The purpose of this study was to compare teacher beliefs about music technology, types of teacher training in music technology, music technology resource availability, and levels of teacher use of music technology based on school socioeconomic status, teacher age, number of years teaching, and teacher gender. High-school band directors from the state of Virginia, completed a survey regarding beliefs, training, use, and access to music technology resources at their school. Comparisons were made between groups based on school size, socioeconomic status, director gender, age, and years of teaching experience. Results indicated the typical high school band director was found to: (1) either be self-taught or to have taken a college course in electronic musical instruments, (2) have no formal training in MIDI music production, (3) have no formal training or have taken a college course in digital audio production, (4) either be self-taught or have taken a college course in music notation software, (5) no formal training in technology-assisted learning, (6) self-taught in multimedia, and (7) self-taught in productivity tools. Most had access to: (1) one computer station including electronic musical instruments, (2) no MIDI music production resources, (3) one computer station including digital audio production resources, (4) one computer station including music notation software, (5) no resources for technology-assisted learning software, (6) either one station or a general computer lab for use of multimedia, and (7) a general computer lab including resources for productivity tools. In regard to personal use, the typical high school instrumental music educator was found to: (1) use electronic musical instruments on a weekly basis, (2) never use MIDI music production, (3) use digital audio production software on a monthly basis, (4) use music notation software on a weekly basis, (5) never use technology-assisted learning, (6) use multimedia on a monthly basis, and (7) use productivity tools daily. Teacher instructional use responses revealed the typical high school instrumental music educator was found to: (1) use electronic musical instruments in instruction on a monthly basis, (2) never use MIDI music production in instruction, (3) never use digital audio production in instruction, (4) use music notation software in instruction on a weekly basis, (5) never use technology-assisted learning software in instruction, (6) use multimedia in instruction monthly, and (7) use productivity tools in instruction weekly. Teachers stated their students: (1) never use electronic musical instruments, MIDI music production, digital audio production, music notation software, technology-assisted learning software, nor multimedia in class. Student were reported to use productivity tools in class. Significant differences were found in access to resources based upon school socioeconomic status with a greater access to resources primarily in schools of lower socioeconomic status (electronic musical instruments, MIDI music production, digital audio production, music notation software, technology-assisted learning software, multimedia). Also, schools of lower socioeconomic status tended to use music technology significantly more than those of moderate and higher status (teacher use of MIDI music production, teacher use of digital audio production, overall teacher use index). Female teachers had significantly higher beliefs in the effectiveness of music technology (technology-assisted learning and overall beliefs index) while male teachers had significantly more access to resources (electronic musical instruments) and used technology significantly more (teacher use of MIDI music production and student use of productivity tools). Teachers in the youngest age group had significantly more training in music technology (electronic musical instruments, music notation software, technology-assisted learning software, and overall training index) than those in the higher age group. Likewise, teachers with the fewest years of experience had significantly more training in music technology (electronic musical instruments, notation, and overall training index) than their more experienced groups. Although, teachers in the older age group had more access to MIDI music production resources. Teachers with more experience used more MIDI music production. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 15, 2012. / Beleifs, Music, Music Technology, Technology, Training / Includes bibliographical references. / Brian Gaber, Professor Directing Dissertation; Deborah Bish, University Representative; Richard Clary, Committee Member; Steven Kelly, Committee Member.

Analogies play significant roles in communication as well as in problem solving and model building in science domains. Analogies have also been incorporated into several different instructional strategies--most notably in science domains where the concepts and principles to be learned are abstract or complex. Although several instructional models for teaching with analogies have been developed, the role of non-examples or contrasting analogies has not been incorporated into instructional models. Research on contrasting analogies as well as the effect of non-examples in concept learning supports the incorporation of contrasting analogies into instructional strategies using analogies. In addition, research on conceptual change has shown that effective instructional strategies in inducing conceptual change produce some form of cognitive conflict in the learner. Taken together, these findings suggest that a conceptual change strategy integrating contrasting analogies (non-examples) that promote cognitive conflict could be effective in promoting conceptual change. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of contrasting analogies on learning and conceptual change. Specifically, this study investigated the effect of instruction including refutational contrasting analogies (situations which are analogous to common misconceptions) on understanding of and reasoning about natural selection. Instruction including refutational contrasting analogies was compared to instruction incorporating non-refutational contrasting analogies (analogies which are neither analogous to natural selection or a common misconception of natural selection) and no contrasting analogies (stated analogies which are analogous to natural selection). Participants were students enrolled in undergraduate education courses and were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: refutational contrasting analogies, non-refutational contrasting analogies, or no contrasting analogies. Participants worked through a self-instructional unit on natural selection--an area for which misconceptions have been well-documented. The effects of the analogies were evaluated in terms of student understanding of and reasoning about natural selection. Reasoning about natural selection was identified as transformational reasoning (a common but incorrect view of natural selection) or variational reasoning (consistent with correct understanding of natural selection) and was measured by performance on a posttest. Understanding of natural selection was evaluated by performance on a posttest designed to measure understanding of ten concepts related to natural selection. Analysis of variance showed no differences among groups on either understanding of or reasoning about natural selection as measured by the posttests. However, there were significant differences between groups on the analogy portion of the instructional materials, with the refutational contrasting analogies group answering fewer questions correctly than the non-refutational contrasting analogies group. This suggests that the instruction did not allow participants to reach a level of mastery that may have influenced performance on the posttests. Considerations for the design of instruction and directions for future research are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 2, 2012. / analogy, conceptual change, natural selection / Includes bibliographical references. / Vanessa Dennen, Professor Directing Dissertation; K. Anders Ericsson, University Representative; Valerie Shute, Committee Member; Abbas Aubteen Darabi, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of background music, speech and silence on office workers' selective attention. Participants were 26 state office workers from a Southeastern state. A within-subject design was used with all participants completing five lines of the d2 Test of Attention (Brickenkamp & Zillmer, 1998) under each of the background conditions: music, speech, and silence. Results indicated that participants completed the greatest number of test items and received the highest concentration scores under the music condition, though there was no significant difference for either of these scores under any of the conditions. Participants made the greatest number of errors under the silence condition, though the difference in number of errors was not significant for any of the three conditions. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine if participants' perceptions of their distractibility and productivity differed from their actual scores on the d2 Test of Attention. Among participants who believed music made them more productive and was not a distracter, participants completed more items under the music condition than under the speech or silence conditions. Participants who believed music was a distracter completed the fewest items under the music condition, indicating that participants had realistic assumptions about the effect of music on their abilities to attend to a task. The results of this study have implications for the use of music in the workplace and employees' productivity. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. / Fall Semester, 2011. / October 4, 2011. / Background Music, Office, Selective Attention, Work / Includes bibliographical references. / Alice-Ann Darrow, Professor Directing Thesis; Jayne M. Standley, Committee Member; Dianne Gregory, Committee Member.

The present study examined four kinds of vocabulary knowledge: Definitional knowledge, using vocabulary in context, relational knowledge, and morphological knowledge. A measure was developed that assessed all four kinds of vocabulary knowledge using the same 23 vocabulary words, which allowed within- and between-word variance to be modeled. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test three alternative models of vocabulary knowledge: (1) a four-factor model that specified four related yet distinct dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, (2) a two-factor model that considered vocabulary knowledge and morphological knowledge to be two separate but potentially related factors, and (3) a one-factor model in which vocabulary knowledge was unidimensional. These alternative models were examined by modeling both within- and between-word variance. When controlling for extraneous word-level variance, vocabulary knowledge was found to be a relatively unidimensional construct. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2012. / June 11, 2012. / Morphological Awareness, Morphological Knowledge, Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Knowledge, Word Knowledge / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard K. Wagner, Professor Directing Thesis; Carol Connor, Committee Member; Michael Kaschak, Committee Member.

This dissertation is concerned with visual media as it became a vehicle for public debate in United States Society. It examines the illustrations from print media published during the three American wars between 1860 and 1918. When observed with care, these images open a window onto the American cultural and political landscape as it evolved. This project is designed to use that window to understand American attitudes toward each other during the Civil War and afterwards as the country began to determine its role on the world scene. It asks how and to what extent outsider groups have negotiated their place in the national dialogue. The degree to which these populations had access to state of the art media outlets defined the extent of their participation in the country's visual rhetoric. The earliest illustrated printing technology was simply too expensive for poorly financed marginalized groups to afford, but over time this changed. This dissertation covers the period when print was the undisputed monarch of American visual media: between the advent of illustrated journalism and the arrival of moving pictures. During this time, increasingly affordable technology and rising affluence among minority groups made the perspectives expressed in the visual press slightly more reflective of the nation as a whole. This project draws from a range of scholarship: media history, the histories of war on the home front, and the histories of minority activist groups. It is also loosely related to propaganda analysis. The chapters examine each of the three conflicts' mainstream and alternative illustrated media. Each of the chapters is devoted to one war: The Civil War, The Spanish-American War, and World War I. Historical events and non-visual rhetoric provide the context for the images themselves, with the focus on the visual dialogue as it evolved. This dissertation is a comparative analysis of themes in American visual media over time, with particular attention to the ways outsider groups negotiated their way into the national dialogue. Not surprisingly, both change and continuity are evident. Exploring what changed and what stayed the same illuminates aspects of American society not evident in scholarship of particular moments. In particular, it demonstrates the painfully slow movement toward a more democratic United States media culture and the limitations of that progress. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 26, 2012. / Civil War, Illustrated Media, Print Media, Propaganda, Spanish American War, World War I / Includes bibliographical references. / Maxine Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Barry Faulk, University Representative; Elna Green, Committee Member; Jennifer Koslow, Committee Member.

The rising number of senior citizens is approaching an all time high. With this comes a rising number of common chronic conditions where treatment is costly and time consuming. Frequently these conditions make it unsafe for older adults to live independently. This creates a burden on loved ones because situations arise which require assistance. Slip & falls, wandering, and daily health monitoring are the top burdens loved ones face with an aging adult. Today, however, these burdens can be minimized by using smartphone technology. Modern devices are capable of automatically recognizing, reporting, and remembering these situations. The proposed system is a collection of several applications that enable this functionality for Android powered devices. These applications focus on monitoring falls, wandering, and storing health information in the users daily life. The software achieves these tasks by gathering and analyzing data from various sensors both on and off the device. Several algorithms are applied to monitor and report dangerous events. The algorithms range from learning networks to timing based thresholds. If a dangerous event is detected it can be easily canceled by the user in order to reduce false positives. After confirmation, or lack of, the user's loved ones are promptly notified to further assess the situation. By using Social Monitoring, false positive to costly emergency medical professionals are kept to the bare minimum. Thus eliminating the need for paid monitoring services. The system also provides an API to allow for other developers to integrate with the event analysis. Once in place, a wealth of information can be recorded and used to help identify further problems and solutions. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 26, 2012. / android, ehealth, fall detection, medical, mobile, monitoring / Includes bibliographical references. / Gary Tyson, Professor Directing Thesis; Zhenghao Zhang, Committee Member; Zhenhai Duan, Committee Member.

The purpose and focus of this research was on studying the hazard to Florida's coastal bridges from storm surge induced wave forces inflicted on the bridges during hurricanes. It has been observed in recent years that bridges located in the coastal environment are vulnerable to deck unseating during the applied loading of storm surge wave forces. The goal of the research is to use modern and up-to-date analysis methods to address the risk and vulnerability of coastal bridges to being damaged from storm surges during hurricanes along Florida's coastline. Implementing the current analysis methods will be useful for determining the magnitude of wave parameters and coinciding wave forces imposed on structural elements of a bridge superstructure. It is also the intention of this manuscript to address the need for an analysis of the entire network of Florida's coastal bridges, not just one specific bridge case study. This has been regarded as one of the largest limitations of current analysis in this field of work. This research provides an improved understanding of addressing bridge vulnerability from hurricane hazards on both local and network level as well as providing further insight into preventing and limiting the amount of damage that can occur during the event of a major hurricane making landfall. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 30, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references. / John Sobanjo, Professor Directing Thesis; Michelle Rambo-Roddenberry, Committee Member; Lisa Spainhour, Committee Member.

This research was designed, via auto-photo elicitation, to discover what a democratic school is, specifically Grassroots Free School in Tallahassee, FL. Questions concerning how free school pedagogy is implemented and how students of a non-compulsory school make sense of their experiences at school are addressed in this study. In this case, 14 students and 4 staff members were given disposable cameras to reflect upon their experiences at the Grassroots Free School in Tallahassee, FL. As the reader engages this non-traditional topic, this study exposes and illuminates the philosophy of free school education, as well as informs how this method of education performs in practice. The information presented in this presentation unlocked the consciousness of the reader, opening to them the advantages and disadvantages of the free school philosophy. The data brought to me by the students and staff at Grassroots Free School told their story. Ultimately, this study revealed in the case of Grassroots Free School: What a democratic/free school was and how the educational philosophies were implemented via photography. Participants had to articulate their findings and attempt to translate the subjects found in the photos to me. This process helped the students and the researcher to arrive at conscious conclusions on the subject of what it means to be a student under a free school umbrella. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2011. / October 12, 2011. / Art Education, Art for Life, Auto-Photo Elicitation, Democratic School, Free School, Photography / Includes bibliographical references. / David Gussak, Professor Directing Dissertation; Barry Faulk, University Representative; Tom Anderson, Committee Member; Anniina Suominen Guyas, Committee Member.

This dissertation compares and contrasts large-scale optimization algorithms in the use of variational and sequential data assimilation on two novel problems chosen to highlight the challenges in non-linear and non-smooth data assimilation. The first problem explores the impact of a highly non-linear observation operator and highlights the importance of background information on the data assimilation problem. The second problem tackles large-scale data assimilation with a non-smooth observation operator. Together, these two cases show both the importance of choosing an appropriate data assimilation method and, when a variational or variationally-inspired method is chosen, the importance of choosing the right optimization algorithm for the problem at hand. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Scientific Computing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / November 21, 2011. / All-sky infrared satellite, Cloudy IR, Inverse problem, Limited Memory Bundle Method, Non-differentiable, Quasi-Newton / Includes bibliographical references. / Ionel Michael Navon, Professor Directing Thesis; Guosheng Liu, University Representative; Max Gunzburger, Committee Member; Gordon Erlebacher, Committee Member; Milijia Zupanski, Committee Member; Napsu Karmitsa, Committee Member.

The supersonic impinging jet flowfield has many applications in engineering including Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft, which will be the primary application considered in this paper. Supersonic impinging jets characteristic of STOVL aircraft have undesirable features which result in dangerously high noise levels, sonic fatigue of the aircraft underbody, lift loss due to flow entrainment, exhaust and debris ingestion, and severe ground erosion. One method for controlling this flowfield is the injection of high momentum microjets at the nozzle exit plane. As an extension of this control method, a microfluidic actuator using resonance phenomena to produce high frequency pulsed microjets has been developed. In this study, these Resonance-Enhanced Microjet (REM) actuators were implemented into the STOVL flowfield in order to pulse the microjet injection at timescales on the same order as the dominant resonant frequency of the primary jet flowfield. The goal of this study is to compare the effects of steady microjet control and pulsed microjet control on the impinging jet flowfield. These control schemes are both capable of reducing or eliminating jet impingement tones as well as reducing the ground plane and nearfield acoustic overall noise levels by as much as 8 dB. These control methods have also both shown substantial reduction in overall jet unsteadiness and the elimination of the large scale vortical structures present in the uncontrolled impinging jet's shear layer. Additionally, unsteady pressure measurements taken within the actuators as well as Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) results yield some insight into the operational regimes of REM actuators as well as their resulting effects on the supersonic impinging jet flowfield. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2012. / June 29, 2012. / Actuators, Impinging Jets, Noise Control / Includes bibliographical references. / Farrukh Alvi, Professor Directing Thesis; Kunihiko Taira, Committee Member; Carl Moore, Committee Member.