The present thesis will be largely focused on identifying and understanding the scope and mechanistic details associated with the tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) mediated cyclization of alkynyl hydrazines and (O)-hydroxylamines. Also, the synthesis of 2-(2-carboxyethyl)-4-methyl-5-propylfuran-3-carboxylic acid (CMPF) and its analogs will be discussed along with an analysis of their effects on insulin secretion. Chapter 1 will present the importance of developing isoxazoline and pyrazoline type heterocycles given that they are continually demonstrated to possess a variety of biological activities. Further, the scope of the reaction in terms of functional group tolerability, scalability and mild conditions will be shown. To expand the importance of this work, a route to access non-racemic heterocycles is also noted. With the heterocycles in hand, new methods were developed to generate more complex frameworks in the form of a novel one pot deprotection/functionalization reaction. Chapter 2 will focus on mechanistic investigations of the cyclization. From the initial discovery of the reaction, its actual mechanism was unknown and a main point of interest. What appeared unusual is that a nucleophilic attack occurs on an unactivated triple bond. Given the identity of the products, a reasonable proposal was a 5-endo-dig type cyclization. However, such a pathway would result in the generation of a vinyl anion intermediate which is well known to be of very high energy and it would seem unlikely to occur under mild conditions. Various trapping experiments were used to demonstrate that the vinyl anion forms and a 5-endo-dig-cyclization is the operative mechanism. Chapter 3 analyzes the importance of the tetrabutylammonium fluoride reagent. During optimization studies, it became clear that this base is the ideal reagent to facilitate the cyclization although other bases can also enable the transformation at much slower rates. Addition of non-basic ammonium salt additives to bases such as KF and CsF had a dramatic effect on the rate of the reaction. To determine whether the observed rate differences were merely a phase transfer effect or something more, both empirical and Raman spectroscopy data were collected. Based on this, the first evidence for an ammonium-alkyne cation-pi type interaction was shown. Chapter 4 will summarize the work on the synthesis of 2-(2-carboxyethyl)-4-methyl-5-propylfuran-3-carboxylic acid (CMPF) and its analogs in order to be used in various biological assays. The main goals were to determine a possible structure activity relationship between the substrates and insulin secretion in beta cells and also determine the fate of CMPF in vivo. Several 13C labeled analogs of CMPF were synthesized and successfully used to show for the first time that CMPF in metabolized in vivo in mice. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This study examined the use of an iPhone and List Recorder application to teach three adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to enhance their interpersonal daily living skills in a community setting. Participants were taught to use interpersonal skills to perform an ordering and purchasing task. A multiple probe design across participants was used to demonstrate the effects of the intervention on the participants’ performance. Results indicated an increase in interpersonal skills used in a community setting. Participants were able to generalize these skills to another community setting. Finally, participants were able to demonstrate these skills once the intervention was removed during follow-up. Implications for future research are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Collegiate leadership development opportunities that enhance student’s leadership skills are on the rise. This study sought to understand how students perceive their own leadership development prior to entering college and at an institution that has prioritized leadership development in recent years. Through this single-case study, 51 undergraduate student leaders completed a questionnaire that resulted in a descriptive student leader profile and open-ended responses. From those 51 students, 14 were a part of focus groups. There were three focus groups in total with four, seven, and three participants respectively. From the 14 participants, five volunteered for individual interviews to identify their perceptions of their leadership development in their own words. The research questions for this study were: What are the inputs and environmental influences that shape college students’ leadership development output from the student perspective; and, how do college students describe and understand their leadership development? The descriptive profile and close-ended responses are reviewed in chapter four and report four major findings. The first finding was “Mom made me do it”: The Influence of Family and Experiences Precollege, and the second finding was The What and Who Behind These Students’ Leadership Development in College: Purposeful Experiences and People. The third finding was The Why Behind These College Students’ Engagement in Leadership Development, which encompassed four themes to describe the reasons these students’ are interested in leadership development: encouragement from others, aspirations, self-development, and motivation to support causes they have grown to want to serve and for which they want to develop. The fourth finding was Soft Skills - Not Clear in the Terminology of These Student Leaders, Clear in Their Behaviors and included ways of defining soft skills and the exemplification of student leaders’ soft skills. Conclusions and recommendations are offered in chapter six including the proposal of a new model, Closing the Loop in College, developed from the pattern of findings that emerged in this study inclusive of reflective meaning making in college as essential for these leaders’ development. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A quasi-experimental, between groups design was used to evaluate differences in emotional behavior, as measured by the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF), between professional therapists and their clients and a master therapist and his client. This coding system also was used to determine how emotional behavior shown by a master therapist changes over the course of six psychotherapy sessions. The research team recorded counseling sessions at a university counseling center in the southeastern United States and coded this video data using SPAFF in real time. Data were analyzed quantitatively to determine whether significant differences in SPAFF codes exist between the master therapist, professional therapists at the university counseling center, and their respective clients. Results indicated that the master therapist showed significantly more neutral and less negative affect than his counterparts at the university in both sessions one and four. The master therapist’s client showed significantly more neutral affect and less negative in session one and significantly more positive affect and less negative affect in session four. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

As part of the education reforms of the 1990s, charter schools were proposed as a private alternative to public education, offering parents and their children greater choices. Publicly financed but privately operated, charter schools have now grown in numbers and influence. While there are many studies of student outcomes in charter schools demonstrating mixed results, one negative outcome of charter schools has been less examined. Since inception, 23% of charter schools nationally have closed and these closures are disruptive to parents, children, and their school districts. This paper addresses charter school closures from an organizational perspective. Applying theory from population ecology and resource dependency theory, the population of nonprofit charter schools is examined. What are the primary determinants of charter school success and failure? Florida, with the third highest number of charter schools nationally and, at the same time, the highest number of charter school closures in the United States, is a paradox. This study identifies the significant variables that are related to school survival and failure in the state of Florida over the years 2015-16 through 2015-16. Variables tested in this study, using Survival Analysis (SA), include age, management structure, size, school performance, grants, and density. All variables except density at founding were significant in explaining the unique variance in survival rates among charters. Charter schools sub-contracted by for-profit educational management organizations (EMOs) were larger, achieved higher grades, secured more grants and achieved higher survival rates than their counterpart nonprofit, independent, and charter management organization (CMO) led schools. These results contribute to our understanding of charter school survival and failure, thereby informing public policy options to strengthen the charter school population and the nation’s public education system overall. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A variety of computing devices are available in today’s classrooms, but they have not guaranteed the effective integration of technology. Nationally, teachers have ample devices, applications, productivity software, and digital audio and video tools. Despite all this, the literature suggests these tools are not employed to enhance student learning according to best practices. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe and understand perceptions of a technology integration professional development (TIPD) experience of elementary teachers at a suburban, independent school. The TIPD was an ongoing, 40-minute class led by a technology specialist, taking place in teachers’ classrooms, engaging teachers and their students in a 1:1 Chromebook environment. Data collected were through classroom observations, teacher written reflections, school documents, and face-to-face interviews. The results of multiple cycles of coding wrought findings in regard to teachers’ perceptions of effective technology integration, technology class as professional development (PD), and technology class as enabling effective technology integration. The findings showed teachers perceived technology integration to be effective if it benefited the skills or productivity of themselves or their students and if it directly related to their curriculum. Teachers required the support of their colleagues, technology specialist, IT department, as well as traditional and alternative forms of PD to overcome internal and external barriers to integration. Five of the seven teachers explicitly conveyed the technology class to be effective TIPD and all seven learned about a technology tool or resource, technical knowledge or skills, or ideas for integration during the technology classes. Findings also showed the technology class enabled reflection, which led to ideas for integration; the class enabled integration when the content was related to or the tools were useful for their subject area; the class provided the collaboration necessary for integration to occur. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The present study investigates the affectual interaction of three highly competent therapists using different theoretical approaches with a shared male client and female client in a professionally recorded video series. The interactions of clients and therapists in a total sample of six psychotherapy sessions were coded using the twenty code version of Gottman, Woodin, and Coan’s (1998) Specific Affect Coding System. Coded data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis tests which found no significant differences between the mean ranks of therapists’ codes between therapists. Significant effects among some affective behaviors were noted in therapists’ codes when compared by client. Coded data were also used to create mathematical models using ordinary differential equations for each of the six sessions. Kruskal-Wallis tests did not reveal significant effects in the mean ranks of the parameters of the mathematical models, and visual similarities and differences of these models were discussed. Additional analyses were conducted to examine clients’ affective behaviors as well and significant effects were revealed in the Kruskal-Wallis tests amongst many coded behaviors. The results support the presence of common factors and similarities in the therapeutic relationship among different theoretical approaches. The findings also add to the growing body of literature dedicated to the use of observational coding and dynamic nonlinear modeling in psychotherapy research. The implications for psychotherapy practice, education, and research are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Recently a new strategy for age-at-death estimation has been developed. In Stephanie Calce’s 2012 article, ‘A New Method to Estimate Adult Age-at-death Using the Acetabulum,’ she redesigns the previous attempts made by Rissech et al. (2006). Her technique simplifies Rissech et al. seven traits by condensing them into three easily identifiable traits. The aim of this paper is to determine that Calce’s original intent to create a more user-friendly and comprehensible scoring method was successful. My focus is to reveal if Calce’s technique is effective between different populations or whether interpopulation variation renders it an unstable approach to age estimation. I tested Calce’s forensic method of aging human skeleton’s on a random sample of skeletons of known age from the Hamann-Todd collection. In the test, Calce’s method proved to work well. As it is simpler than previously proposed methods, investigators should consider adopting it under appropriate circumstances. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Current literature confirms that self-efficacy, academic self-concept, and participation in undergraduate research influence the academic performance and aspirations of students. However, a gap in the literature remains as research has yet to explore whether students who have participated in research have a higher sense of research self-efficacy and academic self-concept than students who have not participated in these activities. In addition, it is unknown whether undergraduate researchers pursuing STEM degrees differ from students pursuing non-STEM degrees, nor if they vary by gender. The purpose of this study was to investigate the research self-efficacy and academic self-concept of undergraduate researchers, compare these beliefs to nonresearchers, and to examine how these measures differ by gender and field of study (i.e. STEM and non-STEM fields) among undergraduate researchers. Additionally, this research identified various factors that predict research self-efficacy and academic selfconcept. This quantitative study was conducted at a public university located in the Southeast region of the United States. Using survey methods participants’ background information, academic self-concept, and research self-efficacy was collected. Participants were students who had participated in undergraduate research as well as students who had not participated in research activities. Both groups completed the same survey. This study gained insight into the research self-efficacy, academic self-concept, field of study, and gender differences among undergraduate researchers and how they compare to non-researchers. Research findings may assist colleges, universities, and offices that promote undergraduate research in recruiting students to participate in research activities. Findings also contribute to literature supporting undergraduate research as an element that contributes to student success in undergraduate education. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The leading cause of disability among older adults is osteoarthritis (OA) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017). Chronic pain associated with arthritis interferes with daily living among older adults and has been related to depression (Zanocchi et al., 2008). Research suggests that ethnicity and psychosocial factors may influence health outcomes of older adults with arthritis who are experiencing chronic pain and depression (Im, Guevara, & Chee, 2007; Wilson et al., 2014). The influence of ethnicity on depression among older adults with OA experiencing chronic pain is the phenomenon of interest for this study. Chronic pain that interferes with activities of daily living gives rise to disability, followed by potential episodes of depression. This currently is impacting the quality of life for older adults with OA. The aim of this study was to gain new insight regarding the relationship and predictive factors for depression between pain interference, gender, and ethnicity among older adults with OA pain and depression. This study examined the research question, “Does ethnicity, gender, and pain interference predict depression among older adults with osteoarthritis?” This study was a secondary analysis of existing data from the National Institute of Health National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (Park, McCaffrey, Newman, Cheung, & Hagen, 2014) study titled, The Effect of Sit ‘N’ Fit Chair Yoga on Community-Dwelling Elders with Osteoarthritis. A descriptive retrospective correlational design was utilized to investigate factors that predict depression. Statistical analysis included multiple linear regression and analysis of variance. The study sample (n = 104) consisted of community-dwelling older adults ages 65 years or older with osteoarthritis. Findings indicated that (1) ethnicity, gender, and pain interference did predict depression; (2) there were no significant difference in depression between Hispanics and non-Hispanics while controlling for pain interference; and (3) there was statistically significant differential interaction with depression when pain interference increased, with Hispanics reporting higher levels of depressions as pain interference increased, as compared to non-Hispanics. The new knowledge gained from this study may help guide healthcare providers in developing effective alternative approaches for improving health outcomes of mismanaged ethnically diverse older adults with OA. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection