Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling User Relationships In Online Communities Of Creators, Berkeley Andrus

Theses and Dissertations

Those who study creativity, especially from a computational perspective, have long understood the role of social influence in the creative process. This has motivated many efforts to simulate social mechanics in artificial creative systems. However, these simulations have often replicated generic or assumed human behaviors rather than specific anthropological data. In this work we take a more focused approach by quantitatively measuring interactions between creators in online social communities and replicating observed phenomena in a simulated environment. The primary contributions of this thesis are 1) defining quantitative metrics for comparing human and simulated social networks of creators, 2) providing social …

Exploring Mentions Of Pornography In Popular Television Shows, A. Lucia Pollock

Theses and Dissertations

While pornography has become highly accessible, another way in which pornography is present in media is through discussion in movies and television shows, which is often framed through casual reference, by way of a joke, or in a teasing manner. A content analysis of 55 episodes that reference pornography—looking specifically at the framing of pornography in individual scenes—provides valuable insight into the media ecosystem surrounding pornography and its potential impact on adolescents. Using cultivation analysis and framing theory as a theoretical basis, this study analyzes the inclusion of the terms, “porn,” “porno,” and “pornography” in popular television shows.

Student Engagement With Teacher Written Corrective Feedback In A French As A Foreign Language Classroom, Maria-Lourdes Lira-Gonzales, Hossein Nassaji, Kuok Wa Chao Chao

Journal of Response to Writing

This paper reports on an exploratory multiple-case study conducted to examine 6 French as a foreign language (FFL) learners at a university in Costa Rica and their affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagements with teacher written corrective feedback (WCF). We collected data through students’ writings (drafts and revisions), semistructured interviews, and stimulated recall interviews. We used the students’ writings to examine students’ behavioral engagement, and we used the semistructured and stimulated recall interviews to determine how students engaged cognitively and affectively with WCF. Findings revealed that although most participants initially reported mixed feelings and, at times, negative emotions upon the receipt …

Maximizing Situational Intelligence, Jared M. Richardson

Marriott Student Review

No abstract provided.

Why The Bjorling Sound Was Written, Stephen Hastings

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Now that The Bjorling Sound has been published, it is up to others to comment on its contents. And the more commentary there is (whether positive or negative) the happier I will be, for I always intended it to be an open-ended book, requiring an active response from readers, as part of an ongoing collective effort to understand Bjorling the artist. I have done my best to describe as precisely as possible the experience of listening to what I consider to be Jussi's finest recordings, and I naturally hope that the book will prove reasonably interesting even to opera-lovers who …

Full Issue

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

No abstract provided.

Writing About Jussi's Recordings, Stephan Hastings

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

In his 1945 autobiography Jussi Bjorling advocated setting up a national archive of sound recordings. There is thus no doubting his awareness of the significance of his own legacy in this field, as well as that of earlier singers like Caruso. The Neapolitan of course was the tenor who influenced the adult Bjorling more than any other, and in writing a full length study of Jussi's most significant recordings-building on the invaluable research undertaken by Harald Henrysson for his PHONOGRAPHY- I have come across multiple examples of that influence.

Welcome To St. Peter! Jbs Celebrates The Bjorling Centenary, Ward Murray

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Many of us arrived in St. Peter on June 22nd to dark grey skies, blustery wind, and only 65 degrees Fahrenheit: we went scurrying to the Gustavus Adolphus College store to buy hoodies and windbreakers. This was in stark contrast to the balmy temperatures and blue skies a decade earlier. The grey clouds extended to the news that our president and driving force behind the centenary conference, Sue Flaster, would be unable to attend because of a painful back injury.

Full Issue

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

No abstract provided.

Best Friends Forever And Family Ties: Continuity And Change In Closeness With Parents And Friends Among Australian Adolescents, Mckell A. Jorgensen-Wells

Theses and Dissertations

During adolescence, the need for social connection increases. Yet, fostering emotional closeness in relationships becomes more complex, as the need for autonomy also increases and social environments must adapt to become conducive to these seemingly competing needs. This complexity necessitates more research on what happens to close relationships during adolescence, so parents, scholars, and practitioners are better equipped to help individuals navigate the unique social atmosphere of adolescence. The current study draws upon multi-level modeling techniques to estimate growth models of Australian adolescents' closeness to parents and closeness to friends from ages 12-17 and examine predictors of these trajectories. Findings …

Record Review: Aida, Naxos 8.111042-44, 3 Cd's, Stephen Hastings

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Perlea's Aida, recorded in July 1955, is not especially charged with electricity, yet it has some musical gems of great value, among them the Judgment Scene in which the painful identification of Fedora Barbieri (Amneris) and the pure and passionate lyricism of Jussi Bjorling (Radames) blend into something forceful and unique, and the final duet in which Bjorling and Zinka Milanov reach incomparable sublime beauty. The tenor and soprano's paths had crossed for the first time in Prague, also in Aida, on March 14, 1938 (he sang in Swedish, she in Croatian), and curiously, that was their only joint performance …

Full Issue

Newsletter of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

No abstract provided.

Sexual Dimorphism In Titi Monkeys’ Digit (2d:4d) Ratio Is Associated With Maternal Urinary Sex Hormones During Pregnancy, Alexander Baxter, Elizabeth K. Wood, Lynea R. Witczak, Karen L. Bales, James Dee Higley

Faculty Publications

The second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio is a sexually-dimorphic biomarker for prenatal sex hormone exposure. We investigated whether titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus) exhibit sexually-dimorphic 2D:4D ratio, and whether variation in 2D:4D ratio correlates with maternal testosterone and estrogen levels during early pregnancy. Subjects were 61 adult titi monkeys (32 males, 29 females). For 26 subjects, maternal urine samples were collected approximately 15–20 weeks before birth and assayed for testosterone and estrone conjugate (E1C). Titi monkeys exhibited a human-like pattern of sexual dimorphism in right-hand 2D:4D ratio, with females exhibiting higher 2D:4D ratio than males (β = −0.29, p = .023). For …

Very Young Child Survivors’ Perceptions Of Their Father’S Suicide: Exploring Bibliotherapy As Postvention Support, Cortland L. Watson, Elizabeth Cutrer, Melissa A. Heath, Erica E. Miller, Terrell A. Young, Suzanne Wilson

Faculty Publications

Each year in the United States, 7000 to 30,000 children experience their parent’s suicide. Due to the stigma associated with suicide, feelings of guilt, and intense grief, surviving family members avoid talking about suicide. Over time, children struggle with confusion and intense emotions associated with their parent’s suicide. In this study, seven adults, who reported being younger than six years old at the time of their father’s suicide, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Participants’ responses highlight the challenges that young children face due to limited memories of their deceased parent. Interviews concluded with an opportunity for participants to review and …

Pre-Licensure Nursing Students' Experiences Of Psychological Safety: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Bret Lyman, Camille R. Mendon

Faculty Publications

Background: Organizational learning is essential for consistently providing safe, efficient, high-quality patient care. Psychological safety is foundational for organizational learning. For pre-licensure nursing students psychological safety is crucial for both their learning and patient safety. Understanding pre-licensure nursing students' experiences of psychological safety can guide efforts to cultivate clinical environments conducive to learning and excellent patient care.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to gain insight into pre-licensure nursing students' first-hand experiences with psychological safety in clinical settings.

Design: A qualitative, descriptive design was used for this study.

Settings: Participants were recruited from 12 different nursing programs across eight …

An Investigation Of The Neuronal Signature Of Word Order Effects In Russian, Jeffrey Jack Green, Anastasia Stoops

Faculty Publications

Language comprehension proceeds by the activation of specific words (e.g. Kuperberg & Jaeger, 2016) and graded prediction of upcoming word features (Luke & Christianson, 2016; Stoops & Christianson, 2017; 2019)

Five Tenors In The Flower Song, Stephan Hastings

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

Jussi Björling never took part in a complete performance of Bizet’s Carmen, either on stage or in the recording studio. Although in 1951 he was contracted to record the role of Don José for RCA under Fritz Reiner’s leadership, he realized he had insufficient time to learn the music and was replaced by Jan Peerce. All we have of his Don José is the flower song—“La fleur que tu m’avais jetée”—which he performed frequently on the concert platform. Two studio recordings and twelve off-the-air recordings (including two videos) survive of him singing this aria. Björling performed a number of other …

Agency: What Does It Mean To Be A Human Being?, Richard N. Williams, Edwin E. Gantt, Lane Fischer

Faculty Publications

This paper will look at the results of what has been termed “the crisis of modernism” and the related rise of postmodern perspectives in the 19th and 20th centuries. It concentrates on what is arguably the chief casualty of this crisis – human agency – and the social science that has developed out of the crisis. We argue that modern and postmodern social science ultimately obviate human agency in the understanding of what it means to be a human being. Attention is given to the contemporary intellectual world and the way in which it has been deeply informed by neo-Hegelian …

Jean Sibelius Memorial Concert – 60 Years Ago, Janel E. Lundgren, President And Editor

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

“Similä Leads Sibelius Memorial Concert—Bjoerling Is Soloist at Carnegie Hall”. Such was the heading of the New York Times review of the stellar concert held at 5:30 p.m., Sunday aft ernoon, December 8, 1957, on what would have been Sibelius’ 92nd birthday.

Breathtaking Vocalism In Jussi’S Finest Wartime Concert, 75 Years Ago, Stephen Hastings, Milan Correspondent

Journal of the Jussi Björling Societies of the USA & UK

November 10, 1944 (the first half, consisting of three Swedish songs, has not survived) demonstrates Björling’s increasingly idiomatic command of that language in arias by Donizetti, Mascagni and Puccini and displays the thirty-three-year-old singer at his mid-career best: the voice still enchanting in its youthful overtones, but sufficiently full-bodied to project the music of Calaf and Turiddu (and of course Nemorino) with total authority. Moreover the presence of an enthusiastic audience (the concert was programmed as part of the Stockholm Musicians Festival) and the singularly spacious leadership of the fifty-year-old Tor Mann (then chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Orchestra) …

Intimate Partner Violence Against Women In Uganda, Mary Claire Eyre

Ballard Brief

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major issue in sub-Saharan Africa. particularly in the country of Uganda. Three major types of IPV have been identified in Uganda: intimate partner physical violence. intimate partner emotional violence. and intimate partner sexual violence. Sixty-five percent of women in Uganda report experiencing at least one of these types of IPV. The major contributing factors to IPV in Uganda include cultural attitudes about violence among both women and men and patriarchal behaviors among men. Bride price, or the exchange of goods for a bride. and male alcohol abuse also raise rates of IPV among women. …

Racial Inequality In Public School Discipline For Black Students In The United States, Emily Peterson

Ballard Brief

Racial bias and limited teacher training all influence how teachers and administrators react to Black student misbehavior. In addition, recently implemented institutional practices like zero-tolerance policies and increased emphasis on school security have also contributed to increases in the rate of disciplinary measures, especially suspension, for Black students. Experience with school discipline can significantly harm student academic achievement and increase the likelihood of Black students dropping out of school. More involvement with school discipline on the student's part is also associated with more serious consequences including decreased likelihood of enrollment in higher education and increased likelihood of involvement with the …

Untreated Mental Illness Among Veterans In The United States, Erin Anderson

Ballard Brief

In the United States. less than half of the veteran population have received screening or diagnosis for mental illness or have received mental health counseling and treatment, resulting in many veterans with severe mental health issues living without a proper diagnosis. Many factors contribute to these statistics, including negative social stigmas surrounding mental health, mistrust of mental health professionals. a lack of publicity and communication about veteran benefits, and limited amount of resources available to treat such a large population. Mental illness at this level impacts not only the quality of life of each veteran but also the livelihood of …

Challenges For People With Disabilities, Sarah Calvert

Ballard Brief

A variety of societal barriers still prevalent in the United States today contribute to several challenges faced by people with disabilities. These barriers include limited accessibility, inadequate educational structures, and poverty, and negatively impact the quality of life for people with disabilities. Such factors often lead to undesirable consequences for people with disabilities such as social exclusion, negative stereotypes and perceptions, financial hardship, and challenges in the areas of both physical and mental health. Some of the best practices to help reduce the consequences of these factors focus on creating environments-in areas such as the workplace or on college campuses-that …

Cheating For The Cause: The Effects Of Performance-Based Pay On Socially Oriented Misreporting, Jessen L. Hobson, Ryan D. Sommerfeldt, Laura W. Wang

Faculty Publications

We examine the effect of performance-based pay on misreporting intended to benefit a social mission. We show that performance-based pay decreases people’s propensity to misreport for a social mission in a not-for-profit setting (Experiment 1). We similarly show that in a for-profit setting, performance-based pay also decreases misreporting propensity for a social mission, although not for a non-social mission (Experiment 2). Finally, using a framed field experiment with participants attending a conference hosted by a real charity, we show that performance-based pay reduces actual misreporting when misreporting leads to more donations for the charity (Experiment 3). These results are consistent …

Food Insecurity Among Women In Uganda, Hanna R. Burgin

Ballard Brief

Many women in Uganda suffer from a lack of available food resources. With food insecurity being a well-known and significant challenge facing many in Uganda, the country has worked over the years to combat the issue and end hunger, yet many women must still face this battle daily.1 Uganda has seen a decrease in available food and consequently an increase in women suffering from food insecurity due to climate change, gender inequality, and rapid population growth. Among many others, the negative consequences of food insecurity include enduring poverty and economic insecurity, family malnutrition, and sexual risk. Empowering women through educational …

Sex Trafficking Of Youth In The United States, Rachel Brown

Ballard Brief

Sex trafficking is a growing yet inconspicious issue in the United States, and youth are especially vulnerable to exploitation. Commercial sexual exploitation entails forcing or coercing a person into engaging in sexual acts for the profit of those who run the industry (i.e .. the traffickers). This industry is driven by a demand for child sex and fueled by its lucrative nature. Along with the inherent vulnerability of being young and not yet fully developed. youth have a variety of risk factors which make them especially susceptible to victimization, including experience with child abuse, homelessness. and online exposure. Children and …

Financial Behaviors, Financial Satisfaction, And Goal Attainment Among College-Educated Young Adults: A Mediating Analysis With Latent Change Scores, Xiaomin Li, Melissa Curran, Joyce Serido, Ashley B. Lebaron, Soyeon Shim, Nan Zhou

Faculty Publications

The aim of the study is to investigate how 2,084 U.S. college-educated young adults (61.9% female, and 69.5% non-Hispanic White) navigated the goal attainment process during the transition to adulthood. Using four-wave data collected across eight years, we examined how financial behaviors (self-regulating behaviors) predicted both depressive symptoms (affective goal attainment evaluations) and financial obstacles to goal attainment (cognitive goal attainment evaluations) via financial satisfaction (resources). Given the variability in developmental trajectories (i.e., initial levels and rates of over-time changes) among young adults, we conducted an exploratory mediational analysis with Latent Change Scores. The results revealed indirect-only mediation patterns, and …

Organizational Learning During Covid-19: A Qualitative Study Of Nurses' Experiences, Bret Lyman, Morgan K. Horton, Alyssa Oman

Faculty Publications

Aim: The aim of this study is to test the validity of the Organizational Learning in Hospitals model in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Organizational learning is especially crucial in circumstances of intense, complex, enduring change, as with the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse managers need additional guidance for fostering organizational learning under such circumstances. The Organizational Learning in Hospitals model may be a helpful resource but requires additional validation.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather 19 nurses' first-hand experiences of organizational learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were analysed using deductive thematic analysis.

Results: Nurses' experiences of organizational …

Setting The Research Agenda For Nursing Administration And Leadership Science: A Delphi Study, Esther Maria Chipps, M Lindell Joseph, Catherine Alexander, Bret Lyman, Logan Mcginty, Heather Nelson-Brantley, Joy Parchment, Reynaldo R. Rivera, Mary Anne Schultz, Danielle M. Ward, Susan Weaver

Faculty Publications

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify and prioritize research topics for nursing administration and leadership science.

Background: Nursing administration and leadership research priorities should provide a framework for building the science needed to inform practice.

Methods: The Association for Leadership Science in Nursing (ALSN) and American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) Foundation (AONL-F) for Nursing Leadership and Education collaborated on a Delphi study. Initial input on research priority items were received from ALSN and AONL members. National experts participated in a 3-round Delphi study.

Results: Top-ranked priorities included: 1) nurses' health, well-being, resiliency, and safety in the …