Digital Commons Network^™

The Ugliness Of Gorgeousness: An Exploration Of The Obsession Of Beauty In Neil Labute's "Reasons To Be Pretty", Asedo Wilson

Master's Theses

This thesis is the culmination of the two-year process of researching, conceptualizing, organizing, rehearsing, directing and producing Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty with theatre students from the University of Northern Colorado. The show was performed in March of 2012. The guiding questions for this project included: Why is it important to analyze a character’s internal and external qualities? How can one develop a strong ensemble? What is the role of the media in society’s perception of beauty? How can a successful production with rehearsal limitations be produced? What is it about this material that will keep the actors and …

The Effects Of Check-In/Check-Out And Check-In/Check-Out In Combination With Social Skills Training For Students Who Exhibit Disruptive Classroom Behavior, Aimee Maldonado

Master's Theses

The purpose was to investigate the additive effects of Social Skills Training (SST) to Check-in/Check-out (CICO) on academic engagement of students. Participants were 3 elementary students who exhibited disruptive behavior who were nominated by teachers. The two dependent variables were the level of Appropriately Engaged Behavior (AEB) of the student as well as the student's behavior ratings indicated by teacher responses on the Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC) with and without SST. A noncurrent multiple baseline across students design was used to examine both dependent variables. Goldstein and McGinnis' program, Skillstreaming the Elementary School Child, was used during SST. The …

The Effects Of Dro And Dra For Increasing Academic Engagement And Decreasing Disruptive Behavior Of Elementary Students In General Education Classrooms, Jonna Lea Halphen

Master's Theses

The research literature suggests that functional assessment and differential reinforcement methods are effective for decreasing an array of problem behaviors. However, research is limited in the number of studies including children of typical development exhibiting common problem behaviors (e.g., inappropriate vocalization, off-task behavior) in a general education setting. In addition, previous studies have failed to report data regarding increases in appropriate replacement behaviors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relative effectiveness of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and differential reinforcement on alternative behavior (DRA) for decreasing problem behavior and increasing academically engaged behavior with elementary-age …

"We Need The Storm, The Whirlwind, The Earthquake": The Intersection Of Language And Violence In Nat Turner's "Confessions" And Frederick Douglass's My Bondage And My Freedom, Allison L. Tharp

Master's Theses

Resistance literature is an established genre, dating back to the late eighteenth century, but it underwent a rhetorical revision as slavery increased within the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. As slaves and free blacks began to rebel against their oppressed condition, they "stole" two prominent tools whites used_ to - oppress slaves: language and violence. Frederick Douglass's My Bondage and My Freedom is a self-conscious revision within resistance literature that argues for national change by advocating physical violence with written language. Reading this text as an intertext with Nat Turner's "Confessions" reveals the ways …

Marginalization Of Mothers In The Market: A Comparative Study Of The Limits And Opportunities For Public Policy, Jennifer Mary Crosslin

Master's Theses

Despite significant gains of women living in advanced democracies over the last several decades, sex inequality in the market still exists. Women still earn less, work less, and are less likely to be found in top leadership positions in the market, especially mothers, but disparity between men and women in terms of these outcomes varies among many countries. This study explores the relationship between government policies and the market outcomes of women in the United States and other European nations to determine if the different policies explain the variances, and consequently the necessity of state intervention for achieving gender equality. …

Negative Event Appraisals, Cognitive Processing, And Adjustment, Kristen E. Riley

Master's Theses

Appraisals of stressful events are linked to their adjustment to those stressful events. Appraisals can include perceptions of an event as threatening, uncontrollable, controllable, central, or challenging (Peacock & Wong, 1990). Many studies have examined effects of these appraisals on adjustment and cognitive processing (Aldwin, 2007; Lazarus, 1993; Tan, Jensen, Thornby, & Anderson, 2005), and a few have suggested that cognitive processing mediates relationships between appraisals and adjustment (Peacock & Wong, 1996). We tested cognitive processing in mediation models between appraisals and adjustment, and compared to active coping, in the context of ongoing stressors. Active coping appears to be particularly …

Consumer Purchase Decisions Regarding Screw Cap Wines, Lauren M. Jeter

Master's Theses

Screw cap wine closures provide many benefits in maintenance of wine quality over time, however acceptance of their use by purchasers has varied. This work first investigates how factors like age, gender, income and education affect the decision to purchase screw cap wines and to what extent these factors impact consumer decisions to bring screw cap wine to various social settings. The results of a questionnaire pooling attitudes and behaviors of wine purchasers (n=319) indicate that factors such as age, wine knowledge, income and gender influence a consumer’s decision to purchase screw cap wine. Education and income positively impact the …

Validation Of The Self-Compassion Scale: Correlations With The Beck Depression Inventory-Ii, Pär Daniel Andréasson

Master's Theses

Self-compassion denotes a compassionate and empathic attitude toward oneself (Neff, 2003b). In the past decade, the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) has been used to measure self-compassion in individuals and its effects on social, psychological, and physiological functioning. While many studies have found positive effects of high self- compassion showing promise for the use of the construct in clinical and empirical applications, there is a dearth of literature regarding the psychometric properties of the SCS. Furthermore, previous studies have not evaluated the individual subscales of the SCS as they relate to other inventories. This study evaluated the SCS and its subscales in …

Narrative Abilities Of Optimal Outcome Children And Adolescents With A Previous History Of Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Joyce Suh

Master's Theses

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have traditionally been considered a lifelong condition; however there appear to be a subset of people who make such significant improvements that they no longer meet diagnostic criteria for autism. The current study examines whether these “optimal outcome” (OO) children and adolescents continue to have subtle language and socio-cognitive deficits. Method: The narratives of 15 children and adolescents with a history of ASD who achieved optimal outcomes (OO), 15 high-functioning children and adolescents with a current ASD diagnosis (HFA), and 15 typically developing peers (TD) were evaluated. Results: OO children and adolescents have few residual …

The Impact Of Water On Girls' Formal Education: A Study Of Kenyan Secondary Schools, Jennifer Emick

Master's Theses

This study applies a human rights lens to view how the lack of access to potable water in Kenya’s rural areas impacts girls’ education. This research is intended to serve as a baseline for iteration and expansion, with the long-term goal of developing a greater understanding of the ways in which water development projects and the smarter provision of basic resources can be used as strategies for achieving gender equality in both education and civic participation.

Challenging Space Through Activism: Scaling Local And Global Issues At The 2012 London Olympic Games, Bridget Botelho

Master's Theses

This qualitative study focuses on issues of space created by the Olympic Games in London and the ways in which activists demonstrated against these issues by using space to their advantage. The Olympic Games is a phenomenon that scales local, national and international space in various ways, through its effects on global culture, identity, and economic processes. The games have a history of protest and activism, but the issues created by the games and struggles against them are not often discussed. My study aims to analyze the spatial effects of the Olympics on a local and global level through the …

Responding To Dangerous Accidents Among The Elderly: A Fall Detection Device With Zigbee-Based Positioning, Michael R. Putnam

Master's Theses

The following paper describes a fall detection and activity monitoring system with position detection based on Zigbee transceivers.The main objective is to reduce the time taken for emergency personnel to respond to falls among the elderly. Especially when the victim is unconscious or delirious, position tracking reduces location determination time within a busy hospital or nursing home environment and facilitates immediate treatment. Reduced response times correlate to decreased morbidity and mortality rates. Background is provided on the major wireless network advances currently deployed in a healthcare setting for asset and personnel tracking, etiology of falls, and several methods of detecting …

Reducing Knowledge Overconfidence By Reducing The Threat Of Knowledge Cue Utilization, Christopher Neil Burrows

Master's Theses

Overconfident judgments are common. We are often more confident about things than we should be, and this may lead us to make maladaptive decisions. Debiasing confidence by cuing people in to how confident they should be could help people make better choices. However, people may be unwilling to accept debiasing information if doing so implies their own ignorance. This study examined whether self-affirmation can buffer people against threats to self-image, helping people to accept debiasing cues. I hypothesized that combining a cue with self-affirmation would lead to enhanced debiasing over cues or self-affirmation alone. In order to investigate this hypothesis, …

Identifying Barriers To Adherence For Hiv+ Patients Placed On Renal Dosing, Richard S. Colon Jr

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Modern Sex Doll-Owner: A Descriptive Analysis, Sarah Hatheway Valverde

Master's Theses

Over the last fifteen years, the sex doll industry has grown from producing inexpensive novelty items to creating a multimillion-dollar global industry featuring high- quality, realistic love dolls. These dolls are designed and advertised for sexual stimulation, companionship, artistic representations of human fantasy, and other creative pursuits, such as photography. Made of flesh-like silicone, modern sex dolls sell from $3,500-$10,000.

The use of human simulacra for sexual stimulation is an enduring practice. However, the psychological community has said little on the subject. Early sexologists briefly reference Agalmatophilia or Statuphilia, a rare sexual attachment to statues. Today, the sex doll …

Christianity, The Duty To Assist Others, And Supererogation, Billy Max Condrey Jr.

Master's Theses

In 1958, J.O. Urmson's landmark article "Saints and Heroes" was the first in the history of philosophy to treat supererogation in a systematic manner. Arguing that the traditional threefold classification system consisting of duties, permissible acts, and wrong acts was insufficient, he went on to propose a fourth category of moral actions that while morally praiseworthy, are not obligatory. This in turn opened the door to a host of other philosophers to write on supererogation over the past few decades. In light of this, Christian ethicists must ask the question, "Are supererogatory actions possible in Christian ethics?" This …

The Effects Of The Good Behavior Game With General Education High School Students, Rachel R. Mitchell

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the interdependent group contingency procedure known as the Good Behavior Game (GBG) on decreasing disruptive behaviors in general education high school students. The effectiveness of the GBG has been investigated in many studies as means of managing a variety of behaviors across many developmental levels; however, not all populations have been investigated. Although many studies exist that have utilized the GBG to alter behaviors across ages ranging from pre-school to adulthood, few studies exist in which the GBG has been used with a general education high school population. The …

Social Status Inflation, Narcissism, And Aggression: The Role Of Peer Victimization As A Potential Moderator, Laura Ashley Cook

Master's Theses

Much literature relates social status inflation and narcissism to aggression in children, especially pertaining to peer relationships. The literature does not yet address how these concepts may be impacted by peer victimization. Both children with higher levels of social status inflation and narcissism have been found to be sensitive to ego threats (Barry, Grafeman, Bader, & Davis, 2011). The current study tests the theory that children with higher levels of social status inflation and children with higher levels of narcissism tend to elicit negative feedback from their peers, which may take the form of peer victimization. Additionally, an inflated sense …

Single Liquid-Liquid Extraction Of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol And 11-Nor-Carboxy-Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol At An Acidic Ph, Meghan Ann Tanner

Master's Theses

Because of the high occurrence of marijuana usage in the workplace and in driving under the influence cases, it is important to test for both delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA in order to determine current and recent usage. The laboratory preparation and analysis of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA in urine should be as cost and time efficient as possible. Current extraction of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA from urine requires two separate techniques for each. Because delta-9-THC is nonacidic, while delta-9-THCA is acidic, the extractions involve two separate pH levels, while GC/MS analysis requires two separate methods. This separation requires a great deal of time …

Photo-Poetics: Photographic Narratives In The New Journalism, John David Hosemann Jr.

Master's Theses

Americans today have come to remember the unrest of the 1960s through the many shocking photographic images that emerged during that time. Images of assassinations, war, murders, and social upheaval have come to characterize this decade as particularly (perhaps perversely) photogenic. Further, these images have revealed the photographic medium as uniquely suited for confirming a violent reality that, at the time, seemed incomprehensible to an increasingly disillusioned public. In this discussion I seek to develop an understanding of photography as a theoretical process that can illuminate how we represent violent subject matter. In doing so, I apply these concepts to …

Predicting Exercise Adherence In College Students Using A Self-Determination Theory Framework, Megan M. Clarke

Master's Theses

College is a pivotal time for weight gain and unhealthy behavior changes in many young adults. Decreases in physical activity are common in this age group and likely contribute to the 1.6 to 1.8 kg weight gain that is often observed in the first year of college. Identifying groups of students who are at high-risk for decreasing or discontinuing physical activity may help develop more targeted interventions. The present study explored physical activity patterns in the first semester of college and examined predictors of exercise decreases to levels below recommended daily values within a Self-Determination Theory framework. Incoming freshman (n=174; …

"We've Got Something More To Prove Here": Racial-Ethnic And Social Class Identities And The Challenges Facing Latina/O College Students, Gretchen Marin

Master's Theses

Latinas/os are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. In fact, the United States Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050, the numbers of Hispanics will more than double, increasing from the current figure of 50.5 million to 102.6 million. Despite such rapid population growth, the numbers of Latinas/os with at least a Bachelor’s degree remain low. In this study, I explore the intersection of racial-ethnic and social class identities in relation to academic identities. Specifically, I examine the challenges facing Latina/o college students of various socioeconomic backgrounds as they negotiate a predominantly White, middle-class …

Repetitive And Stereotyped Behaviors From Age 2 To Age 4: A Look At The Development Of High- And Low-Level Repetitive Behaviors In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Kelley Knoch

Master's Theses

Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are core features in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Previous literature has subdivided RRBs into low and high levels. Low-level behavior is characterized by a repetition of movement, such as stereotyped movements, whereas high-level behavior includes insistence on sameness and rigid adherence to a routine. There is conflicting evidence frequency and severity of RRBs in early development in children with ASD. In the current study, we examined developmental differences in the frequency and severity of RRBs in children with ASD (n = 109) compared to children with developmental delays (DD) (n= 34). Participants were evaluated at …

A Qualitative Study Of Barriers To Dental Care Among Older Minority Adults Residing In Lower Income Communities, Demetress Davis

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to explore factors that presented barriers to the use of dental care among low-income minority older adults. Participants were recruited from low-income senior housing in Hartford, CT. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain data on demographics, oral health status, oral health knowledge and factors that affected use of dental care including finances, perceived oral symptoms, cultural factors, and beliefs about dental care. Interviews were conducted with 17 participants. The major perceived barriers were ability to pay for care, transportation and fear/mistrust of the dentist. Participants may have had poor oral health as …

Immediate Versus Delayed Loading Of Two Implants Supporting A Locator Retained Mandibular Overdenture. A Randomized Controlled Study., Sejal R. Thacker

Master's Theses

The aim of this study was to evaluate immediate versus delayed loading of two implants, six months post-surgery, supporting a locator retained mandibular overdenture. The objective was to evaluate implant bone remodelling using radiographic bone level changes (RBL) as the variable, from baseline to six months, between the test and the control groups. The secondary objectives included (1) evaluation of implant survival, (2) nature and frequency of surgical and prosthetic complications, and (3) correlation of implant length and insertion torque on RBL.

Eligible patients were randomized into test (immediate loading) and control group (delayed loading). Five patients were allocated to …

Mid-Twentieth Century Residential Development In San Luis Obispo, Allison Dean Zike

Master's Theses

San Luis Obispo’s mid-century spanned the years beginning in the Great Depression and ending during the post-World War II housing boom. During this time the City grew in population and in size, adding several acres of land and thousands of single-family residential parcels. This research presents a chronological representation of the City’s growth, as well as key events in the City’s history. Residential development in the mid-century brought several new styles of architecture to the City including Mid-century Modern and Prairie homes among others. These architectural styles are detailed and presented in order to identify and guide the preservation of …

Form-Based Codes, Design Guidelines And Placemaking: The Case Of Hayward, Ca., Cindy Ma

Master's Theses

Throughout history planning codes and standards have been used to regulate the built environment for health, power, order, and economic reasons. More recently, in the urban design and planning field, planning codes and standards have emerged to become tools in the process of “placemaking”. The concept of placemaking builds from the desire of humans to create places, not spaces, which are unique, attractive, identifiable, and memorable. It is a concept that is comprised of visual and social components, recognizing the need for both in the creation of successful places. In the field of urban design and planning, form-based codes (FBCs) …

Botanic Garden User Outcomes: A Means-End Investigation, Christopher Lee Wassenberg

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Botanic Garden User Outcomes: A Means-End Investigation

Christopher Lee Wassenberg

This study explored the outcomes that Leaning Pine Arboretum users experience from visiting the botanic garden. Understanding visitor motivations and benefits has been a focus in the field of outdoor recreation, and the subject of a number of botanic garden and green space visitor studies. Previous studies have found that visiting a botanic garden can serve as a coping strategy for dealing with and reducing life stress (Holbrook, 2010; Kohlleppel, Bradley, & Jacob, 2002; Maller, Townsend, Pryor, Brown, & St Leger, 2005) and that visiting public outdoor green spaces …

Investigating The Instructor's Role In New Student Sense Of Classroom Community, Alix E. Davidson

Master's Theses

The purpose of the study is to determine whether an instructor’s intentional effort to build community in his/her classroom results in a higher sense of classroom community among students. This study also examined what types of community building activities were conducted by each instructor and measured the students’ responses to each different activity. This was intended to establish a preliminary set of best practices for creating classroom community. A two-part questionnaire, including an adapted version of the Classroom Community Scale, was administered to instructors (n=5) and students (n=113) enrolled in two or four unit courses at California Polytechnic State University. …

Teaching Introductory Programming Concepts: A Comparison Of Scratch And Arduino, Anne Beug

Master's Theses

Computing has become an integral part of modern America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between 2008 and 2018, the United States will have 1.4 million job openings in computing fields [1]. Since the early 2000's (just after the "dot com bust"), the number of students enrolled in computing majors (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, etc.) dropped precipitously by over 50%, only starting to rise again in 2009 [2]. One way to rectify to this gap between demand and supply is to start training students in computational thinking during high school. While the Computer Science Advanced Placement AB test has …