Digital Commons Network^™

I Lie Awake, Pauline Juliet Ku

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Maggie Kim is a Korean American girl coming of age in Chicago and San Jose before moving to Pasadena, CA to study Biology at Caltech. Her struggles with her own sexuality, immediate family, growing up in an abusive church, traumatic memories and hallucinations and delusions make for a riveting read that validates her personal experience through trauma, stigma, and mental illness in the first-person point of view.

The Intersection Of Urban Heat Islands And The Cdc Social Vulnerability Index In Two Border Cities, Ileana Morales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing How Bilingual Experience Impacts Performance In Stimulus-Stimulus And Stimulus-Response Conflict Tasks, Christian Ruiz-Ortiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Numerous studies have revealed that bilingual individuals outperform monolinguals in tasks requiring executive control. However, the exact impact of bilingualism on executive functions remains unclear due to inconsistent findings in the literature. These discrepancies may stem from factors such as participant demographics, variations in definitions and operationalizations of bilingualism, and task selection. To address these issues, we investigated the link between degree of balance and contextual use with the ability to address conflict across sensory modalities (auditory and visual) at different stages of processing. Rather than focusing on mean performance, this study investigated performance stability (coefficient of variation) over time …

An Intrinsic Case Study On The Implementation Of Project-Based Learning For Emergent Bilinguals And The Role Of Teacher Self-Efficacy At A Dual Language Campus On The U.S.-Mexico Border, Guadalupe Vela

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to understand the implementation of PBL at a dual-language campus on the U.S.-Mexico border (Stake, 2000). Project-based learning in a dual language setting can meet the demand for all students, especially emergent bilinguals, to receive equal and equitable learning opportunities that promote access to content knowledge regardless of student language proficiency (Howard et al., 2007; O’Brien et al., 2014). However, the success of implementing an innovation, such as PBL, is facilitated by the teacher’s belief in the tools and ability to enact the approach (Bandura, 1977). Therefore, the study also considered how …

The Effects Of Using Baby Sign Training On The Interactions Between Mothers And Infants, Ayzzar Gurrola

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Baby sign has been becoming more popular and known through the publication of parenting books and websites dedicated to its use. Research continues to blossom on the subject, demonstrating that it is indeed beneficial on many levels for both the infant and their caregiver. Several researchers have implicated the effects of baby sign on infantsâ?? cognitive and behavioral development. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effects of a baby sign training on the interactions of mothers and their babies. Five typically developing infants between the ages of eight and fourteen months and their parent participated in this …

Evaluation Of Maternal Patient Experience During Covid-19 Using Natural Language Processing, Debapriya Banik

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Healthcare policymakers are constantly investigating how to improve this situation and provide a more patient-centered care. Delivering excellent medical care involves ensuring that patients have a positive experience. Most healthcare organizations use patient survey feedback, like HCAHPS, to measure their patients' experiences. The United States has the highest maternal mortality or morbidity rate of the developed countries, so we used maternal patients as the patient cohort to evaluate various touchpoints. The power of social media can be harnessed to provide researchers with valuable insights into understanding patient's experience and care. We used the "COVID-19Tweets" Dataset, which has over twenty-eight million …

Reflections On Pre-Kindergarten Pedagogical Practices For Latine Preschoolers: An Autoethnography, Cynthia Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This personal reflexive account of my experiences as a Latine Pre-K teacher and Instructional Coach represents the adversities that many early childhood education public school teachers face within marginalized public-school campuses. Using myself as the subject and researcher within the context of area public school districts provided the drive to seek social justice for disadvantaged Latine preschoolers in their quest for an equitable footing in public school offerings. Through the participant's lens, I chronicle my experiences as a prekindergarten public-school teacher and later as a multi-district instructional coach using the qualitative methodology of both emotive and analytical/interpretive viewpoints. This genre …

Tabby Canyon, Jamie Rae Crowley Meyer

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Critical Preface1.1 Scope

In Native American traditions, dreams are a significant part of their culture. They are believed to help one connect or communicate with the spiritual world. This ability is not limited to warriors or medicine men, anyone may contribute to the spiritual knowledge of the tribe. Many nations seek visions at a young age, and children are asked about their dreams. Each tribe across the country has a different way they may interpret the dreams. Typically, dreams often have a metaphorical/symbolic, literal, or prophetic meaning.

Whereas, in many non-indigenous cultures, individuals see dreams as something to be forgotten, …

A Thematic Analysis Of Resilient Experiences Of People Who Use Drugs And Are Living With Hiv Adhering To Hiv Medicine, Valeria Duenas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a disease acquired through sex, from mother to child, sharing needles, and open wound exposure to the blood-borne virus. The disease leads to the rapid weakening of the immune system which renders the individual vulnerable to various opportunistic infections, cancer, disease progression into acquired immunodeficiency virus (AIDS), and possibly death. Unfortunately, US Latinos are disproportionately affected by HIV as they account for nearly 30% of all new HIV infections. A subpopulation disproportionately affected also are people who inject drugs (PWID) which account for 1 in 10 HIV diagnosis in the U.S. Modern medicine has allowed …

Using Culturally Responsive Teaching And Funds Of Knowledge To Engage Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students In Authentic Learning, Marybelle Gonzales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This study employed the theoretical frameworks of Culturally Responsive Teaching and Funds of Knowledge as lens for understanding how English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers in the Texas border region use culturally responsive teaching and funds of knowledge to engage culturally diverse students in authentic learning. The results of this study include the following themes: Curriculum, instruction and assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse students; lessons learned from virtual/online teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic; culturally responsive teaching practices; funds of knowledge; and authentic learning. The results indicated that while English as a Second Language (ESL) in …

Shooting Scars: A True Story (More Or Less), Trent C. Jonas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When putting together this collection, it made sense to me to view it as a carnival, or a variety show, in which each flight of fancy - or vignette - is accompanied by a kernel of truth, like a ringmaster who introduces a contortionist, or a magician, or a carful of clowns. Because of the "holes in [my] family history" (Sikelianos), this work is necessarily autofiction, but I wanted to ground it firmly in reality so as to create a blend of truth and fiction that is imperceptible to readers, who would likely see it as memoir. I don't mind …

Teachers' Perspectives On Decolonizing U.S. Curriculum For Latinx Through Ethnic Studies Programs At The Middle And High School Levels, Richard Varela

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the implementation of an ethnic studies program with an emphasis on Mexican American Studies at the middle and high school level, in a district located along the Mexican/U.S. frontera. Ethnic Studies are a critical, interdisciplinary academic field of study that acknowledges that race, and racism are embedded in every U.S. system, especially our educational institution. As a critical pedagogy, ethnic studies validate and encourages the voices and viewpoints of the marginalized, while analyzing and criticizing dominant influences that promote â??normalizingâ?? of racialized inequality (de los Rios, 2013). At the center of ethnic …

Optimized Learning Using Fuzzy-Inference-Assisted Algorithms For Deep Learning, Miroslava Barua

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For years, researchers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) observed that performance of a Deep Learning Network (DLN) could be improved by using larger and larger datasets coupled with complex network architectures. Although these strategies yield remarkable results, they have limits, dictated by data quantity and quality, rising costs by the increased computational power, or, more frequently, by long training times on networks that are very large. Training DLN requires laborious work involving multiple layers of densely connected neurons, updates to millions of network parameters, while potentially iterating thousands of times through millions of entries in a big …

Sources Of Top-Down Processing In Recognition Of Repeated Speech In Noise, Liam Gleason

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prior research has shown that repetition facilitates speech recognition in difficult listening environments, as indicated by more accurate reporting and lower subjective noise ratings. Both effects were found even when sentences were read at encoding, suggesting that the top-down processing involved comes from a modality-general level of representation (Gleason & Francis, 2021). We investigated whether this top-down processing comes from the semantic or lemma level of language representation. Bilingual participants listened to sentences in English and Spanish. At test, these sentences and new sentences were presented auditorily in English with background noise. After listening to each sentence, participants reported the …

Teaching About Teaching: A Philosophy Of Critical Literacy Through Phenomenological Ethics And Rhetorical Practices, Corina Lerma

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis presents a phenomenological approach to developing an alternative teaching curriculum for a first-year writing course anchored in rhetorical practices, but reflecting upon my experiences and understandings of phenomenological ethics and philosophy, which I believe can help envision the classroom differently and provides relevant theories to help develop more ethically aware rhetorical practices for first-year composition students. A phenomenological ethical approach that is grounded in experience, embraces ambiguity as an access point, and makes a call to responsibility and problematizes the ideas associated decontextualized and prescriptive teaching practices in higher education foregrounds the ethical implications and responsibilities we hold …

Hybrid Model For Making Decision Methods In Wireless Sensor Networks Through Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System, Martha Lucia Torres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Considering the complexity and multiple alternatives for technology decisions in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), a multicriteria selection method (MCDM) is an appropriate approach for choosing the best option in technical projects. Purely quantitative decision-making procedures have currently been created based on client requirements and recommendations from industry professionals in many domains. In this context, implementation and operational costs could be increasing due to technical problems and additional processes. In order to prevent future difficulties and obtain a more accurate technology selection, a new method was being developed to involve qualitative and quantitative parameters taken from real scenarios and technical literature …

Consciousness To Teach Bilingual Education In The Borderlands: Pláticas With Latina Teacher Candidates, Helena Muciño Guerra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Despite the 3.9 million Latinx emergent bilinguals (EB) across U.S. classrooms (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019), most bilingual teachers are White monolinguals (Cochran-Smith et al., 2016). Literature on teacher preparation in bilingual education (BE) has shown that due to the shared identities and origin and similar schooling experiences with their Latinx students, Latinx bilingual teacher candidates have a personal commitment to improving their studentsâ?? educational opportunities (Cervantes-Soon, 2018). Yet, most research on teacher preparation in bilingual education has been conducted in predominantly White-monolingual contexts, using Eurocentric research methodologies and methods, disregarding how the past educational experiences of Latinx inform …

Ready Player?: Sex And Race In Video Games, Matthew Michael Espino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As a child, I had always been fascinated with video games. Sure, I used video games as a way to relieve stress mainly, but I found myself drawn into the worlds that I was immersing myself in. These worlds are filled with social structures, cultures, governments, even religions. Once I started doing research in college, I took a bit of a step back from the games I loved and took a broader look at what I was playing. Specifically, I wanted to see what these worlds had to offer in terms of representation of races, gender, and non-human characters. These …

Experiences Of Latinidad And First-Generation College Students In Jane The Virgin: Using Auto-Historia Teoria And Finding Coyolxauhqui, Gema Sarahi Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the importance of Latinx and first-generation college student representation in media. By using autohistoria-teoría and content analysis, I aim to find the ways in which the show, Jane the Virgin, influences my experiences of Latinidad as well as how it represents the first-generation college experience and how those relate to my own. I use Gloria Anzaldúa's model to study identity dealing with nepantla, arrebatamientos, and the Coyolxauhqui process to discuss my own identity.

Examining Social Determinants Of Health And Cervical Cancer Risk And Outcomes In Ecuadorian Women, Pooja Tewari

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background and Significance: The burden of cervical cancer in the Latin American region is high. The crude incidence rate and the crude mortality rate in Ecuador are significantly higher than that of South America and the World. Riobamba, Ecuador, where the Fundación Internacional Buen Samaritano Paul Martel (FIBUSPAM) hospital is located, has been found to be one of the cities most affected with cervical cancer in the country. Risk factors for cervical cancer that have been identified in Latin American women include chronological age, age of first sexual intercourse, number of sexual partners, number of pregnancies, use of oral contraceptives, …

Vagabondage, Andrea Lora Castillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Vagabondage is a novel about grief and identity. The novel opens with its protagonist, Jilly, learning about her brother Parisâ??s death via a phone call with her grandma. Throughout her time of grief, she must contend with her husband, James, taking advantage of her grieving state and using her as a model for his photography careerâ??a career in which he amasses quite a reputable amount of fame. As Jamesâ?? career grows, Jilly is introduced to his best friend, Michael, a musician in a rock band. He and Jilly begin a love affair, and it is through this relationship that Jilly …

Rethinking Metaphor In The Rhetoric Of Alzheimer's Disease, Evelyn Saru Jimmy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the metaphors that early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use to make meaning of their experiences living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). To complicate the study, I also compare whether early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use the same metaphors with those who serve as caregiver to late-stage AD patients. This research project is situated within the overlap fields of Disability Studies (Dolmage, 2006; Lewiecki-Welson, 2003; Yergeau, 2014; Kerschbaum, 2014), Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (Segal, 1997: Price, 2011; Molloy, 2015) Rhetoric of Mental Health (Chrisman, 2008; Uttapha, 2017, Reynold, 2008), and Technical Communication (Meloncon, 2014). Following the principles of …

Centering Silence: Graduate Student Instructors Negotiating Quiet In The Writing Classroom, Natalie Elise Taylor

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This IRB-approved project is a feminist qualitative study in which I seek to understand graduate student instructors' past and present, student and teacher, experiences with classroom silence. This research builds on the work of Mary Reda (Between Speaking and Silence), who, in interviewing quiet students about their reasons for being silent, sought to disrupt the overwhelmingly negative stories about classroom silence and quiet students that circulate amongst instructors. By having conversations with graduate student instructors about their relationship to student silence and their own silences, I further Reda's disruption. I am also influenced by Cheryl Glenn's positioning of silence as …

Race, Science, And The Language Of Drug Control In The Americas, 1870s - 1920s, Freddy Mauricio Jaimes Jaimes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the origins of the language of drug addiction and drug control in the American hemisphere during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by analyzing the intersection between the scientific study of race and eugenics and the cultural and political reaction to the Chinese global diaspora across the Pacific. I argue that Chinese immigrants perfectly embodied European "scientific" ideas of national or racial degeneration in the minds of scientific and medical elites while exemplifying the publicâ??s predominant stereotypes of addiction. Chinese immigrants became the first and perhaps most powerful symbol that intrinsically associated drug consumption with degeneracy. …

The Perception Of Tap And Trill In Spanish-English Bilinguals, Lesley Vanessa Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Spanish [ɾ] tap and [r] trill are two different phonemes that only contrast in the intervocalic position. In Spanish, the tap and trill contrast can only be found in thirty words, for example in (but) and (dog). Studies, such as Bradley and Willis (2012), demonstrate that, in production, taps and trills are variably neutralized among monolingual Spanish speakers. Neutralization of taps and trills creates an ambiguous signal that could be difficult to decode by heritage Spanish speakers. In fact, previous studies found that heritage speakers, such as monolingual Spanish speakers, neutralize these phonemes (Amengual, 2016). The purpose of this …

Digital Literacy Readiness Of First-Year Composition Students, Stephen Jantuah Boakye

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This is an inquiry into the digital literacy readiness of students of First-Year Composition (FYC). Using mixed methods, an online survey and interviews, the study maps out the digital literacy skills of FYC students and accounts for the people and places that contributed to the students' acquisition of those skills. As theoretical frameworks, the study used Eshet-Alkalai's (2002) digital literacy framework to account for the spectrum of students' functional digital literacy skills; Brandt's (1998) literacy sponsorship to scrutinize the persons who contributed to studentâ??s learning; and Hawisher and Selfe's (2004) technological gateways to make sense of the places that student …

Zapatista Maya Literacies And Decolonial Civic Pedagogies, Juan Moisés García-Rentería

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Zapatista Maya Literacies and Decolonial Civic Pedagogies evaluates an educational outreach project led by an Indigenous grass roots mobilization in the high plateau of central México, the Zapatista movement. Using retrospective narrative inquiry and theoretically informed perspectives, this dissertation shows that the program of the Zapatista escuelita, Spanish for “little school,” is rooted in the Maya educational paradigm of nojptesel-p’ijubtasel, a cultural and political process of socialization at the heart of contemporary Maya peasant families. The research focus of this study offers rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies two interrelated points of insight tied to the overall Maya conception of the …

Smartphones As The Tools For South Asian International Students To Navigate Academic And Non-Academic Sites In The U.S., Suresh Lohani

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation is invested in investigating how south Asian students from a Hispanic serving institution situated on a U.S. Mexico border use smartphone technologies to enhance their navigation of everyday sites in the U.S. This would primarily look at how South Asian international students from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Bhutan make use of smartphones to navigate different physical and virtual spaces, both academic and non-academic, to grapple with various complexities of their U.S. lives. The dissertation examines their user experiences and localization practices as they strive to acclimate to the U.S. setting, which to them is both physically and culturally …

Articulación Y Desarticulación Opresora En Dos Novelas: Una Lectura Abigarrada De La Genara De Rosina Conde Y La Giganta De Patricia Laurent Kullick, Angélica Rey Acevedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

La presente investigación tiene por objetivo interpretar a las novelas La Genara de Rosina Conde y La giganta de Patricia Laurent Kullick como relatos explicativos donde tienen lugar una praxis de intelectualidad orgánica, de quehacer anti-hegemónico; feminista, de quehacer anti-opresor; y ch’ixi, de quehacer anti-colonizador. Busco una lectura crítica para identificar claves del posicionamiento de ambas novelas respecto a discursos hegemónicos que producen relaciones sociales de opresión.

Testimonios Of First-Generation, Multilingual, Latina Doctoral Students At The U.S.-México Border, Cynthia Carolina Terán López

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study is developed with the idea that the socialization experiences of Latina doctoral students are found in the socially constructed institutional culture of a university at the U.S.-México border. Furthermore, Latina doctoral students are considered active agents in their development as scholars and co-creators of culture. Thus, this study looks at Latina doctoral students’ ways of knowing as assets used to shape their experiences in a way that benefits and empowers them. Specifically, the study expands on the existing research on socialization experiences at the doctoral level to explore the understudied significance of language and being a first-generation …