Digital Commons Network^™

The Black Arts And Black Power Movements In The Artwork Of John T. Riddle, Jr., Isabella Vitti

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the under-studied work of the Black sculptor John T. Riddle, Jr. and how he was influenced by the politics of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Police brutality, the Vietnam War, the Black Power Movement, and the Watts uprising had a major impact on Riddle’s work.

"How Is Photography?": Robert Heinecken's Photographic Concept At The University Of California, Los Angeles, 1960–1991, Noa Wesley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the photography program Robert Heinecken established at UCLA, highlighting his interest in teaching photography as an idea rather than a technologically inflected medium. This pedagogical model provides a lens through which I trace the work of three of his students: Maria Nordman, John Divola, and Uta Barth.

From Derby Tracks To Surf Shacks: Reflections Of California’S Changing Cultural Landscape Through Artistic Renditions Of Recreation 1930s-1960s, David Walls

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to analyze works of art originating in the state of California during the 20^th century to better understand how sports and recreation were used as a subject matter to reflect upon the state’s changing cultural landscape. This changing landscape encompasses a wide range of social, cultural, economic, and political topics, however, the topics of race, migration, and economic strife are the most consistently reflected in the artistic production of this time and must be emphasized. Scholarship of art created within this region and timeframe has neglected the impact of recreational subject matter and …

Saturated Skies, Childhood Trophies, And Colorful Plants, Nicholas Norris

Theses and Dissertations

My work presents interiors through the guise of memory while focusing on the sentimental objects within them. Through metaphors and signs I give form to certain events, sensations and out-of-perspective observations. Saturated skies, childhood trophies, and colorful plants find their place alongside decorated walls, floors, chairs, tables, rugs and beds.

Altar/Installations By Amalia Mesa-Bains In A Feminist Context, Carmen Del Valle Hermo

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the path-breaking art installations and attendant writing of Amalia Mesa-Bains, who fused the home altar traditions of Mexican and Chicana women with contemporary considerations of identity politics and hybridity, naming the form domesticana. It situates her practice within a trajectory of feminist art.

An Exploratory Survey Of Code-Switching In The Coachella Valley, Ca, Allan K. Escobar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis surveyed a group of second generation Mexican-American Spanish-English bilingual speakers in the Coachella Valley, California to determine common motives for code-switching in speech. In previous studies, motives or triggers to code-switching have been identified and recorded in major urban cities such as Los Angeles and New York, and this thesis seeks to identify this phenomenon in the rural and agricultural cities of the Coachella Valley, with focus on Indio and Coachella, CA. Furthermore, another goal of this study was to analyze research on code-switching in a sample of older adults ages 45-75 as compared to much of the …

The Impacts Of Episodic Floods, Droughts, Turbidites On Organic Carbon Burial Over The Past 2,000 Years In The Santa Barbara Basin, California, Caitlyn Sarno

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past several millennia, Southern California has experienced episodic climate that have influenced the magnitude and composition of terrestrial and marine material that ultimately reaches ocean sediments. Here, we analyze elemental concentrations, stable isotopes, and n-alkane lipids as tracers of terrestrial and marine sources in drought, turbidite, and flood horizons from a well-dated sediment core in the Santa Barbara Basin (SBB) that spans the last 2,000 years. Stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N), indicate that more terrestrial organic carbon (OC) input occurred during floods relative to non-event periods, while bulk C/N ratios remained relatively constant (~10). Long chain n-alkanes, (C27, …

Silver Sands, David Riley

Theses and Dissertations

Silver Sands is a thirty-minute documentary film and accompanying installation that traces the story of Marc Hampton, a gay, desert-dwelling Vietnam vet, former Playgirl model, and vintage car collector who lost two lovers to AIDS. Drawing on videotaped interviews, shots of his house and environs, and extensive use of his personal photographic archive, this work addresses evolving ideas of memory and representation within the queer community. The film is divided into various chapters which function as meditations on masculinity, aging, loss, spirituality and intergenerational relationships. Marc becomes an archetypal figure––the survivor––whose meandering recollections illustrate some of the complexities of gay …

Natural And Anthropogenic Drivers Of Tree Evolutionary Dynamics, Brandon M. Lind

Theses and Dissertations

Species of trees inhabit diverse and heterogeneous environments, and often play important ecological roles in such communities. As a result of their vast ecological breadth, trees have become adapted to various environmental pressures. In this dissertation I examine various environmental factors that drive evolutionary dynamics in threePinusspecies in California and Nevada, USA. In chapter two, I assess the role of management influence of thinning, fire, and their interaction on fine-scale gene flow within fire-suppressed populations of Pinus lambertiana, a historically dominant and ecologically important member of mixed-conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, California. Here, I find evidence …

Rebuilding Trust In Community Colleges, Seher Awan

Theses and Dissertations

The California Community College (CCC) system is the largest system of higher education in the United States, with 72 districts and 113 colleges. The CCC system exhibits statistics demonstrating success; however, as with any organization, trust, communication, and leadership play an essential role in creating stable and productive organizations. Institutions that struggle with trust within the system are often plagued with rotating administration, a breakdown in communication, and accreditation issues. Unique to CCCs is the required participation of its staff in the decision-making process, which is known as shared or participatory governance. Along with participatory governance, the stringent accreditation standards …

'Illegal And Void': The Effects Of State And Federal Legislation On Filipino Migrants In The American Empire, Hayley Mcneill

Theses and Dissertations

The colonial relationship between the United States and the Philippines helped periodize Filipino migration to America in the first half of the 20th century, drastically in the 1920s and 1930s. Young Filipino men moved from the American-governed islands to other American territories and throughout the West Coast. Filipinos moved consistently for work. The constant seasonal travel, state and federal legislation, and projected characteristics on the young men increased Filipinos inability to settle, enacted barriers against marriage, and halted Filipinos ability to reach adulthood. Laws surrounded by exclusionary attitudes, including the Cable Act, California Civil Code Sections 60 and 69, the …

Racial Intolerance During The California Gold Rush, Raul David Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and lasted to the mid-1850s. Though short in duration, the impact the Gold Rush had in the United States, along with populations from many areas in the rest of the world, proved detrimental to many different ethnic groups that arrived to the mines and came into contact with various cultures, principally the white Anglo-American culture. This thesis focuses on themes such as race, gender roles, free labor versus unfree labor, extra-legal violence, and informal laws passed in the mines to exclude foreigners. It addresses why certain nationalities were taxed and targeted as foes, …

The Effect Of Physician Ownership On Quality Of Care For Outpatient Procedures, Xinliang Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) play an important role in providing surgical and diagnostic services in an outpatient setting. They can be owned by physicians who staff them. Previous studies focused on patient “cherry picking” and over-utilization of services due to physician ownership. Few studies examined the relationship between physician ownership and quality of care. Using a retrospective cohort of patients who underwent colonoscopy, this study examined the effect of physician ownership of ASCs on the occurrence of adverse events after outpatient colonoscopy. Agency theory is used to as a conceptual framework. Depending on the extent to which consumers are able …

Gay Marriage In The Utah And California Media: A Content Analysis Of Newspaper Frames Used In The Coverage Of Proposition 8, Michael Todd Hollingshead

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a content analysis of news frames used in the coverage of Proposition 8 by newspapers in Utah and California, spanning the three months prior to its passage in November 2008, to the three months after its passage. A total of 401 news stories from five newspapers were analyzed to examine which of five news frames (attribution of responsibility, human interest, conflict, morality, and economic consequence) were used most predominantly and if the use of those frames varied by newspaper. Conflict was the most predominantly used frame, followed by attribution of responsibility, morality, economic consequence and human interest. …

Examining California’S Assembly Bill 1629 And The Long-Term Care Reimbursement Act: Did Nursing Home Nurse Staffing Change?, Matthew Krauchunas

Theses and Dissertations

California’s elderly population over age 85 is estimated to grow 361% by the year 2050. Many of these elders are frail and highly dependent on caregivers making them more likely to need nursing home care. A 1998 United States Government Accountability Office report identified poor quality of care in California nursing homes. This report spurred multiple Assembly Bills in California designed to increase nursing home nurse staffing, change the state’s Medi-Cal reimbursement methodology, or both. The legislation culminated in Assembly Bill (AB) 1629, signed into law in September 2004, which included the Long-Term Care Reimbursement Act. This legislation changed the …

Implications Of Introduced Mule Deer On Santa Catalina Island, California : Their Impacts, Population Ecology, And Management, Thad A. Manuwal

Theses and Dissertations

A small group of mule deer were introduced to Santa Catalina Island in the early
1930s. The mule deer population increased through the 1940s and 1950s and remains widespread and abundant today. Large browsing ungulates are not native to Santa Catalina Island and there is concern that nonnative mule deer are damaging endemic trees and shrubs on the island when foraging. This study was designed to develop quantitative information on diets, foraging behavior, movements, and population biology of mule deer on Catalina Island.

Diet analysis indicated mule deer are consuming a wide variety of native and
endemic plants found on …

An Investigation Of Thermodynamic Characteristics Associated With California Tornadoes And Us Landfalling Tropical Cyclone Tornadoes, Gregory James Nordstrom

Theses and Dissertations

Limited tornado research has been conducted across the state of California, especially when looking at the low-level thermodynamics of tornado genesis. In comparison much more research has been undertaken across the United States. This study examines low-level thermodynamic parameters associated with California tornadoes between 1960 and 2005. The study also examines similarities within the low-level thermodynamic parameters associated with California tornadoes and tornadoes associated with landfalling hurricanes between 1960 and 2005. The effect of the ocean on the low-levels of the atmosphere seems to be a strong tornado discriminator when analyzing California tornadoes. This discriminator is especially evident when breaking …

Mormon Mortuary Patterns At The Block 49 And Seccombe Lake Cemeteries, Howard S. Irvine

Theses and Dissertations

Death customs perform a socially restorative function among cultures and are a meaningful expression of the value system of any particular culture. Death studies allow the examination of the values considered most significant by the studied culture. This thesis will examine and interpret the material culture recovered at two small cemeteries: Block 49, Utah, and Seccombe Lake, California. One result will show the material manifestation of Mormon religious beliefs in their mortuary practices. The final goal is to suggest that a more thorough examination of a religious sect's beliefs can create a general model of mortuary practices for that religious …

Saints In The Secular City: A History Of The Los Angeles Stake, Chad M. Orton

Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in 1847 and continuing to the turn of the century, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) were encouraged to gather to Utah, where they formed communities seperated from the evils of the world around them. While Mormonism continues to be closely associated with Utah, in 1989 it is a world-wide church with nearly seven million members, most residing outside of Utah, and many of these in major urban areas. Nevertheless, few studies have been made of how the Church has developed outside of Utah.

When the Los Angeles Stake was organized in 1923, it …

New Hope: A Mormon Colony In Central California, Clint Mccready

Theses and Dissertations

New Hope was a small Mormon agricultural community in Central California. It was founded in 1846, by Samuel Brannan, on the hope that Brigham Young would make it the center stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The approximately twenty farmers at New Hope labored diligently under the illusion that thousands of their brethren would shortly join them. When President Young decided to settle in the Great Basin, the New Hope settlement was terminated that same year: 1847.

The Public Relations Practices Of Directors Of Institutes Of Religion Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In California, 1974-75, Ronald Charl Louw

Theses and Dissertations

Seventy-five directors of the Institutes of Religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California, responded to a questionnaire regarding their public relations' practices. Institute directors with formal training in public relations utilized more practices, an average of 30.4, than directors without formal training who used an average of 26.9 practices. Institute directors in different locations (divisions) did not differ in the average number of practices used. Seventeen percent of the directors had structured public relations' programs. Directors emphasized more frequently public relations practices relating to priesthood leaders (72 percent) and students (67 percent) than practices relating …

Environmental Factors That Influence The Timing Of A Cyclic En Masse Foraging Migration Of Ligia Occidentalis Dana (Crustacea: Isopoda) On The Northern Gulf Of California, J. Wanless Southwick

Theses and Dissertations

En masse foraging migrations of Ligia occidentalis Dana were conspicuous events on rocky beaches near Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico. Experiments were conducted to determine which factors of the environment contained the regulating rhythm for the migration, if indeed the event were cyclic. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory using a tide-simulation aquarium and in the field using mark and release techniques. A time-lapse photography system was used in the field to quantify isopod activity for comparison with environmental factors. A regular cycle for the foraging migration was found. It was in tune with both insolation and tidal cycles so that …