This study investigated approaches to studying, intellectual developments, and metacognitive skills of general chemistry students enrolled for the spring 2011 semester at a single campus of a multi-campus community college. the three instruments used were the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), the Learning Environment Preferences (LEP), and the Executive Process Questionnaire (EPQ). the subjects were 138 students enrolled in either general chemistry 1 or 2. the results revealed that the preferred approach to study was the strategic approach. the intellectual development of the students was predominantly Perry’s position 2 (dualist) in transition to position 3 (multiplicity). Correlation statistics revealed that deep approach to studying is related to effective employment of metacognitive skills. Students with a deep approach to studying were likely to utilize effective metacognitive skills. Students with a surface approach to studying used no metacognitive skills or ineffective metacognitive skills. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to ascertain which of the three variables, namely approaches to studying, ability to metacognate, or level of intellectual development, was the most salient in predicting the success of general chemistry students. No single variable was found to predict students’ success in general chemistry classes; however, a surface approach to studying …

This dissertation explores the collaborative process and use of language that went into the creating the United States Constitution in 1787. From a technical communication perspective, the collaborative process explored did not develop any new theories on collaboration, but instead, allows scholars to track the emergence of a well-documented America collaborative process from the early period of the developing American nation on a document that has remained in use for over 235 years. in addition to examining this collaborative process, the author also discusses the use of passive voice and negative language in the first article of the Constitution.

Project-based learning has long been used in the educational realm as it emphasis a student-centered strategy which promotes meaning, enriched learning that enhances inquiry and problem-solving skills in a rich, authentic environment. The relevance and authentic design of projects may further be enhanced by the use of technology in the classroom. Technology is rapidly changing the face of American education in ways that were barely thinkable as little as five years before and provides the possibility for student to collaborate and complete complex project-based tasks with further level of authenticity which connects to the students preferred method of learning and productivity outside the classroom. At New Tech high school in Coppell, Texas, the entire curriculum is based around this project-based learning in a technology-infused classroom. This qualitative, case-based study is designed to explore and examine the teachers' perceptions of the use of project-based learning, technology in this non-traditional environment. The study also investigates the teacher perceptions of students' response to project-based learning and the technology available to them in their project-based tasks. Finally the study discusses the finding and their possible implications for traditional educational environments.

The social network sites (SNS) industry has recently shown an abnormal development pattern: An SNS could rapidly accumulate a large number of users, and then suffer a serious loss of users in a short time, which subsequently leads to the failure of the Web site in the highly competitive market. The user's social network site continuance is considered the most important factor for an SNS to keep its sustainable development. However, little knowledge of the user's SNS continuance raises the following research question: What factors could significantly influence the user's SNS continuance intention? To address this research question, I study the question from three lenses of research, including the I-view, the social interactivity view, and the trust based view. The I-view is an extension of the IS continuance model. From this research perspective, I tested the influence of the utilitarian factor (i.e., perceived usefulness) and the hedonic factor (i.e., perceived enjoyment) on the user's satisfaction in the I-view. In addition, I extend the umbrella construct, confirmation, into two sub-constructs, informativeness and self-actualization, and respectively study their influences on the utilitarian factor and the hedonic factor. I find that the user's perceived enjoyment has a significant positive effect on the user's …

This dissertation is "A Collective Case Study of Veterans Inside an Arts and Crafts Room and Their Perceptions Regarding Empowerment." This research examined to what degree art making, and in what ways a community of learning contributed to veterans' self-worth and empowerment through their creative activities and interactions inside an arts and crafts room at the VA hospital in Dallas, Texas. Furthermore, an essential reason for this study is to examine veterans in the arts and crafts environment to explore whether their experiences were important, meaningful, and empowering, and especially important in this regard are the interactions among veterans. Empowerment in this context is defined as gaining self-esteem and motivation within oneself. This includes becoming more confident and positive, as well as gaining the ability to learn about one's own identity. It also described how the interactions between the participants are shaped by the social contexts within which they come together. Using post-modern feminist theory, narrative inquiry and care theory, this dissertation describes the ways that the processes and products of creative activity bring empowerment through dialogue and personal stories while using the component of caring during teaching and learning.

Although studies of teacher preparation programs have documented positive changes in mathematical knowledge for teaching with preservice teachers in mathematics content courses, this study focused on the impact of a mathematics methods course and follow-up student teaching assignment. The presumption was that preservice teachers would show growth in their mathematical knowledge during methods since the course was structured around active participation in mathematics, research-based pedagogy, and was concurrent with a two-day-per-week field experience in a local elementary school. Survey instruments utilized the computer adaptive test version of the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) measures from the Learning Mathematics for Teaching Project, and the Attitudes and Beliefs (towards mathematics) survey from the Mathematical Education of Elementary Teachers Project. A piecewise growth model analysis was conducted on data collected from 176 participants at 5 time-points (methods, 3 time-points; student teaching, 2 time-points) over a 9 month period. Although the participants' demographics were typical of U.S. undergraduate preservice teachers, findings suggest that initial low-level of mathematical knowledge, and a deep-rooted belief that there is only one way to solve mathematics problems, limited the impact of the methods and student teaching courses. The results from this study indicate that in (a) number sense, there …

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis is one of the most widely used methods in evaluating the accuracy of a classification method. It is used in many areas of decision making such as radiology, cardiology, machine learning as well as many other areas of medical sciences. The dissertation proposes a novel nonparametric estimation method of the ROC surface for the three-class classification problem via Bernstein polynomials. The proposed ROC surface estimator is shown to be uniformly consistent for estimating the true ROC surface. In addition, it is shown that the map from which the proposed estimator is constructed is Hadamard differentiable. The proposed ROC surface estimator is also demonstrated to lead to the explicit expression for the estimated volume under the ROC surface . Moreover, the exact mean squared error of the volume estimator is derived and some related results for the mean integrated squared error are also obtained. To assess the performance and accuracy of the proposed ROC and volume estimators, Monte-Carlo simulations are conducted. Finally, the method is applied to the analysis of two real data sets.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the preparation methods experienced by academic library deans and which methods they perceived to be most valuable. Rosser, Johnsrud, and Heck (2000, 2003) defined the theoretical constructs of effective academic leadership upon which this study is based. The instrument—a modified version of Greicar's (2009) Professional Preparation of Academic Deans Questionnaire—was administered online. The population was the chief administrators of academic libraries in the United States; there were 749 usable responses for a 30.4% response rate. Respondents were primarily female (61.7%), White non-Hispanic (90.0%), and born in the United States (95.7%), with a mean age of 56.4 (5.9% < 40, 11.0% > 65). The largest minority group was Black, non-Hispanic (3.9%). Many respondents held multiple advanced degrees; 90.0% held an MLS, 45.8% held a subject master's, and 18.8% held a doctorate. The instrument measured academic library deans' perceived value of various preparatory methods (formal and informal mentoring, on the job training, conferences or seminars, advanced degrees beyond the MLS, and training programs). The methods were tested for perceived effectiveness with Rosser, Johnsrud, and Heck's (2000, 2003) theoretical constructs of academic leadership. Each preparation method was measured using eight item-level variables and summed …

Preparative mass spectrometry is a gas-phase ion deposition technique aimed at deposition of monodisperse ion beams on a surface. This is accomplished through the implementation of a soft-landing ion mobility system which allows for high ion flux of conformationally selected ion packets. The soft-landing ion mobility system has been applied to a number of unique chemical problems including the deposition of insulators on graphene, the preparation of reusable surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic substrates, and the deposition of uranium nanoparticles. Soft-landing ion mobility provided a platform for the quick deposition of usable amounts of materials, which is the major objective of preparative mass spectrometry. Soft-landing ion mobility is unique when compared to other preparative mass spectrometric techniques in that the ion packets are conformationally separated, not separated on mass to charge ratio. This provides orthogonal complementary data to traditional mass spectrometric techniques and allows for the study of conformationally monodisperse surfaces. The diversity of problems that have been and continued to be explored with soft-landing ion mobility highlight the utility of the technique as a novel tool for the study of multiple ion/surface interactions.

The study examined mathematics and English student achievement, attendance rates, dropout rates, and expenditures per pupil for Texas high school students in both open-enrollment charter schools and traditional public high schools for the 2009–2010 school year. All data were assembled using archived information found at the Texas Education Agency (TEA). This information included the TEA report entitled Texas Open Enrollment Charter Schools Evaluation; TEA Snapshot Yearly Report; and Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) data files. Microsoft Excel (Version 2010) was used to randomly select traditional public high schools categorized as Title 1 and non-Title 1 for comparison with Title 1 and non-Title 1 open-enrollment charter high schools. The IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (IBM Statistics Version 20) was used for a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) conducted between one independent variable (charter or traditional school) and five dependent variables (mathematics exit-level TAKS scores, English exit-level TAKS scores, attendance rates, dropout rates, and expenditures per pupil). Traditional public high school students had higher or better average mean values than charter schools for mathematics exit-level TAKS scores, English exit-level TAKS scores, attendance rates, dropout rates, and expenditures per pupil. The ANOVA found that four of the five dependent variables …

Since the development of the correlation consistent composite approach (ccCA) in 2006, ccCA has been shown to be applicable across the periodic table, producing, on average, energetic properties (e.g., ionization potentials, electron affinities, enthalpies of formation, bond dissociation energies) within 1 kcal/mol for main group compounds. This dissertation utilizes ccCA in the investigation of several chemical systems including nitrogen-containing compounds, sulfur-containing compounds, and carbon dioxide complexes. The prediction and calculation of energetic properties (e.g., enthalpies of formation and interaction energies) of the chemical systems investigated within this dissertation has led to suggestions of novel insensitive highly energetic nitrogen-containing compounds, defined reaction mechanisms for sulfur compounds allowing for increased accuracy compared to experimental enthalpies of formation, and a quantitative structure activity relationship for altering the affinity of CO2 with substituted amine compounds. Additionally, a study is presented on the convergence of correlation energy and optimal domain criteria for local Møller–Plesset theory (LMP2).

The purpose of this exploratory study was to operationalize the responses from a sample of the community dwelling older population from Denton County, Texas on disaster preparedness education given by Denton County Health Department (DCHD) personnel. The goals and objectives were drawn from the Texas Public Health and Medical Emergency Management 5-Year Strategic Plan 2012-2016. It was hypothesized that after the disaster preparedness education was received, then comprehension, retention, and application of the information would increase and the goals set forth by the DCHD would be reached. Thirteen sites were used to educate the 224 participants between August 2011 and April 2012. The data were received using a pre-test survey before the training, a post-test immediately after the training, and a follow-up survey call approximately 30 days later. Using Cronbach's alpha, logistic regression and regression analysis through SAS, the data revealed that all DCHD goals were met by this training method and outcome which include the sample population increasing comprehension, retention, and action on the information learned.

This study investigated the impact of a psychoeducational and experiential structured counselor self-care curriculum, developed by Drs. Charles and Kathleen Figley, on compassion fatigue and the prevention of professional impairment as measured by the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL), Version 5. Volunteer licensed professional counselors, supervisors, and interns from four children's advocacy centers in Texas were assigned to treatment group (n = 21; 20 females, 1 male; mean age 34.4 years) or waitlist control group (n = 21; 19 females, 2 males; mean age 34.6 years). Participating counselors identified themselves ethnically as 64% Caucasian, 26% Hispanic, 7% African-American, and 2% Native-American. Employing a quasi-experimental design, three reliability-corrected analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were utilized to analyze the data with an alpha level of .05 to assess statistical significance and partial eta squared to assess effect size. With pre-test scores as the covariate, results revealed in the experimental group a statistically significant reduction with large treatment effect for burnout (p = .01; partial ?2 = .15), a statistically nonsignificant reduction with a medium effect for secondary traumatic stress (p = .18; partial ?2 = .05), and a statistically nonsignificant increase with a medium effect for compassion satisfaction (p = .06; partial ?2= …

The intent of this study was to examine the relationship between media multitasking orientation and grade point average. The study utilized a mixed-methods approach to investigate the research questions. In the quantitative section of the study, the primary method of statistical analyses was multiple regression. The independent variables for the study were media multitasking orientation, gender, age, and income. The dependent variable for the study was grade point average. Three out of four independent variables, namely, media multitasking orientation, gender and age were statistically significant predictors of grade point average. In the qualitative section of the study, seven participants were interviewed to determine how individual differences in media multitasking orientation manifest themselves in academic settings.

Texts and images provide alternative, yet orthogonal views of the same underlying cognitive concept. By uncovering synergistic, semantic relationships that exist between words and images, I am working to develop novel techniques that can help improve tasks in natural language processing, as well as effective models for text-to-image synthesis, image retrieval, and automatic image annotation. Specifically, in my dissertation, I will explore the interoperability of features between language and vision tasks. In the first part, I will show how it is possible to apply features generated using evidence gathered from text corpora to solve the image annotation problem in computer vision, without the use of any visual information. In the second part, I will address research in the reverse direction, and show how visual cues can be used to improve tasks in natural language processing. Importantly, I propose a novel metric to estimate the similarity of words by comparing the visual similarity of concepts invoked by these words, and show that it can be used further to advance the state-of-the-art methods that employ corpus-based and knowledge-based semantic similarity measures. Finally, I attempt to construct a joint semantic space connecting words with images, and synthesize an evaluation framework to quantify cross-modal …

This is an analysis of combat operations of US First Army under the command of Courtney Hodges, between August 1 and September 12, 1944, with an emphasis upon 1st, 4th, 9th, and 30th Divisions. However, other formations are necessarily discussed in order to maintain context. Indeed, many historians have failed to emphasize the complex interdependent nature of these efforts, and the traditional narrative has been distorted by inadequate situational awareness. This study argues that the army's operations were exceedingly difficult, resulting in approximately 40,000 casualties over a six week period. Although historians claim that the Germans were essentially defeated by the end of July, and that the Allied advance was subsequently halted by logistical difficulties, the official combat records clarify that logistical shortages were a tertiary factor, as the enemy remained capable of strong resistance. Consequently, defensive efforts were the primary factor hindering the advance, in conjunction with deteriorating weather conditions, rugged terrain, and surprisingly severe traffic congestion. Although this was mobile warfare, military theorists have overestimated the effectiveness of mechanization and underestimated the potential for antitank defenses. Ultimately, this study asserts that First Army was the primary American combat formation, and historians have exaggerated the importance of George Patton's …

The purpose of this research was to examine the connections between personality types as illustrated by the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and the desire for social presence components within a technology based learning environment. Participants in the study were undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in an educational technology program at a public university in the State of Texas. The study employed a mixed-method qualitative approach that utilized a paired comparison evaluation, a personality assessment, and semi-structured interviews. Results showed that the components of organization and feedback were thought to best foster social presence in technology based learning environments and that there was no real difference between the personality types of introverts versus extroverts and judgers versus perceivers.

This mixed-methods study examined teachers' culturally responsive teaching (CRT) self-efficacy beliefs and the relationships among selected academic, demographic, and experiential factors. Guided by theoretical and empirical research on CRT, teacher dispositions, and assessment in teacher education (TE) programs for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, this study utilized an extended version of Siwatu's 2007 Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy (CRTSE) Scale to conduct correlational and comparative statistical analyses. Data sources included surveys from 265 participants enrolled in TE classes in the spring 2012 in Texas (one private and one public university). Content analyses were also conducted on participants' descriptions of CRT activities using a priori and inductive coding methods to triangulate and elaborate the explanation of quantitative results. In this population, those with higher CRTSE were typically young (undergraduates), specializing in ESL and bilingual certification coursework, who felt their TE program prepared them well for working with CLD student populations. Regression analyses showed that certain certification areas (ESL, bilingual, elementary, and advanced) and perceptions of better quality in TE program preparation for working with CLD students emerged as significant predictors of increased CRTSE. Those with second language skills were more efficacious in delivering linguistically-responsive instruction, and those professing more experiences with …

Water-soluble Pt(II) phosphors exist predominantly for photophysical studies. However, fewer are known to be candidates for cisplatin derivatives. If such a molecule could exist, it would be efficient at not only destroying the cancerous cells which harm the body, but the destruction would also be traceable within the human body as it occurred. Herein, research accomplished in chemistry describes the photophysical properties of a water-soluble phosphor. Spectroscopically, this phosphor is unique in that it possesses a strong green emission at room temperature in aqueous media. Its emission is also sensitive to the gaseous environment. These properties have been expanded to both analytical and biological applications. Studies showing the potential use of the phosphor as a heavy metal remover from aqueous solutions have been accomplished. The removal of toxic heavy metals was indicated by the loss of emission as well as the appearance of a precipitate. The gaseous sensitivity was elicited to be used as a potential cancerous cell biomarker. In vivo studies were accomplished in a wide variety of species, including bacteria (E. coli), worms (C. elegans), small crustaceans (Artemia), and fish (D. rerio and S. ocellatus). The phosphor in question is detectable in all of the above. This fundamental …

Broad band light emission ranging from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near infrared (NIR) has been observed from silicon nanoparticles fabricated using low energy (30-45 keV) metal and non-metal ion implantation with a fluence of 5*1015 ions/cm2 in crystalline Si(100). It is found from a systematic study of the annealing carried out at certain temperatures that the spectral characteristics remains unchanged except for the enhancement of light emission intensity due to annealing. The annealing results in nucleation of metal nanoclusters in the vicinity of Si nanoparticles which enhances the emission intensity. Structural and optical characterization demonstrate that the emission originates from both highly localized defect bound excitons at the Si/Sio2 interface, as well as surface and interface traps associated with the increased surface area of the Si nanocrystals. The emission in the UV is due to interband transitions from localized excitonic states at the interface of Si/SiO2 or from the surface of Si nanocrystals. The radiative efficiency of the UV emission from the Si nanoparticles can be modified by the localized surface plasmon (LSP) interaction induced by the nucleation of silver nanoparticles with controlled annealing of the samples. The UV emission from Si nanoclusters are coupled resonantly to the LSP …

Primary cilia are ubiquitous sensory organelles found on most cell types including cells of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). The DRG are groups of peripheral neurons that relay sensory information from the periphery to the CNS. Other cell types in the DRG include a type of glial cell, the satellite glial cells (SGCs). The SGCs surround the DRG neurons and, with the neurons, form functional sensory units. Currently are no reports describing the numbers of DRG cells that have cilia. We found that 26% of the SGCs had primary cilia. The incidence of cilia on neurons varied with neuron size, a property that roughly correlates with physiological characteristics. We found that 29% of the small, 16% of the medium and 5% of the large neurons had primary cilia. Primary cilia have been shown to have a role in cell proliferation in a variety of cell types. In some of the cells the cilia mediate the proliferative effects of Sonic hedgehog (Shh). In the CNS, Shh signaling through primary cilia affects proliferation during development as well as following injury, but no studies have looked at this function in the PNS. The SGCs and neurons of the DRG undergo complex changes following …

Intricate Maneuvers is a series of musical works that were composed using movement as a model for compositional processes and forms. This essay presents in-depth analyses of three works from the series; Fidget, Sway: The Mildest Form of Falling, and Swerve for Chamber Ensemble. The analysis of each work highlights correlations between the musical characteristics of that work and the temporal, spatial, contextual, and psychological implications of the motion after which it was modeled. The third chapter also demonstrates the ways in which the creation of Sway was influenced by materials and processes taken from Ruth Crawford's String Quartet 1931. In order to investigate the question of how life experiences can function as models for compositional processes, the essay examines precedents for the compositional modeling of extra-musical ideas and images in the works of Bed?ich Smetana, Elliott Carter and Roger Reynolds. It also discusses approaches to modeling movement in music created for dance. Throughout the Intricate Maneuvers series, movement is modeled not merely to create an association between a musical work and a particular movement pattern, but rather to infuse the compositions with the dynamism that defines a particular kinetic experience.

In this dissertation, I focus on source coding techniques as well as channel coding techniques. I addressed the challenges in WSN by developing (1) a new source coding strategy for erasure channels that has better distortion performance compared to MDC; (2) a new cooperative channel coding strategy for multiple access channels that has better channel outage performances compared to MIMO; (3) a new source-channel cooperation strategy to accomplish source-to-fusion center communication that reduces system distortion and improves outage performance. First, I draw a parallel between the 2x2 MDC scheme and the Alamouti's space time block coding (STBC) scheme and observe the commonality in their mathematical models. This commonality allows us to observe the duality between the two diversity techniques. Making use of this duality, I develop an MDC scheme with pairwise complex correlating transform. Theoretically, I show that MDC scheme results in: 1) complete elimination of the estimation error when only one descriptor is received; 2) greater efficiency in recovering the stronger descriptor (with larger variance) from the weaker descriptor; and 3) improved performance in terms of minimized distortion as the quantization error gets reduced. Experiments are also performed on real images to demonstrate these benefits. Second, I present a …

Scholars have long debated the causes of late third party state joining in ongoing inter-state wars. This research has generally concluding that peace-time conditions, measured in terms of: third party capabilities; proximity to warring states; and inter-state alliances, are determining factors in the decision to join. However, these studies utilize theories derived from static pre-war measures of capabilities and motivation to explain late joining; indeed, the same measures that fail to predict participation at war's outset. Further, extant research has no explanation for why weak and non-proximate states every participate. Existing theory thus fails to provide a comprehensive explanation of joining behavior. This project contends that a resolution lies the interaction between pre-war conditions and intra-war events. Intra-war events that are allowed to vary on a per battle basis, including change in combat location and alliance entry and exit from combat, reveal new information about the war and its progress, thereby forcing third party states to recalculate their initial decision to abstain in relation to their pre-existing situation. Incorporation of intra-war processes helps to better explain decisions by third party states to join ongoing inter-state wars late in their development, and why states that frequently choose to abstain (e.g., weak …