Digital Commons Network^™

Civilizing Settlers: Catholic Missionaries And The Colonial State In French Algeria, 1830-1914, Kyle Francis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that between 1830 and 1914, with increasing intensity over time, French Catholic missionaries sowed divisions among the European population of French Algeria. The French government initially welcomed missionaries to cater to religiously devout Spanish, Italian, and Maltese settlers in Algeria and to foster their loyalty to the colonial state. Missionaries, however, incited the professional jealousy and personal animosity of the territory's generally less devout French population, who saw Catholicism and missionaries as little different from Islam and the "fanatical" Muslim population. Throughout this period, missionaries thus occupied a liminal space in the racialized hierarchy of colonial rule. …

Refugees And Relief: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee And European Jews In Cuba And Shanghai 1938-1943, Zhava Litvac Glaser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditionally, pre-modern Jewish communities sensed an obligation to bind together to provide aid to Jews who found themselves in catastrophic situations; however, with the advent of modernity and the dissolution of Jewish communal authority, the fragmentation of Jewish communities, and the unprecedented stresses of the Holocaust, communal dynamics grew far more complex. The Jews of Cuba and Shanghai were two small and relatively remote communities overwhelmed by Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. At their request, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee stepped in and provided both the funding and leadership that both of these locations so desperately needed.

The Jewish …

El Transnacionalismo Y La Identidad Judia En La Obra De Isaac Goldemberg, Jose Goni

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this research is to study the work of Isaac Goldemberg, a Peruvian writer of Jewish roots who settled for several years in the United States. His work shows a combination of elements that reflect both his Jewish origin and his country of birth. I believe that studies of Jewish Latin American writers are scarce. They have been approached from a sociological, anthropological, religious and historical perspective, but not from a literary one. Therefore, I intend to make a literary analysis of Goldemberg's work first, and secondly, an interpretation of his Jewish identity and his transnationalism as shown …

"Beyond Chingones And Chingados: Performing Masculinities In Contemporary Mexican Theatre", Zaida Godoy Navarro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present investigation focuses on how masculinities are conformed and represented in the plays of two generations of Mexican playwrights, the New Dramatists of Mexico and the younger Sixth Generation in an attempt to reflect upon recent conceptualizations of gender as well as contemporary changes in society mainly due to globalization and the impact of feminism and gay movements. The limited literature focused on Mexican masculinities has overlooked the importance of theatre as a privileged and productive setting for the study of gender. Another common factor in studies dedicated to the representation of Mexican men in literature is the focus …

Pennsylvania Academic Career/Technical Training Alliance Initiative: Engaging Youth In School And Work, Marna Goodman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research offers a feasibility study on the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania Academic Career Technical Training Alliance (PACTT) at engaging youth in school and work upon return to the community. The sample included adjudicated youth from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania committed to PACTT-affiliated residential facilities and who discharged between July1, 2011 and June 31, 2012. An overview of the PACTT Initiative, with specific attention to its core elements, is presented and examined in the context of Ecological Systems Theory. Secondary data was analyzed using logistic regression to measure the overall impact of the five PACTT elements, dosage of PACTT elements, and …

The Effects Of Morpho-Phonemic And Whole Word Instruction On The Literacy Skills Of Adult Struggling Readers, Susan Gray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated the effects of two kinds of word study on the literacy skills of 34 adult struggling readers. Young adults seeking high school equivalency diplomas were randomly assigned to intensive individual tutoring, two hours once a week for four weeks, in either morpho-phonemic or whole word study to learn academic vocabulary from a civics curriculum. Participants were African American and Latino adults in secondary education who had learned English either as their native language or as their second language in early childhood. Those given morpho-phonemic instruction analyzed Latin and Greek word origins, parsed morpheme and syllable structures, and …

An Assessment Of The Therapeutic Fib: The Ethical And Emotional Role Of Therapeutic Lying In The Caregiving Of Alzheimer's Disease Patients By Non-Medical Caregivers, Dina Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study qualitatively assesses the various aspects of the use of the therapeutic lie in care giving for Alzheimer's Disease patients while examining the ethics of lying associated in and out of the medical setting. The objectives of this study are to: gain an understanding of the role therapeutic lying plays in the care given by non-medical caregivers through a series of focus groups and interviews; examine the moral and emotional issues related to the use of this practice with a focus on non-medical caregivers; gather knowledge of the use of therapeutic lying in order to improve care for Alzheimer's …

Mobilizing The Collective: Helhesten And The Danish Avant-Garde, 1934-1946, Kerry Greaves

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the avant-garde Danish artists' collective Helhesten (The Hell-Horse), which was active from 1941 to 1944 in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen and undertook cultural resistance during the war. The main claim of this study is that Helhesten was an original and fully established avant-garde before the artists formed the more internationally focused Cobra group, and that the collective's development of sophisticated socio-political engagement and new kinds of countercultural strategies prefigured those of postwar art groups such as Fluxus and the Situationist International. The group and its eponymous journal involved the Danish modernists Asger Jorn, Ejler Bille, Henry Heerup, Egill Jacobsen, …

Ni Francaise, Ni Juive, Ni Arabe: The Influence Of Nineteenth Century French Judaism On The Emergence Of Franco- Jewish- Arab Literature, Deborah Rosalind Gruber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study proposes that the influence of nineteenth century French Judaism on the Jewish communities of the Middle East from approximately 1910­‐1956 has had an indelible influence on the evolution of Franco- Jewish‐Arab literature today. From the late nineteenth century, the education of the Jews of the Ottoman Empire was provided by the Paris based Alliance Israélite Universelle, an organization established by French Jews with the purpose of emancipating disadvantaged Jewish communities outside of France. The result was the establishment of Franco­‐Jewish-Arab communities that regarded French education as a means of both social and economic advancement. Although the curriculum of …

Designing Instruction For Recovering Alcoholics: The Role Of Executive Function And Levels Of Guidance In Learning From Visually Complex Simulations, Jeffrey Gutkin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study examines the design of visually complex science simulations. Building upon an earlier study by Homer and Plass (2014), the current research determines under which circumstances adult learners, and alcoholics in recovery, would perform better from while learning with different levels of guidance. It was predicted that alcoholic adults in recovery would have impaired Executive Function (EF) as compared to controls selected from the general population and that EF would affect learning. An experiment investigated whether levels of EF predict learning from simulations that offered higher or lower levels of instructional guidance. Participants were 76 adults, half of …

Courage To Speak, Fortitude To Listen: A Model For The Study Of First-Person Ld Narratives, Charles Christian Haitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Learning disabled (LD) is both a politically and socially contentious term. In the eyes of the public, the label is synonymous with special education (SE). SE's vision of LD remains the dominant discourse of deficit-based understanding of human differences. This has resulted in its adherence to segregated services for many students that often result in additional behavior problems exacerbating their struggles to learn in school. A lack of student representation in school affairs is exemplified in the absence of LD pupils' voices in the decision-making that frames how they are viewed by others. This absence of voice also influences how …

Explorations Of Perceived Product Efficacy, Veronika Ilyuk

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Prior research has largely treated perceived product efficacy as a one-dimensional construct. This research uniquely demonstrates that perceived product efficacy is comprised of several dimensions and focuses on one previously unexplored dimension that has significant implications for consumption frequency: perceived duration of product efficacy. The current research shows that consumers make biased duration judgments of product efficacy: consumers make shorter (vs. longer) duration judgments when they perceive a concurrent task to be relatively difficult (vs. easy). The effect of perceived task difficulty on duration judgments of product efficacy is (1) established with energy-enhancing products and medication, (2) shown to be …

Dark Matter: Susan Howe, Muriel Rukeyser, And The Scholar's Art, Stefania Heim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Instead of describing poetry as a set of constraints or history of practices, Muriel Rukeyser calls it "one kind of knowledge." Dark Matter heeds Rukeyser's call, theorizing a poetics of the "scholar's art," in which documentary investigation, autobiographical exploration, and formal innovation are mutual, interwoven concerns. The dissertation pairs American poets Susan Howe (b. 1937) and Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980), reading their hybrid works not through the received categories of American poetry, or through common generic and disciplinary divisions, but using an inductive methodology that takes its lead from the poets. Understanding Howe and Rukeyser's literary experiments as serious interventions in …

Highly-Selective Chemiresistive Sensing And Analysis Of Vapors Using Functionalized Nanotubes, Deon Hines

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Specifically, the project involves the development of a diversified array of nanostructured gas-sensors comprised of selectively, novel surface-functionalized carbon nanotubes (for analyte selectivity by virtue of functionality). Harnessing carbon nanotubes with various electron withdrawing and donating groups help in determining their affinity toward certain prognostic gaseous markers thus increasing specificity of such created sensors. We have devised synthetic routes that have led to the facile production of covalently polyfunctionalized nanotubes in high yield. Seven carbon nanotube analogues were systematically considered and then chemically synthesized, from pristine single-walled nanotubes (SWNT's), for use as the main component of sensory units that was …

Technological Revolution In Astronomy, Michael Julio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the evolution of technology in astronomy and how it has impacted our understanding of the universe. It also gives a brief history of the major figures that revolutionized the science through their innovations and discoveries. Technological advancements throughout the last four centuries have allowed for the construction of instruments that can be used to see further into the universe than ever before. Thanks to technology, astronomers can now look beyond the electromagnetic spectrum as the only means of studying the compositions of celestial objects, opening a whole new way in which we can study the universe. We …

Vocabulary Through Affixes And Word Families - A Computer-Assisted Language Learning Program For Adult Ell Students, Magdalena Kieliszek

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Vocabulary plays an important role in language learning of ELL (English Language Learner) students. This work discusses the importance of metalinguistic awareness in teaching vocabulary to adult English Language Learners at an intermediate- or advanced-level of English language proficiency with an emphasis on learning vocabulary through word families and increased morphological awareness. The main contribution is a computer-based program that guides users through a series of interactive reading and vocabulary practice exercises which allow them to explore and learn how certain words are connected through word families and how some of the most common affixes in English can affect the …

Pierre Matthieu En España. La Biografía Política En Las Traducciones De Juan Pablo Mártir Rizo Y Lorenzo Van Der Hammen., Adrian M. Izquierdo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This Dissertation studies how history is construed in the 17th century through the reception, translation and adaptation in Spain of French historiographer Pierre Matthieu's historical writings, and particularly, the use of biography as a means to illustrate the political landscape of 17th-century France and Spain. We demonstrate how the biographical tradition inherited from the classics and the early Italian Renaissance is adapted to Counter-Reformation Catholicism to produce a political biography intended not only to advise kings and ministers on the dangers of political power, but also to warn those in power about their current excesses.

The appeal of Matthieu's biographies …

The Ties That Bind: Gender, Race, And Empire In Caribbean Indenture Narratives, Alison Joan Klein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces the ways that oppressive gender roles and racial tensions in the Caribbean today developed out of the British imperial system of indentured labor. Between 1837 and 1920, after slavery was abolished in the British colonies and before most colonies achieved independence, approximately 750,000 laborers, primarily from India and China, traveled to the Caribbean under indenture. This is a critical but under-explored aspect of colonial history, as this immigration dramatically altered the ethnic make up of the Caribbean, the cultural norms and traditions of those who migrated, and the structure of British imperialism. I focus on depictions of …

Tcr Alpha Lcr And Non-Lcr Cis-Elements Contributing To Tissue Specific Expression Of The Tcr Alpha Gene In Thymic And Peripheral T Cells, Martina Kucerova-Levisohn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Orchestrated expression of multiple genes residing in the complex TCRα/δ/Dad1 locus requires tight control from multiple cis-acting elements. The TCRα locus control region (LCR), is positioned between TCRα and Dad1 gene, and has been implicated in the differential expression of both genes. In this study, we focus our work on the hypersensitive site (HS)1 prime (HS1'), located 3' of the classical Eα enhancer, within the TCRα LCR. We investigated its non- redundant role in TCRα expression in thymic and peripheral T cells as assayed by in vivo and in vitro studies. Furthermore, formation of HS1' in both lymphoid and …

Effecting Moral Change: Lessons From The First Emancipation, Howard Landis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The First Emancipation was a grassroots movement that resulted in slavery being mostly eliminated in the North by 1830. Without this movement, it is unlikely that slavery would have been banned in the United States by 1865. The First Emancipation is not only a fascinating but little known part of our nation's history, but can also be used as a case study to illustrate how firmly entrenched, but immoral practices can be changed over time. The First Emancipation began with four immigrants stating their opposition to slavery in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1688. At this time, slavery was well entrenched, and …

Strongly-Correlated 2d Electron Systems In Si-Mosfets, Shiqi Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Si-MOSFETs are basic building blocks of present-day integrated circuits. Above a threshold gate voltage, a layer of two-dimensional electrons is induced near the silicon-silicon dioxide interface of a Si-MOSFET. According to theory for noninteracting and weakly interacting electrons, no metallic state can exist in two dimensions in zero magnetic field in the limit of zero temperature. However, in strongly interacting electron systems the observation of a resistivity that changes from metallic to insulating temperature dependence has fueled a debate over whether this signals a quantum phase transition to a metallic phase in two dimensions.

In this thesis I will present …

Syntactic Constraints And Social Uses Of Greek-English Intrasentential Codeswitching, Despina Stefanou Malliaroudakis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There are many multilingual speakers who codeswitch in daily conversation. By learning the specific points where this codeswitching occurs, the reasons why the speaker codeswitches are revealed. In obtaining both, one can see how a speaker utilizes two or more languages to convey their point in a conversation. The list of features may also hold useful linguistic information regarding codeswitching boundaries that can be further applied to other areas within linguistics.

This study will use the recorded speech of six bilingual speakers who codeswitch between Greek and English to determine specific codeswitching boundaries. Once obtained, the reason behind the codeswitch …

The New York Philharmonic Strike Of 1973, Kuan Cheng Lu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The New York Philharmonic Strike of 1973 is a story waiting to be told. The sole volume to mention it, John Canarina's The New York Philharmonic, devotes less than two pages to it. Until now, the full story has lain buried in archival documents, newspaper articles, and the memories of those who experienced it firsthand. This document represents the first comprehensive examination of this event. The research upon which it is based consists of: interviews with the New York Philharmonic members; research in the New York Philharmonic Archives; newspaper articles and reviews. The results are presented here in three …

`We Are All Stories In The End, I Want Mine To Be A Good One': College Students' Work-Family Expectations And The Role Of Educational Experiences, Chandra D. Mason

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While researchers have long been interested in the experiences of people who combine paid work with non-work roles (e.g., spouse, parent, eldercare provider), relatively little attention has been given to the expectations that people hold prior to occupying these roles, such as the amount of role conflict or fulfillment anticipated as a result of participating in both work and non-work roles. Even less is known about the factors that shape these expectations. For college students, these factors may include experiences of a college education (e.g., coursework that addresses gender roles, interacting with successful role models), yet, ironically, few studies have …

The Impact Of Police Misconduct In Kings County On New York City's Civil Liability 2006-2010, Brian A. Maule

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The confluence of police misconduct and civil liability is an issue of growing concern for many communities throughout the U.S. today. The gravamen of the issue is evident in increases in the number of lawsuits alleging police misconduct and the civil liability that results from these lawsuits.

In New York City during the period 1997-2005 the cost for police misconduct went from $27.9 million in 1997 to $40.4 million in 2005 (Thompson, 2007). Concerns over these increases have resulted in efforts to curb both the number of lawsuits brought against the New York Police Department and the civil liability to …

Opportunities For Play-Based Experiences In Post "No Child Left Behind" Kindergarten Classrooms: The Role Of Training, Resources, And Accountability Pressures In Meeting Best Practices, Cristina Medellin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In response to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), opportunities for play-based experiences in classrooms have been challenged over the past decade. Despite research demonstrating the educational benefits of child driven play, teachers and schools have been pressured to focus on improving children's success on standardized assessments which may not relate to the developmental achievements expected from activity based experiences. To explore teachers' response to the tension between assessment driven mandates and best early childhood practices, this study investigated which factors influence teacher practices and values. Specifically, how do teacher training and classroom resources influence teachers' values about the appropriateness of …

The Effect Of Orthographic Mapping, Context, And Word Class On Sight Word Learning For Native And Nonnative English-Speakers, Katharine Pace Miles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated three questions: 1.) Does training in orthographic mapping better support flashcard reading over a control group, 2.) Does providing meaning clarifications during flashcard reading better support learning over not providing meanings, 3.) Does grammatical word class affect word learning, and 4.) Do these manipulations affect word learning differently in native and nonnative speakers? Additionally, this study investigated whether literacy and language skills predict the reading of words presented in isolation. Native (n = 40) and nonnative (n = 41) English-speaking kindergarten students' were randomly assigned to either the orthographic mapping or control condition prior to flashcard word …

The Trickster In Nella Larsen's Passing (1929): Performing And Masquerading An American Identity, Rachael Miller Benavidez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines Nella Larsen's novel Passing (1929) and the performative nature of `passing' as white through the perspective of the archetypal trickster myth. I read the novel as a trickster tale that challenges gender roles and the construct of race in defiance of the dominant power structure that defines the American identity. I position the character Clare Kendry Bellew as a trickster figure, who performs an identity to defy race and gender roles. My argument challenges the general theory that black passing novels are solely tragic, and the perception that humor is not a pedagogical tool or representation of …

Estimation Of Outer-Middle Ear Transmission Using Dpoaes And Fractional-Order Modeling Of Human Middle Ear, Maryam Naghibolhosseini

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our ability to hear depends primarily on sound waves traveling through the outer and middle ear toward the inner ear. Hence, the characteristics of the outer and middle ear affect sound transmission to/from the inner ear. The role of the middle and outer ear in sound transmission is particularly important for otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), which are sound signals generated in a healthy cochlea, and recorded by a sensitive microphone placed in the ear canal. OAEs are used to evaluate the health and function of the cochlea; however, they are also affected by outer and middle ear characteristics. To …

Native American Chic: The Marketing Of Native Americans In New York Between The World Wars, Emily Schuchardt Navratil

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Focusing on four key figures - Morris de Camp Crawford, John Sloan, Amelia Elizabeth White, and René d'Harnoncourt - this dissertation analyzes museum and gallery exhibitions of Native American art mounted in the United States, particularly New York City, during the interwar period, and documents the immediate and lasting impact these shows and their promotion had on the emergence of "Indian Chic" in women's fashion and interior design.

In the late 1910s, Crawford, a research editor for Women's Wear and honorary research associate at the American Museum of Natural History, mounted a campaign encouraging Euro-American designers to seek inspiration in …