Digital Commons Network^™

How American Student Journalists At A College Newspaper Consume, Perceive, And Disseminate News And Information About China, Xiaohua Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the increase of cooperation between America and China, the average person's perception of the other country could be an important factor that influences the development of the relationship between these countries. This study was designed to explore how Americans student journalists view China and how these student journalists select the news for a campus newspaper that might influence their readers' perceptions of China. Student journalists not only represent American youth but also act as connectors and filters between a huge flow of information outside and students on campus. A convenience census sample of student journalists at a campus newspaper …

Outside The Frame: Towards A Phenomenology Of Texts And Technology, Anthony Crisafi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The subject of my dissertation is how phenomenology can be used as a tool for understanding the intersection between texts and technology. What I am suggesting here is that, specifically in connection with the focus of our program in Texts and Technology, there are very significant questions concerning how digital communications technology extends our humanity, and more importantly what kind of epistemological and ontological questions are raised because of this. There needs to be a coherent theory for Texts and Technology that will help us to understand this shift, and I feel that this should be the main focus for …

Developmental Trajectory Of Aggressive Behavior In Clinically Referred Boys: A Rasch Analysis, Scott Lafond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A majority of research investigating aggression and its development in children has relied upon the use of rating scales such as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). These scales are typically developed using a conventional factor analytic approach for the selection and retention of scale items, but may not contain sufficient numbers of items to adequately assess the unidimensional construct or developmental trajectory of aggressive behavior in youths. The present study evaluates specific psychometric properties of CBCL Aggressive and Delinquency Problems clinical syndrome scale items to determine the degree to which they reflect the breadth and established developmental trajectory of aggressive …

Let Her Be Taken: Sexual Violence In Medieval England, Lindsey Mcnellis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rape and its impact on medieval women, as conceived by society and the law, have yet to receive extensive treatment. By analyzing not only rape cases, but evolving laws and the impact of the Church on views of sexuality and marriage and thus its influence on attitudes towards rape, this study shows that women were much more than victims and society, or the courts, reacted accordingly. Covering the years 1200 to 1250, this thesis examines secular court cases taken from the general eyre records of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire. Cases taken from the King's Bench …

Race-Ing And Gendering Art Criticism : Politics Of Identity In The Reviews Of Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, And Kara Walker / By Margaret Tate, Margaret Tate

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Craig Claiborne : A Southern-Made Man, Georgeanna Milam Chapman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Gendered Altar: Wiccan Concepts Of Gender And Ritual Objects, Jesse Sloan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many ethnographic accounts within the annals of anthropological literature describe the religious beliefs and magical rituals of peoples throughout the world. Fewer scholars have focused on the relatively young Neo-Pagan religious movement. "Neo-Pagan," explains Helen Berger in Voices from the Pagan Census (2003), "is an umbrella term covering sects of a new religious movement, the largest and most important form of which is…Wicca" (Berger et al. 2003: 1). This thesis examines the relationship between practice and ideology by analyzing the material culture of Wiccan altars as used by Wiccans in Central Florida, USA. Particular attention is paid to beliefs …

Study Of Symbolic Expressions In Peking Opera'scostumes And Lyrics, Yiman Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis represents an analysis of symbolic expressions used to convey traditional Chinese cultural values in marital relations as expressed through costumes and lyrics in Peking Opera plays and performances. Two symbols, dragon and phoenix, were selected from the costume collection. Four symbols--bird, tiger, wild goose, and dragon--were selected from compilations of lyrics. These symbols were selected because they expressed Chinese core cultural values, an imperial ideology based on Confucian thoughts, which were practiced rigidly during Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Modeling Theory is applied to argue that dragon and phoenix as visual symbols convey ideas about characters' background, marital relationship, social …

Determinants Of Turkish Police Officers' Perception Of Integrity: Impact Of Organizational Culture, Bahadir Kucukuysal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of police organizational culture on officers' perception of integrity in the Turkish National Police (TNP). Adopting an organizational rather than an individualistic perspective, this study focused on police organizational culture to investigate the causes of integrity problems in the TNP. While focusing on police organizational culture, this study also aimed to determine to what extent officers' perceptions of integrity are influenced by personal and occupational attributes such as age, gender, rank, income, educational level, years of employment, and assignment type. The research was conducted in Turkey's two largest cities, Istanbul …

Imagining The Unimaginable : Witnessing Trauma In The Post-Segregation South / By Becca Walton, Becca Walton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

From Textbooks To Safety Briefings: Helping Technical Writers Negotiate Complex Rhetorical Situations, Brian Blackburne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I analyze the organizational and political constraints that technical writers encounter when dealing with complex rhetorical situations, particularly within risk-management discourse. I ground my research in case studies of safety briefings that airlines provide to their passengers because these important documents have long been regarded as ineffective, yet they ve gone largely unchanged in the last 20 years. Airlines are required to produce these safety briefings, which must satisfy multiple audiences, such as corporate executives, federal safety inspectors, flight attendants, and passengers. Because space and time are limited when presenting safety information to passengers, the technical writers …

Need Not Necessity: Purgatorial Torment And Healing In Medieval And Early Modern Drama, Nicole Andel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Seeking to expand on the work of Jacque Le Goff in The Birth of Purgatory, this dissertation examines Purgatory and purgatorial suffering on the early modern stage in Britain. Le Goff asserts in The Birth of Purgatory that "Purgatory, though a prominent if elusive feature of Christian thinking about the afterlife, seems to have been a perishable rather than an enduring idea" (358). I choose to look for those places in the British early modern dramatic imagination where the idea of Purgatory, even when used as a dramatic device or metaphor, managed to endure, even if it never quite flourishes. …

Beyond Postmodern Margins: Theorizing Postfeminist Consequences Through Popular Female Representation, Victoria Mosher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1988, Linda Nicholson and Nancy Fraser published an article entitled "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism," arguing that this essay would provide a jumping point for discussion between feminisms and postmodernisms within academia. Within this essay, Nicholson and Fraser largely disavow a number of second wave feminist theories due to their essentialist and foundationalist underpinnings in favor of a set of postmodernist frameworks that might help feminist theorists overcome these epistemological impediments. A "postmodern feminism," Nicholson and Fraser claim, would become "the theoretical counterpart of a broader, richer, more complex, and multilayered solidarity, the sort …

Green Chairs, Fictional Phalluses, Infiltration, And Love On The Rocks: Medical Imaging Artifacts Blown Up, Lynn Koller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This text outlines and applies a methodology for deciphering problems and producing new information by analyzing the artifacts produced by medical imaging technologies - text and images - using practices gleaned from Surrealists, semiologists, and visual artists, emphasizing its own form as being the product of the apparatuses that produce it and therefore untrustworthy. Its basic assumption is that every text contains the information necessary to solve problems of all sorts, though because of the limitations of this text in both form and authorial intellect, we may only reach a starting point for a solution herein. In this regard, we …

"How Do We Make That Change?" Analysis Of Transformative Dialogue In A Community Initiative, Tanya A. Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the processes through which people are transformed in their encounters with one another and consequently moved to engage in civic action. Proponents within critical pedagogy have underscored the significance of dialogue for motivating hope, agency, and civic engagement. The importance of conceptualizing dialogue as transformative has been underscored in light of research and theories within community psychology, which have both argued for the significance of civic engagement for social change, and documented its decline in recent years. Despite this, review of literature addressing transformative learning and civic engagement point to the absence …

The Long March Of The German 68ers: Their Protest, Their Exhibition, And Their Administration., Gracie M. Morton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The postwar children coming of age in the late 1960s in West Germany mounted a widesweeping socio-political protest against what they saw as the strangling silence of their parents, the Nazi generation. These protesters, referred to as the 68ers for their pivotal year, continued their struggle in following decades, incorporating an important and controversial exhibition, and finally culminating in their own administration thirty years from their defining moment. Using such diverse kinds of information as parliamentary debates, interviews, and contemporary criticism, this thesis explores the impact of the 68ers' initial protest and the influence they ultimately had on their nation …

Globalization And Social Work Education : An Initial International Inquiry., Elaine Rushmore Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With an increasing awareness of a global-local reality, social work research and theorizing on globalization is limited but growing. From a multinational perspective, the purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to the emerging professional discourse through (a) an examination of definitions and dimensions of globalization and (b) and an exploration of the impact of globalization on social work education. Perspectives on globalization were collected on a newly designed and translated survey from 46 social work educators from schools and social work in China, Germany, Russia, and the United States of America. Descriptive analysis and the coding of themes were …

Dismantling The Master's House : Deconstructing The Roots Of Antiblack Racism And The Construction Of The "Other" In Judaism, Christianity And Islam., John Chenault

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This critical inquiry into the social constructions of "black" and "white" identities analyzes the roles of the three "western" monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) in the cognitive and sociohistorical developments of racial slavery and antiblack racism. Specifically, it investigates the sociohistorical consequences of the inherent dualisms of the "western" monotheisms and how those dualisms are expressed in the production of social theories and systems that rely on believer/non-believer oppositions and binaries defined by a Manichaean view of the universe and a teleological conception of history that fosters and sustains an eternal holy war against infidels. What emerges from this analysis …

Vitamin E (Tocotrienols) And Prostate Cancer: A Proteomics Approach., Christian Mbangha Muenyi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proteomics is the large scale study of proteins in cells or organisms. The purpose of this study was to characterize the proteomic alterations occurring in a prostate cancer (LNCaP) cell line after treatment with delta-tocotrienol (a form of vitamin E not very prevalent from most dietary sources). We found that both gamma- and delta-tocotrienols induced time and concentration dependent growth inhibition and programmed cell dead (apoptosis) in LNCaP cells. Secondly, we used two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) to characterize changes in protein expression levels associated with this treatment. Our results show that a specific set of proteins are regulated at both …

A Media Analysis Of Racism And Ethnocentrism Issues Framed In Us And European Mass Media Within The Setting Of The 2006 Fifa World Cup Competition., Monica Nastase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present exploratory study, framed in agenda-setting theory, analyzes the way European and US newspapers frame racism and ethnocentrism issues, on the background of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, 2 research hypotheses and 9 research questions were explored. The results showed the distribution of articles that used a positive frame and the ones that used a negative frame was relatively equal across geographical regions.

The US media have shown as the most ethnocentric nationality the Spanish, while the European media, the Scottish. There is an agreement across different geographical regions that the French and …

The Effects Of Trivalent Arsenicals And Thioredoxin Reductase Inhibitors On Selenium Metabolism In Lung Cell Culture Models, Sarah Ryann Talbot

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arsenic exposure, through various routes, is associated with the development of cancer of the skin, lung, liver, kidney, and bladder. Treatment of cells in culture with trivalent arsenicals has been shown to increase reactive oxygen species (ROS). In particular, monomethylarsonous acid (MMAIII), a trivalent metabolite of arsenite, is highly cytotoxic and possibly carcinogenic. Three trivalent arsenicals; arsenite, arsenic trioxide (ATO), and MMAIII, are also known inhibitors of the selenoprotein thioredoxin reductase (TrxR). Selenium, an essential micronutrient in mammals, is needed in the form of selenocysteine for activity of this enzyme and other selenoproteins. TrxR is part of a key component …

Eating Pie : Digesting Food Production And Consumption In Faulkner / By Katherine Rawson, Katherine Rawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Gender Portrayal In J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix”: A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism, Nicole Ackman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined J.K. Rowling’s (2003) novel entitled, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Although this novel has not yet been classified as a fairy tale, it does contain fairy tale elements. This study reviewed literature in the field of folklore, fairy tales, and feminism. Foss’ (2004) four-step feminist criticism model was employed to analyze gender portrayals in the novel. According to Foss’ model, the novel was analyzed for masculine or feminine perspectives of the world, effects on the audience, improvement of women’s lives, and impact on rhetorical theory. Although Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix …

The Effects Of Elementary Foreign Language Instruction On Student Performance On The Mississippi Curriculum Test / By Diana Semmes, Diana Semmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Historical Analysis Of Christianity Today Magazine And Christian Magazines In American Culture / By Doris Jean Waller, Doris Jean (Jeannie) Waller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Bloody Truth: A Psychological And Cultural Study Of Menstruation As Lived And Experienced By Women, Carolyn Deforest

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present research explores the negation and affirmation of menstrual life as found in culture, theory, and the concrete experiences of individual women. A phenomenological and hermeneutical thematic analysis is used throughout. In this study, the aspects of culture analyzed include language, humor, art, television, film, literature, print and television advertising, menstrual education, medicine, and some of the historical influences in the perception of women. Additionally, the formal psychological literature is examined as part of the cultural data, as is the researcher's own observations and cultural experiences.

Overall, this research reveals that the experience of menstrual bleeding has been culturally …

Ecocritical Perspectives On African Literature : Place, Literary Identity, And The Natural World / Anna K. Smith, Anna K. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of A Media Literacy Education Plan On The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (Fcat) Reading Scores Of 9th And 10th Grade Students, Colleen T. Sheehy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of a media literacy education plan on the reading test scores of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) at an urban high school in Central Florida. A team of 9th and 10th grade teachers created a professional learning community and developed a treatment to enhance language arts instruction with various forms of media. This media literacy education plan included four lessons utilizing media such as television commercials, magazine photographs and the Internet; the lessons were taught during the four months leading to the administration of the 2007 FCAT. Data were gathered from the 2006 and …

Perceived Influence Of The Portrayal Of Women In Beauty And Fashion Magazines On Body Image, Melissa Shrader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This investigation examines how women perceive that magazines influence the body image of self and others. Seventeen audio-taped in-depth interviews were conducted with college women who read beauty, fashion, and grooming magazines frequently. These interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed and the data developed into topics of importance. The findings indicated that informants perceived other women were influenced more by images of women in the media than they themselves were influenced. However, informants did not advocate behavior changes for others or hold pro-censorship attitudes. Other findings include favorable perceptions of magazines utilizing larger sized fashion models, negative attitudes towards advertising, …

On The Incorporation Of The Personality Factors Into Crowd Simulation, Sivakumar Jaganathan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, a considerable amount of research has been performed on simulating the collective behavior of pedestrians in the street or people finding their way inside a building or a room. Comprehensive reviews of the state of the art can be found in Schreckenberg and Deo (2002) and Batty, M., DeSyllas, J. and Duxbury, E. (2003). In all these simulation studies, one area that is lacking is accounting for the effects of human personalities on the outcome. As a result, there is a growing emphasis on researching the effects of human personalities and adding the results to the simulations to make …