Middle Tennessee State University
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Understanding leadership styles and the prevention and management of nursing burnout in the hospital setting
Get PDFNurse burnout has become a salient topic in healthcare literature in recent years. With growing concerns for nurse wellbeing and workplace satisfaction, the need to find solutions has never been more urgent. This study aims to determine the role of nurse leaders in preventing and managing nurse burnout. To discover the most desirable leadership style(s) and communication practices exhibited by nurse leaders, two focus groups with three nurses each were conducted in addition to two one-on-one interviews with nurse managers. This study found that burnout is most often described as feeling disengaged and exhausted and is paired with a number of individual coping mechanisms. The results indicate that transformational leadership is the most preferred by nurses and nurse leaders. Practical suggestions for nurses, leaders, and hospital systems were formed from the data using Framework Analysis. The findings should serve to extend and clarify existing research regarding nursing burnout and leadership
Mapping African American Entertainment Venues in Rutherford County, Tennessee from the 1860s to the 1960s: the History of Black Musical Geography and the Road to Popular Music
Get PDFThis thesis is a case study of African American entertainment venues and vernacular music culture in Rutherford County, Tennessee from the 1860s to the 1960s. The study utilizes spatial analysis of geolocated maps to understand the social, cultural, and historical contexts of this musical geography locally, regionally, statewide and nationally. These maps are imagined as an ethnic geography, suggesting unique relationships to the history of early road building systems and African American travel during the first half of the twentieth century. Put into a sociohistorical context, the venue maps suggest relationships to the cultivation, development and spread of African American vernacular music forms across a racialized, musical landscape that emerged during the twentieth century called The Chitlin’ Circuit.M.A
Atomic Population of Effectively Localized Electrons of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons with the KP16/B13 Density Functional
Get PDFPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, also known as PAHs, have been studied by scientists for over a century. Besides their large volume and low molecular weight, presentations of past findings show that most neutral ground state PAHs possess a closed-shell electronic configuration. Several years ago, newer studies showed that some polycyclic hydrocarbons could have a singlet biradical ground state, showing new, and possibly ground-breaking optical and magnetic properties. If these molecules are proven to be stabilized, this could lead to more applicable organic electronics, nonlinear optics, organic spintronics and photovoltaics, and energy storage devices. Obtaining a physics description using quantum chemistry methods would also be advantageous to the study of the properties of industrial molecules.
In this work, various spin multiplicities of structures of
polycyclic hydrocarbons are studied using the quantum chemistry method known as
Atomic Population of Effectively Localized Electrons (APELE), with the KP16/B13
functional. Bond length and potential energy calculations of theoretical diatomic carbon were also investigated. Results indicate that there is validity in future applications of these systems using the method of APELE.
The strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) semilocal density functional was also implemented in Fortran to calculate several noble gases. Calculations were used to make better adjustments to the Kong-Proynov16/Becke13 DFT.Ph.D
The relationship between three different types of child abuse and college academic adjustment
Get PDFThe current study examined how three different types of child abuse (sexual, physical, psychological) related to college academic adjustment. Potential moderators of the relationship, including perceived social support, mistrust, and gender, also were investigated. Included in the final analyses were 79 (30 men and 49 women) undergraduate students. Participants completed several surveys measuring limited demographic information, social support, mistrust, adjustment to college, grade point average (GPA), and a history of child abuse. Exploratory analyses also were conducted to examine whether pet owners endorsed items indicating their companion animals served as a source of social support. Results indicated that only a history of childhood psychological abuse predicted educational functioning scores on a college adjustment measure. None of the abuse variables correlated with GPA, and no statistically significant moderators of the relationship between child abuse and academic adjustment were found. Additionally, most pet owners did indicate receiving support from their pet.M.A
Understanding Tennessee's Racial Realignment and Political Polarization: An Examination of Tennessee Gubernatorial Elections, 1932-2018.
Get PDFThis thesis seeks to compare Tennessee Gubernatorial Elections to overall political trends to explain further how Tennessee is unique compared to the rest of the south regarding its racial realignment and political polarization. Chapter 1 examines the individual dynamics of Tennessee gubernatorial elections. Gubernatorial elections are non- federal state-wide races, which provides a precise measure of Tennessee’s political landscape. Chapter 2 looks at the evolving political atmosphere beyond gubernatorial elections to help highlight more overall shifts. Lastly, Chapter 3 provides an analysis of why politics in Tennessee is unique and explains the impacts. Tennessee avoided militarized control under the Reconstruction Act. Democrats continuously relied on black primary voters, and after Brown v. Board and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Democrats pivoted toward desegregation. As Republicans advanced, the Tennessee Democratic Party failed to change its strategy. Tennessee’s geography, racial toleration, and moderate desire make it unique in a landscape of southern states
The Nature of Feminine Rage: A Creative Exploration of Female Anger
Get PDFWomen’s anger is a force rarely seen but so powerful that it touches every aspect of our daily lives. Each time a woman walks into a voting booth, swipes her credit card, or uses birth control, we see the power of centuries of angry women. For this project, I created a multimedia art installation that explored the nature of feminine anger. Conceptually, I explored emotions commonly labeled as “undesirable” for women. I used plant and animal imagery as my subject matter to express these issues because of the human characteristics associated with different species throughout cultural history. Although animals have long served as vessels of human emotions, my work portrays them as champions of free expression, unrestrained by societal expectations. I used this imagery to evoke the concept of emotional freedom from anger repression and to frame female emotional expression as a natural occurrence.Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, URECA gran
Trump’s Pandemic: A Content Analysis of Attribute Agendas in U.S. News Media Coverage of the COVID-19 Outbreak Through November 2020
Get PDF2020 is a year that will forever be remembered for two highly significant events; the 2020 United States presidential election and the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. These issues became highly politicized by the news media, and the presence of second level agenda setting effects became evident in mainstream coverage, specifically in building an association between President Donald J. Trump and the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how agenda setting played a role in the medias’ coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly with regard to the following issue attributes: “Vaccine,” “Mask,” “Economy,” “School/Student,” “Biden,” “Lockdown/Quarantine,” “Deaths/Dead,” “China/Chinese,” “Pandemic,” and “Trump.” Articles with headlines mentioning the terms, “Trump” and “COVID-19,” or “coronavirus,” were aggregated using the GDELT Project, also known as the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone. These articles were then analyzed in hopes of finding patterns in the overall coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as such patterns relate to the aforementioned attributes and the frequencies at which they appeared in the acquired dataset. This study addresses how such patterns and frequencies are informed by second level agenda setting, particularly as it relates to the use of global events as a political tool to either exalt or disparage a political figure.M.S
Volunteer Traditions: Neoclassical Architecture and Its Racial Impact on Fraternity and Sorority Houses at the University of Tennessee
Get PDFArchitecture is used often to iterate to the public specific ideas, usually tied to perceived societal norms of a particular culture, group of people, or to represent an idea that is meant to convey ideas that tie to specific ideologies. In the twentieth century, the adoption of Neoclassical architecture on the American landscape correlated with ideas of whiteness and elitism, and those ideas further materialized in collegiate spaces with the same adoption of this architectural style. Neoclassical architecture, along with acts of racial and ethnic discrimination, created and continues to nourish these ideas on college campuses. This thesis explores the symbolism and meaning of twentieth-century fraternity/sorority house architecture on southern college campuses using the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as a case study. Fraternity and sorority houses’ use of Neoclassical architecture perpetuates ideas of the lost cause south and white supremacy, creating a hostile physical statement to students of color. Neoclassical architecture plays an important role in one’s perception of slavery and how one understands their ancestral ties to its horrific place in history.M.A
Construction Volume, Distance, and Polychrome Percentage Relationship Analyses at Tamarindito
Get PDFArchaeological markers for status and class are used to estimate the social standing of people in the past. In the Maya area, the commentary of Spanish bishop Diego de Landa has suggested that one of these markers be the distance at which residential groups are situated from the central ceremonial plaza of the site where they reside. Past studies have indicated that construction volume and polychrome ceramic wares are also indications of status and class. These claims are investigated at Tamarindito using linear regressions to assess the relationships between construction volume, distance from the central plaza, and the percentage of polychrome wares found for forty residential groups