Mapping (PF-QNM) using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to investigate how changes at the immature, early …