Acute cystitis (AC) is characterized by a sudden inflammation of the bladder caused by bacteria. The severity of AC ranges from mild to severe and may be recurrent, especially in at-risk populations. Bacteria in the bladder may travel further into the urinary system, causes urinary tract infections (UTI’s) resulting in urosepsis. Hygienic procedures play a large role in decreasing the bacteria that causes AC, so it is important for nursing students to understand and correctly apply the knowledge learned throughout the curriculum. This study focused on the knowledge and understanding nursing students have about AC. To determine this information, a short questionnaire was emailed to nursing students using the Checkbox software. A letter to potential participants included information about the study and consent was obtained when the participant chose to complete the survey. The survey consisted of seven questions on demographic data, AC, sterile versus medical asepsis, and hand hygiene. Frequency tables were used to determine differences in knowledge and understanding of the questions. The results of this study showed that nursing students need to review material on acute cystitis, hand hygiene, and medical versus surgical asepsis. These findings are consistent with literature that has suggested nursing students may need to review information about AC and its related concepts.

Autism spectrum disorder is often associated with impaired Theory of Mind (ToM), which involves reasoning about others’ mental states. A proposed reason for this impairment is altered brain activity in the temporoparietal junctions (TPJ) in autistic individuals compared to typically developed individuals. This systematic review aimed to investigate ToM in autistic individuals further and its relation to emotion understanding, empathy, and relationships, which were found to possibly be related to ToM and the TPJ. Five studies relevant to the aim were included and most of the results showed associations between ToM and different aspects of emotion understanding, empathy, and relationships. Nonetheless, further research on the topic must be done before these results can be generalized.

Despite the significant progress in 3D vision in recent years, collecting large amounts of high-quality 3D data remains a challenge. Hence, developing solutions to extract 3D object information efficiently is a significant problem. We aim for an effective shape classification algorithm to facilitate accurate recognition and efficient search of sizeable 3D model databases. This thesis has two contributions in this space: a) a novel meta-learning approach for 3D object recognition and b) propose a new compositional 3D recognition task and dataset. For 3D recognition, we proposed a few-shot semi-supervised meta-learning model based on Pointnet++ representation with a prototypical random walk loss. In particular, we developed the random walk semi-supervised loss that enables fast learning from a few labeled examples by enforcing global consistency over the data manifold and magnetizing unlabeled points around their class prototypes. On the compositional recognition front, we create a large-scale, richly annotated stylized dataset called 3D CoMPaT. This large dataset primarily focuses on stylizing 3D shapes at part-level with compatible materials. We introduce Grounded CoMPaT Recognition as the task of collectively recognizing and grounding compositions of materials on parts of 3D Objects.

Much research has shown that women are more empathic than men. Yet, women and men are equally forgiving. However, it is not clear whether empathy is more important to forgiveness for men or for women. The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in levels of empathy and forgiveness and the extent to which the association of empathy and forgiveness differed by gender. Participants were 127 community residents who completed self-report measures of empathy and forgiveness. The present results showed that women were more empathic than men, but no gender difference for forgiveness was apparent. However, the association between empathy and forgiveness did differ by gender. Empathy was associated with forgiveness in men—but not in women.

One critical objective of high-quality education is to provide citizens literate in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to ensure economic success (as reported by Newcombe (Harnessing spatial thinking to support STEM learning (OECD Education Working Papers, No. 161), OECD Publishing, Paris, 2017). Many studies have found a correlation between STEM skills and spatial ability. A meta-analysis of studies (as reported by Hawes et al. (in Davis (ed), Spatial reasoning in the early years: Principles, assertions, and speculations, Routledge, New York, 2015) reported that interventions to teach spatial skills resulted in significant improvement, approximately doubling the number of people with spatial skills associated with being an engineer. Most educational programs lack a focus on spatial skills, especially in early years when children are developing their spatial sense of the world and building a foundation for later, more complex, spatial skills. Little research exists showing what young children do when allowed to explore materials with little or no adult direction. This qualitative study was designed to address that gap and provide evidence of spatial skills in young children, specifically toddlers (12–36 months old). A variety of common household materials were set out during free play time, and educators provided minimal guidance while children played. Trained videographers recorded for 10 h (twice a week for 1 h over a 5-week period). Video was open coded for spatial actions children displayed with the materials. The initial codes were then reviewed for common themes and compared to those found in previous studies. Results show that toddlers demonstrated a wide range of spatial skills without educator direction and stayed engaged for long periods of time. Based on these results, implications are presented for educators to support spatial development.

This research project was a study to determine the relationship of two characteristics--dogmatism and educational philosophy--to teachers' acceptance and understanding of the New Social Studies (NSS). The sample consisted of 222 secondary social studies teachers from three counties in tho San Francisco Bay Area. Questionnaires were mailed to schools selected at random and were administered by an agent, in most cases, the department chairman, to all social studies teachers in the school, during a single administration period. The questionnaire utilized four measurement scales. Trolldahl and Powell's Short Form Dogmatism Scale and Curran's Short Test of One's Educational Philosophy, published and used in previous studies, were employed. A two-part social studies test, designated the S Scale, was developed for this study. Part I, the Acceptance Scale, consisted of 16 statements constructed using a Likert-type scale to test teacher acceptance of the NSS. Part 2, the Understanding Scale, was designed to test teacher understanding of the rationales of the NSS. Respondents were asked to rate 18 statements about the social studies along a three position continuum from traditional to "new". Results indicated that both degree of dogmatism and educational philosophy were significantly related (P Neither sex, age, nor years of teaching experience were significantly related to a teacher's degree of dogmatism or educational philosophy, nor were those variables significantly related to acceptance or understanding of the NSS. The only significant difference among undergraduate group mean scores on any of the tests was for the Dogmatism Scale, significant at the .05 level. The area in which respondents received the master's degree against those who had not was on the Dogmatism Scale, where the difference was significant at the .01 level. Whether teachers had attended one or more social studies institutes or had never attended an institute had no significant relationship to their mean dogmatism or educational philosophy scores. Also, there were no significant differences on any of the tests between respondents who had applied for and those who had never applied for a summer social studies institute fellowship. When grouped by membership in professional organizations, the respondents were not significantly different in their mean acceptance, understanding, dogmatism, or philosophy scores. It was found that, for this sample, teachers's degree of dogmatism and educational philosophical orientation are significantly related to the extent to which they accept and/or understand the rationales and strategies of the New Social Studies.

I wanted to see if there were points of overlap between the various accounts of creation found in folklore, philosophy and physics. In order to justify such a project, I initially considered literature from each of these disciplines regarding the necessity of interdisciplinary dialogue generally and specifically the need for both intuition and logic when considering how anything actually exists. Through my research and casual observation, I hypothesized that opposition seemed to be a universal characteristic of nature. I then looked at how each discipline has described fundamentally opposing pairs and created a list of primary features that those accounts had in common. Finally, I demonstrated (in my study The Symmetry of God) the utility of an interdisciplinary approach to myth by showing how science and philosophy can improve our understanding of myth and conversely how folklore (myth in particular) may suggest meaningful and potentially revolutionary relationships not yet considered by science.

The data used for the following thesis were collected from tape-recorded interviews of a sample of U. S.U . faculty, and from a course evaluation list which each of these participating faculty members were asked to fill out. Thirty-six faculty members were selected for the in-depth interviews, which was slightly more than five percent of the faculty. The study was done in conjunction with the Provost's General Education Evaluation Committee, as part of a larger evaluation of general education at U.S.U. Thirty-four of the U.S.U. professors were interviewed and 28 of these completed the course evaluation lists. This thesis evaluates faculty conceptualizations of general education at three levels: the philosophic, the objective-oriented and the curricular. It also examines faculty interest in and satisfaction with the current U.S.U. program. It was found that at the philosophic level of definition, there was almost complete consensus. Faculty members thought that general education should be a broadening experience, giving the student a general, well-rounded view of the world. At the objective-oriented level, the respondents displayed considerable agreement as to the academic skills and areas in which students should show proficiency. The agreement was more complete, however, when the instructors were first presented with lists of these skills and areas, rather than asking them to identify them themselves. This seemed to indicate that the faculty members had not given a great deal of thought to general education objectives. At the curricular level, two different general education philosophies were shown to exist. Broad fundamentalists felt that general education should be a basic sampling of all of the major areas of knowledge, while diverse specialization advocates reasoned that general education should involve proficiency in various specialized areas outside of the major. Thus, while broad fundamentalists recognized only lower-level courses with basic-sounding titles as fit for general education, diverse specialization advocates felt that almost any course had merit for general education, as long as it was outside of a student's major area. A residual group of respondents, labeled as independents, showed less tendency toward either mode of thought than those in the other two groups. Faculty response overall displayed a preference for lower level classes for general education curriculum. As class level went up the ratings given the courses went down. It was found that the faculty as a whole was not greatly interested in or even acquainted with general education at Utah State University. Faculty members become acquainted with the program mainly because of their advisory responsibilities. Faculty satisfaction with the program seemed noncommital, the disinterest in the program led many to be only mildly satisfied or mildly dissatisfied, or to have no opinion.

abstract: This dissertation reports three studies of the relationships between meanings teachers hold and meanings their students construct. The first paper reports meanings held by U.S. and Korean secondary mathematics teachers for teaching function notation. This study focuses on what teachers in U.S. and Korean are revealing their thinking from their written responses to the MMTsm (Mathematical Meanings for Teaching secondary mathematics) items, with particular attention to how productive those meanings would be if conveyed to students in a classroom setting. This paper then discusses how the MMTsm serves as a diagnostic instrument by sharing a teacher’s story. The data indicates that many teachers name rules instead of constructing representations of functions through function notation. The second paper reports the conveyance of meaning with eight Korean teachers who took the MMTsm. The data that I gathered was their responses to the MMTsm, what they said and did in the classroom lessons I observed, pre- and post-lesson interviews with them and their students. This paper focuses on the relationships between teachers’ mathematical meanings and their instructional actions as well as the relationships between teachers’ instructional actions and meanings that their students construct. The data suggests that holding productive meanings is a necessary condition to convey productive meanings to students, but not a sufficient condition. The third paper investigates the conveyance of meaning with one U.S. teacher. This study explores how a teacher’s image of student thinking influenced her instructional decisions and meanings she conveyed to students. I observed 15 lessons taught by a calculus teacher and interviewed the teacher and her students at multiple points. The results suggest that teachers must think about how students might understand their instructional actions in order to better convey what they intend to their students. The studies show a breakdown in the conveyance of meaning from teacher to student when the teacher has no image of how students might understand his or her statements and actions. This suggests that it is crucial to help teachers improve what they are capable of conveying to students and their images of what they hope to convey to future students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mathematics Education 2019

The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a scalable concept map based navigation system for a digital textbook. A literature review has been conducted to identify possible methods to promote conceptual understanding in the context of a digital textbook, and these hypothesized solutions will be evaluated through a prototype tool. The primary method that has been selected for this study to promote conceptual understanding in textbooks is the concept map. When concept maps are used as advance organizers or navigation aids for hypermedia documents, they have been shown to promote conceptual understanding. Issues with scalability exist, however. When maps become too large or complicated, a phenomenon labeled "map-shock" occurs. Map-shock is a result of cognitive overload that nullifies the positive effects the concept map has on learning. In order to eliminate map-shock, one needs to manage the cognitive load imposed on the learner. This project proposes using information visualization techniques leveraged from the computer science domain to develop an interactive concept map based navigation system that will retain the positive effects of concept maps, and also present the visuals in a way that does not cognitively overload the user. This study seeks to answer the research question: "How can a large-scale concept map visualization tools be realized in a way that promotes conceptual understanding and manages cognitive load?" To answer the research question, a prototype tool, labeled the "Adaptive Map tool", was developed and populated with engineering statics content. This prototype contains content that is similar to the material in a traditional statics textbook, but the information is accessed through the proposed adaptive concept map visualization. The tool was then given to students in engineering statics class to be used as a supplemental textbook. The effects of the Adaptive Map tool were evaluated through a multiple case study approach that allowed researchers to understand how this tool fit into the larger learning context of a class. Results indicated that some students did integrate the Adaptive Map tool into the learning process, and furthermore that the tool did promote meaningful learning behaviors that lead to better conceptual understanding of the material. / Ph. D.