Digital Commons Network^™

The Past, Chun-Hsiang Huang

Theses

A descriptive narration of a project to create a computer-animated film depicting an epic battle between a primeval human, a devil, and a god who comes from space, when the Earth is still young. Includes original thesis proposal, complete storyboard, and production stills.

The Integration Of Graphic Communication And Educational Tools For Children With Dyslexia, Amar Abdulla Behbehani

Theses

Design for education is an important approach in the graphic design field. The intention of this thesis is to conduct further research that can help educators and designers build healthier learning environments for children with learning disabilities. Learning environments are not limited to physical environments such as classroom designs or school architecture; they are extended to cognitive environments that are greatly affected by external influences such as sensory stimulation and learning methods. Children with special educational needs could benefit from effective design solutions for better information processing. This designer attempts to develop typographic solutions to facilitate the reading process of …

#13, Michael Frank

Theses

This thesis is an investigation into the nature of conceptual art and it's existence in an increasingly secluded and digitized cultural. The context of this paper exists within a realm of academia and attempts to provide an intellectual setting for the installation entitled #12. During this examination the dissertation does not limit itself to a particular medium, but rather attempts to analyze imaging and art from a perspective that takes into account the interactive dichotomies and paradoxical notions that, as a society we not only create but define our existence. As an artist I view the act prior to creation …

Proving Ground, Alison Secrest

Theses

This thesis seeks to explain and explore the work in Proving Ground, the thesis exhibition that accompanies this written thesis. The exhibition consists of an installation titled Proving Ground, a series of photographs titled All New Materials, and a series of small sculpture titled New Evolutions.

The installation Proving Ground is a set of life size animals; a cow, deer, and two smaller creatures that reference Romulus and Remus. The cow and the deer are made out of paper mache and discarded stuffed animals. Romulus and Remus are made out of paper mache and horse hair. …

Evolutionary Implications On Contextualism, John Mark Gowan

Theses

Contextual knowledge-attribution and natural selection are both processes that allow knowledge-attributions and organisms to evolve, respectively. The difference between Contextual knowledge-attribution and natural selection is the existence of intention: natural selection is an unintentional process that is possible because of random physical variations while Contextual knowledge-attribution is an intentional process that is possible because of random memetic variations. Evolutionary Contextualism, as a memetic theory, is the theory that knowledge-attributions evolve based upon unequal probabilities within a context created by falsifiable standards that are dependent upon attributer intentions. If Contextualism is a memetic theory that concerns knowledge, and memetic evolution is …

Durationalism: Temporalism And Eternalism, Adam Patrick Taylor

Theses

An ongoing debate among propositionalists centers on the question: can the truth values of propositions change over time (?). The view that says that propositions can change truth values over time has been called temporalism. The more traditional view of propositions, which denies temporalism, and goes back to Frege, has been called eternalism. Mark Richard has given forceful argument against temporalism and in favor of eternalism: the argument from belief retention. On Richard¿s view, if temporalism comes out true then it is impossible for one to retain one¿s beliefs over time. As an eternalist about propositions, I believe that all …

Two Degrees Of Intentionality: Approaching The Ascription Of Psychological Content In Non-Linguistic Creatures, Michael Joseph Ferreira

Theses

We often include intentional (psychological) states in the explanation of complex non-human animal behavior. How, if possible, should we characterize intentionality in other species without trivializing our own? I aim to develop a strategy, compatible with intentional realism, for approaching the ascription of intentionality in non-linguistic species. One way to approach the question, one rehearsed in multiple contexts, is to question the conditions under which conceptual mental representations might obtain in non-linguistic species. I follow a similar, but less developed strategy. I argue, following some recent literature, that it is likely that concepts split into (at least) two kinds. If …

Learning In Interpreted Instructed And Direct Instructed Classrooms, Darlene De Siervi

Theses

It has been frequently documented that deaf and hard of hearing (henceforth, DHH) children do not have the same academic achievement as hearing children. One reason may be communication barriers that make learning by DHH students difficult. Some communication in mainstream classrooms is delivered through interpreters, which possibly invites additional obstacles. Is the DHH student receiving full access to quality education in the classroom? Even in a direct instructed setting, does the DHH student fully understand every word the teacher shares through sign language? It is imperative to point out that all DHH children have the right to a barrier-free …

Feral Child: The Legacy Of The Wild Boy Of Aveyron In The Domains Of Language Acquisition And Deaf Education, Wayne Cayea

Theses

Language Acquisition has been hotly debated since Chomsky's theory of innate ability in the 1950s. Feral children. i.e.. wild children who grow up in extreme isolation, provide a unique opportunity to study the process of language acquisition. What we can learn can have a major impact on what and how we teach our young students, especially deaf - students whose language development may be delayed. Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, a famous feral child, is the focus of this study. He was discovered in the French wilderness in 1800, after three to eight years alone in the forest. After …

Discovery Learning In Mathematics Education: Using Multimedia Technology To Reach Teachers, Rachel Lewis

Theses

Being a teacher requires the dual skills ofboth knowing a content area and knowing effective methods for teaching that content. Teachers ofdeafstudents, however, frequently have more training related to deafness rather than their content area. At issue is access to resources which could remedy this problem. This paper outlines the development of an online workshop which will serve as a pilot project to explore ways to get pedagogical and content knowledge from skilled professionals to both teachers in the field and students in teacher preparation programs. The mathematical preparation of teachers of the deaf was reviewed and a workshop topic …

Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher: Bilingual Approaches, Michelle Johnston

Theses

This literature curriculum unit includes some implements the bilingual strategies (ASL and printed English) to teach deaf students about Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." Throughout the curriculum, the students will read, analyze, and interpret the story in primary and secondary languages: ASL and printed English. The bilingual reading and writing processes require the students to read the story in printed English, discuss the literature elements of the story in ASL to decode, interpret and understand the literature elements of this story. The students will go through the writing process to write a h a 1 …

Motivation In Language Learning: A Comparative Study Of Motivation In The Learning Of Irish And German Among Leaving Certificate Students, Seosamh Ó Cuinneagáin

Theses

This study investigates Leaving Certificate students’ attitudes to and motivation in the learning of Irish and German in 25-selected second level schools, of which five are Irish-medium schools, in Munster and Leinster. A historical overview of the two languages is presented to contextualise the study, as well as to provide a broad framework for the subsequent literature review, in which government policies towards the teaching and learning of Irish and German are examined. A twelve-scale questionnaire, consisting of 228 items, is employed as a data collection instrument to measure language attitudes and motivation. A modified version of the international quantitative …

Syntactic Complexity Of Original And Altered Reading Materials, Monica Draiss

Theses

As deaf students struggle with a language they cannot hear, the acquisitioin of English in deaf learners is slower than in hearing learners (Berent, 2000). The average deaf 18-year-old graduates with approximately a fourth grade reading level (Traxler, 2000). Therefore, it is imperative for teachers to effectively choose appropriate literature for deaf learners to help them interact more successfully with text. This paper addresses some common challenges deaf readers have with respect to the acquisition of English syntax and how these difficulties affect their reading comprehension. Conjoined sentences and relative clause sentences serve as examples of complex grammatical structures that …

Parents' Perceptions On The Quality Of Information Given By Professionals Regarding Their Deaf Children, Charles Phillips

Theses

Many deaf children have delayed language development that would greatly affect their future academic success (Marschark, Lang, & Albertini, 2002). Information given by professionals to parents could be a significant factor in overcoming this delay. To assess the quality of this information six parents of deaf children in the Rochester NY area, three deaf parents and three hearing parents were selected to participate in an interview and survey. After the data was examined, it was found that the majority of the parents in this study felt that the information they received from professionals concerning their child's language development was adequate …

Anti-Individualism And Rationality, Adam J. Arico

Theses

Paul Boghossian has argued that externalist descriptions of mental content are unfit for assessments of rationality. An individual, he suggests, can comport with the principles of logic and rationality if and only if she is able to introspectively recognize the content of her thoughts and beliefs without relying on empirical evidence. Jessica Brown argues, first, that Boghossian¿s notion of rationality is unrealistic and incompatible with modern experimental data, and second, that his principles of transparency of mental content are unreasonable and, ultimately, self-defeating. In defending Boghossian¿s notion of rationality, and subsequently his transparency principles, this paper attempts to respond to …

Demarcation Of Coding And Non-Coding Regions Of Dna Using Linear Transforms, Krithika Venkat

Theses

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) strand carries genetic information in the cell. A strand of DNA consists of nitrogenous molecules called nucleotides. Nucleotides triplets, or the codons, code for amino acids. There are two distinct regions in DNA, the gene and the intergenic DNA, or the junk DNA. Two regions can be distinguished in the gene- the exons, or the regions that code for amino acid, and the introns, or the regions that do not code for amino acid. The main aim of the thesis is to study signal processing techniques that help distinguish between the regions of the exons and the …

Online Clustering With Single-Pass Topology Based Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm, Abhishek Jaiantilal

Theses

Online clustering is of significant interest for real-time data analysis. Generic offline clustering methods such as K-Means, C-Means and others are computationally expensive. The computational burden of these methods increases non-linearly with the size of the data set. In addition these methods usually require a good amount of supervised knowledge yielding a non-unique solution. For real-time data analysis, there is an important tradeoff between accuracy and computational efficiency. An unsupervised one-pass clustering method that efficiently adapts to data distribution and evaluation is proposed. This method, Topology-Based Fuzzy Clustering (TFC), uses the topology of data to discover clusters. TFC uses the …

Traumatic Brain Injury : Traditional And Narrative Assessment Techniques, Sharon M. Katzman-Teller

Theses

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes impairment of executive functioning, as well as cognitive and language abilities of various degrees. Standard language tests currently focus on very specific language disorders and can not identify language disorders of TBI subjects with high-level language functioning. Although these standard tests can not adequately identify subtle language disorders, these TBI subjects lack cohesiveness in their conversation, which can have a strong effect on socialization.

Through the use of narrative analysis, research in narrative and conversational discourse, which incorporates linguistic, cognitive skills, as well as executive functioning and social abilities, seems to be more appropriately address …

The Relationship Of Scores On Dynamic Indicators Of Basic Early Literacy Skills, Word Use Fluency To Word Knowledge And Shyness, Janette M. Keyser

Theses

Limited research has been conducted to determine the link between the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DD3ELS); Word Use Fluency, and reading ability. In addition, a link between the personality trait of shyness and lower performance on language tests has been established. The purpose of the present study was two fold. First this study aimed to determine how well the DIBELS Word Use Fluency indicator measures vocabulary knowledge. Second, the strength of the relationship between scores on the DIBELS measure and shyness was established. This helped to understand if Word Use Fluency underestimated the vocabulary knowledge of students …

A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Development Of The Notion Of Kalos Kagathos From Homer To Aristotle, Geoffrey Coad

Theses

In this thesis, I shall attempt to show that the Greeks believed in the ideal of a marriage between the beautiful and the good. This important philosophical ideal rests upon the premise that beauty depends upon function, behaviour and the intention of the agent. It is the anti-modernist position. This notion known to the ancient Greeks as kalos kagathos, which dates back to the times of Homer, seems to have been forgotten in our times. This study will trace the development of this ideal from Homer to Aristotle. This world view differs from the one we have come to understand …

The Effectiveness Of A Literature-Driven English Programme In Improving The English Language Skills Of Secondary One Students In Singapore, Mary Delfin Pereira

Theses

The aim of the research was to discover whether an integrated Literature and English curriculum would be effective in enhancing the English language skills of students in schools. The curriculum initiative project was conducted as multiple site case studies in four secondary schools in Singapore over a span of five to six weeks during 2004. These schools included a girls’ only school, a boys’ only school and two co-educational schools. These schools were also of different types: independent, government-aided and government schools. The sample within and across the schools provided: different levels of performance in a graded situation; multiple teachers …

Analysis Of Effective Mechanical Properties Of Thin Films Used In Microelectromechanical Systems, Ajay Pasupuleti

Theses

This research aims at analyzing the effective mechanical properties of thin film materials that are used in MEMS. Using the effective mechanical properties, reliable simulations of new or slightly altered designs can be performed successfully. The main reason for investigating effective material properties of MEMS devices is that the existing techniques can not provide consistent prediction of the mechanical properties without time-consuming and costly physical prototyping if the device or the fabrication recipe is slightly altered. To achieve this goal, two approaches were investigated: soft computing and analytical. In the soft computing approach, the effective material properties are empirically modeled …

High-Dynamic-Range Photography: Image Display And Perception, Jiangtao Kuang

Theses

Current desktop and hard copy display media are capable of only a limited dynamic range in luminance. Hence, high dynamic range (HDR) images require tone-mapping operators for rendering on these media to adequately reproduce their perceptual qualities. Furthermore, the development of these operators requires a methodology for their evaluation in terms of perceptual attributes. To this end, a series of psychophysical experiments was conducted to evaluate a wide-variety of previously published, HDR tone-mapping operators. The evaluations were conducted in terms of rendering accuracy and image preference, and from them, a general methodology for evaluating tonemapping operators was proposed. A next …

Adjusting The Margins: Building Bridges Between Deaf And Hearing Cultures Through Performance Arts, Luane Davis Haggerty

Theses

This study addresses a gap in scholarship on leadership styles in the Deaf community. There is an invisible style of leadership differing from the mainstream culture that has not been previously addressed in the literature at any depth. My study was composed of three interlocking parts in a sequence that constitutes the practice of anthropology: fieldwork, analysis, and presentation. The foundation for my fieldwork was an “archeology of the structure of the perceived world” (Merleau-Ponty), using the holding environment of the rehearsal process and the structural process of an acting technique called Del-Sign. Del- Sign is a fusion acting style …

Local Norms For Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing Students, Kecia A. Boncek

Theses

Deafness is a low incident disability and therefore deaf children are frequently not included in the norm group of norm-referenced tests (Braden, 1994). The necessity of local norms is an ongoing debate among professionals who assess deaf children (Braden, 2005). This study evaluated the utility of local norms for three different intelligence tests. One sample t-tests were run to determine significance differences between means for a deaf and hard-of-hearing sample compared to the norm group, for the Differential Ability Scales (DAS), Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT), and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III). Verbal cluster and Word Definition …

Application Of Shifted Delta Cepstral Features For Gmm Language Identification, Jonathan Lareau

Theses

Spoken language identifcation (LID) in telephone speech signals is an important and difficult classification task. Language identifcation modules can be used as front end signal routers for multilanguage speech recognition or transcription devices. Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM's) can be utilized to effectively model the distribution of feature vectors present in speech signals for classification. Common feature vectors used for speech processing include Linear Prediction (LP-CC), Mel-Frequency (MF-CC), and Perceptual Linear Prediction derived Cepstral coefficients (PLP-CC). This thesis compares and examines the recently proposed type of feature vector called the Shifted Delta Cepstral (SDC) coefficients. Utilization of the Shifted Delta Cepstral …

Implementation Of Image Processing Approach To Translation Of Asl Finger-Spelling To Digital Text, Divya Mandloi

Theses

This thesis describes the ongoing development of an image processing technique for the translation of American Sign Language (ASL) finger-spelling to text. The present analysis is the phase one of a broader project, the Sign2 Project, which is focused on a complete technological approach to the translation of ASL to digital audio and/or text. The methodology adopted in this analysis employs a gray-scale image processing technique to convert the American Sign Language finger-spelling to text. It attempts to process static images of the subject considered, and then matches them to a statistical database of pre-processed images to ultimately recognize the …

Mentoring In The Department Of Access Services At The National Technical Institute For The Deaf, Gayle Macias

Theses

Not provided.

The Work Of Fred Troller: An Evaluative Study Of A Graphic Designer, Tara Markert

Theses

This thesis will provide a process to help graphic design scholars and historians conduct an evaluation of a designer whose work has been rarely documented within a specific design style. Through implementation of this model of research and evaluation, graphic design scholars will not only be able to identify that designer's philosophy and personal style, they will also recognize the value of studying within a specific style of graphic design. This evaluation process includes placing the work of the rarely documented designer beside the work of pioneers in this stylistic idiom in order to highlight similarities of thought, process, form …

Influence Of Teacher Immediacy On Student Evaluations Of Teachers In American And Chinese Classrooms, Wenli Gao

Theses

This study investigated student perspectives on teacher immediacy in American and Chinese classrooms, and the correlation between immediacy and teacher evaluation. Specific immediacy behaviors that are most associated with teacher evaluation among American and Chinese students were also examined. Two hundred seventy-seven university students responded to instruments designed to measure teacher immediacy and teacher evaluation. Chinese students perceived a lower amount of instructor nonverbal immediacy than American students, but there is no significant difference between the two groups on verbal immediacy. Significant positive correlations were found between teacher immediacy and teacher evaluation in both groups. Praising students' work and soliciting …