Digital Commons Network^™

The Culture Of Appalachian Coal Miners And Its Affect On Their Culture, Joanna Mary Ferrell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to understand and describe the culture and history of the Appalachian coal mining community and how the culture is impacting their future if they face a mine closure. The theory guiding this study is the Cultural Identity Theory by Mary Jane Collier as it explains that the miners’ culture is influenced by those around them and can change based on their surroundings. There is also influence from mining history, which was explored in detail. Surveys, interviews, and observations were utilized to collect data as well as historic artifacts.

Frequency Of Marijuana Use By California University Students Based On Gender And Ethnicity: A Quantitative Analysis, Evelyn Lorraine Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine the frequency of marijuana use by California university students based on gender and ethnicity. This study was important because marijuana is the most used illicit substance in the United States, and there is limited research regarding the demographic characteristics of California university students who use marijuana. The quantitative research design was used to describe the patterns of marijuana use by California university students. The setting was online. The participants included a random sample of 167 college students from five California state universities. The Daily Sessions, Frequency, Age of Onset, and …

The Consent Of The Governed: Constitutionalism Of The Levellers And Its Influence On Anglo-American Political Discourse, Nathan B. Gilson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

More fully understanding the Levellers suggests a new framework for understanding Anglo-American constitutionalism and jurisprudence. There was a logical progression in their constitutional thought, by which the exigent developments of the 1640s conflict continually pushed the Levellers to articulate new constitutional propositions. It eventually led them to a fully developed contractual theory for the origins of society based on the continuing consent of the People, including the rights to revolution and resistance, within a natural rights framework. The Levellers argued for limitations on the sovereignty of the government by the People, as opposed to the position of the Monarchists, Independents, …

A Model For The Pastor Search Process For Free Will Baptist Churches, Timothy Buckley York

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project sought to help the pastor shortage in the National Association of Free Will Baptists by creating and implementing a tool to assist churches in their search for a pastor and help pastors find a new church to serve. Each church in the association is autonomous and selects its own pastor. The tool is actually two surveys that mirror each other. The churches seeking a pastor completes the church survey. And the candidate seeking a church to pastor completes the pastor survey. The tool gives information and views of ministry roles, preferences, non-negotiables, and negotiables. It is designed to …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Lived Experience Of Students Who Have Failed A Nursing Course: Try Again Or Move On?, Deborah K. Tonelli

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences of students after failing a nursing course, resulting in the students either sitting out a semester prior to repeating the course or making the decision not to return to a program at all. The central research question for this study was “what are the lived experiences of students who fail a nursing course?” This study retrospectively examined the failure of nursing students to better understand how they processed the event, gained meaning from the experience, and found supportive measures that were useful in moving forward to the …

Creating A Multiplying Micro Group Discipleship Model Beyond The Church Building, Keisha Battle Spivey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The proposed thesis project on discipleship presents an effective discipleship making plan in fulfillment of the Great Commission through a parachurch ministry. The researcher believes that many churches have replaced disciple-making efforts with programs and platitudes. The purpose of this project is to establish a strategy that cultivates healthy disciples who recognize their Christian responsibility to make disciples through micro group ministries. It consists of three stages. Stage one consists of the research design component, stage two includes the intervention design component, and stage three involves the intervention delivery process. The goals of this project include teaching believers the biblical …

The Effects Of Demographics, Training, And Experience On The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Online Special Education Teachers, Jeanette Huff

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Self-efficacy beliefs have been shown to be indicators of student outcomes. They have been extensively studied in the brick and mortar setting and in online schools as well, but they have not been studied by special education teachers in the online setting. A key duty of special education teachers is delivering Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI). This study is a quantitative, predictive, correlational, and causal comparative, study and extends the understanding of the self-efficacy beliefs of special education teachers who deliver SAI in the online setting by using Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy’s (2001) Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale to measure self-efficacy …

Resiliency In Nursing: An Integrative Review, Valerie Yvonne Moke

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Nurses have been placed under tremendous pressure throughout their careers and the culmination of this pressure was the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses had to remain stoic despite longer hours, heavier workloads, lack of PPE and the fear of becoming infected or infecting their families. A review of the current literature was accessed to see how nurses built their stamina to withstand those pressures and create interventions to improve patient outcomes. The research was used to evaluate ways to improve nurse retention, reduce nursing shortages, and improve job satisfaction for those nurses and future nurses. The evidence showed that nurses with support, …

An Analysis Of The –Μός Suffix In The New Testament, Ryan Kendall Phelps

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation describes and analyzes the –μός suffix in the New Testament. This suffix indicates a noun derived from a verbal stem, i.e., a deverbal noun. Due to the lack of an in-depth analysis of this suffix, some incomplete ideas about this suffix have appeared in Greek grammars. Along with scholarship in Greek grammar, this dissertation employs terms from the field of linguistics, as well as patterns suggested from studies of deverbal nouns in other languages. This method will reveal two groups of conclusions. First, it will reveal that the suffix and nouns in which it occurs follow traditional expectations, …

Standardized Testing: A Comparison Amongst Magnet, Stem, And Traditional Middle Schools, Lori Leigh Horne Wooley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study emphasizes the effectiveness of a middle school learning environment on the Georgia Standardized Assessment (Georgia Milestone Assessment System - GMAS) in the subject of Math. The purpose of this quantitative study is to determine whether there is a difference in the 8th grade Math Georgia Milestone standardized testing scores (adjusted by the covariate) within the three types of middle schools: STEM, magnet and traditional middle schools. This quantitative research study compares the student achievement data of a large urban school system’s STEM school to those of a traditional middle school and magnet middle school in the subject …

Middle School Staffs' Perceptions Of Bullying And Traumatization Of Special Education Students In An Alternative School Setting, Marlene Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study is to know and understand teachers’ perceptions of bullying, teachers’ perceptions of special education students, and what influences their decision to intervene and assist when observing special education students being victimized through bullying. The theory guiding this study is Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Behavioral Theory’s Cognitive Triangle that suggests that thought influences emotions and emotions influences behaviors, as well in reverse. The data collection process includes individual interviews with eight classroom teachers who work in alternative middle schools. Due to COVID-19, in-person observations were omitted, and the individual interviews were conducted using Zoom …

A Strategic Plan To Grow A Healthy New Church Start, Andrea Bernadette Anderson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the health and spiritual maturity of a new startup church, namely People of Destiny Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PODHDM) and identify ways in which PODHDM can grow spiritually and numerically, in the 21st century. The thesis will supply characteristics of a healthy church from the writer’s viewpoint, and from suggestions by notable scholars. The thesis will also explore hindrances to church growth, looking through the lenses of the church, as well as scholars, and provide insights and strategies to foster healthy church growth. This study will suggest that Sunday sermons are not …

Whence Faith? The Nexus Of Passional Reason, Christian Personalism, And Abduction In Apologetics, Thomas Jefferson Gentry Ii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Motivated by a desire to understand better and articulate matters touching on how beliefs are formed, this research considers the possibility of a religious epistemological nexus, a connection between the rational and affective capacities possessed by persons, human dignity and self-determination, and the method of argumentation used by apologists. The thesis defended is that through the means of the concomitance of the human intellect, emotions, and will (passional reason), the whole person is engaged in the process of passional reason whereby one can perceive, assess, and decide to believe in matters of religious faith (Thomistic doxastic voluntarism). Further, at the …

Going Virtual: Addressing The Challenges Faced By Organizational Leaders When Employees Transition To Virtual Environments In Times Of Crisis, Mary Susan Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities across the world moved their operations online. While a great deal of focus was placed on the value of teaching and learning during a crisis period, very little attention was paid to the other side of higher education institutions—the business side. Suddenly these institutions and their operational staff were forced to discover new ways to perform tasks that had always been completed in person. The leaders of these organizations faced the added challenge of ensuring that their workforce remained engaged and motivated while working in the midst of stressful, even chaotic …

A Mediation Analysis: Adult Children Of Alcoholics, Resilience, Depression, Anxiety, And Attachment Disruption With The Role Of Self-Compassion: A Moderation Analysis, Jessica Ellen Kuehne

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study intends to address the gap in the literature on treatment options for adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs). The theoretical and conceptual framework for this study was centered on three main ideas: attachment styles, resilience, and self-compassion. Studies have indicated that exposure to parental alcoholism increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and insecure attachment, and ACOAs tend to have higher resilience than non-ACOAs. Researchers have examined different treatment approaches and clinical outcomes for ACOAs. Some holistic treatment choices, specifically self-compassion, have grown ubiquitous for a broad spectrum of individuals with trauma. The purpose of this study is to assess …

The Relationship Between Job Satisfaction And Religiosity In Evangelical Christian Schools, Jairon Gabriel Jarrin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this non-experimental predictive-correlational study was to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and religiosity among teachers working in evangelical Christian schools. This study was grounded in two theories: Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation and spiritual leadership theory. Herzberg's theory of motivation helps explain how teachers become satisfied or dissatisfied by distinguishing between motivational and hygiene factors. Spiritual leadership theory helps understand the importance of spirituality in the workplace and its relation to Christian religiosity in the workplace. This study is important because it added to the discussion about evangelical Christian schools that is very limited in the …

Increasing Adherence To Psychotherapy Treatment In Adult Mental Health Patients Through The Use Of Tele-Behavioral Services: An Integrative Review, Almaz Assefaw

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Telebehavioral therapy has been developing in recent years as a viable alternative to in-person provider treatment. This was due, in part, to the recent COVID-19 pandemic necessitating rapid and widespread adoption of remote care services in general. Before this event, and despite years of development in telemental and telebehavioral technology, the U.S. rate of adoption of such services had been low. As psychotherapy is an effective way to treat mental health issues with or without the use of psychotropic drugs, ways to increase patient adherence to psychotherapy must be studied to provide high-quality mental health outcomes. One measure that has …

Locating Unknown Interference Sources With Time Difference Of Arrival Estimates, Chia Ying Kuo

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Adaptive spectrum sharing between different systems and operators is being deployed in order to make use of the wireless spectrum more efficiently. However, when the spectrum is shared, it can create situations in which an operator is unable to determine the identity of an interferer transmitting an unknown signal. This is the situation in which the POWDER testbed found itself in, starting in late 2021. This thesis provides general-purpose tools for operators to locate an unknown signal source in real-world outdoor environments. We used cross-correlation between the signals measured at multiple time-synchronized base stations to estimate the time difference of …

Multiple Intelligence Theory Activities In The Middle School English As A Second Language (Esl) Classroom And The Impact On Student Perception And Engagement, Allison M. Horner

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

In 1983, Howard Gardner published his Theory of Multiple Intelligences and detailed seven distinct intelligence areas. He extended his theory into the classroom and asserted that every student has their own unique gifts and talents which they bring to the classroom. Despite these contributions to pedagogy, schools continue to mainly focus on teaching curriculum standards concerned with matriculating pupils to the next grade level or getting them ready for the next standardized test.

Authentic educational experiences accommodated to student needs are infrequently used in the modern classroom. Educational institutions largely cater to verbal-linguistic and mathematical intelligence profiles, despite many students …

Can Listening And Performing Music Reduce Stress In The Classroom During The Pandemic?, Francisco Moreno Jr.

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

This research searches into the questions of whether listening and performing music can have an impact on stress during the pandemic. Over 200 participants were in this study and most of the students were attending the American School Foundation in grades 2 and 3. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected to show sentiment of how music affected the moral and reduced stress in both the homeroom classroom and music classroom. Findings through the data proved to be proved to be show a trend of a general sentiment of happiness when performing music. Overall, this study could serve as a …

Examining The Experiences That Motivate High School Students To Read For Leisure, Umair Farooq

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

In my role as a high school principal, I feel that reading is an essential tool for gaining a better grasp of the world around us and enhancing one's academic skills. As is the case with many others in my area, and before starting this research, I was worried about the decline in motivation to read for leisure that generally begins in the high school years (Brozo et al., 2014). Students' enjoyment of reading can be stifled by schools' use of forced reading practices, the selection of texts that do not match their identity, and a lack of knowledge of …

The Correlation Between Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, And Phonics Skills And Effective Readers In First Grade., Olivia N. Didio

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

The purpose of this study was to get insight related to the literacy instruction and the connection between phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics for fluent reading. The research includes examinations of students' prior knowledge of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics decoding skills, along with their ability to read grade level text. Students received daily instruction in literacy through modified Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study in reading, writing, and phonics. Some adaptations and supplemental resources were used to support this curriculum. As the data was collected the instructor made adjustments to the instruction to fill gaps in phonological awareness, …

The Impact On Student Learning Outcomes And Mastery Of The Unit When Guided Feedback Is Added To The Instructional Design, Majida Timimi

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

Providing feedback after an assessment is a method used to communicate to students that the desired learning outcomes of a unit taught have been met or not. Typically, feedback provided to students is brief and not integrated in the lesson plan. With the disruption that COVID-19 pandemic brought to teaching and learning in educational institutions during the 2020-2021 academic year, there was a gap in the learning outcomes being met by the majority of the students. In this Action Research, I investigated the role feedback had in achieving the desired learning outcomes and mastery of the unit by integrating Guided …

Recipe For Good: Analyzing The Authenticity Of Csr Commitments Among The Leadership Of A Parent Company To Global Restaurant Brands., Lauren E. Reuss

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a form of private self-regulation conducted by businesses; CSR aims to contribute to societal goals of philanthropy, activism, and ethics by improving society, policy, and or the environment. Corporate social responsibility is becoming a greater aspect of modern business, but as it becomes part of the modern discourse, it is right to question whether its efforts are authentic to those driving these initiatives? This case study seeks to understand how the leadership within the parent company of a global foods brand depicts authenticity and communicates its social and environmental efforts to stakeholders. Building on existing …

The Impact Of Political Systems On Addiction Policy In Industrialized Democracies., Lexi Renee Raikes

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Drug use is a global problem that impacts every country around the world. Although this issue is international in nature, there is no one shared response to addiction globally. The approach utilized by each country can generally be characterized as punitive or rehabilitative. Rehabilitative approaches, which center around the employment of harm reduction services, focus on reducing the negative consequences of drug use, while punitive approaches respond to substance use with prison sentences. Considering this lack of commonality in response, I sought to better understand potential causes for this disparity and was especially curious if government structure impacts the policy …

An Evaluation Of Covid-19 Vaccination Rates Of The Patients At The Kentucky Racing Health Services Center., Aditya Mehta

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

COVID-19 vaccines have been widely available to the U.S. public since early 2021. However, vaccination rates still vary considerably across geographical areas and different populations. The objective of this study was to research overall vaccination rates against COVID-19 for Latinx patients at the Kentucky Racing Health Services Center (KRHSC). Vaccination and booster data was collected from June to December 2021 for all unique patients visiting the center. It was initially hypothesized that these rates of vaccination and booster doses for the KRHSC patients would be lower than the data reported by Kentucky and Jefferson County. After a retrospective review, the …

Influences Of Drosophila Circadian Clock On Sugar-Mediated Physiological Changes, Erica E Hassoun

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

It is widely known that high sugar consumption and poor sleep are detrimental to human health. Both are risk factors for obesity, which can lead to conditions such as heart disease. Despite this connection between sugar and sleep, little is known about how circadian clock dysfunction affects the physiological changes caused by increased sugar consumption. In this thesis, a mutant line of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster (Clk^Jrk, which contains a nonfunctional circadian rhythm gene known as Clk) that leads to circadian dysfunction, was exposed to a high sugar diet to observe how Clk affects sugar-related changes to …

Greetings From Eureka!: A Story Quartet And Critical Afterword., Roman Sauls

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This project details the narrative decisions made within a quarter of my own stories, with special attention paid to cross-story relationships, the dynamics of linked short story collections, and the elements of craft I have honed while at the University of Louisville. The nature of narrative structure and narrative time is discussed in the first story; the crafting of dialogue and the narrative texture conjured from that dialogue in the second; the interaction between a character's psychology and a story's setting in the third; and the relevance of both sensorial and visual motifs in the fourth. This thesis also discusses …

Using Fluorescent Microscopy To Follow Mitochondrial Inheritance Through Tagged Alternative Oxidase In Sporisorium Reilianum., Luke Schroeder

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Sporisorium reilianum is a dimorphic fungus that inhabits and infects a host corn plant (Zea mays). In order for the fungus to reproduce sexually, compatible haploid mating types must form a dikaryon that goes on to cause infection in the host. This infection causes leaf chlorosis and gall formation, while ultimately allowing for the dispersal of fungal teliospores in the later stages of infection. To grow, the fungus requires energy production in the form of ATP from its mitochondria. As a countermeasure to infection, host plants release harsh reactive oxygen species that may damage DNA, lead to apoptosis, …

Early Mathematical Abilities Of 48-Month-Old Children With Williams Syndrome., Jenna N. Tinnell

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder associated with relative strengths in concrete vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and verbal short-term memory and considerable weaknesses in visuospatial construction and relational language. While the cognitive profile of WS has been studied extensively, there have been few studies of the early mathematical abilities of children with WS and the cognitive predictors of these abilities. The purpose of this study was to describe the early mathematical abilities of 48-month-olds with WS and determine the concurrent cognitive predictors of these abilities. The Differential Ability Scales–second edition (DAS-II) was used to determine cognitive and mathematical abilities …