Innovative options for the doctoral dissertation in nursing.

PubMed

Robinson, Susan; Dracup, Kathleen

2008-01-01

The doctoral dissertation is the capstone event of doctoral study. While developing their dissertations, graduate students discover the cutting edge of the discipline, learn the intricacies of the research process, and engage in scientific dialogue with experts in the field. Traditional dissertation formats are confined to the Dissertation Abstracts International and are not easily accessed by clinicians, administrators, and researchers who are most in need of the information. Consequently, the number of universities offering options to the traditional dissertation format is growing. This article describes and compares 2 formats: the traditional dissertation and the publication option. The benefits and challenges of each format to doctoral students and faculty are discussed. The discussion reflects changing trends in the nursing profession as an academic discipline.

Preservice elementary teachers learning of astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fidler, Chuck Gary

The dissertation presents a new approach for the study of preservice elementary teacher astronomy education. The approach suggests that learning astronomical concepts are facilitated by greater sophistication in scale perception and spatial-aptitude. This dissertation is underscored by the national call for elementary science education reform efforts and suggests certain strategies shown more effective for the development of accurate astronomical comprehension. The present research study describes how preservice elementary teachers conceptualize and communicate ideas about Space. Instead of assuming a universal mental conception of cosmic orientations and relationships, the dissertation claims that the perception of Space related dimensions vary among preservice elementary teachers. Furthermore, the dissertation suggests individual perceptions of the scale sizes and orientations of celestial systems have direct influences on mental models used to organize and communicate astronomical information. The development of inaccurate mental models of the scaled dimensions of Space may perpetuate the teacher-student cycle of misconception and naive-theory generation among children in elementary education settings. The ability to conceptualize the vast cosmos is facilitated by the minds ability to think about vast scales and orientations of celestial objects. The Earth-based perspective of astronomy education compels the learner to think about astronomical principles within imaginary frames of reference and across unfamiliar scaled dimensions. Therefore, mental astronomical model building is underscored by the perception of scale and cosmic spatiality. This study suggests these cognitive skill sets are interconnected and facilitate the learning of accurate astronomy principles; as well as play an important role when designing an astronomy education program for preservice elementary teachers. This research study is comprised of three separate standalone articles designed and formatted for journal submission. Chapter 1 outlines the intent, rationale, and design of the overall dissertation process and format. Chapter 2 describes an in-depth review of the specific astronomy curricula used for comparison by subsequent chapters and is not intended as a standalone article, but rather as an informative outline of events and activities to help the reader understand the differences of instruction between the two sections of sample populations. Chapter 3 uses qualitative interviews to explore the cosmic dimensions associated with learning of astronomy and finds diverse perceptions of astronomical scales may influence preservice teachers' mental organization of astronomical information. Chapter 4 further analyzes cosmic dimensions using quantitative analyses and specifically examines preservice teachers perceptions of scale and spatiality within the context of astronomy education. Findings from Chapter 4 show that perceptions of scale and spatiality are an interconnected set of learning skills which may greatly enhance the learning of astronomy. Chapter 5 describes how concepts of scale and spatiality may be operationalized within a secondary school science classroom in order to better understand the scaled distances of stars though an inquiry-based three-dimensional modeling activity. Chapter 6 briefly concludes the dissertation work. Due to the nature of this dissertation design, the conclusions chapter is quite succinct as previous chapters are designed with conclusions sections embedded within the body of the text as outlined by specific journal submission guidelines. These dissertation ideas are presented in a formal setting so that the various research undertakings can be studied and analyzed. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of research data are present to support the claims made in this study. The results of this research combine with features of previous research in order to advance our understanding of how preservice elementary teachers think about and learn astronomy.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Smith, Barton; Schultz, Richard

The results of this project are best described by the papers and dissertations that resulted from the work. They are included in their entirety in this document. They are: (1) Jeff Harris PhD dissertation (focused mainly on forced convection); (2) Blake Lance PhD dissertation (focused mainly on mixed and transient convection). This dissertation is in multi-paper format and includes the article currently submitted and one to be submitted shortly; and, (3) JFE paper on CFD Validation Benchmark for Forced Convection.

Analytical chemistry at the interface between materials science and biology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Brien, Janese Christine

This work describes several research efforts that lie at the new interfaces between analytical chemistry and other disciplines, namely materials science and biology. In the materials science realm, the search for new materials that may have useful or unique chromatographic properties motivated the synthesis and characterization of electrically conductive sol-gels. In the biology realm, the search for new surface fabrication schemes that would permit or even improve the detection of specific biological reactions motivated the design of miniaturized biological arrays. Collectively, this work represents some of analytical chemistry's newest forays into these disciplines. This dissertation is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter that provides background information pertinent to several key aspects of the work contained in this dissertation. Chapter 2 describes the synthesis and characterization of electrically conductive sol-gels derived from the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of a vanadium alkoxide. Specifically, this chapter describes our attempts to increase the conductivity of vanadium sol-gels by optimizing the acidic and drying conditions used during synthesis. Chapter 3 reports the construction of novel antigenic immunosensing platforms of increased epitope density using Fab'-SH antibody fragments on gold. Here, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thin-layer cell (TLC) and confocal fluorescence spectroscopies, and scanning force microscopy (SFM) are employed to characterize the fragment-substrate interaction, to quantify epitope density, and to demonstrate fragment viability and specificity. Chapter 4 presents a novel method for creating and interrogating double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) microarrays suitable for screening protein:dsDNA interactions. Using the restriction enzyme ECoR1, we demonstrate the ability of the atomic force microscope (AFM) to detect changes in topography that result from the enzymatic cleavage of dsDNA microarrays containing the correct recognition sequence. Chapter 5 explores more fully the microarray fabrication process described in Chapter 4. Specifically, experiments characterizing the effect of deposition conditions on oligonucleotide topography and as well as those that describe array density optimization are presented. Chapter 6 presents general conclusions from the work recorded in this dissertation and speculates on its extension.

Defining the Problem of Practice Dissertation: Where's the Practice, What's the Problem?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belzer, Alisa; Ryan, Sharon

2013-01-01

This article describes the evolution of the conceptualization of the "problem of practice" dissertation in the new EdD Program at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Our definition and conceptualization of the professional practice dissertation is grounded in a review of relevant literature…

The Dissertation House Model: Doctoral Student Experiences Coping and Writing in a Shared Knowledge Community

PubMed Central

Carter-Veale, Wendy Y.; Tull, Renetta G.; Rutledge, Janet C.; Joseph, Lenisa N.

2016-01-01

The problem of PhD attrition, especially at the dissertation-writing stage, is not solely related to mentoring, departments, or disciplines; it is a problem that affects the entire institution. As such, solutions require collaborative efforts for student success. Building on Yeatman’s master–apprentice model, which assumes mastering disciplinary writing in singular advisor–student contexts, and Burnett’s collaborative cohort model, which introduced doctoral dissertation supervision in a collaborative-learning environment with several faculty mentors in a single discipline, the Dissertation House model (DHM) introduces a model of doctoral dissertation supervision that involves multiple mentors across several disciplines. On the basis of more than 200 students’ reflections, we find that challenges in completing the dissertation extend beyond departmental and disciplinary boundaries. The DHM’s multidisciplinary approach preserves the traditional master–apprentice relationship between faculty and students within academic departments while providing an additional support mechanism through interdisciplinary collaborative cohorts. Using Thoits’s coping assistance theory and data from DH students over a 10-year period, the DHM incorporates Hoadley’s concept of knowledge communities to establish a successful dissertation-writing intervention for graduate students across doctoral programs. Using propensity score analysis, we provide in this study an empirical assessment of the benefits and efficacy of the DHM. PMID:27521236

Development of fault tolerant adaptive control laws for aerospace systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perez Rocha, Andres E.

The main topic of this dissertation is the design, development and implementation of intelligent adaptive control techniques designed to maintain healthy performance of aerospace systems subjected to malfunctions, external parameter changes and/or unmodeled dynamics. The dissertation is focused on the development of novel adaptive control configurations that rely on non-linear functions that appear in the immune system of living organisms as main source of adaptation. One of the main goals of this dissertation is to demonstrate that these novel adaptive control architectures are able to improve overall performance and protect the system while reducing control effort and maintaining adequate operation outside bounds of nominal design. This research effort explores several phases, ranging from theoretical stability analysis, simulation and hardware implementation on different types of aerospace systems including spacecraft, aircraft and quadrotor vehicles. The results presented in this dissertation are focused on two main adaptivity approaches, the first one is intended for aerospace systems that do not attain large angles and use exact feedback linearization of Euler angle kinematics. A proof of stability is presented by means of the circle Criterion and Lyapunov's direct method. The second approach is intended for aerospace systems that can attain large attitude angles (e.g. space systems in gravity-less environments), the adaptation is incorporated on a baseline architecture that uses partial feedback linearization of quaternions kinematics. In this case, the closed loop stability was analyzed using Lyapunov's direct method and Barbalat's Lemma. It is expected that some results presented in this dissertation can contribute towards the validation and certification of direct adaptive controllers.

Reading Instruction: Preschool and Elementary: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," October through December 1978 (Vol. 39 Nos. 4 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: relationships among attitudes, intelligence, and reading achievement; the purposes and processes of reading as described by elementary school children; evaluating…

Deaf People, Modernity, and a Contentious Effort to Unify Arab Sign Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Fityani, Kinda

2010-01-01

This dissertation examines a project to unify sign languages across twenty-two Arab countries. Proponents of the project, mainly pan-Arab governmental bodies with the support of members of the staff at the Al Jazeera satellite network, have framed the project as a human rights effort to advance the welfare of deaf Arab people. They have urged its…

Digitizing dissertations for an institutional repository: a process and cost analysis.

PubMed

Piorun, Mary; Palmer, Lisa A

2008-07-01

This paper describes the Lamar Soutter Library's process and costs associated with digitizing 300 doctoral dissertations for a newly implemented institutional repository at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Project tasks included identifying metadata elements, obtaining and tracking permissions, converting the dissertations to an electronic format, and coordinating workflow between library departments. Each dissertation was scanned, reviewed for quality control, enhanced with a table of contents, processed through an optical character recognition function, and added to the institutional repository. Three hundred and twenty dissertations were digitized and added to the repository for a cost of $23,562, or $0.28 per page. Seventy-four percent of the authors who were contacted (n = 282) granted permission to digitize their dissertations. Processing time per title was 170 minutes, for a total processing time of 906 hours. In the first 17 months, full-text dissertations in the collection were downloaded 17,555 times. Locally digitizing dissertations or other scholarly works for inclusion in institutional repositories can be cost effective, especially if small, defined projects are chosen. A successful project serves as an excellent recruitment strategy for the institutional repository and helps libraries build new relationships. Challenges include workflow, cost, policy development, and copyright permissions.

The Awakened Heart of the Mindful Teacher: A Contemplative Exploration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romero, Stephanie Maietta

2016-01-01

This dissertation is a contemplative narration of my lived experience of bringing mindfulness into my teaching. The dissertation first portrays the process of entering into the dialogic space of mindfulness as a Buddhist concept intersecting with the scientific, educational, and public domains. I then describe the contemplative reflection process…

Bilingual/Bicultural Education: Titles and Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California State Univ., Los Angeles. National Dissemination and Assessment Center.

Dissertation abstracts describing research on a wide variety of topics in bilingual education are presented. This publication is designed to provide background material for bilingual educators as well as practical procedures for bilingual teachers, administrators, counselors, and evaluators. The titles were acquired by using the two broad…

Electronic Theses and Dissertations at the University of Virginia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharretts, Christina W.; Shieh, Jackie; French, James C.

1999-01-01

Describes the electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) program at the University of Virginia (UVA). The system is designed to be easy and self-explanatory. Submission instructions guide the student step-by-step. Screen messages, such as errors, are generated automatically when appropriate, while email messages, regarding the status of the…

From Dissertation to Publication in JRME

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thanheiser, Eva; Ellis, Amy; Herbel-Eisenmann, Beth

2012-01-01

Three "JRME" authors describe the process of publishing their research in "JRME". All 3 authors published parts of their dissertation in "JRME" and are sharing their stories to help (new) researchers in mathematics education better understand the process and to offer (experienced) researchers in mathematics education a tool that can be used to…

Predictive maintenance of critical equipment in industrial processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hashemian, Hashem M.

This dissertation is an account of present and past research and development (R&D) efforts conducted by the author to develop and implement new technology for predictive maintenance and equipment condition monitoring in industrial processes. In particular, this dissertation presents the design of an integrated condition-monitoring system that incorporates the results of three current R&D projects with a combined funding of $2.8 million awarded to the author by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This system will improve the state of the art in equipment condition monitoring and has applications in numerous industries including chemical and petrochemical plants, aviation and aerospace, electric power production and distribution, and a variety of manufacturing processes. The work that is presented in this dissertation is unique in that it introduces a new class of condition-monitoring methods that depend predominantly on the normal output of existing process sensors. It also describes current R&D efforts to develop data acquisition systems and data analysis algorithms and software packages that use the output of these sensors to determine the condition and health of industrial processes and their equipment. For example, the output of a pressure sensor in an operating plant can be used not only to indicate the pressure, but also to verify the calibration and response time of the sensor itself and identify anomalies in the process such as blockages, voids, and leaks that can interfere with accurate measurement of process parameters or disturb the plant's operation, safety, or reliability. Today, process data are typically collected at a rate of one sample per second (1 Hz) or slower. If this sampling rate is increased to 100 samples per second or higher, much more information can be extracted from the normal output of a process sensor and then used for condition monitoring, equipment performance measurements, and predictive maintenance. A fast analog-to-digital (A/D) converter can bring this about when it is combined with a large data storage unit to save the massive volume of data that will result from fast data sampling. Due to recent advances in electronics and computer technologies, fast A/Ds and large data storage units are now readily available and very affordable. Furthermore, advanced signal processing and interpretation techniques are readily available in commercial packages that provide fast Fourier transform (FFT) and wavelet analysis, correlation and cross-correlation results, application-specific neural networks, fuzzy data clustering, and other techniques to help arrive at test results quickly. When existing process sensors are not available to provide the necessary data, wireless sensors can be deployed to fill the gap. It is understood that wireless sensors are still evolving, but an assessment of these sensors performed under one of the R&D projects described in this dissertation shows that they are ready to play a positive role in equipment and process condition monitoring in industrial installations. Another class of predictive maintenance and condition-monitoring technologies now available is called by a number of names, such as "non-destructive examination," "non-destructive testing," "non-destructive inspection," or "in-service inspection" methods. These methods are not described in this dissertation as they are a separate discipline of their own and require a different set of skills to be implemented in an industrial process. They are nevertheless mentioned here to acknowledge their availability for predictive maintenance and to recognize their prominence as an important class of condition-monitoring techniques. These methods are used for detecting defects such as cracks, corrosion, and wear in metals, plastics, composites, ceramics, and other material except for wood and paper products. Some of these techniques are also used in medical diagnostics.

Digitizing Dissertations for an Institutional Repository: A Process and Cost Analysis*

PubMed Central

Piorun, Mary; Palmer, Lisa A.

2008-01-01

Objective: This paper describes the Lamar Soutter Library's process and costs associated with digitizing 300 doctoral dissertations for a newly implemented institutional repository at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Methodology: Project tasks included identifying metadata elements, obtaining and tracking permissions, converting the dissertations to an electronic format, and coordinating workflow between library departments. Each dissertation was scanned, reviewed for quality control, enhanced with a table of contents, processed through an optical character recognition function, and added to the institutional repository. Results: Three hundred and twenty dissertations were digitized and added to the repository for a cost of $23,562, or $0.28 per page. Seventy-four percent of the authors who were contacted (n = 282) granted permission to digitize their dissertations. Processing time per title was 170 minutes, for a total processing time of 906 hours. In the first 17 months, full-text dissertations in the collection were downloaded 17,555 times. Conclusion: Locally digitizing dissertations or other scholarly works for inclusion in institutional repositories can be cost effective, especially if small, defined projects are chosen. A successful project serves as an excellent recruitment strategy for the institutional repository and helps libraries build new relationships. Challenges include workflow, cost, policy development, and copyright permissions. PMID:18654648

An Analysis of Research Trends in Dissertations and Theses Studying Blended Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drysdale, Jeffery S.; Graham, Charles R.; Spring, Kristian J.; Halverson, Lisa R.

2013-01-01

This article analyzes the research of 205 doctoral dissertations and masters' theses in the domain of blended learning. A summary of trends regarding the growth and context of blended learning research is presented. Methodological trends are described in terms of qualitative, inferential statistics, descriptive statistics, and combined approaches…

One Hundred Dissertations: A Review of the Morale Research Project, University of New England.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Kevin R.

1987-01-01

Describes the use of the "staff morale questionnaires" developed at University of New England from 100 graduate student dissertations on morale in a variety of educational institutions. The project helped off-campus students develop their academic critical abilities and enabled school administrators to understand the importance of…

Program Budgeting and the School Administrator: A Review of Dissertations and Annotated Bibliography. Review Series, Number Two.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piele, Philip K.; Bunting, David G.

This paper reviews the research findings of recent doctoral dissertations on program budgeting in education and describes the practical applications of these findings for school administration. Organized in nine chapters, the review discusses the problems and shortcomings associated with both traditional and program budgeting techniques, and…

A Reference Grammar of Bena

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrison, Michelle Elizabeth

2011-01-01

This dissertation is a grammar of Rena (ISO bez), a Bantu language spoken in southwestern Tanzania by approximately 600,000 people. Bena is largely undocumented, and though aspects of Bena grammar have been described, there is no usable, detailed treatment of the Bena language. Therefore the goal of this dissertation is provide the first detailed…

Complete Your Dissertation or Thesis in Two Semesters or Less

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogden, Evelyn Hunt

2006-01-01

This newly updated guide describes how to effectively and efficiently manage the dissertation or thesis process in two semesters or less. Written for doctoral and master's degree students enrolled in on-campus programs and students pursuing accelerated and online-based degree programs, this book demystifies the seemingly daunting process. From…

Examining the Effects of Contextual Factors on Students' Educational Outcomes: A Special Focus on Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mercado, Micaela

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines the college experience of traditional-age community college students. The objectives of this dissertation are threefold. To explain early exits from higher education, the first manuscript integrates Tinto's interactionalist theory and Coleman's theory of social capital to describe the mechanisms through which…

Language Nests and Language Acquisition: An Empirical Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okura, Eve K.

2017-01-01

This dissertation presents the findings from interviews conducted with language nest workers, teachers, language nest coordinators, administrators of language revitalization programs, principals and directors of language immersion schools that work in close proximity with language nests, and linguists involved in language revitalization efforts.…

Alternatives in Pragmatic Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Degen, Judith

2013-01-01

In the face of underspecified utterances, listeners routinely and without much apparent effort make the right kinds of pragmatic inferences about a speaker's intended meaning. This dissertation investigates the processing of scalar implicatures as a way of addressing how listeners perform this remarkable feat. In particular, the role of context in…

Design and implementation of optical imaging and sensor systems for characterization of deep-sea biological camouflage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haag, Justin Mathew

The visual ecology of deep-sea animals has long been of scientific interest. In the open ocean, where there is no physical structure to hide within or behind, diverse strategies have evolved to solve the problem of camouflage from a potential predator. Simulations of specific predator-prey scenarios have yielded estimates of the range of possible appearances that an animal may exhibit. However, there is a limited amount of quantitative information available related to both animal appearance and the light field at mesopelagic depths (200 m to 1000 m). To mitigate this problem, novel optical instrumentation, taking advantage of recent technological advances, was developed and is described in this dissertation. In the first half of this dissertation, the appearance of mirrored marine animals is quantitatively evaluated. A portable optical imaging scatterometer was developed to measure angular reflectance, described by the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), of biological specimens. The instrument allows for BRDF capture from samples of arbitrary size, over a significant fraction of the reflectance hemisphere. Multiple specimens representing two species of marine animals, collected at mesopelagic depths, were characterized using the scatterometer. Low-dimensional parametric models were developed to simplify use of the data sets, and to validate the BRDF method. Results from principal component analysis confirm that BRDF measurements can be used to study intra- and interspecific variability of mirrored marine animal appearance. Collaborative efforts utilizing the BRDF data sets to develop physically-based scattering models are underway. In the second half of this dissertation, another key part of the deep-sea biological camouflage problem is examined. Two underwater radiometers, capable of low-light measurements, were developed to address the lack of available information related to the deep-sea light field. Quantitative comparison of spectral downward irradiance profiles at blue (~470~nm) and green (~560~nm) wavelengths, collected at Pacific and Atlantic field stations, provide insight into the presence of Raman (inelastic) scattering effects at mesopelagic depths. The radiometers were also used to collect in situ flashes of bioluminescence. Collaborations utilizing both the downward irradiance and bioluminescence data sets are planned.

Continuing review of ethics in clinical trials: a surveillance study in Iran

PubMed Central

Mohamadi, Amin; Asghari, Fariba; Rashidian, Arash

2014-01-01

In recent years, notable measures have been taken to protect the rights of participants in biomedical research in Iran. The present study examines possible trends in adherence to ethical codes regarding informed consent after the development of the National Code of Ethics in Biomedical Research (NCEBR) and establishment of research ethics committees. In this retrospective study, 126 dissertations from Tehran University of Medical Sciences were evaluated for adherence to ethical codes. These dissertations were all in clinical trial design and had been presented in the years 1999 and 2009, that is, precisely before and after the development of the NCEBR. A checklist was developed to evaluate the ethical issues associated with informed consent. A single investigator retrieved and evaluated the consent forms from the dissertations. Borderline cases were discussed with other investigators to reach a consensus decision. Based on the checklist, the Standardized Ethical Score (SES) was calculated for each consent form. The mean SES and the rate of consent form attachment were compared between the two years. In total, 70 dissertations had reported obtaining informed consent from study participants, whereas consent forms were attached in only 22 dissertations (17.50%). The percentage of dissertations with the consent form attached increased over time from 12.2% in 1999 to 20.8% in 2009 (P > 0.05), but the majority still did not include a consent form. Moreover, the mean SES of consent forms was significantly higher in 1999 (0.746) than in 2009 (0.428), highlighting the need for more training of researchers and improved surveillance by the ethics committees. A great amount of effort is still needed to make the consent process more ethical, especially for dissertations as a less visible part of academic research. As for students, more systematic training focused on research ethics should be implemented prior to thesis submission. PMID:26587202

Disenchantment to Disillusion: Stakeholder Opinions on School Desegregation in Greensboro, North Carolina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oatsvall, Sarah M.

2013-01-01

Amid the current resegregation of the nation's schools this dissertation extends previous research regarding the impact, success, and failure of desegregation efforts following "Brown v. Board of Education." This study broadly examines individual opinions on school desegregation over the last forty years. Thus, the current study presents…

The Town-Gown Relationship: Collaboration in University Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cotsones, Rena K.

2013-01-01

As communities and universities confront increasingly complex social and fiscal pressures, there is a growing need to align and maximize local resources, knowledge and efforts. Historic and current tensions between town and gown can challenge the ability of universities and communities to collaborate for mutual benefit. This dissertation explores…

Building Bridges: A Study of Coordination in Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemphill, Libby Marie

2009-01-01

In our efforts to understand how collaborative work can be accomplished, we often turn to discussions of "coordination" for help. However, the concept of coordination is inadequate for explaining the many interdependent processes at work within successful collaborations. In this dissertation, I examined a collaborative construction project--the…

Lillie Martin in Gottingen. Lillie Martin, Outstanding Scholar and Teacher: A Centennial Symposium.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adler, Helmut E.

This article reports on a symposium commemorating Lillien Martin's dissertation, "Analysis of Difference Sensations," by published in 1899. The symposium marked the centenary celebration in acknowledgement of Martin's pioneer efforts for women in the field of psychology. Psychophysics was concerned with the quantitative assessment of…

Indigenous Knowledge Centers (IKC): Strong Medicine on Higher Education Campuses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delikat, Melissa

2017-01-01

Indigenous Knowledge Centers (IKC) on higher education campuses are unexplored in educational research, but they may be one of the most critical advancements in equality and decolonization efforts. This dissertation presents findings to descriptively introduce IKCs through a shared learning journey that is both culturally safe and relevant. Using…

[Theses and dissertations of nurses about education in nursing and health: a bibliometric study].

PubMed

Backes, Vânia Marli Schubert; do Prado, Marta Lenise; Lino, Mônica Motta; Ferraz, Fabiane; Canever, Bruna Pedroso; Gomes, Diana Coelho; Martini, Jussara Gue

2013-01-01

The study aimed to describe the panorama of Education in Nursing and Health from abstracts of theses and dissertations published by nurses in Brazil between the years 2001 to 2009. This is a bibliometric, descriptive and quantitative study. Data were collected in the "Catalogue of Theses and Dissertations" from CEPEn/ABEn. After reading the abstracts and systematization of the material, analysis was performed using descriptive statistics. It was reviewed 4.101 studies, 523 of them on the theme of education. From these, 67% were dissertations and 33% of them were theses, predominantly produced in the southeast of Brazil. One conclude that the representation of the theme in the national context is significant and contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Nursing, even though there are regional differences in the production process of this area of knowledge.

Design, fabrication and characterization of MEMS deformable mirrors for ocular adaptive optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Hyunkyu

This dissertation describes the design and modeling of MEMS-based bimorph deformable mirrors for adaptive optics as well as the characterization of fabricated devices. The objective of this research is to create a compact and low-cost deformable mirror that can be used as a phase corrector particularly for vision science applications. A fundamental theory of adaptive optics is reviewed, paying attention to the phase corrector which is a key component of the adaptive optics system. Several types of phase corrector are presented and the minimization of their size and cost using micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is also discussed. Since this research is targeted towards the ophthalmic applications of adaptive optics, aberrations of the human eye are illustrated and the benefits of corrections by adaptive optics are explained. A couple of actuator types of the phase corrector that can be used in vision science are introduced and discussed their suitability for the purpose. The requirements to be an ideal deformable mirror for ocular adaptive optics are presented. The characteristics of bimorph deformable mirrors originally developed for laser communications are investigated in an effort to understand their suitability for ophthalmological adaptive optics applications. A Phase shifting interferometer setup is developed for optical characterization and fundamental theory of interferogram analysis is described along with wavefront reconstruction. The theoretical analysis of the bimorph deformable mirror begins with developing an analytical model of the laminated structure. The finite element models are also developed using COMSOL Multiphysics. Using the FEM results, the performance of deformable mirrors under various structure dimensions and operating conditions is analyzed for optimization. A basic theory of piezoelectricity is explained, followed by introduction of applications to MEMS devices. The material properties of single crystal PMN-PT adopted in this research are described and characterized. The fabrication process of the optimized deformable mirror is presented and advanced techniques used in the process are described in detail. The fabricated deformable mirrors are characterized and the comparison with FEM is described. Finally, the dissertation ends up with suggestions for further developments and tests for the mirror.

Spectrum Efficiency Improvements via PHY-Layer and PDCP-Layer Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Wenhao

2017-01-01

The past decades have witnessed an ever-growing demand for higher network capacity. Given practical radio resource constraints such as bandwidth and power, a wide variety of spectral efficiency techniques have been thoroughly explored by research efforts around the world. In this dissertation, we examine two less conventional approaches to boost…

Adult Education in Local Environmental Initiatives for Ecological and Cultural Sustainability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodhouse, Janice Lynn

2011-01-01

This dissertation examines the phenomenon of how communities can effect change in policy and practice to support greater ecological and cultural sustainability. The general purpose of this research is to examine selected local initiatives for ecological and cultural sustainability to better understand the role of adult education in those efforts.…

Engineers' Perceptions of Diversity and the Learning Environment at Work: A Mixed Methods Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Firestone, Brenda L.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation research study was to investigate engineers' perceptions of diversity and the workplace learning environment surrounding diversity education efforts in engineering occupations. The study made use of a mixed methods methodology and was theoretically framed using a critical feminist adult education lens and…

Phonology Shaped by Phonetics: The Case of Intervocalic Lenition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaplan, Abby

2010-01-01

The goal of this dissertation is to explore the phonetic bases of intervocalic lenition--specifically, voicing and spirantization of intervocalic stops. A traditional understanding of phonological patterns like these is that they involve articulatory effort reduction, in that speakers substitute an easy sound for a hard one. Experiment 1 uses a…

Faking a Dissertation: Ellsworth Collings, William H. Kilpatrick, and the "Project Curriculum."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knoll, Michael

1996-01-01

Reports that Ellsworth Collings faked data and misrepresented his research in a 1923 study that became a hallmark of progressive education. "An Experiment with a Project Curriculum," supposedly documented a group of high school students' independent efforts at studying an outbreak of typhoid. Collings seriously misrepresented his input.…

International Distance Learning in Special Education: A Program Evaluation of a US-Ecuador Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPherson, Rebekah

2010-01-01

The internationalization of distance learning in special education is at a pivotal point in expansion. Even with concerted efforts through traditional means to increase the supply of special educators, shortages persist; therefore, teacher preparation programs are turning to online education. This dissertation study was a formative program…

Evaluating the Influence of University Organizational Characteristics and Attributes on Technology Commercialization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goble, Lisa A.

2013-01-01

This dissertation project seeks to make a contribution to the growing body of literature on academic technology commercialization and the entrepreneurial efforts of faculty and students at US research universities. The academic environment across the United States has seen an increased emphasis on moving the results of academic research into the…

Ellipsis as a Diagnostic Tool of Feature Strength and the Syntactic Structure of Ilocano

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Michael Don

2009-01-01

This dissertation examines Ilocano, an Austronesian Filipino language, within the Minimalist Framework, in an effort to tease apart the general syntactic properties of the language. I show that Ilocano underlying structure can easily be captured within the standard syntactic structures proposed for languages generally (Universal Grammar). In my…

Supporting Language-Minoritized Students in Science Practices within a Research-Practice Partnership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wingert, Kerri M.

2017-01-01

This dissertation investigates the design and implementation of educational change efforts focused on supporting middle-school language-minoritized students in science learning. These chapters take as their units of analyses the shared activity of a research-practice partnership, the co-design of a discourse-based intervention and its outcomes for…

Biphoton optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strekalov, Dmitry Vladimirovich

1997-10-01

The subject of this dissertation is the study of the two- photon entanglement. This phenomenon has been paid a great deal of attention since 1935, when A. Einstein, B. Podolsky and N. Rosen asked their famous question, 'Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete?' An entangled system behavior is inconsistent with many classical concepts. Therefore, the understanding of two-photon entanglement is important for the foundations of quantum theory. A two-photon entangled sate represents a two-photon, or a biphoton, rather than two photons. The concept of biphoton as a single nonlocal quantum object is fundamentally different from the concept of a photon pair, as has been experimentally demonstrated in the present dissertation. Two-photon entanglement gives rise to unusual 'ghost' interference and diffraction, nonlocal geometrical phase, and other quantum phenomena originally studied in the present dissertation. The variety of available results calls for bringing them into a general system which we call Biphoton Optics. This is the main goal of this dissertation. Biphoton optics operate with two-photon wave packets, or with an equivalent concept of advanced wave. We show that in the framework of the advanced wave concept two-photon phenomena can be effectively described in terms of classical optics. Therefore the biphoton optics has the same structure as the classical optics. It includes two- photon geometrical optics, dispersion and frequency beating, polarization effects, interference, diffraction, and geometrical phase. All these two-photon effects are represented by experiments included in this dissertation. Our approach does not make two-photon quantum effects 'classical', however. It should be understood that the advanced wave model operates with counter-propagation in time which does not correspond to any real physical process. Therefore it is just a model, but it is clearly a great advantage to have such a model that is both simple and powerful, in terms of its ability to describe the known results and accurately predict the new ones. Therefore an important step is made in understanding and describing of the quantum phenomena of two-photon entanglement.

Characterization and Detection of Vector-borne Diseases in Endemic Transmission Areas

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-01-18

research in her laboratory and for introducing me to her many collaborators and friends all over the world. Thanks to all present and former members of...Luckhart at the University of California Davis for feedback on my dissertation research and manuscripts. Second, I would like to thank Dr. Jon...and mortality due to vector-borne diseases globally. The research described in this dissertation aims to improve detection methods for both the vector

Book Review: Controversy and consensus in nuclear beta decay 1911-1934 by Carsten Jensen. Finn Aaserud, Helge Kragh, Erik Rüdinger, Roger H. Stuewer (Eds.), Burkhaüser-Verlag, Basel, 2000, xv+217 pp., US 79.95, ISBN 3-7643-5319-9

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Laurie M.

This book is the doctoral dissertation of Carsten Jensen, researched at the University of Copenhagen under the supervision of Erik Rüdinger, who was the director of the Niels Bohr Institute until Finn Aaserud succeeded him in 1989. A few months after receiving his Ph.D. in 1990, Jensen passed away. The two mentioned directors, together with Helge Kragh and Roger H. Stuewer, edited Jensen's dissertation and ten years later brought it to publication. Some newer historical references have been added, quotations were translated or paraphrased, some photographs included but-according to the editors-they made "few changes of substance." Jensen taught in a Danish Gymnasium while writing his dissertation, which is a rather complete study of a central episode in early nuclear physics. It is well worth the efforts of the distinguished corps of editors to make it available to historians of science.

Managing the integration and harmonization of national airspace for unmanned and manned systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mumm, Hans

This dissertation examines the leadership challenge created by the requirement to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the national airspace system (NAS). The lack of UAV-related federal rules and regulations is a primary factor prolonging this integration. This effort focuses primarily on the leadership portion of the solution and not the technological requirements. The research explores an adaptation of the complexity theory that offers a potential leadership framework for the government, industry, and academia to use for achieving the full integration of UAVs into the NAS. Due to the large number of stakeholders and the multitude of interrelated issues, a complexity-theory-leadership methodology was created and examined as a potential way to help the FAA accelerate their rule-making efforts. This dissertation focuses on United States UAV issues. The United States is one of the leaders in the unmanned systems arena, to include the first significant use of recoverable autonomous weaponized systems in combat. Issues such as airspace, airworthiness, social issues, privacy issues, regulations, and the lack of policies, procedures, or governance are universal for all countries that are active in this technology area. This qualitative dissertation makes use of the grounded theory methodology as it combines a literature review and research along with interviews with subject matter experts, and information gained from attending UAV related gatherings/discussions. The investigation uncovered significant FAA process impediments as well as some possible break through concepts that could work well with the complexity-theory-leadership methodology. Keywords: Complexity theory, leadership, change management, UAV, unmanned aerial vehicle, National Airspace, NAS, FAA, Federal Aviation Administration.

The Influence of Higher Education Policies on College Readiness at Two Texas Hispanic-Serving Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Anthony R.

2011-01-01

The purpose of the dissertation is to gain insight into how higher education policies can influence institutional performance in Latino postsecondary degree completion; specifically, through an examination of the college readiness efforts of two Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Texas. Over half of all Latinos in postsecondary education in the…

Attitudes of Faculty and Administrators Toward Affirmative Action in Higher Education; A Second Look.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maca, Suanne D.

This dissertation investigated six indications of change regarding affirmative action efforts on the University of Texas at Austin campus since December, 1973. These indications of change were recorded in university personnel documents, EEO/AA Office records, and the results of a questionnaire submitted to the faculty and administrators of the…

Controversies over the Pledge of Allegiance in Public Schools: Case Studies Involving State Law, 9/11, and the Culture Wars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery, Jennifer J.

2015-01-01

This dissertation examines state-level efforts to mandate the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, especially following 9/11. Despite longstanding Supreme Court precedent declaring mandatory flag salutes unconstitutional, various state legislatures sought to institute or strengthen pledge mandates irrespective of students' civil liberties.…

Concerns of Teacher Education Methods Instructors and Strategies for Integrating Technology into Methods Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Miri

2005-01-01

The goal of this dissertation is to clarify the perceptions and concerns that methods faculty at a university located in the Midwest have about integrating instructional technology into their courses along with their current use of technology. Ultimately, this study aims to generate strategies to support methods instructors in their efforts to…

Leadership Styles of Principals in Successful Title I Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzales, Cameron

2016-01-01

The problem addressed in the dissertation is the relationship between high poverty and low academic achievement that persists in spite of efforts to change it. In one Western state, a small proportion of the schools that are eligible for Title I funds, a measure of poverty, have achieved recognition for high student achievement. The recognition,…

User Data Spectrum Theory: Collecting, Interpreting, and Implementing User Data in Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peer, Andrea Jo

2017-01-01

Organizations interested in increasing their user experience (UX) capacity lack the tools they need to know how to do so. This dissertation addresses this challenge via three major research efforts: 1) the creation of User Data Spectrum theory and a User Data Spectrum survey for helping organizations better invest resources to grow their UX…

The Contributions of Digital Communications Technology to Human Rights Education: A Case Study of Amnesty International

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norlander, Rebecca Joy

2013-01-01

This dissertation addresses the need for critical assessment and evaluation of human rights education (HRE) programs and activities, especially newer initiatives that incorporate the use of digital information and communications technology (ICT). It provides an in-depth case study of the use of digital ICT in Amnesty International's HRE efforts,…

Information Technology and Value Creation in the Public Sector Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pang, Min-Seok

2011-01-01

In this dissertation, I study the performance impact of information technology (IT) investments in the public sector. IT has been one of the key assets in public administration since the early MIS era. Even though the information systems (IS) discipline has witnessed a considerable amount of research efforts on the subject of IT business value for…

The Reforms in Mathematics Education for Grades 1 through 12 in Albania from 1945 to 2000

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mernacaj, Marash

2011-01-01

Between 1945 and 2000, the Communist government of Albania enacted a series of educational reforms focused upon increasing the academic quality and student access to the nation's educational system. While the country succeeded in enacting considerable reform efforts, there continues to be room for improvement. This dissertation considers the…

A Qualitative Dissertation an Autoethnographic Inquiry into an African American, Class-Based Perspective in Educational Delivery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Stassi Thomas

2017-01-01

Research has given us the understanding of the demographic disparity between white, largely middle class teachers and diverse lower socioeconomic school children (Grious & Silva, 2010), as teachers from the middle class society wrestle with meeting the needs of their culturally diverse students. In efforts to bridge the social and academic…

Tailoring peptide amphiphiles and their assemblies for biomedical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Brian

Peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are molecules composed of a peptide conjugated to a hydrophobic moiety, commonly a fatty acid. They closely resemble the structure of naturally occurring lipopeptides, produced by microbes as signaling and antimicrobial agents. The amphiphilic nature of PAs in concert with the large number of discovered functional peptides inspired scientists to exploit this molecular architecture for producing synthetic self-assembled bioactive materials. PA assemblies are sought after for a wide breadth of applications including disease therapy, regenerative medicine, and catalysis. However, with PAs, the peptide chemistry is a double-edged sword. The peptide component contributes significantly to both the activity and self-assembly. The physiochemical properties of different PAs lead to unique aggregation stability and morphological characteristics which are unpredictable, a priori. Therefore it is challenging to design bioactive PAs and control their self-assembly, simultaneously. This limitation slows the development of PAs for medical use. In this dissertation, methods to control the self-assembly of PAs and the effects of acylating a functional peptide will be discussed. In one part, efforts to direct the self-assembly of PAs into small spherical aggregates, a morphology infrequently observed, will be described. In another section, a strategy to control the stability of PA assemblies will be discussed. In the last section, a pH-responsive membrane perturbing peptide was modified with fatty acid tails and the properties of the resulting PAs will be presented. This dissertation provides some fundamental insight for the use and design of PA self-assemblies.

Research Trends in Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Theses and Dissertations: Surfing the Tsunami Wave

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozkurt, Aras; Keskin, Nilgun Ozdamar; de Waard, Inge

2016-01-01

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have attracted a great deal of attention by higher education and private enterprises. MOOCs have evolved considerably since their emergence in 2008, all the while given rise to academic discussions on MOOC impact, design and reach. In an effort to understand MOOCs more comprehensively, this study analyzes theses…

Effects of At-Home Reading Activities and Parental Involvement on Classroom Communication Arts Assessments: Focus on the High School Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, George

2010-01-01

This dissertation was written collaboratively by Cynthia Warren, Linetta Carter, and George Edwards with the exception of chapter 4 which is the individual effort of the aforementioned researchers. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of at-home reading activities and parental involvement on classroom communication arts assessments…

Design and optimization of interplanetary spacecraft trajectories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McConaghy, Thomas Troy

Scientists involved in space exploration are always looking for ways to accomplish more with their limited budgets. Mission designers can decrease operational costs by crafting trajectories with low launch costs, short time-of-flight, or low propellant requirements. Gravity-assist maneuvers and low-thrust, high-efficiency ion propulsion can be of great help. This dissertation describes advances in methods to design and optimize interplanetary spacecraft trajectories. particularly for missions using gravity-assist maneuvers or low-thrust engines (or both). The first part of this dissertation describes a new, efficient, two-step methodology to design and optimize low-thrust gravity-assist trajectories. Models for the launch vehicle, solar arrays, and engines are introduced and several examples of optimized trajectories are presented. For example, a 3.7-year Earth-Venus-Earth-Mars-Jupiter flyby trajectory with maximized final mass is described. The way that the parameterization of the optimization problem affects convergence speed and reliability is also investigated. The choice of coordinate system is shown to make a significant difference. The second part of this dissertation describes a way to construct Earth-Mars cycler trajectories---periodic orbits that repeatedly encounter Earth and Mars, yet require little or no propellant. We find that well-known cyclers, such as the Aldrin cycler, are special cases of a much larger family of cyclers. In fact, so many new cyclers are found that a comprehensive naming system (nomenclature) is proposed. One particularly promising new cycler, the "ballistic S1L1 cycler" is analyzed in greater detail.

A Historical Analysis of the Leadership and Strategic Plan of Chancellor Stephen R. Portch in the University System of Georgia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairchild-Pierce, Jennifer Elis

2008-01-01

This dissertation provides historical insight into the design and implementation of one strategic plan of a public higher education system in an effort to inform future similar strategic planning processes. On July 1, 1994, the Board of Regents appointed Stephen R. Portch the ninth Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. The timing was…

Evolving Expert Knowledge Bases: Applications of Crowdsourcing and Serious Gaming to Advance Knowledge Development for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floryan, Mark

2013-01-01

This dissertation presents a novel effort to develop ITS technologies that adapt by observing student behavior. In particular, we define an evolving expert knowledge base (EEKB) that structures a domain's information as a set of nodes and the relationships that exist between those nodes. The structure of this model is not the particularly novel…

Perceptions of Teachers on Their Preparedness to Teach Students in Low-Income Urban Charter Schools in New Jersey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Kimberly S.

2017-01-01

This dissertation explores how novice teachers currently working in low-income urban charter schools in New Jersey perceive their specific preparation to work in a low-income urban charter school classroom, prior to doing so. In this qualitative study, a semistructured interview was used in an effort to assess the preparedness of 18 teachers based…

Self-Regulation in the Midst of Complexity: A Case Study of High School Physics Students Engaged in Ill-Structured Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milbourne, Jeffrey David

2016-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore the experiences of high school physics students who were solving complex, ill-structured problems, in an effort to better understand how self-regulatory behavior mediated the project experience. Consistent with Voss, Green, Post, and Penner's (1983) conception of an ill-structured problem in…

Longitudinal Predictors of Disciplinary Alternative School Placement and the Risk of Subsequent Juvenile Detention in a Cohort of Third Grade Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vanderhaar, Judi Elisa

2010-01-01

Alternative school settings for students who are identified as "disruptive or dangerous" are playing an increasingly prominent role in the world of public education, yet many gaps in the research literature are abound. This dissertation study is an effort to contribute to an understanding of the students placed in these alternative schools,…

Content Area Reading Instruction for Secondary Teacher Candidates: A Case Study of a State-Required Online Content Area Reading Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biggs, Brad

2014-01-01

This dissertation examined in a state-required, online preservice teacher course in content area reading instruction (CARI) at a large land-grant university in Minnesota. Few studies have been published to date on revitalized literacy teacher preparation efforts in CARI (See Vagle, Dillon, Davison-Jenkins, & LaDuca, 2005; Dillon, O'Brien,…

The implications of renewable energy research and development: Policy scenario analysis with experience and learning effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobos, Peter Holmes

This dissertation analyzes the current and potential future costs of renewable energy technology from an institutional perspective. The central hypothesis is that reliable technology cost forecasting can be achieved through standard and modified experience curves implemented in a dynamic simulation model. Additionally, drawing upon region-specific institutional lessons highlights the role of market, social, and political institutions throughout an economy. Socio-political influences and government policy pathways drive resource allocation decisions that may be predominately influenced by factors other than those considered in a traditional market-driven, mechanistic approach. Learning in economic systems as a research topic is an attractive complement to the notion of institutional pathways. The economic implications of learning by doing, as first outlined by Arrow (1962), highlight decreasing production costs as individuals, or more generally the firm, become more familiar with a production process. The standard approach in the literature has been to employ a common experience curve where cumulative production is the only independent variable affecting costs. This dissertation develops a two factor experience curve, adding research, development and demonstration (RD&D) expenditures as a second variable. To illustrate the concept in the context of energy planning, two factor experience curves are developed for wind energy technology and solar photovoltaic (PV) modules under different assumptions on learning rates for cumulative capacity and the knowledge stock (a function of past RD&D efforts). Additionally, a one factor experience curve and cost trajectory scenarios are developed for concentrated solar power and geothermal energy technology, respectively. Cost forecasts are then developed for all four of these technologies in a dynamic simulation model. Combining the theoretical framework of learning by doing with the fields of organizational learning and institutional economics, this dissertation argues that the current state of renewable energy technology costs is largely due to the past production efforts (learning by doing) and RD&D efforts (learning by searching) in these global industries. This cost pathway, however, may be altered through several policy process feedback mechanisms including targeted RD&D expenditures, maintenance of RD&D to promote learning effects, and financial incentive programs that support energy production from renewable energy technologies.

From Curricular Alignment to the Culminating Project: The Peabody College Ed.D. Capstone

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smrekar, Claire; McGraner, Kristin

2009-01-01

The Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations (LPO) at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, recently replaced the conventional Ed.D. dissertation with a team-produced, client-consultant oriented, culminating report. This article describes the purpose and principles associated with the "capstone" project and describes the…

Valuing Teacher Perceptions Related to the Principalship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Jermaine

2016-01-01

This dissertation served to answer the over-arching research question: How do stakeholders describe effective leadership? In addition, two sub-questions were answered: 1) what dimensions do teachers use to describe effective principal leadership, and 2) why do teachers identify those dimensions as relevant? This study was conducted in a Northern…

Acceleration of aircraft-level Traffic Flow Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rios, Joseph Lucio

This dissertation describes novel approaches to solving large-scale, high fidelity, aircraft-level Traffic Flow Management scheduling problems. Depending on the methods employed, solving these problems to optimality can take longer than the length of the planning horizon in question. Research in this domain typically focuses on the quality of the modeling used to describe the problem and the benefits achieved from the optimized solution, often treating computational aspects as secondary or tertiary. The work presented here takes the complementary view and considers the computational aspect as the primary concern. To this end, a previously published model for solving this Traffic Flow Management scheduling problem is used as starting point for this study. The model proposed by Bertsimas and Stock-Patterson is a binary integer program taking into account all major resource capacities and the trajectories of each flight to decide which flights should be held in which resource for what amount of time in order to satisfy all capacity requirements. For large instances, the solve time using state-of-the-art solvers is prohibitive for use within a potential decision support tool. With this dissertation, however, it will be shown that solving can be achieved in reasonable time for instances of real-world size. Five other techniques developed and tested for this dissertation will be described in detail. These are heuristic methods that provide good results. Performance is measured in terms of runtime and "optimality gap." We then describe the most successful method presented in this dissertation: Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition. Results indicate that a parallel implementation of Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition optimally solves the original problem in much reduced time and with better integrality and smaller optimality gap than any of the heuristic methods or state-of-the-art, commercial solvers. The solution quality improves in every measureable way as the number of subproblems solved in parallel increases. A maximal decomposition provides the best results of any method tested. The convergence qualities of Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition have been criticized in the past, so we examine what makes the Bertsimas-Stock Patterson model so amenable to use of this method. These mathematical qualities of the model are generalized to provide guidance on other problems that may benefit from massively parallel Dantzig-Wolfe Decomposition. This result, together with the development of the software, and the experimental results indicating the feasibility of real-time, nationwide Traffic Flow Management scheduling represent the major contributions of this dissertation.

A Ubiquitous Optical Microsystem Platform with Application to Optical Metrology and Chemical Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gerling, John David

This dissertation is concerned with the development of a novel, versatile optical sensor platform for optical metrology and chemical sensing. We demonstrate the feasibility of embedding optical components between bonded silicon wafers with receptor cavities and optical windows to create a self-contained sensor microsystem that can be used for in-situ measurement of hostile environments. Arrays of these sensors internal to a silicon wafer can enable optical sensing for in-situ, real-time mapping and process development for the semiconductor industry in the form of an instrumented substrate. Single-die versions of these optical sensor platforms can also enable point-of-care diagnostics, high throughput disease screening, bio-warfare agent detection, and environmental monitoring. Our first discussion will focus on a single-wavelength interferometry-based prototype sensor. Several applications are demonstrated using this single wavelength prototype: refractive index monitoring, SiO2 plasma etching, chemical mechanical polishing, photoresist cure and dissolution, copper etch end-point detection, and also nanopore wetting phenomena. Subsequent sections of this dissertation will describe efforts to improve the optical sensor platform to achieve multi-wavelength sensing function. We explore the use of an off-the-shelf commercial RGB sensor for colorimetric monitoring of copper and aluminum thin-film etchings. We then expand upon our prior work and concepts to realize a fully integrated, chip-sized microspectrometer with a photon engine based on a diffraction grating. The design, fabrication, and demonstration of a working prototype with dimensions < 1 mm thick using standard planar microfabrication techniques is described. Proof-of-concept demonstrations indicate the working principle of dispersion, although with a low spectral resolution of 120 nm. With working knowledge of the issues of the first prototype, we present an improved 5-channel microspectrometer with a spectral range 400-900 nm and demonstrate its ability for spectral identification with 3 different phosphor powder samples. Finally, we conclude with suggestions for future areas of research.

Molecular Simulation of Adsorption in Zeolites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Peng

Zeolites are a class of crystalline nanoporous materials that are widely used as catalysts, sorbents, and ion-exchangers. Zeolites have revolutionized the petroleum industry and have fueled the 20th-century automobile culture, by enabling numerous highly-efficient transformations and separations in oil refineries. They are also posed to play an important role in many processes of biomass conversion. One of the fundamental principles in the field of zeolites involves the understanding and tuning of the selectivity for different guest molecules that results from the wide variety of pore architectures. The primary goal of my dissertation research is to gain such understanding via computer simulations and eventually to reach the level of predictive modeling. The dissertation starts with a brief introduction of the applications of zeolites and computer modeling techniques useful for the study of zeolitic systems. Chapter 2 then describes an effort to improve simulation efficiency, which is essential for many challenging adsorption systems. Chapter 3 studies a model system to demonstrate the applicability and capability of the method used for the majority of this work, configurational-bias Monte Carlo simulations in the Gibbs ensemble (CBMC-GE). After these methodological developments, Chapter 4 and 5 report a systematic parametrization of a new transferable force field for all-silica zeolites, TraPPE-zeo, and a subsequent, relatively ad-hoc extension to cation-exchanged aluminosilicates. The CBMC-GE method and the TraPPE-zeo force field are then combined to investigate some complex adsorption systems, such as linear and branched C6-C 9 alkanes in a hierarchical microporous/mesoporous material (Chapter 6), the multi-component adsorption of aqueous alcohol solutions (Chapter 7) and glucose solutions (Chapter 8). Finally, Chapter 9 describes an endeavor to screen a large number of zeolites with the purpose of finding better materials for two energy-related applications, ethanol/water separation and hydrocarbon iso-dewaxing.

Creating an Environment of Success: Community College Faculty Efforts to Engage in Quality Faculty-Student Interactions to Contribute to a First-Generation Student's Perception of Belonging

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juarez, Dalia R.

2017-01-01

This dissertation examines the role of the faculty-student interaction in the perceived sense of belonging first generation students experience while attending 2-year community college. While Strayhorn's (2012) definition of sense of belonging is referenced this researcher has developed a diagram that focuses on the sense of belonging that focuses…

Effects of Front-Loading and Stagger Angle on Endwall Losses of High Lift Low Pressure Turbine Vanes

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

TURBINE VANES DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical... Engineering and Management iv AFIT/DS/ENY/12-05 Abstract Past efforts to reduce the airfoil count in low pressure turbines have produced high lift...LOSSES OF HIGH LIFT LOW PRESSURE TURBINE VANES 1. Introduction The low pressure turbine (LPT) in modern high bypass ratio aero- engines is

Project science inquiry: An exploration of elementary teachers' beliefs and perceptions about science teaching and learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilcox, Dawn Renee

This dissertation examined elementary teachers' beliefs and perceptions of effective science instruction and documents how these teachers interpret and implement a model for Inquiry-Based (I-B) science in their classrooms. The study chronicles a group of teachers working in a large public school division and documents how these teachers interpret and implement reform-based science methods after participating in a professional development course on I-B science methods administered by the researcher. I-B science teaching and its implementation is discussed as an example of one potential method to address the current call for national education reform to meet the increasing needs of all students to achieve scientific literacy and the role of teachers in that effort. The conviction in science reform efforts is that all students are able to learn science and consequently must be given the crucial opportunities in the right environment that permits optimal science learning in our nation's schools. Following this group of teachers as they attempted to deliver I-B science teaching revealed challenges elementary science teachers face and the professional supports necessary for them to effectively meet science standards. This dissertation serves as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at George Mason University.

Power System Simulation for Policymaking and Making Policymakers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohen, Michael Ari

Power system simulation is a vital tool for anticipating, planning for and ultimately addressing future conditions on the power grid, especially in light of contemporary shifts in power generation, transmission and use that are being driven by a desire to utilize more environmentally responsible energy sources. This dissertation leverages power system simulation and engineering-economic analysis to provide initial answers to one open question about future power systems: how will high penetrations of distributed (rooftop) solar power affect the physical and economic operation of distribution feeders? We find that the overall impacts of distributed solar power (both positive and negative) on the feeders we modeled are minor compared to the overall cost of energy, but that there is on average a small net benefit provided by distributed generation. We then describe an effort to make similar analyses more accessible to a non-engineering (high school) audience by developing an educational video game called "Griddle" that is based on the same power system simulation techniques used in the first study. We describe the design and evaluation of Griddle and find that it demonstrates potential to provide students with insights about key power system learning objectives.

Artificial intelligence-based computer modeling tools for controlling slag foaming in electric arc furnaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilson, Eric Lee

Due to increased competition in a world economy, steel companies are currently interested in developing techniques that will allow for the improvement of the steelmaking process, either by increasing output efficiency or by improving the quality of their product, or both. Slag foaming is one practice that has been shown to contribute to both these goals. However, slag foaming is highly dynamic and difficult to model or control. This dissertation describes an effort to use artificial intelligence-based tools (genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, and neural networks) to both model and control the slag foaming process. Specifically, a neural network is trained and tested on slag foaming data provided by a steel plant. This neural network model is then controlled by a fuzzy logic controller, which in turn is optimized by a genetic algorithm. This tuned controller is then installed at a steel plant and given control be a more efficient slag foaming controller than what was previously used by the steel plant.

On common ground: Social memory and the plaza at early Moundville

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davis, Jera Rollins

The Moundville site of west-central Alabama featured one of the largest plazas in the Mississippian world. The construction of Moundville's plaza necessitated the destruction and burial of a prior landscape, obliterating symbols of a contested past at a time when emerging differences in rank and power threatened group cohesion. This dissertation employs landscape-scale geophysical data and targeted excavations to identify what remains of the former settlement and the community plan that replaced it. When the hundreds of previously undocumented buildings are sorted on the basis of architectural style and orientation into chronological categories, it is revealed that dramatic changes in the arrangement of architecture did indeed coincide with the construction of the plaza. Understood from a social memory perspective, this rapid shift is described as an effort to promote inclusivity by selectively reimagining and representing the past. Other conclusions pertain to the division of plaza space into habitation and activity zones and the spatial, historical, and ideological centrality of Moundville's Mound A.

Strained-layer indium gallium arsenide-gallium arsenide- aluminum galium arsenide photonic devices by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osowski, Mark Louis

With the arrival of advanced growth technologies such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), research in III-V compound semiconductor photonic devices has flourished. Advances in fabrication processes have allowed the realization of high-performance quantum well lasers which emit over a wide spectral range and operate with low threshold currents. As a result, semiconductor lasers are presently employed in a wide variety of applications, including fiber-optic telecommunications, optical spectroscopy, solid-state laser pumping, and photonic integrated circuits. The work in this dissertation addresses three photonic device structures which are currently receiving a great deal of attention in the research community: integrable quantum well laser devices, distributed feedback (DFB) laser devices, and quantum wire arrays. For the realization of the integrable and integrated photonic devices described-in Chapter 2, a three-step selective-area growth technique was utilized. The selective epitaxy process was used to produce discrete buried-heterostructure Fabry Perot lasers with threshold currents as low as 2.6 mA. Based on this process, broad- spectrum edge-emitting superluminescent diodes are demonstrated which display spectral widths of over 80 nm. In addition, the monolithic integration of a multiwavelength emitter is demonstrated in which two distinct laser sources are coupled into a single output waveguide. The dissertation also describes the development of a single-growth-step ridge waveguide DFB laser. The DFB laser utilizes an asymmetric cladding waveguide structure to enhance the interaction of the optical mode with the titanium surface metal to promote single frequency emission via gain coupling. These lasers exhibit low threshold currents (11 mA), high side mode suppression ratios (50 dB), and narrow linewidths (45 kHz). In light of the substantial performance advantages of quantum well lasers relative to double heterostructure lasers, extensive efforts have been directed toward producing quantum wire systems. In view of this, the final subject of this dissertation details the fabrication and characterization of quantum wire arrays by selective-area MOCVD. The method employs a silicon dioxide grating mask with sub-micron oxide dimensions to achieve selective deposition of high-quality buried layers in the open areas of the patterned substrate. This allows the fabrication of embedded nanostructures in a single growth step, and the crystallographic nature of the growth allows for control of their lateral size. Using this process, the growth of strained InGaAs wires with a lateral dimension of less than 50 nm are obtained. Subsequent characterization by photoluminescence, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy is also presented.

Review of research designs and statistical methods employed in dental postgraduate dissertations.

PubMed

Shirahatti, Ravi V; Hegde-Shetiya, Sahana

2015-01-01

There is a need to evaluate the quality of postgraduate dissertations of dentistry submitted to university in the light of the international standards of reporting. We conducted the review with an objective to document the use of sampling methods, measurement standardization, blinding, methods to eliminate bias, appropriate use of statistical tests, appropriate use of data presentation in postgraduate dental research and suggest and recommend modifications. The public access database of the dissertations from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences was reviewed. Three hundred and thirty-three eligible dissertations underwent preliminary evaluation followed by detailed evaluation of 10% of randomly selected dissertations. The dissertations were assessed based on international reporting guidelines such as strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE), consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT), and other scholarly resources. The data were compiled using MS Excel and SPSS 10.0. Numbers and percentages were used for describing the data. The "in vitro" studies were the most common type of research (39%), followed by observational (32%) and experimental studies (29%). The disciplines conservative dentistry (92%) and prosthodontics (75%) reported high numbers of in vitro research. Disciplines oral surgery (80%) and periodontics (67%) had conducted experimental studies as a major share of their research. Lacunae in the studies included observational studies not following random sampling (70%), experimental studies not following random allocation (75%), not mentioning about blinding, confounding variables and calibrations in measurements, misrepresenting the data by inappropriate data presentation, errors in reporting probability values and not reporting confidence intervals. Few studies showed grossly inappropriate choice of statistical tests and many studies needed additional tests. Overall observations indicated the need to comply with standard guidelines of reporting research.

Bricolage: making do with what is at hand.

PubMed

Aagard, Magdeline

2009-01-01

While researching and writing her dissertation, the author discovers the concept of bricolage. She describes its application in Tanzania and in a long-term acute care hospital in the Midwestern United States.

Model-based system-of-systems engineering for space-based command, control, communication, and information architecture design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sindiy, Oleg V.

This dissertation presents a model-based system-of-systems engineering (SoSE) approach as a design philosophy for architecting in system-of-systems (SoS) problems. SoS refers to a special class of systems in which numerous systems with operational and managerial independence interact to generate new capabilities that satisfy societal needs. Design decisions are more complicated in a SoS setting. A revised Process Model for SoSE is presented to support three phases in SoS architecting: defining the scope of the design problem, abstracting key descriptors and their interrelations in a conceptual model, and implementing computer-based simulations for architectural analyses. The Process Model enables improved decision support considering multiple SoS features and develops computational models capable of highlighting configurations of organizational, policy, financial, operational, and/or technical features. Further, processes for verification and validation of SoS models and simulations are also important due to potential impact on critical decision-making and, thus, are addressed. Two research questions frame the research efforts described in this dissertation. The first concerns how the four key sources of SoS complexity---heterogeneity of systems, connectivity structure, multi-layer interactions, and the evolutionary nature---influence the formulation of SoS models and simulations, trade space, and solution performance and structure evaluation metrics. The second question pertains to the implementation of SoSE architecting processes to inform decision-making for a subset of SoS problems concerning the design of information exchange services in space-based operations domain. These questions motivate and guide the dissertation's contributions. A formal methodology for drawing relationships within a multi-dimensional trade space, forming simulation case studies from applications of candidate architecture solutions to a campaign of notional mission use cases, and executing multi-purpose analysis studies is presented. These efforts are coupled to the generation of aggregate and time-dependent solution performance metrics via the hierarchical decomposition of objectives and the analytical recomposition of multi-attribute qualitative program drivers from quantifiable measures. This methodology was also applied to generate problem-specific solution structure evaluation metrics that facilitate the comparison of alternate solutions at a high level of aggregation, at lower levels of abstraction, and to relate options for design variables with associated performance values. For proof-of-capability demonstration, the selected application problem concerns the design of command, control, communication, and information (C3I) architecture services for a notional campaign of crewed and robotic lunar surface missions. The impetus for the work was the demonstration of using model-based SoSE for design of sustainable interoperability capabilities between all data and communication assets in extended lunar campaigns. A comprehensive Lunar C3I simulation tool was developed by a team of researchers at Purdue University in support of NASA's Constellation Program; the author of this dissertation was a key contributor to the creation of this tool and made modifications and extensions to key components relevant to the methodological concepts presented in this dissertation. The dissertation concludes with a presentation of example results based on the interrogation of the constructed Lunar C3I computational model. The results are based on a family of studies, structured around a trade-tree of architecture options, which were conducted to test the hypothesis that the SoSE approach is efficacious in the information-exchange architecture design in space exploration domain. Included in the family of proof-of-capability studies is a simulation of the Apollo 17 mission, which allows not only for partial verification and validation of the model, but also provides insights for prioritizing future model design iterations to make it more realistic representation of the "real world." A caveat within the results presented is that they serve within the capacity of a proof-of-capability demonstration, and as such, they are a product of models and analyses that need further development before the tool's results can be employed for decision-making. Additional discussion is provided for how to further develop and validate the Lunar C3I tool and also to make it extensible to other SoS design problems of similar nature in space exploration and other problem application domains.

Scalable Methods for Uncertainty Quantification, Data Assimilation and Target Accuracy Assessment for Multi-Physics Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khuwaileh, Bassam

High fidelity simulation of nuclear reactors entails large scale applications characterized with high dimensionality and tremendous complexity where various physics models are integrated in the form of coupled models (e.g. neutronic with thermal-hydraulic feedback). Each of the coupled modules represents a high fidelity formulation of the first principles governing the physics of interest. Therefore, new developments in high fidelity multi-physics simulation and the corresponding sensitivity/uncertainty quantification analysis are paramount to the development and competitiveness of reactors achieved through enhanced understanding of the design and safety margins. Accordingly, this dissertation introduces efficient and scalable algorithms for performing efficient Uncertainty Quantification (UQ), Data Assimilation (DA) and Target Accuracy Assessment (TAA) for large scale, multi-physics reactor design and safety problems. This dissertation builds upon previous efforts for adaptive core simulation and reduced order modeling algorithms and extends these efforts towards coupled multi-physics models with feedback. The core idea is to recast the reactor physics analysis in terms of reduced order models. This can be achieved via identifying the important/influential degrees of freedom (DoF) via the subspace analysis, such that the required analysis can be recast by considering the important DoF only. In this dissertation, efficient algorithms for lower dimensional subspace construction have been developed for single physics and multi-physics applications with feedback. Then the reduced subspace is used to solve realistic, large scale forward (UQ) and inverse problems (DA and TAA). Once the elite set of DoF is determined, the uncertainty/sensitivity/target accuracy assessment and data assimilation analysis can be performed accurately and efficiently for large scale, high dimensional multi-physics nuclear engineering applications. Hence, in this work a Karhunen-Loeve (KL) based algorithm previously developed to quantify the uncertainty for single physics models is extended for large scale multi-physics coupled problems with feedback effect. Moreover, a non-linear surrogate based UQ approach is developed, used and compared to performance of the KL approach and brute force Monte Carlo (MC) approach. On the other hand, an efficient Data Assimilation (DA) algorithm is developed to assess information about model's parameters: nuclear data cross-sections and thermal-hydraulics parameters. Two improvements are introduced in order to perform DA on the high dimensional problems. First, a goal-oriented surrogate model can be used to replace the original models in the depletion sequence (MPACT -- COBRA-TF - ORIGEN). Second, approximating the complex and high dimensional solution space with a lower dimensional subspace makes the sampling process necessary for DA possible for high dimensional problems. Moreover, safety analysis and design optimization depend on the accurate prediction of various reactor attributes. Predictions can be enhanced by reducing the uncertainty associated with the attributes of interest. Accordingly, an inverse problem can be defined and solved to assess the contributions from sources of uncertainty; and experimental effort can be subsequently directed to further improve the uncertainty associated with these sources. In this dissertation a subspace-based gradient-free and nonlinear algorithm for inverse uncertainty quantification namely the Target Accuracy Assessment (TAA) has been developed and tested. The ideas proposed in this dissertation were first validated using lattice physics applications simulated using SCALE6.1 package (Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) and Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) lattice models). Ultimately, the algorithms proposed her were applied to perform UQ and DA for assembly level (CASL progression problem number 6) and core wide problems representing Watts Bar Nuclear 1 (WBN1) for cycle 1 of depletion (CASL Progression Problem Number 9) modeled via simulated using VERA-CS which consists of several multi-physics coupled models. The analysis and algorithms developed in this dissertation were encoded and implemented in a newly developed tool kit algorithms for Reduced Order Modeling based Uncertainty/Sensitivity Estimator (ROMUSE).

Laggards No More: Understanding Effective Use of Information and Communication Technologies by West Virginian Women at the Lower End of the Digital Divide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goh, Debbie

2010-01-01

Despite efforts to introduce information and communication technologies to women, internet access rates for women and the benefits they can draw from using ICTs still are not on par with men. This dissertation examines why the gender digital divide persists in America, who are the women at the lower end of the digital divide, and why they are…

Particle Beam Tracker for an Accelerating Target.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-12-01

previous efforts by Captain David Meer in his Doctoral Dissertation and Lieutenants William Zicker and Bill Moose in their Master’s theses. Specifically...detection and position esti- mation in hand, the problem of beam control can now be addressed. In 1983, ILt William Zicker , in his master’s thesis...beam controller. Another problem studied by Zicker was how to limit the size of the * Meer filter, which grows with each new realization on the

An Examination of Teacher Understandings of Technology Integration at the Classroom Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Shawn M.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe and understand how teachers describe the changes in their practices as a result of ten years participation in a one-to-one environment. This research study focuses on one successful middle school's adoption of laptops to support teaching and learning. A qualitative study using interviews of key…

How sustainable is Japan's foreign aid policy? An analysis of Japan's official development assistance and funding for energy sector projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamaguchi, Hideka

Japan has adopted a sustainable development strategy since the late 1980s in the effort to address social and environmental damages caused by past Japan-funded projects in partner nations. Even after about a decade and a half of the policy implementation, however, there are few reports which critically examine effects of the adoption of the idea of sustainable development. This dissertation evaluates Japan's foreign aid policy to determine the extent to which new revisions of aid policy have improved the environmental sustainability of the policy. This dissertation reviews the mainstream idea of sustainable development (also known as the sustainable development paradigm in this dissertation) to reveal the nature of the idea of sustainable development that Japan's foreign aid policy depends on. A literature review of two development discourses---modernization theory and ecological modernization theory---and three types of critiques against the sustainable development paradigm---focused on adverse impacts of modern science, globalization, and environmental overuse---reveals core logics of and problems with the sustainable development paradigm. Japan's foreign aid policy impacts on energy sector development in recipient countries is examined by means of a quantitative analysis and a qualitative analysis. Specifically, it examines the effect of Japan's ODA program over fifteen years that proposed to facilitate sustainable development in developing countries. Special emphasis is given to investigation of ODA disbursements in the energy sector and detailed case studies of several individual energy projects are performed. The dissertation discovers that the sustainable development paradigm guiding Japan's ODA has little capacity to accomplish its goals to bring about social and ecological improvement in developing countries. This dissertation finds three fundamental weaknesses in Japanese ODA policy on energy sector development as well as the sustainable development paradigm; first, the heavy reliance on modern science leads to a failure to use local knowledge and practices which can be more sustainable to sustainability; second, the acceptance of the international capitalist system as the basis for project implementation results in little or no long-term sustainability commitment; and third, the compatibility of economic growth with environmental sustainability, which appears unlikely in the context of global economic inequality. As an alternative, this dissertation suggests several policies for promoting energy systems for rural sustainable development in the Global South.

Two-Dimensional Spatial Imaging of Charge Transport in Germanium Crystals at Cryogenic Temperatures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moffatt, Robert

2016-03-01

In this dissertation, I describe a novel apparatus for studying the transport of charge in semiconductors at cryogenic temperatures. The motivation to conduct this experiment originated from an asymmetry observed between the behavior of electrons and holes in the germanium detector crystals used by the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS). This asymmetry is a consequence of the anisotropic propagation of electrons in germanium at cryogenic temperatures. To better model our detectors, we incorporated this effect into our Monte Carlo simulations of charge transport. The purpose of the experiment described in this dissertation is to test those models in detail. Ourmore » measurements have allowed us to discover a shortcoming in our most recent Monte Carlo simulations of electrons in germanium. This discovery would not have been possible without the measurement of the full, two-dimensional charge distribution, which our experimental apparatus has allowed for the first time at cryogenic temperatures.« less

Are students kidding with health research ethics? The case of HIV/AIDS research in Cameroon

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Universities in Cameroon are playing an active part in HIV/AIDS research and much of this research is carried out by students, usually for the purpose of a dissertation/thesis. Student theses/dissertations present research findings in a much more comprehensive manner and have been described as the stepping-stone of a budding scientist’s potential in becoming an independent researcher. It is therefore important to verify how students handle issues of research ethics. Method Theses/dissertations on HIV/AIDS that described research studies involving the use of human research participants were screened to verify if research ethics approval and informed consent were obtained and documented. The contents of the consent forms were also qualitatively analyzed. Results Of 174 theses/dissertations on HIV, ethics approval was documented in 17 (9.77%) and informed consent in 77 (47.83%). Research ethics approval was first mentioned at all in 2002 and highly reported in the year 2007. Evidence of ethics approval was found for the first time in 2005 and informed consent first observed and evidenced in 1997. Ethics approval was mostly reported by students studying for an MD (14.01%) and was not reported in any Bachelors’ degree dissertation. Informed consent was also highly reported in MD theses (64.58%) followed by undergraduate theses (31.58%). Voluntary participation and potential benefits of the study were some of the common aspects dealt with in most of the consent forms. The right to discontinue participation in the study and management of residual samples were scarcely ever mentioned. Conclusions Overall, and given the current state of the art of research ethics around the world, student-scientists in Cameroon would seem to be merely kidding with research ethics. It is thus essential that training in health research ethics (HRE) be incorporated in the curriculum of universities in Cameroon in order that the next generation of scientists may be better equipped with thorough knowledge and practice of HRE. This, we believe, would be one way of fighting the occurrence of research scandals, which have not yet abated significantly, especially those arising from negligence or inexcusable ignorance. PMID:22686445

Are students kidding with health research ethics? The case of HIV/AIDS research in Cameroon.

PubMed

Munung, Nchangwi Syntia; Tangwa, Godfrey B; Che, Chi Primus; Vidal, Laurent; Ouwe-Missi-Oukem-Boyer, Odile

2012-06-11

Universities in Cameroon are playing an active part in HIV/AIDS research and much of this research is carried out by students, usually for the purpose of a dissertation/thesis. Student theses/dissertations present research findings in a much more comprehensive manner and have been described as the stepping-stone of a budding scientist's potential in becoming an independent researcher. It is therefore important to verify how students handle issues of research ethics. Theses/dissertations on HIV/AIDS that described research studies involving the use of human research participants were screened to verify if research ethics approval and informed consent were obtained and documented. The contents of the consent forms were also qualitatively analyzed. Of 174 theses/dissertations on HIV, ethics approval was documented in 17 (9.77%) and informed consent in 77 (47.83%). Research ethics approval was first mentioned at all in 2002 and highly reported in the year 2007. Evidence of ethics approval was found for the first time in 2005 and informed consent first observed and evidenced in 1997. Ethics approval was mostly reported by students studying for an MD (14.01%) and was not reported in any Bachelors' degree dissertation. Informed consent was also highly reported in MD theses (64.58%) followed by undergraduate theses (31.58%). Voluntary participation and potential benefits of the study were some of the common aspects dealt with in most of the consent forms. The right to discontinue participation in the study and management of residual samples were scarcely ever mentioned. Overall, and given the current state of the art of research ethics around the world, student-scientists in Cameroon would seem to be merely kidding with research ethics. It is thus essential that training in health research ethics (HRE) be incorporated in the curriculum of universities in Cameroon in order that the next generation of scientists may be better equipped with thorough knowledge and practice of HRE. This, we believe, would be one way of fighting the occurrence of research scandals, which have not yet abated significantly, especially those arising from negligence or inexcusable ignorance.

The Mobilization of Effort: Sergeants, Patrol Officers, and Productivity in an American Agency.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-02-01

Berlceley. Cain, M. 1974 Society and the policeman’s role. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Chatterton, Michael 1975 Organizational relationships and...Routledge and Kegan Paul. Pike, D. 1981 A comparative analysis of the role of women in police training. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University...David 1970 Yhe theory of organization. NY: Basic. 1974 ()rranizational work. London: Root ledge and Kegan Paul. Van Maanen , lo’in 1972 Pledging the

Design-based science and the transfer of science knowledge and real-world problem-solving skills

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fortus, David Leon

Design-Based Science (DBS) helps students develop new scientific knowledge and problem-solving skills in the context of designing artifacts. This pedagogy was developed as a response to the potential problem of transfer of knowledge from academic settings to extra classroom environments. This dissertation describes DBS in detail and attempts to answer three questions: (1) Do DBS curricula support students' efforts to transfer newly constructed science knowledge and 'designerly' skills (Baynes, 1994) to the solution of new real-world design problems in an extra-classroom setting? (2) Do DBS curricula support students' efforts to construct new scientific knowledge? (3) Do DBS curricula support students' efforts to develop 'designerly' problem-solving skills? Ninety-two students attending a public high school serving a working class community participated in the consecutive enactments of three different DBS units over one school year. The analysis of pre- and posttests and of artifacts created by the students demonstrated that substantial knowledge was constructed during each of the enactments, with the tests leading to effect sizes of 2.1 on the first unit, 1.9 on the second, and 2.7 on the third. After each enactment the students solved a new design problem as a transfer task. The transfer tasks were unsequestered, unsupported by the teacher, lasted three days, were done in the school's library, required new learning, and were solved in groups of four. In order to generate an individual measure of transfer, the students responded to an individual post-transfer written test after each transfer task was completed, that assessed their understanding and recollection of the solution their group submitted. For all three units there was a stronger correlation between the individual transfer scores and posttests scores than with pretest scores, indicating that the knowledge and skills that were constructed during the enactments supported the solution of the transfer tasks. The correlations with the posttests increased from one enactment to the next, demonstrating that the students' transfer performance improved as they gained more experience in DBS classrooms. Potential threats to the study's internal validity that were identified and discussed were improved teacher proficiency, the nature of the transfer tasks, the difficulty of the science content covered by the units, the similarity between the units and the transfer tasks, and the similarity between the transfer tasks. This dissertation demonstrates that: (a) appropriate learning environments can foster transfer, (b) transfer performance can improve over time, and (c) that it may be necessary to rethink and redefine the procedures for identifying and assessing real-world transfer.

Investigating Music Information Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weissenberger, Lynnsey K.

2016-01-01

This dissertation, titled "Investigating Music Information Objects," is a study of the nature, description, representations, and ideas related to music information objects (MIOs). This research study investigates how music practitioners from various traditions describe and conceptualize MIOs, using a theoretical framework to classify…

Characterization of low-temperature properties of plant-produced rap mixtures in the Northeast

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medeiros, Marcelo S., Junior

The dissertation outlined herein results from a Federal Highway Administration sponsored project intended to investigate the impacts of high percentages of RAP material in the performance of pavements under cold climate conditions. It is comprised of two main sections that were incorporated into the body of this dissertation as Part I and Part II. In Part I a reduced testing framework for analysis of HMA mixes was proposed to replace the IDT creep compliance and strength testing by dynamic modulus and fatigue tests performed on an AMPT device. A continuum damage model that incorporates the nonlinear constitutive behavior of the HMA mixtures was also successfully implemented and validated. Mixtures with varying percentages of reclaimed material (RAP) ranging from 0 to 40% were used in this research effort in order to verify the applicability of the proposed methodology to RAP mixtures. Part II is concerned with evaluating the effects of various binder grades on the properties of plant-produced mixtures with various percentages of RAP. The effects of RAP on mechanical and rheological properties of mixtures and extracted binders were studied in order to identify some of the deficiencies in the current production methodologies. The results of this dissertation will help practitioners to identify optimal RAP usage from a material property perspective. It also establishes some guidelines and best practices for the use of higher RAP percentages in HMA.

School and District Policies and Strategies That Impact Student Performance on the Missouri End-of-Course Algebra 1 NCLB Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nevels, Nevels

2012-01-01

The dissertation study reported here describes various policies and strategies used by school districts that impact student performance on the Missouri Algebra 1 End-of- Course (EOC) assessment. Analysis of state testing data, teacher survey data, and interview data were used to describe policies and strategies used by 42 teachers and…

Impact of hydroelectric development upon a northern Manitoba native community

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Waldram, J.B.

1983-01-01

This dissertation describes the process of underdevelopment among the Cree Indian people of South Indian Lake, in Northern Manitoba, Canada, following the construction of the Churchill-Nelson River Hydro Project in 1975. The dissertation seeks to link the ecological, political, economic, socio-cultural and health aspects of the impact of the hydro project within the framework of the historical process of underdevelopment as it has occurred in Latin America, among Native people in the United States, and among Native people in Northern Canada. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data, a process of increased dependence is described as the product of two relatedmore » processes. The first process is the impairment of the local commercial and domestic economy caused by the flooding of Southern Indian Lake, which has resulted in a decline in local productivity. The second process is the enhancement of consumerism through rising consumer expectations and a post-project increase in available goods and services which the people are increasingly unable to afford. The overall result has been a process of economic divergence at the local level. The dissertation concludes that the process of underdevelopment which has occurred in South Indian Lake has been the result primarily of changes in the local ecological system caused by the construction of the hydro project. These ecological changes have, in turn, resulted in secondary changes in the socio-economic system.« less

A Formal Investigation of Human Spatial Control Skills: Mathematical Formalization, Skill Development, and Skill Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Bin

Spatial control behaviors account for a large proportion of human everyday activities from normal daily tasks, such as reaching for objects, to specialized tasks, such as driving, surgery, or operating equipment. These behaviors involve intensive interactions within internal processes (i.e. cognitive, perceptual, and motor control) and with the physical world. This dissertation builds on a concept of interaction pattern and a hierarchical functional model. Interaction pattern represents a type of behavior synergy that humans coordinates cognitive, perceptual, and motor control processes. It contributes to the construction of the hierarchical functional model that delineates humans spatial control behaviors as the coordination of three functional subsystems: planning, guidance, and tracking/pursuit. This dissertation formalizes and validates these two theories and extends them for the investigation of human spatial control skills encompassing development and assessment. Specifically, this dissertation first presents an overview of studies in human spatial control skills encompassing definition, characteristic, development, and assessment, to provide theoretical evidence for the concept of interaction pattern and the hierarchical functional model. The following, the human experiments for collecting motion and gaze data and techniques to register and classify gaze data, are described. This dissertation then elaborates and mathematically formalizes the hierarchical functional model and the concept of interaction pattern. These theories then enables the construction of a succinct simulation model that can reproduce a variety of human performance with a minimal set of hypotheses. This validates the hierarchical functional model as a normative framework for interpreting human spatial control behaviors. The dissertation then investigates human skill development and captures the emergence of interaction pattern. The final part of the dissertation applies the hierarchical functional model for skill assessment and introduces techniques to capture interaction patterns both from the top down using their geometric features and from the bottom up using their dynamical characteristics. The validity and generality of the skill assessment is illustrated using two the remote-control flight and laparoscopic surgical training experiments.

Molecular and Metabolic Mechanisms of Carbon Sequestration in Marine Thrombolites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mobberley, Jennifer

2013-01-01

The overall goal of my dissertation project has been to examine the molecular processes underlying carbon sequestration in lithifying microbial ecosystems, known as thrombolitic mats, and assess their feasibility for use in bioregenerative life support systems. The results of my research and education efforts funded by the Graduate Student Researchers Program can be summarized in four peer-reviewed research publication, one educational publication, two papers in preparation, and six research presentations at local and national science meetings (see below for specific details).

The ABCs of an evolutionary education science: The academic, behavioral, and cultural implications of an evolutionary approach to education theory and practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kauffman, Rick, Jr.

Calls for improving research-informed policy in education are everywhere. Yet, while there is an increasing trend towards science-based practice, there remains little agreement over which of the sciences to consult and how to organize a collective effort between them. What Education lacks is a general theoretical framework through which policies can be constructed, implemented, and assessed. This dissertation submits that evolutionary theory can provide a suitable framework for coordinating educational policies and practice, and can provide the entire field of education with a clearer sense of how to better manage the learning environment. This dissertation explores two broad paths that outline the conceptual foundations for an Evolutionary Education Science: "Teaching Evolution" and "Using Evolution to Teach." Chapter 1 introduces both of these themes. After describing why evolutionary science is best suited for organizing education research and practice, Chapter 1 proceeds to "teach" an overview of the "evolutionary toolkit"---the mechanisms and principles that underlie the modern evolutionary perspective. The chapter then employs the "toolkit" in examining education from an evolutionary perspective, outlining the evolutionary precepts that can guide theorizing and research in education, describing how educators can "use evolution to teach.". Chapters 2-4 expand on this second theme. Chapters 2 and 3 describe an education program for at-risk 9th and 10th grade students, the Regents Academy, designed entirely with evolutionary principles in mind. The program was rigorously assessed in a randomized control design and has demonstrated success at improving students' academic performance (Chapter 2) and social & behavioral development (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 examines current teaching strategies that underlie effective curriculum-instruction-assessment practices and proposes a framework for organizing successful, evidence-based strategies for neural-/cognitive-focused learning goals. Chapter 5 explores the cognitive effects that "teaching evolution" has on the learner. This chapter examines the effects that a course on evolutionary theory has on university undergraduate students in understanding and applying evolution and how learning the evolutionary toolkit affects critical thinking skills and domain transfer of knowledge. The results demonstrate that a single course on evolutionary theory increases students' acceptance and understanding of evolution and science, and, in effect, increases critical thinking performance.

An Object Description Language for Distributed Discrete Event Simulations

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-05-24

some tremendous improvements in simulation speed and fidelity. This dissertation describes a new programming language that is useful in creating...104 CHAPTER 8. GLUT- BASED USER INTERFACE....................................il 8. 1. OUTPUT CONCERNS...143 9.3. GLUT BASED DEMONSTRATIONS ......................................................... 145 9.3

Spatiotemporal Variability of Humidity Across the Contiguous United States and Southern Canada Using Regional Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Behnke, Ruben John

The objective of this dissertation was to show that there is now enough observed humidity data available so that estimates of humidity, along with their necessary assumptions, can be replaced by measured humidity data. The range of applications that depend on humidity data is huge, ranging from water use efficiency of plants and plant stress to human health and agricultural practices. Biases due to the use of estimated humidity can be expected to have short and long impacts, decreasing the accuracy and precision of these, and many other, applications. Data from local, regional, and national observation networks was gathered, and custom quality control routines were written to remove bad data points from over 45000 stations, leaving 12533 usable stations. While still not at the same number of observations as temperature or precipitation, this number is nearly ten times as high as two decades ago. The work I performed consists of three major components, corresponding to the three main chapters of this dissertation. In chapter one, I describe data sources and quality control methods, along with some basic statistics of humidity, describing which geographic variables often used to predict temperature and precipitation can be used to do the same for humidity. Chapter two defines specific diurnal patterns (or "types") of dew point across the United States, including their attributes, causes, and potential influences. Chapter three analyzes biases in evapotranspiration, heat indices, and relative humidity levels that are a direct result of using estimated humidity data. Chapter four discusses contributions this work makes to the scientific community, and potential further research to build on what is presented here. While it may seem that the science of humidity should be well beyond data gathering and bias analysis, the fact remains that humidity is still very commonly estimated through the use of minimum temperature, and diurnal changes in dew point are often ignored. My hope is that this work makes a dent in often deeply entrenched practices, leading others to make the effort to incorporate measured humidity data into their work and study.

Computational Elucidation of Selectivities and Mechanisms Performed by Organometallic and Bioinorganic Catalysts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grandner, Jessica Marie

Computational methods were used to determine the mechanisms and selectivities of organometallic-catalyzed reactions. The first half of the dissertation focuses on the study of metathesis catalysts in collaboration with the Grubbs group at CalTech. Chapter 1 describes the studies of the decomposition modes of several ruthenium-based metathesis catalysts. These studies were performed to better understand the decomposition of such catalysts in order to prevent decomposition (Chapter 1.2) or utilize decomposed catalysts for alternative reactions (Chapter 1.1). Chapter 2.1 describes the computational investigation of the origins of stereoretentive metathesis with ruthenium-based metathesis catalysts. These findings were then used to computationally design E-selective metathesis catalysts (Chapter 2.2). While the first half of the dissertation was centered around ruthenium catalysts, the second half of the dissertation pertains to iron-catalyzed reaction, in particular, iron-catalyzed reactions by P450 enzymes. The elements of Chapter 3 concentrate on the stereo- and chemo-selectivity of P450-catalyzed C-H hydroxylations. By combining multiple computational methods, the inherent activity of the iron-oxo catalyst and the influence of the active site on such reactions were illuminated. These discoveries allow for the engineering of new substrates and mutant enzymes for tailored C-H hydroxylation. While the mechanism of C-H hydroxylations catalyzed by P450 enzymes has been well studied, there are several P450-catalyzed transformations for which the mechanism is unknown. The components of Chapter 4 describe the use of computations to determine the mechanisms of complex, multi-step reactions catalyzed by P450s. The determination of these mechanisms elucidates how these enzymes react with various functional groups and substrate architectures and allows for a better understanding of how drug-like compounds may be broken down by human P450s.

Identifying Vulnerable Plaques with Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doherty, Joshua Ryan

The rupture of arterial plaques is the most common cause of ischemic complications including stroke, the fourth leading cause of death and number one cause of long term disability in the United States. Unfortunately, because conventional diagnostic tools fail to identify plaques that confer the highest risk, often a disabling stroke and/or sudden death is the first sign of disease. A diagnostic method capable of characterizing plaque vulnerability would likely enhance the predictive ability and ultimately the treatment of stroke before the onset of clinical events. This dissertation evaluates the hypothesis that Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imaging can noninvasively identify lipid regions, that have been shown to increase a plaque's propensity to rupture, within carotid artery plaques in vivo. The work detailed herein describes development efforts and results from simulations and experiments that were performed to evaluate this hypothesis. To first demonstrate feasibility and evaluate potential safety concerns, finite- element method simulations are used to model the response of carotid artery plaques to an acoustic radiation force excitation. Lipid pool visualization is shown to vary as a function of lipid pool geometry and stiffness. A comparison of the resulting Von Mises stresses indicates that stresses induced by an ARFI excitation are three orders of magnitude lower than those induced by blood pressure. This thesis also presents the development of a novel pulse inversion harmonic tracking method to reduce clutter-imposed errors in ultrasound-based tissue displacement estimates. This method is validated in phantoms and was found to reduce bias and jitter displacement errors for a marked improvement in image quality in vivo. Lastly, this dissertation presents results from a preliminary in vivo study that compares ARFI imaging derived plaque stiffness with spatially registered composition determined by a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) gold standard in human carotid artery plaques. It is shown in this capstone experiment that lipid filled regions in MRI correspond to areas of increased displacement in ARFI imaging while calcium and loose matrix components in MRI correspond to uniformly low displacements in ARFI imaging. This dissertation provides evidence to support that ARFI imaging may provide important prognostic and diagnostic information regarding stroke risk via measurements of plaque stiffness. More generally, the results have important implications for all acoustic radiation force based imaging methods used clinically.

A study of the feasibility and performance of an active/passive imager using silicon focal plane arrays and incoherent continuous wave laser diodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vollmerhausen, Richard H.

This dissertation describes an active/passive imager (API) that provides reliable, nighttime, target acquisition in a man-portable package with effective visual range of about 4 kilometers. The reflective imagery is easier to interpret than currently used thermal imagery. Also, in the active mode, the API provides performance equivalent to the big-aperture, thermal systems used on weapons platforms like tanks and attack helicopters. This dissertation describes the research needed to demonstrate both the feasibility and utility of the API. Part of the research describes implementation of a silicon focal plane array (SFPA) capable of both active and passive imaging. The passive imaging mode exceeds the nighttime performance of currently fielded, man-portable sensors. Further, when scene illumination is insufficient for passive imaging, the low dark current of SFPA makes it possible to use continuous wave laser diodes (CWLD) to add an active imaging mode. CWLD have advantages of size, efficiency, and improved eye safety when compared to high peak-power diodes. Because of the improved eye safety, the API provides user-demanded features like video output and extended range gates in the active as well as passive imaging modes. Like any other night vision device, the API depends on natural illumination of the scene for passive operation. Although it has been known for decades that "starlight" illumination is actually from diffuse airglow emissions, the research described in this dissertation provides the first estimates of the global and temporal variation of ground illumination due to airglow. A third related element of the current research establishes the impact of atmospheric aerosols on API performance. We know from day experience that atmospheric scattering of sunlight into the imager line-of-sight can blind the imager and drastically degrade performance. Atmospheric scattering of sunlight is extensively covered in the literature. However, previous literature did not cover the impact of atmospheric scattering when the target is diffusely illuminated by airglow.

Polarimetry of random fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellis, Jeremy

On temporal, spatial and spectral scales which are small enough, all fields are fully polarized. In the optical regime, however, instantaneous fields can rarely be examined, and, instead, only average quantities are accessible. The study of polarimetry is concerned with both the description of electromagnetic fields and the characterization of media a field has interacted with. The polarimetric information is conventionally presented in terms of second order field correlations which are averaged over the ensemble of field realizations. Motivated by the deficiencies of classical polarimetry in dealing with specific practical situations, this dissertation expands the traditional polarimetric approaches to include higher order field correlations and the description of fields fluctuating in three dimensions. In relation to characterization of depolarizing media, a number of fourth-order correlations are introduced in this dissertation. Measurements of full polarization distributions, and the subsequent evaluation of Stokes vector element correlations and Complex Degree of Mutual Polarization demonstrate the use of these quantities for material discrimination and characterization. Recent advancements in detection capabilities allow access to fields near their sources and close to material boundaries, where a unique direction of propagation is not evident. Similarly, there exist classical situations such as overlapping beams, focusing, or diffusive scattering in which there is no unique transverse direction. In this dissertation, the correlation matrix formalism is expanded to describe three dimensional electromagnetic fields, providing a definition for the degree of polarization of such a field. It is also shown that, because of the dimensionality of the problem, a second parameter is necessary to fully describe the polarimetric properties of three dimensional fields. Measurements of second-order correlations of a three dimensional field are demonstrated, allowing the determination of both the degree of polarization and the state of polarization. These new theoretical concepts and innovative experimental approaches introduced in this dissertation are expected to impact scientific areas as diverse as near field optics, remote sensing, high energy laser physics, fluorescence microscopy, and imaging.

Historical Trends in Graduate Research and Training of Diplomates of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology.

PubMed

Bethard, Jonathan D

2017-01-01

The history of forensic anthropology has been documented by numerous scholars. These contributions have described the work of early pioneers in the field and have described important milestones, such as the founding of the Physical Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) in 1972 and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (ABFA) in 1977. This paper contributes to the growing literature on the history of forensic anthropology by documenting the academic training of all individuals who have been granted diplomate status by the ABFA (n = 115). Doctoral dissertation titles were queried to discern broad patterns of research foci. A total of 39 doctoral granting institutions have trained diplomates and 77.3% of board-certified forensic anthropologists wrote dissertations involving skeletal biology, bioarchaeology, or forensic anthropology. Board-certified forensic anthropologists are a broadly trained group of professionals with far-reaching anthropological interests and expertise. © 2016 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Looking Wider and Further: The Evolution of Galaxies Inside Galaxy Clusters

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Yuanyuan

2016-01-01

Galaxy clusters are rare objects in the universe, but on-going wide field optical surveys are identifying many thousands of them to redshift 1.0 and beyond. Using early data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and publicly released data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), this dissertation explores the evolution of cluster galaxies in the redshift range from 0 to 1.0. As it is common for deep wide field sky surveys like DES to struggle with galaxy detection efficiency at cluster core, the first component of this dissertation describes an efficient package that helps resolving the issue. The second partmore » focuses on the formation of cluster galaxies. The study quantifies the growth of cluster bright central galaxies (BCGs), and argues for the importance of merging and intra-cluster light production during BCG evolution. An analysis of cluster red sequence galaxy luminosity function is also performed, demonstrating that the abundance of these galaxies is mildly dependent on cluster mass and redshift. The last component of the dissertation characterizes the properties of galaxy filaments to help understanding cluster environments« less

Designing professional development to increase local capacity to sustain reform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fogleman, Jay A.

There is a rich tradition of using curriculum materials to foster reform and innovation in science education. A key issue in any materials development effort is how to engender high-quality enactments of new materials, and how to sustain and scale up high-quality use so that the materials have a lasting and meaningful impact on the education of students. Many have argued that professional development (PD) is a key to the long-term success of systemic reform initiatives and there is a dire need for resources that help districts sustain PD opportunities that support teachers using innovations beyond their initial implementation. This dissertation consists of three manuscripts that look at the process of understanding teachers' use of reform-rich materials and supporting teacher professional development in the context of efforts by districts and innovators to implement and sustain their use in middle school science classrooms. The first manuscript looks specifically at the practices of teachers using learning-goals driven curriculum materials in an effort to model the effects of these practices on student achievement. Teacher surveys and video recording were used to relate teachers' characteristics and practices to student achievement using a multi-level approach. The second manuscript uses video recordings to critically examine a professional development workshop enacted by curriculum developers to identify knowledge and strategies that might be adapted for use locally to sustain PD offerings. The third manuscript presents two cases that describe how a professional development workcircle consisting of university researchers, district personnel, and lead teachers was able to sustain district-led professional development around reform-rich curriculum materials. Findings from the three studies are considered in light of factors necessary to sustain and scale the use of educational innovations and a model for supporting local PD is suggested.

Analysis of the publishing rate and the number of citations of general surgery dissertations

PubMed Central

Mayir, Burhan; Bilecik, Tuna; Çakır, Tuğrul; Doğan, Uğur; Gündüz, Umut Rıza; Aslaner, Arif; Oruç, Mehmet Tahir

2017-01-01

Objective A dissertation is a scientific document. However, if it is not published in a scientific journal, it will gain access to only a limited audience and thus will be unable to achieve its objective. Nevertheless, the rate of publishing in journals is not high among dissertations. In this study, we aimed to investigate the publishing rates of general surgery dissertations in journals and the total number of citations. Material and Methods All medical dissertations that have been prepared at general surgery departments of university hospitals and presented between the years 2006 and 2008 were analyzed. The authors checked whether the dissertations were published in a journal or not, by searching the dissertation in 4 different resources with the name of their authors. Results Two hundred and thirty-two dissertations were included. Half of those dissertations were experimental animal studies. Seventy dissertations were published in various journals. Fifty one (22%) of these were published in Science Citation Index Expanded journals, while 19 (8.1%) of them were published in Turkish non-Science Citation Index Expanded journals. There was no significant difference in terms of publishing rates between study types. The number of annual citations per article was 1.1. The writer of the dissertation was the first author in 35 (68,6%) articles. Conclusion The publishing rates of dissertations in general surgery is low, with only 22% being published in Science Citation Index Expanded journals. The citation rate was also detected to be low in our study. Consequently, a dissertation should be considered as a scientific research study and planned as such, not as obligatory assignments. The publishing rates of dissertations should be increased, and authors should be led and encouraged to publish their dissertations. PMID:28740947

Utilization of Selected Simulation Games to Foster Improved Attitudes Among 11th Grade Students Engaged in the Study of Social Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Festa, Dominick A.

A project to determine the effectiveness of a program designed to create more positive attitudes among students studying social studies through use of simulation games is described in this dissertation. The purposes of the project were to describe the design and implementation of a plan for such a program and to determine whether simulation games…

Feminist teacher research and students' visions of science: Listening as research and pedagogy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howes, Elaine Virginia

In this dissertation, I bring together methodologies deriving from teacher research and feminist research to study students' visions of the content and processes of science. Through listening intently to students' talk and studying their writing, I address the following questions: (1) What can intensive listening to students tell us about students' thinking and beliefs concerning their images of science as a social enterprise? (2) What kinds of classroom situations encourage and support students' expressions of their lives and beliefs in connection to science? (3) How can feminist theories of education and critiques of science inform our efforts for "science for all"? This study is organized by focusing on the connection between national standards for science education and feminist theories of pedagogy and feminist critiques of science. From this starting point, students' ideas are presented and interpreted thematically. The resonances and dissonances between students' ideas, standards' goals, and feminist theory are explicated. Current best practice in science education demands that science teachers attend to what their students are thinking. For this dissertation, I have taken a perspective that is slightly askew from that of listening to students in order to support or challenge their thinking about natural phenomena. During my teaching, I set up situations in which students could speak about their images of science; these situations are integral to this study. My research goal was to listen in order to learn what students were thinking and believing--but not necessarily in order to change that thinking or those beliefs. My work is meant to cultivate common ground between feminist scholarship and science education, while deepening our understanding of students' thinking about the activities and knowledge of science. I hope that this dissertation will open up conversations between science educators and their students around issues concerning students' relationship to science, and their clear-eyed view of its current and potential role in our egalitarian democracy. The exploration of our students', as well as our own, images of science as a social enterprise are central to any effort that claims to make science education welcome to all American students.

Natural Language Description of Emotion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kazemzadeh, Abe

2013-01-01

This dissertation studies how people describe emotions with language and how computers can simulate this descriptive behavior. Although many non-human animals can express their current emotions as social signals, only humans can communicate about emotions symbolically. This symbolic communication of emotion allows us to talk about emotions that we…

Secondary Computer-Based Instruction in Microeconomics: Cognitive and Affective Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasnik, Vincent E.

This paper describes the general rationale, hypotheses, methodology, findings and implications of a recent dissertation research project conducted in the Columbus, Ohio, public schools. The computer-based study investigated the simultaneous relationship between achievement in microeconomics and attitude toward economics, level of computer anxiety,…

Re-Framing the World Wide Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, August

2011-01-01

The research presented in this dissertation studies and describes how technical standards, protocols, and application programming interfaces (APIs) shape the aesthetic, functional, and affective nature of our most dominant mode of online communication, the World Wide Web (WWW). I examine the politically charged and contentious battle over browser…

Recognizing, Determining, and Addressing Entrepreneurial Innovations by Superintendents of Emerging or Established Educational Service Agencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arfstrom, Kari M.

2009-01-01

This dissertation describes how entrepreneurial superintendents of educational service agencies (ESAs) recognize, determine and address common and distinct innovative characteristics within emerging or established regional educational environments. Because internal and external factors assist in recognizing innovative practices, this study…

Methodology in the Afterglow

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hofsess, Brooke Anne

2013-01-01

My dissertation study seeks to understand how artist-teacher renewal may be nurtured through aesthetic experiential play in a Masters of Art Education degree program, and beyond, as my former students/participants and myself experience finding ourselves in its afterglow. "Aesthetic experiential play" could be described as a playful,…

Public sector energy management: A strategy for catalyzing energy efficiency in Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, Anish Kumar

To date the public sector role in facilitating the transition to a sustainable energy future has been envisaged mainly from a regulatory perspective. In such a role, the public sector provides the push factors---enforcing regulations and providing incentives---to correct market imperfections that impede energy transitions. An alternative and complementary role of the public sector that is now gaining increasing attention is that of catalyzing energy transitions through public sector energy management initiatives. This dissertation offers a conceptual framework to rationalize such a role for the public sector by combining recent theories of sustainable energy transition and public management. In particular, the framework identifies innovative public management strategies (such as performance contracting and procurement) for effectively implementing sustainable energy projects in government facilities. The dissertation evaluates a model of sustainable public sector energy management for promoting energy efficiency in Malaysia. The public sector in Malaysia can be a major player in leading and catalyzing energy efficiency efforts as it is not only the largest and one of the most influential energy consumers, but it also plays a central role in setting national development strategy. The dissertation makes several recommendations on how a public sector energy management strategy can be implemented in Malaysia. The US Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) is used as a practical model. The analysis, however, shows that in applying the FEMP model to the Malaysian context, there are a number of limitations that will have to be taken into consideration to enable a public sector energy management strategy to be effectively implemented. Overall the analysis of this dissertation contributes to a rethinking of the public sector role in sustainable energy development that can strengthen the sector's credibility both in terms of governance and institutional performance. In addition, it links theory with practice by offering a strategy that can effectively address critical issues arising from the energy-development-policy nexus of the sustainable energy development debate.

Dissertation Abstracts in Mathematics Education, 1983.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suydam, Marilyn N., Comp.

The dissertation abstracts in this compilation all appeared in "Dissertation Abstracts International" in 1983. The 300 dissertations cited in the annual listing of research in the July 1984 issue of the "Journal for Research in Mathematics Education" are included, as well as 55 dissertations which were located but could not be…

Excited State Structural Dynamics of Carotenoids and ChargeTransfer Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Van Tassle, Aaron Justin

This dissertation describes the development andimplementation of a visible/near infrared pump/mid-infrared probeapparatus. Chapter 1 describes the background and motivation ofinvestigating optically induced structural dynamics, paying specificattention to solvation and the excitation selection rules of highlysymmetric molecules such as carotenoids. Chapter 2 describes thedevelopment and construction of the experimental apparatus usedthroughout the remainder of this dissertation. Chapter 3 will discuss theinvestigation of DCM, a laser dye with a fluorescence signal resultingfrom a charge transfer state. By studying the dynamics of DCM and of itsmethyl deuterated isotopomer (an otherwise identical molecule), we areable to investigate the origins of the charge transfer statemore » and provideevidence that it is of the controversial twisted intramolecular (TICT)type. Chapter 4 introduces the use of two-photon excitation to the S1state, combined with one-photon excitation to the S2 state of thecarotenoid beta-apo-8'-carotenal. These 2 investigations show evidencefor the formation of solitons, previously unobserved in molecular systemsand found only in conducting polymers Chapter 5 presents an investigationof the excited state dynamics of peridinin, the carotenoid responsiblefor the light harvesting of dinoflagellates. This investigation allowsfor a more detailed understanding of the importance of structuraldynamics of carotenoids in light harvesting.« less

Patient Populations, Clinical Associations, and System Efficiency in Healthcare Delivery System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yazhuo

The efforts to improve health care delivery usually involve studies and analysis of patient populations and healthcare systems. In this dissertation, I present the research conducted in the following areas: identifying patient groups, improving treatments for specific conditions by using statistical as well as data mining techniques, and developing new operation research models to increase system efficiency from the health institutes' perspective. The results provide better understanding of high risk patient groups, more accuracy in detecting disease' correlations and practical scheduling tools that consider uncertain operation durations and real-life constraints.

A Systems Engineering Approach to Multiple Attribute Utility Theory and Multiple Objective Optimization Theory: With Application To Aircraft Retrofit Design.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-01-01

me produce this dissertation. I wish to thank Professors John E. Gibson and Chelsea C. White, III for their advice and contributions in this effort. My...National Meeting, Los Angeles, Ca., 1ov., 97$ Everett, J., Hax, A., Lewison , V. and 4utts, D., "Optimization of a Fleet of Large Tarkers and Bulkers...Arrow, C. J., Mardecai, K., Public Investment, The Rate of Return and Optimal Fiscal Policy, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1970. Banker

Diagnosing and Measuring Learning Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moilanen, Raili

2005-01-01

Purpose: To explore and analyse various learning organizations and to attempt to outline the form of a holistic learning organization. Design/methodology/approach: The tool described in this article is a continuation of the work published in a Licentiate thesis in 1996 and developed further in a doctoral dissertation in 2001. The Learning…

Life Histories of Three Exemplary American Physical Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cazers, Gunars

2009-01-01

The purpose of the following article-style dissertation was to present the life histories of three exemplary physical educators, to give them voice, explore ways in which they experienced marginalization, and describe how they persevered in spite of difficulties they experienced in their careers. The participants included (a) Robin, a female…

Evaluating E-Training for Public Library Staff: A Quasi-Experimental Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalston, Teresa

2009-01-01

A comparative evaluation framework of instructional interventions for implementation of online training for public library staff would enable a better understanding of how to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and efficacy of training in certain training environments. This dissertation describes a quasi-experimental study of a two-week,…

Atypical Corruption at Institutions of Higher Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li

2007-01-01

This article describes an incident involving twelve teachers at Anhui Haozhou Normal Junior College who used purchased dissertations to apply for professional titles over three consecutive years. Academic corruption is not merely today's problem, and the academic corruption at the institutions of higher learning that the author discloses in this…

A Study of the Picture Book as Storyboard.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spaulding, Amy

1984-01-01

Describes research for doctoral dissertation which divided study of 29 "storyboard books" into 2 parts: one looking at various comic-book traits (dialog balloon, sound effects shown graphically, dividing of page into frames); the other analyzing each title in terms of component parts of drama as set out by Aristotle. (EJS)

Persistence Factors of First-Generation Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braswell, Tawanda M.

2010-01-01

This dissertation utilized a qualitative narrative case study method to explore the unknown factors and elements of perseverance in spite of adversity and crisis. The study documented the lives of five African American women in order to describe, understand, and explain the central research question of how and why some first-generation learners…

A Critique of Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reio, Thomas G., Jr.; Rocco, Tonette S.; Smith, Douglas H.; Chang, Elegance

2017-01-01

Donald Kirkpatrick published a series of articles originating from his doctoral dissertation in the late 1950s describing a four-level training evaluation model. From its beginning, it was easily understood and became one of the most influential evaluation models impacting the field of HRD. While well received and popular, the Kirkpatrick model…

The Dissertation in Practice: A Student's Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stacy, Jaime C.

2013-01-01

This article describes the impact that coursework related to Virginia Commonwealth University's inaugural EdD program had on a public school administrator; particularly how the Carnegie Project for the Educational Doctorate's (CPED) working principles continue to play a role in solving "Problems of Practice" in an at-risk school long…

Measuring Transactiving Memory Systems Using Network Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Kylie Goodell

2017-01-01

Transactive memory systems (TMSs) describe the structures and processes that teams use to share information, work together, and accomplish shared goals. First introduced over three decades ago, TMSs have been measured in a variety of ways. This dissertation proposes the use of network analysis in measuring TMS. This is accomplished by describing…

The Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonology of Fataluku

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heston, Tyler M.

2015-01-01

This dissertation describes the segmental and prosodic phonology of Fataluku (IPA [fataluku], ISO 639-3 ddg), a highly underdocumented Papuan language in East Timor (island Southeast Asia). Fataluku is classified as a member of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language (TAP) family, which currently includes approximately 25 members spread across Timor and…

Faculty Leadership in Baccalaureate Study Abroad Programs: The Relationship between Faculty Preparedness and Intercultural Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacDonald, Carla J.

2012-01-01

The dissertation describes projected research to investigate whether a relationship exists between faculty in baccalaureate education who lead short term study abroad programs (SAPS) and their levels of intercultural competency. Specifically, the research collected considers whether a connection exists between those faculty who received…

Alocomotino Control Algorithm for Robotic Linkage Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dohner, Jeffrey L.

This dissertation describes the development of a control algorithm that transitions a robotic linkage system between stabilized states producing responsive locomotion. The developed algorithm is demonstrated using a simple robotic construction consisting of a few links with actuation and sensing at each joint. Numerical and experimental validation is presented.

The Old English Language of Fear

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carlson, Erik A.

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines the development of the Old English vocabulary for fear under the influence of the Latinate discourse of Christian doctrine. The first chapter arranges the Old English words for fear into etymologically organized families and describes their incidence and usage across attested corpus of Old English, using the Dictionary…

Culturally Responsive Caring and Expectations for Academic Achievement in a Catholic School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dallavis, Christian

2014-01-01

This article draws from a larger dissertation study that applied ethnographic and historical research methods to explore the intersection of culturally responsive pedagogy and Catholic schooling in immigrant communities. In particular, this article presents qualitative data analysis to describe student achievement expectations at a contemporary…

Dissertation Leadership Knowledge Transfer Using Sparsely Connected Networks with Bidirectional Edges: Case Study of Chester Hayden McCall Jr., His Dissertation Advisors, and His Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mallette, Leo A.

2012-01-01

There are many modes of information flow in the sciences: books, journals, conferences, research and development, acquisition of companies, co-workers, students, and professors in schools of higher learning. In the sciences, dissertation students learn from their dissertation advisor (or chairperson or mentor) and the other dissertation committee…

Hearing the Messages: Integrating Pueblo Philosophy into Academic Life.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowery, Christine T.

1997-01-01

A Pueblo woman with a Ph.D. in social welfare research describes her academic journey, weaving a Pueblo cultural perspective into stories of the doctoral program, her dissertation research on life histories of Indian women recovering from substance abuse, her search for an academic position, the merit review ("a hostile act"), and her…

Examining School Leadership in New York City Community Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campo, Stacey Elizabeth

2017-01-01

The community school model is rooted in John Dewey's (1902) conceptualization of the public school as a hub for the community. This work has evolved over a hundred years and recently experienced prominence in the public eye as a fundamental component of New York City's school turnaround policy. This dissertation describes findings and…

Archives of Transformation: A Case Study of the International Women's Network against Militarism's Archival System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cachola, Ellen-Rae Cabebe

2014-01-01

This dissertation describes the International Women's Network Against Militarism's (IWNAM) political epistemology of security from an archival perspective, and how they create community archives to evidence this epistemology. This research examines records created by Women for Genuine Security (WGS) and Women's Voices Women Speak (WVWS), U.S. and…

Effective Communication in a Culture of Learning: K-2 and Specialized Educators Communicating Effectively Regarding Students' Academic Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medina-Castellano, Latesha D.

2014-01-01

This dissertation describes an action research study that was designed to improve the communication channels among K-2 and specialized educators in a specific learning culture regarding the learning needs of students. The action research intervention plan included professional online workshops, telecommunication conferences, and recorded…

Technology Mediated Information Sharing (Monitor Sharing) in Primary Care Encounters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asan, Onur

2013-01-01

The aim of this dissertation study was to identify and describe the use of electronic health records (EHRs) for information sharing between patients and clinicians in primary-care encounters and to understand work system factors influencing information sharing. Ultimately, this will promote better design of EHR technologies and effective training…

Re-Conceptualization of Modified Angoff Standard Setting: Unified Statistical, Measurement, Cognitive, and Social Psychological Theories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iyioke, Ifeoma Chika

2013-01-01

This dissertation describes a design for training, in accordance with probability judgment heuristics principles, for the Angoff standard setting method. The new training with instruction, practice, and feedback tailored to the probability judgment heuristics principles was called the Heuristic training and the prevailing Angoff method training…

Enacting a Critical Pedagogy: A View inside an Introduction to Fiction Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scales, Sheryl Diahanna

2009-01-01

This is a qualitative instrumental case study that explores the intersections of critical theory, critical pedagogy, and critical literacy. Additionally, it describes the pedagogy of an English graduate assistant, Stella Lane, who taught a freshman-sophomore literature course at a large Midwestern Research I university. This dissertation examines…

Breaking Ground on the University Garden: Service-Learning and Action Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Bryce Collin

2014-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation was to document, analyze, understand, and describe how the environmental virtue ethics of undergraduate students were impacted after participating in a service-learning project designed to establish a new university garden. This service-learning project occurred during the fall semester of 2011, on the campus of…

On Keeping Public Visual Fieldnotes as Reflexive Ethnographic Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burkholder, Casey

2016-01-01

These "Notes from the Field" describe one doctoral student's public visual fieldnotes practice during her data collection for her dissertation. In the creation of a public digital space for participants and the public to engage with the fieldnotes through online comments and in-person conversations, this shifts the practice of keeping…

Investigating the Purpose of Trigonometry in the Modern Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hertel, Joshua T.

2013-01-01

This dissertation reports the results of a qualitative research project that aimed to develop a research-based perspective on the purpose of trigonometry in the modern sciences. The investigation was guided by three objectives. First, the study sought to identify the purpose of trigonometry as described by educators and high school textbooks.…

Exploring Novice Teachers' Cognitive Processes Using Digital Video Technology: A Qualitative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun-Ongerth, Yuelu

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes a qualitative case study that investigated novice teachers' video-aided reflection on their own teaching. To date, most studies that have investigated novice teachers' video-aided reflective practice have focused on examining novice teachers' levels of reflective writing rather than the cognitive…

A Foggy Desert: Equitable Information Flow for a Fogwater System in Southwest Morocco

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dodson, Leslie Lynn

2014-01-01

This dissertation describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a gender-inclusive information system linking rural women in Agni Hiya, Morocco and water project managers from the Association Dar Si-Hmad. This research was motivated by an interest in exploring the linkages between information and communication technologies (ICT), climate…

An Appreciative Inquiry into Educational Administration Doctoral Programs: Stories from Doctoral Students at Three Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calabrese, Raymond L.; Zepeda, Sally J.; Peters, April L.; Hummel, Crystal; Kruskamp, William H.; San Martin, Teresa; Wynne, Stefanie C.

2007-01-01

A case study using appreciate inquiry identified and described the experiences of five educational administration doctoral students representing three universities regarding their doctoral program studies and dissertation process. Data were collected using reflective narratives and the Left Hand Right Hand Column Case Method. Data revealed (a) the…

The Segments and Tones of Soyaltepec Mazatec

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beal, Heather D.

2011-01-01

This dissertation describes the segments and tones of Soyaltepec Mazatec, an Oto-Manguean language of southern Mexico virtually undescribed in the literature with the exception of Pike (1956). The preliminary work done by Pike and subsequent analyses by Goldsmith (1990) and Pizer (1994) are reviewed giving evidence that the system is complex and…

Keyless Entry: Building a Text Database Using OCR Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grotophorst, Clyde W.

1989-01-01

Discusses the use of optical character recognition (OCR) technology to produce an ASCII text database. A tutorial on digital scanning and OCR is provided, and a systems integration project which used the Calera CDP-3000XF scanner and text retrieval software to construct a database of dissertations at George Mason University is described. (four…

Systems Engineering Knowledge Asset (SEKA) Management for Higher Performing Engineering Teams: People, Process and Technology toward Effective Knowledge-Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shelby, Kenneth R., Jr.

2013-01-01

Systems engineering teams' value-creation for enterprises is slower than possible due to inefficiencies in communication, learning, common knowledge collaboration and leadership conduct. This dissertation outlines the surrounding people, process and technology dimensions for higher performing engineering teams. It describes a true experiment…

Multiple Object Retrieval in Image Databases Using Hierarchical Segmentation Tree

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Wei-Bang

2012-01-01

The purpose of this research is to develop a new visual information analysis, representation, and retrieval framework for automatic discovery of salient objects of user's interest in large-scale image databases. In particular, this dissertation describes a content-based image retrieval framework which supports multiple-object retrieval. The…

Elementary Teachers' Experiences of Departmentalized Instruction and Its Impact on Student Affect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Minott, Robert Charles

2016-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative dissertation was to explore the lived experiences of departmentalized elementary teachers, Grades 1-3, and how they addressed their students' affective needs. The main research question of the study was how do elementary school teachers perceive departmentalized instruction and describe their experiences of this…

Snapshots of Authentic Scientific Inquiry and Teacher Preparation: Undergraduate STEM Courses, Preservice and Inservice Teachers' Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

French, Debbie Ann

2016-01-01

In this dissertation, the researcher describes authentic scientific inquiry (ASI) within three stages of teacher preparation and development: a1) undergraduate STEM courses, b2) preservice secondary science education methods courses, and c3) inservice teacher professional development (PD). Incorporating (ASI)--pedagogy closely modeling the…

The Effects of Kindergarten Redshirting from a Parental Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dougan, Kelli

2014-01-01

Kindergarten redshirting is the term used to describe the phenomenon where a parent chooses to keep their child from attending kindergarten so that the child may gain a year's worth of maturity. This qualitative dissertation examines the decision making process undergone by parents who have redshirted their children. While some parents began the…

Becoming a Clinical Psychologist: Midlife Women's Narratives of Professional Identity Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Normoyle, Tre Marie

2009-01-01

This dissertation is a narrative study of the professional developmental experiences of women who were becoming clinical psychologists in midlife. The role of gender in professional identity development as described in gender socialization, the social construction of gender and developmental theories formed the conceptual basis for the study. I…

Writing on the Threshold: Investigating New Media Concerns in Composition Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Etlinger, Sarah A.

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines three recent first-year composition textbooks' treatments of new media. These textbooks treat new media as equivalent to print media; I offer "media equivalency" to describe the problem. This concept suggests that one medium is understood by the same methods as another. I argue that the media equivalency…

An Examination of Student Reengagement District Administrative Procedures: An Action Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoadley, Jared Louis

2016-01-01

Changes in Washington State law require all school districts to adopt policies and procedures concerned with student reengagement. This dissertation describes the action research undertaken in the Mead School District to address requirements of the new law to successfully reenter students after being absent due to exclusionary discipline. The…

Fifth Grade Students' Understanding of Ratio and Proportion in an Engineering Robotics Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ortiz, Araceli Martinez

2010-01-01

The research described in this dissertation explores the impact of utilizing a LEGO-robotics integrated engineering and mathematics program to support fifth grade students' learning of ratios and proportion in an extracurricular program. The research questions guiding this research study were (1) how do students' test results compare for students…

Of Tilting Earths, Ruler Swans, and Fighting Mosquitoes: First Graders Writing Nonfiction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Melissa I.

2012-01-01

Using discourse analysis methodology, this dissertation describes the literacy practices of first grade students as they engaged in researching, writing and illustrating nonfiction. The research focused on two instructional units on writing nonfiction that included a poster unit and a research report unit. The data consisted of 27 days of video…

What Factors Influence a Teacher's Decision to Renew National Board Certification?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teague, Kelly Lynne

2017-01-01

Building on the research of National Board Certification and its effect on teacher quality, student achievement, and professional development, this dissertation seeks to explore the factors that influence teachers when it is time to renew their National Board Certification. Using a qualitative methodology, this study seeks to describe the process…

Frequency, Gradience, and Variation in Consonant Insertion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

An, Young-ran

2010-01-01

This dissertation addresses the extent to which linguistic behavior can be described in terms of the projection of patterns from existing lexical items, through an investigation of Korean reduplication. Korean has a productive pattern of reduplication in which a consonant is inserted in a vowel-initial base, illustrated by forms such as "alok"--"t…

One Hen: Teaching Elementary-Level Economics for Civic Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitlock, Annie McMahon

2013-01-01

This dissertation is a qualitative case study focused on describing and analyzing the student and teacher experience with One Hen, a project-based learning unit specifically designed to teach civic engagement. In this study I address three questions: 1) Do fifth-grade students' knowledge and skills in economics change after participating in a…

Talking about Writing: Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Adolescents' Socialization into Academic Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilliland, Elizabeth A.

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes and analyzes the academic language socialization of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents through a multi-case ethnographic study of high school writing instruction in California. I argue that there is a significant gap between the norms for writing in English language development classes and those in the…

The L2 Acquisition of Buenos Aires Spanish Intonation during a Study Abroad Semester

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thornberry, Philip A.

2014-01-01

The present longitudinal study describes and categorizes the primary changes in L2 Spanish intonation over time by 11 learners studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina for one academic semester. Via the autosegmental metrical model of analysis, this dissertation classifies intonational contours for absolute interrogatives and declarative…

A Guide to Classical Liberal Scholarship. Revised Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Tom G.

This booklet introduces students to a wide range of works of classical liberal scholarship. The works described can be used in researching term papers, theses, and dissertations; each book and article provides valuable insights and information that can make the difference between an "A" and a "B" paper. The tradition of classical liberalism…

Gestural Characterization of a Phonological Class: The Liquids

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Proctor, Michael Ian

2009-01-01

Rhotics and laterals pattern together in a variety of ways that suggest that they form a phonological class (Walsh-Dickey 1997), yet capturing the relevant set of consonants and describing the behavior of its members has proven difficult under feature-based phonological theory (Wiese 2001). In this dissertation, I argue that an articulatory…

Translingual Fine-Grained Morphosyntactic Analysis and Its Application to Machine Translation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drabek, Elliott Franco

2009-01-01

English and a small set of other languages have a wealth of available linguistic knowledge resources and annotated language data, but the great majority of the world's languages have little or none. This dissertation describes work which leverages the detailed and accurate morphosyntactic analyses available for English to improve analytical…

The Expansion of the Education Sector in Sweden During the 20th Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohlsson, Rolf

1985-01-01

Three investigations on quantitative changes in higher education in Sweden are described. In Anders Nilsson's dissertation, "Study Financing and Social Recruitment to Higher Education (1920-1976)," attention was focused on changes in college recruitment from 1920 until reforms in 1977; the effect of various college financing conditions…

Characterization and damage evaluation of advanced materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitrovic, Milan

Mechanical characterization of advanced materials, namely magnetostrictive and graphite/epoxy composite materials, is studied in this dissertation, with an emphasis on damage evaluation of composite materials. Consequently, the work in this dissertation is divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on characterization of the magneto-elastic response of magnetostrictlve materials, while the second part of this dissertation describes methods for evaluating the fatigue damage in composite materials. The objective of the first part of this dissertation is to evaluate a nonlinear constitutive relation which more closely depict the magneto-elastic response of magnetostrictive materials. Correlation between experimental and theoretical values indicate that the model adequately predicts the nonlinear strain/field relations in specific regimes, and that the currently employed linear approaches are inappropriate for modeling the response of this material in a structure. The objective of the second part of this dissertation is to unravel the complexities associated with damage events associated with polymeric composite materials. The intent is to characterize and understand the influence of impact and fatigue induced damage on the residual thermo-mechanical properties and compressive strength of composite systems. The influence of fatigue generated matrix cracking and micro-delaminations on thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) and compressive strength is investigated for woven graphite/epoxy composite system. Experimental results indicate that a strong correlation exists between TEC and compressive strength measurements, indicating that TEC measurements can be used as a damage metric for this material systems. The influence of delaminations on the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a composite laminate is also investigated. Based on the changes of these parameters as a function of damage, a methodology for determining the size and location of damage is suggested. Finally, the influence of loading parameters on impact damage growth is investigated experimentally though constant amplitude and spectrum loading fatigue tests. Based on observed impact damage growth during these tests it is suggested that the low load levels can be deleted from the standardized test sequence without significant influence on impact damage propagation.

Surface modification and multiple exciton generation studies of lead(II) sulfide nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zemke, Jennifer M.

2011-12-01

Solar energy is a green alternative to fossil fuels but solar technologies to date have been plagued by low conversion efficiencies and high input costs making solar power inaccessible to much of the developing world. Semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) may provide a route to efficient, economical solar devices through a phenomenon called multiple exciton generation (MEG). Through MEG, semiconductor NPs use a high-energy input photon to create more than one exciton (electron-hole pair) per photon absorbed, thereby exhibiting large photoconversion efficiencies. While MEG has been studied in many NP systems, and we understand some of the factors that affect MEG, a rigorous analysis of the NP-ligand interface with respect to MEG is missing. This dissertation describes how the NP ligand shell directly affects MEG and subsequent charge carrier recombination. Chapter I describes the motivation for studying MEG with respect to NP surface chemistry. Chapter II provides an in-depth overview of the transient absorption experiment used to measure MEG in the NP samples. Chapter III highlights the effect of oleic acid and sodium 2, 3-dimercaptopropane sulfonate on MEG in PbS NPs. The differences in carrier recombination were accounted for by two differences between these ligands: the coordinating atom and/or the secondary structure of the ligand. Because of these hypotheses, experiments were designed to elucidate the origin of these effects by controlling the NP ligand shell. Chapter IV details a viable synthetic route to thiol and amine-capped PbS NPs using sodium 3-mercaptopropane sulfonate as an intermediate ligand. With the versatile ligand exchange described in Chapter IV, the MEG yield and carrier recombination was investigated for ligands with varying headgroups but the same secondary structure. The correlation of ligand donor atom to MEG is outlined in Chapter V. Finally, Chapter VI discusses the conclusions and future outlook of the research reported in this dissertation. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.

Designing Science Learning Environments That Support Emerging Bilingual Students to Problematize Electrical Phenomena

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suarez, Enrique A.

This dissertation investigates how emerging bilingual students make sense of natural phenomena through engaging in certain epistemic practices of science, and the elements of the learning environment that created those opportunities. Specifically, the dissertation focuses on how emerging bilingual students problematized electrical phenomena, like electric flow and electrical resistance, and how the design features of the environment (e.g., sequencing of activities, linguistic practices) may have supported students as they made sense of phenomena. The first study describes how for students presented and evaluated mechanistic models of electric flow, focusing specifically on how students identified and negotiated a disagreement between their explanatory models. The results from this study highlight the complexity of students' disagreements, not only because of the epistemological aspects related to presenting and evaluating knowledge, but also due to interpersonal dynamics and the discomfort associated with disagreeing with another person. The second study focuses on the design features of the learning environment that supported emerging bilingual students' investigations of electrical phenomena. The findings from this study highlight how a carefully designed set of activities, with the appropriate material resources (e.g., experimental tools), could support students to problematize electrical resistance. The third study describes how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices and the contextual features of the learning environment that created and hindered opportunities for translanguaging. The findings from this study identify and articulate how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices when problematizing electrical resistance, and strengthen the perspective that, in order to be equitable for emerging bilingual students, science learning environments need to act as translanguaging spaces. This dissertation makes three contributions to how science educators understand how elementary-aged emerging bilingual students learning science. First, I offer a detailed account of how emerging bilingual students engaged in epistemic practices to problematize electrical phenomena. Secondly, I argue learning environments need to create opportunities for emerging bilingual students to engage in productive epistemic work through leveraging multiple kinds of resources from their semiotic repertoires. Finally, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of how emerging bilingual students engage in translanguaging practices as they investigate and talk about the natural world.

[HYGIENE: STRUCTURE OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH STUDIES IN RUSSIA (2000-2014)].

PubMed

Evdokimov, V I; Popov, V I; Rut, A N

2015-01-01

There was analyzed the array of 1548 dissertations on the scientific specialty 14.02.01 (former specification 14.00.07) "Hygiene". Over period of 2000-2014 to the Dissertation Committee in Russia there were annually submitted (103 ± 10) theses, which include (21 ± 3) doctoral dissertations and (83 ± 8) candidate dissertations. Doctoral dissertations accounted for 20,1%, dissertations in medicine--89.3%. There was established not only the decline in the number of theses in hygiene, but the reduction of their proportion in the total array of all medical and biological dissertations in Russia. The conjugacy of the trend curves of the total stream of dissertations in medicine and biology in Russia and in hygiene is considered to be not very high (r = 0.54). In the total structure of dissertation works on General Hygiene accounted for 22.7%, Community Hygiene--15.45%, Occupational Hygiene--19.6%, Children's and Adolescents' Hygiene--24.7%, Nutrition Hygiene--8.2%, Radiation Hygiene--2.3%, in Rural Hygiene--1.2%, Hospital Hygiene-- 3.4%, Military Hygiene--2.3% correspondingly. There is pointed the development gap between the research studies in hygiene and tendency in training of high class health care professionals' in Russia.

[Trends of doctoral dissertations in nursing science: focused on studies submitted since 2000].

PubMed

Shin, Hyunsook; Sung, Kyung-Mi; Jeong, Seok Hee; Kim, Dae-Ran

2008-02-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of doctoral dissertations in nursing science submitted since 2000. Three-hundred and five dissertations of six schools of nursing published from 2000 to 2006 in Korea were analyzed with the categories of philosophy, method, body of knowledge, research design, and nursing domain. In philosophy, 82% of all dissertations were identified as scientific realism, 15% were relativism, and 3% were practicism. Two-hundred and fifty dissertations (82%) were divided into a quantitative methodology and 55 dissertations (18%) were qualitative methodology. Specifically, 45% were experimental, 23% methodological, 13% survey and 17% qualitative designed researches. Prescriptive knowledge was created in 47% of dissertations, explanatory knowledge in 29%, and descriptive knowledge in 24%. Over 50% of all research was studied with a community-based population. In the nursing domain, dissertations of the practice domain were highest (48.2%). Dissertations since 2000 were markedly different from the characteristics of the previous studies (1982-1999) in the increase of situation-related, prescriptive and community-based population studies. A picture of current nursing science identified in this study may provide a future guideline for the doctoral education for nursing.

Common Methodology Mistakes in Dissertations: Improving Dissertation Quality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Bruce

Dissertations are the cumulative, tangible "best evidence" of interests of doctoral faculty and students in serious and incisive scholarship. Thus, dissertations are thoroughly studied by the program review teams periodically hired by boards of higher education in most states. The present paper explores seven errors in quantitative…

The Conceptual Dissertation: Commentaries by Practitioners as Inquirers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garman, Noreen B.; And Others

Opinions about the conceptual dissertation are offered in seven colloquium papers by educational practitioners/scholars who have finished their dissertations over the past 5 years. Conceptual/interpretive dissertation research issues include finding a consistent language and research rationale for studies. In addition to an introduction by Noreen…

The human anatomy teacher-scholar: Meeting the expectations of educational outcomes research, course content innovation, and textbook innovation for educational scholarship

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eckel, Christine Marie

A human anatomy teacher-scholar is a scholar whose area of expertise includes content knowledge of the anatomical sciences (gross anatomy, histology, embryology, and/or neuroanatomy) and whose research interests and focus are centered in medical educational outcomes. The projects described in this dissertation represent endeavors I engaged in to become a human anatomy teacher-scholar. These projects included: (1) prospectively testing a hypothesis, and performing outcomes assessment in a field for which little data (theory) exist (dissection guide educational research project), (2) creating innovative course content that bridged disciplines (cadaver autopsy project), and (3) composing original teaching material for a specific audience (human anatomy laboratory manual). The training of a human anatomy teacher-scholar emphasizes knowledge acquisition in both the basic sciences (particularly gross anatomy) and in educational outcomes research methodology and theory. Therefore, human anatomy teacher-scholars are positioned to create innovative course content and materials and assess the innovations to guide future efforts. These are important skills for faculty members involved in the education of medical students in the U.S. as the medical education system in the U.S. continues to evolve.

Dissertation Genre Change as a Result of Electronic Theses and Dissertation Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pantelides, Kate

2015-01-01

The increasing prevalence of mandatory Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) policies has ushered in rather dramatic dissertation genre change. The affordances of the medium offer expanded access and audience, availability of new compositional tools, and alternate formats, the implications of which are just beginning to appear in…

Good Undergraduate Dissertation Supervision: Perspectives of Supervisors and Dissertation Coordinators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Lynne D.; Seaman, Kristen

2018-01-01

There is a paucity of research, training, and material available to support supervisors of undergraduate dissertation students. This article explores what "good" supervision might look like at this level. Interviews were conducted with eight new supervisors and six dissertation coordinators using a critical incident methodology. Thematic…

Graduate Students "Show Their Work": Metalanguage in Dissertation Methodology Sections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pantelides, Kate L.

2017-01-01

To address graduate writing pedagogy in technical communication, this article reports on a study of 14 award-winning dissertations in the field. By treating dissertations as cultural artifacts constitutive of the educational contexts in which they are authored, this study reads dissertation methodology sections as research narratives to understand…

34 CFR 662.1 - What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Research Abroad Fellowship Program? 662.1 Section 662.1 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM General § 662.1 What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program? (a) The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation...

34 CFR 662.1 - What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Research Abroad Fellowship Program? 662.1 Section 662.1 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM General § 662.1 What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program? (a) The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation...

34 CFR 662.1 - What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Research Abroad Fellowship Program? 662.1 Section 662.1 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM General § 662.1 What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program? (a) The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation...

34 CFR 662.1 - What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Research Abroad Fellowship Program? 662.1 Section 662.1 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM General § 662.1 What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program? (a) The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation...

34 CFR 662.1 - What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Research Abroad Fellowship Program? 662.1 Section 662.1 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM General § 662.1 What is the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Program? (a) The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation...

Historical Trends in Counsellor Education Dissertations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Judith; Dykeman, Cass; Bender, Sara

2016-01-01

There exists a dearth of literature on the content, research method and research design trends of dissertations in education. Within one large subfield of education (i.e. counsellor education), an online and full-text archive of dissertations has become available. This archive contains over 200 dissertations produced in Oregon State University's…

STEM Education Related Dissertation Abstracts: A Bounded Qualitative Meta-Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banning, James; Folkestad, James E.

2012-01-01

This article utilizes a bounded qualitative meta-study framework to examine the 101 dissertation abstracts found by searching the ProQuest Dissertation and Theses[TM] digital database for dissertations abstracts from 1990 through 2010 using the search terms education, science, technology, engineer, and STEM/SMET. Professional search librarians…

[Old medical dissertations in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University Frankfurt-on-Oder (Viadrina), 1700-1811].

PubMed

Rummler, Siegbert

2008-01-01

Based on an analysis of the medical dissertations which have survived from the University of Frankfurt-on-Oder (Viadrina), this paper illustrates the importance of old medical dissertations as historical sources. For 389 out of 570 medical students who received their medical doctorate at the Viadrina between the years 1700 and 1811, the topics of their dissertations have been ascertained. 15 dissertations on obstetrical and gynaecological topics are more closely analysed.

Macro-Focused Social Work Dissertations: A Preliminary Look at the Numbers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fogel, Sondra J.; Ersing, Robin

2016-01-01

Dissertation research is an important indicator of practice trends and emerging issues. The social work profession relies on this scholarship to build its knowledge base thus reducing reliance on cognate fields. It is worthwhile to note how many dissertations are being completed and to review the categories being pursued in dissertation products…

Geo-Bibliometric Mapping of French Geography: An Examination of Geography Dissertations Produced in France

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herubel, Jean-Pierre V. M.

2005-01-01

French geography dissertations for the years 1985-2002 were examined for their salient characteristics in terms of degree production, dissertation type, institutional affiliation, and geographical reach. These dissertations offer a rich base of research conducted in a country known for its innovative geographical research and tradition. Particular…

7 CFR 3402.6 - Overview of the special international study and/or thesis/dissertation research travel allowance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... thesis/dissertation research travel allowance. 3402.6 Section 3402.6 Agriculture Regulations of the... Overview of the special international study and/or thesis/dissertation research travel allowance. (a) For.../dissertation research travel allowance, the Project Director must apply to HEP for a supplemental grant in...

7 CFR 3402.6 - Overview of the special international study and/or thesis/dissertation research travel allowance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... thesis/dissertation research travel allowance. 3402.6 Section 3402.6 Agriculture Regulations of the... Overview of the special international study and/or thesis/dissertation research travel allowance. (a) For.../dissertation research travel allowance, the Project Director must apply to HEP for a supplemental grant in...

Examining Foundations of Qualitative Research: A Review of Social Work Dissertations, 2008-2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gringeri, Christina; Barusch, Amanda; Cambron, Christopher

2013-01-01

This study examined the treatment of epistemology and methodological rigor in qualitative social work dissertations. Template-based review was conducted on a random sample of 75 dissertations completed between 2008 and 2010. For each dissertation, we noted the presence or absence of four markers of epistemology: theory, paradigm, reflexivity, and…

College Housing Dissertations: A Bounded Qualitative Meta-Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banning, James H.; Kuk, Linda

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine dissertations that were published in the U.S. during the past 5 years that related to collegiate housing. The dissertations were examined using a bounded qualitative meta-analysis approach. Each dissertation was examined using three questions: What were the methods/attributes of the research? What were the…

34 CFR 662.20 - How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research... DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Selection of Fellows § 662.20 How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected? (a) The Secretary considers applications for fellowships under...

34 CFR 662.20 - How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research... DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Selection of Fellows § 662.20 How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected? (a) The Secretary considers applications for fellowships under...

Writing a Book from Your Dissertation: Seven Stages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pane, Debra M.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this Writer's Forum is to share seven stages for writing a book from your dissertation: relinquishing control of your dissertation; selecting and working with your publisher; defining and writing for your audience; revising and drafting your dissertation into a book; securing and using feedback; including front matter, back matter,…

Capacity development for health research in Africa: experiences managing the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship Program

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Africa's progress depends on her capacity to generate, adapt, and use scientific knowledge to meet regional health and development needs. Yet, Africa's higher education institutions that are mandated to foster this capacity lack adequate resources to generate and apply knowledge, raising the need for innovative approaches to enhance research capacity. In this paper, we describe a newly-developed program to support PhD research in health and population sciences at African universities, the African Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship (ADDRF) Program. We also share our experiences implementing the program. As health research capacity-strengthening in Africa continues to attract attention and as the need for such programs to be African-led is emphasized, our experiences in developing and implementing the ADDRF offer invaluable lessons to other institutions undertaking similar initiatives. PMID:20587016

"When Mathematical Activity Moves You": An Exploration of the Design and Use of Purposefully Embodied Mathematical Activities, Models, Contexts, and Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, William James

2017-01-01

This dissertation describes a mathematics curriculum and instruction design experiment involving a series of embodied mathematical activities conducted in two Colorado elementary schools Activities designed for this experiment include multi-scalar number line models focused on supporting students' understanding of elementary mathematics. Realistic…

Laboring to Connect: The Challenges of Student-Teacher Intersubjectivity at an Urban Charter High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soto, Christopher S.

2011-01-01

In this dissertation, I examine the mediating role of emotion during lived interactions between students and teachers at an urban charter high school. While the importance of student-teacher connectivity for positive school engagement has been well documented, research that attempts to describe the mechanism of that link is scarce. This…

The Design and Evaluation of a Simulation-Based Behavior Change Intervention for Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Bryan Smith

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes a line of research that addresses translational research questions related to the use of computerized simulation to affect the knowledge, beliefs, motivation and self-management behaviors of individuals with chronic disease. The specific research projects focus on type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and physical activity as…

Definite Markers, Phi-Features, and Agreement: A Morphosyntactic Investigation of the Amharic DP

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramer, Ruth

2009-01-01

This dissertation has two inter-related goals: (i) to describe and provide novel analyses of three types of important and difficult phenomena within Amharic DPs and (ii) to explore the properties of the syntax-morphology interface. The core phenomena explicated are the unusual distribution of the definite marker, the gender system (which relies…

Reclaiming Queerness: Self, Identity, and the Research Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Janna Marie

2007-01-01

This article explores some of the challenges and benefits of doing a dissertation with participants from a population to which I belong and on a topic some consider controversial, that of gay and lesbian educators. I describe the homophobia I experienced and how that homophobia affected my choice of topic, the research process, and my job…

Responsive Classroom Ecologies: Supporting Student Inquiry and Rhetorical Awareness in College Writing Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jankens, Adrienne

2014-01-01

This dissertation describes and analyzes the work of a semester-long teacher research study of inquiry-based and reflective teaching and learning strategies and their impact on students' preparation for future learning. I explore relevant scholarship on knowledge transfer, classroom ecologies, and student agency to set the stage for a discussion…

The Lived Experience of Student Caregivers: A Phenomenological Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schumacher, Lisa Polakowski

2017-01-01

The purpose of this dissertation study was to describe how students who provide care for a person with a disability or chronic illness cope with the demands of both roles. The way students cope with stress has a direct impact on overall health, which has an impact on learning, development, and retention. Student caregivers are considered…

Instruction and Assessment Technique Choices of Adjunct Humanities and Social Science Instructors in Virginia Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiser, Lyda Costello

2017-01-01

Issues of instruction and assessment at community colleges are influenced by the high percentage of classes taught by adjunct faculty. In 2014 for the Virginia Community College System, part-time instructors comprised 70.3% of instructional faculty. This dissertation describes the instruction and assessment technique choices of adjunct instructors…

Phonological Aspects of Language Contact along the Slavic Periphery: An Ecological Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dombrowski, Andrew

2013-01-01

This dissertation is focused on analyzing phonological contact between Slavic and non-Slavic languages in southeastern and northeastern Europe, with the particular goal of describing how the social context of language contact interacts with linguistic factors to shape the outcome of contact-induced change. On the basis of case studies drawn from…

Latino Families and Parental Involvement: A Case Study of Home Literature Conversations in a Primary Bilingual Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinones, Anna M.

2009-01-01

This dissertation study describes and interprets the dialogue between Latino parents and their children during home literature conversations. The participating students were enrolled in my first and second grade classroom in East Los Angeles, California. I was guided by the following research questions in this qualitative teacher research study:…

Improving Student Employee Training: A Study of Web 2.0 Social Media Tools as a Delivery Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Sharon D.

2012-01-01

Training student employees in Educational Outreach and Student Services (EOSS) at Arizona State University's West campus is important to maintaining a knowledgeable and productive workforce. This dissertation describes the results of an action research study in which social media tools were utilized as a delivery mechanism for training student…

Organizational Blackmail: A Social Construction of Faculty Assessment System in a Commercialized Public University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mensah, Ben Sarpong

2012-01-01

What is the social construction of the faculty assessment system at Unival University, and how can it be explained? This dissertation used interview data from thirty members of faculty from a commercialized non-profit public university in Ghana to induct a substantive theory to describe and explain the particular social construction. The findings…

Investigation of Strategies to Promote Effective Teacher Professional Development Experiences in Earth Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engelmann, Carol A.

2014-01-01

This dissertation serves as a call to geoscientists to share responsibility with K-12 educators for increasing Earth science literacy. When partnerships are created among K-12 educators and geoscientists, the synergy created can promote Earth science literacy in students, teachers, and the broader community. The research described here resulted in…

Computing the English Middle Ages: A Sociotechnical Study of Medievalists' Engagement with Digital Humanities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simpson, Grant Leyton

2017-01-01

With few exceptions, digital humanities projects and objects have been described rather than studied. This dissertation attempts to advance that discourse by empirically studying, from a sociotechnical point of view, DH projects and the products they produce, specifically those within the realm of Old and Middle English language and literature.…

Research as a Recursive Process: Reconsidering "The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers" 35 Years Later

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perl, Sondra

2014-01-01

This article describes Sondra Perl's retrospective review of the composing processes of unskilled college writers and whether her assumptions and values in the designing of research projects have changed over her long teaching career. She uses her college dissertation "Five Writers Writing" as the basis to reflect on the authors and…

Experienced Teachers' Informal Learning in the Workplace. IVLOS Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoekstra, Annemarieke

2007-01-01

The aim of the research reported in this dissertation is to describe how experienced secondary school teachers learn at work in an informal environment. The study is part of a larger research project aimed at providing a conceptual framework of teacher learning in the workplace as it takes place both in informal and formal learning environments.…

Bidirectional Transfer: Consequences of Translation Ambiguity for Bilingual Word Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Degani, Tamar

2011-01-01

Could a second language (L2) influence how bilinguals process their native language (L1)? The work described in this dissertation examined this issue focusing on the way bilinguals interpret the meanings of words. Capitalizing on the prevalence of words that can be translated in more than one way across languages (i.e., "translation ambiguity,"…

Voice and Valence-Altering Operations in Falam Chin: A Role and Reference Grammar Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Deborah

2010-01-01

This dissertation describes and analyzes voice and valence-altering operations in Falam Chin, a Tibeto-Burman language of Burma. The data is explained within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), which supplies several key concepts particularly useful for generalizing the behavior of the Falam Chin operations. The first is RRG's…

Serving the Needs of Struggling Developmental Education Students: The Development of a Program Planning Guidebook for Community College Administrators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bohnet, Kimberly Jean

2016-01-01

This dissertation describes the process of creating a guidebook that developmental education administrators can use to build their capacity as leaders, learners, and program planners. The guidebook is the product of a qualitative study designed to better understand how community college administrators who have program planning responsibilities for…

Indian Country Fellows: Foundations Pool Resources to Support TCU Faculty Dissertations, Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchbanks, Rachael

2011-01-01

This article describes how the American Indian College Fund helps tribal college and university (TCU) faculty members conduct research and complete their Ph.D.s--and tackle unique challenges. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the fellowship programs administered by the College Fund pay a one-year stipend…

Perceptions of State-Funded, School District-Based Principal Preparation Programs in Virginia 2004-2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirk, Kathryn Gordy

2010-01-01

The mixed methods case study described and analyzed the 2004-2006 district-based principal preparation programs in Virginia. This dissertation explored goals stated in proposals for funding as well as program director and program completer perceptions of goals, content, processes, and outcomes for the 10 principal preparation programs that stemmed…

A Legal Analysis of Federal Disability Law as Related to Emerging Technology: Guidelines for Postsecondary Leadership, Policy, and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Roderick Dwayne

2014-01-01

This dissertation identified and described the legal requirements imposed by federal disability mandates and case law related to emerging technology. Additionally, the researcher created a legal framework (guidelines) for higher education institutions to consider during policy development and implementation of emerging technology by providing an…

Data Literacy of Reading Educators: Teacher Perception and Knowledge of the Use of Reading Data to Influence Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beachy, Rachel Rayburn

2017-01-01

This dissertation is developed around two studies created with the goal of describing and quantifying current educators' knowledge and perceptions of reading assessment and subsequent data-based instructional decision making. Unique to the field, a critical component of this study is an emphasis on educators' development of "data…

The Rise and Fall of Unstressed Vowel Reduction in the Spanish of Cusco, Peru: A Sociophonetic Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delforge, Ann Marie

2009-01-01

This dissertation describes the phonetic characteristics of a phenomenon that has previously been denominated "unstressed vowel reduction" in Andean Spanish based on the spectrographic analysis of 40,556 unstressed vowels extracted from the conversational speech of 150 residents of the city of Cusco, Peru. Results demonstrate that this…

Materials from the National Arts and the Handicapped Information Service: Annotated Bibliography. Second Draft.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Arts and the Handicapped Information Service, New York, NY.

This annotated bibliography describes media and materials on the subject of arts and handicapped persons, including books, recordings, films, and materials transcribed in braille and large print. Only materials produced since 1970 are listed; the many articles, magazines, and dissertations that were published in this period are not included.…

Rapid Development of Custom Software Architecture Design Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-08-01

the tools themselves. This dissertation describes a new approach to capturing and using architectural design expertise in software architecture design environments...A language and tools are presented for capturing and encapsulating software architecture design expertise within a conceptual framework...of architectural styles and design rules. The design expertise thus captured is supported with an incrementally configurable software architecture

When the Quiet Surfaces: "Transfer" of Argument Omission in the Speech of ASL-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koulidobrova, Elena V.

2012-01-01

The main research question of this dissertation is the nature of language interaction effects observed in linguistic patterns of multilingual children. Such effects--often described as syntactic transfer/influence of one of the languages on the other--have been richly documented in the multilingualism literature. I review an influential model…

Bodily Writing and Performative Inquiry: Inviting an Arts-Based Research Methodology into Collaborative Doctoral Research Vocabularies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buono, Alexia; Gonzalez, Charles H.

2017-01-01

In this article, the authors (then two doctoral students) describe their methodology of engaging in an interdisciplinary, collaborative doctoral arts-based research (ABR) project. Education and the arts were integrated utilizing dance methods of bodily writing and performative inquiry to strengthen the analysis of dissertation findings in the…

Highly accurate adaptive finite element schemes for nonlinear hyperbolic problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oden, J. T.

1992-08-01

This document is a final report of research activities supported under General Contract DAAL03-89-K-0120 between the Army Research Office and the University of Texas at Austin from July 1, 1989 through June 30, 1992. The project supported several Ph.D. students over the contract period, two of which are scheduled to complete dissertations during the 1992-93 academic year. Research results produced during the course of this effort led to 6 journal articles, 5 research reports, 4 conference papers and presentations, 1 book chapter, and two dissertations (nearing completion). It is felt that several significant advances were made during the course of this project that should have an impact on the field of numerical analysis of wave phenomena. These include the development of high-order, adaptive, hp-finite element methods for elastodynamic calculations and high-order schemes for linear and nonlinear hyperbolic systems. Also, a theory of multi-stage Taylor-Galerkin schemes was developed and implemented in the analysis of several wave propagation problems, and was configured within a general hp-adaptive strategy for these types of problems. Further details on research results and on areas requiring additional study are given in the Appendix.

Design synthesis and optimization of permanent magnet synchronous machines based on computationally-efficient finite element analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sizov, Gennadi Y.

In this dissertation, a model-based multi-objective optimal design of permanent magnet ac machines, supplied by sine-wave current regulated drives, is developed and implemented. The design procedure uses an efficient electromagnetic finite element-based solver to accurately model nonlinear material properties and complex geometric shapes associated with magnetic circuit design. Application of an electromagnetic finite element-based solver allows for accurate computation of intricate performance parameters and characteristics. The first contribution of this dissertation is the development of a rapid computational method that allows accurate and efficient exploration of large multi-dimensional design spaces in search of optimum design(s). The computationally efficient finite element-based approach developed in this work provides a framework of tools that allow rapid analysis of synchronous electric machines operating under steady-state conditions. In the developed modeling approach, major steady-state performance parameters such as, winding flux linkages and voltages, average, cogging and ripple torques, stator core flux densities, core losses, efficiencies and saturated machine winding inductances, are calculated with minimum computational effort. In addition, the method includes means for rapid estimation of distributed stator forces and three-dimensional effects of stator and/or rotor skew on the performance of the machine. The second contribution of this dissertation is the development of the design synthesis and optimization method based on a differential evolution algorithm. The approach relies on the developed finite element-based modeling method for electromagnetic analysis and is able to tackle large-scale multi-objective design problems using modest computational resources. Overall, computational time savings of up to two orders of magnitude are achievable, when compared to current and prevalent state-of-the-art methods. These computational savings allow one to expand the optimization problem to achieve more complex and comprehensive design objectives. The method is used in the design process of several interior permanent magnet industrial motors. The presented case studies demonstrate that the developed finite element-based approach practically eliminates the need for using less accurate analytical and lumped parameter equivalent circuit models for electric machine design optimization. The design process and experimental validation of the case-study machines are detailed in the dissertation.

Degradable Networks Containing Silyl Ether Bonds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bassampour, Zahra S.

Degradable networks possess applications in many fields such as medical implants, electrical devices, industrial coatings, adhesives, and aerospace. Silyl ether bonds are reactive functionalities capable of degrading under physiological condition without significantly affecting the pH of the surrounding environment. This dissertation focuses on preparative methods of degradable networks utilizing silyl ether functionalities. Epoxy polymers are broadly utilized in many different applications. Despite the broad utilization of epoxy polymer thermosets in long-term applications, these thermosets are not very popular candidates in short-term applications. This unpopularity is mostly due to the fact that epoxy networks are non-degradable systems, which results in their recycling being very costly and environmentally unfriendly. In the first and second part of this dissertation, the synthesis of various amine and thiol curing agents containing hydrolyzable silyl ether bonds is described. Using these curing agents, thermosetting epoxy polymers with degradable properties were prepared. The degradation behavior and thermal properties of the cured networks were studied. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of vision loss in the industrialized world. The high prevalence of AMD and the complications and shortcomings of available treatment options give rise to a great need for the development of novel types of biodegradable implants to provide sustainable drug release. The third part of this dissertation describes the utilization of hydrolyzable silyl ether bonds in the synthesis of novel implants capable of reserving and releasing a drug in a controlled manner in order to treat AMD. Base- catalyzed thiol-Michael reactions were exploited to prepare a series of biodegradable cross- linked networks. The networks were characterized by FTIR, TGA, and DMA. The effect of monomer structure on degradation, release behavior, and thermal properties was investigated.

Assessing the Quality of PhD Dissertations. A Survey of External Committee Members

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kyvik, Svein; Thune, Taran

2015-01-01

This article reports on a study of the quality assessment of doctoral dissertations, and asks whether examiner characteristics influence assessment of research quality in PhD dissertations. Utilising a multi-dimensional concept of quality of PhD dissertations, we look at differences in assessment of research quality, and particularly test whether…

Analyzing the Dissertations about Differentiated Instruction in Terms of Their Contents in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karip, Fatih

2016-01-01

This study aims to analyze the dissertations about differentiated instruction in terms of their contents in Turkey. The data of the study was collected from Council of Higher Education National Thesis Center database. The dissertations were searched without any year limitation. As a result of searching, 19 dissertations were found. The data…

Recurring Themes across Fractal Issues Facing International Students: A Thematic Analysis of 2016 Dissertations and Theses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bista, Krishna; Gaulee, Uttam

2017-01-01

This section shares recent dissertations and theses with the "Journal of International Students" readers. There were about 139 graduate dissertations and theses related to the issues and challenges of international students in 2016. The complete versions of these selected dissertations are available in the ProQuest, Michigan-based…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984 (Vol. 44, Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 dissertations abstracted deal with the following topics: (1) female managers' approaches to organizational conflict; (2) relationships between organizational climate and pupil control ideology; (3) information communication…

Institutional and Regulatory Economics of Electricity Market Reforms: the Evidence from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Bipulendu

Five South Asian countries-- India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka -- embarked on electricity market reforms in the 1990's. The dissertation uses the framework of New Institutional Economics to assess the effects on electricity sector performance of both observables elements of reform (i.e. privatization, unbundling, establishment of independent regulatory agencies etc.) as well as the unobservable elements (informal beliefs, habit, norms and culture of the actors involved in reforms). The first part of the dissertation -- econometric analysis of the relationship between observable electricity market reform measures and performance indicators -- finds that for the most part electricity market reforms in South Asia are having a positive impact on the performance of the sector. This is particularly the case for reforms that have increased private sector participation in generation and distribution and have vertically unbundled utilities into generation, transmission and distribution entities. Many of the reforms are positively correlated with higher tariffs, indicating a cost to the consumers from the reforms. The relationship between independent regulation and performance indicators , however, is not established. The second part of the dissertation - analytical narrative of the reform experiences of Gujarat and Nepal -- examines the informal elements (such as beliefs, norms, culture) that motivate behavior and explains how and why reform outcomes differed in these two places. The dissertation finds that the strength of formal institutions rules and the nature of social norms and customs have a significant influence on the outcome of reforms. Aided by the strength of its formal institutional framework and more evolved social norms and customs that encouraged people to follow formal rules, reforms in the Indian state of Gujarat were a success. The weakness of the formal institutional framework and the predominance of relation-based norms and customs in Nepal that led to limited compliance with formal rules, by contrast, limited the success of power sector reforms there. Efforts to reform the electricity sector in South Asia undertaken by governments with the assistance of development agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have focused to a large extent on getting the content of electricity market reform measures such as unbundling, privatization, and establishment of a power market right. The analysis in this dissertation suggests that such measures will be more successful in places with relatively robust formal rule based systems. Countries that are planning to carry out significant reforms in the electricity sector will benefit from the explicit consideration of the informal norms, habits and customs of the actors that will be affected by the reforms.

Knowledge elicitation techniques and application to nuclear plant maintenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Doyle, E. Kevin

The new millennium has brought with it the opportunity of global trade which in turn requires the utmost in efficiency from each individual industry. This includes the nuclear power industry, a point which was emphasized when the electrical generation industry began to be de regulated across North America the late 1990s and re-emphasized when the northeast power grid of North America collapsed in the summer of 2003. This dissertation deals with reducing the cost of the maintenance function of Candu nuclear power plants and initiating a strong link between universities and the Canadian nuclear industry. Various forms of RCM (reliability-centred maintenance) have been the tools of choice in industry for improving the maintenance function during the last 20 years. In this project, pilot studies, conducted at Bruce Power between 1999 and 2005, and reported on in this dissertation, lay out a path to implement statistical improvements as the next step after RCM in reducing the cost of the maintenance. Elicitation protocols, designed for the age group being elicited, address the much-documented issue of a lack of data. Clear, graphical, inferential statistical interfaces are accentuated and developed to aid in building the teams required to implement the various methodologies and to help in achieving funding targets. Graphical analysis and Crow/AMSAA (army materials systems analysis activity) plots are developed and demonstrated from the point of view of justifying the expenditures of cost reduction efforts. This dissertation ultimately speaks to the great opportunity being presented by this approach at this time: of capturing the baby-boom generation's huge pool of knowledge before those people retire. It is expected that the protocols and procedures referenced here will have applicability across the many disciplines where collecting expert information from a similar age group is required.

Design, fabrication and analysis of integrated optical waveguide devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sikorski, Yuri

Throughout the present dissertation, the main effort has been to develop the set of design rules for optical integrated circuits (OIC). At the present time, when planar optical integrated circuits seem to be the leading technology, and industry is heading towards much higher levels of integration, such design rules become necessary. It is known that analysis of light propagation in rectangular waveguides can not be carried out exactly. Various approximations become necessary, and their validity is discussed in this text. Various methods are used in the text for calculating the same problems, and results are compared. A few new concepts have been suggested to avoid approximations used elsewhere. The second part of this dissertation is directed to the development of a new technique for the fabrication of optical integrated circuits inside optical glass. This technique is based on the use of ultrafast laser pulses to alter the properties of glasses. Using this method we demonstrated the possibility of changing the refractive index of various passive and active optical glasses as well as ablating the material on the surface in a controlled fashion. A number of optical waveguide devices (e.g. waveguides, directional couplers, diffraction gratings, fiber Bragg gratings, V-grooves in dual-clad optical fibers, optical waveguide amplifiers) were fabricated and tested. Testing included measurements of loss/throughput, near-field mode profiles, efficiency and thermal stability. All of the experimental setup and test results are reported in the dissertation. We also demonstrated the possibility of using this technique to fabricate future bio-optical devices that will incorporate an OIC and a microfluidic circuit on a single substrate. Our results are expected to serve as a guide for the design and fabrication of a new generation of integrated optical and bio-optical devices.

The Ph.D. Dissertation: An Analysis of the Doctoral Dissertation as an Information Source.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyer, Calvin James

In 1972 American universities will confer 33,700 doctorates. An essential feature of the process which leads to the doctorate is the submission and defense of a dissertation. The doctoral dissertation must embody the results of extended research, be an original contribution to knowledge and include material worthy of publication. It is surprising,…

Kinetic Methods for Understanding Linker Exchange in Metal-Organic Frameworks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morabito, Joseph V.

Exchange reactions have enabled a new level of control in the rational, stepwise preparation of metal-organic framework (MOF) materials. However, their full potential is limited by a lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which they occur. This dissertation describes our efforts to understand this important class of reactions in two parts. The first reports our use of a linker exchange process to encapsulate guest molecules larger than the limiting pore aperture of the MOF. The concept is demonstrated, along with evidence for guest encapsulation and its relation to a dissociative linker exchange process. The second part describes our development of the first quantitative kinetic method for studying MOF linker exchange reactions and our application of this method to understand the solvent dependence of the reaction of ZIF-8 with imidazole. This project involved the collection of the largest set of rate data available on any MOF linker exchange reaction. The combination of this dataset with small molecule encapsulation experiments allowed us to formulate a mechanistic model that could account for all the observed kinetic and structural data. By comparison with the kinetic behavior of complexes in solution, we were able to fit the kinetic behavior of ZIF-8 into the broader family of coordination compounds. Aside from the specific use that our kinetic data may have in predicting the reactivity of ZIF linker exchange, we hope that the conceptual bridges made between MOFs and related metal?organic compounds can help reveal underlying patterns in behavior and advance the field.

3-D lithium ion microbattery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeh, Yuting

The lithium-ion battery has emerged as a common power source for portable consumer electronics since its debut two decades ago. Due to the low atomic weight and high electrochemical activity of lithium chemistry, lithium-ion battery has a higher energy density as compared to other battery systems, such as Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, and lead-acid batteries. As a result, use of lithium-ion batteries enables the size of batteries to be effectively reduced without compromising capacity. More importantly, as battery size is reduced, it enhances the applications of portable electronics, increasing the convenience of use. The 3-D battery architecture described in the dissertation is believed to be a new paradigm for future batteries. The architecture features coupled 3-D electrodes to provide better charge/discharge kinetics and a higher charge capacity per footprint area. The overarching objective of this dissertation is to implement the 3-D architecture using the lithium-ion chemistry. The 3-D lithium-ion batteries are designed to provide high areal energy density without compromising power density. The dissertation is comprised of four interrelated sections. First, a simulation was conducted to identify key battery parameters and to define an ideal three-dimensional cell structure. The second part of the research involved identifying fabrication routes to build the 3-D electrode, which was the key design element in the 3-D paradigm. The third part of the dissertation was to correlate the electrode performance with its geometric features. In particular, the influence of aspect ratio was investigated. Lastly, an electrolyte/separator was designed and fabricated based on the existing 3-D electrode configuration. This enabled 3-D battery to be assembled.

Development of silicon photonic microring resonator biosensors for multiplexed cytokine assays and in vitro diagnostics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luchansky, Matthew Sam

In order to guide critical care therapies that are personalized to a patient's unique disease state, a diagnostic or theranostic medical device must quickly provide a detailed biomolecular understanding of disease onset and progression. This detailed molecular understanding of cellular processes and pathways requires the ability to measure multiple analytes in parallel. Though many traditional sensing technologies for biomarker analysis and fundamental biological studies (i.e. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, real-time polymerase chain reaction, etc.) rely on single-parameter measurements, it has become increasingly clear that the inherent complexity of many human illnesses and pathways necessitates quantitative and multiparameter analysis of biological samples. Currently used analytical methods are deficient in that they often provide either highly quantitative data for a single biomarker or qualitative data for many targets, but methods that simultaneously provide highly quantitative analysis of many targets have yet to be adequately developed. Fields such as medical diagnostics and cellular biology would benefit greatly from a technology that enables rapid, quantitative and reproducible assays for many targets within a single sample. In an effort to fill this unmet need, this doctoral dissertation describes the development of a clinically translational biosensing technology based on silicon photonics and developed in the chemistry research laboratory of Ryan C. Bailey. Silicon photonic microring resonators, a class of high-Q optical sensors, represent a promising platform for rapid, multiparameter in vitro measurements. The original device design utilizes 32-ring arrays for real-time biomolecular sensing without fluorescent labels, and these optical biosensors display great potential for more highly multiplexed (100s-1000s) measurements based on the impressive scalability of silicon device fabrication. Though this technology can be used to detect a variety of molecules, this dissertation establishes the utility of microring resonator chips for multiparameter analysis of several challenging protein targets in cell cultures, human blood sera, and other clinical samples such as cerebrospinal fluid. Various sandwich immunoassay formats for diverse protein analytes are described herein, but the bulk of this dissertation focuses on applying the technology to cytokine analysis. Cytokines are small signaling proteins that are present in serum and cell secretomes at concentrations in the pg/mL or ng/mL range. Cytokines are very challenging to quantitate due to their low abundance and small size, but play important roles in a variety of immune response and inflammatory pathways; cytokine quantitation is thus important in fundamental biological studies and diagnostics, and complex and overlapping cytokine roles make multiplexed measurements especially vital. In a typical experiment, microfluidics are used to spatially control chip functionalization by directing capture antibodies against a variety of protein targets to groups of microring sensors. In each case, binding of analytes to the rings causes a change in the local refractive index that is transduced into a real-time, quantitative optical signal. This photonic sensing modality is based on the interaction of the propagating evanescent field with molecules near the ring surface. Since each microring sensor in the array is monitored independently, this technology allows multiple proteins to be quantified in parallel from a single sample. This dissertation describes the fabrication, characterization, development, and application of silicon photonic microring resonator technology to multiplexed protein measurements in a variety of biological systems. Chapter 1 introduces the field of high-Q optical sensors and places microring resonator technology within the broader context of related whispering gallery mode devices. The final stages of cleanroom device fabrication, in which 8" silicon wafers that contain hundreds of ring resonator arrays are transformed into individual functional chips, are described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 characterizes the physical and optical properties of the microring resonator arrays, especially focusing on the evanescent field profile and mass sensitivity metrics. Chapter 4 demonstrates the ability to apply ring resonator technology to cytokine detection and T cell secretion analysis. Chapter 5 builds on the initial cytokine work to demonstrate the simultaneous detection of multiple cytokines with higher throughput to enable studies of T cell differentiation. In preparation for reaching the goal of cytokine analysis in clinical samples, Chapter 6 describes magnetic bead-based signal enhancement of sandwich immunoassays for serum analysis. Additional examples of the utility of nanoparticles and sub-micron beads for signal amplification are described in Chapter 7, also demonstrating the ability to monitor single bead binding events. Chapter 8 describes an alternative cytokine signal enhancement strategy based on enzymatic amplification for human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis. Chapter 9 adds work with other CSF protein targets that are relevant to the continuing development of a multiparameter Alzheimer's Disease diagnostic chip. Future directions for multiplexed protein analysis as it pertains to important immunological studies and in vitro diagnostic applications are defined in Chapter 10. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

The Human Anatomy Teacher-Scholar: Meeting the Expectations of Educational Outcomes Research, Course Content Innovation, and Textbook Innovation for Educational Scholarship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eckel, Christine Marie

2009-01-01

A human anatomy teacher-scholar is a scholar whose area of expertise includes content knowledge of the anatomical sciences (gross anatomy, histology, embryology, and/or neuroanatomy) and whose research interests and focus are centered in medical educational outcomes. The projects described in this dissertation represent endeavors I engaged in to…

Differences in Student Success as a Function of Dual Credit Enrollment for Texas Community College Students: A Multiyear Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, Dorothy B.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to examine dual credit enrollment with respect to student demographic characteristics and to student success of Texas community college students. The first purpose was to describe the demographic characteristics with respect to gender and ethnicity/race of Texas community college students…

Immersive Media Environments for Special Education: Developing Agency in Communication for Youth with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tolentino, Lisa

2013-01-01

This dissertation describes the development of a state-of-the-art immersive media environment and its potential to motivate high school youth with autism to vocally express themselves. Due to the limited availability of media environments in public education settings, studies on the use of such systems in special education contexts are rare. A…

Standing in the middle: Insider/outsider positionality while conducting qualitative research with opposing military veteran political groups

Treesearch

David Flores

2018-01-01

This case study describes the process and challenges of conducting qualitative research on two opposing military veteran political groups: Iraq Veterans Against the War and Vets for Freedom. The discussion is based on a dissertation project that compelled me to reflect on my simultaneous "insider" status as a military veteran and "outsider" status...

Reading between the Lines: A Distinctly Pragmatic Approach to 1 Thess 4:13-5:11 and 2 Thess 2:1-12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schulze, Robert J.

2010-01-01

This dissertation investigates the viability of utilizing linguistic pragmatics to interpret the biblical text and to determine its hermeneutical significance. As a complementary aid to historical and literary readings of a text, linguistic pragmatics utilizes certain tools to discover and/or describe the implicit meaning encoded into a text. A…

Placing Ourselves in Our Environment: Students' Perceptions of Their Writing and Role in Nature Following an Environmental Writing Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rioux, Yasmin Marie

2017-01-01

In this dissertation, the author aims at gaining a better understanding of how taking an Environmental Literature and Writing course affects student writing while exploring how writing students view their own roles within their natural environments following the completion of the described course. Through the collecting and assessing of student…

Family Needs and Family Quality of Life for Taiwanese Families of Children with Intellectual Disability and Developmental Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiu, Chun-Yu

2013-01-01

This dissertation consists of four related chapters including an introductory overview of all four chapters, a report on family needs, a report on family quality of life, and a summary of implications for the conceptual framework. Chapter 1, the introductory overview, presents background information of Taiwan and describes the family quality of…

Biomedicalizing Schoolroom Performances. Constructions of Attention Deficit Disorder and Reading Disability in the First Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moss, John J.

2009-01-01

This dissertation describes how the medical categories of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Reading Disability (RD) have become commonsense ways to understand educational problems. I explore historical precursors of ADD and RD followed by a report on fieldwork I conducted in a first grade classroom of mostly Latino and low-income children. I…

A Case Study with Green Dot Public Schools on Managing the Tension between Fidelity and Adaptation When Scaling-Up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cevallos, Pedro F., Jr.

2009-01-01

This dissertation was a single case study with Green Dot Public Schools (GDPS) describing their rapid scale-up process. Specifically, it investigates the phenomenon of the inherent tension between maintaining the fidelity of the original model school's design, culture and values with local adaptation of the brand by stakeholders at the expansion…

The University of South Carolina School of Social Work, 1934-1954

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townsend, Elaine

2009-01-01

This dissertation examines the School of Social Work at the University of South Carolina from 1934-1954. This first attempt at establishing a school of social work failed after twenty years of inconsistent performance. The primary concern of the study is to uncover and describe the events that led to the closing of the school. To that end, the…

Students' Ways of Thinking about Two-Variable Functions and Rate of Change in Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Eric David

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes an investigation of four students' ways of thinking about functions of two variables and rate of change of those two-variable functions. Most secondary, introductory algebra, pre-calculus, and first and second semester calculus courses do not require students to think about functions of more than one variable. Yet…

An Investigation of University Student and K-12 Teacher Reasoning about Key Ideas in the Development of the Particulate Nature of Matter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Amy D.

2011-01-01

This dissertation describes a systematic investigation of university student and K-12 teacher reasoning about key ideas relevant to the development of a particulate model for matter. Written assessments and individual demonstration interviews have been used to study the reasoning of introductory and sophomore-level physics students, introductory…

Journalism Abstracts: M.A., M.S., Ph.D. Theses in Journalism and Mass Communication. Vol. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, William E., Ed.

This annual compilation by the Association for Education in Journalism describes master's theses and doctoral dissertations written in schools and departments of journalism and communication in the United States between July 1, 1971, and June 30, 1972. The aim of the book is to improve the flow of information about current research to students and…

Oirat Tones and Break Indices (O-ToBI): Intonational Structure of the Oirat Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indjieva, Elena

2009-01-01

This doctoral dissertation describes intonation patterns in Spoken Oirat (SO) and proposes a model of the intonational structure of Oirat. The proposed prosodic model is represented in the framework of Oirat Tones and Break Indices (O-ToBI), which is based on the design principles of the original English ToBI (Beckman & Ayers 1994; Beckman…

A Case Study with Green Dot Public Schools on Managing the Tension between Fidelity and Adaptation when Scaling-Up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cevallos, Pedro Felipe, Jr.

2009-01-01

This dissertation was a single case study with Green Dot Public Schools (GDPS) describing their rapid scale-up process. Specifically, it investigates the phenomenon of the inherent tension between maintaining the fidelity of the original model school's design, culture and values with local adaptation of the brand by stakeholders at the expansion…

Inequality in Participation in Adult Learning and Education (ALE): Effects of Micro- and Macro-Level Factors through a Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jeongwoo

2017-01-01

The objectives of this dissertation include describing and analyzing the patterns of inequality in ALE participation at both the micro and macro levels. Special attention is paid to social origins of individual adults and their association with two groups of macro-level factors, social inequality (income, education, and skill inequality) and…

Exploring Customization in Higher Education: An Experiment in Leveraging Computer Spreadsheet Technology to Deliver Highly Individualized Online Instruction to Undergraduate Business Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunzler, Jayson S.

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes a research study designed to explore whether customization of online instruction results in improved learning in a college business statistics course. The study involved utilizing computer spreadsheet technology to develop an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) designed to: a) collect and monitor individual real-time…

Irrelevance Reasoning in Knowledge Based Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levy, A. Y.

1993-01-01

This dissertation considers the problem of reasoning about irrelevance of knowledge in a principled and efficient manner. Specifically, it is concerned with two key problems: (1) developing algorithms for automatically deciding what parts of a knowledge base are irrelevant to a query and (2) the utility of relevance reasoning. The dissertation describes a novel tool, the query-tree, for reasoning about irrelevance. Based on the query-tree, we develop several algorithms for deciding what formulas are irrelevant to a query. Our general framework sheds new light on the problem of detecting independence of queries from updates. We present new results that significantly extend previous work in this area. The framework also provides a setting in which to investigate the connection between the notion of irrelevance and the creation of abstractions. We propose a new approach to research on reasoning with abstractions, in which we investigate the properties of an abstraction by considering the irrelevance claims on which it is based. We demonstrate the potential of the approach for the cases of abstraction of predicates and projection of predicate arguments. Finally, we describe an application of relevance reasoning to the domain of modeling physical devices.

[Samuel Hahnemann: physician and adviser to the Princess Luise of Prussia from 1829 to 1835].

PubMed

Heinz, Inge Christine

2009-01-01

The nearly 500 pages of letters (edited and commented in a medical dissertation by the author), written by a Prussian Princess in the 19th century to Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy, provide a fairly complete patient history thanks to the homoeopathic method which obliges patients to observe and describe the complaints and the changes they experience during treatment. The achievements of Hahnemann's therapy were so remarkable that the patient engaged his disciple Dr.Julius Aegidi as her court physician during the years 1831 to 1834. In no other of Hahnemann's published case histories so many dreams are described. The diagnosis within the historical context could be hysteria, hypochondria and melancholy. The therapy consisted in the prescription of homoeopathic remedies but also, among other prescriptions, in taking placebos, application of mesmerism, diet and life style advice. Hahnemann was opposed to vaccination. The doctor-patient-relationship became very intense. It can be said that Hahnemann acted as a psychotherapist. As the Princess rather liked speaking about her complaints her compliance in describing symptoms was excellent. It was less so in taking verum, applying mesmerism and changing her lifestyle. The success of the treatment was limited by the Princess's court and family circumstances and probably by Hahnemann's restriction to psora theory and C30 potencies. The dissertation is the most extensive patient history from Hahnemann's medical practice ever published.

[Neurousurpation--the expropriation and suppression of Dölle's neurobiological pioneer work].

PubMed

Bertram, Wulf

2011-08-01

The discovery of a hitherto unpublished dissertational thesis in the archive of a publishing house has lead to a lost publication by Ernst August Dölle. In this manuscript, the author reports on the stimulation of a cerebral libido area in the dog, long before Olds and Milner published their work on the discovery of the rewarding area. The reasons for the suppression of this early publication by Dölle are investigated and are ascribed to an effort to use his neurobiologic research for secret mental manipulation experiments of the CIA at the beginning of the Cold War. George Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Ultrasound-mediated Optical Imaging and Focusing in Scattering Media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, Yuta

Because of its non-ionizing and molecular sensing nature, light has been an attractive tool in biomedicine. Scanning an optical focus allows not only high-resolution imaging but also manipulation and therapy. However, due to multiple photon scattering events, conventional optical focusing using an ordinary lens is limited to shallow depths of one transport mean free path (lt'), which corresponds to approximately 1 mm in human tissue. To overcome this limitation, ultrasonic modulation (or encoding ) of diffuse light inside scattering media has enabled us to develop both deep-tissue optical imaging and focusing techniques, namely, ultrasound-modulated optical tomography (UOT) and time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) optical focusing. While UOT measures the power of the encoded light to obtain an image, TRUE focusing generates a time-reversed (or phase-conjugated) copy of the encoded light, using a phase-conjugate mirror to focus light inside scattering media beyond 1 lt'. However, despite extensive progress in both UOT and TRUE focusing, the low signal-to-noise ratio in encoded-light detection remains a challenge to meeting both the speed and depth requirements for in vivo applications. This dissertation describes technological advancements of both UOT and TRUE focusing, in terms of their signal detection sensitivities, operational depths, and operational speeds. The first part of this dissertation describes sensitivity improvements of encoded-light detection in UOT, achieved by using a large area (˜5 cm x 5 cm) photorefractive polymer. The photorefractive polymer allowed us to improve the detection etendue by more than 10 times that of previous detection schemes. It has enabled us to resolve absorbing objects embedded inside diffused media thicker than 80 lt', using moderate light power and short ultrasound pulses. The second part of this dissertation describes energy enhancement and fluorescent excitation using TRUE focusing in turbid media, using photorefractive materials as the phase-conjugate mirrors. By using a large-area photorefractive polymer as the phase-conjugate mirror, we boosted the focused optical energy by ~40 times over the output of a previously used photorefractive Bi 12SiO20 crystal. Furthermore, using both a photorefractive polymer and a Bi12SiO20 crystal as the phase-conjugate mirrors, we show direct visualization and dynamic control of TRUE focus, and demonstrate fluorescence imaging in a thick turbid medium. The last part of this dissertation describes improvements in the scanning speed of a TRUE focus, using digital phase-conjugate mirrors in both transmission and reflection modes. By employing a multiplex recording of ultrasonically encoded wavefronts in transmission mode, we have accelerated the generation of multiple TRUE foci, using frequency sweeping of both ultrasound and light. With this technique, we obtained a 2-D image of a fluorescent target centered inside a turbid sample having a thickness of 2.4 lt'. Also, by gradually moving the focal position in reflection mode, we show that the TRUE focal intensity is improved, and can be continuously scanned to image fluorescent targets in a shorter time.

Defining ray sets for the analysis of lenslet-based optical systems including plenoptic cameras and Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Lori

Plenoptic cameras and Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors are lenslet-based optical systems that do not form a conventional image. The addition of a lens array into these systems allows for the aberrations generated by the combination of the object and the optical components located prior to the lens array to be measured or corrected with post-processing. This dissertation provides a ray selection method to determine the rays that pass through each lenslet in a lenslet-based system. This first-order, ray trace method is developed for any lenslet-based system with a well-defined fore optic, where in this dissertation the fore optic is all of the optical components located prior to the lens array. For example, in a plenoptic camera the fore optic is a standard camera lens. Because a lens array at any location after the exit pupil of the fore optic is considered in this analysis, it is applicable to both plenoptic cameras and Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors. Only a generic, unaberrated fore optic is considered, but this dissertation establishes a framework for considering the effect of an aberrated fore optic in lenslet-based systems. The rays from the fore optic that pass through a lenslet placed at any location after the fore optic are determined. This collection of rays is reduced to three rays that describe the entire lenslet ray set. The lenslet ray set is determined at the object, image, and pupil planes of the fore optic. The consideration of the apertures that define the lenslet ray set for an on-axis lenslet leads to three classes of lenslet-based systems. Vignetting of the lenslet rays is considered for off-axis lenslets. Finally, the lenslet ray set is normalized into terms similar to the field and aperture vector used to describe the aberrated wavefront of the fore optic. The analysis in this dissertation is complementary to other first-order models that have been developed for a specific plenoptic camera layout or Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor application. This general analysis determines the location where the rays of each lenslet pass through the fore optic establishing a framework to consider the effect of an aberrated fore optic in a future analysis.

Novel Raman Techniques for Imaging and Sensing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Perry S.

Raman scattering spectroscopy is extensively demonstrated as a label-free, chemically selective sensing and imaging technique for a multitude of chemical and biological applications. The ability to detect "fingerprint" spectral signatures of individual molecules, without the need to introduce chemical labelers, makes Raman scattering a powerful sensing technique. However, spectroscopy based on spontaneous Raman scattering traditionally suffers from inherently weak signals due to small Raman scattering cross-sections. Thus, considerable efforts have been put forth to find pathways towards enhancing Raman signals to bolster sensitivity for detecting small concentrations of molecules or particles. The development of coherent Raman techniques that can offer orders of magnitude increase in signal have garnered significant interest in recent years for their application in imaging; such techniques include coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering and stimulated Raman scattering. Additionally, methods to enhance the local field of either the pump or generated Raman signal, such as through surface enhanced Raman scattering, have been investigated for their orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and single molecule sensing capability. The work presented in this dissertation describes novel techniques for performing high speed and highly sensitive Raman imaging as well as sensing applications towards bioimaging and biosensing. Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) is combined with holography to enable recording of high-speed (single laser shot), wide field CARS holograms which can be used to reconstruct the both the amplitude and the phase of the anti-Stokes field therefore allowing 3D imaging. This dissertation explores CARS holography as a viable label-free bio-imaging technique. A Raman scattering particle sensing system is also developed that utilizes wave guide properties of optical fibers and ring-resonators to perform enhanced particle sensing. Resonator-enhanced particle sensing is experimentally examined as a new method for enhancing Raman scattering from particles interacting with circulating optical fields within both a fiber ring-cavity and whispering gallery mode microtoroid microresonators. The achievements described in this dissertation include: (1) Demonstration of the bio-imaging capability of CARS holography by recording of CARS holograms of subcellular components in live cancer (HeLa) cells. (2) Label-free Raman microparticle sensing using a tapered optical fibers. A tapered fiber can guide light to particles adsorbed on the surface of the taper to generate scattered Raman signal which can be collected by a microRaman detection system. (3) Demonstration of the proof of concept of resonator-enhanced Raman spectroscopy in a fiber ring resonator consisting of a section of fiber taper. (4) A method for locking the pump laser to the resonate frequencies of a resonator. This is demonstrated using a fiber ring resonator and microtoroid microresonators. (5) Raman scattered signal from particles adhered to microtoroid microresonators is acquired using 5 seconds of signal integration time and with the pump laser locked to a cavity resonance. (6) Theoretical analysis is performed that indicates resonator-enhanced Raman scattering from microparticles adhered to microresonators can be achieved with the pump laser locked to the frequency of a high-Q cavity resonant mode.

External detection and localization of well leaks in aquifer zones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haas, Allan K.

This dissertation presents a new methodology for monitoring, detecting, and localizing shallow, aquifer zone leaks in oil and gas wells. The rationale for this type of leak detection is to close the knowledge gap associated with public claims of subsurface water resource contamination caused by the oil and gas industry. A knowledge gap exists because there is no data, one way or the other, that can definitively prove or deny the existence of subsurface leakage pathways in oil and gas wells, new, old or abandoned. This dissertation begins with an overview of existing and future oil and gas well leak detection methods, and then presents three published papers, each describing a different phenomena that can be exploited for leak monitoring, detection, localization, and damage extent determination. The first paper describes the direct detection and localization of a leak that was discovered during a laboratory based hydraulic fracturing experiment. The second paper describes the laboratory measured electrical response that occurs during two phase flow inside of porous media. The third paper describes the detection and tracking of a gravity driven salt plume leak in a freshwater test tank in the laboratory. the three geophysical approaches that are presented, when combined together, provide a new, powerful, external to the well method to monitor, detect, localize, and assess the damage from leaks in the drinking water protection zone of oil and gas wells. This is a capability that is not available in any other leak detection and localization method. This dissertation also presents a chapter of Science, Technology and Society (STS), and Science, and Technology Policy (STP) as a final fulfillment requirement of the SmartGeo Fellowship program, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Policy minor. This chapter introduces a new STS/STP concept concerning the after effects of knowledge boundary disputes. This new concept is called the residual footprints of knowledge boundary disputes. This new concept is developed through the analysis of an oil and gas drilling controversy that climaxed in Erie, CO in 2012. Additional evidence of this residual footprint concept is also presented in a very brief form. It is hoped that this new concept will be further researched, and adopted by the STS/STP community.

An Investigation of the Phenomenon of Shortages of Indian Teachers as Described by Tribal College Leaders in Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Dell, Cynthia Best

2010-01-01

In Montana, less than 3% of K-12 teachers are American Indian (Montana Office of Public Instruction, 2009). The lack of Indian teachers, which was the problem identified for this dissertation, is of great concern to educational leaders. The shortage of Native American teachers can be correlated to problems in the education of K-12 students…

Immunogenetics of the Elephant Seal

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garza, John Carlos

1999-01-01

The goals of this cooperative agreement fall into three categories: 1) A basic description of Immunogenetic variation in the northern elephant seal genome; 2) A basic genetic map of the northern elephant seal genome; 3). Microevolutionary forces in the northern elephant seal genome. The results described in this report were acquired using funds from this cooperative agreement together with funds from a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.

Electronic Theses at Ben-Gurion University: Israel as Part of the Worldwide ETD Movement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asner, Haya; Polani, Tsviya

2008-01-01

This article discusses the electronic thesis and dissertation project at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel. It describes the status of the ETD movement in Israel as part of the worldwide spread of ETDs as reported in the literature. It also examines openness to ETDs by faculty and by publisher discipline. (Contains 6…

[School Organization: Theory and Practice; Selected Readings on Grading, Nongrading, Multigrading, Self-Contained Classrooms, Departmentalization, Team Heterogeneous Grouping. Selected Bibliographies.] Rand McNally Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franklin, Marian Pope, Comp.

Over 400 journal articles, case studies, research reports, dissertations, and position papers are briefly described in a series of eight selected bibliographies related to school organization. The eight specific areas treated in the volume and the number of items listed for each include: nongraded elementary school organization, 96; nongraded…

Beyond Time: Temporal and Extra-Temporal Functions of Tense and Aspect Marking in Totela, a Bantu Language of Zambia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crane, Thera Marie

2011-01-01

This dissertation aims to characterize the relationship between the temporal and information-structuring functions of tense and aspect marking in Totela, an endangered Bantu language of Zambia and Namibia. To that end, I investigate and describe in detail the semantics and pragmatics of selected tense and aspect markers, showing for each that a…

Does a Multi-Media Program Enhance Job Matching for a Population with Intellectual Disabilities? A Social Validity Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michaud, Kim M.

2017-01-01

This dissertation describes a mixed method design study on the social validity of a multi-media job search tool, the YES tool, at a four-year Comprehensive Transition Program at an East Coast University. The participants included twelve students, randomly selected from those who, with their parents' assent, agreed to volunteer for this study…

A Multiple Case Study Exploring Members' Perceptions of Threat Assessment Teams' Training and Resources at Two-Year Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pendleton, Kristi A.

2017-01-01

Incorporating a qualitative approach, the purpose of this multiple case study dissertation was: 1) to explore the perceptions of threat assessment teams on campus safety; 2) to study the challenges and barriers two-year colleges experience in relation to the threat assessment team process; and 3) to describe how the teams' perceptions of risk may…

BeSocratic: An Intelligent Tutoring System for the Recognition, Evaluation, and Analysis of Free-Form Student Input

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bryfczynski, Samuel Paul

2012-01-01

This dissertation describes a novel intelligent tutoring system, BeSocratic, which aims to help fill the gap between simple multiple-choice systems and free-response systems. BeSocratic focuses on targeting questions that are free-form in nature yet defined to the point which allows for automatic evaluation and analysis. The system includes a set…

Supporting Aphasics for Capturing, Organizing and Sharing Personal Experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al Mahmud, Abdullah

When a person, due to brain injury or another disease, suffers in his or her ability to speak, it becomes inherently cumbersome to share needs, emotions, and experiences through personal stories and social interaction. This paper describes the aim and progress of the author’s dissertation, which focuses on designing a support system to share daily experiences for people suffering from expressive aphasia.

Making Sense of Images of Fact and Fiction: A Critical Review of the Knowledge Base for School Leadership in Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallinger, Philip; Walker, Allan; Trung, Gian Tu

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review both international and domestic (i.e. Vietnamese language) journal articles and graduate theses and dissertations on educational leadership in Vietnam. The review addresses two specific goals: first, to describe and critically assess the nature of the formal knowledge base on principal leadership in…

Examining Attitudes, Enjoyment, Flow, and Physical Activity Levels in Pre-Service Teachers Utilizing the BLISS Model Compared to Traditional Dance Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Christa Ann

2013-01-01

This dissertation describes two studies, based on data collection within a pre-existing collegiate course for pre-service teachers in a children's dance setting at a northwest public university. The overall purpose of these experimental studies was to compare traditional movement/dance with the influence of a relevance-based instructional model,…

The Indigenous Researcher as Individual and Collective: Building a Research Practice Ethic within the Context of Indigenous Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dana-Sacco, Gail

2010-01-01

In this article, the author describes her experience as an Indigenous researcher conducting dissertation research on Passamaquoddy ideas of health and decision making in her home community and how these can be applied in contemporary tribal health decision-making processes. The author comes from Sibyig, on the edge, she is related to the people of…

Transitioning from a Theological College to a Christian University in East African Context: A Multi-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulatu, Semeon

2012-01-01

This dissertation analyzed and described transitions from a theological or Bible college to a Christian liberal arts college or university in East African context. The research was specially driven by the desire to find out the reasons for such transitions, the challenges of the transition process and how such transitions affect the mission of the…

Making Time for Dissertation Grants

PubMed Central

Hasche, Leslie K.; Perron, Brian E.; Proctor, Enola K.

2013-01-01

Grant writing is a necessary skill for becoming an independent and successful social work researcher. Since social work dissertation grants are a relatively new trend, students face many challenges in identifying, preparing, and submitting dissertation grants. Lack of resources and experiences, difficulties in protecting time for grant writing, and the uncertainty of success can hinder work on dissertation grants. Thus, this article provides an overview of dissertation grants, including a review of grant mechanisms, suggestions for preparing grants in the context of program milestones, and identifying institutional infrastructure to facilitate submissions. Strategies discussed include how to learn about funding priorities, how to establish timelines to account for grant deadlines, and how to use peer reviews to guide the revision process. PMID:24244078

Osteology, Phylogeny, Taphonomy, and Ontogenetic Histology of Oryctodromeus cubicularis, from the Middle Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian) of Montana and Idaho

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krumenacker, L. J.

Oryctodromeus is a small bipedal dinosaur known from middle Cretaceous (95-100 My) Wayan Formation of Idaho and the Vaughn Member of the Blackleaf Formation of Montana. This taxon is hypothesized to be a burrowing dinosaur, which cared for its young within these burrows. This dissertation is a broad three-part treatment of this taxon, and excepting the introductory and concluding chapters this dissertation consists of three main chapters. Chapter two describes the osteology and phylogenetic relationships of this animal. Notable features of the Oryctodromeus skeleton described include a network of ossified tendons along the vertebral column that completely ensheath the tail, a long tail that forms more than half the length of the animal, and unusual femoral heads whose morphology may be related to burrowing behavior. The first full skeletal and skull reconstructions of this animal are presented. Chapter three investigates patterns of preservation of Oryctodromeus. Data suggests that preservation of single to multiple individuals of this taxon typically occurred in burrows that may be difficult to impossible to recognize in the fossil record. New examples of burrows from Oryctodromeus from the Vaughn and Wayan, as well as additional evidence for social behavior, are also described. A third chapter details the ontogenetic histology, growth rates and patterns of skeletal fusion based on seven limb elements (femora and tibiae) from different individuals. Based on the data in this dissertation, three growth stages can be recognized in Oryctodromeus based on bone histology. Juveniles are defined by more rapidly growing fibrolamellar tissue, sub-adults are defined by a cortex of inner fibrolamellar tissue and outer zonal parallel fibered tissue, and near-adult individuals have tissue similar to sub adults with dense avascular bone in the outermost cortex that signals a decrease in growth rate. LAG's suggest a minimum age of six to seven years for more mature individuals. Patterns of neurocentral fusion in Oryctodromeus appear similar to those of crocodylians and some other small ornithischians, while the growth rates of Oryctodromeus appear slower than those of some dinosaurs, but similar to taxa such as Orodromeus and Tenontosaurus.

Development of a sonar-based object recognition system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ecemis, Mustafa Ihsan

2001-02-01

Sonars are used extensively in mobile robotics for obstacle detection, ranging and avoidance. However, these range-finding applications do not exploit the full range of information carried in sonar echoes. In addition, mobile robots need robust object recognition systems. Therefore, a simple and robust object recognition system using ultrasonic sensors may have a wide range of applications in robotics. This dissertation develops and analyzes an object recognition system that uses ultrasonic sensors of the type commonly found on mobile robots. Three principal experiments are used to test the sonar recognition system: object recognition at various distances, object recognition during unconstrained motion, and softness discrimination. The hardware setup, consisting of an inexpensive Polaroid sonar and a data acquisition board, is described first. The software for ultrasound signal generation, echo detection, data collection, and data processing is then presented. Next, the dissertation describes two methods to extract information from the echoes, one in the frequency domain and the other in the time domain. The system uses the fuzzy ARTMAP neural network to recognize objects on the basis of the information content of their echoes. In order to demonstrate that the performance of the system does not depend on the specific classification method being used, the K- Nearest Neighbors (KNN) Algorithm is also implemented. KNN yields a test accuracy similar to fuzzy ARTMAP in all experiments. Finally, the dissertation describes a method for extracting features from the envelope function in order to reduce the dimension of the input vector used by the classifiers. Decreasing the size of the input vectors reduces the memory requirements of the system and makes it run faster. It is shown that this method does not affect the performance of the system dramatically and is more appropriate for some tasks. The results of these experiments demonstrate that sonar can be used to develop a low-cost, low-computation system for real-time object recognition tasks on mobile robots. This system differs from all previous approaches in that it is relatively simple, robust, fast, and inexpensive.

"Model-Based Reasoning is Not a Simple Thing": Investigating Enactment of Modeling in Five High School Biology Classrooms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaytan, Candice Renee

Modeling is an important scientific practice through which scientists generate, evaluate, and revise scientific knowledge, and it can be translated into science classrooms as a means for engaging students in authentic scientific practice. Much of the research investigating modeling in classrooms focuses on student learning, leaving a gap in understanding how teachers enact this important practice. This dissertation draws on data collected through a model-based curricular project to uncover instructional moves teachers made to enact modeling, to describe factors influencing enactment, and to discuss a framework for designing and enacting modeling lessons. I framed my analysis and interpretation of data within the varying perceptions of modeling found in the science studies and science education literature. Largely, modeling is described to varying degrees as a means to engage students in sense-making or as a means to deliver content to students. This frame revealed how the instructional moves teachers used to enact modeling may have influenced its portrayal as a reasoning practice. I found that teachers' responses to their students' ideas or questions may have important consequences for students' engagement in modeling, and thus, sense-making. To investigate factors influencing the portrayal of modeling, I analyzed teacher interviews and writings for what they perceived affected instruction. My findings illustrate alignments and misalignments between what teachers perceive modeling to be and what they do through instruction. In particular, teachers valued providing their students with time to collaborate and to share their ideas, but when time was perceived as a constraint, instruction shifted towards delivering content. Additionally, teachers' perceptions of students' capacity to engage in modeling is also related to if and how they provided opportunities for students to make sense of phenomena. The dissertation closes with a discussion of a framework for designing and enacting lessons for engaging students in modeling. I draw on examples from this study to provide context for how the framework can support teachers in engaging students in modeling. Altogether, this dissertation describes how teachers facilitate modeling and why varying enactments may be observed, filling a gap in researchers' understanding of how teachers enact modeling in science classrooms.

Embrace the Dark Side: Advancing the Dark Energy Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suchyta, Eric

The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an ongoing cosmological survey intended to study the properties of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. In this dissertation, I present work of mine that has advanced the progress of DES. First is an introduction, which explores the physics of the cosmos, as well as how DES intends to probe it. Attention is given to developing the theoretical framework cosmologists use to describe the Universe, and to explaining observational evidence which has furnished our current conception of the cosmos. Emphasis is placed on the dark sector - dark matter and dark energy - the content of the Universe not explained by the Standard Model of particle physics. As its name suggests, the Dark Energy Survey has been specially designed to measure the properties of dark energy. DES will use a combination of galaxy cluster, weak gravitational lensing, angular clustering, and supernovae measurements to derive its state of the art constraints, each of which is discussed in the text. The work described in this dissertation includes science measurements directly related to the first three of these probes. The dissertation presents my contributions to the readout and control system of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam); the name of this software is SISPI. SISPI uses client-server and publish-subscribe communication patterns to coordinate and command actions among the many hardware components of DECam - the survey instrument for DES, a 570 megapixel CCD camera, mounted at prime focus of the Blanco 4-m Telescope. The SISPI work I discuss includes coding applications for DECam's filter changer mechanism and hexapod, as well as developing the Scripts Editor, a GUI application for DECam users to edit and export observing sequence SISPI can load and execute. Next, the dissertation describes the processing of early DES data, which I contributed. This furnished the data products used in the first-completed DES science analysis, and contributed to improving the collaboration-wide treatment of the data. The science measurements themselves are also detailed. We verified DES's capabilities for performing weak lensing analyses by measuring the masses of four galaxy clusters, finding consistency with previous measurements, and utilized DECam's wide field-of-view for a photometric study of filament-like structures in the fields. Finally, my recent work with Balrog is presented. Balrog is a simulation toolkit for embedding fake objects into real survey images in order to correct for systematic biases. We have used Balrog to extend DES galaxy clustering measurements down to fainter limits than previously possible, finding results consistent with higher-resolution space-based data. The methodology used in this analysis generalizes beyond galaxy clustering alone, and promises to be useful in future imaging survey measurements.

The comparative importance of books: clinical psychology in the health sciences library.

PubMed Central

Wehmeyer, J M; Wehmeyer, S

1999-01-01

Clinical psychology has received little attention as a subject in health sciences library collections. This study seeks to demonstrate the relative importance of the monographic literature to clinical psychology through the examination of citations in graduate student theses and dissertations at the Fordham Health Sciences Library, Wright State University. Dissertations and theses were sampled randomly; citations were classified by format, counted, and subjected to statistical analysis. Books and book chapters together account for 35% of the citations in clinical psychology dissertations, 25% in nursing theses, and 8% in biomedical sciences theses and dissertations. Analysis of variance indicates that the citations in dissertations and theses in the three areas differ significantly (F = 162.2 with 2 and 253 degrees of freedom, P = 0.0001). Dissertations and theses in biomedical sciences and nursing theses both cite significantly more journals per book than the dissertations in clinical psychology. These results support the hypothesis that users of clinical psychology literature rely more heavily on books than many other users of a health sciences library. Problems with using citation analyses in a single subject to determine a serials to monographs ratio for a health sciences library are pointed out. PMID:10219478

Modeling Real-Time Coordination of Distributed Expertise and Event Response in NASA Mission Control Center Operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Onken, Jeffrey

This dissertation introduces a multidisciplinary framework for the enabling of future research and analysis of alternatives for control centers for real-time operations of safety-critical systems. The multidisciplinary framework integrates functional and computational models that describe the dynamics in fundamental concepts of previously disparate engineering and psychology research disciplines, such as group performance and processes, supervisory control, situation awareness, events and delays, and expertise. The application in this dissertation is the real-time operations within the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston, TX. This dissertation operationalizes the framework into a model and simulation, which simulates the functional and computational models in the framework according to user-configured scenarios for a NASA human-spaceflight mission. The model and simulation generates data according to the effectiveness of the mission-control team in supporting the completion of mission objectives and detecting, isolating, and recovering from anomalies. Accompanying the multidisciplinary framework is a proof of concept, which demonstrates the feasibility of such a framework. The proof of concept demonstrates that variability occurs where expected based on the models. The proof of concept also demonstrates that the data generated from the model and simulation is useful for analyzing and comparing MCC configuration alternatives because an investigator can give a diverse set of scenarios to the simulation and the output compared in detail to inform decisions about the effect of MCC configurations on mission operations performance.

The Identification and Modeling of Visual Cue Usage in Manual Control Task Experiments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sweet, Barbara Townsend; Trejo, Leonard J. (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

Many fields of endeavor require humans to conduct manual control tasks while viewing a perspective scene. Manual control refers to tasks in which continuous, or nearly continuous, control adjustments are required. Examples include flying an aircraft, driving a car, and riding a bicycle. Perspective scenes can arise through natural viewing of the world, simulation of a scene (as in flight simulators), or through imaging devices (such as the cameras on an unmanned aerospace vehicle). Designers frequently have some degree of control over the content and characteristics of a perspective scene; airport designers can choose runway markings, vehicle designers can influence the size and shape of windows, as well as the location of the pilot, and simulator database designers can choose scene complexity and content. Little theoretical framework exists to help designers determine the answers to questions related to perspective scene content. An empirical approach is most commonly used to determine optimum perspective scene configurations. The goal of the research effort described in this dissertation has been to provide a tool for modeling the characteristics of human operators conducting manual control tasks with perspective-scene viewing. This is done for the purpose of providing an algorithmic, as opposed to empirical, method for analyzing the effects of changing perspective scene content for closed-loop manual control tasks.

Instrumentation for Kinetic-Inductance-Detector-Based Submillimeter Radio Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duan, Ran

A substantial amount of important scientific information is contained within astronomical data at the submillimeter and far-infrared (FIR) wavelengths, including information regarding dusty galaxies, galaxy clusters, and star-forming regions; however, these wavelengths are among the least-explored fields in astronomy because of the technological difficulties involved in such research. Over the past 20 years, considerable efforts have been devoted to developing submillimeter- and millimeter-wavelength astronomical instruments and telescopes. The number of detectors is an important property of such instruments and is the subject of the current study. Future telescopes will require as many as hundreds of thousands of detectors to meet the necessary requirements in terms of the field of view, scan speed, and resolution. A large pixel count is one benefit of the development of multiplexable detectors that use kinetic inductance detector (KID) technology. This dissertation presents the development of a KID-based instrument including a portion of the millimeter-wave bandpass filters and all aspects of the readout electronics, which together enabled one of the largest detector counts achieved to date in submillimeter-/millimeter-wavelength imaging arrays: a total of 2304 detectors. The work presented in this dissertation has been implemented in the MUltiwavelength Submillimeter Inductance Camera (MUSIC), a new instrument for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO).

Optical and Photothermal Behaviors of Colloidal and Self-Assembled Magnetic-Plasmonic Nanostructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Kai

This dissertation is based on numerous efforts in exploring the capabilties of numerical simulation for investigating novel optical phenomena in different colloidal plasmonic systems. The dissertation includes five chapters. Chapter 1 contains a general introduction to the fundamentals of plasmonic behaviors in colloidal clusters and bottom-up self-assembly methods for manufacturing colloidal clusters which include magnetic based and DNA-assisted pathways. Chapter 2 presents a systematic comparison of optical and thermodynamic properties of near-infrared colloidal nanoparticles, including SiO2 Au core-shell, Au nanocage and Au nanorod, and an example of the nanobubble-based photothermal therapy application. In Chapter 3, a optical phenomenon named Fano resonance is demonstrated in a colloidal heptamer design which consists of seven Fe 3O4 Au core-shell nanoparticles. The incorporation of the magnetic core enables a magnetic-assisted self-assembly process which will be discussed after the photonic analysis. In Chapter 4, the optical behaviors in a 1D magnetic-plasmonic chain are explored. A demonstration of the magnetic-based self-assembly of this 1D chain is given. Chapter 5 is focused on the study of the chiral optical responses in a helical nanoscale system which follows a 3D helical arrangement of Fe3O4 Au core-shell nanoparticles.

Conceptualizing In-service Secondary School Science Teachers' Knowledge Base for Promoting Understanding about the Science of Global Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharya, Devarati

Efforts to adapt and mitigate the effects of global climate change (GCC) have been ongoing for the past two decades and have become a major global concern. However, research and practice for promoting climate literacy and understanding about GCC have only recently become a national priority. The National Research Council (NRC), has recently emphasized upon the importance of developing learners' capacity of reasoning, their argumentation skills and understanding of GCC (Framework for K-12 Science Education, National Research Council, 2012). This framework focuses on fostering conceptual clarity about GCC to promote innovation, resilience, and readiness in students as a response towards the threat of a changing environment. Previous research about teacher understanding of GCC describes that in spite of the prevalent frameworks like the AAAS Science Literacy Atlas (AAAS, 2007) and the Essential Principles for Climate Literacy (United States Global Climate Research Program, 2009; Bardsley, 2007), most learners are challenged in understanding the science of GCC (Michail et al., 2007) and misinformed perceptions about basic climate science content and the role of human activities in changing climate remain persistent (Reibich and Gautier, 2006). Our teacher participants had a rather simplistic knowledge structure. While aware of climate change, teacher participants lacked in depth understanding of how change in climate can impact various ecosystems on the Earth. Furthermore, they felt overwhelmed with the extensive amount of information needed to comprehend the complexity in GCC. Hence, extensive efforts not only focused on assessing conceptual understanding of GCC but also for teaching complex science topics like GCC are essential. This dissertation explains concept mapping, and the photo elicitation method for assessing teachers' understanding of GCC and the use of metacognitive scaffolding in instruction of GCC for developing competence of learners in this complex science phenomenon.

A material based approach to creating wear resistant surfaces for hot forging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babu, Sailesh

Tools and dies used in metal forming are characterized by extremely high temperatures at the interface, high local pressures and large metal to metal sliding. These harsh conditions result in accelerated wear of tooling. Lubrication of tools, done to improve metal flow drastically quenches the surface layers of the tools and compounds the tool failure problem. This phenomenon becomes a serious issue when parts forged at complex and are expected to meet tight tolerances. Unpredictable and hence uncontrolled wear and degradation of tooling result in poor part quality and premature tool failure that result in high scrap, shop downtime, poor efficiency and high cost. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a computer-based methodology for analyzing the requirements hot forging tooling to resist wear and plastic deformation and wear and predicting life cycle of forge tooling. Development of such is a system is complicated by the fact that wear and degradation of tooling is influenced by not only the die material used but also numerous process controls like lubricant, dilution ratio, forging temperature, equipment used, tool geometries among others. Phenomenological models available u1 the literature give us a good thumb rule to selecting materials but do not provide a way to evaluate pits performance in field. Once a material is chosen, there are no proven approaches to create surfaces out of these materials. Coating approaches like PVD and CVD cannot generate thick coatings necessary to withstand the conditions under hot forging. Welding cannot generate complex surfaces without several secondary operations like heat treating and machining. If careful procedures are not followed, welds crack and seldom survive forging loads. There is a strong need for an approach to selectively, reliably and precisely deposit material of choice reliably on an existing surface which exhibit not only good tribological properties but also good adhesion to the substrate. Dissertation outlines development of a new cyclic contact test design to recreate intermittent tempering seen in hot forging. This test has been used to validate the use of tempering parameters in modeling of in-service softening of tool steel surfaces. The dissertation also outlines an industrial case study, conducted at a forging company, to validate the wear model. This dissertation also outlines efforts at Ohio State University, to deposit Nickel Aluminide on AISI H13 substrate, using Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS). Dissertation reports results from an array of experiments conducted using LENS 750 machine, at various power levels, table speeds and hatch spacing. Results pertaining to bond quality, surface finish, compositional gradients and hardness are provided. Also, a thermal-based finite element numerical model that was used to simulate the LENS process is presented, along with some demonstrated results.

Agriculture & Agronomy: A Dissertation Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1978

This bibliography presents a compilation of Agriculture and Agronomy doctoral research for the years 1973-1976. Each of the 3,386 doctoral dissertations cited herein has been accepted by accredited degree-granting universities in North America and published by University Microfilms International (UMI). Dissertations are arranged alphabetically in…

Design principles for functional liquid crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bedolla Pantoja, Marco A.

The work described in this dissertation details how the properties of liquid crystals (LCs) can be utilized for chemical sensing of volatile organic compounds or as templates for the synthesis of polymer nanofibers. Through a series of experiments using thin films of various types of LCs, this work provides a fundamental understanding of the properties of confined LC systems that arise from the anisotropy, elasticity, and surface interactions of LCs. This dissertation is organized into two parts, as detailed below. In the first part of this dissertation, I present a new mechanism for detection of vapors of aromatic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that exploits the elastic strain stored in thin films of nematic LCs. The discovery of this mechanism was enabled by the design of novel microfabricated structures that stabilize films of LCs with thicknesses from 0.7 - 30 microm. By exposing these LC films to vapors of toluene, a model for aromatic VOCs, I demonstrate that the response of the LC film to toluene depends on the thickness of the LC film and the identity of the supporting substrate. Furthermore, I show that the response to toluene can be increased sevenfold in elastically-strained thin films as compared to bulk LCs. Building further on the concept of elastically strained LCs, I describe the responsiveness of cholesteric and blue phase LCs to toluene. The work demonstrates that internal elastic strain stored within cholesteric LC phases can drive a transition into a so-called blue phase LC when vapors of toluene are introduced. When combined, these results show that engineering of elastic strain in LC materials offers the bases for a general and facile approach to design of stimuli-responsive LC systems. In the second part of this dissertation, I present the discovery of a novel method for the LC-templated synthesis of polymer nanofibers. By performing chemical vapor deposition of reactive polymer precursors into films of LCs, I observed the formation of dense mats of polymer fibers that extended from the solid substrate across the thickness of the LC film. Remarkably, these fibers possess uniform shapes, diameters and lengths. The results demonstrate that the morphological properties of the fibers (shape, diameter and length) are determined by the orientation, chemical structure and thickness of the LC used during polymerization. In a demonstration of these effects, mats of nanofibers exhibiting left-handed or right-handed optical activity were synthesized using left-handed or right-handed cholesteric LCs. The results presented in this dissertation are also used to motivate the proposal that growth of the nanofibers is controlled by local regions of high elastic strain in the LC at the tip of the nanofiber, which lead to preferential diffusion and subsequent addition of monomer to the apex of the growing polymeric structure. Finally, I discuss two examples that demonstrate potential applications of these nanofibers: (1) functionalization of mats of fibers with biologically-relevant molecules, and (2) fabrication of nanofibers in complex geometries. These experiments suggest that mats of polymeric nanofibers could find applications in biomedicine, filtration, chemical sensing or separation systems. Overall, these studies contribute new principles for the design of LC-based stimuli-responsive materials and for LC-templated synthesis of polymeric nanostructures using chemical vapor deposition. The principles reported in this dissertation provide guidance to the design of LC-based materials with broad potential engineering applications.

Bilingual/Bicultural Education: Titles and Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations, Volume II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California State Univ., Los Angeles. Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center.

This collection of dissertation abstracts on the subjects of bilingual and bicultural education originally published by "Dissertation Abstracts International" contains items in the following areas: bilingual education program management, assessment, language, curriculum, and the affective domain. The section on program management covers scope,…

Semantic Social Scaffolding for Capturing and Sharing Dissertation Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimitrova, V.; Lau, L.; O'Rourke, R.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a novel collaborative tool--AWESOME Dissertation Environment (ADE)--which facilitates student learning through semantic social scaffolding: a new approach to dissertation writing challenges. These challenges revolve around three issues: timing of support; collective intelligence, and sense making strategies in tension with the…

A synopsis of original research projects published in scientific database in the Russian Federation.

PubMed

Smirnova, Daria; Pavlichenko, Alexey; Karpenko, Olga; Schmeleva, Liubov; Morozov, Petr

2015-06-01

The article describes the current state of scientific publications in the field of psychiatry in the Russian Federation. Issues of academic dissertations, lack of access to recent Russian language research in foreign databases, and recent reforms in the Ministry of Education and Science for overcoming these limitations are discussed in detail. Four exemplary dissertation studies published in Russian language are summarized. The first research examines the contribution of patient's verbal behavior to the reliable diagnosis of mild depression, identifying objective signs for distinguishing it from normal sadness; the mood component influenced the whole mental status and was represented in both structure and semantics of patients' speech. The second paper describes the course of panic disorder with agoraphobia, with the notable results that debut of panic disorder with full-blown panic attacks, often declines to a second accompanied with agoraphobia, which after several years gives way to limited symptom attacks and decreased agoraphobic avoidance. The third study describes the high prevalence of affective and anxiety disorders in patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2, and the role of personality traits in adherence to treatment in patients with poor glucose control. The fourth project uses functional MRI for probing the features of neuronal resting-state networks in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy; the association with affective symptoms provides a model for investigating the pathophysiology of mood disorder. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

National Defense University's Influence on U.S. National Security Policy: Case Study about the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rondeau, Ann E.

2010-01-01

This dissertation touches on a series of events leading to an aspect of United States public policy dealing with weapons of mass destruction (WMD). After exploring the literature that describes the understanding of public policy, this paper uses the case study method to understand why and how a single research center and a particular set of…

Cross-Sectoral Partnerships: A Case Study of the Best Practices Used by CVS/Pharmacy in Developing Partnerships with the Public Workforce Development System in Minnesota

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Nancy M.

2009-01-01

This dissertation explores the private-public sector partnership between CVS/pharmacy and the federal/state workforce development system in Minnesota. The study describes how CVS creates partnerships with the federal/state system of one-stop career centers and other partners in the workforce development arena such as community or faith-based…

The Role of Context in the Development of Second Language Interactional Competence: A Comparative Microanalysis of Topic Initiation Practices in the Study Abroad Homestay and the Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Booven, Christopher D.

2017-01-01

This dissertation research aims to better specify the role of context in the development of second language interactional competence. Drawing on conversation-analytic methods and Wong and Waring's (2010) model of interactional practices, I described and compared the opportunities that two study abroad contexts--the homestay and the language…

The Self-Assembly of Particles with Multipolar Interactions

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-01-01

the LATEX template in which this thesis has been written. I also thank Kevin Van Workum and Jack Douglas for contributing simulation work and some...of the computational expense of simulating such complex self-assembly systems at the molecular level and a desire to understand the self-assembly at...Dissertation directed by: Professor Wolfgang Losert Department of Physics In this thesis , we describe results from investigations of the self-assembly of

In- and Out-of-Character: The Digital Literacy Practices and Emergent Information Worlds of Active Role-Players in a New Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollister, Jonathan M.

2016-01-01

This dissertation explores and describes the in-character and out-of-character information worlds and digital literacy practices of role-players, those that create and enact their characters' or avatars' stories, both within and outside of WildStar, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) (Carbine Studios, 2015). Utilizing Jaeger…

Parallel Algorithms for Least Squares and Related Computations.

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-22

for dense computations in linear algebra . The work has recently been published in a general reference book on parallel algorithms by SIAM. AFO SR...written his Ph.D. dissertation with the principal investigator. (See publication 6.) • Parallel Algorithms for Dense Linear Algebra Computations. Our...and describe and to put into perspective a selection of the more important parallel algorithms for numerical linear algebra . We give a major new

A Search for WIMP Dark Matter Using an Optimized Chi-square Technique on the Final Data from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Experiment (CDMS II)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Manungu Kiveni, Joseph

2012-12-01

This dissertation describes the results of a WIMP search using CDMS II data sets accumulated at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota. Results from the original analysis of these data were published in 2009; two events were observed in the signal region with an expected leakage of 0.9 events. Further investigation revealed an issue with the ionization-pulse reconstruction algorithm leading to a software upgrade and a subsequent reanalysis of the data. As part of the reanalysis, I performed an advanced discrimination technique to better distinguish (potential) signal events from backgrounds using a 5-dimensional chi-square method. This dataanalysis technique combines themore » event information recorded for each WIMP-search event to derive a backgrounddiscrimination parameter capable of reducing the expected background to less than one event, while maintaining high efficiency for signal events. Furthermore, optimizing the cut positions of this 5-dimensional chi-square parameter for the 14 viable germanium detectors yields an improved expected sensitivity to WIMP interactions relative to previous CDMS results. This dissertation describes my improved (and optimized) discrimination technique and the results obtained from a blind application to the reanalyzed CDMS II WIMP-search data.« less

Statistical Physics of Complex Substitutive Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Qing

Diffusion processes are central to human interactions. Despite extensive studies that span multiple disciplines, our knowledge is limited to spreading processes in non-substitutive systems. Yet, a considerable number of ideas, products, and behaviors spread by substitution; to adopt a new one, agents must give up an existing one. This captures the spread of scientific constructs--forcing scientists to choose, for example, a deterministic or probabilistic worldview, as well as the adoption of durable items, such as mobile phones, cars, or homes. In this dissertation, I develop a statistical physics framework to describe, quantify, and understand substitutive systems. By empirically exploring three collected high-resolution datasets pertaining to such systems, I build a mechanistic model describing substitutions, which not only analytically predicts the universal macroscopic phenomenon discovered in the collected datasets, but also accurately captures the trajectories of individual items in a complex substitutive system, demonstrating a high degree of regularity and universality in substitutive systems. I also discuss the origins and insights of the parameters in the substitution model and possible generalization form of the mathematical framework. The systematical study of substitutive systems presented in this dissertation could potentially guide the understanding and prediction of all spreading phenomena driven by substitutions, from electric cars to scientific paradigms, and from renewable energy to new healthy habits.

Reviewing the Review: An Assessment of Dissertation Reviewer Feedback Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lehan, Tara; Hussey, Heather; Mika, Eva

2016-01-01

Throughout the dissertation process, the chair and committee members provide feedback regarding quality to help the doctoral candidate to produce the highest-quality document and become an independent scholar. Nevertheless, results of previous research suggest that overall dissertation quality generally is poor. Because much of the feedback about…

The UK Postgraduate Masters Dissertation: An "Elusive Chameleon"?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pilcher, Nick

2011-01-01

Many studies into the process of producing and supervising dissertations exist, yet little research into the "product" of the Masters dissertation, or into how Masters supervision changes over time exist. Drawing on 62 semi-structured interviews with 31 Maths and Computer Science supervisors over a two-year period, this paper explores…

Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Promoting "Hidden" Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Copeland, Susan

2008-01-01

Since the mid 1990s an increasing number of higher education institutions and organisations have been encouraging the production and submission of theses and dissertations in electronic format. Where access to electronic theses and dissertations is available via the Internet, usage figures indicate that this is a much consulted resource. However,…

Cognitive Appraisal of Dissertation Stress among Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devonport, Tracey J.; Lane, Andrew M.

2006-01-01

The present study examined changes in primary and secondary appraisal, and coping strategies utilized in the final weeks leading to dissertation submission. Sixty volunteer Sports Studies dissertation students (male: n = 29; female: n = 31) completed an adapted Cognitive Appraisal of Health Scale (CAHS: Kessler, 1998), and Brief COPE (Carver,…

Lessons Learned for Successful Dissertation Completion from Social Work Doctoral Graduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Ashley; Wladkowski, Stephanie P.; Mirick, Rebecca G.

2017-01-01

A dissertation demonstrates a doctoral candidate's knowledge of a content area, mastery of research methodology, and readiness for future scholarship. Doctoral candidates, social work programs, and the profession as a whole are invested in ensuring that candidates successfully complete dissertations and enter academic, research, and leadership…

A Popularized Version of 21 Doctoral Dissertations. R & D Monograph 70.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Lawrence R.; Ghozeil, Susan

This volume makes available to a broad readership dissertation findings from social and behavioral sciences research supported by the Employment and Training Administration. Each of twenty-one dissertations, rewritten in the vernacular, is presented in condensed form for primarily nonacademic readers. These popularized selections, which have been…

Gatecrashing the Oasis? A Joint Doctoral Dissertation Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gale, Ken; Speedy, Jane; Wyatt, Jonathan

2010-01-01

This article explores the institutional and individual struggles surrounding the submission for examination of a jointly authored doctoral dissertation at a U.K. civic university. Two of the article's authors (Gale and Wyatt) were the dissertation's authors, and Speedy, the article's third author, is their supervisor. Joint doctoral dissertations…

Economics of Corruption in Doctoral Education: The Dissertations Market

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osipian, Ararat L.

2012-01-01

This paper addresses the issue of "dissertations for sale" in Russia. The tasks of this anthropological study include establishing the problem of corruption in doctoral education, identification of the dissertations suppliers, study of the specific services they offer, analysis of their prices on different services, and generalizations…

Using a nursing theory or a model in nursing PhD dissertations: a qualitative study from Turkey.

PubMed

Mete, Samiye; Gokçe İsbir, Gozde

2015-04-01

The aim of this study was to reveal experiences of nursing students and their advisors using theories and models in their PhD dissertations. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach. This study was performed with 10 PhD candidates and their five advisors from nursing faculty. The results of the study were categorized into four. These are reasons for using a theory/model in a PhD dissertation, reasons for preferring a given model, causes of difficulties in using models in PhD dissertations, and facilitating factors of using theories and models in PhD of dissertations. It was also reported to contribute to the methodology of research and professional development of the students and advisors. © 2014 NANDA International, Inc.

The German medical dissertation--time to change?

PubMed

Diez, C; Arkenau, C; Meyer-Wentrup, F

2000-08-01

German medical students must conduct a research project and write a dissertation in order to receive the title "Doctor." However, the dissertation is not required to graduate, enter a residency, or practice medicine. About 90% of practicing physicians hold the title "Doctor"; a career in academic medicine almost always requires it. Although no convincing evidence supports the usefulness of the dissertation, many regard its completion as important to maintaining a high level of scientific competence and patient care. In recent years, the number of successfully completed dissertations has declined. Lack of time during medical school, the perceived irrelevance of the dissertation to medical practice, and the poor design of many projects may be at least part of the problem. There is also increasing evidence that conducting research frequently delays graduation and may affect clinical skills because students working on projects attend fewer classes, ward rounds, and clinical tutorials and do not spent sufficient time preparing for examinations. The scientific value of students' research has also been criticized; critics point out that students do not have enough time or experience to critically analyze methods and data, and they often are not properly supervised. European unification will probably lead to standardized requirements for medical education and research. The authors hope this will eliminate the dissertation requirement in Germany.

Smart Rocks for Bridge Scour Monitoring: Design and Localization Using Electromagnetic Techniques and Embedded Orientation Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radchenko, Andro

River bridge scour is an erosion process in which flowing water removes sediment materials (such as sand, rocks) from a bridge foundation, river beds and banks. As a result, the level of the river bed near a bridge pier is lowering such that the bridge foundation stability can be compromised, and the bridge can collapse. The scour is a dynamic process, which can accelerate rapidly during a flood event. Thus, regular monitoring of the scour progress is necessary to be performed at most river bridges. Present techniques are usually expensive, require large man/hour efforts, and often lack the real-time monitoring capabilities. In this dissertation a new method--'Smart Rocks Network for bridge scour monitoring' is introduced. The method is based on distributed wireless sensors embedded in ground underwater nearby the bridge pillars. The sensor nodes are unconstrained in movement, are equipped with years-lasting batteries and intelligent custom designed electronics, which minimizes power consumption during operation and communication. The electronic part consists of a microcontroller, communication interfaces, orientation and environment sensors (such as are accelerometer, magnetometer, temperature and pressure sensors), supporting power supplies and circuitries. Embedded in the soil nearby a bridge pillar the Smart Rocks can move/drift together with the sediments, and act as the free agent probes transmitting the unique signature signals to the base-station monitors. Individual movement of a Smart Rock can be remotely detected processing the orientation sensors reading. This can give an indication of the on-going scour progress, and set a flag for the on-site inspection. The map of the deployed Smart Rocks Network can be obtained utilizing the custom developed in-network communication protocol with signals intensity (RSSI) analysis. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is applied for map reconstruction. Analysis of the map can provide detailed insight into the scour progress and topology. Smart Rocks Network wireless communication is based on the magnetoinductive (MI) link, at low (125 KHz) frequency, allowing for signal to penetrate through the water, rocks, and the bridge structure. The dissertation describes the Smart Rocks Network implementation, its electronic design and the electromagnetic/computational intelligence techniques used for the network mapping.

A Pipeline for Constructing a Catalog of Multi-method Models of Interacting Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holincheck, Anthony

Galaxies represent a fundamental unit of matter for describing the large-scale structure of the universe. One of the major processes affecting the formation and evolution of galaxies are mutual interactions. These interactions can including gravitational tidal distortion, mass transfer, and even mergers. In any hierarchical model, mergers are the key mechanism in galaxy formation and evolution. Computer simulations of interacting galaxies have evolved in the last four decades from simple restricted three-body algorithms to full n-body gravity models. These codes often included sophisticated physical mechanisms such as gas dynamics, supernova feedback, and central blackholes. As the level of complexity, and perhaps realism, increases so does the amount of computational resources needed. These advanced simulations are often used in parameter studies of interactions. They are usually only employed in an ad hoc fashion to recreate the dynamical history of specific sets of interacting galaxies. These specific models are often created with only a few dozen or at most few hundred sets of simulation parameters being attempted. This dissertation presents a prototype pipeline for modeling specific pairs of interacting galaxies in bulk. The process begins with a simple image of the current disturbed morphology and an estimate of distance to the system and mass of the galaxies. With the use of an updated restricted three-body simulation code and the help of Citizen Scientists, the pipeline is able to sample hundreds of thousands of points in parameter space for each system. Through the use of a convenient interface and innovative scoring algorithm, the pipeline aids researchers in identifying the best set of simulation parameters. This dissertation demonstrates a successful recreation of the disturbed morphologies of 62 pairs of interacting galaxies. The pipeline also provides for examining the level of convergence and uniqueness of the dynamical properties of each system. By creating a population of models for actual systems, the current research is able to compare simulation-based and observational values on a larger scale than previous efforts. Several potential relationships between star formation rate and dynamical time since closest approach are presented.

How Static is the Statics Classroom? An investigation into how innovations, specifically Research-Based Instructional Strategies, are adopted into the Statics Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutler, Stephanie Leigh

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how educational research, specifically Research-Based Instructional Strategies (RBIS), is adopted by education practice, specifically within the engineering Statics classroom. Using a systematic approach, changes in classroom teaching practices were investigated from the instructors' perspective. Both researchers and practitioners are included in the process, combining efforts to improve student learning, which is a critical goal for engineering education. The study is divided into 3 stages and each is discussed in an individual manuscript. Manuscript 1 provides an assessment of current teaching practices; Manuscript 2 explores RBIS use by Statics instructors and perceived barriers of adoption; and Manuscript 3 evaluates adoption using Fidelity of Implementation. A common set of concurrent mixed methods was used for each stage of this study. A quantitative national survey of Statics instructors (n =166) and 18 qualitative interviews were conducted to examine activities used in the Statics classroom and familiarity with nine RBIS. The results of this study show that lecturing is the most common activity throughout Statics classrooms, but is not the only activity. Other common activities included working examples and students working on problems individually and in groups. As discussed by the interview participants, each of Rogers' characteristics influenced adoption for different reasons. For example, Complexity (level of difficulty with implementation of an RBIS) was most commonly identified as a barrier. His study also evaluated the Fidelity of Implementation for each RBIS and found it to be higher for RBIS that were less complex (in terms of the number of critical components). Many of the critical components (i.e. activities required for implementation, as described in the literature) were found to statistically distinguish RBIS users and non-users. This dissertation offers four contributions: (1) an understanding of current practices in Statics; (2) the instructor perspective of the barriers to using RBIS in the classroom; (3) the use of Fidelity of Implementation as a unique evaluation of RBIS adoption, which can be used by future engineering education researchers; and (4) a systematic approach of exploring change in the classroom, which offers new perspectives and approaches to accelerate the adoption process.

Horizons of description: Black holes and complementarity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bokulich, Peter Joshua Martin

Niels Bohr famously argued that a consistent understanding of quantum mechanics requires a new epistemic framework, which he named complementarity . This position asserts that even in the context of quantum theory, classical concepts must be used to understand and communicate measurement results. The apparent conflict between certain classical descriptions is avoided by recognizing that their application now crucially depends on the measurement context. Recently it has been argued that a new form of complementarity can provide a solution to the so-called information loss paradox. Stephen Hawking argues that the evolution of black holes cannot be described by standard unitary quantum evolution, because such evolution always preserves information, while the evaporation of a black hole will imply that any information that fell into it is irrevocably lost---hence a "paradox." Some researchers in quantum gravity have argued that this paradox can be resolved if one interprets certain seemingly incompatible descriptions of events around black holes as instead being complementary. In this dissertation I assess the extent to which this black hole complementarity can be undergirded by Bohr's account of the limitations of classical concepts. I begin by offering an interpretation of Bohr's complementarity and the role that it plays in his philosophy of quantum theory. After clarifying the nature of classical concepts, I offer an account of the limitations these concepts face, and argue that Bohr's appeal to disturbance is best understood as referring to these conceptual limits. Following preparatory chapters on issues in quantum field theory and black hole mechanics, I offer an analysis of the information loss paradox and various responses to it. I consider the three most prominent accounts of black hole complementarity and argue that they fail to offer sufficient justification for the proposed incompatibility between descriptions. The lesson that emerges from this dissertation is that we have as much to learn from the limitations facing our scientific descriptions as we do from the successes they enjoy. Because all of our scientific theories offer at best limited, effective accounts of the world, an important part of our interpretive efforts will be assessing the borders of these domains of description.

[Science, charity, and social networks: Hospício de Pedro II from different perspectives].

PubMed

Ribeiro, Daniele Corrêa

2016-01-01

This article is part of an effort to compile the analyses made for my master's dissertation from 2012. It contains new perspectives on Hospício de Pedro II (Pedro II Hospice) between 1883 and 1889, drawing on research of admissions records and files of patients staying at the institution, founded in 1852 in Rio de Janeiro. The involvement of different players and the interplay of different interests and demands with regard to the hospice are highlighted. It is important to expand the debate concerning the institution beyond medical and scientific aspects, considering its importance both as a charity and for its key role in the political and social relations of the empire.

Construction of fuzzy spaces and their applications to matrix models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abe, Yasuhiro

Quantization of spacetime by means of finite dimensional matrices is the basic idea of fuzzy spaces. There remains an issue of quantizing time, however, the idea is simple and it provides an interesting interplay of various ideas in mathematics and physics. Shedding some light on such an interplay is the main theme of this dissertation. The dissertation roughly separates into two parts. In the first part, we consider rather mathematical aspects of fuzzy spaces, namely, their construction. We begin with a review of construction of fuzzy complex projective spaces CP k (k = 1, 2, · · ·) in relation to geometric quantization. This construction facilitates defining symbols and star products on fuzzy CPk. Algebraic construction of fuzzy CPk is also discussed. We then present construction of fuzzy S 4, utilizing the fact that CP3 is an S2 bundle over S4. Fuzzy S4 is obtained by imposing an additional algebraic constraint on fuzzy CP3. Consequently it is proposed that coordinates on fuzzy S4 are described by certain block-diagonal matrices. It is also found that fuzzy S8 can analogously be constructed. In the second part of this dissertation, we consider applications of fuzzy spaces to physics. We first consider theories of gravity on fuzzy spaces, anticipating that they may offer a novel way of regularizing spacetime dynamics. We obtain actions for gravity on fuzzy S2 and on fuzzy CP3 in terms of finite dimensional matrices. Application to M(atrix) theory is also discussed. With an introduction of extra potentials to the theory, we show that it also has new brane solutions whose transverse directions are described by fuzzy S 4 and fuzzy CP3. The extra potentials can be considered as fuzzy versions of differential forms or fluxes, which enable us to discuss compactification models of M(atrix) theory. In particular, compactification down to fuzzy S4 is discussed and a realistic matrix model of M-theory in four-dimensions is proposed.

Measuring and moderating the water resource impact of biofuel production and trade

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fingerman, Kevin Robert

Energy systems and water resources are inextricably linked, especially in the case of bioenergy, which can require up to three orders of magnitude more water than other energy carriers. Water scarcity already affects about 1 in 5 people globally, and stands to be exacerbated in many locales by current biofuel expansion plans. This dissertation engages with several of the analytical and governance challenges raised by this connection between bioenergy expansion and global water resources. My examination begins with an overview of important concepts in water resource analysis, followed by a review of current literature on the water impacts of most major energy pathways. I then report on a case study of ethanol fuel in California. This work employed a coupled agro-climatic and life cycle assessment (LCA) model to estimate the water resource impacts of several bioenergy expansion scenarios at a county-level resolution. It shows that ethanol production in California regularly consumes more than 1000 gallons of water per gallon of fuel produced, and that 99% of life-cycle water consumption occurs in the feedstock cultivation phase. This analysis then delves into the complexity of life cycle impact assessment for water resources. Despite improvements in water accounting methods, impact assessment must contend with the fact that different water sources are not necessarily commensurable, and that impacts depend on the state of the resource base that is drawn upon. I adapt water footprinting and LCA techniques to the bioenergy context, describing comprehensive inventory approaches and developing a process for characterizing (weighting) consumption values to enable comparison across resource bases. This process draws on metrics of water stress, accounting for environmental flow requirements, climatic variability, and non-linearity of water stress effects. My assessment framework was developed in hopes that it would be useful in managing the risks and impacts it describes. The primary actors in this governance effort are government regulators, whose policies and incentives continue to drive and to shape the expansion of the bioenergy industry. However, the ability of governments to manage the impacts of biofuels is severely constrained by their obligations under international trade law. This dissertation concludes, therefore, with a detailed investigation into relevant precedents under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). I use these precedents to identify the policy tools that governments would be able to bring to bear in moderating the water resource impacts and myriad other environmental and social concerns raised by bioenergy expansion.

Research ethics in dissertations: ethical issues and complexity of reasoning.

PubMed

Kjellström, S; Ross, S N; Fridlund, B

2010-07-01

Conducting ethically sound research is a fundamental principle of scientific inquiry. Recent research has indicated that ethical concerns are insufficiently dealt with in dissertations. To examine which research ethical topics were addressed and how these were presented in terms of complexity of reasoning in Swedish nurses' dissertations. Analyses of ethical content and complexity of ethical reasoning were performed on 64 Swedish nurses' PhD dissertations dated 2007. A total of seven ethical topics were identified: ethical approval (94% of the dissertations), information and informed consent (86%), confidentiality (67%), ethical aspects of methods (61%), use of ethical principles and regulations (39%), rationale for the study (20%) and fair participant selection (14%). Four of those of topics were most frequently addressed: the majority of dissertations (72%) included 3-5 issues. While many ethical concerns, by their nature, involve systematic concepts or metasystematic principles, ethical reasoning scored predominantly at lesser levels of complexity: abstract (6% of the dissertations), formal (84%) and systematic (10%). Research ethics are inadequately covered in most dissertations by nurses in Sweden. Important ethical concerns are missing, and the complexity of reasoning on ethical principles, motives and implications is insufficient. This is partly due to traditions and norms that discount ethical concerns but is probably also a reflection of the ability of PhD students and supervisors to handle complexity in general. It is suggested that the importance of ethical considerations should be emphasised in graduate and post-graduate studies and that individuals with capacity to deal with systematic and metasystematic concepts are recruited to senior research positions.

The Path to Graduation: A Model Interactive Web Site Design Supporting Doctoral Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmons-Johnson, Nicole

2012-01-01

Objective. This 2-phase mixed method study assessed 2nd-year doctoral students' and dissertation students' perceptions of the current Graduate School of Education dissertation support Web site, with implications for designing a model dissertation support Web site. Methods. Phase 1 collected quantitative and qualitative data through an…

LIS Dissertation Titles and Abstracts (1930-2009): Where Have All the Librar* Gone?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finlay, Craig S.; Sugimoto, Cassidy R.; Li, Daifeng; Russell, Terrell G.

2012-01-01

This article examines the topicality of Library and Information Science (LIS) dissertations written between 1930 and 2009 at schools with American Library Association (ALA)--accredited university programs in North America. Dissertation titles and abstracts were examined for the presence of library-related keywords drawn from the core curricula of…

An Analysis of Professional Practice Ed.D. Dissertations in Educational Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawson, Kara; Kumar, Swapna

2014-01-01

The University of Florida offers an online professional practice Ed.D. focused on Educational Technology. Twenty-three students have completed professional practice dissertations and graduated since the program's inception in 2008. The purpose of this article is to share what these dissertations have looked like and to begin a dialogue about…

Examining CPED Cohort Dissertations: A Window into the Learning of EdD Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Elaine; Heaton, Ruth M.; Swidler, Stephen A.; Wunder, Susan

2013-01-01

Through analyses of three dissertations completed by graduates of our Carnegie Project for the Education Doctorate-influenced program, this article offers insights into both the doctoral students' inquiries into their problems of practice and their faculty advisors' roles and expectations for them. Studying student dissertations provided the…

The Transformation of Online Teaching Practice: Tracing Successful Online Teaching in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baran, Evrim

2011-01-01

This dissertation was an in-depth investigation of successful online teaching in the context of higher education. It is presented in nontraditional dissertation format as approved by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. This dissertation includes three publishable journal articles that would represent Chapter 2, 3…

Evaluability Assessment Thesis and Dissertation Studies in Graduate Professional Degree Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Tamara M.; Trevisan, Michael S.

2016-01-01

Evaluability assessment (EA) has potential as a design option for thesis and dissertation studies, serving as a practical training experience for both technical and nontechnical evaluation skills. Based on a content review of a sample of EA theses and dissertations from graduate professional degree programs, the authors of this article found that…

The Student Affair Organizational Dissertation: A Bounded Qualitative Meta-Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banning, James H.; Kuk, Linda

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine dissertations over the past five years that focused on student affairs organizational issues. A bounded qualitative meta-study was used and the methods, theories, and findings of the dissertations were examined. A variety of research methods were used including quantitative, qualitative and mixed designs.…

The PhD Dissertation Defense in Canada: An Institutional Policy Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Shuhua

2008-01-01

Drawing upon publicly accessible information on the websites of ten Canadian research universities, this paper aims to shed some light on the assumed variation of institutional policies regarding the PhD dissertation defense in Canada. It discusses "How are the institutional policies on the doctoral dissertation defense different across…

(Re)Reenvisioning the Dissertation in English Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, Gary A.; Drew, Julie

1998-01-01

Contends that the academy has forgotten the origin of the dissertation and has turned it from a substantive contribution of scholarship to an instrument of evaluation. Argues that continuing to treat the dissertation in this way maintains an unequal power hierarchy of "masters" and initiates--it should be seen as the first serious scholarly…

An Examination of the Quality of Leadership Studies Dissertations and Characteristics of Successful Doctoral Graduates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richardson, Paul Truman

2013-01-01

This qualitative study sought to characterize what constitutes quality in leadership studies dissertations. The individual opinions of twenty doctoral faculty members were solicited to identify characteristics of leadership studies dissertation quality. The study further sought to identify possible areas of agreement among participants about the…

How Does Completing a Dissertation Transform Undergraduate Students' Understandings of Disciplinary Knowledge?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashwin, Paul; Abbas, Andrea; McLean, Monica

2017-01-01

Dissertations are positioned as the capstone of an undergraduate degree, bringing together what students have previously learned from their programmes through a piece of independent research. However, there is limited research into the ways in which engaging in a dissertation has an impact on students' understandings of disciplinary knowledge. In…

Shall We Dance? The Importance of Staff-Student Relationships to Undergraduate Dissertation Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derounian, James

2011-01-01

This article evaluates the factors that comprise the staff-student relationship as it relates to undergraduate dissertation preparation. By utilizing secondary and primary material the article pinpoints the emotionally charged backdrop to the dissertation--for both students and staff. The research points to the combined intellectual and…

The Community College Baccalaureate Movement: Cutting-Edge Dissertation Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hrabak, Michael R.

2009-01-01

In this review of dissertations, the researcher presents summaries of 10 of the most recent and cutting-edge dissertations focusing on the ever-growing and complex field of the community college baccalaureate movement. These studies focus on the gamut of specific legislation, case studies of particular programs and schools, financing of such…

Applications of Agent Based Approaches in Business (A Three Essay Dissertation)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prawesh, Shankar

2013-01-01

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the enabling role that agent based simulation plays in business and policy. The aforementioned issue has been addressed in this dissertation through three distinct, but related essays. The first essay is a literature review of different research applications of agent based simulation in various…

34 CFR 662.20 - How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Abroad Fellow selected? 662.20 Section 662.20 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of... DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Selection of Fellows § 662.20 How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected? (a) The Secretary considers applications for fellowships under...

34 CFR 662.20 - How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Abroad Fellow selected? 662.20 Section 662.20 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of... DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Selection of Fellows § 662.20 How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected? (a) The Secretary considers applications for fellowships under...

34 CFR 662.20 - How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Abroad Fellow selected? 662.20 Section 662.20 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of... DISSERTATION RESEARCH ABROAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM Selection of Fellows § 662.20 How is a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellow selected? (a) The Secretary considers applications for fellowships under...

Research Trends in Turkish Distance Education: A Content Analysis of Dissertations, 1986-2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozkurt, Aras; Kumtepe, Evrim Genc; Kumtepe, Alper Tolga; Aydin, Irem Erdem; Bozkaya, Müjgan; Aydin, Cengiz Hakan

2015-01-01

This paper presents a content analytic approach on doctoral dissertations in the field of distance education in Turkish Higher Education context from the years of 1986 through 2014. A total of 61 dissertations were examined to explore keywords, academic discipline, research areas, theoretical/conceptual frameworks, research designs, research…

Enhancing Student Competency and Employability in International Business through Master's Dissertations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinkovics, Rudolf R.; Richardson, Christopher; Lew, Yong Kyu

2015-01-01

A core component of International Business (IB) postgraduate programs around the world is the master's dissertation, which requires students to produce a written document, typically around 20,000 words in length, based on empirical research. While the dissertation is given considerable importance in such programs, often accounting for more than a…

Exposure to Engineered Nanomaterial Results in Disruption of Brush Borders in Epithelia Models in vitro

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Faust, James J.

Engineered nanoparticles (NP; 10-9 m) have found use in a variety of consumer goods and medical devices because of the unique changes in material properties that occur when synthesized on the nanoscale. Although many definitions for nanoparticle exist, from the perspective of size, nanoparticle is defined as particles with diameters less than 100 nm in any external dimension. Examples of their use include titanium dioxide added as a pigment in products intended to be ingested by humans, silicon dioxide NPs are used in foods as an anticaking agent, and gold or iron oxide NPs can be used as vectors for drug delivery or contrast agents for specialized medical imaging. Although the intended use of these NPs is often to improve human health, it has come to the attention of investigators that NPs can have unintended or even detrimental effects on the organism. This work describes one such unintended effect of NP exposure from the perspective of exposure via the oral route. First, this Dissertation will explain an event referred to as brush border disruption that occurred after nanoparticles interacted with an in vitro model of the human intestinal epithelium. Second, this Dissertation will identify and characterize several consumer goods that were shown to contain titanium dioxide that are intended to be ingested. Third, this Dissertation shows that sedimentation due to gravity does not artifactually result in disruption of brush borders as a consequence of exposure to food grade titanium dioxide in vitro. Finally, this Dissertation will demonstrate that iron oxide nanoparticles elicited similar effects after exposure to an in vitro brush border expressing model of the human placenta. Together, these data suggest that brush border disruption is not an artifact of the material/cell culture model, but instead represents a bona fide biological response as a result of exposure to nanomaterial.

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and agile lensing-based modules for communications, sensing and signal processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reza, Syed Azer

This dissertation proposes the use of the emerging Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and agile lensing optical device technologies to design novel and powerful signal conditioning and sensing modules for advanced applications in optical communications, physical parameter sensing and RF/optical signal processing. For example, these new module designs have experimentally demonstrated exceptional features such as stable loss broadband operations and high > 60 dB optical dynamic range signal filtering capabilities. The first part of the dissertation describes the design and demonstration of digital MEMS-based signal processing modules for communication systems and sensor networks using the TI DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. Examples of such modules include optical power splitters, narrowband and broadband variable fiber optical attenuators, spectral shapers and filters. Compared to prior works, these all-digital designs have advantages of repeatability, accuracy, and reliability that are essential for advanced communications and sensor applications. The next part of the dissertation proposes, analyzes and demonstrates the use of analog opto-fluidic agile lensing technology for sensor networks and test and measurement systems. Novel optical module designs for distance sensing, liquid level sensing, three-dimensional object shape sensing and variable photonic delay lines are presented and experimentally demonstrated. Compared to prior art module designs, the proposed analog-mode modules have exceptional performances, particularly for extreme environments (e.g., caustic liquids) where the free-space agile beam-based sensor provide remote non-contact access for physical sensing operations. The dissertation also presents novel modules involving hybrid analog-digital photonic designs that make use of the different optical device technologies to deliver the best features of both analog and digital optical device operations and controls. Digital controls are achieved through the use of the digital MEMS technology and analog controls are realized by employing opto-fluidic agile lensing technology and acousto-optic technology. For example, variable fiber-optic attenuators and spectral filters are proposed using the hybrid design. Compared to prior art module designs, these hybrid designs provide a higher module dynamic range and increased resolution that are critical in various advanced system applications. In summary, the dissertation shows the added power of hybrid optical designs using both the digital and analog photonic signal processing versus just all-digital or all-analog module designs.

The Energy Forum of Sri Lanka: Working toward appropriate expertise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nieusma, Dean

Taking my cue from the knowledge base and practices comprising appropriate technology development, and building on politics of expertise scholarship, this dissertation develops the concept of appropriate expertise: the combination of social and technical competences required to address marginalization through technological interventions. The dissertation asks what appropriate expertise looks like "on the ground" in the context of development as practiced by an exceptional group of technology designers from the Energy Forum of Sri Lanka: What design goals did they strive toward? What challenges did they face? What strategies did they employ? In an effort to answer these questions, the dissertation looks at how these designers interacted across a range of contexts with a broad spectrum of people and institutions, each with its own expertise to draw upon. In particular, it looks at how they situated their work in a highly contoured field of social power, where different types of expertise were used as resources for reinforcing or resisting existing power relations. I use the concept relations of expertise to denote the structure of expert interactions across multiple contexts of activity. Although this concept links to broad political-economic conditions that order varied expert practices, my analytic focus is at a different level: the situated experiences of expert practitioners. By starting with ground-level practices and understandings, I argue that creating new relations of expertise---that is, changing the nature of the interactions among experts and between experts and those they work with---is the key way my informants worked to legitimate marginalized perspectives and thereby empower marginalized social groups around technology-development practices. Appropriate expertise enables the creation of appropriate technologies, but it does more. It enables the creation of new relations of expertise, both through inspiring new forms of interpersonal interaction surrounding technology development and through incremental modification of existing decision-making structures to allow a more diverse group stakeholders to come together around technology decision making in the context of development.

Improvements on mapping soil liquefaction at a regional scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jing

Earthquake induced soil liquefaction is an important secondary hazard during earthquakes and can lead to significant damage to infrastructure. Mapping liquefaction hazard is important in both planning for earthquake events and guiding relief efforts by positioning resources once the events have occurred. This dissertation addresses two aspects of liquefaction hazard mapping at a regional scale including 1) predictive liquefaction hazard mapping and 2) post-liquefaction cataloging. First, current predictive hazard liquefaction mapping relies on detailed geologic maps and geotechnical data, which are not always available in at-risk regions. This dissertation improves the predictive liquefaction hazard mapping by the development and validation of geospatial liquefaction models (Chapter 2 and 3) that predict liquefaction extent and are appropriate for global application. The geospatial liquefaction models are developed using logistic regression from a liquefaction database consisting of the data from 27 earthquake events from six countries. The model that performs best over the entire dataset includes peak ground velocity (PGV), VS30, distance to river, distance to coast, and precipitation. The model that performs best over the noncoastal dataset includes PGV, VS30, water table depth, distance to water body, and precipitation. Second, post-earthquake liquefaction cataloging historically relies on field investigation that is often limited by time and expense, and therefore results in limited and incomplete liquefaction inventories. This dissertation improves the post-earthquake cataloging by the development and validation of a remote sensing-based method that can be quickly applied over a broad region after an earthquake and provide a detailed map of liquefaction surface effects (Chapter 4). Our method uses the optical satellite images before and after an earthquake event from the WorldView-2 satellite with 2 m spatial resolution and eight spectral bands. Our method uses the changes of spectral variables that are sensitive to surface moisture and soil characteristics paired with a supervised classification.

The political economy of oil in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omarova, Saule Tarikhovna

This dissertation examines the way in which the Kazakhstani state redefined its role in managing oil and gas resources between 1992 and 1998. The governments of hydrocarbon-rich post-Soviet republics such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan faced the common challenge of restructuring their petroleum industries to boost the export of oil and gas. This study argues that by 1998 three patterns have emerged, ranging from a more radical state retrenchment in Russia, to reinforced state monopoly in Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, to a "mixed" pattern of state participation in Kazakhstan, consisting of both large-scale privatization of oil assets and the formation of a fully state-owned national oil company, Kazakhoil. This dissertation analyzes the process of restructuring Kazakhstan's oil sector through comparison with the Russian petroleum industry. In Russia, several private, vertically integrated oil companies (VICs) were formed on the basis of existing oil-producing units and soon emerged as essential players in the Russian oil sector. By contrast, Kazakhstan's marginalized status within the Soviet system of oil production resulted in the absence of organizationally strong sectoral interests capable of claiming control over the industry after the independence. Privatization of Kazakhstan's oil enterprises, conducted by the government in spite of the resistance from local oil managers, transferred controlling stakes to foreign investors and further weakened domestic oil interests. Unencumbered state autonomy allowed the increasingly authoritarian Kazakhstani government to adopt relatively modern and investor-friendly petroleum legislation by decree. In Russia, the government's efforts to reform oil-related legislation were blocked by the leftist-dominated Duma, the democratically elected lower chamber of the Russian parliament. On the basis of these findings, this dissertation concludes that the dynamics of state withdrawal from the oil sector in post-Soviet context are determined primarily by structural organization of domestic oil industry inherited from the Soviet era, resulting balance of power between the state and private sectoral actors, and general mode of state-society relations in each country.

The effect of graphic organizers on students' attitudes and academic performance in undergraduate general biology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cleveland, Lacy

High attrition among undergraduate Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors has led national and business leaders in the United States to call for both research and educational reform within the collegiate STEM classrooms. Included among suggestions for reform are ideas to improve retention of first-year students and to improve critical thinking and depth of knowledge, instead of covering large quantities of materials. Past research on graphic organizers suggest these tools assist students in learning information and facilitate conceptual and critical thinking. Despite their widespread use in high school science departments, collegiate humanities departments, and even medical schools, their use is considerably less prevalent in the undergraduate biology classroom. In addition to their lack of use, little research has been conducted on their academic benefits in the collegiate classroom. Based on national calls for improving retention among undergraduate STEM majors and research suggesting that academic success during an individual first major's related course highly determine if that individual will continue on in their intended major, the researcher of this dissertation chose to conduct research on an introductory general biology class. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the research in this dissertation examines the effectiveness of graphic organizers in promoting academic success and also examines their influence on student attitudes. This research is grounded in the theories of constructivism and cognitive load theory. Constructivism suggests that individuals must build their knowledge from their personal experiences, while the cognitive load theory recognizes the limited nature of one's working memory and suggests that instructional practices minimize cognitive overload. The results of this dissertation suggest that the use of graphic organizers in an undergraduate general biology classroom can increase students' academic success when the cognitive load is high; however, when the instructors make effort to reduce cognitive load, while providing the students an opportunity to participate in metacognitive activities and to engage their germane working memory, graphic organizers do not provide an additional benefit to the students.

Functionalization and Characterization of Nanomaterial Gated Field-Effect Transistor-Based Biosensors and the Design of a Multi-Analyte Implantable Biosensing Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croce, Robert A., Jr.

Advances in semiconductor research and complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor fabrication allow for the design and implementation of miniaturized metabolic monitoring systems, as well as advanced biosensor design. The first part of this dissertation will focus on the design and fabrication of nanomaterial (single-walled carbon nanotube and quantum dot) gated field-effect transistors configured as protein sensors. These novel device structures have been functionalized with single-stranded DNA aptamers, and have shown sensor operation towards the protein Thrombin. Such advanced transistor-based sensing schemes present considerable advantages over traditional sensing methodologies in view of its miniaturization, low cost, and facile fabrication, paving the way for the ultimate realization of a multi-analyte lab-on-chip. The second part of this dissertation focuses on the design and fabrication of a needle-implantable glucose sensing platform which is based solely on photovoltaic powering and optical communication. By employing these powering and communication schemes, this design negates the need for bulky on-chip RF-based transmitters and batteries in an effort to attain extreme miniaturization required for needle-implantable/extractable applications. A complete single-sensor system coupled with a miniaturized amperometric glucose sensor has been demonstrated to exhibit reality of this technology. Furthermore, an optical selection scheme of multiple potentiostats for four different analytes (glucose, lactate, O 2 and CO2) as well as the optical transmission of sensor data has been designed for multi-analyte applications. The last part of this dissertation will focus on the development of a computational model for the amperometric glucose sensors employed in the aforementioned implantable platform. This model has been applied to single-layer single-enzyme systems, as well as multi-layer (single enzyme) systems utilizing glucose flux limiting layer-by-layer assembled outer membranes. The concentration of glucose and hydrogen peroxide within the sensor geometry, the transient response and the device response time has been simulated for both systems.

"A Series of Wonders and a Fund of Delights": An Historically Based Trekking Guide to the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail (From Kingsport, TN to Middlesboro, KY)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weidner, Daniel W.

2013-01-01

The primary purpose of this dissertation provides a complete trekking guide of the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Middlesboro, Kentucky. The trekker is given a view of the trail's natural setting that describes the pattern of the road and its surfaces. In the section "Before You Trek" advice is given as to…

Fostering a Child's Foundational Skills Leading to Self-Determination: A Case Study of a Refugee Family, a Head Start Agency, and Their Family-Professional Partnership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haines, Shana Jackson

2013-01-01

This qualitative case study investigated and described the views of both Head Start staff and a refugee family regarding adult fostering of foundational skills leading to self-determination in a young child at risk for disability as well as how these adults worked together in partnership. Chapter 1 provides an overview of this dissertation. It…

Mandatory Open Access Publishing for Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Ethics and Enthusiasm

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawkins, Ann R.; Kimball, Miles A.; Ives, Maura

2013-01-01

This article argues against policies that require students to submit theses and dissertations to electronic institutional repositories. The article counters a variety of arguments often used to justify this practice. In addition, the article reports on the results of an examination of electronic thesis and dissertation policies at more than 150…

Examining Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Leadership Practices among College Enrollment Services Administrators: A Descriptive Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Relken, Nathan A.

2014-01-01

This dissertation is the capstone composition of a professional practices doctorate program. The preface includes a brief history and background on the doctorate in education, and more specifically the definition of and rationale behind a professional practices doctoral program and dissertation, a description of the dissertation format and it…

Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramírez, Marisa L.; McMillan, Gail; Dalton, Joan T.; Hanlon, Ann; Smith, Heather S.; Kern, Chelsea

2014-01-01

In academia, there is a growing acceptance of sharing the final electronic version of graduate work, such as a thesis or dissertation, in an online university repository. Though previous studies have shown that journal editors are willing to consider manuscripts derived from electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), faculty advisors and graduate…

Supervisors' On-Script Feedback Comments on Drafts of Dissertations: Socialising Students into the Academic Discourse Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basturkmen, Helen; East, Martin; Bitchener, John

2014-01-01

Supervising masters and doctoral dissertations is a key function of teaching in higher education and giving written feedback on draft sections is an essential component of this function. However, the specific types of response that supervisors give to their dissertation students' written work have received limited research interest to date. The…

Motives for Dissertation Research at the Intersection between Rural Education and Curriculum and Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howley, Craig B.; Howley, Aimee; Yahn, Jacqueline

2014-01-01

Dissertation literature focusing on issues of curriculum and instruction (C&I) in rural schools has substantially increased since 1987. We located 580 possibly rural C&I dissertations and subsequently identifi ed 194 as probably rural; of these we were able to obtain digital copies of 188 full-length studies. Our purpose was to…

A Survey of Mathematics Education Technology Dissertation Scope and Quality: 1968-2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ronau, Robert N.; Rakes, Christopher R.; Bush, Sarah B.; Driskell, Shannon O.; Niess, Margaret L.; Pugalee, David K.

2014-01-01

We examined 480 dissertations on the use of technology in mathematics education and developed a Quality Framework (QF) that provided structure to consistently define and measure quality. Dissertation studies earned an average of 64.4% of the possible quality points across all methodology types, compared to studies in journals that averaged 47.2%.…

Successful Dissertations and Theses: A Guide to Graduate Student Research from Proposal to Completion.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madsen, David

A guide to writing dissertations and theses is presented that is primarily directed to doctoral and master's degree candidates but that may also be useful to the writer of scholarly papers, essays, and papers. Attention is directed to the following concerns: starting and completing the dissertation; working with the research adviser and advisory…

Examining Graduate Dissertations in the Field of Critical Thinking: A Case from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demirel, Melek; Derman, Ipek; Can Aran, Ozge

2017-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study is to conduct content analyses of graduate dissertations about critical thinking skills in the field of educational sciences in Turkey and to document general trends in dissertations. Research Methods: This study is constructed using qualitative research methods and techniques. A document review was used to gather…

Ethnic Folklife Dissertations from the United States and Canada, 1960-1980. A Selected, Annotated Bibliography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerst, Catherine Hiebert

This annotated bibliography lists over 220 multi-disciplinary Ph.D. dissertations written between 1960 and 1980 on the subject of indigenous and immigrant ethnic folklife in the United States and Canada. Only dissertations providing substantial attention to traditional forms of ethnic folk culture in context were considered. The concept of…

Technical Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January 1975 through December 1983 (Vols. 37 through 44).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murdock, Phil, Comp.

Compiled from responses to a survey of 36 universities offering doctorates in rhetoric, composition, language, or technical communication, and updated using research and dissertation indexes and bibliographies, this bibliography summarizes doctoral research in technical communication since 1975. The 35 titles deal with a variety of topics,…

The Adviser and the Committee

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cassuto, Leonard

2012-01-01

The dissertation adviser's task may be to give advice, but his or her approval is required for the thesis to pass and the degree to be awarded. It is the graduate student's dissertation, but the imprimatur belongs to the dissertation adviser, so perhaps the process belongs to both of them. But that equation leaves out some other important actors,…

The Effects of Program Structure on Dissertation Writing in "Online Academia": A Qualitative Analysis of Online Doctoral Student Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin-Lee, Regina

2010-01-01

Writing the dissertation can be one of the most stressful experiences in the doctoral education experience. Previous research findings indicate that traditional psychology doctoral candidates (PDC) identify the graduate school experience, and the dissertation process in particular as stress-inducing, isolating and key obstacles to graduation.…

A Study of Factors Related to Dissertation Progress among Doctoral Candidates: Focus on Students' Research Self-Efficacy as a Result of Their Research Training and Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faghihi, Forooz; Rakow, Ernest A.; Ethington, Corinna

This study examined relationships among doctoral candidates' background characteristics, research preparation, research environment, research involvement, student-advisor relationship, research self-efficacy, and dissertation progress. The study focused on differences in research self-efficacy and dissertation progress among students from the…

Measuring Educational Quality by Appraising Theses and Dissertations: Pitfalls and Remedies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Patti; Johnson, Robert; Poudrier, Chelsey

2010-01-01

In this paper, we argue that, as indicators of the educational quality of graduate degree programs, student theses and dissertations are best used in specific contexts. High-quality theses and dissertations, that is, may be the result of factors such as verbal skills students already possessed at admission or of complex interactions between…

Dissertation Research in School Psychology: Changes in Topics and Methodology over the Past 25 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lekwa, Adam; Ysseldyke, Jim

2010-01-01

Eighty school psychology programs offering training at the doctoral level were contacted with a request for lists of authors, titles, and abstracts of dissertations completed between the years 2000 and 2007. Titles and abstracts from 1119 dissertations were reviewed to assess the interests and experiences of new researchers and practitioners in…

A Microscope or a Mirror?: A Question of Study Validity Regarding the Use of Dissertation Citation Analysis for Evaluating Research Collections

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beile, Penny M.; Boote, David N.; Killingsworth, Elizabeth K.

2004-01-01

Use of dissertation citation analysis for collection evaluation was investigated. Analysis of 1842 education dissertation citations from three institutions suggests the assumption of doctoral student expertise in their use of the scholarly literature may be overstated. For purposes of developing research collections, dependence on dissertation…

A Content Analysis of Dissertations in the Field of Educational Technology: The Case of Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durak, Gurhan; Cankaya, Serkan; Yunkul, Eyup; Misirli, Zeynel Abidin

2018-01-01

The present study aimed at conducting content analysis on dissertations carried out so far in the field of Educational Technology in Turkey. A total of 137 dissertations were examined to determine the key words, academic discipline, research areas, theoretical frameworks, research designs and models, statistical analyses, data collection tools,…

The Significance and Use of Historical Method in Library and Information Science Dissertations, 1984-1999.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Heather A.

This study is concerned with the importance of historical method in library and information science research. The research conducted in this study specifically examined library and information science doctoral dissertations written between 1984-1999. The study of the "Digital Dissertations" database found that only eight to seventeen percent of…

To Gain the Academic Capital: The Conflict and Solution in the Dissertation Proposal Defence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ningning, Zhao

2006-01-01

Doctor candidates get the academic identity and academic capital in his field by the thesis writing. The dissertation proposal defence hold on the public field promotes the state of academic and legalizes the discipline of the academic community. During the dissertation proposal defence, doctor candidates may face three conflicts. The first is…

Graphite from the University of Idaho Thermolyzed Asphalt Reaction (GUITAR): Fundamental Electrochemical Characterizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gyan, Isaiah Owusu

This dissertation details electrochemical characterization of GUITAR (Graphite from the University of Idaho Thermolyzed Asphalt Reaction), a new allotrope of carbon. Applications based on fundamental electrochemical properties of this material are also presented. The dissertation is presented in five chapters. Chapter one presents a summary of the discovery and physical characterizations of GUITAR and how its physical properties position it among carbon materials. In chapter two, fundamental electrochemical properties covering aqueous potential window and electron transfer kinetics with common dissolved redox couples are presented. This chapter highlights significant electrochemical differences between GUITAR and other sp2 carbon materials, notably, fast electron transfer across basal plane GUITAR, contrary to reports at basal planes of graphite and graphene electrodes. In chapter three, the concept of electron transfer facility is extended with biologically relevant molecules. GUITAR is shown to be suitable for biosensing with properties such as; facile electron transfer, low detection limit, high resistance to fouling and stability to anodic regeneration procedures. Chapter four presents further exploration of GUITAR's wide cathodic potential limits in other aqueous electrolytes and preliminary studies towards the exploitation of this property in the negative half of vanadium redox flow battery, where GUITAR-based electrodes are expected to increase coulombic efficiency and increase battery performance due to low hydrogen evolution. Chapter five concludes this dissertation with point-by-point presentation of significant discoveries that highlights GUITAR's uniqueness. This chapter also describes how the various fundamental electrochemical properties of GUITAR make it useful for various applications.

Managing Astronomy Research Data: Case Studies of Big and Small Research Projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sands, Ashley E.

2015-01-01

Astronomy data management refers to all actions taken upon data over the course of the entire research process. It includes activities involving the collection, organization, analysis, release, storage, archiving, preservation, and curation of research data. Astronomers have cultivated data management tools, infrastructures, and local practices to ensure the use and future reuse of their data. However, new sky surveys will soon amass petabytes of data requiring new data management strategies.The goal of this dissertation, to be completed in 2015, is to identify and understand data management practices and the infrastructure and expertise required to support best practices. This will benefit the astronomy community in efforts toward an integrated scholarly communication framework.This dissertation employs qualitative, social science research methods (including interviews, observations, and document analysis) to conduct case studies of data management practices, covering the entire data lifecycle, amongst three populations: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) collaboration team members; Individual and small-group users of SDSS data; and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) collaboration team members. I have been observing the collection, release, and archiving of data by the SDSS collaboration, the data practices of individuals and small groups using SDSS data in journal articles, and the LSST collaboration's planning and building of infrastructure to produce data.Preliminary results demonstrate that current data management practices in astronomy are complex, situational, and heterogeneous. Astronomers often have different management repertoires for working on sky surveys and for their own data collections, varying their data practices as they move between projects. The multitude of practices complicates coordinated efforts to maintain data.While astronomy expertise proves critical to managing astronomy data in the short, medium, and long term, the larger astronomy data workforce encompasses a greater breadth of educational backgrounds. Results show that teams of individuals with distinct expertise are key to ensuring the long-term preservation and usability of astronomy datasets.

Integrated electronics and fluidic MEMS for bioengineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fok, Ho Him Raymond

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microelectronics have become enabling technologies for many research areas. This dissertation presents the use of fluidic MEMS and microelectronics for bioengineering applications. In particular, the versatility of MEMS and microelectronics is highlighted by the presentation of two different applications, one for in-vitro study of nano-scale dynamics during cell division and one for in-vivo monitoring of biological activities at the cellular level. The first application of an integrated system discussed in this dissertation is to utilize fluidic MEMS for studying dynamics in the mitotic spindle, which could lead to better chemotherapeutic treatments for cancer patients. Previous work has developed the use of electrokinetic phenomena on the surface of a glass-based platform to assemble microtubules, the building blocks of mitotic spindles. Nevertheless, there are two important limitations of this type of platform. First, an unconventional microfabrication process is necessary for the glass-based platform, which limits the utility of this platform. In order to overcome this limitation, in this dissertation a convenient microfluidic system is fabricated using a negative photoresist called SU-8. The fabrication process for the SU-8-based system is compatible with other fabrication techniques used in developing microelectronics, and this compatibility is essential for integrating electronics for studying dynamics in the mitotic spindle. The second limitation of the previously-developed glass-based platform is its lack of bio-compatibility. For example, microtubules strongly interact with the surface of the glass-based platform, thereby hindering the study of dynamics in the mitotic spindle. This dissertation presents a novel approach for assembling microtubules away from the surface of the platform, and a fabrication process is developed to assemble microtubules between two self-aligned thin film electrodes on thick SU-8 pedestals. This approach also allows the in-vitro model to mimic the three-dimensionality of the cellular mitotic spindle that is absent in previous work. The second application of an integrated bioengineering system discussed in this dissertation is to design and fabricate active electronics and sensors for an in-vivo application to monitor neural activity at the cellular level. Temperature sensors were chosen for a first demonstration. In order for temperature sensors to be able to be implanted into brain interfaces, it is necessary for these devices to be fabricated using processes that are compatible with bio-compatible substrates such as glass and plastic. This dissertation addresses this challenge by developing temperature sensors integrated with biasing circuitry using zinc oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) fabricated on polyimide substrates. The integrated sensors show good temperature sensitivity, which is critical for monitoring neural temperature at the cellular level. This dissertation also describes the unique requirements of encapsulating implantable electronics. For instance, encapsulation schemes must be designed in such a way that they both protect electronic devices from extracellular fluids and also do not interfere with the functionality of these devices. In this work, SU-8 is used as a convenient and effective encapsulation layer. Thermal engineering to prevent active electronics from overheating and to ensure accurate temperature measurement from temperature sensors is also discussed, and a synergistic encapsulation and thermal engineering combination is presented.

Speech Communication and Communication Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," April and May 1978 (Vol. 38 Nos. 10 and 11).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the nature of creativity in advertising communication; speech communication difficulties of international professors; rhetorical arguments regarding the…

Real Fantasies in Mathematics Education: Numeracy, Quantitative Reasoners, and Transdisciplinary Wicked Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Craig, Jeffrey Carl

2017-01-01

This dissertation has seven chapters. In chapter one, I discuss through why I am doing this dissertation, my positionality, and how I learned from and with all of my committee members. Chapter two is where I situate my dissertation study through developing a social theory of quantitative literacy by translating a social theory of literacy (Barton…

A Celebration of Diversity: LIS Research in the Nordic Countries as Shown by PhD Dissertations 2005-2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tveit, Åse Kristine

2017-01-01

A study of PhD dissertations in library and information science (LIS) was carried out to investigate which research topics have been of interest in Nordic LIS institutions. Seventy-nine doctoral dissertations from 2005 to 2014, published by 13 different research institutions, were retrieved from the institutions' archives and from library…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," October 1978 through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 4 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with the following topics: written communication competencies necessary in the accounting profession; the cooperative school approach to developing a communication network; organizational communication and faculty…

Scholarly Capacities, Habits of Mind, and Dispositions: Case Studies of Education Doctoral Students in a Dissertation Proposal Seminar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McArthur, Dana Lynn

2011-01-01

The completion of a formal proposal for a dissertation research project is a standard requirement as a prelude to the process of conducting research and writing a doctoral dissertation for students who complete a doctoral degree in most academic fields including all the branches of the field of education. Many students satisfactorily complete…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1983 (Vol. 43 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 45 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relationship of Jungian psychological traits and the effects of comparative advertising; (2) processing and reconstructing television narrative content;…

Teaching of Writing: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with the following topics: the dynamics of creative expression, modular scheduling and student success in freshman composition, growth in writing ability through immersion in a university discipline, massed and…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1984 (Vol. 45 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: (1) women proteges' perceptions of the mentoring process; (2) the relationship between opportunity for upward communication and facets of job satisfaction; (3) the organizational…

Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 1995. [and] A Listing of Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 1995.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Mi-Young; Johnson, Kim K. P.

1996-01-01

Five tables summarize by institution and subject matter 753 theses and dissertations in family and consumer sciences in 1995. The listing is organized by the following categories: art and design; child development; clothing; consumer resource management; family relations; foods; home economics education; human environment/housing; hotel/restaurant…

Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 1996. [and] A Listing of Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 1996.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ownbey, Shiretta E.; Taupmann, Ann

1997-01-01

Five tables summarize by institution and subject matter 612 theses and dissertations in family and consumer sciences in 1996. The listing is organized by the following categories: art and design; child development; clothing/apparel; consumer resource management; family relations; foods; human environment/housing; hotel/restaurant management;…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1982 (Vol. 43 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 32 titles discuss a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the elderly audience for religious broadcasting; (2) response to television advertising of directly marketed products; (3) the effectiveness of documentary film…

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through September 1978 (Vol. 39 Nos. 1 through 3).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: advance organizers; a comparison of the effectiveness and efficiency of behavioral objectives and sample tests; anaphoric nominal substitution and its relationship to reading…

Analysis of Citations to Books in Chemistry PhD Dissertations in an Era of Transition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flaxbart, David

2018-01-01

A citation analysis of chemistry PhD dissertations at the University of Texas at Austin yielded data on how often graduate students cite books in their bibliographies, and on the characteristics of the books cited, in terms of age and local ownership. The analysis examined samples of dissertations selected from five discrete years--1988, 2006,…

Journalism and Journalism Education: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1978 (Vol. 38 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: the role and function of the California Journalism Articulation Committee; international communication as an academic career for journalism professors; network television news discourse;…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1983 (Vol. 44 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 27 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) children's understanding of television advertising; (2) the occupational role portrayed of women in magazine advertisements; (3) the relationship between…

Speech Communication and Communication Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," August and September 1978 (Vol. 39 Nos. 2 and 3).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: the rhetorical dimensions of nondiscursive, fragmentary communication; perceptions of persuasion situations and the question of transituational consistency of behavior; alcohol use and…

Strategies for Finding and Selecting an Ideal Thesis or Dissertation Topic: A Review of Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lei, Simon A.

2009-01-01

Choosing an ideal master's thesis or doctoral dissertation topic is probably one of the most important decisions students will make while in graduate school. Some graduate students may spend a year or even longer looking for potential topics before finally selecting one for their thesis or dissertation. There are a number of successful strategies…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1979 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: communication and perceptions of organizational climate; perceptions of communications between federal and local educational agencies; intraorganizational conflict…

Reading Instruction: Preschool and Elementary: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," April through June 1978 (Vol. 38 Nos. 10 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 22 titles deal with the following topics: computer-assisted instruction; school characteristics and reading achievement; the process of reading acquisition; on-task behavior, teacher involvement, and reading achievement; the…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1981 (Vol. 41 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) identifying problem formation behaviors within the process of organizational change; (2) using the communication audit to determine decision style, satisfaction, and communication…

Drama and Oral Interpretation: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1978 (Vol. 39 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: interpersonal conflict and the nonviolent peacemaking tradition; theatrical transactional analysis; recycling existing spaces for theatre use; the effect of theatre study on the…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 29 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the mythology underlying television advertising; the ethnicity of television commercials; the impact of television food commercials on young children; comparative…

What Does Research Tell Us about Trends in Dissertations on PBL?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erdogan, Tolga

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the research trends in dissertations on PBL from 2002 to 2015 in Turkey. For this purpose, the master's and doctorate dissertations in the National Thesis Database of Council of Higher Education (CoHE) were selected for rigorous content analysis. The analysis was utilized to classify the type of study, the…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1985 (Vol. 46 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 35 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) television and scholastic achievement; (2) press freedom and the new world information order; (3) content analysis of Saturday morning children's television…

An Investigation of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Its Possible Influence on Beginning Teacher Retention: A Companion Dissertation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shook, Anna Lorraine Braverman

2015-01-01

An Investigation of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching and its Influence on Beginning Teacher Retention: A Companion Dissertation. Shook, Anna, 2015. Dissertation, Gardner-Webb University, Adult Learning Theory/Adult Developmental Theory/Professional Development/Beginning Teacher/North Carolina Center for the Advancement of…

Applied Communication, Argumentation, and Debate: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1983 (Vol. 44 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 13 titles deal with the following topics: (1) collective bargaining in higher education; (2) decoding nonverbal communication and clinical effectiveness; (3) the need for interpersonal communication training for Texas peace…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1981 (Vol. 42 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) transnational communication knowledge transfer and utilization, especially between the United States and Asian countries; (2) police personnel evaluation procedures as an aspect of…

Overview of the Dissertation Process within the Framework of Flow Theory: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cakmak, Esra; Oztekin, Ozge; Isci, Sabiha; Danisman, Sahin; Uslu, Fatma; Karadag, Engin

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the flow of doctoral students who are also research assistants and in the dissertation process. The study was designed using the case study method. The case undertaken in the study was the dissertation process. Eleven participants were selected into the study using maximum variation sampling. Face-to-face,…

[Leon Daraszkiewicz and his monograph on hebephrenia].

PubMed

Marcinowski, Filip

2012-01-01

Leon Daraszkiewicz (1866-1931) was a Polish psychiatrist, a pupil and co-worker of E. Kraepelin and V. Tsiz on the University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia), the author of highly regarded monograph on hebephrenia (1891). In his work on the basis of over 20 case histories, he described a natural history of hebephrenia and his own views on its aetiology and prognosis. Hebephrenia as described by Daraszkiewicz, served as a clinical model for the Kraepelinian concept of dementia praecox. In the article, the life and career of Daraszkiewicz is covered, with particular emphasis on the role of his doctoral dissertation on hebephrenia in the history of the concept of schizophrenia.

Agricultural Development, Land Change, and Livelihoods in Tanzania's Kilombero Valley

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Connors, John Patrick

The Kilombero Valley lies at the intersection of a network of protected areas that cross Tanzania. The wetlands and woodlands of the Valley, as well as the forest of surrounding mountains are abundant in biodiversity and are considered to be critical areas for conservation. This area, however, is also the home to more than a half million people, primarily poor smallholder farmers. In an effort to support the livelihoods and food security of these farmers and the larger Tanzanian population, the country has recently targeted a series of programs to increase agricultural production in the Kilombero Valley and elsewhere in the country. Bridging concepts and methods from land change science, political ecology, and sustainable livelihoods, I present an integrated assessment of the linkages between development and conservation efforts in the Kilombero Valley and the implications for food security. This dissertation uses three empirical studies to understand the process of development in the Kilombero Valley and to link the priorities and perceptions of conservation and development efforts to the material outcomes in food security and land change. The first paper of this dissertation examines the changes in land use in the Kilombero Valley between 1997 and 2014 following the privatization of agriculture and the expansion of Tanzania's Kilimo Kwanza program. Remote sensing analysis reveals a two-fold increase in agricultural area during this short time, largely at the expense of forest. Protected areas in some parts of the Valley appear to be deterring deforestation, but rapid agricultural growth, particularly surrounding a commercial rice plantation, has led to loss of extant forest and sustained habitat fragmentation. The second paper focuses examines livelihood strategies in the Valley and claims regarding the role of agrobiodiversity in food security. The results of household survey reveal no difference or lower food security among households that diversify their agricultural activities. Some evidence, however, emerges regarding the importance of home gardens and crop diversification for dietary diversity. The third paper considers the competing discourses surrounding conservation and development in the Kilombero Valley. Employing q-method, this paper discerns four key viewpoints among various stakeholders in the Valley. While there are some apparently intractable distinctions between among these discourses, consensus regarding the importance of wildlife corridors and the presence of boundary-crossing individuals provide the promise of collaboration and compromise.

Synthesis and Magnetic, Thermal, and Electrical Measurements on Complex non-Cuprate Superconductors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Henry, Laurence L

2006-02-27

The project investigated superconductivity in non-cuprate materials with critical temperatures, T{sub c}, in excess of 20 K in order to understand the thermodynamics of several of these materials. The project is a cooperative effort between investigators at Southern University (SU), Louisiana State University (LSU), and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). It involved synthesis of high quality samples, and subsequent detailed magnetic, thermal and electrical measurements on them. The project provided a PhD Thesis research experience and training for a graduate student, Ms. Robin Macaluso. High quality, single crystal samples were synthesized by Ms. Macaluso under the direction of one ofmore » the CO-PIS, John Sarao, during the summer while she was a visitor at LANL being supported by this grant. On these samples magnetic measurements were performed at SU, thermal and electrical measurements were made in the LSU Physics and Astronomy Department. The crystallographic properties were determined in the LSU Chemistry Department by Ms. Macaluso under the direction of her dissertation advisor, Dr. Julia Chan. Additional high field magnetic measurements on other samples were performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) both in Tallahassee and at LANL. These measurements involved another graduate student, Umit Alver, who used some of the measurements as part of his PhD dissertation in Physics at LSU.« less

Absolute surface reconstruction by slope metrology and photogrammetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Yue

Developing the manufacture of aspheric and freeform optical elements requires an advanced metrology method which is capable of inspecting these elements with arbitrary freeform surfaces. In this dissertation, a new surface measurement scheme is investigated for such a purpose, which is to measure the absolute surface shape of an object under test through its surface slope information obtained by photogrammetric measurement. A laser beam propagating toward the object reflects on its surface while the vectors of the incident and reflected beams are evaluated from the four spots they leave on the two parallel transparent windows in front of the object. The spots' spatial coordinates are determined by photogrammetry. With the knowledge of the incident and reflected beam vectors, the local slope information of the object surface is obtained through vector calculus and finally yields the absolute object surface profile by a reconstruction algorithm. An experimental setup is designed and the proposed measuring principle is experimentally demonstrated by measuring the absolute surface shape of a spherical mirror. The measurement uncertainty is analyzed, and efforts for improvement are made accordingly. In particular, structured windows are designed and fabricated to generate uniform scattering spots left by the transmitted laser beams. Calibration of the fringe reflection instrument, another typical surface slope measurement method, is also reported in the dissertation. Finally, a method for uncertainty analysis of a photogrammetry measurement system by optical simulation is investigated.

Drama and Oral Interpretation: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1978 (Vol. 38 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: an examination of inexperienced actors performing the plays of William Shakespeare; an investigation of the philosophies and practices of a summer theatre producer and manager; the…

Theatre and Oral Interpretation: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1982 (Vol. 42 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the development of American theatre management practices between 1830 and 1896; (2) the aesthetics of audience response; (3) P. Picasso as a theatrical…

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1980 (Vol. 41 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The ten titles deal with the following topics: (1) rhetorical theories for college writing teachers, (2) contemporary rhetorical criticism of literary art, (3) the rhetoric of the new religious cults, (4) Victorian argument, (5)…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1984 (Vol. 45 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 37 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the role of television in the lives of older homebound individuals; (2) radio wars between Cuba and the United States; (3) the relationship between…

Written Language and Writing Abilities: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1981 (Vol. 42 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 29 titles deal with a vareity of topics, including the following: (1) the interrelationship of reading and writing in the composing process; (2) the relationship between composition teachers' ability to write and the writing…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) communication style in initial meetings of small groups; (2) gender orientation, communicative competency, and communication satisfaction in acquaintance dyads; (3) attitudinal,…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1981 (Vol. 42 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 50 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) a history of broadcast audience research in the United States from 1920 to 1980; (2) factors contributing to the believability of television newscasters; (3)…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1981 (Vol. 41 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 47 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effect of source variation upon children's reactions to television commercials; (2) covert observation as a means of measuring the affective states of…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: group communication; effects of communication skills training on marital interaction; relationship among assertiveness, manifest anxiety, and self-esteem; dyadic…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1985 (Vol. 46 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) ways of conceptualizing and evaluating group discussion; (2) participant observations of communication themes in families facing death; (3) perceptions of…

Theatre and Oral Interpretation: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July 1979 through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: (1) a taxonomy of educational objectives in acting; (2) contemporary musical theatre in Utah; (3) applying management concepts to educational theatre operations; (4) creative drama and…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1983 (Vol. 44 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the development of a module to attain the leadership competency of encouraging improved interpersonal communication through feedback; (2) communicating in an American Taoist…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1982 (Vol. 43 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles discuss a variety of topics, including the following: (1) caregiver talk to toddlers in dyadic and polyadic care; (2) communication tactics for neutralizing verbal aggression; (3) physical attractiveness and nonverbal…

Part four: The research dissertation: planning, producing and writing a thesis.

PubMed

Quick, J; Hall, S

2015-11-01

Dissertations have become common inclusions to postgraduate degrees in healthcare. To the novice researcher, undertaking an extensive project of this kind can appear daunting. In this final article in the series 'Spotlight on Research', Julie Quick and Susan Hall advise perioperative practitioners on how to plan, produce and write a research dissertation. Guidance is also given on disseminating the results from research studies.

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1984 (Vol. 45 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1984

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) factual, elaborative, and inferential levels of text processing; (2) the effect of explicitly and implicitly presented rhetorical functions on the…

End-to-End Fault Tolerance Using Transport Layer Multihoming

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy...dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor...grow tired of revising the same text over and over, he always showed enthusiasm for helping me improve its

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," April through June 1978 (Vol. 38, Nos. 10 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with the following topics: the effects of preinstructional activities on the learning and retention of prose; the interaction of picture and print in reading instruction; the perception of structure in scrambled…

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: children's development of syntactic aspects of reading comprehension, the relative contributions of the individual and the text in the comprehension and retention…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1985 (Vol. 45 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 45 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) gender portrayal in magazine advertising; (2) the role of special interest groups in agenda-setting; (3) the relationship between sensation-seeking and horror…

Teaching of Writing: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 38 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) revision using electronic word processing; (2) photography as an intervention strategy in the verbal composing process; (3) the effects of planning processes…

Applied Communication, Argumentation, and Debate: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1982 (Vol. 42 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) interpersonal communication in the reference interview; (2) the relationship of a principal's communication behavior to the teacher's perceived job satisfaction; (3) the relationship…

Rhetoric and Public Address: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 20 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the campaign communication during the Carter-Ford television debates; (2) apprehensiveness and performance in public speaking; (3) a history and criticism of…

Theatre and Oral Interpretation: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1982 (Vol. 43 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: (1) children's theatre activities at Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio; (2) the development, implementation, and significance of story theatre as a theatrical art form and performance…

An Overview of Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 1999. [and] A Listing of Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 1999.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennemer, Cathy G.; Ownbey, Shiretta F.

2000-01-01

Summarizes 433 family and consumer sciences theses and 221 dissertations by institution and subject and compares 1995-1999. Lists authors and titles by subject: art/design, child development, clothing/apparel, family/consumer resource management, family and consumer sciences, family relations, foods, human environment/housing, hotel/restaurant…

An Overview of the Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 2000. [and] A Listing of Theses and Dissertations Completed in Family and Consumer Sciences: 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Terra L.; Barron-Krog, Jennifer; Fullerton, Angela R.

2001-01-01

Tables categorize 635 family and consumer sciences theses and dissertations by institution and subject. The list of titles is categorized as follows: art and design, child development, clothing/apparel, communications, family and consumer sciences, family relations, resource management, foods, human environment/housing, hotel/restaurant…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1980 (Vol. 41 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 47 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) television and attitudes about crime, (2) attitude measurement in marketing communications, (3) soap operas and liberal education values, (4) the existence of…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 55 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the prime time access rule; (2) media education; (3) magazine and children's advertising; (4) Irish national and Third World cinema; (5) international radio…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through October 1978 (Vol. 38 No. 7 through Vol. 39 No. 4).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: written communication flow between administrators and faculty at a community college; an analysis of the perceptions of legislators and university administrators on selected issues;…

Mass Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 36 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) content diversity in local television news; (2) advertising influences on consumers' use of evidence; (3) organized labor and the mass media; (4) feminist film…

Speech Communication and Communication Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through September 1977 (Vol. 38 Nos. 1 through 3).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 22 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the rhetorical effectiveness of Senator Edmund S. Muskie's 1972 Presidential primary election campaign; persuasive speaking techniques of black college and…

Language Use, Language Ability, and Language Development: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1977 (Vol. 38 No. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 27 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: facilitation of language development in disadvantaged preschool children; auditory-visual discrimination skills, language performance, and development of manual…

Journalism and Journalism Education: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1979 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: establishing newspapers in the Washington Territory; the business history of the antebellum Wisconsin newspaper, 1833-1860; the idea of news in a culturally plural society; the…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1981 (Vol. 41 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relationships between power, gender, and mode of conflict management in superior/subordinate relationships; (2) the interaction processes of groups with varying levels of…

Business and Organizational Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1982 (Vol. 43 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the delivery of bad news in organizations; (2) the diffusion of judicial innovations; (3) speech action in organizational socialization; (4) differential…

Written Language and Writing Abilities: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 33 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) children's sense of audience; (2) rhetorical foundations of technical communication; (3) sources of negative attitudes toward writing; (4) the development of…

Rhetoric and Public Address: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1984 (Vol. 45 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 10 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the television sermons of Jerry Falwell, W. A. Criswell, Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggert, James Robinson, and Howard Estep; (2) the preaching of Wallace E. Fisher; (3) Theodore…

Rhetoric and Public Address: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1982 (Vol. 42 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the rhetoric of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; (2) the rhetorical strategies employed in the political speaking of George C. Wallace in the 1968 United States presidential…

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1982 (Vol. 42 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the rhetorical theory and practice of Walter Lippmann; (2) communication, "root-metaphor" orientation, and decision making; (3) teaching as rhetoric; (4) the conditions and…

Interpersonal, Nonverbal, and Small Group Communication: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1979 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 24 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: a social skills training program; facial kinesic correlates of terminal cancer patients; the relationships among indices of social cognition, motivation, and…

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July 1979 through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the philosophy of rhetoric; (2) an analytical study of the development of major concepts of causality in philosophy; (3) an ontological approach to interpersonal communication…

The Implications of a Decade of Diversity-Related Doctoral Dissertations (2000-2009) in LIS: Supporting Inclusive Library Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Subramaniam, Mega M.; Rodriguez-Mori, Howard; Jaeger, Paul T.; Hill, Renee Franklin

2012-01-01

This article reports the findings of a study exploring the nature and extent of research on diversity in library and information science (LIS) doctoral dissertations from 2000 to 2009. By systematically examining the last decade of dissertations in the field, this study is meant to reveal the levels of interest in diversity research among doctoral…

Journalism and Journalism Education: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," March through December 1977 (Vol. 37 No. 9 through Vol. 38 No. 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of journalism-related topics, including the following: the needs of community newspapers; factors affecting reader evaluation of authors; reader differentiation between news stories and editorials;…

Reading Instruction: Remedial and Compensatory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1977 (Vol. 38 Nos. 1 through 6), Part One.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: the relationship of racial integration, auditory discrimination training, and other factors to reading achievement; the relative effectiveness of the controlled reader and the speech…

Written Language and Writing Abilities: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July 1979 through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 1 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the adolescent writer's developing sense of audience; (2) the entry skills, methods, and attitudes of intermediate composition students in postsecondary composition programs; (3)…

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through September 1977 (Vol. 38 Nos. 1 through 3).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: children's ability to read their own dictated oral language; adjunct structure and reading comprehension; learning and comprehension of simultaneously presented stimuli in children of…

Speech Communication Education and Classroom Interaction: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984 (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 10 titles deal with the following topics: (1) communication training for adolescents and their teachers; (2) faculty career paths in speech communication; (3) student self-concept modification in communication courses; (4)…

Applied Communication, Argumentation, and Debate: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1985 (Vol. 46 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) comparison of receiver profiles in Clark County, Nevada, for various school-community relations communications channels; (2) effects of profit knowledge, size…

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1981 (Vol. 41 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The nine titles deal with the following topics: (1) the theory and application of presumption in public debate; (2) the rhetoric of transcendentalism; (3) speechwriting in rhetorical criticism; (4) the conspiracy argument as…

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects on reading comprehension of a number of reader-related factors, including lookback during studying, oral versus silent reading modes, reading…

Reading, Comprehension, and Memory Processes: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1980 (Vol. 41 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 31 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) teaching strategies for reading comprehension; (2) strategies for assigning meaning to unfamiliar words in context; (3) differential processing of explicit and…

Reading Instruction: Preschool and Elementary: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through September 1978 (Vol. 39 Nos. 1 through 3).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: learning outcomes produced by single- and multi-grade primary classrooms; the effect of sex-role stereotyped picture books on children's behavior; word recognition…

Language Use, Language Ability, and Language Development: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with the following topics: sex appropriate and sex inappropriate language; lexical retrieval and perceptual errors; naming deficits in anomia and aphasia; developmental discourse; pragmatic information and…

Speech Communication Education and Classroom Instruction: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1982 (Vol. 43 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The eight titles deal with the following topics: (1) the effects of self-instructional and discrimination communication training on the development of confrontation skills in prepracticum counseling trainees, (2) cross-cultural…

Rhetoric and Public Address: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1983 (Vol. 43 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 31 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the rhetoric of confrontation in Northern Ireland; (2) rhetorical arguments in public health regulations; (3) epideictic discourse in the founding of the…

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1979 (Vol. 39 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 13 titles deal with the following topics: confessional rhetoric in the poetry of Anne Sexton, rhetorical criticism, the Hippocratic oath, messages communicated through team sports as a medium of social interaction, the silent…

Reading Instruction: Secondary: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," March through December 1977 (Vol. 37 No. 9 through Vol. 38, No. 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: secondary school principals' attitudes toward characteristics of an ideal reading program; the effects of rock music on the reading comprehension of eighth grade students; objectives for…

Rhetorical and Communication Theory: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a series providing continuing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the rhetoric of scientific controversy; (2) Erving Goffman's interactional theory of communication conduct; (3) a phenomenology of feminism; (4) a…

A High-Order Transport Scheme for Collisional-Radiative and Nonequilibrium Plasma

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-06

of change of the temperature is obtained, ∂E ∂T ∂T ∂t = ∂ ∂x ( κs ∂T ∂x ) (7.6) Assuming a one- dimensional discretization on a uniformly- spaced ...oscillations nor a quantitative analysis of the multi- dimensional shock structure has been provided to date. This dissertation builds upon previous...high-enthalpy nonequilibrium plasmas and is the focus of much of this work. The plasma is described as

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dahl, P.F.

This year, 1992, marks the 65th anniversary of the publication of Rolf Wideroe`s doctoral dissertation. In it, he described not only the operating principles of the betatron, but also a working model of the first linear accelerator, constructed according to his own design. The latter, a resonance accelerator, gave Ernest Lawrence the idea for his cyclotron. Since Wideroe and his accelerator initiatives may not be very familiar to today`s accelerator physicists, the following is a brief recapitulation of the man and his work.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dahl, P.F.

This year, 1992, marks the 65th anniversary of the publication of Rolf Wideroe's doctoral dissertation. In it, he described not only the operating principles of the betatron, but also a working model of the first linear accelerator, constructed according to his own design. The latter, a resonance accelerator, gave Ernest Lawrence the idea for his cyclotron. Since Wideroe and his accelerator initiatives may not be very familiar to today's accelerator physicists, the following is a brief recapitulation of the man and his work.

75 FR 52358 - Notice of Submission of Proposed Information Collection to OMB; Doctoral Dissertation Research...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-25

...The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. The information is being collected to select applicants for award in this statutorily created competitive grant program and to monitor performance of grantees to ensure they meet statutory and program goals and requirements.

The Relationship Between Beta-Adrenoreceptor Density and Immune Function Before and After Acute Stressor Exposure

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-10-12

holding our litlie family together during this dissertation process . I would like to thank my father, Neil Schneiderman for listening to my graduate...school woes , but refraining from giving advice unless asked. Finally, I am greatful for my little daughter who is in the process of showing me which...stress response was physiologically the same (eg. changes in the adrenal and thymus glands). In order to describe the processes involved, Selye 6

A biographical note on Max Friedrich (1856-1887), Wundt's first PhD student in experimental psychology.

PubMed

Domanski, Cezary W

2004-01-01

This article unveils some previously unknown facts about the short life of Max Friedrich (1856-1887), the author in 1881 of the first PhD dissertation on experimental psychology, written under the supervision of Wilhelm Wundt: "On the Duration of Apperception for Simple and Complex Visual Stimuli." The article describes Friedrich's family background and life, professional career as a teacher, and works in psychology and mathematics. Copyright 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Defense Acquisition Workforce Growth Initiative: Changing Workforce Characteristics and the Implications for Workforce Retention

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-01

entrants’ prior work experience . This dissertation utilizes DoD personnel data to (1) describe civilian DAW cohorts in terms of past work experience and...illustrate how the hiring surge has changed cohort past-work- experience characteristics; (2) evaluate how prior work experience relates to retention...growth initiative was fueled mainly by outside hires with no prior DoD experience , and some evidence suggests that these DoD newcomers—in general

Development and validation of a physics problem-solving assessment rubric

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Docktor, Jennifer Lynn

Problem solving is a complex process that is important for everyday life and crucial for learning physics. Although there is a great deal of effort to improve student problem solving throughout the educational system, there is no standard way to evaluate written problem solving that is valid, reliable, and easy to use. Most tests of problem solving performance given in the classroom focus on the correctness of the end result or partial results rather than the quality of the procedures and reasoning leading to the result, which gives an inadequate description of a student's skills. A more detailed and meaningful measure is necessary if different curricular materials or pedagogies are to be compared. This measurement tool could also allow instructors to diagnose student difficulties and focus their coaching. It is important that the instrument be applicable to any problem solving format used by a student and to a range of problem types and topics typically used by instructors. Typically complex processes such as problem solving are assessed by using a rubric, which divides a skill into multiple quasi-independent categories and defines criteria to attain a score in each. This dissertation describes the development of a problem solving rubric for the purpose of assessing written solutions to physics problems and presents evidence for the validity, reliability, and utility of score interpretations on the instrument.

Thesis survey results in the field of nursing regarding the use of complementary and alternative medical treatments in Turkey.

PubMed

Arslan, Gulsah Gurol; Denat, Yildiz; Dikmen, Yurdanur

2017-09-01

This descriptive literature review was planned to identify the prevalence of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) usage, frequency of usage, types/fields of use in master's theses and PhD dissertations based on the CAM methods, which are commonly used in nursing practice in Turkey. Data was collected in Turkey from February to March 2014 through a review of the National Thesis Centre (NTC) Archives at the Chairmanship of the Council of Higher Education and by obtaining the nursing theses/dissertations on CAM done between 1996 and 2013. Data were analysed by distribution of frequencies and percentages for publication year, number in sampling, method, case group, CAM type, and purpose of use/effectiveness. A total of 88 theses/dissertations were located. It was found that a majority of the theses/dissertations investigated were interventional. Investigation of the purpose of CAM use in theses/dissertations showed that the studies examined the effects of CAM on symptom control.

Rhetoric and Public Address: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1980 (Vol. 41 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: (1) a psycholinguistic analysis of the rhetoric of Abba S. Eban; (2) synergetic tetrahedral communication models; (3) a form critical approach to the oral traditions of the black church…

Theatre and Oral Interpretation: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1983 (Vol. 44 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relative effects of two creative drama approaches on the dramatic behavior and mental imagery ability of elementary school students; (2) the history of the…

Journalism and Journalism Education: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1980 (Vol. 41 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the status, function, and perceived needs of journalism in the high schools of West Virginia; (2) environmental pollution news coverage; (3) a critical history…

Reading Achievement: Characteristics Associated with Success and Failure: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," October through December 1977 (Vol. 38 Nos. 4 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 22 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: relationships between decoding skills and reading comprehension in college students, speed of retrieval of verbal information and patterns of oral reading errors,…

Reading and Study Skills and Instruction: Secondary: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: (1) a hierarchy of purposes for reading assignments applied to secondary school social studies; (2) the effects of sentence combining practice on reading comprehension; (3) the effects of…

Reading and Study Skills and Instruction: Secondary: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1981 (Vol. 42 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The ten titles deal with the following topics: (1) an inductive method for teaching three skills necessary for reading narrative fiction; (2) the use of reading strategies in secondary level content area classrooms; (3) seventh grade…

Journalism and Journalism Education: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the meaning of "Cold War" in two York, Pennsylvania, daily newspapers; (2) Tom Paine and the disclosure of secret French aid to the United States; (3) "Schenck V.…

Literature, Literary Response, and the Teaching of Literature: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," July through December 1983 (Vol. 44 Nos. 1 through 6).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 29 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) science fiction in elementary school science education; (2) the portrayal of black characters in children's literature; (3) UFOs and their correlates as a…

Reading Achievement: Characteristics Associated with Success and Failure: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1980 (Vol. 40 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) reading comprehension and visual creativity; (2) family interaction and reading achievement in high school males; (3) conceptual tempo, Piagetian level of…

Written Language and Writing Abilities: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1985 (Vol. 45 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) a study of the meanings of experience of ten published feminist women writers; (2) the composing activities of computer literate writers; (3) the informational…

Reading Achievement: Characteristics Associated with Success and Failure: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Published in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1984, (Vol. 44 Nos. 7 through 12).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, IL.

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 21 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of a six-months school entrance age difference on reading, mathematics, and language achievement in primary school children; (2) relationships…