Digital Commons Network^™

How Do Parents Cope With Their Child’S Disability?, Emily Bode

Culminating Projects in Child and Family Studies

No abstract required for a starred paper.

In The Quiet Place, Tina M. Higgins Wussow

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

Essay about the death of a father and the grief that comes after.

How To Talk So That Doctors Will Listen, M. Shivaun Corry

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

Doctors interrupt patients after an average of eleven seconds, placing significant restraint on doctor/patient communications.This lack of communication, combined with medical bias, leads to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of groups such as women, racial minorities, obese people, and those with physical and mental disabilities.The article is framed by the case of Brian Sinclair, an Indigenous Canadian who died of an easily treatable condition after being ignored at a Winnipeg E.R. Drawing on the limited studies in medical rhetoric and health communications, the author examines whether patients can do anything to avoid being similarly ignored by medical professionals.The author theorizes that establishing …

Diversity In Undergraduate Research & Scholarship: A First Generation’S Vision, Marzell I. Gray, Jazmyn Gray

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

I am a first-generation, Black college graduate who learned later in my career of the importance of starting research and scholarly work earlier in a career, so you are not playing catch-up. I began an undergraduate research program for diverse undergraduate students with this in mind.

One big challenge includes accessibility at an institution that wants to create more inclusive environments, but may lack the structure, funds, and tools it needs to create this type of environment. The Undergraduate Underrepresented Research Program (UURP) was developed after beginning my newly appointed tenure-track position at a predominantly white institution. I’d hoped to …

Fledgling: On Kinship Between Writers And Readers Of Trauma Testimony, Stefanie K. Gold Miss

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

‘Fledgling’ is a memoir drawn from my memories of experiencing sexual abuse as a child and it is also about the time I cared for a little bird. ‘Fledgling illustrates that there is a kinship that is formed between readers and writers of traumatic testimony in life writing and these rich and meaningful exchanges not only have the potential to instigate social change but may also support writers to potentially transform and heal in the process of being heard.

Listening To Our Bodies: Adapting Member Checks In Community Workspaces, Ellen A. Ahlness

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers, scholars, and members of the medical field alike found themselves struggling to balance their regular tasks and projects with the additional physical, mental, and emotional stressors of the epidemic. This paper examines the exploratory efforts of a small virtual workspace group—researchers, public health officials, and graduate students alike—to take a more health- and body-centered approach to their to-do lists and researcher commitments. Participants were driven by a question: what does it look like to structure one’s work time and agenda in a more mentally, emotionally, and physically holistic way? What started out as a purely …

The Story Deepens: Female Cancer Patients Respond To Their Own Experiences With Hair Loss, Miriam Rosen Md, Judy Chang Md, Mph, Brianna Rossiter Md, Ms, Shannon Puhalla Md, Gaetan Sgro Md

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

Objective: Chemotherapy induced alopecia (CIA) is recognized as one of the most traumatic parts of a woman’s cancer treatment, yet the experience often eludes traditional data collection methods. Our study had three specific aims. First, we hoped to collect patient stories to better define how CIA affects a woman’s identity and quality of life. Second, we hoped that unifying those stories into a reflective essay would reveal previously inaccessible aspects of hair loss. Finally, we intended to explore for the first time patients’ attitudes towards narratives written about their personal experiences.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with cancer patients who …

How To Measure The Cost-Efficiency Of Time?, Deevyashali Parekh

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

“Treatment with this drug leads to 6-month survival rate 50% and a 12-month survival rate of 20%. Just best supportive care is associated with a 6-month survival rate of about 30%. The cost of this drug is patients’-family’s-annual-income per month.”

As I stood on one side of a quaint, run-down outpatient clinic room, entirely insignificant to the emotionally burdensome conversation taking place before me, I heard a caring, enduring Oncologist explain these words to a patient and their family. The patient was suffering from a kind of cancer and was at a stage beyond cure. This encounter was taking place …

The Man Shackled On 4 Northwest, Andria Albert

Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine

The medical treatment provided to asylum seekers or immigrants who cross the U.S- Mexico border fleeing violence and/or poverty is something that has room for great improvement. This article highlights an encounter that I had with one such patient during a clerkship that sheds light on this issue.

An Idiolectal “Voice Report” Analysis Of Single And Double Coda Devoicing In Minnesota English, Ettien Koffi, Nicolas Wollinski

Linguistic Portfolios

The Voice Report function in Praat makes it possible to calculate the amount of voicing that occurs dynamically within a segment. This function is used here to investigate how Author 2 produces voiced consonants that occur in the codas of 15 words in an elicitation paragraph read at a normal tempo. Some words end with a singleton coda, while others have double codas. When the measurements are interpreted in accordance with F0 and the 40/60 Just Noticeable Difference (JND) thresholds, we see that coda devoicing is pervasive in Author 2’s speech. When the evidence presented here is added to the …

An Acoustic Phonetic Investigation Of Lexical Stress Encoding In Vietnamese-Accented English, Ettien Koffi, David Mason

Linguistic Portfolios

A psychoacoustic methodology is used to investigate lexical stress encoding by 15 Vietnamese-Accented English (VAE) speakers. In this framework, Just Noticeable Difference (JND) thresholds in F0/pitch, intensity, and duration are used to investigate the strategy that speakers rely on to produce lexical stress. The key finding for VAE speakers is that they rank the three acoustic correlates as follows: F0 (67.61%) > Intensity (54.28%) > Duration (31.42%). According to Nguyen and Ingram (2005) and Nguyen (2017), this hierarchy mirrors the strategy that Vietnamese speakers rely on to encode tone in their native language. Transferring their native prosodic strategy into English affords them …

Accentedness And Intelligibility: The Typical Phonetic Story Of An Lx Couple In The Us, Mahdi Duris

Linguistic Portfolios

For the past 20 years, intelligibility research has paved the way in making pronunciation teaching and learning about individual competency rather than sounding like a native speaker. The body of research has empirically shown that language speakers of English (Lx) can be intelligible while sounding heavily accented. However, studies have yet to examine how first-generation immigrant couples from different cultural backgrounds interact with each other using an Lx. A phonetic analysis of an oral transcription is conducted to describe the segmental features of Dominican English (DomE) and Pakistani English (PakE), two Lx English spoken by Tabinda and Tariq, as they …

Klattgrid And Formant-Based Speech Synthesis: Demonstration With Betine, Hannah Loukusa, Jacob Haapoja

Linguistic Portfolios

In this paper, we describe a method for extracting speech segment features from an audio recording such that speech may be reconstructed while maintaining emphasis and stress with minimal annotation. We also present a script for the linguistic research tool, Praat, for performing this extraction and reconstruction via KlattGrid synthesis [1]. This technique contributes to the ongoing research efforts to preserve the Betine language (ISO 639-3:eot), one of 10 critically endangered languages spoken in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa.

Speech Synthesis By Syllable A Concatenation: Experimentation With Betine, Ettien Koffi, Daniel Fabres, Swathi R. Pingili, Gopikrishna K. Chava

Linguistic Portfolios

The endangerment of minority languages has reached pandemic proportions. No country or continent is spared. The editors of Ethnologue (2019:14-15) report that 2,923 of the world’s 7,111 languages are critically endangered. McWorther (2003:257-8) adds that, statistically speaking, “A language dies roughly every two weeks.” UNESCO (2010) projects that 90% of the world’s indigenous languages will be dead by the end of 2100. In Africa alone, Kandybowicz and Torrence (2017:3) note that 201 languages of the estimated 2000 languages have already died, and 308 others are on the brink of extinction. Minority languages worldwide are in such deplorable conditions that the …

The Acoustic Phonetic Properties Of Voiceless Fricatives In Anyi, Ettien Koffi

Linguistic Portfolios

African languages are well endowed with fricatives. Common ones /f, v, s, z, ʒ, ʃ, h /, less common ones /β, ɸ, s’, ç, ɣ, χ, ɦ/, and rare ones /ʃw, ɕ, ɕw , zɥ/ are all found in West African languages (Ladefoged 1968:45-66). Yet, surprisingly, there is a severe paucity of data on the acoustic phonetic properties of fricatives in these languages. This paper seeks to remedy this situation by providing a comprehensive overview of voiceless fricatives in Anyi, an Akan language spoken in Côte d’Ivoire. Twelve correlates, i.e., F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, Center of Gravity, intensity, duration, …

Synthesizers Demonstrated On Betine, Clare Miller, Isabella Randolph

Linguistic Portfolios

This paper provides basic information on developing speech synthesis to help preserve and revitalize critically endangered languages. It uses Betine, (ISO 639-3:eot), as a model. The death of minority languages is escalating globally, and 90% are predicted to die by 2100, which results in the loss of cultural heritage and knowledge. Synthesizing speech in dying and near-extinct languages can preserve and even revitalize them. The paper includes spectrographs and waveforms of the given Beti name transcribed phonetically as [aːɟo]. It also contains voice component measurements and the synthesizing programs used for comparison. The measurements taken from the data include F0/pitch, …

The Acoustic Phonetic Properties Of The Epenthetic Vowel In Spanish-Accented English, Luis Lopez

Linguistic Portfolios

The purpose of this research paper is to describe the acoustic phonetic features of the epenthetic vowel inserted by Spanish-accented speakers of English in sC syllable onsets. Numerous studies have examined this issue. Many have identified the epenthetic vowel as [ɛ]. However, its true acoustic phonetic identity has not been established. This is the first study of its kind that relies on acoustic phonetic measurements to examine the epenthetic vowel. Formant correlates (F0, F1, F2, F3, F4), intensity, and duration cues are used in revealing the true properties of this epenthetic vowel. The insights derived from this study also have …

Socio-Acoustic Survey Responses To Infant Cry Samples: Why Intensity In Dba Matters The Most, Ettien Koffi, Benjamin Witts

Linguistic Portfolios

Infant cry researchers, Fairbrother et al. (2019), Collardeau et al. (2019), Rahman et al. (2023), among others, have reported that crying alone triggers unwanted and intrusive thoughts in some postpartum parents, including thoughts of harming their babies. Barr (2014) states unambiguously that crying is the main trigger of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), also referred to as Abusive Head Trauma (AHT). Yet so far, there is no consensus in academic circles as to which acoustic correlate is responsible for triggering these thoughts or actions. Most work to date is concentrated on F0/pitch, though findings about its influence are conflicting. Meanwhile Koffi …

Gamers’ Perception Of Accents And Stereotypes In Video Games, Camille Mcdermott

Linguistic Portfolios

This paper reports on a research study examining how gamers respond to questions regarding accents used in video gaming. With the increase in technological advances, video games are becoming an intricate part of many people's lives. In this paper, we hope to critically analyze gathered research on the effects of repeatedly using stereotypical accents in video games to see if the continued use has influenced gamers' perceptions of minorities and/or ethnicities. The research will also indicate whether video games impact how gamers view accents in the gaming world and whether they recognize any stereotypical ideas they may have picked up …

A Comprehensive Review Of Formants: Linguistic And Some Paralinguistic Applications, Ettien Koffi

Linguistic Portfolios

The ability to use Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and spectrographs to disentangle, measure, and visualize formants has had a profound and beneficial impact on fields as varied as signal processing, acoustic phonetics, speech pathology, speech synthesis, and voice biometrics. However, formants are relatively unknown to the average phonologist or linguist. This review is intended to explain the benefits of knowing formants and using them in the description of languages. The focus is on F1, F2, F3, and F4 because they are the most important formants. Yet, passing remarks are made about F5. Elements of the discussions include F0 (pitch) because, …

Editor’S Prologue: Welcome To The 13th Volume, Ettien Koffi

Linguistic Portfolios

No abstract provided.

St. Cloud State University Employee Scholarship Bibliography [2023], Thomas D. Steman

Employee Scholarship Bibliographies

No abstract provided.

Measuring Trust And Discrimination In The Healthcare System, The Case Of Minnesota, Gwendolyn O. Hillger, Ann Finan, James Cottrill, Amanda Hemmesch, Sandrine Zerbib

Scholarship in SCSU Survey

Using data from our 2023 Fall Survey of Minnesota Residents, we examine the relationship between partisanship, education, and age on trust in the healthcare system. We also examine the relationship between demographic factors and the likelihood of experiencing discrimination in health care services.

The Times They Are A-Changin’: A Longitudinal Review Of Public Opinion Methodology, 2011-2023, Paige M. Thissen, James Cottrill, Amanda Hemmesch, Ann Finan, Sandrine Zerbib

Scholarship in SCSU Survey

Rapid changes in survey practices and respondent behavior poses significant challenges to public opinion research methodology. We review these challenges, and their implications, here.

Trust Across Scales: Investigating The Relationship Among Trust And Confidence In Social Institutions, Childhood Aces, And Political Identity, Riley W. Briekos, Gwendolyn O. Hillger, Paige M. Thissen, Benjamin P. Brecht, Avery M. Chapp, James D. Harms, James Cottrill, Amanda Hemmesch, Ann Finan, Sandrine Zerbib

Scholarship in SCSU Survey

Using data from our 2023 Fall Survey of Minnesota Residents, we examine the relationship between trust and confidence in social institutions and how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact perceptions and behavior.

Gerontology Times [Spring 2024], St. Cloud State University

Gerontology Newsletter

Gerontology Times, Volume 42, Issue 1

St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report, Vol. 26, No. 1, King Banaian, Mana Komai Molle

St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report

Area employment is expected to experience only a normal seasonal increase through mid-year. Survey results were slightly better than the most recent quarter. Significant pressures exist to increase wages, and in some cases firms did not think they could raise prices as well. Firms were evenly split between thinking affordable childcare and workforce housing were the most needed policies to address workforce needs.

The Repository @ St. Cloud State 2022/23 Annual Report, St. Cloud State University

Annual Reports

2022/23 Repository @ St. Cloud State annual report. The report documents the goals for the year, the accomplishments, and statistics.

From The White House To The Lake House: Tracing Eliza Winston's Enslavement And Her Pursuit Of Freedom In Minnesota, Christopher P. Lehman

Ethnic and Women's Studies Faculty Publications

Eliza Winston was an African American woman who spent her first forty-three years of life as an enslaved person. Born around 1817, she suffered captivity by multiple enslavers in the slave states Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana and in the free state Minnesota. The couple John McLemore and Betsy Donelson-McLemore kept her in bondage in Tennessee from 1822 to 1834. President Andrew Jackson's wife was a Donelson, and he intervened--while in office at the White House--to keep Winston enslaved by the Donelsons for another fourteen years. After the McLemores held her in urban Nashville, Mary Eastin-Polk brought her to a …

Commencement Program [Fall 2023], St. Cloud State University

Commencement Programs

St. Cloud State University commencement program for fall 2023