Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Seven Automated Measures Of Syntactic Complexity, Laura Elizabeth Wilde

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared seven syntactic measures which can be automatically generated by the Computerized Profiling (CP) software: Mean Length of Utterance in morphemes or words (MLUm or MLUw), Mean Syntactic Length (MSL), the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn), the Picture Elicited Scoring Procedure (PESP) for the Language Analysis Remediation and Screening Profile (LARSP), the Syntactic Complexity Score (MSC) scoring of LARSP, and Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS). Language samples came from 192 children, 106 typically developing children, ages 5;6 to 11;2 and 86 children with language impairment, ages 5;6 to 11;1. Patterns of correlation were consistent for children with or without …

Phonemic Categorization Of Eight-To-Ten Year Old Children With An Articulation Disorder, Marjorie A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Phonemic categorization is the ability to discriminate and organize speech sounds into categories. This ability begins soon after birth and continues to refine as an individual matures. An association between categorical labeling and phonological awareness has been reported. A strong link between perception and production has been established. The present study examined phonemic categorization of two groups of four listeners. Eight-to ten-year-old children with an articulation disorder were compared with typically speaking peers to determine if the two groups differed in their ability to categorize speech sounds. Behavioral and electrophysiological measures were used to ascertain if any differences existed. These …

Cancer Information-Seeking Experiences: The Implications Of Hispanic Ethnicity And Spanish Language, Robin C. Vanderpool, Julie Kornfeld, Lila Finney Rutten, Linda Squiers

Health, Behavior & Society Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Strategies to support cancer information-seeking among Hispanics are needed.

METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) to explore cancer information-seeking experiences among respondents according to ethnicity and language of interview.

RESULTS: Over 80% of Spanish-speaking Hispanics had never looked for cancer information. Compared to English-speaking respondents, Spanish-speaking Hispanics who sought cancer information indicated their search took a lot of effort (67%), was hard to understand (54%), and frustrating (42%). Spanish-speaking Hispanics noted minimal confidence in obtaining cancer information.

CONCLUSIONS: Language and cultural differences must be considered in the design, implementation, and dissemination of …

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Shane Bevell, Mamie Peers

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of English Language Learners Seeking A Graduate Degree In Speech Language Pathology, Lisa Anne Prushko

Honors Scholar Theses

A shortage of bilingual/bicultural speech language pathologists may reflect a problem with recruitment and retention of bilingual/bicultural students. The purpose of the present study was to survey graduate training programs in speech language pathology to determine typical policies and practices concerning students who apply and are admitted as ELLs. With a growing number of ELL children needing services from a bilingual SLP, it seems that little is being done to address the issue. The problem may be with the reluctance of programs to not only accept ELL students, but there also seems to be a disinclination for any sort of …

Exploring Writing Of English Language Learners In Middle School: A Mixed Methods Study, Robin L. Danzak

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

The study's purpose was to assess, through mixed methods, written linguistic features of 20 Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in middle school. Students came from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Participants wrote two expository and two narrative formal texts, each in Spanish and English, for a total of eight writing samples each. Additionally, students developed 10 journal entries in their language of choice, and 6 randomly selected, focal participants were interviewed for the qualitative analysis. The quantitative analysis involved scoring formal texts at the lexical, syntactic, and discourse levels. Scores were analyzed using Friedman's 2-way ANOVA by ranks, …

Biomedical Language Understanding And Extraction (Blue-Text): A Minimal Syntactic, Semantic Method, Parsa Mirhaji

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Clinical text understanding (CTU) is of interest to health informatics because critical clinical information frequently represented as unconstrained text in electronic health records are extensively used by human experts to guide clinical practice, decision making, and to document delivery of care, but are largely unusable by information systems for queries and computations. Recent initiatives advocating for translational research call for generation of technologies that can integrate structured clinical data with unstructured data, provide a unified interface to all data, and contextualize clinical information for reuse in multidisciplinary and collaborative environment envisioned by CTSA program. This implies that technologies for the …

Production Of Korean Case Particles In An English-Korean Bilingual Child With Specific Language Impairment: A Preliminary Study, Soyoung Lee, Brenda K. Gorman

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of Korean case particles in a Korean-English bilingual child with specific language impairment (SLI). The child's production of four types of Korean case particles were compared to those of three typically developing children during probe and storytelling tasks. The Korean-English bilingual child with SLI produced the vocative and the nominative for person case particles similar to children matched on age and mean length of utterance (MLU). He produced the nominative for object and accusative case particles similar to the MLU-matched child but exhibited lower performance than that of his age-matched …

Effects Of Dichotic Interaural Intensity Difference Training On Children With Auditory Processing Deficits, Kaylah Lynn Lalonde

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Strategies To Enhance Nclex-Rn Success, Joyce Barnby

Master's Projects

Successful performance on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) is a measure of competence indicating that newly licensed nurses have attained standards to ensure safe nursing practice. Concerned about a declining pass rate, one urban state university implemented multiple strategies over a period of time in order to enhance the success rate of frrst-time test-takers. The purpose of this research project was to focus on the state university's NCLEX-RN pass rates for frrst-time candidates, examined and evaluated new implemented strategies, and determined how the interventions influenced these pass rates. Data were collected using retrospective existing records on …

English Language Acculturation And Academic Achievement Among Junior Year Nursing Students, Leah Lukrich

Master's Projects

Efforts to alleviate the current nursing shortage have focused on recruitment and retention of diverse nursing students. Language acculturation has been identified in the literature as one predictor of academic achievement (Salamonson et al, 2008) PURPOSE: This study examined the relationship between pathophysiology and pharmacology grades and scores on the English Language Acculturation Scale (ELAS) survey for junior-level nursing students (N = 65). The relationship between years living in the United States (U.S.) and pathophysiology and pharmacology grades was examined also. RESULTS: ELAS scores ranged from 7-25, with a mean of22 (SD = 4.27). No statistically significant correlation was found …

Mercury Concentrations In Muscle Tissue From Sportfish In Lake Mead, Nevada, Joanna L. Kramer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lake Mead is the largest reservoir by volume in the United States and provides fishing opportunities for numerous anglers. Considerable attention has been given to the bioaccumulation of methylmercury in fish tissues, however, no formal study utilizing approved USEPA methodology has been conducted to quantify the amount of mercury present in fish tissue from Lake Mead. The purpose of this study is to determine the concentrations of mercury present in the most commonly consumed fish from Lake Mead and to identify if any of the 4 major basins contain fish with elevated concentrations of mercury. Largemouth bass (n=49), striped bass …

Assessing Culture Competence Among Nurses In An Acute Care Setting, Maleka Virani

Master's Projects

The aim of the study was to assess cultural competence among nurses in an acute care setting. A 25-item questionnaire developed by Campinha-Bacote (2003) titled Inventory to Assess Cultural Competence Among Health Care Providers (IAPCC-R) along with a demographic survey were utilized to assess cultural competence among 100 nurses in an acute care hospital. The results of the study indicated that 70% of nurses (n=63) were culturally aware and 30% (n=27) were culturally competent. There was no statistical significance between the level of cultural competence and years of experience, educational degree or self rating of 'being culturally competent'. The findings …

2009 - The Fourteenth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Fourteenth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 13, 2009. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Psychometrically Equivalent Bisyllabic Word-Lists For Word Recognition Testing In Spanish, Anna M. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Spanish bisyllabic word lists to be used for word recognition testing. Frequently used bisyllabic words were selected and digitally recorded by male and female Spanish talkers. Twenty normally hearing subjects were presented each word to find the percentage of words which they could correctly recognize. Each word was measured at 10 intensity levels (-5 to 40 dB HL) in increments of 5 dB. Chisquare analysis was used to determine the equivalency among the final four psychometrically equivalent word lists of 50 words, and …

Psychometrically Equivalent Bisyllabic Words For Speech Reception Threshold Testing In Mongolian, Kristen Nicole Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations

Speech audiometry is an important aspect of audiological testing. One aspect of speech audiometry is the measurement of an individual's speech reception threshold (SRT). Materials needed to measure the SRT are available in many languages; however, recorded materials for the Mongolian Language are not widely available. The purpose of this study was to develop a list of psychometrically equivalent words for evaluating the hearing abilities of native Mongolian speaking individuals. A set of 90 commonly used bisyllabic Mongolian words were digitally recorded by a male and female talker of Mongolian and then evaluated by 20 native Mongolian listeners. A final …

Web Usability Testing With A Hispanic Medically Underserved Population, Mary Moore Phd, Randolph G. Bias, Katherine Prentice, Robin Fletcher, Terry Vaughn

Faculty Research, Publications, and Presentations

Skilled website developers value usability testing to assure user needs are met. When the target audience differs substantially from the developers, it becomes essential to tailor both design and evaluation methods. In this study, researchers carried out a multifaceted usability evaluation of a website (Healthy Texas) designed for Hispanic audiences with lower computer literacy and lower health literacy.

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter, Spring 2009

Mid-Atlantic Ethics Committee Newsletter

No abstract provided.

College Of Health And Human Services International Service Learning Program: Gales Point, Belize, Jordan Norris, Carrierobin Menapace

Impact Belize

No abstract provided.

Latinas In Small Cities In Upstate New York: Health And Mental Health Issues, Blanca M. Ramos, Janine M. Jurkowski

Policy Documents

The study presented in this report explored the health and mental health of Latinas in small cities in upstate New York focusing on specific health and mental health indicators. The specific research questions addressed by this study were:1. What are some of the key health issues among Latinas in small cities?2. What are some of the most important mental health issues among Latinas in small cities? The study presented in this report offers legislators, public agencies, community organizations, and the media some baseline, preliminary information for strategic discussions of the health and mental health needs of Latinas in small cities …

Culturally Tailored Cancer Communication, Education, And Research: The Highways And Back Roads Of Appalachia, Kelly A. Dorgan, Sadie P. Hutson, Abigail Gerding, Katie L. Duvall

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

We have varying experiences with Appalachia, yet we all agree that there is a unique relationship between Appalachians and cancer. Two of us are nurses who have worked with various communities. Two of us grew up here; 1 watched several of her relatives battle cancer in their Appalachian homes. All of us are scholars who want to talk with practitioners and researchers who are developing culturally tailored cancer control interventions. This goal to have a dialogue emerged after we had a series of discussions about cancer in Appalachia, discussions resulting in our developing a list of cultural traits that seem …

A Human Capital Approach To Reduce Health Disparities, Saundra H. Glover, Sudha Xirasagar, Yunho Jeon, Keith T. Elder, Crystal N. Piper, Harris Pastides

Faculty Publications

Objective: To introduce a human capital approach to reduce health disparities in South Carolina by increasing the number and quality of trained minority professionals in public health practice and research.

Methods: The conceptual basis and elements of Project EXPORT in South Carolina are described. Project EXPORT is a community based participatory research (CBPR) translational project designed to build human capital in public health practice and research. This project involves Claflin University (CU), a Historically Black College University (HBCU) and the African American community of Orangeburg, South Carolina to reduce health disparities, utilizing resources from the University of South Carolina (USC), …

Mental Health In Mali: An Analysis Of The Expression Of Major Depressive Disorder Across Different Cultures, Ashley Morris

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Introduction (excerpt) What other differences exist between illnesses across different cultures? Are the differences only found in the manifestation of symptoms or are there also biological differences? How does one conceptualize mental health issues, such as depression, here in Mali? Is there a stigma against mental health patients in Mali? What facilities, treatments, and medicines are available in Mali to treat mental disorder? After a little more background research I found that the topic of mental health in the developing world has been largely ignored until very recently. As cross-cultural studies in every academic discipline become increasingly more prevalent, anthropology …

Adult And Child Semantic Neighbors Of The Kroll And Potter (1984) Nonobjects, Holly L. Storkel, Suzanne M. Adlof

Faculty Publications

Purpose - The purpose was to determine the number of semantic neighbors, namely semantic set size, for 88 nonobjects (J. F. Kroll & M. C. Potter, 1984) and determine how semantic set size related to other measures and age.

Method - Data were collected from 82 adults and 92 preschool children in a discrete association task. The nonobjects were presented via computer, and participants reported the first word that came to mind that was meaningfully related to the nonobject. Words reported by two or more participants were considered semantic neighbors. The strength of each neighbor was computed as the …

A Contrast Of Bilingual And Monolingual Children In Regards To Semantic And Syntactic Language Acquisition, Jessica Michelle Pfister

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Multiple language acquisition has only recently become a heavily researched and focused topic. Many questions have been left unanswered and furthermore, experts in the field are coming to contradicting results and conclusions. The presented thesis investigates the culmination of recent research in this newly developed field, as well as provides feedback from bilingual individuals on their experiences of being bilingual. Through analyzing current studies, the conclusion is made that bilingual children will follow a series of stages in their semantic and syntactic acquisition in which there is a bilingual disadvantage, followed by a bilingual advantage, and lastly a continuous stage …

The Relationship Of Language And Emotion Understanding To Sociable Behavior Of Children With Language Impairment, Jami L. Potter

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between emotion understanding and language ability to the sociable behavior in children with language impairment (LI) and their typically developing peers. Twenty-nine children with LI and 29 age- and gender-matched peers with typical language were used in this study. Sociability was rated by his/her classroom teacher using the Teacher Behavior Rating Scale (Hart & Robinson, 1996). Language ability was assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999). To assess emotion understanding, each participant was asked to perform several structural dissemblance tasks. Children with LI received scores significantly lower …

Automated Identification Of Adverbial Clauses In Child Language Samples, Jessica Celeste Clark

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, computer software has been used to assist in the analysis of clinical language samples. However, this software has been unable to accurately identify complex syntactic structures such as adverbial clauses. Complex structures, including the adverbial clause, are of interest in child language due to differences in the development of this structure between children with and without language impairment. The present study investigated the accuracy of new software, called Cx, in identifying adverbial clauses. Two separate collections of language samples were used. One collection included 10 children with language impairment, 10 age-matched peers, and 10 language-matched peers. A …

Today - March 9, 2009, Loma Linda University

TODAY

Inside this issue:

-- School of Pharmacy celebrates major step in achieving six-year ACPE accreditation
-- SAHP speech-language pathology and audiology department changes its name
-- Big Hearts for Little Hearts guild event ‘Dressing Up Red’ celebrates heart recipients as ‘walking miracles'
-- Arrowhead Credit Union raises $8,026 for Children’s Hospital
-- School of Nursing celebrates student nurses with dedication
-- National Social Work Month celebrates the work of those who serve as a bridge between the medical community and patients
-- Commission on Dental Accreditation site review approves and praises LLU School of Dentistry
-- Medical radiography students ‘come …

Advancing The Fiscal Health Of Low-Income Families: A Public And Community Health Approach, Doreen Treacy

Center for Social Policy Publications

For decades, health researchers have documented the links between individual and household income/wealth and clinical health outcomes. The research and literature consistently point to both income inequality (i.e. individual household income/wealth as compared to other households in the same state) and individual household income as predictors of diminished health and morbidity. And yet the current framework for providing financial education, disseminating asset building information, and overall responding to the financial health of individuals and households takes no cues from public health and community health best practices. Further, the documented links between financial stress and compromised physical health are compelling enough …

The Dynamic Nature Of Knowledge: Insights From A Dynamic Field Model Of Children’S Novel Noun Generalization, Larissa K. Samuelson, Anne R. Schutte, Jessica S. Horst

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the tie between knowledge and behavior in a noun generalization context. An experiment directly comparing noun generalizations of children at the same point in development in forced-choice and yes/no tasks reveals task-specific differences in the way children’s knowledge of nominal categories is brought to bear in a moment. To understand the cognitive system that produced these differences, the real-time decision processes in these tasks were instantiated in a dynamic field model. The model captures both qualitative and quantitative differences in performance across tasks and reveals constraints on the nature of children’s accumulated knowledge. Additional simulations of developmental …