Digital Commons Network^™

Major Depressive Disorder Among Individuals Who Are Deaf: Implications For Rehabilitation Professionals, Sandra Hansmann, Shawn P. Saladin, Diana M. Fraser-Mendez

School of Rehabilitation Services & Counseling Faculty Publications

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a potentially disabling condition which adversely affects psychosocial functioning in the lives of many people. Individuals who are prelingually and/or profoundly Deaf are especially at risk of misdiagnoses, which in turn may prevent them from receiving the treatment needed to reach their full potential in independent living or vocational rehabilitation. This article reviews general depressive symptomology, followed by a discussion of challenges associated with diagnosing MDD in individuals who are Deaf. Suggestions for therapeutic interventions are also included. The article concludes with a summary of the implications of Deafness and MDD for independent living and …

Grounding Action Words In The Sensorimotor Interaction With The World: Experiments With A Simulated Icub Humanoid Robot., D Marocco, A Cangelosi, K Fischer, T Belpaeme

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

This paper presents a cognitive robotics model for the study of the embodied representation of action words. The present research will present how an iCub humanoid robot can learn the meaning of action words (i.e. words that represent dynamical events that happen in time) by physically interacting with the environment and linking the effects of its own actions with the behavior observed on the objects before and after the action. The control system of the robot is an artificial neural network trained to manipulate an object through a Back-Propagation-Through-Time algorithm. We will show that in the presented model the grounding …

On The Guise Of The Good, Joseph Raz

Faculty Scholarship

The chapter examines the main argument for, and the presuppositions of the claim that intentional actions are actions taken in, and because of, a belief that there is some good in them. An analysis of intentional actions, and of action for a (normative) reason, followed by a consideration of a number of objections to the thesis of the Guise of the Good force various revisions and refinements of the thesis yielding a defensible version of it. It is argued that the revised thesis is supported by the same argument that inspired the Guise of the Good from the beginning and …

What's Race Got To Do With It?: A Historical Inquiry Into The Impact Of Color-Blind Reform On Racial Inequality In America's Public Schools, Lillian Dowdell Drakeford

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation examines the history and impact of color-blind educational reform in the post-Brown era on racial inequality of educational opportunities and outcomes in America's public schools. Through the lens of critical race theory and race critical theory, the dissertation employs a dual analysis. A macro analysis of the evolution and impact of colorblind educational reform on the national level is juxtaposed with a micro, case-study analysis of the history of color-blind educational reform at a historically Black high school. The historical analysis of the relationship between race and education encompasses intellectual and social aspects of education in the U.S. …

Biomedical Relationship Extraction From Literature Based On Bio-Semantic Token Subsequences, Ying Xie, Jayasimha R. Katukuri, Vijay V. Raghavan

Faculty Articles

Relationship Extraction (RE) from biomedical literature is an important and challenging problem in both text mining and bioinformatics. Although various approaches have been proposed to extract protein?protein interaction types, their accuracy rates leave a large room for further exploring. In this paper, two supervised learning algorithms based on newly defined "bio-semantic token subsequence" are proposed for multi-class biomedical relationship classification. The first approach calculates a "bio-semantic token subsequence kernel", whereas the second one explicitly extracts weighted features from bio-semantic token subsequences. The two proposed approaches outperform several alternatives reported in literature on multi-class protein?protein interaction classification.

An Investigation Of The Individual Differences In Cognitive Factors That Contribute To Bilingual Lexical Disambiguation, Ana B. Areas Da Luz Fontes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of working memory capacity, access to subordinate meanings of L1 homonyms and degree of cross-language activation on the access to subordinate meanings of L2 homonyms. In Experiment 1, Spanish-English bilinguals completed a word recognition task which assessed how quickly and accurately they accessed subordinate meanings of English homonyms that were either noncognates (e.g. fast/rápido) or cognates (e.g. letter/letra) with Spanish. In Experiment 2, another group of Spanish-English bilinguals read sentences while having their eye-movements recorded for measures of lexical access. On the critical trials, sentences contained a homonym that was …

The Acquisition Of Colloquial Speech And Slang In Second Language Learners Of English In El Paso, Texas, Patricia Brannon Bradford

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Colloquial and idiomatic speech seem to be some of the more difficult areas for achieving native-like language competence in the acquisition of a second language (L2), though very few studies have been performed on this topic. Acquiring the colloquial speech of a community is crucial for second language learners who wish to achieve native-like proficiency in the target language. The majority of studies done on this area have focused on the attitude towards the teaching of colloquialisms in a formal classroom setting, or the attitude that native speakers have towards non-native speakers' use of colloquial speech and slang. Typically, L2 …

The Effectiveness Of The University Interscholastic League One-Act Play Competition As An Extracurricular Activity, David Christopher Rout

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In Texas the University Interscholastic League has had a significant impact in Theatre Education through their annual competitive One-Act Play Competition. In educational climates dominated by No Pass-No Play and TAKS Testing some schools may question the effectiveness of the UIL competition as an effective activity. This paper addresses this concern, a measurement of how effective UIL One Act Play is how FERPA is impacting research into UIL events.

Disclosure Of Hiv Serostatus In Latinos As A Function Of Acculturation: The Role Of Attitudinal Components And The Theory Of Reasoned Action, John Andrew Sauceda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

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Bilingual Education - A Historic And Programmatic Overview, Jens Tillmanns

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study is an archival research for historical understanding documenting historical trends in bilingual education in the United States. Relevant documents and literature were reviewed, analyzed, and coded to form the themes that examine the historical and programmatic development of bilingual education in the United States since its formation. It is particularly important to examine these roots of bilingual education in light of the ongoing political tensions around immigration issues. What historical events have impacted the emergence and shaping of and the resistance to bilingual education in the United States? What political and social forces have impacted the emergence and …

Politics Of Hegemony And Denial In The Rhetoric Of Language And Education Policy In Nepal: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Policy Documents And Government Sponsored Textbooks (1960-2009), Phanindra Kumar Upadhyaya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation analyses the power dynamics of policy documents and government sponsored text-books in Nepal since the 1960s making use of critical applied discourse analysis as its theoretical lens. It looks into the rhetoric of language policies and planning in Nepal and shows how such rhetoric has shaped the overall linguistic, ethno-linguistic, ethno-religious and educational scenario, both overtly and covertly. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci's "notion of hegemony" and Teun A. van Dijk's "theory of denial," I have shown that there are groups and individuals in societies that try to keep language under control for the promotion of their political, social, …

Closing The Achievement Gap: Impact Of Inclusion Upon Achievement Rates Of Students With Special Needs, Kathleen Black

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between the amount of time a student with special needs spends in the inclusive classroom and their achievement passing rates in mathematics and reading. TAKS passing rates for mathematics and reading for third graders in 2007-2008, and the same cohort of fourth graders in 2008-2009 were analyzed to determine the strength of relationship between the predictor variable of TAKS achievement passing rates, and the independent variables of amount of time included (PEIMS Instructional Setting) and socioeconomic status.

Logistic regression was utilized to analyze the relationship between amount of time …

A Survey Of Variables Influencing Speech-Language Pathologists' Use Of Evidence-Based Practice In Clinical Settings, Ailbhe Tressan Cormack

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although the need for evidence-based practice (EBP) in speech-language pathology has been well attested, multiple barriers hamper its implementation. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare variables influencing the use of EBP by practicing speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Method: Eighty-five SLPs based out of different primary work settings in El Paso, Texas responded to a survey addressing: 1. attitudes and perceived barriers toward EBP, 2. exposure to EBP, research methodology and statistics in graduate courses, 3. time in practice, 4. practice setting(s), 5. amount and nature of support for EBP in work settings, and 6. use of research literature …

Repeated Measures Of Impact Verbal Memory Scores Of Concussed And Non-Concussed Individuals, Deshea Davis Gornowicz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study compared ImPACT verbal memory scores of concussed and non-concussed athletes (n=6). This purpose of this study was to determine stability of verbal memory scores with repeated measures. Stability was determined using the ImPACT normative data for university of men and women published in the ImPACT manual. Based on visual inspection of the data, differences between groups was observed. All concussed participants demonstrated scores that were not stable according to the operational definition. All non-concussed participants were demonstrated stable verbal memory scores.

Empirical Evidence On Regulatory Burdens And International Income Performance, Enedina Licerio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper analyzes the effects of regulatory burdens on per capita national income (GNI) and the potential increases in GNI that can result from deregulation. Previous research indicates that a rigid regulatory environment hampers income performance. The availability of more recent data and the addition of several new indices by the World Bank now permits a broader analysis of regulatory burdens and income performance to be undertaken. Simulations are conducted to quantify potential impacts of deregulation and greater transparency on income performance. Results show that sizeable income gains can result from deregulation.

Perception And Identification Of Voice Disorders: A Comparison Study Between Hispanic And Non-Hispanics, Jacqueline Nicole Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The extent of public education in the Hispanic population regarding voice disorders has been unidentified thus far, motivating the current study to assess knowledge and perception of functional and organic voice disorders among Hispanic individuals in the El Paso region. The project involved an experimental research design to investigate whether demographic variables influenced the accuracy of knowledge of voice disorders in the general population residing in the Greater El Paso Region. Results indicate that the majority of the participants perceive articulation, fluency, and voice disorders as interchangeable and are unaware of the role of medical and rehabilitation professionals in the …

The Literary Fictioning Of John Gregory Bourke's Imperial Nostalgia, Toni K. Mcnair

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nineteenth-century Army Captain and American ethnographer John Gregory Bourke (b. 1846 - d. 1896) meticulously described and documented a vast amount of information on military life, geography, ecology, and people on both sides of the Mexican-American border, offering observations and opinions of American, Mexican, Mexican-American, Apache, Pueblo, Zuni and Plains Indian cultures. Because of his ethnographic studies of Mexican-Americans along the Rio Grande, cultural studies scholars, José E. Limón and José David Saldí­var have identified John Gregory Bourke as complicit in the U.S. government's imperialist project. Referring to Renato Rosaldo's anthropological theory of imperialist nostalgia, These authors declare Bourke's work …

Embodied Cognition As Refutation To Langer's "Illusory Powers": "I Move, Therefore, I Know", Ruby Amanda Montana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Thesis Objective: To refute Susanne Langer's notion within her philosophy of dance which holds that emotional forces in dance are solely "virtual" and thus illusory. I plan to do so by means of the growing research in the branch of cognitive science known as Embodied Cognition.

In Brief: Susanne Langer, one of the most prominent philosophers of Aesthetics, contends that dance is able to express emotions as an external force, while creating what she calls a "primary illusion". Langer attributes gesture as the basic abstraction whereby the dance illusion is made and organized. Furthermore, she contends that dance is not …

A Revolution In Rhetoric: Recycling The Language Of Control Through Rhetorical Activism, Jerien Elizabeth Rausch

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The English language, with its infinite space and possibility, is and can be recycled to recreate authority of voice and representations of the past. Where once language was used for creating and maintaining colonial control, now, with its careful study and critical (re)applications through fictions written as alternative versions of colonial events, it can be a source of power for the reclamations of identity, culture, religion, history, story, context, and imagination. This study (re)examines an iconic exploration and colonial narrative to highlight the rhetoric used to capture and create Indigenous Peoples and places. Additionally, this study explores how works of …

Health Risk And Health-Seeking Behaviors Of Migrant And Seasonal Farmworkers On The Us-Mexico Border, Claudia Delilah Saenz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background and Significance

The estimated 1–3 million migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) employed in the U.S. play a crucial role in assuring the success of the multi-billion dollar agricultural industry and the nation's access to a safe and nutritious food supply. This predominantly Mexican immigrant occupational group is documented to be at–risk for chronic and infectious disease morbidity and premature mortality but published studies are limited which describe their reproductive/sexual health, mental health, substance abuse, and workplace violence situation. Prior studies are especially scant regarding U.S.–Mexico border MSFW.

Objectives and Hypothesis

The major objective of the pilot study was to …

Dominant Discourses Embedded In Popular Culture: An Analysis Of Brazilian Teachers` Consciousness, Luciene Soares Wandermurem

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Many scholars believe that popular culture is part of students` identity and a symbol of subordinated groups` resistance to cultural domination, therefore they support the use of popular culture in the classroom as a way to value students` identity. However, scholars also recognize that often times popular culture is manipulated by elites so as to convey discourses that oppress people of color as an strategy to maintain the status quo. In Brazil, country where this research was conducted, white male individuals are the ones who have historically held power and money, utilizing the media as an instrument of social control. …

/Ae/ And /E/ In El Paso English, Lance Levi Williams

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The production and perception of front vowels /ae/ and /e/ by El Paso residents was examined in a pilot study to begin to establish linguistic variables in an understudied yet dynamic speech community and explore the question of the unity of the speech community and possible influence of L2 English speakers on L1 English speakers. 25 subjects, males age 19 to 34, were given both tests of perception and production, and these results were analyzed with respect to their social and linguistic backgrounds. In general, subjects in the Anglo group appeared to be more united in their production and perception …

Theology Of Blindness In The Hebrew Scriptures, Ray Mcallister

Dissertations

Problem: A number of passages in the Hebrew Scriptures discuss blindness. Scholars have studied them individually, but not with a view to developing a theology of blindness. The purpose of the present dissertation, then, is to analyze theological implications of blindness in the Hebrew Scriptures systematically.

Methodology: This dissertation systematically analyzes blindness in the Hebrew Scriptures against their ancient Near Eastern background. The study looks at cultic implications, causation, social justice, healing, and social and religious meanings of blindness. Both physical and metaphorical aspects of blindness are examined. First, blindness in the ancient Near East is considered, with emphasis on …

Wilderness And The Courts, Peter A. Appel

Scholarly Works

This Article examines how the decisions of four land management agencies governing wilderness areas under the Wilderness Act fare in the federal courts. Agencies normally prevail in the majority of their cases before the federal courts because courts employ doctrines of deference to agencies' decisions. In the context of wilderness management, however, the success rates of the agencies varies drastically depending on the type of challenge brought. The Article provides a historical overview of different schemes for wilderness protection, from administrative regulatory schemes to the adoption of the 1964 Wilderness Act and subsequent enactments. It then examines specific case studies …

Communication And Essentialism: Grounding The Shared Reality Of A Social Category, Yoshihisa Kashima, Emiko S. Kashima, Paul Bain, Anthony Lyons, R Scott Tindale, Gary Robins, Cedric Vears, Jennifer Whelan

Psychology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Essentialism is an ontological belief that there exists an underlying essence to a category. This article advances and tests in three studies the hypothesis that communication about a social category, and expected or actual mutual validation, promotes essentialism about a social category. In Study 1, people who wrote communications about a social category to their ingroup audiences essentialized it more strongly than those who simply memorized about it. In Study 2, communicators whose messages about a novel social category were more elaborately discussed with a confederate showed a stronger tendency to essentialize it. In Study 3, communicators who elaborately talked …

Copyright And The World's Most Popular Song, Robert Brauneis

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

"Happy Birthday to You" is the best-known and most frequently sung song in the world. Many - including Justice Breyer in his dissent in Eldred v. Ashcroft - have portrayed it as an unoriginal work that is hardly worthy of copyright protection, but nonetheless remains under copyright. Yet close historical scrutiny reveals both of those assumptions to be false. The song that became "Happy Birthday to You," originally written with different lyrics as "Good Morning to All," was the product of intense creative labor, undertaken with copyright protection in mind. However, it is almost certainly no longer under copyright, due …

Hydrosalpinx And Hydrobursitis In Infertile Goats, Kaiser Dawood

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Five adult female goats were brought to our veterinary hospital with infertility. Ultrasonography showed what seemed to be hydrometra or cystic lesion in the genital region of 18-month-old twin local breed female goats. After slaughter of the does and excision of the genital tract, a macroscopic examination revealed bilateral hydrosalpinx and extreme dilation of the ovarian bursa with complete capsulation of the active ovary in the cystic ovarian bursa on each side. Amber to dark brown fluid fully filled the oviduct and the cystic structure of the ovarian bursa. Microscopically, the ovarian bursa showed an obvious chronic inflammation and an …

Can Txting Benefit Engl?, Aaron Steinkraus

Fresh Voices: Composition at Cal Poly

No abstract provided.

Partial Unconstitutionality, Kevin C. Walsh

Scholarly Articles

Courts often hold legislation unconstitutional, but nearly always only part of the statute offends. The problem of partial unconstitutionality is therefore pervasive and persistent. Yet the exclusive doctrinal tool for dealing with this problem--severability doctrine-is deeply flawed. To make matters worse, severability doctrine is purportedly necessary for any workable system of judicial review. The accepted view is that severance saves: A court faced with a partially unconstitutional law must sever and excise the unconstitutional provisions or applications so that the constitutional remainder can be enforced going forward. Absent severance and excision, a law must fall in its entirety. This excision-based …

Introducing Stem Majors To The Teaching Profession Through Authentic Experiences As Tutors, Grinell Smith

Faculty Publications

Recruiting people with rich backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) into the teaching profession has historically been difficult and remains so today. In this bounded instrumental case study, undergraduate STEM majors were trained and placed as science and math tutors in grades 9-12, with an overarching goal of encouraging them to consider teaching as a possible career path. Several themes emerged from the tutors’ experiences as significant in their willingness to consider a career in teaching, including altruism from helping others, satisfaction from tutees’ improved academic performance, and a more nuanced understanding of the complex nature of teaching.