Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching And Learning Chinese As A Foreign Language In The United States: To Delay Or Not To Delay The Character Introduction, Lijuan Ye

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

The study explored whether or not to delay introducing Chinese characters as part of first year Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) courses in post-secondary institutions in the U.S. Topics investigated: a) timing structures of current CFL programs in the U.S.; b) CFL teachers’ and students’ beliefs and rationales of an appropriate timing to introduce characters; c) CFL teachers’ and students’ beliefs about the importance and difficulty of different Chinese language skills; and d) CFL teachers’ and students’ beliefs about the requirement of handwriting in beginning-level CFL courses. Data were collected through a large-scale online student survey with 914 students …

Remaking Of Race And Labor In British Guiana And Louisiana: 1830-1880, Amanda G. Lewis Ms.

History Theses

During the nineteenth century, the Gulf of Mexico fostered the movement of people, ideas, and news throughout the surrounding regions. Although each colony and state surrounding the basin had distinct cultures and traditions, they shared the legacy of slavery and emancipation. This study examines the transformation of labor that occurred for sugar planters in British Guiana and southern Louisiana during the age of emancipation. In this comparative project, I argue that in the 1830s planters from the British West Indies set the trajectory for solutions to the labor problem by curtailing the freedom of former slaves with Asian contract labor. …

Coming Out Narratives: Realities Of Intersectionality, Marni A. Brown

Sociology Dissertations

Coming out of the closet and sharing a disclosure narrative is considered an essential act to becoming gay (Jagose 1996; Meeks 2006). Although coming out experiences vary by time and place, sexuality scholars note the assumed difficulties when claiming a non-heteronormative identity, including stress, isolation, and rejection (Chauncey 1994; Faderman 1991; Herdt 1993; 1996; Savin-Williams and Ream 2003). In the late 1990s, a post-closet framework emerged arguing that coming out of the closet has become more common and less difficult; “American homosexuals have normalized and routinized their homosexuality to a degree where the closet plays a lesser role in their …

The Effects Of Outside Income On Household Behavior: The Case Of Remittances In Jamaica, Andrew V. Stephenson

Economics Dissertations

Remittances significantly affect recipient households’ behavior. Using data from the Jamaican Survey of Living Conditions and the Jamaican Labor Force Survey ( 2001-2007), this dissertation explores the effects of remittances on labor market participation and household expenditures. Jamaica’s proximity to the United States and its diaspora of educated individuals shapes an economy largely dependent on remittances, thus providing an interesting case study.

First, we investigate whether remittances alter labor market behavior of married women in remittance-receiving households located in Jamaica. Remittances, the wife’s education, and wages are all treated as endogenous when estimating labor market participation and hours worked. Unlike …

Asthma Prevalence: Focus On Prevention Management In Community Settings, Augustine M. Amenyah

Public Health Theses

Asthma prevalence continues to increase across the United States of America, affecting more than 43.1 million people and projected to affect over 50 million people by 2025. Asthma prevalence differs by demographic characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, education, age and gender. Poor quality of life is common among people who suffer from asthma, in addition to school and work absenteeism. In 2008, children 5-17 years old with at least one reported asthma attack missed 10.5 million school days in the past year (CDC, 2010). Healthcare use for asthma is high and disparities remain in asthma healthcare use and …

Children's Developing Understanding Of Spatial Metaphors For Time, Lauren J. Stites

Psychology Theses

Adults commonly use spatial motion to talk about time. These metaphors are of at least three different types: moving-time, moving-ego, and sequence-as-relative-position-on-a-path. But when children grasp the meaning of spatial metaphors for time and what cognitive factors account for this understanding? In this study, we aim to answer these questions by studying young children’s comprehension of three different spatial metaphors for time. Our findings show that children begin to understand metaphors for time by age five and to explain the meaning of these different metaphors by age 6. Additionally, children’s comprehension varied by metaphor type, with moving-time and moving-ego metaphors …

The Women Behind The Moves: A Phenomenological Study Of Video Models, Loron Benton

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

This research studied three women who have performed in hip hop music videos. Previous literature concerning these women, including memoirs, men’s magazine interviews, and Black feminist scholarship, has situated them as video vixens, terminology that all three participants disputed applied to them. The research was completed in two parts—a face-to-face phenomenological interview and a semi-structured telephone interview. In the phenomenological interview, the initial question—what are your experiences as a woman who dances/models in music videos?—was posed. The answers ranged from musings about professionalism and the lack thereof in the industry to the politics of skin color and nationality. The semi-structured …

The Effect Of State Capacity On Democratic Transition And The Survival Of New Democracies, Daniel W. Kuthy

Political Science Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the effect of state capacity on the probability for democratic transition and the survival of democracies. I seek to answer these quesitons through the use of both quantitative and qualitative analysis. In my statistical models, I make use of Cox Proportional Hazard Models. These are supplemented by two case studies involving South Korea and the Philippines. My expectation, which is supported by the results presented in this study, is that higher levels of state capacity will make authoritarian regimes more stable and thus make democratic transitions less likely, but if democratic transitions take place, higher levels of …

Risk Factor Clustering Among Adolescents Infected With Or At-Risk For Chlamydia: A Descriptive Study, Elizabeth R. Wilson

Public Health Theses

STDs are a major public health epidemic in the United States with an estimated 19 million new cases occurring annually. Associated direct medical costs are estimated at $17 billion annually (CDC, 2010). Chlamydia is the most prevalent of all STDs and is also the most reported notifiable disease in the United States. While adolescents only account for an estimated 25% of the sexually active population, they account for nearly half of the 19 million cases. The higher prevalence of STDs among adolescents is most likely a reflection of multiple issues within a national socio-economic context. Additionally, the burden is even …

Nurses' Posttraumatic Stress, Level Of Exposure, And Coping Five Years After Hurricane Katrina, Wendy Park

Nursing Dissertations (PhD)

First responders who participate in disaster are at risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because of nurses’ unique role as professional and volunteer responders, there is a need to know more about risks of PTSD in this group.

Using a cross-sectional correlational design, associations between disaster exposure, problem focused coping (PFC), emotion-focused coping (EFC) and PTSD symptoms (Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) scale) were explored. A random sample (n= 995) was drawn from a list of nurses from the New Orleans region. Each nurse was mailed an invitation to participate in an online survey. Three post-card reminders were sent.

The …

Boyfriends, Babies, And A Few Good Headshots: Examining Girl Gamers' Identity Enactment On Twitter Using The Communication Theory Of Identity, Kari D. Storla

Communication Honors Theses

Girl gamers, while a substantial part of the gaming population, are often largely ignored in both the gaming industry and academic literature. In particular, there have been few investigations to date on what comprises the identity of a girl gamer, particularly outside the context of gameplay. To that end, the current study aims to investigate how girl gamers enact their identities as girl gamers on Twitter, a social network site. Eight Twitter accounts whose users self-identified as either Gamer Girls or Girl Gamers on a Twitter user directory where identified and the profiles and tweets of each collected for a …

Veiled Politics: Legitimating The Burqa Ban In The French Press, Anne Roberts

Communication Theses

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In October 2010 the Constitutional Council of France approved a law banning the burqa and niqab from all public places. Joining the ongoing scholarly discussion on veiling, this study seeks to understand the role the French press played in legitimating the ban, the first of its kind to be implemented in Europe. I argue that discourse in the press made the legislation appear reasonable and necessary because of its association with gender inequality …

Connected Consumers: Cognizance Of Provision Networks In Mundane Consumption, Stephen T. Weaver

Marketing Dissertations

Many types of product meanings have been investigated in the consumer behavior literature, and these layers of meaning have been shown to influence consumer behavior. However, very little research has attempted to investigate product meanings having to do with provision networks, that is, the people, places, resources and processes involved in creating products and delivering them to the consumer. In addition, researchers in several fields have argued that consumers have lost an awareness of provision networks due to their increasing size and complexity in the modern economy. This research indicates that some consumers are indeed cognizant of the systems of …

Towards Information Polycentricity Theory: Investigation Of A Hospital Revenue Cycle, Rajendra Singh

CEPRIN Dissertations

This research takes steps towards developing a new theory of organizational information management based on the ideas that, first, information creates ordering effects in transactions and, second, that there are multiple centers of authority in organizations. The rationale for developing this theory is the empirical observation that hospitals have great difficulty in managing information relating to transactions with patients. The research illustrates the detailed workings of an initial conceptual framework based on an action research project into the revenue cycle of a hospital. The framework facilitates a deeper understanding of how information technology can help to transform information management practices …

Team Edward Or Team Jacob? The Portrayal Of Two Versions Of The "Ideal" Male Romantic Partner In The Twilight Film Series, Paola A. Bedoya

Communication Theses

The popularity of the Twilight saga, enhanced by the film adaptations of the books, sparked a series of interesting reactions of fans. One was the creation of “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob,” in which fans aligned with one or the other character and argue about which one of them could be a better romantic partner. This study explores the messages the movies are sending to young girls around the world about what are the traits of the “ideal” male romantic partner as portrayed through the characters of Edward and Jacob. A textual analysis of the first three movie adaptations of …

Disney's Portrayal Of Nonhuman Animals In Animated Films Between 2000 And 2010, Oana Leventi-Perez

Communication Theses

This paper used the constant comparative method to examine the 12 animated features released by Disney between 2000 and 2010 for: (1) their representation of nonhuman animals (NHAs) and the portrayal of race, class, gender, and speciesism within this representation, (2) the ways they describe the relationship between humans and NHAs, and (3) whether they promote an animal rights perspective. Three major themes were identified: NHAs as stereotypes, family, and human/NHA dichotomy. Analysis of these themes revealed that Disney’s animated features promote speciesism and celebrate humanity’s superiority by justifying the subordination of NHAs to human agency. Furthermore, while Disney’s representation …

Risk And Visibility In Global Supply Chains: An Empirical Study, Hung V. Nguyen

Marketing Dissertations

Working with international suppliers in global supply chains, manufacturing firms now are faced with substantial supplier risks which could be triggered by disruptions in either their suppliers or the supplier’s market. Reactive actions to the risks, however, have usually been shown to be inefficient and sometimes ineffective. In this dissertation, therefore, I develop a theoretical framework linking some key relationship-specific capabilities to supplier risk. My contention is that the capabilities, when developed, can help proactively mitigate the risk. Thus, the model in this study is grounded in the resource-based and the relational views.

In this study, the survey method has …

The Relationship Between Stress, Cortisol Reactivity And Memory Performance In Younger And Older Adults, Jessica L. Pruitt

Gerontology Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine age differences in cortisol reactivity and memory performance in younger and older adults exposed to cognitive stressors. The current study utilized data from the Anxiety, Memory, and Control study (ACME) conducted at Brandeis University. Stress was measured using a subjective assessment of anxiety and cortisol was measured using a saliva sample. Memory performance was measured using both declarative and working memory tasks. The final sample consisted of 28 younger adults (M = 19.8 years, SD = 1.5) and 29 older adults (M = 71.2 years, SD = 6.6). There were …

The Playful Audience: Professional Wrestling, Media Fandom, And The Omnipresence Of Media Smarks, Shane Matthew Toepfer

Communication Dissertations

This dissertation posits a new model for understanding media audiences, bringing the scholarship of game studies to the critical analysis of audience practices. The concept of play proves beneficial for understanding the complex processes of media audiences, as they are able to traverse dichotomous categories when engaging media content. The genre of professional wrestling proves a perfect case study for examining these playful audience practices, and this study is an ethnographic account of the practices of wrestling fans. Focusing on the behaviors of fans at live wrestling events, in online contexts, and in the subcultural setting of a card game …

A Problem Of Access: Autism, Other Minds, And Interpersonal Relations, Ryan Born

Philosophy Theses

Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) are marked by social-communicative difficulties and unusually fixed or repetitive interests, activities, and behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In this thesis, I review empirically and conceptually based philosophic proposals that maintain the social-communicative difficulties exhibited by persons on the autism spectrum result from a lack of capacity to understand other persons as minded. I will argue that the social-communicative difficulties that characterize ASCs may instead result from a lack of ability to access other minds, and that this lack of ability is due to a contingent lack of external resources.

Sleep Loss And Its Health Impact Among Family Caregivers Of Persons With A Primary Malignant Brain Tumor, Jean Pawl

Nursing Dissertations (PhD)

Sleep impairments for caregivers are multifactorial. Assumptions are that caregivers of those with primary malignant brain tumors (PMBT) are similar to caregivers of persons with dementia as cognitive impairments are present at diagnosis. The shorter trajectory of PMBTs and rapid deterioration of recipients’ health may influence sleep in caregivers of persons with a PMBT. The purposes of this study were to use a sleep impairment model to characterize caregiver sleep using objective and subjective measures, and to examine sleep loss effects on psychosocial and physiologic health outcomes.

A secondary data analysis using baseline data from a larger study of mind-body …

Arylboronic Acids With Strong Fluorescence Intensity Changes Upon Sugar Binding, Sarah R. Laughlin

Chemistry Theses

Boronic acids play an important role in the design and synthesis of chemosensors for carbohydrates due to their ability to reversibly bind with diol-containing compounds. Along this line, the availability of boronic acids that change fluorescence upon sugar binding is critical to a successful sensor design effort. Here, two boronic acids that show strong fluorescent intensity changes upon sugar binding are reported: isoquinoline-7-boronic acid (7-IQBA) and phenoxathiin-4-boronic acid (4-POBA).

Refugees Negotiating Academic Literacies In First-Year College: Challenges, Strategies, And Resources, Eliana Hirano

Applied Linguistics and English as a Second Language Dissertations

The growing number of language minority students graduating from a U.S. high school and entering college has motivated many studies. These students are often referred to as Generation 1.5, a term that loosely indicates they arrived in this country at an early age and had most of their education in U.S. K-12 settings. The studies that have focused on this population often group refugees with other immigrants. Although refugees may not have arrived in this country at an early age, those coming from war torn countries as teenagers have often had their formal education interrupted in their home countries …

Development Of An Art-Literature Curriculum For First Grade And Fourth Grade, Allison C. Elder Mrs.

Art and Design Theses

This study investigated using literature as an alternative means to teach the art curriculum. Three widely used integrated curriculum models (Reading Improvement Through Art, Learning Through the Arts, and Champions of Change) were studied and analyzed in search of the best features for art-literature integration. A new curriculum is developed for two different grades using the Fulton County Elementary Art Education Curriculum standards as the foundation. This study used picture books as the catalyst to create an art-literature curriculum.

Queering The Family Space: Confronting The Child Figure And The Evolving Dynamics Of Intergenerational Relations In Don Delillo's White Noise, Joshua Little

English Theses

Criticism surrounding the children of the Gladney family in Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise remains a contested issue. I argue the children and their social environment reflect Lee Edelman’s analysis of the Child figure and its bolstering of reproductive futurism. The Child figure upholds a heteronormative social order that precludes equal rights and social viability for non-normative family structures and those opposed to an inherently conservative ideology. I find the continually evolving family structure elicits new dynamics among its members, offering greater social independence for all, which institutes a stronger familial bond and ensures a greater chance for its vitality. …

Inside And Outside 1101: First-Year Student Perceptions Of Academic Writing, Laura E. Jones

English Theses

First-year undergraduate students have vastly different perceptions of academic writing, the writing process, and the value of writing within their specific academic disciplines. These perceptions differ not only from their instructors but also from their peers. Yet, while reams of literature discuss, debate, and decipher student perspectives of writing from a scholarly point of view, the first-year student voice is conspicuously absent from this discussion. This study followed 92 first-year students through their first college composition course, English 1101, in order to capture the student perspective of how writing fits in their academic careers. The results indicate that while most …

Syntactic And Semantic Analysis And Visualization Of Unstructured English Texts, Saurav Karmakar

Computer Science Dissertations

People have complex thoughts, and they often express their thoughts with complex sentences using natural languages. This complexity may facilitate efficient communications among the audience with the same knowledge base. But on the other hand, for a different or new audience this composition becomes cumbersome to understand and analyze. Analysis of such compositions using syntactic or semantic measures is a challenging job and defines the base step for natural language processing.

In this dissertation I explore and propose a number of new techniques to analyze and visualize the syntactic and semantic patterns of unstructured English texts.

The syntactic analysis is …

The Relationships Between Energy Balance Deviations And Adiposity In Children And Adolescents, Laura A. Delfausse

Nutrition Theses

Background: Over the past decade obesity has doubled in children aged 6-11 and tripled among adolescents aged 12-19. One trend that has coincided with this increased obesity prevalence is decreased meal frequency, which may impact blood sugar, meal size, cortisol release, insulin release, and appetite controls that include the release of leptin and ghrelin. Ultimately, these changes may result in a simultaneous lowering of the metabolic (i.e., fat-free) mass and a rising of the fat mass. Purpose: To assess food/beverage intake in a way that would determine if large deviations in energy balance (EB) during the day were related to …

The Relationship Between Diet Quality And The Comorbidity Of Diabetes In Adults With Heart Failure, Jessica M. Hill

Nutrition Theses

Background: Heart failure and diabetes are common coexisting diseases. Elevated levels of glucose in the blood caused by insulin resistance can damage blood vessels and nerves, and eventually lead to heart disease. A poor diet and obesity can also contribute to the progression of diabetes and heart disease.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if diet and lifestyle factors between adult heart failure patients with and without diabetes who are participating in the EducatioN, and Supportive Partners Improving Self-CaRE (ENSPIRE) study are associated with comorbidities such as diabetes, and if so then how current dietary …

Characterization Of Seca1 And Seca2 From Gram-Positive Pathogens And Discovery Of Novel Seca Inhibitors, Jinshan Jin

Biology Dissertations

Due to the emergence and dissemination of multidrug resistance, bacterial pathogens have been causing a serious public health problem in recent years. To address the existing drug resistant problem, there is an urgent need to find new antimicrobials, especially those against drug-resistant bacteria. SecA is the central component of Sec-dependent secretion pathway, which is responsible for the secretion of many essential proteins as well as many toxins and virulence factors. Two SecA homologues are indentified in some important Gram-positive pathogens. SecA1 is involved in general secretion pathway and essential for viability, whereas SecA2 contribute to secretion of specific virulence factors. …