At the collegial level, academic advising has long been advocated as a scholarly activity based on its parallel to teaching. In fact, the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) has promoted the parallel between Developmental Advising and Teaching as its primary contribution to the education community and to its claim as a scholarly profession. While there are similarities between the two, this study seeks to contribute to the body of research by probing this theory via the restructuring of the CST 1001 Freshman Seminar Course offered within the College of Science & Technology at a large, urban public research institution. By implementing a caseload-teaching model of the course for first year freshman STEM students, the study sets out to illustrate whether caseload advising within a classroom/teaching setting can improve students’ first year retention and persistence to graduation. This evaluation study is two-fold: Not only does it set out to “treat’ students within a section of the course via the application of constructive and intrusive advising/teaching practices, and track student persistence to graduation in four, five and six years, it also examines the increasing demand on the academic advising role and its place within the higher education landscape. In search for its place in the higher education community and its claim as a profession, the study examines the advisor role to determine whether the advising practice offers more than its student service function, which is designed to carry out the mission of the institution. / Educational Administration

All animals face a complex environment full of obstacles that they must overcome in order to survive and reproduce. How an individual responds to its environment is essential to overcoming such obstacles in order to maximize fitness. In my thesis, I focused on the roles of persistence and aggression in achieving fitness-relevant goals. Persistence is continuing in a course of action in spite of difficulty or resistance, and aggression is any instance where an individual uses physical, and potentially damaging, force against a conspecific. I used fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) as a model system to examine the ways in which males use persistence and aggression to attain fitness-relevant goals such as defending resources, gaining access to females, and mating. I first examined how a male’s age affected his persistence in courting recently mated females, who are generally unreceptive, and found that older males were more persistent than younger males (Chapter 2). Next, I showed that males of different ages differed in their courtship persistence in the presence of a competitor, and that males were able to subtly, but directly, interfere with one another’s courtship attempts (Chapter 3). I then demonstrated how males were able to use aggression in a mate guarding context to reduce the likelihood that a competitor male mated with their recent mate (Chapter 4), and as a form of resource defense to defend a desirable food patch in the presence of a potential mate (Chapter 5). Finally, I considered male persistence in the pursuit of unreceptive females as a form of male sexual aggression towards recently mated and sexually immature females (Chapters 5 and 6). Overall, my thesis work demonstrates how complex, and sometimes intertwined, the roles of persistence, aggression, and sexual coercion can be even within a ‘simple’ model organism, such as the fruit fly. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / All animals face obstacles from their environment that they must respond to in order to survive and reproduce. In this thesis, I focused on how males use aggressive and persistent behaviours to overcome environmental obstacles. Aggression is the use of physical force against another individual, and persistence is when an individual continues in a course of action despite difficulties. I used fruit flies as a model to examine how males fight with one another over access to food and potential mates. I also studied how males persistently harass females in order to mate with them. In many experiments, I found that males use a combination of aggressive and persistent behaviours to achieve a goal. Overall, my results show that even in a simple species like fruit flies, individuals can use complex combinations of behaviours to achieve a variety of goals.

The demand for workers with college level training in computer related skills is growing rapidly. Although the number of computer science jobs is growing, the percentage of these jobs currently held by women is lower than in 1983 (Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology, 2004). The underrepresentation of women and minorities in postsecondary computing education has become a major national concern (Cohoon & Aspray, 2006). Despite a growing literature on women in STEM fields, there is a lack of theoretical development about women's participation and attrition in computer related majors. The findings are often inconsistent and there are few discipline-specific guidelines for policy. An important next step is to examine these insights with confirmatory quantitative methods. Larsen and Stubbs (2005) argue that efforts to increase diversity in computer fields should be broad-based and move beyond gender. Factors that are successful in attracting and retaining a diverse population of undergraduates in computer related majors will also benefit women and minorities. The purpose of this quantitative study was to develop and test a model of factors influencing the satisfaction and persistence of undergraduates in computer related majors at two universities in Virginia. There were three major independent constructs: academic, social, and institutional factors. Dependent constructs were persistence and satisfaction. The sample was a convenience sample of classes at differing academic levels. A total of 388 students in computer-related majors were surveyed during regularly scheduled class sessions. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The goal of SEM is to determine the extent to which a theoretical model is supported by data. Both measurement and structural models were tested. Results indicate that these factors have significant and substantive effects on satisfaction and persistence. They highlight the importance of faculty, peers, and family support for student satisfaction and retention, and the need to examine instruction and content in computer related majors. The findings suggest the need for further work in the measurement of the constructs, and for further refinement of the final model. In addition, comparison of individual item means suggest that models may vary significantly among majors and between white and minority students. Future research should continue to test and refine the model for the influence of academic, social, and institutional factors on student satisfaction and persistence in computer related majors so that educators and policy makers can enhance the academic and social support structures for students in these majors. / Ph. D.

The bulk of synoptic weather type research related to urban climate focuses on human health impacts; however, recent studies have begun to quantify urban heat island (UHI) magnitudes by weather type, or air mass classification. This study presents an analysis of UHI intensity through synoptic-scale air mass persistence during the spring season for four UHI-prone United States cities. Historical daily weather types for Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky; and St. Louis, Missouri were extracted from the Spatial Synoptic Classification database for 40 years from 1980 through 2019. Daily minimum surface air temperature data were downloaded from the Global Historical Climate Network to compute UHI. The historical daily weather type data were converted into a record of persistence, or the length of consecutive days that a synoptic weather type was in place at each location. A descriptive climatology of SSC weather types and UHI at each location was constructed before UHI magnitudes were segregated by day of persistence and examined for differences in intensity. Climatologically, the four urban areas experienced an increase in warm weather types at the expense of cool weather types throughout the study period. Specifically, the persistence of moist tropical weather types increased at a statistically significant rate at Birmingham, Charlotte, and Louisville, consistent with the theorized northward migration of the mid-latitude jet stream. Also evident is a statistically significant increase in UHI frequency and intensity at Birmingham, Charlotte, and Louisville during the study period. Results show that the moisture character of a weather type is an important differentiating factor in UHI intensification, as the mean UHI was found to increase with the persistence of dry weather types and decrease with the persistence of moist weather types, presumably reflecting differences in radiational heating and cooling with atmospheric moisture content. The most intense UHIs and the largest UHI magnitude increase by day of persistence are associated with dry weather types, which have become more frequent since 1980. The findings suggest that larger magnitude UHIs may become more common in the future should dry weather type persistence continue to increase. Higher urban temperatures put human health at risk due to a well-linked relationship between heat and mortality and morbidity rates. The effects of heat are cumulative; the more common persistent, oppressive days become, the larger the impact. / Master of Science / Most of the research related to variation in the warmth of an urban area relative to the surrounding rural area, or the urban heat island (UHI) effect, under varying air mass conditions (temperature and humidity) has focused on human health impacts. This study examines UHI intensity through regional-scale air mass persistence during the spring season in four UHI-prone United States cities. Historical daily air mass conditions in the form of weather types for Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky; and St. Louis, Missouri were downloaded from the Spatial Synoptic Classification database for the 40 years from 1980 to 2019. UHI values for each urban location were calculated using daily minimum air temperature data from the Global Historical Climate Network. A descriptive climatology of weather types and UHI magnitude at each of the four urban locations established long-term means and trends before analysis of UHI intensity through varying weather type residence times, or persistence. Time series analyses align with previous indications of an increasing persistence of weather types and an increase in the frequency of warm weather types at the expense of cool weather types during the spring season. An increase in both UHI frequency and intensity occurred through the study period at Birmingham, Charlotte, and Louisville. The mean intensity of the UHI was found to increase with the persistence of weather types of low humidity and to decrease with the persistence of moist weather types. The largest mean UHI and the largest UHI magnitude increase by day of persistence are associated with low humidity weather types, which have become more frequent since 1980. The impacts of heat are cumulative; persistently elevated temperatures are detrimental to human health.

Mechanical deformations of nucleic acids (NA) play a very important role in many biological life processes. The bending persistence length of DNA is of specific interest, because so much eukaryotic DNA that stores genetic information is tightly packed inside cell nuclei, even though DNA is considered to be a relatively stiff biopolymer. However, recent experiments suggest that DNA may be more flexible than its persistence length (~ 150 bp or ~ 47 nm) suggests, especially for fragments shorter than 100 bp. It is important to reconcile these two seemingly competing pictures of DNA bending by providing a model that can explain the novel results without discrediting old experiments and the widely-accepted worm-like chain model. Another factor that influences both molecular geometry as well as mechanical properties is the ionic atmosphere surrounding the NA. It is known that multivalent ions with charge of +3e and higher can condense DNA into aggregates at high enough concentration. However, most conventional models cannot explain why RNA and DNA condense at different concentrations. Furthermore, our recent simulation results suggest that even though DNA persistence length decreases with multivalent ion concentration due to increasing electrostatic screening, RNA actually becomes stiffer due to a structural transition from the internal binding of the counterions. / Ph. D.

The research in this dissertation is focused on the synthesis and characterization of sterically crowded, precisely charged polyelectrolytes based on substituted stilbene comonomers. New sterically crowded polyelectrolytes based on functionalized stilbenes with maleic anhydride or functionalized N-phenylmaleimides were prepared via a "protected" precursor polymer strategy. The polyelectrolyte precursors readily dissolved in organic solvents and were characterized by 1H NMR, SEC, TGA, and DSC. The polyelectrolytes were obtained via simple deprotection chemistries. The use of different combinations of the donor-acceptor comonomer pairs and the alternating copolymerization of these comonomers lead to precise control over charge density and placement of charged groups along the polymer backbone. Analogous styrenic copolymers, for direct comparison to the stilbene structures, were also prepared. Broad peaks in 1H NMR spectra were observed. There were no thermal transitions measured by DSC below the degradation temperature. A strong polyelectrolyte effect, for both stilbene and styrene copolymers, occurred in deionized water and was suppressed by adding NaCl to the polymer solution. These results are not consistent with "rigid" rod polyelectrolytes in which chain collapse in the presence of added salt and chain expansion on dilution should not be observed. In response to these observations persistence length measurements were conducted on the stilbene and styrene copolymers to assess directly the steric crowding effect of added phenyl groups in stilbene copolymers. Both SEC and SAXS measurements were used to obtain persistence lengths. The results from three different approaches, Bohdanecký, graphical and Sharp and Bloomfield Global, were in good agreement. The persistence lengths of stilbene containing copolymers range from 3 to 6 nm and the added phenyl groups increase the rigidity of the polymer chain by about 30-50%. This puts these polymers into a broadly defined "semi-rigid" category of polymers and is consistent with the solution polyelectrolyte effect observed. In dilute solution characterization of stilbene containing polyanions, a 2-step dissociation behavior was observed for the two adjacent carboxylic acids in maleic acid containing polyanions. Stilbene polyanion solutions showed high Rh values in deionized water as shown by DLS measurements and a decrease of Rh values followed by aggregation upon gradual addition of salt. Bimodal peaks were observed in SEC measurements with the copolymer of 4-methylstilbene and maleic anhydride. DLS measurements indicated interchain aggregation as the origin of the apparent high molecular weight fraction. The antiviral activity of the polyanion based on sodium 4-styrenesulfonate and N-(4-sodium sulfophenyl)maleimide was found to be ~50 times higher than the microbicide, sodium poly(styrene sulfonate). The early study of antiviral activities of carboxylated stilbene and styrene polyanions also showed promising results. The synthesis of methyl sulfonate ester-functionalized polyanion precursors was attempted because they can be characterized without the complications caused by directly using charged sulfonate groups. / Ph. D.

One of the fundamental building blocks of a mobile application is the ability to persist program data between different invocations. Referred to as persistence, this functionality is commonly implemented by means of persistence frameworks. When choosing a particular framework, Android-the most popular mobile platform-offers a wide variety of options to developers. Unfortunately, the energy, performance, and programming effort trade-offs of these frameworks are poorly understood, leaving the Android developer in the dark trying to select the most appropriate option for their applications. To address this problem, this thesis reports on the results of the first systematic study of six Android persistence frameworks (i.e., ActiveAndroid, greenDAO, OrmLite, Sugar ORM, Android SQLite, and Realm Java) in their application to and performance with popular benchmarks, such as DaCapo. Having measured and analyzed the energy, performance, and programming effort trade-offs for each framework, we present a set of practical guidelines for the developer to choose between Android persistence frameworks. Our findings can also help the framework developers to optimize their products to meet the desired design objectives. / Master of Science

Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) concept of flow was examined in a sample of 81 four-year-olds. Intrinsic motivation to continue playing, measured by the number of attempts to toss a bean bag through a target, was observed in both a choice and an assigned condition, order counterbalanced. In the assigned condition, subjects were randomly assigned to an easy or hard level of challenge, whereas in the choice condition, subjects could control the level of difficulty of the game by varying their distance from the target. Children in the choice condition made significantly (p < .05) more attempts than did children in the assigned-hard condition, and subjects in the assigned-easy condition made significantly (p < .05) more attempts than those in the hard condition, but there was no difference between the choice and easy conditions. No effect was found due to order in which conditions were received. Significant school differences were found in the choice condition only. Findings were interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that choice of level of difficulty has a significant positive effect on intrinsic motivation to continue an activity. / Master of Science

Yes / Purpose The purpose of this article was to examine the joint effects of regulatory focus, entrepreneurial persistence, and institutional support on new venture performance. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a random survey approach to sample 204 new ventures from Ghana. The moderated mediation method was used to analyze the survey data. Findings The findings from this paper show that entrepreneurs’ promotion focus positively relates to persistence whiles prevent focus negatively influences persistence. Besides, persistence mediates the link between regulatory focus (promotion and prevention focus) and new venture performance. These relationships are positively moderated by perceived institutional support. Research limitations/implications Using data from only the manufacturing sector in Ghana limits the generalisability of this paper. Also, persistence was not observed or measured directly in this paper but was only used as a self-reporting variable that captures an individual’s tendency to persist. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, this paper contributes to regulatory focus literature by enhancing our knowledge of how self-regulation could help explain entrepreneurial decision-making. Second, this paper broadens self-regulation literature by adding institutional context as a moderating variable. Third, this paper helps clarify the potential role of persistence in entrepreneurship.

The increasing enrollment of nontraditional students in online degree programs has underscored the importance of effective academic advising practices. These students, often over the age of 25 and juggling full-time employment and family responsibilities, encounter unique challenges in navigating the asynchronous, online learning environment. Academic advisors play a pivotal role in mitigating these obstacles by fostering trust and delivering comprehensive support systems tailored to the needs of online learners. While previous studies have explored various advising models and approaches in connection with student satisfaction, inadequate attention has been given to assessing the quality of advising specifically tailored to nontraditional, online students and their persistence. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if advising quality impacts persistence among nontraditional, online students enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program as to what extent specific dimensions of advising quality (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy) impact their persistence. Data were collected using an anonymous online survey that was shared with potential participants via email. Data were analyzed through SPSS software using a multiple linear regression model to determine significance between the independent variables, the dimensions of advising quality, and the dependent variable, self-report impact on persistence. Results indicated that three dimensions of advising quality were highly significant; reliability, empathy, and assurance. These findings indicate that higher education administrators should focus efforts on implementing advisor training programs tailored to the needs of online learners, creating a centralized advising structure which offers a streamlined approach to student services, and executing advisor evaluations to collect student feedback and inform practice. Future research should be conducted to confirm the findings of this study and to explore other institutional factors that impact the persistence of nontraditional students enrolled in online baccalaureate degree programs.