The purpose of this study was to identify the status and challenges of online distance education programs in post-secondary institutions in Ghana. This study was a replication of a similar study conducted in Kenya in 2009, at the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University. This present study was conducted with an online survey using Google survey assessment. The survey requested responses from six post-secondary institutions in Ghana. Out of a total of 450 projected student responses, 309 responses were received with a 69% participation rate. A total of 14 responses were received for instructors out of a projected 30 resulting in 47% participation rate. And for administrators, 8 responses were received out of a projected 12 resulting in a 67% participation rate. Overall the study revealed that Ghana post-secondary institutions have established and incorporated online distance education into their programs, offering both online and blended courses. Some of these institutions established regional centers across the country and incorporated foreign instructors into their programs. The survey also revealed that students were satisfied with the overall online distance education program in their institutions which included the level of instruction, feedback and evaluation. However, there were still challenges revealed from the study that …

This thesis proposes a design of a rapidly deployable cellular network prototype that provides voice and data communications and it is interoperable with legacy devices and the existing network infrastructure. The prototype is based on software defined radio and makes use of IEEE 802.11 unlicensed wireless radio frequency (RF) band for backhaul link and an open source GSM implementation software. The prototype is also evaluated in environments where there is limited control of the radio frequency landscape, and using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) performance metrics to measure the quality of service. It is observed that in environments where the IEEE 802.11 band is not heavily utilized, a large number of calls are supported with good quality of service. However, when this band is heavily utilized only a few calls can be supported as the quality of service rapidly degrades with increasing number of calls, which is due to interference. It is concluded that in order to achieve tolerable voice quality, unused licensed spectrum is needed for backhaul communication between base stations.

Elevated social anxiety (SA) is linked to issues with emotional distress, substance use, and social anxiety disorder (SAD). Notwithstanding concerns of how sexuality has been defined in the extant literature, emerging evidence suggests that the prevalence of SA and related challenges may be disproportionately present among sexual minorities, including lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals (LGBs). This trend may be especially relevant within the developmental context of emerging adulthood, an important period for development of sexual identity, and a time when individuals are already predisposed to heightened feelings of SA. The present study examined the relationship between sexual orientation (measured using sexual identity, sexual attraction, and past romantic and sexual behavior) and social anxiety (related to social interaction and social performance) among emerging adults. minority sexual identities [Welch's F(5,48.08) = 5.56, p = .002, ηp2 = .02.], same-sex attraction [Welch's F(4,108.06) = 11.27, p < .001, ηp2 = .04], and same-sex romantic [Welch's F(5,85.91) = 6.88, p < .001, ηp2 = .03] and sexual experiences[F(5,61.95) = 8.88, p < .001, ηp2 = .04], particularly among those who indicated attraction to multiple sexes. Findings support research that indicates that sexual minority adults experience higher levels of SA than majority (i.e., heterosexual, opposite-sex …

Corrosion represents the single most frequent cause for product replacement or loss of product functionality with a 5% coat to the industrial revenue generation of any country in this dissertation the efficacy of using filled coatings as a protection coating are investigated. Fillers disrupt the polymer-substrate coating interfacial area and lead to poor adhesion. Conflicting benefits of increasing surface hardness and corrosion with long term durability through loss of adhesion to the substrate are investigated. The effects of filler type, filler concentration and exposure to harsh environments such as supercritical carbon dioxide on salt water corrosion are systematically investigated. The constants maintained in the design of experiments were the substrate, AISI-SAE 1018 steel substrate, and the corrosive fluid synthetic sea salt solution (4.2 wt%) and the polymer, Bismaleimide (BMI). Adhesion strength through pull-off, lap shear and shear peel tests were determined. Corrosion using Tafel plots and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was conducted. Vickers hardness was used to determine mechanical strength of the coatings. SEM and optical microscopy were used to examine dispersion and coating integrity. A comparison of fillers such as alumina, silica, hexagonal boron nitride, and organophilic montmorillonite clay (OMMT) at different concentrations revealed OMMT to be most effective with …

High entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys with five or more principal elements. Due to these distinct concept of alloying, the HEA exhibits unique and superior properties. The outstanding properties of HEA includes higher strength/hardness, superior wear resistance, high temperature stability, higher fatigue life, good corrosion and oxidation resistance. Such characteristics of HEA has been significant interest leading to researches on these emerging field. Even though many works are done to understand the characteristic of these HEAs, very few works are made on how the HEAs can be applied for commercial uses. This work discusses the application of High entropy alloys in biomedical applications. The coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States kills more than 350,000 persons/year and it costs $108.9 billion for the nation each year in spite of significant advancements in medical care and public awareness. A cardiovascular disease affects heart or blood vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries) or both by blocking the blood flow. As a surgical interventions, stent implants are deployed to cure or ameliorate the disease. However, the high failure rate of stents has lead researchers to give special attention towards analyzing stent structure, materials and characteristics. Many works related to …

This dissertation examines a university faculty (n = 41) and diverse students (n = 93) including students with disability (n = 44), students without disability (n = 21), and international students (n = 28) regarding their attitudes toward and actions associated with inclusive instruction based on the universal design for learning (UDL) principles and practices. Two online surveys, the Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory (ITSI) and the Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory-Student (ITSI-S), were administered at a large, public Southwest university (N = 134). The ITSI and ITSI-S contain seven subscales representing the following constructs: (a) accommodations, (b) accessible course materials, (c) course modifications, (d) inclusive lecture strategies, (e) inclusive classroom, (f) inclusive assessment, and (g) disability laws and concepts. A series of multivariate analyses of variances (MANOVAs) measured the overall of attitude subscales and overall action subscales, and an independent-samples test (t-test) compared mean scores on the seven Attitude subscales and seven Action subscales to identify predictors of these attitudes and actions among faculty and students. The main findings were (a) significant differences among diverse students, where students with disability responded negatively on the Action subscales and (b) significant differences between faculty and diverse students where international students had a positive …

Promising results from the use of problem-based learning (PBL) as a teaching method in medical programs have encouraged many institutions to incorporate PBL into their curricula. This study investigates how applying hybrid-PBL (H-PBL) in a microbiology laboratory impacts students' higher-order thinking as compared to applying a lecture-based pedagogy. The experimental design compared the learning outcomes of two groups of students: the control group and the H-PBL group, for whom PBL cases comprised 30% of the curriculum. Both groups were taught basic skills for the microbiology lab by the same instructor. Using the traditional teaching style for the control group, the instructor offered each student what they needed for their experiments. The H-PBL group practiced experimental design, data analysis, theory proposal, and created research questions by using six study cases that were closely linked to the area of study. The outcome was measured using a pre- and post- assessment consisting of 24 questions that was designed by following Bloom's taxonomy of learning levels. A one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data. The results showed that for the first three levels of Bloom's taxonomy— knowledge, comprehension, and application—there were no statistically significant differences between the H-PBL and control group gain scores …

Mobile wireless sensor networks are not widely implemented in the real world, even after years of research carried out in this field. One reason is the lack of understanding of the impact that mobility has on network performance. The simulation and emulation of mobile wireless sensor networks is necessary before they are deployed for the real-world applications. This thesis presents a simulation-based study of different mobility models. The total area coverage that depends on the pattern of node movements is observed through simulations. The spatial distribution of node locations is also studied. Various synthetic mobility models available are explored based on their theoretical descriptions. ‘BonnMotion' is used as the network simulator for investigating different mobility scenarios. The results obtained after simulations are imported to MATLAB and the analysis of node movements is done through various plots and inferences from the data. The comparison of mobility models is also discussed based on their spatial node distribution in the simulated scenarios.

Monthly newspaper providing news and information to the Tarrant, Dallas, and Denton County Latino communities along with advertising.

In game based learning, motivating the players to learn by providing them a desirable gameplay experience is extremely important. However, it's not an easy task considering the quality of today's commercial non-educational games. Throughout the gameplay, the player should neither get overwhelmed nor under-challenged. The best way to do so is to monitor the player's actions in the game because these actions can tell the reason behind the player's performance. They can also tell about the player's lacking competencies or knowledge. Based on this information, in-game educational interventions in the form of hints can be provided to the player. The success of such games depends on their interactivity, motivational outlook and thus player retention. UNTANGLED is an online mapping game based on crowd-sourcing, developed by Reconfigurable Computing Lab, UNT for the mapping problem of CGRAs. It is also an educational game for teaching the concepts of reconfigurable computing. This thesis performs qualitative comparative analysis on gameplays of low performing players of UNTANGLED. And the implications of this analysis are used to provide recommendations for improving the gameplay experience for these players by guiding them. The recommendations include strategies to reach a high score and a compact solution, hints in the …

This publication of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the American Chemical Society includes information about research, prominent scientist, organizational business, and various other stories of interest to the community.

Institutional repositories have been introduced as an innovative and alternative technology for scholarly communication and have received considerable attention from scholars across disciplines and around the globe. While some universities in Thailand have developed and implemented institutional repositories for nearly a decade, knowledge of the acceptance and use of institutional repositories on the individual level in the country remains limited. As an insufficient knowledge of technology acceptance and adoption at the individual level is considered partially responsible for the underutilization of innovation or of information system implementation, this study seeks to uncover knowledge regarding the level of institutional repository acceptance and use. This study applied the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model and the model of faculty members' self-archiving behavior to investigate factors affecting faculty acceptance and use of university-based institutional repositories. The study employed a mixed methods approach involving a survey followed by semi-structured, one-to-one interview. This study confirms that the success of university-based institutional repositories depends not on a single factor but on multiple factors. The results of the study show that performance expectancy, social influence, and resistance to change were direct determinants of faculty members' intention to use institutional repositories. Additionally, behavioral intention …

This study analyzes corporate governance practices of foreign (non-U.S.) issuers listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq. Specifically, I examine the extent to which these foreign issuers voluntarily comply with U.S. stock exchange corporate governance requirements applicable to domestic issuers. My sample consists of 201 foreign companies primarily domiciled in Brazil, China, Israel, and the United Kingdom. I find that 151 (75 per cent) of the sample firms do not elect to comply with any of the U.S. corporate governance requirements. Logistic regression analysis generally supports the hypotheses that conformance with U.S. GAAP and percentage of managerial ownership are positively associated, and that percentage ownership by major shareholders is negatively associated with foreign firms electing to comply with U.S. corporate governance rules. This evidence is relevant for regulators and investors.

A gap exists in education research in the area of district support for campus-based professional learning communities (PLCs). The current study was an examination of practitioner perceptions of district structures and practices that support the development and sustainability of PLCs in public high schools. I examined the perceptions of 341 teachers, campus administrators, and district administrators in a suburban North Texas public school district with three comprehensive high schools. Using a sequential mixed-method design, quantitative data from an electronic survey and qualitative data from face-to-face interviews were collected and analyzed. The findings revealed a generally positive view of central office support among the participants, including consistent ratings from each high school, each campus-level position, each content area, and each level of experience in the district. There was some misalignment of perceptions between campus-level and district-level staff. The study also uncovered a set of best and worst district practices, the six PLC strengtheners and six PLC inhibitors, which were synthesized into a set of recommendations and guidelines for district support for high school PLCs. From participant feedback, I concluded district support is needed and desired by high school practitioners and there are specific district practices and structures that are most effective. …

This study explored the acceptance of cloud computing (CC) services by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Lagos, Nigeria, which has been missing from CC services literature. It aimed to understand the motivations for adoption, the uses of the services, and the benefits they derive from it. The uses and gratification theory was applied as the theoretic framework for this endeavor. An online survey with close-ended and open-ended questions was distributed to 1200 randomly selected participants through email. In total, 392 valid responses were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and categories. The results found that SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria had a low level of awareness and appreciation of CC services. The adoption rate was also low. Unlike their counterparts in other regions, SMEs primary concerns were service downtime, stable power supply, and better internet access. The study found that SMEs were not taking full advantage of the capabilities of CC services. Some sections, however, were doing better than others, such as the information and communications sub-sector. This study suggested that targeted interventions should be conducted to raise the awareness of CC services in SMEs, and to improve their efficient and effective use of CC services. The uses and gratification …

Wearable technology has made a positive impact in the consumer industry with its focus on adult fitness. Devices and applications are pervasive, inexpensive and are in high demand. Our nation struggles with obesity and health concerns related to poor fitness. However, the research on such technology has been more focused on adults. Therefore, the need to investigate wearable technology for fitness improvement with children is essential. Children lead increasingly sedentary lifestyles through TV watching, technology-use and a reduction in physical activities. Further, our society is exposed to quick food loaded with calories. These factors contribute to the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. The need to educate students early, on their ability to monitor their fitness, is the focus of this research. This dissertation investigated the impact of an integrated technology-enhanced physical education model with 127 fifth grade students over an 11-week period. A detailed analysis, looking at theoretical perspectives across multiple data collections was conducted. This study answered the questions, 1. To what extent can students improve their performance with technology-enhanced physical education? 2. To what extent can students learn to self-monitor their performance levels? How do affective components impact teaching and learning with a technology-enhanced physical education model? Results …

This project aims to explore the beliefs of international teachers regarding the students with whom they work, and the change in those beliefs over time. Participant observation, interviews, and questionnaires were used as tools of collection to address the following research questions: How did teachers' beliefs about students change over time? What variables were significantly associated with the rate of change in teacher beliefs about students? What types of challenges did teaches face while living and working in Thailand? Over the course of four months, I shadowed twenty-two U.S. teachers in thirteen different locations throughout Thailand. Participants were enrolled in an international teaching program in Thailand that provided a cultural orientation and teacher training. Participants were then assigned to teaching jobs throughout the country. Qualitative and quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS and NVivo software. This project contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning, and anthropological and education research dedicated to exploring teachers' beliefs about students. Results of the study provide vital information about what variables or experiences may influence a critical analysis of beliefs among teachers working with students who they perceive as different from themselves. Due to some of the parallels between this study population and that …

This dissertation takes up the question of the social function of philosophy. Popular accounts of the nature and value of philosophy reinforce long-standing perceptions that philosophy is useless or irrelevant to pressing societal problems. Yet, the increasingly neoliberal political-economic environment of higher education places a premium on mechanisms that link public funding for research to demonstrations of return on investment in the form of benefitting broader society. This institutional situation presents a philosophical problem warranting professional attention. This project offers a diagnosis of the problem and develops a way forward from it. Drawing from Foucauldian archaeological methods, my analysis focuses on the interplay of institutional structures and intellectual practices. Since the early 20th century, departments of philosophy on college and university campuses have been the center of gravity for professional philosophy in the US. Establishing this institutional ‘home' for philosophers drove the adoption of disciplinary practices, norms, and standards for inquiry. But the metaphilosophical assumptions underpinning disciplinarity have become problematic, I argue: they are poor guides for navigating the situation of higher education in the 21st century. Several movements within the profession of philosophy during the 1960s and 70s sought to reverse philosophers' general retreat from public affairs. Applied philosophy, …

This study explored the effectiveness of a student question creation process engaging students actively in self, peer, and instructor interaction in development of affective, cognitive, and meta-cognitive skills. Employing a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design assigning both treatment and control activities sequentially in an alternating pattern over a six week period, students' performance on exams as well as their perceptions of various aspects of the student question creation process were used to evaluate the effectiveness of student-created questions (SCQs) activities as a cognitive strategy and to identify factors contributing to the effectiveness of question creation activities on students' learning. Subjects of this study were high performing and highly motivated graduate students in an 8-week online biomedical statistics course, part of a specialized master's program designed for medical school preparation. Survey findings and focus groups strongly supported the student question creation process as a facilitator of higher order thinking. However, the relatively short study duration, comparison of student question creation with another competing method for facilitating learning (discussion board) and not a pure control group, and availability of a common study guide course with student-created questions on all course topics may have muted assessment of the full impact of the strategy on …

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the relationship between the Advanced Placement Calculus AB exam and student achievement in college level Math 1710-Calculus I. The review of literature shows that this possible relationship is based on Alexander Astin's longitudinal input-environment-outcome (I-E-O) model. The I-E-O model was used to analyze the relationship between the input and outcome of the two variables. In addition, this quantitative study determined the relationship between a score of 3 or lower on the Advanced Placement Calculus AB exam and student achievement in college level Math 1710-Calculus I. The sample population of this study contained 91 students from various high schools in Texas. Spearman's rank correlation revealed there was a statistically significant relationship between Advanced Placement Calculus AB exam scores and final grades in Math 1710-Calculus I.

Professional counselors may choose to increase self-awareness and/or engage in self-care through the use of personal therapy. In particular, counselors may feel reluctant to pursue personal therapy due to stigma related to their professional identity. To date, researchers have paid limited attention to the unique concerns of counselors in personal therapy. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore counselors' experiences and decision-making in seeking personal therapy. I addressed the following questions: What contributes to counselors' decision to seek personal therapy? How do counselors make meaning of their experiences in utilizing personal therapy? Participants included 13 licensed professional counselors who had attended personal therapy with a licensed mental health professional in the past three years. I identified six emergent themes through adapted classic phenomenological analysis: presenting concerns, therapist attributes, intrapersonal growth, interpersonal growth, therapeutic factors, and challenges. Participants reported positive changes in personality and relationships, as well as several barriers specifically related to their counselor identity. Findings inform mental health professionals and the field of counselor education and supervision about the personal and professional needs of counselors. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

In wireless communication systems, one of the most important resources being focused on all the researchers is spectrum. A cognitive radio (CR) system is one of the efficient ways to access the radio spectrum opportunistically, and efficiently use the available underutilized licensed spectrum. Spectrum utilization can be significantly enhanced by developing more applications with adopting CR technology. CR systems are implemented using a radio technology called software-defined radios (SDR). SDR provides a flexible and cost-effective solution to fulfil the requirements of end users. We can see a lot of innovations in Internet of Things (IoT) and increasing number of smart devices. Hence, a CR system application involving an IoT device is studied in this thesis. Opportunistic spectrum access involves two tasks of CR system: spectrum sensing and dynamic spectrum access. The functioning of the CR system is rest upon the spectrum sensing. There are different spectrum sensing techniques used to detect the spectrum holes and a few of them are discussed here in this thesis. The simplest and easiest to implement energy detection spectrum sensing technique is used here to implement the CR system. Dynamic spectrum access involves different models and strategies to access the spectrum. Amongst the available models, …

In recent years, brain computer interfaces (BCIs) have gained popularity in non-medical domains such as the gaming, entertainment, personal health, and marketing industries. A growing number of companies offer various inexpensive consumer grade BCIs and some of these companies have recently introduced the concept of BCI "App stores" in order to facilitate the expansion of BCI applications and provide software development kits (SDKs) for other developers to create new applications for their devices. The BCI applications access to users' unique brainwave signals, which consequently allows them to make inferences about users' thoughts and mental processes. Since there are no specific standards that govern the development of BCI applications, its users are at the risk of privacy breaches. In this work, we perform first comprehensive analysis of BCI App stores including software development kits (SDKs), application programming interfaces (APIs), and BCI applications w.r.t privacy issues. The goal is to understand the way brainwave signals are handled by BCI applications and what threats to the privacy of users exist. Our findings show that most applications have unrestricted access to users' brainwave signals and can easily extract private information about their users without them even noticing. We discuss potential privacy threats posed by …

This study examines the evolution of Ella Fitzgerald's scat syllable vocabulary during a key developmental period in her career when she was recording for Decca Records. Between 1943 and 1952, Fitzgerald established the syllabic vocabulary that would serve as a defining characteristic of her improvisational style for the rest of her career. Fitzgerald is commonly praised as the greatest vocal improviser in jazz history, but while much has been written about Fitzgerald's melodic and harmonic approach to jazz improvisation, little has been written about her syllabic approach. Timbre and articulation are considered to be vital elements of any jazz musician's style; the study examines the changes in Ella Fitzgerald's syllabic approach through transcription and analyses of thirteen scat solos recorded during this time period, using scat syllable choices to discuss timbre and articulation. This analysis provides a model for further research of its kind, as well as informing historically accurate performance practice by both teachers and students of jazz singing.