Digital Commons Network^™

A Cross-Cultural Study On The Relationship Between Environmental Awareness And Social Media Use: Saudi Arabia Vs United States, Mohammed Alsahafi

Theses

For many countries today, environmental sustainability is a subject of concern, and the world has witnessed the rise of environmental activism in recent years. Social media is increasingly being used by relevant stakeholders to raise environmental awareness. This study explores the relationship between social media use and environmental awareness from a cross-cultural perspective. Building upon previous research, this study compares social media use, environmental awareness, and their relationship between Saudi Arabian and American college students. Survey data was collected from a convenient sample of 266 Saudi Arabian and 290 American college students on their use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram …

Exploring English Teachers’ Views On Their Kindergarten Emergent Writing Practices: A Mixed Method Study, Asma Yousef Al Raeesi

Theses

This study aimed at exploring English teachers’ views on the emergent writing practices of kindergarten students. An exploratory sequential mixed method design was adopted by employing qualitative and quantitative means. In the first phase, five kindergarten teachers were selected purposively and interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The results extracted from the qualitative phase served in developing the quantitative tool. The second phase which featured a collection of quantitative data by means of a questionnaire which was distributed randomly to kindergarten teachers in all school districts in the UAE (n=210). The results gleaned from both the qualitative and the quantitative …

Nurse Staffing And Quality Care In Long-Term Care Nursing Facilities: Differences In Rural And Urban Settings, Dorcas E. Kunkel

Theses

Public and congressional concern induced the Institute of Medicine (1996) to recommend increasing registered nurse (RN) staffing levels in nursing homes (NHs) to improve quality of care. The purpose of this study was to answer the question, does the relationship between nurse staffing in long term care nursing facilities and bladder and bowel incontinence for low risk nursing home residents differ by nursing facilities located in rural and urban settings? This study used a secondary database that included aggregate data of all 615 NHs in Minnesota, South and North Dakota including nurse staffing levels, facility descriptives, and the quality measure …

Exploring Strategies For Optimal Student Engagement Within A Blended Learning Model, Peter Repp

Theses

This project asks how percussion student engagement might be optimized through the integration of a blended course format. Using the “practical action research” methodology, various strategies for increasing student engagement were researched and implemented. The research focused on three components of student engagement, including: 1.) cognitive investment, 2.) active participation, and 3.) emotional commitment. As a result, an innovative percussion curriculum was created which provided significantly increased opportunity for teachers to focus on these factors by utilizing a blended model of instruction.

Integrating All Mobility Systems To Reduce Traffic Congestion, Nasser Al Suwaidi

Theses

The problem of traffic congestion is common in most urban areas with associated negative impact on the social, economic, and ecological well-being of its residents. Traffic congestion is a common phenomenon in the city of Dubai with its large population and high rate of car ownership. To tackle the problem, this study looks at integrating all mobility systems in the city as a possible solution to the traffic congestion menace. The research methodology involves thematic analysis of secondary data on the subject derived from online databases and libraries. The thematic analysis revealed that Dubai had all the factors needed to …

Nation Branding And The Case Of Saudi Vision 2030 And The Use Of Twitter, Hala Zayed Alsaaidi

Theses

Nation branding has played a pivotal role in how Saudi Arabia represents itself in the global community. This thesis analyzed Saudi Arabia’s government approach towards the implementation of a nation branding strategy using social media as a vehicle to engage with the rest of the world. The study addresses questions of how Saudi Arabia communicates through nation branding as part of its core identity and how different values are presented in the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 on Twitter. Qualitative content analysis was used to analayze the tweets and tweet contents regarding the Vision 2030 national branding in Saudi Arabia. Data …

Police Officer Coping: The Effect Of Police Culture, Management, And Family, Megan Heflin-Brand

Theses

This thesis examines the idea that police officers have supportive factors in their lives which influence coping mechanisms used to handle occupational stress. This idea comes from police culture literature which suggests that officers are encouraged to use maladaptive coping strategies like drinking and emotional suppression to deal with stress. Additional research on management support and family support are introduced as alternative supportive factors which can promote the use of adaptive coping like agency offered services and programs. This thesis uses data from “Work and Family Services for Law Enforcement Personnel in the United States” (Robert, O’Quin, & Kennedy, 2000). …

Diving Into One’S Painful Past And Darkest Internal Fears: The Developmental Process Of The Thread That Snapped, Austin Brian Harrison

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OFAustin Harrison, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre, presented on April 10, 2020, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: DIVING INTO ONE’S PAINFUL PAST AND DARKEST INTERNAL FEARS: THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS OF THE THREAD THAT SNAPPEDMAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Jacob Juntunen This thesis details the development of my full-length play The Thread That Snapped from its early conception in 2019 to full production at Southern Illinois University Department of Theatre’s Christian H. Moe Theatre’s space in March 2020. In writing The Thread That Snapped, I was inspired by traumatic chapters within my life …

Comparison Of Longitudinal Changes In Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Between Alzheimer’S And Healthy Controls, Berk Can Yilmaz

Theses

Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) is a technique that is widely used for analyzing brain function using different approaches and methods. This study involves rs-fMRI analysis of Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signals acquired from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) Patients and Healthy Controls (HC). Each subject in the study had both functional and anatomical images with at least one rs-fMRI scan with their Anatomical (T1) scans. Previous rs-fMRI studies have demonstrated that AD shows differences in Amplitude of Low Frequency (<0.1 Hz) Fluctuations (ALFF), and Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) measures according to HCs.

The aim of the study is to investigate individual and group level differences using ReHo and mALFF related …

“Take Those Old Records Off The Shelf” A Uses & Gratifications Study Of Different Music Platforms, Emily Hawk

Theses

The platforms people use to listen to music have evolved rapidly in the last fifty years. Digital streaming and digital downloads are the most popular platforms to consume music, but physical platforms like CDs and vinyl are still common or, in the case of vinyl, even growing in use. This study investigated the needs being met and the reasons behind listening to music on these different platforms. This study also compared the differences in gratifications sought between physical music platforms and non-physical music platforms. A survey shared via email, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, as well as via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk …

Impact Of Celebrity Endorsement In Advertising Of High-Risk Products, Victoria Olaosebikan

Theses

Celebrity endorsement is one of the most popular and effective strategies in advertising. Celebrities are perceived as attractive and having both likable qualities and influential power. Marketers have become more aware of the influence celebrities have on individuals and have harnessed this into advertising products and services. Empirical studies have shown that celebrities have been very effective in advertising low-risk products and services. But how effective is this strategy in advertising high-risk products and services? This study employed the elaboration likelihood model to investigate the impact of a celebrity endorser compared to a non-celebrity endorser on consumer behavior in advertising …

Va-U: Addressing The Gaps In Respiratory Protection Through A Holistic Open-Sourced Design Alternative, Aishwarya Uniyal

Theses

With industrialization and urbanization, more populations, whether at the workplace or outside in the streets, find themselves exposed to contaminated air. Respiratory hazards and illnesses arising thereof are prevalent across most industries and economies. Beyond developed economies with strong labor laws, a large part of the workforce faces the lack of access to respiratory protection, which also is evident in the gaps of knowledge of its correct use. Even among the groups with access to respirators, incorrect use arising out of miscommunication or comfort is common. Evaluating the design and use of the different types of respirators while also studying …

Design For Communication, Weiying Chen

Theses

Increasingly numbers of younger generation have settled down their new homes away from parents after years of endeavor in bigger cities in China. They leave their parents for their works and take care of their own families. Elderly care becomes a crucial problem since filial piety is a tradition and a need in Chinese culture. Because of the implementation of “One child policy” in China in such a long time, elder parents only have one child in each family, which weights much more pressure of taking care of elder parents on the “only child”. Lack of smart phones use of …

The Role Of Activation In The Relationship Between Power Posing And Task Performance, Jeremy Walter Marshall

Theses

This research analyzed the psychophysiological effects that expansive and contractive body poses have on the human body. Participants were asked to hold either an expansive or contractive body pose for two minutes prior to participating in a Color-Word Interference Test (CWT, which induced stress) and a gambling task (which measured risk tolerance). Heart rate variability (HRV) and electrodermal activity (EDA) for each participant was measured to gauge stress throughout the experiment. Positive and negative affect scales were used to measure mood before and after posing. Results of this research did not support our hypotheses, which were: 1. Expansive, dominant poses …

Murine Flexor Tendon Repair Model With Noninvasive Assessment Of Healing With Ultrasound, Fei Rost

Theses

Flexor tendon injuries in the hands are relatively common, significantly disabling more than 100,000 people in the United States per year (Nichols 2019). The majority of flexor tendon injuries require surgical repair, but despite the advancement of technology and medicine, current treatments still yield poor outcomes. Even with prevailing treatments to improve or restore function to the affected digit(s), patients often suffer psychologically and financially in the long-term. A recent study gave a conservative estimate that flexor tendon lacerations cost the American healthcare system and taxpayers between US $240.8-409.1 million per year and emphasized the need to “focus our efforts …

Exploration Of The Motion Graphics Educational Tools Based On The Animations ‘Virtual Property’, Hao Ge

Theses

Every user must agree with a cookie policy if they want to continue viewing a new web page. In most cases, users scan the terms and click the button. However, they often know nothing about what a web cookie is, what advantages a web cookie brings, and what a web cookie’s disadvantages are. Every coin has two sides. Web cookies save users time and enhance their experience, but they may put users on a dangerous path. A new cookie is created and stored on the computer every time users visit a new page. These cookies bring users benefits but also …

The Sense Of Anxiety, Suhyeon Kang

Theses

My thesis research explores the use of glass, and several other mediums to reflect impressions of traumatic memories without directly representing the details of a personal story. Sensory experiences act as metaphors for memories. In my work, glass serves as a medium for preservation of those impressions. The frustrating and fragile characteristics of glass parallel my annoyance with my anxiety. I discovered, however, that working with glass has a therapeutic effect for me. I researched the psychology of traumatic memory and the work of artists whose work is related to my inquiries. This process allowed me to use visual language …

Cross Cultural Study On Creativity: How Do Croatian Working Professionals And Emirati Working Professionals Conceptualize Creativity?, Alice Almer

Theses

Living in very dynamic and uncertain times, we can witness the power and the necessity of utilizing creativity and innovation as they can provide solutions to complex problems. However, how we see and define creativity is influenced by many factors, and culture is one of them. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of culture on creativity conceptualization. Specifically, the objective was to find out whether the working professionals of Croatia and the working professionals of the United Arab Emirates view creativity differently. In order to investigate this, a cross-sectional study involving 109 participants from Croatia and …

Art As Alchemy: The Meaning Of Bartholomeus Spranger's Hermaphroditus And The Nymph Salmacis And Scylla And Glaucus, Peter Kos

Theses

The subject of this study is two paintings by Bartholomeus Spranger titled Glaucus and Scylla (Fig. 1) and Hermaphroditus and the Nymph Salmacis (Fig. 2). Building upon the work of scholars who have argued for a possible alchemical interpretation of at least one of the paintings in the context of its execution for Emperor Rudolf II, this study goes beyond merely suggesting an alchemical connection, and argues that the two paintings, forming a pendant pair, depict two attempts at the alchemist’s magnum opus—one a failure, the other a success. This study further argues that the paintings are not merely inert …

Inclusive Public Terminal Device Design: A Self-Service Ticket Vending System, Zhuoyi Zhou

Theses

As information and communication technologies continue to be integrated into every aspect of people's daily lives, a wide variety of public terminal devices that provide self-service have begun to emerge in a variety of public spaces. Its rapid development covers a wide range of industries, including banking and finance, medical services, transportation, and tourism. Self-service terminals have gradually replaced manual services with their high efficiency, speed, and low cost. At first, the self-service is designed to reduce the burden on manual service and, it is efficient and can bring more benefits to the business. Under such conditions how to solve …

Astralis: Discover 1000 Years Of You, Emma Canfield

Theses

Problem

We are defined by our memories and experiences. Despite the proliferation of family photos and video media, we lack an engaging way to connect our memories and experiences to those images. Online genealogical programs (such as Ancestry, MyHeritage, or FamilySearch) remain two-dimensional and inherently confusing to navigate. As soon as the user chooses to dive more deeply into one relative’s additional family, they leave the view they were in and cannot easily navigate back, or even see themselves in context any longer. Similarly, image archiving programs (such as Apple Photos, Shutterfly) or AmazonPhotos) are simplistic and rely on a …

Parametric Study Of Infrared Imaging Based Breast Cancer Detection Program, Carlos B. Gutierrez

Theses

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women and is responsible for over 41,000 lives every year in the US according to The American Cancer Society. Current screening and imaging methods such as mammography, breast magnetic resonance imaging, and breast ultrasound imaging have helped in improving survival rate when the cancer is detected at an early stage. The problems with these techniques include: low sensitivity, patient discomfort, invasiveness, and cost. Due to current advancements in infrared and computational technologies, infrared thermography has been utilized as a noninvasive adjunctive screening modality. A computerized approach using infrared imaging (IRI) …

Amelia Earhart: Myth And Memory, Amy Lutz

Theses

There are a range of theories about Amelia Earhart's disappearance. This thesis considers one of the most long-running theories - The Japanese Capture Theory. This theory posits that Earhart was captured and/or executed by the Japanese upon her disappearance in 1937. The Japanese Capture Theory, from its inception in 1942 to its continued existence today, has considerably impacted the historical memory of Amelia Earhart. A woman who was so beloved and celebrated in life is largely more famous for her death. Her story was retold in hindsight, without her voice. The emergence of theories about her disappearance and popular fascination …

Parental Hearing Status And Sign Language Use As Predictors Of English Literacy Outcomes For Deaf Children In A Bilingual Educational Setting, Sarah E. Kimbley

Theses

Deaf children in the United States are not achieving age-appropriate literacy in English. Nearly 90-95% of deaf infants are born to hearing parents who do not know American Sign Language (ASL). These deaf children are experiencing limited access to a spoken language and as a result do not develop skills needed to be prepared for academic learning because language acquisition during the sensitive period in development is crucial for the development of literacy skills. However, 5-10% of deaf children have deaf parents who use ASL. Studies show correlations between higher ASL fluency and higher English literacy scores in deaf children …

Reading Emotion Words In Sentences: Exploring Interactions Between Valence And Arousal, Abby Williams

Theses

Emotional information is treated differently than any other type of information and has a powerful impact on many cognitive processes, particularly attention. As there are currently two opposing theories about how emotion influences attention, the aim of this study was to test both categorical negativity theory and the arousal hypothesis simultaneously. Categorical negativity theory suggests that the valence of a word (how positive or negative it is) is what truly influences how emotional information receives attention, while the arousal hypothesis posits that the arousal level of a word (how stimulating or salient it is) determines the amount of attention it …

Self-Awareness: A Dynamic Poster Design About Self-Awareness Child Development, Shuaiqi Xiong

Theses

Self-awareness is a psychological state in which we see ourselves truthfully and objectively through introspection and reflection. As 90s generation, we are the newest generation of “Chinese-style” individualism, but most of us do not have knowledge of self-awareness. We probably do not acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses, do not accept ourselves, and have no sense of what we do and others think of us. According to our research” says organizational psychologist and researcher Tasha Eurich, “with thousands of people from all around the world, 95 percent of people believe that they’re self-aware, but only about 10 to 15 percent really …

Associations Between Cannabis Use Characteristics, Impulsivity, And Mindfulness, Sam Feck

Theses

Dual-process theories of addiction have suggested that drug use behavior is influenced by the interaction between an automatic system, which uses affective and motivational significance to appraise stimuli rapidly, and a reflective system, which includes conscious emotion regulation and decision making. The current study examined the constructs of impulsivity and mindfulness, selected to approximate the automatic and reflective systems, respectively, and their associations with cannabis use characteristics. Research suggests deficits in impulsivity and mindfulness are hallmark characteristics of substance use. However, evidence supporting this association specific to cannabis use is inconsistent. A community sample of adults (N = 289, 137 …

Interaction Recognition In A Paired Egocentric Video, Ajeeta Rajkumar Khatri

Theses

Wearable devices and affective computing have gained popularity in the recent times. Egocentric videos recorded using these devices can be used to understand the emotions of the camera wearer and the person interacting with the camera wearer. Emotions affect the facial expression, head movement and various other physiological factors. In order to perform this study we collected dyadic conversations (dialogues between two people) data from two different groups; one where two individuals agree on certain topic and second where two individuals disagree on certain topics. This data was collected using a wearable smart glass for video collection and a smart …

Connecting Meaningful Moments: Exploring Empathy Through Storytelling, Samantha Maida

Theses

As individuals transition through life, it is growing more and more difficult for everyone to live in the same world when perceptions of situations are skewed. Each individuals’ perception is colored by their life’s experiences which give rise to a distorted view of the world, creating biases, and affirming that our perception is a product of our past that is pushing forward into our future. The more technology promotes isolation and damages in-person communication, the more individuals are growing less aware of those around them, and how their experiences, and life events affect the way they view and respond to …

Viral – Analyzing Those That Create And Consume Content On Youtube And Social Media, Devin King

Theses

Analyzing content that has become viral through intent or by accident shows the cultural norms of society, personal interests of individuals to better themselves, and how platform algorithms in the form of search engine optimization are being used. Viral content commonly uses popular modern trends or can start them but creating outline content can yield the best results. Through creating viral content, this may lead to a platform where information can spread, revenue can be generated from, and ideas can influence new audiences, which can be useful for any corporation or individual.