The Graduate College is pleased to provide notice of the following scheduled dissertation defenses. Graduate faculty, students, and staff are welcome to attend dissertation defenses. Kindly contact the committee chair prior to the event if you plan on attending.

CHARLES E. SCHMIDT COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

Fazhe Chang: "AUC Estimation Under Various Survival Models"
Chair: Lianfen Qian
Monday, July 2, 2012, 2:30 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Leonardo Kosloff: "On the Laplacian and Fractional Laplacian in Exterior Domains, and Applications to the Dissipative Quasi-Geostrophic Equation"
Chair: Tomas Schonbek
Friday, June 29, 2012, 12:30 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Yuri Villanueva: "Rings of Integer-Valued Polynomials and Derivatives"
Chair: Lee Klingler
Thursday, June 28, 2012, 12 noon
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Djordje Bulj: "A Study of Divisors and Algebras on a Double Cover of the Affine Plane"
Chair: Timothy Ford
Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 9:00 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science&  Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Cheban Acharya: "On The Spectrum Of Positive Operators"
Chair: Xiao-Dong Zhang
Monday, June 25, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science&  Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Nicola Pace: "Coset Intersection Problem and Application to 3-Nets"
Co-chairs: Gabor Korchmaros and Spyros Magliveras
Thursday, June 14, 2012, 11:00 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

WeiZheng Gao: "Password-Authenticated Two-Party Key Exchange With Long-Term Security"
Chair: Rainer Steinwandt
Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 4:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Shanaz Tiwari: "Stability Analysis for Nonlinear Systems with Time-Delays"
Chair: Yuan Wang
Monday, March 26, 2012 (Monday), 1:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Radleigh G. Santos: "A Novel Optimization Algorithm and Other Techniques in Medicinal Chemistry"
Chair: Dragan Radulovic
Thursday, March 22, 2012, 3:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Kashi Neupane: "Design and Analysis of Key Establishment Protocols"
Chair: Rainer Steinwandt
Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 11:00 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Zhihua Liu: "Empirical Likelihood Method for Segmented Linear Regression"
Chair: Lianfen Qian
Thursday, November 3, 2011, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

Department of Mathematical Sciences, Ph.D. Program
Amalya Mihnea: "Permutation-Based Data Compression"
Chair: Frederick Hoffman
Friday, October 28, 2011, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Science & Engineering building (SE 43), Room 215

CHRISTINE E. LYNN COLLEGE OF NURSING

Bridgette Johnson: "Impact of Satisfaction with Care and Empowerment on Glycemic Control among Older African American Adults with Diabetes"
Chair: Susan Folden
Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 10:00 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing building, Room 209

  DOROTHY F. SCHMIDT COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS

Shane Gunderson: "Social Movement Momentum, Intellectual Work and the East Timor Independence Movement"
Chair: Dr. Fred Fejes
Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 1:30 p.m.
AH 217C (Arts & Humanities bldg, room 217C), Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Dr. Becky Mulvaney, Dr. Farshad Araghi, Dr. Robert Benford

Daniel Copher: "Authenticity of Space: An Interdisciplinary Convergence of the Tradition of Sacred Music and Twenty-First Century Sacred Architecture"
Chair: Dr. Carol S. Gould
Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 9:00 a.m.
AH 205 (Arts & Humanities bldg, room 205), Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Heather Coltman, D.M.A., Gvozden (Den) Kopani, M.F.A.

Nadja Johnson: "Migrant Collectives as New Twenty First Century Transnational Movements: The Case of the Jamaican Diaspora."
Chair: Dr. Noemi Marin
Friday, September 21, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
CU 222 (Culture & Society bldg, room 222), Boca Raton Campus
Committee members: Dr. Josephine Beoku-Betts, Dr. Becky Mulvaney, and Dr. Mark Frezzo

Comparative Studies Public Intellectual Program

Merrie Elyn Meyers: “Reading, Writing and Privatization: The Narrative That Helped Change the Nation's Public Schools"
Chair: Dr. Mary Ann Branaman
Thursday, November 15, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Arts & Humanities building (AH-52), Room 205
Committee Members: Dr. Susan Love Brown, Dr. Rebecca Mulvaney, Dr. Phyllis Schiffer-Simon, and Dr. Jay Rayburn

Jeffrey A. Nall: “Interrogating Social Conceptualizations of Childbirth and Gender, an Ecofeminist Analysis"
Chair: Dr. Jane Caputi
Wednesday, October 17, 2011, 12:30 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Arts & Humanities building (AH-52), Room 217C
Note: The examination portion of this meeting is open to the public, and there will be a period for questions and comments from all those in attendance.

Comparative Studies Program in Literatures, Literacies, and Linguistics
Regina Dilgen: “Studied Girlhoods: Consciousness, Context, and Negotiation of Identity in Memoirs of White, Southern, Working-Class Girlhoods/Late 1950s/Early 1960s – Dorothy Allison, Mary Karr, and Barbara Robinette Moss"
Chair: Dr. Wenying Xu
Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Arts & Humanities building (AH-52), Room 217C
Note: The examination portion of this meeting is open to the public, and there will be a period for questions and comments from all those in attendance.

COLLEGE FOR DESIGN AND SOCIAL INQUIRY

Jeff Stevens: "The Frames and Ideographs of Water Reuse Policy Discourses: An Application of Narrative Analysis and Text Analytics"
Friday, November 9, 2012, 1:00 p.m.
Social Science Building, Room 315, Boca Raton Campus

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Carole Pfeffer: "Assessing Goal Intent and Achievement of University Learning Community Students"
Chair: Dr. Deborah L. Floyd
Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology, Dissertation Room, ED 261, Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Dr. John D. Morris and Dr. Robert Shockley

Mary Webster: "The possibilities for school leadership discourse within the dominant discourse of public education: A critical autoethnography"
Chairs: Dr. Patricia Maslin Ostrowski and Dr. Ira Bogotch
Friday, October 5, 2012
Dissertation Room, ED 261, Boca Raton
Committee Members: Dr. Robert Shockley

Eudora Stephens: "Leading the Way: The Relationship Between Effective Teachers' Interactions with their Students and their Students' Interactions with Each Other in Two Multi-Grade Parochial Schools"
Chair: Dr. Gail Burnaford
Wednesday, October 03, 2012, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
College of Education Room 356, Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Dr. Sandra Doran, Dr. Philomena Marinaccio-Eckel, and Dr. Pat Maslin-Ostrowski

Pamela Spina: "The Effects of the Proactive Personality on the levels of Job Satisfaction and Burnout among Licensed Mental Health Counselors"
Chair: Ilene Johnson, Ph.D
Monday, October 1, 2012, 4:00 p.m.
Dissertation Room, ED 261, Building 47, Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: John Morris, Ph.D. and Michael Frain, Ph. D

Krista Allison: "Experiences and Perceptions as Expressed by Adolescent Females at a Residential Treatment Center (RTC)"
Chair: Dr. Valerie Bryan, Ed.D.
Thursday, September 20, 2012, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
EC 202C Jupiter Campus
Committee Members: Dr. Eliah Watlington, Ph.D. and Dr. Victor Wang, Ph. D

Joyce Krzemienski: "The Impact of Stress on Elementary School Principals and Their Effective Coping Mechanisms"
Chair: Dr. Meredith Mountford
Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 1:00 p.m.
Dissertation Room, ED 261, Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Dr. Pat Maslin-Ostrowski and Dr. John Pisapia

Michael Robert Hrabak: "Policy and Practice: An Analysis of 2001 Florida Senate Bill 1162"
Chair: Dr. Deborah L. Floyd, Professor
Tuesday, August 28th, 2012, 10:30 a.m.
Department of Educational Leadership & Research Methodology
Dissertation Room, ED 261, Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Dr. John D. Morris and Dr. Patricia Maslin-Ostrowski

Department of Counselor Education
Raffaela Peter: "Attachment, Locus of Control, and Romantic Intimacy in Adult Children of Alcoholics: A correlational Investigation"
Chair: Dr. Irene Johnson
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Bldg. 47—Room # ED 280
Committee Members: Dr. Michael Frain and Dr. Elizabeth Villares

Lindsay Jesteadt: "Principals’ Knowledge in Special Education Policies and Procedures: Does It Matter in Leadership?"
Chair: Dr. Meredith L. Mountford
Thursday, May 31, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Dissertation Room, ED 261
Committee Members: John D. Morris, Ph.D., Marianne R. Russo, Ed.D., and Cynthia L. Wilson, Ph.D

Jacqueline Lee-Russell Wirth: "The Effect of a Classroom Intervention on Adolescent Wellness, Success Skills, and Academic Performance"
Chair: Dr. Elizabeth Villares
Friday, May 11, 2012, 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, ED 280
Committee Members: Dr. Greg Brigman and Dr. Linda Webb

Robin Lynn Larson: “Gendered Images of Expertise, Leadership and Virtue: Applying Stivers’ Theoretical Framework to Police Practices as Represented in Publications from 1979 to 2009”
Chair: Dr. Leslie Leip
Thursday, May 3, 2012, 11:30 am
Boca Raton campus, Social Science Building (SO), Room 216

Colin Philip Roche: "Canadian Professional Chef's Perceived Value of Formal Culinary Education and its Relationship with Industry Success"
Chair: Dr. Deborah L. Floyd
Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Dissertation Room, ED 261
Committee Members: Dr. John D. Morris and Dr. Robert Shockley

Steven R. Vensel: "Mobbing, Burnout and Religious Coping Styles Among Protestant Clergy: A Structural Equation Model and Its Implications for Counselors"
Chair: Paul Peluso, Ph.D
Monday, April 30, 2012, 1:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campu, ED 280
Committee Member: Len Sperry, Ph.D.

Julianne Agonis "Family Resiliency, Family Needs and Community Re-Intergration in Persons with Brain Injury"
Committee Members: Elizabeth Villares, PhD; Charles Dukes, PhD and Irene Johnson, PhD
Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 1:00 p.m.
Building 47, ED 280

Department of Exercise Science & Health Promotion
Korey Kilsdonk: "Effects of Compression Stockings on Cycling Performance in Moderately Trained Females"
Chair: Dr. Michael Whitehurst
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 3:50 p.m.
GY [Arena], Room 152
Committee Members: Dr. Tina Penhollow and Dr. Robert Zoeller

Maria S. Hersey: "The Development of Global-Mindedness: School Leadership Perspectives"
Chair: Dr. Ira Bogotch, Chair
Thursday, February 9, 2012, 10:00 a.m.
Dissertation Room, Boca Raton Campus
Committee Members: Dr. Dilys Schoorman and Dr. John Morris

Jacqueline Ackerina: "The Call of Public Service: Motivation and Professional Commitment in Education"
Co-Chairs: Dr. Patricia Maslin Ostrowski and Dr. Ira Bogotch
Thursday, February 2, 2012, 3:00 p.m.
Dissertation Room, ED 260
Committee Member: Dr. John Morris

Educational Leadership and Research Methodology
Jennifer Bilot
Co-Chairs: Paul Peluso, PhD and Irene Johnson, PhD
Wednesday, February 1, 2012, 11:00 a.m.
Building 47, ED 280
Committee Member: Dr. John Morris

Educational Leadership & Research Methodology
Maria Rodriguez: "English Language Learners in Florida: A legal and policy study of Florida's Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy (META) Consent Decree"
Chair: Dr. Ira Bogotch
Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 
Boca Raton campus, Department of Educational Leadership & Research Methodology Dissertation Room (ED 261)

Curriculum, Culture, and Educational Inquiry
Josh Strate: “Predictors of Scientific Understanding of Middle School Students”
Chair: Dr. David Kumar
Wednesday, September 7, 2011, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Davie campus, Liberal Arts building (LA 150), Room 150
Note: The dissertation defense will be video conferenced to Room ED 241, Boca Raton campus.

Jessica M. Peña-Lopez: "A Study of Persistence of Undergraduate Women Majoring in Math and Engineering"
Chair: Dr. Deborah L. Floyd and Dr. Ira Bogotch
Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 1:30 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, Department of Educational Leadership & Research Methodology Dissertation Room
Note: Observer space is limited. If you wish to attend, please email Dr. Floyd no later than August 18, 2011.

COLLEGE OF ENG. & COMPUTER SCIENCE

Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Raef Rashad Yassin: "Information‐Theortics Based Technoeconomic Growth Models: Simulation and Computation of Forecasting in Telecommunication Services"
Chair: Dr. Perambur S. Neelakanta
Tuesday, July 3, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Bldg. EE 96—Room # 405
Committee Members: Dr. Mohammad Ilyas, Dr. Dolores De Groff, Dr. Xin Wang, Dr. Shihong Huang

Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering
Siyuan Ma: "Studies of Composite Multihull Ship Structures using Fluid Structure Interaction"
Chair: Dr. Hassan Mahfuz
Wednesday, June 27, 2012, at 9:00 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, EG 187, BLDG. 36
Committee Members: Dr. Manhar Dhanak, Dr. Palaniswamy Ananthakrishnan, Dr. Chi‐Tay Tsai, Dr. Francisco Presuel‐Moreno

Alana E. Smentek‐Duerr: "A Hydrokinetic Resource Assessment of the Florida Current"
Chair: Dr. Manhar Dhanak
Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 1:00 PM
Boca Raton campus, ST 259 with Videoconference to EG 187
Committee Members: Dr. Frederick Driscoll, Dr. P. Ananthakrishnan, Dr. Howard Hanson, Dr. Richard Granata,Dr. Eric Chassignet

Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering
Michel Fuchs: "Study of High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell (HTPEMFC) Waste Heat Recovery Through Ejector Based Refrigeration"
Chair: Dr. Homayoon (Amir) Abtahi
Monday, June 25, 2012 at 11:30 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Dean’s Conference Room (EE 303C)
Committee Members: Dr. Leif Carlsson, Dr. Chaouki Ghenai, Dr. Ali Zilouchian

Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ph.D. Program
Ingrid Buckley: “Towards a Methodology for Building Reliable Systems”
Chair: Dr. Eduardo B. Fernandez
Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 12:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, EE 405
Committee Members: Dr. Martin Solomon, Dr. Mihaela Cardei, and Dr. Rainer Steinwandt

Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. Program
Fnu Lakitosh: "Analysis of Ship Hull and Plate Vibrations Caused by Wave Forces"
Chair: Dr. Palaniswamy Ananthakrishnan
Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 3:30 p.m.
EG 187 (Bldg. 36) , Boca Raton
Videoconference: ST 259, SEATECH
Committee Members: Dr. Manhar Dhanak, Dr. Hassan Mahfuz, and Dr. Francisco Presuel‐Moreno

Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D. Program
Ranjith Mohan: "Helicopter Stability During Aggressive Maneuvers"
Chair: Dr. Gopal H. Gaonkar
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 11:00 a.m.
Boca Raton campus, Akhurst Room (EG 101)
Committee Members: Dr. Guoqiang Cai, Dr. Chaouki Ghenai, and Dr. William D. Kalies

Department of Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ph.D. Program
Xin Guan: "2D/3D Face Recognition"
Chair: Dr. Hanqi Zhuang
Monday, March 26, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.
Boca Raton campus, EE Building, Room 405 
Committee Members: Dr. Nurgun Erdol, Dr. C. T. Tsai, and Dr. Hill Zhu

Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Rashad M. Jillani: “Low Complexity Scalable Video Encoding”
Chair: Dr. Hari Kalva
Monday, November 28, 2011, 2:00 p.m.
Engineering East Building
CEECS Conference Room, EE405

Ocean and Mechanical Engineering
Felicia Powell: “A Study of the Effects of Nanoparticle Modification on the Thermal, Mechanical, and Hygrothermal Performance of Carbo/Vindyl Ester Composites”
Chair: Dr. Hassan Mahfuz
Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 3:00 p.m.
SEATECH
Building ST Room 250

Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Binu Pundir: “Surface Pressure Fluctuations Due to an Impinging Underexpanded Supersonic Jet”
Chair: Dr. Manhar R. Dhanak
Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 3:00 p.m.
SEATECH
Building ST Room 250

Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Arny Ambrose: “A Patient-centric Hurricane Evacuation Management System”
Chair: Dr. Mihaela Cardei
Friday, October 28, 2011, 4:30 p.m.
Engineering East Building
CEECS Conference Room, EE405