The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the impact of a long-term, 5E inquiry-based professional development on content and pedagogical knowledge in eighth-grade science teachers in Texas. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected via university designed reflective prompts, science content pretests and post-tests, and a classroom observation instrument. Results showed the professional development had a statistically significant impact on teachers' content knowledge in earth science, less significant impact in content knowledge in physical science and that teachers' levels of inquiry-based practice were in the early stages. The teachers' reflections of the professional development's impact indicated self-identified growth in their content knowledge and an impact on their understanding of inquiry-based classroom instructional practice. The findings suggest inquiry-based professional development has an impact on teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge, specifically regarding conveying content effectively, concept interconnection, lesson design, and teachers' opportunities to experience inquiry-based learning themselves before implementing it in their classrooms. The study's implications for further research include examinations of professional learning opportunities at local district and campus levels to identify and incorporate science teachers' existing levels of content and inquiry-based pedagogical knowledge and provide opportunities for practice to incorporate the pedagogy in classrooms.

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to highlight the lived experiences of Christian African American college males attending a Christian predominately White institution (PWI) in the South. Through in-depth personal interviews, I offer insights into this specific student population's experience. Furthermore, I provide recommendations for key stakeholders at Christian PWIs in the South as they strive to create an inclusive campus environment. The ultimate goal of the research is to aid in the recruitment and retention of this particular student population.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), patients and providers do not understand the Health Information Privacy and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Non-compliance with HIPAA is primarily due to confusion, along with insufficient understanding. HSS has taken measures to simplify the language they use to communicate HIPAA, however, they have not taken steps that consider if one's culture, religious and social perspectives, institutional training, credentials, and comprehension of legal terminology affects medical providers and non-clinical administrative personnel's abilities to understand HIPAA. This research uses bibliometrics to examine the literature from January 2010 – September 2020 that addresses HIPAA's use of legal terminology, literacy level, and institutional training, along with religious and social perspectives, and credentials of medical providers and non-clinical administrative personnel. A total of 107 articles were examined, 42 were assigned article influence scores with values that were less than 1.00, which is a below-average influence score for the article. There were 29 articles with values equal to or above 1.00, which translates to an equal or above-average influence score. The remaining 36 articles did not have article influence scores and were assigned values as not available. Results of the review of the literature indicate that …

High entropy alloys (HEAs), also referred to as complex concentrated alloys (CCAs), are a relatively new class of alloys that have gained significant attention since 2010 due to their unique balance of properties that include high strength, ductility and excellent corrosion resistance. HEAs are usually based on five or more elements alloyed in near equimolar concentrations, and exhibit simple microstructures by the formation of solid solution phases instead of complex compounds. HEAs have great potential in the design of new materials; for instance, for lightweight structural applications and elevated temperature applications. The relation between grain size and yield strength has been a topic of significant interest not only to researchers but also for industrial applications. Though some research papers have been published in this area, consensus among them is lacking, as the studies yielded different results. Al atom being a large atom causes significant lattice distortion. This work attempts to study the Hall-Petch relationship for Al0.3CoFeNi and Al0.3CoCrFeNi and to compare the data of friction stress σ0 and Hall-Petch coefficient K with published data. The base alloys for both these alloys are CoFeNi and CoCrFeNi respectively. It was observed by atom probe tomography (APT) that clustering of Al-Ni atoms in …

The design and fabrication of porous ceramic materials with anisotropic properties has, in recent years, gained popularity due to their potential application in various areas that include medical, energy, defense, space, and aerospace. Freeze-casting is an effective, low-cost, and safe method as a wet shaping technique to create these structures. To control the morphology of these materials, many critical factors were found to play an important role. In this dissertation, the processing parameters of the magnetic field-assisted freeze-casting method were optimized with a focus on comparing the structure obtained using vertical and horizontal magnetic fields and understanding the mechanisms that occur under different freezing modes. More specifically, this processing method was used to produce Al2O3 and B4C porous ceramics materials with unidirectionally-aligned pore channels. The effect of the vertical and horizontal magnetic field strength and direction, concentration of magnetic material (Fe3O4), cooling rate, and freezing time were examined. The resulting ceramics with highly aligned pore channels were infiltrated with molten metal to create metal matrix composites. The mechanical properties of these structures were measured and were subsequently correlated to their morphology and composition.

This dissertation consists of three studies that collectively investigate the factors influencing the consumer adoption intention towards emerging healthcare technologies. Essay 1 systematically reviews the extent literature on healthcare technology adoption and serves as the theoretical foundation of the dissertation. It investigates different models that have been previously applied to study healthcare technology acceptance. Meta-analysis method is used to quantitatively synthesize the findings from prior empirical studies. Essay 2 posits, develops, and tests a comprehensive biotechnology acceptance model from the end-user's perspective. Two new constructs, namely, perceived risk and trust in technology, are integrated into the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. Research hypotheses are tested using survey data and partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Essay 3 extends the findings from the Essay 2 and further investigates the consumer's trust initiation and its effect on behavioral adoption intention. To achieve this purpose, Essay 3 posits and develops a trust model. Survey data allows testing the model using PLS-SEM. The models developed in this dissertation reflect significant modifications specific to the healthcare context. The findings provide value for academia, practitioners, and policymakers.

This dissertation presents an assortment of research aimed at understanding the composition-dependence of deformation behavior and the response to thermomechanical processing, to enable efficient design and processing of low stacking fault energy (SFE) high entropy alloy (HEAs). The deformation behavior and SFE of four low SFE HEAs were predicted and experimentally verified using electron microscopy and in-situ neutron diffraction. A new approach of employing a minimization function to refine and improve the accuracy of a semi-empirically derived expression relating composition with SFE is demonstrated. Ultimately, by employing the minimization function, the average difference between experimental and predicted SFE was found to be 2.64 mJ m-2. Benchmarking with currently available approaches suggests that integrating minimization functions can substantially improve prediction accuracy and promote efficient HEA design with expansion of databases. Additionally, in-situ neutron diffraction was used to present the first in-situ measurement of the interspacing between stacking faults (SFs) which were correlated with work hardening behavior. Electron transparent specimens (< ~100 nm thick) were used in order to resolve nanoscale planar faults instead of the thicker sub-sized specimens (on the order of millimeters in thickness) which exhibit the classical stages III work hardening behavior characteristic of low SFE metals and alloys. …

We prove the existence and nonexistence of radial solutions of singular semilinear equations Δu + k(x)f(u)=0 with boundary condition on the exterior of the ball with radius R>0 in ℝ^N such that lim r →∞ u(r)=0, where f: ℝ \ {0} →ℝ is an odd and locally Lipschitz continuous nonlinear function such that there exists a β >0 with f <0 on (0, β), f >0 on (β, ∞), and K(r) ~ r^-α for some α >0.

This research seeks to explore how the metal arts are taught to women in Kuwait in an undergraduate setting, making the call for the use of feminist pedagogy when teaching the metal arts to women in Kuwait. This research is achieved using the qualitative methodology of analytic autoethnography. The theoretical framework is a feminist lens bridging the social construction of gender with the gendering of objects and feminist standpoint theory. The data comes from the experiences of creating three of my own pieces of artwork as well as the pieces themselves in tandem with historical, political, and cultural contexts. The analysis from this research is then bridged with feminist pedagogy in order to begin to develop an inclusive metal arts curriculum for women in Kuwait.

Federal and state descriptions of gifted and talented services include identifying and developing leadership talent, but in many states, services are not mandated or funded. Consequently, leadership development is often left to extracurricular programs (e.g., student organizations, athletics). The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) provides school-based military-focused leadership education and opportunities to apply emergent leadership skills. This qualitative descriptive study examined leadership talent development in JROTC and the postsecondary paths participants chose. A self-report survey was distributed to graduating seniors enrolled in JROTC in Texas public high schools and semi-structured interviews were conducted with JROTC instructors across the state. The findings highlighted characteristics of students in the sample who chose to pursue military-focused education or careers after high school and themes about the experiences and key considerations related to choosing postsecondary paths. JROTC instructors supported students with differentiated development plans and information about flexible pathways to reach postsecondary goals. Students benefitted from broad definitions of success, exposure to career options, realistic self-assessment, and alignment between intentions and preparation.

This research examines the political implications of community-police relations in the United States by exploring the link between race, perceptions of police performance, and trust in government. Relying on survey data, I examine these relationships for Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Whites. In addition to examining the broader relationship between community-police relations and institutional trust, this dissertation examines (1) how police perceptions influence individuals' comfort in contacting the police, (2) how police violence and police perceptions influence trust in government, and (3) the effectiveness of community-oriented policing in building community-police relations and increasing trust in government. First, I find that these relationships are conditional on race and ethnicity. Black respondents, who are more likely to experience negative interactions with the police and who are less likely to have positive perceptions of the police, are less comfortable contacting them. Second, while police violence does not have a significant effect on public trust in government, police perceptions and perceptions of discrimination do. Respondents that perceive the police to be performing well and who do not believe their own racial group is being discriminated against, are more likely to express trust in government. Finally, I find that community-oriented policing has the potential to both …

Magnetic nano-clusters in silicon involving iron and cobalt were synthesized using low energy (50 keV) ion implantation technique and post-implantation thermal annealing. Before the irradiation, multiple ion-solid interaction simulations were carried out to estimate optimal ion energy and fluence for each experiment. For high-fluence low-energy irradiation of heavy ions in a relatively lighter substrate, modeling the ion irradiation process using dynamic code SDTrimSP showed better agreement with the experimental results compared to the widely used static simulation code TRIM. A saturation in concentration (~ 48%) profile of the 50 keV Fe or Co implants in Si was seen at a fluence of ~ 2 × 1017 ions/cm2. Further study showed that for structures with a curved surface, particularly for nanowires, better simulation results could be extracted using a code "Iradina" as the curve geometry of the target surface can be directly defined in the input file. The compositional, structural, and magnetic properties were studied using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, atom probe tomography, and vibrating sample magnetometry. Irradiation of high-current (~ 2 μA/cm2) 50 keV Fe ions into Si at a fluence of 2 × 1017 ions/cm2 showed the formation of Fe5Si3 nano structures in the near-surface …

In a civil war, conflict management practitioners are concerned with bringing the conflict to an end and providing security for civilians. Similarly, human rights advocacy groups are also concerned with minimizing civilian harm. Given the similar intentions of these actors in civil war states, this dissertation explores under what circumstances conflict management practitioners and human rights advocacy groups collaborate. First, I compare to what extent mediation and peacekeeping cases differ with regards to showing signs of interaction; second, I compare how the level of interaction changes depending on whether peacekeeping missions are deployed by the United Nations or regional intergovernmental organizations. I find that human rights groups are more likely to interact with peacekeeping missions, especially when the missions are deployed by the United Nations. Moreover, I analyze to what extent the interaction between human rights groups and peacekeeping operations impacts how human rights groups carry out their advocacy efforts. The findings reveal that the way human rights groups use their advocacy efforts depend on whether the third parties providing peacekeeping operations respond to their requests.

This research proposes Stress-Lysis, iLog and SaYoPillow to automatically detect and monitor the stress levels of a person. To self manage psychological stress in the framework of smart healthcare, a deep learning based novel system (Stress-Lysis) is proposed in this dissertation. The learning system is trained such that it monitors stress levels in a person through human body temperature, rate of motion and sweat during physical activity. The proposed deep learning system has been trained with a total of 26,000 samples per dataset and demonstrates accuracy as high as 99.7%. The collected data are transmitted and stored in the cloud, which can help in real time monitoring of a person's stress levels, thereby reducing the risk of death and expensive treatments. The proposed system has the ability to produce results with an overall accuracy of 98.3% to 99.7%, is simple to implement and its cost is moderate. Chronic stress, uncontrolled or unmonitored food consumption, and obesity are intricately connected, even involving certain neurological adaptations. In iLog we propose a system which can not only monitor but also create awareness for the user of how much food is too much. iLog provides information on the emotional state of a person along …

Prompt and efficient intervention is vital in reducing casualty figures during epidemic outbreaks, disasters, sudden civil strife or terrorism attacks. This can only be achieved if there is a fit-for-purpose and location-specific emergency response plan in place, incorporating geographical, time and vehicular capacity constraints. In this research, a comprehensive emergency response model for situations of uncertainties (in locations' demand and available resources), typically obtainable in low-resource countries, is designed. It involves the development of algorithms for optimizing pre-and post-disaster activities. The studies result in the development of four models: (1) an adaptation of a machine learning clustering algorithm, for pre-positioning depots and emergency operation centers, which optimizes the placement of these depots, such that the largest geographical location is covered, and the maximum number of individuals reached, with minimal facility cost; (2) an optimization algorithm for routing relief distribution, using heterogenous fleets of vehicle, with considerations for uncertainties in humanitarian supplies; (3) a genetic algorithm-based route improvement model; and (4) a model for integrating possible new locations into the routing network, in real-time, using emergency severity ranking, with a high priority on the most-vulnerable population. The clustering approach to solving dept location-allocation problem produces a better time complexity, and the …

Exclusionary discipline is a consequence of behavior for students who break the student code of conduct. Extensive research about the effects that exclusionary discipline can have on secondary students, as evidenced by reduced graduation rates, has been conducted; but, research studies investigating the potential impact that exclusionary discipline can have on the academic outcomes of students at the elementary level have yet to be conducted. The use of exclusionary discipline is overrepresented in students with low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds; large populations of low-SES students are educated at Title I schools that receive federal funding to support academic growth. The purpose of this causal-comparative, non-experimental study was to investigate the impact that exclusionary discipline consequences had on fifth-grade students who attended all of the elementary schools within one north Texas school district during the 2018-2019 school year. In conjunction with the examination of the effect that the assignment of exclusionary discipline consequences can have on the academic outcomes of fifth-grade students, student-specific variables such as attendance at a Title I or non-Title I campus, student race, timing of exclusionary discipline assignment, and students in various educational programs were investigated to determine the potential impact of exclusionary discipline on fifth-grade students by …

In the current globalizing society, teachers are provided opportunities to move across their national borders to seek learning, professional development, and working opportunities. Technology-related professional development is particularly valued for teachers' sojourn to the technology intensive cultures. This qualitative cross-case study explored the K-12 Chinese language teachers' changes of teachers' application and perspective toward educational technology in cross-cultural teaching context through the lens of transformative learning theory. The qualitative data is collected from the interviews with 20 teacher participants in the four stages of cross-cultural sojourning: pre-departure, currently sojourning, post-sojourn, and immigrated. A qualitative cross-case analysis is conducted to compare the characteristics of teachers in different cases, and developed the complete process of the cross-cultural technology adoption and perspective. Factors contributed to the changes are also identified. Five issues related to the process are discussed. Implications and future directions were also included.

Health disparities are a recognized public health concern and the need to address these disparities remains worthy of bringing new methods that assist in closing the gap. This research examined the effectiveness of data science to highlight health disparities, and to convey the value of data science applications in related health care applications. The goal of this research was accomplished by undertaking a multi-phased and multi-method approach, best represented in three individual essays. In essay one, a systematic literature review assessed the state in current academic literature of data science applications used to explore health disparities and to determine its applicability. The systematic review was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Essay two assessed the capacity of data science software to address the effectiveness of these data science technologies in examining health disparities data. This was conducted using KDnuggets data pertaining to analytics, data science, and machine-learning software. The research in this essay demonstrated the potential utility of leading software to perform the kinds of data science operations that can achieve improved care in healthcare networks by addressing health disparities. Essay three provided an appropriate case study to showcase the value data science …

Multicultural (MC) counseling and social justice (SJ) are foundational parts of counselors' professional identity, and they are fostered through a developmental process that counselor educators facilitate. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between counselor educators' ethnic/racial identity development (ERI), their social justice orientation (SJO) and their multicultural teaching competence (MCTC). MCTC was examined using the constructs of knowledge and sensitivity. Data was collected from a nationally distributed online survey. Data were analyzed using four hierarchical regression models in order to control for socially desirable responding. Results indicated that ERI was a significant predictor of MCTC-Knowledge (p < .001) and that SJO was a significant predictor of MCTC-Sensitivity (p < .001). Socially desirable responding was not significantly related to MCTC. Results suggest the importance of attending to ERI and SJO as separate processes in training future counselor educators.

Teachers face pressures to meet the needs of an ever-changing diverse population of learners while simultaneously attempting to assist students in meeting state standards. There is a body of research that supports emergent bilinguals' growth in reading and writing. However, those practices do not necessarily reflect classroom instruction nor the needs of the students. The purpose of this study was to examine adolescent emergent bilinguals' perceptions about their learning from research-based literacy practices implemented in a classroom designed as a third space. Data were collected using participatory research and photo-elicitation and were analyzed using inductive analysis. The emergent bilinguals provided their insights about class assignments. Findings revealed that research-based literacy practices support emergent bilinguals' perceptions of learning when they are made accessible to them in distinctive yet extensive ways. For students to uncover which literacy activities they value, teachers need to present them with various opportunities to explore their own learning and encourage them to take ownership of their learning. Educators must consider the unique and individual needs of emergent bilinguals when designing the classroom environment and the lessons based on the standards. Recommendations for practitioners, professional development coordinators, and researchers are presented.

This study investigates the effects of sketchnoting, a visualized approach of notetaking, on learning strategies. The main questions asked were: What are the effects of sketchnoting on learners' learning strategies, including cognitive strategies (rehearsal, elaboration, organizational) and metacognitive strategies? Forty-eight undergraduate participants were divided into two groups, an experimental group, and a control group. Findings demonstrated a significant increase in cognitive learning strategies and metacognitive strategies in the experimental group. Other findings revealed that the aesthetic appeal of sketchnoting is the major reason motivating participants' sketchnoting behavior and the corresponding connection between design strategies and the learning strategies is the key of positive impacts of sketchnoting on learning strategies. Additional insights and implications are discussed.

This dissertation deploys queer theory and temporality to investigate the ways in which American authors were writing about identity at the turn of the twentieth century. I provide a more expansive use of queer theory, and argue that queerness moves beyond sexual and gender identity to have intersectional implications. This is articulated in the phrase "queer textual libido" which connects queer theory with affect and temporal theories. Queerness reveals itself on both narrative and rhetorical levels, and can be used productively to show the complex navigation between individual and national identity formation.

This dissertation investigates the My Stealthy Freedom (MSF) movement, an online movement against mandatory hijab laws in Iran, building on two leading lead social movements' theories, political processes and framing processes theories. Study 1 explores the utility of a tactical approach for explaining the movement's pace of insurgency. I employ a conceptual repertoire focused upon the political process model's core concepts of tactical innovation and tactical adaptations, supplementing these older concepts with the more recently proposed concept of tactical freeze and a newly proposed concept of tactical hashtags that is of particular relevance to online movements. Study 2 focuses on extracting hidden patterns and emotional characteristics in the MSF movement by conducting a topic modeling study on the text appearing in the captions of the main account of the movement on Instagram. It was shown that the actions of Masih Alinejad, the founder of the movement, represented by her online activity and extracted by means of topic modeling, is directly affected by the sequence of important events happening in Iran concluding to a transformation of a social movement to political one. Study 3 models how social movements use social media in the formation of affective publics and apply this model …

The Ends of Smaller Worlds is a collection of short stories set in Indiana. The preface is about the representation of the information age using elements of dirty realism and Gothic fiction.