This manuscript-style dissertation explores Diné (Navajo) education and teaching in the context of a research project that negotiated the demands of both Navajo Nation IRB and Oregon State University IRB. In the first manuscript, the researcher examines his journey of using cultural resilience strategies to succeed in the education system...
Adolescence is a developmental stage marked by crystallization in individuals’ sense of identity (Erikson, 1994; Harter, 1999). Research on positive youth development stresses the ways in which thriving trajectories during adolescence contribute to positive lifelong outcomes (Lerner & Overton, 2008; Scales, Benson, & Roehlkepartain, 2011) A symbolic interactionism perspective (Mead,...
Assessing the risk from exposure to a chemical mixture in the environment can seem prohibitively challenging. Most components of the mixture are not readily identifiable, chemicals may interact to cause other-than-additive toxicity, and the number of potential combinations of environmental contaminants is enormous. These challenges can make it seem impossible...
In many traditional computer graphics applications, rendered scenes typically utilize 3D meshes to represent objects within an environment. As the demand to further improve the realism of graphics applications increases, such as for movies and games, it is becoming more important to represent the inner volumes of object meshes. In...
Liquefaction of saturated granular material due to cyclic loading can result in catastrophic damage to the built environment. The mechanics of liquefaction have been previously studied through field testing, physical modeling, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations. However, significant questions remain with respect to the particle-scale behavior of granular materials during...
Counselor educators have a responsibility to serve as effective gatekeepers to the counseling profession by graduating only those counselors professionally prepared to serve the public in a myriad of counseling roles. However, despite its importance and the extant literature, gatekeeping still seems poorly understood and inconsistently applied. Although the literature...
We give a new characterization of elements in the Veech group of a translation surface. This provides a computational test for Veech group membership. We use this computational test in an algorithm that detects when the Veech group is a lattice (has co-finite area), and in this case computes a...
The number of women in doctoral programs is increasing each year and women now comprise the majority of doctoral students in America (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). Previous research has shown the high levels of complexities and stresses that female doctoral students face during their studies (Mallinckrodt & Leong,1992) and...
Calls for reform within engineering education frequently cite the need to better prepare the future workforce for the imminent challenges that they will face. The focus in preparing students for the workforce is often on the educational system and not on understanding the actual workplace. But if we are to...
Purpose: Model-based dose calculation algorithms (MBDCAs) have become clinically available within the past several years in commercially available brachytherapy planning systems. This work investigates the application of a 510(k) approved MBDCA Acuros™ BV and establishes a reproducible method of validation. The research is broken into three primary research goals. The...