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The Development And Validation Of The Family Experiences With Autism Spectrum Disorders (Feasd) Scale, Adam Moore

Open Access Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) impacts 1 in 50 children in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013). This striking increase in the number of children with ASD affects families in a variety of ways.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale that measured the experiences of families of children with ASD in schools, health care settings, and in their families/communities. Family-centered care (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2003) principles were used to create the items in the scale. In addition to determining the psychometric properties of the scale, the second purpose of …

Self-Regulated Learning And Ethnic/Racial Variables: Predicting Minority First-Generation College Students' Persistence, John S. Moore Iii

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how self-regulated learning and ethnic/racial variables predict minority first-generation college student persistence and related constructs. Participants were drawn nationally from the U.S. Department of Education funded TRiO Student Support Services Programs. Additional participants from the Talent Development program and General Psychology classes from the University of Rhode Island were also included if they were first-generation college students. Preliminary analyses of group differences based on minority status revealed few significant differences in selfregulated learning, ethnic/racial, and college persistence variables. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that academic self-efficacy, program use, and race rejection sensitivity were …

Saving Prince Peach: A Study Of “Gaymers” And Digital Lgbt/Gaming Rhetorics, M. William Macknight

Open Access Dissertations

This study looks at the tensions surrounding the inclusion and increasing presence of LGBT performances within video games, their surrounding industry and culture, and their related internetworked cyberspaces – an assemblage referred to in this research as the “game-sphere.” By analyzing the rhetorical activity performed within a specific LGBT game cyberspace (the Reddit subforum r/gaymers), this study offers insight into gaming and LGBT culture by answering the following research question: What rhetorical action is performed by LGBT video game players within r/gaymers? Data were collected over a period of two weeks, wherein screen-captures were taken and saved twice a …

Women's Historiography In Late Medieval European Literature: Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, And Christine De Pizan, Eva M. Jones

Open Access Dissertations

Women’s Historiography in Late Medieval European Literature: Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Christine de Pizan considers the ways in which the textual generation of women’s historiography correlated with women’s social access in late medieval Europe, 1361-1405. I examine Boccaccio's authoritative and Latin Famous Women (1361) and its reworkings in Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Women (1386-1394) and Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies (1405). I argue that Chaucer’s and de Pizan’s vernacular versions revise Boccaccio’s exclusive Latin, which demonstrates a correlation between the consistent documentation of women and possibilities for women’s social opportunities. Moreover, de Pizan’s …

Lightning-Rod Men, Magnetic Lives, Bodies Electric: Electromagnetic Corporeality In Emerson, Melville, & Whitman, James Patrick Gorham

Open Access Dissertations

From the time of American independence to the antebellum period, Americans labored to distinguish their collective identity from that of their colonial forebears in a world increasingly shaped by technological advances, industrial transformations, and scientific developments. Discoveries regarding electricity and electromagnetism resulted in inventions that would especially revolutionize human life. The advent of the lightning-rod in the mid-eighteenth century challenged prior notions that a destructive lightning bolt was an inevitable consequence of divine will, with any interference with that power understood as sacrilege. The rod symbolized a new, Franklinian American, who, steeped in Enlightenment science and philosophy, could stand up …

The Illuminating Bud: A Performer's Analysis Of Elizabeth Maconchy's Five Sketches For Viola, Yun Young Lim

Open Access Dissertations

This essay examines Elizabeth Maconchy’s Five Sketches for Viola, a solo viola work by one of the greatest female British composers of the twentieth century and an important recent contribution to the viola literature. Following an investigation of Maconchy’s musical style, identifying relevant idioms present in the work, the author provides suggestions for the performer’s preparation and an interpretative and theoretical framework for the composition. The background of the piece was accumulated through interviews with the commissioner of the work, Nicholas Logie, and Philip Dukes, who featured the work on his debut disc. “Illuminating bud” is the condition of a …

May 68 And French Literary Production: A Periodization Of Modern Revolutionary Writing In The Works Of Conrad Detrez, Monique Wittig, And Jean Genet, Arthur F. Tang

Open Access Dissertations

This study proposes a renewed consideration of May 68 French literary production through a periodization of Modern Revolutionary Writing. The doxa advanced by the critical literature suggests the revolutionary dimensions of May 68 failed to impact substantively on cultural production in France. In the writings of Conrad Detrez, Monique Wittig, and Jean Genet, a different conclusion is reached through textual analyses of structural synchronicity and ad rem narrative interactions with the historic marker. Rethinking and critically revisiting several interpretations of the relation between France’s May 68 “revolution” and literary and cultural production, the texts at stake are read as poetical …

Stain On The Brain - The David Owen Story, Jody Jackson

Open Access Dissertations

David Owen, Australian child abuse survivor‘s life story spanning seventy years, is a testament to “the will to survive.” Taken from his mother and sent to Neerkol, one of the most notorious government backed Catholic-run orphanages out in the desolate bush of Queensland, he was subjected to extreme abuse, emotionally, physically and sexually. Upon leaving Neerkol, this functionally illiterate young man became a professional Rugby League player and union organizer. He unexpectedly reunited with his mother and became a devoted son. Later in life he courageously challenged the powerful Queensland Government and Catholic Church. A fifty-two-page petition authored by Owen …

An Exploration Of The Effects Of Language On The Orchestral Trombone Sound In France, Germany, And The United States, Christine Marie Mounger

Open Access Dissertations

The orchestral trombone sound of France, Germany, and the United States was analyzed through the lens of language. A thorough investigation of the characteristic sounds of each language were explored and compared with one another. Additionally, quantitative data was compiled by analyzing the frequency of vowel sounds in each language. The final portion of the research was dedicated to analyzing representative audio recordings of trombonists from France, Germany, and the United States.

The Baroque Imagination Of Alejo Carpentier, Derek Walcott, And Seamus Heaney: Folding The Periphery Into A Center, Carmen Chiappetta

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I define the baroque imagination as the mindset of an intellectual in the postcolonial world, grappling creatively with multiple cultural inheritances and attempting to fashion a literary oeuvre that will redefine the individual’s relationship to the center and to the island culture from which he comes. Gottfried Leibniz’s theories of the monad and the baroque, as interpreted by Gilles Deleuze in The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, provide the theoretical grounding for my concept of the baroque imagination as do Edouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation and Wilson Harris’ concept of the cross-cultural imagination. In the works of …

Swedish Art Song: A Singer’S Handbook To Diction And Repertoire, Anna Christine Hersey

Open Access Dissertations

This essay is a guide to Swedish lyric diction for American singers. An overview of the linguistic traits and basic grammar of the Swedish language prepares the reader for a detailed description of Swedish phonemes and their occurrence in the language. Differences in pronunciation conventions as they pertain to classical singing, particularly the contrast between högsvensk (high Swedish) and talad svenska (spoken Swedish), are explored. The author offers repertoire suggestions for various voice types and levels of study, with special attention to the Swedish songs of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Finally, translations and transcriptions into the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) …

Marcos Suzano And The Amplified Pandeiro: Techniques For Nontraditional Performance, Brian James Potts

Open Access Dissertations

Widely recognized in Brazil as the nation’s quintessential percussion instrument, the pandeiro (or Brazilian tambourine) has long been an integral part of samba and other popular styles of Brazilian music. However, in recent years, the pandeiro has increased in prominence within the international percussion community as performers have used contemporary techniques to broaden the possible applications of the instrument. These advancements arose largely from the work of the percussionist Marcos Suzano, whose name has become almost synonymous with the pandeiro itself. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1963, his innovative use of sound reinforcement and development of new performance techniques …

The Structure Of Sensory Imagination, Nicholas Wiltsher

Open Access Dissertations

My dissertation concerns sensory imagining: experiences like imagining a colorful parrot, or imagining its squawk. Just as with perception, there are three sorts of question to be asked about imagination. First, what is it like, phenomenologically, to imagine? Second, what can we do by imagining? Third, what is the essential nature of the experience? There are many theories about perception's nature, which explain its phenomenology and capacities. By contrast, there is some work on imagination's phenomenology, and a lot of work about its putative capacities, but very few theories of its nature. In the dissertation, I give a theory of …

Culture And Context: Upstream Determinants Of Cervical Cancer Among Haitian Immigrants Living In Miami, Florida, Jonathan K. Kish

Open Access Dissertations

In 2011 over 500,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide and approximately 250,000 will die of the disease. The majority of incident cases will occur among women who lack routine access to Papalanicolou (Pap) test screening. While access-related factors, such as income and health insurance status, are primary drivers of screening utilization research suggests that a number of individual and contextual social and cultural factors, such as low cervical cancer knowledge, lower educational attainment and non-Western health beliefs can exert an independent or multiplicative effect. Among the immigrant Haitian population of Miami, Florida the incidence of cervical cancer …

Predator-Specificity Of Multimodal Alarm Signals In The Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis), Thaddeus R. Mcrae

Open Access Dissertations

Communication is a fundamental biological phenomenon, necessary in many species for successful reproduction, social interactions, and predator avoidance. Understanding animal communication systems is therefore vital to our understanding of biology. One of the core attributes of any signaling system is the information contained in each signal. In this dissertation I first review the literature on the information contained in sciurid alarm calls, and note the dearth of knowledge about the presence or absence of predator-specific alarm calls in arboreal squirrels. Arboreal squirrels are closely related to ground squirrels, which have a variety of alarm calling systems, but seek refuge in …

Practitioner Perceptions Of Their Implementation Of Response To Intervention, Yvonne D. Perry

Open Access Dissertations

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 set in motion the movement away from the typical Referral/IQ Discrepancy Model of Exceptional Student Education identification toward the Response to Intervention (RtI) model for the identification of students with reading-related learning disabilities. This investigation explored practitioners’ views of the five components of RtI: (1) a multi-tier implementation, (2) student assessment and decision making, (3) evidence-based interventions, (4) maintenance of procedural integrity, and (5) systems level capacity. Barriers and facilitators to implementation were addressed as well as resources needed for successful implementation. The research was conducted in three …

Testing A Model Of Jazz Rhythm: Validating A Microstructural Swing Paradigm, Brian C. Wesolowski

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to create and test two hypothesized models for swing in jazz performance. In order to estimate the hypothesized fully latent variable Swing model, eighth note samples (N = 815) from five improvised solos by Chris Potter were analyzed. Three first order factors were identified and examined that were hypothesized to define swing: eighth note duration, beat placement, and note dynamics. These three factors were measured with accuracy beyond a thousandth of a millisecond. Nine second order factors were identified and grouped into soloist-controlled variables and non-soloist controlled variables: metrical beat placement, melodic character, intervals, …

Ecowomanist Endeavors: Race, Gender, And Environmental Ethics In Contemporary Caribbean Women's Literature, Debbie-Ann C. Morrison

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the intersections of gender, sexuality, community, landscape, ecology, and social justice as they appear in selected literary texts by contemporary Caribbean women writers. Beginning with an awareness of the various ecological crises enveloping the Caribbean as well as a firm belief that an analysis of literature might reveal inherent values regarding ecological sustainability and the need for propagating environmentally ethical practices throughout the region, the project uses Alice Walker’s notion of womanism to craft what it calls an “ecologically womanist” reading of texts by Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior, Jamaica Kincaid, Mayra Montero, Dionne Brand, and Pauline Melville. …

Pediatric Voice: Delineating The Voice Science And Investigating Child Training Methods Toward Pedagogical Application, Maria Fenty Denison

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates the synergistic relationship between voice science and voice pedagogy to inform the practices of voice teachers, music educators, and voice trainers. Furthermore, it is an effort to augment existing knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the pediatric voice so voice professionals may design targeted curricula in pediatric pedagogy. The most current materials in voice science and voice pedagogy were reviewed and relevant findings connecting both fields of study delineated. In the field of voice science, research concerning the progression of the vocal mechanism from fetus through adolescence was evaluated to clarify physiological findings potentially relevant to …

Public Performance: Free People Of Color Fashioning Identities In Mid-Nineteenth-Century Cuba, Jacqueline Grant

Open Access Dissertations

Free people of color held an ambiguous place in Caribbean slave societies. On the one hand they were nominally free, but the reality of their daily lives was often something less than free. This work examines how free people of color, or libres de color, in nineteenth-century Cuba attempted to carve out lives for themselves in the face of social, economic, and political constraints imposed on them by white Cubans and Spaniards living in the island. It focuses on how through different Afro-Cuban associations some libres de color used public music and dance performances to self-fashion identities on their own …

French Orientalism In Reynaldo Hahn's Series "Orient" From Le Rossignol Eperdu, Norito Irei

Open Access Dissertations

Reynaldo Hahn, a Venezuelan-born French composer, is growing in popularity for his vocal repertoires in the American academia. His piano works have been practically unknown on this continent until the late American pianist Earl Wild recorded a series of his piano works, Le Rossignol Eperdu, containing 53 solo piano compositions. Le Rossignol Eperdu is divided into four series, and the second suite entitled “Orient” drew particular attention from disc reviewers. Currently, there is no publication or dissertation written about Reynaldo Hahn’s solo piano compositions in English, which limits accessibility to Reynaldo Hahn’s piano music. The purpose of this research is …

Beyond The Black Horizon: Perspectives Of African American Collegians Who Studied Abroad, Aaron Ian Bruce

Open Access Dissertations

Although U.S. colleges and universities continue to discuss creative ways to increase the number of African American collegians participating in study abroad, this research is limited when revealing the unique perspectives of African American collegians who have studied abroad. Traditionally an emphasis on program success has been placed on the quantity of study abroad participants rather than the quality of African American student support and engagement; the personal reflections through the lens of African American race and identity are often overlooked. A series of culturally responsive, guided interviews were conducted with African American collegians from a variety of institutions across …

The Dialectics Of Teacher Change Wtihin A Community Of Practice, Armand R. Pires

Open Access Dissertations

Teacher change is at the heart of school reform. The research on teacher change has been primarily focused on teacher change from an individualistic perspective and has identified three possible paths of teacher change: beliefs precede change, change precedes beliefs, or change is nonlinear and recursive. This study looked at teacher change within a middle school during a time the school was undergoing a district-driven change in student grouping practices.

The study was conducted during the 2009-2010 school year and included ten teachers of science, social studies, and English in a grade 6-8 middle school. A qualitative study approach was …

Voices Silenced, Voices Heard: Exploring Status, Discourse, And Learning In Middle School Discussion Groups, Laura A. Chiaravalloti

Open Access Dissertations

Purpose: Cooperative learning structures allow diverse groups of students to learn together while developing higher-order thinking skills, yet there are concerns that not all students’ voices are being heard. The intent of this study was to discover the relationship between the instructional methodologies one teacher used to foster the development of group skills in students and the ways small discussion groups actually functioned. This study explored issues of power and status on students’ learning opportunities in middle school discussion groups. Method: This qualitative study was conducted under an ethnographic lens using a teacher-as-researcher approach. Data were collected over one school …

The Role Of Music Perception In Predicting Phonological Awareness In Five- And Six-Year-Old Children, Linda M. Lathroum

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of music perception in predicting phonological awareness in five- and six-year-old children. This study was based on the hypothesis that music perception and phonological awareness appear to have parallel auditory perceptual mechanisms. Previous research investigating the relationship between these constructs—music perception and phonological awareness—has been promising, but inconclusive. Phonological awareness is an important component of early literacy which many children struggle to acquire. If the constructs are shown to be related, music-based interventions may then be developed to promote phonological awareness, thus enhancing early literacy. Music perception, phonological awareness, and …

Communication Deviance, Expressed Emotion, And Family Cohesion In Schizophrenia, Radha G. Carlson

Open Access Dissertations

Although schizophrenia is a biologically-based disorder, environmental stress (including stress within familial relationships) plays a major role in the onset and maintenance of symptoms. This study examined family variables that have implications for psychotherapeutic treatment of schizophrenia. Previous research has found Communication Deviance (CD), Expressed Emotion (EE), and family cohesion (FC) to be related to symptom severity. However, the exact nature of the relationship between these constructs is unclear. The current study tested a model whereby the tone and content of family member’s communication (EE) and the sense of family unity (FC) are hypothesized to mediate the relationship between CD …

Emotional Expression And Depth Processing In Trauma Writing: Impact On Hiv/Aids-Targeted Quality Of Life, Rachel A. Ruffin

Open Access Dissertations

Expressive writing has been linked to positive psychological and health outcomes in general and medical populations, but research examining this intervention in HIV is limited. Higher levels of emotional expression (EE) and depth processing (DP) during writing have been linked to better health status in HIV. Expressive writing has been shown to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in other populations, but has not been examined in HIV. HRQoL is often compromised in HIV+ individuals and therefore improvements in this area are an appropriate goal of psychosocial interventions. This longitudinal study used HLM analyses to examine the relationship between levels …

Why Latinas Exercise: A Multi-Method Exploration Of Motivators Using Participatory Photography Methodology, Amber Lea Vermeesch

Open Access Dissertations

Latinas are at risk for not engaging in optimal exercise and are at greater risk than other ethnic groups for being overweight and suffering deleterious health consequences. The current study’s researcher utilizes pedometers, exercise logs, surveys, and participatory photography to determine exercise motivators and barriers to exercise among Latinas. The specific aims of the presented research were to identify predictors of exercise, to investigate the relationship between motivation types, self-determination and acculturation among Latinas, and employ participatory photography methodology to better understand Latina’s exercise motivators and barriers. The methodology included both quantitative and qualitative methods. Exercise motivation types (Amotivation, Extrinsic, …

The Word And The World: Exploring World Views Of Monolingual And Bilingual Chinese Through The Use Of Proverbs, Li Ma

Open Access Dissertations

Many thinkers argue that major differences among languages lead to major differences in experience and thought. Each speech community possibly embodies a distinct world view. The purpose of this study was to explore, through the use of proverbs, the relationship between acculturation and world views among monolingual and bilingual Chinese, with proficiency in Chinese and/or English used a proxy for level of acculturation. Data were collected through questionnaires and qualitative interviews regarding attitudes to English and Chinese proverbs. Data were analyzed by means of SPSS and modified grounded theory methodology. The statistical and qualitative findings contradicted each other: the former …

Effects Of Bulimia Nervosa On The Voice: A Guide For Voice Teachers, Juanita Marchand Knight

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this essay is to compile a list of symptoms to aid voice teachers in the early detection of vocal problems resulting from bulimic behavior. Bulimia nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder characterized by bingeing and purging and has a high rate of occurrence among the college population. Entertainers form a high risk group for development of BN yet the effects of BN on the voice are largely ignored in vocal literature. The study begins with a literature review which links several factors that can influence the development of BN with "the singer’s personality." The two main character …