Digital Commons Network^™

On The Characterization Of Natural Language Structure And Literary Stylometry - A Network Science Approach, Younis Anas Younis Al Rozz

Theses and Dissertations

Natural language processing (NLP) techniques have been through many advancements in recent years, linguistics and scientist utilized these techniques to solve many challenges related to written language and literary. Problems such as finding the genetic relationships among languages, attributing author of a text and categorizing text by genre have been treated throughout the years using conventional statistical methods, for instance, bag of words (BoW), N-gram, the frequency of words and the lexical distance between words. By considering written language as a complex system, network science tools and techniques can be used to address those problems. A unified methodology is proposed …

Readers’ Perceptions Towards Two English Translations Of The Quran, Nour Alanbari

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine readers’ perceptions towards two notable English translations of the Quran, investigating if the readers’ language groups affected their perception of translation quality in terms of fluency, accuracy, clarity, formality, and likability. A total of 136 participants completed a survey where they rated the researched attributes of two different English translations of the Quran. Independent t-tests, paired t-tests, and ANOVA tests were conducted to compare the overall ratings of the two translations to each other, as well as between and within language groups. Ratings of the four attributes were also compared amongst themselves. Significant …

A Systematic Review Of Mood Disorders And The Working Alliance In Latino Populations, Ricardo Contreras

Theses and Dissertations

The working alliance and mood disorders in Latin populations has received scant attention. To remedy this deficit, this analysis completed a systematic review of this subject. This initial systematic review may aid to acquire a greater understanding of general and specific factors impacting this population. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), Version 2018 will be utilized in study appraisal, as will PRISMA guidelines. Study inclusion consists of studies involving adult Latino subjects with working alliance results as related to symptomology or discussion of working alliance effects on the population. A total of 12 studies met criteria; limitations consisted of the …

A New Synthesis: Saudi Salafism And The Contested Ideologies Of Muhammad Surur, Ahmad Kindawi

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis examines the life and thought of Muhammad Surer Zayn al-Abidin, the Syrian ideologue and founder of an influential Islamist trend within the Sahwa (Awakening) movement in Saudi Arabia. In the highly politicalized Saudi Islamist scene of the early 1970s, Surur came up with a unique synthesis: an amalgam of the political awareness of the Muslim Brotherhood in seeking political reform and the implementation of an Islamic order and the religious thought of Wahhabis. Under the influence of Surer's ideas, a new group appeared, al-Sureriyya, which had a significant impact on Saudi Islamic activism, becoming the main group within …

International Marriages: Culture, Identity Formation, Social And Historical Context, Alec Bryan Schaer

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to examine how changes in sociopolitical and cultural landscapes affect the cultural and personal identities of individuals engaged in mixed heritage relationships. I examine relationships between Japanese women and American men to illustrate that the wider socio-political contexts of these individuals play key roles in how they view and portray themselves in relation to others; as Japanese, American, both, or neither.

This research is divided into two distinct periods, one before WWII and a second after WWII. For each of these periods, I examined the relevant socio-political and cultural circumstances which affected Japanese and …

Utilizing Multicultural Literature To Foster Critical Literacy In A Secondary English Classroom, Denise Giaimo Mcnaughton

Theses and Dissertations

The overall purpose of this study was to research the impact of multicultural literature on secondary students' abilities to employ critical literacy techniques and develop empathy towards groups of people from marginalized and oppressed communities. Students in a 10th grade, Academic level classroom self-selected independent readings texts about multicultural social groups and engaged in small group discussions centered on questioning text through the lens of critical literacy throughout the semester. Small group discussions focused on identifying trends of inequality. Findings of this study include patterns in student book selection, trends in student understanding of identity and the implications of identity …

Development And Validation Of A Portuguese Elicited Imitation Test, Braden Beldon Reynolds

Theses and Dissertations

Elicited imitation (EI) is a method of assessing oral proficiency in which the examinee listens to a prompt and attempts to repeat it back exactly as it was heard. Research over recent decades has successfully established correlation between EI testing and other oral proficiency tests, such as the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the OPI by computer (OPIc). This paper details the history of oral proficiency assessment as well as that of EI. It then outlines the development process and validation of a Portuguese Elicited Imitation test. The processes of item selection and item validation are detailed followed by the …

The Efficacy Of Epg Assisted L2 Pronunciation Instruction: An Audio-Perceptual Analysis Of The Speech Of Native Japanese Learners Of English, Emily Louise Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

As there is a clear correlation between one's degree of proficiency in the English language and one's subsequent financial compensation in the workplace setting and in interpersonal relationships, improving one's speaking abilities can be highly valuable from both a financial and emotional perspective. This study examines the efficacy of an electropalatography (EPG) assisted pronunciation training program in helping native Japanese learners of English acquire and improve the /r/ and /l/ sound contrast in American English, as rated by a group of listeners. Additionally, it evaluates whether or not the degree of improvement varied across word position, task type, or assessment …

A Longitudinal Investigation Of The Effects Of A Kindergarten Multi-Tiered Oral Narrative Language Intervention On Later Literacy Outcomes, Tristin Carolyn Hampshire

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the longitudinal effects of a multi-tiered narrative language intervention in at-risk students provided in kindergarten on fourth grade reading comprehension. The participants included 686 students from four school districts in the upper Midwest. Twenty-eight kindergarten classrooms were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition resulting in 14 treatment classrooms and 14 control classrooms. Every student in the study participated in a pretest regarding oral narrative language skills. Students in the control group were considered to be at-risk, average performing, or advanced performing depending on their pretest score. Each student in …

Reconsidering Essence, Christopher T. Althoff

Theses and Dissertations

The rhetorical core of adaptation studies is a comparison between two texts, and the type of comparison that has sparked the most reactions, whether in its use or in speaking out against it, is fidelity criticism. As David Johnson and Simone Murray point out, fidelity criticism has long been rejected as an unscholarly mode of interpretative analysis because it is caught up in subjective value judgments and imprecise conjectures of a text’s “essence.” I contend, however, that the understanding of essences is critical to understanding both fidelity and the adaptation experience because something like essence is fixed in the human …

An Analysis Of School Climate Surveys As A Measure Of Student Voice, Deanna L. Oliver

Theses and Dissertations

Student voice may seem like a new concept; however, it has a long history of being engrained in public schools in the United States. The trend towards incorporating and expanding student voice opportunities in high school is based on the tenets of democracy. Educators seek to provide an opportunity for students to practice democracy in their school environment. Students are commonly disregarded as viable stakeholders in their schools. The Illinois State Board of Education offers students in grades 4 through 12 the opportunity to provide input on their schools using the Illinois 5Essentials Survey.

This research sought the input from …

Listening As A Sanctuary From Human Annihilation: Euripides' Trojan Women And The Global Humanitarian Crisis., Chiara Aliberti

Theses and Dissertations

The scope of this research is to spark conversation among members of receiving communities concerning their attitudes toward displaced populations by using Euripides' Trojan Women as a facilitator. By many outside the Classics profession, the study of antiquity is often perceived as a discipline disconnected from current issues; however, remembering and examining the past can greatly shape the present. Ancient Greek theater is perhaps the genre that best lends itself to be scrutinized today for social purposes. In fact, it promoted introspection among the body of Athenian citizens by highlighting inequalities and imbalances in power structures between opposing parties. This …

The Way To A Man’S Heart Is Through His Stomach: Male Consumption And Female Social Edibility In Laços De Família By Clarice Lispector, Marissa D. Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Critics of Clarice Lispector often identify feminist themes relating to voice, gender, and the male gaze in her creative work. Lispector’s collection of short stories Laços de família demonstrates the way patriarchal society sets limits on the identity of women. Laura Mulvey’s concept of “the male gaze” provides a useful tool for understanding how men marginalize, objectify, and subordinate women through visual regimes of control, yet Mulvey’s concept does not fully encapsulate the scope of male oppression explored in Laços de família. In fact, Lispector draws upon a variety of senses and metaphors related to consumption through a mode I …

Shakespeare's Leading Franciscan Friars: Contrasting Approaches To Pastoral Power, Amy Camille Connelly Banks

Theses and Dissertations

A popular perception persists that the Franciscan friars of Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing bear heavy blame for the results of the play, adversely for Friar Lawrence and positively for Friar Francis. The friars do formulate similar plans, but their roles vary significantly. I contrast their approaches using Michel Foucault's definition of pastoral power, with Friar Lawrence as an overly manipulative friar controlling the lovers in spiritual matters, and Friar Francis as a humble military friar returning from the Wars of Religion to share his authority with others. This distinction--especially with Friar Lawrence appearing chronologically first--demonstrates Shakespeare …

Speech Perception Of Global Acoustic Structure In Children With Speech Delay, With And Without Dyslexia, Mikayla Nicole Madsen

Theses and Dissertations

Children with speech delay (SD) have underlying deficits in speech perception that may be related to reading skill. Children with SD and children with dyslexia have previously shown deficits for distinct perceptual characteristics, including segmental acoustic structure and global acoustic structure. In this study, 35 children (ages 7-9 years) with SD, SD + dyslexia, and/or typically developing were presented with a vocoded speech recognition task to investigate their perception of global acoustic speech structure. Findings revealed no differences in vocoded speech recognition between groups, regardless of SD or dyslexia status. These findings suggest that in children with SD, co-occurring dyslexia …

Kinematic And Acoustic Adaptation To A Bite Block During Syllable Production, Allison Marie Barney

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to gain a better understanding of speech adaptation by examining kinematic and acoustic adaptation to bite block perturbation over time. Fifteen native American English speakers (7 female, 8 male) with no history of speech, language, or hearing deficits participated in the study. Custom bite blocks were created for speakers which created a 10mm interincisal gap when inserted. Speakers produced five repetitions of the sentence, I say ahraw /ərɑ/ (as part of a larger set) prior to bite block insertion, immediately following bite block insertion, 2-mintues post insertion, 4-minutes post insertion, 6-minutes post insertion, …

"Do N'T Stop Believin'"In A Pair Of Socks: How The Sopranos Shapes Our Understanding Of Mental Illness, Adam Richard Brockman

Theses and Dissertations

This study rhetorically analyzed the final season of The Sopranos for its argument about

the nature of psychological depression in several contexts and forms. Consisting of nine

episodes, the final season of the series features pivotal moments in which characters confront the

sources of their depression and respond to them in a variety of ways. The study used both an

intertextual analysis and Burkean frames to provide insight into how the final season argues one

might overcome various forms of depression. It specifically considered depression related to

one’s family experiences, their existential concerns regarding death and spirituality, and their

indulgence …

Portuguese And Chinese Esl Reading Behaviors Compared: An Eye-Tracking Study, Logan Kyle Blackwell

Theses and Dissertations

While reading behaviors have been studied extensively in L1 reading studies through the use of eye-tracking and L2 reading has been measured through inherently indirect means, there is a relative lack of research done on early and late reading measures of ESL readers. Eye-tracking technology, available to researchers only in the past few decades, has opened the field to a new means of measuring these early and late measures of reading in second language learners. This study investigates the reading behaviors of 34 native Portuguese and Chinese readers who read in both their native languages (L1) and in their second …

Evaluation Of The Matadoc And Comparison Of Auditory Musical, Non-Musical, And Live Music Therapy Stimuli To Increase Awareness And Sense Of Self In Patients With Moderate And Severe Dementia: An Exploratory Case Study, Nicolas A. Espinoza

Theses and Dissertations

Background: The severe stage of dementia (SSD) can cause the loss of self-awareness, affecting the proper assessment, treatment, and care. The Music Therapy Assessment Tool for Awareness of Disorders of Consciousness (MATADOC) is a validated and reliable tool to measure awareness in DOC populations and it might be able to track awareness levels in people with SSD. Also, there is a need to identify effective treatments with people with SSD since pharmacological treatments have shown limited and even negative results. Both live music therapy and music listening of recorded songs have evidence of positive effects.

Purpose: The purpose of this …

The School Leader Paradigm: Field Testing For The Development Of Principals Along A Continuum Of Improvement, Todd John Vilardo

Theses and Dissertations

Aligned with contemporary research on developing effective school leaders, a consortium of state principals’ associations established the School Leader Collaborative and developed the School Leader Paradigm (School Leader Collaborative, 2016) to help school leaders be intentional about their professional growth. This study used descriptive analysis to compare the School Leader Paradigm’s competencies and attributes with the development of school principals’ leadership at each of four phases of their careers: Aspiring, Launching, Building, and Mastering. A descriptive analysis of the full range of this study’s data, identifying the attributes, competencies, and intelligences that school leaders at each phase of their development …

Anxiety In Presentational And Interpersonal Oral Tasks Face-To-Face And Online, Angus Leydic

Theses and Dissertations

Within computer mediated communication, there has been a large focus on synchronous and asynchronous text-based methods and how it can be used to help oral proficiency and lower anxiety but very few studies have looked at how audio computer mediated communicative tasks affect anxiety. This study sets out to seek whether using audio computer mediated communication helps lower anxiety for beginner Spanish language students. In order to do so, three research questions are suggested: (1) How do participants’ levels of FLA differ between presentational oral tasks completed in the classroom and presentational tasks completed in an online interface? (2) How …

Qualitative Study Investigating Western Student Affairs Practices In Qatar, Amjad Omar Abdo

Theses and Dissertations

The internationalization movement in higher education expanded quickly in the past two decades. While efforts varied among institutions, the common and preferred approach has been creation of International Branch Campuses (IBC). Currently, there are 283 IBCs, 30% of which are located in the Middle East region.

This study explored the role of local culture context in shaping Western student affairs practices implemented at the American IBCs in the State of Qatar. A qualitative single-case study included interviews with 14 Western expatriates who were re-cited from the United States to work in the Student Affairs departments in Education City, Qatar. The …

Effects Of A Large Group Combined Narrative And Expository Language Intervention On Oral Language In Third Graders, Kylie Lynn Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a combined narrative and expository language intervention on third graders' oral language. The participants included 96 third-grade students from two schools in the Mountain West region of the United States. In a quasi-experimental design, all third-grade students in one school (n = 46) were assigned to a treatment condition and all third-grade students in another school in the same school district (n = 50) were assigned to a control condition. Both treatment and control groups received large group oral narrative language intervention led by classroom teachers. The treatment group …

Using Parallel Narrative-Based Measures To Examine The Relationship Between Listening And Reading Comprehension, Collette Leifson Warr

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine how well the Narrative Language Measure (NLM) of Listening predicts the NLM Reading measure and the extent to which brief narrative-based listening and reading comprehension assessments administered to first, second, and third grade students demonstrate symmetry and equity. A total of 1039 first graders, 395 second graders, and 501 third graders participated in this study. The students were administered the NLM Listening and NLM Reading, and their scores were examined to address the research questions. Students with incomplete data sets and students who performed 1.5 standard deviations (7th percentile based on …

A Conductor’S Guide To The Da Vinci Requiem By Cecilia Mcdowall, Jantsen Blake Touchstone

Theses and Dissertations

The Da Vinci Requiem by Cecilia McDowall (b.1951) is a sevenmovement work scored for soprano and bass soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra and was premiered on May 7, 2019 in Southbanke Center in London, UK by the Wimbledon Choral Society under the direction of Neil Ferris. The thirty-five-minute work is the largest of the two major choral-orchestral works in McDowall’s oeuvre which includes approximately 115 choral works. The focus of this study is to provide a guide to the performance of the work. The study provides scholarship into the life and work of Cecilia McDowall, one of the United Kingdom’s …

Beowulf : A Translation In Blank Verse, Alexander Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a translation into modern English blank verse of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. The bulk of the thesis is the poem itself, which represents not only the academic work of Old English translation, literary interpretation, and the study of early Germanic culture, but also the artistic work of creating poetry and adapting the poem’s content to modern language and contexts. Included with the translation is an introduction placing it in conversation with other prominent modern translations of Beowulf, and analyzing the translation choices made at macro and micro levels. It is shown through this analysis that …

Two Essays Examining Consumer Responses To Product And Service Failures, Sotires Pagiavlas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays that examine consumer responses to product and service failures. In essay 1, I use the U.S. automobile industry as a backdrop to investigate how consumers respond when their products experience a defect-related failure identified by the manufacturer that necessitates a recall. I develop a conceptual framework to test the impact of a regulator-initiated digital marketing campaign (DMC) on consumer compliance to product recalls. The empirical context is the launch of a nationwide DMC by the U.S. automobile industry’s regulator. The analysis spans 12 quarters of recall completion data pertaining to 296 recalls falling …

Text Mining Contemporary Popular Fiction: Natural Language Processing-Derived Themes Across Over 1,000 New York Times Bestsellers And Genre Fiction Novels, Morgan Lundy

Theses and Dissertations

This study endeavors to apply computational methods to a large dataset of popular fictional material, to see what topics emerge when viewed across genre lines and from a new, “machine” perspective. The dataset consists of 1,136 popular and commercially successful novels published between 2005 and 2016, including New York Times bestsellers and “genre fiction,” including science fiction, young adult, romance and mystery novels. Methods are discussed, including dataset preparation, LDA topic modeling and topic number optimization, qualitative topic interpretation, data analysis and visualization. The experiment was conducted in two parts, with the "document" or unit of analysis as each full …

A Stylistic Analysis Of Alexander Tcherepnin's Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 78, With An Emphasis On Eurasian Influences, Qin Ouyang

Theses and Dissertations

Russian-born Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (Jan 23, 1899-Sept 13, 1977), a contemporary of Virgil Thomson, Henry Cowell, Igor Stravinsky, and Arnold Schoenberg, made far-reaching contributions as a pianist, conductor, and composer. His unique contrapuntal system “Interpoint,” employment of rhythmic variation, adoption of polyphonic structure, and use of the nine-step scale secured his place in music history as a celebrated composer of the twentieth century.1 Throughout his life he traveled to various countries. 1928-1947 is a period during which Tcherepnin came under the influence of “Eurasian” ideas (the synthesis of Russian and Eastern cultures). He developed new musical formulas by exploiting musical …

Puruhá Fashion As Aesthetic Sovereignty: Identity Making And Indigenous Dress In Ecuador, Anaïs M. Parada

Theses and Dissertations

Puruhá fashion designers, vendors, and sellers have used their cultural heritage to create an emerging dress market that is both locally productive and nationally disruptive. These entrepreneurs have combined traditional dress with contemporary elements to create a new style that is distinctly recognizable as Puruhá, and thus acts as both a cultural and an individual brand. In a nation-state that offers its Indigenous people tokenism and concessions that don’t otherwise challenge the status of existing governmental and legal systems, having control over one’s own narrative through branding is a revolutionary act. In fact, the fight for economic autonomy against state …