Digital Commons Network^™

Viral Hollywood: How Social Media & Other Emerging Technologies Have Molded The Modern Moviegoing Landscape, Benjamin P. Conniff

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There’s no denying that the rise of the internet has brought about change in the Hollywood landscape. Fans now use social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to share word-of-mouth about movies both good and bad. In a sense, anyone can use these new “spreadable media” to be a critic. I myself took it one step further and started my own film review blog. I was even published in the College Heights Herald student newspaper for over a year! In gauging my audience’s tastes in social media usage and in film, I have uncovered the fact that the hot-button marketing issues …

Binoculars: Management Strategies In Film, Kamryn Fall

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

College Students’ Perceptions Of Barriers To Seeking Health Care, Harika Medavarapu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Access to health care is important to obtain health equity and improve quality of life (Healthy People, 2012). Various factors such as religion, education, family income, geographic location, and travel constraints act as barriers to access health care (Celeya et al., 2010). On the other hand, the health behaviors of medical students vary from general population of same age (Clair, Wilson, & Clore, 2004). Consequently, the perceived barriers may also vary based on the majors of students. Therefore, the main purpose of this research was to identify the difference in perceived barriers between students with health-based majors and non-health based …

A Study Of Effective Characteristics Most Valued In Superintendents By Principals, Camille Goldman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effective characteristics of superintendents through the principal’s perception. The perceptions of principals were compared to those of superintendents. A one-way ANOVA was used to interpret and analyze the data for this study. All superintendents and principals in public schools in Indiana were invited to participate in this study. This study was conducted by administering a survey to public school district superintendents and principals in Indiana. The Effective Characteristics of Superintendents survey was developed by me to quantitatively measure the perceptions of superintendents and principals with research from the ISLLC standards, theorists, …

The Essence Of A Gentleman: A Phenomenological Study Of Honor And Masculinity In Wabash College’S Gentleman’S Rule, Jacob Isaacs

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined how college men at Wabash College understand good behavior and masculinity while living under a subjective honor code: the Gentleman’s Rule. This included how students learned about and talk about the honor code and particular behaviors that students would identify as exemplifying the Gentleman’s Rule in action. To unearth this information, 12 current Wabash students were each individually interviewed for roughly an hour. Contributions from respondents were subjected to a phenomenological analysis to determine the essence of students’ experiences related to the Gentleman’s Rule. The study found that students typically learned about the Gentleman’s Rule as prospective …

The Balanced Approach To Literacy Instruction In Middle Schools, Tenicia Rae Helmberger

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the frequency with which middle school teachers implement research-based literacy strategies serves as a predictor of success on the English/language arts portion of ISTEP+. The study looked at research-based strategies in fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Teachers of English, language arts, social studies, science, and a combination of the above subjects were surveyed. Seven questions from each area were posed relating to the frequency of implementation per quarter. The study was split into two groups, high-poverty schools and low-poverty schools. Of those teachers surveyed, teachers in low-achieving, low-poverty schools reported using research-based …

Matière Grise De Kivu Ruhorahoza : Un Nouveau Discours Filmique Pour Le Rwanda?, Charles J. Sugnet

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Films like Hotel Rwanda, Sometimes in April, and Shooting Dogs have codified certain ways of representing the 1994 Rwandan genocide, with realist aesthetics, epic sweep, and aspirations to historical authenticity. A young Rwandan director, Kivu Ruhorahoza, has won two major prizes at the Tribeca Festival for his 2011 feature Grey Matter, a breakthrough film that is different from its predecessors in almost every respect. Ruhorahoza’s film is intimate, cosmopolitan, metaphorical, and avant-garde; it requires some effort to understand, yet it is extremely moving. On the 20th Anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, it offers new ways of understanding the consequences …

Use Of Social Media By Indiana Principals And Superintendents, Robert Stephen Griffin Jr.

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of social media by Indiana K-12 principals and superintendents. The use of social media has become prevalent both as a social and professional tool. The social media movement has evolved quickly over the past five years; however, schools and school districts have been slow to effectively utilize this tool out of fear, apprehension, and ignorance. The opportunity to explore social media as a professional tool by educational leaders was opportune and timely as this tool becomes a multi-purpose tool in today’s society. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, and one-way …

"The Falling Man" As Viewed In The Lens Of The "Public Sphere", Laura Reinacher

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Online Experiences Of Adolescents With Asperger’S Syndrome And High-Functioning Autism, Shin Ruu Ko

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the online experiences of 10 adolescents with Asperger's Disorder (AD). This study was exploratory in nature and employed a qualitative approach. Three research questions guided this study: (a) What are the positive and negative online experiences of youth with ASD?, (b) What are the perceptions of online interactions in comparison to offline interactions held by youth with ASD?, and (c) What experiences with social connectedness and cyberbullying do youth with ASD have as a result of Internet usage? Four themes and 14 subthemes emerged during the process of analyzing the data: (a) Benefits of Internet Usage (Social, …

The Experiences Of Gay And Lesbian College Athletes, Channell Barbour

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of gay and lesbian college student athletes. Participants of the study were given an opportunity to share their stories about their lived experiences on college campuses as gay or lesbian student athletes. The primary research question explored was, What are the experiences of gay and lesbian college student athletes on college campuses? Other questions that guided this study included, What impact does self-disclosing as gay or lesbian have on student athletes’ sport participation? How does the larger campus environment impact gay and lesbian student athletes’ overall collegiate experiences? Furthermore, this …

What Adds Up To Being: The Work Of Tanna Burchinal, Tanna L. Burchinal

All Theses

My practice takes form around embodied experience. I affect signifiers of the human body within the ordered grid, the scientific text, and the logic of the machine, to highlight the interdependencies of physical bodies and those social constructs that produce and influence identity. We are a part of these constructs that both extend and limit; we are enacting and interacting with them. I do not aim to eradicate these structures of power (without them, our identities are in chaos). Instead, I point out the pitfalls of these constructs that are perceived as unchanging, by making interaction and experience integral to …

Tiget Heart : A Short Story, Wai Yin, Catriona O'Neil

Artists-in-Residence Programme : Exhibition Catalogues

As an illustrator, Cat O'Neil's work resolves around telling stories through metaphorical imagery. Tiger Heart is an exhibition of one of these stories, which centres on the topic of street harassment.

[More Information about the exhibition with supplementary video]

All the works shown in this book is under the copyright of Cat O'Neil. Do not copy or reproduce the work without prior consent (except for review purpose).

Obesity Among Young American Indian Adults In North Dakota, Abby Omahen

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Obesity among American Indian young adults is a significant health problem. There is an increase in the prevalence rate of diseases associated with obesity which tend to have high medical costs and high mortality rates. Fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, gender and education are factors which could affect obesity among American Indians. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study was to determine if there was an association between certain factors (fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, gender and education level) and obesity among young American Indian adults in North Dakota. The secondary purpose was to determine if there was a …

Polysubstance Use Patterns And Psychosocial Functioning Among Participants In The Electronic Dance Music Scene, Danielle D. Alfrey

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electronic dance music (EDM) events are strongly associated with polydrug use, or the use of several substances at one time (Fernandez-Calderon et al., 2011), which has contributed to overall negative stereotypes of the EDM scene. Nitrous oxide use has been documented in EDM research, but mainly in qualitative designs (Hunt, Evans, Moloney, and Bailey, 2009). Qualitative research suggested participants pair nitrous oxide inhalation with use of ecstasy, or MDMA, for feeling an enhanced effect. This EDM study examined nitrous oxide use using a quantitative design and investigated how polysubstance use was related to positive and negative consequences of involvement in …

Development Of A Methodology For Evaluating Quality Characteristics Of Fused Deposition Modeling, Dominique Winston Sealy

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing rapid reproductive systems are gaining popularity within the manufacturing industry. One of the many benefits of such systems has been the exploration of building practical sacrificial patterns for investment casted metals. Methods such as, Castform and Quickcast, has been developed for selective laser sintering and Stereolithography apparatus technologies respectively. Research has demonstrated significant cost savings when Additive manufacturing rapid reproductive systems are utilized for customized or small batch production of sacrificial patterns. The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology for evaluating quality characteristics of Fused Deposition Modeling. Since Fused Deposition Modeling have been demonstrated by …

Analytical Modeling And Feasibility Study For Adoption Of Renewable Energy Sources In A Single Family Dwelling, Jimmy B. Linn

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last four or five decades, increased political and social pressure has been placed on commercial and residential consumers to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and invest in alternative methods of energy production for electricity, heating and cooling. Commercially, wind turbines and photovoltaic energy production equipment has sprung up all over the country. Other forms of energy production such as hydroelectric and geothermal energy production facilities have also been built. During this time however, very few residential ‘green energy’ investments have been made. Only in recent years have residential home owners begun to “wet their feet” on ‘green’ energy …

La Brigada Ramona Parra; Muralismo Y Cambio Social En Chile / La Brigada Ramona Parra ; Muralismo And Social Change In Chile, Sarah Baumann

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mi motivación para esta proyecto era mi interés en el poder de murales en Chile, y los cambias sociales que arte callejero pueden iniciar. Arte callejero he tenido un efecto muy grande en la historia y políticos de Chile. Yo quería descubrir más sobre esta historia, y también cómo los organizaciones que hacen murales, cómo la Brigada de Ramona Parra, funciona hoy. Para mi proyecto, yo usé entrevista, guías de arte callejero, observaciones en escuelas de Bellas Artes, y un exposición de murales. En mis resultas, yo encontré que la Brigada de Ramona Parra ha cambiado la escena política en …

“He Venido A Servir A Mi Gente” El Liceo Guacolda Y La Educación Intercultural En Chile / "I Have Come To Serve My People " The Liceo Guacolda And Intercultural Education In Chile, Jake Highleyman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The concept of intercultural education is present in many countries worldwide: it’s the idea of learning through the lenses of more than one culture, not just the Western or dominant one. In Chile, intercultural education is most commonly associated with the mapuche, the largest indigenous group in Chile. Since 1993, Chile has had a federal Bilingual Intercultural Education program (EIB). However, almost all of the implementation is left up to individual schools. The schools that do apply the program at a high school level only do so in an elective-based manner. That is, only students who elect to take a …

Introduction To New Work In Ecocriticism, Simon C. Estok, Murali Sivaramakrishnan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Rediscovering Local Environmentalism In Taiwan, Peter I-Min Huang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Rediscovering Local Environmentalism in Taiwan" Peter I-min Huang challenges the domination of "the global" and the marginalization of "the local." Huang argues that by the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century globalism seemed to have toppled localism in ecocriticism debates. Ecocritics embraced enthusiastically such concepts as Ursula K. Heise's "eco-cosmopolitanism" and the arguments associated with it that spoke for global forms of environmental thinking and practice. Yet, arguments for "the local" persist in part because of Heise's constructive criticisms of it. Focusing on local environmental movements in Taiwan, Huang identifies and discusses scholarly work …

Japanese Poetry And Nature In Borson's Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida, Shoshannah Ganz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Japanese Poetry and Nature in Borson's Short Journey Upriver Toward Ōishida" Shoshannah Ganz shows how the limited focus of research on Roo Borson oversimplifies the poetry and ignores the tradition that Borson is aligning her work with both in form and content: classical Chinese and Japanese poetry and their perspectives on nature. Further, Ganz explores the ways in which Borson's poetry overcomes intuitively the binaries of East/West, human/non-human, and the further binaries within the human/non-human created through representational language. Ganz contextualizes Borson's work within the master/disciple lineage of Chinese and Japanese tradition and explores how Borson …

The Systemic Approach, Biosemiotic Theory, And Ecocide In Australia, Iris Ralph

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Systemic Approach, Biosemiotic Theory, and Ecocide in Australia" Iris Ralph summarizes an argument in defense of disciplinarity ("openness from closure") that Cary Wolfe makes in What is Posthumanism? She also comments on an implicit argument that Wendy Wheeler makes in The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. As Ralph argues, Wheeler's implicit claim is that biosemiotic language, which humans share with other biological beings, connects human animals and nonhuman animals on moral and affective grounds. Ralph summarizes Wolfe's defense of disciplinarity that literary and cultural studies scholars who engage with the "question …

Ecocriticism And Persian And Greek Myths About The Origin Of Fire, Massih Zekavat

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ecocriticism and Persian and Greek Myths about the Origin of Fire" Massih Zekavat argues that some contemporary ecological biases are rooted in ancient thought. Further, Zekavat argues that the study of mythology is relevant to the understanding of culture and ecology thus assisting ecocriticism. The investigation of man/woman, culture/nature, and human/nature binary oppositions conveys that Greek and Persian myths are mostly anthropocentric and androcentric. Zekavat postulates that one way to revise contemporary ecological conceptions is to study myths to shed light on the mind and context of their creators and believers, their representation of natural phenomena, and …

Ecocriticism And National Image In 舌尖上的中国 (A Bite Of China), Mingwen Xiao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ecocriticism and National Image in 舌尖上的中国 (A Bite of China)" Mingwen Xiao examines the multi-faceted contents of the popular 2012 television series. Instead of exhibiting delicacies made by professional chefs in luxury restaurants, A Bite of China displays local food and dishes made by ordinary people. By focus on every-day food preparation, the show constructs a performance where class, ethnicity, gender, age, and other social markers are blurred and the geographically and ethnically diverse ways of food preparation and consumption appear as a cohesive Chinese culinary identity. Xiao argues that A Bite of China plays a role …

Orenda, Lauren Reeks

Senior Honors Theses

The following work is a feature length screenplay about Anna Morris, an 18-year-old girl who finds herself faced with a moral dilemma when her estranged father, Robert, contacts her on her 18th birthday. When she learns about Robert’s past involvement in an online child pornography ring Anna must decide if she can forgive him, or -- more importantly -- if he is worthy of forgiveness. However, as the story unfolds we find that it is not just Anna who needs to forgive. This story approaches issues of repentance, growth, and the journey into adulthood as Anna takes on each new …

Weeb-Con, Rachel Williams

Senior Honors Theses

One of the most important parts in the development stage of filmmaking is writing a screenplay. Weeb‐Con is a thirty‐two‐page action comedy screenplay. After an anime convention in Galveston, Texas, is forcefully taken over by armed robbers in creepy, badlymade fursuits, it is up to Dolores “Dolly” Lopez, a Lolita who must lead the convention attendees ‐ including her family and her fat pitbull Butterball ‐ and make them band together. Dolly is something of a perfectionist loner; but, with the help of her new friends Seymour, a cowardly nerd, and Boyd, a stoner who is smarter than he looks, …

Engineer Manual 385 Effectiveness: A Study Of Predictive Analytics, Scott Arias

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Under the guidance of the United States Army Corps of Engineering Manual 385 (EM 385), the federal government has taken a stringent stance on construction safety. Using the mandated Occupational Safety and Health regulations and the 29 Code of Federal Regulation as a safety foundation, the EM 385 requires project-specific planning, continuous oversight and direct control of all safety activities. These mandates, required of every Department of Defense entity, focus on safety management not found within other federal agencies, in an attempt to reduce the number and severity of mishaps. This study looks for causation between the use of the …

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis's Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It proposes that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. Its review and study of related primary and secondary sources determines that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of the film medium through time, this thesis demonstrates a strong connection between documentary film and …

Monsters In Common: Identity And Community In Postapocalyptic Science Fiction After 9/11, Jeremy J. Burns

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the aftermath 11 September, 2001, postapocalyptic science fiction has offered a way to make sense of the events of that day, as well as the years of social, cultural and political upheaval that have followed. In many ways, 9/11 began immediately to take on apocalyptic significance in the American national narrative, seemingly marking the end of one period and the beginning of another, entirely different one. To think of 9/11 as a kind of apocalyptic break with the past, however, does not tell the whole story. Moreover, such thinking denies key historical linkages between the American response to 9/11 …