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The Impact Of Alcohol Consumption On Academic Success And Athletic Identity In Collegiate Student-Athletes, Zoe E. Arnold Jan 2019

The Impact Of Alcohol Consumption On Academic Success And Athletic Identity In Collegiate Student-Athletes, Zoe E. Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Upon entering college in the United States, students are exposed to alcohol and, relatedly, the potentially dangerous experiences and effects that come with consuming alcohol. This is especially true for collegiate student-athletes, who have been found to have the highest consumption rate among student groups on campus. The purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between how student-athletes at a focus university, a Division I member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, experience alcohol consumption, how their consumption affects their academic grade point average (GPA), and how athletic identity plays a role in their experiences. While the research …


Exploring Educational Journeys, Barriers, And Motivating Factors Of Tribal College Students Through Capabilities Approach, Francis Arpan Jan 2019

Exploring Educational Journeys, Barriers, And Motivating Factors Of Tribal College Students Through Capabilities Approach, Francis Arpan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational attainment and success have often been linked to an increase in opportunities in life and when viewed from the lens of lifelong earnings, the greater an individual’s educational attainment, the greater the lifelong earnings. As a population, Native Americans have the highest poverty rate of all racial categories in the United States at 26.2% (Economic Policy Institute 2016). When looking at the connection between education and poverty, it is vital to note that only 14.1% of Native Americans over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or above (US Census 2015). This lack of educational attainment falls well …


The Economic And Social Values Associated With Small South Dakota Lakes, Aaron Patrick Sundmark Jan 2019

The Economic And Social Values Associated With Small South Dakota Lakes, Aaron Patrick Sundmark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The valuation of small fishing lakes is a vital component in understanding the importance of fishing and of recreational resources, in general. Knowing the values associated with such lakes is essential when prioritizing management activities. The overall value of a lake as a resource for human benefit is estimated as the summation of both instrumental and non-instrumental values. Instrumental values consist of economic and utilitarian values, as well as the values that a lake provides from ecosystem services. Non-instrumental values consider what the lake is worth as a good of its own, such as aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values gained …


Characterizing Spatiotemporal Patterns Of White Mold In Soybean Across South Dakota Using Remote Sensing, Confiance L. Mfuka Jan 2019

Characterizing Spatiotemporal Patterns Of White Mold In Soybean Across South Dakota Using Remote Sensing, Confiance L. Mfuka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soybean is among the most important crops, cultivated primarily for beans, which are used for food, feed, and biofuel. According to FAO, the United States was the biggest soybeans producer in 2016. The main soybean producing regions in the United States are the Corn Belt and the lower Mississippi Valley. Despite its importance, soybean production is reduced by several diseases, among which Sclerotinia stem rot, also known as white mold, a fungal disease that is caused by the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is among the top 10 soybean diseases. The disease may attack several plants and considerably reduce yield. According to …


Augmenting Land Cover/Land Use Classification By Incorporating Information From Land Surface Phenology: An Application To Quantify Recent Cropland Expansion In South Dakota, Lan Hoang Nguyen Jan 2019

Augmenting Land Cover/Land Use Classification By Incorporating Information From Land Surface Phenology: An Application To Quantify Recent Cropland Expansion In South Dakota, Lan Hoang Nguyen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding rapid land change in the U.S. NGP region is not only critical for management and conservation of prairie habitats and ecosystem services, but also for projecting production of crops and biofuels and the impacts of land conversion on water quality and rural transportation infrastructure. Hence, it raises the need for an LCLU dataset with good spatiotemporal coverage as well as consistent accuracy through time to enable change analysis. This dissertation aims (1) to develop a novel classification method, which utilizes time series images from comparable sensors, from the perspective of land surface phenology, and (2) to apply the land …


The Relationship Between Campus Wellness Center Usage And Symptoms Of Depression In College Freshmen, Allison Leonard Jan 2019

The Relationship Between Campus Wellness Center Usage And Symptoms Of Depression In College Freshmen, Allison Leonard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is limited research done on the relationship between the program utilization at a campus wellness facility and the symptoms of depression in college freshmen. College students have been found to have a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than the general population, possibly due to the stressors college life can add. Studies have been done on the effects of physical activity as an intervention for depression as well as on the benefits of campus wellness facilities; however, there have been few studies that look at both campus recreation and depression. The author’s purpose for this study was to see if …


Investigation Of Intergroup Bias In Two Neuromaturationally Distinct Age Cohorts: An Erp Study, Reuven M. Hanna Jan 2019

Investigation Of Intergroup Bias In Two Neuromaturationally Distinct Age Cohorts: An Erp Study, Reuven M. Hanna

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Currently, sociological investigation of adolescent behavior focuses on the intersection of biography, history, and structure to explain adolescent risk-taking, reward-seeking, impulsivity, novelty-seeking and peer-salience. However, the preponderance of the evidence points away from social ecology and to a significant neuromaturational restructuring event between the 12th and 25th years of life as the root of adolescent behavioral tendencies. As a result, sociological social psychology can benefit from engaging in basic research using neuroscience methods. The present study expands the dual systems model of brain development to account for maturational changes in the social brain network as a way to explain social …


Food Assistance Programs In The Us And Their Impact On Childhood Obesity, Jannatul Kawsar Jan 2019

Food Assistance Programs In The Us And Their Impact On Childhood Obesity, Jannatul Kawsar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Numerous food assistance programs (FAP) aim to ensure food security among low income American households. However, the literature suggests that participation in food assistance programs may be associated with the US childhood obesity epidemic. The goal of this study is to analyze the association between the number of major food assistance programs children participate in and childhood obesity. The major food assistance programs considered are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and the School Breakfast Programs (SBP). This is the first study to …


Empirical Absolute Calibration Model For Multiple Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites, Bipin Raut Jan 2019

Empirical Absolute Calibration Model For Multiple Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites, Bipin Raut

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work extends an empirical absolute calibration model initially developed for the Libya 4 Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Site (PICS) to five additional Saharan Desert PICS (Egypt 1, Libya 1, Niger 1, Niger 2, and Sudan 1), and demonstrates the efficacy of the resulting models at predicting sensor top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance. It attempts to generate absolute calibration models for these PICS that have an accuracy and precision comparable to or better than the current Libya 4 model, with the intent of providing additional opportunities for sensor calibration. In addition, this work attempts to validate the general applicability of the model to other …


Younger Millennials And Outdoor Recreation: Understanding Outdoor Recreational Pursuits Of Millennial College Students, Jason Mehlhaf Jan 2019

Younger Millennials And Outdoor Recreation: Understanding Outdoor Recreational Pursuits Of Millennial College Students, Jason Mehlhaf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Outdoor recreation has been shown through past research to provide numerous benefits to the participant when utilized, but for younger millennials, life’s expectations are pulling them away from participating. If there is a decrease in recreation participation, what will motivate this demographic toward participation in the future? The purpose of this study is to identify younger millennial perceptions, habits, and trends, so that in the future, recreation professionals are able to cater for specifically toward this demographic. Two universities in South Dakota, one public and one private, were surveyed through an online software program, QuestionPro, to a convenience sample from …


Land Cover Changes Within And Around Protected Areas In Côte D’Ivoire From 1986 To 2017: A Case Study Of The Mabi-Yaya-Songan-Tamin Reserved Forests, Olena Boiko Jan 2019

Land Cover Changes Within And Around Protected Areas In Côte D’Ivoire From 1986 To 2017: A Case Study Of The Mabi-Yaya-Songan-Tamin Reserved Forests, Olena Boiko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tropical forests mitigate climate change, provide habitat for the most biologically diverse terrestrial communities, and yield ecosystem services that support human wellbeing. These forests are some of the most threatened ecosystems because of the increasing human impact on the environment. Côte d’Ivoire has one of the highest deforestation rates in sub-Saharan Africa, and the expansion of agriculture to produce cash crops, such as cocoa and rubber, is presented as the primary reason for forest loss. These changes are apparent even within the boundaries of the protected areas, which raises concerns about the effectiveness of the protection strategies. This project illustrates …


A New Lens: Psychological Ownership As An Element To Promoting Organizational Change, Tyler Carlson Jan 2019

A New Lens: Psychological Ownership As An Element To Promoting Organizational Change, Tyler Carlson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of the change management literature has focused on change from the perspective of the organization as a whole. However, researchers have begun to explore the impact change has on employees, as well as employee perceptions of organizational change. The current study explored the role psychological ownership has in the context of organizational change, by using it is as a moderator between employee openness to organizational change (EOOC), and organizational commitment, job stress, and turnover intentions. Results revealed a significant positive correlation between EOOC and organizational commitment, a significant negative correlation between EOOC and job stress, as well as turnover …


Tropical Forest Canopy Height And Aboveground Biomass Estimation Using Airborne Lidar And Landsat-8 Data, A Sensitivity Study With Respect To Landsat-8 Data Temporal Availability, In Mai Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Herve B. Kashongwe Jan 2019

Tropical Forest Canopy Height And Aboveground Biomass Estimation Using Airborne Lidar And Landsat-8 Data, A Sensitivity Study With Respect To Landsat-8 Data Temporal Availability, In Mai Ndombe Province, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Herve B. Kashongwe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tropical forests’ structure information, such as forest canopy height, is a key component in any estimate of carbon stock. Tropical rainforests constitute the most forested ecosystems that harbor the largest biodiversity on Earth and store more carbon (above and belowground biomass) than any other ecosystem in the world. However, estimates of forest canopy structure is lacking over most of the regions that host this ecosystem because of both the structure’s complexity of this ecosystems and the incomplete or lack of up-to-date national forest inventory data necessary to derive forest canopy height and aboveground biomass. This study explores the capability of …


Methods For Earth-Observing Satellite Surface Reflectance Validation, Moe Talal Badawi Jan 2019

Methods For Earth-Observing Satellite Surface Reflectance Validation, Moe Talal Badawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study an initial validation of the Landsat 8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI) Surface Reflectance (SR) product was performed. The OLI SR product is derived from the L8 Top-of-Atmosphere product via the Landsat Surface Reflectance Code (LaSRC) software and generated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. The goal of this study is to develop and evaluate proper validation methodology for the OLI L2 SR product. Validation was performed using near-simultaneous ground truth SR measurements during Landsat 8 overpasses at 13 sites located in the U.S., Brazil, Chile and France. The ground …


How Are Interannual Variations Of Land Surface Phenology In The Highland Pastures Of Kyrgyzstan Modulated By Terrain, Snow Cover Seasonality, And Climate Oscillations? An Investigation Using Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data, Monika Anna Tomaszewska Jan 2019

How Are Interannual Variations Of Land Surface Phenology In The Highland Pastures Of Kyrgyzstan Modulated By Terrain, Snow Cover Seasonality, And Climate Oscillations? An Investigation Using Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data, Monika Anna Tomaszewska

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the semiarid, continental climates of montane Central Asia, with its constant moisture deficit and low relative humidity, agropastoralism constitutes the foundation of the rural economy. In Kyrgyzstan, an impoverished, landlocked republic in Central Asia, herders of the highlands practice vertical transhumance—the annual movement of livestock to higher elevation pastures to take advantage of seasonally available forage resources. Dependency on pasture resource availability during the short mountain growing season makes herds and herders susceptible to changing weather and climate patterns. This dissertation focuses on using remote sensing observations over the highland pastures in Kyrgyzstan to address five interrelated topics: (i) …


Wellness Policy Awareness Among School Leaders And The Impact On Written Policy Scores, Mariah Reil Jan 2019

Wellness Policy Awareness Among School Leaders And The Impact On Written Policy Scores, Mariah Reil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: All schools participating in the National School Lunch Program must possess a written School Wellness Policy (SWP) as mandated by the Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act of 2010.1 School officials and leaders play a major role in SWP implementation. It is essential to written SWP implementation that school level officials and leaders in the district are aware of the SWP. However, the association between school leader awareness of SWP and policy quality has not yet been studied.
Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine if school leader awareness of a SWP impacts the written SWP quality. …


Does Medicaid Increase Emergency Room Use: Evidence From Oregon Health Program?, Md Fourkan Jan 2019

Does Medicaid Increase Emergency Room Use: Evidence From Oregon Health Program?, Md Fourkan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper strives to identify the relationship between Medicaid expansion and Emergency Department use. I use a Monte Carlo simulation for demonstrating the endogeneity problem and a copula model using the Oregon Health Program (OHP) data to show the previous literature has exaggerated the causal relation between Medicaid expansion and Emergency Department use. This paper can be divided into two parts. First, it tries to focus on the under-identification of multiple endogenous variables problem in typical econometrics papers, where researchers correct for a single endogenous variable but intentionally or unintentionally ignore the endogeneity of one or more other independent …


Multi-Step Forecast Of The Implied Volatility Surface Using Deep Learning, Nikita Medvedev Jan 2019

Multi-Step Forecast Of The Implied Volatility Surface Using Deep Learning, Nikita Medvedev

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Implied volatility is an essential input to price an option. Machine learning architectures have shown strengths in learning option pricing formulas and estimating implied volatility cross-sectionally. However, implied volatility time series forecasting is typically done using the univariate time series and often for short intervals. When a univariate implied volatility series is forecasted, important implied volatility properties such as volatility skew and the term structure are lost. More importantly, short term forecasts can’t take advantage of the long term persistence in the volatility series. The thesis attempts to bridge the gap between machine learning-based implied volatility modeling and multivariate multi-step …


The Generation Z Handbook: A Grounded Theory Approach To Motivation In The Workplace, Justin Mahutga Jan 2019

The Generation Z Handbook: A Grounded Theory Approach To Motivation In The Workplace, Justin Mahutga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Organizations must develop human capital to remain competitive in today’s economic landscape (Crook, Todd, Combs, Woehr, & Ketchen, 2011; Noe, 2017). Motivation is one aspect of human capital development that organizational research has difficulty understanding (Kovach, 1980), and given the recent introduction of Generation Z into the workforce (Ferri-Reed, 2016), this thesis seeks to understand the process of organizational motivation for Generation Z from a communication perspective. By applying grounded theory methods to 13 interviews, I illustrate several exploratory relationships within an emergent framework to describe the process of motivation for Generation Z participants. Primarily, subjects demonstrate that through the …


Organizational Forms For Community Collaboration To Confront Homelessness, Suzanne Smith Jan 2019

Organizational Forms For Community Collaboration To Confront Homelessness, Suzanne Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Homelessness is a complex social problem that touches many different sectors of a community--not only housing, but also healthcare, education, criminal justice, workforce, and more. Because of these complex interrelationships, homelessness as a social problem lends itself to collaborative governance where service providers across sectors come together to address the problem. This research examines homeless service provision as an example of how local government, nonprofit organizations, community funders, and other stakeholders collaborate and what knits those networks together. This research project encompasses three major efforts: a comparative case study of six different communities and how they have organized to confront …


Consumer Perceptions And Demand For Locally-Grown Vegetables In South Dakota, Richard Mulder Jan 2019

Consumer Perceptions And Demand For Locally-Grown Vegetables In South Dakota, Richard Mulder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasingly popular topic in the food labeling field over the last 15 years has been the increasing body of research for food that is locally produced. Consumers’ definition of, attitudes toward, and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for local food have been areas of interest for researchers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that contributes to the current body of local foods’ research for vegetables by providing information on these areas of interest for the state of South Dakota. This study acquires data through a consumer-intercept survey conducted in grocery stores throughout South Dakota with a sample …


Perceptions Of Health Coaching And Its Associations With Personality Style And Weight Loss In Meal Replacement Program Participants, Bailey Judith Larson Jan 2019

Perceptions Of Health Coaching And Its Associations With Personality Style And Weight Loss In Meal Replacement Program Participants, Bailey Judith Larson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: To determine if personality style is related to perceptions of health coaching and if there is a relationship between perceptions of health coaching and the ability to lose weight. Methods: Data was gathered from approximately 2,000 MR program participants via an electronic survey. The Client Evaluation of Motivational Interviewing scale was used to determine if perceptions of health coaching affect the ability to lose weight. The Ten Item Personality Inventory was used to determine if personality style is associated with the perception of health coaching. Self-reported start weight and current weight were used to calculate percent of starting weight. …


The Role Of A Community Coach In Rural Food Councils In Six Midwestern States, Kaitlyn Tusha Jan 2019

The Role Of A Community Coach In Rural Food Councils In Six Midwestern States, Kaitlyn Tusha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To quantitatively assess perceived coaching confidence of a community coach working with food councils, and to qualitatively determine perceived barriers and facilitators associated with coaching rural food councils.
Design: Two phases were implemented using a mixed methods study design with quantitative (scorecard) and qualitative (key informant interviews) methodologies.
Setting: Six rural, Midwestern states implementing Voices for Food.
Participants: Voices for Food community coaches (n=9) who coached rural food council(s).
Intervention: A component of the broader Voices for Food intervention.
Analysis: Quantitative scorecard data were analyzed with STATA by running paired ttests. Qualitative key information interview data were analyzed with …


The Impacts Of Land Use And Land Cover Change On Water Quality In The Big Sioux River: 2007-2016, Dinesh Shrestha Jan 2019

The Impacts Of Land Use And Land Cover Change On Water Quality In The Big Sioux River: 2007-2016, Dinesh Shrestha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Between 2006 and 2012, conversion of 485,000 acres of grassland to cropland in eastern South Dakota was reported. In 2012, the Big Sioux River (BSR) running through most of eastern South Dakota was listed among the dirtiest rivers in the nation. This rating convinced state authorities to study trends of land cover changes in the BSR watershed and its association with BSR water quality with respect to increases in nitrate levels. This research i) quantifies spatial and temporal changes in the land cover types within the BSR watershed, and ii) identifies any correlation between these changes and changes in BSR …


African American Student-Athletes: Factors Influencing Choice Of Graduate School, Tanner Feterl Jan 2019

African American Student-Athletes: Factors Influencing Choice Of Graduate School, Tanner Feterl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although support systems are in place for student-athletes, African Americans remain underrepresented in careers requiring a graduate education, including intercollegiate athletic departments (Okahana, Feaster, & Allum, 2016). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the factors influencing an NCAA Mid-major, Division I African American student-athletes’ choice of pursuing graduate school. Researchers identified themes utilizing Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Student Involvement Theory frameworks to explain the influencing factors. The participants consisted of nine African American sophomore, junior, and senior student-athletes who participated in different sports and were chosen using purpose sampling. Each participant took part in an …


Make The Inaugural Great Again: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Donald J. Trump’S Inaugural Address, Danielle F. Dickerson Jan 2019

Make The Inaugural Great Again: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Donald J. Trump’S Inaugural Address, Danielle F. Dickerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I utilized three distinct theories (ideographs, dramatism, and the bully pulpit) to rhetorically analyze and assess President Trump’s 2017 inaugural address. Ultimately, I analyzed whether Trump deviated from Campbell and Jamieson’s (1985) presidential inaugural expectations. While the presidential inaugural address was the only text analyzed, implications were drawn from Trump’s rhetoric leading up to and within the inaugural. This thesis also analyzed Trump’s rhetoric through social media, specifically Twitter, and looked at the context surrounding the inaugural. I suggest, through my research, that Trump does deviate from the traditional framework of the inaugural address, and ultimately modernized …


Our Stigmatized American Heroes: Examining How Veterans With Ptsd Communicatively Manage Stigma, Rikki A. Roscoe Jan 2019

Our Stigmatized American Heroes: Examining How Veterans With Ptsd Communicatively Manage Stigma, Rikki A. Roscoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health conditions are arguably the most prominent disabling medical condition that military service members endure. Veterans with combat-related PTSD often refrain from seeking mental health treatment due to the stigma attached. Concealing PTSD or attempting to cope without professional help can lead to extreme and lifethreatening consequences including depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Attaining a better understanding of stigma management strategies is important because it has the ability to help veterans better manage stigma in the future. Thus, the current study uses stigma management communication theory (Meisenbach, 2010) to uncover the ways in which veterans with PTSD communicatively manage …


Undoing Gender: An Analysis Of How Women Communicate Within The Agricultural Industry, Shala R. Larson Jan 2019

Undoing Gender: An Analysis Of How Women Communicate Within The Agricultural Industry, Shala R. Larson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent history, women have entered more business-like positions in the agricultural industry. This thesis seeks to understand how women in agriculture describe their workplace communication and whether they feel they are part of a muted group. Twelve women were interviewed regarding their experiences as women in agriculture and were asked whether they feel valued in their positions and how they communicate with their male co-workers. Specifically, interviewees were asked if they ever felt the need to alter their communication to complement, emulate, or otherwise adjust to masculine communication styles. The majority of women interviewed reported having to strategically choose …


Analysis Of Factors Influencing College Choice Decisions Of Mid-Major Ncaa Division I Swimmers, Kaden Huntrods Jan 2019

Analysis Of Factors Influencing College Choice Decisions Of Mid-Major Ncaa Division I Swimmers, Kaden Huntrods

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student-athletes face an ever-increasing challenge of selecting a higher education institution that meets their desired criteria academically and athletically. Coaches and recruiters have sought to discover how to best recruit student-athletes over the history of college athletics. Understanding these factors can assist coaches and athletes to create athletic programs to best fit the desired student-athletes. This study examined the factors that influence the college selection process of mid-major NCAA Division I, male and female swimmers. The instrument utilized in this study was the Student Athlete College Choice Profile Survey (SACCPS). The participants included 141 student-athletes from seven mid-major NCAA Division …


Diversification And Its Implications For South Dakota Farmers’ Identity As Farmers: Wind Farm Diversification As A Case Study, Abdelrahim Abulbasher Jan 2019

Diversification And Its Implications For South Dakota Farmers’ Identity As Farmers: Wind Farm Diversification As A Case Study, Abdelrahim Abulbasher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies have been conducted in the last three decades to examine the impact of the ongoing economic changes that encourage farmers to adopt nonconventional practices (such as crop diversification, on-farm recreation, and wind farming) to diversify their income. Limited research, however, has been conducted to examine the impact of on farm diversification practices on farmers’ identity as farmers (growers of food, feed, and fiber) including their role, self-conception, and family history/legacy. Using social identity and socio-ecological systems theories, this study seeks to understand how farmers construct their identity, the symbolic meanings they attach to their daily practices, and the influence …