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Analysis Of Mechanical Properties Of Alternative Timber Beams For A Native American Earth Lodge, Freddy E. Moran Jan 2017

Analysis Of Mechanical Properties Of Alternative Timber Beams For A Native American Earth Lodge, Freddy E. Moran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To fill a gap in the literature, this thesis explored the mechanical properties for alternative roof beams of a historic Native American Hidatsa earth lodge. The research demonstrates that in those alternative beams, when Moisture Content (MC) increases, Modulus of Elasticity (E) decreases and deflection increases. The procedure included obtaining dimensions for alternative beams from scaled sketches created by ethnographers and informants who recorded an actual Hidatsa earth lodge in the early 1800s (confirmed by other sources) although no material properties studies have resulted. After calculating loads, the variations in the E were determined using an equation. Using linear analysis, …


The False Intent-Purpose Distinction In Textualism, Aaron Graham Jan 2017

The False Intent-Purpose Distinction In Textualism, Aaron Graham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Textualism is the theory of legislative interpretation championed most famously by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Textualism adopts twin interpretive commitments: (1) the meaning of a legislative text should be discerned by application of long-established canons of construction, the most important of which is that the text means what its words convey; and (2) a legislative text means what it meant at the time it was enacted. This paper examines the first principle, and in particular Scalia and treatise coauthor Bryan A. Garner’s belief that it mandates that judges forswear any consideration of legislative intent. This paper assess …


Native Speaker Stance-Taking In A Multinational Conference Call, Vanessa Cristina Revheim Cunha Jan 2017

Native Speaker Stance-Taking In A Multinational Conference Call, Vanessa Cristina Revheim Cunha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study examines the stance-taking measures of a native speaker director in a conference call, focusing on social contexts where foreign speakers are also involved. The transcript used in this study is comprised of a global departmental team meeting call from a multinational company based in Austin, TX. Subjects are native and nonnative co-workers or specialists in the field of home vacation rental and a native director. The analysis aims at finding what different stance-taking measures are enacted by the director throughout this conference call, what linguistic strategies are used to claim authority, and whether different strategies or stances …


Sicilians In Detroit: How Do They Speak?, Giovanna Brunetti Jan 2017

Sicilians In Detroit: How Do They Speak?, Giovanna Brunetti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study focuses on the linguistic analysis of the varieties of the Sicilian dialect spoken in the city of Detroit, Michigan. The city has witnessed, starting from the early 19th century, a steady process of immigration and settlement involving speakers mainly arriving from the two Sicilian coastal towns of Terrasini and Cinisi. The varieties they speak appear to have never been the subject of systematic observation. The present study, thus, focuses on the preservation, attrition and/or loss of the phonological features of the Sicilian dialect spoken by a community of Sicilian immigrants of different generations living in Detroit. Native …


The Effects Of Closed-Captioned Television On The Oral Reading Fluency Of Low Socioeconomic 2nd Grade Students, Kristina Livingston Jan 2017

The Effects Of Closed-Captioned Television On The Oral Reading Fluency Of Low Socioeconomic 2nd Grade Students, Kristina Livingston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research into the use of closed-captioning has provided exciting evidence into the possibilities of its usefulness as a literacy tool. Although previous studies have shown the efficacy of closed-captioning as a tool that can assist the deaf and hard-of-hearing, those learning a second language, and hearing students, the existing scholarship lacks important information regarding closed-captioning and its impact on oral reading fluency. Previous scholars have proven that CC can assist all students on word recognition, vocabulary, and reading comprehension; however, there is a dearth of new research focusing on low socioeconomic students from rural communities. This quantitative, quasi-experimental, comparative study …


Short-Term Study Abroad And Dialect Acquisition: An Analysis Of The Acquisition Of The Ustedes-Vosotros Verbal Mixing By Study Abroad L2 Learners Of Spanish, Samuel Collins Hearn Jan 2017

Short-Term Study Abroad And Dialect Acquisition: An Analysis Of The Acquisition Of The Ustedes-Vosotros Verbal Mixing By Study Abroad L2 Learners Of Spanish, Samuel Collins Hearn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Study abroad is often idealized as a panacea for language learning. The growth in the popularity of studying abroad has led to the proliferation of programs of various lengths, among which is the short-term study abroad program, typically lasting around one month. Much needed investigation remains regarding the effectiveness of short-term study abroad programs, and this study aims to understand the level of effectiveness through the lens of dialect feature acquisition. Specifically, in southwestern Andalucía, there exists a phenomenon in which local speakers of Spanish mix the pronoun ustedes with the verbal conjugation of the second person plural pronoun, vosotros. …


A “Human Endeavor”: Killing In Contemporary U.S. Combat Narratives, William Mackenzie Jan 2017

A “Human Endeavor”: Killing In Contemporary U.S. Combat Narratives, William Mackenzie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This PH.D dissertation aims to develop a 3-D numerical model of dam-break flows on movable beds. Three tasks are defined to accomplish the goal of this study. The first task is developing a 3-D hydrodynamic model to simulate dam-break flow on fixed beds with simple geometry and test the water surface tracking technique. This model solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations using a finite-difference method on rectilinear, staggered grids. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) technique with SOLA-VOF advection scheme is used to capture the free surface motion. The developed model is tested using several experimental dam-break flows and the VOF technique is …


A Little Difference Makes A Big Difference: Essays On The Link Between Top Management Team Traits And Strategic Marketing Decisions, Cameron Duncan Nicol Jan 2017

A Little Difference Makes A Big Difference: Essays On The Link Between Top Management Team Traits And Strategic Marketing Decisions, Cameron Duncan Nicol

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The importance of marketing is growing. This is not just a perception: CEOs appear to see its importance as well. Despite the increase in the understood importance of marketing, there still remains a relatively scant amount of research on the impact that can be had by top management team members on a firm's strategic marketing outcomes. The research which follows explores an important question that has previously been comparatively neglected by researchers: what top management team individual differences can impact the strategic marketing outcomes of the firm? The first essay, based on a multi-industry sample of 325 publicly listed fortune …


Cultural Bias In English Language Arts Curriculum And Its Effect On African American And Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners In A Municipal School, Shelia Yvette Morgan Jan 2017

Cultural Bias In English Language Arts Curriculum And Its Effect On African American And Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners In A Municipal School, Shelia Yvette Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many rightly assume that textbooks prior to 1970 in the United States were not culturally responsive to African Americans, and that assumption includes that some research has been conducted on culturally responsive textbooks and African Americans since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, even in today's 21st century market, textbook editors and publishers continue to manufacture textbooks that now include African Americans and other ethnicities, but only occasionally in roles that build up the cultural capital of those people groups. In the 21st century there is an urgent need for culturally responsive teaching, "an approach that empowers students intellectually, …


Discreet Only: An Exploration Of Discreet Practices On Grindr In A Mississippi Town, Ian Michael Whalen Jan 2017

Discreet Only: An Exploration Of Discreet Practices On Grindr In A Mississippi Town, Ian Michael Whalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Speak'st, Art Sound: The Material Voice In Early Modern England, Nathaniel Philip Likert Jan 2017

Speak'st, Art Sound: The Material Voice In Early Modern England, Nathaniel Philip Likert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that early moderns conceived of speech as a material phenomenon; voice struck out from bodies into environments. Early modern voices thus participate in what sound studies scholars call the soundscape, which I link to current new materialist and ecological theories of network and assemblage. Within this soundscape, I pay special attention to the role of language as a semantic system of meaning. Current ecological criticism takes for granted the utter “flatness” of ontology, and as such discards the question of human language so central to previous deconstructive and discursive scholarship. My thesis attempts to account for the …


One Or Two Things I Know About Us: Narrative Strategies For Autoethnography, Self-Representation And Healing In Four Memoirs By Poor-White Women From The U.S. South, Joseph Aaron Farmer Jan 2017

One Or Two Things I Know About Us: Narrative Strategies For Autoethnography, Self-Representation And Healing In Four Memoirs By Poor-White Women From The U.S. South, Joseph Aaron Farmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines autobiographical writings by formerly poor white Southern women, who are rarely considered as a group and are more typically studied with “rough South” male writers, which would suggest that few women have contributed their own gendered experience to discussions of class, race, and sexuality vis-à-vis Southern poverty. Correcting this assumption, I examine formative statements by women from poor white backgrounds, including Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s Red Dirt, Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Wild Card Quilt, Dorothy Allison’s Trash, and Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. Each of these writers engage in narrative strategies that do not defend …


Reconstructing The War In Iraq: Post-9/11 American War Fiction In Dialogue With Official-Media Discourse, Ashley Kunsa Jan 2017

Reconstructing The War In Iraq: Post-9/11 American War Fiction In Dialogue With Official-Media Discourse, Ashley Kunsa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines American-authored Iraq War fiction within the context of public discourse. Given that modern, industrialized warfare is as much created by and through official-media discourse as represented by it, fictional accounts of Iraq exist not outside or separate from this discourse but rather in a dynamic, continually evolving relationship with it. The three texts explored in this study—Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Half Time Walk (2012), David Abrams’ Fobbit (2012), and Phil Klay’s Redeployment (2014)—thus do more than merely represent the war experience: operating always in conversation with how the war has been constructed, the novels and stories …


Refugee-Led Organizations And The Obstacles They Face: A Comparative Study Of Syria Bright Future And The Bhutanese Community Association Of Pittsburgh, Priscila Elizabeth Cordoba Montoya Jan 2017

Refugee-Led Organizations And The Obstacles They Face: A Comparative Study Of Syria Bright Future And The Bhutanese Community Association Of Pittsburgh, Priscila Elizabeth Cordoba Montoya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the nexus of our collective history, it has been recorded that human-induced political and social conflicts play a powerful role in displacing millions of people. The social insecurity produced by conflict persists long after they have ended, as refugees adjust to new circumstances, cope with loss, and attempt to regain a sense of normalcy. This study focuses on two distinct refugee-led organizations, namely a Syrian and a Bhutanese organization. These organizations operate in distinct stages of resettlement, in different parts of the world—one in a state of emergency, the other in resettlement in the United States. However, both organizations …


Drawing Conclusions About Aphasia: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Word Retrieval, Drawing, And Semantics, Joanne Kinney Jan 2017

Drawing Conclusions About Aphasia: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Word Retrieval, Drawing, And Semantics, Joanne Kinney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The hallmark characteristic of aphasia, word retrieval impairment, can significantly affect a person’s ability to communicate their needs and ideas. Treatment for these deficits typically focuses on either restorative or compensatory strategies. In aphasia therapy, clinicians have predominately used drawing as a compensatory strategy. Emerging evidence suggests that drawing may also have restorative effects on word retrieval impairments by providing an alternate route to accessing the semantic system (Farias, Davis, & Harrington, 2006). However, the current understanding of this theoretical relationship between the semantic system, drawing, and word retrieval abilities is limited. This study examined that relationship to further develop …


Structure Or Knot: What Phenomenology And Asperger’S Syndrome Can Teach Lacanian Psychoanalysis About Subjective Constitution, Shannon D. Kelly Jan 2017

Structure Or Knot: What Phenomenology And Asperger’S Syndrome Can Teach Lacanian Psychoanalysis About Subjective Constitution, Shannon D. Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project examines Asperger’s Syndrome (now, with the DSM 5, Autism Spectrum Disorder) through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis and speaks to current debates in the field regarding the structural diagnosis of autism. Framed by critiques of Lacanian psychoanalysis, the project takes up autism and treatments for the disorder from within mainstream psychological approaches, from the viewpoint of neurodiversity and autistic self-advocates, and from within Lacanian psychoanalysis, with specific attention paid to the diagnostic approach in Lacanian thinking and the assumed relationship between autism and psychosis. Four published autobiographies written by autistic adults were subjected to two types of …


Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics Of The Self: Living In The Truth, Fergus James Laughland Jan 2017

Paul Ricoeur's Hermeneutics Of The Self: Living In The Truth, Fergus James Laughland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the relationship of selfhood and ethics from the competing philosophical frameworks developed by Paul Ricoeur and Alain Badiou. Seeking “nothing short of a full victory” on the “battlefield” of history, Badiou argues that Ricoeur deceives his readers by hiding the relationship of the self to history. The purpose of this deception is to defend a definition of history that allows for a Providential sense of history whereby the past could be actively forgotten whereby crimes could be forgiven. In this work I examine Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of the self as developed in Oneself as Another (Soi-même comme …


Does Speech-To-Text Assistive Technology Improve The Written Expression Of Students With Traumatic Brain Injury?, Michaela Ann Noakes Jan 2017

Does Speech-To-Text Assistive Technology Improve The Written Expression Of Students With Traumatic Brain Injury?, Michaela Ann Noakes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic Brain Injury outcomes vary by individual due to age at the onset of injury, the location of the injury, and the degree to which the deficits appear to be pronounced, among other factors. As an acquired injury to the brain, the neurophysiological consequences are not homogenous; they are as varied as the individuals who experience them. Persistent impairment in executive functions of attention, initiation, planning, organizing, and memory are likely to be present in children with moderate to severe TBIs. Issues with sensory and motor skills, language, auditory or visual sensation changes, and variations in emotional behavior may also …


Improving Metacognitive Awareness And Authentic Teaching Practices Through Scaffolding Goal Setting And Reflective Practices With Ecd Majors At The Community College Level, Melanie Renee Yeschenko Jan 2017

Improving Metacognitive Awareness And Authentic Teaching Practices Through Scaffolding Goal Setting And Reflective Practices With Ecd Majors At The Community College Level, Melanie Renee Yeschenko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research set out to enhance instruction for early education and child development majors in a community college setting in a manner that allows them to gain content knowledge while becoming more prepared to practice effective pedagogy in early learning classrooms. This study examined how metacognitive awareness changes throughout a semester with scaffolded goal setting and reflective practices. It investigated the types of goals students set for a specific learning task, as well as investigated their ability to apply reflective practice to their own learning and teaching practices. This research used a mixed method design to data collection with quantitative …


Examining The Role Of Ethnic Identity In The Relationship Between Characteristics Of Autism Spectrum Disorders And Eating Disorders, Ashley Bojorquez Jan 2017

Examining The Role Of Ethnic Identity In The Relationship Between Characteristics Of Autism Spectrum Disorders And Eating Disorders, Ashley Bojorquez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present work provides a synthetic literature review investigating the potential role of ethnic identity in the relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and eating disorders (EDs). To date, there is no literature that directly examines the role that ethnic identity may play in the relationship between these two disorders. However, there is reason to believe it may; previous literature has shown that race/ethnicity plays a role in both of these disorders, and the role of ethnic identity has been more fully explored in the ED population. Notably, there is little research that examines the role of ethnic identity on …


Text Based Analysis In The Undergraduate Classroom, Katelyn Antolik Jan 2017

Text Based Analysis In The Undergraduate Classroom, Katelyn Antolik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project compromises of both a written and technical portion. I have created an interactive web source for teaches in the undergraduate literature classroom to encourage a dynamic experience with literary text in order to promote active engagement in literature for students at any level of technological experience. Students or teachers are able to input outside texts that utilize graphs, charts, and interactive web tools in order to promote learning skills transferable to both academic and non-academic career paths. By utilizing “The Story of an Hour”, I explore the uses of this software in order to demonstrate the potential of …


Integrated Marketing Communication As Epideictic Rhetoric And Its Implications For Ethical Branding, Tricia Mcfadden Jan 2017

Integrated Marketing Communication As Epideictic Rhetoric And Its Implications For Ethical Branding, Tricia Mcfadden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traced to ancient scholarship, rhetoric, and the philosophy of communication and through interpretive perspectives, rhetoric, narrative and ethics have been established grounding of communication and social structures. IMC has emerged as a contemporary genre of epideictic rhetoric with ethical obligations to our postmodern polis. Through the redefining of the branding metaphor within an ethical, grounded and narrative framework, the focus on ethos and connection to the audience through Schrag’s “fitting response” may combat the previous challenges of narrative and marketing and its deconstructive effects. IMC as communicative praxis engages branding discourse in action with texture as the bonding agent between …


Improvement And Development Of Analytical Forensic Methods: Arson Investigation And Drug Detection In Fingerprints And Hair, Sarah Anne Glenn Jan 2017

Improvement And Development Of Analytical Forensic Methods: Arson Investigation And Drug Detection In Fingerprints And Hair, Sarah Anne Glenn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forensic science is the cornerstone of criminal investigations. Due to the overexposure of forensic science in the media, the true nature of forensic science is often overlooked. Forensic science is a rigorous exacting science that applies methods developed in the wider scientific community to the analysis of evidence collected from crime scenes. As far back as the 6th century people were using forensics to solve crimes. Since then the science behind forensic science has increased exponentially with new methods being researched and developed. This research aims to address two of the larger subsections of forensic science, arson and drug detection. …


Scientific Transformations: A Philosophical And Historical Analysis Of Cosmology From Copernicus To Newton, Manuel-Albert Castillo Jan 2017

Scientific Transformations: A Philosophical And Historical Analysis Of Cosmology From Copernicus To Newton, Manuel-Albert Castillo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to show a transformation around the scientific revolution from the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries against a Whig approach in which it still lingers in the history of science. I find the transformations of modern science through the cosmological models of Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. Since of the enormous content, I shall only pay particular attention to Copernicus and Newton in which the emerging sciences transformed the cosmos on what Alexandre Koyré calls from a "closed world to infinite universe". As an interdisciplinary approach, I used the methods and inquiries …


A Process Evaluation Of A Family Involvement Program At A Title I Elementary School, Maria Camacho Moody Jan 2017

A Process Evaluation Of A Family Involvement Program At A Title I Elementary School, Maria Camacho Moody

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parental or family involvement in student academics has been an on-going topic for researchers. There is a need for studies to be conducted on parental involvement program implementation in order to determine if there is an impact on student academics when school, family, and community partnership programs are in place. For this study, a process evaluation was conducted on a parental or family involvement program newly developed and implemented at a Title I elementary school in an urban setting. The purpose of this mixed-methods process evaluation was to (a) document how the program was implemented, (b) examine the progress toward …


Examination Of The Challenges Faced By Foreign-Born Students In A State College That May Prolong/Prevent Graduation., Modupe Soremi Jan 2017

Examination Of The Challenges Faced By Foreign-Born Students In A State College That May Prolong/Prevent Graduation., Modupe Soremi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study stems from several reports indicating the increasing competitiveness of the world economy, the requirement of at least an associate degree in the fastest growing jobs in the U.S. labor market, and the unprecedented increase in the foreign-born population in the United States since the 1970s (U.S. Census Bureau Web, 2016; Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projection, 2009; President's Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), 2009). Understanding the challenges faced by foreign-born students at state colleges will create an avenue for recommending solutions to many these challenges, thereby increasing their educational attainment and economic productivity, hence preparing more Americans …


English Language Arts Preservice And Inservice Teacher's Knowledge About How To Use Etextbooks And Open Educational Resources To Support Students' Comprehension: A Case Study, Lourdes Smith Jan 2017

English Language Arts Preservice And Inservice Teacher's Knowledge About How To Use Etextbooks And Open Educational Resources To Support Students' Comprehension: A Case Study, Lourdes Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this qualitative, descriptive case study was to (a) investigate the knowledge English Language Arts preservice and inservice teachers had about eTextbooks and Open Educational Resources (OERs) and (b) how they planned to use that knowledge to develop their current/future 6-12 grade students' comprehension and content knowledge. Included within the study were specifics regarding how eTextbooks and OERs can be used to support adolescent learners and how online comprehension skills can be developed. Data were analyzed in order to determine themes related to the use and planning for eTextbooks and OERs in the secondary ELA classroom. Data sources …


Sexual Violence Victimization And Prescription Drug Misuse: An Analysis Using General Strain Theory, Corey Pomykacz Jan 2017

Sexual Violence Victimization And Prescription Drug Misuse: An Analysis Using General Strain Theory, Corey Pomykacz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence among college women is a widespread and severe public health issue in the United States. When compared to women in the general public, collegiate women are at an increased risk of sexual violence. Sexual violence can result in damaging and long-term consequences for the victim. Consequences of sexual violence include physical injuries, psychological distress, social withdrawal, poor grades and participation in health risk behaviors. While a connection between sexual violence victimization and negative outcomes is well established, most of the research in this area is atheoretical. To address this gap in the literature this study relied on Robert …


An Analysis Of Robot-Assisted Social-Communication Instruction For Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Claire Donehower Jan 2017

An Analysis Of Robot-Assisted Social-Communication Instruction For Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Claire Donehower

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social and communication deficits are a core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and impact an individual's ability to be a full participant in their school environment and community. The increase in number of students with ASD in schools combined with the use of ineffective interventions have created a critical need for quality social-communication instruction in schools for this population. Technology-based interventions, like robots, have the potential to greatly impact students with disabilities, including students with ASD who tend to show increased interest and engagement in technology-based tasks and materials. While research on the use of robots with these learners …


Linking Climate Change And Socio-Economic Impact For Long-Term Urban Growth In Three Mega-Cities, Qi Lu Jan 2017

Linking Climate Change And Socio-Economic Impact For Long-Term Urban Growth In Three Mega-Cities, Qi Lu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization has become a global trend under the impact of population growth, socio-economic development, and globalization. However, the interactions between climate change and urban growth in the context of economic geography are unclear due to missing links in between the recent planning megacities. This study aims to conduct a multi-temporal change analysis of land use and land cover in New York City, City of London, and Beijing using a cellular automata-based Markov chain model collaborating with fuzzy set theory and multi-criteria evaluation to predict the city's future land use changes for 2030 and 2050 under the background of climate change. …