The goal of this study was to determine if performance-based tests should be routinely administered to students in computer application courses. The purpose was to determine the most appropriate mode of testing for individuals taking a computer applications course. The study is divided into areas of assessment, personality traits, and computer attitudes.

Spatiotemporal properties of classical coupled nonlinear oscillators are investigated in this thesis. Chapter 1 gives an introduction to nonlinear lattices and to the concept of breathers, that are spatially localized and temporally periodic excitation in nonlinear lattices. The concept of anti-continuous limit that provides the basic methodology in probing spatiotemporal breather properties is discussed. In Chapter 2, the general approach for finding exact breather solutions from the anti-continuous limit is examined, and the rotating wave approximation(RWA) is applied to probe the spatial structure of static breathers. Numerical evidence reveals that the RWA relates the spatial structure of stable multi-breathers to a single breather of the same frequency. Chapter 3 presents linear stability analysis of static breathers and gives a systematic way to construct mobile breathers. Formation and collision properties of this moving breathers are also studied. Chapter 4 discusses dynamics of kinks and anti-kinks in hydrogen-bonded chains in the context of two-component soliton model. From molecular dynamics simulations with finite temperature, it is observed that, in a real system (eg. ice), a pair of kink and anti-kink can evolve into a moving-breather-like excitation. Chapter 5 is devoted to the understand of the effects of disorder in the Holstein model. The …

The efficacy of a machine learning technique is domain dependent. Some machine learning techniques work very well for certain domains but are ill-suited for other domains. One area that is of real-world concern is the flexibility with which machine learning techniques can adapt to dynamic domains. Currently, there are no known reports of any system that can learn dynamic domains, short of starting over (i.e., re-running the program). Starting over is neither time nor cost efficient for real-world production environments. This dissertation studied a method, referred to as Experience Based Learning (EBL), that attempts to deal with conditions related to learning dynamic domains. EBL is an extension of Instance Based Learning methods. The hypothesis of the study related to this research was that the EBL method would automatically adjust to domain changes and still provide classification accuracy similar to methods that require starting over. To test this hypothesis, twelve widely studied machine learning datasets were used. A dynamic domain was simulated by presenting these datasets in an uninterrupted cycle of train, test, and retrain. The order of the twelve datasets and the order of records within each dataset were randomized to control for order biases in each of ten runs. …

This doctoral dissertation discusses music criticism in the New York Times and the New York Tribune from 1851-1876.

This dissertation consists of three studies that investigate the information privacy & security associated with healthcare technology use. Essay 1 PRISMA-style systematically reviews the existing literature on privacy information disclosure in IoT technology and serves as the theoretical foundation of the current research. It is crucial to comprehend why, how, and under what consequences individuals choose to disclose their personal and health information since doing so is beneficial to the company. This SLR method allows us to find those factors that significantly impact individuals' behavioral intention to disclose personal information while using IoT technologies. Essay 2 posits, develops, and tests a comprehensive theoretical framework built upon the theory of planned behavior and the health belief model to examine factors affecting willingness to disclose PHI in order to use WFDs. A research survey is designed and distributed to a crowdsourcing platform, Mechanical Turk (M-Turk). Research hypotheses are tested using partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). To achieve this purpose, Essay 3 extends the findings from the previous essay and further investigates the caregiver context. Therefore, we developed a novel theoretical model utilizing privacy calculus theory and the technology acceptance model to investigate the willingness of the elderly to disclose …

This dissertation examines the impact of trauma on information-seeking behaviors and decision-making processes. Essay 1 includes a qualitative analysis of the transcripts obtained from interviews with four military service members diagnosed with PTSD. The results showed that 75% of this small sample population exhibited addictive behavior that was presented in their information behaviors. All four members indicated that the excessive extent to which they seek information is related to the perceived importance of the information and their level of trust in the sources. Low trust in information sources increases the number of sources searched for validation in this population. Essay 2 involved the collection and analysis of survey data. The results of the stepwise backward regression show that two trauma variables (adult sexual assault, sudden fear) have a significant combined negative effect on decision-making in this population. The analysis and results of a different survey are presented in Essay 3. The stepwise logistic regression analysis results conducted on the summated scales developed showed a strong positive link between trust in scientific experts for scientific information and the dichotomous dependent variable trust in social media for news. The research conducted in this dissertation extends the understanding of how trauma affects people's …

The traditional definition of tourism has been transformed by significant advancements in communication and information technology. The concept of Metaverse, derived from the words "meta" (meaning beyond) and "verse" (meaning universe), has redefined how people experience travel. This innovative concept combines virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence to create virtually augmented spaces. However, the tourism industry should clarify and narrow down the definition of Metaverse and its intriguing concept for its successful adoption in the future. Thus, it is crucial to define Metaverse tourism and understand how users will accept it in the near future. This study aims to comprehend the technology behind Metaverse tourism, review current research on the topic, and identify the critical factors related to experiential Metaverse tourism. The paper also examines how computer self-efficacy, novelty seeking, subjective norm, job relevance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment can influence expected user satisfaction and behavioral intention, given the context of situational motivation. The findings have significant implications for theory and management, addressing various questions related to users' perceptions, expectations, design considerations, stakeholder preparations, and performance assessment of metaverse technology in tourism applications.

Effective and efficient skill-acquisition procedures must be identified to support individualized behavioral programming for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To do this, practitioners and researchers may use assessment-based instruction. Prompts are a common teaching strategy to promote skill acquisition. The purpose of this applied study was to use assessment-based instruction to evaluate the efficacy and efficiency of within- and extra-stimulus prompts to teach conditional discriminations to two children with ASD. We identified stimulus prompts using a survey of popular children's games and conducted a tablet-based instruction readiness assessment. Stimulus prompts involved motion (within-stimulus) and pointing (extra-stimulus) to evoke correct responses in the presence of a discriminative stimulus. We used an adapted alternating treatments design with a no-treatment control condition to evaluate the effects of both prompt types across multiple sets of stimuli. Both stimulus prompt types were efficacious in facilitating skill acquisition for two of three participants. Little difference was observed in the time to mastery with either prompt. Neither stimulus prompt was efficacious for the third participant. Assessment results will be used to inform clinical programming to teach conditional discriminations to participants and contribute to research on designing and implementing assessments of skill-acquisition procedures.

In the US, rural Native American communities (RNACs) experience excess morbidity in mental health disorders and mortality from opioid use disorder (OUD). This study used mixed methods to evaluate and analyze the primary data from 76 healthcare providers (HPs) from 24 states across the US (physicians = 7%), to identify HP knowledge and training regarding available prevention, treatment, and recovery (PTR) programs in treating OUD, assessment and management skills, and networking and collaboration capacity among the RNACs they serve. The HP completed the Opioid Survey for Health Care Providers online. A majority of HPs reported a need for knowledge and training regarding OUD treatments (92%). Less than half of the HPs provide intensive outpatient treatment; 40% contracted out for medication assisted treatment/medications for opioid use disorder (MAT/MOUD) services. Recovery support was low at 33% for adults and 38% for youth. HPs reported use of Narcan to be effective in reversing overdose (87%). Qualitative responses supported survey findings and described barriers, including lack of resources, inadequate staffing, insufficient funding, lack of training and OUD knowledge, stigma, and lack of tribal involvement and support. The study findings indicate HPs' need for information and training about OUD and networking and collaboration of healthcare …

Extant research suggests communication styles (CS) such as constructive communication (CC) to be associated positively with relationship satisfaction (RS) and negatively with mental health (MH) whereas self-demand / partner withdraw (SD/PW) communication is associated negatively with RS and positively with MH. Research also suggests child abuse (CA) to be associated with poorer CS, lower RS, and poorer MH. Further, RS has been differentially associated with MH and CS in adult intimate relationships. However, no study has examined these associations simultaneously. The current study aimed to (1) assess these associations in IPV-exposed women and (2) assess differences between those with and without a history of CA. Data (n = 412; Mage = 36.77, SD = 12.54) come from a larger data collection project (N = 676). I hypothesized that: (1) higher CC and RS would be associated with lower severity of MH symptoms; (2) higher SD/PW and lower RS would be associated with higher severity of MH symptoms; (3) women with a history of CA will report less CC, lower RS, and higher severity of MH symptoms; and (4) women with a history of CA will report more SD/PW, lower RS, and higher severity of MH symptoms. Results did not support …

In this study, high-fidelity conjugate heat transfer simulations are used to model a micro-channel heat exchanger (MCHE) in a crossflow to study its thermal-hydraulic performance. This study considers three different microchannels (internal flow) geometries (circular, triangular, and square) with louver-shaped fins. The local flow field showed a strong coupling between the microchannel flow, solid domain, and crossflow. The flow separation and wake regions formed near MCHE resulted in a large variation in the velocity field and temperature in the crossflow. The wake region had a significant spanwise variation due to its interaction with fins, which also causes variations in the thermal boundary layer. The heat conduction in the solid structure provided a non-uniform temperature field with a higher temperature near the microchannel and a slightly lower temperature near the surface exposed to the crossflow. The microchannel flow analysis showed that the internal geometry affects the pressure drop, which is highest for the triangular MCHE and lowest for the circular MCHE. However, the microchannel flow temperature change was relatively similar for all microchannels. Results showed that for the same volume of the microchannel, the circular shape microchannel has a higher performance index value than the triangular and square shapes. This study …

This purpose of this study examined the effectiveness in technology integration among Texas educator preparation pathways and identified successful approaches in developing the technology competencies of preservice teachers. Existing data collected by the Texas Education Agency's Exit Survey by preservice teachers completing an educator preparation program was used to conduct a quantitative study. Data was imported into SPSS to conduct statistical analysis. The findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided to inform future development of technology integration in educator preparation programs.

As a political disturbance and social movement, the Cultural Revolution hugely impacted the development of Chinese piano art. The piano went through many stages throughout this ten-year period. This dissertation examines the suppression and later expansion of piano music in China during the Cultural Revolution, along with the historical motivations and forces that shaped each stage of its development. The study is supported by historical documents and relevant literature. This dissertation includes an analysis of the roles that piano music played during this era and the piano's relationship with the Cultural Revolution's modernizing goals. The analysis focuses on the musical characteristics of three piano pieces from this period and explores the instrument's historical importance, to better understand how Chinese piano music maintained a careful balance between its value as a tool for socio-political propaganda and its transformation under the burden of political pressure and creative limitations. Additionally, this dissertation examines playing techniques in these works that define a distinctly Chinese piano style that is enormously popular today. To complement the dissertation, these piano pieces were performed during the dissertation recital.

One of the famous Russian composers and a pianist himself, Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) composed a vast quantity of piano music. His nine piano sonatas represent well how he projected his musical individuality and the principles that he addressed in his autobiography: classical line, modern trend, toccata line, lyrical line, and grotesque line. However, even though Prokofiev's piano sonatas are considered one of the important collections in the piano repertoire, not all of them have gained popularity and only a few tend to be frequently performed by pianists today. For this reason, this dissertation focuses on one of his less-performed piano sonatas, No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29. The pianists György Sándor and Boris Berman were chosen as specialists in Prokofiev's piano works, and their performance editions and recordings are analyzed and compared as main references. This study provides analysis and a performance guide to this piano sonata. This guide discusses pedaling, fingering, phrasing, touch, voicing, tempo suggestion, articulation, hand distribution, and expression.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous environmental toxicants found in anthropogenic mixtures such as crude oil, air pollution, vehicle exhaust, and in some natural combustion reactions. Single PAHs such as benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) also impact fish behavior when animals are exposed in early life stages and for short periods of time. Aquatic animals such as fish may encounter BaP through road runoff and oil spills, but few studies have examined the impact of aqueous exposure on adult fish, and fewer have examined the resulting fitness-relevant behavioral consequences of BaP and PAH mixtures and their long-term persistence. This dissertation targets this gap in the literature by examining how aqueous exposure to BaP influences anxiety-like behavior, learning, and memory in adult zebrafish, and how parental exposure to the PAH mixture, crude oil, combined with hypoxia affects social and exploratory behavior in unexposed larval zebrafish. We found that learning and memory were not affected by 24 hour exposure to BaP, that anxiety-like behavior was minimally affected, and that locomotor parameters such as distance moved and times spent in darting and immobile states were significantly altered by exposure to BaP. Additionally, we found that parental exposure to crude oil and hypoxia decreased larval velocity. Additionally, …

Although the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) has been widely accepted by the HRD community, it has not been tested in a startup context for reliability. The purpose of the current study is to explore if the DLOQ is a reliable instrument for startups to help them be more successful. The current study seeks to address some of the questions, which have been posed by previous researchers. The study utilizes a mixed-method design applying Cronbach alpha values to check the reliability of the instrument in a startup learning environment, with more than 600 participants and 42 startup businesses at a university in the Mountain West. The study uses objective financial measures for startup firms to explore the correlation between the seven dimensions of the DLOQ and startup companies at the university. Cronbach alphas for the instrument measured at the .80 level or higher. Four of the dimensions were found to be statistically significant resulting in a model that accounted for 30% of the variance in predicted Operating Income (p<.004) and 29% of the variances in predicted Net Income (p<.003). The study also uses qualitative analysis to explore what activities relate to the seven dimensions of the DLOQ, and …

Manually grading essays and providing comprehensive feedback pose significant challenges for writing instructors, requiring subjective assessments of various writing elements. Automated essay scoring (AES) systems have emerged as a potential solution, offering improved grading consistency and time efficiency, along with insightful analytics. However, the use of AES in English as a Second Language (ESL) remains rare. This dissertation aims to explore the implementation of AES in ESL education to enhance teaching and learning. The dissertation presents a study involving ESL teachers who learned to use a specific AES system called LightSide, a free and open text mining tool, to enhance writing instruction. The study involved observations, interviews, and a workshop where teachers learned to build their own AES using LightSide. The study aimed to address questions related to teacher interest in using AES, challenges faced by teachers, and the influence of the workshop on teachers' perceptions of AES. By exploring the use of AES in ESL education, this research provides valuable insights to inform the integration of technology and enhance the teaching and learning of writing skills for English language learners.

The age-cutoff regression discontinuity design (RDD) has emerged as one of the most rigorous quasi-experimental approaches to determining program effects of prekindergarten on literacy and numeracy outcomes for children at kindergarten entry. However, few pre-K meta-analyses have focused attention on validity threats. The current random-effects meta-regression tests the moderating effects of prominent threats to validity, selection bias and sensitivity, on impact estimates generated from age-cutoff regression discontinuity studies from large-scale programs. Results from averaging dependent standardized mean difference effects suggested small positive moderating effects of total attrition and robust 3-month bandwidths on reading effects, but not on math. However, these results were not statistically significant. In contrast, results generated from robust variance estimation yielded a small statistically significant association between total attrition and math effects. These mixed results may warrant further research on prekindergarten evaluation methodology, evaluation estimation methods, and the totality of evidence used to inform policy.

The research presented in the dissertation deals with the synthesis, characterization, photophysical, electrochemical, and pump probe studies of porphyrin-fullerene based donor-acceptor conjugates. The first chapter provides insights into the introduction of the thesis, which explains the events that occur in natural photosynthesis and the mimicking process of an artificial photosynthesis based on natural photosynthesis, works done in covalently and non-covalently linked donor acceptor systems, and the penetration of the literature related to the long-lived charge-separated states donor-acceptor conjugates. The second chapter details the physical methods employed to monitor the various photochemical processes in the donor-acceptor moiety. The third chapter focusses on designing and synthesizing a platinum porphyrin-fullerene dyad used for long-lived charged-separated state. The formation of a high-energy, long-lived radical ion pair by electron transfer from the triplet excited state is orchestrated in the dyad. The porphyrin ring is modified with three triphenylamine which act as secondary electron donors. The spin state of the electrons leading to the formation of long-lived charge-separated state is demonstrated by time-resolved optical and EPR spectroscopy. The fourth chapter studies metal ligand axial coordination. Two porphyrins were self-assembled via metal-ligand axial coordination of phenyl imidazole functionalized fulleropyrrolidine. A 1:2 complex formation with ImC60 was observed …

Stories and a novel.

The original FlexiChain and its descendants are a revolutionary distributed ledger technology (DLT) for cyber-physical systems (CPS) and their embedded systems (ES). FlexiChain, a DLT implementation, uses cryptography, distributed ledgers, peer-to-peer communications, scalable networks, and consensus. FlexiChain facilitates data structure agreements. This thesis offers a Block Directed Acyclic Graph (BDAG) architecture to link blocks to their forerunners to speed up validation. These data blocks are securely linked. This dissertation introduces Proof of Rapid Authentication, a novel consensus algorithm. This innovative method uses a distributed file to safely store a unique identifier (UID) based on node attributes to verify two blocks faster. This study also addresses CPS hardware security. A system of interconnected, user-unique identifiers allows each block's history to be monitored. This maintains each transaction and the validators who checked the block to ensure trustworthiness and honesty. We constructed a digital version that stays in sync with the distributed ledger as all nodes are linked by a NodeChain. The ledger is distributed without compromising node autonomy. Moreover, FlexiChain Layer 0 distributed ledger is also introduced and can connect and validate Layer 1 blockchains. This project produced a DAG-based blockchain integration platform with hardware security. The results illustrate a practical technique …

The historical success of friction stir welding (FSW) on materials such as aluminum and magnesium alloys is associated with the absence of melting and solidification during the solid-state process. However, commercial adoption of FSW on steels and other non-ferrous high-strength, high-temperature materials such as nickel-base and titanium-base alloys is limited due to the high costs associated with the process. In this dissertation, the feasibility of using an FSW approach to fabricate certain structural components made of nitrogen containing austenitic stainless steels that go into the vacuum vessel and magnetic systems of tokamak devices was demonstrated. The FSW weldments possessed superior application-specific mechanical and functional properties when compared to fusion weldments reported in the technical literature. However, as stated earlier, the industrial adoption of FSW on high temperature materials such as the ferrous alloys used in the present study is greatly limited due to the high costs associated with the process. The cost is mainly dictated by the high temperature FSW tools used to accomplish the weldments. Commercially available high temperature FSW tools are exorbitantly priced and often have short lifetimes. To overcome the high-cost barrier, we have explored the use of integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) combined with experimental prototyping …

Within this research study, a qualitative phenomenological approach was used to explore the lived experiences of Black master's students (n = 10) who engage in mentorship in CACREP-accredited counselor education programs. The participants in this study represent different ACES regions in the United States, including SACES, NARACES, and NCACES. Six themes were discovered as a result of participants' experiences: (a) impact of mentorship, (b) benefits of mentorship, (c) qualities within mentoring relationships, (d) composition of mentoring relationships, (e) saliency and influence of identity, and (f) barriers to mentorship and program satisfaction. Furthermore, I offer suggestions for increasing support for Black master's students in counseling programs as well as recommendations for supporting the professional and personal development of this population.

AI-enabled information systems (AI-enabled IS) offer enhanced utility and efficiency due to their knowledge-based endowments, enabling human agents to assign and receive tasks from AI-enabled IS. As a result, this leads to improved decision-making, ability to manage laborious jobs, and a decrease in human errors. Despite the performance-based endowments and efficiencies, there are significant ethical concerns regarding the use of and delegation to AI-enabled IS, which have been extensively addressed in the literature on the dark side of artificial intelligence (AI). Notable concerns include bias and discrimination, fairness, transparency, privacy, accountability, and autonomy. However, the Information Systems (IS) literature does not have a delegation framework that incorporates ethics in the delegation mechanism. This work seeks to integrate a mixed deontological-teleological ethical system into the delegation mechanism to (and from) AI-enabled IS. To that end, I present a testable model to ethically appraise various AI-enabled IS as well as ethically evaluate delegation to (and from) AI-enabled IS in various settings and situations.