Digital Commons Network^™

An Erp Investigation Of Hand-Based Bias On Visual Attention, John Philip Garza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent behavioral studies have investigated the importance of hand and arm position in visual attentional processes. Reed et al. (2006) found facilitated (faster) detection for targets that appear in the space near the hand, relative to targets appearing on the opposite side of a monitor display. The current study aimed to explore the potential bottom-up and top-down neural sources underlying this hand-bias effect on attention with ERP. Using a standard, non-predictive visual cuing paradigm, we examined early (N1, P1) and later (P3) ERP components in response target presentations in three conditions: with the non-responding hand resting on the table (Resting), …

Authenticating Người Mỹ Gốc Việt: Vietnamese Americans And The Struggle For Identity, Jennifer Huynh Thi Anh Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a critical investigation of the politics of identity among the U.S. diasporic Vietnamese community, in particular, the discourse of authenticity that has been prevalent in the community and its (in)adequacy as a means of displacing racialization and othering as a minoritized community. Using a critical phenomenological approach, the study consisted of interviews with 14 Vietnamese subjects currently living in the U.S. whose family heritage(s) are traceable, in part or in whole, to Vietnam and/or who are racially marked as bearers of Vietnamese culture. A thematic analysis of the interviewees' personal stories uncovered three ideological challenges to authenticating …

Closer To The Heart: An Exploration Of Caring And Creative Visual Arts Classrooms, Juli B. Kramer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study demonstrates how caring and creative secondary level visual arts classes facilitate the development of learning environments that enliven and expect the best of students; help them develop as autonomous and creative learners; provide them opportunities to care for others and the world around them; and keep them connected to their schools and education. It highlights how the intentions and operations of teachers impact student learning, creative risk taking, and interpersonal relations within and beyond the classroom. It also uncovers novel ways of thinking about arts education as a means to enhance positive individual and social development and vividly …

Creativity With Purest Energy: How Sir Thomas Wyatt Introduced Modern English Poetics, Jeffery R. Moser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The court poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) asserts a special confidence and boldness of the individual and his poetics that stand at the forefront of an ambitious, sure and powerful England which eventually came into place during his life and afterwards. Wyatt marks the start of a new literary period when humanity and art gradually diverged from religious rites and instruction, dramatic impulses for romantic love and mere desires for adventure, allegory and narrative to favor instead modern demands and conscious intellectualism. Wyatt's poetry best represents this distinct literary break from his native medieval predecessors and from writers who …

Exploration Of The Meaning Of Depression Among Psychologists: A Quantitative And Qualitative Approach, Akira Murata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While depression is considered the most common mental illness regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, compared to research on the general population, depression among psychologists has received little attention. However, as they are one of the major mental health care professionals, psychologists' mental health could greatly affect their clients' mental health, which raises competency and ethical concerns regarding their work as clinicians. In order to learn more about depression in this group, questionnaires were mailed to 800 randomly selected psychologists in the state of Colorado to examine the prevalence of depression among psychologists, how they dealt with their …

Dancing Power: Examining Identity Through Native American Powwow, Kresta-Leigh Opperman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study considers how inter-tribal Indian identity formed though historic circumstances and how it is negotiated and maintained by contemporary Native Americans. Specifically, it considers identity formation and negotiation through the inter-tribal dance event, powwow. Further, it considers how and if men and women participate in this identity formation and negotiation differently. Finally, it considers how this identity is useful for urban Indian populations living outside of tribal lands and who, in some cases, have little involvement in more traditional, or tribal, settings.

A Location Aware P2p Voice Communication Protocol For Networked Virtual Environments, Gabor Papp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Multiparty voice communication, where multiple people can communicate in a group, is an important component of networked virtual environments (NVEs), especially in many types of online games. While most research has been conducted on one-to-one communication, we focus on group communication. In this dissertation, we present the first measurement study on the characteristics of multiparty voice communications and develop a model of the talking and silence periods observed during multiparty communication. Over a total of 5 months, we measured over 11,000 sessions on an active multi-party voice communication server to quantify the characteristics of communication generated by game players, including …

Emergent Geographies In Green Energy, Sean Tierney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A consensus on climate change is spurring an energy transition, but the geography of this transition is uneven and this paper evaluates the energy landscape globally, in the United States and in Colorado. Developed countries have taken the lead in installations and of next generation energy technology ownership. Green electricity has still not achieved parity with fossil fuels, which puts their adoption in the hands of policy makers who are trying to spur innovation with minimal financial disruption. Yet the future of green electricity is in question due to weak and fragmented policy regimes, but also because of inadequate R&D …

Gifted Voices: A Study Of High School Students' Proficiency In Persuasive Writing And Their Perceptions Of Personal Agency, Susan Carol Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Development of the talents and abilities of gifted children is not ordinarily provided by regular public school programs. Their need for accelerated, complex, and challenging curriculum and processes is often overlooked by educators focused on helping underperforming students to reach grade-level standards. Gifted high school students who are proficient in persuasive writing are able to clearly state a claim, support that claim with evidence and backing, recognize and rebut counterclaims, and draw a conclusion leading to action. If gifted students are proficient at writing persuasively, perhaps they are also able to advocate for learning experiences that are challenging, complex, and …

Effects Of Patient Trauma On Hospital Staff Functioning: An Exploratory Study Of Psychological Distress Resulting From Trauma Exposure, Randy Allen Braley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study attempted to determine the relationship between exposure to traumatic experiences of hospitalized children and adolescents and the development of secondary traumatic stress, also known as compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, or burnout in clinical staff working with such patients. Hierarchical regression was used to test the hypotheses that: clinical treatment staff will experience higher levels of psychological distress following exposure to patient trauma and previous lifetime trauma events; clinical treatment staff will experience quality of patient relationships associated with the degree of exposure to patient trauma, previous lifetime or work-related trauma history, and level of supervisor support; clinical …

Developing Emotional Security Among Children Who Have Been Adopted, Kate Trujillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the development of emotional security among 6-10 year old children who have been adopted by exposing them to an experimental condition during which they could engage with either a live dog or a robotic dog. The live dog was a certified therapy dog; the robotic dog was a FurReal® toy marketed by Hasbro as "Biscuit." Utilizing a mixed-method embedded experimental design, the experimental condition was intentionally structured to promote engagement between the participant and the dog or robot. 43 children who had been adopted from the child welfare system were randomly assigned to one of two groups. …

Electrohydrodynamic Atomization For Improved Macromolecular Drug Delivery, Michelle Zeles-Hahn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With advances in drug research, the use of biological therapeutics is becoming a reality. Unfortunately, methods for processing and delivering these fragile macromolecules often limit their therapeutic potential. For this dissertation, we explore the aerosolization of macromolecules by way of electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) and how this method can be used to process and deliver therapeutics. EHDA employs a high voltage to break a column of liquid into drops. It was unknown if or how the residual charge left of the resulting droplets would affect lung cells. An in vitro experiment was conducted to spray aerosolized DNA, by way of EHDA, …

Computational Fluid Dynamic Optimization And Design For The Airborne Laser System, Matthew James Opgenorth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Airborne Laser (ABL) was designed to destroy any ballistic missile shortly after launch that could be a threat to the United States and its allies. The ABL uses several lasers to accomplish the destruction of the ballistic missile, most notably the high powered Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). The COIL is a complex device that could be improved upon in several areas that will result in overall weight reduction, refinement of beam quality, and increased magazine capacity.

This dissertation presents novel design and optimization techniques coupled with fluid dynamics to improve the performance of the COIL system. The focus …

Impact Of Globalization On Central Appalachian Women: Social Capital And Social Support Networks, Jennifer Lanham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social networks and capital often sustain community and individual survival. This phenomenological study was designed to illuminate the experience of job loss within the context of globalization, describing the phenomenon from the perspective of rural women and its meaning for those participants. Using a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study explored eight rural women in Appalachian Kentucky who had experienced apparel factory layoffs as a result of global outsourcing. A modified form of van Kaam's method (Moustakas, 1994) was used for phenomenological analysis of the data. Data were analyzed using an eight-step technique to identify essential characteristics of rural women's lived …

Avoiding Tough Policy Choices In An Influenza Pandemic: The Role Of Kettl's Rocket Science Model In Public Health, Danny Lambert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The security and social inequality approaches to public health present distinct answers to policy objectives relative to a pandemic. However, each approach leaves us with tough choices between the most valued objectives. I demonstrate how the networked approach, which Kettl's Rocket Science Model (RSM) exemplifies, does not leave us with such choices. Furthermore, I connect the epidemiological concepts public health practitioners apply toward communicable disease pandemics to RSM concepts. Finally, drawing on the disease parameters of a worst-case scenario influenza pandemic, I demonstrate how the networked approach helps public health practitioners expand capacity such that tough choices are unnecessary.

Foreign Language Comprehension: Understanding The Centrality Deficit, Amanda C. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to determine how reading in a foreign language (L2) affects one's mental representation of the text and the ability to recognize and recall the text's important information. Using a within-participants design, the proportion of central and peripheral ideas recalled by participants reading in their L2 was compared to that when reading in their native language (L1). Readers recalled a greater proportion of central than peripheral ideas when reading in both their L2 and L1, but when their L2 and L1 recalls were directly compared, a very interesting, yet counterintuitive, result emerged. The greatest deficit …

Narrowing Of Curriculum: Teaching In An Age Of Accountability, Donna Kay Newberg-Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation made clear the need for increased accountability of U.S. public schools in 2002, there has been a trend toward narrowing curriculum in social studies and other core subjects to focus predominantly on what is tested through state exams. Concerns exist regarding the unintended consequences of curriculum narrowing on low, middle and high socioeconomic status (SES) students in public schools.

The Center on Education Policy (CEP) and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have been tracking the effects of NCLB since it took effect in 2002 and found that 71 percent of districts nationwide …

Family Coping As A Protective Factor For Poor Children, Catherine Decarlo Santiago

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined family influences on coping and adjustment among 90 low-income Latino middle school children (46% Female; Average age = 11.38, SD = .66) and their primary caregivers (93% Female; Average age = 36.12, SD = 6.13). All participants identified as Hispanic/Latino, with 75% of families identifying as Mexican-origin Latino, 77% of parents identifying as immigrants, and 32% of children identifying immigrants. All children participating in the study were receiving free or reduced lunch, a poverty indicator. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that family reframing is related to fewer symptoms of psychopathology and that familism enhances the protective effect …

Mechanistic Importance Of Redox Potentials And Conformational Flexibility In Electron-Transferring Flavoproteins, Michael Anthony Swanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The mitochondrial matrix flavoproteins electron transfer flavoprotein (ETF) and electron transfer flavoprotein-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-QO) are responsible for linking fatty acid β-oxidation with the main mitochondrial respiratory chain. Electrons derived from flavoprotein dehydrogenases are transferred sequentially through ETF and ETF-QO to ubiquinone and then into the respiratory chain via complex III. In this study, the effects of changes in ETF-QO redox potentials on its activity and the conformational flexibility of ETF were investigated.

ETF-QO contains one [4Fe-4S]^2+,1+ and one flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). In the porcine protein, threonine 367 is hydrogen bonded to N1 and O2 of the flavin ring …

Constructing A Neuroscientific Pastoral Theology Of Fear And Hope, Jason C. Whitehead

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary therapeutic circles utilize the concept of anxiety to describe a variety of disorders. Emotional reductionism is a detriment to the therapeutic community and the persons seeking its help. This dissertation proposes that attention to the emotion of fear clarifies our categorization of particular disorders and challenges emotional reductionism. I propose that the emotion of fear, through its theological relationship to hope, is useful in therapeutic practice for persons who experience trauma and PTSD.

I explore the differences between fear and anxiety by deconstructing anxiety. Through this process, I develop four categories which help the emotion of fear stand independent …

Navigating Through U.S.-China Policy: An Investigation Of China National Off-Shore Oil Corporation's Proposed Acquisition Of Unocal Corporation And How Domestic Politics Plays A Role In Balancing U.S. Trade Policy With National Security Policy, Vicki Lynn Spencer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, Ltd. ( CNOOC) attempted to buy American-owned Unocal Corporation, it unleashed a "perfect storm" in Washington. Members of Congress immediately called upon President Bush to invoke his Exon-Florio authority to prevent the transaction. After the president claimed action would be premature, Congress quickly coalesced to block the deal. The Chinese expressed surprise at the political backlash and ultimately CNOOC was forced to withdraw its bid.

The purpose of this study is to explain the fervor that arose over CNOOC's proposed acquisition of Unocal. The study builds upon the theoretical approach of new institutionalism which …

Sift-Me: A New Feature For Human Activity Recognition, Guosheng Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Action representation for robust human activity recognition is still a challenging problem. This thesis proposed a new feature for human activity recognition named SIFT-Motion Estimation (SIFT-ME). SIFT-ME is derived from SIFT correspondences in a sequence of video frames and adds tracking information to describe human body motion. This feature is an extension of SIFT and is used to represent both translation and rotation in plane rotation for the key features. Compare with other features, SIFT-ME is new as it uses rotation of key features to describe action and it robust to the environment changes. Because SIFT-ME is derived from SIFT …

Trends In International Compulsory Licensing Of Pharmaceuticals Since The Institution Of The Trade-Related Aspects Of Intellectual Property Protection (Trips) Agreement, Reed F. Beall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement went into effect for World Trade Organization (WTO) members in 1995. The agreement defines minimum standards of patent protection that must eventually be observed by all signatories. TRIPS includes "compulsory licensing", a policy that allows for states under certain conditions to permit the use of a patented innovation without the consent of the patent holder. This paper considers instances of compulsory licenses (CLs) aimed to increase access to pharmaceuticals during urgent public health scenarios. The WTO maintains no registry of CLs; therefore, this research is an effort to catalog as many …

Ruling With Rules: Electoral Institutions And Authoritarian Resilience In The Middle East, Andrew Barwig

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What explains the resilience of authoritarian regimes in the face of regular competitive elections that ostensibly should promote democratic transitions? This dissertation examines both why and how parliamentary elections in Jordan and Morocco have served to reinforce these two Arab monarchies. In doing so, it develops a framework in which the degree of cohesion among incumbent and opposition elites shape electoral system design and, in turn, particular electoral rules structure mass political attitudes and elite configurations. The main argument is that lower electoral thresholds generate unique electoral environments in which patronage politics thrive and opposition-based politics falter, thus producing a …

The Impact Of Self-Efficacy, Commitment, And Coping On Occupational Strain In Non-Managerial, Non-Professional Employees, Susan Leslie Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study explored the effects of moderators, self-efficacy and commitment, and mediators, problem-focused coping (strategies used when changeable conditions exist, thereby resulting in the employee taking action [Folkman & Lazarus, 1980]) and emotion-focused coping (perception that conditions are not changeable and emotions are regulated in a variety of ways versus taking action [Folkman & Lazarus, 1980]), on predicting psychological and physical occupational strain in non-managerial, non-professional employees. Ninety-three shift workers in a 24/7 call center from one division of a transportation company located in the western United States participated in the study. The first research objective was to examine …

The Impact Of A Mentorship Program On The Academic And Personal Development Of College Athletes, Larry Curry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the impact of having a mentor through the academic and social life of student athletes who were recruited to become mentees in a program called the University of Colorado Athletic Mentorship Program (UCAMP). The sample consisted of 10 randomly selected mentors from the community and 10 mentees who had been matched to these mentors. The mentors and mentees, respectively, expressed their experiences of the mentoring relationship as well as their satisfaction with UCAMP, offering suggestions for its improvement. An interview protocol framed the interview and details of what took place during that time for both the …

The Expanding Definition Of Crime And Its Effect On The Individual: A Multilevel Modeling Analysis, Teresa A. Dalton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration is one of the most extreme exercises of state power. For the past twenty-five years the rates at which states have been locking up their residents have been growing at a distressing pace. While violent crime rates have been declining, arrest rates for lower-level crimes have been steadily rising. Two new indices are developed to explain the relationship between lower-level crime and violent crime--the punitive severity index (PSI) and the punitive progression index (PPI). The PSI is the ratio of low-level crime to violent crime, a static indicator of punitiveness, while the PPI is a measure of the rate …

A Pastoral Theology Of Congregational Care And Leadership: Nurturing Emergence, Carol P. Jeunnette

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As with all bodies, congregational bodies experience challenges to their health, well-being, and ability to function as they desire. Problems in faith communities range from severe, intractable conflict to lethargy and decline, with far-ranging effects. The practice of offering pastoral care to individuals experiencing difficulties is rooted deeply in the Judeo-Christian tradition. There is, however, no explicit tradition of pastoral care for corporate congregational bodies experiencing difficulties. This dissertation draws on Bowen Family Systems Theory and its application by Edwin Friedman to congregations and leadership, in conjunction with aspects of process theology, to develop a pastoral theology of congregational care …

Byron And 'The Barbarous . . . Middle Age Of Man': Youth, Aging, And Midlife In Don Juan, Melanie J. Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For Byron, the knowledge that he would one day have to become old was always on his mind. By the time Byron had relocated to the Continent, the idea had become something of an obsession. Thirty had always been Byron's turning point, the age at which youth would have to end and he would have to become an old man. Upon finally reaching that age, Byron found himself in a place much like Dante's selva oscura--dark, confusing, fearful, but with no other way left to go. There are allusions to this opening scene throughout Don Juan. It is …

Controllability And Observability Of A Large Scale Thermodynamical System Via Connectability Approach, Virdiansyah Permana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study presents a new approach to determine the controllability and observability of a large scale nonlinear dynamic thermal system using graph-theory. The novelty of this method is in adapting graph theory for nonlinear class and establishing a graphic condition that describes the necessary and sufficient terms for a nonlinear class system to be controllable and observable, which equivalents to the analytical method of Lie algebra rank condition. The graph theory of a directed graph (digraph) is utilized to model the system, and the rule of its adaptation in nonlinear class is defined. Subsequently, necessary and sufficient terms to achieve …