2923 research outputs found
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An Ethereal Afternoon
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Self-Portrait within the Wallpaper
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How are the Collaborative Efforts of the Transition Plan Team Viewed by Its Members
Get PDFThe views of a transition/IEP team members of the collaborative efforts of each other have had little or limited viewing. Annually there are approximately six million special education students in the United States of America (Samuels, 2017). While in high school, these students and their transition/IEP team are tasked with preparing them for adult life (U.S. Department of Education [USDOE], 2018). The team’s collaborative efforts are a necessary component of ensuring the success of each student’s adult life (Michaels & Ferrara, 2005).
For students to find success after high school, all transition/IEP team members need to collaborate as best as possible on behalf of the student. Best practices state that collaboration is a key to successful outcomes in any team environment (Arndt et al., 2006). By observing the collaborative efforts of a transition/IEP team, using each team members’ meeting reflection as a catalyst for questioning, and conducting interviews with each team member, then repeating the process to determine if self-reflection and talking through that reflection can improve collaborative efforts in future meetings by all team members was the focus of this study. Findings indicated that not all team members are equally knowledgeable of services and agencies available to students with intellectual disabilities and their families. This lack of knowledge as perceived by team members was the most important reason collaboration was unequal for all team members. Additional research is needed to determine if effectively educating team members, specifically, parents would improve all team members’ collaborative efforts
School Leader Perceptions Regarding the Role of the School Based Speech-Language Pathologists
Get PDFThrough this research, school leaders’ knowledge-base, experiences, and perceptions regarding the role of the school-based speech-language pathologist were investigated. The purpose of this study was to address how school leaders perceived and interacted with speech-language pathologists and any barriers that affected leader perceptions. A qualitative instrumental case study design was selected for the study. Data obtained from personal interviews were analyzed and interpreted through a critical theory lens. Key themes that emerged from school leader perceptions included: (a) limited knowledge regarding the role of speech-language pathologists, (b) understanding of school-based challenges for speech-language pathologists, (c) limited knowledge on contributions speech-language pathologists provide, (d) school leader recognition of limited knowledge-base regarding speech-language pathologists, and (e) school leaders want to learn more about the complete role of the school-based, speech-language pathologist. Findings were interpreted relative to educational leadership, speech-language pathologists, and specific policies and practices related to school leadership
The Moderating Effect of Anger on the Relationship Between Psychological Reactance and Sexual Coercion
Get PDFRape and sexual assault are a pervasive worldwide phenomenon found across cultures affecting all genders. Rape and sexual assault often take a grave toll on the survivors. Per research, 1 in 5 women, and 1 in 75 men will experience rape, while 33.3% of women, and 16.6% of men report experiencing forced sexual contact in their lifetime (Smith et al., 2017). Research shows sexual assault often has a profoundly negative impact on survivors, leaving them at greater risk for posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, major depressive disorder, and suicidal ideation that results in death by suicide (Zinzow et al., 2011). Using reactance theory framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate if clinical anger (a more severe and chronic type of anger) moderated the relationship between sexual coercion and psychological reactance. This study surveyed 498 participants recruited via social media and a university listserv. Results showed verbal and behavioral reactance positively correlated to sexual coercion. Additionally, verbal and behavioral reactance positively correlated to clinical anger. Clinical anger was not shown to moderate the relationship between reactance and sexual coercion. These findings suggest that while reactance does have some link to sexual coercion and clinical anger, clinical anger is does not strengthen or moderate the relationship between psychological reactance and sexual coercion
Credit Card Security System and Fraud Detection Algorithm
Get PDFCredit card fraud is one of the most critical threats affecting individuals and companies worldwide, particularly with the growing number of financial transactions involving credit cards every day. The most common threats are likely to come from database breaches and identity theft. All these threats threat put the security of financial transactions at severe risk and require a fundamental solution. This dissertation aims to suggest a secure online payment system that significantly improves credit card security. Our system can be particularly resilient to potential cyber-attacks, unauthorized users, man-in-the-middle, and guessing attacks for credit card number generation or illegal financial activities by utilizing a secure communication channel between the cardholder and server. Our system uses a shared secret and a verification token that allow both sides to communicate through encrypted information. Furthermore, our system is designed to generate a one-time credit card number at the user’s machine that is verified by the server without sharing the credit card number over the network. Our approach combines the machine learning (ML) algorithms with unique temporary credit card numbers in one integrated system, which is the first approach in the online credit card protection system. The new security system generates a one-time-use credit card number for each transaction with a predetermined amount of money. Simultaneously, the system can detect potential fraud utilizing ML algorithm with new critical features such as the IMEI or I.P. address, the transaction’s location, and other features. The contribution of this research is two-fold: (1) a method is proposed to generate a unique, authenticatable one-time credit card number to effectively defend against the database breaches, and (2) a credit card fraud prevention system is proposed with multiple security layers that are achieved by the integration of authentication, ML-based fraud detection, and the one-time credit card number generation. The dissertation improves consumers’ trust and confidence in the credit card system’s security and enhances satisfaction with credit cards’ various financial transactions. Further, the system uses the current online credit card infrastructure; hence it can be implemented without tangible infrastructure cost
Criteria for Selecting Female Superintendents in a Southern State
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to ascertain which personal characteristics and professional skills differentiate female superintendents from school board presidents during the hiring process of a new superintendent. Input from practicing Louisiana public school superintendents and school board presidents was obtained in this quantitative study. This study’s significance was to identify personal characteristics and professional skills identified by current female superintendents to have been significant factors in their selection to the superintendency. Current research and literature reviewed and a reliable survey instrument obtained the desired information from the sample. The components of the survey were divided into two categories: personal characteristics and professional skills. The content or specific items for the survey were identified through the current literature. A factor analysis was performed on the survey to identify correlated items and group them into factors. As a result, four significant constructs were derived from the surveys.
Based on the population, the researcher distributed a survey with 14 personal characteristics and 22 professional skills. Three research questions were formulated for the study. The level of significance established for this study was .05.
Study findings showed the only personal characteristic with a significant difference was “Excellent and diverse societal skills.” The results were a positive sign that superintendents and school board presidents tend to agree and understand the characteristics that encompass today’s traits needed for a successful hire in the selection process of new superintendents.
It was also concluded that superintendents valued the professional skill of “high student advocacy,” “clearly focused work,” and “high academic goals” significantly higher than public school board presidents. Both hypotheses for this study were rejected.
The emerging views of leadership and the glass ceiling theoretical framework contribute to the need for attention to be placed on the personal characteristics and professional skills attributed needed when hiring a new superintendent. This research will help aspiring female superintendents identify the personal characteristics and professional skills of successful female superintendents. Using such information from the study for recruiting, selecting, and retaining female superintendents will be important for Louisiana
An Examination of Organizational Decision-Making: A Case Approach
Get PDFThis applied dissertation offered insights about the scientist-practitioner gap and examined the process of organizational decision making using a real case from a large United States manufacturing company. Historical records of employee work hours were extracted and compiled from several of the company\u27s databases, along with recent plant performance metrics. These archival data were used to evaluate the relationship between the percentage of each plant\u27s population working overtime (i.e., overtime utilization) and each plant’s performance on various manufacturing metrics. This comparison was made using a median split approach, such that the performance of plants with an overtime utilization above the median (i.e., the high-overtime group) was compared to the performance of pants with an overtime utilization falling below the median (i.e., the low-overtime group). Post-hoc analyses were conducted to determine if a more rigorous methodological approach would have produced different findings. As such, a series of bivariate regressions (with overtime utilization as the predictor variable) was conducted, allowing the overtime variability that exists across plants to be taken into account in order to better understand the relationship between overtime utilization and the outcome metrics. Additionally, when available, financial metrics were leveraged instead of performance metrics so that results could be interpreted through the lens of the company’s bottom line. Ultimately, the more rigorous approach produced richer insights regarding how risky the decision to enact an overtime-reduction policy might be from a financial perspective and exemplified the value of leveraging confidence intervals to guide organizational decision making
The Role of Academic Psychological Capital in the Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and College Academic Adjustment Among College Students
Get PDFThe transition from high school to college is challenging for many students. Studies have shown that students from low Socioeconomic Status (SES) backgrounds tend to experience more difficulty adjusting to college. Besides financial difficulty, students from low-SES backgrounds also tend to have fewer psychological resources to handle the adjustment. However, few studies looked into psychological factors’ role in the relationship between SES and college adjustment. The present study sought to explore the potential mediation role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in the SES-college adjustment relationship. Another goal was to explore four PsyCap components’(i.e., self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) potential mediation roles in the SES-college adjustment relationship. A sample of 214 participants was recruited from undergraduate courses and asked to complete an online survey. The current study did not found PsyCap, optimism, and resilience mediate the SES-college adjustment relationship. But found self-efficacy and hope mediate the SES-college adjustment relationship. These findings supported the idea that PsyCap plays an important role in students’ college adjustment process. Further research and practical implications were discussed
Exploring the Effect of Occlusion on a Computerized Mental-Rotation Test: Implications for Automatic Item Generation
Get PDFABSTRACT Radicals are characteristics that impact psychometric properties, such as item difficulty in tests. Within the mental-rotation test literature, occlusion and structure have been shown to contribute to item difficulty but require further study to be used within the context of automatic item generation (AIG). This study investigated whether high or low occlusion functions as a meaningful radical for Shepard-Metzler Mental Rotation Test (SMMRT) items. Thirty-two items containing computer-generated images of 3D block figures were administered to a sample of 180 participants on MTurk. After cleaning and removing careless responders from the sample, the data for 70 participants were analyzed using a 2 X 3 factorial ANOVA. Support for the hypotheses was not found; however, interesting responding patterns are observed due to high and low levels of stack occlusion. This pattern is further investigated in the discussion. The possible reasons for the response pattern are discussed, along with general recommendations and study limitations. Directions for future research are also provided