Faculty of English Teacher Education

Contrary to public perception, the European Union has dealt well with the Greek debt crisis. European institutions and Member States came together to face the crisis and managed to do so, thanks to coordination and resourcefulness. Now the bigger question looms: how to prevent the recurrence of such a crisis of confidence for as long as possible, and in the event of another crisis, how to manage it. The Task Force on Economic Governance is considering measures that will enforce budgetary discipline of Member States, establish effective crisis mechanisms and increase coordination and supervision of macroeconomic imbalances.

The Greek sovereign debt crisis has delayed the ECB's exit from its current highly expansionary monetary policy stance. It has also complicated it since the ECB now hold considerable quantities of Greek public debt, which exposes the ECB to considerable credit risk. Moreover, the delay of the exit means that it has to take place in a situation on which public debts are even larger. There is still risk of contagion.

The novel Gd(III) complexes of heptadentate ligands NE3TA and NE3TA-Bn were prepared, and their relaxivities were measured and favorably compared to the commercially available MRI contrast enhancement agent Gd(DOTA). NE3TA was conjugated with cholic acid (CA) to produce CA-NE3TA. TEM images of Gd(CA-NE3TA) indicate that the complex self-assembles forming nano-sized micelles and displays an over threefold increased relaxivity compared to Gd(DOTA). The new cholic acid-conjugated nanoparticle MR contrast enhancement agent, Gd(CA-NE3TA) possesses great promise for use in targeted MRI.

A cold-passaged RSV mutant, designated cp-RSV, which acquired host range mutations durin9 52 passaoes at low temperature in bovine tissue culture, was completely attenuated for seropositive adults and children but retained the capacity to cause upper respiratory disease in seronegative infants. We souyht to introduce additional attenuatin9 mutations, such as temperature-sensitive (ts) and small-plaque (sp) mutations, into the cp-RSV mutant, which is a ts + virus, in order to generate a mutant which would be satisfactorily attenuated in seronegative infants and youn9 children. Nine mutants of cp-RSV, which had acquired either the ts or small-plaque sp phenotype, were 9enerated by chemical mutagenesis with 5-fluorouracil. The two ts mutants with the lowest in vitro shut-off temperature, namely the cpts-248 (38°C) and cpts-530 (39°C) mutants, were the most restricted of the nine cp-RSV mutant progeny tested for efficiency of replication in Balb/c mice. In seronegative chimpanzees, the cpts-248 mutant replicated fourfold less efficiently in the nasopharynx and caused significantly less rhinorrhoea than its cp-RSV parent. The cpts-248 mutant virus, like its cp-RSV parent, was lO00-fold restricted in replication in the trachea compared with wild-type RSV. Previously, another candidate RSV live attenuated vaccine strain, a mutant designated ts-1, exhibited some instability of its ts phenotype followin9 replication in susceptible humans or chimpanzees. Hence, we sought cp-RSV ts progeny that exhibited a 9reater deyree of stability of the ts phenotype than the prototype ts-1 mutant. The cpts-248 and cpts-530 progeny viruses exhibited a greater deyree of stability of the ts phenotype in nude mice than the ts-1 virus, and in chimpanzees, the former mutant also exhibited a 9reater stability of its ts phenotype than ts-1. The cpts-248 mutant was immunogenic and induced a high level of resistance in chimpanzees to subsequent challenge with wild-type RSV. The cpts-248 mutant therefore exhibits a set of properties that make it a promisin 9 vaccine candidate. These desirable properties of cpts-248 suyyest that the mutant should be tested in humans for its suitability in immunoprophylaxis.

A cold-passaged (cp), temperature-sensitive (ts) RSV mutant designated RSV cpts-248 (shut-off temperature 38°C), which possesses host-range mutations acquired during 52 passages at low temperature in bovine tissue culture and a ts phenotype introduced by subsequent chemical mutagenesis, was found previously to be attenuated, immunogenic, and protective against wild-type challenge in seronegative chimpanzees. We sought to introduce additional attenuating mutations such as small-plaque (sp) and ts mutations into RSV cpts-248 by chemical mutagenesis with 5-fluorouracil with the intent of obtaining cpts-248 derivatives that are more attenuated in mice or chimpanzees and that are more genetically stable following replication in vivo. Ten mutants of RSV cpts-248 which had acquired a sp phenotype or a second ts mutation were generated by chemical mutagenesis. Five cpts-248 derivatives which had acquired mutations that specified a 36°C shut-off temperature for plaque formation and one which had acquired only a sp phenotype were more restricted in replication in Balb/c mice than the cpts-248 parental strain. One mutant, designated RSV cpts-248/404 (shut-off temperature 36°C), was 100 times more restricted in replication in the nasal turbinates of mice and 1000 times more restricted in the nasopharynx of seronegative chimpanzees than its cpts-248 parent. The cpts-248/404 mutant was completely restricted in replication in the lower respiratory tract of chimpanzees even following direct intratracheal administration. The ts phenotype of the cpts-248/404 mutant was stable during replication in vivo in mice and chimpanzees. Chimpanzees immunized with cpts-248 / 404 were fully protected against upper respiratory tract disease and lower respiratory tract virus replication upon subsequent challenge with wild-type virus. The cpts-248/404 virus and related mutants exhibit many desirable characteristics which make them promising vaccine candidates.

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is an important research tool for the genetic improvement of cassava. The induction of friable embryogenic callus (FEC) is considered as a key step in cassava transformation. In the present study, the media composition was optimized for enhancing the FEC induction, and the effect of the optimized medium on gene expression was evaluated. In relative comparison to MS medium, results demonstrated that using a medium with reducing nutrition (a 10-fold less concentration of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate), the increased amount of vitamin B1 (10 mg/L) and the use of picrolam led to reprogram non-FEC to FEC. Gene expression analyses revealed that FEC on modified media increased the expression of genes related to the regulation of polysaccharide biosynthesis and breakdown of cell wall components in comparison to FEC on normal CIM media, whereas the gene expression associated with energy flux was not dramatically altered. It is hypothesized that we reprogram non-FEC to FEC under low nitrogen, potassium and phosphate and high vitamin B1. These findings were more effective in inducing FEC formation than the previous protocol. It might contribute to development of an efficient transformation strategy in cassava.

In this study, the researchers estimated the actual economic impact brought to the community by the fall sport teams of a regional state institution in Kentucky. The surveyed 172 visiting participants were randomly selected from five football (n = 72), 11 soccer (n = 56), and 14 volleyball (n = 44) games during the fall season of 2009. The results included average attendance of visitors and local fans, the participants' total expense for attending the athletic events and projected economic impact based on that expenditure. The economic impact generated by the institution's fall sport teams was relatively small as compared to the past research data. This study further discusses how the result of an economic impact study could be easily manipulated and inflated.

The researchers examined behavioral data and testing scores to verify the best indicators of student-athletes’ academic performance for balancing academic achievement and athletic participation. One hundred eighty six student-athletes (125 males and 61 females) of a regional university (a NCAA Division-I affiliated institution) in the Appalachian region completed an 11- item daily life behavioral survey based on several studies (Becker, 1965; Csikszentmihaly & Larson, 1984; Lee, Park, & Shin, 2007) from spring of 2012. Predictive standard test scores were gathered with the support of the Enrollment Office and the Office of Institutional Analysis. Results of the inquiry indicated that the participants spent a daily average of six hours studying and attending classes and four hours in athletic practices and competitions. Their time spent in leisure and social activities also varied significantly based on their gender, racial background, academic status, and participatory sport. Partic...

all of whom believe that education is the way to improve our lives as well as the lives of those whom we touch iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could not have been written without the support and encouragement of a number of people for whom I am most grateful. I am especially grateful for my son and daughter, Emilia and Daniel Salazar, to whom this dissertation is also dedicated. They are the ones to whom I made the promise to embark in this journey. My siblings-Joe, David, Reina, Mike, Rey, and Nancee-cheered me on to take the mantle of pursuing higher education in memory of our mother, Jovita, who never got the chance to obtain an education. This is for you. To my editing friends, who took time from their personal and professional lives to assist me every step of this journey: Sydney England, whose gifts of knowing how to make sense of my jumbled ideas made this dissertation worth reading; Dr. Ed. Reeves, who sat with me for hours assisting me on how I could make sense of my ...

to whom this dissertation is also dedicated. They are the ones to whom I made the promise to embark in this journey. My siblings-Joe, David, Reina, Mike, Rey, and Nanceecheered me on to take the mantle of pursuing higher education in memory of our mother, Jovita, who never got the chance to obtain an education. This is for you. To my editing friends, who took time from their personal and professional lives to assist me every step of this journey: Sydney England, whose gifts of knowing how to make sense of my jumbled ideas made this dissertation worth reading; Dr. Ed. Reeves, who sat with me for hours assisting me on how I could make sense of my study; Janet Kenney, who took time to call me and ask how I was doing, and who offered to read yet another draft and refocus my energies on this project; and, to Dr. Michael Wetherholt, my spiritual friend who took time from his own dissertation to help me outline my chapters and to answer my incessant questions regarding how to run data on SPSS. I am also indebted to Eric McCarthy, whose technical computer assistance helped me with computer issues. I am grateful to Dr. Steve Chen for his help on my data analysis, for pointing me in the right direction and most importantly for his help in making sense of my data. And of course I was taught by some of the best high school teachers in Tempe, Arizona: Sue Chilton, Rose Duarte, and Sandra Miller. v I am indebted to Yvonne and Dr. Kevin Henke, who took me into their home and gave me what I term a "summer sabbatical," so I could spend days of uninterrupted time to write, think, run SPSS calculations, edit and reedit. Most importantly I am thankful for Yvonne's computer skills, without which I could not have formatted the elements of this thesis. I am grateful for Dr. Kevin's thoughtful help in helping clarify my thinking about how to make sense of SPSS calculations. He and his wife are two of the smartest people I know. I am grateful for the help of Dr. Daniel Mundsform, statistician from the EKU Math Department, who took time from his busy schedule and departmental duties, to make sense of my correlations and multiple regressions. My dear friends Mary and Royal Berglee, Ph.D., provided encouragement and support; and especially for Mary Berglee's help in assisting me with the formatting. Without their help and encouragement I would not have finished this dissertation. I am indebted to my dissertation committee whose expertise and mentorship made this dissertation possible. My thanks go to Dr. Sherwood Thompson, my chair, for offering suggestions regarding instructional leadership and educational research resources, and for taking time to guide me through the final stages of this dissertation; and to Dr. Herlighy who was instrumental in suggesting that I use ACT composite scores for the academic achievement measurement of this research project. I am grateful for Dr. James Bliss, who helped me formulate how to combine the theoretical framework of principal leadership and collective teacher efficacy and apply these concepts to the rural high school setting; vi and was available on late Friday afternoons to help me frame my research questions. I am appreciative to Dr. Hausman, who taught me how to think about leadership theory, and to Dr. Cleveland, whose expertise in socio-cultural theory helped me focus on socioeconomic theory and apply the Coleman Report and teacher collective efficacy to a rural high school setting. vii ABSTRACT Current studies have shown that principal instructional leadership can affect student academic achievement as much as 15% (Hallinger & Murphy, 1982; Hallinger & Heck, 1996; Leithwood & Beatty, 2009). Research studies on collective teacher efficacy have shown that teacher efficacy can significantly affect student academic achievement