Family structure has been examined in depth for its possible impact on adolescent outcomes (such as substance use, achievement, sexual risk, etc.). Among the African American community, less than one-half of African American children live in two-parent households. African American households earn less than Hispanics and Caucasians, and they are less likely to be married than both Hispanics and Caucasians (Kreider & Elliot, 2009; NCES, 2003). The present study examined the level of association between family contextual factors (i.e., parent’s level of income, marital status, parent’s level of education) and adolescent outcomes (i.e., sexual activity, substance use, adolescent education) among an African American sample of adolescents ages 12 to 17. Using data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (also known as the Add Health Survey), N = 890, five hypotheses examined how positive family contextual factors have either a lower level or a higher level of association with the adolescent outcomes of sexual intercourse, sexual risk, substance use, educational aspirations, and educational performance. Results showed that two out of the five hypotheses were statistically significant. The study had varied outcomes for females and males. Specifically, the results showed that family contextual factors had an impact on the educational aspirations and educational performance of African American females. For African American males, parent's marital status had a negative association with substance use. Lastly, while 57% reported being sexually active, it was surprising to find a large number of adolescents, 37%, who reported not using birth control. / Dissertation(Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

The selection of a community college president is a responsibility for the governing Board of Trustees. This qualitative study sought board members‟ understanding about (1) their institution‟s identity utilizing the organizational identity theory and (2) the critical elements of the match between their understanding of the community college and the desired characteristics of the selected presidential candidate. Mission statements, vision statements, and presidential position descriptions which described responsibilities and qualifications were collected from both rural and urban community colleges across the nation and were analyzed and compared with board members‟ interview data. Board members suggested that communication skills and the ability to develop relationships were vital to the president for effective leadership in collaborative efforts with businesses and the community. These efforts would support the community colleges‟ core attribute of student access to a post-secondary education in preparation for the workforce or baccalaureate degree. Both urban and rural participants understood the community colleges‟ role in the community as a conduit for economic development by establishing partnerships with local businesses. Data also reflected the utilization of community colleges for self-preservation of rural communities or culture and tradition. / Dissertation (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership

Institutions of higher education around the country are concerned with student performance and retention. This dissertation used the theory of sense-of-community to explore how universities and colleges can influence student grade point averages and persistence to degree completion. Data were collected with the National Survey of Student Engagement at a Midwestern University. Factor analysis suggested four factors of sense-of-community within the National Survey of Student Engagement: Campus Social Milieu, Divergent Thinking, Institutional Involvement, and Relationship Quality. Results of further analyses indicated that sense-of-community influenced student satisfaction primarily through Relationship Quality and Campus Social Milieu. Sense-of-community also had a slight influence on student success. Campus Social Milieu, Relationship Quality, and Institutional Involvement seemed to affect grade point average; Relationship Quality and Institutional Involvement seemed to affect degree completion. Institutions wishing to assist the increase of academic achievement and graduation rates in addition to students’ satisfaction with their experience in college are advised to invest in programs and policies building sense-of-community among their students, faculty, and administrators. / Dissertation(Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

Across the United States students of color make up approximately 69% of the urban school population. More than 85% of the classroom teachers are White and predominantly females and 40% of the urban schools do not have teachers of color in their classrooms. Educational systems often struggle in their efforts to support the needs of racially and culturally diverse students; students‟ educational success is usually not regarded as a function of students‟ culture. The study comprises a narrative inquiry, captured in the stories of five White teachers, and analyzed through the lenses of critical social theory, critical pedagogy and socio-cultural theory. Teachers shared their stories regarding their awareness of racial and cultural differences and the effects these differences have on teaching practices and engaging students of color in learning. They articulated how their personal and professional life experiences may have changed their understanding of racial and cultural differences as well as challenged them to change their teaching practices in order to provide culturally relevant instruction and elicit engaged interactions from their students of color. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Leadership

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided over a billion dollars to state workforce investment systems for creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth and every state was responsible for developing structured programs to connect youth to employers who would not only provide income for the youth, but also aid in their occupational skill development (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009). The Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas (WASCK) developed the Area IV Kansas Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEP), under the direction Congress and the Kansas Department of Commerce, and over two summers created over seven hundred job opportunities for disadvantaged youth. This study, through ecological qualitative methods, gathered the perspectives of ten adolescents, 18 or older, who participated in the 2010 federally funded SYEP, through the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas. These personal stories using the framework of Ecological Systems Theory and the lens of Social Capital, supported the premises that (a) learning the ecosystems of individuals can provide insights into their daily lives, their history, and their lived experiences in a way that provides a window into how services and prevention efforts can be targeted toward them; (b) people make a difference in the lives of others and supportive institutional agents can have a profound effect on one‘s ability to gain social capital and work toward goal setting and attainment; and (c) programs, such as the SYEP, make a difference in the lives of youth and help them make connections to positive institutional agents, learn workplace dynamics and dialogue, and provide them with a entrance into areas of the workforce that have historically been preserved for the higher level working class and middle class. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Education Leadership

Three parenting constructs were tested as predictors of early sexual debut and young adult depression in a longitudinal study of 4610 adolescents initially surveyed between the ages of 13 and 17-years-old. Three models were tested for both males and females in three distinct age groups; 13-14, 15-16 and 17-19 years. Parent involvement was consistently related to decreased risk for adolescent risky sex and young adult depression, especially for girls. Parent control did not reliably predict early sexual debut or young adult depression as was hypothesized with the exception that parents tended to increase control for older girls who reported earlier sexual debut in comparison to boys of the same age. The hypothesis that intrusive parenting, defined by high involvement and control, would exacerbate negative outcomes was partially supported in terms of later depressive symptoms of the oldest male and the youngest female groups. The interaction of parental involvement and control predicted young girls’ self-reported depressive symptoms in young adulthood and also predicted older boys’ self-reported young adult depressive symptoms. It appears that the relationship between the parenting constructs, potentially risky adolescent behavior and young adult depression is complex and may depend on parents’ ability to appropriately balance and adjust levels of involvement and control to fit the developmental capabilities of their children. Early sexual debut did appear to predict young adult depression for females in the youngest and for boys in the middle age groups. Implications for developmental theory and intervention strategies are described in terms of educating parents to provide supportive family environments to protect adolescents from early sexual debut and subsequent depression. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

The adverse effects of copper on the catecholaminergic nervous system have been well documented and primarily attributed to its redox related properties. To determine the significance of the redox properties of copper, a comprehensive study of the catecholaminergic toxicity of Cu(II) has been carried out using MN9D, PC12 and SH-SY5Y cells and compared the results with that of non-redox active Zn(II) and nonneuronal HepG2 cells. While Cu(II) is more toxic than Zn(II), membrane permeable metal chelators increase the toxicities of the both metals to catecholaminergic cells in comparison to HepG2 cells. The toxicities of the two metals are parallel to their uptakes and no protection from toxicity is observed with high concentrations of bathocuproine which stabilizes the redox active Cu(I). Thus, the redox properties of Cu(II) are not the primary cause of catecholaminergic toxicity. The increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the apoptotic DNA fragmentation induced by both metals suggest that the apoptotic cell death is due to the excessive ROS production. Significance these findings with respect to intracellular calcium perturbation is discussed. Part II of my research is focused on structural characterization of cyt b561. The protein was isolated from bovine adrenal glands and pre-steady state kinetics of oxidized protein was carried out using stopped-flow absorption spectrophotometry. The reduction kinetics was complex and would be fitted into a linear combination of three exponential functions, providing further evidence for the presence of two heme b centers in the protein. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry

This work is concerned with semi-globally and globally exponential observer/controllers for robotic plants. This dissertation work culminated in the following six [6] journal publications: 1. Malagari, S. and Driessen, B.J., “Globally Exponential Continuous Controller/Observer for Position Tracking in Robot Manipulators with Hysteretic Joint Friction,” Robotica, Vol. 28, No. 5, 2010, pp. 759-763. 2. Malagari, S. and Driessen, B.J., “Semi Globally Exponential Tracking Observer/Controller for Robots with Joint Hysteresis and Without Velocity Measurement,” Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 2011, Vol. 62, No. 1, pp. 29-58. 3. Malagari, S. and Driessen, B.J., “Adjustable-Rate Semi-Globally Exponential Observer/Controller for Tracking in Robots With Actuator Dynamics and Only Link Position Measurement,” Control and Intelligent Systems, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2010, pp. 249-262. 4. Malagari, S. and Driessen, B.J., “Globally Exponential Controller/Observer for Tracking in Robots Without Velocity Measurement,” accepted to Asian Journal of Control, doi: 10.1002/asjc.297. 5. Malagari, S. and Driessen, B., “Globally Asymptotic Adaptive Controller/Observer for Tracking in Robots Without Velocity Measurement,” under minor revision at the International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. 6. Malagari, S. and Driessen, B., “Globally Exponential Controller/Observer for Tracking in Robots with DC Motor Dynamics and Only Link Position Measurement,” under first-round review at the journal, Robotica. Paper 1 developed a controller and observer for estimation of unknown hysteretic joint friction for a multiple DOF robot manipulator. The first four papers are already published. The fifth paper is under second-round reviews at the International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, and the sixth paper is still under first round review at the journal Robotica. For a combination of logistical and proprietary reasons, the fifth and sixth journal papers will not be included as chapters of this dissertation, but we will give some summary of them here in Chapter 1. The first four journal papers constitute Chapters 2-5. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Watching a speaker‘s face can improve a listener‘s speech understanding, especially at poorer signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Little is known, however, about the effects of visual impairments on speechreading. In a series of studies, young adults‘ visual enhancement to speech intelligibility under normal vision and simulated cataract vision was tested. In Study 1, speech intelligibility was tested while Central Institute for the Deaf Everyday Speech Sentences were presented via live-voice at a fixed -13 dB SNR under normal vision and mild cataract conditions. In Study 2, speech intelligibility was tested while Speech in Noise (SIN) Sentences were presented via high luminance, recorded talker at SNRs ranging from 0 to -21 dB under normal vision and moderate-to-severe cataract vision. In Study 3, speech intelligibility was tested while SIN Sentences were presented via natural luminance, recorded talker at SNRs ranging from 0 to -21 dB under normal vision and simulated mild cataract vision. In Study 4, speech intelligibility was tested while SIN Sentences were presented via natural luminance, recorded talker at SNRs ranging from 0 to -21 dB under normal vision and simulated severe cataract vision. In Study 5, speech intelligibility was tested while SIN Sentences were presented via recorded talker at eight luminance levels using neutral density (ND) filters ranging from 0 to 4.2 ND at .6 steps under normal vision and simulated mild cataract vision. In Study 6, speech intelligibility was tested while SIN Sentences were presented via recorded talker at eight luminance levels using neutral density filters ranging from 0 to 4.2 ND at .6 steps under normal vision and simulated severe cataract vision. Participants‘ ability to use visual information to support speech understanding was significantly reduced under simulated mild cataracts and was nearly eliminated under simulated severe cataracts. This effect was observed under natural levels of luminance of the talker‘s face and was mitigated by high levels of luminance. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology

The installation and use of computerized systems in health care, particularly Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), has rapidly expanded over the past decade. Overall, their implementation has led to positive outcomes. However, despite their many beneficial contributions to the medical field, EMR use has been shown to alter the way in which clinicians provide care to patients and has broadly resulted in changes to medical decision making. One possible explanation for why EMRs alter medical decision making relates to the structure of the choice environment they create for clinicians. For example, EMRs have the capability to list every avenue of patient care on a single screen to clinicians that can be ordered via simple checkboxes. This new choice environment might lead to changes in the ordering procedures of practitioners. Furthermore, when using choice environments of this nature, the options people request may be manipulated with pre-selected defaults (i.e. a checkbox already selected). This project examined how the ordering practices of clinicians changed as a result of selection defaults on admissions orders written for six fictitious patients. Clinicians were found to order more laboratory tests when all tests were pre-selected for them compared to when no laboratory tests were pre-selected. This increase in the number of tests requested led to increased cost of admitting the fictitious patients to the hospital. Moreover, practitioners were found to order significantly more tests that were deemed ‘Very Relevant’ by expert physicians when those tests alone were pre-selected for them, demonstrating that practitioner performance can be optimized with proper default utilization. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology