NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Sungmoon Jung, Professor Directing Thesis; Lisa Spainhour, Committee Member; Eren Erman Ozguven, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Civil engineering
DEGREE: Masters
FILENAME: Ren_fsu_0071E_17285.pdf
TITLE: Distance-Based Classifiers for Heavy-Tailed, Non-Sparse, and Correlated Data
AUTHOR: Ren, Shaokang,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Mai, Qing
MEMBER (university representative): Zhu, Lingjiong
MEMBER (committee member): Srivastava, Anuj, 1968-
MEMBER (committee member): Wu, Chong
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Statistics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (99 pages)
ABSTRACT: In modern statistics, data are becoming more complex than ever. These complex situations greatly challenge the classical statistical analysis especially when the problem is high-dimensional. In my dissertation, we mainly study the high-dimensional classification under three challenging scenarios: 1) When the data is heavy-tailed or it contains disturbing outliers; 2) When the sparsity assumption does not hold; 3) When the data is in the form of tensor. I develop novel methodologies to tackle the challenges occurring in these situations. My work on the three problems is recapitulated as follows. The nearest shrunken centroids method (NSC) is a popular high-dimensional classifier. However, it is prone to inaccurate classification when the data is heavy-tailed. In Chapter 2, I develop a robust generalization of NSC which remains effective under such circumstances. By incorporating the Huber loss both in the estimation and the calculation of the score function, I reduce the impacts of heavy tails. I rigorously show the variable selection, estimation, and prediction consistency in high dimensions under weak moment conditions. Empirically, our proposal greatly outperforms NSC and many other successful classifiers when data is heavy-tailed while remaining comparable to NSC in the absence of heavy tails. The favorable performance of RNSC is also demonstrated in a real data example. The sparsity assumption is frequently employed when the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is generalized to high-dimensional problems. However, the sparse condition (targeting ``sparse signals'') is only an approximation to the complex situation, as there also exist a lot of non-zero elements with a small magnitude, known as ``dense signals''. are not exactly zero in the practical situation. The accumulated ``dense signals'' will severely influence the prediction and interpretation of a method. In Chapter 3, I propose one LDA-type method that relaxes the sparsity assumption. By employing l_1 and l_2 based penalization separately when estimating the ``sparse signals'' and ``dense signals'' of the discriminant directions, our method achieves robustness to non-sparse data. Theoretically, our proposal has neat consistency properties without the sparse condition. Numerically, our method gives comparable prediction accuracy to many popular classification methods when the sparsity condition holds and has significant advantages when there exist both ``sparse signals'' and ``dense signals''. The method is further supported by experiments on multiple real datasets. Tensor is becoming a popular data structure in contemporary scientific studies. However, I cannot directly implement the traditional classification methods for vector data to tensors as they will damage the covariance structure. Existing studies designed for tensor data mainly target the tensor discriminant directions and require specific conditions on the distribution. In Chapter 3, I develop a distance-based classifier for tensor data. It is a method with weak model assumptions that could capture the centroid structures through de-correlation. We examine this method with simulations including various scenarios and further demonstrate it with a real-world dataset.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Statistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): July 5, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Qing Mai, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lingjiong Zhu, University Representative; Anuj Srivastava, Committee Member; Chong Wu, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Statistics
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Ringer_fsu_0071E_17416.pdf
TITLE: Effects of Passive and Active Social Media Use on Thwarted Belongingness and Desire to Affiliate Following a Social Exclusion Task
AUTHOR: Ringer, Fallon Brooke,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Joiner, Thomas, Jr.
MEMBER (university representative): Kirby, David, 1944-
MEMBER (committee member): Schmidt, Norman B.
MEMBER (committee member): Meyer, Alexandria
MEMBER (committee member): Plant, Ashby
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Psychology
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (52 pages)
ABSTRACT: Types of social media behaviors, including active or passive social media use, may have an influence on mental health outcomes (Aalbers et al., 2019; Verduyn et al., 2015). The impact of social media use may be particularly relevant to risk factors for suicide, such as thwarted belongingness, and forming social connections. The present study sought evaluate the impact of social media use on thwarted belongingness (TB) and desire to affiliate (DA) following a social exclusion task. One hundred forty-three participants (Mage = 19.32, SD = 1.20, 81.1% Female, 71.3% White/Caucasian, 99.3% Single/Never married, 79.7% Heterosexual) completed a series of baseline measures assessing mental health indices, affect, TB and DA followed by engaging in a social exclusion task. After completing the social exclusion task, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: an active social media use condition, a passive social media use condition, and a control condition. The researchers predicted that following the social exclusion task, all participants would experience a decrease in TB and an increase in DA. After the social media manipulation, we hypothesized that participants in the active social media condition would experience decreased TB and increased DA when compared to participants in the other conditions. In the passive condition, we predicted that participants would report increased TB and increased DA when compared to participants in the other conditions. Four hierarchal linear models were utilized to examine hypotheses controlling for demographic variables, baseline depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect, and reasons for social media use. Results did not indicate a significant effect of the social exclusion task on either TB or DA. Similarly, results did not demonstrate an effect of passive or active social media use on levels of TB or DA. Findings provide support that social media behavior does not have as great an impact as in-person interactions and may be heavily influenced by within-person factors.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): May 2, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Cyberball, desire to affiliate, social exclusion task, social media, suicide, thwarted belongingness
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Thomas E. Joiner, Professor Directing Dissertation; David K. Kirby, University Representative; Norman B. Schmidt, Committee Member; Alexandria Meyer, Committee Member; E. Ashby Plant, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Clinical psychology
SUBJECT: Psychology
SUBJECT: Sociology--Research
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Rooney_fsu_0071E_17300.pdf
TITLE: Essays in Development Economics
AUTHOR: Rooney, Timothy,
MEMBER (professor co-directing dissertation): Kantor, Shawn Everett
MEMBER (professor co-directing dissertation): Kitchens, Carl T.
MEMBER (university representative): Coleman, Eric A., (Professor of Political Science)
MEMBER (committee member): Rodgers, Luke P.
MEMBER (committee member): Schmertmann, Carl P.
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Economics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (171 pages)
ABSTRACT: This dissertation is composed of three papers, all using natural experiments from developing countries to examine critical issues in the lives of individuals in the developing world. In the first chapter, I combine data from a national high school entrance exam linked to individual tax records in Jamaica to examine the short and long-run impact of several key aspects of secondary education. The second chapter examines the impact of education on short and long-term academic outcomes in the country of Colombia. The final chapter examines the impact political connections play in the provision of public amenities in China. The first chapter, "High School Never Ends: Secondary School Attributeson Formal Sector Earnings" examines what features of secondary education lead to increased formal sector earnings. Five hundred million children are enrolled in secondary education in developing countries, over five times that in developed nations. However, little is known about what features of secondary education matter the most for short-term academic or long-term labor market outcomes in developing countries. In this paper, I combine data from a national high school entrance exam linked to individual tax records in Jamaica to examine several key aspects of secondary education. First, the eligibility cutoff in Jamaica allows me to employ a regression discontinuity design to estimate credible causal effects of access to a school with additional years of secondary education. Second, through a similar design, I am able to obtain a credible causal estimate of peer quality on short and long-term outcomes. Finally, using idiosyncratic variation in gender composition, I am able to analyze a school's gender composition on short and long-term outcomes. Access to a school with additional years of education increases formal sector earnings by 2,900 USD PPP per year from ages 22 to 31. However, I find no short or long-term effects from higher quality peers. Finally, I find large academic benefits from having a larger share of same-sex peers but no long-term labor market benefits. The second chapter, "What is the Impact of Educational Spending on Short and Long Term Outcomes? Evidence from Colombia" examines the impact of both lower and higher local education spending on short-term and long-term academic outcomes. The goal of the chapter is to answer the question, "does education spending impact student outcomes in developing countries?" I leverage two separate natural experiments to answer the question. First, I exploit the repeal of a program in Colombia that allocated a portion of oil royalties to per capita education spending in the municipalities where the oil was extracted. Using a rich administrative data set containing more than 1.2 million students, I estimate that a 25 percent drop in education spending results in a 0.05 standard deviation decline in language standardized test scores and a 0.04 standard deviation decline in math standardized test scores. I document that children impacted by the spending cuts are 2.5 percentage points less likely to graduate from a university (8 percent relative to the mean). Moreover, I find the most severe learning losses for women, low-income individuals, and those with less-educated parents. Second, I utilize the institutional feature before the reform linking local education expenditure to oil royalties. I then instrument education expenditure with international oil prices interacting with fixed oil production. I find short-term educational spending increases lead to a rise in the number of students finishing high school and improvements in language scores. The third chapter, "What is the impact of political connections on the provision of public amenities? Evidence from China's primary land markets," measures the effect of political connections on the provision of public amenities. My coauthor (Jing Feng) and I use over two million land transactions from China's primary land market during the period 2001 to 2019. Using a spatially matched sample, we find that connected firms are nearly two percentage points (30 percent) more likely to receive a kindergarten, elementary, or middle school in the immediate vicinity of their purchase. We find suggestive evidence of firms receiving more doctor's offices and hospitals. We then exploit the timing of an anti-corruption crackdown in China; we find the benefits of political connections disappear following the crackdown.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Economics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 3, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Economics
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Shawn Kantor, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Carl Kitchens, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Eric Coleman, University Representative; Luke Rodgers, Committee Member; Carl Schmertmann, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Economics
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Rosano_fsu_0071E_17314.pdf
TITLE: Industry Clustering and Accounting Information Quality
AUTHOR: Rosano, Eric D.,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Blay, Allen D., 1970-
MEMBER (university representative): Cheng, Yingmei
MEMBER (committee member): Paterson, Jeffrey S.
MEMBER (committee member): Pierce, Spencer
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Business
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Accounting
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (61 pages)
ABSTRACT: Prior studies suggest that industry clustering, the phenomenon where industry-peer firms are geographically co-located, decreases analysts' acquisition costs and leads to greater stock price efficiency for firms within industry clusters. Since the market and analysts are information intermediaries within the financial reporting environment, I speculate that one possible way they are able to experience this benefit is due to enhanced accounting information quality, indicative of a potential link between industry clustering and accounting information quality. Consequently, I examine whether industry clustering improves accounting information quality. I find that industry clustering is positively associated with accounting information quality as measured by accrual quality. Consistent with prior research, I find that this association persists in areas when firms have greater discretionary control over their accruals and in highly concentrated industries. Overall, my findings suggest that industry clustering enhances accounting information quality, and that the financial reporting environment is perhaps a channel through which industry clustering benefits both firms and information intermediaries.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Accounting in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 2, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): accrual quality, financial reporting environment, industry cluster, knowledge spillover
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Allen D. Blay, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yingmei Cheng, University Representative; Jeffrey S. Paterson, Committee Member; Spencer R. Pierce, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Accounting
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Ryan_fsu_0071E_17353.pdf
TITLE: Implementing Intermittent Theta-Burst Stimulation to Modulate the Reward Positivity via the Rostromedial Prefrontal Cortex
AUTHOR: Ryan, Jonathan,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Proudfit, Greg Hajcak
MEMBER (university representative): Patrick, Christopher J.
MEMBER (committee member): Nee, Derek Evan
MEMBER (committee member): Stanwood, Gregg
MEMBER (committee member): Wang, Yanchang, (Biomedical Sciences Professor)
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Medicine
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Biomedical Sciences
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (137 pages)
ABSTRACT: Anhedonia, or difficulty experiencing pleasure, is a core deficit in depression. Depressed patients expressing anhedonia show increased treatment resistance and greater suicidal ideation when compared to non-anhedonic depressed patients. Mechanistically, depressed anhedonic patients are characterized by a dysfunction of the reward circuit. Based on neuroimaging and animal studies, these deficits have largely been tied to the mesolimbic pathway; a dopaminergic reward circuit that includes the ventral striatum (VS). VS activation is largely mediated via glutamatergic inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and limbic areas. Depressed anhedonic patients show reduced VS activation to reward-related stimuli, perceived behaviorally as a lack of reward motivation. Interventions to enhance VS activation may therefore improve reward processing and anhedonic symptoms, but no established interventions to date specifically target the mesolimbic pathway. In a first step towards this goal, Chapter 1 reviews the literature associated with anhedonic depression, including underlying mechanisms, neural measures of reward dysfunction, and clinical treatments utilizing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Chapter 2 discusses this work's attempt to modulate VS reward activation in healthy individuals through intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS), a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Following studies which have shown iTBS can propagate to downstream structures within a targeted pathway, the rostromedial PFC (rmPFC), an area showing high co-activation with the VS, was stimulated to alter mesolimbic reward response. To capture this change, the reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential that indexes activity of the reward circuit and has been shown to be abnormal in depression, was utilized. Within-subject comparisons determined that rmPFC stimulation potentiated the RewP when compared to a control site stimulation of the primary somatosensory (S1) or primary motor cortex (M1). These effects were specific to win trials, emphasizing successful targeting of the mesolimbic reward pathway. Effects were also moderated by the ability to precisely target areas within the rmPFC that exhibited high connectivity to the VS. Baseline reward signaling was also a predictor of rmPFC-iTBS effectiveness, with individuals exhibiting low baseline reward response showing greater change in RewP amplitude following rmPFC-iTBS when compared control iTBS. These findings provide novel methodology for enhancing reward response, and provide a mechanistic framework for the development of new clinical interventions for treating anhedonic depression. Chapter 3 proposes changes and refinements in methodology for future rmPFC-iTBS studies, as informed from the results presented in Chapter 2. Follow-up studies on anhedonic participants utilizing a longitudinal within-subject design with consecutive stimulation days, and improvements on TMS targeting are discussed. Included is the development of a novel algorithm utilizing simulations, connectivity, and anatomy based on the targeting results presented in Chapter 2. Together, this work provides evidence of altered reward response through use of iTBS-rmPFC and proposes steps to further validate iTBS-rmPFC reward alterations in addition to refinements on how to effectively target downstream areas through superficial cortical sites. With further validation, the methodology presented within this work could lead to a new clinical intervention targeting anhedonic symptomology, which is exhibited prominently within individuals suffering from severe depression. Additionally, incorporation of the proposed targeting algorithm could be generalized to improve TMS effectiveness in manipulating downstream areas irrespective of target.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Biomedical Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 14, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Greg Hajcak, Professor Directing Dissertation; Chris Patrick, University Representative; Derek Nee, Committee Member; Gregg Stanwood, Committee Member; Yanchang Wang, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Neurosciences
SUBJECT: Neurosciences
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Santopetro_fsu_0071N_17182.pdf
TITLE: Cross-Sectional Relationship between Doors P300 Amplitude and Depressive Symptoms during Adolescence
AUTHOR: Santopetro, Nicholas,
MEMBER (professor directing thesis): Proudfit, Greg Hajcak
MEMBER (committee member): Patrick, Christopher J.
MEMBER (committee member): Ganley, Colleen M.
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Psychology
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (58 pages)
ABSTRACT: Deficits in general cognitive functions, measured via reductions in the P300 ERP component, are commonly observed in adults suffering from depression compared to controls. Despite this extensive literature in adult samples, the relationship between P300 and depression during childhood and adolescence is greatly understudied. Considering risk for depression dramatically increases during adolescence, especially for females and as individuals age further into adolescence, examination of the neurological underpinnings of depression during this critical developmental period can help us further elucidate pathways that better explain this increased risk as well as increase our overall understanding of the etiology of depressive disorders. Therefore, the present study sought to examine the cross-sectional associations between P300 amplitude, depression symptoms, sex, and age in two large samples of adolescents (sample 1: ages 8 to 14; sample 2: ages 11 to 14) at both a baseline (sample 1: n = 307; sample 2: n = 608) and follow-up visit (sample 1: n = 252; sample 2: n = 448). More specifically, the P300 elicited from the doors stimuli in the doors gambling task was examined at each assessment. In line with past findings, smaller doors P300 amplitude was consistently associated to higher depressive symptoms at each assessment in both samples. Furthermore, this association was significantly moderated by participant age at the majority of assessments, such that the association between P300 and depression was increased in older adolescents. There was also evidence that sex significantly moderated this relationship suggesting that reductions in P300 amplitude related to increased depression was only present in females and not males. Additionally, doors P300 amplitude appeared to be uniquely associated to depressive symptoms even when controlling for current externalizing symptoms. Lastly, doors P300 exhibited good-to-excellent internal consistency at each assessment and good test-retest reliability over both two months and two years. In sum, the current project demonstrates that the relatively novel doors P300 component is a reliable neural correlate of depression during adolescence, and that this P300 component can assist in uncovering factors and pathways linked to increased risk for depression observed in adolescence.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science.
NOTE (Date of Defense): April 8, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Greg Hajcak, Professor Directing Thesis; Christopher Patrick, Committee Member; Colleen Ganley, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Clinical psychology
DEGREE: Masters
FILENAME: Schafer_fsu_0071E_17289.pdf
TITLE: Reducing Suicidal Ideation by Targeting Perceived Burdensomeness: A Randomized Control Trial
AUTHOR: Schafer, Katherine Musacchio,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Joiner, Thomas, Jr.
MEMBER (university representative): Winegardner, Mark, 1961-
MEMBER (committee member): Schmidt, Norman B.
MEMBER (committee member): Plant, Ashby
MEMBER (committee member): Meyer, Alexandria
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Psychology
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (64 pages)
ABSTRACT: Suicide is a serious public health concern, killing more than 45,000 Americans, annually. To guide research, treatment, and prevention efforts, researchers have proposed many theories of suicide. Among theories, the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (IPTS) has been the focus of substantial study, and much of this work has demonstrated that related constructs (i.e., thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness) are predictors of suicidal ideation. Further, recent meta-analyses have indicated that perceived burdensomeness in particular demonstrates utility as a relatively strong risk factor for suicidal ideation; the latter always or nearly always precedes lethal or near-lethal suicide attempts. Notably, despite substantial investigation into the IPTS and suicidal ideation more generally, the U.S. suicide rate has risen consecutively for the past fifteen years. Treatments for suicidal ideation are generally suboptimal, with suicidal ideation often persisting even after a full course of treatment. An intervention developed to reduce suicidal ideation by targeting perceived burdensomeness, as suggested by the IPTS, has found some support. A brief cognitive bias modification (CBM) directed at perceived burdensomeness prevented the onset of suicidal ideation in adults with elevated thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness, but not suicidal ideation. It is unclear and untested if CBM targeting perceived burdensomeness can reduce suicidal ideation among participants already experiencing clinically significant impairment of suicidal ideation. The present study addressed this gap by targeting perceived burdensomeness in the hopes of reducing suicidal ideation in a treatment- seeking sample of 74 high-risk adults. Findings indicated that by targeting perceived burdensomeness, suicidal ideation was reduced in a sample of high-risk participants.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): May 13, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, Perceived Burdensomeness, Randomized Control Trial, Suicidal Ideation, Thwarted Belongingness
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Thomas E. Joiner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mark Winegardner, University Representative; N. Brad Schmidt, Committee Member; E. Ashby Plant, Committee Member; Alex Meyer, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Psychology
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Shapiro_fsu_0071N_17251.pdf
TITLE: Nineteenth-Century American Female Seminary Schools and Their Influence on American Music Education
AUTHOR: Shapiro, Rachel Lynn,
MEMBER (professor co-directing thesis): Eyerly, Sarah
MEMBER (professor co-directing thesis): Brewer, Charles E. (Charles Everett)
MEMBER (committee member): Broyles, Michael, 1939-
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Music
CORPORATE NAME: College of Music
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (74 pages)
ABSTRACT: This thesis focuses on women's music education and music-making in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century America through the accounts of female students and educators at female seminaries. The development of women's education and music education is traced using four case studies: Catherine Ackerly of the Bethlehem Female Seminary, Caroline Cowles Richards of the Ontario Female Seminary, Emma Hart Willard of the Troy Female Seminary, and Mary Lyon of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. The two students' lives are traced through personal documents, namely Ackerly's music book and Richard's diary. The educators' stories, Willard and Lyon, are told through institutional records and other accounts written and published within their lifetimes. Through an examination of primary source material, we gain an understanding of the musical experiences of these women from their own perspectives. This allows an exploration of how music education influenced their lives, as well as the lives of many other students who attended these schools and others like them. These institutions served as models for the educational programs that followed them, allowing the ideals of rigorous curricula and the accessibility of education to spread across the United States and abroad. The impact of these schools continuously resonates in music programs that still exist today. These revolutionary female seminaries created space for the inclusion of women in higher levels of education that had previously been inaccessible to them. The strength of the curricula at female seminaries influenced the development of strong music education programs across the country. The spread of the pedagogical visions and missions at these institutions contribute greatly to the landscape of higher education and higher music education as it exists today.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music.
NOTE (Date of Defense): April 27, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): 19th Century, Bethlehem Female Seminary, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, Ontario Female Seminary, Troy Female Seminary, Women's Music Education
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Sarah Eyerly, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Charles E. Brewer, Professor Co-Directing Thesis; Michael Broyles, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Music--History and criticism
SUBJECT: Music
SUBJECT: Gender expression
SUBJECT: Gender identity
DEGREE: Masters
FILENAME: Shenberger_fsu_0071E_17260.pdf
TITLE: Undergraduate Student Activism and Engagement in the Leadership Process
AUTHOR: Shenberger, Michaela A.,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Guthrie, Kathy L.
MEMBER (university representative): Becker, Martin Swanbrow
MEMBER (committee member): Beatty, Cameron C.
MEMBER (committee member): Khurshid, Ayesha
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Education
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (183 pages)
ABSTRACT: As a field, higher education frequently assumes lived experiences of undergraduate students, such as participating in student activism, are automatically experiential learning opportunities; however, there is a lack of research focusing and featuring students' voices on the matter. In this preliminary research study, qualitative research methods were utilized to explore the lived experiences of undergraduate students, specifically focusing on their engagement in student activism and how leadership learning may be a feature of that lived experience. Through the use of phenomenology, this study captured the lived experiences of participants regarding their activism engagement, as well as examined participants' meaning making processes regarding said experiences. This study approached leadership learning through Bertrand Jones et al.'s (2016) culturally relevant leadership learning model, specifically, leadership learning is any growth through the reciprocal relationship between an individual and the leadership process via engagement in identity, capacity, and efficacy. Additionally, activism was conceptualized in this study through Harro's (2000) cycle of liberation, therefore and action taken in an attempt to enact intrapersonal, interpersonal, or systemic change is activism. Data collection for this study consisted of the six participants completing two written reflections; two in-depth, semi-structured, virtual individual interviews; and the presentation of an artifact representing their lived activism experiences. Findings of this study revealed leadership learning is a feature of participants' lived student activism experiences through their engagement in the leadership process through identity, capacity, and efficacy. Additionally, it was revealed that all participants had a shared understanding of what constituted as activism; however, some participants identified a difference in one engaging in activism and identifying as an activist. Further, this study's findings also indicated that lived experience is not always enough and that further meaning making and reflection may be required for undergraduate students to make a connection between their activism engagement and their leadership engagement. Finally, this study highlighted the vital role institutions play in student engagement in both activism and leadership.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): April 25, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): leadership development, leadership learning, phenomenology, social change, student activism, student activist
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Kathy L. Guthrie, Professor Directing Dissertation; Martin Alan Swanbrow Becker, University Representative; Cameron Beatty, Committee Member; Ayesha Khrushid, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Education, Higher
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Smith_fsu_0071E_17333.pdf
TITLE: Student Reasoning, Argumentation, and Positioning Relative to Identity in Inquiry-Oriented Undergraduate Mathematics
AUTHOR: Smith, Jessica L.,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Larson, Christine (Christine J.)
MEMBER (university representative): Kercheval, Alec N.
MEMBER (committee member): Jaber, Lama
MEMBER (committee member): Whitacre, Ian Michael
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Education
CORPORATE NAME: School of Teacher Education
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (119 pages)
ABSTRACT: There have been recent pushes for more active learning in mathematics classrooms, especially at the undergraduate level. To incorporate more active learning, there is a need for tasks that explicitly support this type of instruction, attention to student reasoning and whose ideas are publicly acknowledged, and awareness of differences in students' experiences in these classes. My dissertation follows a three-paper format and addresses these aspects in an inquiry-oriented linear algebra context. In these papers, I examine student reasoning about solutions to systems of linear equations in the context of an inquiry-oriented task sequence, the development of argumentation (with attention to which students contribute this development), and the relationships among classroom obligations and students' identities and ways of being positioned in class. Systems of linear equations (SLE) comprise a fundamental concept in linear algebra, but there is relatively little research regarding the teaching and learning of SLE, especially students' conceptions of solutions. It has been shown that solving systems with no or infinitely many solutions tends to be less intuitive for students, pointing to the need for more research on the teaching and learning of the topic. For the first paper, I and another author interviewed two math majors who were also preservice teachers, in a paired teaching experiment to see how they reasoned about solutions to SLE in ℝ3. I present findings focused on the progression of students' reasoning about solutions to SLE through the lens of symbolizing. We document their progression of reasoning as an accumulation of coordinated numeric, algebraic, and graphical meanings and symbolizations for solution sets developed throughout and called on at different moments in the task sequence. The second paper focuses on the participatory equity of collective argumentation during the systems of linear equations unit in an undergraduate linear algebra course. The instructor used a modified version of the task sequence presented in the first paper. It has been argued that active learning can lead to more equitable outcomes in math classrooms, but others have found that it can actually increase gaps in performances between men and women or amplify the in-class racialized and gendered experiences for students from marginalized populations. In this paper, I use video recordings and field notes from class discussions to document the overall participatory equity or inequity in the argumentation during the systems unit and how and by whom four different arguments were developed. I note that women only participated during situational activity in contrast to women not participating at all in generalizing activity. I also describe the ways in which the online chat functioned as a mechanism that, at times, made discussion participation more equitable. I highlight an instance within argumentation in which one student, whose mathematical ideas were used particularly often, made a sexist comment implying women's contribution in the course should be identifying colors of lines on a graph. In the third paper, I compare one course's normative identity, or the obligations in which students would need to adopt to be seen as successful, and personal identity, or the degree to which students identify and engage in those obligations. I then examine relationships between these identities and the ways in which students are positioned, or the ways they are allowed to participate and the ways in which they and their ideas are valued in the course. I address differences that can exist between a class's normative identity and students' personal identities that contribute to differences in the ways students are positioned. I also highlight ways in which students can be positioned similarly while also experiencing interactions differently. The three papers deal with differences that can exist in students' reasoning, whole class participation, and experiences in an inquiry-oriented setting. The first paper addresses a gap in research on student reasoning about systems of linear equations, especially regarding systems with large or infinite solution sets. The second paper addresses a gap in the research linking collective argumentation and equity, especially in undergraduate mathematics settings. The third paper addresses a gap in the research examining the ways students identify with the classroom normative identity and how this relates to how those students are positioned in class.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 27, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): argumentation, equitable participation, identity, positioning, systems of linear equations
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Christine Andrews-Larson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Alec Kercheval, University Representative; Lama Jaber, Committee Member; Ian Whitacre, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Mathematics--Study and teaching
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Sokolowski_fsu_0071E_17375.pdf
TITLE: The Relationship among Binge Drinking, Musculoskeletal Health, Physical Performance, and Cognitive Wellness in Young Adult Females
AUTHOR: Sokolowski, Chester,
MEMBER (professor co-directing dissertation): Kim, Jeong-Su
MEMBER (professor co-directing dissertation): Ormsbee, Michael J.
MEMBER (university representative): Boot, Walter Richard
MEMBER (committee member): Steiner, Jennifer L.
MEMBER (committee member): Steiner, Jennifer L.
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Health and Human Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (225 pages)
ABSTRACT: Background: It is well established that resistance training (RT) can positively impact musculoskeletal health, physical performance, and cognitive wellness. In contrast, binge drinking can have harmful effects on the aforementioned characteristics. Interestingly, those who exercise more tend to binge drink alcohol more frequently and consume greater quantities of alcohol. Because the college years are developmentally sensitive and binge drinking is at its highest level compared to other segments of life, recent research has focused on the relationship among RT, binge drinking, and various health markers. A population of interest is young adult females as they tend to perform RT less than males, have a hormonal milieu making them more susceptible to alcohol-induced musculoskeletal issues, and have a higher prevalence of psychological disorders which may be exacerbated by alcohol consumption. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine how RT and binge drinking impact musculoskeletal health, physical performance, and cognitive wellness in young adult females. Methods: Young adult females (age: 22.19 ± 2.54 years; BMI: 23.21 ± 3.00 kg/m2) were split into 4 groups: 1) sedentary low alcohol consumers (SL; n = 12), 2) sedentary binge drinkers (SB; n = 12), 3) resistance trained low alcohol consumers (RTL; n = 12), and 4) resistance trained binge drinkers (RTB; n = 12). To be classified as sedentary, participants performed exercise on average ≤2 days per week for at least the past 2 years. To be classified as resistance trained, participants performed RT on average ≥4 times per week for at least the past 2 years. To be classified as a low alcohol consumer, participants consumed on average ≤1 alcoholic drink per week for at least the past year. To be classified as a binge drinker, participants binge drank at least once per week for at least the past year. RT and alcohol consumption were determined through self-report. Body composition was measured along with bone mineral density (BMD) via dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan (total body, spine, and non-dominant hip). Muscle quality was assessed at the non-dominant rectus femoris via ultrasonography. Insulin sensitivity was assessed via an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) using capillary blood glucose. Physical performance was assessed through chair stand power, vertical jump, squat jump, broad jump, knee extensor torque, push-ups to failure, and grip strength. Cognitive function was assessed through the Digit Symbol Substitution Test, Digit Span Test, and 30 second counting task. Psychological wellness was assessed through the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Profile of Mood States, Short Form 36, and Friendship Scale. The primary analysis was conducted using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and when normality or homogeneity of variances was violated, non-parametric testing was performed.  RTL had more fat-free mass than SL and SB (RTL = 48.31 ± 5.81 kg; SL = 38.08 ± 6.59 kg; SB = 40.37 ± 6.05 kg; both p < .05). There were no differences between RTL and RTB on BMD, muscle quality, or physical performance tests and both groups trended to outperform or significantly outperformed SL and SB. RTL outperformed SL and SB on vertical jump (both p < .05) while RTB outperformed SL and SB on broad jump (both p < .05). RTL did have a lower fasting blood glucose than RTB (88.92 ± 12.09 mg/dL and 103.17 ± 10.21 mg/dL, respectively; p = .008), and RTL had lower blood glucose at 120 minutes of the OGTT than all groups (RTL = 103.83 ± 19.82 mg/dL; RTB = 137.58 ± 21.54 mg/dL; SL = 148.50 ± 44.60 mg/dL; SB = 139.25 ± 14.49 mg/dL; all p < .05). There were no significant differences in measures of cognitive wellness between the groups. Conclusion: These data suggest chronic binge drinking does not deleteriously impact body composition, BMD, physical performance, or muscle quality in young adult females who participate in RT at least 4 times per week. However, even in young adult females who participate in habitual RT and have comparable body composition to low alcohol consumers, chronic binge drinking does impair glucose tolerance as indicated by elevated fasting and 2-hour OGTT blood glucose. Future research should investigate the various metabolic effects chronic binge drinking has in young adult populations as these are sensitive years to form long-term, lifestyle habits and attenuate disease risk later in life.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 24, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Binge Drinking, Body Composition, Female, Insulin Resistance, Performance, Resistance Training
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Jeong-Su Kim, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Michael J. Ormsbee, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Walter R. Boot, University Representative; Jennifer L. Steiner, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Kinesiology
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Solimine_fsu_0071E_17323.pdf
TITLE: Economic Behavior in Dynamic Networks
AUTHOR: Solimine, Philip,
MEMBER (professor co-directing dissertation): Boosey, Luke A.
MEMBER (professor co-directing dissertation): Gentry, Matthew
MEMBER (university representative): Meyer-Bäse, Anke
MEMBER (committee member): Isaac, R. Mark (Robert Mark), 1954-
MEMBER (committee member): Yang, Cynthia Fan
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Economics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (147 pages)
ABSTRACT: This dissertation aims to describe the economic importance of developing models to describe dynamic networks. Structure that changes over time is a ubiquitous feature of networks generated by human interaction. Efforts to study these interactions, however, have been limited by concerns with computational feasibility. In this work I lay out experimental and empirical analysis of three environments in which dynamic networks contain valuable information that is tractable to extract. A common thread through these chapters is market design; each chapter focuses on an issue that can arise in digital platforms, and addresses these issues with reputation systems, pricing strategy, and information disclosure.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Economics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): July 01, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Digital platforms, Econometrics of networks, Experimental economics, Industrial organization, Market design, Networks
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Luke Boosey, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Matthew Gentry, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Anke Meyer-Baese, University Representative; R. Mark Isaac, Committee Member; Cynthia Fan Yang, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Economics
SUBJECT: Information science
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Stalpes_fsu_0071E_17327.pdf
TITLE: A Galaxy in a Box: Understanding Our Universe through Numerical Simulations
AUTHOR: Stalpes, Kye Alexander,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Collins, David C. (David Christopher)
MEMBER (university representative): Sussman, Mark
MEMBER (committee member): Huffenberger, Kevin M., 1977-
MEMBER (committee member): Murphy, Jeremiah Wayne
MEMBER (committee member): Roberts, Winston
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Physics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (132 pages)
ABSTRACT: This dissertation describes our research into the properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) through the lens of numerical magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations. Our research explores the prob- ability distribution functions (PDF) of gas density in clouds during the transition from a hot diffuse atomic gas to a cold dense molecular one. We explain their transition from lognormal to power-law scaling as functions of a critical density at which point the cloud becomes self-gravitating. We also utilize synthetic observations to explore the filamentary structures which form within these clouds at high densities and discuss the 0.1pc width reported by Arzoumanian et al. [2011] in the Herschel Gould Belt Survey through the lens of the observational and fitting effects inherent to real data. We show how sensitive these measurements can be to various factors such as finite telescope resolution in even the best performed analysis. We then discuss our current research into the observed polarized E/B mode spectra observed by Planck Collaboration et al. [2018]. In this research we run a suite of simulations through a large swath of parameter space in order to improve our understanding of the physical conditions of the interstellar dust responsible for the observed spectra. We present a constrained parameter space, several unexpected relationships and the general effects of magnetic field strength and turbulence on the polarization of the ISM.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Physics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 10, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): cosmic microwave background, interstellar medium, magnetohydrodynamics, Numerical Simulations
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): David Collins, Professor Directing Dissertation; Mark Sussman, University Representative; Kevin Huffenberger, Committee Member; Jeremiah Murphy, Committee Member; Winston Roberts, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Physics
SUBJECT: Astrophysics
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Thomas_fsu_0071E_17387.pdf
TITLE: Computing Transforms Using Their Eigenstructure
AUTHOR: Thomas, Rajesh,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): DeBrunner, Victor E.
MEMBER (university representative): Oberlin, Richard
MEMBER (committee member): DeBrunner, Linda S.
MEMBER (committee member): Roberts, Rodney G.
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (105 pages)
ABSTRACT: Fourier transforms form an integral part of most signal processing applications and are therefore a crucial enabler of modern technology. Thus, fast and efficient algorithms to compute the Fourier transform is an area of active research. A class of algorithms called the Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) already exist which can compute the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) quite efficiently. However, these algorithms use complex arithmetic. This could be a hindrance in hardware that lacks dedicated multiplier units like low power/low performance digital signal processors and embedded microprocessors. Moreover, these algorithms are not easily vectorizable. To avoid these drawbacks, a natively-real DFT computational algorithm is presented in this dissertation. This can compute the DFT with real arithmetic using real DFT eigenvectors. Moreover, this algorithm is entirely based on linear algebra and is not as complicated as the FFT algorithms. This can be implemented in parallel processing hardware since it is easily vectorizable. It has the potential to consume less power on low performance or fixed-point hardware although it needs more number of operations than existing FFT algorithms. If the need arises, this method can be combined with FFT algorithms to reduce the number of operations. This dissertation also presents a few techniques to obtain the real and orthonormal DFT eigenvectors from the DFT projection matrices. For each of these techniques, the DFT computation error and the number of operations required are also discussed. A 2-dimensional DFT computation algorithm is also presented.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 30, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): DFT, DFT Eigenstructure, DSP, Fast Fourier Transform, Harmonic Analysis, Signal Processing
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Victor DeBrunner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Richard Oberlin, University Representative; Linda DeBrunner, Committee Member; Rodney Roberts, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Electrical engineering
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Tibedo_fsu_0071N_17291.pdf
TITLE: Exploring Rhetorical Consequences of Mixed Race Identity in Nineteenth Century Us Society
AUTHOR: Tibedo, Vanessa Penny,
MEMBER (professor directing thesis): Lathan, Rhea Estelle, 1961-
MEMBER (committee member): Fleckenstein, Kristie S.
MEMBER (committee member): Gaines, Alisha
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of English
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (80 pages)
ABSTRACT: In this thesis project, I explore the rhetorical consequences of mixed race Black people's racialization in Pre-Reconstruction nineteenth century. Toward this end, I ask: How did the language surrounding mixed race Black people's identity in Pre-Reconstruction nineteenth century inform their realities? How did mixed race Black people use passing and crossing as rhetorical action? Through these questions, I analyze the narratives of four nineteenth century Black authors' texts informed by important historical context. By employing decolonial and critical race theory frameworks, I trace how the rhetoric of the racialization of mixed race Black people of the period led to the construction of particular material realities for enslaved Black people. I conclude that the rhetoric of the one drop rule influenced the actions, behaviors, and beliefs of nineteenth century citizens and led mixed race Black people of the period to form fictive kinships with monoracial Black people. In addition, mixed race Black people utilized passing and crossing as rhetorical action towards the exigence of enslavement.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 1, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): mixed race, one drop rule, passing
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Rhea Estelle Lathan, Professor Directing Thesis; Kristie Fleckenstein, Committee Member; Alisha Gaines, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Rhetoric
SUBJECT: History
DEGREE: Masters
FILENAME: Vlasenko_fsu_0071E_17362.pdf
TITLE: Electoral Effects of Institutional Reforms: Evidence from Ukraine and Russia
AUTHOR: Vlasenko, Anastasiia,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Beazer, Quintin H.
MEMBER (university representative): Clark, Jonathan E.
MEMBER (committee member): Driscoll, Amanda M.
MEMBER (committee member): Kern, Holger Lutz
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Political Science
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (99 pages)
ABSTRACT: This dissertation explores the impact of institutional reforms on electoral and public goods provision outcomes. My first substantive chapter investigates the question of how institutional reforms affect voter mobilization in weekly-institutionalized democracies. I examine the effect of decentralization on turnout and candidate diversity in local elections in Ukraine in 2015-2020. In 2014, the government of Ukraine initiated decentralization reform which allowed village, town, and city councils to gain wider administrative, financial, and fiscal independence. Difference-in-differences estimates show that establishment of ATCs increased turnout and decreased the percentage of successful candidates with higher education. These effects can be explained by the increased interest in local politics and easier access to candidacy due to improved salience of local politics and communities' relative independence from central authorities. Thus, even under weak democratic institutions, decentralization can have immediate effect on voter mobilization through increased perception of local elections as 'meaningful' and, thus, worth time and effort. My second substantive chapter analyses how political and fiscal decentralization affects redistribution in lower-middle income countries. I address this question by studying the effect of decentralization reform on public sector budgetary expenditures in Ukraine in 2015-2020. Starting from 2015, Ukrainian urban territorial communities (TCs) had an opportunity to gain control over local budgetary revenues and expenditures, as well as to gain political independence from the central authorities. Decentralization reform allowed local councils and mayors to determine the level of spending on public goods provision in administrative, law enforcement, business support, environmental protection, infrastructure, education, and welfare sectors. Difference-in-difference analysis shows that decentralization was associated with increased expenditures on welfare and public goods provision. The findings suggest that the electoral pressure of decentralized democratic institutions prompts local authorities to engage in redistributive practices and introduce long-needed changes in management of local budgetary funds. My third substantive chapter studies the impact of organized religion on the consolidation of power in authoritarian regimes. While previous research focused on transit to and survival of democracy, I examine the effect of religious institutions on the consolidation and maintenance of power in an already existing autocracy. I look at the electoral influence of the Orthodox Church in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. While the significance of the Orthodox Church dwindled under the Communist Era due to the repression of religion, it has since regained its presence and has become increasingly salient in society. To examine the consequences of this resurgence, I look at the expansion in the number of churches during the Putin era and its effects on support for the regime. I find that expansion in the number of churches leads to an increase in electoral support for the regime, during both parliamentary and presidential elections. My study thus highlights how non-governmental organizations can help contribute to regime stability.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 30, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Quintin Beazer, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jonathan Clark, University Representative; Amanda Driscoll, Committee Member; Holger Kern, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Political science
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Wang_fsu_0071E_17085.pdf
TITLE: Towards Ubiquitous User Authentication and Sensing Based on the Ear Canal and Toothprint Biometrics Using Ear Wearables
AUTHOR: Wang, Zi,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Yang, Jie
MEMBER (university representative): Mio, Washington
MEMBER (committee member): Wang, Zhi
MEMBER (committee member): Chakraborty, Shayok
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Computer Science
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (110 pages)
ABSTRACT: Biometric-based authentication is gaining increasing attention for wearables and mobile applications. Meanwhile, the growing adoption of sensors in wearables and mobiles also provides opportunities to capture novel biometrics. In this proposal, we leverage the cutting-edge wearables to sense novel human biometrics and utilize them for user authentication, i.e., ear canal deformation and toothprint acoustic. First, we use ear wearables to sense ear canal deformation, and further design an ear canal deformation-based user authentication using ear wearables. Our system provides continuous and passive user authentication and is transparent to users. It leverages ear canal deformation that combines the ear canal's unique static geometry and dynamic motions when the user is speaking for authentication. It utilizes an acoustic sensing approach to capture the ear canal deformation with the built-in microphone and speaker of the in-ear wearable. Specifically, it first emits well-designed inaudible beep signals and records the reflected signals from the ear canal. It then analyzes the reflected signals and extracts fine-grained acoustic features that correspond to the ear canal deformation for user authentication. Our extensive experimental evaluation shows that our system can achieve a recall of 97.38% and an F1 score of 96.84%. Results also show that our system works well in noisy environments with various daily activities. Moreover, we propose a system that leverages the toothprint-induced sonic effect produced by a user performing teeth gestures for earable authentication. In particular, we design representative tooth gestures that can produce effective sonic waves carrying the information of the toothprint. To reliably capture the acoustic toothprint, it leverages the occlusion effect of the ear canal and the inward-facing microphone of the earables. It then extracts multi-level acoustic features to reflect the intrinsic toothprint information for authentication. The key advantages of toothprint-based biometrics are that it is suitable for earables and is resistant to various spoofing attacks as the acoustic toothprint is captured via the user's private teeth-ear channel that modulates and encrypts the sonic waves. Our experiment studies with 25 participants show that our system could achieve up to 95% accuracy with only one of the users' tooth gestures.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Computer Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 29, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Jie Yang, Professor Directing Dissertation; Washington Mio, University Representative; Zhi Wang, Committee Member; Shayok Chakraborty, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Computer science
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Wang_fsu_0071E_17274.pdf
TITLE: Walk out or Stay Stuck: Education and Social Mobility of a Rural Village Cohort in China
AUTHOR: Wang, Min,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Zuilkowski, Stephanie Simmons
MEMBER (university representative): Reynolds, John R.
MEMBER (committee member): Khurshid, Ayesha
MEMBER (committee member): Milligan, Jeffrey Ayala
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Education
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (181 pages)
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study is to explore the educational experiences and social mobility status of a rural village cohort that started first grade at a rural village primary school in 1997 in central China. Formal education is often seen as the primary pathway for upward social mobility. However, inequalities in access to educational opportunities can mediate and determine the chance of successful upward mobility through education. In China, for many rural students, the education they receive does not provide a chance of upward mobility for them, rather, it reinforces the existing social class inequalities and rural-urban divide. Existing literature does not provide a rationale in understanding why education has not provided intergenerational upward mobility for rural residents, or the mechanisms in the reproduction of rural class identity. This study attempted to fill this research gap by adopting a case study approach to understand the lived experiences of rural residents in their views and values toward education, perceptions of upward mobility, and how they make sense of the role education plays in their social mobility status. Data collection consisted of a survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The survey questionnaire collected demographic information of the participants. Interviews explored in-depth the participants' educational experiences, the decision-making process of major education and career choices, how they understand social mobility, and the role their education plays in shaping their social mobility status, and the meaning of education to themselves and to their children. The educational experiences of the cohort members are about a story of struggle and perseverance, a story of "being surrounded with the right people," and a story of believing in the role of education in providing upward mobility as well as a story of self-blaming when failed to do so. The cohort members explain that the meaning of education is to walk out of the village to the cities and become a member of the upper urban class, and to provide the expected economic returns of education. For the cohort members, to walk out, is to the language for upward mobility in the local context, is to shift away from their generational identity of a rural farmer, to bu zhong di (not farm anymore), and to have a tie fan wan (an Iron Rice Bowl: a stable secure job in the city), and to achieve income mobility. The findings of the study provide valuable insights into the mechanism of social reproduction through education, and help identify areas and levers for education researchers and policymakers to improve in rural education.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 3, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): intergenerational social mobility, rural education, social inequality in education, social mobility, social reproduction
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Stephanie Zuilkowski, Professor Directing Dissertation; John Reynolds, University Representative; Ayesha Khurshid, Committee Member; Jeffrey Milligan, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Education
SUBJECT: Educational sociology
SUBJECT: Education and state
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Wang_fsu_0071E_17311.pdf
TITLE: Hybrid Volatility Forecasting Models Based on Machine Learning of High-Frequency Data
AUTHOR: Wang, Xiaolin,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Niu, Xufeng, 1954-
MEMBER (university representative): Ökten, Giray
MEMBER (committee member): Huffer, Fred W. (Fred William)
MEMBER (committee member): Barbu, Adrian G., 1971-
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Statistics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (90 pages)
ABSTRACT: Volatility modeling and forecasting are crucial in risk management and pricing derivatives. High-frequency financial data are dynamic and affected by the microstructure noise. For the univariate case, we define the two-scale realized volatility estimator as the measure of the volatility of high-frequency financial data. Two main models for volatility, Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) and Heterogeneous Autoregressive (HAR), are evaluated and compared for the realized volatility forecast of four major stock indices high-frequency data. We also consider the measures of jump component and heteroskedasticity of the error in the extended HAR models. For the improvement of forecasting accuracy of realized volatility, this dissertation develops hybrid forecasting models combining the GARCH and HAR family models with the machine learning methods, Support Vector Regression(SVR), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Transformer. We construct hybrid models using the outputs of the GARCH and HAR family models. In the empirical application, we demonstrate improvements of the hybrid models for one-day ahead realized volatility forecast accuracy. The results show that the hybrid LSTM and Transformer based models provide more accurate forecasts than the other models. In the financial markets, it is well accepted that the volatilities are time-varying correlated across the indices. We construct two portfolios, the Index portfolio and the Forex portfolio. The Index portfolio contains three major stock indices, and the Forex portfolio includes three major exchange rates. We model the conditional covariances of the two portfolios with BEKK, DCC-GARCH, and Vector HAR. The hybrid models combine the estimations of traditional multivariate models and the machine learning framework. Results of the study indicate that for one-day ahead volatility matrix forecasting, these hybrid models can achieve better performance than the traditional models for the two portfolios.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Statistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 7, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Xufeng Niu, Professor Directing Dissertation; Giray Okten, University Representative; Fred Huffer, Committee Member; Adrian Barbu, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Statistics
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Ward_fsu_0071E_17463.pdf
TITLE: Sport Psychology Graduate Students' Experiences with Supervision Training
AUTHOR: Ward, Savanna K.,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Eccles, David W.
MEMBER (university representative): Newman, Joshua I., 1976-
MEMBER (committee member): Wolf, Svenja Anna
MEMBER (committee member): Becker, Martin Swanbrow
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Education
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (143 pages)
ABSTRACT: Through supervision, students develop the necessary skills to effectively and ethically provide sport psychology services to clients. Supervision serves two equally important purposes: to progress supervisees' professional development and to ensure client welfare (Bernard & Goodyear, 2014; Van Raalte & Anderson, 2000). The training of competent consultants starts with competent trainers, or supervisors. This dissertation study contributes to the understudied area of supervision training for ASP graduate students in the United States. The research questions and association hypotheses seek to provide information regarding the availability, utilization, nature, and quantity of supervision training for students in applied sport psychology graduate programs in the United States and to investigate how students' utilization of supervision training impacts their evaluation of their supervision skills, and the frequency of use and desire to learn those skills. This was accomplished using a cross-sectional, survey-based research design with graduate sport psychology students as the participants in addition to a comprehensive search of graduate sport psychology program accessible published online materials. Participants reported that sources of supervision training were more available and more utilized than was expected. Participants with peer mentoring experience reported on those experiences and revealed a number of elements including number of semesters in the role, number of mentees, time spent in certain supervision tasks, and the percentage of individual versus group mentorship provided. This helps to provide a picture of students' peer mentoring experiences unreported until now. Results additionally revealed that students' evaluation of supervision skills and desire to learn supervision skills was generally not significantly predicted by the amount and source of supervision training experiences acquired, but the amount and source of those experiences did significantly predict students' overall evaluation of supervisoryix effectiveness and frequency of use of skills. There are important applied implications at a number of levels including for students, graduate sport psychology programs and those associated with them, and governing bodies such as the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Study limitations and future research directions are also provided.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 3, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Sport Psychology, Supervision, Supervision Training
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): David W. Eccles, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joshua Newman, University Representative; Svenja Wolf, Committee Member; Martin Swanbrow Becker, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Psychology
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: White_fsu_0071E_17316.pdf
TITLE: Collegiate Sport as Biopolitical Dispositif: Excavating Black Collegiate Athletes' Educational Experiences
AUTHOR: White, Kristopher,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Newman, Joshua I., 1976-
MEMBER (university representative): Lathan, Rhea Estelle, 1961-
MEMBER (committee member): Giardina, Michael D., 1976-
MEMBER (committee member): Du, James
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Education
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Sport Management
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (381 pages)
ABSTRACT: In this dissertation, I am chiefly interested in the educational experiences of black collegiate athletes. Throughout the project I build upon previous research investigating the macro-, meso-, and micro-level challenges of United States society that influence the educational opportunities of black collegiate athletes. Specifically, this dissertation aims to interrogate the social, political, cultural, and economic relations within United States society from the period of enslavement up to the contemporary era of exploitation that influences the lived experiences of black bodies and the educational experiences of black collegiate athletes. In the literature review, I work through the intercollegiate sport marketplace and "collegiate sport model" as they developed during the political economic rise of neoliberalism. From there, I give more detail on how the neoliberal logics of collegiate sport complicate the NCAA's mission of providing a quality education for "student-athletes" and the adverse effect this particularly has on black collegiate athletes. After I bring attention to the historical and contemporary challenges for black athletes, I go on to connect these experiences to broader social, political, and economic institutional issues within the US education system and medical field. To better make sense of how these institutions in United States society, since slavery, have discursively, and materially, constructed the framework from which black athletes derive their subjectivities and educational experiences, in the latter portion of the literature review I use a biopolitical analysis to illustrate the collegiate sport dispositif. In addition to bringing in this biopolitical theoretical approach, in Chapter 3 I explain how I added another component to this line of literature through interviewing black collegiate athletes and having them complete a concept map. Unlike many previous studies, that only utilized interviews, in this study I have 15 black collegiate athletes diagram their experiences through a concept map that allowed me to analyze the interview conversations in addition to the participants' visual representation. Using this empirical material, I analyzed the position of black collegiate athletes within wider social structures and biopolitical institutions that condition their lived experiences, make them subject, and construct the framework from which they derive their educational experiences. In Chapter 4, I amplify the voices of these 15 black collegiate athletes to articulate their educational experiences as they are positioned within the collegiate sport dispositif. Finally, in Chapter 5, I discuss how the collegiate sport dispositif works to make black collegiate athletes subjects and frame their existence in a way that binds their lives to the exigencies of revenue generation for the collegiate sport marketplace, which leaves them as dehumanized commodities in detrimental educational situations. Lastly, I further discuss how this is intensified in the NIL era and the implications for the future.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): May 31, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Biopolitics, Black Collegiate Athletes, Collegiate Sport, Dispositif, Education, Football
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Joshua I. Newman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Rhea E. Lathan, University Representative; Michael D. Giardina, Committee Member; James W. Du, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Sports administration
SUBJECT: Sociology
SUBJECT: Political science
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Woodruff_fsu_0071E_17257.pdf
TITLE: Creating Visitor-Centered Museum Experiences for Adults with Developmental Disabilities: A Collaborative Case Study
AUTHOR: Woodruff, Anthony,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Broome, Jeffrey L. (Jeffrey Lynn)
MEMBER (university representative): Dennis, Lindsay Rae
MEMBER (committee member): Love, Ann Rowson, 1967-
MEMBER (committee member): Villeneuve, Pat, 1955-
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Fine Arts
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Art Education
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (286 pages)
ABSTRACT: Many museums have been critically characterized as elitist institutions that offer few inclusive services to meet the needs and interests of marginalized populations and communities (Hill, 2016; Sandell & Nightingale, 2013). Some museums, however, are turning to visitor-centered approaches that refocus their efforts to concentrate on the needs and interests of visitors instead of the objects on display (Love & Boda, 2017; Weil, 1999). One population often overlooked by museums—adult visitors with developmental disabilities—served as the primary participant group for this qualitative bricolage case study along with their parents or caregivers and museum staff members. Using disability studies as a guiding framework, participants collaborated with the researcher and museum staff members to document their museum experiences through inclusive art-making, interviews, discussions, and observations. The purpose of this research was to explore how such collaborations might create more inclusive and visitor-centered museum experiences for these visitors. Findings were used to make recommendations for future programing and consisted of several themes developed during the coding process. The themes included understanding, accessibility, interactive, collaboration, communication, and evaluation.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): April 28, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): adults with developmental disabilities, bricolage case study, disability studies, inclusive art-making, museum education, visitor-centered
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Jeff Broome, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lindsay Dennis, University Representative; Ann Rowson Love, Committee Member; Pat Villeneuve, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Museums
SUBJECT: Art--Study and teaching
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Wu_fsu_0071E_17344.pdf
TITLE: Computational Anatomy: Elastic Shape Analysis of Subcortical Structure Surfaces
AUTHOR: Wu, Yuexuan,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Srivastava, Anuj, 1968-
MEMBER (university representative): Klassen, E. (Eric), 1958-
MEMBER (committee member): Huang, Chao
MEMBER (committee member): Huffer, Fred W. (Fred William)
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Statistics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (97 pages)
ABSTRACT: Over the past 30 years, magnetic resonance imaging has become a ubiquitous tool for accurately visualizing the change and development of the brain subcortical structures (e.g., hippocampus) across time and group. Although subcortical structures act as information hubs of the nervous system, their quantification is still in its infancy due to challenges in shape extraction, representation, and modeling. Here, we propose a predictive modeling involving brain morphological features and other covariates, which is of paramount interest in such heterogeneous mental disorders as PTSD. We develop a comprehensive shape analysis framework to quantify the shape differences among brain sub-structures surfaces using an elastic shape metric. Under this metric, we compute shape summaries of brain sub-structures and represent individual brain shapes by their principal scores under a shape-PCA basis. Subsequently, we use these PCs, the auxiliary exposure variables, and their interactions for regression modeling and prediction. We apply our method to data from the Grady Trauma Project (GTP) and yield superior predictive performance when modeling PTSD outcomes. Besides, we develop a simple and efficient framework of longitudinal elastic shape analysis (LESA) of subcortical structures. Integrating ideas from elastic shape analysis of static surfaces and statistical modeling of sparse longitudinal data, LESA provides a set of tools for systematically quantifying changes of longitudinal subcortical surface shapes from raw structure MRI data. The key novelties of LESA include: (i) it can efficiently represent complex subcortical structures using a small number of basis functions, and (ii) it can accurately predict the spatial-temporal shape changes of the human subcortical structures. We apply LESA to analyze three longitudinal neuroimaging datasets and showcase its wide applications in estimating continuous shape trajectories, building life-span growth patterns, and comparing shape differences among different groups. In addition, we propose a novel spatial-temporal registration and shape analysis framework of 3D surfaces that are sparse in time.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Statistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): July 2, 2022.
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Anuj Srivastava, Professor Directing Dissertation; Eric Klassen, University Representative; Chao Huang, Committee Member; Fred Huffer, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Statistics
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Xiong_fsu_0071E_17349.pdf
TITLE: Search for Supersymmetry in the Monophoton Final State at CMS at a Center of Mass Energy of 13 TeV
AUTHOR: Xiong, De-Lin,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Askew, Andrew W.
MEMBER (university representative): Berry, Frances Stokes
MEMBER (committee member): Adams, Todd
MEMBER (committee member): Tobioka, Kohsaku
MEMBER (committee member): Xiong, Peng
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Arts and Sciences
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Physics
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (176 pages)
ABSTRACT: The mission of the CMS experiment at the LHC is to investigate and discover unknown physics in proton-proton collision events. This thesis presents a search for new physics in final states containing a photon and missing transverse momentum in proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, using the data collected in Run II (2016, 2017 and 2018) by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 $\text{fb}^{-1}$. The standard model (SM) background in monophoton events can be a problem for sensitivity to new physics. The sensitivity to new physics scenarios can potentially be enhanced by other event properties. A new strategy that can potentially enhance the new physics sensitivity is the track multiplicity from the small mass splitting supersymmetry (SUSY). SUSY with small mass splittings indicates the masses difference between the SUSY particles is small ($\tilde{q}, squark \approx \tilde{\chi}$, dark matter particle). The track multiplicity in monophoton dataset with different bins of track $p_T$ will be studied, and compared with expectation.
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Physics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 23, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): CMS, Monophoton, Supersymmetry
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): Andrew Askew, Professor Directing Dissertation; Frances Berry, University Representative; Todd Adams, Committee Member; Kohsaku Tobioka, Committee Member; Peng Xiong, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Physics
DEGREE: Doctoral
FILENAME: Xu_fsu_0071E_17393.pdf
TITLE: Exploring the Audiovisual Effects on Sport Viewer Satisfaction through the Lens of the Psychological Continuum Model
AUTHOR: Xu, Yang,
MEMBER (professor directing dissertation): Du, James
MEMBER (university representative): Yang, Yanyun
MEMBER (committee member): James, Jeffrey D. (Jeffrey Dalton)
MEMBER (committee member): Kim, Amy C. H. (Amy Chan Hyung)
CORPORATE NAME: Florida State University
CORPORATE NAME: College of Education
CORPORATE NAME: Department of Sport Management
PUBLICATION: Tallahassee, Florida: Florida State University, 2022
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 online resource (131 pages)
ABSTRACT: As the source of one of the largest revenue streams for professional sport franchises, the viewership of sport broadcasts has plummeted in recent years (Bode, 2018). This declining trend has been further exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic (Crupi, 2021). According to Deloitte's Fan Engagement survey, the average fan satisfaction across sports broadcast programs was only 39 percent (Deloitte, 2019),Research has been devoted to investigating the determinants of sport viewer satisfaction, including various audio and visual conditions of sport broadcasts. However, these works assume that media design effects are equally effective among all viewers and fail to account for potential heterogeneities in people's psychological connection to the mediated sport. To address this gap, the Psychological Continuum Model (PCM; Funk & James, 2001; 2006) was introduced as the theoretical foundation for understanding the formation of viewer satisfaction with a focal sport (e.g., college football). The current dissertation examines whether and how the strength of psychological connection to college football overrides the effects of varying audiovisual presentations on viewer satisfaction with a televised college football game. A 2 (presence of commentary: With commentary vs. Without commentary) × 2 (presence of audience: High vs. Low) between-subjects online experiment was administered via Prolific (n = 338). The relationship between psychological connection and viewer satisfaction and the moderation effects of the two selected audiovisual conditions were tested using the ANCOVA. Results showed a significant positive association between psychological connection to college football and viewer satisfaction. However, the manipulated audiovisual conditions did not moderate the aforementioned relationship between psychological connection and viewer satisfaction. The presence of audience had a significant positive effect on viewer satisfaction. In contrast, the presence of commentary exerted no significant effect on viewer satisfaction regardless of people's PCM staging. The findings provide empirical evidence to support the seminal PCM framework that the strength of an individual's psychological connection to the focal sport object was a more deterministic factor that drives the sport media consumption experience than the audiovisual media presentation. For those interested in watching but have not yet formed a strong attitude towards the broadcasted sport object, the viewing experience can be optimized by maximizing the visual presence of a live audience. The null effect of commentary presence and sonic ambiance on viewer satisfaction reinforces the proposition that what is seen might be more influential than what is heard in sport media consumption (Cummins et al., 2019).
NOTE (Submitted Note): A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
NOTE (Date of Defense): June 28, 2022.
NOTE (Keywords): Audiovisual experience, Quasi-experiment, Sport broadcasting, The Psychological Continuum Model, Viewer satisfaction
NOTE (Bibliography Note): Includes bibliographical references.
NOTE (Advisory Committee): James Du, Professor Directing Dissertation; Yanyun Yang, University Representative; Jeffrey D. James, Committee Member; Amy C. H. Kim, Committee Member.
SUBJECT: Sports administration
DEGREE: Doctoral


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Structural Symptomsthese are symptoms that have to do with the structure of parts of the plants
Color Symptomscolors within the leaves
Color Attributesattributes associated with the color in the leaves
Symptom Secondary locationlocation within the leaves
Possible Nurtrient Deficienciesthe symptoms may be related to a deficiency in the following nutrients