Characteristics of leadership behaviors of successful high school principals in North Carolina

The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of leadership behaviors of two groups of high school principals under varying, contextual situations. One group of twenty-five principals identified as successful and a second group of twenty-two principals randomly chosen comprised the sample. All the participating principals completed Elias Porter's Strength Deployment Inventory.® Also, each principal randomly selected five teachers from their staff who completed a Strength Deployment Inventory: Feedback Edition.® Porter's inventories indicate patterns of behavior under stable and unstable contextual conditions. The two groups of North Carolina high school principals were compared for significant variations by using a multiple analysis of variance

I wonder as I wander: a reorientation of attention, embodiment, and consciousness

In this study the relationship between attention, embodiment, and consciousness is posited as the central question. Specifically, what are the current assumptions of these connections in popular ADHD literature, and how might a different conceptual model of attention more fully represent attention and its connections to learning as intended in lived experience? This question will be explored non-empirically through a synthesis of popular ADHD literature, a philosophical exploration of how attention relates to consciousness, and a phenomenological queering of attentional models to more fully represent an embodied understanding of attention with respect to race class and gender. As a central conclusion, popular ADHD literature tacitly assumes a misunderstanding of the relationship between the mind and the body in relation to attention and consciousness. This holds problems for a fully dynamic understanding of attention and its implications for pedagogy. A reoriented multidimensional approach to attention that reflects a more subtle understanding of the embodied subject more accurately represents attention and its connections to consciousness as understood in lived experience

Determinants of presidential longevity in higher education: estimating a structural model from a dataset derived from publicly available data

Long-term presidents are important to institutions of higher education, yet, studies on presidential tenure in higher education have reported declining tenures for several decades. The studies reporting these declines primarily used surveys of sitting presidents, computed tenure based on years completed to date, and none, to date, have employed structural equation modeling (SEM). This study used a convergent mixed methods design to create a dataset (n=202) on research university presidents from publicly available data and used SEM to test a structural model of presidential longevity. The findings suggest that publicly available data is a viable data source for studies on presidential longevity and that SEM can be applied to higher education research given a large sample and correctly specified models. The study also found that research university presidents’ tenure has remained stable over several decades, demonstrating the importance of using presidents’ full tenure, rather than completed tenure of sitting presidents as a measure of presidential longevity

Style in Malory's book of Balin

The purpose of this study is to reveal the beginning of Malory's selfconscious artistry as it is exhibited in his book of Balin. I attempt to reveal this through an examination of his prose style, primarily by viewing the changes lie makes in his French source. In the first chapter I define style as not only syntax and the arrangement of words out also narrative structural devices. The second chapter deals with these narrative structural devices. In the third, fourth and fifth chapters I examine the stylistic techniques Malory uses in his narration, description and dialogue. The final chapter looks at "Balin" and its relationship to "The Tale of King Arthur" and the entire Le Morte Darthur

Improving data extraction methods for large molecular biology datasets.

In the past, an experiment involving a pair wise comparison normally involved one or a few dependant variables. Now, 1000s of dependent variables can be measured simultaneously in a single experiment, be it detecting genes via a microarray experiment, sequencing genomes, or detecting microbial species based on DNA fragments using molecular techniques. How we analyze such large collections of data will be a major scientific focus over the next decade. Statistical methods that were once acceptable for comparing a few conditions are being revised to handle 1000?s of experiments. Molecular biology techniques that explored 1 gene or species have evolved and are now capable of generating complex datasets requiring new strategies and ways of thinking in order to discover biologically meaningful results. The central theme of this dissertation is to develop strategies that deal with a number of issues that are present in these large scale datasets. In chapter 1, I describe a microarray analytical method that can be applied to low replicate experiments. In chapter?s 2-4, the focus is how to best analyze data from ARISA (a PCR based molecular method for rapidly generating a finger print of microbial diversity). Chapter 2 focuses on qualifying ARISA data so that data will best represent its biological source, prior to further analysis. Chapter 3 focuses on how to best compare ARISA profiles to one another. Chapter 4 focuses on developing a software tool that implements the data processing and clustering strategies from chapter?s 2 and 3. The findings described herein provide the scientific community with improved analytical strategies in both the microarray and ARISA research areas

Reliabilty of Time to Exhaustion After Intervals at Vo2 Max in Cyclists. Unpublished master’s thesis.

PURPOSE: To determine if a high intensity time to exhaustion exercise test following high intensity intervals is as reliable as conventional physiological tests. METHODS: Ten well trained male and female cyclists were recruited and given an initial assessment of VO2 max via incremental exercise test to exhaustion to determine power at VO2 max (PMAX). Participants performed three repeated trials of a warm-up and set of high intensity intervals of four, one minute work (100% PMAX) and rest (25% PMAX) intervals followed by a final timed test to exhaustion (100% PMAX). RESULTS: Trials revealed mean finishing times of trial 1 134 ± 38, trial 2 136 ± 42, and trial 3 136 ± 43. There was no statistically significant difference between these times p>0.05. This resulted in a percent difference between mean time to exhaustion of <0.91% and a mean CV of 9.1%. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that this test to exhaustion is a reliable measure of exercise performance as CV is within acceptable range and will allow investigators to detect small percent differences as a result of an intervention. This protocol is also useful for investigators who are interested in allowing for self-selected cadence, are restricted to test to exhaustion, or are interested in performance after a high intensity preload

Automating A Home Snowmaking System Using An AVR Microcontroller

Since its invention in the 1950s, snowmaking has been vitally important to the ski industry, lengthening season length, and bringing skiing and snowboarding to areas where it would not previously have been possible. In the past decade and a half, snowmaking system automation has become widespread due to its potential for increased efficiency and decreased costs. Snowmaking has also gained a foothold in the personal market, with small-scale systems being sold by several companies for decoration and entertainment purposes. However, no home snowmaking system on the market today includes automation, despite automation’s potential to decrease the difficulty in operating these systems by eliminating the need for the user to constantly check weather conditions and to wake up at unreasonable hours to turn the machine on. Presented is a method to automate an existing home snowmaking system using an Atmega328p microcontroller with various sensors and control devices. A full-scale test was recently performed. There were issues with the method used to control the water supply to the system, but aside from those, the system performed flawlessly. A better method is necessary to allow the system to control the water supply

Conserved Non-Coding Element m2de3 Directed Gene Expression During Development

Meis genes are well known for their important roles in gene regulation and development, in combination with other transcription factors such as the Hox and Pbx families. The primary purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the genetic mechanisms that control the expression of meis genes during development. The Zerucha lab identified four highly conserved non-coding elements, named m2de1-m2de4 (for meis2 downstream element) that we hypothesize regulate expression of the meis2 gene. I have characterized the m2de3 element to determine if this element is able to direct spatial and temporal gene expression consistent with meis2 expression patterns over different stages of development. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) were used in combination with a Tol2 injection cassette to introduce gene expression constructs containing murine m2de3 through microinjection at single cell stage. In primary transgenic embryos, m2de3 directed expression was observed in a punctate expression pattern along the notochord, within motor neurons along the notochord, around the heart and in developing muscle fibers along the trunk of zebrafish embryos. In addition, a stable m2de3 transgenic zebrafish genetic line was generated through fin clip genome analysis. This transgenic line demonstrates the expression pattern in the heart and along the entire notochord

By Sword or Book: Strategies of Integration and Transformation on the Ming Dynasty’s Northwest Frontier—the Case of the Ningxia Through the Lens of the Jiajing Gazetteer

Ningxia was an important military base in the early years of the Ming Dynasty. The region served as the first line of defense against constant attacks from Mongol tribes. To secure the area, the Ming state initially sent military governors and, later, court eunuchs to serve above any local government positions still in place. These military governors and eunuchs many aspects of governance in Ningxia well into the 1450s. In the middle of the fifteenth century, the Ming officials in Ningxia began to use education as a long-term tool to integrate and pacify the region. Confucian temples and primary schools were constructed to be visual markers of imperial majesty and demonstrate the state’s power. These institutions were designed to facilitate the civilizing of the Ningxia people and eventually change them from barbarians (yi) into ordinary people (liangmin) who could be governed easier. The combination of direct military rule and long-term education programs were crucial components to the Ming state’s attempts to govern and integrate Ningxia

Temporal and spatial association between microwaves and type III bursts in the upper corona

One of the most important tasks in solar physics is the study of particles and energy transfer from the lower corona to the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. The most sensitive methods for detecting fluxes of non-thermal electrons in the solar atmosphere is observing their radio emission using modern large radioheliographs. We analyzed joint observations from the 13 April 2019 event observed by LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) at meter wavelengths, and the Siberian Radio Heliograph (SRH) and the Badary Broadband Microwave Spectropolarimeter (BBMS) spectropolarimeter in microwaves performed at the time of the second PSP perihelion. During a period without signatures of non-thermal energy release in X-ray emission, numerous type III and/or type J bursts were observed. During the same two hours we observed soft X-ray brightenings and the appearance of weak microwave emission in an abnormally narrow band around 6 GHz. At these frequencies the increasing flux is well above the noise level, reaching 9 sfu. In the LOFAR dynamic spectrum of 53−80 MHz a region is found that lasts about an hour whose emission is highly correlated with 6 GHz temporal profile. The flux peaks in the meter waves are well correlated with extreme UV (EUV) emission variations caused by repeated surges from the bright X-point. We argue that there is a common source of non-thermal electrons located in the tail of the active region, where two loop systems of very different sizes interacted. The frequencies of type III and/or type J bursts are in accordance with large loop heights around 400 Mm, obtained by the magnetic field reconstruction. The microwave coherent emission was generated in the low loops identified as bright X-ray points seen in soft X-ray and EUV images, produced by electrons with energies several tens of keV at about twice the plasma frequency