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The Utilization Of Non-Classical Approaches In Teaching Musical Theater Repertoire For The Undergraduate Soprano Voice Major, Jenna Lee Moore

Open Access Dissertations

The Broadway Musical can arguably be considered one of the most popular art forms in America today and new musicals are constantly being written, produced, and performed. As a result, many voice students become interested in singing musical theater repertoire, suggesting that the study of musical theater singing and performance of musical theater literature be included in the vocal education of an undergraduate voice major. Teaching musical theater provides a unique challenge, because vocalists are required to sing in every style historically within musical theater. Today’s Broadway shows require vocal styles ranging from classical to rock. Other styles of singing …

Hearing What You See: A Case For The Use Of Ancillary Gesture In Individual Percussion Performance, Tyson J. Voigt

Open Access Dissertations

The use of physical gestures as expressive devices in western classical music performance is widely debated. Research conclusions and pedagogical assertions alike are highly subjective. Percussion performance is a special case in which expressive gestures are inseparable from motions necessary for playing the instrument, especially in terms of articulation. Research studies show that while percussion cannot vary note length to the same extent as other instruments, it can alter sound by changing the physical motion used to strike the instrument. Because the motion is nearly always visible to the listener, it is unclear whether the change in sound is more …

The Utility Of Visually Nontraditional Scores In The Collegiate Voice Studio, Jennifer Voigt

Open Access Dissertations

The incorporation of learning science into vocal pedagogy has been a slow process with advancements in biology and physics dominating change in the field. However, recent research into learning styles and the processing of motor skills has revealed areas that could be enhanced within standard vocal teaching procedures. This study addresses the possibility of filling these gaps with the inclusion of visually nontraditional scores as a teaching tool. Specifically, this paper examines the utility of these scores within the collegiate voice studio. Visually nontraditional scores can contribute to a variety of learning needs and facilitate the acquisition of new technical …

An Introduction To Akira Yuyama And His Confections With A Discussion Of Its Pedagogical Effectiveness, Dan Sato

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis introduces Akira Yuyama, a prolific living composer of highest distinction for his contributions to, most notably, repertoire dedicated to performances by young musicians. Confections: A Piano Sweet is arguably his most creative opus and this thesis includes an analysis of the work for its musical content as well as its effectiveness in the pedagogical context. Yuyama’s Confections has been a best-seller for over four decades in Japan and is one of the most popular set of pieces assigned to young piano students. Despite its popularity and uniqueness as programmatic music about food, the composition nor its creator have …

Cultivating Hybridity: An Interdisciplinary Philosophy Of Applied Tuba Instruction, Immanuel Claude Shuford

Open Access Dissertations

Instructional materials, syllabi and scholarly documents, were evaluated using discrete comparative analysis in an attempt to develop a curricular approach that is interdisciplinary and multicultural to ensure compliance with new market demands of tuba professorship listings and performing tubists. These materials encompass the areas of applied instruction, theory instruction, curriculum development, and applied jazz instruction. The specific musical attributes addressed by this study are stylistic fluency, scalar proficiency, and music composition. It was predicted that comparing and analyzing applied tuba syllabi, applied jazz syllabi, and applied composition syllabi would reveal large scale commonalities between the three disciplines. It was concluded …

Social Metaperception In High Functioning Adolescents With Autism, Lauren V. Usher

Open Access Dissertations

Children and adolescents with high functioning autism (HFA) display social deficits despite their average IQ levels. Social metaperception, or one’s ability to perceive what a social partner thinks of oneself during a social interaction, is hypothesized to support social competence. In this study, the novel Perceptions and Metaperceptions Questionnaire was designed to quantify and compare social metaperception abilities in adolescents with and without HFA. For all adolescents, accuracy of social metaperceptions (how well they matched with peer’s ratings) was unrelated to theory of mind abilities. All adolescents’ perceptions of their peers were associated with their metaperceptions. Interestingly, HFA adolescents tended …

Pianistic Mastery Of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition: Developing Associative Thinking Through Analysis Of Musical Texture, Ana Cristea

Open Access Dissertations

This essay is a detailed analytical and performance guide for pianists who seek musical, technical, and interpretational recommendations and answers during the process of learning Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The author of this study analyzes the composer’s manner of depicting visual images through pianistic texture and provides possible solutions for the work’s technical and interpretive challenges. The learning approach presented in this essay advocates associative thinking and musical creativity in accordance with the original score, the composer’s initial sources of inspiration, and his biographical context. This study is organized into five chapters, with the first three serving a …

Towards A Cultural Approach Of Transatlantic Integration, Jorge Arturo Smith Carbajal

Open Access Dissertations

The increasingly complex challenges faced by the Western world since the beginning of the twenty-first century have fostered scholarship on culture and values as important explanatory factors of international relations. Such theoretical shift offers the opportunity to develop new avenues of research. Transatlantic relations are one of them. On the one hand, great emphasis has been placed on security issues in the wake of World War II through NATO and on economic issues in the wake of the world financial crisis through TTIP. On the other hand, although the Euro-American relationship has been characterized by strong differences, it nevertheless shares …

Balkanophonia, Mirjana Petrovic

Open Access Dissertations

This essay describes my process in composing the orchestral suite Balkanophonia, which is inspired by and contains allusions to Balkan folk music, more precisely Serbian and Macedonian traditional music. The suite consists of four movements. Drawing upon the research of ethnomusicologist Miodrag Vasiljevic and other prominent scholars, I also discuss the indigenous musical scales and harmonic principles found in the source material, which I utilized in this work. Even though my orchestral suite has inevitably been influenced by my classical musical education and knowledge of Western art music in general, I strove to portray the traditional sound of the Balkan …

Material Dispersion By Ocean Eddies And Waves, Peng Wang

Open Access Dissertations

Material dispersion in the ocean, such as the dispersion of natural and anthropogenic tracers (e.g. nutrients, dissolved gases, pollutants), is important in understanding processes at a variety of scales, ranging from plankton production to climate variability. Material dispersion is controlled by many dynamic processes; the present research focuses on the 3D material dispersion by ocean eddies and waves (inertial waves and internal gravity waves). Ocean eddies may suffer various hydrodynamic instabilities, such as barotropic instability, inertial instability and 3D instability. In this work, I investigate how instabilities impact the 3D material dispersion by ocean eddies, using analytical methods and numerical …

Reviving The Body, Rina Tzinman

Open Access Dissertations

What are we? According to the two most common answers we are either psychological beings or biological organisms. In my dissertation I develop a novel account, which combines the advantages of these views while avoiding their main pitfalls. I start by arguing against the most developed theory of organism persistence, according to which human organisms persist in virtue of their brainstems persisting. Next, by drawing on the literature on natural properties and biological laws, I argue that biological organisms can persist through death. While organisms don’t necessarily cease to exist when they die, we normally do: according to my New …

Technical Communication In Place-Making Professions: Exploring The Network Pictures Of Urban Designers, Fernando Sanchez

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses how professional writing as a field can pay attention to broader definitions of design in order to help further conversations of spatial justice (the act of helping to promote equity in matters of development in urban spaces). I begin by noting the conversations that have circulated regarding the relationship between urban design and rhetoric, noting that professional writing can help add a unique lens to the conversation. The second chapter provides an overview of how design is discussed in technical communication scholarship. Here, I showcase how most of these discussions regarding research in design have centered on …

Analysis Of Scientific Argumentation In Two Physical Chemistry Classrooms Using The Pogil Approach, Alena C. Moon

Open Access Dissertations

The benefits of facilitating argumentation in science education have been well reported (Jimenez-Aleixandre & Erduran, 2007). Engaging in argumentation has shown to model authentic scientific inquiry as well as promote development of content knowledge. However, less emphasis has been placed on facilitating argumentation in upper level undergraduate courses, though it is important for evaluating undergraduate curricula to characterize upper level students’ scientific reasoning. This work considers two implementations of the POGIL physical chemistry curriculum and evaluates the classroom argumentation. The researchers aimed to consider the content of the arguments and dialectical features characteristic of socially constructed arguments (Nielson, 2013). To …

Advances In Solid Phase Microextraction For The Analysis Of Volatile Compounds In Explosives, Tire Treatments, And Entomological Specimens, William D. Kranz

Open Access Dissertations

Solid phase microextraction is a powerful and versatile technique, well-suited to the analysis of numerous samples of forensic interest. The exceptional sensitivity of the SPME platform, combined with its adaptability to traditional GC-MS systems and its ability to extract samples with minimal work-up, make it appropriate to applications in forensic laboratories.

In a series of research projects, solid phase microextraction was employed for the analysis of explosives, commercial tire treatments, and entomological specimens. In the first project, the volatile organic compounds emanating from two brands of pseudo-explosive training aids for use in detector dog imprinting were determined by SPME-GC-MS, and …

Self-Regulation To Practice: Incorporating The Strategy To An Early Childhood Special Education Setting, Kathryn L. Szwed

Open Access Dissertations

Preschool students who display social emotional deficits pose challenging issues for families, caregivers and teachers who educate them. In this study, the effectiveness of an assistive technology based treatment package consisting of video self-modeling and behavior management software was investigated to determine if its combined use would result in increased student self-regulation skills. Using a multiple baseline design, three students used the treatment package to increase self-regulation skills. During the investigation, the accuracy to self-identify behaviors, the documentation of desired and undesired behaviors and the overall impact of the treatment package was studied. Interobserver agreement (IOA) was used to determine …

Feelings Of Doing Good For Myself Or Others: Discussing Effects Of Self-Conscious Emotions On Sustainable Consumption, Chi-Cheng Luan

Open Access Dissertations

Consumers have increasing interests in sustainable products, but the actual purchase rate is relatively low. To find the reasons of this gap, previous studies focus primarily on cognitive factors of behavioral change based on the theory of planned behavior. Little research, however, discusses such a sustainable consumption issue from emotional aspects. Thus, this research proposed that self-conscious emotions play an essential role of sustainable consumption behavior, and such emotions are driven from private and public self-consciousness. Study 1 examined participants’ general evaluations toward two emotions and sustainable consumption behaviors. The results showed that empathic concern had a significantly positive effect …

Examining Law Enforcement Officer Job Satisfaction And Burnout Through The Lens Of Empowerment Theory, Bruce A. Biggs

Open Access Dissertations

This exploratory cross-sectional study examined the organizational factors that influence law enforcement officers’ perception of job stress and perception of job satisfaction. The extant literature is replete with the finding that organizational factors (job context) rather than the aspects of providing police service (job content) cause law enforcement officers the largest amount of stress and job dissatisfaction. However, the literature also shows that the exact organizational factors that wield these deleterious effects are enigmatic.

This situation is further confounded by the lack of a guiding and encompassing theoretical construct through which the myriad of organizational influences and consequences may be …

Creativity In Organizations: Antecedents And Outcomes Of Individual Creativity, Goran Calic

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation I set out to expand our collective understanding of creativity in organizations. I accomplish this through three related studies, each organized into independent chapters of this dissertation.

The first study explores how demands of organizations, particularly strategic contradictions faced by decision makers, affect creative processes and products. In this chapter I develop the theory of paradoxical creativity, which posits that creative discovery is a function of how strategic contradictions are perceived by decision-makers. The key insight of the theory of paradoxical creativity is that strategic contradictions have independent effects on the two stages of creative discovery (generation …

The Effect Of Voluntary Binge Caffeine And Ethanol Coexposure On Neurobehavioral Sensitivity To Cocaine In Male C57bl/6j Mice, Brandon M. Fritz

Open Access Dissertations

Recently, the co-consumption of highly caffeinated energy drinks and alcohol has become a public health concern. Consumption of these beverages has been linked to a wide variety negative consequences including alcohol poisoning, driving under the influence, physical harm, and sexual violence. The more protracted consequences of caffeinated alcohol consumption have received very little attention, however. Some evidence suggests that individuals that frequently consume energy drinks mixed with alcohol are more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder. Interestingly, both caffeine and alcohol use alone have been linked to polydrug abuse. It is therefore of interest whether combined caffeine and alcohol …

Conexiones Transatlanticas: Expandiendo Limites En El Mundo Hispano (1890-1910), Argelia Garcia Saldivar

Open Access Dissertations

Este trabajo examina las transformaciones a patrones socio-culturales en el mundo hispano, que permiten a la mujer incorporarse a la fuerza productiva; como producto de la presión ejercida por comunidades de escritoras en foros internacionales sobre el atraso educativo y cultural que sufre la mujer. En esta disertación se estudia una economía que gira alrededor de las necesidades de la mujer promovida por la prensa periódica, que además de fortalecer la industria cultural y de entretenimiento, también auto-educa a la sociedad sobre la necesidad de educación profesional, mejora de condiciones laborales y apertura a espacios comerciales y profesionales para la …

A Black Art: Ontology, Data, And The Tower Of Babel Problem, Andrew J. Iliadis

Open Access Dissertations

Computational ontologies are a new type of emerging scientific media (Smith, 2016) that process large quantities of heterogeneous data about portions of reality. Applied computational ontologies are used for semantically integrating (Heiler, 1995; Pileggi & Fernandez-Llatas, 2012) divergent data to represent reality and in so doing applied computational ontologies alter conceptions of materiality and produce new realities based on levels of informational granularity and abstraction (Floridi, 2011), resulting in a new type of informational ontology (Iliadis, 2013) the critical analysis of which requires new methods and frameworks. Currently, there is a lack of literature addressing the theoretical, social, and critical …

The Things They Carried: The Biological Residue Of Childhood Misfortune, Patricia M. Morton

Open Access Dissertations

There is a well-established relationship between childhood misfortune and adult health, but how these early-life experiences “get under the skin” to later manifest as poor health is less clear. To elucidate this process, this dissertation investigates (1) how childhood conditions influence immune functioning and (2) whether these physiological consequences of early misfortune lead to poor health, indicated by ischemic heart disease (IHD) onset. Guided by cumulative inequality theory and biological embedding, this dissertation also examines adult health lifestyles and socioeconomic status (SES) as possible mechanisms linking childhood misfortune to inflammation and IHD in later life. Data come from six waves …

The Role Of Workplace Supervisor Support In Cargivers' Marital Relationships, Kenona H. Southwell

Open Access Dissertations

Family caregivers make important contributions to care recipients and the economy. However, providing care for ill or disabled family members can be challenging, particularly when the role of caregiver is accompanied by additional roles such as employee, spouse, and parent ( Hammer & Neal, 2008). There is some evidence that the demands of caregiving may negatively influence the quality of caregivers’ marriages (Bookwala, 2009). Much of caregiving research, however, is focused on the influence of caregiving and multiple caregiving roles on caregivers’ health (see Pinquart & Sörensen, 2011), but less attention has been paid to other aspects of caregivers’ lives …

Neural Activity Reveals Effects Of Aging On Inhibitory Processes During Word Retrieval, Ranjini Mohan

Open Access Dissertations

Word retrieval difficulties are one of the most frustrating problems in older adults. Poorer access to phonological (speech sound) representation of the target word has been postulated as the underlying deficit, supported by findings of improvement in word retrieval after phonological priming. But the great variability in naming performance among older adults may reflect cognitive scaffolding or compensatory neurophysiological processes related to maintenance or decline of naming abilities. In order better understand aging effects in the underlying neurophysiological changes associated with phonological retrieval, the present study examined electrophysiological correlates of phonological priming and word retrieval in adults across the lifespan. …

Memories That Won't Desert. Transnational Legacies Of Francoism And The Spanish Civil War In 21st Century Novel, Comic And Film., Julie Samit

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines contemporary representations of Francoism and the Spanish Civil War and emphasizes the Republican legacy in three different media: novel, comics, and film. Its main focus is Spain, but my corpus also includes the experience of French and Mexican exiles. These works, produced for the most part by descendants of Republicans in diverse sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts, establish a memorial network that goes beyond national boundaries, and that travels from generation to generation. I define the production of second and third generations who recuperate individual stories that have been repressed politically as “legacy narratives.” I argue that because …

The Spatial Structure Of Unified Consciousness, Bartlomiej Chomanski

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I defend two theses: first, that experiences with spatial phenomenology represent space as single and unitary, and, second, that every experience has a spatial phenomenology. The two theses entail the conclusion that the unity of conscious spatial representation is necessary for the unity of consciousness. This means that unified consciousness has a (partially) spatial structure. In what follows, I adopt the mereological conception of unified consciousness according to which experiences are unified just in case they are parts of a subject’s total phenomenal state. I also assume that the unity relation is a relation among experiences. Most …

Learning The Language Of Academic Engineering: Sociocognitive Writing In Graduate Students, Catherine G. P. Berdanier

Open Access Dissertations

Although engineering graduate programs rarely require academic writing courses, the indicators of merit in academic engineering, such as journal publications, successful grants, and doctoral milestones (e.g. theses, dissertations) are based in effective written argumentation and disciplinary discourse. Further, graduate student attrition averages 57% across all disciplines, with some studies classifying up to 50% of these students as “ABD” (All But Dissertation.) In engineering disciplines specifically, graduate attrition rates across the U.S. average 36% (both Master’s and PhD students), according to the Council of Graduate Schools. The lack of socialization is generally noted as a main reason for graduate attrition, one …

Cognitive Complexity In Carnivora: The Evolutionary Link Between Social Complexity And Cognitive Complexity, Natalia D. Borrego

Open Access Dissertations

Traditional views of cognitive evolution favored a simplistic approach in which the evolution of advanced cognition was considered unique to primate lineages. A recent expansion to non-primates indicates that cognition convergently evolved in several lineages. The social intelligence hypothesis attributes the convergent evolution of cognitive complexity to shared selective pressures imposed by social complexity. According to the social intelligence hypothesis, social individuals benefit from cognitive abilities facilitating social life, and the resultant fitness advantage engenders an evolutionary link, whereby social complexity selectively favors cognitive complexity. The social intelligence hypothesis predicts that social species are cognitively advanced. Although several studies support …

Psychosocial Predictors Of Depression And Medication Adherence In People Living With Hiv, Sarah M. Henry

Open Access Dissertations

INTRODUCTION: Depression is common in people living with HIV (PLWH) and is a primary predictor of poor adherence to HAART medications which brings serious health consequences. PLWH also tend to experience more stress and trauma in their lifetime, all of which have been implicated in the onset and exacerbation of depression and poor health behavior performance. Positive and negative psychosocial variables and coping strategies have been associated with psychosocial functioning and health behaviors suggesting that understanding the ways in which PLWH cope is key to understanding depression and health behavior performance within this population. Different coping techniques work differently depending …

A Selected Review Of Prevention And Non-Surgical Treatment Options For Musculoskeletal Performance-Related Injuries Common Among Oboists, Sara Lyn Diehl

Open Access Dissertations

Oboe practice and reed making entails persistent and methodical application. This can lead to misuse and overuse, which may cause injuries that could result in early retirement, permanent disfigurement, or both. The purpose of this essay is to catalog the current prevention and non-surgical treatment options for musculoskeletal performance-related injuries common among oboists. The essay will also identify injuries that are frequently found in oboe players, and provide information about the causes of these injuries. It is my hope that this document will become a resource for oboists to use when they are struggling with performance-related injuries and will help …