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The Text(Tiles) Of Adinkra Symbols: West African Art, Gender, & Poetic Translations, Rachel A. Ansong

Open Access Dissertations

The Text(tiles) of Adinkra Symbols: West African Art, Gender, & Poetic Translations is a critical and creative dissertation that interrogates Adinkra symbols from West Africa. These symbols, rediscovered in the nineteenth century, serve as codes, communicating warnings and meanings of proverbs to recipients. Many individual Adinkra symbols are abstract ideographs of the philosophical ideas they represent. My work expands on existing scholarship and further elaborates how Adinkra symbols moved from Ghana to the United States (U.S). Specifically, I trace how these creative-pictorial-philosophical symbols evolved in use as artistic mediums of expression of African/Black tradition and identity for the migrant African/Black …

Broken Dozer, Haunted Vale: The Ecopoetics Of Ambient Language, Andrew Merecicky

Open Access Dissertations

Broken Dozer, Haunted Vale is a collection of poetry that explores the principles of ambient language poetics as articulated in its critical introduction. Rather than a poetic focused on a set of thematic concerns, ambient language poetics is an ecopoetic that addresses the writing process itself and proposes an alternative to the internal/external spatial metaphor that inspires creative writing pedagogy premised on the urgency of self-expression. The poems within the collection are an experimental inquiry into what might be possible in making poems if the activity of reading/writing is not motivated primarily by representational and mimetic aims that are described …

Black Feminist Autoethnography: How Identity Can Affect Peer Review Practices In The College Writing Classroom, Eileen M. James

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the importance of embodied teaching pedagogy as it relates to peer review practices in the college writing classroom. This work uses autoethnography as a research method, exploring issues of (dis)embodiment and experiences with collaborative learning in classrooms. In addition to a review of applicable literature focused on peer review practices, writing pedagogy, and Black Feminist Autoethnography, this dissertation contains narrative sections from the viewpoint of the subject--a Black woman--as a student, an instructor, and a researcher working to examine her experiences and how they demonstrate the need for embodied approaches in the classroom. The purpose of this …

Quantitative Methods For Analyzing Team Communication Patterns, Dominique Engome Tchupo

Open Access Dissertations

In recent decades, tasks, jobs, and systems have become increasingly complex, with no changing anytime soon. Therefore, the need to understand team dynamics to form and train better teams, and maximize their performance has become a focus of research in the organizational behavior, industrial & organizational psychology, and human factors & ergonomics disciplines. There has been a rise in the number of works focused on understanding different team dynamics through a variety of methods, such as psychometrics and physiological measures. Of these methods, one that has been used the longest and is among the least invasive is the use of …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Alcohol And Other Drug Use Among Multiracial Young Adults, Tessa Nalven

Open Access Dissertations

The United States' Multiracial population (i.e., two or more races) increased by 276% between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, making it one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic demographic groups in the country. Research suggests that Multiracial young adults (i.e., 18-25 years old) report higher alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and are at a higher risk for AOD-related consequences than nearly all their monoracial counterparts. The present study conducted focus groups and utilized descriptive qualitative methodology to uncover factors associated with AOD use in Multiracial young adults. 22 participants (77.3% women, Mage = 20.8 years, SD = 2.6) were included …

Parenting Style And Help-Seeking For Child Anxiety And Depression: A Vignette Study, Hayley Pomerantz

Open Access Dissertations

Anxiety and depression are known to have a significant impact on the daily functioning of children and their families; yet only a fraction of diagnosed children receive treatment from professional mental health services. To better understand the discrepancy between high rates of child psychopathology and low rates of mental health service use, the current study examined parenting style and the time at which a parent decides to seek mental health treatment for their child. The current study hypothesized that parents would seek help when their child's symptoms and interference were moderate. It also hypothesized that parents with an authoritative or …

The Self-Health Movement: Changing For Good Health, Julian Michael Saad

Open Access Dissertations

Each person's efforts to support their personal health deserve to be supported and valued by those providers, researchers, and politicians that take a vested interest in the health of populations. Although there are scientific fields, like Population Health, that are committed to supporting equitable patterns of health across populations, there remains a very real absence of a unifying framework that can coordinate the very essential efforts of persons, populations, providers, researchers, and politicians. There is a great need for a generally-accepted and widely-used way of communicating to individual persons and general populations about the science of their health and the …

Associations Among Affect, Alcohol Use, And Risky Sex: A Daily Diary Study Of First Nation Adults, Melissa R. Schick

Open Access Dissertations

Introduction: Optimal subjective well-being is comprised of high levels of positive affect, low levels of negative affect, and overall satisfaction with one’s life. Some literature has connected each component of subjective well-being with health risk behaviors including alcohol use and risky sexual behavior. While there is diversity in rates of alcohol use and risky sexual behavior among North American Indigenous (NAI) populations, they experience disproportionate rates of negative consequences associated with these behaviors (e.g., physical, social, legal). Approaches to reducing health disparities that emphasize improving well-being may be well-accepted among NAI communities given their calls to focus on protective, …

Antecedents Of Childhood Obesity Risk Factors, A Self Determination Theory Perspective, Katelyn Fox

Open Access Dissertations

Overweight and obesity effect one in three children in the US, with significant disparities for Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic/ Latinx children. Factors such as rapid weight gain, non-responsive feeding practices, and poor diet quality in infancy and early childhood can contribute to the development of obesity. An in depth understanding of what predicts these factors is necessary to inform and improve obesity prevention and treatment efforts. This is especially important to understand in the communities disproportionately impacted by childhood obesity. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation was to explore the contextual factors that influence rapid weight gain, non-responsive feeding practices, …

Dietary Fermentable Carbohydrate (Fc) Consumption And Associations With Diet Quality And Health Parameters, Ajita Jadhav

Open Access Dissertations

Excessive body fat and related dysmetabolic complications concern both emerging and developed countries. An important environmental cause of these conditions is the altered composition of gut microbiota, which is influenced by the host diet. A number of clinical trials target gut microbiome composition or functions with fermentable carbohydrates (FCs) to promote a healthier profile. Total dietary fiber, which includes both FC and non-fermentable carbohydrates, is considered a promising tool for the prevention of chronic diseases. This has led to significant changes in food and health recommendation with an increase in dietary fiber intake advised. However, reference to other FCs such …

Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge, Attitudes, And Comfort Towards Lgbtq+ Students, Crassandra Mandojana-Ducot

Open Access Dissertations

In school settings, teachers are on the front lines for supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) adolescents and have direct contact with students daily. Previous research establishes that LGBTQ+ adolescents are at a higher rate of experiencing mental health disorders compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers due to high social stress from discrimination and bullying. The current study expanded upon previous literature by examining preservice teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and comfort towards LGBTQ+ students, the relationship between these factors, and teachers’ intention to engage in school-based LGBTQ+ advocacy. Participants were 168 undergraduate and graduate level preservice teachers currently …

The Loud Impact Of A Quiet Ego: How Positive Psychology Increases Salesperson Performance And Well-Being, Jonathan Ross Gilbert

Open Access Dissertations

The role of business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals is adapting to meet ever-changing customer expectations. B2B buyers are now demanding more complex, customized solutions and more personalized after-sales support and service. This profound change in the nature of professional selling has spurred a global race to scale up digital platforms that seamlessly support buyer needs and expectations throughout the purchase journey. However, this emphasis on the marriage of technology and human interaction prior to the sale has created a dearth of attention to, and related scholarship on, the role of salesperson support after the sale [emphasis added]. The “quiet ego” (QE), …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Undergraduate Degree Completion At The University Of Rhode Island, John Olerio

Open Access Dissertations

Over a period of several years, the University of Rhode Island (URI) implemented a number of strategies aimed to improve (a) undergraduate retention; and, (b) four-year degree completion. These efforts started amid continual increases in undergraduate tuition rates at the University and after just 38.5% of the first-time, fulltime undergraduates who began attendance in the fall of 2008 had graduated from URI by the summer of 2012. For the cohort of first-time, fulltime undergraduates who started at URI in the fall of 2014, the four-year graduation rate was 53%. Despite this increase in the statistic at the institution, it still …

Training And Professional Practices Of School Psychologists Serving U.S. Indigenous Communities: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Erin D. Churchill

Open Access Dissertations

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is committed to supporting the academic, behavioral, social, and emotional needs of students from historically underserved and/or marginalized backgrounds. However, there continues to be a lack of attention given to U.S. Indigenous populations in the school psychology literature. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the training and professional practices of school psychologists serving U.S. Indigenous communities. Fifteen certified and/or licensed school psychologists practicing in a school setting with three or more years of experience serving high-density Indigenous school populations participated in the study. Qualitative methods were employed, and data were …

Feeling Good: Happiness And Health In Dutch Older Adults, Joshua Ray Tanzer

Open Access Dissertations

Statement of the problem: Positive psychology research has sought to identify cost efficient and intuitive ways to increase subjective happiness, with broad implications to personal health and overall quality of life (Lee Duckworth, Steen, & Seligman, 2005; Rashid, 2009; Seligman, 2008; Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009; Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006). A complication in this research has been conflicting findings in the longitudinal stability of happiness (Easterlin, 2006). This analysis examines age related changes in happiness and physiological immune responsiveness to clarify the implications of positive health interventions.

Methods: Pretest-posttest structural equation modeling is employed to examine longitudinal …

True Crime, Women, And Sensationalized Representations In The Italian American Imaginary, Francesca Borrione

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores American true crime literary and visual narratives and focuses on historical cases involving Italian American women and the cross-cultural relations between Italy and the United States from the late-nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. I investigate the influence of true crime narratives on the popular imagination, with attention to the construction of ethnicity, class, and gender. The focus on Italian American women functions as a case study to discuss the impact and persistence of racialized assumptions and cultural stereotypes in American literature and cinema and explores the resistance of women to the dominant narrative. …

Longitudinal Decision-Making In A Transtheoretical Model For Pursuing Living Donor Kidney Transplant, Zoe Mushkat

Open Access Dissertations

The transtheoretical model (TTM) is a comprehensive theory of health behavior change that has informed a wide range of health promotion interventions. Despite substantial empirical support for the TTM, our understanding of the mechanisms of behavior change is primarily guided by cross-sectional research. Considerably fewer studies have examined longitudinal relationships between TTM constructs with methods comparable to cross-sectional models. The overarching goal of the present study was to improve our understanding of longitudinal relationships between Stage of Change, Decisional Balance, and Self-Efficacy. Kidney transplant decision-making was used to exemplify longitudinal patterns through secondary data from the trial Your Path to …

Non-Market Valuation Of Utility-Scale Solar Arrays, Vasundhara Gaur

Open Access Dissertations

In this dissertation, I investigate preferences for solar energy and solar siting decisions in the states of Rhode Island (RI) and Massachusetts (MA). There is broad support for solar energy in the United States, but the construction of utility-scale (1 megawatt capacity and above) installations has become controversial in recent years because of the potential local land use externalities that can result. Despite the vast literature on the impacts of various energy-producing infrastructures on areas in their vicinity, surprisingly little research exists on the externalities associated with utility-scale solar arrays within the United States. Estimating the value that people place …

Pd-Aware: A Contextual Mhealth Platform Serving Wearable-Assisted Pros For Parkinson’S Disease, Nicholas Constant

Open Access Dissertations

This work is motivated by the impact of chronic diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD) on the world. In particular, this work aims to expand digital health's ability to understand a disease's progression. The progression of the research walks through the current methods for tracking this progression, to find that this information is captured mainly in the healthcare office, starting with the initial evaluation and treatment plan formation. Afterward, roughly 2-3 times a year, the clinician uses various assessments to observe the patient through writing, speaking, and motor tasks to understand the current state of health. These efforts included 100+ …

Gendered & Genrefied Bodies: Heroism As Production And Performance In Sword & Sorcery Fantasy, Anthony Conrad Chieffalo

Open Access Dissertations

Works of sword-and-sorcery fantasy often have the reputation of reproducing “traditional masculinity” through figures of heroism that embody a stoic, self-reliant and self-righteous machismo. They are similarly regarded as presenting stereotypical femininity as emotional, dependent, and delicate. These assumptions prevent sword-and-sorcery fantasy works from receiving the critical examination that the genre warrants. This genre is critically underutilized despite its unique capacity and bountiful potential to channel and redirect cultural expectations of gender roles and social norms. Sword-and-sorcery texts often reflect the patriarchal structures of reality, but they can also challenge and subvert those same structures. Sword-and-sorcery can be a genre …

Nurse Practitioners’ Experiences Working With Patients Living With Morbid Obesity, Sharon A. Mclimans

Open Access Dissertations

Morbid obesity is recognized as a complex chronic medical disease which has been increasing at an alarming rate in the U.S. The etiologies of this disease involve a complex interplay of genetics, physiological, psychological, behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental factors. Serious medical consequences are associated with morbid obesity including diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and increasing the risk of certain cancers. Research has shown individuals with morbid obesity have higher incidence of depression and are subjected to stigmatizing and biases across society including health care professionals. The monumental cost of health care associated with morbid obesity places enormous burden on our …

A Marketer’S Symphony: Essays On The Power Of Musical Structure And Its Influence On Consumers With Foundations For Future Research In Audio Sensory Marketing, Shawn P. Scott

Open Access Dissertations

Music surrounds us in our daily lives and lives within us as consumers. It has the power to elicit deep emotions in us. Because of music’s power over people, marketers have used music to enhance and direct an emotional response in consumer behavior for decades. These uses of music ranged from ambient forms of music such as in restaurants, at retail, or in public open spaces to more directed forms of music such as in TV commercials or digital advertisements. Despite this expansive use of music used in marketing, this body of research has tremendous opportunity for further exploration. The …

Consumer Engagement With Brands On Social Media: The Moderating Roles Of Self-Quantification And Awe, Petru Dorin Micu

Open Access Dissertations

Considering the benefits of consumer-brand engagement on social media, both companies and researchers are interested in finding what factors influence this engagement. Brand engagement antecedents are numerous, yet not fully explored. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine the effects of self-quantification (defined as one’s focus on different metrics, such as number of likes, shares, fitness goals) on consumer brand engagement.

Through a series of four studies, we establish validity for the concept of self-quantification on a brand’s social medial and examine its role on consumer-brand engagement. The first study shows that self-quantification on social media brand platforms …

Quantifying And Compensating For P300 Variations In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alyssa Hillary Zisk

Open Access Dissertations

P300-based brain–computer interface (BCI) systems enable people with neuromuscular disabilities, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), to communicate and to control their environments using brain activity. However, BCI systems have not yet fulfilled their promise as reliable communication systems for all who need them. Despite continued work on improving BCIs for end users, people with ALS can experience both reduced performance overall compared to neurotypical users and significant day to day variations in BCI performance and event-related potential (ERP) characteristics.

The P300 response, which the P300 speller is based on, is also known to exhibit trial-to-trial latency variability. The importance of …

Turning Points: A Case Study Of Motivation In Foreign Language, Shawna C. Iula

Open Access Dissertations

Enrollment in foreign language courses has been declining. Fewer students are studying foreign languages and those that do often discontinue after the introductory levels. This single-embedded case study looks into why students who initially wanted to continue on to more intermediate levels did not, and also why students who initially only wanted to complete introductory levels changed their plans and continued on to more intermediate levels. Participants included two groups with nine participants total. The first group consists of five students who initially planned on discontinuing after introductory levels and changed their minds and decided to continue. The second group …

Co-Occurrence Of Depressive Symptoms And Alcohol Use: Impact Of Sociodemographic Factors, Marie C. Tate

Open Access Dissertations

Since depression disorders have been found to be the leading cause of disability (Friedrich, 2017), affecting 17.3 million adults in the United States alone (National Institute of Mental Health, 2017). Various scales have been developed to measure depression. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health uses the Major Depression Episode module to measure lifetime depression symptoms, this is the scale the current work aims to validate. The selected model had adequate fit. It was also found to be invariant at the strictest level across gender, race, income, and education level. The validated scale was then used to study the …

Intimate Distances: An Archipelago, Elizabeth Foulke

Open Access Dissertations

“Intimate Distances: An Archipelago” is a collection of personal essays and short form experimental nonfiction prose that uses the relationship between content and form to explore the solitude and the array of relationships to which the single woman gives her attention. How do relationships that defy the categories of friend, family, spouse, partner— for example relationships with strangers, minor acquaintances, and place—give purpose and meaning to our lives? The work in this collection engages with this question.

Previous works of life-writing and sociological texts by and about the single woman, in their reliance on mimetic narratives, foreclose the potential for …

Fantasizing Reproduction: The Biologization Of The Desire For Progress In Victorian Literature, Xinqiang Chang

Open Access Dissertations

The preoccupation with reproduction in Victorian literature has, by and large, received little critical attention. This dissertation seeks to contribute to Victorian scholarship and examines the representations of reproduction in Victorian literature in relation to the contemporaneous desire for progress. Adopting a historiographical approach, this dissertation analyzes five Victorian novels: Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, George Eliot’s Middlemarch, George Du Maurier’s Trilby, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure, and Sarah Grand’s The Heavenly Twins. In this dissertation, I demonstrate the different ways in which these Victorian novelists explored, accommodated, and concretized the Victorian desire for and pursuit …

Carrot Or Stick: Nudging Consumers Towards Healthier Choices Through Customized Price Incentives, Xintong Guan

Open Access Dissertations

In a market where consumers are increasingly concerned with maintaining a healthy diet and demand healthier foods, the role of retail grocery stores has been highlighted, as they exert a powerful influence on food choices. To increase more healthful food purchases, some food retailers have implemented marketing efforts to influence consumer food decision-making. However, due to the mixed findings on the effect of existing marketing interventions on improving purchasing of healthier foods, it is unclear which interventions work best to shift purchasing and what benefits they can bring to the retailer.

A promising approach to nudge healthy purchases with behavioral …

Predictors Of Paired, Singular, And No Action Among Middle School Students With Behavior Risks, Eva-Molly Petitto Dunbar

Open Access Dissertations

Understanding multiple health risk behavior change may contribute to the prevention of chronic illness. The present study examined drivers of behavior change over time within individuals with health behavior risks who were at risk for two behaviors. Participants were middle school students from a randomized controlled trial conducted across 20 middle schools within the state of Rhode Island using two transtheoretical model tailored, computer-delivered interventions in the school setting. Participants received an alcohol prevention program or an energy balance program. Analyses were conducted with participants who were at risk for both physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake (N = …