Digital Commons Network^™

The Lady Showroom: Optical Representations In The Works Of Joanna Baillie And Louisa Stuart Costello, Katherine Richards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much women's writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries attempts to depict other women visually through textual description, use of optical devices, and discussion of bodies and appearances. This thesis argues that they were trying to see and show other women as a way of understanding themselves and each other by examining intersections between visual culture and text through mirrors, miniatures, and portraits. This thesis demonstrates how these works reflect larger shifts in the optical unconscious of the eighteenth century. I focus on works by Joanna Baillie and Louisa Stuart Costello, who theorize the viewing process in their …

Algorithms For Community Identification In Complex Networks, Mahadevan Vasudevan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

First and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Narsingh Deo, for his excellent guidance and encouragement, and also for introducing me to this wonderful science of complex networks. Without his support this dissertation would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the members of my research committee, professors Charles Hughes, Ratan Guha, Mainak Chatterjee and Yue Zhao for their advice and guidance during the entire process. I am indebted to the faculty and the staff of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science for providing me the resources and …

Evaluating Human-Robot Implicit Communication Through Human-Human Implicit Communication, Andrew Xenos Richardson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research is examining ways to make human-robot (HR) communication more natural. Incorporating natural communication techniques is expected to make HR communication seamless and more natural for humans. Humans naturally incorporate implicit levels of communication, and including implicit communication in HR communication should provide tremendous benefit. The aim for this work was to evaluate a model for humanrobot implicit communication. Specifically, the primary goal for this research was to determine whether humans can assign meanings to implicit cues received from autonomous robots as they do for identical implicit cues received from humans. An experiment was designed to allow …

The Self-Described Experience Of Coping And Adaptation Associated With Workplace Stress Of Registered Nurses In The Acute Care Setting In Florida: An Ethnographic Study, Joyce Burr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about how nurses learn and use coping and adaptation skills in the workplace. Quantitative studies have identified the factors, nature, and outcomes of nursing stress. However, qualitative studies describing the human experience associated with workplace stress are lacking. The phenomenon of interest for this study using focused ethnographic method is the self-described experience of coping and adaptation associated with workplace stress of registered nurses working 12-hour shifts employed in acute care hospital facilities in east central and central Florida. Three aspects of the phenomena were examined: the self-described experiences of stress, the manner in which coping skills …

Evaluating Teaching Grammar In Specific Constraints Of Context: A Pilot Study In The Developmental Writing Program At Seminole State College, Joshua Roney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This pilot study investigated the efficacy of a supplemental Active Learning intervention that was administered with grammar workbook software in remedial-level composition classrooms at Seminole State College. The study analyzed student response data in a pre-test and post-test instrument in four classrooms; two followed standard methods while two incorporated the additional experimental intervention. The groups are identified in this study as either “Standard” or “Experimental,” according to the method administered in the classroom. The intervention was designed based on five grammar topic areas which correspond with content assessed in the pre-test and post-test. The Active Learning method required students to …

Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 …

The Extension Of Imperial Authority Under Diocletian And The Tetrarchy, 285-305ce, Joshua Petitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite a vast amount of research on Late Antiquity, little attention has been paid to certain figures that prove to be influential during this time. The focus of historians on Constantine I, the first Roman Emperor to allegedly convert to Christianity, has often come at the cost of ignoring Constantine's predecessor, Diocletian, sometimes known as the "Second Father of the Roman Empire". The success of Constantine's empire has often been attributed to the work and reforms of Diocletian, but there have been very few studies of the man beyond simple biography. This work will attempt to view three of Diocletian's …

The Sacrament Of Violence: Myth And War In C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy, Tanya Engelhardt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My primary aim for this study is to illuminate the Ransom trilogy's inherent psychological and spiritual themes, as well as demonstrate how these themes clarify Lewis's philosophical and political goals for the text. Specifically, by investigating Lewis's mythic imagery and suffering motifs in light of psychoanalytic and theological literary criticisms, I elucidate the reasoning behind Lewis's unique—and at times, horrific—portrayal of fear, violence, and death. I also investigate how Lewis integrates his theology with the horrors of personal and intrapersonal suffering, as well as how he utilizes imagination and myth to explicate the practical (or political) implications of his theodicy. …

Language As Microaggression: The New Lexicon Of American Racism, Juan Thurmond

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are countless occasions where marginalized groups bear witness to language-based discriminatory practices. Language, as defined here, is a species of symbolism. After reviewing the sociological literature, the term "microaggressions" appears to best describe the phenomena in its everyday occurrences. Microaggressions are "the brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial, gender, sexual-orientation, and religious slights and insults to the target person or group" (Sue, Capodilupo, et al., 2007; Sue, 2010). Sue classifies microaggressions into three forms: microassaults, microinsults, microinvalidations. The purpose of the project was tri-fold. By …

Developing Social Networks And Language Learning: Japanese Esl Students In A Study Abroad Context, Michiyo Fujimoto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates the relationship between the English language proficiency of Japanese students in a short term study abroad (SA) context and the structure of their social networks. Their personal social networks were investigated through individual interviews. Analyzing their investment in English along with examining their construction of social networks, the purpose of this study is to investigate if there are any relationships between their type of social network and their English proficiency. The data was collected through individual interviews. Their oral English proficiency was evaluated by the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK) developed by the Educational Testing …

A Generic Qualitative Study Of The Experiences Of International Students Participating In The Cultural Connections Program At The University Of Mississippi, Nadezda Nikolaevna Kholomeydik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of international students participating in the Cultural Connections Program at The University of Mississippi. A generic qualitative design was utilized using purposeful criterion sampling. The data was collected from two focus group interviews with 11 participants in focus group 1 and 10 participants in focus group 2. Using a generic qualitative approach, eight initial themes were identified after focus group 1 and eight clarifying questions were developed based on these themes. During focus group 2, these clarifying questions were utilized to further explore the eight initial themes in more depth …

Masculinity In Comparative Black Literatures, Latoya Renee Jefferson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the ways in which Black men in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora define themselves as gendered beings in their fiction and drama beginning with Richard Wright's publication of Native Son in 1940 to Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter published 1980. Black men created a transnational dialectic concerning their masculinity which involved the creation and criticism of several types of masculinity. In Chapters 1 and 2, I discuss the theoretical and the historical framework for this project. In Chapter 3, I discuss the first type of Black masculinity which was based in opposition to Euro-American stereotypes …

Between God And Man: Community's Place In Virtue, Practical Reason, And Transcendent Good, Jordan Herz Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Talbot Brewer's Retrieval of Ethics and Robert Adams's Finite and Infinite Goods present distinct theories in ethics and metaethics. Brewer begins with the fundamental ethical perspective of the practical deliberator who experiences his practical deliberations as a continuous, unified, and constantly revised activity which begins with inchoate intimations of goodness and proceeds better or worse to understand and pursue the goodness which pervades his evaluative outlook. From this Brewer aims to account for how we achieve excellence in practical deliberation and arrive at a more tenable and self-consistent evaluative outlook which informs our ethical deliberations. Alternately, Adams begins in the …

Problems With Truth: Scope, Mixing, And Truth Pluralism, Christopher Dyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I will be taking up the debate between monistic and pluralistic inflationary theories of truth. Truth monism claims that there is one explanatory story which accounts for the truth of all and only true propositions. There seem to be, however, certain domains of discourse wherein monistic theories fail. If monistic theories cannot provide an explanation for how all true propositions are true, then they would not be adequate theories of truth. Truth pluralism is motivated to avoid the scope problem. The pluralist sees that there are as many truth properties as there are domains of discourse. A …

The Underrepresentation Of English Learners In Mississippi's Intellectually Gifted Education Program: A Framework For Change, Vicki Patterson-Davidson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School districts have been struggling with the challenges of educating English learners for decades, long before the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Yet, considering the abundance of research on English learners, relatively few studies have examined specific methods or efforts of districts and schools to identify English learners for participation in an intellectually gifted education program. The purpose of this study was to determine if particular gifted education programming, or programming criteria, impacts this student population's identification for participation in Mississippi's intellectually gifted education program. Specifically, this study aimed to investigate the district- and school-level …

Immersion Within Call, Jaime Ann Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the idea of immersion and what constitutes immersion in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). CALL has increasingly become important in the field of SLA (Second Language Acquisition) and continues to grow in usage each year. As a graduate instructor of a basic level French course, my research focused on the immersion factor of CALL programs. This research was designed to obtain and analyze first year French students opinions of a CD-ROM CALL program by asking the following questions: (1) Did the participants feel immersed in the French language using the CD-ROM? …

Black Men's Responsible Fatherhood Narratives: Fatherhood, Responsibility, Race, And Gender, Shane Chaplin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades increasing rates of single mother households in the United States have triggered a national alarm over the effects of father absence on society. Father absence has been linked specifically to many of the problems plaguing black communities in the United States (e.g. poverty, low educational attainment, etc.) and as a result community and political leaders alike have consistently promoted responsible fatherhood practices as a way to address them. Although responsible fatherhood has received, in this context, a considerable amount of social attention, this attention has come intertwined with considerable political and moral rhetoric at all …

Explaining The Role Of Scripture In The Economy Of Redemption As It Relates To The Theological And Hermeneutical Contributions Of David Tracy, Hans Frei, Kevin Vanhoozer And Henri De Lubac, Kevin Storer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the hermeneutical impasses which have resulted from the recent debates about the theological interpretation of Scripture between revisionist theologian David Tracy and postliberal theologian Hans Frei and suggests that locating the role of Scripture in the economy of redemption would ease many of these methodological tensions. The works of Evangelical theologian Kevin Vanhoozer and Ressourcement theologian Henri de Lubac, it is argued, provide helpful resources for these discussions as these theologians explicitly seek to explain the role of Scripture in mediating the relationship between Christ and the Church. The dissertation suggests that examining the role of Scripture …

An Investigation Of The Additive Benefits Of Parent Dialogic Reading Techniques In Older Preschool Children, Sarah O'Neill Switalski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the additive benefit of parent dialogic reading techniques in older, high-risk preschool children using multiple baseline design across participants, a single subject research design, as was as well as pre-test and post-test measures. Five preschoolers age-eligible to begin kindergarten the following school year participated. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-4) and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (EVT-2) were administered pre-intervention and post-intervention implementation. Consistent with multiple baseline design, all students received weekly progress monitoring using the Picture Naming (PN) Individual Growth and Development Indicator (IGDI) throughout the entire investigation. Caregivers received in-person video-based training in …

Literary Imagination And Community Mental Health: A Deleuzian Analysis Of Discourse In A Fiction Reading Group, Rodney Teague

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study presents an empirical, qualitative investigation of transformations as they occurred in the participants' language during a fiction reading and discussion group in a community mental health setting. Session transcripts have been analyzed from the perspective of researcher as literary critic and through the Deleuzian lens of rhizomatic assemblages (Deleuze & Guattari, 1980/2005). This nonlinear, non-hierarchical and non-referential approach re-imagins the relationship among readers, texts and authors. Three themes follow from the rhizomatic perspective on transcript data.

The first of these, Assemblage, details the ways that participants engage in and with fictional story-worlds. This engagement is such that text, …

Listening To Language In Gadamer's Hermeneutics, Sanda Tomuletiu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Subscribing to Hans-Georg Gadamer's belief that human beings are called to be insightful and discerning, this dissertation explores Gadamer's idea and practice of listening to language in order to understand the relationship between a constitutive theory of language and a life of wisdom. As Gadamer's texts reveal, the hermeneutic practice of listening to language is a reflective engagement of language that is theoretically grounded in a constitutive view of language. First, we need to listen to language because language, not consciousness, is the critical element in understanding. Second, the ontological priority of language over subjectivity comes with the nature of …

Using Virtual Worlds To Identify Multidimensional Student Engagement In High School Foreign Language Learning Classrooms, Laura Beth Jacob

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtual world environments have evolved from object-oriented, text-based online games to complex three-dimensional immersive social spaces where the lines between reality and computer-generated begin to blur. Educators use virtual worlds to create engaging three-dimensional learning spaces for students, but the impact of virtual worlds in comparison to the traditional face-to-face counterpart has been uncertain in terms of multidimensional student engagement. Research has a need to determine the impact of virtual worlds on student engagement in comparison to the traditional face-to-face environment. The study examined the effects of virtual world and face-to-face learning environments on high school foreign language students' emotional, …

On New Rhetoric, John Henry Newman And The Language Of Metaphors: Implications For Branding Higher Education, Jennifer Lynn Lawler-Brunner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project interprets how John Henry Newman's (1801-1890) system of thought informs the philosophical and theoretical grounds for rhetorical praxis in the marketplace. His seminal lessons in "An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent"(1870) and "The Idea of a University" (1873 ed.) demonstrate the metaphoric power of words with regard for diverse modes of epistemology. Newman's scholarship on the unifying role of imagery grounds his theory of language on three claims: a holistic engagement of knowledge, communicable notions, and formative praxis. These essential principles correspond with fostering identity and promoting a public good. Specifically, Newman's philosophical perspective and …

Effectiveness Of Manual Gesture Treatment On Residual /R/ Articulation Errors, Jessica Lynch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The functional speech sound disorder, American English /r/ articulation errors, presents a unique and confounding clinical challenge as "therapy resistant" residual errors persist into adolescence and adulthood in many cases. Finding paucity of empirical research for /r/ treatment, evidence-based practice (EBP) exploration in motor-related disorders informed clinical practice and research directions. This study investigated the efficacy of "manual mimicry" (a kinesthetic, gestural, and visual cue) in treating intractable /r/ errors in a young adult using a single subject ABAB design. Perceptual accuracy judgments of three types of listeners (experts, graduate clinician, and naïve listeners) indicated a positive treatment effect of …

The Lived Experiences Of The Aging Of Hong Kong Chinese Baby Boomers Residing In The United States, Helena Ng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rapid aging of the majority and minority populations is occurring in the United States. Diverse aspects of aging, concerns of the aging of the baby boomer generation, and the heterogeneities among aging persons from diverse races and ethnicities have been examined in detail; however, there is a void in the literature that offers information about the aging of Chinese baby boomers. This qualitative study used a hermeneutic-phenomenological method to investigate the aging experiences of Hong Kong Chinese baby boomers who are residing in the United States. The findings of this study will possibly enhance the literature about the cultural parameters …

Decolonizing Psychic Space: Remembering The Indigenous Psychology Movement In Taiwan, Rong-Bang Peng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project is part of the historical struggle of the indigenous psychology movement in Taiwan. It turns a critical gaze back upon the movement itself in order to decolonize it from colonial cultural imaginary. The contribution of this project is two-fold. First, on the theoretical level, it introduces a critical perspective into the growing body of indigenous psychological research. The indigenous psychology movement risks repeating the vicious cycle of colonization and re-colonization without critically looking back at its own historical trajectory. Second, on the level of intervention, writing the history of the indigenous psychology movement will make this project a …

Graduate Recital, Clarinet, Paul Quinn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This recital seeks to explore the various ways in which Eastern-European composers have utilized traditional folk-music as inspiration for their works. The programing focuses on several techniques used as a means for synthesizing folk-songs and art-music, ranging from setting preexisting melodies to accompaniment, to manipulating the idiomatic musical and linguistic features of folk-music as the basis for one's musical language. In addition, this recital reveals the wide range of styles and genres, including neoclassicism, expressionism, and polytonality, that can be derived from Eastern-European folk-songs. In this regard, the program itself highlights the relevance of folk-music as a viable source of …

Neuropsychological Predictors Of Math Calculation And Reasoning In School-Aged Children, Dana Schneider

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After multiple reviews of the literature, which documented that multiple cognitive processes may be involved in mathematics ability and disability, Geary (1993) proposed a model that included three subtypes of math disability: Semantic, Procedural, and Visuospatial. A review of the extant literature produced three studies that examined Geary's three subtypes, which provided some support for Geary's model. Given the paucity of research examining Geary's subtypes of math disability, this study aimed to add to the literature by exploring the presence of these three subtypes in a sample of school-aged children. The sample consisted of 60 participants (30 males, 30 females) …

Grace In Intimate Interpersonal Communication: C.S. Lewis On Its Presence And Practice, Celeste Seymour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project builds a theory of the presence and practice of grace in intimate interpersonal communication utilizing the writings of C.S. Lewis and his intellectual mentors. Lewis, who wrote extensively on the theory and practice of love, offers a compelling approach to understanding human relationships from a Christian philosophical perspective.

The first chapter begins with major questions and themes in the interpersonal literature concerning human discourse, relation, and action. Lewis frames human relationships in a robustly theoretical and practical manner, characterizing the conditions of our discursive relational selves as difficult yet joyful. He argues that the work of intimate interpersonal …

The Rhetoric And Philosophy Of Education: Finding Whole Learning In An Age Of Mechanistic Pedagogy, Georgia Bedford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the communicative structure of the contemporary rhetoric of crisis and reform narrative dominating public conversation about education, as a post-industrial body of discourse deeply embedded in historical ideals for a mass system of public education. In challenging the crisis-centered narrative, this work seeks to identify historical discourse strands that have shaped thinking and action in the construction of educational policy, legislation, administration and pedagogy. This work evaluates the misalignment in the assumptions which guide the perception that an academic relationship exists between higher education and secondary school which is in contrast to the original purpose for a …