Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unique challenges in attaining postsecondary education. However, as awareness of supports increases, such as early intervention programs and evidence-based practices, more students with ASD view postsecondary education as an option. Little research exists of the role of secondary school counselor…

Grammar in natural interaction is an emergent, dynamic and adaptive system that is consistently subject to change. It is understood as a collection of open multiple subsystems, each of which is activated as the language users recurrently participate in a particular linguistic, interactional and social activity. When a certain linguistic form or…

The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to examine the dynamic interaction between the racial and academic identities of African American, undergraduate students who were enrolled full time at an academic institution of higher education that was both a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI), and a predominately White institution (PWI).…

E-commerce firms are increasingly adopting recommendation systems to effectively target customers with products and services. The first essay examines the impact that improving a recommender system has on firms that deploy such systems. A market with customers heterogeneous in their search costs is considered. We find that in a monopoly, a firm…

The purpose of this study was to identify critical causes of work stress and job satisfaction of nurses, which can contribute to find appropriate organizational supports to help nurses effectively work with a surgical robot. Delphi method was employed to identify the critical stressors and the key causes of job satisfaction of nurses working with…

Wayfinding is a kind of spatial riddle that people encounter almost daily. Although it has been well documented that wayfinding elements--namely, environmental cues, people and time--significantly influence wayfinding, there has been little work done to examine the effectiveness of those influences. In particular, the notion of wayfindingly…

Spectator attendance is a popular topic in the sport management literature. However, the primary focus of work done in this area has been examining professional sports, with collegiate sports lagging far behind. The impetus behind the focus on spectator attendance in collegiate sports is the potential impact it can have on increasing revenue in…

Strengthening the association between education and communication is difficult due to the scarcity of educationally initiated research into the mechanics of communication. Most of the existing communication research is domiciled in the departments of sociology, psychology, anthropology, journalism and business. Many educators are satisfied in…

The purpose of this study was to identify and design standards and procedures for creating easily interpreted accountability reports cards, consistent with the requirements spelled out in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The use of public report cards was first raised during the debate that took place immediately prior to the passage…

The central premise of this research is that blind and visually impaired (BVI) people cannot use the Internet effectively due to accessibility and usability problems. Use of the Internet is indispensable in today's education system that relies on Web-enhanced instruction (WEI). Therefore, BVI students cannot participate effectively in WEI. Extant…

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess probation officers knowledge levels of offenders with intellectual disabilities by utilizing a synthesis of subject matter analysis technique and a comprehensive review of literature. This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was devoted to establishing the knowledge…

This dissertation offers a novel account of the syntax of sentence adverbs. The need for a new account is clear from the lack of descriptive coverage and theoretical coherence in current work on adverbial syntax. Descriptively, the majority of work has so far neglected the fact that sentence adverbs behave syntactically like typical focusing…

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between two variables, "servant leadership" and "job satisfaction," among management, executive staff, and faculty at Alabama's five regional universities: Jacksonville State University, Troy University, the University of Montevallo, the University of North Alabama, and the University of…

This paper is an exploratory study about sexting, the sending of sexually explicit or illicit photos or video between cell phones, in Kansas public schools. An on-line survey asked superintendents to report if they have had an occurrence of sexting in their district. They were also asked if they felt sexting is currently a problem in their…

Understanding how short-term memory shapes sentence comprehension processes is a long-standing topic in psycholinguistics. This thesis pursues new insights on two facets of short-term memory's role in sentence comprehension: (a) The first four experiments search for, and obtain, concrete evidence that locality effects, or increased integration…