The School of Graduate Studies at East Tennessee State University started the first Thesis and Dissertation Boot Camp program in the fall of 2012 by organizing a team of dedicated faculty and staff to help promote the Boot Camp and to run its sessions. Boot Camp at ETSU has since had great success with participation, positive student feedback, and student success. We have had 268 total registrations and 178 unique participants in Boot Camp from all stages of the writing process and of those who were close to finishing, 94 have graduated, many of whom have credited the Boot Camp program with their success. We advertise 21 to all ETSU graduate students, local and regional institutions, and although they were always welcome, we have recently expanded our advertising to Capstone Project students. Students from all of these groups have participated. Boot Camp provides dedicated space and time to write free of distractions, with a variety of resources in the same room or just steps away. In this presentation, I will detail how, what, when, and who is involved in setting up and running our boot camps and provide an overview of our optional mini-workshops that are offered during each session. I will also provide an update on how our boot camp has evolved over the past five years and share some data that I am currently working on correlating boot camp attendance with graduation rates. Boot Camp models at other institutions will also be presented for comparison along with tips for setting up a boot camp at your institution. Another update for this presentation is a personal one. I would like to credit Boot Camp for my own professional growth. Working with boot campers through personal, professional, and academic challenges has tested my ability to be a leader and inspire others to persevere. Boot Camp continues to be a source of pride for me and the School of Graduate Studies at ETSU and I would love the opportunity to share the program again with representatives from other institutions.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the communication of six different non-governmentalorganizations present in the refugee camps in the Aegean Sea, to understand which problemsthey identify as critical and how the communication may be interpreted in the light of theneeds of the organizations. The second purpose is to review the discrepancy between thehumanitarian perspective and the justification perspective, by applying the theoreticalframework consisting of framing theory and two discourse-theoretical theories on the resultsof the content analysis. According to the non-governmental organizations, the camps do not meet seven of the ninebasic needs identified by Sphere and UNHCR. The material does not provide enoughinformation regarding the last two needs, the right to non-refoulement and accessibility forpeople with disabilities. While the organizations might have an interest in existing, theanalysis shows that the most evident receivers of the reports are political stakeholders and thegeneral public, and the most evident intent is to conduct advocacy and raise awareness. The theoretical analysis shows that the camps cannot be considered justified as theprerequisites for a fair and functioning decision-making process where every individualsubject to the decision is recognized are not fulfilled. Hence, there is a discrepancy betweenthe humanitarian perspective and the justificatory perspective, in which the justificatoryperspective sets higher requirements focusing on equal humanitarian preconditions andpolitical rights, while the humanitarian perspective solely focuses on basic needs fulfillment.

Although there is an increase of career opportunities in science and technology fields, various research continues to reflect the under-representation of women in these areas. Panelists will report on their experiences in hosting summer math, science and/or technology camps being used to try and reverse this trend. They will discuss how data collected from camp sessions indicates that efforts to reverse this trend must be initiated at ages earlier than previously noted. The panelists will share successful and unsuccessful ideas and camp age appropriate activities, as well as advertising and implementation details.

The Department of Defense (DoD) maintains approximately 25 million acres of land that is used for military training in the continental United States. Currently, federal and state laws and regulations require that the DoD land be managed so that any activity, including training, will have a minimal effect on the natural environment.

The purpose of this research was to study the benefits of having middle school students attend a summer camp focused on the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). A lot of research funding is being used in such camps to help get more students into STEM fields as there is a lack of graduates in those fields. Therefore, it is important to understand the benefits and effectiveness of such camps. Students, teachers and parents were involved in this research. Students and teachers attended a one-week engineering camp at Utah State University while parents were involved via a blog updated daily with a summary of the activities of the day, pictures, and quotes from the students. The results show that those kinds of camps are effective at increasing students’ interest in STEM fields and in improving parents’ perceptions about those fields. Interestingly, students who started the camp with low interest in STEM fields gained a lot more from the camp than the other students. Similarly, female students also gained a lot more through the camp than male students. This leads us to believe that future camps should target students that stand to gain more from such camps.

Soil erosion was assessed at Camp Williams National Guard Base by creating an erosion risk classification map and comparing the erosion impact of disturbance regimes on different hillslopes. Soil erosion does not appear to be a problem for most of Camp Williams. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation was applied using GIS to create a soil erosion risk map for the entire Camp Williams facility. The map indicated where problem areas occurred and showed relative erosion risk, but its lack of quantitative accuracy should be noted. Areas of concern included landscapes with little or no protective vegetation such as roads, abandoned agricultural fields, and sensitive riparian areas where gullies tend to form and expand. The Water Erosion Prediction Project model was used to evaluate the erosion impacts of various disturbances on five study hillslopes. The model did not appear to function well on the Camp Williams study hillslopes because the distribution of infiltration rates could not be satisfactorily represented. However, hydraulic conductivity measurements collected for this task were useful in providing insight into some of the physical processes of erosion. The hydraulic conductivity measurements showed some of the impacts of military activities, grazing, and wildfire on soil properties. Erosion bridges were also used on the five study hillslopes in an attempt to measure soil Joss and deposition. However, the bridges Jacked the capability of measuring the low rates of erosion during the time period set for this experiment. The bridges showed potential for measuring erosion in rills, gullies, highly disturbed areas, or in longer duration experiments.

Fire occurrence and behavior were determined by collecting and analyzing fuel , weather , and fire history ii data. Fuel plots were used to measure average fuel loading by vegetation type and integrated with weather to make worst - case fire behavior prediction s . A fire history was developed using oakbrush (Quercus qaffibelli Nutt . ) sprouts to determine age and the Global Positioning System (GPS) for mapping the burned areas . Average fuel loading was highest in the oakbrush fuel type with 16.8 t/ha , then juniper (Juniperus ost eosoerma Torrey ) with 6 . 72 t/ha , and the lowest was in sagebrush (Artemisia triden~at a Nutt. ) with 4 . 93 t/ha . Fire behavior predictions were similar for all fuel types. The fire rotation for the study area was calculated to be 30 years. The fire history showed the most hectares burned were in the oakbrush fuel type due to fuel loading and horizontal continuity. Prescribed burns and negative fuel breaks were suggested as management alternatives. The effect of fire on deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) density in oakbrush was determined by using a trapping web design with distance sampling techniques . Webs were set in four pairs with one web of each pair being in 7- year- old burned oakbrush and the other web in unburned oakbrush. Variables such as shrub height and litter depth were recorded in order to reduce variance . Trapping occurred in June 1994 with each web set for two consecutive nights using 80 Museum Special snap traps spaced 6 m apart on eight lines . Density estimates were determined by using a computer program called DI STANCE and then analyzed using analysis of variance with a randomized block design . No significant differences between deer mouse densities were detected between burned and unburned oakbrush. Although litter depth and shrub height were both significantly less in burned sites, it did not affect deer mouse density . The conclusion from these result s was that after 7 years oakbrush had recovered to a point that the effect of fire on deer mouse density was negligible.

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No description available.