Digital Commons Network^™

Violence, Militarism And The Environment In Contemporary South Asian Literature, Saba Pirzadeh

Open Access Dissertations

Current literary scholarship on the rise in violence and militarism within South

Effects Of Online Brand Community On Value Creation Practices And Brand Loyalty: Mediating Effects Of Community Loyalty, Yongsoo Ha

Open Access Dissertations

Online brand community refers to a specialized, non-geographically bound, online group of consumers, based on social communications and relationships among brand’s consumers. This study has four objectives; (a) testing the effects of online brand community by a sum of community markers, (b) testing the effects of online brand community on value creation practices and brand loyalty, (c) testing the mediating effects of community loyalty in a relationship between value creation practices and brand loyalty, and (d) testing the effects of consumers’ motivation for participation on online brand community. A survey-based empirical study was conducted. Data were collected, using Amazon Mechanical …

Tools And Methods To Analyze Multimodal Data In Collaborative Design Ideation, Ramaswamy Senthil Kumaran Chandrasegaran

Open Access Dissertations

Collaborative design ideation is typically characterized by informal acts of sketching, annotation, and discussion. Designers have always used the pencil-and-paper medium for this activity, partly because of the flexibility of the medium, and partly because the ambiguous and ill-defined nature of conceptual design cannot easily be supported by computers. However, recent computational tools for conceptual design have leveraged the availability of hand-held computing devices for creating and sharing ideas. In order to provide computer support for collaborative ideation in a way that augments traditional media rather than imitates it, it is necessary to study the affordances made available by digital …

Multilingual Education And Education Policies In Taiwan Public Elementary Schools: Teachers’ Perspective And Experience, Chien-Yu Wu

Open Access Dissertations

The number of new immigrants and international marriages is increasing in Taiwan, resulting in growing interest in multicultural and multilingual education. The purpose of the present study was to explore public elementary school teachers’ perspectives and experiences regarding the implementation of education policies for new immigrants and their children through an in-depth analysis of a principal, teachers, and parent-teachers at two public elementary schools in rural Taiwan. I examined education policies that were established in response to concerns involving the new immigrants and their children in Taiwan. Using an interpretive phenomenology methodological framework, I obtained a deeper understanding of elementary …

Motivational Orientations Of American And Russian Learners Of French As A Foreign Language, Zoia Vinogradova

Open Access Dissertations

This study seeks to examine and compare motivational orientations of French learners across different dimensions: cultural background (USA vs. Russia), educational modality and age (college students vs. private courses learners), gender, and time of studying foreign language. 613 American and Russian learners of French completed the questionnaire addressing 10 motivational factors to study French language. Despite differences in nationality, age, educational background and learning experience, all groups of participants produced nearly identical motivational rankings. The rankings are topped by the Travelling orientation, which seems to be universally appealing, followed by the orientations within the Idealistic motivational cluster (Aesthetic Factors, Culture, …

En Torno A Los Orígenes Del Español. Estudio Sobre Las Secuencias Con Dos Nasales En Castellano., César Gutiérrez Miguel

Open Access Dissertations

The evolution of Latin sequences [min] to Spanish [mbɾ] has traditionally been accounted for through a syncope of the unstressed vowel, the rhotacism of the alveolar nasal and the later epenthesis of the voiced labial stop. This relative chronology is based on written records from the Middle Ages, in which spellings such as , and are found. However, from a phonetic perspective both the sound change [mn] > [mɾ] and [mɾ] > [mbɾ] are questionable. First, since consonant lenition is cross-linguistically more prone to happen in weak positions (i. e., coda and intervocalic) than in strong positions (i. e., onset), the rhotacism …

Functions Of Gender In Soca: An Historical And Lyrical Analysis Of St. Lucian Soca, Ekeama Sharon Goddard-Scovel

Open Access Dissertations

Soca’s music history negatively impacts female soca artists, especially when taking into account each island’s differing Carnival music history. Contrary to popular assumptions, soca (as well as calypso) did not develop similarly in every Caribbean island. Soca actually exemplifies a pan-Caribbean phenomenon that is regionally as well as gender specific. St. Lucia illustrates this phenomenon as it has a markedly different calypso history from Trinidad, which has long been called the land of calypso, and more recently the land of soca. I use St. Lucia as a departure point from which to dismantle the overarching Trinidadian narrative that many, including …

Top Universities, Top Libraries: Do Research Services In Academic Libraries Contribute To University Output?, Viviana Fernández-Marcial, Luis Miguel Costa, Llarina González-Solar

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

University context is nowadays mostly characterized by the implementation of competitiveness and cost-effectiveness criteria. There are two main characteristics of the new management model: a new relevancy to the university funding and the predominance of the research criteria as excellence indicator. Evidence of the growing role of research in universities are the parameters to rank the excellence of higher education institutions, such as ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities) of the University of Shangai, SIR (SCImago Institutions Rankings) or the THE (Times Higher Education World University Rankings). The research orientation also imposes to the academic library, with the growing implementation …

Stochastic Modeling Of Short-Term Occupancy For Energy Efficient Buildings, Jin Dong, Chris Winstead, Seddik M. Djouadi, James J. Nutaro, Teja Kuruganti

International High Performance Buildings Conference

The primary energy consumer of smart buildings are Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems, approximately 30% of the building energy use, which usually operate on a fixed schedule. Currently, most modern buildings still condition rooms with a set-point assuming maximum occupancy rather than actual usage. As a result, rooms are often over-conditioned needlessly. Occupancy-based controls can achieve significant energy savings by temporally matching the building energy consumption and building usage, conservative user behavior can save a third of expended energy. Â In this paper, we present a simple yet effective algorithm to automatically assign reference temperature set-points based on the …

The New Eduspace Lernwerkstatt In The Library - A Collaboration Project Between The Faculty Of Education And The Library, Ulrike Stadler-Altmann, Gerda Winkler

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

No abstract provided.

To Honor Our Past: Historical Research, Library History And The Historiographical Imperative: Conceptual Reflections And Exploratory Observations, Jean-Pierre V. M. Hérubel

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This exploratory discussion considers history of libraries, in its broadest context; moreover, it frames the entire enterprise of pursuing history as it relates to LIS in the context of doing history and of doing history vis-à-vis LIS. Is it valuable intellectually for LIS professionals to consider their own history, writing historically oriented research, and what is the nature of this research within the professionalization of LIS itself as both practice and discipline? Necessarily conceptual and offering theoretical insight, this discussion perforce tenders the idea that historiographical innovations and other disciplinary approaches and perspectives can invigorate library history beyond its current …

Designing Rich Information Experiences To Shape Learning Outcomes, Clarence Maybee, Christine Susan Bruce, Mandy Lupton, Kristen Rebmann

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Students in higher education typically learn to use information as part of their course of study, which is intended to support ongoing academic, personal and professional growth. Informing the development of effective information literacy education, this research uses a phenomenographic approach to investigate the experiences of a teacher and students engaged in lessons focused on exploring language and gender topics by tracing and analyzing their evolution through scholarly discourse. The findings suggest that the way learners use information influences content-focused learning outcomes, and reveal how teachers may enact lessons that enable students to learn to use information in ways that …

E-Book Reading Practices In Different Subject Areas: An Exploratory Log Analysis, Robert S. Freeman, E. Stewart Saunders

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Print books pose inherent difficulties for researchers who want to observe users’ natural in-book reading patterns. With e-books and logs of their use it is now possible to track several aspects of users’ interactions inside e-books, including the number and duration of their sessions with an e-book and the order in which pages are viewed. This chapter reports on a study of one-year of EBL user log data from Purdue University to identify different reading patterns or ways in which users navigate within different types of e-books—authored monographs vs. edited collections--and in e-books in different subject areas. The analysis of …

Wandering The Web--Exploring Information Of Japanese Americans' Experiences In Internment Camps During World War Ii, Tadayuki Suzuki

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

What Tutor Researchers And Their Mentors Tell Us About Undergraduate Research In The Writing Center: An Exploratory Study, Christopher Ervin

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

From The Editors, Michele Eodice, Kerri Jordan, Steve Price, Richard Severe, Anna Sicari

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Building Expertise: The Toolkit In Ucla's Graduate Writing Center, Sarah Summers

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Decisions…Decisions: Who Chooses To Use The Writing Center?, Lori Salem

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Review: Tutoring Second Language Writers, Vicki R. Kennell, Beth A. Towle

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Review: Tutoring Second Language Writers, Yelin Zhao

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Ethical Transformations In Yan's 陆犯焉识 (The Criminal Lu Yanshi), Weihong Zhu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Ethical Transformations in Yan's陆犯焉识 (The Criminal Lu Yanshi)" Weihong Zhu uses ethical literary criticism to explain the reason for the change in attitude which the novel's hero undergoes. Zhu argues that in Geling Yan's novel the turning point lies in the protagonist's realization of his inner "animal" factor. Subjected to severe tests by the extreme circumstances in a northwest prison in China, this realization helps him transform from a proud man to a humble human being, so that he learns to love his family. Although set in a grand historical background of important political events, Yan's …

Narrative Ethics And Alterity In Adichie's Novel Americanah, Nora Berning

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Narrative Ethics and Alterity in Adichie's Novel Americanah" Nora Berning analyses Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel through the lens of a narrative ethics of alterity. Focusing on the notion of alterity, Berning argues that a specific turn-of-the-century ethics emerges in contemporary fictions of migration in general and in intercultural novels in particular. An ethical genre in its own right, such twenty-first century fictions as Americanah generate a particular kind of ethical knowledge that revolves around questions of identity and alterity and around individual and collective perceptions of self and other. By addressing the interplay of "the ethics …

Sephardi And Mizrahi Jews In America, Saba Soomekh

The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review

Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in America includes academics, artists, writers, and civic and religious leaders who contributed chapters focusing on the Sephardi and Mizrahi experience in America. Topics will address language, literature, art, diaspora identity, and civic and political engagement.

When discussing identity in America, one contributor will review and explore the distinct philosophy and culture of classic Sephardic Judaism, and how that philosophy and culture represents a viable option for American Jews who seek a rich and meaningful medium through which to balance Jewish tradition and modernity. Another chapter will provide a historical perspective of Sephardi/Ashkenazi Diasporic tensions. Additionally, …

Health Perceptions And Practices Of Burmese Refugee Families: A Participatory Mixed Method Study, Suneeta Kercood, Trish Morita-Mullaney

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Healthcare providers in the United States often view the lifestyle choices made by refugees from Burma through the lenses of America’s norms for healthy living. Although healthcare providers often recognize the role that language plays in the refugees’ ability to communicate their healthcare needs, they often ignore the role of culture. This lack of understanding of cultural difference contributes to the marginalization of refugees in the healthcare system. Using a transformative mixed method methodology, this study employed the East Asian Acculturation Scale (EAAM) to identify participants’ perceived level of acculturation within health care contexts. The researchers then engaged participants in …

Getting It Right From The Beginning: Imagination And Education In John Dewey And Kieran Egan, Davide Weible

Education and Culture

No abstract provided.

Representing Dewey’S Constructs Of Continuity And Interaction Within Classrooms, Susan J. Mayer

Education and Culture

No abstract provided.

From Text To Context: Literacy Practices Of Native Speakers Of Arabic In Arabic And English, Ghada Gherwash

Open Access Dissertations

Previous studies that looked at the written product of native speakers of Arabic in their second language (L2), English, have identified traces of Arabic rhetoric (L1), mainly Classical Arabic, in their writing (e.g., Atari, 1983; Kaplan, 1966; Ostler, 1987). These studies focused primarily on the L2-written texts, where the written product is used to make inferences about the rhetorical structures of the writers’ L1. The results from these studies portrayed the native-Arab writer’s text as highly influenced by Classical Arabic. This was evidenced by “foreign” rhetorical structures that Arab writers employ when producing texts in their L2 that are considered …

Representations Of Politicians In Contemporary Ghanaian Hiplife Music, Mark Nartey

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Representations of Politicians in Contemporary Ghanaian Hiplife Music" Mark Nartey argues that in Asare Obeng's music politicians in Ghana are depicted as self-seeking, self-serving, and self-centered. Further, he argues that since its emergence on the Ghanaian music scene in the early 1990s, hiplife music now transcends its original purpose of providing an entertainment outlet for its audience, predominantly the youth, offering them a pleasurable and therapeutic means of escaping from the harsh realities and pressures of life. Importantly, Nartey demonstrates that this musical genre has taken on a new and, perhaps, more important role: a legitimate avenue …