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The Effect of Open Marsh Water Management Practices on the Carbon Balance of Tidal Marshes in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey
Get PDFSalt marshes have been modified for mosquito control since the early 1900s. Open marsh water management (OMWM) is a mosquito control technique first applied in New Jersey in the 1950s. It has been extensively used in the mid-Atlantic and also in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Louisiana. This practice involves excavation of areas of marsh, constructing shallow ponds to provide habitat for mosquito larvae-eating fish with the goal of reducing mosquito populations. Nearly half of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey’s coastal marshes have been subject to OMWM since 1976, and its effects on ecosystem function are not well understood. Here, we assess the impacts of OMWM on the carbon balance of salt marshes associated with the conversion of intact vegetation to open water ponds. Using a precise object-based image analysis classification technique, we found that over 7,000 ponds, approximately 3% of Barnegat Bay’s coastal marshes, have been constructed for mosquito control. Using state of the art IR technology to examine in-situ greenhouse gas fluxes in Barnegat Bay, we found evidence to suggest that the conversion from intact plants to open water ponds negatively shifted the carbon balance of the salt marsh, both within the footprint of the constructed pond as well as within the area where deposition of sediment has prevented the recolonization of marsh vegetation. We conclude that this management technique has significantly reduced the carbon sequestration capacity of Barnegat Bay’s tidal wetlands.M.S., Environmental Science -- Drexel University, 201
To Stay in or Leave the Arts: An Overview of Satisfaction and Retention in Current and Former Arts Administrators
No full textThis thesis addresses why some arts administrators leave the arts sector and how a passion for the arts plays a role in this transition. Job satisfaction in current and former arts administrators was studied to understand the career decisions of arts administrators and assess the nonprofit arts sector’s investment in human capital. This qualitative research was developed from scholarly sources, current market research, current events, and original research. After interviewing 21 individuals, I learned that many interrelated factors impacted decisions. However, the primary determinants of leaving the arts were extrinsic factors, including compensation, workload and burnout, lack of opportunities for advancement and job availability, and work environments. Arts administrators often stayed in the field for intrinsic rewards, such as fulfillment in serving a cause they were passionate about, the sense of community built with colleagues, and additional rewards like empowerment and opportunities to exercise creativity. Other factors impacted decisions and careers paths as well, including life stage and personal life activities. After leaving the sector, most former arts administrators continued their engagement as patrons, volunteers, and board members. The findings reveal that there are many challenges with the arts administration profession that affect employee satisfaction and morale. Understanding compensation and interviewees' career paths and financial situations also introduces questions of privilege, accessibility, and workforce sustainability.M.S., Arts Administration -- Drexel University, 201
Factors that Affect the Success of Students with Disabilities in Online Postsecondary Education Programs
No full textAdministrators, faculty, and staff at institutions of higher education (IHEs) strive to provide equal access to all areas of student life, both academic and non-academic. However, IHEs are currently limited in their ability to make appropriate accommodations for the growing numbers of students with disabilities in postsecondary education. Increasingly, these individuals are engaging in online educational environments (Verdinelli & Kutner, 2016). The purpose of this study was to discern the impact of supports provided by IHE administrators, faculty, and staff, and family on graduate students with disabilities enrolled in online courses. In looking at graduate students with disabilities who are enrolled in online courses, the research focused on three guiding research questions. 1. What are the experiences of graduate students with disabilities who are enrolled in online courses? 2. How do graduate students with disabilities report currently existing supports as facilitating or inhibiting their success in an online learning environment? 3. What supports do graduate students with disabilities report are still needed to help them experience success in an online learning environment? This phenomenological research identified 1) the ways that current supports facilitate success, 2) where missing supports can be instituted, and 3) how the experiences of students with disabilities can inform the implementation of such accommodations. The findings from this study benefit both students with disabilities enrolled in online education as well as the administrators, faculty, and staff at IHEs. These benefits come through an examination of the existing and needed accommodations that help students with disabilities experience success in a postsecondary setting. Additionally, this study can assist faculty and staff in IHEs to better understand the needs of students with disabilities enrolled in online courses and how to make these environments more inclusive and supportive.Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201
Understanding Self-Documentation
No full textDocuments pervade modern life, and the nature of these documents influences the way we understand and engage with reality. Among these documents are ones we create about ourselves, as evidence of some aspect of the self--such self-documentation is increasingly salient. This dissertation is a phenomenology-of-practice study of one form of self-document: the artistic self-portrait. I situate this study within information behavior, document theory and philosophy of information. Epistemologically, I foreground the concept of understanding. I address four research questions in all, two conceptual and two empirical. First, I conceptualize the self-portrait as a document. I find the essence of the self-portrait to be "pulling oneself outward over time," manifest in the artwork's making rather than the finished product. This leads into the second research question, in which I conceptualize the making of a self-portrait as a kind of documentation. What results from this analysis is a model of documentation from the first-person perspective, which shows the Document as it shifts over time, guided by a Foundation and facing Obstacles. To illustrate this model, in the third research question I interrogate the informational nature of the lived experience of self-portraiture by analyzing examples I collected with seven local artists. In the final research question, I address the building of understanding through self-portraiture, finding that both self-understanding and understanding of the artistic process are built; I discuss how these are reached through the integration of multiple pieces of information. In discussing these findings, I explicate how this research extends the reviewed literature, and I reflect on the successes and failures of this study. To close, I speculate on ethics, suggesting that self-portraiture can be a site for free expression and a way to contribute to the ontic trust, unlike some other forms of self-documentation. Lastly, I return to the issue of self-documentation more broadly, pointing toward opportunities for further research.Ph.D., Information Studies -- Drexel University, 201
Examining Relationships Between Matriculating Community College Students' Preparedness for College-Level Courses and Factors that Affect Enrollment in Developmental Education Courses
No full textHigh school senior preparedness for community college level courses has decreased significantly over the last two decades. A large group of students are "placing" into developmental college courses, which delays their entrance into college-level courses each year. Students placing into developmental courses are typically not retained in college. The following study examined what factors contributed to recent high school graduates placing into developmental college courses at Community College X (CCX) located in the Northeast region. Literature comprised student readiness, developmental courses, and course placement tools to identify factors related to students' placing into developmental courses in a mid-size community college in the Northeast region of one specific county. The study was conducted using archival data from one community college and researched data from the fifteen public schools in which the college students matriculate. Relationships were evaluated to determine factors that contributed to students placing into developmental courses. Several statistical correlations were pertinent to this study. Some correlations did not indicate a relationship between a students' preparedness for college level courses and other socioeconomic factors. Reports on high schools with the highest quality ranking and highest median household income showed that at least 50% of their students tested into developmental courses at CCX. As the schools dropped in quality ranking and median household income, the percentage of students placing into developmental classes rose significantly. Most students start to research their college entrance plans during their third year of high school. This is almost always too late for students to attempt to place into college-level courses. Results of this study indicated that all students in high school should be educated on how to learn; however, they may need to learn and practice this key skill at a much earlier age.Ed.D., Education -- Drexel University, 201
W.A.G.E. Parity: Artist compensation practices at nonprofit visual arts organizations
Get PDFArtists are often uncompensated for the services they provide nonprofit visual arts organizations, and in cases where they are paid as independent contractors, fair payment standards do not exist. Activist groups led by artists, most notably the group Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), have recently criticized this lack of payment standards as exploitative. This thesis examines institutional practices related to artist compensation focusing on the experiences of artists and administrators working in the Philadelphia area. The research conducted herein reveals that artists and administrators have a broad familiarity with the fee structure proposed by W.A.G.E., which establishes minimum standards of payment based on institutional budget size. I critically examine the potential adoption of the fee structure as a means of addressing artist compensation. Prioritizing artist compensation is expected to improve artist relations and help address fieldwide issues of diversity and inclusion.M.S., Arts Administration -- Drexel University, 201
Transformative Potential for Increasing Engagement and Changing School Climate: A Case Study
No full textThe at-risk, socioeconomically disadvantaged population at a Northern California middle school struggles with lower academic achievement and social adaptation issues. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of teachers working with these socioeconomically disadvantaged students who had participated in the three-part special intervention--growth mindset, thinking skills instruction, and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports--seeking to understand through the teachers' descriptions how this has affected engagement in the classroom and at school in overcoming the effects of their economic disadvantage. This case study recorded and analyzed the experiences teachers had following the students receiving instruction in developing growth mindsets and thinking skills, along with receiving support in learning and adapting social skills for changing social situations through Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Four results emerged from this research: (a) Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is successful, but limited by a lack of a shared understanding of the program and a shift in reward tactics; (b) Mindset and thinking skills instruction positively influence teacher pedagogy; (c) Teaching socioeconomically disadvantaged students involves more than subject matter instruction; and (d) School Community relationships can be developed with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports infused with mindset and thinking skills instruction. The transformative potential for increasing engagement and changing school climate is what is available when schools implement an approach that teaches students about their brains and gives them skills for thinking in the moment along with a structure of PBIS to infuse positive support in dealing with misbehavior. This approach is based on Dweck's (2006) mindset work. Putting growth mindset together with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and thinking skills instruction forms a three-legged stool that supports and encourages engagement in the classroom due to the safe learning environment, increased communication, and collaborative atmosphere that is established.Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201
Increasing the Use of Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives in Primary Care
No full textUnintended pregnancy remains a serious public health challenge in the United States (Parks & Peipert, 2016). With renewed emphasis on health prevention, women’s needs across the lifespan demand more attention, especially around reproductive health. Women who do not use any contraception method have an increased chance of becoming pregnant annually compared to those using some form of contraception (Bexhell, Guthrie, Cleland & Trussell, 2016) The purpose of this practice improvement project is to promote the use of Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), the most effective form of birth control method (Birgisson, Zhao, Secura, Madden, & Peipert, 2015), along with using standardized evidence-based contraception education. Relationship based care is a culture transformation model and an operational framework that improves safety, quality, patient satisfaction, and staff satisfaction by improving every relationship within an organization (Glembocki & Fitzpatrick, 2015). A Relationship Based Care (RBC) approach was used as a way to communicate with the primary care department and other disciplines. According to Glembocki & Fitzpatrick (2015), RBC is a caring theory that includes the patient in the decision-making process while also building relationships that leads to high-quality patient care. Several discussions with stakeholders i.e. nurse practitioners (NP), registered nurses, medical assistants, health educator, social worker and behavioral health consultants about ways to improve LARC use in a primary care setting were conducted several months prior to the study. A registered nurse (RN) was utilized, as the health educator (HE). The HE used standardized evidence-based contraception education to increase understanding among patients between the ages of 18-45 who are not planning to become pregnant within a year using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended guidelines for reproductive health (CDC, 2014). Patients who are scheduled for office visits including family planning visit (i.e. sick visits, physical exams, etc.) received standardized, evidence-based contraception education from the HE. The NP was responsible for discussing birth control options at all family planning visits to women who met the criteria and emphasized the use of LARCs. Condom use was encouraged to prevent sexually transmitted infections.D.N.P., Nursing Practice -- Drexel University, 201
Using Teach-Back method to enhance self-efficacy in medication use and adherence among community-dwelling older adults experiencing polypharmacy
No full textClear communication is fundamental to quality nursing care. Research shows that the communication gap between healthcare providers and older adult patients contributes to poor medication management. More than half of the older adult population in the U.S. have low health literacy. Low health literacy is one of the primary reasons for the communication gap between healthcare providers and community-dwelling older adults. Many older adults suffer from multiple chronic illnesses and polypharmacy. The aim of the project is to evaluate the impact of using the Teach-Back method for education on self-efficacy in medication use and adherence among community-dwelling older adults experiencing polypharmacy. The project used a one group pretest-posttest design. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was used in SPSS for the analysis of the test scores. The instruments used for pretest and posttest were Self-Efficacy for Appropriate Medication Use Scale (SEAMS-13) (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.89) and Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale (ARMS-7) (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.80). Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test revealed that the posttest scores of ARMS-7 were statistically significantly lower than the pretest scores of ARMS-7, Z = -3.826, P < 0.01. Also, the posttest scores of SEAMS-13 were statistically significantly higher than the pretest scores of SEAMS-13, Z = -4.207, P < 0.01. Primarily, the evidence-based communication method of Teach-Back is cost-effective but straightforward. The effectiveness of using Teach-Back can be paramount to improve self-efficacy in medication use and adherence among community-dwelling older adults experiencing polypharmacy.D.N.P., Nursing Practice -- Drexel University, 201
Learning by Example: Methods to Increase Access to and Inclusion in Music Education for Economically Underprivileged Populations in New York City
No full textThis research explores the methods that non-profit music education organizations based in New York City use to increase the access to and inclusion in music education to underprivileged populations, and why equitable access to a comprehensive music education is important for all children. Through three in-depth interviews with leaders of successful music education non-profits, information regarding the methods they use to do this work was collected. The benefits of a comprehensive music education which include higher rates of academic achievement are notable. While economic considerations such as providing free or low-cost instruction are obviously important, cultural relevancy, focus on the creative process, and proximity of programming also surfaced as incredibly important considerations in this work. Without equitable access to and inclusion in music education, educational equity throughout the U.S. will not be possible. These findings will be helpful to future arts leaders who participate in this field of work and will help them in making a compelling argument for why this work is so important.M.S., Arts Administration -- Drexel University, 201