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Prospective Students
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Faculty and Staff
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Current Students
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Alumni and Friends
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Historically, male students have been known to score lower than their female counterparts in reading and writing on standardized measures of academic success. While scholars, teachers, and even policy makers have attempted to explain and mitigate this gender gap in reading and writing scores, the male students themselves have had little opportunity to offer their insight into the research. Moreover, there is limited research about the causes of the perceived gap in reading and writing scores, or the potential ways in which the high school English classroom could be reimagined in order to provide a solution. This qualitative multiple case study explores how the experiences outside of the classroom in the lives of high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program mediate their reading and writing in the high school English classroom. Furthermore, this study explores how high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program perceive pedagogical elements in the high school English classroom. In particular, this study focused on the experiences outside of school of three high school male students enrolled in an alternative education program. These stories were told through individual, narrative portraits composed by the researcher which were composed based on the analysis of data from two focus group sessions and two semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Findings from the study indicate that there is a need to expand the understanding of literacy skills, as well as how they are recognized, practiced, and assessed, in the high school English classroom.
Traditional methods of staff development do not meet the needs of current healthcare organizations. It is difficult to find training that is effective and flexible to meet staff needs with variable scheduling (Chen at al., 2022; Haggerty et al., 2012). Preceptor development was identified as a course that is important for the success of staff, but hard to attend the training with traditional methods. This study sought to gain insight to the experiences of nurses who attended a blended learning preceptor development course. The course trains preceptors to develop the confidence, identify tools, and know the resources needed to onboard new nurses so they are in turn confident and safe in their practice. The following research questions will guide this study: 1) What are the experiences of nurse preceptors who attended the blended learning preceptor development course?; 2) How do nurse preceptors perceive their level of preparedness in being able to successfully train and onboard new nursing staff after attendance in the blended learning preceptor development course?; 3): How do nurses who attended the blended learning course describe their ability to be able to precept a new hire?
The combination of singular optics and partially coherent fields has become increasingly important in the applications of optical communication and optical imaging. Within this, we focus on the phenomena of optical vortices. We use and study the properties of these partially coherent vortex beams such as the total angular momentum, as well as investigate the effects of partial coherence on vortex created phenomena, namely superoscillations. In this dissertation we use the optical vortices as observed through the cross-spectral density in a partially coherent field to create superoscillations and investigate the superoscillatory behavior as the field is randomized. It is shown that a decrease in spatial coherence can in some cases strengthen the superoscillatory behavior, and in others decrease it. We then look at superoscillations that appear in the phase of the correlation function in partially coherent Talbot carpets. Utilizing the Talbot effect, it is shown that superoscillations can be propagated significant distances, even under a decrease in spatial coherence. It is also shown that this decrease in spatial coherence can strengthen the superoscillatory behavior at the primary and secondary Talbot images. We also introduce a modification to the class of partially coherent vortex beams known as Twisted Vortex Gaussian-Schell Model Beams through the addition of polarization. These beams have angular momentum from three different sources: the underlying vortex order of the beam, the "twist" given to the ensemble of beams, and the polarization of the beam. The combination of these angular momentum properties allows for unprecedented control over the total angular momentum of the field and its transverse distribution.
The purpose of this exploratory descriptive case study was to understand the experiences of faculty learning community members practicing active learning strategies in virtual learning environments (VLEs) to discover how teaching in virtual spaces for an extended period of time impacted the use of active learning strategies in physical classrooms. Ten faculty interviewed in this study experienced an abrupt and forced transition from active learning classrooms (ALCs) to VLEs in March 2020 and continued teaching virtually until August 2021. Through interviews conducted at the case study institution, three overarching themes emerged about practicing active learning strategies in VLEs and subsequent changes when participants returned to physical classrooms: (1) Working the Room highlighted how participants adapted existing active learning models designed for physical spaces to fit the VLE and replicate physical elements from ALCs. (2) It’s Not in the Syllabus reframed Lewin’s (1947) change model and included a “pivot” that provided faculty the flexibility needed to address unpredictable challenges. Finally, the emergence of (3) Virtual In-Person Classrooms (VIPCs) that included tools that transferred from VLEs allowed participants to imagine new ways of practicing active learning strategies in physical classrooms and helped to overcome learning space barriers and ALC shortages.
Background: The most common cause of sentinel events is ineffective communication among the healthcare team. Nurses’ documentation of communication, including documenting the notification of critical laboratory results (CLR), is important to ensure that information is accessible. Growing evidence supports the potential of ongoing peer review with feedback as a quality improvement (QI) intervention for documentation.
Purpose: This project sought to implement and evaluate a peer audit and feedback intervention focused on CLR documentation.
Methods: The project occurred on two units of a tertiary medical center where compliance for documentation of CLR was below goal for several years. The intervention was timely peer audit and feedback of CLR events, with a post-project survey to gain nursing perspectives on the process. Data collected included overall compliance rate for CLR documentation, data from the peer audits, and post intervention survey responses.
Results: The improvement in CLR documentation compliance was not statistically significant; however, results were clinically significant as compliance improved on one unit from 6.10% to 9.6% (57.4% improvement). Survey results showed overall positive perceptions of peer audit and feedback as a QI tool, and the intervention was perceived as being non-punitive and helpful for improving practice.
Conclusion: Results support continued examination of the peer audit and feedback process, and its potential for QI in nursing documentation. Future projects should consider strategies to address limited time for nursing staff to engage in quality improvement projects.
In recent years, Wide Bandgap (WBG) semiconductor based power devices has matured rapidly and are playing a significant role in high switching frequency power electronic applications. WBG materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) possess a higher critical breakdown strength, an increased thermal conductivity, and a wider energy bandgap than silicon which make WBG semiconductors as a material of choice in low on-resistance, high blocking voltage, high switching frequency and high operating temperature power applications. In addition, using these devices result in the overall size reduction of the devices as higher doping levels can be achieved at similar voltage levels.
A gate driver acts as an interface between power devices and logic-level control signals and plays a significant role in the switching behaviour of WBG devices. To increase the overall efficiency and reduce the footprint of the system high switching frequency operation of the devices is desirable. However, power consumption in the gate driving circuit increases with frequency. A viable strategy to reduce the gate driving power consumption is to use resonant gate driving technique where part of the energy stored in the gate capacitance is recycled.
In this dissertation, a novel resonant gate driver (RGD) for WBG devices is proposed which drives the semiconductor device using quasi-square wave by utilizing higher order harmonics. Firstly, the operating principles of the proposed gate driver circuit is presented. Secondly, a detailed characteristic analysis and power loss analysis of the circuit are provided. Additionally, a comprehensive simulation study of the proposed circuit is introduced. Moreover, a prototype of the proposed RGD was built and tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed gate driving technique can significantly reduce power consumption in the gate driver circuit in comparison to conventional gate driving techniques.
Over 80% of all malaria deaths occur in children under 5 years of age. Malaria control
strategies have been progressively shifted to specific populations and/or areas to max-
imize effectiveness. Malaria is a significant public health problem in Ghana. Seasonal
Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) using a combination of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine
and amodiaquine has been implemented since 2015 in northern Ghana where malaria
transmission is intense and seasonal. In this study, we estimated the prevalence of
asymptomatic P. falciparum carriers in three ecological zones of Ghana, and com-
pared the sensitivity and specificity of different molecular methods in identifying
asymptomatic infections. Moreover, we examined the frequency of mutations in pfcrt,
pfmdr1, pfdhfr, and pfdhps that relate to the ongoing SMC. A total of 535 asymp-
tomatic schoolchildren were screened by microscopy and PCR (18s rRNA and TARE-
2) methods. Among all samples, 28.6% were detected as positive by 18S nested PCR,
whereas 19.6% were detected by microscopy. A high PCR-based asymptomatic preva-
lence was observed in the north (51%) compared to in the central (27.8%) and south
(16.9%). The prevalence of pfdhfr-N51I/C59R/S108N/pfdhps-A437G quadruple mu-
tant associated with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine resistance was significantly higher in
the north where SMC was implemented. Compared to 18S rRNA, TARE-2 serves as
a more sensitive molecular marker for detecting submicroscopic asymptomatic infec-
tions in high and low transmission settings. These findings establish a baseline for
monitoring P. falciparum prevalence and resistance in response to SMC over time.
Ghana is also one of the three African countries where the world’s first malaria
vaccine, RTS, S, was launched recently. The vaccine contains part of the central
repeat region and the complete C-terminal of the circumsporozoite protein (CSP)
gene of the 3D7 strain. Polymorphism in the PfCSP protein has been reported from
several parts of the world. However, whether RTS, S-induced immunity is PfCSP
allele-dependent and if selection favors non-3D7 strains are unclear. This study aims
to examine the genetic polymorphism of the PfCSP genes in clinical P. falciparum
cases and provide a baseline of parasite diversity prior to vaccine implementation in
Ghana. A total of 212 clinical samples were collected from Seikwa located in the
Brong Afrong region where the vaccine is currently being deployed. Preliminary data
indicated a high rate of polyclonal infections, with some samples harboring up to 3
clones based on the allele frequency among mapped reads. Parasite clones detected
within the same host were not genetically similar to one another. Instead, they were
distributed in various subclades and closely related to clones identified from other
hosts. It is yet to be investigated if the high PfCSP haplotype diversity and low
resemblance to the 3D7 strain have an impact on the anti-CSP immune response and
thereby the efficacy of RTS,S.
The focus of this dissertation is on the topic of chatter avoidance during machining and the prediction of specific cutting forces and maximum tool temperatures during machining using machine learning. Self-excited regenerative vibration or “chatter” is a significant obstacle in machining which results in poor surface quality. To avoid chatter, a 2D diagram of the depth cut limit vs. the spindle speed, called Stability Lobe Diagram (SLD), is used. The SLD depends on the cutting parameters and structural dynamics parameters. Theoretically, chatter can be avoided using the physic-based SLD. But in practice, there is a gap between the empirical results and what the theory supports due to the uncertainties associated with the in-process structural dynamics parameters. using a multivariate Newton method, given the empirical data sets. The first part of the dissertation focuses on the inverse problem in chatter avoidance where the in-process structural dynamics parameters are extracted using a multivariate Newton method, given the empirical data sets. The SLD and the cutting parameters are assumed to be known and given. Using this knowledge, the structural dynamics parameters are obtained using the inverse approach. In addition, the uncertainty in the value of each structural dynamics parameter derived through the inverse approach is also presented. The results derived from the algorithm are used to discover the sensitivity of the boundary with respect to each parameter. The last part of the dissertation covers the prediction of the specific cutting force and the maximum tool temperature during machining using machine learning models.
This study explored two aspects of K-12 core content area teachers' experiences with digital citizenship through the Connectivism lens (Siemens, 2005). First, it explored how teachers instruct students on digital citizenship topics, including how they define digital citizenship and integrate it into their core content area curriculum. Second, it looked at teachers’ experiences and needs regarding digital citizenship professional development. This study followed a basic qualitative approach and used interviews with a follow up questionnaire to gather data. Participants’ responses were analyzed using Fereday and Muir-Cochrane’s (2006) six-step, hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. Findings and discussion were presented through the learning theory of Connectivism. Information on how core content area teachers define digital citizenship was summarized using the S3 Guiding Principles from Ribble and Park (2019). Information on teachers’ experiences integrating digital citizenship into their core content curriculum revealed five major themes: Responsibility, Student Behavior, News & Media Literacy, Non-Cognitive Competencies, and Technology Use. Findings related to professional development experiences were presented through five broad themes: Personal Learning Networks, Parenting & Family, Self-Exploration, Technology Facilitators & Other Technology Champions, and Participating in the Digital World. Findings related to teachers' professional development needs regarding integrating digital citizenship into their core content curriculum were summarized through three themes: making this content relevant and authentic for their students, raising awareness among their peers to build a community around teaching digital citizenship, and identifying resources to integrate this subject matter into their curricula.
