Digital Commons Network^™

Heat Seekers, Gavin Stephen Lambert

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

“Every land / carves a people, marks them heavy like an / accent,” writes Gavin Lambert in his poem, “In Summer We Move Slowly,” and Lambert’s collection explores the connective tissue of that very relationship—the one between a land and its people. On the dirt roads and highways that take us along the continuum from geography to identity (part drunken road trip, part afternoon stroll, part shambling hike, part not-so reliable history tour) he takes us on a journey through a strange and familiar landscape where “Every place is sacred / or near a sacred place.”

An Environmental Justice Examination Of Hispanic Immigrants' Flood Hazard Exposure And Vulnerability In The Miami And Houston Metro Areas, Alejandra Maldonado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research reveals that disasters are particularly debilitating for racial/ethnic minorities. However, prior studies of racial/ethnic dimensions of disaster vulnerability have lumped people together in broad categories (e.g. Hispanic) without regard for substantial within-group heterogeneity. As a result, aspects of disaster vulnerability experienced by Hispanic immigrants (distinguished from US-born Hispanics) have been concealed. Using survey data from 1,283 adult householders in the Houston and Miami Metropolitan Statistical Areas and follow-up interview data from a subset of survey respondents, this Thesis addresses that limitation by examining whether Hispanic immigrants experience heightened flood risk relative to other social groups. The Thesis is comprised …

Exploring Factors Of Initimate Partner Violence Among Men Of Mexican Origin, Bibiana Marie Mancera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects many females, particularly women of color, in the United States. Victims of IPV experience both short and long term physical and mental consequences (World Health Organization, 2014), which negatively impact the healthcare and judicial system (Lloyd & Taluc, 1999). Few qualitative studies have been conducted among men of Mexican origin (MMO), exploring unique risk factors that contribute to the higher incidence of IPV perpetration among this population. The purpose of this study was to explore IPV perpetration risk factors among MMO. The research question that guided this study were: 1) what are the issues confronting …

Happily Ever After And Other Lies My Childhood Told Me, Rachel Anna Neff

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A manuscript-length book of poetry with a critical preface centered on the idea of mythology, nursery rhymes, and foundational (Western) fictions and how the cultural norms and expectations that those texts create influence an individual, particularly with respect to gender and gender identity.

Cross-Language Conceptual Activation And Development Through Text Passages, Karly Meillyn Schleicher

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present study begins to bridge the gap between bilingual education practices and cognitive frameworks of bilingual conceptual access. A reading comprehension task was used to investigate how bilingual undergraduate students activate and develop academic information across their two languages when reading expository text. Using scientific texts, participants (N = 128) read two distinct passages pertaining to prior knowledge, as well as new, related conceptual information. At test, the participants were asked to complete true-false questions and elaborate on the reasons for their responses. A counterbalanced, mixed factorial design was used to infer how language dominance influences encoding and retrieval …

The Effect Of A Fluent Signing Narrator On Quality Of Maternal Behavior During E-Book Shared Reading Interactions With Their Children With Hearing Loss, Mar Alejandra Bonilla Yáñez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Purpose: The average high school student with hearing loss graduates reading at a 4th grade level. A factor that may contribute to the literacy development in children with typical hearing is language modeling and support surrounding shared book reading. The shared book reading experiences of children with hearing loss (CHL) and their parents may be different in quantity and quality from their peers with typical hearing. There is evidence reporting parental frustration and feeling of incompetence when reading to their CHL due to a sensory mismatch between the childâ??s and the parentâ??s mode of communication and skills. This study investigated …

The Spanish-English Bilingual: A Cross-Classfication Comparison Of Maze Use In Children, Jessica Valles

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the continual increase of bilingual individuals in the United States, there is a critical need for research that can appropriately identify unique characteristics of language production for these individuals. In particular, maze use, or errors in production have been identified as a characteristic of language that typically occurs more in bilinguals' speech production than in monolingual productions. Research comparing bilingual maze use in individuals who are typically developing with bilingual maze use individuals who are language impaired is limited. To compare these bilingual children with language impairment with to their typically developing peers, children were paired by age, grade, …

Entering The World Of University: The Literacies And Indentities Of Latino/A Youth In Their Transitions From High School To College, Luciene Soares Wandermurem

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This year-long ethnographic case study seeks to contribute to the body of literature on minoritized students' transitions from high school to college by drawing on sociocultural theories of literacies and identities to examine seven bilingual Latino/a students' academic trajectories from the spring semester of their senior year in high school through the fall semester of their first year in college. Specifically, this study explores how Latino/a youth's identities and academic aspirations were shaped by literacy practices across spaces - out-of-school, at a high school, and in college classrooms - over the course of a year. The study was conduct in …

Video Composition: Tracing Multimodal Assemblages, Zachary Aaron Warzecka

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Video Composition: Tracing Multimodal Assemblages questions and complicates current approaches to integrating digital videography, and new media at large, within academic environments. Given the field of Rhetoric and Writing Studies' persistent desire, if not struggle, to take on alternative modes of composing, the project provides an exploration of the distinct affordances, composing practices and rhetorical principles of digital videography. In particular, the Dissertation traces how videographic composing processes are taught, taken up, and even paved over within two distinct first year-writing classrooms.

In conducting grounded case studies of multimodal classrooms, the Dissertation draws disciplinary and pedagogical commonplaces into conversation with …

Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Disposition Toward Challenge And Its Impact On Teaching Practice, Yirah Mariana Valverde

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This two phase, sequential exploratory study focused on mathematics teachers' disposition toward challenge and its impact in their teaching practice and students' performance. This heavily qualitative study employed a mixed methodology to answer the following guiding research question: how do teachersâ?? disposition towards challenge affect teaching practice and what is the nature of that relationship?

During the initial phase (quantitative), two teachers who were enrolled in a graduate mathematics at a University in the southwestern U.S. were selected for the study (N=5). The goal of the class was to increase the participants' mathematical knowledge for teaching. The purposive selection was …

Translingual Practice & Identity Performance: A Study Of Mongolian Youth On Facebook, Sara Bartlett Large

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the translingual practices and identity performances of five participants on the social networking site, Facebook. The participants in this study are five young adults from Mongolia who participated in the U.S. State Department sponsored English Access Microscholarship program, an intensive English language program for disadvantaged youth in developing countries, from 2009 - 2011. Using a qualitative methodology based on constructivist grounded theory and relying on interviews, questionnaires, and observations of the participants' Facebook pages, this study considers the participants' use of translingual practices to build and maintain capital - linguistic, cultural, and social - as they develop …

Am I Another Statistic?: A Phenomenological Study Of Border Region At-Risk Latina/O Youth, Virginia Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As diversity continues to increase in the United States, schools are facing an enormous challenge of educating youth to function effectively in our democracy. With the growing Latina/o population, it is essential that schools accommodate to the needs of what will be the largest ethnic or race minority. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to analyze and study past at-risk students' unique predicament and determine two factors of failure; encouragement by failure and discouragement by failure. The study focused on understanding the role of failure as a main contributor in the decision making of Latina/o at-risk students dropping …

Educational Use Of Social Media: Exploring Science And Engineering College Students' Perceptions About Utilizing Facebook To Enhance The Learning Of Physics, Angel Salvador Marquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this qualitative investigation is to explore a group of science and engineering students' perceptions about utilizing Facebook to enhance the learning of physics. Particularly, a survey composed of multiple choice and open-ended questions was employed as to obtain participantsâ?? reactions on a proposed scenario where Facebook is utilized in an Introductory Classical Mechanics course as the medium to manage the following academic activities throughout the semester: examinations, class preparations, study guides, homework assignments, lab preparations, creating group studies, and class participation dynamics. Out of the 120 potential candidates, 106 of them accepted to voluntarily participate in this …

Tumbling Dice And Other Tales From A Life Untitled, Tammy Mckillip Mckillip

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Tumbling Dice and Other Tales from a Life Untitled is a Thesis collection of memoir stories by Tammy Quinn McKillip.

The Effect Of A Fluent Signing Narrator On Children's Behavior During Technology-Enhanced Shared Reading With Children With Hearing Loss And Their Parents, Gabriela Itzel Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Shared reading plays an essential role in the language and literacy development of children who are at risk of future problems in those areas. Children with hearing loss (CHL) are a group who usually experience limited and poor quality activities that foster literacy development such as shared reading (SR). Researchers examining high quality interactions have rated child behaviors, primarily attention and initiation, during shared reading and play based activities finding positive correlations between these behaviors and the overall development in typically developing children as well as in children with other impairments such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down syndrome (Kim …

Beyond Namaste: Exploring The Connection Between Yoga And Interpersonal Communication, Patricia Flores Hutson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis study explores the impact that a regular yoga practice has on the interpersonal communication skills of the practitioners. Nineteen yoga practitioners were recruited and interviewed about how their yoga practice influences the way they communicate with others. Data analysis revealed five recurring themes linking yoga and interpersonal communication: mindfulness, self-awareness, self-acceptance, personal growth, and patience. Based on these responses from the participants, the study concluded that a regular yoga practice positively corresponds to increased interpersonal communication skills.

Weakening Of The Affricate /T[Voiceless Postalveolar Fricative]/ In The Spanish Of Ciudad Juárez, Luis Alberto Méndez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A characteristic feature of the Spanish spoken in the Mexican state of Chihuahua is the pronunciation of the standard phoneme [t∫] (ch) as a non-standard allophone /∫/ (sh). The present study analyzes the social and linguistic factors that influence variation in the Mexico-United States border community of Ciudad Juárez. Direct and indirect elicitations techniques were used to gather tokens of /t?/ from a sample of 40 speakers who varied in age, sex, socioeconomic status, education level, and degree of bilingualism. The data was perceptually and acoustically interpreted and then examined using variable rules analysis. On the linguistic side, the results …

Social Cues And The Interpretation Of Ambiguous Pronouns By Bilingual Speakers, Fabiola Tortajada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Gestures are a crucial part of communication as they aid listeners in identifying meaning in conversation. The present study investigates the relationship between attention-direction gestures and the interpretation of discourse information in bilingual and monolingual speakers.

Most research to this day has focus on the production of non-verbal cues in bilingual speakers, while the domain in comprehension of non-verbal cues has not yet been explored in this population. The aim of the present study is to contribute to filling this gap, by examining how bilingual speakers use attention-directing cues, such as Looking and Pointing, when they interpret discourse information (i.e., …

A Rhetorical Theory Of Institutions, Paul Jay Vierra

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

How an institution remembers itself affects its practices and the ensuing knowledge produced. This is a result of the differences between truths and knowledge, which are based on beliefs. Beliefs are defined using either pragmatic language, which is based on observations and can be justified, or fictive language, which cannot be justified. The practices of an institution can be affected by the beliefs of the institution, which in turn affects scholarship. Modern research universities, such as the University of Texas at El Paso, must turn their research gaze not only outward, but also inwards in order to better serve society. …

Information Entropy Measures Applied To Hierarchial Complex Technical And Socio-Technical Systems, Satya Aditya Akundi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A significant increase of Systems-of-Systems (SoS) is currently observed in the social and technical domains. With increasing constituent components, Systems of Systems are becoming larger and more complex. Recent research efforts have highlighted the importance of identifying innovative statistical approaches for analyzing complex systems to better understand how they work. This research is aimed towards developing an Information Entropy based framework to analyze complex technical and social systems. Entropy in terms of information theory can be seen as the expected amount of information observed in an event. A parallel can be drawn between information entropy and system complexity, where, as …

The Effects Of Sign On Speech Segmentation In Infants, Alma Rosa Acosta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Introduction: The ability to extract words from fluent speech (speech segmentation), perhaps one of the greatest obscure achievements for the purpose of learning language, is dependent upon imperceptible endeavors. Remarkably, infants are active participants from the moment they are born, using auditory and visual information to assist them segmenting speech. As motivated parents attempt to use baby sign to bridge communication gaps, visual information in the form of baby sign may benefit children in extracting words from speech. To examine the effects of baby sign on speech segmentation, a systematic replication of the Hollich et al. (2005) study, a within-subject …

Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Affective Dispositions Toward Mathematics, Benjamin R. Mcdermott

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure and report pre-service elementary teachers' affective domain of productive disposition toward mathematics during the semester they were enrolled in a reform-based mathematics methods course. The study attempted to observe and report dynamic and enduring aspects of disposition as well as the perceived reasons for any changes, or lack thereof, in disposition. The rationale for focusing on disposition is related to Kilpatrick, Swafford, and Findell's (2001) inclusion of productive disposition as one of the five interdependent strands of the mathematical proficiency conceptual framework. Furthermore, it has been argued that dispositions develop at very …

Monolingual And Bilingual Intervention Outcomes In A Bilingual Child With Autism, Victoria Alexander

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: When treating bilingual children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the language of intervention has been a controversial topic among professionals. There is limited research on the treatment of bilingual children with ASD.

Purpose: To extend the limited research on the use of language of intervention in bilingual children with ASD. This study compared a monolingual English treatment and a bilingual English-Spanish treatment, to examine which one was more efficient.

Methods: A single-subject alternating treatment design with a baseline was used to compare the efficacy of two treatment conditions in increasing language skills in a bilingual child with ASD. The …

The Sweet Taste Of Health: A Positive Deviance Inquiry Into Communicative Acts That Lead To Effective Management Of Diabetes Among Hispanics, Claudia Martinez Boyd

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Diabetes is among the fastest growing diseases in the world. In the U.S., Hispanics are the third most affected population. Nonetheless, there are Hispanics diagnosed with diabetes who have, against all odds, found solutions to manage their disease. This study focused on the intrapersonal and interpersonal acts and behaviors of "positive deviant" Hispanics living on the U.S. - Mexico border that effectively managed their diabetes. They are referred to as "positive deviants" because they accrue "positive" outcomes and "deviants" because they are not the norm.

A PD inquiry was conducted and twelve PD respondents between the ages of 20 …

Behavioral And Electrophysiologic Performance In Participants With No Brain Damage Responding To Spoken Sentence Length Messages With Pauses Of Different Durations Inserted Withi The Spoken Message: A Pilot Study, Alexandrea Burciaga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Aim: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the behavioral and electrophysiologic performance in two age groups of individuals with no history of brain damage responding to spoken sentence length messages with pauses of different durations inserted within the message with the use of Event-Related Potentials.

Pilot Study: A modified version of the Revised Token Test was used for the experimental task. All participants have not experienced any brain damage. The first group of adult participants consisted of three college age adults; ages 20-30 and the second consisted of three older adults, ages 50-60. Participants were randomly assigned …

Comparing Electrophysiologic Differences In Linguistic And Tonal Auditory Oddball Tasks In A Normal Population, Luisa Alejandra Esquivel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Limited studies using Event Related Potentials (ERP) comparing attentional differences between individuals with and without brain damage have been conducted. In addition, the literature review showed limited studies examining electrophysiologic performances that compare linguistic and tonal auditory oddball tasks. The purpose of this study is to examine the electrophysicologic differences between a linguistic and tonal oddball task in a group of participants with no brain damage. Event related potentials (ERP) were used to examine the neural processes of attention by measuring peak latency and amplitude of the P300 ERP component. Traditional auditory oddball tasks involve participants discriminating between two tones, …

Borderland Pedagogy Study Of High School Mathematics Teachers' Lesson Plan Development And Implementation Practices, Rocio E. Gallardo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of the study is to examine high school mathematics teachers' lesson plan development and implementation practices used in the border region of Mexico and USA. The study also attempts to determine how a transition from Mexico (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) to the U.S. (El Paso, TX) impacts high school mathematics teacher's lesson plan development practices incorporating the Borderland Pedagogy. The Borderland Pedagogy theoretical framework (Cline & Necochea, 2006; Romo & Chavez 2006; Fiume, 2005) was developed to explore educational experiences of teachers situated within border regions. The framework highlights key characteristics of Borderland Pedagogy that influence lesson plan development …

Immigration And Family Violence At The Household Level Of Analysis: Examining The Effects Of Immigrant Culture And Neighborhood Structure, Jorge Luis Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study concerns the relationship between immigration and family violence at the household level of analysis. Previous studies have suggested that immigrant status - particularly first generation immigrant status - is not associated with crime. However, the same cannot be said about their descendants the second and third generations; as they are not as insulated from crime as their forefathers. This study measures the following variables which are relevant to the immigration and family violence relationship; immigrant generational status, acculturation levels, patriarchy, family oriented values, collective efficacy, surveillance, and measures of informal social control. This study finds that there is …

The Effects Of A Sport-Related Concussion On The Motor Speech And The Motor Limb Movements: Examining Oral Diadochokinesis, Speech Rate, And Limb Tasks, Jessica Marie Hewitt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Motor speech disorders, such as dysarthria, are a common sequelae reported after traumatic brain injuries. However, there is limited research on the effects of sport-related concussions (SRC) on motor speech disorders.

Aims: The current study aimed at replicating and extending a previous research study, Dolan (2013), conducted at the University of Texas at El Paso. In her study, Dolan (2013) incorporated and evaluated motor speech tasks: sequential motion rates, and motor limb tasks: movement execution initiation and finger repetition, in athletes following a sport-related concussion. The current study duplicates Dolanâ??s (2013) study. In addition, it investigates the effects of …

Japanese Computational Lexicon: A Computational Dictionary Of Japanese Verb Forms, Mayumi Kobayashi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper presents two main topics: a linguistic analysis of Japanese morphological lexicon focused on verb conjugation and a computational analysis of Japanese verb conjugation in Prolog programming. Prolog is one of the computer programming languages and is used to solve a problem logically with a number of statements called "clauses," which are defining various relationships of the entities. With respect to the linguistic aspect, this paper discusses Japanese verb formation, its conjugation patterns, twelve basic forms of Japanese verbs, and a Japanese morphophonemic process called “音便 (onbin)” by investigating 304 regular verbs and 2 irregular verbs. Among the several …