Is John Locke a philosopher or theologian? When considering Locke's religious thought, scholars seldom point to his Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul. This is puzzling since the Paraphrase is his most extensive treatment of Christian theology. Since this is the final work of his life, did Locke undergo a deathbed conversion? The scholarship that has considered the Paraphrase often finds Locke contradicting himself on various theological doctrines. In this dissertation, I find that Locke not only remains consistent with his other writings, but provides his subtlest interpretation of Scripture. He is intentionally subtle in order to persuade a Protestant audience to modern liberalism. This is intended to make Protestantism, and specifically Calvinism, the vehicle for modern liberalism. This is seen clearly in Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Though Weber concludes that Protestant support for capitalism in the late 19th Century is due to its theological foundation, I find that Weber is actually examining Lockean Protestantism. Locke's success in transforming Protestantism is also useful today in showing how a modern liberal can converse with someone who actively opposes, and may even wish to harm, modern liberalism. The dissertation analyzes four important Protestant …

In the United States, rapid military mobilization for the world wars marked a turning point in the national need to manage and evaluate manpower. To orchestrate manpower needs for the military, industry, and those relating to familial obligations, Woodrow Wilson's administration created the Selective Service System during the First World War. In categorizing men, local Selective Service boards utilized rapid physical and psychological diagnostic techniques and applied their assessments to current military branch induction standards to pronounce candidates as militarily fit or unfit. From World War I to World War II, the Selective Service System expanded as a bureaucracy but did not adequately address induction issues surrounding rapidly changing standards, racism, and inconsistent testing procedures. These persistent problems with Selective Service prevented the system from becoming truly consistent, fair, or effective. As a result of Selective Service System, War Department, and military branch standards, military rejection and prematurely military discharge rates increased in World War II. Additionally, though Selective Service did not accurately predict who would or would not serve effectively, rejected and prematurely discharged men faced harsh discrimination on the American home front during World War II.

This dissertation focuses on the computational investigation of gold(I) acyclic diaminocarbene (ADC) complexes and their application in homogeneous gold(I) catalysis. Chapter 2 is an in-depth computational investigation of the σ- and π-bonding interactions that make up the gold-carbene bond. Due to the inherent conformation flexibility of ADC ligands, distortions of the carbene plane can arise that disrupt orbital overlap between the lone pairs on the adjacent nitrogen atoms and the empty p-orbital of the carbene. This study investigated the affect these distortions have on the strength of the σ- and π-bonding interactions. This investigation demonstrated that while these distortions can affect the σ- and π-bonding interactions, the ADC ligand have to become highly distorted before any significant change in energy of either the σ- or π-bonding interactions occurs. Chapter 3 is a collaborative investigation between experimental and computational methods, DFT calculations were employed to support the experimental catalytic results and determine the role that steric effects have in controlling the regioselectivity of a long-standing electronically controlled gold(I)-catalyzed tandem 1,6-enyne cyclization/hydroarylation reaction with indole. This study demonstrated that by sterically hindering nucleophilic attack of indole at the favored position, nucleophilic attack would occur at a secondary position leading to the selective …

This work provides an alternative theory of gendered consumption that explains chronic and situational shifts in consumers' preferences for masculine, feminine, and androgynous choices, beyond the effects of gender identities.

Current unsupervised approaches for keyphrase extraction compute a single importance score for each candidate word by considering the number and quality of its associated words in the graph and they are not flexible enough to incorporate multiple types of information. For instance, nodes in a network may exhibit diverse connectivity patterns which are not captured by the graph-based ranking methods. To address this, we present a new approach to keyphrase extraction that represents the document as a word graph and exploits its structure in order to reveal underlying explanatory factors hidden in the data that may distinguish keyphrases from non-keyphrases. Experimental results show that our model, which uses phrase graph representations in a supervised probabilistic framework, obtains remarkable improvements in performance over previous supervised and unsupervised keyphrase extraction systems.

As a form of tax and expenditure limitations, property tax exemptions result in an utility gap between two groups of population residing in the same community: free-riders who are paying less than they receive and contributors who are paying more than they receive. This utility gap is problematic to municipalities because contributors may exit the city as this gap becomes wider. How do municipalities respond to the increasing amount of property tax exemptions? Using 41 Texas cities data from 2000 to 2016, this dissertation examines how property tax exemptions affect municipalities' fiscal behavior. The analysis indicates that property tax exemptions lead to higher property tax burden, change municipalities' revenue structure, and lead to less capital spending.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly transforming business operations and society, as AI capabilities are incorporated into applications ranging from mobile personal assistants to self-driving cars. The potentially disruptive nature of AI calls for an extensive investigation into all aspects of AI-human interactions at individual, group, organizational and market levels. However, there is paucity of academic information systems (IS) research in this area that goes beyond the development and testing of specific narrow AI capabilities. AI represents an important opportunity for organizational and behavioral IS researchers, but also presents challenges associated with the underlying complexity of AI technologies and the diversity of AI applications. Understanding how existing AI research and business practice relate to traditional areas of IS research is an important step towards creating a comprehensive behavioral and organizational AI research agenda. This dissertation seeks to achieve a dual purpose in a series of three essays. Essay 1 seeks to understand the current state of business AI research and practice in business through a quantitative literature review, relate the findings to traditional IS research areas, and identify potentially fruitful research areas for AI-focused IS research. Essays 2 and 3 seek to address specific research questions related to one of such …

This research examined two interrelated issues relevant to maternal and neonatal health in Pakistan, namely, the rising rates of C-section delivery and low rates of exclusive breastfeeding. By using the Andersen's health behavioral model to frame two empirical studies, the data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-13 was used. The first empirical study examined the correlation between place of delivery and the odds of cesarean section in Pakistan. Not all Pakistani women have an equal chance of delivering at a health facility where C-section delivery takes place; therefore, the study modeled mode of delivery as a two-step process. In the first step, place of delivery was a function of medical indications and various sociodemographic and community factors. Women who delivered at a health facility were included in the second step, where C-section was a function of medical indications and type of facility (private, public). It is found that women who delivered at a private health facility were more likely to have a C-section, even after controlling for the effects of medical/clinical factors, which is concerning. Findings suggest that the private maternal health sector in Pakistan may be over-medicalizing childbirth. The second study examined this paradox of low …

This research study involves three essays and examines CRQ-driven decision making from the points of view of the common firm, social-commerce platform provider, and social-commerce echo-system. It addresses CRQ's progression from traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) initiatives to social platform-specific antecedents and to environment-driven factors lying outside the direct control of the platform provider, yet influencing social commerce business decisions, such as user-generated content from peers (e.g. family, friends) and expert authority (e.g. specialists, experts, professional organizations). The research method used statistical, data mining and computer science techniques. The results suggest that social platform providers should take a proactive approach to CRQ, fully leverage their online platform to improve CRQ while paying special attention to security as a potential barrier, and consider the analysis of elements of the echo-system such as the electronic word of mouth (eWOM) to further drive CRQ and determine the level of alignment between customers and experts, suppliers and products featured, that may lead to value-added managerial insights such as the prioritization, promotion and optimization of such relationships.

The purpose of this study was to determine if students with special needs participating in an inclusive classroom can learn the skills related to a STEM career as compared to the general student population. The study involved seventh grade students from two rural middle schools in north central Texas and was framed through a constructivist lens using a quasi-experimental design with a convenience sample. The Solenoid Invention Kit Assessment and the STEM Semantics Survey used in this study were used from a previously large existing dataset from a grant funded by the National Science Foundation for Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers. Findings suggested that there were no significant differences between the general student population and students with special needs. However, STEM coursework in an inclusive classroom may impact students' decision to pursue STEM careers.

Asian American students have done well in school; they have had higher academic achievements, higher academic scores, lower dropout rates and higher college entrance rates as compared to other minorities and generally other students in the United States (U.S.). A possible explanation to the higher academic performance and achievement of the Asian American students is that they are more likely to have experienced an environment that is conducive to learning at home; their parents were involved and held higher expectations. Immigrant minorities have been found to do well in schools in many parts of the world. Similarly, here in the U.S. there has been increasing evidence that students of Asian ancestry, both immigrants and U.S. born, complete more years of education than most of the other ethnicities. Current research and data on the academic performance of Asian immigrants includes most Asian countries. This study reviewed the current literature regarding the factors that influence the academic performance of "Asian Indian Americans" who attended high schools in the U. S. This correlational study examined the relationship between various factors, such as parental participation, parental expectations and involvement, discipline, cultural beliefs, personal identity and values, language spoken at home, and the academic performance …

The current study examined 236 undergraduate students in a week long twice-per-day ecological momentary assessment exploring the influence of baseline reward sensitivity and interactions between circadian variables (i.e., total sleep time, sleep quality) and daily measures of reward. Though primary study findings did not support reward sensitivity related moderation of sleep-reward pathways, a number of notable findings emerged. We found evidence of specific domains of reward sensitivity (anticipatory reward and reward responsiveness) which are uniquely related to daily experiences of reward. In addition, bidirectional circadian-reward pathways were found between sleep quality and daily rewards which suggests pathways towards reward-related engagement. Evidence also supported interactions between sleep quality and total sleep time on experience of daily reward, further highlighting the complexity of sleep-reward pathways and their relevance to mood symptoms.

The contribution of this dissertation is how model measurement allows examination of the balance between what is practical in terms of consumer concerns versus what is optimal in terms of cost control. Essay 1 examines a research framework that incorporates various service recovery strategies and simultaneously evaluates their comparative influences. Essay 2 evaluates the complex interrelationships among different factors related to the post-complaint behavioral process. Essay 3 fills a research gap by examining the role of brand equity by operationalizing a reflective model using PLS in operations management (OM) research. These three essays provide insight into the quality management domain and the value that is achieved via a data driven examination of theory. Moreover, this research will provide operations management practitioners a basis to carry out future research on quality management phenomena as well as insight into how to balance cost control and service recovery strategies with the goal of achieving a competitive advantage.

The Cello Concerto in B-flat major, G.482, by Italian composer Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), is the composer's most beloved work for the instrument, as well as one of the most performed pieces in the Classical concerto repertoire. Historically, cellists performing this work have used an edition prepared by German cellist Friedrich Grützmacher (1832-1903). However, an 'original' version that was discovered in 1949 is significantly different from that of Grützmacher. A comparison of both editions has revealed that Grützmacher in fact made considerable modifications to Boccherini's 'original.' Along with the issue of having two editions, cellists that have played the 'original' edition have noted that there are certain practical and interpretative matters that are not favorable to the cellist, particularly in terms of the way the music is notated and how it lacks many details. This dissertation provides clarity to these issues by undertaking a comprehensive analysis of both editions in order to make cellists become aware of the differences between both editions by comparing musical elements from a performance practice viewpoint. In addition, I discuss relevant issues that are present in the 'original' version, ultimately providing an alternative performance edition to this score that is based on historically informed performance (HIP) …

Structural material fatigue is a leading cause of failure and has motivated fatigue-resistant design to eliminate risks to human lives. Intrinsic microstructural features alter fatigue deformation mechanisms so profoundly that, essentially, fatigue properties of structural materials become deviant. With this in mind, we initiated this project to investigate the microstructural effect on fatigue behavior of potential structural high entropy alloys. With a better understanding of the effect of microstructure features on fatigue properties, the ultimate goal was to engineer the microstructure to enhance the fatigue life of structural materials. The effects of two major deformation mechanisms presented here are twinning-induced fatigue crack retardation, and transformation-induced fatigue crack retardation. The fundamental principle of both mechanisms is to delay the fatigue crack propagation rate by altering the work hardening ability locally within the crack plastic zone. In ultrafine grained triplex Al0.3CoCrFeNi, nano-sized deformation twins were observed during cyclic loading in FCC matrix due to low stacking fault energy (SFE). The work-hardening ability of the material near the crack was sustained with the formation of twins according to Considere's criteria. Further, due to the ultrafine-grained (UFG) nature of the material, fatigue runout stress was enhanced. In a coarse-grained, dual-phase high entropy alloy, persistent …

Throughout history, the Black Diaspora has used fashion as a form of protest. The element of fashion is often overlooked when considering the history and struggle for Black equality, because it is less tangible or definable in terms of its influence and effect, but it is still important because Black males resist the dominant culture via dress by dressing in military uniforms, creating their own style, and using different colors in their dress. Studying the Black struggle in American history during specific periods is one way to better understand opposition to the majority culture through fashion. We should also consider the mood of a social system when examining the dress of a particular group during conflicts. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of fashion as a protest tool against the majority culture, and the social mood that affects the fashion choices of Black males. The study focuses on Black fashion from 1910 to 2015. Text data were collected and analyzed from articles published in The Crisis magazine, and men's fashion was specially examined. Additionally, images were studied via visual ethnography and images were coded based on color choice, fit, and accessories. For conducting sentiment analysis, …

The purpose of this research is to examine John La Montaine's only two song cycles for soprano and orchestra, Songs of the Rose of Sharon, opus 6 (1947) and Fragments from the Song of Songs, opus 29 (1959). In this investigation-the first ever specific to these works-I examine the works and cultural context in which they were created. I then evaluate the reasonable possibility that La Montaine used his public platform as a composer and performer to subtly celebrate taboo themes of feminism, sexuality, and blackness while shining a light on human injustice. Through close examination of social and historical context, I argue two points. Firstly, Rose of Sharon and Fragments are landmark American works. They are anomalies in classical music history in that a white male heralds texts about a black woman in an unlikely time in American history, thus arguably becoming an unlikely part of the evolution of African-American women in artistic endeavors. Secondly, in the performance guide, I advocate that these works would readily adapt to a staged performance. I discuss how La Montaine's musical settings illustrate the inherent drama of the text, provide a context for interpreting the protagonist in Rose of Sharon and Fragments, and …

This study sought to observe the trends in physical therapy faculty members over time and to understand how those trends correlated with changes in program outcomes. Accreditation data from 231 programs between 2008 and 2017 was used in a panel analysis using fixed effects and random effects models to estimate the effects that faculty characteristics, program characteristics, and program budgets have on graduation rates, first-time licensure examination pass rates, and the percentage of graduates of color that a program produced. Results show that for a 1% increase in faculty time devoted to scholarship, a program could expect graduation rates to rise by 0.17%. For a one percentage point increase in grant-funded faculty, a program could expect a 1.7% increase in graduation rates. Results also indicated a negative linear relationship between the number of publications and graduation rates. First-time licensure exam pass rates had an association with different variables. For a 1% increase in part-time faculty, a program could expect a 6.4% decline in first-time licensure examination pass rates. Similarly, a 1% increase in tenured faculty was associated with a 1.2% decline in first-time licensure examination pass rates. A 1% increase in faculty of color was associated with an increase in …

This dissertation addresses research questions related to defining a smart city and the associated activities. The general research question is explored in the dissertation via the conduct of three related studies. The finding from these three investigations are presented in the results section as 3 essays that collectively examine the smart city phenomena as it has emerged within the City. Essay 1 assesses building municipal open data capability. The study proposed an Opendata Roadmap Framework to enhance the organization's dynamic capability. The results provide a valuable practical framework to help cities develop open data capability. The results also provide a comparative study or benchmark for similar initiatives with other regional cities and within the nation. Essay 2 measures the residents' understanding and beliefs about smart cities. This portion of the research used a qualitative method that included interviewing residents and city officials to understand their definition of a smart city and what they believe makes a city smart. The interviews focused on understanding resident engagement because it is an important characteristic of a smart city. The gap between the city officials and residents understanding was examined. In addition, the interviews help identify essential factors associated with smart cities like trust …

The hospitals and their healthcare providers need to optimize simultaneously three outcomes: healthcare costs, healthcare options offered to customers, and information utilization efficiency. The adoption of electronic healthcare record (EHR) technologies is a potential managerial mechanism for balancing these outcomes. EHR offers patient management and decision support capabilities that can ameliorate health delivery outcomes for patients, doctors, and hospitals through better-informed business and care decisions. The analysis of data collected in an EHR system may lower costs and improve health care delivery (or both). In sum, it could be argued that EHR is a source of competitive advantage. Despite this prima facie appeal, many hospitals remain reluctant to adopt and implement EHR due to lack of insights into return on investment, unavailability of tested systems and data entry obstacles. To address this gap between the potential of EHR system and lack of its adoption, the purpose of this research is to investigate the role of EHR as a resource of competitive advantage for hospital. Essay 1, titled "Implementation and Adoption of EHR: A Conceptual Model based on Resource Advantage Theory", describes the antecedents and consequences of EHR adoption and implementation. Essay 2, titled "Exploring the Relationship Between Electronic Healthcare Record …

Using a high throughput closed respirometry method to measure oxygen consumption, I determined metabolic rates in asexual and sexual Schmidtea mediterranea and Girardia dorotocephala, as a function of temperature, taxon, stressors, reproductive mode, age, regeneration, and specific dynamic action. This study has shown that oxygen consumption can reliably be measured in planaria using optode closed respirometry, and also provided a reliable method for measuring wet mass in planaria, which has been a challenge to researchers in the past. This research revealed that oxygen consumption in S. mediterranea is 1.5-2.1X greater in the sexual strain over the asexual strain at 13-18°C. Within the sexual strain, oxygen consumption is 1.5 -2.2X greater in sexually mature adults over the sexually immature groups (hatchlings, juveniles, and regenerating sexuals). Furthermore, I was able to quantify differences in sexual morphology between these groups exhibiting significant differences in oxygen consumption. The results of this research supports a theory of higher metabolic costs with sexual maturity in S. mediterranea. Therefore, this study has established sexual and asexual S. mediterranea as simple, yet attractive models for investigating energetic costs between sexual and asexual phenotypes. This research also provided quantitative values for specific dynamic action in planaria, with a maximum …

Passed in 1985, the Texas Education Code (TEC) §38.003, Screening and Treatment of Dyslexia and Related Disorders, required public school districts and charters to identify and provide remediation services for students with dyslexia. While Texas was the first state to pass such a requirement, the question remains: What is the prevalence and proportionality of dyslexia in Texas public school districts and charters? In Phase 1 of this study, a secondary analysis using point prevalence and disproportionality calculations was conducted to analyze the impact of this more than 30-year-old law. In order to better help understand these findings, semi-structured interviews with district leaders were conducted in Phase 2 to gain insight on how students were identified with dyslexia across the state. The results of Phase 1 showed the estimated prevalence of dyslexia in Texas public school districts and charters to be low in comparison to the literature. Additionally, the findings suggested a discrepancy in identifications between gender and district type (public school versus charter) and across racial and ethnic groups. Meanwhile, the results of Phase 2 revealed that leadership, support, funding, and accountability impact dyslexia identifications. This study emphasizes the need to further explore and analyze how to best identify and …

Suicide is a significant public health issue in the US. Despite national and international prioritization since 1996, little definitive progress has been made in terms of identification and intervention in cases of elevated suicide risk. Forty percent of those who died by suicide attended an emergency department within a year of death. Therefore, universal suicide risk screening in emergency departments could prove a vital component to a national suicide prevention strategy. The present study empirically evaluated the universal suicide risk screening program recently implemented at Parkland Health and Hospital System. The sample consisted of patients over 18 years of age (N=333,855; Mage=42.7, 32% male) screened as part of routine clinical care from May 4th, 2015, through November 3rd, 2015. The Parkland Algorithm for Suicide Screening (PASS) is part of a clinical decision support system for responses to Columbia - Suicide Severity Rating Scale Clinical Practice Screener (C-SSRS) items, leading to an automated clinical response via three suicide risk stratification levels: no action for no risk identified, psychiatric social worker assessment for moderate risk identified, and psychiatrist/psychologist interview for high risk identified. The present study used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, which found the PASS predicted disposition (z=30.46, p<.001, AUC=.78, …

Research on associations between online dating and later relationship and sexual satisfaction is limited. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between meeting a romantic partner online or in person and later relationship and sexual satisfaction for heterosexual males and females. Main analysis results suggest that men report higher relationship satisfaction when they met their partner online and women with a preoccupied and dismissing attachment style reported higher sexual satisfaction when they met their partner online. Overall, there were few differences in relationship and sexual satisfaction for heterosexual men and women who met their partner online or in person.