Digital Commons Network^™

Out In Thin Air, Daiqing Zhang

Masters Theses

My work often takes form in experience-charged installations underscored by phenomenology. The whys and hows behind the work mostly remain unspoken, since I would rather my work speak for itself. This writing project offered me the opportunity to comb through and tell the stories and thoughts that informed the work.

I have built a collection of documentation about the experience of having a sensitivity to moments of wonder in everyday life. These archives recorded sensuous imprints in life composed of mundane phenomena. In the collection there are images/footage of a glimpse of light leaking through cloud crevices; a brush of …

Path Planning And Flight Control Of Drones For Autonomous Pollination, Chapel R. Rice

Masters Theses

The decline of natural pollinators necessitates the development of novel pollination technologies. In this thesis, a drone-enabled autonomous pollination system (APS) that consists of five primary modules: environment sensing, flower perception, path planning, flight control, and pollination mechanisms is proposed. These modules are highly dependent upon each other, with each module relying on inputs from the other modules. This thesis focuses on approaches to the path planning and flight control modules. Flower perception is briefly demonstrated developing a map of flowers using results from previous work. With that map of flowers, APS path planning is defined as a variant of …

Police Perceptions And Parenting Styles Among Black Parents Of Miami-Dade County, Amber E. Roach

Masters Theses

A person’s perception of something or someone does not develop without external factors affecting the individual. Experiences and lessons people have learned from a young age have molded their perception of the world. One of those lessons is what is considered correct and what is not. In the Black American community, this is accompanied by the “talk”. This “talk” is shaped by past experiences with the police towards minority groups, specifically, Black Americans. This paper discusses how parenting styles, race, and authority intersect. The purpose of this paper is to examine the beginnings of one’s life, the lessons they are …

Whores, Sluts, And Bitches; The Perceived Limits Of Sexualisation And The Affects On Space, Chloe Jenny Bennie

Masters Theses

Perceived sexualisation changes depending on multiple factors, this thesis is looking specifically at how tools and accessories are used in conjunction with altering power dynamics within a carefully orchestrated space to change how a person wants to be looked upon.

Student Athletes’ Perception Of Hazing, Faith Bradbury

Masters Theses

Over the years hazing has been seen as a rite of passage or a tradition among college athletes and almost an expectation for the athletes (Stuart, 2013). There is a lack of information surrounding athlete’s perceptions on hazing and how this affects their confidence in addressing hazing situations. Most studies focus on what hazing is and the effects it has on students on a college campus. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews to explore the athlete’s perceptions surrounding hazing at a rural mid-sized university in the Midwest. The research showed that the athletes had a disconnect with the information they …

Dynamic Landscape: The Theatre Of Time Unfolding, Mo Kong

Masters Theses

Human’s particular perspective and scale couldn’t allow them to perceive the ever-changing quality of the landscape through their senses. As landscape architects, we lack tools to communicate and work with not only time but typically experiment with the representation of time in physical landscape images. To create a dynamic experience, what tools of representation allow landscape architects to respond to time? This thesis explores many different types of representational techniques in terms of videos and drawings and uses them in a series of experimentation back and forward to make the unfamiliar familiar. The goal of the thesis is to build …

42nd Soundscaping: Sound As Media For Reshaping Urban Ecology, Chao Li

Masters Theses

This proposal aims to draw people’s attention to our surrounding acoustic environment and shift people’s awareness from “hearing” to “listening”. In urban areas, to enrich our living experiences, people choose to get rid of the noisy environments. I believe landscape architecture always has the power to connect human’s different senses with our environment. As the most dynamic and abstract phenomenon, sound has the potential to guide landscape spatial design and modify our ecological system. The investigation focuses on 42nd Street as a primary study area which is historically one of the most iconic streets in the midtown of Manhattan, connecting …

Exploring The Essence Of Participation Of The Female Puerto Rican Basketball Athlete, Roberto Medina

Masters Theses

In Puerto Rico, little is known regarding how female collegiate and professional basketball players perceive and experience their playing participation. The population of girls playing basketball has experienced recent increases. However, the culture in Puerto Rico has yet to embrace the participation of female basketball athletes. Attempting to address the void in scholarly literature, this study explored female athlete participation perceptions in competitive basketball within the Puerto Rican sport culture. The investigation implemented a qualitative approach using a phenomenological methodology to form descriptive themes. Data was obtained from 14 female basketball athletes, of which 10 were student-athletes, and four were …

Understanding Individuals’ Perceptions Of Oak Wilt And Its Implications For Invasive Species Management, Matthew Morrissey

Masters Theses

Oak wilt, a thought-to-be exotic, invasive fungal disease preys upon oak tree species (Quercus sp.) and has begun to cause die-off in oak stands throughout the state of Michigan, with potential for increased cases and subsequent death. Despite efforts to treat the disease, there is no guaranteed treatment for already-infected oak trees. The best option is to control the infection and prevent its spread, by methods such as disconnection of root systems, removal of infected trees, and informed pruning. Given that humans play a role in oak wilt’s artificial spread, it is imperative that the public understands their …

Exploring Toddler Risky Play: Listening To The Voices Of Parents And Teachers Of Toddlers In One School Setting, Megan Chaney

Masters Theses

This qualitative study explored the understandings, definitions, and influences of three toddler teachers and four toddler parents within the context of risky play in toddlerhood at a Southeastern land-grant university early childhood laboratory school. Sociocultural and bioecological theories informed the study and the developmental niche conceptual framework guided the organization of data analysis. Video stimulated recall interviews were the primary data source. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method to ensure triangulation of data. Findings include: (1) analyzing risky play is comprised of (a) the psychology of the caregiver, (b) knowing the child, and (c) cultural influences, (2) risky …

Intersensory Redundancy And Infant Selective Attention To Audiovisual Speech, Kelly C. Roth

Masters Theses

The current study utilized eye-tracking to investigate the effects of intersensory redundancy on infant visual attention and discrimination of a change in prosody in native and non-native audiovisual speech. The Intersensory Redundancy Hypothesis states synchronous and redundant presentation of bimodal stimuli selectively recruits infant attention to and facilitates processing of amodal stimulus properties (Bahrick & Lickliter, 2000). Twelve-month-old monolingual English learning infants viewed either synchronous (redundant) or asynchronous (non-redundant) video clips of a woman speaking in English (native speech) or Spanish (non-native speech). Halfway through each trial, the speaker changed prosody from adult-directed speech (ADS) to infant-directed speech (IDS) or …

A Normal Novel Collection, Xiaopeng Qi

Masters Theses

This thesis is a game novel collection.

Which is an experimental attempt that I use the playable texts as a way to document daily clues. While reading the thesis, the readers will have an experience of the game-like sense of substitution and view switching. Through the narrative of texts, I try to express that in the future, making games which under structural wraps is a living strategy way to self-expression and communicate to outside in this hyper-normal spectacular society.

How To Become Ocean?, Elaina Runge

Masters Theses

A shifting viewpoint transforms into multiple perspectives to explore surface and depth.

By compressing time into an instant, or expanding a moment out in infinite directions, patterns reveal and obscure themselves.

A process that is both rational and intuitive emerges through the use of different systems to approach the unknown.

The ocean operates as a metaphor. The beyond guides the search of one who is tethered to the shore.

Plastic, linen, silk, elastic, glass, cellulose, protein: fold, curve, bend, distort, resist to create forms that are neither unfamiliar nor named.

Blue, blue-grey, blue-green, blue violet, azure, cobalt, sapphire, lapis lazuli, …

Hovering, Benjamin J. Blatt

Masters Theses

Hovering is an attempt to navigate the contemporary digital environment through traditional means. The imagery created function as paintings, photographs, prints, and drawings. They explore and raise questions about visual perception and sensory awareness, as well as highlighting the modular limitations of the pixelated image and the illusion of reality in the digital landscape.

Odor-Induced Taste Modifications In Teas, Rachel Elizabeth Isaacs

Masters Theses

Although odorants and tastants are perceived by two different sensory modalities, the perceived taste qualities of a solution may be modified with the addition of an odorant. While many studies have investigated odor-induced taste modifications in model solutions, there is a lack of conducted research examining odor-induced taste modifications in complex food systems. The research objective was to determine the effect of added vapor-phase stimuli on the perceived sweetness of a model solution and complex food system.

Eight vapor-phase stimuli (i.e. blueberry, caramel, ginger, honey, lemon, orange, peach, and strawberry) were selected for investigation. The study was conducted in two …

A Geographic Distribution Analysis And Examination Of Social-Psychological Factors And Their Lmpact On Death Penalty Support In The United States, Katy Moharter

Masters Theses

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States in 1977, research has focused on shifting attitudes and waning public support for this institution. Support for the death penalty varies between different temporal, geographic, and demographic boundaries. Research also suggests that social-psychological factors such as attributional style and moral disengagement play a significant role in rationalization of death penalty support, as well as the intensity of the support. Aspects of moral disengagement serve as reliable predictors for death penalty support for a limited sample of participants, which this research intends to evaluate at a greater scale. This research …

“The Mirror Of Desire”: Britomart And Spenserian Perception In The Faerie Queene, Brandon J. Muri

Masters Theses

In modern usage, “love” and “justice” are terms used to describe universal standards of behavior even though the modern materialist worldview cannot account for such universal, abstract entities. Spenser’s Faerie Queene dramatizes the conceptual origin of these and similar terms in human experience; for, as C.S. Lewis has noted, Spenser’s poetry “Consists in giving an imagined body to the immaterial” (AL 322). Posing an answer to the question of whether these “imagined bodies” reflect an order of being transcending human experience, the romance narrative of Book III argues in the affirmative by demonstrating that universal standards such as love and …

The Status Of, Teacher Attitudes Towards, And The Lmpact Of Music Therapy Lnclusive Music Education In Michigan, Ann E. Armbruster

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine Michigan music teachers' attitudes and perceptions regarding their training for and experience with special learners in their classrooms, and their collaboration and consultation with music therapists. Eighty-six music educators completed a 51 item questionnaire. Results showed that music teachers' attitudes and perceptions are generally positive toward inclusion. Mean scores for attitude and perception were not influenced by whether participants had or had not taken a course in special education as a student, whether they had access to continuing education regarding inclusion through their school district, or participants' predominant teaching area or degree …

Of Tribes, Wars, And Jungles: A Study Of U.S.College Students’ Perceptions Of Africa And Africans, Seseer P. Mou

Masters Theses

This study examined American college students’ perceptions of Africans. Knowledge Gap and Systems Theory were applied to creating and discussing the research questions. Systems Theory addresses processes and levels of information transfer (Westley & Maclean, 1965). It requires an understanding of the sources, channels, messages, and the people who receive information in a communication encounter. Knowledge Gap Theory, on the other hand, states that when information circulates in a system, gaps in knowledge are formed and these gaps increase as more information enters the system (Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970). The results showed that consumption of radio and newspaper news, …

A Study Of How Selected Public School Junior-High Students Perceive The Effect Of Popular Music On Classroom Behavior, Christopher Mc Allister

Masters Theses

The objective of this study is to further the understanding of how junior-high students in the public schools perceive the effects of popular music on their behavior in the classroom. Two primary research questions serve as the foundation for this study. The first question investigates how themes disclosed in interviews of selected public school junior high students help to explain their personal perceptions of how popular music affects their behavior in the academic environment. The second question seeks to determine whether students that listen to a particular genre of popular music have different or similar perceptions of how music affects …

Parent Perceptions Of Residential Crowding And Child Behaviors In A Post-Migration Burundian Refugee Community, Carole Ian Mcateer

Masters Theses

Residential crowding has been shown to negatively impact child socio-emotional development and behaviors. The current study explores residential crowding and positive social and distress behaviors of Burundian refugee children, aged 3 months-35 months, through naturalistic observations and interviews. Residential crowding was measured in three ways: the ratio of people per rooms in households, the number of people present during observations, and parents’ perceptions of crowding. Qualitative parent perceptions of crowding and conceptualizations of crowding were obtained through interviews. The results showed that child behaviors were not predicted by the ratio of people per rooms or the number of people present …

Hoodie Today, Gown Tomorrow: An Ideological Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender-Neutral Clothing, Meridith Irene Styer

Masters Theses

The fields of psychology and sociology have long understood the importance of clothing in self-formation, this study extrapolates this social-science understanding into the realm of rhetorical analysis. This study looks at gender-neutral clothing and its role in meaning making and self identification for women. With a rhetorical basis from Richards and Ogden, this research uses the feminist works of Brummett and Butler to uncover both the positive and negatives effects of gender-neutral clothing on a woman's self-identification and perceptions. Through the presentation of a diffuse narrative and evaluation of the same, gender-neutral clothing is read and decoded for meaning. This …

Reading Between The Lines: Gender Perception Of Lean Media, Jennalee Conner

Masters Theses

Over the years, communication methods have evolved from face-to-face conversations to computer-mediated communication including: e-mail, instant message, and text message interactions. Since the methods have changed, a large aspect of communication, nonverbal cues, have become nearly impossible. These methods of communication that lack nonverbal cues are therefore referred to as lean media because they lack the richness of facial expression, vocal expression, and immediacy. In order to modify more recent forms of communication to include nonverbal cues, individuals have created their own nonverbal cues. While each individual is unique, though, genders normally tend to think or behave in similar fashion. …

A Perception Analysis Of Downtown Residents: The City Of Lansing, Mi. Food Desert In Context, Thomas J. Veldman

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the perceptions of residents inside and outside of a USDA-defined food desert in Lansing, MI related to fresh and frozen produce access. Through an online and paper survey, Lansing-area residents ranked their perceived level of access to fresh produce, their perception of their own health, and reported their general daily intake of fresh produce. Through several statistical analyses, this thesis was able to determine that residents residing within the study area in downtown Lansing had statistically significant variations in their perception of access to fresh and frozen produce, traveled longer to their preferred primary and secondary food …

Disharmony And Matchless: Interpersonal Deception Theory In Online Dating, Lyndsey Wagner

Masters Theses

In recent years, computer-media dated communication has not only become extremely popular but has also begun to hold an important function in daily social interactions. This qualitative study investigates the communication phenomena of deception as it occurs in the online dating environment. The research study focused on four questions: (1) About what characteristics are online daters deceptive? (2) What motivation do online daters have for their deception of others in the online dating environment? (3) What perceptions do online daters have about other daters' deceit towards them in the online dating environment? (4) How does deception affect the romantic relationships …

Revisiting The Causal Link Between Finite Cognitive Capacity And Perseveration: A Dynamic Systems Account, Benjamin Craddock

Masters Theses

The current study revisits the causal link between finite cognitive capacity and infant perseveration originally put forth by Berger (2004) wherein perseverative errors resulted from a limited amount of cognitive resources. A dynamic systems perspective was used to test the interaction of a limited cognitive capacity and task difficulty by manipulating the contextual layout of Berger’s stair A-not-B paradigm (i.e. from 90-degrees to 180-degrees). Two groups of infants, differing in walking experience but not in biological age, were presented the task of descending A-side 5 consecutive times and to B-side on the 6th trial. Perseveration was not seen in either …

Forces Of Time: Nature, Perception, And The Spaces Of Architecture, April M. Gray

Masters Theses

The words of Octavio Paz, from his Drift of Shadows, poetically describe the cycle of water in nature involving the erosion and weathering of stone by the force of water, further enhanced by the force of wind. This succession of events in nature is one of inter-dependency. It is also one of temporality: one element of nature perpetually affecting another, a temporality engaging elements either by impeding or by propelling.